Interview with Chef Allie of "Chef Allie's Kitchen"

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Her communities. Thank you so muchfor listening. I'm Renee Denino and I'm
joined in studio by someone I metyears ago through my connection with Great Day
Connecticut on Channel three. We've becomevery friendly. She has become an inspiration
to me, and I always lovedwatching your recipes and your cooking segments.
But today I asked her to comein and not cook, even though she

(00:22):
brought us some delicious blueberry muffins,but I wanted to hear her story.
So please welcome Alison Hancock, betterknown to you as Chef Ali. Hi,
Chef Ali, Hello, how areyou good? I don't know how
to refer to you because I alwayssay Chef Ali. Yeah, that's fine.
It seems so natural to say ChefAli. I usually get that if
I've been seen out in public,right, Chef Chef Ali or Alison Alison

(00:45):
Hancock. Yes, that Hancock thesignature guy. You're related? That's your
face land Is Yeah, by theJohnny Uncock. I never knew that something
we learn every day. Yes,absolutely, all right. So the reason
why we are here today's because Iwanted an opportunity for you to tell your
story from beginning middle to now rightbecause you've had quite a journey of weight

(01:07):
loss. You've been very public aboutthat, very public, and then it
turned into now, had you alwaysbeen a chef? Or did that turn
into that? Beginning right now,let's go all right. So I went
to culinary school right out of highschool, maybe like a year out of
high school. I tried out theactual community college thing. I was not
a fan. I was bored,to be honest, and I've always loved

(01:30):
food. So I decided to goto CCI, which was in Farmington,
Connecticut, the Connecticut Culinary Institute.So right from there, right out of
the culinary school, I did allthe restaurants baking. I do some baking
at home, and I went tobecome a management position in restaurants. And

(01:53):
that's when I got pregnant. Igained a lot of weight, and my
oldest is twelve, so I havethree children. I gained about sixty pounds
with her. I worked at eyehop, so I ate a lot of pancakes,
Okay, late night pancakes. Ilook back and I'm just like,
oy, what was I doing?But it is what it is. And
then I had two more there theyare six and four after Aiden, our

(02:19):
youngest was born. I kind ofgot um. I was kind of hit
with reality of my weight gain.I had postpartum preclampsia that had really nothing
to do with my weight gain,but it put me into the hospital.
I almost died. I had almosthad a stroke. My blood pressure was

(02:40):
so high. Yeah, it was. It was a scary situation. So
that kind of opened my eyes ofother things, like I need to be
around for my kids and my family. So I was about two hundred and
forty pounds after all my kids weightgain and all that, and I decided
to join ww. A friend Iwent to high school with she did it,

(03:04):
so I saw her success, LaurenFrasier. I went to high school
with her, and it just kindof took off from there. And I
had liked showing my daily eating,so I wanted to keep myself accountable,
so I started an Instagram page.Is that why you did that? Just
to keep yourself accountable? Yes,not just for the you know, the
notoriety of because people do social mediafor all different reasons, but I mean

(03:28):
that for you, it sounds likeit was the way to make sure it
was. It was showing my likebreakfast, lunch, and dinner and kind
of keeping me on track and kindof and you build a accountability community too,
so there's people like show what youeat today, just to keep on
track with together, and it kindof just took off from there. I

(03:52):
for the beginning of my Instagram picturesversus now is just funny because it was
brown looking and not so great lighting. And you know, after the years
of being on social media, you'relike, oh, okay, it kind
of has to look pretty, youknow, so Instagram, insta worthy,
whatever, the media worthy, rightright right? You know, you eat
with your eyes, so when I'mshowing my recipes, I want them to

(04:13):
look nice. So I kind oftook off from there and getting certain things
for photography, but growing the communityand showing it can be done was something
that I really enjoyed sharing because youcan enjoy your food and lose weight.
That's my main thing. But youalso are a wife, a mother,
three children. You know here youare, you know, you're you're building

(04:35):
the beautiful family life. You almostdie, yeah, which you were very
matter of fact, You're like blueby right by that story, very matter
of fact about that. But youknow, I think when people are faced
with mortality, things do you change? Right, now. Had weight always
been a concern of yours, hadyou know, bad blood pressure or bad
health or whatever the cases, hadthat always been a concern of yours.

(04:58):
No, So before four I gotpregnant, I was about around what I
am right now, and I thinkjust being around all that food and its
being my first child, I'm like, you're pregnant, eat what you want
kind of mentality. And it justdid not work out very well. And
you know, after having my secondand then my third, you're very overwhelmed.
You got one, I got two, and I got three. We

(05:21):
just bought a new house, sixmonth old baby, found out we're pregnant
with another. So I was kindof in the mentality of, oh my
gosh, what am I going todo? I didn't really take my health
in account either, So I waseating whatever, drinking whatever because it was
easy. And that's kind of likeanother thing that I was just get it

(05:43):
together, allie. And then thatpostpartum preclamsia thing happened. So that's so
scary. That's it. That's certainlya subject matter for another program. But
I know women are hearing you rightnow, going, okay, it's very
see that and that is scary.And how did your husband and how did
your family handle all that? Imust have been terrified. It was very
terrifying. M. I try tobring this aware every year because it's around

(06:05):
September, like a couple weeks afterAiden's birthday. I try to bring awareness
because not many women know about postpartum. They know about actual preclamcia and what
to possibly look out for like duringyour pregnancy, but even that, it
is not told enough to women becauseso many people die post and pre so

(06:27):
well we hear about postpartum depression,right, right, Obviously this is not
something about right, but but that'smore of a focus, which is it's
important, My goodness, Oh mygosh, that's that's really important. But
what you're talking about, unless youknow someone or you've gone through it,
it's not something that really is.You're absolutely right disgusted, and you know,
maybe we'll have you come back inSeptember to maybe just do a whole

(06:47):
awareness program about that, maybe invitesome nurses, somebody from you know,
Carfort Hospital took care of me,like they swooped me in the Maternity Award.
It was amazing. Well let's saveme. Let's let's go ahead and
have conversation about that in September,so we'll make a note to bring you
back there. But I mean thatis it's strangely enough, a non weight

(07:08):
related issue is what led you toyes, your weight loss and more more
obviously so a healthier lifestyle. Absolutely, So you're it's WW now outweight watchers.
But that's you know, if you'remy generation, it's weight watchers forever
of your life, just like youknow you're the Meadows is Exfinity now and

(07:29):
then the Travelers, which is theGHO. But anyways, there's certain things
you remember a certain ways. Butbut so you're following that. But you're
baking was big for you. Butthis is not just baking anymore. You
make everything I do, breakfast,launch, dinner, desserts, everything,
drinks, ic coffee. This isone of my lightened up latte. Is
this entire thing. As one point, I'll be sharing that recipe either tomorrow

(07:51):
or Friday. It's a chocolate coveredstrawberry latte. Okay, you can share
that with me now though, becausewe're friends. But here's the thing,
though, I like your videos andif people do want to follow you,
how do they follow you on socialmedia? Chef Aley's Kitchen on Instagram and
and TikTok, and then Chef Ally'sKitchen dot Com is where you can find
like my principle recipes and Ali isi E. So it's Chef Ali E

(08:16):
Chef Ali's Kitchen dot com. Yes, principal recipes. What I like though,
is that there's no sacrifice for youor your family. You don't have
to have two refrigerators, one formy diet life and one for my family
life. You have one refrigerator,one kitchen, and everything you make is
compatible with everyone in your life.Right. And don't get me wrong,
I do have kids that won't touchsome of my stuff with a ten foot

(08:39):
poll, but you know, itis what it is. Kids are kids,
But even my husband will eat stuff. I'm a big volume eater.
I can't just sit back and havelike a tiny little portion. I need
it to really satisfy me. AndI always tell my followers too, like
I'm huge with volume, so you'regoing to get a lot of bang for
your buck with my food. Andalso talk about that it's what to eat,

(09:03):
when to eat, and how toeat it. And I think,
you know, I just did aprogram with a doctor that I'm following and
using right now too, about howwe're so pre programmed to think when you
want to lose weight, it's starvationand deprivation, right, That's what.
Like, I've tried all of thediets and whatever prior to WW, nothing

(09:26):
worked. I was so miserable.I like my carbs, I like my
bread. I like to have adrink here and there. I am a
mom Like, come on, now, you know mommies, right, that's
exactly what I call Mommi's juice.I had one over the weekend. And
you can work in to that withyour WW lifestyle. So I there's so
many easy swaps for certain things andsomething you have to get used to.

(09:52):
It took me a while to getused to unsweetened almond milk, going from
skim milk to unsweetened almond milk.But now I can't even eat or drink
any kind of dairy because it kindof messes with me now and I prefer
this over that now. And it'sinteresting because I'm on a journey at the
same time too. It like I'mfollowing a new plan right now, which
does encourage WW. It's just whateverworks, whatever works for you in conjunction

(10:13):
with I'm under a medical supervision rightnow, but and I am following some
of your tips and some of yourrecipes because I am and and it's it's
all about retraining your brain. Itreally is, you know. And I
at my point in time in myage, I needed to seek medical supervision
and it's dis orberal health and wellness. I've been very transparent about that.

(10:33):
And I'm following some of your recipes, and I'm working at more, I'm
moving more, and I feel likeI'm learning that from you too, you
know, because it's again, weare so programmed where if it doesn't work
in twenty days or thirty days,if you don't lose one hundred pounds in
two days, then it's, youknow, it's a failure. And that's
not the case. It's your brainand everyone's different people. I get comments

(10:54):
a lot, you know, negativeand positive of how did you lose that
much weight in such short amount oftime where you like starving yourself? No,
I mean I didn't even work outmy entire journey of one hundred pounds.
It was just staying on track,drinking tons of water. I think
water is key in weight loss andjust staying active even just going up and

(11:18):
down the stairs doing laundry. Well, you have three kids, right,
That's all that kept me very active. I just started recently doing like peloton
and even from there I haven't Ialso have an autoimmune disease too, so
I get tend to get a keywhere I have to keep on moving.
So there's things that I get questionedon that I do share that you can

(11:39):
still do it when you have allof these things that you think are in
your way because I did it.I mean everyone, like I said,
everyone's journey is different and there's notimeline, there's no well, it would
be nice if there was a milliondollars waiting for you, but but I
mean, everyone's journey is different,and yours is lovely because your family stood
by you and this wasn't like avanity thing. And I don't know how

(12:01):
to say this delicately, but myhusband is I love my husband so much,
and my husband married me for me, you know. But I have
struggle with my way up and down. And I want to bring this to
light because it is a concern becauseI think a lot of women are ashamed
of themselves if they get married,and maybe they gain weight after they get
married, or you hear all thosestories and then you know people look at
you differently. Don't want to goto family gatherings. I want to embarrass.

(12:22):
I feel like you're embarrassing your husband'sfamily or your spouse's family, which
is a horrible way to think.And if you're listening right now and you
don't know how that feels, that'sgood because I never know you would never
want anyone to feel like that.But I know what that feels like,
and it's horrible. Yeah, mymental state was not very great when I
was that heavy. Yeah, Iwanted to hide. I didn't want to

(12:43):
go out. I wanted to weareverything black. In the summer, I
would cover up in like scarves.Wouldn't want to go outside. I have
a pool. I'd rather stay inside. I didn't want to go places because
I did not feel comfortable physically,and it put me into a mental funk.
And that was also like I needto get to snap out of it,
you know, because you know,I couldn't even catch up with my

(13:05):
kids. You know, I've gottwo dogs, couldn't run around with them.
So there's there was many things inline for me to just like fix
it and a lot of comments anda lot of Sometimes there's comments from people
in your life that love you,that mean well, that are so hurtful.
And sometimes there's you know, socialthanks to social media, and I

(13:26):
like to call it that word cowardsor keep boy whatever they call them.
Um. You know, they'll saythings like, well, didn't you know
you were getting the weight? Yeah, oh, I get you. I
get a lot of that spam that'snot her, yeah, I They're my
first picture that I took of myjourney. I'll always remember the day because
it was a day I joined.It was two five nineteen. I was

(13:48):
in my downstairs bathroom. I hadmy phone up because I was so ashamed.
I didn't want to show my face, but I wanted the before picture.
Years go on, I took thesame picture in the same bathroom.
I painted my walls, the carpethas changed, my phone case has changed.
Obviously, it's years later. Peopleare saying to me that is not

(14:09):
the same person. It's the samebathroom, just different. Things changed just
because I was hiding your case before. I mean, there's people that pick
out a lot of things, likethey'll be like, she's got the same
hairline like I have a lot ofpeople a lot of time on that backed
me up, and then I justhave a few that are there just but
that's real life too, right,and it's just magnified through social media.

(14:30):
So if someone's listening right now andthey're thinking about a journey, or they're
thinking about making a change, weightrelated or otherwise, you know, I
mean, what you've done is you'vereally changed your entire life and through this
social media platform and journey, thishas become your job. Yes it has,
and I absolutely love it. Sotalk a little bit about that and
tell people how you know, tofollow their dreams. Just go for it.

(14:52):
It may take time. It's takenme years to get to where I
am now and I'm still trying tobuild it. I just enjoy doing what
I do, and I pursued it, and I've been very happy about pursuing
it. I've met some great peoplelike you. Going on WFSB every Monday
is so much fun. I've justmet so many wonderful people. Even behind

(15:15):
the you know, Instagram. Ihave Internet friends that have been with me
since day one that I still obviouslyreally really really want to meet. But
somewhere on the other side of theworld, or even on the other side
of the country. But it's veryYou just got to push through, set
your goals and do it because you'regoing to look back and be like,
I did it, you did Idid it because you either start today trying

(15:37):
to improve your life and your lifestylewhatever that looks like, even if it's
just maybe I went for a fiveminute walk right right, or or you
don't. And I have accountability peoplefriends like get it, grab a buddy
online or wherever. Just check inwith each other too, especially on your
weight loss journey. Let me askyou this because this is what I'm learning
right now, and I want youto tell me if I'm if I'm not

(15:58):
truck because I'm really trying heart thistime to be self positive, which I
have a problem of not being okay. And I don't think that's male or
female specific or whatever. I justthink people do that to themselves, of
course, but it has taken mea long time to understand that. You
know, old me was like,I don't like this, I don't like

(16:18):
the way I look, I don'tlike the way I feel. I've got
to do something. Then I'll godownstairs begin my day. As if I
never had that conversation with myself,and then three weeks later, instead of
trying to make myself better, I'mworse off. When I had just for
those three weeks been kind to myselfand treated myself with respect, I would
have been in a better place.Now I'm doing that, and I'm I

(16:40):
keep telling myself every three weeks,I'm like, see what you've done?
Instead of I do that? Still? Do you do? I? Do
you? Why did I just?Why did I just do that? Right?
But it was like I had abad day, Okay, get over
it, Tomorrow's a new day.I get back on track. Forgive yourself
absolutely and um with weight loss,you know, there's the quote unquote cheat
days. Kind of have to havethose days or else you're just going to

(17:02):
end indulge too much and then you'rejust going to kick yourself for it.
So you have to put those intoyour week, your month. And I
was too to look at them ascheat days. That's why I did,
like quote ute like, like,you have to have your life. Absolutely,
you have to still eat what youlike, but you also can do
it lightened up. Or you justhave one of those days where you go
out with your girlfriends or your friendsor whatever, get on track the next

(17:23):
day and and and move on withthem. Then you'll be happy then,
you know. Now talk about someof your recipes. Um, do you
have a cookbook people can buy?Also? Do you are you an ambassador
for WW? Have they ever reachedout to you? They have, There's
been quite sometimes they have, butit's gone from reaching out to kind of

(17:45):
ghosted a man. They have showcasedme on like a before and after on
their WW like connect thing on theirapp. Um, I don't have a
cookbook. I would love to havea cookbook. Um, there's people that
were like, I will buy it. I will buy it. It's just
a lot of work to do.I don't know how to even begin to
do that. Because of my proteinice creams as well, people are asking

(18:07):
for like a protein ice cream ebookor something. I just need the time.
I need somebody, anybody to helpme. But people can get your
recipes online. Yes, yes,they're on They're on my site. You
can print them, you can pinthem on Pinterest. I am on Pinterest,
so you could save them to achef Alley's folder. What types of
recipes are you going to be featuringthis summer? I'm a side dish type

(18:30):
of person. I've been doing alot of like grilled vegetable salads, bean
salads, salsa like corn, andguacamole like vegetables. Or my best friend
fruit is also my best friend.So I also enjoy just grilling period,
like grilled chicken. And you don'tneed a boring grilled chicken to have a
good day of eats. Marinated seasonthe crap out of it. I tell

(18:56):
you, if you don't think you'reseasoning enough, season more, season more.
But that's it. Season your lifeand live your life, and enjoy
your summer, and enjoy your pool, and enjoy your friends and family.
Don't let you know. I thinkwe we think about our image, our
body image way more than other peopledo. Yeah, I mean, go
to the beach. There's so manydifferent shapes and sizes and looking at you,
say, looking right, absolutely,And I know that's in our mentality

(19:19):
that they're looking at me. They'renot looking at you. Oh, just
to enjoy your life life, Andthat's been in my head too. Yeah,
come on, who what person?Mostly females are you know, walking
around in their bathing suits saying nobody'slooking at me like that short? Right?
You know, we've got to getout there and enjoy. But I
wanted you in here just to tellyour story too. But like, how
do your kids look at you now? Do you see a difference in how

(19:41):
you are apparent now that you've changedyour mindset to be a healthier you.
Yes, because I'm able to domore. I just was like a potato
on a couch, potato. Ididn't want to move. I was so
depressed, you know. I couldn'tget up and run around with them outside,
even just doing things in the house. I wasn't as fast cleaning all

(20:03):
that stuff. My oldest is theone that really has seen it because she's
twelve. So my little ones didn'treally know, right mommy before unless I
show a picture because they're four andsix. But they've seen before and pictures
before pictures, and they're a littleconfused, but they're you know. My
my youngest daughter is like, wow, mommy, you know, but ava

(20:26):
my oldest she's seen me from myhighest or now so to now and what
is she notice more you're the wayyou are apparent now or does she just
notice the physical stuff? She likesto steal my clothes. Oh, she
loves all my clothes because I'm backto wearing you know what I used to
love to wear, not just youknow, trying to hide vine sweatshirts and

(20:49):
luggings and under layers and layers.I'm back to wearing fun clothes. And
that's another thing that I really miss, because I'm really I love clothes.
I love shopping online mostly, butI do enjoy putting on fun things to
wear, and able likes to raidmy closet. Now. I've seen a

(21:10):
lot of your recipes and a lotof them involved chocolate, and that's not
too good to be true. Youcan have chocolate. Yeah, what's funny
is Eva does not eat chocolate.Oh she does not like chocolate. Well,
I'll take more promotion then I'll take. I'll take her. But you
can live your life. I thinkthat's the most important thing I wanted to
get out of this interview today too, is that you can live your life

(21:30):
and you can be inspired and youdon't have to be afraid. No,
not at all. I look backand I honestly I never want to be
where I was before. And youfeel stronger, right, Oh yeah,
There's one thing that I've been alwayswanting to do is to go into like
a grocery store and hold like ahundred pounds of something and walk around and
just like, wow, I wasused to carry that weight, because I've

(21:52):
seen people do those, like youknow, videos or pictures, and you
don't really know the physical feeling untilyou're actually holding it, because I don't
remember how I used to walk aroundand feel like mentally I did, but
I really don't remember physically feeling likeheavier. You know what I mean,
I don't know. I'm trying tofigure out how word that. Well.

(22:15):
I think that makes sense too.And now that you've got this healthier mindset,
I mean, do you really thinkabout could this happen again? Or
do you feel like you're more armedand prepared that it won't. I gained
a lot of willpower. I meanI have my ups and downs in my
maintenance, like I'll gain like afive pounds or something, but if it
goes over like five to six sevenpounds, I'm like, no, Alley,

(22:37):
get back on track. You don'twant to go back to where you
were. And then I get backon track because I'll have my days where
I'm eating a whole bunch of garbage, but then I'm kicking myself at the
end of the day, why didyou do that? And now I'm like,
all right, back on track tomy allie, and it happens.
I'm human, I'm gonna have mybad days, I'm gonna have my bad
weeks, and you just get backon track and you get back on track

(23:00):
all right once again. How canpeople follow you on social media Chef Valley's
Kitchen on Instagram and TikTok and thenChef Aley's Kitchen dot com for all your
printable recipes? And how supportive hasyour husband been through all of this?
He's been my rock through it all. Yeah, he um even at my
highest that I got married at myhighest and he meant me to where I

(23:21):
am now, like this is howI was. Well, he loves you
right no matter what, no matterwhat. Yep, he has been a
huge supporter. And he has donethe majority, if not all, of
my website designing and everything. Sohe's a computer person, so he's been
huge, hugeo huge, And I'vebeen with him since I was nineteen,
so so yeah, and I thinkI think that's another thing people you know,

(23:44):
are very cruel about, like whywould somebody be with you or this?
Then you know whatever, you know, a husband, wife, or
a boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse,partner, what have you. You know.
I think there's just such a we'realso very hard on ourselves, very
much, and we quantify the waywe look with how much we should be
loved, right, And that's notAnd there are social media's I don't help,
that's true, Like, not everybodylooks like that. Everyone's different,

(24:07):
and um, a lot of that'spushed out to female you know, perspectives
that we should look like this,do that, And I'm just like,
and you know what, And it'snot to say that that who the models
or the people I shouldn't say theword model about. It's not to say
that people who work hard to lookgreat, right, that's wonderful, yeah,
you know, or two and morepower to them. But there's a

(24:29):
whole there's different groups of people.Yeah, And there's different types of people
absolutely, and you know, whateverworks for you works for you, yep.
But one thing we should all feelbecause we never know somebody else's story,
right, But one thing is thatwe should always be respectful of ourselves
absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, Andand and now did you learn that too?
Now you feel like you respect yourselfnow? I do. I do,

(24:49):
and there's more. There's things Iwant to work on because I do.
I do have blue skin, andthat's another thing that people ask me.
Have you had surgery? Have youhad you know, skin surgery.
I have not. There's just someplaces where you cannot see and I don't
like to show. Um. Itis what it is. But there's things
that I want to try and doand tighten up, and it just takes

(25:11):
time. I'll get there one day, you will, and we'll be with
you. Yeah, all along forthe journey, if not for your ice
cream recipe. You go, what'sthe best ice cream recipe that you have?
Do you think? Or what's themost downloaded one, or what do
you think? Well, there's twothat went viral. It was a coconut.
I think it's coconut almond. Ihave it pinned on the top of
my Instagram. Okay, that thatI think is either over two million or

(25:33):
close to two million views. Andthat that happened when I was on camping
trip. It just like took offand I'm just like, what is happening?
And then my following just went wingand like I wasn't I wasn't even
on Instagram. For like days,and all of a sudden, I see
my following grow and I'm just like, what is going on? And it
was like a recipe like two weeksprior to that that just like blew up.

(25:56):
And now the protein ice cream islike a thing now with the ninja
creamy so and the and what arethose? Those are points? Right?
Yes? So? And it's sofunny because you follow points. I just
follow your recipes like I don't evencount the points because I'm so balanced and
I'm doing my program and I'm incorporatingwhat you're doing with what I'm doing and
it's working and I'm feeling better andi feel like I'm eating cleaner. Yes,

(26:18):
And it's funny when you eat cleaneryou feel better, right, because
I ate a lot of stuff thatwas super, super greasy, and I
didn't like the way I felt afterwords, but I still did it prior
I'm like, this is good andthey feel like, you know, garbage
after and you do it again andI'm like, what are you doing?
And now I can't even have thatkind of stuff anymore, right, because
it just doesn't it doesn't make youfeel good, not at all all.

(26:41):
Right, Well, I really appreciateyour time today and your honesty. And
you know, I'm sure it's inspireda lot of people. And I'm sure
I'm going to put a link directlyto Chef Valley two, especially to all
those recipes, and maybe the nexttime you come, you can do we'll
do like our own little video hereand we'll make some stuff. Maybe I'll
come to your kitchen. It's veryit's newly renovated. All right, Well,

(27:02):
then I'm gonna come to your kitchen. I would love that how to
make three ice creams? Yeah,and you're your chocolate lover. I have
a chocolate I'm a chocolate lover forthere isn't enough chocolate in the world to
satisfy me. No, I'm rightthere with you. Okay, thank you
very much. And you know what, you can have it? Yeah,
and it don't have it? Yeah, don't tire a pint of it.
Okay, You're gonna have an entirepoint of my chocolate ice cream. Okay,

(27:23):
and then I can go over nowsure, Okay, I'm in the
freezer, going to wrap this up. I'm going to make some ice cream.
I'll be there in about a halfhour, all right, Chef Aley,
thanks for being on I heart community. Thank you,