Sonshine Wellness

Intro

Christa 0:02

Welcome to the Topal Insider Podcast, where locals, vacationers, and those looking to relocate to the greater topal area, can hear all about the wonderful businesses and events in our beautiful coastal Carolina towns, including Hampstead, Topal Beach, surf City, north Tops, Holly Ridge, and Sneads Ferry.

Coming Up!

Christa 0:25

Coming up, join me for an interview with the 81 years Young Miss Cookie Tillman, a naturopath and herbalist for the past 31 years. After suffering from severe diverticulitis for 12 years and facing surgery, she decided to take a different approach and return to school. At the age of 50,

Introduction to Mrs. Cookie Tilghman

Christa 0:54

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Tops Soul Insider Podcast. My name is Krista and I am your host. Today I am interviewing the delightful Miss Cookie Tillman. She is the owner of Sunshine Wellness in Surf City, North Carolina. Thank you so much, Ms. Tillman, for joining me today.

Cookie 1:12

You're welcome and thank you.

Christa 1:13

Miss Tillman is a certified naturopath and herbalist, and she's been doing that for 31 years. So Miss Tillman was the very first caller. To the Tops Will Insider podcast and she told me that I was doing a great job, which I really appreciated. And then she gave me a little history about the island and gave me some feedback, in my intro, I was saying Topal Island. And tell me what you told me about Topal Island. Sure.

Cookie 1:40

Because of my history and working with the. Rescue squad, it's important to know that there are three separate incorporated towns on the island. They each have their own police department, fire department, and rescue squad and vacationers and visitors need to know where they are. So if they do have an emergency, they can tell somebody where they are.

Christa 2:05

I just wanna let everyone know that I have since corrected my intro and I have it now broken down into the three different. Areas. So it's Tosil Beach, surf City, and North Tosil,

Mrs. Tilghman’s History

Christa 2:17

correct? Yes. so let's talk about your history. May I ask how young you are?

Cookie 2:23

I am 81. Fabulous years around the sun.

Christa 2:27

That is awesome. Tell me where were born and raised?

Cookie 2:29

Yes. Carboro, North Carolina.

Christa 2:32

Where is that?

Cookie 2:33

right beside Chapel Hill. Up in the triangle area? So my dad worked for the university. My mom was a stay at home mom till I was high school. And then she managed the school pta. I loved that area. Then I went to East Carolina. Mm-hmm.

Christa 2:50

What did you study?

Cookie 2:51

Business. Okay. Business bookkeeping. I love numbers. I worked for the town of Chapel Hill as bookkeeper for a while. And then married Hunter Tillman. And he and I had known each other since childhood. Our parents were friends. And we didn't start dating until my senior year in high school. We came here lots of times when I was in high school and after we married, So we came to manage the red and white shopping center., which is now the iga. And Hunter was a fabulous butcher And people used to say they would drive for two hours to get steaks here.

Christa 3:32

What was it that finally made you make that move?

Cookie 3:36

After we talked to Mr. Ms. Christopher, who were the owners.

Christa 3:40

And

Cookie 3:40

And we were familiar with the area. And the offer was good. And we went home and we said, why not? If it doesn't work, we can always come back to Chapel Hill.

Christa 3:53

Yeah. But it sounds like it worked.

Cookie 3:56

Oh, yeah.

Christa 3:57

Oh,

Cookie 3:57

yes. We moved here just before Labor Day 74.

Rescue Squad Chief

Christa 4:02

You said you were a rescue squad chief?

Cookie 4:04

Yes. We built a home in SEL Beach on the south end of the island. And then I became very active with the rescue squad there. And was chief for a little while and certainly worked with the rescue squad and got certified as an e emt. So that was quite a journey.

Christa 4:25

How long did you work with the rescue squad?

Cookie 4:28

Probably until the. Early eighties. Hunter was still running the store and I actually managed Queen's Grant Condominiums for a little while. the Christopher sold the red white, and we then bought what was S'S Variety store two miles north of the roundabout.

Christa 4:55

How long did you have that store?

Cookie 4:57

We had that store from January 85 until Hurricane Fran. 96. Oh,

Christa 5:05

Fran. Yeah. Her Fran was a nightmare. Yeah.

Cookie 5:09

I had a gift shop. Cookies, treasure Chest.

Christa 5:12

Ah, that's cute.

Cookie 5:13

And then we had shenanigans Beach Club.

Christa 5:17

Okay. I feel like I've heard of shenanigans. I

Cookie 5:20

like you probably have. Probably have. Yeah.

Diverticulitis and Better Choices

Christa 5:29

When did you transition or how did you transition to being a naturopath? An herbalist.

Cookie 5:34

Okay. I had been diagnosed

Christa 5:37

from the

Cookie 5:38

doctors in Wilmington with what they said was the worst case of diverticulitis they had ever seen.

Christa 5:44

Oh goodness.

Cookie 5:45

And I worked with them for 12 years.

Christa 5:49

you worked with them dealing with the diverticulitis? Yes. Okay. For 12 years. Yeah. That's a long

Cookie 5:55

and I didn't get a whole lot better, but I didn't get a whole lot worse. And you know what, Krista, I had learned what to eat and what not to eat. Mm-hmm.

Christa 6:06

Mm-hmm.

Cookie 6:06

That would flare up. That situation. Right. So after that length of time, I was told the only thing left to do was to cut out that part of my colon that was most inflamed. And I probably would wear a claustrum bag the rest of my life.

Christa 6:24

Oh goodness. Okay. I

Cookie 6:25

49 years old at that

Christa 6:27

Mm-hmm.

Cookie 6:27

Mm-hmm. And that scared me.

Christa 6:29

Yeah, of course.

Cookie 6:30

Yeah. So I was like, let me think about this. So I. Came home, talked about it, prayed about it. And the very next month, a couple moved to my neighborhood. From Dallas, Texas. And I tell people it had to be a God incidence. Mm-hmm. Because I don't think you can find Tosil from Dallas.

Christa 6:58

You can't get there from here.

Cookie 7:01

But he was a chiropractic physician and an herbalist. Okay. Okay. And his wife was an aerobic instructor, just lived the habit of health.

Christa 7:12

Yeah.

Cookie 7:13

And he heard my story. Two or three months later, and he said, wow, there's some better choices. And being born on the Zar Uhhuh, I stomped my foot at him and I said what are they? And how do I find out about 'em?

Christa 7:28

Yeah. Yeah.

Cookie 7:29

And he took me under his wing. Two months later. I saw him professionally in his

Christa 7:36

chiropractic office

Cookie 7:38

in January. And by April. I had no symptoms and I was eating food that I hadn't eaten in years. Oh my

Christa 7:49

goodness. So you had been depriving yourself of

Cookie 7:52

anything with a seed in january

Christa 7:54

to April, you were back to eating whatever you wanted again.

Cookie 7:57

much.

Christa 7:57

much. How in the world did he do that?

Cookie 8:00

He recommended a specific fiber blend. And Christ, we are all deficient in fiber. And he recommended probiotics. And he recommended Some immune building herbs. Okay. Like eia? And he also recommended that I quit drinking Diet Cokes and eating Snickers.

Christa 8:25

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.

Cookie 8:27

I know,

Christa 8:28

but

Cookie 8:28

That was what I was living off of. Running a business 20, 24 hours during the season. So I made some changes and the really interesting part on that Diet Coke, he said, I'm not going tell you to quit drinking the Diet Coke. I said don't, because can't I get a sick headache? I didn't know about as Peram at that time.

Christa 8:50

And

Cookie 8:51

it's a real tough chemical. But he said, here's what do. He said, drink, keep water with you. And when you want Diet Coke or any kind of drink, drink four big swallows of water first. Okay. And if you put lemon in it, that's even more helpful. Okay. And then if you feel like you need two or three swallows of a soda, have it, and then drank four big swallows of water again.

Christa 9:19

So he wasn't saying get rid of it all together. He said You can have it, but do this before and after. Yep.

Cookie 9:24

And here's the neat part, innately. Your brain doesn't have to do anything because the innate wisdom in our body will do it. He said, your body will begin to recognize that water's good for you and that soda is not, and you will not want that soda anymore.

Christa 9:44

Wow.

Cookie 9:44

three weeks. I didn't have soda. I hadn't had soda in 31

Christa 9:49

That's

Cookie 9:50

Isn't that amazing?

Christa 9:50

I thought I was actually doing the right thing by my, my kids can't have Coke or Pepsi. You can have a Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi, but it turns out I'm probably doing more harm.

Cookie 9:58

Because it's full of chemicals. And this body doesn't function on chemicals. It functions on nutrients. Yeah.

Christa 10:04

Okay. Just one more thing I'm gonna have to work on Ms. Cookie.

Cookie 10:08

I'll help you,

Christa 10:09

Okay? Okay. All right.

Enrolling in College of Natural Health

Christa 10:12

So continue on. So you got better with the help of this doctor? Yes.

Cookie 10:16

And people around me started saying, what are you doing? You look like you feel better. And I was telling just what I was doing, which was. Really not a huge program. So when they started asking me questions, I was like, okay, I got to get answers for my friends and these people. Yeah. I turned 50 that April, and in June I enrolled in Trinity College of Natural Health. Okay, to get my certification. It was weekend classes that I traveled to major cities to do two days at the time. Atlanta, Richmond, Charlotte, all around. I did the classes two years. Okay. And then it took me another, almost two years to do the extra work that I wanted. Which was advanced herbology. And applied kinesiology. And

Christa 11:10

is all after the age of 50. Yeah. Bless your heart. That's amazing. Yeah.

Cookie 11:13

Yeah. It's been a wonderful journey.

Christa 11:15

Yeah, I bet. Yeah.

Purposeful Passion

Cookie 11:17

And at that point it was like, it was very clear. My passion is my purpose. And my purpose is my passion.

Christa 11:24

My passion is my purpose. And my purpose is my passion. Yes. Okay. Explain that to me.

Cookie 11:31

If you are passionate about something, you love doing it. And when you love doing it, then your personal life and your business life meshes so that you don't know when one stops and one starts. And that's the definition of success.

Christa 11:50

I love that.

Starting Sonshine Wellness

Christa 11:58

So we talked about you returned to school, how did you turn that into a business?

Cookie 12:06

When people came to me with, what would I do for high blood pressure, or what would I do for arthritis? Or, I'm not sleeping good, or I wake up with no energy, it's okay. I'm not an allopathic, I do not treat symptoms. I need to set an appointment with you to gather information from you so we can determine the cause. And get to the cause so that you never have to treat symptoms again. Okay. And then work at the health, their lifestyle, not a diet. I have about four different questionnaires. One is on their everyday lifestyle activities. One is on nervous system, how they act, react to.

Christa 12:58

to that

Cookie 13:00

very general word stress. Another one is an emotional questionnaire. Okay. Because every imbalance in our body starts from an emotional situation. Can

Christa 13:18

Can you give me some examples?

Cookie 13:20

Everything on this earth. Is related to energy, vibrational energy. And there's studies, scientific studies that go back hundreds of years that have determined that the vibrational energy of fear, for instance, is the same vibrational energy that our kidneys function on

Christa 13:47

really,

Cookie 13:49

And the vibrational energy of. Anger is the same vibrational energy that our liver functions on.

Christa 13:59

Interesting.

Cookie 13:59

This is part of my Chinese medicine studies And every organ, our body has a meat for me with the diverticulitis. Yeah. I had chronic sinus infections, Christa.

Christa 14:13

Really.

Cookie 14:13

And when the doctor first was taking my history and he said, so what's your major concern? And I said, I've learned pretty much how to control the diverticulitis, but the sinus infections hurt. Okay. And he was right and he said, we need to get your gut healthy. I said, Dr. Mark, I don't think you heard me. I'm talking about the other end of my body. But that's the connection. Our intestinal system usually is the cause of any respiratory symptom. That was my first lesson in the fact that in Chinese medicine each. Organ system in her body, has a partner, has a meat. And so I've, that's functional medicine and that's been part of my studies up with these years as well. It's so

Christa 15:09

so fascinating. It really is. So he was saying, I'm going to address the diverticulitis. We're gonna get your gut health in check. When the gut health got fixed, your sinuses were automatically fixed. Exactly. Really? Really? That is awesome. Yes.

How do Clients Find You?

Christa 15:26

how do your clients get in touch with you? How did they find you?

Cookie 15:30

It started with my friends and family asking me questions, and then I immediately was like, I appreciate referrals. So it's been all word of mouth.

Christa 15:42

All word of

Cookie 15:42

I have never advertised. Okay, because. If it's my passion, then creator's gonna put the ones in front of me that are ready to hear it, because the first two years I just wanted to shape people and say, listen to me.

Christa 15:58

But.

Cookie 15:58

But. You have to love people where they are and when they're ready, they will show up.

Christa 16:05

Okay. I

Cookie 16:05

I teach people I can motivate you, I can teach you, I can encourage you, I can certainly make some good recommendations, but I cannot get, you want to fixed.

Christa 16:21

You can't get their want

Fee Schedule

Christa 16:22

to

Cookie 16:22

but most of the time, by the time they call or come for an appointment, they've already got their want to fixed. Okay. So it

Christa 16:30

they're just in such bad shape and they're just tired and fed up that they need help

Cookie 16:34

up against the wall and scared. And then we make an appointment and The first appointment takes at least an hour and a half. And we just gather lots of information. Okay. And then talk about the habit of health. And Christ, it's not hard. It's not hard, and it doesn't mean you have to do without anything. I teach what I call the 80 20 rule. And that is because of the innate

The 80/20 Rule and Tagline

Cookie 17:11

wisdom. And somebody asked me one time, what does that mean? And it's It's a God thing. I can't explain it.

Christa 17:18

But

Cookie 17:19

But it's that internal wisdom that every cell in your body knows. And so if you do the best you know how to do 80% of the time, then whatever you do that's you think is awful, 20% of the time your body will handle. For years, my tagline was, knowledge is power. And after about four years, my brother-in-law said, That's not right.

Christa 17:48

And I was like,

Cookie 17:49

Okay, but I had to learn a lot of different things, right? He said, but you can learn a lot and not use it.

Christa 17:58

Okay. He's got a point. Yeah. Yeah.

Cookie 18:00

So I changed my

Christa 18:01

What is it now?

Cookie 18:02

Knowledge plus Action is power.

Christa 18:04

I like that. That's good.

Cookie 18:06

It's true.

Christa 18:10

Ms. Cookie, can you give me a list of different ailments that

Most Common Ailments Clients Discuss

Christa 18:14

you help your clients with?

Cookie 18:16

Yes, and I don't treat what the medical field has named. I'll say that first. Okay. Okay. I treat the holistic. Person. The whole person. As I mentioned, we've got to get information on the emotional component. The nervous system component, a lot of things. But the most common that I hear are pressure, arthritis, lack of sleep, lack of energy.

Christa 18:51

You mentioned diabetics,

Cookie 18:53

Sugar outta balance. Absolutely. And I know some people will come to me and I read blood work. I'm trying to read blood work.

Blood Work and Preventative Maintenance

Cookie 19:03

Very detailed. Because when something's just marked with a H or L. And another thing may not be marked, but it may be a 10th of a degree from being high or low. It's time to look at that and jump on some preventive maintenance and not wait until it's totally out of balance.

Christa 19:28

Gotcha.

Cookie 19:29

Because everything's about balance and about preventive maintenance. I tell the guys, think about your car, or your truck, or your boat.

Christa 19:38

Okay.

Cookie 19:40

You're going to change your oil on a regular basis. You're going to take care of it. It's called preventive maintenance. And my daddy was big on that. And if we started teaching our teenagers and young people, my goodness, I love to go to school and teach those. Second and third graders, how their body reacts when they eat a apple versus a french fry.

Christa 20:09

Can you talk to my kids? Really? I'm not getting through them, but, and

Cookie 20:16

they very seldom listen to mom anyway, right? Yep. They're like little sponges. They want to know and take 'em out in the yard and walk around and show 'em the herbs, show 'em what God said in Genesis 1 28. Put every tree and seed bearing fruit on this earth for your food and your medicine.

Christa 20:38

What about arthritis and something like weight management

Cookie 20:42

Let's take arthritis.

Inflammation and CRP

Cookie 20:43

Any word ending in I Simply means inflammation.

Christa 20:48

I didn't know that.

Cookie 20:49

Every disease.

Christa 20:52

Disease, yeah.

Cookie 20:54

Starts with inflammation. That's a starting place. Okay. Everything starts at your next trip to the grocery Because what's in your house, you can put in your mouth. The inflammation. Is not measured so much in a regular lab report. There are specific reports that I teach people to ask for that does measure inflammation. One of them is called C R P. That stands for C reactive protein and. You have to request your doctor to order that. Another way is to measure your pH balance. And most

Measuring pH Balance

Cookie 21:40

people think of a swimming pool or a hot tub when we think of pH. Mm-hmm. Let me tell you how important that is. If a swimming pool is not balanced, the water will begin to turn yellow and green.

Christa 21:55

And

Cookie 21:55

And algae will start growing in it. Every cell in our body floats in fluid. Every sale. So keeping the pH balanced in this amazing living organism is a major, important piece of the puzzle. And you test that with litmus strip saliva and urine. The pH is measuring your acid alkaline balance. Okay. Okay. And you don't wanna be way high alkaline, even though alkaline is good to degree, it's back to balance.

Christa 22:31

Balance. Yeah. Okay.

Cookie 22:33

Yeah. Let me tell you something that's just amazing.

Lemon, Lime and Vinegar

Cookie 22:39

Lemon, lime and vinegar sound very

Christa 22:44

Yes ma'am.

Cookie 22:45

But under the heat and pressure of our body, They are alkaline. So drinking lemon or lime in your water. And you may have heard my dad, my older generation, those fellas had a big old swallow of vinegar every day.

Christa 23:05

dad talks about that. Yes.

Cookie 23:07

To keep the IIS at me.

Christa 23:11

Interesting. I'm gonna have to tell him he was right. Yeah, that was right.

Cookie 23:15

But lemon or lime tastes better than vinegar?

Christa 23:18

I would say. So I would agree with that.

Cookie 23:20

But lemon in your water is good medicine and inexpensive medicine. And that means fresh lemon, not in the Fresh is always best.

Christa 23:32

You also mentioned AFib, like how can you attack that?

Cookie 23:36

You never

A Look at Magnesium and AFib

Cookie 23:38

alienate allopathic medicine. Never. Okay. There's a time and place Gotcha for it. It's important to know how to communicate with the doctor. Okay. So if somebody was in an emergency situation, they're gonna do exactly what big Pharma knows to do, but then reach out to a bigger picture, back to the cause versus a symptom. So magnesium. has been scientifically proven and used over and over again to help with that symptom. Really?

Christa 24:20

Is that prescribed for peop No, it's not. Yeah.

Cookie 24:24

but it's important to see someone to determine what dosage is right for you because, Supplements brands are not alike.

Purity and Potency of Supplements

Cookie 24:37

And I've studied a lot about purity and potency in order to get results. Okay. And herbal medicine is like your vegetable garden. The green beans taste the best when they're just perfect, ready to pick and cook. The butter beans have gotten to be filled out before they're ready. Herbs need to be at the peak, the right ripeness in order to be potent. Medicine and the company that I choose to recommend and work with

Nature’s Sunshine

Cookie 25:17

was the first company to ever encapsulate herbs back in 1972.

Christa 25:23

Oh, wow. Okay.

Cookie 25:23

And so they've got a track record. They are pure, potent, guaranteed, and their. They meet every F FDA requirement So the dosage of vitamins and minerals and amino acids and herbal blends is just as important as a dosage of blood pressure

Christa 25:49

Okay.

Cookie 25:49

What's on that bottle may not be for you. Okay. Because most every bottle is a maintenance dosage, and sometimes you need a therapeutic dosage for a little while.

Christa 26:04

Okay. And you use one particular brand for, for all of your herbal Yes. Supplements?

Cookie 26:11

Yes. Nature's Sunshine is a company

Christa 26:14

nature's Sunshine. Yes. Okay.

Cookie 26:16

And my website will take you right there and you can look at it and it's a wealth of information about what's in the herbal blends, why the history. Just fantastic information.

Christa 26:30

Okay. Let's go ahead and mention that website then. It's Sunshine wellness.com.

SonshineWellness.com

Christa 26:36

S o n? Yes. Not s u n. Yes. S o n sunshine wellness.com. And that will take you to the herbal supplements that you recommend? Yes. I would love to know why it's s o n I. I cheated and I got the answer to this, but I definitely do want the listeners to know why it is s o n.

Cookie 26:57

When I was first learning and getting well, and I said to a friend of mine, I just want people to listen. It just can make such a difference now in 10 years, 15 years, whatever. And she said why don't you go out there on that beach and hold your hands, palm up, and ask your creator to send the ones that are ready.

Christa 27:26

Yes.

Cookie 27:27

And so God's son shined on this uhhuh, and that's why his son shined.

Christa 27:32

Gotcha. I love it. Okay, Miss Cookie Tillman, you're such a pleasure. I just

Final Thoughts

Christa 27:40

wanna know, are there any final thoughts or is there anything that you want the listeners to know about Ms. Cookie Tillman or Sunshine Wellness?

Cookie 27:49

What have you got to lose to call for an appointment? And just hear what might change your life or your children or your grandchildren.

Christa 28:07

Very good. So I am going to tell folks how to get in touch with you. Don't forget

Contact Information

Christa 28:13

that it's sunshine spelled with a O s o n s h i n E, sunshine Wellness. It's Cookie Tillman, T i L G H M A N. And her email address is cookies s wc, so it's C O O K I E S S W c@gmail.com. Her website again is sunshine wellness.com. Her phone number is nine one zero. Three three zero, three eight, three eight. And you can call or text her at that number. You wanted to say something about calling and texting?

Cookie 28:53

Yes. So many times if people call, they're hesitant about leaving a message if I don't answer. And if I'm with a client, I don't answer. So texting, I'll be sure to respond.

Christa 29:08

Very good. Okay. All right. Thank you so much Ms. Tillman. It's been a pleasure from the moment that I

Thank You and Goodbye!

Christa 29:14

picked up the phone and you told me who you were and you gave me that wonderful feedback. I just knew that you were something special and I couldn't wait to do this interview. Thank you and I really appreciate everything. And listeners, thank you so much for tuning in, and I hope that if you have something that's bothering you and you think that Ms. Tillman can help you out, please text her, give her a call or send her an email. Thank you so much.

Cookie 29:38

Thank you. It's been loads of fun.

Christa 29:41

Bye everybody. thank you for joining me today on Topsail Insider. If you like today's episode,

Topsail Insider Closing

Christa 29:48

please hit the follow or subscribe button so that you can get the Topsail Insider Podcast delivered automatically to whichever podcast platform you're listening on. And if you're a business owner and you wish to set up a pre-interview or you want to advertise, please email me at topsailinsider@gmail.com. Please also find, and like the Topsail Insider Facebook page, I provide links to the new podcast there each week, as well as providing photos of the businesses that I'm highlighting along with any of their upcoming events. So, hey, let's do this again next week. I'll see you around Topsail