437 lb. Lie He Told Himself Every Day

👀 437lbs down to 205lbs. Listen to Keith Brock's inspirational story that began with a couch 🛋️ in Miami, FL and a gut-wrenching event that sparked lasting change in his life. One moment he was living the life of a 437 pound frustrated and miserable human being. The next moment he turned his life over and walked out of his old body. Some incredible highlights of this episode with Keith include:

1) he dropped 2 1/2 shoe sizes, but this is just one of the many fascinating bodily changes that took place in his life

2) the weight loss was the easy part, it was something else that was much more difficult to overcome 

3) the psychological requirements prior to his life-saving surgery

4) the difference between cash pay and insurance pricing 😱 for his procedure

5) eating tips for busy people and those who eat out regularly

6) a phenomenal tip to continue eating dessert despite needing to weigh-in weekly

Regardless of your struggle in life, this episode delivers great encouragement, motivation, and real-life tips that will spark change in even the most hopeless situations. Enjoy the episode!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

All right, folks, welcome back to another episode. Here I have Keith Brock with me from Yulee, Florida. And man, am I glad I got introduced to you. So it's your wife that has a killer photography business and has done our family photography when we traveled to Florida for vacation. So you reached out to me a couple weeks ago, shared your story, and I said, man, this is the kind of stuff. This is the kind of stuff that I'm looking for. As I sit here, I can't imagine there were two of you. There were literally two of you. Plus a little more. Plus a little bit more. 437 pounds. We're going to get into all the stuff that we talked about. Jeans size, ring size, what it was like flying. But before we do, November 6, 2015 and a couch. Well, you gotta, you gotta tell me this story. Yeah. So, um, that was the night I was over at a very good friend of mine's house, Tony, uh, in South Florida, um, over at his house for dinner. Um, his wife's, uh, sister, brother-in-law were in town. We had a killer meal. Brother-in-law is a killer chef, a chef, seafood, you know, the whole nine yards. Um, and, um, I mean, I'm a close family friend of them. Their children know me, all that. It was kind of known, hey, Keith needs to sit in this spot on the couch. So it was an L-shaped couch, and I sat on one of the ends with an armrest so I could get myself up. That night, I got stuck. So I just... Just couldn't get up. I couldn't, you know, I don't know if I sat down weird or what, but I was just not in the right position to get myself up in the manner that I could, you know, normally. I did end up getting myself up, you know, with no problem. I don't think anybody knew. I don't think that Rachel and Tony knew that I was stuck until... Like three years later, when I asked them for the, you know, a picture of the, of the couch, which I have on Instagram, uh, and kind of tell a little story about getting, getting stuck that night. And, you know, Tony's a very good friend of mine. We've done tons of scuba diving together. He would have helped me up without even. I could have just held my hand up, and he would have come up and helped me up. He's helped you before. Oh, absolutely. Many times. When you're scuba diving, it doesn't matter if it's a 200-pound person or a 400-pound person. You're helping people up on the boat all the time. That's just normal. So here you are this night. You're on a couch. On that exact same couch, you've tried to get up probably 5, 20 times before, many times before. Yes, yes. the first time you try to get up, what's going, what's going on in your mind? Uh, panic for sure. Yeah. So yeah, I just, yeah. Like, Oh my gosh, I am so big that I'm now stuck on a couch. Um, but I just kind of, you know, I don't know. I wiggled around in some manner and got up. Uh, and then I also clearly remember I did not sit back down on the couch that night. I, um, They had like a dining room right off the living room. I just pulled a hard wooden straight up right chair in, sat on that. So the easiest thing to do is to just say, well, just stop eating, right? This is the alcoholic who, hey, just... Just stop drinking. Just stop after three. Or this is the... Fill in the blank. The weight can be... I mean, fill in that blank with anything at all that we're struggling with. Somebody with anger. And it could be somebody that exercises so much that they miss their kids' events because they got to go train for another marathon or whatever it is. Or the biggest one, which is the work. Yeah. Right? We're working and working and working. And meanwhile, our kids are growing up and we're missing it. So... How often would you hear that? Like, just stop eating. Why don't you just stop eating, man? You know, I am very fortunate that I don't have those type of people in my life. And I know how unique that is. I'm very involved in weight loss surgery community on Instagram and Facebook. And I see and hear all these horrible stories Stories about the way a spouse treats, you know, an overweight spouse or the way, you know, friends or coworkers. I don't have that. Or if I do, it's happening behind my back and I, and I don't know it. Uh, but I have, you know, the most supportive spouse. you know, on the planet and that the night, you know, November 6th, when that happened, when I was, I was working in Miami at the time and I was on my way back to my hotel and, uh, she called me or I called her. I don't, don't really remember just, you know, she knew that I was at, at Tony's house and I kind of had this breakdown on, I could take you to the spot on 95 where it happened. And I just said, I got stuck on the couch. You know, I can't, I can't do this anymore. And we had kind of already gone down the weight loss surgery path in 2015. Insurance was just not working out the way we thought it was going to be. We thought it was going to be a six-month process, and it was really going to be more like a two-year process. Does it cover it? It would have covered it, but it would have just been a longer process. We could spend... hours of me bashing insurance companies if you wanted to, but, uh, but, but no, so we, we, we kind of, you know, I'd already gone to see, to meet the surgeon. I'd done a seminar. Yeah. Wonderful surgeon, Dr. Hodgett in Jacksonville. Yeah. Um, and, uh, gone and had the, uh, step two meeting with him. You know, he agreed that I should have a vertical sleeve gastrectomy or VSG is the abbreviation to that. Uh, that's why you have that in your Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. VSG diver. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, you know, we kind of knew when we also had our friend Megan that had been through it. We, this wasn't a November 6th, let's do it. We'd been on this path earlier in 2015 trying to do this. Turns out insurance wasn't going to cover it right away. It would have been truly like a two-year process. So that night of November 6th, I'm driving back to my hotel telling my wife about this awful, I'm so big, I got stuck on the couch. And without missing a beat, she said, call the surgeon's office in the morning and tell them you want to go self-pay. And I was like, are you sure? And that was it. There was no further discussion. There was no, she does not hold. She has never held that over my head. And it was expensive,$17,982. It's not cheap. I had it done in the U.S. I did not go to Mexico. Where did you have it done? In Jacksville. So Dr. Hodgett is part of North Florida Surgeons. And then he... and another physician run the Baptist bariatrics program in Jacksonville. In Jacksonville. All right. Is that the same rate that somebody with insurance, if they took your insurance, tell me a little. No. Yeah. So, so again, you know, very involved in, in social media with this whole weight loss surgery community. And I see people all the time, you know, they'll, they'll have the surgery, you know, a couple months goes by and then that's when those bills start coming in and you see where, Yeah. Sure. Very, very quickly after I had surgery, he moved to one night in the hospital. So that's pretty much the standard now, one night. But anyway, people will snap a photo, you know, they just snap a photo of that bill and that same exact surgery is$40,000,$50,000. Even though we've all agreed, you know, the hospital has all agreed, hey,$17,982 surgery. Covers everything. That was a surgeon's fee, a hospital fee, anesthesia fee, labs, everything. Because I paid when I went down this journey. I was thinking, oh, I'm going to write a check for this amount. But it was a sheet of departments with phone numbers, and I had to call all of them and make all these individual payments. That sounds insane. Yeah, but they're all different departments. Under the same brand? Yeah. Of hospital? Yeah, I guess. Send them a bill for your time. Yeah, right, right. Wow. Okay. So, all right. Cool. Moving on. But it's the greatest money I've ever spent. I mean, I bought my life back for a bargain, really. Try to articulate what it's like. I don't know. You go through this, like we were talking before, you go through this archway. And right on the other side of the archway is this freedom that is just incredible to talk about, right? It's an incredible experience. But just inches before that archway is, I'm going to call it hell. I'm going to, right? Because you've gotten all the way up to a point where you've realized that the pain of staying the same is still less than the pain of change. And then all of a sudden, wham, something immediate happens and you go through. What was life like back then, mentally being 437 and now being 200? You know, it was, everything was harder for sure. You know, I, you know, looking back on it now, I had to, like, we'll just talk about clothing as one thing. I just had to wear whatever I could find, right? Like at a big and tall store or in a big and tall department in Dillard's or Belk or whatever. What size? So in 2015, I was in my cousin's wedding. I remember vividly those pants were a size 54 waist size. So it was a 54 30. Um, and I, I mean, I'm sure you've seen on my Instagram or that, uh, I wear, I wore those pants below my stomach. So that was a 54 inch waist, not even at my waist. I don't even know what my true waist size would have been. Um, and then the shirt that I was wearing in, in that, Um, it had to be, I got that shirt from a big and tall store. Uh, I think casual male XL. Yeah. Um, great store. Super thankful for it. They had to order it. Wasn't even in the store.

SPEAKER_01: 12:01

Wow. How many X's would it be?

SPEAKER_00: 12:03

It was, so it was a, it was a true dress shirt. So it was, I don't remember those measurements, but I think it was probably like a six XL size. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So three XL, four XL, five XL. Wow. Yeah. And then, and then my, you know, most of my, uh, most of my t-shirts, uh, at that time were four XLT. So I could get them a little longer, uh, you know, just, yeah. Yeah. But nothing's more fascinating than the story you told me about your shoe size. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That, that, that was, that was a weird one. Um, so, uh, before surgery, you know, I would, there were lots of things on my body that were very, very big. Um, I don't think my feet were fat. I really don't, you know, um, I don't have any pictures of my bare feet, but, uh, I was a size 13. Um, I had been a size 13 for, many many years several pairs of shoes in my closet that I wore you know on rotation and just um one day after surgery I I put you know one of those pairs of shoes on and basically walked out of it uh it was kind of like a you know it definitely wasn't an overnight change yeah but it felt to me like an overnight change so I went from a 13 um to an 11 uh and then some brands like a 10 and a half. So I can wear a 10 and a half or an 11 now. Right now. Right now. Yeah. Shoes I have on right now are an 11. That's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. So what, what happened with your foot then? It is just that much. I, you know, I don't know, but I did have one person explain it to me. Like, you know, your foot is on an arch and I'm weighing 437 pounds. So there's all this weight pressing down and I, pushing your foot out. I mean, I felt like I still had an arch. I don't, I don't, I don't think that I had a flat foot. Right. Um, but that kind of makes sense. Like if you think about, you know, a leaf spring on a truck, right. It's going the other way. Right. And it's not loaded. Yeah. You know, it's a certain length when it's loaded and flattens out. Yeah. It's a different length. So what was the, what was the most you can ever like take me through one meal? That you can remember. I know if I eat a fourth piece of pizza or something like that, I'll feel horrendous. Man. Do you eat a whole pizza? Probably. Yeah. Pretty close. I'm a big thin crust fan, even pre-pizza. pre-weight loss surgery. Yeah. Just kind of always really like, you know, thin crust. So I feel like that's a different, you know, there's a little less bread. Yeah. A little less crust, but that's how we get away. Yeah. I mean, I'm not, you know, I put a dent in that, in that, you know, large Papa John's pizza or whatever for sure. Yeah. Now it's two or three of those squares. Yeah. We'll get into, I can't wait to hear what, what it looks like now. So, all right. You, does this go back to childhood? Yeah, I mean, I was definitely, you know, I was born in 1986, so I'm part of that generation of the husky line, you know, husky line of clothing. I don't know what they call it now. But yeah, I was always usually the, you know, the biggest or one of the biggest kids in the class. Yeah, it just... Ever look back to, like, what were you eating back then? Have you ever traced it back that far? You know, there was a... I do remember, you know, my parents, my grandparents, when we were eating a meal, it was all like we always wanted to be in the clean plate club. You know, finish your plate. Finish what was put in front of you. I don't necessarily blame them for that, but I mean... But it's not, you know, if I'm sitting down at a family meal, it's not like, you know, if we were eating spaghetti, it's not like my plate was like this. Yeah. And everybody else just had this little thing. I mean, looking back, I would say that the, you know, portions were probably pretty normal. Yeah. I probably always went for extra garlic bread, you know, in that spaghetti dinner scenario. All that stuff. Yeah. Loved that. Then you get, then you go to college? I didn't really go to college. It just wasn't for me. Right in the workforce. Yeah, right in the workforce. What did that all look like? Was there travel? Not early on, no. Did a lot of retail stuff, sold cell phones, worked at Radio Shack, so I'm definitely dating myself there. But going out to eat was always a big, like when I had my own money, I loved doing that. I still do. Yeah. I met my wife in third grade, but we didn't start dating until 2006. And she also really liked going out to eat. So that was a big part of our relationship. What was your favorite place? Oh, man. Well, in 2006, things were different. Olive Garden was still good. I was going to get some carabas. Yeah, I wouldn't eat at Olive Garden today. I don't like it. Carabas we love still to this day. Yeah, a lot of Olive Garden, Outback, Longhorn, stuff like that. And, you know, fast food when you're on the road or going somewhere. You know, not really thinking about like, oh, it's 3 o'clock in the afternoon, let's... let's get a tea and you know, some fries or, you know, little things like that. It just, it just adds up. What did you learn about the, like the psychology of eating? Does it make you, does it, what does it do for you? Does it make you feel good? Is it filling a void? Is it, I don't, I don't think for me, I don't think there's a void to fill, but still to this day, um, Going to a great restaurant, eating good food with very good friends or family, I enjoy that. That is one of the most enjoyable things in my life, even to this day. The experience, the overall experience. What did work look like for you then, your first real experience? job, corporate job or whatever you did. Yeah. So, um, my, my career that I'm in now, I'm a healthcare it consultant. So I travel around to different hospitals all around the country, um, helping them implement electronic medical records, training physicians, training clinicians, things like that. Uh, that really took off in 2011. Yeah. Um, which is probably when my weight gain, you know, was probably pretty constant. And then it really started to climb because, um, then I was making a lot more money and I was getting per diem or, uh, if, if it wasn't just straight flat per diem, it was receded per diem. And then my personality leads me to say like, okay, well, if they're going to give me$65, I'm going to spend$65. Yeah. So then I'm going out to eat. And maybe on a normal day, I wouldn't have ordered an appetizer and a salad and an entree. So now it's someone else's money. You're just... Corporate dinners. Yeah, corporate dinners. Corporate dinners, corporate cards, not exercising probably. No, gosh no. And then being on the road. So like in 2011... Really ramped up in 2011. 2012 was huge. I mean, from all the travel, I don't want to go too far down this road, but in 2012, I had 437 paid nights at a Marriott hotel, even though there's only 365 nights in a year. So we were on the road so much. My wife and I were on the road so much. We were working together. The hospital saw, oh, this is a husband and wife. we know we're getting a deal because it's only one hotel room. So they would let us keep the hotel room even if we weren't there over the weekend. And I mean, we had great rates. We were spending less money than someone who was only... staying four nights a week. We were spending less money than them. So yeah. Yeah. And then we would go somewhere else, right? Like we were working in Connecticut. Right. We'd go to Boston for the weekend. Right. Or we'd go to New York and then we're staying in a Marriott, you know? So it's just, yeah. Yeah. So just very aggressive travel, like, um, you know, spending, you know, day after day after day on the road, right. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Yeah. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner over and over and over again, eating out, All the time. Not work, eat now, not work now. Yeah, yeah. One combination. Yep, exactly. Over and over, wash, rinse, repeat. Wow. Yeah. So you worked with your wife? Yes. Same company. Yes, yes, doing the same thing for many years. It was a very interesting dynamic to work. It was actually a little bit frustrating because she would ask me, why aren't you talking? You know, at the end of the day, why aren't you talking about your day? I'm like, you know, when I went to the bathroom, there's nothing you don't know about my day because you were there for all of it. But yeah, it was, no, it was all good. You know, all in good fun. But no, super cool. I had one or two instances where I was actually her boss That was a joke. She, yeah, we just made, you know, that was, that was super fun, but yeah, yeah, it was great. Very, very enjoyable. We did that. Gosh, we were together 2011. There were several times where we had different jobs, completely different jobs in the same field. Like when I was working in Miami, she had a job like in, Iowa and Chicago and all this stuff. So she would just, instead of flying home, she would fly down to me and, you know, I would go 50, 60 days at a time without walking through the doorway of my house. And my wife was pretty close to that because she was just coming to me. We didn't have kids. It was, it was a good, it was a, Very good life. I don't want to act like it was a burden. It was wonderful. Right, and you were being paid for it. Oh, absolutely. Paid to travel and paid to do all that stuff. That's cool. So you get the surgery, and the surgery wouldn't work if habits continue the same. So I'm curious to know what has changed. Give me some actual examples. So breakfast. Yeah, I mean, you can absolutely eat around the surgery. I had 80% of my stomach removed. That's what that surgery does. If you continue to eat the wrong things, you will gain the weight back. It happens all the time. It's a very common thing. I built up quite a following on Instagram early on because I don't remember exactly why this happened. I think it might have been after I had surgery, I would go back to my surgeon's seminars and stand up there with him as like a testimonial and answer questions and all this stuff. And a big thing that people would ask was, well, how much can you eat after surgery? And I think that's why I started taking before and after pictures of my food. So my eating habits didn't necessarily change, right? Cause I was on the road still. It's not like I had the surgery and then got a normal job, work nine to five and went home. I was still in hotels, uh, All that. So I was like, this is a common question. People need to see this. So I would take a picture of my food when it was set in front of me, and then I would eat what I would eat, and I'd take a picture. Of what I'd eaten. So I had all these just before and after. Like if you go back and look at my Instagram way back. That's interesting. That's the majority of my. Wow. Yeah. So I was able to visually show people. Sure. Okay. I'm this many months out. I'm this many years out. Here's what I ate today. And I know it was very helpful because I would get DMs all the time. I would think so. Of people saying my family was against this. until I showed them your page. And I was like, look, he's still, he's at Outback. He's at Ruth Chris. He's at here. He's at there. This is what he ate. And so it's, I don't know. It's just the quantities change. Drastically. That's the big thing. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the type of food's not changing. Yeah, the type of food, yeah, probably should have changed some of the, you know, cut out some of the garbage. But yeah, I mean, even to this day, if you and I were sitting here right now and you opened up a bag of Doritos and I opened up a bag of Doritos, I could probably go chip for chip with you because that's trash. But if we both set a plate of chicken wings in front of us still to this day, I'm over nine years out. I'm done at five, five chicken wings. I am tapped out. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Mentally too. Or you, do you have to whiten up? Oh no. I mean, I am, uh, if, if I tried to eat a sixth, um, probably my nose would start running. I would be uncomfortable. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. So before the surgery, um, Does the medical community tell you like, hey, get this kind of psychological help or this kind of counseling? Yes. That's a big part of weight loss surgery. That's like one of the steps you have to go through is they want a psychological evaluation done. I think it's changed now. When I was doing it, I want to say it was only one visit, which by doing self-pay, I bypassed. Oh, but not for the good though. Well, I, so yeah, I mean, I, I wouldn't have had a problem going to meet with a, you know, mental health professional and talk about this. I I'll talk about it to anybody. Sure. Um, but one of the things my, my surgeon said, um, like, I think I was just a couple of weeks post-op when I met with him, um, He was, he's so laid back. He's a, he's just, he has a wonderful approach to, to all of this. And he was just like, I have no, I have no concerns. And he just sort of rattled off these statistics. He's like, you're a male and you self-paid. You are what? Self-paid. Oh, you're self-paid. Oh, I, okay. I got you. Yeah. So, so those two things, being a male self-pay. Yeah. He's like, the statistics are overwhelmingly in your favor. Now, that doesn't mean I can just kick back and not do anything, but it gave me some reassurance that, you know, okay, I should be good. And so far, it's been great. How far out are we? So I had surgery February 15th, 2016. So I'm a little over nine years out. Wow. What can go wrong? What's on your mind? Like what, what do you have to watch for? Yeah. I mean, it is very possible for me to gain weight. Um, I did in 2020. Um, so during COVID, yeah. Uh, so, you know, I've kind of described my lifestyle of, you know, that pre all that stuff I was talking about from 2011 up until really March of 2020. That was my life. I was on the road constantly. Um, and yeah, post weight loss surgery, that was a very good way for me to, to, to find balance because, you know, if you go into a hotel room, you only have the food and drink that you brought with you. If you didn't bring anything with you, you don't have anything. There's no pantry, there's no, there's no refrigerator full of food, no nothing. So looking back on it, um, I think that was kind of like my ace in the hole for all those years after weight loss surgery I did very well so from 2015 deep into 2019 I was still losing weight so I had lost I got down to started at 437 I got down to 247 in 2019 so more than three years of successful slow you know, very gradual weight loss, which is great. You know, it's, it's, of course it's great to lose a bunch of weight quickly and get healthy. And that's safe. Yeah. They didn't know concern with no concern. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then COVID happened and I was at home, uh, and you know, just constantly bored, uh, like everybody, I think, um, Brittany bought me a grill for i think father's day um something in the summer of around the summer of 2020 and this is not to blame her it was wonderful i you know so i just started you know doing all these crazy recipes like a bacon-wrapped peanut butter and jelly sandwich that you smoke. Just all this, social media then was weird, right? It was just in more ways than one. So there was just all these food recipes and we're bored, right? So we're doing it. So in 2020, I think I gained about 50 pounds. I don't want to blame it all on COVID. It could have been in late 2019, too. I don't really know. I don't get very obsessed with the scale. I don't weigh daily. I think that's bad. There's a lot of people in the weight loss community that I feel fall into that trap, and I preach against it because the scale is only a number. Don't let it define you. But anyway, so from 2019... through 2020, I think I regained about 50 pounds. I know, I remember going to urgent care. I had the flu, um, and, uh, not COVID shockingly, uh, in, in, in very late, um, 2021 actually. So yeah, really 2019 to 2021, I probably gained about 50 pounds, went to urgent care. And when I weighed with clothes on, I remember I was like 292 or 293. So I'd been 247, super happy, 292, 293. I remember that being very alarming. Like, oh my gosh. To you? Yes. No, they didn't care. Yeah. Yeah. It was urgent care. They're not going to, you know, they're not going to- But did your doctor know? The main doc, the doctor who did the surgery? No, no. That you have to report to? No, no. He didn't know. Okay. So you didn't have to report back. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They encourage like a one year, like a yearly followup. I'm terrible at that. Um, but, uh, I have gone back and seen him and it's more like going to see a friend, you know, he hugs me, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's wonderful. And I'm sure it's very rewarding for him. Sure. Cause a lot of doctors that are treating a symptom, you know, either the symptom gets better, like a cancer doctor, you know, They either heal their patients or they don't. And very similar for him. I'm sure it's very rewarding for his old patients to come back. But yeah, so in late 2021, I saw that, you know, that I'd regained about 50 pounds. Started to straighten myself out, you know, kind of on my own in 2022. I lost about 20 of those pounds on my own in 2022. And then I just couldn't, I was just yo-yoing, you know, just constantly yo-yoing. And, uh, my wife mentioned to me that she was going to try, uh, Monjaro, which is a GLP one, uh, medication that was, uh, really developed for the treatment of type two diabetes, but had an amazing side effect of weight loss. So I was in the two seventies when she said this and I was like, Oh, I was like, I'll do it with you. Yeah. You know, I'll go down this path. And, uh, She, to this day, she would tell you, like, I remember thinking, oh, he doesn't need to do this. But then when you look back on those pictures, when I was 277, you know, in 2022, definitely needed to make a change. Yeah. And the GLP-1 meds are amazing. Yeah. So not only did I lose the regain, I lost more, which got me down to below 200. Very celebratory. So I did kind of celebrate, you know, the scale reflecting 199.5. Yeah. Uh, but, um, I've, I've leveled out, uh, just kind of naturally in like the low two hundreds today. That's your number. Yeah. It seems to be. Have you gone below it at all? Curious if you have and how you felt. Um, I mean, I, again, I don't get hung up on the, with the scale. I really don't. Uh, I tell people all the time, I say this on Instagram all the time and in several other weight loss groups that I'm in, I've lost, you know, from the highest number to the lowest number, I've lost 238 pounds. And that is the most insignificant part of my journey. So a lot of people hear that and they're like, what? The most insignificant part? That's the most insignificant part. The things that I have gained back are far more valuable than the weight that I've lost. For example?

UNKNOWN: 35:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 35:16

anything so I can snow ski again. Um, my wife bought me a one wheel for, uh, anniversary a couple of years ago. So I used to, you know, I used to skateboard and all this other stuff, you know, as a, as a teenager, even though it was a little heavier. Right. Um, but yeah, it was, uh, you know, again, just the, the, the things that I've, that I've gained back, they mean so much more to me than the weight that I've lost, even though the weight is, um, substantial and amazing and, you know, any other adjective you want to throw in there. Yeah. You touched a little bit about it on before, but tell me a story about flying. What was that? What would that be like? So I used to fly all the time for work. Um, and it was, uh, it was never pleasant. Um, you know, I was, I was pretty big. Uh, so you think about your height, this was the peak of it. Were you flying? Um, Not, not as much. Uh, no, not, not as much. And it wasn't because of my weight. I wasn't. Oh, you were just, yeah, it was just, I was, when I was working in Miami, it was easier just to drive back and forth from North Florida to South Florida. You know, you're in that five hour mark, you know? Um, so it, it doesn't, it didn't make a lot of sense to fly. Um, but still flew, you know, like when Brittany and I would go on vacations or, you know, whatever, uh, I flew to, uh, we went to Hawaii, um, for a scuba trip and I weighed, I'm sure I weighed over 400 pounds for that trip. I was in first class. Brittany was in coach, um, because we knew I couldn't, There's no way I could have been in coach all that way. What's the Southwest story? Oh, yeah, Southwest story, yeah. So back to 2015. So, again, that was kind of the year that I had decided to go on this weight loss surgery journey. And this, I think, was probably August of 2015, if I remember correctly. I was going to my cousin's wedding in Nashville. my wife and I were flying with my grandparents and, uh, you know, went up to the ticket, uh, ticket counter to check the bags. Um, and the, the lady working the bag check kind of steps around the counter and looks at me and she said very discreetly, no, this wasn't, you know, she wasn't putting me, you know, trying to put me on blast or anything like that. She just said, yeah, have you flown with us before? And I was like, yes, ma'am. Many, many times. Uh, and, uh, she was like, I really think you probably need an extra seat. And I was like, Oh, okay. You know, whatever. I wasn't going to, I wasn't going to say no. Uh, so it wasn't, wasn't super full flight. And she, I, I, on that Southwest flight, I had two seats. Now there were, hundreds of other flights where that did not happen i was in coach pressed up against britney britney will tell you you know to this day like oh gosh it hurt my back because you know he would press into me yeah so that i'm not pressed into someone else or she always sat in the middle so i could be on the outside um but yeah it was not flying was not pleasant always a seat belt extender no matter what, including in first class. Yeah, still in a seatbelt extender. Wow. So that's, do you think about it every time you get on a flight? Every time, yeah. And almost every flight. I've made several posts about it on Instagram, but I'd say probably 90% of the flights now, I'll do a story. I'll take a picture of my lap with the seatbelt buckled with the slack. And that's a very big thing like in the weight loss surgery or weight loss community, people, that's something that people celebrate. And I, and I never, I never take it for granted. Uh, I'm always thankful when I can buckle that seatbelt like a normal person. Yeah. Does fitness play a role in your life at all now? Um, I'm trying to, uh, so I'm not, uh, in, in, in this whole journey. Um, I have not, uh, really gone to the gym consistently. I'm just an active person outside of having a pretty sedentary job, but I'm always out doing something. But now, there's just so much research has gone into building up muscle mass. What you do today is going to determine how you are as an 80-year-old. My wife and I are definitely trying to make steps in the right direction and go to the gym a little more. Strength training is very important. Scuba diving? Yeah, that's Pretty funny. So I've done way more scuba diving weighing over 400 pounds than I have weighing under 400 pounds. Yeah. Yeah. It's not. And, and again, it's not, it's not, it's not like I lost the weight. and then couldn't do it, right? I would just, it's easier. It's way easier. It's just, my life is different now. So back then I was- Pre-kids. Pre-kids. No, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. The big- Let's start there. Yeah, the big thing is pre-kids. The other big thing, which is probably tied with that, is just the geographic location of where I work. So back then I was working in Miami, spending most of my time in Pompano or Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, so about 30 minutes miles up the road. Um, and that's where I met Tony, the couch story. Uh, and, uh, I mean, we were scuba diving constantly, you know, I, I mean, I would take off work in the middle of the week, you know, just some random Tuesday and be like, Hey, the conditions are just too good to pass up. Um, so it was just a crime of opportunity really. Um, and yeah, We, again, pre-kids. So Brittany and I were, you know, every vacation we took was pretty much scuba related unless it was, you know, like that wedding or, you know, whatever. But yeah, still love it. Going to Grand Cayman next month to scuba dive. But yeah, just can't do it today like I did back then, which was, you know. What are some little things... that you're on the lookout for that. Okay. I got to make sure that I don't do this. And I can only imagine one would be like, I got to make sure I don't stop at a gas station. Cause there's a trigger there. And the trigger could be getting a big size of Doritos versus a small size. I don't know. I'm just, what are, what are some little things that you're on the lookout for? Yeah, I definitely, I, Definitely am aware when I get snacky. like, you know, wanting, you know, some of that junk food type stuff. Um, so to back up a little bit, I am still taking, uh, Manjaro to, to this day. I mean, I'm on a maintenance, um, maintenance dose. So I take it approximately once a month. Um, and it really helps quiet down your mind with the food noise and things like that. So I can kind of tell when I should, probably have a shot of that medicine. It's an injectable pen because I start wanting more junk food or whatever, but it also has a lot to do with boredom. If I'm not doing something or being you know, being active, you know, you'll go stand in front of the pantry or stand in front of the refrigerator. I think we, I think we all do that. I got it. I got it. I could stare at Reese's peanut butter cups all day. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I love Reese's peanut butter. Uh, but, um, yeah, that's a big thing. And like, like when I, when I drove up here yesterday, um, I eat sunflower seeds, right? So it's shelter, not shelter, not shelter. Yeah. So I'm, you know, cracking the shell with my mouth, spitting out the shell, eating the seed. Um, so it's, it's giving me something to do, I guess. Um, it's very low calorie and you know, I'm sure there's probably some nutritional value to that sunflower seed, but yeah, that's a good one. So being in a car, what about, um, thinking like, like trigger, stay away from like what, what are some things for you that are like, absolutely. I just can't do, um, Honestly, I don't think I have any. And I kind of preach against that in this weight loss community, right? Okay, good. I do not believe in deprivation. And I say all the time, deprivation is not a long-term key to success. Yeah, okay. If there is something... Now, let me preface this by saying, this doesn't work with an addict, right? Like, I wouldn't say this to someone who's addicted to drugs or alcohol. Yeah. But... I think there's something to be said on the food side of it. Don't tell yourself, no, I cannot have that new Blizzard from Dairy Queen. I can't have that new whatever. Again, if you scroll back on Instagram, you will see pictures of me standing over the top of a trash can with something, and I will take one or two bites of it and throw it away. So I don't deprive myself of... Of something like my mom is a big, uh, she, my mom loves chocolate, all this stuff. Like if, if we see a new candy bar, you know, she is either buying one for herself and for me, or I'm doing that for her. Yeah. Like I'm going to try this. the thing. If it's something that I'm, that I want, uh, I'm going to try it, but I'm going to set myself up for success. So you're scooping it out before you eat it. See, that's where I go wrong. I eat it and tell myself I'm going to throw some away and I never do. So you buy it, scoop off and then eat what's left. Yeah. Or, or, or like, like, like, um, I think there's a picture on my Instagram of me with a PDQ milkshake and I don't remember the milkshake, but I just remember that I wanted to try it. And Brittany and I went through the drive-thru, got it, and then got out of the car. And I'm literally holding that milkshake with the spoon, like kind of smiling back at the camera, over the top of a trash can. I took one or two bites and threw it away. No way. Yep. Super wasteful. What else do you do like that? That's an incredible tip. That's going to be such an awesome... YouTube short and like little reel that I want to make sure we clip that out. That's awesome. Yeah. Um, that else, I mean, that's a, that's a big thing. I, I definitely try like, um, you know, if I'm again back to the eating out, still a very big part of my life. Um, I try really hard to, you know, eat more of the protein first, you know, but I'll still eat a pasta dish, right? Like that, that's not, it's not like I'm saying, Oh no, I can't eat the pasta. But if it's a, lobster linguine or shrimp scampi or whatever, I'm going for that shellfish kind of first. Then I'll take a few bites of the pasta, you know, and then by then I'm usually done. Yeah. But yeah. Bread before a meal. I mean, do you just try to control it or do you eat it? If it's, so I'm pretty snobby about the bread. Yeah. Brittany's big into sourdough and, you know, like, you know, fresh stuff. So, you know, I don't get too you know, been out of shape anymore about like a Texas roadhouse roll. Like that's probably just a bunch of chemicals. But if it's like, if we're at like an Italian place or a steak place that has some amazing bread that's coming out, I'm definitely going to try it. But it's, uh, I know that like every bite of that bread that I take, that's probably, you know, a full shrimp that I can't eat. And I know that that shrimp is way better for me. much more nutrient dense. You control that. Those are two levers that you can play a little bit? Yes. I'm not saying that I'm some superstar. I fail every day, but I know it. I'm aware of it. What about drinks? What do you do there? What's your theory and thought? I got in a little bit of trouble with this recently because I got kidney stones early this year. That's an actual terrible story. Sunday, on a Sunday morning, the symptoms hit me out of nowhere. That next Monday, that very next day, the very next day, I was supposed to be going to Vail. to ski, ended up missing 50 inches of snow that week because of these stupid kidney stones. But I'm a big tea drinker. And that is what the kind of the research has pointed to is that maybe I was, no, I do unsweet with an artificial sweetener. Yeah. which I'm also trying to cut back on because I know it's bad. But apparently, even though tea is very good for you, there's a lot of antioxidants and stuff like that. Too much of a good thing can cause a problem. So it's the unsweet tea or it's the sweetener, do they think? No, the tea. Really? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's just like a high... antioxidant food or... Even if you're a water drinker? That was probably the problem. I was drinking way more tea than water. And I've been doing that for years and years and years. But yeah, I don't... Back to the origin of the story, my friend Megan, she had surgery before I did and one of the things she told me when I really was on that path, she said... just don't drink any more carbonated drinks. Just, she's like, I gave it up for like, I think she said she gave it up for maybe six months. Um, and she said my advice to you would be not, not to drink any more carbonated drinks. So my last carbonated drink was a Mountain Dew at Taco Bell, uh, in the drive-through on the way back to Miami on January 31st. 2016 so that was the the following day uh february 1st that's when i started my two-week uh liquid diet uh to prep uh for the surgery so i had to do two weeks of no food um wow just these uh shakes that i got from the bariatric surgeon's office and water that's incredible that's the last yeah so that's the last carbonated that's the last carbonated drink what else other than um so you said unsweet tea What else then? Did you find anything else? No, I still drink alcohol. It's pretty fun.

SPEAKER_01: 50:53

Is beer considered carbonated?

SPEAKER_00: 50:55

Yeah, I don't do beer. I was not a big beer drinker before, so that wasn't a problem. But actually with Tony, so Tony was the first person that I had a... alcoholic drink around after surgery. I can't remember exactly how far out I was a couple of months. Um, and I'd been warned, you know, you, you have only 20% of your stomach. Um, it greatly affects, you know, your alcohol tolerance and all that. So we were at a, um, an engagement party for one of the guys at the dive shop, uh, just right down the canal on Fort, Fort Lauderdale from the dive shop. And, uh, Everybody there knew that I loved rum punch. For me, the girlier, the better. I love fruity drinks, all that stuff. Two umbrellas. Yeah, exactly. The more umbrellas, the better. I think somebody ordered it for me. I don't really remember exactly, but I do remember that I took a couple of sips of it. We were outside on a patio and there was a big metal pole holding up like this tent thing over the bar and had that metal pole not been there, I would have fallen over from just maybe a third of that drink. Yeah. Not, not drinking it fast. Like this wasn't a shot. It wasn't something I was chugging. I was just kind of, you know, very stationary talking to Tony, like I am talking to you today. And then I went to turn and And had that metal pole not been there, I would have fallen over. And I'm still like that, super lightweight. One drink or less? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Really? I feel it right away. My friends love making fun of me about it. They're going to love this section of the podcast. That could be a blessing, actually. Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. It usually, so just, you know, half of a drink in, I can't feel my feet. Yeah. Wine hits me especially hard. It's a super fun Nashville story. We were at a winery with our friends in the middle of the day. The place can legally only pour you eight ounces of wine. So I had four two-ounce things, right? No big deal to most people. Two of those two-ounce things in, I was pretty gone, and I still drank the third. And then I just laid down in the grass in the middle of the day. And my friends, like, they still laugh about it. But, you know... 15 minutes later, I am completely sober. Wow. Yeah. It's actually a problem in the weight loss surgery community. It is. It leads to alcoholism because you can, you know, you can just get drunk so quickly and then you can sober up. Sober up. And then you can get drunk. Sober up. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So right now you have how much of your stomach less? So VSG removes about 80% of your stomach. So about 20%. What did it feel like when you woke up from the surgery? Um, Yeah. Yeah. It was real, real uncomfortable. Had this like abdominal binder on like this Velcro thing. Um, now it's a laparoscopic surgery, just like someone having out their gallbladder or something like that. So it's just very tiny incisions. I think I had five, um, you know, no external stitches. It was all held together with glue. Um, yeah, very, it's a very routine surgery today. I mean, so after you had it, then changes happen.

UNKNOWN: 54:24

Um,

SPEAKER_00: 54:25

good changes happen immediately did any did any bad changes happen after the surgery so crave anything more or let me talk about some of the good real quick because i think it's important to point this out um so about three weeks before i had surgery i had to do pre-op lab work um like you would do with any surgery any surgery yeah so those results came back um And I was a couple of days into the liquid diet, right? So this would be like February 3rd or 4th when I'm reviewing these results with Brittany. And my blood sugar was 387. So I was a full-blown, undiagnosed type 2 diabetic with a extremely high, dangerous blood sugar. Wow. So in the midst of trying to get ready for this... surgery. Now I'm, now I'm also slapped with a type two diabetes, uh, diagnosis and I had to go on medication for that. So I had to go on metformin, uh, which were these pretty big pills that you have to swallow a couple of times a day. Um, but then I'm going to have surgery where I'm have a super restrictive stomach and all this stuff. So I only took metformin for like maybe 12 days, my blood sugar was still not regulated. It was still high. Uh, I was not taking insulin at the time, but thankfully this is like kind of par for the course in the bariatric surgery community. So the, you know, anesthesiologists and the surgeon, they're all aware of this and it, it wasn't, it wasn't that big a deal. I thought it was a much bigger deal than they did, of course. Um, but you know, so I had the surgery and, on February 15th, and when I went home from the hospital, they sent me home on Levomir, which is an injectable insulin pen for type two diabetics. Brittany is a nurse, my wife is a nurse, She was amazing. She monitored just having me check my blood sugars all the time. She was helping me titrate my dose down and all that stuff. So my birthday is March 22nd. March 17th or 18th of that same year, so really just not even four full weeks after having the surgery, we were in Grand Cayman for a scuba trip for my birthday. And I took no pills. diabetes medication with me on that trip. My blood sugar was completely controlled and normal less than a month after having surgery.

SPEAKER_01: 57:13

Whoa.

SPEAKER_00: 57:14

Like back to normal? Completely normal. Completely normal. And like, and again, Brittany is like, you know, we're either going to take the medication with us or we're not. So she's having me check my blood sugar, you know, multiple times a day, as soon as I wake up, right before I go to bed, you know, all this stuff because she didn't want you know, shouldn't want anything bad to happen. But I mean, day after day after day is just a completely normal blood sugar. Still, I guess still off at then, right? I mean, if you're down to 200 pounds. Yeah, so we didn't take, you know, not even a month later, I was no longer a type two diabetic and was able to go on that scuba trip out of the country.

SPEAKER_01: 57:53

This is such a chicken and egg question, but I'm

SPEAKER_00: 57:56

dying to know now. Is it because the massive drop in weight I would have to say yes, it's because of that. But is it because like the day you woke up from surgery, you now all of a sudden stopped putting so much stuff into your body that you were putting in before, or is it a both and? So that's a really good question. And it's, uh, so for gastric bypass, which is a more invasive weight loss surgery, like that Al Roker had that, you know, on the show, I didn't have bypass. I had So vertical sleeve gastrectomy. Oh, I didn't even know there was a difference. Yeah, it's a less invasive surgery. So it's VSG versus what? Gastric bypass. I thought they were the same. Great. I'm glad I asked this. No, two different things. So for gastric bypass... Great YouTube clip right there. The difference between VSG and... Now, there may be some more knowledge on this, but I have heard my surgeon multiple times when I've gone and done these testimonials with him say... When, if you are a type two diabetic and we do gastric bypass, so the more invasive, right? So you wake up from that surgery, you still weigh what you weighed when they put you to sleep, right? You haven't lost any weight magically in that surgery. You just had your stomach rerouted into your intestines. It's a more complicated surgery. When you wake up from that surgery, you're no longer a type two diabetic. And it is a medical mystery. Like they can't put their finger on it and say, oh yeah, When we're doing this surgery, this, this, and this happens in it and it causes normal insulin function and all this stuff. For VSG, it's not as invasive and it's not as quick. Now, from February... 16th to march 18th i had not lost us you know i'd lost weight i'd lost a noticeable amount of weight like you know maybe 30 or 40 pounds yeah i'm guessing i can't i can't really remember but it's not like i had lost enough weight to have fixed the type 2 diabetes it's just a benefit of having the weight loss surgery that's why i will forever be pro weight loss surgery in a lot of cases, even though GLP-1 meds are so wonderful, and we're just in the infancy of that. We're just scratching the surface of GLP-1 meds today. And people are losing weight loss surgery level amounts of weight. They're losing hundreds of pounds on GLP-1s. So it's amazing, right? But if you weigh 500 or 600 pounds and you have type 2 diabetes and you can't feel your feet because you have... You know, there's just all these things, right? You need to go have weight loss surgery. It will save your life. The GLP-1 can be used as a supplement, you know, to aid in this down the road, but you just can't underscore how wonderful and how life-saving weight loss surgery is because... There's just all these things that are happening to your body that are so wonderful. So sorry, we derailed substantially from your question there. I'm so glad we did. I'm so glad we did. I thought that was important. What percentage of people have ESG then versus... gastric bypass. Like if you had to get like more, so start off, is it more? Yeah. Now I would say now VSG is much, much more popular. Does it have to be done in a hospital? Absolutely. Yeah. And obviously the other one. Yes. Yeah. But, but both are still laparoscopic and you know, from the outside. Oh, even gastric bypass. Yeah. Pretty minimally invasive. Yeah. Oh yeah. Uh, there's just a lot more going on when they do the gastric bypass, but I think most bariatric surgeons steer their patients towards the sleeve, but let's say you already were suffering really bad from heartburn or acid reflux. If you already have acid reflux really bad, you likely cannot have a gastric sleeve because it will make it worse. And then you'll end up getting esophageal cancer. If they do the gastric bypass, you will wake up from that surgery cured of acid reflux. There are, there are people who are skinny like you rail, skinny marathon runners that have horrific GERD or acid reflux that get gastric bypass and to cure that because they have eroded their esophagus from that acid coming up and burning up their throat. Yeah. And that's that burning feeling that you get. Yeah. It's bad. Heartburn and GERD and all that. All that. Similar. Yeah. Yeah. Like heartburn, GERD, acid reflux. That's kind of three ways to, you know. Did you have any of that stuff? Did you have any of that stuff? I didn't have it before. Before the surgery, I didn't, I'd never had it. I did have it. Uh, it came on very suddenly, probably four or five months after having surgery. Yeah. Just woke up one morning and felt like I had lava in my mouth. It was awful. Uh, thankfully my, my wife and I, this is kind of gross, but funny at the same time, we were, we were going to redo the floor in her master bedroom and we pulled up the carpet. Yeah. So just exposed concrete. And I remember just waking up and I spit on the floor because I thought, I mean, I, You're just coming up out of a stone cold sleep and it feels like you've got lava in your mouth. So I went on some sort of prescription for it. I can't remember the name of it. But it came on quickly and went away quickly. And I've never really had a problem. It's come on... one or two times a year. But I think that's probably happened to you. It happens to anybody. But yeah, I'm lucky. There are people who have had no problems with acid reflux, gotten VSG, been very successful with it for years and years and years, and then they will develop horrible acid reflux that they can't get to go away, and then they go in and do a revision to gastric bypass.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:17

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:18

Huh?

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:19

Yeah. Cause there's nothing, you know, they've tried all the medications, they've altered their diet. You know, it's kind of the last straw, but the last straw. Yeah. Huh? Yeah. All right. Let's end on this part. So what is the, let's talk about the future and sort of the, the day by day. And is it an approach of just one day at a time or what would you see when you look out? You done an over and this is a thing in the past or is this like, I don't think it, I don't think it'll ever be. done and over. Yeah. You know, um, I certainly don't want to compare this to like alcohol addiction or drug addiction, but when you hear people talk about that, like I've heard somebody say, um, sobriety is never bought. It's rented and rent is due every day. Um, and I think that that's probably true for, um, you know, for, for weight loss. Again, I don't want to, I don't want to take away from what people go through who battle, you know, horrible drug and alcohol addiction. I think it's probably way worse. But I like that saying, you know, that it's, it is something that I know I have to, you know, be aware of, but I also try not to, I try hard not to think about it every day. You know, I don't, I don't, I talk about it very openly. That's another thing that I try to encourage people. You know, there's a big, there's always been a big push that your medical history is private. And, you know, you go into your doctor's private, and there's all this stuff around HIPAA. And then people kind of carry that over into their Yeah. Yeah. my friend sharing her journey with me. I don't know that I would be here today. And that's the extreme, right? The other side, the pendulum swings the other way on the less extreme side. I'm so open about it. A lot of times at a restaurant, I will preemptively tell a waiter, hey, I had weight loss surgery. I'm not going to be able to eat a lot because I don't want this awkward interaction of this food being set in front of me And then I eat this little bit of stuff and then it sits there. And then most of the time I don't take a to-go box because I don't like to reheat leftovers. So then it involves this manager, you know, someone coming over and asking, was anything wrong? You know, so I'm just so open about it. I try not to, I just, you know, try to cut out the, cut out the awkwardness. So I know that was kind of off topic, but I don't, I don't, I try not to have it in the forefront of my mind all the time, but I also am very appreciative of the past. I am humble about it. I don't think that I'm some God's gift to weight loss. I don't think that I'm some influencer or anything like that. You can regain the weight. I have, you know, but even regaining 50 pounds in that, you know, looking at that long-term scale, I would still be considered very successful in the bariatric surgery community because so many people will gain it all back plus some. And I'm so thankful that never happened. Right. I mean, you know, I caught it in time or, you know, whatever, however you want to say that, but still can't believe that there was literally two of you as I sit here and I'm talking to you the whole time. It's wild. And the thing, not that long ago, not that long ago. No. Right. I mean, 2016. Yeah. So, wow. It's crazy. So it's been a, been an incredible sharing this story, man. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I appreciate that you reached out. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I'm awesome. You know, like, I told you before, I, I'm constantly trying to share my, share my journey. I want to, you know, if I can help one person, then, you know, it's all worth it. And I know I have, I have, you know, a very close friend of mine that had surgery after, after I did. Um, he's done very well with it. Uh, but yeah, I just, that's all I want to do is, you know, help somebody. I'm, I'm an open book. Uh, I, there's no question. I won't, I won't answer. I will talk to anybody. Uh, my, you know, My wife gets it. We've had some instances where she's like, who are you texting? I'm like, someone messaged me on Instagram and has all these questions. This will open up a lot more doors. Yeah, I hope so. I mean, at the end of the day, and this is probably just my opinion on it, so take it for what it's worth. It's like... every single person has something and struggles with something or struggled with something and now we exchange it for something else that we struggle with. We all have it, right? The easiest thing to do is to look at the guy who's drinking too much or whatever and say, just stop drinking. Or the guy who's eating too much and just stop eating. Or the guy who's working too much, convinced he has to, that's missing his kids' games. And the list goes on and on. Now, I think it's like a legitimate, the scrolling, the medical community is referring to it as Blackberry thumb, which is even funnier because the Blackberry doesn't exist anymore, or it exists, but it's not as what the iPhone is today. Point is, though, I think and I hope that this is met with grace and understanding and not the hate of all you got to do is just not open the fridge or all you got to do is not open this or not do that. That's just my hope. And it's probably, like I said, my disclaimer is that my opinion's probably in there, but we all struggle. So I just want to say from one person who struggles to another is like, I wish you the best on your journey because I got my own stuff. Yeah. And I mean, there's a huge, like kind of like what you said there, there's a huge psychological component to this. Yeah. A huge part of the weight loss journey is the mental balance. Yeah. Yeah. but you didn't consume 16,000 calories today. It's just this, your body is just constantly going through this. So that's why I tell people like, don't fall into this trap. And because it is such a mental, you know, I strongly encourage people taking pictures, taking measurements. That's one of my biggest regrets. I wish I would have taken measurements because I can't tell you how big, you know, when you asked how big my waist was, I had to tell you, well, I wore my pants below my waist. I was a 54. I wish I would have, done the measurements. So anybody that's thinking about this journey, do your measurements and pictures. A lot of overweight people shy away from the camera. I encourage everybody, get in front of a mirror, have your spouse or someone you trust, whatever you have to do, take pictures of yourself in as little clothing as you are comfortable with because you go down this road of losing a lot of weight. those pictures will become some of your most prized possessions. They are for me. And you see, I share them. you know, without a filter. I love it. They're so encouraging. I think, well, I know that in the 75 hard book, that's why they do it too, which is, which is so critical. And I almost didn't buy into it. And then day 50 ish. I'm so darn glad that I did. Cause I didn't feel change, but as I compare one picture to another, oh my goodness. Yeah. So, and I tell people all the time, Brittany and I have a close friend. She's on a, uh, on a weight loss, uh, journey or right now and she kind of took I'm not going to say she took my advice but she took the advice of taking pictures and comparing so when she says oh I've only lost this much weight which I also hate right like don't say only right like you only lost 10 pounds that's 40 sticks of butter like stop belittling this right but yes the pictures are worth a thousand words because that shirt is going to fit you so much differently. 10 pounds lighter, 20 pounds lighter, 30 pounds lighter. I'm like, I still have a couple of shirts. I saved them. Uh, uh, I don't think I have any pants though, but yeah, it's, it's awesome, man. Thanks for being here today. Thanks for having me, Jeff. Thank you. Thanks so much, man. Absolutely.