Your Doctor's Missing This About Female Hormones

I feel like a lot of people that find theirself in the holistic space, it's because we've hit our own brick walls in the conventional medical system, and that was true for me.

If you're tired of doing all the right things and still feeling exhausted, stuck in your body, and disconnected from God, this podcast is for you. I'm Dr. Tabatha Barber, a triple board-certified functional medicine physician, and I help women stop fighting their bodies and start healing them God's way. Let's get into it. Well, hello again. How are you, Ashley?

You know what? I'm doing awesome.

How about you? I love that you say awesome when we just had 20 minutes of painful tech.

Painful.

Oh my goodness. Okay, apparently it was only 11 minutes.

Yeah, I wasn't going to call you out, but I feel like we're so used to tech. Problems that we're just rolling with it. Yes, we're not going to be stopped.

No, we will not be stopped. And I will acknowledge that we prayed over it and it was immediately corrected. So it's either we have an awesome podcast team—

there, there's that—

and then there's Jesus. But yay, I'm so excited for— Jesus works through people.

Absolutely. Our right-hand man.

Thank you, Paul and Wally.

Okay.

Jesus is also working through our guests today. And when we first connected, I was like, my jaw to the floor, because we were literally saying some of the same things from different parts of the country, and we didn't know each other. And so that's how cool God is, right?

Well, it's so needed what we're doing, this work that we're doing. We need more than one person doing it. So it's amazing. And yeah, when we were prepping and listening to podcasts, it's when you listen to Chelsea, you hear what you're saying. So it's really cool.

Yeah, I'm excited for our audience to hear her, but she has her own unique message and way of presenting it. So I'm excited. Let me dive in and just sing her praises really quick. Chelsea Blackbird, she's known as the Christian nutritionist. And so you may have heard me refer to myself as the Christian physician. Let's go, ladies! Okay, she is host of the Christian Health Club podcast. I'm reading her stuff over here, and co-founder— this is incredible— of the School of Christian Health and Nutrition. Oh my gosh. So not only is she really smart and she's helping spread the message, but she's training other nutritionists in the way that she practices. So we are going to dive in. She is board certified in quantum biology. What the heck is that? We're going to talk about that. And she has this incredible gift of bridging modern science with a biblical worldview to help women understand their metabolism and their hormones and healing through stewardship and faith. So we're going to dive into all of that. So Chelsea, welcome. You are amazing.

Oh my gosh, right back at you. I am so happy to be here. I am so happy that we've connected because yes, we are— I think we need a lot of people in this space doing this kind of kingdom work. And so I'm just so happy to know you and all that you're doing and really excited to be here.

Oh, so good. And yeah, I didn't even mention she has created something called Feast to Fast, which is kind of like Fast to Faith, and then the Genesis Prescription. So let's dive into all of this. Where would you love to start, Chelsea? I feel like we should start with stewarding our bodies as Christian women, but I would love for you to just kind of open us up and guide us in this conversation. And how the heck did you get to be in this position?

Yeah, well, I can tell you it's nothing I ever planned, thought I would be doing. Total God thing. So I feel like a lot of people that find theirself in the holistic space, it's because we've hit our own brick walls in the conventional medical system. And that was true for me. I grew up with digestive issues, a genetic skin condition that I went to doctors for, for like 20 years. Did everything, every pill, every cream. I had minor surgery, I had invasive major surgery for that. And, you know, after a while they were just like, well, we've kind of done everything we can do for you. And so I was like, all right, well, this is my cross to bear. I just got to live with this, you know, digestive issues, the skin condition. This is just what I, you know, everybody's got their thing, right? And ours in our family is we can't poop and we have bad skin. That's just who we are. And so I guess I'm just going to live with that for the rest of my life. That's just kind of where I was. And it wasn't until my husband and I were ready to start a family and I had trouble, trouble conceiving and got a diagnosis of unexplained infertility, which, as you very well know, that means they don't really know what's wrong with you. And so they were recommending me to go down the, you know, the whole infertility journey and route. And I was I was ready to do that because all I ever wanted to be was a mom. My husband was not on board with that. He said, "We're not doing that." And that was a pretty tough time in our marriage because I felt like he was preventing us from doing, you know, from fulfilling this dream I had of being a mother. And to make matters worse, so you got to understand, my husband is a cattle rancher. We live in Texas. We raise grass-fed beef. And he's like, "Listen." He's like, there's just sometimes when you turn the heifers out in the pasture, like things just don't take, okay? It can take a while. And so I was like, are you seriously comparing me to the heifers? Are you serious right now? This is not helping the case. So anyway, that was really tough, but he wasn't budging. So I was like, all right, I was trying to figure out anything I could do to help myself in this situation. You know, like, is there anything I can do? And so I started, you know, reading about nutrition. I found a naturopathic doctor. Went to him, he changed my diet, gave me some supplements. I also read a book called "Changing Your," what is it? "Your Infertility." Oh gosh, I'm thinking, I'm blanking on the book right now, but I read a really good book that taught me about my body 'cause I didn't know about my body. A lot of women don't know about their body. And 6 weeks later I was pregnant. And I was like, are you kidding me? I mean, on one hand, of course, I am elated. I am so happy. And on the other hand, I was really ticked off because I was like, what, no doctor ever asked me what I was eating, you know, bridging the gap with any kind of supplements, giving me any lifestyle recommendations. And so I got pregnant easily, naturally, and also over time with continued good dietary and lifestyle practices, my digestive issues went away, my skin condition, my genetic skin condition that they said could never, you know, B reversed, went away. I totally managed that through diet and lifestyle. And I've had 3 kids. And so, so that was really what opened my eyes. And I, I got so passionate about health and wellness. I started reading a bunch and went back to get my certification as a nutritional therapy practitioner with really no plan to help anybody. I just wanted my friends and my family to listen to me. You can probably relate, nobody will listen. I'm like, maybe if I have some letters behind my name, they will listen. They still don't. But even though I had no plans to do anything with it, I just felt God calling me to it because I was like, gosh, if I can help one person like me, if I could change one person's life, it would be so worth it. I felt him calling me to call myself the Christian Nutritionist. I was very resistant to that because I've always been Christian but very private in my faith. I You know, I felt like that was very evangelical to put myself out there like that. And so I was like, no, no, God, ask somebody else, not me. But you know how God is when he's really just kind of pressing into your mind and your soul to do something and just doesn't let up. And so I was like, fine, you know, all right, I'll do this. And so that was about 12 or 13 years ago, and I've been doing it ever since.

Wow.

I just want to point out where I see God in your story, and the fact that your husband stood his ground and spoke up. I truly believe God was using him to, to get you to where you are today. Like, what a beautiful setup from the very beginning, right? He knew the struggle you were going to go through, and God made it clear, like, that's not what we're doing. I'm about to teach you some things, and then you're going to turn around, and you're going to help countless women. So that is so beautiful, and I just wanted to give God the glory for that really quick. But, um, yeah, the fact that you got pregnant in 6 weeks tells so much, really. Food is information, right? And we don't realize what we're telling our body all the time when we're putting that food in our mouth. So I would love for you to talk about the modern food system and God's design for how we should be eating? And why is there so much confusion? And, um, what do you think was your biggest aha? Was it, I need more fatty acids in my diet? Was that key for you? Because honestly, that is one of the biggest things that the ovary does need to be healthy and make hormones, right?

Absolutely. So one of the, or a few of the supplements that that naturopath had given me were some essential fatty acids because I was deficient. And this was at the time kind of coming off the end of— I mean, a lot of people still do think fats are bad for you. But at the time, it was worse. I think people have a better understanding now that fats are healthy. But I can remember one of the aha moments I had when I was first putting all this together. And it, you know, at the time— and this will show you how long ago it was— you know, people were saying, oh, avocados are fatty and you gotta watch that, you can't eat a lot of fat. And I remember thinking, okay, wait, avocados grow on trees and God made trees. I don't get that. Like, that doesn't make any sense to me, right? And so this was part of this opening my eyes to, yeah, what is nutrition? How did God intend us to eat? Because there's so much confusion out there, so much conflicting advice. You can look on social media, you can look on the TV, you can open a book and you can see, you know, two different sides on the same issue of, you know, what and what you should eat. And so it's very confusing for people. And so to me, it just became very clear, well, what is— what does Scripture say? I mean, the creator of our bodies knows what our bodies need. He made the perfect food, the perfect provision for our bodies. And so very simply to me, it's, you know, Genesis 1:29, God made plants. Genesis 9:3, God gave us animal foods. And I think the combination of those in the cleanest forms you can eat, to put it most simply, is what we should be going for. I've had a lot of questions over the years like, well, shouldn't we be vegetarian? Because, you know, we started out in the Garden of Eden. I don't know if you've gotten that a lot, but I have. And I was like, well, you know, we did start there. We— I don't know if you read much past Genesis, we don't stay there, we get kicked out of the garden, uh, and God does give us animal foods, access to animal foods to eat. And so, um, I just— that's where I believe, you know, we find our best health is in, you know, both the plant and the animal kingdom. Each has great things to offer us, and so I think the combination of the two is really where we find our best nutrition.

100%. And I know Ashley has countless stories of clients and patients coming to us on a vegan diet or a vegetarian diet, and they're 30 pounds overweight, and they're exhausted, and they— their hormones are a hot raging mess. And we're like, you need to eat meat. And they look at us sideways like, I thought that was unhealthy. I thought fat made you fat, especially red meat, you know, that's not healthy, that's what all my cardiologist says. And when they finally come to understand and they trust us and they go through the process and the weight falls off and they start to feel like the best they've ever felt— Ashley, can you just speak to this really quick?

Because I know somebody's listening right now who is really still on the fence and they're like Yeah, but yeah, you know what's super wild is I got my hair done this morning and my hairdresser and I were talking about, um, vegetarians and vegans, and she was sharing how one of her best friends is, and she was saying that all she feels like she eats is carbs when she watches her because it's like, what are you eating? And so yeah, we see this so often. Women just— I think they think healthy is, um like vegetables, and so it feels safe for them to just eat vegetables. And so when we use recipes that have meat in them and they start to get it, they realize they have energy and that they can move better, that their joints don't hurt.

So yeah, definitely, especially when you are still having periods and you need that iron and all those good things inside of you.

Yes, I was actually just sharing, um, that we were talking about cycles, and I was telling her all weekend, all all I wanted was a steak, and it was because I had started my cycle, and we were at this event, and they were not serving any red meat. And so Sunday, we got it on the way home, and I was so pumped to get some red meat. Yeah, so it's so important.

Oh my gosh. Yeah, Chelsea, I would love for you to explain to the listeners a little bit more about, you know, the difference between God's food and the standard American diet, because, you know, we talk a lot about this but I see this a ton in the vegetarian world, is they turn to processed foods because there are so few foods that you can eat. You can only eat broccoli so many different ways, right?

Right, exactly. It's very limiting. And like I said, God gave us the, the glorious plant kingdom, but he also gave us the glorious animal kingdom. And what is so interesting is when you look in scripture, if you look in Leviticus, he specifically recommends red meat to the Israelites. Like, he points it out. He is, you know, recommending the animals that have a split hoof and chew the cud. And, and so that includes, you know, cattle, bison, deer, goat, sheep. And these are all ruminant animals that have a special four-part chambered stomach. And the beauty, the miraculous design, the way God designed this is that They eat all the plant foods that we can't digest, that we cannot eat, and they turn them into protein, into healthy fats that our body takes and uses and loves and turns into our muscles and our bones and our hair and our skin and all these wonderful things. And so it's just really God's beautiful design is that the earth nourishes the animal and the animal nourishes us. And, um, and so I think it's really interesting, you know, when people are like, I shouldn't eat red meat, but right there in the Bible, the Lord is— that's basically his prescription for the meat to eat. And then of course you have, you know, some fish and different things, but, um, he's not talking about the other white meat too often.

Yes. Oh my goodness. And I would love for you to speak more about how important it is that what your animal eats is more important, right?

Yes, exactly. What your animal eats, um, you know, you are what your animal eats eats, right? So we always want to be looking for the highest quality of all the food that we, um, that we're taking in. And so when it comes to red meat, when it comes to these animal meats, uh, the red meat especially, we want them to be eating their natural diet, just like God intended them to eat, you know. 100% grass-fed beef, pastured chickens, wild-caught fish. You know, cattle were not meant to eat a bunch of corn, not, you know, genetically modified corn and soy. That's what they're given. They're in feedlots and they're given so much junk. They're also given like all this like leftover candy and all this nasty stuff, and you know, that makes them unhealthy as an animal. It makes the, you know, the, the fat, mostly the fat content of their body unhealthier. What's really cool about God's design is that he designed us and animals to store toxins in our fat. That keeps toxins away from our vital organs. And so it's the same with animals. And so you really, you want to, you know, that, that wonderful healthy fat from animals is good for you. I always like to Get people just thinking like common sense and critically. And you know, for those of us living in America, I mean, just think 150 years ago, the primary fat they were eating was animal fat. They weren't, you know, importing a lot of olives and coconuts and avocados and making avocado— you know what I mean? That wasn't happening. What was their primary fat intake was from animal fats. And it's since we don't eat that anymore, we've had a real decline. But you want to have, yeah, the animals eating their natural diet so they, they can pass on all that nutrition to you, get those wonderful fat-soluble vitamins, and, you know, just other really good, important vitamins and minerals from the meat and from the fat.

Oh my gosh, I just had a flashback to my grandma eating her lard sandwich. Like, she would eat lard sandwiches, and partially because she was in the Depression when she was a child, but she lived to be over 95 years old. And so there's something to say about that. So many good important points. Yes, we store all those toxins in our fats, and so do the animals. So it matters what your animal is eating. And it's not just a trend to get grass-fed beef or free-range pasture, you know, chickens. Like, it really matters if they're eating the cornmeal, which is what we make corn syrup and all the toxic stuff for candy out of, Yeah, we're just gonna be fat and unhealthy, right?

Yeah, that's right. Can I offer a tip to your listeners?

Please.

Um, when it comes to this, because I know, you know, right, groceries are so expensive. Um, and so as far as budget goes, or even accessibility, you know, sometimes we're in little towns, we can't find, you know, maybe these upgraded meats and stuff, or maybe, you know, budget is a concern. And so I always recommend Even if— I mean, we sell beef, right? We sell grass-fed beef. But I always tell people, if you're looking at the meat aisle and you can only afford one or the other, if you're upgrading your chicken and your beef, I actually say— well, first of all, this tip. If you can't afford grass-fed beef or pastured chicken, go for a little bit of a lower fat content. Just because, as we said, they're storing fats toxins in their fats. And so if you're not getting the highest quality of meat, that would be an instance to go a little bit, you know, lower. Otherwise, I'm like, please eat all the animal fats, because I do.

That's why we get the sirloin at the Texas Roadhouse instead of the, the New York strip. Okay.

Yeah.

Ah, right, just because of that, right? A little bit lower in fat content. The other one is, is that if you're gonna put your money and upgrade one meat or the other, I would put that in you know, maybe more toward chicken and eat more conventional beef. And that's because, because beef is a, you know, has that ruminant stomach. It has more of a detoxification process than a monogastric animal like chicken or a pig. And you're going to have more of that toxin load. They're going to just have more of those polyunsaturated fats and that kind of thing. You're going to get more exposure to that. So that's one thing, you know, I try to be reasonable. I mean, it's always best to eat, you know, as upgraded as you can, but also just to have some options there. So I always like to tell people that.

Yeah, I heard you say that on another podcast. I was like, that is so good because yeah, we're standing in the grocery store and we're just like feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. And so just simplify it, like go for the red high-quality meats first. If you gotta do the white meats, make sure they're more high quality. And then, you know, if you have to go with more the conventional red meat because you had to spend more on the chicken and the turkey, great, right?

They're a little more forgiving. And then just go for a less fatty cut of that red meat if that's the case.

Love that.

Yeah, I was actually thinking about— so we do a half a cow, we split it with someone else, and we do— we get pig and It's expensive up front, but in the long run, it's actually cheaper. And you know where your meat comes from. So that's something else too that's huge if you can do it.

Yes, and look for local ranchers and farmers. Obviously, we are selling our grass-fed beef at farmers markets and stuff like that. And it is as reasonable as it is in the store. It varies from— place to place, but a lot of times you can find it at the same price. You know, it can be reasonable or about the same price as what you find in the store. And definitely if you can buy it in bulk like that, that is awesome because yeah, it's a lot up front, but you get so much meat and in the end it's much more economical.

Yeah, and don't rag on your husbands for wanting to go hunting. Cheer them on. Tell them to bring you home a deer, right? Like, exactly, go get that good food.

I've got the venison in the freezer. Yeah, exactly.

I love that.

Real quick, I just want to interrupt this conversation for something super important. Even though we need to take care of ourselves spiritually, emotionally, and physically, we do have to take care of ourselves at a cellular level. And that is why I have my Fast to Face supplement line. So let's just take a minute to hear about something that might be the game changer that you need in this season.

Here's one of the things that the GLP-1 drugs don't do. They don't increase your metabolism and they don't also increase your body's natural production of GLP-1. What Metabolith will do is it's a combination of plant extracts, so it's lemon verbena and hibiscus. Now those two have been researched studied and patented together as a duo to increase GLP-1 about 55% in the body. It's doing it naturally. It's going to naturally help you lower cravings, and you're going to feel a little bit fuller. In the clinical trials, they studied obese and overweight patients. The obese patients lost on average 10 lbs over 2 months, and overweight, it was 8 lbs over 2 months. So this isn't gonna get you to the point where you don't ever wanna eat. You're just not gonna feel as hungry. You're just mildly full, but you're still gonna be consuming food and then also increasing your metabolism as well.

Okay, I do wanna talk about gluten and grains. This is really important in our community. Removing gluten saved my life and it obviously has had a tremendous impact on your health. And then I heard you talking about this bread you were making. I was like, wait, what, girl? What's going on here? So share your little trick with us, how you get around the gluten-free issue.

Okay, sure. Yeah, so I was gluten-free for 10 years, and that was one of the— when I went to the naturopathic doctor, that is one of the things he recommended, to take gluten out, which I did. And I have two aunts that have celiac disease, so I was familiar, and I had been on and off gluten-free. But, you know, when I was— I would do anything to conceive a baby, right? So I was like, yeah, I'll go gluten-free. Went gluten-free, um, and stayed gluten-free for 10 years. And then about 4 years ago, I— it was just— it's kind of a God thing. I, I just kind of fell into some information about freshly milled flour and how, you know, wheat has been so processed and so stripped. Well, first of all, I always had this cognitive dissonance. I'm like, Jesus is the bread of life. Yeah, I am. I'm afraid of bread. I haven't eaten bread, or I'm making like almond flour bread and all these things, which can be great alternatives, perfectly fine. But I was like, gosh, I just had this kind of shame around eating bread. And I was like, this doesn't make any sense. God, you know, Jesus is the bread of life. So when I heard this information about this freshly milled flour, I was like, all right, I'll start listening. And basically the breakdown of it is, is that, you know, historically in biblical times, and, you know, and just even our great-great-grandmothers, they would have eaten, um, they would have milled their own flour. So, you know, gotten wheat berries, clean wheat berries, milled their own flour, which still has everything intact. So processed bread today processes everything in the wheat down to basically the starch and the gluten, okay? You don't have the protective vitamin E, you don't have the B vitamins. You don't have all these other things that come with it that are healthful and also somewhat protective. If you want to sell flour on the store shelf, you have to remove the fatty acids, you have to remove the bran and the, and the germ. You get rid of that, you know, the vitamin E, because it will go rancid on the shelf. And so that was the processing of flour that just kind of, you know, took place and is in the place of our standard American diet now. But when you go back to the way bread was made historically, by getting organic wheat grains, wheat berries, grinding them yourself, using them immediately to make bread, it can be very helpful— healthful. It has incredible health benefits. And so when I first heard this, I was real on the fence because, you know, I've been a holistic practitioner for a long time. I'm like, you got it, you know, we got to eat gluten-free, it's so inflammatory. And it can be. And I think for a lot of people it is inflammatory, and maybe they need to, you know, stay in stay that way. But I have also found a lot of people, even people with some autoimmune conditions, have been able to tolerate and use this bread really well, healthfully. I was really on the fence. I bought all the stuff to grind my own wheat. It's really easy to do and make my own bread. It took me about 3 to 6 months to do it. I cried the first time I did it. It felt so weird, you know, so against kind of like what I'd been preaching for so long. And I kind of I didn't realize I'd kind of taken up some identity with it, I think. But I felt completely fine. It was good. I made it for my family. And I've just— I've been doing it ever since. And so it's been real interesting. It's been an interesting experiment. And I've talked to a lot of people about it. And I— like I said, I'm still on board with gluten-free diets, especially when we're working towards better health. But I think it can be added back in if done in the right way. I don't eat gluten otherwise. I only eat gluten if I have made it with my freshly milled flour with all the good nutrients intact.

I think that's a really important point because it's the gluten, it's the bread products in this country and how we have just processed and overprocessed and overprocessed and just stripped all the health out of it. Yeah, I, I can eat gluten in Mexico and it doesn't bother me. In the Dominican Republic, I've had patients go to Europe and they do just fine. It is literally what's happening in this country. And so I'm with you. I have struggled internally with this idea that Jesus is the bread of life, but I also believe, you know, he gave us manna and bread and all the things, but what we are not eating is not what God created. Honestly, it just is not. We've bastardized it so much. So, um, thank you for explaining that when you get back to the natural way of how God created it, it actually doesn't cause an inappropriate immune response. It doesn't destroy your gut. It doesn't drive autoimmune conditions. It is The gluten in the bread products that we have created in this country, that is the problem, honestly.

Right. When you think about it, when it's truly stripped down to just the starch, which turns to sugar, and the gluten, I mean, that's all your body is getting, a big hit of gluten and a big hit of sugar. And there's no redeeming qualities whatsoever to it otherwise. But when you have it all intact, it's more balanced. Providing, you know, it all works synergistically. The vitamin E and these B vitamins, it's all working really synergistically, and your body sees that so well, right? It receives that so well. So it truly is a difference in quality.

Yeah, and that's what I was addicted to. I was addicted to gluten and sugar. It was so doughy, so chewy, so fluffy. Gluten stands for glue. It holds it all together and is just like glue in your stomach. It's Nasty.

Yep.

Um, yeah, and please speak to the fact that these gluten-free products or substitutes are almost always no better. So I'm like not a fan, fan of grains in this country.

I also would love to have you speak on the sourdough. Um, people get so obsessed with their sourdough, but then I've heard you say this before, they're using store-bought flour and it kind of just defeats the whole purpose.

Yeah, I mean, it's a step in the right direction. The intention is amazing, but if you're using— and this is sad— but even if you're using organic flour, you go to the store, you're like, I'm gonna get the organic flour, it's still stripped of everything because it cannot be shelf stable if it has the fatty acids and such. So it is still processed flour. And so you can take that and make your sourdough, but you're still missing out It's more easily digestible, all those good things, but it's still lacking those good nutrients, the vitamin E and the B vitamins. It's still stripped of those things. And so ultimately, the ideal, the gold star standard, if you're gonna do bread, would be to mill your own flour and, you know, ferment it sourdough and then make your bread. I haven't got to the sourdough thing yet. I mean, I'd like to. I just One step at a time. I'm doing the milled flour. I got that down. It's a lot to do. But I think that's the first step to take is to make sure the quality of your flour is the highest quality that you can get. And then do your sourdough from there.

Awesome.

All right, so something else that you talk about a lot is— and it's something that I'm super passionate about because I hate counting macros and all of that stuff. I like to just kind of— know it, and the more I've studied, I've learned it. And so something that you always say is that Bible women didn't count calories. So, um, what— can you go into that a little bit and talk about that a little bit?

Yes. I'm allergic to numbers.

I love that.

I'm allergic to numbers. I do not have a math brain. I am— I will write all your English papers, but don't ask me to do any of your math. I tell my kids this all the time. Um, but so I And I also, I just don't like associating numbers with my food. I mean, talk about suck the joy out of it. And so, you know, but I always felt like that's what you had to do. You gotta count your calories and, you know, count your macros to death and track everything. And for some people, that works really well. I'm not saying that can't be a good tool. For some of us, it makes us crazy in the head. For me, it makes me crazy in the head and I can't operate like that. And so again, just thinking, I always like to just think back historically. Bible women, they didn't even know what a calorie was. That didn't even exist until like the mid to late 1800s, the concept of a calorie. And so, you know, if they didn't have to count calories, then, you know, we don't have to. Now, true, we do live in a different time. We are confronted with all kinds of, you know, a whole category of processed food that didn't used to exist. And so we have to be mindful. But I think you can, you can definitely go about it. That's one of the things I love to teach. That's what's in my Feast to Fast program is really just teaching the way that we can do that without having to count all the time. I think we do need to pay attention to our carbohydrates because that is— that's the category, the macronutrient that has more foods, you know, processed foods, than any of them. And so just, you know, being mindful around what your carbohydrates, you know, kind of your carbohydrate load is. But that doesn't mean we have to count things to death. I also think there has to be grace in your diet, you know, grace and sustainability. That's another thing I think it's so important to teach and just reminding women you're not going to eat perfectly like every single day for the rest of your life. I mean, you just got to take that burden off yourself. I mean, nobody's— I don't eat perfectly. Nobody's going to eat perfectly. You just have to find a way of eating that's sustainable that, you know, sometimes we want to have a glass of wine with our girlfriends or we want to eat chocolate chip cookies with our kid or we want to go on vacation and splurge or have pie at Thanksgiving or whatever it is. And you got to build that into your diet and have grace. And so you're not feeling guilty every time you do that. And then, you know, like, ah, I screwed up, I got to start over with the diet, you know, on Monday. And then you're just swinging all over the place with all these different diets. So all of that said, what all of that is pointing to, whether it's counting or just finding that grace, it's just having some peace around food, right? Like, we should not be thinking— like, the biggest real estate of our mind should not be like food and diet and the scale and what size our clothes are we are wearing. Our biggest portion of our minds should be going to the Lord and our blessings and our purpose and how we can fulfill that. And so, I think a lot of that comes down to, yes, eating clean, but also finding that, that grace in the way that we eat as well.

Yeah, I think that's really, really important. And, you know, one of the driving principles behind Fast to Faith is when you go into a fasted state, state and you stop relying on food to feed all of your fleshly desires and you start feeding on Jesus, like, those desires will be quenched in a different way. And then you can start to change your relationship with food and see it for what it actually is. And I'm like you, like, we should enjoy it. There is a time and a place, but it is not to fill our sadness and our loneliness or our boredom or our stress or all of these things. And we do have to give ourselves grace and say it is okay to enjoy food, but we just have to change our relationship around it. So, yes, exactly. I love all the work you're doing around that. Um, in addition to that, you talk about this quantum biology. Where does that fit in with nutrition and Tell us more. Like, I just love this so much.

Oh, I love it too. So fun. Okay, so, you know, after working mainly nutrition for 6 to 7 years, you know, with people and really focusing on that, I felt the Lord, you know, calling me more into looking at other pieces and really driving me to the book of Genesis and looking at the creation story. And, you know, he made our bodies— I always say he made our bodies in relation to creation, right? One of those is food, plant foods, animal foods. We see that in the creation story. That's what he has provided us, right? Uh, but he also made sunshine and water and nature of the earth and, you know, grounding, putting our feet on the ground, picking up electrons. He also blew breath through our nose, not our mouth. We should be breathing through our nose. That's the, that's the sign of peaceful breath. He calls us to sleep and to rest into Sabbath. He calls us into fellowship and movement. And I just found that all of these these lifestyle practices and things that are important to health are just right there in the creation story. And so I just felt this like the Genesis prescription in my head. And so I really started focusing on kind of that whole package of not just food, but all of those things. And that led me into quantum biology and understanding how our body uses sunlight, how it, you know, how it— how our bodies make water internally and the difference between that and the water that we drink. The way that our bodies are— should be negatively charged, and that we can get electrons from the earth that are negatively charged that run our body. And so what quantum biology is, is really just studying biology at a subatomic level. So your photons, your electrons, and all the— all of this nerdy, boring stuff that we learned in, you know, in middle school that we totally blew off. And then now, to me, it's fascinating to understand the biology of the way that our body utilizes these subatomic particles that really run our, our body and, and provide the functionality of our body. And so, and that's what, that's what that is. I've been studying that and really incorporating that into my teaching ever since. And that was really, all of that was kind of what led to creating the School of Health and Nutrition. Because I had so many people over the years asking me, you know, like, where, where did you learn to be a Christian nutritionist? You know? And I'm like, well, I went here to, you know, to get my nutrition education, but the rest of it was the Lord, you know? And so I don't know where to send you. And so after a while, I felt the Lord calling me to, to create that. And again, I was like, nope, no, there is no way. That is too big. I can't do that. And again, he just kept pressing. And so that is also what we teach, um, beyond nutrition. We teach, um, the way the body works, um, you know, with this quantum biology level, and then all of these other, you know, kind of all these other inputs that we're talking about. But it's, it's been fascinating to learn about.

Yeah, I could geek out with you all day long on that stuff. That's my favorite. I mean The truth of it is we are a composite of invisible things all put together that show up as a solid matter. Like, if you could really start to ponder that for a while, read some Ecclesiastes. It, you know, unfortunately our translations don't do it justice, saying like, this is nothing, life is nothing, that chair is nothing. That's not what he was saying. He was saying it's hevel. It's a vapor. It's a moment in time. It is an invisible thing in a tangible world. And so I love that you are bringing awareness to this because truthfully, we are just a bunch of atoms all fused together to make us who we are. And we come from the dust and we require dust and water and sunlight and all of the things. So So good. I love it.

It is. All right, so we've talked about such a wide range of things today, which is incredible. Um, but I know that there's a woman out there who's listening and she's like, man, I don't even know where to start. If you could just tell her 2 to 3 things to start with, what would those 2 to 3 things be?

Yeah, I would say, um, dietarily, I would say eat more protein, prioritize protein. Just, you know, and focusing on those clean, healthy animal foods, that's going to be really important. And I think when you do that, it kind of helps put the other macronutrients, um, you know, better in their place. Um, I would say get out and get some sunshine. One of the best things that we can do is to get sunshine within a few hours of waking up. It really signals our body, it signals our hormones. It signals cortisol, it helps regulate cortisol. It's going to determine how well you sleep later that night. And while you're out there, take your shoes off and put your feet on the earth. And I know these things sound crazy to people, but what I like to remind everybody is that God did not make our healing inaccessible. Truly, the outdoors is a healing chamber. And you walk outside and you can get sunshine, you can pick up electrons to, you know, so those are just so simple things, even though they They sound crazy, but those are the simplest things you can do. And eat more protein. And those are my top favorite thing— things to do, to recommend.

Absolutely.

I love it. So good. Gotta get those foundational things in, ladies. And, uh, I just love how God works because I always choose a scripture for the episode, and we, we recommend to everyone listening, just meditate on this one scripture today. Think about it, talk to to God about it, go open your Bible and read the chapter around it. And lo and behold, you talked quite a bit about this. So ladies, Genesis 2:7, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." So there were so many golden nuggets out of there. The fact that yes, breathing through your nostrils is a sign of rest and relaxation and parasympathetic activation. We actually just were at an equine therapy session this past weekend when I spoke at a women's wellness retreat, and they pointed out that horses only breathe out of their nostrils. They do not breathe out of their mouth, and they are the strongest things out there. That is why we call our cars having horsepower, because we gauge them against how strong those horses are to pull things. And so like, the intricacies of God's design should not be overlooked. Every single word is in there for a reason. So thank you for being such a good steward of God's word and really just taking the time to learn all of this and listen and share it with the world, because you are needed. Your message is needed. And I'm just like blown away by how awesome you really are and the good work that you're doing, Chelsea.

Oh, thank you so much. I feel the same way about everything that you're doing. Like, I, you know, you guys, you're on my podcast, which was so fun, and I was like, I— we are definitely sisters from the same big mister and so aligned in all that we're thinking. I love it so much.

So good. All right, go meditate on Genesis 2:7. Please just read the whole book, at least read a couple chapters. Yes, it's incredible the details you'll start to pick up, and you'll be like, yeah, oh yeah, I do need to be out in the sun. I do need to put my foot on the ground and get grounded. So thank you, Chelsea. Please leave us a review, ladies. If this is filling your heart right now, you need to tell Apple and Google and Spotify and all the places. Tell them it's important to you and that you want to hear more. You do that by hitting the 5-star and leaving a review. That is where it's at. And if you're on YouTube and you're watching Click the notifications so that you can join us every week and subscribe and leave a comment. We want to know what you're thinking. We want to support you. Tell us what else you want to hear about. What did Chelsea, you know, bring to life today for you so that we can bring more of it? So have an amazing week. Go be Christ's hands to serve. We love you.

Bye, ladies.

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Till next time.