BariNation-PYP-25-0108-EP 232
Jason Smith: [00:00:00] Hi, welcome to BariNation, where we support the bariatric community with humor, humility, and
April Williams: honesty. 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 hopeful, inspired, and ready to live your best bariatric life.
All right, guys, welcome. [00:00:30] This is the BariNation podcast. Uh, April is not able to join us today. Okay, so it's Jason and I holding down the fort and we are joined by Jack of all trades, podcaster, mindset coach, Corby Jackson. Hi, [00:00:45] Corby.
Corby Jackson: Hey guys. How's everyone doing? Good.
Natalie Tierney: Good to see you. We're so excited about this conversation.
And before we dive in, we have a question for you, but before we dive in, we just want to know about you. [00:01:00] Tell us your story. What's your background. We want to know all about you, Corby.
Corby Jackson: So starting with my background, uh, my highest weight was 835 pounds. I had lost over 422 pounds as of right now. [00:01:15] Oh, no, actually a total of loss of 438 pounds total.
Uh, and that is over the course of four years now. Uh, I started off this journey losing weight because I just did not want to die. [00:01:30] I just really did not want to die. And I had to find a meaning to why I was living. I didn't have a meaning. I thought I had an education. I had, uh, I had family, I had love, I had belonging, [00:01:45] but all those things were things I took for granted.
So I didn't have an individual relationship with myself. I had an individual relationship with all those things around me, which I gave meaning to because [00:02:00] I provided a relationship to have for them. But because I didn't have a relationship to myself, I always wondered why I felt so empty. And food became the void of my emptiness.
Natalie Tierney: I think we can all relate to that. [00:02:15] I know I can. I know Jason can. I know so many in the very nation support community. Also, I was just in a support group last night talking about how food just becomes. Your best friend [00:02:30] and it becomes something you rely on and when it's not there, it gets dark.
Corby Jackson: It was so funny.
Uh, we were talking, I talked to April about this and it was the aspect of food is not your relative, right? [00:02:45] The food brings a resemblance of the people that you love, that you shared moments with, and you start thinking about, Ooh, I missed this person because I ate this certain food. But then the concept is, is the food, the relationship you had [00:03:00] to that person, or did you have an individual relationship with that person outside of the food?
And people are like, what, what are you talking about? Like, well, we were sharing food. So it was like, nah, you, You let the [00:03:15] food be the source of the relationship to why you have them around you.
Jason Smith: Yeah, well, and a lot of times you do notice that that happens when the people are no longer with us. You want to feel close to that person.
So you go back to those foods that that bring those emotions [00:03:30] back. And it is hard. It's hard to break that cycle. But what we really need to realize is, is missing that one person doesn't really have to resort to. Overindulgence in whatever that one thing is. And sometimes it can be just the process of [00:03:45] making whatever that is can, you know, can make you feel that way.
So that's completely, yeah. I mean, when you, when you said that it was, it was crazy. Like it was a, it was definitely a mind blowing experience to, uh, to be sitting real time and, and kind of make that connection. And that was cool. [00:04:00]
Corby Jackson: I have a history of working in addictions. I was a inpatient rehab of two drug alcohol rehabs.
Uh, and in that, um, Patients would tell me that they, they would go get high, uh, [00:04:15] because a loved one died. And I was like, so you're telling me, are you getting high because of the sadness you found? Or did you because of the relationship you had with that person because of the drugs you used? And they were like, Oh, that's the [00:04:30] reason why I go back to it because that's the familiarity I have for that person.
And it's the same concept with food. The exact same correlation.
Jason Smith: My wife is also a mental health professional that's, you know, that's, that's really rooted in addiction. And it [00:04:45] took her a minute to finally make the connection and say, like, we talk about these, like, after she started doing stuff in variation, then she would go back to work and think about it and be like, Oh, that's Why aren't we talking about food the same way we talk about the drug, you know, drugs and alcohol, because a lot [00:05:00] of this is, it's, it's paired together.
Like, we, I talk about addiction the same way with drugs and alcohol that I talk to people about food when we're in Barination, food, shopping, sex, gambling, any of those things. Like, it's [00:05:15] all the same thing. Like, it's all the, the, the treatments and the things, the mindset behind it all come back to the same roots.
Corby Jackson: It's a filling the void.
Jason Smith: Absolutely. So the [00:05:30] question that we had that I did want to get into kind of, we're talking about your, your background and you said you just didn't want to die. You know, a lot of people, we all reached that breaking point where we realized that enough is enough. And we've, we've reached the limit where we can no longer sustain the life that we've [00:05:45] been living and we want to make a change.
Um, talk a little bit about what that was for you. Like, what did that look like for you? What was the breaking point where you realized eight 35 was that you weren't going to go a pound more. You had to do something to get that. to help her die.
Corby Jackson: But I want to say this [00:06:00] is it wasn't the number that made the difference, right?
Uh, it was the hospital visits I had. So leading up to that number, I would go to the hospital every three months. I had a pulmonary [00:06:15] embolism. My potassium level got low because I was trying to take too much of a water field to To, uh, make the weight look like I was losing, but reality, I wasn't losing weight.
Right. I tried it all to [00:06:30] scam the hard work of it. And then I found myself October 2019. Um, I had caught pneumonia. And I was in the hospital for three days again and I remember having a [00:06:45] conversation with my boss and he was like, listen, Corby, uh, professionally, uh, you can go sky's the limit, but personally, your personal life is going to affect your professional life.
Do you think a person is going to want [00:07:00] to do therapy with you? If you have an oxygen tank talking about it, they can do better in their life. And they're like, you could do the same. I was like, that's real. I cried. But that was, that was real. I [00:07:15] was very real. And I, and I love him to death because he said that to me and it's the things I needed to hear for it to like hit.
It's like, I have to be a reflection of what I say I'm going to do. So I have to be really [00:07:30] authentic to myself. So as soon as I got discharged out the hospital, I decided to walk a mile. And I told myself, if I can walk a mile every day, I can find meaning and purpose to why I'm existing. And that's what I did every [00:07:45] single day.
I did a mile, it led to two miles and it led to three miles and I was jogging it. So it became this format of, I had to find a reason of why and why I existed every day for me to give purpose to my life. [00:08:00]
Jason Smith: It's cool that you said in that way because a lot of us, you know, we get to the other side of this journey, you know, after our surgery and we start losing the weights and the compliments start coming and then people start, Oh, I was so worried about you.
Oh my God. And you know, we all kind of [00:08:15] have that snap moment where we're like, why didn't you say anything? And you actually had somebody that did say that to you and they brought it to you in a way that you could understand that wasn't belittling you. They didn't put you down, but they let you know in such a way that they made a connection that worked for [00:08:30] you.
And that's, you know, like you said, like you appreciated it. Like it was hard to hear. It was a tough conversation, but we often say, you know, here in Barry nation and in the community that, you know, those tough conversations that while they're hard, they [00:08:45] always lead to amazing results because if we hadn't had the hard conversations with ourself or with other people, we wouldn't have the surgery to begin with.
And we'd still be where we were if we were even still here. So, you know, you're living proof of the fact that those [00:09:00] hard conversations, whether it be with yourself or with somebody else, really do pay off in the end.
Natalie Tierney: Absolutely. It's, I mean, you, you started out that by saying it wasn't about the number.
And I think [00:09:15] that for all of us in bariatrics who have had the surgery, who are pursuing the surgery, we get that. Right? We understand. Oh, it's not really about the number. It's about how I felt. It's about the doctor's visits. It's about. Life, it's about those [00:09:30] conversations. Um, so I, I just, I so appreciate that.
You, you really said it is not about the number. It's about me and my life and the longevity of life and the quality of life. Um, [00:09:45] so those are, that's it. Tough conversation to have with with a professional and man, look where you are now. You have that conversation and you're here.
Corby Jackson: Yeah. And I was able to complete the things that I never thought I [00:10:00] would.
And the concept being is, I always say this to people, um, there is a narrative you say to yourself That can be killing you or that can make be making you live. And before the weight loss was [00:10:15] the narrative of this, I would, I would die by the age of 30 and it wasn't the narrative I gave to myself, but it was the narrative I believed in because a teacher told me that when I was 18 and I let that be the thing that fueled me like, okay, well I have all [00:10:30] this, you know, I have the success, I have these things, so it's okay if I die, like that a delusional.
Acceptance that I created rationale, and that was surely because I chose to [00:10:45] believe other people's narratives over my own. Right. And that's where I started to realize my voice had to matter more than the people around me.
Jason Smith: Yeah, that's a that's a hard reality to kind of. Cement yourself in to think that, [00:11:00] well, you know, if I have till 30, I better make the most out of the 30 years that I have.
So let me get these degrees. Let me get these jobs. Let me do these things and feel accomplished so that when I do check out, like I can take that off the box and say, well, I mean, at least I went out on top. [00:11:15] Yeah,
Natalie Tierney: yeah. Wow. If you want more of this conversation with Corby, we're going to continue it in the BariNation support community.
So, if this is ringing true with you, we hope that we'll, we'll see you over [00:11:30] there for, uh, for the continuation of this conversation. All of our support members, uh, community members get this extra support. Um, Corby, where can people find you? How can they connect with you? Give us all the details. [00:11:45]
Corby Jackson: All right, so my Instagram and my TikTok are the same name.
It's fadeawayryan. And on there, you can see my weight loss journey on both sides, but also the mental health conversations I have, because I am a licensed therapist in the state of Texas and [00:12:00] Illinois. So if you ever go to my Instagram and go and click on my link tree, and you are located in the state of Texas or Illinois, I can do telehealth therapy with you.
I also do a Barry Mill Experience podcast, which [00:12:15] is on TikTok platform, as well as my own mental health stop talk every Monday at 6 p. m. Pacific, 7 p. m. Mountain Time, 8 p. m. Central, 9 p. m. [00:12:30] Eastern Time.
Natalie Tierney: Awesome. That was a
Corby Jackson: mouthful. It's hard.
Natalie Tierney: We every day we're back and forth. What time is this thing? Back and forth all the time.
Jason Smith: And you can find the very metal experience on Tuesdays after the struggle bus at 8 [00:12:45] p. m. Eastern time and I'll do the reverse because I don't know the reverse. So 8 p. m. 8 p. m. Eastern 7 p. m. Central 6 p. m. Mountain 5 p. m. Specific. I really said specific, like,
Natalie Tierney: you know, specific [00:13:00] Pacific, it's all the same. All right.
Well, so much, Corby. We'll continue this in The Nation.
April Williams: That wraps up another empowering [00:13:15] 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, On demand resources and find a 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 this, we've got you, and we'll see you next time. Bye [00:13:45] everybody.