The Art of Healthy Detox

Marie Gonzalez shares her journey from frustrated detox customer to successful business owner, creating delicious juice blends that genuinely help people feel better. Her faith-guided path from Honduras to America led to a thriving family business that combines nutrition education with products people actually enjoy consuming.

Marisabel Gonzalez

• Tel: +1 954-397-9588
• Website: http://www.yes2detox.com/
• Email: info@yes2detox.com
• Email: marisabelgonzalez@ymail.com

• Marie created her business after finding commercial detox programs unpalatable and ineffective
• She initially developed juice recipes for her picky-eating children, disguising vegetables in tasty smoothies
• When hitting her 40s, Marie experienced physical changes that prompted her health journey
• Her first 3-day detox with her own juices resulted in 10-pound weight loss and increased energy
• Family members, friends and gym acquaintances were her first test subjects and supporters
• Marie balances her detox business with 25 years in education (20 as a classroom teacher)
• Her business approach emphasizes education alongside product sales
• Faith plays a central role in Marie's business decisions and life philosophy
• Their rebrand from Munchie Blends to Yes to Detox reflects their mission
• The family-owned business operates from their home in Miramar, Florida

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Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Introduction
• 5:42 Tyler Perry Sexual Assault Allegations
• 15:09 Bible Quote & Marie's Faith Journey
• 20:54 Marie's Background and Family
• 22:14 Building a Detox Business

Transcript

Voiceover: 0:03

Tales from the wild, stories from the heart. A journey into the mind and soul of fired up business professionals, where they share their vision for the future and hear from a different non-profit organization every month as they create awareness of their goals and their needs. Dive into a world of untamed passion as we join our host, Shireen Botha, for this month's episode of Friends from Wild Places.

Shireen Botha: 0:36

All right, welcome. Welcome, shireen, here I'm your virtual boutique bookkeeper and QuickBooks advisor. Back in the day, bookkeeping was a mountain of paperwork and a sea of receipts, but today it shouldn't be that way. At Shireen's Bookkeeping Services, we take the stress out of finances with modern solutions tailored just for you. Imagine focusing on growing your business while we handle the numbers seamlessly. Are you a business owner relying only on a CPA firm? Well, let's connect. We can elevate your financial management together. If you want to know more, please go check me out at www. shireensbookkeeping. com and allow me to keep your books clean so you don't have to Welcome back. Listeners, you are listening to Friends from Wild Places. We're so glad to have you here again with us. I'd love to introduce you to my co-host, tanya, whom you all know very well. Tanya, how are you doing today?

Tanya Scotece: 1:43

Oh, doing great. We are winding up the semester at the college, busy with summer activities, and I believe where you are, shireen, it's opposite right. So you are in winter, is that correct?

Shireen Botha: 1:57

Right, that is correct. We are in fascinating enough, the area that I'm in in KwaZulu-Natal. They don't really see very cold winters, and I love winter, but it is cooler this year than usual, so I'm thoroughly enjoying that. But, tanya, why don't you just share with the listeners a little bit more about our extra content that we're making for our subscribers?

Tanya Scotece: 2:32

Sure. So for our regular visitors and guests, we have friends from wild places where you can just subscribe, like, share, comment on our posts and then, if you would like, additional bonus content that is raw, unedited, just topics that maybe you've been maybe shy to ask, trying to find out on your own. We'd love to explore deeper. We've shared about our past all kinds of things, trials and tribulations. So if there's anything you want to hear more from us specifically, feel free to text us email, connect with us, even via Friends from Wild Places. So for for five dollars a month, you can subscribe to the additional content and always you can always just like, comment and follow us for free.

Shireen Botha: 3:10

but the juicy content is actually juicy yeah, yeah, that's so right, and it's only five dollars a month that really we enjoy what we're doing, um, but we don't get any money for it. So it would really be nice we don't see it as anything else but just support from you guys just to help us keep on doing this. So thank you so much to those that have subscribed and we really appreciate you. So we are super excited today to introduce our visitor this month.

Shireen Botha: 3:44

For the next few episodes, we have Marie Gonzalez, who is a 48 year old woman, wife to Robert for 30 years, mother to Chris and Jackie, to explore and create in the kitchen. She sees a recipe she likes, she tries it, tweaks it with better for you ingredients and gives it to her family so they can approve before it becomes a regular item they sell. They are a family owned and operated business. They run from home in Miramar, florida, usa. The juicing concept started in the summer of 2019 after she purchased a couple of detox programs online and hated them. She felt the smoothies and juices she had been making for her kids were way better. She started researching and educating herself on the topic of using fruits and vegetables to naturally detoxify one's body. That's when Munchie Blends was born, but later that changed the name yes to Detox. We're so happy to have you here, marie, welcome, welcome.

Mari Gonzalez: 5:06

Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited. Thank you.

Shireen Botha: 5:11

Well, this is going to be great. I'm not the healthiest person in the world, but I always like to hear about how different fruits and vegetables can help with different. Different fruits and vegetables can help with different. You know illnesses and symptoms and pains in our bodies and I just find it quite interesting. So, yeah, they do say that food can be natural medicines. So I'm looking forward to hearing more about you and your business.

Shireen Botha: 5:42

But before we do, tanya and I are a little bit of true crime enthusiasts, as you all know, so we always like to start our podcast with chatting about the latest crimes that have been going on and, to be honest, I was quite disappointed when I heard about this crime, because I kind of like this guy. I thought he was doing a lot of good in the world with his movies. I thought all of his movies that he directed and created and his character always had such good messages. Um in in his movies and if you don't know who I'm talking about, I'm talking about tyler perry uh, his character is medea in a lot of his movies. You know, movies carry, and so when I heard about this court case, I was quite disappointed because I think, in a way, I put him on a little bit of a pedestal and I thought finally, a good, you know, a good director that's trying to do good in the world, um of you know of, of hollywood. But I seem to be wrong. Um, and so, listeners, if you don't know who I'm talking about, yes, I'm talking about the case of? Uh sexual assault against tyler perry.

Shireen Botha: 7:19

Um us film and tv giant tyler Tyler Perry has been sued for $260 million by an actor who has accused the mogul of sexually assaulting him while working on his TV shows. Derek Dixon has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles accusing Perry of using his influence in the entertainment industry to create a coercive, sexually exploitative dynamic while he was acting on the oval and ruthless, he alleges. Perry promised him a successful acting career but then subjected him to escalating sexual harassment, assault and battery and professional retaliation when he didn't reciprocate perry's unwanted well, you can guess what happened. So Perry's lawyers denied the allegations and called the lawsuit a scam to make money. I think I've heard that so often. That's a reaction that a lot of these powerful people have. The lawyer continues and says this is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam. His attorney, Matthew Boyd, told the BBC. But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail. Claims of harassment will fail.

Shireen Botha: 8:49

Let me just mention a couple of the other cases that are similar to this case. Listeners, we're talking Hyvie Weinstein, we're talking Bill Cosby, we're talking R Kelly, we're talking Sean Combs, we're talking Kevin Spacey, roger Ellis and even the Bill Doney and Lively case. These are some of the very few cases that have come up and I think my biggest question, that I wanted to chat to you, ladies, right now and hear your um opinion on it is you know, what are your thoughts about these victims coming forward years later claiming sexual harassment on these powerful people? Does it seem more than usual or do you think it's a good or a bad thing? Like just, let's just chat a little bit about what you think. Should we start with you first, marie?

Mari Gonzalez: 9:42

Sure, it's really unfortunate because I do share, excuse me, your feelings on the actor. Growing up my kids, we used to stay up late, watch Madea, and there's a couple of lines that we still use till today, like Haller, hallelujah. So it's, you know it's a, it's an american thing. I would say, um, it is unfortunate because you know, in a position that he is, a position of power, position to lead others to um you know a lot of youth, you know, looks up to these people and, um, in the victim's case, you know, they may decide to come forward years after because you know they're ashamed, they're afraid.

Mari Gonzalez: 10:33

Sometimes they stay quiet, they don't say anything because they fear. But, yes, I support the, you know, come forward movement. You know, say your story, take it to court, don't be afraid, you know, if, if it happened, if you're, you know, standing with the truth, there's nothing to fear. That's, that's my opinion that's very true.

Shireen Botha: 10:58

Tanya what about yourself?

Tanya Scotece: 11:01

well, you know, I used to be up on the research. So a few years ago back actually, actually 2016, 2017, there was a lot of statistics that I was familiar with that said, any survivor of sexual abuse it's usually very common for a delayed resurface of the feelings and emotions around that, and it was very common even 15 years later and emotions around that, and it was very common even 15 years later. So that is a it was at that time, a proven statistic and I don't believe it's changed much. I mean, maybe they have more data now to support that.

Tanya Scotece: 11:34

So I think, for reasons, especially when you're talking about, for example, positions of power and or perceived abuse, there is a delay both time because I think maybe some of the survivors would say, like, well, who's going to believe me? This person is so powerful, this person is so well known. I'm just one person. So I think it takes a lot for that individual to actually come forward and bring a case. And then the other folks that you mentioned Shereen, I believe you know those I mean have just gone. I mean truly wild as far as the amount of people that were actually sexually abused, coerced, exploited. So it's very interesting. I mean the expression I've always heard is when there's smoke, there's fire, right. So I wouldn't be surprised if there's more allegations against this person as we go forward.

Shireen Botha: 12:28

I couldn't agree with you more, tanya. I think I feel, as a victim, it's a whole lot more harder to stand up and speak out. It's the whole me too phase. You know it's not a phase, it phase, it's a stand. You know, people are taking a stand and I think it is coming out more, uh, lately and in these days, because I think the victims are encouraged by other victims stepping out with their stories and so they feel encouraged to step out with theirs.

Mari Gonzalez: 13:05

So I think it's a good thing and, um, and I'm glad they are a way of liberating you know what, what you're holding inside. If you're a victim, you're holding that inside. That's, you know, affecting your relationships. Maybe you're the way you, you know perceive yourself your self-esteem, soesteem. So it's a way of liberating oneself.

Shireen Botha: 13:29

Yeah, because I think in the past, victims have kept quiet and because of that, a lot of their mental health went down the drain and a couple of them committed suicide because of these secrets that they've been holding inside. So I do think it's a good thing and good for them. Um, I'm proud of them for standing up. I'm proud of them for speaking out. I think the percentage of people that are just trying to get money out of these powerful, rich people are very there's. There's more of a risk to speak out than there is, um, to keep quiet, and more dangerous for them to speak out. So, quite frankly, the the percentage of of victims that are actually lying and taking advantage is very minimal. So I 100 believe every single one that stands up and speaks out. I'm just disappointed because it's Madea. Nevertheless, let's move on, listeners.

Shireen Botha: 14:35

It is the quote of the daytime. This is an important part of our podcast where Marie has mentioned her favorite quote, which we're going to talk about right now. It's straight from the Bible, excuse me. It says Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do and he will show you which path to take, that's Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6. Marie, would you like to just share with us and the listeners what that means to you and why is that your favorite quote?

Mari Gonzalez: 15:19

So there's a lot to unfold here in this verse and there's so much wisdom and knowledge in these short lines. But, like I said, the Bible is the living word of God and that's my belief. So I live by this verse. I became a Christian when I was 15 years old and I grew up Catholic. I grew up going to church and going to mass and, you know, doing my prayers and stuff like that. But I became to know the Lord personally when I was a teenager. So this verse spoke to me very early on in life, when things were good. Then things got, you know, turned around and things were not so good, but I kept on trusting, I kept on going to this verse.

Mari Gonzalez: 16:09

If I put my trust in God and I listen to what he has to say, I follow his will. I follow, you know, what he wants to show me. If I need to make a decision, if I'm struggling in my relationships, if I'm, you know, seeking wisdom in my business, what do I do? How do I go about this? I trust him. I trust what he has for me, that he has his best interests. His plans are better than mine, so everything will align. If there's a curve, I have to trust that. This is his way of telling me this is not the way, this is the way you need to go. So I rest knowing that he has my back and it just goes back to that. Trust him, he knows what's best for me.

Tanya Scotece: 16:58

That's beautiful, that's beautiful.

Shireen Botha: 17:02

Yes, I love that because you know, know, there's another saying where people say man plans and God laughs and I think in a way that's true. I mean he didn't say it's a wrong thing for us to plan and he said go ahead, you know, plan away, but you know it ultimately what, what his way goes. So I, I absolutely agree with you and, um, we should definitely trust and god has everything under control and everything does happen, um, as what he you know. There's another part where it says he works everything out for your good, and that's important to also remember and to always trust. So, thank you very much, marie, for that. But while we're on you, do you want to tell us a little bit about your background and who you?

Mari Gonzalez: 17:55

are Sure. So I was born in Honduras, tegucigalpa, honduras. I came to the United States again when I was 15 because, you know, things went bad for my parents back home and for security reasons we had to, you know, come to the US, the land of opportunity. You know they wanted the best for us. It's five of us, my sister, the oldest, my brother, myself and then two younger brothers, so it's five all together and my parents, you know, came with the luggage, nothing in hand, no plan. But, like I said, you know, god had a plan. You know we were religious people, we were Catholic. We came to know God here. He opened the doors for us, little by little, you know, going back to school, just opening doors, you know, when we put him first.

Mari Gonzalez: 18:54

I met my husband here. He's Cuban and Tanya knows him. His name is Robert. It's a beautiful story that hopefully, you know, I get to share with you because there's quite a story there. But we've been together in each other's life for 30 years.

Mari Gonzalez: 19:13

We have two beautiful, amazing kids that love us, love family. They're strong. They're both in business my son owns his own business of photography, videography, and they specialize in weddings, but they do a little bit of everything, and my granddaughter she's going to be a year in August and then just seeing, you know, god's faithfulness in everything, since the moment we left our country, you know, it's been amazing, and even before that, the protection, not this way, but this way. It's amazing. I'm in awe. But we are blessed, we are healthy and then we're bringing this to others the education, the. You know, try to eat this instead of that. If you're feeling this way, you know, add this to your daily diet workout, move. So add this to your daily diet work out, move. You know, read the Bible, read a book. You know, slow down in life. So those are the things that are, you know, it's nice to share.

Mari Gonzalez: 20:21

I'm an educator. I teach elementary students in Broward County. This is my 25th year in education and my 20th year as a teacher, as a classroom teacher. So it's amazing. I love my life. I love where I am right now. I love talking to people about what we do and bringing that awareness, you know, to whoever I can.

Tanya Scotece: 20:50

How did you begin your business with the juicing?

Mari Gonzalez: 20:54

yes. So that became sort of like a need. I was feeling sluggish, I'm like I I don't know what's going on. I was in my early 40s, so we're turning into the 40s and we know that once we hit 40, things changed drastically. So I started feeling those changes. My clothes started getting a little tighter. I wasn't changing anything, I was eating the same things. But I noticed changes. So I said let me try to do a detox.

Mari Gonzalez: 21:27

So I researched, I went online, I ordered some juices and, like I said, I did not like them at all, I had to throw them out. I did not consume a single juice. I tried and I couldn't, I just couldn't. Then I shopped locally with a lady and again, there was one juice that I liked that I was able to drink, the rest I had to toss. There was one juice that I liked that I was able to drink, the rest I had to toss. And I said this is pretty much the same thing that I've been doing for my kids.

Mari Gonzalez: 21:57

My kids were picky eaters when they were younger. So in a way to introduce and have them eat fruits and vegetables, we had to disguise them whichever way possible. So juicing smoothies, you know, into the foods and stuff like that, and they would enjoy it. They would ask me mommy, give me that mango smoothie, mommy, make me that spinach smoothie or that green one. They didn't know that there was spinach in there, but you know. So I said, let me see what I can do with what I already know. Um, to help, so I did.

Mari Gonzalez: 22:33

I, you know, I researched, I bought some books, I went online and again, I did it with my family. First, my family, my friends, the people at the gym where I used to work out. Before they were my guinea pigs, but they loved it. And I got good feedback my friends from college, from my co-workers. So I'm like I think I have something here, something good, something that I can share with others, improve other people's life along the way. So that's how it started. So, you know, we developed the juices. I tried them on. I lost like 10 pounds the very first time that I did the three-day detox. I felt amazing the energy, the mental focus and clarity. So I said, yeah, it's time to offer this to the world, one client at a time.

Shireen Botha: 23:30

Yeah, and how did you start offering that to the world, like, where did you start putting your product out there?

Mari Gonzalez: 23:38

yes, so that's a little bit of the hardest part, because you have this item or these items and if it were for me, I could sell it. I just give it to everybody, right? But we know there's rules and regulations and things that we have to follow. So at that time I had the gym. I was I was actually working out and working at the gym for the summer. It was summer of 2019.

Mari Gonzalez: 24:05

We had a staff meeting at the gym and I took the juices. I spoke to the owner. This is what I do, I would like. I took the juices. I spoke to the owner. This is what I do. I would like to, you know, introduce the juices, and we did. They loved it. We had like, um, uh, sort of like a health um fair where I was there and I was able to have a booth. We introduced the juices, um, and then we kicked off from there. And then then I till today, I still visit gyms when they ask me you know, bring your juices, bring your baked goods, your gluten-free things, and people love that, especially the people you know that.

Mari Gonzalez: 24:43

Take care of their bodies physically and mentally. They want that. It's a lifestyle.

Shireen Botha: 24:50

All right.

Tanya Scotece: 24:51

Yes, tune in next week for part two from Friends from Wild Places.

Voiceover: 24:58

You've been listening to Friends from Wild Places with Shireen Botha. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast from the links to catch every episode and unleash your passion.