Podcasts about Six Weeks

Kita Richards is a former AAU, USA and high school track and field coach. Teaching basic and advanced movements to young adults was always her passion along with helping people to meet and exceed their physical and mental capabilities. It was this passion that prompted Kita to become a personal and group fitness trainer, transforming her two car garage into her first training space. She has now expanded her brand and has launched two fitness clubs, one in Greenwood, South Carolina, and the other in Greenville, South Carolina.  During the interview, Kita will discuss what life was like growing up in Greenwood, South Carolina, and how the last words of her mother, who lived a very active life until she succumbed to colon cancer, gave her the drive and motivation to live life to the fullest.  She will also share her fitness journey which included losing close to 80 pounds of body fat with the help and guidance of her husband and changing her diet.  Kita believes that each of us is connected in divine space and that we should share our gifts with the world, something Kita is doing on a daily basis with everyone she comes in contact with.  This was a most inspiring interview.  Vince Ferguson: Thank you so much for coming on the show. Kita Richards: Thank you for having me. Vince Ferguson: Before we discuss your career as CEO of these two fitness clubs, tell my listeners and viewers where did you grow up and what was your childhood like? Kita Richards: I grew up right here in Greenwood, South Carolina in the south, which is so interesting now that I look back at it. I grew up running around in the dirt. Vince Ferguson: Running around in the dirt? Kita Richards: In the dirt. Vince Ferguson: Really? Really? So you must have been very active? Kita Richards: Yeah. It was because this is a small town, this is a small town. It's bigger now, but it was definitely a lot smaller when I was a lot younger. So it was small and it's basically a football city. So it's all about football here. Everything else is secondary. Vince Ferguson: Everything else is secondary to football. But family came first, but family came first. Right? Kita Richards: Especially back then. Everything else was secondary. Vince Ferguson: Wow. Nice. But were you always active, always healthy even to your adult life? Kita Richards: Well as a kid, the challenge as a kid was, especially growing up, because we were active as children. I was an active child. My inactivity didn't start until I got older. So I was, but my mom was active. So I have to tell you about her. She was very active. My mom played a lot of sports even as we grew up. So I grew up with a very active mom. She played softball for one, it was nothing for her to be on those teams. She was on teams, and she would travel. So I grew up watching her do that. Kita Richards: And of course she did what people in the south do, bowl. So she did a lot of bowling and different things like that. So that's how we grew up. I grew up with a mom that even as I had my kids, she rode bikes. She would ride bikes with them. And she was one of the first women around the area, because people still talk about it because like I said, I live in a small town, that rode a motorcycle. So she was extremely active too. Vince Ferguson: Is Myrtle Beach near you? Kita Richards: No it takes us about three hours to get to Myrtle Beach. Vince Ferguson: I hear so much about Myrtle Beach motorcycle. You know what I'm saying? But was there a aha moment for you when you decided, you know what, my health is going down the tubes and I need to get it together? Kita Richards: Well, I think the backstory is my mother was really active, but my mother died of pancreatic/colon cancer. And so with that being said, I knew she was active much more active than me. I was getting overweight. I took care of her. And then when she was passing away, she said to me something, some words that I never will forget. She said, "Do what you want to do, and have a good time on this side because when you're leaving, you never want to regret what you didn't have time to do and what you wanted." So that launched me into just taking a deeper look at who I had become. Vince Ferguson: So you feel that motivated you and drove you to be the person you are today? Kita Richards: I know it did. I know it did. It just became one of those things that watching, if you ever watch someone pass away and you never took care of anyone passing away of colon cancer and watching everything fail. Life begins to look a little different for you. Vince Ferguson: Hmm. And when you say it looks a little different, you start to see it out of a different prism, different window. Kita Richards: You start to cherish it and cherish the moments. You start to cherish life like never before. Even when my clients come in, I have this thing, because I cherish my moments with everybody now. I see life now as everybody being divinely connected to one another in that we are sharing space. And when we're sharing those spaces, we should be sharing, not only our passion, but our love for one another. And so that's what changed about me. I knew at that point that I needed to share whatever gifting, whatever divine gifting that I had with other people. I knew that then at that moment. I knew that that was going to bring me joy. And I know that sounds weird, but I knew I also needed to take care of me. And I knew that I could never go to the next level, or I never could get there without self-care. Vince Ferguson: Hmm. Makes sense. Very, very profound. Kita Richards: Because you could never pour from an empty cup, and back then I was an empty cup. I was an empty cup, and I could never give what I didn't have. When people say I gave 100% to a person, you should never give 100% to anybody. Always give people the surplus of what you have. Because if you give 100% of your energy, then you have nothing for yourself. And if you have nothing for yourself, you never can grow anything that's worth giving anyone else. Vince Ferguson: Hmm. Very profound. Very awesome. So this is interesting because you speak so much wisdom, and you look like a person of 22. Kita Richards: I thank you. I promise you need to add some to that though. Vince Ferguson: Well, we add a couple years, you know what I'm saying? But what motivated you to become a trainer? Kita Richards: So back to what my mom said, you're never going to... When I was in my twenties, I was taking it was step aerobics. It was step aerobics there. Vince Ferguson: Step aerobics. Kita Richards: I absolutely love step aerobics. But there was a problem. There was a problem. The problem was I had a degree in computer science. So I had a really nice job. Vince Ferguson: Yes, I bet. Kita Richards: Are you going to make this, or are you going to make this? Vince Ferguson: What happened? Kita Richards: There was a problem here. And so I got the opportunity to actually get licensed doing that, and I didn't even take it. Because by that time I had my first kid, I had the first child. And so I was like, no, no, no. I know better now. I know better now. But back then, and life is a growing process, but back then I was like, no, this is not a good financial decision to be making. Vince Ferguson: So you feel that knowing what you know now, you would've still taken the leap before? Kita Richards: If I had of known what I know now, yeah. I would've literally left what I was doing, and did this because I've learned that joys in life, that you should enjoy your life. And what I mean by that, I have this saying that I always say. People don't understand. And what you have to gravitate and learn that in your purpose, you will always have prosperity, and you will have mental prosperity, spiritual prosperity, and financial and emotional prosperity. And you need all of those. Back then, I was only looking for financial prosperity. Vince Ferguson: But now you don't only have one child, you have four? Kita Richards: Yes. Right. Vince Ferguson: And four adult children? Kita Richards: Four adult children. Vince Ferguson: And you don't look like an adult yourself. That's a beautiful thing. But again, you had the strength and fortitude to go out there and make this happen. But why the fitness space? What do you feel you can contribute to people in the fitness space? Kita Richards: Fitness is one of those great, wonderful things. And here's what, because it's more than the outward. Because before you ever make a decision, before you ever become physically fit, there is a mental that happens. You actually have, because it's so optional, that you have to gravitate there in your mind first. Vince Ferguson: So it's mind first, then body? Kita Richards: Always mind first. And the challenge, and then I love the challenge of it. I love the challenge of because even when I have my clients, and I'll talk to my clients. I always tell them you've made the first step to the best version of you. And here was the first step. You made up in your mind to make a change. So fitness, I think I chose it because not only was it challenging, it was mentally challenging too. Because if we back up, I didn't look like this. I can promise you. I lost 80 pounds like this. I hadn't been doing anything. And so I tell my clients, I know what they felt. I know exactly what they feel like. I remember not being able to touch my toes. Kita Richards: I remember what that felt like. And I remember even though I was taking care of kids, and I was getting bigger, I just remember what it felt like. I remember being exhausted. I remember, just to be honest with you, I remember just being tired. And then I remember suffering health, other health issues. Because as women, when you have more weight than you need to have on you, there's other things that come along with your health. There's hormonal imbalances that you end up with. For me, I had several different things happening. I actually ended up with a liver issue, and I found out later it was actually fatty liver. Vince Ferguson: Fatty liver? Kita Richards: It was fatty liver. And this was from my diet of, I love sugar. Now I'm not going to lie to you. I used to love some sugar. So I love eating sugar. And I wasn't a big fried food eater, and that's what most people are like, I don't eat much fried food. But I love some donuts and cakes and cookies and stuff like that. And I ate a lot of that back then. Vince Ferguson: So you were, you said, about 89 pounds heavier than you are now? Kita Richards: About 80. I was 80. Vince Ferguson: About 80. What did you do to take it off? What's that secret sauce? Kita Richards: Make up my mind first that it needed to come off. You know what? And the first thing I did is I decided I wasn't going to make an excuse. Vince Ferguson: No excuses? Kita Richards: Yeah. I was like, I'm not going to make an excuse. I'm not going to blame it on my age or anything. You know what I said to myself? I'm responsible. I just took full responsibility. I did. I said, I'm responsible. And my first trainer was my spouse. Vince Ferguson: Your husband? Kita Richards: My husband, who was army. So I learned to lift first, and I learned to lift, and he was patient with me to a certain extent because he drove it. He would just come in like, are you going to do it today or not? You can leave the gym if you want to, or you can stay in it. But it's going to be your choice. I'm not going to make you stay. And I remember just because at that point, now that two car garage that I started in, it was actually I made it into a home gym because I was serious about it. I was like, I'm going to be serious. So first I made up in my mind, second I said no more excuses. Kita Richards: Third, I changed that space into a home gym. And that was crazy because that meant no excuses. I went out there and he worked like 12 hours, and then it took him an hour to get to work and an hour to get home. So it was 13 hours. So I had to work out with him at night. At night. When people wanted to go to sleep, I had to be working out. No excuses. And I still had to get up to the next day. Because at that time I still had one in high school, one in middle school and then I had two grown. So because my fitness journey back to being fit, didn't start until I was 40, 41 1/2. Almost 42. Vince Ferguson: And were you still working at computer science? Kita Richards: I was actually not this is because I was at that point when I decided to be fit, I actually owned a photography, videography business. Vince Ferguson: Really? A photography, videography business? Kita Richards: I was doing some of that. And then all of a sudden I decided I wasn't going to do it in this. I was like, I ain't doing that no more. Vince Ferguson: Wow. So you start training ferociously, training with your spouse. Kita Richards: With my husband. With my husband at night. At night. Understand because he worked early in the morning, and it was at night. So what did I do? I didn't just train one time a day. I trained with him, and anything I couldn't do, anything I struggle with, during the day or in the morning I go practice it. Vince Ferguson: You go back practice it? Kita Richards: I would go practice it. Whatever I couldn't do. As long as I didn't need a spotter, I practiced it. Vince Ferguson: Now but what role besides the exercise, what role did nutrition play? Kita Richards: Oh, huge. Huge. That was another thing. The first thing I had to do was give up sugar. I had to give up the sugar because I was a sugar addict. I had made up in my mind, I'm going to give up sugar. And that was the hardest thing, because I didn't have, some people have a caffeine addiction. No, I had a sugar addiction. So sodas wasn't even a problem. It was sugar for me. So I gave up sugar first. I gave up sugar, and you're not going to believe this, I gave up cheese. Vince Ferguson: Cheese? Kita Richards: I love cheese. Cheese was my first two things that I said I was done with. Vince Ferguson: It had to be hard to do because you also have kids around the house. So how did you do that? Just cold turkey stopped or- Kita Richards: I stopped. And most people, most women asked me because I am the cook of the family. I am the cook of the family and I'll be launching some recipes soon. But I am a cook up the family. And so what I had to do was I cook their food, but I cooked my food. Because I said I wasn't going to make an excuse. I wasn't going to say I got to cook for them. No, I was standing in the kitchen anyway. And so I would cook their food the way they wanted it and would cook mine at the exact same moment. Vince Ferguson: And that was the temptation to eat some of theirs? Kita Richards: It was there, but here's what I would say to myself. I would say to myself, you know what? There's life and death in the power of the tongue, and there's going to be life or death in this food. So you better be choosing which one. And so that was my thing. And it got so bad, I was label things life or death so much. I'm choosing life. I'm choosing life. And that's the way I would eat. Because remember I was a sugar addict, and I still had to go to the grocery store. And when I go to the grocery store, what happens when you go get in the checkouts? Because you can avoid the cookie on the aisle of cookies, but the checkout has the candy, and all of the quick snacks. Vince Ferguson: For a reason. Yes. Kita Richards: So I would pull up my buggy inside of there and I would look, and my mind, I would label them in my head. I would be like, death. And that would be my two things, life or death. And I would leave there without the candy bars, which was so interesting because understand, I was the person that drove, that went through their buggy through the thing. And I would bring everybody back their favorite candy bar, including my own. .It was so bad that my husband, there's a particular store that has a particular type of candy that I like whenever he would go into that particular town, he would buy me four of those candy bars because I couldn't get them locally. So the moment I asked him to stop bringing me the candy bars, he knew something was real because I like don't bring me the candy bars. Don't bring me the candy bars. Kita Richards: But I was making choices. And what I was doing is I was making the choices at that moment. I wasn't trying to live outside of the window. I wasn't trying to say, tomorrow I'll do better. I was like, I'm going to do it the now. I'm going to experience the now moment. So that's what I was doing. Vince Ferguson: Do it now. Are you now a vegan? Kita Richards: I am. Vince Ferguson: Really? Plant based? Kita Richards: That was interesting. Vince Ferguson: Yes. How did that transition go? Kita Richards: That was about like the same. That was the same for me. The big problem wasn't for me the meat, it wasn't the meat. It really wasn't. Although I would tell people, they were like what would be the thing that would that draw you? Because I love what I would love. And I've always loved bison burgers. There's a particular place in Texas that I just absolutely love, and now I don't eat that. But that's not where it got me. That is probably the one thing, but the other was eggs. I absolutely love eggs. And I was eating a lot of eggs in one day. I said, oh, I told my husband, I'm going to become a vegan, and I'm not going to eat the eggs anymore. And he was like- Vince Ferguson: Did he ask for a divorce. Kita Richards: No. He was like, he's very supportive. He was like, so you're not going to eat the eggs? Do you not know within a couple days he cooks eggs? Because he's the breakfast person. So he cooked the eggs, and they look so light and fluffy. And I walked past the stove, and I looked at the eggs, and then I said, I want the eggs. And then I said, no, no, no. You chose, you made the choice to not eat the eggs. So just make the choice. And something in the back of my head said, but nobody's looking so nobody's going to know you ate the eggs. But then I said, I would know that I ate the eggs. And so I'm going to know that I ate the eggs, so I'm not going to eat. And it was enough of them. I could have just tasted them when I was like, I'm not going to eat these eggs. Kita Richards: And I didn't eat the eggs. And I sit at breakfast, and this was the thing, with my family because we are a family that eat together. We actually eat together. So it's not like I go take my plate and not see their food. And I saw them eat, and I did not touch them. And I felt victorious. Not that you have to give up eggs in your fitness journey or your whatever, but for me, I felt victorious. Everybody asked me do I feel like that I have such a restricted diet? No. I feel like I'm in charge of my life. Food can no longer control me. I'm in control of me. I take my power back. Food is not supposed to control me anyway. Vince Ferguson: But food seems to control most of us. And that's why you have the obesity, diabetes, all these chronic illnesses in the community because of how we eat. So your clients, who are your ideal clients? Kita Richards: Well my ideal clients are, most people think that most of my clients are vegan, and they're not. My ideal clients are people that just want more control. And I shouldn't say control, more clarity in their life. Because I told people my thing is always I want to help you find your strong point. I want to help you meet your goal. I always told people also this studio is when they come in, we greet each other. Just, I say, hey, how are you doing today? And they told me how they doing. They say, oh, I'm doing great. So my ideal, my avatar client is the people that just want the best out of their life. They want to find the joy in being them and whatever they do. Because really and truly, you are not your body. And I told people that you are not your body, but your body is a manifestation of what you've done. It's a journal. Vince Ferguson: It reveals. Kita Richards: Can be changed. Vince Ferguson: It can be changed. Interesting. Very, very, very good. So what programs do you offer at your, before you even tell me that, what are the names of your gyms? Kita Richards: So this one actually has hero on the wall, but this one is She Rocks Fit. Vince Ferguson: She Rocks Fit. Kita Richards: She Rocks Fit brand. And then the other one is hero. Vince Ferguson: Hero. Kita Richards: I'm going to tell you about the She Rocks Fit because it seems a little weird. If you look inside of She Rocks Fit, you see the name hero. Vince Ferguson: Yes. I like that very much. Very much. What programs do you offer at these two facilities? Kita Richards: Okay. So at the studio style one, it's group fitness. I do a lot of group fitness here. We do the weight lifting, the calisthenics, parts of yoga, functional training. I'm big on functional training because I think you just, you should be able to move your body. I do a lot of body weight. I do a lot of body weight, a lot of body weight. But we do some lifting here. At the other gym it is really and truly a full service gym. So it has all your machines, you have your ellipticals, you have your treadmills, you have the spin bikes, and then you have the studio side of it. And then that one, there is, I think there's about nine other trainers there. Vince Ferguson: Oh, wow. Really? Kita Richards: Yeah. There's nine, about nine. I think we're at nine other trainers there. And they train clients there as well. So they're training clients, and whether it's personal and there is actually, we have, there's a boxer there too. And he actually teaches boxing. So there's a variety of stuff going on at the other one. Vince Ferguson: So one is called She Rock Fit, which is where you are today. And the other one is called? Kita Richards: Hero. Vince Ferguson: Hero, just hero? And do you have group fitness programs? Kita Richards: I do. I do. I do my group fitness because that's what I trained. That's what I specialize in, in group fitness. My group fitness, like I said, will range from different things. So I have steps. We may do steps. Let me tell you what kind of trainer I am. If we had to classify, if we really had to put a label on my training style, I would say it's OCD. Vince Ferguson: OCD? Kita Richards: It's very OCD. So how my whole program works is you walk into my gym. There is not an ab day. There is not. There is not a we're going to do back day. You walk in, and you don't know what I'm going to do and here's why. Because people don't come because it's a certain day, and they don't like to work that particular. But I found out people don't like to work where they're weak. Most people don't like to work the weak side. So what I do is I vary the training where you don't know, it's a mystery. A mystery. And I'm going to be honest with you. You know what they do? They peek up under the door to see what is laying in the- Vince Ferguson: What's going on? Kita Richards: They're like, oh my God, what is she going to do? But you know, it works for them because they understand why I do it. I used to announce what I was going to do, but I did find that people would cheat and not come. The also the other part of the gym, a part of the studio side of it is accountability. So I was huge on accountability. I don't know if it's because my husband was military. I actually know where people are supposed to be, in which class they're supposed to be. If you miss a class and you have not contacted wonderful trainer and said, I won't be in, I have something going on, whatever, I text you. We have an app. I will message you in the app, and I will personally text you. You're lucky if you get away with 2 sessions back to back. I'm getting in contact with you. Vince Ferguson: Is that right? Interesting. So you have that personalized approach. That personalized approach, you hold people accountable, which is awesome. Now can someone join your class virtually? Kita Richards: Yes I do. I do virtual. So I have this app. Well we have this app and in the app everything comes through. But as soon as the virtual classes open up, it's usually a link that appears within your app within 30 minutes telling you the virtual schedule, but it reminds you that there's a virtual coming up. And here's the cool thing about it. If you are in for that day, you can join any class. So mine is set up like this. Basically, if you are in for the week, let's say you say, I want to do virtual or I think I want to join you and I'm going to pay for a week or I'm going to pay for a month. You're not only that one class, you can join in into any class that happens because you are getting links that's telling you. So if you are stuck in traffic, so you ain't making this one, you just click the next link that appears and you make the next one. Vince Ferguson: So you still make it. Awesome. Awesome. That's really good that you're doing that. That's actually amazing. Now that you told me who your ideal clients are, do you give them personalized nutrition guidance? Kita Richards: I do. I do. Vince Ferguson: You do? Kita Richards: So my meal plans being a vegan is interesting. So what I do is the way I build my meal plans are, I shouldn't say simple, but they are built on levels. So when I say levels are different styles. So the base of every one of my meal plans is always vegan. It's always vegan. So it starts out at vegan. And then you see this list of other things. You, I list the eggs that you can have in the amount. And then I list your meats here so you can add back this list. So that's how it lists outs. Not only is that is every, it all has the calorie counts beside it. So, and when I say that is, I actually put recipes in because I'm a cook. I like to cook. Kita Richards: I like to cook. And I don't like eating the same. So recipes come with all my meal plans. So basically if I'm telling you that I want you to eat this, I'm actually giving you the recipe to eat it. Vince Ferguson: To eat it. Kita Richards: So you can meal prep. You can be able to meal prep that. But then for those who say, well, I don't have time because you have all these options. There is also those quick items. You can go get your frozen vegetables and you just do some roasted vegetables. Or if you out, I even help you if you're eating out. We discuss how to eat out. What do I choose? What's a good choice. I found that if people understand their choices, they can make better choices. Vince Ferguson: Better choices. Kita Richards: My thing is, I like to be your guide, but I want you to walk away from me with knowledge to be empowered. So I do give you the meal plan, but there's so many instructions even in inside of the app. I think I would walk over and show you my board. My board tells you the different vegetables that can help you detox your liver, because I want you to learn it. I want you to walk away with knowledge because here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking to myself, if you walk away with that knowledge, not only will it impact your life, it impacts now your family life. And now it impacts the next generation. Because I have a family, and I want you, not only my client to be healthy, I want them to be impactful within their environment. Kita Richards: Because like you said before, there's so many. There's diabetes, there's blood pressure problems. How do you come at that? We can come out at it one person at a time, but I get that. I can touch you. But even if I'm touching you, then what you do is you touch your family. And then your family will touch other people, and it grows from there. I think that's the only way that we're ever going to be healthy as a community. Vince Ferguson: Hmm. Awesome. Yes. Most definitely. Educate the community and share that knowledge, share that love. And now obviously I can talk forever with you because you have so much knowledge and wisdom to share, but I want a couple more things that I just one to ask you. Because you're so busy, you have two facilities there and you're working with people, how do you manage your family life and your business? Because you have a spouse. So that's and four kids. Kita Richards: And four kids. Vince Ferguson: How do you do it? Kita Richards: So I'm going to let you in on how I manage. First of all, how I manage my personal relationship. My personal relationship with my spouse. We actually have one day one, well, we have dinner. We decide, he actually asks me, when do I have time to have dinner? So we try to have dinner once a week together. Vince Ferguson: Once a week? Kita Richards: Yeah. Once a week dinner without the kids, we try to go out without the, we go out. This is ours. Dinner and maybe a movie or something. We have a date. We have to have that. On the date, I disconnect unless it's the kids trying to contact me or grave emergency, then my focus is not outside of that. It wasn't, and I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. It wasn't like that before, because trying to be a business owner, sometimes you can get out of balance, and I've been out of balance. Kita Richards: So this helps balance the scale. It tells your spouse or it tells that significant other, that you are important. So this time it's dedicated to us. And so I try to make sure that I do that. For my kids, they're all grown. And it's amazing. We actually have what's called a group chat. And so everybody's in this group chat on their phones. It's message. We have it on Facebook, and then we have it on our phones. We have chat, we talk to each other. We have our own little group text every morning. And I don't know if somebody did it this morning, someone says good morning. And we are all over the place. So my daughter, like I said, is in Korea, and she's military. So she may be anywhere, but we have this chat and it says good morning. Kita Richards: And at least a couple times a week, because I write affirmations every morning. I send over affirmation to my family. And I send over my affirmation to my clients to just remind them to be the best version of them. But also to say, I love you. And everybody piggybacks inside of that for my family. So whatever is happening within the family, we actually can pick up the phone and just text and we are all in the same space at that time. Kita Richards: And so we do that, and about every week or so, we do FaceTime each other. And oh yeah I have grands by the way, I have grands. So we do FaceTime with everybody and that's how I manage having the kids. So we feel close even though we are in different cities. We feel close. We feel that close and we reach out to each other via that. So I have that with them. And then with each of them, I have my own little, like the girls in the family because I have three girls. We only have our own little group thing. Also we have that. And then we have the whole thing. And then they have the sibling chat where it's only the- Vince Ferguson: The kids. Kita Richards: So that's how we manage it. Vince Ferguson: That's how you manage. Kita Richards: So that's how I manage my personal. And so that makes sense to me with technology. It just makes sense to, but it makes them feel as though they are important as well. Vince Ferguson: Which they are. But what about self-care when it comes to you? Kita Richards: I'm big on self-care. I'm big on that one. Vince Ferguson: Make time for that? What do you do? Kita Richards: I make time for myself. So one of the things that I do, and all my clients know it here. One of the things I do is I rise. My clock goes off at 3:45 AM. Vince Ferguson: Really? What? Kita Richards: Yes. I know. It goes off at 3:45 AM. And one thing that happens at 3:45 is I wake up, and I always listen to some type of meditation. I always brighten up the day. That's how I wake up. That's my time. And when I'm sitting there or when I'm laying there, I don't focus on being awake because I have other alarms. My alarm rings again at 4:43. Now if I wake all the way up, that's fine. I wake up. But if I don't wake all the way up at that 4:43 AM, I go into my own meditation. That's my time. That's my time to pour into me. And then about 5:25, because at that time I get up, I do about 15 minutes of that. I get up and I'm getting dressed, I'm moving around. Kita Richards: And, but those are my moments. That's my morning moments. That's my time to be filled up because I want to feel joy, and peace and love so that when I get in the gym at 6:20, at about 6:15 because that's when our class start. I want to already be present, and that's what I do to get present. So that's my first thing. At night I disconnect. Everybody knows it. At a certain time at night, I literally pull the plug on everybody else. That is my time, and I take that time for myself. And it's usually a little later at night. I take the time for myself where I may read a book. I may be reading or listening to something. I may decide that I just want to watch something. I don't watch a lot of TV, but I may decide I want to watch something. Kita Richards: And I just spent that moment doing that. So that's how I run that. And then on Fridays, I never work a full day on Fridays. I told people that. I don't care. I've had people to tell me, can I get a session with you? Can you open up this? I'm like, no, no. On Fridays, I'm done. When I get done, I'm done, and I'm done until Monday. I'm done until Monday. I'll chat with them. I'll chat with people within texts and stuff like that. But I'm done. I'm done. Even if it's a business call, it's got to be an emergency. It's going to wait until Monday. So I do that. And then Wednesday, you catching me here on a Wednesday. Wednesday is very important too, because Wednesday is also my slow day because I'm back and forth to Greenville on most days. Kita Richards: But Wednesday is the day that I don't go to Greenville. I normally stop about 10:00, and I don't start back until about 4:20. And that time, if I want to have a hair appointment, my nails done, I want to have a massage, if I want to just lay in the floor and think about nothing. That's really, truly my time. And I spend it well. My husband will even tell you, everybody knows my schedule because they will tell you. And some people are so afraid of hurting other people's feelings, but I can be really, really blunt. My thing is hurting myself first is not what you want to do. So I tell people, create a space and an atmosphere that's conducive to your growth. Sometimes that requires me to set boundaries. This is my time. And then you have to say it is okay to have it because you are worthy of it. And that's the way I feel. I feel that I am worthy of time. The same value I give to everyone else, I give to myself. Vince Ferguson: Yourself. Beautiful. Very well put. I couldn't have said it better because that's not my reality. That's yours, but that is beautiful. Now how can my listeners and viewers find out more about you, Kita Richards. Kita Richards: I'm so easy to contact. You can always go to my website, which is www.sherocks.fit. and message me there. Or you can hit me up even on the other one, which is a www.bornherofitness. You can get that one, bornherofit.com. And if you message you'll get me again or you can just do what's easy. Hit me up on Facebook. It's Kita Richards. Instagram is Killa_Kita. They gave me that name. I didn't do it. My clients gave me that name. Vince Ferguson: Really? Killer. Kita Richards: You can do that as well. I'm so easy to contact that. It's really strange. And I try my best really to answer people's questions. I have a certain time of day that I just sit down, and I just start to text other people. So I'm very easy. I'm very easy to contact. And I always say too, if you ever, because I believe we're all interconnected. So I try to always give my best to those who are trying to contact me. Vince Ferguson: Very good. Very good. Kita Richards. So on behalf of Body Sculpt of New York, that's my nonprofit program and Six Weeks of Fitness. I truly want to thank you for coming on this show today. Kita Richards: Well thank you for having me. Thank you so much. And can I say one more thing to your listeners? Vince Ferguson: Please. Kita Richards: I just want to remind people that always strive to be the best version of you. That's going to mean you got to take time for yourself. You got to love yourself properly. You got to show every part of you, your bodies, you got to show your body up. Yeah, it's going to fade away. Here's the thing. Once you take care of your body, your mental, your spirit, and you feed it properly, then that produces not only fruit, but it also produces seed. And when that seed, and when you talk, and we become peaceful, when that seed in your voice begin to flow on other people's thoughts. And then they get to produce seed. So remember that you are impactful in your environment, and you're never out of the wrong season. You're always in the divine timing, and there are really no true mistakes. There are only purposes. So just remind yourself that you are being the best version of you. And today is a good day But guess what? Tomorrow, your tomorrow will be even better. And the day after would be better than that. So just keep going, being your very best self. Vince Ferguson: Wow. Awesome. Beautiful. Beautiful. To my listeners and viewers. I truly hope this program was informative, encouraging, and I know it was inspiring and that you will continue tuning in to my Six Weeks of Fitness podcast. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the show, please leave them in the comment section below, and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. And remember you don't stop exercising because we grow old. We grow old because we stop exercising.

Photo:  Afghanistan, Dakka (Loe Dakka) Six Weeks after the Tragedy: #ClassicLongWarJournal: @BillRoggio and @ThomasJoscelyn #UNBOUND the complete, forty-minute interview, September 27, 2021. @LongWarJournal.

It's about six weeks until the spring season. What type of shape is your arm in? is it ready? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/aaron-thigpen/message

Photo: Six Weeks after the Tragedy: #ClassicLongWarJournal: @BillRoggio and @ThomasJoscelyn #UNBOUND the complete, forty-minute interview, September 27, 2021. @LongWarJournal.

In this episode of Six Weeks to Fitness, I'm joined by former professional football player, Joe Barksdale.  During his career, Joe played for the St. Louis Rams, Los Angeles Chargers and Arizona Cardinals.  He is also an accomplished musician, mental health advocate and comedian.  During the interview, Joe will discuss his childhood, growing up in Detroit, Michigan, and the many challenges he faced as a child.  Joe didn't grow up playing sports, and it wasn't until high school, that he decided to try out for the football team. Joe Barksdale's NFL career lasted about 8 years and when I asked him why he left the NFL, his response was “I got tired of losing.”  Joe speaks freely about his NFL career, but it's a career that he would like to put behind him.  He is most happy about his career as a performance artist and a stand-up comedian.  It was hard not to laugh at Joe's many anecdotes during the interview.  He is a natural-born comedian always laughing and joking during the interview while making his point. Mental health is a major topic of which Joe speaks very candidly about, having dealt with depression and sexual abuse as a child.  The COVID-19 pandemic also impacted Joe's post-NFL plans.  He left the NFL to pursue his aspirations as a performance artist, but when the country shut down and went into quarantine mode, those plans were thwarted, and he found himself mentally and emotionally depressed with nowhere to go and questions on how he will feed his family.  Weight gain was also a byproduct of the quarantine.  Barksdale's playing weight while in the NFL was 325 pounds on his 6' 5” frame, but during the quarantine, his weight increased, which added to his depression.  At least in the NFL, he was able to work out, exercise and travel on a regular basis, during the quarantine, all that has changed. Fortunately, he came across the Centr App, a 10-week exercise and nutrition program created by Chris Hemsworth, the Australian actor, who played in the movie series “Thor.”  With the help of this exercise program and the nutritious meal plans it provides, Joe is feeling much better physically and mentally.  He has lost weight and his body is much leaner than it has been in years.  Joe will tell you that he is a work in progress and that he is taking it one day at a time.

Over 50 people – mostly migrants – died in a cargo truck that crashed in Southern Mexico last night. The truck was transporting migrants who were fleeing crime and poverty from Guatemala and Honduras. Former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett was found guilty of staging a racist, anti-gay attack on himself and lying to police about it. Smollett was convicted on five of the six charges against him. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to the United States to face espionage and other charges. In Washington, former President Trump has lost again in court, trying to protect White House records from the select committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol. A panel of three appeals court judges rejected the former president's claim of executive privilege. A surge in COVID cases within the last week is mainly being caused by the Delta variant. COVID cases are also rising across Asia. The Supreme Court kept a Texas abortion law intended to block all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy in place but allowed providers' legal challenges to proceed. The U.S. Navy has shut down fuel tanks and lines at the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii, blamed for dangerous levels of petroleum that are contaminating a second groundwater source. State health officials say tainted water has already forced hundreds from their homes. Former NFL star Demaryius Thomas died at age 33 from an apparent “medical issue.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How would you like to build, balance, confidence and strength? In this episode of Six Weeks to Fitness, I am joined by Brittany Kohnke, a certified personal trainer and strength coach out of Temecula, California. Her mission in life is to guide others towards a life of balance, confidence, and strength so they can be the absolute best version of themselves in every sense of the way. Brittany specializes in showing others what's possible by removing the impossible and she does this by being an advocate for strength training and evidence-based practices. Brittany's exposure to fitness started out in her childhood, growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, where she played a variety of sports such as ice skating, gymnastics, volleyball, and basketball, but her real passion was softball, which she played throughout college.  Although she was very active, Brittany's nutrition left much to be desired.  It was during her time in college that she was introduced to the world of fitness competition.  Brittany was in awe of how beautiful and lean the women looked on stage and truly believed she could look like them, so she did everything that was expected of fitness competitors to do, with the dieting and intense exercise, and it wasn't long before Brittany entered her first competition weighing 110 pounds of lean muscle.  Unfortunately for Brittany, no one told her how to live her life in a “balanced and sustainable” way after the competition was over, and so, in the days and weeks following the competition, Brittany started drinking, overindulging and before she knew it (6 months later), her weight ballooned up to 170 pounds.  Brittany's health was deteriorating fast, and it brought on deep depression.  It wasn't until 7 years later, that a friend told Brittany about a program called Crossfit at a gym in the area and fortunately for Brittany, it was more than just a Crossfit program, but a fitness lifestyle of eating healthy, proper exercise mechanics and much more.  This kickstarted Brittany's journey into what is possible.  Working with this program and a particular trainer at the gym, Brittany learned what being strong and healthy is truly all about and that mainstream fitness is totally wrong. Brittany is now using the methods and training she learned to help others, especially women to achieve their health and fitness goals.  Brittany believes that the gym can be used as a supplement to your life not the main event.  You don't need to spend 3 hours in the gym.  It's all about balance.  Brittany also believes in training smart not hard to achieve your fitness goals.  She also believes in using food as nourishment and that food is not something to be fearful of.  I have only scratched the surface of this interview with an amazing coach and trainer.  If you need an experienced, motivated, and inspiring coach, who truly understands what it takes to achieve balance, confidence and strength, then listen to this interview, better yet, reach out to Brittany directly.  You can visit her IG page @brittany_kohnke.

There are only six weeks left in the 2021 season. The Jets are out of the Playoff race, but the remaining games have importance. Young players have an opportunity to show they belong. Today John discusses three players who have been inconsistent to date but could use a strong finish to the season to grow confidence. They are Zach Wilson, Quinnen Williams, and Mekhi Becton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of Six Weeks to Fitness, I am joined by Antoine Bhutan, out of Atlanta, Georgia.  Antoine is the creator of Veganbando, “a source of inspiration for better lifestyle choices.” Veganbando was created in 2017, to document Antoine's plant-based journey. Antoine had been advised to eliminate dairy from his diet to help alleviate his severe seasonal allergy symptoms and this recommendation proved very effective. After witnessing the power of holistic healing, the quest for a healthier, more-proactive lifestyle began. Over the years, Veganbando has grown into a unique space where health-conscious, high-vibrational individuals celebrate good vibes and spiritual abundance to the sounds of high-vibrational music of the diaspora. Antoine grew up in New York City but would spend most of his summers either in Trinidad or Barbados, but it was in Trinidad where most of his family would grow their own vegetables and that is where he picked up most of his healthy lifestyle habits. During the interview, Antoine will share his story on the positive impact the vegan lifestyle has had on his life.  The vegan meals displayed on Antoine's @veganbando Instagram page are meals of his own creation and most impressive. If you ever thought about trying the vegan lifestyle, just visit Antoine's Instagram page, listen to this interview, and you will be hooked.

Photo:  A British encampment in Dakka, Afghanistan. Six Weeks after the Tragedy: #ClassicLongWarJournal: @BillRoggio and @ThomasJoscelyn #UNBOUND the complete, forty-minute interview, September 27, 2021. @LongWarJournal.

In this episode of Six Weeks to Fitness, I am joined by Danielle Gray, a multi-passionate entrepreneur Wilhelmina fitness model, speaker, professional athlete, and the founder of Train Like a Gymnast. She's also a certified personal trainer specializing in bodyweight training, nutrition, women's fitness, youth exercise, kettlebells, and pre and postnatal exercise. She was also a former junior Olympic gymnast judge and coach.  During this interview, Danielle will share her fitness journey and how you can train like a gymnast in the comfort of your own home. Vince Ferguson Danielle, where did you grow up and what was your childhood like? Danielle Gray: I grew up in Manhattan Beach, California. So right next to LAX, it's called the South Bay and I'm an only child and then I was raised by a single mom and we were like best friends, you know? we still are, but it's just that kind of tight-knit community, the family was very important and everything, and then I started gymnastics when I was 4 and I dabbled in like ball sports, soccer and basketball, not that level of coordination, which is weird. People think, oh, you're a gymnast. Like you can tumble on a beam, but it's very different when there's like the external thing to manage as well. Danielle Gray: My childhood was great. I also realized I just naturally was entrepreneurial as a child. So meaning when I was in elementary school during recess, I would host little gymnastics classes for my friends down on the playground. Hey, if you want to like take a gymnastic class, I'll teach you like bars and we use like a curve on the edge of the playground for like beam. And I don't know if I was spotting kids. They probably should have said something or if I was just kind of showing off. But you know kids playing around. I was pretty crafty, thanks to my mom too and I would make like little Victoria Secrets bags and people would cut out magazine stuff of like what they wanted and I would like almost paper mache, but just like masking tape around it. And I would sell it for 20 bucks. I was always kind of entrepreneurial throughout my childhood, but I never thought that I would end up as an entrepreneur I don't think because I knew I always had a problem with authority. Danielle Gray: But I always pictured for myself like, oh, I'll have a job in like PR or something and I'll have you know steady desk job and I'll have the typical American dream, the house and the kids by this age and married by this age, life is completely the opposite. Vincent Ferguson: Yes, it is. Danielle Gray: But that's kind of like just my personal background that shaped me into who I am and of course, the gymnastics translates into so many different areas of my life with perfectionism and being a recovering perfectionist and having integrity and taking pride in my work and just my dedication and commitment to anything I set my mind to. Vincent Ferguson: Anything you set your mind to, to do it. Awesome. But now how far did you go with gymnastics? Danielle Gray: Not as far as a lot of people think. So I got to level eight, which is two levels before like collegiate, what you see and above collegiate is Elite, which is what you see in the Olympics. So I didn't make it like crazy incredibly far. People are like, oh, did you go to school for. No, I didn't, but I still was involved and I loved the sport and I had more passion for the sport before I burnt out from it. But I always identified as a gymnast, like Danielle, the gymnast. And then when I retired, I had this crisis of like, am I still a gymnast? What, well, I'm not doing it. So what am I now? And like, what do I do to fill all this free time? And there was a little bit of a crisis there and I got to experiment with different things, but it was, yeah. Danielle Gray: I wish I had gone further, but one, I had problems with authority, two, wasn't in the right environment with my coaches or my teammates, and then, three, I think that this needed to happen. I needed to not go super far because my goals were kind of left open like I didn't reach where I wanted to. So there was always this kind of like, I wish I wanted to do more. I like gymnastics. I was just in the wrong environment and that's what made me start coaching and judging and working for UCLA gymnastics and ultimately open my own company to help people train like a gymnast. Vincent Ferguson: Right. Right. But between that time, I understand you stopped training as a gymnast at the age of 15, right? Danielle Gray: Yes. Vincent Ferguson: Is that correct? Am I telling you to tell me. Danielle Gray: I know. I think it's 15. Okay. 2007. So I had just turned 15. Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: So what did you do between the time that you quit gymnastics and you started your business? What did you do in between all that time? Danielle Gray: Okay. So 2007 through 2016, let's say, wow, 10 years. Pretty much. Okay. So I immediately went into like musical theater, acting, dance, like tap dance, jazz, lyrical, and all that kind of stuff, because I wanted to do acting, but as I got into it and stuff, it was fun. It was good to learn a lot about myself. It was good to have all these different angles to who I am, but when I started auditioning for stuff and I had an agent for acting, I'm an agent for modeling now, that's totally different, I was like, Hmm, I'm not feeling as passionate about acting as other people are. Danielle Gray: And so I almost felt guilty if I were to get a part that someone else really, really wanted. Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. Danielle Gray: And I was like, I'm doing this because it's like fun and I'm just doing it, but some people this is what they want, this is all they want. I started to feel guilty and I was like, okay, this isn't my passion. Let's start to leave this behind as I focused on college and I always did a PE class every semester just to stay in shape and active, because I hadn't done PE since sixth grade because we could write out of it for gymnastics. Vincent Ferguson: Ah, okay. Danielle Gray: So I was just like yoga, weight training, stress management, self-defense. There were so many other things that I did in college and then my friend, Sennon, she was taking a lyra class, which is like the aerial hoop. Vincent Ferguson: Okay. Danielle Gray: She said I want to try pole, would you come with me? And so I went with her, she didn't like it. I loved it. So I ended up starting to train consistently in pole right over there and I ended up competing at a regional and a national level in placing. So I'm technically a professional division pole dancer. I don't compete anymore, but I still train, it's fun. It was a good natural way to kind of use my gymnastics background in a different way for like aerial and circus stuff. Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. Danielle Gray: And then the kind of idea for Train Like a Gymnast came from me having a desk job in online marketing, an online desk job. And I was still gymnastics coaching part-time and then I got my personal trainer certification and I kept forgetting to pick up my checks at the gym and I kept forgetting that I got paid to train people. Vincent Ferguson: Really? Danielle Gray: Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: Why? Because it became like fun. You didn't think about being paid for? Danielle Gray: Right. I was just like, Hmm, well you're forgetting that you make money from this. So this is probably your passion. So you should follow it. It was just, you know, when you forget that you are working for pay, it doesn't feel like work anymore. You know, so that was a realization I had and when they offered me a promotion at my full-time job, I was like, I don't want to lead you on, that this is the direction I want to go. I think I want to follow this passion because at the time I was 24, I think, 23 or 24 and I would rather try going into fitness and falling flat on my face than staying in a steady stable career for 20, 40 years and looking back and being like, what would my life be if I had just tried? Vincent Ferguson: Wow, beautiful. Danielle Gray: I know I can always sell myself. I know I can always make more money. I know I can always get a desk job. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Danielle Gray: But there are certain things that you have a little window, like fitness modeling, personal training while your body's healthy, whatever it may be. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Danielle Gray: And at first, I was like, Hmm, okay. Am I going to be homeless? How do I get clients? What is my strategy? I had no strategy. I ended up working at Equinox and I learned through like paid education to just how do you run a business? How do you manage a gym if I ever wanted to have a brick and mortar, all those kinds of things, and I became a much better trainer and I realized I was training people the way I used to train. I was training them like a gymnast, right. Vincent Ferguson: Right good. Danielle Gray: So I was working on their balance, their proprioception, their strength and stability, and doing specific core stuff instead of like, oh, when you do this, you're also working your core. Like I would dedicate and I would make them stretch at the end. It was a whole process and so I kind of came up with this, just a layout of how I always trained my clients. And originally it started as an e-book back in the day. Vincent Ferguson: Oh really. Danielle Gray: A three-month e-book that was it. In 2016, that was like what everyone was doing. And then 2018, it turned into like an app based program with a 28-day challenge. So we'd get people in, they'd see results and then they would continue into a VIP ongoing program. So now we have an app, but it's just a different format. It's super user-friendly and super amazing. I'm just putting like everything we've ever created in there with nutritional guidelines, recipe booklet, like short workouts, long workouts, Instagram replays, and certain like pull up, pistol squat, beginner programs. And I'm super excited. Vincent Ferguson: And that's where you are today. Danielle Gray: Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. Are these classes virtual and in-house? Danielle Gray: Yeah the app is all virtual. So this can be anybody, anywhere in the world. You can download the app and train. Right. And you can cast it to your computer. You can cast it to your TV. But we also through Train Like a Gymnast host retreats and workshops. Vincent Ferguson: Oh really? Danielle Gray: So if somebody is working on this stuff at home and they're getting stronger, but they want to learn a back walk over a back handspring or a back tuck and they maybe aren't near a gym where they can get a spot. They can come work with us in person. And we do personal development. We do like different excursions with the group that comes with us. Then we rent out a gymnastics gym. We all stay at house where we sort of stay together and five days, four nights, incredible experience. Vincent Ferguson: Really, really. Danielle Gray: Yeah. Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: Where are these events located? Danielle Gray: So we did one in Hawaii last year. We did one in Lake Tahoe. And then this year we did Park City. Next year, I'm thinking I want to do one in a warmer location. So I want to get something to the East Coast, but it's hard to find tropical warm locations that also have gyms, that also have insurance for adults. So I can't be like a yoga retreat that's like, oh let's go to like Tulum or Bali because it's a gymnastics retreat. So I need to have a gym with safe equipment that potentially hit cause for me spotting adults is just, there are different things and a lot of times gyms only insure up to the age of 22 because that's when most people stop. Vincent Ferguson: Is that right? Up until the age of 22. That I did not know. Danielle Gray: Really frustrating. So a lot of gyms in this area will like to have classes for kids and there are no adult classes or adults can't train there because their insurance doesn't allow it. So I even have a hard time with insurance. I have to get around in certain ways and double overlap all of our policies and waivers. Vincent Ferguson: Really. I did not know that, but talking more about those classes. Are these geared more towards women and if so what age group? Danielle Gray: That's who typically ended up being our demographic, but I taught a 6 feet, 4 inches, formal former football player, a back tuck on grass without equipment in and out. And he got it by himself at the end of the day. Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: A former pro football player. Danielle Gray: I'm 5 feet, 4 inches, and he's 6 feet 4 inches and I spotted him on the grass in Hawaii in 2019 and he got it by himself. A couple of them got it by themselves later in the day. It was incredible. So that's kind of what started my one-day workshop thing because people were seeing, oh, I can do this in one day. Vincent Ferguson: Right. Danielle Gray: And then started doing retreats for the longer form stuff. But our demographic is typically women between 25 and 40. That's the demographic that really seems to resonate with this because either they didn't get as far as they wanted to in their gymnastics careers or they always wanted to try gymnastics and they didn't know that this existed or a way to get strong and flexible without having a gym membership. Right. All of the stuff that I film on the app is in my house. Vincent Ferguson: It's in your house? So we can do this at home. Danielle Gray: Yes absolutely. Vincent Ferguson: That's what I'm talking about. Danielle Gray: Yes. Vincent Ferguson: I'm ready. Danielle Gray: You have your body, you have a wall, if you have a chair, a couch, maybe some sliders, like we have a little workout kit that comes in a bag. It has two sliders, five mini bands, and three long bands. So you can do biceps curls, you can do shoulder presses, you can do banded bicycles. You can do mountain climbers with the sliders like there are so many things you can do with just this little kit that barely takes up any space and you can do it on hardwood or on the carpet and that's what we want. Because we want to show people that you can train like a gymnast with very little space because we are not always just doing routines. Right? Like in between our routines, we're lining up, we're on the ground and the coach is like, all right, hollow body rocks, ready? Go for 50. And everyone's just side by side rocking. Like I want to be able to host an event one day where I can rent out a big space or a stadium and people can just come with a yoga mat. Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. Danielle Gray: And just like a gymnast does some mindfulness work, some goal settings, some attention, visualization, work out and then cool down with a stretch. That is my goal. Vincent Ferguson: I can definitely see that. So I know a lot of women who are trying to lose weight and you know the New Year's coming and that's one of their goals. So training like a gymnast helps them to lose weight? Danielle Gray: Hundred percent. You got to be consistent though. Right. So if you go really hard for a week and then life happens and you stop training for three weeks and then you come back and you do another hard one, you're not going to notice a difference. That's why the 28-day challenge was so transformational. We had women in that 28 days, we had some women in their fifties lose like 12 pounds in a month. Vincent Ferguson: Really, it's excellent really in a month. Danielle Gray: And then when they continue into the ongoing program and they just stayed consistent, only talking about like three workouts a week. Vincent Ferguson: That's it? Three. Danielle Gray: Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: Who can't do that, three workouts a week. Come on. Danielle Gray: Yeah. Right. And a lot of people are like, oh my gosh, I can't do like 45-minute workouts or 60 minutes. When you go to the gym, think about how long you end up at the gym. You're probably there for like an hour because you get in, you know whatever, but this is a structure. It's accountability, its structure. You just execute. You can schedule it, get a reminder, whatever it is. But when people got into the ongoing stuff we had again women in their 50s losing 20 pounds and keeping it off. Vincent Ferguson: Really? Danielle Gray: Yeah. Because I do so much holistically. So we work on the mindset, your limiting beliefs. We also help the intermittent fasting. And I don't like to restrict you guys like you can eat what you want, but we're trying to limit and give your body a chance to rest and digest. So intermittent fasting some people like, some people don't like. I try to see it as, okay if you owned a factory and you had a bunch of workers and you made them work all day every day with like no rests or anything, they probably start making mistakes. Vincent Ferguson: Definitely. Danielle Gray: Where one of them will be like, I'm over this. Let's go on strike. And then they stop working. Vincent Ferguson: Exactly. Danielle Gray: Think about that as your like digestive enzymes, if you're constantly feeding, they're never getting a break. So the intermittent fasting is more like a break for your body so it can work more efficiently. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Danielle Gray: That's ultimately what I'm going for. It's not, oh, don't eat here, stop eating here, limit, restrict. It just has a schedule, work on your time management, work on your willpower. Vincent Ferguson: Definitely. Yes. Danielle Gray: Well I'm not saying you can't eat a cookie after your dinner, just don't eat the whole bag, but you know, try to stay close to your goal, but you just have a window and it can adjust, if you got a dinner that night then scoot your window earlier. It's totally fine. So a lot of people in the program really succeeded and did well with the intermittent fasting. Some days would fall off, but then you just get back on the wagon, you know, or get back on the beat. Vincent Ferguson: Really? Yeah. Danielle Gray: Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: Do you have testimonials from women who have taken the course and leaving it? Danielle Gray: I have over a hundred video testimonials. Vincent Ferguson: No, you don't. I mean. Danielle Gray: So anybody listening, who's an entrepreneur, business strategy. So that 28-day challenge when we first started, it was a "free challenge." People would put a deposit down. They'd basically bet on themselves. So they had to be 18 right. They'd bet on themselves that they could do everything required in the 28 days. If they did, they would get their money back. If they did not complete all of the workouts and log their food, we would keep that deposit. Vincent Ferguson: Really? Danielle Gray: So yeah and then if they wanted to continue, the deposit just got credited towards their continuing program. So that is what was really helpful and then at the end, I had an exit interview. It was like after the 28-day challenge, if you want to continue, cool. If you don't want to continue, this is the final step to complete. And so I would just interview them for like 5 to 10 minutes be like, what did you like? What did you not like? What does it mean to Train Like a Gymnast? What would you say to anybody else who's thinking about it? All of those I have saved and are zoom video testimonials and it's crazy. I need to use them more, but they're on the website. Vincent Ferguson: Excellent. Well, that's awesome though. I'm quite impressed about that. Do they have access to you? Those who join? Danielle Gray: Yeah. So once you download the app, after every workout, it'll ask you to rate it, and then it'll ask you how'd it go? And when you answer how it went, it actually gets sent to me in my messages and I can respond to it. I think it goes through email, but you can always, email the team at Train Like a Gymnast. You can always find me through Instagram at Danielle Gray fit or Train Like a Gymnast. I will respond to you if you are a human, right. I just don't respond to bots. Danielle Gray: I want to help and I want to have a dialogue because I don't believe in it, oh, I have an app if you use it, cool, if you don't, whatever, I am really invested, you guys. I am looking at my numbers every day to see, oh my gosh, we have another person in, I have another person in, I want every single person in the app to have their own personal transformation. And the more I know about you as a person and what you like and what your goals are, the more I can tailor the app to you. But if I have no idea who you are, I'm just throwing stuff out there like, oh, I think this is good. And you might use it. You might not. Vincent Ferguson: Oh, so you tailor the app to the individual's needs. Danielle Gray: Yeah. So like if somebody messages me like, oh, I want more of this. Okay. That week I'll plan. All right, let's do a muffin top workout. Someone actually said that so let's do it. I mean, you can't spot reduce, but if people are giving me feedback, what they want, then I will plan to do that, I'm not set in my ways. I will just create all right, how can I train like a gymnast here, but help them target this or help them with this. If you were super stressed at work and they are like, oh this is great for busy days. All right I know people are busy. So let me add in a couple more meditations where I kind of center them and realign them so they can continue the rest of their day. So I really, really want, I want to talk to people for sure. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. That is awesome though. Now, would you say that Train Like a Gymnast is something that can be done internationally? Danielle Gray: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So yes. I speak English and yes the follow-along workouts are in English, but the programs that I have are short looping clips. So this is a video, right? Like I can pull it up. Vincent Ferguson: Oh yes.  Danielle Gray: Okay. So in the app, there are certain programs like, cause we're talking about the 28-day challenge. Once you're in the 28-day challenge, let's say you want to do core and upper body that day. It's going to take you about 45 minutes which means when you click start, you've got two circuits. I always give you core and then upper body, core-lower body, core-full body. You have a core workout every single time. Vincent Ferguson: Really. Danielle Gray: Every single time. And then ideally you're going to stretch at the end and cool down, but okay, let's start the core workout, press the button. And it's just looping videos like this. So you can see it and I'm not talking. So you can literally just copy and repeat. Then here, it'll tell you how many reps you got to do. You can swipe up. There we go and it'll tell you the writing of like what you need to do, what you got to focus on, and for a lot of these too, it's kind of like Instagram where you'll just tap to the next thing. But a lot of these will tell you a modification and a progression. So if it's too hard for you or it's too easy, then you just look in the description, and then you change it up and make it fit for you. Vincent Ferguson: Nice. Now how much is this app? Danielle Gray: So it's only a dollar for the first month, so you can give it a try. And then after that, it's only $14.99 a month after or $99.99 for the year. Vincent Ferguson: Oh, $99.99 for the year. Danielle Gray: Yeah so you'll save even more if you do that, but Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. But this is your app. Did you create this? Danielle Gray: So I'm on, also there's another, there's another, but wait, there's more. Yeah. So I'm on a platform, right? So all of my workouts are on this one platform. You'll download my app through that link. You're not going to be able to find the Train Like a Gymnast app in the app store, you have to go Train Like a Gymnast app.com to download it, but once you download it, it'll always bring you to Train Like a Gymnast. If you sign up through my link. But if you click the Discover tab, you will also get access to every other trainer on that platform with all of their workouts too. So you're literally paying $14.99 a month, not just for me, but for some of your other favorite fitness, you know? Vincent Ferguson: Oh really? So you have options to access a ton of them. Danielle Gray: Absolutely. Vincent Ferguson: When we pay for the use of your app, the platform that's hosting it, are they getting paid for that? Danielle Gray: Yes, this is the thing, that's why it's so important to sign up through the Train Like a Gymnast app.com because when you sign up through our app, small business, right. We make a bigger percentage. There's a revenue split. Vincent Ferguson: Okay. Danielle Gray: Somebody goes and downloads the main platform app first and then ends up using our stuff, we have to split with the app store, we have to split with the platform and then we make like a lower cut right. So right. Here's someone who loves to support female-owned businesses, small businesses in general, you're going to want to download through our website. Vincent Ferguson: Most definitely. This is an awesome business structure, format. I love it. And again, with the holidays coming, and then the new year, people are going to be like looking for opportunities in ways to lose weight. But again, it has to be realistic and sustainable. Danielle Gray: Exactly. Vincent Ferguson: This is sustainable. This is real. Okay. This is real. And I think you're going to do very well with this. Danielle Gray: Thank you. Vincent Ferguson: And I'm definitely going to promote it in my circles because I know a lot of people looking for opportunities like this, this is great. Danielle Gray: Right? And you don't have to just stay with mine. Like sure. You are supporting me, but you can go train with like Kevin Hart's trainer or if you want to train with a fashion model like there are so many different trainers on there with their own programs and stuff. So there are yoga people who have like 90-minute meditations. I swear that's real. So it's up to you. You can just kind of discover and experiment, but ultimately you are supporting us. You are giving us a chance if you can stay consistent and then on your other days just kind of check out and around, but I'm really about this sustainability. If you can't picture yourself doing something five years from now, it's not sustainable. Right? Vincent Ferguson: Exactly. Danielle Gray: If you're dieting, not sustainable, intermittent fasting or focusing on portion control is completely sustainable. Vincent Ferguson: Definitely. Danielle Gray: That's what I'm trying to get peoples' minds around, is this is a lifestyle, it's not going to happen overnight, but Train Like a Gymnast is dedication, is consistency, is repetition. Talk about how many times we do one skill to master it. I don't think people realize and that can be "boring" because it's not like a football game where you watch and it's a different team every time and you know, it just happens to call different players, when you watch gymnastics, that one gymnast is doing the same routine at every competition for that entire season. Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. Wow. Danielle Gray: So you are repeating those skills. That's why people are like, oh my gosh, they're so good, because literally a four hour practice, you're doing the same skill like a hundred times. Vincent Ferguson: Yes, exactly. Danielle Gray: So that's how you get strong and you get with your body. So I want people to really work on their core to get strong, but also lengthen their muscles so that they are less prone to injury, they're going to feel better, have less chronic pain. And then of course, if you're consistent and you like training as a gymnast, then you're going to do it more often. You're not going to avoid it and you're going to see results. And then the body that you want is going to become a side effect. Vincent Ferguson: Hmm. Most definitely. Danielle Gray: The thing that I tell a lot of people is, if you did a sport when you were younger, you weren't playing volleyball to have defined legs. You weren't playing soccer to do this. You know, you were doing it because you liked I, it was fun, it didn't feel like working out or you wanted to get better. And that's ultimately what you need to discover as an adult. For some reason, there aren't like a lot of organized adult sports, like it's just not a thing and it blows my mind. And I want to be part of that chain is like, just because you become an adult, doesn't mean you have to just, all right well that's done now I go to a gym to stay fit. A lot of people don't like that. Vincent Ferguson: Exactly. that's what I'm getting at. Where do you see yourself and your company in the next five years? Danielle Gray: Kind of what I was explaining before I want to be able to host big meetups where I can impact more lives in less amount of time. Right. Someone brings a friend and then that grows and that grows and that grows. And I want to be able to hire coaches to teach workshops around the country as well. I want to host these retreats in incredible destinations and help see that transformation and be a part of life change. Cause I've changed people's lives. I've heard from them like just shifting their mentality or realizing that they can do something. If I can learn a backflip in one day, what else can I do? Boom. And it gives them that courage to do more and take more risks. So I just want to continue to impact as many lives as possible. I would love for the app to have over a thousand numbers like that would blow my mind and be amazing. Vincent Ferguson: Thousand members? Danielle Gray: That's just like my minimum goal. I would love at least a thousand members worldwide. Vincent Ferguson: How many members do you have now if I may ask? Danielle Gray: It's funny because I haven't told, my ex and I live together, so he keeps asking me, but I haven't told him. Currently, I think we launched two weeks ago and we're at 61 right now. Okay, its still growing. Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. The app is new. The app is relatively new. Danielle Gray: Yeah and it's not even the new year yet. So I'm very excited because also, I don't know if anybody's heard of Vevobarefoot, they're going to donate a pair of shoes every month for a year for us to do as we please. So starting in January, we're going to do month-long challenges where if you do that month's challenge, you get entered in a raffle to win a pair of Vevobarefoot shoes of your choice. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. Danielle Gray: We're also doing it right now as a signup bonus. So if you sign up before December 24th, you're going to be entered to win a pair of Vevobarefoot shoes. Vincent Ferguson: Really now? Danielle Gray: Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: I can see a lot of sponsors coming to you. I can see you opening. Danielle Gray: We already have a lot and I'm excited. Vincent Ferguson: There you go. Exactly. Exactly. Wow. Where can my audience find out more about Danielle Gray and Train Like a Gymnast? Danielle Gray: So if you want to know about me, Danielle Gray fit on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter, I don't use Twitter. And on YouTube, Danielle Gray fit.com is where you can see my fitness modeling portfolio. It's where you can learn more about my stories, see press and interviews and podcast interviews. Then if you're interested in Train Like a Gymnast, whether it be the retreats or the app or anything like that, just go to trainlikeagymnast.com. You can get to our Instagram through my Instagram or through that website. And we have like a couple of freebies. There are a lot of ways that you can Train Like a Gymnast either for free or starting with the one dollar for the first-month app and potentially getting a pair of shoes. So, I hope you guys reach out. Ask questions, send me a DM. I check my requests. I check the comments. I respond to comments, everything like that. So there are so many ways to get a hold of me. Vincent Ferguson: Nice, Danielle Gray, on behalf of Body Sculpting New York and 6 Weeks to Fitness, I want to thank you for coming on my show today. Danielle Gray: Thank you so much for having me. I hope I vomited enough words for your audience. Vincent Ferguson: Ha, ha, to my listeners, I hope this program was inspiring, rewarding, and informative and that you had a wonderful time watching and listening to Danielle Gray and if you have any comments or suggestions for the show, please leave them in the comment section below and don't forget to subscribe, so you don't miss any future episodes. And remember you don't stop exercising because you grow old, you grow old because you stop exercising.

Zahra's mission is to make her stress-free approach to success coaching accessible across multiple platforms including a mobile app, books, online video training and live workshops. Zahra's flagship product, the GetZENd app, blends Zahra's most effective techniques from her unique background in neuroscience, positive psychology and the study of success into one powerful yet easy-to-use app. Zahra's debut book, HOW DO YOU TAKE YOUR HAPPY?, became an instant bestseller on Amazon. She is also the creator of the online training program 6 Weeks To Happy (launching Summer, 2021) and the R.E.W.I.R.E. Method™ for coaches (2022).

Dalton, Nick, and Kyler discuss the following topics: 00:00 - Cold Open 04:19 - Box Office 06:34 - MoviePass Might Be Making A Comeback 11:04 - Road House Reboot Coming 14:36 - Prey, Preador Prequel, Coming to Hulu in 2022 20:15 - Doctor Strange Sequel Goes Under Significant Reshoots 26:44 - Lethal Weapon 5 Happening From Mel Gibson 32:52 Rumors Of The Roundtable Watch our short film “The Local” on Apple TV and Google Play! https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-local/umc.cmc.5ndmad0o9tix8xodurnkkvk5y https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/The_Local?id=wSv-wT_jC84.P Follow us on social media! Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@movieknights? Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/movieknights Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knights_movie/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/knights_movie Opening Graphics Template designed by Avnish Parker. Find more templates like it here: https://www.avnishparker.com/shop

In this episode of my Six Weeks to Fitness podcast, I interviewed Dona Andrews, domestic violence and cancer survivor.  She was born and bred in Esperanza Village in the country of Belize and migrated to New York in her early 20s at the encouragement of her mother.  During the interview, Dona will share the physical, verbal, emotional, and financial abuse that she endured in her marriage, and the steps she took to break free from the abusive relationship.  At the beginning of the marriage, her husband was very loving and attentive, and then one night at a party, all of that changed.  While at the party, Dona got up and started dancing with her sister, and then another man (as some men do) got up and started dancing with both of them; her husband saw that the man was dancing next to her, so he became furious, stepped in between them, and told her that she was embarrassing him and told her that he was going to deal with her when they got home.  Well, the husband couldn't wait until they got home, so while in the car he slapped her so hard that the earring she had on actually bent, and that is when the nonstop abusive behavior began and did not stop until she was able to free herself many years later from the relationship, and become, in Dona's words, not a domestic violence survivor, but a “domestic violence thriver,” because she is thriving now in so many ways. In addition to being a domestic Violence thriver, she is also a cancer survivor (twice).  Also in the interview, Dona will share how she found out about her cancer and the steps she took to recover.  She will also discuss how her relationship with God, fitness, and nutrition, changed her life.  Dona is living a life free of domestic violence and free from cancer.  She is devoting her retirement years to providing service to others in business, the church and supporting those in need of support in dealing with domestic violence issues.  If you need counseling or someone to speak with regarding domestic violence, Dona can be reached at (646) 498-4779. This is the Dona Andrews story.  The story of how an amazing woman against all odds, turned lemons into lemonade.

Photo:  Sultan Alauddin Khalji Six Weeks after the Tragedy: #ClassicLongWarJournal: @BillRoggio and @ThomasJoscelyn #UNBOUND the complete, forty-minute interview, September 27, 2021. @LongWarJournal.

The OnTrack Podcast team is very excited to have Zach Peterson as a guest host for the next six weeks. Zach is Altium's Technical Consultant and Expert PCB Design Instructor on the Altium Academy Youtube channel. Today he will share with us some details about what to expect in the coming weeks.  Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics Watch the video, click here. Show Highlights: Judy's focusing on AltiumLive Planning for the next six weeks Zach to take over as the podcast's guest host Update on Zach's video series and the feedback he's been receiving, and what's coming up Q&A Sessions Discussion on how to work with your manufacturer, ie. RF Design Eric Bogatin has been confirmed as a Keynote speaker at AltiumLive Will Zach present at AltiumLive? Potential guests during Zach's takeover DuPont Acquires Rogers Corporation AltiumLive 2022 registration is now open with a 20% early bird discount Check out Zach's Articles on Altium's Resources hub Links and Resources: Altium Academy YouTube Channel (Zach's videos) To Ask Zach Questions for upcoming Q&A on YouTube: Submit questions to Youtube@Altium.com DuPont Acquires Rogers Corporation AltiumLive Registration is Open. Get a 20% early bird discount by registering now! Full OnTrack Podcast Library Altium Website Download your Altium Designer Free Trial Learn More about Altium Nexus Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronic

In this episode of Six Weeks to Fitness, I interviewed fitness expert Nate Palmer and asked him how to Build a Million Dollar Body during the holidays.  The holidays are a time when most people seem to pack on the pounds.  Wouldn't it be amazing if we could use the holidays to reverse this trend and start to build a million-dollar body? This and other questions, I asked Nate Palmer, who just happens to be a fitness and nutrition expert, coach, speaker, and writer who believes that being in incredible shape gives a massive advantage in business, focus, and relationships. He's also a dad, husband, and the #1 bestselling author of The Million Dollar Body Method and Passport Fitness. Nate helps business owners and entrepreneurs improve their physique, finances, and family time using fitness and nutrition as force multipliers. During the interview, Nate provides fitness and nutrition tips on how the average person can apply the principles from his Million Dollar Body Method book into their daily lives, even during the holidays.  Nate's advice to anyone who gets down on themselves for overeating during the holidays is to “not quit, you only lose if you quit,” which reminds me of a quote I heard many years ago which states: “a winner never quits, and a quitter never wins.”  Nate Palmer is definitely a winner!

"Misfit" William Karlsson expected to miss 4-6 weeks with a broken foot as confirmed by Pete DeBoer. Brett Howden will take his spot on the second line as he joins Marchessesault and Smith. We also talk about the importance of special teams and VGK must look for an early advantage. Can Evgeni Dadonov continue his tear having scored in the last three games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave Sherwin is a certified fitness and nutrition coach, podcaster, entrepreneur, and practitioner of mindfulness and meditation. His company has helped over 100,000 people achieve long-term weight loss and today on my Six Weeks to Fitness podcast, Dave shares his tips on how to achieve long-term weight loss during the holidays and much more.  Did you ever think about eating an apple before heading out to your company's holiday celebration or before heading out to your family's Thanksgiving celebration?  What about choosing a smaller plate for your snacks?  These are just a couple of the many tips and suggestions Dave will share on the podcast.  Dave's passion is helping grown-ups navigate real-world business and life challenges to achieve their best health and wellness at any age. He is also the creator and host of The Dirobi Health Show which covers everything to do with health and wellness, including the latest in nutrition, exercise, supplements, and clinical studies.  Dave has used hard work, nutrition, supplementation, and science to obtain a high level of fitness in his own life.  He has gained tremendous insight into the challenges and joys of long-term weight loss. Dave believes that anyone can find time to exercise and lose weight if they really wanted to.  During the interview, Dave will share case studies of his clients, one of whom lost 40 pounds in one month, and to celebrate her achievement, she bought her favorite snack, a reeses peanut butter cup, she took one bite and had to spit out the candy.  Her body was so used to eating real food, the processed sweets did not appeal to her anymore.  This is just one of many case studies Dave shared in this truly informative and inspiring interview.

Photo: Afghanistan, Andkhoi (Andkhoy, Andkhvoy)- Menschen - @Batchelorshow Six Weeks after the Tragedy: #ClassicLongWarJournal: @BillRoggio and @ThomasJoscelyn #UNBOUND the complete, forty-minute interview, September 27, 2021. @LongWarJournal.

In this week's episode of Six Weeks to Fitness, I discuss the power of detoxing and gut health with Tim James, the founder, and CEO of Chemical Free Body.  Tim is also known as the Health Hero.  During the interview, Tim discusses the agonizing pain and suffering he had to endure for years such as acute eczema, acid reflux and rectal bleeding.  Tim was also overweight and going through some serious child custody issues.  In other words, he was a physical and emotional wreck. It wasn't until a friend of his, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer asked Tim to accompany him to the Hippocrates Health Institute, that Tim's life changed for the better.  In Tim's mind, he was only going to the institute to support his good friend, but unbeknownst to Tim, his world was about to change. The Hippocrates Health Institute is named after the Greek physician, who lived over 2500 years ago.  It was this physician who said, “let food be your medicine and medicine your food.”  He also said, “all diseases begin in the gut.”  Tim learned this lesson firsthand while being treated at the Hippocrates health Institute.  After detoxing his body and changing his diet, in 4 days he felt like a new man.  In a short amount of time, his eczema disappeared, no more rectal bleeding or acid reflux.  His friend, who he accompanied to the health institute is now “cancer free,” all due to detoxification and cleaning out his body from toxins.  To really get the full impact of Tim's amazing story, listen to the interview.  You won't believe the pain and suffering Tim endured before changing his lifestyle and the amount of knowledge and wisdom he is now sharing with others.  His mission is now to educate and help others clear their body of chemicals. In addition, Tim is offering a very generous discount to my Six Weeks to Fitness listeners, which you will not want to pass up.  I never heard of someone giving you a “double your money back” guarantee on their products, but that's what Tim is offering.  I will take him up on that. I thoroughly enjoyed my interview with Tim, although some of what he had to say was “gut-wrenching”, when it comes to what is in our guts, but, hey, it's the truth and sometimes the truth hurts. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them on my blog at www.6weekstofitness.com or email me at vince@sixweeks.com.

Today we have a psychiatrist and assistant clinical professor at Columbia University, Drew Ramsey M.D., making his first appearance on the show. He's here to discuss the surprising truth behind why so many people are struggling with depression and anxiety.   Source: Feed Your Mental Health | Drew Ramsey | TEDxCharlottesville   Connect with Drew Ramsey M.D.:    Website: https://drewramseymd.com   Instagram: drewramseymd   Book: Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety: Nourish Your Way to Better Mental Health in Six Weeks   Hosted by Malikee Josephs (Pronounced Muh leek Jo seffs)   Follow The Show On Instagram @DepressionDetoxShow.

Mitch is joined by Sean Sullivan from Yahoo Sports to break down Coach O's exit of LSU coming at the end of the year, the current college football rankings, & some big games & bets this weekend. And Ryan Soles joins discuss what the NFL landscape looks like through six weeks, Derrick Henry's dominance, the Browns' failures, & more from the world of pro football.

Dr. Marvin Singh is the founder of Precision Clinic, and one of only a few integrative gastroenterologists in the United States. After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, he went on to do his internal medicine training at the University of Michigan Hospital. After which he completed a gastroenterology hepatology fellowship at Scripps Clinic, Torrey Pines. He then went on to fulfill a fellowship in integrative medicine and was trained by Dr. Andrew Weil at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrated Medicine in Tucson, Arizona.  In addition to being a sought-after speaker and consultant, Dr. Singh had been featured on ABC News, Readers Digest, Sirius XM, radio, and many other platforms. And here today to talk about the keys to a healthy lifestyle and his new book, Rescue Your Health, is Dr. Marvin Singh. Dr. Singh, how are you today? Dr. Marvin Singh: I'm all right, how are you? Good morning. Vincent Ferguson: Before we talk about the keys to a healthy lifestyle and your new book, Rescue Your Health, tell my listeners and viewers where did Doctor Singh grow up and when did you know you wanted to be a medical doctor? Dr. Marvin Singh: Well, I'm an east coaster actually. So that's why I actually know what fall feels like. I was born in Virginia and grew up in Northern Virginia and lived there most of my life, all the way through college and medical school even. And then I started moving around a bit after I finished medical school and went on to residency at the University of Michigan. So, that's where I grew and I guess I always knew I wanted to be a doctor from a very young age. Dr. Marvin Singh: I always tell the story that our sixth grade elementary graduation had a theme and the theme was hopes and dreams. And I remember we had to draw our own silhouette. I don't even know how I drew that because I'm a terrible drawer, but I guess I did it one way or the other, my parents still have it. And basically you have your shadow and you draw your silhouette and then on the bottom you had to write, "My hopes and dreams are" ... and everybody had to fill that in. And way back then I wrote, "To become a doctor." So I guess from a very early age, I've always known that I wanted to do something that was able to help people and help people feel better. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. So do you have role models though, who basically gave you the feeling that you want to be just like them? A lot of us have role models that we want to be like. Dr. Marvin Singh: Yeah. I mean, throughout my career, I guess I've had different kinds of role models. But from an early age, obviously my parents are role models for me and taught me about work ethic and doing good things for people. I have a few doctors in my family, an uncle and an aunt who were role models to me early on. I guess that helped get me excited about medicine. My aunt and uncle both, I remember, I don't remember how old I was, but I must've been really young. I remember, you have to do these little reports or book reports and things like that on different topics when you're in grade school. I remember they used to send me little medical pamphlets and look at my reports and help me write them and stuff like that. So, from a very young age, I guess I had some influence from medicine, I guess. Vincent Ferguson: Oh yeah. But you know, you're not just an average, regular, conventional doctor. You practice integrative medicine. What's the difference between the two? Dr. Marvin Singh: Well, as Dr Weil says, "Integrative medicine is just good medicine." And that's what I learned along the ways. When I started my career as a gastroenterologist, I realized that something was missing from how we practice medicine and in what we do for people. We were really good at saving lives and doing things like that when somebody is really sick, but what about the majority of people who have ongoing recurrent symptoms or issues? What about them? Why do they keep going from doctor to doctor, to doctor all the time? That was frustrating to me early in my career. I'm just realizing that you don't get that kind of exposure when you're learning or training or anything like that. But once you're out in the real world and you get a taste of what it's really like out there, I felt a little lost, actually. Dr. Marvin Singh: I found Dr. Weil and integrative medicine and started learning a little bit and then enrolled myself in the fellowship and learned a lot about a lot of different things that I hadn't known about before or really appreciated before. That really made a big difference on me personally, and on how I take care of patients, in general. Integrative medicine allows you to do whatever you're going to do normally as a regular conventional doctor, but then also have an understanding that the person in front of you, the person you're taking care of is a human. It's a real person with emotions in an environment, with a family, with stressors, with dietary issues. Dr. Marvin Singh: I don't think we really ... I mean, I think we know this as doctors, but I don't think we appreciated or paused to think about it. We just usually are more in the go, go, go mode. Patient X is in front of you with X,Y,Z symptoms, so you're going to respond with A,B,C solution and that's the end of the story. "Adios, see you later." But that's the reason why a lot of people continue to have problems is because the actual problem is not addressed. And so integrative medicine allows us to do that. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. I know that in conventional medicine, I was always told, 'There's a pill for every I'll." But with what you're doing, it seems like you're looking to address the person holistically and really get down to the root cause of the problem. Dr. Marvin Singh: Yeah. Even if you need a pill for your I'll, right now, let's find out where that ill is coming from so you don't need the pill anymore, maybe. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Very good. Very good. Now here at Six Weeks of Fitness, we normally talk about the importance of exercise and nutrition if you want to achieve optimal health. But is that really the definition of optimal health, exercise and nutrition, or is it more to it than that? Dr. Marvin Singh: There's more to it than that. I think that's also part of the place where we get lost. I mean, as a gastroenterologist, we see people who have issues with their weight or fatty liver. I remember in my notes in the early days, the default is diet, weight loss, exercise, diet, weight loss, exercise. You just write that down and you say, "Hey, you need to get on a better diet, lose some weight and exercise." And that's literally what you tell people. And they're like, "Okay, I already knew I was fat. So, that doesn't really get me anywhere." Vincent Ferguson: Very true. Dr. Marvin Singh: You know, I'm big on personalization. So personalizing that approach is one part of it. But diet, what kind of diet? How are you going to lose the weight? Diet is important, obviously, exercise and movement is important, but somewhere a lot of other things. Your sleep hygiene, how you're reducing stress, how you're mitigating toxins in your environment and even how much fun you're having in life and what the status of your social relationships are. These all, believe it or not, can influence our gut health, our microbiome and our overall wellbeing. And these are all risk factors for a lot of chronic inflammation that many of us have. Dr. Marvin Singh: And so addressing those is also important and if you don't, you're missing the piece. I mean, I tell people, if you say, "Okay, I'm going to change my diet. I'm going to go vegan. I'm going to lose weight and for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I'm just going to eat broccoli." Dr. Marvin Singh: And, "Okay you went vegan, you're eating vegetables, good job, good job." But first of all, your diets not diverse so, that's not really good. And there's more to it than that. Because if you talk to the person and you find out that they're only sleeping four hours a night and they have anger management issues and a lot of built up frustration and stress over the years, they're not going to lose weight. It doesn't matter if they're only eating broccoli all day long. This is only part of the puzzle. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. So that, to me, you're giving me a list of things that you need to do in order to achieve a healthy lifestyle. So it's more than just diet and exercise. You said, it's sleep, it's social interaction, it's stress relief, all kinds of things. Dr. Marvin Singh: Because remember, what are we trying to lose weight from? Our body. What is our body? Our body is not just a singular issue. There are so many things happening inside of our body. I tell people what's happening inside of your body, just imagine you get a snow globe, right? And the snow globe has many snowflakes in it. And you say, weight loss, just like, what do they have those magic eight balls, when you say something and you shake it? You say weight-loss, and you shake this snow globe. You see all the snowflakes flying around everywhere. If you want to know how to lose weight, the answers are in all those snowflakes and how those snowflakes are interchanging with each other. Dr. Marvin Singh: So how could it just be diet as the only thing. Diet may be one snowflake, but there are other things going on there too. There are mineral, vitamin issues. There may be stress issues. There may be medications that you're taking or not taking. There's a lot of things involved and the relationship and the interchange between all of those snowflakes, that's what creates that new balance you're looking for. If you're not looking at all those things, you're missing part of the puzzle. Vincent Ferguson: Right. So you look at a diverse amount of things to come up with a conclusion of what it is, the problem with the patient. Dr. Marvin Singh: Right. Vincent Ferguson: Is that what you do at Precision Clinic? Dr. Marvin Singh: That's exactly what we do at Precision Clinic. We look at as many different elements of health and life as we can to try to personalize a program for somebody for optimal health. Vincent Ferguson: What is the connection between your gut and chronic disease? Dr. Marvin Singh: That's a great question. There's a big connection because our immune system is obviously the big controller of inflammation and a lot of chronic disease comes from chronic, low grade inflammation. And where does a majority of our immune system sit? The majority of our immune system sits in the digestive tract. At least 70% of our immune system is in the digestive tract. When we say digestive tract, we're not necessarily just referring to the organ itself, but what lives inside the organ? That's what the microbiome is called. The gut microbiome is the forest or ecosystem of trillions of bacteria that live inside of our digestive tract. And these little guys are the ones that manage all of these things. And so we take care of them in the proper way, and they'll take care of us back in the proper way. Vincent Ferguson: So how do we take care of them, Dr? I want to know, man. Dr. Marvin Singh: That's the magic question, right? So understanding what's going on with them and who they are and what their balance is, is part of the process, because it's hard to build a house without a blueprint, unless you're some genius or something. But you still need to know what parts you need and you have to order those parts and put them together in the right way, assemble them the right way. So, investigating your body and some of the different elements is part of the process. And then sometimes it's not really that complicated of a process. The body is very complicated, yet simple at the same time. That's what makes it cool. The microbiome responds to stress reduction, to optimal diet, to sleeping properly, to exercising. All of these things are associated with microbiome balances. So if you do these things, nicely, in accordance with what your body needs, then your microbiome will find a way to more of what we call a homeostasis or an even balance. When that happens, then good things happen to your body. Vincent Ferguson: Hmm. What are your feelings about probiotics? Dr. Marvin Singh: So probiotics are bacteria that we can take as a pill or a supplement form that could help keep or create a balance or improve the balance in your microbiome. Different probiotics may be appropriate for different people and sometimes probiotics are not necessarily the right answer at the moment for somebody. It really depends on what their symptoms are and what's going on. But I often do use probiotics to help create a balance in patients, in their microbiome, if their microbiome suggests that. Dr. Marvin Singh: The other thing is, you don't always necessarily have to take a pill of a probiotic, you can eat probiotic foods. And I like that as an option often, because not only do you get to fill your belly and eat something healthy and get the nutritional value of that food, but then you also give yourself a dose of good bacteria at the same time. So, sometimes that's a really good option as well. Vincent Ferguson: I remember reading a quote from Hippocrates that said, "Let food be your medicine and medicine your food." So is that what he was alluding to? Dr. Marvin Singh: Exactly, he also said all disease begins in the gut and, and I always joke and say he probably didn't know what in the world he was talking about, but he was totally spot on. This guy was way, way ahead of his time. Vincent Ferguson: Way ahead of his time. That's amazing. Now, and speaking of health nutrition, all that good stuff, can you determine what nutrition needs a patient has by their genetic makeup? Dr. Marvin Singh: We can start to do that now, yeah. We can do a genetic test that can help us understand what potential deficiencies you might be prone to, compared to the average person or somebody who doesn't have a particular genetic mutation. And if we have an understanding of that, then we can try to eat accordingly so that we can avoid those nutritional deficiencies. That's really one of the main things to underscore with regards to precision medicine. That it's really designed to help you prevent getting a problem or developing an issue later on. If you know that, "Hey, I have a gene that that's going to give me a higher risk for vitamin D and calcium deficiency," and, you know you may be at higher risk for osteoporosis or osteopenia later in life, then you're going to want to eat accordingly. You may want to make sure you really stay on top of your vitamin levels. You want to make sure you do weight bearing exercises. You can do all those things and then you can try to prevent and avoid developing osteoporosis later on in life. Dr. Marvin Singh: But if you never knew about it, then you're just going to go about doing whatever you were going to do. And then it's rolling the dice in whether something happens or not. Vincent Ferguson: Exactly, and speaking of vitamin D, I understand that's very important to immune health. What other supplements do you recommend? Dr. Marvin Singh: Vitamin D is very important. A lot of us actually do have vitamin D deficiency. Doing a lot of genetics, a lot of people actually have a genetic mutation for vitamin D deficiency too. So perhaps there's a common thread in a lot of people there. Dr. Marvin Singh: What supplements somebody takes really depends on who they are, what their purposes are, what their goals are, what they need, what medicines they're on, what diagnosis they have. Because you have to take a lot of that into consideration because you want to make sure that you give proper treatment. I tell people, "Supplements, yes, they're natural therapies. Yes, they're available over the counter. Yes, you don't need a prescription for them, but you should treat them like medicines too." That's, I think, one of the things that sometimes, maybe people don't appreciate as much. Dr. Marvin Singh: You may just go to the aisle in Whole Foods where all the supplements are and be like, "Oh yeah, look, this says vitality. Let me grab one of those. Oh yeah. This says digestion. Let me grab one of that. Let me grab one of this." And then you walk out with five, six different things. And I see people all the time, it's not any wrongdoing on their side, it's just that maybe we don't appreciate it as well, and some of these things can actually cause problems to your body. Some of these things, when you combine them together, can actually cause problems. You may not have known that. Dr. Marvin Singh: For example, you may say, "Oh, I have anxiety, so I'm going to drink this kava tea. But I'm going to go out for some drinks later on this evening and I had my kava tea earlier this morning and I feel great." But you know what? Kava and alcohol don't mix together. You can really hurt your liver that way. So really, it's important to make sure you are taking something for the right reason. Just like you wouldn't go to the store and say, "Oh, let me grab some Lipitor while I'm there because I think my cholesterol is high." You want to make sure that you need it, right? Vincent Ferguson: Yeah, most definitely, most definitely. So how does one determine what supplements are good for them? Dr. Marvin Singh: Well, a lot of times it's good to do an evaluation with a doctor and see. Do you need particular kinds of vitamins? Do you have inflammation? Do you have joint aches or pains? It all depends on what's going on there. For general health, taking a multivitamin or a B complex vitamin, sometimes is helpful. A lot of people take vitamin C and vitamin D and things like that for their immune system. So those are some of the basics. A lot of times people may take turmeric supplements if they have arthritis or they're concerned about inflammation. So there are different kinds of things that people may use based on what their issues are, or priorities are. Vincent Ferguson: Excellent. Excellent. Now, if someone has, let's say cancer or heart disease in their family, does that mean that they are going to be predisposed to having heart disease and cancer themselves down the road? Dr. Marvin Singh: Well, it's a risk factor and life's all about risk and understanding the risks. Sometimes there's a genetic basis to things and sometimes there's not. Sometimes people can sporadically develop a malignancy and maybe there is no genetic basis. Or maybe they're the first person in the family who's going to have the problem, we don't know. But family history is important to look at because it helps us understand what your potential risks might be. If your dad had a heart attack at 40 and your dad's dad had a heart attack at 40, and his dad had a heart attack at 40, then it's probable that you have a family history or some genetic mutation in this family history that is contributing to this risk coming down the male line in your family for heart disease. And so if you understand that gene, if you do a test and you understand that gene, what the problem is with that gene, and then try to do some research or understanding, has anybody done any investigations into what things could be done in people who have that gene defect, then maybe you can try to mitigate that problem. Dr. Marvin Singh: And you can also understand what you can do to prevent that problem from happening. Because I tell people, "Just because your dad and your granddad had a heart attack at 40 does not mean that you have to have a heart attack at 40. It's not a life sentence." Our genes are basically our blueprint, but they're not our destiny. They don't dictate what must happen to us. There's more to it than that, interestingly enough. Dr. Marvin Singh: On top of our DNA is what we call the epigenome. And the epigenome is you can think of it as light switches on the genes. And just because the gene is there, just because you have the light switch on your wall, doesn't mean the lights on. Doesn't mean the light has to be off either. There are things that can turn these genes on and off and understanding the gene and understanding what you can do to switch the gene off or not, contributes to the development of a certain problem. That's the important part. Vincent Ferguson: Now let's talk about your book, Rescue Your Health, because even talking about now, I'm sure your book probably goes into more detail about it. What can my listeners and viewers learn from reading your book? Dr. Marvin Singh: Well, I wrote Rescue Your Health because I wanted everybody to know that precision medicine, number one, doesn't have to be a scary topic. I think people think, "Oh, DNA and imaging tests and microbiome. This is too much for me. It's hard enough for me to navigate regular doctor visits, but I can't do this one." Dr. Marvin Singh: So I really try to make it simple and help people understand that it doesn't have to be a scary topic. It can be very useful. It can be more useful than a lot of other types of things that we may do in medicine. And a lot of the tests that you can do to understand your body a little bit better, they're not necessarily these multi thousand dollar tests and some of these are quite affordable. Dr. Marvin Singh: One of the chapters in the book is My Top Five Tests and the reason why I have My Top Five Tests, I made a chapter on that, is because I wanted to show people that all these tests that are there are within a couple or $200-$300 range. And so you can do a lot of things for a pretty affordable price. We often go out and go to dinner and spend $200-300 on maybe a good meal, but may leave you bloated in with heartburn, but it might've been good when you ate it. But you could spend that $200 and learn about your genes and learn how to eat for your life and that could make a huge impact on how you live your life for the whole time moving forward. Dr. Marvin Singh: And so, you know, it's really about bringing realization to that process. I wanted to really simplify it and not make it scary. This book is for everybody. This is what I say in the opening chapters. If you're a human and you're able to hold this book, then this book is for you. There is something in it for everyone. I really help try to explain what are some of the different tests and then give some real life examples about different kinds of people who've come to see me over the years. What their issues were and how we're able to apply some of the principles that we're talking about here and earlier in the book and what happened with them as a result. So, that was really the main point in the book, is really to help people understand that there are ways that we can understand our bodies on a more meaningful level. The science is there, that we can now start understanding our health from a little bit of a different viewpoint and make some big impacts. I tell people that there's two kinds of doctors. There's the kind of doctor that if you're in a burning building, this doctor is a firefighter. He'll run into that building, he's the first responder. Doctors were first responders too, on the healthcare front. And he'll go into that burning building and he will save you, he or she, will go and save you, pull you out of that building. And we need those doctors. We will always need those doctors because life happens. I practice that kind of medicine too. But then there's the other kind of doctor that'll say, "Hey, look buddy, why in the world were you anywhere near that building in the first place, man? You shouldn't be there. And this is how I'm going to help you understand how not to be there. And this is how we're going to help you avoid being in this situation, in the future." Now, which way do you think is probably better for your longevity? I think it's better to understand how you can avoid those burning buildings because the more burning buildings you're in, eventually over time, it puts a little extra wear and tear on your body too, right? Vincent Ferguson: Exactly. Yes, yes, yes. So, that is the key. How does your family feel about you practicing integrative medicine as opposed to conventional medicine? Dr. Marvin Singh: Well, first of all, I do both actually. I still practice as a general gastroenterologist. Go to a hospital and take care of sick patients there. People need that kind of help too. But the part that I am most passionate about, obviously, is the preventive medicine and the integrative part. They're very supportive, actually. Without my wife, I probably wouldn't have ever made it to this part because she's the one who helped me realize that the something that I was missing in the way that we practiced medicine was this. She was a little bit more forward-thinking earlier than I was. Vincent Ferguson: Ah, nice. That's how you know you married right. How can we order the book? Dr. Marvin Singh: Yeah. So the book is out. It's called Rescue Your Health and it's on Amazon. It's also on Barnes and Noble and a couple other places as well. But Amazon is one of the main places that the book is available on and it's out now. You can get on Kindle also. Vincent Ferguson: Okay, excellent, excellent. It just seems like a book that the timing couldn't be better. It couldn't be better than right now. Dr. Marvin Singh: Exactly. Yeah. I mean, I think COVID-19 has been real terrible on everybody in the whole planet. I think moving forward in the years to come, it's very important for people to understand that there are certain things in our body, risk factors that can potentially make us sick or be more prone to be sick. Not just for COVID, but for other things. But I think if you try to look at, was there anything that maybe came out of COVID that we can learn from, this is one of those lessons. One of those lessons is that, what's going on inside our body is a risk factor for who gets sick or how sick they could get. Vincent Ferguson: Yes, yes. We've taken it for granted, it seems for many years. Dr. Marvin Singh: Yeah. In many of us, integrative and preventative medicine doctors have been talking about this for a long time, but I think that this was just a rough lesson that helped bring the understanding to the whole world, all at the same time. I think everybody knows now that vitamin D deficiency and antioxidants and these kinds of things, being overweight and diabetes and heart disease and your diet and exercise levels and all those things, I think we all know, universally essentially, that these things are risk factors for getting sick at the most basic level. Because we're seeing it in real life, in front of us. Vincent Ferguson: Yes and it's time to do something about it. Dr. Marvin Singh: Have to do something about it. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. I also understand, Doc, that you do some charity work for an organization in New York, my hometown. Talk about that. Dr. Marvin Singh: Yeah. So this is really fun. There's a wonderful organization called Bottomless Closet in the city. They help women who are coming out of tough, difficult situations. Women who are in need of assistance in getting a job and getting back on their feet. I became the health advisor for Bottomless Closet, and I do free webinars for groups of these wonderful women and teach them about health and wellness and what they can do to get back on their feet as far as being healthy. Because it's hard to get a job, be successful at a job and try to turn your life around if you're not feeling well and you're sick. So health is very important part of that process too. Dr. Marvin Singh: And then also, if there's somebody who needs help from a doctor, I also donate my time to help that person as their doctor, free of charge and I help them get these precision medicine testing done through various different companies. I give a shout out to Microbiome Labs and Nutrogenomix, helping donate free testing kits to these patients. Several different companies have also helped me get free supplements for these wonderful women, as well. Enzymedica I have to give a shout out to as well, because all I have to do is just type out a list. This person needs this, this, this, this, and this, and they mail it to them. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. So that's amazing. Now you do this virtually? Dr. Marvin Singh: Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: That's amazing, but that's also wonderful that you do that. That you give back like that, I know you're very busy with your schedule, with so many people in need. Just showing how much humanity matters. Dr. Marvin Singh: Yeah. Everybody deserves to have access to this level of care, to understanding their body this way. And if certain people really need it and they can't afford it because of their personal situation, I mean, if they can barely afford to eat, you know, we want them to not spend all their money on that. They need to focus on their life and getting back on track because all that other stuff will follow. But to help them be healthy, I can at least do that part. That's the part that I can play. If they get on track and start feeling better, then they will do better.  So you feel better, you're more motivated, you have more energy, you're less stressed, you're sleeping better, than you're going to perform better at your job. You'll be able to excel in your position and you can climb the ranks that way. So if I can help somebody do that, that makes me feel good because that's what being a doctor and a healer is all about. Vincent Ferguson: Yes, it is, amazing. How can my listeners, find out more about you and Precision Clinic? Dr. Marvin Singh: I'm pretty accessible online. So a website for Precision Clinic is precisionclinic.com. Our contact information, email, phone number is all on that website. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, my handle is @Dr. Marvin Singh, so I'm pretty accessible that way, as well. Vincent Ferguson: Well, we need to access you, that's for sure. Dr. Marvin Singh, on behalf of Body Sculpt of New York, my nonprofit and Six Weeks of Fitness, I truly want to thank you for coming on this show today. Dr. Marvin Singh: No problem. Thank you for having me. Vincent Ferguson: And to my listeners and followers and viewers, I truly hope this program was informative, encouraging, and inspiring. And you will continue watching and listening in to our Six Weeks of Fitness program. And if you have any questions or suggestions for the show, please leave them in the comment section below. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. And remember “you don't stop exercising because you grow old, you grow old because you stop exercising.” You can reach Vince Ferguson at vince@sixweeks.com. You can also visit his website at www.6weekstofitness.com.

Thomas Petersen from Breaking The Birds is back to talk some big picture Philadelphia Eagles topics after the loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Listen and Subscribe! Get 20% OFF @manscaped + Free Shipping with promo code DOINK at www.manscaped.com. For first-time users, use deposit code "DOINK" for a 100% welcome bonus up to $200 when signing up with Coolbet. www.coolbet.com

Dr. Drew Ramsey, Author, Farmer, and Doctor joins Marcus Antebi and Ralph Sutton on a new episode of goodsugar! On this one Dr. Ramsey talks to the guys about his new book Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety: Nourish Your Way to Better Mental Health in Six Weeks! Drew Ramsey, M.D. is an assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. His clinical work focuses on the treatment of depression and anxiety with a combination of psychotherapy, lifestyle modification, and psychopharmacology. His interests lie in using the modern psychological concepts and the latest brain science to help people live their healthiest, happiest lives.   Buy Our Stuff! https://www.goodsugar.life Follow the show! https://www.instagram.com/marcusantebi https://www.instagram.com/iamralphsutton Produced by Brian Mackay https://www.instagram.com/bmackayisright

Jimmy explained his idea.

Vince Ferguson: Welcome to Six Weeks To Fitness, episode 177. I'm your host Vince Ferguson and joining me today on my Six Weeks To Fitness program is actor, comedian, composer, singer, impressionist, voiceover artist, Stephen Sorrentino. He has appeared on the Las Vegas strip, and has toured well over 25 countries and 43 states. Stephen's long resume has included television, film, and Broadway shows. He has worked with numerous celebrities, such as Patti LaBelle, Dennis Miller, Dana Carvey, and the legendary Debbie Reynolds. And here today to discuss the keys to longevity in the entertainment business and his career is Stephen Sorrentino. Stephen, how are you, bro? Stephen Sorrentino: I'm doing well, Vince. How are you? Vince Ferguson: You look great, man. I'm doing well. Thank you for coming on the show. Stephen Sorrentino: Well, thank you, brother. Vince Ferguson: Yeah, baby. And look at that. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Vince Ferguson: Now, here at Six Weeks To Fitness, I usually interview fitness and nutrition experts, athletes, some doctors and celebrities, and we talk about the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. That has got to be very important to you. Stephen Sorrentino: It absolutely is. I mean, if you want to... Your brain wants to do a lot of stuff, creativity-wise. So you want to do it as long as possible. And if you don't take care of yourself, you get a short run. I don't want to burn bright and short. I want to burn bright for a very long time. Vince Ferguson: Oh, very well said. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: Now, I interviewed Denise Boutte, Jasper Cole, Kim Coles, and they all talk about the importance of health, because they've been in the business a long time like you. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: So how long have you been in the entertainment business? Stephen Sorrentino: I started when I was five years old, when I was a little boy. But I've been making a living at it, like full-time for 46 years now. So I'm lucky. Vince Ferguson: That's a blessing. That's huge. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: But now, you've also celebrated a birthday this week. Stephen Sorrentino: All right, let's not get crazy now. Vince Ferguson: Did my research, baby. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah, I turned 61. Yeah. Vince Ferguson: What?! What?! That's beautiful. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: But isn't that wonderful? When you don't have to feel that way, but you feel great. You look great. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: Because age, they tell me, is just a number. Stephen Sorrentino: It's just a number. And especially if you're creative and you want to keep well, you have to always think young. My brain always thinks nine years old, so I could be free, and create, and be funny, and be interesting, at least on stage. So if you think old, you're done, man. So you have to continue to just stay vibrant, eat the right foods, exercise as much as you can, and stay engaged with people. You know? Don't just know what you know, learn every day. That's the most important thing. Vince Ferguson: Learn every day. There's something to learn every day. Stephen Sorrentino: I hope so. And you know what? The people that stop learning, I usually find that they kind of just go down the pike and you don't see them anymore. And the older I get, I don't know if you're the same way, the more I don't know. Because I used to know everything when I was 18, and now at 61, I don't know nothing. Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Exactly. The more you know, the more you don't know. Stephen Sorrentino: Uh-huh (affirmative). Vince Ferguson: It's amazing. But now where did it all begin for you, Stephen? Where did you grow up, and what was your childhood like? Stephen Sorrentino: I had a weird childhood, because I was in a third generation show biz family. My grandfather was kind of like a Ricky Ricardo type. He had his own club, and then he would perform after dinner with my mother and my father playing saxophone, my mother was a singer. So I kind of grew up in a box backstage type of a thing. It was a good family life in Long Island, New York. And the weekends, my parents were performing all the time. Sometimes, they'd take me. And then by the time I was like five or six years old, my grandfather would give me the big finger, which meant I needed to come up, and I'd sit on his knee and I'd sing a song with him. Which was frightening for me, but who knew I would make a living at it? Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: And then at 15, the bug hit me, man. You know? I had the PA system set up, and I played guitar, sax, flute, piano, and I just wanted a band. And you know? I got a record deal by the time I was 26, and I was hitting it and I love it. Every day, every part of it, I love it. So that's me. And then I toured around the world. I got to meet all these beautiful people, eat all these great foods, learn about nutrition…. learn about exercise from Chinese people, meditation. You know? It's a beautiful life if you go out there and you look for it, you know? Vince Ferguson: Yes. The more I speak to people like yourself who've been in the business a long time, they talk about meditation. You know? Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: And believing yourself, and that's so important. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. You have to listen to yourself. You have to listen to your heart, and what your body's telling you, listen to what your creativity is telling you. That's the only way to channel yourself. You know? So mind and body and spirit is all we have, and we put it all together when we make a living at it, and we touch other people. Stephen Sorrentino: And we educate them sometimes, and they say, "Gee, you're 61, and you're running around like you're 20." I'm like, "I know." Because I keep at it. You know? I'm a vegetarian. Vince Ferguson: Yeah, there you go, nutrition. Stephen Sorrentino: I don't drink booze anymore. I did for a long time. I don't touch any drugs or anything like that. So I'm a natural guy, you know? Vince Ferguson: Wow, that's amazing. Vince Ferguson: Now, you wear so many hats, you know? And again, you're vibrant, you're a comedian, you're a singer-composer, actor, everything. But if you could only choose one hat to wear, what would it be? Stephen Sorrentino: You're going to give me that question? Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: I think the spice of life is all the different things.  I don't think I have been asked that question before. Vince Ferguson: Good! Stephen Sorrentino: I was going to say, I'm going to say actor. Vince Ferguson: Really? Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah, because I think you get to be in as many people as you want to be, and you get to channel all the other personalities that are in you and then bring them out. It's almost like Halloween every day. So you get to wear any mask you want. You pull it out, you play the character, and you put it away. Stephen Sorrentino: But I'm like that with all my stuff, with my comedy, with my composition. Even when I put it to show, the way I design lights and stuff, I just I'll take different ideas, the way I do with nutrition and the way I eat, take everybody else's ideas, and bring them, and make my own. You know? Vince Ferguson: Yes, yes. Stephen Sorrentino: Is that a long answer or what? Vince Ferguson: No, but it makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: Now, to be the person you are today, obviously you had to go through, you learned a lot, you met a lot of people. Who were the most impactful in your life? Who made you who you are today, Stephen? Stephen Sorrentino: Oh, gee, you know what? I'm going to bring it all the way down to my sixth grade teacher. I know it sounds unexceptional. I could say Debbie Reynolds or something like that, or Patti LaBelle. Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: But there was a person when I was in sixth grade that was a hippie back in the day. He had long hair and a beard, and that was very unlike the school district. And this guy just said, the first day, he goes, "You guys want to do a class, or you want to go outside because it's beautiful and just talk?" And he cared, and he listened to us. And from that moment, it was like a class of... It was like a camp. It almost like a hippie thing. Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: It felt so good that somebody cared, and we all got to know each other. It wasn't a lesson. It was a lesson in life. It wasn't a book lesson. And I'll never forget him, so he touched my life. Stephen Sorrentino: And I'm going to say Patti. Not to be stupid, but Debbie Reynolds also. I learned so much from being positive about everything. Even when negative stuff was happening, say it in a positive way. "I don't want to do that." You know? With a smile. So you know? So I think being positive, and gleaning something from the people that you meet, especially on stage. Like George Carlin, hanging out with George Carlin and talking to him. Vince Ferguson: George Carlin? Stephen Sorrentino: Jerry Lewis. I mean, these are people that affected me as a kid, and then seeing what they're like in real life. So another person, Leslie Jordan. I don't know if you know the actor, he was on Will and Grace, he's little gay dude. Vince Ferguson: Oh. Stephen Sorrentino: I read his book, and I stopped drinking. Because I read his book, and it touched me somehow. And I called him, we had a mutual friend. I said, "How's that non-drinking thing?" Because I used to like my wine and it was affecting me at one point. And I said, "How's the non-drinking thing happen?" He goes, "Well, I won an Emmy." I said, "Well, I want an Emmy." He goes, "Then quit." And he made it so simple. And I went, "Yeah." And so I called him every day for 30 days just to say how I was doing, and I never had another drink. That was like 13 years ago. I never touched the booze again. Vince Ferguson: Really? Stephen Sorrentino: So that those are the people that touch you. Vince Ferguson: Yes. Stephen Sorrentino: And you never forget them. Vince Ferguson: Most definitely. Oh, that's amazing. And you mentioned Patti LaBelle. What was that experience like? Stephen Sorrentino: Oh, my God. I mean, that's the queen. I got called because she was having some problems. As a comedian, she was having some vocal problems. So they said, "Would you come in and do an audition for Patti LaBelle" I'm like, "For who?" And they said, "Patti LaBelle. And I'm like, "Wait, I'm going to sing in front of Patti LaBelle?" You know? Stephen Sorrentino: So I went there. And I got the job, because my comedy is a lot of singing impressions. I do like Sammy Davis and all that stuff, so I sing a lot. Vince Ferguson: Nice! Stephen Sorrentino: And so I'm looking. She walks in, and there's Miss Patti with the entourage. And I'm like, "Oh, my..." And I started getting weird. You know? Because it's Patti LaBelle. And I'm looking at the microphone and I said, "Okay, I can't do this. Because that's Patti LaBelle, I'm going to flip out. I'm going to pass out. I'm going to throw up. Whatever's going to happen." And then I just went through this little process that we all do when we try to take care of ourself. I said, I looked at the stage, and I looked at Patti, Miss Patti. And I took the microphone. I know a microphone. There's a stage. There's a monitor. That's an audience. I'm familiar with all of that. I'm just going to do it. And I went out and I killed. Stephen Sorrentino: And on the way out, I introduced her. She grabbed my shoulder with her beautiful nails, and she goes, "You're with me forever." Vince Ferguson: Really? Stephen Sorrentino: And she said that. Yeah. And that, just got the chills talking about it because I just believed in myself at that moment. I put all the crap aside, and all the negativity that what could happen, and just said, "Yeah, I'm doing this." And I did 69 dates over the years with Miss Patti, so it was just wonderful. Vince Ferguson: How many dates? 69? Stephen Sorrentino: 69 dates, I think. Yeah, probably all together in Las Vegas for many, many times, and then a couple of road dates. I was there for her 60th birthday. Yeah. Yeah, I've been around, man. Vince Ferguson: Yeah. No, yeah, you've been around. But also, you really mixed it up with these people, too, which is great, you know? Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Vince Ferguson: And I'm sure they speak highly of you, as well, so that's amazing. Stephen Sorrentino: You know what? If you're smart, you get a lot from people. You don't just try to tell them who you are, but you listen. That's the biggest thing I ever could tell young people, because I mentor young people in the arts and I teach in China, as well. I mean, I'm a little nuts with that. I just tell them to listen. Because if you listen, you're going to hear everybody's story. You put it into your own little mix master, you make it, and then it becomes your story. You know? But listen, if we listen, we hear a lot. You know? Vince Ferguson: I think the problem to a lot of us today is that we don't listen. Right? We want to talk about what we know, who we are instead of listening- Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: ... to what someone else knows- Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: ... that might help us to become better than what we are today. Stephen Sorrentino: You know what? I don't know you very long, but I bet you I got months of stuff to learn from you. You know what I mean? And people don't take the time to listen. Especially when it comes to age, too. People, "Oh, he's old." When people, some young people say, "What song is that? Oh, I wasn't even born when that was written." Well, the world didn't start when you were born. I don't know if you got the memo. Vince Ferguson: Thank you. Thank you. It's so true, man. Vince Ferguson: I want to talk to you briefly about a movie. I just saw this movie, and you're in it, and it's called A Tale of Redemption and Regret. It was hilarious, but tell my viewers about it. Stephen Sorrentino: Well, it's you know? I got this script. I was in Las Vegas, and then COVID happened, so I moved back. I have a farm in the east coast of Virginia, and I just went to the farm just to be safe, and there's not going to be any work. And this young guy sent me script and said, "Look, I saw you perform a long time ago. I want you to do this character." So I'm like, "All right." Stephen Sorrentino: I read the script, and I loved it. It was a mafia guy that was down on his luck. It was like he wasn't going to win it at the end. He's actually kind of a loser. And I had a lot of empathy for him, because he's past his prime. Yeah, the '80s are over, and he's still trying to do the same thing, which is the mistake we all make. You have to roll, and change and evolve. Well, he can't, and I loved it. Stephen Sorrentino: So I called him up and I said, "If I give this guy a real personality ... I'll play the thing." And he did. So I produced the movie, I starred in it, and I also wrote the music for it. And it's just a really great romp of this... It's comedy, but it's dark comedy. Because he's kind of a murderer, but he's funny. Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Yeah. You mix it all. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. You can see it on YouTube. It's also just won today... Or last night, I should say we won the London Short Film festival, the London Film Festival, and we won three other ones last week. So this movie is touching on something. I think all of us, as we get older, want to stay relevant. Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: And some of us that can't, we fall through the cracks ... and this is touching on it. It's called A Tale of Redemption and Regret with Sunny the Heat. Vince Ferguson: Sunny the Heat? Stephen Sorrentino: It's a fun movie. Vince Ferguson: It really is. Stephen Sorrentino: I'm Sunny the Heat. Vince Ferguson: Yes. It really, it really, truly is, man. Stephen Sorrentino: Thanks. Vince Ferguson: And you say co-produced it. Now, also in the theme was about, as you said, getting older. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: And does Stephen Sorrentino worry about getting older? Stephen Sorrentino: Of course. You know? You want to stay relevant. And like last night, I'm on stage, and I'm playing the piano, and the recorder's rocking. You know? We're doing shows here in Las Vegas. And I said to myself, "Do I want to stand on the piano bench and jump off?" Well, at 30, that was easy. But at 61, I'll blow a hip. You know? Vince Ferguson: Yeah Stephen Sorrentino: I did it, because I did my running yesterday and I feel good. But what happens if? So you stuck getting that self-doubt thing, and you try to talk yourself out of it if you stay in shape. Vince Ferguson: Wow, exactly. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: Exactly. That's why being healthy is so important, right? So- Stephen Sorrentino: It's all you got, man. Vince Ferguson: I know. But do you think acting today is more of a young man's game, or does it make a difference? Stephen Sorrentino: No, I think acting, I think it... Well, the thing is, here's the way I look at it. At 22, there's 9,000 other guys that want the job and that could do it, because they're good looking and they want it badly. At 45 there's 500 guys because they want it pretty much. But at 60, there's only four guys. I'm going to get the part. You know? Vince Ferguson: Great way of looking at it. Less competition, you're saying, huh? Stephen Sorrentino: That's right. Yeah. Well, the thing is I'm a character actor, so I'm not going to be the leading man anymore. That ship sailed in the '70s, so... Or the '80s. So for me, I love to play older. I mean, to get into an old character, to play someone maybe from Ireland, then you really can get yourself all crazy. You know? It's great. Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: You know? As long as I can pop out of it and run around the room a little bit, you know? Vince Ferguson: Yeah, yeah. Exactly, exactly. Very, very funny, man. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: But now, what advice would you give a young actor? Because you said you mentor actors, right? Young actors. Stephen Sorrentino: I do, yeah. Vince Ferguson: What advice do you give them if they want to get into the business? Stephen Sorrentino: Well, this movie is playing at all the film festivals worldwide, so I'm getting a multitude of people reaching out to me saying, "Help me." So I can't help everybody. But the first thing I said is, "Do you want to be an actor, or do you want to famous?" And if the answer is, "I want to be a star, I want to be famous," then I can't help you. But if you want to learn the craft and get famous because you're awesome, I can help you with that. You know what I mean? Stephen Sorrentino: So learn the craft. Don't just want to be... Anybody can be famous taking a picture of their hinny on Instagram and putting it out, and everybody looks at it. Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: But to have a career like me for 46 years of getting paid, having homes around America, touring the world, that's really seeing the world on other people's dime because of the business, that's a real gift, man. So you have to put your work in. You know? As a musician, as an artist, as a comedian, as whatever it is that you do, put it all in. And this may sound weird to you. I don't have it B plan, I never did. I don't have a backup plan. Because if I have a backup plan, then I'm telling the universe or whatever I believe in that it may not work out. So my thing has always been A plan, and it always worked out. Vince Ferguson: And do you recommend that for most people? Stephen Sorrentino: I do. I have to. when you say I have a B, I'm going to have something to fall back on, you already fell back. Because you just said that you don't believe that it's going to work out for you. So I don't have a plumber thing, or a... You know? I did jobs when I was a kid. But I'm going to be an actor, comedian, composer until the minute I die. Vince Ferguson: Wow. Stephen Sorrentino: And that's the way it's going to be. Because I said so. You know what I mean? It sounds arrogant, but it's like the world, the universe is a restaurant. You got to tell the waiter what you want. Tell them exactly what you want. But you also have, you have the patience to wait for it and do the work. You know? Tell them what you want, like working on your body, working on your nutrition, be prepared, and then it will come to you. It's guaranteed. But if you say, "Eh, it's not coming. I'm going somewhere else," then you're not there for the food. And they show up with the hamburger for you, and you're not there to eat it. So stick with it, know your stuff, take care of yourself, and it'll come to you. That's what I tell my young people. Vince Ferguson: That sounds great, man. That's great advice. But now, what are the keys, in your opinion, to longevity in the entertainment business. I say entertainment business, because you're more than just an actor. Okay? Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: So what's the keys to longevity? Stephen Sorrentino: Evolve. Learn that- Vince Ferguson: Evolve. Stephen Sorrentino: You know? Your body, when you're 21, you could do certain weights. You could do certain fitness. Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: But when you're 55, you're not going to do the same exercises. It's the same with the arts. You have to evolve. At 21, I looked young and handsome ... I had tight jeans on, long hair. You can't play that guy when you're 40. So you have to change, and evolve, and roll with the punches, and roll with what life brings you. I embrace the fact that I'm not 21. I'm glad, because now I'm playing this guy, the older mafia died. I'll be doing a play this summer in New York City. I forget the name of it right now because it's early here. It Could Be Worse, it's called. And I'm playing an Italian guy, and his daughter comes, and she's got a girlfriend and this whole... But it's two hours of non-stop, like manic energy. And I'll be able to do it because that guy, I took care of myself. So maybe he didn't take care of himself for the story. But for me to play him, I have to have taken care of myself. No drinking, no meat for me, no booze. You know? No anything. Just rest, exercise. Vince Ferguson: So those are the keys. Evolving, not drinking, not abusing your body, proper nutrition. Okay. When did you become a vegetarian? Stephen Sorrentino: Oh, my God, about 10 years ago. I'm an animal rights activist, and I didn't like meat as it was, the concept of it. And when I stopped eating red meat and pork, I felt better. And then I just said, "You know what? One day a week, I'm going to eat no meat at all." And eventually, it just went away. I just felt better and better. So I take protein shakes sometimes, and I have a lot of nuts. And I know that nutrition-wise, a lot of fruits. Yeah, you know? I try to eat right, man. Vince Ferguson: Yeah, man. Stephen Sorrentino: You're the vehicle? You know? You have to... Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: We want our car to go somewhere. So our brain is the map, and our body is the car, and if you don't put new tires on and take care of the oil and gas, it won't go anywhere. Vince Ferguson: It just doesn't work right. Exactly. Exactly. Stephen Sorrentino: You know? Vince Ferguson: That's good wisdom. What about exercise now? What exercises do you do on a regular basis that keep you going? Stephen Sorrentino: Well, jumping around on stage every night helps because you're sweating it out all the time. Vince Ferguson: Sure. Stephen Sorrentino: But I run three miles a day, three to six miles a day. A slow run, because I'm older, so my hips are not what it used to be. I do pushups every day, and if I can get to the gym twice a week and just do a whole, like a universal circuit, I'm good. Vince Ferguson: Nice. Stephen Sorrentino: I sweat it out. Got to sweat every day. Vince Ferguson: Nice. That's good to hear that. Stephen Sorrentino: Definitely Vince Ferguson: And also, good advice for other people to know that you have to move your body, right? Stephen Sorrentino: Have to. Yeah, as you get older, too- Vince Ferguson: Yes. Stephen Sorrentino: ... if you stop using it, you will lose it. Vince Ferguson: Exactly. I agree. Vince Ferguson: I don't lift as much now. I just want to be healthy. To me, it's about being fit. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah, but you look... Exactly. And you look good, so hello. Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: That's the game. Vince Ferguson: And you want to be around long time, right? Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. I want to play an 80-year old in a play someday, and I'll be 80. That's cool. Vince Ferguson: Yeah. But you won't look 80. Stephen Sorrentino: No, I will look 70. Vince Ferguson: It's all good, it's all good. Vince Ferguson: I read a personal quote of yours, and it said- Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: It said, "I'm not afraid of dying. I'm afraid of living with no purpose." That was awesome. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: Explain that to my listeners and viewers. Stephen Sorrentino: You know? I said that as a mentor thing to a Chinese medical student, that he posted that somewhere. It became like this thing. I'm not afraid of dying. I mean, for me, living is the whole thing. Dying, I don't believe anything negative about it ... I think it's a positive thing. You just move into the next thing. I just don't want to be on this planet and not touch another person, not change another person's life, or leave a legacy. Even if it's just a song, or a performance that somebody said, "Gee, you really touched my heart." Or a song that somebody used for their wedding because it meant something. So we have a short time here relatively in this world, and I think our job is not to make money, and to buy stuff, and boast. But it's to touch as many people positively as possible and change their lives. That's it. I don't want to live without purpose. That's my purpose. Vince Ferguson: That is so well put, you know? Stephen Sorrentino: I didn't mean to be so profound. But it came out good, and when he posted it everywhere, I'm like, "Oh." Vince Ferguson: Yeah, man, it's like, "This guy's got a lot of wisdom to share. You know? He's really deep." Stephen Sorrentino: I'm the Dalai Lama. Vince Ferguson: Right. Exactly, exactly. Which is cool. Because someone needs to hear that, man. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah, that's cool. That's my life. I mean, when people reach out to me, I do the best I can. There a lot of people that... I was in a film festival in India recently, and all these Indian actors, young dude actors wanted to talk to me, and I'm getting like 13, 14 requests every day, "Hey, can I speak to you?" And I do the best I can. But at one point, I'm like, "I can't." You know? "Take a number," so to speak. So I want to give positive energy to anybody I can. You know? Someday, on a world platform, if I can. You know? Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: But we'll see. Vince Ferguson: That's awesome. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah, man. I mean, isn't that our job? Vince Ferguson: I think so. To give back and to help those who are around us. I believe that. Stephen Sorrentino: Isn't that what you're doing? Yeah, but look what you're doing. You are. Vince Ferguson: I believe, yes. And it feels good to do it, to share information. You bring on people like yourself who can also share uplifting and positive information, man. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: You know? It's a beautiful thing. Vince Ferguson: But now, I also know that you are in a film that's coming out the end of the year. It was directed by Victoria Rowell? Stephen Sorrentino: Yes! Vince Ferguson: ... of Young and Restless? Stephen Sorrentino: Yes! Young and Restless. Victoria's a like rockstar, you know? Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: First of all, I was excited because I'm the only white dude in the movie, which is freaking awesome. Vince Ferguson: Really? Oh, wow. A token. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah, I'm the token white dude, which is fine with me. Equal time, finally. And she's a great director. Actually, Denise Bute is in it, also as well. Vince Ferguson: Denise is in it? Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Blair Underwood, Bill Bellamy, and it's called- Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: ... A Rich Christmas. And I play a small part, but I play an English butler. Very, very different, you know? I've got my glasses like this. You know? One of those guys. And I had played Annie, I played Drake in Annie, which is a butler, with Sally Struthers- Vince Ferguson: Yes! Stephen Sorrentino: ... the year before. And Victoria saw a video of mine, and she goes, "You're hired." And it was so cool. So it's called A Rich Christmas. You know? It's a Christmastime movie on BET- Vince Ferguson: Yes. Stephen Sorrentino: ... and look for me. Yeah. And Victoria's again, you walk in the room, her positive energy fills the room- Stephen Sorrentino: ... and you just get taken over by her. Yes, strong, strong woman director, so unique. And great that we're starting to see more women, more people of color directing. It's wonderful. Vince Ferguson: Yes. Wonderful. Stephen Sorrentino: I'm inspired. Vince Ferguson: Where do you see yourself, Stephen Sorrentino? You've done so much, but where do you see yourself in next five years? Stephen Sorrentino: I'd like to have a regular show, like on a Netflix type of platform. Maybe the Sunny the Heat thing. I don't know. On whatever platform. Vince Ferguson: That's awesome! Stephen Sorrentino: And just have a steady job on television. And then on my off months, I'd love to tour a little bit to do my comedy, and then have enough time to mentor and teach young people. That's it. Vince Ferguson: That's it? Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: That's a lot, man. That's a lot. Stephen Sorrentino: That's okay. I got a lot. You know? Like I said, I got a lot of energy, so... Vince Ferguson: So how do you rest though? How do you take it down? Stephen Sorrentino: I shut off. So it's no people. Because anytime I'm around people, I kind of somewhat perform. I don't know. I can't really shut down. So what I do is I close everybody off, I go away, and I just rest. I just I do nothing. I try that. A little meditation. Vince Ferguson: Yeah. Stephen Sorrentino: And can I be honest with you? When I'm back in Virginia on my ranch, I mow the lawn. Vince Ferguson: You mow the lawn? Stephen Sorrentino: For eight hours. It's 13 acres of mowing- Vince Ferguson: Oh! Stephen Sorrentino: Because it's a 50 acre estate. Vince Ferguson: Whoa! Stephen Sorrentino: So I mow Vince Ferguson: Whoa, really? Really? Stephen Sorrentino: It's I can't. It sounds stupid, but it's very zen, man. Vince Ferguson: Very zen, unbelievable. Stephen Sorrentino: Zen mowing. I don't know what to tell you, but that helps to slow me down. Vince Ferguson: Because you're such an outgoing person, and I would imagine that you're always around people. But for you, get away from people. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah, I have to shut completely off. And I think, and somebody pointed this out, a psychologist friend of mine said, "You're not an extrovert. You're an extrovert for a living, but you're actually an introvert." And I think he's right. So I do this Mr. Personality thing. Vince Ferguson: Yes. Stephen Sorrentino: But my real person is a very quiet, inside thing. So it's kind of strange. Vince Ferguson: It is kind of strange, man. But how can my listeners and viewers find out more about Stephen Sorrentino? Stephen Sorrentino: You can go to Stephensorrentino.com. It's Stephen with a P-H. You can go to my Instagram, follow. There's a lot of awards being posted on that, which is New York actor or Stephen.Sorrentino. Or on Twitter, I'm Sorrentino. Easy. Vince Ferguson: Amazing. Definitely easy. Vince Ferguson: But one more thing about Tales of Redemption, right? Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: It was only 14 minutes. It was a very short movie. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Yeah, it's a short movie. We wanted to make an impact and show everybody what we could do. And now we're developing it as a series. Like I said, I want that series. So we've got 13 episodes written, and then we're going to start pitching it all over the world to whoever will look at it, and whoever will give us the most platforms that we can see it. And you people can watch Sunny, because he's a very interesting character. Vince Ferguson: Most definitely. I wanted more, man. I wanted more. How it ended, I wanted more Sunny the Heat. Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. A lot of people say, at the festivals that I went to in New York, they came up to me and said, "We want more of Sunny." And I'm like, "That's great." Vince Ferguson: Thank you. Thank you, man. Stephen Sorrentino: You know? No, thank you. Vince Ferguson: You can identify with Sunny, man. You know? Stephen Sorrentino: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: You really could. Vince Ferguson: Well, look, Stephen Sorrentino, on behalf of Body Sculpt of New York, that's my non-profit fitness program for kids, and Six Weeks to Fitness, I truly want to thank you for coming on my show today. Stephen Sorrentino: It's my pleasure. This has been a blessing. Thank you so much. Vince Ferguson: And to my listeners and viewers, I truly hope this program was informative, encouraging, and inspiring, and that you will continue listening in and watching our Six Weeks to Fitness program. If you have any questions or comments for the show, please leave them below. And don't forget to subscribe, so you don't miss any future episodes. And remember, you don't stop exercising because you are getting old. You're getting old because you stopped exercising.  www.6weekstofitness.com  

In this program, I will be reading, and commenting on, the articles “Whistleblower at Smith College Resigns Over Racism” by Bari Weiss, which appeared in Common Sense with Bari Weiss on February 19, 2021; “Media Repeat Junk Science Behind Abortion Ban Laws: Check the Science—There is No Heartbeat at Six Weeks” by CARRIE N. BAKER, which appeared in Ms. Magazine on September 7, 2021; and “Pro-choice public writing professor deletes source showing embryos have hearts” by blogger M., which appeared in Secular Pro-Life Perspectives on September 24, 2021. The articles document how far Smith College has strayed from the institution that its founder, Sophia Smith, had in mind when, in 1870, she stipulated in her Last Will and Testament that her considerable fortune be used to establish a women's college in which “all the education and all the discipline shall be pervaded by the Spirit of Evangelical Christian Religion.” The recent events in which acts of racial bigotry, deliberate lying, and callous disregard for the most vulnerable among us, humans in their pre-natal stage of development, reveal how Smith College has strayed far from the ideals that Sophia Smith had envisioned for the college when she founded it. Smith College's betrayal of its foundational principles is symbolic of our country's betrayal of its foundational principles. My email address is freedom@libertyandposterity.com. © Copyright 2021 Liberty and Posterity

Photo: No known restrictions on publication. @Batchelorshow Six Weeks after the Tragedy: #ClassicLongWarJournal: @BillRoggio and @ThomasJoscelyn #UNBOUND the complete, forty-minute interview, September 27, 2021. @LongWarJournal

D.O. interviews a newly licensed mortgage professional who has completed Xinnix's ground school. After 30 days of working as an outside LO, Aixa Rosario pivoted on her initial decision and never looked back. Aixa speaks on what lead up to her career change, the process of getting licensed, and what she has experienced in her first six weeks.   DISCOVER us on TikTok WATCH us on YouTube! LIKE us on Facebook! FOLLOW us on Instagram! CONNECT with us on LinkedIn! __________   @TheLoanOfficerPodcast

In Episode 176 of my Six Weeks To Fitness podcast, I sit down with celebrity fitness trainer Paul Bamba, a successful boxer, community activist, entrepreneur and former Marine. He's also the founder of Trifecta Fitness, a New York-based boxing and fitness training company. The company trains everyone, from celebrities to everyday fitness enthusiasts. Throughout his career, Paul has taken boxing and self-defense seriously by teaching self-defense classes to women and men of all ages. Vince Ferguson Well, before we talk about Trifecta Fitness, tell my listeners, where did you grow up and what was your childhood like before joining the Marine Corps. Paul Bamba: I grew up everywhere. I was born in Puerto Rico, I moved to LA, I lived in Massachusetts for a little bit. I was a ward of the state, the country rather because I was all over the place. So I was just bounced around a lot. So there's not one real spot I was really in growing up. Vince Ferguson: So there was no stability in your home. Paul Bamba: No, not at all. I think that, not even a little bit. Not until I joined the Marine Corps. Vince Ferguson: Really, so the Marine Corps gave you stability. Amazing. Paul Bamba: Yeah. Stability and structure. Vince Ferguson: And structure. Now, I know that Marines can do a lot to a young man, but why did you join the Marine Corps as opposed to any of the other branches? You laugh. Paul Bamba: The uniforms and that, I don't know, dress blues, dress blues are just beautiful, they're the best uniform out there. Also, I think because it was the hardest one and I've always loved challenging myself. With Marine Corps boot camp, it's 13 weeks, it's the longest of any other branch of service and you don't need to go to any other boot camp if you decide to go into another branch of service. However, if you're in the army and you want to become a Marine, you got to start all over again because you got to earn it and that's what I really liked about it. It was a hard thing to get into and then they're very selective and you have to have certain fitness requirements and stuff like that. So I liked it, it gave me something to look forward to, just to get better, a goal, I'm very goal-oriented. Vince Ferguson: Nice. Excellent. Excellent. So in addition to the combat fighting skills, because again, I know from being a Navy veteran that the Marines have the toughest, have structure that it's hard to basically be a Marine if you're not fit. In the Navy, you can go in there looking like a donut, but Marine Corps, you got to look good, you got to feel good, you got to know what you're doing and each one qualification come to being a Marine, but besides learning combat skills, because when it comes to fighting, the Marines go first pretty much, but in addition to combat fighting skills, what other skills did you take that you use today in your business? Paul Bamba: I would definitely say the structure part. Structure, just planning everything out, not just going off a whim I would say, having a plan, executing to that plan, and when things don't fall according to plan, sticking to that plan, because you made it for a reason. I think that has helped me the most. Also, just, the thing I love most about the Marines is comradery. So I would say when you are team building, being a team leader, I was a fire team leader and a squad leader in some parts. So things like that, they permeated into other portions of my life, it just made me more confident, I was able to pick the people that I wanted to build with and have it as a part of my team and it lets you see past the BS, I guess you could say. Paul Bamba: So when you know what you have, you know what you're attacking, or not attacking rather, but when you know what you're going after, and then you just stick to it. That's the main thing I learned with the Marines, no matter what, even if you fall short, you stick to the plan and you make sure you accomplish the mission. And that's how I operate on a day-to-day. Vince Ferguson: So you must have a plan. Paul Bamba: Oh yeah. I'm living part of my plan right now. I would tell you all of it. I have a 10 year since I was about ... I worked at GNC when I was 25 and I'm a bit ahead of schedule, I would say and I think that's because I stuck to my plan, even when stuff goes wrong, sometimes people they kind of give up or they're like, "Oh, I fell short." They call an audible, but that audible takes them away from the ultimate goal and it might actually take a little longer. I just stick to the plan. Vince Ferguson: How many years did you do in the corps? Paul Bamba: Four. Vince Ferguson: That's a lot. You know what I'm saying? Paul Bamba: Yeah, it's a little bit. Vince Ferguson: But of all the places that you could've moved to, I know you were discharged a few years ago, you came to New York, but why? Of all the places you could have gone, you could have gone to LA, Atlanta, wherever, you came here. Why? Paul Bamba: So this might sound a little weird. I knew I was going to be homeless and I tried to pick the easiest place to be homeless in my opinion, and the easiest place to work and also to go with, I love hard things, there's the saying, if you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere. Vince Ferguson: Yes. Paul Bamba: If you would've told me that before I moved to New York, I would've said, "Well, that just sounds dumb." But I think that there's a lot of truth behind that because New York will bring the grind out of you if you don't it in you. And if you have it in you, it's going to make that much better because you can't come here and be lazy, you'll get swallowed up, chewed up, spit out very easily. You constantly have to be moving forward. Vince Ferguson: True, true that. But let me go back for a second. You said you knew that you would be homeless when you came to New York and you still came? Paul Bamba: Yeah. I had a plan. It started off as a joke. I sold office supplies for this company called Quill, I think, something like that- Paul Bamba: ... in Rhode Island and then it wasn't working out or I think they were moving the company or something and I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to go to New York and I'm going to fight." And I never boxed before and I was kind of like, "Eh, whatever." So I went to New York and I found a gym and I just made it all work. I was homeless for a bit and I was able to rent a mattress behind someone's couch in City Island for a bit and then ended up getting on my feet, getting a job. I got fired from that job, I got homeless again, lived on the train, but ultimately, all my goals were fitness-related and boxing-related, so no matter how bad stuff got, I literally, I just stuck to it, it's like, "Hey, I messed up. Cool. How do we fix it?" Rather than sulking or beating myself up about it, I'm like, "All right, cool, I messed that up, this is a solution to it, this is what we're doing or what I'm doing." And I just got to it. That's it. Vince Ferguson: Wow. That to me is truly amazing. Most people would've given up, coming here, and you're young, even much younger than you are now, coming to New York and basically, things can happen to a young guy, a young person in New York city if they're not careful. So how did you fall into boxing? Paul Bamba: Well, Morris Park, I was in the Bronx, so there was some guy, I got into a little altercation if you will in City Island and there's this guy that told me that I should box, I don't remember his name anymore and I wish I did, I think it's Eddie, he has like a karate studio in City Island and he brought me to the Bronx and he's like, "I'll pay for your training, you just got to come help." I had to come help clean up his dojo or whatever, do floors in morning, he'd pay for my training and I would walk from City Island to Morris Park every day just so I could learn, because I didn't have nothing else to do, school wasn't really my thing, I'm self-educated but I'm not curriculum, sit-down at a desk type educated. Vince Ferguson: Yes. Paul Bamba: So that's all I had. So I was just like, "I like this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to make it work. I might not become a version of Floyd Mayweather, but maybe I'll become like a Freddie Roach." You can make your mark either through fighting or through training and if you're training, you could help out a bunch of people in the process and build their confidence. So I was like, "It's a win-win." And you get to put people on the face if I get in trouble. That's fun. Vince Ferguson: That's fun. I heard Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Paul Bamba: True. Vince Ferguson: But you have a plan and you like punching people in the face. Paul Bamba: Yeah. I don't mind getting hit too much so it's a win-win, it's a good outlet, it's a positive one. A lot of people think that boxing is just an animalistic thing, it's just like, kind of like, this is just machismo, I guess you can say, but it's not, it's a thinking man's game, you got to think and you got to be smart, and if you go in and fight all the time or you can box and be smart and not get hit too much, stay in great shape, sharpen your mind, help other people. That's why I love it. Vince Ferguson: So you are pretty successful now, but would you say that boxing is what brought to where you are today or was it other skills that you had? Paul Bamba: I think I'm charismatic, so that helps. Vince Ferguson: Yes. Paul Bamba: Obviously you got to be able to talk to people, but I ultimately know boxing saved my life. I truly believe I would not be ... I had a rough upbringing and I was kind of hardheaded, so I don't really think I'd be anywhere close to where I'm at had I not found boxing or had I not found the few people that they're still in my life, like Aaron Davis, he runs Morris Park Boxing Club, he's a former world champion, I still talk to this man all the time, even to this day, it's been about seven years now and he instilled in me just working hard and not giving up and being cool, stuff could be messed up, but if you're not giving up, you got to move forward. And so boxing did that for me because you're never going to perfect boxing. Mayweather's amazing but even he gets hit sometimes, you can learn something from anybody and the fact that it keeps me mentally sharp, I love that and it just gives me something to look forward to whether I'm winning or whether I'm helping somebody win, either way it's a win. Vince Ferguson: Wow. Are you boxing professionally now? Paul Bamba: Yeah. I've had three professional fights so far, I fight again, October 8th and then the 29th. So I'm staying a little bit busy. I like it a lot, it's fun. It's an experience. COVID made the dream happen, with not much else to do, it was easy to train and kind of like take that leap of faith and I did, so now I get to train people, which I love, and teach, because I'm more of a coach than a trainer I would say, a teacher, and I get to box. So it's a win-win, I'm living what I dreamed about when I was 25 because I put in the hard work and I stuck to it and I was consistent and I got up and ran on the days that I really didn't want to, I still do. Vince Ferguson: Just like a Marine. Paul Bamba: Yeah. And that's the thing, the hunger that's instilled in you as a Marine or maybe they brainwash you, I don't know, but it works and as long as you stick to it, that's it, consistency is key in life to anything that anybody does. Vince Ferguson: And yet you had role models too to help you, you said Aaron, what's his last name? Paul Bamba: Aaron Davis. Vince Ferguson: Yeah. How important are role models to you? Paul Bamba: I would say very important. I have three key people in my life that have molded the way I think and the way I approach things and they are all very, very different. [Guardia 00:13:19], he's pretty much my older brother to me. He was a captain in the Marine Corps too. He has helped me out, mentored me a lot. He works with me as well. And then this guy, Jason Harris, he's this marketing genius that he basically pushed me to move further, because at some point in life, I got complacent a few years ago and I was like, "My rent's paid now. I'm good. I can go to movies every once in a while. I'm comfortable. I'm cool where I'm at." And him and Guardia got me to dig deeper and got me to want more and actually showcase my talents, my skills and stuff like that. Paul Bamba: And I'm really glad they did because the way I live now is very much different, I can help a lot of people. I definitely enjoy myself and I wouldn't be here without any of those three people. If I didn't have all three of them, I wouldn't be where I'm at, they make the perfect Trifecta, if you will. They're all very much different. Vince Ferguson: Okay. And we're coming to that too. I'm glad you said that because you are the founder and the CEO of Trifecta Fitness, and you also, I was on your website, it mentions, join the Trifecta Movement. What does that mean to my audience? What does Trifecta Movement mean? Paul Bamba: So the Trifecta Movement, it's kind of how I explained how I am. So we go by sport, body and mind. So fitness, a lot of people think fitness is just their body or is just like playing sports, like just get in shape, look good and cool. That's not really it, you have to take care of your mental, you have to take care of your body, meaning recovery. So sport, body and mind, I try to embody all those three things at all times, meaning I'm working out, I'm making sure my mental health is good and I'm making sure I'm taking the time to recover, because everybody in life gets busy, but you want to make sure you're taking the time to keep yourself healthy, you're recovering fully and your mental is straight. Paul Bamba: You have time to meditate, yoga, stuff like that. So the Trifecta Movement to me personally, will just be being well-rounded, being well-rounded and not settling just for a six pack when you can have a six pack and a great mindset. You can have a six pack, a great mindset and we can fix any ailments you might have in your knee, your hips or something like that. It's all about taking care of self and trying to, I know you can't really be perfect, but if you aim for it, you can get pretty close and that's what it is for me. Vince Ferguson: Awesome, man. Awesome. So what type of fitness programs do you offer at Trifecta Fitness? Paul Bamba: So me personally, I do hit training and boxing, but like I said, I created a team, so I have a team of experts for everything. So what Trifecta offers, through sport, body and mind is, boxing, yoga, meditation, kickboxing, acupuncture and massage, there was one more, CrossFit, which is kind of like hit, weightlifting, anything fitness related we do, because a lot of fitness companies out there, they focus on just the aesthetic of how you look and just fitness, but you have to go somewhere else to take care of your body, to recover, to get your peace of mind back. And with us, you can do that all in one stop. And we have a special way, we [inaudible 00:16:47] classes to where you ... you're all hyped up obviously from running around but we have like a Trifecta cool down and includes breathing, a little bit of stretching, stuff like that. Paul Bamba: And then, you have to be open-minded to it and I wasn't at first, my brother got me into it a bit more, but it's really relaxing and it gives you clarity on what you're doing for the day, I would think if that's how you're approaching it, it all depends on your mindset and I think it makes for a better day. You're working out, you're doing what you need to, and then you're focused, small, small meditation because I don't know if everybody can meditate for 10 minutes, I know I would struggle with that. Vince Ferguson: Yes. I hear you. It's not easy. But once you do it, it makes a difference. Prior to the pandemic, most trainers were training their clients in-person but when the pandemic hit, you guys had to pivot and start doing a lot of online trainings. Do you guys offer online training at Trifecta Fitness? Paul Bamba: We do. One of the things that helped us out the most actually was, Peloton had an ungodly amount of classes that they were already doing because they were already digital, Trifecta for like the first six, seven months, which just helped us out so much, we're the only company that had 100 plus classes a month or a week I think it was, wasn't it? It was close to like, I think it was 40, 50 classes a week, so you had flavors, you could literally pick anything you wanted, a whole bunch of different instructors, and it was because we were already gearing towards pivoting to that way so we had kind of an idea what we wanted to do and it helped. Right now, within the next 45 to 60 days, we will be releasing our app and then you can just train from your phone, you either come in-person, come downtown or right on your phone. You'll have everything on your phone, whether it's Android, just get in the App Store. Vince Ferguson: Nice. Nice. This is something ... you created this app? Paul Bamba: Yeah. Well, I didn't do the tech stuff because I'm definitely not that smart, that's not for me, but we created the app, right now there's, I think we have almost over 500 documents and videos and stuff like that, pre-recorded, so you come in, you can pick somebody that you want to work out with. We have UFC fighters, we have professional boxers, we have CrossFit competitors, we have yoga, we have like literally everything. And it's all on one app and it's all for one little price rather than having to buy to a bunch of different things. Vince Ferguson: Wow. Guys, you guys are killing it. It's amazing. Paul Bamba: I'm trying to, that's the thing, I don't ... so our mission is more so to help people, we do a lot of charity and a lot of philanthropy. So a lot of what we do is women empowerment, so everything is geared towards trying to give back to that community, because, and especially in New York, not a lot of women feel safe walking to the train at night or anything like that and that's actually how I believe the year before the pandemic happened, how we started, we started with one of, her name is [Mia Keg 00:20:09] and we did this woman empowerment thing, to teach women self-defense and it just took off and we realized it was much more rewarding to have these women coming back to us and say, "Hey, I felt much more comfortable walking by myself last night." Than just to be charging people for a bunch of classes where people are just getting in shape, which is still cool, but like I said, as I'm growing, I'm more gear towards helping people and empowering those around me. Vince Ferguson: Yes. And I like how you mentioned women empowerment, that's so important. And do you train these women online or do you train them in-person? Paul Bamba: Both. So we have online, in-person, whatever people are comfortable with. Some people are more open-minded about meeting up in-person because of COVID. Some people are a bit more cautious about it. So it's all about comfortability because remember, we're trying to empower these people so we'll get the most out of them if they feel completely comfortable in the setting that they're in. Vince Ferguson: Can you train a woman to really feel empowered to be able to handle herself, especially here in New York City, after training with you, they feel that they can walk these streets at night if they have to or if they're confronted, they will be able to protect themselves, is that what you're saying? Paul Bamba: 100%. So what we don't do, is we don't ... so defend yourself, yes, not fight. So I'm not going to tell you I'm going to train you to try to beat up a 200 pound guy coming after you, no. What we do is, we train to make sure we got good stamina, make sure you can deflect anything coming at you, strike if you need to and then get away. So it's not to stand there and be combative with somebody coming after you, it's to protect yourself, defend and then just leave and be safe. And that's mainly what we stress. We don't want anybody sticking around trying to get out with somebody, that's not the move. Vince Ferguson: That's not the move. That's not recommended. Paul Bamba: We don't want that. Vince Ferguson: What are some of your prices for online, for training in-person? What are some of your prices. Paul Bamba: Prices for online training, we have Trifecta at Home right now, it's about to switch because we're about to launch the app but it's 20 bucks a month. You get a few classes, a bunch of different instructors. If you're in New York and you're signed up for Trifecta at Home, we have a free class every Sunday at, I believe it's called Columbus Park and that's pretty much it. It's going to roll out into the app too where you get everything that you're currently paying for plus much, much more. Vince Ferguson: Wow. That's amazing. A free class every Sunday if you're in New York. Paul Bamba: A free class every Sunday if you're in New York and on top you can pretty much get over 100 classes a month online if you're just signed up for that home one. So if you just want to do Zooms, you don't want to interact with people, you're worried about COVID which is understandable, you just hit the Zoom button and turn it on and you could be frowning with everybody else on the screen and then we get busy. Vince Ferguson: Man, awesome. Awesome. So you do the group fitness training as well. Paul Bamba: Yes. Vince Ferguson: That's awesome, man. That's amazing. I love it. Now, this show is called Six Weeks To Fitness, if you had a client, if I gave you a client who was basically a couch potato, haven't worked out in years yet they want to get in shape but they want to get in shape six weeks, can you give me an idea of what type of fitness program would you put them on that would help them to reach that goal where they're in basically good shape within the six week time period. Paul Bamba: Yeah. So it would depend on the person's mentality, but I would start slow, finish hard because you don't want to start too fast and finish slow, the body breaks down after a while, but I'm big on consistency and regimen. One of the people actually did this last year around this time with Michaels, he's a comedian from Wild 'n Out, he lost 52 pounds in 30 days. Vince Ferguson: Oh nice. Paul Bamba: Yeah. And I think the only supplements we took were multivitamin and some fish oil because he has some rough needs and that was about it. And it was all about consistency, doing the right thing and then just making sure that you got up on the days you did not, because if you're a couch potato and you're starting off, you don't want to go to gym the second, third, fourth day in a row, you're kind of like, "I don't want to do this." So it's building that regimen, that routine, that's going to get you up because after that first week, second week's going to flow, third's going to be easier, fourth, fifth, finish on the sixth, you're back in shape, you're back to good health. Vince Ferguson: So this client that you work with, celebrity from Wild 'n Out, 52 pounds in 30 days? Paul Bamba: Yeah. He had a competition with a photographer, I think it's one of the videographers, his name's Cliff Prescott, he's very good videographer from the show as well, they had a competition. He had an NFL trainer and had a bunch of fancy stuff, he lost 26 pounds. Vince Ferguson: Really? Paul Bamba: Yeah. Rip had me, we just had some hard work and some grit, 52 pounds. Vince Ferguson: 52 pounds. Paul Bamba: 52 pounds. I'm big on hard work. I'm not big on starving people, you might eat as much as you want, whatever your input is, make sure your output is that much more and rest, that's all we did. Like I said, routine, routine to me since the Marine Corps has been everything, you stick to it and you have a plan, if it makes sense, when you're sitting down and you write it out, it'll still makes sense when you're going through it and it doesn't feel great. You just got to trust it. You got to trust yourself when you wrote it down. Vince Ferguson: Most definitely. And briefly, you just mentioned about calories and calories out. Do you talk about nutrition with your clients? Paul Bamba: Oh yeah. All the time. I don't press anything on them as far as strict diets or anything because I don't believe strict diets work, I think that you should cheat every once in a while on a meal, a meal, not a day, I don't agree with cheat days because you can lose a lot of progress in a day if you go crazy and you've been starving yourself, but if you want a milkshake, go drink the milkshake, but go jump rope for a half hour or something after that, that's where you make up for it. It shouldn't be a punishment or you shouldn't feel like you're punishing yourself as you're doing something. But we do nutrition plans, it's broken down to macros, to the ounces, to everything that you need. It really just depends on how deep people want to get into it because not everybody, including myself, I don't want to track everything they eat or weigh it all out, but yeah, we get into all of that, we make it a science. Vince Ferguson: Amazing. Awesome. Really awesome, man. Now, what do you tell a young guy who wants to be a CEO, an entrepreneur like yourself? What do you tell him to do? What do you tell him to think about when it comes to achieving those goals? Paul Bamba: I would say go with all your crazy ideas. I say that because, my brother Guardia thinks a lot of the stuff that I ... he had a full-time job, he was doing loss prevention and I forget what the proper term for it is, but he was the head of it for a bunch of Bloomingdale Stores, he's making six figures and I was saying, "You should quit and work with me and take less money. I promise we'll get you back to where you need to be." He didn't do it right away, he waited until he saw I was consistent with it and we just went with all my crazy ideas, whether it was, "Hey, we're going to rent out this gym." Or, "Hey, we're going to do this or we're going to go train this client, we're going to push this narrative or we're doing this." Paul Bamba: Just go with it. If it makes sense to you at one point and it makes you feel good, it's probably a really good idea. A lot of good ideas die because people think too much about them and they start to get watered down because they're like, "Maybe I should do this or maybe I should do that." No, just stick to your plan. You may get better on the go, you don't need to wait six, seven months for something that you could start up in two weeks, get out of the door running with it. Being mindful, don't get too crazy, my crazy ideas, they were a bit calculated, and don't take no for an answer and don't let anybody tell you that you can't do something. That's a driving factor for me. If I don't know something, I go out of my way to learn. Paul Bamba: So I will just say that. Be big on knowledge and be big on not taking no for an answer, and your crazy ideas are definitely your best ones so believe them and believe in yourself and don't backtrack even if your friends don't believe in it, because there's so much stuff that I've done that people thought was crazy or wouldn't work and I'm petty sometimes, so I constantly laugh about, "Hey, remember when you said this, I told you so." Like I pointed out, because if you really believe something's going to work, it's going to work, I live my life like that every day. If I know I could do something, obviously I don't think I can fly, so I'm not jumping off buildings and stuff like that, but if I think I could ... like we just raised, I think we raised over $300,000 to send 100 kids to summer camp this past summer and we did it in less than a month. Paul Bamba: And everybody was going crazy and I didn't have the most experience in comparison to them at the time but I was like, "No, this could work." I was like, "This will work. We got to go. Everybody's going to attack different stuff. This is going to work. We're sending these kids to camp, let's do it." And then we did it and it was great and it was a very short timeframe, so we had to work. But if you're willing to work hard, your crazy ideas aren't that crazy. They only sound crazy if you don't have the little things in between of what you need to do to get to the next step of that crazy idea in my mind. Vince Ferguson: Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Powerful, man. You inspire me just hearing you talk like that my brother. Paul Bamba: Oh, I appreciate it. Vince Ferguson: Thank you, bro. Now, how can people find out more about Paul Bamba and Trifecta Fitness? Paul Bamba: If you want to find out about me, I guess just ask or Google works, my Instagram is @bambajuice, B-A-M-B-J-U-I-C-E. Kind of like Jamba Juice, [inaudible 00:30:43], they stole it from me. Vince Ferguson: They stole it from you- Paul Bamba: And then our website, for those who want to check out the classes or anything like that, trifectastrong.com and then there's a blog there every Friday if you want fitness tips and tricks and stuff like that, it's called Ask Bamba and I'm constantly giving out free game and trying to help as many people as I can. That's it. Vince Ferguson: Beautiful, man. Beautiful, Paul Bamba, on behalf of Body Sculpt of New York, my nonprofit and Six Weeks To Fitness, I truly want to thank you for coming on this show today. Paul Bamba: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. This was good. Vince Ferguson: Oh man, you're the best. And to my listening audience and viewing audience, I truly hope this program was informative, inspiring, encouraging and you will continue tuning in to our Six Weeks To Fitness program. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below and don't forget to subscribe Six Weeks to Fitness or email me at vince@sixweeks.com, so you don't miss any other future episodes and don't forget, let's get ready, get set and let's get fit with Paul Bamba from Trifecta Fitness.  

Welcome to Six Weeks to Fitness, I'm your host Vince Ferguson. Thank you so much for joining me today. Now, for those of you who are used to listening to my audio podcast, you can now watch my show on our Six Weeks to Fitness, YouTube channel and joining me today on as my very first video guest is Carmen Carriker. She's a graduate of Fordham University's Alvin Ailey Bachelor of Fine Arts program, She is a professional dancer, a fitness instructor, she's an actress, she's an educator and creator of Crown Soul Yoga. And I am very pleased to have Carmen Carriker on my Six Weeks to Fitness program. Carmen, how are you today? Carmen Carriker: I'm great. Thank you so much for introducing me. I'm happy to be here. Vincent Ferguson: It's such a pleasure having you. You're so full of energy and vivaciousness it's just a joy to have you here today. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Carmen Carriker: Thank you. Vincent Ferguson: But before we get started talking about your illustrious career, let's talk a little bit about your early days. Where did you grow up, Carmen? And what was your childhood like? Carmen Carriker: Well, I'm originally from Detroit, Michigan, so I'm from the Midwest. And I come from a family, I was raised by my mother, single parent, and she was a musician, a singer and a songwriter. So she had her own band. So I grew up in an environment surrounded by music. So it was a very fun experience having a band, rehearsing in my house as a toddler. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Carmen Carriker: It was introduction to jazz music, and to instruments. And that was where my love and passion for music began. It was a great experience. Nice growing up somewhere where you have trees and I grew, planted plants and vegetables and fruits with my grandfather who had a garden. Vincent Ferguson: Nice. Carmen Carriker: Because I come from the Motor City, there are lots of engineers in my family, so everyone worked or retired from Ford, GM, Chrysler. So I grew up working on cars. I helped out [in my youth. Vincent Ferguson: Really? Carmen Carriker: I was a girly-girl, but I was also a youth who dibbled and dabbled in working with machines, engineering and designing things. So I like to work with my hands and put things together and that began my interest in textile design because I'm also a fashion designer. So my love of music came from my mother and my love of engineering and design came from the men in my family. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. A good combination, I would say, huh? Carmen Carriker: Yes. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. So although you came from a single parent home, you did have family around you to help you, male figures, female figures which makes for a well rounded environment? And it made you the person you are today, which is absolutely amazing. Carmen Carriker: Yes. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. You've been teaching dance for about 25 years, I understand, am I correct? Right. Now that would make you about 30 years old because I've met you and you look like you're in 20s actually, but you know what I'm saying? So- Carmen Carriker: Yes. Vincent Ferguson: ... you healthy lifestyle is really paying off, right? Carmen Carriker: Starting dance from the age three and continuing on into my 30s, I've been dancing and I've been an athlete nonstop. I started teaching when I was 14 years old assisting ballet classes and helping the studio owner run the studio after she had a baby. So I started early. Vincent Ferguson: Yes, and I believe if you introduce children to activities like the dance and fitness at an early age, they continue as they get older. You are exposed to it, you know? Carmen Carriker: Yes. Vincent Ferguson: And look what you're doing now, you made a business, a career out of it. Amazing. Yes. Carmen Carriker: I tell my student that [crosstalk 00:04:45] what you do in studio, what you're doing in school, when you're assisting teachers and helping out it pays off because you end up being the one that's hire for the job. Having the skills and the information and the knowledge to start your own business based on all of the experience that you've had growing up. Vincent Ferguson: Beautiful. Now you studied at the Fordham University's Alvin Ailey Bachelor Fine Arts Program. How was that experience? Carmen Carriker: Wow. And it's been a good 17 years since I graduated. I graduated in '04, I think. Something like that so when I was a part of the Alvin Ailey and Alvin Ailey is one of the most or the largest African American modern dance company. We were the Guinea pigs of the program, so I was a part of the first graduating class as far as them having a joint program with Fordham University. So we were the first classes. So it was new to have professional dancers at Fordham taking liberal arts classes and then walking over to Ailey and having a full dance conservatory experience. So I had a very long day. I had like four academic classes and then I'd have four dance classes and then I'd have rehearsal in the evening and then I'd have a job working at the university. So 22 credit hours, a semester, lot of hard work. If we started off with 20 students in our class, by the end of four years, there were 10 of us. Vincent Ferguson: Really, really why? Carmen Carriker: Because it's very demanding on the body. It's costly to live in New York. So coming from Michigan, moving here not everyone could deal with the transition as well and a lot of dancers found that, oh, this is just too much on my body. Only the strong survive. So if you think, oh, okay. You know, let me go do this BFA program. Yes. Do the BFA program, but research it, make sure that it's something that works with you because it's a very demanding program. Carmen Carriker: So I'm glad that I went through it. So many connections, so many performance opportunities. Working with all of the major choreographers and having the opportunity to apprentice, to be a guest performer. I'm so blessed and thankful and to work with some of the company members had been taking class with Alvin Ailey dancers every day. Ballet class, modern class, African dance class, the conditioning classes, yoga, Pilates. They were the first and second company members were living with us. And then you had the PPPS, the afterschool kids were in the building as well. And this was when Alvin Ailey was on 66 and Amsterdam. Now it's the larger building. So the larger building was not there in 2004. In the year 2000 when I joined it wasn't until four years later that that building was finished. So when I graduated the institution that everyone knows of now that huge building, which is called the Joan Weill Building, which is named out to the person that funded it, wasn't there. It wasn't there yet. So all the hard work that all of the students and teachers and everyone, the Ailey family, all the hard work that we did contributed to continuing the legacy of Alvin Ailey having that large institution where people from all over the world are coming to learn. Vincent Ferguson: Yes, amazing. Carmen Carriker: [inaudible 00:09:25] experience, but it definitely made me who I am. I'm a stronger dancer, a stronger, a more experienced teacher have a lot of knowledge and information to share. And I have a lot of connections, always have all of those dancers and teachers as support. Vincent Ferguson: You can't put a price on that support, you know, those connections. Can't put a price on that. And speaking of dance, what type of dance do you now teach? I know you teach children and adults. What type of dances do you teach? Carmen Carriker: Well, I teach everything. Well, mainly right now I'm teaching yoga, teaching kids yoga classes from the ages 18 months to like five and six. That's the group that - Vincent Ferguson: 18 months. Carmen Carriker: Yes. The mommy-baby classes, the baby. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. And what else? Okay. Carmen Carriker: And then I also teach adult classes. Vincent Ferguson: Adults. Carmen Carriker: Yeah. All the way up 80. Vincent Ferguson: Up to 80. Yeah. There's ton of time for me. Oh, good. But again, so you're teaching yoga, you're teaching ballet. You're teaching... What else? Carmen Carriker: Teaching jazz. I'm teaching [inaudible 00:10:45]. I teach swing, wing dance, the Lindy hop. Vincent Ferguson: Lindy hop. Carmen Carriker: Yes, I teach SoCo fitness, I teach African dance in afterschool programs. And I love to share African history history, so that people know about the culture. That's very important especially when I'm teaching kids that they know where the movement comes from, that they know what instruments are and they know what places that these dances come from, especially in this time when TikTok videos and social media, there's so much information, visuals so everyone sees movement but they may not know where these dances come from. So good that they have the history and they know the knowledge and the culture behind. Vincent Ferguson: Now let's talk about yoga because that's where I first met you, when you did a yoga class from my organization, Body Sculpt of New York and with the children. Now, where did you learn yoga? Carmen Carriker: Well, I started yoga, yoga was a part of my curriculum at Alvin Ailey. Vincent Ferguson: Okay. But didn't you also learn yoga in Jamaica? Carmen Carriker: Yes. By the time I graduated I was condition my body by doing Pilates and bar and gyrokinesis anything like that, that would help keep my body fit. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Carmen Carriker: It wasn't really a spiritual journey for me until I went to Jamaica and I wanted to learn specifically a style of yoga that was more ancient, more meditative that connected to me as an African American. And that's where I found Kemetic yoga. So I was like, I'm going to go straight to the source. I'm going to go to Jamaica because I had the time and I was available to do the 10 day retreat and training. And I've been doing it ever since and it's my favorite. It's something that I really connect to spiritually. I'm a Kemetic yogini if you want to say that. I practice a Kemetic diet. So Kemetic, all of it, living, according to the laws and principles that the Ancient Egyptians practiced. Learning the history, learning the language and incorporating that in the modern day lifestyle has been easy for me and it has kept me grounded. Vincent Ferguson: Really? And you say Kemetic, which is Kemet, in Egypt, right? And so when you're training, you're teaching yoga, you're teaching Kemetic yoga are you also teaching the language to your students? Carmen Carriker: Yes. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. Carmen Carriker: There are learning poses in the Metu Neter language. Vincent Ferguson: Give me- Carmen Carriker: So if we are combining for example, the Sphinx pose or the lion pose is Heru Akhet. So I'll say it in English and I'll also say it in the Metu Neter language as well. Vincent Ferguson: Do you have any space to go to do a pose or two that we can see? Carmen Carriker: Sure. So we all know of the monument in DC that's shaped like an obelisk? Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Carmen Carriker: Okay. So in Egypt of it is called Teken which is spelled T-E-K-E-N. Vincent Ferguson: Teken. Carmen Carriker: So this is Teken pose so you're standing with your feet together. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Carmen Carriker: You're connected to earth, and earth, the Egyptian word for earth Geb and then [inaudible 00:14:57] up and you're connecting to the sky, which is Nut Vincent Ferguson: Huh. Nice. Carmen Carriker: So this pose is called the Teken pose so you're feeling connection to the earth and the sky. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. Wow. That's powerful. That is really, really powerful to see that, you know. And you said the Kemetic lifestyle. Okay. Now, does that involve also nutrition as far as eating healthy? Because you're a vegan. Carmen Carriker: Absolutely. I'm vegan. Kemetic diet is a plant-based diet. So if you're choosing a lifestyle and you're choosing to practice Kemetic yoga, you're also choosing a plant-based diet. Vincent Ferguson: And why is that important? Carmen Carriker: Well, if you look at the hieroglyphic, even the ancient Egyptians, you see lettuce, you'll see greenery around them so those are examples that that was the way that people were living. And that was their source. Vincent Ferguson: Okay, so they didn't eat the chickens and the cows? They weren't meat eater? No? Carmen Carriker: Well, I mean, as far as I know, there're of course are going to be people who do different things depending on where they are. But the tradition and the Kemetic practice that I'm practicing and that I've learned from teachers before me we're practicing plant-based. Vincent Ferguson: Excellent. I think that is an excellent way to eat, to live. I do believe that. I believe that it also helps you to connect more with spirituality, because you're not weighed down by meat eating, you know? Carmen Carriker: Yes. Vincent Ferguson: So I applaud you for that and I think it gives you a lot of energy and that's why you're all over the place doing so much. I am so impressed with you. Now you call your company, Crown Soul Yoga. Where'd you get that name from? Carmen Carriker: Well, you know, Crown Soul Yoga it came to me in a dream. So a lot of times things that I do artistically, I may have visions. So it came to me and the Crown is your crown and you know, I think of ancestry and the kings and queens before me. So when you take care of your crown you're protecting yourself, protecting your connection to spirit, connection to the higher powers. And then Soul is your heart. So anything that I do, I'm giving from my heart, my soul and I'm giving. So by helping others, I'm feeding my soul. And so [inaudible 00:18:09] and in creations, which was my first, is also my business, Crown Soul Creations. Everything that I make is that connection mind, body, spirit. So whether it's Crown Soul Yoga, which is the business of yoga, Crown Soul Creations, which is the business of jewelry and the knit wear, and the soaps and the products that I make, the t-shirts and the hoodies and all that stuff that I make, those are my creations. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. Carmen Carriker: So the branding. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Branding. Carmen Carriker: [inaudible 00:18:44] queen, so I want people to feel royal and to embrace who they all are and to have a lot of soul in whatever they do. Vincent Ferguson: Most definitely. So you're more than just a professional dancer, a professional fitness instructor or educator. I mean, you are business woman, you're an entrepreneur and how has that journey been for you? Carmen Carriker: It's rewarding. It's rewarding to look at the things that I've done. Look at my resume, look at the timeline that Facebook shows me like this happened 10 years ago. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Carmen Carriker: It's mind blowing to know that so much time has passed and so much I've been able to do and share as far as fashion shows, as far as vendoring and doing different events. And now focusing more on online yoga business and sharing medication and sound healing, Reiki, which is energy work. Even the energy I do holistic health and wellness is based in Kemetic tradition as well. So shout outs to Ra Sekhi Arts Temple, which is where I studied, which is based in Atlanta and the Kemetic Yoga School in Chicago under Yirser Ra Hotep. So YogaSkills Method. And I'm so thankful. I'm thankful to [inaudible 00:20:18], and I'm thankful to Queen Afua and all the Sacred Women who have led the way to healthy living and [crosstalk 00:20:28] Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Most definitely. Definitely. Now I know you live in Brooklyn, New York, right? And that's where my podcast is hosted in Brooklyn, New York. Shout out to Brooklyn. But now prior to the pandemic, most instructors like yourself and dancers, they would train their students in-person but as you know, New York was hit very hard and during the pandemic they shut all that down, so most of you guys had to pivot and start doing online instruction. How has that worked out for you? And are you still doing online? Carmen Carriker: I'm still doing online. It's been two years of online teaching. It's hills and valleys. It's been hills and valleys. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Carmen Carriker: At the beginning I think that there was definitely influx, numbers going up everyone was at home and just needing to have connections so they were Zooming in, however, WhatsApp, whatever people could use to connect with me through private sessions, through small group sessions and group conferences. But as things have opened up in New York, it is slowed down. I also feel like teachers, as well as students, clients have experienced a little bit of Zoom burnout. I'm spending so much time online. I think that people need to take a break from it and do in-person things. So I'm glad that this summer I was able to go into schools so we were able to dance outside the playground areas, or I was able to teach in Central Park or Prospect Park. Do some outdoor or public space events. But it hasn't been easy because now there are a lot of restrictions. Carmen Carriker: There are a lot of restrictions in New York and based on your status of vaccination, non-vaxxed, you know, it limits who you're able to access and then who feels comfortable going back into spaces. So even depending on whatever your status is there are people who are just would rather do online. And then there was others who are very happy to be back in all the public spaces. It's a... I guess I'm a person that goes with the flow and I follow my intuition. So if I feel that something is telling me, no, wait a little while longer, and then open up more opportunities then I do that. If I feel like, okay, let me hold back. Maybe we'll do hybrid for a while, maybe we'll come in, do some online, you know? Vincent Ferguson: Yes, yes. Carmen Carriker: And to see how things go until before winter season. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. So I would imagine, well, online will be around for a while. Carmen Carriker: I think that it is now a way of life for instructors and it is now a way of life for, I think it's convenient in a lot of ways save a lot of money as far as transportation. I'm someone that boots around a lot and I found that by being a online for two years and not having to ride the Metro and taking public transportation I saved tons of money. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Carmen Carriker: And the stress of traveling and commuting and coming in contact with so many people because it's a busy city, there's so much going on that can be drained alone. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Carmen Carriker: So I found that I was more at peace, just kind of being in my own space and that I still feel that, but I'm definitely love being connected with nature. So you will find me at the beach teaching or just experiencing yoga meditation for myself out in the open and sharing it online. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Most definitely. And we will also be sharing you online because we are going to be doing some Six Week Fitness programs again. And you'll definitely be one of our preferred instructors, as long as you have the availability we want you. Carmen Carriker: I can help with that. Vincent Ferguson: Now, this is my podcast, my program is called Six Weeks to Fitness. Okay. It's a subsidiary of my Body Sculpt of New York nonprofit organization. But if you had six weeks to get fit, what exercise activities would you do or recommend people do to get in shape in six weeks? Carmen Carriker: Well, I would say at first, look at your diet and come up with a food plan. You might want to consider fasting diet. Start with a fast, it could be a seven day fast juice just to clean your body out, just to help. We a colon cleanse out everything now, before you start your six week journey, you want to start off fresh and clean. So your body is rejuvenated. So I would suggest do a juice fast. And if that's new to you, you can start easy. Maybe you just cut out your carbs, cut out the heavy foods, the process foods. Only eat lean meats if you're eating lean meats and just gradually increase that. But I think that you should have definitely include healthy eating in your program and which you start the six weeks, have a calendar and then set up, have a meal prep for each week. Carmen Carriker: And then analyze, maybe do measurements to see where you are at the beginning of your fitness journey, see where you are and be kind to yourself, but do those measurements. Get a measuring tape measure your arms, measure your weights, measure your thighs and record that and then set up work workouts for each parts of the body. I know that's what I do. So I have a leg day. I have a arm day. I have ab day. I have, you know? Total body workout day, and then I'll have a day of rest. A Carmen Carriker: nd then that continues on for the full workout. I'd say it's easy to also have a buddy, have a fitness buddy. Somebody that can hold you accountable. Somebody call and say, "Hey girl, are you still doing your workout? Did you do your 25 minutes today? Or did you do an hour? Did you work out today or I'm about to do these workouts?" All right. Let's do a challenge today. Let's do 10 pushup." You know, whatever. 40 today. Whatever the challenge is, but I think it does help to have someone or have a group. It could be an online group or a group of friends or co-workers that will support you, say, "Hey, this is what I'm doing. I'm going to be working out for six weeks. My goal is to lose five pounds." And maybe even have like a money pot. So for every person in your group that loses the five pounds, they get $10 or something like that, or you do a gift exchange or something in a sense for people to really not only yourself, I know I've done it with my family members like my brother. Carmen Carriker: We did it with a group of friends and I found that it helped me and it helped them because we sometimes we were so busy and it's easy to forget, oh, I was supposed to do this today. Oh. Or I forgot like, or, you know, you might have a cheat day. Okay. I really want to eat, I want to have cupcakes today or whatever it is that you love, I'm a sweet lover. So for me vegan treats or something that you might see me eating vegan ice cream. So we all have a day that we might cheat, but just know that if you have a group or you have goals that you set for yourself, you look back at that, look at the calendar, the agenda that you set out for the workout plan that helps you kind of stay on track. Vincent Ferguson: Most definitely. Awesome advice. I appreciate that. I'm sure my listeners and viewers will take some of that into consideration. I want to touch on very briefly, the fact that in addition to all this, you are also an actress. Have you been in any shows and what's the plan for acting going forward? Carmen Carriker: Well, this was the first year that I was invited to the Tribeca Film Festival. And because of the pandemic, the festival was online. I would've loved to been invited to be on the red carpet for my first film festival as a principal dancer. But it was online. It was a Zoom call and wow, it was an amazing experience. Tessa Thompson was the lead actress in the film that I was a part of trying to remember the name of it, that's crazy. Vincent Ferguson: Oh, so that happens. Carmen Carriker: But it was a great experience just to work, to shoot. We were still filming, of course during the pandemic there's COVID testing and all that they had to be done. It was shot in Bushwick in a church so it was nearby as far as filming and I was a swing dancer in the film and it was a club scene. So the movie took place... It kind of went from, it was based off of a book and it was about the relationship that these two women had, they were black women, but they could pass for white. So it was about the challenges they faced in Harlem, these two women who grew up together, but they separated had two separate lives. They met up again, one chose to marry a black man had kids, the other chose to marry a European and there were race issues. And what ultimately happened at the end is that the truth came out and it was [crosstalk 00:32:41] Vincent Ferguson: I can imagine. Carmen Carriker: I just thought of the name of the movie. The movie is called Passing. So if you go on, I think Tribeka Film Festivals site information about those movies, I'm not sure because of the pandemic a lot of those movies have not... I don't know if they are going to be released. But during the festival you pay for a ticket, then you can watch all the movies online from your home, which is convenient. But dancing, it was a 14-hour shoot for three days. A lot of dancing, a lot of swing dancing. It was me and the 10 dancers that were featured in the club scene. We're all friends, we all work together here in New York. So it really is about who you know, because the lead choreographer avid dancer someone that I know assists in choreographer, someone that I know is from Ailey as well. Many of the dancers in the cast are former Ailey dancers, or professional actors, black performers in New York. Carmen Carriker: It was such a great opportunity. It was a well-paid gig at a time when we didn't have much work at all. Shows and events have been canceled so to have a big job like that happened before things went haywire like they are now I give thanks for that. Yeah had an opportunity to work on the movie Passing before that I was working right before the pandemic, which I guess now it's been two years, I was working on the Mandela musical. So choreographer from South Africa, musicians from South Africa they chose six dancers for the project to just set choreography for the future opening of the musical. Of course, with all of this happening, there have been so many setbacks, but at least I was a part of the creative process. So we were learning Afro beats, a fusion of Afro beat dance, modern dance, house. So it was a fusion, very rhythmic movement. So I worked on that project for, I think it was like three weeks. Vincent Ferguson: Three weeks. Nice. Carmen Carriker: Yeah. And that was the in-person. That was an in-person project we rehearsed in the studio full band. Everyone was there. It was before all this happened. That was the last project I did that was in-person. Since then I worked on another project this year with a cast, Swing Out, and Swing Out is now at The Joyce. So there was an audition process, they were seeking about 20 or maybe 18 musicians, singers, tap and swing dancers to partner up with a cast member for a residency program. And the residency program was for four weeks and at the end of the residency you'll have learned music or you've learned choreography, and then you're able to present it. And this is something that I normally would be so busy that I wouldn't be able to be a part of the residency because it would mean I would have to take off for my job, but with everything that was going on, my schedule was open and I was able to work and work with really great musicians. Really great choreographers and dancers. So shout out to the cast of Swing Out for those who are going back into theaters and on Broadway. Vincent Ferguson: Yes, Broadway. Carmen Carriker: Be [inaudible 00:37:08] so I'm honored that I was able to work with them in an online performance setting. Vincent Ferguson: Yes, yes, yes, yes. But that's okay. You've done so much though, Carmen in your young life and I'm so impressed, but what advice, or what words of encouragement would you give to other aspiring dancers and fitness professionals who's trying to get to where you are? What advice would you give them today? Carmen Carriker: Well, I'd say discipline. Discipline, know your craft. There are a lot I would say people who look good on camera and they create all types of online content, but the conditioning it takes to perform and go on tour is a very different beast. So if you're choosing to be a performer, a professional who gets paid for doing what we do, longevity, if you want to still be performing, and have a career and say, "Hey, I've been on stage and I've performed everywhere and it's been 25 years and I'm, knock on wood, injury-free. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Yes. Carmen Carriker: That's very important to say that I've danced and had a career this long and I haven't had any injuries. It's conditioned and training and listening to your body. Because we live in an environment where we're being pushed. You'll be pushed to the edge. People are going to push you to use your talents to the last little drop. But what has saved me is knowing my body and knowing my limits, knowing when I need to rest, knowing when I need to take a break and having good rapport communicating properly. Because in this world, in this industry, the connections that you make stay with you. So if you have a good reputation and you're nice to the people that you work with and people know that about you you'll get referred for jobs. If you have a bad rapport, meaning that you don't show up on time you don't have good habits. Maybe you smoke and drink on the job, or you do other types of things and I don't recommend that everyone has their choice of what they do, but when you are in a professional setting, always be professional and be yourself. Don't try to compare yourself to anyone else because there'll be people that have 10 times better than you. Then there'll be people who are still learning. So I say it's easy to look at celebrities and to look at people that you see and like, oh my God, I don't have the best social media content. I need to keep going. I need to look at what's necessary in order for you to reach the goals that you want. Carmen Carriker: Look at someone that you admire. I admire Camille Brown she is one of my peers, we're the same age and to see her growth and her development from Ailey dancer to this choreographer who is setting major work on all of the Broadway shows right now, her consistency and her beliefs and her vision and her branding, or her work, having her own and company and not allowing anyone to manipulate or change her work is why she is where she is. Her commitment to sharing the black experience through dance, her commitment to sharing and making sure our voices are heard as people of the diaspora is why she's doing Corey and Best, why she's doing all these different or that she's being called for the job. Carmen Carriker: And when you get into a position of power in the industry, keep the people in your life who support you the most with you, because you're going to need that support because if you go into an industry and you become famous and you don't have anyone around you to support you, you are vulnerable to all kinds of stuff, and you don't have people fighting for you. So I would use the people that I admire, who are very successful in the industry. You look at their assistant directors, you look at who their assistant dancers are they are people that they've been working with. Carmen Carriker: The same 10 people or five people that they known 10 years ago, or 20 years ago are on their team, on their board of advisors. So keep the people close to you. That's my advice because I know that I don't have a big company like that, but when I do have that kind of business and flow and opportunity, I'm going to definitely reach out to folks like you, of course, who have provided a platform for me to be on and many others that I've worked with so that we can grow and build together. Because that's what it really is about. Vincent Ferguson: Yes, Yes. 100%. Love that. Love it. Carmen Carriker: Just live your life. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Live your life. I'm trying. Carmen Carriker: Don't be stressed out and if you are stressed out, tell people about it, meditate, pray, have a spiritual, whatever your spiritual beliefs are, stay grounded in that because that also helps you keep a clear mind, a clear focus and knowing what your purpose is in life is also important. If you don't know what it is figure that out. And that could be a lifelong journey. We're all trying to stay on the right track. Vincent Ferguson: Oh, most definitely. This has been so uplifting and rewarding for me. And I'm sure it will be for my listeners and viewers as well, but where can my listeners and viewers find out more about Carmen Carriker? Carmen Carriker: Well, you can find out about me, you can go to my website which is crownsoulyoga.com. You can find me I have a YouTube channel at Carmen Kemetic Yoga and I'm on Facebook as Carmen Carriker. I'm on Instagram as crown soul fashionista or Cecil Kemetic Arts. But you can just look up my name, Carmen Carriker and Google Search me. I'm available, you'll see my businesses and you'll see my classes. And I'm open to working with everyone and helping us to live a more healthy, happy life. Vincent Ferguson: Yes, most definitely. Carmen Carriker on behalf of Body Sculpt of New York and Six Weeks to Fitness, I truly want to thank you for coming on my show today. Carmen Carriker: Thank you so much for having me. Vincent Ferguson: And to my listening and viewing audience, I truly hope this program was informative, encouraging, and, inspiring and that you will continue listening in and watching our Six Weeks to Fitness program. And if you have any questions or suggestions for the show, please leave them in the comment section below and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. And remember, let's Get Ready, Get Set, and let's Get Fit!

Dr. Tolu Olabintan is a board-certified Family Medicine Physician who comes on the show six weeks after starting her private practice. We discuss:Why she chose to start a private practice in the middle of a pandemic.Her fears and challenges and how she overcame them.Her experience in the first six weeks of running her own practice.Her advice to anyone thinking of starting a private practice. Links mentioned in this episode:EntreMD Business School Living Spring Medical CenterEntreMD Facebook Group 

Listen to the Daily Global #News from Grecian Echoes and WNTN 1550 AM. Communities are mourning and trying to clean up after floodwaters turned highways and homes into death traps in the Northeast. The remnants from Hurricane #Ida pummeled cities with unprecedented rainfall in some areas, leaving at least 46 people dead in six  states. More than 80% of Americans 16 and older have some level of immunity against the coronavirus -- mostly through vaccination, a new survey shows. Clashes erupted overnight between Taliban fighters and an anti-Taliban group in Afghanistan's northern Panjshir Valley.  Texas new law bans abortions after 6 weeks. The Supreme Court denied a request from Texas abortion providers to freeze the state law, meaning it will remain on the books for now.

From levity to gravity...Is Texas the home of the "Christian Taliban"? Should Biden be impeached? And what about the "woke" NFL? "The World According To Ben Stein" covers it all.

In today's Episode, Chris argues that when 50% of the representation represents 20% of the population, it allows for a Tyranny of a Minority. We see this in cancel culture as well as laws crafted from extreme views within the parties. The state of Texas' abortion law is reflective of a minority interest. Chris also looks at the SCOTUS decision not to freeze the state law, by and large tilting their hand as to how they might rule in the coming Mississippi case this fall that asks for a 15 week viability standard.And while abortion is being restricted in the most significant way since Roe v Wade was decided in 1973, Texas in the same week enacted a law to allow gun owners to open carry in public with no license or training. Also on the table: a Second Guess on #Digital Dunkirk as veterans and U.S. citizens outside the government work to help get people out of Afghanistan after the U.S. evacuation and withdrawal has ended.

President Joe Biden denounced the implementation of SB 8 saying his “administration is deeply committed to the constitutional right established in Roe v. Wade.”

Hour 2: Gresh and Keefe are joined by Tom E Curran who explains why the Patriots cut Cam Newton and why Stephon Gilmore was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform list.  Then the guys get the fans' reactions to Cam's release and Gilmore being placed on PUP. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The law, which is one of the most restrictive in the country, will take effect Wednesday.

All uploads on this channel are for promotional purposes only! The music has been converted before uploading to prevent ripping and to protect the artist(s) and label(s). If you don't want your content here (that goes for audio or images) please contact me immediately via email: unpluggedtube@outlook.it and I WILL REMOVE THE EPISODE OR ARTWORK IMMEDIATELY! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Of Monsters and Men - Full Concert Recorded Live: 3/15/2012 - Stage On Sixth (Austin, TX) Setlist: 0:00:00 - Dirty Paws 0:04:42 - King And Lionheart 0:09:06 - Beneath My Bed 0:13:28 - Little Talks 0:17:43 - Lighthouse 0:22:22 - Six Weeks. Team UNPLUGGED.

Episode 33 was ON FIRE! Kyle wanted more playoffs...and BY GOD we got more playoffs! We Talk: - Wild finish to the BMW - We discuss our terrible picks - Ben's first round back after SIX WEEKS off from surgery! ENJOY IT DADGUMIT Sponsors: Swannies.co - Swannies is a modern brand for golfers who want to look good regardless of where they’re playing (or how well). Perfect for Dadbods! Use coupon code DADBODGOLFPOD-25 for 25% off your next order! Sweetrollzgolf.com - As Sweetrollz set out to desing the "Sistine Chapel of putter grips" they wanted to be bold, but keep it classy. The result is a beautiful line of super high-quality putter grips for every golfer who wants to make a personalized statement without having to sacrifice performance! Use coupon code DADBOD20 for 20% off your next order!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this Episode of my Six Weeks to Fitness podcast, I explore the importance of motivation to help you achieve a healthy mind and body.  Did those extra pounds you lost prior to the pandemic, find you again?  If so, now is not the time to give up or give in.  It's time to step out of your comfort zone and do what others won't do in order to get what others won't get.  Too often we give up right at the doorstep of success, but what if you had that extra motivation from people who have been there before.  What if you were to hear the right words at the right moment from motivational speakers that will help push you towards your goals. So you failed at your fitness goals, so what? That was yesterday, today is a new day.  Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times before he found the answer.  Have you tried even twice or three times before giving up?  My father told me many years ago, he said “son, nothing beats a failure but a try,” so each day I get up, I thank God for another day, I start trying, because I know that the race is given to the swift nor the battle to the strong but to the person that endureth to the end, and so today on this podcast, I'm doing something a little different and bringing forth 20 minutes of motivation from various speakers.  We all need a little kick in the rear sometimes to wake us up and keep us moving towards our fitness goals.  You see, life isn't a sprint, it's a marathon, and I know the importance of finding inspiration and motivation along the way to help keep you focused on your beliefs and goals and these motivational speeches may be just what you need to keep going, so, sit back and enjoy some of my favorite motivational speeches, and if you would like to hear more podcasts like this, just drop a comment and let me know. I would love to hear from you.

Mercedes De La Cruz is a Canadian born actress and model best known for her memorable and charismatic performances in more than two dozen television shows and independent films. After a successful modeling career, De La Cruz made the transition to a versatile supporting actor lauded as a great actress by the likes of Academy Award nominee, Sally Kirkland for her role as Carla, a savvy pregnant prostitute in Ramshackle Blues, De La Cruz was nominated for a best-supporting actress at the 2019 Vancouver Bad-Ass Film Festival. De La Cruz recently wrapped filming a co-lead in the feature Because You're Dead to Me. And also a movie called The Machine where she can talk a little bit more about while we have the interview. And the co-starring role in the Netflix series Made an extensive spiritual journey, led her to overcome an alcohol and drug addiction. Vincent Ferguson: Her in-depth study in A Course In Miracles led her to a massive change in her perspective and gave way to her being able to see energy on objects. This new development opened her eyes to energy work and set her on an even deeper mission. Health and fitness have always been a high priority for Mercedes as a classically trained ballerina for well over a decade, she is no stranger to a strict fitness regimen. She lifts weights, does circuit training, Yoga and Pilates, and when it comes to nutrition, Mercedes has always been interested in pushing her boundaries, everything from intermittent fasting to breatherianism or the Paleo diet to being a vegetarian. She is now a firm believer in being in communication with your body, giving it what it needs, and eating a lot less than we are used to. So let's welcome Mercedes De La Cruz to my Six Weeks to Fitness podcast. Mercedes how are you? Mercedes De La Cruz: Hi. Wow. I'm really good. How are you? Vincent Ferguson: I'm good. I'm good. Before we talk about fitness and spirituality. Let's talk also about your acting career. Mercedes De La Cruz: Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Vincent Ferguson: You started out as a model, a very successful one, and yet you transitioned to acting what or who inspired you to get into acting? Mercedes De La Cruz: Well, I actually, even before modeling, I was a dancer and I started on stage when I was three years old. And I really like performing, ballet was one thing, but performing just being up there and the crowd and the lights and the excitement and all the energy up there. I really, really wanted more of that. And I mean, I was super young, I was three years old. And so I've been on stage kind of ever since. So I wasn't actually inspired by anyone really specific to perform. I just kind of have always done it. And actually my boyfriend asked me this today. We were doing this fitness stretching class a little while ago and I was really flexible. And he's like, "Have you always been so flexible?" And I was like, "Well, yeah, I was a ballerina. And he was like, "Well, but before you were a ballerina?" And I'm like, "Well, there wasn't anything before." Vincent Ferguson: Right. You're a toddler. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. I don't have any in-depth memories of what it was like before I was three years old. So it feels that same way with performing as well. Vincent Ferguson: Well, so you're actually doing what you believe you were born to do? Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah, pretty much. And that's the funny thing, being a dancer... And it wasn't just ballet that I did. I did ballet, jazz, musical theater, song and dance, like whatever my dance school had. I didn't do tap because I heard it was bad for your knees. That was silly. I was always dancing and performing and I realized later on that it wasn't even really dance that I wanted to do. It was more the performing side, but it was my mom who really was like, "Oh, you're such a great dancer." And I wanted to make her happy and we do that as human beings. We want to please the other people around us and get approval. But I think if someone would have really asked me like, what I preferred I probably would have been acting a lot sooner. Vincent Ferguson: Really? A lot sooner. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. I mean, not sooner than three, but rather than taking all those years of dance, I think I would have liked to get more into acting sooner than I did. Vincent Ferguson: But doesn't having that background in dance compliment your acting? Mercedes De La Cruz: Absolutely. I think there's a lot of major benefits from all the dance classes that I took and in that is discipline. Right. Vincent Ferguson: Right. Mercedes De La Cruz: Also, competence and learning about you, about your body as well. I'm not shy by any means, and I don't know if I would've ever been, but all the years of being on stage or being around that many people I think probably contributed to that as well. And then also listening. Right. Like being able to take direction. I think that was cultivated in dance. Vincent Ferguson: I know you were born in Edmonton, Canada, but you moved to Vancouver. Why did you move to Vancouver? Mercedes De La Cruz: To pursue acting. Vincent Ferguson: Really? Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. I've always worked really hard and I left home really early when I was about 13 years old was the first time that I left home. Vincent Ferguson: Really? Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. And I always had lots of jobs. I really wanted to be successful. And so I had part-time jobs and even through school, even when I wasn't living with my family, I always worked. And then I started a bunch of businesses and I had a home decor and painting company, and I had a marketing and promotions company and I was modeling and acting and traveling, and I was doing so many things and I was really spread thin. And I think because of that, and probably because I was drinking a lot as well I just wasn't feeling centered. And I felt quite depressed. And a close friend of mine, Robert Andrews, who had been a photographer actually, who's been taking my pictures since I was 17 years old, he sat me down and he was like, "All right, you're not happy. I can see that. What is it that you need to be doing? Or if you woke up every day and you were going to be doing something that would make you happy, what would it be?" Mercedes De La Cruz: And without even thinking, I was like, "Acting." Like, it was like quick. Vincent Ferguson: Quick. Mercedes De La Cruz: Quick answer. And he was like, "Okay, you got to move." And so I thought about two places that I could live in Canada where I would act and it would be either Toronto or Vancouver. And Vancouver was a lot closer. Vincent Ferguson: Okay. Mercedes De La Cruz: To Edmonton. Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. Mercedes De La Cruz: And I chose Vancouver. And so within I think it was three weeks, I got rid of everything pretty much that I owned and packed up what I could fit in my Volvo and moved to Vancouver. And I didn't know what I was going to do. I didn't have an agent. I didn't know anybody. I didn't have an acting class set up, nothing. I had no idea, but I just felt that's where I needed to be. And lo and behold, it worked out perfectly. Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. Most definitely. Now again, you stepped out on faith. Mercedes De La Cruz: I did. Oh yeah. Vincent Ferguson: Right. Mercedes De La Cruz: I do that a lot. Vincent Ferguson: Faith. And you had no agent. Okay. Mercedes De La Cruz: Nope. Vincent Ferguson: Nope. So did you have to audition for your first show, for your first movie? Mercedes De La Cruz: First things first when I got to Vancouver, this was before everybody had computers. Right. So I was going to internet cafes when that was the thing. Vincent Ferguson: Okay. Mercedes De La Cruz: And I doing up my resume at the internet cafe and I was looking for an agent and I was sending my resume to all these different agencies. And then you would have to audition for your agent. They would want to see what you were like. Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. Mercedes De La Cruz: And I mean, I was lucky. I'm ethnically ambiguous so I can play a lot of different roles. And that's definitely something that agencies would like to have. I have like a Hispanic look. I'm very mixed, so I can play a lot of different things. Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. Versatile. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. Very versatile. And in Vancouver, there's very few Hispanic actors. So I did have a pretty big pick of agencies that I could go with, but still I had to audition for that. Mercedes De La Cruz: And in the beginning... I mean, I already had acting credits, I had experience. And I had been taking classes and I had already had a resume of work that I had done, but it was different. Like now I'm in a city where there's TV shows. Right. And I've never been on a TV show before. I didn't even know what that looked like. So I started doing backgrounds and for, I think probably two years, I did background work, which was great because it got you or got me to see how that all works. Vincent Ferguson: Right. Mercedes De La Cruz: Right. What everyone's job is in the production, the hours, and also just like the craziness of having to do the scene over and over and over again. And it's like Groundhog day, right. Mercedes De La Cruz: Not only that let's say it's a party scene and you're dancing at a club. Well, you'll have to do a take where you're dancing with music. Then you have to do a take with dancing without music, probably a few times. Then you have to do it again because you have this person's dialogue and then it's the other person's dialogue. And then there's going to be times where you're supposed to talk to the people that are around you. And other times you have to pretend that you're talking to these people because they don't want to have any sound. It's crazy. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. So that was really interesting. And then of course, for anything that I was wanting to be part of it, definitely an audition process. I mean, I was new to the city. I didn't know the casting agencies. Mercedes De La Cruz: I didn't know of casting. I didn't know anybody. Right. So I was going in like completely blind. And I mean, even just to get to these places at the time... I don't think I had a car when I had first, when I first moved down there. Yeah. I don't know what happened there. So I was like taking the bus to weird places and getting lost. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Exactly. By yourself. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. Everything that happens when you move to a brand new city and you're young and naive, but it worked out great. Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. It definitely worked out. Mercedes De La Cruz: Now it's a different beast as you've been in the city longer, you know the people and it's not so scary. Vincent Ferguson: Right. Exactly. Exactly. But it's worked out for you in Vancouver. All right. Most of your success has been there, correct? Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: But I understand you're no longer in Vancouver is that a fact? Where are you now? And why did you move from Vancouver to where you are now? Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. All right. Well, where I am now is Belgrade, Serbia. Vincent Ferguson: Serbia. Oh my goodness. Mercedes De La Cruz: Serbia. Yeah. It's been a while wild ride. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. Mercedes De La Cruz: I didn't even really know much about Serbia until a few years ago. My, partner, my boyfriend, Mario Milanovich, he is Serbian born in Belgrade, but didn't actually live here. He lived in Germany and then Canada and sometime in the U.S. But about five years ago, he came back for some business and we had started to take trips here and we really enjoy it. The people are so welcoming. The food is so fresh. Like GMO, what? They don't have that here. Vincent Ferguson: Really? Nice. Mercedes De La Cruz: No, I mean, it's incredible. And the prices are like... Gosh, you go to the farmer's market and you get bags and bags and bags of produce and it's like five bucks. And the tomatoes are the size of like two hands. Vincent Ferguson: What? Mercedes De La Cruz: It's wild. Yeah. Beautiful. Vincent Ferguson: Really? Mercedes De La Cruz: So anyways, we had been coming back and forth for some time and really enjoyed it. And then when COVID happened, it was challenging in Vancouver. The prices are really expensive, property's expensive, my bills were really high and I wasn't working. So I found it quite challenging to sustain my regular lifestyle. And my partner really wanted to get out of the west. So he came out to Serbia and he persuaded me to come too. Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. Whoa. Yes. Mercedes De La Cruz: So yeah, I did kind of what I did in Vancouver I gave all my things away. I also had an energy healing business in Vancouver. I closed the doors of that. I gave everything, I owned away like all my clothes, all my accessories. I used to style shoot too so I had closets full of yeah, full of everything. And I gave everything I owned to friends and whatever else I wasn't able to give away I gave to charity. And I packed two suitcases and moved to Serbia. And I mean, I didn't know the language. I didn't have any friends or family here. I didn't know what I was going to do. I didn't even know if I was going to act. I was just, again, going on faith- Vincent Ferguson: Really. Mercedes De La Cruz: ... Yeah. And I said, "All right, universe. All right, God, I know that everything's always working out for me so let's just dive in and trust that everything that I desire is still going to be accessible." And then I'm just going to do it and so I did. And within like a month, I got acquainted with an amazing acting coach from New York City, Adam Davenport. Yeah. And he's a phenomenal human being. He's now my acting coach and publicist. And he started an acting school out in Serbia, believe it or not because he came to prep for a movie that he was doing and he is a phenomenal acting coach to begin with in New York. He won like to top 10 acting coaches in the region. So when he came out here, he thought, "All right, I'm going to start a school." So I joined his acting school and met friends that way and got acquainted with casting agencies. And lo and behold, I end up working on a Hollywood movie in Serbia. Vincent Ferguson: Really? Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: A Hollywood movie in Serbia? Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. Yes, in Serbia. I've been trying to break into the Hollywood scene for some time and I'd done some small roles here and there or whatever, but I would've never thought that coming to Serbia would land me a role in a legendary picture, feature film. Vincent Ferguson: Amazing. Mercedes De La Cruz: But it did. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: I was just going to say, I was going to ask you, well, most actresses if they want to make it big, they'll usually travel to Hollywood. Okay. But you traveled to Serbia and ended up in a Hollywood movie. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: So, how is the film industry out there? Is it booming? A lot of opportunities for you? Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. Actually, it's fantastic. They really have a good foundation for productions to come here now. They have tons of crews ready to go there. The government is offering a tax incentive. It's also cheap. Right. The labor is inexpensive. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. I see. Mercedes De La Cruz: And it's not unionized out here. Vincent Ferguson: Oh, it's not. Mercedes De La Cruz: No, I know it's very different in Serbia. They didn't even have any agents here up until this past year. So even all the actors, they just represent themselves, which is something that is unheard of in the west. Vincent Ferguson: Crazy. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. It's all who you know, right. So you end up knowing casting directors or casting agents and they will find their roles that way. And it's super unusual. But because of that the pay is very low typically for the actors out here. So when a production from, let's say, New York or Los Angeles comes here and they're paying bigger rates, it's a big deal. It's a big deal for the actors here. Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. I could imagine. Must be fighting to get a role. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. But I mean, we always are anyway. Vincent Ferguson: It's so interesting though, because again, wherever you go you seem to land on your feet? Mercedes De La Cruz: Absolutely. Vincent Ferguson: And we're going to talk about that, but I know that you, again, after reading your bio and you've mentioned you are classically trained ballerina. I also understand you are a Miss Hawaiian Tropic as well as being a successful actress, but which tells me that you are someone who pretty much takes care of her body. And yet at one point in your life, you had a drug and alcohol problem. How did that come about and what steps did you take to kick that habit? Mercedes De La Cruz: Well, I've always been very good to my body and then also not so good to my body. And I think primarily... Gosh, like how did it start? I don't know. I mean, I think it first starts like, you're just a kid and you're having fun and you're drinking and partying with friends and then you get a little older and you're still drinking and partying with friends and then maybe your friends are getting out of that and you still kind of doing it. It was a progressive thing for me. There wasn't any specific incident where it was super traumatic and I wanted to escape. But I found as the years went on, I did use it for escapism. Like there's beliefs that were going on, maybe beliefs of not being good enough or worthlessness or lack, right. Mercedes De La Cruz: Or fear. And I think rather than having to feel those feelings, it's so much easier to just numb it out. And that's what I did. And I think also another big part of it was my lifestyle. I had all these jobs and some of them were in nightclubs and some of them were in lounges and bars. And some of them were like in party scenes. Like when I had that marketing and promotions company, I was putting on big events, traveling all over with other models. Even like with the Miss Hawaiian Tropic stuff, you're with other gorgeous women at parties and they're offering you whatever, drinks and drugs. And so, it's a party until it's not a party. Vincent Ferguson: Right. Exactly. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah, I think that's really what happened for me. But I think the longer that I drank and did those drugs, the more I felt those feelings of worthlessness. Like the depression would set in the next day. And for five days after, and I hated myself and I hated my life. And it would take for me to get like, "Okay, I got to get up, dress up, show up, get to the gym." Right. And I would do this cycle thing. Okay. So I party all weekend and then come Monday, I'm back at the gym. I got to get my body back and I started feeling better by Friday. And then here we go, party again on the weekend. So I think it was for me, I had to hit a place that was kind of like a rock bottom where I just couldn't do this anymore. And from that, I was able to make some changes, but it wasn't until I put the alcohol down completely that I could make any change. Vincent Ferguson: Okay. So you did this on your own? No one came to you. You didn't go to a drug rehab program, alcohol anonymous, anything like that? Mercedes De La Cruz: Oh my God. No, I tried everything. Vincent Ferguson: Oh, you did? Mercedes De La Cruz: Oh, sure. God, must've been nearly a decade ago now when I chose to quit drinking. I was like, "Okay, there's got to be a better way. Enough is enough." And I was on a spiritual path. I knew that there had to be a better way and I wanted to shift my perspective. And in that I went and stayed at a spiritual retreat center for three months. And I mean, it wasn't a rehab facility, but it was for anybody, anybody who wanted to make a shift in their lives. I started something that I sort of made up called the Yes Experiment where I would say yes to anything that came into my experience. Mercedes De La Cruz: And so if someone was like, "You should try this course." I would say, "Yes." "You should go to AA." I said, "Yes." "You should get a sponsor." I said, "Yes." So I did absolutely everything I could get my hands on. I've gone for silent meditation retreats. Like the Pasana where you meditate for 10 hours a day, 10 days straight, which is a hundred hours of meditation- Vincent Ferguson: Really? Mercedes De La Cruz: ... in 10 days. Yeah. And in that you can't talk to anybody. You can't look at anybody, you have to keep your gaze down. Yeah. That was interesting. I've gone and done like Ayahuasca ceremonies, probably 20 of them. I've gone and done like dark room meditations. I've gone for different sort of body work, energy work. Oh my gosh. You know what? I probably have a list of like 40 different things that I've tried. Vincent Ferguson: Really. Really. Unbelievable. Mercedes De La Cruz: I did not do it alone. Vincent Ferguson: Most definitely. I guess I have to wait for the book to come out right, on your life. Mercedes De La Cruz: Pretty much. Vincent Ferguson: Because I also know that you studied a course called A Course in Miracles. That book, that course was written by Marianne Williamson, correct? Mercedes De La Cruz: No. Vincent Ferguson: This is the original. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. The original is not. The original is actually it was written by Automatic Writing and it was Ellen Schulman. And this was in the seventies and her and her partner, they were psychologists or psychiatrists. No psychiatrist, yeah, at a university. And at the university, it was really having lots of issues and it was going downhill and their faculty was really having a hard time. And her and her partner Bill Thetford, we're like, "Okay, something's got to give." And Ellen started hearing voices in her head. And the voices were saying, "This is a course in miracles, take notes." And at first she thought she was crazy and she didn't want to do anything with it. And she thought, "Oh my gosh, this sounds like schizophrenia." And being a psychologist, this doesn't sound good. So eventually as time went on, she eventually told Bill like, "Look, I got to tell you something. I'm hearing these voices. What do you think I should do?" And he was like, "Did you ever think of taking notes?" Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. Mercedes De La Cruz: Because that's what the voices were saying. Vincent Ferguson: That's good. Wow. Mercedes De La Cruz: [crosstalk 00:26:11] take notes. So she did, she started taking notes and went and showed him the next day. And as he read what she wrote he was like flabbergasted. It was the words of, and this is I mean, it sounds crazy, but Jesus. And specifically, she was an atheist Jew or something like that. So, I mean, this was not something that she was writing herself, but it was very old English, which is not the way that she spoke. But they ended up writing this whole thing. And it was seven years, it took them to write this book. And then there's the Course and there's 365 lessons one per day. And it's all about changing your perspective. And so the Course in Miracles was really transformational for me because, I was stuck in this point of view of believing these ridiculous beliefs about myself and with the shift of perspective you can start seeing how the things that maybe I thought at one time, maybe aren't true. Right. Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: So this has changed your life and your whole perspective on life? Mercedes De La Cruz: Absolutely. I mean, and that's where it started. There's different ways of saying it. There's tons of different books and even like Landmark Personal Development Program was kind of the first step that I had in that direction when I quit drinking. And the same thing, it's about shifting your perspective. And it's like, this is the story and this is what I made up about the story or what the story means about me. Right. And so it's that distinction between this is actually what happened, and this is what I feel happened. And when I can separate the two, I'm not a victim anymore. And when I'm not a victim anymore then I have control and I can choose the kind of reality that I wish to perceive or to have more of or to create. Vincent Ferguson: Hm. Very, very deep. Mercedes De La Cruz: Thanks. Vincent Ferguson: And I love it. Do you believe in miracles or do you believe that we create our own miracles? Mercedes De La Cruz: Well, I think both. I think a miracle and even in the Course in Miracles, what they talk about is a miracle is just going from fear to love. In our experience we oscillate all day long where we're in love... And when I mean love, I don't mean like romantic love, but just feeling joy, peace, freedom, all of that. And when we're in fear, we're feeling anything either than peace, love, and joy. So it could be annoyance. It could be when I say fear, not just fear of like the dog, but like fear of tomorrow, the future, the path. It could be heartache. It could be loneliness, like all of these emotions are all under the fear category. And so the miracle is being in a state of that and then being able to get out of it right and shift to that love state. And I think that's what we're doing all the time. Right. We want to spend more time over there. And when I'm over there, then I get to create more of that because whatever I'm focused on, I get more of. So it's simple. It's just not easy. Vincent Ferguson: Definitely not. But whatever you focus the most of your time and energy on that's what you bring out. Right. That's what you bring about. And it's easy to say, but it's hard to focus on what you really want. Mercedes De La Cruz: Well, yeah. We're so imprinted and patterned with this looking for what's wrong rather than looking for what's right. Vincent Ferguson: Exactly. Do you believe there is a higher power that directs your life? Mercedes De La Cruz: I definitely believe that there's a higher power. I don't necessarily think that it's directing my life. I believe that it's there if I want to take it. I believe I'm directing my life, but when I let go and relax and I trust then I can go with the flow. But because I have free will I can push away from that flow- Vincent Ferguson: Yes. Easily. Mercedes De La Cruz: ... anytime I want. Vincent Ferguson: Exactly. Yes. Yes. So true. So true. Now at this stage of your acting career and your life, how important is fitness? Mercedes De La Cruz: Wow. It's very important to me. Fitness and nutrition both are very important, but it's in a different way. I used to be a crazy gym rat, like I would spend three hours a day at the gym. And I'm that girl that like, if I'm supposed to do 10 pushups, like I'll do 50. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. Mercedes De La Cruz: Like I pushed myself so hard almost to a detriment because I didn't listen to my body for a really long time. And I didn't know how. I think as human beings, we were raised where our parents said, "Listen to me, I know better." Or the teacher says, "Listen to me, I know better." Or the doctor says, "Listen to me, I know better." Nobody said like Follow your inner guidance system. You know what to do." Vincent Ferguson: Right. Mercedes De La Cruz: Nobody said that. And because of that, we don't trust ourselves. We don't trust how our body feels. We don't trust these little bits of insight maybe, or intuition that we get. We don't know that we know. And so forever, I kept reading books about what I thought I should do for fitness or reading books about what I thought I should do about nutrition. And now I do the opposite, I do what I can and I do what lights me up. And with food, I eat what I want. And I don't mean it in a way of like, eat donuts all the time. But I used to have this point of view that I'm supposed to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, then three snacks in between. And like don't eat after six and all of these things that we read or we heard, and that's fine and dandy, but like, that's not what my body's asking for. Vincent Ferguson: Ah, yes. Mercedes De La Cruz: Right. So it wasn't until I took food away entirely. I became a breatherian. Which a breatherian is somebody who sustains their life force energy by A changing your mind to what's possible in breathing exercises. And in that you don't have to eat food. I know that sounds wild, but I did that for half a year. Vincent Ferguson: Really. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. And at first I thought, oh my gosh, there's no way that I'm going to be able to have any energy or whatever. And it was actually the opposite. Vincent Ferguson: Really. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yep. I had more energy than I had ever had before. I didn't need to sleep as much. And this is why, this is what they say. And I mean, I don't know the facts behind it, but what they say in breatherianism is that we use 80% of our energy to digest our food. Mercedes De La Cruz: So if that's the case and you get up in the morning and you eat, and then you eat lunch and then you eat dinner and then you eat before bed well, you're digesting all day long using 80% of your energy. That means that you're working on 20% energy all day. Vincent Ferguson: Wow. Mercedes De La Cruz: Well, how are you supposed to like drive your car, be creative, basic motor function, have conversations, like that's tough. Well, you take all that digestion process away and all of a sudden you have 80% more energy. So you can be more creative. Your body can heal throughout the day, rather than waiting for you to fall asleep when you're finally not eating. Things like that. So anyways, long story short, I wanted to throw that in there just to say, when I took all the food away and realized that these points of view that I had around... I mean, we were told no food or water for three days, you'll die. Right. Vincent Ferguson: Right. Mercedes De La Cruz: I think of a common "fact". Well, I've gone seven days with no food and no water and I wasn't thirsty or hungry and I could have went longer I was just bored. Vincent Ferguson: Oh my goodness. Mercedes De La Cruz: What I believe will then become my reality. And so that's why it's important to change your mind to what's possible. In doing all of that, I realized like my body will tell me what it needs. And because I took everything away, I could just start implementing what I needed. I wouldn't call myself a breatherian anymore. However, I might go a couple of days without eating and then maybe I'll go a few days with eating a lot. Or maybe I won't have breakfast for a while. Maybe I'll decide, I just want salad. But I just listen to my body and I give it what it desires and I don't have any problems. I feel light. I feel more energetic. Vincent Ferguson: Yeah. Mercedes De La Cruz: I have more energy to go out and... I started running. Like, I didn't think I was a runner. I started doing that. And I love working out. I love working out in the gym. I love heavy weights, but I don't go as crazy as I used to. I just do what feels good. Vincent Ferguson: And you listen more to your body. Correct? Mercedes De La Cruz: That's it. Vincent Ferguson: Amazing. Now you recently wrapped up filming, as I mentioned, a co-lead and the feature Because You're Dead To Me but you said you also wrapped up a movie called The Machine. Talk about that for a minute. Mercedes De La Cruz: Well, yeah. The Because You're Dead To Me is an independent film that we shot in Vancouver. And right now it's being sent to festivals. So we'll see what happens with that. And then The Machine is a Legendary Pictures, feature film from LA. And that movie is about Bert Kreischer. He's a comedian in the U.S. and you can actually watch his special on Netflix. He's hilarious. Vincent Ferguson: Nice. Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah, he's a jolly dude that doesn't like to wear a shirt. So he's usually topless in all of his spandex. He just doesn't like the way it feels, he's so funny. And actually doing the movie, he wasn't wearing clothes for most of that. I mean the top, he had pants on. Anyway. Yeah. So he's a hilarious comedian. And he has a standup routine called The Machine. Mercedes De La Cruz: And what it's about is him in college taking Russian, which he actually thought was Spanish in the beginning, but is like that good of a student that he didn't realize. He wanted to get out of the class and the teacher was like, "Look, we need X amount of students for this to be a class, just stay in the class and I'll give you a C." And he was like, "Okay." Vincent Ferguson: Really. Cool. Mercedes De La Cruz: And she's like, "You don't have to do..." Yeah, "You don't have to do anything. Don't worry about like writing tasks. I'll just give you a C." And he was like "Score." So he took it. And after four years of Russian, they went on a class trip to Russia where he got involved with the Russian mob. And it's a hilarious skit that he does all about that. So for the movie it's about that. And then 20 years later, him and his dad get abducted by the Russian mob for things that they believe that he did 20 years prior. So it's Bert Kreischer and Mark Hamill plays his father who was Luke Skywalker. Vincent Ferguson: Mark Hamill. Mercedes De La Cruz: The original Luke Skywalker. Yep. And yeah, and I'm in that and I play his teacher. Vincent Ferguson: Nice. And you said you wrapped it up. So is it going to be released in a film or Netflix? How is it going to be released? Mercedes De La Cruz: Well, it's a feature film. So Legendary Pictures also did like Godzilla, The Hangover, they're a big production company. Yeah. I believe it's going to be a Hollywood blockbuster. I don't know when they're going to release it. I don't know. I don't know what's happening with that now that so many productions were probably put on hold because of COVID and maybe aren't released yet because all the theaters aren't back in running. I don't really know. Vincent Ferguson: Right. Right. Mercedes De La Cruz: But I do know that Bert right now is on tour with his standup. So he's probably promoting the movie and hopefully it will be out maybe by next year, I'm hoping. Vincent Ferguson: Yes. I hope so, too. It sounds great. It really does. How can my listeners find out more about you Mercedes? Mercedes De La Cruz: Well, you can check me out on Instagram. I'm Mercedes De La Cruz one. Also, you can look me up on IMDB and my IMDB link is on my Instagram page, also Facebook. But I post on Instagram a few times a week, at least. And I'm always talking about what I'm up to in my stories. And I make little videos here and there as well. And I post a lot of modeling pictures and people can reach me that way. I've also helped people out, when it comes to getting clean and sober, giving advice, whatever. So if anybody needs a hand with anything like that or just wants some advice, drop me a line. Vincent Ferguson: And they can do that via Instagram? Mercedes De La Cruz: Yeah. Vincent Ferguson: Nice. Well Mercedes De La Cruz on behalf of body sculpt of New York, that's my nonprofit organization, and Six Weeks of Fitness I truly want to thank you for coming on my show today. Mercedes De La Cruz: Thank you. Vincent Ferguson: And to my listeners, I truly hope this program was informative, encouraging, and inspiring, and that you will continue tuning in to our Six Weeks to Fitness podcast. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the show, please leave them on my Six Weeks to Fitness blog at www.6weekstofitness.com or email me at vince@sixweeks.com. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. Mercedes De La Cruz: Bye.  

A Good Six Weeks by Dan Ryan and Wil Neururer

This is a question that can be answered in three simple words, but listen in for a complete and satisfying explanation from Thom.Using an analogy that we can all relate to, Thom explains that the discomfort caused by not meditating should be enough to inspire us to keep practicing regularly, twice a day.It's a short and concise episode that should strengthen your resolve to keep your meditation practice regular.Episode Highlights: [00:40] A Little Device Was Invented[01:59] It's Not a Chore[03:19] A Kind of Anathema[04:03] No Harm[04:51] Superseding Other Techniques[06:10] Six Weeks and You'll Never Look BackUseful Links: info@thomknoles.com https://thomknoles.com/https://www.instagram.com/thethomknoles/https://www.facebook.com/thethomknoleshttps://www.youtube.com/c/thomknoles https://thomknoles.com/ask-thom-anything/

Are you feeling tired and stressed with all that's going on in the world around you? Well, you're in luck. Joining me today on my Six Weeks to Fitness podcast is Brooke Rozzie, a certified health and wellness coach, nutritionist and personal trainer with over 12 years of experience in the wellness industry. She is also the creator of the Balanced Body program, a program dedicated to supporting women in not only achieving their goals, but to truly transform their relationship with their body. So they could not only have the energy they need to keep up with their busy mom life, but to also feel good in their skin while doing it. Today, Brooke will provide some expert fitness and nutrition tips for you busy moms out there and, show you how to balance your body and your life. Vince Ferguson: Brooke, But before we discuss your Balanced Body program, tell my listeners more about Brooke Rozzie. Where did you grow up and what was Brooke's childhood like? Brooke Rozzie: Oh gosh. How much time do we have? So I grew up in Michigan. I grew up in a pretty great home. My parents were awesome. We all have our family stuff, right? I grew up with a brother with addictions. I was overweight as a kid, and I think that presented challenges in itself growing up. And I really learned fitness from a younger age. Around sixth grade I lost most of the weight by myself and I didn't know how to do it healthily. And I grew up watching my mom diet a lot of my life, talking poorly about her body. I'm what I call like the SnackWell generation, where everything was fat free. Brooke Rozzie: And that's the environment I grew up in. And so I developed some eating disorder tendencies in high school due to a lot of those things. Poor body image, the way I talk to myself and I really started to realize what I was doing as I entered my young twenties. But in your young twenties, like most females, a lot of my approach to nutrition was still like, "Is this making me fat or skinny? How is this making me look in a bathing suit?" It was never, "How is this making me feel when I choose this," and prioritizing my health until I lost my dad about seven years ago and through the trauma of losing him and the stress, I really started to see the wellness side of the industry and see how much other environmental factors in our life were influencing how we feel in our body. Brooke Rozzie: My body went a little haywire from it. My hormones went out of control. I developed Hypothyroid, and I was really forced into understanding how much my endocrine system and a lot of those things were playing a role in how I was feeling day to day. So, from personal experience, that truly transformed how I coach people and why I coach people the way I do, because I started to see how much other women were feeling similar ways that I had been feeling in my body. And after becoming a mom, I struggled with postpartum anxiety and I didn't feel like I really had any resources or understanding as to why it was happening. I've always been in the nature to ask why? Why is this happening? Not just accept "Oh, you just have it." But my question was always like, "Well, why do I have this?" Brooke Rozzie: It just came out of nowhere. So I really started to ask why and explore a lot of those things and when I started to see that there were so many different moms feeling the same way in their body and not understanding or getting the support, it really led me to truly developing the Balanced Body program that I coach and how I coach to it now because I really, obviously, I want women to feel good in their skin and achieve their goals and feel their best, but I really want you to just feel good when you're there. I tell a lot of my clients I don't care if you lose 20 pounds, if you don't feel good, I want you to feel good when you're there too. Vince Ferguson: And you mentioned, explain what that is to my listeners and how you dealt with that. Brooke Rozzie: So, Hypothyroid is essentially like, think of your master metabolism controller. Well, essentially if your thyroid is not functioning ideally, then we can pretty much assume that a lot of other parts of your endocrine system, meaning your sex hormone function and your stress responses and your gut health are not functioning the way that they should be either. So it really impacted a lot of areas in my life, my energy during the day, my anxiety, how I was able to sleep at night, foods that I was craving, my digestion. It impacted so many areas. I did go on a medication. I still take one now. I partnered with physicians to truly understanding the nutrition that I needed to be consuming to feel my best. Brooke Rozzie: And it really did gear me towards taking more of an individual approach with everything I do because the basic things that I was doing just wasn't working for me and I really had to learn that nutrition and workout were more than just the food that I was eating. It was how I was balancing the stress in my body and how I was moving my body to support the stressors and things that I was experiencing. Vince Ferguson: So do you feel that nutrition plays a major part in how you feel? Brooke Rozzie: A hundred percent. I try to explain it to people it's, the number one way available for your body to get nutrients is through your food. Our body is designed to receive nutrients through our food. Supplementation and things like that are amazing that we have options like that but we shouldn't have to rely on things like that. So you're your food truly, I always say, your food literally dictates your mood. Brooke Rozzie: If we're lacking nutrients, for example, like magnesium, we have 200 enzymatic processes in our body that need efficient magnesium to function. And when we're low, we have 200 enzymatic processes in our body that aren't functioning ideally because of it. So think of one little thing that all of those different nutrients we get through our food contribute to how our body functions day to day. Vince Ferguson: Very good. Good point. So when you speak to your clients, you go over, you go over what they're eating every day. I mean, do you provide a meal plan for them? Brooke Rozzie: I think of it less as meal plan and more of like foundational habits to build on. I truly start with, I think a few different things. We have our foundations and then we have our details and the details would be meal plans, macros, things like that, which can absolutely be beneficial but I always tell my clients, especially the moms, life is going to happen. And when life happen and your meal plan is not available to follow, what are you going to do? Brooke Rozzie: You need to have the foundations instilled so that you always have that place to go back to so that it's not like, I'm on the bathroom off. I'm being detailed or I'm in maintenance. And I think of it that way versus I want you to know what to do. But I always tell my clients, my role when you're done with me is to not need me. I ultimately want to work myself out of a job because I want you to know what you need to do because I cannot be with you for the rest of your life. You need to know why you're choosing the foods you're choosing and those things, and a meal plan is not teaching you that. Vince Ferguson: That's very, very true. So do you have free consultations with your clients before you take them on? Brooke Rozzie: Yeah, absolutely. Everybody I meet with, we start with a decision support call. We walk through, essentially I look at it as where are you at right now, where do you want to be and what are the holes in between that we need to focus on to get you there. And that's really what our decision support call is for. And from there it's, "Okay, here are the options and the things that I see from my experience and education that we need to prioritize with you and then these are the avenues we should go to do it." Vince Ferguson: So what does it mean to have a Balanced Body? Brooke Rozzie: It really means being in alignment with yourself. Balance is the marketing term. Balance is kind of BS. We're not really going to achieve balance, this ever, ever ending thing that we're always looking for, but we can find alignment. And especially as a mom or a woman, it's the alignment in how you're feeling mentally, the alignment in your mindset and how you're approaching things, your relationships, your relationships with other people and yourself. It's the alignment in what your workouts look like during the week when life happens or when you have an easy week, what does that look like and how do you do it? And it's the alignment with your nutrition choices for your individual body and what you need. And that's truly what gives you that balanced feeling. Brooke Rozzie: We have this expectation, that balanced means that we're never going to have struggles, we're never going to take a setback, we're never going to have life step in where we have to pivot. And that's just not the reality, but the alignment means that we're aligned in ourselves and we know how to pivot with it so that we can still feel the way that we need to feel. Vince Ferguson: So there's no cookie cutter approach here. Everyone is treated as an individual. Brooke Rozzie: Yeah. Even in my group coaching program, I'm giving you the foundations and the general guidelines, but I'm truly guiding you through how to take that and individually implement it too. Vince Ferguson: And again, you said that you don't want someone to be dependent upon you, you want to basically have them be free of you after a while once they able to go out on their own and do what they need to do. And once you give them the information that they need, do you want them to be able to be independent of you? Brooke Rozzie: Yeah. I tell my clients, I'm like, "I love you. It's not that I want to not work with you but I haven't done my job if you need me forever, you haven't learned anything." Vince Ferguson: What are some of the causes, Brooke, for an unbalanced Body? What can contribute to that? Brooke Rozzie: Well it depends on where we're feeling out of alignment, but it could be, a lot of times, especially a mom, when we've had a kid, we try to put this expectation on ourselves that we need to be able to keep up with and do what we used to do before we had kids. And we don't take a step back to see, we all have this capacity in our day. And one, as a mom, like the whole "It takes a village," type of a thing, the village has disappeared in modern motherhood. It's just not there anymore. So we need to remember that we only have a certain capacity and we try to give so much of ourselves to other people. And self-sacrifice is like badge of good motherhood, and it's not. It's not true. Brooke Rozzie: But alignment really, truly mean that we recognize our capacity and we know what that is and we prioritize ourselves in that capacity. And let's say before kids you have a cup of water, you have more capacity in that cup of water to add more on your plate, because you don't have a human relying on you for something. But now that you're a mom, it doesn't mean you still can't be effective and good with the things that doing or prioritize yourself. It means that we need to set healthy boundaries on what our capacity is and what we're able to take on because a lot of that capacity has been taken up by the amazing thing that we have in our life, but it is taken up. So we need to, a lot of times, set those healthy boundaries that are taking away from us, being able to show up feeling our best so that when we feel our best, we can show up our best for our kids, for our spouse, for ourselves, because that's really what it feels. Vince Ferguson: Do you believe that moms put too much stress on themselves trying to be perfect, trying to be all things, all people? Brooke Rozzie: All the time. We have this guilt, this mom guilt of, if "I don't do this and I'm failing," or, "That person needs me, I should be able to give more of myself to them." Like, "Oh, my kids needed this, it's just easier. If I do it." We're putting way too much on ourselves. One of the best things that I learned was don't do for your kid what they're capable of doing for themselves. And we try to instill that with our kids. And a lot of it is not because I'm not going to be here for you to do things but I want you to learn to be self-sufficient. And as a mom, we try to take that over a lot, not just with our kids, but with a lot of people. We want to be needed, we want to help people. It feels good to help people. And there's nothing wrong with that, but we can't help people when we're not able to help ourselves first. Brooke Rozzie: And we overextend because we feel this guilt, but truly, I always ask my moms "Who's story is that? Why are you feeling that guilt?" You need to check back in with yourself of like, "Hey, where is this guilt coming from? If I don't help this person, why am I feeling guilty around that," type of thing. And sometimes it can be other people's expectations of us and our feeling the need to need it. It can be our expectations on ourselves and it can be, like what I said, what we used to be able to do and thinking we should be able to do that and not recognizing, you know what, what my life has shifted. And people sometimes can expect that we're going to be the same person as we were before we had kids and it's okay to acknowledge that you might be the same person, but your priorities have changed. And that's okay. Vince Ferguson: What kind of stress does it put on a relationship though, between a husband and a wife, when she realizes that she can't do everything that she used to do, or she has to change her way of doing things? Brooke Rozzie: That's so true. It's the boundaries and it can bring resentfulness. It's very common. It can feel like you're the one doing everything. I've gone through this in my own relationship with my husband. Sometimes you feel like you need to be the rescuer, you need to be the one to fix it instead of having the, "What? This was your responsibility, you need to handle this." I think after our first, my husband and I really struggled with that one, and it was more so we really needed to set boundaries and priorities of who was handling what. Brooke Rozzie: A lot of times, women, we try to handle everything. We think that certain things in the home should be our responsibility but my husband and I really approach it as, we're a partnership. We both are working inside and outside the home. We're a partnership and how we handle this. We're equally parents in this. One of us has our strengths over the others with certain things and we try to capitalize on that where I am very type A organized. So I handle the bills and the appointments and those kinds of things. I say I handle the mental load of our home, my husband handles the physical load of our home and he handles the laundry and the dishes and those kinds of things. Brooke Rozzie: But it really took a learning process to work through that. And it took me setting the boundaries of, "Okay, you know what? The laundry is not done. It's overflowing." Instead of getting resentful and take it on myself. I had to start saying to my husband, "Hey, the laundry is not done, we're not doing this until that's done," type of a thing. And you're not parenting But you're partnering in it. Vince Ferguson: Good point. But I wonder how hard is it, when you're speaking to your clients, knowing that they have a partner here, how hard is it to get through to them that now it really is a partnership because I think women have a tendency of taking it all on themselves and the partner is more than willing to let them do that. Brooke Rozzie: Well, of course, right. If somebody is going to take on your stuff, we would all be like, sure, take it away. I would not- Vince Ferguson: Exactly, take it. Brooke Rozzie: Yeah. Who wouldn't take advantage of that. But it's really the communication and it comes down to a lot of times we expect, especially as a woman, we think of things totally different than a man. And we have to be okay with that. A lot of times we think like, "Well, he should think of this the way that I do or he should do this." our brains are just not wired that way at all and we need to like recognize that sometimes guys literally communicate differently in many different ways and we need to acknowledge that our communication to them shouldn't be the expectation that they know what we need but it's the sitting down and having the conversation of, "Hey, I need you to understand when you're not keeping up with this, it's impacting me in this way," and not coming from a place of anger or feeling triggered or anything like that, it's coming from a place of like, "I know you're not intentionally doing this, but this is how it's impacting me." Brooke Rozzie: And I think when we understand how our actions are affecting somebody else, we can come from a place of support more than when, it's very common nature and I'm not always my best self either but we all can sometimes show up as like attacking or upset versus the, take the step back and have that true communication. So I always say, whether it's your goal or food in the house or roles around the home or those kinds of things, it's so much better when you can come from, I call it your green, yellow, and red zone, that's one of my coach calls it. When you can come from that green zone to say, "Hey, I need you to understand that eating this way is really important to me because it makes me feel good. And when I feel good, I show up better as a spouse to you as a person to myself, as a mom to our kid," and having those real conversations where we have to be a little vulnerable, because then they can understand where you're truly coming from. Vince Ferguson: Wow. That's a very intense topic too. I mean, I think we go even further into this. Brooke Rozzie: Yeah, and we want it to be easy, right? We want those transitions to just be easy. And sometimes when we fight it, we create this resistance around it and that's where we get stuck and we stop. But we have to understand that we're changing habit, we're changing narrative, we're changing pathways of how we do stuff. It's not going to be easy for that stuff to happen, but it's going to be so worth it if you can work through those things because ultimately you can either feel uncomfortable where you are or you can feel uncomfortable going through those transitions to get to where you're truly wanting to be. Vince Ferguson: Good. Excellent. But now I have an even tougher question for you, but I'm sure you have the answer because you've worked with clients. What if you dealing with a client who does not have a partner, just a single mom who has to do so much and whose mother and father to her kids. What do you tell them? Brooke Rozzie: Oh my gosh, I have so much for single moms because you have so much on your plate. And gosh, the days that my husband's gone, I'm like, "Oh, thank God you're back here." But it's really prioritizing. I do have girlfriends that are single moms and they balance a lot and they have partners that are not in the picture at all. And we sit down and it's just, "Okay, what are your non-negotiables?" And be flexible within what that non-negotiable is. So your non-negotiable could be movement, but be flexible about what that movement is. Maybe you can't get a 45 minute strength training workout in that day, but could you put the kids in a stroller and go on a walk? You couldn't do that. But maybe be flexible on what that is, but non-negotiable on the fact that you're getting movement in. Brooke Rozzie: It could be a non-negotiable that we eat healthy food in our home, but you know what, I don't have any food prepared so I'm going to be flexible on where the source of that food is coming from. Maybe we're ordering it out or I'm picking a couple of things up from the store instead, instead of grabbing fast food or something, I'm, non-negotiable that I'm eating healthy food, but I'm flexible in the approach that we're taking to do that. Vince Ferguson: Now with your clients, I know you talk about nutrition, but you also talk about exercise, correct? Brooke Rozzie: I do. All my programs include tailored workout, for you at home or gym, whatever is best. I work with people across the country, so it's more virtual action. So it's all done through an app and it's all tailored to what you individually need and you have access to me through it, coach you through, make pivot all those kinds of things through it. Vince Ferguson: Okay. So your business is pretty much via what, Zoom? Brooke Rozzie: Yeah. I'll make coaching appointment with private clients via Zoom. And my group coaching programs, we do Zoom coaching calls. I have a community group with everyone where, in an app, we're all interacting with each other. I made the pivot, one, because of the pandemic, but two, it really gives mom the flexibility that they need to not have another appointment on your plate that you have to get to. It really gives you more flexibility to make it work. Vince Ferguson: Oh, definitely. But also you have a wider audience. Brooke Rozzie: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: Because I mean, not only in this country, you can meet up with people in other, not only time zones, but other countries as well, like Ireland and Sweden or Poland, whatever, which is amazing. The sky's the limit. Brooke Rozzie: Yeah. Some of my clients are in Canada. Some are here. That's where I'm at right now, but it's cool for me to, to like learn how other countries do things too, and have to be flexible with that. It's pretty awesome. Vince Ferguson: Definitely. Now, what type of packages does your Balanced Body program offer? Like, six weeks, 10 weeks? Brooke Rozzie: It's 24 weeks. It used to be 12 weeks for the Balanced Body program, but I really found that 12 weeks was not enough time for you to leave me truly feeling good and ultimately, I said that's my goal. So 24 weeks is really enough time where we really can prioritize and make sure that these things are instilled as a habit for you. You've gone through life with it, you've gone through a couple of seasons with it so we can make sure that you've had the true support that you need to leave it not needing another program again. Know what you need to do. Brooke Rozzie: I do offer a graduate program to my clients when they're done, where like they can keep me at an arms with distance and still have programming done for them if they choose but they don't need to. It's really up to them at that point. The program is 24 weeks. We emphasize hormonal health and how it's impacting how you're feeling, nutrition, you have tailored workouts done for you. I have guest expert coaches that come in from like hormonal health to mindset coaches to maternal mental health that speak through the program as well. And then everybody gets access to me via Voxer or like voice texting throughout the program too, as well as bi-weekly coaching calls with me. Vince Ferguson: And you've been doing this now, this program now for how long? Brooke Rozzie: A year. Vince Ferguson: A year? And it's been doing quite well. Brooke Rozzie: It's been doing awesome. I used to only do private coaching and I still do private coaching for select clients, but it's truly my favorite thing to deliver because it's all encompassing. It's the program I really wish was there after I had our first, because I didn't know what I didn't know about being a mom and it's the program made for moms because there wasn't a lot of things out there for that. Vince Ferguson: Isn't that something, if you only had this program that you put together for you, yourself, when you had your first kid, it would make all the difference, but obviously there's a need for it, there's a market for it and you, and you're filling it and that's a great thing. How many kids do you have? Brooke Rozzie: I have two. We have a three-and-a-half-year old and a one-year-old. Vince Ferguson: Wow. So you're busy. Brooke Rozzie: Yeah. It's a little chaotic in our house. Vince Ferguson: Yes, exactly. Now your sessions though, your packages, is it once a week that the client sees you? Brooke Rozzie: It depends. If they're in the Balanced Body program, the group coaching program, then they get bi-weekly calls with me and then if they're doing private coaching with me, private coaching is if somebody wants a little bit more accountability, support, a little more hand holding, or they just don't like a group setting, I do have a private coaching option and the private coaching clients do meet with me weekly. Vince Ferguson: Okay, great. Now my podcast is Six Weeks To Fitness. So let's say, what would you recommend a busy mom to do if, if she wanted to see results, at least getting to where she wants to be. Let's say if it's a weight loss, she just wants to feel overall better about her body, about her life, what nutrition advice would you give this busy mom for six weeks to see and feel some improvement. Brooke Rozzie: Yeah, that's a really good question. So in six weeks I generally say, "Don't put pressure on yourself but think of the simple things that you can shift that will make a massive difference." The foundation's always not at the most because those are truly what keep us sustained and where we need to be. So I always say like, let's look at the areas that you're like missing the boat right now. And let's prioritize that and each week focus on one to two new things. So one week it could be aiming for half of your body weight in water each day and then the next week it could be prioritizing protein with each of your meals and then the next week it could be moving your body for 30 minutes a day and then we're just building. And then at six weeks you have six different habits that you've implemented and you're in a totally different place in six weeks just from implementing one new thing each week through that time. Vince Ferguson: But when it comes to nutrition, are there any types of foods that you recommend that they start eating as opposed to other types of food? Brooke Rozzie: Yeah. I always say one, whole real foods, they're going to keep you the most satiated and deliver you those nutrients that we talked about that you need. So start with assessing, looking at how much of your food is coming from whole food or packaged food and try to aim the first week for 80% of your food to come from whole food sources. And then look in the detail of what that food is. So on your plate, you should have a protein, an adequate protein source palm to maybe a hand size. If you're eating three meals a day, you should have about a fish size serving of good fiber carbs on your plate. Some veggies I generally say should take up like half of our plate and then some fat. We need to have an adequate fat in there, especially as women to support our hormonal functions. Brooke Rozzie: So what you can do is week one, look at the whole food. Week two, prioritize that protein with each of your meals. Week three, make sure you have a fibrous carb with each meal. Week four, make sure you have the veggie and fat with each meal. Week five, start to tune in to what sources. Are we eating more organic sources? Where are we getting those from? And then in week six, start to look at, "Okay, how much water am I taking in?" Start to up your water intake a little bit more. They seem so simple, but they can make a massive difference in how you're feeling. Vince Ferguson: Most definitely. Brooke, how can my listeners find out more about you about a Balanced Body? And do you have a website? Do you have the social media that they can follow? Brooke Rozzie: So Instagram is probably where you're going to see me the most. So it's @Brooke Rozzie, R-O-Z-Z-I-E. And my program is open right now. So the Balanced Body start September 13th. So they can come join. If they have questions, they can come ask me there. Just shoot me a DM and we'll share. Vince Ferguson: That's awesome. Now, Brooke, do you also have a podcast? Brooke Rozzie: I don't. I had started one. I thought about it and I'm back to the drawing board on what I want it to be. So pretty soon, I might. Vince Ferguson: Yeah, I would imagine you will because you articulate your program so well and I think that it would be another benefit, another asset of yours to have that. You'll reach even more people and that's what you want to do. That's what you're doing. Brooke Rozzie: Yeah. I love podcasts. I think they're an amazing way to get information. I need to, well, one I'm looking at my capacities, just like I coach my clients of like what I have capacity for, but it will be there. It's just a matter of when. Vince Ferguson: That's impressive. You're right. You don't want to put more on you than you can handle right now, right? Brooke Rozzie: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Vince Ferguson: There you go. I'm sure you tell your clients that we become overwhelmed trying to do everything, be all things, all people and you don't have the capacity for it. Brooke Rozzie: I practice what I teach. Vince Ferguson: What advice would you give to moms now who are busy, struggling, trying to make it happen and need some encouragement. Brooke Rozzie: One, give yourself grace. You have so much that you take in a mental load and a physical load day-to-day. So you have to give yourself grace on what you're actually doing. We always feel like it's not enough. If you sat down and made a list of the things that you were doing day to day, you would be shocked. And then I always say, talk to yourself the way you would talk to your daughter. And if your daughter says that she needs a break or she's feeling exhausted or run down, what would you say? You would tell her to chill but somehow we tell ourselves, we have to push harder, we have to do more. Give yourself a break. It's okay to take a step back and assess and you don't have to be everything to everybody. Vince Ferguson: Awesome. Give yourself a break. You don't have to be everything to everybody. Chill. Brooke Rozzie: Yeah. Vince Ferguson: Love it Brooke. Brooke Rozzie on behalf of Body Sculpt of New York, that's my nonprofit organization and Six Weeks To Fitness, I truly want to thank you for coming on my show today. Brooke Rozzie: Thank you. I love being on here with you. So thank you for having me. Vince Ferguson: You a wonderful, and to my list of those, I truly hope this program was informative, encouraging, and inspiring, and that you will continue tuning in to our six weeks of fitness podcast. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the show, please leave them on my Six Weeks To Fitness blog at www.6weekstofitness.com or email me at vince@sixweeks.com. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes.

Watch the full video interview on YouTube here: https://bit.ly/drdrewramsey424 Dr. Drew Ramsey (IG: @drewramseymd) is a psychiatrist, author, and farmer. His work focuses on clinical excellence, nutritional interventions and creative media. Drew is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and he has an active telemedicine clinical practice based in New York City. Today we're discussing Drew's latest book, Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety: Nourish Your Way to Better Mental Health in Six Weeks. In this episode, we discuss: Growing up on a farm taught Drew the importance of nourishing food Day to day life living off the land Finding space for conventional and non-conventional medicine Integrating nourishment as a preventative measure for mental health How Drew struggled on a vegetarian diet Focusing on foods to help decrease brain shrinkage What to expect when you see a nutritional psychiatrist Drew's surprising favourite food The emotional complexity of having farm animals The goals of Drew's family farm Growing your own food teaches you to value it The best foods to eat for anxiety & depression How the gut microbiome specifically impacts brain health The vagus nerve is a neurological highway between the gut and the brain Is serotonin overhyped? Why BDNF is important for your mental health The 6 nutrients that influence BDNF Focusing on foods first and the role of supplements The soil crisis What Drew eats on a typical day Find foods the whole family enjoys eating Tips for parents on incorporating brain boosting foods into their kids daily routine Forming a food philosophy with your partner Bring mindfulness and awareness to food when treating depression Factors that cause chronic inflammation Show sponsors: Organifi

Did you know your brain consumes about 20% of the calories you eat each day? On this episode, we're going to find out about how the foods you eat impact your mental health. Joining us is Dr. Drew Ramsey, who is a nutritional psychiatrist and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University. Dr. Ramsey is the founder of the Brain Food Clinic in New York City and the author of several books, the latest of which is called, Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety: Nourish Your Way to Better Mental Health in Six Weeks. His website is drewramseymd.com. ****** Thanks to our sponsor of this episode! --> AirMedCare: If you're ever in need of emergency medical transport, AirMedCare Network provides members with world class air transport services to the nearest appropriate hospital with no out of pocket expenses. Go to http://www.airmedcarenetwork.com/nobody and use offer code 'nobody' to sign up and choose up to a $50 eGift Card gift card with a new membership! --> Stuff That Works: share your experience with any health condition and discover what works best for you. Go to stuffthatworks.health to check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you eat to beat depression and anxiety? Today, I want to have a very timely conversation about brain foods and mental health. The last year has been challenging in so many ways, and mental health is a priority now more than ever. Joining us is my good friend and nutritional psychiatrist, Dr. Drew Ramsey. He's the author of a brand-new book, Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety: Nourish Your Way to Better Mental Health in Six Weeks. Be sure to take notes, as this conversation is going to be filled with practical tips on ways to improve your brain health and mental health––many you can use right away.  If you love brain foods and want to learn more about how to use food to better your body and mind, this episode is for you. *** Do you want to stay up to date with every new episode and get my brand new Kwik Brain Accelerator Program? Go to www.KwikBrain.com/podcast to get instant access. *** Or text me 310-299-9362 to get your burning questions answered and an insider sneak peek of exciting updates. I do my best to answer as many as I can each day, so shoot me a message today.