Ep 1: Emily Day - Do It Anyway

Emily Day, known as @SlowSlimmer online, is an inspiration to us all. Losing over 120 lbs and becoming sober, Emily shares her lessons she's learned along the way to becoming the best version of herself. We talk about everything from her influencer journey gaining 100k followers in a week to what keeps her motivated.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Real Life Unwrapped Podcast by Reds All Natural. A podcast dedicated to telling the amazing real-life stories and lessons learned by the incredible people who love our frozen burritos and breakfast sandwiches as much as we do.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Emily Day's weight loss journey of losing more than 120 pounds has captivated the internet with her authentic laugh out loud commentary in all things go live. Episode one with Emily Day starts. How long ago did this start? Like what triggered that desire? Like, take me back to day one.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

I started about it was a little over two years ago. And I've talked about before, part of this lifestyle change was I got sober. I quit drinking and I realized that I needed to fill that time. And from the very beginning, it wasn't as much about the weight loss as it was just about improving who I was, how I felt, how I showed up from my family and my friends. And yeah, did I want to get skinny and hot? Hell yeah, I did. But that was never kind of the driving force behind what I'm doing. And I think that that's a lot of what I talk about on my platform is that while my body has changed, the reason that it has changed is not because I set out one day and I woke up and all of a sudden I was like, today's the day. I'm a whole new person. No, it was because I realized that my life was not the life that I wanted to live forever. And a result of that, those choices that I was making was that my body had kind of taken a back seat. And um I wanted to be active. You know, I have a family member who's very close to me who is a really active person. And she walks. She walks, she goes snowshoeing, you know, kayaking. I always said I was like an indoor cat. Um, you know, the outdoors, there's like bugs and stuff out there, but I saw the way that she is going into this next phase of her life, the way that she is aging. And I want that. That's the person that I want to be, you know, when my kids are older and grown. I want to be able to go on walking tours and whatever. So I just started decided to start walking, you know, go for a walk. And then the next day I was like, you know what? I really did that, and I'm gonna maybe do it again. So that was kind of the beginning, and it all started with a walk, if you can believe it. It wasn't, I think people have this vision that a big lifestyle change starts with a big promise to yourself. And in my experience, I've made hella big promises to myself. So many. I can't even tell you how many times I have said, I'm going to do whatever huge thing it is. And the time that it stuck was the time that I said, I'm gonna go for a walk, you know? So I think it's just one little, one little step after the other.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

So you started sobriety and then walking is because you realized uh you you weren't the person that you wanted to become, or you woke up. Was that like a single moment where you something, again, I don't mean to pry, like something had happened that you were like, uh, who am I? Or was it kind of like these little clues along the way? And I only asked that from like someone who maybe is listening to this who's like inspired by your story of like helping like pull the veil off of their eyes of because again, I had a singular moment, but it took like many, many years to all of a sudden I just like looked at myself metaphorically and literally like, who am I? Like, this isn't who I had hoped I would be. And so that kind of started the path. But like, what was your journey or catalyst? Was it a singular moment? Was it a bunch of moments?

SPEAKER_00 4:15

You know, I think for me, it was so many moments I had had that didn't get followed up with any action. So I can remember there's a couple that stick out for me. Um, the first one being my house has a lot of stairs. It's like tall and skinny. And I didn't want to go and tuck my son in at night because when I got to the top of the stairs, I could not breathe and I would see stars. You know, I was 324 pounds. I had not exercised. I want to say the last time that I had exercised was maybe 10 years earlier, um, intentionally. And everything was hard, you know, everything was hard. So I remember that moment of getting to the top of the stairs. I saw stars. I was constantly like, babe, will you go get me the whatever? Like, because I did not want to do the stairs because it was hard. And I think that that was one of the things. Now I think that my sobriety is a bigger part of my story than than I maybe talk about, because me getting sober is the reason that I was able to step outside of my routine enough to see that something needed to change. Had I still been drinking, I would have never been able to do this. So, with my drinking, there was a singular moment where I realized that I had lost control of what was happening. I live in Wisconsin. We like to drink here. Okay. It's the drunkest state in America by like a lot. Like you look at the top 10 drunkest cities. I think Wisconsin is seven of them. And uh, you know, I had grown up in a family where alcohol was present. Um, my parents drank every night and not to excess, no, I wouldn't call it like alcoholic behavior. Um, but it was just a normal part of my life. And so to me, drinking wine at night, it was like mommy wine time, like duh. What what else am I supposed to do at night? But I remember I was hiding it. I was drinking more than I was saying that I was. And when that started to happen, I realized this is not normal behavior anymore. We've crossed a threshold into something that I no longer feel in control of. And I decided to quit drinking that day. And I haven't drank for almost two and a half years. Um, and I I now, in retrospect, look back, and that was the catalyst for me to become who I am now because alcohol was clouding me. And um it wasn't allowing me to be present enough to really see what needed to be changed. So I think that the the sneaking around was a big thing for me with alcohol, but the lifestyle change that came kind of like shortly after, I think that I was realizing how hard everything was. Uh, I didn't want to play with my kids. I didn't want to go upstairs and tuck them in because I was exhausted, honestly, physically exhausted. So I think that it was like that moment of getting to the top of the stairs and seeing stars was really like, I need to do something here.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

So has this been easy for you to stay sober or have you ever been tempted to have a drink? What's what has that been like for you?

SPEAKER_00 8:00

I had a temptation on Friday. Um, I went to a wedding on Friday, my very first sober wedding, and it was the hardest thing I have done in my sobriety. Um, I went to I went into it knowing that there was gonna be alcohol, you know. I knew that. What I didn't expect because I don't feel tempted on a normal day. I can go to Target and I don't feel tempted. I can be in my house and I don't feel tempted. I can go into a liquor store to buy a gift for someone and I don't feel tempted. So I walked into that wedding feeling strong and fine and ready to go. And it was the hardest singular experience that I have had because alcohol shines the brightest at a wedding. You are seeing all of the fun, the social lubrication, the lack of inhibition, the dancing, the, you know, laughter. You're seeing all of that. And it was the first time that I have really genuinely felt like I came pretty close to having just one. You know, I had a moment where I was like, nobody would know. I had run into a follower at this wedding, so somebody would have known. Um, but yeah, I had met a girl named Laura at this wedding, and she follows me, and I had 12 club sodas with lime. The whole time it was this obsessive thought in my head, and it was through no fault of the wedding. Absolutely beautiful wedding, beautiful couple, love my friends, amazing. But it was horrible for me. It was really hard. It was a challenge looking back on it. Now that I have a little bit of like safety, I felt really unsafe from my own self. You know, that alcoholism in my head was loud. And it made me realize that even when I feel so strong one day, all it takes is one time. So I won, you know, that experience. I I didn't have a drink, but it did bring some reality to the fact that I need to be aware of the fact that one for me could mean a lot, a different scenario than one for a normal person. And I don't want that, you know, I don't want that. And I'm so glad that I stayed sober through that because sobriety is not easy. And um, sometimes you can forget, you know, and I don't want to forget. So I try to stay pretty vigilant about it. And now that I know that these experiences can be very triggering for me, I think that the next time I'll go in with a little more information about how I will react. And that makes me feel more in control of that.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Yeah, thanks for sharing that. Super powerful. Talk to me about that journey, uh, or still journey, even rather, of kind of that voice inside your head of like, look how far you've come. You deserve, you know, to eat whatever you want or drink whatever you want. Like, how how have you navigated those those moments? I know you just shared a powerful story about the wedding with alcohol, but even on the food, like just for people listening to encourage them or that want to take that action, because I know for any, you know, sometimes when there's huge extremes in our lives, you know, especially for you over time and huge progress, it's like, oh, I can just do this one thing and I'll be fine. Because the reality is, like, you probably will be, but then you, you know, you kind of let go of that progress. So I'm just curious, like, what has that internal journey been like for you?

SPEAKER_00 11:56

I think this is an interesting question because it one of the things that I have realized this time around, I've lost weight before, you know, I've been fat since I was in kindergarten. So this is not a new, it's not my first rodeo, you know what I mean? Um, and I think the reason that this time is different from the times previously is that previously I had this all or nothing mindset. And it was like either I'm being on a diet, air quotes, or I'm being bad, you know? And this was my mentality. It was, I'll give you an example. The first time I lost a large amount of weight, I was in my early 20s and I lost over a hundred pounds in like 10 months. Like I didn't keep sugar in my house, I didn't keep chocolate chips in my house, I didn't go out to eat one time. Um it was hard-boiled eggs and and like arugula, you know, and that was it for me. And I thought, you know, I am on a race, a mission uh to get this weight off of me, and then I'll be done. Okay. Um well, I did complete the race by, you know, severely restricting my food. Now, needless to say, I gained back all of that weight plus some. So this time around, the way that I have lost is slow. And that's part of where this whole, you know, my name on Instagram came from. Slow Slimmer. Um, it really came from the fact that my business when I was a private chef was called Slow Simmer. And um, it was kind of like a play on that. Now, you know, I no longer do that. I quit my job in December. Thank you to all of you who are listening. Um, but you know, I try now to, and I have my entire journey to indulge myself. This is not necessarily about me reaching a certain number. It's not about me being the thinnest version of myself. What it's about for me is living the type of life that I want to have forever. So the type of life that I want to have is I wake up early. I exercise, move my body in a way that feels good to me. I connect with my friends in the morning, like I do on Instagram now. I go live in the morning and I have a little socialization while I'm exercising. You know, I get outside, I see the world, I have a moment of gratitude for the fact that I live in a place where I can go and walk outside and move my body. And then I come home and feed myself a nourishing breakfast. And then tonight I'm going to Cheesecake Factory. Okay? That's what I'm doing tonight, this day. And that's the type of life that I want to lead. So do I feel like sometimes I want to go fucking nuts and eat everything in the world? Yeah. Have I had days I call it tortellini town because of one specific experience that I had with a pan of tortellini when I was still working my job? Um, absolutely. But I think that there is power in those moments and you can use that power for good or evil. Okay. So you can use that power for evil for evil in that you beat yourself up. You're like, I'm a loser. I'm never going to be successful at this. Fuck it. I might as well just, you know, X, Y, Z. Go get a milkshake, go get a whatever else, and just like continue this tumble down fatty hill, as I like to call it, you know? Um, or you can what I like to do is examine the scenario that got me there. So did I let myself get overly hungry? Am I stressed? Have I been, you know, restricting myself too severely? What led me to this moment? And what can I do differently next time? And then who? What are you what do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about. Like what I move on because the consistency of my positive behaviors has no bearing on me making a mistake. Like that mistake does not mean that tomorrow or even five minutes from now, I can't just get right back to what I normally do. So I think that the reality of it is that I do have moments where I say, right now, I don't care about calories. I want to eat these chips in queso. And then I do. And then the next meal, I'm right back to it. I'm like, how many grams of protein are in this can of tuna? You know? Like that's that's the reality of the life that I want to have. I don't want to have the most restrictive diet. I don't want to have the most clean food police, you know, certified diet. I want to have the most joy, the most health, the most balance. Those are the things that matter to me. So perfection is unattainable. And honestly, it just sets me up to be disappointed. So I think the key is balance. Balance between letting yourself have what you want and then giving yourself what you need. It's a more sustainable long-term plan than restriction, restriction, restriction.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

So tell us about how you became a content creator and how that's looked. I mean, there's a ton of weirdos out there, I'm sure, with the haters and the negative comments. You're a woman on a weight loss journey. I mean, how do you handle all of that?

SPEAKER_00 18:13

I started posting in August. So I've been doing this for what, like seven or eight months now, and my page grew quickly. You know, I did not start out with a desire to be a content creator. I was a person who at that phase, I was doing 75 hard, which is like a fitness challenge. I guess it's a mental toughness challenge. If you listen to the creator of the challenge, um, I failed on day 30. Let me make it very clear. And I was pissed. I was depressed. I was down in the dumps. But during that, I had realized that I wanted to start finding a little bit of community with people who understood what 75 Hard was because everybody thought I was insane. Um, but I started posting some videos and it worked. Now, I tell you that because I didn't have intentions of becoming an influencer. I hope you can hear the yuck in my voice when I say that word, because I didn't start making videos on the internet to sell you stuff. I didn't start making videos on the internet to show you my perfect life because I don't have one. I'm a very average person living, you know, a very average life, which I think is what people are looking for right now. I think that consumers of content are sick and tired of overproduced, overly influency salesmany kind of content. And as a content consumer, I was too. So I wanted to share my story in a lighthearted way. And I went from zero to a hundred thousand followers in I think a week. And that was crazy. It was it was one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me while at the same time being something that I wasn't prepared for or expecting. And it has been the most empowering and fulfilling thing that I've done in my life because you asked about the haters, the commenters, this, that, and the other thing. I have built a community that is 99.99% baddies, just nice, loving, wonderful women. And a couple there's men in there, I think, maybe like 0.1%, but my community is love and empowerment, and it's a group of women that want to be the best version of themselves. And I am absolutely blessed in that most of my comment section and inbox is very kind and supportive. Now, does that mean that I don't get comments that make me just want to um leave the internet? Absolutely, I do, especially on Facebook, if we're being specific. But, you know, when I started making these videos, I decided that I was gonna show up as who I really am. And who I really am is a person that curses and makes um dirty jokes, and I say things that they leave my mouth, and then I'm like there I said that, you know. But I also think that that's a big part of the reason why people take, I don't want to say take me seriously, that's the wrong word, but they they feel a closeness, a relatability. And that's something that I'm not willing to give up. So no matter how many people tell me that I'm trashy because I say the F word or whatever it is, um, I think that there's a lesson in the comments, right? There's a lesson for me as uh as a woman to not give a fuck, right? I think that there is a power that comes from hearing the noise and knowing who you are and what you bring, because what I bring is joy, laughter, motivation, I hope, um, a dose of reality of who I really am, and I'm not bringing hate, judgment, you know, cruelty to the table. And I know that. So the lesson for me that I have learned from content creation is becoming just hella confident in who I am. Because if they don't like me, okay, you know, not everybody is going to. But I think that what I've learned from this is that even though not everybody is gonna like me, a lot of people will, and there is community in that. There is growth, and I have made some amazing friends through this journey, like real friends through the screen, you know, and my followers are friends with each other, and it's just been so fun to watch this community be built and to get to be a part of it, really, because a lot of the time it doesn't feel like it's mine, it feels like it's ours. And that sounds so lame and like I'm like saying a line, but that is really how I feel. It feels like something that belongs to all of us, and it's really fun. And I have a great time every day making content, and you know, I'm still learning. I didn't know how to edit a video. I did all my videos in one take for the first like three, four, five months, you know, and I'm learning what kind of videos, what kind of content do I want to make? Because while I talk about weight loss, weight loss is not the only part of who I am, you know, and and one day I'll be done losing weight. I'm actually right now taking a break. And who who do I want to be on the internet? You know, it's it's a journey. I'm learning who I am, what kind of videos do I want to make? What do people like to see from me? You know, so it's just been so fun. And I didn't realize how much I needed community until I had it. And now I have found like a home in this community. And it it's really it's a beautiful thing to get to talk to people every morning, you know? So I've just I'm just having fun. I'm just living, as Courtney Cook would say. I'm just living and it's a good time.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

How did you ever like find out about Reds? Try Reds again. This is not like a paid, uh paid sponsor like question. I'm like just genuinely like curious of like, how did you ever come across Reds?

SPEAKER_00 25:40

I've been eating Reds burritos for probably, gosh, I want to say maybe like seven years or eight years, something like that. And I I think Costco, a bitch loves Costco. I love Costco. I love to go to Costco, I it's just the best store. Um, but I think that I found the chicken cilantro burrito at Costco many a moon ago. And I ate I ate them. But now my kids are obsessed with the turkey sausage burrito. And we started collecting the little like points um that are on the burritos because they wanted sunglasses, like real bad. So we started collecting them. I still have like hundreds of them sitting in my pantry. But I've been eating Red's burritos for a long time. And I think that one of my first, my first videos that ever went viral was a Costco haul. Um, and I believe Reds was in that very first Costco haul that I ever did. Because guess what? I buy almost every time I go to Costco, you know? So I've been a huge fan for a really long time. I just think that the quality is so good. The flavor, like a lot of frozen food just is like under-seasoned. And as a, you know, cooker, as I like to call myself now, because I'm not a chef anymore. I'm a cooker. And uh as a cooker, I appreciate the seasoning level. So I I've just been a big fan for a long time, and then I now I'm friends with Red's burritos, which I think is so funny. What an interesting thread, you know, to weave through the internet. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

What advice would you give to someone? And you can take this however you wanna, like down the sobriety lane, down the weight loss lane, down the whatever lane. What advice would you give to someone who's listening to this and they're like, Man, I feel convicted. Um, I want to make a change in my life, I want to go in the completely opposite direction. I want to give up alcohol, I want to be a better mom, I want to be a better spouse, I want to just be better for myself. And as you kind of just said, or as what we you and I both know, that first step is always the hardest, and it's so intimidating because you feel the weight of where you are and you feel the weight of where you want to go, and that gap like tends to just shut you down, or it shut me down in my life because I'm like, how am I gonna lose a hundred pounds or fifty pounds or give up alcohol when I need it to get through my day? What advice would you give speaking to that person who wants to take the step but doesn't know how to start?

SPEAKER_00 28:14

My first piece of advice would be don't wait until you feel motivated because motivation is fake. I think that motivation is a reason that a lot of us use to not finish something that we need, want, or say that we're going to do because I can tell myself, oh, I'm just not motivated. Oh, I'm not I'm not motivated today. Oh, well, I just can't find the motivation to do this. And here's the thing, you don't need it. The motivation is completely unnecessary for change. And my number one piece of advice to anyone who is trying to be a better version of themselves is do it anyway. And you hear me say it constantly, and there's a reason why, because I can package it up in different ways, I can say it funny, I can say it serious, but here's the thing you have to do what is best for you even when you don't want to. You know, I have kids, and kids don't like to do things that they need to do. And I find myself telling them that they'll say, Oh, but I don't want to. And I'm parenting myself in the same way. Me not wanting to is completely irrelevant to completing the things that I need to do to bring me to the version of myself that I want to be. So who do I want to be? The person that I want to be behaves in a certain way. So whether this version right now, in this moment, wants to do the things that this person needs to do is completely irrelevant. So you take that moment and you say, Oh, I really don't want to exercise today. Oh, I really don't want to quit drinking. Oh, I really don't want to eat healthy today. Oh, I really don't want to, whatever the thing is, you know, I really don't want to put away my laundry. Like, okay, we can feel that emotion and then do it anyway, because the skill of do it anyway will change your life. And I know that it seems so small and simple, but it applies in so many parts of my life. And mastering that skill, which I have not yet mastered, I will make that very clear. I am not perfect, I am not done, I am not finished, and I probably never will be. But working on the skill of do it anyway and practicing following through on what needs to be done instead of honoring everything that I either want or don't want to do is the key to change. So you have to do it and do it and do it and do it and not wait to be motivated because you'll be waiting maybe forever, you know. Um I think that think about have a moment of visualization. Who do you want to be? What does that person look like? What do they do? What do they eat for breakfast? How do they spend their time? How do they talk to themselves? You know, what does life look like on the other side of this big change that you're looking to make? And then behave accordingly. And on the way, it's not always gonna be fun. It's not always gonna be what you want to do, it's not always going to be motivation and energy and happiness and joy. But what it needs to be is consistency and every day, or most days, let's be clear, bringing yourself one day closer to this version that you want to be, you know, act like her. That's what I always say. Act like him, act like her, and then eventually you are that person. So I think that taking it one day at a time and remembering to do it and do it and do it and do it, and do it anyway. Do it when you don't want to, do it when you do want to, and treat yourself like a special dog. I say this a lot because it really hits for me. It's like you're a show dog, you know, you need to be treated special. And I try to remind myself that I need to be walked, I need to be fed a healthy diet, I need to be enriched, you know, just like a special dog. So treating yourself with care, even when you don't want to, I think, is really a life-changing piece of advice, you know, and and just do it anyway. Don't want to, don't care, do it anyway.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

To find out where you can find Reds burritos and breakfast sandwiches in your area, visit our website at www.redsallnatural.com.