 Wendy Lowe, and I'm excited to share another journey with a dear friend as he takes his health path. We are coming to you live from my home and from downtown Honolulu from the studios of Think Tech by me. Today we'll be talking to a well-known Hawaii broadcaster and emcee and a dear friend. What I would like you to take away from today's discussion is the idea that listening to your body is a way towards keeping you healthy. Today we are very honored to welcome William Van Osdol, but we know him as aka Billy V. He is a reporter in the mornings on Hawaii News Now, Sunrise, and the voice of many of Hawaii's very prominent events. Welcome Billy V. Wendy, thank you very much. Nice your house. I know this is so cool, right? We get to see everybody's inside the house, right? The humble beginnings and who they really are inside their homes. So let's just get started. You know Billy, most people, when we get started, we talk about other things, but I know what's important to you as your family. So I want you to just start by introducing to us your family right off the top. Okay, thank you very much, Wendy. Let's go ahead and show you a picture of the fam. So you might as well see what they look like. Here they are going out for some family exercise during this COVID-19. My son is in the back there. He's 18. He's going to go to NYU. He is graduating as of this broadcast this coming Saturday. My wife, Sawako, there. Hi, honey. And then my dog, Chewy, in the middle, which is actually a lot of the reasons why we keep nice and healthy. But we'll talk more about that in a minute. That's the family. Wow. And then you're absolutely right, Billy. You know, when I have my dog, I have a grand dog. I have custody every other week. When my grand dog is with me, I walk and I'm diligent about it. But when she's not with me, I slide a little bit. But then I have to serve harder when I'm in the water. So I like even one. So yes, your lovely wife, your angel, Sawako, your son, Neon, and your pride and joy, Chewy, your best friend. Thank you for introducing them to us. We're very excited to meet them as well. So let's get right into it and talk about your professional journey. You're not only on TV, but you do other stuff to share that with us. Thank you very much. Let's go ahead and take a look at the picture real quickly here. I'm not going to go through the whole thing, but there's just kind of a little bit of a list for you there. I'm an entertainment reporter with Sunrise. You mentioned that. I worked for University of Hawaii Athletics. I'm also on the radio in Hawaii World 5. I own my own business, but along with owning the own business, there's a whole bunch of other stuff. You and I have worked together with the Miss Hawaii Scholarship pageant and continue to do so. So a lot of TV, a lot of events stuff, but that's all stuff that I wanted to work in for a long time. Wow. I mean, the list goes on and on. And I know that you mentioned the Miss Hawaii pageant on pageant night, which you are the voice of. But I look forward to the Miss Hawaii Golf Tournament where you and I can hang out together in front of the room and just show all our appreciation to all our sponsors and donors. And I look forward every year to working with you and just having a good time. So thank you for all the support in all the different community events that you are involved with. We truly appreciate you. And actually, we really appreciate your voice. And I love it when you go into that mode and maybe at the end you'll jump into that, that deep rustic voice of yours that just makes it a more exciting of an event. So thank you very much. So tell us now, I know we've done TV and all that, but what is your true and your original passion, Billy? The original passion, true passion, that's still up for grabs there, but the original passion was radio. Started back in radio when I was just 16 out of high school, so 17 years old, over on Hawaii Island. And here's a list so that way I don't have to go through the whole thing, but you can just kind of take a look at the radio stations that I've worked at. Starting out from the big island. Also, the rest of them are all here in Honolulu. I don't know if we've got that list up. Yeah, there's a site and it has all the stations that you worked with. The latest one being Hawaii 105 radio. And I'm still there on Saturdays. I'm glad that they still let me in to come and play once a week. Radio, from when I was young, that was, you know, when you're doing stuff and you have the radio in the background, it kind of keeps you company. Well, for me, it was like the party. That was, you know, KKUA days, Kamosami Kong day. So, yeah, I know, go through the names. Oh, I remember. Back in the good days, Billy. So that's what I wanted to, I heard that on the other side of the speaker and that's what I wanted to be and it just continues and it's still there. I still get nervous whenever I reach for the microphone, maybe for the first time of the day because I only do it once a week, but that was the original passion. Some people ask whether it's radio or TV and I gotta go with TV at the moment because in the newsroom, there's a certain energy that that's just, I work with a great group of people. As a matter of fact, you know, let's, we might as well just show you the picture. Is that okay, Wendy? Yeah, go for it. That picture is awesome. I love the heart there. This is the Hawaii News now studios and on the couch there you see everybody, Mieleka, this is kind of an older picture. Mieleka is now on the big island, but the rest of the crew, that's all of us there, minus Casey Lund. It's a really good group of people. And when I work with them, there's a certain level of excellence. And you gotta make sure that you got it every day that you bring it. And that's the kind of crew that I work with. But saying that, I know that I've got their back, they've got mine. When I asked Dan Cook, you know, when Dan was there and I had just joined in the morning in studio, I says, any advice for me? He goes, yes, don't be afraid to go to the edge of the clip. I just, you know, push the limits. Go to the edge of that clip. I says, oh, okay. And he goes, if you fall over, we will reach out and grab you. I went, oh, that's nice. Or we will let you fall and we will laugh at you for the rest of the morning. That was my introduction to being in the studio on Sunrise and it's one of, it is the best crew that I've ever worked with. Great and profound advice and wisdom. And, you know, that's how we have to live. We gotta live on the edge. So he's just straight up with you and telling you that's what will make you successful. Take it to the edge and just go for it, right? Yeah. That's exciting. So may I ask, who is the station manager that manages the Hawaii News now, Sunrise? The Hawaii News now, Sunrise, the station manager, I guess you would say the general manager at the time was Rick Blangiarity when I first started. The news director right now is Scott Humber. He's our illustrious leader down in the newsroom. And Katie Pikmin is our general manager upstairs for Hawaii News now. Wow. Want to just give them all a shout out because they're doing a fabulous job. I mean, you know, it starts from the top and then all of you with the right hearts and the right chemistry just sitting there and having a great time. So whether it's good news, sad news, bad news, you're delivering with the right temperament, the right heart, and it really penetrates our hearts and our minds to receive that. I wake up every morning to all of you every morning and I just absorb all of that. And then at eight o'clock, I watched around the world in 90 seconds and then I turn, then I usually start my day, but I usually from the morning, from the minute I wake up, it's all of you that will welcome my day. And I just, I just appreciate all of you and your energy so much. Thank you very much. And now it kind of leads to my next question. So how do you find success in the business place of today in what you do? And I think we've answered it, but go ahead. Well, I kind of alluded to it. Basically, what you need to do is if you can find a place where you can find people with the like minds, the like value set and the same goal, then that's perfect. If you find in the people with that same value set, I guess you could say, find a team that you can work together with, find that trust that, you know, that Dan mentioned there so you don't have to worry while you work hard. And you will find that you will celebrate those victories and you'll want to celebrate everybody else's, but it kind of ties in with Aloha Aina. If you have Aloha for each other, then you have something to work with that you can move together and move forward with. So more than just Aloha, Aloha Aina. Yes, it is love of the land, but it's love of the land, people, relationships with everything because everything has to work together for you to succeed. Wow. You know, I always feel, I want to say, initially I thought it was the magic of all of you and your hearts in the station. But yeah, it's truly the Aloha that you have for each other. And you have for your job and what you're doing for your responsibility of being the deliverer of the news of the day. And as I just commend all of you and that's why I wake up to you. And for a few hours in the morning and I'm just excited to see all of you and what you have to say. So I know you have a phenomenal, you have a phenomenal career. I reach out and go to an event and I see you at the mic. I know we're in good hands and I know we're going to be entertained. And then when I go to a sports event, I see you on the on the course on the court. And I just feel so excited and you at your mic and your script in one hand or your agenda and you're just pacing the floor and just waiting for the right time to get started and just guide that event. And I know that event is in such good hands because you are truly a professional. Yes. And I know, you know, I work with you for many, many years on different events and I see you around. And I know at one point, there was something different about you. And there's something going on in your life. And so I kind of like wanted to ask you and you shared with me. So let me just ask you now, what started the change in life for you. Well, it was a health issue. It was something called diverticulitis. For those are not not familiar with that term. It is small pockets that wind up happening into your intestine. And sometimes if food particles get stuck into one of these pockets, it can start to infect. And the next thing you know it's like a bad traffic jam on the H1 freeway. When there was traffic. And the pockets are like a little accident. And suddenly you've got a backup of cars in your intestine. It's like you have a particle and then you've got a backup of food. And then that sits there and then it starts to go sour, I guess you could say, and it becomes infected. And so it starts the lining and starts to irritate and it became very, very painful. And I ignored it actually for quite a while. And then I figured out, I better go to the doctor when I got to the emergency room and found out that I was in so much pain, I couldn't do the radio show. And you know, if you're taking me away from the radio show, you know, it's gotta be something serious. But Billy, you know, you had that pain, you know, and then you didn't eat anything wrong and you had that pain. I just want you to share with the audience like, what did you think it was? I wasn't sure. All I know is that it was I was doubling over. And I couldn't stand straight. I wasn't really sure what it was. Symptoms abdominal pain was mostly here on the left hand side. But I would go to the restroom and nothing would come out. So it's confusing. Right. So when I went to go to the doctor, get it checked out, this is, well, okay, let's go ahead, do a colonoscopy, we'll take a look. I says, okay. So they do the colonoscopy. And the doctor says, well, why don't you come into the office and we'll go ahead and tell you the results. Oh, okay. So my wife and I go into the office. We sit there with Dr. Marotani. He says, well, you've got polyps in your colon. Oh, sorry, you have diverticulitis, but it's a little bit worse than we thought. And go, oh, okay. But there's something else. My wife starts to dig her fingers into my arm. Holding my hand in my arm. And he goes, we found early stage of cancer. Wow. My wife starts to shake and she starts to cry. So there's so much emotion next to me that I just kind of. What do we do next? He says, well, there's several options. And what we decided to do is we decided to take the infected section and remove it. Okay. So that had to do an extensive surgery. Right. We did that rather than going the chemotherapy route. Right. So we've gotten better. That's been healed up. I had to have an ostomy for a little while. I still suffer because it's a new normal. Right. And there are some things that I have to be very, very careful of what you'll talk about in the, but basically the cancer has been gone. It's been five years. I'm still clear. I go for my colonoscopies, my yearly checkups, but I have to be careful. Let's allude to, you said something a little bit earlier. You didn't need anything wrong. Well, I didn't know if I was eating anything wrong. Come to find out that there are things that I should avoid like horn, hard things, things that are small like seeds kind of stuff that might get stuck in there. And so I went, oh, and doctor says, oh, fiber, you need fiber. We all need fiber. So those are some of the things that I, that I was kind of going through, kind of leading up till now. But along the way, there's been a couple of realizations along the way too. Wow. You know, this is so key. And, you know, like we, the knowledge is power. And so that's why you're sharing with us. People may experience something and they'll just put it off. And so the, to me, the blessing though, you have the indicator that something was wrong and the blessing of it all, and there's always a silver lining. So the, to me, the blessing is that the irritation prompted you after a while to go to the doctor and then the detected early stages. That's a good thing right there. Early stage because the doctor says that if I had not checked it, if I had checked it about two months earlier, it would have been able to find it because it was such an early stage. But if I had waited until my 50th birthday, when I was supposed to go get my colonoscopy, it would have been a very much dire conversation because that wouldn't have been for another three years. So yeah, that would have been not good. And so that's why, you know, the whole thought of listen to your body, you know, we take everything for granted and we really have to listen to our body. Any pain means that the body is telling you something's going on in there. And it's not just because you bumped it or it just hurts. Why does my gut hurt? Why does my left side hurt? You know, now we can Google these things. Well, if I can, let me give you kind of an example of exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, water really is your best friend. Because what happened with me is I used to, for those of you that remember KCCNF and 100 and the birthday bash concerts for years, people would go down there every July big concerts all the big names. I was the stage manager for 16 years of that stage. Now it, the sun beats down as the sun goes down, it's beating right onto the stage. So I'm hot, sweaty. I'm cramping. And I'm thinking it's just the stress of the concert. And this is happening for a while now. This is back in the 90s. How many years ago? That's that's some 30 years ago. Well, yeah, 30 years. So what I found out, okay, I ignored it. It would always happen at the concerts. I'm thinking, okay, it's just concert stress. It's all cramping all in here. After I had my cancer surgery, about four weeks afterwards, I had that same exact cramp. And what the hell is this? Right. So I had to keep stretching it out, stretching it out. And one day I was stretching it out and I just chugged a whole bunch of water, and this pain went away. So okay, let's do a little deductive thinking. Well, if I drank the water, pain goes away. So that's not stress related. Okay, if I listened to my body, then I would have figured out that this had to do with hydration. So the sun beating down and all those 16 years, I was dehydrating myself every birthday bash. Yes. And not realizing it. Right. And so I'll ask you a little trivia question here, Billy. Do you know on the average, how much water we should consume daily? Oh boy, I will fail at this one. Three of these. This is 32 ounces. Okay, 32. That's 96 ounces. You drink three of those? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so that's excellent because... Survey says? Do you weigh like 180 pounds? When I got married. Okay, so the reason I asked you, and you don't really have to answer, I'm sorry, but... In theory, where you should drink, you take your weight. So if you weight 200 pounds, you divide it by two, and it's 100 ounces of water that you should consume daily. So you're pretty good. You are pretty good because you're doing 192. You're doing, yeah, you're doing pretty good. So here's the thing, is that when I found that out, I went and bought three of these. I have one at work. I have one at home. I have water wherever I go. Thank you to my chiropractor because he made me a sports drink. I'm not pushing any... He says, I go, oh, let's drink water. You need more nutrients, but you can't... Don't drink the sports drinks off the shelf because that's too much sugar. So he made me something from a company that's a mixture that doesn't have as much sugar. And I says, because I don't like water. I don't like water either. I mean, I'm not a water drinker, but same, I have to carry this thing and I have to monitor. And this is the only way, but you know what, truly, if I don't finish it and I'm like, oh my gosh, the day is almost over. Then you got to pump it up, but that's not good either. So you just like what you do, one, two, three of them, perfect. And then you have a visual of how much you're actually drinking or how much you're not drinking. And it is so critical not just for pain, but to flush out the toxins out of your system. You know, and another thing for you, you know, like the pain where you had it. Sometimes your body, your circulation is a little bit off. Okay. The water helps it, but we also do another thing and we'll get, I'll speak to you that is called fascia. Your fascia is the largest organ in your body. And it, what it does is it connects everything in the body. And if we don't like roll our body up and just move the crystals in our body, the water is like a saline in our body. And what happens is the saline, if you're not moving it, it crystallizes. And then you have blockage and you have like, oh, a lot of pains, especially as we get older because it's crystallized. So it's a simple method of rolling your body out on a roller to help you to break up those points. And so then you have even better circulation of the water that you're pushing into your body to help you circulate and flush out the toxins. The body is so beautiful and so simple. If we just did the basics, like, you know, like you're going to share with us, but water is so key. Hey, what, Wendy, hang on for a second. Honey, I found out why I'm sore when I get up in the morning. We'll talk about that later. Okay. Okay. And then another thing that, you know, that you brought up about, you know, your intestine and all that in your gut, your gut is what we consider your second brain. Okay. Your gut commands the whole body. It's sometimes even more important than this. Of course, this is important, but your gut, everything is regulated in your gut. Your overall day, your health, everything there, and exactly what happened to you had a backup. Most everybody, I don't know how many, what is the statistic, like 20 pounds of BM is stuck in your intestines that most people don't push through. And it's toxic waste stain in your body. Okay. So you were very blessed that you had a signal that said, Hey, the verticulitis better check it out, pain, more pain. Hey, up there Billy, check it out, get that shit out, right? Then you like addressed it. And then you were woken up to the initial problem. Right. And that's the blessing for you. So yes, exactly being in tune to your body, listening to your body, and then follow me and taking action. Because success is not just being there at the right place at the right time in the doctor's office, but being there at the right time at the right place and taking action, which you did. And then you were able to find the issue and take care of it. And we have Billy be here five years survival cancer clean. So, and I gotta say mahalo to my family because they're the biggest reason they're the biggest backers in, you know, and there's a whole bunch of stuff now that we've gotten through all of this that we want to go ahead and tackle. So I made a list of things that I know that I need to do. We'll show that to you if we get the chance here more walking. That's good. Right, Wendy. Yes. More nutritious diet. And we really let's take that one step at a time. You know, if you want to do more walking right. Yeah, what is the purpose for you walking to bring your heart rate up and to yeah. Right. Most people they have to get the idea out of their head. Oh my gosh, I've been walking every day for like 20 minutes 1520 minutes and I'm not losing weight. I want you all to get that part of your head you don't walk and exercise with the main focus to lose weight. The main idea is why you walk is exactly you need more oxygen in your body. You need to strengthen your body but your body has a natural pharmacy within itself. So when you walk and you're exercising, your pharmacy opens up and it starts healing your body. Okay, so that's even more more profound than oh I gotta walk I gotta lose this turkey that I ate I shouldn't have eaten that gravy, you know that extra gravy. So, you know, that's not why we do it is because we want to open up our healing, our pharmacy in our body to start healing and making it do what it's supposed to do. Okay, continue. Next one is more nutritious diet. More nutritious diet. So what was your diet prior to all of this five years ago. Well, you know, we got to actually go back a little bit further than that if we go back to the 90s I mean it was, I was multiple jobs, high pressure jobs, lots of fast food. Lots of spam eggs and rice, which by the way I still love my wife knows that if I but if that, you know, any day if I don't want to eat anything, she'll make that and I'll be happy. But my wife in after the cancer surgery and the healing. My wife is Japanese, and I love Japanese food and cooking and that involves a lot of vegetables and stuff so we've been including that I have found the right salad dressing. You got to go find a sesame seed dressing that's just me. I'm not endorsing it. Okay, I just did too late. So find a dressing that's good for you. Otherwise, salads suck. Okay, you want to eat tells all the time you can put me in your salad. It's good. Okay, and so you're you know that's the point spot on right there walking exercise is great, but the diet the nutritious nutritious diet. And like you really like the rest of us. I'm a little chick from Miami. I love. I mean I raised my kids and Vienna sausage can corn and white rice and that was our main staple. No, right. But since I retired Billy, I've not I've not eaten those things and I'm trying very hard. And I talked to myself all the time. Don't need it don't need it. Oh, I love it. No one's looking don't need it. Right. So I made a commitment at home. I'm plant strong at home. I eat out seven nights a week. Okay, so I will if you had a primary event. I say Billy, can I just have two slices and eat it on like in heaven. But that's, and I'm talking myself don't need it. It's enough. But, but 60 years old, we serve we do all these and our lifestyle is so full that we have to represent. And so you are a response but I know I know that this is your, your journey and I'm so excited to hear that all these great things are happening for you Billy. Thank you, thank you. And I know there's more in your list. More sleep. That's that's that's the hardest one on this list. That's the hardest. I just because you know you have we get up for sunrise. I'm up the last one and I'm up at 230. So I'm I'm actually the late one. There are people that wake up at 11pm, midnight, one o'clock two o'clock and shifts. So they they they trickle into the newsroom more sleep is and at this point I think I'm averaging probably about four hours of sleep. And that's my day as well, but Mahalo to isolation because it forces me to get more sleep because I need to build up my immunity so I can face the outside when I go there. Okay, so all these key points Billy are just very important. And what I know your heart is is to wish everyone out there to listen to your words of advice and be proactive about health and listen to their bodies. And before we sign off, I know that you want to introduce and say Mahalo to your family and we have another very lovely picture of your family coming up. And we can talk about them as well. Hey, and while we do that just to remind her like like Wendy says, you know, you can listen to me but listen to you more. Exactly. That is profound. So deep Billy so deep. Listen to me but listen to you. Because only you know right. And so yes, let's bring up your family the last slide of your family and just give a shout out to your son. There they go. Leon, I love you. Work hard at NYU. Hi honey, I love you too. And then Chewy, please don't make she she on the floor. Okay, go outside. Anyway, family love you. Wendy, thank you so much. Thank you so much, Billy. It was a joy and I look forward to having you back again. Stay healthy and keep sharing your heart with the world. Hello, Wendy Lote. Get a chick. I never knew that. Wow. Get a chick. Get a chick from the West Eye.