Taste of Triumph: Healing Progress and Culinary Conversations

In this weeks episode, Mariah and Jason embark on a conversation centered around Mariah's exciting news regarding her treatment journey. Tune in as Mariah shares her dedication to a new nutritional lifestyle, illuminating the profound role that food plays in her life. Delving into intriguing topics, they explore the fascinating link between food intolerance and ethnicity, shedding light on the diverse ways our bodies interact with nourishment. Prepare to be entertained as they unravel the curious conundrum of sourcing fish in landlocked states, offering insights into the quirks of culinary exploration. With a touch of nostalgia, Mariah opens up about the foods she longs for the most from her various hometowns, creating a vivid tapestry of taste and memories. Join Mariah and Jason for an episode that's as flavorful as it is insightful, celebrating the intersection of health, culture, and culinary delights on The Mariah Effect.

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Episode Transcript

(00:58):
Hi, everybody. Welcome to themMaria Affect. I'm Mariah and here we
are this week. Heck yeah,I'm so excited about this episode today because
we're talking about some of my favoritethings in the entire world, which is
uh food food. Yeah. Butbefore we get into all of that,

(01:21):
I guess I should do a littleupdate about everything going on with me.
Last week, I had a whatdo you call it, like a break?
I guess there's a more official waythat I put it in like the

(01:42):
Patreon and stuff, but just abreak for a week because I got really
great news and had to do sometesting. But I have an anonymous donor
at the hospital for me who isgoing to donate stem cells to me to
be able to further my treatment.That's crazy news, isn't it. Yeah,

(02:05):
it was totally like blew me away, took me by surprise, woke
me up at nine am in themorning, which is not the time that
I get up, but it wasa happy way to wake up. I
almost thought I was dreaming, tobe honest, But it's kind of the
thing that like we have been kindof looking for basically since I stopped doing

(02:28):
chemo, and kind of the optionthat is like the like magic option almost
like almost as if it will fixeverything. I don't know if that's true
or not, but I feel likethis is such a good step in the
right direction at the very least,and we'll get me closer to remission for

(02:51):
sure. Yeah, have the doctorsgiven you any sense of, like what
the rates of improvement are to lyonce you get something like this transfusion.
So like, typically for people whoare at the stage of leukemia that I
have, getting a donor getting tobe able to do this transplant is kind

(03:15):
of the fix or not. Likeeither this will be really good and I
it will help fight the cancer cellsin my body and I'll be on my
way to remission in the next fewmonths, or I'll have to do more
chemo or do another trans transplant.I keep wanting you to say transfusion,

(03:38):
because it's not as if we're takinganything bad out of me. We're just
putting something good into me. Solike I keep thinking transfusion, but it's
it is a transplant technically, likethat's what they call it, a donor
transplant whatever. So but anyway,like either it'll help signific accently, or

(04:01):
I'll need to do more rounds ofthis and then it'll help. So either
way it's going to help. It'sjust like dependent on how long. Like
if this one time will help alot and I don't have to do it
again, or if I'll need todo it a few times, that's great
news. And the biggest thing islike I have no idea who it is,

(04:24):
who is the donor, and solike if that person happens to be
a person that listens to me,or is like a friend of mine or
anything, like, I just wantto say thank you because I have no
other real way to say thank you, other than I can write a letter
and give it to the hospital togive to them, But other than that,
I have no other way to saythank you. So whoever it is,

(04:46):
if you happen to be a personlistening, or a friend of mine
or family in Utah, which Idon't know that I have any relatives in
Utah, but whatever, either way, I just want to say thank you
because it's incredible amazing, Like Icried, Mallory cried, my mom cried.

(05:06):
It is a whole thing. Yeah, that's so cool, cool,
get yeah, absolutely, I wasso like set on changing my eating habits
and you know, getting a littlebit more with exercise and physical stuff,

(05:28):
got my fitness Pal on my phoneand all of that. But at the
same time, I've been super weeklately from trying to I think detox the
chemo. Like I'm not exactly surewhat has been going on, necessarily,
because it almost felt like almost worsethan doing the chemo has been the weeks

(05:50):
after chemo, because I've just beenreally tired. There was a day where
I had like crazy seizures coming outof nowhere, out of the woodwork,
and I just felt so bad,and I've had a lot of pain.
I haven't been really sleeping very welleither. Like I was just talking to
my mom the other day about howlike I haven't really had more than a

(06:12):
few hours asleep the last maybe weekor two. It's just been I'll sleep
for like two hours, then they'llwake up, and they'll sleep for an
hour, and then I'll wake up. And I'm not even taking very many
naps or anything during the day either, So like, what is that about,
and what is it about? Idon't know, I really don't know.

(06:34):
I think that it might have somethingto do with either the fact that
because I'm detoxing, this chemotherapy andeverything that. Like, I've been not
being able to keep a lot offood down. Like I'll eat something and
then I'll throw it up. Andunless it's like a protein shake one of

(06:56):
those, I've been able to keepthose down so far, but anything outside
of that is just like goes incomes out, And so like, I
think that has a lot to dowith me not being able to sleep,
is waking up to throw up andstuff like that. But also because I've
been in so much pain, I'vehad to take a lot of pain meds,
and so if I don't take thosepain meds near going to sleep time,

(07:18):
then I feel like I can't sleep. And I'm not going to be
taking pain meds just so that Ican sleep. That's ridiculous. So I've
been trying to not take as muchpain meds, and that's what's causing this
sleep insomnia. Insomnia insomnia. Ialso wonder if you have a lot more

(07:42):
energy than normal when you were doingchemo, Yeah, that could be it.
I went swimming yesterday, which iswhy my face is a tomato.
But yeah, I went swimming yesterdayand that was that felt so good to
just be in the water because it'sone. It's been super hot and utih

(08:03):
lately, like stupid hot. There'sbeen days where I haven't gone outside for
like a few days, so Ijust forget what it feels like outside because
inside is nice and cool, andthen I'll walk outside and go I hate
outside because it's so hot. Butbeing at the pool, Oh felt so

(08:24):
good being around other people, beingin the nice, cool water. I'm
such a fish, like I lovethe ocean. I love swimming, so
it was good. Yeah, youdon't look burnt. You're calling yourself it's
meadeo. But you look tan.You look like I'm glad you think so.
I feel like lights camera action ready. I feel like I am red,

(08:50):
completely red. But I guess that'sjust because for a lot of my
life, because I'm because I'm mixed. For a lot of my life,
I'd go outside and other people wouldget burnt and I would just get darker.
But like, because it's so redon my face, I'm not used
to it. Did you ever Idon't know if we ever talked about you

(09:13):
said mix, but like do peopledo people in the show like know like
your mix that you're talking about.I think when I talked on when I
talked on the Father's Day episode.I think I brought up that, Like
I think I talked about like thefact that my dad is black and my

(09:35):
mom is Italian white. I thinkI talked about it on there. But
then again, I did like threetakes of that episode where literally I just
sat in my room by myself andrecorded for an hour and then listen to
some of it and went, that'snot it and did it again, and
then listen to it and went,mm, I was rambling, and did

(09:56):
it again. So I don't reallyremember what made the cut and what didn't
because I just talked for like fourhours. You did talk about it in
the episode, you just remember.I just remember. You also made me
cry with that episode, So therewas that I did. I specifically told
you to listen to the episode andthought to myself, if Jason doesn't cry,
I'm gonna be mad. I'm gonnaget after him because I was very

(10:20):
sweet. You were you were Gosh. I can't talk about it right now,
I'm gonna get choked up the game. But yeah, so I talked
about it in that episode a littlebit. It's hard because I feel like
a lot of people don't like whenthey look at me, they don't immediately
go, oh, yeah, she'sblack. You know, like a lot

(10:41):
of people, especially if I bringup I'm Italian, because that's like a
huge part of my personality and mymannerisms things like that, Like the best
food that I cook is Italian food, Like I talk about it a lot.
So people just think I'm a veryItalian Italian I guess, like a

(11:01):
very dark featured Italian or something.And with my hair, especially lately,
because it's been kind of thinner andlike I almost always have other hair in
like, people don't see the likefrowiness of my hair. So a lot

(11:22):
of times people either think that I'mHispanic or just think that I'm very uh
like naturally I will said, naturallysourced to Italian. Uh yeah, naturally

(11:43):
sourced. But yeah, So alot of people don't recognize that I'm black
or anything. And I'll get alot of like, oh, Maria,
because they'll like read my name,like at Starbucks or something, they'll read
my name and whoever spelled it didn'tput the H or they did, and

(12:03):
people don't know how to spell orhow to read Mariah versus Maria, but
they'll say Maria and it's gotten toa point where I'll just be like,
yeah, because it's like, whatelse am I going to do? They're
not going to see me again forthe most like most likely, but yeah,

(12:28):
well, it's sure nice to seeyour energy higher, even if you're
not sleeping as much. It's sofun to see you kind of more yourself
and have some bounce in your stepand some you know, liveliness to your
to your conversation. It's really great. Yeah. Absolutely, I've actually been
able to get up and go tothe kitchen and make my own food for

(12:50):
myself for lunch, and participate infamily dinner and actually eat at the table,
which I when I was doing chemotherapy, and like the week or so
after I did chemotherapy, I hadto have dinner brought to my room and
like eat in bed if I ateit at all, because like I just

(13:11):
couldn't even walk to the kitchen tableit was just too much. So like
the fact that I've actively participated indinner for the past like maybe a week
and a half or so, likegroundbreaking, totally grapper. What's the most
recent dish she made? Actually,so like it wasn't for dinner, it

(13:33):
was just for me. Because Ididn't know how everybody else was going to
feel about it. But I gotthis cookbook that is called The Fiber Fueled
Cookbook by Will I don't even knowbuilt bullshiewit because M d So a doctor,

(13:58):
and I've been reading through it.I got it maybe like a week
and a half ago, just becauseI've been trying to eat more healthy and
I recognize that a lot of theItalian dishes that I cook on the regular
are not really sticking to the Mediterraneanlifestyle. It's the more Italian American food

(14:20):
dishes, which are definitely very carbohydrate'sheavy, like pasta, bread, that
sort of thing. And I realizedthat I was doing that because I think
I made I made a raditui alittle bit ago, and that's basically entirely

(14:41):
vegetables, and I realized, like, I can't make this for dinner.
Nobody's gonna want to eat this inthis family. And it's not because like
they're necessarily unhealthy in any way,but because like a lot of their food
is that they eat is definitely comfortfood that involves like rice for most of

(15:05):
the for most of everything, Likethis family eats rice with chili. Like
I've never had that in my entirelife, but so I just figured,
like they wouldn't enjoy that. Iknow, I've made it for Mallory before
and she liked it, but Ijust didn't. I wouldn't think to make
it for like everybody. So Ibought this cook Cook mainly to make more

(15:26):
things for me and to maybe tryand include it in family dinner every once
in a while and see what happened. But I made this beat risotto,
which is a rice dish, butit was so good, Like I've made
a lot of risotto because that's anItalian dish, but this one was just

(15:50):
like it was so colorful with thebeats, and it had tahini in it,
which is so good for you,like you don't even know. But
I made this as like a let'ssee what this book is really about,
like if it's actually going to havegood recipes, because I went to culinary
school, Like I know, Iknow good food, and so I made

(16:15):
the recipe to see if it wasgood, and I really liked it.
Like this is probably going to belike a rotation for me, in the
rotation of food that I make formyself. But yeah, this book is
so it's got so many good recipes, but it also has a bunch of
like stuff explaining more about like ourrelationship with food and what that like how

(16:40):
complicated that can be for a lotof people. Especially within the last like
I don't know, like thirty yearsor so, it's been such an influx
in the media of like what theperfect body is or what people are supposed
to look like and all that,and just with how many people these days
are having to figure out like whatis loving our body and loving ourselves versus

(17:08):
like enabling bad behavior, like badhabits for ourselves. You know, Like
there's this line that you have tolike walk, and a lot of people
fail at it because it's really it'sreally difficult, Like the media is so
harsh on body image, you know. Yeah, but it talks about that.

(17:33):
It talks about gut health, whichis really important. There's like an
entire chapter, chapter eight, ifyou buy the book about holistic healing,
which is exactly what I'm looking forright now. And so I read that
entire chapter and went through looking fordifferent recipes like for me right now,

(17:53):
or anybody with leukemia will know thatit's really difficult with iron. Iron is
so difficult to make sure that youhave in your diet, because especially if
you like this book itself is abook about more plant based recipes. So

(18:14):
there's no meat, there's no dairyin most of these recipes, and so
it's like, where are you're goingto get iron if you don't eat meat?
Yeah? Yeah, So it's justreally difficult to figure out where to
let like what you need in yourown diet, like what you're looking for
for yourself versus like what is goodfor everybody you know, yep, yep,

(18:41):
would you know? And there's twotypes of iron. One there's so
there's one called like I don't evenknow how to pronounce it, like hg
M E, and then the otherone is non hgm iron. And but
what's crazy, the reason that we'renot getting enough to diet iron in our
diet is because the lack of nutrientsin the soil that most people are doing

(19:03):
farming it nowadays. So yeah,you have like you could eat a bunch
of salad, and like traditional thingswould be like salad, you know,
like leafy greens, beans, lentils, you know, whole grains, but
most of those things are growing withoutnutrients in them because the soil itself.
It doesn't have the environment to translate. I try very hard. A lot

(19:27):
of the Italian cooking that I haveis like tomato sauce, some sort of
pasta and meat, and that's it, right. But like if you if
I make the tomato sauce myself,then that includes carrots and onions and celery,

(19:49):
and I'll add like different herbs toit that will make it a little
bit more full of nutrients of somesort, and I'll try and make sure
that I cook it just enough.And a lot of the other recipes that
I have too, I'll just addspinach because spinach is such a good source

(20:10):
of so many nutrients. It's adark leafy vegetable. And I'll try and
include like darker color vegetables into myfood too, like eggplant is really good
for you, red cabbage over greencabbage, like stuff like that, And
I'll do those things when I makefood for the family. But even that,

(20:33):
like my iron is crap. Myiron levels in my body are crap.
I have to take a supplement andeven that hasn't really done very much
for my body in the almost yearthat I've been taking iron. Yeah,
yeah, well, you know,it's funny that we started out actually talking
about like mixed race, and youknow, like ethnicity actually has and I

(20:56):
didn't know this until recently. Withthe like Athens, he plays a big
role in what nutrients our body doesn'tdoesn't respond to, what type of foods
our body doesn't doesn't respond to.I'm you know, English, German and
Austrian, and the diets of theEnglish and like Germanic kind of often are

(21:18):
very different in compilation, and solike you end up with like these different
factors that actually impact your ability totake on lactose, for example, or
take on wheat with a tolerance ornot. You know, concluding sensitivity for
example, would be really curious,Like Italian, like I wonder what I
wonder what sort of potential things thatyou would normally eat from an Italian perspective

(21:42):
might be in conflict with some ofyour other predispositions. Yeah, yeah,
have you ever done a DNA test? Yeah? So I did UH twenty
three and me DNA tests in aneffort to find my dad. That's really
what I Yeah, that's really whatI was looking for when I did that.

(22:03):
I also was interested because like Ifeel like there's this part of American
culture. For I'm I'm talking specificallyabout black people, but I think that
this could be for a lot ofpeople of different races, but specifically for

(22:26):
black people because of the history behindit of basically being plucked out of Africa
and brought here and then not reallyhaving a lot of their history documented for
them. So like they know thatthey're black, sure, they know that
they're they've been here in America forX amount of years possibly, but they

(22:48):
don't really know where their family camefrom when they were brought here, right,
So a lot of people who areblack actually don't even know their African
roots, like specifically where they arefrom in Africa. And so when I
was doing this, it was tofind my dad, but it was also
really to like look into like,Okay, so I'm black, sure,

(23:10):
but like like what kind of black? Like where am I from? Because
some people that I know have avery detailed history that they can go off
of because their family came after youknow, eighteen sixty or something, So
they know I'm Nigerian, they knowthat they're Ganyan, you know whatever,

(23:32):
And so like when I was doingit, it was I wanted to find
that out for sure, and whatI ended up finding out is that I
am predominantly Ganyan is where I'm from. And so like whenever people ask me
more in depth of like oh okay, like where are your parents from or

(23:56):
whatever, I'll say, oh,my mom, you know, her father's
family is Italian and my dad isGhanian, which he had to have been
a lot of other things, butlike that's what I say now. And
looking into like food wise, Ilooked into it for my adopted family,

(24:18):
Mallory's family, who are half Japanesehalf American, and so many of them
are lactose intolerant. And it's becauseAsian countries just do not use milk the
way that we do, and solike so many of them end up having
this intolerance. Like it's a it'sa crazy amount of Asians that are lactose

(24:42):
intolerant. That's wild. Yeah,yeah, I wonder if I wonder if
dairy itself is I don't think it'sa natural part of Ghanian diet either.
Nope, nope. And to beperfectly honest with you, like look,
if you look into Italian food outsideof cheese, most of Italian food doesn't

(25:07):
include milk either, like like reallylike the Mediterranean diet doesn't have a lot
of milk in it. Really.The only part of the Italian experience that
really uses milk in any real capacityis cheeses, and for the most part,
cheese is supposed to be like asnack sort of food, like cheese

(25:32):
with grapes and wine. That's likethe Italian snack heaven. You're probably not
eating nearly enough fish if you're bothGhanian and Italian. Word. Because I
live in Utah now, which isa land locked state, Like, I'm

(25:52):
sure I could get like trout.I'm sure I could go fishing myself with
all the rivers and stuff here,but like fishing is not an activity that
sounds any fun to me. ButI mean, I've made salmon while i've
been here. I've made some troutdishes. I know that Mallory's aunt an

(26:15):
uncle, I think they came andthey brought fish because they're from Washington.
So they ended up bringing fish forus at one point, and that was
so good. It was karaoke.We had karaoke sauce with it. So
good. But yeah, I waymore fish when I was in California living

(26:37):
on the coast, you know,yeah, like I would eat fish all
the time, and one of myfavorite favorite favorite foods ever is shrimp,
which is totally a bottom feeder,but like, I don't care. It's
so good, the best, thebest. I love how much you led

(26:59):
up when you talking food. It'sso clearly a passion of yours. Yeah,
it's so crazy, because I reallythought when I when I went to
culinary school, it was really justone of those moments of like, I
want to do something that I enjoyeddoing. I don't think that like I
could make it as a singer.I don't think that my piano skills are

(27:22):
good enough considering I quit piano beforehigh school started for me to make any
sort of living off of that,but culinary if I went to culinary school,
I could make Like I could workanywhere, you know, is what
I was thinking. Like I couldwork at a fancy restaurant, I could
work at like a shack sort ofrestaurant off of a beach. I could

(27:48):
work anywhere with a culinary degree.Right, So that's what I was thinking
when I started culinary school, andjust as I was doing it, I've
just realized that, like cooking isa fun thing for me to do,
it is not a career for me. And the more time I spent at
culinary school, the more I recognize, like I don't want to own my
own restaurant, Like I don't wantto work towards that. And the culinary

(28:12):
school I went to for the degreethat would have been a bachelor's degree,
it was a culinary management degree.So a lot of what they were trying
to teach you was in owning yourown restaurant. And so since I had
very little interest in doing that,I just didn't put a lot of effort

(28:32):
into those more management type classes.Like I learned a lot. I've been
a manager at a restaurant, I'vebeen a manager at a hospital for the
food department, but like I justI didn't enjoy it. It didn't make
me that happy. Like I enjoyfood. I don't like the process it
takes to get food to everyday people. It's a particular lifestyle for sure.

(28:59):
Have you seen the the TV show? Yeah? I have? You like
it? I like it? Yeah, It's it's such a stressful lifestyle.
Yeah, it's so stressful. It'sso much stress, Like whether you're doing
a small restaurant or like a reallyhigh end one, it's just it's a
lot like I like watching the dramaon TV of other people doing it,

(29:22):
but like man being in a restauranton your own. There was a restaurant
I worked at Red Robin at onepoint, and I saw somebody in the
kitchen cut his finger, cut hisentire finger off totally. It was it
was crazy and like like funnily enough, Like I was going to tell a

(29:44):
story about how when I was inculinary school, my very first day of
being in a practical class being actuallylike with knives and stuff my very first
day. One of the first rulesthat they talk about before you know they
send us off to start cooking orcutting or whatever, is like safety rules

(30:06):
in the kitchen. Because some peopleare people who have been working in the
restaurant industry for years and finally wantedlike a degree to go along with that,
or people who are you know,seventeen eighteen years old and really like
to cook and you know, justwanted to learn more. So like it,
it's crazy the different levels of peoplethat walk in there, and so

(30:29):
they have to set down like groundrules of like we're in a kitchen,
which can be dangerous. So there'sa lot of things that you need to
make sure that you like don't doso people can stay safe. And one
of the first rules that was mentionedwas to not leave knives in the sink
because they have it set up towhere there's like a soapy like a soap

(30:52):
sink, a rinse sink, andthen a clear sink, right so or
a sanitized sink, and so you'resupposed to wash the dishes. You wash
with soap and then you rinse itoff, and then you sanitize it and
then you go on your way.Right, So using your utensils or your
freaking knives, you go through thesteps and move on your way. If

(31:15):
you want to leave like a potor something, it's like frowned upon because
you should do your own dishes.But like you could leave a pot in
the sink if you have to godeal with something and come back to it.
Right, somebody left their knife inthe sink. And so when I
came by to do the dishes thatI put in because I had like my

(31:37):
like spoon, like my wooden spoonor whatever, and like a couple of
other things to put into the sink, not my knife, but I just
threw them all in the soapy waterand grabbed like a scrubby and went to
pull them out to scrub them.And I wrapped my hand around something and
it was a knife, which Ididn't expect to be in there at all,
and I gripped, and I kindof gripped a little tight. And

(32:00):
mind you, these knives that wehad where fresh from culinary like stock knives
like these are knives that were justgiven to us, a seven hundred and
fifty dollars kit of knives and utensilsthat the school gives to you or you

(32:20):
pay for, but that the schoolprovides. And so these are sharp,
very sharp knives. So when I'vecut myself, I felt pain, but
it wasn't like severe. And whenI pulled my hand out, the cut
was so precise that it didn't evenlook like anything. I just looked like
I cut my hand and there wasno blood. So I was like,
oh, I'm fine, walked offand I turn around and somebody's like,

(32:45):
uh, you're bleeding. And Ilook at my brand new white coat and
this side of my body is coveredin my blood because my cut is just
now oozing blood. And so Iwas like, wow, that's a lot
of blood and so I like waslike, I'm gonna sit down. I

(33:07):
think I need to get stitches,so I'm just gonna sit down and figure
it out. And so the teachercomes over and goes, oh, hon,
like every there's always one that cutstheir hand. I was like,
no, I it's because somebody lefta knife their knife in the sink.
And then the teacher got pissed andtold everybody like trying to figure out whose

(33:27):
knife it was. And then Idon't know what happened after that because I
left and my mom had to comepick me up and take me the hospital
to get stitches, of which Ipassed out because until that point I hadn't
like actually watched somebody put stitches intome, and so I was like,
I'm gonna watch because I was like, I wonder how like a professional does

(33:51):
it? And I was watching andI passed out. Oh my gosh.
So that was my first culinary schoolthat broke your eye in. Yeah,
I don't even I don't even remember, to be honest with you, I
don't remember what we were, whatwe were even doing or cooking or anything.

(34:12):
I don't remember the lesson at allon there. Yeah, there was
so much happening, but I justit was so funny and I was so
embarrassed, even if it was likeit was not even close to my fault,
but like it was so wild.And then after that point, like
I wasn't even the one that madethe mistake. But ever since that day,

(34:35):
like I am on it about kitchensafety, Like I was specifically the
safety supervisor at a hospital and hadto be on everybody about, Oh,
make sure that your sanitizer water isthat is this heat temperature, make sure
this is going this way. Makesure you're checking your fridges that you have.
If they go above forty one degrees, then there's an issue with or

(35:00):
a fridge and we need to knowabout it. So you need to make
sure that you're checking it. AndI had to basically be like kind of
a bitch to be honest, butit was all in the name of safety.
Safe the safety bitch. Okay,yeah, I was a safety bitch
supervisor who was also at the timetwenty one, so had like no like

(35:22):
nobody respected me, I think.So I was curious about two things,
Like so I had this image ofyou switching to this like holistic diet,
and I was curious to learn moreabout the journey ahead with that. And
then I also was thinking, like, as you're talking about food, I
think about like your favorite places,and I'm kind of imagining this day in

(35:45):
which, like trough holistic lifestyle hereyou get some good bounces and you start
feeling better and like life starts toresume normalcy, Like which places you're gonna
want to most go eat? Yeah, So, like the thing that I
have realized about myself is that thereI'm very good at making Italian food.

(36:10):
Like I'm not even gonna be shyor modest about it. I'm I'm really
good at making Italian food. AndI enjoy Italian food a lot. But
my favorite kind of food is Mexicanfood, which is a type of food
that is not very I don't wantto say it's not healthy, because it

(36:30):
can be like in some instances,but I think a lot of it doesn't
have to do with like fruits andvegetables, Like it doesn't have a lot
of veggies in it for the mostpart. Like I remember my ex his
family uh is Mexican, and likea lot of the dishes that his mom

(36:52):
would make would be like meat andrice and beans, you know, like
like most of the meals were verylike not expensive sort of meals either,
Like so that probably has a roleto play in it. But I really
really really love Mexican food, Likereally good enchiladas make my day. So

(37:17):
even though I'm making these plans tomove forward with like you know, consuming
less dairy and cutting down on carbohydratesas much as I can possibly focusing more
on, you know, specifically thenutrients that I am deficient in, so
like iron and fiber, those sortsof things, I still envision this future

(37:45):
where I'm able to enjoy my favoritekind of food, like not a lot
of the time, obviously because it'snot the most healthy, but envisioning the
future where I'll get to have aSantiago burrito again from Colorado off of Fleetsdale,

(38:05):
which I say specifically because I lovethe people at that specific one and
that's where I always used to gowhen I lived in Colorado. But oh,
that's like the best burrito ever withcollar like Colorado green chili. Shut
up, Oh my gosh, youcan't get green chili anywhere else. Uh,

(38:28):
that's like Colorado green chili. That'ssome good stuff. I'm like,
my mouth is salivating thinking about it. Do you know who makes the best
green chili ever? Might be you, but I don't know. You're like
Chad, remember Chad. Yeah,Chad makes the best green chili I've ever

(38:50):
takes. Really I've had. I'vehad my aunt Joanne. Uh, she's
a she's a really good cook too. She actually like is one of the
people in my life who she'll makeLike my grandpa's mother has this entire like

(39:12):
cookbook. It's called like Collections andRecollections of of Daisy Maxine or Maxine Daisy.
I'm like in it, there's apotato salad that she makes that my
aunt Joanne will make for like forevents and stuff. But I I personally
take it as like she makes itfor me because it's made specifically in a

(39:37):
way that I can have it.But it's bomb is so good, so
like any food that she makes isso good. And she was a Spanish
teacher for I don't even know howlong. I couldn't even tell you.
As long as I can remember,I think she taught my mom Spanish.
She'll tew long she's been a Spanishteacher and my mom is old. But

(40:00):
but she uh, she makes reallygood Mexican food too, Like she's so
good. And then my like godmotherher, like her family would make really
good Hispanic food, and she makessome great enchiladas that when I was a

(40:23):
kid used to make, like wouldbe so spicy that like I couldn't handle
it physically, but it also tastedreally good, so I'd keep eating it,
but my mouth would be burning andmy eyes would be watering, and
I'd want to die, but I'dalso be like, but at least I
died happy, least to that happy. Yeah, So Mexican food in Colorado

(40:47):
is so bomb. Mexican food inCalifornia is so bomb because like California has
so many people, like straight outof Mexico, right, so, like
there are so many shops and likepeople just parked on the street selling out
of a truck, and I'm like, yes, because this is authentic,

(41:10):
this is real. This is likelike putting your tears and your sweat into
it, and I want it.But yeah, so like California, great
Mexican food, great seafood. There'sa place called King Taco, which is

(41:31):
kind of like a fast food place, but it's a fast food place that
makes delicious burritos that I sometimes dreamabout too. I did not see you
like repping a chain, but herewe are here, we are Uh that's

(41:52):
solely based on their food. Ihave no idea anything else about them,
So like take what I say witha grain of salt, but the food
is bombed. Yeah, And thenthe thing is, is that Mexican food
so good my favorite and Utah haven'tseen any good representation of Mexican food here,

(42:14):
not really, not even a littlebit. Yep. I find that
so shocking. There is a considerableamount of great like Asian food restaurants,
which is really surprising to me.But like I guess there's actually a big
population of Asian community here in Utah, more than I anticipated. But there's

(42:37):
like a lot of fun places outhere that I've had that are really good
and ramen and sushi. I've beento a couple of sushi places that were
really good in Provo. I couldn'ttell you the names of them because I
wasn't the person that picked the placebecause I don't know what's good out here,

(42:58):
but those were good. M mmm, now I'm hungry. Well,
the thing is, right, canwe make a deal that like as you
start feeling better and like getting healthier. Like we we we hit up a
couple of restaurants across these spots.Hell yeah, Okay, I'm really excited

(43:23):
to come and visit you because,like I really like southern food too,
and like I know that Texas islike got some really good barbecue, it
does. Yeah, I got somespots in mind for us. Yeah,
so I'm really excited to come andvisit you for that. But the thing

(43:43):
is is, like I am hopingthat with this like changing my life and
eating more healthy and things like that, that I'll actually be able to enjoy
these moments of eating out a littlebit more because like one I'll be eating

(44:05):
out a lot less frequently, andtwo I'll be able to like feel like
still healthy and my like my gutwill be balanced enough that like I won't
feel like crap after eating it,you know what I mean. Like maybe
I'll have a couple of of tripsto the bathroom or something, but I

(44:31):
mean, right now, eating crapon top of crap just makes you feel
like crap the whole time, nomatter where you go, no matter how
good it tastes, you know,So hopefully being able to eat more I
don't know, roasted cauliflower soup oreggplant hummus bootable or zippy cilantro bowl.

(44:58):
That's the name of this one.Look zippy, soilant. Look at it.
Look good. I like some cilantro, big fan. Some people think
it tastes like soap, Like mymom is one of those people that she
tastes it or she eats it andshe tastes soap. Isn't that crazy?
Yeah, that's crazy. I'm gladI didn't get that. I hope it

(45:21):
doesn't skip a generation because my kidsare eating cilantro. I don't care.
But eating more of those which Ijust flipped through the cookbook that I was
talking about to give you some ofthose recipes. But eating more of that
stuff is gonna definitely help me getto a better baseline of health. I

(45:43):
think. Yeah, I'm excited foryou. I'm glad that you're taking that
on and get this this big,big day. Tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow
is the tomorrow is the day thatI go to do this transplant. I'm
so I'm like relieved in some waysthat like this is moving forward, like

(46:08):
we're doing something. I am alittle bit nervous because there are some side
effects and things that could happen.But I'm more excited and so incredibly grateful
that this is going to happen forme. You know, yeah, I
do, and I'm sure your gratitude. I'm so excited and even if it's

(46:30):
like challenging, it's gonna work.You're on the right trajectory. But I
think that that is all for today, Jason, That's all I wanted to
talk about. Well, fair enough. I think the other thing we should
talk about before we sign off isjust how people can stay engaged, follow

(46:50):
us, support you. Yeah.Absolutely so. I have a website for
the podcast, the dash Maria dashfactdot com, where you can get into
contact with us on any of oursocial platforms. You can follow us there
where I post updates or new contentor whatever, especially on the TikTok.

(47:15):
I've been going on there lately andjust doing some TikTok trends or talking about
some of the books that I've beenreading lately. There's one where there's like
a filter, so it will showyou what you look like aged, but
it doesn't tell you like how agedyou are or whatever. So I was
looking at it and I thought,oh, yeah, that's like going to

(47:36):
be me when I'm fifty, andit kind of gave me this like emotional
moment of like thinking, like holycrap, like I might actually get to
see myself flicking that way someday,which is something that I never anticipated,
never thought would happen. So likethat kind of made me emotional. And
you could see that on the TikTok, which you can follow and find going

(47:57):
onto the website, and also ithas a link to our Patreon where you
can subscribe. Right now, wehave two subscribers, So I want to
say thank you to Darsana Palis,Sodi, my mom and you go Hunt.
Thank you so much for following us. And yeah, yeah, more
to come, more to come.Great, I wish you the best.

(48:24):
Select tomorrow you will be in myheart and I'll meet you on the other
side next time you guys hear fromme. After this, I will have
new cells in my body and hopefullyfill in a whole lot better. But
we'll see you guys next time.Thank you so much for listening. Bye bye,