The Bossticks - #113: Candice Kumai - The Japanese Art of Nourishing Mind, Body, & Spirit
Episode Date: May 8, 2018On this episode we have Candice Kumai on the show. Candice is an internationally-renowned wellness writer, chef & content creator, described by ELLE magazine as "The Golden Girl of the Wellness World...." On this episode we discuss the Japanese art of nourishing mind, body, and spirit. We talk about embracing imperfection and the Japanese art of golden repair which showcases how being broken down and repairing yourself can make you come out more beautiful than before. To learn more about Candice Kumai click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE This episode is brought to you by RITUAL Forget everything you thought you knew about vitamins. Ritual is the brand that's reinventing the experience with 9 essential nutrients women lack the most. If you're ready to invest in your health, do what I did and go to www.ritual.com/skinny Your future self will thank you for taking Ritual: Consider it your 'Lifelong-Health-401k'. Why put anything but clean ingredients (backed by real science) in your body? This episode is brought to you by THRIVE MARKET. We use Thrive for our online grocery delivery on a weekly basis. They provide the highest quality products and ingredients delivered straight to our door with unbeatable prices. Be sure to grab our deal by going to to https://thrivemarket.com/skinny to receive $60 of FREE organic groceries from Thrive Market + free shipping and a 30 day trial!" Keep in mind that Thrive Market's prices are already 25- 50% below retail because they cut out the middleman. And now they are offering $60 off free organic groceries!
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The following podcast is a dear media production.
This episode is brought to you by Ritual.
I'm a human guinea pig, so it shouldn't surprise you guys that I'm still testing out the
multivitamin ritual.
Very, very into this whole omega-3 thing.
But really, it's filled with the standout star omega-3 plus iron, vitamin E, magnesium,
and folate.
And if you're wondering, it doesn't have that super fishy taste.
You guys know what I'm talking about.
It's more like a blast of minty-fresh goodness.
right into your mouth. You should also know that it's vegan sugar-free, non-GMO, gluten-free, and
allergen-free. Ritual is made in the USA without synthetic fillers or colorance.
Anyway, I'm trying it for the long term here. It's next to my tongue scraper. I'm doing it every
morning and I'll update you guys along the way, but so far I would give it an A. To check out
ritual for yourself, go to ritual.com slash skinny. Consider it your lifelong health
401k. Why put anything but clean ingredients backed by real science in your body. Go to ritual.com
slash skinny. So you know what I'm excited about this week, Lauren? What, Michael? Efficiency. Yep.
Efficiency. Stole my word. I love it when things are streamlined. Efficient and saving me time may have
stolen your word, but you should look at the definition of that up. Okay. So last week I was loading up
my thrive cart with all my supplies for the week. Have my magnesium, my supplements, all my snacks.
Shout out to my favorite chips, the Siette chips.
Lauren, you introduce me to those, but I love them.
I can eat bags and bags of them.
If you guys haven't had them, go and get them.
They're on Thrive.
Get the lime.
Yeah, the limes good.
And the sea salt.
And my cheat day cookies, Tate cookies.
So legit, Lauren, keep your hands out of my cookie jar.
Thank you very much.
So I was picking all my stuff when I noticed that Thrives meat and seafood section
is now up and running.
Engines are a go, boys and girls.
Here we go, blast off.
If you guys have listened to this show for a while, you know we love Thrive Market.
They're an amazing brand and sponsor of this show, and now they have a meat and seafood section.
If you want a lot of bang for your buck each week and want to keep your man happy or your woman, whatever you want to do,
I highly recommend you try Thrives New Organic Chicken and Sustainable Seafood Box.
Lauren, have you had this thing yet? Nope, I just got it.
Listen. It comes with shrimp, salmon, cod, chicken breasts, and chicken thighs.
Grab your seasonings as well. Bang, y'all have your remains for the week.
You can make all sorts of tasty meals, salmon meals, chicken meals.
Michael, you have to clean the kitchen up, though.
Nope, Mimi, and you will clean the kitchen.
You're not going to have paprika spraying everywhere.
Thank you.
I'm seasoning and I'm spraying seasons everywhere.
You're not salping.
Okay.
So we love Thrive because it's basically your one-stop shop for all groceries, home goods,
pet supplies, supplements, and for the ladies or hey, you know, even some of the men out
there, beauty supplies.
Everything is priced 25 to 50% below retail and comes straight to your door,
efficient, time saving, and money saving.
And girls, you.
You should for sure I get the Egyptian mask oil.
I love that stuff.
I was really on a roll there, but I'm still going.
Don't worry, learn.
Still going.
At this point, at this point, guys, if you haven't tried Thrive, I'm not really sure what to tell you.
It's the best.
Thrive sources, all the products with the best ingredients so that you don't have to.
You can shop by values on the site.
So if you're vegan, paleo, gluten-free, or eat raw, they have it all broken out for you.
It makes it easy.
Of course, as a skinny confidential, him and her listener, we have an offer for you,
and it's a good one.
for $60 in free groceries, yes, free and free shipping, go to thrivemarket.com slash skinny.
That's a link, not a code, guys.
Again, that's thrive market.com forward slash skinny for $60 in free groceries and free shipping.
If you guys find anything really good on there, please share it with us.
Let us know we're constantly looking for new stuff, especially new treats for me.
Happy shopping, guys.
She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire.
Fantastic.
And he's a cereal.
entrepreneurial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you
along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her.
I wrote Kienski Wellness when I had one of the lowest points in my life. The guy that I was dating at the time,
lost his job in visa and decided to just bail one day. And it was the day before my book,
Clean Green Eats came out. So he gave me a 30-minute notice. And then, he gave me a 30-minute notice.
left to the airport one day. And we lived together and it was, we dated for years and it was just
really, it was something from like a movie. And I had to promote a new book. And so I started
looking at my heritage and putting together the pieces of like, why am I so resilient through those
years of trauma or being treated like shit on TV and media and publishing. And I traced it all back
to how my mom raised me. And so mom raised me with Gamon, which is a Japanese term that means
with great resilience.
So a lot of it is the acceptance of knowing
that some things cannot change,
and you will have to let them go.
And we're back again.
You've been wanting to dust that one off.
Dust it off, archives.
A little rusty over there.
A little rusty.
Welcome back, guys, to the skinny confidential him and her show.
If you're new to the show, thanks for joining.
That clip was from our guest of the show today, Candice Kumai.
We had so much fun talking with Candace this last week, and her cookies are so, so good.
It was a wide-ranging conversation, per usual.
On this episode, we discussed the Japanese art of nourishing mind, body, and spirit.
We talk about embracing imperfection and the Japanese art of golden repair,
which showcases how being broken down and repairing yourself can make you come out more beautiful than
before.
And of course, morning routines and productivity hacks were discussed.
For those of you who are new to the show, I am Lauren Everett's.
I'm the creator of the Skinny Confidential, which is a blog, a brand book, and a podcast.
It's a resource for women all over the world, and it's turned into a huge community.
You guys have to join the secret Facebook group.
No boys, though.
And I'm Michael Bostic.
I'm a businessman, entrepreneur, and investor.
Most recently, the CEO of Dear Media, a new kind of podcast network.
And I'm excited.
We recently just signed a new show.
Many of you guys get ready to look for them.
You've probably listened to them before.
they've been guests on the show. It's the show that's so retrograde. So welcome to the network guys and
excited to have you in the studio. Love those girls. Yep, they're great. So what's up, Michael? Michael B.
Not a lot's up, Lauren. I'm excited to be up again late on a Monday night recording this. I, you know,
I'm going to be, I got a new routine down. So I get up early the entire week, but except my Monday nights,
I now stay up late and then I let myself sleep in a little bit on Tuesday morning. So if you
you're looking for me Tuesday morning, you won't be able to find me. Unless I'm banging around
like I was this morning. Well, listen, when I say I'm sleeping and I'm sleeping until like 8 a.
I'm. I'll be making loud sounds with my facial massager. That sounds like a vibrator, but who cares?
How come when I have to get up early, I have to creep around in the dark, like a blind man,
and I have to like feel around for where the doorknobs are, for where my clothes are,
and I can't make a single noise, but you get up and you have to rip open the blinds,
and scream and squawk and crow.
Because I do Aubrey Marcus's thing in the morning.
Now I'm all about it.
You've done that for like three days.
I'm so obsessed of it.
I'm going to do a blog post on it.
Don't be jealous.
So what you do is you do your first three things in the morning.
So it's light, hydration, and movement.
So the first second I wake up now, I open the shades.
Then I sit in bed and I do my meditation app, headspace for 10 minutes exactly.
And next to me is my water with a little bit of salt.
It has to be sea salt or pink salt.
Lemon.
I love the seeds in it.
You get mad about that.
And I drink my water and I meditate.
And then I get up and I move my body.
So don't mean to brag.
But I'm literally Aubrey Marcus.
My favorite thing is that the other day I was up for two hours before you.
And then you got up and started yelling at me to hydrate and get light.
But I had already been up and done those things with the last two hours.
And you were on such, like you were on the highest of high horses.
And I wanted to.
I just could.
I love being on my high horse.
I was getting so frustrated with you because I was like, are you kidding me? You just woke up and hydrated for five minutes. And also, if you listened to last week's episode, everybody, Aubrey would say not to be jealous and it's all one big thing. You know what? I haven't got to the open relationship thing yet, but I'm doing his light hydration and movement moment.
What are all the ladies saying in the secret Facebook group? Everyone's given in a no.
Everyone's given in a no? Wow. No go. No yes is anywhere. No. There was, I would say there was a few. Oh, come on. I thought that was an open group.
All right.
No, everyone's.
I thought your girls were open in there.
What's going on?
Michael, your friends would be so lucky.
I can't see anything that's going on in your group, so I have to, you know, ask.
Nope.
Not allowed to touch my phone.
Did you just break the code for telling me what's going on in the group?
No, because I did an Instagram and everyone asked and we did a poll.
The head of the group gets special privileges or what?
Girls weigh in.
Let's vote on that.
Lauren just broke her solemn bow.
First rule about the Skinny Conventional Facebook group is you don't talk about the group, Lauren.
Oh, my God.
So, excited to be very good.
back, excited to get into this episode.
You're so absurd.
I can't deal with you.
Oh, my God.
Excited to be here, guys.
So on this episode, we talk a lot about struggling and embracing hardships to come out
the other side.
And I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about with Lauren in the beginning of
this introduction.
And I thought that this episode and this time would be a perfect way to segue into it.
So at this point, we've interviewed, you know, a lot of really strong performers, a lot of
great people, a lot of really top tier, what I would say, I don't want to say people,
but basically people performing at a very high level, right?
Optimal.
How do you say that?
Optimal.
Optimal performers.
We've got businessmen and women, athletes, authors, coaches, actors, actresses.
Taylor, I wouldn't include him in this company, but he's around there somewhere, doctors,
and we've learned a ton.
But one of the many things that sticks out, and a lot of these people have in common
is that many of them have really been through.
a lot of struggles. And it's really important, I think, to acknowledge this because you see all
these people that, you know, you think have it all figured out. And when they tell you their stories
and you hear about the struggles they've been through, I don't think a lot of them would be in the
places they are now without those struggles. Absolutely. I just read a book. I've talked about it
before. It's by Tim Grover. And it's called Relentless. And the premise of the whole book is how
you have to be relentless to get to the other side. And I think that with struggle,
that's the same thing. Like you almost have to endure that struggle or adversity to kind of see the light. I believe
that the more struggle I go through in any aspect of my life, whether it's my relationship or my family or my
business, I think that it sharpens that muscle. You know what I mean? I think it builds that muscle for me to have
to have more tools in my toolbox to deal with adversity. Yeah. Well, and once you've dealt with some adversity and you've dealt with some
struggle, it also calluses your mind and it calluses the way that you approach problems.
So like maybe something five years ago before going through a struggle, you look at it
like, oh my God, this is the end of the world.
I'm never going to get through this.
And now something, you know, that was difficult five years ago is now it happens.
You're like, oh, yeah, and now I have the tools.
I can do this, this, this, and this, it's no big deal.
And I think it's so important for people to, you know, the reason I read so much and the reason
I look to historical figures as examples is many of these people are, you know,
we're living examples of people that really, really had to struggle and persevere through things.
And when you hear those stories and you see what life can be like if you get through those
struggles and you and you meet those challenges head on, that's why it's so interesting for me
to see those examples. I think it's a big mistake when people, you know, look to just success
and they don't look at what led, you know, the road that led there. I think for me, I'm really interested
in diving into what made someone get to the level that they're out. Like, what did they have to
overcome? What challenges did they face? Like, what hardships at the time did they think we're going to
be completely defeating that they beat and then came on the other side? And I think, you know, if you're
somebody right now that's struggling or having a hard time and you think it's never going to get
better and you think that you're never going to get through it, you have to look to these examples
because you can get through it. And once you see that there's examples like that in living proof,
then it's going to, that switch is going to take place in your mind or say, okay, if they can do it,
I can do it too. And if you're not looking at it that way, I really think that you should.
So when I'm struggling with a problem, what I usually do is tiny little practices that make all the
difference. I like to meditate. Like I told you 10 minutes in the morning headspace, that's made
such a difference for me. I also like to take yoga. I don't take yoga to work out or to tone my body.
Of course, that comes with it. I take it more for mental clarity. If I'm dealing with a really
big problem, I can go to yoga, step outside of it and gain clarity. And then I also like going in the cold.
I love cryotherapy.
You guys see me on Instagram all the time, freezing my ass off.
But you can also take hot and cold showers.
We've talked about this before.
Michael does that every morning.
He turns the shower to freezing cold, and that works really, really well.
Reading is another way for me to step outside the problem and get my head and focus on something else.
I find for me, the best thing to do is step out of whatever I'm dealing with so I can really wrap my head around it.
As you can see, the things that help me the most are stepping outside of the problem.
You know, I think this is a device that's easier said than taking just like everything else.
But there's a new thing that I've been doing where I try to focus 90% on the solution and 10% on the problem.
I think a lot of times when you're struggling or you're having anxiety or stress,
it's because you're focusing so much on the problem and you're going down the rabbit hole of like,
oh, what does this look like if it goes wrong and then this will happen and this will happen and this will happen.
And so what I've been doing lately is saying, okay, this is the problem.
Let's think about it for 10% of the time.
And now the rest of the time, the other 90%, let's focus only on solutions.
And I think when I start to focus on those solutions and get myself out of the, you know,
just focus on the problem, that's when they start to make progress.
Again, that's easier said than done.
Speaking of a healthy mindset, I have committed, like I said, to taking a multivitamin.
So I've been taking it for the past month and a half now every single day.
And here's why I like it.
So ritual is a vitamin that's everything in one.
think all the essential vitamins for women that we need like vitamin K2, vitamin D3, you know I need D3
badly, B12, which is one of my favorites, boron, iron, vitamin E, magnesium, folate, and omega-3.
Let me give you some background so you know exactly what's in ritual because this is what
really sold me on this product. So it's vegan, sugar-free, non-GMO, gluten-free, and
allergen-free. It's made in the USA without synthetic fillers or colorants. And there's
these little beads. It's kind of like this formulation that keeps dry ingredients separate from oils
within the capsule. So you only have to take one pill. My favorite part about it, though, is that
it's mint scented with an in-bottle tab enriched with pure peppermint oil. What a good idea.
I'm obsessed with this minty smell and this idea. I just think it's so branded. And it tastes
like mint, which is amazing. There's no chalky vitamin BS. It's just mintish. It's just mintish.
So you should know that I actually keep ritual by my tongue cleaner to streamline the whole situation.
So I can just pop it in my mouth after I clean my tongue.
So the other day I was brushing my teeth.
And I look over at Michael's tongue cleaner and guess what was next to it?
Ritual.
This is so funny because he really does copy me.
And I have a tip for anyone who's looking to get your partner into skincare or health or wellness.
All you have to do is lead by example quietly.
just make sure you like kind of ooh and awe and make funny sounds.
I never say anything to Michael.
I just do it in front of it and shake the bottle and say, wow, this minty, fresh vitamin.
I love it.
Okay, so you can visit their website and you'll learn everything from why each ingredient is beneficial
to where it's sourced.
I kind of did the work for you guys here.
I went on their site and checked out everything, and it's really easy to read and
explains every single tiny detail down to the ingredients, the research, and what the brand is about.
also the vitamins look super cute on your Instagram feed I'm just saying so quick breakdown of what it is it's subscription based vitamin 30 dollars a month and delivered straight to your door that's one dollar a day so you can fill in the gaps with your diets with the best sourced ingredients and everything is backed by science here
ritual's been on my radar forever I'm so excited to tell you guys about it and what I like about it the best though is it has happiness guaranteed no questions asked you can cancel easily at any time ritual is the brand that's reinvented
the experience with nine essential nutrients, women lack the most. If you're ready to invest in your
health, do what I did and go to ritual.com slash skinny. Consider your lifelong health 401k.
Why put anything but clean ingredients backed by real science in your body? Go to ritual.com slash
skinny. Are you guys ready? Candice Kumai is an internationally renowned wellness writer,
chef and content creator described by Elle magazine as the golden girl of the wellness world.
born and raised in California to a Japanese mother and a Polish-American father in Carlsbad, California.
Candice grew up in a mixed culture home celebrating Japanese traditions and cuisine from a young age
and honing a cosmopolitan perspective that continues to inspire her work today.
Candice is a classically trained chef, former line cook, former TV host, former model turned wellness
journalist and five-time best-selling author.
She also happens to have a new book out, which we will talk about today.
Welcome to the show, Candace.
This is the skinny confidential, him and her.
This is Michael, one, two, three.
We're getting ready to podcast.
This is my water.
Sorry.
That has lemon and salt.
That's my water.
It's not your water.
You got salt in it?
A little bit of salt, just a pinch.
This is 100% of my water.
Aubrey Marcus told us it's good for hydration.
Who knows?
Yeah, this is my water 100%.
I've never heard of that before.
Is it really your water?
Is it really your water?
It's, can't.
Candice, will you hand me my purse?
I'm going to prove it well.
It's the nude one.
Is there water in there?
Oh, he was right.
Okay.
Go fuck yourself.
Okay.
All right.
Tell us when and she's going to show us how to make match it on air.
Just make sure you're explaining it in an audio version so they can hear.
Or else they'll DM you with 500 questions.
Oh, dear.
Yeah, you got to get real close.
Okay.
Okay.
Ready?
Go.
All right.
So what you're going to do is take your match powder.
This is Machia Beauty Powder that I created just for Lauren.
So it's got a mix of rice,
tacos and macha and a little bit of coconut powder in it.
And that way it doesn't taste super vegetal.
And then all you need is water that's been boiled and cooled for about five minutes.
So you're going to add that into your powder.
We're going to make a mess over the cords right now.
This is going to be fun.
Susan's going to freak.
This is a cha sen, which is a bamboo whisk.
Okay.
So the bamboo whisk then goes inside.
So she's whisking the mosh.
And this is like M and N motions.
Okay.
You might have married wrong.
I don't make matcha.
Japanese women know how to...
Once you're done, you should have like nice and little bubbles at the top.
Okay.
You want to sip it with one hand underneath and one hand on the side like so.
Okay.
Or you can just do like two hands like this.
Okay, so show us out really quick.
Okay, so this is how you always want to hold a match cup underneath or this way.
You never want to hold it like this.
All right.
Yeah.
I love it.
Thank you for showing us that.
So this is like, if you want to try it, it's like coconuty with matra and rice tacos.
It's really good.
Marzard, are they like paper towel?
Oh my God, how cute are your shoes?
Okay, this is so good, you guys.
It's good.
What are the benefits of this?
So, matcha is known and touted for.
it's antioxidant properties. What you're doing is you're ingesting the whole leaf and not just a
steeped tea. So that means you're going to get more benefits, which is why it's a superfood. So you're
going to get vitamin C, antioxidants. Elthianine is like a slow stream of focused caffeine. So the
elthianing keeps you focused and calm while the caffeine keeps you a little bit more alert. But it's
not joltie like coffee at all. I love that. And it tastes really, really good. You need caffeine.
I need a lot less caffeine, but I'm down to switch my caffeine intake to matcha, right?
Really?
Yeah, I was in a meeting earlier.
And the person was like, you did more caffeine?
Like, I need to slow it down.
Okay, so let's back up.
We're sitting here with your beautiful book.
You have written two books, three books.
This is number six.
No way.
Yeah.
I know, I know.
It's true, though.
I've been writing my entire career.
And so on the side, books were always my thing.
Yeah.
It truly is.
I know.
How do you pronounce it?
Kinzugi.
Because they don't say this.
Letters say it how you say it.
So in Japanese, they say so, right?
Kintzugi wellness.
Yeah, so it's like a silent T-S-U.
Holy shit, six books.
The Japanese art of nourishing mind, body, and spirit.
I would say your profession totally is an author-writer.
I mean, I would find that because the creativity was so open with books that I said,
I don't want to do TV.
I don't want to do, you know, magazines.
I want to do what I want to do.
And books gave me the most freedom over the last 10 years to just, you know, they gave me a
deadline and a check and said, we'll see you in a year.
But you've kind of done it all at this point, right?
You're like regularly on TV.
You were a judge on, what is it, Iron Chef?
Yeah.
You've done modeling.
Yeah.
You've done some influencer stuff.
We've blog.
Right.
You're kind of a medley.
I mean, somebody quoted me as a multifaceted hustler the other day.
because you really should learn how to change, like, with the times.
And I think it's important for all of us to find what it is that we, like, really love and shine at.
But it did take, like, the 10 years of, like, hustling and doing everything to figure out that Kinsugi Wellness or Japanese health and wellness was where I should have been from the beginning.
But as you guys kind of know, like, when you're growing up as a kid, you're teased, you look different, you feel different.
you feel different.
And I never thought that this would be my calling because, as you guys know, I grew up in
Carl's bad, which is right next to Del Mar.
Like, nobody else really grew up with this kind of upbringing until I meet other people
that are like Kat Tanita or even Michael's family probably has the more Japanese-looking side
where kids are mean.
You know, they teased.
I dodged that.
Yeah, you did.
They didn't mistake me.
So let's go back a little.
bit. You grew up in Carl's Bad. Yes. You're born in San Diego or? Yeah, born in San Diego.
Okay. So growing up, what were some of the struggles that you face, like when kids are just
teasing about your ethnicity? So this is a great question because in the book, the second chapter
in the book is on Wabi Sabi, and it's actually the most popular chapter in the whole book. And it talks
about how we are perfectly imperfect as we are, which is the Japanese celebration of imperfection.
So what I talk about is as early as preschool, which I went to Maricosta College for preschool,
they had a little program there, and my mom would take me there.
And I remembered being different from all the other kids.
But I always liked who I was.
So we kind of talk about how when you start writing, the cool thing about writing from your story
and heritage and past is that it's a little cathartic.
So a lot of like pain and tears and sadness came out when writing this.
And I remembered what it felt like to be on the playground feeling different or being different.
And then through elementary and high school, it continued, but it wasn't as bad.
But you did see other kids definitely get teased for being Hispanic or, you know, there were fights amongst the different races.
And I never really ever felt like I fed in.
And it took a long time, like into college meeting other girls at Long Beach State that
were also mixed or going to Hawaii or even going to Japan and saying like it's okay to be
different because at this point in life, everybody can relate to somebody who has a story of
pain, struggle, or just feeling like they never fit in.
Yeah. Growing up, I was always really sensitive to people that got bullied and I really,
really did not like bullies. Like in my youth, sometimes I'd get in fights and it was usually
because somebody was bullying somebody and I didn't like because my mom.
Mom would always tell me stories.
They grew up in Batavia, New York, and we were talking about earlier.
My mom's half Japanese.
My grandma's full, and they would say things like slant eyes to her and my aunts.
And I just know it was really painful for her, especially in a prominently white area, to face that.
And so growing up, like, hearing those stories, I just, like, wanted to be really protective of anybody that was.
Still do, probably.
I can attest to that since we've known each other since he was 12.
He always would punch a bully in the nose, literally.
I have, listen.
I can tolerate a lot of people, but I don't like bullies.
He does not like bullies.
Remember someone bullied your chihuahua and you almost beat them up?
Hey, you have good protection, Lauren.
He's your bodyguard now too.
Lauren's now my bodyguard.
Okay, so why did you go into wellness?
Like, walk us through of how you go to Long Beach State and now you're in this,
you're this huge wellness brand.
I mean, entrepreneurial hustler.
I mean, this is amazing this book.
Thanks, Lauren.
This is a cool place to be, by the way, even though the three of us are from the same hood, like in San Diego.
We're sitting in the middle of L.A., which is kind of how it all started.
So after college, I just fitmodeled, modeled, print modeled all over the world.
And I took a year after school.
And then I was like, well, this is really cool, but it's really fucking boring.
And I want to use my brain a little bit more because, as you guys know, if you have the entrepreneurial genes inside of you, you always want to be thinking about the next year.
the next five, the next 10.
So what I did was I started looking at culinary schools because I knew I loved people
and I loved cooking for everyone.
So I looked at the CIA, New York.
It was too far away to keep modeling clients to pay the bills.
And then I looked at a culinary school in Pasadena called the Court on Blue California School
of Culinary Arts.
And this is 13 years ago.
And I said, I can't do the CIA because it was way too far from any client.
And my mom said, you know, you can pay.
for your culinary school on your own
because you cannot cook for a living
you can only cook for your friends
okay so wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait
how are you not an impersonator
I mean my sister and I have great stories
Lauren's out to cry over here oh my god
it's just no I'm crying laughing because it's like that is Michael's
grandma yeah right it's always like
oh you are not good enough for me
this is okay all right
me and your father are not going to pay for your
Do you have any brothers?
I have a sister.
See, okay, I think you have a different experience because, like I said earlier, I could
probably literally murder someone in front of my grand, like right in front of my grandmother.
And she would say, well, you know, that, I don't think that was Michael.
Yeah, she would say, or she would say, I don't think that was good enough.
But if my sister's did something, though.
It's only to the girls, though, not the guys.
That is so mean.
Oh, my God.
No wonder why my mom was always like, okay, this is okay.
You know, you clap your heads too much on the segment today.
You kind of smack your lips
Too much
Maybe think about that
Okay, bye
And like that one
Those would be like phone calls with my mom
Yeah
See, but I was saying like my
Oh holy shit
And her sisters got that
My sisters got that
But for me like I could do no wrong
That's bizarre
It must be in all Asian culture too
Where men get like pampered
And women have like the wrath
No this is Michael
He would wake up every morning in high school
He's like 18 years old.
Like it's time to like grow up.
Grandma would be knocking at the door at 6.30.
Blueberry or I can't do it.
Or chocolate.
Pancakes.
Oh my God.
Every morning stack for him waiting.
Then he starts dating me and I'm like, I'm not making you fucking pancakes.
You'll make your own fucking like, what the fuck?
I don't have time to make you a bowl of cereal, bro.
I think I went the opposite direction.
I think so too.
So sorry.
Go on the impersonation.
No, no worries.
Too funny.
Mom tries to discourage me from going, which is very common, you know, for anybody out there listening who has a big dream, whether it's to be in beauty, health, wellness, artistry, doesn't matter. You absolutely can pursue it and you don't need to listen to all the naysayers, which can include your parents sometimes. So my mom, when she said that to me, I basically said in my head, mm-hmm, watch me. So I ended up going to La Cordon Blue program over in Pasadena here, which is right over.
this hill and I was studying for an intro two class which was the Meets class and I went to the
library at school and after I was done studying I crumpled up the piece of paper that I was writing on
and on the other side said from the producers of Project Runway comes a new show Top Chef
and I was 22 and I looked at it and I was like should I go to this to my college friends
and they're like hell yeah you're going to go to this and so I went to the cat
One thing led to another.
I end up on the first season.
It's in San Francisco.
We have no idea what it's like.
No one's ever seen the show before.
We just know that Project Runway is a huge success.
And it seemed like it's exactly like kind of how we were talking about early.
You just follow every little sign and step when it feels right.
So we went to San Francisco.
I shot on that first show.
And then after that, I'd worked really hard cultivating and writing recipes throughout school.
and an agent picked me up and we started working on pitching like TV shows.
So I became a TV host at a couple different networks like TLCE,
talking head stuff on Cooking Channel and Food Network.
And then that led into Iron Chef judging.
And throughout the course of all these shows, Lifetime picked me up on this show called Cook Yourself Thin.
And you're just comfortable on TV right away.
That just came naturally to you?
That's a good question.
I think that the, if you look back at your career, you can kind of see the little thing.
that helped. So like, I always love doing voices. So the mom thing came naturally to me. But I also
was really comfortable in front of a camera because of modeling. And I knew that like that
modeling also taught me how to hustle like a motherfucker. People don't realize how hard modeling is.
Oh, my God. And the reason I know this. You too, because you two do it. I don't model, but I've seen,
like, I've been a part of like shoots and watching these women do this. I'm like, holy shit. Like this is,
like, I don't want to do that.
I just say the worst part of the job is standing in front of the camera smiling for me.
Yeah, but you, you guys, I like to be on video.
Make it look fabulous, though. You know what I mean?
And it takes a, exactly. It takes a very special person to be in front of the camera, which I applaud Gigi and a couple other girls for speaking out against all the haters.
Because I'm like, yo, dude, why you got to talk shit on people that are working and putting themselves out there?
Like, it is so frustrating how many haters come out of the woodwork.
And we have this platform now for people to just write trash on.
And they should be lifting each other up.
Listen, I invite anybody to come stand in front of a camera for 10 hours and tell you it's easy.
It's not.
No.
Plus you're like, do I have to suck it in?
How is this angle?
What's going on right there?
Oh, shit.
My like fat's hanging over this.
It's so fucking annoying.
You have 20, 20, 30 people looking at you and judging every.
Yeah, it's too much.
I call it 30 for one.
You take 30 pictures for one.
Or 300.
300 for one.
Sure. Why not?
Okay, so go back. You're on this show called Cooking Yourself Thin.
Yes. So on Cook Yourself Thin, it's a lifetime series. We shoot like 25 episodes in a few weeks in New York.
At the time when I got cast on it, I was a TV show host at Home Shopping Network in Florida.
So I lived there for a stint selling like anything to anyone, like ice to igloos.
No wait, igloos to, you know what I mean, Eskimos.
And rubber bands to anyone. I could do anything.
And then at that same time, when you're really young, you're vulnerable and you're kind of flexi, like a sponge.
You can soak up anything.
So it was a really good time to put myself out there.
So nobody should ever be afraid of pursuing what they want to do wholeheartedly while you're young because that's when you're going to be able to mold and shape your whole life.
That's like your platform.
So I was basically bricklaying.
My agent Joe LaBrotio at the time called and said, you're up for this new gig.
cook yourself thin on lifetime.
They actually took me off of the series after I was cast on it.
I went to a couple castings in New York and then they took me off because they told me
I was too young, too pretty and too thin and too cool to be teaching women how to cook.
Oh, poor you.
Right?
Too young, too pretty and too thin.
So devastating for like a 25 year old here because it's like I don't want either of you to ever change.
I don't want any woman out there that's feminine and young and killing it.
to ever have to change.
And those comments now that I can look back on it over 10 years later are basically from
somebody else's insecurities.
And so there was a lot of, I took a lot of blows as a kid.
Like on Top Chef, that shit was tough.
I was 23.
People were mean to me the whole time on Cook Yourself Thin.
One of my co-hosts was so nasty to me the whole season and nobody knew.
And then our book, though, on the show, when they finally called me back, I was surfing out in Tonga
with my boyfriend at the time and and I got this call for my agent that they wanted me back on the
series and I was like you're fucking kidding me right like this is a really good joke and he's like nope
you've got to pack your bags now and head to New York so we had to like reroute through um new
zealand to L.A and then I threw out all my bikinis and threw in all my coats and we started
shooting in a January but yeah my co-host was not nice my EP was not the greatest person um she
I watched people like treat other women really poorly for most of my TV career.
It took a really brave and special woman every now and then to come up to me and say,
you're doing great.
You're, you know, you can improve here and there.
You can learn your craft better if you just focus on this.
A lot of women are just, they're trying to push for the dollar, for the numbers, and for the people and what they want.
And they don't really care about the personality.
So that show taught me a lot about how to,
how in the end being humble and graceful will always be better than being a shithead.
Doesn't that make you want to be just like you said so much better?
That empowers me.
When someone's mean to me and treats me like shit and like when I was in high school,
the car king, I got my tire slash all that made me want to just embrace women.
Yeah.
Because there's such a need for it.
Yeah.
I'm with you.
And Lauren, it takes like a really strong woman deep down.
to step away from the gossip and the bullshit.
And like there was so much back talking,
like as in people talked behind other people's backs
all the time on that show.
And I just sat there and watched it.
Same thing on Top Chef.
So our book on that series became a New York Times number one bestseller,
which leads me into how I started writing books.
But I want both of you to know and everybody listening to know
that my book agent at the time said,
I would never get my own book until I had my own cooking.
show because back then that was like the thing.
Let's talk about like this.
So you're very confident, right?
Now maybe.
And you talk a lot about being real and being authentic.
What do you think the drive for you behind that is?
A lot of women and a lot of men really struggle with like really being authentic and being
real.
Like what do you think motivates you to be authentically yourself all the time?
Well, Michael, the thing is, is that it took the 10 years plus of being in media and being
treated like shit for 10 years for me to actually build the confidence. Because if you think about it,
nobody was nice to me when I was on those shows. Nobody at Top Chef cared about my feelings.
Like it was, I had an altercation with somebody who was very mean to me just for no reason for being
me. And I know you guys know what that's like. It's not really ever about you in the end. Like Don
Miguel Ruiz says in the Four Agreements, it is always, like it's not personal. Yeah.
So let's, I don't know if you can fast track it, not the right word, right?
But if there's a young woman or young man listening and you could go back 10 years and give
them the advice, like what practical steps could they take to find that confidence and to find
that authentic voice and self?
So what brings me back always is I say, I wrote Kinski Wellness when I had one of the
lowest points in my life.
The guy that I was dating at the time, lost his job in Visa and decided to just bail one day.
and it was the day before my book Clean Green Eats came out.
So he gave me a 30 minute notice and then left to the airport one day.
And we lived together and it was we dated for years and it was just really, it was something from like a movie.
I think all my friends can remember the phone calls or the messages or the emails that they got that were like.
Candace's so-and-so left.
It was really sad.
I don't like bringing up his name.
Please come to the event tonight if you can.
people were like in shock for me because at that point I went on autopilot and so what happened was
like as you both know New York can seem very dark and dreary sometimes and it looked like that
consistently for me it didn't really know what to say or how to feel or what to to do um and I had to
promote a new book and so it took me falling apart and breaking open um in order to go back to Japan
my mother was going and I was going to meet her to say bye to my grandma.
So my grandmother Batchan was passing away in southern Japan like virtually weeks after he had left me.
And I went to Okinawa first and I just graved the entire time.
I didn't know.
I didn't wear makeup.
I didn't eat meat.
I didn't drink alcohol.
I didn't know what to do except sleep and just kind of survive.
And so I started looking at my heritage and putting together the pieces of like, why am I so resilient
through those years of trauma or being treated like shit on TV and media and publishing.
And I traced it all back to how my mom raised me.
And so mom raised me with gammon, which is a Japanese term that means with great resilience.
And it's something that they are trained to endure when they're young.
Like if a child is hungry, the mother will say,
gaman.
And the kid knows, like, that they have to endure and stay quiet because they can't eat yet.
And then there's also a chapter in here called Shikata Kanai, which means it cannot be helped.
So a lot of it is the acceptance of knowing that some things cannot change and you will have to let them go.
Is that kind of stoicism, right?
Yeah, it's a form of it, but it's, you know.
A little bit?
Well, it's a very stoic, like, totally.
It's a very stoic way to be.
And these are, these are really old school ancient terms.
Another one is monono aware, which means the pathos in life, which refers to a,
a very light sadness and knowing the Japanese people are aware that life will never be perfect.
There's an impermanence of perfection in life and that things will be difficult.
And when you're aware of them and you understand they're coming, you won't be as disappointed.
Like I know now that TV and media full of shitheads.
And now when I see them, I'm like, oh, you're one of those.
Okay. Note to self.
And then you just kind of like in your mind, you say like watch out for this.
person, don't gossip around them, and, and, you know, button up when you need to. And then,
and then you guys have your inner circle, which in the book is called your Yuimaru. And that
circle is your circle of trust. That's where you can release and tell people your deepest secrets or
who you have a crush on this week or who, you know, who you're going to go, um, work with on another
project. Like, people are out for themselves now. And with social media being like at the forefront of
all of our lives now, it's, you know, it's.
important to sort of know when to show your cards and who to show them to and when to hold back.
And I think that the Japanese more than anybody else have taught me to kind of be like a samurai
ninja in a in a crazy really elegant and gracious kind of way. Like we learn a lot from our past
heritage and that's why books became so important was I could express what I wanted to when
and how I wanted to. On your own terms.
Yes.
And I photographed the book too because I knew that nobody else could captivate what I was seeing and feeling and believing.
And that is what got me through those tough times was consistently looking back at my heritage and my roots and saying it's not about trends and wellness swag or like mesh yoga pants or charcoal lemonade.
It's about heritage, survival, endurance, resilience, patience, humility.
Yeah, the Japanese culture...
You're freaking out, Michael.
This is like...
Michael's freaking out.
He's like...
He has so much to say...
Are you going to say Shogun?
No, no.
Well, there's a...
It's one of my favorite books of all the time.
It's actually written by a white guy, but he's studied a lot of...
Written by a white guy.
He's since passed, but studied a lot of Asian culture.
Yeah, Asian culture's names James Clavel.
Okay.
He wrote a book called Shogun.
And the book, it takes place in the 1600s, and it's this Dutch sailor that ends up...
His shipwrecked on the shores of Japan.
And he has to adapt and learn the language.
and learn all of this different cultural differences.
Based on a true story or fictional?
I think it's based on like things that have happened, but it's a fiction.
But it's a really, really powerful book.
It's a long book.
It's about 1,800 pages.
But it talks about a lot of these things and like really like resilience and their culture.
And it's just it's really ingrained in the Japanese.
They've had a,
the Japanese culture has had a lot of tough times.
That's funny though,
because all the principles that she was just saying about patience and resilience
and all these things are things that you talk about and write about all the
time. Well, I think like one of the things to really dumb this down is like the expectations of
people, right? Like if you expect a lot of people in media and TV are shitty, right? It's, it's one of
those things where you can't really be disappointed more than your standards already said. And so when
there is somebody that's really pleasant or really good, you're like, wow, that's pleasantly
surprising. I think where people run into trouble is they have these high expectations of people. And when
it's not met, then they're constantly disappointed. For me, the way I live is I don't think that people, I don't have
low expectations of people, I just don't have any expectations. So when someone's really great,
someone I work with, someone I'm in a relationship with, a friend, then I'm pleasantly surprised and
happy. And I'm really, it's hard to let me down, right? Because I don't have these massive
expectations of people, like, you know, I don't put that blanket policy out there. So when someone's
great, I'm like, I have a lot of room to be really thankful. So you don't expect me to make you
dinner tonight. As a matter of fact, I would be very pleasantly surprised. Okay, so shift
gears a little bit. Why did you get into wellness? And if it is wellness, because it sounds like you're
almost niching down into the wellness space, if that makes sense. You're kind of squeezing it out.
You're so good. It's so hard to say, like, as you guys both know, as artists and entrepreneurs,
like you constantly want to be evolving with the times. But at the same time, there's something
inside of me that's been saying, like, rain it back because people have fucking lost their minds.
Like I have written for every magazine under the sun.
I used to be a columnist at men's health and women's health and also at shape men's fitness
and a food editor at large at shape and men's fitness as well on the mastheads and hosted many of those shows
and written now these six books.
And what I found was what made me feel real and good was when I wrote from my gut and my heart.
And I told people things that I really was taught not to tell people at the beginning of my career,
like publicists and people would say like don't tell people how you are going to cry when you
hear a keen song or you know don't help don't tell people about your breakup um i didn't really want to
ever share that story because it was so horrendous but what helped was um when i learned about
human connection and relatability i saw other women start to open up to me and what made me feel
a little bit better when i was in the middle of that storm of a breakup was when other people came to me
and they said, this happened to me too.
And they told me their stories.
And some of them were a thousand times worse than mine.
So I did that little thing where I was like, oh, shit.
Like, I am so sorry.
Like, if you got through it, I can get through it.
And now I'm saying to you, I got through this.
You can sure as hell get through whatever you're going through right now.
I had to speak in front of 200 people, like hours after he left me for the book launch.
And it was so, it was like grieving at the same time as being on autopilot.
learning of Japanese resilience and saying, if I have this in me, I have to learn how to cultivate
a better form of wellness for the U.S. because my entire career, my friend Matt Padgett, who
actually lives out here in L.A., he kept telling me, he's like, I know what you're calling is,
Candace, you are supposed to bridge the gap between the American decline in health and the
Japanese, like the Japanese way of living. Totally. You're doing that. And you're doing, and you know,
you're doing it really well and that is a niche really really seriously i i mean i don't see anyone
else doing what you're doing you're doing you're making it contemporary and cool it's so nice that
you two of all people connected with this i was shocked that we are all from the same part of the
country too and that michael's part japanese because it makes it makes things so much more
beautiful like my dad's full you know european american polish american and
And mixed cultures are what make the U.S. so special.
And, yeah, I mean, so I've always been the golden girl of wellness, according to Elle and my amazing friends there in media.
But I never would have thought that I would have turned this corner until my life fell apart.
And that's what reigned me back in.
And that's kind of what Kinsugi is too.
When you got vulnerable.
And you talk about this.
You were talking to the Japanese art of golden repair.
Yes.
Can you explain that to the audience and kind of elaborate on that?
So that's a great question.
When people ask immediately, they say, well, what is kinkugi?
Because most of us know wabi-sabi by now or a couple of other Japanese tomes.
But kinsugi wellness refers to being broken and learning how to put the pieces back together.
And in Japanese culture, when you have an object of desire that is broken, you can put it back together with a lacquer or a glue.
and you can dust it with golden powder.
And then it is foreseen as more of an art form.
So you look at the piece when it's put back together and you say this is more beautiful
now that it's been put back together and repaired with the gold.
And I think people needed to see a metaphor to know that it's okay to be broken.
It's okay to have a broken heart or even a career that's not working out or someone that's
leaving you, a death in the family, a breakup. It could even be some people have been writing to me
about how the book's been helping them. And I've had every story come my way now. Suicides,
mothers being diagnosed with diseases, people that had massive divorces or heartache or people
that lost their job or feel that they have nothing anymore or people that are just not feeling
like they fit into society because they're different. And that's a different kind of wellness.
That's a self-care kind of wellness.
That's why I think this is so cool.
You know, when you hear the word wellness, you think smoothies, antioxidants, you know what I mean?
This is a different kind of wellness.
All the shit that I wrote about for the last 10 years.
No, I mean, I love all that stuff too.
I mean, I want the lemon water and salt.
You know that, you know.
But also this other stuff is really important to consider.
Yeah.
So how do you do all of this?
Like you're rewriting books.
You're on television.
You're hustling.
You're out in L.A.
You're insane.
Like how what's a day in the life?
I tell people I just slang rocks all day and that's how you do it.
What does that mean?
I mean, it means your drug dealer and you're slang.
Oh, slang rocks.
I'm like, is that like a word that I should be using?
Is that like a new hustle word?
Yes, it is.
You need to get in the streets a little bit more, Lauren.
Get out of dry bar and get in the streets.
Yeah, you need to.
We're going to take your lunch money.
I mean, it's all that.
I think it's a matter of priorities too.
Like I get teased by guys that I'm dating about how they're like, what are you doing for your birthday this year?
I'm like, oh, I don't know.
I have a party the next day that I'm hosting for my client, Belvedere.
I'll be sitting at home like resting for the party.
And they're like, what?
Like, you're not going to go out because, and I'm like, yeah, that's a priority for me.
You know, so my mother is full Japanese from southern in southern Japan in Kyushu.
My father's from Poland and he came here on a boat when he was 11.
So both of those countries have not only endured so much resilience through World War II,
but they also are known for working hard.
So what happened was children learned by what they watch their parents doing, not by what they say,
but what they're doing.
So I watched my dad as a former Navy veteran, now nuclear auditor, and my mom's a Japanese language teacher.
And sometimes I'm like, mom, like, what did you do when you were raising Jenny and I?
And she's like, we are making it kind of normal life.
You know, I was always impressed with the birthday party here.
I couldn't believe it.
But we raise you the best we can, okay?
Because I think that she did something crazy.
But she really, Lauren, she was just raising me Japanese.
And that meant you do your homework on time.
You go to school on time.
You do everything well.
There's a chapter.
Yes, yes.
There's a chapter in here called Gambate, which means always do your best.
Kyoto's get,
means take good care, take care.
All the anthems started to come out.
And that's how I decided to live.
Because I'd be like a piece of shit
if I told people to do all these things
and I wasn't actually living them.
Like I believe in the power of Gambate.
I believe in Kaizen,
which is continuously improving.
And I also, I really like the vibe
that you guys carry too
because what we're doing is helping
the younger generation to also see
that it's okay to do
everything you've ever dreamed of, but you're going to have to fucking work for it.
Okay, so I am obsessive about people's morning routines when you're in New York.
And let's do this before, when you were writing the book.
What was your morning routine?
And I want to even know, like, do you wake up and get water with lemon?
Are you using a meditation app?
Like, I want to know every little detail down to like what oil you're diffusing in your diffuser.
Okay, good question.
So if you're starting like before my morning routine is my night routine, which is kind of
important because it ties in. Great answer. So, okay, the diffuser I'm using right now as like a sage one.
And I like geranium. I don't know for some reason. There's a couple of blends that they also have that are
really nice. And I'll always sleep with a glass of water next to my bed and the diffuser. I have a lot of
plants in my room because I love greenery. I have a cute chunky cat named Cece who's a black and white
tuxedo. She's usually somewhere in there. And I have earplugs and an eye mask because I have
I wake up next to the river overlooking the city in Brooklyn.
So, like, I see the city from my apartment.
But the eye mask and the earplugs really help with quality sleep.
What kind of eye mask?
We need, like, exact examples.
Exact is, like, something from Delta that was put back together because they're always
too tight.
So I cut them and I add, like, like, I add length to them if I can.
Okay.
You have your eye mask.
You have your glass of water.
Your earplugs.
Yeah.
And I, um, I probably.
stole the earplugs from flywheel and whatever works efficiency i have a noise machine too because
the city can be really loud and i like i'm addicted to white noise um and so i sleep really
snugly like i love clean white beach sheets it's b e c h and i get them at like bed bath and beyond
um and i love lots of pillows around me and so on the occasion if a guy sleeps over i'm usually like
stay on the other side of the bed.
Like, don't come close to me.
Unless I want to be touched.
Because that's how most, you know, animals or pets, like cats are too.
I'm like exactly like that.
My dad told me a long time ago to try to figure out women.
He said, figure out a cat and you'll figure out women.
Yeah, it's so true.
It's so true.
And so I have a Casper mattress, which is really nice.
And I like love the coziness of it.
So in the mornings, thank God I sleep well in New York because it's home.
But I use this like Cora Organics eye oil under my eyes, which is a rose like quartz ball roller, which I love.
Sometimes I actually sleep next to crystals too.
And then I always sleep next to a ton of books.
So I'll wake up right now.
I'm currently reading fulfilled by Anna Yousum, which you would really like.
It's an amazing book about spirituality and how to feel fulfilled without religion or any of that.
It's like a self-help book.
Cool.
So in the mornings it's water.
And then I usually like cuddle CeC or if there's a guy there, lucky him.
And then...
Or lucky you.
Yeah.
Yeah, you're right.
It depends.
Depends on the mood.
Sometimes I'm like, okay, please leave now.
Get out of here.
And sometimes I'm like, you can stay as long as you want.
Let me make you matcha pancakes.
Okay.
Then water is key.
I look out at the city and I try to like take it all in.
I usually wake when the sun's coming up at six.
So I like to look at sunrise.
Really quick.
What time do you go to bed?
Bedtime is probably close to 10.
Okay.
Yeah.
Because I want to like, I really believe in everything being cumulative.
Like that is a real thing.
And my mom looks good and she's in our 60s and I'm like, I'm going to do whatever you did because it worked.
So I think sleep is key.
And then I'll make a matcha after that.
it's just hot water in my little I have a muji kettle that is so cool it boils water in about 60 seconds or
80 seconds or so and then I make matcha just the way I showed you traditionally with the bamboo whisk
nothing too fancy and then I'll give myself a beat and I'll figure out if I want to work out right or
meditate so between those three things I figure out depending on my day what I have to do if it's a
shoot day then it's wake up get your matcha and sometimes hair and makeup will come over right away
and we'll start going through show notes or segment notes and studying.
So if it's the night before something, like say the Belvedere party or whatever's coming up,
I have to study my notes before I go to bed.
And remember we said earlier, children learn by what their parents do.
So my mother's a schoolteacher and she still studies her curriculum every day before her coursework.
And I do the same thing now.
So if I'm like going on the Today Show or Dr. Oz or Enews the next day, I'll always sleep by studying.
first. So it's either go into hair and makeup, get ready for work, go to a workout, which is usually
pure bar, bar method, or yoga. I like core powers, like the sculpt class. And if it's meditation,
it's Deepak Oprah's meditation that's together. And they have these amazing programs where Oprah talks
for like a good three, four minutes. And then she sends it over to Deepak and then you do a 20 minute
meditation. Is this an app? It's on their website. So you have to do a download. Okay. I think they might
have an app too. I'm not sure, but I use it. I use Deepak the most because his voice is very grounding.
And I really am a huge proponent of looking at experts from a like a deep profound perspective. Like he's
written 80 books or something like that. Same way. Yeah. I just want to know like every little thing. Yeah.
I want all the details. And and you know, I there's so many people.
now that are crowding our space, that it is so tough to find the real deal ones. And here's how you
can really find them is show enough we're all friends and we all find each other. That's true.
It kind of rises up. Yeah. Cream, cream, girl. It's always going to rise. But not in your macha.
That's hot water. Yeah, I know. I need another tea, but we'll make one after this together. Yeah.
What's a small habit that you do every day that you think has made such a big difference in your life? And it
could be so small. You know, one of the biggest ones I think I've done is if I'm going to like gossip
or send somebody a picture or be like, this person, I catch myself and I say, this is so unnecessary.
It's going to waste like five to ten minutes of your day, maybe less, maybe more.
More if they catch up, more if they find out.
Well, if the friend goes, oh, I know. Blah, la, la, like, if they start texting that forth,
there's no point in gossiping or talking poorly about others. And I've really like learned to
not do that anymore. And a lot of people do ask, like, how are you superwoman? How do you do all the
media and content and writing that you do? It's probably because I don't waste any time. And people will be
like, Candace's fucking real deal. Like, this chick works. I don't expect anybody to do anything for me.
I am completely aware that if I want something done the right way, I will have to do it myself.
I love that. That's my mindset, too. I always say I wake up with like a thermometer of energy.
Gene. And that's all I have all day. And if I'm allocating any of that thermometer to anything that's
not propelling my mission forward, it's a waste of fucking time. Yeah. Hell yeah, it is. And if more people
could be aware of how precious your time is in this one life that you have, then maybe you would
start thinking about doing more of the things that feel really good that you really want to do that make a
difference and help others versus being self-serving and sort of just like a shallow, like surface-y,
person. Like there's a lot of depth to life that we have yet to research or go into because
we're so fucking self-consumed with like who's posting what on insta tomorrow or like who liked
your story or what guy, you know, I do that too. I do it all the time. I stopped scrolling through my
feed. I just stopped. I don't go on that part. I don't even scroll through. If I want to find someone and
like comment on their photo, I'll go search. I think scrolling, I was noticing that I was doing this.
I'm done with it.
Is that your life hack right now?
I've done it for two months.
I haven't looked at the feed.
Not once.
Don't even scroll through.
I just think it's counterproductive.
I agree.
I think it's important to know what's going on,
but I think if it becomes unhealthy,
like the first thing you're doing,
you wake up in the morning is checking Instagram.
When the first thing you do before you go to bed
is checking Instagram,
like that's probably not a good practice, right?
It's one thing to know and be aware what's going on,
especially if you're in that industry,
but it's another thing to be compulsive and obsessive
with something that's probably not so productive.
You know what else I did for time management?
This is another hack.
I'm sure you have one too.
I turned off my text message notifications.
So I allocate time probably like 15 minutes a day to go on my text messages and respond
to all of them at once.
And if Michael's car's on fire, he's going to have to call someone else.
My notifications are off.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Like, you think that if my car was on fire, like you'd be the phone call.
Like you'd like, oh shit.
I don't do.
I better get Lauren on the line.
I trained him well.
So what's next?
Eight books?
Is it eight?
Six.
Six.
Twelve.
Twelve.
Yeah.
Just five.
Five, twenty five.
A lot.
A lifetime.
I'm going to have to beat Deepak Shapra.
And somebody told me it was like,
Sahara Rose is a friend.
She,
I think she told me the other day he wrote like 80 books.
I'm like,
what the fuck?
Yeah.
That's like two books a year.
Yeah.
My God.
Six is a lot, though.
And this book is so beautiful, you guys.
I mean, honestly,
everything about it is just amazing.
I can't wait to put it on my coffee table.
So what's next?
All right. So there are a couple good things in the works, but I think it's all about recreating. I'd like to write more of a perfectly imperfect, more of a memoir so that women can really relate to the vulnerability of what it's been like leaving behind mainstream and what people want me to do and say and be and act and who to roll with and what to wear. I'm like, I'm not doing any of it anymore. You guys made me do that in my 20s. So it's about writing more about how to be a little small.
and tactful and getting more out of what you want in this one life.
I'm hoping to write that book all over the world.
So the book, Kinsiki Wellness has been picked up in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Greece, Poland,
the Netherlands, Portugal, and Brazil.
And so I'm planning on going to all those countries as well.
I'm saying that now, so I should really do it, start buying my tickets.
And I'd like to go on a tour and meet all those women, particularly the women.
in Saudi Arabia because I want them to know that like they have a voice and they have
freedom in a way.
And I think being a chick that's like been through it all and been mixed or I'm mixed and
I've also chosen to be single for a little while after that breakup, I think that the main
thing is to now is to go and tell women like it's cool.
You're good on your own and when the right person is meant to come into your life, they will
come.
And you are so good on your own.
So there's probably a lot of speaking and there's probably a lot of events, lots of travel,
new books, and new forms of media.
So like a lot of people are suggesting to go back and start a new video series, probably a travel
wellness one.
So there's a lot of development.
And then products, the Mata Beauty Powder, and maybe these cookies that I made you.
I cannot wait to try these.
Okay.
So I thought they looked like marijuana.
So tell me about these cookies.
Hell yeah, girl. You know I put a little in there. I was like I every time I come to Cali
So I'm like mom, I'm gonna call the the dealer now because it's legal and she's she's like no you are not going to call him and have him come to my house okay
And I'm like I'm pretty sure it's legal now. It's okay. No. George tennis is trying to get
The marijuana dealer to hear I am not going to allow it. So I haven't even been able to try anything legally since it's been legalized by
these macha banana chocolate chip cookies are so amazing.
Like, you'll actually think you are stoned when you're eating them.
They're vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free, but they're made with mashed banana.
Oh, my God.
Coconut oil, gluten-free flour, oats, dark chocolate chips, a little bit of salt, baking powder,
and you fold them all in together with a little bit of sugar and matcha powder.
And they are, I want you guys to try them like, too.
I'm going to try them after this.
They are.
I'm going to dive right in.
He's going to dive right.
It's just like your grandma waking you up.
6 a.m.
There you go.
Japanese women.
Bra and a full circle.
Yeah.
Well, you know, I'm trying to break that a little too and say you can utilize a lot of
that energy towards helping other people too.
You know, you don't have to do it.
I think you've done a great job.
Where can everyone, where can everyone find you?
Pimp yourself out.
Thanks, you guys.
So I'm on Instagram under Candice Kumai, C-A-N-D-I-C-U-M-A-I.
You can write to me in comments on, I love hearing about where people
want me to travel to next and what to write about next. I love like learning about what you guys
want to see more of and what you want to hear about. And I'm open to sharing. I'm at candace kumai.com,
C-A-N-D-I-C-U-M-A-I dot com. And also on Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest is on. And your book
is on Amazon. Yes, girl. And it is so juicy. And I hope people buy 20 copies each. Wouldn't that be great?
I don't ask for much.
Not at all.
It's $18 a piece.
You know 20 people.
It's a great investment.
Go on Amazon.
Look up K-Sug-S-U-G-I-W-N-Sug-E-I Wellness by Candice K-I-K-N-T-S-U-G-I-Wilness.
Really pretty.
Because that's who we are, right?
It is a reflection of your life.
And yeah, Kinski-E-W-N-N-N-N-N-S-Drops hot.
It's already out.
It's been out for two weeks.
And we're really trying to share this so that other people can feel.
the spiritual mind-body connection through the Japanese lens.
And I really think the book has helped so many people already.
And I hope it can help even more of you.
Thank you for coming on.
Thank you.
And then is for the match,
Cheers.
Oh, yeah.
It's time to do some match.
Guys, just a few things before you take off.
The giveaway winner of the Aubrey Marcus Five Beauty Product giveaway was
Yasmin Borono. So email me, you have my address, we'll talk, and I will send you those five beauty
products. If you want to win beauty products from this episode, all you have to do is let me know
your favorite part of the Candace Kumai podcast on my latest Instagram, and I'll announce the winner
next week. Also, do you want a short email from me? Tipsy Thursday is a quick email with lots of
value that includes five tips. My favorite song of the week, show book, wellness tip, random tricks,
and of course, lots of easy beauty hacks. It's super short.
straight to the point, kind of like a TSC appertief. To check it out, go to the
skinnyconfidential.com and click Lorne Everts and then subscribe. Drop your email in the box and you'll
get the next one. Lastly, as always, if you rate and review the podcast, please screenshot it and
email it to ask Lauren at the skinny confidential.com. And I will send you five of my secret
skin tips straight to your inbox. Thank you guys for your attention. We love you and we'll see you
next week. This episode was brought to you by ritual. So you guys,
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