SPEAKER_03: 0:00

Had to deal with my emotional baggage. Because it's always been, she'll she'll eat anything. And then I I was more clear about what I wanted, and I thought, okay, what is my identity going to be? And figuring out that identity piece is I think the most crucial part of it because anybody can do a diet for a period of time and lose weight.

SPEAKER_00: 0:24

Welcome to this empty nest life, the podcast dedicated to helping you embrace this transformative season with purpose, passion, and joy. In each episode, we explore stories, strategies, and insights to help turn your empty nest into an exciting new chapter. Whether you're redefining your identity, pursuing new passions, or finding peace in the pause, you're in the right place. Here's your host, the empty nest coach, Jay Ramsden.

SPEAKER_01: 0:47

Hey there, my emptiness friends. Today's topic is near and dear to my heart. Emotional eating. I've been there, done that, losing and gaining the same 50 pounds at least three times. In my emptiness life, emotional eating took on a little bit different look because let's be honest, cooking for just one or two isn't the same as preparing a meal for the entire family. And this comes to eating whenever and whatever you want. Especially when I just felt like it. Well, today I'm joined by author, TEDx speaker, and coach Renee Jones. Renee spent 40 years yo-yo dieting when emotional eating came knocking on her door to ruin it every single time. She cracked the code in 2012 and has kept the weight off, becoming a weight loss expert along the way. Renee is the author of What's Really Eating You? Overcome the Triggers of Comfort Eating, and her TEDx talk, Lose Weight and Keep It Off. Emotional Eating has three quarters of a million views on YouTube. Renee, welcome to this emptiness life. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I am so excited that you're here. Partly because it's been part of my own journey. And I assume that it's the journey for so many people out there in this world. But I'm curious, 40 years is a really, really long time to wake up on New Year's Day and promise to have the same New Year's resolution. How did how did that begin? The journey begin? How did you craft a code? Let's dive into this for people who are like, oh, please help me with this.

SPEAKER_03: 2:20

It is a long time. And when I think about it, I think, good grief, what was I doing? That you're not learning the lessons, as it were. So actually, I my first diet was when I was 10 years old. Now we don't brag on my mother because she was trying to help me. Unfortunately, she didn't know what she was doing either. We just didn't do very well at it. We would we would do really well for a little while. And either we'd get to some goal, arbitrary goal we had, or we'd get to a holiday, or just go into my grandparents would do it actually, and would be off and struggling to get back to it. So we never actually lost all the weight in those years.

SPEAKER_01: 3:07

I used to live in the South, so I know like food is a big part of family in the South, and obviously lots of other places and lots of other cultures, but specifically in the South, you're in Texas, and that's a big deal. And I can imagine when you went to your grandparents' house kickstarting, whatever it may be, to be like, you eat even when you're not hungry, is how families usually operate when food is a big part of life. Is that accurate? Is that kind of what you saw as a child and as you went through maybe your 20s and early 30s?

SPEAKER_03: 3:37

Oh, yeah, because it was they had a ranch for a start. Yes, I am the Texan. My grandparents had a ranch, absolutely. And you would go out and you would work. We were working with the pigs or the turkeys or the cows or the sheep or whatever. And then there's hay to move around or feed to move around, get the cattle into one place, move them from field to field. It was just a lot of physical work. And while we were there, that helped. We ate for two people rather than one, really. And my grandmother was an excellent cook. And I remember this one day, my grandfather said to my grandmother, I can see a little bit of the table here. Meaning, find something else to put on the table because he wanted it to be plentiful.

SPEAKER_01: 4:28

Sure. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_03: 4:30

And we'd have two or three desserts. And it was just so much food. It was like Thanksgiving every time we went. And it was wonderful. If you if you could get up from the table and do anything but waddle to the living room, you weren't doing it right.

SPEAKER_01: 4:46

Yeah. Well, I guess when you grew up seeing like here's a lifestyle where people do spend a lot of energy keeping that lifestyle going, and they're also creating food for others, then food makes it makes sense where it becomes a big part of our big part of our lives. Yeah. Then you you probably moved and did life in your 20s and 30s. How did those habits follow you and create this kind of yo-yo experience? Because I think we'll get into like how you actually cracked the code later in life. But tell me more about that experience for you.

SPEAKER_03: 5:19

I came of age in terms of going off to college in the 80s. And that was when everyone was doing fitness things.

SPEAKER_04: 5:30

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03: 5:32

But we were still that's also when the food pyramid was at its height. So you could have four pieces of toast for breakfast. It was on the diet. Except that didn't work for me. And we would I I just didn't know what was right for my body. And the government was saying you've got to do it this way. So I was trying to follow that and still keep under a certain number of calories. Because I'm I'm only five foot three. I'm a little woman to start with. So I don't get that many calories like my six-foot husband. We just tried to maintain and it left me tired, hungry, and cranky all the time. But then in 1986, I was I got a job working in Wales in the United Kingdom. And their motto is if you leave a Welsh table hungry, it's your own fault. Because they're gonna try to feed you up.

SPEAKER_01: 6:36

Sure.

SPEAKER_03: 6:37

And I was their little American girl, and they were trying to look after me and show me hospitality. So it just got worse.

SPEAKER_01: 6:45

Yeah, it got worse, and then you just it maybe reinforced the habits that you had learned as a child. And I think that plays into a big part of it. What spurred you to finally crack the code and write the book and to start talking about it?

SPEAKER_03: 6:59

So I was staring down my 50th birthday, and things happened for women around 50. And I had always heard that after 50, you can't lose weight, or it's really hard. And I thought, gosh, if I'm gonna do this, I better get it done now, or I'm stuck forever. So I started off New Year's Day 2012. Gonna get it done. I'm gonna lose the weight. And that worked for about two weeks, maybe three. And I fell off and I thought, no, no, no, I'm gonna do this. And it was that on-off thing until April. I suddenly needed a bigger size. I'm staring at the clothes in my closet, and I'm thinking, okay, we went from normal to fat clothes, and now we're on the what are you doing, Renee clothes? Except they didn't fit either. I was I was standing in my closet, wrenching together my waistband and holding it together with a safety pin, putting on a jacket that would cover it up, so I could just go to work. I thought, you've got to do something different. This is just not working. And that was when the research from that is where I heard the term emotional eating for the very first time. And boy, did I understand it. That's me. That's the problem. So I had to then change what I was doing. I actually hired myself a coach because I thought you've been trying to do this on your own forever. You you do well with accountability, so let's go that way. And I reached my goal weight the week before my 50th birthday. And I I'm the same weight now, 13 years later.

SPEAKER_01: 8:45

Okay. So it was uh there was a an impetus, a moment. And I I think you said, oh, I better do this now, which I think often happens for people when they are like, oh, I've got to solve a problem and I want it done now. But you also said something along the lines that kind of raised a a thought for me is like, oh, there's a difference between being motivated to do something, 50th birthday, whatever it may be, motivated, because motivation fades versus being disciplined, which is boring. And when things are boring, we tend to go in the opposite direction and run quickly away from them.

SPEAKER_03: 9:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 9:26

So when you get to a point of being like, well, I gotta fix this, and I need to have the discipline, and folks, I don't mean discipline in a bad way.

SPEAKER_03: 9:34

No.

SPEAKER_01: 9:34

No, it's like you develop the habits underneath of it. And I think that's probably where you landed in your story, but I'm really curious is like, how did you keep the weight off since 2012? Because I think that maybe will be an aha moment for folks where we can mesh the motivation and discipline together.

SPEAKER_03: 9:55

Well, I would say there are two parts to it. First, I came up with a phrase that I started using. It's a little in your face, but it's face your stuff, don't stuff your face. I had to deal with what was driving the behavior to soothe with food in order to get past it. So I had to deal with my emotional baggage. And then I I was more clear about what I wanted. And I thought, okay, what is my identity going to be? Because it's always been, she'll she'll eat anything. What is it that I want it to be? So it was a shift from allowing the feelings to drive the behavior to is that who I want to be? No. So who is this? And figuring out that identity piece is, I think, the most crucial part of it because anybody can do a diet for a period of time and lose weight. We can we can go to a therapist or a coach and deal with our emotional stuff. If it doesn't change our behavior, if it doesn't change who we feel like we are, it's not going to change anything. It's that intention gap and how you get from A to B. And that often comes down to who do I want to be?

SPEAKER_01: 11:16

Yeah, I love that. Who do I want to be? Because as people head into empty nesting, it's a question I often ask them. It's like, well, who do you want to be now? Your kids, you're you're not parenting 24-7. You've moved this guide on the side. You have an opportunity to even recreate yourself if you want to, or evolve yourself, I like to say, rather than change. Yeah. Right? It's like an evolution of you as a as a human being. It's oh, who do you want to be now? Perfect. Do you want to be the person that has like good health and that your 80-year-old self could be proud of? I think that's like the motivation to do it. But then there's also the discipline side too. So how do you how do you stay disciplined with what works for you? Because what works for you may not work for everybody.

SPEAKER_04: 11:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 12:00

Right. And so what works for you, how do you stay disciplined with it?

SPEAKER_03: 12:05

Well, I stumble across a method of learning what works for your body. So the one of the first things we do with my clients is to put them through the the regime of okay, what's going to work best for your body? Whatever anybody else says, what keeps you satisfied and happy. And for me, the way I had done it, the way I lost my weight, that tired, hungry, cranky person was not going to fly very much longer because Mr. Jones was not very happy about that, to say the least. So I stumbled across this, I changed my nutrition completely. And I woke up about five days in, and I thought, wow, I feel a little different. And then I lost two pounds that week, already at my goal weight, at 52. And I thought, okay, there's something in this. And about three months later, I noticed I wasn't having the mood swings that I'd had before. So finding what works for your body makes it a heck of a lot easier. Because I wasn't tired, I wasn't hungry nor hangry.

SPEAKER_01: 13:22

Yeah. You know, we don't want to get in the hangry mode.

SPEAKER_03: 13:25

Don't want to get into that whole crankiness. And what I found is some of the foods that I used to eat actually make me a little mean. So it made it easier to say no to them because I don't want to feel bad. I don't want to feel depressed. I don't want to be mean to sweet Mr. Jones. So that keeps me on track because it helps me be my better self.

SPEAKER_01: 13:53

I love that. Yeah, and I love it too because I did that myself back in January. I worked with a nutritionist to find out like what works for my body. And I learned so much in that process of, oh, here, these things can like screw up your gut and make you feel inflamed and have inflammation in the body. And they're gonna, when you feel those ways, you feel crappy. And then when you feel crappy, you eat crappy. Yeah. And but it's so specific, I was amazed. Because what's again for me is like, oh yeah, maybe beef and dairy isn't something you should be eating anymore. That's what it was for me. And as soon as I switched that and put in some intermittent fasting for my body, like knowing what works for me, that's when everything just settled out, right? And the losing the weight was a byproduct of that, it wasn't an intention. Yes. And I think perhaps that's where you come from is like, ooh, let's not losing weight isn't the goal. The goal is figuring out what works for you as a human.

unknown: 14:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 14:50

Is that accurate? Well, a lot of people want to lose the weight as well, and that's okay. Because that's that's the important thing for them. So we do what's important to them, but they do get this byproduct of not having their emotions driving their food choices. Because in the end, I think Jay, I think people are actually looking for life. But they'll take a twinkie, because it's right there.

SPEAKER_01: 15:20

Oh, easy, because it's easy.

SPEAKER_03: 15:22

It's easy, it's available, yeah. But if you think about that, what you really want will take a little more effort, but it's what you really want, not the twinkie.

SPEAKER_01: 15:35

Yeah, what's on what that kind of outweighs the easiness of the Twinkie versus for how you want to. I always say, what would your 80-year-old or 90-year-year-old self be proud of you now in this moment? That's how you get there.

SPEAKER_02: 15:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:50

Yeah. So it's ultimately what you want. What did you want when you started writing your book? What was your goal with that?

SPEAKER_02: 15:56

I wanted to be able to reach more people to give them a guide.

SPEAKER_03: 16:05

Because it it basically has a it has some questions to consider at the end of each chapter so that they could identify some of the things that would help them. If they can't afford coaching or one of my courses or one of my special offer things, they can't afford that. They can start with a book. So I wanted to make it a little more practical. As well as hey, these are the things we've got to pay attention to.

SPEAKER_01: 16:36

What's an example of one of the questions that you have in your book that could spur people to think about themselves specifically?

SPEAKER_03: 16:44

Wealth. Not that we have it right here or anything. What are your intermediate goals and rewards? List them. Both parts, goals and rewards. What's your vision of yourself at that goal?

SPEAKER_01: 17:00

Oh, I like that. Yeah. Can you see yourself at that goal? Yeah. Sometimes people may struggle with that, right? Like, oh, I can't see myself 10 pounds lighter. I can't see myself 20 pounds lighter. I can't see myself not enjoying a steak. I use that as my example, right? Because I don't do beef anymore. But like, how do you help people see that in the work that you do?

SPEAKER_03: 17:24

Well, I have to confess that periodically I see a photo of myself or a reflection in a glass uh window or something, and I think, who is that? Oh, that's me. Because it's just so much smaller. I was never a hundred pounds overweight. I probably lost a thousand pounds over the 40 years because it was just up and down, up and down. But it's still quite a difference from my size 1416 down to a size four. So it always surprises them. Oh, yeah. But the more you see that, and of course, now with AI, you can do a model of yourself and have have it where you can see it so you know what you're working towards.

SPEAKER_01: 18:12

I never thought of that. That's brilliant, right? To be able to say, oh, what do I want to look like? And then how do I achieve it in a sustainable, healthy way?

SPEAKER_03: 18:22

Yeah, because so often there if people are just like I was. Okay, I'll do a diet, I'll get to the point, and then I can have whatever I wanted. Which is true for one meal. But if you start eating that way forever, you're gonna get back to the place you were. And it's har it just gets harder to lose it after a while, partly because it's frustrating and demoralizing. But I think our bodies begin to go, I don't think you mean this, so I'm not gonna go through this struggle.

SPEAKER_01: 18:56

Yeah, yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. And I think too, with the eating part, I find it for myself is like when I stop partaking of something that's not beneficial for my body, or my body's like, oh, that stuff isn't good, but you can have this stuff over here. When I have it back again, like just as a maybe once a month, my body tells me no, like my taste buds are like, eh, that's not so great anymore. Yeah. Was that the same experience for you?

SPEAKER_03: 19:24

Yeah. Part I gave up sugar several years ago because it just didn't do well for me. And now if I have it, like we're someplace Mr. Jones has a piece of cake, I might have a taste of his. And it's like there's some something on my tongue, and it's that's gross. Why did we do this? So yeah, there are certain foods, and again, if I go back into for me, heavy carbohydrates, they make me crazy. They just don't settle well with my body. If I'm if I'm having I make great bread, Jay. I make really good bread. I'm right here with you, but I just don't eat it because it affects how I feel and how I respond to others. And Mr. Jones doesn't deserve that.

SPEAKER_01: 20:16

Yeah, yeah. And I found the same thing for me is bread that I buy from the store affects me. One day, bread that I make, sourdough bread that I make for myself, is different. Yeah, yeah. It's just again, I think it highlights the point. It's like you have to find what works for you. What we're talking about today doesn't work for every single person, except underneath, yeah, like the finding out what works best for you. How's been the response to your? It's almost a three-quarter or a little over three-quarters of a million views on YouTube, your TEDx talk. What's been the response to that in general?

SPEAKER_03: 20:48

Um good. For me, shocking. It's like I have no idea where these people are coming from. But it it it is an opportunity to share some good information, an idea worth spreading. I I I have had clients on every continent except Antarctica. I'm not sure what's up with the penguins and the scientists down there, but it gives them either an avenue of somebody's contact or it gives them the information they can use.

SPEAKER_01: 21:21

I love that. What do you love most helping people?

SPEAKER_03: 21:26

I love that moment when they do that that puppy dog thing of and they got it.

SPEAKER_01: 21:34

Yeah, a little tilt of the head with a ear, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 21:36

Yeah. Oh. I never thought about it that way before, and you know you've given them a moment of heat.

SPEAKER_01: 21:45

I love that. A moment of healing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 21:48

It's just so much fun to help people be their best, to find what works for them, and to to give them a little support as they go along the way.

SPEAKER_01: 21:57

I just love it. So good. So good. What's one thing you've learned about yourself in your journey?

SPEAKER_03: 22:37

That it is better if I gain if I get to say four pounds over my goal weight and it's hangs in there for a day or two, it is better if I address it then rather than waiting. Because it's a heck of a lot easier to lose four pounds than 14. I also learned from this experience that I do best with some external accountability. I may not like it, but it helps me stay on track. And there are it's the largest group of people out there, people who do well with external accountability. And I find it's the only way that I can accomplish something for myself. I can Jay, if I tell you I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna get it done, it's gonna be done well. If I say, I'm gonna do this for me, eh, maybe, probably not. But if there's someone who's saying, Okay, so you said you were gonna do this, but this is not happening, what's going on there in the nicest possible way, then I'll do it. For example, I have spent the last 15 years doing a morning walk. The first two or three I I did it so many days a week, but now it's unless there's lightning or ice, I'm gonna do my morning walk. Or I'm sick or something, some other reason. But the only way I could make myself do that was to recognize that my dog was a better puppy when he or she had had a walk, depending on what part of that time frame. So I do the walk currently for him. And if I think about it that way, then I I will do it.

SPEAKER_01: 24:23

You will do it. Yeah. It's interesting. It's interesting. Some people can hold themselves accountable, right? And some people need a little accountability in their life. Ultimately, we have to hold ourselves accountable. But if you if it's what the trick that works for you, right? The puppy is the trick that works to help hold yourself accountable.

SPEAKER_02: 24:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 24:43

When you when you think about your weight loss part, though, you said you still need somebody to hold you accountable. Is that still true? You have somebody present in your life that holds you accountable, or you work with to hold yourself accountable?

SPEAKER_03: 24:55

I don't know, maybe 775,000 TEDx viewers. This is the thing. Because I made this my business, I have external accountability because people watch my waistline. If I gain weight, I would not be able to coach. It would be out of integrity to coach on this.

SPEAKER_04: 25:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 25:15

So that is what I use as my accountability to do what I want to do, be who I want to be. But there's just that element of external accountability that helps me get over the rough patches.

SPEAKER_01: 25:28

Yeah. To be a product of your own product, to be a product of your product. Yes. But also to be an example of what's possible. Yeah. I think is is probably the bigger picture. Is like, oh, like I struggled for 40 years. I finally cracked the code. And here's here's how you can do it for yourself, specifically for you, not exactly the same way. And I think that's the big takeaway here is like finding the exact thing that works for a person. If the people are like, oh, but I don't I don't have time to find out what works for me. What would you say to them?

SPEAKER_03: 26:03

You don't have time not to, because you're wasting away your health by being overweight. You're putting so much pressure on your joints, you're limiting your longevity and mobility in later life. And it starts now. It starts when you're 20s and 30s. We've got to be careful with our bodies because that's the only one we get.

SPEAKER_01: 26:25

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Yeah, I wish I would have known the whole nutritional piece for me in my 20s. And it could have easily been different then, too. Um, my nutritionist said to me when she saw the results, have you ever been bitten by a tick? And I was like, Oh, yeah, I have. Um I'm in the woods, I'm a hiker. And she's like, There is some correlation, not widespread, but some correlation between tick bites and then having a sensitivity to beef and dairy. And I was like, oh, interesting. So it couldn't have been part of, but then it came later in life. So again, if this is not a one and done either, it's like it's a continual finding out what works best for you as an individual.

SPEAKER_02: 27:09

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 27:10

Yeah. What's yeah, what's one piece of advice you would give to people who are listening to this and are like, I don't, I don't know. I don't believe I don't know if I believe this or not.

SPEAKER_03: 27:21

It always comes down to who you are. It's not the diet, it's not the exercise plan. It is who you are and who you want to be. That is the the intention gap solution. When you know who you are, and hopefully that's who you want to be, then you can begin to make choices around that. Because it comes down to your choices of what you put in your mouth.

SPEAKER_01: 27:57

True. Yeah, it's always we always make we always can make choices, I think, is the takeaways, right? Like we have things happen in our lives, we have thoughts and feelings about them, and then we have a choice on how we think and feel about what takes place and the action that we take. Yeah. And I think that's so important. You had mentioned, I think you said a tension gap, right?

SPEAKER_03: 28:17

Intention gap.

SPEAKER_01: 28:18

Intention. Okay. And so you mentioned it twice, intention gap. Thank you for the clarification. Yeah. What what is that?

SPEAKER_03: 28:25

It is the space between what we think we want to do and accomplishment. And we like to turn our good intentions into tangible achievements.

SPEAKER_01: 28:35

Okay. Yeah. And the gap is, I'll say that sounds like it's it's part of the like what could be part of the struggle for people.

SPEAKER_03: 28:43

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Well, we may want to, but there's this and this and this. Okay, well, let's work on this and this and this then, so that you can bridge that gap.

SPEAKER_01: 28:55

Bridge the gap, yeah. My coach calls it gag and go, right? Okay. Right? Yeah, like yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 29:01

Yeah, you just have to do it.

SPEAKER_01: 29:03

You have to do it. I think my conversation with Nino Perez, we were talking about that before, is like broccoli advice. It's like, you know, you may not like it at first, but give it a try. You may not like this approach, but give it a try. You never know. It could be the thing that clicks for you.

SPEAKER_02: 29:19

You never know.

SPEAKER_01: 29:20

Yeah, you never know. If you did know something about what comes next for you in life, what do you think that would be?

SPEAKER_02: 29:30

I am currently ramping up my speaking and coaching business.

SPEAKER_03: 29:39

Uh because you know, health is so important and weight is a big part of that, and the the obesity crisis is real and it can't be fixed by GLP1. So I that's a that's a tool, it's not the solution. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's like anything else, they're all tools. But until you utilize those tools, well, your health is going to be impacted. So I am just feeling stronger than ever that people need help to do this. They need to we're not we're we're taught some basics of nutrition, but not the tools that actually help us get to where we want to be. And if I can help them bridge that gap, help them heal a little bit so they can build on the Your own like a physical therapist. They help you get back on your feet, don't they? Well, I'm an emotional, not a therapist, but a coach to help them get back on their feet. And it I I I walk into places and I think, oh bless you, you're wearing your issues. Let's deal with the issues so you don't have to wear them anymore.

SPEAKER_01: 30:55

Yeah, that's so good. We do. They're like, oh, I I wear my emotions on my sleeve, but literally we wear it in our clothes when we do the emotional eating. And I know that I I can speak from it. I've been super heavy. Um, and I know what that feels like to be like not comfortable in the clothes that you're wearing for so many reasons. And also the shame and guilt that goes along with that as well.

SPEAKER_04: 31:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 31:25

Yeah. What did it tell me? Like that I think you probably experienced it a lot. There's the shame and guilt of being heavy and redheaded.

SPEAKER_03: 31:34

Yeah. In a time when redheaded wasn't cool.

SPEAKER_01: 31:40

Yeah. Yeah. How do you help people through that? The shame and guilt part.

SPEAKER_03: 31:45

Well, for this particular situation, they are not actually valid. And we we do it to each other, but it's not valid because okay, so you've made some poor choices. Okay. But they're not the end of the story. Shame is not appropriate because shame is I am bad. Guilt is I did something bad. Shame is I did some I am bad. And that's just not true. So one of the things that I I share with people is okay, it's not hard to overcome emotional eating. You just have to get the hang of it. And hang is an acronym. So you say, Am I hungry? And if you are, okay, maybe you need something to eat. But if you're not, A, what is your attraction to food in this moment? What are you looking for? N, what do I actually need? Okay, if I'm looking for that, what would give me that? What would meet that actual need? And then G, go go get that, because that will soothe you more than the food ever possibly could.

SPEAKER_01: 32:59

Yeah, it's swapping what is at the core of what's going on, really.

SPEAKER_03: 33:04

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What's driving this behavior bus? Let's take away the keys.

SPEAKER_01: 33:09

Love it. Yeah. So if I'm either grabbing something, it's like, ooh, why? Well, because I'm bored or I'm stressed. Or I'm hungry or I'm mad or I'm sad. Literally any emotion that generates. Or I'm happy.

SPEAKER_03: 33:22

Yeah. Or I'm I'm at a party and I'm happy, so I'm gonna have an extra whatever.

unknown: 33:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 33:27

But it's not necessary. It's okay if you want it. It's the I gotta have it. It's that craving thing because it's a craving peace, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 33:37

Yeah, yeah. Before I let you go, what's your what's your life motto for everything that you're doing right now?

SPEAKER_02: 33:47

My life motto is be your best. I love that.

SPEAKER_03: 33:55

And I I spent 20 years as a hospital chaplain. So faith is incredibly important to me personally, and being my best is part of the mandate of Christianity. So it just works for me.

SPEAKER_01: 34:13

Yeah. And I think that's important too because it's like you can still have hiccups along the road.

SPEAKER_03: 34:20

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 34:21

As long as you're still doing your best, right? Yeah. So I think that's such an important reminder for people, and a good way to wrap up this episode is hey, this is not a one and done. This is not a journey that is going to be full of all ups. There's going to be ups and downs, but as long as you're doing your best and following what works best for you, I think that's how people will achieve success.

SPEAKER_03: 34:45

Just like their financial budget, just like keeping the house clean, just like car maintenance. It can't, you can't just let it go. You've got to pay attention to all of it.

SPEAKER_01: 35:00

Yeah. Yeah. It's like emotional wealth, physical wealth, right, financial wealth. It's all components of being wealthy in different ways. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so good. I so appreciate you being here, Renee, and shedding a little bit of light and sharing a little bit of your journey. And folks, we'll we'll get it in the show notes. Renee's book and her YouTube are available, widely available on YouTube and the book on Amazon and other places. And so we'll make sure that everybody knows how to find you and find the information because I think it's an important story for them to take a look at and see how it might fit into their own lives. So thanks again for being here.

SPEAKER_03: 35:40

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00: 35:42

Thank you for listening to this Emptiness Life. Remember, this chapter isn't an ending, it's an invitation to redefine, rediscover, and reignite your life. If today's episode sparks something in you, don't forget to take that first step and visit this empty nestlife.com and click work with me to get the conversation started. Until next time, keep your heart open, your mind curious, and your spirit shining. This Empty Nest Life is a production of Impact One Media LLC. All rights reserved.