- 6 months ago
A conversation on body wellness at every age, prioritizing your physical wellbeing from the inside out and how the shift in perspective about plastic surgery is impacting Black women.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00what's up everyone i'm essence beauty and style editor blake newbie and i have the absolute
00:13pleasure of welcoming someone who exudes both beauty and style joining me to talk all about
00:20head-to-toe body wellness is none other than tv and radio personality and model melissa ford
00:27melissa thank you so so much for talking with me today of course blake thank you so much for
00:33having me i am really excited about this i've been looking so forward to this because i can talk about
00:39beauty health and wellness until the cows come home this is my favorite subject why because you look so
00:47radiant i can't tell if it's the sun or it's the skincare or it's all of it working in conjunction
00:52right now but it's working and you look beautiful thank you it's a little bit of a combination the
00:57the california sun definitely um i've got a couple of ring lights you know going on over here and it's
01:04also the golden hour right now here in california so it's about 720 the sun is setting and it does
01:09this nice golden hue kind of thing but it is also the skincare um regimen that i've had for
01:1630 years um so yeah there's that too well we're going to talk about it i'm about to dive right in
01:24because i have to help the skincare routine but first so you know consistency really is one of
01:29the most important parts of prioritizing overall body wellness can you talk about two things that
01:35you've done consistently over the years that have helped you stay in tip-top shape absolutely hands
01:42down sleep hands down sleep is the most or one of the most important things that i do i get a regular
01:54eight hours of sleep i am good for taking a nap um especially after a workout if i've had a particularly
02:02difficult workout what i do is i come home i eat a very lean protein meal and if i have the time in my
02:10schedule to take a nap i'm going to take a nice 45 minute one hour nap and it just it just helps with
02:17like with recovery cell turnover rejuvenation that sort of thing and just allows me to kind of continue
02:23on with my day my workouts if people have looked at my instagram profile i do not slouch in the gym
02:27i beast out i hire the most aggressive trainers because i need to be screamed at that's how i get my
02:37motivation because you know i i know what i'm capable of but sometimes you know that that human
02:43instinct kicks in you know go easy on yourself and i need people screaming at me and giving me
02:50side-eye you know so um sleep has always been um my number one go-to when it comes to just my beauty
02:57regimen it's the easiest thing that you can do i could fall asleep at a club next to a speaker i swear
03:02i can sleep standing up that's how much i like sleep okay i don't know if i stress this enough
03:07but sleep okay so that's the consistency um getting enough sleep hydration is massive so i'm drinking
03:16a cocktail i'm giving myself permission i have a little bit of a cocktail exactly you got to give
03:23yourself you know play by the 80 20 rule 80 percent of the time you're on point 20 give yourself a break
03:29you know and enjoy you know smell the roses and eat the cake anime um you know but hydration is key
03:37so if i know that i'm going to be drinking alcohol you better believe that i'm drinking a glass of water
03:42in between all of my alcoholic beverages so if i have three glasses of wine um which is a lot um i'm going
03:50to be drinking a large glass of water in between each glass of wine that's just you know just how you have
03:58to kind of work the work around the rules right um and and then i go to bed i wipe off all my makeup
04:04i use highly emollient night creams and eye creams before i go to bed and i drink a large glass of water
04:12and i take two a leave so that i don't wake up feeling like the crypt keeper so hydration is like a
04:18major thing just on a normal day i drink about 80 to 100 ounces of water um and on and when i'm on
04:24airplanes which is a lot if a lot of people follow me on instagram i travel a lot so i have the fit the
04:30mist and then i have my emotions i have a hair tie so that my skin is you know and the hair don't get
04:40it's it's a whole thing but hydration is key so sleep hydration massage i do not skip on massage
04:48ever first of all it is indulgent it feels so good but secondly one of the major things in our bodies
04:57is our lymphatic drainage system and that has to constantly be moving it's like the pipes in our
05:03system you know it's like our digestive tracts but in our skin we have to keep that stuff moving
05:09toxins they creep in just through the food that we eat environmental factors products that we put on
05:16our skin we have got and especially the fact that i work out so tough lymphatic drainage system is how
05:22you remove all of the toxins like lactic acid from your muscles and that sort of thing and keep your
05:27skin looking like just luscious and plush and beautiful and soft and poreless so sleep hydration
05:36massage and those would be my three key consistent tools that i have used throughout the course of my life
05:45but how is one one can only assume that you haven't always been this diligent right you had to find
05:50your groove you had to figure it out unless i'm wrong um no yeah i i've had a skincare regimen since i
05:57was 12 years old oh what an oh what a queen are you talking to today what a skincare it was a total
06:05accident it was a total accident let me tell you something about the skincare regimen it is all
06:11dependent on who maybe your mom your aunties you know who the women are in your life and my mom
06:18was white and so she didn't have like this crazy skincare regimen her whole life she did not i learned
06:26it from my girlfriends that i met in my first year of high school so i was like 12 years old when i got
06:31to high school and they you know we would just have these sleepovers and we would start using oil of
06:36olay products foaming face wash buff puff pads to exfoliate toner lotion and and steaming so i learned
06:45exactly i learned like the just basically fundamental basics of a skincare regimen really really early on
06:52and that just kind of like encouraged this healthy um you know kind of uh curiosity for learning more
06:59about how to you know just kind of just look your best um and your skin is your largest organ you got
07:07to take care of it it whatever you put into your body and onto your body both are equally important
07:12so i started to you know educate myself on you know what was the most important ways to maintain
07:20poreless healthy you know uh just just just luscious looking skin so i started using anti-aging products by
07:27the time i was 20 years old i i was really ahead of the curve thank god you know it's but i say it
07:35again it was a total accident because if i had a different group of girlfriends i might not have
07:40learned this stuff and i'm so grateful for them and i'm so happy you mentioned so many of those hacks
07:45because right thinking about head to toe body wellness one thing that we often hear throughout
07:49our lives as women is to prioritize skincare right and you did it just from an earlier age so what is
07:55the last skincare trick or hack that you've tried or incorporated that you really love that's really
08:01working for you okay you guys are gonna love this stuff okay i love putting stuff in the in the freezer
08:07or the refrigerator like night creams eye creams spoons as applicators i love to apply that after i have
08:16cleansed my skin at night so i'll either take a shower or just do like a cleansing of my skin taking off
08:23makeup or just just the day just get the day off of you you know so once i cleanse my skin and i and i
08:29use like a you know kind of like a chemical exfoliant as a as a toner then i'm going to use a highly
08:35emollient um eye eye cream and lotion or moisturizer to go to bed with and just literally marinate on my silk
08:45pillow like that's just what i think about myself i think about myself as a sardine just marinating in oil
08:51during the night and i wake up and my skin just feels like a baby's bum it's great so i really
08:58love to put spoons in the refrigerator or freezer and use those as applicators for my eye cream and for
09:04my moisturizers and i tend to use like highly emollient moisturizers at night rather than the
09:11daytime the daytime they've got to be a lot lighter because who knows what's going to be going on
09:15yeah you know just just our sebaceous glands kind of can go crazy you know depending on what season
09:22is happening this summer um but one new hack that i've kind of fallen in love with um i go to this
09:29place called the detox shop out here in la and i find that it's something that not a lot of um you
09:35know black women are kind of like up on it's like a new trend um thing you know like skin care
09:42body um cavitation skin care treatment and so what my technician does is she does four things on me
09:50she does vacuum therapy um radio frequency skin tightening ultrasound cavitation and wood therapy
09:57and all of these things combined what they do is they drain the lymphatic system they promote collagen
10:03production um ultrasound uh waves break down excess fat and basically what you do after a session is you
10:10drink a lot of water in order to flush out all of those toxins but what this does is it just it
10:16decreases cellulite it just increases the appearance and the and the and the elasticity of your skin on
10:24your legs and you know a secret that i've never really told anybody is that i have been very insecure
10:31about my legs and my butt which is comical because that's what i'm known for you know but a lot of
10:38women a lot of women you know we if you got butt and thighs yep you're gonna have cellulite it's
10:45it's just what's going to happen and there's very little surgical procedures that are going to be able
10:53to you know like do anything about that like cellulite is just like it's just the bane of our existence
10:58and i found that the appearance of any cellulite that i had on my legs and my butt was drastically
11:07reduced by doing these non-invasive body treatments and you know for me non-invasive is the key word
11:15i you know i know we're probably going to talk about plastic surgery and botox and fillers and that sort
11:21of thing um but non-invasive something that that caters to my lifestyle i eat right i love working out
11:30i love to beast out in the gym um and i think that this is a really nice complimentary way to
11:38offset my you know my the the muscle development and the strength training that i'm doing overall
11:46toning that i'm doing for my body i think that this is a nice complimentary you know kind of uh you
11:52know skin kind of treatment that i can do for myself rather than going to the surgeon's office
12:00because the reality of the situation is that there's so much upkeep that comes along with
12:05surgery there is something called edema and edema is what happens if you if you uh sprain your ankle
12:13and it swells up the liquid inside of your ankle is edema and when you when your body has been
12:20traumatized by something uh whether it's a break whether it's a sprain or whether it's a surgeon's knife
12:25your body responds by producing enormous amounts of edema which is why a lot of girls who have gotten
12:32surgery full body surgery they kind of have this swollen look to them right and it's re and it's
12:40really important that girls post surgery very soon after their surgery go and get stuff done
12:47like the body cavitation and yep and radio frequency skin tightening and the wood therapy
12:52they really need that lymphatic drainage system going they need that right this is this is uh
13:00elective for just women who haven't done that sort of thing um but the reality is is that with surgery
13:06you really need stuff like that and the reality of the situation is that edema can create some
13:13significant health problems if you don't address it really early on and it will you might end up
13:20looking worse for wear after a surgical procedure if you really don't um tend to your body the way
13:28that you're supposed to and like i said i'm really low maintenance um in the grand scheme of things so
13:34i don't really want to do anything you know that's going to require so much upkeep you know what i mean
13:41right and surgical procedures require a lot of upkeep and i'm so happy that you mentioned it because
13:47that was literally the next question you know kind of why it's so interesting that you talk about like
13:52your insecurities because you've really been credited with having one of the best natural
13:57bodies in the game since you started your career right but we're in a time now where the idea of
14:03things like plastic surgery or botox or fillers it's not as taboo as it used to be there used to be a
14:08time right to talk about it so right what are your thoughts on how the perception of it has changed
14:15especially in our community because you witness it firsthand especially being in the entertainment
14:19industry you've seen it there are women getting work done to look like you how you do naturally so
14:26how do you feel about about kind of everything that's going on there i think you know whatever
14:34makes you happy whatever floats your boat you like it i love it you know whatever i i don't offer any
14:39kind of judgment when it comes to that the only thing that concerns me is the health ramifications of it
14:43and the little and and and the and the little to no research that a lot of women don't do when it
14:52comes to um you know getting these surgical procedures a lot of them don't realize how
15:00how dangerous it actually is all they look at is the finished result on one of their icons whoever that
15:08may be and they say i want to look like that i'm booking an appointment with a doctor
15:12do you know what it do you a lot of women don't even know what it takes to even find a reputable
15:19doctor to perform such surgery do you know how many black market doctors there are that literally
15:26just got a license off the internet to perform invasive surgery that can result in death like that is
15:34terrifying like here's the situation if you're going to get surgery and one thing that just disturbs me
15:41about the whole acceptance of surgery is how young these girls are that are getting it they haven't
15:47had children they are just just in getting into their 20s your body is about to change so many
15:54different ways that you don't even know how i'm 44 years old and i'm in love with this body i didn't
16:01respect the body that i had at 22 32 and that those body they they were amazing they could do amazing
16:10things and effortlessly and now i appreciate this body because of how hard i have to work for the half the
16:20results i used to get just by snapping my fingers so the thing that scares me the most about these young girls
16:25getting like these these bbls like you know the the the what is a brilliant brazilian body lift or butt
16:32lift or fat transfer or whatever the case is is that your body hasn't even it's going to morph into
16:38other things and you are traumatizing it and that is what scares me and it's also altering the the standard
16:46of beauty at to a rate that is is disturbing to me that's just honestly my take on it but the other
16:56thing that i want to make women understand if you are going to get surgery i need you to do a few
17:03things one research the doctor that you go to and then when you go to him and you meet with him
17:10have a consultation with him the first question that you need to ask him is how many malpractice
17:16suits do you have against you and if he is not forthcoming with that information walk out the
17:23door okay you do not want to go under the knife under anesthesia with somebody who's not going to be
17:30forthcoming about the about a client who did not get the results that they had hoped for some people
17:37are delusional and they they they look like rasputia and they want to look like cinderella
17:43and that might be lofty goals you know what i'm saying but the reality of the situation is that
17:49sometimes doctors are out of their depth and the malpractice suit is called for and they really
17:55named somebody yeah you need to know that that's number one and number two always always always always
18:03get a second opinion always because what one doctor will say oh yeah i'll put 700 cc implants in
18:11your chest or yeah i'll do this to you another doctor would be like i would never do that to you
18:17ethically that would be so wrong and it will put your health at risk in the long term and i don't want
18:23to be responsible for that so those would be my two recommendations when it comes to surgery
18:27if you're planning on getting anything done and the reason why i know this stuff is because
18:33i'll be honest like there have been times where i put on a significant amount of weight
18:38none of y'all knew that because i hid and posted and posted three pictures of not my current state
18:46and i've i've investigated well what if i just did get a little bit of you know lipo here or whatever the
18:54case was you know and i've like you know made phone calls and talked to friends that have gotten
18:59surgery and stuff and then i just decided it wasn't for me i would rather just do my regular
19:04eat right go to the gym it takes a much longer time it's going to be harder to get the results but i
19:10like that feeling of you know of achievement that's just me personally um but these are the things that
19:18i've learned along the way and i've learned them by way of people who have been maimed one story is
19:25k michelle's she has been so vocal about her pursuit of physical perfection and the fact that it almost
19:33killed her she has been so vocal about it and i put her on a pedestal for that because so many women
19:39would hide in the shadows and not tell anybody that that was what they experienced she might have
19:45saved hundreds if not thousands of lives by telling her story and that's why i i give her so
19:52much respect for that um because the reality is is that you can be this respected woman like um you
19:59know donda kanye's mom go for a procedure multiple procedures and end up dying for whatever reason
20:07because of ineptitude on the medical um you know staff's behalf or for whatever reason um the
20:15reality is our pursuit of perfection has crossed a line and it and it terrifies me you know um because
20:25we're black and queens by by by by dna you know we're beautiful no matter what um and i think we're
20:34being convinced uh you know of the alternative and it and it's it's kind of i don't like it and it's so
20:42that that message is particularly i feel powerful coming from somebody like you and so i i appreciate
20:48you being so transparent about you and as we kind of wrap it up what is this for you on your journey
20:55and how can we keep up and and see what you're doing well um i have been um thinking for a while now
21:05about doing a travel show um i've gotten a lot of feedback on when i travel and so um prior to
21:17my car accident which was almost three years ago um it's through the third year anniversary will be
21:23june 28th actually um which was a near-death car accident a lot of people knew about it um and so
21:31then shortly after maybe a year after that my mom was diagnosed with cancer it took her very quickly
21:38inside of seven months pandemic happened so a lot of the plans that i had for travel obviously they
21:44got put on the back burner but prior to all of this i was i was floating around folly and i was in
21:50australia and i was in japan and i was you know living my quote unquote best life and a lot of the
21:56feedback that i got from people was melissa i love watching when you go on vacation you don't just
22:03post these pictures of you like on yachts like you're drinking beer with the locals like you're
22:09you're you're you're giving us like a snapshot into your into your daily experience you're getting on
22:15you're getting in a car and you're driving hundreds of miles in a country you've never been in
22:20you're kind of fearless and i'm like yeah i guess i am i guess that's the point of sharing the
22:29experience with everybody is because i want to encourage people to be fearless or at least you
22:35know kind of like get out there so that you can be the you you imagine yourself to be vacate your life
22:43that's what vacation is vacate your life so i've really been thinking long and hard about you know
22:49doing some travel blogging vlogging or you know creating um a show i also you know had like a lot
22:56of life experience thrown at me recently um and so i'm in the finishing process uh uh writing a book
23:03um yeah and it's and it's really going to be you know the messaging is going to be very anecdotal and
23:10it's it's just going to be surviving um through the trials and tribulations that life throws at you no
23:17matter what they are i mean i've had to do so in the public eye and um it's at one point i used to
23:26do so with dignity you know head held high and never a crack in the facade and then car accident and mom
23:34passing away there was more than a crack in the facade it cracked open and i was like i i can't even
23:40i can't even hide anymore this is this is what it is and so it's just it catalogs the journey of
23:48serve of just surviving all of the things that kind of life throws at you but coming out of it on the
23:55other side just with just with life beaming you know through your face you know what i mean like
24:02always examining the most positive perspective that you can find no matter what if you
24:10no matter what finding the shift in the paradigm the pivot in your perspective that's what the book
24:18is going to be about well i will say that it looks like you are doing so much more than surviving
24:23it looks like you are living fully and abundantly and so i must say melissa thank you so so much
24:28for joining me it was so nice to have you and don't move everyone we've got more essence festival
24:35of culture coming up next stay tuned
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