Eighty Pounds Twice is my personal story — what worked for me, in my life, over many years. It isn’t medical, nutritional, or professional advice, and it isn’t a prescription for anyone else. Talk to a qualified professional before changing how you eat, fast, or exercise.

This podcast is narrated using an AI clone of my own voice. Same words, same stories — just a simpler way for a one-man operation to bring the book to audio.

And go for a walk,

Trey

I’m going to the States for a month.

Jess isn’t coming.

It’s a business trip, and the timing didn’t work for her.

So I’m doing the thing I do.

I cook.

I do most of the cooking around here anyway. And I don’t love the idea of her having to start now, just because I’m gone.

So before I leave, I fill the freezer.

A week ago it was black-eyed peas.

Her favorite legume.

A huge batch, with plenty of smoked pork belly — for the flavor, and to make it a real meal, not a side.

Ten giant portions. Vacuum-sealed. Flat-packed. Stacked like files.

Then came gumbo.

Chili con carne.

White chili, because we found some beautiful green chilis.

Country green beans.

Thai curry.

Shakshuka.

Smoked tanguige, portioned and packed.

By the time I was done, there were nearly forty meals in the freezer.

All of her favorites.

All freeze well.

All reheat in the microwave with nothing required from her but the wanting.

That’s the whole point.

She won’t have to cook for a month.

She’ll just have to be hungry.

People say a lot of things about love.

I’m not great at most of them.

But I can fill a freezer.

———

Here’s the part that worked out.

The trip lines up with my family’s annual Pawleys Island vacation.

Same beach, same week, nearly fifty summers.

So I’ll be back on the sand where this whole thing started.

Fourteen years ago, on that beach, eighty pounds heavier, I decided to change.

I’ll be there again this year.

Lighter.

And she’ll be home, eating well.

That feels about right.

And go for a walk,

Trey

Eighty Pounds Twice is my personal story — what worked for me, in my life, over many years. It isn’t medical, nutritional, or professional advice, and it isn’t a prescription for anyone else. Talk to a qualified professional before changing how you eat, fast, or exercise.

This podcast is narrated using an AI clone of my own voice. Same words, same stories — just a simpler way for a one-man operation to bring the book to audio.

And go for a walk,

Trey

Eighty Pounds Twice is my personal story — what worked for me, in my life, over many years. It isn’t medical, nutritional, or professional advice, and it isn’t a prescription for anyone else. Talk to a qualified professional before changing how you eat, fast, or exercise.

This podcast is narrated using an AI clone of my own voice. Same words, same stories — just a simpler way for a one-man operation to bring the book to audio.

And go for a walk,

Trey

Eighty Pounds Twice is my personal story — what worked for me, in my life, over many years. It isn’t medical, nutritional, or professional advice, and it isn’t a prescription for anyone else. Talk to a qualified professional before changing how you eat, fast, or exercise.

This podcast is narrated using an AI clone of my own voice. Same words, same stories — just a simpler way for a one-man operation to bring the book to audio.

And go for a walk,

Trey

Eighty Pounds Twice is my personal story — what worked for me, in my life, over many years. It isn’t medical, nutritional, or professional advice, and it isn’t a prescription for anyone else. Talk to a qualified professional before changing how you eat, fast, or exercise.

This podcast is narrated using an AI clone of my own voice. Same words, same stories — just a simpler way for a one-man operation to bring the book to audio.

And go for a walk,

Trey

Same route, most mornings. I could probably do it with my eyes closed by now.

But if you walked it with me — if you’d just flown in from America — you wouldn’t make it five minutes without stopping to ask what something was.

Because most of what I walk past every day, many people have never actually seen.

There’s a cacao tree that hangs over a wall I pass. The canopy shades the street. The pods grow straight out of the trunk, which still looks wrong to me after all these years.

That’s chocolate.

Sometimes one drops over the wall onto the street. I’ve never picked one up.

I’ve wanted to.

But it still feels like stealing.

And I can hear what else is back there — a rooster. Which is against HOA rules, for what it’s worth.

There’s a jackfruit tree in an empty lot I pass. The fruit hangs straight off the trunk too, except these are the size of toddlers.

You’ve tasted jackfruit before. You just don’t know it.

It’s Juicy Fruit gum.

Somebody in a lab surely spent years approximating what’s growing happily in a vacant lot for free.

I pass pomelo trees too.

The fruit hangs too high to reach. Every time.

Which is a particular kind of torture, because pomelo is my favorite fruit in the world.

So I just look up at it every morning like a man in love with something sitting on a shelf he can’t quite reach.

There are banana trees everywhere right now. The neighbors harvest them and share them with whoever is nearby.

Friendly. Social. Home.

And there’s annatto.

Bright red fuzzy pods hanging off a beautiful bush.

I steal those.

Or at least it feels like I do. I pocket the seeds on my walk to make my version of tocino.

By the time I get home there’s calamansi waiting. Three trees of it in my own garden. The little citrus most people will never get to cook with, and I’ve got more than I know what to do with.

That’s the thing about living in Cebu long enough.

What I once knew as ingredients, I now know as plants, trees, vines, and neighbors.

And go for a walk,

Trey

Eighty Pounds Twice is a memoir-cookbook for people who love great food and have struggled with weight. Not a diet book. A system built around flavor — and the story of losing eighty pounds twice to prove it works.

Flavor is non-negotiable. → eightypoundstwice.com

I live in 220.

My Chef’sChoice sharpener is 110.

So there are bright orange stickers on the cord. Bright orange stickers on the machine. They both say:

110 ONLY, TREY.

I’ve ruined enough gear over here.

Not this one.

I don’t want to talk about the three vacuum sealers I blew up in one year.

It’s still a little too soon.

But I digress.

If I had to bet the farm, I’d put it on this:

I have the sharpest knives in my barangay.

And that’s probably a good thing.

A sharp knife is safer than a dull one, but that’s not the real reason.

The real reason is that sharp knives make cooking easier.

Tomatoes slice easier. Onions slice easier. Everything is less work.

And when cooking is easier, you’re more likely to cook.

And you have a better chance of eating right when you cook.

And go for a walk,

Trey

Eighty Pounds Twice is a memoir-cookbook for people who love great food and have struggled with weight. Not a diet book. A system built around flavor — and the story of losing eighty pounds twice to prove it works.

Flavor is non-negotiable. → eightypoundstwice.com