Well with Arielle Lorre - 11: RACHEL RHEE - When Life Gives You Cancer

Episode Date: June 26, 2019

In this episode Arielle talks to Rachel Rhee of The Dimple Life about starting her blog and social media after a sexual assault and, after devoting her life to health and wellness for several years, receiving a devastating cancer diagnosis out of the blue last summer. Rachel is a proponent of mental health and using hardships to better ourselves, and this episode will leave you thinking about your own life, gratitude, and what is really important.   Find Rachel on Instagram: @justdimpleit Here's more: The Dimple Life For Arielle's cookbook go here: https://theblondefiles.com/the-blonde-files-cookbook/ Follow Arielle here on here Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/ariellelorre/ And catch up with Arielle here on YouTubeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Go to your reis-adviseur or sunikars. You're listening to the Blonde-Files podcast. I am your sick host, Ariel Lorry. You can probably hear in my voice that I'm super congested. I've been sick for the past week, but honestly, guys, it's been kind of nice. I'm not going to lie. Aside from the

whole not feeling well part, I think I just needed to pump the brakes and this has been a good excuse to do so. I didn't get sick all year or so. It's just my time. But anyway, I really love today's episode. I have Rachel Ree from Just Dimplet. She is somebody who I actually met several years ago through the BBG community. But her journey has really been a transformative one, especially over the last year. She talks about how her account was born out of a trauma and the really dark place. And she talks about her kidney cancer diagnosis last summer and her recovery and how that's changed her perspective and her outlook on life.

I mean, how could it not? But she's just really refreshing. She's inspiring. She focuses a lot on mental health and kind of managing. mental health through wellness. And she's just really interesting to talk to. So enjoy the episode. Okay. I have Rachel here from Just Dimplet. Hello, everybody. And Kennedy is here on the mic. Hello. And Harvey is here on the floor. So you might hear him panting a little bit in the background, but hopefully not. I did a podcast recently, and the host had her dog there, and it was an estate.

studio like this, but the dog was chewing on one of those bone marrow bones the whole time, and it was the only thing that I could hear in my headphones. And I was like, I'm sorry, I'm losing my train of thought. So hopefully Harvey will not do that. Anyway, welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, I'm so excited. You're here. So you started your Instagram account, just dimple it, probably around the same time as I did, I want to say. When did that begin? About four-ish years ago, it was kind of around the time that like everyone was doing BBG and all of that. And there were meetups for all of that. So that's kind of around the time frame of when I started.

And you were, you did BBG, right? For a while. I did for a little bit. It was something that I tried to get into, I think more so for the community aspect of it. I just love that like there were other women getting into fitness and I didn't have any personal friends. at the time that we're really into working out and wanting to live like that healthier lifestyle. So for me it was more the community. But yeah, I definitely sweat a lot in those workouts as we all did, I think.

Oh, yeah. What was your, so let's start by talking kind of about your account and your community and why you started that to begin with. Yeah. So like I mentioned, I did start this about four years ago. And now I do this full time as in, you know, content. creation, Instagram or blog or whatever you want to call that. But at the time, I really had no intention of doing this as a profession or really had no idea that it could be a profession. It really just started off as me wanting to hold myself accountable to live a healthier

lifestyle and to in a lot of ways find my self-confidence and my self-worth again. About four years ago or so, I was actually sexually assaulted by someone that I knew at the time. And as you can imagine, that was like very devastating, traumatic, you know, obviously unexpected. And it kind of jolted me in terms of how I viewed myself and how I viewed my body and kind of just my self-worth was shattered. And so I went into a depression and I kind of just one day realized like I needed to do something that was positive for myself and do something that would kind of get me out of this depressive state that I was in. And so I turned to fitness for my answers. And obviously, you know, also went to therapy as well. But fitness was really something that I worked on for myself every single day.

And it started off with me just like posting a mirror selfie of myself like after. after the gym or posting like a healthy smoothie or whatever it was. But it was really just kind of like an accountability tool for myself. First, I'm so sorry that you went through that with the assault. I feel like when something like that happens, you're kind of at a crossroads and you can either go one way with it, which might be the more destructive way. And maybe I'm just, maybe I only see it that way because I'm like an alcoholic and an addict. So I'm like, well, if that happened to me, I would go down that road.

but the fact that you were able to take that experience and try to make something good out of it or better yourself, that's amazing to me. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, it definitely wasn't easy to get to that point. There was definitely, you know, a period where I was like, what is it all matter? You know, like, I thought I was a good person. Like, why is this happening to me? And I was kind of just blaming myself and really just not seeing the bigger picture of like, you know, maybe there's, I truly believe that whatever happens in our lives happens for a reason. I mean, that's so cliche and so Pinterest. But, you know, in hindsight, I think that's true for anybody. Any hardship that we go through

kind of puts us on a path to betterment. How did how did you kind of get to that point? Were you in therapy or? Yeah, I definitely went to a therapist and saw a counselor to kind of go through everything. But I also kind of just took inventory of positive moments in my past of when I felt really good about myself. And prior to four years ago, I definitely worked out, you know, I was kind of always a group fitness person. So I was really into like Barry's boot camp at the time and SoulCycle, I don't think was really kind of a thing at that point or it wasn't as popular. And so I would just go to like my 24 hour fitness and go take the cycling classes there.

But before when I approached fitness, it was purely about the aesthetic. And it was always about, you know, wanting to lose the last few pounds, needing to fit into a dress for an event or a wedding. And it was never really putting the emphasis on that mental and emotional connection that fitness has for all of us. And so when I was kind of looking back and realizing like, oh, you know what? like I did actually end up feeling really good about myself after that workout. It wasn't really just about fitting into that pants size or whatever it was.

I started to view fitness more in terms of the mental and emotional aspects. So when I was in that period of time, when I was really trying to get myself out of that depressive state, I thought, okay, this time let me try getting into fitness and getting into healthier activities for the mental aspects and for the emotional aspects and less abuse. about what I looked like on the outside. What was your lifestyle like at that point? I mean, did you, I know that BBG is very rigid, or at least for me it was. What was your diet and your approach to nutrition like at that point? At that point, I truly felt like all I could eat were salads and smoothies.

And I really didn't know too much in terms of like, you know, you really, I'm now at this point in my nutrition and diet of looking at food as you can eat anything and you can eat everything that you want. And it's really just about intuitive eating and listening to your body. Chocolate's not bad. Carbs aren't bad. I know you don't think chocolate is bad. I was like chocolate. Like my perk up. So much chocolate. Yeah. And so, but at the time, I really didn't view it. And that way I thought like, okay, I need to do a complete 180 and just eat everything green and eat salads and smoothies. And so that's kind of how it started. And I thought that was maybe a good starting point. And then as I learned more and more about nutrition and learned more

about my needs and my body, I realized like, okay, I can't have everything. You talk about your struggle. You've had a few health struggles and we'll get to kind of the big, big one or the pivotal one, I'll say shortly. But you also talk about your ulcerative colitis. And that's something I had a different form of colitis, but I'm curious to hear about your experience with it and when that, when you were diagnosed with that. Yeah. So I was actually, so I've always had gut health issues ever since I was a child. I just always had stomach aches.

I always felt really nauseous and no one really knew at the time. And my parents didn't know to think to take me to a gastroenterologist. They kind of just thought like, you know, maybe it was something you ate. It was always just kind of, it's probably not that serious because I seemed fine for the most part. So I think my gut issues really started when I was a child, but I was actually diagnosed officially still when I was a child when I was a teenager, but it didn't really get to a point where I took it seriously up until I was maybe around 17 or so. I was diagnosed when I was 13. But when I was around 16, 17, I was hospitalized, and so I actually had to be homeschooled for a semester

in high school because I just I the flare-ups were so bad and the stomach aches were so bad. And I just like couldn't hold any food in. And so I was hospitalized. I had a bad reaction to medication and lost all my white blood cells and in isolation. So I've had I've had a journey with colitis. So how do you treat that or how do you? Yeah. So I mean, it is an autoimmune disease.

but there's a ton of different medication that is out on the market now. At the time, there really wasn't too much that was out there. But, I mean, just a lot of prescription medication. And in some cases, you know, sometimes that doesn't even help. And I think now doctors are getting a little bit more aware of the nutritional aspects of, you know, what could heal a gut or what could hurt a gut. But at the time, when I asked my doctors, you know, what kind of food, should I eat because obviously this is inflammation of your large intestine. So it is your gut. And what we put into our bodies truly does have an effect on us. So, you know, when I would ask my doctors back

then what I should be eating and they would just say like, just try to eat like nothing fried. And that was kind of like the only nutritional direction that I got. And so it wasn't until I was truly an adult and really out on my own and taking care of myself that I tried to be a bit more mindful of ingredients and, you know, where things are sourced and and all of that. So once you started your account and you were working out and doing these group events and stuff like that, how did you build that community? Well, at first it was really difficult because like I mentioned, like I really didn't have any personal friends who were into this type of lifestyle or into being active.

And so it really just at first took me to take that first step to go to a meetup alone. And I didn't know anyone. And I remember it was like the largest meetup. There were like a couple hundred people. It was insane. And it seemed like everyone kind of knew everyone and everyone already had like Instagram accounts. And at that point, I really was just kind of dabbling in it. And I didn't realize what a powerful tool Instagram is in building a community.

but it really just took me going to a meetup, introducing myself to people I didn't know. And that is really scary because you don't know if that person's going to be cool, if they're going to think you're weird, but you kind of just have to put yourself out there and take that step because it's really hard as an adult to make friends if you don't make them as coworkers or as classmates. So as an adult, you kind of have to put yourself out there

if you want to create a new life for yourself. And this was like your kind of side hustle, I guess I'll call it for a while, right? You just started blogging full time. Yeah. So I just started blogging full time about, I think it's been a year now. So I think I probably passed my year anniversary. Yay. Yeah.

Thanks. But yeah. So at first it was really just used as my accountability tool. And then at a certain point, I think I had maybe like 5,000 followers. or something and a brand had reached out to me and they said can we send you leggings and can you take a picture of yourself wearing them and post it online i was and i looked up the brand and the leggings the leggings were like 30 dollars and i was like oh my gosh like for free so i was so amazed like wow this is so cool i don't have to like go to target and buy like you know 30 dollar leggings so

i did it and i got it and i just thought like wow this is such a cool concept like maybe Maybe if I keep posting, maybe I can get like a free top too, you know. And so I realize, you know, as I continue to post, obviously I wasn't posting for the free products. I was posting for my accountability and like wanting to build this community. But along the way, all, you know, brands would sort of start to reach out to me and offer me free product. And then it was like, oh, can I send you $10 for, you know, posting about our chocolate? and I was like, yeah, free chocolate and $10, sure. And so then I was kind of exposed to this whole world.

So you started this community and the account and you had been doing it for a couple years, right? And you were like living clean and exercising and doing everything right on paper, right? Yeah. And then you got like this life-changing diagnosis. Can you talk about that? Yeah, it was really wild, the ride that I went on. So August of 2018, I remember one summer afternoon, I was just feeling very tired. And I didn't know why I thought maybe it was because I had just gone to Santa Monica and the

beach and the sun, all of that was really maybe draining for me. So I got a good night's sleep. And the next morning, I still felt so exhausted and very lethargic. And I thought, you know, I just kind of kept making excuses for myself. I ended up taking like a three-hour nap. That didn't help. but I had to eventually drive down to Orange County where my parents live because it was my dad's birthday and we were all going to celebrate as a family. And so, you know, I felt kind of okay, but kind of still tired.

So I just decided to kind of spend the night at my parents' house and I would wake up early, drive back up to L.A. and get like a great start to my Monday. come Monday morning, like around 6, 7 a.m., I just like woke up all of a sudden with like excruciating lower stomach pain. And I wasn't quite sure what was happening. I thought like maybe something I ate from the night before or maybe it was like cramps or something from my period or whatnot. And it just wasn't going away though. And then all of a sudden it wasn't just my lower abdomen. it was my lower back to on the same side on my right side. And so both of those combined could also still be like your cycle, you know.

So I still didn't think anything of it. And then I got up to use the restroom. And when I looked down in the toilet, it was all red. Sorry, TMI for anyone. But yeah, the toilet bowl was all blood. I was peeing blood. And just like within five minutes, I started just like profusely sweating. and there were puddles of sweat on the floor in the bathroom.

It was like imagine yourself taking like three sole cycle classes or something. That was kind of the amount of sweat that I was in. And it was just all in a matter of minutes. And I started just getting very nauseous and dry heaving and all of that. And so I just got all of these symptoms all at once. And so luckily I was at my parents' house and I wasn't alone. So I called my mom up and she took me to urgent care at first. and they didn't have enough pain medicine for me.

So they sent me to the ER. And at the ER, they said, you know, you probably have kidney stones. It sounds like you have kidney stones. You know, we'll give you some medication in a couple of hours and you'll be fine. You just kind of have to wait for them to pass through. And I thought, okay, great. And they said, like, in the meantime, we'll just do a CT scan of you just to check it off our box. But I'm sure everything's fine.

You know, at this point, it was maybe like 10 o'clock in the afternoon. afternoon and I did the scan and time passed and it was like maybe three, four p.m. And no one had seen me yet. But my pain was under control and I was just kind of getting impatient like, hey, what's going on? Finally a doctor came in to see me and said like, you know, they started asking me all these questions before they even gave me any result. They asked, you know, do you have any issues with your kidney? Do you have history of cancer and your family? you know, tell us a little bit more about your medical history. And I just had the answer of, no, I don't have kidney issues.

I have no cancer in my family of any kind on either side of my parents. And, you know, I just don't understand why you're asking me these questions. And then the doctor finally said that they had seen a seven and a half to eight centimeter abnormal mass on my kidney in that I needed to stay overnight for further testing and more scans and more blood work. And so at that point, they transferred me up to a room, and I got another scan done, more blood work, and a doctor finally saw me and said that, you know, we can't know 100% until we actually remove the tumor or remove the mass, but at this point, it's, you know, 99.99% chance you have kidney cancer. And so when they told me, my mom was in the room.

I have an older brother. He was in the room. And I kind of was just like, oh, okay. So I just have surgery. And then it's good, right? And they're like, you know, we'll see. But I kind of just felt like I had to have a strong face on because my family was in the room. And I could see that my mom was getting emotional.

And so I kind of just dealt with it in that way. Yeah, I was going to ask you, like, what is going through your mind at that moment? I know I haven't been through anything like that, but when I've been through like, because that's a trauma, right? Like that has to be a traumatic moment in your life. When I've been through a trauma, like you're not thinking worst case scenario, even though in hindsight, it all is adding up. Yeah. But at the time, you're just kind of like, it's like your brain goes into like a survival mode kind of. It's like an out of body experience almost.

Totally. Totally out of body. That's like the perfect way to kind of describe how I was feeling. And it was almost like I just had no other thought other than, okay, like hold it together. Okay, what's the solution? Now what next? And that was kind of my approach to everything. And then when my parents and my brother left the room, that's when I started to kind of get emotional and breakdown and everything sort of started to hit me.

That has to be like kind of a major what the fuck universe moment. Yeah. Like I you're like especially being as healthy like health conscious as you are and young and you're like vibrant and just to have something like that happen. Like I I have a hard time like comprehending it for you. So yeah. You like just what was that like? Yeah. That was definitely something that I struggled with at the time.

I, you know, obviously went through a whole range of emotions. I was sad in denial. angry, frustrated. You know, I felt all of these things, but when I did feel angry, that was what I was angry about. I was thinking, you know, I worked out all the time. At that point, you know, I was also coming off of being a cycling instructor. So I was like sweating all the time. I definitely had my nutrition kind of like in, you know, in check basically. And I was eating right for my body. And, you know, I thought like, okay, well, what the hell you know what's going on and so I was really just kind of upset with the world and

didn't really know how to make sense of everything and now in hindsight you know I'm I'm okay with everything but you know at the time it was really traumatic so what was their plan of action how quickly did your surgery happen and what was your treatment like yeah so everything for me happened so quickly so I got the first symptoms got that first doctor's visit and hospital at the end of August and my surgery was the middle of September or September 11th actually. So it's a memorable date for me. You won't forget that. Yeah.

And so basically after that, because that time period was so short, I felt like I couldn't really process everything the way that I needed it to because everything was just happening so quickly. And then during that recovery phase, that was the longest part of just kind of re-learning how to walk because there was so much trauma to my abdomen area. I had a hard time sitting up straight, couldn't walk, all those things. So kind of having to relearn my body in a lot of ways. It also gave me some time to heal emotionally and think about sort of the emotional aspects of everything that had just happened.

Yeah. So I think what really helped me, honestly, was I definitely got into a lot more meditation. that was something that was kind of here and there in my routine in my daily life. It was like, oh, if I skipped it, it's fine. But I think from the diagnosis through recovery, really depending on a lot of meditation apps and getting me through a lot of the anxiety around that, I think that's when I also discovered that I had a lot of anxiety issues and a lot of like sort of just mental health work that I needed to do and take the space to allow myself to have these problems and have these emotions.

And I think that was kind of the first step for me is giving myself the space to feel all the emotions and to allow myself to cry, even if it was crying in front of my family and knowing that it would maybe, you know, make them emotional, but knowing that that was something that I needed. That was something that was really important to my healing. I've been really interested in like energy and trapped energy lately. And I like that you say that like you had, that's like a release. Like crying is a release. And when you hold that in, same with like anxiety. Like when you hold that stuff in because you to protect other people or to like not look a certain way, like that energy gets trapped in us. It totally does. And if I want to get like real deep about it,

if we go back to my trauma of being sexually assaulted, I feel like I, over the years, have definitely come to terms with it, but it's not something that I really actively spoke about. And it's, you know, something that I worked with a therapist on and kind of journaled and all of these things, but everything was, for the most part, very internal. And I think that that traumatic energy is something that I feel like I trapped within my energy and within my body.

And I feel like in a lot of ways, like, that kind of manifested itself into other ways in my health and my mental state and all of that. Yeah, I've talked about this on other podcasts, but I found my best friend murdered like nine, eight or nine years ago. And I compartmentalized it. And I think I had to for a long time in order to like get sober and be able to deal with other things. And just now at like five and a half years sober. it's starting to manifest in so many different ways. And I'm doing trauma therapy now. But I think like a lot of I've been in like funks lately and just had different like health things going on and stuff like that.

And like you can't keep that inside. No, not at all. And I love that you're talking about, you know, going to trauma therapy because I'm, you know, currently kind of looking for the right therapist. I got you. Yeah. Give me that contact info. Yeah. No, it's, it's so important.

And I kind of like didn't really, I didn't not believe in it. But I know like for me when I started this account, like my, my view of or my understanding of like quote unquote wellness was like diet and exercise. And like what you were saying, it was like the salad and the fruit smoothie and the like BBG or whatever I was doing. Yeah. And that was like wellness. And it's so much more than that.

it takes going through some shit to like really understand that yeah and I think like the health and fitness industry like currently I think it's definitely getting better but I think in the past it's definitely done a disservice to the public and to women just by talking about you can be healthy with a salad and you can be healthy by sweating 30 minutes a day or whatever it is like those are really healthy things and you should incorporate them into your routine but you're right health and wellness is so much more than that. It's about, you know, the relationships we keep, how we view ourselves, how we view other people, the stress factor, if we're sleeping.

You know, there's just so many different aspects to wellness. And I think for a long time, I had been neglecting so many of them, thinking that I was being healthy because I did two things, you know. Yeah, and there are, I'm working with someone now who talks about like the different pillars of, I don't think, I don't even know if he would use the word wellness, but like there are different pillars to like our health, right? So there's like the physical, which I think for the most part, like the fitness industry, that's what they focus on. And then there's the emotional.

And then there's the energy, which is like such a huge component of it. But, you know, it takes a while to kind of understand that though. Because I feel like you kind of start like it's easy to comprehend. the physical and then maybe something happens and you can like grasp the emotional and then there's the energy which is like a whole deeper level and the spiritual and it's just like there's so many components to it so how did how did the diagnosis and the subsequent recovery and all of that how did that change your lifestyle yeah i mean i definitely realized through my diagnosis my recovery i first started to kind of look at the relationships that I had with other people. And I think as you get

older, you kind of start to have a tighter-knit friend's circle anyway. It just kind of naturally happens. You kind of start to not to want to deal with a lot. And also, you know, people's lifestyles kind of settle down, I think. Other one has babies. Yeah, they do. So I started to kind of already do that, but I think after everything happened, you kind of also are able to see who shows up for you and who doesn't and who's able to comfort you in the ways that you need and who's able to support you and who's not. And so I was able to kind of also take inventory of like what relationships I had with people who was important to me, who was there for me and who I want to have continued to be in my life. Also with relationships, it kind of puts things into perspective in terms of, you know, we only have so much time on this planet. You know, you don't know if something's going to happen to you like today, tomorrow, like if some freak accident happens, you know, you just don't know what your life is really going to look like.

And so do you really want to spend that time being hard on yourself, like, you know, picking yourself apart, focusing on maybe the things that you shouldn't be focusing on in terms of how you view yourself. So I think those were kind of the two main aspects in terms of how I changed after the diagnosis and recovery. Has it been easy for you to maintain that perspective or does it get, I mean, it's still, got it happened in August of last year, so it's still very new. Like, I know for me when I got sober, which is different, but like I almost died at the very end. So, when I got sober and like the first few years after it was really easy for me to like have that attitude and kind of be grateful all the time and then like the further I get away from that time in my life. Yeah.

The harder it gets. Totally. Yeah. And I think that's normal. It's human. I mean as time goes on like memories and certain feelings that we felt like it all kind of fades away a little bit. But I definitely get like that. Like sometimes I'll find myself obsessing over something.

so small and then I have to like put myself in check and I have to realize like okay grand scheme big picture Rachel does this mean anything is this going to be important tomorrow even or you know in a week or a month or whatever that time frame looks like and when I actually ask myself that like the answer is like 99.9% like no it's not going to be important so it's just kind of doing like your own mental check with yourself. So so everybody is different, but since you went through that, is there anything like in your diet or your life that you, like, absolutely cut out and any, like, must-haves? Yeah.

So I read a book. It's called How Not to Die. I want that title. Very aggressive title. But it's a great book. And essentially, it just talks a lot about plant-based eating and eating mostly plants. And I think that's something across the board. Everyone, no matter what, you know, diet or whatever your nutrition looks like, I think, eating more vegetables and leafy greens and all of those things, like, everyone can agree that that's good for you.

So that's just something that I definitely try to incorporate a lot more of. Eating the colors of the rainbow is super important to me. And it's actually something that I'm, like, very, very mindful of. Like, I will actually look at my plate, like, is there enough color on there? Like, maybe not. So then I'll just, like, add a little whatever it is that I have in my fridge. So that's a good tip. for anybody who is like trying to eat healthier.

Yeah, definitely. So just add more color. Don't eat a lot of brown plates. You talk to my husband, please? It's like, can I have more bread and carbs? And not that carbs are bad, but. Yeah, no. I know what you mean.

I mean, and I still eat like brown food. Like I still have like, you know, right when everything happened, like I was so hard of myself because I ate French fries. And then after time, I'm like, you know what? Like, is one French fry or is a basket of French fries, like really in the grand scheme of things going to do anything to me? Like, no, I think on the whole, I eat healthy. It's just certain, you know, times I crave certain foods.

And that's totally fine. And what about lifestyle? You talked about meditation. What's your, what's like a day in the life like for you? What's your morning? I love my morning times. I wake up pretty early. I wake up around six.

but I'm not super active until about eight. But within those two hours, I'm busy. Like I do a lot of things at home. I do my whole morning routine. So I actually start my mornings trying to read a book. Just because it sort of wakes up my brain a little bit. It wakes up my eyes. It gets me to like focus on something.

So that's something that I like to do. Meditation, I am trying to incorporate that. into my mornings. It's a little hard to do in my mornings for some reason. So I normally do that like midday for me. But I do also like to journal in the morning. So I'm very, I like to be a bit more like self-reflective in terms of writing a lot. And I do free writing. Sometimes it's gratitude journaling, but sometimes it's just kind of like a brain dump of whatever I'm feeling. And so there's no real purpose to what I'm writing. It's kind of just like what I'm feeling in that moment. Sometimes I feel, I wake up feeling refreshed and energized and creative and I'll write out ideas.

And sometimes I feel really heavy and just sad or dark because of maybe something that happened the night before. So I kind of just like to write all of that out. And so that's something that I definitely started to incorporate a lot more post-diagnosis. Because I think slowing down in the mornings is just so important because I think everyone is so busy to just like, got to get started with a day and got to bolt out the door and, you know, get to work or school or whatever it might be. But I think there's just so much value in slowing down before you start your day because you have the whole day to speed up and do the to-do list. So why not just take a few minutes to yourself and do something that's good for you? I commend you for doing that because

now that you're blogging full time, like I know for me, I do meditate in the morning because otherwise once I've had my matcha, then my brain is on. And it's just very hard for me to sit there in silence for 20 minutes. Yeah. But like it's hard for me to, I could never read a book. But like I try to read the paper and like, but I get so distracted because I feel like my whole business is in my phone and I need to like get to it ASAP. So how do you have that discipline now that like your business, like you run your business?

Yeah. That has been, you know, that's definitely a struggle. and I'm glad that you're talking about that because it is so hard because we're, you know, trying to be, you know, wellness minded and we're telling people, you know, disconnect and, you know, take time away from your phone, but our whole business is to be connected to our phone. So I think for me, I just know that during those hours, that's like just sanctuary time for me. So I don't have my phone in my room. It's in a separate bedroom.

I just bought like a really inexpensive alarm clock from Target. and I just use that old school style. Like that's how I grew up. Wait, you sleep with your phone in a different bedroom? I know. I sleep with my phone in my hand, like legitimately. Okay, well, you're a millennial, like a true millennial. That's impressive.

I am so inspired by you. I think you'll be an alarm clock. You've been hashtag influenced. Yeah. So what's next for your community? Yeah. So, I mean, as we start talking about, you know, Instagram and how we're so connected to our phones, actually what I've really been inspired to do. And it's something that I've done throughout just sort of my journey on Instagram is building community and doing meetups and doing things that are in person because I think the more connected we are with our phone, the more isolated we all can feel. I sometimes feel so alone, even though, you know, I have followers. And I, I, you know, I have followers. And I. I get like, you know, like that doesn't really mean anything. It's not like I'm actually building a relationship with people.

I build relationships when I see them in person and I see them at events and community time. So that's something that is really top of mind for me. So moving forward, I'm definitely going to be doing a lot more community events, but with purpose. And so prior, all of my events were just kind of a way for all the girls to get together and get some free swag and get exposed to. to certain brands that maybe they haven't tried.

And it's all around just a good time. But I think for me, I'm looking for a little bit more purpose and wanting to give back to people who maybe just are struggling. So for example, I had an event earlier this year where I partnered with a nonprofit that empowers women with cancer. And so anyone that came to my event actually brought comfy socks for the women who are going through chemo treatment to wear so that they could feel a little bit more comfortable during treatment.

And so it's just the little things like that. You know, I'm hosting another event that's coming up this Sunday, but it's probably going to be in the past by the time this airs. But I'm hosting an event where I'm partnering with the Downtown Women's Center, which helps support homeless women in downtown or in Los Angeles in general. And so I'm having people bring underwear to the event because homeless people don't have underwear. It's like these basic things that we are. all have and that we all just take for granted. I never think about that as something that someone wouldn't have, but it is such a luxury. And just wanting to bring more purpose and awareness to causes that are close to me and that I love. And so bringing that element to my community as well.

I love that. I think people are tiring of just mindlessly scrolling Instagram and seeing kind of like the transactional posts, right? Like just the like photo with whatever brand you're working with and selling something. And I think people are craving that community and that like real life connection. Totally. So that's amazing. Thank you. Okay.

So let's get to some listener questions. Yay. Okay. Did you seek alternative therapy, not just chemo, et cetera? I think when people think cancer, I think they automatically. think chemo. But from what I've heard and what I've read, actually, when it comes to kidney cancer, chemo is actually one of the least effective treatment. So it just kind of varies on the form of cancer that you have. For me, being staged to kidney cancer meant that it was contained to my kidney. So all the surgeons had to do was remove the tumor that was on my kidney,

as well as my right kidney itself. So because it was contained, I didn't need any further treatment. I just have to get regular checkups every six months. And did they get rid of it completely? They got rid of it completely. Yeah. So they checked, they did scans everywhere else. They checked my chest and everything and nothing had spread.

So I'm very thankful for that. How did you cope with the weight? It sounds like from what you said, you didn't really have to wait very long. It was kind of, they found it and then. So it's surprising. So I know the time frame between getting diagnosed and actually having surgery was maybe like three weeks. But I will say that was like the longest three weeks. I think every day it just I felt more and more anxious.

Every day I felt like the tumor was getting bigger and bigger. And it was just like exponentially growing in my body and spreading. And I just had all of these really bad nightmares. and bad visions. But it wasn't until actually I saw a documentary called Heel, which I believe is on Netflix now. But it's basically documentary on how your thoughts can really breed the energy and kind of your physical being. And so if you have negative thoughts, that's negative energy.

That's manifesting itself negatively in your body. But if you have positive thoughts, you know, it does the converse. And so that was something that I really tried to meditate on and really try to reflect on and really tried to be as positive and as optimistic as possible to kind of cope with the anxiety. Also another thing that kind of helps with the anxiety of waiting is going back to meditation. There's a whole pack on headspace that I used that was coping with cancer and that was super helpful. So if anyone is going through that, that's definitely a good pack that I recommend. That's kind of a good segue into this.

question, which is, is there anything you can do for anything you can tell or do for an ill person as family? So like advice for the family. Yeah. When I was diagnosed and when I started telling people about everything that was going on with me, so many people told me it's going to be okay. You'll be okay. And to be honest, that really didn't help me. because I just felt like, well, how do you know? You don't really know. You know, that's just some sort of hallmark card thing that you just tell people. And so that actually wasn't helpful.

But I think if you are a loved one wanting to really care for and support someone, at least for me, what really helped was just knowing that there was an open ear there that wasn't there to give me advice or wasn't there to even like say anything back to me, but just kind of there to just listen. That was just super helpful. Love that. How does your body react differently than before? I don't know what to, but, and then she says coming from a two-time survivor.

Yeah. So I definitely noticed pre-cancer. I, like I said, I was super into hit workouts. I was sweating all the time. My body just craved working out. and I would do like, you know, two spin classes back to back. No problem. I just loved it.

I was on this high of it. Post everything, I just love slowing down. I love the low intensity. I love yoga. I love just listening to my body in terms of what it needs. And it needs things that are feeling, that feel a lot more supportive to my body and less inflammatory, to be honest. I have a question. After your treatment and your diagnosis and your treatment,

and, you know, coming out cancer-free, how did that adapt or how did your brand evolve because of that? Did you start emphasizing on different topics? Yeah. Yeah, that's a great question. So because my name is just infinite, which, by the way, it, like, basically because it was born from a place of trauma, it was kind of like an affirmation or, like, just a reminder to myself, like, okay, Rachel, like, be positive. like just smile, just start to smile and just dimple it. And so that's kind of how everything started. But going back to cancer and everything, it kind of, you know, I definitely still believe that, you know, positive mindset, everything, you know, everything does kind of start with a smile and just kind of

having a good face forward in terms of how you approach life. But because everything that happened to me was so heavy. The content I really enjoy putting out there has a lot more to do with kind of mental health and just putting it out there that, you know, it's okay to not be okay and it's okay to have a really shitty day and you don't really have to be positive all the time. And I think to get to that more positive headspace, you know, where you eventually will get to, I think it takes kind of dwelling in that mindset of, you know, it's fine to be sad. And I think just embracing that and embracing that part of your emotions is super important. So I love talking about mental health, protecting your energy, and talking about the importance of just like dealing with your anxiety.

And can we just talk about your photos for a minute and your aesthetic? Yeah. Who does your photos? Or you don't have to tell me who, but like how do you edit all of that? Well, okay, so it varies. I definitely work with a couple different people. I would say for the most part, most of my photos are done by a woman. Her name's Lonnie. She's actually not like a blogger photographer, but she has done like weddings and all those things. So we've been working together pretty much for over a year now. So we have like kind of a good rhythm and she understands my aesthetic and I like things bright and happy and positive and colorful and all of those things. So she edits all of them. She's amazing. Yeah, I'll maybe do like little tweaks here and there with saturation or brightness or whatnot, but she's incredible. But if anyone is looking for editing tips, you can definitely use like Snapsede or honestly even just like playing around with Lightroom on your phone. You can create your own presets as well.

Yeah, I love Lightroom. Yeah. Okay. last question we'll do is how how would you describe courage? Ooh, what a great question. I think dealing with embracing your vulnerabilities, I think is super important. You know, sometimes people will approach me and say, you know, oh my gosh, like you're so brave or, you know, you're so courageous for talking about your journey. But I think for me, it's kind of the only way to live and to heal is to talk about your vulnerabilities.

And I think that's where you can find courage. I love it. Thank you so much for coming on. Where can everybody find you? Yeah. So my Instagram is Just Dimpleit. And my blog is The DimpleLife.com. I love it.

Thanks. All right. Thank you for having me. Okay. as always, thank you so much for tuning in and thank you guys for your reviews and your ratings. I really appreciate it. Please continue to rate and review and share and subscribe and do all of the things that keep this engine running. I don't know if that's even a saying.

I don't know. I don't know. I'm sick. I'm allowed to say things that don't make sense. Anyway, I will be back next week. Hopefully not sounding like this. And I will talk to you then.