The Dryer Shrunk My Jeans

Eva (00:00):
Hi.

Kami (00:02):
Hello. I feel like we need to get to know each other again.

Eva (00:08):
Yeah, we should probably start by apologizing for being terrible, but I just ... Yeah. Looking back at the month, kind of sitting here this morning in the quiet, I did a really bad job managing my calendar this month and I put way too ... I said yes to way too many things.

Kami (00:25):
Yeah. Yeah, you did.

Eva (00:28):
It was weird too, because right after Thanksgiving, I looked at it and I said, "Oh, I did a good job not overscheduling myself. This looks great." And then the next day I just destroyed it, like George in of mice and men, and I just went ...

Kami (00:48):
Yep. I hear you.

Eva (00:51):
Bad. What did you do?

Kami (00:53):
Okay. So as far as my weight loss is totally not in control. You remember I took a break for a while and I was like, "Yeah, I'm going to get back on. " I never did get back on.

Eva (01:09):
You haven't been taking it?

Kami (01:10):
Uh-uh. I thought that I had two or three more doses and either I misjudged how much I had left or something happened and my vial is gone. So either I tossed it out thinking that it was empty or I absent mindedly threw it away. I don't know what happened. Seriously, I have no understanding. So I have to order more, but I have been procrastinating because it's the holidays and it's all the things and my parents' friends are in town and I've got friends that want to go out and Cordelia's home from school and all the shopping and all the wrapping and all the things, right?

Eva (02:00):
It sounds like a lot of excuses.

Kami (02:02):
It is a lot of excuses. It is. Then I was like, "Well, maybe I need to try the ... " Why can't I not say it?

Eva (02:14):
Tirzepatide.

Kami (02:14):
Yes, Trizepatide because I was like, "Well, I've been on this off this. Maybe I want to try this one to see if I get different results or better results or I don't know. " So that's where I'm at with ... And I know that I've gained weight. I just have not wanted to face getting on the scale, but I can absolutely tell I've probably gained at least 10 pounds probably, which is not great, but to the point where ...

Eva (02:44):
It's not 100.

Kami (02:44):
Not 100. No, that's a plus. But kind of to the point where you're like, "Ooh, these jeans are tight." And so what started happening is my brain went into that place where I started making excuses for my weight gain. So like, oh God, man, the dryer really shrunk these jeans.

Eva (03:10):
Oh, got to get a new dryer.

Kami (03:12):
Yeah. And all the other things. "Oh, I'm retaining water. I'm dehydrated." So you kind of come up with all of these things that you just tell yourself, but the truth is you're just eating out of control and gaining weight. That's the truth. So I'm like, okay, well, now that I've really wrapped my brain around that and know that, hey, this is what's really going on and not that my dryer just shrunk my clothes two sizes. That's not what happened. So I'm like, "Oh, okay." We just think that the magical clothing fairy comes in and just makes all of our clothes smaller all of a sudden. I really didn't logically think that was happening, but at the same time in the back of my brain, I was like, "Man, these clothing manufacturers, they're just making shit smaller and smaller, not really realizing that I've owned this shirt for a year or these pants for two years." Did you think any of that kind of stuff when you were bigger?

Eva (04:18):
Constantly, yeah. Okay. I had some weird ones this month with the clothes, and so I had several events that I had to be dressed up, way up for. One was a Christmas party in Los Angeles, at which I only drank water. I'm in Hollywood at a huge Christmas party, and I'm going to sit here and drink water until midnight. You didn't have a single cocktail? I didn't, and I didn't care. I didn't even ... The blind at the bar was so long. If no one had been at the bar, I might have gone up there and been like, "Oh, I'll entertain myself by coming up with something." I just didn't care. And the food was right next to me.

Kami (05:03):
Oh, pause. Just put a pause. Oh, stop it. Stop. It.

Eva (05:12):
It's the Cindy Lou.

Kami (05:13):
Yeah. That's cute as hell.

Eva (05:16):
Thanks. We have three of them. So we can be triplets.

Kami (05:21):
Yes.

Eva (05:21):
Okay. So I just have to say we're in our matching outfit era and this is what I have chosen for today. Okay.

Kami (05:29):
Oh, very cute.

Eva (05:31):
Are those fabulous?

Kami (05:32):
Yes. Are those like slacks or are they like comfy pants?

Eva (05:37):
No, they're actually not that comfy.

Kami (05:40):
Oh, okay. They're like pants pants then.

Eva (05:42):
Yeah, they're real pants. And the girls have little dresses and they have little black velvet bows on it. And they're kind of rushed. They're just super cute. And so they're from J. Crew factory and they do such a nice job with the family plaid.

Kami (05:57):
Oh, nice.

Eva (05:57):
So Ellie and I were in there the other day and these were 80% off. So I was like, "For 20 bucks."

Kami (06:04):
Heck yeah.

Eva (06:06):
I'll do red. I said to my husband in the kitchen this morning, "Did you ever imagine me wearing red plaid pants?" And he just shook his head. He was like, "Not in a million years."

Kami (06:18):
Oh gosh.

Eva (06:20):
Yeah. So the Hollywood party, it was neat because I was there for work. I had to go to Malibu on a Thursday and then from one of my other podcasts, PracticeLand, the host of that show said, "Our Christmas parties on Friday and Hollywood do you have to stay?" I kind of looked at the calendar and I went, "You know what? I can. I can stay." So I did. I took a day. I explored Hollywood. I went to the Grove. I wandered around. I was there. I tried on a bunch of clothes at Cezanne, which basically makes a bunch of French sweaters, basically. Let's just call it French sweaters. And I bought a small and an extra large. And so when you talk about sizing, not all of it is us.

(07:11):
It's not necessarily the size of your body. Sometimes they're just really screwed up in the real world. And so I just recently had to buy pants that were size eight, but these pants that I have, these red plaid beauties are 12s and it screws with your head. It really messes with my mind. Yeah. It's not right.

Kami (07:34):
Yeah.

Eva (07:35):
So at the Hollywood party, one of my friends from San Diego came up to go with me to the party and I got this amazing outfit that I spent weeks working on and I got all dressed and she was like, "You look awesome, but those pants are too big. You needed a medium." And I was like, "Are you effing kidding me? " And I had just taken the tags off. If she had set up one minute earlier, I would've just tucked the tags in and worn them all night. I have the tags and the pants and I'm going to try to exchange them and they're from Nordstrom. They should not give me a hard time about it. No,

Kami (08:14):
If they can still attach them, then it's fine.

Eva (08:18):
And it's not like I'm not a good customer. I'm not a scammer. I'm literally in there every week and they're like, "Oh, hey." Oh, she's back again.

Kami (08:29):
Yep.

Eva (08:31):
So then the other one was a wedding. And so I had just, this was the second wedding I had to go to in the last couple of months. So I had done a lot of work for the first one and I knew kind of what needed to happen for the second one. And I will say this one was much easier because getting dressed for a holiday wedding, just you have a lot more options. And there was a Christmas miracle occurred because the day of the wedding, it got super cold here. It was like one of those crazy fronts came through and it went from 75 on Saturday to like 35 on Sunday.

Kami (09:11):
Oh, damn.

Eva (09:12):
And I thought to myself, there's no way this wedding is outside. It's got to be inside, except it wasn't, it was outside. So an hour before wedding-

Kami (09:23):
Only in Texas are you going to have a wedding outside- Outside of December. December.

Eva (09:27):
Usually we get away with it. I actually had played at a wedding on Saturday and those people totally lucked out. Their whole thing was outside and it was glorious weather and they all had a great time, but the Sunday people didn't get the lucky weather. And so I went in this little shop in my neighborhood that I'd never been in because I don't go in places like that. They don't have clothes for me. I'm fat.

Kami (09:54):
Not anymore.

Eva (09:58):
No. But I don't. But you're

Kami (09:59):
Still ... Yeah.

Eva (10:01):
There's this entire category of shopping that doesn't exist in my brain because it was like, remember the first time I went in the rack and realized I could shop in the whole store and I ran away because it was too scary? So overwhelming. Yeah. I went in this, it's called Blue Gardenia, really cute stuff totally for our demographic. And they said on the way in, there's a 75% off rack in the back. And I'm like, "Oh, cool. I'll check that out. " And I found a full length, like furry camel colored coat. It was basically like that, I'm sure it's a synthetic, like there's no natural fibers in this thing at all. It felt like a bathrobe. Oh. And she said, "Oh, this is a great deal." It was a little bit big. It was a large, it was a little roomy, but it was $39. So I was like, "Whoa, I'll just grab it because someday I'll need it. " Not knowing in an hour I was going to need this one.

Kami (11:06):
You were going to need it. Oh, The fashion gods were looking out for you then.

Eva (11:10):
It was a Christmas miracle for sure.

Kami (11:12):
It was a Christmas miracle. Absolutely.

Eva (11:15):
I survived and I keep learning what works and what doesn't work, but the amount of time and the mental load of figuring it out, it feels like too much. So that was one of the themes of my December being too much was having to get dressed for all of these things took me a lot of time.

Kami (11:38):
Yeah.

Eva (11:39):
And then when you combine it with a work trip like California was, then I'm figuring out what am I wearing? Well, I'm working. What am I wearing while I'm not working? What am I wearing at this party?

Kami (11:49):
That's a lot.

Eva (11:51):
Need better systems.

Kami (11:52):
Sounds really overwhelming.

Eva (11:55):
Now that I'm telling you about it, yeah, it was. Yeah. It's like project management.

Kami (12:01):
Absolutely. This is why wealthy people have people that do that for them.

Eva (12:06):
I was going to say, this is why Steve Jobs only wore a black turtleneck.

Kami (12:10):
For real. Absolutely. At respect.

Eva (12:13):
Let's talk about food.

Kami (12:14):
All right.

Eva (12:16):
How are you thinking about holiday food?

Kami (12:18):
Well, Thanksgiving was fine. Yeah. We had it at my folks. I don't really know. I'm still kind of in ... Even though I've been off the medication for a while, I'm not really romanticizing food. I'm not like, oh my God, I'm so looking forward to eating this or that or whatever. But what is happening is when it's in front of me, I am overeating or taking portions that I don't really would not usually take. You know what I'm saying? So it's ...

Eva (12:52):
It's so hard not to.

Kami (12:54):
I just got to figure out my game plan really to kind of get back on the wagon. So I got to ... I'll keep you guys posted. I'm going to talk to my provider about tirzepatide and see if they think that it's ...

Eva (13:07):
Right for you?

Kami (13:08):
Right for me, going to make a difference, going to not make a difference. Yeah. I did get a glucose monitor. Oh,

Eva (13:16):
Cool.

Kami (13:16):
I don't know if you can see it with my shirt, but it's right. Now you can kind of see it.

Eva (13:20):
It's always there. Like you just got it for knowledge?.

Kami (13:23):
Yeah, it's an over the counter one. You don't have to have a prescription for it. And it links to an app on your phone and it constantly monitors your glucose. So you can really see what actually affects your blood sugar and what really doesn't. So good news there, my blood sugar's not out of control because I though for sure. I was like, "Oh, I've been off the medication. My blood sugar's got to be terrible." And it wasn't. So I was really pleasantly surprised. Now there's certain things that will make it spike, which is going to be really high sugary things for me like cookies and candy.

Eva (13:59):
Well, sure. That's like mainlining.

Kami (14:02):
Right. However, I had a bowl of ice cream. It didn't really skyrocket. It went up, but still within normal healthy levels. And then if I do eat something like really sugary, it comes down really quickly, which is what you want it to do. So all that's really great. So I'll wear this one for two weeks and then take it off and then I wear another one for two weeks. I'll have a month basically of data. I don't think I'll have to do it again after that because I'll kind of know, okay, this is what's going to affect it. This is what isn't. Because when you have had gestational diabetes, you are at a higher risk to develop diabetes later on in life. And so I'm like, okay, well ...

Eva (14:42):
I might try that because I remember when I had just gestational diabetes, I was really interested in that cause and effect between what I ate and what happened to my blood sugar. And it's pretty- And I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe how fast it would.

Kami (14:59):
It's like almost instantaneous. So I had some red wine yesterday and that affected me a little bit. Again, didn't skyrocket like I thought it would. So I'm really kind of throwing everything at this thing because I was like, okay, what happens if I eat bread? Red wine? Okay, a piece of chocolate. So I don't really feel like at this point, oh, okay. Yeah, I really have to cut out sugar and carbs because my blood sugar's out of control and it's making me feel like shit.That's not what's happening. So I'm like, oh, thank God.

Eva (15:33):
Good.

Kami (15:34):
Yeah. So that was good news.

Eva (15:36):
I want to know how a dark chocolate covered peppermint Jojo from Trader Joe's affects my blood sugar. And I will also just point out this is how I know that I'm an addict because stay with me here. One of the times that I tried to quit smoking when I was like 25-ish, a doctor gave me Wellbutrin because there was lots of people who were quitting because of what Wellbutrin was helping. And the reason it worked was because it made your cigarettes taste and feel disgusting. Now most people who don't smoke would say, "They're already disgusting." No, they're not. They're wonderful. Okay. So I quit more than a decade ago. I don't really think about it anymore except for like, oh, memories.

Kami (16:33):
Right.

Eva (16:35):
But this is how I know I'm a food addict because I have the exact same behavior with these damn peppermint jojos where I know that Jojo is going to make me sick if I eat it and I will still eat three of them because they're so powerful. That addiction to the sugar is so powerful that I would rather eat the cookie and go off the medication. Now, I'm not going to go off the medication. I'm just saying this is how I know I'm an addict.

Kami (17:12):
I got to look up what they are.

Eva (17:15):
Are you sure you want to know? And then they sell out. So I have a hoarder behavior around them.

Kami (17:22):
Candy cane jojos. They're basically-

Eva (17:25):
Chocolate covered Oreos covered in candy canes.

Kami (17:31):
Candy cane Oreos. It sounds like a dream.

Eva (17:35):
Do you have Trader Joe's?

Kami (17:37):
Yeah, no, there's a Trader Joe's like two miles from my house or three miles.

Eva (17:41):
You've been warned.

Kami (17:42):
Okay. Well, thanks.

Eva (17:46):
No problem.

Kami (17:47):
Yeah. Those are delicious or look delicious anyways. I was like, "I've never had them."

Eva (17:53):
So this week when I set out, I mean, I always buy those early because if they sell out, then I can't-

Kami (17:58):
Pop them in the freezer? It looks like they would eat them.

Eva (18:01):
Like a thin mint. Yeah, you can do that.

Kami (18:05):
Okay.

Eva (18:06):
I discovered last night I had two more boxes of them stashed in the back of the pantry and I don't even remember doing it.

Kami (18:14):
Were they expired?

Eva (18:15):
No, they're from this year. I don't remember buying them.

Kami (18:18):
Oh, you bought them and you blacked out, purchased them?

Eva (18:26):
Yeah, that is what I'm saying. I hid them in the back of the pantry. Then I bought another one. So last night I was digging through the pantry looking for ingredients and I was like, "Oh my God, where'd this come from?" "Oh, I don't remember buying this. "I'm just squirreling them away because that's how much I am addicted. I'm just going to say the real word. I'm addicted to them. I don't just love them. There's something wrong. Yeah. Now, I will say even with medication, because of the medication, I don't eat the whole box.

Kami (19:00):
Well, see, that's progress. Progress.

Eva (19:03):
I eat a normal serving of two before I can't eat anymore. I just can't. I

Kami (19:09):
Just feel like that is a win.

Eva (19:11):
Okay.

Kami (19:12):
That's a win. And you should pat yourself on the back because you're not eating the whole fucking box. Good for you. Moderation, right? Right. This is bothering me. Hair's a fricking disaster.

Eva (19:25):
Do you need a Cindy Lou headband?

Kami (19:27):
I do, and I don't have one, which is a real shame.

Eva (19:31):
Oh, well, I know where to get one. I'll send you one.

Kami (19:33):
Okay, perfect.

Eva (19:34):
For next year.

Kami (19:35):
Speaking of sending you things, I got your little Christmas card in the mail with your damn family or your fam damily.

Eva (19:42):
Thank you.

Kami (19:42):
They're gorgeous.

Eva (19:43):
I've gotten a lot of compliments on that picture. And every time I want to say," I look terrible, I wore the wrong outfit.

Kami (19:52):
You look great.

Eva (19:55):
Thank you.

Kami (19:56):
Yeah. I know you're worried. You look great and the kids are gorgeous and your husband's handsome and your life doesn't suck.

Eva (20:02):
We fooled you again.

Kami (20:03):
Yeah, definitely.

Eva (20:06):
Do you do Christmas cards?

Kami (20:08):
No, but I've failed at. No, I wish. We haven't had family pictures done in a long time, so I think if I start there, then I would do them. So I got to do ... We have pictures done. We really do.

Eva (20:24):
Especially now that you have grandma and grandpa right there, you should get a generational one too.

Kami (20:30):
Yeah.

Eva (20:31):
This is going to sound weird. My addiction and recovery podcast that I work on a lot, two days ago, I was sitting at a stoplight and I was looking at a homeless man and I was thinking," I wish Matt would interview homeless people. "And guess what happened? The next day, Matt called me and he said," I'm going to start interviewing homeless people. Really?

Kami (20:54):
Get out of my brain. What?

Eva (20:56):
It was weird. He and I are like ... He's the greatest gift to me.

Kami (21:02):
Aw, that's awesome.

Eva (21:04):
We try to try really hard in our lives to do work that has meaning, and I will fully admit that making podcasts about plastic surgery, it helps people, but this is a different level of help.

Kami (21:19):
Yeah.

Eva (21:20):
And he's getting calls and messages and comments from all over the world about how his work is impacting people and I'm part of bringing that to those people.

Kami (21:33):
Immensely satisfying. I'm really proud of you. That's really great.

Eva (21:36):
Thank you. He wants me to come on and talk about food and I'm not ready to do that.

Kami (21:41):
Yeah.

Eva (21:41):
But another friend of mine sent her son to residential treatment for screen addiction because she got him.

Kami (21:48):
That's a thing.

Eva (21:49):
It is a thing.

Kami (21:50):
Yes. There's a documentary TV show called Digital Addiction. You should watch it. Yes.

Eva (21:57):
Oh, I will.

Kami (21:58):
Yeah. It's called Digital Addiction. I can't remember what service it's on, but these is people that have multiple cell phones, multiple laptops, multiple iPads.

Eva (22:11):
No, they're like the first people to get an implant. When there's an implant, they'll just get it. They'll be like, never not connected.

Kami (22:18):
Whole families, this is ...

Eva (22:20):
It's a tragedy. And I feel like- It's

Kami (22:23):
Crazy. I was like, what?

Eva (22:23):
Their souls are being stolen from them.

Kami (22:27):
Yeah. They become like shells of who they were. And all their friends are like, " We go out to dinner with you and you are not even present. What are you even doing here? "You know what I'm saying? It's just so weird. Yeah.

Eva (22:41):
Why bother?

Kami (22:42):
Yeah.

Eva (22:43):
Well, she got them off the screens. She got both of her kids off the screens successfully, but the older one needed a lot more help than the younger one. And so she-

Kami (22:53):
And how old are these kids?

Eva (22:55):
Middle school, late elementary. She was a single mom and she just did what she needed to do to survive. Very I know. Very successful and intelligent people,

Kami (23:06):
But just no shame in that for sure.

Eva (23:09):
Yeah.

Kami (23:10):
But how bad was it?

Eva (23:14):
I could see it with my own kids and I think his was so severe that it was actually the withdrawal. So the absence of it was the obsession. So you can take them away and after a day or two, most kids will recover and then they'll go back to playing outside or read a book or get the Legos out. Yeah. But months after she took the screens away and he was completely screen free for a very long time, he was still obsessed with getting it back and he could not let it go.

Kami (23:47):
That's the issue.

Eva (23:49):
Yeah.

Kami (23:49):
Yeah. That's the like, " Oh, I don't ... "You know what I mean? Just like ...

Eva (23:56):
My precious.

Kami (23:57):
Yes.

Eva (23:58):
That's like me and coffee.

Kami (24:04):
Okay. I don't know if it's exactly the same, Eva, but ...

Eva (24:09):
I mean, just watch your own child on a day where you have screen time and then you take it away, they can't switch. They still always want it back. When do I get it back? When do I get it back? When can I have it? And then it just takes up everything.

Kami (24:24):
She does a really good job of self-regulating. She'll play games on it and then watch videos on it. And then she will put it down and go play with all the dolls in her room or go build a fort or doing a lot of artwork too. She'll be like, " Oh, okay. I'm going to draw something or I'm going to ... "Whatever. So I definitely keep my eye on it for sure because it's slippery slope, right?

Eva (24:51):
You'll know. I mean, you'll know when it's gone too far and then you'll have to do something. Then that's where we got with ours. We couldn't go in the car without them being like, " Can we have the iPad? "And so

Kami (25:04):
She'll- Yeah, she'll ask for it, but then she'll just stare out the window, the whole drive.

Eva (25:08):
That's good. Good sign. So

Kami (25:09):
I'm like, " All right.

Eva (25:12):
"I have one last story for you about this month, which is ... In the theme of doing too much, I subbed in the symphony to do the Home Alone concert where they have the movie on the big screen and the orchestra sitting under the screen.

Kami (25:27):
Oh, nice. Yeah.

Eva (25:27):
And so we play the whole Home Alone soundtrack, which is really fun.

Kami (25:30):
Oh, nice.

Eva (25:32):
I had a great time, but it was, again, too much. I didn't do anything bad. I just did too much. And I sometimes go a really long time without being there. And so I see people that I know, but they haven't seen me in a while and vice versa. I haven't seen them in a while. At Intermission, one of the nights, this bass player came over to me and he said," You look really different. Your shape has really changed a lot." I don't even know your name.

Kami (26:05):
You don't know who the guy is?

Eva (26:06):
Well, I recognize him. If I saw him on the street, I'd be like, " Oh, that's that guy that plays the bass. "But we're not friends. So the unsolicited body comments are somehow ... That's a little ...

Kami (26:25):
If you knew somebody like that on a personal level, I'd be like, " Oh, okay, cool. Thanks. "But-

Eva (26:30):
We make a podcast about it. Okay. So if you know me, it's fine. We talk about it all the time, but to come up to me unsolicited in the middle of a concert, having never had a conversation in our lives to comment on how different I look

Kami (26:48):
Especially that way.

Eva (26:50):
Yeah.

Kami (26:51):
That's a little strange.

Eva (26:52):
And I know he was-

Kami (26:53):
That sounds like a guy

Eva (26:53):
That- I didn't know he was coming from a good place.

Kami (26:55):
Oh, I'm sure it was. He's probably just really socially awkward.

Eva (26:59):
Probably.

Kami (27:00):
Maybe. I don't know. I feel like, well, if you said," Oh, hey, you're looking really great. "Or-

Eva (27:07):
He tried to come up with a innocent way to say you lost weight, which was your shapes really changed. Thank you.

Kami (27:23):
Wow. Okay. Yeah. Just chalk that up to mouth diarrhea. I don't know. Because he just opened his mouth and shit came out that he clearly didn't think through because that's the first conversation you're going to have with somebody, that's not it.

Eva (27:42):
No.

Kami (27:43):
That is not it, sir. Oh, man. Well, my love. I hope you have a wonderful, delightful, relaxing Christmas.

Eva (27:58):
I volunteered to be the greeter at the one o'clock service today.

Kami (28:02):
Oh.

Eva (28:02):
And so do you think that I should keep my Cindy Lou headband on for church?

Kami (28:05):
Absolutely. Don't change a thing. Do not change a thing.

Eva (28:09):
I have many choices here.

Kami (28:11):
Amazing. Wear that.

Eva (28:14):
Oh. Okay. I'll consider it. I will.

Kami (28:19):
All right.

Eva (28:21):
Merry Christmas.

Kami (28:22):
Merry Christmas.

(28:23):
Love you guys.

Eva (28:23):
Yeah, I love you. Say Merry Christmas.

Kordelia (28:27):
Merry Christmas.

Kami (28:32):
Okay, that's enough.

Eva (28:37):
Follow us on Instagram @lessofyoupodcast. Are you confronting the same challenges and have a story to tell? I'd love to hear your story on our Skinny Shot Stories podcast. Contact me for more details at skinnyshotstories.com. If you're a doctor and would like to learn more about sponsoring this or any of our cosmetic surgery and weight loss podcasts, go to lessofyou.com. Less of You is a production of the Axis, theaxis.io.