Six Weeks To Fitness

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.

Direct download: Episode_174_Best_Motivational_Speech_Compilation.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:31am EDT

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.

 

Direct download: Episode_173_Mercedes_De_La_Cruz.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:24pm EDT

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.

Direct download: Episode_172_Brooke_Rozzie.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:22am EDT

Could our gut bacteria play a major role in the prevention, and treatment of disease? Dr. Christine Bishara has been studying diseases for over 20 years.  She is the founder of “From Within Medical”, a medical wellness practice in New York City, that places emphasis on the mind-body and gut-brain axis to prevent and manage disease.  Dr. Bishara discovered that the connection between these systems plays a significant role in disease prevention and management but it has not been adequately addressed.

COVID-19 and Children

Dr. Bishara recently published an article on the role of gut and probiotics on immunity and COVID-19.  She shared that through research her team discovered that children have healthier guts than adults.  This is due to the level of gut bacteria called Bifidobacterium.  This type of bacteria decreases as we age.  Dr. Bishara believes the reason children were less affected by COVID-19 is because of the levels of Bifidobacterium in their guts.

Although Bifidobacterium levels decline with age, in one particular study she cited, Bifidobacterium levels were found to be higher in Italian and Japanese centenarians than in the younger elderly population.  Upon further research and study of centenarians in other countries, it was found that their diet and lifestyle played a major role.  They were mostly vegetarians and for exercise they would walk over 30 minutes per day on a regular basis.

Dr. Bishara went on to say that the importance of our guts to prevent disease is nothing new.  According to the Greek Physician and father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, “all diseases begin in the gut”.  He made this statement over 2400 years ago.

Dr. Bishara believes that the Standard American Diet (“SAD”), is what’s destroying our immune system.  In a recently published article on the CNN website titled “Poor diets threaten US national security — and it's serious”, it stated that “46% of adults have poor quality diet and 56% of children and these numbers are highest in the minority, rural and low-income communities.” The article went on to say that “diet-related illnesses are harming the readiness of the US military and the budgets of the US Department of Defense and the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Seventy-one percent of people between the ages of 17 and 24 do not qualify for military service, with obesity being the leading medical disqualifier,” citing numbers from a 2018 report. 

Why isn’t there more focus on the Immune System

Dr. Bishara doesn’t know why the media or society as a whole isn’t shining a light on our immune system.  She believes that the focus should be on prevention rather than treatment.  She also believes that people want a quick fix and that we should go back to the basics, which is our food.

She also believes that a good place to start boosting your immune system is by taking a probiotic. Probiotics are live microorganisms that provide health benefits when consumed, generally by improving or restoring the gut flora.  You can find large amounts of Bifidobacterium in probiotics.

Dr. Bishara went on to say that while she recommends we take a probiotic, there is nothing better than prebiotics, which is when we consume more fruits and vegetables, cut back on the high processed foods and eat more organic foods.  If we did all these things, we wouldn’t need a probiotic.

The role of Vitamin D to support the immune system

I recently interviewed Dr. Joel Gould on my show.  Dr. Gould suffered from Sleep Apnea and Crohn’s Disease.  Through his research, he discovered patients with Sleep Apnea usually have low levels of Vitamin D, so he increased his Vitamin D intake and not only did his Sleep Apnea go away but so did his Crohn’s Disease.  He also stated that 96% of the people who died from COVID-19, had low levels of Vitamin D in their bodies (20% or lower). 

Dr. Bishara agrees with Dr. Joel Gould on the importance of Vitamin D to our immune system and how it plays a major role in our intestinal health.

During the early stages of the pandemic, New York City was considered the epicenter.  During that time, Dr. Bishara noticed that the majority of COVID-19 patients had a BMI over 30%, which is considered obese.  Dr. Bishara believes that COVID-19 is a disease that attacks our immune system. 

Dr. Bishara’s advice to parents is to “invest in your health and invest in prevention versus treatment.”  Dr. Bishara’s practice is located in the flatiron District of New York City.  You can contact Dr. Bishara on Instagram and on Facebook @drchristineb or on her website at www.fromwithinmedical.com.

To receive the full impact and insight from this very informative interview with Dr. Bishara, please listen to the entire episode., and if you would like to listen to future episodes like this one, please visit www.6weekstofitness.com and subscribe, so you don’t miss any future episodes.

Direct download: Episode_171_Dr._Christine_Bishara.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:52pm EDT

1