Real Talk on Motherhood, Postpartum Skin, and Rebuilding from the Inside Out with Anastasia Khodzhaeva

Welcome to Biohacking Beauty, the podcast that redefines con the conversation around skin longevity and skin health. I'm Amita Eshel.

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I'm Anastasia Khonjaeva.

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And today this is going to be a different podcast because this is a special podcast for Mother's Day.

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Yes.

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And our podcast, we. We get to decide what we're doing. So we. I decided that we're going to wait.

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We need to read the review.

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All right, so by the time you're looking for the review, I wanted to say I decided. Yeah, I decided that this is a podcast that we're going to talk to Anastasia, who is a newer, newish mother of our Lev, which is two years old.

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In two months.

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In two months. And we're going to talk about wellness and motherhood. Mother's hood, the hood of mothers in motherhood, in skin health within the. With, you know, you could take. We're going to see where we're taking it. It could be for busy people. It could be entrepreneurship and motherhood. We'll see.

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Yeah.

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Little Red Riding Hood, whatever hood we're going to go.

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But before we go to any of the hoods, we wanted to do a shout out to a lovely person named Superstar. There's a lot of you and there's also r. That rather short and sweet review. And the subject is. Love this podcast and the bodies I've got. I've gotten into skincare recently and found this podcast super helpful. It's my favorite way to learn. And that's our favorite thing to hear, honestly, that we help you learn and it's your favorite way to learn.

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Yeah. And today we're going to learn Superstar. You're going to learn about Anastasia Hojaiva.

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Well, yeah, I'm a little bit. I hope you guys want to listen to this. Let's see the team and every time prepared some questions to me for Mother's Day.

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Yeah.

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So.

2:12

So let's jump into it.

2:13

Let's do it.

2:14

Okay. This is a question. It's a kind of a general question, but who were you before you became a mom? Like, what did your world look like?

2:15

Yeah. I think I see myself as a go getter.

2:24

Yeah.

2:29

And I traveled across the world at the age 20 by myself. I moved from Eastern Europe to United States without any family or friends here. And now as a mother, I would never do that. You know, it's too big of a.

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And now with the mother, I don't have any family or friends also.

2:46

So no. Now I have a family, thanks to you and Lev. But here in the United States. I have family back home. But what I'm saying is that it's hard for me to see it now because I don't take a lot of risks when it comes to. To, you know, I'm very kind of protective as a mother, but when I look back at what I've done, you know, I was taking some risks.

2:49

Took some risks, yeah. You were definitely a risk taker, which is very. Not Anastasia Hojai. You know, you're.

3:13

You know, my biggest risk is. Was taking a Mitaya shove. That was the last risk you ever tolerate. I do not have any more room for anything.

3:20

You said that did not go well. That's the last time I'm doing that. Okay. And you did mention being protective. So what were you protective of back then?

3:30

I was less protective then. I'm protective now as a mother.

3:43

That's exactly what I'm saying. So my question is that it is in your character to be. You know, we just had in the company, because we also run a company, we had a. Basically a consultation around defined definition of roles. And you are definitely the facilitator. What's it called? Facility.

3:46

Integrator.

4:06

Integrator, yeah. Which I kept calling facilitator. But you have a few, like, very strong character as being an integrator, as being an. An amazing operator of a business. And a lot of times, you know, we say you. You are an amazing biologist, but you are. You're just a good biologist. You. You're an incredible. You're one of a million. As an intuitive leader and hirer, I

4:07

will say that I definitely found myself in business.

4:34

Yeah. Yeah. So my question is, going back to the anesthesia. Before motherhood, what were the things that you had the instinct of protecting and preserving before motherhood. Mother's motherhood?

4:38

Well, I think through my experiences, I've, you know, learned to protect our circle.

4:53

Yeah. If you're a friend of Anastasia, it's like it's way more than. It's way easier to get hired to work for Yungoos than to be Anastasia's friend.

5:00

I feel like both are hard.

5:11

Both are very hard. That's correct. Because you're in charge of both.

5:13

It's actually very hard to get hired to work for Young Goose because, yes, I am a very diligent screener. And I love our company. I love our company culture, which we talked also today at that company meeting that we had. It's one of the most things I'm proud of, and that comes as a product of really screening people that become part of the company. But your original question was, what was I protective of before? Because being protective is in my nature. And I will say that, yes, like, I think growing up, there was a saying in my part of the world, don't have a hundred dollars, have a hundred friends. And actually, like, having a lot of friends, having a big community around you meant that you, you know, you are much wealthier that way. And it has a lot to do with how we grew up there and how things operate. Like, you need others to survive in constant, unstable situations. And I've always had a lot of friends. But then when we started the business, I have, in a couple years prior to that, I have noticed how much and I think it's just also age and just growth. You know, I just noticed how some people can take away from you more. Your peace, your time, and how they can drain you and, you know, take you for granted. And when I say you, I mean actually both of us. Like, it's not just me.

5:17

It's also.

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I've seen Amitai, you know, if you know Amitai, you are Amitai's friend. It's like. But then people were taking advantage of it, so I had to look out, actually, for both of us. And I think that is definitely one of the areas where that I was very protective of. And our circle of close friends is small. But I am, like, I love all of them and I'm grateful for each one of them. And, you know, it's also how we can support them back the best. Because if we had a lot of friends, a lot more friends, you know, friendship, it goes both ways. And unfortunately, or fortunately, we're very busy. So I want to give time and attention to friends, and I can't do it to too many people.

6:58

Yeah.

7:49

So, you know.

7:49

Yeah, I love it.

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It's fair that way to other people, too.

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Let's talk about becoming a mother. How did this shift, or what did it morph into once you've became a mother? First of all, Nastasia's maternity leave was very difficult for me. Because you didn't want to have one.

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Yeah.

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Yeah. Anastasia worked until nine months and gave birth and was already secretly receiving messages from our company, from Young Goose and from the employees that we had back then. Hint, they're all fired. No, I'm kidding. But from the employees that we still have and were back then. And I had to fight for every day that you're going to be in maternity leave until, I think the seventh month, where the Berlin Wall of maternity finally fell And Anastasia went back to work.

8:16

Yeah, actually now couple of friends are early ish postpartum and I take so much time telling them that I have regrets of the fact that I went back to work so soon and I be careful.

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We have it on video now. So if we have another kid, this is going to be on repeat.

9:16

I mean I have to full honesty. One of the reasons that I rushed back to work is because we didn't win the lottery of an easy baby. Lev as a baby was quite challenging. We don't have family here in the United States and I just felt like it was very hard and doing business is much easier. And I will say that definitely since becoming a mom, my view of full time mothers has changed. I knew it's hard but only the

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tough kids, the easy kids, we don't, they're not all that.

10:03

Listen, I will say don't celebrate yet. I will say that there are so many things, hard things that I've done in life, be it studying, be it, you know, academically, professionally, you know, dealing with me. Yes. A lot of friends were actually making a joke that the reason we don't have kids for so long is because you're a kid and I already have one. But being a mother by far was like the hardest thing.

10:09

Wait, who were those friends? No, I'm kidding. Talking about friends, what's it, the ones that we need to switch a circle now? Well, well, I guess we're moving.

10:38

Well, no, you, you really, you know, but there, there is credit to give where credit's due. Like as a father. Wow, you're amazing as a father and you really helped it. It was very challenging for me and I, I can't imagine how much more it would be challenging if you weren't such involved father. And there are moms out there that have a difficult baby and they're just doing it by themselves completely. But yes, I mean jumping back to work for me was sort of just an easier and more familiar thing to do. And again, I say it all the time. It's a hard job to be a mom. But now that he's.

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Don't really say it all the time. Just imagine him walking around the house. It's a hard job. It's a hard job. You don't really say it all the time.

11:36

I don't think about it all the time. But since becoming a mom, listen, I had no idea what this is to be a mom. And also because growing up, well, I sadly lost my mom at the age of seven so I wasn't around motherly mother.

11:44

You really weren't around. I mean, she wasn't around since the age of four, more or less. Right. She was in hospitals, things like that.

12:07

So she was, she was very sick for the last three years of her life. So I, I also unfortunately barely remember her. But the type of mothers and fathers that we have today, that we are so conscious and we're so involved and we try to do everything right, that was not existent in my generation. No one gave that much thinking into what I'm playing with, what's going on. You know, like in Eastern Europe it was a system of like offloading the kids to educators. So you, you, you get to daycare very early and then you. From there you're in kindergarten and then you're school. Like you're all like, by the way,

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in one day you start in your. Start a daycare, you end up in high school.

12:51

Well, I mean, that was the policy back then. And you grew up partly in that policy. You know, you were in daycare at like three months old. So, you know, although thankfully you have amazing mother.

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Yeah.

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And I'm very grateful for that.

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And we both have pretty cool dads. Do you think you're the same person pre and post motherhood? Are you the same person? No, I think I'm the same person. I'm asking it out of the.

13:11

You're an upgraded version, I can tell you that. Yeah, listen, you're much more upgraded version.

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This is. I was an orange, now I'm a Mandarin. Okay. It's the still the same citrus.

13:29

No, since becoming a father, something unlocked in you.

13:35

More like passion fruit.

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You listen, you're. If we're talking, I don't know, you're a grapefruit now. Like the biggest orange there is.

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A grapefruit. I love grapefruit.

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You really grew. So much growth.

13:46

Shout out to grapefruit. But, but Nastya. But that's where I'm coming from. Like in my perception, I'm just the same person, experience different things.

13:48

Well, do you think I'm the same person? What do you think? Am I the same person?

13:56

I think what I learned from you about life is that we are actually many, many different people. And it depends on the situation. Like we have a potential to be different people. You show up as versions of you in different parts of your, of your life. If I wake you up at night, it's not the best version. However, you know, oh my God, I've

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been woken up at night for the past two and a half years.

14:24

Just saying, you know, Just saying that would be a kumquat. But no, but I think the way you, you, you again, we talk about business, we talk about young goose. Your. You show up as a very confident, assertive and no go getter, know what you want type of person. You know, when we talk about, when we talk about the podcast, when we talk about here, you're very curious and you're, and you're, you're less, you're, you're, you come from the, from a point of like experience and learning and it's very different from the point that you come to as, as a co. CEO of a company. Just two examples that are pretty close to each other. When I think of you as a mother, it's, it's very. The funny thing is, is that, you know, in the world that Anastasia and Amitai walk through in life, you are the assertive one. You are the person that's more fine with confrontation and with saying no to stuff and I don't know everything that. And it's completely flipped when we're talking about parenthood. Right? You are.

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I'm a very softy.

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You are, you're softy. Very. You're a softy. You're getting bossed around by a two year old. Yeah, you. I don't think the word. Don't think you know the word no. I don't think he's heard the word no. I think he thinks no is something only a dad says.

15:37

Yeah.

15:54

You know.

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You know, before becoming a mom, I had something to share with our friends that are listening. I was worried that the same pattern that I described that in life, you know, I'm the one to, to give set boundaries. To set boundaries. To give a harsh criticism or feedback, you know, personally, professionally. And I just didn't want to be the bad cop as a parent. Like I just. And that's the only way I saw it ever.

15:55

You're not even a folding traffic cop at the moment. You're not even the ones with a yellow jacket.

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No. No.

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And in Palm beach that allows you to cross the street.

16:28

It is pretty insane that. Yeah, as a mom, I'm a very different person.

16:31

Yeah.

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Yeah. And that's why I think I like. Yes. I can't think of myself as the same person since becoming a mom, but I do feel like I love all the extra layers that the motherhood added to my character.

16:38

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Again, you know, Anastasia, you are very loved. As I say, day in, day out and accepted. And obviously anyone listening to this podcast, I can't Pass on. On a good joke. So everything I'm saying right now is about you being a kumquat with a yellow jacket. He's obviously joking. I, you know, I think as most things that we do in life, we complete each other very well. Also in parenthood. And for the record, Lev likes you significantly more than he likes me. So there's that.

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Maybe that's because I don't say nothing.

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There's that. It's like he says he sees a sign saying no something probably a father wrote that anyway.

17:31

But I will say that if you said no to him and then he tries. Comes to me and tries to get it.

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I do say Abba said no.

17:46

Yes. I do say Abba said no. And that's why it's a no. That's the only way I can say no.

17:48

Abba is father in Hebrew. So anyway, first of all, yeah, I think it's a very. I think you. I think we've discovered a new Anastasia. I think for me, maybe we discovered the Naomi Thai too, because.

17:53

Yeah.

18:05

Because it's.

18:06

That's where you actually are not afraid of confrontation. Not like, you know, we have very different backgrounds and I think, you know, different mentalities also. Where from the part of the world I come from, you have to, you know, the honesty.

18:07

We don't need any deals.

18:26

It's the biggest compliment you can give someone personally and professionally. So if I. I ever come across as blunt or direct, it's because I'm talking to a person that I think they can hold a direct honesty. And if you're part of youngest you, you have to be able to withstand it because it's, you know, it's. Yeah, yeah.

18:27

It's like I'm trying part of the expectations or whatever.

18:48

Yeah, you. You have to be able to. We have to speak the same language. And the language, you have to speak

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English if you want to get higher than English.

19:02

Honesty and transparency. And if I ever sugarcoat things, it's because I think a person, you know, cannot handle the direct honesty. And the world where you come from, actually, sugar coating is very much rewarded. It's like, you know, it's the kind of way, you know, and it's not how it's seen in my place, my part of the world, it's seen as dishonesty if you sugarcoat something. So that's. It's interesting that with Lev, you're like, you are strong, my son. You can handle the no. And I'm like, no, let me protect you.

19:03

Let me sugarcoat. You would look Way much better with white powder all over you. Yes. You know, going on the theme of honesty here, anything you miss about where you were before having a son, before being a mother.

19:42

Well, as most new parents have realized, good night's sleep.

20:01

That's what you miss.

20:06

Yeah, I have realized I've never been tired before. I've. All of those times that I fell asleep at the computer on my. Working on the desk, you know, working days and nights, I have actually not been tired. I only learned what is tired since becoming a mom. And I, you know. Yeah, I miss good night's sleep and I sort of. Sort of miss time for myself.

20:07

Yeah.

20:35

And when I say sort of is because, honestly, I am very fortunate and I can create a system and I have a system around me to. To have more me time. It's just. It's so hard because when I have extra time, I just want to spend it all with him. And so that's the balance that I'm still working on.

20:35

By the way, if to those joining conversation now, him is not me,

21:00

but you and I. I'm very proud that we, you know, we maintained our Friday night as date night.

21:07

I still like you. You're awesome. Okay. Movie. I want to. I want to change the. You know, we thought of maybe doing it two episodes. One episode. I think we should do it one episode.

21:15

But it's you and the team. I.

21:30

Yes.

21:33

You know, I. I am just still blown away that people would want to listen to this. So I hope I'm not boring anyone

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here, but I want to switch gears and talk about wellness. How did your skin change after becoming a mother? And what did you find that works in order to support it or to nurse it back into health?

21:40

Well, your skin looks great, by the way, so thank you. This skin, we've talked about this before. In some of our episodes, it's directly correlated with the hormonal shifts that are happening. And during pregnancy and postpartum, there are so many different hormonal shifts. And I think the, you know, the. The biggest issue that I had to deal with postpartum was like, I was getting, you know, this through all, all of the anxiety and, and, and, and that was again, first few months were kind of rough. All this constant state of high alertness. And this probably like so much cortisol pressing on the lever of. Of, you know, oil glands and secreting a lot of oils. I was getting breakouts, and I was like, what is going on? So, so dealing with, like, postpartum breakouts was something that. And you could Happen, but, you know. Yeah, so. And then in, in order to nurse it back to where it was. I mean, red light therapy helped. Applying, you know, some of, I don't mean to plug in our products, but applying products like Ladder helped because, you know, it has antimicrobial, antibacterial properties and just try to have as. As quick as possible because I, I didn't have much time. But even if it's quick to stay consistent with the routine. That's what I meant. Like still wash your face. Morning, night. I mean, shower was an optional thing for the first few months, but.

21:56

Yeah. Do you remember a specific moment where you looked in the mirror and looked at your skin and said, oh my God?

23:42

Like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember. It was multiple of those moments. I mean, looking at myself the first few months in the mirror was always scary, actually. I remember being pregnant. I was like, sometimes I would forget I'm pregnant and I pass by the mirror and I'm only remembering because I see this huge belly and I'm like, oh, I'm pregnant. And postpartum, it was like, oh my God, like, who is this in the mirror? I was just like, I was so looking like a zombie. I was like a gray colored. I don't know.

23:48

And how does a skin health, skin longevity lumineer navigate that? Like, what would be something if you could, you know, talk to yourself back then or to someone who's going through something similar now?

24:17

I mean, listen, I, I watch some of my girlfriends that I, I mentioned before that they're right now early postpartum. They're killing it. They're killing it.

24:30

And who are they killing?

24:41

They're killing it in their postpartum game. They look great, they feel great, and unlike me, they were actually taking time for themselves and it's so important. And I was not, I was just really scattered brain. I was just trying to figure out why Lev was constantly uncomfortable and crying. And it just didn't make sense that we can't help this little human, you know, and he had this kind of. We just, you know, he was a colicky baby, which we've talked to many, many people, tried many different things, but until his digestive system formed, there was nothing we could do. But it was hard. So I just. He was on my arms all the time and it was hard to do those things. Some of those things that my girlfriends are doing, like, you know, putting the baby down. Putting the baby down and taking time for themselves. It was very hard.

24:43

Yeah, yeah.

25:41

And he didn't want to be held by anyone else, so.

25:42

Oh, I know, yeah.

25:45

But if I was to do it second time, I mean, listen, I think whatever I'm going to say was going to go out of the window. If this baby's going to cry again, I'm just going to hold the baby and I'm going to be back to exactly how I did it the first time. But if we have a baby that cries a little less then I probably can do a little bit more like biohacking. Biostacking and you know, get through differently.

25:47

Yeah, we have a lot of, we first of all have a lot of skincare, a lot of tools and a lot of biohacking equipment in our house. How does it look like? How does self care wellness look like this day and age? A mother with a two year old baby, how does it look like now? I think it's fair to mention that we have the best nanny of all times. I mean, which is part of I think self care.

26:13

Yes, for sure. I think yes. Again, I'm very grateful. I have tools to stimulate, you know, repair processes and offset some of the lack of sleep because the nanny we have is just during the work hours because we are working full time and at night our son is still not sleeping through the night. So in order to offset, you know, some of. I've of course when like you're holding now he's like 36 pounds baby at night and you're sleeping like in a questionable position, you wake up all stiff and I'm super grateful for the high intensity PMF mat that we have. I don't know what I've, I don't know how I would be able to function without it. It's just like it's a miracle that 10 minutes and you, if you locate the right spot you can get rid of like this stiffness and sore muscle. Of course when you have stiff shoulders, doesn't matter like other muscles, you, you, you can infer that you will also have lymph stagnation and you know that that is, that can have det. Detrimental effects down the road. So I'm grateful that we have a, a full body lymphatic drainage suit. I need to use it more often. But that is also part of the self care that we have. We have contrast therapy which actually early postpartum you were doing so well with the contrast therapy because you had also very hard nights and you were working the whole time.

26:39

6am Jiu Jitsu.

28:17

Yes. Now the cold plunge is broken so we're looking for a better cold flange so guys, if you have recommendations, send it your way. But.

28:18

Send it your way. Send our way, everyone.

28:28

I said your way. I mean our way. Sorry. Send it our way.

28:30

You have recommendations, keep it to yourself.

28:33

But infrared light sauna. I'm so grateful that we have that. I love the, this massaging tool that we have. R. Starts with R. Rapid release.

28:35

Rapid release.

28:48

It's. It's amazing. None of it is sponsored by the way. It's the only time I've actually mentioned the, the brand name. But yeah, that tool is amazing. And my doula, shout out to my doula that I even like was amazing throughout my pregnancy and delivery. And then postpartum she would come and help me with this tool. Even ended up gifting her one. Cause she, you know, she needs it for her patients. Was paramount to me. So what else do we. I mean of course red light therapy as self lymphatic drainage. I mentioned lymphatic drainage suit. I think in terms of like biohacking equipment that's pretty robust. And that's again, I'm very, very grateful that we have all of that at our disposal. Also grateful that we live in the area where there we have, you know, trusted friends that have amazing clinics so we can go and get amazing IVs done. That has saved us, you know, a couple times when we were like under the weather. Just really needed immune boost or just energy boost. Yeah. And I'm grateful that also I guess part of my self care is supplementation. It was tricky to navigate my supplementation since I'm still breastfeeding. But there are things that you can supplement on to, to improve your well being. And I actually it's one of the often asked questions for me what I supplement on. And I always shy away from like giving my protocol because it's. Everything is so individual.

28:49

Yeah.

30:28

But I do have a highlight on my Instagram if you guys want to see exactly what I'm taking.

30:29

If you had to choose like three supplements that you feel have made a tangible difference in your, you know, your bounce back stack, if you would.

30:34

Yes.

30:43

Just thought about it.

30:43

Yes, my bounce back stack. Well, I do not know how I would even think if I didn't have PC phosphatidylcholine. And the brand that we use is from Biobio. I love Spermidine. We choose the Spermidine Life one. I would say PC Spermidine and nad.

30:44

Yeah, nice. So nmn the lipidomanium we take. Okay, great. I love it. Okay, one last question. What is something you do Just for you. It helps you feel grounded and reset.

31:08

Something that I do just for me. This is such a tough question because everything that comes to mind, like I'm always trying to multitask. Like I would say reading, but most things that I read are either like business related or they're childcare related. Actually there is a mental health and self improvement podcast that I'm listening to and what's it called? It's called Monday and it is something that I do basically for me, but also for the rest, for everyone else, for you and for Lev and for Yangoos and taking care of my, my mental health and working my self improvement. But I found this podcast and I also needed some mental health and self improvement strategies and I liked their approach and now I love it. I, I, it's one of those podcasts that I went, by the time I discovered them, they already had like 200 episodes. And I went back to the like, wow. I listened to, back to their very first one. Like I just.

31:25

Did you leave a review? That's the question. That is the question. Did you get a free product when you live there?

32:30

No, no, they don't give a free product.

32:37

Maybe that's why, you know, who does

32:39

as as we, we actually didn't read any review today.

32:42

Today's about you. Okay, if you want to leave a review about Anastasia.

32:45

But guys, if you leave a review on our podcast, we give out free product because we know it's hard to pause what you're doing and leave a review. It takes effort. So every week we choose one winner. It's not a guarantee for everyone.

32:49

So I want to go through rapid fire questions to finish this.

33:08

Oh, there's also rapid fire questions. Okay.

33:11

For a new mom listening, who feels frustrated with how her skin looks, feels, or sorry, look, looks or feels. Now what advice do you have for navigating that without being hard on herself?

33:13

I mean, the last part is really critical. You just, first of all, there are seasons in life for everything. And I think as a new mom, the last thing you should be really worried about is how you look. That's like the idea of bouncing back. I think we, we sometimes on social media we're sort of a little bit, have wrong expectations. We see models, actresses and influencers bounce back like it's nothing. And we, you know, that's just not everyone's reality. I think taking it day by day and focusing on important things, you know, is the most important thing. That's what I really think. But if you wanted to say, okay, you know if that's really, like, give me the answer of what, what a product or what modality will help postpartum skin the most. Okay. Then I will say, okay, red light therapy stacked with ladder. But the first thing that I said, I think is more important.

33:27

I love it. So, you know, something that goes through my mind is. I mean, for almost a year, you are, you're. You are still you, but you're also housing someone else inside your body and you're going through a transformation where basically, I know your body changes a lot and it's not like you're getting it back once you've given birth or gone through the fourth trimester. Baby's out. How does one reconnect with their body? Kind of build back this love identity. Yeah. Connection.

34:33

Yeah. Well, it's already foggy in my head because now it's been two. The fog of war, almost two and a half years since I housed love in my body. But I do remember that I kind of thought that, okay, because during my pregnancy I identified and acted the most as a biohacker ever. I was so on point with my diet. I was do, like, I had amazing doula, who is shout out to Maria, and she's also a Chinese medicine doctor, acupuncturist as well. And she, like, I just saw her, I was seeing her bi weekly and I got so many different, you know, Eastern medicine treatments done. So my. The way I felt in my body throughout pregnancy was pretty good. But then, yes, after giving birth and with all the cascade of hormones and everything, I do remember that I thought I'm going to kind of do the same. I'm going to like, trust someone else to. To take care of my body, basically. Give me like all the tools and just tell me what to do. And. And then unfortunately, she had moved, which I was thinking I'm going to rely on her postpartum as well. And. But things change. People move. And then I was like, okay, apparently, yeah, yeah. And then I was like, okay, so what, what can I do? And then I realized that I didn't feel comfortable going somewhere else, getting a massage done, seeing someone else. Like, it basically, you know, especially for breastfeeding moms, like, yes, your body is not really yours anymore. You. You're doing so much for another human. And then it looks different and everything. Like, basically what I think really helped me is taking a course for a massage. For myself, it was actually a facial massage, but luckily for me, it was a whole academy. And they were teaching basically movement, body movements as well, that you know, improve your posture and which ultimately helps to work your facial muscles. You have to release your trapezius, you have to release your back, your shoulders, your, you know, your platysma muscle on your neck and actually that's there. I also learned that the self soothing that you get from self massage, the way your body responds when your own hands massage you and a stranger basically is very different. Which kind of like now that I say it out loud, it's very intuitive and very understandable. But I don't have a lot of friends, actually I don't have any friends that postpartum went and took a course of self massage, you know, But I would recommend that that really helped me to reconnect with my body, with myself and I'm really thankful that I have these skills now also.

35:56

Yeah, at the end, at the edge of your fingertips.

39:07

Yes. So always quick on the pants.

39:12

Yeah, you gotta be so moving on a little bit further now. Almost two years and a half postlev.

39:16

Postlev era.

39:25

Your postlev era. So what does self care actually look like for you in this season of life?

39:27

Yeah, I think in this, first of

39:35

all, you look great. Whatever you do, it works.

39:38

Thank you. Thank you.

39:40

I don't know what products you use, but it must be amazing.

39:41

Well, products are part of them. Part of it for sure. I'm not going to discount that. But besides the amazing skincare products that I have at my fingertips, I think the big change that happened, you know, you and I, we didn't really have too much of rituals, like, oh, we're going to walk every day, twice a day, you know, if we can. And then it, we had that introduced with Lev, like every time he would wake up, we would go for a walk, often at 5:00am yeah. And then at least one of us. At least one of us.

39:44

Yeah.

40:16

And then around 5pm when he had his witching hour, we would also go for a walk in the whole neighborhood with hear us a mile away. But it stayed and it became part of our self care with. We started even as a family. But I know the question was about myself. Walking outside daily has been part of wellness. And also as a breastfeeding mom, you always like before you eat something, you always think about, okay, my baby is going to eat that too. So I'm really being very strategic about what nutrients I consume, how I nourish myself, how it will affect his development has been part of wellness for sure. And then workouts too. Like, I mean, honestly, you couldn't convince me to be very disciplined and consistent with weightlifting before I know I was pregnant. I know. And because I would always gravitate towards like bar and Pilates, which I think still are great modalities. But I couldn't convince myself to weightlift. And now he's 36 pounds, you know, and he's so heavy and he asks you still to carry him. And it's sometimes it's really hard to negotiate him actually walking, which he of course, perfectly can. So then it became a necessity. So now weightlifting is part of my routine because otherwise my back, you know, forget about it. So, so many tools the motherhood kind of brought into my life that are part of wellness. And then, you know, I'm grateful for. But really these things like proper nutrition, daily walks outside, consistent weight lifting, these are non negotiables. And thankfully great skincare as well as part of it. And in general also as a breastfeeding mom, it's been like, it did bring another layer of like, okay, what shampoo I'm using? I would experiment a little bit.

40:16

Am I using shampoo? Did I take a shower today? What day is it?

42:18

Thankfully, two years.

42:22

What time of day is that?

42:23

Two and a half years later, after giving birth, it is better. I will tell this to any new mom that might be listening, but of course, I think the majority of moms that are listening right now already have, you know, kids that are older.

42:24

Yeah. You know, something that you said kind of got me thinking. We talk a lot about energy. I mean, we've prepared a talk for the biohacking conference together coming up. The beyond conference.

42:39

Yeah.

42:56

Reminds me, the building in West Palm beach called the Edge. And then there's one building after it that they wanted to call past the Edge. But we talk a lot about energy, cellular energy, mental energy, the energy to, you know, make better decisions, better habits, etc. And you know, energy is a big word. There are many types of energy. And I think being a mother, being, you know, you're so many things that require different types of energy. Whether it is everything we talked about until now, but you do, or but you are a person that makes, that is capable of making many, many, many decisions a day. Like your decision fatigue limit is very. Is very vast or higher. However you want to describe that. You are obviously, you know, you run a company, I help sometimes, but you run a company, you run the household. You again, as I said, you do a lot of things extracurricularly. So what's the secret? You know, and you know, how do you take care of your energy? Whether it is mentally Whether it is physically, spiritually, emotionally, how do you see energy? Maybe I want to rephrase, you know, I want to redo. So how do you see energy? What does it mean to you and what are some of the tools you're using to manage your energy?

42:56

And very deep question for sure, that's a lot to unpack here and answer. But I will say that the way I see energy, it's really capacity to respond. And since becoming a mother, like getting a burnout became less of an option, you know, pre, pre children you're burnt out and you can, you can collapse and then you can collapse for two, three days and, and you know, you can all systems down, you have, you slip it off and then you're back at it. With children you don't really have an option like that. So I think being more mindful of my limit is, is a big way I take care of my energy. I also have, you know, work wise we've built out a bigger team. That's a big, big reason I can, I can also sustain my energy. I don't do everything hands on as I used to because I wouldn't have energy for that. And being a mother, involved mother for sure. And then professionally it was a lot of really conversation with the team that okay, the meetings have to be shorter. Everyone has to come prepared. It's not like, you know, previous years there was a lot of brainstorming. You know, we would come on a call and let's brainstorm together. Like now there's no brainstorming. Everything is much more structured.

44:20

Unless I'm in the meeting, unless I'm

45:40

in time shows up, that's everything becomes a brainstorm. But yes, and that drains my energy.

45:43

A brain typhoon.

45:50

Uh huh. But I think one of other things also that I became much more consistent with since becoming a mother is supplementing honestly like before, I mean I had

45:51

the famous yum yum.

46:02

Yes. I mean, yeah, PC is one of them. I'm very grateful for PC to shout

46:04

out to Lev that like loves BC phosphatelcholine and calling it yum yum.

46:09

Yes. That really helps my mental clarity. Creatine helps. I mean there are supplements that like me before would be very inconsistent with. And now I'm like okay, I have to take it. I have to take my nad plus I have to take my spermidine. I have to take like there's some non negotiables that I know if I don't take. And I'm still, you know, I'm. Both of us are still Running a much less sleep than we ever were for a really long time now. So having, you know, trying to bridge that gap. Supplements really help. And, you know, you say also, also, I will. The last thing I will say that comes to mind about conserving energy is also being very rigid about my work hours, which was never the case. Now I'm like, I don't come until this hour because that's the hour where I'm with Lev. And that's for me, still recharging. Yes. It's work. It's. I. I can be exhausted from this little human being, but, you know, treating it as like a recharging moment, you know, morning and the evening.

46:15

You know what I think of when you're telling me it's still a recharging? It's when you use your phone, but it's still connected to the plug. Like you're charging, but you're using energy at the same time.

47:18

Yeah, yeah. That's so funny.

47:29

So, you know, what you're telling me is very interesting. That wasn't where I thought you would take the question, quite frankly, but it's very interesting. It's true. You know, I think the roles flipped a little bit where I was the one that's trying to conserve our energy beforehand. And ever since your pregnancy, it's the opposite. There is a famous saying where I'm saying, I'm not done working it. And then you're saying, no, you are. Well, you should be.

47:31

Yeah. That's more so since giving birth. And that's also because I need you. I'm very thankful that we get to do it together. You're a very involved father and you help a lot. So I'm sure if there are situations where that's not the case, and if the father is done with work or not done with work, there's less help for the mother. But that would be very unfortunate.

47:58

I'm going to throw a curveball here because I had one more question prepared, which was your non negotiables in wellness. But I feel like that's something that you've kind of covered in your answers. You mentioned the team. You mentioned kind of having a team that.

48:22

Very grateful for that.

48:42

Yeah, we have an amazing team in one year. I mean, since October. We were in October. I think we were in eight. It was us and eight more employees. And now we are 27 internal employees. Internal. We had a lot of agencies, stuff like that, working with us, and now we're basically 27 employees.

48:43

Yeah. Which is crazy.

49:01

Which is crazy. And one of the things that I feel like we are lucky with is the company culture. And company culture, of course, we're first and foremost very lucky. But you know, I had the conversation yesterday with dear friend who came to visit me and I explained that, you know, when I say lucky, our decisions are also part of luck. The thought was going through our head and the way that we, that we, the thought that we chose to hold on to and to go with, it's a sort of luck, right? So that's part of the lucky that I think that we are, that we had made right choices. And you know, when we have the consultant now and we're talking with them and we're looking at comparable companies that started with us, that's another thing that we've mentioned. You know, it's just that the decision making pattern just worked. Where I'm leading to is this the culture that we created and that you created within the team is very unique. And I'm wondering, you know, you really did create it within those boundaries that you've just mentioned. The hours, the workload, the delegation, that was never your strong suit. And you really, you really had to like, you know, educate yourself and like force yourself to delegate, etc. How do you see it? Like, how do you see if you had to coach someone else on how to build the culture that we built with the Angus, what would you tell them? I know I'm giving you a hard one because that's mostly what you do intuitively, but I'm really wondering, you know, what is coming to your head. What is intuitively coming to your head?

49:03

I think, well, first of all, it starts during the hiring process. And sometimes I know people hire like we have a lot of entrepreneurial friends and I see that they hire from scarce with like a little bit of scarcity mentality. They hire and they just like they waited too long to hire and then they need to hire really fast and then they hire almost like not maybe the first person they interviewed, but I don't know, they interview five and choose out of five. And for me, in like hiring someone internally is a big deal. So you have to get through at this stage that our company is now, actually it's like three interviews before they even interview with me. But going back to you said that, okay, when someone is building it from scratch, like being very, very intentional with hiring, like really try to understand. And another thing when I, what I also mean by that is a lot of people come to the interview and because I've seen how other people interview also and they really mostly talk about work. But that's not.

50:51

But not Anastasia.

52:07

No, I actually talk very little about past work. I do, I have, I mean, I asked to send portfolio and past work and I can review it that way. But in the interview I talk a lot about the person's interests, person's, you know, kind of like I'm trying to understand what person is this. Like if we. Because a lot of the times we don't hire in person. It's a remote interview. But I really try to create like a coffee date out of it like and really understand the mindset. And that I think is the number one tip I can give to hire the people that you think you would personally enjoy working with, which is important because you know, and then think about who they're going to be interacting with, how that workflow will go. And then after you've hired, also very important is the whole onboarding process and the way the person is integrated in the teams, big or small, just giving them as much help as you can and guidance so they're never feeling like they were just thrown at it and they have to figure it out for themselves and preparing that infrastructure and you know, like the whole onboarding process is very important. And then, I mean, in our case we were always leading by example and everyone that was hired and looked at what we've built until they were hired, they're always like, you've built this at first alone, you know, and then you've built this with one other employee, you've built this with two other employees. Like, you know, we've always showed that you can strive for the best, you can work until it's really done, you know, the output, like the result is very important. And then also the most important thing that I look for in interviews and then I check through the first couple of months of work because there is a, like three months period where we evaluating if the person is going to really fit long term. It's. If the person is happy doing what they're doing and if there is any inclination that the person is not happy at their role, it's not going to work. Long term, not going to work. So if you really love the person, you feel like it's the right person but it's the wrong seat for them, then you try to find the right seat. If, if you have available seats. But if, if it's, it's a, it's a great person but they're not happy in their role and you cannot offer them a better role, then it's Better to let them go. And making that decision can be difficult. But you have to make this decision if you want to preserve the company culture.

52:08

Yeah.

54:52

And then, you know, we, we also the, I think one of the things that people really enjoy working with us, we have unique things, you know, we, we do unique things as a company. We really integrate wellness and I mean everybody that's worked with us, the feedback that we see when we do our six months evaluation, one year evaluation, they all say, wow, I've, you know, I've done like, I've learned so much about wellness from you guys and I've integrated so many things and that's a big one I think too.

54:53

Yeah, I agree. Within, within that parameter. I think you are a very interesting example as far as like mindfulness and mindfulness practice, practice, et cetera. I think we've, we've made attempts in the past, but then we remark often on it, but I don't think anyone does a good enough job like connecting mindfulness and skills, skin health and you know, my outside experiences. That was a big part of your journey as far as like getting back to, you know, tip top shape and then some like to your best self now, you know, two plus years past your birth or I mean not your birth, you gave birth. What would be your elevator pitch to someone else as far as like integrating mindfulness in order to both, whether it is reconnect with themselves or by the way, if someone's like, if it's vanity, they don't even have to be, they don't have to even have kids. How can you explain the importance of mindfulness as far as being able to achieve best health and best skin health?

55:24

Yeah. Well, first of all, your skin, we often say it's a mirror, right. Of what's happening in your overall health, in your body. So, so mindfulness, to me, one of the best things that it does, and I mean not just to me scientifically. Right. It's lowering cortisol and it's lowering inflammation, those two processes. And those two processes always show up on your skin. If you really stress, you had stressful Monday, you didn't sleep well, you don't need a blood test, you know, your skin will show you this. If you're inflamed, you will see it on your skin. It can be as redness, it can be as reactivity, it can be just, you know, you, you look puffier than usual. So just even from like you said, from the vanity standpoint, when you incorporate meditation, especially like I think one of the easiest Ones to start and the ones that I really did very consistently postpartum was yoga nidra. Because 20 minutes of yoga nidra, 30 minutes of yoga nidra. They say I think it's like can almost make up for like four hours of lost sleep. Don't quote me on the number, but I can tell you someone who's consistently have been sleeping three to four hours a night consistently because that was amazing. But he's not a great sleeper. This yoga nidra has became an essential. Yeah, like I can tell, I can tell that when I finished my yoga Nidra. And again it's actually if you think about it the 20 most of meditations that I do which are from Braintap like not sponsored but they're there between as low as 18 minutes. And the. The longest one I think that they have is like 26 minutes. So you, you take that chunk of time and you, you go in like you know, your mind is racing, you're tired, you're just like you have a, you feel like your head is squared. You do this for 18 minutes to 26 minutes. You come out as if you took a nap, like as if you slept for you know, a couple of hours and you, you function differently. It's like, it's as if you're a mompreneur. It's, it's amazing if you don't have 18 minutes or 26 minutes et cetera. Another thing that I do sometimes which is breathing techniques, you can do it just for 10 minutes and it's inhale for four, hold for seven, exhale for eight, you count until four, until seven, until eight. So four, seven, eight technique just 10 minutes. It's amazing. It also really helps and it does work its way back into the way

56:36

for a new mom listening look in the mirror. It feels like self care is unrealistic in this season. What advice do you have for redefining self care can look like right now

59:21

Take care of your skin. So I think if you did for a moment also the care that you have there is just a higher chance and we do that all the time. Gentler and kinder for yourself. And then you will see it actually self care then I think the results from that as well it get a really different perspective a cycle because every time I would definitely taking care of help him not to cry and help him feel better. It's never just the product changing bathing, all of those just non negotiable. Like every day, every moment things that a mom does. I actually see it as self care now I Understand that was also a way to help myself and care for myself. Because every time I care for him, I care for myself.

59:30

Wow. Amazing. Beautiful. Well, Anastasia, before we wrap up, first of all, I think it was an amazing podcast. I love you.

1:00:16

I love you too.

1:00:26

And I think you're an amazing person, amazing mom, amazing partner, business life. Very grateful for you.

1:00:27

Thank you.

1:00:35

Before we wrap up, we have to remind listeners again about our Mother's Day sale.

1:00:36

Yeah, well, every mom deserves to take care of herself, so we couldn't not make anything special. So I hope that resonates from. With every. Every mom that will be taken care of. Either she does it for herself or by her family or with her friends.

1:00:43

Yeah. Okay. I agree. I think it's, it's. It's time to highlight how much mothers give right, time, energy, attention, bodily, you know, essential bodily energy, and everything around that. And at Yungoos, we wanted to create sets that represent the thoughts behind caring for your mom, caring for yourself. So we curated three longevity focus sets to make skincare feel simple and intentional. So essential set includes three pieces. The complete set includes four pieces, and the regenerative set includes five. Each one is designed to work as a system so the routine feels clear, effective and easy to stay consistent with, which we mentioned here. I think it's a real good gift to give a mom to prioritize herself and put her in the center. So you are a mom. We really appreciate you in the Eshel Khoja family. And if it wasn't my company, I would buy you these products for sure.

1:01:03

Well, I. I would still love them.

1:02:15

You have them in your. In your.

1:02:17

I know, but you can. You can on Mother's Day. That's what I want. Just give me Angus.

1:02:19

Uhhuh. Done deal. That's an easy one. Okay, well, Anastasia, you are a mother. And we at the Eshel Khojaev household are super, super, super grateful for you. And we love you. And I wish everyone a mother like you.

1:02:23

Oh, I love you too.

1:02:41

But not you. You, we want to keep for ourselves. Okay, thank you, everyone. We'll see you here next time. We really. I really hope you enjoyed to look into Anastasia's soul. And we'll talk to you about nad and wrinkles next time.

1:02:43

Bye, guys. Thank you for your time.

1:03:00

Bye.

1:03:02

See you next week.

1:03:02