Food as Medicine, Without the Obsession | Wendy Lopez, RD on Wellness, Joyful Eating & Slowing Down

Tired of toxic diet culture? Registered dietitian Wendy Lopez shares practical tips for plant-forward eating, stress-free meal prep, and food freedom.

Are you exhausted by rigid wellness trends and the constant pressure to eat perfectly? In this episode, Registered Dietitian and Diabetes Educator Wendy Lopez breaks down how to genuinely nourish your body without sacrificing the cultural joy of eating. Tune in to discover practical ways to balance a plant-forward lifestyle, simplify busy weeknight meals, and ditch the perfectionist mindset that makes nutrition feel like an overwhelming chore.

We dive into the surprising realities behind organic food labels and why connecting with local farmers might actually be the smarter choice for your health. Wendy unpacks the darker side of modern wellness culture, explaining how to embrace intuitive eating and mindful nutrition without spiraling into stressful, disordered habits. The conversation also explores the deep ties between holistic health and major life transitions, touching on everything from breast cancer recovery to navigating IVF. You will walk away with a fresh perspective on disease prevention and a much-needed reminder to slow down, process your emotions, and reclaim your personal identity.

Hit play to rethink your relationship with food, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an empowering conversation like this one!

Introduction and Career Background

Wendy Lopez:

Hi.

Kayoll Gyan:

Hi.

Cassandra Dell:

We are so excited to have our guest in-house.

Kayoll Gyan:

I know.

Cassandra Dell:

We have Wendy Lopez. So, Wendy, tell the audience who you are and how you identify. Just go ahead and introduce yourself.

Wendy Lopez:

Yes, thank you for having me. My name is Wendy. I identify as Dominican and I’m from the Bronx. I’ve been a dietitian for close to 15 years now, which is crazy how time flies.

I remember when we were all in college and we were just navigating life and trying to figure things out. We still are, but things get so blurry and I feel like time just goes by so quickly.

I am a registered dietitian and a diabetes educator as well. Right now, with the work that I do professionally, my focus is diabetes care. I’ve worked in so many different hospitals throughout New York City and in community practices.

I decided to start my own business about 12 years ago with one of my best friends who is also a dietitian. We used to have a business doing media work in nutrition, and now we have a telehealth startup that focuses on providing nutrition services remotely.

It is covered by insurance for people that want preventative care but also for people that have any kind of insulin resistance, so PCOS, prediabetes, diabetes, Type 1—a range of different conditions related to insulin resistance.

Kayoll Gyan:

I think that’s so cool. I think this field for you is fitting because, like we said, we’ve known each other from school. I just remember seeing you and always being the healthy person on a natural tip.

When I saw after we graduated that you were starting the startup and the different cooking things or recipes, I was like, man, this is so fitting for what I remember of Wendy. I love that for you, that this is the path you decided to go down.

Wendy Lopez:

Yeah, it’s been really great. It’s also evolved throughout the years. I’ve been doing it for so long, so before it was a lot of media work.

As I’ve gotten older, I want to do more operations. I don’t want to be the face of any brand, really. I’ve been enjoying doing more of the behind the scenes and providing support to other dietitians who are newer in the field. It’s definitely been a journey.

Cassandra Dell:

That’s awesome.

Kayoll Gyan:

Yeah. And so now outside of your role as a registered dietitian and your day-to-day work, who is Wendy? How would you define yourself? What do you like to do? What are your hobbies?

The Importance of Community and Family

Wendy Lopez:

Well, my life revolves around my community. I have really deep connections with family, both given family and chosen family.

Everything that I do professionally is so I can have more freedom to spend time with myself, most importantly, but also with the people that I love. Usually, the things that I do involve spending time by myself, which I really like, or spending time with my husband and all of my friends.

For most of my friendships, I’ve known them since college, so I definitely consider them to be part of my family. My parents live in the Dominican Republic, so I’m always going to DR. I’m literally going this weekend.

I’m always going to visit them and connect with my family over there. I’ve been blessed in that I have a very abundant community, but also that comes with the responsibility of maintaining relationships.

There’s always something. My best friend’s 40th was last week. My other best friend’s 40th is next week. I’m traveling out to show up for everyone in my life. It could definitely be overwhelming, but it is what gives meaning for me.

Kayoll Gyan:

I love that. Especially now with social media, it can connect people, but it also can leave people isolated at the same time if you don’t make an intentional decision to physically see someone or have lunch or even pick up a phone and have a conversation.

I love that. That’s one of the things that you value. That’s amazing.

Wendy Lopez:

Yeah.

Cassandra Dell:

Also, as we age, we’re getting older. I know the things I used to do in my 20s, baby, no. I want the soft life. I want it slow, I want it digestible, I want healthy meals, I want cozy, and I want it to be sustainable.

When you’re younger, you’re maybe more agile or really wanting to bend a little bit more to overstretch and overreach yourself. Like you said, be the face of a brand. But now it’s like, wait, no.

Speaking of life and changes and trying to recalibrate, we probably can’t have a conversation about food and community and the well-being of other people without softly mentioning COVID and its impact on how it has shifted how we do things.

Can you share with us what the shift in COVID was for you? More specifically, tying in your dietitian and nutrition background, how did COVID feed into that?

Navigating the Impacts of COVID-19

Wendy Lopez:

That’s such a great question. I think that we don’t really talk about the impact that COVID has had because we’re still in the midst of it. People are still testing positive for COVID and we’re still trying to understand it.

That was another thing where it was just kind of a blur. We’re like, wait a minute, that was a really traumatic experience. For me, I was living alone at the time when COVID hit and it was really isolating. I felt very lonely.

I wasn’t around community because we had to isolate. Eventually, I decided to go to Dominican Republic and I spent a few months there because I just really missed my family and I was really down about being by myself.

With coping with the emotional part and the stress of COVID, that affected people in different ways from the nutrition standpoint because some people do cope through food. I’ve seen it play out in different ways.

For me personally, I’m pretty in tune with eating and nutrition, so there weren’t really any drastic changes happening. It was more so with my activity levels because I wasn’t able to go out. I wasn’t as active and that really affected me. I was also living in New York City at the time.

Kayoll Gyan:

I feel like it was during COVID, on social media, this whole idea of food as medicine just kind of blew up. What’s your take on that and the whole concept of food as medicine and now this wave of people being more aware of that in their daily life?

Wellness Culture and Disordered Eating

Wendy Lopez:

I think part of the reason why people became more aware of it is because they were spending more time on social media. A lot of us were working remote and we had more access to Instagram, and TikTok had a huge boom these past few years.

We’ve gotten sucked into all of this wellness content. It’s very tricky because I think it’s great that people are becoming more interested in their health and what they’re consuming, but also it can become very obsessive.

There was a lot of disordered eating that came out of that and that continues to come out of that because people get fixated on eating perfectly or eating what’s considered the right way.

It has to be organic; it can’t have any kind of pesticide residue. Then it just becomes so rigid that it becomes disordered and really stressful. Food ends up becoming really stressful.

Just as farm-to-table is huge in our cultures, especially in the Caribbean, so is joyful eating. Food is always a celebration. You gather, you break bread with family and friends.

In many of our cultures, these celebrations revolve around food. When you take on this approach that is very rigid, it sucks the joy out of food as well. It’s all about finding a balance.

I think it’s important to make informed decisions about your food and eat in ways that are nutritious. That’s why it’s great to work with a dietitian if you’re not sure what that looks like for you. But it’s very easy to go into the deep end where you’re just freaking out about everything and thinking, okay, I don’t know what I should be eating.

Cassandra Dell:

That’s such a great question that I think a lot of us are thinking about. In your eyes as a dietitian, what are the top five foods that you’re saying as a society we’re just not getting enough of? Are there any particular foods or aspects of food that we’m simply not getting enough of?

Top Nutritional Recommendations

Wendy Lopez:

Well, the top ones are going to be vegetables and fruits. Very basic. I feel like we’re not eating enough fiber.

Cassandra Dell:

I know that’s right.

Wendy Lopez:

There’s been such an emphasis in recent years on protein. Oh my gosh, this is how you can get more protein.

Kayoll Gyan:

If I see another TikTok on chicken breasts.

Wendy Lopez:

Protein has been having a moment for a while, but there’s not enough emphasis on fiber. I think vegetables, especially those non-starchy vegetables like your dark leafy greens, are important.

I think seasonal eating is a really great strategy to diversify the vegetables and the fruits you’re having because it’s always going to change. During the cooler months, you’re going to have vegetables that are more hearty.

During the spring and summer, you’re going to have so much variety. You can do it in a way that’s culturally relevant to you. In the Caribbean, we’re not necessarily eating kale, but we have eggplant, okra, and callaloo.

We have all types of salads, all types of herbs, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Just thinking about the ways that you would enjoy it, I would definitely recommend that.

I would also say whole grains are another one that I think are often overlooked. I don’t think you have to only eat whole grains. For cultures where rice is a cultural staple, like my mom, she would never eat brown rice.

She says she likes white rice and the texture. I’m like, that’s fine. We can just add fiber to it. You could just have it with a lot of vegetables and then with your protein.

If you’re open to it, it could be good to incorporate more of those whole grains like brown rice. You can also do quinoa, corn tortillas, or bulgur. There’s different types of whole grains that you can incorporate as well.

You asked for five, so the fourth one I would say is healthy fats. Those would be like avocados, nuts, seeds, chia seeds, and flax seeds. You can incorporate those into your smoothies as well.

Then I would also encourage people to eat more plant-forward. That can look differently. It’s not necessarily only eating vegetables, but maybe you try things like beans and tofu once a week just to diversify your meals so that you’re getting more plant protein and not eating as much of the saturated fat that comes from animal protein sources.

Kayoll Gyan:

I think that’s so good. I always think about probably one of the most annoying questions I get every day is, “What’s for dinner?” I’m tired. I got to think about work.

Wendy Lopez:

Who’s asking you that?

Kayoll Gyan:

My kids. “What’s for dinner, mommy?” And I’m just like, give me a minute. I don’t even know. What are some things you may tell some of your clients or patients on how to incorporate healthy eating in a practical way within their busy work week?

Practical Tips for Meal Planning

Wendy Lopez:

That’s me as well. I would say trying to simplify eating is going to be helpful, so just having your go-tos. For example, if I don’t have a lot of time, I get home and I’ll just do a chicken quesadilla.

It’s okay to buy pre-made. There’s this idea that everything has to be made from scratch and that that’s better for you. That’s not the case. You could buy a rotisserie chicken that’s already cooked.

Trader Joe’s has a bunch of grilled chicken—different seasoned grilled chickens—and things where in five minutes you have a meal. That’s going to be much better than constantly ordering out or just going hungry.

Just having those convenient foods helps you whip something up really quickly. What you can also do is have cooking base foods. For example, you make a batch of rice or you make a batch of beans, and then you can incorporate it in different ways throughout the week so that you don’t have to constantly reinvent the wheel every day.

I personally don’t like repeating meals more than twice. So I’ll cook things separately and then if I made some stewed fish, for example, I’ll mix up what I’m having it with so I’m not getting bored.

Cassandra Dell:

I love that. Food is to be not only healthy for you, but to be enjoyed. Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti on my part—a big aspect of growing up was enjoying it without even having to think.

As we get older, we’re more mindful. I will cook the rice and add some quinoa to it to make a rice-quinoa blend, or add some beans to it to make sure that it’s going down with some fiber because rice and beans is a staple.

We overdo it. The whole plate sometimes looks like rice. So I will say, okay, where’s the green? Where’s the color in this? I think that makes me a little bit more mindful.

Wendy, are you a person that typically prepares these batches on a Sunday and then maybe again on a Tuesday? How does your plan in the day-to-day preparation of food look like?

Wendy Lopez:

Usually, I’ll do it on Sunday for half the week. My husband and I both cook, so we’ll kind of alternate. I’ll make food for half the week and then he’ll make food for the other half of the week.

We try to plan it on Sunday so we know what to buy. We’re still making little things throughout the week. We both work from home, so it’s a little different. We have the convenience of hopping to the kitchen and quickly whipping something up.

If I were going into work, I would probably just have most things prepared one day a week. Otherwise, you get home, the commute is exhausting, and you don’t have the energy to make food after work.

Cassandra Dell:

With all of this and you being in practice for so long, is there anything that is surprising or alarming that you’ve learned about food, whether it be about sourcing or people getting into small gardens in their windows? What are some things that are surprising, in a good way or bad, about food these days for you?

Food Sourcing and Organic Labeling

Wendy Lopez:

I feel like I’ve been in the field for so long that I’m not necessarily surprised. But one thing that a lot of people would find surprising, that was surprising to me when I learned more about it, was that foods that are labeled organic also have pesticides.

It’s just that the pesticides are considered organic pesticides and they have to use so much more of it because it’s not as effective, especially for these companies that are producing large scale.

That’s why I’m really big on supporting local farmers because they don’t have these large-scale operations usually. You can talk to them when you go to the farmer’s market. They’ll tell you what their practices are. I used to work at farmer’s markets; that’s how I got started in nutrition.

They’ll even offer to have you visit the farm and learn about their farming practices. You’re also supporting the local economy. The food is not traveling as far, so it tends to be more nutritious.

I think people who are trying to eat healthier default to buying everything organic and think that’s going to be the solve. But it’s a lot more complicated than that.

It’s more important to think about what you can do consistently to incorporate more nutritious foods versus everything having to have this specific label, because those things, you got to take it with a grain of salt.

Kayoll Gyan:

I definitely learned something. I didn’t know that it was just a big difference and that they could potentially be using more pesticides than regular food. Cassandra and I are both breast cancer survivors.

When I was first diagnosed and after going through all the testing, I had no genetic predisposition for it. I thought I was living a pretty ideal, healthy lifestyle. Overall, I just didn’t understand how a cancer diagnosis could be something I was going through.

One of the things I was thinking about was food because I was the type of person that would eat whatever I want because I would work out. After having children and starting a career, things got so busy that I wasn’t necessarily working out as much, but I tried to adjust the type of things I would eat.

I was thinking, “Man, did I eat something wrong over the years that accumulated into something that caused this breast cancer?” I was trying to rationalize how this could have possibly happened to me.

Now we know so much research on the food and the gut microbiome and its link to cancer and all these other things, and just how important lifestyle and diet is in the prevention of so many different diseases.

But it’s costly. It’s expensive to do these things. Not everybody can afford this. Even me who has a good job—it’s expensive for me. I’m just like, how do people balance buying organic with buying what’s affordable for them and their families, especially for their children, if they’re trying to stay on a budget while making healthy decisions for themselves?

Holistic Health and Disease Prevention

Wendy Lopez:

It gets very expensive. That’s why I think it’s important to be flexible with food and why I really don’t recommend the perfectionist approach with sourcing.

It’s going to be way more healthy to eat a good variety of foods, especially plant-based foods, even if they’re not organic, than skipping them entirely.

What I’ve seen when people want to go for just all organic is if they don’t have access to it or it’s really expensive, they just end up not eating the food at all. That’s what we want to avoid because then you’re having a low fiber intake and a low vitamin and mineral intake from the nutrition that these foods provide.

I think it’s important to have that flexibility because these foods are so nutritious. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not going to provide you with good nutrition. With things like cancer, there are so many different factors at play.

Nutrition is one part of it, but also stress is very important, as are sleep, movement, and environmental factors that a lot of times we have no control over.

Living in New York City, the pollution, especially when you’re from places like the Bronx, which is where I’m from, it’s very polluted and all of those things play a role. There are people that eat what would be considered perfect and do all the right things and it still happens.

But there are things that you can do to reduce your risk, like getting quality sleep, trying to reduce your stress levels, and moving your body. With nutrition, it’s very well documented that eating in a plant-forward way is going to be very helpful for reducing your risk for a range of different conditions.

That doesn’t mean you have to be vegan or even vegetarian or pescatarian. It just means that your meals revolve around plant foods. In a lot of our cultures, the meal revolves more around the meat. That’s the star.

Or half of the plate is rice. It’s about restructuring that. You can still enjoy the foods you usually consume, but you’re adding more plant foods, vegetables, beans, and avocado.

Kayoll Gyan:

I love that.

Cassandra Dell:

And you know what’s really important that I think about, too? It’s not just about the ingredients, but how you cook it. Your girl always likes a deep-fried thing every now and then. I love fried fish, for example, but there are days where I’ll just cook it in a sauce.

I’ll top it with some okra to give it a little bit more robustness as I’m eating it. It’s not just about the ingredients, but how we’re preparing it. Are we taking the nutritious value out of it all the time?

I know with collard greens, for example, we tend to add pork and people like it a little bit more fatty. Seasoning your food—we love the seasoning—but we also need to think about the ways that we’re preparing.

Kayoll and I are both two breast cancer survivors, and inflammation and chronic disease seem to be an area of focus for the population as we age. We’re exposed to more. There’s conversation about plastics.

There are a lot of health challenges that even the younger population is working through. Have you ever had a personal health challenge that you’ve worked through or are working through? How are you using food or lifestyle changes as a means of healing yourself?

Adjusting to Life Transitions and Aging

Wendy Lopez:

At this point in life, I feel like I have a pretty good routine because of my years in the field. I’ve been able to really fine-tune and figure out what works best for me.

I’m a very intuitive eater, so I’ll kind of tweak things along the way. For example, I used to eat mostly plant-based, but then I got married and my husband is a big meat eater. I’ve been incorporating more meat just because it’s easier since we’re cooking together.

That’s been an adjustment—how do I still incorporate the plant foods that I enjoy with these adjustments? I was telling Cassandra that recently I went through IVF and I literally just finished the cycle a few weeks ago.

I have been thinking about how nutrition might influence fertility and adjustments that I can make. I even scheduled an appointment to meet with a dietitian so I can learn a little bit more about fine-tuning.

I’m getting older. Okay, I need a little bit more iron. Maybe I’m not absorbing things as well. I also have a thyroid condition, so my metabolism has slowed down. How do I adjust for that?

I’m happy to be in that place where it’s more of just adjusting. I know for some people, they’ve always had a very fraught relationship with food and it works in extremes where they’re doing yo-yo dieting or they develop a good routine but then completely revert and feel very out of control.

I’ve never really had that experience, but it’s always fine-tuning. Our bodies are changing as we’re getting older. For women entering perimenopause, that’s going to be a huge shift with nutrition and hormones.

As our bodies are changing, we have to also change the way that we do things so we feel our best. It doesn’t necessarily mean that your body is failing you or that you’re doing the wrong thing.

Kayoll Gyan:

That’s so true. I’ve never actually worked with a registered dietitian before. I was skimming someone’s website and thought, “Wow, some of the services that they offer, I would love to talk to someone.”

But it doesn’t register to me as something that I could use my insurance for or see as a specialty. When I think of a doctor, I think of a PCP or a dentist.

I’ve never actually said, “Maybe I should make an appointment with a registered dietitian.” Can you tell us what an initial consultation or an appointment with them looks like? Is it more acute or long-term?

The Role of a Registered Dietitian

Wendy Lopez:

It depends on the practice you’re working with and the setting. There are dietitians that work in different settings. For example, there are oncology dietitians that you might have come across when you were doing cancer treatment.

They make sure that you’re getting nourishment throughout your treatment, and that’s more acute. There are dietitians that work in the ICU and dietitians that work in outpatient settings in community clinics.

With private practice, usually the sessions are going to be a lot more thorough and longer. I work in private practice. We’re meeting with people anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half. It’s very different from going in and out of an office.

You do a very thorough assessment of what the concerns are and then it’s almost like food therapy. You are going in maybe weekly or every other week, and you’re getting to know your practitioner while developing goals and figuring out what kind of support you need.

For people that have a lot of body image issues or disordered eating, they’re probably going to meet more frequently. If you’re looking for preventative care or to address a specific condition, you might start weekly, but then move to biweekly and then monthly.

With our patients, we usually work with them for at least a year. They come to us pretty consistently and they have a care team. A lot of people don’t know that a lot of these services are covered by insurance.

There might be a therapist involved, and we might collaborate with them if there’s disordered eating happening. We collaborate with endocrinologists, oncologists, and the whole healthcare team to make sure that we’re all on the same page.

It’s important to take advantage of your insurance benefits. For most of our patients, they don’t pay anything and they get covered for unlimited sessions. I’ve paired my husband with some of our dietitians so that he can work with them.

Now that I’m on this fertility journey, I booked my own appointment. I want to see a dietitian to see if there’s something I don’t know that they could suggest. It’s the same thing with therapists—we recommend therapists seek therapy as well.

Cassandra Dell:

I love that. Health is really a holistic approach. I love how you mentioned that multiple physicians and healthcare professionals work together to address you as an individual.

We mentioned food, moving your body, and community. Part of Stage Hope is really tapping into the joy and hope in the mind. From a spiritual practice or a mental health or mindfulness practice, how does that play into your health and your hope in life?

Spiritual Practices and Finding Presence

Wendy Lopez:

My practice is always evolving, but it’s very subtle. I always start the day doing some deep breathing and meditation. I wake up and before I actually get out of bed, I’ll do it for maybe 10 or 15 minutes.

I pray and, again, that’s very subtle. I’m not necessarily going to church every day, but I incorporate it into my day-to-day in a way that feels authentic to me. I’m very intuitive with that, too. I kind of take what I need.

When I go to DR, I visit my ancestors who have passed away, like my grandparents, and I’ll pray to them. I’m a very strong believer that I’m very well protected and I feel very connected to a higher power.

That definitely helps, especially in hard moments when you’re struggling. Whether it’s with your health or just in life, I feel like it really helps ground you and give you perspective.

Cassandra Dell:

Speaking of working through challenges, part of Stage Hope is exactly that—how do we provide hope and joy and purpose as we move forward in our respective endeavors? How do you personally find hope in your life, in the work that you do, or even just personally as an individual?

Wendy Lopez:

Especially during challenging times, what gives me hope is knowing that everything is temporary. Whether it’s good moments, bad moments, or just “blah” moments, everything is temporary and things pass.

Practicing presence to me is really important. Let me just fully dive into what I’m feeling right now so I can experience the depth of those really great moments and also the depth of the not-so-great moments.

I’m very much a feeler. I’m a Cancer, too, so I’m okay just crying through my day if I need to. I’m okay fully diving into whatever it is that I’m feeling and just being with those emotions. Practicing that presence is really important.

Then also just being like, okay, there are better days to come if you’re going through a really hard time. Look at the track record. If you look at your life and the hard moments that you’ve had, you always persevere because we’re very resilient people.

Kind of using that as proof of what is to come. Sometimes we just stay in the funk, but no, I’ve gotten through hard things before.

Cassandra Dell:

I love that. Growing up, being a first daughter and being of the Caribbean, it was very easy to dismiss emotions. A lot of the practice was just, “Pray it away,” or, “This is not worth crying about.”

I love that you even mentioned that you allow yourself to process the emotion because I’m learning to do that now. Just release it. There’s an unnecessary tension that we hold when we’re trying to just be this big, strong woman of color. We already have enough.

When you hold space to let yourself debrief in that way, it releases tension in a way that I’m inviting now in my life. I’m not seeing it as a sign of weakness. My mother-in-law mentions that crying is like weakness leaving the body.

Whether it be pain or tension, I choose to change it. It’s like tension wanting to sort of make its way out somewhere.

Kayoll Gyan:

It’s a stress reliever, too.

Cassandra Dell:

It’s a stress reliever. I think oftentimes we don’t—especially our men—leave room to do that. It’s something that I constantly think about as my husband and I make this life together because the lift can be heavy at times.

Embracing a Slower Pace of Life

Wendy Lopez:

Absolutely. It’s important to also just sit with things because we’re in this fast-paced culture. We’re always rushing to the next best thing and social media has not helped with that.

You might not be feeling great and you’re just focused on, “How can I feel better? What’s next?” Or you’re experiencing a great thing and you’re already thinking, “What’s the next best thing?”

We should just sit with whatever it is—enjoying it or even not enjoying it. This practice of slowing down is something that I am fully embracing as I’m entering my 40s.

I look back and I’m like, damn, these past few years have been a blur. There has been so much going on.

Cassandra Dell:

The younger generations, they’re overstimulated. We had commercials. Now, god forbid, if YouTube is on and I’m giving them something educational—I want them to learn Creole—it’s over and it’s like, “Mommy, what’s next?” No, we’re allowed to just play with puzzles and color.

Kayoll Gyan:

Go be bored. It’s okay to be bored. You don’t need to be lights, camera, action all the time.

Cassandra Dell:

Absolutely. So, speaking of that, what’s the word of advice for those listening that you can share around hope, health, joy, and purpose in your life?

Advice on Identity and Self-Care

Wendy Lopez:

I would say take some time for yourself, especially for those of us who are caring for others in one way or another. It’s really important to slow down and ask yourself what it is that you need.

For women, we are always serving other people, our families, especially for those who are more nurturing. You have to really create those boundaries for yourself and ask yourself what you need.

How can others be of service to you versus you always being a well of generosity? That can completely drain you. With time, you start forgetting who you are or what you enjoy doing.

It’s really important as women that we affirm ourselves. Especially once we start having children and get married, you have to also maintain that sense of identity. Who are you outside of those things? What are you doing for yourself?

Cassandra Dell:

I love that. It’s so necessary. We get so caught up doing that we’re not being. I find myself in that bag and I wake up in the morning and it’s just progress, produce, call, text, message.

Taking the time to just slow down without the guilt, without the “I need to make this up,” is a practice I’m trying to invite now more than ever, especially after what I’ve been through in this past year.

Kayoll Gyan:

I agree. For me, that has been on the forefront because I’m a person where when my eyes open, it’s go time. Now I am being intentional with slowing down, managing stress, and trying to figure out a way to incorporate movement into my day.

I’m not successful at it yet, but it’s something I need to be more intentional with. Giving myself grace with work and not letting that be the center of my world anymore is key.

I have a deadline and I’m working towards it, but I’m trying to find a place of peace. I want to still do the work but not let it increase my blood pressure or the anxiety in my body.

If I get it done, great. If not, I’m going to be all right. This work is going to be all right. There will be another deadline in the future, but I’m not letting that take such a toll on my inner person anymore.

Cassandra Dell:

Time has showed us that we’re getting through it better than we think. Oftentimes you have the tools, but when the urgent matter shows itself, the brain rattles and loses focus.

Whether it be working through health challenges or personal and professional challenges, I really want to take heed of being mindful in the thick of it. I want to ask, “Okay, who do I need to call?” or “Am I afraid to ask the manager or the boss if this can wait?”

Am I afraid to ask the next guest on the podcast if this can be pushed back? I really want to affirm myself that what is for me will be for me. I don’t need to hoard a situation and act like it’s now or never.

Wendy Lopez:

A thousand percent.

Cassandra Dell:

Last but certainly not least, we want to keep a cycle going with our guests where they leave an incoming guest a question. Tell us, is there something that someone would not expect of you? Something I can’t Google? What is something that we don’t know about Wendy Lopez?

Personal Passions and Closing Remarks

Wendy Lopez:

Something that you know, Cassandra, but many people don’t know, is that I really like home design and renovation.

Cassandra Dell:

She’s good at it, y’all.

Kayoll Gyan:

I was going to talk about it. I’ve been following your construction in DR now. It’s amazing—the tiling, the artwork, the paint. I love it.

Wendy Lopez:

I really like it. Career change? I don’t know. But that’s something a lot of people don’t know I enjoy doing. Creatively, it helps fill those juices for me.

The question I would ask for the incoming guest is: How do you make time for yourself? I think that’ll give us all ideas. We’re always looking for ways to take care of ourselves better, so it would be great to hear some gems from the next guest.

Cassandra Dell:

I love that. Where can people find you?

Wendy Lopez:

You can go to diabetesdigital.co. That is my business for nutrition counseling. We offer preventative nutrition and nutrition for all types of health conditions, fully covered by insurance from the comfort of your home.

You can check us out there and you’ll find that we have a podcast as well. We’re also on socials and everything else.

Kayoll Gyan:

That is so cool. Thank you for being here, Wendy. And shout out to Sigma and Mu Rho that brought us all together.

Wendy Lopez:

I know! 20 years later. You never know where a connection might lead. I’m happy we got to reconnect and I’m so excited about your podcast.

I feel like more of these conversations are needed. I love that you’re using this as an outlet to make sense of everything happening in your life, but also to connect with other people who are experiencing similar things.

Kayoll Gyan:

That’s the goal. It definitely came out of a struggle, a life experience that was unexpected. But so much beauty comes out of ashes. The Bible says He makes beauty out of ashes, and I think this is something that can be born from a period in our life that was such a challenge.

Wendy Lopez:

One thousand percent. Thank you for the work you’re doing, ladies.

Cassandra Dell:

Thank you.

Kayoll Gyan:

Thank you for being with us, Wendy. This is amazing.