Skillr Profile: Sharon Garland

Sharon Garland is a Health Coach on the SKILLR App. She teaches people how to use food as medicine in their lives. She spoke with us about how you can get started on your wellness journey and how she builds fun into all aspects of her life. 

Alexa Goins: Can you tell me your name, your pronouns, and what you do on SKILLR?

Sharon Garland: I'm Sharon Garland. My pronouns are she/her. Under wellness, I'm a health coach.

Alexa Goins: And how did you get into the field of health coaching?

Sharon Garland: Hmm, good question. I always loved learning about food as medicine. And my son, when he was born, he was like all babies. He had a lot of ear infections, and the doctor kept putting him on antibiotics. And I started thinking. I didn't really like that. And I wanted to find other ways to treat him. And I understood that antibiotics were harmful to the stomach. We weren't using the phrase gut back then. I started trying to read about it and trying to learn about it. And it was just a rabbit hole that I fell into, and then it began to encompass not just my son and his ear infections, but anything anybody had. I wanted to know how to treat it with food, not herbs as much. Food.

Alexa Goins: That's so interesting that it sort of came about from a personal interest in helping your son. That's cool.

Sharon Garland: Motherhood.

Alexa Goins: What's your favorite thing about teaching people about nutrition?

Sharon Garland: Watching them grasp it and make it their own when they see how it works. I frequently run five-day seasonal detoxes. And in those five-day detoxes, you eliminate several things, caffeine and alcohol and dairy and beef, and all the things you love. In five days' time, almost everyone, no, I can say everyone that's ever done one of my detoxes, comes and says to me, oh my god, I can't believe how different I feel. And I'm going to make a real concentrated effort to see how foods affect me.

That doesn't mean you have to stay on an elimination diet for your whole life. But to start to reintroduce things and find out how they affect your body, and make informed decisions, letting your body tell you what works and what doesn't. So what I enjoy the most about health coaching is when I see people make it their own journey.

Alexa Goins: What does a typical day look like in your profession?

Sharon Garland: Taking calls and Zoom meetings with clients. If I'm marketing, because I'm also a graphic artist, I do all my own marketing, so I'd be creating social media ads, posting them, reading analytics, making sure I'm doing a good job of reading what's being responded to and what's not, designing campaigns. But if I'm not, sometimes I do some talks, some public talks, to get clients, meeting with clients, like I said, Zoom, Google Meet, and in-person as well. Some of my clients, if they're local, I even go and work out with them. I've made a lot of friends like that. It's been fun.

Alexa Goins: Could you complete the phrase, when I'm not working as a nutritionist and health coach, I'm?

Sharon Garland: I'm going to blow your mind. I'm a singer. I have a band. I teach therapeutic horseback riding. Specifically, I teach yoga on horseback to challenged people.

Alexa Goins: What? That's awesome.

Sharon Garland: Right. And I'm a stagehand at Hard Rock in Atlantic City. And I support national touring acts when they come through. We just did a real big show with Chris Stapleton. It was real fun.

Alexa Goins: Wow. That's awesome. It sounds like you have-

Sharon Garland: I do a lot of fun things.

Alexa Goins: Yoga on horseback?

Sharon Garland: I do.

Alexa Goins: I love yoga. I have never tried it on horseback. I'm going to have to look into that.

Sharon Garland: It's pretty amazing. It's as good for the horses as it is for the riders. Because I teach so much breathing in my classes, it really centers the rider. And if you can imagine carrying someone piggyback who was not centered, you can imagine how stressed your body would become trying to do that all week with all their lessons that the horses support. So yoga on horseback gets the rider centered on them, so their centers of gravity work together, and the horse can relax. And it's the only time during the week that the horses get to do that. So, they drop their heads, and they start to yawn and release because it's so good for them as well. It's wonderful.

Alexa Goins: It sounds beautiful, just that connection between the rider and the horse.

Sharon Garland: Yeah. It is.

Alexa Goins: What are some common challenges that people run into when they're first starting to learn about nutrition?

Sharon Garland: Mm. Contradictory information, I think, is number one. For every opinion, there's the opposite opinion. So, I think it's really important for someone to pick a lane and just stay with it because you just can't take in all the contradictory information at one time. You just have to pick a lane and try that one and see how that works for you. And if it doesn't work the way you wanted it to, then incorporate some other thoughts. There's so many thought leaders now regarding wellness that are science-based, writing books. There's also PubMed you can go to online and read studies and find out what's working and what's not working with wellness.

Alexa Goins: What would you say to people who are wanting to learn more about nutrition but maybe are a little nervous or confused with all of the voices out there?

Sharon Garland: I think that if they want to learn about nutrition for a specific reason, maybe to correct or try to lessen some symptoms, that they should find a thought leader regarding that particular autoimmune condition or whatever it is. And, like I say, pick a lane, learn about that person's research and what they've come up with, and then move on. Go down the rabbit hole.

Alexa Goins: What's one thing you want Seekrs to know about you?

Sharon Garland: Well, primarily, I don't believe in deprivation. I like to eat. Food is really fun for me. I went this Sunday to a beautiful French restaurant in Philly, just had a wonderful meal, just love to eat. And I cook very good, nutritious, healthy food that most of my friends say, oh my gosh, this is like haute cuisine. How can this be healthy? There's no deprivation necessary. Everything is available to you in a healthy way to eat, and that includes ice cream and pizza, and hamburgers. They may be different ingredients. They are more nutrient-dense. But there's no deprivation in working with me at all.

Alexa Goins: I love that so much because I think that can be a barrier or reason people are afraid to really get into paying attention to what they're eating and making changes.

Sharon Garland: They call it cardboard, the cardboard food. Not my food.

Alexa Goins: I don't have any other questions. Is there else you want to say about yourself, about SKILLR, about food?

Sharon Garland: Well, I think SKILLR's brilliant. Let's all be patient and take this ride. About food, working with me is fun. One thing that I will say is that I can teach you a lot about food prep. Everybody's busy, and people don't want to get back in the kitchen, but food prep is essential, and it's easy. And in two hours of preparation time, I can give you five hours free throughout the week because food will already be there in the refrigerator waiting for you to make good combinations and make good choices. So don't be afraid to dive into healthy eating because there's a lot of beautiful food out there that we can share recipes and ideas on, and you'll be getting more nutrient-dense food. You'll be less hungry, and you'll feel better. So, come on. Give me a call.

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