Well with Arielle Lorre - 281: How Protein Changed My life, My Annual Beauty Schedule, Hormones and Acne and more!

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

In this solo episode I answer questions from listeners and discuss how I manage hormone fluctuations, how I healed my acne, my most effective tools for anxiety, how eating in the morning and focusing on protein changed my life, intermittent fasting, a breakdown of what beauty treatments I do annually, healthy hair tips, and whether to stay or leave a relationship.This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit ARTICLE.COM/BLONDE and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout. Go to AloMoves.com and use the code BLONDE20 in all caps for a free 30 day trial and 20% off an annual membership.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Find more balance with BetterHelp. Visit Betterhelp.com/files today for 10% off your first month. Get $10 off your first order and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com and use the code blonde at checkout.Visit www.ritual.com/blonde for 30% off your first month.Produced by Dear MediaSee 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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The following podcast is a dear media production. Welcome to the Blonde Files podcast. I'm your host, Ariel Lori, and I'm here to talk all things wellness. From how to achieve optimal health and well-being to the best beauty tips and everything in between, no topic is off limits. I know there's so much information out there, so I'm bringing on expert guests and sharing my own experiences to help you sift through all the wellness stuff without the BS. Enjoy the show. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. I feel a little unhinged today. I'm just going to go for it, TMI, but I'm about to get my period. So I basically feel

like I took an Adderall. I don't know if that happens to anybody else. Like, I'll feel amazing a few weeks before my period because my progesterone is popping. Like, I feel calm and happy. I usually sleep amazing. I know when my progesterone is peaking because I fall asleep at like eight o'clock at night. And then it drops and it's like mania. Like I am a mania. I definitely think I have PMDD. It's something that my OBGYN has suggested to me in the past. If you don't know what that is, it's premenstrual dysphoric disorder. I will get into that. It's essentially just really bad PMS. And I'm sure it kind of goes hand in hand with PCOS and irregular periods and hormones. Maybe not. I could be wrong. But anyway, it's just pretty extreme PMS. And it can be, really debilitating some months. Some months are fine and then others it's pretty awful. And if you have ever experienced that, I know you can relate. But anyway, I totally digress. So let's see where this episode goes. It could be very all over the place. Actually, somebody asked me how to deal with

hormones and anxiety. She said it makes her crazy every month. So I guess we'll just dive in to this subject since it's relevant to me right now. But I totally get it. Like I said, some months I am fine and other months I'm like very unwell. And I think I am one of those people and I think this is considered PMDD or premenstrual dysphoric disorder who even though my hormones are quote unquote balanced, it's like my brain chemistry is just extremely sensitive to hormone fluctuations. So I've tried a few things, including cycling bioidentical progesterone, which I actually loved because it was pretty calming. It had that kind of like natural Xanax effect on me, which you know I love. But I was bleeding all the time. And I think we just had to get the dosing rate, but I stopped taking it to

see how I could maybe increase progesterone more naturally. And then other things came up. And that was like put on the back burner. But then every month I'm like, damn, I need to do that. But anyway, that's one thing to explore bioidentical hormones in general. I know there is some controversy around them. I remember Dr. Geller said that when you take hormones, whether they are synthetic or bioidentical, your body is essentially not incentivized anymore to produce hormones. So you're kind of like making your body's natural ability to produce hormones go offline. I'm not sure I want to do that quite yet. Although every month I'm like, just give me the pills. Like give me the bandaid, give me the pills. But depending on how bad and debilitating your anxiety and your PMS or your emotions,

whatever, are around your period, I know there's also SSRIs that you can take either all the time or there's one that you can take just the last two weeks of your cycle. I guess I should put a disclaimer. I'm not a doctor. Obviously, that you would have to talk to a doctor about this anyway. But these are just options that I have explored. So you can cycle that. SSRI. It's something that I talked about with my OBGYN, but I haven't done that either yet. So I can't speak to it and how effective it is and how much it works. So how I deal with it personally is I do all the wellness things and usually that carries me through. So I am talking like no phone in the morning when I first wake up. I go straight outside to get that natural light because it helps

with melatonin production and circadian rhythm, which is obviously so important all the time, but especially around your period because I don't know about you, I get insomnia really badly. So I'm doing that. I'm doing my 10-minute breath work outside, which really helps to calm my nervous system. Oh, and by the way, these are things that I do for just regular anxiety or if I'm feeling off as well. So sometimes I'm too agitated around my period to sit there and do like a meditation, but I'll do a walking meditation or just make sure I'm moving my body in some way because I have that really agitated energy. I take all the magnesium. I take three and eight or glycinate in the morning or both. I also really love the moon juice mini-do throughout the day. It's

electrolytes and magnesium. I have a code. I can't remember what it is. Go back to last week's episode. I think it's in there in the show notes or two weeks ago. So I love that. I will take a few hundred milligrams of altheonine if I'm really anxious and I will just power through my day. And then at the end of the day, again, it's like those nervous system calming practices. So getting off my phone, taking a bath or a hot shower, I'm drinking my Ned magnesium. And if I'm really worked up, then I will do like the Ned de-stress blend CBD or the sleep oil. which will pretty much knock me out in the best way. I don't feel weird. I don't feel like I've taken a drug. I don't get a groggy hangover the next day. Like melatonin gives me sometimes. So those are like when I'm pulling out all the stops. And at night I will also like read to try to distract myself and just try to get to sleep. I also love contrast therapy. So cold plunge and sauna if you can.

whether you have them at your house or you can find somewhere near where you live, it's just so good for my nervous system. That's kind of like the biggest benefit that I get out of it. I know people do it for inflammation and detox and all of that, but I just feel super calm after I do it. And then, of course, diet is important. I feel like I am just listing a million things. But like I said, I do pull out all the stops and I have to like really lean heavily on the things that I know are going to make me feel good because those hormones or even like I said if you're dealing with anxiety or just, you know, a difficult time with your mental health or something when it feels totally out of your control. Like these are the things that I can control that I know at least help

support my body. So diet-wise, I make sure I'm eating lots of protein and fat to keep my blood sugar stable. If you're kind of all over the place with your blood sugar, you know, with it spiking and crashing, that is definitely going to exacerbate everything. I know it does for me. Like, it can make me feel absolutely terrible. So if you're listening to this and you're like, damn, that is a lot or you can't relate to the feeling of absolute sheer panic before period. Consider yourself lucky. but I think the most important thing to remember, whether it's hormones, mental health, anxiety, I can't speak to depression really because I've never experienced that. But like I said, any, like difficult season is to remember that it passes and just try.

I know it's counterintuitive, but try not to fight it so much. Like I don't feel like these wellness things that I do are really an attempt to make the feeling go, way. I just feel like they support me through that time. So it's kind of like that saying what you resist persists. So if you're fighting it, fighting it, resisting it, like it's only going to seem more pronounced because you're just focusing on it so much. So I try to just notice and accept and then do what I can to nourish my body and know that it will pass eventually. And then if it's hormones, just enjoy the shit out of those two good weeks before the whole roller-covers. coaster starts again. Anyway, I have shared my hair health journey on Instagram, and I'm talking about it

in this episode as well. I feel like my hair is in a really good place right now, but that was not really the case last summer I was experiencing a lot of thinning and shedding, particularly around my hairline. And at the time, all of my friends, both in the medical professions, so a plastic surgeon, two nurse practitioners and my friends in the hair industry, my colorist, and my stylist, and more, everybody recommended NutriFle. So I started taking NutriFle last summer and I started seeing growth a few months after. Consistency is key, but it truly works. Nutriful is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement clinically shown to improve visible thickness and strength. So from postpartum to menopause to plant-based lifestyles, no matter your life stage.

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Nutrafol.com, spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L dot com promo code blonde. That's neutrofoil.com Code blonde. Hi, I'm Pia Berenjini, the creative director of L-P-A, an entrepreneur, a wife, and a dog mom based in Los Angeles. This is my new podcast, Everything is the Best, where we basically ask interesting people, how did you go from zero to yacht? I'm always curious how to help people became successful, and I figured you would be too. Get on the internet with me. Let's laugh. Let's cry, let's overshare, and let's get inspired to live our best lives. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. It's all for you, baby. Thanks for listening. Love you, mean it. I don't know about you guys,

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of $100 or more. This show is brought to you by Better Help. I don't know how you guys feel around the end of the year, season, and the holidays, but I often find myself struggling a little bit with anxiety. There's always a lot of stress around work and just more deadlines. And I get a little bit reflective. Sometimes I feel sadness. I have a lot of changes going on in my life right now. And this is a really important time to lean on support and tools that can help navigate all of these emotions. So for me, one of those things is therapy. It can really be a bright spot amid all of the stress and change. It's really something that I look forward to.

It helps to make me feel more grounded and gives me the tools to manage everything going on in my life. So right now I'm actually seeing my therapist twice a week, which I don't always do, but it really helps me to navigate challenging times. And for me, when I am experiencing any kind of emotional stress, it also shows up in my body. So it's really important for me to have somebody who I can talk through things with so that I don't get those kind of physiological manifestations of stress, anxiety, sadness, all of that. It just really helps to keep me clear. It also helps me to learn positive coping skills. It helps me to set boundaries. It empowers me to be the best version of myself. So it's not only for when things are hard. And if you're thinking of starting therapy, give better help a try. It is

entirely online. It's designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. All you have to do is fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and you can switch therapists any time for no additional charge. So find your bright spot this season with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash files today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash files. Since I'm talking Horn. H-E-L-P-E-L-L-S-Files. Since I'm talking hormones. Let's talk hormonal acne. I got questions about that and just my acne experience in general. So you've probably seen so many of my videos on this, but I've never really broken down like exactly what I did. And honestly, I didn't do a whole lot. But what I did do seemed to be the right combo for

the acne that I was dealing with. And thankfully, I have really kept it at bay aside from little breakouts during my period here and there. So I think everyone has different triggers and different causes of why they're experiencing breakouts, whether it's hormones, whether it is, I don't know, gut issues. I would imagine there's so many other things that contribute, environmental toxins, things like that. But for me, I never had acne. So I also feel like I am not maybe the most qualified person to speak to it. Mine came out of nowhere last summer. I got acne before I had my breast augmentation. There was no connection there for those who have suggested it. But I started breaking out really badly around the sides of my face, around my jaw, and like really badly under my jaw. So like I said, I've never really had acne before. It was very jarring. I felt like it was just kind of like demoralizing. Not because there's anything to be ashamed of, but if you've struggled with it, you just know how much it can affect your self-esteem and your confidence, especially when you feel like you're doing everything right, you're doing all the things,

and it is just persistent and just will not go away. Like, it really just kind of breaks you down. So I tried everything from cleaning up my diet, which was already pretty good to begin with. Like, I don't eat tons of dairy, gluten, seed oils, sugar, things like that. But at the time, I stopped ordering out all together because you never really know what you're getting when you order out. when you order out, like even from healthy places, I know that they put a ton of things like salt and oils and sugar and stuff like that. So I stopped doing that. I tried celery juice in the morning because I know it's worked for some people. I mean, I am not a medical medium person. Don't worry. But I have seen people talk about how much it cleared up their skin. So I tried that and I just

could not really stick to it. It was just kind of gross to me. And what else? I went down like all the rabbit holes of all the products and supplements. I thought at one point that maybe I had fungal acne, so I was doing like head and shoulders and selson blue masks on my face, just probably drying the shit out of it, making it so much worse. I was doing the sea buckthorn oil, which I actually love. But anyway, you get the idea. So I would get some temporary relief and then it would come back with a vengeance. So finally, I did two things at once. I started taking spyrinalactum. at a pretty low dose. So it lowers the, maybe the testosterone. I think it lowers your testosterone, but something about like the testosterone receptors or something about the oil. I don't know.

You guys can tell me what I got wrong about that in my DMs. But it's known to really help your skin. So I did low dose spiroinolactone. And then at the same time, I went on the Jan Marini system. I promise Jan Marini does not pay me. I just am. I'm passionate about sharing what helped me transform my skin. And that system did so much more than get rid of my acne. Like it completely changed the quality, the thickness, the bounciness, the tone, the hydration, the texture, everything. It changed my skin. And I've gotten so many messages from you guys and other people online who said that it did the same thing for them. So that's why I share it.

But I was doing it simultaneously with taking the spyrinolactone. So it's hard to say, like, if the skincare alone would have done the trick for me, although, like I said, a lot of people have messaged me and said it totally cleared their acne and changed their skin. And it's supposed to be one of the best products and systems that there is for adult acne and, like, aging skin. So you kind of get that combo. So I did that I stopped taking stress. Bureau a couple months ago, and I still do the Janmarini, and my whole breakdown is on my website. I absolutely love it still. And I will say that in the past year, I've also incorporated supplements, like tailored to my specific needs based on blood tests. So I'm sure that has helped.

I also incorporate things like electrolytes and colostrum, and I feel like those have probably helped, like just being hydrated is so important. Gut help is so important. Got help is so important. and I take things for my gut help on an as needed basis based on my symptoms, based on what my nutritionist tells me to do. And when I say nutritionist, he doesn't tell me what to eat, but he basically like orders a lot of lab tests and he is able to really interpret those and figure out what I need to do to get to kind of my optimal health. So I also feel like I'm super cognizant. like I said before of my blood sugar and keeping that balanced, which has totally changed my body and changed how I feel. Like, this was not the intention and I don't want to sound toxic or

anything, but I probably lost 10 pounds without trying or thinking about it. And I'm pretty small. So that's kind of a lot. People definitely have noticed it, like just over the summer and the fall. And yeah, it was never my intention. I didn't really set out to lose weight, but it's just so so crazy how my body leaned out when I increased my protein intake and started eating when I wake up. So all of those things, I'm sure, contributed to my skin clearing up as well. And it's hard to say, like, what part of the recipe made the biggest impact. But the skincare definitely, definitely did change my skin like in a complete 180 aside from just the acne. Since I mentioned protein, somebody asked about protein intake and the blood sugar roller coaster.

So until I changed my ways, I really didn't even realize how much of that roller coaster I was on and how much it was affecting me in so many ways. Like I used to wake up, drink my AG1, drink my macha, have some macadamia nuts or something, which I still do. But then I would not eat until, I don't know, 10.30 or 11 maybe. And then I'd have my protein oats. And then usually I would kind of skip lunch because I ate a late breakfast, but I would have like a smoothie or a bar or something. And then I would be crashing, like crashing a few hours before dinner. And I would snack on something and then be starving at dinner. So I know I've probably talked about this adenosium, but that was my norm. And back in I think February or March, Rob Yang, again, that nutritionist, who is more than a nutritionist. I just don't know what else to call him. But he and I did really comprehensive blood work. So nine pages looking at everything from just like a regular CBC, like a complete blood count and metabolic panel to vitamins, cardiac health, kidney liver function, inflammation hormones, thyroid, everything. And of course,

glucose was part of that fasting glucose. So what we found was that my blood sugar was really high first thing in the morning, fasting, like high risk category and then throughout the day I had all these symptoms of low blood sugar. So that basically indicated that I was on that roller coaster and the main tweaks that I made were eating within 30 minutes of waking up. And I'm not usually hungry, but something I can always eat is a Kalina plain coconut yogurt. I love that brand because it's thick. And I add protein powder, some nuts, seeds, berries. So that's like 20 grams of protein, which isn't a ton, but it's better than nothing. And then I feel really good and stable until lunch. Like, just my energy is consistent.

My appetite is consistent. Sometimes I'll get hungry before lunch and I'll have like half of a perfect bar. I'm obsessed with those. Or I love chomps because those are just straight protein. And then I'll have lunch, which is almost always leftover dinner. So some kind of protein, some rice or sweet potato and some vegetables. then I eat an early dinner around like six usually, 536. And again, that's protein, fiber, fat, some carbs. And when I say I have like no cravings and really stable energy, it's kind of nuts. No pun intended.

That was such a dad joke. But really just focusing on protein, eating when I wake up, those two things changed my energy, changed my appetite, changed my body. Like I said, just to the point where this will sound annoying, but it's true, I'm actually trying to put on a little weight because I feel like it leaned me out too much. And it has nothing to do with workouts because I really haven't been working out since August. It's really just the diet stuff. So yeah, now I'm getting back into working out. But really just those tweaks, like it's crazy. So I would recommend if you're interested in this, go back and listen to my episode with Rob Yang. I think it was either last April or May. You can just search his name, Robert Yang or Rob Yang in the podcast app or Spotify, wherever you listen. It will come up. We get into all of this. And I would just say, try eating something with protein within 30 minutes to an hour of waking up and focus on protein in your meals, whether you're vegan or vegetarian or if you eat meat, anybody can do this. And I am telling you, it will change how you look and how you feel. And to circle it back to the skin question, I'm sure it's helped myself. skin significantly. And I have noticed that even my last few periods, I have barely broken out, oh, and maybe TMI, but you guys are my friends. My last few periods have also been normal and coming every month, which is a total revelation for me because I've always been either like every three weeks or like every eight-ish to 12 weeks. And now I'm totally regular,

which I'm sure has something to do with the blood sugar issue because I don't have that stress on my body. And also, I have to say acupuncture. So I was at acupuncture the other day. And Dr. Ping, who you guys know I love, she's like my mom, she felt my pulse. And she was like, hmm. And I said, what does my pulse tell you today? And she said, you're going to get your period today. And I was like, uh, no. And she was like, yeah, today or tomorrow. And I was like, mm-hmm. Okay, sure. Like, I didn't say that. But in my head, I had really no PMS or anything. Sure. And, I was shopping for a dress for a wedding that afternoon and all of a sudden, OMG. The cramps that came were so bad. I was shook, but they only lasted for a couple

hours. And then I got my period. This is a lot of period talk. I'm sorry. You guys probably did not click on this podcast today to hear about my cycle. Anyway, someone did ask what I think about intermittent fasting. So since we're kind of on the subject of eating in the morning, I feel like there are two camps, especially when it comes to women's health in particular. So there are those who swear by intermittent fasting. And then there are those who are more proponents of eating like a high protein breakfast and eating early. So I think you have no way of knowing, as is the case with like any kind of wellness thing. You don't know what's going to work for you unless you try. I tried intermittent fasting and just felt like it was, one, not enjoyable. It was stressing me out because I would get hungry at like nine or ten and be like, well, I can't eat for two more hours. So I'm just screwed. So I guess that was one. Two was it just didn't feel natural for me. I felt like it was a struggle and I felt like it was a stressor on my body. That said, I usually eat dinner, like I said earlier, around 530 or 6, 7 at the absolute latest if I'm feeling.

really crazy or if I'm going out to dinner. But if I eat at like 5.30 and then I wake up around 6 or 630 and then I have breakfast around 7 or 730, maybe sometimes I extend a bit and eat around 8 or 830. But that's usually around 12 to 13, sometimes 14 hours of that like window of quote unquote fasting. But I don't think about it as fasting. So it doesn't feel rigid. Whereas intermittent fasting did feel pretty rigid to me. And it was just like, I don't even know if I was hungry or if I was just thinking about food because I knew I wasn't supposed to eat, but it was just taking up too much mental space for me. Like, I feel like all the wellness things that I do have to take up very little real estate in my brain and my time for it to be sustainable. But I know

that some people love it. I know some people lose weight pretty effortlessly. I think, you know, inevitably, if you're fasting for 16 or 18 hours and your eating window is six to eight hours, I don't know if I'm doing the math, right? You're going to be in a calorie deficit. And some people say their hormones or their periods became more regular. Their digestion becomes more regular. But again, like, you just need to try for yourself or I'll speak to all of us. We need to try things for ourselves because I don't think there's any other way to know how we're going to feel and what is going to make us feel best. And when I talk about all the things that I've done lifestyle-wise and all of the phases I've gone through and all of the extremes and everything, I'm really grateful

for it because it has really honed my intuition with my body. And now, like, all of the things that I do are just pretty effortless. I just don't really. think about it anymore. The same goes for eating when you wake up. If it really does not feel good, maybe it's not for you. So I don't want to sound like I'm telling you guys like eating first thing in the morning is a panacea and it's going to like solve all your issues and you're going to feel amazing. It might not be for you. But I think you need to try if you're feeling like you're on that blood sugar roller coaster or you feel like whatever you're doing is not working for you. So I totally get the not being hungry part, which is why I really experimented until I found something

that I actually enjoy eating early, which is that yogurt thing. But sometimes I can only eat half of it early and then I eat the other half an hour or two later when I'm more hungry. So, you know, I make it work for me and it still does the trick. I told you guys that I am finally getting back into a workout routine after taking a little bit of time off. And my go-to is always aloe moves. So this is my absolute favorite wellness platform because not only does it feature classes like yoga, Pilates, Bar, cardio, hit, but they also have things like relaxing guided meditations, sound baths, and breathwork. So it's really this all in one platform to help me take care of my whole being. So not just my body, but my mind and my spirit

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level with 30% off during your first month. Visit ritual.com slash blonde to Start ritual or add Essential for Women 18 plus to your subscription today. Again, that's ritual.com slash blonde. All right, switching gears. What is my annual schedule of beauty treatments, lasers, etc? I feel like I answered this one recently, maybe. I kind of feel like I'm repeating questions that I've gotten in other recent solo episodes, but these are the questions I get.

So let's break it down. Okay, beauty treatments I do are Botox. would say maybe three times a year, like every three to four months. So three or four times a year, Botox. I do it mainly around my eyes. I do a little under my brows. I usually avoid my forehead because it pushes my brows down. And let's see, sometimes I do my masseter because I clench at night, although I feel like my face and my jaw in particular have gotten extremely narrow. And I kind of want like my jaw back. I actually do like the Botox lip flip thing. I think it's only a couple units. And I used to hate on it because I felt like people got confused between a Botox lip flip and a surgical

lip lift. And I think some people talk about them interchangeably as if they do the same thing, which they don't. But the Botox lip flip, I think is what it's called, can actually look really nice. So a surgical lip lift basically removes skin under the nose to shorten the philtrum and I think muscle. So the filtrum is the length from the base of the nose to the top of the lip. That gets longer as we age. Some people have it longer genetically. There's nothing wrong with that. However, if people feel like they want a different shape to their lips and they cannot achieve that with filler, it can give a really pretty shape. It can also help to balance the face if that filtrum is really long. and it can just give a more youthful look. But you have to go to like the best for this because no matter what you are putting a scar in the middle of your face, maybe the tip of your nose drops a little a la Bella Hadid. I'm not saying she's done it, but I'm just saying like her nose kind of covers that area. But other people don't have that same anatomy.

So you're going to have a scar no matter what. The degree of the scar depends on the doctor and depends on the after. care and I've seen some really, really, like, devastating ones. So yeah, you have to make sure that you're going to the best and that you're really committed to recovery and that you have a good skin type that doesn't scar and all of that. Anyway, but the Botox lip flip can kind of like roll the lip up and out a little bit, at least for me. So you do get a little height in that top lip, which I really like. But also I've seen some bad lip flips where the person like can't smile and their lip is actually push down. So as always, just be careful who you go to for all of this stuff. So anyway,

Botox a few times a year. I know that the internet thinks that I don't even know. I mean, I post my skincare routines and everyone's like, oh, it's Botox. And I'm like, do we think that I just go over my face with like a roller of needles and have Botox injected all over? I know that like, yes, Botox in your forehead can smooth your forehead. Botox around your eyes can smooth that area to a certain degree, but it's just funny to me. So obviously going off on a tangent now, Botox a few times a year. Filler, I don't really do anymore. I did last year like a little bit of like highlight in my cheeks, but I have fat there and I just don't like filler. I feel like it makes my face puffy because I feel like it blocks my lymphatic system. And I just don't think I really need it

anywhere. And then I'll do like a body laser once or twice a year. So far, I'm probably going to increase this a bit, but I'll do like an IPL and then a fractal or something like that. And then I do facials maybe every few months, if that. However, I'm trying to do facial massage monthly because I feel like that really helps to lift things, smooth things. I feel like it even tightens my face. Like obviously it's not going to freeze your face. It's not surgery, anything like that. But I do think there is something to working the muscles in your face and getting rid of puffiness and inflammation and keeping that lymphatic system flowing, all of that. So you guys know I love kosha spa in L.A. It's like my little secret. I don't know. It's my,

well, not so secret because now I'm talking about it. But I absolutely love it. And when I do that, my face is just it looks like I've gotten treatments, but I haven't. So I love doing that. And that's pretty much it. So I know some people are probably like, geez, that's a lot. But for me, especially living in L.A., where getting cosmetic treatments, it's like getting a coffee, I feel like it's not that much. And I do have to say, again, since I got my skincare locked in last year, like, I just don't do as much because I feel like the skincare really maintains just the quality and like the luminosity and all of that of my skin. And I know I preach about this online with my skincare videos, but if you're taking care of your skin, everything else is a cherry on top. It's not

vice versa. It's not like you can just do all the Botox and the filler and get surgery and expect to look young and smooth and all of that if you're not taking care of your skin. Like skin health is priority number one, in my opinion, because we're all going to get old and wrinkly, hopefully, no matter what. But if you're taking care of it, you're taking care of it. But if you're taking care of of your skin and you have that like, I don't know, just that good quality. You can still age gracefully. And then if you want to like do some Botox, do some filler, whatever treatments you want to do, laser, it can look really beautiful because you have that canvas. Any new procedures or technologies for thin arms? This person said like the Kardashians. Well, I don't know of any new procedures.

I'm sure this is total speculation, but I'm sure they're just doing lipo and like maybe, you know, peptides. They all look like they've lost weight. I'm sure they're working out as well. I'm sure they have nutritionists and all of that. But as far as like treatments or procedures, technologies, lipo is the gold standard. And arm lipo is so simple as somebody who did it when I did my boobs. It's not this huge drastic thing that I think people think of when they think of lipo. At least for me, I didn't do like arms sculpting or anything.

But I've talked about this before when I did my boobs, Dr. Cohen, lipo like the bra fat area, bulge in the front to give the breast like a nice contour. And I was like, well, if you're taking the lipo thing out, like, please just hit the back of my arms. Like this is the area of my body that no matter what, like, I just could not tone or like lose that little like pooch of fat that I had. And if you're going to have the lipo machine on, like, just hit that back on my arm. Like, let's just do it. And he was super, super, super conservative with me because he didn't want to create a deficit where I then had saggy skin and I didn't have that much fat to begin with. So he just took that little bit off the back of my arm where I had that, like, thickness that

would not go away. But anyway, the recovery was nothing. So celebrities can definitely do that and wear a long-sleeve shirt or something and nobody will know I don't have any scars or anything like that. It's not this barbaric procedure with a crazy recovery time that people might suspect. So I think if they are doing like body contouring, that would probably be the route that they go. Just speculating again. I just feel like when you do certain procedures yourself, you're able to spot them in other people. Like the same goes for lip-lifts. I can see. a lip lift and a celebrity so easily because I know like kind of the difference that it makes and what I'm looking for. Are there any procedures I'm thinking about? No, there is nothing on my radar.

And I feel like I've just been dealing with so much other stuff in my life, especially the last few months. I just have not thought about beauty stuff at all. And I know probably from my content, people might not believe that because I post my skincare routines and talk about like skincare versus Botox and the things that I've done. But that's just giving the people and the algorithm what they ask for. But yeah, nothing on my radar. Somebody asked what it feels like being in my late 30s and being judged so much on social media. And I guess I'll lump this in with the procedure stuff because, oh my God, the comments on my videos, even of my skincare routine are so, it's just crazy to me. It's so crazy how triggered people get.

And as far as being judged, I don't think my age has anything to do with it. Like, nobody is spared when it comes to the wrath of the internet, whether they are, you know, a teenager or an elderly person. It's not age. But I do think it's kind of funny, like not funny, ha ha, but interesting. When people write nasty comments on my post and I look and they're like 20 years old and I'm just like, you know, and this goes for anybody who behaves that way. on social media like trolling and commenting mean things. Like they would never say these things to my face. In fact, I'm sure probably every single person who said something mean would be nice if they met me face to face. But that's the world that we live in. Like I don't like how people say that if you're a

public facing person, it just comes with the territory because it does, but it shouldn't. Like nobody should be somebody's punching bag. I've had some of the lowest days of my life in the last few months. And then I you know, go on Instagram because I have to because it's my work and I see, you know, horrible comments and DMs about like my appearance or what I say or my content. And I'm just like, what is wrong with people? It's just disheartening. But that said, and I say this all the time, I would way rather be the person being trolled or the person being talked shit about on Reddit or whatever than the people doing the trolling and the shit talking because you have to be so unhappy with something in your life to spend even a second of your time that way,

like, or to have those thoughts about somebody else or to even care for more than a few seconds what somebody else is doing with their life. Like, I truly, truly cannot imagine saying anything mean to anybody, let alone a stranger on the internet. I really just can't imagine engaging in or like reading threads about somebody. Like what a waste of your time. You're and your life, I think it's sad. And I think if the only way that people can feel connected to other people is through their dislike of somebody else, then like that's really sad too. So those are my thoughts on that. I'll get off my soapbox. But yeah, most of the time it doesn't bother me because I do feel that way. But we all have those days. And like I said, I've had a lot of them the last few

months where like we're at a low point. And then when someone is like, what the fuck is wrong with your face? Or like there was one post about how I turned my life around and people were like, you know, you just found some rich dude who couldn't do better than a junkie, like, things like that. And I'm like, what is wrong with the world and what is wrong with people? I know there are way bigger issues happening right now and people are struggling, but I don't feel like I have to give anybody who is mean to anybody on the internet the benefit of like that, you know, or the benefit of the doubt that like they're struggling. I know they are, but there are many people who struggle and don't act that way. So Yeah, it's not so much the things people say, but again, the fact that people treat other people

like that, that's what's upsetting to me and like kind of infuriating. Okay. Switching gears. How do I balance my wellness goals with the rest of my life, my work, relationships, etc. So I would say I don't really feel like I have wellness goals. Like it's just kind of a lifestyle at this point. And I'm thinking of this saying in recovery, which is that we wear recovery like a loose garment, meaning, you know, it's not rigid. And that's how I feel about wellness too. Like I have my

routines. I have my habits that make me feel good. And they're so integrated into my life that I don't even think about them. And those habits really only take up a fraction of my mental space and my energy and my physical time. So like my morning routines take about, I don't know, 30 minutes or so if I'm doing breathwork and meditation. If I am walking, or working out, I fit that in wherever I can, whether it's in the morning or with a class or with Harley sometime during the day. I don't really think about what I'm eating because that part is really intuitive for me. I have my supplements and things like my colostrum or my electrolytes that I drink during the day. Then at night, I truly just enjoy cooking and winding down early

and doing my skincare and reading. And that's like it. I don't even really consider these things wellness, I guess, as much as I just like feeling good and doing things that I know helped me to feel good. And I guess maybe if I was doing all of the kind of wellnessy things that I talked about in the beginning of the episode, if I was doing those every day and feeling like I had to do all of those things every day to feel well, like then that might be something that I would have to kind of manage But like I said, these are all just tools in the toolbox. Sometimes I need more of the tools at certain times. Sometimes I do none of the tools.

And sometimes I am somewhere in the middle. Like usually I'm somewhere in the middle. Okay, let's do some quicker ones. I want a boob job, but I'm afraid of BII. I have said this before, but if you are afraid of breast implant illness or you're afraid of them making you sick, which is breast implant illness, but, you know, there's no like official diagnosis. So if you are afraid of breast implants causing other systemic issues in your body, do not get your boobs done. I am telling you,

don't do it. You will freak out with every headache, with every ache and pain, every joint pain, any like deviation from your baseline, you are going to go right to BII and you are going to be miserable. And it's not just right after you get them. People develop BII symptoms years after getting implants sometimes. So I think if you're worried about it, it's always going to be in the back of your head. It's going to cause psychological stress, which can cause like psychosomatic symptoms. And you're going to feel like you have a ticking time bomb inside you. So I say don't do it.

Opt for other things, whether it's a lift, fat transfer, or just don't do anything. Okay. procedures for under eye wrinkles, dark circles, thin skin. I've never had dark circles, but I do have thinner skin under my eyes. So I did fat a few years ago. I did a skin pinch, which I've talked about before, which was, you know, 10 minutes awake. I don't consider it surgery. Just removing a few millimeters of that skin with like a tiny incision under the lash line. And then I did CO2 over that. And yeah, you guys know how I am. I would rather just nip some. something in the bud right away instead of letting it kind of fester and I don't know spend a lot of

money on like non-invasive things that are only going to get me a certain amount of improvement in my eyes. I would rather just be like one and done. So you can agree with me there or not. But if you don't want to go that route, I would say maybe microneedling something like a peel. I can't remember the kind of peel that Jen likes for under the eyes. But that can be really nice. a little microtox. So it's like Botox right under the skin. Obviously, you can do Botox around like the crow's feet, which can help with that under eye area and just like building collagen. So yeah, I think microneedling peels. You could do like a little CO2 and Botox, but the circles, I'm not sure. Hair health tips. Well, if you listen to my episode with Helen Revy a few weeks

ago or maybe a month ago now, you know that I do the opposite of what she suggests. So I wash my hair about every three to four days, I would say. I only style it once, which is after I shower. So after I shower, I blow dry and then I'll wave it. And then I just sleep with it down because I love that effortless kind of bedhead look. I don't like my hair looking really done. And for whatever reason, whenever I style it with heat, it just looks done. So I love second, third day hair. And silk pillowcases, these help so, so, so much with keeping my hair nice. It's like night and day between sleeping on a regular pillowcase. I have a code for Blissie, I think, on my last episode. So you can go to those show notes. All the codes and everything are always in the show notes. So like the description of the episode.

And I also use scalp serum. I love vagamore. I'll do pre-champo oil. I love the, I don't know how to pronounce it. Lenore Greil. Grale? I don't know. One of my pet peeves is like butchering words and names. So I'm sorry about that. But I put that on my ends before washing. And that's pretty much it. So really my main things are minimal heat. I really also try to spread out my color appointments. So I used to do like every, four to six-ish weeks of highlights and now I'll do highlights maybe every few months. And then if it's looking dull in between, I just will do like a face frame in between. And that's pretty much it. I think the key is the heat for me at least. Like no matter what when I use heat, it just makes my hair break off. I don't have an issue with hair growth. I take neutroful. I've taken it for years. And I think just having a healthy lifestyle. All of that definitely helps, but my hair breaks from color and heat and all of that. So I have to take care of it like once it's out of my head. Advice for people who love somebody in recovery. I feel like I've talked about this so much.

And I actually have, I have this guest coming on. Actually, I don't even really want to tease it. But I'm very excited for you guys to hear the episode. But I feel like I've talked about this a lot in episodes about recovery. Definitely my episode with Adam said. We talked a lot about loving somebody in recovery and kind of how to best support them. I always say my best advice for somebody who loves somebody in recovery is to just do whatever you can to support yourself and let the person that you love, whether it's a spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, friend, relative, parent, whatever, just let them know that you want to be there for them and ask that person how you can best support them. Because I know for me, like, I kind of just wanted to focus on my recovery

and I didn't want a lot of involvement from like my family. I didn't really have that many friends at that point. But I really just wanted to focus on my recovery on my own. And my parents and my brother were really respectful of that. And they kind of did their own work. So they did come to like my rehab family weeks or family weekends and they participated in that way. And they kind of like learned about the disease of alcoholism and addiction on their own. And I won't talk about the other things that they did because that's for them to share, not me. But they took care of themselves and they also kind of like learned about what I was going through and showed that they were there, but they didn't really try to get involved. And that was

very helpful. So I think really simple, support yourself. Ask the person in your life, like what you can do for them to feel supported. And they might say nothing. And if they say nothing, I would probably just kind of stay out of it. Deciding to stay or leave a relationship. I'll talk more about this one on my next solo episode in December. I'll just leave that there. But I would recommend listening to my episode with Jen Gottlieb that came out last week. That one was incredible. We talk a lot about what happens when you get out of alignment with yourself. And I think if you're in a relationship, and you're not sure if it's the right relationship, you know if you're out of alignment. And if you don't feel like you are living your authentic life, you know, you have that answer

inside you, it's just whether you want to confront it or not or do anything about it or not. And sometimes people can't and sometimes people don't want to or they want to, but they feel like they can. So many different circumstances and no judgment about any of them. But I definitely could relate to what Jen was talking about where like your body screams or no, what is the saying? your body whispers till it screams, I feel like that happens to me with emotional things. So I will try to stuff emotional things and it'll start coming out in physical, emotional ways. And I will try to stuff it down until it becomes a scream that I cannot ignore. So I am one of those really sensitive people who like, I can't really afford to not live like in a way that's truthful

to me and feels right to me. So if I'm in a situation, that is starting to not feel right. I, in general, have to do something about it because it really affects me not only emotionally, physically, spiritually, all the ways. And I just don't have that luxury. But anyway, definitely go back and listen to that episode. I think that will be really helpful.

I also talked to Alyssa Lynch this past summer. And that was a really helpful episode too, because she was on the other side of having just, left a relationship. And she talks about a lot of the things that we kind of cling to when we know we should leave, but then we start rationalizing and justifying. And I remember her saying, like, she would think about these things like, well, I can't leave because like, who's going to take the couch? And it's so funny because those are the things that our brain will start like spitting out at us for us to stay in the familiar. I can't remember who said this. Maybe Dr. Degongi,

but somebody on my podcast, sorry if I'm not crediting this to the right person, said, our brains are allergic to uncertainty. And if you're leaving a relationship, if you're leaving a job, whatever the situation is, there is uncertainty there on the other side of that. And so I feel like all of these thoughts will come to mind about like who's going to get the couch, how what am I going to do with the dog? Like all of these things to keep you in that familiar, certain situation, even if it is not a situation that you want to be in anymore. So I really loved that episode with Alyssa as well. Both are great in regards to like being in that limbo place where you're not sure. Also, I'm a big proponent of just a simple pros and cons list. I think

oftentimes getting it out of your head and onto paper right in front of you is extremely illuminating. I can think that I know the pros and cons of something or think that I know what I want to do about something. And then when I put it down on paper, it's like, whoa. Or yeah, even with pros and cons I did one the other day. And I thought, well, yeah, I know that the cons outweigh the pros. And then I got it on paper. And I was like, whoa, there's about 20 cons to one pro, like way more than I even thought. So I think that's always really helpful too. It's so. simple, but it is effective. So I think I'm going to stop there. I have another solo episode coming in December. It might be a juicy one. Stay tuned for that. As always, thank you guys for listening. Please rate, review, subscribe if you haven't already. And I'll talk to you soon. Love you. I hope you enjoyed that episode. And if you liked it, and if you like the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes a long way, and it's actually the best way to support the show. Also, if you want to see more about each episode, you can head over to the Blonde Files podcast on Instagram. You can go to Arialore.com, and I'm always posting about each episode over on my personal page at Ariel Lurie. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct

or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.