Anzzia: In this experience, if you are allowed to tell me, what are some techniques that you can tell us that you give to some of your guests that they can apply right away to their life? Because in eight days that's quite an amazing turn around for people to say, "I can come off of medication and I can really make this change to my life just by doing these set things so far."
Charles: Well the things is we don't treat anybody. We're there, and there are no guarantees that you can come off of anything. That is not the goal. The goal is really to be able to inspire, educate and be there for assistance through whatever journey. So, the person also has to be ready to meet you half way.
Anzzia: Yes! That is a huge piece.
Charles: Exactly. If they're not ready to make a change in some form or fashion and a lot of times I think they don't realize the change they need to make. Because with each person and each guest on the show, when I initially went to see them, I didn't see anything where they said, “Hey, you know what I need to do this today.” I think some of them thought they were eating healthy. Some of them thought they were probably okay. I don't think they were so concerned with their weight. I don't think they were so concerned with their diet. Now that they've lost the weight and done so well they probably look back now at all of the sizes that they went down and look at how life has changed and they can probably say, “Wow! I was a mess.” But, I think that on a whole what we really try to do is just really inspire and educate and those are the key things in a lot of these conditions. Inspiration. So, we've provided educational tools and inspirational tools. We had people sit down and a lot of times too people are dealing with a lot of things. Not just diabetes and not just HIV. You could be dealing with relationship issues.
Anzzia: I was just going to ask that. Do you think relationship issues have an effect?
Charles: Exactly. You could be going through a break-up. You could be dealing with a verbally abusive partner. You could be dealing with so many things that hold you back from focusing on your goals. Even depression, depression is a major situation.
Now those two medications that I came off of are worth billions of dollars to a pharmaceutical company. They don\t want to hear that anybody is coming off of medication. They want to hear people are increasing medication. So, when they hear that somebody lost weight, somebodies cholesterol went down, somebodies blood pressure went down, that's like a death sentence to a pharmaceutical company. Because there is somebody who is making money off of them being on blood pressure medication. There is somebody making money off of them being on cholesterol medication. There's somebody making money off of them being on diabetes medication. So, they don't want to hear anybody has lost weight. To make it easier we figured, you know what? Let's change the name to Eight Days which is the time that they spend on the show. Or, at the house. They stay eight days with us and it's really about giving them the opportunity. We're not trying to baby them. You may see another show, let's say The Biggest Loser, where they stay for months or, whatever it is. Weeks or, however long they stay. Sometimes you can give someone some information and in ten minutes they change their life.
Anzzia: Very true.
Charles: It is really about putting them on the best foot forward and giving them the information that they need to get started on their journey. Then follow up. We also work with follow-ups to be able to make sure that when these people are done with the show they can have the steps that they need and the support that they need.
Anzzia: That's beautiful! What network is your show currently on?
Charles: Discovery Life.
Anzzia: That aired July 2017. When will The HIV show be packaged and ready for viewing?
Charles: We aired in July 2017. We are working on the HIV show right now. We are just sealing up some sponsorship packages, sponsorship deals. We intend to be on again in 2019. Early 2019.