The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - How To Stop Playing Small And Start Designing The Life Of Your Dreams Ft. Les Alfred Of The Balanced Black Girl Podcast)

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

#781: Join us as we sit down with Lestranudra Alfred – host of The Balanced Black Girl Podcast. For nearly a decade, Les has shared her evolving wellness journey online, inspiring others to build nourishing habits for their best lives. In this episode, Les gets real with embracing change, investing in personal appearance, & staying disciplined to elevate your life.   To connect with Lestranudra Alfred click HERE   To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE   To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE   Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE   To Watch the Show click HERE   For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM   To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697)   This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential   Head to the HIM & HER Show ShopMy page HERE to find all of Michael and Lauryn’s favorite products mentioned on their latest episodes.   Give the gift of an upgraded routine this Holiday Season! Shop our biggest sale of the year at ShopSkinnyConfidential.com.   This episode is sponsored by Squarespace   Head to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, go to squarespace.com/SKINNY to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.   This episode is sponsored by Just Thrive   For a limited time, save 20% sitewide at justhrivehealth.com with promo code SKINNY.   This episode is sponsored by JSHealth Vitamins   JSHealth Vitamins has generously increased our code to 25% through the end of the year. Visit jshealthvitamins.com/skinny and use code SKINNY to receive 25% off your order or first subscription order.   This episode is sponsored by Nurx   Go to nurx.com/SKINNY to get started.    This episode is sponsored by Taylor Farms   Taylor Farms Chopped Salad Kits are available at all major grocery stores.   This episode is sponsored by Cotton - The Fabric of Our Lives   Cotton is The Fabric of Now. Learn more at TheFabricOfOurLives.com.   Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Alert the press. 30% off everything. Everything on shopskinnyconfidential.com right now. It is our Black Friday Cyber Monday sale. We don't do sales a lot, but when we do, we blow it out of the water, okay? This sale goes through December 2nd. The sale ends at 11.59 p.m. CST on the 2nd. Go shop everything and anything you need for your Christmas gifts. I would recommend that you get the ice roller, the mint roller. I also would recommend that you get the facial massager if you don't have it. I use it every morning for fascia facial manipulation. These all make beautiful, gorgeous gifts. And I feel like it's just a good time for you to stock up. 30% off everything, kits and newness. Go shop for

everyone. The subscriptions for the first month will be discounted 30% off. And then after the first month, they go back to 15% off. Now's the time. Shop SkinnyConfidential.com for our Black Friday Cyber Monday sale. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial 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 think it's important to follow how you feel. Like I was exhausted every day and I wasn't like I couldn't do that and do my job. So I was going in search of energy to feel better. So understanding where you at right now and what's actually going to make you feel better.

Is it are you looking for energy like I was? Do you want to feel more confident in your body? Do you want to feel stronger? Do you have something going on with your health? Like, what is that why for you? And follow that. This show is really special because the person being featured actually has a picture of an event that she attended that me and Michael were speakers at like six years ago. And she took a picture in the audience. She event that she attended that me and Michael were speakers at like six years ago. And she took a picture in the audience. She said that she was hearing a speak about entrepreneurship. And now here she is six years later on the show, and we're featuring all her tips and tricks. I love the evolution. I love the entrepreneurship story in this. She is an award-winning podcast host. She also happens

to be in the Dear Media family. She's a speaker and a content creator. For nearly a decade, Les has created inspiring, approachable wellness content, leveraging her expertise as a personal trainer, nutrition coach, and certified yoga instructor. She is the host of Balance Black Girl, a chart-topping weekly podcast. The girls in the office and I were really excited to see this email thread of us planning to get Les on the show. With that, I hope you're all having an amazing Thanksgiving, eating lots of turkey and cranberry sauce and cornbread. Let's welcome Les Alfred to the show. This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her.

Les, we have you on the podcast. We've been wanting to do this for a long time. You're also on Dear Media. Thank you for making the trip. Thank you for making the trip. Give our audience a little background on you if they're unfamiliar. Oh, my goodness. Yes. Well, thank you so much for having me. I have to say I've been listening to the Him and Her show, I think, since y'all started it. Oh, wow. This has been exciting. So you've seen all different ways in the evolution. But you know, now... Just hear me. I would prefer you told me that at the end because now I'm going to be in my head

the whole time. I'm like, oh shit, what do I, you know? Oh gosh. It always messes me up a little bit when someone tells me they've heard what things I've said, some weird things on the show. Don't feel bad.

I mean, I don't even remember half of what I say on my show. So it's okay. Tell us your journey. How did you get here to what you're doing now? Yes. So right now I am a podcaster. I host a podcast called Balance Black Girl, which I do every week, but it has been a culmination of a super long wellness and kind of professional

journey that I've had over the years. So I feel like I've spent most of my adult life as a certified like wellness girly, gym girly. So I got interested in wellness when I was in college, which I feel so lucky that that was when I became interested in all of this. And it's just taken my career on such a windy path. Why did you get interested in wellness to begin with? So I was in my first corporate internship the summer between my junior and senior year of college, and I hated it. I was sitting at my desk every day, truly falling asleep. And I was like, okay, if this is going to be my career, I need to figure out some sort of way to generate energy. And at that time I'd never worked out, never eaten healthy. So I was like, okay, maybe if I go to the gym, I'll have a little bit of energy to stay awake throughout the day. Or maybe if I drink

water as opposed to like just champagne, which when I was like 20 was all I drank, maybe I'll feel a little bit better. And lo and behold, I did. It was a pretty easy fix. And so I noticed that as I started doing these things, I felt stronger. I felt more confident. And it was just like a snowball effect. And what were the things that you were doing? First things, I started working out regularly. And at the time, I had no idea how to work out. So I was just taking workout classes at the gym, just doing anything I could. Eating better. And I still wasn't eating that great. I mean, this was maybe like 2010. So I was eating like, I don't know, lean cuisines and like random stuff like that. But it was better than like the full college pizza diet that I'd had.

I was walking every day and I just started noticing these small incremental changes from just doing those things. And are you sharing this as this is going on or did you share after you got fit? I started sharing a few years later. So my senior year of college, I was really into wellness. After college, I was really into wellness and I started working full time in corporate, absolutely miserable. And I noticed that the only time of the day that I was remotely happy was when I was at the gym every day. So I became a personal trainer and I started training clients and also teaching fitness classes before and after work. And that was when people in my life started noticing and they were like, okay, wait, what are you doing? You seem so much stronger. You seem so much happier. You're actually like speaking and

becoming a confident person. And I started sharing online about it in 2014. That was when I started blogging. Don't you think lifting weights does give you a certain confidence? I feel so much more confident since I started lifting weights. It's weird. It's like a switch. It is. It teaches you how to believe in yourself is what I always tell people. It rewires your brain because if you can do something physically that you didn't think you could do before, it makes you think, okay, well, what else can I do? Yeah. I've said on this show multiple times, like if you're somebody that's anxious or feeling depressed or not feeling confident, just getting in the gym and starting to get fit is going to change so much of that. And, you know, I think

for the people that don't take, you know, those kinds of activities seriously, or don't do those things, it's kind of like, oh, easy for you to say. I found in my own life, like if I stopped doing those things, that's when I start to wallow. That's when I start to stress. That's when I start to get a little depressed. And like, I feel like if more people, like if even forget the vein reasons or the health reasons, just for the mindset alone, like if there's one message I could convey to someone, it's like, just get in the gym and do hard things. And so many things in your life will improve. 100%. What's wild to me is, is I wouldn't be able to do the things I do without the gym. And it's not even about it's not even about the way my body looks. It's like it sets the tone of the whole day. It clears your head. It really like sort of

kicks it off. It does. I mean, I think it teaches you how to be comfortable doing hard things. I think it increases your tolerance for discomfort, which I think is really hard for a lot of people want to be comfortable all the time and want everything to be easy. So starting your day with something that makes you be uncomfortable, forcing yourself to do hard things at the beginning sets you up to be able to do that all day. That is such a problem right now is everyone wants to be comfortable all the time. When I talk to people about ambition in our private life, sometimes I say what I'm about to say. And it's like, you can see the moment in their face when they realize like many of them think this way. So a lot of people's goal in life is to get to a place where they're so comfortable that they

don't have to do anything else. So let me elaborate. A lot of people want to work and have success so that one day they can afford to pay all of their bills and pay off their mortgage and pay off their house so that they can just stay in that same place and be comfortable. There's nothing wrong with that. But if that's your goal is just you want to be comfortable all the time so you can stay in the same place, it's really hard to grow. That's what I tell people. The shift should change to be like, you should always be a little bit uncomfortable and you should make peace with the fact that in life you're always going to be a little uncomfortable because that's what's going to keep pushing you forward. Where if like the only goal in life is just to stay in the same place and be comfortable in the

same place, you're just going to stop growing. And I think that's when people start to get complacent and a little upset and maybe not so happy with the results they're having in their life. I feel like you have to go out of your way to seek discomfort though. You do. So whether it's going on a really long walk while you're on the phone or getting into a cold plunge or doing a really hot sauna or going to the gym and lifting really heavy weights, you do actively have to seek it out. And if you're not seeking it out, it's probably not going to come to you a lot. Putting your phone away, even deleting your Instagram app, like just getting off social media and picking up a book. It's something you have to seek out. It is, especially those moments

when you don't want to. That's when you have to the most. You went viral on your Instagram for reframing what exercise means to you. Yeah. Talk to us about that. For sure. I mean, I like to think of exercise as like a daily deposit in becoming the person that I want to be. All of my habits, I think of them as daily deposits. If my life were a bank account and I'm adding to it, my habits, my workouts, my journaling, whatever it is, are all deposits to become that. And I had to have kind of a come to Jesus moment with myself a few years ago when I felt kind of stagnant. I wasn't really reaching goals or getting where I wanted to be. I realized that I was staying so deep in my comfort zone that the version of myself that I needed to be to get there, her comfort zone was a lot higher. Like her threshold for what she could tolerate was higher. So I had to start

reframing it of like, okay, I'm doing these things to increase that threshold of what I can take so I can get where I want to be. What's an example of like what your comfort zone was when you think back? I think a lot of it was fear of being seen like with podcasting for a really long time on my podcast artwork. I didn't have my photo on it. It was like a graphic. I didn't do like solo episodes. I only did interviews because I was just like afraid of having opinions, afraid of people seeing who I was or knowing who I was. And I was like, well, if I'm going to be successful at this, people have to know who I am. They have to see me. They have to feel like they're getting to know me. It makes sense. I was reading a Naval Ravikant. Is that how you say his last name? Yep. Quote. And he's like, authenticity beats competition. You kind of have to put yourself out there. When you decided to start putting your face on your

artwork and getting on your podcast and saying opinions what happened oh it grew a ton i started podcasting in 2018 and early yeah it was pretty early and in 2021 i shifted a few things i started doing more solo episodes talking directly to the audience i got new artwork with a photo of me on it and like immediately immediately downloads took off, show started growing. People just felt more connected to the message because they felt more connected to me. We were talking before the show started about talking about the difference between 20s and 30s and the things that you've learned, maybe even what we've learned. What were some of like looking back and I know you've touched on this topic. What were some of the bigger changes

that you've noticed have had positive impact? In my 20s, I was the most risk averse person. I spent so much time in jobs and relationships and environments, again, that felt really comfortable, that I felt like it was really steady. I knew what I was going to get, but I was absolutely miserable. But the idea of leaving it felt really scary because I thought, well, I could be happier, but I don't know if I will versus if I stay in this, I know exactly how it feels, even if I hate it. And in my 30s, probably the biggest change I've made is being willing to step into things that are unknown. And I used to feel like, OK, if I don't know if this is going to work out perfectly, I can't do it.

Versus now that I'm older, I'm like, I don't know if it's going to work out perfectly, but I trust myself enough to know that I'll figure it out, even if it doesn't work out. Well, the crazy thing is, it's funny now being married, having kids, having responsibilities, like I look back on my twenties, I'm like, man, we should have taken even more risks. If young people don't realize that you don't have any real responsibilities in your twenties, other than taking care of your own bills, like, but you know, worst case scenario, you move in with a couple of roommates or back with mom and dad, if you're lucky enough, or like, you know, you can one bedroom or small studio, like you can do those things when you have later in life, when you have a wife and kids and family and company, whatever, you can't do all

that. So I always say to young people, like the more risky things you can do, the younger, the better, because you're going to be like, I am now more risk averse as I've gotten older. Does that make sense? Definitely. I think too, there's this, something that I've noticed as I've gotten older. Does that make sense? Definitely. I think too, there's something that I've noticed as I've gotten older is people are addicted to certainty. Yes. And it's really interesting to watch. If you look at a thread, all the people that we've interviewed, there is people love certainty. But if you really look at it, do you really want your life to be exactly what you think it will be? I mean, I want my life to exceed my expectations and be interesting and uncertain. And I think that you're right in your 20s, you're like obsessed with knowing what's going to happen. You want control over that.

What are some other things that you've seen be such differences? I think moving was a really big one. So I'm from Seattle. That's where I lived the first 30 years of my life. I'd never really left my hometown before. And I was miserable there. And it's a beautiful place. It's like a great place. Weather's a little tough. Weather is really tough. Weather is woo! Yeah. A little dreary at times. A little dreary. It does a number on the mental health. But I knew from a pretty young age that I felt really dissatisfied there, that it didn't feel like a place I could grow. And I just stayed because I knew what to expect. And I moved to L.A. at 30. And even just that act of moving to a different city, even though I didn't ultimately stay in L.A., did wonders because it forced me again out of that comfort zone to do different things and to

Grow up a bit. Are you specific about the way you wake up and go to bed every single day hyper specific? Get into it. This is the podcast Michael Yeah, Lynn. Yes. Okay, so I would say my mornings are probably my most sacred time I got super into morning routines pretty early on. Honestly, when I was probably like middle school, I was waking up at like five in the morning just to have my quiet time before school. And so I've always just really loved a really sacred morning. So for me these days, what my morning looks like, wake up, first thing I immediately have to do is put on workout clothes because that's half the battle. So if I put on workout clothes immediately,

as soon as my feet touch the ground, then I know that I will get a workout in. Then I do kind of the typical things, the tongue scrape, the water, the vitamins. I will spend a bit of time reading. I always have two books going at a time. I'm always reading a nonfiction book for like learning in the morning and then fiction at night. What are you reading right now? In the morning for my nonfiction, I'm reading a book called For the Culture by Marcus Collins. It's all about brand building and how we build brands around culture.

It's really interesting. And then my fiction book, it's called Yellow Face. I forget the author's name, wild book. That book is a little out of my genre. Why, what's the genre? It is like, normally I'm a romance girl. I love a good like romance, happy ending. This book is like, I don't even know, it's wild. I mean, read it. It's different. It's really interesting. It's kind of a thriller, but different.

So in the mornings I'll read, I will meditate, I will do a bit of journaling, and I have a form of journaling called best case scenario journaling that I like to do each morning. Tell us about that. So it's where I will write out either how I want the day to go, assuming all best case scenarios, or if there's something that I'm worried about that's stressing me out, that's on my mind, I will write out what I think the best case scenario of that situation is. And that's an example. So like, let's say I have a day where I'm doing a bunch of back to back podcast recordings and maybe I feel nervous about it. I will write out in detail exactly how I want it to go. Like, me and this guest vibe so well. I get them to admit things they've never admitted on air before.

The audience loves this episode. Like, I will write out what I want all of the outcomes to be for the day ahead. And it just kind of, I think, rewires my brain to look more for the positive in things, because I think we tend to always be prepared for the worst- case scenario, which is fine. Like, yes, be prepared, but also like be prepared for the good things too. Cause most of the time you have a 50, 50 shot of things working out and we never look at that. Isn't it funny how when you first, when you open your eyes, your brain immediately wants to go to what's wrong. Exactly. It's like you really do have to train your brain. So go on with your morning. Yeah. So I'll do my best case scenario journaling. I recently, I know you've been on this for a while,

Lauren. I recently got an acupressure mat. I don't know what took me so long. They're good. But I love it. So now I will lay on that and I'll do my morning meditation for like 10 minutes. Amazing. And then I'll head to the gym. I use the acupressure mat upstairs. If you have kids, they step on it and they're like, every single time my kids step on it, they like they are like, I'm trying to like hurt them. They think it's a shock to the system. Yeah, the pillow is also good, too. You know what, though? I got to be honest.

I get listen. I love looking for the possibility. And I think you have to. And I love what you're doing because you have to you have to be able to envision, you know, something that's not, or that you don't believe is possible and see that it is possible. But I also, like Lauren gets so flustered about like, don't get on your phone in the morning and don't look for the negative. Sometimes I like to look for the negative because when I look at the negative, I can just say, okay, if the negative happens, this is like what I will do to get out of it. And I think a lot of people, they fear the negative so much that they never look at it.

And then when it happens, they're shocked. It's like the same people, they never check their bank accounts or never look at their credit cards because they're scared of what they're going to see. And I think sometimes when you face the bad stuff and you're like, okay, that's the worst thing that can happen. Then it also opens up the other possibilities of looking for the good things in those bad things. Does that make sense? It does. Yeah. I think a big part of that is learning how to trust yourself. And I think that's why a lot of people get afraid to look at the hard stuff because they just feel like they don't know what to do. Versus if you look at the hard stuff, that's when you can make a plan to make it better or to solve the problem. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace.

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gift of health this year and kickstart your new year and routine early with Just Thrive. For a limited time, you can save 20% off site-wide at justthrivehealth.com with promo code SKINNY. Cheers to a healthy, happy holiday season from Just Thrive. Every single night, and I'm talking every night when I get into bed, I do a couple things. I have my red light on. I have my Kindle charged and ready to go. I have my mouth tape and I have my magnesium blend water. The one that I like tastes like raspberry lemonade. It's so delicious. And there's three different forms of bioavailable magnesium. Everything is designed to support the nervous system and support muscle relaxation. I swear,

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forms of bioavailable magnesium. It matters. This really makes a big difference, especially when you're trying to go to sleep. JS Health Vitamins has generously increased our code to 25% through the end of the year. Visit jshealthvitamins.com slash skinny and use code skinny to receive 25% off your order or first subscription. That's jshealthvitamins.com slash skinny. I was just working with a friend of mine who I'm helping him with some personal finance stuff and I was like, the first part of this is we're going to look at everything, all the debt, all the spending, we're going to get really honest. And it was like debilitating for him. And I was like, well, until you like face all of this, I can't help you because

like, you know, there's an issue there and you know, it's not productive and you know, it's stressful, but until we fully face it and understand it, there's no way to work from, there's no, there's no place to work from, you know what I mean? And so when he did that now, he's like, there's a plan, a full plan in place, not to mention a full behavioral change of like things you spend and don't spend. But I just noticed like sometimes people stay in a place of despair because they'd rather not face the thing and they just want to think like positively. Whenever someone tells me like, oh, I just think positively, you can't, it's like me running a company when something's going into the ground. I'm like, well, we're just all going to think positive. It's like, that's part

of it. But you also have to face the problem. You do. You have to, you have to, I think it's about being solutions oriented, right? And you can't have a solution without understanding the problem. Even with your finance example, I had a really similar experience where I had a lot of student loans coming out of undergrad and I paid them all off. And people asked me like, oh, did you have a really detailed debt repay off plan? What was your plan? I was like, I had no plan. I was just checking my accounts constantly. Any extra money I had constantly went towards debt for years until it was gone. Like it wasn't a detailed thing. It was creating solutions to that problem.

You spoke a lot about that. What was the response like? It was a mixed response. I mean, I think a lot of people felt really encouraged because they felt like if I could do that, then they could do it it too which is ultimately why i wanted to share that story i think also it triggered some people at the time i was dating this guy and he was actually kind of a dick about it i mean that's why we're no longer dating because he was such a hater because he was jealous that you paid off your debt yeah because he still had a lot and he wasn't doing the thing something next time you need to dm me any that's jealous. She got rid of him. Yeah. We're not dating anymore.

That is not okay. Such a hater. He's jealous of you that you paid your debt off. He should be like so happy for you. He should be popping the champagne, getting the caviar ready. Yeah. But there's two kinds of people. There's people that look at something that someone's doing that's positive and say,

Hey, I want to do that too. And then there's the other people that it's a reflection on themselves. And they say, well, easy for you. Or like, that's not for me. And you know there's the other people that it's a reflection on themselves. And they say, well, easy for you. Or like, that's not for me. And, you know, they get defeated by it.

I think like you get it to like, fortunately, you get to decide which kind of person you want to be. You know what I mean? Did you kick him to the curb after that? I did. So it was like you saw the red flag. He's been to the curb. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Because guess what? I feel like that's telling you for the future when you continue to succeed, which you obviously are just going to continue to achieve. You're an achiever. I can tell he's going to be jealous because he's projecting his insecurity onto you. Oh, yeah. And I think that's a problem for a lot of girls. Like their biggest op is the guy.

Is that what you're seeing when you talk to women? I've definitely seen it quite a bit. Yeah. Where like the guys that they're with are not celebrating their accomplishments with them or anytime they have a big moment somehow magically someone steps in and like ruins it in some way it's messed up that's interesting that you say that we just had the stallone sisters on the podcast and they were saying some similar things that it's it's slim pickings out there indeed i've experienced it's interesting for me to talk to the women in this company and that come on this show, because obviously I'm surrounded by a lot of you women. Right. And a lot of you are obviously accomplished, which is why we're all working together. Yeah. And this is like a common theme that comes. I think what it is, is

for men that see women having the success that you guys have at a large scale, if they're not on that same level, it is, it's a bit of a dynamic switch. And especially if you guys have at a large scale, if they're not on that same level, it's a bit of a dynamic switch. And especially if you grew up in a more, I know this is not proper anymore, just a traditional household, whether the father was the breadwinner and the mother was maybe not.

I think a lot of men have a challenge with that dynamic. Right? It's like, they just haven't made the switch in their head that really like, if it was me, I would say like, I would love to sit back and just kind of like kick my feet up and Lauren can just take care of everything,

you know? Really? Yeah. I mean, they can't do that, but it's like, I'm like, cool, like better for me, but I can see a lot of guys, like they don't like, maybe it's like an affront on their masculinity or something. Yeah. And I like use that as motivation. I'm like, why isn't that not motivating you to do better then if you feel a way about it? I feel like since that you have made an intentional effort to get that out of your way, you won't attract that in the future. Does that make sense? Agreed. Well, now I know what to look for, too. I know what the signs are.

I believe that this is maybe like woo-woo, but you're vibrating at a certain frequency now because you know that, that you won't even let that into your ether. But listen, I'm just a finance nerd. I think man, woman, child, whatever,

like anyone that's mad about you paying off your debt, that's immediate red flag. I think it's nice to have two people pushing the boulder up the hill. If I'm, if it's gets nice for me, I have to keep pushing it up. Keep pushing it up. Even if I'm a billionaire, I'd still like you to do some work. I have to keep pushing alongside. Push it up. Keep pushing it up. Even if I'm a billionaire, I'd still like you to do some work.

I get it. Work can come in different aspects, if you know what I mean. I'm not like, oh, I'll go change all the diapers. You don't have to do anything. Maybe you can put one of those big backpacks on your back and I can sit in. You can carry me around. No, no, no. I need you to put some elbow grease into it.

I already used my legs even. You just carry me everywhere. What are some wellness hacks that you have seen because you are so on the pulse with wellness that you think are going to be huge? Okay, so we all obviously know that everybody's about protein right now. And I know you've talked a lot about this,

which love all about the protein. A little Keon chocolate protein in here. Yes, love some Keon. I'm usually sipping on it when I work out. I do think that next fiber is going to have a similar moment the way protein is work out. I do think that next fiber is going to have a similar moment the way protein is right now. And I think it's kind of starting, which also if people are eating this much protein, like they need some fiber in their lives for like a

healthy gut. But I do think like 2025 fiber is going to have the moment that protein is having right now. Maybe you need to make your own fiber powder. That's the first person that's come on the podcast in a while and talked about fiber. Yeah. Because fiber makes the protein evacuate. Yeah, it does. I mean, we need it for digestion. Yeah. It's important. I think like the big thing is like, if you're not having, you know, we're just talking like proper bowel movements. That's an indication right away. How are your bowel movements? Great. Easy. Perfect. Clean. I don't want to know. I've never ever ever in my entire life

seen anything and I've known him since I was 12 years old. People think it's so crazy. He's never like we don't share that part. I mean there could be some things that you keep

like yeah I'm not like to be honest I don't get these and listen this is going to trigger some couples. I don't really get these couples that want to like take shits in front of each other.

Like that doesn't seem very sexy to me i have a friend that just leaves the door open and they talk the whole time by the way that if that works for you whatever yeah no but it does it's nice to have like a little privacy is it really working for you do you like you do that and then you're like let's i'll see you tonight in the bedroom honey like i don't know maybe with all this fiber that you say is gonna be happening maybe you may not have a choice immature i want to pretend that never happens so i don't want want to think about it. Yeah. I will say even more specifically about fiber though. And I've started to see this pick up. I also think the girls are going to get very into eating kiwis a lot. Like I've also been doing this too, like a kiwi a day, I think is going to like replace a

lot of people's gut health supplements. That's my next prediction. He does eat kiwis. Really? Yeah. Kiwis are one of the best sources of vitamins. You know what though? You were eating it every day and I've noticed a lull in the kiwi. And today I noticed that you had gained a couple LBs. So I'm going to correlate that with the fact that you're bloated and you need some kiwis. A little bit of a kiwi gut thing going on. Talk to us about investing time, money, and energy into becoming a better version of yourself.

Oh my gosh, yes. This has been my favorite topic. Please. Because I've, I mean, I always have some sort of like theme of my year. In 2021 slash 2022, that was when I was investing really heavily into like fixing my finances, being ready to do content full time. So that was when I paid off my student loans, up my savings, all that. 2023 was when I invested more in my business and in my content itself.

And then for 2024, I said, OK, this year I'm going to invest in myself and start like really putting more into myself after I was so frugal and like worked so hard for so long. So for me, it's just been more of like becoming the version of myself that I feel like I've always been. Like I've always done so much work on the inside, whether that's like working out, therapy, journaling, all those things. And I felt like the outside wasn't really matching what was going on on the inside. Like I was neglecting my looks and like not doing the things. It's hard to believe that because you show up today, you look so beautiful, your skin's glowing, your hair is long and luscious. What do you mean? I mean, I feel like I just, I kind of ignored my outsides. Like I was living in workout clothes. I was super kind of frumpy for a long time. So when you say like, did you invest in like a new wardrobe?

Yeah. Like up to my style. And it was not even necessarily that I've like bought a lot of new clothes, but I've actually practiced like understanding my style, understanding my body type, putting time into actually putting myself together every day instead of just living in workout clothes 24-7, learning how to do my hair, taking better care of my skin, getting Invisalign to like straighten my teeth. You have a beautiful smile. Thank you. It's one of the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen. Oh my God. I'm very picky about this. Look at how pretty her smile is. It's so wide. It's so white. It's beautiful. Thank you. Again, appearance is important. It is.

It's a reflection of yourself. It's a reflection of like, do you take yourself seriously? Are you? There was this revolt in the office one time because I came in. I said, no, no sweat outfits in the office. I don't need a bunch of men and women lounging around my office in sweatsuits. Like I was like, no, I don't. And people got upset about it. I don't want people to walk men and women lounging around my office in sweatsuits. I was like, no. And people got upset about it.

I don't want people to walk into this office, any Jeremy office, and see a bunch of people slopping around in sweat outfits. Call me, I don't know, vain, but that's just not, I don't want to do it. I want people to think, okay, there's been some thought put into the way that we present ourselves and that there's a high standard that we hold ourselves to. And I think business or in dating or in personal life, it's like when you see somebody that is like, you know, it doesn't have to be super expensive, but when they put themselves together, it reflects something, right? It says something. And I think it's important. And, you know, one of my biggest problems, I go through the airports these days with Lauren, I'm like,

why does everyone look like shit? Like, why can't people get dressed up anymore? Like I say it all the time. You go to Vegas, like, why is nobody in a jacket? I think it's important to present yourself well, right? It just is. People can get mad about that. But you have people like me walking around making decisions. Be like, nope, wouldn't do something with that. They're in a sweatsuit. No way.

It's just the truth. It is the truth. And I think we live in a visual... A lot of people are very visual in a lot of ways. That's how they make business decisions. That's how they determine how they're going to take people seriously or not. And people don't have to do anything. If people still want to dress how they want to dress, present how they want to present, they can, but just understand what some of the repercussions of that may be and move accordingly. And I realized that not putting effort into my appearance was hindering me in a lot of ways. Well, look at it. I mean, like even from an employer standpoint, like,

I don't even know if this is HR compliant. I honestly don't care. If somebody showed up to a job interview with me and they were in like some sweat outfit and then put themselves together, I wouldn't even think about what they were saying. I just couldn't, couldn't get past that point. Like, I wouldn't even be like, what are the qualifications? What are the, like, what is it? What do you have to, I wouldn't even get past the visual part of it i would say i am lost in what this presentation is it's not up to the standard you're not hired well it can communicate i wouldn't say like that but i just that's what my brain would do yeah well that's because it can communicate things about like okay well how detail-oriented are they or if they're not willing to put effort into themselves are they going to

put effort into this job are they you know it's a lot i had to have hard conversations with myself about it to like motivate myself. No, I was with this guy, one of my friends the other day and he was going to go on this date with this girl and he showed up

and he was like in like a, just no effort. And I was like, this is not going to go well for you, man. Like this girl is going to look at you and say you put no effort into, like I would imagine a woman wants to say like,

hey, this guy really like put some effort into the appearance because he wants to wow me. Like that shows. It's attractive. You can't be doing pig pen yeah you can't be showing up like hey i don't really give a fucking like let's see what happens like that's not exciting i like the self-awareness though that you have and i mean today you look amazing thank you i feel everyone needs to go watch the youtube and again it doesn't have to be some expensive it just has to indicate that you're trying does that that make sense? Yeah. And that was even, so in September I did a challenge with myself where I challenged myself

to get dressed for 30 days, only wearing workout clothes when I'm working out. And I didn't spend a whole bunch of money on new clothes. I use clothes that I already had, but I just took the time each morning to put things together and make different combinations of things. Like my audience really loved it. It inspired a lot of people to get dressed. I didn't have to spend any money. I just had to try. But you know, like a common question on this podcast for years has been like, where does confidence come from?

And there's a million answers to that. But I feel personally, when you put that kind of effort into just getting prepared and getting ready in the morning, like it automatically ups the confidence by a few points. Just the fact that you've like kind of got yourself, you know what I mean? Like when you walk in, you're like, okay, I've put in the effort and then you're like, I'm feeling myself. I look good. Like it automatically kind of puts you in a mindset where it's like, okay, I'm a little bit more confident today than I was before. Adam, all of the DMs you get and questions you get from your audience, what is

the most common? I would say probably the most common DM is how do I maintain my hair while working out? Oh, I don't wash my hair. Do you? Not super often. Yeah. No. You can tell you don't wash your hair. Because if you have thick, like, yeah, voluminous hair.

Yeah. No one wants to hear it, though. I know. They just want to tell what's the code. What's your code? I have a code. I know. Well, OK, so for me, I'm all about always wearing a headband when I work out to wick

up any sweat. I use a lot of dry shampoo and I just sometimes I just let it frizz. I mean, I'm not going to let like not wanting to mess up my hair be the reason why I don't work out. I think it just adds more volume and I let it. Also, when you're lifting weights and maybe everyone else is different but I feel when I'm lifting weights you're not like in a Barry's boot camp dripping sweat it's not the same kind of situation right so it's not like I leave the workout like with

sweat all over my hair I am not a big fan of washing hair at all but don't you feel like also when you you don't wash your hair I do but not not much but as you change your diet and you get more collagen in your diet and you you your hair starts to just get better a lot of people have been neglecting that they they focus so much on like the product and this and the treatment but it's like the diet is a huge part of it it is what is your diet My diet? It's kind of like all things in moderation, honestly. I mean, I try to have some sort of like protein and fiber with every meal is usually like my goal, but I don't really restrict a lot. I try not to overdo it on sugar because it just makes me tired and I don't have time to be tired. But yeah, that's about it.

And how do you run your day? What are your tips and tricks for running your schedule, your calendar? Is there a method to your madness to time batch? I do. So I have different days of the week where I focus on different things. So like Mondays are podcast days. That's when I'm working on ads. That's when I'm doing research. That's when I'm recording. Don't talk to me about anything related to podcasts if it's not a Monday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays, those are usually either my social media days, my community management days, or like days where I'm working on projects. And then Fridays are admin and like personal time. So that's how I always structure my week. For the day to day, I'm a big planner girly. And I'm also a big calendar girl. So like everything

goes in the planner, everything goes in the calendar with full details of where I need to be and when. If it's not in either of those places, it is not happening. How did you get so organized with this? Was there a book or a tool that you've used? Have you always been like this? No, I mean, I think it's kind of the opposite. Like I'm not naturally. And so I think I had to develop a lot of mechanisms to keep myself on track. And I also think I've always been kind of like a self-motivated person. Like I was never really a kid that my parents had to tell me to do my homework or how to do this or how to do that.

But I always knew that I really wanted to be successful and that being left up to my own devices wasn't going to work. And so a lot of it was just trial and error and like learning how to keep myself on track. You're very self-aware. Not everyone has that quality. Yeah. I mean, you very are self- yourself throughout the whole conversation. Thank you. What is something that you would tell someone who's listening who doesn't know where to start when it comes to wellness? Yeah. I mean, I think I think it's

important to follow how you feel. Like, as I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, when I talked about what started my wellness journey, it was like I was exhausted every day and I wasn't like i couldn't do that and do my job so i was going in search of energy to feel better so understanding where you at right now and what's actually going to make you feel better is it are you looking for energy like i was do you want to feel more confident in your body do you want to feel stronger do you have something going on with your health like what is that why for you? And follow that. Let me tell you about our new sponsor, Nurex. I have a hack for you, okay?

Enter Nurex. It's a digital healthcare platform that makes it easy to get the expert healthcare you deserve at every step of your journey. This is so amazing, okay? It's essentially providing treatment and care that's personalized to you. So through all your life's changes and transitions, so think birth control, anti-aging prescription skincare, treatment for common medical health concerns, everything is tailored to your unique health and history goals. What I think that's so amazing is they give you access to licensed medical providers. This is so cool. And they've served more than 1.6 million birth control patients in the United States. I'm a fan of anything, as you guys know, that saves me time. I like effortless and efficient. I like convenient. I like private and I like compassionate. And this brand is hitting everything. They provide reliable,

reproductive and sexual health care. This would have been so amazing for me. I remember being like 16 and going to Planned Parenthood and feeling just, I don't know, just like I didn't know what to do. I felt kind of out of my depths, if I'm being honest. Everything's delivered discreetly to your door, so no trips to the pharmacy. This is truly life-changing. Thanks to Nurex for sponsoring the show. Taking control of your reproductive health starts here. Go to Nurex.com slash skinny to get started. That's N-U-R-X dot com slash skinny. Results may vary. Not offered in every state. Medications prescribed only if clinically appropriate. Consultation required. You know I like my bowl of meat. I

enjoy my bowl of meat every single day. It's truly become like a staple in my life. I make all different kinds of bowls of meat. I do a hamburger bowl. I do kind of like a fiesta bowl. I do sometimes just like a honey and meat and raw cheese bowl, all kinds of different bowls. And lately I've been adding a little bit of green to my bowls. And how I've been doing that is with the freshest, best tasting salad to eat at home or on the go kits. They're by Taylor Farm Chopped Salad Kits. Okay, so these salads are pre-washed, pre-cut, and ready to enjoy. They did all the work for you, which is amazing. Taylor Farm Salads makes healthy eating easy and delicious. I agree. So what I like to do is I like to take one of their kits. I like to mix it up. They have like a chopped salad kit. You can pick

your favorite. And then I like to put it at the bottom of the bowl, put the meat on top, and then I'll add, I don't know, tomatoes, maybe chopped red onions, sometimes jalapeno, sometimes a special sauce. And I'll just make a really beautiful bowl. And I like to use organs in my bowl. I know that sounds crazy to some people, but it's like an ancestral blend. So I have my ground beef with my liver. It's so good. And I'm telling you, these chopped salad kits just make it super fresh and delicious and give it a crunch. So if you're looking for a way to take your bowl of meat to the next level, you got to check these out. Maybe you want to add some garbanzo beans or chopped red onion or even some salami on your salad with some cheese. You could just make like a plain bowl like that. There's so many things you can do with these salad kits, but they're

delicious and super fresh. Taylor Farms chopped salad kits are available at all major grocery stores. This episode is sponsored by cotton, the fabric of our lives. I personally am such a big cotton fan. It's soft, it's durable, it's buttery, it's quality. And when I'm choosing pajamas for my kids, I'm always choosing cotton. I will literally search 100% cotton pajamas. I just did a holiday haul where I got some Halloween pajamas, Thanksgiving pajamas, Christmas pajamas, and everything I chose was 100% cotton. And it's because it lays so nicely on their skin. It's comfortable. And I just know its quality. It is basically the only t-shirts that I wear are all 100% cotton. I think the only material

you should be wearing when it comes to underwear is cotton. Enough about your underwear, Michael. Let's talk about what I'm doing for the holidays to prioritize my wellness. I am obviously wearing cotton, cold plunge sunning, getting my morning sunlight, meditating, lots of daily walks, and lifting weights. I think during the holidays, it's such a good time to really think about all the different things that you want to do new in the next year or continue into the next year. And one of those things for me will definitely be wearing cotton. I know my kids have tons of cotton. Michael has cotton and we're actually wearing it right now. It's just an all around great material. If you're doing any holiday shopping, make sure you're always shopping 100% cotton. That's what

you want to choose, especially if you have kids. I know when I shop for Michael's t-shirts, he's a medium. If anyone wants to know that he likes 100% cotton. Another way to implement cotton into your routine is through sheets. So if you want to get all cotton sheets or cotton pillows, it's so amazing. And to just know it's 100% cotton is such a wellness hack. Like I said earlier, it's going to hold its shape. It's going to hold its form. It's going to last a really long time. So it's a good investment.

The other day, I opened the drawer and found that Michael had about 45,000 different cotton shirts. I like color variation. All different colors. He truly has the whole rainbow. We're both cotton fans. Cotton is the fabric of now. Learn more at thefabricofourlives.com. That's thefabricofourlives.com. How long was it until you transitioned from your job to full-time creator? Oh, it was a long time. It was about almost 10 years. And were you working and creating on the side? I was. Yeah. I started creating content in 2014 and I went full-time in 2023. It was a long time. Yeah, that's a long time. But the reason I ask is I think people will look at where you're at and

hear some of the things you're talking about, like paying off your loans and being able to self-sustain your own business and your own brand. And I think people that look at where you're at and hear some of the things you're talking about, like paying off your loans and being able to self-sustain your own business and your own brand. And it's like, and you know, I think people that listen to our show and jump in, it's never like this overnight thing. And that's why I wanted you to talk about it. So when you, early days, what did it look like when you were managing, you know, a full-time job and doing this? Like what was the hours? Yeah, it was rough. It was where I was really grateful for my morning habits. But what I used to do is I used to create a work day for myself, for my content in the business before I would go to work each day.

So I would like wake up super early in the morning, do my morning routine, like work out, and then I would get home by around 7 a.m. And I would work on my stuff from, let's say, like 7 to 9 before working at 9. I was also really grateful to work remotely, so I didn't necessarily have a commute at that time. So it was doing a lot of that in the mornings because I felt like I wanted to dedicate my energy to my business and what I really cared about before, like my employer. It was just a mental thing for me. Like my stuff comes first and I was willing to, yeah, like wake up early to do it as well as just a lot of nights,

a lot of weekends, not a lot of social time. No, I think a lot of people don't talk about the sacrifices that come in the beginning. There's not birthday parties all the time and Friday nights out and late nights. It's like you really have to sacrifice things. And whether that's friendships, whatever it is, there comes with a lot of sacrifice. I mean, even doing this show now, I mean, we're doing it close to a decade and somebody came on the show the other day

and was like, oh, like some people say you're not relatable. And I was like, well, maybe people that are here now a decade later, but they forget like when Lauren first started, she was teaching pure bar and going to school and bartending and then doing the blog on the side. And even when we started this show, we were both working completely different companies

and jobs and commuting back and forth from San Diego to LA and basically doing this show some cases myself and like they aspire, but they forget that there's all of this messy part in the beginning when you're just struggling and nobody's paying attention and nobody's listening or watching. And there's work that's taking place on the weekends and after hours and after other jobs, because you're trying to support yourself with other things. And I just think it's important because like what I don't want is for people to tune in and get overwhelmed and be like, I could never that I want people to say like okay these are the things I need to do if I want to do that and recognize that it's not easy yeah yeah and I think sometimes people get a little too hung up on this idea of relatability or what they define as relatable

when I think someone is relatable I think they're relatable because of their personality because of who they are no two people have the exact same lived circumstance. So I can't look at anybody and say, oh, I can fully relate to every part of their day because they're living a different life. And so if that's what we're looking for, we're not going to relate to anybody. Right. All right. And people who are trying to be relatable is not relatable.

Yeah. It's also often like really inauthentic because they're trying too hard to be something they're not. And it's weird. I was with a reporter this weekend and she was asking me this question. And I was like, listen, the only responsibility that I feel as somebody who does this kind of thing publicly is to authentically tell my truth. And to say it how I see it and how I feel it. And people are going to take from that what they want. But this whole idea that I have to like curate an experience to make somebody else that's either listening or watching comfortable is very strange to me. Like, I just

want to tell you what I'm doing, what I'm not doing, what's working, what's not working, what I believe, what I don't believe. I think people are smart enough to then come to their own conclusions and make their own judgment. But the idea that I have to kind of like weave in and out and make sure that everybody's personality jives with mine and that everybody's comfortable and happy with everything I say is absolutely insane to me. And I said it to her like that. I'm like, that's the only responsibility I feel as somebody with a platform. I think a lot of it's age related, too, because I think in the earlier days of social media, it was kind of only people like our age on social media versus now there's multiple generations. So you'll have people who are in their teens or early twenties comparing themselves to like people our age. And it's like, well, I've had a decade of adulthood on you to figure certain things out. So if you haven't done what I've done yet, it's okay. If you're 22 and

you haven't done that yet, like you have time. A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, I think about this all the time. In the early days of social, it was like kind of like your best life all the time, but like everybody was kind of doing the same thing. And then somewhere along the line, it's like, well, now we got to show like every aspect of life. And I think now there's even a pullback to say like, how much do I want to show of my life? There's like this whole big shift going on. But I imagine that is very confusing to younger generations who have always grown up with this. Like where we were lucky enough, we were the same age. This didn't exist when we were coming up. So you kind of got to form your perspective and your ideas just in the world that was around you. Now it's confusing because everybody has to like watch

all these things and you can't tell like, why is somebody so far ahead? There's no context of how they got there. I think you have to be intentional about what you share. You have to really be thoughtful nowadays of what you share. For me, it goes through a funnel. I'm not going to show my child being potty trained or their first steps. I'm not going to pull out my camera and show that to a bunch of people that don't know my kids. It just feels invasive. And whatever your thing is, it doesn't have to be my thing. I think that having a funnel of what your content sort of goes through is important. I don't think everyone needs to see every single facet of it.

For sure. Yeah. With social media, I like to think about going deep, but not wide. So like there are certain things that I'm willing to talk about wellness. I'll talk about all day long and I'll go down to the deepest detail, but maybe details about what's going on with my family. That's just like off the table. And I'm not going into that at all. And I think sometimes like when you do that, you have those things that you're willing to go deep with. People actually don't notice what you're not sharing because you're sharing so much about what you do consent to sharing. Yeah. Well, the biggest problem with people that create content online, and I guess we would fall into that bucket, is some creators feel the need to have a comment or perspective on everything. Even things that they really have no business having a comment or perspective on, right? Like I look at it the same way as, you know, if say you're getting a surgery, like I'm not going to jump in from the side and be like, Hey doc, I think you should use that scalpel. And so that's what people do online. It's like, sometimes you just got to say, Hey, this isn't my lane. Maybe I shouldn't have a

comment. If you have really, if you really do feel passionate, you have something to say, maybe fine. But this, I think that's the problem with the internet is that everybody at all times is like, well, what's your perspective on all of this? It's like, well, sometimes maybe I don't want to enter the conversation and maybe I don't have a perspective that I want to share. You know what I mean? That's fair. But it's like, you feel like because you have a platform, you have an obligation to share everything. And I think it's like actually the opposite. You have an obligation to share things that you can be thoughtful about

and where you can actually drive a real impact, not just like parroting the same thing that everybody else says. I have rapid fire beauty questions. Yes. First, we didn't hear your nighttime routine. So go back to that. I put a pin in that.

Okay, perfect. Yes. Okay. Love my nighttime routine. My nighttime routine, it kind of mirrors my morning routine in a lot of ways. Okay. So I'm a hatch alarm girly. Love my hatch. The best. Because who wants to be woken up by that cortisol inducing iPhone? I hate it. The ringtones. No. So it goes off at 9 p.m. every night to tell me to start getting ready for bed. So these days, what that looks like for me is tidying up around my apartment because I noticed that I don't wake up on time in the morning if my space is messy.

So I do a quick sweep through, tidy up the place so that I can wake up to a clean place. I will get back on my acupressure mat this time for like a little bit longer so that I feel a little bit more relaxed, change into my pajamas and then get in bed. And then it's like Kindle time. It's don't call me, don't text me.

It's Kindle until I fall asleep. And that's usually when I'm doing my fiction reading. I love to end with a Kindle. I love that. What's your favorite skincare hack? Oh, my favorite skincare hack. I really love my new face. I would say the microcurrent because I just tend to have a really puffy face. And so it helps me a lot. I just used that the other day. That works great. Tell us your non-negotiable in your wellness routine. Non-negotiable in your wellness routine. Non-negotiable in my wellness routine movement, whether that's walking, working out, have to do it.

AM skincare routine? Yes. So in the mornings, let's see, before I go to the gym, I will do a mini skincare routine where I just spray my face with hypochlorous acid and then I'll do sunscreen before going to the gym. Do you use active skin repair? I don't. Should I? That's the brand, isn't it? I don't. Should I? That's the

brand, isn't it? It's one of them. I have like the Tower 28 spray. I didn't know there's another one. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. There's a bunch of them out there. But it's the same ingredient. The same thing. Yeah. So that's pre-gym. Post-gym, I'll do a longer skincare routine. That's when I'll use my new face. I'll cleanse. I will use like vitamin C serum. I'm using right now the SkinCeuticals. I think it's like the PTX. It's supposed to be like Botox in a bottle. The one with the silver label. I know the stuff. Yeah. He uses it. I like it. It's good. Don't even act like you don't know. I can use a little more of it to be honest. Don't act like you don't know. I've really liked it. And then always sunscreen. I've been wearing sunscreen religiously since like middle school and I'm

so grateful. You can tell. It's been a good one. PM skincare routine or is it the same? It's a little different. So I will usually do a cleansing balm. Right now I'm using the Elemis cleansing balm to take off my makeup. That's a good one. So I will double cleanse, do that. And then I will do just like regular cleanser to take off my makeup.

About three days a week, I'll do retinol night. So then I'll actually do retinol all over. So I'll do retinol on my face and then I'll also use a retinol body lotion that day. Days where I'm not doing retinol, I'll actually do retinol all over. So I'll do retinol on my face. And then I'll also use a retinol body lotion that day. Days where I'm not doing retinol, I'll do, I've been using this serum called Lion Pose. Is that what it's, Lion something. I think it's Lion Pose. It's like an AHA, BHA exfoliant and then moisturizer.

One product you never leave the house without. Never leave the house without. Ooh, some sort of lip product, whether that's a balm, whether that's a gloss or a lip oil. What's the brand? I really love the Ami Collet lip oil. They have one in, it's brown. I want to say the shade is called Excellence.

It's so cute. Last question. Don't know if we told you, but we want to know what's in your bag. Oh, yes. Okay. Let me show you my bag. Let it rip. I have lots of fun stuff in here too.

I've been traveling. Okay. You got like a Mary Poppins bag. I do. I have a lot. Okay. First thing, most important, heatless curlers. Do those work? They do. That's what I used on my hair today. And I leave them in until I'm ready.

Michael, don't get any ideas. Michael will come out looking like fucking George Washington. I have two lip glosses right now. This is the Maybelline Superstay and NYX Butter Gloss. Okay. Amazing. I have, very on brand, my Kindle. Love. Which one's that one? Big reader. This is the Kindle Paperwhite.

Oh, I got one. That's Paperwhite. I thought it was the Oasis. Do I need the Paperwhite? I love the Paperwhite. I don't have that one. It's super lightweight. It's good.

Hand cream. Okay. Always. And then another one that I love, old school, Listerine Strips. Okay. Always. People love those Listerine Strips. They are. Because I because I don't like gum you know I don't like stuff like that I can't see so I have my glasses okay because I'm literally blind what else do I have in here that's not boring and work related I do like having a little compact mirror just we like work related yeah okay cool perfect

compact let's see what else I have have a giant notebook because I'm always writing things down. So I'll use this for like work, brain dumps, ideas. What else do I have in here? Oh, this, which I love. So this is because I'm traveling. This is a beanie that is satin lined. So I'll wear this on my hair while I'm traveling. So it doesn't get frizzy. That's smart. Always, always have that. Oh God be all you're gonna be in one of those i was wearing mouth tape on the plane the other day i don't give a yeah absolutely and then i have i'm also like a tooth person so i have just like a little oral health kit so i have like my invisalign i have a toothbrush i have a tongue scraper you don't have a little health kit that you have i

also don't have a mary poppins bag that I run around with. You should get one. So that's what's in my bag. I just carried a toothbrush in my jacket pocket. You're ready. Les, thank you for coming on the show. Tell us where we can go listen to your podcast. What can we expect?

It's on Dear Media. Yes. Tell us where we can find you on Instagram. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. So new episodes of Balanced Black Girl come out every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube, a fun mix of solo episodes as well as interviews. And then you can find me on Instagram and TikTok at Balance Less. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for making the trip.

Thank you for doing this. Thank you for having me. November 28th through December 2nd, Black Friday, Cyber Monday on ShopSkinnyConfidential.com. You get 30% off. Go run. Stock up on all the things. Get all the gifts. Go to shopskinnyconfidential.com for 30% off everything.