The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
The Concierge Doc Podcast is hosted by Dr Jason Littleton, M.D., where he features medical content to make smart lifestyle choices for optimal health, wellness, energy, youthfulness, longevity, balance, and happiness.
The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
From Hollywood to Healing: Joy Vila's Transformation Journey
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Disclaimer:
Access to the Information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and health care topics (the “Information”). Nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The Information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The Information should not be considered complete and not exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor.
The views, opinions and statements expressed by our guests are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Dr Jason Littleton or the Concierge Doc Podcast. We do not endorse or take responsibility for any statements, claims or perspectives shared in this content. Viewers are encouraged to conduct their own research and form their own conclusions.
Speaker 2:Access to the information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and healthcare topics. The information Nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The information should not be considered complete and exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor. Welcome to the Concierge Doc Podcast. I'm your host, dr Jason Littleton. Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Today we have an amazing guest, an award-winning recording artist, actress, transformational coach, whose multifaceted career spans music, acting and personal development. Her 2014 EP Make the Static soars to the top of the charts, earning her a number one spot on both iTunes and Amazon and a number one Billboard album in alternative and rock categories. Beyond her artistic achievements, she's the founder of Joy Vila Fitness, a face-driven coaching program dedicated to helping individuals build confidence, strength and alignment in their lives. Her unwavering love for Jesus and commitment to faith are central to her mission, inspiring countless individuals to embrace holistic well-being through the integration of spirituality and fitness. Welcome to the podcast. It's an honor to have Joy Vila. Thank you for being here. I'm so excited to have you here I know, I'm so excited it's been
Speaker 3:a long time since I've seen you. Oh look, hey, here we are, and now we are exactly.
Speaker 2:I mean it's, it's, it's amazing that we're doing this uh podcast collab. I was just on your show. It was an honor to be on there.
Speaker 2:Yes, and you know you're so transformational. Thank you, it's an honor to speak to you. You, just you, just your. Your whole vibe is just just. It's just a great vibe. It's energy. I can feel that, I sense that you're electric and I just appreciate being able to talk to you and just be on your, you know, be on your podcast to be interviewed and, you know, be on your podcast to be interviewed. You did a great job.
Speaker 2:You did such a good job and and I joke that it's a long time, because we, we, obviously I recorded you just before this and you've been hanging out since this morning, all day.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's been such a synergy of minds, mind spirit, everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We have similar values.
Speaker 2:We have so many overlapping values Absolutely.
Speaker 3:And on my podcast, uh, the joy Vila show. We talked about faith, freedom, finance, fitness and family and Dr Jason did such a good job, so you guys got to go over there and watch it.
Speaker 2:Oh, you got to check that out. It was awesome, it was amazing, it was amazing, it was amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you had some really good wisdoms to share. You were blowing my mind.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that. I am excited to extract all the wisdom that you have and ask you some awesome questions. You know, on the Concertspodcast we get opportunity to interview some amazing people and talk about how they can contribute to people's health, their wellness and longevity, overcoming fatigue. A concierge doctor, I love working with people one-on-one. I love helping them to achieve their best wellness and achieve their best self. I love being a medical doctor, I love doing concierge medicine, I love interviewing people like yourself and I guess I want to start out today with you telling us about yourself and really just who you are, and then, if you would just segue to how, what is Joy Vila Fitness Tell us about that? I'm so curious to know more about that.
Speaker 3:Yes, so I mean you read it in an amazing intro, thank you. I am an actress, a singer, I'm an artist, I'm a child of the most high and I've been brought-.
Speaker 2:Me too. Yes, jesus is my risen Lord and Savior.
Speaker 3:Amen, amen. Jesus is the reason for every season, absolutely, and I came through this transformation myself mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.
Speaker 2:Love it.
Speaker 3:And it was through a lot of hardship. I had this breakdown. I had an emotional breakdown. I was in London, I shot a few films this was only two years ago and the Lord brought me to my knees Wow, and I knew that it was time to make a change.
Speaker 3:I was involved in a lot of witchcraft a cult, for 15 years and almost half my life. Right, you know not to say how old I am, but I'm 38. You look great, thank you, and I mean it's the glory of God. I take care of my health, my fitness, but it's also my mental fitness that goes under following God's plan for my life and we talked about that on my show. It's all about aligning your life with your purpose. It's not just about fixing the mind, fixing the body. It can't be separated from fixing the spirit. And I had to humble myself because it's hard.
Speaker 3:When you travel 39 countries, you know you have films out working on another film right now. You know doing incredible projects. Do the Grammys hit number one on Billboard, itunes, amazon? You've got the plaques. You've got the money. You've got the following right. You've got the plaques. You've got the money. You've got the following right. You've got the people who idolize you. It's hard not to fall into that narcissistic spirit and that idolization of yourself, and that I did. I was like, yeah, that's right, I was the ultimate brat. And then COVID hit. I said, okay, I'm gonna go overseas because I can't stand what's happening over here, and I've often gone overseas, even though I love America. I went to South Africa, met my best friend and my assistant and then went to the UK, worked on a few projects, was on the soul-finding mission, but I wasn't putting God first. It wasn't like God. Where do you want me to go? Right, jesus? What do you want me to do?
Speaker 2:Right, right.
Speaker 3:It was okay, I'm going to do this, but this is good because I know better. Yeah, God, just chill out. I got this. I got this Right. It's never worked Right.
Speaker 2:Right, because I'm my own God at that point.
Speaker 3:Right, and this new age, you know, spiritual.
Speaker 3:I'm going to share my whole story very soon at the end of this month because I'm not going to name drop exactly, but I'm writing a book and it was so devastating when I found out that, this belief system that I thought this oh yeah, you can still be a Christian, you can study this, you know it's, it's just helps you with finance. And they have courses that are non-religious. And you're thinking, oh yeah, great, it's a little weird, know it's, it's just helps you with finance. And they have courses that are nonreligious. And you're thinking, oh yeah, great, it's a little weird, but it's OK, you can still be a Christian. Great, have your Jesus. We have people, have their Buddha and have it already.
Speaker 3:Was this, like all is one kind of thing which I respect anyone's belief to their own belief, anyone's right to have their own belief but that was diluting my faith. It was putting God not on the pedestal where he belongs, but oh yeah, amongst all the other gods I can pick and choose whatever I want. I was serving two masters and I got love bombed. They fed into my narcissistic artistry thing. You're amazing, you're great. And before you know it, I've got to check with them before I do anything. And I'm thinking, oh yeah, these people are helping me. They're always there for me and my family had passed away. My dad was a minister and my mom was a gospel singer and an artist and I came from this very mixed, loud, fun family Argentinian, italian and black and we had Jesus at the center. So I knew better.
Speaker 3:But once I was offered this like golden calf, like we're going to lift you up and we're going to promote you and you're going to have everything you need, and then I became a celebrity and I thought I attributed to this group and in the truth, it was the light that Christ gave me, but I was dimming it. Everything I was doing and it wasn't the sex, drugs and rock and roll that I used to do, cause I fell into that Hollywood life. This group was like oh yeah, don't do drugs, respect your elders, like I was like oh, this is values that I espouse, this is morals. So it came as an angel of light. It was very clean group, it was very Hollywood and once the Lord brought me to my knees and showed me that this, the roots of this group, is witchcraft, wow, I was sick to my stomach, I was blown away and I was like this is a cult and once you leave, you get demonized, you get, you know, insulted.
Speaker 3:That's why, once I am ready to fully I mean I left two years ago but once I, you know, come out at the end of this month and I say, hey, I've left this group, which people who know me and Google me, they can find out after they watch this podcast. But you know it's, it's the Lord brought me to a whole new transformation, wow. He had to bring me to my knees, where I lost everything. Wow, and I had to feel like I lost everything.
Speaker 2:That is truly a book. It is, that's a book.
Speaker 3:I'm writing it. It's I've already. I've actually already written it. It's getting edited right now and it'll be on pre-order by the time this podcast comes out.
Speaker 2:Probably. Wow, oh my gosh, that's I mean. Thank you.
Speaker 3:It's a survival story for sure, because you're trapped within a, trapped within a system, and it's not like the public, new, right, it's, it's your typical. I would smile and I'd be like hey, hi guys, and going live and acting like I'm all fine. Meanwhile, I'm crying myself to sleep at night, right, and I'm like God, what's what's not working and I'm trying to fix it myself. It's like no meditations, no Hail Marys, no, you know. Diet, no exercise, no, regimented. I was very disciplined and regimented, because that's what the cult said and I was like I'm so clean, I don't even drink, I don't even do this, I don't even do that, I get, I'm doing this, I'm studying this, I'm helping others, I'm doing all this Works. We're saved by faith. We're not saved by works. Jesus doesn't say you can work yourself into heaven.
Speaker 3:Amen.
Speaker 2:And I mean your testimony. I mean, that is, when people read and listen to your testimony, they're going to be wowed on the transformation that's happened in your life. I hope so, and it sounds like you were always regimented in terms of fitness.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And how did your experience translate into Joy Vela Fitness? Like, how did that come? That's such a great?
Speaker 3:question yes. So, dr Jason, what ended up happening is I was at wit's end. I came back to the States because the Lord brought me back. I finally said Jesus, take the wheel, take the whole car and the keys. Car everything and the keys take it all. I'm too drunk to drive right. Spiritually, I don't know what I'm doing. I finally humbled myself and then the Lord said okay, start a podcast. I spent time into prayer, meditating on the word, reading the scriptures, just very clean, like five things. I did Right, and within that I only started talking to a few people, and I wasn't doing it to get fame or fortune or try to get something, cause everything was like hustle, hustle.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:There's nothing wrong with networking and everything right. Your network is your net worth and all this stuff. But I was hustle, hustle, hustle, so much it was driving me crazy and I literally had a mental collapse. I had a psychotic break and I was under underweight and I was just like nuts surviving on Red Bulls. So when I came back to the States, I was starting to get my mind back, focused on the Lord, which was getting my spirit fed.
Speaker 3:I said, lord, I don't care about the celebrity anymore. I give it all back to you, take it back. I just want to do something that helps people. Wow, and he said well, what do you do that nurtures you the most? And he showed me my fitness is one of my biggest, most favorite things. I've always trained people. I had my certifications 10 years ago. I competed in bikini bodybuilding, won two trophies, was a personal trainer in gyms right before I had the red carpet and you know was had the. You know, make America great again. Dress on the Grammys red carpet and the fame and the fortune of that and the attention, which was amazing being on the news. But it all became kind of for its own self.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think you understand, because you're in the spotlight and you deal with your clients who are in the spotlight. You service a certain clientele. Other people were like oh, how can celebrities complain? Well, you don't know, it's a cage. Yeah, it can be a cage, even when you're. You know, I never stopped being a Christian, right, good, I never said I wasn't a Christian, I never cursed God. I was like I love Jesus, I love God, but I started putting other things above him. Right, and anybody can do that.
Speaker 3:And my book is going to talk about that Exactly Cause that's not living a life of surrender. And it's so easy. We can put food first, we can put our spouses first, we can put our church first, we can put our careers first. Anything can come first. Anything can be an idol. It's not just for those celebrities and the hills and the people and cults and the stories I have and other people can have. It can be a very minor thing.
Speaker 3:And so I had to realize okay, the discipline is living life every day according to the Lord's purpose. I die daily, right, and within that, the Lord said go back to one of your first loves fitness, nutrition. So I got recertified. It was a humbling experience because I said what are they going to think, celebrity, and aren't they going to expect me to be doing this? It's not like I didn't stop creating artistic things, but people are like, shouldn't you just make another album? But everything in my art, I felt like, was tainted by this, me, me, me, I see. And the fitness is not about me, right, it was about others. Wow, because the transformations that I help create is the payment, wow, and that you can't. It's not the same. You don't get praise for that, right, it's Joy Vila Fitness, but it's about the clients.
Speaker 2:It's not about me. It's the return that people are getting because there's an investment.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And you know, you said so many things there and when I think about how you contribute to people's lives as far as fitness and motivation, how you contribute to people's lives as far as fitness and motivation, you know, and I'm grateful to have had the opportunity, to meet some of your clients and to jump on the call that you allow me to so graciously be involved in. I mean, you have a team of people that you coach, that love you that listen to you, that you're impacting lives.
Speaker 1:You're changing.
Speaker 2:A1Cs. You're changing people's weight, you're motivating them with a point system. Yes, and it's like the transformation that you just described, that you went through, has made a return in terms of helping others, in terms of their fitness so that they can live a long life and have longevity and be in shape and wellness. It's like you know, people look, they look up to you. That's the sense I mean. They totally look up to you. And when I think about you said something about burnout earlier. Yes, when you were in Hollywood and things like that.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think so many people that I see even professionals deal with burnout and I wanted to ask you what are your recommendations to people who are dealing with burnout, that are struggling with burnout, that are tired and they could even like what they're doing, but they just feel run down. How do they reset? How do they? I mean, you know, do they need to take a vacation? Is it their diet? Do they need to clean up the clutter? What do they need to do?
Speaker 3:That's such a good question clean up the clutter. What do they need to do? That's such a good question. So if you would have asked me the joy two years ago, before I started Joy Vela Fitness, before I had my transformation spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically I would have said something inauthentic. But now I am saying if you feel burnout, it's because you're not being authentic, you are not being honest, you're not being real, because if you were being real, you would take the weeks off that you need. You are not being honest. You're not being real Cause if you were being real, you would take the weeks off that you need. You would have your boundaries. You would go into your prayer closet and say Lord, help me, what do you want me to do? You go to your family, but we need to spend more time together. Maybe I don't need to push on. I got to get 10 X clients. You would take a step back because you feel that before it became burnout Wow.
Speaker 3:Because, burnout is a symptom of consistently denying the truth.
Speaker 2:Wow, and so you can have a person who is not being honest with themselves, absolutely, because we can't all handle the CEO, executive stuff and also we can.
Speaker 3:There's certain people who are very high level and I do consider myself in that group because I love to be busy. My husband's like how many more projects I'm like until I burn out? No, not really, but just as many as I want. Right, I can handle. I'm doing a movie right now. I love doing. Uh, I'm going to working on my next album. We're doing a retreats, healing um ministry. I'm doing the Joy Vila show five days a week. You know pastor's panel on Friday, where I invite ministers in and it's like an online church, but for everyone like there's so many things within that. But those are all authentically what I know I can handle and what I love and I'm running. I have my clients and I help them and I have a team and I check in with my clients, but it's not to the point where I'm trying to prove to them how good I am so that they can then transform. I'm just authentic. Sometimes I show up and I'm just like hey guys, I'm tired. Today too.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And that that freed me.
Speaker 2:And that brings a good question up in my mind and I'm going to ask you my movie drink um sleep.
Speaker 1:questions in a little bit, but I wanted to know how do you, how do you like?
Speaker 2:what does rest look like for you? How do you recharge and you? Kind of said that, but I want to. I want to come like right down the alley with that direct. How do you recharge?
Speaker 3:Yeah, this is so cool. Rest is so important, right? Even if you work out, you guys go to the. You go to the gym every day. Do you go to the? No, no one should go to the gym every day. You should go to the gym five, six days a week tops, because you need at least one day of full rest, and for me it's doing nothing like tomorrow. For me it's Sunday. Right, my Sundays are my rest days. I don't take business calls. It's very rare If it is. I don't take business calls. It's very rare If it is. I don't try to put meetings in there. You know, I go to church and I spend time with my husband.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:And we just laze about.
Speaker 2:That's awesome and I might eat a pizza. I laze about.
Speaker 1:That's a phrase I like, that Laze about.
Speaker 3:I might have to use that in the book or something like that Lays about. I think everyone needs the lays about sometime because that's how you can just recharge, feel refreshed. That's so important. I know what you're talking about. That totally resonates with me. No time limits Because.
Speaker 2:I'm very regimented. I wake up at 6 am and I never thought I'd be one of those girls. What time do you go to bed? Don't even answer that.
Speaker 3:We're going to get to that. I should.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're going to get to that, because I want to know about that because just from some things we were talking about, you know, just off camera, I want to circle back to that, okay, okay, do you have a favorite sport?
Speaker 3:Oh, it would be in high school I ran track.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:I'm not a sports person. I love physical fitness. So I would say, like weightlifting or powerlifting, right, like I love to lift 200, 300 pounds, right, I can lift a lot. I can lift twice my body weight in many instances, not bench press, not my chest, but squats and deadlifts. I love competing with myself, but I was a loner kid. I grew up. I'm an artist, so I grew up doing a lot of like me by myself drawing, painting, singing. That also refreshes me to sing to the Lord and to sing songs and listen to music and watch movies. But when it came to sports, I was always like I'm just not rough enough. I'm very, I'm too shy, I'll break a nail and I don't like it. But I'm tall. I'm 5'11" and I've been tall like since I was 10.
Speaker 3:So, they'd always be like you should play basketball. And well, after, I went to the basketball tryouts and I literally broke a nail and I was like no, I was done. I'm too girly.
Speaker 2:These girls were rough.
Speaker 3:They were shoving me and I was like that's what that's, but that's part of basketball. I know people think that's me, but boxing, boxing, I love boxing you can do boxing you don't want to play basketball, I know Isn't that interesting. Because boxing to me and I don't have anything against the sports because I can admire them.
Speaker 3:I love athletes and I and I train a lot of athletes but for me, what we're like it really I like boxing because I have a heavy bag. You punch that heavy bag, it's you against you, yeah, and then if you get into the ring, you've also got to guard yourself and it's everything Right. It's a different type of flow, and if I'm going to watch, I like to watch. Boxing, okay, or MMA is fun too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, those are rough sports, I know.
Speaker 3:Those are rough. But it's different. I think it's something like the one-on-one I like.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Or the me against me.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:When it comes to a team. I just never got that, because everyone would always be yelling at me oh, you dropped the ball and it's so. I was just like I don't. My mind doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I can pick up heavy weights and stop it and I can run and I can do things that I can control. I'm just not a team sports person, right, but I love team building activities, right, so it's interesting. There's just something about if you throw a ball in there, I'm just I can catch it. I'm not scared of the ball, I just don't want to play.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, I get it. People are like what I get it? I mean you you are.
Speaker 1:You're electric in your personality.
Speaker 2:You have a lot of energy. Yeah, how do you stay just on that level? It's like you're a 10, you're on a 10, you know you're on a 10. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But you're more mellow, right I'm more like yeah, it's true, but but.
Speaker 2:But it's so amazing because when, when people interact with people, when they go about their lives, their professions, their jobs, people want to be on a 10. They want to be on a 10 without having to do caffeine without having to do without you know, just naturally. Yeah, you know they want to be on a 10. They want to be driven. How can?
Speaker 1:people, what's your?
Speaker 2:advice to people about being driven. How do you stay driven?
Speaker 3:Well, my clients.
Speaker 2:I do mindset coaching calls with my clients once a week, which that's part of Joy Vela Fitness.
Speaker 3:That's part of Joy Vela Fitness and we've helped hundreds of people lose weight, get in shape, you know, change their mind, their focus. It is, you know, custom nutritional counseling, custom fitness counseling that motivates me, because I hear their stories and I see their transformations and it makes me want to do more. Also, being a coach helps me coach myself, wow. So I get up in the morning, 6am, I hit snooze. I don't get out of bed till 615, truth, truth be told. But I start praying in my head. I'm like thank you, jesus and I. I walk into the kitchen, I put on the coffee. I do drink caffeine, yeah, but I don't abuse it like I used to Right.
Speaker 2:Right, I like caffeine and caffeine's not wrong to drink. I love it as a pre-workout. Yeah, it's not wrong to drink at all.
Speaker 3:But if I relied on it to get me through, it would never do its job.
Speaker 2:And I want to already say something. You know caffeine is not a bad thing. It's not. I have no issue with caffeine. There can become a dependency on caffeine where I need caffeine to do what I need to do. I need caffeine to feel a 10. I need caffeine to you know. Get over the hump. Look, caffeine is good. I like caffeine. I don't have an issue with it. Um, but I think when it becomes almost like a reliance, that's a problem yeah if you're dependent on anything, yeah, besides your own energy.
Speaker 3:God, you know your family like it.
Speaker 2:It becomes an idol and so that's a good point. I like how you put that and so, like I said, you're driven, yeah, you're helping people. You're helping people stay fit, and this is a segue to my meds question I'm about to ask you. So what would be your recommendation or advice to people to really take their health to another level? What are some of the things that they can do? Like look, as a medical doctor, I like to see people to put a health plan together. I like to do labs. I like to do a physical exam. I need to know their family history, past medical history, their whole background, so I can tailor a plan, but what are some daily things that people can do?
Speaker 3:Oh, totally simple. Break it down, get enough sleep. Yeah, eat a high protein diet Right. Move, do something, exercise. It doesn't have to be for hours, it doesn't have to be the gym. You can put on a video and move. You can put on, you know, music and dance. My mom used to dance in the house all the time. You know, do something that gets your blood pumping, like when you talk about what do I love to do to rest as well. It's actually going to the gym is my happy place. But I talked to a lot of clients who are like, do I have to go to the gym? I said no, if you don't like the gym, I'm a gym rat.
Speaker 3:I love the sound of the metal and the clunking and other people walking around. I'm like I'm a gym douche. Like I'm like stretching. Look at my muscles, not to others, but to myself. Right, I'm listening to my music. My husband calls me a gym douche all the time. He's like my baby's a gym douche, but I'm a gym person. Other people can do home workouts. I don't get motivated by that, but if that motivates you, do that. I'm motivated by good music, right? Some people love to take long walks. That's a great way to get. I often say I don't like cardio, but I do take a lot of walks and I do dance a lot.
Speaker 3:I can dance for hours because that's fun. Well, I want to run. I've tried it. I don't like running. It's hard on the knees, but some people do very well with it Some people do. Whatever floats your boat, so find something that's movement.
Speaker 2:Get your heart pumping.
Speaker 3:Yeah, maybe it is basketball, Maybe it is doing this or that. Whatever High protein. Focus on protein. Put protein on your plate and then put everything else around it.
Speaker 2:Okay, wow.
Speaker 3:Because most everybody is protein deficient, so the biggest thing on your plate should be protein. Whether it's chicken, fish, rice and beans. Yeah, just visually, that's also portion control, because if you eat a big chunk of chicken or steak or beef or pork or fish or rice and beans plant-based protein, whatever you want to do then fill the rest with smaller portions of carbs, that including vegetables. You know veggies are great, but if you're not eating enough protein, you're going to Then fill a rest with smaller portions of carbs, including vegetables.
Speaker 2:You know veggies are great, but if you're not eating enough protein, you're going to be hungry right away and you're not going to be able to have sustainable energy. Wow, no, that's good, that's good.
Speaker 2:Now, specifically, I want to turn my meds question directly to you and what you specifically do when we talk about movie drink sleep and you guys have heard me talk about this plenty of times in the podcast movie drink sleep or meds, which I developed in 2012. And I like to ask everyone on my show how they movie drink sleep. What is your favorite exercise that you like to do? Let's start with the move part.
Speaker 3:Yeah, move, eat, drink, sleep.
Speaker 2:You got to sing it. You got to sing it, I got to sing it.
Speaker 3:Movie drink sleep.
Speaker 2:I know I forgot the melody. Sing the Concierge Doc podcast song. The Concierge Doc podcast Move, eat, drink, sleep. Okay, I like that. I have to have you do a record, or?
Speaker 3:an album just on that or just a song on that, exactly, I don't know, I'm not a person. Yes, I'll do a track, or yeah. I'll record a little blip for you and send it to you.
Speaker 2:Please remind me I'm getting sidetracked now, but I like your intro. It's like cool man, you got the beat. You know what I mean. You got someone rapping on there, you got.
Speaker 3:Oh wait, that's a whole music video. It's a whole. We went to London, we recorded it. I said, well, I don't need to do a new intro. You need a music video, the singing doc, I mean.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to sing. I could just stand there. You can sing, but I mean the stethoscope is like yeah, exactly, I'm not going to say anything, I'm just sunglasses on. There you go.
Speaker 3:Anyway, I, I you know why is that doctor in your music video? Don't worry about it, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2:Just get healthy, just get healthy. Oh my gosh, make America healthy again. There you go Video. Oh my God, I should do the song.
Speaker 3:Well, you know. You said what do I do personally? What was the question?
Speaker 2:I said see, we ran all over the world there. What do you do to move? What's your favorite movement exercise?
Speaker 3:Oh yes.
Speaker 1:I feel like I answered it, but I will. I will talk about it again.
Speaker 3:Weightlifting. Okay, I'm so motivated by bodybuilding, power lifting, yes, lifting heavy, um, upping my weights, I just love it. I want to be buff and strong and fit. And ladies, you cannot get too big. I tell women they're like, I just want to be toned. You know what I'll use that lingo Toned is fine, but toned means muscle.
Speaker 2:Toned means muscle. I love that. You're right Toned does mean muscle.
Speaker 3:I don't want to get too big, I just want to get toned. Toned means muscle, it's muscle.
Speaker 2:It is muscle, the weight may not change. I tell my clients too, but you get sculpted.
Speaker 3:Yes, are you comfortable? If you want to replace 20 pounds of fat, you will look like a completely different person. People don't believe how much I weigh and what I look like when they see the picture of the bikini like, oh you probably went. I'm like I weigh way more than you think. Right now, at 5'11, I weigh 205 pounds.
Speaker 2:Okay, wow.
Speaker 3:And nobody would think that, because most, a lot of it is muscle. Wow, right, and when I lean out, I S I'm still not going to get below 185, 175. And that's at my peak conditioning, because the muscle it doesn't weigh more than fat, but it weighs the same. Everything weighs the same, but it takes up less room. Fat looks like this, muscle looks like this, so it's smoother fibers, as you know. And so I always tell people you want to gain muscle. How do you gain muscle? You have to progressive overload, lift heavier than you did before or more than you did before, more times you can do more. Pick the cup up five times Now, pick the cup up six times next week, right? Or put more water in that cup I'm just using the cup as an example and progressively, that means over time, you're, you're getting heavier and heavier, or more and more, and you're overloading the muscles. Wow, because that's the point. It's really the last few reps where your muscle builds.
Speaker 3:You're making little tears in your muscles.
Speaker 2:That's good. That's why you're sore, yeah. And when it heals, that's when you gain muscle. The exercise begins right when you get to the point where you feel tired, yeah.
Speaker 3:I see people all the time. They're like lifting, they're like zoning out, checking out people in the gym and I'm like you're not building anything, you're doing light cardio.
Speaker 2:That's interesting. You say that you know I, because for me if I go for a walk, it wouldn't be exercise for me but for some people right, right.
Speaker 3:It's not pushing the needle, depending on how heavy they are, how?
Speaker 2:how much you know cardiovascular health they have. But for some people would push the needle and everyone's different. That's why people have to have a tailored plan. That's why they go to you. That's why you're a coach and that's why you talk to them you put tailored plans together and your coaching venue where we were talking about how everyone you can't just take a soundbite but it has to be tailored to what you're doing.
Speaker 3:And so, yeah, that makes total sense. Personalized it has to be personalized.
Speaker 2:I love that, Like you do concierge, personal custom.
Speaker 3:I use these words because I'm like that's what you get, that's what you pay for that personalized care and people want to transform. I would say, hey, listen, as a faith-based program, we can't transform the body without going into what happened in the spirit.
Speaker 1:What are?
Speaker 3:you dealing with spiritually, because people who go through divorce, and counseling is a part of it. I have certified counselors on my team right. I have ministers on my team right, just in case you need that, and I'm also counseling people. I have a lot of years of experience in counseling, so a lot of times it's as we know, it's the mindset right. That's why I do the mindset coaching calls with my clients. They get the custom nutrition plan, they get the custom fitness plan, but they get that accountability. And that is everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, coaching is everything.
Speaker 3:It is, and half of it is that the mindset. You can do it, but they need someone else to tell them that, because if it was so easy. We would just coach ourselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's so true, so true. I mean, I think that was so key what you just dropped, thank you. What about eating? What are your tips? What should we be eating? I don't want to ask it that way what do you eat? That makes the difference.
Speaker 2:Now you answered that but I'm going to ask it a different way, in the sense that what's your favorite snack? I want you to contribute that towards the eat portion, towards meds. What snack? I usually tell people blueberries and almonds to have between breakfast and lunch, lunch, dinner and dinner and bedtime.
Speaker 1:That's my favorite snack, but what?
Speaker 2:would you say what's your favorite snack that you that keeps you healthy and energized.
Speaker 3:I love fats.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So I put my clients on a high protein followed by pretty high fat diet and they lose weight. You know it's like modified keto carnivore. All of these things are using high fat, high protein, high fat. I don't cut out food groups. I don't put them on specific diets like that. It's customized to what they need. But for me, I survive on fats Got it. So if I really want to have a, like it's a meal, but it's a steak Right Fried in butter, right With garlic, yeah, yeah, that's my snack.
Speaker 1:That's okay.
Speaker 2:That's my meal Okay.
Speaker 3:If I have to have a snack on the go, it would be something like beef jerky. Yeah, I always tell my clients how you say the almonds and the blueberries, which is actually yummy. I say beef jerky. That's actually a very good snack, that's a very good snack, Zero carbs high protein, very lean, totally lean. Yeah, it fills you up, and as long as you don't get the ones that have a ton of sugar and process.
Speaker 2:Right when you try to get organic. Yeah, because there are some brands out there that it is overly processed. Yeah, you know for overly flavored things like that.
Speaker 3:But even if you do that, so that's going to you know, honey, if you have to do a sweetener, stevie is fine too. You know, if you really want to eat something sweet, eat an apple Right Cause then you're going to get all of the nutrients rather than apple juice, right.
Speaker 3:So the whole thing, go for the cheese. Yeah, that's healthy fats Right. And some healthy, unless you're lactose intolerant right. And some healthy proteins. There's protein in cheese, too. That's good, so eat a block of cheese yogurt. I don't often tell people to eat nuts because so many people are sensitive to them, but nuts are not bad for you as long as you can handle it. It's personalized. What can you?
Speaker 2:handle. Yeah, yeah, you have to know what you can eat and what you cannot eat, what you're allergic to and what you're not allergic to.
Speaker 3:Right, my thing is always meat. Now, I was a vegan for 25 years.
Speaker 3:So my transformation I've left multiple cults, including the cult of veganism. Now that I have anything opposed to plant-based yeah, she's joking, but I tell you it became something where you think you're so clean and I was like, so skinny. I was 147 pounds, which for me is very skinny, and I was just doing juice cleanses and veganism, but again I was hurting. I was crying out for help, right, and my skin was glowing, but my body was very weak. Yeah, I was not gaining muscle and again, some people they want to be. It depends on their aesthetic. Yeah, everyone doesn't have to be a buffed up superhero looking like Wonder Woman or Storm from X-Men. That's my ideal. Right, I want to look like that. I want to look like a superheroine you know, I get it.
Speaker 3:But some people want to just be their best version of leanness, their best version of fit, and that could be curvy. I help women build thick curves, looking good, slim, waist toned glutes. They call me the glute queen because I can help anyone build good glutes. I have the glute guide for free to all your listeners and watchers here. Go to joyvillafitnesscom.
Speaker 2:Wow, I mean that everyone wants that.
Speaker 3:I mean look most people want to have toned glutes right, exactly, not just for aesthetics, but it's practical too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. I mean, you know lunges, do that Squats, do that A lot of different things do that. I mean yeah, you know, you're absolutely right on that. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I became. So I I we were talking about certifications and stuff I actually became a glute specialist as well. So I'm a holistic nutritionist, a personal trainer, 55 plus trained for seniors or older people, training a master yoga instructor Although I don't usually teach people yoga, but stretching the same thing is is. I just went through my journey, I learned, you know, I just I was like I'm going to learn everything I can to be the best I can possibly be as a coach, because that's also what fuels me, what you said, what inspires you or what gets you moving to be the best, to be the best.
Speaker 3:If I'm going to do it, I want to be the best at it. You want to be the best, but I also want to offer the best to God, right, because I have to answer to him at the end of the day, as a Christian, we have to answer to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3:Amen. So it's not just for me. It used to be, I'm going to admit, it wasn't always like that about God, it was about me. So I have to answer to God by the end of the day and I have to be the best I can be for him, for my clients, for others Jesus, others and yourself. That's joy, oh.
Speaker 2:I love it. Yeah, see, I love it when you said that on your earlier podcast. Yes, I had to run and catch up to it, but that's an awesome acronym.
Speaker 3:Thank, you and powerful. I didn't make it up, I love it.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, all right. I wanted to ask you now the D part of meds drink or hydrate? How do you? What's your favorite? Is it what's your favorite? Hydration? What do you? What do you?
Speaker 3:drink Water, water, okay, water. I drink a lot of fuzzy water Okay. Like like you know, bubbly water drinks.
Speaker 2:Does that help you be consistent with it, or what?
Speaker 3:I just love drinking stuff. My husband makes fun of me. He's like you're always drinking, I just I'm very like you know, I'm always having a cup in my hand. So in order to I don't like sodas, but in order not to drink something unhealthy and to stay hydrated, but it feels fun, I'll have like a La Croix or like something, flavored water, no sugar, just you know, essence flavored fuzzy water. But I mean I can drink water all day long. Sometimes I can put lemon salt really good because that's electrolytes, especially living in Florida where it gets hot. But and if you feel fatigue, a lot of times you're low on salt.
Speaker 3:So I tell my clients put some salt in your water.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true, that's good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I like the taste of water, so I don't have a problem with drinking plain water. Right, right, but I also like a fancy little bottle of something with colors on it and I'm just sipping on it.
Speaker 2:Of course, people buy water because of the way the bottle looks too I get that as long as you're, hydratingrolytes are important. Yeah, I mean, I totally agree about that. I mean that's so important. I think a lot of times people can even get headaches, they can feel drained, they can feel tired. It's just because of dehydration. 75% of. Americans are dehydrated. They don't drink enough water.
Speaker 1:And I always tell people.
Speaker 2:Every time I say you know, drink more water. I always say, well, there's exceptions to the rule. People will have renal failure, heart disease. There's limits to that. You have to talk to your doctor about that. I always say that, but no buts about that. I agree, you know, electrolyte hydration is so important because it just helps you to be your best, energized self.
Speaker 3:Yes, and a key thing too is if you drink a cup of coffee, have two cups of water. Yeah, exactly Because coffee and tea dehydrate you. It can dehydrate you. It'll make you go to the bathroom. You lose water. It's a diuretic.
Speaker 2:Same thing with alcohol People who drink alcohol. I don't promote drinking alcohol but, alcohol acts as a diuretic, and so it's pulling water out of you, and people don't take account for those water losses. And when it comes to how they feel in terms of feeling healthy, energized.
Speaker 3:It helps your skin. Our bodies are what? 70%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, about 66, 69% roughly of water, two thirds, okay, two thirds roughly give or take. And it's so important because staying hydrated helps you to be vibrant, it helps your skin, helps how you staying hydrated helps you be vibrant. It helps your skin. It helps how you feel it helps your organs function. It's so important. I just think that, like I said, 75% of Americans are dehydrated. People don't drink enough water.
Speaker 1:And they don't eat properly People skip meals, things like that.
Speaker 2:Now I want to get to the sleep part of meds. We've talked about move, eat, drink, sleep. Now let's talk about the sleep part. How many? What is your sleep number? We talked about this off camera yeah. Mine's nine, you know when.
Speaker 3:I want to sleep optimally.
Speaker 2:It seems like a lot and I think the point that I want to drive home is that everyone has different numbers. I have patients, I have clients. I have no people who can sleep well on four hours, six hours. Everyone's like what's the? What number, what, what should I sleep at? And I say well, really you need to sleep at the number that makes you feel most energized, okay, and you hear out there like 68, that's a good average and you hear out there like 68, that's a good average.
Speaker 2:But at the end of the day you have to find out what causes you to do your job successfully, optimally and energizing, to go all day. For me it is nine. I don't always get nine, but when I get an opportunity to recharge I aim for nine. I try to recharge. I can operate off of seven. I always have to, you know, mitigate or modulate what I, what my activity is, what I'm doing the next day with the amount of sleep that I need. Sure.
Speaker 2:How how many hours do you get? Nine, you get nine, that's my ideal.
Speaker 3:I can operate off of seven if I have to.
Speaker 3:I mean, but I, I get up. I've changed my lifestyle. I've also gone through a lot of healing. It's a constant thing. That's why I love to work in transformation and still be an artist and a creative and do films and music and all these things and travel and keep my clients healthy, because it's like I do believe that you know we're we are created to have a purpose in life, to help others. And when you have your purpose, it energizes you. So I can, if I got to push through, I can survive on less sleep, but, like you said, what makes you feel good it's nine hours, sometimes 10.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:If I have to, I'm like a cat you know, sometimes you know people need to and if I work out a lot right.
Speaker 3:So I work out for about an hour, uh, five days a week and, um, I'm very active throughout the day. I'm like always moving, taking calls and, you know, meetings, all this stuff, and then, um, so Sundays I totally rest and then Saturdays usually I sleep in and then, except for today, and then, um, most nights I try to go to bed by 11, the latest, and wake up at six. Okay, that's not even nine hours, but that's if I have to do it.
Speaker 3:And a lot of times. Now I'm in a season where I'm working and pushing through several projects while maintaining all the balls I keep in the air that fuels me. I love being busy, but I don't have to be busy for busy's anymore. That's. That's what led to burnout. Speaking of burnout, I was, I was inauthentic, yeah, cause I was scared to stand still and be still and know that I am God Right, cause if I stand still.
Speaker 3:I have to, I have to think, I have to, I have to focus on God and I have to relax. And I wasn't able to relax before. That was anxiety, right. So God healed my anxiety by me just being still and disciplining myself to just focus, put on praise and worship, read my Bible and give it over to God and stop trying to control things.
Speaker 3:But I had that spirit of witchcraft which comes from control and domination, which comes from this cult that I was in for 15 years. And then I started messing with other witchcraft stuff because it was still around me and new age and I got into all this witches and all this stuff and it's all. I'm a God, I'm powerful. That's what it is, that's what it comes from and that comes from Hollywood, it comes from all kinds of things, and when you take that away and you're left that I'm not a God, I'm a human. I need God, I need saving. I'm a spoiled brat. Lord, help me. It keeps you humble, it keeps you clean, it keeps you accountable, like that's what everything is for me. I don't do anything that the Lord doesn't say is okay, because I don't want it.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 3:I don't want it If God doesn't want it and I can make a lot happen, yeah, and I have, but I choose not to. So that for me is like okay, sleeping when I need to resting, putting time in to relax.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Turn off the computer, get off the social media and just chill. That's part of my rest too, you know.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, so beautifully said.
Speaker 3:Thank you so beautifully said.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah. You know that resonates with me so much as a concierge doctor. I'm a Christian, first Jesus is my risen Lord and Savior.
Speaker 3:Hey.
Speaker 2:And I'm just authentic with that. That's just who I am. And before we wrap up, I wanted to ask you you're doing a new movie.
Speaker 3:Yes, tell us about that. It's called Breaking Shadows and I'm so excited about this because this is the story of Jean Marie Davis, who was human trafficked, sex trafficked, from age two to 29. And she was set free over 10 years ago and she she went through every single form of abuse you can imagine and even became a pimp and a drug dealer herself. Wow, she was fully entrenched and went to the white parties. Wow, right, she was involved in all the cultic Hollywood trafficking other women and being trafficked herself across the nation. And then she had a radical transformation. She got pregnant and God helped her by bringing her to a pregnancy center where she gave her life to Jesus. Wow, and she now is free, set free, and helps other women get out of trafficking, out of prostitution, out of degradation, and helps women choose life and runs a pregnancy center.
Speaker 3:And so I'm playing her in this incredible feature film called Breaking Shadows. I am starring as her, which is going to be the role of a lifetime. We go into production this September. We're in pre-production now, wow. And Antonio Sabato Jr Do you know who he is? So he's an incredible actor. He's directing it.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, he's made over a hundred films.
Speaker 3:He, uh, general hospital. Uh, he ran for Congress. He's made over a hundred films. Wow, he, general Hospital, he ran for Congress. He's amazing. If you Google him, you'll recognize his face. Incredible actor too, so he's directing me. We've been friends for over 10 years and this project is it's got so much heart. The Lord is bringing everybody a part of this project together, and so we're raising the funds right now to go into production and Breaking Sh're raising the funds right now to go into production and breaking shadows is the title, and you can just Google breaking shadows or breaking shadows film or find me on Instagram. All the links are there and we are offering, you know, investment opportunities as well as roles for casting for people who want to contribute, because it's a ministry as well.
Speaker 3:It's going to save people's lives. It's going to be gritty. We're sharing the story. We're sharing her story. She wrote a book called Breaking Shadows, so and I'm adapting it into the screenplay, actually as a writer as well. So it's it's exciting and we've got some incredible talent lined up. We're we're full. We're full blast for the Lord. It's going to be the highest quality, not just like our Christian film, but like a gritty film that points to Jesus. Wow, cause it's true. This is what happened to her, and if she, if God, can save her out of the stuff she was involved, god can save all of us. Nobody is too far gone.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 3:And this came right on time when I'm sharing my story of coming out of what I've come out of, which it's incredibly shaming when you deal with stuff that's dark and twisted, and you might've been a part of getting other people into something dark and twisted Cause I got over a hundred people into the cult. I was thinking it was helping them, because I thought it was helping me. I was trapped too, and these cultic practices, and human trafficking as well, victimizes people. They prey on people who lost their family, like I did, who are searching for love, searching for acceptance, and anyone can be trafficked or pimped into something similar. So part of the battle that I want to teach Christians and non-Christians is to be able to open their eyes and recognize. It's all around us and if we don't do something about it, it's going to swallow everybody up whole.
Speaker 2:When people are caught up in things like that. You know, it's one of the reasons why a person can struggle with mental health things, anxiety, depression, other things. It can bind them up. They don't feel free, they don't feel energized. When you are dealing with things like that, when a person, I mean, is dealing with things like that, you know it's a drain on how they feel in terms of their health, their wellness, how energized they feel. You're just not in a good place and then you're not in the position to do your life's goals when you feel that way. That's why it's important to really break out of that. This is just talking to you has been mind-blowing. It's been so refreshing. I mean, you're a joy to talk to. Where can people find you? How can they connect with you? How can they connect with Joy Vela Fitness? Tell them your Instagram, facebook, all those little things.
Speaker 3:Yes, I love what you do here. This is so great, such a great collaboration right, and I think it's so important that you bring these stories to light. So thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 3:Absolutely we got to run it back. You know I mean this. We're going to do more, absolutely. I'm excited. I'm excited too. So you guys can find me at joyvillafitnesscom, and that's joyvillafitnesscom. Put your email address in there. I'm going to send you my ebook from stuck to strong. It tells my story, my testimony, and has practical tips for mindset, for physical fitness, for mental fitness, spiritual fitness and all of the ways we should be fit and healthy, because it's about healing. So that's joyvilafitnesscom. And you can find me on Instagram at joyvila. I'm very interactive with my followers. Youtube at the joyvila show, which live streams every weekday, 9am Easternm, eastern, 6 am Pacific. Love it, yeah, and I'm going to have you on my live show too.
Speaker 2:Oh, I can't wait. I know I can't wait. It's so easy to talk to you.
Speaker 3:It's a great conversation. God is good.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Oh praise the Lord, jesus Christ, I'm so grateful for this opportunity. This has been an awesome podcast. You Um, this has been an awesome podcast, you guys, you know, make sure that you download the podcast. Obviously, go to, uh, you know, your regular local podcast application, whether it's Apple or Spotify or Amazon. Also, uh, leave a message in um, facebook, instagram, all my handles Great show. I can't wait for you to see the YouTube. I can't wait to talk to you guys next time on the Concert Stop podcast. Talk to you later.
