Living your Best Life with Intentional Wellness

Kandice Whitaker hosts the "Bail Yourself Out Happy Hour Podcast," focusing on personal growth, career advancement, and entrepreneurship. She introduces Tracy Randolph, a health and wellness coach, to discuss the importance of health beyond weight. Tracy shares her journey from a breast cancer survivor to a health coach, emphasizing the need for self-awareness and lifestyle changes. They discuss the impact of stress, the importance of mindfulness, and the benefits of intermittent exercise. Tracy highlights the necessity of advocating for oneself in healthcare and the value of holistic approaches to wellness. They also touch on cultural differences in health practices and the importance of being proactive in one's health.

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Transcript

0:00  
Kandice, welcome to the bail yourself out Happy Hour Podcast, where each week we'll help you navigate the corporate jungle. Here's your host, Kandice Whitaker,

0:12  
welcome to the bail yourself out Happy Hour podcast, friends. Here we focus on personal growth, career growth and entrepreneurship, our family, who are your virtual coworkers, are dedicated to providing you with the tools and insights to turn your dreams into reality and help you get your money up. In each episode, we'll explore strategies rooted in my framework, the bail method of resilience, designed to guide you in conquering challenges and thrive. I'm your host, Kandice Whitaker, and at the age of 21 I was a determined young mother of two who wanted to ensure my best possible life and defy the odds. So I took steps towards achieving the life I desire. I got my master's degree. Then I was a sought after consultant, which led me to starting my own company. I have a passion for helping people live their life to the fullest through resilience, using the bail yourself out approach. So I'm happy you're here. Kick off your shoes and relax your feet. Fill up your favorite drink, because the bail yourself out Happy Hour podcast is about to start now. Hey, y'all Hey, welcome to the bail yourself out Happy Hour podcast today I am chilling in the lounge with my girl. Tracy Randolph, who is the reset coach. Welcome to the lounge, friend.

1:34  
Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me, Kandice,

1:38  
I'm so glad that you were able to join us. So for those of you who are unfamiliar with the reset coach, she's a health and wellness coach, and so everybody knows we all working on trying to get our health up. Now, let me be clear, health is not weight. It can be a part of health, but at the end of the day, we want to all live our best lives, and how we going to live our best life if we're not healthy for real, that's right. So Tracy, what do you want the world to know about you? Ah,

2:06  
I'm just really passionate about what I do, very passionate about health. Because I had my own health scare, and I didn't really know that I wasn't healthy until it happened. There's a question. There was a question out there. I can't take credit for the question, but it really made me think, and I started putting it out there myself. And it was, Are you healthy or are you just not sick? And I really thought exactly, and I can't take credit for it, but it, that's what it made me do, too. I said, oh, like, this is really profound when you think about it, because most of us walk around on a day to day basis, and we don't know that there's something happening in our bodies until we get to the point where we've gotten some diagnosis from a doctor.

2:47  
Oh, my goodness, you just came in in here. Just keep the front door in. Girl, that was profound. I don't even know what to say. I'm sitting over here in my Selah moment. Yeah, I didn't know I wasn't healthy. I mean, not for nothing. Are you a naturally thin person? Because I don't know you like that, because generally skinny people think they're healthy. Is that why? Yes,

3:08  
and that's another thing that I always say. So I've been skinny all my life, like, okay, growing up really, really thin. And then, you know, as I got to college, I gained a little more weight, but it wasn't anything, you know, phenomenal or profound, or no, yeah, so I just a little bit, but I've always been thin, so I thought that I was healthy, and after my experience, and, well, I'm sure we'll get into that a little bit in a little bit, but I started saying to people, skinny does not mean healthy, right? There's so many things that can happen on the inside that we just don't know about, and it has nothing to do with weight. Like you mentioned earlier, I'm glad you said that earlier.

3:48  
Actually learn that from Oprah. Shout out to auntie. Oh, we love you. Years and years ago, I wasn't watching the Oprah show, but you know, back in the day, we had to just watch whatever was on TV, because if grandma's watching you, and she's watching Oprah. Then we watching Oprah. Okay, so I was exposed to this episode, and I remember Oprah saying that to somebody. She said, Oh, skinny people always think they're healthy. Mm, hmm. And so Fauci, oh, said it, it must be true, yeah.

4:18  
But you're not doing it. You're not eating well, you're not exercising, right? You have a lot of stress, like, that's not healthy, that doesn't part, yeah, yeah.

4:30  
And I recently saw something, and I can't remember where I saw it could have been social media, where the lady was saying that, you know, people always want us to manage stress, but I don't want to manage stress. Like, I want to live want to live a less stressful life. I'm like, come on, that's, that's what I'm trying to do. I don't want to manage stress. Mm,

4:49  
hmm. And it's like, how do you put those things in place? Well, you have to think about, okay, what do I really want to do in my life? Where am I now? What do I want to do in my life? How do I feel? Think positive. You know, implement some things that make me happy, get out there and breathe, right? People take breathing for granted, right? And it's something that helps you to reduce stress, if we just breathe deeply. It's like, how do I implement things that are going to allow me to mitigate that stress on a regular basis, versus having to manage being in stressful situations? Those

5:20  
are facts. And you know what? During COVID, I had the opportunity to really reconnect with nature, and I didn't realize that that was a stress relieving thing, just going on a walk in nature. I mean, that's free, yes,

5:38  
and I used to say that too during COVID, I'm like, I don't know for but for some reason, it's probably because I just really started walking a lot more, because that's where you could really get your exercise. Just go outside. But I started saying, Wow, at this time, the grass looks greener, the flowers look brighter to me. Everything just looked different to me. But it's probably because I just wasn't out there before, and then I just started walking because I'm like, I gotta relieve this stress somehow. I have to get some exercise. I was in the gym before COVID happened, so I couldn't get in the gym. So I'm like, I'm just going to go outside and do what I need to do. But everything looked different. Everything looked brighter and greener and better. The air felt different. But you know, it's probably just because I was just out there at the time. No,

6:21  
that resonates with me. I definitely felt the same way. But my life before COVID, you know, I was a consultant, and I was on the road, I was in an airport 47 week side of the year. Oh, wow. And I didn't realize how tired I was until I had an opportunity to be home and just sleep in my bed. And I was like, dang, I'm so rested, so rested. Look at me going outside for a walk. That's something I never really did before COVID, like, at all. I'm like, look at these trails in the neighborhood. We've been at these traps. Yeah. Like, overall, I realized that part of me being chronically tired, I was irritable. I wasn't as irritable anymore. I wasn't as annoyed at everything. Yeah,

7:10  
yeah. And look at that switch just like that, just from changing one thing that's very simple that we take for granted, that we can do every day on a regular basis, how it just switched things for you absolutely.

7:25  
So can you tell us a little bit about your journey into the health and wellness industry? Yeah.

7:32  
So like I mentioned earlier, I've always been a thin person, so I didn't know I wasn't healthy until one day I was in the shower, I felt a sharp pain in my right breast, and it scared me. I said, Okay, well, I was a person to go to the doctor. So I went to the doctor very shortly thereafter, and they found, you know, irregular mass in my breast. And you know, after extensive mammograms and doing biopsies, found out that I had breast cancer. So I started thinking, you know, how did this happen? Because, again, I thought I was thin and I thought I was healthy, right, and I was managing life. I was a single mom working in the investment banking industry, and, you know, kind of commuting back and forth between New York City and New Jersey. Very stressful lifestyle, but it was what I

8:24  
was, that commute. That commute right there. You said, New York, New Jersey, like, pause right there, yeah, if you know, you know,

8:35  
yeah, yeah, yeah. So very stressful, but I was used to it. So I didn't think, just like you said you were on a plane, you know, the majority of the time I didn't. I was probably, I didn't even really think about it this way, but I was probably chronically tired too. I know that I was very stressed. I had a very high stress job, and then, you know, dealing with the commute, just a lot going on. But I just thought, Okay, this is my life. This is normal. And then I got that diagnosis, and I started thinking, why did this happen to me? Because I'm thin, right? Because that's what I thought initially. So I started doing research on food and exercise, and, you know, just how to be mindful. We talked about mindfulness earlier, how to be mindful, how to live positive, how to how the body can heal itself, like I just started diving in and just realized that this is where I'm supposed to be. This is the space that I'm supposed to be in. And I always tell people that cancer was one of the best things that happened to me because of it, so many things changed in my life, and now, you know, I'm 53, years old. It's been 11 years since that diagnosis, but I on any medication, I just changed my lifestyle. And I can say at 53 where people think it's common to have aches and pains and inflammation and, you know, bloating or whatever, I don't have those things, but because I learned how to take care of myself in a different way. Because. As a result, gotta

10:00  
chill on that sugar. That's what causes inflammation, that sugar and that meat. Yes, you gotta chill on that Yes. But when you say stuff like that, people don't want to hear it, because that's what they like, and that's what they're used to. And we're not even going to go down the road of the drug that sugar is, mm hmm. It's very addictive, I know, because I love me some sweets. And it wasn't until I started on my health and wellness journey personally, that I really realized how sweet a lot of the stuff that I liked was because I didn't eat sugar like that anymore. And I was like, oh, when you walk away from it and go back is unbelievable. And one of the things that you said earlier, talking about your commute from New York to New Jersey, and you know, you also referenced me flying there's something about the stress that you're used to, whether it be a commute or chaos in your family, chaos in your house, chaos at your job, sometimes that familiar stress falls under the radar as dangerous stress will take you out of here,

11:07  
yes, yes. And there are, you know that, and this is you know, science says this, right? And and medical industry, right? They tell you that there are healthy levels of stress, right? And some levels of cortisol is good for you, because it helps to push you, move you into action. But then there's those other levels, like you said, where there it compiles, right? And it just keeps packing on, packing on, packing on. And it's stress that you say that you're used to, because this part of your everyday life, but it starts to tear things down your mind, you know, your mental state, your emotional state, you know, you talked about being irritable, right? Those are signs of those things wrong. And then it starts to show up physically where it could attack your organs. And you know, it all compiles, so you have to try to mitigate that stress and change your lifestyle in order to do so, so that you don't have this compiling effect of stress, and we take it for granted, because life in the United States, and I'm this because this is where I live, right? Life in the United States is that way, right? You have to go to school, right? And especially the way we learn, for my generation, right? It was go to school, and then you have to get a good job, and you have to work really hard in order for you to do and get the things that you want out of life. So it starts to that stress really starts early on, because they the stress is put on to do these certain things in your life, to have the American dream, so to speak. And I'm putting up my quotes there, but that's really what it is, right? I get

12:39  
that right. A lot of the pressure and stress in that regard was tied to socioeconomic status, right? Because when you look I'm a history person, when you look at the United States and where we are in history, we really are just 100 years away from when things started getting slightly better, yeah, and then you know, when you put it in the fact that I'm the first generation in my family, and I'm 43 born with my rights intact, right? Anybody born before 1965 you weren't born with your rights intact? Yeah, yeah. So we had to do all these things that were more than our counterparts just to be less than equal, yeah, yeah. Significantly better is what you had to do. Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I look at my kids who, you know, I raised them with that vantage point, but they're like, Yo, we ain't doing all that. If you don't want me to, you know, I can go live somewhere else. Yeah, and I'm like, because, you know, this is why I encourage people go see the world, go to other places, because you will learn that everything ain't what it seems. Yeah, I won't put my spin on it, that's a whole different podcast for another day. I was going to say whole conversation. Oh, different podcast for another day. Yeah, but I want to go to Columbia, to Cartagena. A lot of people are going there now because it's a cheap place to go. And I know most folks when you say Columbia, they think of cocaine. Mm, hmm. Cartagena has one of the oldest black settlements. People out there, they doing good. You know, go to Egypt. I just came from Egypt in April, and it changed my life. Wow, it changed my life. I will never be the same. I can't wait to get back to the continent. You know, that's what we're here for, experiences and to do things differently. And so how this kind of correlates to what we were saying? When you give yourself the opportunity to do different things and experience different things, you'll look at yourself and the things that you've normalized like that normalized stress in a different way. Mm,

14:59  
hmm. Yeah, and I like that you talked about the exposure to other countries, right cities in the world, just to see how they live. And I'm going to tie this to the wellness piece of it too, because there's a lot that they do in other countries to assist their communities in living well that we just don't do here. Yeah, I vowed that for my son's graduation, we're going to take a tour of Europe, and then we're just going to continue to travel, you know, after we figure out what he wants to do in terms of of college. But I want to expose him to other other areas, other countries, and I want to get that started for him, and allow him to see that he can do that for himself, you know, after he moves on. But that was my vow, because I've never even been to Europe myself. And I said, Well, we're going to that's what we're going to do. We're going to go and we're going to experience other countries together, so I can expose him to the world, because he needs to see what's out there and how people live. And there's a lot of wellness that happens in other countries, that does not happen here, that they they give their people an opportunity to live well that we just don't give people in the United States, just

16:09  
by virtue of the fact that they tend to walk more. Yeah, yeah. You know, they have public transportation, and then so people walk to their public transportation. You know, they tend to take care of the environment, more less plastic and more recyclable types of things. One thing that happened in Egypt that you just reminded me of, without oversharing, it is a long flight to Egypt, so unfortunately, I ended up getting a yeast infection, which is like normal, you know, women happens. I was a little panicked, because I seldom get yeast infections, but every single time, I always have to end up, if you know, you know, calling a doctor begging to get a dye flu can, because they never want to give you that. You always gotta get that disgusting mana stat and use that for seven days and waste your time. And for me, it doesn't work, and then call and get the dye flu can, or whatever about you, choose 301, whatever. It doesn't work. And so I went into the pharmacy in Egypt. I was like, oh boy, because I had no idea. Just gave me the dye flu. Can they had it? It wasn't even a prescription. Wow. And y'all, it was $1 it actually was less than $1 it was like 80 cents.

17:32  
Wow. Did you buy a few just because

17:37  
I should have? I didn't think about it. I should have I was so shocked. I got changed back from $1 whether you get changed back from $1 Yeah. But anyway, just my experience of healthcare in a different country, you know the fact that you don't have to go humiliate yourself and go to the doctor and beg for something that is very normal in a woman's life, yeah, that was very eye opening to me, and I think this is a good place to take a break. Y'all. This is a great conversation. We'll be back

18:10  
on behalf of our mic. Sounds nice. Please continue to rock with our friend, our sister, our cousin, our colleague, your auntie, Kandice Whitaker, bail yourself out. And if you don't think you have something to be bailed out of, after you listen, you will realize that

18:29  
you do. Now back to the show. Hey, y'all, Hey, welcome back to the bail yourself out. Happy Hour lounge. Today, I'm chillin with my girl, Tracy Randolph, the reset coach, and we are talking about all things health and wellness, and you living your best life. So I would ask you, what inspired you to be a health and wellness coach, but I think I know the answer based on what you said in the last break. It was your personal journey with breast cancer, and I didn't get an opportunity to say it in the moment, but I wanted to just say, thank God. 11 years cancer free. Yeah, God is faithful.

19:05  
Yes, he is Amen to that. I will tell you. I'll tell you about an experience I had. So I knew life was going to change. I just didn't know how, uh, during Hurricane Sandy, back in 2012 and I'll make this quick, but it's long, a little bit of a profound story, but during 2012 it's Hurricane Sandy. I was living in New Jersey, they said, you know, the storm is going to be pretty bad. So, you know, I got my candles ready. I had my at the time, my son was really young. I had the portable DVD player all charged up ready to watch movies, and I had this sectional couch, and I'm like, Okay, we're going to camp out on the couch, and we're going to have the candles going and we're going to watch movies. And the storm was raging outside. The power went out. My son, we were watching cars, Disney Cars, and he fell asleep. And in that moment, I realized, like, oh, there's a lot happening outside. And me and one of my neighbors across the street were just talking about a tree my neighbor next. To me, and this tree was huge, and it was sick, and we knew, like, this tree needs to come down, but now, you know, the storm is raging. So I was praying. I started praying after my son felt sick. I'm like, God, please don't let this tree fall down, not on my house, not on my neighbor's house. Please keep this tree intact. When I tell you, Ken, it's my house illuminated. It was like the lights turned back on, but the power was out. So I was like, Okay, God. And then it felt like a dome was crashed down over my house. So I was like, Okay, God, I hear you. I went to sleep, woke up the next morning, went outside. You know, there's trees down on the street. That sick tree was still up, not one branch off of that tree, and the only thing that had fell between our houses was our very small portion of our adjoining fence that was pretty old, and that was it. Nothing else happened, right? So I'm like, Okay, God, I hear you, right. What I didn't know a month later is when I found out that I had breast cancer. So really, I know that it was about the tree in that moment, but that was really the setup for God saying I got you. So I knew that something else was changing. So when I found out, once I got over the initial shock, right? Because I'm human, so I'm not going to say that, right, of course, right? Once I got over the initial shock, I thought about that experience and I'm like, Okay, God, that was you telling me that you had me through this experience and that my life needs to change. So after

21:19  
I understand that, yes, you live life forward and understand it looking back, yes, yes. So

21:25  
really, this is, this is why I'm a health and wellness coach, right? More so from that experience, because he told me I got you and that there were things that needed to change and I needed to push forward to help other people realize that they need to reset their lives around health and wellness, and I started working with a nonprofit organization and coaching their women. And that's how I became the reset coach, because I kept telling women, it's okay for you to reset every day that you wake up, you can reset. And that's how, you know, I got my my name. It was my mantra at the time with the

21:57  
I love that. Yeah, I absolutely love that, but there was a lot in there, right? I definitely am a personal faith. I definitely am a Christian, and I think that is quintessential to living the life that you want to live. I'm not saying you need to be Christian, per se, but you gotta have some faith in something Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have some faith in something other than yourself. Yeah. I definitely believe in the power of prayer, and there are no wasted moments. Recently, out of nowhere, in my social media feed, I've been seeing a bunch of people who were like former Satanists talking about the power of prayer and how they would cast spells on people, but those who were praying, they could actually see the hedge of protection around them, and their spells wouldn't work, and they would get frustrated by it. So y'all think this thing is a game. It is real. Yeah, I'm telling you. I am telling you to hear these people talk about No for real. This is what we did. Yeah,

22:59  
wow. But for God to show them His power, um, in those moments where they're looking to cast spells on other people, and those people are praying, and for them to see it, not just the person who's praying, but for the Satanist to see that, how powerful like, just think about that. How powerful is that?

23:16  
Well, the chick ended up getting saved. She's Christian now, because she was like, hold up, wow. Hold up, wow, yeah, yeah. Oh, I remember the lady's name. I was just scrolling on Instagram. I saw two different people, and that came up in my feed. But now, of course, since I'm talking about it, the AI will throw some other people in there. Y'all know what I like? Yeah, wow. Let's downshift a little bit. Yeah, what misconceptions about health and wellness do you encounter with the people that you're coaching? Mm, well, I think the biggest

23:48  
one, I'm going to go back to that question that I mentioned earlier. I think the biggest one is, you know, people just not knowing that they're sick because they're not really paying attention to their bodies. The body leaves clues. There's a lot of clues that happen that tell you that something is going on. It could be a headache, it could be joint pain, it could be a little tickle, sometimes right in your stomach, or, you know, somewhere on your body. So listen. I want people to listen to what's happening to their body, to really pay attention. Had I not paid attention to that one little sharp pain that was in my right breast. It never happened again. Between, you know, the time that it happened, and me going to the doctors, it didn't happen again. But I just decided to take the precaution and go see what was going on, and there was something going on. So I really think people need to listen, because we don't know that we're not healthy unless we start to really pay attention to what's happening, to really go to the doctors, to get our numbers right, to look at our blood work, to you know, those are things that I want women, women. I usually work with women, but not just women, right? I want people to really understand that you really need to pay attention to what's happening to your body. And listen to the clues

25:01  
I hear what you're saying, but I'm thinking about it holistically as a person who's I'm not a clinician, but I've worked in healthcare for years. What do you say to the people who have had negative experiences in healthcare? They've had a condescending doctor that didn't listen to them, they've had inappropriate tests or things happen to them because they didn't know how to advocate for themselves. Because that is a thing, right? You need to know how to advocate for yourself, yeah? What do you say to them? Mm,

25:33  
two things. One is, don't be afraid to change doctors. That part, yeah, until you get what you need. So that's right, and then find a person, family, friend, someone who will help you, who will assist you in advocating if you don't feel like you can do it for yourself. I'm definitely, I was, have always been a person to ask a lot of questions of my doctors, like I just said, I will switch a doctor in a heartbeat if you know they're just not doing what I feel is best for me, and that's what what it boils down to is you gotta have a doctor that's going to help you in the best way that you see fit for yourself, your lifestyle, your body, your mind, whatever it is. You gotta find the doctors that help you in whatever area you're looking to get assistance in. So don't be afraid. I my mom. I didn't use my mom as an example. My mom had this doctor for a very long time, and what she kept doing was prescribing medication without really doing any real tests. And I kept telling my mother, like, you can't keep taking this medicine, because every time you know one medicine does one thing, then they give another medic medication for whatever something else feeling, and then, you know, before you know it, she's on 10 different prescriptions. And I said, you really need to change your doctor. And it took her a long time, Kandice to change her doctor, and me and my brother kept telling her, you need to change your doctor,

26:52  
but she wouldn't. Older people tend to be more loyal. I found that, yes, I don't know why they're oddly loyal. I'm like, they are not treating you well, yeah, but

27:02  
they're not loyal to you, okay, right, right, right.

27:07  
I, you know, I think that's an older generation thing, because this conversation I had with my grandfather about his doctor, I mean, he complained because he felt like she didn't listen to him, and he also felt like, you know, whenever he went, he'd be triple booked and waiting for hours. I'm like, there are other doctors. Go to another doctor, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know what it is with that older generation. They definitely have a weird loyalty

27:38  
and a sense of comfort, right? Like, once they get used to something or a person, or they just have this sense of comfort, and that's where they sit, they sit in that that comfort zone because

27:49  
they're comfortable with that person, even if you don't like it. Is that still comfort? Yeah,

27:53  
it's not really, it's not really no, no familiarity, yeah, maybe that's a better word for it. Yeah, yep. It still doesn't

28:01  
make sense to me. But, you know, the whole notion of, I don't, like, what's going on here, but let me continue to participate. Like, why?

28:08  
Yeah, yeah. I can remember, after the breast cancer, the doctors put me on a medicine called tamoxifen, and I've heard that name, yeah, it's like, you know, it's a hormone blocker, and I had done some research on it, so I said, Okay, I'm going to try it, right? Because I'm listening to the doctors, I'm going to try it, but also doing my own research. Well, again, when it goes back to paying attention to your body, the side effects were horrific. It started putting me into what felt like menopause, even though I never lost my menstrual cycle. Um, somebody would be on fire one day, and then I feel like I was in a frozen tundra the next day. And then also I started getting bruises on, like, just anywhere, like I would carry a grocery bag and I would have a bruise on my finger, and I knew that wasn't normal. And they kept saying, Oh, this is not indicative of this medication must be something else. No, it's not. There's nothing else that I've changed.

28:59  
Oh, they'll gaslight you. Odell gaslight you. Yeah, yeah. So I started reading

29:03  
blogs from other women, right, who were going through the same experience, taking the same medication, experiencing some of the same things that I was I stopped taking it. I was a year in, and they told me I had to take it for five years or more, depending on my situation. I'm like, Nope, I'm not going to do this. And I had, like I said, Before, I was doing research on food and medication and cleansing and other things. So I just I stopped, and the doctor said, you know, I don't know what else to say to you. I'm like, I'm not taking this anymore. There's nothing that you could do. And he was like, Well, I don't even think I can help you. I said, Okay, I'm going to start dealing with your PA, because she had a lot of knowledge and was open to the conversations of holistically, taking care of myself. So I started going to his pa instead of him, because that we just had a better relationship. She knew what she was talking about, and she was open to exploring other ways of wellness with me. So that's just what people have to do. You need to advocate for yourself and start to pay attention and do your research on. Own and then come together, collaborate with with your medical professionals and find the ones that work for you.

30:06  
Definitely, you have to understand that it is a relationship. Yeah, personally, I had a mass on my thyroid a couple of years ago. 2017 2016 Long story short, for the longest time, I didn't have a doctor because I was a healthy person. Went for my physical at like, you know, urgent care or whatever, and that was it. I finally got a doctor because I kept getting sick. And one of the doctors at Urgent Care said, Okay, you need a doctor. I was like, All right, fine. Recommended a wonderful black female doctor that I went to, and as I was talking to her, she said, What is that in your neck. Ellie, what do you mean? As she was talking to me, she saw this, what ended up being a five centimeter. And I don't know if y'all know how big five centimeters is, but that junk is big mass in my throat. Wow. Long story short, did a biopsy wasn't cancer, but they told me the odds of it turning into cancer because of its size, was very high. So it took me a long time to decide to get it removed. Because of where it was, there was a probability that I would lose my voice. Like for those of you who know me, you know, I sing, have sung, but like, not just my singing voice, my voice, like, one of those people that talk were like, like, it's like, do that, yeah? Like, I started having these conversations with God, like, Look, if you gotta do that, you gotta just take me, yeah. Wow. So when I finally picked the Doctor, did my research. Took a deep breath, because it took me a minute. I went to US News and World Reports, because I know every year they give a list of the best doctors and best specialties all over the country, and I needed an auto laryngologist. So I went to the three best places. One was in Boston, one was in New York, and the other one was Cleveland Clinic, and I was pissed about that, because I was just working at Cleveland Clinic, and my contract that just ended, and I just left. Wow. I was pissed about that. I would went to Cleveland Clinic, right, right. So I was like, well, because I was living in Connecticut at the time, let's try something local. So I went to one of the better institutions in Connecticut, and the provider told me, Now, mind you, it took me six months to even make the appointment. The provider told me who was the head of otolaryngology, about 50% of my patients lose their voice. Was like that. Many good odds. Hell no. Right, right. I didn't say that. I just left, and I was sitting on the I will never forget this. It was the winter time in New England, and I was sitting on the front branch of their outpatient medical facility, crying, calling one of my spiritual mothers, like, what am I going to do? Took me so long, and she said to me, find another doctor. And I was like, Oh, yeah. But sometimes when you're in the moment, your feelings are all in it, you can't see the forest through the trees. Yeah. So I said, Okay, got another doctor. Went to New York. It was fine. God set it up. So a person I knew from my old church actually had the appointment right before me, so we were in the waiting room together the whole time. Wow, wow. And he was like, Dr Erkin is great. Don't worry, you're in great hands. I didn't even know that this brother had an experience with cancer, and he'd done multiple things with this provider. I had none. I had no idea, right? Get in talk to Doctor Erkin. He was like, yeah, no, only, like one in 44 of my patients, those are the odds that can cut on my See, see, that's right. So we had everything set up within a month. I'm in the hospital in New York. He took care of it. I think I was at Mount Sinai, and he comes in afterwards, and he said, I lost 10 years off my life saving your voice. What do you mean? So apparently they took a picture most people's larynx go straight down in the back of their throat. And if y'all know what that is, that's the big chord in the back of your throat that actually your voice vibrates on to make the sound mine apparently looks like a slide that goes front, so they had to push it over to the side to cut out the mask that I had. And thank God I got somebody who was an industry leader, because I promise you, I wouldn't have a voice today. So that is the importance of that, and I think that's a great place to take a break. We'll be back. What

34:45  
do you want to talk about? You have a show idea? Drop Kandice alive at bail yourselfout pod.com

34:52  
Do you want me to speak at your next event? Hit me up at bail yourselfout pod.com now back to the show. We. All right, y'all we are back in the bail yourself out Happy Hour lounge today, I got my co host, the reset coach, Tracy Randolph, with us today, and in this last break, I kind of want to talk about some practical tips that anybody can use to maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle. What you would recommend? Yeah,

35:25  
first things first. I'm gonna say take some time throughout the day. And I'm gonna say Do this daily to people, just to pause and breathe. You know, oftentimes we're not breathing the way that we should. So take a pause throughout your day and take some deep breaths, you'll start to reduce your stress, you'll start to allow better circulation for your body. Just take that time and breathe. But what I also want to mention to people is what I like to do. I'm going to cover a few basis right when it comes to food and exercise and some mindfulness. But what I like to what I like to do also, is do intermittent exercise. And this is what I tell people to do, particularly people who always say that they're too busy to go work out. You don't have to work out in a gym, right? That's not, it's not necessarily learn that during COVID, okay? Exactly, exactly. So you don't have to go to a gym. It doesn't have to look like what you see online, right? On social media and all these experts just take some time to do some intermittent exercises. So, you know, examples like, you can take a five minute break and, you know, maybe do some jumping jacks or some squats, or some push ups, or, you know, walk up and down your stairs. If you're in your house and you have steps in your house, go take a walk outside. But just to get movement and to keep your blood circulating, you need that movement. So I love

36:41  
that, you know, right here during boring meetings, yeah, I have free weights that I pick up, and I use these during boring meetings. I

36:53  
love that, and I love that you picked that up, because there's a lot of things that you can buy for your house that you can use, you know, resistance bands, those free weights, kettlebells, medicine balls. There's a lot of things that you can get to put in your house. I know some people like to sit on the big the big balls. And I can't think of the name of it right now, but the balance balls, the balance balls, yes, the balance balls and auto trust

37:14  
those the way my weight is set up. I don't know I'll be sitting on the floor. It

37:19  
strengthens your core, though, because it forces you to stay put. But there's a lot of things that you can use. They even have now portable elliptical machines that you can use under your desk, right? And you can stand up, and you can just do it in four or five minutes or so, and then sit back down. Um, some people even pedal them when they're just sitting. I don't think that's as effective as standing up, but you can get them right. So there's a lot of equipment out there that you can use at home. So to think about getting movement at home and taking those short breaks throughout the day, you'll get a full workout in if you do it throughout the course of your day. Can

37:54  
I ask you something? Can I jump in and just ask you something? One of the things that you said is, pause, right? And one of the things that I do in my day, or try to do, if I feel myself getting stressed or overwhelmed, is I will take a minute and meditate. It took me a minute to learn how to meditate because, you know, in Western culture, this is not something that we do, yeah, but once I learned it, it's become extremely beneficial to me. Do you recommend for people to meditate, or is just pausing absolutely

38:27  
so throughout a busy day? I love that you do that. And I'm going to give you a funny story on meditation too, because I had to learn how to do it as well.

38:37  
If you're not used to it, yeah, it's very it's

38:39  
very hard, especially when, again, I'm going to coin those the people that say they're busy all the time, right? Your mind is racing. It's hard to quiet yourself down, which is why I tell you

38:47  
it is. Yeah, I didn't realize how many thoughts I had going on at one time, and wonder why I felt half crazy. Sometimes when I learned to meditate, I realized that I would have three different thoughts going on simultaneously. Like, I need to get my dry cleaning, what am I going to pick up for dinner? Oh, I like, what I have on, like, all at the same time, yeah, yeah,

39:13  
yeah. It's I noticed that when I either go to meditate or when I go to pray, right, I have to make sure that I'm quieting myself down, because all these other thoughts start coming into my head, ma'am contract, you know, like whatever, whatever it is, like something's going on in my head. So being able to put yourself in a quiet place. And what people don't realize about meditation is you start to heal your body too, when you start to meditate and quiet your mind down like that. So I love that you said that I have a quick funny story about meditation, because when I was going through the process of figuring out how I'm going to deal with the breast cancer, the hospital that I was working with, they offered free meditation. So I went in for the first one, I said, hey, why not? I want to try all modalities that are going to help me to live a healthier lifestyle. So. I went in, and the person themselves didn't walk me through the meditation. They had a recording of a meditation, and they had me lay on this table, and she's like, I'm going to start the recording, and I just want you to sit quiet. But I wasn't used to this. I had never done it before. So she puts on, and the voice is like this little squeaky voice, and she it was like, free your mind. Now, the way I was raised, right, that this was woowoo, like it was quirky, and yes, yes, I instead of quieting myself down, I just started laughing. You're judging. I was judging, and I was laughing. I couldn't help it. So that was my first experience with meditation. Needless to say I didn't quiet my mind at that point, but I did go and find my own meditation on like YouTube, and I found voices that were a little more soothing for me, that would allow me to help myself quiet down until I learned how to do it myself. But that was my funny experience with meditation, my very first time, first time

41:01  
I was introduced to meditation. It was corporate as well. I worked for a big four organization, and they included in some thing I went to, I don't remember, but they had different classes, and one of them was meditation. I was like, I prefer to do that than hear somebody speak. So I went in there and like I'd never done it before. And for me, I realized that meditating sitting up is not really my thing, because if I'm in an upright position, I feel like I need to be at attention. And so that was the first time I learned how to do it. We were in an upright position. So it didn't work well for me. I learned for myself, I'm better. I need to lie flat. That's the best way for me to just really get into the zone there. But what you just said brought up an interesting thought, because you said the lady had a kind of weird voice in it was sounded like, woo, woo or whatever. I mean, there are a lot of people in black culture, Christian tradition, that when you start talking about things like meditation, when you start talking about things like mindfulness, they get very weird. Do you have a strategy? What do you say to those folks? Because mindfulness is important. You know, the Bible talks about meditation. So I get confused as to why Christians would say, you know, ooh, that's not something we're supposed to do.

42:21  
Yeah, I challenge people when they say things like that, because I always talk about, didn't God put all the resources here, right? Like he's giving us all of these resources, so why not utilize them? I even do. I listen to, like, the high frequency vibrational type stuff, because the power of sound also to heal the body. Yes. Challenge people when they tell me that those type of things are Woo, woo, because I thought that initially too, but I'm like, God gave us everything that we have.

42:50  
People are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Yes, yes,

42:53  
yes, yes, yes. And if you look like, if you really do some research, and you start to follow some of the people where things, these things, have been working, and you start to look at some of the documentation behind it, you have the power to heal your body with a lot of natural, holistic modalities. So I challenge people to say, you know, God, I just that. That's what I do. I just say, God put it. God put all these resources here for us to use. And then they, they don't really have anything to say to that, because it's like if He created everything, everything, if you believe that our exposure, that's right, right? And if you believe that, then we can utilize everything that he's given

43:30  
us, that's exactly right. I had the opportunity last year to speak in India, and it wasn't like New Delhi, India, where people was wearing suits. It was India, India. We were sitting on the floor, okay, walking around with no shoes on. It was India, India. I went to a Hindu temple, which I've been to one before. I've been to one in the States, but this was one of the most amazing experiences in my life. So they were like, Oh, we're going to go for meditation. I was like, okay, cool. I go for meditation. It sounds fun. I'm down for it. I didn't know meditation was at four o'clock in the morning. I didn't know meditation was an hour away at four o'clock in the morning, right? You already know. So we get to meditation at like, 350 everybody was already there, sitting ready, waiting to go. They had a full band there. Was like, I'm not exaggerating, 10,000 people there. Yeah, wow. First of all, the power, I'm from the US, we get bored easily. We have a lot of stimulation. They had children. The children were sitting in the front rows, straight lines, straight rows of children sitting cross legged. We used to call it Indian style, but I'm pretty sure that's racist, right, right, right, but we were sitting like that. Yeah, children in the front about 10 plus 1000 people meditating at four o'clock in the morning for an hour. It was dead silent. Wow. Wow, wow, powerful, Wow. I've never experienced anything like that in my life. I was like, I don't know what y'all believe in, but I know God is here. I know what that feels like. I know that feeling,

45:09  
that's good, that's good, yeah. I don't

45:13  
know what you call em, but I know that feeling, yeah, yeah. So don't be afraid of different stuff. God is everywhere. You know he's with you, don't you bring him with you? Yeah, that's what I say. That's how I feel. It was, it was amazing. Now they should have told me that I'd be sitting on the floor cross legged for an hour because I needed some practice on that, because I haven't sat that way since I was about, I don't know, maybe 10, like

45:41  
the kids in the front, right,

45:44  
right? The every picture they have of me, my face looks crazy because of the pain that was going through my lower back. Oh,

45:54  
wow, wow.

45:59  
Wanna get up and move. Everybody else is sitting there calmly. I was in turmoil. But anyway, other than that, it was a wonderful

46:06  
experience. Wow. I love that. Though, I love that and that, you know, if we, if I told my family things like that today, right, like they would still think that that's Woo, woo, because of the way, oh, she's in a cold.

46:20  
She done went on the other side. Yes, yes. Gotta love hashtag. Black families. We just different child we

46:30  
are. But you know, when you think about, like, again, we talked about other countries, right? And going to other countries, and you've had these experiences, I've only been able to see them online so far, right? But I would love to go to India. I would love to go to Japan, right, to see how people practice other ways of like, really taking care of themselves and like Honduras, right? There's so many areas in the world where people do things differently and they live longer. If you look at their tractor, they live a lot longer than we

46:59  
do. They live longer and they have less, yeah, yeah, we have more, but we're encouraged to be productive, yeah? And then kind of drugged. And drug is relative. You know, your drug of choice could be actual drugs, or it could be TV, it could be social media, it could be food, Mm, hmm, drugged into complacency, yeah, I pay attention. Yeah,

47:19  
yeah, yeah. And, oh,

47:21  
I was in Canada last week. I was in Canada last week, and this African dude said something that was funny, but not funny at the same time. He was like, Americans eat like, Y'all have free healthcare. I was like, damn, isn't

47:35  
that the truth? And now I got to tell this story, right? I just saw this. I just saw this one online too. You know how the things pop up in your feed. But they were talking about something as simple as Fruit Loops, the cereal. I don't know if you saw this one. I didn't see it. So Fruit Loops, American company. They make the Fruit Loops differently for Canada than they do for America. So the Canadian Fruit Loops are made with natural coloring, meaning, you know, coloring that comes from fruit and vegetables versus the American version, which they give you the chemical color, red dye. Same company, they're shipping out the better Fruit Loops to Canada. And, you know, here we have the dyes in ours, like, because Canada

48:14  
and Europe, they don't play right? And the US is controlled by money, right? Because lobbyists are a government sanctioned form of corruption, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what it is, yeah.

48:26  
And I wanted to mention that because when you said, pay attention, right? So I wanted to give that example of something just like very concrete, right, that we need to start paying attention to. There's so much information out there, and there's so many things that are happening to our food and the drug Food and Drug area administration. Yeah, right. Well, not that I'm not going to talk about the administration, right, because I'm not in there. But if you look at what is being accepted and allowed here, um, somebody needs to take responsibility for it, but the first part of the responsibility comes from us, and we have to start paying attention, and we have to stop being consumers of what's killing us? That part.

49:01  
Yeah, that part. I mean, one of the things my girlfriend, who was with me when we were in Toronto, said, was, like, the food tastes so much different here. And I said, well, because they're not allowed to do the things that they do to make food last longer, yeah, artificially, yeah, to our detriment. Yeah. The one thing that you'll notice when you leave the country immediately, and I'm not talking about Canada, I'm not even really talking about Mexico. You know Mexico, they're very close to us, so we have a lot of similarities. Go to Europe, go to Africa. I haven't been to Asia yet. They're much smaller. Just in general, I was in the airport in Paris when on my way to Egypt, so several months ago, and there wasn't all these older people getting pushed around in wheelchairs. They were walking, yeah, yeah. Notice that I was like, wow, wow. So all the stuff that they put in our food to make stuff bigger, and then we eating it. Didn't we learn this in school? Brown cow eats green grass, makes white milk, right? Brown girl eats hormone chicken wings gets bigger. It's the same logic.

50:09  
That's right, that's right, that's right. All right.

50:13  
So we are at the end of our show, and I want to thank you so much for your time and your expertise. Tracy, this has been a wonderful episode. I hope that our friends in the audience have been enlightened, as I have during our conversation. Tell people how they can get you

50:29  
sure, um, I am on basically all social media as either Tracy Randolph or Tracy Randolph the reset coach. So you can look me up on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on Tiktok, and then also you can go to the reset global com, and you can find me there as well. Wonderful.

50:50  
Thank you so much, friends and to my audience. I love you, and I mean it peace. Wasn't that a great interview? Hold up before you grab your hat and head out, make sure you make your way to facebook and join the bail yourself out pod Facebook group. That's where you'll find your virtual coworkers, luxuriating and chatting. Thank you so much for listening. And if you enjoy the show, please leave a review. That's how we keep the lights on. If you're on social media, follow your girl, Kandice with the K Whitaker. And you know what I'd love to hear from you with that I love you, and I mean it because there are people who hate in the world for no reason. I choose to love for no reason. I believe, as the great Martin Luther King Jr said, hate is too great a burden to bear, so I choose to love. Peace. Y'all. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai