From time to time we’ll be running a feature with five questions and five answers about one topic we think is tip-top relevant to your health or your well being (or, something we think is solid funny info you just shouldn’t live without). Called “5 From The Hi5e,” the hope is to deliver the skinny on stuff you’ll find more than moderately rad. Like this featurette on one rad bee we’re happy has flown into our hive.

Weeks ago, Stacie Taylor started working at The Rose as a TJS assistant manager, and in short order she’s earned herself a handful of Yelp reviews of the positive variety for the wholehearted way she shows her passion for our products with a healthy dose of personal nutrition knowledge on the side. She’s a shining example of the kind of Bee we’re so proud to have beehind our counters…someone who takes her role seriously by making it more than a j-o-b; someone who cares about our products like we do; and, someone who’s willing to share her knowledge and personal journey toward WHealth™ and glowing self with the kind of friendliness we all want to see out there in retaildom.

Here are Stacie Taylor’s “5 From The Hi5e.” And next time you’re at The Rose, give her a high one. For the way she serves, we salute her beecause she juices…and for so much more.

1) What brought you to TJS, and what in your past—personal or professional—made you beelieve you’d be a good fit for our juicy lifestyle?

I’ve had a love affair with food all my life. When I was 11, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to be a chef or a hairdresser and my family encouraged me to go for the hair, keeping the food for fun, friends and family. But 4 and half years ago, I started teaching professional cooking classes and writing recipes for restaurants, specializing in “healthy gourmet.” I love to show people how to fall in love with fresh, healthy whole foods, or how to maintain their longstanding love affair with gourmet food without the guilt or bad side effects some rich recipes give you. I’m also a “foodie’s guide” for how to become gluten free, dairy free and/or sugar free.

Along with my work with food, I am still a small business owner of a beauty academy. For the last 30 years I’ve been a teacher and corporate trainer for master classes. I love transforming people and helping them enhance their beauty…but after 30 years in the hair industry, my gut knew it was time to start thinking about a lateral move toward my retirement. I wanted something easy on my body, and something I would do for free but that would still provide an income. Since food has been as equal a passion as beauty, I knew it could be a way to continue helping people transform…only the tools would be organic, plant-based foods. I decided to join The Juice Standard because as a trend forecaster in the hair industry (which means you’re always 2-4 years ahead of the next new thing), I knew right away that the company was on to something! As a result, through my job I provide solutions for customers as individuals…guiding their body toward healing and detoxing, and finally to optimum health.

2) You have a passion for nutrition and a natural inclination to share what you know. What  led you down your own path toward, as we like to say, “WHealth™ and glowing self?”

I have had extreme health issues that kept me sick for approximately 8 years. All the years in the beauty industry and the chemicals I was exposed to led to heavy-metal toxicity in my body. I also currently have mercury poisoning from amalgam fillings. As a result, my body just broke down with food allergies, and I was stricken with rashes, hair loss, ear infections, blurred vision, gas, bloating, weight gain….

During the long journey of trying to put my finger on the problem, I learned that I taxed my adrenals to the limit. I polluted my liver with toxic chemicals (beauty products) and bad, bad food.

At the end of the journey, when I was fully awake and aware that if I didn’t do something drastic like effect extreme change in my diet, I knew my body would break. Because I was malnourished at almost 200 pounds, and my body was starving for oxygen and nutrients, nothing I took was being absorbed because of the heavy metal poisons in my body. I just woke up one day and decided to try to go gluten free, sugar free and dairy free. I got myself on excellent probiotics and incredible enzymes to help me digest and process food since mine weren’t working any longer…and I ate healthy food to create oxygen.

I am still struggling today, but it’s much better than it was. Now, I’m on the journey toward optimal health. And I enjoy helping others get there, too.

3) In your opinion, what’s the one thing you wish people thought of more/did more to help their own health? And what’s the thing in your own life that you rely on most to keep yourself balanced?

After I started dealing with my health issues, I realized that you really are what you eat. Food can heal you or it can kill you. So I’d say that viewing food as medicine is an important place to start.

For me to stay balanced? I need food to be gourmet, to look good and to taste delicious enough that I want to eat it. That’s why I started creating recipes for myself where I switched this ingredient for that one, making mealtime healthy and delicious!

After sharing a few recipes with friends, people started asking me to prepare dishes for them…which a year later led to someone asking me about writing a cookbook. That journey led me to local restaurants providing tastings of my food. Soon, I started getting paid me for my recipes…which led to doing a webisode series launching in early 2017. It will be a nonprofit venture where I will continue to share recipes, and inspire and teach kids and families how to “switch this for that,” making healthy recipes that are “to live for,” not the other way around.

Thanks to local sponsors that are helping me pay for the food, I’ll teach cooking skills by preparing my recipes and will then donate the food to families in need. That strategy makes me proud. I’m happy knowing that as I move forward, I can leave a legacy beyond my years.

4) About all these kickass Yelp reviews. What do you “bring to the counter,” so to speak, that seems to make customers so comfy?  What’s your secret to connecting with our Bees?

Working with me you can learn to reset the body, first; then, slowly eat your way back to optimal health. And because I work with each customer’s specific health and wellness needs, I think what makes me stand out is that I don’t treat health maintenance like a retail store.

Same goes for The Juice Standard on the whole. To me, it’s not a place where people just come to purchase product, but they come in for guidance and coaching. They want to feel good on the inside and look good on the outside. People are waking up and realizing that nutrition is the fountain of youth.

Now, I am sincere, and what I share with people comes directly from my heart! Because of that, there’s an instant connection. And that turns into loyalty and trust because customers know I’m not just selling a bottle, I’m guiding them to optimum health and wellness. Because wherever they’ve been, I’ve been there and done that, too.

You are what you eat! My take is let’s learn to love the food we give your body as we give our body what it truly needs. Healthy, whole foods are anti-aging, preventative, and will make people notice a difference in you.

5) When you’re talking about TJS, what do you tout the most? What does the company do that makes you most proud to be a part of it? 

The Juice Standard offers top-notch organic ingredients…both through the cold-pressed juice and the chewing menu. I think people don’t really consider that our juice is food, but it is…it’s just liquid, so it’s easier to digest. Plus, if you are mindful to swish before you swallow—if you activate your enzymes by mixing your saliva with your sips and bites—the juice and chewables rush into the digestive tract and shoot immediately into the bloodstream for a rush of energy as oxygen generates in your cells.

And for the record…I don’t just work at TJS: I’m a customer, as well! I love the products and fill my body with its delicious, organic, nutritious food every day! I use many of the superfood upgrades, and my favorite treat to myself is hitting the wellness bar, where I do my shot flights several times a week.

Swing by sometime and sit with me at the bar, and I’ll share some of my recipes that I use for our “secret menu!”

(And we know this is technically question No. 6, but inquiring minds wanna know: What are your faves?)

Lots of people ask about my favorites. Because I believe in body balance, one juice alone won’t give me everything my body needs. So I have three.

Favorite green? WHealthy™. I need that extra turmeric for inflammation from the mercury poisoning…plus, it has approximately two pounds of produce in the bottle. I couldn’t eat that much at one time.

Favorite red? Bee Energized. Beets are just amazing for oxygen and I desperately need that. And, it makes me happy knowing that antioxidants are fighting the free radicals in my bloodstream. (Bee Energized is also anti-aging…which is perfect for a woman with 30 years’ experience in the beauty industry who knows the real tricks of the trade!)

Favorite nut milk? Bee Happy. It’s loaded with copper and magnesium and my body needs the extra minerals…and, I know how balanced the amino acids; the omega-3s, 6s and 9s; and the natural fat will keep my body. (And, I love chocolate! I use it to make my refrigerator overnight oatmeal as a treat for breakfast!)

BEE HAPPY is rich with raw-cacao goodness and at least once a week is called “adult chocolate milk” by someone who thinks they invented the compliment. (Nut milk made with filtered water, coconut water, raw cashew, raw brazil nut, raw walnut, raw local honey, raw cacao, vanilla bean, and pink Himalayan salt.)