Transcript for:
Health and Healing Journey Insights

hi everyone and welcome back to another podcast episode my name is Alicia Goen the host of The Globe Secrets podcast where I help you expand your mind and become more self-aware so that you can glow up into the best version of yourself happy Monday how are we doing one of you guys called me out last week and said um You didn't say happy Monday and honestly thank you for that sometimes you just need to be called out I don't know what just got into me honestly it was probably because I was recording on not a Monday which is usually what I do so sometimes I'm not like in my head thinking it's Monday anyways if you're watching on YouTube hair is out hello this is probably going to distract me quite a bit but the hair the natural hair has come out of hiding it is spring summer and when it's spring summer we let the hair really flourish kind of bringing it into today's topic of the episode which is real health and healing tips to help you with your physical glow up okay so the other day I was just thinking I have a lot of things that I have learned throughout my 20s that have really helped me flourish and glow up physically now you guys know the glow up starts from within I literally made not made I wrote a book The Ultimate glob guide which really really brings you to that Journey so I will definitely be bringing you guys back to that and the story that I've kind of been through but I would definitely suggest that this is like your go to internal healing glow up Journey type of resource but I do want to talk about some of the things that I have learned that I think are a real health tips real tips that I think will will bring you a long way when it comes to changing physically now I quickly want to show on YouTube if you are listening audio maybe you want to come to YouTube if you've never seen But I just want to post maybe a few photos of how my skin was at one point in my life many like actually many points in my life but I had really really bad breakouts I was undernourished and then I I've been overweight for sure in my life like mainly in like my high school year when I had hyperactive thyroid and then I went on medication but then I still had the same eating patterns and then I just stored a lot of fat things of that nature whatever um I basically just didn't have the body that I do now and also my hair my hair did not look the way that it looks right now on camera it looked very well it was very dead and very brittle and all these things so I've had an evolution of glowing up physically in many aspects so I just want to share some tips when it comes to skin body and hair but I definitely want to touch on health tips and then obviously some things that I think are very helpful and that have really helped me be able to actually grow up my hair and clear my skin and get the body that I think is the body of my dreams and and actually throughout all of this like really love myself so we're going to dive into a lot of things this is probably going to be a long episode I'm going to try and do my best to compartmentalize some of these things so we're going to talk about skin first but I the the first things that we're going to be talking about when it comes to skin is the bioc psychosocial model and this is going to be important for you to think about in every aspect of your health so you can really think about this when it comes to your body your your hair your everything so I had hormonal acne I had gut health issues I just had many breakouts through specific periods of my life and I have learned throughout my years what was causing that and I think it's such a struggle for sure because there's so much information online and one person over here is saying it's your gut health so take these probiotics or take these vitamins or it's the products that you're using or it like there's a million things and so I have really gone through a journey of educating myself and figuring out what is the cause for all these things and I think the bioc psychosocial Mo model really encompasses the way that I view Health holistically and what I've actually learned on my journey and how I actually healed and got clear skin without going on Accutane without being on birth control without doing any sort of supplements even skincare I talk about skincare sometimes and I show you guys what I do even on my main Channel but none of the skinc care that I have used had ever changed my uh like acne or anything like that it makes my skin glowing now and this that but uh it it wasn't that it was more internal thing so I want to quickly explain what the bioc psychosocial model is because I think it will really help you understand what might be playing a role in your skin issues or maybe even hair issues like body weight things of that nature but I do definitely think skin in general and then I'm going to kind of give you my personal uh story but again if you really want to understand my story I I literally lay it all out in my book that is what my book is about so I'm on physiopedia I'm going to actually have a link to this uh article and a few other ones for you guys because I'm not going to be able to like go into everything and by the way this is just my personal experience this is my journey this is what I've learned over the years I used to to be into health and wellness at a time where I feel like not a lot of people were like I feel like 20 2016 and 2017 was really the years that I got really into learning about diets and holistic health and all these things so I've had evolutions and health issues many many things that that's my life Journey okay so I don't know I just say that because that's just kind of like oh what are your credentials to be talking about it that's just what it is I'm not a doctor you can go obviously anyways whatever I think you guys are are going to relate so the bioc psychosocial model was first conceptualized by George Eagle in 1977 suggesting that to understand a person's medical condition it is not simply the biological factors to consider but also the psychological and social factors so let's break down bioc psychosocial so bio it is a physiological pathology so when you think of Bio it's biology it's your genes it's your genetic makeup it's whatever one always says oh it just runs in my family it's my genes it's this that there's no denying that we all are genetically predis disposition sorry to have certain things that are running in our families what I have learned through epigenetics which has a whole sub thing that we're not going to get into you can Google it you can learn about it what actually you know what I'm going to explain what the other ones are and then I'm going to tie it back to that so the next one is psycho so what that is is thoughts emotions and behaviors such as psychological distress fear and avoidant beliefs current coping methods and attribution so just think about your mental health essentially like are you a stressed out person are you worried all the time are you do you have anxiety like all of these things right your mental health and social so this is socioeconomical socio Environmental and Cultural factors such as work issues family circumstances and benefits and economic so understanding that not it's not only just maybe your hormone like if your hormones let's say for example are not balanced there is a reason maybe yes you like I don't know like your biology is just maybe you don't produce enough of this or that or you know you had something run in your family and then you got it as well but the environment that you live in and the thoughts that you're thinking and your mental health and your habits in a very very huge role whether or not your body is going to be functioning biologically in a healthy way and I will give you a quick example but again I talk about this in my book ulcerative colitis runs in my family for sure it just does and it is a well it's called IBD if you guys don't know it's different than IBS it's inflammation in the body and it's an autoimmune disease essentially so that's like what runs in my family some people like there's different genes as that now some people in my family don't have that what I have learned throughout my years is depending on the life circumstance that I was living the stressful environment that I was in triggered my genetic predis disposition to turn on genes that would allow me to have something as such as an autoimmune disease where my body starts breaking down why because when you are in a very stressful environment you are literally on a biological level releasing cortisol you're releasing adrenaline you're releasing all of these hormones that might might not be helpful for your body to stay in homeostasis there are a lot of contributing factors outside of what's just happening in here and I think a lot of the times naturally because it's what we're taught like the doctors like oh there's nothing you can do about it and like this just like what your body is doing okay but how is your mental health what is what is the environment that you're living in what are your habits who are you around how is your Social Circles are you stressed about finances are you stressed about your future or your life all of these play a huge part in your biological Health when your outside environment is stressful your body's going to go into fight or flight it's going to act as if it needs to fight or flight or flee and when that happens your body is no longer producing the right amount of hormones the right amount of like everything to keep your body at Bay in balance and that is when we have a lot of disease that start to come online and it has been like there is so much research on that I'm going to give you guys some resources at the end of this episode but it's it's like I think most people are waking up to the fact that it's not like it's deeper it's you got to go to the root of what is going on in your body now I will say even when it came to ulcerative colitis I'm not trying to beg on going to the doctor or you know not trying certain modalities I understand that people have to go on birth control some people have to go on Accutane some people have to do certain things to help your body um uh be get at Bay essentially but I think it's really really important for you to address the psychosocial components of your lifestyle as even if you are on medication and that is what I learned to do when I had flareups I couldn't just decide to be super holistic and be like Oh I'm just going to heal myself naturally because you know what the the thing that kind of sucks but not really because this is normal um about healing holistically and like you know working in your social environment and not stressing about life or finances or things like that it takes time so as you are changing your lifestyle and you know really reducing stress in all areas of your life you might need that support from medication especially when you're coming when you're talking about like autoimmune diseases and things like that like when I had flareups I literally had to be on steroids so that it could reduce the inflammation in my body so I stopped bleeding like it's no joke like so I'm not here to be like oh just like heal from your thoughts and like you know change your mindset about like um the scarcity mindset and stuff like that like I've been through all of that and it's it's way deeper than that but it's not this is what I'm going to say if you just go on medication you're probably going to find down the the the road that things like things will come back or your body will show you different signs of illness in different ways things like that so I have just learned over the years to really focus on the things that have stressed me out in my life which have completely impacted my health so I'll give you my example especially when I started well when I got diagnosed with ulcerative colitis I learned about gut health I learned about diet I learned about healthy habits and stuff like that but I was internally very very stressed I lived in an environment at that point when I actually got diagnosed with um ulcerative colitis I was literally living in a trap house with drug addicts everywhere like everywhere okay um I wasn't one but unfortunately that's where I was living so that you could only imagine the high stress on top of that I was financially very very very stressed I was also stressed about my health because I was like oh my God like am I going to die and also I was going to school I was trying to sleep I was trying to do all these healthy habits and I couldn't because my environment was so stressful and so I had to obviously take on like a lot of responsibility when it came to really focusing on my mindset and getting myself out of this situation but also throughout that situation I had to go on medication I had to do all these things I really had to take my time with getting myself out of this situation and because I had ulcerative colitis and I was very very stressed my gut health wasn't good I also had an eating that's my eating disorder was also um very much so alive around that time as well like there was a lot of stress going on in my body and so my gut health wasn't good I was literally like there was inflammation in my body I had an autoimmune disease and I was also then having skin issues and the when I finally when I got a medication and you know really started to take a look at my life and my environment and see whoa like all these things are really creating a lot of stress within me and that took me many years to heal my nervous system and regulate all that kind of stuff and tap into my emotions all that kind of stuff but as I worked on the internal meaning my my mindset also the environment and obviously taking medication and things that I needed to do all of my skin issues went away and I want to quickly just like list off a few main things that I think are helpful and maybe like if you are again my situation is much different than yours I'm not saying it's your environment but oh my God there's so many things that stress us out in life but my first thing was for sure was changing my mindset on my my life circumstance and again I I really really go on that in my book but I had to change the way that I was perceiving these threats real threats in my life so that I could be calm and be able to think clearly to be able to get myself out of these situations so I woke up in the morning and I had adrenal practice I was being grateful for the things that I could be grateful for even in a in a time where literally it was like a complete mess like I really really worked on my mental health more than anything because I just realized no amount of vitamins no amount of diet was helping me was fixing me if anything it was stressing me out more trying to put myself under this stressful diet and regimen when literally my life was like falling apart so I really had to work on change my mindset around my my life circumstance and I had like two options I could either sink or swim I could either go in the direction of everyone that was around me in my life or I can completely transform my life thankfully I did because that's just who I am as a person and everything else followed that so the next thing I would say like a few years later for sure is I learned about emotional releasing and tapping into my emotions and inner child healing and Trauma healing and understanding that you know a lot of the stressors and the way I was coping in life was actually like way deeper than even the circumstance that was given to me around that time where like I was in a really bad environment and really doing that deep healing work really allowed my body to fully just regulate like my nervous system to regulate I was on fight ORF flight since I was a freaking young toddler I was I was in fight ORF flight when I was around my father that was stressing me out all the time I was afraid of him all the time we lived in in a in a life where it just it was hardship it was just stressful and and I learned ways to cope with that again I talk about it in my book so really doing that healing work and you know inner child healing like I didn't even go to a lot of therapy actually when I started doing all this stuff so I'm just going to say that quickly cuz I know a lot of people can't do therapy and this that but I did that without it and um it really really helped me just be more at peace with my life and also that led me into self-love and acceptance which was a really big part of my glow up Journey because when I started to learn to accept myself and love myself and stop being such a perfectionist I stopped going to these strict diets and I stopped hating on my body and I stopped stressing so much about the end game and the timeline and and even as my body was healing like I I gave myself the time it needed to heal which allowed like everything to balance out it helped my nervous system regulate it helped my hormones balance it helped my gut health get back to where it needed to be because I wasn't binge eating and I wasn't strictly like dieting and all these things I just supported myself in very beautiful normal habits that we all could be doing and all of those things really started to show me oh my skin is healing my ulcerative colitis is is at Bay I stopped having flare up to the point where I chose to get off medication after a few years of not having flareups at that point I was educated enough and understanding enough of what is the root cause of chronic illness and what was really going on and you know educating myself on the nervous system and I like really had a lot of faith in myself that I I I was able to kind of well not heal I was already kind of healed but to go off of medication and things like that um and I was confident in the the healthy habits which was just normal healthy habits like not having an eating disorder and sleeping right and being away from toxic and environment and uh changing the way that I H was stressing about money like very simple takes a a while but simple things that don't require these medications and you know fat diets and stuff I I realized that no I I I don't need to be on this medication and I haven't been on medication in a like I don't even know how many years I guess I probably I got off of medication in 2020 but at that point I hadn't had a flare up in a few years so it's been a very long time and a lot of people will say like oh like um you have to be medication for the rest of your life I don't believe that but that's just my own personal opinion so all of those directly impacted my gut health and my stress levels which obviously impacted my skin Health my skin cleared up okay so I just kind of wanted to say that because I think it's very very important when you have health issues that you go to the route and you understand what is going on and there are is is more than one thing it's more than just oh Dairy is the thing that's inflaming me I promise promise you it's not just Dairy that's doing it for you and and maybe it is if every single thing like every other area of your life is like really really good maybe but then it's also like just get some grass-fed milk and you'll probably be fine but you know obviously everything in moderation everything whatever that's just my personal beliefs I just want to say like that was a very big Journey for me in my life it took many years for me to understand the you know even like education behind this bioc psychosocial model and how it's never just one thing like you have to look at yourself and your health very holistically like all your systems are connected but also it took me a while to change my mindset to be able to get out of the environment that I was in it took me a while to emotionally release and and heal trauma like all that kind of stuff it takes a while so I just think like the big takeaway when it comes to this like model that I'm talking about is give yourself time and and love yourself through this process and and um you can have a lot of change in your life but you know I think that in this day and age we are looking for the quickest fix and sometimes we need that and sometimes we want that and I'm not trying to I'm not trying to beg on that because I've been in the worst Health I've ever been many many times in my life and all I needed was just that one thing that was going to change it but after having so many diagnosis and all these things by the way like my nerve pain was definitely a huge part of my nervous system regulation and stuff like that too which again I talk about in my book I've had a lot of different ailments to the point where it was just no denying that I had to go deeper there was just no denying it now it might not be as Extreme as it is what was for me for you um obviously everyone is different but for me that was my journey I had a hyperactive thyroid I had ulcerative colitis I had a really bad unhealthy eating disorder and I had nerve pain in my hands for 2 years and I had no idea what it was I thought it we we thought it was uh carbal tunnel it was not carbo tunnel I was going to get a surgery I did every single test Under the Sun I did medications I did physio chairo acupuncture massage therapy I did every single thing you could possibly imagine and I came to the very big realization that it was a Mind Body Connection it was my body being in fight ORF flight for so many years and I needed to release those emotions and and really like really deeply heal so again all of that's in my book so if you really are feeling resonated to anything I just said please please go check that out it be linked down below so with skin though I'm going to talk about a few things that I think are helpful and that I have done other than obviously going to that route cuz obviously like you can just you know like there's products I'm sure that might help or you know different habits and stuff that you can do so I'm going to just talk about a few things so I think for sure one thing that really really helped me though like understand my skin issues although it was a combination of everything I do think oh it's always really a combination of everything is cycle syncing because I for sure at some points did have hormonal acne but I did have a lot of acne when it came to like gut health and it's very apparent just the way like where the acne was on my face but I did for sure have hormonal acne as well so I think when it comes to hormonal acne everyone is different but cycle syncing understanding your cycle is very very important and and the reason why I'm saying that is because when you know what phase you're in you can support yourself in in better ways which will then signal to the body to rest and digest and like work better and and not produce so much estrogen or so much testerone or whatever I said that wrong whatever I'm not even going to say it again whatever you guys know that I say things wrong sometimes but educating yourself on their cycle I think it's very very important and I think that when I moved away from having any sort of like health issu and I really healed a lot I think the last skin issue that I was having was a little bit of like hormonal acne around my period but I don't even get that anymore I I recently actually did break out but I was using retinol like I already know that it was definitely retinol because where it was but regardless like I really don't I think my my hormones are very much so balanced but it took a while so I have a few episodes and like on my main Channel about cycle syncing so I'm not going to dive into it but I just think when you know that you're about to go get on your period for you to support yourself with more sleep with more rest with lighter exercise that really signals to the body to move from fight or flight to rest and digest which will allow you to not produce so many hormones that might be breaking you out and things like that especially when it comes to eating and even when it comes to productivity and working like the the main thing I'm trying to tell you guys is stress is the number one cause of so much we don't even understand or maybe you do if you've educated yourself enough but stress is really the root of so much so whatever I can do in my life to reduce stress I'm going to do it and every single week is different and especially if you are a woman and you're men trating like your body needs different things at certain times there's actually a quote that I want to read from Pinterest that was I I don't know I just think it's really beautiful and I think this is maybe just reminder for all of us but it says you are not a machine you are more like a garden you need different things on different days a little sun today a little less water tomorrow you have fallow in fruitful Seasons it is not a design flaw it is a wiser than Perpetual sameness what does your garden need today and I think that after going through everything that I went through when it came to my health issues I really understood that I am such a cyclical being and the the healthiest the reason why I'm the healthiest I've ever been is because I look at myself like not a machine I dro the perfectionist mindset of like trying to implement the same thing over and over every single day of my life and like never changing and never accepting myself for the seasons of life that I'm in and understanding that my body sometimes needs a little bit more rest it needs you know a little bit more nutrient and need a little bit like relax a little bit or I need to cry today or I need to go out you know for a walk all these things I had to learn who I was and you need to do that for yourself and I also think just coming back to health issues in general and and I get it I've been there I've been to so many doctor's appointments like literally like I came to a realization that you have to be your own Advocate and the way that you do that is you learn who you are and how your body operates which means you have to listen stop giving all your autonomy and all of your power to higher ups to doctors they don't know answers and I think that for anyone who has chronic pain illness like health issues you probably are so fed up with going to doctors and all these things because the truth is it's like these people are just writing you prescription and saying hey like this is your fate and that's not it but you have to be the one to go out there and find that that information and those resources and you have to try and you have to it's hard I get it but that's the best thing that's really really helped me heal and I bring it back to cycle sinking that was that was a really like onp paper way for me to kind of understand myself and um yeah so anyways that's all I'm going to say about that because again I have videos on that if you are on hormonal birth control you're not actually naturally going through your your four phases but some people do and also there's birth control that's not hormonal so um in the flow book is really uh a good book to start if you don't really understand it but I think that um for me personally I was on birth control actually way before any of my health issues um and that was like the first like when I first got into holistic um health and wellness and understanding things before I actually even got diagnosed with anything and even before my my life got really really ramped up and way more stressful than it ever was and my life was pretty stressful already I just didn't really know it I was like on autopilot I realized I was like I don't need to be on hormonal birth control it just doesn't feel right for me doesn't make any sense why I'm on it I I was not somebody who was um really sexually active I didn't have like a long-term boyfriend so I just didn't need it for that and then also I just felt that I like I don't want it just doesn't seem like natural for me to be suppressing something that's such a Vital sign of of Health in my personal opinion I understand though I just want to say this again I understand and don't feel bad if you're on birth control right now like I get it but maybe educating yourself because you know what I'll tell you this I didn't know about four phases of my cycle I didn't know about cycle sinking when I went on birth control if I knew that I probably would not have gone on birth control genuinely so cycle sinking is Big so also when it comes to uh skin really and these are just like this is surface level after what I've just said so I don't know I'm just going to say anyways not wearing so much makeup and makeup hygiene and really focusing on skin care as like my like makeup routine really helped me I just think that when I was really growing through a lot of like breakouts and stuff I just intuitively whether this is like you know everyone everyone has their opinions I just intuitively sorry intuitively felt like wearing makeup and and I understand why people wear makeup especially when you have acne like I get it I get it I get it I get it and and I totally did for sure but I tried my best to not put stuff on my face when my face was breaking out because I just felt that it just there's it there's no way that this helps it in you know I I just don't see how like I want my skin to breathe I want my skin if anything just to have skinc Care on it so I really limited the amount of makeup that I was wearing I also just like didn't love wearing makeup but I also really learned how to love myself even when I had acne so I think that the only way that we're really able to kind of be okay with not wearing makeup makeup is if you have that like really big part of self-love and acceptance through that Journey because obviously it's going to be really hard for you to not wear makeup when you're like oh my skin is not clear right now and that's not okay so I really like learned and I'm so happy I did because even as I have clear skin now like I just I don't know I just I feel like it's really come with me a long way into my late 20s and when it comes to makeup hygiene I just think like if you're wearing makeup try not to wear it all the time wash it off when you get home oh my God please please guys oh my God I get it no I don't get it actually I don't get it I don't get it it takes it will take you all of two minutes to wash up your makeup I don't care if you're drunk I don't whatever just take it off your skin please when you're done wearing it um and then I guess the last thing before I get in Q&A cuz by the way I asked you guys on the podcast in Instagram q&a's so I'm going to I kind of like sectioned it out to skin hair body um the last thing I'll just say is researching for your skin care that works for you okay at the end of the day I did a lot of research on what my skin needed in those moments when I was having hormonal acne and all these things now I did completely address the health issue thing and I mean I would say maybe like 10% of me understanding my skin type and finding products like maybe helped so but I'm just saying that though because like not everyone's skin is the same like people are asking me like oh what do you do for your skin but at the end of the day it's like your skin might be different than mine you know and again I always bring it back to that internal health piece it will take you light years away from your health issues if you if you go to the root versus just trying to find that next product that's probably going to financially stress you out when you realize it's not working okay so I'm going to read out a few questions that you guys had and then we're going to get to the next section so the first is how to manage stress for glowing skin SL no acne I already addressed it and so you know I guess maybe one thing I'll say is think about the biggest stressor in your life right now and address that so are you somebody who really really overthinks about finances you need to start addressing that is it uh a toxic parent okay you need to start addressing that is it school that's really stressing you out okay you need to address that is it your friendship group you need to address that is it your relationship address it and what I mean address it it's going to look different for everyone but maybe that means like healthier boundaries getting out of the house more um you know picking up a book about scarcity mindset and and finances or sitting down and looking at your finances and coming up with a plan and having goals and you know like really working on your mindset journaling all that kind of stuff like whatever it is think about your biggest stressor that you think about all the time and address it okay and I can tell you this for free it's probably not like it's probably not your milk that you put in your coffee in the morning that's probably not your biggest dresser in your life I I can probably guarantee that um so I think some of the other tips though helped someone said how to clear acne um like I said all of those tips I think that everyone is absolutely completely unique and also it depends on like what type of acne or or wear I do think sometimes looking up those like skin mapping things can be helpful you know if if you're getting it around your chin most likely it is something to do with your hormone balance issues that are happening um I found when I was getting uh acne on like my cheek area like up above like the chin area it was definitely my gut health it was so correlated though because like when I would have flareups my skin would get really really really bad so I can't really tell you in terms of products and stuff because I didn't use any product I literally didn't use products but I will say salicylic acid can help for sure when it comes to oil production but that's basically like as much as I know but there are actually a few other products when it comes to hyperpigmentation and discoloring for acne scarring that I will talk about but honestly like that's basically all I can say with that and um somebody said tips for hyperpigmentation SL discoloration so one Sun screen is going to be your best friend especially if you have any acne scarring because your skin is just it's it's very fragile and when you also have scarring and you go into the sun it could actually make your skin darker so sunscreen always right now I'm using Paula Choice sunscreen SPF which is like a face sunscreen I really like next thing chemical exfoliants chemical exfoliants are basically a obviously a face exfoliant but it's going it deeper into your skin and really turning over your cells which can then help brighten and change the quickness of the um hyper pigmentation I guess so I have used Dr Dennis gross peel pads forever so I'll have them Linked In My like to know it all my favorite skin stuff will be linked in my like to know it so that could be helpful using that like one or two times a week but that's like a slow you know it's a slow thing um vitamin C I also use uh Dr Dennis grow vitamin C that really really brightens up the skin so that's beautiful I I use that and um an LED red light therapy mask can be very beneficial when it comes to any sort of acne scarring but again you have to be consistent with it and you have to like this is like a long-term thing but you know over time that can definitely help but I do think honestly protecting your skin from the Sun is great and important now I'm actually doing a collaboration with current body skin care skin care current body skin with their LED red light and blue light masks so I don't have a code yet but look out for that video on my main Channel because I'm I'm doing a main Channel video where I'm giving you like um glowing skin tips and I'm showing you guys my makeup routine and stuff so you'll get that and I talk about that mask in there and there's going to be a discount code in there so if you were looking for that it's pretty expensive I'm not going to lie but it is one of the best on the market if you are looking now another thing I'm going to link an article from Dr Dennis gross's website and um they give you some steps when it comes to clearing dark spots and the reason why I like Dr Dennis gross is because I have followed his work for a very long time like probably like since 2018 and he knows what he's talking about I've listened to him talk about his production of uh really really good products from the very beginning when he first only like his I think his first product was the the chemical peel so it it's an evolution I I I backed Dr Dennis gross it is more on the expensive side but I think that if you're I I think with the products that I just said it's actually very important that you get the the right ingredients and and made properly I should say so that's what I'm going to say about that somebody said recomend recommendations on vitamins I'm currently not taking any I try I spent a lot of money on vitamins and supplements back in the day when I was trying tring to heal none of that [ __ ] worked I am not saying vitamins don't work and I'm sure I'll probably implement some vitamins and I think that there's um some great Brands can prev is really good and AO I think can prev is only Canadian though so like there's definitely brands that I back but currently I'm not really taking any vitamins because I just have a very balanced and healthy diet I think that if you struggle with having a a balanced diet vitamins can be helpful but I just don't when it comes to skin like again it's such a small it's like I don't know I just look at it as like 5 to 10% of like H how that's really going to like change your skin game so use that as like a support system maybe but I just I don't know I just feel like when people have skin issues when people have health issues like don't stress yourself out about getting a little vitamin that has maybe like five milligrams of something that might help your skin like I would I would address all those big things in your life and then you know then invest your money on some supplements and that's kind of like what I do but I I haven't really done anything although I will say l glutamine is really really helpful for um healing your gut lining which is was actually One supplement that I did take when I had really really bad gut health issues um and when you have better gut health that can affect your skin so I would say Al glutamine can be very helpful the next somebody said what is your current skincare routine so it actually depends not every single day is the same and I'm going to show you in that video but I would just say after the gym and at night I usually wash my face with a soy cleanser and then I put on a hyaluronic acid it completely depends right now I'm using inisfree and um I really like hyaluronic acids because it just really creates a lot of moisture and just plumpness in the skin and then I usually go in with a serum so I really like Charlotte tilbury's magic serum because it has vitamin C in it and um at night I will use Dr Dennis gross I think it's 15% vitamin C serum I put that on and then I just put a moisturizer on right now I'm using vichi I really like vichi and I really like fresh Beauty all of my skin like I said recommendations will be linked Down Below on my like to know it just so you can see the brands that I support like that's basically it like if I like a product I will put it in there and if I would use it I would put it in there but it kind of depends and in the morning though I don't wash my face until I do something that needs for me to wash my face um and I put on sunscreen though in the morning when I go out now for my walks because the sun is shining all the time so that's what I usually do okay let's go on to the next thing which is hair so quick backstory I if you don't know but if you're listening on audio you will also like see my um cover so you probably can tell that I have really curly natural hair um my hair used to not be like this I grew up in a definitely predominantly white environment School everything so I wasn't really around people who had the same type of hair as me which meant I wanted to fit in so obviously like when I was younger younger my mom would like braid my hair my mom's also white and my dad was black so she actually did a really good job at learning how to braid my hair and stuff like that like I would say she was like she she did really good um so but she would like just braid my hair a lot I liked my hair in braids I also just felt like when my hair was in braids it felt like my hair was straight like all my other friends and um you know just like whatever and then I would have my hair in like ponytails and buns and stuff and as I got older and she stopped doing my hair I just really like I did not know how to take care of my hair I was not brushing my hair I hated my hair because it wasn't like my friends and um yeah I had a really really lengthy Journey with just not accepting and loving my hair and not taking care of it I I really hated it and then I got to a point where I was like I don't know maybe probably like grade 10 is when I started learning oh I can chemically straighten my hair like my curls to have them straight all the time and I can get a flat iron and I can get extensions so I can have straight hair like all my friends and so I did that forever that's basically I think all of my uh mixed friends I didn't even really have like full black friends because it there was like literally nobody in like school or even I'm from Barry for anyone who doesn't know back then um regardless nobody was wearing their natural hair like literally nobody um my cousins not even my cousins or my sisters I have half sisters from my dad side and um we all just would do that so I got to a point where you know that was working forever and I really liked my hair and stuff but of course my hair was really damaged um getting your hair chemically straightened for anyone who doesn't know it's basically you go in the salon and you get this like box chemical stuff get put in your hair and it literally burns your scalp it's so not good for your hair it's so sad actually to think about it and I just want to quickly say like I I don't want to offend anyone who's still getting their hair chemically straightened and stuff like I get it it makes it easier I mean that's kind of why we do it sometimes is because if you if you don't have straight hair it is a whole second job to have natural hair and to do like this hair and to upkeep it and everything so I I get it but I still think it's it's sad because I think a lot of if you really think about it internally deep down like a lot of us just really like we we don't own our natural hair we don't like it and and I'm not trying to put words in other people's mouths that who are black who have black hair curly hair who straighten their hair but for me and I know for a lot of people in internally deep down it was a self-hate thing like I didn't I hated the fact that I had natural curly hair now mind you one of the reasons why was because like I just wanted to fit in with everyone when you're when you're young even when you're older but when you're young you just want to fit in okay you don't like we're just that's human nature but also I didn't know how to really even do my hair so that was annoying and so whatever I ended up having my hair constantly damaged all the time to the to the point where it was starting to look really bad like my hair was falling out like my ends look like [ __ ] like extensions weren't good like I kept having to go back and get my hair chemically straightened it just like wasn't good and my hair got to a point where it just looked fried and I think that's what usually happens like when you do things that are not natural to your hair naturally it's going to end up like dying and not looking the best I would I even think about this when it comes to blondes who keep bleaching their hair like unless you have really really like strong hair jeans like you're probably going to get to a point where you have to slow it down for a moment and take a second but whatever to each their own now around the time where my hair was kind of looking bad and and you know I was just growing up I I did kind of want to know how to do my natural hair but I didn't really know how and I didn't even know my my curl pattern things of that nature and so I would go on to YouTube natural hair YouTubers where they would teach you how to do your hair like natural hair and like hair routines and stuff like that so I kind of like dipped my toe into being like Oh well like maybe I could go natural and like my hair might look like that this that now I spent probably 3 to 4 years trying to dip my toe in the natural hair Journey but never really did it and what I did was I I stopped ironing my hair so frequently and then I also stopped getting all of my hair chemically straightened I would just get my roots and then I got to a point where I just stopped doing that completely and I just would iron my hair so I just lessened things over time and I really just I looked at these women on online mind you they're like poster Childs for freaking natural hair so of course they look like stunning beautiful and I knew I got to a point where it's like hey well my hair is might not look like their hair like whatever but regardless I just like looked at them and I'm like wow like they look so beautiful and amazing and just natural and just healthy like I want to look like that like I want to just look healthy this is my whole entire thing when it comes to anything to do with beauty okay guys what I focus on is health healthy healthy healthy healthy are my teeth healthy is my skin healthy is my hair healthy is my body healthy and and that's going to look different for everyone okay just because somebody has beautiful straight white teeth does not mean that those teeth are healthy just because somebody has like amazing long like Curly beautiful hair I mean for the most part it's probably healthy but it doesn't mean that like your hair is not healthy just because it is short type thing you know what I mean so or even when it came to skin Health like just because um my my skin I had acne it didn't mean like as I was going on the journey it didn't mean that I wasn't getting healthy so I just like always really come back to health cuz I just think it's attractive to me personally and I think when we do our hair and our makeup and our outfits and stuff we are actually mimicking what it looks like to kind of be healthy like when you think about Foundation what is it trying to do cover up imperfections to make your skin look really all one basically to mimic what he would look like what healthy skin would look like and um like when you even when you do your makeup or your hair like everything whatever Aesthetics aside anyways I really just wanted to focus on my health and at that point I got really into holistic health and wellness so I was kind of like okay I think I just want to start really doing my hair I had no idea how I was going to do it blah blah blah I ended up stopped doing like everything to my hair and I was like you know what I want to go all in I want to really grow my hair and have have it natural and whatever but I was afraid I was so afraid because I was not confident with my natural hair I didn't know like I just didn't know what to do with it now I'm going to link an episode where I talk about ending a a chapter of self-hate because I go on a deep dive on my whole hair Journey when it came to my podcast art actually so I'm because I'm not going to like go into all of it but I'm going to tell you a few things that I did when I really decided that I want to have my natural hair be a part of who I am as as a person and I just don't want to keep hating on my natural hair and I want to learn how to love it and maybe like I didn't know how my natural hair was going to be like I literally did not know that my hair could even look like this how it is now but I just knew that I wanted to try Okay so the first thing was I needed to learn how to love and accept myself for every phase of my hair journey and I think that that is a very big barrier as to why people don't end up going into the direction of going natural because I think there it's very Dee rooted and it's it's there's insecurities in that and like life lifestyle like I I get it but I had to stop caring so much about what people would think or what I think I need to look like and I really need to start pouring into myself so that's like the biggest thing I honestly think is like wherever your hair is at right now whether it's not healthy whether you're trying to figure it out whether your hair is Curly or straight or this that or you're growing whatever anything selflove compassion it's just going to get you a very far away now the next thing for me was I needed to commit if I wanted to have my hair natural the way that it is now which I had no idea my hair could even be like this and it's still growing and it's still getting healthy like this is we're not done here I had to commit okay and I've seen people grow up around me who really wanted that natural hair but they just like they weren't it was very clear that they weren't willing to commit and the reason why I'm saying committing is because like it's a journey you can't just like decide that you want to like do a big chop and then 3 seconds later you're like straighten your hair all the time I mean you can if you want but I just think that when you were trying to grow your hair like it needs as much support on all levels forever not forever but like as you're growing your hair out I guess is what I'm saying okay so the next thing is obviously researching for the products that work for your hair is very important and everyone is different I think that was like a big thing it's like I didn't know what products to use or when to use it now I'm not going to get into it but knowing if your hair is low or high paracity can be helpful when it comes to picking out products for your hair okay so I'm going to leave a link to a article to help you explain what low or high priority hair is if you need to understand um some hair does really good at absorbing um products and some hair doesn't do the best at absorbing products and that means you might have to use different types of products different types of like water-based or maybe thicker whatever and I think that's really important because you need to moisturize your hair and you need your hair to like really have the products that it needs in order to essentially just be moisturized so it can grow so I um what works for me is I use like a well honestly my hair is quite mixed I find find that I have low paracity is hair kind of on the top of my hair and then the bottom and like underneath is more um high but regardless I'm not going to get into it CU it really like I don't think it really matters too much but I can do a hair tutorial and I have on my main channel so let me know and I'm probably going to make a reel of that as well um but I want to go into the next thing which is trims so especially when you have natural hair and like you you came from straightening it or like whatever you did you like trimming is so important and somebody had asked um how do I fix my heat damaged curls I don't want to cut them off I'm going to give you the most toughest love possible they're dead okay they're dead and you can't revive it you really can't rev you can listen you can maybe like put some oils on it and like really moisturize and stuff but at the end of the day those [ __ ] are dead okay so let it be that now I'll quickly tell you this when I wanted to go like natural I stopped heat damaging my hair for a long time and then I slowly got trim so I didn't like chop off all my hair I didn't need to cuz it was already growing out and I stopped doing things to my roots and stuff but it got to a point where at the end of the day I couldn't really wear my hair out naturally without it looking like very straggly which I I showed you guys a picture of that um without taking those ends off so my advice is go slow if you don't want to chop off all your hair because you have a lot of heat damage just keep going going like every I don't know I don't really know actually every like four to 6 weeks not four to 6 weeks four six months I don't know I go usually like twice a year to get my ends cut off but honestly my hair is very very very very healthy that I don't have to do it very often but I was doing it more and I and I did that until all of my heat damage curs were off I just think that at the end of the day like if you want healthy hair you need to get that dead hair off okay um and again bringing that that self-love piece you're going to have to listen shortterm discomfort okay just understand that it will pass you will eventually have longer hair Fuller hair thicker hair beautiful hair but it's it's good you're just making it harder when you just won't take that leap you know what I mean so obviously just do what you can but trims when needed also another thing that really really helped my hair was deep conditioning my hair um and also some oil treatments here and there I do oil treatments a lot more now but deep conditioning my hair once a week was like a ritual that I did when I really wanted to grow my hair and I mean deep conditioners can really work in a sense of obviously helping keep your hair very moisturized and nourished but honestly I think just the ritual of me showing up for my hair care every single week by doing that it it almost as if it like kind of maybe even worked as a placebo in a way you know like yes deep conditioners definitely work but I think just like when you have a full intention of doing something for yourself sometimes it's not actually even the product that's really working it's just the ritual and it's the you showing up and it's the consistency and then it's the which sorry leads to consistency things of that nature so I did that every single week and I just put a hot cap over top of my hair now another thing that really or a few things that really really really really really helped me when it came to like my ends and and things like that and like growing my hair was changing Styles often I think that this is a very big thing especially probably in the black community like with our with our natural hair or whatever type of thing we tend to do the same like we'll pull our hair back into buns and like gel it back and like every single day we're doing that and and maybe even sleeping with it this that I did this thing where every week on average every week I would change my hair so like for the long longest time I was wearing my hair in buns and stuff but what I would do is first I switch to like silk uh hair ties things that were not so tight and not so like pulling on my hair and if one week I had a low bun the next week I would do a high bun the next week I would twist my hair which is basically like braiding my hair back into a thing even if I didn't like the way that it looked I just kind of like put it back like I would always be changing my hair and I would always be changing the way that I brush my hair like really taking your hair um and manipulating it in a way in a way that's healthy is really good I think that we use usually tend to manipulate our hair in the worst ways where we gel it back we pull it back we hot iron it we like flat IR it and it's just it's not good for our hair and also I would no longer sleep with any sort of hair ties in I got a bonnet a silk Bonnet I got a silk pillowcase and I would try to keep my hair when I wasn't doing anything out of a ponytail out of any sort of um hair styles that really tugged on my roots and things like that so and and it's just it's crazy because I just like I I would be sitting in my my place and my hair would be like all tied up and stuff like that so just really letting your hair out has been so transformative for me and also just changing up those Styles and another thing is detangling my hair okay this is huge for people who have curly hair but even if you have straight hair like oh my God this is actually bad like this is like lowkey I'm like kind of embarrassed by this but I would have my hair in a bun like this is high schol school like actually Elementary School and into high school like God did I not take care of my hair like oh my God oh my God I would have my hair in a like slickback ponytail bun and and I would straighten it sometimes but I wouldn't wash like I would literally keep my hair in that that bun like all week and I would not I would and this is a side note especially when you have black hair you don't tend to need to like wash it all the time cuz it doesn't really get that oily cuz you usually have like thick hair but whatever everyone's kind of different I would would have to spend probably 2 hours brushing out the mates in my hair because my hair was so tangled because when you have natural hair your hair Tangles easily like my hair right now technically it's like it's not Tangled but I'm going to have to like anyways so and and that also would lead to a lot of breakage because my hair was Tangled all the time so I had to get real with myself I had to come back coming back so to that commitment piece I had to be real and say you know what girl this is just going to be what it is okay first of all you should be loving your hair and and supporting your hair and if that means an extra hour a day you have to do your hair so be it it is what it is okay and quite frankly you're going to love it when you actually do your hair so what I do now is if I'm getting my hair wet I'm detangling my hair I se section it into three parts and I detangle my hair and it doesn't take long and I think like over time when you get used to it it doesn't take long and um your hair doesn't take long to detangle because you brush it so often but I really wasn't brushing my hair a lot which is wild to me because it's like you have curly hair so anyways that's what I do I'm always detangling my hair I'm always putting product in my hair my hair like I'm always changing the hairstyles I'll put it down in a low bun I'll put it up in like a little poof if I want um I'll leave it out it just it really really depends like usually you guys kind of see me have my like hair probably in a like claw clip like down that's usually for the podcast like I don't have my hair like that all week like literally it it's only when I'm doing something like that or even my hair like this but all the other time like every other moment throughout my week my hair is either like Twisted with some like beautiful oils or up in a little bun usually when I have my hair up in a bun like naturally um I can leave it for a few days because it has a lot of moisture and it just like my hair loves to be like that but after that I still have to um detangle it so that's just what I have to do this is my natural hair and I'm and I'm happy about it and I poured a lot of love and compassion into my hair and it's it's transformed and I can go out and be natural and be confident which is wild to me I never thought that I could ever do that so those are my tips for healthy hair but I just want to quickly bring it back to that bioc psychosocial you know everyone I think hair is a little bit different because you know obviously it's a little bit more genetic type of vibe but but you know also not like just because maybe like oh maybe your mom doesn't have like long hair thick hair and stuff doesn't mean that you can't have it I think that again your internal systems are going to really play a part like my hair definitely was not healthy when I was really sick and unhealthy of course because like my body is not worrying about utilizing Vitamins because I couldn't even I couldn't even absorb any of those vitamins to be able to really have my hair grow anyways and my habits didn't really reflect that okay so that's it for hair but there was one question well there was a few but I feel like I answered most of them with the tips and I feel like hair is a little bit unique cuz I know know not all of you guys have natural curly hair but um somebody said or asked about volume like how to lessen the volume in your hair if you have like curly hair it's just a funny question to me because I do the opposite like my hair is very volumous and like I will like pick out my hair and make it bigger so I don't know but the only thing that I will say is I'm assuming using a gel would help because a gel basically weighs down your curls in your hair like if I were to put gel in my hair right now it would be probably a lot um smaller I use gel to seal in the moisture sometimes when I'm doing a twist out and just like keeping my hair in like a little bun but um and like I don't mean like ego Styler gel or got to be glue gel actually should really just be um like clear about that got toe gel and or ecostyler gel I use for styling my hair when I want to do a slick back I don't think that that's something that you should probably continuously like strip into your hair if you if you want a gel um love your curls has a good gel so it depends on the gel like it depends on the formula but to weigh down your hair I would assume gel okay let's talk about body again I think the bio psychosocial plays a huge part because if you think about the fact that if you are stressed all the time it doesn't matter how many workouts that you do or the diet that you're on maybe for a bit your body will respond to it but if your if your body is internally stressed it will hold on to Fat it will not utilize fat it will not burn fat the way that you need to because it literally thinks that there's a threat outside of you at all times and your internal systems just won't be helping your body body be balance and I remember at the height of me being very very stressed in my life I held a lot of fat around my stomach not a bad thing especially for women we need definitely a lot of not a lot but like we need a good amount of fat to be around our stomach areas um to protect our organs so that's totally fine like but I will say for sure I held on to like I had like really big quote unquote what people would say like muffin tops for for a body proportion that it just like didn't it wasn't really that proportional and I'm not saying that we need to be proportional I don't think my body is like perfectly uh proportional sorry but I definitely saw a difference and um that fat around my stomach kind of melted away a lot more as I lowered my stress there was no certain diet that I did like it I basically had was the same weight in different ways but I fluctuated in terms of I started to build more muscle and burn more fat but it was just a lot of the things that I was doing in my day-to-day life that contributed to lowering stress it wasn't this specific diet or like workout but anyways I'm going to talk about some of the things that really I have I've learned and implemented over the years that has allowed me to have the body that I have now and I think that the body that I have now I'm I'm very proud of it I am the healthiest I have ever been and yes like even aesthetically like I'm killing it and I love that but the way that I got to where I'm at right now was first healing my relationship with food and Body Image okay again this is huge in my book I don't think I would be where I'm at right now if it wasn't for me really getting to the root of my self-hate and critical thinking and also my emotional connection to Candy SL food because that was the thing that really got me into these self-sabotaging behaviors where I just couldn't even take care of myself in a healthy way I couldn't stay on any sort of consistent routine because I would be all or nothing I would be on this strict diet because I hated myself and I didn't like my body and I thought that the only way I was going to be loved and the only way that I was going to have confidence and the only way I was going to look good and be able to go live my life was if I had this Tumblr body and I didn't have that I didn't look like that so I said I need to go on a diet until I look like that but it was hard for me to go on a diet from a place of self-hate because for one I was very strict and hard on myself and it's not sustainable and two even when I did start changing my body a little bit CU I I did lose some a little bit of weight like in high school and this that it didn't matter because um the way that I looked at my myself was just inherently like no no no not good enough not good enough not good enough and then also because I was waiting to be perfect I would not have a healthy lifestyle and like go out in the world live my life and that contributed to also not even losing weight so I'll give you like kind of example what I mean by that when you have a thriving and like everyone's social life is different but when you have a thriving social life when you like want to get out of bed when you have goals when you're working when you're like out there doing things all of that contributes to a healthy body without even trying like genuinely it does why because your mental health is good and you're moving your body you're out in the world like you're doing things like you're you're genuinely like expanding energy okay but if you are a Hermit you hate your life you hate yourself you're waiting for summer you're not doing anything until then you're scrolling on your phone and you're trying to like diet and restrict yourself your body is not going to respond so I kind of just learned that if I really do even want my dream body I have to stop waiting for summer I have to stop waiting for me to fit into these genes like I have to have some level of acceptance and and selflove and confidence within myself as I'm changing and that really really helped me because it also helped me stop dieting so hard because I accepted myself and I said okay like I don't have to look like the girl on Tumblr I don't need to have the the skinniest body to go live my life and when I did that of course I stopped strict dieting so much and then I was just having healthier behaviors like just regular eating in a way but I will say I had a well I mean in the midst of me hating myself I I was strict dieting and then that led to an eating disorder so I had orthorexia meaning I was incredibly hyper aware of clean Foods eating ingredients holistic health to the point where like it was just really really unhealthy so I would only eat things that were very clean and very like approved and eat at home and this that which messed up my social life it messed up my mental health I was obsessed with everything all the time and because I also had an emotional connection to specifically sweets and the times where I was really really stressed out in my life it was really hard for me to be able to stay on quote unquote a healthy holistic diet so I would go into these binge Cycles so when I would eat food that was off of the diet especially also because not especially also but also because I got diagnosed with ulcerative colitis that heightened my orthorexia because I was like oh my God it's diet that's going to be the thing that heals me which is only a part of the puzzle so all of that combined with having to live a normal life which I didn't live a normal life because I was just not healthy in many ways but when I did have to go out into the world and eat something that was off the diet I couldn't handle it and I would bring that food back up if it wasn't clean so that's what I would do and so and because when I would do that then I would go into a binge because I'm like oh well I [ __ ] up everything anyways so I might as well just eat completely off the diet and and and that I was in that cycle for years and years and years and years and years and then I got to a point where I realized hm okay well this is not working and realistically I keep eating the quote unquote bad foods that I'm telling myself that I can't have because it's not healthy I might as well just stop trying to stay on a a diet because I end up not binging and eating as bad as I do when I'm actually just not on a diet like I ate worse when I would be so restrictive versus just eating normal that was quote unquote like maybe like just like a normal standard diet where not every single thing was clean and I did a lot of Education when it came to um obviously emotions and like the emotional connection to food because on one hand yes the reason why I did a lot of those binge eating habits was because the the education that I had in terms of healthy eating and this that like it heightened everything and and I was trying to heal like and I send love and compassion to myself and I say it in my book like I was just trying to heal but I also realized that I didn't like I didn't need to go on these extremes to be healthy and so I would just anyways I don't know what I was saying but I was I just went back to kind of normally eating and what helped me normally eat was to First learn to love myself right because again I was no longer in this desperate need of being on a diet and when I did that and I oh sorry what I was saying was addressed the emotional comp component I realized that the reason why I was really addicted to eating candy and like binge eating in that sense like I binged eat in the sense of yes the orthorexia and and clean eating but I would also like binge a lot and like really crave like candy and stuff it was because I learned how to regulate my emotions and my nervous system through that and a lot of people do it in different ways people do it in in ways of like just overeating in in different like different foods or they have that comfort food or they will drink or they'll go to drugs or they'll go to toxic men like everyone like sometimes like has those things um but for me it was definitely candy and I and I rooted that back all the way to Childhood and I realized that every time that I was in a situation that I was really really afraid of or I couldn't handle or I had no power or autonomy all I could think about was how do I get candy right now I would spend money on Candy I would hide it I would I wouldn't steal it from like stores but I would dude side note one time I was in like kindergarten class or something and I saw this um kid he had like the stack of Oreos that his mom allowed him to have by the way my mom didn't really let me have like a lot of like sweet stuff but it was honestly because we didn't really have money so like she wasn't going to spend a lot of money on like Lucky Charms and [ __ ] like that but anyways whatever it it really wasn't that she wasn't that restrictive as a parent it was it was definitely bringing it back to I was just in fight ORF flight and scared um and Candy helped me feel better is what I'm trying to say he had Oreos and he put him in his in his backpack and everyone sat down and I couldn't stop thinking about those Oreos like I'm sorry I needed them so I went in to the back into the Cubbies and I stole them from his backpack and I put them in mine and I ate them so would do behaviors like that okay and listen like that's just like also like a normal like child thing to do sometimes I don't always need to bring it back to oh I was like stressed all the time this that but I was um and when I was around my dad stress when I was in an environment where I was outside of my um comfort of my own home which was a lot I was would just always think about food and stuff like that so candy I should say so that emotional component as well was something I really needed to work on and I worked on that when I was healing the relationship that I had towards myself and also like colitis everything like that like chronic illness I was realizing like a mindbody connection your emotions play a huge role in why you are as unhealthy as you are in a way and um when I did that when I really released those emotions and healed those childhood traumas guess what went away my inessive need to always have candy so you know loving myself accepting myself dropping the diets because we know they don't work and also dealing with that emotional component was a perfect recipe for me to finally drop this this constant self-sabotaging behavior of of eating good than not this that like I I I dropped it all and when I healed my relationship with food I actually really really like I took a big step away from body image so like being on well at this point Tumblr wasn't really a thing but like interest Instagram taking photos of my body caring about that stuff moving around people who cared a lot about their um appearance I I put my time and attention into my finances and fixing my life and my goals and working and things that really mattered anyways really and um I I took my focus off of body image and I I really healed and I got to a point where I was just moving my body again and because I wasn't so addicted to like having a certain diets and stuff I would go out with my friends and I wouldn't be worrying about food so much and I like I would sleep right and I would eat right there was no specific diet that I was doing I stopped being so afraid of ingredients that had like yeah processed some like some processed stuff in it because I knew when I would be afraid of of the food that had processed food in it it would literally turn on my fight ORF flight response and then regardless I would be intaking that food in a way that was not healthy for my body and so I stopped being afraid of so much food this that and then naturally I just like I'm at a point right now where I I don't have any sort of specific diet other than focusing on eating protein really um but I'm the healthiest I've ever been because of healing and I just eat in a way that's very natural to me and I and I came back to coming back to like the the cycle syncing thing like I listen to my body like what does my body need today what what activity did I do today that requires more nutrients more protein more fiber more whatever when you're connected and you're not so much in fight ORF flight and finding the next thing and trying to fix things and problems everywhere you start to tap into what your body needs in that moment and um it takes a while it takes you slowing down it takes you kind of like looking at the biggest stressors in your life but over over time you definitely can get there and I genuinely thought that I was never going to stop um binge eating and and doing those behaviors I had no idea how I was going to stop that um but I did so a lot of that is written in my book but I will talk about some of the things that I've picked up over the years that I do now that are from this healthy place and um I think could maybe help you guys in a way so for me I really focus on simple and easy not easy in the sense that it doesn't take anything out of me but like just simple weekly workouts and things that work for me so I think weightlifting is the best thing for many reasons I think it really well first of all it builds muscle muscle is so incredibly important especially as we age for everyone but especially women especially your hormones by the way weightlifting is amazing and I'm not talking about weightlifting where you're being like exhausting yourself weightlifting because I used to do that and that didn't really help my hormones at all but weightlifting that is like a few times a week you're doing compound movements you're getting in and out of the gym you're not obsessing over for every single little tiny movement because you're not you're it it's beyond what that's going to do for your physical appearance but of course in turn your physical appearance is going to your body's going to look banging my legs be legging my ass is growing my arms are looking good the body is looking banging and I'm not doing much in the gym and I really had to change the way that I viewed like working out of course like not just for aesthetic reasons and I know it's so hard because we like Oh by the end of the day you have to think about this you should always be working out and that's that okay to the end of time really and truly we should be moving our bodies and whatever works for you but the end of the day it's like stop looking at working out as this thing that's like one day you're going to have to you just don't have to do it you have to do it okay it doesn't have to be so tiring but you got to do it okay it's like it's like brushing your teeth you just got to do it so you got to find what works for you but I do think weightlifting for sure builds muscle which makes your body look really toned and nice and beautiful but it also makes you healthy obviously it also helps with appetite it also helps with your metabol AB olism also muscle burns more fat than anything else in your body so you can have a bigger appetite without putting on a lot of weight which I feel like some people struggle with um their weight because when you lower your calories and you're all you're doing as cardio you're basically training your body to just be really really good at running on no calories but then you but you don't have any muscle so the reason why I'm saying that is because you get to a point where you can't keep continuous low your calories and you need to eat so as soon as you start eating a little bit more your body is going to store that as fat versus if you have more muscle in your body your body is not going to store everything as fat so it's important that you have muscle even if you're on a weight loss Journey you should be weightlifting um I also was a personal trainer by the way if you're interested anyways that's what I do I do like a few um workouts a week when it comes to weightlifting I just do what I like usually it's legs and I do right now I'm doing two to three times a week Hot Yoga because I like hot yoga you got to do what you want to do okay so I going to say this find what works for you every season's probably going to be different but the reason why it's important to find what works for you is because it will then work and your body will find the benefits of it CU I feel like sometimes we're like oh well what's the best workout oh everyone's saying Pilates so now I have to do Pilates no if you like Pilates and you're motivated to do Pilates and do it and yes then it's going to work but if you hate Pilates I'm telling you this right now if you hate Pilates or if you hate yoga and you're forcing yourself to do it maybe your body will change a little bit but most likely you're going to fall off so when you fall off is your body going to change no because you're not being consistent but also you're going to have a mental state of mind in a physical state of mind of stress and annoyance and not happy with life and that will affect your body and how it utilizes food and how it grows muscle or not and Etc and your balance balancing your hormones and everything okay so again coming back to that mindbody connection your your body is so much more than just like what you're doing in the gym like your mental state really really um plays a huge role and I think that even when it comes to like if you're doing like five a.m cardio morning routines every single day and you're stressed out and you're tired all the time that is not good for your hormones that's not good for your energy even though on paper going and doing cardio every day is supposed to make you lose weight you got to think about the longterm when you got to think about your stress levels so doing workouts that really don't stress you out that much is helpful and um I do think weightlifting is the best at least for me next thing is walking I just think that this is like one of the best things that we could do again we just should be walking every day like moving our bodies every single day it just doesn't make any sense why us as humans would spend an entire day not getting up and moving it's really just not normal if you really think about it and I used to not be a walker but um it's been a habit that I've implemented in my life and I absolutely love it and I think that it leads into another thing which is habit stacking and habit stacking is just something that really helps me get a lot more like healthy habits into my day without feeling like it's just this long process so you know when I go for my walk so when I go for my walk I'm listening to a podcast that is inspiring or motivating me sometimes I listen to music and sometimes I don't listen to anything at all but I'm doing kind of like two things at once but I make sure that the two things at once aren't like overstimulating there's some things you just can't do two things at once but you know also let's say you're scrolling on Tik Tok or you're doing your studying or whatever you're doing like doing a hair mask or doing a face mask things like that just getting some things in I think can really up the amount of things that you could do for yourself in a day and it doesn't have to be all these amazing things really and truly it's like are you moving at least once a day or one workout a day are you drinking water and eating three balanced meals I mean obviously it depends on your appetite and things like that but like are you eating like balanced meals cooked at home like and are you sleeping and how was your mental health like that doesn't it doesn't really cost a lot I think we're always like spending a lot of money on things that we just don't need or at least we're spending money on things that are not the most important thing right now when we haven't even addressed like sleep or something I feel like some people are like okay um I want to find this supplement or yeah like the supplement that's going to fix my bloating but it's like okay but are you stressed throughout the day um are you getting enough sleep what are you eating like your probiotic is not going to fit your IBS when you are stressed all the time it's not trust me I've literally had IBD it's not going to it's not going to be the thing that does it it can help maybe but again if you're stressed all the time you you can't fall asleep like all of these like normal natural things like you're on your phone all the time stressing hating yourself I'm telling you that's like not going to help another thing that I've Le learned to do is when it comes to working out and even maybe eating is not switching up these like workouts and eating things so frequently because I just think that when you change workouts all the time sometimes you're not going to see any results if that's what you're wanting because you're changing things up all the time and I found that when I was changing up things all the time it was because I was being impatient and I was getting influenced by 100 million people and it's like I didn't even give myself enough time for a lot of these things to even give me the benefits that it could give me even when it comes to vitamins and stuff all the supplements and things like that or even just like you know high protein diet or something like that you know if you want to do any sort of diet which I don't recommend at all like I really don't other than just like are you eating balanced meals and yes fiber and fat and and carbs and protein but if you are wanting to balance your hormones or get clear skin stop switching things up so frequently and I think a lot of people struggle with that because of course it's like I want the new thing and the next thing and this that but give yourself some time and I and I think like the past year I've been very consistent with very minimal leg days at the gym like very minimal like twice a week and not every single week I was going and my legs have looked the best they ever have from doing the bare minimum because I just kept consistent I I obviously like I'm changing some of my weights and my reps and this this that but m like I've gotten such good results by doing the bare minimum because I've just been consistent the next thing that I think is really really important is listening to your body when it needs more or less working out again especially if you're a woman and you know you're cycle syncing and things like that you need to listen to your body and I honestly even just think about this when it comes to if you're sore if you are sore but you're so adamant on being like I have to in my three workouts a week where I'm just like not going to be fit and this that but you're so sore you're going to do more damage to your body because you're not allowing your body to recover and what your body actually needs right now is for it to recover and you giving it rest will actually allow you to propel in the results that you're looking for same thing goes with when you're on your period stop stressing yourself out so much to do your 5:00 a.m. freaking cardio uh routine when it's stressing you out if it's not stressing you out and you feel fine and then that that's fine everyone is different right I'm just going to say that everyone's different but coming back to the stress thing stop putting yourself under so much stress which means yeah like there's going to be weeks that things might come up or or you might need a little bit more sleep I personally would rather prioritize having my eight hours of solid sleep than every single day having not enough sleep and stressing myself out by like doing this really rigorous hard work out now yes we have to push ourselves sometimes and not every single day needs to be perfect but I just remember back in the day I would like it was no wonder that my body wasn't really responding to some of the workouts that I was doing because I was stressed so much I had so many things on my plate mentally I was stressed in my environment I was stressed I was stressing out my body because I was trying to diet I was doing a 100 million things at the gym it was no wonder that my body wasn't changing as much as it did and even when it did was I happy with it no because I couldn't accept anything about myself listen to your body everyone is different and I think when you tap into that self-love piece in accepting yourself and knowing not every single day is going to be perfect you don't need to have a perfect body all the time it is totally fine like days happen weeks happen you'll be okay with listening to your body I think um the next thing is weekly cooking at home I think is just it's a very easy simple way to ensure that you're going to be the healthiest version of you I mean there's no denying that obviously when you're eating out all the time you're getting all of these added ingredients and this that and this is not to fear I mean coming from somebody who was so fearful of that I I really try and I don't try I just I'm not afraid of eating things that are not from home anymore but yeah like I just feel better when I'm making my food and I know what's in it and I I'm trying to Source my ingredients to the highest that I can afford and there's different evolutions of that if you don't have a lot of money right now don't stress yourself out by trying to spend three times more on a steak because it's grass-fed if you don't have the money please don't do it I'm telling you the reason why I'm saying that is because I used to do that I used to literally spend so much money that I did not have on really really expensive healthy food because I thought that that was going to be the thing that healed me but in turn by doing that I stressed myself out so fin Al and also there was a million other things that was stressing me out that even if that quality of food would have helped me it it couldn't help me because I was so stressed in every other aspect of my life look at my life now guys I got out of the situation that I was in I got financially stable and then I had extra money to be able to go buy that grass-fed steak now there'll be some health experts telling you to go do that regardless but I don't think that that's true I think everyone's different and I think that if you are struggling financially I don't think it's a it's a a a a good health choice for you to spend all of your money on clean clean clean clean clean ingredients I think that there's ways that you can still eat healthy on a budget um obviously it depends but you just do what you can and I think a lot of that does start at home I think a lot of people complain about oh everything like eating healthy is so expensive no eating grass-fed steak is expensive okay but making your steak at home even if it's not grass-fed is better than you spending $115 for only one meal at a burger joint like you can make it work you can make it work and I'm saying that from experience because when I really stopped spending so much money on that I went back to the basics and I was still able to eat very healthy um it was just kind of like a mindset switch and I and I budgeted and stuff and I got to a point where I was able to yeah like I buy grassfed steak now and um what I like to uplevel my food quality even more for sure um so my body can get the best nutrients but it's not the the biggest concern of mine it's really not especially coming from the life that I came from and another thing would be educating myself on ingredients or educating yourself on ingredients I think that is important but I would just be like highly aware that like just you know reading the back of labels and understanding what is being put in your food is important but don't stress about it if that's like the only thing that you can eat but yeah knowing what you're putting in your body is really important and I think a lot of us do not know and I think that like oh my God there's so much health stuff out there like the way that I have 100 million books I've tried every freaking diet under the sun and you have to find what works for you what works for me is eating the highest quality food that I can get minimal ingredients cooking from home when I'm out and I am having something that's processed I'm trying to pick things that don't have a 100 million things on the ingredient list I'm not perfect and um even when I go out like let's say I have coffee I I ask for like less syrup because I think that most places put too much syrup like small little things over time will add up but just don't stress about it okay so that's it for the three main topics there's a few other questions that I have and like resources that I'm going to try and like really like push through because this episode is super long someone said um can you talk about how much you limited sweets or habits for hormonal care I didn't do I tried doing that but I think you guys understand that it was like a whole healing Journey me trying to limit sweets never worked it never worked because it was deeper than that like it's like saying to a little child that's really really afraid and emotionally scared to not want something that's going to make them feel better in the moment like candy or a hug like it doesn't matter how much you tell them that it's not good for them like they're still going to go and try and find that because they need soothing so you need to figure out what you're trying to soothe and what you're trying to like what is it that you actually need that's in a healthier version than obviously just binge eating or like having sweets and stuff like that like that's really what's going on and obviously internal things might be going on like maybe you're generally not eating enough like I remember also being on a really strict diet like no wonder you crave more candy because you're telling yourself you can't have any of it and you're starving yourself and when I don't restrict myself and I eat balanced meals that have protein that's going to keep me satiated and I'm eating foods that I'm excited about and I'm cooking and I'm loving myself all through the process I don't need to limit anything because I'm not craving those things anymore so I guess that's kind of all I'll say about that someone said how to get your body looking glowing Oils body oils okay out this is what I do I go into the shower as soon as I'm out of the shower instantly the first thing that I'm doing is skin care because I feel like oils and body butters they sink into the skin more when you're a little bit damp so I use aino body oil moisturizer or something whatever I will have it linked in my like to know it it is Iconic if you know you know and if you don't you got to get on it I love that I don't know if it's the most natural ingredients it's probably not but I don't care too much about that right now like I mean I do in some senses especially when it comes to skin care and body care but again I I don't try to be like hyper obsessed about those things and I just really love that oil so I always put the oil on right after my shower like that's just like my number one thing that's really kind of all I do someone says good shaving creams for the girl down there and tips for a good shave okay I'm going to put you on right now if you're not already on you don't watch me on Instagram first of all always exfoliate your body when you're about to shave okay use a sugar scrub use an exfoliant I don't care what you need to just exfoliate your skin okay so I mean also you could just use like a hand towel and stuff but I just think that your skin needs to be moisturized and exfoliated before you go in with a razor so what I like to do sometimes like when I'm actually shaving is I do like my hair care routine and I let my body like really like my pores open up before I do the shaving and then I go in with bush bomb's sugar scrub okay I think that their sugar scrub is Elite and it's elite because it has these natural oils in it that leave your skin feeling like you don't even need soap to shave once you sugar scrub your skin okay so um I will leave I think the code will probably still be working Alicia 25 for Bush bomb but regardless I just love it it's not sponsored but and I don't make commission off of that link or that code but I think it's really great and I've been working with them a lot on Instagram that's why I have that code but so I use uh the sugar scrub and then I just shave I use a Venus razor I right now I'm using youth to the people body wash and sometimes I use their exfoliant as well and right after you shave you have to use the oil okay please use an oil Bush bombs ingrown hair oil I think is Elite because it just has the right oils that you need uh to work on any sort of razor bumps and burns so I put it on my bikini line I put it on my legs when I shave them and my armpits and I do that as soon as I get out of the shower so that's the first thing or whatever that's not the first thing but that's the thing that I do next and then sometimes I put a body butter over top if I need it but usually it's an oil and specifically for my bikini line when I get out of the shower when I've just shaved I always put on underwear that is seamless because if I don't and I put on underwear that just is like a little bit more rough then it tends to create even more bumps that are not needed so try and stay light on your body if you can until your but your like I don't know your skin kind of like calms down so those are my favorite products someone said do you work out every day I do not work out every single day um most days like I either have that like I said I go to my condo gym and I work out or I'm doing hot yoga right now I'm doing hot yoga a bickram hot yoga and on the days that I'm not doing that I do EXT ex ra walks but every single day I walk so usually when I wake up in the morning the first thing I do is I go outside and I go for a walk I just like look at the sun I put on my sunscreen I just like peacefully go for a walk and then throughout the day like after I record this episode I'm going to go for a walk cuz I've been sitting for a while so usually when I'm sitting for a while I'll go for a walk I'll go for an evening walk and then on the days that I'm not I will walk more so that's just what I do um I also make sure to walk to most places if I can I live in the city so obviously it's a little bit more convenient but I know some of my friends be ubering when it's [ __ ] 10-minute walk I won't do that I'll just grab my I don't know I was going to say airpods but I lost those my headphones and I will walk most places if I can someone said best way to get rid of body discoloration so I don't know because I've never tried to do any of that um so I'm wondering if you're saying maybe like armpit area some people say like bh's can work or there's like this BH J solution from ordinary but I do not know um Can Cassandra I think her name is Cassandra something I don't know her last name but maybe we'll link her down below she's really good with skin um stuff on YouTube so I would suggest maybe look at her stuff but also the article for Dr Dennis gross but that has to do more with hyperpigmentation and scarring on your face so I don't really know um anything else when it comes to that someone said thoughts on cranberry supplements are they good for pH balance I don't know because I've never really had issues with my pH balance for the most part in my life um but what I will say is like I don't know I think that if you're having like really like a lot of issues when it comes to like vaginal care and things like that I think just looking internally a little bit deeper like what's your what's your overall diet like what products or like supplements maybe you're taking that might be affecting that um also like your your daily habits you know are you stressed are you moving are you sleeping those play a huge role and I know people think that it doesn't but it does okay everything is connected um also like I know like obviously like if you're sleeping with someone like that can affect your pH balance so I don't know but I've never really had I've never had that issue like I've really not had that issue when it comes to like sleeping with my man like have I no so I don't know about cranberry supplements what I the reason kind of why I'm answering this also though is because I just think that you have to be careful with the type of supplements that you get from different BL Brands like make sure that they're third party tested also make sure that it doesn't just have proprietary Blends in the supplement because that could mean a range of things it if you're getting cranberry supplements it could actually have way less of the ingredient that you think that you're getting if it says proprietary BL BL of something um you got to be careful with those those supplements on the market so that's all I'm going to say about that someone said what age did you shift from perfectionism and All or Nothing mindset and why do you think then I would say it was a journey there was not one specific age I think all throughout my early 20s when I just started to reflect on the behaviors that I was having um I think when I really dropped the the incessant need of of body image was probably the first like starting point of really dropping that perfectionism because I think that it really stemmed from that like realizing like I don't need to be perfect to um take a photo or be around people or date guys or like go and live my life like I think that was a really big contributor um to perfectionism but then I also had that another senses of of like diet and stuff so you know it's a it's a journey that's basically all I can say but it's a journey that will eventually end and and you will flourish and you will learn so much about yourself and I think that I am actually very grateful for everything that I have gone through although it was some of the hardest times physically and mentally like when I say physically I mean I was in the hospital multiple multiple times bleeding bleeding internally bleeding um because my flareups were so bad I was absolutely like malnutrition like malnutrition malnourished uh when I had flareups I had zero energy I was trying to go to school and I was like I I remember I lost like 20 pounds in in a span of a month I was in bed ridden I was stomach pains i i i my skin was a mess everything I was just so much freaking pain um but it I I mean I'm not saying like it was all like worth it but I learned a lot and that was just my journey and of course I'm here because a lot of that and I'm helping other people go through certain things as well so there's just a light at the end of the tunnel I guess is what I'm going to say someone said what is your favorite healthy habit SL long-term Habit to invest in I would say three things one being hawro walks I feel like I got a lot of you guys on the hawro walks but I just think it's just walking moving your body if anything if you're not even in your Fitness era and you don't want to do things d d walk I promise you mentally it just really helps but physically yes it's great for your body next thing is working on your mental health I don't think that I would be as healthy as I am as glowing as I am as hot as I am as confident as I am if I did not work on my mental health and I think that I did it the opposite way or I tried to do things the opposite way I try to address my or get on a glow up Journey from physical things like like external ways of changing um and my Journey led me back to myself which was mental essentially so your mental health will be the biggest and most important thing that I personally think that you can invest in you can do all the things in the world but if your mental health is not there then it it's not really going to last in my opinion and I would say sleep I really would say sleep because I think that sleep creates a lot of clarity sleep allows your body to rejuvenate and to really utilize some of the nutrients that you've been taking in also your workouts and Recovery like there's so much that sleep really really helps and supports so I think that's really really Cru crucial I should say um last thing quick oh my gosh this episode's getting so long this is crazy um resources quick resources I think I'm not going to get too much into it but I would say for a health podcast honestly the only one that I really trust these days and I've been listening to her forever even when she was on YouTube and didn't have a podcast was um well the podcast is called what's the Juice by Olivia I don't know her last name Olivia something um I think it's really really good especially for women she has really really really good episodes on hormonal balancing um PCOS things of that nature like uh whatever everything basically that you need the next thing when it comes to emotional health and chronic illness first I would honestly say my book I think it's a great introduction and especially if you really resonate with some of the things that I've been talking about in this episode when it comes to unhealthy relationship with food body image self-hate sabotaging behaviors chronic illness I I talk about it a lot in the in the book and it's also a journal guide but Nicole saxs which I do mention her in my book I think she's a great resource go follow her on Instagram she really sheds light on this Mind Body Connection when it comes to emotional releasing and and emotions and and how your body will physically speak to you if you are somebody who has learned to live suppressing ignoring hating putting your emotions to the side which most of us do a lot of us do um or you've gone through any sort of child childhood trauma big or small and everyone has you are the placebo is a really good book when it comes to understanding that your mind really really plays a role in your health and um your your your self-image also I guess and and the body keeps the score is another good book to understand how the Mind Body Connection works I guess is what I'll say those are definitely things that I dove into when it came to Healing um my nerve pain in my hands along with regulating my nervous system which you can go to sematic therapists you can regulate your nervous system by thinking better thoughts you can regulate your nervous system by doing gued meditations going out on nature walks getting off of social media guided meditation sleeping right like you can heal your nervous system in many ways like I think that people don't understand the nervous system but it's not like actually rocket science it's genuinely like lowering stress that's all it is and there's many ways to lower stress you can do it through your diet you can do it through your mental health you can do it through your habits but it all plays Your Role so looking at your biggest stressor in your life is going to be most important and start from there another book when it comes to if you're interested in uh understanding ingredients and stuff when it comes to food feeding you lies is a really good book but just don't obsess over it please and I think that's going to be it because I have so much so let me know if you need anything else okay that was a lot I don't know that was a lot I hope you guys enjoyed uh I have a few episodes actually planned for the upcoming weeks I can't believe we're almost in J I was going to say July June hold on we're not there yet oh my God I can't believe that anyways whatever we have a lot of episodes but let me know of course in the comments let me know on the podcast or Spotify you guys can um respond back also one one last thing I'm going to say is when I get q&as and I'm and I'm saying oh we're going to talk about glow up physically or like health and whatever some of you guys will submit a question that has nothing to do with the topic and I'm not mad about it the reason why I'm saying that is when I'm asking a question when it's like specific to something obviously I'm not going to answer your question that has nothing to do with the topic because the topic is different but I don't want to because I don't respond to those questions I just see them all and I kind of write them down and I do my best to answer all of them I can't possibly answer all of them but thank you guys for submitting um but I don't want you guys to be left with not getting your question answered if it has nothing to do with that topic so please if you're asking a question that has nothing to do with a topic if I'm asking go to the YouTube channel or go on Spotify and go and see if I've made an episode I probably have I probably have talked about emotions I probably have talked about content creation I probably have like talked about these things and I'm just saying that because I know some of you guys are new some of you guys don't know also if you're watching on YouTube I have I think I only started recording the podcast visually at like episode 60 something so you have all of those episodes leading up to then that are not on YouTube that are on Spotify apple or wherever you listen to podcast so definitely go check them out because I have really really good older episodes as well I just wanted to say that it's totally fine if you submit a question or whatever like I don't mind seeing them I just don't want you guys to think that like I don't want you guys to be left with needing advice on something when I actually have an episode that you just haven't seen you know also I've been seeing your reviews on the podcast and I just really really appreciate it the other day I got one and the the the um the main title or subheading was obsessed and she gave me five stars so thank you so much and also thank you for the reviews of my book and if you have read my book I would love it if you could leave me a Goodreads review that would be fantastic I love you guys so much and I'll see you in the next one bye