Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
And we are back with a Kristin Egopian show. And
when we first had this terrific guest on before, we
got a tremendous amount of buzz because well, just about
everybody listening coast to coast knows someone or perhaps they
are the someone who is living with diabetes. This is
Diabetes Awareness Month, and with the statistics getting more staggering
(00:26):
every day, guys, over thirty million Americans have diabetes, with
another nearly you're ready for this, nearly ninety million other
Americans are considered to be pre diabetic. So it's clear
that knowledge is power, and we are about to unleash
some courtesy of back by Popular Demand Unique founder Mark
Washington and what he has found to be the natural
(00:47):
key to lowering a one c's for tens of millions
of Americans. Merry Christmas in advance, Mark.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Welcome, here you go. Marry Christmas. Hi, Kristin, How are
you no.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Complaints here in Philadelphia? It's we're getting this weird spie temperatures.
I'll take it. It totally works for me. What's alike
in your neck of the woods.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, it's nice. I'm in Los Angeles, so I hate
the brag, but it's nice most time down here.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Well done, nice job. So Mark, you came at this
project with a personal passion. You yourself have diabetes running in
your family. You have lost deer members of your family
to it. But where so many people simply do their
best to manage it and maybe keep the status quo,
you took it this giant leap forward and launched an
(01:32):
incredible product. It's a line of patent pending products actually,
and these incredible shakes that have been proven effective and
over two hundred clinical studies to help naturally balance blood sugar.
And that's checking a lot of boxes. You've got nearly
a third of Americans who either have diabetes or a
pre diabetic and they are so attuned to they really
(01:52):
want to get into the natural products, especially when they work,
and two hundred clinical studies are saying that yours does.
It's a game changer and it's changing people's life for
the better. Talk to us about your product called Unique
and what exactly it's used for and why it's been
proven so effective.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Absolutely, I mean, we really take a food as medicine
approach because I believe that the powers within you, with
the right tools, with the right support to naturally gain
better control of your health. That's kind of this ethos
that we founded the company on, and it's really the
approach we took with Unique shakes. The easiest way to
(02:27):
describe it is Unique is a delicious meal replacement shake. Now,
obviously it goes a lot deeper than that. It's not
like your typical protein shake or a have you that's
out there. You know it does have and I can
get more into the science behind it, but these previder
fibers that are that are formulated, that have all the
clinical research behind it. What it does is that actually
(02:49):
it's incredibly effective at keeping you full for up to
four hours, right, and so you can imagine when you're
feel satisfied, you don't have those carb pravings like calling you.
That's like such a key to losing weight for an
effective meal replacement. So they've seen our customers have incredible results.
They're like, I don't feel hungry anymore, right, So that's
(03:11):
like point number one. The second point is, you know,
as you described this, the pre black viber is the
way that we formulated this. They've actually been proven to
improve blood sugar control, to reduce your average levels, reduce
your you know, after your meal or your fasting blood sugar,
but even over time have been shown to reduce your
(03:32):
A one C and that's the long term measure of
blood sugar control, and that it's important for any of
us right to keep your blood sugar levels, your metabolic
health under control. But for someone that's living with diabetes
or pre diabetes, that literally can be life changing, and
so having a natural way to keep that in better
control can be a really, really big deal. The best
(03:55):
part of it all though, shakes are absolutely delicious. We
spent months and months doing the scientific research to formulate
our shape, but we spent a year to make these
shapes delicious. For food to taste good, if they're going
to use something over time, they're going to come back
to it, and to be consistent, which we know is
important to get results over time, it better tastes good
because otherwise it's not going to stick.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
You nailed it down two very important points. Number one,
you know, so many of us know we want to
get our health a little more into control. We want
to find tune a couple of things. But if you're
not addressing hunger, and it's not a food that's going
to be palatable. You've lost the battle, so you've just
crushed it out of the park, and you just described
with your own words exactly why this is such a
smash success because it's all working so well that way. Now,
(04:39):
we have all heard the phrase resistant starch. We've heard
of probiotics, but we're all so crazy busy as often
we want to research these things, we don't get it done.
Break it down for us if you would, right.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I mean, there's so much conflicting information out there, and
you go to your health food store and you'll see
a you know, shelves full of probiotics, and you might
have heard of gut health and heard of like which
one to use, and all of this is actually super confusing,
So let me break it down. Like one, the first
thing to know is that gut health and what's called
(05:10):
the science of the gut microbiome. It actually is super important.
Like the research has shown that your gut is your
foundation for better health and affect so many different conditions.
Just about everything going on in your body has some
tie back to the gut and the truths of bacteria
that are living there. What probiotics are, that's called like
additional healthy bugs that like, so when you take a probiotic,
(05:32):
you're trying to add to the bugs that are already
in your gut that are responsible for keeping you healthy.
What prebiotics are is the food for your gut. So
this is actually the nutrients that those bugs need to
do their job. And none of us get nearly enough
pre biotic fiber in our diet, and that's already packed
so many into each unique shake. Now, what resistance starts
(05:54):
you specifically? And some have heard of it, some haven't.
It almost sounds negative like resistan distance starch, and isn't
starch bad for you? And the answer is absolutely most
often yes, this is a unique type of a starch.
It's actually a superpowered pre biotic fiber. That is, it's
hard to get through your normal diet. Our answers just
used to get a lot of it. But it's actually
(06:16):
a ton of clinical research that I have shown that
resistance starts are that really powerful food for the good
bugs in your gut. And why it's called resistant is
that it's especially resistant to digestion by you. At least
it's not really digested until it gets all the way
down into your large and test and your gut and
that's where it feeds the really really important bugs down
(06:37):
in your gut. That response were keeping you healthy. That's
why our shakes are so good at keeping you full,
because you know the prebiotic fibers and the shake it's
digested so slowly, so you have that satisfied feeling. And
well it's of course the weight loss, but the specific
ones that we shows resistant starch and some other complimentary
pre biotic fibers have actually been clinically shown to reduce
(06:58):
your blood sugar levels over time. So that really is
the differentiator. I call it the secret sauce within the
meunique shakes, and it's actually the very first ingredient on
our shakes is our pre biotic fiber blend, which you
just don't see in shakes, and so that's what really
brings the power and has the clinical evidence behind it.
And I'll ass I mentioned before, but we actually have
(07:19):
our own clinical trial underway. More like the path of
what traditional pharmaceutical companies do to prove out their drugs
and the effectiveness and safety, we're actually following this true
food is medicine approach, So we are actually going through
our own clinical trial to prove just how effective menique
shapes are at improving your overall health and your blood
(07:41):
sugar control.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
That is fantastic. And again you kind of answer my
next question because you think to yourself these issues in
the American landscape, you know, worldwide with diabetes. You focus
here in the States, and it's been around for a while,
And why hasn't someone crafted something like this beforehand? And
you just described why so modestly. It's because it's a
hell of a lot of work. It's unbelievable what you
put into this product, and it's unreal. It's very, very impressive.
(08:05):
And the time is flying and I need some serious
advice because it's it's grown up time. And as we
ramp up for the holidays, I can't wait. It's gonna
be so much fun. But I realized it's totally time
for me to pull up the big girl pants and
just set some basic consumption guidelines for these lovely holidays
coming up. I'll be very honest, when we were in
deep pandemic mode, it was a serious, no carb left
(08:28):
behind kind of holiday. I'm not gonna lie this holiday season.
I gotta get a grip. So talk to me about
your best moves for having a ball with the family
and the friends and enjoying the season and still manage
holiday eatings. You know, help me, obi wan kenobi, You're
my only hope.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So many people fall off the rails right during the
holiday and like digit huge, yeah right, and that you
then say, Okay, New Year's is when I'm going to
turn it around in my resolution, et cetera. There are
ways to enjoy yourself in the holidays without digging such
a deep hole. Honestly, a health getting started with a
healthy habit with meaning getting some prevotic fibranto your diet
(09:06):
is one of the most effective ways. There's something that
a lot of people don't know about. It's this concept
called metabolic flexibility. It's basically, it's like training your body,
getting yourself ready. And when you have a diet that's
high in prebiotic fibers like what's in unique, you're actually
training your body and your gut, getting it in better shape,
(09:27):
improving your influence sensitivity, et cetera, so that when Thanksgiving comes,
when Christmas comes, and you indulge and you have an
extra slice of you know, pumpkin pie, it doesn't affect
you as much because you've got more metabolic flexibility, and
so you're not digging as deep as a hole, even
though you're indulging and you're enjoying yourself like on the
holidays themselves. So it's really about trying to have a
(09:50):
consistent habit in those other times so that you can
enjoy yourself during the holidays. And yeah, when the New
Year hits, yeah you hit it hard, but you haven't
dug as deep behole. So you actually have some realistic
New Year's resolution goals that you could hit.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Brilliant, brilliant, mister Mark Washington, business leader, business creator, and
now we can truthfully add bit of a life saver
to the mix our segments with you always fly by.
Please have a safe and healthy holiday season and join
us again in the new year whenever you get the chance.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Absolutely thanks for having us, Christian and check us out
at unique life dot com.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Unique life dot com. We'll make sure we have a
link on our social media too, and we'll be right
back gang right after this, not.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Too Steve, the best.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Scumstance comes, we.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Come, and we are back. And I had to get this.
I wanted to get this subject matter in on this segment.
I wanted to make sure we didn't run out of
time because someone sent me this and this couple's story,
this family story. They have a couple of kids, is
the essence of brilliant frugal living. I love this article.
(11:21):
It's a millennial couple. This isn't a couple in their eighties,
seventy sixties, fifties, forties, thirties. It's a millennial couple. I
think they might be in their early thirties now, traveling
the country in a converted bus after paying off all
of their debt. Now, some people are going to roll
their eyes and say this sounds like such hippie, dippy ridiculousness.
(11:42):
This is not. It's actually a brilliant story about how
people are free when they don't have debt. This is
what happens when you don't have tens of thousands or
hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt holding you down.
And this is exact exactly the kind of freedom that
I want every one of our listeners, whether or not
(12:04):
you choose to use that freedom. Traveling the country in
a gorgeous converted bus. You think the bus, and you're
thinking some army military bus that they're sleeping in these
seats no, this is absolutely gorgeous and I had to
get this in here. So the name the couple's named
Will and Kristin Watson, and they've been living in this
converted gorgeous bus for eight months, okay, and they're from
(12:27):
Jacksonville Beach, Florida. We got a couple of great stations
down there. I think it's one of our listeners that
sent us this article. They're in Florida right now visiting
family for the holidays. And they just loved to travel.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
They're in their thirties, so we save right here, and
they loved traveling. They love exploring. And the husband had
a job that was really kind of capping out when
it came to the stress level, and she's always loved traveling.
They both work on various jobs that they can do freelance.
They can do it from the road, literally, and so
(12:59):
many people the days have that kind of freedom. Whether
I'm doing the radio show, I can do that from
any station anywhere. I've got my traveling station, I've got
the station in my home office, and so many people
can do the same thing from home. And now that's
a double edged sword because even when you're not in
your corporate environment, or your office environment, or you're away
(13:19):
from home environment. You get home and suddenly you can
work from home too. Yeah, great news there when you
feel like you have to work all the time. But
the good part of that is that when you don't
have a lot of debt holding you down, you have
a lot less money that you need to spend on
all this debt that you have. When you have less debt,
less money that you have to spend on any of
(13:40):
this debt, you have a lot more freedom to travel,
to do whatever you want, and to think outside the box,
especially for these young families out there before they decide
they want to kind of plant their feet somewhere, so
they bought this. They had regular nine to five jobs,
they quit their nine to five jobs and gave this
unique lifestyle a try. Back in twenty seventeen, Okay, she'd
(14:02):
been trying to convince her husband to live, you know,
on the road, on this beautiful, glamorous, gorgeous every bell
in whistle on a bus or a van or a
tiny house for years, and he was working really hard
on this huge project. He was super burnt out her words,
and in the midst of the project, he comes into
the room and says, you know what, when we're done
(14:22):
with this project, let's convert that bus like you said
and travel around. And she was immediately on board. So
they buy this bus, and look these guys up if
you want to. They bought this thirty one foot nineteen
ninety two Bluebird Air Force bus for eight grand. Okay.
Then he and his dad spent the next couple of
(14:43):
years renovating the bus to be livable. They call it livable.
This thing is adorable. It's got everything it needs. They
are not living in any kind of a you know, Oh,
it's a horrible it's ridiculous. It is adorable and perfectly
tricked out. So while he's working on the van, she's
working like crazy to pay off all of the debt
included student loans from college, some credit card debt. I
(15:05):
love that kind of focus. It was just very important
for the two of them to make sure they didn't
have any debt before they jumped into this kind of lifestyle.
They didn't want anything pulling them in any other direction
other than the direction they wanted to go. So it
was about twenty four grand in expenses and debt, and
they paid it all off in a year right before
(15:25):
they moved on to this beautiful moving bus, this gorgeous camper,
and now they have no debt, which actually reduces the
amount of time they have to work, which is a
perfect one two punch when they want to dedicate themselves
to this gorgeous travel guys, they're going state to state.
They have no debt. They can work from the road,
and they say it helps tremendously. They didn't have a
(15:46):
mortgage or any rent to pay at the time. They
still have to pay for gas and insurance on the bus,
but it's still far cheaper than a house and a
mortgage payment right now. So they're saving their extra money,
putting it into savings, living like kings on the road,
enjoying seeing all of the various travel sites that they
wanted to. It's a one two three punch. They can
(16:09):
still work from the road, they are loving the sites,
they're socking away money in savings, and all of this
is possible because they have no debt. This would have
been impossible if they had any debt weighing them down.
And you guys out there listening might have the same thing.
Now maybe your goal, maybe your hey, we have no debt, goal,
(16:31):
is not to drive around the country in a beautiful,
tricked out little bus. That's their dream. Maybe you have
a dream of starting your own business. Maybe you have
a dream of not having to work. Maybe you can
live off the interest on your loan, live off the
interest on your savings. Or maybe your dream is to
pay off your house. Maybe your dream is to be
(16:52):
the first one in your family tree to own their
own business, have your house paid off, and be able
to retire when you're sixty or fifty five or whatever
age it's going to be. Everybody has their little camp
or dream that they want to travel around the country
debt free. And let's be honest, I love the idea
of traveling. I love the idea of going debt free.
(17:14):
All of this stuff is hugely appealing overall. They say
the bus and the renovations cost thirty grand, and that's
their house, and believe it or not, it's one hundred
and ninety square feet inside, which doesn't sound like a lot. However,
when you think about the average, you know, kind of
small efficiency apartment these days, it's pretty close to the mark.
(17:35):
And honestly, the price of some of those efficiencies, that's
pretty close to what we're talking about right now. So
it's got plenty of room for the couple's bed as
well as a crib for their son and a very
nice bathroom. I'm looking at it. So all the major
stuff is taken care of. They've got a great little
kitchen in there. You don't need a huge kitchen, and
even if you do. Here's the thing, guys. They had
(17:56):
an idea that they wanted to do and it sounded crazy,
and they thought that their debt wouldn't allow them to
do it. So they focused like a laser on paying
off their debt. And now the sky is the limit
now again, and there goes my phone. You can hear
that going off. It's even on the other end of
the studio. They have goals that debt was holding them
(18:16):
back from. You have goals that debt is holding you
back from, and it's starting to get you a little
irritated as well. It should. You are the captain of
your ship. Steer it towards a debt free lifestyle and
you will be astonished at the vista's, the views, the mindset,
how the sky is just a little bit bluer when
(18:37):
you don't have debt. This is your ship steer it
in a direction that makes you happiest. Not towards extra
hours at work, not towards extra this or extra that.
Try some extra time because you don't have to work.
Try some extra time to sleep, extra time to enjoy
with your family because your debt is paid off. Imagine
your mindset, Imagine your mood, Imagine your sleep patterns, Imagine
(19:02):
your stress level. If you had zero debt, no mortgage,
no credit card payments, no student debt, no car debt.
Just imagine what walking around for twenty four hours in
a day that has no debt like that, how would
you feel by the end of that day. I want
that to be your permanent mindset. These guys did it.
(19:24):
They were young, they even had a kid. They made
it happen. Whatever age, whatever situation you're in, you can
make it your reality too. Think outside the box and
then start making it happen. These guys did you know
that you can as well? And it all kind of
ties into the hole. Let's not go crazy spending too
much money this holiday season? All right? Yeah, yeah, times fline,
I'm getting the wave more after this eno and we
(19:54):
are back with the Christinegpian Show, and I am delighted
to report. I think it's safe to say we're in
the holiday mode. I'm loving it. You guys, just remember
holiday season twenty twenty. No travel really, you know, very
small gatherings, all of us promising that in upcoming Christmases
and holidays we were going to make it an extra
special one for family and friends to make up for. Well,
your heart's in the right place, but often our pocketbooks
(20:17):
aren't ramped up to match. You. Guys, holiday spending can
break the bank and break your heart come January when
the bills come pouring in. But you guys know that
this show is all about living a luxurious life without
breaking the bank. And who better to break down the
upcoming holiday shopping season than savings and budgeting expert Andrea
Warrock joining us VR Newsmaker line to share some proven
(20:39):
and not too hard, pretty easy ways guys to plan,
track and save. Andrea, Happy holidays, welcome, Well.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Thank you so much for having me on today.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
It is our pleasure. Okay, so you and your budgeting
strategies absolutely nail it, especially on the holidays. We all
go a little eight crackers on the holidays. We don't
recognize ourselves. We have seen you on the today's show
Good Morning America. So many other places with these outstanding
strategies for staying on top of your finances, and I
feel like this year is just a little hinky again
(21:09):
with money and spending. People who had usual spending habits
all their lives are kind of going to little kray.
People are kind of a weird place. What kind of
trends are you seeing out there on the street compared
to say, two years ago. Maybe well, I think just.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
In general, people are spending a little bit more to
take advantage of being out in the world again, enjoying
going out to eat and buying themselves clothing because you
know they're actually going to work or going out to restaurants,
and so I think people are maybe going a little
overboard on certain expenses that maybe they wouldn't have in
(21:43):
the past. And that really brings me to one of
my first tips talking about budgeting, how important it is
to actually sit down. You don't have to get crazy,
but sit down and figure out how much you can
truly afford to spend this season on everything, not just gifts,
every single purchase you're going to make this year without
going into debt, and then feeling stressed out in January,
(22:05):
and so you really need to think about gifts. Make
a list of everybody you want to buy a gift for,
think about what those items might be, and look up
prices to see if those are realistic options. And then
think beyond the gifts. Are you traveling this year? How
much is that going to cost? Are you hosting any parties?
How much are grocery is going to cost for those parties?
(22:26):
What about all the gift wrap? Do you have things
you can use from last year to maybe offset those costs.
So there's a lot of planning that goes into it,
but it doesn't have to be overwhelming. Just sit down
and start writing out your list and that'll help get
you on your way to budgeting smart.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
It's brilliant and that is such a tried and true way.
So that kind of advice is really going to hit
home now. You know that our show focuses mainly on
lifestyle and personal finance, And if there's one thing I'm
delighted to report so often, it's that there's more digital
banking tools out there now more than ever. Sometimes I
kind of find myself stuck in a rut back in
(23:00):
nineteen ninety five, which can also work. But if you
can save yourself a lot of hassle, you know, honest
to Pete, These new tools make budgeting and spending smart
that much easier. It's a great weapon to have in
the fight against overspending. What are the latest tools catching
your eye when you're out there.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Right well there? Like you mentioned that, there's so many
great tools out there. There are cash back shopping tools,
there are coupon apps on your phone, and then mobile
banking apps which make it so easy to keep track
of where your money is going. I find that people
are buying things online on their phones using different credit cards,
and they can't really grasp how much money they're spending,
(23:37):
and that's what leads to overspending. So the ability to
check in on your mobile banking app to see how
much you spend at any given moment can make you realize, Okay,
I need to take a step back, I need to
cut back. Maybe no more self gifts. I've already pushed
my limit there And a great example is the Chase
mobile app. It helps you track your spending. You can
(23:58):
pay bills all in one place, send money to friends
and family with a zel, you can even check your
credit score, which is so smart to do before making
a major purchase. With their credit Journey feature. To access that,
you don't have to have a Chase account, and then
within the app you can also shop and take advantage
of special offers to save money on the merchants you love.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Now, when people come to you talking about holiday spending
and they want to avoid maybe avoid the same January
credit card bill drama of years past, and everybody's had that.
The most disciplined shoppers, every one of them has a
couple of things on their resume with like crap, I
can't believe I did that, and they want to avoid
that this year, they're not quite sure how to pull
it off. What are you seeing out there is maybe
(24:41):
say the two or three most common mistakes out there,
even when it comes to the most disciplined shoppers. What
are the two or three most common mistakes out there
when it comes to holiday spending?
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Okay, so you definitely want to figure out a budget
base side. What's a realistic budget? We talked about budgeting earlier,
but maybe you just don't even know what a realistic
number is for yourself. And this is where I would
recommend going back to last holiday season, go through your
November December statements on your bank account and your credit
cards to figure out how much you spent on gifts
(25:12):
and other seasonal expenses, and then just consider that this
year is going to be a little different. Maybe you
are traveling and so that might mean making adjustments in
other areas. Maybe you don't spend as much on the
gifts that you're giving out. Maybe you give smaller gifts
or gift to fewer people. Maybe you don't buy as
many self gifts for yourself. Maybe you don't buy that
(25:32):
new party dress for that holiday party. You can make
do with what you already have in your closet and
just update it with a new necklace. You know, there
are some strategies to get around making your budget work
for you without taking away from the holiday season. When
you are planning bigger purchases, whether it's a big gift,
a family getaway. Maybe there's someone out there who wants
(25:54):
to buy an engagement ring for their special someone, consider
alternative payment plan options can give you more breathing room
in your budget and allow you to still get all
those other gifts on your list or afford those seasonal
expenses maybe afford that holiday party that you missed out
on last year that you want to host this year.
And my Chase plan lets you pay off purchases over
(26:17):
time in fixed equal monthly payments. And here's the amazing
part about it, there's no interest and no credit check.
You just pay a fixed monthly fee. So I think
that's a great option for a lot of people. And
then I also recommend going in on a group gift.
I love this for a group of friends, coworkers, maybe
(26:37):
family siblings. If you're planning a gift for your parents,
you can give that more meaningful gift, that bigger item
that they really need or want, without busting your budget.
You just go in together on that gift. And then
of course you can use a service like Zell to
send or receive money with just about anyone who has
a US bank account, and that makes it convenient, especially
(27:01):
if you're we're talking about splitting a group gift with
people who live in different states or across the country,
which you know is something that I experience with my
own siblings.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
You and I have got to do coffee sometime. We
just got to hit the East Coast together on the
same day and just do a serious latte. But one
of the things that I remember, and this was me
growing up as a kid. You clearly had a lot
of great people, you know, schooling you as a kid
as well. I find that it's such a big difference
when it comes to spending as an adult. But somebody
said something to me once. I wish I could remember who,
but they said, think back. You know, I've got a
(27:29):
couple of years on you. So I'm in my fifties,
back in the seventies, eighties, early nineties, think back to
the most favorite Christmases, the favorite memories you've ever had.
And then I say to them, tell me three presents
you got as a kid, right, And they can't do
it because they love the holidays. Everybody remembers a great bike,
maybe their first computer or whatever it is. But for
all of the wonderful, loving, dozens upon dozens of presents
(27:52):
that we got, the ones that made the most impact
was maybe something crocheted by a grandma or you know,
a book handed down from somebody else. So it has
nothing to do with the spending. The memorability of a
gift has nothing to do with spending. And I know
I'm preaching to the choir, But what sort of response
back you must get like a lot of eyes opened
when you're done talking to these people. And these are
smart people, they know what they're doing with their finances.
(28:13):
The holidays just kind of you know, trip a couple
of whiles. What's been the feedback when you kind of
gently pull them back into the into.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
The light exactly? You know, I do. I see a
lot of brilliant people, a lot of people who make
good money, who go overboard and over gift, especially for
all the kids in their lives. And yeah, it is
important to think about, you know, what you're actually giving.
Are you giving just to give? Is it something that
your child really wanted or child in your life really wanted,
(28:40):
And to think about other options experience gifts. Some of
the best gifts are the ones that don't cost a
lot of money. It's spending time. Is there an experience
that you can do with a loved one maybe and
if you don't, I mean, some experiences can be expensive,
but maybe there's something else, maybe planning a hike and
a picnic, or go to a local art gallery and
(29:01):
getting a latte. I love lattes. Like you said earlier,
I mean there's so many different things that you can
do to create special memories without spending a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Very cool, and now I knew the time would fly.
But I had to ask, what's the holidays looking like
at your house? Are you like way ahead of me
and you're already done gift shopping or like maybe fifty
percent at this point? What's the panic level like over
there compared to over here at Casa Agopian where we're
about a Defcon four. I gotta get it in gear.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Yeah, you know, I'm out here telling everybody to shop early,
get your shopping done to avoid those inventory issues or
shipping delays. And then of course I don't have time
to shop myself, but I have picked up a few gifts.
I'm keeping it pretty lean this year. Last year I
did go a little overboard, added to wanting to make
up for some of the harder times my kid experienced.
(29:48):
But then I realized when I watched them open up
the gifts it And so that's another tip. You know,
sink back to your past holidays with your own children.
Did they did they really enjoy opening up a million gifts?
Did they get overwhelmed? And so for myself this year,
I'm keeping it simple.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
I love it. Andrea Warrock, you were the best I
knew the time would fly. Thank you so much for
joining us. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours,
and join us again in the new year. We need
shopping advice year round. Come on back whenever you can
to share all of your upcoming projects.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
Yes, I would love to, and I would just like
to recommend you can learn more about the Chase Mobile
app at Chase Dot Combat Feedbackslash Mobile and I'll definitely
join you again in the future. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Happy Holidays, brilliant, I love it. And we'll be right
back gang right after this, and we are back with
a Kristin Agopian show, and our next guest is here
to talk about subject matter near and dear to a
(30:51):
lot of our hearts, especially as the holidays approach, because
the day to day burden of living with a peanut
allergy or someone close to you have a peanut allergy
and risk of accidental exposure significantly impacts a family's life
any time of year, but it can be especially crazy
during the holiday season. Now, my kids do not have
(31:11):
that allergy, but I have a good number of friends
with kids that do, and here to share some outstanding
tips to help keep kids safe and share the latest
and amazing breakthrough treatments. Is allergy and immunology specialist doctor
A nunth co Garagin here to join us, also known
to as many patients as doctor T Doctor Welcome.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Hi, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Well, it's a.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Pleasure to have you on. We had a lot of buzz.
Your expertise is in high demand. You know, we've got
a lot of people out there. Whether it's not them,
maybe it's a coworker they want to be careful around.
Maybe it's a child, the grandchild, the grandparent. Who knows,
but you've got a lot of peanut allergies out there.
Talk to us a bit about how common peanut allergy
is in young children and teens and the bare bones
(31:55):
basic as to why it's so dangerous these days.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
About one point three million children and teenagers in our
country suffer from peanut allergy. It can be dangerous because
in those affected individuals, if they accidentally ingest even a
small amount of peanut, it can lead to potentially life
threatening allergic reactions.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
And when you've got a new baby in the house.
You've got people out there, and they're frazzled enough as
it is. They're second guessing themselves every second. They're not
quite sure what to look for. What are some of
the symptoms of peanut allergy when you bring a new
baby into the house.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Symptoms of food allergy when that food is ingested is
wide ranging. On the very sort of mild end, itching
in the mouth and maybe some facial hives. On the
severe end, trouble breathing, throat swelling, and even loss of consciousness.
Specifically to your question about babies, most babies, when they
(32:50):
have their first food allergy reaction, it's not on that
super severe end. It can become that over time, but
the initial reaction isn't that.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Talk to me about your let's say, top two or
three tips for parents to help them be proactive and
helping their kids avoid potentially life threatening allergic reactions, especially
during the holiday season, you know, help them save a
lot of stress. What should the parents be doing out there?
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Absolutely so, you know, holidays are a wonderful time for
us to gather with family and friends and break bread.
For those families who have a food allergic child, there
is a planning that needs to be done ahead of time.
So if you're a guest at a Thanksgiving or holiday meal,
contact the host ahead of time and talk about the
menu to see what foods could be safe for your child.
(33:39):
Offer to bring in an allergy free entree and dessert
again so that there's something safe for that food allergic child.
Make sure they eat beforehand so that when you get
to your host's home you're not rushing to feed them,
which if you're rushing you may make some mistakes. Really importantly,
always be prepared case of an accidental ingestion and reaction.
(34:03):
You want to have emergency medications available, especially that epinefern autoinjector.
Now on the other side, if you're the host, ask
your guests beforehand about any food allergies. Take pictures or
keep the ingredientless packaging labels recipes to make sure the
food allergy families can examine that before feeding their child.
(34:24):
And then if you're serving buffet style, allow your guests
with food allergies to serve themselves first to decrease any
risk of cross contamination.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Talk to our listeners about the available treatments you'll find
these days. Maybe they've just found out about a peanut
allergy in their family. Treat what are the newest, most
available treatments, the ones most highly recommended, recommended by you
for peanut allergy, and perhaps you know where you see
treatments heading into the future.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
In twenty twenty, the FDA approved a peanut oral immunotherapy
product for allergy in children aged four to seventeen years
of age. This treatment is something that patients and families
should learn about the treatment and talk to their trusted
allergists before making any kind of decisions. But in the
(35:16):
treatment that can protect the penut allergic individual having that
accidental ingestion leading to a severe allergic reaction. There are,
of course a plethora of treatments that are being investigated,
but none that are FDA approved except for the one
that I just mentioned.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yep, that's good to know now. With so many other allergies,
and I learned this secondhand watching my kids playmates and stuff.
You know, we'd have them over for birthday parties year
after year, and as the years progressed, fewer and fewer
of them had an allergy that we had to work around.
There were always such sports, so many allergies. You can
(35:55):
kind of air quotes grow out of. Is peanut allergy
like that as well, where you have so much of
a lessening response as the years go on that finally
you're not considered to have one anymore. Or is peanut
allergy pretty much something you live with for life?
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Yeah, it's a great question. So there are many food
allergies for which children naturally outgrow, for instance, cow's milk
and egg. Unfortunately, for peanut allergy, only about twenty percent
outgrow it naturally over time, so it's much more durable
(36:30):
unfortunately in the majority of people with peanut allergy.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
That's interesting now when it comes to these treatments as
the years progress, do you see this staying as like
a shot type thing for an immediate response, or do
you think there's some sort of a pill cut type
thing that we can take or I guess it's going
to depend on the severity of the allergy level in
the kid.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
So in terms of immediate treatment of allergic reactions, if
it's a severe reaction, the mainstay of treatment is injectable epidephrine.
But in terms of taking food allergic children and trying
to prevent an accidental ingestion from leading to reaction, at
this time. The only FDA approved treatment is an oral treatment,
(37:11):
so it's an ingested treatment.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
That's good to know because a lot of people are
less put off by the oral type of treatment as
opposed to a shot. They feel very intimidated at the
idea of doing a shot. Will I do it wrong?
Will I do it right? It's just the kind of
thing where again, if my daughter's babysitting school can teach
you how to do this, trust me, people like myself
can probably learn how to do it too. You've got
a lot of people out there with questions and they're
listening to you, and they realize they want to learn more.
(37:34):
Where would you recommend that they head you to learn
a little bit more about this and how they can
better educate themselves and maybe prepare them themselves for it
and their households for it. If they've got a new
baby on the way that's going to have something like
this going on, or a niece or a nephew, or
a grandchild or a kid of their own, where do
you recommend they go to for the straight info on this.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Well, of course, talking to your trusted allergist is a
great first step, but for specific peanut allergy, treatment. There's
a great website Help for Peanut Allergies dot com that
families and patients can go.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
To excellent, excellent doctor a nun Seogaragin. This was fabulous.
I knew the time would fly doctor T. I better
stick to doctor T. Many thanks to you and your
team at Immune Therapeutics for all that you do. You
are literally saving lives and on behalf of exhausted parents everywhere.
We are very grateful. You got an open mic anytime,
please join us again.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
You bet until next week, save those pennies, pay with cash,
and you all stay frugal out there, not.
Speaker 5 (38:40):
To steal the best of all
Speaker 4 (38:46):
Circumstance.
And we are back with a Kristin Egopian show. And
when we first had this terrific guest on before, we
got a tremendous amount of buzz because well, just about
everybody listening coast to coast knows someone or perhaps they
are the someone who is living with diabetes. This is
Diabetes Awareness Month, and with the statistics getting more staggering
(00:26):
every day, guys, over thirty million Americans have diabetes, with
another nearly you're ready for this, nearly ninety million other
Americans are considered to be pre diabetic. So it's clear
that knowledge is power, and we are about to unleash
some courtesy of back by Popular Demand Unique founder Mark
Washington and what he has found to be the natural
(00:47):
key to lowering a one c's for tens of millions
of Americans. Merry Christmas in advance, Mark.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Welcome, here you go. Marry Christmas. Hi, Kristin, How are
you no.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Complaints here in Philadelphia? It's we're getting this weird spie temperatures.
I'll take it. It totally works for me. What's alike
in your neck of the woods.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, it's nice. I'm in Los Angeles, so I hate
the brag, but it's nice most time down here.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Well done, nice job. So Mark, you came at this
project with a personal passion. You yourself have diabetes running in
your family. You have lost deer members of your family
to it. But where so many people simply do their
best to manage it and maybe keep the status quo,
you took it this giant leap forward and launched an
(01:32):
incredible product. It's a line of patent pending products actually,
and these incredible shakes that have been proven effective and
over two hundred clinical studies to help naturally balance blood sugar.
And that's checking a lot of boxes. You've got nearly
a third of Americans who either have diabetes or a
pre diabetic and they are so attuned to they really
(01:52):
want to get into the natural products, especially when they work,
and two hundred clinical studies are saying that yours does.
It's a game changer and it's changing people's life for
the better. Talk to us about your product called Unique
and what exactly it's used for and why it's been
proven so effective.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Absolutely, I mean, we really take a food as medicine
approach because I believe that the powers within you, with
the right tools, with the right support to naturally gain
better control of your health. That's kind of this ethos
that we founded the company on, and it's really the
approach we took with Unique shakes. The easiest way to
(02:27):
describe it is Unique is a delicious meal replacement shake. Now,
obviously it goes a lot deeper than that. It's not
like your typical protein shake or a have you that's
out there. You know it does have and I can
get more into the science behind it, but these previder
fibers that are that are formulated, that have all the
clinical research behind it. What it does is that actually
(02:49):
it's incredibly effective at keeping you full for up to
four hours, right, and so you can imagine when you're
feel satisfied, you don't have those carb pravings like calling you.
That's like such a key to losing weight for an
effective meal replacement. So they've seen our customers have incredible results.
They're like, I don't feel hungry anymore, right, So that's
(03:11):
like point number one. The second point is, you know,
as you described this, the pre black viber is the
way that we formulated this. They've actually been proven to
improve blood sugar control, to reduce your average levels, reduce
your you know, after your meal or your fasting blood sugar,
but even over time have been shown to reduce your
(03:32):
A one C and that's the long term measure of
blood sugar control, and that it's important for any of
us right to keep your blood sugar levels, your metabolic
health under control. But for someone that's living with diabetes
or pre diabetes, that literally can be life changing, and
so having a natural way to keep that in better
control can be a really, really big deal. The best
(03:55):
part of it all though, shakes are absolutely delicious. We
spent months and months doing the scientific research to formulate
our shape, but we spent a year to make these
shapes delicious. For food to taste good, if they're going
to use something over time, they're going to come back
to it, and to be consistent, which we know is
important to get results over time, it better tastes good
because otherwise it's not going to stick.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
You nailed it down two very important points. Number one,
you know, so many of us know we want to
get our health a little more into control. We want
to find tune a couple of things. But if you're
not addressing hunger, and it's not a food that's going
to be palatable. You've lost the battle, so you've just
crushed it out of the park, and you just described
with your own words exactly why this is such a
smash success because it's all working so well that way. Now,
(04:39):
we have all heard the phrase resistant starch. We've heard
of probiotics, but we're all so crazy busy as often
we want to research these things, we don't get it done.
Break it down for us if you would, right.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I mean, there's so much conflicting information out there, and
you go to your health food store and you'll see
a you know, shelves full of probiotics, and you might
have heard of gut health and heard of like which
one to use, and all of this is actually super confusing,
So let me break it down. Like one, the first
thing to know is that gut health and what's called
(05:10):
the science of the gut microbiome. It actually is super important.
Like the research has shown that your gut is your
foundation for better health and affect so many different conditions.
Just about everything going on in your body has some
tie back to the gut and the truths of bacteria
that are living there. What probiotics are, that's called like
additional healthy bugs that like, so when you take a probiotic,
(05:32):
you're trying to add to the bugs that are already
in your gut that are responsible for keeping you healthy.
What prebiotics are is the food for your gut. So
this is actually the nutrients that those bugs need to
do their job. And none of us get nearly enough
pre biotic fiber in our diet, and that's already packed
so many into each unique shake. Now, what resistance starts
(05:54):
you specifically? And some have heard of it, some haven't.
It almost sounds negative like resistan distance starch, and isn't
starch bad for you? And the answer is absolutely most
often yes, this is a unique type of a starch.
It's actually a superpowered pre biotic fiber. That is, it's
hard to get through your normal diet. Our answers just
used to get a lot of it. But it's actually
(06:16):
a ton of clinical research that I have shown that
resistance starts are that really powerful food for the good
bugs in your gut. And why it's called resistant is
that it's especially resistant to digestion by you. At least
it's not really digested until it gets all the way
down into your large and test and your gut and
that's where it feeds the really really important bugs down
(06:37):
in your gut. That response were keeping you healthy. That's
why our shakes are so good at keeping you full,
because you know the prebiotic fibers and the shake it's
digested so slowly, so you have that satisfied feeling. And
well it's of course the weight loss, but the specific
ones that we shows resistant starch and some other complimentary
pre biotic fibers have actually been clinically shown to reduce
(06:58):
your blood sugar levels over time. So that really is
the differentiator. I call it the secret sauce within the
meunique shakes, and it's actually the very first ingredient on
our shakes is our pre biotic fiber blend, which you
just don't see in shakes, and so that's what really
brings the power and has the clinical evidence behind it.
And I'll ass I mentioned before, but we actually have
(07:19):
our own clinical trial underway. More like the path of
what traditional pharmaceutical companies do to prove out their drugs
and the effectiveness and safety, we're actually following this true
food is medicine approach, So we are actually going through
our own clinical trial to prove just how effective menique
shapes are at improving your overall health and your blood
(07:41):
sugar control.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
That is fantastic. And again you kind of answer my
next question because you think to yourself these issues in
the American landscape, you know, worldwide with diabetes. You focus
here in the States, and it's been around for a while,
And why hasn't someone crafted something like this beforehand? And
you just described why so modestly. It's because it's a
hell of a lot of work. It's unbelievable what you
put into this product, and it's unreal. It's very, very impressive.
(08:05):
And the time is flying and I need some serious
advice because it's it's grown up time. And as we
ramp up for the holidays, I can't wait. It's gonna
be so much fun. But I realized it's totally time
for me to pull up the big girl pants and
just set some basic consumption guidelines for these lovely holidays
coming up. I'll be very honest, when we were in
deep pandemic mode, it was a serious, no carb left
(08:28):
behind kind of holiday. I'm not gonna lie this holiday season.
I gotta get a grip. So talk to me about
your best moves for having a ball with the family
and the friends and enjoying the season and still manage
holiday eatings. You know, help me, obi wan kenobi, You're
my only hope.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So many people fall off the rails right during the
holiday and like digit huge, yeah right, and that you
then say, Okay, New Year's is when I'm going to
turn it around in my resolution, et cetera. There are
ways to enjoy yourself in the holidays without digging such
a deep hole. Honestly, a health getting started with a
healthy habit with meaning getting some prevotic fibranto your diet
(09:06):
is one of the most effective ways. There's something that
a lot of people don't know about. It's this concept
called metabolic flexibility. It's basically, it's like training your body,
getting yourself ready. And when you have a diet that's
high in prebiotic fibers like what's in unique, you're actually
training your body and your gut, getting it in better shape,
(09:27):
improving your influence sensitivity, et cetera, so that when Thanksgiving comes,
when Christmas comes, and you indulge and you have an
extra slice of you know, pumpkin pie, it doesn't affect
you as much because you've got more metabolic flexibility, and
so you're not digging as deep as a hole, even
though you're indulging and you're enjoying yourself like on the
holidays themselves. So it's really about trying to have a
(09:50):
consistent habit in those other times so that you can
enjoy yourself during the holidays. And yeah, when the New
Year hits, yeah you hit it hard, but you haven't
dug as deep behole. So you actually have some realistic
New Year's resolution goals that you could hit.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Brilliant, brilliant, mister Mark Washington, business leader, business creator, and
now we can truthfully add bit of a life saver
to the mix our segments with you always fly by.
Please have a safe and healthy holiday season and join
us again in the new year whenever you get the chance.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Absolutely thanks for having us, Christian and check us out
at unique life dot com.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Unique life dot com. We'll make sure we have a
link on our social media too, and we'll be right
back gang right after this, not.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Too Steve, the best.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Scumstance comes, we.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Come, and we are back. And I had to get this.
I wanted to get this subject matter in on this segment.
I wanted to make sure we didn't run out of
time because someone sent me this and this couple's story,
this family story. They have a couple of kids, is
the essence of brilliant frugal living. I love this article.
(11:21):
It's a millennial couple. This isn't a couple in their eighties,
seventy sixties, fifties, forties, thirties. It's a millennial couple. I
think they might be in their early thirties now, traveling
the country in a converted bus after paying off all
of their debt. Now, some people are going to roll
their eyes and say this sounds like such hippie, dippy ridiculousness.
(11:42):
This is not. It's actually a brilliant story about how
people are free when they don't have debt. This is
what happens when you don't have tens of thousands or
hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt holding you down.
And this is exact exactly the kind of freedom that
I want every one of our listeners, whether or not
(12:04):
you choose to use that freedom. Traveling the country in
a gorgeous converted bus. You think the bus, and you're
thinking some army military bus that they're sleeping in these
seats no, this is absolutely gorgeous and I had to
get this in here. So the name the couple's named
Will and Kristin Watson, and they've been living in this
converted gorgeous bus for eight months, okay, and they're from
(12:27):
Jacksonville Beach, Florida. We got a couple of great stations
down there. I think it's one of our listeners that
sent us this article. They're in Florida right now visiting
family for the holidays. And they just loved to travel.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
They're in their thirties, so we save right here, and
they loved traveling. They love exploring. And the husband had
a job that was really kind of capping out when
it came to the stress level, and she's always loved traveling.
They both work on various jobs that they can do freelance.
They can do it from the road, literally, and so
(12:59):
many people the days have that kind of freedom. Whether
I'm doing the radio show, I can do that from
any station anywhere. I've got my traveling station, I've got
the station in my home office, and so many people
can do the same thing from home. And now that's
a double edged sword because even when you're not in
your corporate environment, or your office environment, or you're away
(13:19):
from home environment. You get home and suddenly you can
work from home too. Yeah, great news there when you
feel like you have to work all the time. But
the good part of that is that when you don't
have a lot of debt holding you down, you have
a lot less money that you need to spend on
all this debt that you have. When you have less debt,
less money that you have to spend on any of
(13:40):
this debt, you have a lot more freedom to travel,
to do whatever you want, and to think outside the box,
especially for these young families out there before they decide
they want to kind of plant their feet somewhere, so
they bought this. They had regular nine to five jobs,
they quit their nine to five jobs and gave this
unique lifestyle a try. Back in twenty seventeen, Okay, she'd
(14:02):
been trying to convince her husband to live, you know,
on the road, on this beautiful, glamorous, gorgeous every bell
in whistle on a bus or a van or a
tiny house for years, and he was working really hard
on this huge project. He was super burnt out her words,
and in the midst of the project, he comes into
the room and says, you know what, when we're done
(14:22):
with this project, let's convert that bus like you said
and travel around. And she was immediately on board. So
they buy this bus, and look these guys up if
you want to. They bought this thirty one foot nineteen
ninety two Bluebird Air Force bus for eight grand. Okay.
Then he and his dad spent the next couple of
(14:43):
years renovating the bus to be livable. They call it livable.
This thing is adorable. It's got everything it needs. They
are not living in any kind of a you know, Oh,
it's a horrible it's ridiculous. It is adorable and perfectly
tricked out. So while he's working on the van, she's
working like crazy to pay off all of the debt
included student loans from college, some credit card debt. I
(15:05):
love that kind of focus. It was just very important
for the two of them to make sure they didn't
have any debt before they jumped into this kind of lifestyle.
They didn't want anything pulling them in any other direction
other than the direction they wanted to go. So it
was about twenty four grand in expenses and debt, and
they paid it all off in a year right before
(15:25):
they moved on to this beautiful moving bus, this gorgeous camper,
and now they have no debt, which actually reduces the
amount of time they have to work, which is a
perfect one two punch when they want to dedicate themselves
to this gorgeous travel guys, they're going state to state.
They have no debt. They can work from the road,
and they say it helps tremendously. They didn't have a
(15:46):
mortgage or any rent to pay at the time. They
still have to pay for gas and insurance on the bus,
but it's still far cheaper than a house and a
mortgage payment right now. So they're saving their extra money,
putting it into savings, living like kings on the road,
enjoying seeing all of the various travel sites that they
wanted to. It's a one two three punch. They can
(16:09):
still work from the road, they are loving the sites,
they're socking away money in savings, and all of this
is possible because they have no debt. This would have
been impossible if they had any debt weighing them down.
And you guys out there listening might have the same thing.
Now maybe your goal, maybe your hey, we have no debt, goal,
(16:31):
is not to drive around the country in a beautiful,
tricked out little bus. That's their dream. Maybe you have
a dream of starting your own business. Maybe you have
a dream of not having to work. Maybe you can
live off the interest on your loan, live off the
interest on your savings. Or maybe your dream is to
pay off your house. Maybe your dream is to be
(16:52):
the first one in your family tree to own their
own business, have your house paid off, and be able
to retire when you're sixty or fifty five or whatever
age it's going to be. Everybody has their little camp
or dream that they want to travel around the country
debt free. And let's be honest, I love the idea
of traveling. I love the idea of going debt free.
(17:14):
All of this stuff is hugely appealing overall. They say
the bus and the renovations cost thirty grand, and that's
their house, and believe it or not, it's one hundred
and ninety square feet inside, which doesn't sound like a lot. However,
when you think about the average, you know, kind of
small efficiency apartment these days, it's pretty close to the mark.
(17:35):
And honestly, the price of some of those efficiencies, that's
pretty close to what we're talking about right now. So
it's got plenty of room for the couple's bed as
well as a crib for their son and a very
nice bathroom. I'm looking at it. So all the major
stuff is taken care of. They've got a great little
kitchen in there. You don't need a huge kitchen, and
even if you do. Here's the thing, guys. They had
(17:56):
an idea that they wanted to do and it sounded crazy,
and they thought that their debt wouldn't allow them to
do it. So they focused like a laser on paying
off their debt. And now the sky is the limit
now again, and there goes my phone. You can hear
that going off. It's even on the other end of
the studio. They have goals that debt was holding them
(18:16):
back from. You have goals that debt is holding you
back from, and it's starting to get you a little
irritated as well. It should. You are the captain of
your ship. Steer it towards a debt free lifestyle and
you will be astonished at the vista's, the views, the mindset,
how the sky is just a little bit bluer when
(18:37):
you don't have debt. This is your ship steer it
in a direction that makes you happiest. Not towards extra
hours at work, not towards extra this or extra that.
Try some extra time because you don't have to work.
Try some extra time to sleep, extra time to enjoy
with your family because your debt is paid off. Imagine
your mindset, Imagine your mood, Imagine your sleep patterns, Imagine
(19:02):
your stress level. If you had zero debt, no mortgage,
no credit card payments, no student debt, no car debt.
Just imagine what walking around for twenty four hours in
a day that has no debt like that, how would
you feel by the end of that day. I want
that to be your permanent mindset. These guys did it.
(19:24):
They were young, they even had a kid. They made
it happen. Whatever age, whatever situation you're in, you can
make it your reality too. Think outside the box and
then start making it happen. These guys did you know
that you can as well? And it all kind of
ties into the hole. Let's not go crazy spending too
much money this holiday season? All right? Yeah, yeah, times fline,
I'm getting the wave more after this eno and we
(19:54):
are back with the Christinegpian Show, and I am delighted
to report. I think it's safe to say we're in
the holiday mode. I'm loving it. You guys, just remember
holiday season twenty twenty. No travel really, you know, very
small gatherings, all of us promising that in upcoming Christmases
and holidays we were going to make it an extra
special one for family and friends to make up for. Well,
your heart's in the right place, but often our pocketbooks
(20:17):
aren't ramped up to match. You. Guys, holiday spending can
break the bank and break your heart come January when
the bills come pouring in. But you guys know that
this show is all about living a luxurious life without
breaking the bank. And who better to break down the
upcoming holiday shopping season than savings and budgeting expert Andrea
Warrock joining us VR Newsmaker line to share some proven
(20:39):
and not too hard, pretty easy ways guys to plan,
track and save. Andrea, Happy holidays, welcome, Well.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Thank you so much for having me on today.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
It is our pleasure. Okay, so you and your budgeting
strategies absolutely nail it, especially on the holidays. We all
go a little eight crackers on the holidays. We don't
recognize ourselves. We have seen you on the today's show
Good Morning America. So many other places with these outstanding
strategies for staying on top of your finances, and I
feel like this year is just a little hinky again
(21:09):
with money and spending. People who had usual spending habits
all their lives are kind of going to little kray.
People are kind of a weird place. What kind of
trends are you seeing out there on the street compared
to say, two years ago. Maybe well, I think just.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
In general, people are spending a little bit more to
take advantage of being out in the world again, enjoying
going out to eat and buying themselves clothing because you
know they're actually going to work or going out to restaurants,
and so I think people are maybe going a little
overboard on certain expenses that maybe they wouldn't have in
(21:43):
the past. And that really brings me to one of
my first tips talking about budgeting, how important it is
to actually sit down. You don't have to get crazy,
but sit down and figure out how much you can
truly afford to spend this season on everything, not just gifts,
every single purchase you're going to make this year without
going into debt, and then feeling stressed out in January,
(22:05):
and so you really need to think about gifts. Make
a list of everybody you want to buy a gift for,
think about what those items might be, and look up
prices to see if those are realistic options. And then
think beyond the gifts. Are you traveling this year? How
much is that going to cost? Are you hosting any parties?
How much are grocery is going to cost for those parties?
(22:26):
What about all the gift wrap? Do you have things
you can use from last year to maybe offset those costs.
So there's a lot of planning that goes into it,
but it doesn't have to be overwhelming. Just sit down
and start writing out your list and that'll help get
you on your way to budgeting smart.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
It's brilliant and that is such a tried and true way.
So that kind of advice is really going to hit
home now. You know that our show focuses mainly on
lifestyle and personal finance, And if there's one thing I'm
delighted to report so often, it's that there's more digital
banking tools out there now more than ever. Sometimes I
kind of find myself stuck in a rut back in
(23:00):
nineteen ninety five, which can also work. But if you
can save yourself a lot of hassle, you know, honest
to Pete, These new tools make budgeting and spending smart
that much easier. It's a great weapon to have in
the fight against overspending. What are the latest tools catching
your eye when you're out there.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Right well there? Like you mentioned that, there's so many
great tools out there. There are cash back shopping tools,
there are coupon apps on your phone, and then mobile
banking apps which make it so easy to keep track
of where your money is going. I find that people
are buying things online on their phones using different credit cards,
and they can't really grasp how much money they're spending,
(23:37):
and that's what leads to overspending. So the ability to
check in on your mobile banking app to see how
much you spend at any given moment can make you realize, Okay,
I need to take a step back, I need to
cut back. Maybe no more self gifts. I've already pushed
my limit there And a great example is the Chase
mobile app. It helps you track your spending. You can
(23:58):
pay bills all in one place, send money to friends
and family with a zel, you can even check your
credit score, which is so smart to do before making
a major purchase. With their credit Journey feature. To access that,
you don't have to have a Chase account, and then
within the app you can also shop and take advantage
of special offers to save money on the merchants you love.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Now, when people come to you talking about holiday spending
and they want to avoid maybe avoid the same January
credit card bill drama of years past, and everybody's had that.
The most disciplined shoppers, every one of them has a
couple of things on their resume with like crap, I
can't believe I did that, and they want to avoid
that this year, they're not quite sure how to pull
it off. What are you seeing out there is maybe
(24:41):
say the two or three most common mistakes out there,
even when it comes to the most disciplined shoppers. What
are the two or three most common mistakes out there
when it comes to holiday spending?
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Okay, so you definitely want to figure out a budget
base side. What's a realistic budget? We talked about budgeting earlier,
but maybe you just don't even know what a realistic
number is for yourself. And this is where I would
recommend going back to last holiday season, go through your
November December statements on your bank account and your credit
cards to figure out how much you spent on gifts
(25:12):
and other seasonal expenses, and then just consider that this
year is going to be a little different. Maybe you
are traveling and so that might mean making adjustments in
other areas. Maybe you don't spend as much on the
gifts that you're giving out. Maybe you give smaller gifts
or gift to fewer people. Maybe you don't buy as
many self gifts for yourself. Maybe you don't buy that
(25:32):
new party dress for that holiday party. You can make
do with what you already have in your closet and
just update it with a new necklace. You know, there
are some strategies to get around making your budget work
for you without taking away from the holiday season. When
you are planning bigger purchases, whether it's a big gift,
a family getaway. Maybe there's someone out there who wants
(25:54):
to buy an engagement ring for their special someone, consider
alternative payment plan options can give you more breathing room
in your budget and allow you to still get all
those other gifts on your list or afford those seasonal
expenses maybe afford that holiday party that you missed out
on last year that you want to host this year.
And my Chase plan lets you pay off purchases over
(26:17):
time in fixed equal monthly payments. And here's the amazing
part about it, there's no interest and no credit check.
You just pay a fixed monthly fee. So I think
that's a great option for a lot of people. And
then I also recommend going in on a group gift.
I love this for a group of friends, coworkers, maybe
(26:37):
family siblings. If you're planning a gift for your parents,
you can give that more meaningful gift, that bigger item
that they really need or want, without busting your budget.
You just go in together on that gift. And then
of course you can use a service like Zell to
send or receive money with just about anyone who has
a US bank account, and that makes it convenient, especially
(27:01):
if you're we're talking about splitting a group gift with
people who live in different states or across the country,
which you know is something that I experience with my
own siblings.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
You and I have got to do coffee sometime. We
just got to hit the East Coast together on the
same day and just do a serious latte. But one
of the things that I remember, and this was me
growing up as a kid. You clearly had a lot
of great people, you know, schooling you as a kid
as well. I find that it's such a big difference
when it comes to spending as an adult. But somebody
said something to me once. I wish I could remember who,
but they said, think back. You know, I've got a
(27:29):
couple of years on you. So I'm in my fifties,
back in the seventies, eighties, early nineties, think back to
the most favorite Christmases, the favorite memories you've ever had.
And then I say to them, tell me three presents
you got as a kid, right, And they can't do
it because they love the holidays. Everybody remembers a great bike,
maybe their first computer or whatever it is. But for
all of the wonderful, loving, dozens upon dozens of presents
(27:52):
that we got, the ones that made the most impact
was maybe something crocheted by a grandma or you know,
a book handed down from somebody else. So it has
nothing to do with the spending. The memorability of a
gift has nothing to do with spending. And I know
I'm preaching to the choir, But what sort of response
back you must get like a lot of eyes opened
when you're done talking to these people. And these are
smart people, they know what they're doing with their finances.
(28:13):
The holidays just kind of you know, trip a couple
of whiles. What's been the feedback when you kind of
gently pull them back into the into.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
The light exactly? You know, I do. I see a
lot of brilliant people, a lot of people who make
good money, who go overboard and over gift, especially for
all the kids in their lives. And yeah, it is
important to think about, you know, what you're actually giving.
Are you giving just to give? Is it something that
your child really wanted or child in your life really wanted,
(28:40):
And to think about other options experience gifts. Some of
the best gifts are the ones that don't cost a
lot of money. It's spending time. Is there an experience
that you can do with a loved one maybe and
if you don't, I mean, some experiences can be expensive,
but maybe there's something else, maybe planning a hike and
a picnic, or go to a local art gallery and
(29:01):
getting a latte. I love lattes. Like you said earlier,
I mean there's so many different things that you can
do to create special memories without spending a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Very cool, and now I knew the time would fly.
But I had to ask, what's the holidays looking like
at your house? Are you like way ahead of me
and you're already done gift shopping or like maybe fifty
percent at this point? What's the panic level like over
there compared to over here at Casa Agopian where we're
about a Defcon four. I gotta get it in gear.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Yeah, you know, I'm out here telling everybody to shop early,
get your shopping done to avoid those inventory issues or
shipping delays. And then of course I don't have time
to shop myself, but I have picked up a few gifts.
I'm keeping it pretty lean this year. Last year I
did go a little overboard, added to wanting to make
up for some of the harder times my kid experienced.
(29:48):
But then I realized when I watched them open up
the gifts it And so that's another tip. You know,
sink back to your past holidays with your own children.
Did they did they really enjoy opening up a million gifts?
Did they get overwhelmed? And so for myself this year,
I'm keeping it simple.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
I love it. Andrea Warrock, you were the best I
knew the time would fly. Thank you so much for
joining us. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours,
and join us again in the new year. We need
shopping advice year round. Come on back whenever you can
to share all of your upcoming projects.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
Yes, I would love to, and I would just like
to recommend you can learn more about the Chase Mobile
app at Chase Dot Combat Feedbackslash Mobile and I'll definitely
join you again in the future. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Happy Holidays, brilliant, I love it. And we'll be right
back gang right after this, and we are back with
a Kristin Agopian show, and our next guest is here
to talk about subject matter near and dear to a
(30:51):
lot of our hearts, especially as the holidays approach, because
the day to day burden of living with a peanut
allergy or someone close to you have a peanut allergy
and risk of accidental exposure significantly impacts a family's life
any time of year, but it can be especially crazy
during the holiday season. Now, my kids do not have
(31:11):
that allergy, but I have a good number of friends
with kids that do, and here to share some outstanding
tips to help keep kids safe and share the latest
and amazing breakthrough treatments. Is allergy and immunology specialist doctor
A nunth co Garagin here to join us, also known
to as many patients as doctor T Doctor Welcome.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Hi, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
Well, it's a.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Pleasure to have you on. We had a lot of buzz.
Your expertise is in high demand. You know, we've got
a lot of people out there. Whether it's not them,
maybe it's a coworker they want to be careful around.
Maybe it's a child, the grandchild, the grandparent. Who knows,
but you've got a lot of peanut allergies out there.
Talk to us a bit about how common peanut allergy
is in young children and teens and the bare bones
(31:55):
basic as to why it's so dangerous these days.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
About one point three million children and teenagers in our
country suffer from peanut allergy. It can be dangerous because
in those affected individuals, if they accidentally ingest even a
small amount of peanut, it can lead to potentially life
threatening allergic reactions.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
And when you've got a new baby in the house.
You've got people out there, and they're frazzled enough as
it is. They're second guessing themselves every second. They're not
quite sure what to look for. What are some of
the symptoms of peanut allergy when you bring a new
baby into the house.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Symptoms of food allergy when that food is ingested is
wide ranging. On the very sort of mild end, itching
in the mouth and maybe some facial hives. On the
severe end, trouble breathing, throat swelling, and even loss of consciousness.
Specifically to your question about babies, most babies, when they
(32:50):
have their first food allergy reaction, it's not on that
super severe end. It can become that over time, but
the initial reaction isn't that.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Talk to me about your let's say, top two or
three tips for parents to help them be proactive and
helping their kids avoid potentially life threatening allergic reactions, especially
during the holiday season, you know, help them save a
lot of stress. What should the parents be doing out there?
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Absolutely so, you know, holidays are a wonderful time for
us to gather with family and friends and break bread.
For those families who have a food allergic child, there
is a planning that needs to be done ahead of time.
So if you're a guest at a Thanksgiving or holiday meal,
contact the host ahead of time and talk about the
menu to see what foods could be safe for your child.
(33:39):
Offer to bring in an allergy free entree and dessert
again so that there's something safe for that food allergic child.
Make sure they eat beforehand so that when you get
to your host's home you're not rushing to feed them,
which if you're rushing you may make some mistakes. Really importantly,
always be prepared case of an accidental ingestion and reaction.
(34:03):
You want to have emergency medications available, especially that epinefern autoinjector.
Now on the other side, if you're the host, ask
your guests beforehand about any food allergies. Take pictures or
keep the ingredientless packaging labels recipes to make sure the
food allergy families can examine that before feeding their child.
(34:24):
And then if you're serving buffet style, allow your guests
with food allergies to serve themselves first to decrease any
risk of cross contamination.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Talk to our listeners about the available treatments you'll find
these days. Maybe they've just found out about a peanut
allergy in their family. Treat what are the newest, most
available treatments, the ones most highly recommended, recommended by you
for peanut allergy, and perhaps you know where you see
treatments heading into the future.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
In twenty twenty, the FDA approved a peanut oral immunotherapy
product for allergy in children aged four to seventeen years
of age. This treatment is something that patients and families
should learn about the treatment and talk to their trusted
allergists before making any kind of decisions. But in the
(35:16):
treatment that can protect the penut allergic individual having that
accidental ingestion leading to a severe allergic reaction. There are,
of course a plethora of treatments that are being investigated,
but none that are FDA approved except for the one
that I just mentioned.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yep, that's good to know now. With so many other allergies,
and I learned this secondhand watching my kids playmates and stuff.
You know, we'd have them over for birthday parties year
after year, and as the years progressed, fewer and fewer
of them had an allergy that we had to work around.
There were always such sports, so many allergies. You can
(35:55):
kind of air quotes grow out of. Is peanut allergy
like that as well, where you have so much of
a lessening response as the years go on that finally
you're not considered to have one anymore. Or is peanut
allergy pretty much something you live with for life?
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Yeah, it's a great question. So there are many food
allergies for which children naturally outgrow, for instance, cow's milk
and egg. Unfortunately, for peanut allergy, only about twenty percent
outgrow it naturally over time, so it's much more durable
(36:30):
unfortunately in the majority of people with peanut allergy.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
That's interesting now when it comes to these treatments as
the years progress, do you see this staying as like
a shot type thing for an immediate response, or do
you think there's some sort of a pill cut type
thing that we can take or I guess it's going
to depend on the severity of the allergy level in
the kid.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
So in terms of immediate treatment of allergic reactions, if
it's a severe reaction, the mainstay of treatment is injectable epidephrine.
But in terms of taking food allergic children and trying
to prevent an accidental ingestion from leading to reaction, at
this time. The only FDA approved treatment is an oral treatment,
(37:11):
so it's an ingested treatment.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
That's good to know because a lot of people are
less put off by the oral type of treatment as
opposed to a shot. They feel very intimidated at the
idea of doing a shot. Will I do it wrong?
Will I do it right? It's just the kind of
thing where again, if my daughter's babysitting school can teach
you how to do this, trust me, people like myself
can probably learn how to do it too. You've got
a lot of people out there with questions and they're
listening to you, and they realize they want to learn more.
(37:34):
Where would you recommend that they head you to learn
a little bit more about this and how they can
better educate themselves and maybe prepare them themselves for it
and their households for it. If they've got a new
baby on the way that's going to have something like
this going on, or a niece or a nephew, or
a grandchild or a kid of their own, where do
you recommend they go to for the straight info on this.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Well, of course, talking to your trusted allergist is a
great first step, but for specific peanut allergy, treatment. There's
a great website Help for Peanut Allergies dot com that
families and patients can go.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
To excellent, excellent doctor a nun Seogaragin. This was fabulous.
I knew the time would fly doctor T. I better
stick to doctor T. Many thanks to you and your
team at Immune Therapeutics for all that you do. You
are literally saving lives and on behalf of exhausted parents everywhere.
We are very grateful. You got an open mic anytime,
please join us again.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
You bet until next week, save those pennies, pay with cash,
and you all stay frugal out there, not.
Speaker 5 (38:40):
To steal the best of all
Speaker 4 (38:46):
Circumstance.
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