Boobalicious: Breast Cancer and Beyond

Coming Home to Your Body: Breast Cancer Recovery, Letting Go & the Illusion of Control | Natasha Ramlall What happens when your body finally forces you to pay attention? For many women navigating breast cancer recovery, chronic pain, menopause, or other major health changes, the body can begin to feel like something to manage, fix, or even fear. But what if healing also means learning how to listen to it again? In this episode of Boobalicious: Breast Cancer and Beyond, hosts Chris Kushner and Jenni Rai, PT, CLT, speak with Natasha Ramlall, founder of Humanist Coaching and an embodied integration coach, about reconnecting with the body, breaking generational patterns, and letting go of the illusion that we can control everything that happens to us. Natasha shares how endometriosis and chronic back pain eventually forced her to stop pushing through physical symptoms and start paying attention to what her body was telling her. Her experience led her to embodied integration—the practice of connecting our thinking mind with our physical sensations, emotions, survival patterns, and spiritual lives. The conversation also explores the messages women inherit from their families: work harder, suck it up, keep going, don't complain. Natasha and Chris discuss how those survival strategies may have served previous generations while no longer serving us—and what it looks like to choose which patterns we want to carry forward. For Chris, breast cancer brought another realization: you can make the “right” choices and still receive a diagnosis you never expected. That loss of control can be terrifying, but it can also change the way we approach fear, parenting, our bodies, and life after breast cancer treatment. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN ✅ What “embodied integration” means and how it can help us reconnect with our bodies✅ Why women often learn to ignore physical and emotional signals and simply push through✅ How family and generational patterns influence the way we respond to pain, stress, and illness✅ Why a major health diagnosis can challenge our illusion of control✅ How letting go can affect fear, parenting, relationships, and breast cancer survivorship✅ Why spirituality or faith can become an important anchor when certainty disappears TIMESTAMPS ~05:13 When the body “levels up” after years of ignored symptoms~18:16 “They are just passing through”—parenting and learning to let go~19:45 Chris shares her son’s surprisingly wise perspective on worrying~22:02 The illusion of control and what a health crisis can teach us KEY TAKEAWAYS 🔹 Our bodies often communicate long before we are ready—or able—to listen. 🔹 Many women have inherited a “suck it up and push through” mentality that once served a purpose but may not serve them now. 🔹 Breaking generational patterns does not require rejecting the people who came before us. We can appreciate what helped them survive while choosing something different for ourselves. 🔹 A health crisis can disrupt the belief that if we do everything “right,” we can control what happens to us. 🔹 Breast cancer survivorship can involve more than physical recovery. Life after breast cancer treatment may also mean rebuilding trust in your body and learning how to live with uncertainty. 🔹 Letting go of control does not mean giving up. It can mean recognizing what is actually ours to control—and releasing what isn't. ABOUT NATASHA RAMLALL Natasha Ramlall works with high-functioning, capable women who feel the ground cracking beneath them after a difficult life transition or an awakening to a mismatched life. As an Embodied Integration Coach, she guides you back into a deeper experience of your human-ness to heal, expand and evolve from an Identity Rupture and navigate the space between who you were and who you are becoming. *Exclusive Offer to Podcast Listeners! RESOURCES AND LINKS Humanist Coaching Free Guided Audio (from Natasha!) Follow Natasha (@freestyle_dance_alchemy) Follow Boobalicious (@boobaliciouspod) WeAreBoobalicious.com The conversations on Boobalicious are based on personal experience and professional insight and are not intended to replace medical advice. Always consult your doctor or licensed healthcare provider for guidance specific to your situation. SEO Keywords: breast cancer recovery, breast cancer survivorship, life after breast cancer, life after breast cancer treatment, breast cancer podcast for women, breast cancer survivor, breast cancer support, breast cancer wellness, reconnecting with your body, mind-body connection, embodied integration, chronic pain, generational patterns, fear after breast cancer, breast cancer survivor stories Hashtags: #BreastCancerRecovery #BreastCancerSurvivor #BreastCancerSurvivorship #LifeAfterBreastCancer #BreastCancerSupport #BreastCancerPodcast #MindBodyConnection #WomensHealth #BoobaliciousPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Part 1 of our conversation with Cyndi Dupuis, functional medicine nutritionist and founder of A Living Balance, we’re talking about what your routine bloodwork may be missing—and why “normal” labs don’t always tell the whole story. Cyndi breaks down the difference between functional medicine and conventional medicine, what a functional medicine evaluation actually looks like, and the key lab tests women should consider asking for, especially in midlife and after cancer. We take a deep dive into thyroid health, including why testing TSH alone may not give you the full picture. Cyndi explains free T3, free T4, reverse T3, thyroid antibodies and Hashimoto’s, plus how iron, ferritin, zinc, selenium, vitamin A, chronic stress and cortisol can affect thyroid function. Cyndi also gets personal about what happened when chronic stress and overworking began showing up in her own health—and why supplements and prescriptions aren't always the answer when you haven't addressed the underlying problem. In this episode: functional medicine, thyroid testing, women’s health, Hashimoto’s, hormone health, chronic stress, inflammation, gut health, nutrition, breast cancer survivorship and midlife health. And don’t miss Part 2, when we get into HRT, hormone replacement therapy and the different types of estrogen. Learn more about the pod: www.WeAreBoobalicious.com Instagram: @Boobaliciouspod Learn more about our guest, Cindy Dupuie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re bringing back Part 2 of our conversation with actress and breast cancer survivor Nicole Eggert. Nicole gets candid about the realities of life during and after breast cancer treatment—from mastectomy recovery, implants, cording and phantom itching to chemo hair loss, body image and finding a new version of “healthy” after cancer. Nicole shares the lifestyle changes she made after her diagnosis, how she copes with the hard days and scan anxiety, and why she ultimately chose breast implants after her mastectomy. We also talk about chemo taste changes, hair growing back completely different, clean beauty and household products, and the challenge of balancing healthy choices without letting them take over your life. It’s an honest, funny and relatable conversation about breast cancer survivorship, mastectomy recovery, chemotherapy, reconstruction, body image, lymphatic health and finding your way forward after cancer. This episode is a replay of our original conversation with Nicole Eggert. Follow the pod! WeAreBoobalicious.com @boobaliciouspod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

REPLAY: Nicole Eggert on Breast Cancer, Menopause & Learning to Love Her Body We’re bringing back one of our favorite conversations with actress and breast cancer advocate Nicole Eggert. If you missed it the first time—or need to hear it again—this candid conversation about breast cancer, medically induced menopause, body image, and life after treatment is worth a replay. Best known for Baywatch, Nicole Eggert joins Chris and Jenny to share the reality behind her stage 2 cribriform breast cancer diagnosis, a rare form of breast cancer that completely changed her relationship with her health and her body. Nicole opens up about discovering a breast lump, learning her cancer was estrogen-positive, and going from expecting a lumpectomy to facing chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, breast reconstruction, radiation, and medically induced menopause. They talk about breast reconstruction decisions, environmental estrogens, fear of recurrence, hormone blockers, hysterectomy, menopause after breast cancer, and the strange emotional transition that happens when active cancer treatment ends. Nicole also shares what it was like promoting a Baywatch documentary while bald and dealing with the physical changes of chemotherapy—and how cancer transformed years of criticizing her body into genuine gratitude for everything it had carried her through. In this episode: Nicole Eggert's breast cancer diagnosis Rare cribriform carcinoma Estrogen-positive breast cancer Chemotherapy, double mastectomy and radiation Breast reconstruction after cancer Medically induced menopause Menopause without HRT after hormone-positive breast cancer Hormone blockers and hysterectomy Fear of breast cancer recurrence Body image during and after cancer treatment Learning to trust and appreciate your body after breast cancer This is a replay of a previously released Boobalicious episode. Follow the show! WeAreBoobalicious.com @BoobaliciiousPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, we sit down with Shay Moraga, founder of Shay’s Warriors, to talk about the part of breast cancer no one prepares you for: what happens after treatment ends. Diagnosed at 38 with Stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer, Shay underwent chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. But when treatment ended, she discovered that survivorship brought its own challenges. We talk about life after breast cancer, cancer PTSD, scanxiety, fear of recurrence, survivor guilt, grief, and the pressure to feel “grateful” when you’re still struggling to find your new normal. Shay also shares why she created Shay’s Warriors, a nonprofit dedicated to cancer survivorship, connection, education, and support—including their annual survivor retreat. If you’ve ever wondered, “Why don’t I feel normal now that treatment is over?” this episode is for you. Topics: triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), breast cancer survivorship, life after cancer, scanxiety, cancer PTSD, fear of recurrence, survivor guilt, mental health after cancer, and breast cancer support. More about our guest! www.ShaysWarriors.org Follow the Pod! www.WeAreBoobalicious.com @Boobaliciouspod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices