Torrey DeVitto | Pressure of Being on TV, Meditation, Women’s Rights & Activism
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What's up guys, it's Sam and Taylor, and we want you to put your shoes on, pop open that energy drink, and go. Hello guys, welcome back to another episode. I'm Taylor. And I'm Sam. We are currently in LA, not in the studio. Things will be back to normal next week, don't worry, and we'll have the trip recap ready for next week. Yes, we are very sad that we cannot do a catch up with you guys. We unfortunately just don't have microphones, and we thought we were going to be able to get into a studio, but that's not the case.

Yeah, and rather than have the beginning be not the best quality and just not great, we just want to give you this interview with Tori DeVito. You might know her from Pretty Little Liars or One Tree Hill or a bunch of other shows, honestly. Just an incredible actress. We just talked about her new kind of spirituality and wellness journey and just got to pick her brain and find out more about her. And we think you'll enjoy it.

Hey guys, and now we're finally joined here with Tori. We're so excited. I've watched you on Pretty Little Liars for so much of my childhood. So full circle moment. But if you want to give us some background, just insight into who you are, what you do, and all of that. Sure. I have to tell you that that is something that's been happening to me recently that's so odd for me, having people that look like adults like you tell me that you watched me in childhood. I'm like, how old? How old?

That's been happening so often. I'm like, wait.

So funny. But I love it. No. So I'm an actor. I also do a lot of advocacy work and philanthropy work that really kind of lights me up outside of work. I also play violin. I'm a musician. And, you know, wellness and health and spirituality and mental health are things that are really important to me. Girl, you do it all. Yeah. I was going to say, I love that. The

The like filling yourself up outside of work. I feel like that's something we talk about a lot. Yeah. Is trying to do things totally separate from your work because I feel like it's easy to let your work become your entire identity. Yeah. And not having stuff outside of that. So that's awesome. I love that you brought that up. Yeah. Really important. So in terms of like your health, wellness, fitness, all that stuff, when did that start becoming like important to you?

Um, well, it's funny that you say fitness. Fitness is actually something I personally struggle with. And I always joke that like spirituality is such a fitness for me, like fitness of my inner mind. My inner soul has always taken precedence over my physical fitness. And I don't know if that's a cop out or not, but I've always been somebody that like Pilates like totally calms me down and going for like a really long walk for me and my body. Like,

it's a lot more beneficial actually than getting in the gym and hitting weights for me. But I know for everybody else, it's so different. So for me, like fitness, I found in my 20s, I used to just try to push myself to do whatever fitness routine I felt I should be doing because I wanted to look a certain way and I was acting and this and that. And then as I got older, I realized that

As much as, you know, the mattresses we sleep on or the shampoo we use is so tailored to who we are. Fitness has to be tailored like that to us too. Right? Like I'm not going to do what the girl next to me is doing because my body is different. So it's about honoring, you know, my body these days and what it wants to do and listening to that and, and trying not to ignore that. Right. So the priority for fitness,

That has changed as I've gotten older. I don't go to the gym hardly ever anymore, but stretching is so important. You know, like I said, Pilates, going for walks, being in nature, hiking, all that stuff. And like I said, like spirituality as a fitness, you know, making sure I'm meditating, you

I've been really into like brain health recently, which is very new for me, like trying to take care of that part of my body and realizing that the brain is really what anti-aging is because without our brain and without our memory and keeping that sharp, we're

kind of just start disintegrating. So yeah, the definition for fitness has definitely changed as I've gotten older. Yeah, I think that's really important too that I'm happy you said that because at least for me, I've only really been in like the weight training fitness aspect for about two years now. And when I first started, I thought it had to be like one size fits all for fitness. Like every girl I was following was doing weight training. And over the last like even couple months, like I've noticed like

Even with having guests on like yourself, you talking about or any other guests we've had, like fitness is so tailored to a specific individual. And I've been so open to trying so many different things. So I'm happy you did address that because it's important to understand that. Yeah, especially just catering to what your goals are. Like if your goals are more centered around working out for mental health and spirituality, if going to the gym is not a place that makes your mental health fields best, then that would be like counterproductive. Right.

for your specific goal. Us, we, we love the gym. We love lifting weights. That's like our thing. Yeah. Um, but I definitely don't think it'll be like my thing forever because we're only in our early twenties and I don't think I could keep that up literally forever. But I actually found what you said interesting, like focusing on your brain health. Could you tell us like what, what exactly do you do for that? Like get like specific cause I'm intrigued. Yeah.

Yeah. So this is this, this part is actually very, very new for me. So I'm still learning as we speak. And I'm kind of like sussing out like, what books can I read for this? But learning little things. I had a talk with this woman who's a brain doctor. And she was saying, you know,

things in everyday life that we can do that are good for our brain health is constantly stimulating it. Right. And so I'm somebody, I'm a Gemini. I cannot keep my focus on one hobby at more than three, like three months at a time. So I'm constantly bouncing and then learning that actually that's good for your brain, you know, like reading books,

um picking up a hobby trying to learn an instrument trying to learn a language just constantly stimulating your brain trying to use directions um from your memory rather than just always going to you know google maps or you know using that in your car how many times do we just turn on our maps for a location that we know exactly how to get to but we just don't trust ourselves to remember it anymore or you know um if i'm trying to think of a word or definition of a word like

really trying to think of it and actually looking in a dictionary rather than Googling. She also said, um, cold showers are really stimulating and good for brain health, which I love singeing myself in the shower. So that was a difficult one for me. So trying to do like cold shots. Um, I've been drinking matcha, like green tea is apparently good. I'm trying to learn more about gut health because apparently your gut health is totally connected to your brain and your mood. Um,

Sleep. Trying to get to bed earlier. I'm one of those people that can stay up until 2, 3 in the morning just doing whatever and then sleeping really late. But trying to get the optimal amount of sleep within good hours that are good for sleep. Drinking a lot of water. So

trying to kind of implement all those things in my daily life. Oh, and going outside in nature and walking and putting your phone away is very stimulating for your brain. So all those things really help. And I, so far, I don't know if I've seen it. I mean, I've only been doing this, like I said, very, a very short period of time, but to me, even like,

soul wise, it makes me feel better because I've noticed I've been putting my phone down more and focusing like on being present more and trying to just kind of use my what I have right here instead of looking for external things during the day. So that's been it's been really fun. Yeah, I really like that you're saying that because I've been kind of

trying to work on that but I haven't been putting myself more out there but I've been more focusing on just kind of getting away from the phone whether it's like going outside or my morning routine is like strictly away from my phone but I really like the whole no phone aspect yeah and I know

I used to be big in reading and then I took a little bit of a break because we were moving and just like – I mean, it's excuses on excuses. I had the time. I honestly just stopped. And I got back into reading again and I just realized it makes me feel good to like use my brain and read. And I used to think – I actually posted something about it that I thought to read for like productivity purposes and for brain health purposes, you had to read –

like self-help books and like informative books, but I realized you can read a story. I could read a cheesy little romance story and that's still productive and good for my brain just because I'm using my eyes and I'm reading and I'm learning new words in the book and stuff like that. So I've noticed I feel way better when I actually use my mind like that.

Yeah. It's funny. I feel like the phones have really gotten in the way of so much of that. I remember like, I never went anywhere without a book in my bag, you know? So anytime I'd even be standing in the line of the, at the grocery store, I'd like pull out my book. But now it's like, we got so conditioned to our phones that I was like pulling in my phone, scrolling through Instagram and all that stuff. And now I,

I always keep a book in my bag. And when I go for the phone, I just go for the book instead. And I remember my friend, one of my best friends brings a book, even if she's at a bar and if people are like texting or if she's waiting for someone, she'll just pull out her book. And they're like, why are you reading your

you're reading here she's like you're on your phone what's the difference like I'll read a page in the story that I'm really invested in right now while you're texting back whoever you're texting and I was like that's yeah it's so true so um yeah yeah that is a good point because now that I think about it I remember when I was younger I always used to like see my mom have like all these magazines bringing them to the beach and stuff like that but now like my mom or just any like anyone else that was in my life that was really doing that it's just it's their phone now

Yeah. I don't like reading on my phone. I know like Kindles are a little bit different, but I even I've like toyed with the idea. Like, do I want to get a Kindle? Because it seems convenient. But something about paper book and not another tablet is very. Yeah, I like it way better. But I need to get back to a book in the bag because I agree. I was at the grocery store like on Sunday and it was packed and I was in a long line and I could have read my book. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

Sadly, summer is coming to an end and we're entering take care of it season, meaning just, you know, getting back into the swing of a routine, working, maybe you got to take kids to school. And then of course, we're going to come up on the holidays. And I don't think there's a busier, more stressful time than that. But you've got to remember to take care of you. That is why I'm here to talk to you about Fitbod's plans. Their workouts are

are here to fit your life because we know for a lot of you, it could be really hard to plan a life that just revolves around fitness. So it actually scientifically tailors an exercise program to your goals, equipment, and schedule so you can make yourself a top priority. One of my big goals for myself recently is being more in tune with my body, recovering well, stretching, really putting time and effort into that part of my fitness. So you can actually see muscle usage, recovery, and workout streaks right in the app.

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Take care of yourself first with personalized workouts from Fitbod that improve as you do. Get 25% off your subscription or try out the app for free when you sign up now at fitbod.me slash fword. That's 25% off your subscription or try it free at fitbod.me slash fword. Well, I guess I kind of have a question for you. I'm just curious, like, what kind of sparked it in you that kind of made you realize you wanted to be more conscious on, like, these brain things? Yeah.

Whatever you would call it. The brain thing. The brain thing. You know, I don't know. I've always been someone, even since I was like a young kid, that was very invested in like spirituality and reading. And I wanted to learn about things in that realm. Yeah. So when I was made aware about brain health, I was so shocked at how much we think about our spiritual growth and our physical growth.

And the brain is kind of like the operating system. And I thought it was so, excuse me. I thought it was so funny that, you know, everybody walks around trying to do all these anti-aging things, but if we don't take care of our brain, none of that matters. If we lose our brain health, we literally can do nothing, have nothing else. And I was like, oh man, like, I feel like that's number one that we have to take care of. Um,

And so it just got me really interested in it. And I've always been the kind of person where for me, especially physical fitness, you know, I do love playing tennis as well. I haven't played since the pandemic, but I do love playing. And it's always been something for me where I'm like, oh, I love the sport so much because it's a sport that you can play till you're 85 and you can just pick up whenever and you never really lose it.

And I want to be that, you know, 80, 90 year old that still has my faculties and can still remember things and have conversation and is healthy. And I started realizing that really does start with your brain. Yeah, that is such an important. I like talking about this. So something we say on the podcast that we literally had like merch for and stuff is we say we do all these healthy things now to be a future MILF.

That's what we say as like, you know, like we're wearing our sunscreen or going to the gym. We're drinking our water to be a future MILF. And I feel like this just got added to the list of things to be. Yeah, because you got to like stay sharp. Yeah, you do need to stay sharp. That's like added to the list.

There you go, the four keys. Gym, sunscreen, hydrate, and brain health. Yeah, you just added the piece to the puzzle. Yeah. I love that. No, but I think it's a good why, though, to have that as, like, your older self. We were literally talking about that in the car the other day, that, like, something I want to do when –

I'm older, not even that much older, honestly, probably starting when I'm in my 40s, to just go for the same walk every day and just don't stop. Yeah. Because we used to live downtown in the city and now we live...

In a neighborhood with like families way more like quiet and quiet. And there'll be like older couples on walks or like an older man on the same walk every single morning, even if he looks like he's struggling, but he he's done it every single day. And that's what keeps these people going. Yeah. His body's just adjusted to it. So it's like these small changes you can make now will make such a big difference down the road. And I love that. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah.

I was going to ask this, but it seems like it maybe hasn't been a factor in your life specifically. If there was any maybe pressure on health and fitness in an unhealthy way with being on like TV and things. Yeah, 100%. I mean, so much is focused on

unfortunately on, you know, aesthetics in film and TV, right? How you look. I've seen so many friends get pulled aside, you know, being told, especially more so in my twenties, I think that whether their heart's in the right intention or not, or if they just don't want to get called out, people aren't really doing those things as much anymore, which is whatever the intention is, is great, but that's starting to stop a little bit, but it's definitely still there. And I've seen

you know, friends get pulled aside saying like, you know, you've gained some weight, like maybe you need to get to the gym or like a show getting a cast member, a gym membership. And, um, it definitely gets in your head because, you know, it was hard for me when I always felt lucky because to me, um,

I never really let it get to me that deeply, but I did see a lot of my friends kind of like sink, like drown swimming in the deep end with this. And it always broke my heart. But, you know, I remember the first time I was, when I did one tree Hill, I felt like that was the first show that really put me on the map. And then a lot of people saw that I did.

And I did this one scene like, you know, in a swimming pool and I like take off my thing and I'm trying to seduce the guy who is the dad of the little boy I'm nannying. And I looked on IMDb and there was no social media at the time, but I looked on IMDb and saw the comments and everyone was like, oh, she's so skinny, like eat a burger. And

And it's funny because I remember that day feeling really insecure about how I felt like maybe I wasn't skinny enough. And I remember one of the people on set was like, oh, I'm really into fitness. Like, why didn't you call me? I would have helped you work out so you could have at least looked like you had some abs. Like she literally said that to me right before I had to go film the scene. And I was like, I don't have abs. Like, oh my God. You know, like I've never been like huge into fitness in that way. So I didn't have abs like that.

And I've always been like a little like, you know, curvier. I always say, you know, I have pasta in my blood. I'm Italian. Like I love carbs. So I had, you know, somebody saying that to me, like I would have helped you get more abs. And then I'm looking on the message boards and they're telling me to eat a burger. And then you, so you cannot make anyone happy. Do you know what I mean? And then as I got older and I wasn't so skinny anymore because your metabolism slows down, then it's like, you know, people commenting like, is she pregnant? You know what I mean? I'm like, no, no.

where's this coming from? So you just like, you're either too skinny or either too fat. You're either to this, like you just can't make people happy. And you, once you realize that and just surrender to it, I don't look at the comments anymore because it can't, you know what I mean? You just like, it's exhausting, but yeah, I think there is a really, really unhealthy, um,

uh, unhealthiness around weight and looks, uh, especially in the TV and film industry. And I, I think it's so unfortunate. The one thing that always kept me going is I was like, until I'm like in a Marvel, uh,

suit or until I play a character that is a fitness guru or a boxer or something. I am so far, all the characters I've played have pretty much been everyday women. And I was like, so I want to honor the everyday woman. And if I'm feeling bloated that day and it looks like I'm a little pregnant or however they say it on the message boards, like, so be it. That happens. We're women. You know what I mean? So that kind of

helped trick my brain into empowerment when I felt like crap versus like getting really down on myself. Yeah, no, it's definitely really hard to see comments everywhere on every end, no matter what the comments in your body, whether it's a good comment, bad comment, you have 100 good comments and one bad comment that one bad comment is always going to get to you. But I think like, like you said, once you start to realize like that these comments or

like pleasing people. Once you realize you have no real control over that and you just really focus on how you're feeling inside, that's when you have the most control over your feelings. A hundred percent. Yeah. And what really helped me too, did you ever read the book, um, women who run with the wolves? No, I haven't. Oh my gosh. You would love it. It's a fantastic book. It's about female archetypes. It's beautiful book. Um,

But there was this part in it that kind of centers around that. And it said something, I'm not going to quote it totally correctly, but you have to read it. And it was basically stating that to diss your own body, to be hard on your own body is basically shaming your ancestors of women that came before you and your future daughters telling them that their bodies aren't enough.

And then when I started realizing it, I remember I was like 35 and I was like, am I getting cellulite on my arms? I didn't even know that could happen. What the heck?

And then I remember like being around my grandma and I was like, oh my God, like I have my grandma's arms. Like I would never tell my grandma I hated her arms. I love everything about my grandmother's body or certain things that bother me. And I'm like, I see it in my sisters or I see it in my mom. And I'm like, I love their bodies. I would never. So why am I going to shame myself? Because every part of me is part of them. And I'm somebody who wants kids too. And I would never tell my daughter.

or, you know, my son, that a part of them wasn't perfect and they're coming from me. So if I don't love myself, essentially I'm saying I don't love my ancestors. And that really hit hard for me. I was like, oh my God, I wouldn't be that mean to them. So yeah, no, that definitely, that definitely hits hard. Like growing up, like I've always been like in a very athletic family and everything. And so

It was always just so competitive, which I do know my family listens to this right now. So I'm going to say I'm sorry right now because they're probably going to feel bad after this. But there was just always here and there, like those little comments. And I think growing up, like those types of comments have a very big impact on you when you do get a little bit older and you start to realize and social media gets involved and you start comparing yourself to like maybe your classmates or the girl you see on social media. So like just little comments like that go a really long way, whether you know it or not. Yeah.

It's so funny. My mom was getting down on herself. My mom is 72. Oh, God, she's going to kill me. I think she's 71. She always says I age her a year. I don't know why I do that. Anyway, she's 71. She's beautiful and so amazing. She's beautiful inside and out.

And she was like really down on something. She's like, Oh, I have this, like, you know, I'm not feeling comfortable in my body. And I was like, mom, you're saying this to your two daughters, like show us how to love ourselves. And when we're 70 and she was like, I think it annoyed her at first. I mean, that would have annoyed me as well. Yeah. But I think

contour because I was like you know we have to do that for the women that come after um after us we have to show them how to love themselves yeah of course and I kind of feel like that like not to be like a little cheesy and stuff but like even our audience listening like I feel like

even I'm not a mom or anything but like I do have like a good audience like of girls listening and watching over me so I feel like I kind of have to do that for them I don't know sure I was gonna say that this just reminds me there's like a little TikTok trend where it's basically like saying something mean to yourself then they show a picture of themselves when they were like five and it's like giving it's like you're giving the insult to that like yeah five-year-old girl like and

Like it just, it just makes you, makes you think. It does. My little sister has a baby who's 15 months and I'm always like obsessed with her little belly that like pops out and her little like gooey arms. And I'm like, we love that in children and babies. Like when did we start? Like what's the age that we're like, Nope, not cute anymore. We're going to back it now. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't make any sense.

Yeah, a million percent. And props to you for not letting the TV stuff and all of that get to you. I mean, listen, it does sometimes for sure, but I have ways of talking my mouth out of it. Yeah, not to an extreme. Being able to get yourself out of it because I do know a lot of people don't and can't. Yeah.

Yeah. But so we already talked about where you are now and like the passion you have for more of that spiritual fitness. Could you take us through like a day in the life, like your morning routine?

Oh, yeah, I do try to meditate every morning. I do transcendental meditation. So 20 minutes in the morning. I'm not perfect. There's definitely mornings where I skip and I didn't want to skip. I don't naturally wake up early, which I've tried to get better at and then just kind of surrender to the fact that that's just the way I am. I thought I'd grow out of it, but I'm 38 years old and I haven't grown out of it yet. So yeah, I love waking up.

meditating. Um, if my boyfriend is available that morning, um, we love going for a walk and he'll grab a coffee. I'll grab a matcha. Um, I love kind of leisurely going into my day, uh, as much as I try to get done in the day, I really try not to rush in the morning, uh, in a

perfect world, if I could start my day at like noon, that would be amazing. I love, you know, if I have time for reading or for journaling in the morning or just kind of sitting and being still and being quiet. To me, there's something so sacred and beautiful about being as slow with your morning as possible, which I know for

uh, people that's pretty much not, uh, accessible to us. But even if you have to be somewhere early, like taking that time in your car, putting on really calming music. I know like when I was on the show, I was just on and we had to be up at 6.00 AM and, you know, working right from the very start of the morning. I used to try to in the shower, um, put on, there's this group called beautiful chorus and they kind of do like chance, um,

really pretty affirmation music. And I would put that on in the shower and, you know, diffuse some oils. And even if I had 20 minutes, it just changes the course of the day to have that calmness as the base. So I try to do most days when I can. Did you always do the 20 minutes of meditation or did you start at a lower number and then work up to 20? Yeah.

Um, so with transcendental meditation, they actually teach you to do 20 minutes twice a day. That's kind of how you start. So I started with the 20 minutes. Um, but then I kind of steered away from that and I started doing more like spirituality meditations, which that I would do like maybe five, 10, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever I wanted. But with transcendental, I did start and do try to stick to the 20 minutes.

Okay, interesting. I've always wanted to do like meditation. I'm just like, I feel like it's not for me, but I've heard such just amazing things about it. Like such good things about it. Like, do you use like an app or anything? Or you just like go with it?

I don't because the Transcendental Meditation, you get like your own mantra that you're never supposed to speak. And you use that mantra in your head to kind of dip down below your thoughts. And then when you catch yourself thinking, you say your mantra again to kind of like take you down. So the goal is to empty your mind completely. But I have done guided meditations before. I work with this

Amazing energy healer named Janet Raft is in Atlanta and she's done so many like clearing meditations and goddess meditations that I like just eat up. I love that kind of stuff. But for the most part, when it comes to my morning meditation, I try to do the transcendental that just is complete, like emptying up the mind.

That seems like your worst nightmare. You said, well, yeah, you said exactly your worst nightmare. Right. And it's so funny because there's some days where I'm like, Oh, I just want to get up and go. I don't want to meditate. And I realized that's when I need it the most. It's kind of like,

You know, when you're like, oh, I don't need to go. And then you sit in the chair and it's like, those are the days like you just start bawling and you're like, I didn't even think anything was wrong. It's kind of the same thing. It's like the more active our minds are, the more we think like, oh my gosh, I can't sit down to meditate. I have too many thoughts. Oh my God. That sounds like my health is bad.

probably the most time you needed, unfortunately. But it's hard at first. I remember when I first started and I would sit down to do 20 minutes, every little noise drove me crazy. I was like, like I couldn't focus. And I was like, I get so mad or I'd end up just falling asleep. I was like, this is crazy. I was like, I don't want to do this anymore. But then the more, the more you stick to it, it feels so good. Cause it's,

it's proven that meditation is more restful than a nap. So it's like 20 minutes of getting like a lot of energy afterwards. Yeah. One thing that I've definitely tried working on now, when I say try, like every now and then, not every day, but like mindfulness has been something that I've been kind of working on where I'm like kind of,

want to present myself in the present, whether it's like me touching my skin and just like kind of forgetting about the outside world and really just focusing on like, I'll do it. Like if I'm laying in bed, I'll just like kind of sit there and like, like touch myself and like really focus on like just things that are going on around me that I,

I can feel or smell rather than kind of going through my thoughts. And I kind of like doing that, but I just, I have the worst ADHD. So that's why it's very hard for me to do stuff like that. But I, I do want to work on it a little bit more. I've been doing, I used to do yoga during the pandemic. Like I'd follow, um, her name is yoga with Adrian on YouTube. She's amazing. I would follow her videos and I'd feel so great. And then I stopped. And now I have like a big balcony outside my room. And when we moved into this house, um,

I told her, I was like, because we live together. But I told her, I was like, you're going to see me doing yoga on my balcony, kind of as a joke. And then the other day, I was like, I did yoga on the balcony. I wish I saw that. We got yoga mats and a little PR package. And I was like, I'm going to start doing yoga again once a week. She has 15-minute little stretch flow stuff. I was like, I can do 15 minutes. I can do 15 minutes. And the weather, still hitting...

I'm like, it used to be 105 and now it's like 90. So it's nicer. It's like a cold front. So it's better outside. And I feel like that's like my, like as meditative as I'll get, but I do what I do like and I'll use on planes. And before I'd use it also just to fall asleep, sleep meditations, like a guided sleep meditation will knock me out. Yes. Yes.

There's this album by this guy, gosh, Dr. Jeffrey Thompson, maybe is his last name. And he does sleep music like that. And I swear the first time I put it on, I like got into the deepest sleep ever. I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. It's really cool. And then somebody actually told me about recently, I don't know the proper term for it, but have you ever heard of EMDR therapy? Yeah.

Maybe if you maybe explain. So it basically EMDR therapy, they use it. They created it for, you know, soldiers who would come back with PTSD because instead of talk therapy where you're like reactivating the triggers that you have, it uses eye movement to actually help you access both left and right hemisphere of your brain at the same time. So you can get into deeper memories and,

and go in and actually like break the trigger. So they have something called

I don't remember what it's called exactly. I call it EMDR beats, but I know it's not beats. Isn't the last word, but if you look it up on YouTube, it plays like EMDR sounds. So you can close your eyes to that and it takes you into like a really deep meditative, sleepy state. It's kind of cool. Yeah. I'll definitely look it up. Cause I like, I've been better about it, but there's a point I was really, really anxious about planes. But still my plane routine is I take a little bit of melatonin and

Oh, really? On the plane? And I put a sleep meditation in my AirPods and I'm out. I would never wake up if I did that on the plane. No, I will always. I'll take both flights. It's like clockwork. I will sleep for one hour. Wow. That's crazy.

I will sleep for one hour almost exactly and it works every time. And then goes about her day for the rest of the day with melatonin in her system. Crazy. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. My physical body is so sensitive. If I take melatonin at night, I might groggy the whole next day. Oh, I am too. I cannot wake up if I take melatonin at night. No. I became really reliant on it. I...

Went through a very long period of time at the beginning of the year where I was extremely anxious, like 24 seven and could not sleep. So I was taking melatonin, but my body became so reliant on the melatonin that I,

it caused me when I wasn't taking it to not be able to sleep like at all or if I was sleep or if I was sleeping it was a very like half sleep like I was waking up in the middle of the night a bunch of times so I stay away from it because I cannot wake up in the morning if I take it yeah I don't take it on a regular basis just for just for a plane yeah because or else I'll be I'll be a little anxious so if I know I can sleep for an hour I'll do it

I agree when I wake up in the morning after taking it, I am sleepier, but something about the plane, I'm like, all right, where I get where I need to be. Or like, I feel like planes just make me tired for the day anyways. Yeah. Yeah. Like, and maybe the air is thinner up there. I feel like it does something to the oxygen we're getting in. It makes us like super sleepy. Yeah. A hundred percent. But yeah, the sleep meditations, I would highly recommend those like really knock me out. Literally just close your eyes, listen to it.

yeah done so I wrote down Jeffrey Thompson I'm gonna look into it um so I want to talk about so you're vegan right vegetarian vegetarian okay okay so but you do like animal rights advocacy type work yes and I'm vegan in my fashion like I don't buy leather or anything okay okay can you like talk about what you do for that

Yeah. Um, so I've been vegetarian for probably about like 14 years. Um, yeah, I go in and out of being vegan. The goal is definitely to be consistently vegan. Um, so I'm working towards that, but I definitely, um, focus on not buying any products that are, you know, all my products are cruelty free. I don't buy, you know, leather or, um,

products that harm animals. So I just try to be very mindful of what I'm putting in my body and on my body and in my house that it's, you know, just kind of honoring a cruelty free living. Because for me, it's actually more spiritual than it is for health. I realized that especially when I

really stay strict with a vegan diet. I just feel lighter, not just physically, but spiritually throughout the day, because I know that every step I took didn't harm a breathing thing, you know, and that really matters to me. You know, I know it's not for everybody and, you know, everybody has their own way of living, but to me, like

It just makes me feel so much better about my day when I know that everything I did and everything I ate and everything I touched didn't harm another living creature as far as I'm aware of. So, yeah, that's kind of how it started. I've been vegetarian for seven years, vegan for two. Oh, cool.

So two of those seven years I've been vegan. So I haven't eaten meat in seven years. Wow. That's amazing. I'm not the best with the cruelty free and the buying the leather and stuff. Like my car does have leather seats in it, but I feel like it's every leather seats. I have a used car from a long time ago that has, and that's why I always say to people, like if you're switching over, don't beat yourself up. Like I still have leather shoes that I bought before I even started this path. Right.

But you can't just buy a whole new wardrobe and buy a new car and all these things because you want this. It's just from this day forward, you know, do the best that you can. Do better, yeah. Yeah, and also I feel like it's just do better where, like, you, where you see fit for yourself. I always tell people because I, like, don't care.

care if people are vegan or not vegan but i'm like if you can swap that one thing you're using for something else that would make a difference and you don't have to label it as vegan or vegetarian or whatever like like sam doesn't eat red meat yeah as like a personal choice and she'll like we don't have like milk in the house like really but like any little like

Anything that you can change to do something else, I find better because I agree. I'm like mainly doing it for environmental reasons. As far as that goes, it used to be kind of for health reasons.

But not anymore because I got my like health information from very not reliable people on YouTube. Like I don't know if you know like Freely the Banana Girl, like that crazy vegan girl. No. So she's just like all she eats is like fruit and she's like crazy, like crazy vegan. But like I followed people like her that got me into it and I was like, that's so healthy. But then I was like, okay, it's not really for the health. I'm in it way more for like

the animals and the environment a hundred percent. That's like why I do it. So that's why when I, I'll get comments like, um, I try to limit the amount of like process, like fake meat that I eat, but I'll eat like a beyond burger one time. And someone's like, you think that's healthier for you? I'm like, I don't think it's healthier for you. I just make a decision not to eat animals for like other reasons. So like, I'm like, you can't convince me to eat a real, uh,

Like that, that would be better for me. Cause I don't want to do it. No, a hundred percent. I'm definitely in the same boat when people say that stuff to me, I'm like, it's not about that for me. It's like our environment is in a really, really bad state. I've just read something today that said that, um,

Like Texas could go into the certain part of Texas could go into a three year drought by March, 2023, like no water in a certain area. And I was like, this is our environment is in dire straits. Like we had the opportunity to fix it and we didn't take it. And now we're like this, like, I don't know that there's any more like pulling not to sound like a fatalist right now, but to me, it's like, if everybody stopped eating meat at least once, once a week,

I mean, it would make a huge difference. And so for me, it's like, yeah, maybe the Beyond Burger is not that healthy. But for me, it makes me feel better. Like I'm doing my part to help in any way that I can. You know what I mean? Yeah, I agree. I feel the same way. It's funny you say that about Texas in a drought. We drove past the other day at just a field on fire. Fire, yeah. We're like, what's all that smoke? Just a fire. Yeah, the ground is on fire. That's actually the second we were road tripping from...

where are we coming from houston houston there was another one we saw a forest fire and then we saw this fire like two weeks ago um and i'm originally from miami florida and it rains a lot there so that's not something i've really ever seen so transitioning to this and seeing like two just fields on fire in the same month i'm like what the hell is going on yeah yeah

I just kind of want to put like my input to on like the whole subject because obviously I'm not I'm not vegan, but I do like try my best. I've been so really kind of like listening. I just think this is kind of my advice for anyone that maybe wants to kind of put better out there.

Um, but want to smart start small is like one thing that I've been really focusing on is at least one meal a day that is fully plant-based or if more or less, if I can't do fully plant-based on that meal, like making the protein source that I'm having plant-based. So that way I'm just not having, um,

animal sources or whatever I'm dairy whatever it is throughout the day so I'm making sure one of my meals is fully plant-based and I feel like once I can kind of do that and get better at it I can work my way into a little bit more being more aware of the food I'm eating and I do feel like over the last few years because I've haven't had red meat and I want to say like four years I

But when I did make that transition, it was more or less just because of my natural energy and just the way my body was feeling. And that's why I stopped having red meat. And it was never more for like the like animal world aspect. But then once I started living with you and just surrounding myself with more people that could like kind of educate me, it kind of turns into like both of those reasons. So I guess what I'm just kind of saying and going with is just for anyone listening that is kind of in like that.

I don't know what to do or like, I don't know how to go into it. I would just say like one meal a day. I feel better doing that.

Yeah, that's a great advice. Yeah, go easy on yourself. You know, go slowly. Don't have to, like, make the change. Yeah, I just don't think I could, like, fully at this moment, like, fully jump right into it. But I think the small changes I do, like, has a big impact. And I agree and I tell everyone that because I don't think anyone has to be perfect at anything. But if everyone gave, like, a little bit of a shit about the environment, just a little bit. Because, like, right, like, I eat

vegan, but I'm not the best at, let's say, like plastic. We throw out a good amount of garbage. We get boxes and we like we do. So it's like maybe someone does eat meat, but they are like a zero waste household. In my opinion, they're still

a little bit of their they're doing better than me in that aspect because I throw out a lot of trash sadly which I want to eventually I'll get to the point in my life where that's like a focus that I really want to work on right now it's not so I think if everyone just like does their part in something that they feel they care about I mean obviously I could like deep dive forever that the the

the main problem is these like big corporations. Like it's not like our fault, but if everyone cared just a little bit, it could, it could, it could make a difference.

But that's why it's important not to judge anybody because you don't know what people are doing, you know, on board. So it's like, you know, and nobody's perfect. So if you're judging someone else, like I'm sure there's things that they could, you know, like you were saying, yeah, I do this for the environment, but maybe I'm not the best with all the boxes that I get in my house. So like you said, it's important not to judge everybody and, you know, support people who are trying to do something. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah.

So another thing that I know you work on too is like sexual violence advocacy work and like women's rights and things like that, which I'd love to finish off with touching on that because we're all about that over here. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I was actually just in Texas at the Women's Convention last weekend. Oh, really? Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I got to host the Feminist Family Feud. It was so much fun. But yeah, no. So I started working with this organization called Safe Bay, gosh, probably like six years ago.

Now, I was watching this documentary called Audrey and Daisy on Netflix, which I think is a very important watch, very hard watch, but important nonetheless. And it's about sexual assault. It surrounds these teenage girls and assault.

I was so incensed and moved and inspired and just like lit up after watching this documentary. I think it was like two in the morning and I texted my publicist. I was like, you have got to find these girls for me. Like if they're doing anything, I'm

I want to be a part of supporting them. And she wrote me back the next day and she was like, actually, they just started this organization called Safe Bay. And I was like, please put me in touch. So she put me in touch with them. And I've been working with them ever since. And it's really amazing. Like Safe Bay has their own curriculum that,

They go into high schools, whichever high schools will allow them to come or ask them to come or ask for the curriculum can get it. And it basically teaches kids about sexual consent and sexual assault. And in a very empowered way, it's a youth led organization. So all of our content is online.

created by youth. It's not created by somebody like me that doesn't have my finger, like totally on the pole. So I'm not even on TikTok. You know what I mean? So I feel like kids that get involved in Safe Bay, they feel heard and they feel seen because it's a bunch of young people, their age that are on the board of directors. I think I, me and this woman, Shale Norris, who is one of the founders of Safe Bay as well, um, are like the oldest people on the board. Everybody else is like 24 and younger, even in their teens. Um,

And I love it. I get to go to high schools and I get to talk to kids about safe and I get to talk to them about consent and I get to talk to them about, you know, my stories in high school of how I didn't know. Nobody told me where my no was. I grew up in a very, you know, boys will be boys type culture. And when I was in my 20s and I really learned like.

What sexual assault is, because I grew up to think and to believe that, you know, sexual violence is when you're like pulled in a dark alley and raped, you know, but I know that being touched inappropriately, being forced to do things you don't want to do that all lies under it as well. And when I learned that when I was like 25, I was like, why am I learning this so late in life?

I was like, so I want to be a part of making sure that any teenager that crosses my path knows their boundaries, knows their no, and feels comfortable about talking about this because we're going to talk to kids about assault. Unfortunately, you got to talk to them about pleasure too. You can't scare kids about sex. You know what I mean? And I think that's the biggest problem we have with all this is nobody is comfortable

show teaching kids their rights because they're terrified of talking about sex with kids, you know? So these schools are trying to brush things under the rug because they're like, the last thing they want to do is deal with this. So,

Safe Bay, we say is like a buffet. You can take like a buffet of whatever you want to take from it. You can learn about, you know, bystander intervention or all the way to like changing policies in your school, you know, talking about like title nine and some of these kids, they're so inspiring. We'll go there and they'll create their own safe group in their school. They'll ask us to come. And we had one school that, um,

they went through something with a basketball coach was caught, you know, grooming young boys at their school and the school wouldn't allow us to come and talk to them. So the kids reached out to us on Instagram and asked if we would meet them in the library after school to get them this information. And like 30 kids from the class showed up. And I was like, that is so empowering. I feel like

Especially youth today, they are so empowered by knowledge in a way that, you know, I know my generation wasn't. We just kind of went with the flow and they're so powerful and they're not putting up with so much that we've put up with for so long. And it is so freaking cool to be a part of that and to see them grow.

speaking about this stuff and not taking it anymore. Um, and you know, boys are a part of this conversation too. We have a lot of boys that, you know, show up to these things because they want to know how to be better. And the conversation has to be surrounded about around boys and girls, you know? Um,

Because boys are affected by sexual assault too, which is also not talked about very often and is really unfortunate. But yeah, so that work really, really lights me up. Like I love everything about being involved in Safe Bay and then, you know, getting to go to things like the Women's Convention. And I just finished filming this unscripted show. And the episode was about a survivor of an acid attack and learning about

you know, that kind of violence against women and, um, that kind of stuff, like being able to stand up for women and use my voice for women and use my career for women, especially with what's going on right now with our rights slowly, just being so taken away. Um,

I just feel like I'm not going to stop using my voice and I'm not going to stop fighting until we have our rights back and intact. So, yeah, it's definitely a passion of mine. Yeah, I honestly got the chills all over my body the entire time you were talking about that. And it's funny that you say with the whole school is kind of brush it under the rug thing because I definitely feel like kind of where I grew up in the school I went to, there was a lot of that. Like there was a lot of like brushing things under the rug. There was never really like –

Someone like SafeBag coming into my school, talking and discussing and educating us on any of these subjects, whether it was like sex ed or like literally anything. We're not educated on it. It was one of those things where I kind of had to outreach myself and educate myself and go on Google, type things in. And it's just so unfair and so bad that at least, I mean, I'm speaking on my end. I don't know how it was for your school. But like I literally, everything in that aspect, I had to Google to learn or...

follow someone on Instagram to get more educated on it. Well, we right now are going through. So both of us stopped taking our birth control pills. We were like, I'm we were both like, I'm done with this. Like my mental health isn't great. Like we're just like over with done with. I don't want it anymore. And we had a hormonal like expert on talking about the phases of our menstrual cycle. We did a whole episode on it. And both of us were like, I never got taught like what ovulation is.

No. No one told me that. No one told me. I thought menstrual cycle was just when you bleed. I didn't know that it was something always happening in the different phases and ovulation and different ways you can prevent pregnancy by going on a pill or when you actually get pregnant. None of that...

Yeah. Right. No. I mean, if you take a poll, I would say I don't even know what the percentage of women that could actually name the four phases of our cycle. Yeah.

say what each week is named. I mean, I didn't even know until I was like 30. I don't think I was like, how have I missed this information? I have a, and it's so funny because our society runs on a 24 hour circadian rhythm cycle. And that's a very male. That's a, um, uh, a masculine cycle because men have a 24 hour circadian rhythm cycle every day. And we have a four week cycle. And so to try to mask that, um,

And that's why women, like when they say we're like taking on too much and we're crumbling here and there, it's because we are trying to actually keep up with a cycle that is not natural to our bodies. So I read this great book, A Woman's Code by Elisa Beeney.

And it talks about living in flow with your cycle. And like you said, like an ovulation, you're supposed to be drinking and eating more raw foods because you have more energy and that's when you should be doing weights. And then in your, and that's when you should take all your meetings and then in your,

during your menstruation, that's when you should be taking review of everything and seeing what's working in your life and what isn't. And when you go inward and you eat warmer foods and you do more yoga type things, and then in your luteal phase and your follicular phase, those are all different foods that you should be eating to honor that phase and different workouts you should be doing to honor that phase of your cycle. And, um,

And apparently I haven't, I did it for a month once because I used to have, I still do like really long side, really painful, really. And her whole thing is women aren't supposed to suffer for our cycles either. And I did it for, I think a couple months. I really followed strictly to what she said, how to live and flow with your cycle. And my cycle was so much better. I hardly had cramps. I hardly had PMS.

And it's like, we don't, why every woman at like 13 years old should be reading this book to have this knowledge of our bodies. And let me tell you, if a man was on a four week cycle, he would know the whole world would know we would be operating on a four week cycle like that. So it's our jobs to empower ourselves with knowledge. Um,

And that's what I love is, like, if I learn something, I want every other woman I know to know. Just so they have the knowledge. If they don't do anything with it, great. But at least you know, you know? Yeah, of course. Yeah, like, I never even, like, a doctor's appointment was never, like, asked about it, told about it. No! No.

I never went to a gynecologist that told me the names of my cycle. I'm like, why aren't we using this language? Yeah. No, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. We're, we're excited to go on this like journey of figuring it out to how to like, you should check out some of her books. Check out. She has two books. Elisa BD. She has a whole center called flow living F L O. And she has supplements that honor all your cycle. It's like, she's it's really,

truly life changing. That's a kind of something I'm working on now too, is trying to really let her app shows you like you can keep track of your cycle and it shows you what part of the phase you're in and what kind of exercises you should be doing and what kind of foods you should be doing to support and honor that part of your cycle in that day. It's, it's really amazing, especially you guys being so into fitness in that way. I bet it would even like take that up a notch. I don't know. Now a word from our sponsor better.

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Yeah. But I'm excited for it. I'm excited to like actually know like what's going on in my body. We're very excited about it. Um,

Is there anything else you want to like plug, talk about, address before we like round it up here? I feel like I like learned. I feel like empowered. Yeah, me too. I feel empowered too. I'm like, because I started her second book and I put it off to do a fiction book and I was like, no, I'm going to read that shit today. Yes. No, I don't think so. I feel like we covered a lot. So unless you guys have any other questions. No, that was awesome. I really appreciate it. I really enjoyed it.

Yeah, no, I appreciate it too. This was fun. Yeah, thank you for coming on. Thanks for having you. Bye. Bye. Hey guys, it's Brooke. And Danielle from Gals on the Go podcast. It's very minimal change, but basically what I did- Wait, can we talk about the TikTok? Because I saw you deleted it and I need to- I wasn't going to bring it up, but you're bringing it up.

On our show, we talk about everything from college, lifestyle, to navigating your 20s and beyond. And there's always that quote that people say, like, if they like you, you'll know. If they don't, you'll be confused. But some people I don't know. We hope you guys will join us every Wednesday for brand new episodes right here on Podcast One.