Cassandra Chase of Chase Consulting Group On The 5 Things You Need To Do To Achieve a Healthy Body Weight, And Keep It Permanently
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Get support or help where you can, one of the things that was healthy for me was hiring a trainer and focusing a lot on functional training.
So many of us have tried dieting. All too often though, many of us lose 10–20 pounds, but we end up gaining it back. Not only is yo-yo dieting unhealthy, it is also demoralizing and makes us feel like giving up. What exactly do we have to do to achieve a healthy body weight and to stick with it forever?
In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Do To Achieve A Healthy Body Weight And Keep It Permanently” we are interviewing health and wellness professionals who can share lessons from their research and experience about how to do this.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cassandra Chase.
Cassandra Chase is a business owner and social entrepreneur committed to providing marginalized communities with opportunities and essential resources. For ten years, Cassandra has dedicated her career to public service leading massive grassroots efforts in education, health, wellness, and social reform.
Cassandra founded Chase Consulting Group (CCG), a boutique business consulting firm that provides strategic management, business development, and new media marketing services to small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government entities. She also co-founded Read Lead, a nonprofit organization that provides literacy and leadership training.
Her foundational work has impacted over 2 million residents in Los Angeles County. In 2020, NIKE recognized and featured Cassandra as a changemaker in the Legacy Project among seven other black women transforming the landscape in Los Angeles.
In her spare time, Cassandra spreads accessible information on wellness, veganism, and yoga. As a thought leader, Cassandra continues to foster a culture of civic engagement in the community in which she lives and works.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
My Mom is a registered nurse and my Dad is a United Methodist Minister. From a young age, they taught me to lead and serve my community. Activism and community service very much became a way of life growing up. My sister and I were always in a space of listening, and also learning how to strategize. Those aspects of my upbringing are really what sort of brought me to where I am today.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
For personal inspiration, it’s really my grandparents who dared to take a risk in leaving their home country. My paternal grandmother, who had my father at the age of 16 left Barbados to be a social worker in London. She did everything to ensure that my father received the proper resources growing up. She was actually one of the first women fishers in Barbados, so she was an entrepreneur in her own right. She then went on to become an elected justice of the peace in the country as well. My maternal grandfather left Jamaica and came to the United States to buy property, so I learned the importance of investing from him. Finally, my maternal grandmother was an educator, so in a sense everything that I currently do now is sort of a combination of what my grandparents did first.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?
My paternal grandmother gave me wisdom that has always stuck with me. She would always tell me how difficult it was for her to leave Barbados and her babies to go work at a challenging job in London. But in that, I learned a lesson about working with a purpose. That, whatever I do I have to make sure my success is shared with others.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
I can’t really remember anything too specific, but I can say that I used to rush a lot. Sometimes I would not double check stuff with spelling mistakes or even who I was addressing in an email. Through those mistakes, I learned to find humor and became more humble in having my own sense of accountability.
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?
“Be impeccable with your words, don’t take anything personally, don’t make assumptions, and always do your best.” Those are the rules I use to guide my daily interactions, and they come from a book called, The Four Agreements.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
- Envisioning and building a curriculum to create a Saturday academy. Learning opportunities for students.
- Launch of vegan travel societies, show people how you can do it and travel the world.
Currently envisioning and building a curriculum to create a Saturday academy with my nonprofit organization. The need for a Saturday academy is an extension of our summer literacy work where we will focus on providing high quality learning opportunities for students to elevate their educational and social experiences. Our goal is to create well rounded citizens who understand how to critically think and analyze their own worlds.
The other thing I am really excited about is the launch of the vegan travel society, which is a space that shares tips, resources, and recipes for vegan plant based eaters. I want to share how you can maintain a vegan lifestyle while traveling the world at the same time. I’ve been vegan for 8 years now, and I always get asked how I balance traveling with my ability to remain loyal to a vegan diet. I think it’s a unique storytelling opportunity especially for me, as a woman of color.
I am working on so many things, but those two are at the top of my priorities right now.
For the benefit of our readers, can you briefly let us know why you are an authority in the fitness and wellness field?
I’m an authority in the field because of my experience. I have experience in terms of being intentional about taking control of my own wellness. I don’t consider myself an expert, but I have taken my time to learn from experts. I believe I have a lot of first hand experience I can share around just the learning and execution of a healthy lifestyle. I prioritize wellness in anything and everything I do.
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview about achieving a healthy body weight. Let’s begin with a basic definition of terms so that all of us are on the same page. How do you define a “Healthy Body Weight”?
A weight you feel comfortable and confident in. People define what works for themselves, it is all very subjective. I do not believe there is any one definition of what a healthy person looks like.
How can an individual learn what is a healthy body weight for them? How can we discern what is “too overweight” or what is “too underweight”?
I think the way we do that is consulting with medical and fitness experts. It’s going to be different for everybody and so having the guidance of professionals is the best way to go forward. Having an understanding of our own health is important, but getting a professional opinion is as well.
This might be intuitive to you, but it will be instructive to expressly articulate this. Can you please share a few reasons why being over your healthy body weight, or under your healthy body weight, can be harmful to your health?
It can bring on the potential for many chronic illnesses to become a part of your life. I think it’s super important to take the best care of yourself and ensure you are maintaining a body weight that is positive for you. That means leaning on activity and putting the best things you can in your body. No matter where you are at in your journey, it comes down to balance.
In contrast, can you help articulate a few examples of how a person who achieves and maintains a healthy body weight will feel better and perform better in many areas of life?
When you have a healthy body weight there is a certain level of self-confidence that comes along with that. Confidence can fuel and energize you in ways that are irreplicable, and that potential energy creates more of a willingness to engage in your life. So I would say that confidence, energy, and engagement are the three main things a healthy body weight can improve.
Ok, fantastic. Here is the main question of our discussion. Can you please share your “5 Things You Need To Do To Achieve a Healthy Body Weight And Keep It Permanently?”. If you can, please share a story or an example for each.
- Mindset and mindfulness. (Understanding what your goal weight is, keeping that vision in your mind. Be clear about what you want to achieve.)
- Remember that abs are not made in the gym but they are made in the kitchen. (If you are thinking about how often you are working out, you should be equally focused on what you are eating. (For me personally, I really like the health benefits I get as a plant-based vegan.)
- Get support or help where you can, one of the things that was healthy for me was hiring a trainer and focusing a lot on functional training. (This was really huge for me, especially being very busy as an entrepreneur. If you cannot get a trainer, there are tons of free apps that can also guide you through a workout.)
- Do something that you enjoy. (Do not torture yourself! Do something you love and want to go back to! That’s what will keep you coming back.)
- To be gentle with yourself, and noting that getting to your healthy weight takes time. (Don’t expect a change overnight, stay committed.)
The emphasis of this series is how to maintain an ideal weight for the long term, and how to avoid yo-yo dieting. Specifically, how does a person who loses weight maintain that permanently and sustainably?
I think it’s about finding systems that work for you, keep experimenting until you find something that you can do for the rest of your life. It also all goes back to the food intake, be mindful about what you are putting into your body.
What are a few of the most common mistakes you have seen people make when they try to lose weight? What errors cause people to just snap back to their old unhealthy selves? What can they do to avoid those mistakes?
I think trying fad diets causes a lot of yo-yo dieting. Things that push your body’s limits can cause you to stop trying. There are a lot of workout regiments that burn people out and cause them to quit. I think we should avoid things that make us uncomfortable, and try to avoid plans that do not have longevity attached to them.
How do we take all this information and integrate it into our actual lives? The truth is that we all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?
I think we get stuck in our habits and traditions. There has been a lot of unlearning that I’ve had to do in order to get into a space where my lifestyle became sustainable. I realized everything I do professionally is connected to my wellness, so I prioritize that. I used to put sugar in my cereal until I realized it’s addicting. There are healthy substitutes for everything, we don’t have to fall in line with what is considered, “traditionally nutritious”. Unlearning is a form of education too.
On the flip side, how can we prevent these ideas from just being trapped in a rarified, theoretical ideal that never gets put into practice? What specific habits can we develop to take these intellectual ideas and integrate them into our normal routine?
I think we can prevent these ideas from getting trapped through community. Being around others with a common goal can make it a lot easier to do these kinds of things. For me personally, it was easier to transition into a vegan because my sister was one already. It wasn’t me going through it alone, I had her to help troubleshoot any of the obstacles I ran into early on. It is so big to have a community that holds you accountable, a group of people you can lean on.
Ok, we are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I think it would be two-fold. The first part being centered around education, I would want to provide the highest quality of education to learners of all ages. I believe education is the foundation of success, so providing that to people who are in the need of it most would allow us to see a better world through that process. The other thing that I think would help us change the world would be a greater sense of awareness. People becoming more aware of who they are and calling into their lives what they wish to see. By doing this, we will be able to transform the world between our thoughts and actions. In order to accomplish any of this we have to be well ourselves, and take care of who we are.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them 🙂
Erris Lantham: raw vegan chef, that totally transformed my body. Mind and skin were clear. Would love to talk with him about his experience and lifestyle
I would love to share a meal with Erris Lantham. He is a raw vegan chef who has been practicing his diet for years. I tried raw veganism and it totally transformed my body. I wasn’t even working out that much at the time and I had six-pack abs. I was able to maintain my body weight, my mind was clear, my skin was clear… so I am a huge fan. I would love to talk with him about his experience and how he sustains a raw vegan lifestyle.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Follow me on insta @mscchase
My nonprofit @readlead1
My consulting group: chasegroup.co
Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.
Cassandra Chase of Chase Consulting Group On The 5 Things You Need To Do To Achieve a Healthy Body… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.