Vielka's Podcast Transcript
Neil Dudley: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Pederson’s Farms podcast. We are so excited you’re here. We appreciate you joining us. And we look forward to sharing these conversations with thought leaders from our industry. They’re going to paint a picture from every perspective – consumer, customer, vendor, employee, and peer – that I think is going to be super valuable, and we’re really excited to share. So, thanks for tuning in. Remember don’t tune out, and grab life by the bacon.
Hello. I appreciate you coming here. I know your time is not free to you, so we want to add value. That is the purpose of the Pederson’s Farms Podcast, and we’re going to explain some more of that. But right now, I got to be honest, I’m selfish, I want everybody and their dog to come to KetoCon. So go to ketocon.org and use the promo code bacon for $50 off your three-day pass. If you’re in the area, if you just want to become a part of the keto community, please come to this. Now, the reason I say I’m selfish is Pederson’s will have a booth. We’re going to be serving bacon, sausage, ham. We want the opportunity to show our products to you. We’d love to give you a better understanding of what we do and how it tastes. I believe if you give our products a try, we’ve got a really good chance of you becoming a fan, an PNFer we call them. And that is partially why all five episodes this month are focused around KetoCon. I’m interviewing, we’re talking to, we’re having a conversation with people that will either be speaking at KetoCon, founded KetoCon, working the Pederson’s booth at KetoCon. So, I think it gives you a really good opportunity to see and understand and hear a little bit before you even have to buy the ticket of what value is going to be there. So, thank you so much for just giving us that opportunity. Again, we’ll put all this info in the show notes, but ketocon.org, use bacon in the promo code or discount code to get you $50 off your three-day ticket. I really appreciate Robin giving that to us, and I hope you use it. Now, my name’s Neil Dudley. I’m the VP of Business Development at Pederson’s Farms, and I host the podcast. I’ve been in the industry for 20 years now, maybe a little over, and I worked my way up from a QA tech position to the C-suite. I mean, I really only got in the business because my best friend since kindergarten was made president of Pederson’s and he said, hey, will you come to work for me? And I was like, sure, I think that’d be fun. So now, all these years later, we’re still doing it and we’re still having fun. And I think it’s a great time for me to share these conversations and access to thought leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs, people that are making the food you eat. They are totally a huge piece of where your food comes from. And these stories are what I believe you have the right to know, understand, and get to hear. So, thanks for listening. If you love it, tell somebody, share it on social media. We need the support. We need for people to hear the story, I need your help getting it out there. If you didn’t like it, feedback is always welcome. We need that. We want to make it better. We want to make it valuable to you. So, if you want to hear what KetoCon’s going to have to offer, keep listening. I promise these people will add value and give you insight into the keto diet, the keto lifestyle, and many other things, everything from carnivore diet to intermittent fasting, to eating nose to tail, to how you keep an event alive throughout a pandemic where it’s pretty much shut down for a couple of times, a couple of years. Anyways, keep listening. Let’s do this thing. Thank you so much.
Vi Melendez: [Spanish]. Between the cowboy and the Caribbean, it’s like totally relaxation.
Neil Dudley: All right, everybody, this is the Pederson’s Podcast. And we’ve got Vi; I’m going to let you say your whole name, Vi, just because I’m pretty sure I would not get it exactly right. And she’s going to talk to us about her story, how she is going to be participating at KetoCon, what she’s planning to do there, maybe talk about the keto community, talk about the keto community in the language of Spanish and how that is really a niche she’s carved out for herself in the community. I did just think I want to say thank you so much because I had lost a guest that we had planned to do an episode with, and you just answered the call and came running. And that’s one of the great illustrations of the keto community, actually, that they will just come running to help.
Vi Melendez: That’s exactly how it works, Neil. Thank you so much for having me. You told me to say my whole name, are you sure? I’m a Latina; it’s a long one.
Neil Dudley: Yes, most definitely. Those names are beautiful. I just don’t say them very well.
Vi Melendez: Yeah. Well, everybody calls me Vi, even though my original Dominican name is Vielka. And as a Spanish speaker and a Latina, it is Vielka Rafaella Melendez Franco. So you can imagine we have two names and we have two last names which makes our language even richer.
Neil Dudley: Yes. Okay, so help us with that a little bit. If I’m looking at your Instagram, which everybody should Google Vi Melendez and you’ll go be able to see everything she’s doing. We’ll put links to her Instagram, her social really website. Anything we can have to drive you or give you the opportunity to go see what she’s all about, we’ll put them in the show notes of this episode. But tell me about those two last names because I don’t see the Franco on most of where I look.
Vi Melendez: Well, maybe it’s because Latinas are a little bit feminist. I’m not sure. But the thing is that we keep our mom’s maiden name. So, Melendez is my father’s last name and Franco is my mom’s last name. So, I think that it’s kind an honor there that we can, women can keep those second last names, give the second last name to their children, which is something very interesting. I think it’s a very Spanish culture originally from Spain. So, it looks like it has its history, maybe related to the kings and the queens of back then. I’m not sure.
Neil Dudley: It does make understanding your family easier for your friends and for people that know your family – oh, okay cool, that’s how Vi works into the puzzle. Although I don’t know- see, in America- I say America, or at least for me, my mom’s maiden name is almost always some security question answer. Well, now you can’t use that because it’s in your name.
Vi Melendez: Oh, yes. That’s going to be a problem after this podcast.
Neil Dudley: Right, uh-oh, sorry. I just let the cat out of the bag.
Vi Melendez: No, it’s okay. We live here. I live in the Dominican Republic, and even though I have a lot of connections over in the US, it’s basically all of- every Dominican knows almost everybody’s mom’s last name. So usually in the bank, they will know it. In your ID, it is identified. So, I’m not sure how are we going to be able to keep it a secret here in Latin America. So, it’s usually not used as a- Maybe the first name I think banks may incorporate it. But I don’t think that the last name of my mom is going to be a security question. It’s not going to be a secure one.
Neil Dudley: Yeah, that’s right. It could be a question, but it’s not going to be a very secure one. Well, like part of this, just this conversation makes me so excited, so appreciative because it’s really an awesome culture to have on the show and for you to give our story a little bit of access to your culture and your people. So, it’s just all the reason we do this. It’s the reason you and I are taking some time, and anybody listening, your time is the thing you can’t get back. It is more valuable in my opinion than money. Time, our time, what we do with it is so important. So, the show, this time, this conversation, I want it to be valuable to whoever’s listening. It is already valuable to me because I’ve already learned things that I don’t know otherwise. Now, tell us a little bit about your passions. I got a sneaking suspicion keto is going to be threaded in there some, but let’s talk a little bit about that because I think people are going to learn a lot when they start hearing where you come from on that.
Vi Melendez: The reason why keto is a passion, and right now I am a hundred percent dedicated to it because it’s part of my work, is because I actually saw changes in my body, and I was actually able to reverse certain health conditions that I had. So, when I started keto, I was already in nutrition. I was already considering organic, real food. I was already trying to make a change in my nutrition, but I was a little shy about implementing keto because a lot of people were talking about cholesterol, a lot of people were talking about fat. It didn’t sound like something that made sense to me. So, I was very heavy back in 2018. I started to get the heaviest I have ever been without a belly because when I was pregnant with my first kid, my first child, I actually got to weigh 180 pounds pregnant, almost giving birth. But this time I was not pregnant, and I had the exact same weight as my first pregnancy. And I was feeling bad. I was pre-diabetic. I suffered hypothyroidism. I suffered IBS, irritable bowel syndrome. I suffered polycystic ovarian syndrome. I had a really long list. Every time that I mentioned it to the community, everybody’s like what? You had all that? Yes, unfortunately, I did. And I was drinking around nine pills every day. It got to a point when there were 11 because I was involved in a car accident and had to drink some painkillers also for my back. So, imagine a 36-year-old sometimes drinking 11 pills a day. So, there were various medications, and you can imagine how they would interact and how they would cause more and more complications because I started with one doctor that will indicate one pill, and then it started to just add up to more pills and more pills and more pills until eventually there were 11. So, I realized that I cannot allow that my health depended only on doctors. I had to do something about it. They were trying to help. They were trying to make me feel better, but I was not responding the way that I should. And I started to look into nutrition, and after getting this type of weight, keto sounded like the best solution because I really wanted to lose weight, and I thought that I could really see a difference in my health if I am able to lose those 40 to 50 pounds that I had back then.
Neil Dudley: Wait a second, I want to butt in because I’m curious. I think I want to just needle on losing weight. Why? Why did you want to lose weight? Because there’s a bit of a stigma around females, probably anybody, but I think it lands on women harder. If you’re overweight, it’s kind of you’re not attractive and these kinds of things. So why were you wanting to lose weight? Because I’ve heard you say pre-diabetic, just didn’t feel good. What was your reasoning?
Vi Melendez: I think that trigger, the exact trigger was that point in which I had to switch from a size 12 to a size 14, almost 16. That was kind of like the point where I said no, there’s no way that I can fit into the 12 size, and I have to move to the 14 but I won’t. So, I just started to block myself and started to realize that I needed to do something. I mean block my growing process. And in my family, nobody is overweight. Everybody is, as a matter of fact, we have always been very underweight, let’s say, according to the average. So, when my father, who’s 95 right now and has always been taking care of his health and has always been a pretty lean man, saw me, he would say, oh my God, like literally he would come up to me and tell me you’re fat. That fat word.
Neil Dudley: What did that feel like?
Vi Melendez: It felt horrible. It felt like I was- that he wasn’t proud of me. It felt like nothing that I can do can actually make him feel good.
Neil Dudley: Do you think he meant it that way?
Vi Melendez: He just mentioned it kind of like as a health concern.
Neil Dudley: I mean, I could see myself- I have three daughters, and it’s hard because like you love them. There’s no change in your love for them. It’s really probably fear, and you’re just expressing it in a way that’s painful. I’m kind of like, shucks, I really want to be able to tell you this, but I don’t want it to affect your self-esteem or make you think I love you any less or any differently, but how do you do that? It’s almost impossible.
Vi Melendez: My father was already somebody that was very direct, and we have been brought up in a household that was very conscious about eating properly, having the proper weight. So, hearing that was not something that would affect me, at least the communication that we had, because I know not all families have the same way of communicating. I’m talking about a Latino household where we’re like really direct, we are really straight out, and we know what to take in and what not to. But it did hurt my feelings. And I think that at some point, you need to understand that it will hurt your feelings, and that’s not something negative. It’s something positive. You cannot feel good about being overweight. I’m sorry. I know a lot of people struggle with their weight and a lot of people think that they can never be on their ideal weight, which is not true. There are many ways that you can be on your ideal weight. You don’t have to be overweight. Of course, you need to have the proper perspective because especially us women, we see a number in the scale and that’s basically kind of like a rule. You need to obtain a specific number that you probably had 10 or 15 years ago. Like when I was in my teens, I was very, very lean. And I can’t have that weight again because it was probably under my ideal weight. And now after two kids and 43 years old, I better be heavy instead of light. So, especially when you have muscle and especially when you lift weights, you need to be heavy. So, when we consider measurements instead, like you would never want to be more than a medium size. Like if you’re a large, it’s going to depend a lot on your body composition, but especially for example, in your weight, in your waistline, you need to have a specific number, which is not something that only keto people talk about. This is something that is in the World Health Organization, it is established as an ideal waistline that people need to look at. So, if you consider numbers to be a guideline, you need to really focus on that ideal waistline instead of only the weight. And the hurting process is part of a wakeup call. You need to understand that you’re not happy with what you’re probably seeing in the mirror and your family is not happy either. They probably cannot find the right way to say it to you, but it needs to be something that you put emotion into it because you’re talking about your body. You are not going to get another body.
Neil Dudley: It’s also change. Like change requires energy. I mean, it just does. There’s no way around it. Whether it’s positive, negative, whatever, any change requires energy, in a lot of cases. And I would argue, weight on a scale, waistline, all these measurements, they are important, and you’ll try to avoid it, or you can feel our culture a little bit saying, oh, don’t do that, that’s actually you’re kind of holding people to a standard they don’t want to be held to. They’re totally happy just the way they are. Well, I don’t know their life. All I can say is I know in my life, if I am moving, active, getting my heart rate up, sweating daily, I do better. And I do not eat as like clean – clean might even be the wrong word – just I don’t set a great example for my daughters of diet. So now they’re going to have things in their life that they have to deal with. It’s just an inevitable truth.
Vi Melendez: Yeah, there’s a lot of temptations also, Neil. We’re in an era where you go into- when you go into a restaurant and the options that you have are hamburgers, things that you- of course, you can have clean hamburgers, you can have them prepared properly. You can even have keto hamburgers or low-carb hamburgers, but the options that are there that you’re used to eating, the options that actually call your attention, they’re not very healthy and they’re not going to do you good. So, I kind of like to have all of those different types of temptations maybe in moments in which you can actually celebrate eating those types of foods. But you would rather keep it in your household and your home with your family as, let’s say, as clean as possible, at least whatever does not affect the progress of whatever health condition that might appear that is just too common lately in Latin America.
Neil Dudley: Why do you think humans think the other food is so good? It’s not. I would argue eating clean is just as good and flavorful as any other way of doing it and better for you. But I still have, I still want the ice cream. I still want the Skittles. I still want the stuff that’s just terrible for me.
Vi Melendez: Yeah, my theory is that they have been engineered for that. They have been engineered to be addictive. Like one of the examples that I use a lot with my community is you can drink let’s say half a liter of Coca-Cola while you’re eating. Have you tried doing that with water? Are you able to drink half a liter of water while you’re eating? That’s impossible. Like I have tested it with people. I’m like switch it, just switch it around. Just instead of being Coca-Cola, make sure that it’s water, and a lot of people would tell me, I cannot even drink half of the content because it has been engineered for you not to feel full. So, your stomach constantly is growing and growing and growing. And these foods are also engineered to be addictive. And you don’t get full as fast as you would get with real food. Like, are you able to eat like, what, two ribeyes with bacon? You are not able to eat it unless you’re like, I don’t know, maybe Shawn Baker. But a normal, let’s say, my size woman, more I would eat was probably a 9 or 10 on ribeye with nothing else. So, when you have real food, you would get satiated pretty easily. Now, when you have these types of engineered foods, starting from wheat, you will not get that satiating power that many real foods have.
Neil Dudley: I live that. I mean, I did this weekend over Memorial Day; we had pizza. One piece of pizza is all I need. Like you put a piece of pizza there and a steak, I would eat the steak, be done. But no, I just keep, like I can eat. And I think that’s a challenge to the listeners. Find those things. You need to be educated about those things that cause that to happen in your life. I know pizza’s going to do it to me every time. The second I decide to eat pizza, I know I should stop. But sometimes I don’t, and I don’t spend a lot of time beating myself up over it. I just say, oh yeah, that was a- I’m lucky, I have a metabolism genetically or naturally that is high, and I don’t battle weight, but I battle other things.
Vi Melendez: You know what, Neil, if you prepare that same pizza and you make a keto option, like probably with a cauliflower, let’s say, how do you call it? The crust or probably with almond flour crust, or maybe a chicken crust or a keto option, you will not be able to eat the number of slices that you probably would eat with conventional pizza because it’s filling. Like sometimes when I prepare food for my family, I’m like are they really going to be full? Let me prepare something else. Let me do some more. And I end up seeing that they’re full with just small pieces because also selecting your ingredients properly is key.
Neil Dudley: That’s totally true. We will put basically a little charcuterie board out for dinner sometimes. There’s just salami, hard cheese, olives, tomatoes. And it’s not a lot of food, but the whole family of five is full, happy. It’s like why? Why ever do anything different? But we still do. It’s just this, it is a thing that is you need- it’s almost like it is addiction. It’s not almost, it is addiction. It’s the same feeling drug addicts have. Any other addiction, it is the same kind of thing.
Vi Melendez: It could, it could, and especially if sugar is involved. I was hearing a dietician the other day, I think he was from Mexico, and he was talking about how keto wasn’t sustainable because no traditions were considered in keto, which was incorrect. There’s a lot of traditions that you can just flip around and switch around and convert it into keto. Since Latinos, we’re very into our own plates, we’re very into our history, and eating what we used to eat when we were children, it’s important for us to keep- those tastebuds already have already have been conditioned to eating that. And the same thing happens in the US. Now back when we were in the 70s, probably we were able to eat all that. We were eating hamburgers. We were eating pretty much the same thing that we’re eating now. But the thing is that we have been re-engineering our food, and probably wheat is not being agricultured – I’m not sure if that’s the word – but it’s not being correctly processed either. So, it has been enriched also with synthetic vitamins, synthetic minerals, and all of those things can affect not only the addictive aspect of the food, but also, the way that we process it and the way that we become insulin resistant, and we become heavier by eating them because we start kind of like not only growing in size, but also, we’re completely suffering from inflammation inside. Like now these foods are causing damage in our body. And I think that it’s because we try to make so much of it that we’re missing the point of making it with enough quality other than just quantity.
Neil Dudley: Sure. A guy named Paul Grieve said it like this once. He started the company called Pasture Bird where they’re just raising chickens on pasture, and they move the coops. He said it like this, and I think it’s true for a lot of vegetables, beef, chicken. He says, we talk about all this stuff, like oh, grass fed, pasture raised; 50 years ago, my grandma just called that chicken. It wasn’t- it was that’s chicken. That’s broccoli. That’s lettuce. Because it was coming out of their gardens or they were buying it from local or even trading for it with local other local people. So, I totally agree with you. I mean, I’m living that truth that our food, we just have to pay attention to it. And I think that’s what this conversation is all about is, hey, pay attention. If you feel overweight, you probably are. Outside of some of those also addictions or anorexia, bulimia, there’s other real truths there that I have never experienced. I can’t speak from that perspective. I don’t know what that feels like. But I do know we all have this journey that we call life, and it seems to be a little more fun if you’re taking care of your health.
Vi Melendez: I absolutely agree. And I lived it, and this is something that would not trade for anything. I would not go back to those 11 pills ever in my life.
Neil Dudley: So, are you taking any pills anymore?
Vi Melendez: Zero, nothing.
Neil Dudley: That’s a great story. It really makes me excited. Like wow, people, you should follow her, and you can learn and hear stories of I’m sure other people that did the same thing.
Vi Melendez: Absolutely. Of course, I started, I worked with my doctors. It wasn’t something that I just stopped doing because I woke up in the morning and didn’t want to continue doing it. It was something that was planned. I did some substitutes. I started with supplementation, things that I was able to incorporate instead of the medical form, the supplementation form. And it was a process, and it was a weaning down method, let’s say, with my doctors. And of course, the diet needed to be a hundred percent on point. I was not able to go back to the Nutella. I was not able to go back to McDonald’s. I was not able to go to any of these fast foods until I was completely treated by my nutrition. So, when I was able to switch my numbers and my health indicators started to improve, then the doctors were feeling more confident. So just telling me okay, whatever you want, if you don’t want to continue drinking anything, I think that your indicators are looking good. Of course, not all of the doctors were a hundred percent with me. There were many that would say, like for example, my endocrinologist, she told me if you don’t drink that pill, once you’re 45, you’re not going to have any hair on your head. So, she was like completely no, no way. There’s nothing that you can do. I started doing my research. I started speaking to functional medicine doctors. I started to test and try things out, and it looks like it worked out. And now, I don’t even drink a pill. My head doesn’t hurt, so I don’t need to drink a painkiller. No part of my body hurts. I just feel this enormous energy that I cannot get rid of. It’s like I want to do more and more and more. And my body just can’t stop moving. And I feel like I’m in my 20s. And I think that I reversed all of these conditions, and I think that I also reversed aging. Like my body was aging so fast, and I was feeling so bad, and now I just feel great. And I want everybody to feel the same, the same as many other people that have been doing keto.
Neil Dudley: That’s right. That’s an exciting, fun thought really for anybody. So, how do you mentor people? What’s like the first step? What’s the first thing? Because I imagine your transformation didn’t happen- See, I feel like we all want it tomorrow. Okay, cool, just tell me what I need to do, I’ll do it today, and tomorrow I’ll be fixed. No, it might take a year. It might take six months. It might take five years. You have to be ready to put the energy into the change.
Vi Melendez: Yes. And it first starts with the decision, Neil. Sometimes we kind of like jump that initial point. You need to be- you need to make a change in not only your body but also your mindset. It all starts here. It has nothing to do with the way that your body is structured. It has nothing to do with what you’re seeing in the mirror. It has everything to do with how determined you are to make the change. So of course, I’m motivated. Of course, in my events or in the events that I go to, or my social media, I’m always motivating – come on, you can do it, you can do it. But that part just lasts a couple of days. You need to be disciplined. You need to know what your intentions are. What is it that you want to obtain? That’s one of the first questions that I ask. What are your main goals? What are you looking for? Because sometimes it’s not about weight. It’s about the way that you feel. You want to feel this same energy, or you just don’t want to continue taking pain medication because you have a headache every day. So, what is it that you want to change? That particular goal, that objective needs to be here. Like every moment, that’s what you’re going to obtain. It’s like there’s- I use this example a lot, and it’s a little extreme, but I use it with members of my community. Like when people that have been told that they are never going to walk again, how come they do walk? Or how come they do- and even though if they don’t walk, if they’re in wheelchairs, how come they obtain Olympic medals and they just live their dreams? How do they do it? What are your thoughts? And I always like to pull out those thoughts for them to feel what that person with determination is feeling. Because of course, you’re going to run into a lot of problems, a lot of trouble, a lot of challenges, but you need to be focused on what you want to obtain. So, if you’re focused, if you are really decided, if you are tired, you’re just-
Neil Dudley: You think you’re so tired you can’t do it, but that’s why you’re so tired.
Vi Melendez: Exactly. So, I was tired. Every time that I drank all these pills three and four times a day, I had to get all of these pills together, I had to remember. I was young and I was drinking more pills than what my 80 something dad was drinking. So, he was almost in his 90s without drinking any pills at all, just probably once a month for his blood pressure. But other than that, he would not drink any pills. And I was drinking all of these pills, just feeling worse, and going to the doctor every other week. So, I had to spend that time waiting for doctors’ appointments, giving that a follow-up, which I was tired of that. I didn’t want to continue doing it. I wanted to start living my life. I didn’t want anything to hurt. So, that initial decision making is something that we really need to do, and we need to look inside and identify how we’re going to know what that is that we’re going to change.
Neil Dudley: I got to know, what gave you that skillset to be that determined and that, I guess, just to stay with it, like go ahead and just grind it out? What gave you that skill set? Do you know? Or did you build it?
Vi Melendez: It was built very step-by-step. I made a lot of mistakes, Neil. If I would’ve known about electrolytes, I would have had a better start.
Neil Dudley: Well, I mean, are you an athlete? Is some of the skill set for just starting a hard journey and knowing it takes time and how you stick with that in the hard times? On the days that you just wake up and your mind is saying screw all this, I’m not doing this anymore, I quit, how did you get through those days?
Vi Melendez: I would just- look, the reason I mentioned the electrolytes was because my keto flu was one of the worst. I didn’t know that we had to drink electrolytes. I thought that the salt was optional. My keto flu was kind of like- I would make jokes about it. I would say like I had to die to relive and to live my new life because keto flu was the worst for me. My sodium levels were horrible. So, I think that starting is an important point. Once you feel you have all of the information, it doesn’t mean that you need to know it all in order to start. You need to start. You’re going to make mistakes.
Neil Dudley: I love that. Start. Just get going.
Vi Melendez: Just go ahead. Just start. And you will ask in the process, you might probably find somebody that will tell you, or oh, you’re doing keto, what do you do with this? Are you doing this? Have you felt this? And probably you will- I’m still learning. Everybody’s still learning. And I’m already four years in this, and I’m still learning, and I help people do this. And I’m still learning. You’re always going to make mistakes. You’re always going to be learning. But I think that the best advice that anybody can give anybody that wants to change is just start. Just initiate. And of course, find as much information as you want, as you want to obtain to feel comfortable. Maybe buy a book of somebody that you like reading and just do whatever the book says.
Neil Dudley: I’d say follow Vi, or Vi, sorry. I told you I’d do that. But follow Vi. She is like, just see this smile? By the way, if you’re not watching on YouTube, she’s just smiling ear to ear. Like you can’t be sad in her presence, so be around her. Even if it’s not Vi, find someone that is- you can build this community of people that are just there, they’re there to pick you up. They understand this world is abundant such that no one else has to fail for them to succeed. So, they just want to see everybody succeed.
Vi Melendez: Absolutely. There’re many accounts. There are many ways of learning. There are websites that you get for free that you find recipes on. You just need to Google keto, and you’re going to find a lot of information, a lot of enthusiasm because this community has too many ketones, and we’re just always just transferring ketones to each other. And it’s like, I would describe it like a unicorn, kind of like everything is just flying around with all of these rainbows and this positive energy that we just pass on to people. Like once I was told- Once I was told, like they met me, and I was in an interview. Well, it was actually a radio interview when we got there, and I went with a couple of friends, and we were all in our 40s. We’re all ladies. And one of the people from the radio show, they were like how come everybody that’s in keto, is this a diet only for young people, or how come everybody that is in keto is so young? Like don’t you have anybody that’s like in their 40s and 50s? And we’re like, really? I’m 40-somehting, I’m 40-this, I’m 40-that. And he was like no way, no way. And he was telling me like everybody that I met in keto was young; I never asked them their age, but I knew that they were young because they transmitted this energy and because they were always so upbeat. So, they might be surprised that they would have asked their age.
Neil Dudley: Totally. Vi, it has been a pleasure. We’re already way over 30 minutes. It goes by so fast. There’s been a ton of great understanding in this conversation from your perspective. If I could get you to take maybe 30 seconds, 45 seconds and give me an intro in Spanish, like something that we could maybe move to the front of the episode just for the Spanish speaking people, just to make sure they understand we see them, we want them to be a part of our community, we want to be a solution for them. Can you do that for me?
Vi Melendez: [Spanish] That means absolutely.
Neil Dudley: All right. Oh, this is what I do know. This has worked well for me a couple of times, just [Spanish]. That’s like a real proper way of saying good to meet you. That if you get some Spanish speaking people and you tell them that, they remember you.
Vi Melendez: You would be remembered. It was very properly pronounced.
Neil Dudley: Yeah. Okay so, also, everybody, this is a KetoCon episode. We’ve secured a discount code for anybody that wants to go to KetoCon. Put the word bacon in the discount code and you get $50 off your three-day ticket. So that’s kind of another little plus for listening to this episode. So, thanks everybody. Vi, thank you so much. It’s great to meet you. Now I’ve got a new friend in the Dominican Republic.
Vi Melendez: Yes, you do. Yes, you do. You’re more than welcome to come. I will be your tourist guide.
Neil Dudley: All right, good. We’ll do it. I got to bring the family. See, we got the kids. I’m not even sure if we have to have passports to go to the Dominican Republic, but either way, we’ve got them so we can go. We’ll go check it out.
Vi Melendez: Yes. I think you do need your password because it’s an international flight. It’s just two hours. Well, it’s just two hours away from Florida. So, you calculate whatever it takes you to get to Florida.
Neil Dudley: Well, it’s not very far, ultimately. It’d take longer to get to some state up in the Northern states of the US. But it really was fun. I appreciate it. Thanks again for being the quick responder to my need of help, to help somebody. And this has just been a great episode. I’m glad for everybody to get to hear it.
Vi Melendez: My pleasure, Neil. Thank you so much for contacting me. I loved speaking in your podcast. I think we have interesting topics, and I love your product also as well. And I hope to see you at KetoCon.
Neil Dudley: Yes, ma’am, we will. I’ll definitely high five you at KetoCon. See you there.
Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Pederson’s Farms Podcast. It’s been a blast bringing this to you, and I sure hope you enjoyed it and found value. If you did, tell a friend, share it out on social media, hit that subscribe button, or go check us out at pedersonsfarms.com. We sure hope you do. And thanks for being here.
More in-depth description coming…
Links:
Visit us online
Visit Keto Con
use code BACON for $50 off!
Topics:
(4:46) – Introducing Vi
(9:56) – Why is Keto a passion of yours?
(13:14) – Stigmas around losing weight, eating properly & Vi’s personal weight loss journey
(32:10) – How do you mentor people?
(41:23) – Spanish & Ketocon!
The Pederson’s Farms Podcast is produced by Johnny Podcasts & Root and Roam.