0:00

My name is Alex, and I consistently

0:02

struggle with overeating. No

0:05

all right, no, al

0:08

right, will be alright

0:11

forever, no,

0:15

al right,

0:19

be alright forever, alright.

0:24

So I feel like we've touched on this a

0:26

little bit before in the in

0:28

the Body Image episode that we already had

0:30

on my podcast, but I wanted to highlight

0:33

this one specifically because we kind

0:35

of used the Body Image episode in this general

0:37

sense of loving yourself in the visual

0:40

sense, and now I wanted

0:42

to have a little bit more of a highlight on something that I

0:44

definitely struggle with, and I know that a lot of people

0:46

in the world struggle with, especially in America

0:48

where obesity rates are just

0:51

rampant and uh. And so I wanted to have

0:53

an episode about binge eating because I think

0:55

it's more than just food, you know, I think

0:57

it's very very cultural. Growing up, my

1:00

ad had of this saying that he would always say,

1:02

and it was it's all about having good

1:04

food, good music, and good company

1:07

and uh. And you know, the last two are

1:09

obviously healthy always,

1:11

but sometimes that good food part can

1:13

get a little bit out of hand. And as you'll learn

1:16

in the rest of this episode, it's not even

1:18

just me and my parents and my sisters

1:20

that have that saying. And it's not even

1:23

just my family that has that saying, but I think

1:25

that there's a big cultural aspect to it. Growing

1:27

up, there was never really like a

1:30

limit for food, you know. It was always especially

1:32

when you come up in an immigrant based

1:34

family, there is no limit.

1:36

You know. My father always wanted us to have everything

1:39

we ever wanted, and my parents were

1:41

such good parents that when we would go to McDonald's

1:44

and I'm in fifth grade and I'm ordering to breakfast

1:46

meals, you know, I'm having my egg McMuffin with my

1:48

hash brown and an orange juice, and then I'm having an egg mcgrittle

1:51

because those things are popping, but they don't really suffice

1:53

as like a full breakfast, so it's kind of like a side order.

1:56

But I get the whole meal so I can have the second hash brown.

1:58

That was just like a thing like. It was never really

2:01

an issue in terms of the amount, And

2:03

even as I was getting up into my teenage

2:05

years and I wanted to start dieting, it

2:07

was never about moderation.

2:10

It was never about the amount

2:12

in which you're eating. It was always the food that you eat is

2:14

bad, like, so I would cut sugar, or I would

2:16

cut candy, or I would cut you know, carbs,

2:19

or I would cut fats or whatever it was that I

2:21

was. You know that whatever the fat diet was

2:23

at the time, it wasn't really until

2:26

kind of last year, the year before, when

2:29

I would talk to my other friends

2:31

who are studying nutrition, who are like, you

2:33

just have to eat less, And I was like,

2:35

what do you mean like I because I was

2:37

eighteen years old and I had no money, and

2:39

I would always dream about, Man, when I get enough

2:41

money, I'm gonna eat whatever I want. I'm gonna have at

2:43

it. You know. Once I started making a little

2:46

bit more money and being able to pay for things, like I would buy

2:48

two meals everywhere I'd

2:50

go because I wanted to. I don't know

2:52

if it was about the eating or if it was about the status

2:55

situation of having two meals. And my friends

2:57

would make fun of me. They'd be like, dog, why do you get

2:59

to things? And uh. And

3:01

I remember having this conversation with Dylan talking

3:03

about how I wanted to lose weight and how I was going to start another

3:05

one of those crazy diets, and and he was

3:08

the one who said to me, dude, you just need to eat less. And

3:10

I was like, yeah, what do you mean to eat less? Like, uh, no,

3:13

I have to eat more. And he's like, no, you don't. Like, look

3:16

at the calories that you're consuming in terms

3:18

of how much food you are actually putting

3:20

into your body, and look at the average.

3:22

And I was looking at mine, and I was hitting four

3:25

thousand, five thousand, sometimes into the six

3:27

and seven thousands for calories each day.

3:30

And I saw the problem. I realized

3:33

that that's not even just an issue with me. It's an

3:35

issue that I think runs rampant

3:37

in the United States with the

3:39

world that is fast food and everything

3:41

quick and you can get more for less.

3:44

I think it's a big thing in my culture in

3:46

which every kind of gathering

3:49

is surrounded around food, whether it's

3:51

in the deep cultural rooted

3:53

aspect or just in my own family's

3:55

aspect of we got to get together, have you

3:57

know, my uncle's cocoa ice and my and my it's

4:00

fried bread, and and we got to have

4:02

you know, a big hongy and and or

4:04

a big feast of food and

4:06

uh. And it got me thinking, what does

4:09

culture have to do with how we eat?

4:13

What is of everybody. It's alex Iono. Here,

4:16

this is my podcast. Let's get into it where

4:18

we talk about damn near everything.

4:20

And I think with the topics that we've

4:22

done and the topics were doing next, we're literally

4:24

hitting the everything. Mark Um, I'm

4:26

so happy to have this episode. I have some amazing

4:29

guests. Were talking about binge eating

4:31

and over eating and it's connection to food

4:33

culture and family culture.

4:36

Uh. And I thought that there would be no better guests

4:38

to have than guests who share the same

4:40

culture as I do. One, I

4:42

have somebody who shares literally almost

4:45

the exact same DNA as I do.

4:47

My cousin Bubba. His real name is Stranton,

4:49

but ever since I've known him, I didn't even know his name

4:51

was Stranton until I was ten years old because we

4:54

called him Bubba from the day I was born.

4:57

Um. He is my father's brother's

4:59

son, so he's my first cousin. UM

5:01

and shares that that sweet beautiful

5:03

iona blood. Baba. How are you, Bro, I'm

5:06

doing great. I'm so happy

5:08

that you hear. Bro. Also with us, we have somebody

5:10

who shares our Maudi culture. He

5:13

is a researcher for multi

5:15

experiences of eating disorders at the University

5:17

of Otongo in New Zealand. He

5:19

goes by Mao, but because I share

5:22

the multi culture, I gotta say his full name. His name is

5:26

Clark. I don't know where. The last

5:28

name really kind of just throws everybody off because you give him

5:30

this beautiful, just just beautiful

5:32

thick Clark.

5:35

So that being said, MoU, how are you,

5:37

bro, I'm

5:39

really really well. Thank you very much, Alex And

5:41

and just on my sur name prior

5:44

to colonization, my surname is actually being

5:48

my parents changed the sur

5:50

name to Clark is did my uncles

5:53

and aunties so that it was Europeanized.

5:55

Thanks Britain, we really appreciate that.

5:59

Um. I also want to give a big, big

6:01

shout out to you your at seven am

6:03

where you are. You are back in christ Church,

6:05

New Zealand, and it's

6:07

seven am, so you are an absolute just

6:10

hero for waking up early being here

6:12

with us. I'm so excited to

6:14

talk through this because

6:16

growing up, like I had mentioned in my story, it was

6:19

always something I thought was just me, and then

6:21

I realized that it's not just me, but it's

6:24

like us. And now that you're here, we're

6:26

gonna find out that it's way bigger than even any

6:28

of us single or any one culture.

6:30

It is actually a deeper thing. So we have three topics

6:33

we're gonna talk about. First, Bubba and I are going to go one

6:35

on one about our relationships with

6:37

food and fitness and how it's kind of

6:39

interlaced with our families, culture

6:41

and dynamic. Uh. Then we're gonna

6:43

take a break, and then Mow, you and I are going to talk

6:45

about food, family, and culture in more of the

6:48

educational space and with some real facts

6:50

and statistics. And then lastly, we're gonna talk

6:52

about some tips for maintaining that

6:54

real um consistent, moderated

6:57

diet and ultimately trying to find

6:59

something that really works for all of us. But before

7:01

we get into all of those things, I have a question

7:03

I asked each of my guests, and that question is what

7:06

have you been doing this week to improve your

7:08

life? We've had answers all across

7:10

the board, from fitness answers to mental

7:12

health answers to when I started

7:14

a garden. Recently it's just been me searching for a

7:16

house. Um. But my

7:19

latest thing I'm going to give am this is a kind

7:21

of a shout out to another episode

7:23

of let's get into it I and

7:25

this is gonna be a weird thing. What I've done

7:27

to improve my life this week is I've cut

7:29

my budget for the house I'm looking for down.

7:32

Um My, all of my all

7:35

of my friends who tell me what my

7:37

budget should slash shouldn't be um

7:39

We're giving me ranges and they were like it's

7:42

this to this, and I kept going with the max

7:44

range like I was just like, Okay, well, if I can spend that

7:46

much, I'm gonna go for it. And then this week,

7:48

I I was talking to another one of my friends. I was

7:50

talking to my friend ron Star, who was a guest on Let's

7:52

Get into It on the Finance episode and

7:55

uh, and he was the one who was like, you

7:57

know, you don't have to you don't have to spend that much.

8:00

And I was like what does that mean? And he's

8:02

like, well, if you don't spend that much, then you can spend

8:04

money somewhere else and you can have more experiences

8:06

and you can do this. And I was like, that's a

8:08

good idea. So That's what I'm doing this week

8:11

to better my life. But again, we've had answers

8:13

all across the board. Bubba you got something for me.

8:15

I just started doing the celery juice

8:17

thing. Celery juice. I've

8:20

been juicing all week the right

8:22

way. But yeah, my wife and

8:24

I have been been drinking that every morning

8:26

and and reaping the benefits. Oh my gosh. I have

8:28

to share this, this story though, because so obviously

8:30

I followed my cousin on Instagram and

8:32

I also follow his wife, Rachel, and Rachel,

8:34

please don't hate me after I'd say, tell this story.

8:36

It was so funny. So Rachel posts

8:39

a story of like one of those like super

8:41

Instagram, like just a picture of the juice, and

8:43

it was like celery juice. Bubba

8:45

then does the most savage husband thing ever

8:48

and films her secretly like sipping

8:50

the celery juice hating it, just like just

8:53

hardly liking any sip, full blown

8:55

hating it, and just called her out for posting

8:57

about how she loves her celery juice but

8:59

she's like sipping it and still can't

9:01

fully finish it. Rachel, if you're listening

9:03

to this, we love you, but

9:06

but I had to I had to call you over that because that

9:08

was too funny. Um,

9:10

all right, male, you've got something for us? Yeah,

9:13

I guess this week is stipping out of my comfort zone.

9:15

Hey, so appearing on your show as well out

9:17

of my comfort zone.

9:20

That's metas a challenge

9:22

for me. We're super meta right now. We got

9:25

like being here in itself,

9:27

is it? I just watched

9:29

Tenants this week and uh and

9:31

and that's how I feel. I feel like it's like an inception

9:33

brain of like this is the thing

9:35

I'm doing, and I'm like, what how could

9:37

it be? Um? That's awesome, though, Bro,

9:40

thank you so much. It means a lot that you're here. Um.

9:42

We could have had any nutritionists, we could have had any

9:44

you know, health expert or

9:47

somebody anybody who's studying the same thing. But the

9:49

fact that we get to uh celebrate

9:51

our culture, especially this year where I think it's

9:53

so important to to be who you are and

9:55

and celebrate who you are and support everybody

9:58

in being themselves to the full, in

10:00

support uh and and and really cherish

10:02

the strength of culture. I'm so happy that you're

10:04

here. But also thank you. I just want to thank you, especially

10:07

on part of our participants, for giving

10:09

a platform for male voices. Um.

10:11

And they've been under represented for eating

10:14

disorders. So so thank you. So much.

10:16

Man. I think I appreciate that, And

10:19

of course I think celebrating culture

10:21

and highlighting it in general is a big thing.

10:23

And I think also um as much

10:25

as I want to highlight our culture and

10:27

and our people and and how we experience

10:30

food. Um, even in my talks with

10:32

Catherine, our producer, and my other friends, as

10:34

I was anticipating this this topic,

10:37

it's not just our culture. And we're gonna find out

10:39

a little bit more about that, but for

10:42

for now, maw, you feel free to take a break. Bubba.

10:44

You and I are going one on one and we're going to talk about

10:46

our relationship with food and fitness.

10:48

All right, Bubba, I've

10:51

known you for twenty four years now, I've

10:54

known you a long time. Are our fathers are

10:56

brothers, and they are two out

10:58

of ten, and out of

11:00

the ten siblings, they all moved here. Uh

11:02

my dad was younger than yours. And for

11:05

my dad's stories, The

11:07

biggest thing with being an

11:09

immigrant, especially at that time, and I think that it's

11:11

a big thing that goes um

11:13

underappreciated or just really nobody

11:15

really talks about it, is that when you move to America,

11:20

you almost like you're you're you're

11:22

thrown into this pot of like

11:24

dog eat dog, like you

11:27

have to. It's a it's a world of more, and

11:29

if you don't have, then you are like less

11:31

than other people. And I think that that really fueled,

11:34

honestly, how our family

11:36

views things

11:38

that we want and that we need in terms of like,

11:40

well, you always want more and you want the nicer things.

11:43

And especially because our family, our our dads grew

11:45

up so poor. I mean, like my dad, we're

11:47

talking about rice for dinner,

11:49

and then they would put sugar on the rice for dessert, like

11:51

literally, like that was. And there's

11:53

ten siblings and you're an immigrant family and

11:56

it's hard to find work back in the day, so uh

11:58

it was. It was super tough for them. But I

12:01

want you to talk now a little bit about

12:04

just your personal experience growing up

12:06

with family, um with food.

12:08

When you realize that you were you

12:10

were wanting to make changes in your life with

12:13

your weight or with your you know,

12:15

your lifestyle in general. I mean

12:17

as far as the family goes. I always link

12:19

up any of our get togethers, whether it

12:22

be reunion or anything celebratory,

12:25

it's always what are we eating? It's always

12:27

what are we eating? Who who like

12:30

who's bringing what. It's funny you bring

12:32

up the about immigrants

12:34

and and our our fathers coming over and making

12:36

sure that we had enough. I always had the thought of

12:39

am i am I going to be able to get enough?

12:42

Whether it be for dinner at my own like with

12:45

my own family, or more at family get together.

12:47

It's always like is there gonna be enough for everyone?

12:49

So I think the thought of indulging

12:52

or grabbing as much as you can always

12:54

came in here. It's like maximizing the opportunity.

12:56

Like now that you say that, I'm thinking about my dad and

12:58

like growing up, he would never ever

13:01

let us like not finish our food. And if we didn't

13:03

finish the food, if we got a restaurant, it was always too

13:05

we would take it to go because you wouldn't want

13:08

to lose. Like you said, you don't want to lose

13:10

your opportunity to eat. You know. My dad also

13:12

said it doesn't matter how much money you have, never pass

13:14

a free meal. You know. It's like things like that

13:16

where I want you to continue on. But as you're

13:18

saying that, I was like, oh man, absolutely well, the food

13:21

left on a plate is that's beyond

13:23

me now Even

13:25

now as I've made adjustments, I still

13:28

like I'm gonna eat what's on my plate,

13:30

but it's gonna be the right portions as we were talking about.

13:32

But but yeah, growing up,

13:35

I think my eyes were always bigger than

13:37

my stomach. But I made my stomach work, yeah

13:40

right, got it to fit. So yeah,

13:43

I think family get togethers being raised

13:45

on on sweets being such

13:48

a celebratory thing or a fun

13:50

thing to enjoy with others. It's

13:52

like, I want to get together, even between

13:54

you and I when we get together with with

13:56

our significant others and friends and everything,

13:58

it's like, oh, who's going to get it's

14:01

doing a snack. I mean, we we have game nights once a

14:03

week with my with my sister and

14:05

her husband, you and your wife, and me my girlfriend,

14:07

and we have game nights where it

14:10

literally is one person chooses the game, one person

14:12

chooses the dinner, and the one person chooses

14:14

the dessert. And it's like it's a part of it. Uh,

14:17

it's also a part I think the issue also, and

14:19

I think it's in a lot of cultures, but in our culture

14:21

specifically, I feel like our food isn't the healthiest,

14:24

you know what I mean, Like we're talking about And

14:26

if you don't know, I'll explain what these dishes are. Uncle

14:29

Omni makes cocoa rice and fried bread, which is

14:31

literally hot rice pudding maybe,

14:33

or like if you put hot chocolate and then you just

14:35

like thickened it a little bit more and added rice into

14:37

it, and then take dough and you just

14:40

fry it. And what do you put when that's not enough?

14:42

What do you put on it? You put more cream, You

14:44

put more evaporated milk, You put

14:47

butter and syrup on your fry bread,

14:49

or you dip it in jelly or whatever. Like it's it's

14:51

and that's just one dish, and that's breakfast

14:54

too. You also are having

14:56

you know, loads and loads of rice

14:58

and you're having um, you know,

15:01

everything under the sun, from fried chicken to

15:03

it. It's just it's just because, like you said, all

15:05

of our families and when my dad has nine

15:08

our dads have nine siblings, each

15:10

person is going to bring a dish that they want to

15:12

bring, and everybody wants to make sure, like you

15:14

said, that we have enough and not even

15:16

enough of is everybody going to get

15:19

to eat food? But is everybody

15:21

going to get to have as much as they want

15:23

of every single dish that they make, there's

15:25

always leftovers. I think about our Thanksgivings

15:27

and Mariette at Antierana's house, and

15:29

it's literally like the biggest

15:32

spread you'll find that could feed

15:34

the whole neighborhood, and it's just our family.

15:36

And that's definitely the time that like my my mind

15:38

checks out in portion control

15:41

and it's just indulge, indulged, indulged,

15:43

because it's like, I'm not gonna buy

15:45

the chips, the brownies, the cookies that

15:48

are there or whatever we're eating.

15:50

But while I'm there, my mind always

15:53

went to, well, it's here now, so

15:56

let's get as much. Let's because we might

15:58

not get it again. Exactly. I want to read in

16:00

the clock. So I had mentioned my story a little bit

16:02

earlier, but growing up, obviously

16:04

I lived in Arizona. You lived here in Marietta,

16:07

and you're were you born were Okay,

16:10

so you're seven years older than me. I just

16:12

remember always like you and Sage, where

16:14

like the football players, you're always you

16:16

know, you're working out, working out, working out, So when

16:18

you're young, you don't really feel it, you

16:20

know, because you're burning thousands on thousands

16:22

of calories wearing pads and you're you're playing

16:25

football and you're going hard in and out, in and out.

16:27

So tell me about your high school experience

16:30

and then going off, Um, you served a church mission.

16:32

Uh, and then you came home. And that kind of

16:35

started from my perspective, your

16:38

want to change your lifestyle up or more

16:40

so, like you need to change your lifestyle up because you

16:43

no longer were playing football every day, you were no longer

16:45

had the metabolism of a teenage boy anymore.

16:48

Yeah, we go back to high school. Um,

16:50

talking about rice in our in our family, there's

16:53

not a meal that went by in my

16:55

household. And I love my mom, and I

16:57

love that you made it every every mother,

17:00

but there is not a meal that we wouldn't go

17:03

without white rice, whether it be in the rice

17:05

cooker or in a pot on the stove. So

17:07

if we had chicken, it was chicken rice. It was hamburger

17:09

helper. Then it was hamburger helper. And for breakfast,

17:12

of his breakfast metally, and you're putting in everything

17:14

growing some rice. I didn't even know, like people

17:16

eat hamburger helper without rice. And I didn't know

17:19

that's the thing. I thought that was just a topper.

17:21

So, um, yeah, in high

17:23

school, I would inhale food at

17:25

that point. You almost have to when you're playing

17:27

football, you know. I don't think people really recognize

17:29

how many calories you're burning because

17:32

you're a student and you're going to school and you're doing your thing

17:34

with your friends, and then you're spending an hour, two hours,

17:36

three hours exercising every

17:38

single day to to to play

17:40

a sport. I think about now my

17:42

output in comparison to what it

17:45

was then as far as exercising and

17:47

um, all the agility workouts that I was doing,

17:49

and then what my intake was at the time. And

17:52

I remember thinking in high school, like, man, all

17:54

these other guys have like I was in. I was in good

17:56

shape, I mean, starting with football and everything.

17:58

But um, at the same time, I was like, well,

18:00

I'm not, am I getting cut like the other guys. What's what's

18:03

going on here? Well, it was probably because the

18:05

mounds and mounds of rice that I was eating. Luckily,

18:07

my metabolism at that time was still at the rate that

18:09

it was. But yeah, I definitely wasn't.

18:11

I wasn't losing sleepover at that at that

18:14

point. Um, as you said afterwards,

18:16

I went on a two year mission to

18:18

El Salvador, where a lot of food is

18:21

cooked in a lot of oil, um, whether

18:23

it be rice or their chicken or their

18:25

fish. Great food there

18:29

by the beans and create the more. Oh

18:31

and the plantains so good.

18:34

But it's fried. But you're saying fried plantains.

18:36

It's you know, super oily cheese

18:39

that and and it's all super greasy delicious.

18:42

But it has Yeah, it has its costs.

18:45

But then again, just like how I was in

18:47

high school playing football,

18:49

doing all these sports for two years, I was

18:51

walking. We didn't have cars and Al Salvador wouldn't

18:53

do bikes like you see a lot of these missionaries at the state

18:56

side. It was walking up and down hills.

18:58

So that was that was a blessing in the skies

19:00

because I have to gain a bunch of

19:02

weight and then getting sick every every

19:04

so often. With with some of

19:06

the dirty water that we had, it was helped

19:09

with some weight loss um.

19:11

But yeah, when when I when I came back,

19:14

I think I continued and

19:17

we talked about celebration. You're back,

19:19

and now you have like all the candies down

19:21

there, the candies completely they love menthal

19:23

candies that the halls as candies

19:27

or just pure sugar chunks that

19:29

are dyed different colors. And it wasn't my favorite

19:31

thing. But when I got back and we had all the candies

19:33

here, um, all the different types of food

19:35

fast food at the just in

19:38

reach of you, I indulged

19:41

so much with friends with

19:43

family, and I

19:45

quickly learned that my metabolism wasn't

19:47

where it was at and my output as far as exercising

19:50

wasn't nearly where it was

19:53

um. And with that comes the

19:55

lovely depression that we all run

19:57

through as well, love it, love it depression,

20:01

anxiety, all of it um, which

20:03

just caused more comfort eating um

20:06

and overeating and binge eating.

20:08

Uh. And I found myself.

20:11

I mean, I've had a couple goes

20:14

back and forth with fitness, but I will

20:16

say my heaviest that I got

20:18

was about three and thirty pounds UM.

20:21

Today as of right now, I'm right

20:24

around to twenty. And that's that's

20:26

with with that lovely quarantine weight. We

20:29

are, I mean that we are when you first moved out

20:31

here, um, just so you, I didn't even get

20:33

to give more of information about Bubba usually

20:35

have a whole spread, but because he's my cousin. I was just like my

20:38

cousin Bubba Bubba as an actor. Um,

20:40

he's been out here now for over a year, just over

20:42

about a year, just about a year, and he's

20:45

also because he's gotten

20:47

a grip on his health, both mentally

20:49

and physically more so. Um.

20:52

You can go to his page Strand and Iono and you'll

20:54

see that we have that level of hard work, we

20:56

have that level of of athleticism

20:58

that you want to put in. But at the end of

21:00

the day, you can never outwork overeating

21:04

in a diet. So through the last

21:06

what would you say, say, how long would you

21:08

go on a mission six years ago? I've been home

21:10

for ten years now. Oh wow, So

21:12

we'll say in the last ten years you fluctuate

21:15

how many times would you say you fluctuated in

21:17

full from from getting to like

21:19

feeling real good and going and then that kind

21:21

of that kind of fluctuating back

21:23

the over eating, the binge eating. There's

21:26

that guy that that went uh fit

21:28

to fat to fit? Oh yeah, yeah,

21:30

I think yeah, he does that show right, gain

21:32

weight for a contestant and then they lose it

21:34

together. Yeah, so I'm pretty

21:36

sure I went fit too fat

21:39

to fit too fat to fit fat. I

21:41

think back and forth three times.

21:44

A lot of it was unplanning because I ended up getting

21:46

um assist inside

21:49

my my throat, so it decommissioned me for about

21:51

a year and the lovely

21:53

depression kicked in during that time. Game but I

21:55

can't. I mean that, and that plays into the whole

21:57

thing, and we'll talk about that all later. But I want

22:00

to use that information to highlight how

22:04

rampant because even in my life, though I didn't

22:07

fluctuate the same way that you did, I would fluctuate

22:09

thirty pounds twice a year

22:11

after I got my quarantine fit. Then I

22:13

was like, I'm still We're still quarantine. There's no point

22:16

in being fit. No one's going to see me except for my family,

22:18

my girlfriend, my homies, so I don't

22:20

need to impress anybody. So then you start getting

22:22

a little bit more weight, and then I start catching myself, like, dude,

22:24

I just ate four cliff bars, like that's

22:27

that's literally a thousand calories right there,

22:29

and I just ate it because I was watching Naruto

22:31

or the basketball game and it's like

22:34

messed up. And so the reason why

22:36

I was so happy to have you here as a guest is because

22:38

you're my family in between all of us, me, you,

22:40

Tanner, Sage, Jared

22:43

Seth, you know, all of our cousins. We've all had

22:45

our moments where you know, we're up or we're

22:47

down or this were that, But it's such a

22:49

through line for our family. And I'm

22:51

like, as we're talking about it, I'm thinking about,

22:53

like literally I'm having nightmares in my head about Anti

22:56

Erna saying and I love you, Antia,

22:58

this is not a mean thing, but Anti rn of making

23:00

a massive pot right when we're about to leave

23:02

for a road trip and she's like, we gotta

23:04

finish this pot of of of breakfast metally

23:07

with rice because once you leave, like nobody's

23:09

gonna be here. And it's always that

23:11

like have some more, nephew, have some more, Like I

23:13

have some more nephew will probably be on my tombstone,

23:16

and then you also have like I think we have our

23:18

aunts, and I think we both know which one I'm talking

23:20

about who will make those comments that are just like

23:23

you're looking heavy, nephew, and you're just like, hey,

23:26

and it's just a thing, you know, like it's just it's

23:28

it is. It is our culture and it is

23:30

our family. And I think we'll

23:33

we'll continue finding out in my conversation with Moo

23:36

that that it's even our culture, that

23:39

it is a culture of celebration, like you

23:41

said, every time when you come home from a church

23:43

mission, when it's your birthday, when it's not your birthday,

23:45

when it's somebody else's birthday, when it's a holiday, when we're

23:47

making up holidays. It's all

23:50

food based. And I think, as

23:52

we'll learn, food is just a

23:54

big piece

23:57

of our culture. And I think

23:59

what I'm excited to talk about in the last segment is

24:01

how we you and I and I think a lot.

24:03

You know, my sisters and your siblings and

24:06

even our even our parents have gotten better

24:09

at figuring out how to not eat so

24:11

much because I think, um,

24:14

one of the biggest things that we've done. I think I don't want

24:16

to close with this in our diets is changing

24:19

it from being you can't eat this, you can't

24:21

eat that, you can't eat this, It is

24:24

you can eat what you want, but you have

24:26

to maintain a certain amount. And I think that's

24:28

you know, through macro counting or calorie

24:30

counting or whatever it is, you change

24:32

your perspective on eating because I don't think

24:34

it's healthy to have a negative perspective on any

24:37

one food unless it's mushrooms.

24:39

I don't think it's healthy to have any one perspective

24:42

on food, uh, if it's good

24:44

or if something's bad, because at the end of the day, you

24:46

should enjoy it. And I think that I love like

24:49

I love Uncle umanized coco rice, I

24:51

love Uncle umonized fried bread and my mom's

24:53

colchorize and fried bread, and I love all of the I love

24:55

meat pies, and I love I don't like kenna,

24:57

but I love everything else. And I've

25:00

it's good to celebrate that and have that

25:02

um and uh. And we're going to figure out

25:04

what that means in the more of a cultural

25:06

aspect right now, because we're about to take

25:08

a break. But bro, you know I love you and and thank

25:11

you for coming on. You're gonna take a quick break. When we come

25:13

back, I'll talk with MO and then we'll have our big

25:15

convo at the end. Don't go anywhere, alright,

25:19

ch'all, we are back. This is let's get into it. I'm

25:21

alex Iono, and I just had a great conversation

25:23

with my cousin Bubba about just

25:25

our own family experience with eating

25:27

and over eating at that. Um

25:30

and now we're here and I got my buddy mouth

25:33

A Clark and

25:36

uh and he's here, Maw tell

25:38

us before I even try and explain it. I mentioned

25:40

it a little bit earlier. But tell us what you're doing over there

25:43

in christ Church at at the University of Otangi.

25:46

Okay, So, Um, I'm part

25:48

of a team. It's looking into Maudi experiences

25:51

of eating disorders. Basically,

25:53

studies show that the prevalence of eating disorders

25:56

and maudi equal todate of nonmudi,

25:59

which is really surprised as inferences and your findings,

26:02

it's not common common knowledge. Yeah, and

26:04

so we're out here trying to figure that out. What

26:06

do Mali attribute to the causes of

26:08

their eating disorders? What are your experiences

26:11

of treatment like um and more

26:13

importantly, what helps them to recover? And

26:16

what made you like what made you get

26:18

into that? Like how did you find yourself wanting

26:20

to study that? It was kind of like

26:23

I guess the project that was given to me when

26:25

I arrived into the Mody Indigenous Health

26:27

Institute. I guess I can

26:29

relate to some

26:31

of the experiences that Mali

26:33

participants are telling me in terms

26:35

of the relationship with food. UM,

26:38

in some exposure to childhood adversity, UM,

26:40

it's led to I guess some of this disordered eating

26:43

behavior. And the thing is

26:45

is, in so many cultures, food

26:47

and family are just absolutely

26:50

linked their absolutely one. You know, you have Italians

26:52

with with their beautiful you

26:55

know, pasta based dishes and and

26:57

and sitting down and having dinner. You have Jewish families

26:59

with a past overset er in their high Holy days.

27:02

Southerners in America, which I'm pretty sure

27:04

at this point biscuits and gravy is just like

27:06

a religion, and we just can we we are

27:08

allowed to just follow that. There's

27:10

so many links to every other culture.

27:13

And I think it's just for this episode

27:16

I challenge you, by the way, listener to figure

27:18

out your own links with your own culture to this. But

27:21

for this episode, I want to discuss specifically

27:23

because you're studying this

27:25

exact thing. Our culture, our multiculture

27:28

are Polynesian culture. With that, you've

27:30

mentioned that you've been hearing about other

27:32

people's experiences. What are the most common

27:34

experiences in the in the multiculture

27:37

that you hear about with eating disorders

27:39

and binge eating. There's so much

27:41

to unpack here. Um. I

27:43

have to remember that there are so many different ways to experience

27:46

what it means to be maldi. So there are

27:48

many different lived realities. But

27:50

some of the stories that are coming through in

27:52

terms of binge eating around health,

27:55

literacy, and food and security. So we're talking

27:57

about poverty as well in

27:59

what food are available to them,

28:01

when food is available, issues

28:04

around food and security. Oh

28:06

man, And that's I mean, that's I think it's a big thing

28:08

here in America as well, in that same culture.

28:10

You know, when you have families that are so large. I think

28:12

about if my my father and his

28:15

family have ten siblings were living in today's

28:17

world with with the same

28:19

level of poverty that they were, it wouldn't

28:22

be fast food. Every single meal,

28:24

and every single meal would be a maximized

28:27

how much can we get right now because we don't

28:29

know when we're going to get it again exactly.

28:31

And I'm thinking of one story in particular,

28:33

when lady taught me, you know, when we would we

28:35

would eat everything that was on the table because we

28:38

don't know when nixt meal is coming from.

28:41

Absolutely, So how linked is

28:43

family and food within our

28:45

culture, within the multiculture. Well, it's

28:47

intrinsically linked. It's

28:49

used in the ritualization ceremonial

28:52

processes um So Maldi. Relationship

28:55

with food is intrinsically linked to the culture,

28:58

especially two concepts such as men kitana

29:00

uma is looking

29:03

after someone a loose

29:05

translation in one way to do it for Maddy

29:08

was through food. Mm hmmm, yeah,

29:10

absolutely. I mean I think back to the trip

29:12

I took in two fifteen when I

29:14

went back to New Zealand for the first time and we stayed on our

29:16

family's modi um in Tallaga

29:19

Bay, and you know,

29:21

and by the way, it's it's kind of like a small village

29:23

and there's one building that is for everybody to

29:25

sleep in and you don't wear your shoes inside, and like it's literally

29:27

like you're sleeping person by person by

29:29

person on matts. And then there's a whole another building

29:32

that is the like the food hall in the kitchen

29:34

and our famili's kitchen. You'll see

29:36

them of all different varieties. You'll see sometimes

29:38

some of them have like full tech and everything,

29:41

like TVs in the in the sleeping rooms

29:43

and everything, and then you'll see some that are that

29:45

are absolutely basic. Ours in the sleeping

29:48

set absolutely basic. Our kitchen

29:50

is so nice because we

29:52

make so much. I mean, I think about that, you know, and

29:55

and uh, you think about the massive

29:57

hungy is the big, the big kind of

29:59

feast that we have. And there was probably thirty

30:02

or forty of us and we're having like fifteen

30:05

rotisserie chickens, you know what I mean. You're having

30:07

pots on pots on pots of rice and we're

30:10

going and we're making, um, we're eating

30:12

buckets of crayfish, and we're having

30:15

loads of food, meat pies on meat

30:17

pies and and everything and this massive

30:19

amount. And so even me personally,

30:22

though I haven't spent as much

30:24

time as I'd like to in New Zealand. Uh,

30:26

in the actual pure culture of the multiculture

30:29

in my own experiences was it was only

30:31

food. It was literally food after food

30:33

after food. And like we had mentioned, as bub and I mentioned,

30:36

you almost plan around the food more than

30:38

you plan anything else. You plan Okay, well,

30:40

okay, Auntie, you're gonna make this tonight. Uncle, you're gonna

30:42

make that tomorrow. Um, we'll make this

30:45

on on Wednesday. You'll make that. Like it was planned

30:47

more around that than it is around

30:49

the rest of the experience of spending

30:51

time with each other. What we found

30:54

with some participants

30:56

on mine is that they've disengaged with Tilmati

30:59

and for those reasons, so they're not

31:01

connecting with their culture because they know at certain

31:03

times was certain situations is going

31:05

to be food around, and so they're disengaging

31:07

from Talmai and that's and the

31:09

thing that's sad is that it is and it isn't

31:11

super cultural, you know what I mean, Like we've

31:14

we've kind of shaped it to be what it is.

31:16

You know, like you look back in the past ages,

31:19

you go back to ancestors and what ideal

31:21

bodies were back in the day, and

31:24

back in the day, being heavier, having

31:26

fat on your body meant that you had wealth,

31:28

meant that you had meant that you had

31:31

um abundance. It meant

31:33

that you can eat whatever you want and as much as

31:35

you want. And it was you almost

31:37

wanted it, you know. And then kind of towards

31:40

I would say, like the late eighties into the

31:42

nineties, especially in the

31:44

Western culture, you have people

31:47

talking about, oh, thin is the new thing, and

31:49

curves are better. You know,

31:51

you have to have a slimmer waist and then a wider

31:54

bottom half and then you want to look like an hourglass

31:57

and all these things, and it kind of changed.

31:59

And I think even though it started in the western

32:02

um part of the Hemisphere, it also

32:05

kind of creeped in everywhere else. You know.

32:07

It creeped over into even into New

32:09

Zealand, creeped over into Europe, it creeped over

32:11

into Asia and and and and really all

32:13

around the world. Yeah, there is literature

32:15

that supports it as well, the impact

32:18

of a culturation on indigenous

32:20

and ethnic minority populations. Yeah,

32:23

how in your experience in your

32:25

studies, has the expectations through

32:28

that time? You know, when heavier

32:30

bodies and bigger bodies meant you're you're more

32:32

well off. How has that changed for the

32:34

multiculture specifically from

32:36

then till now? In terms

32:38

of eating disorders, I can say that for

32:41

us, a portion of our cohort

32:44

and the eating disordered behavior is

32:46

a tribute to to body

32:48

image ideals and so you know,

32:50

the thin ideal, wistern ideals.

32:53

But for most it's actually childhood adversity.

32:57

M wow, yes, yes, so

32:59

we're talking food and security sixual

33:01

abuse or the modeling appearance

33:03

behavior. This is so

33:05

much happening. I didn't you.

33:07

I didn't even think about that, honestly,

33:11

Like you know, you think about there there are

33:13

some things that just go deeper than eating

33:15

too much food. Yeah, yeah, that's

33:18

you know, eating the sort of arisymptom of something.

33:20

So yeah, yeah, for a lot. Actually

33:22

sexual abuse was heavy.

33:25

I want to switch I want to switch gears just a little

33:28

bit in terms and talk more about the cultural

33:30

aspect of it. UM.

33:32

How how big of a roll do you think colonization played

33:35

into how the culture of eating in

33:37

New Zealand specifically, but even more specifically

33:39

in the in the multiculture UM.

33:42

Once New Zealand was colonized by

33:44

the British, how did that change? I

33:47

guess I'm thinking of

33:49

food production and so you

33:52

know, the acceleration the availability

33:54

of food UM, and our

33:56

our body is not really being used to

33:59

the kind of food that would be introduced. M.

34:01

How do you see the differences

34:04

as you're experiencing other cultures, when you're traveling

34:06

to other countries and seeing, you

34:08

know, the way that they view you know, I remember

34:10

when I went to Italy for the first time and we're

34:12

having dinner at like nine pm,

34:15

and I'm like, guys, it's time for bed like. You

34:17

know, there's different cultures and everybody views food

34:19

differently. Um, What's is there anything that

34:21

surprised you in your travels? Um

34:24

in how other cultures experienced food, No,

34:27

I UM University and straight South

34:29

America. I find

34:32

that they have the exact same passion

34:34

for food is Mali, and so it's one

34:37

way that we show love. It's one way that we welcome

34:39

you, you know. And

34:41

that's the thing that's interesting to me is the link of every

34:43

culture. You know. I know that you study specifically

34:46

the multi culture, but I think

34:48

it is just something historically we have We've

34:51

changed and we talked about this in

34:53

my episode for body positivity, but

34:55

what ideal bodies are has changed

34:58

over time. And I

35:00

think though the body image

35:03

ideals have changed over time, the eating

35:05

ideals never changed. Nobody really ever touched

35:07

on well we also aren't supposed

35:09

to be eating this much of this thing or hey

35:12

like, since the body and has changed, let's

35:14

change the way that we view food. It's never really

35:16

changed, if anything has continued on at a

35:18

stronger rate. You know, is

35:21

there anything in your studies that surprised

35:23

you about your study

35:25

of your own culture and identifying those

35:27

things I

35:29

guess picking up on what you've just said.

35:32

There are some stories where people are changing

35:34

the narrative around what food means.

35:37

So a lady in her fifties is

35:39

now raising her grandchildren

35:42

to talk openly about food, and

35:44

it's because, you know, when she was growing

35:47

up, she was forced to eat what was on your plate,

35:49

and now she wants to open the discussion. If you're hungry,

35:52

you can eat. If you're not hungry, you don't need to eat.

35:55

And I think that that that second part is almost as

35:57

big as the first part. You know, if you're hungry,

36:00

you need to eat. I think it's it's pretty

36:02

clear cut. But if you're not hungry, you don't

36:04

need to eat. As as a as a culture

36:06

that is so based in family and so based

36:08

in everybody doing something as one,

36:11

whether you're all going to the ice cream

36:13

shopper, you're all going to the beach, you're all going

36:15

to the mall. It has always been a everybody's

36:18

going everybody's in it together. And if you're not hungry,

36:21

you still gotta eat, You still gotta do that. You

36:23

wouldn't really think you have to find

36:25

out or something. It's not. It doesn't feel like a conversation

36:27

you have to have. But I think that that's something

36:30

that really sets us as as a multiculture

36:32

apart um. And and that's why I

36:34

love your studies of what you're doing and studying our

36:36

culture specifically. Is there anything else about

36:38

our culture specifically that UM that

36:40

you found in your studies that that

36:43

you thought is interesting and you'd like to share At

36:46

the moment, it's really just

36:48

getting therapy, it's being persistent with

36:51

your GPS. It's actually just getting

36:53

excess to services. That's what the

36:55

problem is. And it's because Maudi

36:58

Maudi present differently when it comes to eating too.

37:00

Is. We're gonna take a break right now, UM,

37:02

but when we get back, we're gonna be talking about

37:04

what's next and also the mental effect

37:07

that overeating and eating disorders can have

37:09

on you. We'll be right back. All

37:14

right, we are back. This is let's get

37:16

into it, and we're talking about binge eating, over

37:18

eating specifically, but also just eating

37:20

disorders in general. And I've had my cousin

37:22

Bubba here and we've talked about our own personal

37:24

experiences, and then we've had mounted

37:26

on Matier Clark, who is studying the multiculture

37:29

in UH and specifically studying um

37:32

Binge eating and eating disorders within

37:34

that culture as well. We've had some great conversations

37:37

and and now we kind of want to talk about some next

37:39

steps. But before we get into those next steps,

37:41

um you had mentioned the effect

37:43

that eating and overeating can can

37:46

have on your mental health. I

37:48

didn't realize it, you know, I didn't

37:51

realize that. It's kind of what's

37:53

that, you know, the awesome powers character the old

37:55

Scottish memories like I eat because I'm unhappy.

37:57

I'm unhappy because I eat, And it's really

37:59

just like that cycle. And if you can fall into

38:01

that cycle, which I think I easily fall

38:04

into it. You've mentioned that you've you fall into

38:06

that cycle of well, I'm sad

38:08

now that I'm gaining weight, how

38:10

am I going to feel? Not as sad? I'm gonna

38:12

eat some more food and then you then you can then it

38:14

just continues on in a in a bad cycle. Now,

38:17

can you talk about the mental effects

38:20

that that overeating and bidginging can

38:22

have. Yeah, you know, it stops

38:25

people from socializing, and

38:27

it stops people from engaging with

38:30

culture, and impacts financially

38:32

because you're unable to work. You know, the

38:36

the mental health impact of an eating disorder

38:39

really leaves one statement. Absolutely,

38:41

And Bubba, what in terms of what

38:44

moj just said, can you speak to that? I

38:46

know that for me, especially like going out to like

38:48

when I know that I'm not in my best shape, I don't

38:50

want to go to a pool party, I don't want to go. I

38:53

don't want to go to the beach with my friends. I don't

38:55

wanna when my friends like, let's all go to the

38:57

gym. I know that I'm not in shape, and I

38:59

don't want to go to the gym and be the guy

39:01

in our in the friend group that's like embarrassed

39:04

that they can't, you know, work out as long

39:06

or as hard as their friends can. Yeah. Absolutely,

39:09

Now, everything that you just listed, it was

39:11

like hit after hit, every

39:15

it just was linked to every experience. But yeah,

39:17

specifically, um, not wanting to go

39:20

out out to things because maybe I

39:22

gained a little weight and that shirt doesn't fit as

39:24

well as it did, and just having the mental

39:27

toll of you know, you'll

39:29

you'll ever think something a thousand times

39:31

when others around you won't even

39:33

think to look at you the way that you're looking at yourself.

39:35

You're always your hardest critic, as everyone always

39:38

says. But that's always something that

39:40

would come up is whenever I got I felt like

39:42

I was getting getting heavier, was oh, that's

39:44

going to be the first topic. In my experience.

39:46

They would never say like, oh, you're you're looking

39:49

a little heavier. I would always hear, hey,

39:51

you look like you're have you been lifting weights? Always

39:54

reverted back to saying it's like, oh, you must

39:56

because you played football. I mean, are you I'm

39:59

like, no, I'm eating food. I'm eating

40:01

lots of lifting my pork at a

40:03

rapid rate. And that's about it. And then I know

40:05

that, uh, that would take a toll on me. And then

40:08

on top of that, whenever I would mention

40:10

like, man, I really i'd really like to lose

40:12

some weight, all right, I really want to get back into this, i'd

40:14

hear and now maybe you've heard this

40:17

too, it's always like, well, you're Polynesian,

40:19

you're supposed to be you know, you guys are big

40:21

guys, so you don't you know, you don't need to

40:23

worry about that kind of stuff. And I would always be like, I'm

40:25

not. You know, it's a big

40:27

I mean, it's a big expectation, you know, people are

40:29

like, oh you are, Like, are all your uncles just

40:31

like big football players? Like, let's unpack

40:33

that for a sec. You know, like just the expectations

40:36

that other cultures have when they

40:38

see us, you know, they see football players,

40:40

they see massive humans,

40:43

they see you know, fat, they see

40:45

all of those, all of those things. And

40:48

I look at the three of us here on this zoom call,

40:51

and uh, and I don't think we fit that stereotype

40:53

as much as even in the way

40:55

that we like to, even in the muscle sense, you know, I have

40:58

I have I have six ft five on ales

41:00

who are twelve percent body fat

41:02

and are just the scariest human beings on earth.

41:05

Um. And then I have my uncles who do fit

41:07

the mold. I have the uncles who, yeah, they're

41:09

exactly a Polynesian. They got gout, they

41:11

got diabetes, They've had at least

41:14

one heart attack. And there, you

41:16

know, I look at my own father, who who's

41:18

a diabetic and has had a heart attack,

41:20

and he's only fifty two years old. You know,

41:22

our own grandmother passed away from a stroke.

41:25

In our own grandfather had three heart

41:27

attacks before he eventually passed. It's

41:29

it's something that culturally, we

41:31

have not yet nailed We haven't gotten it yet, and

41:33

I think that also feeds into those expectations

41:36

that others have, UM, and that's why I think

41:38

it's so cool that you're studying them. Mo Is. Is there anything

41:40

that you have to add to that in terms of the outside

41:43

expectations of the outside views

41:45

on our own culture. Oh, I'm

41:48

just reminded of the term diverse realities.

41:50

Really as you see it. You know, we don't fit the

41:52

stereotypical image of what it

41:54

means to be a Polynesian and Miley male

41:57

yeah, yeah, h Well,

42:00

the good news is we've all three of us. I

42:02

can't speak for you because we've just met today,

42:04

but we've definitely had our share of

42:06

of binge eating and we've come up with some good

42:08

ways to kind of combat that.

42:10

And so I want to spend the rest of this UM. If

42:13

you're a listener, I do want to take a quick moment

42:15

if you're struggling with any of these things, and

42:17

uh, and I want you to know that you can always get that

42:19

help. That being said, let's brighten it

42:21

up. Let's get some good tips going in. I'll start

42:24

off with the ways that I've actually been able

42:26

to suppress my portions in

42:29

which I used to eat, you know, massive

42:31

amounts. And I think the biggest one is,

42:33

um uh is

42:36

there's this like this saying that my buddy told me, which

42:38

is like eat until you're not hungry,

42:40

don't eat until you're full, just eat until you're

42:42

not hungry anymore. And

42:44

that was never really something that registered with me because I

42:46

was like, well, if I'm not hungry, i'm full. But

42:48

there is this like middle ground where you eat

42:51

until you are satiated, until

42:53

you're like okay, cool, Yeah, I feel

42:56

energized. If I was tired before, or if I

42:58

was like hang, I get really bad hanger, you would

43:00

know this. I might be the hangriest man on earth.

43:02

But as soon as I eat, I know, like

43:04

there's a certain amount that it's like, okay, I just ate enough

43:06

and now I'm happy again, So that should be enough

43:09

instead of the usual or my old

43:11

normal, which was eat until

43:13

either there's no more food left or

43:15

until I literally hate myself

43:17

for eating another bite, you know, And that

43:20

was the biggest thing for me. Um The other tip

43:22

that I've done a lot of was stopped

43:24

I stopped eating out of the package if

43:27

I have a bowl of cereal, I don't pour the

43:29

bowl of cereal and then keep the milk and the

43:31

cereal right next to the bowl to continue adding

43:33

on. Or if I have a bag of chips,

43:35

if it's not this kind of small fun bag, like

43:37

if it's a big bag of chips, pouring out the

43:39

chips into a bowl, dealing with that in

43:42

that portion control and uh and really

43:44

just kind of there's so many websites

43:46

you can go to that will tell you for your age

43:49

and your weight and what you want to what

43:51

you want to weigh. It can tell you

43:53

your healthy amount of not only your calories,

43:55

but how much fat, how much protein,

43:57

how much carbs. And so I think

44:00

my biggest tip that I would say is like, really learn more

44:02

about yourself. And that's why I love about having

44:04

you as as a guest mom, is that you

44:06

are explaining that not everybody is the

44:08

same. Uh. And so my tip is

44:11

to like learn more about you, learn what works

44:13

for you. I know that when I eat

44:15

everything, but I eat it all in a small

44:17

moderation, I'm so much less likely

44:19

to diverge off of

44:21

my own path of health and my own path of

44:23

happiness. Um that being said by

44:26

by you are also like, I think you

44:28

might be the king of losing weight because you have lost

44:30

so much weight in terms of your

44:33

like you can lose weight like nobody else I know. So

44:35

I actually want your tips, bro, What do you got?

44:37

I I always live by the outer sight,

44:39

out of mind. Growing up, I remember

44:42

telling my mom whenever I wanted to try

44:44

to get those apps or try to get cut I'd

44:46

always be like, Mom, we need to start buying

44:48

like just boneless skinless chicken and

44:51

just rice and this and that, and she'd be like, Oh,

44:53

are you going to buy it? But

44:55

now that I'm I'm an adult, it's

44:57

like, Oh, I make the shopping list, I'll

44:59

buy and I won't buy the things

45:01

that you know all over indulge in. Now

45:04

that that's helped me, I've been told

45:06

and I know that I'm very disciplined during the

45:09

times that I have my goal set and

45:11

I know what I want, and as long as I'm seeing results,

45:13

I have no problem eating the same thing over and over. But

45:16

I think a lot is said that later on in

45:18

my journey and more recently, I've

45:20

learned, you know, I can have those things in my

45:23

house. I just have to have the right mindset

45:25

around them and kind of to

45:27

piggyback off what you said, I

45:29

know who I am and how I am

45:32

and what my experiences are, I

45:34

would say, apart from all the all

45:36

the advice I would give about specifically about

45:38

what you'd buy or what you'd eat or what to stay away

45:41

from. This past week in therapy, I

45:43

brought up some of the insecurities that

45:45

I've had, was obviously with body

45:47

image, being an actor, doing modeling and

45:50

going through this this crazy time of

45:52

comfort eating during quarantine

45:54

and everything. That's that's something that that I

45:56

brought up, and my therapist

45:59

brought up a good point. I was feeling

46:01

pretty anxious one day and instead

46:03

of going to I told him that I was.

46:05

I was feeling anxious. I recognized that I

46:07

was feeling anxious, so I connected with a

46:09

friend. I went on face time and

46:11

started communicating with them, and he's like, well,

46:14

you found a new route. Instead of um,

46:17

going to the cupboard for food or

46:20

to get that comfort, UM, you

46:22

found connectivity with another person and

46:24

that filled that void that you were looking

46:27

for. So half the time I'm

46:29

not hungry, I'm not I'm not looking

46:31

for food. I'm looking for something that's gonna

46:33

you know, pass the time. When you say eat

46:36

until you're not hungry anymore. That hit home

46:38

so hard because there's so many times as as

46:40

the spoon is going up to my mouth, I'm like, am I even

46:42

hungry? I just eating because here?

46:45

But knowing ones self is huge and I

46:47

think that is so broad. But at the same

46:49

time, I would say, in your

46:51

mental with your mental health,

46:54

know what you're doing and why you're doing it,

46:57

and uh, if that's the road you want to go down, absolutely

47:00

I love that, Mow. You're actually the one that's

47:02

researching, so you have the real you got the real

47:04

factors. Give us, give us some love.

47:07

What you guys did was perfect in terms of

47:09

knowing yourself, you know, and what it looks

47:11

like for me is addressing the

47:13

emotional psychological narrative

47:16

that informs their eating behavior,

47:18

and whether that's writing it in a

47:20

diary, sitting down with your

47:23

cousin or your brother Fano, or

47:25

even with friends and just talking about that, a

47:28

safe space to explore what's

47:30

happening for you and while you're while

47:32

you've been jetting, m is

47:35

there anything that you've in your studies found

47:37

that other people have done. I know you had mentioned

47:39

the lady who's changing the dialogue with

47:41

her own family. H family does

47:43

play such a big part of it. I mean, I'm thinking

47:46

back to even when we do our game nights

47:48

and one of us is on a diet, there's

47:50

zero there's an absolutely guarantee that that person

47:52

is not They're going to not be on their diet by the end of the

47:54

night, like, and it's just one of those

47:57

things. Um. Is there anything outside

47:59

of you know, changing the dialogue

48:01

like you had mentioned in the family space,

48:04

Well, like it's something that we can do as family

48:06

members being more understanding or or

48:09

being a little bit more patient, or letting others

48:11

kind of have their own moments. You hit the

48:13

mail on the hat with that one. So family

48:16

just be family, be the to

48:18

support in late I guess the

48:20

clinicians work on the therapy side.

48:23

Um, so your job is just to be family

48:25

into show ada you know some that

48:27

can support them through the process. Absolutely,

48:30

Anti Erana. You hear that no more

48:32

okay Edsie, no

48:35

more, no more breakfast Medley

48:37

as I'm walking out the door. Okay no means

48:41

no, absolutely

48:44

man, Um. I mean, I would say one of my

48:46

biggest takeaways from today was was

48:49

you almost feel less alone

48:51

or like less isolated, especially talking

48:53

you know, talking with Bubba and having

48:55

Bubba, we've always kind of been

48:57

there for each other and and through our lives

49:00

we've always been there for each other, not even just in the in

49:02

the in the food aspect um.

49:04

But I think my biggest takeaway was even expanding

49:06

that net that overeating

49:08

and binge eating can cover, and

49:10

you making it about our whole culture or

49:13

or bringing it in about our whole culture. Maw Uh,

49:15

it meant a lot to me. And so I wanted

49:17

to thank you so much for um,

49:20

for sharing your information uh

49:22

and sharing your studies and even having

49:24

the mind to go and want to study

49:27

more of that because I know that it's a big thing. That

49:29

being said, Can you send me so they make those

49:31

fijo lollies? Um, they're

49:34

they're like they're they're chewy. Uh,

49:36

if you could send me some of those, send me a couple

49:38

of crunchy bars, um,

49:41

pineapple lumps. Let's see what else do we got.

49:43

I'm gonna need some coconut slabs, everything

49:45

nuts slabs. I'm gonna need some

49:48

black Forest chocolates and feedo

49:50

Frenzy, the juice, you know the juice that they make, the Figo

49:53

Frenzy juice. Some of these things was

49:56

the last time I was here. I

49:58

was there last year. Those

50:00

are no dated. Come on now, I'm

50:02

not done yet. I'm gonna need some tips Tim

50:04

TAM's. I'm gonna eat some tiptop orange chocolate chip

50:06

ice cream and uh. And then

50:08

you can just throw in a couple of meat pies as well. I

50:10

like the steak and cheese. No mushrooms, please. I

50:16

really appreciate you, but I really appreciate you

50:18

for coming on. This is my favorite moment of the

50:20

whole show because I just get to sit back and let

50:22

you guys just hype up your own work,

50:24

your own studies, your own social media. Um.

50:26

It is called the Not So Shameless Promo.

50:29

UM. Neither of you have been guests before, so

50:31

I'm gonna have to I'll start, I guess because

50:33

I will help you. I just dropped my album

50:35

The Gospel at twenty three. I got a brand

50:37

new movie with Netflix coming out. It's called Finding Oh Hannah.

50:40

I My all my social media's

50:42

are at alex Iona. It's the best part about having a weird

50:44

last name. Uh a, I O n oh,

50:47

and that's my not so

50:49

shameless promo. That being said, Bubba,

50:51

why don't you give us some not so shameless promo? Actually

50:54

has it this morning. I am going to be having a

50:56

short film shot next week. What

50:59

you didn't tell me that? Congratulations

51:01

Row hopefully one that follows that. It's kind

51:03

of the prequel to it, which will be

51:05

a feature. But yeah, my social media is

51:07

at Stranton. I know. Best

51:10

part about having a weird last name, I

51:12

think we have. I think it's Stranton underscore

51:14

io no specific, but you'll you'll

51:16

find it all right. Male, now that you've got you got

51:18

two examples, you have no excuses. I want a

51:20

perfect not so shameless self promo. Give

51:22

it to me, no worries. I'll be speaking

51:25

at the body Peace conference online

51:28

this year of it's in November. Check

51:31

out body Piece and I'll be presenting the

51:34

data analysis from the Mudey experiences

51:36

with eating disort of study. So by then

51:39

I should have all the information and ready

51:41

to go. So we're definitely gonna have to use

51:43

that as like we're gonna have to highlight that because

51:46

I loved your study so far and I'm excited to see

51:48

more of that. Where can we find you on social media

51:51

on Instagram? So good luck spelling

51:54

that. And uh, we'll just if

51:57

you want to not you know, be a part of the National

51:59

spelling You can just find the spelling of mounted

52:01

Amatier's name in the description

52:04

for this show. Usually I do my self

52:06

promo, but it's already done now, so I want a self promo

52:08

the show. Make sure you go and you rate our podcast.

52:11

You subscribe, that is how we grow.

52:13

Make sure you leave a review if you

52:15

can. And uh, and and I'm so grateful

52:17

that you guys came to listen, and hopefully you learned something

52:19

to this. I learned a laugh from this. So honestly, even

52:21

if you didn't learn from something, you can rest easily

52:23

knowing that I did that. Being said,

52:26

I love you guys so much. We will see you next

52:28

time. Until then, we

52:32

really want you to get the help you need, So if you

52:34

need help, please seek independent advice from

52:37

a competent healthcare or mental health professional.

52:39

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely

52:42

those of the podcast author or individuals participating

52:44

in the podcast, and do not represent the opinions of I Heart

52:46

Media. Or its employees. This podcast should

52:48

not be used as medical advice, mental health advice,

52:50

counseling, or therapy. Listening to the podcast

52:53

does not established dr patient relationship with

52:55

hosts or guests of ALEXIONO, Let's Get Into

52:57

It, or I Heart Media. No guarantee is

52:59

given regard the accuracy of any statements

53:01

or opinions made on this podcast, Wolf

53:04

That's a Doozy