Catherine McCord: I grew up getting to have dinner at 5:30, and I cherish that time, that dinner table time. I think for kids these days, between technology, and parents are just like, "Just eat!" And I get that. You know what I mean? But they'll like let them have the iPad at dinner. There's no judgment to this. It's just like what I need, and what I see my kids need.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the MILF Podcast. This is the show where we talk about motherhood and sexuality with amazing women with fascinating stories to share on the joys of being a MILF. Now here's your host, the MILFiest MILF I know, Jennifer Tracy.
Jennifer Tracy: Hey, guys. Welcome back to the show. This is MILF Podcast. The show where we talk about motherhood, entrepreneurship, sexuality, and everything in between. Wow. I hope you guys had a wonderful Christmas, if you celebrated Christmas. If you didn't celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a wonderful week. This is the last MILF interview of 2018. Almost getting emotional saying that. I am getting emotional saying that. This has been an incredible year, birthing this project, and getting to interview absolutely incredible women, and it shall continue, and expand in 2019, and I'm so excited, so excited for more.
Jennifer Tracy: I love doing this, and I want to thank each and every one of you for listening, and for being a part of this growing community, and for your support. I wanted to remind you guys that I'm still doing this month of giving in December, where I'm going to be giving, for every iTunes review that MILF Podcast gets, I'm going to be donating $3 to Every Mother Counts, which is a beautiful organization that helps mothers everywhere in the world receive proper medical care, maternal care, pregnancy healthcare.
Jennifer Tracy: So, when I announced that last week, I got this really beautiful review on iTunes from [Kato Jet 00:02:09]. It's funny. You know, you can't really tell who the person is, and I also can't reply to them, unless there's some trick I don't know about. Anyway, I wanted to give her a shout out and say thank you so much for this beautiful review. I'm just going to read a little bit of it. "I'm so incredibly grateful for this podcast, for Jennifer for conceiving it, and for the pure beauty of each guest. It is so refreshing and heart fulfilling to listen to and slip into the spoken story of each woman. On the day I was introduced to this special place, I was feeling so disheartened and disconnected by the Los Angeles landscape, and Jennifer mentioned this podcast."
Jennifer Tracy: It's someone I know, and I don't know who it is, or someone I met somewhere, because I talk to everybody. "This podcast she does, and I haven't stopped listening since. I look forward to each journey. I've been craving this kind of discourse since I arrived in LA 18 years ago, and feel so much awe and respect. Jennifer is an incredible host," thank you, "with her giant heart and raw humor. Thank you for this, and all the laughter, tears, and tips."
Jennifer Tracy: What a lovely review, so thank you for that, and that will be included in my donation to Every Mother Counts at the end of the month. I'll wait until January 1st, until everything is all in, and then I'll write a check, and I will be telling you guys. I hope the check's really big. I really hope you guys make me write a big check, but I'm going to be doing this every month. Every month in 2019, I'm going to be choosing a different charity to do this with. It's just one very small way of giving back, and especially to charities and organizations that help women, mothers, and children.
Jennifer Tracy: That's that. I also wanted to mention that, in case you notice this, my team and I, my wonderful team and I, recently changed the rating on my podcast to explicit. So, there is a parental advisory. Now, if you're new to the show, and you haven't heard it, there are some episodes, for example the one today that I don't think there's a single curse word in this episode. There might be one or two. But some episodes, more so. Some we drop a few F-bombs, some we talk about sex toys, some we talk about sex.
Jennifer Tracy: So, it's not that it's overly explicit show, but I think we just wanted to be really open about that in that if you're driving from carpool, you may not want to have it running, just because the kids might say, "Mommy, what's a hard on, or what's foreplay?" Unless, you are ready to have that conversation. Which again, my philosophy is always if they're old enough to ask the question. But again, it's where are you introducing the stuff, and that's totally at your discretion. But just, I wanted you guys to be aware of that.
Jennifer Tracy: That's that. Then, I'm going to just get on with the show, because I never usually talk ... My God, I've been talking for five minutes. I never talk this long in the introductions, but I had a lot of stuff to catch you guys up on. Oh! I can't believe I forgot this. This is very exciting. We're having our first content. I even kind of set it up. I mean, not kind of. I'm going to take credit. I did set it up on line. My team helped me execute the rest of it, because I'm pretty savvy tech wise, but not really that savvy, but I got pretty far with it.
Jennifer Tracy: Anyway, it is called The 12 Days of MILF-mas. MILF-mas, that's hard to say. It's called The 12 Days of MILF-mas contest, and so starting on Christmas day, when we launched this, we have been giving away one MILF t-shirt or tank, your choice, for the 12 days of Christmas. That's one part of the contest. The other part of the contest, which is so exciting, is that the top three entrants, because there's all these ways you can enter and get points, and very exciting this technology business. Like you can get more points by following me on Instagram, and liking this thing, and subscribing to the podcast. I don't know. It's very interesting. I didn't know how all this worked, but now I do.
Jennifer Tracy: So the top three entrants, the people who have the most, the top three entrants will win a MILF T or tank of their choice, and seven of my favorite female-centric books. So, I have those listed on the contest, so you'll know what those are, and I'm very excited about this. So they're all by female authors. Some are fiction. Some are non-fiction. They're just books that have inspired me, not only to continue telling stories in my own fiction writing, but in the podcast, and also it's just such a testament to how powerful women's stories are, and how much we need them and continue to need them.
Jennifer Tracy: That is that. Check them out at MILFPodcast.com. Today's episode is episode 27 with Catherine McCord. The beautiful, amazing, gracious, and lovely Catherine McCord of Weelicious. I went to her home, and we sat down, and we talked in her family room. It was such a pleasant relaxing day, and I didn't want to leave her house. I actually really did want her to adopt me. I was like, "God, I want her to be my mom." Her home is beautiful, and very lived in. It was very clean, but she has three children, and a husband, and there was just like things happening.
Jennifer Tracy: When I came, there was a friend over, her friend, and then her son was getting ready for school, and the daughter had gone on a field trip that Catherine had to drop her off at 6:30 a.m., and the husband was taking the kid to school, and then the baby was sleeping. I was like, "Oh my God. This is so impressive." All while she's running basically two businesses. She has Weelicious, and then she has One Potato. And, by the way, she comes to the door and she's just so pretty. Just so naturally pretty. I don't think she had any makeup on. Maybe she did. But just like naturally beautiful, and just really beaming with kindness. This woman just has so much kindness in her.
Jennifer Tracy: It was such an honor to sit down and chat with her about all the things, and learn about her, and where she came from, and what happened, and how she got to where she is, and what drew her to that. Without further ado, thank you for listening to this long intro. I'm not used to doing this. How long is this? Oh my God, almost 10 minutes! That's just too long. I don't want to hear myself talking for that long. Thanks for listening, and really hope you enjoy my conversation with Catherine.
Jennifer Tracy: Hi, Catherine.
Catherine McCord: Hi.
Jennifer Tracy: Thank you so much for being on the show.
Catherine McCord: Very excited!
Jennifer Tracy: Catherine and I had so many scheduling issues, which is not uncommon with us moms. It's just like sick kids, I was sick, you were sick, just like-
Catherine McCord: Meetings.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Just trying to run a business. As I came into your beautiful home, you reminded me that we knew each other form our previous lifetime. Well, this lifetime, but-
Catherine McCord: Maybe we had laughed together. Maybe we rolled eyes about where we were sitting next to each other.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Yeah. In auditions.
Catherine McCord: Yes.
Jennifer Tracy: Commercial auditions in LA.
Catherine McCord: Oh, gosh.
Jennifer Tracy: It's so funny. So, Catherine where are you from originally?
Catherine McCord: Kentucky, Louisville.
Jennifer Tracy: Right.
Catherine McCord: Middle middle of the country.
Jennifer Tracy: Did you grow up, like one of my dearest friends grew up on a farm in Louisville.
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: So you grew up on a farm?
Catherine McCord: I didn't. I grew up in town, but I went to school an hour and 10 minutes in the country. I went to school in the country, so it was like on 30 acres, and really beautiful, and horses all around the school.
Jennifer Tracy: Stunning.
Catherine McCord: It was beautiful.
Jennifer Tracy: Did that kind of start your love of food, and farming? Is that where that was born from?
Catherine McCord: Yeah, my grandparents, who lived in Louisville were very into growing their own food. We went to you-pick farms. My grandmother is like dirt under her nails most of the time, and so I became obsessed because my grandparents would be like, "You have to freeze blueberries, pick sugar snap peas." That was just like, "If you want to hang out with me, come sit down." She had a big thing of bacon grease. There wasn't oil or butter. She just cooked with bacon grease.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes. Oh yum.
Catherine McCord: So big jar above the stove. I think that she had a kumquat tree, so I would sit there and eat kumquats. I just think at a very young age it was just like this is part of growing up-
Jennifer Tracy: Normal.
Catherine McCord: Totally normal. Unlike my child who wakes up and says, "Can I have some Doritos?" But we'll get to that in a minute.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow, so you really have had this sort of mentality and lifestyle since you were a child.
Catherine McCord: Even, I will say that yeah that was always the mentality, but I did grow up with this yin-yang which was I was eating fresh food, we sat down at 5:30 every nigh with my parents. That was like tradition. But I also grew up in a generation of fast food, and prepared food, so it was sort of this KFC, and McDonald's. So it was like part of me was getting this just fresh, real food, and the other part of me was just getting ...
Jennifer Tracy: Processed.
Catherine McCord: Horrible processed GMOs. My mother had this little dish of saccharin tablets, and that was like the only sugar we got in our house, so I would like sit there and just be like, "Hm." I can't even imagine what's running through my veins. Even modeling, I will say because I started modeling at such a young age, traveling around the world, and really seeing different cultures, and the way that people ate. I lived in Mexico even as an exchange student when I was 12, and that since memory of smelling homemade tortillas, and watching kids eat spicy foods. Kids in India having like these incredible flavors. Then you come back to America and it's just like macaroni and cheese, and white chips.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: So, I think my whole perception of food has always been just curiosity.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, so you left Kentucky to go to college?
Catherine McCord: No.
Jennifer Tracy: You came here?
Catherine McCord: No, I actually started, because I started modeling when I was 13, by the time I was 17 I had been modeling all through high school going to New York, or Paris, or wherever, and then I sort of "hit it bit" when I was 17. I got college scholarships and my dad was like, "Well, you basically have a choice. You can go, and you can make money, and you can save it, and then you can decide when you really know, opposed to a lot of 18-year-olds that go to college and like, 'What am I supposed to do?'"
Jennifer Tracy: Sure.
Catherine McCord: Or, I could go to college. I ended up bizarrely enough choosing modeling, and I went to culinary school at a later time.
Jennifer Tracy: Got it. So you did figure out what you wanted to do.
Catherine McCord: Yeah, exactly.
Jennifer Tracy: And that's amazing. Did you go to culinary school here?
Catherine McCord: In New York.
Jennifer Tracy: In New York.
Catherine McCord: I went to the Institute of Culinary Education.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow.
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: That's amazing.
Catherine McCord: It was really fun.
Jennifer Tracy: I bet it was so fun.
Catherine McCord: Yeah. I'm like an endless student. If I could just go to school, and get like different degrees.
Jennifer Tracy: Me too.
Catherine McCord: Right?
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. I'm sitting here thinking, "God, when can I go to culinary school?"
Catherine McCord: It's so fun.
Jennifer Tracy: I've got to wait a little bit, but maybe I could go now. I'm sure there's some in LA.
Catherine McCord: Yes.
Jennifer Tracy: But that's amazing. So how old were you when you decided to do that?
Catherine McCord: Culinary school?
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: I'll tell you when. We lived, not three blocks, 10 blocks from the Trade Center. I was supposed to go see culinary school on 9/11.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my God.
Catherine McCord: I had a morning appointment, and we got trapped in our apartment. Obviously, we all know how that went down.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow. Yes.
Catherine McCord: But then that was it for me. That was like my epiphany. Three weeks later I was like, "This happened, and this is the time of my life that take it now, make the change, or never." That was that.
Jennifer Tracy: Then after you graduated from there, what kind of work did you pursue then?
Catherine McCord: I worked in restaurants and catering companies. Sort of I was still trying to have a day job of like acting, and modeling. I just was so not fulfilled, but I sort of couldn't get out of it in a way.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: And really spent a good like year and a half, if not more, trying to really figure out what I wanted to do, and then I got pregnant with my son. That was really the beginning of it where I was like, I had this baby and I was like totally like lost. You know.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: I mean, it's just such a massive transition for women.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: And sort of when I came out of the other side, when he started eating, and I was so fascinated with it. I always shopped at the Hollywood Farmer's Market every Sunday to buy all of our food so I was like, "I'm going to start making homemade baby food. This is going to be so much fun." I went online, and I was just like researching trying to figure out like, how do you make kids great eaters from day one? Where are the homemade baby food recipes? It was really just jarred food. I just was like, maybe I'll, like blogs had just really, it was like the evolution of blogs.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Catherine McCord: So I started this little blog called Weelicious, and that was like the beginning.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow, and so you just experimented on your son, basically.
Catherine McCord: My poor three children, they are my experiments. I feel bad, but at the same time, that's the only way to really learn. In a good way.
Jennifer Tracy: Of course.
Catherine McCord: They're good experiments.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.l
Catherine McCord: They know it. I tell them all the time.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. That's so wonderful. I remember someone recommended your book to me when my son, he's nine and a half now. I think he was, I don't know. I guess he was starting on solid foods, and so I got your book, one of them, and then I bought the other one later. How many books do you have now?
Catherine McCord: Two, but my third comes out January 2020.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, yes!
Catherine McCord: Good, God. I just started writing it.
Jennifer Tracy: Can't wait.
Catherine McCord: Like yesterday. No pressure.
Jennifer Tracy: No pressure. No pressure. Because you have so much time to write a book.
Catherine McCord: Yeah, exactly.
Jennifer Tracy: But I remember getting the book and I remember literally reading it cover to cover, because that's what I did at the time. Any time I had an issue. I don't even know how many sleep books I bought. The funny thing is now, looking back, my kids slept great. I just was like in so much, because I had postpartum depression I think, I was in so much discomfort that I thought in those books there'd be an answer to something else, or if I could get him to sleep more. He was sleeping plenty, but I just was looking for an answer. Same with your book. I was like, "Okay, uh." It was so great, because the first few years, he would eat a lot of different things, and I did that thing where you introduce the stuff early. But now, I've got to tell you, and I don't want ... The whole interview could become you coaching me, so we won't let it go there. Oh my gosh. He just wants carbs. He just wants processed foods.
Catherine McCord: It happens.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my gosh.
Catherine McCord: It's not your fault. I blame America. I'm evil. I've become like darker in the past year about don't blame parents. It's what we've created.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my gosh.
Catherine McCord: It's what the food industry has created.
Jennifer Tracy: He just, I mean at least he will eat ... He is a carnivore, so he will eat, he loves filet. He will request filet.
Catherine McCord: I love him.
Jennifer Tracy: I'm like, "Yes, let's cook up a filet. That's fine. I've got a dry rub. I can do that." But any kind of vegetable, I'm very lucky if I can get him to eat a raw carrot, raw cucumbers. He loves Granny Smith apples, but any if I like cook it up or do anything. Like you know Jules Blaine Davis?
Catherine McCord: Of course.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, so she showed me how to do like roasted apples. Like make applesauce. So easy, right?
Catherine McCord: Yeah. Transformed.
Jennifer Tracy: He will not.
Catherine McCord: Really? Is it textural?
Jennifer Tracy: Maybe. I'm not sure.
Catherine McCord: You know, the way that I look at it is, and there are different ages, and different stages, and I believe that it can be reversed. Not even reversed. Like added on. I do think that there is a lot to the fact that we as parents control our children. That's our job.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: And they have so little say about where they go to school, who their friends are, what they're going to wear.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Catherine McCord: So food is the one thing children can control. I think that they sort of, at a very young age, before their little brains are even really developed, they like realize their power in food.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Catherine McCord: So their go-tos are really the only things that they, like this is my set. This is it. This is my way.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: You know, I think a lot of kids can be altered and molded, and then there are some kids that are just like, it can be everything from textural to, like Jules was saying, like you can do raw vegetables, or roast them, or fry them, or puree them, whatever it is.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: But I also think that some kids really do, like I see it with my children that they can, like you can add onto, as time goes on.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, well like just the fact that he's eating filet now is a big deal.
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: I'm like, "Okay, that's good."
Catherine McCord: What changed it? Do you remember the like all of a sudden?
Jennifer Tracy: Yes, totally. I started cooking when he was like two, I guess, and that's during the time I got your book, and a bunch of other cookbooks, and I just started cooking. Then I had another friend, my friend Lilly, who's also going to come on the show, and she went to culinary school. She went to somewhere in the, what are those mountains in New York?
Catherine McCord: She went to the Culinary Institute of America.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes, I think so.
Catherine McCord: Yes. CIA.
Jennifer Tracy: She's magnificent also. And her child, both of her children eat beautiful. We were in RIE class together.
Catherine McCord: Oh yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: I think you guys did RIE too?
Catherine McCord: Yeah, of course.
Jennifer Tracy: So we were on this side of town RIE, but I don't know. Anyways, so she, what was my point in bringing this up? Oh, she inspired me to start cooking more, and so I just sort of was self-taught. Because I didn't grow up in a household where cooking was a thing.
Catherine McCord: Interesting.
Jennifer Tracy: My mom didn't like cooking. She would do it, and prepare us healthy meals, but it just wasn't, like the joy of the culinary art wasn't present.
Catherine McCord: Oh yeah. My mom just like was like, "Just get it on the table." Yeah, we sat together, but I didn't say that she enjoyed it.
Jennifer Tracy: But it sounds like from your grandmother, that's where the real love of it came.
Catherine McCord: Totally. Totally.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, so I sort of self-taught. Anyway, one of the things I learned how to do was to cook a filet, like a-
Catherine McCord: So good.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my God. It's just the most decadent thing, and it's so simple. So, I started researching like dry rubs, and then putting the dry rub on, and then leaving it in the fridge for a day, kind of like brining, which by the way, we just had Thanksgiving before we're recording this. So I brined the turkey just as on your website, there's a brining recipe.
Catherine McCord: Love it.
Jennifer Tracy: It was so good!
Catherine McCord: That makes me so happy. Isn't brining just the best thing ever? It transforms food.
Jennifer Tracy: Transforms.
Catherine McCord: I know. So juicy.
Jennifer Tracy: It was so delicious!
Catherine McCord: Even if you-
Jennifer Tracy: And I made your cranberry cornbread stuffing recipe.
Catherine McCord: Oh yay!
Jennifer Tracy: Huge hit.
Catherine McCord: I love that.
Jennifer Tracy: And I used the green beans recipe which you had, which was very simple, but I needed to know like the time, and the temperature.
Catherine McCord: I love that.
Jennifer Tracy: I had a fantastic Thanksgiving.
Catherine McCord: Thanksgiving. Oh I love that. Yay.
Jennifer Tracy: So thanks to you. So I did the dry rub, and I did the filet, and he ate it. This is like, maybe he was six or seven and he was like, "Oh, I need more of that. I need more of that." It was so interesting.
Catherine McCord: Isn't that the best, though? It is!
Jennifer Tracy: It's like a win. I win!
Catherine McCord: Exactly, and as soon as your kids do like something you're like, "Oh, God. Wait a minute. I've got to make that all the time now."
Jennifer Tracy: All the time. Totally.
Catherine McCord: I can't burn them out on it.
Jennifer Tracy: Totally.
Catherine McCord: But yeah, I do think that like, I mean look my son is 11. He's a vegetarian. He's been a vegetarian since he was five, self-imposed. But he eats everything. My middle daughter, total carnivore. Can't get enough meat in her body.
Jennifer Tracy: Interesting.
Catherine McCord: Will eat absolutely anything except for orange cheese, or stinky cheese. Mozzarella fine, white fine. She made this very firm decision. There is no altering it. So, she eats everything else, so that's good. Then my baby will pretty much eat everything. But it's fascinating.
Jennifer Tracy: It's fascinating.
Catherine McCord: You know what I mean? Like how, why.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, okay, so you have your son. You're online researching. You're like, "Hey, there's nothing there." What happened?
Catherine McCord: You know what, I became truly obsessed with the community. I think being a first-time mom is the most insular experience, and it's gotten so much worse. Our mothers had community, maybe cousins, sisters, like I found myself in Los Angeles with no family, not a lot of friends, because modeling and acting, and like being very transient.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: I had like literally one like mom community. So when I started this blog, I started going on different, I mean back then it was chat boards.
Jennifer Tracy: Right.
Catherine McCord: You know, Facebook little groups were just beginning.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: And I started just connecting with all these women, like literally around the world, like you were saying.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: It was like awesome. It was like they were sending questions, and I was experimenting. It just really quickly became this community of different parents with one single goal. "How do I feed my kid, and make them a great eater from day one?" Then I had Kenya, and then two years later, to the day, I had Chloe, and so then it was like baby foods, and then the next stage is like, which that ends very fast. Then it's toddler food. Then it really became that we were now a family of four and I was like, "I don't want to be your short-order cook. I don't want to make something different for everyone every night. I want my kids to be great eaters." That was like the idea behind Weelicious: One Family, One Meal, which was my first cookbook.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Wow. How did you set about writing a book, and getting it published? What is that process like?
Catherine McCord: I mean it was really that the Weelicious community was growing, and growing fast. Then I started doing like TV appearances, and like writing small articles, and then I, yeah I went and took the book out, and it just sold quickly. It was a two-book deal, so by that time my kids were going to preschool, and I was sending them lunches every day, and I became fascinated with lunches, and watching kids stuff their hands in a brown paper bag, and maybe pulling out one thing. I just fell in love with the idea of like Bento boxes, and really kids getting to see all their choices.
Catherine McCord: It's interesting, because like so much of Weelicious, it's not just me and what my kids are eating, but it's really people, their questions, their experiences and them saying, "Well, I need this now, and I need this." It's really, that's where much of it has come from.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, and so what is sort of the next thing for you? You're writing this next book.
Catherine McCord: I'm writing this next book, which comes off of a story which was that my son got sick about three years ago, and he was getting headaches and nausea. It was this very rough time where you see your child in pain, and he's like the child that never complains about anything. He could break his arm and he probably wouldn't tell you. So I would see him just so uncomfortable, so we were going to doctors and nutritionists, and really trying to figure it out, figure out what was the matter with him.
Catherine McCord: I too was reading a lot of books from different doctors. I read this one book it's called, by Kelly Dorfman, How to Get Your Kids to Eat Everything. It had this line about smoothies. I was like, "All right, well the one thing I know with my child especially is that if I give him the power of choice, it makes a massive difference.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Catherine McCord: I always tell parents if you have a kid that won't eat anything be like, "I'm going to give you two choices. Do you want carrots or cucumbers?"
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Catherine McCord: "Do you want chicken or fish?"
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Catherine McCord: It's really your choice.
Jennifer Tracy: The old RIE. That's the old RIE.
Catherine McCord: Totally. Totally. It's really your choice.
Jennifer Tracy: But these are the only choices.
Catherine McCord: Exactly. Exactly. They don't know that.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: That night I did this horrible drawing of like different fruits, vegetables, proteins, and carbohydrates, and just like a picture of a banana, and a little picture of a hemp seed, and I let him go through and circle all the things that he wanted in his smoothie the next morning.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow.
Catherine McCord: We made this whole list, and so I made him a smoothie. Within three weeks, all of his headaches, his nausea, everything was gone, everything. It's three years later. He has, now we all have a smoothie every morning. My third book is called The Smoothie Project.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Catherine McCord: It's literally that I believe that he was a vegetarian, and I was giving him pancakes, and waffles.
Jennifer Tracy: Sure. He wasn't getting enough nutrients.
Catherine McCord: He wasn't. How was I expecting him to go to school with his brain fired, ready to go for the day when I'm giving him these foods that were just making him want to fall asleep, and not feel good, and his body just wasn't processing them properly? So, it's been a real journey. I really started writing this book about three years ago when this all started, so it's really a transformative book about the power of no matter what's going on with you. Like do you remember like Vogue Magazine?
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: They'll have like, "In your 20s, if you use this product in your 30s, in your 40s."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: Well, I look at The Smoothie Project in the same way. That I believe that from birth to AARP, we can change our health by just having a smoothie, or like that first thing. Like you can get fruits and vegetables, and protein in your body, in your child's body.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Catherine McCord: Watching my mother and my mother-in-law start adding smoothies into their diet, and seeing how their reaction being like, "Wow, I'm like full, and I feel good."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: It's been like this fun journey.
Jennifer Tracy: You're inspiring me to get my Vitamix out. Yeah, because I used to do that before, and then I stopped. I don't know why.
Catherine McCord: Food is always stages. You know what I mean? I always feel like, especially as adults, like we bring one thing in that's like working for us. It's lemon water. It's ...
Jennifer Tracy: Totally. Totally.
Catherine McCord: You know what I mean. Something healthy.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: For us, it's definitely smoothies.
Jennifer Tracy: I love, because those of you, and this will be in the show notes, for everyone who's listening, we'll have links to your Instagram, and your website, and everything, but you can see on your Instagram, which I love following you and seeing your youngest daughter, which I've been watching her do this for the last several years. Just you put her on the counter, and you put a smoothie in front of her with a straw, and we just watch her just suck that entire sucker down.
Catherine McCord: It's the funniest thing.
Jennifer Tracy: It's amazing.
Catherine McCord: That all started, so that was all like we had been months into Kenya, my oldest son, all of us at this point having smoothies, and so we're all standing around at breakfast and she was like, I don't know, I guess almost 10 months old, and she'd just be bobbing her head trying to drink, and she taught herself how to drink with a straw. Which is actually, like teaching babies how to drink with a straw is great for fine motor, oral development, early speech and language.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow, I didn't know that.
Catherine McCord: It's really amazing, just because you're learning to use those muscles in your mouth.
Jennifer Tracy: Sure.
Catherine McCord: The next thing you know, we just propped her up. We thought it was the funniest thing seeing this little baby just suck down a smoothie. It goes against ... It's baby food, but it's so packed with nutrients. It's not just these single serve pouches, or whatever.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Catherine McCord: So yeah, it just became this thing, and people online thought it was just like so funny. But now, she's three years old, and she like gets on the stool. I can't get her down. Every morning she wakes up, she's like, "Where's my smoothie?" She goes over, she jumps on the counter, she drinks it in like four sips, and she steps down, and off she goes.
Jennifer Tracy: So the next book is going to be all smoothies?
Catherine McCord: It's all smoothies. Yeah, it's all different flavors, and like what's good for-
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my God. I don't know if I can wait till 2020! I'm so excited for that.
Catherine McCord: Me too. I know. It's really, it's great.
Jennifer Tracy: That's so great.
Catherine McCord: It's really great.
Jennifer Tracy: You're reminding me that, I guess when my son was, and I think this is all part and parcel, and I've shared this on the show before. My son is dyslexic. He also has central auditory processing disorder, and some vision stuff, which many of those things usually go hand in hand. But, before we knew all of that, he was having these headaches, and he was having stomach aches, and he just was struggling in school. Part of it was the environment. This sweet little school that I still love so much.
Catherine McCord: I know that school, too. I second that.
Jennifer Tracy: It's such a sweet school, but it just wasn't the right fit for him, because it was just too chaotic, and like the sound with the auditory stuff. Anyway, I took him to Dr. Kathy Litman. You might know her.
Catherine McCord: Okay.
Jennifer Tracy: Anyway, she was a pediatrician for many years in LA, like all through the '80s, and she had her own practice with another doctor, and she kept seeing this kids come in that were being diagnosed ADHD and she was like, "Nope. That's not what's going on." They were basically malnourished. So, I brought him into her. She was referred to me through our pediatrician and then our therapist who ended up diagnosing him with dyslexia. But, she did all these biofeedback tests on him, with this really wonky machine. Anyway, she said, "Oh, he's horribly deficient in all these nutrients."
Catherine McCord: Isn't that amazing?
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, and so it's exactly what you're saying.
Catherine McCord: Did you explain that to him? Did you communicate?
Jennifer Tracy: Absolutely.
Catherine McCord: Did he get it?
Jennifer Tracy: Well, at that time I think he was six, so he completely understood. But, he still has this thing. So she gave us this really yucky liquid vitamin that he did, bless his heart, he took it. We did a sticker chart and everything, which I'm not that into, but he did it for like a year and a half and then he was like, "I just can't take it anymore." He hasn't been doing it, but I am inspired by this today.
Catherine McCord: So there's a chart on Weelicious, if you go on Welicious.com, I think, and you put in Smoothie Project. There is this sheet. You can print it, laminate it, and he can circle it, like the things that he wants to put, and you can just buy them. I think that that's such a great thing for kids to be like he will own his own health and to say like you'll buy it, he can make it.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Catherine McCord: It makes it really fun. I mean my son, I make a different flavor smoothie absolutely every day. I think that that, it keeps it fun, and interesting, and ...
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. It's also, like you're saying, it's empowering to them to say, "This is my body. I'm choosing what I'm putting in my body."
Catherine McCord: Yeah, but we put everything from frozen cauliflower, kale, or spinach, and like if your kids are color sensitive, like they want just like a bright pink smoothie, that's why we do the frozen cauliflower.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, when I do the green, my always end up just his hideous green. Yeah, brown green and he's like, "I'm not drinking that."
Catherine McCord: No, the secret ingredient to getting a vegetable in is frozen cauliflower, because it makes it really creamy. You don't taste it at all. But you still, because like the goal is, if you can get your kid out the door having one or two fruits and vegetable, and either hemp seeds, or protein power, or nuts, or whatever in their smoothie, it's such a win. Because as a parent then, when they want the chips, or the macaroni and cheese you're like, well they've already had two vegetables checked off your list by 7:30 in the morning.
Jennifer Tracy: That's incredible.
Catherine McCord: I think it just for parents, because it's such like a, you know there's 21 meals and snacks a week. It's like an endless. For parents, food is the one thing that doesn't go away.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, and that's what I was going to say that I forgot to say earlier was that ... No, no, no. You're good. We both have these long legs-
Catherine McCord: Long legs.
Jennifer Tracy: That we're trying to like stretch out. Was that ... Oh my gosh, we've already been talking this long. I could talk to you forever.
Catherine McCord: I'm chatty.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, oh, oh. When Dr. Colgrove. We took him to see Dr. Colgrove for the whole assessment. It was like a 14-hour process over obviously several days for him to get diagnosed with dyslexia and the CAPD. Actually, that was a different. We had to take him to an audiologist for that. This was all in second grade. So I said, "He won't eat certain things. He just won't eat." This is after we'd seen Dr. Litman and she had said ... And he didn't want to do the vitamins. And I said, "And in preschool, he wouldn't poop."
Catherine McCord: Oh, I know.
Jennifer Tracy: He would hold his poop in, and then he would poop his pants at school.
Catherine McCord: Sweet boy.
Jennifer Tracy: The teachers were so sweet. They'd be like, "So you need to bring another set of underwear, because we had to use this," whatever. This is so gross, but I remember she would hand me a baggy with this poop underwear in them and I'm like ...
Catherine McCord: "We can throw it away."
Jennifer Tracy: "I don't need that. Go ahead. It's okay. I don't need that back."
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: You know. And Dr. Colgrove said, "Those are the things that children can control."
Catherine McCord: Oh, interesting.
Jennifer Tracy: You can't make someone poop, and you can't make someone eat.
Catherine McCord: That's so interesting. Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. And I thought, "Oh my God. That's true. It's like a control thing."
Catherine McCord: It's totally control. It's exactly the point. Yeah, but I think it's such a win. That's why like empowering kids to make the choice.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: Like letting them, because I really think, I mean look I'm all for like ... Because we do it. I'm not going to like, "You can have desert, if you eat your dinner."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, of course.
Catherine McCord: You know what I mean?
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: And all that. But I do think the power of choice is so deep and rich, because I think it really helps in so many ways with kids.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: Because yeah they're just like, poor things. I look at my kids and I'm like, "Oh my God. You're so controlled."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: Like, "Go do your homework. Make your bed."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, it's a lot.
Catherine McCord: It's a lot.
Jennifer Tracy: It's a lot. Like my son just recently discovered video games.
Catherine McCord: I'm sorry.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my God. Are you dealing with this?
Catherine McCord: I know. It's real. Yeah, my girls don't care at all about it, and my son is like, it's like drugs.
Jennifer Tracy: And he's 11. Yeah, it's like drugs.
Catherine McCord: Yeah, it is.
Jennifer Tracy: So we finally just had to say, "No video games during the week."
Catherine McCord: Oh no, we're firm about, yeah. He's allowed like two minutes in the morning to play like a Sudoku, or something like that.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. It's like we're in the car on the way to the bus, and he's on my phone. I'm like, "This is, it's like crack."
Catherine McCord: It is, and it only gets worse, because then it's like the unfortunate thing is they're social. Like, "My friends are playing, and I want to play with them."
Jennifer Tracy: Exactly.
Catherine McCord: I know. This is a rabbit hole. I can have this rabbit hole conversation every day.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my God. I don't know what to do about it, and now he wants a phone. He wants his own phone.
Catherine McCord: Yeah. We've done something in school, well it's with social media. We've signed contracts of like wait till eight. Have you heard of this?
Jennifer Tracy: Yes, I have.
Catherine McCord: Yeah, so we've tried that. I mean, but it's hard, because then you have like ...
Jennifer Tracy: All their friends have it.
Catherine McCord: All their friends have it. Like, "My friend has an iPad and a phone." We've just been like, "Sorry. We're just mean." Or say, "We're being mean."
Jennifer Tracy: He's like, "I want a phone. I need a phone. The bus is ..." I'm like, "Oh my God."
Catherine McCord: Are they allowed to bring phones on the bus?
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Catherine McCord: Really?
Jennifer Tracy: And there's teenagers on the bus, so he's heard all these horrible words on the bus, which it's fine, because I'm very open with him, and I've always been like if he hears something and he wants to know what it is, I explain what it is, but there's been some conversations where I was like, okay we're having this conversation now.
Catherine McCord: Oh God.
Jennifer Tracy: Because there's middle schoolers and high schoolers on the bus.
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Anyway.
Catherine McCord: Oh, God. What we deal, what we deal with.
Jennifer Tracy: It's just he's like, "I want a phone, so that I can do this on the bus." I'm like, "Well ..." Then I go to, "Is it a safety thing? Does he need a phone on the bus?" Then I'm thinking, "Well, what did we do before we had cellphones?"
Catherine McCord: Yeah, no.
Jennifer Tracy: You just looked out the window, or you talked to your friends.
Catherine McCord: You're fine. Or you can get him a phone that literally has a one-way to you, and that's it.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, seriously.
Catherine McCord: Like a flip phone.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: Be like, "Sure. I'll get you a flip phone." He's going to hold that and be like, "Ugh."
Jennifer Tracy: Could you imagine if I gave him a flip phone. He'd be like, "Uh, mom!" But yeah, no the technology thing is really scary.
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: And then the Instagram thing, I don't think any of his friends have Instagram, but I know there are children his age that have their own Instagram.
Catherine McCord: Oh, no we're not.
Jennifer Tracy: Like, wow.
Catherine McCord: Yeah, we're not. I know.
Jennifer Tracy: That terrifies me.
Catherine McCord: Just wait. You've got like two more years when it's like-
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my God.
Catherine McCord: I know. No, it scares me. It scares me.
Jennifer Tracy: Because wait, is your son in middle school?
Catherine McCord: 11. He's 11. He's in sixth grade.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay, first year of middle school.
Catherine McCord: Our school is K through six.
Jennifer Tracy: Thank God. Thank God.
Catherine McCord: Then they seventh grade. I know. I know. He's a young 11. So ...
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: I know, but that video stuff, ugh. But we do our best. We're trying. Because we see how it messes up their brains. They won't go to bed. They can't-
Jennifer Tracy: Oh yeah.
Catherine McCord: I mean, I go to all those panels listening to what it does that it is, it's like a drug. I truly believe, and it's terrible, I believe phones are the new cigarette.
Jennifer Tracy: You're right!
Catherine McCord: They are.
Jennifer Tracy: You 're right.
Catherine McCord: They're going to kill us. Sorry.
Jennifer Tracy: Well, and there's all this research now, and I keep saying I'm going to do this, but I need to get those glasses.
Catherine McCord: Oh yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Because of the blue light, and how it affects.
Catherine McCord: Totally.
Jennifer Tracy: Because I'm a writer, so I'm on my computer a lot, and I'm on my phone way too much. My new phone has this thing were once a week it'll be like, "Here's your screen time update," and it's frightening.
Catherine McCord: Oh no, my friend who you saw this morning who was staying with us last night.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: She last night she was like, "I'm addicted. It's a problem." She's like, "I wake up in the middle of the night, I want it." I was laughing at her. I was like, "Are you serious?" She doesn't have children. I was like, because as a parent I'm just like tuckered out.
Jennifer Tracy: Dead asleep.
Catherine McCord: Yeah, but she and I were talking about it just because we have to have social media for work.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, of course.
Catherine McCord: I'm trying, I really don't look at it any more. I try very hard to just do as minimal as possible, because it's such a time suck.
Jennifer Tracy: That's interesting. I wanted to actually talk to you and get some advice about that, because now doing this podcast, being integrated with the social media for me is part of my job. I need to interact a little bit, and I need to do this. I have a team that helps me with that, thank goodness, but how do you sort of separate yourself from that? Because you do need to kind of post every day.
Catherine McCord: Yes.
Jennifer Tracy: And as a fan, as a fan girl of yours, I can say I honestly really treasure watching your stories, and listening to you talk to me about stuff, and what you're doing, and showing me things. So I'm appreciating it, but I'm like, "Wow, she's really having to ..."
Catherine McCord: Well, I authentically do it. I do it all myself.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: I don't have anyone else do it for me. Yeah, it's a catch for me, because like writing a book, and having all that feedback from people, because that is the human reaction, the human touch, to be able to communicate with people.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: But it's just that I don't sit there and like for anyone I follow, let's say. I just can't get too like, you know it's stories, and live, and there's just so much.
Jennifer Tracy: So much content.
Catherine McCord: I keep it as focused as I possibly can.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Yeah.
Catherine McCord: And try not to have my phone around my kid, which is the hardest part.
Jennifer Tracy: Right.
Catherine McCord: Because that's how we work today.
Jennifer Tracy: Sure. It's part of it. No, I had Kathryn Hahn on the show.
Catherine McCord: Oh, she's the best.
Jennifer Tracy: She was talking about how, because I was sharing with her that my son at the time, this was like maybe six months ago, he was like, "Mom, put your phone down. Put your phone down." I was like, "Oh, God. You're right. You're right. I'm so sorry." So I like turned it off, put it away and I was like, "I'm totally with you." She said, "I get it." She said "But, it's my office."
Catherine McCord: It is. It's the reason that I can be the mother I am, actually.
Jennifer Tracy: Totally.
Catherine McCord: I have a lot of luxuries within that, and I think my children do understand that. I've created parameters for myself, too.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: I try really as much as possible to keep everything about like that it's work, but even if I share like stories or anything, it's like food related, family food related.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Yeah.
Catherine McCord: It's tricky. It's so tricky. I don't know how in this day, and now we're all so much more accountable. It used to be like you got home from work at 5:30. Now it's like, you're accountable at 11 o'clock at night. Someone can always find you.
Jennifer Tracy: I know.
Catherine McCord: I just want to disappear.
Jennifer Tracy: I know. That's where it comes down to like, I guess, or not I guess, having really healthy boundaries.
Catherine McCord: Yeah, totally, totally.
Jennifer Tracy: And just saying, "No, I'm off the clock."
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Not responding.
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: You know.
Catherine McCord: And it's good. It's okay.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, it's really important to do that. Speaking of healthy boundaries, how do you do self care, just for you?
Catherine McCord: I don't. I'm very open about this right now. You know what? It's not the stage of my life. I have this conversation with women possibly every day, I really do. I went into a meeting the other day. I had to go to the bathroom. I just had to go to the bathroom, and I sat down and she said, "Do you need anything?" I said, "Oh, no." She's like, "If you need to use the bathroom." I said, "Well, I need to, but I'll be fine." She goes, "That's self-care." That, at a minimum for mothers, it's so sad when you just wont' go to the bathroom because you're like, "I've got to go. I've got to keep working."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: My self-care these days is saying, "Can I go to the bathroom?"
Jennifer Tracy: "Excuse me, can I go to the bathroom?"
Catherine McCord: Yeah. Everything's gone by the wayside.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: You know what, but I'll be completely honest. My self-care is being with my children. That is not like a romantic thing to say. I don't mean it in that way. It just really is what my heart ... Like, it's just I'm at a place in my life where I'm just having to work probably more than is probably healthy. So when I'm with my kids I'm like pretty much in heaven. It really is. It's great. I really take time to like watch their dynamic. You know, we're molding little beings, and I really want them to feel like they had a good childhood, and that they're having connection.
Catherine McCord: That's why so much of what Weelicious and One Potato are about is like I grew up getting to have dinner at 5:30, and I cherish that time, that dinner table time. I think for kids these days, between technology, and parents are just like, "Just eat!" And I get that. You know what I mean? But they'll like let them have the iPad at dinner. There's no judgment to this. It's just like what I need, and what I see my kids need is like, "What was your day like?" And trying to even make it more finite. Because my husband and I laugh, because like the first question we always ask our kids are, "Who'd you sit next to at lunch today?" Now it's gotten to the point my kids are like, "Don't ask me who I sat next to. It's the same answer as it was two weeks ago."
Catherine McCord: I'm like, "Oh, right. Okay."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: But just really having that like just communication, I cherish it so much every day.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. My son is still very, he loves to cuddle, and he loves being touched, and he loves for us to like snuggle on the couch, and hold hands, and we were watching A Christmas Movie last night, and the fire was going, and the tree lights were on.
Catherine McCord: I can't. I can't.
Jennifer Tracy: I just thought, I'm so grateful for this.
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Because I know from my friends who have older kids who are, some of them are off at college, they're like, "They leave, and it's over." I'm like, "Ah!"
Catherine McCord: That's why we had a third child. I'm not even kidding.
Jennifer Tracy: I bet.
Catherine McCord: We had the and the girl two years apart. It was perfect. We just got, as we got further, and further, and further along my husband was like, "I don't want this to end. He's like, "I just don't want to ever stop being a parent. That's why we birthed this little-
Jennifer Tracy: Thank God you did.
Catherine McCord: I know.
Jennifer Tracy: She is just delicious.
Catherine McCord: It's the best. It's the best, and we'll get to be parents of ... Every time I say this, my husband gets upset. He's like, "Don't talk about it." But when Kenny and Chole are in college, we'll get to be parents of like one child, but I don't mean that in a ... I love you Kenny and Chloe. I'll never leave you.
Jennifer Tracy: No, of course.
Catherine McCord: I'll be here forever.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes, you mean it will continue.
Catherine McCord: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's an experience.
Jennifer Tracy: I know. I always thought I'd have three kids, but that wasn't part of my story.
Catherine McCord: Well, I never thought I'd have three kids, and here I am.
Jennifer Tracy: Interesting. Interesting.
Catherine McCord: You know what I mean?
Jennifer Tracy: Interesting. Yeah. But I love that, because I'm an only child, so I love the idea of having a... But it's interesting, because it is ... And now it's just me and my son, which it kind of always was, because my husband left, he had to leave town for work when my son was 18 days old, so from the get go it was just like me and my little guy.
Catherine McCord: That's amazing.
Jennifer Tracy: And so we have this incredible bond, and he's very close with his father too. I'm so grateful. They have a wonderful relationship, and we're both very supportive of that, so I'm super grateful. But, it's just, it's very interesting that it's just the two of us, and my mom who has some social anxiety would not, she was very afraid to let me have play dates.
Catherine McCord: Interesting.
Jennifer Tracy: As an only child I remember just begging her to play. I would spend hours by myself with my record player.
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: You know, and just like do that, and I would make up stories. I think that's what helped me become a storyteller.
Catherine McCord: See.
Jennifer Tracy: But he wants to have people over all the time. Our house is that house. I'm like, "Come. Spend the night. Have friends over."
Catherine McCord: Oh, I love that.
Jennifer Tracy: I don't care. I have two rules. I have a painting by my friend, Ashley Longshore that's very precious to me, that my husband gave me for our anniversary years ago, and then I have our piano that I bought for him, for my son, and I'm like those are the only two things that are like precious. Everything else ...
Catherine McCord: Is free game.
Jennifer Tracy: Whatever. It doesn't matter. There's probably been dog pee on it at some point, or throw up. It doesn't matter. It's fine.
Catherine McCord: That's amazing.
Jennifer Tracy: But I love that, I love having that energy, and just kind of that open door policy of like ... Anyway, I don't know how I got off on that.
Catherine McCord: We digress. We digress. We digress.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes, but I wanted to ask you about One Potato, because you mentioned it. Can you talk a little bit about One Potato, and what that is?
Catherine McCord: Yeah, so several years ago it got to the point with Weelicious families and followers that they were just like, "I have the cookbooks. I have the recipes. Just send me the food. I can't do it. I just can't." So it was born of just really people wanting it. It's been like going to get my master's.
Jennifer Tracy: I'm sure.
Catherine McCord: There were a lot of, who knew? Starting a business. Who knew? Everyone's got a great idea, but really following it through. So we are now in eight states on the West Coast.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow!
Catherine McCord: For anyone who doesn't know, yeah, One Potato is an organic family friendly food company. You get two or three meals. They're all organic. It's for families, like kids and adults. There's adult pricing. There's kid pricing. Everything's semi-prepared. It's not like you're getting every single ingredient. Like we make homemade sauces, and dressings. You get whole proteins. It's like a real experience where we want kids to learn how to cook.
Catherine McCord: We want that parent involvement. You get free cookie dough with every box. It just makes cooking like that Instagramable experience where it's just like protein and vegetable. It's very DIY, because we know some kids don't like certain things, and other kids love more of one thing or another, so you get to pick your own meals. It's just been so much fun. It's probably the hardest thing I've ever done work wise, building a company, but I'm just like endlessly passionate. We're working on 17 more states.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow!
Catherine McCord: Because we have 40,000 people on our waiting list.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow!
Catherine McCord: We're just quickly growing.
Jennifer Tracy: That's amazing! Oh my gosh!
Catherine McCord: Yeah. But we're going to open up on the East Coast, I mean open up a facility. Yeah, it's really fun.
Jennifer Tracy: That is so cool!
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Is there a separate website for that we can go to?
Catherine McCord: Onepotato.ocm.
Jennifer Tracy: Easy.
Catherine McCord: Easy.
Jennifer Tracy: Amazing.
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow. I love that. Congratulations.
Catherine McCord: Thank you. The irony to it is the first box we ever delivered in our alpha beta round was the day I gave birth to Gemma, and I home birthed, and literally she was born, and that afternoon we got the first box. I was like, as a mother now of three I don't know how I would cook. It was just because the kids' schedules, it's so crazy. So like even for me One Potato like saves my butt, because even my babysitter who's never cooked before, she sends me pictures if I'm working and she's like, "Look what I made!"
Jennifer Tracy: That's incredible.
Catherine McCord: Yeah, I came home the other day and my husband was cooking. I was like, "Uh, I'm so relieved."
Jennifer Tracy: I'm thinking like, God that would be such a great gift. I have a friend, Claire Bidwell Smith. I don't know if you know her.
Catherine McCord: I know the name.
Jennifer Tracy: She just had a baby.
Catherine McCord: Oh yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: And she has two older girls.
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: And, gosh, that would be the perfect gift for her.
Catherine McCord: It is. It's great for new moms. It's great for anyone who doesn't know how to cook. It's great for just like busy parents.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: We have people that just are like just, just, "I don't want a menu plan. I don't want to grocery shop. I don't want waste." Because, it's the exact amount for you.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Catherine McCord: Which people love.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, that's perfect.
Catherine McCord: Like me. Because I waste haste. It just pains me.
Jennifer Tracy: That's the worst, when I get berries. Usually it happens to my raspberries.
Catherine McCord: I know.
Jennifer Tracy: They go moldy, and I'm just devastated. I have to throw the whole carton away.
Catherine McCord: It kills me.
Jennifer Tracy: And at Whole Foods that thing is like $6.99.
Catherine McCord: Exactly. It's expensive and you're like ... That's why like I love this, because it doesn't go to waste.
Jennifer Tracy: That's perfect. I love it.
Catherine McCord: I know. It's good. It's fun.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay. We have come to the time.
Catherine McCord: Oh yay.
Jennifer Tracy: My lady. Where I'm going to ask you three questions I ask of every guest, and then we're going to go into a lightening round of questions. The first question is, Catherine, what do you think about when you hear the word MILF?
Catherine McCord: The same thing that I heard when Jennifer walked in the house and my 11-year-old son was sitting here and was like, "So, what's the podcast?" I was like, "Ask Jennifer." Actually, I didn't even know, because I only saw it as MILF written out, and so I was like, as it started coming out of your mouth I was like, "Oh, God. Earmuffs. Earmuffs for my son, please."
Jennifer Tracy: What I did was I said it really fast. I said, "It's called MILF Podcast. That's Moms I'd Like to Follow."
Catherine McCord: I know, I was like, "Ah!" Yeah, that's what I think about it, but I love the name.
Jennifer Tracy: What is something you've changed your mind about recently?
Catherine McCord: I probably change my mind about things all the time. I don't know why when you're saying this I'm just like social media, social media, or technology for my children. That's the one thing.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: I think that I would probably be the lazier parent. My husband is like rigid about technology and our children, so I would say the thing that I'd change is like I've actually gotten more firm. Because I grew up watching TV.
Jennifer Tracy: Me too.
Catherine McCord: So I'd probably be like, "Yeah, it's fine."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: But I've changed my mind to be like a little bit more firm, and create more boundaries.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes. I'm right there with you.
Catherine McCord: I'm sure I could've come up with a much more fun answer than that, but that's the first thing that came to mind.
Jennifer Tracy: That's a great answer. That's a great answer. How do you define success?
Catherine McCord: Happiness, 100%. To me, no really, I think about it like all the time. This morning I was driving, I was thinking about it. I think success is, it has to be a feeling. It can't be monetary. It cannot be your picture on the cover of something. It's really, it's the satisfaction of small things. I think just like you emailed someone and you were like, "Oh, God. I don't want to. I don't want to," and they responded. That's success.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Catherine McCord: That's happiness.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Great answer. Okay, lightening round of questions.
Catherine McCord: Okay.
Jennifer Tracy: Ocean or desert?
Catherine McCord: Ocean.
Jennifer Tracy: Favorite junk food?
Catherine McCord: Gelato, ice cream, anything of the cold creamy substance.
Jennifer Tracy: Yum. I like ice cream. I don't usually like frozen yogurt, but a friend of mine turned me on to this place called Go Greek in Beverly Hills.
Catherine McCord: I've heard of it, but I've never been there.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, it rocked my world. I couldn't believe-
Catherine McCord: Yeah, because frozen yogurt sometimes gives me a stomach ache because they put fake stuff in it.
Jennifer Tracy: It always gives me a stomach ache. I never eat.
Catherine McCord: But if it's sugar, I'm okay.
Jennifer Tracy: This is, I'm sure there's sugar in it, but it's frozen Greek yogurt. And it was so good. It wasn't too sweet. I don't like it when something's really, really too sweet.
Catherine McCord: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: It was amazing.
Catherine McCord: Note to self. Note to self. I guess I know where I'm going to go.
Jennifer Tracy: And the topping you will love.
Catherine McCord: Because they're healthy.
Jennifer Tracy: Because the have like hemp seed, chia seed.
Catherine McCord: Oh I love that.
Jennifer Tracy: Amazing.
Catherine McCord: I love that.
Jennifer Tracy: It's on Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills.
Catherine McCord: Why are you telling me this? Don't tell me this. For work I'm always over there. Now I'm going to be like, "Where's Go Greek? Where's Go Greek?"
Jennifer Tracy: God, it was so good. Anyway, blew my mind.
Catherine McCord: There you go.
Jennifer Tracy: Movies or Broadway show?
Catherine McCord: Movies.
Jennifer Tracy: Daytime sex or nighttime sex?
Catherine McCord: Anytime sex. I'm 24, I'm non ... Whenever.
Jennifer Tracy: Texting or talking?
Catherine McCord: Talking.
Jennifer Tracy: Cat person or dog person?
Catherine McCord: Dog person.
Jennifer Tracy: Have you ever worn a unitard?
Catherine McCord: Yeah, I still own a unitard. We're talking the one from here to here, right?
Jennifer Tracy: Oh yeah.
Catherine McCord: Oh yes. Own one. Love it.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh yeah, baby. Shower or bathtub?
Catherine McCord: My heart is bathtub.
Jennifer Tracy: But your watch is shower.
Catherine McCord: But my reality, my reality is shower.
Jennifer Tracy: Totally get it. Ice cream or chocolate?
Catherine McCord: Ice cream.
Jennifer Tracy: On a scale of one to 10, how good are you at ping pong?
Catherine McCord: Really good, because my dad-
Jennifer Tracy: You are?
Catherine McCord: came home from work every day, and that was the way we connected. We played pool or ping pong.
Jennifer Tracy: I played pool with my dad!
Catherine McCord: It's like that was our connection.
Jennifer Tracy: I became a pool shark.
Catherine McCord: Shark. I can still like ...
Jennifer Tracy: Me too.
Catherine McCord: I can rock a pool or ping pong-
Jennifer Tracy: Me too!
Catherine McCord: Very little skill over here, but that's my athletic skill.
Jennifer Tracy: What is your biggest pet peeve?
Catherine McCord: Narcissists. People that like talk, talk, talk, and own it, and don't give you any air space. You're like, "I wanted to say something."
Jennifer Tracy: If you could push a button, and it would make everyone in the world 7% happier, but it would also place a worldwide ban on all hairstyling products, would you push it?
Catherine McCord: Yes. Says the girl with a top knot who hasn't washed her hair in five days. Sorry. Too TMI.
Jennifer Tracy: Superpower choice. Invisibility, ability to fly, or super strength?
Catherine McCord: I have to travel so much these days, it would be that I could just fly somewhere and be there immediately.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes. Yes. Teleportation.
Catherine McCord: Teleportation. Is that one of the choices?
Jennifer Tracy: Yes, I think that should be the choice. Okay, we've got to get a little weird. This is my weird question.
Catherine McCord: Okay.
Jennifer Tracy: Would you rather have a penis where your tailbone is?
Catherine McCord: A penis where my tailbone. Okay.
Jennifer Tracy: Or, a third eye?
Catherine McCord: I don't know where I'm going with penis where my tailbone is. I don't even know what I'd do with it, or use with it, but I'll get creative.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay, great. What was the name of your first pet?
Catherine McCord: Squeaky. It was my hamster.
Jennifer Tracy: What was the name of the street you grew up on?
Catherine McCord: Oh yeah. I am Squeaky Apache. Trust me, I've done this before.
Jennifer Tracy: Squeaky Apache.
Catherine McCord: Oh, yeah. Because it's so good.
Jennifer Tracy: That's great!
Catherine McCord: It's such a good one. I know. I love a porn name. It's so good.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Catherine McCord: All right, last question for you, why is the first piece of paper over there burnt?
Jennifer Tracy: I'm so glad you asked that, because yesterday ... I love that you noticed. I love that you noticed.
Catherine McCord: I was like, "What happened?"
Jennifer Tracy: Yesterday I did an interview at home. I do it online. I had this woman in North Carolina. I'm on my computer, and I have this little, it's rose quartz candle holder, and I lit it, and I had my crystals. I had my little amethyst crystal that my friend gave me who just passed away, actually. I like made this little thing, and then like at the end of the interview, and then I finished the interview, and I set this down, this piece of paper that has the lightening round of questions on it, and I'm like finishing up with her, and then I notice this smell. I'm like, "Something's burning." I look over, and it was just the edge of this piece of paper.
Catherine McCord: I do that with towels, like when I'm cooking. I mean, I'm notorious for like putting a dishtowel down and like ... It almost made me feel better that there was like a burn mark on your ... You know. I was like, "Oh."
Jennifer Tracy: Yes, totally. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Just wasn't looking for a second. Then of course I immediately thought of all the wild fires we just had here recently in Southern California and I was like, "That's how these things start."
Catherine McCord: You just, one second. One second.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, seriously. Yeah. Catherine, what a treasure.
Catherine McCord: This was so fun.
Jennifer Tracy: Thank you so much.
Catherine McCord: Thank you. Yay.
Jennifer Tracy: Hey guys, thanks so much for listening. I really hope you enjoyed my conversation with Catherine. Next week on the show, our first interview of 2019 is going to be Alicia Willoughby, who is a physical therapist in Northern California who treats only moms, and she deals with restoring women's pelvic floor pre or post pregnancy. I loved my conversation with Alicia. She's just so smart, and I learned a lot about my pelvic floor that I didn't know. I didn't actually even know that I had a pelvic floor. I mean, I kind of did, but like again it just really made me realize how limited my knowledge was about all of that, and how much I wish that I had known prior to getting pregnant, during my pregnancy, and certainly postpartum.
Jennifer Tracy: That's really cool, and I have a bonus episode coming up on New Years Even that is just me talking. Don't worry, it's not a whole hour, but it is just going to be me talking about New Years, transitions, new beginnings, and setting intentions. I won't say too much about it, because it's something I just came up with tonight, and I just emailed my team and said, "Hey, I'm going to do this thing. Is that okay?" I mean, it is okay, because yes it's my podcast. Anyway, so I'm going to be bringing that to you guys on New Years Eve. Just me, just talking about some stuff.
Jennifer Tracy: Also, I forgot to mention this in the intro. From interviewing all these amazing women, I've interviewed 30 women so far, and I was thinking about it and I thought, "What's one of the things I've learned?" One of the many things I've learned is that they all have really strong habits, and they're all really dedicated to their habits. So, what I did was I pulled together the seven habits of baller MILFs, because every woman I've had on the show is a total baller, and I've composed a list for you guys.
Jennifer Tracy: It's on my website. If you head to website at MILFpodcast.com, sign up for my newsletter, and it won't be ... I'm not going to send you a newslater every five seconds. I said newslater. I'm not going to send you a newslater. "Hey, did you know this happened yesterday?" Newslater with Jennifer Tracy. I don't know why I'm all of a sudden a stoner, but I'm recording this late at night, and I'm not a nighttime person, so I'm a little loopy. So it's called the Seven Habits of Baller MILFs. Go to my website, sign up for my newslater, and you will receive this in you inbox. Happy New Year, you guys. I love you all. I'm so grateful for you, and I will be talking to you soon.