July 7, 2025 • 27 mins
Ever wondered why certain foods make you feel happier? Or why gardening seems to boost your mood? The answers might surprise you – and they could transform your weight loss journey.
After my recent gallbladder removal surgery, I'm sharing fascinating discoveries about how our mental and physical health intertwine on the path to weight loss success. From temporary post-surgery weight fluctuations to unexpected digestive improvements, my body continues to reveal new insights two weeks into recovery.
Groundbreaking research from Harvard Medical School suggests daily citrus consumption may reduce depression risk by 20% by stimulating beneficial gut bacteria that influence mood-enhancing neurotransmitters. This explains the joy I've always found in my morning lemon water! Meanwhile, University of Colorado Boulder researchers discovered that just ten minutes of contact with certain soil bacteria measurably improves brain activity – validating why gardening and outdoor activities consistently boost my motivation.
Perhaps most relevant to anyone struggling with weight is UC San Francisco's "Big Joy Project" finding that just 5-7 minutes of daily kindness toward yourself or others significantly improves wellbeing, stress levels, and sleep quality. These small, consistent acts of self-compassion produce remarkable results without requiring hours of effort.
Throughout my journey from 550 pounds toward my goal weight, I've learned that sustainable transformation comes from simple, consistent actions rather than dramatic overhauls. As Van Gogh wisely noted, "Greatness doesn't happen overnight. It is a bunch of smalls brought together." By shifting my eating schedule, adding citrus to water, practicing self-kindness, enjoying outdoor activities, and finding joy in nutritious foods I genuinely love, I've created lasting change that works anywhere in the world.
What small step could you take today that might change everything tomorrow? Join me in discovering how tiny, consistent choices create extraordinary transformations. Subscribe to follow my ongoing journey and learn practical strategies you can implement immediately – no expensive equipment or extreme measures required.
Links to articles discused
Eating citrus may lower depression risk
Physician-researcher outlines gut-brain clues behind ‘orange a day’ findinghttps://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/02/eating-citrus-may-lower-depression-risk/
CUriosity: Why does playing in the dirt feel so good?
https://www.colorado.edu/today/2024/10/09/curiosity-why-does-playing-dirt-feel-so-good?fbclid=IwY2xjawLX8x5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFrTnM0QkhVcnYxOXhwVHdXAR60lGRD_Ce_sqPp7SSxtwBr2rfGi85CWnNbxOtX_jQ32qMYgb4h9fv2fBpPew_aem_fy8GWLseS7mgp7nWYmQWdQ
Fast-Track to Happiness: One Week of Micro-Acts Makes a Difference
https://neurosciencenews.com/micro-acts-happiness-psychology-29253/?fbclid=IwY2xjawLX_YBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFrTnM0QkhVcnYxOXhwVHdXAR7h92zBfHK3ktMZnzHo14TShPOIXjs31pepR8oTykyRitGX4VVwZIchrNJfSA_aem_CW8XCeTYoSTSZ_F7zGEk-A
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, welcome to episode five of Hacking the Fat
man.
This is a podcast about myjourney from 550 pounds to 175,
or actually, more likely, a bodyfat percentage in the teens is
really what I'm going for.
I produce this weekly and Igotta stop saying um, but I
produce this weekly both formyself, as a marker of where I
(00:22):
am and to record my efforts andinitiatives and progress, but
also I'm hoping to reach out tothose that have suffered from
depression or weight and orproblem and see if I can help
you guys out and hopefullyprovide some insight as I'm
struggling.
So a little bit of an update.
(00:42):
It's been two weeks actually,two weeks from today, two weeks
from almost right now that I hadmy gallbladder removed.
It's been an interesting twoweeks.
I've learned a lot and I'll getinto that a little bit.
I saw my GP on Monday this week,went in and had to get weighed
and I came in at 255, and beforeeveryone goes yeah, those that
(01:05):
have heard the last couple ofpodcasts where I've said I was
in the two thirties I knew fromthe my hernia surgery six months
ago I, before I went in forsurgery, I actually weighed
myself like literally fiveminutes before I left to go have
the surgery, I weighed myselfand then I weighed myself a week
afterwards and I had gained 20pounds from it.
It was purely water weightswelling, just the body
(01:27):
recovering from it, so I'm notupset with the 250.
In fact I weighed myself thismorning less six days, it was
already down to 245.
It took about another two weeksfor me to lose that 10 pounds
of swelling.
I can still feel it right herein my upper abdomen, especially
on the left side, which is wherethat was the incision point
(01:47):
where they removed everythingand they had to make it quite
large.
So I still feel the swelling.
I can even right now, my handover my abdomen, I can feel the
heat coming.
So there's definitely some stuffthere Interesting not
interesting, but on Wednesday Ileave for a European vacation to
Portugal and Spain, and so I'mkind of excited about that One.
(02:09):
The Portuguese and the Spanishdiet are fantastic for me.
I love the food and I think Ican actually still be really
good there while eating somereally good food that I don't
normally get.
The other thing is from theactivity two and a half weeks of
travel.
My activity level is going togo through the roof.
I have five dives planned.
(02:31):
Right now I'm diving the OceanRevival Park in Algarve area of
Portugal.
We're super excited about that.
They purposely sunk fourPortuguese warships to create
the reef and they took all theenvironmental precautions and
made everything for it.
So super excited to do that.
Go dive that area.
Unfortunately, I'm only openwater certified, so I can't do
(02:54):
the advanced diving or the wreckdiving because I'm not
certified in that, which justmeans I'll have to go back
because hopefully, by this timenext year I have those
certificates.
So yeah, I'm excited aboutabout that.
I don't know if I will pass nextsunday.
You know I'm trying to releasethese weekly fly out.
Wednesday night I'm going to betraveling.
I'm going to be no idea aboutinternet access, so that though
I so I might.
(03:15):
Uh, we will be taking a weekoff from the podcast and then
hopefully coming back thefollowing week with a week and a
half summary of the trip so far, um, how I'm doing, maybe even
try to find a scale somewhere,maybe not, maybe I'll wait until
I get back to weigh myself.
So that's what we have comingup.
Another thing that was asurprise this week.
So two things.
(03:35):
One I've learned about whatbile does in the body, because
I've seen some improvement in mydigestive system, meaning that
the constipation Sorry, I'mgoing to talk about something.
Anyway, we have to talk aboutit.
Being on Zepound, one of theside, I found your digestive
system and anyway, constipationis a thing I have been from
(03:59):
severe, and I talked to mysevere constipation.
I should have talked to himsooner because it could have
been a sign that the gallbladderwas going um, I guess itself is
laxative and so what I'm whatI'm, I'm almost back to step
down where things are moving andI am really pleased with that
and hope it sticks.
Um, I did miss a week aftersurgery, um, and take it monday
(04:19):
and, and I haven't it did slowdown a little bit but it not
nothing like it had been.
Anyway, we'll get off theconstipation thing, but that's
been a surprise.
With the gallbladder is I thinkI'm actually getting bile into
my system.
Suspect that I was completely.
The gallbladder itself wascompletely blocked and I was
getting very little bile into mysystem, which is where the
(04:41):
gallstones came from.
So I'm feeling great on that.
Not only did I could not take myZep-Bound shot last week, but I
haven't been able to take mysupplements.
They want you not to takesupplements.
For weeks I could have startedthem up again, and I did one day
, but then I traveled to Vegasto drop my dogs off for the trip
(05:02):
and I've just been off mysupplements.
So one of the side effects I'venoticed interest is, over the
last week I've started havingsome negative thoughts, one
around this what am I doing?
Why am I doing this?
I shouldn't be doing this.
You know that the impostersyndrome was kicking in General.
I started noticing that myattitude was not as pleasant as
(05:25):
it's been over the last coupleof months, and so I'm now
suspecting that, outside of theinflammation and everything else
that my supplements were giventhere, there are probably some
um, mental health benefits, thatand anything that you know.
There have been studies thatsay that for me.
So I started taking a lot ofthese supplements to go.
After inflammation.
I knew I was inflamed, I knew Ihad swelling, I had pain and
(05:47):
joints and that.
So there is a link between that.
Um, but something I'm going toresort, but I do want to take
some to talk.
There were a couple levels onfacebook that I found that they
were pretty interesting, and thefirst one is, if I can bring it
up here on my screen.
First one I want to talk.
There were a couple of littlethings on Facebook that I found
that were pretty interesting,and the first one is if I can
bring it up here on my screen.
First one I wanna talk about it.
You know my love of lemon juice.
Early still have it here in mywater.
(06:08):
I couldn't find my squeeze so Ijust did old school spoon in
there and so I've got a bunch ofpulse.
So if you see me pullingsomething, forgive, of course,
three seeds all will harvestthose and my love of citrus it.
I found this.
The early 2000s a friendintroduced me to the juice
cleanse and basically it waslike three days or five days
basically drink water and juice.
(06:29):
That was it.
And I chose lemon to put inthere and I noticed that I felt
better than I'd ever felt inalmost my entire life.
I felt doing this and it wassuch an impact on me that it
stuck with me.
So even though I'm not justdrinking this as a diet, I've
(06:50):
just added it to it.
So it's my water, and evenbefore I read this article, you
could hear the joy in my voicewhen I talk about my lemon water
.
It just brings me joy.
So this is an article out of theHarvard Gazette, harvard EDU.
You might have heard of them,and it was a study performed by
Raj Mehta and if I'm name right,raj I'm sorry he is an
(07:13):
instructor of medicine atHarvard Medical School and a
physician at the MassachusettsGeneral Hospital.
What they did is theydiscovered that eating an orange
a day just eating a mediumorange a day may increase a
person's depression risk by 20%,and they think this might be
because the citrus stimulatesthe growth of a particular
bacteria.
I'm not going to even pretendto pronounce it.
(07:34):
I will put these links into thepodcast and I will republish
them both on Facebook andInstagram of the articles that
I'm going to cover here so thatyou can see it, but it's an area
that's been around for a while.
This is known to help influencethe production of
neurotransmitters, of serotoninand dopamine, and we know that
those are two things that weknow help elevate mood, and we
(07:59):
know that those are two thingsthat we know help elevate mood.
When asked what inspired thestudy, he and another fellow
read a paper.
It was just about the paperthey read, from 2016, was just
about women, but it was findingcoming out of that study.
So they piqued their interestbecause it had a lot of data.
But they wanted to also see ifit wasn't just women or was it
also men, and so they producedthis study and it was conducted
(08:24):
over what?
A couple years, two years thatthey did it.
So the first study was nurseswho ate a lot of citrus had
lower rates of future depressionthan those who did not.
That was what came out of thatinitial study.
So they started creating,recreating it and testing it
themselves.
And let's see what else did Iwant to?
(08:45):
There was one of the things youknow, one of the things that
they realize, or what he'scalling about, is there are.
Well, this is his quote.
I think people know intuitivelythat food we eat impact our mood
.
We even have a term for this incomfort food and it's these
dishes that you eat.
That and I love citrus.
(09:05):
It's just a comfort food to me.
Enjoying your food.
This was the second thing Iwanted to take out of it.
So it wasn't just the citruscoming out of this study, but it
was in our diet.
Again, back to one of my points.
Is enjoy what we eat, that itcannot feel like a punishment.
If you're eating as apunishment because you're fat or
(09:26):
you think you're fat, sorry,don't, you can lose weight.
On one of my daily videos Ishared one of my favorite
comfort foods that I make andthat is my came from my mom's
tuna casserole.
For foods that I make, and thatis my came from my mom's tuna
casserole and it was just, it'sjust two cans of tuna, some
frozen broccoli, mushroom soupand pepper, and I absolutely
love well, broccoli and spinachor spinach.
(09:48):
I absolutely love that.
Put some pepper on there.
A gourmet meal and that it wasjust a quick meal.
I would do.
I love cheesy broccoli.
Green Johnson, you buy thesteamed packages.
It's not really cheese, it'smore of the Kraft macaroni and
cheese powder kind of stuff.
But it's still nothing againstthat.
(10:08):
I love Kraft mac and cheese.
So can't eat it.
But please, it reminds me ofthat.
Very calorie Cheese can be veryhigh in calories.
I tend to say I want the fullfat version of things.
Cheese is the area where,especially with the patient,
that's sorry.
Cheese can lead to constipation.
So I'm, and it's high incalories.
(10:28):
So while I do love cheese, Itend to try to reduce as much as
I can, but the cheese doesn'tcount.
I mean it counts but it doesn'tcount.
So just tuna and the cheesybroccoli is a comfort meal to me
.
It just makes me feel good.
So make sure to eat an orange aday, or have your lemon water
that's a full lemon that I havein there juiced.
Be sure to make sure that youenjoy the foods you eat.
(10:52):
Take the time to understandwhat do you enjoy.
Every diet I've ever tried,there were always my favorite
meals, and most of my diet nowis those meals.
Just what mood am I in forwhich one?
And I'm going to list those outat some point for you guys.
I've already started a couple,but I need to work on that a
little bit more.
The next thing, and this I justloved, I absolutely loved, in
(11:15):
fact, every year forward, I lovethis study so much, but it was
a study out of the University ofColorado, boulder, and this was
why it was a study conducted ofbacteria in dirt and does it
affect our mood and depression.
And so what they did was theygrabbed some volunteers and they
(11:37):
had plant seeds in soil thatthey knew that they had placed
this particular again, I'm not abacteria study.
I guess it's one of the oldestbacteria on the planet.
What they're studying, or whatthey're thinking about, is that
this was a simple evolution,that this bacteria and us have
evolved together.
It provides a benefit to us.
It improves our mood.
(11:58):
They had wired electrodes, Iguess, to people's brains and
they noticed that.
So one group planted in dirtthat they knew they had that
bacteria in, and another groupplanted and just and just from
the electro man, the readingsthat they were getting from,
they could tell within 10minutes which, which group it
(12:20):
was.
So, looking at the results, notknowing whether someone was in
dirt with the back that had beensanitized, they could tell
which one were the dirt.
Fascinating to me, and there'sthere's still a lot of research
that needs to go along with this.
There's obviously, you know, nosupplement.
I'm not going to go along withthis.
There's obviously, you know, nosupplement.
I'm not going to tell you toeat dirt, but I will tell you to
(12:40):
go plant things, get out in thedirt and have fun.
I garden, watch some of mydaily activities and I'm using
exercise.
Look for exercise.
It's actually just working inthe back, because I do know it
improves my mood.
I can feel it just being outthere.
It makes me feel better.
(13:01):
So now it's good to know thatthere's actually a reason why
it's the smells that you're thefresh air there's could be
something in there.
So their recommendation is eat.
Eat fruit and vegetables,because even if it's been
cleaned and washed, there'sprobably some of they call these
old friends, this bacteria, oldfriends.
There's some old friends on onthere.
So eat fresh fruit andvegetables.
That's going to help us.
Might be one of the reasons whyfresh fruit and vegetables are
good for us.
And then go play in the dirt,have a good time, enjoy your.
(13:22):
The last article I wanted tocover and again this is a you
know on the topic of just mentalhealth and what it means to our
diet a new study that came outthis, this is from Neuroscience
News.
Been able to find the actualarticle.
I tend to like the source UCSF.
Oh, so sources the Universityof sorry, uc San Francisco
(13:44):
tested the effectiveness of aweek-long web-based well-being
intervention known as the BigJoy Project.
Okay, so this is an article onNeuroscience News talking about
the UC San Francisco study onthe big joy product project and
they they enlisted over about1700 17,000 individuals from
(14:05):
around the US, canada, greatBritain to participate in this
project and what they wanted wasa few minutes a day, five to
seven minutes of kindness,whether it's's to adults or to
yourself, and what theydiscovered was after the seventh
day.
They call it an intervention.
After the seventh dayintervention, participants
reported higher levels ofwell-being and positive emotion
(14:28):
and a stronger belief that one'sown behavior can promote
happiness.
They also reported decreasedstress and improved health and
sleep quality.
Why this matters you know we'vekind of covered it in the last
couple articles is we know thatimprovements in well-being are
associated with lower risk offuture mental illness.
That leads then to betterphysical health.
(14:50):
People with higher well-beingare less likely to develop
chronic conditions likecardiovascular disease, reduce
mortality in both unhealthy andunhealthy population.
Web-based well-beinginterventions over the last
several weeks take three to fourhours a week to complete have
shown favorable results.
But this is the first time thata short intervention has shown
(15:11):
such strong benefits.
So what that means is they haddone studies that if you were
doing three hours a week andthat it had improved.
Now they realize it can be assimple as five to seven minutes,
simple acts of kindness, andthis was particularly
interesting to me.
I remember at the height of mydepression, when I was thinking
(15:32):
the bad things that simple tasksused to me off and make me
frustrated.
Like, actually take my water.
I've got a Samsung refrigeratorno offense, samsung, but
literally it's the worst icedispenser I've ever seen on the
planet.
I get one ice cube about every20 seconds.
(15:54):
It's slow.
It's even just filling up thewater is slow and pain, and I
used to get so frustrated at it.
Or even just getting up, youknow, you hear people that can't
get up out of bed.
Well, it's worse than that.
They don't even want to take ashower.
I didn't want to take a shower,even though I knew I smelled, I
was dirty, I was disgusting,I'm miserable, um it just I did
not have the energy to get upand do something.
(16:17):
And reframing those tasks in myhead when, you know, when I,
when in episode one I talkedabout just doing something a
little bit of kindness makes domake my life a little bit better
each day, it was actually thosetasks I started to focus on.
So, getting up and when I'mtaking a shower, I remind myself
it feels good to be back tomyself, it feels good.
(16:39):
This is a good thing that I'mdoing for myself.
I am benefiting from it.
Versus oh my God, I can'tbelieve I got to get up and take
another shower, whatever wasgoing on in that stupid true
brain.
I'm pushing that aside now.
It's just, it's gone.
So, doing the simple things, notgetting frustrated being in the
moment on.
So doing the simple things, notgetting frustrated being in the
(17:00):
moment.
And so if I find myself gettinganxious, waiting for the
Samsung to drop the next icecube, I start thinking about
other things.
I start just being calm, deepbreathing, think about something
good that my dogs did orsomething.
And next thing, I know I'veoverfilled the ice, got too much
ice in it.
Well, okay, that never reallyhappens.
But close and or the, or itfills up and I'm done, and it
(17:21):
feel like an hour is that feelslike the two minutes that I'm
doing, and that's again just thewell-being, the, the act of
kindness to yourself, and justreframing what you're staring at
or what you're doing to helpgive you this, this feeling of,
of, of, of wellbeing.
So it's, it's, it's, it'sinteresting to me, um, and and,
(17:44):
and I think it's important, andthese two things, three things,
that that, and the reason Ibring them up is I've realized I
I have a a not a story problembut a articulation problem, that
that I know things are workingand work for me, but I'm not
really sure why they're workingfor me and I'm articulating them
well, right?
So when I talk about well-being, people will you know I've
(18:06):
talked with families and friendsabout this, and acquaintances
or anyone that wants to sit downnext to me on an airplane.
I will talk to them, you know,about my adventure, if they're
interested in it, and theyimmediately start focusing on
these other things.
I, I, you know, I keep tryingto tell them hey, you know,
there's no guarantee they starttalking about well, I'm
frustrated because I don't havethe house I want or the those,
(18:28):
but those are tomorrow, right,what are you doing today to get
you to those results?
I ask, I'm frustrated, I'm not170 pounds and, yes, I, I want,
I want to be it, but I don'tstart there.
What am I doing today, at thissecond, because it's the only
thing I can control is thissecond.
What am I doing this secondthat will lead me down the path
(18:49):
to where I want to be in thefuture?
And as long as I'm doingsomething now that gets me there
, it starts to, it starts to geteasier and it starts to get
better.
One of my favorite quotes and Idid post this recently on
Instagram was from Van Gogh, andI'm paraphrasing and I'm going
to paraphrase it horribly, Ikeep trying to remember the
exact quote, but it's, it'sgreatness, just greatness
(19:11):
doesn't happen overnight.
It is a bunch of smalls broughttogether and that's exactly it.
It's how do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
Don't worry about the house andwhere you want to be in the
future those things will come.
Just make sure that you'removing yourself.
Don't worry about your weight.
Make sure you're doing.
Did you do everything that youdid today, that you could do
today, that set you up forsuccess tomorrow?
(19:35):
And if you keep doing that, youwill arrive at your destination
at some point.
Yeah, so that's it on thearticles.
I do want to kind of touch on ajust just a couple other things
from last week's podcast, right?
So in last week's podcast, Istarted talking about how we
start to how would you start toimplement this diet, or how
(19:55):
would I start to implement thisdiet and I'm bringing back this,
the mental healthness thought,because that's actually where I
started, right.
Last week I talked aboutsetting a caloric limit, setting
very small changes to yourlifestyle.
See if they stick.
And if you can stick with those, then you add on the next thing
, right?
(20:15):
So, yes, you can go out and buya gym membership and hit, great
If you can lose the 10, 15, 20,30, 40 pounds on a gym
membership.
Thing that you like to do goodon you.
From my standpoint is I've donethe diets and exercise, I've
done the hardcore workouts andthen I got injured and my diet
(20:36):
went, or I had to travel forwork or for some other reasons I
lost access to something.
Oh yeah, talking about buying atreadmill or gym membership and
you know, it's kind of like ourNew Year's resolutions and I've
been guilty of this, everyone'sbeen guilty of it.
Okay, I'm going to make achange and for some reason it's
(20:56):
the easiest change we make isbuying something expensive.
I'm going to buy a bike, I'mgoing to buy a and I'm not
knocking those things.
If you can do it and stick withit, great, do it For me.
I found that those aren't makethis stick.
Going back to this, so makingsmall changes to it, to my diet,
my life seem to have greaterlasting effect and become easier
(21:20):
.
You know, if you want to walkfor exercise, great.
Why don't you just get up andwalk for 30 minutes?
In our case?
It's hot, it's summer, I get it, but you don't need to
necessarily buy a gym membershipor a treadmill first.
I suggest making some smallerchanges.
The 5 to 10 minutes of justdoing acts of kindness to
(21:41):
yourself and for others, that'sa great change.
That's something you canimmediately do today.
Tomorrow it will start tochange the way you approach
things.
Adding a medium orange or alemon to your water, a citrus is
going to start helping you.
Last week I talked about movingto earlier in the day.
That's a simple shift, right?
Instead of eating all yourcalories at six o'clock, eight
(22:03):
o'clock at night, move yourcalories to noon to 2 pm.
I already 90% of my calories inby 2.
Most of the time I'm actuallygetting 100% of my calories in
by 2 pm, but I've also set thelimit of if I've missed
something or if I'm feeling alittle hungry, making sure I
don't eat past 5.
That's also something I'veadded, and those were simple
changes to my life that I can doanywhere in the world, it
(22:28):
doesn't matter where I am, andthey had great effect in
enabling me to start.
So, yeah, that's this week'spodcast.
So, if you're looking to start,if you're looking to make minor
changes, I posted one of myfavorite quotes from Van Gogh
butcher this mercilessly, but itbasically was greatness doesn't
(22:51):
happen in one act, it's a bunchof small acts coming together,
it's the how to eat one bite ata time.
So doing simple acts combinedlead to greatness, and I just
love that quote because that'skind of what, not kind of.
That's exactly what I'm tryingto say here.
Start small, make small changes, because by doing this, it's
exactly what I'm trying to sayhere.
Start small, make small changes, because by doing this it's
(23:11):
more likely to stick and becomea habit in your life.
Working out an hour a day is amajor change to your life.
Again, not knocking if you cando it, awesome if you can't.
But shifts tend to not stickand we know that.
I mean the number of gymmemberships that don't really
use them, though they have themmoney.
The companies want you to dothat because they know a certain
(23:35):
population is going to be likethat.
Small changes, acts of kindnessto yourself and to others.
After your diet, what am Isupposed to do?
Oh and go play.
Go get outside and have somefun.
So that's this week's advice.
I hope you enjoyed this podcastwith Hackin' the Fat man Again,
no podcast next Sunday.
(23:56):
I'm going to take a week offand try to get one out,
depending on what my internetconnectivity looks like in
Barcelona, because I'll be inBarcelona at that time and
hopefully I'll have some storiesabout my dives and dive in
Porto Mayo and the ocean park,because I'm really, really
excited about it.
I hope you guys time andhopefully I'll have some stories
about my dives and dive inPortimao and the ocean park,
because I'm really, reallyexcited about it.
I hope you guys are great, havea good week and I'll see you in
(24:16):
two weeks.
Alright, cheers.
Hi, welcome to episode five of Hacking the Fat
man.
This is a podcast about myjourney from 550 pounds to 175,
or actually, more likely, a bodyfat percentage in the teens is
really what I'm going for.
I produce this weekly and Igotta stop saying um, but I
produce this weekly both formyself, as a marker of where I
(00:22):
am and to record my efforts andinitiatives and progress, but
also I'm hoping to reach out tothose that have suffered from
depression or weight and orproblem and see if I can help
you guys out and hopefullyprovide some insight as I'm
struggling.
So a little bit of an update.
(00:42):
It's been two weeks actually,two weeks from today, two weeks
from almost right now that I hadmy gallbladder removed.
It's been an interesting twoweeks.
I've learned a lot and I'll getinto that a little bit.
I saw my GP on Monday this week,went in and had to get weighed
and I came in at 255, and beforeeveryone goes yeah, those that
(01:05):
have heard the last couple ofpodcasts where I've said I was
in the two thirties I knew fromthe my hernia surgery six months
ago I, before I went in forsurgery, I actually weighed
myself like literally fiveminutes before I left to go have
the surgery, I weighed myselfand then I weighed myself a week
afterwards and I had gained 20pounds from it.
It was purely water weightswelling, just the body
(01:27):
recovering from it, so I'm notupset with the 250.
In fact I weighed myself thismorning less six days, it was
already down to 245.
It took about another two weeksfor me to lose that 10 pounds
of swelling.
I can still feel it right herein my upper abdomen, especially
on the left side, which is wherethat was the incision point
(01:47):
where they removed everythingand they had to make it quite
large.
So I still feel the swelling.
I can even right now, my handover my abdomen, I can feel the
heat coming.
So there's definitely some stuffthere Interesting not
interesting, but on Wednesday Ileave for a European vacation to
Portugal and Spain, and so I'mkind of excited about that One.
(02:09):
The Portuguese and the Spanishdiet are fantastic for me.
I love the food and I think Ican actually still be really
good there while eating somereally good food that I don't
normally get.
The other thing is from theactivity two and a half weeks of
travel.
My activity level is going togo through the roof.
I have five dives planned.
(02:31):
Right now I'm diving the OceanRevival Park in Algarve area of
Portugal.
We're super excited about that.
They purposely sunk fourPortuguese warships to create
the reef and they took all theenvironmental precautions and
made everything for it.
So super excited to do that.
Go dive that area.
Unfortunately, I'm only openwater certified, so I can't do
(02:54):
the advanced diving or the wreckdiving because I'm not
certified in that, which justmeans I'll have to go back
because hopefully, by this timenext year I have those
certificates.
So yeah, I'm excited aboutabout that.
I don't know if I will pass nextsunday.
You know I'm trying to releasethese weekly fly out.
Wednesday night I'm going to betraveling.
I'm going to be no idea aboutinternet access, so that though
I so I might.
(03:15):
Uh, we will be taking a weekoff from the podcast and then
hopefully coming back thefollowing week with a week and a
half summary of the trip so far, um, how I'm doing, maybe even
try to find a scale somewhere,maybe not, maybe I'll wait until
I get back to weigh myself.
So that's what we have comingup.
Another thing that was asurprise this week.
So two things.
(03:35):
One I've learned about whatbile does in the body, because
I've seen some improvement in mydigestive system, meaning that
the constipation Sorry, I'mgoing to talk about something.
Anyway, we have to talk aboutit.
Being on Zepound, one of theside, I found your digestive
system and anyway, constipationis a thing I have been from
(03:59):
severe, and I talked to mysevere constipation.
I should have talked to himsooner because it could have
been a sign that the gallbladderwas going um, I guess itself is
laxative and so what I'm whatI'm, I'm almost back to step
down where things are moving andI am really pleased with that
and hope it sticks.
Um, I did miss a week aftersurgery, um, and take it monday
(04:19):
and, and I haven't it did slowdown a little bit but it not
nothing like it had been.
Anyway, we'll get off theconstipation thing, but that's
been a surprise.
With the gallbladder is I thinkI'm actually getting bile into
my system.
Suspect that I was completely.
The gallbladder itself wascompletely blocked and I was
getting very little bile into mysystem, which is where the
(04:41):
gallstones came from.
So I'm feeling great on that.
Not only did I could not take myZep-Bound shot last week, but I
haven't been able to take mysupplements.
They want you not to takesupplements.
For weeks I could have startedthem up again, and I did one day
, but then I traveled to Vegasto drop my dogs off for the trip
(05:02):
and I've just been off mysupplements.
So one of the side effects I'venoticed interest is, over the
last week I've started havingsome negative thoughts, one
around this what am I doing?
Why am I doing this?
I shouldn't be doing this.
You know that the impostersyndrome was kicking in General.
I started noticing that myattitude was not as pleasant as
(05:25):
it's been over the last coupleof months, and so I'm now
suspecting that, outside of theinflammation and everything else
that my supplements were giventhere, there are probably some
um, mental health benefits, thatand anything that you know.
There have been studies thatsay that for me.
So I started taking a lot ofthese supplements to go.
After inflammation.
I knew I was inflamed, I knew Ihad swelling, I had pain and
(05:47):
joints and that.
So there is a link between that.
Um, but something I'm going toresort, but I do want to take
some to talk.
There were a couple levels onfacebook that I found that they
were pretty interesting, and thefirst one is, if I can bring it
up here on my screen.
First one I want to talk.
There were a couple of littlethings on Facebook that I found
that were pretty interesting,and the first one is if I can
bring it up here on my screen.
First one I wanna talk about it.
You know my love of lemon juice.
Early still have it here in mywater.
(06:08):
I couldn't find my squeeze so Ijust did old school spoon in
there and so I've got a bunch ofpulse.
So if you see me pullingsomething, forgive, of course,
three seeds all will harvestthose and my love of citrus it.
I found this.
The early 2000s a friendintroduced me to the juice
cleanse and basically it waslike three days or five days
basically drink water and juice.
(06:29):
That was it.
And I chose lemon to put inthere and I noticed that I felt
better than I'd ever felt inalmost my entire life.
I felt doing this and it wassuch an impact on me that it
stuck with me.
So even though I'm not justdrinking this as a diet, I've
(06:50):
just added it to it.
So it's my water, and evenbefore I read this article, you
could hear the joy in my voicewhen I talk about my lemon water
.
It just brings me joy.
So this is an article out of theHarvard Gazette, harvard EDU.
You might have heard of them,and it was a study performed by
Raj Mehta and if I'm name right,raj I'm sorry he is an
(07:13):
instructor of medicine atHarvard Medical School and a
physician at the MassachusettsGeneral Hospital.
What they did is theydiscovered that eating an orange
a day just eating a mediumorange a day may increase a
person's depression risk by 20%,and they think this might be
because the citrus stimulatesthe growth of a particular
bacteria.
I'm not going to even pretendto pronounce it.
(07:34):
I will put these links into thepodcast and I will republish
them both on Facebook andInstagram of the articles that
I'm going to cover here so thatyou can see it, but it's an area
that's been around for a while.
This is known to help influencethe production of
neurotransmitters, of serotoninand dopamine, and we know that
those are two things that weknow help elevate mood, and we
(07:59):
know that those are two thingsthat we know help elevate mood.
When asked what inspired thestudy, he and another fellow
read a paper.
It was just about the paperthey read, from 2016, was just
about women, but it was findingcoming out of that study.
So they piqued their interestbecause it had a lot of data.
But they wanted to also see ifit wasn't just women or was it
also men, and so they producedthis study and it was conducted
(08:24):
over what?
A couple years, two years thatthey did it.
So the first study was nurseswho ate a lot of citrus had
lower rates of future depressionthan those who did not.
That was what came out of thatinitial study.
So they started creating,recreating it and testing it
themselves.
And let's see what else did Iwant to?
(08:45):
There was one of the things youknow, one of the things that
they realize, or what he'scalling about, is there are.
Well, this is his quote.
I think people know intuitivelythat food we eat impact our mood
.
We even have a term for this incomfort food and it's these
dishes that you eat.
That and I love citrus.
(09:05):
It's just a comfort food to me.
Enjoying your food.
This was the second thing Iwanted to take out of it.
So it wasn't just the citruscoming out of this study, but it
was in our diet.
Again, back to one of my points.
Is enjoy what we eat, that itcannot feel like a punishment.
If you're eating as apunishment because you're fat or
(09:26):
you think you're fat, sorry,don't, you can lose weight.
On one of my daily videos Ishared one of my favorite
comfort foods that I make andthat is my came from my mom's
tuna casserole.
For foods that I make, and thatis my came from my mom's tuna
casserole and it was just, it'sjust two cans of tuna, some
frozen broccoli, mushroom soupand pepper, and I absolutely
love well, broccoli and spinachor spinach.
(09:48):
I absolutely love that.
Put some pepper on there.
A gourmet meal and that it wasjust a quick meal.
I would do.
I love cheesy broccoli.
Green Johnson, you buy thesteamed packages.
It's not really cheese, it'smore of the Kraft macaroni and
cheese powder kind of stuff.
But it's still nothing againstthat.
(10:08):
I love Kraft mac and cheese.
So can't eat it.
But please, it reminds me ofthat.
Very calorie Cheese can be veryhigh in calories.
I tend to say I want the fullfat version of things.
Cheese is the area where,especially with the patient,
that's sorry.
Cheese can lead to constipation.
So I'm, and it's high incalories.
(10:28):
So while I do love cheese, Itend to try to reduce as much as
I can, but the cheese doesn'tcount.
I mean it counts but it doesn'tcount.
So just tuna and the cheesybroccoli is a comfort meal to me
.
It just makes me feel good.
So make sure to eat an orange aday, or have your lemon water
that's a full lemon that I havein there juiced.
Be sure to make sure that youenjoy the foods you eat.
(10:52):
Take the time to understandwhat do you enjoy.
Every diet I've ever tried,there were always my favorite
meals, and most of my diet nowis those meals.
Just what mood am I in forwhich one?
And I'm going to list those outat some point for you guys.
I've already started a couple,but I need to work on that a
little bit more.
The next thing, and this I justloved, I absolutely loved, in
(11:15):
fact, every year forward, I lovethis study so much, but it was
a study out of the University ofColorado, boulder, and this was
why it was a study conducted ofbacteria in dirt and does it
affect our mood and depression.
And so what they did was theygrabbed some volunteers and they
(11:37):
had plant seeds in soil thatthey knew that they had placed
this particular again, I'm not abacteria study.
I guess it's one of the oldestbacteria on the planet.
What they're studying, or whatthey're thinking about, is that
this was a simple evolution,that this bacteria and us have
evolved together.
It provides a benefit to us.
It improves our mood.
(11:58):
They had wired electrodes, Iguess, to people's brains and
they noticed that.
So one group planted in dirtthat they knew they had that
bacteria in, and another groupplanted and just and just from
the electro man, the readingsthat they were getting from,
they could tell within 10minutes which, which group it
(12:20):
was.
So, looking at the results, notknowing whether someone was in
dirt with the back that had beensanitized, they could tell
which one were the dirt.
Fascinating to me, and there'sthere's still a lot of research
that needs to go along with this.
There's obviously, you know, nosupplement.
I'm not going to go along withthis.
There's obviously, you know, nosupplement.
I'm not going to tell you toeat dirt, but I will tell you to
(12:40):
go plant things, get out in thedirt and have fun.
I garden, watch some of mydaily activities and I'm using
exercise.
Look for exercise.
It's actually just working inthe back, because I do know it
improves my mood.
I can feel it just being outthere.
It makes me feel better.
(13:01):
So now it's good to know thatthere's actually a reason why
it's the smells that you're thefresh air there's could be
something in there.
So their recommendation is eat.
Eat fruit and vegetables,because even if it's been
cleaned and washed, there'sprobably some of they call these
old friends, this bacteria, oldfriends.
There's some old friends on onthere.
So eat fresh fruit andvegetables.
That's going to help us.
Might be one of the reasons whyfresh fruit and vegetables are
good for us.
And then go play in the dirt,have a good time, enjoy your.
(13:22):
The last article I wanted tocover and again this is a you
know on the topic of just mentalhealth and what it means to our
diet a new study that came outthis, this is from Neuroscience
News.
Been able to find the actualarticle.
I tend to like the source UCSF.
Oh, so sources the Universityof sorry, uc San Francisco
(13:44):
tested the effectiveness of aweek-long web-based well-being
intervention known as the BigJoy Project.
Okay, so this is an article onNeuroscience News talking about
the UC San Francisco study onthe big joy product project and
they they enlisted over about1700 17,000 individuals from
(14:05):
around the US, canada, greatBritain to participate in this
project and what they wanted wasa few minutes a day, five to
seven minutes of kindness,whether it's's to adults or to
yourself, and what theydiscovered was after the seventh
day.
They call it an intervention.
After the seventh dayintervention, participants
reported higher levels ofwell-being and positive emotion
(14:28):
and a stronger belief that one'sown behavior can promote
happiness.
They also reported decreasedstress and improved health and
sleep quality.
Why this matters you know we'vekind of covered it in the last
couple articles is we know thatimprovements in well-being are
associated with lower risk offuture mental illness.
That leads then to betterphysical health.
(14:50):
People with higher well-beingare less likely to develop
chronic conditions likecardiovascular disease, reduce
mortality in both unhealthy andunhealthy population.
Web-based well-beinginterventions over the last
several weeks take three to fourhours a week to complete have
shown favorable results.
But this is the first time thata short intervention has shown
(15:11):
such strong benefits.
So what that means is they haddone studies that if you were
doing three hours a week andthat it had improved.
Now they realize it can be assimple as five to seven minutes,
simple acts of kindness, andthis was particularly
interesting to me.
I remember at the height of mydepression, when I was thinking
(15:32):
the bad things that simple tasksused to me off and make me
frustrated.
Like, actually take my water.
I've got a Samsung refrigeratorno offense, samsung, but
literally it's the worst icedispenser I've ever seen on the
planet.
I get one ice cube about every20 seconds.
(15:54):
It's slow.
It's even just filling up thewater is slow and pain, and I
used to get so frustrated at it.
Or even just getting up, youknow, you hear people that can't
get up out of bed.
Well, it's worse than that.
They don't even want to take ashower.
I didn't want to take a shower,even though I knew I smelled, I
was dirty, I was disgusting,I'm miserable, um it just I did
not have the energy to get upand do something.
(16:17):
And reframing those tasks in myhead when, you know, when I,
when in episode one I talkedabout just doing something a
little bit of kindness makes domake my life a little bit better
each day, it was actually thosetasks I started to focus on.
So, getting up and when I'mtaking a shower, I remind myself
it feels good to be back tomyself, it feels good.
(16:39):
This is a good thing that I'mdoing for myself.
I am benefiting from it.
Versus oh my God, I can'tbelieve I got to get up and take
another shower, whatever wasgoing on in that stupid true
brain.
I'm pushing that aside now.
It's just, it's gone.
So, doing the simple things, notgetting frustrated being in the
moment on.
So doing the simple things, notgetting frustrated being in the
(17:00):
moment.
And so if I find myself gettinganxious, waiting for the
Samsung to drop the next icecube, I start thinking about
other things.
I start just being calm, deepbreathing, think about something
good that my dogs did orsomething.
And next thing, I know I'veoverfilled the ice, got too much
ice in it.
Well, okay, that never reallyhappens.
But close and or the, or itfills up and I'm done, and it
(17:21):
feel like an hour is that feelslike the two minutes that I'm
doing, and that's again just thewell-being, the, the act of
kindness to yourself, and justreframing what you're staring at
or what you're doing to helpgive you this, this feeling of,
of, of, of wellbeing.
So it's, it's, it's, it'sinteresting to me, um, and and,
(17:44):
and I think it's important, andthese two things, three things,
that that, and the reason Ibring them up is I've realized I
I have a a not a story problembut a articulation problem, that
that I know things are workingand work for me, but I'm not
really sure why they're workingfor me and I'm articulating them
well, right?
So when I talk about well-being, people will you know I've
(18:06):
talked with families and friendsabout this, and acquaintances
or anyone that wants to sit downnext to me on an airplane.
I will talk to them, you know,about my adventure, if they're
interested in it, and theyimmediately start focusing on
these other things.
I, I, you know, I keep tryingto tell them hey, you know,
there's no guarantee they starttalking about well, I'm
frustrated because I don't havethe house I want or the those,
(18:28):
but those are tomorrow, right,what are you doing today to get
you to those results?
I ask, I'm frustrated, I'm not170 pounds and, yes, I, I want,
I want to be it, but I don'tstart there.
What am I doing today, at thissecond, because it's the only
thing I can control is thissecond.
What am I doing this secondthat will lead me down the path
(18:49):
to where I want to be in thefuture?
And as long as I'm doingsomething now that gets me there
, it starts to, it starts to geteasier and it starts to get
better.
One of my favorite quotes and Idid post this recently on
Instagram was from Van Gogh, andI'm paraphrasing and I'm going
to paraphrase it horribly, Ikeep trying to remember the
exact quote, but it's, it'sgreatness, just greatness
(19:11):
doesn't happen overnight.
It is a bunch of smalls broughttogether and that's exactly it.
It's how do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
Don't worry about the house andwhere you want to be in the
future those things will come.
Just make sure that you'removing yourself.
Don't worry about your weight.
Make sure you're doing.
Did you do everything that youdid today, that you could do
today, that set you up forsuccess tomorrow?
(19:35):
And if you keep doing that, youwill arrive at your destination
at some point.
Yeah, so that's it on thearticles.
I do want to kind of touch on ajust just a couple other things
from last week's podcast, right?
So in last week's podcast, Istarted talking about how we
start to how would you start toimplement this diet, or how
(19:55):
would I start to implement thisdiet and I'm bringing back this,
the mental healthness thought,because that's actually where I
started, right.
Last week I talked aboutsetting a caloric limit, setting
very small changes to yourlifestyle.
See if they stick.
And if you can stick with those, then you add on the next thing
, right?
(20:15):
So, yes, you can go out and buya gym membership and hit, great
If you can lose the 10, 15, 20,30, 40 pounds on a gym
membership.
Thing that you like to do goodon you.
From my standpoint is I've donethe diets and exercise, I've
done the hardcore workouts andthen I got injured and my diet
(20:36):
went, or I had to travel forwork or for some other reasons I
lost access to something.
Oh yeah, talking about buying atreadmill or gym membership and
you know, it's kind of like ourNew Year's resolutions and I've
been guilty of this, everyone'sbeen guilty of it.
Okay, I'm going to make achange and for some reason it's
(20:56):
the easiest change we make isbuying something expensive.
I'm going to buy a bike, I'mgoing to buy a and I'm not
knocking those things.
If you can do it and stick withit, great, do it For me.
I found that those aren't makethis stick.
Going back to this, so makingsmall changes to it, to my diet,
my life seem to have greaterlasting effect and become easier
(21:20):
.
You know, if you want to walkfor exercise, great.
Why don't you just get up andwalk for 30 minutes?
In our case?
It's hot, it's summer, I get it, but you don't need to
necessarily buy a gym membershipor a treadmill first.
I suggest making some smallerchanges.
The 5 to 10 minutes of justdoing acts of kindness to
(21:41):
yourself and for others, that'sa great change.
That's something you canimmediately do today.
Tomorrow it will start tochange the way you approach
things.
Adding a medium orange or alemon to your water, a citrus is
going to start helping you.
Last week I talked about movingto earlier in the day.
That's a simple shift, right?
Instead of eating all yourcalories at six o'clock, eight
(22:03):
o'clock at night, move yourcalories to noon to 2 pm.
I already 90% of my calories inby 2.
Most of the time I'm actuallygetting 100% of my calories in
by 2 pm, but I've also set thelimit of if I've missed
something or if I'm feeling alittle hungry, making sure I
don't eat past 5.
That's also something I'veadded, and those were simple
changes to my life that I can doanywhere in the world, it
(22:28):
doesn't matter where I am, andthey had great effect in
enabling me to start.
So, yeah, that's this week'spodcast.
So, if you're looking to start,if you're looking to make minor
changes, I posted one of myfavorite quotes from Van Gogh
butcher this mercilessly, but itbasically was greatness doesn't
(22:51):
happen in one act, it's a bunchof small acts coming together,
it's the how to eat one bite ata time.
So doing simple acts combinedlead to greatness, and I just
love that quote because that'skind of what, not kind of.
That's exactly what I'm tryingto say here.
Start small, make small changes, because by doing this, it's
exactly what I'm trying to sayhere.
Start small, make small changes, because by doing this it's
(23:11):
more likely to stick and becomea habit in your life.
Working out an hour a day is amajor change to your life.
Again, not knocking if you cando it, awesome if you can't.
But shifts tend to not stickand we know that.
I mean the number of gymmemberships that don't really
use them, though they have themmoney.
The companies want you to dothat because they know a certain
(23:35):
population is going to be likethat.
Small changes, acts of kindnessto yourself and to others.
After your diet, what am Isupposed to do?
Oh and go play.
Go get outside and have somefun.
So that's this week's advice.
I hope you enjoyed this podcastwith Hackin' the Fat man Again,
no podcast next Sunday.
(23:56):
I'm going to take a week offand try to get one out,
depending on what my internetconnectivity looks like in
Barcelona, because I'll be inBarcelona at that time and
hopefully I'll have some storiesabout my dives and dive in
Porto Mayo and the ocean park,because I'm really, really
excited about it.
I hope you guys time andhopefully I'll have some stories
about my dives and dive inPortimao and the ocean park,
because I'm really, reallyexcited about it.
I hope you guys are great, havea good week and I'll see you in
(24:16):
two weeks.
Alright, cheers.
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