Faith, Fitness and Spirituality with Actress/Model Mercedes De La Cruz Episode 173

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 [e-mail]. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes.

Mercedes De La Cruz:

Bye.