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Squeezing all life has to offer is one thing that entrepreneur Alton Weekes knows how to do. With a career path that has taken him from the kitchen of a battleship to onstage with music superstar Mariah Carey, Weekes is on a mission to inspire everyone about the benefits of juicing.
As founder and chief juicing officer at Cellful Organics, a cold-press juice company he started during the pandemic, this native New Yorker is a testimony to the transformative power of natural nutrition.
A Beginning at Sea
To understand Weekes’ journey on how he eventually founded a dynamic juicing company, we have to begin in the kitchen of the Navy destroyer USS Moosbrugger (DD-980). “I cooked three times a day for 340 men and spent many years stationed out of Charleston, South Carolina,” he shares.
During his time on the battleship, Weekes’ skills in the kitchen eventually allowed him to rise quickly among the ranks to cook exclusively for the ship’s officers. “[We] went to war and saw combat because I went to the Persian Gulf—that was Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield,” recalls the combat Navy veteran.
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While he received his culinary training in the military, it was his grandparents who nurtured his love for food and its presentation. “I didn’t have a culinary background, but I grew up in a household that always had events and dinners. On both sides of my family, I learned how to cook from my grandmothers—one from Barbados and the other one from the South,” he reveals.
“I was always snapping peas, stirring pots, doing placement of the plates of china…I learned that from my grandmothers how to set a table and have events. That’s what inspired me to want to go into culinary and events.”
Touring With Mariah
But the universe had other plans for Weekes, and after serving eight years in the U.S. Navy, his “second act” came via friends involved in New York’s music business. “Before the Navy, I was always singing because I grew up in church. That’s where I learned to stand in front of audiences, where I learned to pick up a mic, where I learned to memorize and sing songs,” he says about time spent in his grandfather’s Harlem church.
“A friend would get singers together; some of those singers would do background [vocals]. So as I was ending my time in the service, things started to heat up in the music scene in terms of the work.”
Weekes’ timing couldn’t be more perfect. After leaving active duty, there was an invitation waiting for him. “Once I came home, I was told there was this gig [singing background vocals]. That gig was with George Michael, on ‘The Father Figure’ tour at Madison Square Garden,” says the Navy vet. “That was my first professional gig. That opened up more opportunities and from there, that’s how I got to Mariah.”
Working as a background vocalist for superstar Mariah Carey and going on tour with the entertainer for two years meant traveling the world. It may sound glamorous, but for Weekes, it began to take a toll on his health.
“On tour, you’re living in and out of hotels, so you’re not really watching what you’re eating,” he laughs. “You’re just trying to survive. And I started gaining weight.”
A Creative Leap
Missing home and realizing he had other talents he wanted to explore, Weekes returned to New York City. His inspiration for a new start began with a memory of how his mother loved sending cards as a way for family members to stay in touch.
“I would collect things on tour, and I would use those items to create my art pieces,” he reveals. His art eventually evolved into the Alton Weekes New York luxury stationery line. Though no longer available, it was sold in upscale department stores like Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.
“People sometimes think that we should just do one thing,” says the man of many talents. “But we can do many things…I always found my skills in the arts, whether it was music, acting or creating.”
Warning From the Universe
This desire to create eventually found Weekes pursuing a career in art. But while presenting his portfolio for graduate review to a panel of his professors at the iconic Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) of New York, the artist suffered a heart attack.
“One thing I’ve always known is that the universe always sends you a warning before a major disaster happens,” he observed about prior chest pains, which he chose to ignore. “I was a hot mess. I was 293 pounds…I had high blood pressure. I was borderline diabetic, I had sleep apnea. I had high cholesterol, I had chronic pain. I knew I needed to do something.”
After recovering from his cardiac event, Weekes’ physician prescribed seven medications. “That didn’t resonate with me,” he shares. So, he had a frank conversation with his cardiologist.
“I told him, ‘I’ll take the prescription. I’m not negating your medical degree…but I’m not so sure taking seven medications and being on them for life is going to be the story for me. So I’ll take it [the medications], but I’m also going to look for an alternative.’”
With his doctor’s blessing, the entrepreneur began doing his research.
Although he didn’t have a dietician or nutritionist background, the businessman decided to try juicing. “I figured I’ll go to the grocery store. And, I thought about the Garden of Eden, and [since] everything there is made by the Earth and cooked by the Sun, that it might be healthy for me,” he says.
“With all these fruits, vegetables, bark, spices in the earth, what do you think that is for? Do you think that’s just decoration? It’s for the healing of us as a people. So I started taking everything that was green.”
From the grocery store, he gathered green apples, parsley, mint, kale, cucumber—and pineapple for a little sweetness—and created a green juice that would eventually become Cellful Organics’ bestselling Green Belly Juice.
He’s Got The Juice
For Weekes, the results of his juicing regimen after a year amazed himself and his doctor. He went on to lose 100 pounds and came off his medications. The New York City entrepreneur’s juicing journey began in 2014, and he became a certified juice therapist and holistic health practitioner.
When the pandemic happened in 2020, and everyone was looking for ways to stay healthy, this creative talent decided to share his knowledge about juicing on social media. His followers loved the juicing content.
At that point, Weekes made the leap and started Cellful Organics as a business. “People started ordering, but we were in the pandemic, so we couldn’t go outside. I would bottle [the juices] out of my home and people would come and pick up curbside.”
Today, Cellful Organics offers over 30 cold-pressed juices—with seven juices taking center stage as part of the different juice plans offered by the company: Green Belly (a powerful cleanser), The Stalker (made with celery, Granny Smith apple, mint), Beet Better (helps increase energy), Good Morning Sunshine (aids in metabolism boosting), Protein Magic (a meal replacement containing vanilla bean protein powder, almonds and cinnamon), Spicy Cleanse (helps improve circulation) and Immune Booster (high in Vitamin C).
The juices are made using the cold-press method, which means no heat or oxidation is applied reveals Weekes. The liquid is extracted from the pulp via the mechanics of the cold-press juicer, producing only the juice for drinking.
Available online, Cellful Organics juices are designed to be used in juice cleanse regimens to help detoxify, cleanse and restore the body.
Cellful Organics’ Juice Cleanse Basics
For those new to juicing, Weekes explains that a juice cleanse is the effective removal of waste in the body that has accumulated over time—from improper diet, consumption of preservatives, additives found in processed food, the residual from effects of pharmaceuticals and most importantly, environmental pollutants.
Consumption of food, tea, coffee, sugar, alcohol and tobacco should be avoided during a juice cleanse. “In order for juices to be effective, a true juice cleanse consists of [drinking] six juices a day for a three, five or seven-day period…This way, you’re flooding your body with nutrients, vitamins, minerals and live enzymes,” he says.
“When you’re juicing, you skip the digestion process of breaking down the food. [Instead] you use that energy to heal while absorbing more vitamins, nutrients and live enzymes.” Of course, it’s always best to check with your doctor before starting any new program, like juicing, to be sure it’s a good fit for your health regimen.
Another Path…Via Juicing
Through his personal journey, Weekes hopes to inspire others to be proactive about their health. “What I do with Cellful Organics is a ministry to help my community, to help people…who might be suffering from health challenges. This may be another idea, another path,” he says about a juicing regimen.
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“I’m not diagnosing you, I’m not shaming you, I’m just showing you there’s another possibility,” notes the certified juice therapist. It begins by having a candid conversation with your physician. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about all options to address your health care, coaches Weekes. That action, he says, is the first important step to taking control of your own well-being.
For more on Cellful Organics and to purchase, visit the website and follow Weekes and the business Instagram @cellfulcoldpressed for selections, news, cleansing tips and more.
