#248: Samantha Harris - Say "Yes" to Your Healthiest Healthy
TV Host and Entertainment Reporter, Samantha Harris, shares her message of message of self-care and sustainable wellness.
You may know Samantha Harris from her eight seasons co-hosting Dancing with the Stars, or her years of reporting for Entertainment Tonight and other media outlets.
You may also know her as an author and breast cancer survivor and advocate. In fact, this year she honors her 10-year breast “cancer-versary” by launching her new podcast, “Your Healthiest Healthy.” (Her book title of the same name)
Today, you’ll also get to know Samantha Harris as a PLANTSTRONG woman warrior who advocates for lifestyle change, self-care, and becoming your own health advocate in the face of adversity.
As a person who was constantly on stage and in front of the camera, Samantha thought she was doing all of the “healthy” things for herself. She ate well, she exercised, she went to the gym… After her cancer diagnosis, however, she realized that there was so much about the whole food, plant-based nutrition lifestyle she didn’t know - from the foods she eats to the makeup she puts on her face.
Today, she continues to make adaptations and tweaks to improve her health and well-being, and she teaches others to live their “healthiest healthy” by empowering them to make better choices in, on, and around their bodies.
Episode Highlights
3:42 Meeting Samantha Harris
24:33 Samantha’s Shocking Breast Cancer Diagnosis
25:43 Lifestyle Changes Post-Diagnosis
27:34 What to Know About Your Personal Care and Skin Products
34:41 Leveling Up Your Health Routine
37:31 The Impact of Beauty Products
41:46 Importance of Movement
45:47 Adapting Exercise Routines
48:02 Navigating a Career in Entertainment
50:11 Her Personal Transition to Wellness Advocacy
56:04 Self-Care is a Must
1:00:23 Creating Opportunities
1:02:42 Benefits She’s Seen on Intermittent Fasting
1:06:55 A Little Game of "This or That"
Order Samantha’s Best-Selling Book, Your Healthiest Healthy
About Samantha Harris
Watched by millions as the co-host of Dancing with the Stars and Entertainment Tonight, Samantha Harris is an Emmy Award-winning TV host and journalist, bestselling author, Certified Health Coach and fitness trainer, nutrition advocate and promoter of healthy living.
Her 2014 stage II invasive breast cancer diagnosis at age 40 inspired a quest for answers about how we can all improve our overall health, prevent chronic diseases, and understand their underlying causes. The resulting book (which debuted as a Bestseller on Amazon), Your Healthiest Healthy: 8 Easy Ways to Take Control, Help Prevent and Fight Cancer, and Live a Longer, Cleaner, Happier Life, translates comprehensive, research-backed knowledge into an easy-to-follow action plan for maximizing health, energy and happiness for life.
Episode Resources
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Full Transcript via AI Transcription Service
[0:00] I'm Rip Esselstyn, and you're listening to the PLANTSTRONG Podcast. You may know my next guest from her eight seasons co-hosting Dancing with the Stars, or you may know her as a popular correspondent for Entertainment Tonight. You may even know her as a breast cancer survivor and advocate. And now you get to know her as a PlanStrong woman warrior. Today, we'll discuss your healthiest healthy with Samantha Harris, right after these messages from PLANTSTRONG.
[0:38] I want to personally invite you to join me and all the other BrockStars for this year's 13th live and in-person Plant-Stock event outside of Asheville, North Carolina in the little town of Black Mountain. It's 1,500 acres, is loaded with wildlife, trees, trails, streams. It is a nature wonderland. And what's also a wonderland are all the incredible speakers that you get to hang with all weekend long. Like Jane and Ann Esselstyn, Dr. Will Bulsiewicz of Fiber Fueled, Carleigh Bodrug, Miss Plant U.
[1:23] Gemma Newman is over from the UK, Dr. Dawn Mussallem of the Mayo Clinic, John Mackey, the ex-CEO of Whole Food Market Stores, myself, Brian Hart, and a special appearance by the Plant Bros. Here's the kicker. All these Broc-stars are there from Friday till Sunday, and they want to rub elbows with all of you, whether it's over buffets of PLANTSTRONG fare for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, whether it's going on an afternoon hike, a swim, pickleball, frisbee golf, kickball, cornhole, dancing, we're having live music. It's all there in this fun weekend extravaganza that we affectionately call Plant-Stock. Simply go to liveplantstrong.com and then click on Plant-Stock 2024 and grab yourself a ticket before they sell out. See you there.
[2:24] A few months ago, TV host and health advocate, Samantha Harris, invited me as a guest on her show called The Healthiest Healthy. And I got to tell you, I was so impressed by Samantha's energy, her passion, and her commitment to helping others that I wanted to return the favor and ask her to be on the PLANTSTRONG podcast. Samantha is well known in the entertainment industry for shows like Dancing with the Stars and Entertainment Tonight. And she's also incredibly transparent about her personal battle with breast cancer that was diagnosed 10 years ago. As you'll hear today, it turned out what she thought was healthy was turned on its head and she made and continues to make adaptations and tweaks to her diet and lifestyle in order to be her healthiest healthy. And that's what we're going to celebrate today. Not only did Samantha release a book by the same name a couple of years ago, but she is also on the cusp of starting a new podcast with the same name, Your Healthiest Healthy. I'm thrilled for you to get to know Samantha Harris.
[3:42] Samantha Harris, welcome to the PLANTSTRONG Podcast. I'm loving it. I love any time that I get time with you. I am so happy. So this is fantastic. Well, listen, you had me, you were nice enough to have me on your show not too long ago. And I, you know, I didn't know your incredible story and all the things that you have done. And you're such a ray of sunshine and you really are the the perfect guest for the PLANTSTRONG podcast so I can't wait to unpack so many things uh about you and your life and what you've been through and what you're up to and you know i've done my my research on you and so my my first First question to you is, how do you like introducing yourself?
[4:37] Oh, well, usually like, hey, I'm Samantha. It's usually how I introduce myself. You know, I think what's interesting in the public forum is that most people know me from eight seasons of hosting Dancing with the Stars and my many years as a host on Entertainment Tonight and more as the entertainment journalist. And, you know, I think what people don't know about me is that I have been, which is why I love PLANTSTRONG and why I love and adore you and your entire freaking family who've been all guests on my show. And I love it. I feel like I know all of you. So it's so fun. But I've been so passionate about wellness for years. And it was something that I just kind of kept to myself and I enjoyed. And then as we'll get into it, I'm sure a health diagnosis that just blindsided me, pivoted the trajectory of everything that I was doing for my career as well. Not that I was giving up television because I still do that element, but really 90% of my time and energy is all put into wellness. And it all kind of started because of this diagnosis.
[5:46] Yeah. So I have seen you in many occasions and other people introduce you as TV host, certified health coach and thriving breast cancer survivor. And I'd love to unpack and dive into your breast cancer just to start out with. And so just like go back, it was 2014, correct? When you had the diagnosis? Yes. And you were how old? I was 40, just turned 40. You were 40? And so tell me the circumstances around that.
[6:27] You getting the news that you had breast cancer? Because I want to know, is this something that was self-diagnosed? You had a lump, you went in, did you have a mammogram? Like what led to this? Well, I'm glad that you're asking because I think that the biggest lesson that I have learned through my journey is that we have to be our best healthcare advocates. If we're not into that advocacy and taking that as a big priority in our life, not just for potential potential health outcomes with diagnoses of chronic illness or other degenerative diseases.
[7:01] But also when it comes to all the other aspects of our wellness and making sure that we're an advocate for, you know, not stressing and learning mitigation techniques of that and sleeping well and all these other things that I know we'll also get into. So, but here I was not realizing how much of an advocate I needed to be and actually go back a couple of months earlier into the end of 2013, I was about to turn 40 a month later. And I thought, you know what, I'm turning 40 in November of 2013.
[7:31] I should probably get one of those mammogram things and set a baseline because I lost my dad to colon cancer when he was just 50. My dad's mom was a breast cancer survivor, fiver, lived to 95, diagnosed in her early 60s, lived to 95. But this cancer thing was in my family. I had two little girls at the time. They were three and six. So I thought I would set a baseline because I was as fit and healthy as I had ever been, or so I thought. So was this your first mammogram ever? Yes. And I had to ask for that too. Now there's so many different, because of course the insurance insurance companies, well, it should be not until you're 50, or it should be when you're 40. And they're always changing and moving that line. And I thought, you know what, I have a history of cancer in my family, I'm just going to ask for a mammogram, got that mammogram results came back clear, which is what I assumed they would. And I was just setting that baseline.
[8:32] But Rip, the thing that is the craziest of all of this is that 11 days after clear mammogram results, I was changing after a workout and I found a lump, but again, just had a clear mammogram. So I really wasn't that concerned. It was cancer, but I figured, well, you know, I'll call my longtime OBGYN. She delivered both of my kids. I knew her better than any other doctor. And she was the only doctor that did a clinical breast exam during the regular annual physical. So I called her. She said, you know, just come on in. She did a quick feel around. She said, you know what? Welcome to 40 lumpy breasts. And she sent me on my way. She said, it's nothing. Literally, I quote her, it is nothing. Well, let me ask you this. What was it that you felt 11 days after the mammogram that had you want to do a follow-up something with your OBGYN?
[9:26] There was so as I was taking off the sports bra and the ladies who are listening, you guys know how compressive those things are. And you just kind of got to move the girls around a little bit. And as I was doing that, and I'll also back up even further, I had breastfed both of my girls. So I was very comfortable and very knowledgeable about what my breasts felt like. And I was just removing the sports bra and moving shifting the girls around as I call them. And there was a very sizey lump. I mean, it was something that was a little bit hard. Um, it was maybe the size of a quarter, maybe a little less than that. And it was just, um, it hadn't been there. And that was the biggest thing, right? If we don't know our bodies as a baseline, then we aren't able to recognize when there is change. Now this could go from changes in your breast. This could It could be gastrointestinal changes where, you know what, I'm feeling more bloated or I'm feeling really uncomfortable or I'm having pains or my poop looks different. These are things we have to know for what's our normal because our normal as bioindividuals can be very different from what your best friend, your neighbor, your sibling looks like. So we have to know our bodies. Yeah.
[10:45] So this OBGYN also kind of, you know, checked out the girls and was like, everything's fine. Right. Yep. It's, it's nothing. This is 40 lumpy breasts. Welcome to it, you know, and move on. So a month later I thought, you know, this is weird. The inner voice was starting to get a little louder.
[11:06] And I said, you know, I should just maybe get a second opinion. So this is when I went to see my internist, because again, it's not cancer. I had a clear mammogram. I had my OBGYN say it was nothing. My internist did the same thing, quick clinical exam, said it's nothing, but if you're worried, we'll keep an eye on it and sent me on my way. So before I knew it, four months had passed from the time I found that lump until I kind of came up for air after the holidays and the new year and everything. That lump was still there.
[11:39] And that inner voice was getting louder. And now it was screaming at me saying, Samantha, if you're going to live with this, quote, nothing lump for the rest of your life, don't you kind of want to, I don't know, see something more diagnostic than just somebody feeling it? And that's when I finally was compelled to go seek out a breast specialist. Not for a second, realizing the only breast specialists out there are actually oncology specialists. Specialists who specialize in breast cancer. And that's when I finally went to see someone who really looked at breasts every day as their focus, who also, by the way, didn't think it was cancer after a multitude of tests. That's incredible. So basically the mammogram and then three physicians were like, ah, we don't think so. So, but you didn't have like a, any kind of a, a lumpectomy or something to actually check and see? Yeah. So ultimately, it was a lumpectomy that did find not just ductal carcinoma in situ, which is breast cancer contained within the duct, which is kind of the one you want because it's not smart enough to get out of the duct. They take out that lump, bye-bye, you're done, no extra steps after that.
[12:53] Unfortunately, they also thought it was invasive breast cancer. And it was that third opinion, which was finally a breast specialist, a breast oncologist who did three different tests. She did a needle biopsy and two ultrasounds. We eventually also had an MRI, but none of the tests actually detected the cancer. She literally came back in after the needle biopsy results to my follow-up and said, Samantha, good news, bad news. Good news is it's not cancer. Bad news is I don't know what it is. I'm going to advise we just take it out. And that's when I had the lumpectomy. Me that surgery still with the frozen sections in the room saying not cancer went on my way. So when I went back a week later, after that lumpectomy told my husband, You don't have to come with me, honey. Stay home. Actually, go golf. It's a gorgeous day. And then be with the kids. I'll be back eventually after this appointment that I sat there all by myself when I found out that it was invasive breast cancer.
[13:51] So when you say it was invasive breast cancer, what exactly does that mean? So now it means that that ductal carcinoma in situ, breast cancer cells contained within in the duct aren't smart enough to get in, but there's a little tissue on the border that the surgeon said looks like healthy tissue, but I don't know. Her gut told her she wanted to excise it. And she took a sample. That sample actually showed invasive breast cancer, which means now the cells did get smart and they got out of the duct of the, of the milk duct essentially. And they now are permeating into the outer breast outside of just that, that duct, which now means it's invasive into the breast. Okay. So at this point, what are your options? I mean, what are you, what are you thinking you're going to do now?
[14:41] So this was now, you know, cancer, cancer university started and I was seeing more doctors. I didn't realize how many specialties within oncology from your medical oncologist who comes up with the game plan to a surgical oncologist who does the surgery to a radiation oncologist who of course does that radiation for you, which I opted out of. I can go into that later if we need to, but basically I had options. My surgical options were another lumpectomy with a, I think it was seven weeks of radiation or a single or double mastectomy. And after I gathered a lot of information, spoke to many breast cancer survivors of what was their path, I decided for myself, which is such an individual choice, that a double mastectomy with a two stage reconstruction was the route that I wanted to choose.
[15:31] What is what's going through your mind right now with all this? Is it paralyzing? Are you depressed? Are you like, all right, I'm going to deal with this and I'm going to figure it out and I'm going to get on with my life. I mean, what was the range of emotions that you went through? I think all of that from soup to nuts. For me, I was in go mode to gather all that information. Once I had a game plan and that was a lot, my husband was my partner in every way. He never ever missed another appointment after that. He and I would take make pro and con list of whether it was whether we're deciding for about the surgery and what we were going to do and the recovery and what that game plan would look like for the kids when I couldn't leave my bed for three weeks after two different surgeries, but I have a three and a six year old and all they want is mommy to come play mommy to pick them up at school, mommy to pick them up. So that you know, that was also a whole learning process and how we were going to communicate with them and make it as normal as possible for them. For me, it was a matter of, okay, what, what do I want to do? And how I was so overwhelmed. What it was in those first few weeks was this almost adrenaline.
[16:52] That was pulsating through every possible part of my body, but with a really negative, horribly overwhelming, sad elephant on my chest, fear that I was going to not be here for my girls to grow up. And they were going to grow up without their mom. I know how hard it was for me to lose my dad when he was 50. And lucky for me, my parents had us young and he saw me graduate from college and then pass two months after that. So I was a fully formed human being. My girls were little. Mama needed to be there. I still feel like I have to make sure I'm here to guide them. And thank goodness I am, you know, now in 2014, all these years later. And so for me, the overwhelming, crushing anxiety was something I had never felt before. I wanted to curl up in a ball. There was plenty of time. I was literally curled up in a ball crying on my bed, especially after the surgery. And there was a moment, Rip, where I don't know what...
[18:00] Stirred within me so strongly. I knew I couldn't feel that way any longer. I knew that it was going to be a long road ahead of me and I didn't know how long of a road. And so I made this conscious decision just really, it was almost like on a dime. I said, you know what? I need to focus on the positive. I need to figure out what's good in this situation. I need to not glass, you know, rose colored glasses, but glass half full. Okay. What's positive? Well, I have a really great support network. I'm in really great shape and good health otherwise, which will reduce my risk of complications. And it will make me get back to whatever my new normal is faster. Okay. Samantha, keep talking to yourself. This positive self-talk kept feeding on itself in such a great, amazing way. Okay. Well, I've got great health insurance. I've got, you know, all these things just sort of kept me going and flip my perspective. And by flipping my perspective, you know, really making the lemonade out of the lemon that I had been dealt, turned it around for me and allowed me to take my power back in something that cancer had stolen.
[19:09] Samantha, you know, you, I find a lot of times I talk to people that have had a, a brush with heart disease or, you know, diabetes or cancer or something like this. And they say it's the best thing that ever happened to them. Do you have that view or not?
[19:28] I do say that it was a gift. And I say it was a gift because of the changes I've been able to make in my health and well-being for me and my family and now share with thousands of others because of my breast cancer diagnosis. It gave me purpose and meaning in a way I didn't realize I needed in my life. At the same time, I would never wish breast cancer –, on myself in the first place or on anybody else, but it was an eyeopening, uh, wake up call that I didn't, didn't realize I needed. And there were changes in my wellbeing and my lifestyle habits and all of the things, ways that I was really living my life that needed a deeper look. And I didn't realize it. So there were things I didn't realize I should be doing or that I could even could be doing to make my life better for longevity and health span. And I'm doing those things now. Looking back and you just mentioned what, what are some of the things that you realize now you could have been doing differently, uh, before your breast cancer diagnosis, because you, you, you, you thought you were like spot on healthy as, as you know, a Canadian moose.
[20:44] I mean look I was on the cover of 10 different health and fitness magazines from shape to four covers of muscle and fitness hers to you know women's running all these magazines and all these interviews from us weekly and people magazine what do you do to stay fit how are you in such great shape all of these things with that made sort of reinforced my belief that I was healthy that I was living a healthy life because look I was exercising regularly it was part of my day to day. I was eating what I thought was healthy. And this is going to be something that will really resonate with the PLANTSTRONG community, which is I, so again, especially on Dancing with the Stars, where I was standing next to these incredibly toned dancers that were professional dancers with the musculature that's just, you know, gorgeous. And I wanted to look as as tight and toned as they needed. And, you know, so here I was eating.
[21:42] Animal protein for lunch for dinner for every breakfast I grew up in minnesota eating every part of the cow and so I felt that in order to be toned and tight because again look I was in my early 30s and especially even through my 20s with all those fitness magazine covers I thought I had to eat a lot of animal protein to be as cut as possible and I was eating you know whether it was eggs or yogurt or you know oh gosh horrible sugar-laden cereal that I thought was healthy with whey protein mixed into organic cow's milk, that was breakfast. Lunch was always turkey or tuna or some sort of poultry, some chicken, and then dinner was usually fish or chicken as well. And I stopped eating red meat once I moved to LA. I think I had too much of it as a kid and I lost the taste for it. I thought I was eating the right thing because I was eating egg whites, and I was eating low-fat yogurts and cheeses, and I was eating skinless, boneless chicken breasts. None of that organic, by the way. None of it wild-caught or grass-fed, or even the buzzwords I know now are better options if you're going to choose to eat that way.
[22:54] But I was consuming copious amounts of animal meat, and it wasn't until I got my cancer diagnosis, I got through my surgeries, and I finally took my power back, and I said, okay, wow, I did a deep dive into research and I realize it's what we put in, on and around our body that affects our overall wellbeing, that turns on or leaves off certain DNA structures to lead to chronic disease. And wow, I read the China study and forks over knives and holy moly, my mind was blown.
[23:29] Absolutely blown. Yeah, yeah. I was eating all this animal meat and I thought, oh, now I'm not, In full disclosure, I'm not fully vegan or vegetarian. I do dabble a little bit in fish, maybe once a week, occasionally twice, because I still like my sushi. I'm trying not to, I know. And then I would say I probably have poultry maybe once a month. It's hard with kids trying to find those alternatives. And I love all that I've learned from your family to be able to get more awesome meals onto my plate and for them as well. But really for the most part, I'm plant-based and that was a word or a term I didn't even know existed. That was a game changer for me. That was one of the first changes I made nutritionally. And I started working with, after my cancer, I started working with a nutritionist who specializes in breast cancer. And so she said, Samantha, 21 out of 21 meals a week, you're eating animal protein. Let's cut that down. And I didn't go cold turkey, no pun intended.
[24:34] I, I, I cut it back and I cut it back. And then all of a sudden I realized, okay, now I'm at seven out of 21 meals. And now, and now, like I said, I'm, you know, maybe once a week of fish and maybe once a month of poultry. And the other really eyeopening thing she told me was that, you know, if we're not getting enough fiber, everybody across the board are getting about, you know, the average American gets what, about 12 grams of fiber per day. And women need 30 to 35 men need 35 to 40 grams of fiber per day. I want you to look at your plate. And instead of, and this is one of the pillars. Now I went on and I wrote a bestselling book called your healthiest healthy. And one of the pillars that I learned from her, that is one of my pillars of living your healthiest, healthy life is fill your plate at least half full of veggies at every meal. That way with the variety of color, you're going to get lots of phytonutrients and all that extra fiber. And you're going to do your microbiome good, which is 70% of your immune system to fight off the potential of those chronic diseases. So it was a, it was a big, pivot for me. Yeah. I think that this audience is pretty savvy with,
[25:41] you know, the importance of whole food plant-based. So, so glad that you are, you know, it sounds like mostly almost there, right?
[25:51] Tell me, tell me, have you, I know you have, but how well do you know Kristy Funk, Dr. Kristy Funk?
[25:58] She was actually the second of the three surgical oncologists who I consulted with um before I made my decision and the reason I chose the gentleman that Ithat I did the surgeon I did was because he was the one of that and that team of doctors for the excella node the sentinel node biopsy um and so but yeah so Iknow christy um well and we you know cross paths a lot because we'll both be you know whether it's guests on something together or hosting something together or on a board for something so yeah she's she's definitely a great proponent of the plant-based lifestyle so you saw so you met her back in 2014 then right and so and so that was before she had done her deep dive into nutrition and you know had had done because she didn't make the transition and switch until like 2016 17 okay that makes sense yeah at that time she was just known as angelina jolie's you know right surgeon who did you know her prophylactic mastectomy and uh and Yeah, right. Exactly. And I think being in the entertainment business, that's, I think, what probably drew me to seeing her as my second opinion and so on. But she's great. And she did. She made that switch. And it's been very exciting because we don't have, unfortunately, a lot of oncologists who are plant-based proponents, who are lifestyle mitigation proponents. Mm-hmm. And for everybody out there that wants to read a great book.
[27:25] Her book, Breast, The Owner's Manual, is really great, packed with information. Yeah.
[27:35] In, on, and around. What's going into your body, what's going on your body, and what's going around your body. So where I think that my audience could really benefit from your expertise is on and around. So would you mind touching upon those and products and toxins that are just loaded in what's on us, what we're putting on us and what's around us? Yes. And so, yeah, so obviously, yeah, you guys got the in component diet, the organic and all the good stuff that you guys already talk about. So as a professional television host who sat in a makeup chair every day being shellacked with these chemical bombs of neurotoxins and allergens and carcinogens and things, I didn't even honestly stop to read an ingredient label or even think were problematic. As I was having bulletproof makeup put on every day and hair products. And I mean, just the spray alone, that fumigated scent of where you can't even breathe in after a nice big hairspray plume.
[28:44] My research really directed me to, oh, my gosh, wow. You know, the environmental working group has been a great resource for me because as well as Think Dirty, sorry, Think Dirty is another app. And then the Environmental Working Group has also a great resource with their Skin Deep database, which allows us as consumers to be able to say, OK, hey, I'm going to read the label. I'm going to look at what this ingredient is and I'm going to plug it in here to the database. What rating does that have on one being as green and clean as possible to nine or 10 being as carcinogenic or neurotoxic as possible? Fatal, essentially. And then making those decisions as a consumer. So, you know, I know at the beginning I said the biggest thing we need to do is become our own best health advocate. Part of that is becoming an empowered consumer. So with our dollars, we can, and thankfully the demand with people's dollars has gotten so great that we have lots of options now. Back in 2014, when I started looking for clean makeup or clean hair care, oh my gosh, it either barely existed or it was a really clean, organic product, but it didn't work. And I needed something that worked. And so I think that when we can start to read labels, I love to be able to share. You guys, I have actually put together, for anyone listening.
[30:11] I put together a PDF that has vetted hair, makeup, skincare, cleaning supplies that I've really tried and made sure that they work really well, but they also meet my very high standards for being free of all of these potentially harmful toxins. So you guys can just send me a DM. If you guys are watching, you see at Samantha Harris TV is my Instagram and my Facebook. You can just drop me a DM or even comment in any of my posts with clean beauty. Send me a thing that It says Clean Beauty, Facebook as well. And I will pop you that PDF for free. I just, I love being able to help and guide. And so I shot 65 episodes in three weeks of a game show called Tug of Words on Game Show.
[30:56] I've watched you in some of them. It's fun. It's fast. It's a fast show. And so, but the goal was we have to have 12 hour shoot days with makeup and hair that lasts and looks good that I can take on and off clothes as I change wardrobe over my hair. My hair still can look good. And so I told my girls who are my glam squad, my hair and makeup girls who I've been friends with forever, said, okay, girls, this is what we're going to do. We're going to make sure that everything you bring into the makeup and hair room meets my high standards of clean beauty. And they were so excited. They really, they now have gone on to use these products in their main kits when they're doing other people. And we basically tried, it was great. We had a lot of great brands who are willing to send us stuff to try. We had a budget from the show to buy a lot of the products and we tried all of these products to figure out what works. And so it's been a really nice thing. So that's why I put together that PDF, but understanding what's in your makeup, what's in your skincare for men, what's in your shaving cream, what's in your hair gel. Are you adding more to your body and burdening your body with this toxic overload?
[32:04] Or are you helping it so that it has things that are only enhancing your body? The European Union bans more than 1,400 different chemicals as either known or possible carcinogens or neurotoxins. And the U.S. only bans 11. Okay.
[32:26] Wow. That's really staggering. That's quite a difference. It's frustrating. We've had a personal care cosmetics act, something like that, that's been stuck in Congress since 2015.
[32:42] Because we haven't had our own standards for what is allowed or not.
[32:49] I'm sure you have international listeners as well, but for those who are living in the U S we have not had our standards, our personal cosmetic safety, personal care act. We haven't had it updated since 1913 when it was first written.
[33:05] That's kind of like hard to believe. It almost seems, what do you think is the reason behind that? Is it big money, big money. All right. The same thing that goes with our food industry, right? We all know too well, all the listeners of what goes into that. So, you know, we have the lobbyists, you have these big corporations and they look, there are, I get frustrated too. And I find a really great clean brand, whether it's a food product or a personal care product, and I'm using it and I'm loving it. And then all of a sudden you hear that Nestle bought it or Coca-Cola bought it, or, you know, some big cosmetics brand bought, bought it out because then they tend to change formulation. So they don't really publicize that that purchase even happened. So here you are using a product that's tried and true and the formulation all of a sudden maybe changes and you don't even know as a consumer. So it's really helpful to keep up on those things. And that's one of the things that I love to do and share and guide people. It's why I wrote the book. It's why I have my, you know, I have a private wellness wellness community where I offer, well, it's where you were a guest, Rip, and then I offer coaching as well every week. And I love running my small group women's retreats to be able to have that one-on-one time to share with people, okay, here's how you can level up. Because I think what happens is people think...
[34:25] Oh, gosh, I am so overwhelmed. There's conflicting information, I need to make a 180 overnight. And you know what, that's too much, I'm not going to do any of it.
[34:34] But it's really about small, manageable steps that we can continue to level up. So let's say I love to so you your listeners will appreciate this because they already know the food. But let's say you're eating blueberries, we know blueberries are plant-based, and they're really healthy for us. But you're eating conventional blueberries, you level up to organic blueberries, and then you level up when you're ready to wild organic, right? So same thing with your cosmetics. You can just look at your ingredients list and say, oh, wow, I didn't realize that in my beauty bag, I have a lot of things that have parabens in it. I'm going to go ahead and throw anything that has methylparaben, anything that ends in the word paraben. I'm going to throw out or recycle or promise not to purchase again anything that has parabens. And then that becomes part of your day-to-day. And then you say, okay, well, wow, what else? Oh gosh, there's formaldehyde. There are phthalates. There's 1,4-dioxane. There are all these other things that I didn't know I shouldn't have in my makeup, in my skincare, my shampoos. So that's about the stuff that's on your body.
[35:33] And in terms of around your body, it's the same kind of things that I just was talking about in terms of your cleaning supplies, but also around your body means toxic relationships, unnecessary stress. How can we mitigate those negative people in our lives so that we can make sure that we only have uplifters rather than detractors? How can we figure out, okay, I'm going to put a boundary here because I'm not going going to cut my, you know, my sister, my brother, my uncle out of my life. But every time I talk to that person, I'm really stressed and I'm frustrated and I know my cortisol levels are high and that's not good for me because it leads to the inflammation that is the precursor to chronic disease. So I'm going to say this to them so that we don't talk about X or I'm going to only see them at limited times or whatever it is, or cut people out or unfollow people that are stressing asking you out.
[36:31] Samantha, let me ask you this before we move on. I just, I'm finding it incredible what a wealth of information you are and how you do know so much on all this. I did a deep dive into your Instagram channel and you have so much fantastic information there. And in one of your posts, you talked about how like the average female puts on 12 different personal care products a day, which contain over 168 different chemicals. And I just found that to be just staggering 12. Um, and I look at myself and literally I don't, I don't use one thing, except when I shave, I use shaving cream. And, and then when I go out in the sun, sometimes I use sunblock, but, uh, which I want to ask you about sunscreen. Yes. I really want to ask you about sunscreen, but yeah, it's just, there's the beauty of.
[37:31] The beauty care business is so big. I don't think I realized it until I started diving into your channel. Well, you know what's even, I think, more frightening is that the kids today, as I look at my teenage girls now, they're now 13 and 16. And I look at the amount of products that they have in their rooms that they're putting on their body every single day. And they love going to the big brand beauty store. I'm going to promote it because I'm aggravated by it because they spend way too much money there. And they do finally have a green checkmark for a lot of the products that they offer. And that's a better option. I tell my girls, just try to buy from that.
[38:11] Although it's still not the higher standards that I... Some of them, they have some good clean brands there, but some of the higher standards. And I realized, I think my girls probably put 20, 25 products on their body a day because is they layer on, you know, three different layers of serum and then, you know, right, it's just and then the makeup. But, you know, even, you know, what's your toothpaste? You know, I'm sure I'm assuming you're brushing your teeth. You know, Rip, are you using mouthwash? If you're not using anything else besides your shave cream, you know, do you when you the sunscreen, you really should be using sunscreen in your, you know, facial care every day. And if you're not using that you should be because of the harmful rays. We need about 20 minutes twice a week of that vitamin D without any protection on our skin, but we can always still protect our face and then expose as much of your other body's skin as possible, but then make sure you either cover up or put on an SPF 30 or higher mineral-based sunscreen. Is there a particular brand that you like or endorse?
[39:17] There are a handful of them. I think the key of it is, well, first of all, you guys can always DM me. I will send you. Actually, I think even on that PDF for Clean Beauty, I have a couple of brands as well. But I think what's most essential is that you, again, read the label. There are two different kinds of sunscreens. There's the chemical blockers, and then there's the mineral blockers. The chemical blockers are the ones that tend to lead to, again, some of our complications for disease because of what they have in them. So we always want to choose a mineral base. That means it's titanium dioxide or zinc oxide as the only active ingredient. And a lot of, so if it's octinoxate, octisalate, avobenzone, these are all the chemical blockers. So the difference is that a chemical blocker goes on your skin and needs to seep into your skin before it can take effect. Whereas a mineral blocker stays on top of your skin and reflects the rays back to the sun. So nothing's penetrating in, which is why they work almost immediately. You don't have to wait the 20 or 30 minutes before sun exposure, which is really helpful.
[40:29] The pushback a lot of people give me, especially if they're going to like a beach vacation and they want to be in their bathing suit and look all tan and bronze, is that like, oh, I'm going to be all pasty and white because it gives that, you know, that residue like we think about the old school. The earth and look is in. It's all right. Exactly. Exactly. But, you know, you can always for your face cream, if you're using just a basic sunscreen, you can get tinted moisturizer. There's plenty of makeups that come in with that are mineral based with an SPF 30. You could also add a little bit of foundation to your sunscreen for your face. And as for your body, you know, there are plenty of SPF clothing options as well for when you're going outside if you don't want to. I mean, I now wear a rash guard a lot when I'm in the sun because, honestly, I don't want the hassle of having to put the sunscreen on. So I wear an SPF-locked, you know, rash guard instead. The kids like the bikinis. So, you know, I've got to talk them into slathering on the SPF mineral. I have such an aversion to putting sunscreen on because I can't stand the way it makes my skin feel. I'm like a uber sensitive like that. So I would much rather wear a long sleeve shirt, loose pants, whatever, big old sombrero hat everywhere I go. Exactly. They're good options. Yeah.
[41:46] So let's move on to movement. And I know that you think movement is so paramount and so key in so many ways. What kind of advice would you give the PLANTSTRONGaudience as far as what mentality do you have to consistently get out there day after day and move? It's a great question. And we all know, I don't have to tell you, your doctor's told you everything you read, it tells all of us, we have to move our bodies for mental health, for physical health, for longevity, for health span, to reduce risk of disease. There is no reason not to move our bodies. And moving our bodies means however you can, right? No matter what your limitations might be, there's always a way to move in some, some fashion or another. So a lot of it comes from, okay. Well, gosh, I just don't want to go hit the gym for an hour. That's just not my thing. You don't have to. Guess what? You can go for a, take your dog for a long walk. You can go plant, you know, in the backyard for an hour.
[42:54] It's really a matter of just making sure that we're not being sedentary when we're sedentary. So our cells are always dying off and that's just part of life, right? We have new cell renewal and turnover and the ones that turned over die and they leave our body. Body so what happens however is when we're sedentary right we're either going from our car to our desk at work and sitting all day and then coming home and sitting on the couch or not moving our body it's communicating to our body oh Iguess you don't really need a lot of energy and new cells so guess what i'm not going to make a lot of new cells i'm just going to let them die off and stay there in that dead mode and so your body actually loses the ability to be energetic if you've ever been on bedrest or recuperating from a bad sickness, and you're now trying to get up after whether it's a few days or longer, and you're trying to get back to movement, it takes a little bit of extra effort. And it's because your body, it'll bounce back fast if it remembers that you've been exercising, that you have been moving your body. But it takes that extra effort because the cells have been getting a mixed message of, wait, oh, wait, you don't need me to replicate, you don't need new energy.
[44:02] So I always say, you know, the body in motion stays in motion. And, and that's because our cells are turning over and replicating, giving us more energy. So if we're saying to our body, I'm good on the couch, I'm good in the car, I'm good at sitting at my desk for eight hours straight without getting up and moving, your body's going to stop moving for you, whether you want it to or not. So whether it's a matter of setting an alarm on your phone to get up every hour and move from your desk, walk around the office, if you have an office job, you know, Can you take a phone call while you're pacing back and forth? Can you make an extra effort to, even if you can keep your food at the desk, but there's a lunchroom, put it in the lunchroom so you have to actually get up and go. Can you actually walk down the street and pick up food somewhere, even though I'm a much bigger fan of making it and bringing our healthy stuff with us than buying takeout? So the other biggest thing with movement is consistency, which you had said, Rip, you mentioned that. That consistency is the biggest part of it. Let me ask you this. Do you do most of your exercise regularly?
[45:06] Most of your exercise alone or with others? Great question. It changed because of the pandemic. Before the pandemic, I was a total gym rat. I loved going to the gym because I loved the energy of the classes that were offered there. And so on any given day, I knew that I could get, I could drop my kids off at school and get into that 8 a.m. class. And one day it would be weights and strength. And one day it would be HIIT. And one day it might be, you know, on a rowing machine or a step or a dance or a something or kickboxing, right? They knew that every day was going to be different. And then the weekends I would get out and I would hike and I would do yoga and kind of change it up.
[45:47] After the pandemic, um, or because of during it, I started working out at home. I haven't gone back to that mode. And so instead I do live online classes. So everything does seem to be more, more alone unless I'm doing a hike. And if I can find a hiking buddy, I'm always going to find a hiking buddy. This morning, I grabbed my husband and I said, hey, you know what? Let's go. Even if it's for 10 or 15 minutes, let's walk the dog. Because we used to always walk the kids to school. And now that they're in middle school and high school, we don't have the bus stop walking distance or the school walking distance. So the dog doesn't get, he lost out and we lost out on that morning connection, getting the sunlight into our eyes to reset the circadian rhythm. Them, all the things, hearing the birds, breathing the nature in. And so I said, let's do that. And so even if you can get those little bits throughout the day, because.
[46:37] The goal is about 30 minutes, five times a week, 150 minutes a week of low to moderate intensity exercise or 75 minutes of high intensity exercise a week. But we do know it's better to move every day at least a little bit, even if it's in 10 minute blocks throughout the day. Well, I love the way everything you've described there. You're always keeping your body guessing and you're not just kind of caught into one routine that you're doing kind of exclusively. Exclusively it's about keeping my body guessing because it keeps my mind engaged so I don't get that boredom with working out it keeps my muscles guessing because they they're doing different things even if you're using say you're using the quads because i'm walking or i'm using my quads because i'm doing kickboxing or quads because i'm doing squats there are little you know minor muscular differences so we're actually keeping that body guessing and the muscles guessing because as we get older, even more important to also make sure we get in those at least two days of strength training and balance training, because it's the slips and falls that hurt our life and end up ending our lives a lot sooner. Did you know that from hip fractures, not fractures, but when we break a hip, it's like something like, and again, you can check me on this, but I believe the statistic is something like a 50% chance of death within the first year.
[48:03] I I've heard something like that, especially once you're over the age of like 70 or something like that. Right. Right. Yeah. So get, get it going and get that, the balance exercises and the strength training. What do you tell yourself or your clients when they say, Oh, I'm just too tired today. I say, cause I, cause I've been there. I am telling you at times too, um.
[48:28] It's kind of, I say, it's kind of like sex. You're never disappointed that you did it. Sometimes it's hard to get motivated to get, get it in the action. So the same thing with the gym or with movement, even if you just don't feel like it, I mean, listen to your body. If you are feeling completely exhausted and tapped, I'm not saying go do a marathon, um, or a spin class, but just go out, stroll for 10 or 15 minutes. Because really what ends up happening is when we, when we set, I also say, set the bar low, know where you are and meet yourself where you are. So if you're someone who hasn't exercised since fifth grade PE class, then you know what? Don't commit to, all right, I'm going to exercise for an hour, five days a week. Cause it's not going to happen, right? It happened for the first couple of weeks and then you're going to give up and then it's going to be sad. So the idea is, okay, well then I'm going to aim for two days a week for 10 minutes for five minutes, if you have to, and then level up from there. Because also once you get going, I don't know about you, but unless you actually have like a hard end time because of a meeting or some commitment, once you start going, you usually will end up going longer than you realize, because it's just getting started because we know scientifically that it's proven that exercise lifts our mood. It lifts, It makes us more energetic and it makes us more productive. Yeah. Well, that, listen, that was great about, about movement.
[49:58] And listen, just like you, I mean, movement has been a huge part of my life and, you know, it's, it's, I'm not grounded and I'm not normal unless I get
[50:10] some exercise in every day. It's, it's, it's that it's actually become, it's that bad. I need it. I need my fix. Well, I mean, look, I mean, everybody who knows and sees you on your social media and your photos, I mean, gosh, you're such an incredible shape and it shows that the effort that you're putting in. But I agree with you completely. I say, as long as I get my exercise in, I'm yours the rest of the day. If I don't, it's not good. Can we talk for a little bit about your career? Sure. So, so entertainment tonight, dancing with the stars and you did like you were this TV host and I guess you still are, you know, but, but.
[51:00] What was that life like? Did you, did you enjoy it? Was it something that you dreamt about as a little girl, you know, being on TV and being a host, obviously your personality and your, your, you know, your, the twinkle in your eyes and that, that incredible smile and your curiosity make you absolutely ideal for that. But I'm just wondering if, if it spoke to you, Was it, did it seem kind of plastic and fake or like, it's just a combination of all that? Thanks. No, you know, so I grew up in Minnesota and my dad produced all the rock concerts that came to town. And so I literally grew up backstage at rock concerts, meeting the biggest stars of, you know, the eighties and nineties. I mean, I guess the seventies too, but I was too little to remember that. So, so for the most part. So I grew up knowing that celebrities were just doing a job that they loved, and I was lucky to be able to be a part of it. So that part of Hollywood never, I mean, there are still celebrities I would meet in an interview and be like, oh, my God, totally fangirling like Hugh Jackman. And I still love him. Anytime I get to meet him.
[52:16] You know, a song and dance man who can also play Wolverine, you got me there. I mean, I'm a total Broadway geek. So I was like, ah, yes, but you know I grew up knowing that these people were just people doing their jobs. And so I didn't have that same like, oh my god I'm gonna go interview this big celebrity. It was like, okay. I want to know about your job I want to know what was your why did you want to get into this? What did you want to do? What was your you know, what's going on with your character?
[52:40] And so when I got into energy, so when I was 12, by the way I knew I wanted to be on camera and I asked again, Minnesota, but I asked my parents and, can I have an agent? Not the hotbed of activity in Minnesota for TV and film, but it did have a lot of headquarters for corporations from Target to General Mills to 3M. So I did a lot of commercials and print work growing up and that got me started. And then I went to Northwestern University for journalism when I was in college and then made a beeline out to LA. So, you know, spent the first six years of my time really pounding the pavement and auditioning and failing and lots of doors shut in my face. But entertainment news was something that I knew and I thought I wanted to be an actor at the beginning of my career. But entertainment news was something that I also knew that I had an allure for me because of that celebrity angle. And I and that I was journalism major in broadcast and Northwestern, but I knew I didn't want hard news. I'd covered some stories for a local news station. I had to cover a child murder. And I knew that that was just not where I wanted my day to day to be. I wanted to, like my dad did with these rock concerts and my parents produced one of the, created and produced one of the first Renaissance festivals in the country, which my mom and sister still do to this day out in Massachusetts called King Richard's Fair.
[54:01] And so I grew up in this world of Renaissance and rock and entertaining people and really just bringing people escape from their day to day. So I knew hard news wasn't going to be my jam. And I interned at Entertainment Tonight when I was in college. I worked for the local station for a summer and in college as well that had an entertainment segment that I eventually became the producer of just for the rest of the summer before I went back for senior year. And so it was really Entertainment Tonight was sort of the pinnacle. And so I eventually worked my way up there from Access Hollywood to E! News to The Insider, which is the sister show to E!T., and then eventually Entertainment Tonight. So that was really a very cool thing to be able to do. What I didn't like about the Entertainment News game was that it very quickly became and has become just about the gossip and who's dating who and who screwed up with whom and what's the insight. And almost too personal into their personal lives.
[55:08] And that bothered me. It bothered me that I had to always ask them. And there were always those questions that my producers would say, okay, make sure you ask about the divorce, how she just had her heart broken and make sure you get that soundbite. And then if I didn't come home with that, essentially it was like, oh, you didn't get that. Well, the publicist said no personal questions. So then I had to find ways And I was very good at this to meander my way, a back way in to still get some sort of personal sound bites that they felt comfortable enough with me to reveal, which was great. And I felt very good. I'm proud of the job that I did, but I didn't really like that part of it. I love covering the award shows. I love being able to cover the movie junkets and interview them about their roles. But the personal stuff, I think it's just, it's gotten to be too much. Yeah. And so you're now, you're doing Tug of War. Is that right? Yeah. So Tug of Words.
[56:04] Tug of Words. Yes. And then, but really, you know, 90% of my career and my focus and passion is all in the wellness space and really helping people become, you know, I thought like we talked at the beginning, I thought I was healthy. I realized after cancer, I needed to become my healthiest healthy. And then when I did all of that research, I thought, well, gosh, it's not fair. Like that's my, I'm a journalist. I'm used to researching. Not everybody has the time, the wherewithal or the interest enough to do that deep dive and speak to all the experts and and read all the reports and the science. So that's why I wrote the book, Your Healthiest Healthy, was to help others become their healthiest healthy and have those easy ways to take control of their health, reduce their risk of cancer, but also heart disease and type 2 diabetes and live that clean, happy life, whether it's clean eating, clean beauty products, cleaner, cleaning up your surroundings from the toxic people, and being able to make those changes in a more effortless way that was not overwhelming. You have a couple different sayings that I kind of pulled out that I really like, and I want to say them and then have you comment on them. Okay. So this first one is, Self-care is selfless.
[57:31] It's not selfish. I think that is so good. I didn't realize how important self-care was as I was coming up in my career. It was go, go, go, take, take, take any opportunity that came at me. I mean, when I was 35, I was doing Dancing with the Stars. I was on Entertainment Tonight. I had a 21-month-old. Oh, and I took on a role of the lead on a Broadway show in the musical Chicago playing Roxy Hart, because I don't want to say no, it was a dream. Oh, and I was a guest correspondent for Good Morning America. All at the same time, there was no self-care. There was no breath work. There was no exercise with my self-care, but it was fit it in, get it going, do it hard. And so even my exercise approach had to be rejiggered after cancer because there are days where really yoga would be much better suited for what I needed that day. Or maybe today I do need some cardio, but this go, go, go mentality.
[58:31] Where there was no self care, because I, again, I, at the time I thought it was too selfish. I'm taking time away from my family or my kids. If I want to go get that, that, you know, gym class in, or I want to take a yoga class or go for a hike. And I realized that if I didn't take care of myself, especially after a cancer diagnosis and have that time for self-care. I'm not going to be here long enough to take care of those who need me the most. And that's why it's not selfish. Yeah. Yeah.
[59:06] Don't wait for the opportunity, create it. So with that, I think, you know, that's something my dad taught me early on that, We have to be prepared because opportunities come, but opportunities don't always come. And so we have to figure out what it is we want or need and then do it and create the opportunity, create the environment for the opportunity to come. So if that's with your, you know, with your wellness, then you can't just wait for, you know, there's not the trainer down the street. it's not going to, I mean, they might be knocking on your door because they're trying to get new clients, but they're not going to stay on you to like come to the gym and work out with them. You need to create an environment for yourself where you say, you know what? I know I want to be healthier for my family. I want to be healthier for me and have longevity. So I need to create an environment within which I can have all of these healthy elements, whether it's from my food to my products and my, you know, for my skincare or how I'm working out. But it also goes, of course, And of course, beyond that to your career, I didn't know I wanted a career in wellness. And so I created the you're healthy, it's healthy community, so that I have that ability to give the information and share and support. So where did you learn that?
[1:00:24] That it's okay to really get out of your comfort zone and, and go ask for things and seek, seek your opportunity. Don't wait for it to find you. You know, it's, it's that, that saying of you have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And that's obviously not nature. Nature has it that we are comfortable because anytime we have have any adversity, innately, we go, oh, wait, hold on. Nope, not going to do that. But it's actually in that adversity that we thrive. We know that even, for instance, eating organic vegetables and fruit, why are they better for us? If you look at the macronutrient profile, they're no different than the conventionally raised. But they're better for us from the the polyphenols to the micronutrient level because they have had adversity. They didn't have the pesticides on them. So because they didn't have the pesticides on them, they had more adversity and they had to be stronger and develop within their biomolecular structure that we're not seeing on any labels. They had to be stronger. Now we're eating that and consuming that. And that's making us strong. I have never heard that comparison before. That is so good. Oh, I mean, I can't remember which scientist I first learned about that from.
[1:01:48] Hermeses, I think. Hermeses, Hermeses, something like that. It's basically this idea of this adversity makes us stronger, right? Look, another really easy example is muscle building. We know that that when we're doing weights, we get those micro tears in our muscle, right? It's the soreness we're feeling in that 48 to 72 hours afterwards.
[1:02:10] It's actually the micro muscle tears that we think on its surface, that sounds terrible. We don't want to tear our muscles, but we do want those micro tears. It's those micro tears that then create the building of more muscles and make our muscles stronger for us. So that adversity, again, is to our benefit. Another reason why fasting is so essential for our longevity, because we're saying to our body, guess what? The food isn't just coming right away. And so our body has to sit there and work hard. It has that ability overnight
[1:02:41] to repair and replenish better. Have you been experimenting much with fasting or intermittent fasting? I love it.
[1:02:48] You do? What do you love about it? You know, first of all, for a girl who is always someone who would nosh all the time and snack, if you would have told, and eat right away, because my mom, still to this day when I go to dinner, are you sure you don't want any? I sliced oranges. You just woke up. Don't you want some food? You're going to go on a hike right now for an hour and a half. you don't want to eat that i'm worried about you i know mom intermittent fast and and actually we have some of the most amazing world-class athletes who not only are vegan and vegetarian which i love but also who fast and they work out with these crazy workouts in a fasted state so um what do i love about it i i actually have even more energy and clarity um i love that i just know that i'm I'm giving my body the rest that it needs to be able to do all the other processes to live longer.
[1:03:41] Um, so, and I started, uh, fasting, not even meaning to, it was, it was during the pandemic. My kids were homeschooling. I always like to exercise on an empty stomach because it just doesn't feel good to have a full stomach to exercise on. And I would go to, uh, to make my morning smoothie and I would realize, Oh wait, it's time for, for, um, what do you call that? Um, P like not PE, but my gosh, where they had a break in the morning recess. There we go. Morning recess. So I said, okay, Hey, my daughter wanted to go outside and play. Then I'd come back in. And all of a sudden I realized it was time to prepare her, her lunch. So I then put off it. And before I knew it, it was 11 or 12 before I was finally consuming anything but water. And then I started to do my research and learn about intermittent fasting. Oh, okay. There's something really great here. And do you intermittent fast?
[1:04:36] You know what? I don't, I don't think I've ever fasted a full day in my life. Uh, I am, I work out literally, I, you know, I work out an hour or two every single day and I haven't given it a try. I probably should, but I just haven't. Well, I mean, I, I, I do time restricted eating, which is essentially, um, a fasting window, uh, for men, they say 14 to 16 hours, um, women closer to, you know, I mean, well, 14 to 16 is the average for both. For men who are listening, it can be helpful for weight loss. Women have a harder time with intermittent fasting actually seeing the results of weight loss as much. But really for me, it's longevity. And so when we're, again, creating a little bit of a stressed environment in a good way for our body, it helps our body to thrive more. So I usually do a 14-hour fast. Again, eight of it, I'm sleeping.
[1:05:30] And then the idea is really for all of us for better sleep, is to stop eating two to three hours before bedtime. I'm still in that one and a half to two hours. I'm still trying to get it longer, but I noticed from wearing a constant glucose monitor, I love biohacking, uh, that my glucose regulation is actually better when I stop eating at least three hours before going to sleep. Um, my fasting blood sugar is better in the morning and all of that. So, uh, so if you think about stopping eating two to three hours before bedtime, then Again, now you've got your eight hours or so for sleep. Now you're at 10 or 11 hours. And then I work out fasted. I drink a ton of water. You can drink black coffee or black tea in a fasted state. And that doesn't break the fast. But it's, you know, and you can start everyone, everyone fast.
[1:06:23] For best health should at least not be eating for 12 hours. And that's actually by intermittent fasting experts, not even considered fasting. 14 plus hours is considered fasting. Some people do one meal a day. I'm not personally into that. Also, you want to make sure you get enough of your nutrients in. So if you are fasting and then you go eat a junk food diet, that's not going to help either. But if you're staying PLANTSTRONG and you're fasting for 14 to 16 hours,
[1:06:52] it's pretty amazing. What have you had breakfast yet today? I have not. I got, I usually I will time is it. Yeah. So I usually will have broken it already, but we were getting on and I thought, you know, I'm going to just go ahead and wait. Um, so as soon as we're off, I tend to have a couple of handfuls of, of raw cashews and, uh, my new coffee habit that I had not had for years, uh, while I'm making my smoothie or a smoothie bowl or an acai bowl or something.
[1:07:16] So do you so you haven't eaten yet today and it's like 12 15 in la right it is probably about 8 30 last night is your stomach starting to grumble and yeah we're talking about food too so yes usually I break it between 11 and 11 30 if I can go to 12 that's great I mean I would rather get 15 to 16 hours of fasting in. But, you know, I'm also very slight. So sometimes, you know, fasting, I do worry a little bit, like, am I getting enough calories in, in the, you know, and a lot of people, that's not the problem. So, you know, but once you get to a weight maintenance that you're happy with, which I've thankfully been at now for a long time, you know, I do want to make sure that I'm getting enough nutrient density in when I am eating. So, So, but I, you know, that's why I always, I always go to a smoothie. I know I did have one of your big bowls though the other day. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
[1:08:17] Samantha, this is what I'd love to do. I want to have you back on the show because there's a bunch of stuff I want to ask you. But at this point, I want to wind it down and I want to wind it down like this. So when I was watching some of your instagram posts i saw something called this or that, and so what Iwant to do is I want to play that game with you okay right now we're going to play this or that so buckle up all right get ready here we go all right i'm ready and I think I know some of these answers based upon our conversation already but number one oatmeal Oatmeal or smoothie? Smoothie. Only because I know with a constant glucose monitor, my oatmeal goes up. I think we talked about that. My oatmeal goes up. My glucose goes up. Yeah. All right. Pancakes or waffles? Ooh, a nice Belgian waffle. Or a plant-strong waffle. Sumo or Caracara oranges? Do you know sumo? I don't know sumo. They're like this. They look like this. Oh, yeah. These are the sumos. They just peel right off. I like that. All right. I'm a sumo. Okay. All right. Blueberries or raspberries? Blueberries. Blueberries. Rice or quinoa? Quinoa. Quinoa. Water or tea?
[1:09:46] Water. All right. Netflix or Amazon Prime? Netflix. Uh, this is one, you know, dine in or take out.
[1:09:59] Dine in is my preference. Take out is what my family tends to do at dinner time. Way too much lately. Got it. Uber or Lyft. I always compare to see which has a better rate. Literally. Smart. I like it. Delta or American? American. Uh-huh. Uh, call or text? Text. I am quite a texter, I will say, but I do like a good phone call. Mm hmm. Plant-based or whole food, plant-based, whole food, plant-based. Good answer. Mexico or Costa Rica. Mexico, just because I go there more often. Okay. Salsa or swing? Swing. Oh, love it. Hike or bike? Hike. Electric or hybrid? Electric. Yoga or meditation? Combo if I can, but otherwise yoga. Okay. Family feud or let's make a deal? Family feud monopoly or clue we have both in our house but monopoly although my daughter always always just totally wins all right you got two left you're hanging in there i'm loving it um.
[1:11:28] Cooking or cleanup? Cooking. Right on, me too. And then lastly, peanut butter or chocolate chip cookie dough? Chocolate chip cookie dough. And by the way, I just saw a recipe that I'm going to make, and I will let you know how it is. It's a cookie dough recipe, and I think it's just to eat the raw dough. With chickpeas. What else? else. My favorite clean plant-based protein powder, chocolate chips. I always do a 70% cacao. So we get the, some of the polyphenols in there that are better for us. What were the other? Oh, some pure maple syrup. I have to figure out what the last ingredient was. There was something else, but I'm going to try it. I'll let you know how it is. All right. Samantha Harris, you are amazing. You're healthiest, healthy. You are living it. You're breathing it and you are sharing it.
[1:12:25] Thank you so much for being on the PLANTSTRONG podcast. Is there anything that I left out that you want to ask or say before we say goodbye with a plant strong fist bump? Oh, I cannot wait for that. I, you know what? I just, I love sharing you guys. So follow me on Facebook. Instagram is even more active and DM me. I'll send you that PDF.
[1:12:52] Just Keep it playing strong. I love it. Bye. Her website is samantha-harris.com and her Instagram handle is samanthaharristv. I'll be sure to link up to that in the show notes so that you can get all the details on her new podcast launch. As usual, thank you so much for listening to the show and to your incredible, amazing, wonderful bodies. Let's continue to keep it PLANTSTRONG. Yeah.
[1:13:27] Music.
