Ep. 63 Journey Beyond Inflammation: Sherry Diamond's Balance 4 Life

[00:00:06] I'm Michele Simms and this is The Beauty in the Mess, a community where people who crave

[00:00:11] a shift in mindset, personal growth, and connection to like-minded people come together to start

[00:00:16] rewriting their stories. Through engaging, honest, and insightful conversations, the

[00:00:21] show will help you embrace the mess to recognize the meanings and the lessons it holds and discover

[00:00:26] its hidden treasures to help you start making a mindset shift. Let's listen, learn, and reclaim

[00:00:31] who we were meant to be. Hi friend, welcome to The Beauty in the Mess. For this episode,

[00:00:40] I'm very excited to welcome Sherry Diamond to the show. Sherry has lost 103 pounds and found

[00:00:46] the secret to keeping it off for good. She's not a doctor, but she has done a lot of research

[00:00:51] and is the founder of Balance for Life. Now she uses her experience and knowledge to teach

[00:00:56] others how to live from the inside out and not the outside in. She also teaches people how

[00:01:02] to eat cleaner and use cleaner products. She helps her clients experience more energy, sleep better,

[00:01:08] get off some of their medications, and lose weight. Sherry also launched her first clean eating product

[00:01:15] called Everything is Nuts as a cereal and topping mix and she developed it during the pandemic when

[00:01:21] everything was nuts. She is now 70 years old and wants people to know that getting older is not a life

[00:01:27] sentence and taking care of ourselves is essential. We just need the right tools and she loves to share

[00:01:33] her experiences of how she transformed her life mentally, physically, and spiritually. She has never

[00:01:39] been happier and she wishes the same for you. So join me for episode 63 of The Beauty in the Mess

[00:01:47] called Journey Beyond Inflammation, Sherry Diamond's Balance for Life. So without further ado,

[00:01:54] let's dive right into today's conversation. Hi Sherry, welcome to The Beauty in the Mess. I'm so glad to

[00:02:00] have you today. Thanks for having me. I'm so happy to be here. Happy Monday. Thank you. You as well. Now I know

[00:02:08] you're a wellness coach and the founder of Balance for Life, but I wanted to ask you if you would mind

[00:02:13] sharing some of your journey that led you down the path to founding Balance for Life, if you would.

[00:02:19] Well, the journey has been like literally a lifetime. I mean, honestly, because I grew up in a family where food

[00:02:30] was everything. So I was a fat kid and I got bullied a lot as a kid for being fat. And it was really a big

[00:02:39] thing in my family about being overweight. And I was constantly being reminded of it, which wasn't good for me in

[00:02:48] any way, shape or form. But fast forward to my whole life was about dieting. And one week I'm on this diet

[00:02:58] and the next week I'm on that diet and lose 20 pounds and then go and gain 40. And I mean, it was just like

[00:03:05] this my entire life. And then when I was 64 years old, I went to the doctor and she told me I was pre-diabetic

[00:03:12] and she literally scared the crud out of me. And I went home and just started researching why people get diabetes

[00:03:19] and high blood pressure. And why do we get all these diseases? And everything was about the food we eat and the

[00:03:25] inflammation. So I decided that I was going to really research this and see what I could do to help other

[00:03:34] people besides myself. And after researching food and getting rid of the foods that says cause inflammation, I started

[00:03:42] eating like that. And in about 18 months, I lost 103 pounds. Wow. And in October, I just turned 70. And I've kept my weight

[00:03:51] off and I'll never gain weight again, because I literally found the secret, but it's not a secret. It's really not a secret.

[00:03:59] It's there for everybody, but everybody doesn't want to do it. And had I listened

[00:04:07] to my intuition and just other things along the way, I probably wouldn't have waited so long, but when

[00:04:15] you're, if you're not ready, you're not ready. And mentally I wasn't ready. And I think also there was a

[00:04:21] lot of trauma involved about being fat. Yeah. I've been down that road myself. I think I wanted to ask you,

[00:04:28] I heard you talk about, you got a pre-diabetic diagnosis, correct? So correct. My question is

[00:04:36] prior to someone getting that scary diagnosis, but you know, instead of waiting until that happens,

[00:04:43] how do we bring about change for ourselves? How do we leverage against ourselves to make a big change,

[00:04:51] to eat better, to lose weight, whatever it is without that big crisis? Is there a way to do that?

[00:04:57] Well, I think what I would say is if you ever wake up in the morning and you feel like you can't get out

[00:05:05] of bed because you're just, it's not because you're depressed, but it's because you don't have any energy

[00:05:12] or you look in the mirror and you see that your belly is extended. Those are all signs that you have a lot

[00:05:19] of inflammation in your body. If you can't get through the day and you're constantly grabbing for

[00:05:24] chips and things that are salty and crunchy, or you're thirsty all the time. Those are all signs

[00:05:31] of things going on inside your body. That probably has to do with inflammation. And I know with me,

[00:05:40] when I look back, when I was in my forties, that was like the worst decade I can remember for me

[00:05:47] personally, just my forties were not good for me. And I realized now after losing a lot of weight

[00:05:56] that I was in a food coma for sure, because I would go out and eat pasta. And the next morning

[00:06:04] I couldn't even get out of bed. I was just like, why am I so tired? Even if I had eight hours of sleep

[00:06:11] and I felt like I was dragging through the day all the time. So I used to blame it on having a bad

[00:06:17] thyroid, but that's not the case anymore because I still have a bad thyroid and I'm going to have one

[00:06:22] forever, but now I have more energy than some 10 year old. So what is it in our, is it just the

[00:06:29] processed food that's causing the inflammation or is it the amount of sugar that we consume or

[00:06:34] both it's chemicals, the chem when I think about the amount of chemicals that I have put in my body

[00:06:42] from day one, especially as I got older and was living on my own and you just eat bad and you

[00:06:51] drink alcohol and you eat chips and we eat a lot of rice and I was addicted to sugar and all of it is

[00:07:00] really bad. But if I was going to pick two things, what I would say is number one is the sugar

[00:07:07] and the other thing is processed food. Like I no longer buy anything that's in a can.

[00:07:14] Oh wow. Not even in a can. I don't buy anything in a can. And I used to always buy things in a can.

[00:07:22] Right. And I also, the only thing that I buy that's frozen are these veggie patties that I love that are on

[00:07:29] my program. Other than that, you can open my freezer and all you'll see is a box of veggie burgers and ice cubes.

[00:07:38] So on your program, like what is the meal prep? Like, I mean, at the time wise, that's what I'm

[00:07:44] asking. Like, is it a long time to prep for every meal or is it quick and easy?

[00:07:49] Oh no. See when you go on my program, before you even go on the program, I do a 15 minute

[00:07:56] consultation with everybody because I've learned that not everybody should be on this program

[00:08:02] because most people that aren't ready for this program are going to give me their money and then

[00:08:07] they're going to fail. And I don't do it for the money. I do it because I want people to succeed.

[00:08:12] And that's really the truth because I could take their money. Right. But then at the end of a couple

[00:08:17] of weeks or two or three weeks, they're just going to blame me for not losing weight. And it's not

[00:08:22] my fault. I'm not in their house. I don't go with them when they go out to eat. Do you know what I

[00:08:27] mean? Right. I'm just the vessel that's going to help them to get to their goal about feeling better

[00:08:34] physically and mentally. Because let me tell you, when you lose weight and you get rid of really get

[00:08:42] rid of the inflammation, because I've lost weight my whole life, but I never got rid of the inflammation.

[00:08:47] And once you really do, your body feels it, but you also feel it in your brain, like your brain becomes

[00:08:54] clearer. And I know people think it's crazy, but it's true. It's true. I mean, I'm living proof of

[00:09:01] it. And so are the people that have been on my program. But as far as the meal prep, once you sign

[00:09:07] up for the program, I send you the food list. And on our first session, I go over every single item

[00:09:15] with a fine tooth comb so that you have no problem understanding what you can eat, because I made it

[00:09:21] really simple. You can eat whatever's on the food list and you should eat when you're hungry.

[00:09:29] And that's it. So if at 11 o'clock in the morning, you feel like eating an omega-3 egg and some avocado,

[00:09:38] have at it. And at 1230, if you think you're still hungry and want to eat an apple, eat it.

[00:09:45] Just eat until you're satisfied and you're full, because we don't count calories and we don't count

[00:09:51] points and we don't count anything except the food that's going into your body. As long as you're

[00:09:57] sticking to the food list, you should have no problem losing weight and staying healthy.

[00:10:04] So one thing that's coming to my mind is similar to you. I've lost weight, gained it back, lost it,

[00:10:10] gained it back. So what's the secret to maintaining? Is it just that your body feels so good now that

[00:10:16] that keeps you going? Or what's the secret to keeping it off? Well, for me, that's really the main thing

[00:10:22] is because I don't want to ever wake up in the morning with that sluggish, horrible feeling.

[00:10:28] The other thing is that when I was overweight, especially I would say the last couple of years

[00:10:34] before I was diagnosed pre-diabetic, I noticed myself being lethargic and losing interest in things

[00:10:45] and different things like that. And now I don't have any of that because like I said, when you live

[00:10:51] your life from the inside out, instead of the outside in and caring about what you look, but how you feel,

[00:10:57] your mindset is different. And then the other thing is that I've seen from the way I eat that

[00:11:06] even if I go out in a restaurant and eat, there's still things on the menu that are on my program.

[00:11:12] Everybody has fish, right? Right. Everybody, if you eat meat and chicken, every restaurant

[00:11:18] practically has that or vegetables. So there's always food you can eat. So the other thing is,

[00:11:24] it's a choice. Do you want to stay healthy or do you want to go back to how you used to feel? And I

[00:11:30] never want to go back there ever again. I never want to gain weight ever again. And I think it's also a

[00:11:38] combination of, I've been doing it for so long, it's ingrained in my psyche. Like there's no other way

[00:11:44] to go for me. It's just, it's not even, I don't even have to look at a food list anymore. I didn't

[00:11:51] after about, I'd say a year because I know what to eat. Right. So now I like developing recipes and

[00:11:59] finding cool things like to bake. Cause I love chocolate. I love sugar. I love dessert and I love

[00:12:06] bread, but I found recipes along the way that I share on my balance for life group page

[00:12:13] where you can eat all of that. You just have to eat it with the right ingredients.

[00:12:19] So you don't have to give up sugar as much as possible or bread as much.

[00:12:25] Well, I don't eat a lot of sugar, but like I love bread. So I make bread that's made with almond

[00:12:32] flour and coconut flour, not wheat flour. You know, when people who are diabetic, they'll say to me,

[00:12:38] well, the doctor told me to eat wheat bread. Okay. Well, good for you, but you still have diabetes.

[00:12:45] So why do you think the wheat bread is good? Cause the doctor said so. And I am going to tell you that

[00:12:50] Western medicine doctors, when they go to, when they go to medical school, they don't learn

[00:12:56] these things. They don't learn about inflammation. They don't learn about bad gut health.

[00:13:00] They don't learn about bacteria in your gut. They just don't. Right. I had a doctor on the show

[00:13:07] that said they're never taught nutrition at all. Right. So when people say to me, what the doctor

[00:13:13] said, so I'll say to him. So when the doctor diagnosed you with diabetes, high blood pressure,

[00:13:21] irritable bowel, did they sit down and map out a program of the foods you should and should not eat?

[00:13:28] Well, they told me not to eat this and not to eat that, but pretty much, no, I'm okay.

[00:13:34] But you're not okay. Cause you still don't feel good. Right. I can tell you, I have family,

[00:13:42] well, myself even with heart disease and the doctors don't, I just had a relative have a bypass

[00:13:51] and double bypass and they don't restrict his diet hardly at all. And I'm like, are you kidding me?

[00:13:58] He's going to go right back if he's not careful and restrict a little bit himself, but there's no

[00:14:05] guidance on the food whatsoever. It's really sad. Exactly. Well, you know what? And that's bad,

[00:14:14] especially if you've had bypass surgery, if you've had any kind of surgery, right? Let's say you're

[00:14:20] going to the doctor because you have your joints are always hurting or your muscles are always sore,

[00:14:28] or you're starting to develop all these kinds of things. Anytime you get hurt or injured and you have

[00:14:36] pain, that's inflammation. Right. Let's go back before my diagnosis. So I think it was maybe three

[00:14:46] or four years before that I woke up one day and my shoulder was killing me and I could barely lift my

[00:14:52] arm. And two days later, I literally could not raise my right arm. And I was walking around with one arm

[00:15:02] good and the other one at my side. And I couldn't even, I couldn't even lift my shoulder like this. I

[00:15:08] couldn't do anything. I was in so much pain. Was it frozen? I had a frozen shoulder. So I went to the

[00:15:15] doctor and the doctor said, Oh, well, I'll give you ibuprofen. And, but I said, well, I'm allergic to

[00:15:20] ibuprofen. I can't take it. So he gave me some kind of pills. And I thought, this is so stupid. This is not

[00:15:26] going to help the cause. So I went on my laptop and I started researching. Why do we get frozen

[00:15:33] shoulder? How can you cure it? What foods can I eat? Right. That's what I did. And it says you need to eat

[00:15:40] foods that have antioxidants like blueberries and strawberries and plums and stay away from sugar and this because

[00:15:49] sugar irritates inflammation. Okay. Sugar is the least of your friends of any food you're going to eat is

[00:15:59] sugar. Right. Okay. So I went and I loaded up on all that stuff. I bought nuts and everything that had

[00:16:05] antioxidants. And I started to feel a little better, but then on the third day I woke up, I was in terrible

[00:16:14] pain and I went to the emergency room and they had to give me a shot of not cortisone. Like they gave me a shot

[00:16:22] of something really heavy duty. Like morphine or something? It's like morphine, but it's not. For the pain? For the

[00:16:28] pain. And then I just started stuffing myself with antioxidants and staying away from sugar. And within a couple

[00:16:36] of weeks, I was completely cured. And then what happened is I realized after going for an MRI that I

[00:16:44] really had the beginning of a bad rotator cuff. And that was from many years of taking Muay Thai

[00:16:51] kickboxing. Wow. So now I don't, I can't tell from that time on, I couldn't do that anymore. So I have

[00:16:58] to be very careful what I do with my shoulder. But since that happened, I've never had another problem

[00:17:03] with my shoulder because I stay away from the sugar and I stay away from the inflammation.

[00:17:08] Yeah. And that's interesting to me. And the reason I smiled when you said it was not because I liked

[00:17:12] people having pain. It was because I've been down the same path. I've had frozen shoulder,

[00:17:19] same shoulder twice in a year's time. I got better. They had to give me a cortisone shot,

[00:17:25] a partial one, because my heart flips out with cortisone got better. And then next thing I know

[00:17:30] about six months later, here it is again. And I've been in physical therapy, still am like for six

[00:17:36] months now trying to keep it at bay, which I know they're going to boot me out of physical therapy

[00:17:42] before too long. Okay. And I'm going to tell you that if you want to stop the physical, if you want

[00:17:47] to feel better, the way to feel better is to change the way you eat. I'm not saying you shouldn't go to

[00:17:53] physical therapy because it will help you. Right. Yeah. Right. Because I went to physical therapy for

[00:17:58] like two weeks and it does help, but what helps more is the food because then once you're eating

[00:18:06] better, let's say you do get hurt. Let's say you fall or something happens that you, I don't know,

[00:18:13] you go walking or running and you trip and you fall and you get hurt. You'll find that when you're

[00:18:19] eating better and there's no inflammation in your body and I'm, and don't get me wrong. I'm not saying

[00:18:25] that I don't have any, I'm sure I have must have some, right. But for the most part, I know I don't

[00:18:31] because I can tell the way my body acts and reacts. And if I go to eat something, maybe on a special

[00:18:38] occasion that I'm not supposed to eat, my body reacts in a minute and it'll just make me feel bad

[00:18:44] and remind me really, is this really what you want to do? Is it worth it? Seeing it's not worth it

[00:18:49] anymore to feel bad. Yeah. And to tie it, but you know, I've asked about every doctor I see,

[00:18:55] I'm like, is it the sugar? What am I doing? That's causing this. And I'll quit doing it. Right.

[00:19:01] And not one of them has recommended a diet change. Right. And they never even ask you,

[00:19:07] what are you eating? Right? No, no, they don't care. And nobody says, please try and stay away

[00:19:14] from sugar because the sugar will irritate the inflammation that you already have. Right. The

[00:19:19] only thing I've been told is we don't know why we don't really know why we just know it's inflammation

[00:19:24] that's in your shoulder happens to a lot of women. You know, good luck with that. Right. Isn't that the

[00:19:31] easy answer? Yeah, it is. Right. And then the onus is off of them and now it's on you. Right. And I've

[00:19:38] even asked, I'm like, should I change my diet? And they're like, ah, you could never sustain that. So

[00:19:42] don't worry about it. That's what one doctor told me. But they don't even encourage you to try.

[00:19:47] No, they don't at all. You see, this is the kind of stuff that makes me really absolutely crazy

[00:19:55] because people will say to me, well, the doctor said, but the doctor isn't giving them any solution.

[00:20:02] Right. And I am right. But they'd rather argue with me. Well, you're not a doctor and you're not a

[00:20:09] nutritionist. No, I'm not. And I never said I was, but I am somebody who has researched this for years.

[00:20:17] Right. I went and found out on my own that it works. Right. And I believe you. Yeah. And 2024 is going to be

[00:20:29] knock on wood. Five years. I haven't had a cold, a sore throat, COVID. I've had nothing. No flu.

[00:20:36] I'm good. Wow. That's amazing. So when people say, oh, well, but you're not a doctor, you're right.

[00:20:43] I'm not. And I don't want to be. I just want to help people get their brain straight so that they

[00:20:50] can feel better because as people are getting older, I noticed people leaning into the fact that,

[00:20:57] well, this happens when you get older. No, it doesn't. I think that's what they condition us.

[00:21:02] Society conditions us to believe is that to expect these things. But you're right. If we ate better

[00:21:08] and we did some moderate form of exercise, it wouldn't be happening. Yeah, exactly. And so I'm

[00:21:18] always looking for the people that want to lean in and feel better. Exactly. And the people who don't,

[00:21:24] I'm not bad at them because look, it took me 64 years to get it together. But what I'm trying to

[00:21:30] teach people is don't wait that long. Right. Because you do get to a point where you can't

[00:21:37] reverse things. I mean, diabetes, you can always reverse. But some things, once you get to a

[00:21:43] certain point where you're on certain medications and you're constantly feeling bad, I think you can

[00:21:51] always reverse anything. But it depends on how long you wait. But weight, diabetes and high blood

[00:21:58] pressure, those are the three things that you can reverse at any time in your life. You just have

[00:22:03] to want to. And what makes me upset about it is I want, I always wonder, why don't you want to?

[00:22:12] Why don't you want to feel better? Why do you want to get up every day feeling like you got hit by a

[00:22:18] truck? I know how horrible that feels. So why do you want to keep doing it? I don't know.

[00:22:24] I've thought about that myself and even towards myself because I've been vegan vegetarian for like

[00:22:30] 10 years now, one or the other. And I'm thinking about transitioning back to meat because a doctor

[00:22:36] I had on the show with autoimmune disease, we were talking about that. But anyway, you know,

[00:22:41] I asked myself, which I have, I have autoimmune problems. Oh, really? I do too. Yeah, I have a bad

[00:22:48] thyroid. I have Hashimoto. My daughter has. And let's see, three years ago, two years ago, I can't

[00:22:57] remember which one I got diagnosed with Sjogren. Oh, wow. And the doctor told me that I probably always

[00:23:06] had Sjogren. But because I was so overweight, and feeling so bad, and not sleeping and all that,

[00:23:14] they said, those are all signs of probably having it. But I thought it was just from being overweight

[00:23:19] and eating bad. Wow. So now that's the other thing. If all of my problems are autoimmune,

[00:23:27] that's how I want it to stay. Because as long as I keep my gut healthy, I'm going to stay healthy.

[00:23:33] And I've done it because even with cold and flu and COVID and everything, I've never had any of it.

[00:23:39] Knock on wood, I'm really lucky. But if your microbiome is good, and you wake up with energy,

[00:23:46] and you feel like you can conquer the world every day, and your brain is clear, that's a sign of being

[00:23:52] in really good health. Oh, yeah. And I just turned 70. And I'm like, fine. Yeah, your transformation,

[00:23:59] for those that haven't seen it yet is absolutely amazing. So I congratulate you on everything that

[00:24:05] you've achieved. Thank you. It's not easy. But once you do it, and you feel good, and you can feel

[00:24:12] good for a long time, it's like people who quit smoking. Once they quit, and they're done smoking,

[00:24:18] they usually never go back. And they love the fact that they feel so good, because they don't smoke

[00:24:23] anymore. Right? That's exactly how I feel. That's awesome. So do you as we were talking about a minute

[00:24:29] ago? Do you feel like the resistance for people? I mean, logically, everyone knows if you eat better,

[00:24:35] you're going to feel better. And maybe the resistance is just fear of failing once again. Do you think

[00:24:41] that's it? I kind of wonder if that's because I'm starting to get to the point that I know I need to

[00:24:47] change my diet. But yet I know I've been kind of resistant. And that's not like me, because I've made

[00:24:53] huge changes before. And I've stuck with it. So what is it? And I'm I don't know if it's just fear

[00:24:59] of failure or what it is. So I'll tell you, I think it's two things. And I do want to go back to

[00:25:05] something you said earlier before I answer what you said about being vegan and vegetarian and a guy that

[00:25:11] you had on your program said about eating meat. I didn't eat meat for almost 38 years. Wow. Right?

[00:25:24] I quit when I was young. Yeah. Because it just made me ill. And I thought there's so much hormones in

[00:25:30] there. That's probably why I don't feel good. And then when I started balance for life on the program,

[00:25:38] you can't have grass fed beef, because grass fed beef is way better than regular beef with all the

[00:25:45] hormones. Right. And one day, I started having a craving for meat, like out of the blue. And I had

[00:25:54] gone for a checkup to the doctor, just like my yearly checkup. And she said, sometimes when you're

[00:26:00] craving meat, it's because your body needs more iron. She said, and unless you take an iron

[00:26:08] supplement, or you're getting enough iron in your diet, you might need to eat a little beef once in

[00:26:14] a while. So I decided I'm going to try it. And I did eat grass fed beef, I would say,

[00:26:22] probably for about on and off, maybe once every two weeks, a couple times a month. If I went out

[00:26:31] to a restaurant where they served really good Wagyu beef, or, you know, grass fed beef, I would eat

[00:26:39] it. And then I started not feeling so good after I was eating meat, like immediately not eating it.

[00:26:48] Wow. So I stopped eating it. And now I feel better. Like I started feeling like I would get this rumbling

[00:26:56] in my stomach. And I thought, okay, well, I'm over the iron craving and eating iron. And so I just started

[00:27:05] incorporating foods that have more iron, like more spinach and kale and those kinds of things into my

[00:27:11] diet. And now I don't have that craving. But I will say that if I was to go somewhere now, and the only

[00:27:18] thing there was to eat was grass fed beef, I would eat a little. But if I have a choice, I'm not a

[00:27:28] vegetarian, and I'm not vegan. I'm a pescatarian, I only eat fish. Okay, so you might be having some

[00:27:34] cravings. So that might be the reason why you should maybe eat a little beef. But to answer your

[00:27:42] question about why we fail, I think we fail for a couple reasons. One is, we're afraid of our own

[00:27:50] selves. We're our own worst enemy. I know I can say that for me. And the other reason is, we're living

[00:27:59] in a world that's so unpredictable every day, we never know what's going to happen. I mean, there was

[00:28:04] a time when you woke up and you figured, okay, this is how it's going to be in life around us. And today,

[00:28:11] it's not like that. Every day, we have no idea what to expect. And we've been through a pandemic.

[00:28:19] And we've been through all kinds of horrible, horrific things that we've never seen in the last

[00:28:25] 20 years, like mass shootings and all that. And that takes a toll on people's mental health. So I think

[00:28:32] a lot of people feel like, look, the world's gone crazy. And I don't know what's going to happen. So I'm

[00:28:37] just going to live my life. And who cares, because we're all going to die anyway. Right. And a lot of

[00:28:43] people feel that way. Unfortunately, I think that's a bad way to go because you're right, life is too

[00:28:51] short. But since it's too short, why don't we try and live it in the best healthy body we can, so we

[00:28:58] can live as long as possible, and make the world a better place instead of complaining about how bad it

[00:29:03] is. Right. And you don't know, I mean, you could live quite a long time and you want to have that

[00:29:09] quality of life. Well, I'm planning on it. I've already claimed that. I just meant in general,

[00:29:15] but yeah. But I just mean, we don't know you in general could live a long time and you want to have

[00:29:22] a good quality life. You just don't want to be alive and be miserable. You want to be enjoying life.

[00:29:28] And I am going to say that there are people that listen to the people in their circle,

[00:29:34] in their family. And if their family tells them, oh, that's crazy. Why are you going to do that?

[00:29:40] Or they go on my program and somebody in their family or their friend circle is like,

[00:29:47] oh, so you can't eat that. Like now they turn it into a bad thing.

[00:29:52] I've heard that for 10 years. And it's just, it's, it's just sabotage.

[00:29:57] Yeah. It drives me crazy. Cause it's like, oh, we can't go there because of you or we can't. And

[00:30:03] I'm like, you can go anywhere you want. You know, I'll find something. Listen, I lived through that

[00:30:08] for the longest time. I can't tell you why do you have to be so difficult? And I'm like, I'm not

[00:30:13] difficult. I can go anywhere, any restaurant, pick it. I'll find if there's one thing on the menu,

[00:30:19] I don't care if it's a piece of cauliflower, I can eat it, but don't blame me for eating good

[00:30:27] because you are eating horrible. And that's what it is. So we turn it around and we make it about

[00:30:34] other people. So, I mean, I could write the book about that, about the sabotage and how people are

[00:30:40] mad at you when you change and people don't like that you feel better. People don't like that you're

[00:30:47] encouraging other people to do better. I mean, it's crazy, but I'm going to keep doing it because

[00:30:53] I feel like in the world we're living in right now, we need more people that are going to shed light on

[00:30:59] things instead of living in this denial and living in the dark. Right. Absolutely. Well, I was going to

[00:31:07] tell you as far as your health, I could help you because for me, honestly, it's not about money

[00:31:14] because I have people that have been on my program. That'll tell me, you know what, Sherry,

[00:31:19] I can go on your program. I want to, but I can't afford all of the money. And there have been times

[00:31:26] where I know these people are really desperate. And so I'll take less money because if you're going

[00:31:31] to get healthy at the end, fine. That's really what it's about for me. My motto is always trying to

[00:31:38] get people one person at a time to get healthy. That's awesome. And I'm going to keep doing it.

[00:31:44] I know a lot of people can't afford it, but the people that say they can't afford it, some of them

[00:31:49] they're out shopping and going on trips and buying bad food and they're doing all these other things,

[00:31:55] but they're not contributing to their health. So it's all about what your priority is too in life.

[00:32:00] My priority is being healthy and happy. Like I said, I've noticed a little bit of resistance

[00:32:05] in myself as far as making more dietary changes. And I don't know if it's like fear of failure or

[00:32:13] what it is, but the one thing I can leverage against myself is the frozen shoulder because that is

[00:32:18] absolutely miserable. And until you've lived through it and you can't even dress yourself properly

[00:32:25] because you can't move your arm and it's horrible pain. And I had to miss therapy last week because we

[00:32:32] always have a lot going on in our family. It seems like, and I've noticed in just a week's time,

[00:32:37] you wake up and you start to feel some of that pain and some of that. And I'm thinking, Oh my gosh,

[00:32:42] I, I don't want to go back. That's also a sign of inflammation.

[00:32:47] Yeah. I know I have inflammatory problems for sure. Yeah.

[00:32:51] Yeah. And once that happens, then it starts to affect other parts of your body. It's how I try to

[00:32:59] explain to people. And again, I'm not a doctor, but think about it. And I'll use myself as an example

[00:33:06] for 64 years, I was stuffing my body full of bad food, except for the times I was on a diet, right?

[00:33:15] Which was half my life and the chemicals and the sugar and everything. After a while, you think about

[00:33:26] it, you putting all this stuff inside your body and it gets to the point where, where can it go

[00:33:34] anymore? There's nowhere for it to go. And it's just stays in your body and causes havoc on your joints

[00:33:41] and your organs and other things that now we have to start dealing with health issues. Right. And

[00:33:48] that's where it starts because I happen to be one of the lucky ones that really dodged a bullet

[00:33:54] because after all the bad eating I've done in my life and all the recklessness I've done to my body

[00:34:02] with food, having autoimmune problems is like nothing compared to what I could have. And had I not

[00:34:11] taken it seriously, my pre-diabetic diagnosis, the doctor said to me, if you don't change the way

[00:34:19] you eat, that's all she said. She didn't tell me what to eat. She said, if you don't change the way you

[00:34:24] eat and try, try to lose a little weight, a little weight, like I needed to lose a lot of weight. She said,

[00:34:36] what's going to happen is probably in a couple of years, you'll be taking pills for the diabetes.

[00:34:41] Wow. And eventually you'll go on insulin. And that was enough for me to say, no, right. I am not

[00:34:49] going to do that. I'm not. I didn't. And a lot of people get a diagnosis from the doctor and they come

[00:34:57] home and they go, well, that's what the doctor said. So I guess I'll try and eat better. And then they go out

[00:35:03] and have pizza. Yeah. I can't believe how blindly people follow everything a doctor says. And, and I

[00:35:11] have nothing, you know, I know they're professionals, but they also get a lot of information. Yeah. Like,

[00:35:17] like some doctors just want to kind of push a pill on you. And speaking of which, what are your thoughts

[00:35:22] on the new weight loss medications that are out there? The Ozempic and the Longiorno or however you

[00:35:30] say it. Okay. So I'm a very logical person and I think I have a logical brain. So I'm trying to ask

[00:35:38] myself why, if you are, do not have diabetes and you do not need to take this medication,

[00:35:48] why do you want to take medicine for diabetes to lose weight? For me in my brain, it doesn't make

[00:35:55] any sense. If this is a medication, I understand it'll help you. I probably, I mean, I don't think

[00:36:01] the doctor would even give it to me now because I'm at a good weight, right? Yeah. But why would you

[00:36:10] want to do it? And I know the answer because the answer is simple. It's a quick fix. You'll get results

[00:36:17] quick and then I'm good. But what I want to see is how many people are going to gain the weight back.

[00:36:25] Well, they say, if you quit taking it, I mean, they're pretty straightforward. I have some friends

[00:36:30] that are on it and they say, it's pretty straightforward that if you quit taking it,

[00:36:35] you're guaranteed to gain the weight back at least as much as you lost. Okay. So if there's a guarantee

[00:36:41] to gain the weight back, why would you want to do it? Well, their plan is to be on it for life,

[00:36:47] but I'm horrified of it. The weight loss is tempting, right? But it messes with the pancreas.

[00:36:53] It does all kinds of stuff. And I'm thinking, you don't even know what this causes. I was just

[00:36:58] going to say, think about it. Oh, it's scary. When people get diabetes, what part of their body does

[00:37:04] it affect your pancreas? Right. So if you are healthy or, you know, just need to lose weight,

[00:37:11] but basically are pretty healthy. Why would you want to put something in your body? That's for your

[00:37:15] pancreas to lose weight. I think it's horrifying myself. Yeah. I would never do it. If right now,

[00:37:22] if I was still weighing 233 pounds, I wouldn't take it. Yeah. It's scary to me, but their weight loss is

[00:37:31] amazing. I'm not knocking anybody that's on it. It's their choice. If it makes them happy, go for it.

[00:37:36] But for me, it's scary. Well, I'm going to tell you the other reason why I don't agree with it

[00:37:43] is because since I created Balance for Life, little by little, it took me about, I'm going to say

[00:37:50] three years to finally change all my skincare, everything that is clean ingredients,

[00:37:58] because that all affects your inflammation. I believe that in your body. It does. And as soon

[00:38:08] as I go, you know, and try something or put something that doesn't have clean ingredients,

[00:38:13] I get a reaction. Wow. And that's the other thing. So I was a makeup artist. I worked in skincare,

[00:38:19] all the chemicals that I put in my body from makeup and everything. And now I don't do that. I use all

[00:38:27] clean ingredient makeup and skincare. And I even make some of it myself. The doctor I had on that

[00:38:34] I referred to earlier, he deals mostly with autoimmune. And he was saying that women in

[00:38:40] particular, I think he said, we encounter like 150 different chemicals, just getting ready for work or

[00:38:48] for your day and the morning. And I'm like, what? So yeah, that it was eyeopening. Right. That we all

[00:38:55] need to start not only changing what you're putting in your body, but yeah, your skin is absorbing all of

[00:39:01] this stuff too. I mean, everything, your dish soap, your laundry detergent, everything, the lotion you use

[00:39:08] on your body, it all goes into your bloodstream. And that's why I say, you know, I don't know if I just

[00:39:16] have an angel in my pocket, but honestly, for as I'll say ill physically, I really was without

[00:39:24] realizing it. I dodged a bullet because I should be a mess right now and I'm not. So I'm glad I got

[00:39:31] it together and too bad. It took me to be 64 years old to get it. But that's why I'm so passionate

[00:39:38] about helping people that are younger than me and kids and what parents give their kids. Right. It's

[00:39:46] horrible because all of that, all that bad food that I ate as a kid that all contributed to this.

[00:39:52] It's a wonder that I only have autoimmune problems really. So is, is your program easy to follow

[00:39:59] just with a, this is a silly question maybe, but with a regular grocery store versus like, I live in an

[00:40:06] area. There is no whole foods. There is no Trader Joe's. There is no specialty health food. I mean,

[00:40:13] we have a little tiny health food store, but there's nothing on a big scale. So can you go to like,

[00:40:19] I don't know what chain is in your area, but we have like Kroger or Meyer or Walmart. Okay. So Kroger

[00:40:28] Kroger here in LA is Ralph's. Okay. Kroger brand. Okay. And yes, they have everything at Kroger that you

[00:40:38] can eat. And the other thing is if you order from Amazon, will they deliver to you? No, not I've

[00:40:45] tried not yet. Not, but I can get to a whole foods. I mean, it would be like once a week or once every

[00:40:51] two weeks or something. Okay. So if you could go once a week, there's only a couple of things there.

[00:40:57] Okay. That you would want, but honestly you could buy them at Kroger because some of the things I buy

[00:41:04] at whole foods I've seen at Kroger. And when I'm there, I buy it, but you can buy clean detergent.

[00:41:10] You can buy clean soap. You can buy clean dish soap. They have, I mean, every vegetable under the sun,

[00:41:18] you can buy everything. You can buy fresh herbs. And the other thing is, is that when you're on my

[00:41:24] program, I'll send you recipes. I have hundreds and hundreds of recipes. And if you want to eat

[00:41:35] something or you're not sure I'll send you recipes. That's, I mean, if you go on my balance for life page,

[00:41:41] it's balanced the number four and life on Facebook. You'll see, I post stuff all the time,

[00:41:48] different recipes. And I find recipes online that have bad ingredients. And then I go in my kitchen,

[00:41:54] like a little scientist, and I take all the bad ingredients out and I put the good ingredients

[00:42:00] in and I see how it comes out if it's good. And I'm going to tell you, I came up, I've come up with

[00:42:05] some pretty good stuff that I've been eating. I eat better now than I did when I ate bad food.

[00:42:11] Honestly. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. It's really fun. Do you also share like your recommendations on

[00:42:20] soap and laundry detergent? There's a one week in the program. You can go on the program for six

[00:42:28] weeks or 12 weeks. Okay. You can also do what I call a one-off. If you don't want to do the six or

[00:42:36] 12 week program, I can send you the food list. And when you need help, you can buy a session at a time

[00:42:45] or you can just buy the food list and have added on your own and figure it out and do it that way.

[00:42:54] Because again, it's not about the money. It's about, do you really want to be healthy and feel better?

[00:43:01] Do you want to wake up feeling like you have energy? Do you want to get up every day and feel

[00:43:07] like, wow, I feel amazing. And that's the difference. So there's different things you can do,

[00:43:14] but I am going to say that in the six weeks or 12 weeks, but especially the six, if you do everything

[00:43:21] I say, there's a week where I go over all the products that I recommend that I personally use

[00:43:29] makeup, skincare, everything. And it's not stuff that's expensive. You know, you can buy it

[00:43:36] anywhere. And I also am a big advocate for essential oils. And I will tell you that with a bad shoulder,

[00:43:45] one of the, one of the essential oils that you should be putting on your shoulder every day

[00:43:49] is frankincense. Some reason I thought you were going to say that, but I, I haven't looked it up.

[00:43:55] Yeah. When I have a headache, I can't tell you the last time I took a Tylenol,

[00:44:00] I go and get my little bottle of peppermint oil and I put it right here across my head, forehead

[00:44:06] and my temples. And I sit and I'm quiet for a few minutes. Your headache goes away.

[00:44:12] So on the essential oils are there, and you don't have to list any brand names, but I'm just asking,

[00:44:18] are there good ones and bad ones as far as do some have bad stuff in them too? Or are they all

[00:44:23] pretty decent? No, essential oils are usually pretty clean. There's a couple of brands that I like,

[00:44:30] and they're really inexpensive. I mean, they're just a few dollars a bottle. Wow. Yeah. I mean,

[00:44:35] it's easy. And then the other thing is what I would say for you is let's say you went on my program,

[00:44:41] which we can talk about off, right off air. Yeah. Off the podcast, but let's just say you did.

[00:44:47] And there are things that are on this list that no matter what you are never going to be able to buy them.

[00:44:53] I would go to my whole foods and buy them for you or my trader Joe's or whatever. And I would just

[00:44:59] send them to you and you could sell me the money. There's always a way to do everything. And I say

[00:45:05] this about everything in life. We can change anything we want to change. It just depends on how bad you

[00:45:13] want to and how bad you want the end game to be positive. Right. We are all capable, but we don't

[00:45:22] always do it. And I, that's what I was trying to get to earlier. I often wonder why we logically know,

[00:45:30] but yet we don't try. And is it that fear of failure or is it, I don't really think I'm going to achieve

[00:45:38] what you've achieved. You know what I mean? I just wonder with ourselves, what, what stops us from

[00:45:44] at least attempting? I don't think it's fear of failure. I think it's plain old fear because fear

[00:45:52] brings change. Yeah. We have to change. And that's the one thing you can tell anywhere you look in the

[00:45:58] world, no matter what the subject matter is, if change doesn't happen, nothing goes forward.

[00:46:05] Right. Right. Nothing. So your family member that has heart disease and had triple bypass,

[00:46:13] nothing is going to change in his or her life until he changes, he or she changes the way they

[00:46:21] move through life, what they eat, do they exercise, what they're putting in their body,

[00:46:26] the people you surround yourself with that has a lot to do with how you feel about yourself. Believe me,

[00:46:33] I know. Let me ask this question and we touched on it briefly before, but we all know that sugar is

[00:46:40] addictive. That's proven. And they are putting a lot of chemicals in these processed foods just to

[00:46:46] make them addictive. Right. So how do you overcome that addiction part of it? Because it is a mental

[00:46:53] and a physical addiction. I think the sugar and the chemicals, how do you overcome that? Or is it just

[00:46:59] you make it till it kind of like you quit smoking? I mean, the addiction is there, but you work through

[00:47:06] the desire to have it until you get to the other side. I'm just trying to understand.

[00:47:14] Okay. So that's a really good question because what happens is it really happens naturally.

[00:47:20] And most everybody that's been on my program after the second week, some the first week, but always

[00:47:27] after the second week, I asked them, do you feel any different? Do you feel better? And they're like,

[00:47:33] yeah, I wake up and I feel like I have more energy because you gradually will see as you're getting rid

[00:47:41] of all the bad chemicals and the inflammation, because really your body will go through a,

[00:47:46] like a purging. And even though you're known actually see the food leaving your body, right?

[00:47:54] The inflammation, you feel it. And it starts to gradually happen where all of a sudden you'll be

[00:48:00] like, wait, I used to get really tired around this time of the day, but now I'm not.

[00:48:05] And so it'll happen gradually where the longer you go without eating bad food and sugar,

[00:48:12] it automatically will make your cravings go away because you won't crave that stuff anymore.

[00:48:21] You start craving good food. Honestly, you will start craving good food. I didn't believe it

[00:48:27] until it happened to me. Like I would rather go and roast some carrots than eat a piece of chocolate

[00:48:34] or a pint of ice cream. That's pretty impressive. And it happens. And now I eat chocolate. I eat a

[00:48:41] piece of chocolate almost every single day, but I eat dark chocolate. Right. And it has to be 72%

[00:48:48] cacao or more. Okay. Because that's the floor of where the inflammation is not there. Oh, wow.

[00:48:57] Right. So there isn't anything you can't do on this program. You can go on vacation. You can go to a

[00:49:03] restaurant. You can have Christmas. You can have a birthday. You can do everything. The only thing you

[00:49:10] have to be able to do is not listen to what other people are telling you and listen to yourself

[00:49:15] and be determined enough that to give yourself some grace that you're going to see after a week or two,

[00:49:22] or for sure three, you're going to start feeling better. And the reason you're going to feel better

[00:49:26] is not only are you purging the inflammation, but you're also starting to lose some weight.

[00:49:31] And who doesn't feel better doing that? Oh yeah, absolutely. Right. And so after six or 12 weeks of

[00:49:39] eating good and feeling better, I don't know, honestly, anybody that's gained their weight back.

[00:49:45] In fact, I do have one client. She was on my program two years ago. She was on it for six weeks

[00:49:53] and I believe she lost 18 or 20 pounds. And now she's lost about 45 pounds or more. Wow. She had

[00:50:03] to take in all her clothes. She goes to the gym. She, I mean, she's like loving life and she looks

[00:50:11] amazing. That is amazing. Yeah. So she's continued on. Right. So do they have access to your group for

[00:50:18] forever? Once they join to the Facebook group? Most of the people that are on in my Facebook group,

[00:50:23] they've never even gone on my program. Oh, really? Okay. I didn't know. No, you don't have to be in my

[00:50:29] group to join. Okay. I mean, honestly, there are people that are getting free advice from me

[00:50:36] from stuff that I post and recipes that I give, but you know what? I don't care because

[00:50:42] honestly, I think about it sometimes. I wonder how many people have ever made any recipes that I post.

[00:50:49] And I'm going to say that I think that less than half probably have, but they love coming there every

[00:50:57] day for the information. So, okay. You can have free information. I see. I don't care.

[00:51:03] You know what I mean? I don't care because it's your life. It's your health and you have to decide.

[00:51:09] Very true. And for me, as I'm getting older, look, I don't know what's going to happen to me.

[00:51:14] I want to live to be 90, but I don't know if that's going to happen, but that's my goal.

[00:51:19] So I'm going to work at that every day. But what if God forbid I got sick or something happened that

[00:51:25] I had to go to the doctor or get in the hospital? At least I'm in good health where I can recover

[00:51:30] better than anybody who's already not well and has a lot of inflammation because now we're going to

[00:51:37] get more inflammation. You know what I mean? Oh, I believe you. And that's the other thing that

[00:51:43] I'm really concerned about as I get older is that I need to stay healthy because I don't want to go

[00:51:50] in a hospital the way our healthcare system is now. I don't care where you live. I hear more horror

[00:51:56] stories every day about people not getting good care. Oh, I do too. Right. So how do you prevent that?

[00:52:02] So stay healthy. How do you stay healthy? Eat better. Right. You see how easy it is? I kind of

[00:52:09] feel like this whole big pharma thing, and I won't delve in it too much. I know it's a big political

[00:52:15] bruja, but this whole big pharma thing. I mean, they're geared to condition our doctors to offer

[00:52:21] pills. And then the more pills you're on, the more pills you need to recover. I mean, everything has a

[00:52:27] side effect. Then they give you another pill because it's a snowball effect. Take one pill and

[00:52:32] then you take 10, right? You take one and then you got to take 10 to recover from what that pill did

[00:52:38] to you. And then, you know, what are those 10 pills? It's just, it's a kind of a wreck. Well,

[00:52:43] and then the other thing is exactly what you said is some of the pills they're giving you,

[00:52:49] they don't play well together. They're not your friend and they're harming you instead of helping you.

[00:52:56] Right. So now these pills that you've been taking react in a different way. And now you have something

[00:53:01] else that you have to deal with. Absolutely. But it all stems from inflammation because that's how we

[00:53:08] get any disease. The bacteria travels into your body and sits there until it works on your organs

[00:53:15] or in your bloodstream. And then we get sick. I mean, the formula is easy for some people doing

[00:53:22] something about it. Is it right? You know? And so I always say, I'm not the food police. I don't care

[00:53:31] what you eat and you shouldn't care what I eat, but I do want people to be mindful of their health

[00:53:38] and really want more for yourself and want better for yourself than to wake up in pain

[00:53:44] and feeling horrible. Who wants that? Yeah. Yeah. I don't. I don't either. Does that mean I don't ever

[00:53:50] wake up and I have like a little pain in my side? Well, yeah, maybe because I slept wrong, but not

[00:53:55] because I have any problems. Right. Yeah. And there is a difference. Yeah. Right. Exactly. So it's not

[00:54:03] like I've skated out of everything because I created balance for life. I didn't, but I am going to say

[00:54:12] that, you know, I haven't been sick. This is going to be, we're going on to the fifth year. And if I can

[00:54:19] get through 2024, I'll be five years with nothing, no sore throat, no cold, no nothing, just a little

[00:54:28] seasonal allergy. And the truth is you probably don't even know half of the things you've escaped

[00:54:34] from by living a better, cleaner life. You know what I mean? Right. But I also don't know if I waited

[00:54:43] too long to escape for anything, even though I'm eating good for the last six and a half years.

[00:54:49] Right. Right. I don't know. I have no idea. But what I do know is that I'm going to do everything I can

[00:54:56] to stay away from the chemicals and the sugar, because those are two of the things that for sure

[00:55:02] will eventually cause cancer. Right. And everybody in my family, everybody dies of cancer. And that's

[00:55:09] my other goal. I'm going to live to be 90 and I'm going to be the first person in my immediate family

[00:55:15] not to die of cancer. Those are two great goals for sure. Right. Yeah. So, so far,

[00:55:23] you know, I'm praying as I get older that we don't run into any other nonsense because I'm not

[00:55:30] interested. I love your beliefs. It's awesome. Yeah. I wake up every day with the cup half full

[00:55:38] and I don't think there isn't anything that we can't conquer. And I am a big advocate for helping

[00:55:45] other people because that's why my website and everything is share the gift because we have to

[00:55:51] help other people get what they want in life in order to get what we want. And I can tell you that

[00:55:56] that's true because when you start helping other people and you're not just thinking about me, me,

[00:56:00] me, all good things can happen to you. I believe that. And I think mindset is also tied to our health

[00:56:07] completely. And I think by you having a positive outlook and you're helping people and it just fills

[00:56:14] you up. I think that changes. Yeah. They talk about like, we have the power to turn certain genes on and off.

[00:56:21] Yeah. So I think you're headed down the right path for sure. So, yeah. I mean, when something bad

[00:56:28] happens, the first thing we do is we react, right? Right. We live in a very reactive society instead of,

[00:56:36] well, what can I do to make it better? Right. Well, I went to the doctor and the doctor said,

[00:56:41] I'm pre-diabetic. Okay. Well, I could have come home and just went, all right, I'll just take the

[00:56:46] pills and can still eat bad and be overweight. But I said, no, what can I do? And I was really

[00:56:55] like a lunatic going, I am not having this. I am not getting this. I am not, I'm not, I'm not.

[00:57:01] And since 2020, I wake up every day and I know you're going to think this is crazy, but I just go,

[00:57:07] you know what? I'm never getting COVID. I am not getting the flu. Oh no, I'm not getting that.

[00:57:13] But that's not going to happen to me. And I, because I believe what you say out loud,

[00:57:17] the universe listens. My mom says that too. And I don't think she's had COVID yet.

[00:57:23] She believes that if you tell yourself that you're not getting this or you're not getting,

[00:57:27] and not that she never gets sick, she does once in a while, but she does a lot better than most of us

[00:57:33] for sure. And she says it out loud. Yeah. When people ask me, you've never had COVID,

[00:57:38] they say it like, I'm a freak. You've never had COVID. Everybody had COVID. I'm like, no,

[00:57:43] because I'm never having COVID. I'm never getting it ever, ever. And I say it all the time and people

[00:57:48] laugh, but here I am. I don't have it yet. And I also believe in science. Right. I'm not propaganda.

[00:57:59] I was going to say real science. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I do what's good for me. And I don't

[00:58:06] worry about what other people do because as long as it's good for me and I'm healthy and I feel good

[00:58:12] and I'm doing things that are positive in my life, that's all that matters. Right. And I don't judge

[00:58:18] what other people do because if that works in your life and being ill and taking a bunch of pills makes

[00:58:24] you happy, then you should do it. Right. Right. Just like when I used to sit down and eat a pint of ice

[00:58:30] cream when I was fat, I felt fabulous. It made me feel good. But really what I was doing, I was just

[00:58:37] feeding all the nonsense that I wasn't dealing with in my life. Right. I was just feeding right.

[00:58:42] My emotions. Exactly. Because I think a lot of us do get emotional attachment to food. Oh, for sure.

[00:58:49] And the way we grew up. Oh, you're hurting. Have a cookie. Oh, you're happy. Have a cookie.

[00:58:53] Right. I broke up with my boyfriend. Let's go eat some chocolate. Exactly. Right. Then that's what

[00:58:59] your friends and family will say. And if someone dies, well, let's all go out and eat. If someone

[00:59:04] gets married, let's all go have a big dinner. It doesn't matter if it's happy or sad. You,

[00:59:09] right. You treat it the same with food. And food. Listen, I love food. And I think food brings

[00:59:15] people together. It makes enjoying occasions like you just described really fun. But at the end of the day,

[00:59:23] what we eat will determine how much fun you can continue to have. Right. Because you can go to the

[00:59:32] party. You can go to the wedding. You can go to the Christmas party. You can go to a picnic, whatever it

[00:59:39] is. You can go to everything and just pick the things that they have for you. When I was dieting,

[00:59:47] even way before Balance for Life, I would ask people, do you mind if I ask you what you're serving

[00:59:52] at the party today? And if it wasn't something that I thought I should be eating, I would just eat

[00:59:57] before I went and then just have some vegetables or some fruit. But if they were making things that

[01:00:02] weren't on the program I was on at the time, which was every diet you can think of, then I didn't eat

[01:00:09] it. You know what I mean? And now I don't even ask people, what are you serving? What are you doing?

[01:00:14] Because I already know they're going to probably have not one good thing on the menu.

[01:00:18] And a lot of people are annoyed that people eat good because they want to serve bad food.

[01:00:23] So they make it about you that you're the problem. Yeah. So I don't even ask people anymore. I just go.

[01:00:30] And if there's something there, I eat it. If there isn't, I don't. And I just have one extra cocktail

[01:00:37] because you can drink on my program. Okay. But you can only drink three things. I don't drink.

[01:00:43] You can still have alcohol. You can still drink alcohol. And what do you allow on the program?

[01:00:49] The alcohol. So you can only have red wine. Okay. Champagne and tequila. That'll make a lot of

[01:00:55] people happy. I'm sure. Yeah. Especially the tequila. Yeah. That's what I meant.

[01:01:02] So you can, and some people say they drink when they're dieting, they drink gin because it's clean.

[01:01:08] That's not one of the things I recommend, but some people do it. Okay. Yeah. Because there was a time

[01:01:14] where you could, I would go to a Mexican restaurant with my friends and it was happy hour and you could

[01:01:19] give me all the chips in the whole restaurant and every beer they could serve me. And that was,

[01:01:25] I never even wanted to eat food. All I wanted was beer and chips and salsa.

[01:01:30] I could do the chips and salsa for sure. Unfortunately.

[01:01:34] Yeah. Right. But listen, each to his own. Now I can't even, the last time I had chips,

[01:01:40] I made them myself. So you can make them yourself. You just have to use tortillas that are made out

[01:01:46] of cassava flour or almond flour. And some people go, well, it's not the same. Okay. Put a little salt

[01:01:54] on it and pretend like it's the same. You know what I think of though? And I would probably say the same

[01:02:00] thing, but I always think back, I don't drink pop anymore, but I used to drink pop. And I always

[01:02:05] thought I couldn't go to the diet version. Right. It was nasty. It was horrible. And then I started

[01:02:11] drinking diet and I couldn't drink the real stuff after that. And then now I don't drink any of it.

[01:02:17] And so you can make changes. You can transition from that stuff.

[01:02:23] How long has it been since you drank diet soda?

[01:02:26] 2013.

[01:02:27] Good for you because diet soda is like a death sentence.

[01:02:32] Oh, wow.

[01:02:33] Diet soda is so bad for you. And I'm going to tell you why. And don't get me wrong. I had my share of diet

[01:02:41] sodas in life. I haven't drank soda in probably 20 years, even when I way before, because when I was a

[01:02:47] I found out that the buildup in your system, it builds up plaque. And a lot of the reasons why we

[01:02:55] have a stroke is because there's too much plaque in our brain. Wow. And I know people that drink

[01:03:01] a six pack of soda diet soda to this day. I was addicted to it. I'm not going to lie. I'd stop

[01:03:08] before work and get a big one. I stopped on the way home and get, and I just decided enough's enough.

[01:03:13] But I've heard since then that the FDA allowed these companies to add chemicals to the soda

[01:03:20] that makes it addictive. So it's no wonder people are addicted to it.

[01:03:24] Right. Just like food companies are allowed to put added sugar in things that already have sugar.

[01:03:32] And that's why I tell people all the time that are on my program, when you're looking at the sugar

[01:03:38] content, if it says added sugar, I don't care if it says 1% added sugar, that's another gram or two,

[01:03:46] whatever of sugar you shouldn't be eating in a day. Right. Because everybody's only supposed to be

[01:03:51] consuming a minute amount of sugar every day that I'm sure most people aren't even paying attention to.

[01:03:58] They go, Oh, it has three grams of sugar. Right. But look at the bottom,

[01:04:02] look at the line below it. It has 10% added sugar. Oh, wow. So that's not even showing up in that.

[01:04:11] And so there, and that's where people are going. I don't understand. I've been eating this and

[01:04:16] I still don't lose any weight because we're not paying attention to really what we're eating.

[01:04:21] We're not paying attention. And there's so many things that are slipping into our food,

[01:04:28] especially chemicals and sugar that people aren't aware of. There used to be a saying,

[01:04:33] I think there still is. If you can't pronounce it, you shouldn't be eating it.

[01:04:37] Yeah. I've heard that a lot lately. Yeah. I believe that's true. Yeah.

[01:04:42] Yeah. But I mean, inflammation is the key to our food. And the other thing is the sugar and just

[01:04:50] paying attention to what you're putting in your body. And for some people, they think it's too much

[01:04:55] trouble. They have too much to do during the day and too many things to deal with in the family and

[01:05:01] the work and this. So I can't be bothered. And the thing that we should be being bothered with and

[01:05:07] paying attention to is our health. Right. But I mean, I understand those folks because sometimes I feel

[01:05:15] the same way. Life just goes haywire sometimes, but you're right. Our focus should still stay on our

[01:05:20] health because it's just like the oxygen mask scenario that you always hear about. If you don't

[01:05:26] put your own on first, you're not going to be there to help everybody else. Well, not only that,

[01:05:31] but if you're running in every direction, because you have a lot of responsibilities, which look,

[01:05:37] I'm not negating at all. We all have it, right? Right. We have certain responsibilities. And if you

[01:05:42] have a family and you have kids or you have older parents that you take care of, whatever your

[01:05:47] responsibility is, you still have one, right? However, all of that sometimes causes stress

[01:05:55] and the stress causes cortisol, which causes inflammation in our gut. And that's how we get

[01:06:02] on our journey to bad health. So stress is a big thing. It's funny that you say that because

[01:06:09] I feel like I'm always under a lot of stress. I put myself under a lot. Right. And I always felt like

[01:06:15] I can function very well mentally under stress. I can really function. I can zero in. And I never

[01:06:23] stopped to think of what all the stress was doing to my body until stuff started catching up with me.

[01:06:30] Right. And then you started saying, Whoa, wait a minute. Even though I felt like my brain could

[01:06:35] handle it. My body was telling me it can't. Right. And when you're stressed out, you'll feel it in your

[01:06:41] body. Yeah. Oh, my body tells me. Yeah. But see, you said something very interesting and I want you to

[01:06:49] really listen to what you said is you said, I put a lot of stress on myself. Right. And my question is

[01:07:00] why, what is it in the world or what you need or what you want or what you're trying to accomplish

[01:07:08] that you can't do with ease, that you have to do it with stress? And the reason I'm asking you is

[01:07:14] because that used to be me. I had to make sure that I got this done and that done and this happened.

[01:07:19] And I took care of this and I helped that one. And I was like this all the time. Right. Right.

[01:07:25] And the only person that I wasn't helping was me. Exactly.

[01:07:30] And the one that wasn't feeling good was me. Yeah, exactly. Right. Right. So I'm asking you,

[01:07:37] why do you put that stress on yourself? And can you accomplish whatever it is you're doing right

[01:07:42] now in life? If you did it with a little bit of ease? I'm sure I probably could. I think,

[01:07:47] I think I feel, I always feel like I, it's probably boils down to people pleasing and trying to make

[01:07:54] everybody happy, get everything done. I don't know. I just have this drive that everything,

[01:07:59] I just want everything done. So I don't have it. Otherwise I'll worry about it. Right. So if I get

[01:08:03] it done, I don't have to worry about it, but then there's all that worry trying to get it done.

[01:08:07] Right. Right. And then you're worrying, trying to get it done. And then when it's all done,

[01:08:11] you're worrying, did I do a good enough job to get it done? Right. Yeah. And the reason I know this

[01:08:18] is because I'm guilty. I used to be guilty. I have to do this and I got to do that. And I have to make

[01:08:23] sure this gets done. And by the time a day ended, I was exhausted and had a

[01:08:28] collapsed in my bed because of all the things I thought I had to do. Yeah. And the only thing I

[01:08:34] really needed to do was serve me first and take care of me first so that I could be a better human

[01:08:41] to the world around me and a cliche and whatever that sounds, it's really the truth because I used to

[01:08:49] be like that. I was a people pleaser, but I was a people, we're all people pleasers because of stuff

[01:08:54] that happened in our childhood. That's why we're people pleasers. Oh yeah. I agree.

[01:09:00] A hundred percent. That's a whole, that's a whole nother Oprah.

[01:09:07] We'll take that one the next time. Right. But that's one to talk about off camera too,

[01:09:13] because that's a big, big thing because we're so busy taking care of everybody else and worrying

[01:09:18] about everybody else. And then everybody else seems to be getting better around us and we're still

[01:09:23] suffering. Why? Right. Right. Yeah. I know exactly what you're saying. It is. It's hard to do.

[01:09:31] It's really hard to do, but once you do it, and I am going to say that once you start conquering

[01:09:37] your health and when your health starts to feel better, something happens mentally

[01:09:43] that you just start looking at things differently. And I think also as we get older,

[01:09:48] older, that's the other reason as we get older, I think once you reach 50, you start looking at life

[01:09:55] a little bit different because here's the thing I noticed and tell me what you think.

[01:10:00] Do you notice people around you or people that you see on TV or famous people or whoever,

[01:10:07] once they get to be 50, all of a sudden in the last five to 10 years, we hear about people

[01:10:12] talking about they had to get to know who they were and they were so busy doing this that they were

[01:10:18] suffering inside. And now everybody's going through this purge of life to become a better human,

[01:10:25] but it isn't happening until we get to be that age. And what I'm trying to tell people is I don't care

[01:10:31] if you're 10, 25 or 42, you should be doing it now. I agree a hundred percent. It's just making it a

[01:10:40] priority. Right. Because then you're going to save yourself from all the other nonsense that could be

[01:10:46] happening in life. You're going to save yourself from it and all the regret too. Exactly. Yeah.

[01:10:54] But I don't have any regret because for me, I believe everything that's happened in my life

[01:10:59] has happened at the right time and everything I'm supposed to get will come to me. And if I'm not

[01:11:05] supposed to have it, it won't. And that's why I've had things in my life that are no longer here.

[01:11:10] Because they didn't serve me and they're not supposed to be here for me to be happy. I believe

[01:11:15] that. I think you're right. Yeah. You just have to learn how to lean into it. And that might be the

[01:11:21] hard part for some of us. I don't know, but I can teach you. Okay. It's nobody is hopeless. Nobody.

[01:11:28] Well, I thank you very much for being on the show today. You're packed full of a lot of wisdom and

[01:11:34] great advice. And thank you. I love talking with you. It's so fun. I feel like we've been sitting

[01:11:40] in each other's living room. I feel like I've known you just without, without a cup of coffee or

[01:11:47] anything. We were just chatting away. It's been really fun. I really liked it. Yeah, me too.

[01:11:53] Thank you very much. And I appreciate coming on. Well, thanks for having me. It was a pleasure.

[01:11:58] Absolutely. Thank you. Bye-bye. All right. Listen, go have a really beautiful day and try and eat

[01:12:05] better. As we wrap up today's episode, I hope Sherry sharing her knowledge, experience, and wisdom

[01:12:11] has helped you in some way. I want to be very transparent and let you know that after the

[01:12:16] taping of this episode, Sherry and I scheduled a phone call and we had quite the conversation.

[01:12:21] Sherry is a person that, in my opinion, you just feel like you've known her forever. She's a

[01:12:26] wonderful person. I ended up becoming a client of Sherry's after that for about 12 weeks. During that

[01:12:32] time, I lost about 10 pounds on the program and I've truly learned a lot. I can honestly say this is

[01:12:38] not a sales gimmick. This is how Sherry lost her weight and it's how she continues to get healthier

[01:12:44] all the time. And she truly just wants for other people to get healthy. That's her biggest goal in life.

[01:12:50] And I think that's so admirable. It's so awesome. And I should also say that I do consider

[01:12:56] Sherry a friend. So with all that being said, the biggest thing in the conversation for me

[01:13:03] is the whole idea about inflammation. And it was something I was seeking more information on when I

[01:13:10] met Sherry. Sherry and I are not doctors, but we both understand the dangers of inflammation. And I

[01:13:16] truly personally believe it's the root of all evil health-wise. And it's sugar and processed foods

[01:13:21] that cause that inflammation. So another thing is that most doctors won't or don't, I'm not sure

[01:13:28] which, tell you that. So please do your own research and see what you think. So what stood out to you

[01:13:36] today? I'd love to hear from you. As always, I hope this episode helps at least one person.

[01:13:41] And with that, I hope you have a blessed week, my friend.

[01:13:48] Thank you for listening to The Beauty and the Mess. If you enjoyed what you heard,

[01:13:52] please share it with a friend. And if you haven't already, please subscribe, rate, and review this

[01:13:57] podcast on your favorite pod player. If you have any questions or comments, any topic ideas you would

[01:14:03] like to hear about, or you think you would be a great guest on the show, you can reach me directly

[01:14:08] at thebeautyandthemess.com. Thanks for listening.