Well with Arielle Lorre - 22: HOLLY OWENS - Model of Modern Health

Episode Date: September 11, 2019

In this episode I talk to Holly Owens of @wellthybelly about life as a professional model and the pressures that come with it; dealing with myriad health issues and navigating the current healthcare system for answers; being our own best health advocates; her Lyme diagnosis and treatment using bee venom therapy; and so much more.    Follow Holly on Instagram: www.instagram.com/wellthybelly Follow Arielle on Instagram: www.instagram.com/ariellelorre Follow the show on Instagram: www.instagram.com/theblondefilespodcast   Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe!   See 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 rise-adviseur or sunnycars. combe. I'm Ariel Lori, and this is the Blonde-Files podcast. where I talk to experts, influencers, and inspirational people in the world of wellness and beyond. Today I'm talking to Holly Owens. So Holly is a model and she's also the woman behind Wealthy Belly,

which is a lifestyle and wellness Instagram account. So Holly has navigated some major health issues most recently being diagnosed with Lyme disease. and she also has been a professional model since she was a teenager. So I was really fascinated by how and where these two lives meet if they do. And also how she navigated having so many symptoms for so many years and navigating the medical world as it is today and finding the right help and the right diagnosis for her and so she talks a lot about advocating for yourself and for your health. And I just loved talking to her.

I think you guys are going to love this episode. So enjoy. Okay. So I'm here with Holly from Wealthy Belly. Hi. Hi. And Kennedy is on the mic as well. So I've been doing my research on you.

That sounds so creepy. But I follow you, but I've been listening to some other podcasts and just trying to like really understand your story. and we have a lot of similar experiences, especially with our health stuff. So I really want to get into that. But I'm also really curious just about kind of where you're from, how you got to L.A. and you have your wellness page, but you're also a model. So I'm really interested in that and kind of having those like two lives because they seem like they can be so different. Separate.

Yeah. So where are you originally from? So I was born in Long Beach, California. We lived in Lakewood, though, and my dad passed away when I was two and a half from Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. And after he passed, my mom wanted to leave Lakewood. So she moved us to Boulder City, Nevada, outside of Vegas, small town, desert, Lake Mead, Hoover Dam. It's a really great community. And so she moved us there, so I went to high school there.

well, all of schooling there until I graduated high school. And then I had already started modeling. So I started modeling around 15. And once I graduated high school, I just packed up my car. My mom followed me in her car and we drove to my model apartment in North Hollywood where a homeless man was sleeping outside on the lawn. And there was like no parking spaces and it was bunk beds. It was a studio apartment.

Five of us girls. One bathroom. It was crazy. And so that's how I ended up back in LA. How did you get into modeling to begin with? Were you just discovered or was it something that you wanted to do? So we would walk around the mall in Henderson and people would come up and say, you should model. And I honestly didn't know what modeling really consisted of.

It was never a goal of mine. I wanted to be a bet or an astronaut or Britney Spears or something. And yeah, in her prime. Yeah, not anymore. Yeah, not anymore. And so my mom's friend's daughtered this competition in L.A. It was like a one-day thing. So she asked me if I wanted to do it.

And I said, all right, let's try it. I don't know what will come from it. So we drove out to L.A. did it. And a woman comes up to me after. And she thought I was a little taller than I actually was. My legs were really long when I was 14. So I was only five, six, I think, at the time. How tall are you now?

Almost five, nine. Okay. So she said, let's stay in touch. And when you get to at least five, seven, five seven and a half, then we'll sign you. So they ended up signing me a year later when I sent her my homecoming pictures. And she sent me to IMTA. It's a massive modeling competition thing in L.A. It takes place over five days.

And I ended up winning runner-up model of the year. And then most sought-after model. So it went really well. And I signed with a bunch of agencies from there. And then I continued to model throughout high school. I missed quite a bit of school, but my principal and everyone understood.

So my mom would drive me to L.A. or fly with me in New York or Miami for spring break. And, you know, I would go. to castings and it's so weird now looking back at how I spent my free time. But it was really cool and it forced me to kind of become an adult earlier on, which was cool. And I started to make my own money at 15 and was completely independent by pretty much 17. I was making all my own money. And then, yeah, get all my own ever since.

Wow. I have so many questions. Go for it. I mean, I'm mostly curious about, like, the effect that being in that environment has, like, I cannot imagine. I just can't imagine. And you seem so grounded now, so we'll get to that. But, like, what is that like being in the environment, having what I would assume there was a lot of pressure on you to look a certain way? And I'm sure the industry has changed too in that time.

like what 10 years ago a little more yeah like 12 13 years ago but yeah what is the impact of of that on it wasn't that there was no real impact in the beginning i was 15 and a complete stick all i wanted to do is be able to gain weight and i couldn't because i was so so skinny and that i guess of course worked in my favor going into modeling, but, and I was also very active. I ran track. I played tennis. I danced every day. I had cheerleading practice. So I was very, very active, ate whatever I wanted, but was extremely active. And when I graduated, I went from basically exercising multiple times a day to pretty much nothing. And when I moved to Australia, I kept my year. usual diet but wasn't working out and my body changed and I gained a little bit of weight and

there was some cellulite on the back of my legs and stomach and my boobs grew a lot which was probably the only plus from all of that and I came back from Australia and my agency was like whoa okay okay I was like what I don't understand this bad how long were you in Australia for only three months But I did damage, I guess, to change my body. And then I went to Miami after that. And I had an agent literally call me in and say, hey, we need to, like, get you on a program. You need to tone up. She gave me a printout of, like, approved foods that I was allowed to eat.

And it was very, very simple, like literally only boiled eggs, boiled chicken. If you want fruit, it has to be green apples. It was crazy. Yeah, it was great. It was so, oh my God, it was awful. Oh, my God. And I cried like a baby in front of the entire agency because she grabbed my stomach and I was like, don't you see this? It's sticking out through your shirt. I'm like, what? I look back. Those images are still on Google. I'm like in a pink bikini. I look amazing. I'm like so upset, but I let that, you know, really kind of start my body images. issues. Yeah. How old are you then? Just turned 19. Yeah, that was my first case of realizing someone else can have an opinion about your body. So now I look back though and that was the first time I really looked at food differently and realized the impact food can have mentally, physically, and

it forced me to start cooking for myself, which is a great thing. So there's negative to it, but I kind of can turn into a positive now. Did you follow that diet? For a little bit, yeah. Okay. Yeah, it sucked. Oh my God. Yeah. I can't imagine. I wonder why green apples. I don't know. I guess they're like lower sugar. I don't know. They're higher in fiber. Oh, okay. There you go. Like I was the girl that would eat icing out of the tub. Right. You know those like, what are those icings from the grocery store? I know exactly what you're talking about. The cake icing? I'm not joking. I would get a chocolate one and eat it by the By the spoon. I could taste that now, actually. I know. Oh, my God.

Oh, okay. And the vanilla was good, too. Sometimes I would mix the chocolate and vanilla. I would put sprinkles on the vanilla. Well, you just got to get the funfetti. Oh, my God. My entire high school was funfetti cake. Anyone's birthday, we made a funfetti cake.

Same. Yeah. What about you, Kennedy? Oh, Funfetti all the way. Oh, my God. It's the best. Strawberry cake with Funfetti icing. Oh, my God, yeah.

Have you guys been to, shoot. There's a cake place. Sweet. Sweet Laurel? Sweet Lady Jane or sweet Laurel? No, sweet Laurel. Is that the healthy one? Susie Bakes. Oh, yeah. That's right by my house. I love it. Oh my gosh. Her funfetti cake is insane. Oh, my God. It's so good. It's full of sugar though. That's Chuck's favorite place. My husband, like the whoopee pies. Oh, yeah. My boyfriend is obsessed with her cakes. I think I would die if I ate one now. Yeah. I haven't had a sugar in a couple years. It's a sugar bomb. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Oh, my God. Yeah. So yeah, what was your lifestyle like up until that point? Were you just kind of like...

Oh my gosh, my mom. She would make homemade meals every night. So I had a homemade meal for dinner. But lunchtime, it was just get what you want. So I'd drive to Burger King or McDonald's. I'd eat burgers and fries and slurpees and flaming hot Cheetos, donuts, anything I wanted. And then go to cheer practice and be totally fine. No bloating, no issues, just sat there, enjoyed junk food.

Like every day. It's for the best that I changed my diet. Yeah. I think we were all like that when we were younger. You know, it's how you are when you're younger. Yeah, I know. Yeah. I was the same way.

Okay, so you were 19. You were back here. You were making some changes. When did you start experiencing health issues? I started experiencing health issues. I think when I was 23. 23, yeah. Yeah, so four years ago is when everything took a massive change.

And up until that point, I had already started cooking for myself, but I would still indulge in normal pizza and wings and soda occasionally in dessert. So I was never that strict, but I would literally just go. kill myself at the gym and work out like crazy. That way I could do it all over again the next night. So my relationship with, you know, modeling definitely, I think, was a big part of it because I was trying to make sure I stayed a certain size or stayed tone. So it definitely impacted my life. And it's, I've seen it, you know, be a lot worse for a lot of other models. So I think for me, It was pretty mild, but it still was at the forefront of a lot of my thoughts.

So what were the symptoms that you started experiencing? Like, how was your health changing? It was mainly gut issues. So I went from, like I said, eating pretty much whatever I wanted to having to do elimination diets all the time, cutting out so many foods, going on intense supplement protocols. and basically had no life because I just would eat at home. I was living in New York at the time, and it's a very social place, and I would be out with friends. I say, okay, like, I'm going to go home first, eat my dinner,

and then I'll come back out and meet you guys. And I would do that all the time. And that was because of your gut healing protocol. Yeah, I was so scared of eating out. I didn't know what to eat. Everything would set off some reaction. And so I just was like, okay, the only thing I can. control is what I cook and what I put into my body. And so if I know what my triggers are,

then I'm just going to stay on that path. And then it came with fatigue, severe brain fog for multiple hours a day where I feel like I couldn't talk or hold a conversation with someone. And ended up, I started to like lose some weight again and then gain a little weight. So just my entire body was changing. So I went through a similar thing where for like a year, everything I ate was running through me. It's TMI, but I talk about it. And it's a big part of my story because that was like the changing point. That's kind of when I started this too.

And yeah, so I was afraid of everything. Like I would see my friends eat salads and I would be like, how can you eat that and not like be running to the bathroom? Like I just didn't get it because I had been like my new normal was that. So, and everything, oh my God, the brain fog was so bad. The fatigue was so bad. I couldn't drive. I was so nauseous, so bloated. And I heard that, or I read that you went to a gastroenterologist and they put you on antibiotics

and sent you on your way. And that's exactly what happened to me. Yeah. It was round after round after round of antibiotics, though. No gut support. There was no mention of food or anything like that. So I'm curious after you had that experience, what were you ultimately? Because then you went to a functional doctor, right?

Yeah. What was the issue? Were they able to figure it out? So at first, the gastroenterologist just said, IBS, wanted to put me on a antibiotic, and I said, let's see. I want to, like, meet some other doctors first. And then I went to a functional medicine doctor, and he ran so many tests. And the main thing he had found was leaky gut.

So the main thing he wanted to do was just heal my gut and then also give me a ton of vitamins and minerals and things that I was deficient in. And he, I forgot which diet he put me on, but he also ran like the food intolerance test and food allergy test. And I had to remove all the foods I came up on that to reduce any inflammation and any more issues it would cause in my gut. And so I did that for a couple months. and things started to feel a little better, but it still wasn't enough. And so I just kept going from doctor to doctor and ended up doing endoscopies and went to a different doctor that said maybe it was my gut motility thing, like the peristalysis that your gut makes to move food through. He's like maybe that's slow and that's why you have. Like gastroporosis?

Yeah, something like that. And I got that diagnosis too. Yeah, and because most of my symptoms were gut related, so they only focused on the gut. They didn't really think about mental or anything else that could be causing those symptoms. So, yeah, it was a long road. So where did it go after that? It went to, I was talking to my acupuncturist, and she has a doctor that she refers all her Lyme and cancer patients to. So she was like, you should just go see her because I was saying,

the main reason why I wanted to find a different doctor that was looking for a more holistic OBGYN. And she had said, oh, this doctor does women's health as well as is Lyme literate and, you know, helps people with cancer. So I decided to make an appointment with her. And I'd started to see on Instagram more everyone talking about Lyme and being misdiagnosed for years and years. and I'd realize, oh, wow, that's the one thing I feel like I haven't been tested for. So I made an appointment with her and told her, hey, I have first appointment. I was like, I want to be tested for Lyme. It's the one thing I haven't been tested for.

So she did it. And then that ended up being what was wrong with me. Wow. So how do they test for that? I'm kind of like Lyme illiterate. I have a friend who has it and I see how detrimental it is, but I don't really know much about the diagnosing process. Yeah.

So there's different tests, there's the Western Blot test and basically just different tests that go through the CDC and the CDC has a pretty big control over how they test. And so there's a company calledigenics and they are based out of San Francisco, I think, or up in that area. And they are an independent lab so they don't have to go through the CDC. So they can test a wider strain of Lyme bacteria and co-infections and other. types of diseases so I decided to go with them because I had multiple people say like that is the only way to go the CDC only tests like a couple of strains and if you don't perfectly match up to those strains they'll say oh no you don't have it so when I did theigenics test it came up I think with four positive different bands of the Lyme bacteria and only two of them were on the CDC list because

they compare it to like if you were to go through the CDC what would your diagnosis have been CDC would have said I was negative because two of the four bands were only approved by them the other two were not so wow yeah wow I wonder how many people get passed over because of that oh my gosh I think it's like 300,000 people a year get Lyme and most are misdiagnosed or undiagnosed and wow is a lot of doctors confused symptoms with maybe MS or lupus. And yeah, I mean, I was first diagnosed with Hashimoto's. That was the first real diagnosis I had gotten besides leaky gut.

And Lyme can trigger autoimmune diseases. So ever since I've been treating Lyme now, I've gotten my thyroid checked multiple times and it's completely fine again. Wow. Yeah. And what about your gut? Pretty much almost back to normal. Wow. Yeah.

Yeah. So are there other treatments for Lyme besides B-Venom therapy? There are lots of treatments for Lyme, but B-Venom is the only one that can cure it. So there are tons of scientific studies done on bee venom and many other diseases, but mainly for lime and how it pokes holes in the biofilms that are around the Lyme bacteria. And it completely eradicates it from your system. other treatments can make you feel symptom-free and make you feel better, but the Lyme bacteria goes and hides in your bone, tissue, limp, brain, and it won't be in your bloodstream.

So even if you were to go get tested, it'd probably come up negative. And so some people think, oh, I'm Lyme-free, but no, it's just because the bacteria knew it was being attacked, so it went into hiding. And it can come out years down the road. It can come out from a trauma. So there's lots of therapies. There's antibiotics.

There's ozone therapy, hyperbaric chambers, IVs, herbal protocols and tinctures. How do you get bee venom therapy? Like what is that process like? You use live honey bees. I used to get some bees shipped to me. I still do sometimes from a beekeeper. There's one in California and one in South Carolina, I think, is where they are. And I would get those shipped to me.

every two, three weeks. But now I have a beekeeper in Topanga that I met at like an event. And he asked if he, I could, if he wanted to supply bees for me. So I said, okay. So I go to him now and get the bees. And I have a little home for them that I just keep in my bathroom or in a closet. They don't get out. They're in this little box. And I feed them every day. I give them water. I put them in like my butterfly enclosure thing so they can fly and pee and poop. So they're pretty much my pets, little ladies. And yeah, you do, you work your way up from one sting three times a week. But I stayed at one sting for about six weeks. You do it down your spine because your spine is your highway of your nervous system. So the venom goes into the spinal area. It just

goes to all points of the body versus being localized in like your arm or something. So you do it down your spine and you work your way up to 10 stings. So 10 stings is the max that you will do in a session. You do. And does somebody put the bee on you? You can have someone help you. I do it myself. Most people end up doing it themselves.

That way they are in full control. You don't have to rely on anyone. If your husband's not around and you miss a sting session, then you're upset that you missed one. So it's just best to do it on your own. That way you are in total control. And obviously the people that are super, super sick that can't do that, yes, they have someone help them. And yeah, you work your way up to 10 stings and then you do it three times a week. And then you detox on your off days.

So you do one day on, one day on, one day off, one day on, one day on, two days off. And then you go back to one day on, one day off. How do you get them to sting you? I hold them first with my fingers and their stinger will hit like your thumbnail. They can't sting your nail and then you reach back and you just place them on your skin and it's their natural reaction. So they just sting you. Some don't because they're old and they're, bees only live four to six weeks.

So mine, I can keep alive for about three weeks and some just get old and I put them outside. I'm like, okay, you can go. You don't want to do it. It's okay. You can go. Thank you, though. What if you're allergic to bees? You can work with a progressive allergist to, I think it's just pretty much micro-stinue.

And work up your tolerance to the bee venom. You can reverse a bee allergy if you are anaphylactic. If you just have severe swelling or something, that doesn't mean you're allergic. That just means like you obviously have a reaction to them, but a pure total allergy is anaphylactic to it. So your throat closes. Yeah. Interesting. I read or heard again, I don't know, that you were going, you switch birth control, right?

Oh, yeah. And that had an effect as well. Yeah. I'm curious about that. So I'd started birth control, I think, when I was 18 or 19. And then when I was 23, I wanted to switch brands. And my doctor had said, oh, yeah, that's a great brand to switch to. I think it was, no, what was it called?

I don't know. I forgot the name of it. But it's the lowest amount of. Lowestrian. Lowestrian F.E. Or something like that. Yeah. Lowestrine.

Yeah. Yeah. That one made me homicidal. Oh my God. Slash suicidal. I just went back and forth between the two. And I had to get off it after a week. Yeah.

I thought that one would be the best option because it was the lowest amount of estrogen or something or hormones. And my doctor said, oh, yeah, that one's great. Not with that doctor anymore. I just like to say that. But anyway, my period completely disappeared for the first year. I thought, okay, like, kind of nice not to have one. And then the second year, I was like, okay, this is weird. Like, there's nothing.

There is no sign of anything happening down there. And then, because the other birth control I was on, I would still get my period regularly. I still had symptoms of PMS before. And my doctor had said, oh, it's fine. You're modeling. You probably don't want to have to deal with a period. That is such a bad sign. So, doctor's like, yeah, you should be happy.

You don't have your period. No. So I just made a decision. It was probably three years and it was gone. And I'd made a decision. Look, I had a boyfriend now. We were serious and I'd said, I'm, I need to get off this because something's wrong. I don't like not having a period. I feel like I am a baby again. I don't feel like a woman. So I went off of it and it took nine months of consistent acupuncture to, pretty much get it back and it was still on and off for a couple months after that after i gotten it back and now it's pretty consistent again so it took definitely like a year or so to get it back and it's crazy so with all of these symptoms going on like i know for me if it's not my gut it's my hormones and if it's not my hormones it's the next thing and there's it's whackamil there's always something and there there's so much information out there there's so much information out there there's many different ways of practicing medicine or alternative health and healing in general, acupuncture

and colonics and this and that and the other thing. There's so much. How did you, like when you're in the thick of it, how do you navigate finding what's right for you and kind of shutting off the noise and really like just finding a solution? When I was in the thick of all my health issues, I never once turned to social media to try to figure out what was wrong with me or see if other people had the same issues because I feel like the health and wellness scene on Instagram has really exploded in the last, at least maybe three years. I don't know. It's just there's a lot more accounts out there now sharing things. And the only tool I had was Google and some doctors. But those doctors, I wasn't really, they weren't aligning with me.

what I wanted and I never really decided, oh, the holistic route is the way I want to go. It just kind of happened. The more research I did, I was like, well, that kind of sounds better to me. So I kind of just started going down the holistic route and slowly got into acupuncture and was experimenting with colonics and realized like, oh, those made me feel better. And I think there's just so much noise now when it comes to health issues. Everyone's trying to sell you something and I, you know, you have to become your own doctor. And I get so many messages from people, you know, they're sick and they just want like the shortcut. They want the cliff notes of how to get better. And that's not how I did it. I'm sure

that's not how you did it. Like it takes, you have to do your own research and it takes a lot of time and the amount of knowledge I have now is crazy but it's all because of things that I personally went through and I really think you just have to trust your gut go from doctor to doctor if your doctor's saying something that just doesn't sit right with you then find another opinion like you don't have to stay with your doctor and I think just tests don't guess and just really tune in to yourself and your symptoms and if you really think something's wrong stick with that and just keep researching. Like, researching is the way to go because there's, I tried every single elimination diet.

And yeah, there's plenty of people that are like, oh, that one's not good. That one's not good. Well, how are you going to know if it's not good if you don't try it? I think it's really, it can be really beneficial and relatively harmless to just change your diet. So, yeah, I think just be in control and try things out. Like the easiest thing people always ask me about, like, well, how do you know? like what's triggering you? Like food journals are better than any test in my opinion.

Again, I'm not a professional, but having gone through it, like that was. I have so many food journals. The most illuminating thing because I always thought like, no, I eat really clean. Like I know what I'm eating. But then if you actually write down like, I ate this and then 30 minutes later, how do you feel? Like every little snack to you're like, whoa, okay. Yeah, I'm like, oh, wow, I eat the entire day. I'm eating all simple mills all day.

Yeah, yeah. Nothing wrong with it, but when we eat multiple times. CETA chips. Oh, my God. It's so good. Yeah. And I was like, oh, wow, like this thing is making me like really tired after like, okay, I'm going to try taking that out.

Yeah. I just think people need to just be more confident in the fact that they want to be in control and not let a doctor bulldoze them into a certain path and just stand your ground. That's how I got through all of it. Yeah. And I like that you're encouraging people to listen to their bodies because like we know our bodies best. Nobody else knows how we feel. We're the one in it.

We're living in it 24-7. The doctor has you for 20 minutes. Right. And they're trying their best. But. And there's something too, like walking into a doctor's office and looking like a young, vibrant, healthy woman. Like they don't think anything is wrong with you. The first thing the functional doctor said to me, the first functional doctor said to me.

was you look too healthy to be in here. What's wrong with you? I'm like, well, there's a lot wrong with me. And clearly I look fine. Right. And what ended up happening was he, he had me probably within the first six months of when I think I got bit from Lyme and he didn't even think to test of Lyme.

And now I'm just like, if only I have been more educated and maybe Lyme, I could have brought it up to him. But, you know, like knowledge is power. Right. And people, I get so many messages, just people like not wanting to do the research or just, hey, can you send me the link to that? No, I'm sorry. I had to do all the research in the past. You can do it too.

And don't you want to be confident going into your doctor's office knowing all the questions you want to ask and like maybe what possible answers could be and how to navigate that? So also make a list to go into your doctor. I love it. Of all your symptoms. That way you're prepared because you only got short time in there. I got my questions loaded, ready to go. That's smart. Yeah.

I make the most of it because it's expensive. Yeah. And we're all so different. And that's the other thing. So like what works for you is probably not going to work for me. And it's probably not going to work for Kennedy and the next person and the next person. Like sometimes I think like if there had just been a pill that I could have taken that would have made me better, would I have done it? And I don't think I would because now I have all this knowledge and I understand my body so much better.

I'm so attuned. to it for better or worse. Sometimes I'm like, really? Like, this sucks. I'm so sensitive, but. It was a pain to get to that point. But now I am grateful for everything that I had to go through, honestly, because now that I'm on the other side of it.

I'm like, okay, like, there was a point to all of it. And now I can educate others and empower others to take control of their health. And that's what you're doing with your account. Yeah. So how did that come to fruition? So I had some friends. on my modeling account, I was slowly starting to post some health tips and recipes. And I could just tell it wasn't really, it didn't fit.

Everyone there was just there for like modeling photos. And so I'm like, this sucks. Like, this is what I'm really into. I want to be able to share about it. And I had a couple girlfriends say, you just need to start your own account, a place to post your beauty tips and recipes and how you travel. I was so scared. I didn't want to do it. I thought it was just so scary to put myself out there and be vulnerable and be open about what I actually enjoy outside of modeling because modeling has been my life for the last 13 years and it started to become me and I forgot like what passions did I have. So I ended up starting the account. It took me six months to pull the trigger and finally do it. But it also was so hard to find a handle. a name for it. Oh my God. I love it. How did you come up with wealthy belly? I had, so I was in the

middle of all my gut issues, so I knew I wanted it to be something like belly related or gut health, something like that. And my boyfriend and I had been throwing around names for a couple days, maybe even weeks. And we had just finished a hike. And we got in the car and he goes, oh, because I really liked how wellness and healthy mixed together. You can make it wealthy. so and it's not well by belly I have a lot of people I'm like some old English okay

so my old one was the blonde files because I wanted to be anonymous when I started mine but it was like two it was two E's in the beginning because somebody had the blonde files so everyone was like the blonde E files

and I'm like E file E files no what? Yeah so we got in the car and he was like wealthy belly and I that's it oh my gosh and I go on because we had so many other names they were all taken

some of these people have zero followers and I was DMing them like hey can I buy your handle from you and there's no response they haven't been active since 2014 none of them are even active I think I emailed Instagram to be like this I'm getting trademarked like they don't give a shit yeah even just my name Holly Owens my Instagram handle is underscore Holly Owens. And the normal Holly Owens is like some old woman with zero post, zero followers.

And I'm like, get me your handle. Now I'm like, whatever. But and so I went on Instagram and typed it in. I'm like, oh, my God. No one has it. This is amazing. So I took it. And then I think two days later, I did my first post and freaked out and like,

threw my phone across it. It was like, oh my God, what am I doing? I have zero followers. I'm starting all over. But you grew really quickly, right? because when did you start the account? Pretty much in like three weeks, it's been two years. Wow.

Yeah. So that's really fast. Yeah. And what do you attribute that to? I think just because I don't have a schedule that I post on or anything. I don't post every day. I just post what I want. I really got into stories.

And I think people really like seeing your day to day, seeing your face, seeing things that aren't perfectly edited or filtered. So I got really into stories. And I don't know. I think I just was vulnerable and posted tips. And I have had some really great friends that have like a following. And they would share my account. And I was always like, oh, my God.

You just gave me a thousand followers. I love you. Thank you. He was such a rush. I was like, oh. But yeah, I don't know. It just kind of, I think, has grown from other accounts sharing it and being vulnerable and taking people along my health journey. It's cool now to look back and see how far I've come and watch all my old stories and think, wow, man, I was in a dark place.

I didn't look it, but I was going through some. It's like your diary. Yeah. So it's just like my video diary. And it's really cool to go back and watch those videos. And it must be kind of nice that, like, Instagram isn't your job. Yeah. So you have the freedom to like kind of do whatever you want and not be like a slave to it.

I'm not all in it. So, you know, I'm grateful I have modeling to be the way I make my money. And now I get side things from Instagram. So that's a little extra cash on the side. I didn't start doing brand things until, I mean, less than a year ago, I think. So I really took my time and just didn't do sponsored things. I just put out things I really wanted to. And I still do that.

But the brands that I do work with now are brands that I've already used or do some research on and realize like, okay, this is a good brand. I don't just promote anything. So, yeah. So how is modeling now compared to then? And how did it change throughout all your health stuff? The modeling world has definitely changed. The size of a model has changed. It's not as they don't want the sick looking girls, which thank goodness.

Finally. And they just want healthy girls. So, yeah, it's changed and it's been great that it's changed. When I first started, I was still so young that it was probably best that I wasn't so in it because I didn't see maybe how crazy the girls were with their diets or drugs or whatever they were doing to stay as skinny as they could. So it's changed a lot. And honestly, now I show up on jobs and people on the, like within the crew were already like, hey, I follow you on wealthy belly. I'm like, what?

So the two worlds are kind of combining, but that's cool. Wealthy belly will always be, we'll never really be modeling. related so yeah how do you take care of yourself because I would imagine there's a lot of stress and you probably travel and I'm sure it's like a kind of can be a fast-paced life so how do you make sure that you're keeping your health in check now and and just managing all of that the main way I've always managed it even the busiest I've ever been when I was traveling to the east coast like probably almost once a week for a year. The main way I made sure I was staying healthy and feeling good was through diet.

So I would bring my food. I would travel with my cooler bag and ice packs and that would be my carry-on and have literally five days worth of food in it. If I were going somewhere that I knew probably didn't have the best food options. So yeah, food was my main anchor to making sure I stayed. feeling good and supplements, sleep, dry brushing or working out, making sure I got a sweat in, and just kind of making sure I really bedged out after a shoot, even if it's just in my hotel room before the next shoot, just making sure I really rested a lot because there's definitely a lot

of traveling within this career. I can't imagine. Let's do some listener questions. Okay. How do or did your health issues affect your job? Well, I was really good at hiding my health issues and how I was feeling. I remember some jobs sitting there just in the deepest fog and not wanting to act like I was so happy and full of life and energized, but I just powered through. And it was really interesting. I feel like the universe slowed down for me when I was feeling my worst. So even last year, modeling was pretty slow for me. And I feel like it was just because I was really trying to figure out what was wrong with me.

And I think the universe just was like, hey, we're going to put this off to the side. So you have time to dive into your health and figure out what's wrong. And the second I started feeling better, I've been working more than ever, like in my entire career. And it's been wild. but I didn't really have the option to say no to jobs when I was feeling like crap. So I would just really sad, but I would really push through and just try to make sure I could do it. And the beautiful thing about modeling is sometimes you don't work every day. So you have five days off and then maybe you work once.

So I did have a lot of downtime. So if I had a nine to five, probably would have been really, really brutal. So I feel for all the sick people out there that are still holding their jobs so hard. Yeah. Especially with like that fatigue and the brain fog. Your brain just does not work. I couldn't work when I was going through that. Yeah. What about like, I mean, were you ever like super bloated on a shoot day?

Oh my God. Yeah. What do you do? The amount of sucking in I've done throughout the years. Like I never want to suck in again. No, I used to get so, so bloated, like six months pregnant type of bloat. And I remember there was one where I was doing a lingerie shoot. I was so scared to eat my lunch. But I did.

And I remember feeling so bloated. I just was like, I looked in pain probably in all the photos. I was trying so hard. I'm like, oh my God, oh, my God, can we be done with this shot? Can they just Photoshop? I mean, what did they do? I mean, from the front, I don't think I looked that bloated. But it was if I, like, turned to the side.

I'm like, okay. I'm like, really suck it in as I walk back to the dressing room, be like, see, everything's fine. Now I'm like so open on shoots being like, guys, we got to do these shots before lunch because I'm not wearing that after lunch. So you bring your own lunch to work, right? Yeah, I still do that. Still do pretty much. What's like a typical lunch for you?

Normally some greens and maybe leftover roasted salmon, maybe some roasted veggies with olive oil and apple cider vinegar. That's kind of my go-to or some avocado and chicken or something with greens. So I kind of keep it pretty simple. And then I bring little snacks. So I'll bring like my seaweed snacks or maybe some nuts. I make my smoothie in the morning and I bring that in a little cooler thing. Yeah. Keep it simple. How do you deal with guilt after indulging? Good one. Something newer that I've been able to really move past. I used to eat and then be so upset that I ate the amount I did and think,

okay, tomorrow, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to work out twice tomorrow and only eat this and that or do liquid diet. And it was just such a like gnarly cycle that now I just realized. that one meal is probably not really going to make a difference. I'll probably wake up feeling completely fine now that I've done a lot of gut healing work. And sometimes even just test myself where I know that, oh, I probably ate a little more than I should and then I don't work out the next day just to prove to myself, see, it's okay. You're fine or I'll just go on a little walk. I don't try to like get back into that negative cycle of eating, working half.

out, eating, working out, and then starving yourself or something. So I just really realize it's not really going to make a big difference. I relax. We're human. It's okay to enjoy. Sometimes you just really got to put it down for a second, take a couple breaths and think, is this really what I want? And most of the time it's, no, I don't really want this. And if it is, go for it. But really try to be more mindful about why you're eating. Okay, well, now we're going to kind of jump. Something totally different. What's your skincare regimen? You have amazing skin.

Boy. I love skincare products. I love naturopathica products. I use all non-toxic clean products. I don't want to use products that are full of chemicals and things. So I do a lot of masks. The naturopathica cherry mask is one of my favorites. And I go see Ivan.

He's the beauty sandwich. he does treatments through radio frequency, so it's similar to... He trains at our gym. I know him really well. No way. Yeah. A dog pound? Or wait.

He used to train it at tighter you where I trained. Oh my God. Yeah. I met him like right when he had moved to L.A. Yeah. He's been here for a little over a year. He's amazing. Yeah.

So he's blown up. He's doing like every major Victoria's Secret model now and celebrity. So I'm like, hey, don't forget me. So I've been seeing... He's like the kind of human being. Yeah. I've seen him for about a year now. And so it's basically an alternative to Botoxin filler.

And I go to skin worship. I see Emma for facials. And yeah, eat clean, drink a lot of water, eat good food. You know, clean skin starts from within. So if you take care of your gut, it will show through your skin. Yeah. So when you were having gut issues, was your skin? It would.

I had eczema. You did. Around my eyes and around my mouth. And then once I started treating Lyme, it was. with the bee venom, I broke out like crazy. I had so much, so many blemishes all over my face for a little while. They would come and go, but I knew that was just a sign of the lime dying off and detox too. But yeah, no, I've had my skin's pretty much back to normal now. So what would you suggest to somebody who might be going through like these uncomfortable symptoms

and they're trying to figure out what to do or what's wrong. I would say first write down all your symptoms, that way you can visually see what is wrong. And my route is just to always start with something more functional or an integrative doctor or holistic doctor or nutritionist, get test work done, and see if anything, you know, triggers anything. thing through the test and um yeah just try to stay positive i know it's crappy and so many people want to hibernate and go away i did it too um but try to meditate find a good doctor that you really

like that you feel like listens to you and doesn't try to push you out the door and yeah just make your list and try to stick through it keep going Love it. All right. Well, where can everybody find you? I am at Wealthy Belly on Instagram. It's W-E-L-L-T-H-Y, B-E-L-L-Y. Yay. Thank you. Thanks. Okay. I hope you enjoyed that episode. As always, if you enjoyed it, if you liked the podcast, if you feel compelled to support me, I would really appreciate it if you took a minute and went over to rate. and review if you haven't and subscribe if you want to. It really makes a big difference on my end, and it is enabling me to keep doing this and take it even further. So I appreciate you guys, and I will talk to you next week.