A smiling woman with long braids stands behind a countertop filled with halved oranges, holding part of a juicer beside a pitcher of fresh orange juice and a black Nama juicing machine.

Glow Up Juice Co. founder Ashley Garth shares how juicing, fasting, and a plant-based diet reshaped her health, relationships, daily habits, and career.

🎧 Listen 📺 Watch 📖 Read

A health wake-up call can force us to look at more than what we eat. It can reveal the family patterns, social rituals, daily habits, and deeply held beliefs that have quietly shaped how we care for ourselves.

For Ashley Garth, that moment came when her doctor recommended medication for high blood pressure before she turned 40. Rather than accepting that path as inevitable, she began experimenting with juicing, fasting, and a plant-based diet. Over time, she lost 50 pounds, noticed changes in her energy and menstrual symptoms, and built Glow Up Juice Co. around the practices that had become part of her everyday life.

In this conversation with Brandi Fleck, Ashley shares the personal and social realities of changing your diet, what she believes makes fresh cold-pressed juice different, how she approaches juice cleanses and health monitoring, and why sustainable wellness requires more than a temporary fix.

Listen to Ashley Garth’s Interview

Download Audio

Watch Ashley Garth’s Interview

A Very Human Wellness Journey

Brandi Fleck: What does being human mean to you?

Ashley Garth: What does being human mean to me? I think that means being able to accept your flaws. I know we always hear the saying, “No one’s perfect,” but a lot of times we try to be Mr. or Ms. Perfection. That’s not what a human is. We make mistakes, we learn, we grow.

Being human is all about accepting that growth is a part of the human experience, and we all have those at different areas of our lives.

Brandi Fleck: Beautiful. Thank you so much.

Ashley Garth: You’re welcome.

Brandi Fleck: Everybody, today we are welcoming Ashley Garth to the show. She is coming to us from Nashville, Tennessee, and she is the owner of Glow Up Juice Co. I am really excited for you guys to meet her.

We’re going to talk about her health journey, what got her into juicing, and the importance of clean, cold-pressed juice. Ashley, thank you so much for being here, and welcome to the show.

Ashley Garth: Thank you, Brandi, for having me. I’m very excited about this.

Brandi Fleck: Before we get too deep into the juicing world, can you just tell us who you are as a person?

Ashley Garth: Thanks again for having me, Brandi. Hey, I’m Ashley Garth. I am an entrepreneur. I’ve been in this space for a while. I love everything business. I’m also a marketer. I’ve been doing that, and just recently, last fall, actually, I transitioned into a new industry.

This is one of the new phases of Ashley, what makes me human, what gets me out of bed each day. I’m a wellness advocate. I had an awakening for my health in 2024, and now I am someone who is dedicated to basically spreading the good news about juicing, fasting, and gut health so that people can get an understanding of how their bodies work and how they can become a better version of themselves.

I’m also from Chattanooga, Tennessee. I’ve been in Nashville for about maybe 18 or 19 years. I actually just came back from a—I don’t know when this will air—but from a family reunion. I come from a very big family. My mother is one of 17, so we just had our family reunion in Chattanooga.

There were probably about 300 people there. I have so many cousins. I don’t even know them all.

My dad is one of eight, so that side is also large. But coming from a large family, I’ve seen so much from my uncles, my aunts, and cousins related to health. I just really wanted to get people to understand that your gut health matters.

Your health determines a lot about how you think and how you show up in this world. No kids. I have a little dog named Simba. He’s about seven. He’s still like a little baby to me, but I’m a dog mom. I love to get active and get outside. I also consider myself a social butterfly, as my friends would say. I get outside, I work hard, and I play hard.

A good, relaxing day to me would be, after the week is done, to go out to a rooftop pool. I don’t drink alcohol, but I’ll have a mocktail, get cute, maybe take a few pics, and just relax and eat some good vegetarian food.

Brandi Fleck: Nice. Oh my gosh, there’s so much rich experience here that I would love for us to tap into. Can you tell us a little bit about your life leading up to when you realized you needed to take control of your health?

Plant-Based Weight Loss and Changing Your Relationship With Food

Ashley Garth: I got fed up, really, in the summer of 2024. High blood pressure runs in my family like a plague. And I can’t just say in my family; it’s an epidemic worldwide. I’m 38, but even I’ve had classmates reach out. They’re prediabetic, some are diabetic, and we just accept it and take the pills.

But I went to my annual, and my doctor explained, “It’s time to get on medication for your high blood pressure. I know you’re trying to do the right things with your weight.” At that time, I was 230 pounds. I’m now close to—I lost 50 pounds, but let me slow down and get to that.

I’m stubborn, and I was like, “I’m not getting on this medication.” Everybody’s taking pills for something. I don’t want to take pills. I’m under 40. I don’t want to do it.

I hired a mentor. His name is Mike True. He is a vegan chef, and I explained this to him. I’m like, “I don’t want to be on medication. What do I need to do to become a better version of myself?” He introduced juicing and fasting. I had already done a little bit of intermittent fasting and had some results, but then I started to learn about the benefits of juicing.

I also gave up meat, just cold turkey. I didn’t wean myself off of it. I just gave it up, and I haven’t had any meat since 2024. But that, partnered with juicing, fasting, and going plant-based—that first month, Brandi, I dropped about 15 pounds.

That’s when the light bulb went off. I was like, “Wait a minute.” I know that was a drastic change because I changed a lot, but I continued to go, and at the end of that year, May of 2025, I had dropped over 50 pounds.

I hate even to say pounds, but basically, I had dropped inflammation. I know we’ll probably talk about that. I got my mind and my body right. I felt amazing. Then I started to juice for friends and family, and they started to get results.

Juicing and fasting are what really pushed me into this new health and wellness lifestyle because I got the results. My blood pressure was regulated. I never had to worry about it again.

I also had these terrible, excruciating migraines, and this wasn’t just a monthly thing that you would think women would have. It would be all through the month, where it was debilitating. I couldn’t even get my laptop out to do work. I was just fed up. I went in 100%, got the results, and I haven’t looked back.

Brandi Fleck: Gotcha. Lots of big changes all at once, but you were ready to make that change, I think, which made it possible. Was it hard to let go of meat?

Ashley Garth: Yes. My family loves to eat. I get invited sometimes just to come and eat for free. Free food! That has really been the biggest challenge because I am a networker. I am a social person, and when you think about it, most of the time, everything that we do socially is centered around food and drinks.

Saying no was the hardest. That was a lonely summer for me. I honestly just had to stay in the house with my little dog, Simba, cook my plant-based meals—I have a Nama juicer—and juice my life away, just customizing recipes.

This right here, I’m actually on a three-day watermelon cleanse. Again, watermelon juice. I fell in love with learning about the benefits of juicing, but specifically, watermelon was just my favorite that I got the most results from. But saying no was probably the hardest part about all of this.

Brandi Fleck: What was your diet like growing up? What did you guys share as a family?

Ashley Garth: Soul food. I remember on Sundays after church, my family—we loved chicken. We loved chicken, all types: fried, baked, grilled. It didn’t matter. The typical American diet, a lot of processed food. We were busy, so we just wanted to get something quick and throw it in the microwave.

But just a typical diet, something quick, something fulfilling and nourishing. Just the Southern diet that we’re used to: breakfast, bacon, biscuits. My dad would cook breakfast for us every single morning. I just saw my dad. My dad is now 76.

He’s an old man. That sounds so crazy even saying that. But back in the day, he would get up every morning and cook breakfast for us. Cereal—we grew up on cereal, a lot of us.

Even as a teacher, I teach health and wellness. I’m no one’s parent, but that crap—it’s hard to stay focused throughout the day when you’re starting your day with biscuits and cereal and fake food. A lot of it was just fake food and things that were quick and easy.

Brandi Fleck: Gotcha. One more follow-up question before we dive into the actual health journey: How did you transition out of isolation, just at your house, back into the social world?

Ashley Garth: A lot of people had fallen off. I noticed I started to not get the invites because I was turning them down. Like, “I don’t want to come to an all-you-can-eat buffet and all-you-can-drink. I’m just going to be there standing around watching you guys.”

But how I transitioned is, after I became the new, disciplined Ashley Garth, I was able to go into these places and stay true to myself and not drink the alcohol and not eat the food that I knew was not nourishing to my body.

I started to show up and just continue to say no or do research before the event to figure out what is on the menu so that when I get there, I’m not starving, my stomach is growling, and I give in. It caused a lot more research on the front end, but it worked.

Brandi Fleck: Gotcha. Do you still have to do stuff like that to this day?

Ashley Garth: Absolutely. I feel like a pain sometimes. I feel like I get on people’s nerves, but it’s just like, “Well, there’s nothing on the menu I can eat, so I’m going to eat before.”

Brandi Fleck: Well, it’s your health too, right? It’s your life. If you don’t have your health, what do you really have, honestly?

Ashley Garth: Exactly.

Brandi Fleck: It’s interesting that we’ve touched on the social aspect of dietary changes because that’s one of the things that I think people don’t talk about all the time. It doesn’t just impact you. It impacts your whole social circle.

People might fall away. You might have to isolate. It’s a thing. I’m glad you brought that up. Now I would love for you to take us into your actual health journey. What are some specifics about how you started juicing and what you experienced in your body as you were going along?

Juicing Benefits for Energy, Confidence, and Gut Health

Ashley Garth: I love talking about this, Brandi. At first, everybody gets caught up on the weight loss, which is great. But with that—and I don’t care what anybody says—when you look good, you feel good. You show up differently. My confidence just grew.

Even as a woman, trying on clothes, trying on a dress before an event, when you’re in that body that you’re proud of and you look in the mirror, shopping and showing up just become easier. I’m like, “Now I can order something and know that it’s going to fit.”

We don’t think about the stress that comes with not loving our bodies. Some of my friends are like, “You’re never going to be satisfied. You have lost all this weight, and you’re still working on yourself.” I’m like, “I am, because I lost all the weight, and now I’ve got to get back in the gym and rebuild.”

Funny joke: I lost my butt. I was like, “I’m walking around with a flat butt.” It’s driving me crazy because I’ve always had curves. But I hired a personal trainer, and she taught me what workouts to do to work on your glutes.

Some more things outside of confidence: energy. I used to be addicted to coffee, like, bad. Sometimes the smell is still triggering. I’ve switched over to matcha. I carry around my little matcha powder and honey in my backpack and add a little oat milk, and it’s great. I’m like, “I’m not spending $15 on a matcha. I can make my own.”

But the energy. Sometimes we literally wake up tired. Why are we waking up tired and needing coffee in the first place? Why are we crashing in the middle of the day and needing a little catnap? I don’t have time for naps. I wish I did, and I know that’s a part of self-care, but I don’t have time to do those things.

Energy, confidence. I don’t know how personal we can get, but I’m just talking about, from a woman’s standpoint, my menstrual cycles. I remember those being pretty brutal. The migraines were included in that, the cramps. Since I’ve changed my diet, it’s not a big deal anymore. I get through it. Minimal pain, minimal cramping, and it’s been great.

Hygiene. People don’t understand your gut health determines a lot. If I wanted to not wear deodorant for a couple of days, I could probably get away with that when I’m eating really clean because you are what you eat.

Breath. Morning breath. A lot of people don’t understand. You’re waking up with morning breath smelling like garbage because of your stomach, your gut health. You just have things rotting in your gut, and it’s coming and oozing out of your pores. I could go on and on.

I even think about my hair. I feel like even my hair growth, my skin. It’s part of why I named my company Glow Up Juice Co., because I would just be walking down the street and strangers would be like, “You’re glowing. You’re glowing.” I’m like, “I’ve glowed up.” Everything from the skin to the gut health to just how long my locs are growing, just everything is glowing up.

If I had to summarize it, you just literally glow up from all areas of your life.

Blood Sugar, Vegan Diets, and Health Monitoring

Brandi Fleck: Wonderful. I have a quick question, too, about blood sugar. In the summer of 2024, I’d been on a health journey, up and down, on a similar timeframe, actually. I was eating really clean for several years leading up to 2024, and then I was having a hard time sticking with it. Even after three years of doing it, I kind of backslid.

Then I decided to get a personal trainer, and I went vegan. I was able to stay vegan for about five months. I loved it. It was great. But I noticed I had some blood sugar fluctuations being in perimenopause, and I wasn’t able to control it or keep it steady, so I went back to eating meat.

What is your experience with blood sugar and managing that as a vegetarian or vegan?

Ashley Garth: When I first started this, I would go get blood work often because I’m like, “I have taken something away from my body that I’ve been using for the past 36 or 37 years.” I didn’t have any issues. The deficiencies that I had when I started were keeping vitamin D and iron at the levels they were supposed to be. But I really think everybody’s different.

I didn’t really have any issues managing my blood sugar levels, so I think it just depends on the person.

Brandi Fleck: I think the main takeaway here is that you got blood work often. Did you go through your doctor for the blood work?

Ashley Garth: Yes. I just paid out of pocket if I needed to because I’m self-employed. But I did it every, I think, four to five months.

Brandi Fleck: I think that’s a really good tip. If you’re trying to make these changes, monitor things so that you can feel good while you’re doing it, and that might help you not backslide.

Ashley Garth: The blood is basic. It tells you everything you need to know. I don’t think we really understand how much our blood actually gives us the clues to what needs to change.

I think if people paid more attention to blood work and didn’t just do it once a year, but really allowed that to create a pulse for how they’re doing with their health, people would make more changes if they kept up with that better.

Brandi Fleck: That’s a really good point. Let’s pivot now into your business. How did juicing go from a lifestyle choice to a business?

How to Start a Cold-Pressed Juice Business

Ashley Garth: I told myself, “There is no way that I can keep this to myself.” I’m seeing everyone around me try other alternatives for weight loss. Now we have—I have to bring it up—Ozempic and GLP-1s and all of these things. I’m not going to come on here and badmouth it. I have a couple of friends and family members who are using it and have gotten some great results.

But here’s my problem with that, and then I’ll talk about the business, if I may.

Brandi Fleck: For sure.

Ashley Garth: The issue with those types of tools is that if you’re suppressing your hunger, you weren’t getting the correct amount of nutrients in the first place, and now you’re really not getting any nutrients. Now you have a deficiency. You are depriving yourself of what your body needs because you’re starving yourself. I feel like you’re putting yourself in an even worse position.

What I wanted to do was create a business where people can make a change holistically. Now, this is the thing: It’s going to take a lot longer. But if you can dedicate one year to being more mindful of the food that you put in your body, you’re going to have long-term results. Why? Because you’re actually changing your habits.

Until you change your habits, you’re going to continue to be on this roller coaster of gaining the weight and losing the weight year after year. How stressful is that? I remember looking in my closet and just like, “I’m spending so much money. I can’t fit the clothes that I bought four months ago.”

I just want to maintain this weight. Part of the reason why this business was created is because juicing helps you maintain that weight if you incorporate it into your habit stack. Juicing is a habit for me. It’s not something that I do every blue moon. It is a part of my daily practice, and without it, sometimes I feel like I’m a little off. I might be a little obsessed, but my body is used to having this, and it nourishes my gut.

From a business standpoint, I helped my family and friends, and I was actually juicing from my home for a while. But I made it a business. I have my commercial kitchen, and now I’m growing this and even doing business chats for employer groups and explaining the benefits of juicing.

I want to make it clear that I have my product, but also, Ashley Garth can be a speaker and do workshops, juicing workshops, and explain how all of this works.

A smiling woman with long braids, wearing a bright coral pantsuit, sits at a wooden table writing on a piece of paper with a bottled Glow Up Juice Co. drink beside her.

Brandi Fleck: Gotcha. Were you spending so much time juicing for yourself, friends, and family that you were like, “Hey, maybe this is something that I could do full-time”? How did that thought process go?

Ashley Garth: I’ve been in the marketing industry—that’s what I went to school for—for the past eight or nine years, and I have been waiting for a sign for what to do next. With AI and all of the things, I’ve been a little turned off. I’m like, “I’m ready to do something else.”

I still have marketing clients, but the goal is to transition to health and wellness. This was just perfect. It just kind of fell in my lap. I started this in October and have just been scaling each month. I just continued on, and I said, “I’m going to go all in.”

Brandi Fleck: Fantastic. Tell us a little bit about some of your juices. I tasted some at an event a while back, and they were so good, you guys. Can you tell us a little bit about the recipes that you have available and what each one of them does?

Best Juices for Detox, Inflammation, and Women’s Health

Ashley Garth: Sure. I feel like a mad scientist. I say this all the time. In my kitchen during 2024, just like a chef, just a mixologist, creating blends where, when you drink it, you’re not like, “Oh, this juice just tastes like juice.” I wanted it to be more of an experience.

My first recipe that I created has apples, pineapple, cucumber, celery, and mint. It’s one of my most popular green juices. Most green juices are good for detoxing, so when it’s time to really detox, you want to stick to your green juices.

You also want to think of fruits where you actually get a lot of juice. You’re going to get a lot of juice from apples, celery, and cucumber, and that pineapple has a lot of benefits as well for detoxing the body. But we know that pineapple is sweet, so when you mix that in with the others, it was just this perfect green blend, not like the typical green blends that you get that are just downright nasty.

One of my favorites that I thought I was going to take off the menu—but every time I think about it, I think about how much positive feedback it gets—is my Citrus Blast. It has papaya, apple, and orange. I know we’re used to drinking orange juice in the morning for our vitamin C, which is great, but it’s something so special about those three ingredients. It makes plain old orange juice seem so boring.

Papaya—and this is a great fact for women—oranges, papayas, and carrots, anything in the orange family, really, also help with our reproductive organs as women. For a lot of women who are having cysts, fibroids, or going through perimenopause, you want to stick to those orange fruits and vegetables. I can’t remember her name. I actually learned that from a specialist who helps women with hormonal issues.

One of my favorites that I actually discontinued, but I may bring it back, has ginger. It had ginger, pineapple, coconut water, and spinach. It was another one of my green blends. Ginger is great for flushing out inflammation. When you think about it, it kind of makes sense. Ginger is spicy, and if you’ve ever taken a ginger shot, you can literally feel it going down to your gut.

I want you to imagine that ginger just melting that inflammation away. When you have a cold, the flu, or some type of sinus issue going on, you want to stick to ginger.

If it’s too spicy, I always love to add it with something sweet, like pineapple. Another one you can’t go wrong with, and it’s probably my favorite, is watermelon, just plain watermelon fruit.

Watermelon is actually a diuretic fruit that helps to eliminate excess water and salt from the body. I’ve had clients who are doing a three-day watermelon detox, and they lost as much as 10 pounds in 72 hours. You’re going to go to the bathroom. You’re going to be peeing a lot.

Brandi Fleck: Yeah.

Ashley Garth: But by the end of this process, you’re going to feel your pants fit a little bit looser because you have just eliminated so much waste.

Brandi Fleck: Gotcha. You’ve mentioned inflammation a couple of times. Why is it important to pay attention to the inflammation in your body and to get rid of it?

Ashley Garth: Inflammation is basically just toxic waste, and that is coming from processed foods, eating a lot of meat, and it’s basically just sitting in your blood. That’s kind of how I think of it. You just want to melt it away.

I remember one of the first events that I did as a wellness advocate. I showed someone a before-and-after picture, and what came out of her mouth just stuck with me. She said, “No, you weren’t fat. You just looked inflamed.”

You looked inflamed, and that stuck with me. I’m like, “We’re all just walking around inflamed.” I hate the terminology obese, fat. No, you’re just simply inflamed, and you need to flush out the toxins. Juicing is one of the ways to do that. It’s just toxic waste that needs to be released.

Brandi Fleck: What would be on your body that you could see if you had a lot of inflammation?

Ashley Garth: The first thing to look at is the gut. I learned this from my mentor, Mike True, and I’m like, “This makes so much sense.” Waste, like the waste in a trash can, and your waist, they actually sound alike. They’re spelled differently, but there’s a reason why they sound alike.

Your waist is actually an indicator of how much waste you have sitting in your body. That’s a good indication of how much inflammation you have, so pay attention to that.

Your skin, acne—you can see different things happening with your skin. You don’t have that glow. Your waste is trying to release itself from your body. Those are the two indicators: your skin and the size of your waist.

Juicing Myths, Cold-Pressed Juice, and Fresh Ingredients

Brandi Fleck: Gotcha. Going back to the actual juices, I feel like there are some myths out there about juice. It was really popular for a while. Everybody was getting into it, and then it was like, “Oh no, stop juicing because it’s too much sugar,” or, “You’re getting rid of the fiber from the fruit, so you’re not getting all the benefits that you need.”

What do you have to say to those myths, or are those myths?

Ashley Garth: When you think about it, if everyone is running to their doctors for pills for a solution, it would make sense that they would—the government, the food safety, health and safety department—it’s like they don’t want us to know the truth, Brandi. That’s really how I feel. They don’t want people to know that they actually can heal themselves by doing the work and changing their diet.

I have tested this now on more than 50 people. No one’s ever had an issue or any complications going through a juice cleanse. No one’s ever had to go to a doctor. Everyone’s come out better on the other side. I have case studies to show, and even myself as a case study.

I think about my mother. We actually talked about this when I went to Chattanooga. She is prediabetic. She did tell me when she juiced oranges, it gave her a headache. In those cases, she should not be juicing oranges, pineapples, and things like that. We want to stick to more vegetables, leafy greens, and maybe add a little bit of flavoring, like half of a pineapple, to give it that sweet touch.

But overall, fruits were put on this earth to heal us, and we’ve just got to tap into what’s already here.

Brandi Fleck: I think we’ve covered a lot of the benefits of juicing, but have we missed anything? Juicing helps with inflammation. It helps with weight loss. What else?

Ashley Garth: Inflammation, weight loss, energy. I mentioned, for women who are having issues, it helps to fix those issues.

Also, think about how busy we are. The amount of fruits and vegetables that we’re supposed to eat a day, most of us are not getting that because, unless you have a personal chef or are meal prepping, you’re not getting that. Juicing is one of the fastest ways to flush nutrients into your body.

As a busy entrepreneur, I’m going to use that. I would rather drink this and eat some fruits than make it complicated. Just knock it out and drink it.

Brandi Fleck: You’re still getting hydrated, and you’re getting nutrients when you drink it, even if you’re not getting the fiber. But you can get fiber through your diet.

Ashley Garth: Yeah, and I do believe, even though this is a liquid, there are some properties of fiber that you’re still getting into your bloodstream.

Brandi Fleck: Definitely. What’s the importance, though, of fresh, no fillers, and cold-pressed? Because there’s a big difference between your juice and the juice you get at the grocery store.

Ashley Garth: Oh, yes. Preservatives. Just like with processed food, they want to preserve that shelf life for a greater profit. They’re doing the same thing with juice.

I actually found this out as I got into my commercial kitchen and got my licensing. In order for me to put this on a shelf at the grocery store, I have to add preservatives. Now I’ve started to look at the expiration date on some of these juices, and I’m like, “How is this juice going to be good until two months from this date? There is no way that real juice has a shelf life of two months.”

Glow Up Juice Co.’s shelf life is only three days. After that, it’s lost its nutrients, and it kind of starts to taste a little funky. Real cold-pressed juice is going to be good for three to five days, and you’re going to see a big difference.

Now, will you get some results with juice with preservatives? Yes. But if I can’t pronounce it, I really don’t want it in my body. I encourage everyone, as you’re going to these grocery stores and even some of these cold-pressed juice companies like Ian Rose, look at the ingredients and look at the shelf life, and you’ll see.

Brandi Fleck: Look at the ingredients, look at the shelf life. Your juice’s shelf life is 72 hours, or three days. How does that impact your business model? Are people still buying it if it’s got such a quick turnaround?

Ashley Garth: Yes. When I found out that that was the rule, I had to pivot. Now my business model is pickup. Once you order from my website, I have a disclaimer that shows that you can—

If I make too much in advance, that could be a loss for me. That’s why I had to figure this out. But the process is that everyone who knows about Glow Up Juice Co., they know that when you order, you have to preorder.

It’s more of a preorder business model so that we can preserve the shelf life, I can remain profitable, and they can pick up their juice and drink it in that window.

Brandi Fleck: Gotcha. There’s a little bit of planning involved. Part of that planning—I know you help people with juice cleanses. What would you say to someone who is considering a juice cleanse? Where do they start? What do they need to know to do it?

Juice Cleanse Benefits, Detox Methods, and Safety

Ashley Garth: We never give our gut a break. Our digestive system literally works from sunup to sundown, and I use this example all the time: What if you never got to sleep? What if you never got a break? You would be exhausted, too.

The digestive system needs a break. When you are going on the juice cleanse, the purpose is to do just that: give your digestive system a break. Just let it rest. It has to do a lot of work to digest food.

Also, I wanted to mention that a lot of us don’t even chew correctly. We’re so busy, we don’t even eat mindfully and chew our food. You have to think about how much stress that is on the digestive system as well.

When you just focus on the juice, you give the digestive system a break. You’re also tapping into more levels of healing where it’s replenishing cells. We have trillions of cells in our body. We have damaged cells, but when you rest and replenish with juice, it starves those damaged cells.

Without food, they actually start to die off, and once they die off, new cells replace those.

I think of my cells as my teammates. If I’ve got trillions of cells in my body, I want to give them what they need. Just to recap that, you’ve got rest, cell replenishment, and cleansing the blood.

Brandi Fleck: Gotcha. It makes a lot of sense. It seems like a lot of people get cancer these days, and if we have a bunch of damaged cells that are never able to heal, those start to turn into cancer. I don’t know all the mechanics of it, but it seems like that would be part of it.

Ashley Garth: Mm-hmm.

Brandi Fleck: I heard you say rest, cleansing the blood, and giving your digestive system a break. I want to circle back to what you said earlier about, when you’re making changes like this, blood work is important and taking account of things that might be abnormal, like prediabetes or things like that. You might have to do something a little different than the sweets or things like that.

Practically, if somebody had perimenopause or prediabetes going on and they wanted to do a juice cleanse, should they contact you? Should they work with someone before they do it? How can they do it safely?

Ashley Garth: What I found—and I know why this is; I’m not going to say it—when I have these clients who ask their doctor first what they think, the doctor always says no.

Brandi Fleck: That’s interesting.

Ashley Garth: It’s like, really? I remember some of the things my doctor was telling my mom, and I’m like, “That makes absolutely no sense. You’re not supposed to eat vegetables? What are we talking about?”

Brandi Fleck: Wow.

Ashley Garth: I think, if they feel comfortable, they should ask. But I have enough knowledge now where, once I know those conditions, we can customize.

Brandi Fleck: Gotcha. But it is important to let you know those conditions, I would say.

Ashley Garth: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Brandi Fleck: What have you observed on a societal level and working with corporations doing wellness in terms of what our biggest pain points are that you’re tackling?

Ashley Garth: Everybody’s just so busy and consumed with success, whether it’s as an entrepreneur or climbing the corporate ladder. In doing that, we’re forgetting that health is a part of success as well.

Now companies are realizing that if their employees are healthier and nourished, and there’s a wellness initiative, they’re going to get a better ROI. If your employees are sluggish and tired, the work is going to be different.

I’m happy to see, as I’m pitching myself to these companies, that they’re seeing that. “Yes, we have a wellness budget, and we would love to have you come in and talk about the benefits of juicing and just taking care of yourself.”

Brandi Fleck: Gotcha. What advice would you give? If you could only give one piece of advice to someone who wants to glow up and take charge of their health without going on medication, what would that be?

Ashley Garth: This might be a little TMI, and I talk about this in my wellness chats, but it’s a part of how the body works. If you really want to focus on becoming well and healing, there’s a detox strategy.

I was shadowing a microscopist, and this is someone who looks at the blood underneath the microscope. She told me this, and I’m like, “Oh my God, we made weight loss so complicated.”

She’s like, “There are literally three ways to detox the body naturally. You want to pee it out, poop it out, or sweat it out.”

I want people to think about, “Am I using the bathroom enough?” A lot of people focus on the sweating, which is working out. But I’m like, “You’re working out, and you’re just basically shaking up your inflammation. You’ve got to get rid of that first.”

You’ve got to have a detox strategy. How do you pee and poop more? You’ve got to eat the right foods. How do you sweat more? Go to the sauna, get active, go to the gym. Once you mix all three of those things together, you literally cannot lose. It works because that’s how the body was created to heal.

Healthy Habits, Food Journaling, and Lasting Wellness

Brandi Fleck: That’s really important. I’m glad you brought that up. It’s easier said than done for some people. I am so inspired by the fact that you were able to make these big changes all at once, and I feel like that’s how I would want to do it.

Do you have any recommendations for making it sustainable for somebody who wants to make the change, but they just keep falling back into their old habits?

Ashley Garth: Yes, and I need to circle back to this. I actually launched a food journal. This is one of the tactics that I used during the 2024 summer break. I wrote down every single thing that I ate for 30 days, and then I wrote how it made me feel.

Brandi, it was such a game changer because when I woke up on some of those days just feeling shitty, I’m like, “What did I eat yesterday?” Then you scroll back, and you’re like, “Oh, there was a lot of cheese in that macaroni and cheese. I didn’t eat any vegetables or any fruit that day. Well, of course I feel like crap.”

A food journal. You can buy some on Amazon, or you can just get a blank journal. Every day, write what you ate and how it made you feel.

Brandi Fleck: That is a really good point. I think a lot of people don’t tie how they feel back to what they’re eating. This would require body awareness and being present and actually noticing.

Ashley Garth: Accountability as well.

Brandi Fleck: All good stuff. I’m going to give you a chance in just a second to share where people can find you and order juice and all of those things. But is there anything you want to share that we haven’t talked about yet?

Ashley Garth: I cannot believe we’ve been talking for this amount of time. I just looked at the time and was like, “Wow, I love this.” You said, is there anything I want to share?

Brandi Fleck: Mm-hmm.

Ashley Garth: I just want to share, to anyone who’s feeling discouraged, you never have to be stuck in that body. There have been some people who have just completely given up. They’ve told themselves that it’s in their genes, it’s genetic.

It’s really just the habits being passed down. I know for a fact that that is truth because I’m a living witness that things can be turned around. I don’t want you to ever feel like you’re stuck in your body. There are resources on this earth that are right here. We’ve just got to tap into them.

Brandi Fleck: Beautiful. Where can people find you and the work you’re doing in the world?

Ashley Garth: I love to say this: I am Googleable. You can Google Ashley Garth, and you’re going to find my LinkedIn, Instagram, and IG. You can follow Glow Up Juice Co., which is @glowupjuiceco on Instagram and Facebook. My website is glowupjuiceco.com, and you can definitely order on the site as well.

Brandi Fleck: Beautiful. What about people who aren’t local to Nashville? Are they able to order the juice as well?

Ashley Garth: Yes. Starting in a couple of weeks, I’m figuring out the shipping. I’ve realized that I’m missing out on a whole new lane because people are reaching out. In just a couple of weeks, you will be able to have your juice shipped to you.

Brandi Fleck: Ashley, thank you so much for coming on the show today. It has been a pleasure.

Ashley Garth: Thank you for having me. I haven’t done this in so long, and now you’re making me want to book this podcast studio here and get in front of a mic. Thank you for the invite.

Brandi Fleck: Of course.