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Speaker 1: Hi, Welcome back to Bounce Forward with Me, Tip Paul.

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Speaker 1: I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodience of the land

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Speaker 1: on which I'm recording this podcast. There were andrew people

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Speaker 1: of the Cooler Nation. I pay my respects to elders

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Speaker 1: past and present. Welcome to part two of my chat.

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Speaker 1: We're going to pick up right where we left off.

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Speaker 1: What about in a mental sense, like for your mental health,

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Speaker 1: do you meditate? What kind of things do you do

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Speaker 1: well mental health?

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Speaker 2: Really yeah, that's a really good question. I would categorize

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Speaker 2: myself as an extraverted into it. So I love, you know,

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Speaker 2: paling around with friends and having a really good chat

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Speaker 2: and all of that, but it just means that I

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Speaker 2: need time to myself to recharge that social battery at

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Speaker 2: the end of a long day or after an event

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Speaker 2: or something like that. So one thing that's really important

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Speaker 2: to me is my home life. So making sure that

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Speaker 2: I've created a space that I feel is safe and

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Speaker 2: calm and who is always going to make me feel

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Speaker 2: like I can just close the front door, sit down,

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Speaker 2: you know, in mind pants, and just be I feel

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Speaker 2: very lucky that I've been able to create that for myself.

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Speaker 2: But it's also been a priority of mine. Another part

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Speaker 2: of it is therapy. That's an essential for me. I

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Speaker 2: have a really great relationship with my therapist, and I

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Speaker 2: started with her before Master Chef, and I said to her,

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Speaker 2: I need you to help me by knowing what I am, like,

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Speaker 2: what my baseline is like before this whole thing blows up,

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Speaker 2: because you know, obviously we you know, I'm a journalist.

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Speaker 2: It's my job to think about things. I have had

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Speaker 2: the benefit of watching the former judges go through that

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Speaker 2: whole experience that it would be not dissimilar to that.

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Speaker 2: So I wanted to have someone with me who knows

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Speaker 2: who I am now but also knew who I was

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Speaker 2: before that, just to see how those changes might impact

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Speaker 2: my mental health. So I feel like that's been something

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Speaker 2: that i've you know, I checked that box. I did

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Speaker 2: that thing right for myself, which was which was really

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Speaker 2: really good. But I also find moving really helped. So

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Speaker 2: exercise is a huge part of my my mental health

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Speaker 2: plan as well.

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Speaker 1: So tell me about that. Yeah, because I I know

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Speaker 1: that you're dabbling in a bit of Brazilian juditsu and

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Speaker 1: I have been dying to ask you about this. Taekwondo. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I know taekwondo, and I love it and that's how

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Speaker 1: I keep my hubby in line. You're on such a

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Speaker 1: great job, my husband. Any one up in the corner, Oh,

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Speaker 1: I know, yeah, he's he's scared of me, which is

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Speaker 1: the way I like it. And I just wanted to

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Speaker 1: ask you, where did your love of martial arts come from?

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Speaker 1: How are you finding it?

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, I was thinking about it. So I

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Speaker 2: started jiu jitsu because I love watching mixed martial arts.

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Speaker 2: It's a real thing that I just it gives me

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Speaker 2: a lot of joy. I feel like there's so much

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Speaker 2: skill involved in being in mastering more than one sport

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Speaker 2: and then pulling them out of your kit bag, as

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Speaker 2: you need to to read your opponent and to be

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Speaker 2: able to dominate in that situation. I just find that

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Speaker 2: it's human chess. I feel like that's a that's such

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Speaker 2: an intellectual site as much, yeah, as much as a

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Speaker 2: physiological thing. You know, these are athletes at the top

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Speaker 2: of their game. They're also having to kind of work

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Speaker 2: with a moving puzzle. And so I started jiu jitsu

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Speaker 2: because grappling and ground control is a little bit harder

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Speaker 2: to kind of understand the nuance of when you're looking

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Speaker 2: at striking as somebody who doesn't know much about martial arts,

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Speaker 2: you can say, okay, well, I can see that this

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Speaker 2: person's winning because there's the landing more punches or whatever

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Speaker 2: it happens to be. But jiu jitsu is one of

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Speaker 2: the most useful parts of mixed martial arts. If you're

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Speaker 2: you know, if you're what you want to be at

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Speaker 2: the top of your game, you need to have some

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Speaker 2: decent wrestling skills. So that's how I started. And funnily enough,

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Speaker 2: another comedian, dezim Hussein, who's a good friend of mine,

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Speaker 2: has been doing jiu jitsu for a couple of years

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Speaker 2: and he said, well, one of my coaches, his wife

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Speaker 2: is also a black belt in jiu jitsu and also coaches.

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Speaker 2: Maybe you want to meet her. And so Livy Giles

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Speaker 2: and I met and we've become really great mates. And

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Speaker 2: so it started with doing one on one coaching, and

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Speaker 2: now I'm rolling a couple of times a week and

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Speaker 2: is something that is really good for my brain because

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Speaker 2: you have to be fully present with it. And I

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Speaker 2: always come away from class feeling better than when I

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Speaker 2: walked in the door. And so for me, that is

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Speaker 2: a sign of something that you should be doing on

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Speaker 2: a regular basis.

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Speaker 1: So I really love it so true. I love the

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Speaker 1: presence that you need with martial arts. It is just

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Speaker 1: that clarity, that presence. It's beautiful. And are you doing

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Speaker 1: something with the UFC at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I've been working on and off with Foxtel over

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Speaker 2: this last year with fighter interviews, so I co I sorry.

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Speaker 2: I guest hosted Fight Week for Foxtel back in January,

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Speaker 2: which was amazing, alongside your coast from Gladiators, Tyson Pedro,

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Speaker 2: who's like such a sweetheart, and also Dan Hooker who

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Speaker 2: recently won his fight at UFC three or five in Perth. Amazing,

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Speaker 2: amazing guy too, and so I got to work with

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Speaker 2: them on that and it's sort of snowballed from there.

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Speaker 2: I did a profile interview with Israeli Designa ahead of

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Speaker 2: his fight at You've Seen Perth, and then I did

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Speaker 2: the post ceremonial way in interviews with Nick from Foxtel

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Speaker 2: as well. So it's just pepper throughout the year that

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Speaker 2: I get to do these things. And for me, the

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Speaker 2: psychology of martial arts, psychology of athletes is something that

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Speaker 2: I am utterly fascinated with in the same way that

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Speaker 2: when I talk to contestants on Dessert Masters or Master Chef,

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Speaker 2: I am really interested in human psychology. I'm really interested

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Speaker 2: in purpose and passion, and when people feel comfortable enough

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Speaker 2: to share their stories with me, that's a good day.

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Speaker 1: So, Melissa, you are one of the most passionate women

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Speaker 1: about food. Where does this passion come from? How did

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Speaker 1: you get into food?

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Speaker 2: I think for me, food is the gateway to knowing

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Speaker 2: yourself and to knowing other people. So I have found

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Speaker 2: that over the years of loving food and talk talking

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Speaker 2: to people about food, I get to know so much

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Speaker 2: about them. So it's kind of almost been an accident

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Speaker 2: that I've ended up in a career in food in

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Speaker 2: a way, because food has just always been part of

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Speaker 2: part of the dialogue for me. But I, from a

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Speaker 2: career perspective, accidentally fell into food because I was working

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Speaker 2: in advertising and it was at the beginning of social media.

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Speaker 2: I know that people sort of struggle to remember what

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Speaker 2: life was like before visit age.

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Speaker 1: I know, I remember very it's so weird, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, very very strange, And I'm really glad that

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Speaker 2: we had that time. But I started working in advertising

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Speaker 2: around the beginning of social media, and so we had to.

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Speaker 2: We were encouraged to be on different platforms engaging with

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Speaker 2: I guess potential customers, potential clients for the brands that

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Speaker 2: we were working for, and so I chose food because

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Speaker 2: I didn't want to spend too much time reaching researching

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Speaker 2: for content. I just sort of wanted to just dive

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Speaker 2: in and just sort of get going with engaging with people.

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Speaker 2: So it just sort of started as a little bit

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Speaker 2: of an accident, if I'm honest with you. I started

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Speaker 2: a blog. I started sort of talking to people about

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Speaker 2: food online. And one of my friends was an editor

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Speaker 2: for street Press and up in Sydney. It was called

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Speaker 2: three D World, and he said, well, we have been

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Speaker 2: wanting to revamp like a little food column and you know,

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Speaker 2: it was designed for unique students and it was about

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Speaker 2: cheap eats and things like that. So I was like, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I could do that.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: I love the audacity that we have when we're young

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Speaker 2: to just you know, do things, and so I started

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Speaker 2: writing a food column. And then at the time Time

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Speaker 2: Out Sydney launched and I called emailed the food editor

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Speaker 2: and I said, hey, I've been food writing for a

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Speaker 2: little bit, would I be able to write for you?

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Speaker 2: And she said yeah, she gave me my first assignment,

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Speaker 2: and off I went. And it was just a thread

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Speaker 2: that was pulled from there because as I got to

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Speaker 2: know people in the industry from a journalistic point of view,

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Speaker 2: I was trained by some amazing editors and publishers along

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Speaker 2: the way, so I kind of really was given a

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Speaker 2: lot of tough love to grow. The critical side of

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Speaker 2: the way that I articulate food, the way that I

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Speaker 2: could channel my voice in a way that felt like me.

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Speaker 2: And then the other side of things was, you know,

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Speaker 2: meeting a lot of people in food and kind of

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Speaker 2: just I guess getting a contact high from how passionate

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Speaker 2: they were about who they are, their identity through food

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Speaker 2: and the way that culture comes to life. Because you

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Speaker 2: can travel to a country in the world that you

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Speaker 2: don't speak the language, she don't understand anything that's going on,

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Speaker 2: but the second you take a bite, that's when you

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Speaker 2: can start to get a feeling for where you are

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Speaker 2: and who who these people are that are surrounding you.

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Speaker 2: And I feel like that is such a powerful proposition.

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Speaker 2: So the fact that I get to call that a

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Speaker 2: big chunk of my working life is a massive blessing.

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Speaker 1: Melissa. That is just amazing. Thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: joining me on Bounce Forward. I've learnt so much and

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Speaker 1: I would love to do some jiu jitsu one day.

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Speaker 1: And I would love to, yeah, because I've always done taekwondo, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I've dabbled in. We do teach Brazilian jiu jitsu

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Speaker 1: a little bit of ground control, a little you know,

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Speaker 1: because ninety percent of fights end up on the ground

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Speaker 1: and you need to be able to know a little bit.

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Speaker 1: But I've always thought, maybe TIF, it's time you need

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Speaker 1: to do some BJJ. I'm not sure.

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Speaker 2: I feel I feel like you know you're you're a

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Speaker 2: black belt already. You've got the fighter mindset, you've got

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Speaker 2: the commitment mindset. I know you'd be amazing at it.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, but I would love to try it.

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Speaker 1: So maybe we could do it one day. I'm not sure,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, Thank you so much Melissa for joining me today.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, Thanks so much for listening to

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Speaker 1: Bounce Forward. Hey, I love having your company, So please

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Speaker 1: dm me on Instagram at tiphoul Underscore XO and let

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Speaker 1: me know what topics or questions you'd love me to cover.

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Speaker 1: Don't forget to rate and review me on your podcast.

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Speaker 1: Out speak soon, Happy Days,