Listen as Cheryl Blake is interviewed on WGSN-DB Going Solo Network in 2017.
Listen to the radio interview or read the transcript of the interview below.
Radio Transcript
00:00 Speaker 1: You’re listening to WGSN-DB, Going Solo Network Singles Talk Radio Channel, where we take a light-hearted and candid approach to discussions on the journey of relationship loss, divorce, parenting, being single, relationships building, dating, and yes, sex. Join our listeners and begin living your best life.
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00:23 Cece: Hello there, welcome to WGSN-DB Digital Broadcasting Going Solo Network. You’re listening to the Business Showcase.
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00:38 Cece: I’m your host today, Cece Shatz, author, radio personality, and CEO of My Friends Connect. Hello there, this is Cece, and we are doing the Business Showcase today. It’s WGSN Business Showcase. And I am so delighted to bring to you this lovely lady, her name is Cheryl Blake, and Cheryl is a certified holistic health coach. And Cheryl has transformed her life. She has transformed her identity, her world, and she’s gonna share that with you so that she can help you overcome some of the challenges that you might have in life. So welcome to the show, Cheryl.
01:17 Cheryl: Welcome, thank you.
01:18 Cece: It’s so great to have you. So tell us a little bit about your background, and then what got you into doing what you’re doing now.
01:26 Cheryl: In 2009, I was invited by a gentleman at my church to do a boot camp, and I thought I’d go and exercise a little bit and that’d be the end of it. Well, I had no idea that this would totally transform my life. He not only invited me to try out the month-long boot camp for free, but he put me on a program where it totally changed my eating, and I started… The weight just started dropping off of me. And I did that for probably three years, I did boot camp. Probably for the first year and a half I did it five days a week, and then after that I went down to just three or four days a week. He put me on a weight loss program, and I didn’t really understand why I was eating certain things, and why I wasn’t allowed to eat certain things. I just knew that what he told me to do worked. Then when I was no longer following his eating plan, I had to figure out how to keep the weight off, and that’s what led me to study nutrition, and that’s what led me then to realize that that was my calling, what I had been looking for my entire life.
02:35 Cheryl: Because previous to that, I was working for Domino’s Pizza. I was in management, had been in management for years. I was around the pizza all the time, and I ate the food that I made. And none of that is good for anyone. No one should be eating pizza and wings and bread sticks and… On a regular basis. Once in a while is okay, but about once a month now, I’ll order a pizza or get wings or something like that. But I don’t do that on a regular basis. So, that led me to return to school because I realized I really liked nutrition. I wanted to help people lose weight. I wanted to help people get off medication, help people be healthier.
03:12 Cheryl: So I investigated schools, and the first one I chose was a four-year college, and I just didn’t like just sitting and writing papers all the time. I wasn’t getting the hands-on stuff that I really wanted. People who work in nutrition, in the nutrition field, and the holistic health field, I wanted to work with them. I didn’t just wanna study this stuff. I wanted to learn from them, to have lectures from them, to study what they do, so to speak. So I stopped that school after about six months. I enrolled in Integrative Nutrition, which is out of New York, and all their stuff is online. So I got lectures from all the major people in the nutrition field, David Wolfe, Joel Fuhrman, just people that I didn’t even know existed. I had lectures from them every single week. And it’s a year-long program, and it was really wonderful.
04:07 Cheryl: And I became a health coach, and I started meeting with people and working with them, but there was still a missing piece. When I wanted to put a client on certain supplement, we had to go to the health food store because most supplements that are in grocery stores, they aren’t complete. They aren’t a complete supplement. They may have a little bit of what’s in there, but they don’t have everything of what they claim to have in there. So I would go to the health food store. I’d take the client and I said, “Okay, I’d like you to have this, this, and this, and this.” Well, that got tiring after a while. So then I started looking for good supplements, good nutrition shakes, good products to add to my practice. And I met up with another health coach. And I added these products that are Isotonix, which… That comes in a little powder. You take a capful of the powder and add two ounces of water for every capfull, and it gets almost immediately absorbed into the body.
05:10 Cheryl: So I found this company called Market America, which has all these products, Isotonix; they have all these health and nutrition products. All of a sudden I didn’t have any joint pain anymore. I didn’t… My husband’s blood sugar was under control; his blood pressure was under control, just from these products. So I started adding them to my practice, and what I’m trying to do now is get people who are committed to losing the weight and get them on the products so they can have a complete healthy environment. So then get off of medication, start eating right, lose the weight that they wanna lose. And that’s what my passion all these years has been.
05:56 Cece: Because you’ve really done a full circle in your life. And so you started out realizing, “Hey, I need to do something about myself.”
06:05 Cheryl: Yes.
06:05 Cece: And then as you’re learning about what to do, you start catching the buzz, I would say.
06:12 Cheryl: Yes.
06:12 Cece: Start realizing, “You know what, this is a bit of a passion I have. I’m enjoying this.” And so it’s not something that is a drudgery, like… You know when you go out and exercise and do it, a lot of people just totally hate doing it, but you found a way that would bring… And be able to embrace it, and bring it into your life, and really come full circle. And now you’re teaching other people, you’re embracing other people with their challenges of trying to get healthier, and it’s really, truly a wonderful thing that you do. And I love these boot camps. Now, do you do these boot camps in other areas?
06:50 Cheryl: The gentleman that I originally started the boot camp with, he had some issues, and he had trouble renewing his insurance, and you gotta have insurance, so he quit doing his boot camp probably about two years ago. So I sat for about a year without doing boot camp. I would go to the local YMCA and I would work out, but… So I kept myself in somewhat of shape. But I finally found a boot camp that I liked because I didn’t want do an outdoor boot camp anymore. The original one I was doing was outdoor boot camp, and I had to bring my own weights and everything with me. I wanted to do an indoor boot camp so that I didn’t have to bring my own weights, so I didn’t have to… I’d just bring my mat, my towel, and that’s it.
07:35 Cheryl: So I found an indoor boot camp called Trinity Ultimate Fitness. It’s on… Off of State Road 54 in the Trinity area going toward New Port Richey, about halfway between the SunCoast and New Port Richey. And I go there three days a week. The trainers there are excellent; they’re very mindful of people’s aches and pains. I had procedures done on my knees a few months ago called stem cell therapy because I had no cartilage left in my left knee, and they’re very careful with me when we go to do leg stuff. And there’s people there who’ve had shoulder issues, and they’re very mindful of people’s limitations. And I just really… I really like them because if I miss a couple of days, and they don’t know that I’m gonna be out, they’ll send me a message, “Hey, we haven’t seen you in a couple of days, what’s going on?” and stuff like that. And I think that’s the way people should be; they should check on people.
08:29 Cece: Yeah, absolutely, I agree with that. And it’s about being healthy, and so what you don’t want to do is injure yourself to where you’re unhealthy, so [chuckle] I totally agree with that. So let’s talk a little bit about the nutrition because you went back to school and you started learning a little bit more about that, and you have embraced that in your own life. And so I have been told by individuals that there are certain foods that you can eat that will burn off other foods and burn off body fat and things like that. So can we talk a little bit about that?
09:00 Cheryl: Well, generally, if you eat more vegetables you’re gonna have lower calorie intake. And the vegetables will stimulate your metabolism because they’ve got so much fiber and they… Your body has to spend so much time breaking them down, so it’ll raise your metabolism and thereby burn off fat. If you eat celery or broccoli in a raw format, your body has to spend so much time breaking that stuff down it’s gonna raise your metabolism, which will then burn off more fat. If a person has a thyroid issue or digestive problem like IBS or something like that, you should probably not eat so many raw vegetables, probably have them lightly steamed, and it’s gonna be better on your thyroid and your IBS too. But that’s one of the things that I like to work on is health problems related to your thyroid, or your IBS, your digestive tract, and stuff like that because if you make some changes in your diet you can really improve both of those and not have to be on medication. You just have to be very careful while you’re doing it.
10:13 Cece: So would you suggest that before you start any of these type of programs to go and have a full physical to see where you’re at on your health?
10:20 Cheryl: Correct. The first thing I do is sit down and I do a health consultation with a person, and I talk to them about their health issues. And then the second time, I make my recommendations, and they feel free to take the recommendations, any supplements, and take it to their doctor and talk to their doctor before they sign up with me. I don’t believe in charging a lot of money for my services. I believe in helping the person. If I have 10 clients and I can make a little bit off of each client, well, I’m happy because I’m helping them, helping them be healthy and become healthier, and get off their medication, and have a better life while they’re doing it.
11:02 Cece: That’s a great attitude to have, and it’s not… For you, what you’re saying is that, of course, you have to keep the lights on. So you do need to charge, but for you it’s the passion of helping others and that’s what Going Solo is all about is being able to help other people move forward in their lives, and embrace their lives, and appreciate who they are, and start learning about who they’re going to be, who they’re going to become. And I think learning about nutrition, understanding about our health and things that we need to do is embracing that. So I applaud you for doing that and for helping others along the way, so I think that’s great. Is there anything you would say that we should maybe stay away from, that we… Of course, I know chocolate is probably one of those things, and maybe my chocolate and wine is maybe one of ’em, but really honestly, is there anything that we might think is healthy for us but it really isn’t, and we should think about it twice before we either do it or eat it or anything you can think of?
12:04 Cheryl: Well, you mentioned chocolate and wine. Chocolate, if you’re going to eat chocolate, go to a health food store, buy chocolate that is at least 80% cocoa if you’re going to eat chocolate. If you’re going to drink wine, drink a glass of red wine because red wine has resvervatrol, which is extremely good for your heart, and it helps the blood pressure and everything flow better. As far as stuff you should stay away from that you might think is healthy, yogurt is touted as a health food, but if you buy yogurt that has a lot of fruit already in it, it’s not good for you because it’s going to have tons of sugar. Yogurt naturally has sugar in it, but I buy the Greek grass-fed yogurt, which has a little bit of natural sugar in it, and then I add strawberries or blueberries or other fruit to it. That way I have the fruit with it, the sweet with it, but it’s not overwhelmingly bad. A lot of bread is touted as being healthy; there’s nothing healthy about bread!
13:15 Cece: Right. Yeah, that I know. Now, what about meats? Because so often we say red meat is bad for you, of course, fish… But what about salmon? Someone told me one time, salmon’s not really as good for you as you think.
13:29 Cheryl: Okay, if you’re gonna eat beef, buy grass-fed beef, and limit it to no more than four-ounce portion. If you’re going to eat salmon or any fish, make sure it’s wild-caught. See, they have two types of salmon, they have the farm-raised salmon, which is injected with a bunch of chemicals to make the fish grow fast, and then there’s the wild-caught salmon which is natural. It’s caught up in Alaska; it’s good for you. Wild-caught salmon is good for you, the farm-raised salmon is not. Have wild-caught salmon, wild-caught cod, wild-caught flounder. I stay away from tilapia and stuff like that. I usually buy chicken that’s farm-raised. They call it something else, I can’t remember what it is. But I buy the meats that are either farm-raised or the wild-caught fish. I try to stay away from pork and ham; I limit it. Do love a good pork roast, but I limit it. Just occasionally. Because it’s not the best meat because of the way the pigs are fed. They’re fed slop, which is just a bunch of leftovers thrown together and there’s nothing healthy in it, and that’s what they’re fed, so it’s not as healthy a meat.
14:44 Cece: It could be salty, too, if your diet has a lot of salt, and especially with us living here in Florida, we tend to swell a lot here.
14:57 Cheryl: Now, on the subject of salt, if you have a salt, if you buy the pink Himalayan sea salt in the health food store or even in the grocery store, that’s very good for you. It’s all got a lot of minerals and stuff in there, which is good for your body. But if you’re buying the regular iodized salt and putting that on your food, that’s gonna raise your blood pressure, make you swell, and cause you all kinds of health problems. So if you like your salt, buy your Himalayan pink salt, pink sea salt. That’s the best stuff for you.
15:29 Cece: That’s what I use, actually, and what I find with it is that I use less because I find it quite salty as far as taste goes. So I find myself… I’m not a big salt person, but I tend to salt less with that.
15:43 Cheryl: I just take a pinch and put it over my vegetables, that’s all… All I need is just a little pinch.
15:51 Cece: Yeah. A little bit goes a long ways with that, so… And plus it’s pretty; it looks nice. [laughter] So it’s kind of a cool thing. Yeah, it’s just really being more open, and shows like this where we talk about different types of food to embrace it. I’m sure that they can contact you if they ever have a question.
16:09 Cheryl: Yes.
16:09 Cece: Now, can you do any consultation that’s not local? Can they give you a call and you talk about different foods and things like that and help them?
16:18 Cheryl: Yes I can. I can do a consultation over Skype or FaceTime or do a free conference call.
16:26 Cece: Okay, so you can take clients that are not necessarily local to our particular area, so they can…
16:31 Cheryl: Sure.
16:32 Cece: Go through Skype, you could come up with a nutrition plan; you could talk to them weekly about their plan. You could talk to them about exercising; you could even guide… You can show them exercises that would be best for them, and will help them, and walk through different things with them. So you’re not limited to our particular area. So anyone that’s listening, if you would like to talk with Cheryl about getting a little bit further ahead in your health… I think as we get older, we have to really start being conscious about it, and just more aware of it. So how would we reach you if we want to give you a call, or if we want contact you by email, or… How do we do that?
17:14 Cheryl: My website is advantagewellnesscoaching.com, and on the contact page there’s a place where you can fill out your name and your email, and then that form will send me an email. I can contact you from there. You can fill out health consultation forms that will come to me, or just a contact form where you want to be contacted, and you can put in what you’re interested in.
17:43 Cece: Well, that’s wonderful. I really do believe that because you’re a product of your own beliefs, you started out knowing that you needed to do something for yourself to make your life a little bit fuller and a little bit whole, so you’ve just evolved from there. And now sharing that with other people, it’s just great, and also to be able to be with someone like you because you know it. You’ve been there; you know what it’s like, and how it feels when you’ve got to change your lifestyle, change your way of living, change the way you exercise, and start exercising. [chuckle] So you’re a product of what you believe in, and so I just appreciate you so much for being on WGSN-DB Going Solo Network. So thank you so much for sharing with us today.
18:37 Cheryl: Well, thank you for inviting me, and it’s been wonderful to be here; it’s been wonderful to talk to you about my passion. This will help people no matter what kind of health problem they have. If the doctor says, “Oh, it can’t be fixed,” well, you need to come talk to my husband because he was on pretty strong diabetes medication and pretty strong high blood pressure medication when we met six years ago, and after we got married I changed his diet. He takes one small pill for each a day, and the rest is just supplementation and diet.
19:13 Cece: That’s absolutely wonderful because that is something that can definitely be harmful. Diabetes is not something to play with.
19:21 Cheryl: Yes.
19:22 Cece: And to be able to change your lifestyle and really add on years of your life is fantastic.
19:28 Cheryl: They don’t make it… The food manufacturers don’t make it easy for you to get away from the bad foods because they put sugar in everything, and the sugar is more addicting than cocaine is. It’s very hard, but I eat anything that’s got sugar in it and I’m sick to my stomach anymore.
19:47 Cece: I’ve read that more and more, and I’ve heard it more and more that… I’ll read the labels and you’re just surprised at what sugar is in there.
19:54 Cheryl: Yes.
19:54 Cece: So just one last question. If you were gonna be shopping, is it better to go to Whole Foods stores to shop, to butchers to shop versus a regular… Go to the regular grocery store? Does it make a big difference?
20:09 Cheryl: Okay, my vegetables come from a local co-op that buys fresh vegetables from farmers markets. All my vegetables come from the farmer’s markets, so I don’t buy any vegetables from the grocery store ’cause I wanna get as fresh as I can. Secondly, I try to buy most of my meat, especially if it’s beef, from Whole Foods because… They’ll have wild-caught salmon and wild-caught fish in the grocery store, but I try to buy as much of my meat from Whole Foods as I can, and then the rest of the stuff I try to buy organic if I can. But if I’m buying meat or cheese, I’ll get it from Whole Foods, gonna have the better quality. Some of the other stuff like your sea salts and your olive oils, you can get good quality in stuff like that in the grocery store, but I try to buy as much of the cooking stuff from either a farmer’s market, or Whole Foods, or some other nutrition store like that.
21:15 Cece: I have been told that it’s just not economical to eat like this because it’s so expensive. If you wanna buy vegetables and if you wanna eat healthier organic foods, things like that, it’s just so… It costs so much more, and so everyone’s on a budget, they’re on… Really trying to make that dollar stretch. Would you say that’s true, or do you think you can really get some good deals?
21:39 Cheryl: You can get good deals, you just have to really watch and pay attention to… Because there’s these online butcher markets that they will send you a month worth of beef or chicken or salmon or whatever for a very reasonable price, so you can get a lot of meals very reasonably from them. And then you get your vegetables at a farmer’s market which is gonna be much more reasonable, and then you shop for the good deals in Whole Foods. And sure it’s gonna cost a little bit more, but what’s less expensive, you spending $600 to go to the doctor because you’re fat, or you eating a little bit better? Because the fat will cause you diabetes, fat will cause your high blood pressure, fat will cause your high cholesterol. What’s better, going to the doctor, spending thousands of dollars to go to the doctor every month, or eating better, or eating better foods?
22:44 Cece: So I think you just have to be real with yourself, yeah, you really have to be real. And of course, you can shop in season. You know what’s in season, and then you shop according to that so you’ll have better prices on different products and different fruits and vegetables. So that’s really kind of what you would do. I guess, too, planning. If you’re planning out your meals, you’re able to save because you plan, you maybe make a little extra, you have something for lunch or for two meals, those type of things. So it’s really putting some thought, a thought process in place on your health, on changing your life and making yourself healthy. So these are really great tips, and I thank you so much. I really think this is a lot of information for our listeners today.
23:32 Cheryl: Feel free to email me, contact me however want to, and I’ll contact you back and we can set up a Skype or a FaceTime or a conference call. I can help you. If all you want is to get a few recipes and get some cooking advice, I can do that.
23:50 Cece: Well, that sounds great. Well, thank you, Cheryl, so much. So you’re listening to Cheryl Blake, and her website is https://www.advantagewellnesscoaching.com. You can just go right on there, send her a message through her contact, and she will answer any questions that you have regarding nutrition, exercise. She would love to take you on as a client. She’s a certified holistic health coach, and she could help you really transform your life as she’s done many others in our community here, our local Tampa Bay area community. So she would love to be able to help you continue on living your best life. So that’s what it’s all about. So thank you, Cheryl for being on the show today.
24:32 Cheryl: Thank you for having me, and it was wonderful to talk to you about the very important subject.
24:37 Cece: Well, very important indeed. Well, it is great having you on the show, and I thank you so much. You are listening to WGSN-DB Digital Broadcasting Going Solo Network, and this is the Business Showcase. We’ll be back at ya next time with some more great, wonderful business leaders in our community and your community all around town. So thank you so much. Thanks, Cheryl.
25:00 Cheryl: Thank you.
25:00 Cece: Alright, bye for now.
25:01 Cheryl: Bye, have a good day.
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