Thinking About Weight Loss Surgery? Listen to This First! with Sarah Teagle
Weight loss surgery is a big decision, and it’s not right for everyone.
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Intro: On today's episode...
Clarence Fisher: You were 275 pounds at 14.
Sarah Teagle: At 14. Yeah. So as an actual grown adult, when I started my weight loss journey, I was 325 pounds.
Clarence Fisher: Wow.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah, and I'm 5'11" to give context.
Clarence Fisher: Okay. All right. Awesome.
Sarah Teagle: Not at 6'5". Might have been better if I was 6'5". I'm where I need to be now. But back then,
Clarence Fisher: Right, right, right.
Sarah Teagle: That was a lot. It was a lot to think about.
Intro:: Prepare yourself. Okay. Let's go!
Clarence Fisher: In today's episode, I'm talking to Sarah Teagle of Teagle Tough Fitness about the pros and cons of having weight loss surgery. We're giving you tips on deciding whether it's right for you. Sarah shares her first-hand account of weight loss surgery. When you listen, you'll hear how to choose a reputable facility and reputable surgeon. The mental work that needs to happen before surgery should you choose to have it. What you must do within the first two weeks after surgery, I was totally surprised by this. And Sarah also shares what she wishes. She would've known before she did it. You're gonna wanna listen to it. There's so much more in it. It's a beefy episode. It's an hour and a half long. Sarah and I are old friends. So there's a bit of catch up sprinkled in the beginning and some great context on our weight loss journeys and how it feels to be so overweight.
Clarence Fisher: It's definitely things that you'll understand, but I wanted to give you a heads up on that. If you're like Juice, I just, just gimme the skinny.
Intro: Welcome to the 100 Pound Party Podcast with Big Juice, uncovering weight loss, tips, tools, and strategies used by everyday people to lose 100 pounds or more and keep it off for good.
Clarence Fisher: Welcome to 100 Pound Party. This is episode duh only duh, and my special guest today. We were just talking and this is crazy. And as we unfold, this you'll understand how crazy and awesome that it is that we are here today. My guess today is Miss Sarah Teagle. Did I say Teagle right?
Sarah Teagle: Yeah, you did.
Clarence Fisher: All right. All right. I know I said Sarah, right? Not used to that.
Sarah Teagle: Yep. Uhhuh. You got that one.
Clarence Fisher: But you were 275 pounds at 14.
Sarah Teagle: At 14. Yeah. So as actual grown adult, when I started my weight loss journey, I was 325 pounds.
Clarence Fisher: Wow. So,
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. And I'm 5'11" to give context.
Clarence Fisher: Okay. All right. Awesome.
Sarah Teagle: Not at 6'5". Might have been better if I was 6'5".
Clarence Fisher: Did you calculate, have you calculated that like where you needed to be in order to, you know.
Sarah Teagle: Yes. I'm where I need to be now, but back then, woo.
Clarence Fisher: Right, right, right.
Sarah Teagle: It was law. It was a lot to think about.
Clarence Fisher: Well, according to your bio, that, which, as I was doing this research of a dad gum, I didn't know Sarah. I thought I knew Sarah. I didn't know Sarah. I thought I knew Sarah, but spent your entire life battling weight. But some of this stuff, I think a lot of us have gone through, of course, you don't know that other people are going through this until you look back, but eating disorders low, self-esteem, kind of compensating with the personality.
Clarence Fisher: Yeah.
Clarence Fisher: I did a lot of that myself. And you put, you put
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. You know, you always you're like, "Oh, you're like, you have such a pretty face." You're like, listen here,
Clarence Fisher: Yeah. You know,
Sarah Teagle: Makes wanna smack people.
Clarence Fisher: For me, it became a big man, right. Like, yep. Like, Hey, Hey, big man. Like, you know, and you think dudes shouldn't be bothered by, but I'm like, man, I just don't wanna be called big man anymore in my life. So five years of researching led to you of , were you five years of researching bariatric or gastric bypass surgery itself?
Sarah Teagle: Yes.
Clarence Fisher: Okay. Because from 14 you probably tried all kind of stuff, right?
Sarah Teagle: Oh, everything. I mean, eating air, I really, everything, you know, like totally tried everything. Janie Craig, Weight Watchers, Herbalife, drops shots, obviously eating disorders. And that was, I always like, I there's a blog that I have that I joke about. Like, obviously I wasn't good at it cuz I was still big. But for me it wasn't the point. It was, it was more about, not about weight, but that's a whole another show. But yeah, I had heard about weight loss surgery and back then it was something that you just didn't really talk about. Like people were like, you would do what?
Clarence Fisher: Yeah. You could be gay or had weight loss surgery, either one of those things or in an inter relationship. Not none of that stuff.
Sarah Teagle: Oh yeah. Yeah. I wrote the seal on all of those, just so you know, I mean, I just was like, you know what, everything that society says don't do. I'm gonna
Clarence Fisher: Exactly. Exactly. All right. Alright. Pull it back in. I'm sorry. Pull it back in
Sarah Teagle:
Clarence Fisher: Oh snap,
Sarah Teagle: This is a sign. I don't need be doing it. And so I took that sign, but it was still always in the back of my mind
Clarence Fisher: Why he went out practice.
Sarah Teagle: I guess. I got a letter saying I was in the middle of the process and that he was no longer practicing and referred me to somebody else. And I was like, I feel like this is a sign.
Clarence Fisher: That is the Lort.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. Yeah. This should not be.
Clarence Fisher: Well, probably telling you not to use that doc.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah.
Clarence Fisher: For, so what advice would you give someone who is, let's not even talk about bypass who's new on their weight loss journey. And when I say new, I'm gonna say, cuz like you said, you said you started at 14. And I think all of us, once we get this awareness that mm-hmm
Sarah Teagle: Yep.
Clarence Fisher: But this goes all the way up until now we're adults and okay, I'm gonna try this for real. Like
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. Well and my, my biggest thing was I can accomplish all these things in life. I mean, I've done some amazing things in life, just not to toot my own horn, right? But from the music industry to corporate life, to raising children to everything that I've done, but I can't overcome and lose weight? Like this doesn't make any sense and I'm very determined, dedicated, ambitious. So why can't I apply all these traits that I already know I have to weight loss and at work. And that was the thing that always stumped me is like, what the heck? Like, why is this not able to happen for me naturally? Right? Like some people can really put their mind to weight loss and it works. For me, I would go through times where, I mean, I would be killing it. I would be running, walking, like eating very healthy and strict dieting and all of those things.
Sarah Teagle: And I would only lose 50 pounds and that would be it, which would get me back backed down of the 275. So it was like, my body was, would stop at 275. And I mean, I tried everything even as an adult, like a nutritionist I went to for years and I would still get to that 275 and nothing would happen. And I would take shots that would try to help me just to get through that plateau and still nothing. And a lot of it, what I found out was I was undiagnosed with like PCOS. So for anybody that doesn't know, that's Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and it, it really stops people from losing weight. It also causes infertility. Thankfully I didn't have any issues there, but the weight loss was the big thing for me. I was insulin resistant and there was a lot going on with my body that I never just, I never knew about, you know, you just don't know.
Sarah Teagle: And so come to find out, I had PCOS for, I mean, since I was in high school and that was some of why I could never lose weight all the years that I tried. So if I could say going back to your question right. Of like what would be the first step or what somebody that's on their weight loss journey. What could that first step be? My suggestion would be to go have labs run on your vitamins on, just like panels, hormones. Yes. All of that, because I never did that. Right. When you're on a weight loss journey and a bariatric weight loss journey, it's totally different. Bariatric is very much doctor driven and they have to watch those panels of vitamins and all and the hormones and all of that. But somebody that's just trying to lose weight on their own.
Sarah Teagle: Normally doesn't think about those things. So I'll give you an example. I was talking to, uh, somebody on my marketing team and you know, I was talking about vitamin deficiency and how that impacts and you know, we're just kind of talking about that topic. And I have struggled with anemia and iron deficiency and things like that within the last year. And she was like, that is crazy. I'm trying to lose weight and I realized like my nails were very brittle. I was really fatigued. And I immediately was like, that's your iron? And she was like, it's crazy. I just got a call from my doctor before I jumped on here that I was low in iron. And she may, you know, she's like, Hey, take supplements, do this. So I would say that's the very first place to start is go to your doctor, talk to them about what you're wanting to accomplish and get those panels done.
Sarah Teagle: That's going to point you in the right direction. Once you have your vitamins and your hormones and all of that, I guarantee you that you will feel like thyroid panels are huge. I've had my right thyroid out. And I mean, it, it's just amazing how your body I've just learned so much in the last three years of how your body works and all the tiny things that we do, what we put into it, you know, how late we stay up, all the things that we do to destruct our body when we're younger, we actually now wanna correct all that when we're older and be like what did I do?
Clarence Fisher: Who's thinking about that.
Sarah Teagle: Exactly.
Clarence Fisher: Absolutely. I mean the party doesn't start till midnight one, right?
Speaker 2: Oh, it makes me cringe. Like, I mean, let's be honest. You knew me since I was like 19 years old. I was 19 or 20 when you first met me.
Clarence Fisher: I mean, okay. There's a whole another thing.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. Obviously. Right. Like I, what
Clarence Fisher: Were you hanging out?
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. So I hung out with all the older crowds.
Clarence Fisher: Right? Exactly. Exactly.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, I was, I was about 20. I moved to Tulsa when I was 19. So you think, you know, I met our group right after that, like 20, 21 was around that time that I met everybody. So it's been a while.
Clarence Fisher: That's what I'm saying is like, there are times now when, so Brandy and I are going to bed at like 730.
Sarah Teagle: Oh yeah.
Clarence Fisher: Right.
Sarah Teagle: It's amazing.
Clarence Fisher: And I'm like, this does not make sense to me. Like I remember 10 o'clock happening and it's like, we're not going, I'm not going anywhere. It's it's only 10 o'clock. We got time to chill and do whatever we're gonna do. And then, you know, we'll hit the club. You all ladies, I guess ladies had to be there earlier, but the dudes are like, I'm not hitting the club till like midnight.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. Of course. You know, I was always walking in with the dudes. So I was like, well, whatever, let's midnight, let's go!
Clarence Fisher: Exact. Right. Right.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. No, but I, I thought about it the other day that we actually remember. I don't know if you remember, we used to have Mac Mondays at
Clarence Fisher: Your house. Oh, I remember Mac Mondays. Oh yeah, for sure.
Sarah Teagle: I mean, we had the, some of the best conversations, but some of those things that we did during those meetings and like just our hangout sessions I still do today,
Clarence Fisher: which is so crazy
Clarence Fisher: Early on, that was called. That was a mastermind before I knew what mastermind was.
Sarah Teagle: Here's the thing though. If you look at the people that were in that circle and the success that has come out of that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Huh? Super
Speaker 2: That'll tell like that our, our group was, we were, we were grinding. We might have been directed in some of the wrong directions.
Clarence Fisher: Oh yeah. For sure. I know my neighbors were, I know my neighbors were like I used every week
Sarah Teagle: But the, the bottom line is we all, I mean, we've accomplished some really great things. So, but I thought about that the other day when I was writing down some goals and I was like, oh, it's Mac Monday, all over again. You know? That's crazy. That was crazy. But yeah.
Clarence Fisher: So what do you think, you know, I can really relate to you saying why can't I just lose weight? It's it's like just lose weight becauseokay. Let's roll it back to Mac Mondays and even way back then. And was like, if I wanted to do something, I did it. If I wanted to open up a club, I don't know how to open up a club, but I'm gonna open up a club. I did it. Big Juices Place. Boom. There it is. This is what it is. You know what I'm saying? I don't have any license, any ordinance I'm doing it.. It's just what we do.
Sarah Teagle: Yep.
Clarence Fisher: Now at a point where it's like, okay, doctor's like, look, bro, you're like 330 something pounds and you're having issues. And I'm like, all right, cool. I'll lose weight next week. I'll this is done.
Sarah Teagle: Right. I'll write it down. We'll get it done.
Clarence Fisher:
Sarah Teagle: Yes.
Clarence Fisher: I can do all of this stuff. Why can't I do this? Well, I thought about the bypass, but what, the reason I didn't is because I didn't get past the, you still have to eat right. And exercise.
Sarah Teagle: mm-hmm
Clarence Fisher: In my mind, I was like, well, if I gotta eat right and exercise
Sarah Teagle:
Clarence Fisher: You know, I might as well just do that. Yeah. But it's still been, it's still been hard. Yeah. So how does a person gauge whether they should do the bypass or not.
Sarah Teagle: Or not? Yeah, that's a good question. So that is what stopped me for five years from doing it like, well, listen, I'll just do it myself. Right? Like I know how to do it. I know the things I need to do. I'm consistent. I'll just eventually I'll break through this plateau. And I got to the point where I'm like, you know what? I truly have tried everything given my a hundred percent. And if I'm going to do it anyways, I'm already consistently working out. I'm already consistently trying to lose weight and being healthy and all of this. So a lot of what people, the misconception people have about weight loss surgery. And so if that could be the gastric bypass, it could be the sleeve. It could be there's a switch. There's a lot of different kinds of surgery for weight loss. But the one that I had specifically, and I researched, and anytime you, we can talk about the process here in a minute, but whenever you're thinking about it, the biggest thing was, and if you're going to the right surgeon in the right facility, they're going to tell you that this is not like an end all be all.
Sarah Teagle: This is an additional tool to provide you the option to lose weight. So there is many people that have a misconception that weight loss surgery is the easy way out. Negative. Weight loss surgery is probably harder than somebody that's trying to lose weight on their own. And the reason I say that is because the misconception is I got weight loss surger so I'm gonna be really skinny and I'm gonna lose weight. People like you said, you're like, well, if I'm gonna do it anyway, you still have to eat healthy. After this, you have to reshape your relationship with food. You can't eat, go eat a cheeseburger and fries. You will physically get ill.
Clarence Fisher: Mm-hmm
Sarah Teagle: You can't have food, be a social piece of your life anymore. You know, like, Hey, let's go grab dinner and all you and your friends go drink and have dinner because you're not gonna be able to eat what they eat.
Sarah Teagle: You can't drink and eat at the same time. So if you wanna go socially drink, you can't eat. I mean there's just a lot that there's a lot of different things that happen with it, that people don't understand. And a lot of what you learned during the process of gastric bypass is some of the attachments or the relationship that you have with food. Like how did you get here? Right. As I'm sure, because you've lost a significant amount of weight. You've had to deal with that on your own as far as like, why like the cravings or just the body dysmorphia, the like you may still see yourself as big, but nobody else does, you know, after you've even, there's so many things that go along with that. And so for me, I had to make the right decision for me.
Sarah Teagle: A lot of people didn't agree with the decision I was making. I definitely kept my decision personal for a very long time because of that, I told my immediate family and then some just immediate small group of friends. And you have people that are very judgemental and make you feel like you don't need that. Why would you do that? You can do it on your own. Or you have people that are very supportive. And my immediate family was 50 50. So you automatically have that like, well, you can just do it on your own. Like, it's not that hard, but for somebody that has been overweight, as you know, like majority of your life, it is that hard. And for somebody I'll give an example, like in my family that has never been overweight. They don't know that anybody that has never been overweight can never understand the struggle that somebody has. If you have to lose a significant amount of weight, I'm not talking about 20 pounds, I'm talking about 150 to 200 pounds, like.
Clarence Fisher: yeah.
Sarah Teagle: Something in your psychological mind frame got you there. Right? Because like I talk about often in my blogs as like, yeah, I, or my bio too. Like I would never blame my mom. Right. And I shout out to my mom. You're great. But at kindergarten, if you're overweight, that's a parent thing. But if at 25 you're overweight, that's a you thing.
Clarence FisherSpeaker 1: Ugh.
Speaker 2: And some for
Speaker 1: Preach!
Sarah Teagle: Even when we're 14, right? If I'm 14 and 275, that's still a me thing because I gotta figure it out. Right. As a teenager and whatever I put in my mouth, I'm still responsible for. But then on the flip side, what you're taught about food is how you will understand food and how you will use your body for fuel or to trash it. And let's be honest as when you're a teenager growing up, it's easy to trash your body every single day, up into three, four o'clock in the morning. You that's what you're doing because you think it's fun, cuz you're a teenager.
Clarence Fisher: Right, right.
Sarah Teagle: As you get older, as we have known,
Clarence Fisher: But who does that? Right. You know, you're not thinking about getting older at
Sarah Teagle: No, you're not thinking about how, you know, you should be eating your protein instead of a cheeseburger.
Clarence Fisher: Right. Right. 25 year, 25 years old was the grownups club. If you remember like, like that's the adult club at 25, like, oh, those old folks.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. 25, you think, you know everything and you're still stupid. So.
Clarence Fisher:
Clarence Fisher: So, so yeah. It's, it's, it is hard and people don't understand. There's so much that you spit in that, like it is hard and you don't understand. And somebody's like, did he just say spit? Okay. Yeah. It's it's the party. Okay. So there, you know, there's this, well, why can't you, why can't at least for me, I don't know if you have this issue, but I have this issue. We just can't keep anything around.
Sarah Teagle: Yep.
Clarence Fisher: And it's it's because I don't even care if it's not even my type of snack. Like I don't, like, we just can't keep it because I can't for whatever reason, stop until it's gone.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. So I'll tell you what we, I mean, straight up that's food addiction, right? It is. So I think a lot of people that are overweight and I've even had to just say it out loud, right? I am addicted to food. I'm not addicted to drugs. I'm not addicted to alcohol. I could care less about any of those things. Right. But what I also deal with is I cannot keep certain food in my home. My kids, I get like if I buy them something that I know is a trigger for me, I'm just saying Doritos and Oreos. I can't do it. I cannot. And I will even be in the grocery store trying to convince myself to buy the Oreo so my kids can have an Oreo. No, they don't need it. They'll be fine. Yeah. Right. Like my kids eat pretty healthy just because I'm trying to teach them differently. But it's a food addiction. A lot of overweight, people are addicted to food. They don't understand what food addiction is. And it's not ever really talked about because how could you be addicted to food?
Clarence Fisher: Especially in the south, right?
Sarah Teagle: However, food addiction is probably the worst addiction that you can have. So if you think about it, drugs, you have to go find. Alcohol, you have to go to the store and buy. I don't know if you're addicted to nicotine and tobacco or whatever. You gotta go to the store to buy it. Food you have to have, and you don't have to have any of those things to live. Right? Those are all additional things that you don't have to have. Food, you have to have to live. So if you don't have food in your house, you're going to die. Right.
Clarence Fisher:
Sarah Teagle: Eventually you're gonna die. If you're not drinking water and you get dehydrated, it can lead to various severe issues. So food addiction is the worst because you have to have food around you. It's, ingrained in our society, in our social settings. Like you go over to people's houses. What do they have food and drinks ready for.
Clarence Fisher: What do they bring?
Sarah Teagle: Exactly? What do they bring? When you have, when you're at work and they have potluck? When you have like, food is ingrained in everything that we do within our day to day life.
Clarence Fisher: Which one, another thing that you said was social. What term did you use? I hadn't heard that before. Like, like you can't have food as a social, something in your life, a social man. When I listen back, I gotta listen for that. But it was basically like, and it's real. Like I get it food. Can't be a, just a social part of your life. Like it is with everybody else, which is what you were saying. Like, Hey, let's go have lunch. Let's go do this. Let's go like everything's around.
Sarah Teagle: Yep.
Clarence Fisher: Food. And when people bring you gifts, they bring you
Sarah Teagle: Food,
Clarence Fisher: Food.
Sarah Teagle: When you into a new neighborhood, they bring you food.
Clarence Fisher: Absolutely. And it's not even just food, it's a cake or it's candy or it's a pie or it's, you know, and I remember kind of I'm a logical type person and it, you just start getting to me at our family gatherings. When we look around the table or I look around the table and I'm fighting and everybody's using this as an excuse to just yes.
Speaker 2: Gorge
Speaker 1: And Gorge. Yes. On all this crap. And nine out 10 of us are obese.
Sarah Teagle: Yep.
Clarence Fisher: Severely.
Sarah Teagle: Yep.
Clarence Fisher: But we're not even looking at it.
Sarah Teagle: Nobody cares. Cause they're spending time with their family enjoying the food because food becomes like an ambiance of love.
Clarence Fisher: Yeah.
Sarah Teagle: And so like, for example, my mom shows through shows, love through food. She struggles. Okay. Shout out to my mom. I love you. But she struggles to understand. She was one, one of my number one supporters. But she literally struggles to understand if I'm around her, why I am not eating, it becomes an issue of like, well you only had a protein shake. Yes. I have the stomach of a small child.
Clarence Fisher: Mm-hmm
Sarah Teagle: Right. Or on holidays. And she shows love through food. So she wants you to eat. And you know, as well as I do, there's some cultures and the older generations, that's how they ex, if you go to somebody's house and you don't eat their food,
Clarence Fisher: They spent an hour, two hours. Yeah. Three hours cooking this. Yes. With love for you.
Sarah Teagle: Lots of love that they are ready for you to sit down and enjoy. So they can see the look on your face when you're like, this is such a good pie
Clarence Fisher: And they don't eat it themselves having
Sarah Teagle: Right. And then they're like, now take it all home. So I don't eat it.
Clarence Fisher: Right. Exactly.
Sarah Teagle: So now wait a minute. This was a Joke.
Clarence Fisher: Exactly.
Sarah Teagle: But yeah, food literally is. I mean, it's part of, society's like just way of communication. I think like everybody, you go out to restaurants, you go, you know, your kids win a softball game, a football game, basketball game. What do you do? Go take 'em for a treat. Mm-hmm
Clarence Fisher: Yeah.
Sarah Teagle: All of these things. And so what I've had to do is really take a step back and realize how I spend my time with other people. And instead of going out to eat, like, Hey, let's go on a hike. Let's go to the beach.
Clarence Fisher: Who goes on a hike with you?
Sarah Teagle: Well i mean,
Clarence Fisher: I have to ask who goes on a hike with you
Sarah Teagle: Nobody,
Clarence Fisher: Right?
Sarah Teagle: I'm just saying, I will suggest it normally I'm by myself, but,
Clarence Fisher: Well, I'm just saying, because I have that in my head, like all of a sudden I'm trying to have walking meetings, but nobody wants to walk. Yep. Like I've had one person meet me at the park, right? Yeah. Like people will just rather not have lunch with Clarence.
Sarah Teagle: Right I'd rather, it's like, no, we're not gonna meet with that guy. He doesn't wanna be around,
Clarence Fisher: You know, but I've become militant about it. Yeah. It's like we're ostracized because of this addiction. Yeah. Cause people don't understand it and it's like, and then I, sometimes I just get off. Like, I'm just, it's like, Hey man. All right. Well, we just won't see each other cuz I'm because I can't do that. You don't even know how difficult it is to recover from a lunch relapse. Like.
Sarah Teagle: Yes.
Clarence Fisher: People don't talk about that. Like I go home and it's just like, the way that I've explained it is if, if I was an alcoholic you would not. And you knew I was an alcoholic.
Sarah Teagle: I've explained it the exact same way.
Clarence Fisher: Bring me a bottle. Yep. When you come see me, you would not pressure me into drinking when I sit next to you. Yep. So I gotta get you to start thinking that way and there, and it's I get you. I understand you. It's just hard for people to understand that.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. People don't get it unless you're living that life. People don't get, I have to tell even my family, like you don't understand, like why would you do that? Right? Like there was one time that, you know, we were having a family dinner and there was literally nothing that I could eat on the table and I was pissed. right. And I'm like, wait a minute, you invited me over right now. I don't have any family that lives in my area. Right. So we're sitting down to and literally you guys are having a great time. And then I was like, you know what? I, I had to rethink, I, I got really upset. Right. And got into it with a few family members. But what I will, cuz my attitude hasn't changed Clarence. But what I will say is that they just don't get it.
Sarah Teagle: Right. And I explain it that exact same way. Like if I was an alcoholic or a drug addict, you would not be bringing me that thing. But you're offering me cheesecake knowing that's my thing. Like, oh gosh, I can cupcakes and cake. I'm good. But cheesecake or carrot cake, like don't come at me. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like that's like an attack. Coming, attacking my soul. So, you know, there's just different things. And I like, I don't eat pasta anymore. I don't eat rice. And that's just a choice because I choose not to provide myself a lot of triggers. Yeah. Cause I know what my triggers are. I've learned that through this process and for me, it's easier not to be triggered and then feel like crap afterwards. So if I just have did it all together, I probably in the last three years since I, surgianniversary is what we call it.
Sarah Teagle: It's like your anniversary of your surgery is July 1st. So I'm coming up on three years. And lately what I've been thinking is, you know, like I have totally changed my relationships with my family, my friends. I'm more like to myself, not in a bad way. I just would prefer not to go to a lot of gatherings where I feel tempted because it's not worth it for me. So I'll catch you the day before or the day after, or Hey, when you know, like I'll come for a little bit, but I'll have a protein shake in my hand. So I'm not tempted or I'll eat before I go. So I'm full and I'm not thinking about it. Now, if I go hungry, that's when you're gonna have, you know, you get that issue. But I have to prepare in a different way for different gatherings. And there's people in my life that don't know I've had surgery or that meet me and they don't know, and that's not in any fault of them.
Sarah Teagle: So I always have to be prepared for that as well. You know, if you're working with coworkers and they don't know, they don't understand your story or the magnitude of what you have gone through. And so I'm just always very aware, but I probably distance myself from any social gatherings that involve food just for that reason. Because to me it's never worth it. And it kind of gets tiring just having to explain it all the time. Like, listen, I would just like, just call me after you guys are done eating and I'll come like, you know, so I think, yeah, I definitely food addiction is real. It is, it is a thing. And it's hard because I mean, if you think you turn on the TV advertisements for food, you everywhere you go fast food, restaurants, everywhere. And for somebody that really has that addiction to say, no, every minute you go by a fast food place or every minute you see a piece of chocolate or every minute you see a Mountain Dew versus a water. I don't know if that's your thing. Right? I'm I'm not a soda drinker and never really have been, but sweet tea speak Cole as well. So now I do unsweet tea. It's not as fun, like living a healthy lifestyle. People are like, like, why would you do that? Like, no, it's not as fun.
Clarence Fisher: Oh yeah.
Sarah Teagle: Like it's, it's not, it's not as fun to have to like prep meals. And I mean, I now enjoy it, but in the beginning, no, it's not as fun, but the way you feel and the difference you feel in yourself every single day and the energy, I'm sure you can relate to the energy that you have now versus when you were over 300 pounds. Like me, what? Getting outta bed. I was like, I just don't wanna do it.
Clarence Fisher: I didn't wanna take out the trash. Yeah. I didn't wanna walk to the car. It's just it's yeah, It was.
Sarah Teagle: Now I've lived five lives by noon, you know? Like
Clarence Fisher:
Sarah Teagle: I got kids, you know, like, yeah, it's crazy. Cuz I'm up at 5 am doing workouts and I'm going to bed 7 30, 8 o'clock you know, I'm cool. But I'm fine. But I would rather have my life be that than go back to the trash that I was feeling like when I was having fun,
Clarence Fisher: You know it's and this is, this is the reason that I created the party and started expanding it. I know one of the things that I wanted to do with this podcast is to tell the real side of weight loss because we don't hear it a lot. We see the pictures the, before the afters, whatever. But nobody gets into the things like what you just shared of. No, no, everyone listening is nodding of this, getting to a point to where it's dealing with this addiction silently. And because like what you said, because we have to eat, it's different than dealing with an alcohol addiction or drug addiction. Like yeah. You know, you can go to get togethers and there's not gonna be, you're pretty sure there's not gonna be drugs there. Right. Right. Or, well, at this point, at this point
Sarah Teagle: In all depend on your friend circle, you know, but we would,
Clarence Fisher: I'm just saying like at this point in our lives, we're pretty sure. Right. Or we can, but yeah, that depends on which circle we're in.
Sarah Teagle: Never dull moment. I'm trying to tell you.
Clarence Fisher: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But see, and that's, what's crazy when you're talking to somebody who knows, you know,
Sarah Teagle: I've known you for over a decade, sir.
Clarence Fisher: You know what I'm saying? I still got a pocket. Yeah.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. And majority of the time, if you're an alcoholic and people know like in your family or you're circle know you're an alcoholic. If they're right. If they're, if they're good people, they will intentionally not have alcohol around you and not have the temptation there for you. So they may tell everybody coming, Hey Sally, over here, you know, like let's not, let's have it be something that is alcohol free because you know, some people, you know, X, Y, Z, you can't do that with food. You can't say, Hey, give all the food home, but come for Thanksgiving.
Clarence Fisher: I do have some friends who at least they will be like, will make sure there's an option there. Like you said, like you showed up. I just went to an event a couple of weeks ago. And it was like, Hey, just bring a dessert or, or an appetizer. And you've probably gone through this phase two where you would wanna take something that everybody else is going to enjoy, even though, oh, you, you didn't ever do that.
Sarah Teagle: Oh, I did. I just bring it for myself. Cause I'm like, this is what I'm
Clarence Fisher: Well, this, this is what I'm saying, this what I'm saying. I, I would like wanna take something that everybody else would enjoy. So you say cheesecake, that's my thing too. Right. And so I'm like, Hey, just grab it, grab a cheesecake. And I won't open it.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah.
Clarence Fisher: Okay.
Sarah Teagle: Make a sugar free cheesecake the next time and bring it. I guarantee you. They won't know the difference.
Clarence Fisher: Well, this time. Oh, that's a good one. Okay.
Sarah Teagle: It's sugar free cheesecake and crust that you can get. And literally I've done that to my family. I'm like, yeah. I brought a cheesecake
Clarence Fisher:
Sarah Teagle: Yes. Oh,
Speaker 1: What, you know what I'm saying at this, at this point, it's like, you know it, like, I like, like, I'm that dude, I'm gonna be the only one with a scoop with
Sarah Teagle: Just, just gimme the tub. Like I just brought the tub, just put the blackberries in there.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? It's like, anybody else want Greek yogurt? Like, oh, that's the guy you told us about. Okay.
Sarah Teagle: Right. All I'm
Clarence Fisher: I'm leaving right after grace. Yeah.
Sarah Teagle:
Clarence Fisher: Right. You know what I'm saying?
Sarah Teagle: This's really what we had in mind. Well, right. These are my favorites. So this is what I had in mind.
Clarence Fisher: Exactly. So after a minute, nobody's gonna miss you anyway cause you know, but it does, it does get easier to just like you say, meet before or after like even that event.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah.
Clarence Fisher: I was going two hours before everyone else while he was cooking for grilling or whatever. And so that way I can be ghost I've I've shown up, you understand my struggle. Hey. You know, and then I'm out. Yeah. Right.
Sarah Teagle: Yep.
Clarence Fisher: But it's good to share with the people that I think you can. Yeah. What the struggle is because man, when you get home after giving in,
Sarah Teagle: It's horrible.
Speaker 1: I don't think people, I don't people who don't struggle with it don't understand.
Sarah Teagle: No.
Clarence Fisher: How defeated and depressed and you can feel. And so, yeah, you're right. To what you're saying is like, who wants to go through that? It's not worth it.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. And after you've had gastric bypass, you just can't. So I could, if I eat something that is not right for me, I could literally get sick and be in the bathroom for an hour or two. And then what are you gonna do? You're at your friend's house in the bathroom. That's not cute. Right? Like what you throwing up in their you know, like what
Clarence Fisher: Is, you could cover it up. You could grab like a bottle or something and cover it up.
Sarah Teagle: You know, it's like,
Clarence Fisher: Cause, cause what's lame. Is that all you did was eat a piece of.
Sarah Teagle: Right. Like, oh, come on. Oh it is. You're fine.
Clarence Fisher: Right.
Sarah Teagle: But yeah. I mean, you can, you can literally get sick from it. And so it's like, it's just not worth it. I'm not gonna take the risks. Like if I've never, especially right after you've had surgery, you go through certain stages of introducing food back into your life. You know, the first two weeks, your, your protein shakes and water. And it's just, it's just a job to get that in. And literally a job you have to time. Like you have to sit there and time yourself to have sips every 10 minutes. And that's the first two weeks. And then you go into soft foods where you can only eat like scrambled eggs, anything you could cut with a plastic fork. Right? So yogurt, eggs. I'm trying to think of what else. I ate a lot of yogurt back in that time.
Sarah Teagle: And then you go into solids where you get things back. So I couldn't eat vegetables after surgery until I was at least three months out. So you introduce food back and you never, you just learn very quickly. You, you don't try a new food unless you're at home because you don't know how your stomach it's. It's like a brand new stomach, which you don't know what a brand new stomach feels like. Cuz you know, we all are born with one stomach, but it is, it's just totally different. And you have to reshape your mind frame, your relationship, your taste buds are different. You it's just totally new. And the thing is, if you are not ready for that, like when I probably started researching it, I wasn't ready for that. Like I was still like, well I can't really commit to like never doing X, Y, Z, or never having a piece of sugar again.
Sarah Teagle: I don't think I can commit to that. But as I got older and I really, the way that I started feeling, you know, I was working at that point. I was working 12 to 15 hour days. The stress level, the just the intensity of life itself is big. And I'm also emotional eater. So if I'm stressed, I'm going to eat. It's part of the food addiction, right? If I'm sad, I'm going to eat. If I'm happy, celebrate, let's go eat. You know, it's food is everything like we've just talked about. And so there would be times I remember like I would be literally in corporate life, living off of coffee, we would order food and work through lunch. We would order dinner and work through dinner and then I would be driving home and I'd be like, oh, well I gotta pick something up.
Sarah Teagle: Cuz then on the way home I got like, when I get home, I'm gonna wanna shower and go to bed. Cuz I gotta get up in like three hours and do this all over again. And there was one time in my life. I was in corporate and I had reached out to you. I don't know if you remember when I was living in Orlando and three people I worked with had heart attacks. And that was around the time I started thinking about, I was like, you know what? This is not a lifestyle. I'm not trying to die. And I actually had a friend that I worked with that had the gastric sleeve and at that time, and so I watched her kind of go through that journey and that's when my mind frame started to change. And I was like, you know what? I need to do it. And so
Clarence Fisher: What is that journey? Like? How did, how does that start? If someone's thinking about it, what are, what are those steps?
Sarah Teagle: So if you're thinking about it or wondering if it's the right option for you, right. It's may not be, it may be the first thing is to reach out, do your research, right? I mean, Google is your friend. However, here's what I would just say in doing research. There's a lot of people out there that have really like nightmare stories. They have stories that are at like, I am like, oh my gosh. If I had to go through all that, that would be horrible. 1% of people that have any type of weight loss surgery have complications 1%. So you're hearing from those 1%, there's a lot of Facebook groups I'm in that I'm mortified by one, the stories that are told or just how their doctors are unsupportive, they don't give 'em guidance. They, they have, they gifted surgery, but they have no clue what to do after that.
Sarah Teagle: So the first thing I would do, like the surgery team that I used was amazing. And they're, they have a, a place in Tulsa. They have a place in Arkansas. Like they have a few different locations, but they have a plan and they walk you through a lot. But the first step I would say is Google. You know like what it looks like to have, like if you're thinking about the gastric bypass or the sleeve, there's a difference between the two and then set an appointment with somebody that does this type of surgery and what normally, if here's how I would say, if you know, you're going to a very reputable place, here's what will happen. Before you even have an appointment, you will go through a webinar or a meeting where you go to a meeting or you go to a webinar it's free and you learn about the different options that the facility will provide.
Sarah Teagle: So for example, my webinar, they talked about like the gastric bypass the sleeve and there was another one like the lap band and you really learn, it shows you the surgical procedures. It shows you what happens internally when that is happening, cuz each surgery is different. And then after that you make a consultation appointment in your consultation appointment, you and the doctor will talk about what your goals are. How long have you been working towards weight loss? It depends on like, how, how big are you? What do you weigh? What is your BMI? So a lot of insurance companies will pay for your gastric bypass or for your surgery. That would be another first step is like call your insurance company and say, do you guys cover weight loss surgery? If so, what are the requirements? So you're going in knowing what that looks like.
Sarah Teagle: If they say no, a lot of people will have payment options and payment plans and things like that. If that's, you know, something that you need. So don't necessarily worry about that too much. But if you're going to a place, those are the things I would start with. If they don't do any of those things, that would be a red flag for me. I would exit stage left and find some place else. Another thing though that I do see, and I, I personally would not do it, but I'll put that out there for people is a lot of people go to different countries to have weight loss surgery. I personally, I just could not, I couldn't be an option for me. I just would not. I just can't. But there are a lot of places that I've heard stories and seen videos where it's like amazing.
Sarah Teagle: And so you may research that as well. I chose to stay local and, and do it that way. But then once you go through that process, once you have your consultation, you do a lot of testing. So they wanna make sure that you would one be prepared for surgery and your body would be able to like be put under and you don't have any heart issues. You go through a psychological evaluation, you meet with a dietician and it's a process. You don't just walk in and get surgery. So it's normally a six month process and you meet with them often. So it depends, but you go through the dietician every month and you have goals to lose weight prior to surgery. And if you don't meet those goals, your insurance does not cover surgery. So it's crucial that during that time you're implementing the changes that your doctor will give you to start doing.
Sarah Teagle: If you do that. So I'll give you some examples. If you, they tell you to chew your food at least 20 times before you swallow. Why? Because when you have surgery of a smaller stomach and then chewing will make sure that one, nothing gets stuck in your intestinal track. But then also two is you're really digesting the food better because a lot of people don't chew their food properly and they're just swallowing huge pieces of chicken or huge pieces of food or whatever it is. So chewing a lot will help you in not being, not overeating because you're chewing enough to where, okay, so that's one thing. The other thing is you don't eat, you don't drink anything 30 minutes before a meal and 30 minutes after now, that's something that goes away eventually that you can actually eat before, but you never eat.
Sarah Teagle: My entire life will be that I do not drink until 30 minutes after I'm done with my last bite. And the reason that is, is because a gastric bypass patient, or even with the sleeve, I believe when they eat mal absorption is a key, right? Like you want the food that you just ate. Hopefully it's protein to digest. And for you to get the nutrients that's possible. If you drink water or anything, right afterwards, it goes right out. So you won't get the nutritional value that you needed from that meal. And then you're gonna be hungry because you didn't get the nutritional value. You didn't get that protein. That's gonna leave you feeling fuller and in an hour or two, you're gonna be hungry. And then that's when you start gaining weight because you're gonna continue to be eating, drinking, and flushing it right out, and then you're gonna eat again.
Sarah Teagle: And so it just, it doesn't work. Right. And so not to say, you can't have like a tiny sip and you know, like your mouth was dry or something, but, but yeah, you don't. I was a big, I used to drink sweet tea, like cups and cups of sweet tea with my meal. That was my thing. Like I could go through three or four glasses of sweet tea while I'm eating a meal. No problem. So those are, that's one of the big things, but you start implementing changes like that during that six month period. That's how you should at least right. Not everybody follows that, but if you're really serious about the journey, that's what you would start. You can't smoke ever again after you have surgery. So if you're a smoker, like I was a smoker often on, I have not had a cigarette, a black and mild, whatever. since the day I chose to have surgery,
Sarah Teagle: They do a nicotine test, a urinalysis that before you can have surgery, you cannot have any because it stops your healing process. If you start smoking afterwards, you can get ulcers. So these are the things that when they say like weight loss surgery is the easy way out. There are so many things that people don't know or don't think about that. Like Clarence, if you wanted to tomorrow, you could become a smoker again, fine. A body would care, right? I mean, except your wife, but you know, but for me, I could literally be damaging my body and then end up in the hospital. So it's just things like that, that we, I have to like really think about things before I'm putting something in my mouth to eat it. Or, you know, like, what is the nutritional value of this?
Sarah Teagle: You also, some of the one last thing I'll share is that you always are taught to eat your protein first. So I don't know if you consciously think about this the next time you sit down to eat, right? That a lot of people go for their carb first, their fries, their potatoes, their pasta, whatever it is, right. Their sweet potato. They're not gonna go jump to the veggie normally. Right? And they're going to let the meat sit for a little bit. It let's say you have steak and potatoes. Your first bite is probably gonna be a potatoes and so, or chips, right? If you like all of those things, if you think about it, they're all carbs and have no nutritional value. So you fill up on that and then you eat your protein. When you have surgery. The number one thing that you do is count your protein because you need protein to keep your hair.
Sarah Teagle: You need protein to make sure you have strong nails. Like protein is what fuels your body to fill full. But then also to have energy, like if you do studies on protein, it's, it's there, right? So that's why a lot of diets are low carb, high protein, like keto is low carb, high protein. However, it's a lot of fat can be involved in some of the things that you eat. So you just have to be careful about that. But the biggest thing is you always eat your protein first. So when you sit down to eat, you always see me. I start with my meat or my protein first. And then if you are not full or you have room, you have some bites of veggies and you have whatever else you have on your plate. So I could go on,
Clarence Fisher: which is I, I heard, I think it was a TikTok where you were talking about the hair loss.
Sarah Teagle: Yes. That's a, that's a big thing or, or a common thing?
Sarah Teagle: It is very common. So with the gastric bypass more than the sleeve. So with gastric bypass, the reason it's common is because you go through a phase where you have hair loss, it's different for everybody. Some people experience it, some people don't. I did experience it. However, your doctors are very clear, like it's gonna grow back it's okay. Right. So if you think about somebody, if you know anybody that's had gastric bypass, other than me, right? If you've seen them, they drop a significant amount of weight. Very quickly. I lost 167 pounds in one year and I've maintained it. And I was also pregnant. So my story was just a little bit different, but 167 pounds, I have, I haven't had to lose anymore. After year one, I've had to maintain it, which is actually harder than the maintenance mode is always harder. But for hair loss, I started losing hair around like six to nine months.
Sarah Teagle: And it lasted for a few months. Now I have long hair. So it sheds anyway, but it was thinning. I do have a TikTok video. It shows where it was thinning and where it grew back, which is upfront. Not a lot of people could tell, except for me. Or if you got like really close up on the face, which nobody's getting that close anyways, you know, like you can see the thinning pieces, but the reason is because your body is going through so many changes. And if you think about the calories and the new, the, just the calories and the protein and all that, that you used to get, and now your body is in, I don't wanna say starvation mode, cuz you're not starving by all means like you're eating and you're, you're good. But your body is kind of going through a starvation mode of its own, right?
Sarah Teagle: Like it's getting rid of all the toxins that you have put in from processed foods and all of the things that we put in our body that are horrible for us. And so, you know a lot of people take biotin. They, they, and I tried that. I did the shampoos that have biotin and that make your hair thicker. And there's a lot of different things that you can do during that process. But the biggest number one thing is to get your protein. And at that time I knew I wasn't getting my protein cuz I was pregnant. It was hard for me to hold down protein. So I knew that it was coming and I just was like, you know what I mean? There's not much I can do about it. So, you know, like just put a wig on if you need to, but whatever,
Clarence Fisher: We're not gonna get to the slap
Sarah Teagle:
Clarence Fisher: With all of this, you still felt like it was the best thing for you to do
Sarah Teagle: 125000%.
Clarence Fisher: So if someone has listened and thank you for sharing all those steps.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah.
Clarence Fisher: Breaking it down like that because cuz I guarantee you, there are a ton of people listening who were in that five year research mode. Yeah. And they're doing their research. They're probably in groups. They're probably seeing the, the horror stories that you're saying.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. Yeah. Nine times out 10, those people are not following their doctor's directions. Nine times out of 10, they went to a janky doctor.
Clarence Fisher: Yeah.
Sarah Teagle: Nine times outta 10. They're also the people that are posting about how they're going to McDonald's or I mean, I'll give you a story really quick. I was in the hospital, you stay, I stayed one night in the hospital and the nurse was like, they teach you like what to do for the next two weeks. And she was like, you know, you'd be surprised. Like you're doing great. You'd be surprised. And I was like, I don't feel like I'm doing great. You know? And she's like, no, like some people get outta the hospital. And like I had a patient get outta the hospital from having weight loss surgery and went and ordered a chicken sandwich from McDonald's ate it and ended back up in the hospital. Like people can die from doing those things and it's it's mind blowing like that. You're not ready if you're not ready, you're not ready.
Sarah Teagle: And that's okay. But if you are ready to make a life change and I guarantee it's not as bad as it may come across. Right. Of like, oh, all these restrictions, it has literally changed my life. And I would say to anybody thinking about it, do it. If you have, are researching and you have thought in your mind to do it and you know, your struggle and you know, personally, all the things that you have battled, and this is something that you are thinking about. I would at least go talk to the doctor, make a knowledgeable decision. But nine times outta 10, the experiences that I've had after meeting people that have had surgery, even if they've had complications, their number one thing is I wish I would've done it sooner.
Clarence Fisher: Mm.
Sarah Teagle: And that's my thing is I wish I wouldn't have took five years to do it.
Sarah Teagle: And I wish I wouldn't have been scared to be judged so much. And I wish that I would have looked at it and thought I need this for my health versus I don't wanna make that commitment because I might wanna cheeseburger in two years because the old meat now looking back, I find things that I can still eat a cheeseburger. Right. I use the Turkey ground turkey. I season that thing up and I don't have it with a bun. I put cheese and a pickle on top. It tastes the same. Yeah. But no carbs. Right? So there's, there's healthy options for everything, but 110%, I would say to anybody, if you are thinking about it, go start the process. If you feel like it's not for you, when you're in the process, don't do it. But I guarantee you, once you start the process, you'll become so excited that you're, it's it's life changing. Like it's, it's just amazing.
Clarence Fisher: And then what's really cool is whether they do that, you know, I'm sitting here thinking, you know, after that's done, then they can connect with you and get. Like you said, the maintenance. Yeah. You know, people don't understand that either. It's like, once you, once
Sarah Teagle: You, that was like the easy part.
Clarence Fisher: You know what I'm saying?
Sarah Teagle: And now you're like, okay, well I'm good. And then you realize like, no, if you go back to cuz those, the old habits creep back up, let's be honest. Like,
Clarence Fisher: oh yeah,
Sarah Teagle: You could drop a hundred pounds on your own or with weight loss surgery. And as I saw your, your post the other day in 100 Pound Party, it's about quest cookies. And what's funny is I thought about you the other day I was in the store and I saw quest cookie. I was like, good old Clarence, but there's still things that people perceive as healthy, but they'll make you gain weight and you have to be like, they're like, oh, well I can have a protein cookie. No, no, no.
Clarence Fisher: Right. 220 calories.
Sarah Teagle: Right? Yeah. And, but, but see, that's the thing is people just, they don't, there's a lot of people that don't understand unless you're walking in our shoes of having to lose a significant amount of weight. And it's good that there's so many like for us, right? Like we've both done it in, but just different ways. And I think the Testament is, is we both started different support groups, but it's still the same.
Clarence Fisher: Yeah.
Sarah Teagle: Right. Like we know the journey and we wanna help people. Yeah. And that's the biggest thing is if you think about it, when we were both overweight, we never talked about our weight. That was one topic that if I think about it, right, there was a lot of us that were overweight. Let's be real.
Clarence Fisher: Yeah. For sure.
Sarah Teagle: The, we should have been talking about that. We should, we shoulda we should have been talking about that on Mac Mondays. Like, however,
Clarence Fisher: That's what I'm saying. We didn't talk about health matter fact. We were, I know, at least I was actively trying to destroy my health on mag. Oh yes. Yeah.
Sarah Teagle: But then you, when I went home. Yeah. And when I was living my day to day life and I was trying to lose weight.
Clarence Fisher: Yep. Yep
Sarah Teagle: I was trying to battle Bulimia.
Clarence Fisher: I had no idea. So what you're saying is even at that time, we did not lean on each other for that.
Sarah Teagle: No you don't. Because weight is just like, it's kind of like, it makes people uncomfortable.
Clarence Fisher: Yep.
: It makes people uncomfortable because think about it back then. Who am I to tell you to lose weight? Mm. Who am I to tell you to, to live a better lifestyle? I'm not living
Clarence Fisher: Here. Well, I would've laughed it off.
Sarah Teagle: We would both have, we would've both. Hey F you buddy. Right. And let's kick back some whiskey or whatever, you know? Like some Crown,
Clarence Fisher: It would've been a joke, whatever. Yeah. Crown, would've been more like a joke.
Sarah Teagle:
Clarence Fisher: Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody was messing with you. Like, like, no. Yeah, yeah.
Sarah Teagle: It wasn't happening. But that's a coping mechanism. Mm-hmm
Clarence Fisher: I did the same thing.
Sarah Teagle: Nobody's gonna mess up with you.
Clarence Fisher: I did the same thing, right?
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So you, you think, well, if I'm overweight and I'm big, I'm gonna use it to my advantage.
Clarence Fisher: Mm-hmm
Sarah Teagle: so at least people will leave me alone and that's just a defense mechanism. And I've struggled with that. Even late. I've struggled with that now that I'm smaller.
Sarah Teagle: Oh yeah.
Clarence Fisher: Is like,
Sarah Teagle: Imagine. Right. So now I'm like, people will probably wanna kidnap you. You
Clarence Fisher: I was going to ask you that earlier, the first time that I lost a significant amount of weight, cause it's been two times and the first time I was literally, I couldn't handle it. I told you I'm a logical thinker and I am a thinker and it, it shocked me. I was like, that's not what's happening. And then I would go, I went to a conference and it was a conference of the same people. And it was, I mean, it's hitting me now. Like it, they don't tell you.
Sarah Teagle: yep.
Clarence Fisher: How differently people treat you.
Sarah Teagle: It's crazy. It is absolutely mind blowing.
Clarence Fisher: And I was just like, this is not really what that, and you know, I went home. I was like, yeah. So then all that comes back and you know, if you're not careful that can, I blew up again guys. I couldn't handle it. I couldn't. And it sounds so stupid that I couldn't handle the fact that people were opening doors. The fact that people wanted to do things, the fact that people, you know what I'm saying, they're holding the door now. You know what I mean? Like now I expected it. I expected it this time. But yeah, since you ask, does that kind of align with what you were talking about.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah, exactly. And the thing is like, if I think about, I'll give you an example.
Clarence Fisher: As a woman, definitely. For sure. Huh?
Sarah Teagle: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, I could tell you stories. Oh my gosh. It's crazy. So I used to be the cute girl with the cute face, the big girl with the cute face. So I mean, I, there was a, so I had surgery and a year later I go to a work conference I've lost 167 lbs. Literally. Nobody recognizes me. Right. Unless you've been on zoom with me and you work every day to day with me and you're on my team or, you know, the, the, but from the, I mean there's thousands of people in the previous company that I worked with, I'd been there for years. And literally nobody recognized me. I had to walk up to people and be like, Hey, so. And so like, how are you doing? And they were like, I'm like, it's, it's me, my name tag. Right. Like, and I'm like, oh my gosh. Because I look totally different. If you see me then to now I look, I mean, I've lost a person, but I totally look different. And so definitely men it's way different. The type of men are way different.
Clarence Fisher: Yeah. Yeah
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. The comments are way different and bold. Like, excuse me, what did you just say? Right. Like what, but I would say like holding of doors, people just ran like just being polite. Like, you know, people were polite, but now I also, I kind of bring it back to like when you're big and you're walking around, like you kind of play that part.
Clarence Fisher: Mm-hmm
Sarah Teagle: If you think about it, you knowing just me from back in the day, right. Is like, I was not smiling. I was always, you know, I'm the tough girl. Right? I'm hard. I, you know, like, come at me, if you want to type attitude and I've triggered very quickly.
Clarence Fisher: Mm-hmm,
Sarah Teagle: Where now I'm like, whatever. Okay. Like keep, keep it moving. Right? Like, so my attitude has probably changed a little bit, but I'm not as having to be as defensive or like just walking around guarded, I should say, because you're always as a bigger person, you're always waiting for somebody to say something.
Sarah Teagle: You're always waiting for a comment you're waiting for something to happen. So you can just use that weight to your advantage or just like, what, what did you say? And cuz you're bigger than them, you know? So you're gonna intimidate 'em hopefully. And now I don't have that mechanism cuz I'm literally like, I mean, I can still fight. Don't get me wrong, you know? But it's just totally different to where I'm kind of like quieter and I don't have to like walk into a room and be as boisterous as I once was because that overcompensating your personality. My self-esteem is different in a lot of people when they have low self-esteem they try to overcompensate for their, with their personality. It's just the way it is. Right? Some people won't admit to it or recognize it within them themselves. But somebody that is has a high level of confidence will let their actions speak for themselves.
Sarah Teagle: So when I walk into a room while I used to back in the day, I walk into a room and light it up. I light it up in a different way now. And so it's just your demeanor and your, you know, that kind of changes a little bit. And I think that's with any significant amount of weight loss, right? Whether you have surgery or not, but for your family and friends that are used to you being one certain way, and then you go around, I guarantee you. If I went around our group of friends from back in the day one, the conversations would be totally different. And then two, they would be like, what is wrong with you? Because I carry myself differently than I used to based on my weight. I mean obviously my life journey as well.
Clarence Fisher: Mm-hmm
Sarah Teagle: Right. Like, but my weight is a huge factor. I mean, it's a huge factor on how you act and how you show yourself in the community or show yourself to your friends. And so yeah, it is totally different people. Open doors. They're nicer to you. They, it's hard to explain, but it's like so different
Clarence Fisher: And I've gotta figure out how to explain it again. This is why I wanted to have these conversations. Because number one, for me hearing from you from another person, the exact same things that I can't verbalize and then so much more special it coming from you that yeah. You know, like we were saying before we even started like this whole, the fact that, okay, just start from Mac Monday and just go all the way to where we are now and then where you're running. Number one, our careers, you know, and we've made that comment just quick messages here. And there is like, well, dang. Oh yeah. But then bring it to even this where you've lost that much weight. I'm at 111, the goal is 150, but now helping other people. So you're helping other people I'm helping other people with this. So I don't know. It's just crazy. God is like, I don't know.
Sarah Teagle: You would've never thought back then that we would be where we are right now. Like it's mind blowing.
Clarence Fisher: Ever
Sarah Teagle: Somebody could have told us how this would unfold. And we would've been like, yeah. Right,
Clarence Fisher: Right. It made it would make no sense. Yeah. It would absolutely make no sense. So let's talk about this because I know there are, you know, as you can imagine, my audience is mainly women and women between 30 and 50. Okay. And big up to you women listening to me. Thank you.
Sarah Teagle: What, what
Clarence Fisher:
Sarah Teagle: I'm in that age range too guys. So don't feel bad.
Clarence Fisher: Well, this is what I'm saying. I, they are relating to you relating to what you're saying relating to your energy and you have Teagle fitness going on. What is that?
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. So Teagle Tough Fitness is a company that I started based on the fact that any person needs support while they're losing weight, whether it's a spouse, whether it's a friend, whether it's your family. I mean, a lot of people don't have that support or it's very scarce and that's whether you have surgery or you don't. And so my company is for anybody and you don't have to have weight loss surgery, but I offer three different memberships. And so the first one is free and you get access to a Facebook page and Clarence you're in there where we literally talk about anything. People post like different recipes. And I post lots of things. There's on my website. You can read my blogs about my journey and just different topics. I normally drop blogs about two times a week. And it's just something new. It talks about pregnancy.
Sarah Teagle: It talks about pregnancy while losing weight, right? Everything is weight related vitamins. How did I get here? Like mental health, being a mom and trying to lose weight. I'm a mom of two young boys. So living a corporate life and staying busy and healthy that's I mean, it's women specifically. They go through a lot of things and there's a lot of stigma around how we should act, how we should look, how, how much we should weigh, what we should be eating, what we should be doing as a wife, what we should be, you know, all of those things. And while losing weight and not having anyone to help you can be exhausting and everything that you do can feel defeating. Like you said, like you go to an outing and you come home and you feel defeated, cuz you've just cheated on and ate some carbs or you've ate something.
Sarah Teagle: You know, you shouldn't have, you need people to understand your journey. And one of the main reasons I did it is I didn't have anyone to understand my journey. Like I literally met people when I was in pre-op appointments and I still am in contact with them today. And those are there's one or two that have known me from the time I started my journey until now obviously I have some longterm friends that may or may not have supported me. I had one that was like, that's the dumbest idea you've ever had. And one that was like, Hey, I got you. That's I'm totally do it. And so the support factor is key and that's what the Facebook group is just for community support. Everybody's sharing their struggles, their battles and things like that. And then also I'm in the process of writing a book just about my journey.
Sarah Teagle: And that'll be, I have no idea when that is coming, but just started on that. But the memberships are key. So there's three different memberships. The second one. So the first one's called Fabulous and Free. The second one is Deliciously Deluxe. So it gives you right
Sarah Teagle: And he has blessed me with this opportunity. And he has blessed me with not only just a corporate successful career, but also the ability to lose weight and a lot of people like we yo-yo right. And you know, I know we've both done it. And I'm just so thankful that for the last three years I've been on top of my game, cuz at any minute you can trigger, it can trigger. And I feel like, you know, and that's a fear, right? When you lose a significant amount of weight, the fear is man. Like I don't ever want to go back to being big again. Like I have to do everything. It becomes kind of like an unspoken anxiety and it can create some panic like, oh, I just had this like, oh, I'm gonna gain five pounds or you step on the scale every single morning just to make, make sure you haven't gained anything.
Sarah Teagle: Those obsessive behaviors come with food addiction. And so understanding and just having somebody to talk to about it. For me, I've done several podcasts. They're very therapeutic because you and I have never been able to talk about our weight, but you and I have probably had so much of a similar journey. And even just talking to you today, I'm like, man, I never knew that Clarence was going through some of those things. Or I never knew that he felt the way I did because you're man, I'm a woman. Right. You we've, we've had different journeys. But at the end of the day, the support and being there for somebody is huge. And if you don't have anybody, I wanna be that person, Clarence, you wanna be that person, like all these people that are really genuinely wanting to help people. I think that's the biggest thing is we're out here trying to make people aware that food addiction is real, that the weight loss journey is not as easy as people think it is. Maintenance is definitely harder. Especially if you have kids, like imagine that you have to have, you don't have to, but kids are kids, right? Like you want 'em to have access to like fruit snacks, like fun stuff.
Clarence Fisher: You don't want 'em to grow up to be killers. You should
Sarah Teagle: Right. You gotta give 'em a little Debbie snap snack. Right, right. But like, I think about it that I grew up in a house that did not have sweets that did not have little Debbie snacks because we couldn't afford it. We lived off Roman or Roman. That's my son Roman and like rice and just cheap food. Yeah. Because I grew up with a single mom of four kids. So if I'm able to introduce, like I tried broccoli for the first time at 25. Wrap your mind around that 25.
Clarence Fisher: I don't know how old I was. I'm sitting here thinking mom was single with five kids too. I mean, there's like, I don't know, later on, we're gonna have to, we're gonna have to do another episode like later on.
Sarah Teagle: We will cuz you just think about it. There's so many things that go into weight loss and diets and all that. Like just food in general. But, but yeah. I mean check out the website. It's Teagletoughfitness.com.
Clarence Fisher: Yeah. And we'll put it in the, uh, show notes too.
Sarah Teagle: That's some of what I do on my TikTok as well. You've seen it, right? Like, yeah. I just try to cause awareness of, I had some people ask me like what about fruits and veggies and things like that. And so as a bariatric patient, you don't wanna eat a lot of fruits cuz they turn into sugar, which sugar then turns into fat. And so apparently like, well you would say losing weight for yourself too. You don't wanna eat a lot of fruit.
Clarence Fisher: Right. For sure.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. So I think that's anybody, you know,
Clarence Fisher: which kills me because I love like if you can't eat the other stuff, then it's like, okay, so I can't eat grapes. I can't like grapes are like crazy, crazy sugar, you know? Yeah.
Sarah Teagle: But you think about it is a lot of people walk around and think that, well, fruit is healthy, but it's not. I used to like watermelon, pineapple, grapes. Like those are my.
Clarence Fisher: The sugar content of a watermelon is like,
Sarah Teagle: Man. And I used to, I mean, I'm talking about, I used to cut up a whole watermelon. Yeah. And I would eat watermelon like sometimes all day, every day
Clarence Fisher: The kids, They, it would get cut up and Hey go sit on the porch and you get this huge like slice.
Sarah Teagle: It's crazy. So it's, there's just so much. But, but yeah, if it's just, I think we're both in a, in a place where we're trying to help other people and it's exciting.
Clarence Fisher: It is. It is. So we'll put the links in the show notes definitely. Before I let you go, this is the tradition. It is the interview deck.
Sarah Teagle:
Clarence Fisher: One question. Okay. This, this is the way this works. I still don't know how to like slice them and dice.
Sarah Teagle: You don't know how to shuffle?
Clarence Fisher: Right. Well, Hey, Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, I can, I can cut if you cut the deck. I'll
Sarah Teagle: These are, these are appropriate questions, correct? Before I agree to. Okay. Making sure you know.
Clarence Fisher: Yeah. We're not getting too crazy,
Sarah Teagle: Making sure we're not getting crazy.
Clarence Fisher: Yeah. It's not not too crazy.
Sarah Teagle: I'm gonna pick number. Mm I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with number 20.
Clarence Fisher: Oh, dang good. Okay. Here we go. What? I don't even know if I can count that. I just, I say what?
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll go With number 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 there's ten one two three, four, five. That's how they do at the bank.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah.
Clarence Fisher: Okay. Here's the question.
Sarah Teagle: All right. Drum roll.
Clarence Fisher: So who was the best boss you ever had and what made them the best?
Sarah Teagle: Me? No, I'm just kidding. That was everybody else's question that has ever worked for you.
Clarence Fisher: I'm like she's taking this self confidence thing a little far. Isn't yeah.
Sarah Teagle: I take it to the extreme, right? Yeah, no, I'm just kidding. The best boss I have ever worked for. Whew. Okay. I would say I'm not gonna say their name, but there was a boss that I have worked for and she, okay. I'm gonna break it down in a little corporate manner.
Clarence Fisher: Hmm. Translator stand by.
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. Right. Corporate world is still a man's world.
Clarence Fisher: Is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Sarah Teagle: Yeah. And put that out there. So I'm sorry for all the guys watching that are in corporate America, but a woman in leadership is very empowering. I'm I've been in leadership for over 20 years, but somebody that this leader in particular was very connected to do personality types, a lot in the corporate world. And so if you know anything about different personality types, there's like a feeler right. And very InTouch and like feels emotions. And that's how they operate. I'm the opposite. I'm a controller and I'm very matter of fact, like, Hey, we don't have time for feelings here. Okay. People now over the years. Yeah. I know. That's you two, I know over the years, right. Of working with this leader, I, it started to rub off on me. Right? It's like the compassion behind this person in leadership was very inspiring to me.
Sarah Teagle: And it helped me become a better leader because while you do want to be, you know, not necessarily a hard, which, you know, we all have, you gotta get your stuff done. You gotta run a business. I'm in operations, like you have to run a business. That's just how you run a business. And so sometimes a lot of people get caught up in that and forget that we're all human and that leader I'm forever grateful that I worked with her. One, it was a female. And then two, just that, that gift that she gave me by watching her be a leader and understanding that there's a time and a place to have feelings, there's a time and a place not to incorporate America. And as women were judged a lot on, women are emotional. And so being a feeler or being more in tune and compassionate can sometimes come off as we're weak. And that's not the case, actually a leader that is very well rounded as she was in the action portion and compassion to accomplish the business goals to me is very admirable and inspiring. And she stood up for exactly who she was and what she believed in at all times and showed true character. And so for me, that would be the best boss that I ever worked for.
Clarence Fisher: That is so awesome. It is awesome that seriously, that you were even open enough to receive that lesson from a feeler because a lot of thinking types won't, you know, and man, I'm so glad that I'm getting to know this Sarah. It's one thing to see it from a distance. And another thing have conversation
Sarah Teagle: Was say, I, we have ever really had a conversation about years.
Clarence Fisher: We haven't, we haven't like maybe
Sarah Teagle: Texting or like, you know, through Facebook, but really we haven't, that's crazy.
Clarence Fisher: Right? Like this is it like
Sarah Teagle: Next time in and I'm in town, we're gonna have to like go for a walk.
Clarence Fisher: Whoah! Just, just the Turkey.
Sarah Teagle: Is there hiking trail?
Clarence Fisher: It's just the Turkey, just the Turkey mountain. That's it. You know,
Sarah Teagle: There we go. We'll go for a walk.
Clarence Fisher: You're giving me a lot of time today and you know, I'm gonna lean on the friendship I think is what is what that is. But I appreciate it. I really do.
Sarah Teagle: Yes. I appreciate you inviting me to, to have a chat. We gotta do this more often on and off the podcast.
Clarence Fisher: Absolutely. Absolutely. So when you hit your, what goal do we hit for you on your, do you have a membership goal for your either Facebook or your Twitter or your TikToks?
Sarah Teagle: Yeah, so I'm trying to hit, well, I'm far off, but I'm trying to hit at least 2000 followers right now on TikTok. That's my goal. Okay. So I'm almost there for that. I have 40 members currently, so I'm looking to double that absolutely. Within 60 days. So those are just some short term goals that I have for my business.
Clarence Fisher: Boom! Done, like, like, like I just waved and it's done, go follow her on TikTok. And when you get there, look up the Iggy Azelia video and you'll get a small glimpse of what it was like back in the day.
Sarah Teagle: You're welcome. Thank you.
Clarence Fisher: Thank you, Sarah. And thank you so much for listening. Thanks for tuning in. I appreciate you so much. Please subscribe to the show and if you have time head over to apple podcast, leave us a rating and review. I can't wait to share next week's episode with you until then go to 100PoundParty.com. Join the free newsletter for more tips and strategies on how to lose 100 pounds or more and keep it off for good. You can also join our free Facebook group as well. Speaking of Facebook, if you love this episode, take a screenshot, share it on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn tag me, Clarence Fisher, #100poundparty. And like I said, subscribe on apple podcast or wherever you listen. Well, that's it for this episode until next. Remember let's to take slight rights to success, make it fun, make it easy. Celebrate often and you'll win.
Hosts & Guests
Clarence Fisher
Sarah Teagle
About This Episode
Weight loss surgery is a big decision, and it’s not right for everyone.
This podcast will help you decide if weight loss surgery is the right choice for you.
Learn about the different types of surgery, the risks and benefits, and what to expect after surgery.
So before you make any decisions, be sure to listen to this podcast. You may be surprised at what you learn!
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