BariNation-PYP-24-1224-EP 230
Jason Smith: [00:00:00] Hi, welcome to Barrie Nation, where we support the bariatric community with humor, humility, and honesty.
April Williams: You've just tuned into a podcast that welcomes you into a community, a resource center, and a safe place that powers your [00:00:15] journey towards personal wellness.
Natalie Tierney: Our goal is you leave us today feeling helpful, inspired, and ready to live your best bariatric life.
April Williams: Hello friends. [00:00:30] Welcome to the Barrie Nation podcast. And if you are watching this episode on YouTube, you see that all three of us are together again, which we are thrilled and excited about. Life and the stars have aligned that allow us [00:00:45] to get together and have this really important conversation with you.
In 2025, our kind of big mission is to thrive. We want to thrive in 2025. And a tool that we are utilizing [00:01:00] is curiosity. And not only is it a tool that we're really utilizing, but the more we lean into this, the more we're discovering just how powerful it can be. And it doesn't apply just to our bariatric lives.
This is a tool that [00:01:15] applies to any facet of our life. So today's episode is really going to be about how we are leading into this relentless curiosity to power our journey towards thriving this year. All right. So just [00:01:30] to make sure that we are all on the same page, right? Our definition of thrive, and yes, I'm looking at my notes because I don't want to mess this up, but our shared definition of thriving is to progress towards or realize a goal despite or because of circumstances.[00:01:45]
And y'all know we are working through the chronic and lifelong disease of obesity. So despite fighting this disease of obesity, we are going to learn how to thrive. And curiosity is that tool that, that, that we were using. [00:02:00] So, and we're going to get into this a little bit later, but we say relentless for a reason.
We want to continually work towards learning what we need to learn along this journey. And curiosity is just simply the desire to know, to be [00:02:15] interested in something to the point that we want to seek out a problem for it. So we want to just continue to focus on these things that kind of are getting in our way, and we want to problem solve them.
And I think the thing that all three of us are [00:02:30] proud of is that after four or five years on this journey, we are starting to understand I don't have to solve every problem at once. I need to pick one that's in front of me at the moment and solve for it. So we're going to [00:02:45] share with you now how we're doing just that.
Jason, let, let's start with you. What's a problem that you have been solving this year using curiosity?
Jason Smith: Um, mine was movement. Um, I know a lot, a lot of people have been seeing my posts in the [00:03:00] gym and things, and it's just really, really hard. Just came from relentless curiosity of saying, you know, I've never been a morning workout person.
I can't be a morning workout person. That's for other people, not for me. And then I got curious about it and thought about it. It was like, what if tomorrow I just set my [00:03:15] alarm for five 45 and see what happens. And I did. And that way I put myself on the hook to say, well, now the alarm's going to go off.
So you've got one or two choices. You can get up and go do it and figure it out. Or you can stay in bed and keep doing the same things you've been doing and you know what that's going to [00:03:30] lead to. So, I got curious and I explored that curiosity and now, uh, this is the, this week starts the sixth month I've been in the gym solid every five days a week.
April Williams: And like, how does it feel? How, like, I mean, because it's [00:03:45] got to feel different than it has in the past.
Jason Smith: Oh, absolutely. Everything about what I'm doing now is different than before. So before, when I had programs that I would just kind of throw together myself and think, Oh, this will work. This'll be fine. I was lifting, but I wasn't [00:04:00] lifting.
Like I'm lifting now. Now I've got an actual program that I've started. And within this six months now, I'm lifting. heavier and I'm stronger and I look and feel better than I did when I lifted for a year solid before. [00:04:15] Also, I didn't quite have as, as dedicated a routine as I do now. So every day that I'm going, I'm working the same things that, you know, pretty much on the same days, there's a rotation that goes into play and everything about it is different now.
[00:04:30] So I'm like, I'm lifting heavier now than I ever have. I feel stronger than I've ever have. My body is way different than it's ever been. I just, I see the changes and I feel the changes and it's made a huge difference. [00:04:45]
April Williams: You said something that is magical to, to this tool that we're talking about. And that is that phrase of what if I wonder if that's where curiosity begins.
That's how you use this tool. Instead of living in this place [00:05:00] of frustration of saying to yourself, I'm never going to figure this out. Why can't I figure this out? I'm just so you fill in the blank. You recognize that you're saying that to yourself and you just change it and you say, I wonder if, I wonder what would happen.[00:05:15]
Jason Smith: Well, and there's days like today, I even posted on my story today. Today was the hardest day. One of the hardest days I've had in the gym since I've been going because my body was telling me I couldn't do what I've been doing. So I've been at the same weight on all of my [00:05:30] workouts for two weeks now. So I know I can lift what I've been lifting.
But my body halfway through it was like, no, I don't think so. The halfway through the first, the first set of like, I sat down at the bench press was do it, like got one, one [00:05:45] rep out. And the second go, I was like, within the second or third push in there, they were like, I don't think you can do this. And I was like the hell I can't.
So then I just pushed my way through. But then it was like every single thing I did past that was that I had to legit use [00:06:00] everything in me to get through it. And, you know, it really all correlates to mindset. Like your mind will try to tell you a hundred times out of a hundred that you cannot do something, but it's how you approach it.
And the relentless curiosity you [00:06:15] use to find new ways to get around what your mind is trying to tell you, because we all know the power of the mind is extremely powerful. It is so powerful. And, you know, if you don't find ways to combat that and get around it, You [00:06:30] will succumb to it. And I knew that today would have been an easy day for me to do that, but I chose not to, because I was like, I know what I'm going to feel like if I don't do this, so I'm going to do this in spite of what my mind says.
April Williams: [00:06:45] Ooh, that like double play on yourself is a part of this. Oh, okay. We, we, we're going to dive into that in the bonus episode. Let's put a pin in that. We're going to pin that. Uh, miss that. What about you? How have you been using this [00:07:00] tool?
Natalie Tierney: Yeah, I feel like I used it in two different ways this year. 1 was in regards to bariatrics, uh, in the metabolic wellness.
Like, I had a lot that was out of my control this year [00:07:15] as far as movement as far as where I was in the world. Uh, and. I did not have access to a lot of foods that I normally would like to have access to, like things that I normally shopped for, um, [00:07:30] in the city. Like, I didn't have access to that. Um, and so I had to get curious and say, okay, I know the same thing as Jason.
Like, I know that my situation right now, I'm frustrated because I don't have what I need. Feel like I [00:07:45] need, um, but how can I Make this work. What can I do right now? In the grocery store that I'm at currently What are things that I can look for and how can I make you know meals or? You [00:08:00] know, how can I shop and plan ahead?
um in ways that is new and different and I think it was harder for me because I didn't have those those typical things to to rely on so That was the 1st way. And then the [00:08:15] 2nd way was just I was unemployed. I was living somewhere that I didn't want to be living and I had to just constantly like. April and Jason now, like, every single day, I was looking on [00:08:30] job sites.
I was applying for jobs. I probably applied for over 1500 jobs in the last year, but it was this constant, like, okay, maybe I can fit this or how can I make this work for me instead of the other [00:08:45] way around. And it finally worked, but it was that that relentless piece of, like. Okay, yeah, I'm tired. I can notice myself getting to a point of not wanting to do this ever again.
[00:09:00] And at the same time, we're just going to rest today, and then we're going to pick up and go ahead again tomorrow.
April Williams: Yes. And you said something else again, that is like a critical part of this tool. And that is what is within my control, [00:09:15] right? Because if I'm getting worked up, if I'm spinning around things that are completely out of my control, it can be really difficult to get our brains to that point that we ask ourselves what actually is possible or what, what can I [00:09:30] have some control over?
Like we understand that talking about curiosity. Can be challenging. This takes work. It takes active effort up here to, to really kind of discern like what is getting in my way. What can I [00:09:45] control? What is within my control? And what little levers or what things can I do to just say, could this be different?
What could I do differently? But what we want you to know is that there is so much joy in curiosity. It is [00:10:00] fun to explore and to kind of figure things out. It's just like enlightening and it's empowering when you really start to say, okay, I am in control of this facet of my life or this part of my journey.
And there could be 8 million things that I feel like are not [00:10:15] going well. All I need to do is pick one of them. I just need to pick one. And I need to lean into curiosity and say, what is within my control? What could I do? What could I change? I wonder what would happen if I. Did something differently and [00:10:30] this tool can be applied at every stage of the journey.
This is not just for people who are newly post op. This is for everybody, even if you're pre op, right? Getting curious about what is out there for me above and beyond the things that I have already tried when it comes to [00:10:45] my excess weight, right? When it comes to treating the disease of obesity, you have not given up.
You are still pursuing it. You are listening and you're watching this podcast, which means you are actively in this thing and you are looking for a nugget of wisdom that is going to help you along this journey. [00:11:00] By listening and watching to this, you are practicing curiosity. And what we're sharing and encouraging us all to do this year is to really use it as a tool for us to thrive.
For us to continue to seek out those answers to the [00:11:15] things that keep getting in our way. Uh, and hopefully you're leaving this episode with a new, like, huh, insight or idea, um, and a way that you can apply it to, to your own journey, because we're going to be leaning heavily into [00:11:30] the, this year we're going to be sharing about how we are using, uh, curiosity along the way.
And we're excited to bring you along on the journey and invite you to join us in this because really when we do this work together, we all can thrive at the same time. [00:11:45] What's the one thing that you want people to take away from your insights on curiosity?
Jason Smith: Man. I would say getting curious about just any part of the journey that you don't, that you aren't really [00:12:00] familiar with at this point that can help you in the long run, just get curious about all of it.
Like we talk about this all the time, like taking, you know, making your own recipe from everybody's things and just kind of digging through and figuring out if there's places where you feel like you could, you [00:12:15] know, You could change some things or do something different. Like that's how those things come about is trying to dig through and figure out what you can add to the pot to make your recipe just a little different than everybody else's
April Williams: not.
What about you? [00:12:30]
Natalie Tierney: Yeah. I mean, it seems daunting. I was listening to, um, I don't know if it was a podcast or if it was just like I was on, like on a social media, I don't know what I, where I heard it. Um, [00:12:45] but someone said something about how life is like a stack of pancakes that you can get at IHOP, right? You try out, you top it with, with one thing.
You go, actually, I really don't like that. You can always turn the pancake over, try [00:13:00] something new. See if you like it. If not, go to the next pancake. And The way they said it was a lot more eloquent than I just did, um, but it makes sense to me and I hope that that can simplify what the [00:13:15] curiosity and and being relentless means like it's not just one life like you can make it however you want, you can try out new toppings.
You can try out new things. You can get excited about it. It's going to be scary and it's going to be [00:13:30] big, um, or small, but either way, you're going to be a little bit scared and just doing it scared and trying to have fun with it and doing it with community with these guys. It makes it a lot easier.
April Williams: It does.
When, [00:13:45] uh, when we are leaning into curiosity, we, when we were practicing this tool, it absolutely makes a difference to do it with people who get it, who are not going to judge you or think poorly of you because you are trying something new. That's the whole point. Uh, BariNation, [00:14:00] our membership community is really a community of practice.
And that's what this is all about. We have built a space for us to practice. Asking these questions and trying things on being being scientists in our own experiment, as we say all the time. [00:14:15] So, yeah, being a part of a community is the 1 of the best places that we can absolutely be when we lean into curiosity.
And we would love to know friends from you as well. What. Are you wanting to get curious about this year? Is [00:14:30] there something that you just keep like stubbing your toe on bumping into? Is there something that you are really looking forward to kind of like growing in or learning excelling in? Is there a problem along your bariatric journey that you want to solve?
Let us know [00:14:45] either comment on this show on YouTube, comment on Spotify, uh, you can actually comment on any platform, or you can even send us an email, hello@baination.com. But we would love to know what area of your bariatric journey you are going to be using curiosity in [00:15:00] this year to help you thrive in 2025.
All right, my friends, I think we did it. Thanks for joining us today. We'll see you in the nation soon. Bye everybody.[00:15:15]
That wraps up another empowering episode of the BariNation podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, keep the conversation going by joining the BariNation membership community where you can attend live support events, access podcasts, and more. On demand resources and find a [00:15:30] caring community.
Natalie Tierney: Join us at barination.mn.co. If you found this podcast valuable, help us produce it by becoming a 5 monthly supporter at barinationpodcast.com.
Jason Smith: And just remember at the end of the day, you've got [00:15:45] this, we've got you and we'll see you next time. Bye everybody.