Participants: Cheri Peters (Host), Michael Carducci Jr.
Series Code: CLR
Program Code: CLR000111A
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00:01 The following program discusses sensitive issues
00:03 related to addictive behavior. 00:05 Parents are cautioned that some material 00:06 may be too candid for younger children. 00:11 Welcome to Celebrating Life in Recovery. 00:13 This episode we're gonna talk about choices 00:16 and you made some pretty twisted choices. 00:19 But if you want to hear that you got to join us. 00:21 So come join us on the café, Choices. 00:54 We're going into our ninth season, 00:56 last season we celebrate out of 100th program 00:59 and we have covered a ton of things. 01:01 We have covered-- we've had convicted sex offenders, 01:04 we've addicts, we've had prostitutes, 01:06 we've had strippers, 01:07 we've had a religious addict which was real scary to me. 01:10 But I mean, we just have covered 01:12 so many different things and people 01:14 and ways of recovery, but this season 01:16 I think it's gonna be the most important, 01:19 but its gonna be the most honest for me 01:20 and I may not even have the job at the end of it. 01:23 So I want you to know that this season, 01:27 please don't write it off, 01:28 don't think you know what we are talking about. 01:30 We're gonna talk about maintenance. 01:31 We're gonna talk about how do you stay in recovery? 01:34 How do you grab hold of your life and not let go? 01:37 How do you say no matter what I don't care 01:39 what comes against me, 01:40 I'm actually gonna choose to live 01:42 and I'm gonna have a life that I was meant to have, 01:45 and I don't care if it's a good time 01:47 that I have to go through or bad time. 01:48 I don't care if I'm stressed 01:50 or I'm just like whistling dixie 01:52 I'm gonna get through this, and I wanted to say-- 01:56 last a couple of weeks ago, 01:58 I had to go in for surgery and I have cancer 02:01 people know that I have large granulocytic leukemia 02:04 and when I got diagnose, I warn like a baby. 02:06 It's like I don't want to have cancer 02:08 or this is not good, this is not okay with me. 02:11 And so I get used to it, 02:12 I start seeing the oncologist every three months, 02:14 they do bone marrow biopsies, 02:16 and they tell me I have to be healthy 02:18 even if I don't want to and I'm like wait, 02:21 I hate-- I have authority issues 02:23 I don't like people telling me what to do. 02:24 So you know I'm having a look at all that kind of stuff, 02:27 and then I have a major meltdown of crises. 02:31 And my whole intestines twist and when your intestines twist 02:37 you could die within hour's right. 02:40 So I go into hospital they untwist it, 02:42 you know and they literally don't do it surgically, 02:44 they put tubes down my throat, take pressures off and untwist. 02:47 They send me home four days later 02:49 I'm back in the hospital. 02:50 And I'm like stop, shut up, I don't even do this 02:53 well, I don't do pain well or anything. 02:56 My oncologists meet with my surgeon, 02:58 they think you know we did CT scans, 03:00 I think you have cancer in your intestines 03:04 and I'm like nope, I don't want that. 03:07 So you know they talked to me 03:09 and finally they say you know what, 03:11 we're gonna have to cut you open 03:13 take that part of your intestines out, 03:15 its like four inches or seven centimeters 03:18 and hopefully you'll end up-- with just those, 03:21 tie your intestines tied together 03:23 or you'll end up with a colostomy 03:25 and all that kind of stuff, and I'm like wait, 03:28 wait somebody stop. 03:29 I don't want that and I remember just struggling 03:32 and I have a gig in Australia, 03:34 and I'm gonna go there for a few weeks, 03:36 I'm gonna fly back, I only have three weeks 03:38 that I can have down time 03:40 so we got to get that surgery done 03:41 and I can be home and do some healing and-- 03:44 so, I get back from Australia on Friday 03:46 go in for surgery on Monday. 03:47 They cut me open, they take all of my guts out, 03:50 you just got to imagine this, 03:53 because you know when I imagine this 03:54 I think no wait, to call your guts out 03:56 went to 22 feet of intestines and it couldn't find anything. 04:01 I can't find anything, I can't find the cancer, 04:04 I can't find anything, they stuff everything back in. 04:06 I'm hoping they put it all in a right place 04:08 sewed me back up. 04:10 And so now I have to look out at this point of my recovery, 04:14 I have to know that everything matters, 04:17 even what I choose to eat, 04:19 how I choose to take care of my body, 04:21 what I choose to do. 04:22 What they diagnosed me with was celiac disease, 04:24 they said you have celiac disease. 04:26 You have to not eat grain and you have to watch 04:28 what you eat and you have to watch 04:30 and take care of yourself in that way. 04:32 If you don't the next time 04:33 we come in will take out some of your intestines. 04:36 So I'm like, shut up. 04:37 So what-- this time we're gonna look at 04:39 not so much just physically 04:41 the changes that we have to make. 04:43 Like right now I have to make major changes, 04:45 because you know what, I like my intestines. 04:47 I didn't even know they were there 04:49 until this guy pulled them all out. 04:50 Now that they're out, and back in 04:52 I so have some respect for them. 04:55 There's a guy at 3ABN I lost since I had the surgery, 04:59 I went from a size 12 to a size 8, 05:03 just by not eating grains, 05:05 right cakes and breads and all that kind of stuff. 05:07 So I'm thinking I'm celebrating 05:09 and he thinks they just didn't put my intestines back in 05:12 that was the way it changed, 05:14 but you know so now I'm realizing 05:15 that everything matters. 05:16 And so now I'm gonna tell you a in a emotional sense 05:19 what I mean by everything matters. 05:21 This story is not has-- 05:22 doesn't have a happy ending like mine, 05:25 because not only does my story have a happy ending 05:27 but for whatever reason as I do with this issue 05:31 that I have physically, 05:32 as I do with this issue with my intestines 05:34 and the celiac disease, 05:36 it takes the inflammation down in my body 05:38 and my oncologist says, 05:40 more than likely your cancers gonna go away. 05:43 And I'm like shut up, how fun is that. 05:46 So not only if I choose to take care of this, 05:49 not only am I not gonna have to do with losing intestines 05:52 well, I'm not gonna have to deal with cancer 05:54 and chemotherapies and all that kind of stuff. 05:56 So in an emotional sense 05:57 I want you to transfer that over, 05:59 I'm gonna give you some stuff this time, 06:01 that we're gonna look at physically, emotionally 06:04 and with your recovery issues 06:05 that if you get it you're gonna save yourself tons of stuff. 06:09 I have a recovery groups that I run, 06:12 if you're ever in our area 06:13 if you just come want to stay at our place, 06:15 people come and stay at our-- 06:17 at our ranch for like a week at a time 06:18 and deal with some issues. 06:20 But anyhow we have our recovery issues 06:21 this woman this girl gets is recovery 06:24 and she is amazing. 06:25 She has a meth addiction and she has anger issues, 06:28 and she was molested as a kid, and you know everybody thought 06:32 you know, she's got all of this junk 06:34 her whole life she dealt with people 06:35 calling her fat, until she did meth. 06:38 She did meth and all of the sudden 06:39 she was so cute 06:40 and then she got all kinds of good stuff, 06:43 she couldn't stop. 06:44 So she gets in recovery and she's just dying 06:47 because now she's dealing with gaining weight again 06:49 and all that crazy stuff is coming back up. 06:52 So she ends up going to a doctor, 06:55 and the doctor says that they're willing to cut out like 06:58 three forth of her stomach 07:00 and that she'll start to lose weight again. 07:02 And I'm--, she tells me about that. 07:04 She is so excited, 07:05 they're gonna cut out my stomach, 07:07 I'm gonna be thin, I don't have to do meth 07:09 and I'm like what? 07:11 So I'm gonna convince you to cut out your stomach, 07:14 because you know why you are not doing meth, 07:16 but you're eating your brains out. 07:18 You're using food as a way to cope, 07:21 you are using food like volume, 07:22 you are losing-- using food like sex 07:25 and if you cut out your stomach 07:26 and you cant use food, you're gonna kill someone. 07:29 Do you know what I mean? 07:30 And I said that to her and I said do you know what, 07:31 this is not minor stuff. 07:33 Our addictions are huge. 07:35 When we don't deal with them in an appropriate way 07:38 by making those tiny choices when we just say, 07:41 you know what just cut it out, we're in trouble. 07:43 And I remember thinking please don't do that. 07:46 You know I-- you know, I know your struggles 07:50 and don't do that and of course, 07:53 you know that doctors said it was okay, you know. 07:55 And please I don't care who says its okay, 07:57 recovery is a little steps at a time. 08:00 You can't just jump in and get it all done at once. 08:03 If I could take a pill and be normal, 08:05 I would take that, because I'm still not normal. 08:07 You know what I mean? 08:08 So, I would so do that, so anyhow she goes in 08:10 and she gets her stomach cut out, 08:12 and she comes out within a first three weeks, 08:14 she loses like 58 pounds she is stoked, 08:17 but she can eat three ounces at a time, eat or drink. 08:22 She can't drink a full glass of water. 08:24 So she is not hydrated, 08:25 she's not getting any nutrition, 08:27 she can't cope and so she wants to put 08:29 something in her face and she can't do it. 08:32 And she gets more and more agitated. 08:34 At one point she blows up, 08:37 beats up her child, breaks her collar bone 08:40 and she's hits herself in the head and she is gone. 08:44 And I'm thinking man, I loved her, 08:48 I miss her, that's so tragic and it's tragic 08:52 because in any kind of recovery, 08:55 in any kind of journey everything matters, 08:57 all the little stuff 08:58 and we can't jump over the little stuff. 09:00 We can't do-- we can't just go somewhere else 09:03 and say you know what, I'm just gonna do this 09:05 and this is gonna be good, we can't do that. 09:07 All of these things matter and so this season, 09:10 we're gonna talk about all of those things, 09:11 we're gonna talk about it hopefully with something's 09:14 that will make you laugh, 09:18 but man, some of the things are not funny. 09:20 Losing my friend, and this girl early in her recovery, 09:25 watching this three year old now try to survive 09:29 watching her mom shoot herself is not fun. 09:32 You know, she's gonna have to grow up 09:34 and try to deal with those images 09:35 and all that kind of stuff. 09:37 But if can say to you, if I can say to the next person 09:40 we work with and the next person in recovery 09:42 is please, please, please know that these little choices 09:47 that you're gonna do everyday may not seem to be a big deal 09:50 but there are big deal. 09:51 We're gonna look at just simple things right now 09:54 and I'm gonna look at like seven things 09:55 that I want you to think about on this program. 09:58 And one of the things is get some sleep, get some sleep. 10:02 I don't know about you 10:04 but I love-- I love to be on my-- 10:07 the phone to my friends or skyping them in Australia, 10:10 it's a middle of the afternoon to them. 10:12 To me it's a 2 o'clock in the morning 10:14 but man, I'll stay up and I'll hang out 10:16 and will talk or whatever. 10:17 I'll be on Facebook, I'll be researching something, 10:20 I'll be doing worship, 10:21 in the whole time God is saying, 10:23 get to bed, get to bed 10:25 because if you don't sleep you're gonna be crazy. 10:28 If you don't sleep you're gonna be tired tomorrow. 10:30 If you don't sleep you're gonna be agitated. 10:32 When your spouse or friend comes in your place, 10:35 you're not gonna be as kind as you need. 10:38 If you don't sleep and you have an out to do 10:41 one of your addictions more than likely 10:43 you're gonna lean towards those addictions. 10:45 So I'm just saying the first thing in your maintenance 10:49 is that you cannot not sleep, 10:51 you can't, it has to be part of it. 10:54 Man, if somebody that's truly a health nut 10:56 or my doctor that just have my just guts in her hand, 11:00 my husband says I spilled my guts to my surgeon. 11:03 But my doctor says don't eat between meals, 11:05 you know really start taking care of yourself 11:08 and what you put in your mouth. 11:09 If you have some food allergies, 11:11 if you're diabetic don't eat a donut. 11:13 My grandmother is diabetic, she died of her diabetes, 11:16 you know literally is just you know, 11:19 her breakfast was vodka, orange juice and a donut. 11:22 And If try to get her to eat anything else 11:24 I would hear say to people in the living room, 11:26 I never did like that, child. 11:28 You know what I mean, because that's-- 11:29 you know, that was her thing. 11:30 But if you're diabetic, don't do that. 11:32 If you have problems with being hyper, 11:35 you know check out what you eat. 11:37 And don't eat all day long, eat a good breakfast, 11:42 I mean this is stupid I sound like you're mom, 11:44 I'm sorry but I'm not your mom, 11:47 I'm just trying to say that it all matters 11:49 and I promise you, it all matters. 11:52 The maintenance of your weight, 11:55 like my friend she was 100 pound overweight, 11:59 so she felt bad and she felt depressed 12:02 and she felt like all of that kind of stuff, 12:04 she felt like she wanted to do meth 12:06 to get skinny all that kind of stuff. 12:07 So start looking at our weight issues. 12:09 Start looking at all that kind of stuff. 12:11 The next one I want to look at is, 12:13 you know regular physical exercise. 12:16 Don't you hate this? 12:17 I do sound like your mom, I'm so sorry, 12:20 but get out and let the sun hit your skin. 12:22 Because you know vitamin D helps our cell tone 12:25 and serotonin levels go up in our brain 12:26 which makes us feel good, and it's a big deal. 12:29 So get outside, take a walk put your feet in the sand. 12:33 Well, they're finding out with all the stuff 12:35 that we do in staying online, 12:37 all the junk that we're doing online, 12:39 we're losing grey matter. 12:40 Our brains are shrinking because we're not using them. 12:43 We're in virtual worlds more than 12:45 that we're in a physical world. 12:46 So a part of recovery is that you have to move. 12:50 Man, I love playing golf, I like tennis, 12:52 I like skiing, I like bowling, 12:55 you know get out and find something 12:56 that you like to do that will take you physically somewhere 13:01 and I don't care what it is. 13:02 If you are overweight, 13:04 and I have friends that are extremely overweight, 13:06 they can't do a lot of physical activity. 13:08 Just move your feet in a chair. 13:11 Do you know what I'm saying? 13:12 Don't even stress yourself about 13:14 you know what I'm not doing jumping jacks, 13:15 don't do jumping jacks but just move your feet. 13:18 This is gonna-- some of my friends 13:20 will want to kick me for this next one. 13:22 Stop smoking, you know if you don't have your lungs, 13:25 you don't have anything. 13:26 And I-- I want to-- you know I don't know 13:31 if you're gonna write in 13:32 and get mad at me for saying this, 13:33 but God's not gonna walk away from you 13:35 because you have a cigarette hanging out of your face. 13:37 But He does really want your lungs to work properly 13:39 and your circulation and all that kind of stuff, 13:41 so in your maintenance part of recovery, 13:44 it matters that you're circulation is okay 13:46 and it matter that you can actually 13:49 start to get health that way. 13:50 So if you're smoking, if you're-- you know 13:52 if you can drink a bottle of tequila in one sitting, 13:55 you know check out that kind of stuff. 13:57 And stop walking away from those really unhealthy things. 14:01 So the next one, so reduce the alcohol stuff. 14:04 You know some people say absent is all together, 14:07 for me the only reason I say absent is I'm not alcoholic, 14:10 alcohol was never my issue. 14:12 But if you give a couple of glasses of wine, 14:14 I want some heroin. 14:16 So you know so I got right to what my addictions are. 14:19 If you give a sex addict a couple of glasses of wine 14:22 or help him smoke some weed 14:23 they're online on the internet 14:25 looking up some porn stuff. 14:27 So those kind of things will really trip you up. 14:30 So please don't write me if there's other issues 14:33 and you just want to talk about health some, 14:35 I'm talking about to maintain, recovery, 14:37 you have to watch those kind of things. 14:39 So these objectives, these things 14:41 that I'm looking at it just ways to help you 14:44 that are really kind of simple things, 14:47 they sound simple 14:48 but they'll make your recovery possible. 14:50 Don't look for shortcuts. 14:52 If you look for shortcuts they will kill you 14:54 because they really don't work. 14:56 Somebody will say just take this pill 14:57 and you'll lose weight, 14:58 just do this and you'll feel better, 15:00 whatever but those shortcuts will kill you. 15:03 And-- so this season we're gonna talk about 15:06 some of that kind of stuff. 15:07 The first program that we're gonna look at this program, 15:10 I'm gonna introduce you to a friend of mine, 15:11 he is so twisted. 15:12 Well, I should say he was so twisted. 15:15 But I'm gonna introduce you to a friend of mine, 15:17 we're gonna talk about his journey 15:19 and where he came from, 15:20 but we're gonna look at on this program specifically 15:23 that choice that you make everyday. 15:25 Because the choices will either lead you 15:28 to a life of recovery and happiness, 15:31 you'll laugh out loud in your own skin, 15:33 you'll actually start to be able to got hold of your life 15:37 and enjoy your life or it will lead you to death. 15:41 You'll have, you know, most of the people 15:43 in my family died of liver disease 15:45 and alcoholism and drug addictions. 15:47 My dad died molesting kids in the crack house. 15:49 So I mean, you know, all of that kind of stuff 15:51 and so it's gonna lead you one way or the other 15:53 but every choice put you on a journey. 15:56 And so be careful of the choices that you make. 15:58 Don't stress about them 15:59 but just know that it does matter 16:02 and I wish for you life, okay. 16:05 So come back, I'm gonna introduce you to a friend, 16:07 you're not gonna want to miss his story, 16:09 this is wild. |
Revised 2015-02-12