48: Make It About The MEMORIES

 Life experiences revolve around food

What Is This Episode About…

So much of our celebrations and life experiences revolve around food. But we encourage you to make it about the memories and not about the food.

In our society today, where there’s so much processed food and so many restaurants to choose from and there’s celebrations and anniversaries and birthdays and dinner, everything is so centered around food. That just wasn’t our situation growing up.

If you’re caught in this cycle of making your life about the food instead of the memories, even if your family still is that way because we have families that are struggling with that right now. All the holiday traditions are about food, and they’re trying to lose weight. All of the vacations are about food, and they’re still trying to lose weight.

If your relationships are built on memories and love and communication and fellowship and closeness and sharing of your spirit with each other, it wouldn’t matter if Cari and I were sitting at a Denny’s having a $2 meal or in Turks and Caicos having a hundred dollar meal – we would have the same experience.

You can change the trajectory of your children. If you stop and change now, don’t let any more time go by while you’re on this current path. Turn and walk a different direction and start planning things differently. 

Yeah, make life about the memories and your brain will start to shift away from food and you will be free. It’s so freeing to be able to go on vacation, not be stressed about what you’re going to eat and when you’re going to eat it. Just go and have a good time.

Stay tuned for more.

Key Points of Discussion

  • When it comes to our childhood, we never think about the food part. And you too – Make it about the memories (6:16)
  • Good job on Mom’s part in really making sure that our memories were around the actual family times together (7:55)
  • When you are eating processed food, processed carbs, and sugar, it does hijack your brain (17:52)
  • Cari says when I tell her my story of going to Europe, it never has anything to do with the food that I ate there (19:55)
  • Food was never more than fuel to them… (19:56)
  • “Vacationing is just eating in a different place.” – Jim Gaffigan (21:20)
  • They genetically engineer those foods to make you want to crave more… (23:13)
  • Instead of going for a family meal, we’re going to get to know about Army bases… (24:46)
  • Do your research for sure on family vacations… (26:13)
  • Start getting a different vacationing. Just make it a little different this time (32:08)
  • Make life about the memories and your brain will start to shift away from food and you will be free (34:04)

Learn More About The Content Discussed…

Get the Code Red On-The-Go Guide here.

Join the next 10-Pound Takedown Challenge here.

When Was It Released…

This episode was released February 19, 2020

Episode Transcript…

The Transcript Is Auto-Generated And May Contain Spelling And Grammar Errors

 

Cristy (00:00):

Good job on mom’s part in really making sure that our memories were around the actual family times together. But you’ll notice, I mean in our society today where there’s so much processed food and so many restaurants to choose from and there’s celebrations and anniversaries and birthdays and dinner. Everything is so centered around food. That just wasn’t our situation growing up.

 

Cristy (00:25):

I’m Cristy Code Red and you’re listening to Rebel Weight Loss and Lifestyle, where we believe food holds the power to heal or poison and we believe our society has been misled regarding proper nutrition and weight loss. You’re in the right place if you’re looking for some straight-up truth because I’m here to shed light on the lies and brainwashing that has taken place over the past five decades. Thanks so much for listening.

 

Cristy (00:51):

Welcome back to Rebel Weight Loss and Lifestyle. I am your host Cristy Code Red, author, entrepreneur, retired professional boxer, and I’m so lucky that Cari Thompson could get herself locked in her office long enough to record this podcast with me. Thank you, sis.

 

Cari (01:08):

You’re welcome. I literally had to just throw all animals out and children and shut the door. So the struggle is real. I get it. Moms and dads, trust me.

 

Cristy (01:19):

It’s so funny because right before we hit the record button, we’re like, shove it, get out. Don’t bump me. Marquis, you know, life. You know Cari, we’ve got new viewers. We’re so lucky. We’re so lucky to be ranked 250 out of 860,000 podcasts in the United States. She’ll, we’re ranked really high. I’m super proud of this, but I realize that probably we have new people coming on and listening to us for the first time.

 

Cristy (01:45):

They may not know who you are.

 

Cari (01:48):

Oh, Oh, okay. I thought you were going to say they might not know the story of our child and I was like Cristy, that’s what I thought. You’re really into. Sorry. You know what? My name is Cari Thompson. I am the chief operations officer here at Code Red fitness and nutrition. I love my job. I am a former ICU nurse, did open heart and trauma nursing for a lot of years. I am also a failed weight loss surgery survivor lost over 100 pounds and kept it off for years and know things to the messed up weight loss surgeries that I had. It was only because I listened to Cristy and finally got control over my sugar addiction. So I’m very excited to be here because I’m hoping to bring understanding, hope, and healing to people that have had struggles and maybe have had weight loss surgery because I definitely understand where you’re coming from.

 

Cristy (02:38):

You know, I was just starting to laugh because when you said this, you reminded me, our dad, Larry had a pretty massive heart attack in December 2019 and he was, I don’t know, he had something, some question or something kind of went wrong during his recovery and Cari said, dad, why didn’t you ask me about this? I was recovery like you and you were like, dad, this is what I did for so many years.

 

Cari (03:01):

He’s on the phone with the doctor to ask him a question. He could have sent me a picture of it. I could have told him if it was fine. I mean said he’s like beep, beep boop. Like I don’t have an ICU open heart daughter, nurse person.

 

Cristy (03:17):

You know, I think we forget. We forget that you, because you’ve been with Code Red for so long and I don’t know, we just, we, I’m just fascinated with it but we forget that you had a long career in that before you decided to come work for Code Red.

 

Cristy (03:31):

So I just thought that was funny when I was like…

 

Cari (03:33):

Oh, that’s funny that you should mention it cause I just said it. That was funny. I was like dad, seriously. Like I’m right here. You got a camera on that phone. Take a picture.

 

Cristy (03:43):

Guys. We have a really interesting subject that we want to bring to you today and I know it’s going to be an aha moment for so many of you were talking about making it, about the memories and this, you know, Cari and I were raised on a big family farm in Northern Idaho outside of a small town on roughly 70-75 acres. We had horses and pigs and chickens and cows and dogs and cats. We had a regular family farm and we joke we didn’t have any money because all the money that my folks made, you know, they’re making minimum wage, went towards our family farm, but we have so many childhood memories.

 

Cari (04:24):

Oh man. I could do a whole podcast. It wouldn’t be health-related, but I could do a whole podcast just thinking about all the interesting, exciting, fun, funny, everything from mom shooting a coyote from what? 200 yards away. It was trying to get to our cows without her glasses on and just the scope and having to go down that. And then our little sister, Laura is saying, we really need the meat. How mama? Because you know, we lived off of deer and elk, so everything from that to our forage pigs to stories about my dad. I had never forgotten my dad went to the, our dad, excuse me. I always do that when I’m around you. Our dad went to the prison warden, not warden Academy. What’d you call it? Cristy white. I can’t think. What do you mean? The Police Academy and when he went back, he shot the Platte police Academy.

 

Cari (05:12):

But when, when he was going to work for the prison, he had to go to the Academy for that. Yeah. Like in your training course training. Yeah. You know how they have to go away now everything’s probably online. But he went away. It was dead of winter and dead of winter in Idaho meant, and this is no joke, back in the day, eight, nine feet of snow. And Cristy and I got up every morning, put bales of hay on the old plastic, probably 29 cents from the local IGA to Bogen and hauled it around and fed our cows. And if we hadn’t, they would have died. It was our job to keep the farm going at a very young age, younger than most kids. Most kids came and make their beds. And we were out feeding cattle. Yeah. Oh, driving plow in the driveway delivering calves. I mean cows.

 

Cristy (05:57):

Yeah. And it was 30 below. I specifically remember one morning, no windchill, it was 30 below zero and it was just still like, it was so cold that everything just seemed to sit still. So not a day goes by that I don’t think of and appreciate my childhood, very, very fond memories of my childhood. But when it comes to our childhood, we never think about the food part. Like we never, we don’t remember like, Oh man, that chicken fried steak that mom made. And that’s what we want to encourage all of you to do is make it about the memories

 

Cari (06:29):

When we sit around and talk about our family. When we have another sister named Laura when it’s Laura and Cristy and I talking about, we tell funny stories about how we got in fistfights and we’d be like making up right before mom and dad got home or you know, with the puppies that ran around the yard. We’re not thinking about the popsicles, we’re not thinking about the ice cream. We weren’t chicken thinking about these desserts or sweets. Now there are certain meals that stand out to us, but it’s because they’re associated with something. For instance, tacos will forever stand out to us because as our dad would eat my mom’s tacos, my mom makes very wet taco meat, very fun and sloppy and yummy. My dad would have a trickle of taco juice running down his elbow and forever till the day that Jesus calls me home. Every time I think of tacos, I’m gonna think of my dad eating that taco and that, but it’s not like mom made the best tacos and she did, but our memories are not about that. It’s about something funny with the food.

 

Cristy (07:31):

Right? Totally interesting. In a society that is so focused around food, it just wasn’t like that when we were growing up, we were focused around family time and there wasn’t mom, Oh, thank you, Lord, that mom was such a good cook and so resourceful with such a little amount that she had to work with. It was always really good food. We just didn’t, we, she really made sure mom and good job on mom’s part and really making sure that our memories were around the actual family times together. But you’ll notice, I mean in our society today where the so much processed food and so many restaurants to choose from, and there’s celebrations and anniversaries and birthdays and dinner, everything is so centered around food. That just wasn’t our situation growing up.

 

Cari (08:17):

Any, was it? Most of everybody’s situation, our grandparents weren’t that way. I mean, yes, you would celebrate over a meal, but it wasn’t always. So food-centered, for instance, date night, date nights become all about eating. Why? Why? Why don’t we have date nights where we, okay, not me, maybe you and Miles, but go for a run. I like to exercise, but or Cristy and Miles all the time go for hikes and they go on adventures and they go snowshoeing. All those memories are not about Cristy and Miles plowing through 27 tacos at, you know, MI, Jalisco. It’s not that them going and having a good time together and it’s not about food. I love that about you guys.

 

Cristy (09:02):

Right. And I specifically remember us eating dinner together as a family. I don’t remember dinner, not as a family, but I remember knowing that we were going to get ready to sing together as a family. Dad was going to get the guitar out because we all sang and dad was gonna get the guitar out after dinner. And so we were hurrying up to clean up cause we all help clean up so we could get to singing. I mean those are the memories and you don’t want to be, have so much of your memories wrapped up in the food because what happens when you take that away when you start to eat food for fuel and not food for a reward or a punishment. Oh my gosh, going to bed hungry. I know some parents that make their kids go to bed hungry. Like as a punishment. They make them not eat dinner.

 

Cari (09:48):

Yeah. Talk about what’s the formula to build someone who’s food-obsessed? Oh, I know. Make them go to bed hungry as a punishment. Make food a punishment.

 

Cari (09:55):

Oh. Oh that’s you’ll make, you’ll screw up your kid pretty quick.

 

Cristy (09:59):

Ooh, that makes me cringe when I think about that. But I just don’t have those special many people do have those. All the fun memories, any memory they had with their family was all based around eating vacations. I mean, Cari, we had both had a vacation with people who constantly, the whole vacation is just where they’re going to eat next.

 

Cari (10:20):

Cristy, I’m so glad you brought this up. I was just thinking about this. I have met the rebels. Of course, Cristy and I have had the opportunity to coach just thousands of people. It’s just been amazing. Or maybe hundreds for many thousands for her. And I think during the thousands they’re going to give me a tee shirt. Anyway, I want the thousand clubs anyway, but it’s very interesting. They say, Cari, when we plan our vacations, Oh, it’s all about, and remind me to say Disney world next. Okay. Just remind me. I’m gonna hold my finger up. Cristy, their vacations are all about where they’re going to eat. They eat their way through the Caribbean, they eat their way through Europe. They eat their way and it’s like, well, I’ve heard there’s this good place now. Hey Cristy and I like to eat. I don’t want you guys to think that we don’t like to eat.

 

Cari (11:05):

And I love a good meal. And one of my favorite things to do is to sit at a restaurant with Cristy and have a meal. Some of my most favorite things have been, we went on vacation to Turk’s and Caicos and every morning we had our one meal. And it’s not even that I don’t eat. The food was good, but it was more just getting to sit and be with Cristy. That’s what was appealing to me about it. Not what they were feeding is at the resort. So it’s really time with her thing cause I don’t get a lot of that more than the food. So trust me, I like a good meal too. So it will be like, Oh and Cari doesn’t eat y’all. You know, I can show you my booty. I eat okay. But yeah, but I’m, my whole thing is that Cristy, I see people that plan entire vacations around where they’re going to be eating.

 

Cari (11:48):

I kid you not where they’re going to be eating. And I’ve seen it time and time again. We have a family. Remember, we had a lot of family members like this, but one of them told me about a trip to Disney world and it was every day was all about who, what Disney breakfast with what people with what dessert shop with what? The whole vacation was not about Disney world. It was honest about where we’re going to eat. Whoa. Oh, it just made me go like, you need to stop. I’m not saying the yum. Yum. Donald duck Sunday. A fun time isn’t fun. I’m not saying that I made that up. I love Disneyland as much as the next person, but I’m just saying when everything you do as a family around food, here’s the problem. Okay? Here’s the problem. When you become a rebel and you take your life back, you lose relationships. Yep. It’s so sad because your heavy family or your heavy friends are mad because you’re not doing Tuesday and margarita Tuesday. You’re not doing taco Tuesday and Margarita’s. You’re not doing that anymore. You’ve changed. But if your relationships are built on memories and love and communication and fellowship and closeness and sharing of your spirit with each other, it wouldn’t matter if Cristy and I were sitting at a Denny’s having a $2 meal or in Turks and Caicos has a hundred dollar meal, we had the same experience. Does that make sense? Rebels?

 

Cristy (13:16):

Yeah, totally. And we do notice that unfortunately when you have been going to margarita Mondays with the girls for the past 14 years and you decide to not go anymore, or you decide to sit and drink hot tea while your girls do margaritas and tacos, you might get some pushback. In fact, I can just tell you, I mean, I don’t know your friends, but I can pretty much guarantee you’re probably going to get some pushback. So just be okay with that or not. Things are going to change when you stop putting food at the center of your life.

 

Cari (13:47):

I have rarely received a complaint about somebody upset that their wife or husband is losing weight. Okay. So in all the time I’ve been working for you, almost three years, two and a half years, I have rarely had that complaint like, but one stands out in mind and it’s such an outlier. Cause most people are like, thank you for giving my wife back. You know she wants to go to bed with me, she wants to hug me, she wants to be around me. We go walking. Most people are very, very excited. So this is the outlier. But this is what I want to say. And this relates back to relationships built on food. This man said I hate Code Red. He said, my wife is up all night peeing so I can’t sleep.

 

Cristy (14:25):

He sounds like a little bit of a selfish,

 

Cari (14:28):

But whatever. I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna worry about it.

 

Cari (14:31):

That, and then she said, he said, and we used to go do fun things together to eat and now we don’t anymore. You’ve ruined my relationship now again, folks, please do not think the code. Read it out there ruining marriages. This is definitely an outlier. This is not the norm. But I would say to that man, if I were looking at him and I wasn’t, I had done the well I’m so sorry you feel that way. Love Cari. I would say so is your relationship built on the burger barn? Is that what your relationship is built on the burger barn and what you could eat together? I mean that’s so what it makes me think.

 

Cristy (15:07):

Yeah, totally. And there are going to be some changes within your family but guys, if you moms listen, I know we’ve got a lot of moms on our program. We’ve heard moms that get upset because we have a rule that in the code red lifestyle, we don’t eat past 6:30 PM we have our reasons for that. You can join the challenge, you can learn why. But we have moms that like at first they go, Oh I can’t believe I can’t even eat with my family. I can’t eat with my family cause they eat at seven and that’s past the six 30 cutoff time. But we saved no whole lot of miss Scholly. Listen, Cari, you can sit there with the family and visited them. It’s not about the fact that you’re not eating the food while they’re eating the food. You’re, you’re not putting the fork up to your mouth at the same time. They are. Come on, let’s break this down into what it really is because you can sit there and visit with them while you sip your hot tea. Don’t give me that baloney. It’s about time together.

 

Cari (15:57):

Yeah, it really is. Cristy, I hadn’t embarrassed, I know you know this story, but I don’t know how many of our listeners do. I had a really embarrassing thing happen to me. It’s been about five years ago. So Brandon and I were going four-wheeling for the day and we were in Alaska. That’s where we live for many years before we came to Kentucky. And it was in the middle of nowhere. And when I say nowhere, it’s a great place to hide a body kind of nowhere. Like it’s nowhere. No one would ever find that body. So we’re in the middle of nowhere and we’re getting ready to leave the house. And so it’s kind of, it’s always cold in Alaska. So I was packing coats and gloves and I started to get upset about the food. I don’t know if I was anxious or what. And I started getting like trying to pack this pack that we needed to be out the door.

 

Cari (16:40):

People were meeting us and I was trying to get the food and I was trying to stick it in here and I was getting like, well I guess we, and Brandon stopped me. Now Brandon is not very food-oriented as far as my husband, as far as memories. He’s a lot like Cristy in that way. Like it doesn’t have to be about the food. But I still had struggled with that and he looked at me and he said it really quietly. He said, Cari, there’s food everywhere. And I went and it was so embarrassing because here I was, you know, I had lost this weight. I had kept it off and yet still I was like, well we need this and what about this? And he’s like, Cari, till we get to the wilderness, there’s 10 stores, there’s gas stations, nobody’s going to starve. And I was so [inaudible] bear is like I was talking like a 300-pound person that was scared I was not going to get my fix. And I was so sad that I was making that day about not being on the four Wheeler with Brandon in the middle of nowhere and seeing moose and seeing bears and you know, getting to experience the outside. I was worried about a sandwich for heaven’s sakes. That’s back when I used to eat sandwiches. But it was very interesting.

 

Cristy (17:48):

Yeah, totally. And it’s so funny because it’s not all mental. When you are eating processed food, processed carbs, and sugar, it does hijack your brain. It does light up the pleasure centers of your brain. And when you are a Stricker, when you have a sugar addiction, like all the Code Red rebels, we’re all recovering sugar addicts. You eat when you have lucky charms for breakfast or the oatmeal from McDonald’s, it’s going to create this cascade, the cycle of carbon sugar craving. And I mean I have been on that and not so very long ago. If I had a croissant and when we go to Europe, you know, Europe has to show heavy on the bread, so much bread, so much bread everywhere and they serve, you know, orange juice and croissant for breakfast. And that’s kind of normal to them. Well if I had one like a croissant and orange juice for breakfast and I had that massive amount of sugar, I felt myself go into this whole, I couldn’t stop thinking about carbs and sugar after that really wind’s going to be my next and it’s horrible cause it hijacks your brain and then now you become obsessed with getting more sugar.

 

Cristy (18:52):

That’s what, it’s not even the weight gain. It’s the fact that I lose control or I feel like I am. So you’re not crazy if you’ve gone through this, I’m telling you only 50% of it is I don’t want to gain my weight. 50% of his, I don’t want to have it have so much control over me. Right.

 

Cari (19:08):

That is, I love it when you tell that story because you eat so clean that it’s amazing. Do you remember the podcasts that we did? You guys go back and find it called the last meal phenomenon and it talks about how what you eat sets you up for the next meal. It’s excellent. But this is exactly what Cristy’s talking about and all the times that Cristy has gone to Europe, I bet she doesn’t. When she tells me those stories she’s not like, okay so we’re in Venice.

 

Cari (19:35):

I had the best, she never tells me that none of her stories have anything to do with the cheese or the food she shoved in or the free Brandy they tried to push on her or the free whatever sweets. It never has anything to do with that. When she tells me her story, it never has anything to do with the food that she ate in Europe.

 

Cristy (19:56):

You know Jen Luddington is someone who spoke at our 2019 Code Red live and I believe she’s on the schedule for 2020 as well. Jen Luddington has a dad who is a retired Marine and her mom and their whole family are just fitness fanatics and she says we never, she grew up cause you know she never had a weight problem but they never talked about. They never had a food. Food was never more than fuel to them. They did things as a family.

 

Cristy (20:24):

They ate as a family but it was always about the family member and she grew up not having any food hangups. Now she had other things that happened with regard to food but she didn’t grow up with food hangups like so many people do because they just, her dad was a Marine and they just ate for fuel. It wasn’t until later on this she had developed some food, somebody issues just with own way that she viewed, but she never grew up with that kind of a thing. And guys, we encourage you, just stop now if you are on this destructive course of planning Disney vacation around the restaurant. Well if we follow that path, we can hit space mountain and then also hit the Donald duck donut stand and then we can hit it over there to forever land or Neverland and then we can come back around to the Mickey mouse.

 

Cristy (21:13):

You know like guys, stop. Just stop right now. You can be caught up or whatever time you lost with your kids.

 

Cari (21:20):

Cristy, can I quote Jim Gaffigan again? He goes, he’s one of my favorite. He goes, vacationing is just eating in a different place. And he goes, Oh, we’re going to go over there and grab something to eat on the way the show and then I bet they have a snack bar there. And then on the way home, we’ll go ahead and grab something and then we’ll probably get something back at the hotel. I’m like, Oh my gosh. He goes, you go to Disney, you walk around, you sweat your ass off and you come home and you’re 20 pounds heavier. It doesn’t make any sense.

 

Cristy (21:49):

That’s so true. Because Cari, a few years ago, you were taking a conference, you were at a conference in Orlando and so mom and I flew out there.

 

Cristy (21:56):

We stayed with you in the hotel and we went ahead and went to Disney world.

 

Cari (21:59):

That’s right. Oh, that was, that was a fun memory. And that had nothing to do with the food.

 

Cristy (22:04):

No, it didn’t. Mom, mom and I split a breakfast and we split and then we all three like split an afternoon lunch. It was, so when we drink our water every day and we got 20,000 steps a day and our weight didn’t change at all. It’s so funny. And people always say, they always try to say that to us. They always say, well, you know, I ate an elephant ear but I walked 20,000 steps or I walked nine miles and were just like, and I ain’t going to do a help means good.

 

Cari (22:30):

Let me know how that works for you.

 

Cristy (22:31):

Right? Like how’d that, how’d that work for you? You didn’t come back lighter, you know, you would think you would, but you just don’t.

 

Cristy (22:36):

And in the middle of the summer. It just, it doesn’t make sense. I know, but it just exercises not, you’re not gonna be able to work off that elephant ear from the fair. I can promise you not a whole one. A boy. Howdy. Those and those words, like you don’t even realize you’re eating and it’s like a crispy cream. You just, you swallowed it. It’s gone. 200 calories. Like how did that happen? I just stick one shoe honored. I wish it was 200 calories a day. More than that. An elephant ear. A Krispy Kreme donut. Oh, you’re still looking at not even the calories to grams of sugar. I mean, it’s so crazy. And you know what? Like on a side note about sugar, you guys, we should do a podcast just on sugar. They genetically engineer those foods to make you want to crave more. I mean, they, it’s a food addiction. They engineer addiction right into the foods they give you don’t they add MSG? The things they, it’s just crazy what goes into those kinds of foods. You wonder why you like, I’m like a crack addict.

 

Cari (23:30):

Well. Yeah, let me go back to families and mothers. If you’re caught in this cycle, moms, dads, aunt, uncles, grandma, grandpa, whatever. If you’re caught in this cycle of making your life about the food instead of the memories, even if your still is that way because we have families that are struggling with that right now. All the holiday traditions are about food and they’re trying to lose weight. All of the vacations are about food and they’re still trying to lose weight. It’s tough like I don’t envy this person at all that I know they’re going through. Let me encourage you, try to find non-eating things that you can do with your kids. For instance, Hey kids, we’re going to go to McDonald’s and you guys can have a happy meal. Hey, I’ve done that plenty as a mom. I am not standing in judgment of any of you right now, but you know you could say is we’re going to get our drinks, our water, and our water bottles and we’re going to go free the park for an hour and you guys are going to play tag or you’re going to have a scavenger hunt or if you have a little more money, cause we all know jump parks are ridiculously expensive.

 

Cari (24:32):

We’re going to go to the junk park for an hour. Let your kids jump for an hour, let your kids jump for an hour. That’s so much fun. Or Hey, we’re going to do this fun thing. We’re going to go on this hike. And it doesn’t have to be elaborate. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It could be. Instead of going for a family meal, we’re going to go and I know army bases have a lot of these to the pottery place and everyone’s going to paint a piece of pottery tonight. You guys, that’s the same as you want to have chicken and salad at home and go throw some pottery. You know, I could the movies, although I find the movies personally to be very tempting because I want to eat the food when I’m there. The smells are horrible. So the movies sometimes, you know, have a game night, you know, and it doesn’t have to be expensive.

 

Cari (25:15):

It doesn’t have to build, it doesn’t have to be about food. After dinner, we’re not going to go get an ice cream at Baskin Robbins. We’re all gonna put our shoes on and we’re going to go to this school and we’re going to play basketball for 10 minutes. And does it have to always be exercise? It can be something else. You know, I don’t know where you live and what you have around your area. We have a really cool thing called the giant forest here. Just go walk around in the giant forest. Take the dog for a walk. I mean, there are so many things you can do. Date nights, let’s go. Ziplining. Yes, I know it’s crazy, but you guys are going to spend 100 bucks on a good meal. It’s been a hundred bucks zip lining. You know, spend a little bit of time and I know my husband would laugh but let’s both get pedicures.

 

Cari (25:54):

Cristy would hate that as well. Let’s get massages. You guys can have quality time together and it doesn’t need to be about the food, but it does take a little bit of work. You’ve got to think a little bit about it. You can’t just go red Robin yum and go spend 70 bucks on dinner.

 

Cristy (26:11):

I will tell you that there are places do your research for sure on family vacations cause there are places that there isn’t a whole lot to do but eat and your power will wane if you walk by the bakery after bakery window, you know patisserie, the patisserie bakery window and nuts. All you’re ever seeing and you don’t have anything else that’s going on and you’re just, and you’re just seven hours of that. You’re just finally going to be like, Oh I’m just going to go ahead and get this.

 

Cristy (26:36):

You know this tart. So do your research on where you’re going. Make sure there are something miles and I choose a vacation where it’s active. We do. We say, well, we’re, we’ll stop here because it has the windsurf ringer because it has the parasailing or because it has, we always go for activities over food.

 

Cari (26:55):

I love the zoo. I even as an adult, without kids, I love a science center. Even as an adult. You know Brandon, I do the bourbon tours, even though I’m not a drinker. They’re very interesting. They’re very science-based. Most of them are free. There’s always something you guys can do, but you just can’t rely on the same old, same old Friday nights it whatever, in a baked potato than an eight-ounce steak and four beers and then we’d go home and go to bed. You know, you guys can mix it up.

 

Cari (27:25):

You just have to start changing things instead of doing the cooking, making with your grandkids. Maybe it’s Plato ornament making. Why not? You know? It doesn’t have to be about cookies. It doesn’t have to be about those kinds of things. You can have fun.

 

Cristy (27:39):

I just saw one of our certified coaches, Jessica Croft, she did that at Christmas time and I’m doing sugar cookies. The kids, her kids all decorated dough. They did the. It was amazing. I’m like, you’re not stealing memories from your kid just so you’re not letting them have copious amounts of sugar that are going to zip ’em up. They’re going to crash. You’re going to be cranky. They’re going to have stomach aches. She still had fun with cookie decorating, but it was that, whatever that is, I don’t remember it. It was like the cooking.

 

Cari (28:09):

It’s just like the regular Plato. Then you bake it. It’s a great idea. You know, Heather or century, only one of our other coaches, she does the most fun, creative stuff with their kids. They’re always going to a science center and they’re always exploring and here and there and it doesn’t take a lot of money. It just takes effort and lets me, I’m going to wax melodic or wax melancholy. I’m going to, I’m just going to be a little philosophical here and Cristy can laugh, but when you’re laying on your deathbed guys like, I hate to say it, but you’re not going to say if I could have just had one more slice of pecan pie. No, and it may think I’m being funny, but the truth is you’re going to say if I could have just hugged that person one more time if I could have just had one more conversation if I could have had one more kiss if I could have held their hand one more time if I could have told them I love you.

 

Cari (29:00):

Those are the things that you think about when I am dying and when Jesus calls me home. I’m going to think about falling in the hole when I was in fifth grade and breaking my arm and Cristy helping me up and us run into the house. That’s what I’m going to think about. I’m going to think about my first kiss right there in Grange, my outside of my beat-up blue car. Do you know what I mean? Those are the things I’m going to think about. I’m not going to think about what I shoved in my pie hole. I can’t even remember what I ate for school lunch in high school, but I do remember, I do remember what it felt like to go horseback riding with Cristy. I read what it felt like.

 

Cristy (29:36):

I remember my first kiss and it was, I think I had a kiss before this cause I, I tried to kiss Dusty Powers and I loved him so much. Back in Grangeville, I’m going to say, I’m going to say it. Dusty powers, if anybody knows him, I still to this day, I think you’re pretty, I think you’re pretty cute. But my first official, my first official Kish was I think when, when you and I double-dated those guys from Lewiston, I don’t remember the one that I was dating anyway. [inaudible] Giver. Yes. He kissed me on the dance floor. Was that the one that I was with or was that the one that you were and he gives me on the dance floor. It was a really good first kiss.

 

Cristy (30:18):

I’m read because I’m, I don’t know if I should say mine because my person might listen to this podcast. I don’t think we’re in fear of caregiver listening to the podcast,

 

Cari (30:27):

But you never know. We are. We do have fiber, but Cristy gas, the memory. Do you remember what they ate that night before we went to that dance?

 

Cristy (30:33):

No.

 

Cari (30:34):

No, you don’t. So it’s, it’s just, it has to be about the memories and the love and the times. I remember with Brandon are out here at my right outside this window, you guys with my chickens gathering chickens and talking about chickens and cleaning up chicken stuff and discussing them and petting them and chasing them around. Those are good memories to me. And some days my grandkids are going to come and they’re not going to be like, I don’t know what they’re going to call me, but maybe Mimi, maybe MIMA.

 

Cari (31:00):

I’m not sure. I’m still working it out, but my grandkids are going to be like, Nope. Meal. Probably they won’t. They’re going to be like, I love me. Most chickens, they have so much fun. You know? That’s what life’s about. When I think back on us going on vacation in Turks and Caicos, Cristy, I think about laying on the beach, us trying to body serve you, being able to do it. Me not. I think about that snorkeling Sherpa, we each swallowed at least a half-gallon of seawater. You know, those are the things I think about. That’s what I remember about that vacation.

 

Cristy (31:36):

If you talked to somebody on death row, and I know I’m getting a little bit like what Cristy when you talk to somebody on death row, I’m sure they would much rather have their loved ones standing there next to them and their last few moments as opposed to their final dinner of lobster and steak.

 

Cristy (31:50):

Like, come on guys. You know, if you are in this position like Cari said and you’re kind of traveling down this road and you want to switch directions, you can do it. If you’re trying to get your family off of this mentality meant don’t make it a big deal. Just moms and dads, you have the ultimate control here. You’re parents just start changing in a different direction. Start getting a different vacationing. Just make it a little different this time.

 

Cari (32:12):

And start at your after-dinner things. If you guys always go to Baskin Robbins, tell everyone, grab your shoes and socks. We’re going on an adventure and you guys go do something fun. Do something you’ve never done. Go explore. Go be present in the moment because life is short. You guys, I mean, as Cristy talked about with our dad and our heart attack, you know, we, we certainly could have lost him and life is short and it’s precious and the people matter more than what you’re putting in your mouth and your life needs to reflect that. It really does. And we want to encourage you to do that.

 

Cristy (32:46):

Do you remember when Anne Marie used to call it a bencher instead of adventure, mom and Sage? Yeah. You want to, you want to go on an adventure and she says, Oh Nani, I want to go on a bencher venture. I’m going to send you.

 

Cari (32:59):

And what that meant was my mom would walk, our mom would walk the dog and Ann Marie would walk with her and pick up things along the way like sticks or rocks and that to Ann Marie was an adventure. B. E N T U. R. E. So every one of you listening, I want you each to go on an adventure this week. A, B E N. T. U. R. E. Go on one.

 

Cristy (33:20):

Oh, you people are going to start saying that now carry, cause I used to when we had the code red backpack that came out, the kids would call it a pack and so I would say get your Code Red pack.

 

Cristy (33:29):

Everybody called it a pack.

 

Cari (33:32):

It started calling something the other day and now everyone calls it that. And I was like, I probably shouldn’t use the real world, but you know we’re part of a fad Cristy.

 

Cristy (33:39):

Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, I remember the adventure. Yeah. You guys, we are so happy that you joined us for this podcast. Thank you for being on here. Definitely give some good serious thought to these guys. Moms and dads are one, encourage you. You can change the trajectory of your children. If you stop and change now, don’t let any more time go by while you’re on this current path. Turn and walk a different direction and start planning things differently. Yeah, make life about the memories and your brain will start to shift away from food and you will be free. It’s so freeing to be able to go on vacation, not be stressed about what you’re going to eat and when you’re going to eat it. Just go and have a good time. Yeah. Thank you, Cari, for being on here. You guys, we will see you on the next Rebel Weight Loss and Lifestyle Podcast. Thank you, everybody.

 

Cristy (34:29):

Thanks so much for listening to Rebel Weight Loss and Lifestyle. If you’re a Code Red rebel and you haven’t already downloaded your free Code Red lifestyle on-the-go guide, now is your time to get a copy. This guide will teach you how to stay Code Red-approved even with your crazy life schedule. To get a copy right now, all you need to do is open your podcast app. Go to this episode show notes and click the link to get your Code Red-approved on-the-go guide. So I will see you in the next episode of Rebel Weight Loss and Lifestyle.