Cheryl Hagins

Cheryl Hagins is a hard worker in the office as food manufacturer for SeaMoss Gel, and in the field helping others achieve their fitness goals and maintain healthy habits with her personal training business, iCee Fitness. She’s used setbacks in her life as momentum to achieve more and cheer on the success of others. She was born December of 1968 in Orlando FL. During her childhood, she went through many experiences good and bad, like waking to the smell of fresh breakfast on Saturdays and playing with her sister until dark. The bad included her parents splitting and watching the pain I caused her mom, while also causing a disruption in her way of life.

Throughout her time in school, she often was picked on by boys her age because of her strong ethnic features. Walking down the halls, others would make animal sounds and because of her facial features. Along with her rich features, she was stronger than the boys at school, which they found as an avenue to pick on her more. They would laugh at her and call her ‘He-Man’, which was the last thing she wanted. Because of the intense body-shaming, it cultivated in her a low self-esteem and caused her to become very self-critical of herself. After years of subjection to the trauma, she slowly clawed her way out the effects of bullying and is now proud of the features she has.

After finishing high school, Hagins started college but paused once realizing she was pregnant. She then started working as a restaurant and factory worker, hoping to one day become a nurse. Eventually she became a certified EMT at the Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC), working in the emergency room. After working long hours, she experienced burnout, and switched careers. She searched through the Health Insurance Industry and became licensed in Florida for health, life, and variable annuities. The accumulation of all these experiences led her to become a certified personal trainer and eventually operate as a food manufacturer with SeaMoss Gel. Along with all that she is doing, she recently she is working to attain a degree in Kinesiology.

When not in the factory, Hagins is in the gym with weights, writing things in her journal, and traveling. For fun she loves going out for date nights, roller-skating, and going to the beach. She makes time for friends and family, especially her husband, two children, and three grandchildren. But the main thing that she’s involved in is her community. She’s a coach/lifestyle instructor for various fitness groups and weight training classes with Evergreen Lifestyle Management and Strong by Zumba throughout Central Florida. She organizes and leads community 5k walks/run/hike meet ups throughout Volusia County, and also, she has worked with Advent Health to organize cancer awareness classes.

With all the hard work and success Hagins has had, she continues to work, plan, and set goals. She has goals to “retire with a SeaMoss manufacturing company that will help people improve their vitamin and mineral deficiencies” and to receive her degree in Kinesiology. She looks forward to impacting the health of people all over the country, especially women 35 and older, by encouraging them to get back into a healthier fitness condition. If she were gone today, she’d want to be remembered as “as someone who was always optimistic, always there for family and friends, [someone who] never gave up” and a good mom and wife.