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The purpose of the show is to provide a critical examination of society and culture through the intersectional lens of race, gender, and class, more specifically it seeks to provide a COUNTER-NARRATIVE. The Show encourages a reflective assessment and critique of unique standpoints and their potential contribution to popular discourse.
Rasheem, Hello and welcome. This is Rasheem with the counter narrative, and this is episode, what 15? I don't know 14. I'll correct that later. Anyway, tonight's show is going to be on being brown and healthy, and I have two lovely guests joining us that are going to share with us all about being brown and healthy. I'm going to go ahead and bring them on right now and introduce them, and also allow them to introduce themselves and tell them, tell you a little bit about themselves. So tonight with us, we have Michelle Antoinette Nelson, who is the founder of brown and healthy, as well as Lynette Caban of La fuenza la fuerza. She's testing my R rolling tonight, of la fuerza fitness, and she's also the director of wellness programming at Brown and healthy. So welcome ladies. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Thank you guys so much for being here. So I told them, You know that I told them a little bit about you. I told them your name, but tell us a little bit more about you in terms of, tell us what is it that you are, what is it that you're passionate about? What is your relationship to the topic? And let us know something about you that we cannot find out from a bio.
Nope, alright, so I got, I got to go ahead. So my name is Michelle Antoinette Nelson, as you said, Rasheem and aka love the poet. I am a former division one track and field athlete. I ran track for see since I was 14. So I was about 23 so I guess that's what, nine years and I have, I have a passion for just missile, physical, emotional, well being and working with our people. As a poet and a performance artist, I've traveled the world as the longest running member of the punani poets, which is sex education theater, and came to Fauci HBO is real sex. So over those years, I've been on the troop for eight years, I've learned a lot about what people in our community, especially think about their relationship with their bodies, their relationship with their mates, mentally and emotionally, and their relationship with being open beings and open minded. So I'm also, well, one of the things you can find out about you can't find out about me in a bio. That's a hard one. I think that although I am a performance artist and a founder of a global health and wellness initiative Brown and healthy, I'm actually extremely introverted, introverted person, meaning that I have to go home and be home for maybe a few days, like to recharge, and I don't necessarily need outside people to feed off of, you know, and I think that's kind of a misnomer when people think that just because you're a public figure, you must be extroverted, you must love and crave Attention. And that's really, actually the opposite for me.
So what was the first question again?
Please, yeah, and you can start with any either one that you want, but it's what is it that you're passionate about? What is your relationship or interest in the topic? And tell us something about you that we can't find. Find out from a bio.
Alright, so I am passionate about healing and helping others learn how to heal themselves. My relation to the topic? Well, I am a personal trainer, a healing touch practitioner, and I had my own journey and with fitness and illness and overcoming illness using nutrition and fitness. And people don't know about me, I am kind of shy.
Both of you have such a similar not on bio, not on bio response, no. So that's good. So I want to talk a little bit more about both of your relationships to the topic and just kind of, how did you come to an interest in health. Like, what was the story that led you to the focus on health? Like Michelle, I know you mentioned that you were playing like you were in track for, like, a long, a long time, but sometimes people could be in a sport and not really be trying to be healthy, like they just running, or whatever you.
Oh, you're absolutely right. Um, I think that it came, it actually came after the I would say, I wish when I was running, when I when I was an active athlete, that understood what, what I was doing was, was four. In the long run, like now, I'm 35 years old, and one thing that really has pushed me, and I think a number of my cousins and family members, toward the health and wellness field, because a lot of us are doing things. My sister is a health and wellness blogger and a fitness a plus, I'm sorry, a plus size model, and we're all pretty, like, body conscious and aware of, like, health, because we've lost so many family members, uncles and grandmothers and grandfathers, and, you know, like, I don't, all of them have passed. And I think that that was really what, what got me thinking about my personal health and just, and I just started hashtagging Brown and healthy, because I'm brown, I'm health, and I was trying to be healthy. So it was like a motivation thing for me. But I think it was, I think it was those points like just focusing on the fact that we've lost so many of our family members, and just changing the way that we had our cycle in that for me,
my mom died when I was 19. She died, she was obese. She died from a heart attack in her sleep, and a number of other issues going on due to the obesity. And then I had my own issue with lupus. I was diagnosed with lupus in May of 2012 and that changed my whole life. I was very, very active before then in dance, pretty much my whole life. And then that all came to a stop, and I lost my ability to walk like a normal person. I had cane that led to a walker. I had had seizures, just pretty much falling apart, and having to learn to navigate this new illness in this new body, and trying to find a new me, a new healthier me, because I would never go back to the person I was before lupus, and so I really dedicated to teaching people how they can get past that, like their illness doesn't have to be who they are. It's just something that they have to deal with and with fitness and nutrition and meditation and healing touch, all of those together can really change the outcome.
Love it. Um, you talked a little bit about body image and body consciousness. I should say, um, what are some of the what are some of the misconceptions that you have experienced around body, how bodies look, and perceived health around it, and like, how exactly do you address that?
Um, I think I want to, I want to jump in here on this one, I have an interesting perspective. So I'm five, two, about 115 120 pounds, give or take, right? Um, to most people, I have no problems in the world. Um, I'm healthy, I'm whatever, and that's not the case. I think that one thing that people need to understand is that even if you're small, doesn't mean that you're healthy. It means that you may have genetically, you may be genetically predisposition to being small. You know what I mean, and I've always experienced that like this, the opposite extreme of the same problem. I can't find clothes that fit me, right? I'm a black girl that's five foot two with a body like a black girl, you know? I mean, I got one curve, you know I'm saying, and it's my butt. I gotta be honest out there, um, and, and so I can't go into certain stores and buy certain clothing because of European cut, because I'm petite, but I'm not petite. You understand what I'm saying. And I think what I ended up writing a poem for a show I was doing called, Come on son, with Rebecca Nicosia McCormick and Shelley says so. And I wrote it talking to like Monique, who does the the comedian who used to do the stand up bit about skinny bees. I don't know if you can curse on here, but, um, you know, I was just like, hey, like, we have, we have feelings too. And I think the misconception is that we're sitting on top of the world and we have just as many problems. We have opposite, you know, we have health issues as well. And I think that that, that has always been a. A thing for me trying to understand it, because I've always empathized and understood the the fight of someone who was, you know, plus size and and no one ever wanted everybody thinks it can be a joke to make fun of me, but if you do it on the opposite extreme, you're a bad guy. You know, I think that that's one of my things.
For me, I've been across the board with my weight and different sizes all my life. Growing up, it was bad if you were skinny, it was bad if you were fat, but they had to feed you, and then they would starve you. It was just very confusing. Then as an adult, I the, the smallest I've ever been. So I'm 510 right? Smallest I've ever been was 128 pounds, and I still thought I was fat, and I was a Plus model then. So I'm I was actually wearing like a size eight, and it was extremely small for my my frame, and I'm modeling, and I'm so confused, because I'm really skinny, but I'm a model, but then they're patting me up, and it's because of the way I'm shaped, because I'm pear shaped, according to them, I Just have hips and a butt, right? So then my highest weight was 292 and that was just about three and a half years ago. I started to come down after I got off all the medication, but I was at my sickest. But also I was at my sickest when I was 128 pounds, so I can be all these sizes and not be healthy. Mm, right? And I think that the the important thing here is having a consistent healthy lifestyle. If you fall off the wagon, you know, don't beat yourself up, just get back on it, and also appreciating yourself where you are and not being so hard on yourself. So if you are on a weight loss journey, know that you're going to have setbacks, but if you're eating right and taking necessary steps, then you're on your way. And you may not lose all the weight, and you might not look like a bodybuilder or fitness Pro, but you'll be healthy.
Because Steph has a lot to say. She wanted to ask you guys. She says, I'm curious to know how you feel about healthy, the healthy at Every Size movement. I'll give you opportunity to respond back. She also says it seems as though OB slash overweight people is the most accepted form of discrimination, like it's acceptable to make fun of them and other things. And she also mentioned that she lost 100 pounds about 10 years ago. And also, do you think it's okay to randomly compliment people on their weight loss, even if you don't know the reason why they are losing weight.
Um, well, I guess let's take it one question at a time. Um, I think that. So, how do you feel about healthy at every side, at the healthy at Every Size movement? I think that's great. Um, I honestly think that it I think that a lot of times, as Americans, especially, we judge books by their cover, and someone who is 400 pounds could make a decision tomorrow and work for that decision for a whole month or two months, and have, they've changed the way they're eating so they are healthier in that moment. They are healthier at that size than they have ever been. And it's step by step. And I think that it takes encouragement from people to say, hey, you know what I see, what you're doing. And if you keep that up, you are going to be you're moving in the right direction. Because really, it takes 21 days to develop a habit. So it can take 21 days to beat a food addiction. It can take 21 days to get addicted to health and fitness. I mean, it is there at the bottom line. I think that, yes, I think being I think that being healthy at Every Size is a thing, and I applaud it, you know. Okay, let's see what we have. It seems as though obese, overweight people is the most acceptable form of discrimination. You know, I really don't know if I can intelligently speak on that, because, especially in 2016 there are so many wildly accepted forms of discrimination. I mean, thank you. Donald Trump, um, me think about it. You know, you it takes, you know, somebody said to me the other day about it was a certain circumstance that was happening. Thing on Facebook and a certain group of people, and they were like, You know what? They they're the that's they're being that's petty today. And I was like, if all it takes is one person to say one statement in a status, and all these people in a certain scene have all these comments, they weren't just being petty that day. They're consistently petty. So I'm saying, like, it shouldn't take just one statement to unearth all of these things. So Trump, that's like a microcosm of the bigger of the macrocosm, the Trump idea, like it took this one guy to just say a couple of out of off the wall things, and now all of these people are snowballing out of everywhere, being so brave, and black face on, you know? And so I feel like it may not be the most accepted, I don't really know, but I think it's about perception. I noticed you said you lost 100 pounds 10 years ago, so I feel like maybe that's a sensitive space for you. So you when you hear it, you feel like it's, it's it's louder. You know what I mean? I'm just assuming. But so I think that
the the accepted form of discrimination, I think it all depends on the person, because that's also goes against the whole curvy movement, right? And if you look at the percentage of people the United States who are obese, there are, I think, I don't think it's an accepted form of discrimination. I think it's become, unfortunately, the norm that people are obese and they're unhealthy, and I I can't say that I have ever experienced any discrimination because of my physical signs.
I mean, I've watched people, you know, I growing up. My sister is she's been five, eight and and plus size since she was probably 12, and she was the captain of the cheerleading squad. None of that stopped her from being what she wanted to be, but I would be at the football games, and I could hear people making fun of my sister. They didn't know she was my sister, because we don't look anything alike. And I would hear them making fun of her, and that, in that moment, I realized that, you know, there are mean people in this world, no matter how successful you are, no matter how amazing, nobody could jump higher, nobody could do the splits better. She was a captain for a reason. She was a leader, and she was still treated poorly by these young people who were just immature and couldn't understand that you can be healthy at Every Size.
So Dr vibe asked how much of an issue is childhood obesity? Well, that's a huge issue, because that's setting our kids up for failure at a very young age, if we're not teaching them how to eat properly. But that comes from the parents, so the parents are not educated on how to eat properly, they're going to teach their child bad habits, and it just becomes a trickle down effect throughout the entire family.
I want to chime in here on that. She's absolutely right. And I also want to say that McDonald's is a problem. I just I'm going to get on this. I'm going to get on the soapbox like I just have to It's not food. We all know that it's not food. They have published the ingredients to these things that they're feeding us. Um, McDonald's is on every black radio station. Actually, Radio One studios always shouts out saying they're at the McDonald's studios because they're the head sponsor. Um, it's 365 days in the black community, is their mantra. Um, they are on every corner, just like liquor stores, and they are still touting 100 billion serve, and their and their numbers are slowing down a bit. They had, they've had to do a couple of tricks to get people to remain around. But I think one thing that I always notice is that people are taking their children to get happy meals, and, you know, and and, and taking them to get some french fries and some ice cream to appease them. And I think that somebody said to me the other day that their kids don't even know about, like, fast food and things like that, like, because and when they go out to schools now, like when they go to school now, public school, they don't, they don't engage in, like, eating the nonsense, because they weren't taught that from a young age. You know what I'm saying. So I think that it's really a sensitive issue about childhood obesity, because you don't want to be like, Oh my gosh, my child is getting fat and she's and that's not baby fat any. More, but that's like, a fact. We have to, like, realize and see, and then think about what your role was, because children can't feed themselves. Mm, hmm, no,
that's an excellent point. And I see Steph brings up, you know, the origins in terms of, like, sometimes, how we start, and how we start to look at our nutrition in terms of breastfeeding, or whether it will be bottles.
Go ahead. Terms of breastfeeding, I think coming from the background of working in direct service, social services, breastfeeding is definitely a choice. It's not for everyone. Not everyone can produce the proper amount of milk, and there are illnesses that can prevent a mother from breastfeeding. I think it starts when we're introducing foods to our children, rather than buying the you know, GMO filled baby food, make it yourself, teaching them from there and then consistently introducing new vegetables and fruits and healthy ways of eating as they get older and going to preschool. I know that children who are breastfed tend to be healthier. I understand that, but I think that it's the education piece and access too, because there's a lot of food deserts in underserved communities, so they don't have access to the foods that they need,
right? No, that's a good point. Food deserts definitely have an impact, especially when it comes to like, you're talking about fresh fruits and vegetables, or like, if I just don't even have like, public like, if I don't have transportation, where I see mothers getting on the bus with their children, and they have to haul, like, you know, so much groceries, because they don't have anything like that around them in terms of, in terms of food options. One of the things I want to ask you about, we kind of touched on it a little bit in terms of the impact of culture, because we're talking about Brown and healthy. So one of the questions I want to ask is, what is the significance of being brown, of healthy and what? How? How has your individual cultures impacted, how you your relationship with
food so Brown and healthy. Just to give everybody an idea of the mission, the movement and the nonprofit organization Brown and healthy came about when I like I said I had I was hashtagging it, I'm brown and I'm healthy. And I was trying to motivate myself, and I was about three years ago. So in the in that three years, the social climate has changed drastically, and we have. We touched on it a little bit every day I was waking I'm feeling like I'm just at war with the with the world. You know, every day is another name, another hashtag, another event, a hanging noose, you know? I mean, that goes back to even the Jesus, but I feel like the last three years have been particularly potent, church, church, killings, all of those things. And I started to think, What can I do? Because, I mean, I really am internally a militant person like you know, always something is just not right when it comes to the way that black people in America are treated. And a friend of mine made a logo for brown and healthy, and I'm wearing a shirt now. Let me show you. Somebody made the logo, and I thought, wow, this is way bigger than me. So in December of 2015 I decided to launch the movement and get the shirts and start talking. And our mission is to change the narrative and change the world. What we need to understand is that when you look at Facebook, Twitter, whatever hashtag health, hashtag fitness, hashtag wellness. You're not going to see too many people that look like me. Not going to see too many people that look like her. You know you're going to see, if you do, you're going to it's going to look unattainable. It's going to be a bodybuilder or something, and it's just gonna look like it can't be you. So I was asked to speak at a graduate convocation, and they asked me to speak a little bit about Black Lives Matter, which I thought was interesting, because I was just supposed to talk about how I'm a self made artist. But I was glad about it, and I started to think about the narrative, so either we are the wire or we don't exist. I looked at a Baltimore magazine. And in it, it was very few people, I mean, one or two that were brown with, like, really curly hair. So what they were kind of ambiguous, you know what? I mean, um, and so I was like, you know, we keep thinking about this mattering, and that is very subjective. That's an opinion. I was talking. In elementary school not to worry about if people thought that I matter, right? But being very declarative and saying that I'm Brown and I am healthy and wearing a shirt or hashtagging that that's, that's, that's something you cannot deny, that that we as a people exist. So if we're filling a gap, we're trying to change the idea around black people brown people, and brown I use specifically because black is often a blighted term. One day, I looked up derogatory terms for African Americans and Black was in the list, because honestly, how many of you all have ever opened a crayon box and thought you look like the black crayon? You know what I mean? Your melanin is. Is brown? We own that we are melanated people. We are from Africa. We should embrace that, right? So I like brown because it it forces people to acknowledge that you don't get to compartmentalize people. You have Latinos who are in the African diaspora, like we are all one and are of African descent, so we need to, like, embrace that idea. So that's why Brown is specifically important for me, because I feel like we have to start reclaiming the definition of one who we are, and the narrative around what we do and how we exist, because often times we're looked at to serve the underserved and the children, but nobody wants to acknowledge us and our needs and that We actually are here as productive members of society. I'm sorry, real passionate about that, but that's, that's the reason for name of browning. Yeah, no, that's good.
So, so tell me, um, also, um, how has your culture, uh, impacted your relationship with food like that you grew up with, and what are the few foods that you eat now? Are they different? Are they the same? What is
Oh, I got this smile, because you made me think about my mom and my grandma, Mama. Now, okay, so my mom is from Nashville, Tennessee, and she gets upset because people think that she's so country, but she was born in East Nashville. Nash, Nashville, Tennessee is a city and however Southern, you know. And so my dad is from Germantown, Ohio, right next to Dayton. That's, you know, Midwest, very similar culture. So his mother has recipes that she passed to my mother, and I'm talking fried chicken, collard greens. I grew up Seventh Day Adventist, so we did not eat pork in my house, but my mom did back in the day, before she had married my father, um, you know, just, just, you know, grits, steak and eggs when I go to grandma's house, you know? So, I mean, food was was cooked in my house. My mother would make meals, and I actually meet my sister, and I actually worked really hard to get my mother's to change her diet and to understand how that would like shift her weight loss and things like that. But, I mean, I had a very interesting relationship with food. I actually only ate because I was hungry. I didn't even really like growing up. I didn't even think, you know, I just want to go out and play. I didn't really, it wasn't a thing. I ate because I had, you know, high metabolism and I was hungry. But it wasn't until I got to be an adult that I started to like, enjoy going to dinner, and like eating and flavors and smells and being a foodie for
me, well, I'm Puerto Rican. So, hey, Puerto Rico. So Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans, we like good food, right? Rice and beans, again, pork, platano, everything, thick and heavy, right? So growing up food was a huge issue for me, because I was so confused. I was in dance at a very young age, and you have to get certain weight and size in ballet, ballet point and stuff. So there was a lot of pressure there. But then, like I had said earlier, I go, when I would go to my family's house, it would your too fat or too skinny, and then they would force you to eat, or they would tell you need to diet, and, like, tear you apart. And by the time I was 15, I was already abusing diet pills, and I learned how to starve myself, but eat just enough so that way nobody would question me. Mm, and I was working out insane, I would run 10 new york city blocks to the gym. Mm. Workout for two hours, hardcore, then run back home to do a Billy Blanks video. Wow, before bed every single day. Wow. I was obsessed, because I had to fit this idea of of skinny that everyone wanted me to fall into. And I was like, Well, how am I supposed to navigate this as a woman? Because I'm going to fluctuate in my weight. I'm a curvy Latina woman. I don't want to put this on my daughter. And so it's, it's a sucky relationship with food, because, and I tell people, like, when I'm doing my workshops with folks, I tell them I was force fed to eat vegetables, because I would throw up as a kid, I would forcefully throw up as soon as they put a vegetable in my mouth. I just didn't want to do it. So then they would have to hide the vegetables in my food. I didn't get to enjoy my first salad without throwing up until I was 30 years old. Wow, that's huge, right? That's a terrible relationship with food, because I had this thing, this connection that if I put vegetables or anything with a weird consistency in my mouth, like a orange, I throw up. So I had to learn how to do that. So I'm malnourished, I'm sick. I have all these ailments, my autoimmune diseases, and here I am having this horrible relationship with food.
Thank you for sharing that. Alright, doctor, Bob man, in the place to be what's good with you?
Everything's good. Thanks, ladies for sharing on this important topic. Two, two quick comments I want to make. I'm going to make. I'm going to make them, and I'm going to jump off and listen. First of all, one of the challenges that we have brown people with our food is the food that tastes the best a lot of times is not the best for us, right? And can you speak to power about how easy it is to eat healthy?
Oh, yes, absolutely. So one of the things that I love to do, one of the things that I absolutely love to do, is juice. So the reason why my eyes are lighting up, I can see my own self excited about it, because you can get all your fruits and vegetables. I personally am a vegetable juice like her. She's a fruit juice like her. We meet somewhere in the middle, celery stick. I like the juice, the ginger, the carrots, the cucumbers, the beets, yes, I said beets. Like all of those things in one and you, I mean, you can have eight ounces or 16 ounces, and you've got your nutrients for the day, plus some, and you don't have to eat them, you know, like, I try to, you know, have my, my healthy food groups on my plate when I eat. But sometimes you just can't, you can't get there. Like, I know, I'm as an artist and an entrepreneur, I'm on the road a lot, so sometimes I'm like, Hey, I gotta stop and get a burrito, just so I can make sure I get all my veggies and my my, you know, my grains, my meats, all those wrapped into one. But I get really excited, and it's super easy to juice like you can even prep your vegetables and put them in containers the day before. You don't want to make your juice and keep it on the shelf too long. It doesn't have a really long shelf life because it doesn't have, like, the preservatives and all of that stuff. And then it is new. It's natural, it's fresh. So you want to, like, if you want to make it easy, cut everything up, depending on what kind of juicer you have, if you have to do that, have it ready and just kind of like meal prep, and it's going to change the way you feel about life. You can even add, like, some the green scoops of greens you can get from the store, and protein, protein, probiotics, like all those things you can add to it, just to give you that extra boost and and I think it's really best thing since sliced bread, honestly.
So we talked a little bit about eating and juicing and different healthy habits to take on in terms of that process. What are some movements that we can, like, really incorporate into day to day life? Because I'm going to be honest with you, like, I don't like to exercise. It's just, it's a thing that I do. I know that I have to do, but I don't like it. What I do like to do is I like to dance. I like martial arts. I even like walking. I don't think of walking as I like strolling. I don't like this walking. But what are some things, hiking, hiking? Oh, yeah, I would like hiking. No,
like hiking very much.
Okay, um, I think so for someone like you who's like, I want to exercise, but I really hate it, it's finding something that you love to do that's physical. So dance, you've mentioned dance. I love. To dance, even if you're dancing around your house for 30 minutes, just looking crazy, but you're getting a good sweat on, you're getting your heart rate elevated. You feel your muscles burning. You just did 30 minutes of cardio. Um, also, you know, come to my boot camp class on Saturdays at 9am going Hill Park. Boom.
Did you hear it? So here's the thing, it's just not straight boot camp. And I'm not just yelling at you, we're actually dancing and having fun and incorporating boot camp drills in between dancing, so you're having a great time and you're getting your workout on. Another thing is stretching, making sure that you stretch regularly to keep everything nice and limber, keep things moving, and it also helps with chronic pain and illness. Helps you sleep at night. So just finding something you like and being consistent.
And also, we're going to add her boot camp to the brown and healthy calendar, so you can go to brown and healthy.com go tomorrow, and you can RSVP. We'll put a link in the calendar so you can RSVP to join the class on Saturday. Also, all you need, he really needs 150 minutes of car minutes of cardio a week so that you can get that. However you need to get that, um, cardio is not always running. I'm gonna say that again, cardio is not always running. A lot of people feel like when they hear the word cardio, they gotta go and run like miles. One thing that I am a yes duvet per week, yeah, but you can get it if you go like, I'm a big proponent of hiking. That's one of the ways the brown and healthy hashtag really, really got started. My friend Maria Hey, who is actually in charge of our fitness challenges. We're going to start one October 1. We just finished the 30 day fitness challenge. We're going to start another one October 1. Also we posted on the website and on the Facebook page and all that. So follow us at Brown and a n, d healthy on Facebook, and brown and healthy.com and we're going to keep those challenges going, but, um, hiking is a excellent full body workout, and, like, Rasheem just said she doesn't like to like power walk and feel, you know, because that's, I mean, it's really a step down from running. It's, it's, it's, you're gonna burn the same amount of calories because, because you're working your body the same, the same at the same rate. Basically, if you ever notice somebody jogging the same pace that you walk, yeah, you're kind of looking at it that way. The only thing that changes is when somebody's doing like the sprints and things like that. But hiking, you are definitely working. You're working your legs, you're working your arms, you're working your core, which is a very big points of contention for a lot of people at work. You everything you do starts at your core, at right here, in this trunk, this area right here that you got this midsection. Everything starts here. It's how you stand upright. It's how these little two feet we have hold us up. So, so you that, if that is weak, if if that is coming, if that's undone, you have a lot of of other issues that are coming from around that. And no just sitting and doing crunches and not doing any that's not, I mean, you're strengthening it, but you're not going to lose any of the pounds. So you gotta, kind of you gotta do both, and a great way to do that is to hit a trail. Plus, it's very meditative, and we talk about mental, physical and emotional well being. I mean, you can really open up your mind and your heart and become one with nature and outdoors, which we are supposed to be we're supposed to understand those cycles and understand the outdoors and be one with with everything that surrounds us, in our in our atmosphere, you know? So it's, it's twofold. It has a really, it's really good for your health and your wellness. Awesome, awesome. So
for Emily, this is the counter narrative. I am Rasheem, and we are talking about being brown and healthy. So you've really given us some really good things in terms of what we could do in terms of juicing, pre packaging, juicing, dancing is approved. Yay. Stretching, 150 minutes of cardio per week like we could do that, right? Yeah, hiking. So much fun that just sound like I'm such an explorer, I would love to hike somewhere. And the significance of court is there something else that our listeners could do like within the next. I don't know 30 days that they that, if they did, because you talked about developing new habits like 21 days, there's something to do in the next third, over the next 30 days that you think that will give them a pretty good impact.
Yes,
go in.
I challenge everyone for the next 30 days to drink half their body weight in ounces every single day, ounces of what? Water, okay, sorry, go drinking half your weight liquor. No,
clarified.
Somebody would have been like,
Yep, so many of us are dehydrated, yes. And then with dehydration, you have a lot of ailments. Your muscles hurt, your bones hurt. You can't think straight. You have headaches. It just we're made of water, so we need to drink half our weight in ounces of water every single day,
and I will be the first one to tell you I am guilty of not doing that, so I have to join this challenge as well. I do drink a lot of water, though. Like in my refrigerator, you're not going to see anything but water and maybe some tea. And right now, I'm on a ginger ale kick, just because I'm, I'm really honest and transparent. I'm trying not to drink alcohol for, I don't know, I don't even know, maybe a couple of weeks or something. But I'm using the ginger ale to just Hey, be like, Hey, I wanted something a little stronger than water, so let me just have something. Hey, you gotta, you gotta do it. Ginger Ale on a wine glass, you know what I mean. So I think that also, if you're not allergic, try coconut water as well. A lot of people don't like it, but, I mean, it doesn't taste like anything to me, but it's actually super great for hydration. It's the only like juice from, I think coconut is fruit, right? It's considered a fruit, um, it's the only nut. It's a nut, obviously, clearly, Thanks, Ryan, duh. Um, but if the juice can be put in IVs and put directly into your bloodstream, that's, that's how, that's how potent it is, and it's a natural kind of remedy for being dehydrated. So try that out, too. If you find that you want to mix it up a little bit, throw some coconut water in there and puzzle that down, and you'll you'll really start to feel great.
And some people like to infuse their water with fruit. If you're going to do that, that's fine, but try and get as much pure water in your body as possible. Because, remember, fruit has sugar, unused sugar turns to fat. So just think about that way, half your body weight, so half my pounds in ounces, right? So if someone weighs 200 pounds, they have to drink 100 ounces a day. Okay, so here, here's the trick on doing that. So you wake up in the morning, you brush your teeth. As soon as you're done brushing your teeth, drink 20 ounces before you even have coffee or tea, whatever it is you have in the morning, but you better have breakfast. If not. You gotta see me. Um,
they also say that heightens into your thought process to drink first thing in
the morning, right heightens your thought process. Gets the digestive system awake and ready for the day. And then right after you have breakfast, you drink another eight to 20 ounces. So then again, you have a snack, you drink water with that, your lunch water before, during after, before you know it, you've already drank 100 ounces, and it's what, four o'clock in the afternoon.
I feel, I feel like Lynette tricking us. Y'all she making this out so easy.
Not easy. It's not easy. I'm not gonna say that. It does take practice. Um, I'm not perfect at it. I have my days where I can guzzle a gallon and a half, and then other days I'm like, struggling to get my water intake in. No, that's so I'm not perfect. You know, I'm not ever gonna say that, but keep trying, keep working at it, and you build up to it, but when you start feeling how great your body is looking and you're feeling the energy, and your skin is clear. You're going to say, hey, I need my water. You're going to realize when your stomach you feel like you're having hunger pangs. You're actually thirsty. Drink water first. Wait 10 minutes and you'll see you don't have hunger pangs anymore. You actually thirsty.
Notice, good stuff. So before I let you guys know, I want to know a little bit more about both of the organizations, la fuerza fitness as well. Listen, my arse, I'm. Working on it, la fuerza fitness, as well as brown and healthy. I know you guys have an initiative coming up. I want you to guys to let everybody know about that, as well as, how can they reach out to you? How can they connect follow
all of that good stuff. So I'll briefly talk about la fuerza fitness, so Michelle can go in on the brown and healthy initiative and our event coming up. So la fuerza fitness started out of my journey from healing from lupus and fibromyalgia, or overcoming rather, because I am not cured, I live with the disease. La fuerza is my nickname that I was given to me after my mother died. La fuerza means the strength. After my mother died, when I was 19, my godmother would always tell me to la fuerza, you are the force. You are the strength. Sigue Palante, keep moving forward. No mere Patras, don't look back. And so through that, I had to find my strength when I was going through lupus treatment and just constantly being disappointed with my body because it wasn't responding well to treatment. And so la fuerza became my daily mantra. Like I am la fuerza. I can do this. I got this. I can walk to the bathroom. I can feed myself like those little things. And so la puerta fitness was born after I went through physical therapy, aqua therapy, learned how to walk again, and all that good stuff. And I started working with a trainer. And then my trainer said, Well, you're a trainer, so get to it. And so my birthday last year, November 4, I launched left Bucha fitness. Oh,
it's almost about to have a birthday coming up.
Oh yeah,
oh yeah, and it's your birthday too, of course. But alright, no, that's awesome. And I love the I love that you shared part of that story, and it makes me that much more interested in trying to make sure I get that name right, the strength. So I appreciate that. And Brian healthy, what's up?
Right? I gotta follow that, right? So before I do that, I just wanted to show you something. Okay, to the ECU. So we use this. This is a plastic container you can get from like a Rite Aid, a Walmart. I would say Walmart is probably cheaper. Um, it's, I don't know how many, how many. This holds five quarts of water, right? So, yeah, so we're fortunate. It's kind of like, you know how they sell them in Deer Park. The Deer Park comes in, you can get one in this size. It's just similar to that. So we're fortunate. It depends on how you look at it, but we try to be optimistic. Our water here comes out boiling hot so we don't have to boil the water. It actually, like, it's, it's, yeah, it's really bad, boiling hot, yeah, yeah. It comes out of our faucet. Like, super hot thing. There are no children here, right? Um, but we're using it to our advantage. And so what we do is we fill this up to the top from the straight from the faucet and put it in the refrigerator. Now, I was born in 1981 I used to cool and so was she. I used to pour water out of the faucet and drink it, um, and it was okay. I am here. You are here, I'm sure remember faucet water, because if you look at faucet water and bottled water, faucet water is, number one, way more regulated. They have to check it at least, I think, three times a month to make sure that it's it's safe, unless you're in Flint. Was it Flint? Unless you're that's a whole nother story. But, um, they have to check it at least three times a month. Bottled water is shelved and it sits in warehouses for we don't know how long, um, they just started, maybe a couple years back, started making bottle companies put that is not spring water, and putting where they're getting the water from Dasani is tap water. Just so you know, there's a sister out there who's done this test where she does the alkaline testing on the look that up on YouTube, I'm sure. Just put in like, the alkaline test for the bottled waters, you'll find that there are a lot of pollutants and issues with bottled water, and you're paying for that. So I'm a little bit old school. Well, if you want to boil your water, if it doesn't come out as hot as ours do, ours does, but you can save a lot of money that way, and you can always, you'll always have a drink. You. Know. So I know I cut into my brown and healthy time, but I spoke a lot about it earlier. But let me just say that brown and healthy is a global health and wellness initiative for people of color. It's mental, physical and emotional well being. We just won the elevation award from Baltimore core and a slew of other partners, meaning that they just gave us $10,000 toward our innovative programming idea for brown and Healthy Kids, kids is also an acronym kindness, intelligence, determination and strength. It couldn't have come at a better time, because and that funding is going to help us that that's actually, that funding is actually going to help us put that, put those, put the programming in schools and community centers and different places all throughout West Baltimore. It's focused on West Baltimore, but it couldn't come at a better time, because we were planning to do a fundraiser for brown and healthy, the organization. We have a speaker series every second and fourth Tuesday of the month at dovecote cafe, where we have brown health professionals and all walks of the narrative come in and talk about what they do and how can help you, and there's a talk back session. And it's really awesome that we hope to grow into something a lot bigger. But we're having a fundraiser this Thursday, 922 um, at the wind up space, and you can find out more information about it going to brown and healthy.com. Right now. Hey, there it is. Thank you. Rasheem, you can click that link right now. And if you go to get your tickets and put in the code benefit 50, I'm going to write that in here. Oh. Code benefit 50, you'll get your tickets for half off until 930 tomorrow morning. So as opposed to paying $20 for a ticket, you're going to pay $10 for a ticket. We have the best of the best performers who are also arts activists and working with young people and and people of all ages in the community to uplift and change the narrative. Our whole mission is to change the narrative, change the world. We have to start taking abstract idea and making it tangible, and then we're starting from with every walk of life. So that's Brown and healthy, and we hope to see you at the benefit concert, because it's going to be a DAG on good time. Oh, it's filing auction so you can get some things.
So let people know how they can contact you. How can they get Snapchat? Website, you already mentioned that
Instagram, yeah, everything, everything Brown and healthy. You don't have, well, love the poet has a Snapchat. But since Instagram introduced stories, I must say I'm doing the stories on Instagram. You can go to love the poet, l, o, v, e, t, h, e, t, o, e, t, um, and you can find Brown and healthy there as well. B, r, O, W, n, a, n, d, healthy. Lynette is putting hers in there right now.
These are my Facebook web pages.
Okay, okay, and yeah, and just type in brown and healthy. And Facebook make sure you space Brown, space and space healthy, because sometimes it doesn't show up. Or if you just look at the hashtag Brown and healthy, you can find us that's everywhere. Awesome song, don't, don't. Use of the poet.com that's not gonna take you. That's not gonna take you where you need to go. We have evolved. If you want to see my artist work in my I'm also on the radio, so tune in tomorrow at 88.9 FM, W, EA, the mark Steiner show for my segment booth, stories, I'll be interviewing. I can't talk tonight, yeah, I'll be interviewing. Shelly says, so who is also hosting the fundraiser event and a stage I'm curating at the Baltimore book Fest on Friday called Rock the podium. Rock
the podium, awesome. Thank you guys for being here. I want to thank everybody who is still here in the room with us. Ryan, thank you for being here. If Malcolm is still up and he didn't go to bed yet, tell him, I said, Thank you. Steph, thank you for being here. Dr, vibe, I appreciate you coming on today. I think I'm saying it right. If I'm not charge it to my head and not to my heart, I want to say it right today. And of course, love the poet, aka Michelle Antoinette Nelson, as well as Lynette Cabo. I don't know why I want to say, like, I said it right? Yes, oh, like when I get a name, right? Thank you again. So much for. Participating in this, sharing your inner genius, letting your inner slay, combined with my slave. What's your cat's name? Aura
Ruby. And she wanted to say, Hi, Ruby.
Like, I don't got time for y'all. You know, I don't got time. Thank you again and good night
peace. Good night peace.