Promoting Health & Wellness with BetterChoices

It's Chrystal Hurst, and I hope you can hear and see me. Y'all know I love doing stuff and I'm a little bit geeky, and every time I do this stuff, I learn something new. So I'm excited that you're joining me for an episode of the Sister Circle Show Live, where I get a chance to interview people that I don't get to see physically and in person, but that I still would love to talk to so that I can tell you all about them and help you to get to know someone that I either know, admire, or desire to share with you and teach you their passion, their experience, their skill, or a lesson learned in life. I want to introduce you to Aria— Eric and Malika Beale, who are the co-founding health coaches of Better Choices. They are a health and wellness company and a social community that is focused on educating, advocating, and promoting better health and wellness through lifestyle, nutrition, and fitness education. Now I have to tell you how I was introduced to Eric and Malika. So the thing is, you know, you scroll and then Instagram or whatever the social media, they try to help you find your people. And so I found them because they were talking about this tremendous amount of loss that they— weight that they lost. And of course, anybody that struggles with their weight, you want to know what did they do. And y'all, we all know what to do. You got to move and eat less. But how you do that is the key. And so I started following them, and they'll even tell you that that Better Choices is not about a diet meal plan, a quick fix product, because we all want a quick fix, or a weight loss program. It's about a lifestyle. And as I follow them on Instagram, I've had the opportunity to watch them live this lifestyle, and it's awesome. So Eric and Malika, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having us.

That's pretty good.

That was amazing.

Listen, y'all are worth the effort.

Y'all sound great, but y'all are great, really. I am, um, I am, uh, really, uh, really been reminded of most of the things I know to do, but watching y'all, it's like, okay, just do them, just do the things. I think at one point, like, early on, I put a message in, like, in the comments, and Malika, you responded to me, and the sum total of what you basically said was You just have to do it. So, so I'm curious about this before we even launch into your story. As health coaches and as people who have both as a couple, because you both lost a lot of weight together, you, you've been on this journey and you, and you know what the, the problems are from being unhealthy and the benefits that come with being healthy. So when people are asking you the questions, because you know they do, um, are y'all the kind of health coaches that are like Okay, let's write this out for you. You're encouraging, you know, that's okay, we'll do better next week. Are y'all more of the get-in-your-face kind of, do you want to do this or not? Like, what is your vibe? What's the MO when you're coaching people?

Uh, I said it's a combination. Yeah, I wouldn't say we go hard charging. We, we like to find the, um, yeah, in the, in the humor, you know, we like to encourage people to, to laugh at themselves because, you know, through this process you're able to recognize, you know, your habits and the decisions that you make and how you're coming about making those decisions. And so, you know, a lot of times while we're addressing what's necessary, yeah, we like to keep it up, we like to keep it funny. That helps with the reception of the information.

Okay, so out of the two of y'all, who— whose role is what? Like, y'all are two individuals, so it makes sense that it would be a combination, but who, who is known for what and who is known for whatever?

Now see, typically when you have two people, you automatically assume that there's a good cop and a bad cop. Okay, I didn't say that. Bad cop, but there's a different dynamic at play here. Instead of a good cop, bad cop, it's more of a male, female. So in other words, you get the same— get same information from two different perspectives. Okay, make sense?

Yes. Yeah, but to answer the question, it really depends on what we're addressing, because in some instances, you know, Eric will— Eric will take the lead and he'll be more assertive, or, you know, what we're really focusing on. While we recognize there are legitimate excuses, at the end of the day, there shouldn't be any excuses that keep you from taking care of yourself. And so, you know, those roles will reverse. Let's say we're talking about something about, um, let's say nutrition or something related to—

I don't know, I'll be ready. You got me.

It just changes. I, I think, I think people that we work with would say it just depends on the day. Sometimes, you know, Malik is disgusting, and other days, you know, Eric is just— they do.

And then the other side of this is when we actually get down into coaching, even though we're coaching together, we do two different things inside of coaching. I deal more so strictly numbers, and she deals more so with actual food items, right? I mean, it's all nutrition, but we just approach it from two different ways. So by me dealing with numbers, there's really no wiggle room, so I guess I'm the bad guy.

So when you say numbers, are you talking about macros and calories and weight loss and inches?

It's so many different gauges that you have to balance. Most people, when they approach this, they only know one gauge, and it's calories, right? And they don't really understand that, right? You know, when you really break it down, there's about— would you say 6, 7? That's about 6, at least 6 main gauges that you want to keep an eye on, right? And balance them all, right?

And a few of them cover what we call you know, these marketing or these trending terms like you mentioned macros, when we're dealing with, you know, mainly carbs and protein. But for Eric and I, you know, that's just the surface. And while those things are contributing to a lot of the health deficiencies or with issues with weight loss, they aren't the only keys that make a significant difference. You know, small things that make a big difference.

Okay, so now that we kind of know that you're both the bad guy, so how about that? In different ways. No, it's great. It's great because most of us, there are a lot of people that don't know, you know, they don't know the basics. They don't understand macronutrients. They don't understand that it's not just about calories and they don't understand that, you know, if they work out all day that they got to do the food too. I mean, there are a lot of people who don't understand that. In my experience with my world, my circle of people, it's not about lack of knowledge, it's about lack of implementation. And at the point where you've decided that you want to actually do something, having somebody that's willing to draw a line and call you to the carpet and hold you accountable, or be the bad guy, whatever you want to call it, I mean, it matters and it's important. And for a lot of people, it's what gets the job done. So I think, I think that that's, that's crucial. I want to back up just a little bit though and introduce people to you. So can you tell us a little bit about your story, where you were, why you decided to change, and what changed exactly in your life?

So that begins with once upon a time.

Uh, long story short, I was born and raised in New Orleans, which is a hard place to do anything healthy. But, uh, born and raised in New Orleans. Fast forward 2005, Hurricane Katrina blew my wife and my family, I was— who was— to Texas. Uh, we were stuck in Texas for 2 years. During the course of those 2 years, uh, I actually came down on the case of stripper Went to the emergency clinic, going through the vital process and all that, got ready to get on the scale, and they couldn't assess how much I actually weighed. The scale couldn't register, you know, the scale in the doctor's office tops out. So anyway, the nurse started playing with the scale, tinkering with the counterbalances and all of that. She gets a couple more people to come and help her, and you heard somebody on my right-hand side say, 398, write it down. In my head, I'm like, whoa, 398, man, that's the physical weight from 400 pounds. I don't remember being this heavy. At that time I was 35 years old. I said, you know, 35-year-old African-American male, 400 pounds, there's a thousand different ways I could die.

Wow.

I need to be able to control some of this, and most of this is controlled through diet, lifestyle. So I was at the doctor's office, when I went home, my partner Grind did it. I walk in, we're real big on energy, so when I walked in she felt my energy. She said, okay, what's wrong? Said nothing. Like most men, I internalized it. Most men internalize things. We don't talk about our problems, we just deal with them. So I sat down at the table and she could just see it. I was wearing like a cheap suit. She said, what's wrong? I said, nothing, man, I'm good. She said, look, I'm going to bed, give you 5 minutes. When I come back, you need to tell me what's going on. What's popping? You ready to check out on me? Nothing like that. So I'm like, no, no, no. So she came back and I explained to her what happened. The first thing she said was What you gonna do? They didn't tell me none of that.

I didn't go to the doctor.

They didn't tell me none of what you just told me. They told you that, so what are you gonna do? And I was like, wow, you're right. What am I gonna do? So I got up, uh, mapped out a route around the apartment complex we were living in, 2.5 miles, went to, uh, Academy, got me some workout gear and stuff like that. Next morning, 4:30, 5 o'clock, I'm in the garage working out with the clear instruction of not to wake me up. I had to get dressed in the dark.

You go ahead and get healthy, baby. Go ahead and get healthy.

I did this for 3 days by myself.

3 days.

Almost like Stuart Lazarus. 3 days I did this, right? So then on the 4th day, I told her, I said, look, I said, I don't mind doing this by myself, but I'd rather do this together with both of us because at the end of the day, I want both of us to be healthier for each other. You know, we can do this together, and hopefully, Lord say the same, we'll be here long before each other live a long, long healthy life way on down the line. So anyway, we had some other conversations about putting you first, and that's where a lot of people get stuck, especially mamas. Yeah, because mamas by default put themselves at the bottom of this, at the back of the line. All right, and the first thing you have to do when you start talking about living a healthy lifestyle is you have to become what's called a little bit selfish. You have to devote at least an hour to you every day.

You deserve at least an hour. Somebody just checked out. They're like, I don't have an hour.

Hey, we all have the same 24.

It's true.

Well, you know, when he, when he told me that, up until that, that point, you know, those 3 days when he was getting up early in the morning and going to work out and stuff like that, again, this was right after Katrina, you know, kids were small, um we had lost everything. So it was, as far as time, for me, it was, we had all of these things that we needed to take care of and exercise and all of that was furthest from, excuse me, furthest from my lips. And again, because I didn't go to the doctor, I didn't technically have a problem because a lot of times when we go, we're getting our checkups, we're looking for the diagnosis of the high blood pressure or glucose, we're looking for something signals what we're doing is not working for us. And for Eric and I, as obese as we were, we didn't have any signs or any symptoms to reflect our lifestyle being an issue. So, and I tell the story all the time, that in my head I thought I was Janet Jackson from the Pleasure Principle video. You couldn't tell me in my mind that, you know, I didn't look like that. But the truth was, you know, I was 5'4", 5'3". I'm trying to increase my height. I'm trying to increase my height. 5'3", 276 pounds. And even though I didn't have any physical issues, you know, I was unhealthy. So when he sat me down and he told me that, you know, it was a light bulb moment. I can tell you the next day I wasn't happy about getting up, but I got up and we hadn't looked back since.

You know, one of the biggest issues is that a lot of times we say, nah, I'm with it. And sometimes, most of the time, you got to get out your own way to get things done.

Yeah, well, up until that point, you know, we, we had tried, I guess, individually to lose weight doing different programs, pills, you know, gadgets or whatever. And while it would yield some results, nothing of it was long-term. And the— I think the biggest takeaway from that is we weren't changing the lifestyle habits that was contributing to the health status and the weight status. So when we approached it this time, we knew we wanted to approach it differently and look at the things that we were doing that was actually contributing to the results that we were getting. And one thing that we, we knew, we exercise was a part of it, that was never a question, but it was really about attacking the nutrition and trying to figure out how could we do this long term. And being that we're from New Orleans, and if you talk to any individual most people love to eat. And adapting something where you're incorporating, you know, wheatgrass and doing all of these things, granted some people can do that, but if we're talking realistically and we're talking about, you know, people that have cultural preferences or, you know, they might eat certain things that don't eat, you know, something else, there is a way that you can continue to eat the foods that you love, but you learn how to prepare them healthier. So, you know, that was a huge turning point for us. And that's why I said, you know, when we embarked on it, there wasn't a turning back. There wasn't a yo-yo with weight. It wasn't any of that. It was being committed to the process that we knew was going to change our life for the long run.

So, you know, that's the trouble though. I mean, many people that are struggling with their weight, really, I say weight, but anything that is that is about our physical cravings or desire. People who smoke, people who of course want to lose weight, people who have, uh, other, you know, addictions. I mean, it boils down to a decision, but there is a challenge with the yo-yo. And when you say, okay, we, we started— he worked out for 3 days by himself, asked me to join him in this effort, and we never looked back— why was that the decision at that time? Why do you think— what kept you from yo-yoing? And I'm sure as you are coaching other people in their health journeys, you deal with this all the time. People before you have yo-yoed or even maybe with you, they start out strong and they don't stay with it and then they feel— I mean, so what— even though we know bottom line, it boils down to decision, what can people understand about a yo-yo mentality or something that will set them up to not do that and to do what you did, make the decision and never look back and continue moving forward.

You just use the words understand. And at the end of the day, when you understand something, you can better control it. If you can control it, you can conquer it. The problem with nutrition is that 10 out of 10 people don't understand it. And if you don't understand it, you're not going to be able to sustain whatever weight loss you have because you don't know how to have it. You know, at the end of the day, it's just like driving. When you really master driving, you understand all the street signs. You know, a red octagon with 4 white letters that says S-T-O-P means stop. You understand that. Nobody has to explain it to you. So for the rest of your driving time, for the rest of your life, you put that in the back of your head. You know what it means.

But people would say they do know because the yo-yo dieters will say, I've lost the weight. I know how to lose it. I know how to lose it. But then I stopped doing what I was doing to lose it and I gained it back. So in their mind, they're like, I do know.

Right, well, it's a couple of things, and I'm glad you brought this up because, you know, it's something that we talk about often, and you're absolutely right. Most people know what to do. If you ask a second grader, you know, how to lose weight, eat less, exercise more. But what most people don't have a better grasp on is how and why what they know is either working for them or working against it.

One of the things you said is that, you know, the yo-yo guy said, hey, I know what I did to lose it, so yeah, I know. And at the end of the day, there's 3 components to having a true understanding: knowing the how, the what, and the why. Most people only have 2 aspects of it. They know the how and the what, but they don't really know the why it happened, right? And that's the difference. So yeah, you have a lot of yo-yo guys out there that know Tupac stuff. They know how they did it, and know what they did to get it done, but they don't know why it happened.

Right. So, you know, without talking about any specific program, but we use points for an example. You know, points have value, and the people participating in that program, they don't understand the value of those points. The people operating that program, they know the value, but because the individual implementing it, because they don't have an understanding of what those points translate to, to nutrition, It becomes a situation where you're either handicapped to that program, or it gets old and you go back to doing those same things, those same things that you were doing before, because you don't have the complete understanding about nutrition and how it actually applies to you and to your particular lifestyle, right?

So, so when you talk about why, because I know a few people who've done a few different systems and have been successful. So, um, and I'm just playing devil's advocate. So if, if I, if I've been able to be successful on a system where I don't understand why but it clicked for me for whatever reason, um, tell me the value of understanding why if some of those systems for some people do, do work.

Well, for, for us, that's— okay, can I tell you?

I'll use keto as an example, all right?

Because that is the hot thing right now.

Everybody's trying to get into it.

And the thing that drives me crazy about keto is people will tell you, hey, I'm on keto diet, and they're eating a pound of bacon, they're eating burgers every day, they're eating just red meat on top of red meat. And that's understanding the what but not the why, all right? At the end of the day, the keto diet is based around protein. But if you understand protein, you understand there's two different types of protein. There's a plant-based and animal-based. Animal-based protein, even though it's a complete protein, is usually accompanied by a whole lot of sodium. So even though you're doing the right thing, you're getting some bad things with it. So again, it goes back to understanding. So your keto diet is not based on eating bacon every day, right?

So you, so you lose weight, but then you still have high blood pressure, right?

That's what we call being on the right track with the wrong train, right? You don't have a complete understanding of what you're doing, the way you're going. So you will always be stuck in that train station, right?

I had a friend that in high school could lose weight like this, you know, and she would do it on Coke, a soda and chips, soda and chips, but the weight would fall off, you know. And so, um, but she, she— I remember thinking when she gained weight, she gained it ridiculously fast. And then, you know, she would do the same thing. And, you know, now of course you lived a little bit, you understand that actually extreme yo-yo dieting like that is damaging to your body.

Exactly.

So, you know, just because you can lose it, how you lose it actually can it matters. I want to go back to your story. I think it's great, first of all, uh, Eric, that you invited your wife to join you. I think that that saying, hey, I want to do it together, was very powerful both for you as a couple but also just for the people who are watching now and who will watch, um, later. Doing it with somebody, you know, accountability, community— a spouse is great, a friend is awesome. Uh, you know, I even remember there was a class at one time at the gym, 24 Hour Fitness, where, um, you know, I, I can't dance. I think I can dance, but I know I can't So I go to the back and they would lower the light so I could do all the things and not feel like I was on display. But, um, even those— even the class, the people, if you go often enough, the majority of those people, I never knew their name, but it was fun to see them and to know that I was a part of something. And so I want to encourage people that are watching, yeah, invite your spouse, grab a friend, whatever you're gonna do, and enjoy the beauty that comes from doing it together. But I, but I think it's awesome that you ask your wife to join you. So everybody wants to know When you're talking about the amount of weight that you guys had to lose, your high 200s, Malika, and your, you know, almost 400 pounds, what did the journey look like? What did y'all ultimately lose and how long did it take you? And I know we'll get into the weeds of some of the details, but just to quickly give that end of story victory, what did that look like for y'all?

For me, it was 138 pounds. Now, granted, this was 13 years ago.

156 pounds for me.

Yeah.

Okay.

I got a quick story if you don't mind.

No, go ahead.

Uh, the bulk of the weight, at least the first 100 pounds, came off in what, the first 9, 10 months?

By walking.

By walking.

Well, eating right, but the activity that we started out doing was mainly walking.

Walking slash running.

What? You weren't out there running marathons like training for a fitness competition?

You set me up pretty good. So here's the deal. I told you 3 days in I was by myself. The fourth day, she decided she was going to get up and get ready. So going into the second week, I had already mapped out this route. I talked her into walking with me. So during the second week, we started walking. So every day we're walking 2.5 miles. About a week after that, in the middle of our walk, I just turned to her and I said, look, you see that light pole over there? And she said, yeah, what's wrong with it? I said, nothing. When we get to the light pole, we gonna take off running.

And she probably said, what?

She said, I don't see no dogs on the street, so why we running? You want to elevate the heart heart rate. All right, we want y'all to beat the heart rate. We've been walking, that's good, but now we got to kick it up.

My boob is still big, chest and everything else.

So anyway, we get to the light pole and she was, she was just complaining the whole time. She gave me every objection in the book. I hadn't run since high school, I can't do this, da da da da da. And I just said, you know what, when I get to the light pole, I'mma take off. So when I got to the light pole, I took off. And after about 5 steps, I just looked up, I said, Lord, please, when I turn around, let my wife be right behind me, because if not, it's gonna be a long day. When I turned around, she was running, but she was cussing. She was running. And I said to say this, you know, you got to start somewhere, you end up nowhere. I think Bob Marley said, start somewhere, you end up nowhere. All right, she started. Just— what's today, Wednesday? We said to do it again today, Wednesday. Yeah, just Monday we were upstairs. We had two treadmills side by side, and it's been a challenge ever since that day she started running. It's been a challenge. We actually race. Yeah.

And the other day we're down to trying to get out, trying to get a 10-minute—

you're trying to get 10-minute mile.

Yeah, that's it. That's the thing, getting under 10 is a thing.

Yeah.

So, you know, it's, it's really a comp— not competition, it's iron sharpening iron.

Yeah, motivation.

So going back to the thing about losing weight, after about the first 8-9 months we lost like close to 100 pounds, and we had finally got the green light to move back on to New Orleans. So nobody knew, we were the only family who was still displaced in Texas. Everybody else had moved back. Nobody in this area knew us. Right. All right. They were doing some construction work along the route that we had been taking every day for the last 9 months. So again, nobody told these people anything at all.

And on cue, as we walked past them, they didn't know it was gonna be our last day out there.

They just start clapping. We had a whole audience. They We watched these people break ground, and by this time they were like on the third level of doing senior citizen home. So they're standing on the third level of this shell building, and everybody just starts clapping.

And we like, what in the world?

They clapping. And it was like, man, we've been watching you.

They were watching you change.

Keep going, keep doing it.

Wow.

And nobody knew that that was our last time walking around that complex. Yeah, so that was cool.

It's unfortunate we didn't have, you know, the social media and stuff like that. Like they have now. It makes our journey seem so antiquated.

Listen, but you did it. So there's something about being antiquated. I tell my dad all the time, I'm like, okay, I got my, my, uh, we talk about our book writing habits, and I got my computer and I got my research tools and I have this program and whatever. And then he's a yellow pad guy, you know. He'll, he'll be 70, uh, this year, and he says to me, he said, that's great, but how many books have you written? The bottom line is get the job done, get the job done. And your story is just as motivational having done it without the social media watching as it is if we— I mean, the bottom line is you've done it and you still have before and after pictures so we can see the proof.

Yeah. Now the thing I wanted, because you talked about, um, uh, kind of piggybacking off of what we had talked about earlier One of the other turning points for us in this process when we said, you know, there wasn't any turning back, is we didn't approach it this time as something to do to lose weight. We took weight loss totally off the table. You know, what we were doing was not driven to drive the scale. What we were doing was driven to improve our blood work. It was driven to improve our cardiovascular health.

It was driven to overall The focus was overall health. It wasn't about, you know, one particular thing, one about blood pressure, diabetes, or weight. It was about all of that, a combination of everything. And as always, like I said, at 35 years old, African-American male, 400 pounds, there's a thousand different ways I could die. I take care of high blood pressure, I still got diabetes. I take care of those two, I still got cholesterol issues. I take care of those three, I'm still overweight. So it's a combination of things that we have to address.

Right. But what we found is that if you address, you know, specific things, you not only create better health for yourself, but you create a lifestyle that you can sustain. And on top of that, as the bonus, not as the focus, not as the goal, but as the bonus, weight loss takes care of itself. And so you don't have to think about, am I going to be able to keep this weight off? Am I going to be able to sustain these habits? Because the process that you have embarked on as far as establishing better health for yourself, you've created small things that are going to make a big difference when it comes down to not only your blood work, but how you physically feel. And like you said, as a result, losing the weight and keeping it off.

So, well, I will say this for a person who— I'm a goal-oriented person, so it's always about the numbers for me. And I will say this, I've looked up the other day and someone asked me about weight loss, and I haven't been trying to focus on that. Um, I mean, it's a thing that I need to focus on my whole life, just be conscious, but I haven't been focusing on it. But it, like you said, it's taking care of itself because there are other things going on in my life. Many people that are watching me already know that my mom was diagnosed with the cancer, and it's a rare cancer. So, you know, just you go into all the things, both traditional and just naturally, to set your body up for success. And as we do things for her, we're doing them for us. It's out of overflow. I'm cooking for my family and them bringing things to them, my dad and my mom. And so out of that, without a focus on the numbers, it does take care of itself. And I think that for me, focusing on the numbers— and I'd be curious to know what you see in your experience— if you're goal-oriented alone, once you hit the number, something turns off because I made it.

Mm-hmm. Well, see, that's what numbers you're focusing on, though.

That's the mentality of a diet, right?

Well, weight, weight numbers specifically.

Okay.

The diet is ending. Right.

Yeah.

And see, that's the, that's the best question.

And the value attached to the weight loss goal, right?

But that's the best question you can ask. Ask yourself, ask the person in the mirror, what happens when I hit that goal? What do I do the first day after?

Most people go out and if you don't have—

listen, yes, I want a steak with a baked potato loaded and dessert.

If you don't understand how you got to how you accomplish that goal, that first day after, it's gonna be a train wreck because you're gonna go back— is, we say it all the time, it's as simple as 2 2. 2 2 will always be 4. 2 2 represents your daily process, 4 represents your result. As long as your process remains the same, your result won't change. But the second, the split second, the nanosecond that you make it up in your mind that you're going to change that process just a little bit the result is forced to change too. And that's the process, the thought process you have to take along on your journey. So when I get my goal weight, I can't change my 2+2, which means it's no longer a diet, it's a lifestyle. This is the way I'm gonna roll the rest of the way out.

So if we can give you an example, for Eric and I, you know, our goal is, you know, making sure that we get so much green vegetation every day between lunch and dinner. You know, other goals could be maintaining your sodium at a particular levels. So while we're not focusing on, let's say, the scale as far as goals or numbers, we have our clients focusing on specific targets that's correlated to their current health status. Because at the end of the day, we know the, the scale is going to take care of itself. But if we're on high blood pressure medicine, if we're taking, you know, insulin, if we have these diagnoses, or let's say we're in the pre-diagnosis stage, or there isn't anything there, but we know our habits are out of order, then we shift the focus away from the thing that we've all been trained to look at. But that's the thing when we talk about, you know, weight loss, that's the distraction.

Yeah.

That's the self. And so, you know, we want to flip that and get people reconnected with, you know, their body, because everything that they do, everything that they eat, everything that they drink has a value. And it's affecting some cell in your body. So the ultimate goal is to have the best possible vessel that you can put together.

See, now you're talking about chronic disease. Well, that's, that's because what happens is that, you know, if you're not feeding yourselves right, your cells start dying off one at a time.

Yeah.

And what happens is that by the time you reach— I'm gonna say my age, 48, I'll be 49 in January— by the time you reach my age, if you've been neglecting your nutrition for the last 20, 30, 35, 40 years You've had some of the cells die off to the point now where your organs are like, you know, not regenerating, and they're not regenerating. So now you've been diagnosed with some sort of chronic disease, you know. So while you have the opportunity to get in front of it, while you have the opportunity to get off that track, where you can be proactive instead of reactive.

That's the problem.

Have you seen people— because I think sometimes that one of the mentalities is, uh, I mean, I'll even say, I said for myself one day, I said the last time I had a goal, a goal number for the scale, I actually said to somebody, this is the last time I'm gonna do this, and then if I can't keep it off, I'm just going to decide to be fat and happy. So whether it's deciding to be comfortable in your own skin, or, or to say that, you know, I've been on this blood pressure pill and it's just the way it is, or my mother, you know, had this chronic disease, or it's— I think sometimes there's a settling in to the weight or to the, or to the, um, to the illness even, because it doesn't necessarily stop you right now from living life the way you want to live it. So can you speak to that, kind of the, the mindset that this is just the way it is and, um, this is what I know?

It's not the way it is, it's the way you make it.

Well, it's the way that we've accepted.

It's what you— it's what you've learned to accept, and that's because you don't understand what it takes to change.

Well, and we won't get too far into it, but— well, conditions dictate that we accept it, right? You know, what's presented to you makes you think that this is your way of life, you know, that you can't make any specific changes to make— to, to rectify this. And, and a lot of times for us, and we've seen it in our own clients, where they go and they see their doctor, and the doctor is not talking about nutrition. The doctor is not asking them specific lifestyle questions, nor do they either have the time or the patient doesn't have the resources to connect with the dietitian, or, you know, whatever it is to help them figure out their, their lease or their—

they'll figure it out if they get into the hospital.

They'll be like, right, yeah, you know, the Well, we had, we've had two specifics in that scenario, one a couple of years ago and one most recently. That first client, when she came in, obviously she wanted to lose weight, but she had been on high blood pressure medicine since 19, since the age of 19. She was making 33. She had accepted as this being a way of life.

But she told us that, yeah, in our initial consult she said, yeah, I take high blood pressure medicine. And I know I'm gonna take it for the rest of my life because that's just what it is. And her goal wasn't about the high blood pressure, it was about losing weight.

And so through that, you know, through the process of coaching her and helping her to identify her tipping points, I think we were maybe 60 days, maybe closer to 90 days in when she went to her doctor. And that day she called us from the parking lot.

She's crying because I'm wondering, do we have to get your husband on the phone?

Is everything right?

Police?

What's what's going on. And once she got herself together, she said, y'all don't believe this, but I just left the doctor's office and I left all my medication on my desk.

Yeah.

Oh, that's great.

Yeah, we have another client just started the first day, 30 days, 30 days, 30 days, 28, 29, 30 days. We talking type 1.

So the original, the original disconnect from—

there is no disconnect from the asthma But proper nutrition, lifestyle change, and activity was the proper nutrition. Inside of 30 days, she went to her doctor last week. Her doctor said, I don't know, quote, I don't know what it is you've been doing, what you've been doing, right? Whatever it is, keep doing it. And in the meantime, we're going to reduce the amount of insulin that you have to take at night.

Well, one, and then she has to go back and they're going to reduce her actual pump.

So it ain't a game, it's for real. It ain't pretend. It's, it's, it's at the end of the day, it's 2 plus 2.

You know, we've been conditioned to think that the process, because of diets, because we failed at dieting and all of these other things, we've been conditioned to think that this process— I'm gonna use my favorite word— is more daunting than it is. And when you look at it, let's say you look at, oh God, I got 100 pounds to lose. When you look at it like that, yeah, it is a lot. You can get overwhelmed because you don't know where to start. But if we can start pinpointing specific things and commit to working on those things, when we say tipping points, small things make a big difference. You cooking at home makes a big difference. You drinking water makes a big difference. You controlling your sugar intake makes a big difference. Not eliminating food groups from your diet makes a tremendous difference. And while those things seem huge, the small things that you're doing every day, one choice, one meal, one day at a time.

You know, the biggest mistake people make, they want to completely remove something, completely eliminate something from the diet.

Yeah.

And at the end of the day, when you really sit down and begin to understand nutrition, you understand it's not about eliminating it. It's about balance, it's about control, it's about balancing all the things that you do take in so nothing overpowers anything else. Because some nutrients, man, if you get too much of them, they can have detrimental effects.

Or not enough.

If you don't get enough of them, it's all about balance, right?

It's, it's not about eliminating anything from your diet, although when you—

I'll tell you, I'll tell you this, because I'm gonna forget it either. The thing, in my opinion, it's just my opinion, the thing that has gotten America in trouble is fast food. Our diets have been—

not just fast food, okay—

our diets have been hijacked by fast food, convenient food, restaurant food, social, you know, social status when it comes down. Hey, I went to Houston's, I went to Pedal Rinds, I went to man's health, whatever. It's a social thing, and all those things are tied to detrimental nutrients that are doing you in. Yeah.

So, okay, so let me—

my brain, I'm—

every time you see me looking down, it's because I got this pen here and I'm writing these questions. Okay, so first of all, I'm curious, are you both naturally disciplined people?

Well, you got to go back to Wilson.

I mean, like, there are people who, you know, anybody can decide and they can make a change, but I'm just saying in the general course of y'all's lives, like individually, are y'all naturally like once you decide to do something you do it kind of people?

A couple of things, and a lot of that has to do with not only who we are, but the people that we desire to be as individuals, as a couple, as coaches, just as anything that we attach ourselves to. And because my husband is military veteran, he came into, I'm gonna say, the relationship with structure or the discipline. Now I had some aspects of that, but he was the one that really helped me to appreciate those, those attributes.

So sweet, so diplomatic.

The other side of this equation, because we're, you know, this kind of got us caught up when we did, uh, Dr. Oz and did, you know, another show, is that it's been 13 years for Eric and I. So because we've been doing this for 13 years you know, our conversation or our commitment and even our consistency. Not that it was different from there, but you have all of these years of experience that I want to say that maybe that you may be hearing because you have— because she posed the question about have we always been— have you always been this?

Okay.

My answer goes back to the keyword understanding, all right? Because again, when you understand something, it makes it kind of hard not to do it or not to, not to be able to, to implement it, right?

You know what I'm saying, right?

Like, look both ways before you cross the street. Once you learn that lesson, or until you get hit, you know, you ain't gonna do that again, right?

How many times you gonna run the red light, right?

Something you can better control. And it's just like that automobile that you get in and go home in every day. You understand what it takes to operate that automobile. You understand what kind of fluids it takes. You understand what kind of air pressure it takes in the tires. You understand how often you gotta get a car wash, transmission service, all of that. So again, the discipline part of it is when you understand something— Maya Angelou said it best— if you know better, you can do better.

Know better, you do better.

Yeah, we agree with that part. And I'll tell you why. Because knowing better doesn't automate the process of doing better, just like running red lights. Knowing better only puts you in a position to make a better choice. It still puts you in a choice and position to make a decision, right? So, you know, when you know the consequences of the wrong decision, it should—

it should.

So that brings us to the question of, you know, individuals wanting what they say that they want. If you've identified a goal, you know that goal is not going to happen on its own. It's going to require you to have the commitment, even on the days where you don't want to, you know, you don't have— you feel like you don't have nothing else to give. So whether it's a personal goal, a professional goal, or it's health-related, what we're talking about, weight loss, if you say I want to lose such and such, this is what I want to attain, you have to ask yourself, what am I willing to change to make that happen for myself.

Let me, let me interject this then, because we've got people watching and they're asking questions. Um, one person specifically said, I agree with all of this, I recognize that I need to make a lifestyle change, and then in all caps, but I'm the mother of a toddler, a wife, a commuter. My work day starts at 5 AM. Uh, she said work, I guess, getting up for work and all the things, and it doesn't end until 8:30 AM. I really do have trouble finding room for me. So how do I get started? Because I do have to sleep too.

The first thing, the first thing, I understand the 5 o'clock rollout. We had two sons, 5 o'clock rollout for the last 9 years.

And when we started this, they were 3 and 6.

So even with that, our day, because we do coaching in the evening, our days don't end until 10, 11 o'clock at night. Not trying to compare apples to apples or anything like that. I'm just letting you know we all have the same 24 hours. So instead of trying to find time for you, you have to flip the script and make time for you because you ain't gonna never find it.

Nope, it's always gonna be something going on.

You're gonna look forever and I promise you, you will never find 30 minutes of free time where you can do something for you. You have to make the time for you. You have to put it on the schedule. Say, you know what, between 3 and 4 on tomorrow is mine. I'm putting my phone on do not disturb. I'm telling my kids, my husband, my family where I'm at. This is what I'm doing. I will touch base with you in 59 minutes and 59 seconds.

And there isn't a magic number because a lot of times when you're thinking about time like that, you're thinking about devoting, let's say, like an hour. Your time, the stuff that you can create for yourself may not be in a 60-minute window. It might be 5 minutes. It might be 15 minutes. And the thing that we say with our clients, let's say if you're working somewhere and you can't get to a gym, we can find opportunities where we can get in physical activity. But we like to put physical activity on the back end. For us, it's about what can we do about nutrition?

No matter what, you're going to eat, right?

Right.

You cannot exercise a bad diet. And there's plenty of people at the gym that's working hard every day, but that's still ain't budging.

You can't out-exercise a bad diet.

You can't.

So, so, so let me ask you this. When y'all started, you, you talked about coming home and getting up the next morning and going and working out. Did y'all's journey primarily start with movement and then you back— you gradually added in the food, or did you start both at the same time?

It was both at the same time. Now, when we approached it, Cooking was something that, you know, we've always done because y'all are from New Orleans. From New Orleans. It was good, but it was horrible, you know. Yeah, you know, the things that we used to eat and the things that we used to prepare, you know, looking at it individually, there are things that we still eat, but we just prepare them differently. So the practice of cooking was always there. So for us, because we had so much going on, it was about carving out that time. And for me, it was all— it was always Sunday. It's still Sunday where I spend so much time. I'm gonna cook so many meals for the week so that way during the week, between all of the chaos, we're not going out to buy anything. We can fix up our, you know, our dinner and eat meat. Because for us, it was always important for us to eat dinner as a family. So, you know, that was something that we personally adopted. And we know that that is a blessing or a gift that everybody doesn't have. But we can still make sure that we have healthy meals for ourselves to either bring it with us or to have those meals for, you know, your family in case you're not home and they have to eat.

You know, how long on Sunday? Let's talk really practically. And actually, I want to get— I don't want to forget. I want to get back to the lady who asked the question because I'd love for you to say, just make some assumptions maybe about her day and where she could get in movement, even though movement's not first. But cooking on Sunday, what is your time commitment? And I know it won't be the same for everybody, but it depends on—

it depends on what I'm, you know, it depends on what I'm preparing. And usually we're talking about anywhere from maybe 2 to maybe 4 hours being the max. And 4 hours means that, you know, I'm baking chicken, I'm cooking beans, I'm fixing kale, because there's certain dishes that we fix every week. And there's— oh wait, that's key, that's key.

You're not creating gourmet menus every day that are different.

I'm glad you brought that up. Okay, I'm so glad you brought that up. You want to say that?

I wanted to ask another question.

Oh, go ahead, and we'll come back down.

We'll finish this one and then we'll go back. So talk about when you spend that time, what you're doing, because people get overwhelmed because they're thinking, I got to learn a whole nother repertoire of food. And if I'm, if I'm going to eat it and if my family's going to eat it, because I don't want to cook a million times for a million people, it has to be beautiful. And, you know, they get overwhelmed.

So the first thing, the first thing, first thing that we realize through Coach, Coach Plenty People, is that we're creatures of habit, right? The average person is not going to go any more than 7, maybe 8, 9, 10 days before they start to repeat their own dishes, right? You know, I mean, most people when they go out, they don't just go to McDonald's once a month. Nah, they hitting that joint, you know, 3, 4 times a week. Yeah, getting the same thing. So, you know, when it comes down to health, all of a sudden people want to get brand new. Oh, I got to eat pretty, I got to eat something different every day. Nah, that ain't what you've been doing. You're a creature of habit. So what we do is, again, through coaching, we help you identify what's called tipping Small things that make a big difference. The things that are not really working in your favor, we show you and tell you how to adjust, and then we explain to you why we adjust them and how it makes sense. Again, it's creating an understanding. So once you get, I don't know, a week, week and a half of good food selections, good food combinations that are producing and working for you, moving you in the right direction that you want to go in, all of a sudden that repetition kicks in. You don't want to sway away from it because you understand everything that you consume. You understand everything about it, why it's working for you, how it's working for you, when it's going to work for you, what it's going to do. You understand everything about it.

So the— yeah, it was just giving me a minute. The thing with the, um, you know, with, with the, the types of food, or, um, you know, when I'm cooking on the weekend, the thing about the, the elaborate change of meals. That's one of the reasons why we don't do meal plans, because meal plans for us are set up because everybody doesn't eat the same thing. But if we can begin with the types of foods that you like eating, the vegetables that you're currently eating, because the last thing we want to do is tell you you need to eat broccoli, start now, and you don't like broccoli. Eventually we'll get there, But let's just start with the vegetables that you're eating now, and that gives us a starting point. So if we're looking at things that you like eating, we'll look at those foods and those things that are working for you, that's great. Those things that's not working for you, we can identify those things, we can look at the ingredients and tell you what swaps you can make so you can have that same dish, but it's improved. So for Eric and I, beans is something that we eat every week, and we'll give you this one, because beans are considered a superfood because they give you double digits in protein and fiber. Now being from New Orleans, what we put in our beans destroys the nutritional benefit of the food. So beans are not bad, it's the salt, it's the salt.

But if you put the hocks in there, that's not—

That's not good.

So, you know, we've done beans a couple of different ways because you have people who like to have meat in their beans and you have other people, you know, like the For us, again, because it's been so long, we've transitioned. So initially we started out, we do, you know, small sides and do a turkey taco. But because we're aware of the hidden sodium, we're preparing that dish, and even though we're including a, let's say, a processed meat, if you will, we're not adding other things that would send the nutritional benefit of that dish totally out of whack. Kale, that's something else that we eat every week because this is a superfood. Not only is it giving you great, you know, vitamins and nutrients, but you know, it's something that's versatile, whether you're eating it as a side dish, you're eating it as a main dish, you're putting it in a wrap, right? So there's, there's this signature things that we have in our refrigerator that guarantee eat every week, and then I'll just cook something else, one or two other dishes. I'm sorry that we can kind of mix them up. Well, you know, I get excited. I get excited about cooking.

Okay, do you, do you like to cook? Both of you, I know you said you cook. Do you— what do you— how does this impact the person who currently doesn't really cook? So half of the problem is they're not eating right, but the reason why they're not eating right is because they don't cook. It's not maybe even that they can't They don't have the rhythm in their life for doing that.

Yeah. Getting home back out of school.

Well, yeah, but you got to go back and put that rhythm back in. It goes back to the 2+2 process.

Right.

You can't really expect the result to change if you're not willing to change the process. Right.

So you got to work through the kinks. And as far as cooking, there's a lot of healthy dishes that you can prepare that won't take any time. No time to fix.

We have a client who's a truck driver. Right, doesn't have access to a kitchen every day, but she's finding a way to make it happen. Yeah, I'm saying, so at the end of the day, whatever you allow to consume your mind will consume your life. And if nutrition and health is what you want—

if nutrition and health is what's on your mind, cooking is a major part of it. But, you know, we recognize, like, with, you know, the client that you mentioned, you know, sometimes there'll be those situations where you can't get home or you can't cook. That doesn't mean that you can't eat out, but that means we have to be even more diligent about what we choose when we eat out and the modifications that we make, whether we're by ourselves or when we're in social settings. Because a lot of times when we're with friends and we're in social settings, we feel some kind of way when it takes—

Everybody else.

Yeah, it takes us longer to order, or you feel like you're being an inconvenience. And the thing that we say to that is that everybody's not on this journey with you. You chose this journey because you want to improve your health. You have goals and you have to recognize that sometimes you're going to travel that path by yourself. And that's okay, because when you go in that bathroom, when you get on that scale or you're excited about that non-scale win where, you know, you made a better choice when you were eating out or, you know, you went and you exercised. Exercise. Because we had clients that, that had come in and said, I'm not exercising, I'm not working, I'm not doing anything. Fast forward, running a, a, a 5K marathon.

Okay, so, so when, when you're talking about these changes, we understand you got to be willing to make the change if you want to see a change. That is going to mean that you— that, that the way you're doing it is not the way you're going to continue to do it. And I know that you are doing coaching, and it sounds like one of the benefits of your coaching is it's a customized approach because you want people to eat it. So you're not going to give them this pre-planned meal plan. You're going to look at what's going to work for them and how you can best transition them. But so they'll still eat the food and, and work those activities into their life. But I'm wondering about the person who— two questions for the person who may, you know, coaching, when we talk about that, I do want you to talk about that, um, how people can connect with you. But for whatever reason, maybe it's a financial thing or whatever, where can they start? So the first question is, who or what, uh, people, programs, processes, books— I mean, just name a couple of things— have been the most helpful to you on your journey? Someone just wants to do some self-education. The second thing would be, if someone is going to start, if there were just some simple things that you would say, and you kind of mentioned them we've gone, but just for the person, just to capsulize those things, how does someone get going? Um, so what has helped you learn and grow, and then what would be the first things that you would advise somebody? Meet you on the street, they recognize you, hey, y'all with people on Dr. Oz, what do I do to lose weight? You know, what are you gonna give them? And then, um, and then if you can go from those two things into how people can connect with you.

I'll take the second question first.

Ain't that What was the first question?

That's on you. Second question, something you can do. The first thing I would tell them is, you know, a lot of people are consuming what's called dead calories.

Yeah.

And that's through beverages. So the first thing is reevaluate what it is you're consuming beverage-wise. You can do a lot of shifting if you just control the amount of sugar and calories that you're drinking.

You mean I can only go by Sonic once a month for my sweet tea?

Cringe.

I have no—

for my sweet tea, for my sweet tea.

First thing is get rid of all the sodas, get rid of all the juices, all the fruit juices, even the, the stuff that claims to be healthy. Like, this is this— well, I'm not gonna say it, but you know, there's these juices that you find, hey, this is a healthy juice, it's made with all these vegetables and all of these fruits, but if you look on the back, it's filled with sugar. So at the end of the day, you got to break it down and bring it back to the old school. Straight water. If you notice, I've been drinking on this the whole time. Straight water. Eliminate the dead calories, eliminate the excessive sugar, increase your hydration. That's the first thing. The second thing— that's SMT. The second thing is, and this is actually answering the question that, uh, the person asked when my partner here got along with it, uh, if you're not able to commit 30, 45, 60 minutes to All right, we— you have to employ what we call a steady drop. All right, the old school steady drop. There's a bucket, you have to fill the bucket all right now. A steady drop. You got 5 minutes, give me 5 minutes. If you got 10 minutes, give me 10. Whatever you got, I'll take. We ain't gonna leave nothing on the table. So at the end of the day, if all you can give me is 3 sets of 5, I'll take 3 sets of 5. There's more than what we did yesterday, and it's a starting point, it's a building point. Again, going back to what Bob Marley said, if you don't start somewhere, you'll end up nowhere. All right, so the, the exercise thing, that's throughout the day. We all have these things called smartphones. We all have these things called smartphones. They have calendars on, you can set alerts. One of the first things we did when we first started this, we set an alert for every hour on the hour. All right, every hour on the hour, that phone goes off, there's 3 things you're gonna do. Number 1, you're gonna get up from that seat and stretch. Number 2, you're gonna get something to drink, preferably water. Number 3 We're going to do some sort of activity for 30 seconds, whether that's running in place, jumping jacks, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, whatever. 30 seconds, that's all we're asking for. 30 seconds. If you do that every hour on the hour, before you know it, by the end of the week you can look back and say, hey man, I did that every hour on the hour for the first 4 hours of the day. That's 4 sets. Damn, I done did 20 sets of exercises this week that I didn't do last week.

This is Yeah, go ahead. Uh, for me, a couple of things, because you asked what were some of the things that helped us starting out. Well, because there's a couple of things, you know, while you was thinking, it had me, you know, I had me here. So let me drop this real quick because, you, you, you know, this needs room. So anyway, that we started out, uh, that there were resources for us starting out. I believe Eric read— and I can't tell you the title of the book, as a matter of fact, it got lost in transport when we were moving back, but it was the LL Cool J thingy-doo. He did some type of fitness book. So, you know, when we started it, it was taking a step back and recognizing that, you know, we know we all eat. So let's look at some athletes to see what it is that they're doing to maintain, you know, their, their physical stature, if you will. And so it was looking at those, looking at their diets, look at the amount of calories that they were consuming, looking at the different combinations in their activity. And that became—

but one in particular was Shaquille O'Neal. He did an interview with, uh, Brian Dunker, and he said his pre-game meal was like so many steaks and so many cans of string beans. And I'm like, why is he even safe? So when I start researching, I'm finding out, oh, okay, protein and vegetables, I got you. And he's fueling his body just like an automobile. He's fueling his body before he gets on a long journey trip. Makes sense. Your body's like a car.

So, you know, that became a resource. And I think with exercise— and again, this was a long time ago— and I think Celebrity Fit Club used to come on VH1, and I believe it was It was like the first weight loss show, you know, that was popular that was on TV. Well, the guy that was in charge of exercising, it was Harvey something, I can't think of his name, but he put out a video, an exercise DVD. And so for me, that became a starting point. And I kid you not, when I popped it in, I was like, this fool is crazy. Okay, I'm not going to be able to do this. And I couldn't.. And the thing that stuck with me is they were doing jumping jacks and I literally could not do a jumping jack. Couldn't do anything. But that became a starting point. And you know, I can't really speak to how I felt, but I knew that I was driven to get it, to get it done, to eventually get to that 60-minute side of that fitness DVD. And by the time we wrapped up, I don't even know where that disc is.

Well, actually, we made copies of it. I wasn't supposed to even make copies.

Yeah, right.

As far as tips, you know, starting point, Eric was talking about exercise. I'm gonna say eating something green twice a day and tracking. You know, there's a lot of mixed messages about tracking, you know, and tracking gets gets downplayed. It gets talked about very badly. I read something the other day that, uh, in other words, you're crazy if you continue to track your food. And for us, it's just like your bank account. You're tracking your money. Nutrition becomes your, your currency, currency for your body. If you don't know what you're putting in, then you have no idea where your leaks are, and you don't know if you're actually creating a balance. And what you think is a small amount, when you really put pen to paper, you recognize it's bigger than what you assumed, or you ate more than what you thought you ate. And so when you begin to look at it in black and white, you have some tangible data. All of these apps are creating data on our behaviors, on our preferences. But yet when we do it for ourselves, especially when it comes to tracking, it's something that we resist.. And so we're more comfortable with somebody else tracking our data than we are about collecting it for ourselves. So once we, we shift that and be— and commit, even if you're doing it for 7 days, Eric and I, we've been doing it for 13 years. When we started tracking, he created an Excel spreadsheet and we literally looking at labels, writing stuff down. So the tools that they have developed now, if you're talking about MyFitnessPal, our own app, or, you know, some other things. They're really great tools for you to track what it is that you're eating and you're drinking on a daily basis and really look at where you can make some changes. And most people, yeah, you can cut back on the calories, but if we look at some other things, we know that we are far exceeding what, you know, we think we're getting in. Go ahead.

I was gonna say, I know— I want to tell everybody, I know that your site is betterchoices.co, right? Did I have that right? So not com, co, co, betterchoices.co. So I'm assuming that everything people would want to know about you guys, health coaching, your books, recipes, and they can follow you online. Can they start there and then kind of go from there to connect with you in all these different ways?

That's the best place to start, absolutely, um, because we have a lot of our recipes on our website. You mentioned we do have, uh, 2 cookbooks. One is, uh, Healthy Lifestyle where we cover all of the meal points and we provide some resources on getting started. The other one is Healthy Dinners because that's one of the biggest complaints that, uh, we hear where folks don't know what to cook for dinner and then trying to prepare something that's healthy and that doesn't take a lot of time and it tastes good. So with that particular book, we just focused on main, I guess, main dishes. Again, just to show folks how simple it is for you to prepare things that look good, taste good, and doesn't take a lot of time to prepare. As far as coaching, we do have individual coaching Um, like you mentioned, everybody, uh, may not be open to coaching because it's a— how can I put it— it becomes an intimate, I guess, experience. And then you're opening yourself up to strangers, if you will. So a lot of times, by the time somebody has decided to join us, they've been watching us for, you know, 2 years or 3 years. And so for us, that— we get excited about that because you've had an opportunity to see it real time for a long duration of time, that by that, when you finally decide to make that step for yourself, what we've done, you have evidence for it. And so we just get the opportunity to work with you more directly. The other thing that we have to kind of solve solve that problem is, again, a lot of people know what to do, but they don't know how to apply it. So we were excited to relaunch our Session Time online course. And when we initially, um, rolled it out, we were doing it as a 4-week course where we were controlling the, the time when things were released so we could spend more time working with, uh, individuals, um, at the same time. We've opened it up to where at any time, whenever you're ready, you can sign up for the program. You can go through the modules, get the information. If you needed to reach out based on the concepts that you're applying within that week, then, you know, we're more than happy to kind of dialogue and help people, help people that way. Because our objective through everything that we do is number one, getting the information out there, but number two, just being that, not only that resource, but being that sense of support. Because we've been there and we're here to really highlight the concept of sustainability.

Yeah, that's so good. Well, I want to say to you, I want to ask a couple more quick questions. One is, your benefits of, uh, we know if you, um, lose weight, you know, you talked about that, without focusing on the numbers, when you focus on your health. I'm, I'm trying to be professional here, but boys, I can hear you.

Okay, that's what I'm talking about.

I was trying to do right, and then I was like, they getting louder and louder. So whatever, this is just y'all, this is how it is.

How old are you going?

I've got 5 kids. The boys are the ones that are still at home. They're 16, 14, and 10. And my girls are grown, they're 28 and 22. And the 28-year-old got 2 kids, so we always have a house full over here.

I'm about to say, bless your heart. Yeah, that 16-year-old, he should know that.

He does. He was the loudest one. I'll get y'all later. Can't believe I had to do that.

But anyway, we gave our son the, the conversation before we closed it up, like, look, Listen, I can tell you what happened.

They're going to tell me, you said 1:30, we thought you were done. Whatever. Anyway, so, so, uh, one is, um, and I forgot what I was saying. It was, oh, benefits, health benefits. But I've been watching y'all a long time, so I've seen y'all talk about a few other benefits that are not about blood work. So what other benefits? Answer the question.

If you go back to it, it actually ties into exercise.

Yes.

When we start talking about exercise, and exercise is a key word— we don't really use the word exercise, we use activity. All right, when you start talking about activity, it's not for weight loss, it's for cardiovascular health. Now the topic that you're talking about, that's like maybe week 7 to 8 in the coaching process, and that's when you start to do cardiovascular activity and stuff and notice some things change. At the end of the day I'll put it as clean as I possibly can. Optimal sex is based on— I'm sorry, good sex is based on optimal blood flow, right? All right, so at the end of the day, when you, when you're in the gym and you, you know, you're hitting that first mile, you're thinking about quitting, gotta put something else on your mind and hit that second mile, hit that third mile. So at the end of the day, you know, it's gonna pay off. I'm gonna say, you know, if there isn't anything else that motivates you, you know, the other side of it is that, you know, and I'm getting a little detailed, but when you start talking about high blood pressure, the medications that they issue for high blood pressure have a counteractive effect on what it is we're talking about, right? So that's even more reason for you to, you know, I need to get off this medication.

But, you know, and our heaviest thing, and we've shared this story before too, you know, we, we, you know, all the body. I'll say this, we had our two children, we were very heavy, and we had the nerve to have a water baby. Okay, so, you know, after losing the weight again, because a couple of things, not only do you have better, uh, blood, blood flow um, but you have better confidence, you're, you're physically, uh, more fit, more limber, stronger, you know. So there's things that, that benefits that connection that you just can't even explain. You just gotta experience.

We've had multiple people, uh, comment on just loving to see you guys together. Obviously you guys have been working married but working together on this journey and in your business, and that compatibility and, uh, just the dynamic of you guys talking. We've had a lot of people saying it's just great to see you guys doing that. But, but here's, here's my last question. I'm curious, I know this is a business for you all. Has this been able to now become a full-time business for both of you, or is this a side hustle for one of you and kind of full-time for the other?

No, it became full-time.

Yeah, this was a leap of faith because before we started Better Choices, uh, after commercial collections and I was doing graphic design, and Better Choices wasn't even on the radar, you know.

You know how, you know, when Oprah was on TV, they said, if you've been on Oprah, you know, when you come home, the world's gonna open up. Well, they weren't lying.

Yeah.

All right, so we did Oprah in 2011. One of the two. And when we came back, by the time that show aired, there was so many people, and we didn't talk, and we didn't talk to anybody. It was just people started showing, they knew us, and that's not the same two people that was here before Katrina, right? Wow. You know, and man, Facebook, social media just took off, and people, people were literally calling us all day, every day. What did you do and how can you help me? So it became, it became, it came to a point where we couldn't focus on what it is we were actually doing, because we were answering that same question.

Yeah.

All day, every day.

Yeah.

Well, we decided let's put the answer inside of the business, right? Yeah.

You know what happened? God put us on a different path. That's right. You know, because you know, that's what it was. That was the— oh, look, you already know because that's a testament. That is the testament.

Well, see, to me, I see the whole thing. I feel like from the moment— for a lot of people, but You know, from the moment of Katrina, there was a course, there was a plot shift, and you guys took the opportunity and the invitation to walk into a new season. And as often, and as you continually said yes to the new thing and to the new direction, new opportunity, God continued to open up new opportunities for you to walk out probably what he had always seen in plan for you, but you had to have a shift in circumstances. To see everything from your trip to the doctor for strep throat to the move, to the move back home. You know, it's all kind of been played out, but it's only played out well because you guys have continued to say yes, you know. And so, um, I, I just, I love to highlight that because so many people think that they're trying so hard to figure out, you know, how to move things and shift things, and if they would just say yes to the thing that's in front of them then you can't even imagine how, how the waters will part, you know, on your behalf. So I didn't know that that was full-time for you guys, and, um, I, I just guessed that it might be. So I was— I wanted to ask so that you could share that, hey, your whole life has changed because you made one change in your life to begin with. That's interesting.

That's the second time that we've had that question, so we must not be working hard enough. But yeah, this is, uh, this is, this is it for us. And, you know, it got to the point like saying that we just couldn't do all three. And so there was—

well, for me, this— don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing collections because even as a collector, even as a debt collector, I was still the good guy.

Well, still looking to help.

I was still looking to help. I was considered the voice of reason, right? Most collectors, when they call you, they beat you up, demand, demand, demand. For me, I'm trying to understand how we even got to this point.

It's always about—

it's about understanding. If I understand we got to this point, I can better help you get away from it.

That's so good too, because even to say— because I always say God wastes nothing. So the skills that you were developing in that season of your life are still at work in this season of your life. You know, it's just a different flavor. It's just a different flavor.

Yes, I love it.

I love it, y'all. This is Eric and Malika Beale, and you can catch them on betterchoices.co on the web. Follow them on Instagram, check them out wherever. If you need help and you haven't been able to do it on your own, You need accountability. You need to understand the why. Invest in yourself. Invest in your future. Check out their health coaching. Look at their classes. Buy the recipe book. You can change. I watched them, watched their story for a while. They're fun to watch. So if you don't do anything else other than watch, just check it out. And the food— food is beautiful. I want to compliment y'all on what y'all have changed with your photography, but I've watched your Instagram change and your food, your photo, you know, the Photography of the food is wonderful too. So, uh, y'all are just doing a great job, and it's been my privilege to have you, uh, on the show. I want to say a couple of things before we close. Number one, if you've watched this long, that means you like what you're seeing. And if you're not subscribed to my channel, I try to put up content all the time that is designed to help you live moments that matter in your life and to live your life well. So be sure and subscribe and tap the bell to make sure that you get notified of of every video that comes out so that you don't miss a thing. And I don't normally talk about Sister Circle stuff here for the retreat, but because it's sold out, I just want to say if you're interested in the retreat, still go to thesisterscircleretreat.com and get on the waiting list because we might have some other off-site options to squeeze as many people in as we can. So be sure and check that out. Eric and Malika, is there anything in closing that you're like, we gotta say it, we —say it, or one last thought you want to leave with our viewers today? Get started.

Yeah, get started. Even if it's not with us, man, get started.

You owe it to yourself. Yeah, make yourself your own priority. No excuses.

No excuses.

Dead.

And this is totally random, but I can't help it. So, Malika, Please tell me that I'm not the only person that's going to say when I see you, your face, the way you talk, your mannerisms, who am I about to say you remind me of?

I'm going to say this, that if I had a dollar—

You about to say Ms. Yellowbone? You remember rocking me?

All we need is the shades.

That's it.

I thought about her, but I thought about somebody else too. Uh-huh. I'm gonna say it.

You talking about Will White?

Yes. It's not just your— it's not just your facial features. It's everything. It's like the way you enunciate your words. It's everything. So it's just been driving me crazy. I was like, I'm just going to say it while we're on air. There you go. All of us. So if you were thinking it too, you're not the only one. There you go.

I got to tell you this. I have nothing against Jade Pinkett.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you. So sweet. Listen, y'all have lit a fire under me, so gotta get busy doing what I know to do. But I know that as people are watching, because I've been watching the comments, that you've lit a fire under other people. And I'm just grateful for you being able to make the time, and I'm thankful that you've said yes to your own journey so that you can help other people say yes to theirs. Thanks for joining me today.

Thank you, we appreciate it.

Yeah, do it. Okay, one last thing, one last, uh, I keep saying this stuff. If you don't do anything else, go to the website, sign up for the free consultation. Again, the consultation is free. All you got to do is sign up. Yeah, and we'll talk to you, we'll give you some things, and, and you know, if you decide to move forward with coaching after that, that's cool. If you decide to move on on your own, that's still cool. But don't pass up the opportunity for the free consult. Ask your questions.

And that's what I was going to say to you because you said, you know, you've taken the message. If there's any questions that you have, hit us up. You know, that's the whole purpose of us even being online is that, you know, we put ourselves out there, we put the information out there, and again, we just, we know the purpose and, you know, the experience the, the, the information. Why are you laughing? I'm rambling on. No, I guess you did nothing. Thank you. Just ask the question. There's no dumb questions.

I love how y'all want to help people because really that's all we're all here to do anyways, just learn what we're going to learn and then help people along with what we've learned. And I'm grateful that you're willing to do that. And thank you for doing that with me today. Thank you. We appreciate it.