Finding Your Fit
Advocates and Co-Laborers for Your Wellness Journey
PHOTOS BY JORDAN RANDALL
Josh Corbett
Health & Fitness coach, sports trainer
For Josh Corbett, health and fitness coaching is about more than lifting weights, jumping higher or running faster—it’s about providing clarity, kindness, and helping every person realize that “it’s never too late to try to heal, strengthen or mobilize.”
When you see Josh now, you encounter a strong, confident man of God. But his own story is one rooted in a dramatic transformation from a childhood filled with “eating Fruity Pebbles every day, multiple days at a time” and loads of fast food and microwave meals to thriving as a young adult who embodies the acronym he utilizes, HEAL, which stands for “Healthy Eating Active Living.”
Initially, a communications student at Southeastern University, he found his true calling in kinesiology after friends noticed his natural coaching ability in the gym. Despite early struggles with comparison to other students in the program, his perspective shifted dramatically when he became a manager at a local fitness studio.
It was there that the statistics and theory of fitness transformed into a profound, personal mission. “It started with seeing how much health and fitness had impacted their lives,” he recalls, citing clients with lowered cholesterol, better blood sugar, and a new lease on life. This realization—that he could facilitate real, tangible healing—was the catalyst for launching his own health and fitness coaching business.
Today, he says God has shown him that personal fitness training, group sessions and operating a Speed School at Sports for the One in South Lakeland—is more than a career, it’s the ministry God has given him.
“I offer to pray with my clients, and they always say ‘Yes,’” the 29-year-old says. “Everyone is going through something, and being well is more than just physical health. It’s been a beautiful thing”
We recently sat down with Josh to learn more about the personal training options he provides and what it means for him to live well.
The Lakelander
If someone comes up to you who has come across you on social media or seen a banner with Coach Corbett on it and asks you what you offer, how do you answer that?
JOSH CORBETT
I call it health and fitness coaching because health, fitness and sport coaching sounds too long. So anything related to those. I have eight certifications, like nutritionist, corrective exercise, weight loss, specialist strength and conditioning, all sorts of stuff. If there’s anything that you need help with regarding getting your health in order I’m sure I know how, or I know somebody who knows how, [because] I’ve prioritized building a network of people who can fill in the gaps that I can’t.
TL
What type of client is the right fit for your services, where it really is going to mesh well and they’re going to feel good about the long-term impact?
JOSH
Interestingly enough, as I was studying, all the books just kept saying, get a niche, get a niche—you want to find out who your ideal client is. I’ve worked with a lot of moms, whether married or single. I’ve worked with a lot of dads, I’ve worked with business owners…and there are kids that I’ve trained to do competitive sports. Because I was sort of a jack of all trades my whole life I think that’s what helps me out in this business—not picking a niche, but being effective in every area.
[With any client], I’ve made it my priority to ask: ‘How do I help you best?’ ‘What are things that you’re running into at your age and your gender and your position in life?’
TL
What are some of the main reasons you see clients coming
to you?
JOSH
There is a gigantic fear of aging…so I’m trying to help people age gracefully, help them find some longevity, increase their health span. A lot of times we are starting to live into the high 80s, low 90s, some people are reaching 100, but they’re getting sicker and sicker, so they’re suffering until they die. Whether it’s aches and pains, whether it’s actual sickness or anything like that, I want to help people not get so old so quick. Longevity is one of the biggest words.
“I’ve made it my priority to ask: ‘How do I help you best?’ ‘What are things that you’re running into at your age and your gender and your position in life?”
TL
Let’s talk about the food part of it. Food is personal, it is emotional, it is obviously necessary sustenance. It takes a lot of effort to not just eat well, but eat right for the gains you are trying to make. Talk about how you engage with people when it comes to food.
JOSH
I couldn’t have said that better—eating well versus eating right. It’s huge. It seems like doctors agree the Mediterranean lifestyle is the top way to live, and the reason being is because you don’t have to really sacrifice anything. You have to portion and prioritize the right way, but you have to eat whole foods. You’re still allowed to have some processed food unless you’re very strict about it, but it’s so minimal that you’re not living off of it. The typical American lifestyle that we have now is the fast food line, the microwave meals that have stuff with super high sodium and a bunch of added ingredients that are completely unnecessary…and we just heat it up and eat it. You know what I mean? And a lot of it is not considered real food in most parts of the world.
So you see us getting sicker and sicker earlier and earlier, and it’s so avoidable. A lot of times I’m helping people break habits or identify patterns in their lives that are just like, ‘You need to replace this with this.’ It’s not always easy for them, and they will be like, ‘But I really like this!’ And I tell them that I don’t know if you like it so much as you’re addicted to it. And a lot of it is the addiction to convenience. So [I try to get] people used to the inconvenience of preparing a meal and not always having something that you’re super excited to eat, you know, or maybe get apples instead of fries and things like that.
TL
It’s often overwhelming to make significant changes. Where can someone realistically start?
JOSH
My wife, Anna, and I both have this issue where we try to do too much at once—and then we drop everything. So walking is the best way to start just to make sure you get 8-10,000 steps a day. If you get an hour a day walking in at a decent pace, not like a grandma’s pace, you should be at about 8-10,000 steps. That alone will help you start to see some results within like a two week span, as long as you don’t change anything else. But if you start to decrease some of the fast food and the processed food on top of that, then you will see some of the results you’re looking for. The next step I would say is I would increase protein and fiber, and then decrease sugar.
I try to do a lot of nuts, and we stock up on protein snacks that are low in extra ingredients. There are the Archer brand beef sticks…the RXBARs are pretty good, although some have some sweeteners to watch out for. I still snack on some processed stuff, but it used to be sustenance for me, and now it’s a treat—that’s the difference.
Begin your health and fitness journey with Josh
coachcorbett24.com | 863-777-6631
Suzi Jones
Owner of Jonesin’ for keto
Jonesin’ for Keto is more than just a meal prep service—it’s a passion born from a profound personal health transformation. Founders Suzi and Dave Jones embarked on a health and wellness journey where they made significant lifestyle changes to lose weight, when at their heaviest they weighed 309 and 365 pounds, respectively.
Years later, when Suzi found herself regaining weight, she made a firm commitment to a low-carb keto lifestyle, refusing to hit the 200-pound mark again. This renewed dedication to cooking and feeling great, combined with encouragement from a coworker, sparked the idea to relaunch the meal prep efforts in Lakeland. What had started organically in Orlando—cooking for family and friends—evolved into a small business that the couple operates out of Catapult.
Built on the philosophy of intentional eating, they emphasize making everything from scratch, using fresh vegetables and their own seasonings to avoid the additives all too common to processed foods. Their high-protein, low-carb meals, which cater to a broad audience including GLP-1 users and post-bariatric patients, reflect their personal success and commitment to sharing convenient, flavorful and healthier food with their community.
Find out from Suzi where she gets her inspiration and what changes you can make to experience similar outcomes.
The Lakelander
How would you describe a healthy lifestyle?
SUZI JONES
I think being intentional about what you’re putting into your body. A lot of our weight came from processed foods. You think about what you’re eating and learn to do alternatives and eat as fresh as possible. Do fresh vegetables, do your own sauces like we do…it’s so easy to make your own type of Rotel cheese sauce and you don’t have MSGs or heavy salt.
And we try to walk 15-20,000 steps a day. Where we live it’s like a circle, but it all begins with being intentional.
TL
What drew you specifically to the low carb lifestyle? I mean there’s a lot of different options out there in terms of either diets or lifestyles in general. Why keto?
SUZI
I guess it’s kind of funny. So way back in Arkansas, we worked at Outback. And back then, the South Beach Diet was big. I watched a lot of [regulars] doing keto and ...they wouldn’t order baked potato, they would do no croutons in the salad, that kind of stuff.
“I thought I didn’t like cauliflower, I thought I didn’t like broccoli, but depending on how we cook it or roast or do some sort of heavy seasoning… it tastes good!”
When I was ready to start something like that, it immediately came into my head. I watched what they ate and I’m like, ‘I can eat that.’ You learn how to do substitutes for stuff and I slowly learned how to like vegetables. I thought I didn’t like cauliflower, I thought I didn’t like broccoli, but depending on how we cook it or roast or do some sort of heavy seasoning…it tastes good!
TL
Obviously you guys are a team. At what point did you realize that as part of living a healthier lifestyle you wanted to be doing this in the kitchen as opposed to just finding a meal prep service to make meals for you?
SUZI
I love to cook. So here’s the funny thing. We’ve been married 36 years. When we first got married, I literally could not boil water. I mean, I put some in a pot and forgot about it, and it boiled all the way down, literally!
I didn’t really cook a lot until I started the keto back in Orlando. And then I found out I really like to cook and I like to be creative. I enjoy the whole process, I enjoy finding the menus, I enjoy tweaking the menus, I enjoy shopping for them, I enjoy cooking.
TL
How do you guys determine your menu?
SUZI
[A lot of it] is based on what people like and what you also have seen be helpful. A lot of times we’ll do “The Best Of” menu—it’s like our crack chicken, our big mac casserole, our Mississippi pot roast, our chocolate peanut butter bars—there are certain things that are super popular.
We’ve always done just low carb, and that’s how we’ve [marketed] it…and now we’ve had a couple of my customers that are GLP-1 users and the portion size, like the meatballs, are just too much for them, so we went down to a smaller portion as well. We are for people who want low carbs, people who want high protein, and the smaller portions for GLP-1 users and post-bariatric [patients.]
And we make our own seasonings, like taco seasoning, and our own sauces. And we get our vegetables fresh…and we just started using farm
fresh eggs.
TL
A lot of people want to eat healthier, but don’t really cook or just want convenience. It’s not easy to make long-term changes, but it’s very consequential. Share a little bit about what you’ve learned on your health and wellness journey.
Suzi:
I’ve learned how to substitute stuff big time. A lot of times it’s figuring out like cauliflower instead of the full fat mashed potatoes.
Another thing is people do like kind of heavy fat stuff and keto is heavy fat. There’s a reason—the whole point of heavy fat in your meals and people do like fat bombs and stuff like that is teaching your body to burn the fat. And then high protein to kind of balance that out.
And we use Swerve for all of our sweeteners instead of powdered sugar, sugar and brown sugar. You would never know though because there’s no aftertaste.
Start transforming
your health with Jonesin’ for Keto. Order meals at jonesinforketo.com for
Sunday pickup or delivery.
Whitney Cabrera
Pure Barre Instructor, Lifelong Wellness Advocate
Whitney Cabrera’s deep love of and expertise in health and wellness are rooted in a lifetime of personal practice, professional experience and a relentless pursuit of knowledge. Her journey began with a personal commitment to health, which she later channeled in a career as a trauma nurse, giving her a first-hand view of the consequences of lifestyle choices. She has also led wellness programs for corporations where she provided preventive and rehabilitative support.
She is a serial entrepreneur in the local wellness space, having founded a juicing company, and at one time she ran a prepared meal service, Whitney’s Kitchen. Her philosophy is focused on empowerment and root-cause analysis, stressing that every individual’s body is different and requires personalized testing for gut health, genetics and methylation. She remains actively engaged in current research, constantly adjusting her own health practices based on scientific data rather than trends, and she can’t talk about wellness for long without talking about Jesus.
The 62-year old, who once started one of Lakeland’s first boot camps at Gold’s Gym, loves this season of life, where her “retirement and anti-aging” plan is working as an instructor at Pure Barre. She and her husband, Mark, who is the CEO of Saddle Creek Corporation, have been actively involved in Lakeland since the late 90s, and Whitney’s core mission has always been to educate, stating: “I’d rather teach how to fish than bring you fish.”
We took the opportunity to sit with Whitney recently to learn a little bit about how she teaches people looking to live healthier, longer lives “how to fish.”
The Lakelander
As someone who has personally and professionally made a commitment to be fit and live a healthy lifestyle, what are some of the things that have been most impactful for you, and how do you continue to try and live your best life?
Whitney Cabrera
I’ll tell you what—right now it’s information overload, and we don’t know what’s right, and I’m sort of in that same place. I believe you have to be wise and very humble, and be able to take a step back and say, ‘What’s the research showing?’ Not what’s trendy, but what is there published research articles on.
I used to really teach plant-based nutrition, and movement. I still think you need to have a lot of plants, but I think now you need more protein because you cannot get enough. I’ve made a shift. I’m watching my [blood panel] labs. I do labs every three months…I just watch it very closely. You’ll even see me eating a hamburger every once in a while now.
I can’t tell somebody, ‘You need to do this.’ You need testing, you need to know what your genetics say, I need to know what’s in your gut, I need to know how your body methylates food. Just because you’re eating it doesn’t mean you’re taking it into your cells. And the way you detox—maybe things are just circulating.
Many people can’t get rid of cholesterol so their cholesterol’s high. I think God’s super smart because now we need [cholesterol] for brain protection for Alzheimer’s stuff. You only get it two ways. You’re either gonna eat it or your body’s gonna make it. Some of us make a lot of it…it’s hereditary.
[And recently, the FDA] literally flipped the Food Pyramid. I was super happy with that because that’s way closer to what we need to be doing, especially because everybody has insulin resistance issues…and that’s just from your body not functioning what it’s supposed to.
TL
As someone who is very health-conscious, how did you raise your children to understand the importance of eating a healthy, balanced diet?
Whitney
At first I was a little worried I might create food issues for them, because if your children think they’re being cheated the first thing they’re going to do when they can drive is go immerse themselves in candy bars.
I would just make sure that I served food that I would want to eat, that I believed in. It would always be super simple—a couple of vegetables, some starch, some meat, and then always a heavy salad, a leafy green something. So I would just cook healthy and we would eat healthy and they didn’t know any different.
“I can’t tell somebody, ‘You need to do this.’ You need testing, you need to know what your genetics say, I need to know what’s in your gut, I need to know how your body methylates food.”
They’ve all adopted much of the things that we did as far as nutrition, but there’s also this part for [us] that’s not for everybody, about having spiritual conversations, especially at breakfast. My husband would always do something called a wisdom search, and it was like a devotional…and for our [youngest] son it’s something he adopted and will likely do for the rest of his life.
TL
Since we’re talking about health and fitness in a magazine made for Lakelanders, what are some tools or tips you have for healthy living in and around Lakeland?
Whitney
One of the best things we have here Is LivTan. They’ve got red light therapy…the ones with the proper nano and configuration for the sinewaves and all that and at the
right distance.
There’s also a place called Jason Health. You can go there and order your own [blood panels]...and they will send you your results. You used to have a doctor’s orders…but you literally just click, choose where you want to go, and I’m in and out. You can get a CBC test, which is your main blood count, for $5. And
you can get additional types of tests for an additional cost.
TL
Tell me a little bit about your journey with Pure Barre, where you started as an instructor in 2022.
Whitney
I believe that we are here for purpose…and it’s a very interesting mental shift because now I’m the older woman really called by God to teach younger women. So, I’m thinking, where am I going to find them? They’re not dead, but they might be cloistered up. It seems like some people implode. I’ve seen so many mothers and mother-in-laws and older women disappear and implode, and their quality of life is not there. But I’m deliberately doing something different…and it’s so cool because I am taking my skillset and working for a business that is run by Jenny Kersey, a Christian who is focused on outreach. Our goal is to love women to Christ…so we are looking for opportunities to have conversations when you come in and build community.
One of the things I love about Pure Barre is that we have all levels in one class. So you’ve got a brand new person that’s physically very deconditioned with somebody who’s rocking it—their body knows what to do and they look great—but that’s part of the community.
Pure Barre is an excellent choice for anybody who wants to protect their joints. And I’m not talking ‘cause you’re old—it’s when you’re young is when you ruin them. I’ve had issues with every joint because of all the things I did over time. Pure Barre is something you could do for your entire life.
TL
There’s so much noise and so many people and businesses competing for our attention. How do you wade through the information and the products, etc.?
Whitney
I quiet all the other voices. On Instagram for example, I will listen to a lot of voices, but then I will literally pray for wisdom…and only follow a few of them. Be careful what you put in front of your eyes.
I tread very carefully, and I try hard to be humble because I wanna learn. I’m open, but there’s a certain point that something doesn’t sit right with my spirit so I’m not going to do it.
Visit Whitney at Pure Barre, 1314 Town Center Dr.