In Moderation
Providing health, nutrition and fitness advice in moderate amounts to help you live your best life.
Rob: Co-host of the podcast "In Moderation" and fitness enthusiast. Rob has a background in exercise science and is passionate about helping others achieve their health and fitness goals. He brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the show, providing valuable insights on topics such as calories, metabolism, and weight loss.
Liam: Co-host of the podcast "In Moderation" and new father. Liam has a background in nutrition and is dedicated to promoting a balanced and sustainable approach to health and wellness. With his witty and sarcastic style, Liam adds a unique flavor to the show, making it both informative and entertaining.
In Moderation
Fitness After 50 With Mike Pridgen's Parents!
Imagine trading one focused hour for twenty-three hours of feeling better. That’s the deal we explore as we get real about staying fit after 50, navigating creeping weight gain, and finding motivation that lasts longer than a New Year’s resolution. With Mike’s parents joining the conversation, we dig into how consistency beats intensity, why shared workouts become anchors, and how mental health benefits often lead the way when physical goals feel far off.
We don’t shy away from the messy parts: a candid story about accidentally triggering serotonin syndrome highlights how fragile progress can feel when meds and side effects collide. That detour sets up a powerful shift in mindset—stop building goals around what you want less of, and start choosing goals you actively want. Hiking national parks after retirement. Biking for hours without pain. Playing on the floor with grandkids and popping back up with ease. When the hourglass keeps pouring and you don’t know your balance, purposeful movement turns into a smart use of time, not a chore.
We also get practical about food. The old habit of making treats “special” only feeds obsession, so we offer a calmer approach: put Oreos next to berries and pistachios, and let normalcy defuse the thrill. For teens who want to eat better in households that aren’t there yet, we share small, realistic levers: ask for one or two swaps, own your hydration and sleep, move in ways you enjoy, and keep pressure off perfection. Between laughs about van life, middle seats, and the wildest childhood cleanup story you’ll hear this week, the takeaway is simple and hopeful: choose a goal you can picture, make it friction-light, and invest a little each day so the rest of your day pays you back.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a short review—what’s one hour you’ll invest this week?
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Remember.
SPEAKER_03:No, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_04:It doesn't the syringe could be the dirtiest syringe ever, and it wouldn't matter.
SPEAKER_03:You know, with uh lethal injection, they have to do it like super sterile. They do.
SPEAKER_04:Because like if they messed up, that's interesting, isn't it?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. It's it's like a legal thing. They have to clean it and do it surgically and everything.
SPEAKER_04:Because what would happen if they messed up? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Get an infection.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that'd be right. The person being put down would get an infection. What that'd be the worst thing ever.
SPEAKER_03:One wanted to get an ouchie.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, I get like, because people already have issues with like the whole assisted suicide. So I guess they want to be, you know, as as like on on you know on par as they can, but also you're like plan A fails. It's just a giant mallet. Isn't that like, didn't Ozzie Osborne go die by assisted suicide? Like, I feel like he did the most rock star thing where he was just like he was the one assisting it. I think I think he had a with all those drugs. I don't know what the whole story is. I just hear things and I go with them like everyone else. But I heard that like, you know, he tried he raised a bunch of money for charity. He's like, I'm out. That's it. I did, you know, he went, he to he stopped taking all his like medications that made him like lethargic, and he just did some rock shows, and he's like, I'm done. I'm out. I mean, that sounds like an Aussie thing to it sounds very much like an Aussie thing to do. And I think it's pretty I mean, listen, of all the ways to go, like raising a shit ton of money for charity, and then being like, see you later.
SPEAKER_03:Like is this a bad time to announce the in moderation live charity event?
SPEAKER_04:Why would it be a bad time?
SPEAKER_03:Because I'm gonna give away the ending. We all stop taking our meds.
SPEAKER_04:We all stop maybe or whatever meds you were taking, you get off those, and of whatever meds you weren't taking, you get off those. So you do a flipper rooney.
SPEAKER_03:What if we do like a you know, it would pass it to the person on the left kind of deal.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, everybody gets new meds?
SPEAKER_03:Yes. We're not recommending this. We're I'm saying why with meds.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, whoever gets my meds though is gonna be really underwhelmed because it's gonna be nothing. And they'll be like, what the hell, man? I wanted to try something fun.
SPEAKER_00:Whoever gets my meds is gonna either be really high or really high? Just conk the fuck out.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, the just a bunch of workout supplements and multivitamins.
SPEAKER_04:I got I got creatine. That's what I was thinking of myself. That's what they got. I ain't got shit.
SPEAKER_00:I've got I'm on a high dose of serotonin uptake inhibitor, so you're gonna take one of those and you're just gonna boom with your serotonin.
SPEAKER_04:So if it if it's just the person who doesn't have, you know, like any medical history, they just take that. I don't know what happens with that. They feel is that like, does that get you high? I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it is called um is it just serotonin syndrome?
SPEAKER_04:Serotonin syndrome.
SPEAKER_00:And yeah, so um it's it's if not serotonin syndrome, it's something similar to that. And basically you get really high because your body has a bunch of extra.
SPEAKER_04:That would make sense.
SPEAKER_00:There was one time there I was um we tried me on a lower step of the meds, and then we were gonna step me up, and I accidentally stepped up too fast, and I actually got serotonin syndrome. And how long you describe it as four or five hours?
SPEAKER_04:Okay, so okay.
SPEAKER_00:I it was hard to tell it was hard to gauge time. Of course. It was in the middle of the night, it just suddenly hit me. I had just had this weird feeling. I woke up like something's wrong. Something's wrong, something's wrong. And I sat up and I'm like, it's just something's wrong. Something's wrong. And there was no like uh no other things, nothing like um nothing physical happening. Um I might have been twitching a little bit, just stimming. Um but it was just this overwhelming feeling of something's wrong, something's wrong, something's wrong, something's wrong.
SPEAKER_03:And I was like, turn on the news.
SPEAKER_00:But also like I couldn't remember things well.
SPEAKER_03:It's the the the the SSRIs that I was on wiped my memory. I couldn't remember anything. It's I'm still left without a bit of my short-term memory to this day. I've got trouble pulling words out from time to time.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, I couldn't even remember what's his name before, so like I don't have that, and I still can't remember my I have trouble pulling out too. We all have issues.
SPEAKER_03:Anyway, this is a good time to introduce my parent score with me right now. Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_05:Merry Christmas, guys. I love you guys.
SPEAKER_03:Merry Christmas. Uh that yeah, they listened to the In Moderation podcast, and my first thought was oh shit. This is um, I I I wanted to take this opportunity. Ron's about to joke.
SPEAKER_00:Get the look on Mike's face just then.
SPEAKER_03:Swallow, buddy. There we go. Yeah. Um, yeah, so this is um I figured I'm I'm with my parents right now. This is a good opportunity to talk with them about fitness. They're both in very good shape, exceptionally good shape. Do you want to say how old do you guys are?
SPEAKER_05:60.
SPEAKER_03:They're both. And oh, my brother's calling now. He's about to have an entire family reunion.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So my question is so if they're both super into fitness, how did you fail so hard, Mike, at your fitness schools before?
SPEAKER_03:It was so it a piece of it was rebellion, right? So it's yeah, we were we were fit, so I have to not they did the right thing. Like they they did the right thing, and I always stress this because I don't want them thinking like you know, you gave me a disorder. It's it was just like, oh, I can get McDonald's with my adult money now. I'm gonna do that a lot. And it so it it sort of spawned there. But it yeah, it's uh I had a good example set for me so that when I did eventually turn it around, I'm like, okay, I remember some of this stuff from the past. I know what protein is, I know what what a vitamin is. That's cool. What is a vitamin?
SPEAKER_00:So were they fairly fit most of their life?
SPEAKER_05:Um fitness has always been really important, uh, especially Randy's um Mike's dad. He is really in excellent shape. And uh he has encouraged me to do it the same. And now we work out together about four times, four to five times a week. And um yeah, in China really we we love it. We're active, we live in Florida, we're just enjoying life. So and I have a question for you guys. Do you have any questions for me about Mike? Is that your answer? I've been waiting for this day forever.
SPEAKER_00:No, nothing. We'll let that stew in the back of our heads.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I was gonna ask you, what's your least favorite part of the of the podcast? What's what's your most hate what part do you like the least?
SPEAKER_05:Um, anybody.
SPEAKER_02:Anybody. Um I like it doesn't really bother me, any part of the podcast. It's um I love it. We weren't one and it can go all over the place. You know, it doesn't really have it can go off into the weeds or it can read the biggest.
SPEAKER_04:We are only in the weeds.
SPEAKER_02:We've only been in the weeds.
SPEAKER_04:You can only get it out of the weeds. We've never been on the path. We've always just been in the weeds the entire time.
SPEAKER_02:Which makes it authentic. And that's what's the best part about it's just authentic.
SPEAKER_03:There's one of my favorite conversations we had on here. You and me, Liam, we spent about 10 minutes talking about World War II tanks with truck nuts on them.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I remember that. That was a good time.
SPEAKER_03:I don't remember what the topic was. I have no idea. I don't know how to get the episode. Yeah, just two episodes was tank nuts. Tank nuts. Very not happy.
SPEAKER_00:You still need to put those in the merch shop.
SPEAKER_03:The tank nuts? We've got to work on our cricket protein book.
SPEAKER_04:The cricket. We've haven't we've had so many good ideas. We really need to go back and start cataloging all these things.
SPEAKER_03:If anybody listening right now has a running tally of all of the products that we've pitched, please send it in to our P.O. box. We don't have a P.O. box. What is it? In moderation, inmoderation.net. Send it to the weeds. Just send it into the weeds and we'll find it.
SPEAKER_00:We'll find it eventually. Yeah. Okay. So how do you compare yourself to other people your age? Do you see them starting to have it have fitness trouble more than you do?
SPEAKER_02:Any uh I do 100%. Actually, you know, I I I work with many people one-on-one, and uh I saw anything past like 45 people go in one direction or the other. And um unfortunately a lot of people just tend to get uh they fall out of shape. Complacent. Yeah, just complacent, fall out of shape. But it's consistency more than anything, I think, is uh is the key going forward. And it's hard. Life gets in the way, right? Kids, job, family, wife, all that kind of stuff. So the last thing on the list is to come home and work out, and that just gets thrown into the weeds, right? It gets it's it doesn't happen.
SPEAKER_04:What you think kind of causes that? Because normally when people get older into their 50s or whatever, I'm assuming their kids are a little bit older, right? So like when they're young and you're chasing around, it's you know, it's tough as they get a little bit older.
SPEAKER_00:I'm sitting here, like, please get older, please get out of my house.
SPEAKER_04:I'm just like surviving. But like when she's older, she's gonna be a little bit more independent. And so when the people are like in their 50s, what causes them to be like, ah, screw it? Like, is it just like I've already I'm already past the halfway point? You know, I'm just riding this out. Is that what they do? Or like what's I don't know. I'm kind of curious.
SPEAKER_02:Like what I do. I I think that that's a really good point, in that I feel that you know, when you get and you're 45, say 50 years old, some people are maybe 20, 30, maybe 40 pounds overweight. And it's anytime you have extra weight on you, and I and I can't even speak from experience because I've never had extra weight on me, but I've just seen the people around me, it's hard to turn that around, right? It's not just maintaining weight anymore. You have to lose weight and then add muscle, and it's just harder to make a big body move and exercise, right? It's I think it's overwhelming for most people at that point. And then not to say they give up, but I think they do. And they're just like, and then it's it's the creep, right? You you don't wake up one day and be 50 pounds overweight or 110 pounds overweight. It's two years, you know, two years down the road, you have five pounds on you, and then next year you didn't lose the weight from Christmas, so that's an extra pound. So if you put on a pound or a pound and a half a year, which is nothing, right? And you push that out 30 years, you're 50 pounds overweight. And you lit it, it crept on you by a a pound, pound and a half a year, maybe two pounds, which is what 7,000 calories over an entire year? That's like it's like a peanut a day.
SPEAKER_04:So, and because when people are younger, I feel like maybe you just have more, you have the energy to lose that weight. Whereas if you're 50, you're already feeling a little run down, and at that point you're kind of just like, well, you know what, I made it this far. I'm just gonna ride it out.
SPEAKER_03:We've also got the mindset portion that like people who have been big for decades, they don't have a frame of reference to say, well, this is how I'm supposed to be. Like there are there are people that have been big their entire lives, and so it's just not a factor. Like, you know, the three of us, we know what it is like to be smaller. Liam, you've never struggled with being too heavy. Um, I know Rob, you've had a little bit of extra weight on you at times. But like when I was at my heaviest, I still had it in my head that like I could drop back down. But there are some people that don't have that at all. So to convince someone to like make all these changes for something that they can't even conceptualize is is sometimes very difficult, especially the older you get.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, the older you get is what I'm saying, is the motivation. Whereas like when you're younger, you're like, well, I still want to be able to do these things. I have kids, maybe I want to be like this weight for them, I want to be able to do things with them. But when you're like 50, you're like, ah, my kids have already kind of grown up, like I'm here. What am I what's the reason for me doing this? I'm gonna retire at some point here, and then I just kind of write it out. So, like, how do you find the thing that motivates people in the late in the the the second half of their life? Like, what what diff what are the motivators you have to find for them? That's what I'm kind of curious about.
SPEAKER_05:I think for us for the next 10 years, I mean, we're gonna be 70 in 10 years, and that's kind of like crept up on us, really. And going into these next 10 years, we feel like it should be the best 10 years, and the only way to do that is to stay active. Um we eat pretty healthy, would you say we eat pretty healthy, I guess. But um, we just want to go in strong. And also for me, it's a lot of um the more I move and exercise, the better I am mentally. So um that's really the motivation. So anxiety and kind of that kind of stuff runs in the family. So exercise absolutely helps with that.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, my personal motivation is do you have one body, right? And you're stuck in it. You can't get out. You have to live in this thing 24-7, right? So the little bit of time and effort that I put into maybe an hour, like Mike and I worked out this morning, and we put in an hour, and it was a solid hour, and we didn't fool around. Um, but for the next 23 hours, I feel better. That's a really small investment for a really huge payoff. Yeah. At RH, especially at RH.
SPEAKER_00:Do you two work a traditional nine to five job? And more importantly, do you love your job?
SPEAKER_02:I do. I'm an airline pilot. So I do love my job. It's the only thing I've ever wanted to do. It's a dream come true. And I do. I really enjoy my job. Do I want to retire? Absolutely, because time is fleeting right now. So, yes, I um I do love my job, but I'm done in aviation. I've done everything I wanted to do. I I I want to do things I want to do now, and I know my job. I'm selling my time, which is the most precious thing I have, right? I can't buy more, sell more, bargain for more, steal more, right? I only have so much uh sand in an hourglass. I want to use the sand for what I want to do. So when I go to work, I don't want to sell my sand to a corporation anymore. I know it's kind of weird, but that's the way I feel about it. No, I get that. No, right in our right in our doorway, there is an hourglass. Every day we walk in, I'm like, that's the sand. And when that sand runs out, you're done. It's over. And we don't know. You know, they say time is the only thing, it's the only currency you spend without knowing your balance.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like the uh the people who are slavery away in nine to f or yeah, nine to five jobs that they hate that they're just doing to get by are probably more likely to become less fit past that age just because they're like, I'm just I just feel done with everything. I don't enjoy life. I I don't enjoy anything.
SPEAKER_04:I would say that like would you so would you say though that a lot of people when they work, they work in in hopes of retiring, obviously, right? Most people in the job, they're like, I want to retire one day. And you want wouldn't you want to you want to enjoy that? And I feel like that would be a pretty decent motivator. Is like once I get there, I want to be able to actually enjoy that time. If it's supposed to be the best time of life, I want to be able to do the things I want to do. So having being relatively fit. None of us when we talk about this perfect, get that shit out of here. But like a little bit, I want to be able to do the things I want to do. So I need a little bit healthier exercise, a little bit more of that sort of thing. I feel like that would be the motivator at that more one of the motivators at that point.
SPEAKER_02:That's a huge motivation for me. What you just explained. Exactly.
SPEAKER_05:He said it really well.
SPEAKER_02:That was perfectly said.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. He said it well. We want to go in. He's he has to retire. As an airline pilot pilot, you need to retire at 65. So we've got four four and a half years left. And we want to go in strong. We want to hike, we want to, we want to bike, we want to do national parks, we want to do all these kind of great things, but it's gonna take us being in good shape and and feeling good to do it.
SPEAKER_04:So it's none since I'm assuming you get free flights the rest of your life, you better if you've done it that long.
SPEAKER_03:We do, yeah, we do. They don't fly though. They they they converted the uh a van and they camp around it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Are you just done with flying? Is that what it is? It's like, all right, uh no more. I've had enough of it.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I I tell people this all the time. I said, I hate flying unless I hate being in an airplane unless I'm being paid. So if I'm in the back of an airplane, normally it's it's gonna be a seat that's available, right? Because I don't have a ticket, I'm not going like um like on a regular ticket. So I only get to sit in that seat if there's an available seat. And where are the available seats in an airplane? The middle seat, right? Everyone loves the middle seat.
SPEAKER_04:So it's just going to ask you where like where after you retire, where you're gonna go, but apparently it's held within where you can drive. So I guess where are you going to be driving after you retired? Where so just the local let's go to some the the the parks, the you know, what's in Florida? I don't know, Disneyland, Disney World, one of those, whatever.
SPEAKER_00:You can drive up and visit Liam.
SPEAKER_04:I've been probably in New York. This this this weather sucks. It's snow, it's cold, it's it's like Rob's territory right now. It's awful. Can't believe he has to live with it, you broke it okay.
SPEAKER_00:We're at a nice comfortable minus 12 right now, so I'm not complaining.
SPEAKER_04:Minus wait, I can see it. Rob I was gonna find out.
SPEAKER_03:Let's use real numbers. Come on.
SPEAKER_04:Real we don't know what you're talking about. Rob, what's the last Zed?
SPEAKER_03:Sorry, wrong answer. A Omega. See, look, in Texas, we are 48th in education. That's a lot of numbers. Probably more than you.
SPEAKER_00:Next, you'll be telling me that you call Zed bras zebras.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, are you for you're 48th? Because I know uh Scotty was saying like he's in Oklahoma, which is 50th. Yeah, but he's doing even better than us. He's the higher number, so he's better. What's all the worst education states? Let's call them out all right now. Oh shit. Roll call. Education. They don't answer because they don't get the question. Oh no.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So um, as as the fat guy, um it you know, I I I've I've had an experience that you guys haven't had. And I just wanted to speak from this level because there are some people out there who are like, well, I don't know how to seek motivation at all because I didn't have it from the beginning. I've had to find it. You know, I've I've had to find that purpose and and motion from a position where I didn't have any. And I it's it is very difficult to find it when it's not there. And it can feel tempting to reach for all the things we don't want. It's one of the things I work on with my clients. I'll I'll tell them, like, yeah, great. Part of the problem solving process is looking at all the stuff we don't want, but that can't be the goal. The goal has to be something that we want. It has to be on top, it has to be towards something. If it's just I want less back pain, it's it's it's like imagine uh asking a seven year old what they want to be when they grow up, and they say, I want to be metabolic. Efficient. I want to have less back pay. Like, no, it's not.
SPEAKER_00:I want to be six seven.
SPEAKER_03:This is gonna age really well. We're six seventh in education. Yeah, you know, when you when you're trying to set these, and I know there's people out there shouting, Well, I don't know what to want. Start by looking at everything you've written on. Go from there.
SPEAKER_04:And I I think we talk about it a lot from a food standpoint where we say, like, well, you don't know where to start. Start with the things that you like in terms of like your diet, right? Like, oh, you like these nutritious foods or whatever. So add those into your diet. Well, you like that? Perfect. Eat that, whatever that is, berries, whatever it doesn't matter. So I think the kind of thing you could do the same thing with fitness, right? You can kind of start with like, is there something you like that's fitness even adjacent to start with? Like, damn, like anything that gets you, you know, moving your body, like, oh, I like bowling, shit. All right, that's better than I like do something. I think just kind of getting started somewhere where you actually enjoy something, I think is a is a good place to actually start.
SPEAKER_00:What do you want to do? What bungee jumping. Okay. Why can't you bungee jump? Okay, because you have a weak leg and you're a little bit overweight. Okay, so what can we do about that? We can go to the gym, lose some weight, physio that leg. There you go. That's your path to bungee jumping.
SPEAKER_04:I think all the people at heights were like, fuck this shit. I'm gonna be fat forever because I am not people, man. People, you either love bungee jumping or you will do anything to not do it. I feel like it's one of those things.
SPEAKER_03:If I can't make weight, they won't make me do it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I'm just gonna make sure I gain as much weight as possible so I can never bungee jump. Sorry, I'm 400 pounds.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_04:I can't skydive.
SPEAKER_00:I know Mike has to cut out in like nine minutes here. So we actually a lot of the time we get youth writing in who are like, I want to eat better, but my parents won't do it or won't listen or anything. I want to I want to hear your perspective as parents. What would you uh advise that kid to do in terms of talking to their parents?
SPEAKER_02:Wow, that's that's a that's a hard question because the parents are supposed to set the bar, right? I mean, if you ask Mike, yeah, you will know that in our house it was only healthy food made, right? Um may have stayed home and raised both the boys. And so there was a hot meal every night, there was breakfast, there was lunch, there was all this healthy stuff. There wasn't the sodas and things like that hanging around. So we set the bar. Um, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that people are gonna follow it either, right? I that's a that's a rough one because it they don't have the money to buy the food, right?
SPEAKER_05:So we necessarily didn't do always the right thing. Like sometimes Mike teaches me some lessons of like, you know, when you're a parent, you think you're doing the right thing, but we definitely use things such as like ice cream for rewards and cakes and you know, different things like that. And I'm not necessarily sure that that was right. But as a kid, asking a parent, like what I I I don't I I'm not quite sure how that should happen. Maybe that would come from you, um, Michael. Like, what what would your suggestions be?
SPEAKER_03:It's so first off, I and I've said this to you both before because I talk about this a lot online. It you did the right thing, you know, by trying to make all of the choices healthy. It's the like you did good with uh both of us. I have a brother, he didn't struggle with his weight. Um, so it's you know, there was just something that clicked in my head and didn't in his. But yeah, there was just like a lot of there there was just something very special about that food that was kind of like out of reach, you know. And so when I was able to have it, I it was just much that much more appealing. That's why I'm always telling people don't make a food special. You know, don't make it be like it's this big special, because now I can have cheesecake anytime I want, and I know that. And it's I don't remember the last time I had a slice of cheesecake.
SPEAKER_04:That's what I've been doing because Oakley's only two years old now, but that's what I've been trying to do, it's starting from an early age, is she likes like Oreos and stuff like that. And I find she usually just takes it apart, eats the frosting, and then is done. So I'm like, all right, here, take your Oreos, I'm gonna put them on a plate. She likes pistachios, she likes berries, she likes all these other things. So I just dump cheese, I just dump all these things on a plate, and I'm like, here you go, kid. And she's like, nom nom nom. And she just kind of just grazes it. She'll eat a piece and then jump up and down 30 times and then eat another piece and then go run around. Classic toddler. And so instead of just being like, no, you can't have this, I'm like, I'm just gonna give it to you with everything else. And she usually does pretty well. In terms of like when a kid can't, when the parents won't get them certain things, that's tough. Well, only thing I would say is work with them in what they can. If because normally parents will find something, right? You'll be like, Well, you ask them for different things. If they say no on something, there's nothing you do. You're you you're the you're the kid in this situation, right? You can't force them to think they're the parent. This is unfortunate. But sometimes you can find certain things that they will they allow you to eat that are more nutritious or whatever. So I think you just work with them the best you can, and at the same time, understand you're doing the right thing. You're trying, stay active, eat, do what you can, don't stress about it so much, and enjoy being a goddamn kid because like you don't need to be stressing yourself that much already.
SPEAKER_02:Well said. Yes, I think we're talking about it. Well said that that sounds there's balance in there, right? You can't go to one extreme or the other because those are you gotta stay in the middle. That's the same thing.
SPEAKER_03:Liam actually only said Oakley Oreos for the first year and a half.
SPEAKER_04:She has eaten a lot of Oreos. I won't lie to you. She we get the like I get the little packs that have like the two in them, right? And I'm just like, all right, just throw them right at her, right at it. Boom, hit it. I hit her with the Oreos.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:Well, and the thing is, we did have we had like fun foods. We absolutely did. But I would go to Trader Joe's or like Whole Foods and stuff like that. So our kids weren't necessarily happy with the Trader Joe brand. They would say, How can we have to have this when we can't have like the real um cereal? Exactly.
SPEAKER_04:And I find if you tell them like just no, that just makes it, it just makes it worse. Like the one, especially they get she gets older, she's gonna go to a friend's house, she's gonna see all those foods. Like my mom was like a more of a health nut for sure. I remember getting white bread, and I was like, this is the fucking best thing I have ever seen in my life. They had like my friend had potato bread, and all I had was basically seeds compressed together into a loaf.
SPEAKER_05:Oh my god, tell your mother to calm it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, my mom's just oh, I couldn't get the uh peanut butter with the hydrogenated oils. Oakley has something. She has a book of Findy Nemo she just got back from the library.
SPEAKER_03:You want to show you get the uh the the the the prototype gluten-free brother- Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_04:Hi, it's upside down, but that's okay. The toys, yeah, dory. Oh, Dory. She's saying Dory, yeah, she got a Dory. We had to pay like$40 for a stuffed dory because they don't make them anymore. And she really wanted a Dory. So we're like, we're paying up for this just stuffed dory. Yeah. So anyway. But yeah, like exactly that's what I was just saying. Like, it is a balance, and it's just, you know, doing doing what you can. It's a it's a it's a fish with it's one of those crazy fish with the little like you know, light that attracts. Oh, we're saying oh what are we saying? Oh, do you see Rob's beard? Is that what you're seeing? Like you see Rob's beard right here? Ooh, scared. Right? Now she's shy. She's so cute. Yeah. So yeah, yeah, exactly. Like you just do the best you can, you know, with your kids. And I try and make sure things like aren't off limits. I just try and give her all the uh the other things that she's willing to that she likes, and she'll eat, and she still throws tantrums because she's two years old, and that's what she's gonna do. But you just try there for them when you can. That's what they do.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so quickly, what is the most embarrassing thing Mike did as a child?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I want to know an embarrassing story of my baby baby Mike. You've got a minute and a half something.
SPEAKER_05:What is it we're gonna do? Oh I'm putting on the spot. The most embarrassing thing. Well, let's just say this. He had a camera stuck to his eye since he was probably four years old. He's been filming, performing. He was a stage kid, he's been in every musical you can imagine. Um embarrassing. I don't know. Um, he rides a unicycle really well. That's not embarrassing. I I'm only gonna say good stuff because I'm really proud of you. Wait, he read a unicycle. He read a unicycle a little bit. Well, you gotta get together. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He exploded No, you were on the airplane. The airplane.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I was talking about the the uh Christian school. Oh, that's you. Yeah, where I t I told the the person, I'm like, hey, I'm gonna poop my pants. And she's like, No, you're not go sit down. And I said, I'm six. This is happening. You need to let me go. She said, No, you gotta wait. And I said, All right, and bet, and then I poop. And yeah, you had to come with the van. I laid down on a tarp on my stomach, and then you hosed me down in the back. Why am I the one coming out with the the most I literally took a high pressure hose? It was it came out in one fluid movement, like unsheathing a sword. We had to pressure wash him in the in the uh in the yoga.
SPEAKER_04:I like that Mike plays up the embarrassing stories. We just have to ask him. It'll be like, oh yeah, here we are. Here's ten of them.
SPEAKER_02:God, you know, we've we've emotionally suppressed that because it was probably a really rough day. Merry Christmas, everyone, and a happy in moderation new year.
SPEAKER_03:Stay in the weeds, be kind to you. Thanks for having us. Take care, Rob, take care, Liam.
