 Welcome to Love Where You Live, your monthly episode, showcasing the best of Sheboygan County from the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce. I'm Deja Martinez, Executive Director of the Sheboygan County Chamber. And happy New Year, coming out of the holiday season and starting off the New Year right. I thought it would be a good time to talk about health and fitness. So joining me first today is Elizabeth Heitzman, owner of the Float Doctor in Sheboygan. So welcome, Elizabeth. Hi, thanks for having me. I'm great. Wonderful, we are excited to have you and to learn a little bit more about you and the Float Doctor. So first, just start off by telling us a little bit more about yourself and your background. Okay, well, I've been in counseling since 1995. I started off at a residential facility or transitional facility where people came out of the hospitals, were chronically mentally ill and we helped to transition them to live on their own. And from there, I got married, had children, couldn't work 70 hours a week. So then I did something more flexible, doing end of life counseling and also did some contract work with funeral homes to help plan funerals. So I've kind of been on a lot of different sides of mental health. So that's a little bit about my background. Wow, okay, and that, yeah, you are kind of on one side to the next, but certainly interesting. So we're here to talk, obviously mental health is certainly important and part of what you've just done in the last, was it a year? It's been a year, yeah. It's one year, just over a year now, is open the Float Doctor in Sheboygan. And I'm sure there's a lot of people, including myself, that have some questions about what is floating, what does that look like? So tell us a little bit more about the Float Doctor. Okay, well, floating is basically the most relaxing bath you've ever had. It was designed in the 50s by a gentleman named John Lilly. He was a psychiatrist and he did a lot of different studies about mental health and healing and he designed the sensory deprivation chamber. Actually, it was designed to help them to pull variables out, to test mentally psychiatric medications and that sort of thing and they were trying to take variables out and then they realized that the testing context in and of itself had its own variable. There wasn't any pressure points. There's a, at least with our equipment, there's a thousand pounds of Epsom salts and if you know anything about Epsom salts, they help draw inflammation out of your system. They draw toxins out of your system and your skin absorbs the magnesium that's in the Epsom salts and most people are deficient in that, about 40% of us. And when you don't have enough magnesium, your nerves don't fire as sharply or as well as they should. So laying in that tank and just relaxing and being totally buoyant, you just float like a cork and no pressure points at all. So your joints can relax, your muscles can relax and you absorb all that magnesium and the inflammation comes out and you go to this just wonderful relaxing place they call a theta state. So like when you first come to float, you might shift in and out of it because your body doesn't know what it's like to just shut off and relax. Yeah, yeah, it's exactly and turn everything off. And there's several processes that turn off. So one part is it's the same temperature as your skin which is about 94.5 degrees right in there. And so your brain doesn't have to adjust. So like in this room with the lights and stuff, maybe it's like 75 here. So your brain is like heating your body up right now. But for that part to just turn off, that is something that really doesn't happen very often. Then there's a vestibular process as well which is making sure you don't fall over when you're walking, even when you're sleeping, it says, hey, Deidre, roll over or your legs fall out asleep. So that like that's always on when you're in a tank that can just take a back seat. And you just totally relax and don't have any sensory input. It is dark, it should be dark. We do give you glow sticks if you're a little uncomfortable about just being in a dark room. But yeah, you just like reset like a computer like reset. So like if your computer is acting wonky, you reboot it, right? That's what floating is. It kind of reboots your system. Wow. So how much time do you spend when you schedule an appointment? How much time do you spend in a tank? Well, people are treating something. So let's say they want to work on anxiety. Maybe they have migraines. Maybe they have, we've got people with Lyme's disease or pain issues or joint problems. If you're trying to treat something then it's recommended to go for 90 minutes. So you get that little extra soak and a little time to just kind of have that extra shutdown and it gives more chance for the inflammation in your system to get drawn out and more healing can take place then. So you'll have more lasting effects with a 90 minute session as opposed to a 60 minute session. But we do offer 60 minute sessions if you want to ease into it. Okay, very good. And I know you'd mentioned the glow sticks and that was a question for me. Is what do you, you know, if you're maybe feel claustrophobic and you're in this, you know, it's a different space and it's dark and you're not real sure what to expect. Do you get that a lot or do you have many people complain that you feel have that claustrophobic feeling? Well, people ask about it a lot and we have people come in who say, well, you know, and I had a panic attack when I was in an MRI, you know, I'm a little worried about this, but, you know, this claustrophobia is a symptom and just like anything else, like even if you're thinking about, oh, I got to go to the grocery store after this and I can't forget this or this or this, you know, all of those things can be released and let go. I'm safe, I'm okay, everything's fine, but claustrophobia is a sense that something is closing in on you. But when you're in a tank, it's endless black. It just, you don't feel like anything's coming in if that makes sense. And certainly you can just push the door open so it's not like you're locked in, you know, we don't lock you in there. So, you know, so there's absolute freedom and you're absolutely perfectly safe and there's nothing closing in at all. It's like walking into like a walk-in cooler and if you could go in a walk-in cooler and not feel like the walls are gonna cave in on you, you're probably okay. So you probably have to be very, very, very badly anxious. And even in those cases, plenty, plenty of studies have taught people to do some breathing and we do talk to people about if that is an issue, we'll talk to them about some different strategies, breathing and releasing, that they get past that quite quickly. So we can get past that for sure. All right, very good. So I know you talked a little bit about examples of migraines and anxiety, but what are some other, who else would this be good for? Well, our society is overstimulated, period. I can't imagine. We're getting hit with so much information on our phones. And so anybody who just wants to just kind of reset and plug back into themselves, and it creates really authentic change. The gentleman, his name's Crash, the one who designed my tanks. He's got the float lab equipment. He had a drug and heroin addiction for 25 years before he designed these tanks. And it was through the tanks that he was able to recognize his own escapism basically and really find himself underneath all the trauma and bad things that had happened to him. And he found himself in the tank and he really attributes the tank to him saying sober and not even having a desire to do that anymore because they were, again, he was just treating symptoms of himself. But when he found himself, he really makes some authentic change in the tank. Very cool. So what, you know, you obviously were practicing as or had been practicing as a counselor way before you decided to embark on this endeavor. What made you decide to open up the float doctor? Okay, well, that's kind of an interesting one. To be perfectly honest, I had a dream when I was 19 and I didn't know I was floating in the dream. So I actually kind of had a little mystical, a little glimpse when I was younger, but when I joined the Department of Defense, I have a contract with them to work with our veterans with PTSD. I was doing some additional research on what they call CAM, which is complimentary alternative medicine and different approaches that they were using to really get some wonderful effects with our veterans, get them off of 10 medications and, you know, they'd become a shell of themselves when they're in a bad place, but, you know, reconnecting. So after I had, I'd been in private practice since 2012, and I think it was 2013 that I joined the Department of Defense and just started reading about it. And I was just like, what is this magical saltwater? I want to know. And then after I tried it, that was it. I'm like, I'm getting as many as I can fit in the room. Very cool. Yeah, that's how I found out about it. And it's amazing. We see it every day. Wow. And I know, and I see you often, and I tell you often that I need to come visit and I have not had a chance, but I'm gonna have to give an update. We'll make time for you. Soon, so that I can let everybody know what my experience looked like, but I think I could probably use some relaxing. I can't imagine why with the holidays and family. Yes, we all can. So how did you decide on Sheboygan? Were you practicing, you know, with your counseling practice in Sheboygan the whole time? Yeah, I was born in Kiwani, but I've been in Sheboygan most of my life. And certainly I'm doing counseling since 95. I've been here in the area. My husband's got almost 30 years at Kohler. So he wasn't going anywhere. So yeah, I just found that this would be a really great place to just help people heal. And, you know, not just, you know, veterans with PTSD, but, you know, people with fibromyalgia, you know, there's so many conditions that it can help that I just wanted to have it in conjunction with my therapy practice to teach people how to really heal themselves. And there is no magic pill. There really isn't, you know, to really make lasting change. It's a little work within yourself. And sometimes it's a little easier than people think. It's just about where do you get started, right? It's all about perspective sometimes. It is. So tell me where exactly are you located or tell our viewers where are you located? Okay, well, we're right across the street, basically, from Blue Harbor. We have a beautiful location right on the river. So we'll have people even, because it's been very nice outside lately, you know, after a float, people can just sit on the patio and just take in a sunset, which is gorgeous. Or go for a walk. We're less than three minutes to be on the beach of Lake Michigan. So I just think it's just so wonderful when your senses kind of start turning back on after a float, like you're just surrounded by just our gorgeous, self-pure district. Absolutely. You do, you've got a great location there. We love it. Yes, and how can people get ahold of you or where can they find more information about the Float Doctor? Yeah, well, we certainly have a very involved Facebook page. Okay. So you can find Float Doctor on Facebook. We have our website, FloatDoctor.net, and certainly call or stop in, and we're always glad to, you know, show you around if a room is available to let you see a room and, you know, we're open seven days a week, so we're here for everyone's relaxation, and we love it. Wow. Well, thank you so much. Day tuned, we are going to have Brent Neville, Brent Neville of Fit Body Boot Camp join us right after the break. Why don't you ever see elephants hiding in trees? Because they're really good at it. Yeah, I get it. America, let's do lunch. Volunteer at americaletstoolunch.org. Welcome back to Love Where You Live. Our next guest is Brent Neville, owner of Fit Body Boot Camp in Sheboygan. So excited you could be here with us today, Brent. Thanks for having me. Yes, thanks for coming. So tell us a little bit more about you and your background and why fitness. Sure, sure. Well, I grew up in Wisconsin, not here in Sheboygan, but about an hour away, little town called Wolfon, sort of south of Fond du Lac. And, you know, it's always into athletics and sports growing up, never a great athlete by any means. I was always, well, in elementary school, I was probably great, but I went to a small country school, so there wasn't a lot of competition. That was the peak. Right, that was probably my peak, it was elementary school. But, you know, I played sports and stuff growing up and was always interested in that type of thing. You know, went off to college and as happens to a lot of people, college wasn't real kind of my health. I was a runner in high school and I thought that running would be a good way to shed those extra pounds that I had put on in my first year of college. What led to those pounds, your first year of college? You know, the normal things. Just having too much fun. Yeah, okay. I had to just be a smart alec for a minute. Okay. But, so it's just kind of exploring, figuring out what worked for me, what helped. And that took, that was a long process. I mean, it was all throughout college and even after college, to start putting the pieces together, you know, doing my own research, what actually worked for me. And then deciding that, you know, I always wanted to do something where I was helping people. And I was the sports thing and I was a news junkie. I actually was a newspaper reporter for a couple of years. And that was a great way for me to give back to, you know, sitting on the other side of this type of thing, being able to get to know different people and tell their stories and get things out in the community. And that was a great way for me to kind of scratch that itch of giving back. But it never was as fulfilling as I wanted it to be. And so when I made the decision to make a career shift, at that point it had been a no-brainer. I had already established my own patterns of improving my health and incrementally doing that throughout my time as a journalist. And it was just time, you know, it was time. And I knew what I wanted to do and how I wanted to take that. All right, awesome. So, you know, and I think that there's probably a lot of folks watching that question, what is fit body boot camp? How is it different than maybe going to a regular gym? Sure, sure. So what we try to do at Fit Body is fill the gap that kind of has existed for a long time in the marketplace. So traditionally you have a gym, let's say, you know, a box gym, they have a bunch of equipment, they have treadmills, they have ellipticals, they have a bunch of free weights on different things. And you get a key, you might get a little orientation, they show you what they all have, how to check in, and then you're kind of on your own. The other side of the spectrum is where I broke into fitness, which is one-on-one personal training. Okay. Which is great, you come in, you work with me, I design a program for you, you know, I help you challenge yourself and progress and go on. And there's nothing wrong with that, it's great, but those are two vastly different things. And what comes with that vast difference is a huge difference in cost as well. So, you know, we're looking at a gym membership that may run 10 to $50 a month. And on the other side of the spectrum, personal training might run $50 to $60 per actual time. Per session, right? I would say $30 to $60 is pretty average. The place that I was working at, our cheapest session package I think was $45 a session, and that was if you were buying over 100 sessions. So, it just, for a lot of folks, they're either not ready to make that commitment or they're not able to make that commitment. And that's totally understandable. So, our goal is to fill the gap in the middle there, give people the ability to work with certified personal trainers, get the accountability, support, and help they might need, but to bring that cost curve down. And we get to do that in a high energy environment. It's non-judgmental. I always tell people if you can walk in the door, there's things that we can work with you on. There's some folks that that's not an option for them right now, but we can build towards that. And it's not a competition. Our youngest client is 16 years old. Our oldest client is, I believe, 74. So, big difference between there. And we have some clients that are not as fit as our 74-year-old that might be in their 40s. So, again, it's not- I'm sure the 74-year-old is probably more fit than I am. So. You know, so it's just a matter of doing what you can do and focusing on our, we do a word of the week. And this week, our word is success. Success means different things to different people. So, you know, one person may have a goal that, you know, they want to lose 50 pounds. Someone else who may already be where they're at with that 50-pound weight loss goal, that may be where they want to be because they already lost 60 pounds and they feel comfortable in their skin and where they want to be. Everybody's got different reasons that are driving them and it's a matter of figuring out what do you want? What are you going to do to get there? You can always change your mind. Right. You know, and that does happen often because a lot of times we don't feel like we have the ability to accomplish X until we're closer to that. Now it seems possible and realistic. Right. You know, and things like that. So, you know, we run 30-minute sessions. You know, it's not a long period of time, but we do a lot of work in that time. There's not a lot of downtime and that works out for a lot of folks too because, you know, most of us don't have a lot of free time. Exactly. You know, everybody's busy. If you ask them, everybody's busy. You know, and it's just a matter of figuring out what can you, you know, move around in your schedule or what can you eliminate in your schedule to create, you know, what we're asking for is just 30 minutes, three times a week. We recommend three to five sessions a week to come in and challenge your body and amazing things can happen. The other piece that's really critically important is, you know, assessing where your nutrition is at. What's gonna determine for folks how quickly they make progress on most of their goals is their nutrition and what they're willing to change, what they're ready to change. Okay. But again, that's a personal decision. I'm never gonna tell somebody like, you need to give up this, you can't eat that. Like, there's not bad foods. There's not good and bad foods. It's just some foods are better for us than others and some things we should be eating more of than others. There's some things, yeah, you probably shouldn't eat. Right. Like all the Christmas cookies we've been eating for the last couple weeks, I'm sure. Yeah, you know, but that's a personal thing, whether or not you feel that those are things that you wanna eat on a regular basis or like, you know, those are things that I eat occasionally because I do enjoy them, but I'm not gonna have them every day. Right. You know, and so, and knowing that if I'm gonna choose to have that, then maybe I'm gonna say no to something else instead. Right. So it's figuring out a balance that works for you to achieve what you wanna achieve. If that doesn't work for you, then it's going back and reexamining those decisions and do I really wanna have that if it means that I can't achieve this goal? Right. And, but that's a personal thing, you know? And one thing in talking, and obviously I, at the chamber, we have quite a few folks who participate in your classes. Yeah. And even beyond, I mean, the fitness piece, obviously is important and we're here to talk about health and wellness, but the one thing I've noticed with the people that are coming to your classes that I've experienced is the team environment, the camaraderie, almost family-like, and I think with that comes a certain accountability to each other and they are looking forward to it. Sometimes just getting to the gym is just the act of physically making it to the gym. Once you're there, you're okay, but getting yourself out of bed or, you know, stopping whatever you're doing to make it to the gym for that session is what's hard. So how do you guys, how have you guys built that with your classes? Sure, sure. Yeah, I mean, that is something that is intentional. You know, we do want to provide an environment where people feel comfortable. They feel like they, that everyone's there for the same reason. They're all there to improve their health. You know, there's so many bonds that have been established there that it's like I was talking to somebody the other day and I'm like, how long do you guys know each other? Like, oh, we met here, like really? Like they just seem like they're best friends. You know, to be able to give people the opportunity to get to know people to, you know, most of our clients tend to come to the same session consistently. We have some that have crazy schedules and you know, they, you know, we have one woman who works 48 hour shifts. You know, she's a, she's a trauma nurse and so she stays at the hospital for 48 hours. They're correct, you know, but that's not the norm. Most people have pretty set schedules and they come at consistent times. So you get to see the same faces. You get to see, you know, people making progress. You get to, you know, I get to know, you know, like I know you're really good at ex-exercise. Right, yeah. So I'm going to try to make sure that I can do it just as well as you can. You know, if you're a competitive person, if you're not, that's fine. But like, you know, we're all competitive in different ways and so when we can use each other to be competitive in a positive sense, it just builds that camaraderie. You know, we certainly do other little things to try to help that and spur that, but a lot of that is just organic by giving people the opportunity. I think, especially in society now, with the rise of technology and social media, I think people are starved for connection. And so it's giving people another place to feel at home, to feel like they can connect with other people when it's so easy nowadays to not talk to anybody. Right. And so giving them a place to do that really helps. And you know, like you were saying, exercises is something that a lot of people are naturally intrinsically motivated to do. You know, it's hard. We're going to sweat, it's going to, it should be hard. If you want to get the results, it has to be hard. Exactly. But you know, it doesn't really get easier, you just get better, you know. And so, you know, what, let's say on day one, you can't do an exercise and day 30, you can do four of them and days 60, you can do 12. Like, and that's all in the same period of time. You know, let's say 30 seconds. Right. You know, you can see that change. Progression. But getting people just to get started is the biggest thing. And so having that community is helpful. And you know, I would say a high majority of our clients come to us, say like, oh, my aunt comes here, or my sister comes here, or my aunt's sister's cousin comes here, you know, like, or they, you know, they know someone who knows someone who's a client. And that helps because it gives them a way to plug in right away and feel at home. And some people spread their wings a little faster than others. Some people, you know, we have husbands and wives who work out in the same session. We have husbands' wives who never work out together. Right. We have husbands' wives who work out in the same session on opposite sides of the room. So, you know, you find what works for you and what helps you stay consistent. And yeah, I mean, we certainly have an accountability piece that comes from us, but there's another way of accountability that comes from client to client. Right, exactly. Which is huge. So, and I know, you know, talking about health and fitness, but you had mentioned earlier when you were kind of transitioning into this shift in your career about giving back to the community. And I know we don't have a lot of time, but I wanted to just touch, you know, briefly on Fitbody Bootcamp participates in a lot of different areas throughout the community. And you guys even get your clients involved in this process a lot of times. So tell us about some of the community serve projects you guys have done this year, or I'm sorry, last year in 2018. Sure, sure. Yeah, no, I mean, I think that's something that's really important to me and something that, you know, when you have a group of people who are like-minded, we can take advantage of that and give them that opportunity to do things that they already want to do, they just don't know how. And, you know, in the last two months of 2018, we were able to do a couple really cool things. Actually today, actually right now as we're speaking, where some of our team is delivering some Christmas gifts, we adopted 12 families from three of the local elementary schools. And it's just really cool to be able to do something like that. And, you know, our clients did most of the work. They, we had a tree up and they purchased most of the gifts. We cleaned up the last, you know, 10 to 15%. And, you know, we had a wrapping party. It's another opportunity to bring people together in a different way to see them outside their workout clothes and, you know, and bring people from different sessions together and get to know each other. And that's a really cool thing. We participated really heavily in coats with kids, coats for kids this year. Okay. Ryan Belt-Movak does a great job with that one. And we donated over 300 coats through our facility. Encouraged people to, hey, if you're friends and family have coats, feel free. We can help, you know, deliver it to them. You know, we're certainly here to do our piece and to be able to help that way. The food bank is near and dear to us as people who care about nutrition. It's important that people have access to things. Absolutely. We filled the, our clients filled a large collection box twice in this fall, including over 700 items of protein in a separate drive to torture us. We give them a little incentive for every... So you guys have to stare at it the whole time? Yeah, so every day we, you know, we'd have people come in and bring in a whole case of tuna or a case of chicken or peanut butter and, you know, add 25 more checks for our burpee count that we had to do for every item. So those are just a couple of examples of things that, you know, when we have a community partner that identifies the need to see how can we help out. I know we have one already booked for March. There's another organization that's looking for help and, you know, had heard what we're doing and what we can possibly do. Wonderful. Well, it sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun and thank you so much for joining us today. Real quick, tell people how to get ahold of you. Where can they find out more information about Fit Body Boot Camp? Sure, sure. We have a Facebook page. If you just search Shiboygan Fit Body Boot Camp on Facebook, fitbodyshiboygan.com, our phone number, you can call or text that number at 920-395-4248 or info, I-N-F-O at fitbodyshiboygan.com. Perfect, Brent, thank you so much and I'm sorry we don't have more time, but truly, thank you for joining us today and hopefully, this information we shared will help people get healthy and in shape into 2019. Thanks so much for joining us today and we'll see you again next month. Thanks for coming, keep talking. So we're gonna just...