[00:00:01] Speaker A: At the University of Alabama, we're committed to helping you be the best version of yourself in all aspects of your well being. The Alabama Model of Health and well being offers a holistic approach to wellness, connecting you with resources that support every aspect of your life, providing a roadmap to thriving in college and beyond. Learn
[email protected] A message from Student Health and well Being and wvuafm the Capso.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:01:07] Speaker C: Hey everybody, this is the Bama Balance. Real stories about college men's mental health. We hope that you all have had a great Thanksgiving and have survived.
[00:01:17] Speaker C: Study week. Or I guess as it's called Dead week.
[00:01:20] Speaker D: Dead week.
[00:01:22] Speaker C: I guess our last episode was on the so called dead week.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: So called. So called.
[00:01:29] Speaker D: Not sure if it's really dead.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. That's right.
But then, since then, a lot has happened, namely in the world of UA athletics and football.
[00:01:42] Speaker D: Yeah, no doubt.
[00:01:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:43] Speaker D: Excitement.
[00:01:44] Speaker C: It is so exciting to be at this time of year, let me tell you. I.
I don't know if there's any other game that I'm most anxious about.
There were games that I was anxious about during the season, but this one in particular, because it was a night game, had Jordan Hare with Auburn. Facing Auburn, no doubt. Tough, tough, tough environment.
Great win.
[00:02:07] Speaker E: Great win.
[00:02:08] Speaker C: My goodness, what a win.
[00:02:10] Speaker E: I mean.
[00:02:13] Speaker D: Ran the ball.
[00:02:14] Speaker E: Ran the ball very well.
Shocking to me.
[00:02:18] Speaker D: And top run defense in the country.
[00:02:20] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, I didn't realize they were top defense. Top A top running defense. Really, I didn't realize that.
[00:02:25] Speaker E: Very good run defense. And we, for some reason we just found it and it's great because we couldn't pass the ball. So I mean.
[00:02:30] Speaker D: And I give it to Ty, though. I mean, he got knocked around.
[00:02:34] Speaker C: I've seen him get hit as hard as he did last in that game.
[00:02:38] Speaker D: Crazy stat. The last.
I forget what year it was.
[00:02:43] Speaker D: Bryce Young's year, actually. The four overtime at Auburn. He sacked seven times, I think.
[00:02:49] Speaker C: No kidding.
[00:02:50] Speaker D: Then went into the SEC championship and that was against Jordan Davis and that whole crew that they had at Georgia wasn't sacked once.
[00:02:56] Speaker E: Gosh, I hope that's a repeat.
[00:02:59] Speaker C: Right? I mean, so it's going to be an interesting SEC championship.
[00:03:03] Speaker E: No doubt.
And we'll know by the time this releases.
[00:03:07] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, we will, won't we? Yeah, we. We will know the outcome of that SEC championship game and we'll know if.
[00:03:14] Speaker E: We'Re in the playoffs.
[00:03:16] Speaker C: That's true.
That's true.
[00:03:19] Speaker D: Good.
[00:03:21] Speaker C: Well, this is our. I know, right? Fingers crossed, because this will be our next to the last episode for this semester.
And I can't believe one. I can't believe that we're already here talking about our next to last episode for the fall semester. How has it felt for the two of you so far?
[00:03:40] Speaker D: It's definitely fallen by.
And I just go back to. It's crazy to see, like, the beginning of the year. You know, me and Edward were still kind of new faces to each other, but now when we sit around this table and. And get deep with each other once a week, and that's right, this. This is a good thing to look forward to on a Monday.
[00:03:58] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:59] Speaker D: So I'm very thankful for the experience.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: Yeah, no, it's gone by pretty quickly.
[00:04:03] Speaker E: I mean, truly a highlight.
I just can't. I think it's so interesting to, like.
[00:04:13] Speaker E: The goal is to, like, help others, you know, I guess raise awareness and feel more comfortable. But I feel like I've just grown so much by just talking about it with you guys, about, like, what it means to look after my mental health. And I feel like I've realized a lot about, you know, things that I go through and. And how to approach that.
Very, very much so. Just thankful for this time. It's been. It's been a. And yeah, like you said, like new faces. And going into it, I knew what we were doing, but I was kind of like, what are we really doing? This is still kind of feels very like an unknown. But no, it's been absolutely amazing.
[00:04:49] Speaker C: There's nothing sometimes. There's sometimes nothing like.
[00:04:54] Speaker C: Sort of delving headfirst into the unknown to really.
[00:05:01] Speaker C: Kind of know what you're doing or get the feel of it. Right. And so.
And even though, you know, we've had.
We had one season under our belt. Well, with. With Nick and with. With Johnny.
It's been a fresh start with the two of you, and I felt like it's been fantastic. Oh, yeah. You know, our own style, our own rhythm, and it's just. It's been great. Pretty seamless anyway.
[00:05:28] Speaker C: And so. So I think in terms of this being our next to the last.
[00:05:34] Speaker C: Episode for this semester, one of the things I've really been impressed and have really enjoyed seeing again are the number of students who are wanting to kind of share their stories with us, which means that we've been successful at some level to draw the circle wider, to have more folks at the table who want to share their mental health journey. And and today is another great one for us. We'll have John Michael Chandash here to talk about his journey.
[00:06:09] Speaker C: Specifically as it relates to issues of weight loss and how that's impacted his mental health and what that means for college men's mental health as well. So we look forward to that in our next segment.
And so stay with us. This is the BAMA Balance Real stories about college men's mental health.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Wvuafm Tuscaloosa.
[00:06:47] Speaker B: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective county's crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:07:22] Speaker C: Foreign.
[00:07:29] Speaker E: Welcome back to the BAMA Balance podcast and I'm here today with our guest. So happy to introduce John Michael Chandash. So, jm, I just want you to let give you the opportunity to tell us a little bit about not only kind of what you've done here at ua, but also a little bit what you've talked about to us before.
Just kind of about your mental health journey and the things that you have done.
[00:07:52] Speaker E: Well.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: Hey y'.
[00:07:53] Speaker C: All.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: My name is John Michael Chandash. I'm from Birmingham, Alabama. I'm a junior majoring in double majoring in political science and German on the pre law track. And first off, I just want to say that I feel so very blessed to be here and talk about my mental health journey. I want to give thanks to these guys around me. What they're doing for men's mental health is really great. And I want to just give thanks to the Lord for putting me in this opportunity to be here. But throughout who I am, I love politics, I love speaking other languages. But I've been involved across campus. I've been involved in the Student Government Association, Blount Scholars Program, the Shelby Scholars Program, also the rugby team, as Well, I love to be all across here on campus.
Yeah. And here I'm going to talk about my weight loss journey, which has had a really profound impact on my life and just my overall journey, both in high school and in my college experience. And hopefully some people can take some things, things from that story and it can benefit them as well.
[00:08:49] Speaker C: So JM and I talked a little bit about him being a guest on our podcast and his wanting to share his story.
And I guess I wanted to ask you, John, like, why this particular story for you and why is it for you? Why is it important to share your experience?
[00:09:11] Speaker A: That's a great question, Dr. Perez.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: I feel like it was my calling to share this story because.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Everything mental health wise, just like my overall life, it started with my physical journey. And there are studies that show that your physical well being, when it is being taken care of, it translates into better mental well being, better spiritual well being. And that really happened in my experience. Once that I was able to take care of my physical well being, it really translates into just better grades, just an overall better quality of life life. And that's one of the things that I kind of want to preach about, is the importance of taking care of your physical well being, especially in college.
[00:09:50] Speaker C: Great. No, I appreciate that. So would you mind sharing a bit about how that experience was for you and where it started?
[00:09:57] Speaker A: Yes, I can give you all the whole, Whole spiel on it. Well, growing up, I really loved. I love to eat. It started with I found out what cookies and cream ice cream was. And I. And it was, it was a good stuff.
[00:10:10] Speaker C: That is.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: Yeah, it was game over after that. And I also loved to play, you know, video games a lot as a kid.
So I was just sitting there eating pounds and pounds of cookies and cream ice cream.
And I also played sports growing up. My dad, he loved from, you know, getting to baseball, getting to football.
And in football, my position was on the offensive line. You know, I was. There were some. We were some big boys.
And with that, you know, I was kept on growing up, kept on eating and eating, and I just figured that, you know, I was just going to be fat my entire life. Right. I didn't know that even weight loss was a thing. And my grandma, we call her Gigi, and Gigi's always been a really big leader in my life, you know, and she told me, she was like, you know, once you gain weight, you can't really lose it. So I was like, all right, I'm just going to keep gaining weight my whole life. But Then in fifth grade, you know, as soon as I was, you know, going into my development stages, going into, like, early adolescence, my dad put on Rocky. He put on Rocky, and I was hooked. You know, I was looking at the screen, I was like, that's what a real man looks like. You know, on the screen, I watched probably Rocky in a weekend. I watched probably Rocky 1, Rocky II, Rocky III, and Rocky IV.
[00:11:23] Speaker C: You went on a marathon.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good pun right there.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: And Rocky IV is my favorite by far. It's the best one in my opinion. But it was Rocky II and the training sequence that Rocky was going to against Apollo Creed, you know, the eye of the tiger, all that stuff that I was watching as a kid, I was like, wow, that is what I'm supposed to, like, look like as a man, right? And throughout sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, I ballooned up to around 235 pounds, you know, and then my freshman year of high school, I was just like, all right, you know, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it anymore. And then when the new year happened, it was my goal to lose all that weight.
And then, thankfully, Covid happened, and it gave me the time to do it. And in that time period, I went from 230 pounds to 170 pounds.
Just basic, simple caloric deficit.
I was eating about 1500 calories a day, and I was just eating just eggs, boiled eggs, Just not a lot of. Just not a lot of food. And I eventually lost all that. I was running a lot, working out a lot, and just the overall impacts that it had on my high school life and overall life in general were profound.
[00:12:39] Speaker E: Right.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: It gave me just confidence to do things that I could do anything. Because going into that weight loss journey, I never thought that I could even lose it. I never thought that it would be possible for me to do that.
I thought I was just going to be overweight my entire life, you know, not being able to climb up a rope swing or something like that, not being able to run, run a marathon or anything like that. And in order to lose all that weight, I literally had to.
[00:13:05] Speaker A: Reprogram my brain that make make sure that this is possible for me to do. So it was a good six months of just straight cutting, straight running, and just straight up working out. There was a lot of hard decisions, a lot of sacrifices I had to make throughout that time period.
You know, we would get pizza one night with my family, and I would be like, nope, I'm not gonna eat that that's too much calories for me right now.
[00:13:30] Speaker C: Were you under, like a doctor's care supervision? Had you had a family doctor said, jim, you probably need to drop some pounds?
[00:13:38] Speaker A: They never said, I probably needed to drop some pounds.
There would always be a comment that was made throughout my pediatric physician growing up. They're like, oh, we need to get that number down.
I was off of the percentage scale weight, but during the time that I'd gone up to 235 pounds, my body mass index had gone up beyond 30%.
And that's in the overweight dangerous range right there. So it was having not only it not. It not only had profound effects on my mental health as a young, as a young child growing up like that, it was starting to have impacts on my physical health as well.
Just my, my blood sugar, sugar was spiking. You know, I was showing early signs of diabetes with it too. And then I knew I just had to take my life back and make my own decisions.
First, my freshman year, high school.
[00:14:35] Speaker C: Got it. Got it.
[00:14:36] Speaker D: When you said reprogram the brain.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:40] Speaker D: And you know, I think for people, that truly is a difficult thing to do, especially when you've been living your life a certain way for so long. How did that look for you? And like, what did it take? I know it wasn't easy.
What did that look like? You reprogramming your brain to get right in the sense of, you know, body weight loss and stuff like that?
[00:15:02] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great question.
And what I mean by like, reprogramming brain is your brain is teaching yourself, teaching your brain what to say, teaching yourself how to talk to yourself, teaching yourself that it is possible to do this, that you can do this.
My Gigi, again, she always used to say, can't, never could do anything. You know, when you say can't never could do anything.
And before that, you know, before that weight loss journey, I was the cant person.
And in terms of that weight loss journey, I became a could person. You know, I can do this, I could do this.
[00:15:36] Speaker C: So when you say you were, you were a can't person before this, what do you mean by that?
[00:15:40] Speaker A: Meaning I was always like, the self confidence was low, the self doubt was high, and that I just couldn't be like, I can't do this. I can't lose weight. I can't get this grade on this test, I can't get this gpa, I can't get this position or all this stuff. I can't do all those things. And it was that physical well being journey that really introduced me that I could, that I could do that. I can do that. And like I said, I had no idea that I was able to lose weight loss. I mean, to have weight loss.
I thought I was going to spend my entire life being overweight and I was just going to continue to be overweight, more overweight, more overweight my entire life.
And this weight loss journey, I literally had to look at my life and be like, this is not what I want. I want something besides this so I can do this.
[00:16:32] Speaker D: That's awesome.
[00:16:35] Speaker E: And I think you've touched on it a little bit, but about the mental health side of it and one thing that I think would be great to get into.
So we run out of time here for the first segment, but for the next segment, just kind of how, you know, being, being comfortable in your skin and really, really understanding like, how important that is to, to have that confidence to, to, you know, be who you are and be proud of who you are and, you know, be proud of the work you put into, like, becoming the way you want to be.
[00:17:06] Speaker E: But we have just about reached the end of our first segment, so we will take a quick break and be right back with the Bama Balance College or Bama Balance Podcast. Real stories about college men's mental health.
[00:17:32] Speaker D: Wvuafm Tuscaloosa.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show host or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:18:14] Speaker D: What's up, guys? We're back with segment two and just kind of want to keep going from where we left off and just we know that you said that your mental health was affected by your weight loss and that I know for a fact that, and we've all talked about it before, that, that it does have a great deal on your mental health. How do you think that improved your mental health? And to bounce off of that question, has it been tougher to maintain what you did in high school since you've been to college?
And what's the difference between high school weight loss and you having to maintain what you did in high school and college look like?
[00:18:52] Speaker A: Yeah, those are two great Questions and first off, I want to talk about the connection between the physical health and mental health.
For me, it started with physical health which then translates over, translated over into my mental health. When my physical health, when I was taking care of myself, it improved my mental health so much better.
Like just changing the quality of food that I was just putting into my body. It really gave me the self confidence to go to the gym. And that exists today in my college life. You know, if I'm going to doordash a pizza, then I'm not going to want to do much. You know, I'm going to want to just sit on the couch versus say hey, I cook myself eggs, I meal prep for this week, I go to the gym and it's really putting myself in myself in the right headspace to just love myself, you know, to love what I'm doing, to love what I'm working towards, to be proud of myself. And then all those different, it's the way that you talk to yourself and which is so important especially in today's culture with social media and everything. It's one of the things that a lot of psychiatrists and psychologists are studying is how people talk to yourself.
So when I'm proud of myself, I'm going to talk to myself really good. And usually it starts with a gym and when it starts with a gym, I'm talking myself good and all that stuff then that translates over into different aspects of my life. Say grades, say job, financial involvement, all the different stuff. So then I'm talking to myself with a good tonality, being proud of myself and that overall plays into my overall mental health.
So yeah, just being, just being proud of myself and loving myself and working for something I love to work and when it's working for something that I love to do, which is just my physical body, my own body image, that it just translates into different aspects of my life. And this was, I witnessed this firsthand with my weight loss journey. You know that weight loss journey was in freshman year of, freshman year of high school and then you know, moving on over into my second year of high school, my sophomore year of high school. I translated all the working skills and the self confidence from physicality to academically and then I translated it to financially with my creating my own business in high school.
And all that stuff just kind of played over into a really good mental health that brought me into college to be self confident too.
Go to things that I never thought I'd be able to do like run for an SGA position or get this Internship or go play a sport that I never thought I'd be able to play because it's so scary.
So it was really just the self confidence that working out gave me that did it.
[00:21:35] Speaker C: What did it take to get to that point though, Jim? Because certainly it's a process.
[00:21:41] Speaker C: It's difficult, I would say you don't go overnight, but it's difficult or less common to go from being in a state where.
[00:21:51] Speaker C: You'Ve got sort of images of yourself as this one person with feelings of low self doubt, low self confidence, to then now being someone who's more confident, more comfortable in your skin.
What is that, what's that process like? And, and how did you kind of move through that process? What did it take, in other words, to get from where you were then to where you are now?
[00:22:16] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great question in terms.
[00:22:17] Speaker C: Of developing that sort of self talk.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: Oh, that's a great question.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: I think first off, just doing things you didn't think was possible, pushing your own limits, pushing your own boundaries and going past them. And that can look like, hey, today I may have my bed. Or it can be, oh, I ran this half marathon or something like that. But always pushing yourself to do something that you didn't think that you could do. And for example, that was like, all right, this week I'm going to run for this much longer. All right, now I'm in there and I'm running for this much longer. Why don't I keep running? Why don't I keep doing it? Just pushing those boundaries.
And again, it was going from no, I can't do that, to being from going from an I can't person to an I can person.
And that's what that was.
In seventh grade we had the, the mild test for the fitness test. You know, I, I hated that. I, I loathed that day. I was terrified for that day. And the first time I ever did it, it was over 14 minutes, you know, and I was able to, over time, you know, I got more into running, but I'm still not like, I can't do a half nerve iron thing. But the switch summer I did, I got it down to around 6:18 in the mile. And it was always, I can push myself to this, to go past this, to do something that I didn't think that I could do and just, and just enjoying the journey. I mean, Rome wasn't built in the day and Rome needed a lot of help to be built.
[00:23:46] Speaker C: That's well put. That's well put.
Even as you mentioned that Sort of the mile test. I think we all sort of groaned on that one.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: I remember.
[00:23:55] Speaker C: Yeah, that was.
[00:23:57] Speaker D: It was not fun.
[00:23:58] Speaker C: It felt excruciating.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: I'm probably gonna go home and have nightmares about it. The fitness grandpa.
[00:24:03] Speaker C: Right. You know. Right.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: I hated that day.
[00:24:05] Speaker C: It was. It was tough. It was tough. You know, I don't. You know, you mentioned kind of social media and.
And movies and impact on men's self image, and.
[00:24:17] Speaker C: Do you all see that as kind of a thing in terms of social media and.
[00:24:21] Speaker E: Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, like, it. I think so.
[00:24:25] Speaker A: Oftentimes.
[00:24:26] Speaker E: You know, it's like we were talking about with the, you know, with the Rocky movies. It's like, you look at that and it's. I mean, there's, like, good income from that. Like, you want to set that goal. Like, you want to, you know, like, make. Try to, like, be better than how you view yourself at the current moment. But at the same time, it's, like, important to understand, like, you know, what is, you know, like, what truth is and what is, like, the, like, the things that you're going through. Like, recognize that a lot of what's, you know, a lot of what we see is superficial. A lot of what we see is not helpful. So just understanding that about yourself. But, like, what do you need?
What do you need? And sometimes that is, like, you do need to get in better shape, and that'll help you in some ways. And sometimes you need to understand that, you know, there are other areas of your life that need attention.
But I think, like, yeah, this is just a huge and very important piece of the grander puzzle of mental health that I feel like everyone's still trying. I'm still trying to put it together. I'm nowhere close. But, yeah, I mean, I think it's just.
It's easy to look at others.
[00:25:30] Speaker E: And kind of fall into this cycle of, like, wanting that but not really being willing to do it.
[00:25:39] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. So moving from that. I can't. I can.
[00:25:42] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah.
[00:25:43] Speaker C: Kind of mentality. I agree.
[00:25:45] Speaker D: And especially nowadays within those, you know, actors on movies and. And stuff like that.
[00:25:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:52] Speaker D: I mean, I mean, those are.
That is their job. They're. They're trained to be able to transform their body into a certain way for those types of movies, and that's what they promote all of their time to.
I know. I mean, there's some crazy.
[00:26:10] Speaker D: People out there that'll go, you know, six months, totally change their lives the way they're living before they go onto a show just to look A certain way, but in reality, for the everyday person, that's not realistic.
[00:26:21] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:26:22] Speaker D: You don't have all that time. You may not even have the opportunity to be able to eat a certain type of way. You know, you are given what you're given. But I think you can, can do what you can do to make the most out of it and, and look at it in a positive way.
[00:26:36] Speaker C: Yeah. So, yeah, being able to. To make that shift from the I can't to the I can. Jim, where did you find your support?
Where did I find my support through that process?
Who?
[00:26:48] Speaker A: That's a, that's a good question. Where did I find my support throughout all that?
To be honest, YouTube. That's where I found all my support.
[00:26:57] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:26:58] Speaker A: And in parts, my dad.
You know, my dad was very supportive of what I was doing.
He. Back in the day, I've always been chasing after his numbers on the bench, but haven't gotten there yet.
[00:27:10] Speaker C: So a little competition between you and your dad?
[00:27:12] Speaker A: Yeah, a little blow blood competition. But I always found that support through.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: Just through my dad. He was always very supportive of me going and working out and doing all this stuff. Now what he wasn't supportive of me doing though is comparing myself to others, especially physically.
[00:27:29] Speaker C: Right.
[00:27:29] Speaker A: And he also wasn't supportive of me taking it beyond what was beyond what, what, how far I should have taken it. So for example, you know, I'm getting. My weight's getting down. He was always supportive of me not chasing after a weight, but chasing after like a health.
So say good distinction. There's a point towards the end of the weight loss journey where it started getting real, real close to an eating disorder. And he was non supportive of that and he helped me come out of that, which is something I can talk about next.
[00:27:56] Speaker D: Yeah, that's awesome. And I feel like especially, I mean, you have to have support for these type of things and I'm glad that you found yours. And it may look different for everybody else, but I mean this has been a great segment and just looking more and more forward to hearing more about your story and hopefully your story will transform and be able to help somebody else. So we're going to be back with our outro segment. This is the BAM Balance.
[00:28:39] Speaker A: Wvuafm Tuscaloosa.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling. And no relationship is created between the show host or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 34838, 6, 3. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:29:23] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to our last segment here.
So, Jamie, you mentioned just previously in the last segment how your dad was. Was a huge supporter of you and that he really was able to kind of recognize a point where you were almost overdoing it and sort of wading into that area of weight loss. Can you say a little bit about how your dad spotted that and how he was able to help you through that?
[00:29:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd love to.
Well, first off, I want to talk about the difference in weight loss versus fat loss and in weight loss, especially with that. When you're chasing after a number like that, it gets difficult. And the number that I was obviously chasing after is 170. And when you're chasing after that number, it's like you just want to see the number. You don't care what it looks like. You just want to see the number. It's that satisfaction. And when it comes to your own body and your relationship with food, that's very. It becomes complicated, which is why people are starting to change it from weight loss to fat loss. And there's always going to be complications there. But towards the end of that weight loss journey, I was starting to have some complications with a potential anorexia eating disorder. You know, I was. I was getting real cold, real shaky, and didn't have much of a muscle mass on me as I used to have. I was getting uncomfortable sitting. I was getting real kind of. Kind of bony.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: And my dad helped recognize that. And he helped recognize that it was. It was time for me to start putting on the weight again, you know, start putting on. And at the same time, you know, it was kind of like a somewhat of a come to God moment with my dad. And my dad's got good experience in the gym. He likes to tell a story about how he was on a run one day and a girl crashed her car into a stop sign checking him out. So, yeah, it was. It's a funny story.
[00:31:19] Speaker A: So, yeah, he was just. He was like my. He was my rock. Yeah, he was my rock.
[00:31:23] Speaker C: So was. So during that period of time, were you.
Was there any sort of medical assistance or anything of that sort that helped you through that as well?
[00:31:32] Speaker A: No medical assistance.
[00:31:33] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:31:34] Speaker A: No medical assistance. It was just straight family blood, son to son to father moment. Like, hey, you need to. You need to Start gaining weight again.
[00:31:42] Speaker C: Got it. He was able to recognize that and knew what to do.
This has been a remarkable journey for you.
I appreciate you sharing that. What have you learned more about yourself now that you didn't know about yourself before?
[00:31:59] Speaker A: That I'm capable of doing anything. I just got to put my mind to it.
It's just simply that simple.
And I think every person, every young man, every college man should, should go throughout their own journey of testing their limits to seeing just to do something that you never thought you could possibly even do. And in my experience, that was my weight loss journey. You know, I was looking at my life and I was like, you know, this is what my life is going to look like and I don't want that.
I wanted a better life, A better life, whatever that looked like. And I want college men to want that, to want a better life and to look at that and to be someone that says I can do that, to want that. And it started all that throughout my physical journey.
[00:32:51] Speaker C: That's great. Moving from that I can't to I can mentality really reframes how you think about yourself and your experiences and really helps you think more positively then in a more positive direction and more action oriented direction.
[00:33:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Talk to yourself. Nice.
[00:33:09] Speaker C: That's right. Talk to yourself. Nice. Shane, thank you so much for being.
[00:33:12] Speaker A: An I can person.
[00:33:13] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you for being here today. It's been, it's been a great conversation. I mean, I think one of the things that always surprises me is kind of how rich the dialogue is when we have folks kind of share their stories.
[00:33:25] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you again. And house German, How's German? That's gotta be tough, right? I've been thinking about this. I wrote it down as soon as you said it.
[00:33:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I love doing it. I mean, I love people, I love to talk to people, public speaking, all of it. And the reason why I love languages is because it just, it hurts me to not be able to talk to someone.
And the cool thing about German is, I'll tell you, you know how like the whole world speaks English.
Well, a lot of the European continent speaks German because of how prominent they are business wise.
So I've had people that I've known are, you know, Hungarians or Croatians and they may not speak English but they speak German. So that's what's, that's, that's what I love about how German is how I'm able to speak to so much more people because of the language.
[00:34:12] Speaker D: Yeah, that's awesome.
[00:34:13] Speaker A: But thanks for having me. Y' all. I really appreciate it.
[00:34:16] Speaker C: Yeah, no, it's been great having you, jm and again, I think part of the.
[00:34:21] Speaker C: Beauty of our podcast is to be able to bring in folks to share their stories and have the kind of dialogue we're able to have. So thank you very much again.
The time has gone by really quickly. It's been a lot to catch up on and talk about with JM here as our guest, and so we really appreciate having him here with us today.
And with that, that brings an end to this episode of the Baba Balance and hope that everybody's been able to stick with us. We'll see you all for the next episode, but until then, I'm Dr. Tony Perez. I'm Brooks Barbri.
[00:34:58] Speaker E: I'm Edward Felton.
[00:34:59] Speaker A: I'm John Michael Chandas.
[00:35:00] Speaker C: Roll Tide and we'll see you all later. Roll Tide.
[00:35:20] Speaker D: Wvuafm Tuscaloosa this show was not intended.
[00:35:23] Speaker B: As a substitute for professional counseling. Further, the views, opinions and conclusions expressed by the show hosts or their guests are their own and not necessarily those of the University of Alabama, its officers or trustees. Any views, opinions or conclusions shared on the show do not create a relationship between the host or any guest and any listener, and such a relationship should never be inferred. If you feel you're in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, please contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective county's crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
