BBHC Podcast Episode 14

So hi, welcome to BBHC Podcast Chapter 14 or Episode 14, and today I'm very lucky to welcome Sherry van Houtingen here with us. She's all the way from Clearwater, Florida. Welcome, and I'm so happy that you're joining us today. Thank you.

Thank you for inviting me to speak about your program.

Yeah, I'm excited because, um, you are one of our most successful clients and have done so well. We're, we're so impressed with what you've done.

Thank you. Cool.

Well, so let's get going. Um, first of all, tell me a little bit about yourself, um, you know, before you started the program.

Okay, well, I am an entrepreneurial person, so I work from home, um, and I have for many years. And I worked in the, uh, I guess you would say them— I was in retail. So I've been in retail a lot. So sometimes with retail, you're traveling a lot, you're working in environments where, you know, you have to grab a bite to eat and different kinds of foods that aren't beneficial, so to speak.

Yeah.

And so I had a lot of that, and I got into some bad food habits as well as, um, uh, you know, I was also just, um, not able— done a lot of diets, you know, failed at a lot of diets. I would lose weight and then I'd gain it back, but I never got back to my ideal weight, would be, I, you know, when I was in high school, you know, when you have those— when you're feeling very good.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

Okay, cool. And what were your thoughts on the program before you started it?

Well, I saw Nick on, um, Facebook and he posted something regarding diets. And around that time, back in January of this year, I was— I've always known, but in the back of my mind, any diet that I've done based off of research I've done, that sugar is not good. And that certain types of carbs are also not good. Not good. There's so much processed food in the industry right now. And so I knew that I needed to get off sugar. I just knew that. And so when I, I saw Nick's post on Facebook, I thought, you know, I really have to bite the bullet because I've tried so many diets. I'm, I'm 58 years old. Um, my mother is in better physical shape than I am, and she's 83.

Oh, wow.

Um, so she's not on any medication. Um, she has no weight problems whatsoever, and she has no pain. Or, you know, because one day I asked her, I said, Mom, do you ever— like, when you get up in the morning, are you— do you feel stiff? And she goes, no. And I was like, oh my gosh. So it just really hit me one day that I had to bypass what I was doing and really change and, uh, what I was doing, right? Because it was really— my body was deteriorating and I didn't want to be— I want to be able to travel to Europe with my husband. He's from Belgium. And so I had all these considerations of if I got on a plane, you know, with my fatness, am I gonna have to buy 2 seats? I was like, I don't want to do that. I want to, I want to be back to the condition that I was when I was very healthy. And so, um, that's when I reached out to him and, um, found out about the program and started. Great.

Well, I must say, today you look great for 58. Wow. I must say, you look amazing.

Thank you.

And, um, so tell me, so when you started the program, how did you feel? Were you nervous? Were you confident? What were your thoughts?

I was confident because, to be honest, um, I know a lot of people have tried, uh, keto before, and I tried that. I tried Weight Watchers. I tried a number of different things. But the thing I never— I never really understood, uh, keto, and I think a lot of my friends didn't understand keto because, you know, you— they think, oh great, I can eat fat.

Mm-hmm.

I can eat cheese. I can eat tons of nuts. But the thing is, is if you're, if you're, if you're snacking, you're spiking your insulin. If you're, uh, having coffee with cream with a friend, you're spiking your insulin. There's all these wrong ways that people, you know, they eat normal food and then they go eat a keto dessert and think they're, they're helping themselves out. And I did the same thing.

Yeah.

I was like, yeah, kind of lying to yourself, right?

Exactly.

Based off the philosophy of it. But I knew I needed, um, a coach and someone to, um, take those, uh, similar values or, uh, the science behind keto, but also guide me in a way to, uh, handle what was going on with me, which is my hormones, my, my, uh, my, uh, you know, just all the things that come with Getting older, the inflammation. I had my hip replaced in December of 2021, and I was starting to feel pain in my other hip.

Oh, wow.

This was back in January, of course, and I was like, oh my gosh. But I'll tell you, as soon as I got on the program, I knew I was gonna do okay because I know there are just, just having the coach and understanding what I was doing and the supplements that I was taking to help me while I was doing the food that I was eating was— made it so easy. And within the first 2 weeks, almost 85% of the pain that I had went away.

Wow.

And that's when I knew I was hooked. You know, I went, this is it. This is what's going on. Because even on Weight Watchers, you know, you go on Weight Watchers and you're counting calories, but you might go, oh, today I'm going to only eat sugar. With those calories that you have, you know what I mean? So just crazy stuff like that.

Yeah, exactly. Okay, and so did you feel that the coach got you through, and that's the benefit of this program, having a one-on-one coach daily checking in?

Yeah, like, like knowing what the supplements are doing for me. Like if I had something turn on, like meaning, uh, like some sort of symptom or, or somatic that I had, I could reach out to you and you could go, oh, well, that's that. Or what did you do today? Or what this. Keeping in tight communication with you was, was my success. Sometimes, uh, people don't do that, and it's really important to— like, if something— that's what you're there for. It takes 2 seconds to send a text and go, hey, what's this? And you'll get an answer. And so that was very important to me. And, you know, pretty much at any time of the day. So it was very helpful.

Yes, yes. I must say Most of our clients, um, basically comment on that fact that, you know, it's another terminal, it's a kind of an accountability point, but it's also just someone there to acknowledge what you're doing or, you know, bounce ideas off, that type of thing.

Yeah, well, for me, I'm, I'm like, I'm, I always try to be professional in what I do, so I count on the professionals. who already know the information. Exactly. You know, doing diets on your own is, is for me not, not the way to go.

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And, uh, did you feel that doing the program was money well spent?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, I've spent a lot of money on diets in the past, and this was the cheapest one for me.

Okay.

And most successful.

Oh, excellent.

Good. Yeah.

And at which point did you realize, okay, I like this way of living and I want to continue with it?

Well, probably about, um, a month or so into it, I started realizing that this is not just a diet, it's a lifestyle change. Yeah. You know, and that's when I had the epiphany and I was like, wow, um, For me, some people might, you know, use it as a 2-month program, but it was never that for me. It always opened the door to understanding my health, understanding, you know, how to keep myself in the best shape moving forward. You know, my husband did it as well, and he lost 25 pounds with me.

Wow.

But, and that's key.

That's key too.

It's good to get your whole family, like people around you, uh, involved. And, you know, one of the other things that I realized, um, is not to have my, uh, social activities be around food.

Exactly.

Which is a lot like that.

Yes.

Oh yeah, tons of our friends, they go, oh, let's go out to eat. Yeah, and you have date night, you go out to eat, you go to some restaurant, and they're, you know, loading me up with seed oils and, you know, bread at the table and, uh, you know, chips or whatever. And all this stuff just is toxic to the body.

Exactly.

And, um, I just realized that, um, I have to— like, for instance, if I go to an event or I go somewhere, I make sure I eat before I go. Um, if I know that there's not going to be any beverages or whatever, I'll take my electrolytes in a bottle And I just don't make— I make food a priority in my life, but I don't make it part of my social activities because that's where people have, uh, all processed food, a lot of processed food, you know. Um, yeah.

Yeah. And it's just a little bit of an organization, being prepared for whatever's coming up for the day. So that you don't get caught. And, um, you know, like you say, making it a lifestyle, you know, that's just the way it is. Yeah, yeah.

And I've really learned in Clearwater, like, different places have the different foods that you need to buy. Like, I go to Aldi's for certain things, I go to Walmart for some grass-fed beef that they actually carry, believe it or not. Um, sometimes I'll find some organic items they have there as well. I go to Costco. Um, different places I go. But also what I realized is I spend way less money on food.

Exactly. Yeah. And also less attention on it.

Yeah. Yeah. But at the same time, I know, like, if I'm driving around, I'll go, oh yeah, I need some pumpkin seeds. And I'll stop at this specific place when I'm driving around or, you know, getting this item. And then also things I've learned, uh, because sometimes organic meat is, is expensive for people. People think, oh, organic's expensive. But no, it doesn't have to be. You just have to think smart and know how to buy. Like, for instance, I was buying, uh, organic, you know, no antibiotics chicken thighs, and they're so expensive right now at Costco. They're like, I think for 3 packages you buy, because they give you in bulk, it was $36.

Wow.

And then I went to, uh, Nature's Food Patch here in Clearwater, and if you buy the whole leg It's like $3 for 2 big chicken legs.

Oh wow.

And there are— but so what you're paying for is the butcher chopping it up, right?

Exactly. Yeah.

I went, I don't even need to buy the thighs anymore, I'll just buy the whole leg. So I— and when I see the sales, I go and I buy and I put it in my freezer and I save. I buy my spices bulk at Nature's Food Patch, etc., too.

Excellent. Yeah, you, you get to know where to go to get the right stuff. Yeah. And you have to know, you know, read the labels Yeah, exactly.

And, and that's been— I was doing that before. You have to be a bit of a detective, you know, because seed oils are in everything. Yeah, everything.

And, uh, and sugars.

Yeah, it's like corn syrup. Corn syrup was in everything, and now the seed oils are in everything.

Yeah, yeah, great. Okay, and so how do you feel now about Things like energy levels and your general health?

Oh, that's just out the roof. I don't have any consideration anymore on doing anything, you know. Like before, I thought, oh, I would really like to zipline sometimes, and now I go, I can zipline, no problem, you know. Or you go, I can walk forever. I have no considerations on walking because literally I have You know, I think we calculated I was in the 66 pounds, but I think I've lost 70 pounds total.

Wow.

So that's like a child. I tell people jokingly, it's like having a child. You're carrying a child around you all day long.

Yes. Yes.

So now, now that that's gone and the inflammation is gone, like, you know, when I go upstairs, sometimes when I— we have our 2-story house and I would go upstairs to do laundry. Um, my— sometimes my knees would hurt. My knees aren't hurting anymore. So this— it's just gone. The hip pain I have is gone. I don't have any, any somatics whatsoever.

That's amazing.

I haven't been ill, nothing. So, um, yeah, and it just— the energy is really amazing.

A real big benefit.

Yeah.

Yeah. Good.

No problem. I feel like I'm— I should feel like when I was 25.

Wow. Yeah.

Yeah. And I can't wait till my mom comes because my mom's very active and there were things I wouldn't do with her because of my weight. But now I'm gonna do everything with her.

That's awesome.

Riding my bike more. Like, I have a bike. I've had a bike for a long time. I'm just So many activities are not— not—

I don't—

I'll just do them now.

Yeah, just not limited anymore.

Yeah, no limitations. So imagine just with those problems that you think about every day. Like, literally, my weight was on my mind every day, and now that problem is gone, along with all the benefits of that. So it's just like, you know, every day you feel, you feel great. And with that, you know, a lot of people think, you know, one of the things that you said to me in the beginning when you did my consultation, you asked me if I was depressed.

Mm-hmm.

And I was like, I'm not depressed. Why would I be depressed? I have a lot of spiritual gain in my life with my church. You know, there's just no way. And, and then I went, yeah, The food and the, the stuff that I'm eating is creating an effect on my mood.

Exactly.

And that affects my other— the people around me and all sorts of things. So, you know, that's another added benefit of that being gone because I don't have attention on it anymore. Wow.

Yeah, excellent. And what about like alertness or just mental clarity? Has that been handled or?

Oh, for sure. I mean, absolutely. You're, you're just more in the present because you're not thinking about all these past diets you've tried and this problem that you have with your weight and what are you going to do about it? And you've tried this and that and then you feel bad and then you're tired and you want to lay down and not there anymore. So you have this clarity of of living your life. Yeah, you know, and not having to have attention on those things. Because I know a lot of my friends who have, who have a few poundages on, or etc., you know, they, they do, they have attention on it too and how it affects them.

Exactly.

You know, it, it restrains your social activities, all sorts of things.

Yeah, and your confidence.

And I can't even imagine people that have kids because If I had kids, I'd probably be less inhibited. And it affects your children because they look at you, why are you so inhibited, Mom? Why don't you want to go swimming with me? Why don't you want to— yeah, you know, there's that as well.

Exactly. Yeah. And I must say, I've had a lot of people who've had COVID and who still battled with the brain fog, um, you know, afterwards. And the mental clarity really came back when, you know, they started doing the program and it's handled it. Someone said, you know, they had COVID in 2020 and just last week was the first time that they, they didn't have the brain fog anymore, you know.

Wow, that's amazing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. So, I mean, would you recommend it to someone else and, and why?

Oh yeah, I mean, I think I have been recommending it. I think because of my success, I think I don't know. I think what we're at, like maybe 40 people, 30-something people have signed up with you because they've seen me.

Yeah.

You know, I'll go to church. I've went to church events and people that I've seen all the time, and I'm talking to them and they're like, for like 3 minutes or something, and they're like, I'm sorry, who are you? And I'm like, it's Sherry. They're like, Sherry, oh my God.

Yeah.

What happened to you? You know, and some people think, did you change your hair? And I said, no. I just lost a child from my body.

Yeah, uh, that's excellent.

Well, so I would highly recommend it from just the things that I've said, you know, anyone who's tried diets. But the thing I do want to, uh, stress is it is a lifestyle change. Yes, you know, you can't just do this diet and then go back to the way you were eating. That's not the— that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about, um, understanding food.

Yeah.

And how it affects you. We're under— we're talking about vitamins and, uh, the— oh, the other thing that was key about this diet was a lot of diets people go on, they go, oh, you have to buy these like huge amount of vitamins and they happen to sell them. And, uh, and that's one thing I asked Nick. I said, are you gonna just sell me a bunch of vitamins? And he goes, no. And then you— and then when I signed up, you sent me all the, the links, buy them on Amazon, and they're like $10 each. And I'm like, this is great. Yeah, they're mostly herbal supplements, which I liked, you know. Um, and I like how you help us pick the right ones because sometimes, you know, even the vitamins have seed oil in them.

Exactly. Yeah, some weird stuff. And I mean, the main, the main purpose of the program is to get you to get all your vitamins and minerals that you need from the food That you eat, you know.

That's right, that's right.

That's the way it should be, you know.

Right. And then the supplements are just to handle the conditions of the body to accept those nutrients, to help. Then later on they're changed and things of that nature. But, um, you know, and a lot of things I've had— I used to have hot flashes like, I don't know, every half hour it seemed like. Now Very less. I still have them once in a while, but it's mainly at night. But I mean, I think 85% of that is gone.

Amazing.

You know, getting really hot and, yeah, uncomfortable. And yeah, so yeah.

Excellent. Well, that's awesome. Is there anything else you want to say about this whole experience before we end off?

Uh, the only thing I can say is, um, get the free consult. If you're watching this, get the free consult from Marina or Nick if you're a guy, um, or whoever you want to be your coach. Um, but you do need someone that you need to put your hands in. Trust those professionals who have— who, who know this. You know, I like that if I Tell you something, you go, oh, that's that. You should look at this. I like the new things we're trying for my my thyroid. My thyroid. You know, there's always you always have answers to handling things that that make sense and that are based off not medicine.

Yeah.

So yes, like based off.

I mean, exactly. Yeah. I mean, we, we continuously research and make sure that we're, you know, know what's going on and what any better solutions there are. And, and, and what I wanted to say about the free consult is, you know, the questions that we ask are so specific that some people come in thinking, oh, they, you know, there's nothing wrong with them, you know, until I start asking the questions and then they realize, oh wow, yes, I didn't realize that this was a result of a bad diet or my body, you know, not functioning properly, you know. So it is definitely well worth doing the consult just to get an idea of what we can do for you with this program.

Yeah, exactly. And then also really being honest with yourself and being honest with your coach. You know, if there is a hiccup, you can, you know, address that or whatever. I didn't really have that problem because I was very committed, but I also just had decided, I had really firmly decided that this was going to be the last thing that I did. And I knew that it was the way to go when I talked to Nick. I knew it was, this was it.

Yeah.

And then also, you guys are examples of that. You guys are very fit and healthy and, you know, you guys look great as well. So, you, you know, you want to make sure your coach is following the same principles that they're giving to you. Exactly.

Yeah, we've been doing this for 10 years, so it's definitely something that's sustainable, you know, and I, I can say that from experience. So yeah, yeah.

And I like the fact that people also need to know your whole family could do this. It doesn't have to just be you and your husband, the kids too.

Yes, yes. I mean, one of our coaches, Nikita, she specializes in Pregnancy, breastfeeding, you know, trying to fall pregnant, or moms trying to get that pre-pregnancy weight back, you know. So you can do it at any stage of your life. Over 50 trying to, you know, get through menopause or whatever, you know. Any part of your life, any person in your life, your whole family can do it for sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the 2-month program, you know, you're gonna see it. In the 2 months. And then, you know, I just continued. I think, you know, there are going to be people that always continue with you, but, um, I just wanted to be sound and firm on the ground. So I've continued with you for a while, but, you know, I enjoy it that way. And I think I'm getting more, uh, more my hat on with regards to my food and understanding what I'm eating and different things. And, um, like certain herbs, like if I have a more stressful day, I can take more ashwagandha. Mm-hmm.

I don't think I said that right, but ashwagandha. Yes, there we go.

That, um, you know, so I just know certain, um, supplements will help me get through. And, and, um, yeah, and it's just, it's incredible for me what's, what's happened for me. And I just hope that I can share my success with other people because if you go to my Facebook page, you'll see the before and after. And I was, I was At my wit's end. I was my highest weight ever, and I had no idea. And now, you know, but I just kept putting one foot forward. And it's not like you lose it immediately, it's all gonna fall off and it's all magical. No, it takes work, it takes discipline. And I was losing probably an average of 3 pounds a week.

Yes.

And, uh, maybe a little less sometimes, but, you know, average, you just keep going. And it's like the amount of time it took you to get to become in a bad shape is way longer than the amount of time to get better.

Exactly. Yes. So you have to have that patience. But yeah, you, you were, uh, you ran standardly, you did the program standardly, and you got the, the success and the, you know, the wins from it. It's, it was amazing. Yeah. So well done.

Yeah. And we, yeah. And we still follow it to this day. My family, my husband. And our dogs.

Excellent. Uh, well, thank you so much, Sherri. Thanks for coming on our program. I really, you know, I, I love you. I love the way you tackled this and, and the success you had and the example that you set for everyone else. So yeah, well done, and thank you very much.

Yeah, and thanks for leading me through that change.

Yeah, you're welcome.

Cool.

So our next podcast episode will be coming probably in a week or so, and I'll look out for the advert for it. It will probably be another talk to one of our clients, so don't miss out on it.

Awesome.

Thanks.