Well with Arielle Lorre - 375: When Beauty Turns Bad, Lessons From Sobriety and Life Updates

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

Many people have requested an episode where I discuss in detail what happened when I got sick from Botox, so I share the full story here. I also talk about explanting awake, navigating health challenges in a mindful way, getting back into a workout routine, home updates, lessons from sobriety & listener Q&A.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.Visit Puori.com/BLONDE for 20% off. Visit boncharge.com/BLONDE and use coupon code BLONDE to save 15%. Go to www.YNAB.com/well for an exclusive three-month free trial with no credit card required.Visit holiss.com and use code WELL15 for 15% off your first order.Sign up at ro.co/BLONDE to pay $99 for your first month.Visit oneskin.co/well and use code WELL at checkout for 15% off your first purchase.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. In a world of ever-changing wellness trends and information, what does it mean to truly be well? I'm Ariel Lurie and I'm going to explore this with you. I am bringing you candid conversations that will equip you with everything you need to live your best life and look good doing it. Think of well as your go-to resource for all of the latest in wellness and me as your internet bestie. Well, let's get into it. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show.

Ashley's back, everybody. Hey, everyone. Can I tell them your news? Oh my gosh. Really? I don't have to. No, I don't have to. No, you can.

I mean, that is whatever. Ashley is with child. Yay. Having a little girl. We're so excited for her. So that's exciting. And I haven't been in the studio in two months, full disclosure for anybody listening, who cares? So I feel like I haven't seen Ashley in forever.

I haven't been. in studio on the microphone in forever. I feel like I've forgotten how to do this. So we're going to just see where this goes. You're doing great so far. Thank you. Also, I'm really self-conscious right now. I don't know if you saw Ashley, but I have this thing on my forehead. You look fine, girl. Well, I had something removed from my forehead yesterday. What? It was like this growth that I had. It was just like a little red bump that continued growing. And so I went to my dermatologist because I didn't know what the heck it was. And he said that he had to cut it off and biopsy it. And he was like, I don't think it's really anything to be worried about, but we want to make sure that it's not cancer.

And I was like, cancer. Wow. And I said, what kind of cancer are we talking here? And he said basal cell, which is not like terrible, but you do have to have surgery because you have to have like the margins cut out, I think, or something like that. I could be getting this wrong. Sorry, anybody who has been through that. But anyway, so I have this like hole on my forehead. And he called me today and he was like, I have great news for you. And I said, what's the news? And he said, the thing that I cut off wasn't cancer. It's an age spot. Oh, wow. And I was like, this is not good news. There's the worst being to tell you. It is the absolute worst thing that you could possibly say to me. I was like, I'm sorry, what? He's like, yeah, it's an age spot. It's called it like something.

something carotosis and I was like that red bump was an age spot he said yes and I was like well that just ruined my day. Goodbye. Anyway so if you're watching on YouTube you see it still has like the pen on it you know like when they mark you yeah anyway so that's the latest with me in case anybody was wondering but anyway I thought that today I would rewind a little bit because I do have a lot of new listeners. I have a lot of new followers on social. And as much as I'm sure a fair amount of people listening have heard enough about this, something that I realized I've never talked about in regards to what happened with the whole Botox thing was like what actually happened. So I've referenced nonstop incessantly. I know that, you know, I had this adverse reaction to Botox and that all

of these things have happened subsequently as a result of that. And it also changed the trajectory of my life in a lot of ways, which is kind of shocking. And I can get into all of those. But I realized I've never actually shared on the podcast, like the sequence of events and what happened physically and how I realized that it was from the Botox. And day in, day out, I get questions from people on social, whether I'm doing Q&As or on my videos, obviously my face taping videos, have been disseminated far and wide. I'll put it that way around the internet. And I get tons of questions on those about why did you stop Botox and what was your reaction. And so I thought that I would just kind of share here what happened.

And it's not going to be the whole episode. So for anybody listening who has heard it on my Patreon, which is the one place that I did share kind of the nitty gritty, then you can just fast forward a little. bit. Basically, what happened was I had been getting Botox with no issues for, I want to say, nine or ten years. I think that I thought of the time that I got sober, which was 28 years old. I'm now 39 as the time that I first got Botox, which now in retrospect, was not accurate because I was in a treatment environment for a year. I was in rehab for six months and then sober living for six months. And then after that, I don't know, at some point I went to a dermatologist. just for like a skin check. And they were like, do you want to get those wrinkles in your forehead?

So I was maybe 29 or 30, which is still very young. But once you are treated, at least in my experience, and I think this is a pretty universal experience, you're kind of thrust into this world where now you're told that for maintenance, you need to get Botox every three or four months. I know that some people do every six or eight or even nine. But it's one of those things where like once you get you have to continually getting it. You don't have to. But if you want to continue, you know, getting the treatment and having the results from that, it does wear off. And so you're kind of like in this endless cycle. So I started that, I don't know, conservatively say like 30. So I went in August 2023 for some regular injections. And I felt fine that day. It was a Wednesday. And then on Thursday morning,

the next day, I remember I woke up and I felt weird in that my extremities felt really weak. So my legs and my arms felt kind of like jello. And I remember I had a doctor's appointment because I was supposed to be taking my mom to Paris, I think a few weeks later. And I had to see my doctor about something. And then I had a friend in town. And I remember being at the doctor being really, really, really anxious. like not mentally anxious, but like physical, physiological anxiety, fight or flight. Like there was adrenaline coursing through my veins. And I had this weakness. But I didn't really think anything of it.

I thought maybe it was hormonal because sometimes I get a little bit like anxious and kind of dizzy before my period. And then I went to meet my friend, my friend, Daniela, who's been on the podcast a few times, who's a nurse practitioner. And we went to Sacks, I believe it. was because I was supposed to be getting this award at a charity function. And I was getting an award for being a sober, I don't remember exactly how they phrased it, but being like a sober member of the community who like does good things, that kind of thing. So I had to go get a dress for that.

Anyway, I go to meet Danielle there and at some point we were walking through shopping and all of a sudden everything just started going gray and the room was spinning. The floor felt like I was moving. And I remember sitting down in Fendi just in case anybody needs a visual. We were in Fendi and I was like, holy shit, I'm going to pass out like what is happening. I thought maybe it was blood sugar or something. And Daniela was like, we got to get some food in you. We went to creation. I've told this before, maybe on this podcast or on Patreon, but we went to creation

off Beverly Drive or South Beverly Drive. And this girl came up to me who listened to the podcast or, or who followed me. And she was so sweet and so complimentary about the show and whatever. And I was like literally catatonic. I couldn't form a sentence. It was like this feeling that I had never felt before in my life. So everything happened really, really quickly. And somehow I got home. And that was kind of the start of it. And I remember the next few days continued the same way. And the main symptoms at that point were really, really, really bad vertigo, really, really, really bad anxiety, crawling out of my skin anxiety. And I had weakness in my arms and my legs, weakness in my neck. I had some issues

like swallowing and some issues when I would try talking. It's called dysphonia, where it's like, it sounds like your voice is kind of high-pitched. It felt like somebody was strangling me. So I decided to go to the neurologist. They did an MRI. They didn't. They didn't. see anything. They thought maybe it was in the migraine family. And I did ask that neurologist, could this be related to the Botox? At that point, Daniela was not in town anymore, but she did get on the phone with the neurologist because she's like that type of friend. And she's like, do you think we need to get the lot number? Could it have been bad Botox? He's like, no, no, it's not the Botox. So then I was like, well, maybe it's my hormones. I went to an OBGYN, had my

hormones run. Hormones were normal. At that point, my eyes had completely dried out to the point where like I couldn't open my eyes. I had to just lay there with compresses. It was really, really extreme. So I went to the ophthalmologist. He didn't see anything. He sent me to a rheumatologist to see if I had chogrens or another autoimmune thing. He didn't see anything. I was sent to infectious disease. I asked infectious disease. Do you think it was the Botox, you know, botulinum toxin, like the most deadly toxin in the world? Do you think that I could be having some kind of adverse reaction to this? No, definitely not. At that point, I remember when I went to infectious disease, disease, I was like, if he doesn't like test me somehow for something, I'm going to drive myself to the

ER. Like, it was that bad. And I was a few weeks into it at that point. And my friends talked me out of going to the ER, my doctor friends, because they were like, they're not going to do anything for you. And I went back to neurology, who sent me back to infectious disease. Eventually, I ended up at psychiatry who diagnosed me with major depressive disorder. And I've shared this before I know. I've never been depressed ever. And that was kind of the sequence of events. And the whole time I had these debilitating symptoms. And I had like muscle spasms all over. But it was really like the vertigo, the anxiety and the weakness and the eyes. I mean, it was a lot of things. But those were really, really affecting my ability to function. I really couldn't function. If 2025 is the year that

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it's faster, it's confidence, and cheaper prices. So join the over 385,000 people who have already chosen Rowe to access GLP-1s. Go to row.co slash blonde to see if you qualify. That's R0.c-C-O-C-O-Slas blonde, and go to row.com slash blonde for boxed warning and full safety information about gLP1 medications. 15% weight loss is based on a study in non-diabetics with obesity or overweight with a weight-related condition on five milligrams of medication and when paired with diet and ex-exercise. Throughout that whole thing, you know, I brought up the Botox to everybody that I saw and nobody really acknowledged that it could be from that. And people did acknowledge, though, that maybe it had to do with my breast implants that I had at the time. And so,

I decided to get my implants taken out. I called my surgeon who would put them in. Dr. Cohen, shout out. We love him. He's been on the podcast. And he was like, this is terrible. Let's take the implants out and just see if when we remove that variable, if things improve. If you don't improve and you decide to put them back in, we can do that. If you do improve, great. But let's just get them out. But because I had so many neurological symptoms at that time, I was really, scared to go under anesthesia. He didn't really want me to go under anesthesia. And I guess it's like normal for some people to have their implants taken out awake, which I know to so many people sounds like absolutely horrifying. I was really nervous. But he said that he does it pretty frequently,

especially because oftentimes when people explant, they then want to either get a lift or do fat transfer and he likes to wait if he can and see how the tissue contracts to see like what the shape and the size is going to be before he just goes in and like does a lift and puts fat. So he's like, yeah, people do it all the time and they drive home after and I was like, what? So that was in very beginning of November 23. So that was August, September, October, November, like three months after the Botox thing. And I forgot to mention that the Botox company did. say, like, if I started to get better around three months, then I would know that it was probably from the Botox.

So I went in, I had the implants removed awake for anybody wondering, because people always ask me questions, too. They'll DM me and be like, what? Because I have answered a lot of Q&As on Instagram saying that I did get them out and that I did it awake. It wasn't terrible. In fact, at that time, it was kind of like the best day ever because I had been so miserable for so long.

And they gave me Valium and they gave me laugh. in gas. So being at that point 10 years sober, nine year, nine and a half years sober, somewhere around there. We call that in recovery a free lapse. Not a relapse, a free lapse because it was, you know, medically appropriate. And it sounds barbaric, but it was not. So anyway, we removed the implants and I started to get better. So for me, somebody who really loved Botox and still is not anti-Botox, I was like, great. I really, in my heart of hearts, knew that what I was going through was a result of the Botox, but I started getting better. And so end of November, 23, I got a little bit of disport and I had another reaction. So I was like, well, I don't know what that's about.

Like, it didn't make sense to me. Why, if it was Botox poisoning, which I had. this dermatologist at Mount Sinai tell me it was textbook Botox poisoning. Who's the first person to say that? Why would it happen again? And I just thought, well, maybe it was still in my system. And so adding more toxin, just like circulated it again. Or I didn't really understand what was happening. But it was really, really, really hard to find answers.

So that is kind of the long. I tried to make it short story of what happened. And that was, like I said, 2023 into the beginning of 2024. That is why I had to totally change my approach to beauty. Because up until that point, my beauty regimen, for lack of a better phrase, was skin care and Botox. And yes, I've had procedures over the years. But for my skin specifically. So I think that something happens on social media.

And that's that people conflate surgery. and skincare. There are two completely different things. So whenever I post videos about my skin, there's always inevitably commenters who like to point out that I had procedures. In fact, I had one. I think it was last week where she was like, yeah, but you don't have wrinkles because you got a lip lift. And I'm like, a lip lift. I did a lip lift five years ago. What does that have to do with wrinkles? Surgery and skincare are completely different. Dr. Amir Karam, I always referenced him. He's a surgeon in San Diego. Diego. And he's amazing. He's been on the podcast, but we should have him back on, Ashley. Okay. File that away. Because he's great. And he always talks about the different markers of aging.

And he talks about face shape and then your skin. So surgery addresses face shape, but it doesn't affect your quality of skin. Yes, you can have a facelift and maybe get a little bit smoother. But any surgeon will recommend maintaining with Botox if that's what somebody wants to do because it doesn't affect wrinkles and it doesn't affect really texture to any degree. You might have some like inhibition of your muscle movement after something like a brow lift or a facelift, but you're not supposed to. Like surgeons don't want you to not be able to move your face after you have surgery. So when people bring up things like, oh, you had a brow lift, yeah, I had a brow lift seven years ago. Like I wish, I effing wish that that made any kind of difference on things like wrinkles.

So that is what really changed my approach because Botox does so much heavy lifting. And people used to tell me that before I had to stop. And they were like, well, you have glass skin because you have Botox. And I would get defensive because I also had really bad acne. So when I talk about skincare, I'm thinking like clear skin, free of like acne and breakouts. I'm thinking about like pores, overall skin quality, texture, things like that. But when I stopped having Botox and the effect of Botox, I was like, oh, yeah, we got to be hitting this from a few different angles, hence where the face tape came in and all of the

things that I'm doing, guasha, facial cupping, facial massage, skincare. I did a post on Instagram in case you guys missed it. And it was like my morning routine timestamped. Ashley, did you see that? No, I didn't. Excuse me? Sorry. Get on your phone right now.

No, I'm kidding. Because I think that there's a misconception that this stuff is like very time consuming and that it not only consumes all of my time, but all of my mental space as well, which it really doesn't. And I showed on this morning routine thing that like my morning routine actually takes 20 minutes, give or take, you know, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on how much time I have and what I feel like doing. But lately, you guys can go on my Instagram and look at this. but it's like I wake up, I'll take off my tape if I tape at night. And the tape itself only takes a few minutes because what I do is I pre-cut strips so that when I go to tape at night, I don't have to sit there with my scissors cutting the shapes and everything. So it only takes a couple minutes to put it on. And then it takes like not even a minute to take it off. And then I like to do a little

guasha. So I do some oil on my face, a guasha. And then I've been really into facial cupping. I really do find that it helps to like plump my skin. So they're essentially these like suction cups and I just kind of like drag them across my skin. My skin has oil on it. So it's not pulling the skin at all. And I feel like it just brings a lot of like blood to the surface. So I feel like it helps my circulation and just kind of like plumps things out. And then I'll wash my face. And that is that. Of course, I love red light. But that's pretty much it. And I wish that I was that person that was like doing monthly microneedling and doing lasers and doing like all of these treatments. I look at like an Amy Chang. Also a friend of the podcast who we need to have her back on, Ashley. Okay, Amy, got it.

She and I are always like, you are my beauty, kindred spirit because we both, you know, love this stuff. But I feel like she does a lot of R&D. And I'm just not doing that. But that is kind of like what brought me to where I am now with all of the beauty stuff. And that's why you guys are seeing probably so many of my tape videos and so many people reacting to my tape videos. The consensus pretty much across the medical community is that it's like bullshit quackery. And I get it. I would have thought the same thing. I did think the same thing. I remember seeing all these like face yoga accounts and even like Donna Amari who noise skin care for the those of you who remember her. She passed away last year, sadly, really, really sad, devastating for

her family and her community. She was on my podcast, I think, in 2022. And she was always, she was like a trailblazer in the natural modality space. So she was an aesthetician. She did a lot of guasha, her stone that she gave me after she came on my podcast is the stone that I use. She sent me reflexology tools. She sent me tape and I was like, love the stone, not sure about the taping situation. And now I actually go back to her videos and watch them because she really knew her stuff and she was kind of like ahead of the curve when it came to that. Although these modalities are not anything new, especially like if you go to Russia, I think is where Olga from Natural Face Bible learned and I'm not sure where Donna learned, but it's been around for a long time. I mean,

people have been doing stuff long before Botox. So I understand why people have the reaction that they have to it. And, you know, that's just part of it, I guess. That's just part of putting myself out there. Anybody who has experienced bloating knows how truly debilitating it can be. It can affect your day-to-day life because it really affects confidence. It can affect the clothes that you wear, your energy levels, where you go, what you eat. It really touches a lot of different aspects of our lives. And everybody is looking for a solution to bloat. And I have found something that I absolutely love. And that is the mixed berry bloat drink from Colus. I love it for a few reasons. One is that it contains organic high quality ingredients that are third party tested at clinically studied doses of every

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woman team of skin longevity scientists, and their research and their products go deeper, working at the cellular level for lasting results. And after testing more than 900 peptides, they developed OS01, the first ingredient scientifically proven to interrupt a core aging process, which is cellular senescence. So I had Dr. Caroline Olivera on my podcast back in the fall. It's a truly fascinating episode. I highly recommend listening to it. Just if you're interested, in aging and skin care in general. And she explains senescence. So basically with age and UV exposure, your cells enter senescence, which means they stop functioning normally. So think stop rejuvenating and producing collagen and elastin. And they release harmful inflammatory chemicals. And that also

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And their eye cream, they tested on skin from blephoroplasties. So actual eye skin in their lab, microscopically, they were able to see what was really happening when this product was applied. So it's pretty amazing. So right now you can visit oneskin.co slash well and use the code well at checkout for 15% off your first purchase. Again, that's oneskin.co slash well, and the code as well for 15% off your first purchase. By now you guys know that I always, always start my day with protein. I prefer to do either a protein oat bowl or a protein yogurt bowl. However, there have been some reports that have come out about a lot of protein powders on the market, showing that so many protein powders out there actually are contaminated with things like heavy metals,

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you get almost a third off the price. So this is available when you visit my exclusive URL, which is puri.com slash blonde. And my promo code is blonde, or you can save 20% off when you make a one-time purchase. Still such a great savings. So go now to P-U-O-R-I-com slash blonde. code blonde at puri.com slash blonde. Oh, I did see. I've been getting a lot of comments from people that are like, yeah, you stopped getting Botox so that you could get a facelift. And I'm like, well, first of all, thank you because you're saying that my face looks lifted. All I see in my

videos from 2023 to now is how my face has fallen. But I'm like, I wish. I wish. Okay, so anyway, moving on. A lot of people did ask me, would I do Botox again, knowing what I know now? I don't know. It's like not even something that I can think about right now, but knowing the information that I know now, I think that statistically, it's still very safe. And I think that maybe more will be revealed, another recovery saying, because I do know that more and more people are reacting to it, but whether it's the toxin itself or our immune systems or it's just like an individual thing where our, our, toxic threshold is reached. So while one person might be able to handle a lot of exposures to different things, somebody else like myself might not be able to. So it might just be like a very personal thing. All of that said, if I could go back in time, I would have done it very differently. But, you know, coulda whata shoulda. Okay. What else is going on in my life? I've been sharing that my house is going to be done in a month. Yay. Finally. Oh my God. Wow. Wait. Ashley,

I haven't seen you since the fires. I know. Oh my gosh. Yeah. That was crazy. And I talked about that in my last solo episode as well. Yeah. But I think I did share in that episode or maybe I didn't that when the fires were happening, I made a vow to myself that I was going to sell my house.

I was like, I can't deal with this stress. It's too much. I was like, I just don't want to deal with it. It was so scary. now that I see like my kitchen stone going in and my saw that video I'm milking it the stone and like the floors and everything is starting to come together and I'm seeing like the fruits of our labor coming together and how reflective it is of me I'm like no I can't sell it you know at least for now I'm really really excited for it to be done and it is just like me like that stone Ashley I was like that's me if I was a stone. It looks beautiful. I love it. Yeah. And it's so cool to be able to, you know, do this for myself at this stage of my life. And so yeah, it's just something that I want to enjoy, at least for a little bit. We did make an offer on a house in Miami. But they came back and

they actually accepted our offer and we were like, oh shit. This is real. Yeah, we definitely want get a place there, like not full time, but the specific house that we made an offer on, we were like, it needs a lot of renovation. And could we do it? Yeah. But we decided to wait. So this comes out on the 19th. We think. On the 22nd, I'll be 11 years sober. Yay. Congratulations. Yeah. So that's a win. And that was another thing that people ask about a lot, again, because I think I have a lot of new listeners and a lot of new followers. And I don't think that I've done an episode on my whole story since maybe like my first year of the podcast. Oh, wow.

And it's a long one. It's a dozy. But it's definitely something that I could do an episode on if you guys want to hear about it. I think it's inspirational, though, especially with the top of the year and people are like trying to revamp their life in some way maybe. So I think it's a great time to share your story again. All right. Do you have an hour? No, I'm kidding. Yeah, I agree. And I also think that sobriety, or at least not drinking, is like more and more popular every single year that passes. I say this a lot when I'm interviewed, but when I got sober, 2014,

sobriety and like sober, curious and all these things were not in the zeitgeist at all whatsoever. At 28 years old in 2014, living in L.A., sobriety was like the worst possible thing that I could have ever thought would happen to me. I really thought that it was going to be the end of my life. And it's crazy. I can't believe it's been 11 years. I don't know where the time has gone. Somebody said more about MCAS and symptoms diagnosis. Also, salmon sperm facial injections.

Oh, yeah. That was a big one, especially last year. I just love in the same question from the same person, the spectrum. MCAS, salmon sperm facial injections. We have range, right? So I did an episode in January about MCAS, mass cell activation syndrome, but I don't think that I really got into the symptoms. I will say that they very much parallel with the symptoms that I had after I had Botox.

The first time that I had the Botox reaction, I mean, it was very, very, very, very intense, like debilitating couldn't function, and there were a lot of different symptoms. But when I do get mast cell flares, which is what has been happening to me, it feels very reminiscent in that the main symptoms are vertigo, brain fog, itching all over. I get rashes sometimes, itching inside my ears, dry eyes, ear ringing, you know, mass cells, which I explained in the last episode, are kind of like a precursor to histamine. Like they're kind of like your immune system guards. And they release histamine when they think that there's a threat.

And the problem with any kind of mastile dysfunction is that they perceive everything as a threat. So some people who have it really badly are like literally allergic to life. And they have to like take an epipen with them if they go outside. And that's terrifying. Actually, I was sick last week. And the worst part of my sickness was, not the virus itself. It was that I was allergic to the virus. It was the craziest thing. Like, my tongue swelled, my eyes were swollen and itching and red. It was like this itching that made me

want to end it all. Like, it was like nothing I'd ever experienced. It was so, so crazy. So, yeah, so the symptoms for me are like very much neurological, nervous system and a little bit of dermis dermatology thrown in there in the mix, but they can be different for anybody. So some people have like really heavy gastrointestinal symptoms. Like there's mass cells throughout your entire body. And I think to get an official diagnosis, it has to involve multiple symptoms. So like if you're just having skin reactions, that's more of like a traditional allergy, I think, whereas like people with MCAS will have skin, gut, brain, skeletal. You know, I have joint pain in my hands, when I have flares, things like that.

So getting a diagnosis, I talked about that in my episode in January. But I have to say that I'm on the right medications right now, it seems. And I'm very excited because for the past few weeks, except for when I was sick last week, I've been able to work out. I have not been able to work out since the Botox thing happened. and I used to love working out. Like, yes, I've done sporadic workouts here and there. But something that would happen to me always is that if I worked out, then the next day, I was symptomatic again.

And it didn't make any sense to me. So I was able to play tennis last spring. It's kind of weird because I kind of got better from like last winter until this September. And then something happened this September that just made everything like way, way, way worse. And trying to figure out what that is. But yeah, I'm back to working out. And so now when people ask, what's my diet and workout routine, I have an answer. Yes. You excited? Sorry, I got really excited with that. Here's my exact breakdown. I'm laughing at myself because it's like, wow, she works out once. I talked in the last episode that I did the solo in January about what my exact diet is. I'm eating low histamine for the time being. So. yeah, you can go back to that episode and hear those details there for the sake of time. I won't get into it here. But it's a lot of like oats and berries and chicken and I'm incorporating red meat into my diet again. Rice, broccoli, zucchini, things that are safe foods for me. Sweet potato, sweet potato chips. Hot tip. I don't know where else they sell them besides Air One, but there's this brand, Sweet Potato Awesome. They make a deep.

dehydrated sweet potato fry chips. I don't even know what you would call them. But they're just in coconut oil and salt and they're dehydrated. They look like fries, like sweet potato fried. The best snack ever. It's like buttery. It's so good. I digress. I do a lot of rice cakes. I do like olive oil and salt on the rice cake. I try to spruce things up however I can. But workout wise, I've been easing into things. So I'm doing like a 30 minute. at Pilates pretty much every day and a lot, a lot of walking. So that's my big, big news. Anyway, maybe I'll do some kind of like workout challenge with you guys. That'll be fine.

Yeah, because I know that a lot of people struggle with getting consistent in their routine, myself included, but maybe I can do some kind of like, well, girlies kind of March madness thing. March Madness workout. You guys heard it here first. Hopefully my health allows for this, but it just feels so good to be able to, I'm sure a lot of people can relate. You know, it's like when you stop working out for whatever reason, it's so hard to start again because objects in motion stay in motion, objects at rest stay at rest. When your lifestyle becomes a lifestyle of rest or of not working out or whatever it is, that is really easy to maintain. It's like, it's, it's a lifestyle. It's

Nasser. She talked about friction. Changing habits is hard to do because there's a lot of friction there. So if you're not working out or if you're not eating healthy, it's really easy to continue to do that because it's frictionless. The good news is the same thing goes for the other side of that coin. You know, if you're working out, if you're eating healthy, like that's going to beget more of that behavior because there's less friction to do that. So maybe you guys can let me know if you're struggling with being consistent or adopting healthy habits and you want to do like the low and slow. Yes. Well, girl. March workout thing. I think we landed on something good here. Okay. I'm going to do a couple rapid fire because we really didn't get to any of the topics that I wanted to talk about today.

How is my boyfriend with all of my health stuff and my beauty stuff? He's the most supportive. He loves the taping. He is like my biggest cheerleader. I know a lot of people are like, ugh, what is your partner or your boyfriend think? I'm like, he doesn't mind it. First of all, sometimes I put it on after he's already gone to bed because he usually falls asleep before me and take it off in the morning. And when I don't do that, I mean, he's just not phased. Like it literally does not phase him at all whatsoever. And then with my health stuff,

he's super supportive. But something that I learned in recovery is to always act better than I feel. And I think that there's obviously nuance when it comes to this because if you're sick, legitimately sick, you don't want to be putting on a front necessarily. But with my thing, it's kind of just like low grade and constant. And like he knows that I deal with shit on a daily basis and like don't always feel great. But I don't have to make it somebody else's problem necessarily. Like he's so supportive. And this is anybody like my friends, my family.

I just kind of learned in recovery that like I was such a burden on people before I got sober and people were so worried about me all the time and they were so burdened by me all of the time. And when I got sober, people who have walked this road before me who have a lot more time sober than me were like, you need to act better than you feel. And I do that at work. I do that in my relationships. I do that. like I said, my family relationships, my romantic relationships, and that's not to say that I don't

have times where I'm like, God, I'm really struggling. Like, I really feel horrible today. And my friends, my family, my boyfriend, whoever, everybody is supportive. But I just don't make it like a constant kind of thing. But we can talk about those in my recovery focused episode. Do I think I'll change my mind about wanting kids? Not today. Not today. How to manage anxiety around world news and events? I heard a really good quote. Just because the world is on fire doesn't mean that I have to be too. Something along those lines.

And I like that because, again, something that I really focus on in recovery, it's a great segue for my next solo. It are things that I can control and things that I can't control. And when it comes to world news, events, even the fires, that whole situation. It felt really, really overwhelming until I took a step back and looked at what are the things that I can control and how does me being like really heavily affected by this or being really, really reactive in certain ways? How does that help me at all? It doesn't. So that's kind of the attitude that I try to

adopt when it comes to that. Just ended a five-year not-bad relationship, feeling gutted, having to start over at 30. S-O-S-S. 30, you have your whole life ahead of you. Congratulations. You're not in the wrong relationship anymore. And you're one step closer to finding the right relationship if that's what you want. But also enjoy being single.

Like 30, I was single. Yeah. I didn't get married until I was 31, maybe. 32. I don't know. 30 is so young, but I know like the existential thing that happens at 30 because I went through it too. And I felt like I had to freeze my eggs and I had to like figure everything out because I was about to be geriatric. And now I look back and I'm like, no, when you're 30, you're a baby. So you have so much time ahead of you. So, okay, I don't know how to end this. So we're just going to end it here. But let me know. about the workout thing. And that's it. Love you. I hope you enjoyed that episode. If you liked the episode, and if you liked the show in general, please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes such a long way in supporting the show. Follow the show over on Instagram at well.com. You can also follow my personal Instagram at Ariel Lori. I'm always sharing great

clips from the episodes, and we also have full episodes on YouTube as well if you want to watch in entirety. Thanks for listening. 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.