Speaker 1: This is Let's be clear with Shannon Dorny. Hello, let's
Speaker 1: be clear. Family, It's Samantha Harris here. Some of you
Speaker 1: might be familiar with me from my eight seasons hosting
Speaker 1: Dancing with the Stars, or many years as an anchor
Speaker 1: and correspondent for Entertainment Tonight and Extra, and of course
Speaker 1: for most of my professional life, I was always interviewing
Speaker 1: other people. I've been passionate about sharing the stories of
Speaker 1: so many through my career. I'm a journalist at heart,
Speaker 1: and that's what I love to do. And this is
Speaker 1: going to be a little bit different because today with you,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be sharing a little bit of my story,
Speaker 1: but even more importantly, I'm going to share things that
Speaker 1: I have learned that can help you to elevate your wellness,
Speaker 1: to ignite your healthiest healthy life possible, and especially after
Speaker 1: a health setback, how to come back even more resilient
Speaker 1: and energized. So I'll take you back to twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: I was at the height of my career. I had
Speaker 1: had four Emmy nominations. I'd start on Broadway in the
Speaker 1: Broadway Show Chicago. I had two little girls with my
Speaker 1: amazing husband. My girls were three and six at the time,
Speaker 1: and I was really living the little Minnesota girl who
Speaker 1: wanted a life in Hollywood dream where I didn't think
Speaker 1: my career could get any better or that my life
Speaker 1: could get any better. I was literally the picture of health.
Speaker 1: I mean to the point that you guys, I was
Speaker 1: on over ten different magazine covers, from four appearances on
Speaker 1: Muscle and Fitness hers to Shape magazine and Women's Running
Speaker 1: and beyond. And I prided myself so much on the
Speaker 1: fact that here I was hustling and bustling with this
Speaker 1: intense and very demanding career, juggling my family, my household,
Speaker 1: and was able to stay in shape and look good
Speaker 1: and be on the cover of all these magazines. And
Speaker 1: then I was blindsided. I was blindsided in twenty fourteen
Speaker 1: by a breast cancer diagnosis. You were all very familiar
Speaker 1: because of the beautiful work that Shannon Dougherty has done
Speaker 1: here and let's be clear and well beyond, and I'm
Speaker 1: so sad that I'm sitting here and Shannon is not.
Speaker 1: I want to just jump for a second to a
Speaker 1: wonderful opportunity that I had to spend with Shannon when
Speaker 1: I was the MC for an American Cancer Society event,
Speaker 1: Shannon was in the midst of her treatment, and yet,
Speaker 1: like the consummate professional and beauty that she always was
Speaker 1: from inside and out, she showed up on that red
Speaker 1: car and to support this event and the work of
Speaker 1: the American Cancer Society. She had been going through her treatments,
Speaker 1: and she was wearing a headscarf, and there she was
Speaker 1: smiling ear to ear with a glisten in her eye.
Speaker 1: And for me, at that time, it was many years
Speaker 1: after my breast cancer diagnosis, I was thriving. I was
Speaker 1: feeling energized. I had taken hold of what had taken
Speaker 1: away my feeling of control, and I had taken back
Speaker 1: my power. And here was Shannon dealing with such an
Speaker 1: advanced stage of breast cancer and going through the thick
Speaker 1: of it. And yet and yet here she was on
Speaker 1: the red carpet, helping others and helping to try to
Speaker 1: find a cure. And I just wanted to make sure
Speaker 1: that for those of you who have been dedicated listeners
Speaker 1: of Shannon here on the podcast passed, or of course
Speaker 1: big fans of hers from her television career, people always
Speaker 1: thought I was Brenda Walsh because I was the Minnesota
Speaker 1: girl for real, and I used to love watching her
Speaker 1: on Nina two one l and to see her journey
Speaker 1: and her legacy that she now leaves behind with let's
Speaker 1: speak clear and well beyond. So here I was back again.
Speaker 1: Now I'm back in time to twenty fourteen, blindsided by
Speaker 1: this breast cancer diagnosis. And here you got to have
Speaker 1: to tell you the craziest part. I was about to
Speaker 1: turn forty. My girls again, were three and six. My
Speaker 1: dad lost my dad to colon cancer when he was
Speaker 1: just fifty and fifty when I was sitting here from
Speaker 1: the viewpoint of forty didn't look that far off, and
Speaker 1: I thought, oh my gosh, I can't believe how young
Speaker 1: my dad was. And his mom was a breast cancer
Speaker 1: survivor lived to ninety five, and yet cancer was in
Speaker 1: my family. My girls were young, and I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: I should really set a baseline. I should get that
Speaker 1: mammogram thing. So I went and I got the boob squished,
Speaker 1: and they looked at everything and they said it's clear,
Speaker 1: all good. And then eleven days after this clear mammogram,
Speaker 1: everything is good. I was changing after a workout and
Speaker 1: I found a lump. Now I didn't think for a
Speaker 1: second it was cancer. I mean again, I just had
Speaker 1: a clear mammogram. I'm as fit and healthy as I
Speaker 1: have ever been. But you know, I'll still call my
Speaker 1: obgyn because she's the only doctor who did a clinical
Speaker 1: breast exam every year, and I'll just have her take
Speaker 1: a look. And she felt it. She said, ah, Samantha,
Speaker 1: it's nothing. Don't you worry about it. You're turning forty.
Speaker 1: We have lumpy breasts. Our breast like to make lumps.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't worry about it. And she sent me on
Speaker 1: my way. And then a month later, that pesky lump
Speaker 1: was still there, and I thought, well, you know, it's
Speaker 1: not cancer, so I shouldn't really worry, but I'll still
Speaker 1: go get a second opinion. And I went to my
Speaker 1: interness quick clinical exam, felt the breast, said it was nothing,
Speaker 1: sent me on my way. Now four months passed from
Speaker 1: finding that lump after the workout, and that lump was
Speaker 1: just rearing its head and it was there and it
Speaker 1: was sizey. I said to my husband, you can see it, right,
Speaker 1: He said, yeah, I can see it. So I said,
Speaker 1: you know, I should probably look to a doctor whose
Speaker 1: profession and expertise is looking at breasts every day as
Speaker 1: their specialty. So I found my way too, what else
Speaker 1: an oncology clinic, because only breast oncologists look at breasts
Speaker 1: every day. Again, not thinking I had cancer, Nothing gave
Speaker 1: me worry, nothing pointed me into that direction. But I
Speaker 1: still wanted more tests, more diagnostics. So that breast oncologist
Speaker 1: did a needle biopsy, a couple of m an MRI,
Speaker 1: a couple of ultrasounds. Again said it's not cancer. So
Speaker 1: when the needo bibes your results came back and said, well,
Speaker 1: good news, it's not cancer. Bad news is I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is. So you know what, Samantha, let's
Speaker 1: just take it out. And I thought, well, fine, my
Speaker 1: boobs did what they needed to do. They got me,
Speaker 1: my husband, and they breasted my kids, So take it out.
Speaker 2: And we did.
Speaker 1: And a week later I went back to my final
Speaker 1: results again, expecting to hear the same thing, no cancer.
Speaker 1: And that's when I found out that I had ductal
Speaker 1: carcinoma in situ as well as invasive ductal carcinoma, which
Speaker 1: is invasive breast cancer. And my world came to a
Speaker 1: sudden stop. We felt like the walls were crashing around me.
Speaker 1: I crumbled into my husband's arms, who held me, and
Speaker 1: we cried and then we got up again. This story
Speaker 1: that I'm sharing isn't one of heartbreak and devastation. This
Speaker 1: is a story of enlightenment and empowerment and thrivership. And
Speaker 1: I finally had this wake up call that I didn't
Speaker 1: realize I needed. So let me fast forward. After many
Speaker 1: oncologists visits and trying to figure out what my action
Speaker 1: plan was, I opted for a double mestectomy with two
Speaker 1: stage reconstruction. I was on an estrogen blocker for seven
Speaker 1: and a half years. I opted not to do chemo
Speaker 1: and radiation. That's a story for another time, but here's
Speaker 1: where the turn came. I am a journalist by training,
Speaker 1: and when I got my hereditary tests back the genetic testing,
Speaker 1: I found out that I had no link genetically. And
Speaker 1: it was this aha moment of learning through my research
Speaker 1: that only five to ten percent, only five to ten
Speaker 1: percent of breast cancers are genetics, and that actually the
Speaker 1: pretty similar statistic for most cancers out there. If you
Speaker 1: are listening and you have someone in your family within
Speaker 1: another kind of cancer, so what gives? Why are one
Speaker 1: and a win in diagnosed with invasive breast cancer over
Speaker 1: the course of their lifetime, and I dug into that
Speaker 1: research even more to find out why. And what I
Speaker 1: learned is that it is what we put in on
Speaker 1: and around our bodies that affect our overall well being,
Speaker 1: that turn on or leave off certain genetics switches in
Speaker 1: our body that lead to cancer or not. So think
Speaker 1: of our DNA and our genetics as the loaded gun.
Speaker 1: But it's the epigenetics how our lifestyle, choices an environment
Speaker 1: are affecting us that actually fire that gun. So what
Speaker 1: could I do? How could I change what was going
Speaker 1: on in my life? This life I thought was very healthy.
Speaker 1: But what could I do a chance to change? I
Speaker 1: started to assess. I started to assess, Okay, well, let's
Speaker 1: look at food. I eat a group of Minnesota eating
Speaker 1: practically every part of the cow from literally tongue to
Speaker 1: almost tail. So how does meat and animal product affect
Speaker 1: our genetics? And how does that affect cancer? I read
Speaker 1: the China study from front to back and many other
Speaker 1: books after that. I learned that when we eat a
Speaker 1: lot of animal meat, as I was, seven meals, sorry,
Speaker 1: twenty one meals out of twenty one, you know, so
Speaker 1: three times a day's times seven meal days a week,
Speaker 1: that's twenty one meals. I was eating twenty one out
Speaker 1: of twenty one meals of animal protein. Well, when we
Speaker 1: have a high intake of animal protein, it leads to
Speaker 1: high levels of IGF one that's insulin like growth factor one,
Speaker 1: which we know promotes cancer. So okay, perhaps I could
Speaker 1: start to reduce my animal intake. Maybe I'm eating too
Speaker 1: much junk and sugar and process because guess what I
Speaker 1: grew up in the nineties, the low fat fat free
Speaker 1: generation and hey, hello hyghertosed corn syrup as long as
Speaker 1: it didn't have fat red Die forty. These are known
Speaker 1: you know, red Di forty and known carcinogen. So snack
Speaker 1: well sandwich cookies, low fat fat free red vines, high
Speaker 1: fertoast corncer red Die forty. All these things that I
Speaker 1: thought I was doing to make good, healthy choices for
Speaker 1: my body were actually potentially slowly destroying my body. And
Speaker 1: so I started to re arrange my plate so rather
Speaker 1: than meat front and center, that became sort of a
Speaker 1: side dish, and then eventually kind of went away almost altogether.
Speaker 1: And then it became how can I get more fruits
Speaker 1: and vegetables and nuts and seeds and lagoons and beans,
Speaker 1: more plant based foods into my life. Can I slip
Speaker 1: that plate and make veggies the center star of the show.
Speaker 1: And that really was a huge change, because what I
Speaker 1: found was when I started to change how I was
Speaker 1: eating less and ideally none of the low fat, fat
Speaker 1: free junk, processed packaged and more of the nutrient dense
Speaker 1: good foods that were really helping my body have what
Speaker 1: it needed to thrive. I started to have even and
Speaker 1: I know this is gonna be shocking for a lot
Speaker 1: of you because I've noticed the energizer bunny, but I
Speaker 1: actually started to have even more energy. I could go
Speaker 1: from seven in the morning till ten thirty at night,
Speaker 1: even with driving around the kids and running to my
Speaker 1: shoots and doing all the other things I needed to do,
Speaker 1: without feeling like I needed that afternoon nap, or without
Speaker 1: feeling like when I was putting the kids to sleep,
Speaker 1: I had to fall asleep too because I was so exhausted.
Speaker 1: I could stay up after I put the kids to
Speaker 1: bed with my husband and actually enjoy some time awake
Speaker 1: with him, watching our shows or having good conversation. So
Speaker 1: I had this newfound energy that was so amazing that
Speaker 1: I didn't even know I needed, and yet was just
Speaker 1: within reach all that time, and I didn't know it either.
Speaker 1: So then that was the food component. Then it was
Speaker 1: another big component. Well, what am I putting on my body?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: You guys?
Speaker 1: I spent my career in a makeup chair, slacked with
Speaker 1: these chemical bombs of little to my knowledge at the time,
Speaker 1: possible carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. Those messed with your hormones.
Speaker 1: And I had a hormone positive breast cancer as eighty
Speaker 1: percent of breast cancers are endo constructors, carcinogens, neurotoxins right,
Speaker 1: leading to dementia and Alzheimer's potentially leading to some autoimmune disorders.
Speaker 1: So what can I do to change what I was
Speaker 1: putting on my body? Okay? So I started kind of
Speaker 1: an overhaul, and back in twenty fourteen, we didn't have
Speaker 1: a lot of really good brands that carried products that
Speaker 1: not just looked like they you know, the ingredients looked good,
Speaker 1: but products that actually did the job right. I wanted
Speaker 1: something that could stay under you know, hot lights on
Speaker 1: a set for a twelve hour day, or if I
Speaker 1: wasn't shooting or for moms out there or career women
Speaker 1: who are working. You know, from the morning to the night.
Speaker 1: You want to be able to slap on your makeup
Speaker 1: and have that last all day long and look awesome.
Speaker 1: But you don't want to suffer with the possible other
Speaker 1: side of it, which means that these chemicals are leading
Speaker 1: into your body as you're beautifying yourself up. So how
Speaker 1: could I change up my beauty routine? So I started
Speaker 1: to slowly swap for cleaner products. And now than goodness,
Speaker 1: there are so many more clean products out there. And
Speaker 1: the fact actually I was shooting a game show. I
Speaker 1: did sixty five episodes, six episodes a day, and we
Speaker 1: were working for about twelve hour days under long you
Speaker 1: know these long days, hot lights. And so this is
Speaker 1: you know, after cancer, many years after. This is just recently,
Speaker 1: and I said to my team, Okay, girls, they've been
Speaker 1: with me forever. They're really good friends of mine, my
Speaker 1: makeup and hair girls. And I said, you guys, can
Speaker 1: we kind of can I task you with it something?
Speaker 1: I want you to only bring hair and makeup products
Speaker 1: and skincare into this makeup room that reach my really
Speaker 1: high standard of having no toxic ingredients, and so they
Speaker 1: reached out to different brands who are generous enough to
Speaker 1: kind of gift us some options to try. We had
Speaker 1: a budget for the show, so we purchased lots of
Speaker 1: items and we tried. So I have this vetted list
Speaker 1: of clean beauty and actually, anyone listening who wants it,
Speaker 1: just send me a DM on Instagram or Facebook at
Speaker 1: Samantha Harris TV. Like television at Samantha Harras TV. Send
Speaker 1: me a DM that just is clean beauty, and I
Speaker 1: will send you the free guide. I think it's really
Speaker 1: important for us all to know that there are really
Speaker 1: great alternatives from a variety of brands, and then of
Speaker 1: course you need to try them for yourself to see
Speaker 1: what works best for your skin type and for your
Speaker 1: level of absorption. I tend to like suck makeup in
Speaker 1: very quickly on my skin, and the same thing with
Speaker 1: my skincare. I want great anti aging skincare, but I
Speaker 1: don't want the toxins. So this has been a long
Speaker 1: process over all of these years of finding and trying,
Speaker 1: and so that was really cleaning up the toxins in
Speaker 1: my beauty routine. And then what about what's around us,
Speaker 1: So I also had to go, Okay, sure, cleaning supplies,
Speaker 1: I need to do a little bit of an overhaul
Speaker 1: on that, and I actually have those also some suggestions
Speaker 1: on my Clean Beauty Guide. But then also other toxins
Speaker 1: around us, like toxic people. Who are those people in
Speaker 1: your life, whether they're daily interactions or occasional interactions or
Speaker 1: family members who are stressing you out, who are creating
Speaker 1: that high level of cortisol in your body, which is
Speaker 1: the stress hormone that we need to thrive as humans,
Speaker 1: but we don't need it to be constant chronic. So
Speaker 1: how can we reduce that level of stress in our
Speaker 1: lives from people who are toxic to us? And also
Speaker 1: how can we add more stress bussing techniques into our life.
Speaker 1: So when I was diagnosed and I was so overwhelmed
Speaker 1: and so scared, and I didn't know how I was
Speaker 1: going to get up to even go dress my kids
Speaker 1: and feed them, let alone take care of myself. I
Speaker 1: had the happy, go lucky person that I was just
Speaker 1: sort of shot out of me, just crushed with that
Speaker 1: diagnosis in twenty fourteen, and I had to realize from
Speaker 1: within that that wasn't how I could continue to feel,
Speaker 1: and I needed a solution to get around that. And
Speaker 1: this is something that can help you all. If you're
Speaker 1: going through a stressed you know there's a health diagnosis,
Speaker 1: it's something going on with your career, just the daily
Speaker 1: stress that we are living and breathing. How can you
Speaker 1: mitigate that? So I all of a sudden have this
Speaker 1: wake up call to myself. Within this wake up call
Speaker 1: of cancer, I can't feel like this. The adrenaline an
Speaker 1: anxiety that I feel coursing through my blood is horrible.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to live like this while I'm
Speaker 1: living and trying to figure out how to thrive with
Speaker 1: cancer and hopefully after cancer. So I slowly started to
Speaker 1: integrate some breathing techniques. I started to learn to do
Speaker 1: positive self talk, which is a huge tool that I use.
Speaker 1: So that looks like in this example, Samantha, you have cancer. Okay,
Speaker 1: well what's good about that? Well, you have great health insurance. Okay,
Speaker 1: well that's good. That's really good. What else, Well, you know, Sma,
Speaker 1: you have a really great support squad around you. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's really great. What else is good? Well, this is
Speaker 1: positive here? Okay, other positive self talk? Oh you know
Speaker 1: what you're in really good shape and great health otherwise,
Speaker 1: So that's going to help you to mitigate any sort
Speaker 1: of setbacks during surgery or recovery. Okay, I love it.
Speaker 1: Keep going. And so as you start to have this
Speaker 1: positive self talk, it ends up feeding on itself in
Speaker 1: the best of ways to help you reduce that stress
Speaker 1: and bring down that cortisol. And then the other really
Speaker 1: helpful positivity tool that I used is to control what
Speaker 1: you can control, and worry when you have to worry.
Speaker 1: So there are so many things that we worry about
Speaker 1: all day long that never come to fruition, thank goodness,
Speaker 1: but yet we're consumed with worrying about them nonetheless. So
Speaker 1: it definitely means we have to take a moment of mindfulness.
Speaker 1: That means, Okay, I I feel myself worrying. I'm worrying
Speaker 1: a ton. I noticed myself worrying. Are these things that
Speaker 1: I really do need to worry about right now? Or
Speaker 1: can I put them on the back burner or can
Speaker 1: I completely just say, you know what, this isn't even
Speaker 1: an issue and then worry about it when you have
Speaker 1: to worry. So flash forward to the midst of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty and the pandemic and everything going on, and lots
Speaker 1: of stress for all of us anyway, and I noticed
Speaker 1: that the lymph nodes in my growing were very large,
Speaker 1: and I got immediately scared because I thought, of course,
Speaker 1: cancer's right, just it's on my shoulder and it comes
Speaker 1: to rear its head the second you feel something is wrong.
Speaker 1: And I thought, oh my gosh, God forbid, my cancer
Speaker 1: has metastasized. And I realized I was so worried that
Speaker 1: those lymph nodes were cancer again. And I found the
Speaker 1: anxiety and the high levels of cortisol and stress surging
Speaker 1: my body, and I reminded myself to worry when I
Speaker 1: have to worry, But now I can control what I
Speaker 1: can control. What can I control. I can pick up
Speaker 1: the phone, I can call my oncologists office, explain what's
Speaker 1: going on and get the proper diagnostics. So I had
Speaker 1: a CT scan and thank goodness, it was just I
Speaker 1: have oddly large lymph nodes, and for whatever reason, they
Speaker 1: happened to just be more obvious to me in that
Speaker 1: moment when I discovered them. So worry when you have
Speaker 1: to worry, and control what you can control. The enlightenment
Speaker 1: that I had after discovering that we can really level
Speaker 1: lot what we're doing in our health and wellness to
Speaker 1: take even better control of our lives. I thought I
Speaker 1: was living my healthy life, and then I realized I
Speaker 1: needed to live my healthiest healthy life. And so all
Speaker 1: the research that I found, I decided I needed to
Speaker 1: compile into one book because no other book seemed to
Speaker 1: be out there that had this as sort of a
Speaker 1: foundation and a jumping off point of what you can
Speaker 1: do to, you know, just reduce the risk of the
Speaker 1: toxins to take even better control of your health after
Speaker 1: cancer or any other type of diagnosis. And so I
Speaker 1: wrote the book, Your Healthiest Healthy, and I was honored because,
Speaker 1: you know, the Hollywood community, who had been people I'd
Speaker 1: been interviewing for so long, came out in support of it.
Speaker 1: You know, Chris Jenner and Christina Appligate both wrote endorsements
Speaker 1: and have quotes on the book. And it debuted as
Speaker 1: a number one best seller on Amazon. But why the
Speaker 1: book meant something to me because, by the way, you
Speaker 1: don't make any money from books, So I sure as
Speaker 1: heck was not writing a book to make any money.
Speaker 1: And even if you go out and buy one right now,
Speaker 1: I will not see a scent of it, and that
Speaker 1: is okay, because all that I care is that the
Speaker 1: information is out for you to empower yourself to take
Speaker 1: the insights that I have learned that I continue to
Speaker 1: share in my Instagram and in my wellness community and
Speaker 1: on my retreats and all the other fun stuff that
Speaker 1: I get to do to share with you, because there
Speaker 1: are so many ways that you can empower yourself to
Speaker 1: take your health back, to be your own best health advocate.
Speaker 1: Being faced in twenty fourteen with a cancer diagnosis and
Speaker 1: a double mis deckt tomy and three surgeries, three recoveries
Speaker 1: was something that I never thought that I would have
Speaker 1: to go through again. After going through everything that I
Speaker 1: did go through, and I made all of these sweeping changes,
Speaker 1: and then just a few days before the passing of
Speaker 1: our beautiful Shannon, I remember so vividly and it hit
Speaker 1: me so hard when the news headline said that Shannon
Speaker 1: Dougherty had succumbed to breast cancer, because just a few
Speaker 1: days before that, in twenty twenty four I found out
Speaker 1: I had a breast cancer recurrence. I was definitely not
Speaker 1: ready for that. I never wanted to see cancer in
Speaker 1: my life. Again for me or for any of my
Speaker 1: loved ones after having I've gone through it with my
Speaker 1: dad and then for my own journey, and now I
Speaker 1: had teenage girls who are thirteen and sixteen, a whole
Speaker 1: completely different type of conversation, and the hardest moment was
Speaker 1: telling our girls that their mommy had cancer again. But
Speaker 1: I this time came at it from a place of
Speaker 1: empowerment and knowledge because of the work that I have done.
Speaker 1: I went back to school after my diagnosis, and after
Speaker 1: my book came out, I went back to school to
Speaker 1: become a certified health coach. I'd been a certified trainer
Speaker 1: for decades, and I really wanted to lean even more
Speaker 1: into the education behind the wellness that I loved so
Speaker 1: much and wanted to share. So now I had interviewed
Speaker 1: because of Your Healthiest Healthy podcast, I had interviewed over
Speaker 1: two hundred experts, and I had a wonderful group of
Speaker 1: on call religious and functional medicine docs who I can
Speaker 1: immediately pick up the phone and call to get insight
Speaker 1: and then share with people what this looked like the
Speaker 1: second time around, and how to help deal with it
Speaker 1: if that ever happened. I want to just pause for
Speaker 1: a moment. If you have had a double mestectomy, the
Speaker 1: likelihood of a recurrence is very very low. It's uncanny
Speaker 1: that I got it, but I did. I had that recurrence,
Speaker 1: but it's only a five percent chance of recurrence. Why
Speaker 1: did I have a recurrence, Well, the recurrence happened exactly
Speaker 1: in the same location as the first time around, and
Speaker 1: just like the first time around in twenty fourteen, in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four yet again I found the lump, which
Speaker 1: is my big PSA moment. Ladies, know your breasts, know
Speaker 1: your body. Notice changes, whether it's a breast lump, a
Speaker 1: pain in your stomach, a mole, it looks different. If
Speaker 1: you don't take the time to understand what your body
Speaker 1: normal is, then it's going to be near impossible to
Speaker 1: notice if there is a change. So I found a
Speaker 1: very very tiny love I mean so tiny that the
Speaker 1: ultrasound text could barely find it. The first three surgeons
Speaker 1: I saw, a two surgeon and my medical oncologists who
Speaker 1: felt it could barely even feel it, and I had
Speaker 1: to really show them where it was. They didn't even
Speaker 1: know how I found it. So, you know, really making
Speaker 1: sure that your body is exercising daily, moving daily, know
Speaker 1: your body aim to be at an ideal weight, especially
Speaker 1: for all of the health markers that an ideal body
Speaker 1: weight helped reduce the risk of from type two diabetes,
Speaker 1: to heart disease, which is still the number one killer
Speaker 1: of women, to breast cancer. And then also the closer
Speaker 1: you are to an ideal body weight, better able you
Speaker 1: are to feel or see when something is different, when
Speaker 1: it's not all hidden under the layers. So I think
Speaker 1: that made a big difference, right, especially the changes that
Speaker 1: I made in my diet. So when I changed to
Speaker 1: more whole food, plant based or plant forward diet, my
Speaker 1: body actually changed in a way that really I was
Speaker 1: already muscular, but it sort of narrowed out in a
Speaker 1: way that allowed me to, I think, feel this tiny
Speaker 1: little lump and it was right again where my initial
Speaker 1: breast cancer was. So what we have learned in my
Speaker 1: many doctors now who have I've met with, from the
Speaker 1: surgery that I had to take that lump out to
Speaker 1: the second stage of reconstruction surgery that I did yet
Speaker 1: again a year of more surgeries I never wanted to
Speaker 1: go through. But what we learned is that it was
Speaker 1: very likely residual breast cells that were the cancer cells
Speaker 1: that were left over from the mestectomy. Again, only a
Speaker 1: five percent chance of that happening. So please, if you're
Speaker 1: listening and going, I'm so fearful. Now, remember every breast
Speaker 1: cancer is very unique. Every person is very unique. So
Speaker 1: even with for instance, our blood sugar, something really important
Speaker 1: for us to keep an eye on. And if you
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to grab from a prescription from your
Speaker 1: doctor for a continual glucose monitor, or you can use
Speaker 1: one of the many different companies out there that offer
Speaker 1: a subscription based continual glucose monitor, and you can always
Speaker 1: reach out to me. I have lists of all the
Speaker 1: things that I love and have tried, and discount codes
Speaker 1: and fun stuff like that. But what I love about
Speaker 1: a continual glue coost monitor is it gives us real
Speaker 1: time data as to what our blood sugar is doing.
Speaker 1: And we know that blood sugar when it's dysregulated and
Speaker 1: it's our insulin sensitivity has actually turned to insulin resistance.
Speaker 1: I mean it takes a lot more insulin to pump
Speaker 1: out in order to bring that blood sugar down. After
Speaker 1: a surge from foods write a lot of carbs, sugars,
Speaker 1: refined foods that can actually lead also to so many
Speaker 1: breast cancer diagnoses and even pcos and other conditions and
Speaker 1: diseases out there. So keeping your blood sugar under control
Speaker 1: is a really important step. And so when I went
Speaker 1: more plant based whole foods, I was immediately getting the
Speaker 1: nutrient density, the nutrition my body was craving, which allowed
Speaker 1: me to actually have fewer cravings for all the other
Speaker 1: types of foods out there that were junk. And I'm
Speaker 1: not saying I don't love my French fries and I'm
Speaker 1: not saying I don't still have dessert with the kids
Speaker 1: or cookie or have a little sweet every night, but
Speaker 1: I try to opt for maybe dark chocolate, seventy percent cacao,
Speaker 1: something that's a little bit healthier, it has some polythemals
Speaker 1: and good stuff in it, and then of course balance
Speaker 1: out with the occasional yummy deliciousness each week.
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Kristin Davis, and I want to know, are
Speaker 2: you a Charlotte? In nineteen ninety seven, my life was
Speaker 2: forever changed when I took on the role of Charlotte
Speaker 2: Yorke on a new HBO show called Sex and the City.
Speaker 2: As we watched Carrie, Samantha Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships
Speaker 2: in New York City. The show helped push once unacceptable
Speaker 2: conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative
Speaker 2: around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them
Speaker 2: as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships.
Speaker 2: Now I want to connect with you and share untold
Speaker 2: stories and all the behind the scenes together with special guests.
Speaker 2: What will begin with sex and the City will evolve
Speaker 2: into talks about themes that are still so relevant today.
Speaker 2: Are You a Charlotte is a much more than just
Speaker 2: rewatching our beloved show. It brings the past and the
Speaker 2: present together as we talk with heart, humor, and of
Speaker 2: course some optimism. Listen to Are You a Show Charlotte
Speaker 2: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get
Speaker 2: your podcasts.
Speaker 1: There are so many things that you can do to
Speaker 1: become empowered. But I also want to remind you it
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be a one to eighty overnight, small
Speaker 1: manageable steps. It's really part of being your healthiest healthy
Speaker 1: is making those changes, but incrementally because you want to
Speaker 1: make a change that's going to stick, right, It's like
Speaker 1: why flat diets don't stick. When people go on some
Speaker 1: extreme diet of any sort to try to lose weight,
Speaker 1: they usually gain the weight back. Well, the same thing
Speaker 1: goes with even little habits. So for instance, if you're saying, okay,
Speaker 1: well I'd like to start to change how I'm eating, well,
Speaker 1: how about before you do away with any particular food,
Speaker 1: just start to sit down every meal and every snack
Speaker 1: and say, how can I get more veggies into this meal?
Speaker 1: How can I get more color and variety of plant
Speaker 1: based foods into this meal. Then look at the packages,
Speaker 1: read the ingredients labels, both in what you're putting on
Speaker 1: your body as well as what you're putting in your body.
Speaker 1: So a simple example for a small step when it
Speaker 1: comes to food, turn those packages around. In anything that
Speaker 1: has high fructose corn syrup, I want to encourage you
Speaker 1: to ditch because the thing is you're not going to
Speaker 1: notice that it's gone, because there are a lot of
Speaker 1: wonderful options out there that won't change the flavor that
Speaker 1: will still give you. We're not talking about cutting out
Speaker 1: less sugar or less meat or any of that. We're
Speaker 1: just saying get rid of hypertois corn syrup and make
Speaker 1: a swap for a product that doesn't have that. Later
Speaker 1: on you can level up again. If you love blueberries,
Speaker 1: maybe start to get organic blueberries, and if you're having
Speaker 1: organic blueberries, you can level up to wild organic blueberries.
Speaker 1: Simple small steps when it comes to your makeup or
Speaker 1: your skincare. One simple ingredient to make sure that you
Speaker 1: avoid parabins. Another one, fragrant. Fragrance is a catch all.
Speaker 1: So because it's proprietary, the brands don't even have to
Speaker 1: put all the different ingredients that are in that fragrance,
Speaker 1: which by the way, can be up to about two
Speaker 1: hundred different ingredients just in that fragrance that is now
Speaker 1: added to whatever product you're using on your body. And fragrance,
Speaker 1: according to the Environmental Working Group EWG dot org, a
Speaker 1: wonderful resource. They give a great rating on products and
Speaker 1: ingredients a one to ten, one being super super clean
Speaker 1: and green, ten being red stoplight. Don't use well. Fragrance
Speaker 1: is a nine so unless the company that you are
Speaker 1: using that product from discloses what's in the fragrance. So
Speaker 1: a fragrance made up of organic essential oils totally fine.
Speaker 1: Go for it, and there are lots of great options
Speaker 1: out there. But just start ditch the things out have paramans.
Speaker 1: I was shocked by the way when I first started
Speaker 1: with that, how many of the products in my makeup
Speaker 1: bad and my skincare drawer had pair bins known carcinogen
Speaker 1: and a credisruptor. Just stop it now and then level
Speaker 1: up so many small steps. If you are not moving
Speaker 1: your body every single day, don't go try to run
Speaker 1: a marathon. Just commit every day to work to walk.
Speaker 1: Just commit every day to walk for five minutes or
Speaker 1: twice a week to get a twenty minute workout in
Speaker 1: something small. And if you set the bar low. This
Speaker 1: is something I tell your healthiest healthy community. Quite often
Speaker 1: we're in this world where we feel like we have
Speaker 1: to set the bar so high. Go strive, do do
Speaker 1: the person next to you stay out later, work longer? No, No, no,
Speaker 1: I'm going to just flip that on its head right now,
Speaker 1: and I'm telling you to set the bar low. Here's
Speaker 1: what I need. If you say we'll use the workout example.
Speaker 1: If you say, as a couch potato who hasn't worked
Speaker 1: out since fifth grade pe class, I'm going to start
Speaker 1: to work out every day for thirty minutes. I'm going
Speaker 1: to tell you right now, it's not gonna happen. Or
Speaker 1: maybe you do and you're great for a month and
Speaker 1: then you're done. Okay, So set the bar up. If
Speaker 1: you have not worked out since fifth grade pe class,
Speaker 1: say I'm going to work out for ten minutes three
Speaker 1: times a week. I'm going to work out five days
Speaker 1: a week for five minutes, whatever it is. Because when
Speaker 1: you achieve that five minute mark or that ten minute mark,
Speaker 1: your cells in your body hear and feel I did it,
Speaker 1: I achieved the goal. But if you set a goal
Speaker 1: for five days a week for thirty minutes and you
Speaker 1: do five days a week for twenty minutes, all your
Speaker 1: body will hear and your cells and literally your insides
Speaker 1: will only hear failure, failure. You didn't do what you said.
Speaker 1: So that is my small step encouragement. Set the bar low.
Speaker 1: So if you want to change up your food in
Speaker 1: your house, maybe turn around those packages throughout the high
Speaker 1: fruit post coin syrup. Perhaps throw out anything that is
Speaker 1: overly packaged, or anything that has seed oils, sunflower oil,
Speaker 1: safflower oil. Right, we know that these are challenging for
Speaker 1: our bodies. Our bodies weren't made to process all the
Speaker 1: junk that we're processing. I love sharing with you. I
Speaker 1: know I can go on for hours on all of
Speaker 1: this I do on my podcast, and I do throughout
Speaker 1: your Healthiest Healthy Community and my Instagram and Facebook, so
Speaker 1: many other things to be able to share with you,
Speaker 1: and I love sharing. So if you guys have questions, also,
Speaker 1: please do not hesitate to send me a DM because
Speaker 1: I love to share and I do love to answer
Speaker 1: and get back to as many of you as I
Speaker 1: possibly can. I would like to say that if you're
Speaker 1: taking any message from this today, as you've been listening,
Speaker 1: I want you to be an advocate for your own health.
Speaker 1: If something has changed, listen to your body and go
Speaker 1: seek out an expert who is the best expert in
Speaker 1: that area. If you need a second opinion, I would
Speaker 1: encourage you to get a second and even a third opinion,
Speaker 1: especially if it's something serious, and know your body better
Speaker 1: than anyone, because when you walk into that doctor's office,
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you, no doctor is going to
Speaker 1: know your body as well as you know it. No
Speaker 1: one's going to notice the changes as well as you
Speaker 1: who looks in the mirror every single day. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you for listening I appreciate you for just allowing me
Speaker 1: the space to come on and share on Let's be clear,
Speaker 1: and I just I can't tell you how grateful I
Speaker 1: am to Shannon that she started this platform and her
Speaker 1: memory will continue to live on here and let's be clear,
Speaker 1: and in everyone's heart, whoever was a fan of Shannon Doherty,
Speaker 1: I hope that you will continue to reach out to me,
Speaker 1: follow me on Instagram and Facebook at Samantha Harris TV,
Speaker 1: like television Samantha Harris TV, and then you can check
Speaker 1: out my podcast and book, both titled Your Healthiest Healthy.
Speaker 1: I'll see you soon.