Episode 125
Samantha Harris:
Why the Battle Against Cancer Starts with Human Nature and Mindset with Samantha Harris
In this episode I am joined by Emmy-winning TV host Samantha Harris. Samantha is not only known for her stint as co-host of Dancing With The Stars but also for her incredible journey as a breast cancer thriver and her transition into the wellness space.
In our conversation, we dive deep into her story, discussing the power of mindset, stress management, and the importance of living a toxin-free life to foster optimal health.
First Aired on: Feb 5, 2024
Episode 125
Samantha Harris:
Why the Battle Against Cancer Starts with Human Nature and Mindset with Samantha Harris
In this episode I am joined by Emmy-winning TV host Samantha Harris. Samantha is not only known for her stint as co-host of Dancing With The Stars but also for her incredible journey as a breast cancer thriver and her transition into the wellness space.
In our conversation, we dive deep into her story, discussing the power of mindset, stress management, and the importance of living a toxin-free life to foster optimal health.
First Aired on: Feb 5, 2024
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
Episode Summary
In our conversation, Samantha shares:
- Her unexpected breast cancer diagnosis and her relentless pursuit of answers.
- The pivotal role of mindset in her cancer journey.
- The transition from a high-profile entertainment career to a health and wellness advocate.
- Insights into toxic burden and how to live a cleaner, happier life.
- The creation of her best selling book, “Your Healthiest Healthy”.
Key Takeaways & Insights
Samantha’s Journey
- Clear mammogram led to a false sense of security before finding a lump that turned out to be cancer.
- Importance of self-advocacy and listening to one’s body.
- Challenges faced during surgery and recovery.
- The shift in perspective from fear to proactive health management.
The Power of Mindset
- Changing negative self-talk to positive self-talk can transform one’s approach to health.
- Gratitude and positive outlook as tools for resilience in the face of illness.
Reducing Toxic Burden
- Identifying sources of toxins in daily life: relationships, environment, products.
- Small, sustainable steps in reducing exposure: choosing clean beauty products, eating organically, switching to natural cleaning supplies.
- Sharing resources and personal vetted lists for cleaner living options.
Living Your Healthiest Healthy
- Importance of a supportive community for anybody undergoing a health journey.
- The 80/20 approach to clean living: striving for balance instead of perfection.
- Engaging with health experts and learning through guest expert sessions in Samantha’s community.
Other Resources:
Connect with Samantha Harris
Episode Transcript
Julie Michelson:[Page//00:00:00] Welcome back to the Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Michelson, and today we are joined by Emmy winning TV host, Samantha Harris. Who may be best known for eight seasons as the host of Dancing With The Stars and her many years as a host of shows such as Entertainment Tonight and Extra.
Julie Michelson: From hosting from every Major Hollywood award show, red Carpet to starring on Broadway in the musical Chicago she's been a [Page//00:01:00] fixture in the entertainment world. She's currently the host of the World Word Play Game, tug of words on the Game Show Network. But at age 40, this wife and mom received a shocking diagnosis. breast cancer. Rising from that challenge, she became a breast cancer thriver, certified health coach and trainer, and the author of the best selling book, Your Healthiest Healthy, eight easy ways to take control, help prevent and fight cancer, and live a longer, cleaner, happier life.
Julie Michelson: And in today's conversation, Samantha shares her healing journey with us, and we dive into the power of mindset and stress management, movement, nutrition, and reducing toxic burden to live your healthiest healthy. Samantha, welcome to the podcast.
Samantha Harris: Thanks, Julie, for having me on. I really love the insight that you share with your listeners and I'm happy to be part of it.
Julie Michelson: Well, we are so excited [Page//00:02:00] to have you share your, your story is so impactful and, and pretty much most people that come on, you know, most of us aren't in this realm because we felt healthy and happy our whole lives, right?
Samantha Harris: Very good point.
Julie Michelson: Cause even all the doctors I interview, you know, had their turning point or they, they needed to go beyond medical school training.
Samantha Harris: Sure.
Julie Michelson: So I would love for you, I'm sure most listeners are familiar because you are so amazingly open about your story, but I would love for you to just share your journey of, um, it's not every day I get to interview, you know, TV star. So how come you're talking to me today?
Samantha Harris: I love this. This is so fun. It's the, you know, I'm usually the one doing the interviews, so it's really fun to have the tables turned. Uh, you know, so here I was, you know, on the top of my game with Dancing With the Stars and Entertainment Tonight, and a stint on Broadway and Good Morning America as a special correspondent, and I was a new mom and my [Page//00:03:00] daughters were three and six and life just.
Samantha Harris: Awesome. I mean, this Minnesota girl who had dreams of being in Hollywood was achieving all these things that I really, really, really worked hard for, for a long time. And I also thought I was super fit and healthy. And I was like, quote unquote, that healthy one among my friends. They would make fun of me.
Samantha Harris: My own sister would make fun of me for all of my egg white omelets and cheeseless pizzas and my skinless boneless chicken breasts and all of a sudden, then all of a sudden. Healthiest among all the friends and family girl got a breast cancer diagnosis. And it wasn't like, Hey, here's your breast cancer diagnosis.
Samantha Harris: Uh, it was. Months of chasing down something I didn't think was there, but wanted to be sure of. So I had a clear mammogram. I was about to turn 40. My dad, I lost him to colon cancer when he was 50. Um, and I just turned 50 and I realized I've got a lot of life to live.
Julie Michelson:[Page//00:04:00] Yes.
Samantha Harris: I'm so sad. Almost, in some ways, I'm sadder now than I was at 22 when he was taken from me.
Samantha Harris: Because I realize how young 50 is. I realize how much more life he had. And he was our everything. This magical, amazing, just dynamic personality. And so, but he had, we'd lost him. His mom was a breast cancer survivor, lived to 95 post menopausal. So no connection to mine because mine was pre menopausal, uh, post menopausal.
Samantha Harris: So she had a very nice long life, but I thought, you know, cancer's in my family. I should set a baseline and get this mammogram thing I keep hearing about. So there I was, I got the mammogram, the results came back clear. Cause I was fit and healthy and I was, you know, just the rock star on the cover of all these fitness magazines.
Samantha Harris: And so of course I was going to have a clear mammogram
Julie Michelson: As expected.
Samantha Harris: as expected. Right. And so I was [Page//00:05:00] changing after a workout 11 days. After my mammogram, 11 days, and you know, those, those sports bras are tight, you know, you gotta move the girls to the left, you gotta move the girls to the right, you gotta shift the ground a little bit, get them back to like life, breathe the life back into them, and I'm feeling around, not doing a clinical breast exam on myself.
Samantha Harris: I'm just moving the girls around and all of a sudden I'm just living, you know, like after breastfeeding, you know, two kids, I was not afraid to touch my own body. So here I was manhandling my breasts and, uh, and I found this lump and I thought, that's so weird. I just had a clear mammogram. Why is there a lump here?
Samantha Harris: I'm sure it's no big deal. I had a clear mammogram, but you know what? I, I could have stuck my head in the sand, but I didn't. Thank goodness. I called my OBGYN. She was always my most trusted doctor. She was very no nonsense, non alarmist. She was the [Page//00:06:00] doctor, not my primary care. She was the doctor I called when I needed a ref for a referral to some other type of
Julie Michelson: Festive term.
Samantha Harris: I trusted her. She delivered both my kids, right? She knew me before I'd ever had sex, and then she knew me after I finally had sex for the first time. She's like, it's about time! You're in mid twenties! Um, anyway, is that TMI? I'm really, I'm, I told you I'm an
Julie Michelson: No, I love it because yes.
Samantha Harris: just,
Julie Michelson: think it should be like a tagline. I have a daughter, you have daughters. I think we need to have conversations that there are healthy choices of waiting to have sex too. Like things have changed.
Samantha Harris: gosh,
Julie Michelson: I think so. yeah,
Samantha Harris: I mean, look, at least there's the HPV vaccine right now, you know, for kids, but then, you know, so cervical cancer is less of a worry, but, um, you know, I'm grateful. I, anyway, that's a whole topic, a topic for another time in terms of
Julie Michelson: Yep. That's another well come back, we'll talk all
Julie Michelson: about it.
Samantha Harris: Let's talk all about having sex, um, when you're older and not when you're a
Julie Michelson: how [Page//00:07:00] great it could be
Samantha Harris: Yeah, exactly. You just know you're anyway. So anyway, so I went to see this, this OB GYN. She told me after a quick feel, the lump is nothing sent me on my way a month later, lump still there. Saw my internist said to my internist, check this out. He did a clinical exam, said it was nothing. So four months had passed.
Samantha Harris: The lump was still there. It was just gnawing on me that this, it wasn't painful. But it was there. So I had this nagging inner voice. And this inner voice now, it was quiet and whispering before. That's why I went to see the other doctors. Now it's shouting at me. It's saying, Samantha, if you're going to live with this quote, nothing lump for the rest of your life, don't you think you might want to know what's inside instead of just feeling it?
Samantha Harris: Like, how do they, how do they know? Are they that on? They have these superpower hands that can feel and That would be awesome. Could we please implant
Julie Michelson: would be great.
Samantha Harris: of our doctors, some sort of chip that they could just [Page//00:08:00] feel from the outside. They know what was happening inside. No diagnostics necessary.
Julie Michelson: But you know your body, right? Like you knew this didn't used to be there and now it's there and it doesn't belong there. So what is it?
Samantha Harris: exactly. And that's when I said, okay, I need to see a doctor who looks at breasts every day as a specialty. I didn't realize When I was seeking that type of doctor out, that the only doctor that does that is an oncologist who specializes in breast cancer, but there I was now finally with this oncologist, she also, she's like, Samantha, you're not crazy.
Samantha Harris: There is, I do see, I feel something, I see something on the ultrasound. I don't think it's cancer, but let's do a needle biopsy. Let's do an MRI. Julie, when I tell you not one diagnostic test showed it was cancer. And I've heard this story now being a, you know, 2014 was when I was diagnosed. So, I've now had many years of speaking to other survivors, and I hear this [Page//00:09:00] story all the time.
Samantha Harris: So, how did I then get diagnosed with breast cancer? Well, this oncol uh, oncologist said, you know, good news, bad news, it's not cancer, but I don't know what it is, so let's take it out. So I had a lumpectomy.
Julie Michelson: Thank
Samantha Harris: Took it out, woke up from that surgery, still told rough sections of that pathology in the room, said it's not cancer.
Samantha Harris: Good news. So a week later when I went back for my final pathology results, I told my husband, babe, you don't need to go. It was a gorgeous day. He loves to golf. Honey, no guilt, go golf. You don't have to
Julie Michelson: Because I'm fine. They've already told me I'm fine. This is formality.
Samantha Harris: Exactly. Exactly. And then I sat by myself as I barked. Ductal carcinoma in situ, and then the word invasive, and then I, it was just this barrage of cancer information that I did not expect. And it [Page//00:10:00] was in that moment that my cancer journey began. It was in that moment that I had to pivot everything in my life in ways I didn't intend to, plan to, pussy coming.
Samantha Harris: Um, but I also. After about three weeks of being so crushed under the weight and anxiety and overwhelm and hysteria of a diagnosis having lost my dad to cancer, having really, I mean, I at least got to graduate college because my parents were in their early 20s when they had my sister and me. So I got to grow up with my dad.
Julie Michelson: Right.
Julie Michelson: But you have babies.
Samantha Harris: babies. I mean, so the worry and the scare. scared feelings I had. Oh, Julie, it just, it felt so awful. And I, I just knew, well, I didn't know I had to come to a realization that I couldn't keep feeling that way because I didn't [Page//00:11:00] know how much longer this journey was going to take. Was it going to be the rest of my possibly short life?
Samantha Harris: Was it going to be a long journey? Uh, what was to come? What kind of treatments, what kind of surgeries? So I, after three weeks of Seeing every doctor known to man with second, third opinions with my, by the way, my husband at every single
Julie Michelson: sure.
Samantha Harris: He didn't miss another appointment. He was so crushed.
Julie Michelson: for you this
Julie Michelson: year.
Samantha Harris: exactly. Exactly. Um, uh, he, he was there and we got all these different opinions and, you know, I realized I needed to shift my perspective. And I think that was the first step in where I thought I was living a healthy life. I realized I needed to become my healthiest healthy. And one, the first step of that was realizing we have to be able to shift our perspective and turn negative self talk And overwhelm into positive self talk.
Samantha Harris: I didn't know, by the way, those words were nothing. I didn't know what those words [Page//00:12:00] meant. I also, when
Julie Michelson: Your book didn't just pop right out of you in that moment.
Samantha Harris: did not. I did not realize that those were words that I didn't even come up with that were out there, but I somehow figured. But I said to myself, I can't feel like this. I have to turn my perspective around.
Samantha Harris: And I started to have that positive self talk and I said, okay, what in the situation of cancer diagnosis is good. And I started to look at things and this is where your listeners, no matter what is coming at them, what is being pelted from left and right, if it's a career, a relationship, a health issue, a disappointment.
Samantha Harris: A death, a loss, when we can flip our perspective, and it is really hard sometimes to find the good and the positive, and I'm not saying put on rose colored glasses and look at everything as rainbows and unicorns, but where is the gratitude, where is the gratefulness that we can tap into? So I tapped into, okay, I mean, otherwise, I am in really good shape and health.
Samantha Harris: That's going to mitigate any complications in surgery. It's going to get me [Page//00:13:00] back on my feet faster to recover after surgery. It's going to, as long as I keep up with my exercise and all the other shifts that I eventually end up doing, um, it's going to help reduce chance of recurrence. Maybe all the things I was doing, even though I revamped most of them and added a lot of new good elements to live my healthiest, healthy life, the things I was doing to be the one that my friends could make fun of, maybe helped that cancer grow a lot more slowly than it would have.
Julie Michelson: Yeah,
Samantha Harris: when I started to think that way, It was a game changer.
Julie Michelson: absolutely. Absolutely. I love, I love that. And I love that you're, you started your journey that way. When I was first coaching for the first few years, like mindset was always included and important. And then finally I woke up one day and I was like, Oh my God, you're doing it wrong. You have to start there and then everything else becomes [Page//00:14:00] easier and exponential. Hello. You know, I should, you know, call my clients from seven years ago. Like, sorry,
Samantha Harris: I'm sorry.
Julie Michelson: I mean, we did work on stuff, but it's like, now it's like, no, we're front loading that. And so I love that you just into again, intuitively, right. Your intuition told you get this lump checked. Your intuition told you, wait a minute.
Julie Michelson: I can't stay in this stuck, anxious, sad, scared. Place need to shift even if it wasn't conscious like you just knew Luckily, that wasn't your comfort zone,
Julie Michelson: right.
Samantha Harris: And, and the fact that you, you know, the mindfulness is also something I didn't even know was a term or existed or I didn't understand the importance of it or the depth with which we should be mindful. And there are plenty of times even this far out in my new healthiest, healthy life that I have to remind myself consciously to be mindful or remind myself when something is happening, um, that is scary.
Samantha Harris: I mean, I was [Page//00:15:00] back in the doctor's office and having MRIs and ultrasounds in the last few months because I found. Lumps, one little lump in the same location as my initial cancer. And of course that's your mind goes to, Oh my God, it's back. And by the way, guys, I'm very confident that I am absolutely healthy.
Samantha Harris: There is no more cancer, but our breasts like to create lumps and there are fatty deposits that start to accumulate. But I thought, Oh gosh, I went off my hormone blocker after seven and a half years, maybe I went off too early. What right? So our mind started to, so all of a sudden. The anxiety engine starts going again, and I talk about this in my book and about how you have to throw a wrench in the anxiety engine to stop that downward spiral that happens so fast and wants to suck you down with all its might.
Samantha Harris: Right.
Julie Michelson: I had this conversation this morning that he it's like just across the board humans tend to lower their stress [Page//00:16:00] management routine when they're extra stress. Like it, there's a trick. It's that anxiety loop that all of a sudden it's, we're not doing our breathing. We're not being mindful.
Julie Michelson: We're not, whatever our tools are that work for us day to day when we need to up level. And so that's such a great reminder. It does. We're I don't know about you. I actually do know about you. We're never done. Right? Like what healthy is today isn't going to be 10 years from now. What your routine looks like.
Julie Michelson: We're always shifting and growing. God willing.
Samantha Harris: As we should be.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I, but I love that you shared that because none of us are perfect. Nobody has this down.
Samantha Harris: think too, something that's important to point out, scientifically, we know from research that we as humans are actually wired to go to the negative. We are wired. To get pulled in so easily, we, it's, it's kind of like we say when we're in the middle of a stressful [Page//00:17:00] environment or we're sad if we just Choose to smile because our face wants to dip down.
Samantha Harris: We want to go into that frown. We want to go into that hole. We want to curl up with the bonbons on the bed. But if you literally just make yourself physically turn the cheeks up and smile, your mood starts to lift. If we make ourselves. Our body wants to preserve energy. So it doesn't want to get up and move.
Samantha Harris: It wants to just sit on the couch. And when you are exhausted after a long day of work, and the last thing you could possibly think to want to do is to go for a walk around your neighborhood. I, this happened last night. My dog had been, I'd been on zoom, back to back zooms. All day. My dog had been curled up because it's for, I mean, it's LA, it's not cold, but it was like 37 when we woke up, woke up
Julie Michelson: sold for L. A.
Samantha Harris: it's cool for LA.
Samantha Harris: So our dog, and he's a golden doodle. He's got a lot of fur. He was chilly. He's curled up like a cute little ball all day long. So I come home after I, all my zooms back to back while he was curled up, then I [Page//00:18:00] had to run and do carpool for the kids. I get back home, it's dusk, and I see that my dog. He's been in the house all day and I said, you know what, we're going to, I did not want to, I wanted to come in.
Samantha Harris: It was cold. I wanted to come in. I said, we're going to go for a walk and we're just going to walk down the block. But I chose to put my tennis shoes on and take off my comfy slides, my little Ugg slides, because I thought, you know, there is a chance, there's a chance that this walk down the block goes longer.
Samantha Harris: We walked for 50 minutes.
Julie Michelson: I love it. I love it.
Samantha Harris: pitch black when we came back, but you know, and it wasn't a power walk. It was a stroll. We did maybe two and a half miles in 50 minutes. It's very slow. I did answer a lot of DMs on my, on my Instagram. I will be honest, but we moved. So our body is wired to the negative. Our body is wired to not want to move, but it lifts our mood.
Samantha Harris: When we move, it makes us happier, more productive. The brain fog goes away. We sleep better. We make better choices with our eating. So, In guiding others to become their healthiest healthy, that's why the book [Page//00:19:00] is called your healthiest healthy, right? It's not a diatribe. It's not getting on a soapbox Like a lot of the I feel like the gurus who i've read and I love Kind of say this is the one way to do it But as you and I were talking off air before we started recording We are all such bio individuals, and I went back to school after my, all my television career, I, after my cancer battle, I went back to school, I became a certified health coach, I've actually been a certified trainer for years, I used to teach group fitness while I was juggling three jobs to pay my rent while I was pounding the pavement auditioning in LA, and um, uh, and I've kept up my certification, so, but my, the point is that we are all, so different and we have to figure out what works well for each of us.
Samantha Harris: There are some through lines that,
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Samantha Harris: you said, like no one really wants to have gluten. 70 percent of people are actually lactose intolerant. So those are two areas of food that could be reduced for most people.
Julie Michelson: And everybody should get up and move whatever that looks like for you. [Page//00:20:00] Sitting on the couch all day eating bonbons is never anybody's ideal healthy plan.
Samantha Harris: Right, exactly. It feels great. I mean, I would love to just, you know, Netflix and binge all the time, but Man, you know what? I'd probably be a
Julie Michelson: No, you wouldn't. You would, you would be so stressed out.
Samantha Harris: Okay, you do know me, Julie.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, I, I get it.
Samantha Harris: Yeah, exactly. So, I, um, so it's, it's interesting the changes that we, um, we also can have the power to change in ways we don't necessarily realize.
Samantha Harris: You know, I, like I said, I thought I was eating right. I was, I was exercising regularly. And in, at Entertainment Tonight, you know, I had a very busy TV schedule and Um, we only had about an hour of a break in the middle of the day when we would shoot, sometimes from 4. 30 to 5 a. m. And we'd shoot all morning, and then there was this little break where we would feed the, the show up to the satellite.
Samantha Harris: And, literally, that was the only time no one could get me to do anything because There was nothing to do because it was feeding and [Page//00:21:00] after it was done feeding, we would do reshoots because, you know, of course some celebrity updated their story or we had to make a, you know, a tweak on something. So we'd reshoot things before the evening satellite feed that would go out to the rest of the country.
Samantha Harris: Cause it was a syndicated show. And so on that hour break. I would do the stairs in the parking garage. I would do yoga in my dressing room. I would walk the studio lot. I would do something to move. So I was always moving my body, but the, but the reasons I was moving my body, right? You talked about mind prompt.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Samantha Harris: Very different, right? It was extrinsic. It was all about how do I look standing next to my dancing with the stars, pro dancers with these amazing sculpted bodies. How do I look while I'm on the red carpet in a gown? Um,
Julie Michelson: answer is stunning to all of them.
Samantha Harris: love it.
Julie Michelson: But you, you bring up, actually, I, I want to circle back because we, we veered off before you finished that
Samantha Harris: Yeah, I veered. I never veered.
Julie Michelson: the beginning part of your journey, [Page//00:22:00] right? It didn't just end with a cancer diagnosis.
Samantha Harris: It did not end right, right. It did not end with a cancer diagnosis and then overnight everything became my healthiest healthy. No, it was definitely a journey. So
Julie Michelson: You went through,
Samantha Harris: had three, so I had three surgeries in 2014. Um, the last two surgeries, which were a double mastectomy and a second stage reconstruction surgery required three weeks of being in bed, um, where I could only get up for 20 minutes every two hours.
Samantha Harris: That was per my surgeon's orders. Um, and so for someone who is a full of energy, go, go, go, get your exercise in, run circles around my husband, my kids, you know, and, and they were little. So if I could run circles around a three year old, you know, I had a lot of energy. So that was psychologically incredibly challenging.
Julie Michelson: it had to be, I mean, here, you just were talking about, look, you're make your living in front of the camera, looking stunning, being fantastic. And then all of a sudden, [Page//00:23:00] huge body change.
Samantha Harris: huge body change, huge, huge mindset change, huge range of motion change. I mean, after breast surgery, you know, you, I mean, I had, I had 11 lymph nodes out from my right armpit. So I had zero started with zero range of motion. Um, and so it took months of PT and getting my full rhyming. I'm so grateful. I can, you know, do yoga and reach high up to the sky.
Samantha Harris: Now, now I just have to deal with the rest of my body starting to break down where I have like now a degenerative, actually a disc that's practically not there in my back anymore. So fun stuff like that, but I'm happy to be at 50 and I will take these all in stride and figure out how to move around them, you know?
Julie Michelson: Yeah. I get it. I didn't think I would live to see 50. My dad had passed at 54. And so same, you know, similar history with the, we look, the kids are great motivators and the, the dog. Are great motivators for different reasons. And, and we know how precious life is right. And what we want to be here for fully, not just, you know, [Page//00:24:00] rotting in a chair, but like actually living.
Samantha Harris: Right. I mean, you know, every time I interview Dan Buettner, who is known for the Blue Zones, if anyone's heard of the Blue Zones, right, it's the five areas. Well, now there are more because he's extended other areas of the world that are the most, uh, longest lived people. And what we, you know, what I love about the Blue Zones is that these people who are living past 100, they're not just, it's not about lifespan.
Samantha Harris: It's about health span and that they have lived to age 100 plus. able bodied sound of mind, they're all hoeing in the field and they're
Julie Michelson: Oh yeah.
Samantha Harris: their groceries from the market up 20, 000 steps to the top of Sardinia's, you know, peaks and,
Julie Michelson: Gathering with
Samantha Harris: that's what we
Julie Michelson: and community and yeah,
Samantha Harris: I think what you're speaking to, Julie, is that we want to, and I'm sure your listeners are, they're listening, not just because many of them are dealing with autoimmune disorders and other health issues and learning how to get the toxicity out of their body to live longer, but that our goal, I think, Anyone who's listening to [Page//00:25:00] things we talk about, they all are on the same game plan, like, let's get to that hundred and be that one who's, like, running, you know, running down the street on that morning jog.
Julie Michelson: right. Absolutely. Absolutely. So obviously total reframe, right? Because you started your journey and I keep coming back to because to me it is the most important. You know, all I do and all you do is help people take their power back, right? We all grew up in a way where we gave our power over to the all knowing doctors.
Julie Michelson: I love doctors. The love of my life is a doctor. I'm, you know, nobody becomes a doctor, you know, for bad reasons.
Samantha Harris: Right.
Julie Michelson: Um, it's just. And if I need surgery, I'm going to a Western trained doctor. Handstand, question, like, I'm not getting acupuncture if I need emergency surgery, like,
Julie Michelson: you know.
Samantha Harris: for my coaches.
Julie Michelson: Yes, yes. But when it comes to chronic health conditions, [Page//00:26:00] lifestyle conditions, cancer, autoimmunity, dementia, diabetes, fill in the blank, like, and, and, and, all the things that are, the numbers are exponential now.
Julie Michelson: You know, the, we have other options and, and you're to me, like you're the most beautiful message is, you know, be your own advocate. You knew your body. And even if it was a soft voice, like you heard the voice of like, Hmm, well then what is it? You know, why is it here? And so if you hadn't listened, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation today.
Samantha Harris: Which is what's so scary.
Julie Michelson: it is.
Samantha Harris: I don't know if it was the journalist in me who just asks
Julie Michelson: Why? Why?
Samantha Harris: 000 different questions. My poor husband, he, you know, I mean, I, he, he'll ask the simplest question or
Julie Michelson: It's a 20 minutes later.
Samantha Harris: Yes. And I'm still asking questions and I'm interrupting all the time because I'm afraid I'm going to [Page//00:27:00] forget my question, which is why we have gone a lot of left
Julie Michelson: Uh huh. Well, that's, that's But that's, see, that's what functional medicine asks the question, why? Right? Like, yes. Okay. Get the cancer out of your body. But then, I'm guessing your oncologist didn't sit you down and say Hey, Samantha, why do you think you got cancer?
Samantha Harris: no, not at all. No. And, you know, and I mean, specifically, I remember asking my oncologist point blank. So I keep hearing does sugar feed cancer. So does it? And my oncologist looking me just straight. Absolutely not. Don't worry about that has nothing to do with it. And studies have not been. You know, strong enough to talk about that.
Samantha Harris: So it's, and this, by the way, I mean, this is the man who wrote the forward to my book. He's incredible. He is the father of her septum, which has been a life changer for many, her two negative patients. Um, he is a clinical, I mean, he's in clinical, all he's amazing, but the, the challenge is the nutrition portion of any, as I'm [Page//00:28:00] sure your husband has to share, you know, share with any doctor in Western medicine, is I think they get a week if that, you
Julie Michelson: Oh, I think it's like three hours
Julie Michelson: or a day. Like I don't even think it's a week. And if it's, if it's what I, you know, if it's at least what it used to be, it's all backwards and wrong and you know, it's
Samantha Harris: nutrition science. I mean, we think about nutrition science is changing so rapidly. Literally what we learned last week could be completely different from what comes out next week, which is why. There's so much confusion, right? What should, you know, you mentioned off camera that you've done the keto thing, and then the people I know who had breast cancer had done macrobiotic, and then there'd be people who've done, you know, there's so many different schools of thought on nutrition, and so, it, it, it's paralyzing to think, well, what should I do?
Samantha Harris: I, I, okay, I'm just not going to make any changes because I'm getting too much conflicting information. So, um, I, the reason I dove in [Page//00:29:00] headfirst into research After my diagnosis was because I learned that of the one in eight women who will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in her lifetime Only five to ten percent are genetic and when I learned that mine despite my dad and his mom's cancers Mine was not genetic and I've had even a follow up panel with a hundred and I think eighty different genetic tests
Julie Michelson: They keep identifying more genes and
Samantha Harris: so is It possible maybe in another 40 years that there'll be some random little gene, but there are
Julie Michelson: But even if you had the gene,
Julie Michelson: you had to, you had to turn it on.
Samantha Harris: And that's, that I think is one of the most powerful things. Honestly, this research finding for me was the aha moment in my very stolen control of my life and health that cancer gave to me. I got to take control back because I realized in that moment, in that discovery, hold on a second. [Page//00:30:00] Even if my, even if my genes are saying one thing, and granted, if I were BRCA positive and I had a 70 or 80 percent chance of a cervical cancer or breast cancer, I'm sure that I would probably undergo prophylactic surgery because that's a very big percentage of risk.
Samantha Harris: However, for the majority of others, and the 85 to 90 percent of breast cancers that are not genetic, What can we do? How can we take back our power? And what other genes are there for dementia, Alzheimer's, heart disease, type two diabetes, um, certain autoimmune disorders that are happening somewhere dormant in my body that I can choose my lifestyle changes to?
Samantha Harris: Turn on or keep off. So I wanted to keep things off as long as possible So that's why I started to systematically but in a very slow Small manageable step way, which is your healthiest healthy is really about it's not it says it doesn't [Page//00:31:00] matter if you want to be keto Or vegan or this or that it does everyone needs to move their bodies.
Samantha Harris: Everyone needs to manage stress Everyone needs to have a plant based foundation
Julie Michelson: Yes. Oh
Samantha Harris: you figure out, okay, what, how am I choosing to eat? Um, and then what works for your body? I mean, I recently, because my iron is so low, and I have the MTHFR gene that a lot of people have, so my homocysteine levels, which brings with it a lot of scary risk, is always elevated no matter how much B12 and folate I take.
Samantha Harris: And so I literally just had a conversation yesterday with a functional medicine doc who is, um, Dr. Will Cole, do you know him?
Julie Michelson: yeah. I know.
Samantha Harris: When Gwyneth Paltrow's guru and functional doc, I was on his podcast and when we got off, I said, I, I'm so sorry to do this to you, but I just want to ask, I'm sure everyone does this when they go, the camera goes off.
Samantha Harris: I just said, what do I do? What do you think I should do?
Julie Michelson: trimethylglycine. Did he say add TMG?
Samantha Harris: no, okay, [Page//00:32:00] maybe add some, um, uh, some creatine. And he said, and you know, you might need a high quality, just a small serving once or twice a week, two or maybe two or three times a week, you might need a small serving. Of organ meat or like, like now, I mean, I grew up in Minnesota
Julie Michelson: You can get, you can get grass fed, you know, capsules.
Samantha Harris: I did, I did get, um, like a, a beef stick that's grass fed and he recommends for some of his patients and some other people did as well. So I got it not for me, but for my daughter who loves hamburgers and it drives me crazy because she. Originally we said you can have it once or twice a month as long as it's grass fed.
Samantha Harris: That's out the window. She's grabbing it anywhere she can get it. Doesn't matter if it's literally mystery meat.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, so give her the good meat so she'll
Samantha Harris: she won't eat it. She goes, wait, ew, I'm not going to eat meat that's in a stick. And I go, seriously. Anyway, so, but I have it in the house now. And now I'm like, huh, I wonder if I
Julie Michelson: I wonder what my body's telling me.
Samantha Harris: But I, [Page//00:33:00] I, because I am so plant based and I have this fear because of all my research of like, okay, more animal meat can potentially lead to more higher cancer risk, but there's a lot of,
Julie Michelson: But you're a researcher, dig deeper in that research, because that animal meat is not grass fed, pastured, happy animal meat.
Samantha Harris: and that's what I, that exactly.
Julie Michelson: Those studies. Yeah.
Samantha Harris: think if I'm having it a couple times a week, maybe you're right. So, so again, here's someone who now for 10 years has been plant based whole foods, a little bit of fish. Maybe poultry a couple times a month if that if it's organic and if I can get a pasture raise Haven't touched red meat since I moved out to la even though I ate everything including tongue back in minnesota in the day and liver Although I didn't want to eat the liver.
Samantha Harris: My mom made me eat the liver Um, I don't know now apparently organ meat is good for you as long as it's
Julie Michelson: Isn't it funny? I know it is the most nutrient dense food you can get.
Samantha Harris: right I'm, like, oh, how do I down this now? It just tastes like blood to me So i'm like, I [Page//00:34:00] don't know if I can handle it. But anyway, so it's interesting We have to know that listening to our body If we have the means to be able to get proper testing, there's so much, um, I know functional doctors can be so exorbitantly expensive because insurance doesn't take it, but there's so many wonderful direct to consumer ways to also begin to manage, you know, whether it's a constant glucose monitor or it's, um, a test, there's a, you know, a company that tests your glucose, your triglycerides, and your microbiome, and they have an app that follows you, and that's, out of England and it's available in the U.
Samantha Harris: S. that I, that I've tried a few times. You know, they're the ones that tell you what your, your, uh, your biological versus chronological age is, right? There's all these different things, the sleep trackers, different ways that we can start to biohack and, and get to know what's happening. in our body so that we can take that action later.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, and it does help you. So many of us, I am definitely in this boat, especially when I was at my sickest. We get disconnected with those [Page//00:35:00] signals that probably saved your life, right? We don't hear, we're not listening. All of our symptoms, all of the things we think of as aging, it's Our body telling us information.
Julie Michelson: And so, you know, intuitive eating is a thing like paying attention and really listening, but like starting with like, what are you actually eating? Because a lot of people have, you know, we're good at fooling ourselves. And we think, Oh no, I eat all like whole real foods. Like, you know, no, that's not food. I wouldn't eat that.
Samantha Harris: And that's why I think when I work, I only work with a handful of private clients, um, at a time. But when I do, I always have them food journal. But not just write down, because I think you're always amazed when you have, when you know you have to write it down. You can also do it on a phone app or something.
Samantha Harris: Um, and you don't have to be working with a private coach to be able to do that. But if you just journal for, even if it's not an entire week or two, if they say it's three or four days of the week. weekday and one day on the weekend, you'll be amazed at what you're consuming that you may not realize you're consuming.
Samantha Harris: Even if [Page//00:36:00] it's not like I'm making my kids meal and I'm eating some mac and cheese from there that I didn't realize.
Julie Michelson: It counts. I used to joke, you know, if you eat it standing up, it doesn't, it all counts. If it's on your kid's plate. If you're eating, standing up, it all counts.
Samantha Harris: Exactly. Well, and the other thing I also encourage my, my private clients to do is to write down when you're journaling, write down how you felt before you chose to eat that maybe why like physically how you felt. And
Julie Michelson: Why? Here's that question again. Why? Why
Samantha Harris: Why, why are you going to eat that right now? What's your reasoning?
Samantha Harris: And it might be as simple as, you know what? Cause I freaking really want an ice cream cone right now. Just, I, you
Julie Michelson: But I would ask why again, because are you, you know, are you tired? Are you stressed? Are you like
Samantha Harris: you're right. Good, right. Well, and that's the thing that follow up of why always just keep why? And it might be 10 layers down of asking the why.
Julie Michelson: husband loves these conversations?
Samantha Harris: Thank you. And then also, how are you feeling 30 minutes, two hours after the meal? Are you feeling bloated? Are you feeling distended? Are you feeling brain fog?
Samantha Harris: Are you feeling lethargic? Are you feeling [Page//00:37:00] awesome? Are you feeling happy? You know, where there is, I think that also makes a difference. Um, I know too, um, I'm going to just jump subjects for a second because I want to make sure we talk about, cause we mentioned toxicity
Julie Michelson: I thank you. I was like, I'm gonna right after this because we have to get it in because it's, it's huge. It's we
Samantha Harris: and it's a big of turning on or leaving off those. Those certain signals in our body that lead to certain diseases.
Julie Michelson: So let's talk about it. Let's where you know, um, And people think, well, I'm not, you know, flat on my back, sick in bed. So I'm not, I don't, I'm not toxic. I don't have, I don't have to worry about it.
Samantha Harris: The levels of toxicity in our body that are undetectable are usually pretty high. And where, where is that toxicity coming from? It can be coming from such a myriad of places, right? It can be coming from toxic relationships. And that doesn't mean like you're in an abusive [Page//00:38:00] mentally or physically abusive relationship.
Samantha Harris: It could literally mean it's that mom you see at school pickup who every time you talk to her your shoulders are up at your ears because you're so stressed out by that woman and you have to have some boundaries. It, you know, so there's relationships that build on that toxicity. It's, you know, look, most of us are not going to move from wherever we're living because of the air we're breathing.
Samantha Harris: I live, come on, I live in the valley of LA that's covered in smog half the time. I'm not leaving LA anytime soon. So what can I do to mitigate that? What are the toxins that are in, you know, are you drinking water out of plastic bottles? I mean, I just saw on the news here in LA, this latest study that came out about the micro, um, plastics in our, in our water bottles, that they finally have a microscope that could see truly how many micro plastics were in there.
Julie Michelson: in there. Yeah. And, and then there's, you know, we think about what people will say all the time. Oh, it's BPA free. I'm like, yeah, but it has 800 other toxic chemicals in it, but the [Page//00:39:00] public knows BPA now. Right. So
Julie Michelson: we're
Samantha Harris: same thing about paraben, right? So people like, oh, we know parabens can be carcinogenic or endocrine disruptors. I'll make sure that it says paraben free on whatever I'm buying, or I'll make sure that lotion I'm buying for my body says organic. Guess what? Those are BS terms and
Julie Michelson: Or natural.
Julie Michelson: Like lead is natural. I don't want it in my lipstick. Like, it's, yeah. So let's talk about that because we already touched on, you know, this importance of mindset and whenever we start to have a conversation about toxins and health, it can seem like total Debbie Downer doom and gloom, air, water, food, you know, you
Samantha Harris: Just don't ever leave your house again.
Julie Michelson: Exactly. Except your house is toxic and your air is worse than your outdoor air.
Samantha Harris: what's in your mattress. That's one place. Furniture is one place. And my clothing. I have not, because I keep seeing these things that pop up about like my Lululemon. I'm
Julie Michelson: Oh my gosh, I know.
Samantha Harris: tell me my workout clothes.[Page//00:40:00]
Julie Michelson: so it is taking me a while and I think we kind of probably all go through this phase of we always aim for perfectionism as we learn and then we realize I can take my power back without living in a cave, right, or without locking, you know, cleaning up my house and locking myself in it for the rest of my life.
Julie Michelson: There is no bubble option. So once we redo, we all have a different tipping point. You mentioned MTHFR, right? They're, they're specific, certain genetic predispositions to being bad detoxers. I am a collector, literally like any. Anything that's bad for me that comes in contact with me, my body's like, yeah, let's hold on to that as long as we can.
Julie Michelson: So everybody has a different tipping point or, you know, you may feel amazing. I still guarantee you have a load of toxins in there. So how do you, so my approach is we reduce the burden and control what [Page//00:41:00] we can. Make your home your haven and what's going in on and around your body. And I know. We're aligned in that as far as, but where do you, where do you start?
Julie Michelson: And you travel and you're out and about all the time. So. How do you do that and stay positive?
Samantha Harris: can be crushingly overwhelming, which is why, like you said, we have to take our power back, especially the more we go along this healthy, clean living, you know, straight line, more we know. I mean, it's why my kids probably honestly hate me
Julie Michelson: Oh, I get it. But wait until they're even older and it becomes so satisfying. Like when they're like, Oh, I read that label and I could never eat that now.
Samantha Harris: hope gosh, thank
Julie Michelson: does. It happens. Mine are in their 20s. It does. It happens eventually.
Samantha Harris: yeah, at 13 and 16, it's all about Starbucks. And I'm like, I just don't even, I can't, I can't even, I, anyway. So, um,
Julie Michelson:[Page//00:42:00] But they do filter the water at Starbucks at least. Let's just
Samantha Harris: well, that's good. Oh, that's good. That's good to know. So we'll forget that, that their chai latte has 56 grams or 64.
Julie Michelson: And corn syrup and whatever. Yeah. we
Samantha Harris: Um, so beyond that, um, so, so here's the thing, as you start to go along this path and you get that feeling of overwhelm, I want to encourage you. Take your listeners to take a breath and know that any step forward is going to be beneficial, is going to help to reduce the chances of all these horrible things we've been talking about. And also to know that it's not a 180 and it can't help happen overnight. It has to be about small, manageable steps for sustainable
Julie Michelson: You sound like a coach.
Samantha Harris: Right. It's about the consistency. So if it's like anyone who goes on a crash diet, right? We always know they rebound the yo-yo bath and they get weight. You [Page//00:43:00] wanna make these sustainable changes last forever.
Samantha Harris: So like, I wouldn't even think twice now. To not take the stairs if I know I only have to go up a flight and the stairway is right there. I would not think twice about, am I going to exercise this week? No, I know I'm going to exercise, it's just a matter of which exercises will I do. And actually even that is pretty much locked in.
Samantha Harris: And every so often I change it up just, I'm always changing it up by the way. Keep your body guessing, keep your mind engaged, prevent overuse injury. So change up what you're doing for your workouts every week. Um, when it comes to, All the things that you're changing though, whether it's, like you said, in, on, and around your body, so the people around you, the chemicals, like cleaning supplies around you, on your body, your makeup, your skin care, your hair products, in your body, your food, your supplements, as you're beginning to make those changes. If you can aim for an 80 20 rule, and hey, if eventually you get to a 90 10 rule, amazing! But even if you stay at 80 20, or you're at 60 40, but you were at 50 [Page//00:44:00] 50 before, you're making that progress. And each of us, as we mentioned, are bio individuals. So, for me, I still color my hair.
Julie Michelson: just gonna ask, come on, do you have any non negotiables,
Samantha Harris: you see, look at there.
Samantha Harris: I'm leaning forward to show you my hair. But, but here's what I do. I mitigate. So as much as I, I mean, my kids will be like, Mom, could you please go color your hair? You are so gray.
Julie Michelson: You're horrifying.
Samantha Harris: Oh, I'm horrified. How embarrassing, right?
Julie Michelson: job.
Samantha Harris: Um,
Julie Michelson: Embarrass the kids.
Samantha Harris: what I do is I go as long as possible between salon visits. I have a formaldehyde free and free of a couple of the other most harmful chemicals that I get from like whole foods that I do at home.
Samantha Harris: to just cover the grays a little bit and lengthen the time between salon visits. Does it look as good as it does when I go to the salon? No, of course not. I don't have any highlights. It's one step color. I pop it onto my, you [Page//00:45:00] know, my part and I sit for 20 minutes and whatever, but there are ways to also mitigate that.
Samantha Harris: Um, so there are, you know, I still have. Ice cream from the local shop down the street because it's fun to go out for ice cream night with right? I love sushi. I know my mercury And I'm again, we talk about what our bodies do. My body does, it holds onto those toxins. It does not want to get rid of that mercury.
Samantha Harris: So when I test my mercury every quarter, it's usually a little high. Well, even if I only have sushi once a week. So what do I do? Well, I infrared sauna to get the toxins out. Sometimes I'll do a charcoal binder or something else with the sauna. I obviously exercise to sweat and get the toxins out. So there are other things I do to try to mitigate that a little bit.
Samantha Harris: So we,
Julie Michelson: have some chlorella when you have your sushi.
Samantha Harris: oh, you know, I just started. And I have no, no connection to this company, but I want to interview actually that I'm going to be interviewing the owner of it. Um, energy bits
Julie Michelson: Yeah, love [Page//00:46:00] them.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Samantha Harris: I just finally discovered them. So they're Chlorella and they're spirulina and they're tablets and they're, and I love it.
Samantha Harris: They said, these are not supplements. These are actually just food that's been compressed down into little tablets. So you can chew. They're not tasty, but you could chew them. You can
Julie Michelson: you can, you can form a fondness for them.
Samantha Harris: throw them into my smoothies, you know, so it's just easy to have adding another again, just leveling up.
Samantha Harris: Um, if anyone who's listening wants to, cause again, I, I spent my life of a career on TV in a makeup chair
Julie Michelson: Yes.
Samantha Harris: with. Hair and makeup that could last 12 hours under hot lights without moving, you know, an inch. And so, my last show that I shot, it's a, it's still on TV, it airs every weekday on Game Show Network.
Samantha Harris: It's called Tug of Words. It's a fun, if you like Wordle or game, you know, fast word play chain. So Tug of Words. But when we shot Tug of Words, we shot 65 episodes [Page//00:47:00] in three weeks. Six shows a
Julie Michelson: Wow.
Samantha Harris: fast, furious, 12 hours a day. My hair and makeup girls are really good friends of mine. And I said, you girls, we're going to go into this show.
Samantha Harris: I don't want anything that doesn't pass the Samantha test for ingredients for my hair and makeup. Do you think we could, do you think like, I challenged them because they're used to working
Julie Michelson: Sure. They have their products and those are not clean.
Samantha Harris: No, I mean, every big brand
Julie Michelson: Sure.
Samantha Harris: pretty much is toxic. And so, you know, all the big conglomerates now they're starting to buy up the small mom and pop shops that are clean because they're realizing thankfully with our consumer dollars, we can demand we need clean products and not.
Samantha Harris: greenwashed or pink washed. Yes, we want the real stuff that's free from the over, you know, from all the chemicals that are banned in Europe, the
Julie Michelson: just start there. Like that would be,
Samantha Harris: We just go to, hey, maybe it looks harder a plane. We'll just go to Europe and we'll just shop
Julie Michelson: just shop there.
Samantha Harris: yeah, that'd be nice. [Page//00:48:00] So instead, right, we can, um, so I have, so basically what I did is I vetted, we had a ton of different brands that we either bought or had send to us at the show, hair and makeup, and we tried so many different brands.
Samantha Harris: So I put together a list of the brands that I, I liked the most, but that worked and lasted because it doesn't matter if you're shooting a TV show for 12 hour days, or you're getting ready early in the morning, going to work, going to a You know, or a school function. We all need stuff that works and lasts and that we enjoy and we enjoy putting on our bodies.
Samantha Harris: That's part of the fun of beauty, right? So if anyone wants my vetted list, just send me
Julie Michelson: it. I'm telling you right now. Everybody wants it.
Samantha Harris: put together a little PDF and you guys I'm on Instagram and Facebook the most actively Samantha Harris TV like television. So Samantha Harris TV, just send me a DM that just says clean beauty. And I will send it to you because I love sharing it.
Samantha Harris: I think it's so important to be able to [Page//00:49:00] just
Julie Michelson: it's so helpful, um, to have, to, you know, you curated this amazing, because that's an upper. Level, you know, I, I like to help people, you know, give them areas of like, okay, you know, you could use the WG. You can use the, you know, all there are getting there more and more. Um, not that none of them are perfect.
Julie Michelson: Products change is another problem. You buy a clean product and they all of a sudden they've changed the ingredients again. So we have to, we have to take our, but to have a list like that, oh my gosh, what an amazing gift
Samantha Harris: And I actually, I even put on it some of my favorite cleaning supplies that are clean. I mean, we can all DIY cleaning, like distilled white vinegar. A baking soda are awesome and they clean a lot of great things. But if you don't feel like DIYing it, I have a list of some clean cleaning products as well as anti aging skin care that's EWG verified and really clean and but also has the [Page//00:50:00] clinical trials.
Samantha Harris: And all the science behind it, because I also want the proof. I want to know that, especially if they're using something that's anti, I mean, makeup. There's no, we don't need clinical trials.
Julie Michelson: Right.
Samantha Harris: need, um, but first when it comes to anti aging products, we do need trials and we need companies that stand behind their word.
Samantha Harris: And they're not going to get bought out by a big corporation that's going to change the ingredients. And so anyway, I put all that on there too. Just DM me, send me a message, or if you don't know how to DM, because I know some people say, I don't know, just set a, put a comment in any post of mine that says clean beauty.
Samantha Harris: If I didn't get back to you fast enough, put in another comment. I promise I'll get it.
Julie Michelson: that. And your, your feed is amazing. There's such gold in there. And I don't know that a lot of people realize you did mention, but you know, you, you work with clients, you have amazing groups and retreats and opportunities for people to work with you directly.
Samantha Harris: It's one of my favorite, you know, I think social media [Page//00:51:00] is a blessing and a curse for anybody, right? We can get dragged down and that's why we do a social media detox, you guys. talk about toxins in your body, anyone you're following that you get stressed out watching their feed because you don't think you're keeping up with them or you're doing well enough or you're just
Julie Michelson: Unfollow. Yep.
Samantha Harris: Exactly. Um, but I, what I love about it is I have been able to connect with so many women. First of all, every breast cancer survivor who's ever DM me. And by the way, if you're listening, and for some reason I didn't get back to you, then somehow I missed it because I get back to. Literally every single person, um, and it's probably because I'm not getting hundreds of thousands of them a day.
Samantha Harris: If that ever happens, it might be a little more challenging. But right now, it's manageable. So, um, but I love that I've been able to connect, whether it's just answering a question or two here and there, or people who join me at one of my retreats. I lead one in Utah every year. I have one in Santa Monica every year.
Samantha Harris: Uh, I just got back from Canyon Ranch where I was, um, doing a wonderful, fun program there. So, uh, I love doing These retreats but then [Page//00:52:00] for those who want something more from me and more access to me on a regular basis I have a private membership community because I really only take a couple of private clients on at a time And so I wanted to be able to reach more people.
Samantha Harris: So every week in my your healthiest healthy community it's a Live coaching session a live guest expert and either a live or pre recorded workout that I teach And and the guest experts have been Phenomenal. I know I mentioned Dan Buechner from the Blue Zones and we've had, you know, Joel, these names might mean something to your listeners and they might not mean anything, but, uh, David Perlmutter, uh, from the Green Brain, Dr.
Samantha Harris: Neil Barnard from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Um, we've had Joel Fuhrman multiple times from, you know, Eat to Live. Um, so many really phenomenal. phenomenal experts that come in, Dr. William Lee and Dr. Elizabeth Bowman. Anyway, the list goes on, but really great people. Will Bulsiewicz, if you guys know, um, gut, gut, he's all about the gut health [Page//00:53:00] doctor.
Samantha Harris: He's fantastic. So what's nice about it is that these experts come in and spend time. We do about a half hour together. And in real time you have access to them to ask questions and I'm asking questions the whole time and then everything lives in a recording. So if you miss it, you know, you don't really actually miss it.
Samantha Harris: Um, but I just, I love that, but for people who just want, you know, like, you know what, I don't want to invest in my health financially. I just want to kind of grab it when I can get it. I want to encourage you to invest in your health, whether it's with me or with Julie or with someone else, because.
Samantha Harris: investing in your health now is going to save you a lot of money and a longer life later. But, um, I offer free challenge groups like a five day hydration or eat the rainbow challenge. I'm doing a 21 day whole overhaul, whole health overhaul right now. So lots of fun opportunities, uh, for that as well. So I, I love it and I'm doing the TV thing, but really the health and wellness certified health coach life passion into purpose is probably 90 percent of the time of my career now.
Julie Michelson: Which is amazing. And, and although everybody loves [Page//00:54:00] seeing you on TV as well.
Samantha Harris: I do love it.
Julie Michelson: just, just if you want to see her like check out her feed. It's amazing. You give so much gold. And like you said, whether it's joining the free challenges, joining the group coaching, you know, the community. Going to an amazing retreat.
Julie Michelson: I know where some of your retreats are. They're some of my favorite resorts. Um, you know, or working one on one if you're that person that's like, no, I actually want her to, to, to be my person. Then I, I can't suggest and strongly enough, you guys reach out.
Samantha Harris: Thank you. Thank you. Well, it goes right back to you. And if people are listening and they're not working with you, they need to reach out to you and make sure they're following and getting
Julie Michelson: thank you. As you said, find somebody, right? Whoever it is that resonates. But you know, our, our health is our greatest wealth. And so there is not necessarily time later to address it. So, so do it now. So here's the, [Page//00:55:00] before we go, you've already given us so much, but what is one thing we can do today? If listeners can do just starting immediately to improve their health.
Samantha Harris: Flip your plate. So what I mean by that is fill your plate at least half full of veggies at every meal every meal. So that's
Julie Michelson: I get that all the time.
Samantha Harris: Right. And well, that's one of the reasons why I switched from having you know Back when I ate 21 out of 21 meals a week of animal protein and my breakfast either yogurt or eggs That's why or or see or gosh surely Cereal that I thought
Julie Michelson: I know.
Samantha Harris: I would use milk and whey protein in the milk to get extra protein.
Samantha Harris: So I was getting extra milk and I don't think any of it was even organic and it was definitely not grass fed. Um, but that's why I switched to having a smoothie every day. I can pack so many greens and Chia and flax and all these plant based things and [Page//00:56:00] matcha and the chlorella and the spirulina But all these things into it that I wouldn't necessarily eat throughout the day But it is so packed with nutrient density that it curbs cravings.
Samantha Harris: It satiates me It gives me the energy I need to keep going and I don't get the brain fog I don't get the low energy dips at three o'clock in the afternoon I don't want to fall asleep at eight o'clock at night when, well, my kids are going to bed later now, but when I was putting them to bed at eight o'clock, and so it's really quite amazing.
Samantha Harris: And I, and I've also vetted a lot of different protein powders. So if you want my picks on that, let me know because I, I think it's very, there's a lot on the market and it's very confusing.
Julie Michelson: there's a lot of junk and a lot of it is so bad. Read your labels, people. Turn it around. Step one.
Samantha Harris: one piece of advice, flip that plate,
Julie Michelson: I love it. I love it. Well, I already kept you over time, so I'm going to give you the rest of your day back. I cannot thank you enough for everything that you shared and for taking the time [Page//00:57:00] to come on with us.
Julie Michelson: I so appreciate the gold you've given us.
Samantha Harris: Thank you, Julie. I really appreciate the opportunity to share and get to hopefully know some of your listeners over there on social media.
Julie Michelson: For everyone listening, remember you can get the transcripts and show notes by visiting inspiredliving. show. I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week. [Page//00:58:00]
Julie Michelson: From hosting from every Major Hollywood award show, red Carpet to starring on Broadway in the musical Chicago she's been a [Page//00:01:00] fixture in the entertainment world. She's currently the host of the World Word Play Game, tug of words on the Game Show Network. But at age 40, this wife and mom received a shocking diagnosis. breast cancer. Rising from that challenge, she became a breast cancer thriver, certified health coach and trainer, and the author of the best selling book, Your Healthiest Healthy, eight easy ways to take control, help prevent and fight cancer, and live a longer, cleaner, happier life.
Julie Michelson: And in today's conversation, Samantha shares her healing journey with us, and we dive into the power of mindset and stress management, movement, nutrition, and reducing toxic burden to live your healthiest healthy. Samantha, welcome to the podcast.
Samantha Harris: Thanks, Julie, for having me on. I really love the insight that you share with your listeners and I'm happy to be part of it.
Julie Michelson: Well, we are so excited [Page//00:02:00] to have you share your, your story is so impactful and, and pretty much most people that come on, you know, most of us aren't in this realm because we felt healthy and happy our whole lives, right?
Samantha Harris: Very good point.
Julie Michelson: Cause even all the doctors I interview, you know, had their turning point or they, they needed to go beyond medical school training.
Samantha Harris: Sure.
Julie Michelson: So I would love for you, I'm sure most listeners are familiar because you are so amazingly open about your story, but I would love for you to just share your journey of, um, it's not every day I get to interview, you know, TV star. So how come you're talking to me today?
Samantha Harris: I love this. This is so fun. It's the, you know, I'm usually the one doing the interviews, so it's really fun to have the tables turned. Uh, you know, so here I was, you know, on the top of my game with Dancing With the Stars and Entertainment Tonight, and a stint on Broadway and Good Morning America as a special correspondent, and I was a new mom and my [Page//00:03:00] daughters were three and six and life just.
Samantha Harris: Awesome. I mean, this Minnesota girl who had dreams of being in Hollywood was achieving all these things that I really, really, really worked hard for, for a long time. And I also thought I was super fit and healthy. And I was like, quote unquote, that healthy one among my friends. They would make fun of me.
Samantha Harris: My own sister would make fun of me for all of my egg white omelets and cheeseless pizzas and my skinless boneless chicken breasts and all of a sudden, then all of a sudden. Healthiest among all the friends and family girl got a breast cancer diagnosis. And it wasn't like, Hey, here's your breast cancer diagnosis.
Samantha Harris: Uh, it was. Months of chasing down something I didn't think was there, but wanted to be sure of. So I had a clear mammogram. I was about to turn 40. My dad, I lost him to colon cancer when he was 50. Um, and I just turned 50 and I realized I've got a lot of life to live.
Julie Michelson:[Page//00:04:00] Yes.
Samantha Harris: I'm so sad. Almost, in some ways, I'm sadder now than I was at 22 when he was taken from me.
Samantha Harris: Because I realize how young 50 is. I realize how much more life he had. And he was our everything. This magical, amazing, just dynamic personality. And so, but he had, we'd lost him. His mom was a breast cancer survivor, lived to 95 post menopausal. So no connection to mine because mine was pre menopausal, uh, post menopausal.
Samantha Harris: So she had a very nice long life, but I thought, you know, cancer's in my family. I should set a baseline and get this mammogram thing I keep hearing about. So there I was, I got the mammogram, the results came back clear. Cause I was fit and healthy and I was, you know, just the rock star on the cover of all these fitness magazines.
Samantha Harris: And so of course I was going to have a clear mammogram
Julie Michelson: As expected.
Samantha Harris: as expected. Right. And so I was [Page//00:05:00] changing after a workout 11 days. After my mammogram, 11 days, and you know, those, those sports bras are tight, you know, you gotta move the girls to the left, you gotta move the girls to the right, you gotta shift the ground a little bit, get them back to like life, breathe the life back into them, and I'm feeling around, not doing a clinical breast exam on myself.
Samantha Harris: I'm just moving the girls around and all of a sudden I'm just living, you know, like after breastfeeding, you know, two kids, I was not afraid to touch my own body. So here I was manhandling my breasts and, uh, and I found this lump and I thought, that's so weird. I just had a clear mammogram. Why is there a lump here?
Samantha Harris: I'm sure it's no big deal. I had a clear mammogram, but you know what? I, I could have stuck my head in the sand, but I didn't. Thank goodness. I called my OBGYN. She was always my most trusted doctor. She was very no nonsense, non alarmist. She was the [Page//00:06:00] doctor, not my primary care. She was the doctor I called when I needed a ref for a referral to some other type of
Julie Michelson: Festive term.
Samantha Harris: I trusted her. She delivered both my kids, right? She knew me before I'd ever had sex, and then she knew me after I finally had sex for the first time. She's like, it's about time! You're in mid twenties! Um, anyway, is that TMI? I'm really, I'm, I told you I'm an
Julie Michelson: No, I love it because yes.
Samantha Harris: just,
Julie Michelson: think it should be like a tagline. I have a daughter, you have daughters. I think we need to have conversations that there are healthy choices of waiting to have sex too. Like things have changed.
Samantha Harris: gosh,
Julie Michelson: I think so. yeah,
Samantha Harris: I mean, look, at least there's the HPV vaccine right now, you know, for kids, but then, you know, so cervical cancer is less of a worry, but, um, you know, I'm grateful. I, anyway, that's a whole topic, a topic for another time in terms of
Julie Michelson: Yep. That's another well come back, we'll talk all
Julie Michelson: about it.
Samantha Harris: Let's talk all about having sex, um, when you're older and not when you're a
Julie Michelson: how [Page//00:07:00] great it could be
Samantha Harris: Yeah, exactly. You just know you're anyway. So anyway, so I went to see this, this OB GYN. She told me after a quick feel, the lump is nothing sent me on my way a month later, lump still there. Saw my internist said to my internist, check this out. He did a clinical exam, said it was nothing. So four months had passed.
Samantha Harris: The lump was still there. It was just gnawing on me that this, it wasn't painful. But it was there. So I had this nagging inner voice. And this inner voice now, it was quiet and whispering before. That's why I went to see the other doctors. Now it's shouting at me. It's saying, Samantha, if you're going to live with this quote, nothing lump for the rest of your life, don't you think you might want to know what's inside instead of just feeling it?
Samantha Harris: Like, how do they, how do they know? Are they that on? They have these superpower hands that can feel and That would be awesome. Could we please implant
Julie Michelson: would be great.
Samantha Harris: of our doctors, some sort of chip that they could just [Page//00:08:00] feel from the outside. They know what was happening inside. No diagnostics necessary.
Julie Michelson: But you know your body, right? Like you knew this didn't used to be there and now it's there and it doesn't belong there. So what is it?
Samantha Harris: exactly. And that's when I said, okay, I need to see a doctor who looks at breasts every day as a specialty. I didn't realize When I was seeking that type of doctor out, that the only doctor that does that is an oncologist who specializes in breast cancer, but there I was now finally with this oncologist, she also, she's like, Samantha, you're not crazy.
Samantha Harris: There is, I do see, I feel something, I see something on the ultrasound. I don't think it's cancer, but let's do a needle biopsy. Let's do an MRI. Julie, when I tell you not one diagnostic test showed it was cancer. And I've heard this story now being a, you know, 2014 was when I was diagnosed. So, I've now had many years of speaking to other survivors, and I hear this [Page//00:09:00] story all the time.
Samantha Harris: So, how did I then get diagnosed with breast cancer? Well, this oncol uh, oncologist said, you know, good news, bad news, it's not cancer, but I don't know what it is, so let's take it out. So I had a lumpectomy.
Julie Michelson: Thank
Samantha Harris: Took it out, woke up from that surgery, still told rough sections of that pathology in the room, said it's not cancer.
Samantha Harris: Good news. So a week later when I went back for my final pathology results, I told my husband, babe, you don't need to go. It was a gorgeous day. He loves to golf. Honey, no guilt, go golf. You don't have to
Julie Michelson: Because I'm fine. They've already told me I'm fine. This is formality.
Samantha Harris: Exactly. Exactly. And then I sat by myself as I barked. Ductal carcinoma in situ, and then the word invasive, and then I, it was just this barrage of cancer information that I did not expect. And it [Page//00:10:00] was in that moment that my cancer journey began. It was in that moment that I had to pivot everything in my life in ways I didn't intend to, plan to, pussy coming.
Samantha Harris: Um, but I also. After about three weeks of being so crushed under the weight and anxiety and overwhelm and hysteria of a diagnosis having lost my dad to cancer, having really, I mean, I at least got to graduate college because my parents were in their early 20s when they had my sister and me. So I got to grow up with my dad.
Julie Michelson: Right.
Julie Michelson: But you have babies.
Samantha Harris: babies. I mean, so the worry and the scare. scared feelings I had. Oh, Julie, it just, it felt so awful. And I, I just knew, well, I didn't know I had to come to a realization that I couldn't keep feeling that way because I didn't [Page//00:11:00] know how much longer this journey was going to take. Was it going to be the rest of my possibly short life?
Samantha Harris: Was it going to be a long journey? Uh, what was to come? What kind of treatments, what kind of surgeries? So I, after three weeks of Seeing every doctor known to man with second, third opinions with my, by the way, my husband at every single
Julie Michelson: sure.
Samantha Harris: He didn't miss another appointment. He was so crushed.
Julie Michelson: for you this
Julie Michelson: year.
Samantha Harris: exactly. Exactly. Um, uh, he, he was there and we got all these different opinions and, you know, I realized I needed to shift my perspective. And I think that was the first step in where I thought I was living a healthy life. I realized I needed to become my healthiest healthy. And one, the first step of that was realizing we have to be able to shift our perspective and turn negative self talk And overwhelm into positive self talk.
Samantha Harris: I didn't know, by the way, those words were nothing. I didn't know what those words [Page//00:12:00] meant. I also, when
Julie Michelson: Your book didn't just pop right out of you in that moment.
Samantha Harris: did not. I did not realize that those were words that I didn't even come up with that were out there, but I somehow figured. But I said to myself, I can't feel like this. I have to turn my perspective around.
Samantha Harris: And I started to have that positive self talk and I said, okay, what in the situation of cancer diagnosis is good. And I started to look at things and this is where your listeners, no matter what is coming at them, what is being pelted from left and right, if it's a career, a relationship, a health issue, a disappointment.
Samantha Harris: A death, a loss, when we can flip our perspective, and it is really hard sometimes to find the good and the positive, and I'm not saying put on rose colored glasses and look at everything as rainbows and unicorns, but where is the gratitude, where is the gratefulness that we can tap into? So I tapped into, okay, I mean, otherwise, I am in really good shape and health.
Samantha Harris: That's going to mitigate any complications in surgery. It's going to get me [Page//00:13:00] back on my feet faster to recover after surgery. It's going to, as long as I keep up with my exercise and all the other shifts that I eventually end up doing, um, it's going to help reduce chance of recurrence. Maybe all the things I was doing, even though I revamped most of them and added a lot of new good elements to live my healthiest, healthy life, the things I was doing to be the one that my friends could make fun of, maybe helped that cancer grow a lot more slowly than it would have.
Julie Michelson: Yeah,
Samantha Harris: when I started to think that way, It was a game changer.
Julie Michelson: absolutely. Absolutely. I love, I love that. And I love that you're, you started your journey that way. When I was first coaching for the first few years, like mindset was always included and important. And then finally I woke up one day and I was like, Oh my God, you're doing it wrong. You have to start there and then everything else becomes [Page//00:14:00] easier and exponential. Hello. You know, I should, you know, call my clients from seven years ago. Like, sorry,
Samantha Harris: I'm sorry.
Julie Michelson: I mean, we did work on stuff, but it's like, now it's like, no, we're front loading that. And so I love that you just into again, intuitively, right. Your intuition told you get this lump checked. Your intuition told you, wait a minute.
Julie Michelson: I can't stay in this stuck, anxious, sad, scared. Place need to shift even if it wasn't conscious like you just knew Luckily, that wasn't your comfort zone,
Julie Michelson: right.
Samantha Harris: And, and the fact that you, you know, the mindfulness is also something I didn't even know was a term or existed or I didn't understand the importance of it or the depth with which we should be mindful. And there are plenty of times even this far out in my new healthiest, healthy life that I have to remind myself consciously to be mindful or remind myself when something is happening, um, that is scary.
Samantha Harris: I mean, I was [Page//00:15:00] back in the doctor's office and having MRIs and ultrasounds in the last few months because I found. Lumps, one little lump in the same location as my initial cancer. And of course that's your mind goes to, Oh my God, it's back. And by the way, guys, I'm very confident that I am absolutely healthy.
Samantha Harris: There is no more cancer, but our breasts like to create lumps and there are fatty deposits that start to accumulate. But I thought, Oh gosh, I went off my hormone blocker after seven and a half years, maybe I went off too early. What right? So our mind started to, so all of a sudden. The anxiety engine starts going again, and I talk about this in my book and about how you have to throw a wrench in the anxiety engine to stop that downward spiral that happens so fast and wants to suck you down with all its might.
Samantha Harris: Right.
Julie Michelson: I had this conversation this morning that he it's like just across the board humans tend to lower their stress [Page//00:16:00] management routine when they're extra stress. Like it, there's a trick. It's that anxiety loop that all of a sudden it's, we're not doing our breathing. We're not being mindful.
Julie Michelson: We're not, whatever our tools are that work for us day to day when we need to up level. And so that's such a great reminder. It does. We're I don't know about you. I actually do know about you. We're never done. Right? Like what healthy is today isn't going to be 10 years from now. What your routine looks like.
Julie Michelson: We're always shifting and growing. God willing.
Samantha Harris: As we should be.
Julie Michelson: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I, but I love that you shared that because none of us are perfect. Nobody has this down.
Samantha Harris: think too, something that's important to point out, scientifically, we know from research that we as humans are actually wired to go to the negative. We are wired. To get pulled in so easily, we, it's, it's kind of like we say when we're in the middle of a stressful [Page//00:17:00] environment or we're sad if we just Choose to smile because our face wants to dip down.
Samantha Harris: We want to go into that frown. We want to go into that hole. We want to curl up with the bonbons on the bed. But if you literally just make yourself physically turn the cheeks up and smile, your mood starts to lift. If we make ourselves. Our body wants to preserve energy. So it doesn't want to get up and move.
Samantha Harris: It wants to just sit on the couch. And when you are exhausted after a long day of work, and the last thing you could possibly think to want to do is to go for a walk around your neighborhood. I, this happened last night. My dog had been, I'd been on zoom, back to back zooms. All day. My dog had been curled up because it's for, I mean, it's LA, it's not cold, but it was like 37 when we woke up, woke up
Julie Michelson: sold for L. A.
Samantha Harris: it's cool for LA.
Samantha Harris: So our dog, and he's a golden doodle. He's got a lot of fur. He was chilly. He's curled up like a cute little ball all day long. So I come home after I, all my zooms back to back while he was curled up, then I [Page//00:18:00] had to run and do carpool for the kids. I get back home, it's dusk, and I see that my dog. He's been in the house all day and I said, you know what, we're going to, I did not want to, I wanted to come in.
Samantha Harris: It was cold. I wanted to come in. I said, we're going to go for a walk and we're just going to walk down the block. But I chose to put my tennis shoes on and take off my comfy slides, my little Ugg slides, because I thought, you know, there is a chance, there's a chance that this walk down the block goes longer.
Samantha Harris: We walked for 50 minutes.
Julie Michelson: I love it. I love it.
Samantha Harris: pitch black when we came back, but you know, and it wasn't a power walk. It was a stroll. We did maybe two and a half miles in 50 minutes. It's very slow. I did answer a lot of DMs on my, on my Instagram. I will be honest, but we moved. So our body is wired to the negative. Our body is wired to not want to move, but it lifts our mood.
Samantha Harris: When we move, it makes us happier, more productive. The brain fog goes away. We sleep better. We make better choices with our eating. So, In guiding others to become their healthiest healthy, that's why the book [Page//00:19:00] is called your healthiest healthy, right? It's not a diatribe. It's not getting on a soapbox Like a lot of the I feel like the gurus who i've read and I love Kind of say this is the one way to do it But as you and I were talking off air before we started recording We are all such bio individuals, and I went back to school after my, all my television career, I, after my cancer battle, I went back to school, I became a certified health coach, I've actually been a certified trainer for years, I used to teach group fitness while I was juggling three jobs to pay my rent while I was pounding the pavement auditioning in LA, and um, uh, and I've kept up my certification, so, but my, the point is that we are all, so different and we have to figure out what works well for each of us.
Samantha Harris: There are some through lines that,
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Samantha Harris: you said, like no one really wants to have gluten. 70 percent of people are actually lactose intolerant. So those are two areas of food that could be reduced for most people.
Julie Michelson: And everybody should get up and move whatever that looks like for you. [Page//00:20:00] Sitting on the couch all day eating bonbons is never anybody's ideal healthy plan.
Samantha Harris: Right, exactly. It feels great. I mean, I would love to just, you know, Netflix and binge all the time, but Man, you know what? I'd probably be a
Julie Michelson: No, you wouldn't. You would, you would be so stressed out.
Samantha Harris: Okay, you do know me, Julie.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, I, I get it.
Samantha Harris: Yeah, exactly. So, I, um, so it's, it's interesting the changes that we, um, we also can have the power to change in ways we don't necessarily realize.
Samantha Harris: You know, I, like I said, I thought I was eating right. I was, I was exercising regularly. And in, at Entertainment Tonight, you know, I had a very busy TV schedule and Um, we only had about an hour of a break in the middle of the day when we would shoot, sometimes from 4. 30 to 5 a. m. And we'd shoot all morning, and then there was this little break where we would feed the, the show up to the satellite.
Samantha Harris: And, literally, that was the only time no one could get me to do anything because There was nothing to do because it was feeding and [Page//00:21:00] after it was done feeding, we would do reshoots because, you know, of course some celebrity updated their story or we had to make a, you know, a tweak on something. So we'd reshoot things before the evening satellite feed that would go out to the rest of the country.
Samantha Harris: Cause it was a syndicated show. And so on that hour break. I would do the stairs in the parking garage. I would do yoga in my dressing room. I would walk the studio lot. I would do something to move. So I was always moving my body, but the, but the reasons I was moving my body, right? You talked about mind prompt.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Samantha Harris: Very different, right? It was extrinsic. It was all about how do I look standing next to my dancing with the stars, pro dancers with these amazing sculpted bodies. How do I look while I'm on the red carpet in a gown? Um,
Julie Michelson: answer is stunning to all of them.
Samantha Harris: love it.
Julie Michelson: But you, you bring up, actually, I, I want to circle back because we, we veered off before you finished that
Samantha Harris: Yeah, I veered. I never veered.
Julie Michelson: the beginning part of your journey, [Page//00:22:00] right? It didn't just end with a cancer diagnosis.
Samantha Harris: It did not end right, right. It did not end with a cancer diagnosis and then overnight everything became my healthiest healthy. No, it was definitely a journey. So
Julie Michelson: You went through,
Samantha Harris: had three, so I had three surgeries in 2014. Um, the last two surgeries, which were a double mastectomy and a second stage reconstruction surgery required three weeks of being in bed, um, where I could only get up for 20 minutes every two hours.
Samantha Harris: That was per my surgeon's orders. Um, and so for someone who is a full of energy, go, go, go, get your exercise in, run circles around my husband, my kids, you know, and, and they were little. So if I could run circles around a three year old, you know, I had a lot of energy. So that was psychologically incredibly challenging.
Julie Michelson: it had to be, I mean, here, you just were talking about, look, you're make your living in front of the camera, looking stunning, being fantastic. And then all of a sudden, [Page//00:23:00] huge body change.
Samantha Harris: huge body change, huge, huge mindset change, huge range of motion change. I mean, after breast surgery, you know, you, I mean, I had, I had 11 lymph nodes out from my right armpit. So I had zero started with zero range of motion. Um, and so it took months of PT and getting my full rhyming. I'm so grateful. I can, you know, do yoga and reach high up to the sky.
Samantha Harris: Now, now I just have to deal with the rest of my body starting to break down where I have like now a degenerative, actually a disc that's practically not there in my back anymore. So fun stuff like that, but I'm happy to be at 50 and I will take these all in stride and figure out how to move around them, you know?
Julie Michelson: Yeah. I get it. I didn't think I would live to see 50. My dad had passed at 54. And so same, you know, similar history with the, we look, the kids are great motivators and the, the dog. Are great motivators for different reasons. And, and we know how precious life is right. And what we want to be here for fully, not just, you know, [Page//00:24:00] rotting in a chair, but like actually living.
Samantha Harris: Right. I mean, you know, every time I interview Dan Buettner, who is known for the Blue Zones, if anyone's heard of the Blue Zones, right, it's the five areas. Well, now there are more because he's extended other areas of the world that are the most, uh, longest lived people. And what we, you know, what I love about the Blue Zones is that these people who are living past 100, they're not just, it's not about lifespan.
Samantha Harris: It's about health span and that they have lived to age 100 plus. able bodied sound of mind, they're all hoeing in the field and they're
Julie Michelson: Oh yeah.
Samantha Harris: their groceries from the market up 20, 000 steps to the top of Sardinia's, you know, peaks and,
Julie Michelson: Gathering with
Samantha Harris: that's what we
Julie Michelson: and community and yeah,
Samantha Harris: I think what you're speaking to, Julie, is that we want to, and I'm sure your listeners are, they're listening, not just because many of them are dealing with autoimmune disorders and other health issues and learning how to get the toxicity out of their body to live longer, but that our goal, I think, Anyone who's listening to [Page//00:25:00] things we talk about, they all are on the same game plan, like, let's get to that hundred and be that one who's, like, running, you know, running down the street on that morning jog.
Julie Michelson: right. Absolutely. Absolutely. So obviously total reframe, right? Because you started your journey and I keep coming back to because to me it is the most important. You know, all I do and all you do is help people take their power back, right? We all grew up in a way where we gave our power over to the all knowing doctors.
Julie Michelson: I love doctors. The love of my life is a doctor. I'm, you know, nobody becomes a doctor, you know, for bad reasons.
Samantha Harris: Right.
Julie Michelson: Um, it's just. And if I need surgery, I'm going to a Western trained doctor. Handstand, question, like, I'm not getting acupuncture if I need emergency surgery, like,
Julie Michelson: you know.
Samantha Harris: for my coaches.
Julie Michelson: Yes, yes. But when it comes to chronic health conditions, [Page//00:26:00] lifestyle conditions, cancer, autoimmunity, dementia, diabetes, fill in the blank, like, and, and, and, all the things that are, the numbers are exponential now.
Julie Michelson: You know, the, we have other options and, and you're to me, like you're the most beautiful message is, you know, be your own advocate. You knew your body. And even if it was a soft voice, like you heard the voice of like, Hmm, well then what is it? You know, why is it here? And so if you hadn't listened, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation today.
Samantha Harris: Which is what's so scary.
Julie Michelson: it is.
Samantha Harris: I don't know if it was the journalist in me who just asks
Julie Michelson: Why? Why?
Samantha Harris: 000 different questions. My poor husband, he, you know, I mean, I, he, he'll ask the simplest question or
Julie Michelson: It's a 20 minutes later.
Samantha Harris: Yes. And I'm still asking questions and I'm interrupting all the time because I'm afraid I'm going to [Page//00:27:00] forget my question, which is why we have gone a lot of left
Julie Michelson: Uh huh. Well, that's, that's But that's, see, that's what functional medicine asks the question, why? Right? Like, yes. Okay. Get the cancer out of your body. But then, I'm guessing your oncologist didn't sit you down and say Hey, Samantha, why do you think you got cancer?
Samantha Harris: no, not at all. No. And, you know, and I mean, specifically, I remember asking my oncologist point blank. So I keep hearing does sugar feed cancer. So does it? And my oncologist looking me just straight. Absolutely not. Don't worry about that has nothing to do with it. And studies have not been. You know, strong enough to talk about that.
Samantha Harris: So it's, and this, by the way, I mean, this is the man who wrote the forward to my book. He's incredible. He is the father of her septum, which has been a life changer for many, her two negative patients. Um, he is a clinical, I mean, he's in clinical, all he's amazing, but the, the challenge is the nutrition portion of any, as I'm [Page//00:28:00] sure your husband has to share, you know, share with any doctor in Western medicine, is I think they get a week if that, you
Julie Michelson: Oh, I think it's like three hours
Julie Michelson: or a day. Like I don't even think it's a week. And if it's, if it's what I, you know, if it's at least what it used to be, it's all backwards and wrong and you know, it's
Samantha Harris: nutrition science. I mean, we think about nutrition science is changing so rapidly. Literally what we learned last week could be completely different from what comes out next week, which is why. There's so much confusion, right? What should, you know, you mentioned off camera that you've done the keto thing, and then the people I know who had breast cancer had done macrobiotic, and then there'd be people who've done, you know, there's so many different schools of thought on nutrition, and so, it, it, it's paralyzing to think, well, what should I do?
Samantha Harris: I, I, okay, I'm just not going to make any changes because I'm getting too much conflicting information. So, um, I, the reason I dove in [Page//00:29:00] headfirst into research After my diagnosis was because I learned that of the one in eight women who will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in her lifetime Only five to ten percent are genetic and when I learned that mine despite my dad and his mom's cancers Mine was not genetic and I've had even a follow up panel with a hundred and I think eighty different genetic tests
Julie Michelson: They keep identifying more genes and
Samantha Harris: so is It possible maybe in another 40 years that there'll be some random little gene, but there are
Julie Michelson: But even if you had the gene,
Julie Michelson: you had to, you had to turn it on.
Samantha Harris: And that's, that I think is one of the most powerful things. Honestly, this research finding for me was the aha moment in my very stolen control of my life and health that cancer gave to me. I got to take control back because I realized in that moment, in that discovery, hold on a second. [Page//00:30:00] Even if my, even if my genes are saying one thing, and granted, if I were BRCA positive and I had a 70 or 80 percent chance of a cervical cancer or breast cancer, I'm sure that I would probably undergo prophylactic surgery because that's a very big percentage of risk.
Samantha Harris: However, for the majority of others, and the 85 to 90 percent of breast cancers that are not genetic, What can we do? How can we take back our power? And what other genes are there for dementia, Alzheimer's, heart disease, type two diabetes, um, certain autoimmune disorders that are happening somewhere dormant in my body that I can choose my lifestyle changes to?
Samantha Harris: Turn on or keep off. So I wanted to keep things off as long as possible So that's why I started to systematically but in a very slow Small manageable step way, which is your healthiest healthy is really about it's not it says it doesn't [Page//00:31:00] matter if you want to be keto Or vegan or this or that it does everyone needs to move their bodies.
Samantha Harris: Everyone needs to manage stress Everyone needs to have a plant based foundation
Julie Michelson: Yes. Oh
Samantha Harris: you figure out, okay, what, how am I choosing to eat? Um, and then what works for your body? I mean, I recently, because my iron is so low, and I have the MTHFR gene that a lot of people have, so my homocysteine levels, which brings with it a lot of scary risk, is always elevated no matter how much B12 and folate I take.
Samantha Harris: And so I literally just had a conversation yesterday with a functional medicine doc who is, um, Dr. Will Cole, do you know him?
Julie Michelson: yeah. I know.
Samantha Harris: When Gwyneth Paltrow's guru and functional doc, I was on his podcast and when we got off, I said, I, I'm so sorry to do this to you, but I just want to ask, I'm sure everyone does this when they go, the camera goes off.
Samantha Harris: I just said, what do I do? What do you think I should do?
Julie Michelson: trimethylglycine. Did he say add TMG?
Samantha Harris: no, okay, [Page//00:32:00] maybe add some, um, uh, some creatine. And he said, and you know, you might need a high quality, just a small serving once or twice a week, two or maybe two or three times a week, you might need a small serving. Of organ meat or like, like now, I mean, I grew up in Minnesota
Julie Michelson: You can get, you can get grass fed, you know, capsules.
Samantha Harris: I did, I did get, um, like a, a beef stick that's grass fed and he recommends for some of his patients and some other people did as well. So I got it not for me, but for my daughter who loves hamburgers and it drives me crazy because she. Originally we said you can have it once or twice a month as long as it's grass fed.
Samantha Harris: That's out the window. She's grabbing it anywhere she can get it. Doesn't matter if it's literally mystery meat.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, so give her the good meat so she'll
Samantha Harris: she won't eat it. She goes, wait, ew, I'm not going to eat meat that's in a stick. And I go, seriously. Anyway, so, but I have it in the house now. And now I'm like, huh, I wonder if I
Julie Michelson: I wonder what my body's telling me.
Samantha Harris: But I, [Page//00:33:00] I, because I am so plant based and I have this fear because of all my research of like, okay, more animal meat can potentially lead to more higher cancer risk, but there's a lot of,
Julie Michelson: But you're a researcher, dig deeper in that research, because that animal meat is not grass fed, pastured, happy animal meat.
Samantha Harris: and that's what I, that exactly.
Julie Michelson: Those studies. Yeah.
Samantha Harris: think if I'm having it a couple times a week, maybe you're right. So, so again, here's someone who now for 10 years has been plant based whole foods, a little bit of fish. Maybe poultry a couple times a month if that if it's organic and if I can get a pasture raise Haven't touched red meat since I moved out to la even though I ate everything including tongue back in minnesota in the day and liver Although I didn't want to eat the liver.
Samantha Harris: My mom made me eat the liver Um, I don't know now apparently organ meat is good for you as long as it's
Julie Michelson: Isn't it funny? I know it is the most nutrient dense food you can get.
Samantha Harris: right I'm, like, oh, how do I down this now? It just tastes like blood to me So i'm like, I [Page//00:34:00] don't know if I can handle it. But anyway, so it's interesting We have to know that listening to our body If we have the means to be able to get proper testing, there's so much, um, I know functional doctors can be so exorbitantly expensive because insurance doesn't take it, but there's so many wonderful direct to consumer ways to also begin to manage, you know, whether it's a constant glucose monitor or it's, um, a test, there's a, you know, a company that tests your glucose, your triglycerides, and your microbiome, and they have an app that follows you, and that's, out of England and it's available in the U.
Samantha Harris: S. that I, that I've tried a few times. You know, they're the ones that tell you what your, your, uh, your biological versus chronological age is, right? There's all these different things, the sleep trackers, different ways that we can start to biohack and, and get to know what's happening. in our body so that we can take that action later.
Julie Michelson: Yeah, and it does help you. So many of us, I am definitely in this boat, especially when I was at my sickest. We get disconnected with those [Page//00:35:00] signals that probably saved your life, right? We don't hear, we're not listening. All of our symptoms, all of the things we think of as aging, it's Our body telling us information.
Julie Michelson: And so, you know, intuitive eating is a thing like paying attention and really listening, but like starting with like, what are you actually eating? Because a lot of people have, you know, we're good at fooling ourselves. And we think, Oh no, I eat all like whole real foods. Like, you know, no, that's not food. I wouldn't eat that.
Samantha Harris: And that's why I think when I work, I only work with a handful of private clients, um, at a time. But when I do, I always have them food journal. But not just write down, because I think you're always amazed when you have, when you know you have to write it down. You can also do it on a phone app or something.
Samantha Harris: Um, and you don't have to be working with a private coach to be able to do that. But if you just journal for, even if it's not an entire week or two, if they say it's three or four days of the week. weekday and one day on the weekend, you'll be amazed at what you're consuming that you may not realize you're consuming.
Samantha Harris: Even if [Page//00:36:00] it's not like I'm making my kids meal and I'm eating some mac and cheese from there that I didn't realize.
Julie Michelson: It counts. I used to joke, you know, if you eat it standing up, it doesn't, it all counts. If it's on your kid's plate. If you're eating, standing up, it all counts.
Samantha Harris: Exactly. Well, and the other thing I also encourage my, my private clients to do is to write down when you're journaling, write down how you felt before you chose to eat that maybe why like physically how you felt. And
Julie Michelson: Why? Here's that question again. Why? Why
Samantha Harris: Why, why are you going to eat that right now? What's your reasoning?
Samantha Harris: And it might be as simple as, you know what? Cause I freaking really want an ice cream cone right now. Just, I, you
Julie Michelson: But I would ask why again, because are you, you know, are you tired? Are you stressed? Are you like
Samantha Harris: you're right. Good, right. Well, and that's the thing that follow up of why always just keep why? And it might be 10 layers down of asking the why.
Julie Michelson: husband loves these conversations?
Samantha Harris: Thank you. And then also, how are you feeling 30 minutes, two hours after the meal? Are you feeling bloated? Are you feeling distended? Are you feeling brain fog?
Samantha Harris: Are you feeling lethargic? Are you feeling [Page//00:37:00] awesome? Are you feeling happy? You know, where there is, I think that also makes a difference. Um, I know too, um, I'm going to just jump subjects for a second because I want to make sure we talk about, cause we mentioned toxicity
Julie Michelson: I thank you. I was like, I'm gonna right after this because we have to get it in because it's, it's huge. It's we
Samantha Harris: and it's a big of turning on or leaving off those. Those certain signals in our body that lead to certain diseases.
Julie Michelson: So let's talk about it. Let's where you know, um, And people think, well, I'm not, you know, flat on my back, sick in bed. So I'm not, I don't, I'm not toxic. I don't have, I don't have to worry about it.
Samantha Harris: The levels of toxicity in our body that are undetectable are usually pretty high. And where, where is that toxicity coming from? It can be coming from such a myriad of places, right? It can be coming from toxic relationships. And that doesn't mean like you're in an abusive [Page//00:38:00] mentally or physically abusive relationship.
Samantha Harris: It could literally mean it's that mom you see at school pickup who every time you talk to her your shoulders are up at your ears because you're so stressed out by that woman and you have to have some boundaries. It, you know, so there's relationships that build on that toxicity. It's, you know, look, most of us are not going to move from wherever we're living because of the air we're breathing.
Samantha Harris: I live, come on, I live in the valley of LA that's covered in smog half the time. I'm not leaving LA anytime soon. So what can I do to mitigate that? What are the toxins that are in, you know, are you drinking water out of plastic bottles? I mean, I just saw on the news here in LA, this latest study that came out about the micro, um, plastics in our, in our water bottles, that they finally have a microscope that could see truly how many micro plastics were in there.
Julie Michelson: in there. Yeah. And, and then there's, you know, we think about what people will say all the time. Oh, it's BPA free. I'm like, yeah, but it has 800 other toxic chemicals in it, but the [Page//00:39:00] public knows BPA now. Right. So
Julie Michelson: we're
Samantha Harris: same thing about paraben, right? So people like, oh, we know parabens can be carcinogenic or endocrine disruptors. I'll make sure that it says paraben free on whatever I'm buying, or I'll make sure that lotion I'm buying for my body says organic. Guess what? Those are BS terms and
Julie Michelson: Or natural.
Julie Michelson: Like lead is natural. I don't want it in my lipstick. Like, it's, yeah. So let's talk about that because we already touched on, you know, this importance of mindset and whenever we start to have a conversation about toxins and health, it can seem like total Debbie Downer doom and gloom, air, water, food, you know, you
Samantha Harris: Just don't ever leave your house again.
Julie Michelson: Exactly. Except your house is toxic and your air is worse than your outdoor air.
Samantha Harris: what's in your mattress. That's one place. Furniture is one place. And my clothing. I have not, because I keep seeing these things that pop up about like my Lululemon. I'm
Julie Michelson: Oh my gosh, I know.
Samantha Harris: tell me my workout clothes.[Page//00:40:00]
Julie Michelson: so it is taking me a while and I think we kind of probably all go through this phase of we always aim for perfectionism as we learn and then we realize I can take my power back without living in a cave, right, or without locking, you know, cleaning up my house and locking myself in it for the rest of my life.
Julie Michelson: There is no bubble option. So once we redo, we all have a different tipping point. You mentioned MTHFR, right? They're, they're specific, certain genetic predispositions to being bad detoxers. I am a collector, literally like any. Anything that's bad for me that comes in contact with me, my body's like, yeah, let's hold on to that as long as we can.
Julie Michelson: So everybody has a different tipping point or, you know, you may feel amazing. I still guarantee you have a load of toxins in there. So how do you, so my approach is we reduce the burden and control what [Page//00:41:00] we can. Make your home your haven and what's going in on and around your body. And I know. We're aligned in that as far as, but where do you, where do you start?
Julie Michelson: And you travel and you're out and about all the time. So. How do you do that and stay positive?
Samantha Harris: can be crushingly overwhelming, which is why, like you said, we have to take our power back, especially the more we go along this healthy, clean living, you know, straight line, more we know. I mean, it's why my kids probably honestly hate me
Julie Michelson: Oh, I get it. But wait until they're even older and it becomes so satisfying. Like when they're like, Oh, I read that label and I could never eat that now.
Samantha Harris: hope gosh, thank
Julie Michelson: does. It happens. Mine are in their 20s. It does. It happens eventually.
Samantha Harris: yeah, at 13 and 16, it's all about Starbucks. And I'm like, I just don't even, I can't, I can't even, I, anyway. So, um,
Julie Michelson:[Page//00:42:00] But they do filter the water at Starbucks at least. Let's just
Samantha Harris: well, that's good. Oh, that's good. That's good to know. So we'll forget that, that their chai latte has 56 grams or 64.
Julie Michelson: And corn syrup and whatever. Yeah. we
Samantha Harris: Um, so beyond that, um, so, so here's the thing, as you start to go along this path and you get that feeling of overwhelm, I want to encourage you. Take your listeners to take a breath and know that any step forward is going to be beneficial, is going to help to reduce the chances of all these horrible things we've been talking about. And also to know that it's not a 180 and it can't help happen overnight. It has to be about small, manageable steps for sustainable
Julie Michelson: You sound like a coach.
Samantha Harris: Right. It's about the consistency. So if it's like anyone who goes on a crash diet, right? We always know they rebound the yo-yo bath and they get weight. You [Page//00:43:00] wanna make these sustainable changes last forever.
Samantha Harris: So like, I wouldn't even think twice now. To not take the stairs if I know I only have to go up a flight and the stairway is right there. I would not think twice about, am I going to exercise this week? No, I know I'm going to exercise, it's just a matter of which exercises will I do. And actually even that is pretty much locked in.
Samantha Harris: And every so often I change it up just, I'm always changing it up by the way. Keep your body guessing, keep your mind engaged, prevent overuse injury. So change up what you're doing for your workouts every week. Um, when it comes to, All the things that you're changing though, whether it's, like you said, in, on, and around your body, so the people around you, the chemicals, like cleaning supplies around you, on your body, your makeup, your skin care, your hair products, in your body, your food, your supplements, as you're beginning to make those changes. If you can aim for an 80 20 rule, and hey, if eventually you get to a 90 10 rule, amazing! But even if you stay at 80 20, or you're at 60 40, but you were at 50 [Page//00:44:00] 50 before, you're making that progress. And each of us, as we mentioned, are bio individuals. So, for me, I still color my hair.
Julie Michelson: just gonna ask, come on, do you have any non negotiables,
Samantha Harris: you see, look at there.
Samantha Harris: I'm leaning forward to show you my hair. But, but here's what I do. I mitigate. So as much as I, I mean, my kids will be like, Mom, could you please go color your hair? You are so gray.
Julie Michelson: You're horrifying.
Samantha Harris: Oh, I'm horrified. How embarrassing, right?
Julie Michelson: job.
Samantha Harris: Um,
Julie Michelson: Embarrass the kids.
Samantha Harris: what I do is I go as long as possible between salon visits. I have a formaldehyde free and free of a couple of the other most harmful chemicals that I get from like whole foods that I do at home.
Samantha Harris: to just cover the grays a little bit and lengthen the time between salon visits. Does it look as good as it does when I go to the salon? No, of course not. I don't have any highlights. It's one step color. I pop it onto my, you [Page//00:45:00] know, my part and I sit for 20 minutes and whatever, but there are ways to also mitigate that.
Samantha Harris: Um, so there are, you know, I still have. Ice cream from the local shop down the street because it's fun to go out for ice cream night with right? I love sushi. I know my mercury And I'm again, we talk about what our bodies do. My body does, it holds onto those toxins. It does not want to get rid of that mercury.
Samantha Harris: So when I test my mercury every quarter, it's usually a little high. Well, even if I only have sushi once a week. So what do I do? Well, I infrared sauna to get the toxins out. Sometimes I'll do a charcoal binder or something else with the sauna. I obviously exercise to sweat and get the toxins out. So there are other things I do to try to mitigate that a little bit.
Samantha Harris: So we,
Julie Michelson: have some chlorella when you have your sushi.
Samantha Harris: oh, you know, I just started. And I have no, no connection to this company, but I want to interview actually that I'm going to be interviewing the owner of it. Um, energy bits
Julie Michelson: Yeah, love [Page//00:46:00] them.
Julie Michelson: Yeah.
Samantha Harris: I just finally discovered them. So they're Chlorella and they're spirulina and they're tablets and they're, and I love it.
Samantha Harris: They said, these are not supplements. These are actually just food that's been compressed down into little tablets. So you can chew. They're not tasty, but you could chew them. You can
Julie Michelson: you can, you can form a fondness for them.
Samantha Harris: throw them into my smoothies, you know, so it's just easy to have adding another again, just leveling up.
Samantha Harris: Um, if anyone who's listening wants to, cause again, I, I spent my life of a career on TV in a makeup chair
Julie Michelson: Yes.
Samantha Harris: with. Hair and makeup that could last 12 hours under hot lights without moving, you know, an inch. And so, my last show that I shot, it's a, it's still on TV, it airs every weekday on Game Show Network.
Samantha Harris: It's called Tug of Words. It's a fun, if you like Wordle or game, you know, fast word play chain. So Tug of Words. But when we shot Tug of Words, we shot 65 episodes [Page//00:47:00] in three weeks. Six shows a
Julie Michelson: Wow.
Samantha Harris: fast, furious, 12 hours a day. My hair and makeup girls are really good friends of mine. And I said, you girls, we're going to go into this show.
Samantha Harris: I don't want anything that doesn't pass the Samantha test for ingredients for my hair and makeup. Do you think we could, do you think like, I challenged them because they're used to working
Julie Michelson: Sure. They have their products and those are not clean.
Samantha Harris: No, I mean, every big brand
Julie Michelson: Sure.
Samantha Harris: pretty much is toxic. And so, you know, all the big conglomerates now they're starting to buy up the small mom and pop shops that are clean because they're realizing thankfully with our consumer dollars, we can demand we need clean products and not.
Samantha Harris: greenwashed or pink washed. Yes, we want the real stuff that's free from the over, you know, from all the chemicals that are banned in Europe, the
Julie Michelson: just start there. Like that would be,
Samantha Harris: We just go to, hey, maybe it looks harder a plane. We'll just go to Europe and we'll just shop
Julie Michelson: just shop there.
Samantha Harris: yeah, that'd be nice. [Page//00:48:00] So instead, right, we can, um, so I have, so basically what I did is I vetted, we had a ton of different brands that we either bought or had send to us at the show, hair and makeup, and we tried so many different brands.
Samantha Harris: So I put together a list of the brands that I, I liked the most, but that worked and lasted because it doesn't matter if you're shooting a TV show for 12 hour days, or you're getting ready early in the morning, going to work, going to a You know, or a school function. We all need stuff that works and lasts and that we enjoy and we enjoy putting on our bodies.
Samantha Harris: That's part of the fun of beauty, right? So if anyone wants my vetted list, just send me
Julie Michelson: it. I'm telling you right now. Everybody wants it.
Samantha Harris: put together a little PDF and you guys I'm on Instagram and Facebook the most actively Samantha Harris TV like television. So Samantha Harris TV, just send me a DM that just says clean beauty. And I will send it to you because I love sharing it.
Samantha Harris: I think it's so important to be able to [Page//00:49:00] just
Julie Michelson: it's so helpful, um, to have, to, you know, you curated this amazing, because that's an upper. Level, you know, I, I like to help people, you know, give them areas of like, okay, you know, you could use the WG. You can use the, you know, all there are getting there more and more. Um, not that none of them are perfect.
Julie Michelson: Products change is another problem. You buy a clean product and they all of a sudden they've changed the ingredients again. So we have to, we have to take our, but to have a list like that, oh my gosh, what an amazing gift
Samantha Harris: And I actually, I even put on it some of my favorite cleaning supplies that are clean. I mean, we can all DIY cleaning, like distilled white vinegar. A baking soda are awesome and they clean a lot of great things. But if you don't feel like DIYing it, I have a list of some clean cleaning products as well as anti aging skin care that's EWG verified and really clean and but also has the [Page//00:50:00] clinical trials.
Samantha Harris: And all the science behind it, because I also want the proof. I want to know that, especially if they're using something that's anti, I mean, makeup. There's no, we don't need clinical trials.
Julie Michelson: Right.
Samantha Harris: need, um, but first when it comes to anti aging products, we do need trials and we need companies that stand behind their word.
Samantha Harris: And they're not going to get bought out by a big corporation that's going to change the ingredients. And so anyway, I put all that on there too. Just DM me, send me a message, or if you don't know how to DM, because I know some people say, I don't know, just set a, put a comment in any post of mine that says clean beauty.
Samantha Harris: If I didn't get back to you fast enough, put in another comment. I promise I'll get it.
Julie Michelson: that. And your, your feed is amazing. There's such gold in there. And I don't know that a lot of people realize you did mention, but you know, you, you work with clients, you have amazing groups and retreats and opportunities for people to work with you directly.
Samantha Harris: It's one of my favorite, you know, I think social media [Page//00:51:00] is a blessing and a curse for anybody, right? We can get dragged down and that's why we do a social media detox, you guys. talk about toxins in your body, anyone you're following that you get stressed out watching their feed because you don't think you're keeping up with them or you're doing well enough or you're just
Julie Michelson: Unfollow. Yep.
Samantha Harris: Exactly. Um, but I, what I love about it is I have been able to connect with so many women. First of all, every breast cancer survivor who's ever DM me. And by the way, if you're listening, and for some reason I didn't get back to you, then somehow I missed it because I get back to. Literally every single person, um, and it's probably because I'm not getting hundreds of thousands of them a day.
Samantha Harris: If that ever happens, it might be a little more challenging. But right now, it's manageable. So, um, but I love that I've been able to connect, whether it's just answering a question or two here and there, or people who join me at one of my retreats. I lead one in Utah every year. I have one in Santa Monica every year.
Samantha Harris: Uh, I just got back from Canyon Ranch where I was, um, doing a wonderful, fun program there. So, uh, I love doing These retreats but then [Page//00:52:00] for those who want something more from me and more access to me on a regular basis I have a private membership community because I really only take a couple of private clients on at a time And so I wanted to be able to reach more people.
Samantha Harris: So every week in my your healthiest healthy community it's a Live coaching session a live guest expert and either a live or pre recorded workout that I teach And and the guest experts have been Phenomenal. I know I mentioned Dan Buechner from the Blue Zones and we've had, you know, Joel, these names might mean something to your listeners and they might not mean anything, but, uh, David Perlmutter, uh, from the Green Brain, Dr.
Samantha Harris: Neil Barnard from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Um, we've had Joel Fuhrman multiple times from, you know, Eat to Live. Um, so many really phenomenal. phenomenal experts that come in, Dr. William Lee and Dr. Elizabeth Bowman. Anyway, the list goes on, but really great people. Will Bulsiewicz, if you guys know, um, gut, gut, he's all about the gut health [Page//00:53:00] doctor.
Samantha Harris: He's fantastic. So what's nice about it is that these experts come in and spend time. We do about a half hour together. And in real time you have access to them to ask questions and I'm asking questions the whole time and then everything lives in a recording. So if you miss it, you know, you don't really actually miss it.
Samantha Harris: Um, but I just, I love that, but for people who just want, you know, like, you know what, I don't want to invest in my health financially. I just want to kind of grab it when I can get it. I want to encourage you to invest in your health, whether it's with me or with Julie or with someone else, because.
Samantha Harris: investing in your health now is going to save you a lot of money and a longer life later. But, um, I offer free challenge groups like a five day hydration or eat the rainbow challenge. I'm doing a 21 day whole overhaul, whole health overhaul right now. So lots of fun opportunities, uh, for that as well. So I, I love it and I'm doing the TV thing, but really the health and wellness certified health coach life passion into purpose is probably 90 percent of the time of my career now.
Julie Michelson: Which is amazing. And, and although everybody loves [Page//00:54:00] seeing you on TV as well.
Samantha Harris: I do love it.
Julie Michelson: just, just if you want to see her like check out her feed. It's amazing. You give so much gold. And like you said, whether it's joining the free challenges, joining the group coaching, you know, the community. Going to an amazing retreat.
Julie Michelson: I know where some of your retreats are. They're some of my favorite resorts. Um, you know, or working one on one if you're that person that's like, no, I actually want her to, to, to be my person. Then I, I can't suggest and strongly enough, you guys reach out.
Samantha Harris: Thank you. Thank you. Well, it goes right back to you. And if people are listening and they're not working with you, they need to reach out to you and make sure they're following and getting
Julie Michelson: thank you. As you said, find somebody, right? Whoever it is that resonates. But you know, our, our health is our greatest wealth. And so there is not necessarily time later to address it. So, so do it now. So here's the, [Page//00:55:00] before we go, you've already given us so much, but what is one thing we can do today? If listeners can do just starting immediately to improve their health.
Samantha Harris: Flip your plate. So what I mean by that is fill your plate at least half full of veggies at every meal every meal. So that's
Julie Michelson: I get that all the time.
Samantha Harris: Right. And well, that's one of the reasons why I switched from having you know Back when I ate 21 out of 21 meals a week of animal protein and my breakfast either yogurt or eggs That's why or or see or gosh surely Cereal that I thought
Julie Michelson: I know.
Samantha Harris: I would use milk and whey protein in the milk to get extra protein.
Samantha Harris: So I was getting extra milk and I don't think any of it was even organic and it was definitely not grass fed. Um, but that's why I switched to having a smoothie every day. I can pack so many greens and Chia and flax and all these plant based things and [Page//00:56:00] matcha and the chlorella and the spirulina But all these things into it that I wouldn't necessarily eat throughout the day But it is so packed with nutrient density that it curbs cravings.
Samantha Harris: It satiates me It gives me the energy I need to keep going and I don't get the brain fog I don't get the low energy dips at three o'clock in the afternoon I don't want to fall asleep at eight o'clock at night when, well, my kids are going to bed later now, but when I was putting them to bed at eight o'clock, and so it's really quite amazing.
Samantha Harris: And I, and I've also vetted a lot of different protein powders. So if you want my picks on that, let me know because I, I think it's very, there's a lot on the market and it's very confusing.
Julie Michelson: there's a lot of junk and a lot of it is so bad. Read your labels, people. Turn it around. Step one.
Samantha Harris: one piece of advice, flip that plate,
Julie Michelson: I love it. I love it. Well, I already kept you over time, so I'm going to give you the rest of your day back. I cannot thank you enough for everything that you shared and for taking the time [Page//00:57:00] to come on with us.
Julie Michelson: I so appreciate the gold you've given us.
Samantha Harris: Thank you, Julie. I really appreciate the opportunity to share and get to hopefully know some of your listeners over there on social media.
Julie Michelson: For everyone listening, remember you can get the transcripts and show notes by visiting inspiredliving. show. I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week. [Page//00:58:00]
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Samantha Harris
Emmy-winning TV Host Samantha Harris may be best-known for her eight seasons as the host of Dancing with the Stars and her many years as a host of shows such as Entertainment Tonight and EXTRA. From hosting from every major Hollywood award show red carpet to starring on Broadway in the musical CHICAGO, she has been a fixture in the entertainment world. She is currently the host of the wordplay game show Tug of Words on Game Show Network.
At age 40, this wife and mom received a shocking diagnosis… breast cancer.
Rising from that challenge, she became a breast cancer THRIVER, Certified Health Coach and trainer, and the author of the bestselling book – YOUR HEALTHIEST HEALTHY: 8 Easy Ways to Take Control, Help Prevent and Fight Cancer, and Live a Longer, Cleaner, Happier Life.
As a health expert, you’ve seen her on: GOOD MORNING AMERICA, FOX & FRIENDS, THE DOCTOR’S, HLN’S MORNING
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