WELLTHY Generation Podcast!

41. "I give a F*ck about Hormones Now" with Traveler Charly

July 11, 2024 • Naihomy Jerez • Episode 41

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Get ready to be inspired as we sit down with Traveler Charly a non-binary Latinx money coach who transitioned from being a formerly undocumented immigrant from Mexico to a successful financial advisor. Charly opens up about their journey, including the intense challenges of managing eczema and hypothyroidism. Their story is not just about financial independence but also about achieving wellness through a holistic approach, emphasizing the importance of gut health and hormone balance.

We dive into the complexities of living with chronic health conditions and the emotional toll they can take. Charly provides insightful anecdotes about ineffective treatments and the frustrations of not being properly diagnosed. Learn crucial tips for managing hormone health, such as the best times to consume coffee and the benefits of nutritious foods like bone broth. This conversation underscores the vital role of comprehensive medical testing and a holistic approach to well-being.

Charly also shares their transformational journey of changing lifestyle habits for improved health and happiness. Discover the significant shifts they made, from refining their diet and fitness routines to balancing spending habits for a better quality of life. With personal stories and practical advice, this episode is a testament to the power of community support and the value of investing in your health and future. Don't miss this compelling episode filled with wisdom and actionable steps for a healthier, wealthier life.

Connect with Charly
Instagram| Email list | Website
Host: Unicorn Millionaire Podcast

Podcast Episodes Mentioned
31. Understanding Your Top 5 Hormones and 14 Tips to Get Balanced - Part 1

32. Understanding Your Top 5 Hormones and 14 Tips to Get Balanced - Part 2

37. Emotions You Will Navigate While Balancing Your Hormones: The Positive & Negative

38. Hormone Imbalance Is Not Your Fault: How Capitalism & Convenience Affect You

Health Coaches Mentioned
Veronica Paige | Ayurvedic Health
Agatha/ nutritional coach, trauma specialist

Thank you so much for listening!
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Naihomy:

Hey friends, welcome back to another week of wealthy generation podcast. I am excited to have another guest with me today, traveler Charlie. I said that nice and slow because I was practicing before and it turned into a tongue twister.

Charly:

A lot of earth Traveler.

Naihomy:

Charlie is here. Traveler. Charlie is here and as much as we're giggling and having a great time is gonna be an episode that hopefully you feel super, super seen in is as much fun as it is really important information for you to have. I am excited for charlie to share their story on why are they even on this podcast? To begin with, it's been a long, long journey and I am excited for them to share. So, charlie, please introduce yourself.

Charly:

Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm so excited for this Always a good time with you.

Charly:

My name is Charlie, or Traveler Charlie. On socials. I'm a non-binary Latinx money coach helping my LGBT BIPOC clients to work their way to early retirement, and I love helping my clients build their credit scores, get better credit cards, get out of the free credit cards and into the good credit cards with the perks so we can live our best lives free airport lounge access and invest for retirement and just feel better overall about our money. And I'm a digital nomad. I've been to 34 countries and at the time of this recording, I'm currently in Washington DC, so I like coming back to the US in the summer and being abroad the rest of the year. So that's a little bit about me. Oh, and I was undocumented. I was born in Mexico, which is important for me to talk about as well too, so folks can feel like they resonate with my background. Formerly undocumented, had my green card until senior year of college when I got my US citizenship, even though I lived here basically all my life. So that's a little bit about me.

Naihomy:

So so good. So, Charlie, let us know what you thought about hormones and overall health.

Charly:

Oh gosh what, what, what I'm like are you titling this like how to give a fuck about hormones?

Naihomy:

because that's what I think you should title it, because you helped me give a fuck about hormones yes, one day I got a message from Charlie and they were like you helped me give a fuck about hormones, or now I give a fuck about hormones, or it was a comment or something on a post that I did. And it all started. First of all, we met at a mastermind. We had the same business coach, katel Carmen, and this all started, I think, with oat milk or my opinion about oat milk or something like that, and then it started to unravel from there. But can you share with us what you thought about health, what you thought about yourself and how it kind of unraveled from there?

Charly:

Yeah, I mean I thought I was healthy Growing up. I my parents. I grew up in a rural town called Moses Lake, washington, where there was nothing to do. To me growing up Any town with a Costco was like a big city. We would drive like two hours out of town on weekends to have a bougie like weekend at Costco sometimes. So there was nothing to do except go to the movies or go to Walmart, maybe run into your high school ex or play sports and I played all of the sports.

Charly:

I played tennis. I was number one on the tennis team. In high school I played soccer. I remember going to the gym after sports practice, which is wild to me. But I also had an unhealthy, like childhood, very dysfunctional family and I realized that exercise and fitness and sports was a way for me to literally just stay out of the house as long as possible, um so, and I also had an unhealthy relationship with food where I would binge, eat a lot. I wouldn't purge, um, but I would eat a lot of chocolate, had a lot of anxiety, a lot of like sweets, chocolate. I always had a sweet tooth and and I would just work it off. I'd be like, oh, I'm not a bad person because I'll work it off later and it'll be fine, and that only like lasted for so long until I realized what you eat is just as important, or more as physical activity.

Charly:

And I've had eczema all of my entire life where my parents made me feel like it was my fault and I think that this past, eczema flare up really made me do a lot of inner child healing, where it was like as a kid I'd have flare ups here and then and every time it would happen my parents would act like surprised, like it was the first time this would happen.

Charly:

Instead, of telling me Charlie, you have a chronic illness called eczema. You're going to have it your entire life. But we're going to try figuring this out together. But our parents didn't have the tools that we have now. We don't have TikTok, we don't have. They didn't have access like health coaches online.

Naihomy:

Oh TikTok.

Charly:

They did not have any of this stuff, but my mom would try giving me like oatmeal baths, putting Savila on my skin, changing the laundry detergent, everything, and I'd have like flare ups here and there, but then I would be on and off steroid creams. Since I was like eight years old, that was the first time that we went to a dermatologist and I felt like I'd failed my parents, like it was my fault, and they were very disappointed that we had to go to a dermatologist.

Charly:

I don't know. The Mexican vibe is we're not going to the hospital, we're not going to the doctor unless you're literally dying, which is very unfortunate. So I thought I was doing everything I could to take care of myself. I didn't understand the relationship between hormone health, eczema and gut health at all.

Charly:

Like I thought my gut was good because I poop every day. As a kid I was very constipated because of the stress. Um, and then once I was like, oh, I'm pooping every day, I'm good, my gut is good, but that's just scratching the surface of it.

Naihomy:

So I thought I was, but I wasn't.

Naihomy:

I think you bring up so many good points because just just to be fair and like, bring a little bit more color to this, is not until I think recently that the connections are being made between gut health and blood sugar and all these things and chronic illnesses, let's say, like eczema, and and now linking it to gut health and a lot of autoimmune. Essentially, eczema is more like an autoimmune condition and it is linked to part of it gut health. But now, as I'm learning more because one of my sons suffers from it too, it can also be sparked by mold and yeast and and it depends on what part of the body it's from. So we can be really complicated and intricate. And, like you mentioned, the not lack of information, I guess, because it probably was out there somewhere, but lack of access is not as easy to get.

Naihomy:

Pre at least some sort of guidance now, even if it is through social media, where our parents even had like a little bit of ounce of a different thought of what this might be, and it seems like avoidance of what was happening was serving your parents for a little while until they had to deal with it when it flared up, and I know that even when my kids were little. That's how they tried to treat it with things like it was very topical right, like with the oatmeal baths and with the sabila. And even when I had taken my son to the general his general pediatrician they did give me a bunch of steroid creams too, and we also have taken more of a holistic approach and perspective into treating him as well. So when did you realize that maybe you weren't as well as you thought, or your habits and routines and maintaining your health was not serving you in the way that you thought anymore?

Charly:

I mean this past eczema flare up that I had. That started creeping up in early spring when I was living in Puerto Vallarta. That's where I spent seven months. I spend winters abroad because it's warmer, because I hate cold. I remember sitting in the room in LA with you in the mastermind in August of 2023 and being freezing and all y'all are sweating and fanning yourselves and I was like I'm fucking cold and you were like you should get your thyroid checked and it turned out I have fucking hypothyroidism.

Naihomy:

Yeah, yeah.

Charly:

And yeah, this spring, like around April, my eyebrows started thinning out. I was like what the fuck is happening to me? And that's a symptom of hypothyroidism but I didn't have to deal with it because I seek out warm climates.

Charly:

And it wasn't until my eyebrows thinned out that I was like, damn, my body is like screaming at me, and that was just one of the things that ended up being like hypoglycemic and being almost pre-diabetic too, and I didn't even go to the hospital until I started having these like cysts in my pelvis, like swell up, that have been there for a while, but they really like swelled up even more. And then I was like, well, I got to get this checked out and then my skin was like flaring up, but I was so used to just putting the steroid creams throughout these flare ups, and the flare ups would get worse and worse. Yeah, at the mastermind, I was putting on steroid creams, like on my face. Like every time I would go out, I'd put steroid creams on my face because it was just like, well, it's topical, put this on, it's a bandaid, and then hope it just resolves itself.

Charly:

Cause that's what would happen throughout my entire life. I'd put steroid creams, it would resolve itself, quote unquote. And I'd go about my business until the next flare up. But then this flare up really was different, where I was just like I can't keep doing these steroid creams and getting into this cycle, because the flare ups gotten worse and worse and and it got to the point where it just like hurt to smile, because my skin felt like glass shards all over my body, like my face was like swollen and red and itchy.

Charly:

Everything was horrible, like I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. And then I was like I need to figure this out because it's affecting my mental health and it I never associated with being a chronic illness.

Charly:

I never identified with somebody with a chronic illness before, even though it is that, because it didn't debilitate me to the point of not wanting to go out until this past flare up or I literally was like I'm going to stay inside. I don't want to deal with people asking me questions because you know I love my Mexicans, but Mexicans be hella dramatic and they'd be like and it would be fucking exhausting having to explain to people that I have a chronic illness called eczema and that's what it is. And I would get tired of like explaining myself to people as a trans, queer, non-binary person. People be asking me are you a boy or a girl? Like, and I'm so tired of having to explain myself so I would not leave the house. As much would would mentally like impact my mental health and it was just a snowball effect and I was like I got to change something else up because this the steroid creams have not healed me, that's just a bandaid Like something else is going on, even though I thought I was being healthy.

Naihomy:

Yeah, so when you went to the doctors they wouldn't give you any feedback or something else to do, something else to try remember getting ultrasounds done because I was like, do I have cancer or what they're?

Charly:

like? No, you just have. Uh, we did the blood work and then I ended up having a bacterial infection and then they put me I was on like three rounds of antibiotics in those two months, yeah, and then I got a staph infection because of all the itching and the open wounds and the scratching and cutting yourself and the water's not clean down there. I'd get infected even more. So it was just a lot of just like kill it, kill it, kill it, antibiotic everything and then I had a parasite anti-parasitic, which I probably still have something else going on in there.

Charly:

But it was just like but while I was there trying to get rid of this urgent thing, I was like let me check my thyroid levels, because Naomi told me to a year ago. So let me just do that thing, because it's cheaper down here in Mexico than in the US, so I probably check and maybe I eat.

Charly:

But health care is more accessible literally anywhere else outside of America, so I got all the blood sugar stuff done and the thyroid tests, and it was like all this other stuff came up for me that I was finally willing to imprint that alone.

Naihomy:

Gotcha. So what was it? Because I remember you told me you're like oh, I move often, I'm walking a lot, I eat pretty well, and that was your, I guess, baseliner standard for what being in good health meant.

Charly:

Yeah, for sure. I've seen my other friends destroy their bodies and eat chips and eat processed food and drink, drink, drink way more Like my friends make fun of me how lightweight I am. I was like oh well, they're drinking like five times more than I am.

Charly:

I'm good, but everybody's different, like you cannot compare yourself and in my health, manifest eczema is a very transparent disease. Other people might have pain, more hidden diseases, but I think if my disease weren't as transparent, it would have taken me way longer, because I just got tired of people's perception of me and having to explain myself to others. If it was pain in this definitely hands down, would have taken me way longer because I just got tired of people's perception of me and having to explain myself to others. If it was pain, this definitely hands down would have taken me even longer to seek help.

Naihomy:

Yeah, absolutely. I think you bring up such a great point where, if it's more like hidden conditions or diseases or something where people are not asking you questions, then it can take longer to address. And I know that that is true for people, let's say, with IBS or some sort of digestion problem, where it's private, they're in the bathroom or they're able to hide it better, or they do have pain in their joints or some sort of inflammation where people are not questioning or it's not outwardly, and then it becomes very lonely and it's really hard to share and it can be embarrassing and sometimes you're not receiving the help that you need from medical professionals in the way that they're offering you more than band-aid solutions. So it can take a while for people to actually take some action. So I'm so happy you brought that up. So tell me a little bit more about hormones and why didn't you do a fuck?

Charly:

Because, like I told you through ideas, I just thought hormone health was something for cis women who are of childbirth rearing age, who had to care about hormones and breast milk and making sure that they were good and to avoid like postpartum depression and to avoid like dying at childbirth. That's what I associated hormone health with was just like cis women who want to pop babies out.

Charly:

We got to make sure y'all are healthy and make sure the kid is healthy, because the first I don't know, five minutes, five months, five years, 50 years are very important. But there's these specific timelines and I was like, oh, like I'm trans, I'm never having kids. Like I just had a real. Yeah, so this hormone health does not affect me whatsoever. I'm not popping and no babies out, I'm just trying to take care of myself right now. So I was like, yeah, I work out, I don't eat chips every day, I'm good.

Naihomy:

Yeah, I don't blame you for having this perception, because it is actually something that's very common when women go to the doctor anyway, because they, even if you're like they don't really take hormones into consideration unless you actually do want to have a baby. They are not making sure that your hormones are balanced to begin with, or paying attention to other things in most cases, because it only matters if you are trying to have a baby. And it's such a disservice because if you, if you were born female at birth, right, and if, and and that's what your insides look like you have ovaries and a uterus, then having a period on a regular basis, whether you're trying to have a baby or not, really, really, really, is a dictator of hormone health. But it's not just your sex hormones that cause you to have a period and get pregnant.

Naihomy:

There's a whole host of other hormones that actually run your. Your body runs on hormones and how you're communicating with them, and oftentimes we don't know that, we're not aware of that. It's something new. It's something definitely I didn't know about at all until I started getting into this work. So this is why I love to share more, because it really makes an impact on how you feel in your body. I don't know if you have anything to add to that.

Charly:

I just loved your podcast episodes. I think it's episode like 31 and 32. Yeah, preserve your hormone health. Those are amazing podcast episodes where I think it's episode like 31 and 32, like the five ways to preserve your hormone health. Those are amazing podcast episodes where I listened to those and I was like, oh, this applies to every human period. It's not just about estrogen and testosterone. Which is a trans person I've taken.

Charly:

I've been on testosterone on and off but I had a really bad experience last time, which has shut me off from it, but I might go back on it again, but I'd need to have somebody that I can trust.

Charly:

Last time did not go down well, so those are the only hormones that I see trans people on TikTok like talk about. Yeah, those are the only ones that I thought concerned me. And then I listened to your podcast. I was like, oh, cortisol and melatonin, oh, this is why you shouldn't drink coffee as soon as you wake up, which I thought I was being a boss. I was like no, I won't eat breakfast first, I'm gonna have my coffee and be good to my body. And it's like now you should actually wait to have coffee. Yeah, it's a small changes. The timing of things is something.

Charly:

I had no idea about. You can do the right things, but the timing of these things definitely matters estrogen, and they both exist, both in females and males and in all humans.

Naihomy:

Right, and so do other hormones that are super important that all humans have, like the cortisol, like the melatonin, like insulin, which really, really, really has a big impact and, depending on you know where you want to be, whether you have I think they call it like penis owners or vulva or vagina owner, things like that.

Naihomy:

Then, yes, those hormones should be at a certain level for that kind of body part, but, regardless of that, there are still ways to manage your sleep, your stress, your blood sugar, which is one of the main, main, main, important things that actually determine everybody else, and I call them like boss hormones, and that's cortisol and that's insulin, and I'm probably forgetting a third one. I believe there's three that I mentioned, but those are the top boss hormones that actually dictate the rest of what's happening in your body. So those are the ones that you actually want to pay attention to, and every single human has both of them, and it's important for us to know how to take care of those two. So tell us, when did you start giving a fuck and what did you do about it?

Charly:

Yeah, it was like the end of April when I hit you up at first, when you started telling me you should check out bone broth, and my American ass immediately was like, oh, I need to go buy it at a fancy grocery store like Whole Foods. We don't have Whole Foods in Mexico, they have La Comer in Puerto Vallarta. And then you were like, like you can make it yourself. There's like carnicerias there and the patas are the best. And you know they're not going to sell patas at the fancy grocery store no, you need to go old school and that's what I did.

Charly:

Literally like 10 minutes away from my house there's so many carnicerias, so I found my carniceria and I started getting the the things with bones in them, which is never something I would have done. Usually I would go for the boneless chicken breast, the skinless stuff, and fry that shit in oil yum and then I realized you don't actually need much oil at all. There's fat on the meat already.

Naihomy:

That you can just broil itself.

Charly:

So what the fuck? No one told me this until I had to know. No one ever shares this. Then I get my patas and make my bone broth and I started noticing some changes. Um, but then, yeah you, you had the integrity to be like I can't help you as much as I think these other two people can, and that's what I love about you, how you really just had my best interest at heart because I was really just ready to like work with you.

Charly:

I was like let's do this thing and you're like actually you should talk to my friend Vern, who I ended up working with does Ayurvedic health, and Agatha, who does like Chinese medicine. I think Vern's, I choose Vern's balancing page and I'll link them in the show notes.

Naihomy:

I'll link the episodes. I'll link Vern. I'll link Agatha.

Charly:

Yes, perfect, yeah, so I hit both of them up and I'm working with both of them, which it has been like conflicting, because one will say don't eat this, the other will say don't eat that. So that has been something to navigate and be stressful of. So, um, but I'm glad that I got lots of different alternate perspectives, because the doctors weren't doing anything. Once y'all started helping me, I would tell I was telling the freaking doctor what I was doing to heal myself. I was like have you heard of bone broth? She's like oh, you look good. I'm like, yeah, no, thanks to the medical system.

Naihomy:

Oh my gosh, there has been so many stories like this where people take a holistic approach and the doctors would be like, oh, the medicine I gave you is really helping you? And people are like no, dude, probably not. And then they ask, like, what is it that you're doing which is so interesting? But yeah, what Charlie is trying to explain is that they came to me and booked a consultation call because they were going through all of these health concerns and really wanted support all of these health concerns and really wanted support. But because I knew Charlie personally, we had spent time together and then they were explaining to me what was happening.

Naihomy:

I also know other health coaches who actually specialize in very, very specific things and I knew, sure, I can support Charlie to a certain extent, but to actually get to the root of the healing that they needed and the level of care that I thought, from my opinion, that there were steps that needed to be taken and like different levels and the root of it it wasn't for me to help them with at the level that they were, because I have helped people with eczema or certain other immune, autoimmune conditions. But I knew that this was not my, this was not my time to work with them. They really needed support from my other health coach friends who one have had personal experience with what Charlie's dealing with and who knew other forms of medicine, because there are many different kinds of holistic medicine, like Ayurveda that Vern practices, like traditional Chinese medicine, that Agatha practices. So there are different perspectives, different tools for different things that are happening and and that's what Charlie means, where I referred them out to others who I knew, who could support them at a deeper level than myself yes, so where are you now?

Naihomy:

How are you feeling? What has the process been like? What have you learned? I feel like you're a totally different person.

Charly:

I feel like I'm crawling back to, but I'm trying not to be back to where I was, but I'm trying to move forward, which has been interesting. But I was in a very low, dark place where I was just waiting it out, like every flare up. I've just waited it out, wait for it to stop, but this time it was not. That was not an option.

Charly:

I was like I need to change something and why, not Because it's worked before, but this time I was like something else. There's another reason why it's this bad at this time and I definitely had to let my ego die a lot because I had that like for 33 years I've been doing this shit right. I'm working out more than all all these people that struggle to even go for a walk, like why me? It was a lot of why me and tantrum being and being like why I've done everything right. So I got eat my veggies. I cook my food. I don't like order Uber eats eats every day. Why the fuck me? And then, once I got over that, yeah, I realized I lifted the hood and I was like, oh yeah, it's because of these habits I need to change this and actually this is not good for you. Um, so sorry, what was your question?

Naihomy:

I don't even remember my own question, because I thought of another one.

Charly:

Oh, you're like, how am I doing now?

Naihomy:

yes, how are you doing now? But something that you said um to was that there were certain habits that they were not serving you. What, what were some of those habits?

Charly:

like drinking the coffee first thing in the morning. I'd wake up and I'd have my cold brew. That was sitting in the fridge, nice and cold, and yeah, before talking to you, I'd mix that shit with um, that thick oat milk all the gums in it to make it extra creamy.

Naihomy:

And no sugar, so I'm healthy but your oat milk probably had sugar inside.

Charly:

All oat milk has sugar inside yeah, yeah, and then I changed it to dairy, and then the almond milk. Okay, and then now I've learned to like I don't eat first thing in the morning until I'm actually hungry, but I'll wait at least like 45 minutes before having my coffee. I'll start with some freshly boiled hot water, because the Ayurvedic model is all about having stuff at room temperature or freshly boiled.

Charly:

so I mean this morning, for the very first time I let my cold brew sit outside of the fridge and see how it tasted, and I think if.

Charly:

I'd done this three months ago, I'd be like, what the fuck? Put it in the fridge, put ice in it, make it nice and cold American style. And this morning I had it and I was like, oh, it's not so bad to have it at room temperature. No one died. I've totally had to change my palate a lot and really do clean eating and we're just rebuilding my gut after doing three rounds of antibiotics that destroyed my insides because of all those bacteria and parasites that I had, and rebuild the gut just doing like one grain, one protein and one vegetable and rebuild the gut, just doing like one grain, one protein and one vegetable, and I eat a lot because I've been doing weight training.

Charly:

I'm active person and I eat like four meals a day and have snacks, but I've freaking lost 15 pounds since I started doing this, which?

Naihomy:

was never the goal 15.

Charly:

I was at 140 and when I went to the gym. I was at 125 and I haven't been that way since, like high school, and I'm 5'5 and that was never the goal for me and it was triggering as fuck for me because I have had those eating disorders. I grew up in the 90s when they made fun of Britney. Spears for being fat and Kate. Winslet for being fat so of course, if you know you grew up in the 90s or before that, or even 2000s, like highly likely you have an eating disorder and.

Charly:

I did that where I was like anorexic I would just run and was a stick, and doing this really triggered me even though. I'm I'm eating. It's just like I'm cooking with a lot less oil, like you don't need to put so much oil on stuff. You can steam most things or boil things or stick sweet potatoes in the oven without oil and it'll be fine.

Naihomy:

It's like yes, yes, there's so much. I mean, look, I'm Dominican and one of the things that Dominicans do is put oil in the pan to cook salami, and I'm like you just don't understand how much oil salami has already. If you just put it on a heated pan is going to cook itself, and I don't eat that anymore. I choose other sorts of protein sources, but at least don't like drown it in oil, something that's already full of oil, and it just drives me insane.

Charly:

It's wild. There's the history of that too, because it was the food of the slaves. Like they didn't just have their air fryer and were able to put the chicken with the skin on. Like they had to fry shit in oil to contain the energy to maintain them. Like laboring in the field. But like stuff is different now we don't need to fry shit and bread it so much and deep fry in the oil all that stuff now.

Charly:

So it's really made me like have an internal history lesson of like some people had to do this shit, but do we need to keep doing it now?

Naihomy:

yeah, that's a very good point that you bring up, because the lifestyle that we live now it's so different from our ancestors, which actually also really dictates how much energy we have and what we're burning and what we're using up. And what we don't realize is that your body doesn't really understand how to get rid of it. A lot of it gets stored and we're not using up the extra energy because a lot of work now is sedentary and we get things delivered at the tips of our fingers. I have a podcast episode, a few back and I'll link it here too, on these show notes, where I talk about capitalism and convenience is now conducive to human health and overall human health because of the amounts of stress and convenience that is out here and it doesn't allow us to move in the same way or to use up energy in the same way.

Naihomy:

And something else that I feel like a lot of us don't realize is, for example, the weight loss. It's sometimes a lot of inflammation that we're losing and the numbers go down on the scale and we don't really see that it's muscle or weight. Sometimes it's just inflammation that causes the number to go down. And us we're we're so inflamed, we're so bloated, we have so much like guck in our digestive system and if we're living our lives that way, day in and day out, we don't even realize that that's the actual a lot of what's making us feel uncomfortable and the number being so high on the scale. Sometimes it just starts with that, like excess water, excess inflammation that starts to reduce and then all of a sudden the number goes down.

Charly:

Yeah, oh, and also one big thing is that I stopped sweating for like a year and I was in heaven and hate sweating.

Charly:

I was like sweating is disgusting, so I was in heaven, like living by the beach and not really sweating. I was like this is awesome and I took it for granted. But then it turns out that sweating is a vital human function that helps you detox. Sweating my eczema, like the my body wasn't able to detox naturally through my pores and that caused and still causes the eczema flare up. So I started going to the sauna to sweat it out and make. It was just wild to me that pride week. I was excited to party my ass off at pride, but I was so exhausted making all these changes that.

Charly:

I was just going to the dry sauna, I was like what is happening right now? I'm in like hellaciously hot place, I can't sweat and I'm signing up and paying money to sit in a room and fucking sweat. Are you kidding me, universe? But that was the ego death. The universe like, yeah, bitch, so I still go to the sauna every couple of days because I don't put any. Right now I haven't put on any lotions, no creams, no moisturizers, because all that stuff also traps the bacteria for my case. But I remember when Bern told me after our first meeting she was like so what creams you using? Because how about you stop? And I was like the fuck, I love her, it's a no, but when you're ready.

Charly:

She's very gentle, but my burglar is, like he said, like let's fucking go yeah, I know I don't need to sit with it like if this is gonna help, let's do it, and it was a total mind fuck for me to be like wait, all these creams that I'm applying all day, every day, that I thought were helping, según los dermatologos, are actually hurting me.

Charly:

What the fuck yeah, and, but the last dermatologist told me to buy spray water like that Evian spray water oh, yeah, yeah no, the moisture attracts more bacteria, so it was a total like reverse purging thing that I had to like push the toxins through the sweat and stop putting uh lotions on my skin. Yeah, yeah, so counterintuitive.

Naihomy:

I know, I know it's such a mindfuck because we are taught all these different methods or what seems right or. But you know, like I always think to myself what did our ancestors do? How did they use the earth? How did they use the food? Like, what was their lifestyle to help with their overall health? And a lot of these things we don't notice because of the lifestyle that we live now. Like I forgot who was it that said it, but they were like oh, humans are not meant to live in temperature control boxes, you know, like central air and all this.

Naihomy:

Most of the time we're from the Caribbean and we're outside, we're in the sun, we're sweating, we're moving and those are just all really innate, like don't have to think about it ways, because it's just the way of life that we're taking care of ourselves, because we're disgustingly gross and sweating and I'm currently in the Dominican Republic right now and just existing. You're sweating, you don't have to do much and you have sunshine hitting your skin. You're outside a lot because it's hot inside, so you're forced to be outside. You're eating differently because you don't need that much more energy and it's just very interesting. Even the gym like I signed up for the gym here. There's no AC in the gym, like I'm thinking to myself.

Naihomy:

People in the US are so freaking comfortable like I've been in gym classes in the US where the AC is on and you feel it when you walk in and then towards the end of the class, people are like god, it's so hot, it's so hot, you need to turn the AC on faster. And I'm thinking to myself. I'm like bitch, you just hot because your body is hot. You just been moving for an hour, Like, yeah it just. I love coming here because it resets my um, my values, my perspective, and what is it that I want to say? Like it just regrounds me in a way, and I don't know if you feel the same way, where it's like you're way too comfortable and you're taking way too many things for granted. So how about we reset and see what you're actually made of and you're capable of you? You can sweat your ass off in a non AC gym and you will be fine.

Charly:

Yeah, yeah, for real. I mean, that just reminds me of that blue zone series on Netflix where all these people, like the old people that are a hundred, a hundred years old, are that way because they walk up the Hills naturally and they're social. And the people in Okinawa are so flexible. When I'm in yoga class, I'm usually the youngest person there, because when you have your own business, I'm usually the youngest person there, because when you have your own business time freedom you do stuff. When the old people yes.

Charly:

I love my morning classes but they're flexible and I'm just like dang. All this stuff adds up, but it's just a lifestyle people think that they want, like a quick fix for everything in America but, we do need to to realize that AC is a new invention, like freezers are a new invention all of these new things that we get used to.

Charly:

I think it's just we have to reset and learn, but adapt naturally. Which I'm talking to myself. I'm like maybe I should change my relationship with cold and like see snow again which I've not seen in four years.

Charly:

I used to be like fuck snow and now I'm like, once my thyroid really heals, yeah, if I can snowboard again, because I grew up in Washington state I used to snowboard and ski and do winter sports. So I'm wondering, like how much of my thyroid has affected my lifestyle. Choosing to be in an internal summer kind of probably has thrown off my my circadian rhythm, which is another thing I've learned about. The circadian rhythm, like taking melatonin, is not a good thing, which you've mentioned before. I'm trying to take magnesium glycinate but I have had insomnia lately. It's getting better because all this stuff like it's still not at a hundred. But the sleep is very important, which I I've always been an early bird. My friends would always make fun of me for getting sleepy at parties and wanting to go home early, but having my cat wake me up Wasn't good for my liver, which you need to sleep so your liver can detox.

Naihomy:

And I wasn't sweating.

Charly:

I was waking up all the time, my liver was just like fucked and all these things build off of each other. That was part of the decision for rehoming my cat, because she would just wake me up in the middle of the night constantly and stress me out, and even though I love her so much, it was a lot of like purging I've had to do in the past month a lot of tears and separation, even though letting go like Verna's, like even if you're letting go of bad things, you're still going to cry.

Charly:

And it's still emotional because parts of you are leaving the inflammation, the sweat, all of that. It's a very emotional process because you're basically deprogramming your entire life of things you thought you were doing well.

Naihomy:

Yeah, absolutely Absolutely.

Naihomy:

It is a very emotional process and again, I actually did a podcast recently on all I guess, from my opinion and what I've seen, my clients go through, the range of emotions, both positive and negative, that is involved in a health journey and choosing a lifestyle rooted in wellness, because there are so many deep-rooted habits and beliefs that we just have brought with us from what we did at childhood, what we've seen in media, what you hear, what your parents used to do, and to kind of let go of that or see how it's not serving you anymore, or in this season and trying new things is an emotional process and sure anybody can tell you like eat this and not that, and do this and not that, and that's fine, you're actually capable of doing that.

Naihomy:

But what makes it hard is the emotions that show up while you're trying to transition, while people are questioning you as to what you're doing, why you yourself don't even recognize yourself because you're going into the sauna in an already hot country and it's like who am I? And it's that redefinition of yourself, you know yeah, I like didn't recognize myself.

Charly:

I still don't. I think my brain is still catching up to this version of like recognizing myself and I'm still pissed off about losing weight, which is like I get it skinny people problems, but that was never part of the plan to lose you can.

Naihomy:

You can rebuild it with muscle. Yeah, I think it's a great, a great opportunity, yeah yeah, I loved doing long ass runs.

Charly:

I used to be a runner where I would run for 45 minutes to an hour and then not do shit the rest of the day.

Charly:

I was a very all or nothing type of person where I was like I'm gonna run, I'm gonna be a good person and I don't have to do shit the rest of the day. I was a very all or nothing type of person where I was like I'm going to run, I'm going to be a good person and I don't have to do shit the rest of the day, because I did something that most people don't do was a lot of ego stuff.

Charly:

And then Agatha told me you need to switch out the cardio and do more weights, yes, more yoga flexibility. And I was like, fuck, that shit's boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, boring. I just want to hit it and quit it. Get on the treadmill, get off. Yeah, it's like do the slow thing. So I sign up for gym and I take the yoga classes with the retirees, who are super nice. I love this gym because people like actually they're like, hi, charlie, they remember my name that's how I'm doing it just feels like a community which I don't expect that at all, especially in america.

Charly:

What community, what?

Naihomy:

but in the neighborhood I am in it definitely feels, like a community here I love smaller gyms because there is that community aspect and people know you, people know what you're doing. It's similar in my gym gym in the US, like people do that to know you I go to. It's a big gym but it's it's not like a, I guess, one of the popular chain yes gyms and here in the Dominican Republic I'm part of. I signed up for a CrossFit community and I've been there all of four times and now everybody knows who I am and they're watching out for me and they're really looking.

Naihomy:

So all of that is it builds on each other and it can be scary to join a gym or to go somewhere new, but if you're in a good environment where they're human based, actually, then you no one's going to make fun of you. Everybody's at different levels, everybody's well. The coaches should be, you know, open and willing to help and correct you and all that. So I have found that throughout my seven years in in a wellness lifestyle and going through different places and communities. So, um, there are those places out there as well as not some that are not aligned, but it's worth. It's worth a shot to just be curious and check out different places.

Charly:

Yeah, and as a money coach, I've dramatically shifted my spending because I can't.

Naihomy:

Can you talk a lot about it? Can you talk a little bit?

Charly:

about it. Oh yeah, like I'm in Mexico, I was going out to eat all the time, just for the social aspect to get out of the house, because I work from home and I would just go out to eat, be like I don't need a meal prep all the time to save money. I can also enjoy my present because I've also been always been a saver.

Charly:

I I've learned that I'm the type of person that needs to treat myself more now, because the point of money is to enjoy life later, but also now, so I've got to eat a lot there, but then with this, this uh, more restrictive diet, I don't go out to eat as much too, because even if you ask the waiter can you steam it, they might still fry that shit up like it happened in Mexico. I was like this tastes like it has butter on it. It is not steamed.

Naihomy:

I'm sorry, but I still ate it, yeah but I don't.

Charly:

I haven't really gone out to eat at all in DC, and even though groceries in the US are overpriced and now I have to shop organic too, which is never something I did growing up are you kidding? We would buy the groceries at grocery outlet like the leftovers from the leftovers but I've still realized that it's okay to shift your spending for different seasons in life and without your health. Your Roth IRA doesn't matter, your credit score doesn't matter.

Charly:

And so that's why I justify this. But I have been eating a lot of like good for you cheap stuff like lentejas. I used to hate on them because I did that shit in my justify this. But I have been eating a lot of like good for you cheap stuff like lentejas. I used to hate on them because I did that shit in my 20s and it's like I see you again, you're triggering me.

Charly:

You're reminding me of my food stamp, AmeriCorps days. But now it's just like oh, there's different types of lentejas, or oh how about I cook with purple rice this time because it actually does taste better. So I've realized I've I've kind of saved money but I'm able to spend more on organic, but also because I'm not going out to eat all the time and I have noticed my palate being a lot more sensitive because I used to go to Dairy Queen or go to McDonald's at the mall and get my little ice cream cone every afternoon and I'd walk there, so it was okay, I'd walk to the mall, so it was fine.

Charly:

The way we justify things is hilarious yeah, that's how I grew up like we would have all the haagen-dazs in the fridge and after every lunch we'd have our ice cream. We ate healthy. Now it's time for a postre, so I got used to having postre.

Naihomy:

I was like no, I was gonna say I used to the nutritionist I work with. I used to love having Chips Ahoy and one time I was like, if I have my Chips Ahoy with a green tea, is that okay? Naomi, if only it worked that way. That would be so, so nice. And now I clearly understand what she meant by that. But in my mind it made it okay to have chips ahoy if I had it with a te verde, like a green tea, on the side, because they had antioxidants yeah, yeah, or put bananas in your cereal.

Charly:

Oh, it's healthy. Now it's like a salad for breakfast and bananas in our ice cream.

Naihomy:

That's what we would do so.

Charly:

I had that mentality but I've I've really had to like cut out all, all sugars, just eat a little bit of the organic cane sugar stuff. But like no more helados, no more this.

Charly:

I'll still have my little cheat days, but just yesterday I went to the movies with a friend and had my first beer in like a month and a half or two months and and I was like, okay, yeah, I really haven't been missing out on a lot, um, and I also bought the s'mores treats from Trader Joe's that are seasonal, that I used to love yeah so much um. But I was like, how about I eat some figs first and notice how orgasmic that is to me, now that fruit actually tastes sweet to me?

Naihomy:

Yes or it didn't.

Charly:

Yes, and then let me see what my brain thinks about the s'mores treats. So I had this delicious organic figs and I was like, oh, this is so delicious and yummy, yum, yum, yum. It's like sweet and it's nutritious, yes. And then I had one of the s'mores things and I could tell it was like the chemicals, my brain, but it was still like this, some fake ass shit. And then I had two and then I was like, okay, that's it, like it was weird getting turned on but then being like that's it.

Naihomy:

I love retraining your palate. This is what I call it it is amazing.

Naihomy:

It's like you just wait and see, because your brain, your brain, is always like oh, you used to like this before. It was so delicious. Is that nostalgia? It works in the past. And then now, with a retrained palate, your body's like what the fuck is this like? What are you doing? And then your brain is so confused because your brain is like wait, we used to like this, why are we not getting the same effect anymore? Like what's going on? It's I love the whole like glitching. It's like glitch, glitch, glitch. And then we start to create these new connections and I would do this over and over again, where I would eat something or order something that I used to love before and it just did not hit in the same way. And then one day I would be like I ordered it five times and it just.

Charly:

I tried yeah it's not hitting yeah, and I'm also like learning to experiment with what I have like. Yesterday I had the raw figs and then I googled like what ways can you cook figs?

Charly:

now that I know you don't need to deep fry everything and then, yeah, I like broiled the figs and it was delicious in just like 10 minutes and it was that crispy. It tasted like it had added sugar on it, but the honey sweetness and the figs comes out even more when it's just like in the oven. It's so delicious. So it's allowed me to change my relationship with food and play with what I do have, instead of just bitching about how much fucking rice and lentils I have to eat.

Naihomy:

Charlie, it has been such a pleasure laughing with you and listening to your story. Is there anything, any piece of advice or anything you would like to share with someone who's really struggling with their health? Or they think they are doing the best they can with their health right now, but they do seem to have certain things that are happening to their body that maybe they're not being they're not aware enough that it is like a sign that something's off, like no sweating or eyebrows getting lighter, or something like that.

Naihomy:

What? What would you say to somebody like that?

Charly:

it would be that your health is your number one investment, because without your health you don't have anything. Life isn't guaranteed. People die every day, people lose loved ones every day. The older you get, the more you just realize how finite life is and nothing is guaranteed. Ad for you to advocate for yourself and ask for help, because all of this stuff I never would have known about the eyebrow thinning or the hormone health if it weren't for listening to your podcast and reaching out to you and connecting with other people who do this stuff for a living, just like how I help people with their finances.

Charly:

Everything is an investment. But it was really like me realizing okay, maybe this year I'm not going to focus so much on business coaching but health coaching, because I am my own business. I am the business. Now my health it's going to affect my business, but I'd rather focus on preventative care and retraining my brain because obviously what I was doing wasn't working and my body's going to keep screaming at me until I decide to change something also takes time, like be very patient. It's very much a two steps forward, one step back kind of thing, where you're no longer relying on big pharma to heal you.

Naihomy:

Your body takes a long time to fucking heal itself and it's okay yeah, and so, with that said, when you if start like if you just get that little inkling, that little sweat or no sweat or like you know that little sweat, I'm like Charlie just said oh, they were not sweating, but maybe that hit your stomach or whatever.

Naihomy:

I was like, wait a second, what am I saying? It's not um, whatever, if you just like, feel it in your body some, however it comes to you, it is worth it to just get started one way or another where whether it's Googling, reaching out to a friend or however to start resolving these for yourself. And Charlie, where can we find you? How can we support you? How do you help people? I know you said a little bit in the beginning, but remind us so that people can take advantage of what you have to offer as well.

Charly:

Yeah, so I'm also the host of the unicorn millionaire podcast.

Charly:

Yeah my baby's two years old cancer. You can follow that on Spotify, Apple and share that podcast. It's all about building wealth and I talk about my health journey as well. It's not always about investing in the stock market. I also have a holistic approach where I talk about the grief of rehoming Luna, how hard this whole health thing has been for me, how it's triggered my inner child to heal. It's all about healing ourselves and treating ourselves like an investment. But yeah, I help my LGBT first gen BIPOC clients. I work with white people too. Sometimes people be asking me that too like yes.

Charly:

I help them invest, get their money right and just transform their relationship with money. I mean, just the past month, I've helped two clients in just three months go from wondering if they want to buy a house to like being in the closing process yes, that's awesome, yeah, buying their first home. And I've also helped women return to themselves after divorce and pick up the pieces and be like all right, this happened, but let's max out the Roth IRA and figure out who we are.

Charly:

I do a lot of identity work as well so you can find me at Traveler Charlie on Instagram and all socials, but that's where it's the most. Pop in and have a mailing list too. You can subscribe to link in my bio.

Naihomy:

Awesome. I'll put that in the show notes so it's easy for you to find. Thank you for tuning in to another week, an episode of wealthy generation podcast, and I hope to see y'all next week. Bye.

Charly:

Bye.

Naihomy:

Thank you so much.