Meet My Wife, Dr. Chelsea Axe

¡Hola!

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Oh, what is it like?

For me, it was love at first sight.

That's a lie, actually. We throw that term around so loosely. It's iron sharpens iron and you're sharper and better because of it. But think of the process of it. Again, it's like refinement. Refinement hurts. Yeah, when you're in the fire, when you're being refined, when your iron sharpens iron, like, that does not feel good.

Why did we choose home birth using a midwife over going the traditional medical in a hospital? This, of course, The most controversial question, of course. Did we choose to vaccinate our kids or will we?

Did we choose to vaccinate?

How has having kids changed your relationship with God or your view on God?

Oh man, I just remember with Arwen, man, it just wrecks you. The amount of love. There's so many things. I just remember with Arwen when she was little. I think I've told you this story before, just holding her one night and rocking her. And I'm just like, man, I will always choose you. I'm gonna cry. That emotional. And I just remember like, "I hope you choose me back." I'm just thinking like, God is like that.

All right. On today's episode, I've got the most special guest I've ever had on the show. My wife, Dr. Chelsea Axe, is on the show today. We're going to be talking about everything from boosting your fertility, uh, how to have a great marriage. We'll talk about, uh, answer a lot of personal questions. In fact, one of the things we did on this episode is we asked you questions on Instagram and social media, and you guys poured in so many questions about health, about faith, about natural medicine, about raising healthy kids and families and marriage and so much more. So we're gonna answer those questions that you asked us today on the show. So welcome here to the Dr. Axe's show. So my wife—

Dr. Axe.

Dr. Axe, that's right. Dr. Axe's. And so my wife here, she's a doc as well. And we actually met because Chelsea came up to shadow my clinic when I had a functional medicine clinic. She's a little over 6 years younger than me, so when she was in school, I was in my first few years of practice. Came up to visit, and then it was— for me, it was love at first sight.

That's a lie, actually.

No, it was. It was love at first. So here's what happened. It was love at first sight, and then I met her dog, and then it was—

you met the dog before you met me.

That's right. I met the dog before I met you. But, um, and then I fell in love with the dog. I was not a dog person growing up and became a big dog person through my wife here, who talks about adopting all the animals and, you know, save the puppies.

Puppy Island.

It's my dream. But babe, thanks for coming on.

Yeah, thanks for making me do this.

All right, well, yeah, I had to drag her on. So Chelsea also has a very vibrant social media following on Instagram and—

I promise I'll get back to posting someday.

Yeah, just kids, you know, a lot of—

I have such good intentions and then I like post once or twice and then, you know, life happens and it's been 4 months and I'm like, oh, should do that again.

Yeah. All right, so here are some of the questions. One of the first questions here is, What is it like being married to Dr. Josh Axe?

Oh, what is it like? It is an adventure. That's probably the best way I would describe it. It's very busy. Yeah, you're busy day in and day out, but it's super fun. I feel like, again, I'm married to Dr. Josh Axe, but I'm married to Josh.

Yeah, you know, that's right.

Yeah, so, you know, there's a difference. I think people see Dr. Josh Axe, but I think there's so much more to you than just Dr. Josh Axe. And that's who I married. And that's who I live in day in and day out with. And that's who I have fun with. That's my best friend. So, oh goodness, what is it like? It's super fun. Like we have a blast. We're super busy with the girls right now in that season. I love watching you be an amazing dad at home to them. They love when you're there. They love playing with you. You're so good with them. You have such a big heart for people, seeing the way you pour into them. On the computer, like trying to, with health plans all the time. I mean, you're super busy with that, running all over the place to different appointments, traveling the world. That's definitely a part of it. It's an adventure. It's a huge adventure, but like the best one.

Yeah. So what's it like being married to Dr. Chelsea Axe? Well, for me, I will tell you, it's, it's been amazing. I mean, one of the things that, like, I remember praying for a wife when I was, in my late 20s. And I actually had one of my best friends, he was— we would get together on Sunday nights and we would pray for each other. And one of the things he would pray for me, that God bring me a spouse. And I prayed something really specifically. I said, God, would you send me a wife who is mentally stimulating, physically breathtaking, spiritually on fire for you, and that would help me grow more like you? And so that's been such a blessing for my life, is that you have just refined me, made me better. I mean, when I, when I married Chelsea, it was so apparent that you had such a deep, intimate relationship with God. And so you would spend so many hours just in your Bible, in prayer, just, just connecting with God. And so for me, that was something that really, I think, stirred me because I, the way that I grew spiritually was much more studying the historical facts, the Greek words, the Hebrew words, which I know, which I know you like as well, but really studying a lot of the, those historic facts and getting to know God in that way. And I think I was able to go even deeper in my relationship by spending more of that time in adoration, awe, and wonder. And so, so that was one thing. I mean, I think you're, you're a person that inspires me continually, and that's such a big part of, um, being married to you. Um, being married to you is being married to an amazing mom too, because we've got two daughters, a 20-month-old and a 5-year-old, and the way that you pour into them and really are intentional about stopping them and getting them to look you in the eyes anytime the kids do anything wrong. Our Chelsea's like, "Look me in the eye, look me in the eye," and make them look you in the eye. "What did you do wrong? What does the Bible say about how we need to live our lives?" And really aligning them with here is what the Bible says and getting them to act in that way is so, so powerful. So, Chelsea is very deep, deep conversations, and then I think we love to travel together. Chelsea is a big-time foodie, and so being married to her—

I would say we are both.

We are both big-time foodies. And so like last night we went to a French restaurant with our friends Steph and Isaac Meek, and it was amazing.

It was so good.

Yeah. And now living in Nashville, I think it's a top 5 food city in the entire country right now. So many people are moving here from California, opening restaurants.

Come a long way.

And it's amazing. So we are very much into cooking in the kitchen, making different meals, mixing it up, going out to eat. So we love really good quality food. So there's sort of that level of adventure. And then we both, we love the beach and we love the mountains. And so we do a lot of trips to like 30A, West Palm Beach, the Caribbean, and then also Park City snow skiing. So being married to Chelsea, it's also an adventure, but it's also an iron sharpens iron, really an incredible relationship for growth for me and inspiring for faith. So that's what it's like being married to me. Go T-Max! All right, our next question here: Chelsea, your skin always looks so glowy. What is your skincare routine?

Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Um, I think it first starts with your diet.

Yeah.

I mean, first and foremost, really, um, anything that's going on internally obviously shows on your skin. Stress, hormone off, gut imbalances, all things like that. So, you know, there's so many things that play into that, but that's foundational as far as eating clean. All that kind of a thing. But if you're talking about actual skincare routine, I love the skincare brand True Botanicals. It's like my tried and true. I've used them for years. I've tried many other brands. I'll add some here and there back in, but I always come back to True Botanicals. It's like my foundational cleanse. And then they have a couple like serums. They have a radiant serum that I'll use night. They have a great moisturizer. But that's essentially the foundation of what I use for skincare.

Yeah, and let me share, I feel like it takes you a long time, but maybe all men would feel that way about their wives in terms of—

It really doesn't, I feel like, compared to most women. If you actually watch—

Well, let me say this, on occasion you do things like that, the jade roller on your face. Gua sha. Yeah, exactly.

I do that in the shower.

The gua sha. You've done some red light. On occasion. You also do those on a few spots, those stickers you put on a couple—

I do frownies while I sleep. Yeah, I didn't— I did not mention that. I've done that for years as well. Don't do Botox or any injections or fillers or anything like that.

Yeah, you've never done any of that and you have no, no lines anywhere. It's amazing.

I do. But the frownies and everything have definitely helped with that. So you put them on at nighttime and it kind of helps retrain the muscles to just lay flat. If you're like an animated talker or sleeper, like when you dream and everything like that, you can end up making all these facial expressions and things like while you're sleeping. Yeah. And it just kind of helps to keep everything like flat and retrained and stuff at night. It's essentially like if you were to think about like if you had like a wrinkle or something and you were to like hold it like this flat for, you know, however long you were in bed for, like what would that do for that? Like that spot, you do that every night.

So yeah. And I'll just share too. I mean, your diet is really clean. So for breakfast you do a smoothie and typically in there I know you do a scoop of like a stem cell or bone broth protein, so about 20 grams of that. You do another scoop of a plant protein. You do goji berry powder. So like super fruit powders. You do a, like a super red, super green powder in there in the morning too. And that's a big, and then maybe you do like a fourth a cup of blueberries or something like that. But I mean, it's a very like berries and greens and a lot of protein and collagen in that morning smoothie. I know, and then some of your other meals, I know that you do a lot of, I mean, very high protein. Very high protein. You're probably doing 40, 80 grams of protein per meal.

At least, and then snacks on top of that.

Yeah, so you do very high protein. We do a lot of steamed vegetables.

A lot of steamed vegetables.

And then outside of that, you do a fair amount of like sweet potatoes probably is your biggest carb.

I love sweet potatoes, yeah. Good caramelized sweet potato. Once in a while, I mean, I'll do some sourdough.

Oh yeah, and sourdough bread. That would be— sourdough bread and butter and maybe some yogurt, cottage cheese, those sort of foods.

Yes, love cottage cheese. That's a big—

would be the— so that's pretty much your diet.

Yeah, that's a pretty good foundation. You add a couple things here and there.

And then chocolate a few days a week. Your favorite dessert is chocolate chip cookies. It is. Okay, well, that was the next question. What's an example of what you eat in a day that's pretty close? And our diets are pretty similar in that. What are some simple ways to optimize fertility, especially for women in their 30s?

Well, you start on that one. You're better at this.

Yeah. Yeah. So I'll take that and share some things you've done. I mean, you've definitely done some research on this, but I would say that if you are in your 30s, you really want to— I think the first, it starts with your, your mind and your, and your spirit, because I think that what I've seen is that one of the biggest reasons why women have a hard time with fertility is their stress. They're trying too hard and they don't feel safe and secure. So when we think about Chinese medicine, if you don't feel internally safe and cure, it's hard to get pregnant. I remember when we were about to have— before we had Arwen, we were starting the discussions around having a child. We were in a house, or maybe even before, renting. And you had said, no, like, I want to live in a home I feel really good about, in an area I feel really good about. And it's sort of this thing. And you brought up the word nesting. I literally never heard it before. You remember this? Oh yeah. Conversation. And, and I'm like, okay, well, let's get a a house you feel great about. Let's, let's do that. And, uh, and then we had, you know, had Arwen not, not too long after that. But I think that's really important is to get in that mindset of I'm safe, I'm secure. The way I talk about is you're on a couch— like, this is, this is totally Chelsea's vibe— you're on a couch wrapped in a blanket, your favorite. It probably starts off with, uh, a warm latte with almond milk and maybe transitions into cacao and, uh, or, or, uh, hot cocoa. And, and the family's there. It's like we're decorating Christmas, we're all— we're playing Christmas, be like, like, and you feel safe, secure, warm, uh, is this deep family connection. I mean, the more that you can get into that state, and this is why warming foods are better, doing more soups, more pumpkin pie, more, more cinnamon, more of those sort of foods is going to sort of get your body in that right state, um, and really work on your emotions, getting rid of fear and worry. Those are the two biggest emotions that disrupt fertility. Getting into that state's important. And then I know— why don't you share the supplements that you take when you're—

just half of what just saying getting out of the state of like the fear and control, like, right? Control. Trying to be in control and controlling a situation is what you do when you're afraid, right? To be able to surrender and release something is what you can do when you step out of a state of fear. And one of the biggest things that I see inhibiting people from getting pregnant— I even struggled with this in the beginning. Remember, we had a good friend come and talk to me. They're like, you just need to let go.

Yeah.

Um, I was trying to track everything. You remember, I was like, well, this— if I'm ovulating this time and then I'm— my hormones are spiking here, so I need— we need to try this day and this day. And that's not a bad thing. But if it gets into too much of that state where you're just hanging on and clenching, your body actually isn't in that safe place where it's going to allow you to then bring new life. Yeah. And I remember a good friend, um, our actual— Gil—

Gil—

yeah, he was like, you need to stop tracking and just let it go and like trust your body. Like, your body was created to do this.

Yeah.

Trust it. Trust the process. And I think that's So important for getting pregnant, but then also something you just have to learn. I mean, it's pregnancy and then it's a whole nother thing with parenting, right? But when you're pregnant, you literally can't do anything to like force your body to do something with the pregnancy. Yeah. Like you can't, okay, at this point, body, I need you to create this for this baby or anything. It's, you have to literally let go. Release, just surrender and trust that your body knows what it's gonna do. Your body was created to do this and it's gonna do it. Think about even in like doctors, if they, if they suspected something was wrong in the pregnancy, there's nothing they can do, right? They even have to step back and trust and see what's gonna happen with the body. Like there's no interventions. Yeah. So I think even before coming into a state of trying to conceive, just again, releasing control, coming into a state of like, I'm not gonna be fearful in this. And just really focusing on that before even stepping in, because it's even harder once you get pregnant, right, to release that, to fight that state of like being afraid, like, oh my goodness, is everything okay? And then even beyond that, all of a sudden it's like you have this baby and it's like trying to control all the aspects of having a kid. And, you know, we're even talking about like schools and everything like that. And it's just like, man, releasing this child back and trusting that God's gonna meet her where she's at, not just us, you know, it's like on her behalf, that's a whole nother level of trust. It just kind of builds from there.

Well, we've heard a lot of stories of people who saying when we stopped trying, that's when I got pregnant. I mean, this happens so frequently.

The body knows.

It does.

The body 100%.

Yeah, it's amazing. You know, one of the questions I know that we had come in was about home births. Oh yeah. And both our daughters were home births. Yes, they were water births. And what an amazing experience. I was talking to someone about this the other day that it was like one of the most— probably one of the most spiritual experiences that I've ever had. You know, you're just living in an amazing state. I know for you it's probably even another level. So why, why did we choose home birth using a midwife over going the traditional medical, uh, in a hospital?

For us, we felt more comfortable in our home environment, in our home setting, with even being able to make choices and trusting our providers and everything like that.

We had an amazing midwife, didn't we?

Oh my goodness, 10 out of 10. Both, both births were her. If we have another, another baby, definitely having her again. Yeah, she's the best.

I mean, there's something to be said if you have a great midwife or doula to like help you through that process. It's— I think some people, some people maybe are hesitant about having it at home, but you know, it's very easy to get to a hospital. And the other thing is, it was so amazing for us to be able to, after, after you give birth to Arwen, for us to just be on our own bed in our own home, resting in that way.

And even in the middle of labor, not having to like, oh, contractions at a certain point, let's get in the car. Like, I can't even imagine, like, women having to, like, be in the middle of labor and then drive somewhere. Oh man, I'm like, props to you guys.

Yeah, you know what, I mean, our, our birth story with Arwen, the first one, was, it was a little bit crazy too because Chelsea said she was keeping track of her contractions. You had your phone in the shower, and then at some point she lost track of, of, of the, of the, of the time. And I go in there and I'm like, Chelsea, your contractions are Like, you're gonna have this baby in like 30 minutes. And she's like, and, and I ran, got the phone, called the midwife. And then I started, I went to go fill up the bathtub. The, the tub handle came off.

He broke the, like the nozzle off the bathtub.

Cause I was like running and I was like, and I literally ripped the handle off and I'm like, oh no.

So he is trying to fill up the bathtub and the handle's off. So water's spraying all over the place.

And there's this whole list of things to do. I need warm towels. Like, you know, get, you know, get a, get a, a, you know, a thermos ready with, uh, Electrolytes, and so—

I didn't lose track of time. I was just so set on I did not want to call the midwife too early.

She lost track of time, but go ahead.

Go ahead. I didn't want to be like that person. You know, you hear the stories, they call them, they say, "No, you're in false labor." So I was like, I'm going to be so sure that I'm at this point before I give you the call.

40 minutes later after I made the call, she had the baby. Baby was out. Arwen was out. The midwives got there 10 minutes before. That Arwen came out. I got to catch the— I got to catch on both our daughters, which was so great. Got to be part of the delivery and, and, uh, and help out there. But it was, uh, it was amazing. And we played praise and worship music the entire time, um, while, uh, you know, and then the water birth was great too. Um, and so it was, uh, it was an amazing experience. And it's very similar thing with Ailyn. I knew what we called much earlier, and still it just was 2 hours later. I mean, you're both— your births were pretty fast. One of the reasons why I think your births were so fast is you really prepared your body.

Yeah, you didn't rush it.

I mean, a lot of women to realize that like it's 10 days after the due date or so. It should be closer to 42 weeks, not whatever they have listed, you know, typically in terms of the due date. So a lot of women go and get it scheduled and even schedule C-sections ahead of time. And we know via the medical studies, you are better off if you can. And listen, we understand not everyone can. Sometimes we have really close friends that are 100% natural planned home births. And they had to go to the hospital. And if that's what happened, that's what happened, and you do your best. But I think it is best to try and do it at home, or I'm sorry, I think it is best to try and do it naturally rather than scheduling it ahead of time is better just because of the good bacteria that's happening via vaginal birth, via C-section. I mean, there's studies on this in terms of all of those good bacteria. And if not, you can still wipe the child down some the best you can. With your mucosa and some of the good bacteria. But, but that's, that's the, that's the ideal. But I know post-pregnant or before pregnancy, especially the third trimester, you were doing a lot of, or several things to sort of support your body in preparing for birth. I know some of the things you did were raspberry leaf tea.

Yep.

Evening primrose oil, maybe later. And then you did a lot of dates, right? Anything else? But those are some of the big things.

Yeah, I think those were the main things. And then to just Specific exercises, making sure like hip mobility, being adjusted, different things like that. So that your body and your hips can actually move correctly. And they're, you know, 'cause your hips have to open up to make space in for the baby to drop into the birth canal and everything like that. So supplements and everything like that. But then, you know, a lot of specific physical movement and stretching too, just to make sure that baby can move quickly and easily into the correct position.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you were getting chiropractic adjustments. You got some acupuncture as well. Those sort of things, just sort of preparing the body. And then just a lot of walking. You continued to exercise pretty much the whole time. Whole time. You know, through pregnancy.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And then post-pregnancy, you know, I know not exercising hard, but walking. And you got in the infrared sauna a little bit after, just short sessions, like 10 minutes, just to kind of warm your body and really focus on building blood. That's something a lot of people miss. And so you did placenta.

Yep. I think we encapsulated our placenta. Yeah, we did that. A lot of what we did for meals after were the big, like the soups, the red meats warming, things like that. And just very calorie dense too, really lots of healthy fats. 'Cause, you know, obviously you lost a lot of blood, but then you're also utilizing the blood that's there to make milk.

That's right.

So you're losing blood that avenue too. So even some blood builders, like we added those supplements and everything back in.

I think a lot of women feel so weak and even get worse postpartum depression than they should because there's so much blood loss and they never build their blood afterwards. And if you look at Chinese medicine, I mean, they're really focused on once you give birth, really focused on building that blood back up.

Yeah. Yeah. And then to taking the time after as much as you can to rest. It's hard, especially when you have kids, to not have to jump back into it and chase them around the house and everything like that. But when you're so deficient and your body just went through this huge exertion of energy and again losing all the blood and everything like that. Like, you need to take that time to rest and recover and allow your body to come back to, you know—

yeah, I know one of the things you're not as inclined to do, but I think you did a good job of this last time, is asking for help and relying on like your mom and myself and others, your dad, to kind of, you know, support that first 3 months, especially after giving birth.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I think what they say that, um, What it's like the quote of, it's like 5 days in the bed, 5 days. I don't know if it's 5 days. It's 5 days, 5 days in the bed, 5 days on the bed, 5 days around the bed.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's 5 days.

Mm-hmm.

Something like that. Yep. But that's kind of like your general, like what the, you should kind of strive to do. So 5 days in bed where you're not moving, like going to the bathroom. That's kind of like what you should be baseline doing. 5 days on the bed where it's a little bit more, but still you're on the bed. 5 days around the bed where it's, you know, just more close to the house, still close to bed, but you're still. Adding and just slowly movement back in, which I know a lot of people can't do that with numerous kids and partners are working and things like that. But that should be a— that's a good thing to try to do.

Do your best to take it easy. Yeah. All right, next question. What are your thoughts on homeschooling your kids? Is that something you're considering?

I think homeschooling is always something we're considering. I think every year— I think that's something I, I want a purpose to do is every year reevaluate where we're at, where our kids are at, what the environment is. I think there's so many variables that go into it. I think homeschooling is incredible. I think it's an amazing thing. I love being able to have that time with your kids that you're not, you know, giving to other things and places that you can have back with them, being able to choose how you're pouring into them, what, but every kid is different. Every situation is different. And so I think it depends. I think right now Arwen is in preschool, right? 4 days a week for 4 hours each time. And she loves it. She does amazing. She loves being with other kids. She loves having a teacher outside of us. She's in the stage right now where she does not love us educating her, giving her any instruction. So having somebody on the outside, it's great. And she loves it too. Like she really takes instruction from them so well and she loves being under their wing with that kind of a thing. Yeah. So like right now I feel like even if we were to like, I want to homeschool and that was like super heavily on my heart for her, it wouldn't be the best situation for her in this scenario. Next year, you know, we'll reevaluate again.

Yeah. Yeah. I think our take is very much It depends on the child. Like for us, again, we are huge homeschooling fans, huge. We've got a lot of friends that homeschool, but I think for us and our daughter, like we, yeah, in Nashville there are some amazing Christian schools, too. So right now we have her school called Mustard Seed and love that, but I think for us we just really love, for our oldest, it's such a fit for her being at this school. Her teachers are amazing, super supportive. She has a lot of friends. She loves that. And we still get a lot of time with her. So, so that's good. With Ailyn, we'll see, obviously, over time. But yeah, I think, you know, I think so. I went to a Christian school through 8th grade and then went to a public high school. And I think for me it was really great. I mean, I had a 10 out of 10 experience. I went to Troy Christian High School in Ohio, or I went to Troy Christian School in Ohio and had just so many teachers that really loved me, that cared for me. I built lifelong friendships there. Some of the— I'm still friends with some people I went to preschool with. I mean, it's crazy. So I had an amazing experience. But even when I went to high school, my parents made sure I was very plugged into things like youth group. So, you know, we went to church on Sunday, then Sunday school, then I had Wednesday nights. I was going on mission trips, you know, very active. So I think if you go to a public school, that can be fine too. But as a parent, you've got to be, I think, very, very intentional with all your kids that it's not just about the school system. Educating them and training them up in the way you should go. We have to do that as parents first and foremost in supporting the teachers in the school.

Yeah, yeah. What is that? You're, you're the person— you're the average of the people that you're around most, right?

Yeah.

So that would include teachers, that would include the peers. Um, so you had to look at like, how are the other kids in the class being parented, right? Because those behaviors and those principles are rubbing off on your kids. So obviously school and everything should be supplemental, but that doesn't negate the fact that it is helping to average out who your kid is becoming.

Yeah.

Right. So it is important that you look at it and it's like, well, it's just for this many hours. It is, but that still is a piece that's being poured into your kid and that will help to determine, you know, who they're going to be and what they're going to believe. And yeah. So it's, it's important.

Yeah. I don't think a lot of people realize that, like if your kids are in daycare or a certain school or have a certain even coach, like if they're spending If that's one of the 5 people they're spending the most time with or one of the top 10 people, that's a person that's really rubbing off on them in a major way. And is that what you want versus yourself or someone else that's virtuous that you're spending time with? So I mean, that's such an excellent point for people to really, really, really think about.

Yeah, I think so often we think about that for ourselves. We don't necessarily think about that in terms of our kids. Like, who are the 5 people that my kids spend the most time with? And then thinking about those people and who are the people that those— like, if that's a— it's a— if it's a friend, well, what are their parents like? Because their parents are the ones that are dictating the kid, right?

Well, I remember growing up, my parents saying things like, you know, trying to dictate who I spent time with, and I remember not loving that.

Sure.

A few times. But now I'm, I'm thankful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Another question we just had, this is of course the most controversial question.

Of course.

I could guess. Did we choose to vaccinate our kids or will we?

Did we choose to vaccinate? No, we did not vaccinate our kids.

No, we chose not to. And the biggest reason is, is that it's this sort of, I think it's this biblical idea that Jesus said, "By your fruits you'll recognize them," or by the results, by their health. It's this thing like, see the fruits of their lives. And when I think about the healthiest people that I know, It tends to be people that are in functional medicine, chiropractors, naturopaths, like those families that are into natural health. Like everyone from Jack LaLanne, a lot of people don't realize like he was a chiropractor, he was into natural health. People like that lived a long, healthy life. All of those people that I know, or at least 98% of them, chose not to do vaccines. The healthiest people I know physically that have the longest lifespans, best health. You know, you even look at like the Amish and like some of their, they don't have some of these chronic illnesses and all the allergies and things today. And so when I look at that, those families do that the least amount. And then after that, it's the people that are— do a spread-out schedule or the most thoughtful about it in terms of what I've seen and what we've both seen. And we both talked about this quite often. So I think for both you and I, we're just very, very aware of looking at the fruit of people's lives and saying, okay, If I want to have that sort of success in my health and my wealth and my faith, that's the person I want to model. I know that we've done this even in our spiritual life. We've looked at certain people and said, okay, this might be a well-known pastor, but like, how's their marriage? Like, how is it really behind the scenes with them? And trying to— and then allowing those types of people to help lead and guide us in our own faith.

Mm-hmm.

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Come from them. How did I get into it?

It was, I think it was Carrie Underwood, right? You saw her post and you reached out to her?

No, no, that was— well, I think we connected on it because I saw that she was doing it too, and I was— I had just started.

Oh, you'd both started about the same time. Yeah.

Okay. So, or at least I saw she'd been doing it. So I connected with her on that, but I went and got a starter from like a bread company that I knew that their starter had been like around for a long time, which means, you know, lots of good bacteria in there, lots of microbes, lots of differentiation there, which is good. You want a good healthy starter like that. And then I just kind of started playing around with a couple recipes essentially that I found on the internet. And I love the fact of being able to obviously control what goes into the bread. If you look at the ingredients on like store-bought bread, all the different things. So I was like, I'm going to give this a shot. Obviously we know that there's better bacteria and it's fermented. So it's easier to digest and good enzymes and all the things. And then obviously controlling like the flour and so making, and then all of a sudden then you have the taste, which you compare it to store-bought. It's just not comparable.

And we've done a combination. I mean, you've got Ballerina Farms, right? Some of their flour. Yeah, organic corn. We've done some einkorn, some of the ancient einkorn wheat, which with butter is amazing, grass-fed butter.

But next step is milling our own, you know, with like that.

Yeah, that is the next step.

That is the next step, which I have not done that yet. That is on the list. At some point we will do that. My friend does it. Cory does it.

Oh yeah. So amazing.

Well, next step up to do that. But yeah, we've done that. And then once you have like a good starter and you have that base, we've done, what we've done, we've done English muffins. For like our pizza nights, we make our own now sourdough crust for pizzas. We've done bagels. Yeah. We have done muffins, little bite-sized muffins.

We do pancakes.

Pancakes and waffles. Yeah. Cookies.

Sourdough, everything.

Sourdough, everything.

That's great. You know, you know what a lot of people don't realize is sourdough is— it kills off something called phytic acid. So now you can absorb all the B vitamins, all the nutrients, all the minerals in there. And again, when we read about bread today, it's got such a bad rap versus when you read in the Bible, Jordan and I, we wrote on this in the Bibliodiet, is just getting into like, it's so much more nutrient dense doing it the ancient way that we've talked about, and so I think that way bread can be, I don't think it should be a main staple of some people's diet if you've got maybe a chronic inflammatory condition, but I think for a lot of people and for kids and if you're generally healthy, it can be a big staple. We know it's one of the top foods along with red meat that Solomon ate, that Jesus ate, So, I think for a lot of people, they could benefit from doing— but there's a big difference between doing real sourdough you make at home or you buy from like a local bakery that specializes in it versus others. But I think even Whole Foods, I think one of the brands has— I can't remember the name— has a little bit of yellow on the label. It's in the frozen bread section, but there's a sourdough spelt. So, people can get it in different places, but it's been a— I know we've loved doing it as a family.

The girls love like getting in and making it too, and it's been a good like jumping off point to like educate the girls too on helping know what's in our food and different ingredients and yeah, things like that too. So like, you know, Arwen asked, well, why are we doing this instead of buying? It's like, well, and being able to use that to teach and about the different ingredients and what's healthy and not, and then also balance too.

So yeah, so some people know, not a lot of people know, we are building out our own homestead. We bought 10 acres, and so we're going to have a large barn, a big pond, have a lot of animals. We're gonna have ducks, chickens, cows, Cows, a couple sort of mini cows. We might do a mini zebu and for A2 milk. And then we may do sheep as well, maybe goats. But what are you most excited about with us building our own mini farm here in Nashville?

I'm so excited to make my own cottage cheese and butter.

Yeah, yeah.

Butter, like fresh milled butter, like in sourdough.

Yeah, it's gonna be fun.

It's gonna be so good.

So I tell our daughter every night, this is her favorite story. I tell her about our farm. Going to sleep story.

Yeah, our going to sleep story.

So my 5-year-old, I've been putting her to sleep at night. And so I say, you know, we drive down a long driveway and then we walk into a garden.

But you do it in a certain voice, like do the voice, like the very mellow voice.

Let me see if I can do it.

To like put her to sleep while she listens?

And we drive down a really long driveway and then we go into the house and Mommy says, "I need some eggs and I need some fruit and I need some honey and milk to make breakfast." And so Arwen and I grab a bucket and a basket "and we walk down a little stone path into the garden and we grab broccoli and cauliflower and squash and zucchini. Then we go to the fruit tree orchard and we grab apples and pears and plums and cherries. Then we go to the berry bushes. We get blackberries, raspberries, strawberries. Then we go to the cows and we milk the cows and fill the bucket with milk." So I just keep going and then we go to the duck eggs and they're all different colors. We've got red, we've got green. And so her and I go through this whole thing at night together. And then by the end she just, you know— She's out. She passes out. As we go through sort of this, you know, vision of this future farm that we'll have. It's taken longer than we want. It'll probably be another year and a half, 2 years. But we're so excited. I mean, so, so excited to be able to do that and have the girls just sort of get their hands dirty on the farm and be able to experience that growing up. And of course, there's major health benefits. I mean, you look at the studies around—

Eat dirt.

Yeah, eat dirt. I wrote a whole book on this years ago. So loads and loads of benefits. And when we saw this more and more people moving out in the country, getting more land, we have so many friends now that just decided, hey, I don't have a lot of land, but I have enough where I can do chickens and a home garden. Oh yeah. You know, so there's, man, so many—

We attempted our home garden this year and we have a lot to learn.

But this was the best one we'd done. Here's the problem. We got overeager. So where you're supposed to plant 1 tomato plant, we planted 4 or 5.

In that thing.

And they just, they didn't get enough sun. So, now the tomatoes we had were amazing. Yeah, they were fabulous. And a lot of the cucumber, the zucchini, we got a lot. We just— we got over— we planted way too many seeds close together. So we'll— yeah, we'll learn from— we'll follow the directions. Yeah. So what, what is your vitamin and supplement regimen look like for the most part? Like, over the past 5 years, what are maybe your top 5 non-negotiables, go-tos you always take a supplement? Or could be your top 7, but what are your— what are some of your top?

Top would be in the morning, I either do bone broth protein or stem cell protein and a collagen. Like mixed in. That's like my non-negotiable. You were making fun of me the other day just because of how predictable I am in the morning, like with my routine.

And like, you're very routine.

Yeah, I'm very routine. But at the same time, like, that's, you know, it's a good thing. Yeah, your baseline, especially when it's like healthy. It's like your staple. Um, so I always start my day with that. That's the very first thing I do in the morning. It's like, I need to get my protein in. And that's before I'm able to do coffee, before I have any like a carb or anything like that. It's like protein's my foundation. So that's definitely one. Probiotics. Yeah, definitely make sure I get some probiotics in there. Probably magnesium. I feel like that's been a big staple in keeping that in. I feel like for recovery-wise, sleeping, I notice a big difference in just making sure magnesium is a consistent part of my diet. After that, I'm consistently doing what, a greens powder? Probably.

Yeah, you've done a greens really consistently. I'd say turmeric.

Yep, I do turmeric a lot. You're right, anti-inflammatory, just especially with the way, um, for fitness and working out. I'm definitely keep turmeric in my diet.

And then you've done a fish oil.

Yep. I'm not a— I wish I liked salmon. I really don't like salmon, like consuming it.

So you try and get other fish, but yeah, you don't. I eat— you eat way more so much salmon, but yeah.

It's— I wish I liked it. I've tried so hard. So because of that, I've tried to stay really consistent with my omega-3 supplements. And just because I know I don't get it a ton in my diet.

And then you've been taking a mitochondrial supplement. You said you really noticed the difference with that.

Yeah, huge difference energy-wise, recovery-wise.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, with my Oura Ring. And even if like my sleep isn't great, I still like— my readiness score, my recovery is still so good every day, which has been awesome.

Yeah, those are probably your top 7, I would say, that you've done really, really consistently over the past— like my staples.

I feel like that Regardless of like what changes in life, those are still like my part of like my baseline. Yeah.

Yeah. And mine are pretty similar. I mean, I do a little bit more and you do an organs and glandular sometime too. That might be the other thing. If there's an 8th on occasion that you do.

And a multi, obviously that's always part of it.

But yeah, yeah, yeah.

I do the organ ones.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And my, my, my regimen is pretty similar. I probably do a little bit more like in the morning. I know we have our routines. You do your coffee. I do my matcha most mornings there as well. And so that's a routine, but for most mornings we're doing like a superfood smoothie, either like sweet potato or some blueberries, water, loads of protein. Again, 20 grams of a collagen or bone broth or stem cell, that's like that type of protein, along with another 20 or 30 grams of a plant protein. So we're getting like 20 grams of a collagen, another 30+ grams of a plant-based protein or eggs, something like that, a very high protein. And then same thing, protein and more protein. I think that's one of the bigger things that women probably are missing is that they probably need more protein and a lot of people in their diet absolutely so critical for metabolism, for blood sugar, for everything. And so, um, that would probably be one of the— that's probably been the biggest staple in our diet is getting lots of that, um, in our diet over the past few years.

All right.

How has having kids changed your relationship with God or your view on God?

Oh man, drastically. But like, how? Um, I would say in the beginning of like having kids, I remember spending some time with God and just being like, okay, like I know I want kids and I want this like further down, but it's always like in the face of my— am I ready? Like, is now the time? It's, you know, kind of wrestling with that back and forth and like, okay, I'm gonna do it. Like, we're gonna do this. And I remember just being like, okay God, like I need you to meet me in this for doing it. And I just remember him like like so gently just being like, this is going to be a fast track almost of like you and me being like in our relationship. If you jump on this and you do this, having kids will be a fast track in you like in our just be like, you knowing my heart essentially. And it was so true. I just remember with Arwen, man, it just wrecks you. The amount of love you have for— and I talked about there's so many I just remember with R when she was little, I think I've told you this story before, just holding her one night and rocking her, and I'm just like, "Man, R, I will always choose you." I'm gonna cry. That emotional. And I just remember like, "I hope you choose me back." Like, I'm just thinking like, God is like that. You know, like, he just wants us to choose him. Just that simple baseline of, "Just pick me back." I mean, oh yeah, it's so simple but so profound when you feel it so deeply. Yeah. Um, what else? Another example. Oh, Arwen, for like discipline, things like that. Man, it's hard to discipline her. And it's not because like it's just hard to discipline, it's because like my heart is so like, I want I want her to like have everything she wants. So to like be like, yeah, we can't have dessert tonight because this is like the consequence for whatever. It's like, I so badly want to give her like everything in our pantry that's dessert. Like literally that is my heart. But I know that that will not help her to step into and like become who she's meant to be. But like seeing that as like the heart of God and like he doesn't want to give consequences. It's not his heart to bring like discipline and judgment and all these things. I love you so much, and it's hard. It's hard for me to see like this on you, where you have to walk through this, because that's not my heart for you. Like, my heart is that you would do it right the first time and you get to step into everything, you know, all the blessings and everything like that.

Yeah.

So just like even those two little examples of just, man, it's shown me such a different side that you think you know. Like, you know, God is the Father, you know, like, that he loves you and he's a good dad. And like, you think you know that, but until you step into as a parent that deep connection with your kid of, man, I love them so much. It's more than you can logically think or comprehend. Yeah. It doesn't even make sense. You think you know until you walk through it. It's just different. Yeah.

Yeah. I remember we were on a— it was like we were on a golf cart. You might remember this. We were in Watercolor, 38th Florida. We were with Sean and Andrew East. And Andrew actually asked us that question. I remember you sharing this. Something very similar when he had asked that, and we all kind of talked about that as parents. And I think for me, it's very similar, but for me very specifically, it is when I think about how much I love our daughters and thinking that God loves us even more. I mean, it's amazing because it's like when you have kids, like you would do anything for them, even giving your life for them. I mean, you would do anything. In order for them to be blessed and have fun and to grow and all those things. And so, and I think for me that was— I already had a sense of a really deep intimate relationship with God, but I think it brought it a whole nother level deeper because just thinking about, okay, like God is always working out things for our good. He's never withholding out of punishment. He's only withholding because to help us grow, to help us become more like him, to have us have more joy and a more abundant life. And so to just think that God loves us so much, he never never stops thinking about us. He knows us to the very hair on our head. He is always like, like when we're sad, he's sad. Like to think about and know that God's love is so deep in that way, again, beyond even what we love our own kids, it really sort of changes our view of God. I think a lot of people have this view of God that he's sort of like angry in the distance, or he doesn't care, he's aloof, versus knowing, no, you've got a God that loves you so much who wants a relationship with you And to your point, we have to choose him back and pursue him back in that same way. We have to choose him and we have to pursue him as well. And he'll meet us every time. He'll meet us every time.

It's a different level of trust, too. Like, it's a level of opportunity, I would say.

Yeah.

Brings about different opportunities for that. I know a friend of mine, she had an episode with her daughter at school where she needed a miracle, like for a different, like a spot to open up at the school. And it did. And for her daughter. And I just, it was so cool just being able to see, like talk to her through it. And then after and be like, and just see, like, you know, trusting God for something in your life is one thing, but then trusting him to meet your kid outside of you is a totally different level of trust. 'Cause like, I want to step in and make it happen for my kid, but can you let go and trust that God's going to meet them them. Yeah, it's just, it's, it's a totally different thing. And so to be able to see God show up on behalf of your kids, like, because he loves them, and it's not, you know, outside of just your relationship with him, and that's a whole nother level of trust too. Again, like you were saying, because, you know, I love our kids so much.

Like, it's this combination of you've got to seek and knock and find and go after and pray, earnestly sometimes, but also take your hands off the wheel sometimes. Now, sometimes you need to go after it too in a different way, but sometimes you just need to just surrender as you— it's, uh, yeah, I mean, these are amazing lessons we've been able to learn as parents. And so I do think being parents has allowed us to grow deeper and more intimate with— in our relationship with God. I think everyone can do that if you really kind of get in that spot of thinking, you know. And for not everybody— listen, we had amazing parents, I'll say that. I mean, your mom and your dad are extraordinary. My mom and dad are amazing. And so we had parents who did everything they could to pour into us and to love us. Not everybody has that. So I think some people don't maybe have that same, um, reference point for what God's like if you didn't have a really virtuous parent or if you didn't have a parent there. And so I think trying to find that equivalent and knowing God is more is a, is a powerful thing. I think that also leads us into— we had a question here about marriage. Age. And it's another thing, it's so funny. I think about some of those interesting questions we've ever had. Again, Andrew East and Sean, um, they're, uh, you know, we were in LA at that restaurant and Andrew asked like, what's your most difficult— and we literally got that question. I don't know why every— why does everyone always want to know what are your deepest problems that you've ever had?

It's like, what is the biggest disagreement you've ever had or something out of the blue? And it's always, you know, you find the biggest one, it's something that like you've compromised on, but it's I mean, it's resolved, but it's like you could still like, you know, kind of go at it still with, so everyone at the table was just kind of, it was just funny.

Oh yeah. Yeah. So, so I, so like, let me, I'll answer.

So, so what's the, what's the, what's the question everybody wants to know? Disagreement or?

Yeah. So, so the question here is what is something you and Josh have disagreed on in your faith and how did you work through it?

It?

I can answer this or you can. You let me know.

I want to hear your answer, but I think I have an answer, too.

Yeah, so here's what I would say. So Chelsea and I, honestly, our biggest disagreement in our entire marriage came like 6 months in. I mean, it was our first year of marriage, and it was around— this is a very theological thing, but like, should you take a day of rest or not, a Sabbath?

Is it a sin? That's what it was on. We were going to still get disagree right now.

No, and I've never believed it was a sin ever. But what I believed was, is that I actually, my belief is, and I've always brought this up, it's very much in a line with should you eat pork or shellfish or those sort of things in the Bible is that should you or shouldn't you? Well, I believe you always should take a Sabbath. That was my belief. You should always take a Sabbath. Sabbath, it's not necessarily has to be a sin to or not to, but you should. And the reason I did is that not only in the— my point was it's talked about in the Ten Commandments, but also God took a day of rest all the way starting in Genesis. So I really believe that Chelsea and I should both take a Sabbath, and I really tried to, I would say, pressure you into doing that as I, and I think that created a lot of tension. It was very tense because I felt like I was trying to control the situation and say, "No, we really need to take this day," and I think for you it was more every day could be seen as being a Sabbath. I mean, I'll let you share in your own words or thoughts kind of what that was, and then I can share how we worked through it. But I'll just say here's how we worked through it. One, we went to wise counsel. We went to your cousin Pete Sulak. And then he actually had a pastor in Knoxville, I remember, who we got on the phone with and we talked it out with, with a pastor. And we said, you know what, that makes sense. We understand what you're sharing, your viewpoints on this. And, and even though I don't know that we agreed 100% theologically on the idea, I think we both realize— and here's what I know about Chelsea. And where I, where I needed to get to as well was Chelsea loves God so much. She cares so much. If we think primarily of, uh, of religion as a relationship and building the number— the one thing, the biggest thing we want to do is build a deep intimate relationship with Jesus and become more like him and spread his kingdom. Well, then again, I think that that's where Chelsea's heart is. And so, and Chelsea and I are very much like this, like we, we are very much in alignment on where we want to get, where where we want to get our kids, where we want to be ourselves, thinking eternally, raising up kids that are Christlike. We are both there, but we tend to, would often take maybe different paths on how we would get there.

That's what I would say, actually, and I wouldn't even call it a disagreement, but I would say our continual disagreement in marriage has been is that we both have the same destination, but the way we both get there is very different.

I like, like for me, I'm probably much more structured and logical on let's strategize every step and plan out every moment to get to the point. And you want to create a little bit more freedom and looseness.

I'm like an outline person.

Yeah. And hey, let's have a general outline, but I don't want to plan every step. I want to kind of have like this, you know, I want room for freedom and flow as we go to end up there. And that's kind of the—

yeah. So I would say in our, in our Christian walk, whatever, you're very much more like you said this in the very beginning, like you are so you're a learner. You love to learn, like, the Hebrew and the Greek, and let's break this down, what does the Bible say, and like, how does that relate to, like, historically, what is the context, what are all these things. And then that's how you learn, and that's how you communicate. Yeah. And I'm much more like, I had a dream from God last night, and I have this word, and, um, I felt this, the Spirit of God was saying this when I was praising and worshiping the other day, and things like that, which neither are wrong, and you need both, right? He is It's the worship in spirit and truth, right? It's a balance of both, but in balance, they're still different. So finding a way to be able to meet and connect in those two things has been, I would say, not a disagreement necessarily where we've been like disagreed, but it's been more where we've had to work and be super intentional about connecting in that area.

And I think the other thing, though, is like if we embrace it with the mind of Christ, it allows us to grow more because like I need more of that free-flowing, free-spiritedness in me, and maybe, you know, in elements my structure and planning and strategy is helpful for you. But I know for me, I've grown in my faith tremendously because you've really helped me. Like, like now, because of you, I spend more time in silence and stillness. I spend more time in prayer and adoration because of you. So being married to you has strengthened my faith in just such an amazing way. And that's what a marriage should be. It's iron sharpens iron, the two become one, you know. I mean, And, you know, it's oftentimes opposites attract and opposite— those opposite gifts, if you allow it to, will help you to grow. I think what happens in a lot of marriages is you could start to see that person being different as you, and you could— it could lead to resentment or thinking they're not doing it the right way. And sort of you get on opposing sides versus saying their difference allows me to— and I appreciate that difference— allows us to be better together. Fill each other's holes and allowing us to be one.

Yeah, stronger. You fill each other's weaknesses, synergy, and essentially that's what it is, right? It's not just strength in one area, it's both. You come together and it's better together. And I think it's what you said earlier, it's iron sharpens iron, but I think we throw that term around so loosely. It's iron sharpens iron and you're sharper and better because of it, but think of the process of it. Again, it's like refinement. Refinement hurts when you're in the fire, when you're being refined when you're iron sharpens iron, like that does not feel good. It's a conflict. It's a hitting up together. It can feel like a disagreement, but in the end, if you toughen through it, you're sharper, right? You're more refined in the end because of the refinement. So that's what it is. I think it's so much of its perspective and it's hard in the moment when it feels like it is a disagreement, even though it's not, it can feel like it. So it's about maintaining like the big picture. And again, coming back to the foundation of they love God, they love Jesus, they love me. Yeah, like we're in the same team. And I think keeping that mindset, um, is super important when talking through these types of things.

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Don't be afraid to lift heavy weights. I think that's my number one for women. I think they're so afraid that if they lift a weight bigger than whatever number, whether that's 15 or 20 pounds, they're gonna get bulky. Where if you want to get bulky, you have to try so hard I mean, really, with you like eating so much protein and all these different things, and essentially if a woman feels like she's bulky, it's because her diet's not on point, because she's eating too much carbs and things like that. And it's actually more of that than it is like muscular bulky. There's a difference, right? There's a difference between if you're like muscle bulk versus just bloats or that kind of a bulk, right? So I think number one is, I mean, hormonally and everything like that, having muscle is is so important, especially as we age hormonally for women. And, um, that's by far the biggest thing, especially lower body, um, because you— the muscle groups in your lower body are bigger, so you can have more muscle mass there, which means you have higher metabolism, you have more hormone, hormone balance. Um, so yeah, long story short, that's my number one tip.

Yeah, like when I look at your exercise routine, you're doing at least 3 days of weights, and you're really focusing on bigger muscle groups. You're focusing a lot on your legs and your lower body, and then you're doing back and shoulders a fair amount too. And then along with that, you tend to do maybe 2 days of Peloton. Like, you get on Peloton, do HIIT training, hills, Tabata, that sort of thing. So when I'm looking at your—

yeah, one day I do lower body, which again, I'm focusing more posterior chain because that's—

if you don't want your hamstring—

hamstrings essentially. Mm-hmm. Other day I do like— one day I do like a push. So again, it would be chest chest, like shoulders, like this kind of motion. Other day would be a pull, which I focus mostly on back. And then I do one day of like a, just like a full body circuit. So it's like a circuit. So I'm getting like my heart rate up, things like that. Cause I'm only hitting like one body part one time. So I'm not going to like extreme fatigue, but because of that you can kind of go pretty quickly. So you're getting your heart rate up while lifting heavy weights, but it's like a full body exercise. And then I'll do what you said one day of like a 20-minute 10-minute Peloton where it's like a Tabata, um, where it's, you know, which is 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, or something similar to that where you're going as hard as you can for those 20 seconds and 10 seconds really resting and pushing hard. So, which again, if you— side note, if you're pregnant, doing a Tabata again, or trying to get pregnant, I should say this, you don't necessarily add it in if you're pregnant, but that is one of the best things you can do to train for labor because labor is Tabata.

Yeah, it is.

It's labor is Tabata. It really is. It's intervals. It's like you have a contraction and it rests. Contraction, rest. That's true. So like, if you want to, you want to train for labor, do Tabata. It's horrible, but it will help you train mentally. Like, just get through that time frame. That's all you're focusing on, and it works.

That's so good. Yeah. All right, rapid fire round of questions. Are you ready? Okay.

Favorite family tradition so I love doing Opryland before Christmas, looking at all the lights.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. My favorite is, and this is my favorite weekend of all time, Thanksgiving weekend, cuz typically the Friday before, now sometimes we do it even earlier, but we have gone, we do Thanksgiving, which is my favorite holiday.

Yep.

Football, pumpkin pie. I love it. And then we pick out a Christmas tree together and doing that with the girls is so fun. And then we'll go back and I watch football all day the next day, which is Ohio State, Michigan for me. I grew up a big Ohio fan. And then that Sunday we'll decorate the Christmas tree and we'll do hot cider, hot cocoa, play Christmas music, decorate the tree with the girls. So for me, that is my, that whole weekend is the greatest holiday. So good. Okay, next one. One beauty or wellness product you'd never give up.

I mean, probably my protein shake in the morning. Yeah, probably my— I travel with it, it's got to come with.

Yeah, for me it's gonna be the same. Yeah, yeah, I would say that collagen-based bone broth stem cell-like protein and in a smoothie. Okay, um, what is your go-to homemade snack for you but then also for your kids?

Honestly, like cottage cheese and berries. I know it's like not homemade, but like that's what we go to, and the girls love it. If they see me take the cottage cheese container out of the fridge, they both just want spoons. They don't want a bowl, they want on a spoon, right out of the container.

Cottage cheese, and I've noticed a lot of blackberries lately. So cottage cheese and blackberries. They're right. For sure. Homemade snack for me, I mean, I—

You like to make your own special non-good cookies.

Well, I was gonna mention, yeah, so I make these cookies now that I love, and I just, I flavor them with no sugar. I just put in vanilla protein powder, and I put in dark chocolate chips. I make it with a mixture of typically oat flour and sometimes tigernut flour. It might sound weird, tigernut or almond flour. But I'll do—

You use carob chips. You don't use chocolate chips.

Recently I've done carob chips, but historically I've done a lot of the Hugh Kitchen dark chocolate chips. And then for another snack, I love hummus. Yeah. And like cucumbers or bell peppers, but some sort of hummus and veggies.

I'm obsessed. Low-key obsessed.

Yeah. I mean, I do a lot of hummus. It's my favorite dip and it's pretty healthy. Beans, extra virgin olive oil, tahini, garlic.

Like, to the point, he eats hummus so much he had— he actually gave himself like a had like a sensitivity to chickpeas back in the day because he ate so much.

Well, listen, I don't think those— that test I did was accurate. So, um, but that's a whole nother, whole nother thing about IgG antibody tests. Okay, Bible verse you're clinging to the most right now?

Oh man, I have to pick one. Psalm 27:4, I believe. It's, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. That I might behold the beauty of the Lord and dwell in his temple. And it's just that frame of just intimacy coming back to, like, regardless of what's going on. That's how, like, the verse starts with all these things are happening, but in the midst of all these, like, things and people coming at you, there's one thing that I'm seeking. It's not about this conflict. It's not about these things happening in my life or the busyness. It's— I'm coming back with, no, there's one thing, and that's what I'm focusing on. That is what I'm going to seek, and this is my heart's desire. And coming to that is foundational because 'Cause out of that overflows everything else, right? You seek first the kingdom, then all things are added.

Well, it's such a powerful thing to lock your eyes and fix your eyes on Jesus and his kingdom in that way because something's not going right with your house, something's not going right with work, something's not going the way you want, somebody said something mean about you, whatever it is, you lock back in on Jesus, you fix your eyes on him and everything's okay. You know, you fix your eyes on the things that matter most and I love that. You know, one thing I've reflected on that you and I have talked about recently is in Proverbs where it says, "Lord, teach me to number my days that I may gain a heart of wisdom." And, you know, we've looked a lot— we were watching videos of Arwen the other day when she was 2. She's 5 now. And we're like, you said something the other day, we have a dog named Snoopy and Ailyn wasn't able to say— she was saying Snoopy in such a funny way. And now she actually says Snoopy.

Yeah.

And you're like, you know, she'll never say it that cute, funny little way again. But just taking in those moments and realizing, like, if you've got a 5-year-old, they'll never be 5. They're only going to be 5 once. So like, right now I'm trying to really treasure that. And putting Arwen to bed at night, telling her stories, doing those things is like— like, in 10 years, like, I have really wished that I had these moments again.

Yeah, like they'll never be younger than they are in this moment right now. They'll never be this young again, whereas they are right now. Yeah, like a moment from now, they're never going to be, you know. And it really is just taking those moments and trying to be as present as possible. Um, you don't want to miss it because it goes so fast.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I think one of the things I know we're both aware of is that health is being healthy mentally, physically, spiritually, in marriage, in your relationships, and all these things. And I think just keeping our eyes fixed on what matters most is so important. That's one of the things I've just loved being married to you is, is priorities, you know, God, family, you know, health, you know, down the list. And so even though we're both very, very focused on health and fitness and longevity and raising healthy kids, um, all of that, I, it, it's secondary or tertiary. It's later on down the list compared to focusing on our faith and these other things. And I think this is an important thing too, because I see sometimes people will start to obsess about certain areas of their health, and you want to focus on it, but it shouldn't be the number one thing. And I think when you're focusing on God and honoring God with our bodies, as it says in Romans, you know, but just remembering like our body's a temple, right? And we're called to honor God. And so that just naturally leads to healthy eating. It leads to being active and not saying yes to everything because we're not God, you know, and being able to prioritize. Here's the things that matter most. And that's one of the things I think that allows to have a great marriage, a great, great health, great kids is saying, here's the things that matter most. Like right now we're having to do this with what are we going to put Arwen in? Where could she be gifted? Right now we have her in swimming, gymnastics, and jiu-jitsu. Okay, so here's the things. And then here are the family traditions that matter the most. Here's, you know, the date nights or the couples we want to hang out with. Like, here's the things. And we're gonna have to say no to everything else because we also need to have time just to sit in the backyard, push the girls on the swings, go for a family walk, do these other things that allow us to build a great family dynamic and relationship and also time for God and connection there. So I think this element of saying no, prioritizing those things that matter the most is always important.

I'd say one of the things for— you're saying the hierarchy of, you know, how we've tried to, you know, you're best with God first and then family and then health and all the things. But the cool thing is too, it's like once things are in the correct order, they all kind of go like this, like they are intertwined because it's whatever you do in word and deed and eat and drink, you do all to the glory of God. So in family life, so it's like, I'm, yes, I'm eating this way because I want to be healthy, but I'm also being mindful of that in doing this, I'm actually bringing glory to God because I'm stewarding this gift that he's given me of my body. In playing with my kids and choosing to spend that intimate time with them and being intentional, it's no, I'm actually doing this and doing this is actually bringing glory to God because he's given me this gift of this moment now to steward and to pour into these kids and this is part of that.

Well, you know, one of the things is creating healthy rhythms. Like now Saturdays we do brunch. Sundays we do church and then, and then like, you know, and then our daughters, like Arwen loves working out with you. Like anytime you go in the gym, she wants to go, which I know sometimes you're also having to keep her from hurting herself. But, you know, uh, you know, that's such, it's such a fun rhythm, like working out as a family, eating healthy as a family. Worshiping God as a family. I mean, all these things, it's such a, uh, it brings such a sense of fulfillment because I think we get a sense of fulfillment because it's what we were designed to do. We're not meant to go through life alone. We're meant to go through it as a family, growing more like God together, spreading his kingdom as a family. When you do that, it brings a sense of joy, it brings a sense of fulfillment. And I know that, um, for me, you've been such an amazing, um, wife and partner in doing that, growing in my faith and in my health and all these things. So thanks so much for coming on the podcast. We, we did a ranking of who are the most requested people to ever come on this podcast, and you were— well, I'm sorry, you were number 2. This wasn't me, you were my number 1. Jordan Rubin, okay, was the most requested in terms of— I understand coming on the show, but, uh, but thanks so much for coming on.

Jordan and Nikki sometime, that would be a Yeah, that is fun.

It's always fun seeing the other couple, uh, seeing couples together. So Nikki's a great counterpart to, to Jordan for sure. Um, well everybody, hey, thanks so much for tuning in here to the Dr. Josh Axe Show and today the Doctors Axe Show with my wife, Dr. Chelsea Axe. And we hope you've enjoyed it. Thanks so much for, uh, all of you who submitted questions here for the show. We really enjoyed You know, chatting today and going through this and sharing some more of our personal lives today here as well. Also wanna encourage you subscribe. It's the number one thing you can do to support the show. And also we've actually had the show shadow banned a little bit on YouTube sometimes, cuz we're covering controversial. So we, we did talk about vaccines and like in a number of things today. And sometimes those are controversial. And so if you're not subscribed, oftentimes these sort of episodes will not show up on your feed. So make sure you subscribe on YouTube, on Apple, on Spotify. Thank you all of you that are subscribing. And if you enjoyed this, please share it. Every time you do, it allows us to teach more of the truth about health and faith and so much more. So thank you all of you for your support. Also, we've had so many great online reviews recently of people going on Apple and Spotify and giving us 5-star reviews. So thank you for doing that as well. Uh, we hope that this has blessed you. Thanks for listening. We'll be back next week with another episode. Of the Dr. Josh Axe Show.