Digital Social Hour - The Hidden Costs of Obesity You Can't Ignore | Helene Leeds & Penelope Popken DSH #660

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

Discover the hidden costs of obesity you simply can't ignore! 💡 In this riveting episode of the Digital Social Hour, join Sean Kelly as he sits down with Penelope and Helene, the dynamic mother-daughter duo tackling the obesity epidemic head-on. With 75% of Americans overweight, this is a conversation packed with valuable insights you won't want to miss. 🤯   From personal struggles to eye-opening revelations about the food industry and its ties to pharmaceuticals, this episode dives deep into the real issues behind obesity. 🌟 Discover how Penelope overcame her own battle with weight and how they both advocate for a healthier, happier lifestyle. 🥗💪   Tune in now and join the conversation! Whether it's through emotional resilience or delicious, nutritious meals, there's hope for everyone. 💬 Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀   #ConsequencesOfObesity #Obesity #NutritionEducation #FitnessMotivation #HealthAwareness   CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:27 - The Obesity Epidemic 05:00 - LinkedIn Ads 06:15 - Food and Sugar Addiction 14:53 - Genetics and Weight 18:32 - Weight Loss Success Rates 19:20 - Overweight Definition 22:19 - Natural Healing Methods 23:58 - Benefits of Organic Food 26:17 - Fat vs Skinny Debate 29:59 - Next Steps for You 32:40 - Closing Remarks   APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail]   GUEST: Helene Leeds & Penelope Popken https://www.instagram.com/stepitups https://www.youtube.com/@StepItUpPodcast   SPONSORS: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/social Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly   LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

to take care of yourself it seems like a really basic thing but most people are just sitting around they're on their phones they're not really doing much proactively right like working out is really important yeah it's also really hard when you're overweight and you're depressed it's really hard to just get yourself out of bed like what like what are we supposed to tell people who can't even move their body out of bed. Because that was me at one point, you know? Alright guys, mother and daughter duo combo here today, Penelope and Hylene. We're going to talk being overweight today, which is a big problem with all the

Ozempic stuff going on, right? Well, it's a huge problem. Literally a huge problem. 75% of Americans are overweight. 42% are obese. That's enormous. We have a pandemic of obesity right now that is never been before in human history. It's disturbing. And you've got a lot of celebrities promoting Ozempic body positivity right now and that it's okay to be

overweight. When I was 320 pounds, I was told it was okay to be overweight by my friends in school, by doctors and therapists. And I remember being like, is this really healthy? At one point in my journey, I was like, is this really healthy to be overweight? It couldn't be. And for so long, I thought it was okay. I even would take photos of myself as 320 pounds thinking it was beautiful. And then I realized how much it harms our health. But nobody was really talking about that online.

They just show you all the positive sides of being overweight. But there are no positive sides of being overweight, only negative. Yeah, I can't think of any positive. And now Oprah is like telling people that it's okay and just take the drugs, which doesn't make sense to me. Well, it's a very complex issue. I grew up in an eating-disordered household, and my mom was constantly losing hundreds of pounds and all the disorders that are related to that. So I understand the complexity of it.

It's not as simple as diet and exercise. It's really complex. And I think physicians feel like their hands are tied. So Ozempic is an easy solution for them because it works with their business model. But it's not a quick fix. And you have to be on that medication for the rest of your life. And it costs somewhere between $1,000 and $1,800 a month. And it's also not proven effective or safe for weight loss.

So we've got a lot of issues here that are compounding, not to mention the side effects. And I don't think unless and until we get to the root of our lifestyle and why the weight came on in the first place, we're not really going to see a huge shift. Right. I mean, our grandparents weren't obese. Hell no. They were in good ass shape. My grandparents were on a farm working every day. They were muscular. I don't think there was even obese people back then, were there?

A hundred years ago, there was no processed food. Yeah, I can't think of any old person that was obese. Most children are eating 70% of their diet as processed food. Yeah, all the cereals, snacks. Anything from a box, more or less, is going to be, unless it's very expensive and high quality, of course. But the majority of people can't afford that. Well, there's some organic food that are somewhat cheap, right? Like vegetables, fruits, and stuff.

Well, yeah, that's the point. That would be ideal if people would learn how to cook, learn how to go to the grocery store and buy produce and do their best to eat what's in season, what's ripe, what's at your local farmer. But that's just not taught anymore, I don't think. Cooking. Well, doctors didn't take nutrition. They took maybe a semester.

So they're not really going to teach you. Your parents might have been too busy to show you. Your schools certainly aren't going to teach you. Right. Definitely not. School lunches are a joke. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

Not your fault that you don't know know but it's also your responsibility to figure it out yeah yeah yeah there's a lot of misinformation in the in the food space yeah this is good for you that's a super food and people just follow it blindly and how do you know like should you be carnivore should you be paleo should you be whole 30 like what what what's the truth yeah so what was that diet that lost all the weight for you? Well, it wasn't just a diet. It was a combination of getting rid of all sugar and flour. Like that was really hard because I was massively addicted to sugar. Like I would hide pizza boxes and ice cream cans in my closet. I hid pizza boxes outside the front door in a trash can.

And when she left the house, I'd have the pizza guy on speed dial and have the pizza delivered right when she left because that's how addicted i was i would even walk down our hill go to 7-eleven eat all the junk food and then throw it up in the trash can just to get some of the you know candy wrappers back out of the trash can bring them home eat the rest and then throw it in the trash yeah holy crap she stole Holy crap. It's like an addict. She stole money, too. I stole money from her. I've done that.

I'm not going to lie. I stole thousands of dollars. Oh, I didn't do that much. I would go on DoorDash and put her card in, and she'd be like, Penelope, what are all these charges? Because that's how addicted I was to food. To eating. To eating. I would take-

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Take the bus to a restaurant to go eat food. Holy crap. Took a bus. Well, I was really blindsided. I mean, on the one side, you try to be a good parent and feed your kid healthy food. And on the other side, they're at school and then they're overeating the stuff that you wouldn't give them. And then all of a sudden they're in the grips of addiction. Yeah. So you were confused why she's putting on all this weight because you're feeding her healthy behind the scenes. She's got this addiction that she's hiding from you. Yeah. And I think think i like many parents are really blindsided right with what's happening with our kids and like where do you go for help like she said her therapist didn't tell her to stop they asked me to stop talking about it therapy had candy there was therapy there was candy at therapy and she told you not to stop

eating no she was like oh it's fine you're fine you're healthy because diet causes mental health issues too i know the doctors didn't even say i was overweight or unhealthy they didn't say a thing i had to go get blood work for a doctor to be like hey your triglycerides are high that's how like i had to actually do that in order for someone to say something no one was like get your blood work done no one was like oh you're you're 320 pounds there might be something wrong with you no one said it i wonder if they're just nervous of uh just saying the wrong thing and then getting sued or something. Yeah, they're afraid that they're going to be fat phobic. Right.

But it's like that's just the truth about health. You could be saving someone's life. Well, there's two bodies of research. I have all these degrees in nutrition and nutritional psychology. And one body of research says if you deprive people, they're going to binge and purge. They'll have that eating disorder. It could cause it. And the other side, there's this body of science that's also showing that the physiology of addiction,

like your body when it goes into addiction and your brain, that's caused by flour and sugar. And that's why Overeaters Anonymous, which my mom was in my entire life. I didn't know that was a thing. It's a thing. I tried it. I tried it, but it didn't work for me.

But abstinence is no flour, no sugar because it switches your brain into addiction. So if you want to do one thing today, you could just stop eating flour and sugar and find other things to satisfy your hunger. Right. But flour's in, like, all the bread, pasta, right? Sugar's in everything. Yeah. Yeah, but you asked me how I lost the weight, and it was getting rid of sugar and flour.

So I had to read every label of everything I put in my body, which, guess what? It just left me with vegetables and fruit and protein that's it super clean like nothing processed no seed oils right none of that exercise an hour a day walk as much as I can 10,000 steps that's how I lost the weight and kept it off and support I think support is key we're not meant to do this stuff in a silo yeah I had you as my but I rebelled against her for a really long time. Because I'd see her workout and I'd be like, oh, like I'm so jealous that I'm not you. And so that almost made me want to eat more.

Dang. You know, because like, what do I do with that feeling? Oh, I'm going to eat because that's how I feel. Wow. But that's not the right answer. Yeah, because she was so healthy. It was kind of intimidating, right? And so beautiful.

And I'm like 320 pounds depressed in my room with the freaking you know windows blacked out and like just hiding under my blanket vaping like just massively addicted to my phone yeah and then she's like so gorgeous and she's perfect everyday healthy like i it felt impossible to be there like that felt so far away and i know the people that are overweight like that goal can feel so far away and you feel like hopeless but there is hope i mean you can do it but it's just it takes so much discipline and consistency it doesn't even take willpower or motivation but it takes consistency you just have to get up every day and actually work out and you said to me was it last week or the week before mom if i if I knew it would have tasted this good, I wouldn't have waited so long.

That's true. There is a way. I was a master chef. You can learn how to make healthy food taste amazing. And what you want to not do is fall prey to the commoditization of health. Right. Which is where we are right now. It's like the food companies are getting you young. They're even suggesting

that children age 12 start taking Ozempic. What? Why is that the first option? Shouldn't the first option be exercise, eat right, start to train yourself in taking care of yourself? Yeah. When do we forget that our bodies are resilient and can heal themselves? That the pill isn't the answer. Yeah.

Yeah. I remember the old food pyramid. I know there's a new one now, but the old one recommend dairy, grains. Now all that stuff we find out years later is bad for you. Especially dairy. So now Pfizer is in 90% of cheese. Did you see that? No, that's terrible.

Yeah. So Pfizer puts an ingredient that's in 90% of the cheese in America. That's shocking. Yeah. So now I'm actually switching to raw cheese or local. Yes. I can't eat any mass produced cheese I'm actually switching to raw cheese or local. Yes. I can't eat any mass-produced cheese because I don't know what's in that. I've been making my own cheese out of pumpkin seeds.

Yeah. Wow. And pine nuts and almonds and pistachios. Yeah. That sounds amazing. It's really fun. That's cool. Yeah.

How'd you do on MasterChef? I mean, I didn't win. I also didn't want to win, but. Oh, you didn't want to win? No, no. I was in the cast. You know, I got to the final cast members. But I didn't win. I also didn't want to win. Oh, you didn't want to win? No, no. I was in the cast. I got to the final cast members, but I didn't realize how long it would take me away from Penelope,

and I was really not happy with being away from her. I couldn't talk to her for, what was it, six weeks or 12 weeks? Holy crap. I couldn't call her, text her, nothing. 12 weeks? I thought that show was like a week. Well, it looks like it, but it's a lot longer. Dang. Yeah, text her, nothing. 12 weeks? I thought that show was like a week. Well, it looks like it. But it's a lot longer.

Dang. Yeah, I like that show. Gordon's got so many shows now. Gordon yelled at her. Oh, that's crazy. That's a bucket list item. He yelled at her a lot. And then it's not funny.

And I'm like, actually, it's very funny. But he does it for show. He's not actually pissed, right? Because he seems like a nice dude. He's really nice. But he has a standard for excellence. And I think we should all adopt that standard for excellence. Yeah.

And it's really important to learn how to take care of yourself. It seems like a really basic thing, but most people are just sitting around. They're on their phones. They're not really doing much proactively. Right. Like working out is really important. Yeah. It's also really hard when you're overweight and you're depressed it's really hard to just get yourself out of bed like what like

what are we supposed to tell people who who can't even move their body out of bed because that was me at one point you know so i'm like working out in general is just a mindset it's tough like even even me i consider myself pretty healthy but it's not something i really look forward to but you can look forward to it believe it or not if you gamify right yeah gamify or i do i love the five second rule where you just give yourself five seconds to get out of bed you say okay i can do anything for 60 seconds and then you go one two three four five and then you push yourself out of bed like jolt yourself throw your phone on the floor get out of bed and then you're like okay i can do anything for 60 seconds i can do anything for 60 seconds. I can do anything for 60 minutes. I'm just going to go do this. And then sometimes I'll even count down in

my workout, like, okay, 60 more seconds. And I'll tell myself that for an hour. And then I'm done with it. And I'm like, oh, wow, I did it. And I feel so accomplished because not only do I have endorphins running through me, but I'm like, I did it. I did what I told myself I could. And that builds so much confidence over time where you're like, okay, I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. And the mindset stops being I can. It starts being I can.

In our program, we use it as an emotional resilience tool. So for me, it's about emotional engagement. And it's a great way for me just to work it out, like my emotions. So for me, it's music, really loud music that motivates me. I just feel so like it's a cathartic experience. So if I don't do it, Penelope's like, mom, you need to like go take a walk or something. You're so mean when you don't work out. Damn.

I mean when I don't work out. No, I am too. It's the same way. Build up stress, right? Yeah. Got to relieve it somehow. Especially women. We have to relieve our stress.

Because women are way more emotional than men. So we have to find outlets. I'm glad we can agree on that. We have to find outlets other. Because women are way more emotional than men. So we have to find outlets. We have to find outlets other than men to yell at. Yeah. No, you got a good take on that because you guys went on Fresh and Fit. And you actually agreed with a lot of the stuff they were saying, right? Yeah. Which is rare for a woman on that show.

Yeah. It's rare. But the thing is what they're talking about is actually the truth. They just say it in a way that sometimes makes people upset. Everyone says the truth. When we say, oh, body positivity is, you know, that today's body positivity is toxic, people get angry. Well, why? Because it hurts people's feelings to tell people, oh, you're fat.

That's not mean. That word isn't mean. Fat. Yeah, but people today think that, oh, you can't believe you called them fat. You know, it's like, okay. Well, you have to say now you have obesity, they say. You aren't mean. Fat. Yeah. But people today think that, oh, you can't believe you called them fat. You know, it's like, okay. Well, you have to say now you have obesity, they say. You aren't obese. Or they say it's a disease. Yeah. And it's not your fault.

Well, I don't believe it's a disease, but they're now qualifying it as a disease. Being fat? Yes. Well, obesity, because they want insurance to pay for obesity medication. Oh. Because right now, Novo Nordic, the Ozempic company that makes Ozempic is on track to be one of the most successful drugs ever created. So insurance doesn't cover it right now, but they're trying to diagnose it as a disease.

Or genetic predisposition. Wow. Yeah. Speaking of genetics, I know you had a family history of that. Yeah. A lot of people place a lot of importance on that. But do you think that matters a lot with the obesity genetics? I definitely suffer from the fear of my mom's destiny. Today marks the day of 19 years of her death. And she died before she could know Penelope.

Wow. Because you were only five months old when she died. And on her death certificate was severe obesity. And for me, it's really a matter of life and death. It's not about permissive parenting or pretending like it's positive to be obese. I feel like her life was stolen by obesity. And Penelope never got to know her grandmother. And that's why we have, I've spent my life obsessing about health because

I wanted to dodge the bullet. And so can you imagine how shocked I was when my very own daughter was over 300 pounds? Cause I thought I knew all the answers. I got a bachelor's and a master's degree in nutrition. I studied food as medicine. Like it's just been my total focus, but, um, we've got to help as many people as we can to get back in the kitchen, to get real with their emotions, and to make the changes that are required for a happy, healthy, free life. Yeah. No, go ahead. Well, it's just within hand.

It's right here within reach. Yeah. Yeah, I think genetics definitely plays a role. I'm not saying it doesn't, but people like to blame it as the only reason that they're fat. I definitely have the fat gene. I have to work really hard every day, but it's just part of my life because I know the destiny of what

obesity causes, the depression, the anxiety, the ostracism, the heart disease, the diabetes, all of the things. I don't want to live a life like that. Absolutely. Yeah. 42% of people are obese right now. Do you guys see this going up or down over the next few years? I think it depends. Right now, I see it going up. Wow. I think the food companies are in bed with the pharmaceutical companies, and I think everyone's winning except for the people who are obese. They're paying.

Yeah. And Ozobric doesn't really benefit the people because it just makes them, they stay overweight after they get off the drug. If they can't live off of it because they can't afford a twenty thousand dollar drug every year then when they get off of it they end up gaining more weight back and so the business model isn't really made for them to succeed anyway it's made for osepic to succeed but not the client and it's like that with you know even body positivity body positivity benefits every industry except the person who's obese. It benefits the pharmaceutical industry and the therapy industry. And it doesn't benefit the obese person. They just die. Four

body positive influencers died a few months ago. Crazy. That's not a positive thing, but it's called body positivity. 4.3 trillion dollars are spent every year in associated medical care costs, like direct costs associated with obesity and related diseases. That is a lot of money. Think about how else we could spend that money or even how else we could spend $20,000 a year promoting things like maybe a script for healthy food or a script for an exercise program or some kind of other trend. Like, why aren't we marketing that? Yeah, it's nuts. People just want a quick pill.

Laziness, I don't know. Laziness. Do you think the government wants people to be weak? Yeah, of course. The weaker the people, the sicker the people, the more money that everyone else gets. Better on the top. Right. That control everything. I do think gets that are on the top. Right. That control everything.

I do think the power is with the people. And I think that it's possible to turn it around. But I think it's going to take an awakening. Like wake up. Take responsibility. And do something about it. Absolutely. For the clients you guys are coaching,

what percentage of them actually lose weight, you'd say? All of them. All of them? Absolutely. All of them lose weight. Amazing results. Absolutely. So not one person has gained weight?

Well, I can't say they haven't gained weight. Sometimes they give up on themselves. Right. And if they give up on themselves and they stop the program and they decide to go back to their ways, you know, that's their choice. So in all honesty, you know, there have been some. But our goal is to teach people how to live a life they love and that they're inspired to live. And that means delicious

abundant food. That means exercise that is really inspiring. And that is community. People who can really support each other in a way that's meaningful, creative, inspirational, and all the things. It's a commitment

to your health. Community is important. That's the environment. Even for you, it's a commitment to your health community is important that's a yeah but even for you it's a commitment for everyone who takes their health seriously and it's really about that it's about health weight loss is kind of a side effect yeah it's true so what is considered overweight you guys say like is there a certain limit for each height you said well i think it depends on your body fat um i don't necessarily adhere to the body mass index i know penelope likes the bmi i like the bmi everyone's like the bmi is not good anymore i don't agree the bmi is a great tool there's like the waist to height ratio the waist to hip ratio there's like a lot of different ways to calculate it i think body fat percentage is a good way to to calculate

it so what percent body fat would you say is overweight? Over 30. Okay. That's pretty high. Yeah. Yeah. So there's some wiggle room there. And ideal is around 26 for women.

Yeah, that would be ideal. Yeah, women are higher than men, right, on body fat percent? Yeah. Yeah. But I would say over 30. And, you know, we've got a big, big issue that we're dealing with. 30's high. I don't know anyone above 30.

You guys were asking me for fat podcast guests is high. I don't know anyone above 30. You guys were asking me for fat podcast guests before this. I couldn't think of anyone. Have you had any on the show above 30? Yes, definitely. And what'd they say? Uh, they are a stand to keep for, for their weight. Okay. They say you do you. And I think that's the, that's, that's, we've fallen into a, you do you mindset around weight. And that's a big problem. Body positivity that's, we've fallen into a you do you mindset around weight. And that's a big problem. Body positivity is like, I'm going to let you do you and you're beautiful and I'm going to support you no matter what. And I'm like, why?

You are supporting self-suicide. You are supporting someone slowly killing themselves. And you're supporting someone having a food addiction. I had friends supporting me doing that. I'm not friends with them anymore because they were trying to kill me. They were helping me kill myself. And every day I say I killed my 140 pound self. She's gone. She's dead to me. And every day I'm glad she's not there. And I work out for her. I work out to get rid of her because she is like a devil to me. She's not me. She's not my friend. She's my enemy. And I got rid of her. And that's how people should look at obesity and their weight when they're overweight. It's like, I literally had someone

on my back. That's what that weight felt like. You felt like you were suffocating at night. You said, yeah, you remember at nighttime, I couldn't breathe. You had anxiety. You were depressed. You had sleep apnea. You had PCOS. Yeah. There were, you had, you had issues with your cholesterol. I actually tried to commit suicide one time. Oh, my gosh. When I was overweight. Wow. I went into the pill cabinet and I grabbed like a bunch of pills.

I put them in my hand, put them in my mouth, but they were all herbs. Yo, she saved you. They were all like herbs. They were just like mushroom herbs. There's like no prescription medication in the house. No prescription drugs in the house. Oh, my gosh. I'm just saying like that's the mindset being overweight puts you in.

And when I lost all the weight naturally, I didn't have anxiety, depression, PCOS, none of it. I was fine. Wow. I healed myself naturally. And people don't believe they can do that anymore, but they can. They totally can. And we can even teach you how. It's so simple.

It's not easy, but it's simple. And that's just the truth about it. Yeah. And we're both working on it so simple. It's not easy, but it's simple. And that's just the truth about it. Yeah. And we're both working on it every day. It's not like we've achieved something. We're working on it every single day. And so we're always like posting what we're doing, what we're eating, how we're moving. And so that's just, I don't, I don't want to pretend like I've achieved something. I may know a lot because I've been obsessed with it for 30 years, but we're all in this together. Absolutely.

And there's hope. Yeah, there is. I appreciate both of your openness for real. And I think that's why you guys are succeeding because you're so open about your stories and people can relate. Like you were fat, you know, your mom was fat. So that hits with people. Yeah.

You're not just starting off skinny and then selling something. No, my first Weight Watchers meeting was at age five. Wow. My nickname was Fatso. Oh, so you were fat too? Yeah. Wow. As a younger person, yeah.

Holy crap. Even before Penelope, I was overweight. You were a plus-size model. I was a plus-size model in the 90s, yeah. I got to see photos. But the plus-size models back then were not as fat as they are today. Today, they're morbidly obese, but you were not morbidly obese. No, I was the OG plus size model.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, we got to throw up some pics. You've lived a lot of lives. I have. That is interesting. That's true. I used to be in the fashion industry, and I just got really interested in health. Wow.

Because I wanted to avoid this thing that happened to my mom. That suffering is real. Yeah. Did it happen to your dad, too? No, my dad's a foodie. I come from a family of foodies for sure my dad actually is pretty healthy nice yeah but he loves food we all love food i love food i'm not willing to sacrifice health for flavor yeah can you guys even eat out though with all the seed oils and stuff i mean we have a few places we trust okay but it's true that's that's a very important thing as well as organic

food, because when they're inundating our food system now with herbicides and pesticides and fungicides and genetic modification and seed oils and bad salt, I mean, it's a, it's a recipe for a disaster. I mean, you have to really get smart, wake up and pay attention and start changing some things because when you're buying food out or you're eating food from a box, you're asking for some problems. Yeah, it's pretty nuts too. Even five-star restaurants use canola oil and stuff. Like I used to eat at SDK, they use canola oil. And that's like a $100 meal and they're using canola oil.

That's not okay. It's crazy. So glad you found out. Yeah, no, I ask every time now when I go. Smart. I mean, you have to to because that stuff adds up. You don't want to change your DNA. You don't.

And that's what canola oil is going to do over time. Yep. And did you guys see the microplastic thing that just came out? Yes. About the testicles? It's crazy. It's in every single testicle. That's not okay.

100% of guys. That's not okay. Yeah. So that's going to your kids. That's crazy, right? 20% of the kids today are obese. That's nuts. When I was a kid, it was's going to your kids. That's crazy, right? 20% of the kids today are obese. That's nuts. When I was a kid, it was nowhere close to that.

No. There was maybe a few in the whole school and they got bullied, but 20% is insane. That is creating lifelong customers for the myriad of diseases that result from having chronic obesity. Yeah, that is nuts. We've got to turn the ship around. We have to. Real food, real talk, real people. It starts with education,

because I think they're trying to hide stuff like this. I agree. They don't even teach you how to garden in school anymore. Wow. Only 25% of the population actually knows how to garden and has a garden. I think home economics is now considered sexist. Oh, my gosh.

Yeah. That's crazy. And parents have usually been too busy to teach their kids. Economics is now considered sexist. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, yeah. That's crazy. And parents have usually been too busy to teach their kids. So we've got to take it into our own hands. Yeah, gardening's important. Yeah, maybe a little garden. Maybe a little garden.

You're teaching me how to garden, which I'm really grateful for. I'm glad you know how to garden. Not everyone's mom knows how to garden. Yeah, it's a good skill to have. I get excited. I don't trust many fruits if they're not organic. Yeah, we just planted actually about a dozen fruit trees on the land. Yeah, I'm really excited. A lot of those companies use pesticides and who knows what else, herbicides and weird stuff.

We actually are planning to go home and bake with our fresh blueberries. Yeah, we have fresh blueberries right now ripe on the vine. I am jealous. It's exciting. That sounds cool. Yeah, we'll have to bring you back some. Yeah, I'd love some. Did you guys see that Jubilee episode with the fat people?

Yeah, fat versus skinny. Yeah, and Myron was on it. I didn't see that one, but I saw the other one. There's a girl version where they do girls fat versus skinny. And that was fascinating to me because they show the girls are like, oh, well, it's okay to be overweight. Like, I'm beautiful and I should be able to wear whatever I want and be whoever I want. And it's like, well, first of all, you can be who you want to be. But lying to everyone, telling young girls that it's okay to be fat is not an accepting culture.

It's not a supportive place. It's not something that's helping anyone. Yeah. And when skinny people tell overweight people to lose weight, they get upset. But in reality, it's because we care, I feel. I do think when skinny people tell fat people to lose weight, obviously it's annoying. But look, I think we all genuinely care about each other deep down inside. And we all want to help people. I don't think shaming people and telling them, oh, you're ugly and you're fat is going to help. But I think us, you know,

going on walks with our friends, not feeding them junk food, not promoting body positivity and wearing bras, being 400 pounds on TikTok is going to help. I think if we're just like, hey, let's go on a walk. Hey, let's eat a salad. Let's learn how to cook this vegetable together. That's helpful. Let's go to a farmer's market and get local grown veggies together. That's great because that's what we need to be doing. We need to walk. We need to eat vegetables. We need to eat fruit.

We need to move way more and sit way less and consume way less. It's just shocking that it's become just so normal. Like we're trying to normalize it. I mean, when I go into Target and I see the advertisements or the covers of magazines or billboards and I see obese people, I just, I just, I'm embarrassed to say, but I don't, I'm not really striving for that. I don't like to see it. It kind of pains me inside knowing the potential destiny of obesity. For sure. So I just don't understand why we would be normalizing it in the way that we are.

Especially young girls. Because all those young girls, the obesity rates in children are growing at rapid paces. One in three children are obese. Holy crap. What do you think is going to happen to all those little girls in high school now? Like they're all going to think it's okay to be obese. I go in this, when you walk out on the street, even california you see an obese high school girl yeah i was driving by a playground yesterday and i saw an obese kid and i was like i don't remember a single kid in my third grade class that was obese just me

and really no i mean i definitely was i was obese i think i weighed 100 pounds in third grade which is a lot damn yeah i was 100 pounds in third grade i which is a lot. Damn. 100 pounds in third grade. I think I was in like seventh when I had that. We were kind of the first generation, I think, with processed foods. Right. Tang and Velveeta and Wonder Bread. Yeah. Girl beating fruit roll-ups and all that shit. Terrible.

Pop-Tarts. My food addiction started at six years old. I would go to my friend's house and eat those large things of goldfish. Yeah, yeah. With a smile. I, yeah. Those families. With the smile. I'd down a whole box. The whole thing.

And the mom called her one day and was like, is your daughter okay? Because she just had six slices of pizza and she's six. Holy crap. Yeah. It started so young and the addiction just got worse as I got older. Yeah. And people don't even know this, but if you have the motherfucker gene, you're allergic to all the MTHFR. Like all grains, all the enriched and fortified

ones which is in every single grain in america pretty much that's process you're allergic that's why you're gaining so much weight i love knowing that you just taught me something yeah take that it's called the gene test yeah gene test yeah gary brekka 10x health shout out to them it was a game changer for me because i had it. Wow. Interesting. Yeah. But what's next for you guys? Is there a course or community you're building right now? Absolutely. Step It Up. So at Step It Up's on Instagram. We also have our podcast on YouTube, Step It Up podcast. And we're on a mission. And at first, I've been doing this health thing for a long time, coaching people on how to get healthy, thousands of them in over 60 countries. And Penelope came to me after the first 100 pounds.

She's like, Mom, we really got to help people. She created the Step It Up program at age 11. Wow. And then she finally decided to follow it a few years later. And she came to me and I said, sure, let's do it. Let's make it happen. So we have the community. We have the program.

We have our desire and passion and heart because we know that the solution is through loving people, meeting them where they are, but not in the traditional body positive sense and educating them, like you said, on what the next step is. Because for some people, it's going to be too steep to go to sprouts. Yeah. Like even though we eat a lot of sprouts and microgreens, that's a big part of our life and diet, that's going to be too much for somebody who's just on a potato chip diet with pizza and milkshakes. It would have been too much for you.

That's true. And my first step was going from Burger King to Chipotle and then Chipotle to Chipotle bowls at home. And it can be that simple, going from a walk to maybe a light jog. Yeah. Gradual steps, right? Gradual steps. And that's how you keep the weight off.

That's how I've kept the weight off and keep losing it. Nice. It's like no looking back. No looking back. Because you feel so good. Yeah. Your energy is so abundant and positive. And you wake up in the morning feeling like you can leap out of bed and do anything.

Yeah. Your social circles go up. More men want to you do not date you yeah everything's good that's true exactly yeah yeah it's true you probably get the craziest dms we actually do yeah everything from marriage proposals to what other things that are crass yeah marriage proposal over dm happens all the time what they actually proposed to you in the store the other day yeah no yeah someone proposed to you randomly yes yes did you know him no never met that person what yeah that's weird

what you said uh thank you so much you know but i'm not available you know you didn't keep the ring i always said yeah thank you and left you know i was kind of overwhelmed and surprised a little confused i think anyone would be surprised with that yeah that's crazy you got to plan those out know the person for years i mean the hell is that guy doing that's some la shit right there it is only in california that's nuts well we'll link everything below anything else you guys got That's some LA shit right there. It is. Only in California. That's nuts. Well, we'll link everything below. Anything else you guys got to close off with?

I think the hope is really the most important thing. Is that there's absolutely hope out there and that your body will heal itself. And don't be fooled. And get real. And if you're watching this, you can, you can, you can. I will say it a million times. You can achieve anything you put your mind to, which is, it sounds can, you can, you can. I will say it a million times. You can achieve anything you put your mind to, which is, it sounds like, oh, yeah, yeah. But, like, no, you really can.

If you truly believe that you can do it and you use that five-second rule and you one, two, three, four, five, jump out of bed and do it, I believe in you. And I know you can do it. Beautiful. We'll close out there, guys. Check out the links below. Thanks for watching. See you guys tomorrow.