Well with Arielle Lorre - 61: Quarantinecast Part 3: Life Updates, Managing Anxiety + Finding Inner Peace

Episode Date: June 22, 2020

In this episode I talk about how I'm doing in quarantine, updated morning and nighttime routines, strategies for disrupting binge eating, what I eat in a day and what my workout schedule is, how to deal with anxiety and negative emotions and how I found inner peace.  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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Go to your rise-adviseur or sunnycars. The following podcast is a dear media production. Hey, welcome to the Blond 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 is so much information out there, so I'm here to help you navigate it all and live your best life. Thanks for listening. Let's get into it. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. I'm so happy you're here. I wanted to give you guys a quick solo episode. Well, I shouldn't say that because this might end up not being so quick. I'm known for going off on tangents. So we'll see. But I wanted to give you an extra episode this month. And I get a lot of positive feedback about these solo convos. So here we are, you and me. So a lot of people have asked for like a life update, how's quarantine? How's school?

what's my routine, what am I eating, et cetera, et cetera. So I'll do some of that. I will answer some of your questions and I also want to talk about something that's coming up a lot lately, which you guys did ask me about, which is managing anxiety, emotional accountability, and letting go of all the emotional shit that is keeping us down. So I'm no expert, but I came into recovery with a ton of emotional baggage and a certain attitude about life. And I had to rid myself of it in order to find inner peace. Also, it's something that's been coming up in interviews and things are super heavy right now. So yeah, I'm going to go there or at least that's the plan. But first, I'm going to get into some of your questions. So I got this one a lot, which is, how is quarantine?

How's the cue? Have I learned anything? I think I can. I think I can speak for everyone when I say quarantine has been a freaking roller coaster, right? I don't care how emotionally or spiritually fit you are. Being essentially on lockdown will definitely send you for a ride. So when it started, we just had no idea what was happening and we couldn't possibly foresee how long it was going to go on. So while it was definitely scary, it was also kind of a welcome break from like the hustle of everyday life. Clearly, we are privileged over here, and I know a lot of people still had to work, which I can't even fathom. Although I will say that my revelation of wanting to maybe pursue medicine was born out of being stuck at home and wishing that I was helping on the

front lines. Obviously, I've talked a lot on Instagram about how it's kind of always been like in the back of my head, so it didn't just all of a sudden come out of nowhere. but I had that moment where I was like sitting at home in my nice big house watching the news and I was like, I would rather be there. So I might get to all of that and get to school on this episode. I'm not sure. Maybe it'll be a separate one. But I'm trying to refrain from going off on too many tangents today. So back to my original point. The beginning was a bit anxiety provoking. But without the distractions of day to day life, I feel like I got pretty clear on what I'm doing now and pretty clear on what my next step is in life. So then it was kind of like a nice break and then it got extended and got suffocating and then felt kind of relaxing again, but uncertain and scary.

And then it just got frustrating. And then things started opening up when nothing has changed and it became politicized. So then it got confusing and polarizing. And then black people were getting murdered on video and then protests started. and then it got extra heavy and here we are. I mean, sounds familiar, right? All of that said, I'm so lucky because we are comfortable, healthy, employed, all of that, but it's just an unprecedented time that we're in right now. And I think allowing ourselves to feel all the emotions is warranted. As for lessons I've learned, I'm sure it'll be much easier to get perspective in hindsight when

this is behind us someday. But I do hope that the pace which with I am conducting my life is something that I can maintain. So that doesn't mean doing less, but it means like going through my days with more intention and less chaos. So quite a few people asked if it's been triggering sobriety-wise and if it is hard to be in recovery during lockdown. And, And actually, it's been quite the opposite for me. I've had more time to do the things that I do on a daily basis to support my recovery. And without getting into details, my recovery community is online. And it's been pretty amazing. So if anything, I'm so grateful to be sober right now because I have the tools to deal with the emotional roller coaster I was just talking about. And like 1,000%

would just be living off delivered booze and probably not leaving my house to even go outside ever and would be like scrounging for drugs, just not cute. Or I would be like downing bottle after bottle of wine watching Netflix 24-7. So it's interesting because a lot of people have reached out to me on Instagram wanting or trying to get sober right now. So I think this whole situation has probably either triggered a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms or it's forced people to recognize what they've been distracted from during non-quarantine times. Okay, morning routine. No judgment here if you are interested in this or if you asked this. But I find this question so boring. So many people are interested in it. So many people talk about it on

podcasts and blogs and Instagram and all of that. So maybe somebody can explain this to me some time. Again, no judgment, but anyway, I guess it sets the tone for your day. So that's probably why people are so interested. So I wake up around six. Sometimes I just lay in bed until 6.30. I don't like to go downstairs before that. So when I go down, I get my macha and go and immediately, meditate before my brain turns on because morning brain is hectic and it's really hard to sit with. So I meditate for 20 minutes. I say a little prayer. I do a morning gratitude list and a few readings. And then I will work for like an hour on whatever content I have going up that day, check in with the people who freelance for me and then I will go work out and I'll talk about that

in a bit. So I used to like kind of lays in bed and read the times, but I just can't. I just can't. with news right now. It's just too much. For workouts, I've been doing Kelsey Wells Power Program on the Sweat app. Surprisingly, I've been doing a little BBG stronger, and I've been doing Melissa Wood Health and some other Pilates. I say surprising about BBG because I always talk about how it's like jump to you die. BBG stronger is a little bit different. It's more kind of weight training. it can be lower impact. So there is a difference there. And then I have been walking. I walk and I walk and I walk some more lately. It's just, I think it's kind of meditative in its own way. And it's when I catch up on calls with everybody that I need to talk to or listen to a podcast. And I also take evening walks and just like listen to music and enjoy that warm evening time. And I swear it has. helps with my digestion too. So maybe I'll talk about that too. But okay, back to the morning. Here I go. Anyway, after my workout, I shower and then I eat breakfast at like 10 or 10.30.

I don't necessarily intentionally intermittent fast, but I do stop eating at like six or seven at night and then not eat until 10, 10, 10.30. So I guess technically I do fast. And then I get back to whatever I'm working on for the day, whether it's Instagram content, website content, collaborations, stuff, recipes, and the like. And by the time this airs, I will have started school again. So I'm sure future me is doing homework too. Okay. Well, since people asked, and since I'm on this subject, I will talk about nighttime routines as well. So I've been eating dinner really early, like 5 or 530, which feels great. I'm not going to lie. And then you guessed it, I go for a walk. I mean, walk Harvey, but I'm also walking myself, you know, nothing crazy, just like 10, 15, 20 minutes. I swear

it's made a huge difference in my digestion. And it's also really helped with cravings. So this is something that people asked me about as well, cravings, binging at night, all of that. So if I just go straight for dessert after I eat dinner, I have no clue if I'm even full or if I really want whatever I'm about to eat or if I'm just doing it out of boredom or habit or, you know, eating my emotions. I'm sure a lot of us are doing that right now, so no judgment. But walking outside just for a few minutes helps me have time to feel satiated from what I just ate. And oftentimes it takes me that long to even feel full. So this isn't a tip to not eat because I'll still have a little something when I get home,

but it's usually like less overboard and more intentional than it would have been had I just gone straight from dinner and like didn't let things settle, you know? Okay, God, I cannot answer something without going on a tangent, but I do always get questions about binge eating. So if you want to hear more about this, go back and listen to my episode with Amber Romaniuk. I don't have the episode number for reference, but I think it was maybe early this year. We delve on. all into it. She's an expert on this subject. And yeah, so you can check that out for extra support, but this is a good way to kind of disrupt a binge. Go for a short walk, come home, maybe journal if you're not hungry, but you want to eat because really that's about suppressing emotions rather than

hunger. You can take a bath and get into a good book. I feel like acknowledging the emotions, processing them, then doing something distracting but calming, like reading is so helpful. Okay, anyway, I'm going to say that a million times this episode. So I personally go for a walk and then I will occasionally like watch a movie or show with my husband or something. But usually I just like to take a long bubble bath, do a mask or something, get in bed to read at like 8 or 8.30. And then I go to sleep at 10.

So quarantine has turned me into either a child or an elderly person. I'm not sure. But I feel great. So there's that. Okay. What I eat in a day specifics. Well, you may or may not know that I've caved in and I am pretty active on TikTok when it comes to recipes and food diaries. So you can go there to see almost daily videos and get some meal ideas. And yeah, it varies. But right now it's usually my matcha in the morning, and I count this because it has collagen, so about 10 grams of protein, and it has healthy fats, about 10 grams from the milk that I use, either hemp milk or macadamia milk. And yeah, so I drink that. It fuels me through my morning workout.

Then breakfast is usually sourdough toast with eggs or buckwheat and kind of like hot cereal oat porridge type thing with pumpkin seed protein powder. chia seeds, coconut, cacao nibs, and berries. And then for lunch, I am loving this big salad I've been making with tons of plants. I just did a podcast episode with Dr. Will Be the Gut Health MD. He has a book called Fiber Fueled, and he talked all about how our microbiome needs diversity and not restriction. So I'm trying to add a lot more to my diet. And I've been posting this on Instagram, it's really good. It is like greens and tomatoes and cucumbers and herbs and olives and any leftover veggies from dinner. A little rice because I personally need the carbs for energy and to feel

full. And then sometimes I'll add like salmon or tuna. And then this simple dressing that I make with spicy mustard, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and a little salt and pepper. It is so good. It's so good for the gut. And it's been keeping me full till dinner. Usually I'm a snacker. But because it's so big and I add the rice, it's just really, really satisfying. But if I do get hungry, I like to snack on like roasted cabocha squash or these chestnut crackers that I like with some almond butter and cinnamon. And then dinner is totally up in the air. We usually order every night. I've just been, I think because I'm doing a lot of like recipe developing, I just am not in the mood to cook in the evening. But if I do, I will make spaghetti

squash with lots of veggies or a healthy pizza or pasta or fish tacos or something like that. And then dessert has usually been a cocoa love cookie, which you've probably seen me post about on Instagram. It's insane. Or a scoop of pressed juicery vanilla ice cream with strawberries. Okay. Since we're kind of talking about health and diet and movement, I will talk more about workouts. So you know that I'm a go with the flow kind of girl. And I just read my body's energy and I work out according to that. And for a long time, my body's energy was super low. So I really needed low impact, slow nourishing exercises. So yoga, Pilates, that type of thing. But lately I have to say I've been feeling really good and I have a lot of energy. So I've been doing harder workouts like I said before, like BBG stronger,

the power program today I did Sammy Clark, which was really hard. She has a bunch of workouts on her Instagram. Rachel's Good Eats. There's a bunch. There are so many options online right now. And yeah, I don't really follow any particular program, but I've just been doing like a leg day, an arms, an ab day, a full body day. And then let's see, I'm walking a lot, obviously. And then I fill the rest of the days in with like Melissa Woodhalth. or another, I don't know, another Pilates or yoga-based workout where it's more low intensity. So I am working out like six days a week for the first time in a long time. And I have to say it feels pretty amazing.

I feel good mentally and I'm sleeping really well. And yeah, but it took me a long time to get here. It took me over a year of like barely even doing formal workouts. There were many, many months of just walking, many months of not working out because I had a lot of other stuff going on. Gut issues, hormonal issues, adrenal issues, where, you know, my body just could not tolerate the exercise and the added stress. And I'm really grateful that I gave myself that time to rest and to heal.

And now I feel like I'm able to really like give it 100% and it feels really good. So when it comes to working out, I will say that if you aren't doing something that you even remotely enjoy, don't do it. That doesn't mean you have to love it because if you're doing a hard workout, you're probably like kind of just waiting for it to be over the whole time, right? But you should at least feel somewhat good after. There is something for everyone out there, especially now with everything online. So experiment until you find the thing that makes you feel good. it shouldn't feel like punishment. If it feels like punishment, it's not going to be sustainable.

The key is to find things that really just become part of your lifestyle and something that you look forward to doing. So all of this brings me to mindfulness. A lot of people ask for mindfulness techniques or how I practice it. But honestly, it's not something that I do intentionally necessarily. It's just something that I learned over time. as a result of slowing the F down. I feel like so many of our personal problems would be solved if we just pump the brakes. That doesn't mean that circumstances are going to change.

It means that we change. Our attitudes and our perceptions change. So if we're just barreling through life and distracting ourselves, there's no room for mindfulness. So slowing down via meditation, even if it's just a few minutes, staying off our screens in the morning and night if possible, which I'm terrible at, but I'm trying. Going for a walk or doing yoga or any kind of exercise really, even just for a few minutes, whatever you have, these are all ways that we can practice mindfulness. You know, not taking my phone with me when I either get ready for the day or when I get ready for bed makes a big difference. It's kind of sad, but normally I would just have a podcast on and be checking my email and my Instagram and whatever else while I'm doing these things completely distracted. I feel like we're all

kind of overwhelmed and nostalgic for simpler times, but even like 10 years ago, we weren't attached to our phone from the second we wake up to the second we get in bed. So there's still time in the day to listen to your favorite podcast and catch up on emails and all of that. But we have kind of this self-imposed like 18-hour work day or day of connectivity due to our phones, but we don't have to live like that. So again, like back to getting ready for the day or winding down for the day, try doing it with no distractions. Even if it's uncomfortable, you can just talk yourself through it in your head. Like, okay, now I'm washing my face. Now I'm brushing my teeth just to really, really be present in that moment.

Hey, okay, guys, I always want to do a fun solo episode. Then I just end up talking about like self-actualization. So I guess that's just my niche. I'll continue to stay close to that theme today since we are already there. So let's see. I got a lot of questions about anxiety, self-soothing and negative thinking and negative self-talk. So I feel like I need to do an episode on this with an expert. And I actually do have one on a anxiety coming up, and it's hard to talk about it generally because it can be so circumstantial and specific. But I will say, the things that have helped me tremendously with anxiety were therapy. So I do cognitive behavioral therapy. A lot of my anxiety was due to underlying trauma. So working through that in conjunction with meditation was a game changer. I truly get a physical. physical release from meditation, and it's something they talk about in TM or transcendental meditation. We have inward strokes and outward strokes of meditation. So the metabolic rate diminishes during meditation, and we reach a state of deep rest, both

mentally and physically. Literally, I've had meditations, especially early on, where I would, like, shudder, and it felt like stress and trauma was leaving my body, and I know it sounds woo-woo, but I have progressively become more calm, less traumatized, less anxious, more attuned to myself, more clear over the two years that I've meditated. So I really, really believe in it. So anyway, those two things are hugely beneficial just for like general anxiety. I used to always get anxious about certain social or professional situations. And I just had to change my perspective from how can I make everybody like me to how can I make everybody else here feel good and feel comfortable?

That shift in perspective takes the pressure off of essentially my performance, right? And makes it about what I can do for others. Now, I know anxiety right now is high because of circumstances. So I cannot begin to imagine what some people are going through. But I will say that little habits like limiting screen time in the morning and evening, like I said, and throughout the day. Having a few minutes of quiet and rest at the start of the day, whether you pray or meditate or journal or write a gratitude list or all of the above, these are all impactful things. Obviously, talk to people close to you, talk to a therapist if you can. Limit social media and news seriously.

Just do it. you know, I can get the same amount of information from reading the Times app on my phone for 10 minutes that I would get having the news on in the background all day. It's not necessary. And then this is a recovery thing, but I think it can apply to everybody. So if I'm feeling particularly anxious, I check in with myself and look at like, what are my fears right now? Literally write them down if you have a lot. Write them down and try to get to the root of them. I'm a big believer in pen to paper. Everything is different on paper than it is in your head. And it's so helpful to just get it out. Look at what are my resentments or what am I angry at right now? Because anger can feel like anxiety.

Am I being honest with myself and others? Dishonesty can feel like anxiety. Am I just wrapped up in thoughts about myself all day? or am I thinking of other people? In my experience, self-centeredness can feel like anxiety. So I just think journaling, jotting these things down and being, here we are back at mindfulness again, but being mindful of these things, we can be more easily able to redirect ourselves. A lot of people send me DMs or emails and are like, how do I find inner peace? and finding inner peace, for me at least, is implementing all of these things that I talked about today. It's taking accountability for my emotions. And to be accountable for them, I have to first

be aware of them. So no longer do I skate through life distracting myself from whatever uncomfortable thing it is that I'm feeling. I don't have that luxury. And frankly, I don't want it. To be fully awake to the good and the bad, to me, that's living. This doesn't mean that I'm a perfect serene person all the time. I would say like 95% of the time. Just kidding, kind of. But I have the tools and it's up to me to use them. So I think once you get in the habit of doing this stuff and feeling just how good we as humans can feel, it's hard to go back to a different way of living. It's hard for me to sit. It's hard for me to sit in my bullshit for too long. I just don't have the threshold for it that I had earlier in my life. So there's no secret recipe for inner peace, but I can tell you it has everything to do with who I am

as a person, what I do when nobody is looking, how I treat myself, how I treat others, if I'm distracting myself, or if I'm fully aware of my thoughts and emotions, after all, that dictates my behavior. It's keeping my side of the street clean, you know, you can. You can. You can. You do whatever you want, but I'm keeping my side of the street clean. And then, of course, using the tools that I've been given, like therapy and meditation. And I can also tell you it has nothing, like nothing to do with what my body looks like, what my face looks like, how much money I have, cars, homes, shoes, bags, nothing external really moves the needle there. That doesn't stop me from seeking occasionally, but by now I know better. So my advice would be to slow down, look around, be aware,

wake up, stop distracting, be accountable, write things down, process them, depending on your resources, you know, talk to somebody, download a meditation app, start to implement these changes and try to create these little habits. because they accumulate and they become a lifestyle. So I think I'll stop there today. I have no idea if I accomplished what I set out to accomplish at the beginning of this episode. But thank you again for listening to Me Ramble. And I hope there was some value in this.

And I will talk to you guys next week. I hope you enjoyed that episode. 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. I'm always posting about each episode there

or over on my personal page at Ariel Laurie.