Mi Pandemic Health Experience

this fine day. I'm feeling amazing, are you? Yeah, I'm feeling good. I've been feeling really really good lately. You know, it's crazy because it's like the healthier I get, the better I feel. And I never thought that would be possible because I always felt like I look good, I feel good. But now it's like a different feel good and look good. But you've made the lifestyle changes though, that's the reason why I feel. Yeah, No, for sure, it's a daily thing now. It's not you know, thirty

pounds and thirty days anymore. Before me, you know, it was always like crash that you know, I've struggled with my weight, my whole life. My mom was like, you know, I've always I've always been a big girl. Just now I feel like I caught the right rhythm and the right wave during the pandemic. How is everything with you? Because I know like you do yoga. I used to.

I used to, but you know, well after I noticed a big shift for you, I want to focus on you really quickly because I did notice that after you know, your situation happened with your stroke and everything where you giving guidance from your doctors. Because I started noticing you posting your breakfast that NOONI was making you you would get like almonds and young burn and fresh fruit. Yeah. It was like a combination of the doctors and me

realizing that I can heal myself through foods. I was always like online, like, you know, the stroke is a brain injury. So I then I started foods that helped with the brain nutrition and brain function. And then I just started to just do that only because I was like, Okay, I gotta heal myself. I gotta heal my brain. So then it was just like, Okay, you gotta eat a

lot of salmon, you gotta eat berries. So I kind of like adopted a diet that would help me heal myself from the stroke, and decided that, you know, I wasn't going to poison myself in any which way because how I look, you know, having a stroke which did not happen for health reasons. You know, I want to put that out there. I did not have high blood pressure, I did not have diabetes. I was not an unhealthy person.

You know, it was just a freak accident. The only thing they were able to link it to was birth control. They couldn't find anything else. I didn't have hard problems, nothing. When I was being transported because you know, I went to a rehab. When I was being transported from the hospital to the rehab, can you believe the E M. S. Worker said, Okay, now time to take care of your health. I'm like, you fucking asshole. You don't even know why I had a stroke, and you over here telling me

I was being unhealthy. Right, just take me where you need to take me. He diagnosed you on the ride. You know what I mean, you know what happened. I guess he assumed, like, okay, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, poor diet. I guess you just made all these types of assumptions. I'm like, first of all, I was a healthy person and I still am. I decided I wasn't going to poison my body or my brain, and I was just going to try to heal myself because food

heals absolutely naturally too. You know, I've always been very health conscious and like, I just think that over over time, you know, I fell into the run. Yes, I was having wine every night, and yes, then I was having like you know, I was, I was indulging in letting myself go a little bit. But I always do a good job of bringing myself back. You know that. It's not like you were at McDonald's getting the number two with supersized fries. You ways have a glass of wine.

But you know what, you're a female, you're a mom, you're a working woman. A glass of wine every now and then. You know you didn't say a bottle of wine. No, No, I mean some knights of bottle. Yes, when I was crying and I would be like, you know, my tears would make it salty. You know what I'm talking about? It? Oh, please forget it. Like you know, I'm like crying, What

am I going to do? How about it's going to do? This, but like, no, you know, the one thing that I did do was I evaluated, Okay, I'm forty three years old. I had my breast implants put in in two thousand and three, and I went for a mammogram. Um what I go every year, but at this point, I went for a mammogram and the person who was doing my mammograham told me she was like, you know, it looks like your implants have somewear and tear. You may want

to look into getting them replaced. And she's like, how long have you had them? And I said, you know, I've had them for seventeen years. This woman almost fell on the floor. She said, what I said, fell on the floor right now, because I know it's like a certain amount of time and it's not seventeen years. Women, Well, no, you know what they actually do say either ten years you should go for like a tune up, or when

there's wear in tear, you know. So I just said, you know, I had not said, what the hell has Mark been doing with these that you got? Well there it's you know what it is, having kids, coming out of having kids, breastfeeding all of that, John, And so we knew that, like, yeah, no, but that's okay. No, he did tear it up a little bit. But but now I we knew that we weren't going to be having any more children. And then after that, Mammogram, I said, you know, I really have to focus on me, like

I have to focus on making time for this. But again, and I hate, you know, I don't want you guys thinking that, like all we're talking about is the pandemic, but like this is the reality of our last year and a half. You know, I feel like we're still in a damn pandemic. Watching Good Day New York and the school in Harlem went remote mad kids with COVID, Like, oh,

that was weeks ago. Yeah, no, I know, Yeah, it's just crazy, you know, and like every day we're going to be hearing stories, you know, and people are just trying to get back on track. So during the pandemic that you used to yeah, this was right at the beginning. And I said, I'm not missing my mammogram. I said, you know what, no matter what, I know, there was like storms and everything. I remember we had no power and I was like I couldn't even call to see

if my appointment was still on. I was like forget that I'm just showing up. After that, I had to talk with the lady and then I thought to myself, you know what I really do, I should focus on myself and get these out if they're really, like, you know, in bad shape. So I went to my doctor. By the way, he's not paying for this. I paid full price for my dets uh doctor to tell over in New Jersey, and I had him evaluate me and he just said, look, he goes, I want you to do

me a favor. He's like, I know that this is gonna make you uncomfortable, but I want you to at least see three other surgeons. He's like, see three other people get their opinions. And because he basically said, he doesn't want anybody coming to him, you know, uninformed, you know, so he wanted to make sure that I felt the most comfortable with him, that you know something that no, no, not at all, and so um so I ended up going to a bunch of different doctors and I decided

to go with him. I said, you know, this is time like I feel comfortable with you. You always make me feel at ease. And you know, I ended up getting my breast implants replaced and I got a little lift, you know, because mom was forty three and I needed to get these girls perked up. You know, you got the third teen, No girl, I got the like I got the twenty eight year old ones that you know, they they they're not really like up to my chin,

but they're kind of like they're realistic. My headlights are straight, they're pointing in the right direction. You know, um where you scared changing them? Like what if he picked the among the side where you shook, because I would be shook, you know what. I First of all, I had to go during and I was more scared, honestly to go to the hospital during the pandemic, because I said to my husband, I go, I'm literally going in and like, I got it, You're in and out. You I went

to recovery. They let me come home, and at that point in time, going to any place and visiting it was giving me anxiety. You know what, I imagine, Oh my god, I died fixing my implants as that was gonna go on my damn tombstone, right, So I know, and that's what I said. But it was also like it was a necessity, like after seventeen years, they were

just like, and then I began thinking to myself. You know, throughout this time, everybody kept saying, oh, well, when the pandemic is over, Oh, when the pandemic is over, And so I kept saying to myself, what if I have to go back to work and I never got this done and I had the opportunity to recuperate at home, you know, so I was in a hurry to just

get it done because we work in the city. I was like, I'm not trying to go and wear a seatbelt on my new girls and you know what I mean, like it's even driving or carrying a handback do none of that, right, Yeah, totally. So um, you know I did it. Am I glad. I did it one million percent. I'm so glad, Like I feel more comfortable now. But like, there were girls who were going in and getting full body makeovers during the pandemic because they didn't have to

be out and about. They had full time to recover. Yes, so a report that said plastic surgery was way up during the pandemic because it's like, you know, whoever had that money was like, fuck it, nobody's gonna see me. I'm gonna be laid up at home, let's just do it now, and not just women men, Even men were going in and getting like facelifts or getting like their calves done. I saw something. I was like, who even thinks to get their calves done? But then again, like,

let's not seen some bad legs on these men. Chicken little I know somebody who definitely would benefit from some caffeine plans. Yes, no, So it's like, you know what. I took that time and I said to myself, like, this is where I'm going to like really focus on me. I only had to miss one day on the air, which is that's amazing, Carolina. I had it done on a Thursday, so I missed on Friday. I was back

downstairs in my seat doing the show on Monday. Let me ask you a question, who did you want to kill? Who jumped on you or who hit your boobs a by mistake? And you were like, jump on you the freaking dog, dude. And by the way, her name is Rain. She did not act like she is a monster, you know, but beautiful. That's my dream dog, she really is. But you know, I will say this like she has kept me active throughout this pandemic. I'm not even kidding because

every day she's a big dog. She's a German Shepherd. If you guys haven't seen her, go to my Instagram at the real Carolina. She's beautiful. She's a beautiful dog. But she is feisty, you know what I mean, Like she needs a lot of attention. It's a puppy, right, Yeah, she's a puppy. So, like, you know, I said to my husband, I was like, I can't do anything. I need you to get like, you know, come home, walk

the dog, like during your lunch hour. Sure enough, he can't make it one time because the fine of his was late, and who has to take the dog out? Me? And what did she do? Like I swear she pulled the leash so hard. And this is when she was a puppy. So it's like you've got to make sure that when you do things like this that you like think about yourself and say, no, I am not going to be the person that you can count on at

this time. I need to figure out my stuff. I need to count on me alone, you know what I mean. And like that was a really difficult thing for me to do because I'm so used to taking care of everybody. No, I can't imagine, I know what the boobs. It's like I had a breast reduction probably like six seven years ago, and Jesus, I couldn't do anything for a long time. Yeah,

I was like, uh anything. I remember I was taking a train and I was like, if somebody bumps into me, today is gonna be a today that I fight somebody on this somewhere. Today's when you choose violence. Uh, And we don't want ever choose violence, but I want I want that button more violence. But honey, you look so good and like it's about what your routine has been because I can see that you've incorporated more fitness, take

care of your you know what you eat, what you're consuming. Yeah, No, definitely. I consume only mostly foods that can nourish the body. It's a weird thing, but I think of it when I'm eating it, like is this poisoning me? Or is this like spreading all over me? Like a strawberry it's being good, a blueberry it's it's being good. Or a French fry? Is it poisoning me? Is it hindering my recovery? It was physical and it was it was mental. So

it's like I had to think about both. You know, it's like when you have a stroke, the brain forgets you have an arm and you have a leg. The brain forgets about the side of your body that is affected, which for me was my left So it's like I needed my brain to be an optimal health, not just you know, regular health. Like if I tell you the amount of things I've done to try to recover fully, I even did oxygen therapy, like where they put you

in a pressurized tank. I did months of that. So it's like I couldn't be doing all that and then eating fast food impossible, Like why am I spending thousands and thousands of dollars on these you know, holistic approaches and then I'm going to be eating trash food? Hell now.

So it's just like everything I consume, I tried for it to be you know, nutritious and you know, just beneficial towards me as a person that in conjunction with the physical therapy, which sometimes would be six twelve hours a week, it depended days, I would do physical therapy for two or three hours a day. So wow, So that's what really propelled me to like lose the exist weight that I did not need because I was working

all day trying to build muscles. You know, the muscles on the left side of my body just shut down like when you turn off a car. So I had to get them all back in order. So it required it, you know, a lot of hours in the gym, a lot of hours with personal trainers, physical therapists. So my life, you know, for nine months until right now, it's mostly you know, recovering, working out, physical therapy, and it's like, yeah,

I would do the treadmill on two points. Oh, but when you're so weak, that's tough and it's waste a lot of calories. That's what happened. You know. It's just me trying to get better, me trying to recover lad to you know, the best version of me. I'm like, damn, I haven't been like I'm like a hundred and forty eight pounds. I haven't been this since I was twelve years old. And I would saying and at one point, you know, people that know me know I was heavy.

At one point, I was two hundred and thirty pounds, and then I went on a health kake. You know, I lost weight, Like I've lost the weight throughout the years. But now during the pandemic and after the stroke, I dropped thirty pounds. I don't celebrate it because it wasn't like, wow, look at me, I got snatched, you know. It was just like I had to work my ass off to be able to walk again, and in turned, I lost

this weight. So it's it's a weird thing. It's like bitter sweet, yeah, you know, because I'm so happy I lost all this weight, but I'm not happy because of what happened that how you had the course of events that made you have to make that change. So it's like I want to and I want to post cute pictures and I want to get all these outfits, but I'm like, bitch, you lost this damn weight because you have to learn how to walk again. Relax, calm down.

It's not that serious. But that's okay too, though, But that is a celebration of who you are. You shouldn't be so critical, you know, Like I mean, you should take those moments to really put yourself out there and shine because you've earned it, I know. But then I feel weird, like you didn't lose this weight because you went to the gym when you were you know, able and fit and when you should have gone to the gym. This is because you had to fight for your life

that you ended up losing this damn weight. So it makes me feel a little weird because I'm like, yo, I could have been like this my whole life if I wouldn't have been so lazy, or I wouldn't have not gave priority to me and my health. So it's weird. I will I'll put a little snatch the picture every every now and then, but I don't really take pictures that much now either, Carolina. I still don't feel comfortable. That's gonna take time, you know, I think it is.

And I think that maybe people listening right now, I think to themselves, like, oh, well, Honey had a team of people. Honey had physical therapists, and she had this, and she had that. But you know what it's like, but ever forget forget that these people. My body was dead on one side getting on a treadmill. I have to use a harness to use a treadmill because I physically could not hold myself up. So it's like, yeah, I had a team of people, but you have an

able body. How about that? It was like some iron manship. They had you in like harnesses and stuff, and they had you like yoked up to all of these different machines and monitoring you like everything everything, But you know what it was just the will, the will to want to get better and the will to want to be healthy again and to have my life again. You know it was None of those people could have put that in here or in here, you know, they couldn't put

that in my heart. You know, there's people that have strokes and never get back up. They just say, fuck it. It is what it is. I'm in a wheel chair now, and you know, so it's not it's not the people around you. It's your fight. It's the fight you know that you have to really be better, to get better and to live a better life. So it's like anything

that anyone is going through. You know, if you're listening right now, if you put your mind to it, and I know it's like, oh, easier said than done, Well guess what I did it. So you can't tell me easier said than done. If I did it, you can do it too. You know, whatever it is that you're going through, you just every day, work a little bit and you'll wake up a year later and I'm like, oh, Ship,

look at this, I got better. I just want to point out for the record that you know, Honey is talking about learning how to walk again, how to move her arms. I just talked about getting new titties. Guys, that's all. I'm here for. What I mean, I'm I'm bringing the substance everybody. I want you all to know. No, I'm just messing around. But it's true. Let me look at what you do. You know, you're learning how to

do things again. But like, mentally, this is something that you just hit on, and I think that that's true your mental strength and my own mental strength. I'll tell you in different ways, you know what. At first of all, we didn't touch too much about the fact that you bad withed COVID. You know, like you didn't tell me about your symptoms. That ship was crazy. You go, how scared you work, Carolyne. I am scared. I'm terrified at catching COVID. How did you feel when that test came

back positive? Well, first of all, I was furious because I had been so careful. I lost friendships during COVID for real, because like you know what it is, I'm not a hypocrite and I'm not saying, and I'm just like always you guys know, we keep it all the

way real with you here. Um. I had some friends that were like, oh, no, I'm not going out, I'm not doing this, But then they would have like a play date with six of their kids friends over and the moms would stay and they'd have wine, and I like, I just wasn't doing anything to put myself or my family in jeopardy. And I said, the biggest risk that we took as a family was having Mark go into work every day because I was truly keeping my little nest.

I never wanted anybody to kind of penetrate that like safety wall that I had put up for me and my children. But then I just remember when I got it, I was so upset because I was like I was heartbroken actually because I felt like I did all the right things. I did everything I was supposed to do, Like why is this happening to us? And then I went into super mom mode. I had kids that had a hundred and three fever, so I said, you had

all of us, We all ended up getting it. And when I tell you, as a person who was asthmatic and was very afraid to get it, I am grateful to sit here and say to you today that in my head it was much scarier than it actually was. But I don't want that to to lessen the effect of like what I went through, because it was awful. It was ten days of aches, pains, not being able to breathe, being short or short of breath, losing all

of my taste, which was just like for me. You know, I cook all the time for my kids, and I remember we ordered Greek food and I looked at my husband across the table and I just started crying. I said, I can't taste anything. He said what, and I said, I just I said, there's nothing there and I lost my taste. It took me a couple of months to get it back. And that's why I say like months, and I was doing I was looking up on the internet, like you know, people were saying, like burnt orange peels,

trying to get it back on your own. Everything I could, yes, because it was just like you know, I'm like, no, I want my taste, don't want my smell. I couldn't smell anything, and think about it. One of the most comforting things at night when I lay with my babies. We have our nighttime routine. I lay in bed with

them with Mark. We say our prayers and we go to bed, and something that I do is I give them both kisses on their forehead and I just take a big whiff, like because they've already been bathed, and you know, I smell my babies. I was like so upset about the fact that I was like, oh my gosh, what if I don't get it back, because you know, there are people with these long standing symptoms that are still you know, the long haulers. You know, older brother had COVID and he still has a cough. Quote he

had COVID last year, the lingering cough. Yeah, no, it was at all. But you know what I just say to myself mentally, after what we have been through, I feel like I can take on a lot more. I feel like I'm like, Okay, I don't want to welcome it, but like, I'm very proud of the way that we came through this whole thing as a family, but me as a woman, just me speaking, you know, for myself. I actually was very surprised at the resilience that I had.

How you could be a hundred and have a hundred and three fever feel like total ship and still take care of your family. You know. It was very challenging, but I'm glad that we got through it together. You know, that's amazing. One of my biggest fears still is getting COVID, So like, you know, the fact that you were able to you know, it's still function as a mom. You gotta find a way. The kids are hungry. You gotta

figure it out, you know, like I mean. And it wasn't like we were getting deliveries and god bless my friends, we were getting deliveries at the door. People were sending sup they were sending a bunch of stuff to us, and even just to warm it up in a pan was a lot for me, you know what I mean. Like, and then I have to do the dishes after and stuff, and so it's like I'm not gonna like physically popped. It's like, yo, you're battling COVID. But you still gotta

feed your family. You do. And that's and that's the reality of it. And also kind of like modeling for your children. When life gets you down, you gotta push through it. You know. I said to my husband, I go, we can't have them living in squalor, like we got to clean up. Like I said to them, like come on, guys, let's go, you know. And at the end of the day, I think that they now realized like the reason why Mommy was so crazy about them not going out, Like

they realized that after they're like, wow, Mommy COVID is serious. Yeah, it's it's not that mom was overreacting, you know, no, absolutely, And so you know, I think that there are many things that I've come out of this, like looking back and like, you know, we started the conversation with like talking about my plastic surgery, which you know, it wasn't necessary thing, it was not just for cosmetic reasons, and like you know, and then just realizing poetically you have

to get and replaced an amount of years. Right. Yeah. But in the big picture though, it's like, you know, you look at at everything that you've gone through, and I don't know, I just I really encourage women because you know, I think we have a lot of people who listen. You know, we might have a handful of guys who listen to which I totally appreciate. Maybe it gives you perspective into what your wife or your girlfriend or your mom or your sisters are feeling, and I

love that. I just definitely think that we as women need to stop down and take that time and say, nope, I'm gonna do this for me. And that's exactly what I did. You have to especially like in Latino households, you know, la Mama is the one that's always and that's what they're saying. It's like one thing I you know, I love about the Manican women that it's like, yo, all week would kill ourselves, but guess what Saturday, after that house is cleaned, or even if the house is

not clean, we're gonna get our hair done. That's a fact. And that little act of self care, even if it's once a week, it's important, and you know it means something especially to moms, you know, yeah, they do so much.

And you know what, No, there was something that we were talking about before um that I did want to touch back on, you know, because like we were talking about you getting your you know, your nutrition and your workouts and your physical strength back, and you know we're talking about me and it's like taking inventory of where you are at is important and how many times do you do that? Think about it? Because I don't do

it enough. I'm just going through my day where it's I'm just kind of like a steam rolling through things. You got to stop and take a minute and say, like where am I at? What can I work on for me? What's gonna make me feel better? You know? And there are so many resources now, so for example, for people who want to eat better. Honestly, this is something that I do all the time. It's one of

my little hacks. Like whatever I want to grow in, I go to social media, and this is where I think it's so important for us to share, whether it's a struggle or a success. It is so important to like be able to go on there and I'll put in a hashtag, even if it's hashtag healthy eating, and I'll start seeing different accounts like of people who practice healthy eating or like people who can come up with

a meal plan for you. You don't necessarily have to pay for these things anymore, but you've got to put in the time and the research, and that's where it's really going to show up on whether or not you want to do this, not for sure, Like I love me a hashtag, you know, I'll put hashtag brain foods, and then I'll look and even if it's a graphic you know, which is pictures of there, it is okay, so I need to eat dark chocolate, Okay, I need blueberries,

I need sins. You know that I'm serious. Even with a simple hashtag, you can find some guidance in whatever area is that you know that you feel like you're lacking or you want to you want to improve. Social media can be a friend too. I want to encourage people to do that, you know, because there may be people listening right now that want to make that change and they just don't know how to do it. So

you know, that's where I say, hashtag homework out. If you don't have if you don't have a gym, if you can't afford a trainer, be because let's face it, they're expensive and a lot of people are watching their money right now, especially after you know, the past year and a half, hashtag at home workouts. You will get your at home workouts where you can switch it up. You know, YouTube, you they have. I have this one girl that I follow. She does the most amazing, like,

you know, ten minutes at home workouts. It doesn't need to be that deep. If you got YouTube on a tablet you can even put YouTube on your TV. You know, these smart TVs are amazing. Now, have you guys checked out Isaac Boots? I want to get Isaac Boots on this show. Have you checked out Isaac Boots? Oh my gosh. I used to watch his videos. He would go live at like eleven a m. On Instagram and I was like, oh, hell no, nobody bothered me. Right now, Isaac Boots is on.

I'm trying to work on my tushi because you guys know I don't have a butt, but don't get me started on but I got my pancake booty over here. But Isaac Boots would offer a class eleven am every day. I don't know if he does it anymore because honestly, like now that I'm like in work mode, he is amazing you guys. And oh it's outside with this dog everywhere. I already love him follow And he has these like workouts. He has these little weights that you can put on

and so you never know what you can discover. And that's what I really want people to focus on. You know, So even if you've been brought up using you know monte Gio, I say, then you know cooking all of your stuff and that there are ways that you can find those alternatives, and we want to help you find those resources. Carolena, my air fry has saved my life. I'll tell you that much. I don't eat it unless

I can make it in the air fire. Let me send you my salm and recipe, child, because it's so good. I'm talking yeah to me because God, I have to eat that every day. My husband will kill me. But if I don't eat, oh, you gotta get back on your salm and ship. You know he monitors everything I eat to make sure it's brain friendly. Can we give a special shout out to my boy Noony who you know? I just you know, I have a special place in my heart from and let me tell you, boy really

showed up and showed out. He's been He's been absolutely amazing. You know we're gonna talk about that, you know, in a different episode. Choose your damn spouse right, because when ship goes down, bro, that is who's gonna hold you down. You better not be out here waiting time with these fun boys because if you marry him, he's gonna be the same exact person when she goes down. And you funked up in a hospital, preach, honey, that is going to be the next topic for real, because we got

to talk. I mean, there are a lot of fools out there acting up and we need to get you girls like you. You need to be treated with the respect and honor that you deserve, and we're going to touch that next time. But if you guys have questions, send them to us. We are social media account is at LLI Spanglish or you could also just send them to us d M is directly at the Real Carolina or I am honey chairman. And then also we're gonna

answer your questions. We'll go to the salon. We'll answer whatever questions that you may have had over these past couple of months. We're ready for them and we want to answer them for you. So and you guys know we're super transparent and whatever you guys want to know, you know we're here to serve it out absolutely like and subscribe so that you guys can hear the next episodes.

We want you to be a part of it. It's life in Spanguish and Honey and I we are so glad to be back with you, so definitely make sure you check us out. Life in Spanglish is a production of Life in Spanguish Productions in partnership with I Hearts Michael Podcast Network.