I first encountered the remarkable Tippy Wyatt after she contacted me to pitch an idea for a keto cookbook. Well, turns out that not only were we living in the same area at the time, but Tippy has an awesome YouTube channel and has a couple viral videos for how keto works for her daily routine, Costco shopping, and “What I Eat in A Day.”

The show evolves from a breezy discussion for how to get a viral YouTube video, into an interesting account of a young couple’s journey to health. After Tippy’s husband gained 70 pounds in college, he found MarksDailyApple.com, and came to her for support. Seeking support from your partner during a massive lifestyle makeover is not uncommon, and after being asked the question of “how do I get my partner to be as enthusiastic and committed to the Primal lifestyle as I am?”, Mark decided to post the answer on his blog, and the answer is surprising: “You don’t.” You have to wait for people to be ready to receive the message – the inspiration and motivation needs to come from yourself. But this was interesting twist on a common problem in the ancestral health community, which is not obtaining “buy in” from your partner.  

The couple detail their whimsical journey to Austin, Texas and how that immersed them into paleo lifestyle. We need to give Austin a shout-out, because at this point, the city could very well be renamed PaleoLand (as if that would go over well!). But all joking aside, Austin is such an exciting place for those on the Paleo diet – the conference PaleoFX takes place there, as well as KetoCon. As the epicenter of the ancestral health scene, Tippy and her husband could not have landed in a better place for the journey they were about to embark on. This doesn’t mean it was a happy-go-lucky, super easy time of success flowing effortlessly to this couple – in fact, it was the opposite. They experienced some really tough and trying times, but as Tippy goes further into sharing her powerful story, you will start to understand how she got to be such a resilient person. 

This becomes clear towards the end of the show, as things start to get pretty heavy and intense as Tippy shares the details of her amazing journey to present day. She came to America from a refugee camp in Thailand, her father literally carrying her and her sister into the land of opportunity in a backpack. They settled into an impoverished existence on a farm near Fresno, CA. Tippy explains that she didn’t have summers like a normal American kid – she wasn’t at camp, doing arts and crafts, or running down a SlipNSlide and pelting water balloons at neighbors. Nope, instead she spent those hot, long, summer days doing hard labor, farming assorted Asian vegetables. But her experiences served her well, and with her immigrant work ethic is full bloom, Tippy excelled in school and graduated Fresno State with a business degree.  

She relates that her father’s American dream was much simpler than a house and white picket fence or any other material achievements; he simply dreamed for his daughters to obtain an education. Some important themes arise for reflection: one is: how do you balance the immigrant work ethic and constant drive with the ability to enjoy life? This concept applies to career pursuits and well as staying aligned with eating goals, something we all strive to do. 

When Tippy shares her story and mentions the importance of expressing gratitude in everyday life, it will have a profound and lasting impact on you. Compare and contrast to the cultural stereotype of the entitled millennial and those of us at any age suffering from the modern afflictions of affluenza, FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and FOKU (Fear of Keeping Up). Yes, it’s easy to complain and tell stories when you can’t reach your weight loss goals, or when you don’t get all the stuff you wish for in daily life. But this is one millennial who’s not wasting her time with complaints and unrealistic expectations – her grit, perseverance, and sunny outlook on life will inspire you to look at your life in the same tough, critical, no-mercy way Tippy did when she examined her life, which prompted her to make a total lifestyle change. This show will inspire you no matter what stage or season you are at in your life, as Tippy’s journey truly showcases the strength of the human spirit and its capacity for change and evolution in the face of immeasurable challenges.  

TIMESTAMPS: 

How do I get my partner on board for this primal lifestyle thing?  The answer is you have to wait until people are ready. [03:33] 

Tippy tells how to publish YouTube videos. [07:56] 

Her videos are about her eating tips, especially for the Keto diet. [16:04] 

You need to identify your why? [17:58] 

Tippy’s first attempt at dieting worked but she didn’t enjoy the food. [24:59] 

Low fat diets work, but you have to realize what is happening in your body. [27:37] 

When you go Keto, you must be careful not to mess up electrolytes. You need salt. [32:23] 

Fat does not make you fat! [35:32] 

Tippy gained weight and found herself in denial that she wasn’t happy and had to deal with the reality of her situation. [36:36] 

She tried many things until she discovered that eating what she liked (Keto) helped her come back to where she wanted to be. [41:47] 

It’s a lifestyle, not a diet. [45:59] 

Excess sugar is killing Americans. [49:24] 

Now after many months of being on Keto, Tippy feels good, enjoys her food, and feels in control. [52:31]

How do you strike that balance between being okay with departures but adhering to something that takes commitment and takes mindfulness all the time? [54:06] 

She and her friends have a contest for the best physique by January. [55:31] 

Tippy’s family were refugees from Thailand and were dirt poor. [01:00:38] 

Work ethic: You show up and work harder. [01:09:00] 

Tippy talks about why she is so driven. [01:12:00]

LINKS: 

• Mark’s Daily Apple 
• Tippy Tales 
• Orthorexic 

LISTEN:

Get Over Yourself Podcast

Brad: 00:00:00 Welcome to the get over yourself podcast. This is author and athlete, Brad Kearns, discovering ways to be healthy, fit and happy in hectic, high-stress, modern life. So let’s slow down and take a deep breath. Take a cold plunge and expertly balanced that competitive intensity with an appreciation of the journey. That’s the theme of the show. Here we go.

Brad: 00:03:33 Hi, it’s Brad eager to introduce this amazing show with an amazing young woman who’s come a long way to her current position as the youtube sensation at Tippy Tails. That’s the name of her youtube site and her name is Tippy Wyatt. I’m so glad we connected. She pitched me on a book idea and it turns out we live close together here in the Sacramento area. So I said, hey, let’s meet, and also let’s do a podcast because I want to find out how you became a youtube sensation with the half a million views on one of the first videos you’ve ever uploaded. Oh my gosh. And she’s a cute, peppy girl. She’s got the Keto thing going on. She’s got the fitness thing going on. I guess that helps. That’s what the youtube experts say. That’s why I wear my yellow sweatsuit. Also to honor Ali G. Check it!

Brad: 00:04:28 Anyway, so the show starts out on that peppy lighthearted pattern of just how to make a great youtube video and then getting into the journey that Tippy and her husband have been on the quest for health after coming out of college, feeling like they were a unhealthy out of shape, especially her husband needed to lose 70 pounds. He did his research. He found Mark’s Daily Apple and came forward with the incredible insight that he presented to his wife, which was, I need your help. I can’t do this alone. And I point that out because we get so many comments and questions from devoted primal enthusiasts who ask, hey Mark, how do I get my partner on board? And finally Mark crafted an answer from careful trial and error, and his pat answer is, you don’t. You have to wait until people are ready to receive the message, ready to join on, ready to come to lifestyle change from their own inspiration and motivation.

Brad: 00:05:36 That absolutely goes for kids and partners especially. So this young couple had an interesting journey, a buoyed by the great energy down in Austin, Texas. So they plunged into a pretty good spot to embrace Paleo. If you haven’t been there, it’s pretty much the Paleo capital of the world. The Great Paleo conference happens. Paleo FX, as well as the new Keto Con, a great Keto conference put on down there in the epicenter of healthy ancestral living and outdoor activity. Yeah, shout out to Austin. How about that? Anyway, just like this intro, we turn a corner and we pretty much slap you in the face in the last 15, 20 minutes when it gets pretty heavy and emotional and an absolutely compelling message from this young lady to live in gratitude and to get up off the ground and keep going when you have setbacks and you feel discouraged and disappointed.

Brad: 00:06:34 And boy, if this show doesn’t touch your heart, I don’t know what well, and I don’t want to give it away, but I will say that this peppy energetic youtube sensation came to the United States 30 years ago from a refugee camp in Thailand, uh, on her father’s back along with her sister and they landed near Fresno, California, and they emerged into a life of poverty and hard work on a farm making Asian vegetables. Isn’t that cool? This, she’s right back here cooking and showing you how to enjoy, uh, Asian delicacies, Asian eating and doing it in a Keto manner. So wow. Listen to the entire show. Get a gut check, get a sense of perspective. Next time you make a disparaging comment about millennials, which I have been known to do, sometimes shaking my head at how much the world has changed and how all of us, not just millennials, but all of us feel entitled and have a different perspective than maybe the good old days of hard work and paying your dues and being patient and then hear this young lady talk about a fresh perspective from a millennial who Tippy Wyatt going into town, bringing her a game, deserving a fist bump and a hug at the end of the show.

Brad: 00:07:50 What a great young lady. I’m a big fan. I think you’ll really, really love this recording.

Brad: 00:07:56 Let’s do this tippy tails. Tippy Wyatt is here on this show. We’re kind of talked out cause we’ve been going over this wonderful idea. You have your cookbook project with your sister, but no, now, now we hit record. We’re going to acquaint the listeners with the amazing things you’ve been doing on youtube. Uh, the incredible back story that you’ve told me of your journey to this point in the United States of America. I think we got a lot of fun things to talk about. Of course the, the Keto enthusiasts will be happy to hear, uh, how deep you are into that scene and how you came there from, Oh, the college kids going on a whim over to Austin and getting immersed into this Paleo scene. So, uh, let’s start with these viral youtube videos because obviously as an listeners know, that’s one of my goals in life is to have a viral youtube video. Um, and then here you are out of the gate going through Costco, which I am, I’m sure you’re not allowed do, but you’re filming your, your shopping trip on Costco and everyone loves it.

Tippy: 00:08:59 Yeah. That, um, that was really unexpected. I, I was really expecting to be thrown out of the store, which we didn’t, we didn’t get thrown out of the store luckily. But no, I love Costco. I’ve, I shop there religiously. And so it was one of the videos I first watched when I was trying to go down this Keto rabbit hole and I thought, okay, well I shop at Costco, what can I get at Costco? So it was one of the first videos and I thought, okay, well if I ever did a youtube channel, this is something I do want to do. And sure enough,

Brad: 00:09:32 Someone else had a video,

Tippy: 00:09:35 correct? Oh yeah.

Brad: 00:09:36 Some, some low life that had 800 views.

Tippy: 00:09:40 Yeah. I mean it actually is a very popular segment, grocery shopping period, right? Um, for any type of diet and let alone the Keto Diet. And so I watched it and I thought, okay, well that’s cool. I got some information out of it. And some of them were great, some of them were not. But if I ever did something, it would be obviously what I would pick up at my favorite store. So people thought this was an ad they really did because I get that excited. Like walking in, checking out the whole nine yards. I’ve gotten so many comments like, this is a Costco ad and I wish it was right. I really, really do wish it was. But yeah, that was one of my favorite videos. I mean, I’m still starting out, like you said. I mean, I’m five months and so we’re really, we’re really new at this eight videos, five months, and, and I wanted to just share my journey starting off at, um, the beginning of the year, January 1st with the 31st I did a Keto I bought your book, it’ll reset. And I just said, okay, I, I’ve hit a wall, I’m going to start over and my first video is going to start with health because it all started with health for me six years ago. And I started researching youtube at the same time. Like, okay, well what, what are people doing to go viral? Right. I mean, there’s a lot of stupid shit people do. Right? You know, it’s just like really funny things.

Brad: 00:11:04 But the thumbnails is my favorite. Yeah.

Tippy: 00:11:07 The clickbait. Yeah. The booty. Yeah.

Brad: 00:11:10 It’s like covering the entire screen shopping at Costco and here’s a, but wearing their, yeah. Their Costco bathing suit, whatever.

Tippy: 00:11:18 Yeah. Gotta gotta give it up to the clickbait. You know, it works though, right? Um, but I started researching Keto and I also researched youtube at the same time as how do you even do youtube? I don’t even know how to record. I didn’t even know anything about it. You know, I think people have this fear too. And I was one of these people for sure that I don’t like the way I looked on camera. I didn’t like the way I sounded on camera. All of these stupid insecurities that you just make up in your own mind. Right? And you just get over it after, after you get trolled, you get over it, right? Oh boy. Do you get the first couple of trolls and you get over it. You’re just like, okay, well that didn’t go so well. But I started researching both at the same time and I thought, okay, if I start my youtube channel, I definitely want to start Keto cause this is currently what I am interested in.

Tippy: 00:12:08 And so how do I make it go viral? I mean there’s a science to it for sure. One of my favorite, favorite guys to listen to on this type of stuff is, um, Bingy And Sean, they are from video influencers. Shout out to them because I’m not taking credit for anything. They are fantastic and they taught me so, so much about beginning like starting off from zero subscribers, how to get views, how to attract people to even click on your channel, right? So it comes down to having a good title. A lot of people don’t realize that youtube is a search engine and that’s what we talked about earlier. You said it’s a second search engine out there, Google number one, number two, youtube. And if people think about it like that, hey, youtube is a search engine, maybe I shouldn’t have put something that is misspelling or slaying or like five exclamation points that just don’t make sense that you only understand and you know your, he all the your pet’s names and your child’s name all these long, no one’s searching for those things.

Tippy: 00:13:15 You know what I mean? No one is searching for you and people just make it very egotistical about themselves. So if they put like, you know, blog number one, blog number 5,500 or whatever, nobody’s searching Blog 5,500 that’s not even a number, but you know what I’m saying it no one is searching for those things. And when people realize, Oh okay, I want to be seen, I want to be heard, but that’s not what people are looking for. And they treated like a search engine, that’s when it kind of starts jelling together. Okay. When you go to the search bar, you type in Keto, what drops down there? There’s Keto Diet. It’s one of the first ones. Keto Diet tips, beginners shopping, things like that, that really do matter to people that are looking for great content, great information. And if people understand that, they will title their videos a lot differently and one. Tw o having a good thumbnail, right?

Tippy: 00:14:07 I mean the booty works, the booty works, but it’s not relevant to your content, right? It’s got to have a face. Most people love to click on faces, right? You got to have a face of that. If it’s just for example, let’s, let’s, let’s go off of what we’re doing right now. You’ve got a couple of microphones here. Yellow, black. If you just put this on a thumbnail, it’s not going to sell versus you, your face with the headphones on, right? And talking to somebody and engaging with somebody. So faces do matter. Um, having clear sharp images matter, it’s, it’s gotta be more sharpened than usual and it’s gotta have vibrant colors. The text has got to be clear. So if you put something, you know, his calligraphy type of style, no one’s going to be able to read that. You know, Brad in, you know, in this really fancy way will to you. It’s cool, right? But hey listen, I just want the block and pack the letters. I don’t want you to calligraphy it all up. You know, Benjamin Franklin style, right? I just need it to look good and readable. And a lot of people don’t do that on their, on their thumbnails. So it’s really important that you have that on there and there is a science to it, colors and vibrancy and whatnot. But having a really good picture thumbnail is very important because no one’s going to view your video. They don’t click on it. Right.

Brad: 00:15:30 So this Costco video is kind of a couple hundred thousand views, and then there’s another one that’s got like half a million views. Is that the day in the life, a Tippy or something?

Tippy: 00:15:37 That’s what an Eden Day. That was a whim. I just woke up one day and I just said, hey, I’m going to film what I eat today and if I don’t like it, I’m not gonna put it up.

Brad: 00:15:46 I’d have like a husband cameo coming into the kitchen to get something to eat. Yeah. Turn the camera. Hey everybody say hi. Say Hi Dave. He’s like, hi. Hi Babe. That was great. Great Cameo. Half a million views. He had no idea walking into the kitchen that day. He should’ve worn a Fresno state bulldog shirt or something instead of some ratty old gray shirt.

Tippy: 00:16:04 Yeah, that was, um, that’s been my, that’s been my got to styling lately. Fresno state tee shirts. I was going to wear one today actually, but no, I didn’t. No, I really did not know this was going to take off the way it did. And what I eat in a day is a very popular segment on Youtube, right? So I tried to hit the popular segments, the basic segments like what does this girl eat in a day? Where does she shop? What does she get when she shop? Right? Those are basic things. And I put up my top 10 diet tips. That was my recent upload about almost three weeks ago. And those are tips that are useful for any type of diet, let alone the Keto Diet. But it, I mean the number one tip that I could give is know your why have a strong why have a compelling why? And that resonates with a lot of people because you know, we’re all human. We’ve quit in a lot of different things. But yeah, I mean having videos that people want to see right off the gate, popular segments, tips, what you eat, things like that. Those are very important because those are basic things, but everyone has a different flare on it, right? Like your top 10 tips, Brad may be completely different than mine here.

Brad: 00:17:16 Walk around the neighborhood in the morning. I mean, so cool. Like mostly it’s just senior citizens doing that. But no, you’re getting out there, you’re going with your husband too and your dog or something. My dog. Yeah. It’s like the morning walk. How simple. But I don’t like right on, I forgot how important that is. Yeah, it,

Tippy: 00:17:32 I actually walked before this, I walked the trail.

Brad: 00:17:36 So relaxed and focused of course. That’s why. So you started Keto at the start of 2018? Is that what you’re saying?

New Speaker: 00:17:42 Correct. Yeah. And um, at the same time you’re chronicling it with the, with the videos and the shopping tour. So you’re like real time going to get some of your first, some of your first meals from Costco,

Tippy: 00:17:56 correct. That was in there. That was in the first video.

Brad: 00:17:58 Um, what inspired you to try this and where were you coming from? Like were you building up some health momentum before that decision?

Tippy: 00:18:05 Yeah, I, you know, six years ago I, my why was my husband, you know, we talked about that, that he was 70 pounds overweight and couldn’t stand for, you know.

Brad: 00:18:17 Okay. So you couldn’t stand in line for the good restaurants in Austin. But let’s go back to you. You guys met in college and then you graduated and then on a whim you said, hey, let’s go to Austin, Texas, something like that.

Tippy: 00:18:28 Yeah, it really is that simple. I know.

Brad: 00:18:30 Fantastic. Right? You’re coming out of Fresno

Speaker 6: 00:18:33 Coming out of Fresno, Fresno state. We met in business school. We are part of the same coed business fraternity. It is a fraternity but it is coed. So there is men and women in there and we had a lot of common interests in entrepreneurship and you know, business mind and also in lifestyles as well. And you don’t be in college, you had a lot of beer and had a lot, a little Caesars $5 pizza is right. That’s just the way it goes. We had a great time but not sustainable and we knew that and we fell in love with Austin visiting during a spring break. And said, we’re moving here, this is it. Let’s pack her bags, let’s go. No job, no place to stay. I, and we started from ground zero there and one of the things we noticed in Austin, if you are from Austin, Love Austin, all the great restaurants, all the great places to eat, you have to wait in line and I kid you not.

Tippy: 00:19:26 It is quite the weight. It’s like it’s a thing there. And we would wait in line for a lot of great places and he just wanted to be able to stand on his two feet at 28 sounds crazy. 28 and he had the spare tire around him and he went to a doctor and the doctor said, hey, you know it’s not that bad enough, your back pain cause it was back pain, pinching nerves back pain to get surgery. But it’s not good to live with this. Right. So he got a second opinion and went to a chiropractor and the chiropractor said the same thing. But the difference with what he said was, hey, if you lose the weight around your midsection, maybe that maybe you know, you could alleviate some pain around your back, which makes sense. Right? And sure enough, he goes down the rabbit hole on internet and looks up Mark’s Daily Apple and says, Hey, one day he comes up to me, I kid you not, out of the blue months of researching, I want to go Paleo. What is Paleo? Yeah. Oh, did not know what Paleo was. Never been on a diet in my life actually. And I was 23 at the time and never, I was skinny fat. Right. That’s what I was, there was no definition. I didn’t train, I didn’t work out and go gym, really nothing, just skinny fat. And he says, I been researching a lot of good testimonials and I know that I cannot do this without you.

Brad: 00:20:52 Wow. What a mine. That’s really interesting.

Tippy: 00:20:56 Yeah. So yeah, my why became Ryan, you know, he was my why and I was like, oh my gosh, I definitely want to marry this guy. I don’t want him to be in bad shape. Definitely want him to stand with me for great food. And he just said, okay, I know you’re Asian and I’m Asian, right? Hardcore. He can’t have noodles or rice. And I was like, what? Are you kidding me? What kind of diet is this? 23 years of my life. I mean, you know, when you come in a traditional household, Brad, you eat rice with eggs in the morning, rice with bacon rice with everything. Like I told my husband that, he’s like, why do you eat rice eggs with rice, with eggs and rice with bacon? Yes, that’s what we do. And he said, you can’t have this on Paleo. And I just thought, oh my goodness, this is going to be one of the biggest challenges for me. But looking at Ryan 70 pounds overweight, not being able to stand and saying that, you know, w we were living together. So it’s really hard when you have two completely different diets in the same household. It’s going to be a struggle the whole way. And I didn’t want him to struggle.

Brad: 00:22:02 Wow. I mean shout out Ryan for, for coming forward and realizing with this research and then to you to, to act like a real partner and say we have to do this together to succeed. And I would just want to point out, like one of the most common questions we get at live seminars or writing in is how do I get my partner to do this too and Mark Sisson finally figured out the best answer, uh, w after being asked at, at, at the retreats and stuff and he said, you don’t.

Tippy: 00:22:32 Yeah,

Brad: 00:22:33 and everyone chuckles and then what’s he really going to say? He goes, you can’t do it. They have to be ready themselves and they have to agree and you can’t drag someone in, uh, or, or manipulate the process. So he, you know, gave that straight up presentation to you and you had to reason through it and realize you wanna you wanna you wanna stand with somebody. I guess you could have stood in line and he could’ve gone to the park bench or done something else. And then like texting when the, when the food’s ready. But no, you guys went forward together. Love it. Okay. So that’s six years ago.

Tippy: 00:23:02 That was six years ago. Luckily you’re in Austin.

Brad: 00:23:04 Pretty supportive environment for them.

Tippy: 00:23:06 Correct. I mean, any type of lifestyle. Austin does support your Vegan, gluten free, vegetarian, Paleo, all of that. So I went Paleo for Ryan and we were on Paleo for about two years. He lost all the weight, was able to stand again.

Brad: 00:23:20 Two years.

Tippy: 00:23:21 Yeah. His pain went away completely. Like completely. I mean, we have pictures to prove it and all of that stuff and he just started feeling better about himself, you know, his energy, his cognitive ability, everything. He just started feeling better and I just thought, well that’s awesome. Great, wonderful. Right. And I started getting into fitness myself and then I started, um, looking online at other other plans and other regiments and I was really curious and were just naturally curious human beings, Ryan and I, and experimental as well. And so I thought, okay, well I want to do a fitness shoot and I want to look really lean and whatnot. And so I prepped for a fitness shoot and the fitness shoot, I went on a really lean diet /

Brad: 00:24:07 What’s a fitness shoot?

Tippy: 00:24:08 Just a fitness photographer. Yeah, fitness. Yeah. A fitness photographer taking, taking pictures of you and like Nike Sports Bra on like shorts or something. Right. You know, just pressure. Yeah.

Brad: 00:24:19 Like if you, if you book a date for the photographer to, for her, you know, November 14th you got to fresher going. Yeah. That’s cool. It’s like a, it’s like an athlete going for the Olympics.

Tippy: 00:24:28 Correct. And I’m the type of person I was this type of,

Brad: 00:24:32 Can I borrow that word? Fitness shoot fitness shoot. I like take it. Like if someone asked me, you know, what do you, what are you training for? I’m training for a fitness shoot man. And then maybe they’ll go, what’s that? I don’t know. We’ll see. Okay. So you signed up for a fitness shoot for real, like you booked a date and yeah,

Tippy: 00:24:47 Before I even started the Diet or regimen at anything, I just emailed the photographer and I was like, Hey, I’m wanting to do this. Do you have available dates? And what are they? Right. I put my, my feet to the fire work.

Brad: 00:24:57 I’ve noticed your work on the Internet.

Tippy: 00:24:59 Yes. Instagram. But um, yeah I went on a really, really lean diet like you know, I call it the fitness diet, I guess lack for a better term. And what this is is just plain chicken breasts, no salt, Broccoli, brown rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes. And this was something as, it’s very common right when you prep for like a show and whatnot, things like that and all the things, I actually hated. I did in the name of health, right? I thought I hated it. I hated it. But I was convincing myself, Brad, that this was great because I was seeing such great results. I was like, oh my physique looks great. This is awesome. I’m going to be all tanned up and shredded for this photo shoot. And you know, that got me going actually that got me through it. But did I enjoy the food? No. Today you enjoy winning every little thing. Tedious counting macros, calories, literally food scale, ready to go there. And I just, I just said after my shoot, I got the pictures back. I was like, oh, this is great. This is fun. I worked really, really hard.

Brad: 00:26:02 Little Caesar’s celebrated.

Tippy: 00:26:04 Yeah. Yeah. All the way. And I just said to myself, okay, well am I going to do this forever? Is this sustainable? That was the question. Like I got my pictures, I felt great that I look great, but is this something I enjoyed? And the answer was now, and I had to be honest with myself. I did it in the name of health, but I didn’t do it because I enjoyed the foods. And that got me thinking, okay, well I don’t want to do that. And I, and I was still eating healthy and I was still doing, you know, carbs and whatnot. And I knew about the Keto Diet because my last corporate job, I was in sales for natural vitamin supplements. It was really hot in the nineties really, really hot. And I knew about it, but I didn’t really research it. And then I moved to California and I just fell in the slump and I just didn’t feel good about myself.

Brad: 00:26:58 This is after your Texas., So Ryan got that weight off with a Paleo style diet and when, when was this fitness shoot kind of after you went paleo with him after. And so you kind of switched course and went into this fitness diet, which was extremely low fat.

Tippy: 00:27:16 Yeah. And I also did the HCG die, which is really, really low fat. I mean you can’t even, what’s the stapler? I don’t even remember.

Brad: 00:27:23 A C. G. H. C. G. O. H. C. G. Yeah. Anybody out there for,

Tippy: 00:27:28 yeah, it’s a hormone. It’s it, it was stupid, you know, but we did that. It was, it was really awful.

Brad: 00:27:37 Oh, it’s just, just so the listeners know, cause we’re in the Keto scene here and have the enthusiasm coming from primal Paleo ancestral health. If you go on a super strict low fat diet, it’s known that it works and you’ll get results. And so just to kind of, um, give a shout out to the, whoever’s doing that, that the, the Dean Ornish, Pritikin even the, the, I’m a vegetarian Vegan scene where if you cut out the fat out of your diet, um, you, you’ll get results. And then the challenges, just as you describe what are you going to do now you’re gonna eat like this the rest of your life and weighing stuff or in many cases, very common. You backslide because you start adding in things that taste good, like Guacamole at the Super Bowl and pretty soon, you know, um, you have a crossroads to face or you’re going to do this unsustainable thing. Or are you going to take a look and see how you can get maximum nutrient density and something that’s sustainable longterm and also might not make you, um, gain back all the, all the weight that you previously lost?

Tippy: 00:28:41 Yeah, absolutely. I was at that crossroad for sure. I would say because one, I didn’t enjoy the food. I didn’t want to do it anymore. I didn’t want to weigh my food anymore. I became tedious. I hate tedious things. And I started to,

Brad: 00:28:53 but how’d you do it for so long? I mean, how long did you do this intense fitness diet?

Tippy: 00:29:00 Uh, a couple of months. Intense to 60 bucks. 60 days.

Brad: 00:29:04 What would you say the results like from start, when you started in to your finished work in the photos? Was it amazing transformation? Like people don’t recognize who you are. You called yourself skinny fat out of the gate, so you were a lean person starting out. But like the, the definition and all those kinds of things were a huge, huge progress.

Tippy: 00:29:26 Yeah. I mean, I definitely saw my abs for the first time. High Abs. Yeah. That was something I saw for the very first time, which was really cool. But did I gain like a whole lot of strength and everything? No. Did I look good and healthy? Yes, I did. And that was one thing that I was really particular with. Like, I want to see my abs. Where are they? And I did, I did see them and that was definitely a check mark. It’s like, okay, cool. But there’s so many other ways that you could get there. Right. And I, I have always grown up loving fatty foods and that was how I started really getting into, okay, what kind of, what kind of life I want to live. I want to live a life where I could enjoy my food. I want to enjoy salt. I love salt. I really do. And I love fatty foods. So if you known me from forever, like you ever go to the tip and Yaki place where they cook it right in front of you. Um, a Japanese steakhouse, they would always cut off the fat on the York steak. I thought that was a sin. Yeah.

Brad: 00:30:24 Wait, you do that back? Flip that into your trashcan with your fancy spatula.

Tippy: 00:30:29 No, I was that girl. I said, chef, you raising my hand. Can you not cut my fat off? I want the fat. And then he won. I remember one time when the chef, the chef says, do you want everybody else’s fat? I said, yes, I do. And everyone looked at me like this high schooler right now. You know, I was just high school skinny at that time and um, did not know anything about health, but I always grew up loving fatty foods. And that was something that I always thought was bad because of the taboo and all that stuff, that free, fat free, blah, blah, blah. The word itself has a stigma, right? And I just kind of put that away or said, I’m not gonna eat fat. I’m not gonna eat salt. This is what I’m going to do. And I didn’t like it anymore.

Tippy: 00:31:10 And then the beginning of the year, um, I went keto because I wanted to try it out. I wanted to see you. What’s gonna work for me because I do love fatty foods. And sure enough, I tried it out, loved it, eating fat the most out of every eaten and losing weight and feeling great. Did I go through the Keto flu? Yeah. You’ll see my transformation video. I went, I’m 21, about 21 days I had the Keto flu, which was insane. And that was kind of partly my fault because I didn’t want to replenish myself with electrolytes, bone broth and all that stuff. I could have easily cured it until week three. I started tapping light salt on my, on my tongue. That was when I was like, okay, this was easily avoidable. I just want it to hold out and

Brad: 00:31:58 wait, hold out. Like did you purposely hold back from the fat for some reason or you didn’t? Weren’t aware yet. Why? I mean just not aware of it. Are we doing it for a reason?

New Speaker: 00:32:10 Hold on. The fat you’re holding back on the salt and stuff. Yeah, I just a mistake you’re saying

Tippy: 00:32:16 no, it was a simple mistake, but it was also one of the things where I just wanted to see how long it would last naturally to be honest, and how we would go away on its own instead of finding a remedy for it. Right. I just was like, oh, you’re hardcore. Yeah, I was a little, it was a little masochist for sure. I mean

Brad: 00:32:33 it’s an experiment. We can now chronicle it, report it on the, on the podcast and the videos and don’t do that. Don’t try at home. Literally. Yeah. Um, and I, I report the same thing that you listeners have heard me talk about. Like my first attempt to Keto, I lasted three weeks. I felt fantastic. It was great. I’m not hungry. And then I just crashed and burned out. And I realize now that, uh, I’ve messed up my electrolytes and my sodium, things like that and probably was trying to do too much exercise while I was naturally had a lower appetite and lower caloric intake. So yeah, you recalibrate, you should sprinkle that salt on your tongue and maybe you got it. Even like an energy burst. I know like the functional medicine people think that if you put something on your tongue that you’re in need of, you’ll get stronger with a muscle nerve and reflex testing. Or maybe even the psychological boost like, oh, this, this salt in my water tastes pretty good. You know, that kind of thing. Or on your food.

Tippy: 00:33:24 Yeah. I don’t know. I just wanted to naturally see how long I could go in agony in pain. And I was like, you know,

Brad: 00:33:33 now, now your husband’s standing on the line and you’re like, I’m tired. I’m going to go sit on the bench. Text me when our table’s ready.

Tippy: 00:33:40 Yeah, the roles reversed completely. But um, yeah, I, I knew that I didn’t want to do, I didn’t want to feel crappy any longer, so I just decided, okay, my mother in law said, hey, you know what you need, you need lights on l I t e light salt. Go get that. Tap It on your tongue and you’ll be fine. And sure enough, when I had those headaches and I just was feeling lethargic, I tapped it on, I was feeling that. I felt it was like a spring chicken . boom. I was fine. I was like, why did I hold up so long? This was really dumb with me, but I just wanted to see how long it would last for me naturally. But yeah, a week, three week four it, I felt fantastic. I was like, oh man. And my body composition just started changing because I had gained 12 pounds

Brad: 00:34:27 after the shoot,

Tippy: 00:34:28 after the shoot, after I moved after. I just was not in a good place with myself, uh, in, in a lot of ways. I just was, I had anxiety, I couldn’t sleep. I just didn’t feel like myself and I was going through a really, really rough time with, um, myself and moving back and things like that. I couldn’t really admit it to myself. I was in self denial for a long time and that stress ate me up inside. And sure enough, I just started to eat whatever I wanted to eat. And I would say, okay, it’s October, it’s November, it’s December, it’s the holidays I’m going to enjoy. And I gave myself a pat, deserve it.

Brad: 00:35:06 I deserve it. Let me ask you this. I’m wondering, coming off of that fitness diet, which was so crazy, is there any connection to you loosening the strings so much from from having such an extreme experience where I feel like when we do that to ourselves and torture ourselves that much, we kind of have a rebound or a pendulum swinging in fact back in the other direction.

Tippy: 00:35:32 Absolutely. Absolutely. I, that’s why now more than ever, if you, if you can go cold Turkey, great, but I feel like at some point if there is no moderation, no sustainability with that, it’s going to bounce back and you’re just going to go off the off the grid because one, you just miss it. You deprived yourself so much to the point where you’re not satiated. You’re just doing it for, you know, cause you’re not enjoying it. I did enjoy the foods I was eating and that was a big thing and I realized I didn’t, I don’t want to do that anymore. If I eat, I’m going to enjoy everything I eat. That’s not, that’s not a lot to ask. Right. But within parameters. So now I love fat. I’ve always loved that, but I was always so afraid to eat it cause I don’t want to get fat because fat makes you fat. Right. Not the case. But yeah, I, I felt totally restricted. And I think when you get to a point you just say F it, I’m going to go for it and you just go off the rails. And I think that’s happened to me. And emotionally I was not at a good place to so that, you know, put fuel on the fire.

Brad: 00:36:36 This was this great adventure come to an end in Austin. And you, you referenced that as a, a great growth experience for you and your husband and then, and then it seems like you, you felt like you take taking a step back when you go back to your hometown?

Tippy: 00:36:51 in a way. But I was justifying it by, you know, being with my friends, being with my own, being with my family and whatnot. And I was in denial for a while. Brad, I couldn’t get myself to admit that, that I wasn’t happy. Hmm. I couldn’t get myself to admit that because I don’t wanna hurt anybody’s feelings. Yeah.

Brad: 00:37:10 I can relate to that. Yeah. I’m, I’m Mr positive guy all the time. No matter what happens to me in my life, I’m always looking at the silver lining. And sometimes I identify that now as a coping mechanism and, and instead of facing your truth and facing the difficulties in your life, you can wash over them with a smile and you could have worse problems, but it’s still an issue. Yeah, absolutely. Deepak Chopra said that, um, this ambulant positivity all the time is, it is another source of stress because it takes energy to manufacture that smile. And, um, he, he gave a comparison of, um, I forget the exact terminology, like calm, uh, centered, um, uh, relaxed mind rather than super happy pop, peppy positive. And so when you think about this comparison there to just being calm and centered and being able to experience joy and happiness, uh, when it’s appropriate.

Brad: 00:38:11 And other times it’s like, shit, I gotta look at this business. I started up and it’s struggling. Gotta make a change. I gotta get into the weeds here and suck it up and realize that maybe today isn’t the greatest day and ask yourself those hard questions. So I’m, I’m connecting with you on that level. Cause I think a lot of people do that and everyone looks and sees them as the, the happiest peppiest as positive. The one that brings people together and a is, you know, uniting the, the factions or the, this, the drama that’s happening around you and your Ika cheer up that kind of person.

Tippy: 00:38:44 Yeah, I definitely fall into that category and I just, um, I was losing myself with it and I needed, I needed to get myself back. I wanted, I miss my old self. I miss my old routine in Austin. I missed all that. And Yeah.

Brad: 00:38:59 So what do you do at those times to correct course?

Tippy: 00:39:03 when you miss where you came from? Um, you know, it’s not forever, it’s temporary and you know, you could always move back and you’re just there for the time being. And it’s something that you got to do for your own personal reasons. And you, you know, it’s not forever. So

Brad: 00:39:20 what is, what does a person do in that situation to kind of get things handled, you know, get, get a sustainable, healthy, nutritious diet and handle anything else that you were facing?

Tippy: 00:39:33 Well, I think it all starts in my mind. You know, number one, I had to be mentally tough. I had to want it. I had to prepare myself mentally for it and I had to number one, not be in denial anymore. I had, I had to look at myself physically and say, this is where I’m at. This is not who I want to be. This is,

Brad: 00:39:55 this is this, um, 12 pounds you gained in a short time, three months. Yeah. And you’re a small person, so we’re talking about maybe 12% of your body weight. So if we’re a big guy that’s like gaining 24 pounds or an average person, that’s a fair change in your body composition.

Tippy: 00:40:14 Yeah. And you know, people don’t realize that. They’re like, oh, you just gained four pounds is fine. It’s not a big deal

Brad: 00:40:19 Happens to me all the time.

Tippy: 00:40:19 It’s like, wait a minute. But like you said, my frame is small and you could very well see it on my face. That’s where I gained weight the most. I don’t know if it’s an Asian thing because I’ve talked to so many different people and they’re like, I can’t wait am my face too. But that’s where my weight goes on first. And I’m like, okay, I have to look at my face. I don’t like the way my face looks. And then it just started to spread and I just said, you know, I need to be honest myself. Why am I doing this? Why am I letting myself go? Why am I not happy? What is it that I’m doing that meets change?

Tippy: 00:40:53 You know? And I started six years ago health and I knew I could attain that again, but I needed to be honest with myself. So I looked at myself in the mirror and just let it out. Say, okay, these are the things that I’m not happy with. This is where I need to change in my life and I need to get myself back. I miss Myself, I miss my old self in so many different ways. And you know, when you’re not happy with yourself, it translate into so many departments in your life, your relationship, your friendships, your family. I mean I was just putting this facade on and then I go to and I’m freaking out in bed having anxiety about everything, about things I can’t change in my life about old past drama, all these, all these nonsense that are, that I really needed to let it go.

Tippy: 00:41:47 I needed to let a lot of things go. So I did a lot of reflection and I was honest with myself first and foremost. That’s where it changed. Start is when you’re self aware and you’re honest, you’re raw, you’re honest, you’re, you don’t lie to yourself. And I needed, I needed to speak my truth and I told my husband that I just wasn’t not happy. This is not, I’m turning 30 next year. I’m not going to enter it my next decade feeling like shit, I’m not doing it. And it started mentally. The change started mentally and it started. Um, definitely within your heart. If this is something you really wanted before the physical change started happening. And I was seeking a lot of remedies. Um, but one thing I never tried was to eat the way I wanted to eat, to not count calories, to not weigh my food, to eat the fat that I want to eat.

Tippy: 00:42:48 I love a good ribeye, Brad. They’re so delicious and I thought it was gonna give me a heart attack, right? All these things that people say and I just said, you know what? I’m going to eat those nuts. I’m going to eat that rabbi. I’m going to eat things I enjoy. That’s going to be the difference. And I’m not going to count my calories. I’m not gonna weigh my food macros. Forget about it. Let’s just eat what I want to eat. And sure enough, within obviously Keto parameters, I enjoyed what I ate for the first time on a Keto diet. I enjoy what I ate. I didn’t weigh my food, I didn’t have to do all this crazy thing that everyone was saying they were doing. And I also started intermitent fasting as well.

Brad: 00:43:32 So this is yet another, a serious commitment, just like the fitness diet. But this time you start to notice that you actually enjoy it and you, or you’re looking at the list of allowable foods going ribeye, nuts. Okay? Okay. Checkbox, checkbox. Alright, so you’re building some momentum. You got out of the Keto flu stage.

Tippy: 00:43:53 I got out of the queue to please stage. And then week three, week four, that’s when things started ramping up. I was only going to do this for three weeks because you know, read the book, 21 days, I’m gonna do this for 21 days. That’s it. But I didn’t want to stop at 21 days. I just wanted to say, okay, 31 days, let’s see, the whole entire month of January 31 there’s 31 days. Let’s just go the whole month. And I’ve never felt better. Like my mind.

Brad: 00:44:16 February, there’s only 28 okay, so your family,

Tippy: 00:44:20 I was born on leap year actually, so nine 29 days every four years. But

Brad: 00:44:27 what are the numerology people say about that? That’s incredible. Are you special? Like destined for, you know, some different path as everyone else.

Tippy: 00:44:35 I don’t know. I uh, I’ve never met a leak. Your baby, you’re like seven years old or eight. I am. Yeah. Yeah. Seven Times four 28 so my next birthday is when I’m in, every year is 32 so in two more years I’ll have an actual birthday.

Brad: 00:44:51 So you’re feeling good after that Keto flu thing’s over. You get your electrolytes going. Now you’ve hit the one month mark you’re going to carry on.

Tippy: 00:45:00 Yeah. That was something I, I knew I wanted to do. I took, I took a break. It was my husband’s birthday, the 31st January 31st we went to San Francisco. We had a good time. I had noodles and things like that and I just said, you know what, I, this is not as enjoyable as I thought it would be right

Brad: 00:45:16 after denying yourself or however long.

Tippy: 00:45:18 Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t really miss it the way that I thought I would miss it because I felt so great. I didn’t, it didn’t miss it. Yeah, I hear it now. Here and there. We definitely go and we ha we enjoy herself, but it’s nothing like it’s nothing like we did before. I talk about an 80 20 rule. It’s not about what you do 20% of the time, it’s what you do 80% of the time. And I’ll let a lot of my followers always asked like, how do you do 80 20 how do you 80 20 and I should do a video on this actually, but technically if you put in mathematical terms, let’s just say you have 30 days, you do this, you know, six meals that you can quote cheat, treat, whatever you want to call it in a month. And that’s that. You get kicked out of Ketosis.

Tippy: 00:45:59 Yes, some people do la-di-da but the thing is I want an, I strive to live a life of sustainability. It’s, you know, how do you know if it’s a sustainable life? Well, you wake up and you just don’t think about it. This is just what you eat. You know, you’re not on a diet. Like I’ve gotten so many direct messages, emails, like I want to do this diet, I can’t do diets. I feel a diets, diet, diet, diet and that word is just so annoying to me at times because you know, people need to look at it as a lifestyle when you wake up and this is what you eat, this is when you eat. Like I eat, like I’m right now fasted right. I will eat at two 30. That’s my window. I have a four hour window so I’m doing 20 hours and then four hour window.

Tippy: 00:46:41 But I used to do on my what eat and day. I did a six hour window, 18 fasting and six eating. But um, to me it, that changed my life to intermittent fasting completely because I was that girl that got hangry. If you looked at a hangery in the dictionary, I swear you saw my face. I was that girl and my mood was always so dictated on food. Food was, if it wasn’t there, don’t talk to me. You know, it just was one of those things you ask my husband, he’s like, what’s the biggest change that you’ve seen in a Tippy in the last year? She doesn’t get hangry. It feels good. You know, it feels good not to get hangry, not to have everything relied on food.

Brad: 00:47:23 Yeah. You have a sense of, uh, freedom and control in your life that you didn’t before. The NFL player Isaac Rochelle that I’ve had on, uh, the get over yourself podcast and also the Primal Blueprint show, he said the same thing like, um, his life is so controlled as a professional athlete in a team, major team sport, they own your ass pretty much, you know, year round with the training camps and the mini camps and then the day in the life of an NFL football player. We know they play on Sunday, but like every single day they’re in meetings and then they’re in training and then they’re getting taped up and then you’re getting rehab and then they’re at practice. Then they’re at another practice, then they’re watching film. And he said like when he went Keto, um, he had a sense of control over his appetite, energy levels, mood, cognitive function. And it was just a great sense of balance to all the other things in life that we can’t control, that we have anxiety about. And all that crap.

Tippy: 00:48:17 Oh yeah. And that was one thing I didn’t expect to gain from this. Actually. It was a surprise to me that I wasn’t hungry. I was satiated. I didn’t want more, I didn’t have portion distortion. It was just

Brad: 00:48:30 we did this stuff. I got it. I’m gonna use that one too. I love that.

Tippy: 00:48:34 I think we out portion does quantum fitness, this

Brad: 00:48:35 diet right now, and I kind of have portion distortion what’s portion to stores and like when you think you had a little bit and you ate way more than that or something.?

Tippy: 00:48:43 It’s this con, this compulsion to eat everything that is served to you on a plate. Portion distortion. Yeah, like you think that that’s a serving size because that’s what served to you and you know, I think it’s ingrained in us as Americans personally, not for me. I grew up in a traditional household, but my husband, I could, I could speak for him and I will he, Hello Ryan. Hey Ryan. Hey Babe. He’s going to listen to, this

Brad: 00:49:10 was another cameo first. He has a cameo on the viral youtube video. Now. He has a cameo. What we should patch in like a little record. You send me a little sound bite from him, Brian. We’ll patch it in. Yeah, that’s Brian and Ryan. What’s up? Meet Brian’s the audio engineer. Ryan to the mystery husband.

Tippy: 00:49:24 He gets mistaken for Brian all the time, by the way. Starbucks. Thank you so much. Brian.

Brad: 00:49:30 Starbucks. Seven pumps default on your liquid cane sugar. I hate that. I’m calling them out right now. This, this show is sponsored by anti Starbucks. When you open up the app, I love the app because you can order your thing. Walk in and grab it off the counter while everyone’s in line. Yeah, says Brad on it. Even if it says Brian instead of Ryan, you’re so happy you’re grabbing it and go, but when I, I’ll pull up that app and I see that default of seven pumps of liquid cane sugar and then you have to push minus, minus, minus, minus, minus, minus to get your drink. Yeah. Hey, if you’re going to two pumps, three pumps, and you’re working on cutting down, fantastic, but oh my goodness. They’re killing Americans with their app strategy straight up because we know that excess intake of refined carbohydrates is the driving factor of metabolic syndrome, which is the disease pattern. That’s, you know, gonna bankrupt the u s treasury by 2060 according to Dr Doug McGuff. If the type two diabetes rates grow at the continued rate, the US Treasury will be bankrupt due to healthcare costs of keeping people alive with this terrible disease. So Starbucks change your app to zero pumps and if people want to pump it up, they can use their thumb and be conscious and mindful about it. You can go all the way up to seven if you want. If you just finished the two hour basketball practice, whatever. Otherwise go down to zero and then I’ll let you sponsor the show. Okay. Back to Tippy’s story.

Tippy: 00:50:48 No, I mean people overlook that though if it’s just, if it’s standardized at seven most people would not look at that [inaudible] quotes. Yeah, exactly. I can’t believe they put seven. That’s insane. I did not know that. That is, I was thinking too, if anything, if anything. Yeah, I mean, I just think drink green tea. Um, I’m boring like that. But,

Brad: 00:51:11 um, but your noodle experience in San Francisco Party celebration. Great. Yeah. But when you de habituate to this stuff, it seems like straight up. I don’t think you’re lying. You’re look at me straight in the eye. You’re not lying that it, it didn’t taste as good or it wasn’t as good as you expected after putting it out of the diet.

Tippy: 00:51:29 I think, you know, taking the before and after photo of myself and looking at that from all angles and all I just said, oh my goodness, I did that to myself. I mean, we’re always choosing, right? I always feel like we’re always choosing everything that happens. I personally feel that I’m always choosing, I’m always choosing to be resentful, mad or whatever. You know, I’m always choosing, I’m choosing what goes in my mouth. I’m always choosing and you know, I, I chose to go down, you know, to go off the path of health for three months, which is a long time for me. And when, you know, when I saw that after photo, the transformation, I just, it just didn’t taste as great because nothing tastes as great as feeling great. Hmm. You know, it just doesn’t. So it was fun. We had a good time, but it wasn’t, it, it wasn’t as satisfying as I would normally say it would be if I was just on that, on that lifestyle forever. Yeah.

Brad: 00:52:31 So now many months have gone by and you’re into this deep into this Keto thing for nine months now. What’s your reflections at this point?

Tippy: 00:52:41 You know, it’s easy for me to do this because I enjoy the food now. If you don’t like fatty foods and things like that, you’re gonna, you’re gonna probably have an issue with it. Right. But it tastes good to me. I have flexibility with it. I could, I just told you earlier when we were talking, we made a Ribeye, Laotian Ribeye steak salad. Fantastic. Great, wonderful. Didn’t feel guilty about it at all. You know, had some salt, some limes, some Thai chilies, red o onions. And it was fantastic. It was fantastic. I didn’t feel guilty at all. And you know, I’m in a minute fasting, so I had that four hour window. I eat what I eat and that’s that. You know it, it gives me control over it. I don’t have these blood sugar spikes that I used to. It just doesn’t happen to me anymore.

Tippy: 00:53:26 And when I, when I want to eat something, I’m always choosing how choose to eat it. I don’t feel guilty about it. Right. I don’t feel, I used to feel guilty about the things I ate when I was on the fitness diet. Right? That was really like mentally sabotaging myself. It was awful. And now it’s like if I want to have that, I know I’m going to have that and I’m fine. I’ll go right back to it and I’m fine. I, my whole thing is, I’ve met, if you meet your fitness goals, you, you got the weight off and I’ve lost all the 12 pounds I put on and things like that. I think having some flexibility, the flexibility here and there is fine. I don’t want to be rigid because when you do that to yourself, you’re going to relapse harder. That’s just how it happens.

Brad: 00:54:06 Now it gets a little tricky in my opinion because it’s true. You don’t want to be orthorexic we use that term a lot now or we see it written about, which is the, uh, unhealthy fixation with being, uh, correct or perfect. And it’s happening a lot in the diet scene, especially in the, uh, regimented or these strict diets like Keto or whatever else it is. So, um, we want to be flexible, we want to be kind and forgiving to ourselves. Uh, and then on the other side of the coin, we’re here in this society of instant gratification and indulgence and decadence and luxary and we’re, we’re proportion distortion and all that stuff. So how do you strike that balance between being okay with departures but adhering to something that takes commitment and takes mindfulness all the time?

Tippy: 00:54:52 It depends on my goals and I’m the type of person that I kind of set something and I have to show off for it. Like booking that photo shoot or signing up for a half marathon. I just do it before I train. I do it before.

Brad: 00:55:03 Yeah. I like that. Yeah, that’s one. One strategy. Yeah.

Tippy: 00:55:07 To me, I, I work better that way. If there’s a deadline, there’s some pressure. I like that it gets me going. So now, you know, now that I’m back from vacation, I went on vacation in Europe and I’m back now and I,

Brad: 00:55:20 Oh yes, we saw that on your viral Instagram account. What’s the Instagram tippy tails? It’s tippy Wyatt to be y on Instagram. She has a real name folks. And then the youtube channel is tippy tails, correct? Yeah,

Tippy: 00:55:31 correct. So I was, um, I was having a good time and vacation, but you know what, I’m back now and I have, I have to kick some ass because I’m going to fitness bet with my husband Ryan and my best friend slash brother pink and we put town, you know, $50 in the jar. It’s like, okay, this is, um, this is gonna. This is, this is for the winn,er. And we’re going to do a little like fitness trophy with like person’s name engraved in it. There’s been a lot of talking crap to each other nonstop. But the fitness bet is basically to see who’s going to be the most shredded, like body composition, low body fat from now until the end of the year, which you know, we’re going into the fall time. You know, you got your pumpkin spice lattes coming out, you got your Halloween Thanksgiving, Christmas season. So it’s going to be a lot of sweets, a lot indulgences, and we’re going to do the opposite because we feel like those three months give a lot.

Tippy: 00:56:25 And I experienced that in 2017 I gained all that weight in those three months. And I’m not repeating that again. Let me tell you, I’m doing the opposite actually. And by January 1st we’re going to be in our best shape that we’ve ever been. That’s the goal being in your absolute best shape that you’ve ever been in your own terms. So I, um, we’re gonna, we’re gonna put it on Reddit and cut our faces off and everything like that. So I’m not going to be cheating and telling people to go over there and vote for me or anything like that and pupils gotta vote for it. The best physique. Right? And that’s just kind of a personal thing that we’re doing. It’s fun. It’s been fun so far hand. Um, yeah, I gotta kick some ass here. So that’s my goal and I’m going to be pretty regimented here until the end of the year, which is the opposite of what a lot of people are doing right during the season.

Brad: 00:57:14 Wow. What a, uh, what a picture there. So you have this loving supporting your, your, your best friend, your husband, the kindness, the group camaraderie and then the trash talking and the 50 bucks and you have like the best of everything, right? Cause you’re good natured about it obviously, but it’s, this is straight up. This is serious stuff.

Tippy: 00:57:33 Oh, it’s serious. Yeah, it’s serious. There’s, yeah, there is.

Brad: 00:57:36 Game on!

Tippy: 00:57:36 Yeah. There’s been a lot, a lot of talking and you know what? You got to shut it down and

Brad: 00:57:41 you know what? You also have to carry the torch for the female, uh, population because we hear this so much that k

Brad: 00:57:48 Keto is great for guys and girls struggle a little more and experts will weigh in and the scientists will say that the female hormones and sometimes the thyroid slows down and all this stuff. I’m not making fun of it. Like it’s inaccurate, but the female characterization is that it’s tougher. They’re going to struggle more results may vary. They might not see their avs while their boyfriends glistening and all that stuff, which, um, a lot of it’s steeped in the realities of male and female. Physique female carries more body fat is fit for reproduction, the males, different story. But look, when we start out with these cop outs and these beliefs that are possibly self-limiting, that’s why I’m voting for you to win. I mean, then yeah, you can saying, look, throw down, right and looking the best that you can. And we uh, we can all have six pack no matter what. Some females will never get there whenever some males will never get there. But just having this challenge and putting it out there with um, people that you love and want to support and have that trash talking going in. I referenced many times in my life with my buddies doing this trash talking and having some kind of challenge or contest and it’s, it’s really a healthy way to pursue goals.

Tippy: 00:59:03 I think so. I think, um, I can definitely hold my own with that. So there is no, there was no shortage of trash talking from my end too and I, I have a good time with it. But

Brad: 00:59:12 if you’d like to participate in a contest is now closed, I’m sorry. Or will you take some 50 bucks from randoms if they want, I mean, I don’t think you want any part of this listeners, but if you’re a random out there and you want to put in, we can go on Tippy, send her a message on Instagram or whatever you do and that social media thing, we’ll see what they say.

Tippy: 00:59:31 Yeah, no, I’m, I’m also contemplating on blogging it weekly as well. So you’ve got 12 weeks. I mean, I’m going to start in October. We’re in the transition of moving right now, but October, November, December. So you got a good 12 weeks there. So I was thinking about doing a weekly blog as well. I have not yet decided 100% on it, but I am, you know, 90% there. I probably will do it. It’d be good to see also like what I do in a week and like the, you know, the before the, after the information, the realness, the rawness, authenticity of, um, you know, shutting out two boys, you know, so,

Brad: 01:00:11 Let’s look for it on tippy tail. Uh, before I let you go, your backstory is pretty fascinating and it’s, it’s a pretty powerful, I, you shared with me before we recorded it, so, and I remember first seeing this on your, um, information about the upcoming book you’re doing with your sister about Asian Keto cooking. You guys started in a refugee camp, started starting life out, uh, in, in rough circumstances.

Tippy: 01:00:38 Yeah. Um, a lot of people don’t know this about me. I don’t have an accent or anything like that. I’ve been here for quite some time, but I’m mostly all my life. Yeah. But we started our, our journey in, um, refugee camp in Thailand and, um, with hopes of coming here. And My mother was pregnant with me and my sister was three years old and my dad and you know, had the American dream of coming here and not the typical American dream. The typical American dream is the like picket fans and all of that. But he wanted his girls to get an education, an American college education to be specific and um, under obviously unfortunate circumstances. It, my mother gave birth to me and she passed away. She bled to her death and we were born, I was born in refugee camp and we immigrated here.

Tippy: 01:01:32 So it was this oxymoron of a tragedy and miracle wrapped up in one. So we started our life like that and it was a rough start. But, um, came here to America and my fast forward and my sister and I and we both have a college education and you know, uh, very proud of where we come from and lived in a very traditional household, Laotian household. And we speak it, we cook it every, every, every, every being. We’ve taught our parents English, we taught ourselves how to speak right English and we were dirt poor growing up. This is in Fresno. Yeah. And you were in a farming situation? Yeah, we did farming and you know, my parents rented a couple of acres. We did oriental farm farming, so long beans, bitter melon, Thai chilies. That’s what we did. And we worked our summers at the farm and we earned, you know, our back to school clothes, working on the farm.

Tippy: 01:02:40 And while people had vacation, we were working on our farm, the farm with our parents and helping them out as much as we can. And that’s how we earned our back to school clothes. So it’s been a lot of trials, a lot of tribulations, a lot of struggle along the way. But anybody can do anything they want to do. They really want to do it in life. That’s how we feel about everything. So, um, that’s, that’s how life started. And of course there’s a lot of twists and turns along the way. But one of our passions growing up was cooking. We had to cook from a very early age for our parents and learn their traditional way of smashing a Thai Chili in the brick and mortar. And um, where would I say brick and mortar?

Brad: 01:03:27 Is that what you smashed on the stone or something? I was thinking you could smash it on a brick, I guess.

Tippy: 01:03:32 But see, I don’t really know. I don’t use that term often. Right though. Pestle was like brick and mortar at Fresno state. Like what am I seeing? Brick and mortar? This is not a shop here. Um, yeah. So we learned the traditional ways on how to cook and really immerse ourselves in it because we enjoyed it and we cook for our parents and that’s, that’s how we were brought up to learn, you know, the art of cooking and we fell in love with it. And that’s a project that my sister and I have been working on and um, it is an authentic Asian Keto cookbook. I’m so proud of it, Brad. It is, it is

Brad: 01:04:10 coming soon. Coming soon. Yes. Coming soon. Very interesting.

Tippy: 01:04:15 Very, very proud of it. Yeah. It’s something that’s going to live on la long after I live. Right. So it’s one of those things for future generations and something we can preserve and we counted the calories, we count on the macros in there, all of that and everything tastes phenomenal. I would, I wouldn’t, there’s nothing in there that I would not serve at a dinner party for people that I was trying to impress if I had to impress them. Right. That’s the type of, that’s the type of recipes that we have in the book. There is nothing in there that we would not make and say, okay, we’re proud of. And it’s, it was a, a labor of love, a labor of, we bonded so much, we talked about so many different ways and now it’s kinda hard to eat food again. You know, because you’ve the, the art of cooking, we always feel like it’s dying in it. Especially,

Brad: 01:05:05 what are you talking about?

Tippy: 01:05:08 The Art of cooking of young folks, right? They just, it’s so easy. It’s so easy to go out there and get this and get that. But then to actually slice it and cook it and feel it and know where it comes from. I mean, I, we love that stuff. That stuff gets us going. So we, you put it in a cookbook before we poured our 11 there. So

Brad: 01:05:27 Speaking of young folks, so you, you recently turned 30, you said [inaudible], you know, you came [inaudible] came of age in this country, immersed yourself into American culture, educational system. You’re self made business owner, you’ve, you know, a joy now, the great, uh, privileges of a modern life and in all that American stuff. Uh, but I’m also wondering, as you know, as this process is carried on, you’ve been, uh, around, we’re in the age of the helicopter parent and the in entitled Millennial Child. This is just a generalization if you don’t like it. I’m sorry, I’m just, I’m, I’m, I’m seeing this as a cultural theme, not, not editorializing too much, but I am, I can editorialize a little bit that it’s, it’s a little strange what’s going on these days where the kids have grown up in, uh, digital technology all the time. Um, some of these trends about paying your dues and you know, working at one career for a long time have now switched to a, I have a startup and I’m, I’m gonna make as million zillion dollars and I, I’m entitled to this and all that kind of stuff. So with that completely different perspective and working so hard and having your summers working on a farm rather than going and taking pictures for your 12 year old social media account, how do you process some of that? What’s some of your reflections there?

Tippy: 01:06:54 You know, I had this conversation quite a bit, actually. It’s not anything

Brad: 01:06:58 called you up to stage of business school at Fresno and San tippy. What do you think?

Tippy: 01:07:02 I wish they would call me Fresno state. I like to teach a class, call me.

Brad: 01:07:05 Oh yeah, we need to hear from you back there for sure.

Tippy: 01:07:08 Um, that’s the thing I would teach like a life hack class, like something general that people can, that’s not taught in school. We’re kind of taught to take tests and not to critically think. And I think I have a problem with that because it’s, it’s not life. That’s not how life works. You’re not given a test anyways. Um, going back to your question about entitlement and millennials and you know, that’s, I don’t have kids, right? So been married three years. I don’t have kids. I have this talk quite a bit like I just mentioned and it scares me because hard work is underrated hardware, hard work. I mean, people look at me like, oh, you’re a self made you, you know, Oh hell, I look up to you so much, man. I can’t wait to roll out all the pictures I took of all the two to four or 5:00 AM packing 10,000 boxes of lashes, talking to China, not getting weekends, not going out, not doing these things because I, I wanted, I my dream was to be an entrepreneur in America. Like ice. I sold lemonade when I was a kid. I sold my sister’s clothes when I was mad at her. Sorry.

Brad: 01:08:23 Oh, I see. Nice. You’re not your sister’s designed clothes. No, not her navel for the actual clothes, like, you know, and I that is Brian. If you don’t pull that as the pull quote, I don’t know if you’re still listening, man, but you just nailed it. I stole my sister’s clothes. Yeah. That’s what entrepreneurs can. I just like,

Tippy: 01:08:47 why did you sell my overalls? Well, because the

Brad: 01:08:51 highest bidder went up to $20 on Ebay. Right. Psalm is your sister. Yeah. Shout out girl. I mean, you know, you made the show. How about that?

Tippy: 01:09:00 That’s funny. But um, yeah, I was always into garage sales, yard sales, things like that as a kid. And I knew that in order for me to become an entrepreneur, I need to know how to sell. And I, I valued hard work because that’s all my dad. Um, you know, growing up my, um, my parents, they didn’t, they didn’t, they weren’t educated. They didn’t read to us. Right. I always get told like, oh, you didn’t read that nursery Ryan will, my parents couldn’t read, you know, plain and simple and no one would respond to that. Cause it’s kind of weird response to say, no, I never read that book because my parents had no to read. And so the only thing, one of the core things they always taught us was you work harder than the next person. And that’s it. That’s all you could do.

Tippy: 01:09:47 You know, you just work harder and you show up, you show up and you work harder and that’s it. And those two principles are underrated these days. You know, just showing up and working harder. Yeah. You may not want to make sandwiches or scoop ice cream for the rest of your life. Yeah. But it’s part of the story. It’s the struggle being in the trenches. That’s part of all of it. And if people can’t see the beauty in that, it’s going to be very hard to be successful in anything you do, anything you do. And I learned gratitude from an early age and I’m very grateful to learn that. But man, it changes everything. And I think being children today, there’s no, I don’t want to, he si generalize, but you know, when we talk about the people that are this way entitled, they don’t have gratitude, they just don’t.

Tippy: 01:10:39 And when that’s something that if you have gratitude, this meal becomes a feast. This house becomes a home. It just, it just, everything starts working synergistically together. And with the kids today, they feel like they should be superstars on youtube and Instagram. And it’s instant gratification, like you talk about it is just something that we want right here right now. And it doesn’t work that way. And they’re afraid to look at hard work because it’s dressed in ironically overalls, you know, some overalls. My sister’s overalls. Yeah, yeah. You know, and it’s not sexy. It’s not a pretty hard work. Is Not, and that’s something that, you know, I, I, I hope that when I, you know, I can use my platform to let people know that whatever you do, whether it be a Keto diet or not, um, it’s gonna take hard work. And if you’re afraid of that, you can’t succeed.

Brad: 01:11:42 It’s doesn’t work. Don’t, don’t buy the book. Don’t pass. Go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tippy: 01:11:48 A lot of people overlook that. And I think that’s something that our generation lacks because I think we’re being too consumed, but all the success in the world, and we’re not talking about our shortcomings, we’re not talking about the failed businesses. This is, you know, business number three. I failed too, and yeah, I was really crappy. Got down on my knees, cried in a fetal position and the corner of a room, my goodness. But at the end of the day, if you really want and you get back up again, you know, and you do it again because you really want it that bad. And it’s not about how many times you can succeed is how many times do you get up after you’ve been knocked down? And a lot of kids don’t have that mentality of life’s going to knock me down.

Tippy: 01:12:25 Yeah. That’s expected, but I got to get back up. That’s it. I mean, if you can do that more than you can complain about BS, that doesn’t matter. I mean, I’ve traveled. I know America. It’s great. I’m so grateful for this life that I could build a dream. I’d get to build American dream. Um, you know, I come from kid that her mother passed giving birth to her in a refugee camp. I had nothing. Zero. So I think that motivates me more than anything. Just knowing that I’ve always grown up with this complex about life. I know it’s, I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder about life. I, I admit that fully now as an adult. And that’s what drives me because it’s so precious. I mean, knowing that my mother passed giving birth to me. Right. It’s, it’s easy. It’s not easy for me to say it right now.

Tippy: 01:13:22 I still definitely get emotional when I, when I talk about it, but it can slip away and people don’t realize that. And you’re given today is a gift. It’s beautiful. We’re here, we’re talking. And I’m a testament that day’s get better if you, if you work hard, you dream. And I always say be a dream. Doer right? Not just a dreamer. Be a dream doer. And that’s one thing that I’m probably going to wear a shirt. I made a shirt dream do or sure. I’m probably gonna wear in my youtube video, but I was a dreamer. And then when I started doing, that’s when things started happening. But yeah, going back to the complex about life, that is real for me. I really, I have a sheer chip on my shoulder about life. And that’s something I’m fully honest. And that’s what drives me is because I know it’s so beautiful and I know there’s awful times in it, but overall it’s such a gift for.

Tippy: 01:14:20 So we’re so, so fortunate to be here today. And how can I not make the best of it? You know, my mother lost her life giving me life. So how could I not make the best of life? And that’s why I become this overachiever in so many different ways is because I mean, in some sort of reality, I feel like I’ve always felt like I was compensating for the her lack of life, right? And it gave me this platform to live a better life. I know what the tragedy happens and I could soak around all day and say, man, life’s not fair. And you know what? Life is not fair. You’re right. Life is not fair, but what are we gonna make out of it? And that’s what I asked myself. What am I gonna make out up this life? How do, what do I want out of this life?

Tippy: 01:15:12 How do I want to be remembered? Things like that. And I hope people, I hope I could help people along this, this road that I’m on the road of Tippy Tales and some sort of way and inspire people to live their best life because of my chip on my shoulder about life. Really.

Brad: 01:15:30 Are you going to give yourself permission to take that chip off when, whenever you want? Or do you feel like you need this edge, this edge that came from a struggling background or whatever you want to call it?

Tippy: 01:15:43 I feel like it’s a part of my identity, but I’m ready to let it go. I’m ready to free myself from it. And I actually had been working really, really hard and [inaudible] freeing myself with it. I saw a therapist and I worked with her for six months in, you know, getting to myself to not become a prisoner to this anymore.

Tippy: 01:15:59 But, um, it’s just one of those things where I wouldn’t say that I have it right right now. I’ve had it a lot in my life until I was about on the edge of 29 when I saw her, I was, okay, I got to free myself from this because I want

Brad: 01:16:14 to same time period. Describe when you were struggling.

Tippy: 01:16:17 Yeah. Yeah.

Brad: 01:16:18 And then having to admit to yourself that it wasn’t all rosy. You had, you had some issues.

Tippy: 01:16:24 Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Um, my pass came back and it, you know, manifested in ways that I honestly couldn’t imagine that as an adult and you know, you wake up and you’re like, Oh man, why is this happening to me? And you just gotta you gotta peel the layers back and when you peel the layers back, man, you, that onion man makes you cry. Right?

New Speaker: 01:16:45 Like an onion will.

Tippy: 01:16:46 Right. But yeah, I’m definitely constantly, always working on to how that sort of freedom. Am I 100% there? I’d be lying to see TV if I said I was, I’m not. But I’ve definitely, um, I would say that a majority there, 70 to 80% there

Brad: 01:17:05 Probably have people around you supporting that

Tippy: 01:17:10 process too. Yeah. I appreciate you and, and help you enjoy life.

Tippy: 01:17:15 Absolutely. My husband is number one in that. He is always like, you just got to free yourself. It’s like you’re trying to fly and there’s this, there’s this weight around your ankle and it’s hard to fly resistant training, right? But that

Brad: 01:17:32 You’re afraid if you let go and become just a free person without the chip that you’re gonna lose your edge, your productivity, and turn into a lazy person sitting by the pool reading about the Kardashians and the magazine.?

Tippy: 01:17:48 You know, that’s, that sounds nice on some days, but definitely, um, I, I’ve come a long way with that. I’ve come a long way with my ability to turn off and my husband is really good at that, so I get to look at him as an example of, hey,

Brad: 01:18:07 I imagine that you two paired up. Yeah. Yeah.

Tippy: 01:18:11 He has the ability to really turn that off. So when he’s on vacation, he’s on vacation. When I’m on vacation, I’m checking emails De, De, De, De, De, and I don’t have that ability just yet. I’m working on that. I’m constantly working on that and I’m constantly working on being 100% honest with myself every step of the way. And that’s something that I think, um, you know, is, is underrated as well. Yeah. So, um, I’m a work in progress all the way as I, as I tell my story through Tippy Tales and here today I am a work in progress all the way, but I appreciate authenticity more than I ever have in my life. And that’s something that I never want to lose. So when I’m there I’ll let you know completely.

Brad: 01:19:00 I’m uh, now it’s my job to close this thing. This has been pretty intense. Um, we, we tricked you, didn’t we listeners, we’re talking about this and that and how to make a viral youtube video or you know what just came to mind? It was like take taking it all the way back to the start and how do you make a viral youtube video is you put it out there like you just did today in this show and I appreciate you so much. So thank you Tippy.Wyatt, check this girl out. She’s doing some great stuff. I’m really touched by your message. I hope you are and listener as well. Thanks for listening.

Tippy: 01:19:32 Thank you so much Brad, for having me. This is my first podcast and I’m so happy that it’s with you. I really, really am. So thank you so much for reaching out to me and um, having me, I sign off with love and with gratitude with everything I do and I’m going to sign off with that. So I thank you so much for that.

Brad: 01:19:53 Thank you for listening to the show. We would love your feedback at getoveryourselfpodcast@gmail.com and we would also love if you could leave a rating and a review on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. I know it’s a hassle. You have to go to desktop, iTunes, click on the tab that says ratings and reviews, and then click to rate the show anywhere from five to five stars. And it really helps spread the word so more people can find the show and get over themselves because they need to. Thanks for doing it.

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