The BOLD and Brilliant Podcast with Tracie Root, w/Guest Mary Lummerding

🎧 Episode Summary

In this feel-good (and wildly practical) conversation, Tracie sits down with Mary Lummerding—Chef Mary + cooking coach—to talk about the real reason so many people avoid the kitchen… and how to change that without turning cooking into another “should.” Mary shares how she helps clients fit cooking into their actual lives, why “enjoyment” is the missing ingredient, and how a simple playlist can turn kitchen chaos into culinary bliss.

✨ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why enjoying cooking matters more than forcing yourself to “be better” in the kitchen
• How to fit cooking into your schedule (instead of trying to become a totally different person)
• The simplest strategy to cook once and eat twice (hello, slow cooker!)
• How to spot a “good” online recipe (hint: read the comments!)
• Easy ways to reduce overwhelm by organizing your kitchen for real life
• A fun, low-pressure challenge: what you can create in 10 minutes with music on

🛠️ Actionable Tips from Mary

• Do a 10-minute kitchen reset: Set a timer for 10 minutes and see what you can prep or assemble—no perfection required.
• Use music as your kitchen “on switch”: Create playlists for cooking, eating, and cleanup to make the whole experience feel lighter and more fun.
• Batch cook on your easiest day: If Mondays are calmer, cook a bigger slow cooker meal and freeze portions for later-week “I can’t even” nights.
• Choose recipes smarter: When using online recipes, read the reviews/comments to find improvements and common fixes.
• Simplify tools + placement: Keep what you actually use close at hand—and relocate what you don’t (your kitchen should support you, not annoy you).
• Upgrade lunch in minutes: Chop a few fresh ingredients + protein + dressing and you’ve got an elevated lunch fast.

🎤 Memorable Quote:

“If I put on some music and work in the kitchen for 10 minutes, this is what I can produce.”

🔥 Bold Moment of the Episode:

Mary’s bold leap from a reclusive farmhouse upbringing to culinary school in Toronto, navigating big-city life (and a big career move) because she knew she wanted a future with options—and cooking could be that path.

📱 Connect with Mary Lummerding

• Book: Kitchen Chaos to Culinary Bliss: Organize and Enjoy Cooking (available on Amazon)
• Tip: Search “Mary Lummerding” to find her easily (unique name = easy to locate!)

🚀 Join the Bold and Brilliant Podcast Community:

If this episode made you laugh, nod hard, or rethink your relationship with the kitchen—come hang with us inside The Gather Community, where we’re making bold moves (without doing it alone).

🌟 Rate & Review:

Loving the Bold and Brilliant Podcast? Leave a quick review on your favorite platform—your words help more women find these stories, these tools, and their next bold step.

Transcript

Tracie: 0:47

Mary, I am so excited to have you on the podcast. Welcome. Thank you, Tracie. Yay. Okay. I am really excited because you've been hanging out with us in the Gather community for quite some time. You attend lots of things, so you and I have a chance to get to know each other, really kind of understand each other's energy, and I love. What you do, the way you describe what you do, and helping people to be comfortable and enjoy their time in the kitchen. Okay, so I want people to learn more about like, what does that look like for them? So tell us a little bit about, let's start kind of with the, how do you work with clients and what's your mission? Why are you doing what you're doing? Let's start there and then we'll go to history and stuff like that. After.

Mary: 1:37

Okay. Well, as a cooking coach, I like people to enjoy their time in the kitchen. I don't always feel like cooking, so it's. I want everybody to be around the world to be a cook. And the way that I work with people is to look at their schedule and how cooking can fit in with them. Mm-hmm. They come to me with the idea that they want to cook, whether it's for health reasons, um, financial or even social, like including the kids so we can look at their schedule and figure out how cooking can fit in. To what they, they are able to do what they want to do, what fits in their schedule.

Tracie: 2:25

Yeah. I love that because, you know, as a mom and someone who, you know, isn't necessarily excited every day to be in the kitchen for any length of time.

Mary: 2:36

Mm-hmm.

Tracie: 2:37

Um, you know, sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's not something I'm interested in. So I love that your, that your whole goal is to help people have more fun because we will do the things we enjoy. Right? Yeah. What started you on this? This particular road, I mean, I'm sure you've been cooking for a long time. Mm-hmm. But what started you in helping other people enjoy their time in the kitchen?

Mary: 3:01

Well, I do enjoy helping people, and as I said, I was kind of surprised when I did find out that. There's generations now that grow up not cooking. Yeah. Like their parents didn't cook. Um, some people were latchkey kids and you know, I even gave my kid, uh, my son a Lunchables, you know, and we just thought that's the way you eat. But there's a really help. A good movement towards eating healthier and yeah. Taking care of ourselves. You know, when we're finding out how bad a lot of this food is. Yeah. So,

Tracie: 3:43

yeah. You know what came to my mind was microwaves. Like when microwaves started kind of in the early eighties. Uhhuh, it was a new thing. Yeah. Um, I remember the laughing with my parents over time.'cause the first microwave I ever had, they gave me, which was their wedding gift, which was in like 1982. My dad's, you know, not my mom, my, my son. And it was this giant machine that was like this really big microwave. Of course, now they're this big and it costs you$4. Right. But it was a big deal to have that new technology in the house in the early eighties. Let's go back because you know you're not excited about helping other people cook unless you are excited about cooking for yourself and you've been cooking for a long time. You mentioned to me earlier that you used to cook with your mom when you were young. Tell us about, you know, how your love for cooking and your enjoyment of cooking for yourself and for your family started, and how that grew over time.

Mary: 4:45

Well. Thing is I don't always want to cook. You know, I make dinner, I make meat, potato, and two vegetables because that's what my husband wants. He's a carpenter. He works hard all day. He doesn't stop for lunch. So, and one day I did only make one vegetable, and he's like, where's the other vegetable? And I've talked to other women that. Encounter that as well. And so I had to figure out ways to make it more interesting and I didn't always want to be there and I had to figure out ways to make it more fun as well. Yeah. And so that ended up being the music part of it. And I talked to a chef friend of mine, we were comparing notes about working in the kitchens, and I said to her that. I think it's because as a chef, it's our job to solve problems in the kitchen. You know? Um, how can we do something more efficiently? How can we, um, do it safely and cleanly, you know? So I think it just came as part of being a chef that. Uh, solving problems in the kitchen, like, I don't like cooking. How am I gonna make it better? You know, I have a small kitchen that gets messy really easily. How are we gonna keep it tidy and work better? How are we gonna fit it into our, our lifestyle, you know?

Tracie: 6:16

Yeah. The amount of time you might have, or the tools that are at your disposal or the space you have, like you said. Mm-hmm.

Mary: 6:22

Okay. So

Tracie: 6:23

you said something about music and we're gonna get back to that.'cause I don't know what you're talking about for that, so that's a good question. Yeah. For a minute. But before we do that, talk about becoming Chef Mary, right? Mm-hmm. Like you mentioned that, you know. One of the big things about our, whoa. Oh, I raised my hand back. I always do that. I talk with my hands and then I'm like, wait, why did we, yeah, I was looking like this. And we shifted sides. Anyway, um, so the, we were talking earlier about mm-hmm. Um, you know, the big bold decision that you made that changed everything for you. But before that. You were a kid, you lived, like, tell us about how you were brought up and then how that bold decision that you chose changed the trajectory of who you were that eventually got you where you are. Like, take us back to younger Mary and becoming Chef Mary. Okay.

Mary: 7:22

Well, I did grow up with a mom who stayed at home and she wasn't happy cooking. She, she had her favorites, she made, um, cream puff set. New Year's, and she made the real ones with the shoe paste and the whipping cream and the chocolate sauce. So I think she liked to make things, just not the day-to-day things. Just the day-to-day. Yeah. Yeah. So as one of the daughters in the family, I started cooking and my summer jobs were cooking. I got to do one at a playhouse, which was a lot of fun and mm-hmm. Oh, and then coming out of high school, they always ask us what, you know, which college, university you gonna go to? And I was choosing between cooking and art. I figured that cooking I could make a living with. And I found a two year program in Toronto called Culinary Management. So I signed up and they took me on and I moved from living out in a reclusive farmhouse setting. And moving to Toronto and yeah, I remember how looking for a place to live with my sister and mm-hmm. It was just crazy. Yeah.

Tracie: 8:36

What did a what A train, like culture shock is the word that comes to mind. Oh yeah. Just shock period, right? To go from Oh yeah. Living kind of in the countryside to Toronto, which I've been to, which is an incredible city. It's very vertical. Right. So to go from the land to the city?

Mary: 8:56

Yes. Must've been a while. I didn't have a phone. I used a phone booth on the corner. Sure. And this car kept going around the block and around the block. And I told my mom and I said, I think I'll go back inside because this car keeps going by. And

Tracie: 9:12

do you think that they were like watching you?

Mary: 9:14

Yeah.

Tracie: 9:15

Yeah. Scary.

Mary: 9:17

And there was a laundromat across the street and the guy asked me if I was Italian. It's like, no. So then he moved on. It's like, thankfully

Tracie: 9:25

that's interesting. Okay. And then I

Mary: 9:27

was, I was sitting and waiting for the bus one day and a guy stopped and said, you know, there's a bus strike on. I had no idea. Oh no. So he offered me a ride to school and that's how I got to school one day.

Tracie: 9:38

So that's terrifying that you, oh my gosh. Young girl from the country in the big city taking rides from strangers. I love that. Okay, so, but you, you went, you're like, okay, I love to create. Art, food, whatever. And I, you know, I've had jobs cooking, so I'm gonna go into a program that at least I know I'll be able to be in an industry that has jobs on every corner, right? There's restaurants everywhere. And, um, so that's a big, big, bold decision. Um mm-hmm. And not one that a lot of people. Um, with a, uh, you know, you said reclusive, kind of a sheltered ish background would really choose. Right. What made you, like, what was in you that knew that you wanted to take kind of this leap to this big city situation?

Mary: 10:33

I didn't see there was any choice. There was no jobs where I lived. Mm. You know, it was, you have to move to the ci, the big city.

Tracie: 10:42

Yeah. Must been. Which would've been

Mary: 10:43

London or Toronto or, you know, um. And everybody said, you know, are you gonna go to college or university? So I just found a program. And

Tracie: 10:54

that's something you liked and took the leap? Yeah. Yeah. Were you near, were you in Ontario in that general vicinity?

Mary: 11:01

Yeah, it was, uh, four hour drive from where my parents lived. Okay. I could take the train though. I could take the train to TR Toronto to London, and then my parents would pick me up in London. But sometimes there was a bus and then I could take the bus and get off the bus and walk a mile into my parents' house.

Tracie: 11:21

Wow. Yeah.

Mary: 11:22

Those are the Daisy. Yeah,

Tracie: 11:24

right. Totally. Okay, so you went to the city, you signed up for this two year program? Yes. And you know, you said it was culinary management, which is not like Chef School Uhhuh. It's a management program. So tell us about coming out of that and what happened next?

Mary: 11:42

Well. The, the chefs in George Brown, uh, college in Toronto are Safier chefs. So what does that mean for people who, dunno, Saffier? Um, that's about the highest level I think of, um, chefdom, you know, they're trained in, in France or, you know, really, really high level. And they had all the silver platters. And one of the buffets we put on it was at the Craig Deer. No. Castle in Toronto. Yeah. And actually the ballroom was set up for dancing and the music was playing. So one of the tea, one of the instructors and one of the students were ballroom dancing around. And that's, that's what happens behind the scenes before. Before all the people show, like before all the people show up. Yeah. The two chefs are dancing around the ballroom. Oh, that's fun. But uh, yeah. So yeah, there was chefs training. We took, uh, baking and, and then the programs like math and English business, English business math. There was a whole program about how to write a memo that was crazy. She smoked, she chain smoked and most of my class, not the teacher instructor did. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Shouldn't. She'd be puffing on that thing. And it was just, and, and hardly anybody in my class smoked cigarettes anyway. Well, it's

Tracie: 13:11

gonna affect how you taste food and everything, and all of the, the skills that they valued.

Mary: 13:15

Right. And one of the parties that we had, it was a potluck and a fellow brought a steak tar, tar. And he actually put a fancy leaf on top, if you can imagine what that was. And, uh, a fancy leaf. Got it. And then the next week, the next week, um, the, the chef was demonstrating steak tartar and he said, well, I'm not gonna make very much'cause I'm sure none of you have had this. And, and meanwhile, we'd all had some at this party the week before and we're all diving in'cause it was so good.

Tracie: 13:47

Yeah. Amazing. He was really

Mary: 13:49

surprised.

Tracie: 13:49

So it's amazing. I'd be interested if people listening have ever tried steak tartar.'cause I have, my mom made it actually for a party once and it was so good. Oh

Mary: 13:58

yeah, yeah,

Tracie: 14:00

yeah. Amazing. So if, if you're listening out there, make a comment wherever you're at and let us know if you tried steak tartar.'cause that's, that's a, that's a good question. Like out in the world, because people a, people aren't gonna really even know what it is. Right? Right. They think it's just a stake. Maybe, or you know, that it's, um, it's not cooked, but what does that mean and how is it safety? You know, all of this. Mm-hmm. So really interesting. Cool. So then, so you went through this program, you learned how to be a business chef, like a business person in the world of Chefdom. Mm-hmm. Um, and then what happened next?

Mary: 14:41

Um. Well, I was struggling to live in Toronto on beginning Chef Cook's wages and Oh, talking about how naive I was, there was a great big work table and everybody's around it. And so I asked the chef for a raise. Well, everyone was there. Yeah, yeah. And he's like, come into my office. And the office was actually a stairwell. Off of the kitchen. We stood there and he gave me a blast of, you know, and then, uh, he told me, because

Tracie: 15:14

that's in the days we don't talk about money in front of other people for sure. Yes. That's only a recent occurrence, right?

Mary: 15:19

Yeah. So anyway, I couldn't afford to live in. I didn't know how to live in cheap in Toronto, so I, my sister lived in Victoria and so I moved in with her and it actually, which of those

Tracie: 15:32

who don't know is in bc, which is the whole other side of Canada

Mary: 15:38

and. It actually helped her keep her house because that's when interest rates went up to 19 plus percent.

Tracie: 15:44

Yeah.

Mary: 15:45

And, uh, she wouldn't have been able to keep her house otherwise.

Tracie: 15:49

Oh, good. I hadn't been living with her. Happens for a reason, so That's great.

Mary: 15:53

We lived together for four years and had a fabulous

Tracie: 15:56

time. And so that's how you ended up in, in Victoria? Yeah. NBC Yeah. From Ontario. Amazing. Yeah. Okay, great. So then, so now you take all of that training mm-hmm. And your own personal experience and your love for helping people and help them to have fun in the kitchen. So let's go to this music thing that you, that you said. I have no idea what that is. This is new for me, so, okay. It sounds like maybe you use music to make being in the kitchen fun. So tell us what that, what does that mean? Tell us about that.

Mary: 16:30

Well. Yeah, I, I would, I have a really nice big Bluetooth speaker and so I have Spotify and playlists for getting started cooking. So that would be like Bruno Mars Uptown Funk and, and Tina Turner.

Tracie: 16:48

And just like, raise the energy. Yeah. And raise the energy dance

Mary: 16:51

around the kitchen a bit first, and, and have a good time. And, and then there's. When we're eating dinner, it's usually more mellow, like old blues music. Nice. And then once again, when you're cleaning up, if you wanna relax, it'll be slow and mellow. And if you need a bit of a poke, then it would be a bit more upbeat.

Tracie: 17:13

I love it. So you have a curated playlist for, you know, whatever part of the experience you're in, whether you're cooking or consuming your, your dinner and enjoying it, or you know, the after part, which, you know, no one likes to do the cleanup, but it's gotta be done. Right?

Mary: 17:31

That's right.

Tracie: 17:31

Although a clean kitchen at the end is a very nice thing to have. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I love that. And so you're talking about in-person classes that you've done? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And are these like, are the, do you do this in your house? Do you have a kitchen that you use? How many people are we talking about? Like lay it out for us.

Mary: 17:51

Well in person, I, I've worked just one-on-one or done demonstrations. Oh,

Tracie: 17:56

okay, great.

Mary: 17:56

So one person and we started out virtually and then she lives in a nearby town outside of Victoria. So I went and visited her and we actually had dinner together and fun and a good time. So, um, then I did a follow up with her to see how it was going for her

Tracie: 18:15

and how was it going?

Mary: 18:16

It was going good. The routine that we'd worked out was working for her. Awesome. Because they were going out to eat with friends later in the week because they were tired, didn't wanna cook, and, but on Sunday they would go to Costco and Monday she was home. So I said, well, let's get the slow cooker out. So she would make a bigger pot of something and. By the end of the day on Monday, she wouldn't have to make dinner. It was all ready to go, and then she could freeze some of it and have it on a Thursday or Friday when she doesn't want to cook. So that was working for her.

Tracie: 18:54

Awesome. I love that. Yeah. I actually have something in my slow cooker as we speak right now.

Mary: 18:58

Oh, so you Hamas now. Wonderful.

Tracie: 19:01

Well, we just put it in right before it just said like two, so it doesn't smell wonderful yet, but it'll not

Mary: 19:06

yet. It'll, yes, it'll, yeah.

Tracie: 19:08

So, yeah, I love that. Okay, so that's like, so that's, uh, but so you've mentioned doing it online and then seeing in person. Mm-hmm. And so are you doing mostly online support of people like doing online workshops or like describe how you're working with clients these days.

Mary: 19:28

Well. What I really want to do is have a membership and bring a group of people together. I would have a two hour live session where we can demonstrate what we're doing and um, and cook together if people want to, and then we can have questions and answers and I'll send information. I don't, I don't do a lot of recipes, but, uh, I'm working on it. Okay,

Tracie: 19:56

that's great. And

Mary: 19:58

yeah. But there's so many recipes around, I help people to identify what's a good recipe. Mm. Okay. You know? And one tip is to look at the remarks underneath, because that's where people will make suggestions about how to improve the recipe.

Tracie: 20:12

Like finding an online recipe and then other people commenting, going, yes, oh yeah, this was great and I made this adjustment. Yeah. And it made it better.

Mary: 20:20

Like, I had a muffin recipe last week and, but it was really bland, so I added some cinnamon and, and chili powder to it, and it was much better. Okay. Better.

Tracie: 20:29

Awesome. Yeah,

Mary: 20:31

it's, it's one of those background flavors, kind of like salt and pepper where you don't really taste it, but it brings out the flavors more.

Tracie: 20:38

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. So, so those kind of tips are the, when you're talking about. Helping people enjoy themselves more. Mm-hmm. Those are the kind of tips that you can share with them? Yes. Yes. Because you know, a lot of us can follow a recipe, but if it doesn't turn out awesome, often we think, yes, maybe it was our own fault. Or were just discouraged because Yeah. Well, or what to do with it. A good recipe.

Mary: 21:03

One, one chef, uh, in a restaurant, he tried making a chocolate souffle and it didn't really work out, so he put it in a loaf pen and a freezer and called it frozen chocolate per, per failure, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so there it's knowing your food and what you can do with things. I love

Tracie: 21:23

that. So, speaking of which, um, knowing things, education obviously a big deal. You have your own education, we all have our perspectives, but I wanna call out the information about your book.'cause I did not know specifically the title of your book. Mm-hmm. And we were talking about this before we started today, and I think this is brilliant. Your book is called Kitchen Chaos to Culinary Bliss, organize and Enjoy Cooking. Oh, you have a copy? I have a copy. If I hold it in front of my body, you can Yeah. Put it right in front of your face. Exactly. And you can find it on Amazon. I did that. I just Google. I just put in Mary Leming and there you were. Mm-hmm. You have a unique name, you're easy to find. Yes. I love this. It's only been out for a little over a year and you and I have only known each other about that long as well. Yes. This is very exciting to me because this is the first I've heard of it. I love it. Tell us something like why should people. Why did you write the book? What, what do people get out of having that? Because it's a great way to take the next step when maybe they're not used to doing things online or, or being in person with people that they haven't mm-hmm. Met in person.

Mary: 22:35

Well, my book is how do, how do Enjoy cooking? It's getting, getting yourself organized, like figuring out which tools you really need.

Tracie: 22:46

And because we all have way more things in our kitchen than we ever really need. Yeah. Because we just,

Mary: 22:51

or, or they're not set up where it's handy. Like a, a friend of mine, she had to go in the, in the living room, um, cabinet to get certain things and I said, well, what's in your kitchen? She said, well, I do have these plotters I don't use. So we switched, put those in the living room, you know, so yeah. My book is about having. Equipment that is more necessary. Yeah. The shopping process that works for you. Um, just handy little things. Um, the book has been reviewed a lot and people are surprised. Like they say, it's a quick read. It's very simple little book, but it's just full of things. Like even a person who cooks. Gets ideas out of it. Like have a compost bucket right on the counter, you know, one of those yogurt tubs and just put your stuff in. Yeah. All

Tracie: 23:40

your scraps as

Mary: 23:41

you're going through everything. Mm-hmm. As you're cooking. Yeah. So, and there are a few recipes, I think there's six recipes I managed to write.

Tracie: 23:49

Yeah, I love it. That's great. Mm-hmm. And you know, and I'm thinking about, you know, myself, but I'm also thinking about, you know, holidays are coming up. I'm thinking about, you know, who do I know? Who tells me that they'd like to enjoy being in the kitchen more? You know? And like you said, Uhhuh, everyone's got some sort of desire to. Take care of themselves better, eat more healthy. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But they want it to be easy. And so when you're helping people make it easy and make it enjoyable, like that's the first step. So we definitely wanna connect people with you to take that first step.'cause without the first step, we're not taking any steps. That's right. And it doesn't have to be some big step, it just has to be a start. So I love that. Mm-hmm. Uhhuh so good. Okay. So. We're almost out of time. What I wanna ask you one last question is, you know, the folks who feel like they, like they have their things and it's just like they do what they do because that's just how they are. Mm-hmm. Talk a little bit about how, how we can change that. Mm-hmm. Be more supportive with our cooking.

Mary: 25:01

Right. Well, there's a couple of people I remember talking to. One fellows had three main recipes that he rotated, but he was getting tired of them.

Tracie: 25:11

Yeah.

Mary: 25:12

And another fellow tried the delivery service, but it took 20 minutes to make his food instead of the five minutes in the microwave. And I said. And how was the food? Was it any good? And he's, he paused. Like he hadn't even really considered

Tracie: 25:28

Yeah.

Mary: 25:28

The, the enjoyment of the food. You know, all he thought was, it was all about how hard it was and

Tracie: 25:33

how

Mary: 25:34

much time it took, whether, how much time he was losing. Yeah. Yeah. So. He paused and he said, yeah, it tasted much better. You know, and actually it's healthier and much better for you. Um, I know the delivery services, you know, they create a lot of garbage, but it's a wonderful way to start cooking. Oh, yeah.

Tracie: 25:53

Oh, we were talking about that the other day where I told you I think that I had done Hungry Root or something like that before. Yes. You, I think you mentioned HelloFresh. I think HelloFresh, yeah. It's an interesting way to start, but it is something that I think most people are like, I want to do this to get started, but I don't want it to be forever.'cause it does create a lot of waste and it is a lot more expensive.

Mary: 26:14

Yeah. But

Tracie: 26:15

they do end

Mary: 26:16

up with a, a set of cards, recipe cards.

Tracie: 26:19

Yeah.

Mary: 26:19

You know, that make it really easy. So, well, maybe

Tracie: 26:21

that's your next project is, is a set of recipe cards, because if they're doing the service just to get the recipe cards long term

Mary: 26:29

mm-hmm. You just

Tracie: 26:30

need to get them the recipe cards. Maybe

Mary: 26:32

True. That's a, that's another idea. I'll write that one down too. I love it. Yeah. So, yeah, I just want people to cook and enjoy them. Enjoy. Enjoy themselves. Yeah. And, uh, there there's ways of making it more enjoyable.

Tracie: 26:49

I love it. I love it. Yeah. What would be like if someone came to you and just said, I'm just so, I just don't want to, like, do you have like the first place you want people to suggest considering starting? It's like, I just, I've tried and it's never I'll, I'll, I'll be me for a second. Okay. I try, you know, I, I want to. I don't love it when I'm, when I allow myself to make the time. It's not an un an enjoyable experience, but it is challenging to make the time. And part of my problem then too, is by the time I make the time, the food that I brought last week that when I thought I was gonna have the time is no good anymore. So how do I get outta that rut of. Preparing and then not executing. And then when I'm ready to execute, I'm not prepared. Maybe this is more of a therapy problem.

Mary: 27:43

There's a lot to that, but it's like I have a 10 minute lunch. You know, it chop up a cucumber, a tomato, um. Uh, use a bit of creamy dressing and some cooked chicken and you've, and maybe some fresh strawberries if you have them.

Tracie: 28:04

Ooh. And that's a lunch. Yeah. It's a little elevated from what it would've been without five minutes worth of work. Mm-hmm.

Mary: 28:14

Yeah, I love that. And, and maybe set the clock for 10 minutes and see how much you can do in 10 minutes and realize. If I put on some music and work in the kitchen for 10 minutes, this is what I can produce.

Tracie: 28:26

That's awesome.

Mary: 28:27

I love that.

Tracie: 28:28

Yeah. Yeah. And then there again, you're adding the music in clearly, you know? Yes. That people Yes. Get uplifted when there's a beat underneath what's going on. Mm-hmm. I love it. Mm-hmm. I love it.

Mary: 28:39

Mm-hmm. That's

Tracie: 28:39

great. Well, Mary, I'm so thrilled. To have spent this time with you. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and, and just for, you know, being a positive influence for people. Right. You're not trying to make anybody do anything. You're not trying to convince them that they should do anything, but if they're ready to do it differently Yes. You wanna help them. Absolutely. And it's so, it's just a beautiful way to be and so I really appreciate you for being that.

Mary: 29:12

Thank you, Tracie. It's been fun talking too. I really enjoyed it. Yeah, I

Tracie: 29:15

know. I'm really glad too. I feel like I really definitely get to know you better today too. So thank you so much. Thank you again, and we'll see everyone next time on the Bold and Brilliant podcast. Bye bye.

Speaker: 29:28

Thank you for listening to the Bold and Brilliant podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Root, and I wanna invite you to check out the show notes, find out where you can connect with our guests, find out more about what I and the Gather community have to offer you, and be sure to subscribe to this podcast on your favorite platform. Thanks so much.