How to Reset your GUT and be 'WHOLE' with Chelsie Ward

Thank you for Subscribing to the Podcast and newsletter using the link below

Home - Chasing Energy

Chelsie Ward

1. The journey towards health starts with a good attitude
2. 
   
3. How people often miss the boat on GUT health
   1. Plugging a hole with someone else’s solution
   2. Be systematic
      1. Vs copy a paste a segment or solution
   3. E.g. Using probiotics can worsen some issues
4. If you are going to do a detox, ensure that your drainage systems are open
5. Cheksie’s removal process for inflammation
6. Stage 1 - Remove these from your diet
   1. Grain
   2. Milk
   3. SUGAR!
7. Stage 2 - Proteolytic enzymes
   1. Attack Inflammation
   2. Amazon.com: Designs for Health Nattokinase with Serrapeptidase - Natto-Serrazime + Proteolytic Enzymes - Designed to Support a Healthy Circulatory System + Immune Health - Non-GMO Supplement (120 Capsules) : Health & Household
8. Pathogen Purge
   1. Biofilm Breakdown
   2. A Binder (E.g. Bentonite Clay)
9. Gut bugs live off certain foods
   1. Whole foods diet will help drive cravings for healthy foods
10. Craving dessert may be a sign that your meals are not well balanced
11. Chelsie’s top 3 supplements
    1. Medical foods - Custom Protein shakes
       1. “these are protein shakes with very specific nutrients in them to support these body systems. So some people may take 'em for life, some people may take 'em for a period of time for healing, but they're, they're very powerful and they're, they're something I use with every client”
    2. Stomach acid developers - Hydrochloric Acid
       1. Beatine HCL
       2. Amazon.com: Nutricost Betaine HCl + Pepsin 790mg, 240 Capsules - Gluten Free & Non-GMO : Health & Household
       3. Ideally Mid Meal w/the largest meal
    3. Reshi mushrooms!!
       1. Chelsie claims it ended her coffee reflux
       2. You can take the spores if you prefer it separate from 
       3. Studies on reishi
       4. Reishi — Health benefits, dosage, safety, side-effects, and more | Supplements - Examine
12. 
    

Instagram

https://sproutspout.com/

Transcript

   📍 Hi, and thank you for joining, chasing. Energy. I'm your host, Daniel Lucas. I'm so glad you're here today. Cover the basics. First, my ask of you, if you haven't already subscribed to the podcast, I'd love it. If you downloaded the episodes. And also chasing.energy is our website. If you go there, you will see the newsletter. I am starting a newsletter where you will get some very abbreviated points on things I'm researching and feel are relevant to share. 

Always around the topics of mindset, training and nutrition as are our guest today's guest is Chelsea ward. She focuses on the nutrition aspect. Uh, she's a BSN and RN. She has a book called healed his way, learning to trust the great physician. She has a website, Chelsea ward.com. We cover a host of topics today. 

Uh, not the least of which is gut health. We talk a lot about how do you reset your gut health? How do you do a detox? We talk a little bit about the liver as well. The pathogen purge. How to, uh, Train the bugs that live in your stomach to get to where you can steer your cravings so that you're craving different foods, which is something that, um, 

Really, it's just, it's one of those things that I've learned. You, what you eat more of, you begin to crave. 

Especially when you associate the way you feel after you eat certain foods. Uh, we cover her supplements. Hint, one of them that, uh, kind of surprised me and I'm going to be adding to my supplement stack is ratio reishi, mushroom. Uh, I've ordered some of this and when I have more feedback, I'll be happy to share that. 

This was our second try. I had an interview we had started when previously. And her laptop had some issues and we had to bump it out two weeks and. Fault the fault is entirely mine. That there's not been an episode in the last two weeks. I know it breaks your heart, right. Uh, but then talk fall is entirely mine because once that interview got rescheduled, I was like, well, I'm taking two weeks off. So I took advantage of it. There it is. And I'm happy to bring it to you today. I hope you enjoy it. Check out our website and please subscribe to the newsletter. 

With no further ado. Here's Chelsea ward.  

Chelsea Ward, thanks for being here today. Thanks for joining me at Chase 

I am doing great, Daniel. Thank you so much for having me.

 and and, we've moved things around Life happens and we've moved things around. Life happens, uh, and I'm so glad that we were able to connect today and thank you for making time to be here. It it, I, and I mean that genuinely and sincerely, cuz I know you're very busy and you got a lot going on today. me.

what those three Happy, healthy, and whole.

Tell me what those three words mean.

 So I remember when I was on my healing journey, my mom looked at me one day and she was like, Chelsea, I just don't understand how you are always so positive. , like, how are you going through so much? And like the world just doesn't know they, nobody has any idea. And I was only telling her bits and pieces of my story and she was just like, I, I just don't understand it.

And I think that it was. Probably the very first thing that happened to me on my healing journey was I realized that if I wanted to change and shift things, my attitude had to be the first thing. And I remember listening to CDs and discs and players, and I would, I would just drill in my head how important it was to focus on the positives in life, to celebrate the good things, and to enjoy the journey.

And one day I was doing a live video, oddly enough, and the three words just came to me happy, healthy, and whole. And I didn't realize it, but I was picking up those words throughout my own journey. And one woman even looked at me one day and she said, your mission on this planet is wholeness. And I was, and at first I didn't understand what that even meant, but to me, I started to realize that we're looking at medicine.

From a medical viewpoint based on medications and surgeries and all of those different things, and what I learned on my journey, not just the mindset piece and the emotional piece and the positive attitude piece, and then pulling in all of the nutrition and all of the healthy things that we do from a lifestyle standpoint on a day-to-day basis, but also realized that we were missing a spiritual component to health that.

people a lot of times don't feel centered or grounded in anything that means anything to them from a spiritual level. And what I learned is that if we wanna heal, then we have to look at all three of those components, your mind, your emotions, your body, your spirit, like all those things. And really just create an enjoyable plan that works for us as individuals.

 whole 

 to me, that's whole.

 ho

so and and ho hopefully I'm not misinterpreting you here, but whole is more of the synergistic effect of all the other things coming into fruition. The spiritual, the body, the mind. it.

 Yep, 

 um 

 absolutely.

 I love it And I think data backs up the, the importance of. a higher power Community and having a higher power in your life in terms of longevity and probably more important than longevity, is the quality of life, right? Are you enjoying your life? I think we've all had that relative that we think they're just full of piss and vinegar and won't die. Okay so let's of life is that Okay so let's start by, uh, we're gonna talk about, uh, gut nutrition and a couple other things. But I wanna start with, uh, your analysis.

Uh, again, most of my listeners know the basics, but I'd really like to know from you. the what do you think are the caveats that people overlook when it comes to gut health? And in other words, they've read the clickbait, they know the basics. Uh, maybe gone out and bought probiotics or whatever, but what do you consider to be the caveats that are causing disruption to the gut health? Let's start there.

 Where I think we miss it so many times is we're plugging a.  and we have a symptom and we say, oh, I have a symptom. Okay, well my friend's taking probiotics. Let me just take the probiotic. Well, the probiotic may work for you and it may not work for you. Maybe they have, you know, less of a certain bacteria in their gut than you.

Maybe that works for them. And then you're like, wait a minute, that works for works for Sally. Why is it not working for me? So I think we're, that's what we're doing. And it may be L-glutamine, it may be these wonderful supplements. Seem to work great for everyone else, and then we take 'em and we're kind of like, well, I still have these symptoms.

So what I've realized is there is a systematic process that works really well when we're working to heal the gut. And if we're not following that, then we're not following.  along with nature and the way the body operates and the way the body functions. So if we already have an overgrowth of bacteria in our gut and we add in additional probiotics, and we get bloating and fatigue and all these things, we're like, wait a minute, probiotics healed her.

But now probiotics gave me bloating. Well, of course, probiotics gave you blooding because maybe you have a condition called sibo, which is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, meaning there's an already an overgrowth of bacteria in your gut and you're feeding a monster, right? So. I think where we miss it is that there are certain conditions that need probiotics or certain supplements.

There are certain conditions that don't, and we're also not looking at the systems in the right way. So for example, if you're going to detox the body, Then you wanna make sure that those drainage systems are open. You wanna make sure that the liver is healthy, the kidneys are healthy. You wanna make sure that all of those lines of communication basically is how I like to think about it.

Make sure that they're open and able to work together. Able to process those toxins outta the body, because if not, then when you start working on these systems and you don't even have a way to drain out all the toxins or the bugs or anything else, any types of infection, then you're gonna create a backup.

and that actually makes your symptoms worse. It makes you feel worse. And I think another big missing piece of the puzzle is, especially for people who feel like they have it dialed in, they're like, I'm eating the perfect diet. I know it's working great for me. I'm e I'm sleeping well, I am exercising, right?

Like I get a lot of people that are doing all the right things. I mean, they've cleaned up their toxic skincare, everything, and it. Why is this not working? And what I do is I run a stool test on these people and I find some sort of protozoa, some sort of bacteria that is in their wreaking havoc on their system.

Maybe they have fungal overgrowth, you know, candy to albicans, which can become systemic. And when those things happen, then you know, we have to have some sort. Antimicrobial protocol. You go to your physician, they would put you on a medication probably. Um, but there's a natural way to really work with these bugs so that you can create a little bit more balance in the system and really get rid of parasites or whatever else is causing your issue.

And then, um, what I love to do next is really just rebalance the system and make sure the stomach acid is really. we miss this piece, then it's gonna be like you're just gonna get the infection again, 

 okay 

 you gotta create the right environment.

 one thing I heard Uh

be systematic That was one thing I heard. Uh, versus, and then the other thing is don't try to copy and

paste a segment or solution from someone else's journey. about the 

 Yeah. 

 All right So tell me a little bit about the

mic uh microbial protocol that you recommend that's a little more homeopathic.

 Yeah, so I start with cleaning up the nutrition in someone's life. So if we're eating a lot of inflammatory foods and we're causing inflammation in the gut, Then it's hard to heal the gut. So inflammation is an underlying cause of disease in the body. Whatever disease process it is going to cause it. So some of the most inflammatory foods I like to remove are things like grains.

They're very difficult to digest, particularly gluten, um, traditional gluten, you know, um, from wheat, barley, and. , I like to remove dairy. It's very inflammatory to our system. Our cattle just aren't treated very well these days and they're giving us pretty toxic, um, milk and dairy products. And then I find a lot of people are sensitive to those two items.

And then we're just overloaded with sugar. So if we think about sugar, like it has no beneficial properties to it. So if we're eating a lot of processed sugar, then we gotta remove that as well. And I like to just start with the Whole Foods Diet. Meat, vegetables and, and fruit that, that's perfect. You know, if you want to add anything else to that, those are fill-in foods.

They're not your main staples. And then while doing that, I start working on inflammation. I love to use pro alytic enzymes. Clean starts to clean up old proteins in the system and then work on, um, the pathogens. So we might do a stool test. Go 

ahead. ? 

 I I've

What are the repeat the enzymes I, I've not heard that.

 Yeah. So proteolytic enzymes go in and they clean up hard tissue in the body.

They're magical. So someone with joint pain and they may have scar tissue, things like that. It can break down scar tissue. Proteolytic enzymes can also break down hard plaque in your arteries. Which is amazing because traditional medicine would tell you that if you have coronary artery disease, things like that, that you can't resolve or dissolve the plaque, and that's one of the things that can do that.

I've used 'em to break down fibroids, tumors, growths, anything hard in the body that doesn't really belong. It starts to break those things down.

 Is there

Is there an amount So three questions Is there an amount you recommend? Is there a brand you recommend and what are the, uh, side effects or caveats we need to be cautious of?

 So I really like to use, um, I use Designs for Health Nazo. It's a really good one. And it's just for more, you know, all, all throughout the body there are certain things that break down fibers and fibroids, growths, those types of things. Um, there's another one that people may be really familiar with called WO Benzo.

A lot of people are using that for joint pain and it's just breaks down a lot of the inflammation. So someone with arthritis may benefit from that.  and it's really depending on what you're taking it for, it's really gonna be, um, I like to use about three capsules per day and kind of divide those in divided doses.

So in the morning, mid-afternoon and in the evening before bed. And it's really because you want to have those things away from. . So enzymes are breaking down protein. If you have that with a food, then you're gonna be breaking down your food protein. There's gonna be a competition there. If there's no protein from food on board, it's looking for other live proteins.

So it's going to start breaking down those other proteins and tissues and hard tissues in the body. So that's when it really works to dissolve some of those things.  and I haven't really ran into any issues where these things are causing health issues. I don't know that there's anything that's really, um,

 What's,

what's 

 gonna cause any problems with, like anything that you need to really be careful.

 people Try it 

 So usually about. Six to eight weeks is what I typically start someone on. And then some people just see such tremendous results with joint pain or things like that. And it may come back and I'm just using joint pain as an example. Um, you know, they could have gut issues, they could have whatever else if they're noticing symptoms returned and they may need another round on it, and then

 back to what You were saying about being systematic You need

 yeah, absolutely.

 ease off See if you need to stay on 

 Yeah, so, and that's kind of more for the inflammatory process. You're cleaning up inflammation in the body. When you decrease that inflammation in the body, the body's not necessarily on as high of alert as it was either. It's kind of like, okay, I can calm down now. I'm not under a lot of stress.

Everything's safe. I'm starting to feel a little bit better. But then you have a stool test that says this person has parasites, or there's so a bacterial imbalance in the body. So then the next step is really to kind of work on that. And it's not about going after and targeting a specific bug per se.

Like I don't have a certain mic antimicrobial for a specific bug, but it's really about going in and targeting the microbiome as a whole and really working to create balance. So I use a range of herbs. And those are all, you know, if it's more parasitic in nature, then I'll use a range of like parasitic type herbs or anti parasitics or um, antibacterials, things like that for bacterial overgrowth.

And you're really just trying to clean up and sweep up, because if you have parasites, then you definitely have a bacterial imbalance that comes along with that. It's just the nature of the digestive. And you also probably have some fungus that's a little bit overgrown as well. So it's more about addressing it as a hierarchy.

You wanna think about parasites are kind of the big people on the ship, and you wanna address those first.  and then kind of make sure that that bacteria is imbalance. The next step is really adding in probiotics, and if you do that too fast, then you're gonna create bloating. You're gonna create some other digestive type issues.

So that's how you know really if you've still got that bacterial overgrowth. When you start adding probiotics and you start getting flares and flares can be anything that were, any symptoms that were present before you started doing the antimicrobial protocols. If those start coming back, then it's kinda like, wait a minute, we're feeding something again.

We need to step, take a step back. Maybe a couple weeks, and then you can bring in a different antimicrobial just to kind of like quote unquote trick the system. Um, trick the bugs, right? Because these bugs can get a little bit smart. We know that because we're creating antibiotic resistant bugs and those types of things.

So if we've, if we're starting to create these little smart bugs in our body, we do wanna put something different in for maybe a couple weeks and then we can go back in and add the probiotics again. And typically people do pretty.

 one

as you prepare the

So it sounds like stage one, as you prepare the system to pass toxins, right, the, the various organs and I think you were saying it was almost like a whole 30 type approach. And then,

 That would be a perfect plan. Mm-hmm.

 uh stage two Is plugging the hole and being systematic about it. So that was, uh, it the, micro microbials at

the uh anti was it the micro microbials at that point?

The pro, the enzymes 

 enzymes is a really good, is a good time to bring those in, you know, and just kind of clean up the system.

 of guests

It seems like yeah we we've had a couple of guests talk about, um, menonite, benzite clay and things like that to absorb. I don't know if that's,

uh valid with you or not. It's.

 it's.

 I

guess

Do you just and I I guess the point is, I, I'm trying to recall, it's been a while, but it was something like, you take one to sort of loosen the the, the the oxidants or the, the, what do you call it?

Like the, the metals in your system and then you take the benzo night clay to attach to them. Um so after that, it sounds like a, it's a systematic approach of what you incorporate in, in terms of probiotics and these, these type of things to see how your body.

 Yeah, so, and what you're talking about with the bentonite clay is you're, you're wanting to absorb a lot of the toxins and things in the body. Even heavy metals, like, so you can use multiple different types, types of binders. I do love bentonite clay. It's very simple, easy on the system, but you're using that in combination with a biofilm.

So some people use N A C, some people use DiUS Earth. Some people use mimosa pudica. Like there's a lot of different things will, that will break down the biofilm when they're being released into the body. They're very toxic and they can cause people to be very symptomatic, like, I mean with fever, with chills, flu-like symptoms.

If we release those things too quickly.  without having something to bind to those and carry 'em out of the system. So that's where the clays come in, and that happens during the pathogen purge. So it's important to break down the biofilm so that we are targeting the pathogens. If not, they're using the biofilm as kind of like a protective mechanism.

It's a house that they kind of live in. So we're breaking that down and using the clay as something to absorb and grab hold of it. So it releases it out of the.

 uh

Yeah it reminds me of like for anyone who's uh, familiar with change of seasons, the, the, like the expectorants and things like that where you try to loosen and get it out.

this is a little 

 Yep. 

 what role, and this is a little

bit of a digression but what role do the mi the, the bacteria in your stomach play in your taste buds?

Because I specifically remember since you were bringing all this up, uh, going to the dentist and them saying, you know, you have to go on antibiotics before we do X, Y, z I, I don't remember if it was a root canal or what. times in my life and every I've done it two or three times in my life, and every time it makes coffee tastes like vinegar to me.

If I, if I go on the antibiotics, it ruins my taste buds for coffee. A lot of other stuff I don't notice, but coffee, I, I can't particularly drink and I love coffee, so it's very obvious to me when it does happen. Wh how, why is that? Can you give us a little bit as to, or do you know

 So different bugs in our gut. They're like, they're just like us. They're trying to stay alive. And they live on certain foods. They live on certain things and the the bad bacteria that wanna thrive, they're gonna live on bad foods. They're gonna live on those breads, those carbs, those sugars, all those things.

That's what they live on. That's what they thrive on. And when we're eating a Whole Foods diet and we've got a good feel of good, healthy bacteria, our body will naturally crave those.  because your bacteria or kind of speaking, it's really the gut brain connection. Your gut is constantly talking to your brain, and those bacteria are actually asking for what they need to survive, and it's really about creating that happy balance.

because if you have more of the good healthy bacteria in there that are kind of driving the show, then you're gonna crave more of those healthy foods. So I'll work with people and they'll say, I just can't come off of the dairy or the sugar, or all these things, and we will do specific things to trick the body to really shift those taste bud.

To invite natural, healthy, whole foods in, in a very flooded way where we're flooding the system with nutrients. And what that does is the body's like, wait a minute, that's amazing. And people will literally start craving these foods because the system knows. It's like, okay, I need this now to feed what is healthy inside of 

me.

 I

Yeah and when it comes to craving I think it's a double-edged sword, and I'll tell you why. Um, I have learned to I have certain foods that I have learned to crave that most people would kind of roll their eyes at. For example, I eat a can of, uh, wild sardines in my salad every day. And I ate this huge salad at lunch almost every day. If I haven't had in like two days, I start just thinking about it over like, man, I can't wait to have my salad with my sardines, whatever. this is where I , on the flip side of cravings, this is where I think they get a little tricky on you is people will say After dinner, Ooh, I'm craving some carbs, so I must need it. And that's, that's where I go, well, you're probably craving it because after dinner you have some cookies or something like that and you that, so this is where cravings, I think, you know, one is your body's sending a signal and the other is your body's sending a signal. It's just, you have to interpret which one's trying to get you to the best place.

And like you said, you have to train yourself to crave those foods. Um, I don't consider, I. I, I would, I would argue, my friends and family would argue otherwise, but I don't consider myself this dolly lama of healthy food. But I can tell you that my cravings for things like donuts just are null and void mostly because I've so much associated What comes with that donut? The, you eat it, you kind of feel, well, you kind of have the crash. Then you start burping up the oil if you have another one. To me, it's just a, a not worth it. There are like a few sweets, like a homemade apple pie outbreak any day for a homemade apple pie. cravings that's what I think of the about those cravings, that's what I think of the, the last thing I'll say about that is the one that I never thought that I would quit craving is ice cream. And so much so that when my friend, when my kids, I would let them pick out whatever ice cream they want, but I tell 'em, don't leave it in the house cause then I'm going to eat it and I don't like to eat ice cream. eating sugar at some point. Like I quit eating sugar a couple years ago, and, uh, it got to a point where I couldn't even, it was so sweet.

The ice cream was that I, I, it was, it was kind of anti-climactic for me if I had some, uh, so that was the one where I used to tell people I, I can't get over my craving of ice cream and yet my body at some point said We're not really craving this anymore. So there, there is hope and I will say, um, Apples uh, a really good apple and things like that.

It's, it's amazing what a dessert does become when you've kind of removed sugars from your diet for a while.

 It's true, and I, I can totally resonate with your story because I came from a place of sugar addiction. I mean, complete, I, I've never met anybody like myself, so I, I'm not judgmental at all when it comes to sugar, but I would devour one of those. Huge birthday cake cookies within 24 hours by myself 

 probably would have 

 and my staple 

 But 

 as far

 I've heard, I know your story is

 Yeah.

 uh, cuz because story is very much uh cuz because I've heard several of your interviews, but your story is a lot like other people's in this, in this sense where. We love that they came with You know your and love that they came with.

You know, your, had this memory of your dad handing you an ice 

 Mm-hmm. 

 and if you ask your dad, you

know what he'll say oh, we went to the drugstore and they, they would pull out the soda fountain and pull us a fresh soda with ice. So those memories of food being comfort, it's so hard to disassociate that to where you're actually saying, this is actually something that should be rare.

It's toxic for me, and having it on a regular basis is not doing me any. uh and like, like you said earlier,

in any particular listen, I'm not, I'm not in any particular diet cult, if you will, but the one thing that I, that studies come back over and over when they analyze all the diets is there is no place for sugar. Like that is the one thing that they all agree on, is there's no benefit to this. Uh, and, and this is coming from someone who was an endurance athlete, so we, we were fueled on that while we were running. it's it is a Outside of that, it's just, it's, it is a reward drug is what? It's

 and if you'll create balance in your plate, and I think it's where so many people miss it. It's like, yeah, I'm craving the carb or the sugar or whatever after dinner. Also, because there wasn't enough balance in my plate, you know? I didn't get enough flavor. I didn't get enough like, you know. 

 I'm like this 

 Yeah

 and then an hour after dinner isn't working 

 right? Yeah. And you've gotta create that balance and get enough protein to serve your body and your body's needs. And that's where fruit comes into play. You know? I mean, just putting a half of an apple or even a quarter of an apple in a skillet and salting that, or eat the whole apple, I don't care. Put it in a skillet with some coconut oil and sprinkle some cinnamon on it, and it's just like divine

 There was a doctor being interviewed

a great uh story There was a doctor being interviewed the other day, and I don't know if you've heard this before, Chelsea, but they had two, uh, high schoolers. They were the same age, same body weight, and they started doing this thing where they came in and said in the morning, made sure they hadn't had breakfast, and they said, eat as much as you want.

And they had these foods laid out for them. The first. Person had, uh, I think it was like 10 ounces of orange juice or something like, which, you know, is just loaded in sugar, and then a big mac, fries, and a milkshake, and there was just all sorts of foods and they were allowed to eat as much as they want until they're full.

Well, this person goes to the juice, the Big Mac, the fries, and the shake, and then he is like, I'm full. The second person same set of foods, except for one difference. He had to peel and eat the oranges manually. Well, he couldn't even eat past the fifth orange because he was eating real fruit and eating the whole fruit, so he didn't even get to the Big Mac and the fries and the milkshake.

But that's kind of the point, right? When you eat the foods in their natural form, there's so much fiber, there's so many nutrients and, and yeah, it's not gonna be as rich as orange juice when, when

you eat an

body says but that's kind of the point. Your body says by, by the time your body gets the signal, it's processing the orange, processing the apple, it says, I'm good.

I don't, I don't really need anything. So

point there is

things like apples and so many people think when we talk about these things like apples and orange, oh, I don't want to deprive myself of my real dessert. Well, the kind of the point is you're not gonna crave those things as much when you're eating the right foods in the at the right.

 Right. Yeah. And if you're, if you're balancing with good, healthy fats and you're, and really you, you talk about the apple pie, I mean, it's really not any different. You're warming the apples in a skillet. You're putting some cinnamon on there, and like you're using the coconut oil and all the. Fat brings out the flavor and all that.

Oh, you're missing is the crust. And your brain is telling you, oh, I miss the apple pie. Grandmother's apple pie was the best. You know, and. It's really, the flavor is very similar if you just kind of try to recreate the experience instead of going back to your traditional apple pie that has loads of sugar, added sugars, l you know, the, the crust which is full of the gluten and all the things that so many people have a problem digesting, and you still can get the good, fun feel, and you can have fun foods without depriving yourself and feeling like you're missing out on.

 so

I love it I love it very much so. All right, so I, I wanna sort of pivot here. We, that was a good, anything else you want to add on gut before we we switch off? 

 Go ahead. I'm all 

Ayers,

 uh not quite Question I throw to some of my guests uh, not quite all of them, but, uh, what are your top three supplements that you've picked up in the last year that have kind of surprised you, whether it was through studies or results?

 so one thing that I will. Say that I love, and it's not necessarily a like one pinpointed supplement like zinc. It is medical foods, 

 Mm-hmm 

 and there's a difference between like a protein shake and a medical food that has a job in the body and it actually works on specific mechanisms inside the body. So for example, , A lot of people ask, what is your favorite protein shake?

Well, I don't necessarily just recommend protein shakes to anybody just to like get more protein. There's usually a reason that I'm recommending a protein shake, and I, it's not that I'm against 'em. I mean, I'm okay if, if you choose to have a protein shake and you add some whole foods with it every single day, perfectly fine.

But I would rather use some sort of detox formula or if you have cardiovascular issues, I would rather use a cardiovascular specific formula that has phytosterols and those types of things in it to support your cardiovascular health. Or if you have severe digestive issues. I would rather use a digestive supporting.

Medical food. It is, these are protein shakes with very specific nutrients in them to support these body systems. So some people may take 'em for life, some people may take 'em for a period of time for healing, but they're, they're very powerful and they're, they're something I use with every client.

 I had a

friend over at the

it's funny you say that Uh my I had a friend over at the house, uh, maybe two days ago, and this electrolyte mix I had had was almost like a hybrid between like athletic greens and electrolytes. And I made the comment to the guy, I was like,

I actually don't like anything mixed in my electrolytes except for electrolytes. Well, he said I'm the exact opposite way cuz I don't like to eat vegetables, so I want all the powder antioxidants I can get. So going back to the definition of what a supplement is, right? It is not, it's not a replacement. It's supposed to be in addition to a balanced diet that to give you, to give you that edge.

So it sounds like, uh, sort of catered protein shakes was number one on the 

 Yeah. Yeah. So, and. . The other thing that I've really just given a lot more recognition to over the past, I would say year of my career, is working to rebuild stomach acid. And I think, you know, and we briefly touched on this when we were talking about the microbiome, but. , it is so important that we focus on good, healthy stomach acid.

If we look at our aging population and we say, well, grandma's just not eating as much. 

 Yeah 

 A lot of this is because 

 Yeah 

 we, as we age, our stomach acid decreases, and especially the population of people that I work with, there's already underlying digestive issues. There's already something going on. We live in a very toxic world, a very high stress world.

It leads to stress on the gut, which leads to a condition called leaky gut. All those different types of things are going on inside all the time. The stress is decreasing your stomach acid, along with the aging process. And if we don't maintain a good healthy stomach acid, we are going to see those pathogens return.

And this is why so many times people will come and they. . I did a CBO cleanse, or I did a CBO protocol. Everything came back. I don't know why I keep getting this same infection over and over again. There's something wrong with me.  and I'm like, well, let's fix the nutrition. But part of it is your stomach acid.

And I think that's a huge piece of the missing puzzle. I wish I could preach this from the mountaintops, cuz I think so many people are missing this in traditional gut healing protocols. Even in the natural medicine industry, we're missing the stomach rebuilding to the point that I now have my clients post-work with me checking stomach acid every.

Because I want to make sure, and they'll, they'll message me. They're so happy. They're like, oh, my stomach acid is like, I'm maintaining good stomach acid. And I'm teaching them to do that through foods as well as the supplement. But we're just using beane, H C L to rebuild that. And after you work on your stomach pathogens and you know, and you get rid of those things, you can rebuild the stomach acid to healthy levels with that one supplement.

 Okay 

 And it's, it's just magical.

 heard of that

And I and I'm I've I've heard of that and I've probably used it before. Tell, tell me about the protocol you use to implement the, the hcl, 

 Yeah. So I do.

 stands for like hydrochloric acid or something like 

 Mm-hmm. . Yes. So it is, um, So you're really in there. The protocols are, um, you can probably just, you actually, you can find this online, but I can share the one that I personally use. It is rebuilding with small amounts of HCL daily and I use hcl l with Pepsi. So it's. One capsule of whatever, whatever brand you choose, bet hcl.

And you take that into every day, and you increase the dose every day until you get a little bit of burning, almost like, oh, is that indigestion or a warm feeling in my gut? And then you titrate back down. Once you hit that point of burning, then you start titrating the supplements back down so that you can teach.

Your body to make us on acids. So, and then when you, when you run out, when you kind of ramp back down and you titrate out, you just stop. And then a year later you're gonna run the protocol on yourself again to make sure, Hey, is this going good? In the meantime, you're gonna be including your bitter greens.

You're gonna be including apple cider vinegar, ginger, all those good foods to help increase and, and keep the stomach acid at a nice level. 

 Okay 

 But that, that's the supplement that I.

 doing

so what time of day should we be doing? before the 

 meal 

 or largest meal. So before the 

largest meal.

or 

 Yep. Yep. And really, you know, if you're doing vitan hcl on an empty stomach, you're gonna get burning.  because there's nothing in the body for it to digest. So I usually tell my clients, take a few bites of food, like get some food, like going down, you know, start the digestion process, then take your supplement.

Maybe a few bites in mid meal, even after is fine. But I like it mid meal because. , you got one of two things happening. Someone has slow digestion. That pill's gonna be sitting here at the top of your, you know, top of your food and it's not gonna, you know, it's not gonna go down very fast. So it's gonna open up in your chest and cause the burning.

And if you take it too soon, you're gonna get burning in your stomach because there's nothing in there to digest. 

 Okay 

 I usually like to take it mid.

 do you find It usually takes that whole I like that How long do you find? It usually takes that whole protocol from start to finish.

 It really depends on the person. So if I'm, I like if I'm working with someone, they've been working on stomach acid for about two to three months before they ever begin that. So it's usually.  if they've been working on it and they have a pretty decent amount of stomach acid, I'll find some of my clients will get up to like five or six capsules and they'll fill the burn.

Some people are gonna get up to 14 capsules. I tell people, stop there cuz like they're gonna get up to like 14 capsules and it's like, okay, just go ahead and come back down. You might need to retest or there's some other issues going on that we really probably need to work on.  and we need to make sure that you're getting the right foods in your diet, enough bitter foods, enough, you know, vinegars and those types of things to rebuild the acid.

But I mean, it can take, sometimes it can take a month to get your levels back.

 right. Very good to know I

All right Very good to know. I, I've always. I've not been a quick digester, so it would be interesting for me, I was, part of my struggle as a runner is I could not eat anything within hours of running, and when I was running, it had to be like a liquid thing or I'd just get indigestion. 

 yes. And indigestion. That reminds me of the third supplement that I love. 

 Okay 

 So it is, you probably know it as Rei, REI Mushroom.  or Ganoderma? Lucidum. It is probably one of the biggest life-changing supplements because it works synergistically with a lot of other things. So before I knew Ganoderma or rei, I was implementing a protocol and I mean, things are going great, but adding in that supplement can.

Really speed up the healing process. 

 rahi 

 And what I found

 is this just straight There's 

 is, and, and I'll share with you what I use currently and what I'm using with my clients cuz it's so easy. Um, I use a company called Organo and they have a coffee.  and you can get different mushroom C coffee blends, and it's just as simple as replacing your cup of coffee every day.

If not, if you like to take a capsule, I like, um, the broken spores, so it's the most potent form of the mushroom, but there are over 3000 scientific studies on rei. It is the most studied natural substance.  and it is phenomenal the things that that's happening. I mean, everything from the brain, Alzheimer's, gut health, leaky gut, um, cognition, people are coming off of diabetic medic.

I can't even say this kind of stuff. I know it's probably not even like legal for me to say, but I've seen miracles with like, just almost every system. 

 uh 

I think I think 

 it's beautiful.

 come into the spotlight in the most rooms have definitely come into the spotlight in the last five to 10 years, especially with four, four Sigmatic.

do remember an interview with Dr. Andrew well, where he stated, Uh, you cannot hold me to this because it's him that stated it. Uh, but he stated that, one, the one food that was associated with Alzheimer's and dementia was, uh, the people who ate more mushrooms were much less likely to suffer those type of issues. think 

 Wow. Yeah. 

 the amount, I think

was a was on that that the populations that they studied, it was about a cup of mushrooms a day, uh, before, I guess, before you cook 'em down or whatever. it is good to know, especially the Rei, uh, part. Um, I'm, I'm curious now how it would affect me. I do have a, there's an oriental. sells like the exotic foods and Store that sells like the exotic foods and stuff. And when, when I'm there, the lady always pushes rahi tea on me. It's 

 Oh yeah. 

 Get 

 Try.

 get this tea It's just life changing this tea 

 try it. I can tell you some amazing stories. For me personally, I'm, I remember I had indigestion every time I had coffee, and I loved it, and my grandmother brought me up on coffee. I mean, from the time I was drinking a bottle. She wanted me to be awake, so she would put coffee in my bottle. Like I literally had coffee my entire life since I was a baby.

And so I love it. Of course, you know, it's one of those comfort foods and or comfort beverages, and I would get indigestion no matter what brand I tried. I tried all the low toxin, low mold, all the, you know, so I would literally bite down on a lemon  afterwards just to like, you know, Ba rebalance the acid or get, you know, rebalance my pH and I found this coffee and I was like, this is a fluke.

I tried it for three days and my indigestion completely went away, 

 can I do 

 I was like, there's no way. There's no way.

 you think I can have the REI and and and separate from the coffee and still get the same effect or does it, do you 

 Oh, yeah, 

 coffee 

 absolutely. 

 Chelsea I 

 mean,

 snob

my own beans now for a super c i I've been roasting my own beans now for 10 years, 

 Okay. My husband is very much into his beans and grinding and doing all the things himself as well. So he does the spores, he does a capsule, and I do the coffee. So it's really just another way to get the substance, you know, if 

you,

 I will do this for I used to have massive indigestion from coffee I haven't had, uh, and. I haven't had much issues with it lately, but I certainly wouldn't mind, uh, having a little bit of rahi cuz if I have pasted, mix coffee with food. That's one thing I know. Um if I do, I start to, to have reflux.

Uh, the second thing is if I have a cup later in the day after, after I've eaten, it tends to cause problems. So now I'm gonna experiment with the reishi. Thanks to you, in our initial pre. Interview. I have now been eating, I've been having lemon water every single morning for over a month. That, which should tell you how many times we've tried to connect, and uh now.

Uh, and uh, I eat a grapefruit now every day. So great,

I 

 it going?

 doing fantastic. Uh I will

mean I'm I'm doing fantastic Uh, I will say I eat and it's just, it's funny how, especially cuz I was in. Years ago I was in the low carb camp of, of how much, it's so hard to get back in that mindset of, and I've been trying to do it for years.

This is not new, but, uh, of, of eating fruit again. And, you know, you, you kind of demonize the carbs and whatnot. Uh, but I've. to the store now it's just I've made sure that when I go to the store now, it's just like I load my, a whole shelf of my fridge with grapefruit, lemon, and apples is, is what I do. And now, previously I think I was, I was doing apples and I eat blueberries every day, but now I'm kind of diversifying it, if you will.

 Yeah. I think we can get on these fads and it really, it stresses us out to move off of 'em. And, and I've been everything, I mean, I've been big in like, I've been low carb, high carb, like whatever there is out there. Low fat, no fat. I mean, it's like, and I think that, The body appreciates those breaks from certain things to heal.

Like That's so true. And I'll help my clients find the right system for their body so that they can heal. But I think any of those things long term, you're not really doing your body any favor because you're missing out on nutrients. You know you really need the nutrition long term. That's what your body's asking for.

That's why we eat

 I was making a a journal So I I I was making a, a journal in the mornings and I made a journal entry the other day. That was kind of what we're talking about here, which, uh, it, it stated that I think I was talking to myself, of course, but I said, I think the biggest benefit I get from keeping this journal, is what is no longer serving of It, when we think of journals, we think of, oh, I had this epiphany and I want to try this. Or I, I'm, I'm tracking a goal that I'm pursuing. But in all reality, I started looking back over entries and I said, this no

More than anything, I look at, this no longer serves me. Why am I doing this? I'm going to eliminate this from my life. Or at least reduce it. Right? And that's, that's I think a lot of, of what you're talking about with, with the, uh, diet Cols is, you know, somebody. Same as we talked about at the very beginning of this interview, copying and pasting a story over ourself and saying, oh, well look what it did for ritual or whate, whoever, and person who's I wanna do that for me.

I wanna be that person who's happy in vitality, so I'm just gonna copy and paste their model. What I think is probably not spoken about enough. Chelsea, when we think of these successes with these approaches, Most all of 'em focus on re re removing processed foods and, and if you are on a diet that's heavy on processed foods, it doesn't matter whether you go Mediterranean, paleo, or vegan.

When you do that, immediately are like, oh my gosh, I feel so much better. And of course, we wanna share that victory with all of our friends and family and things like that. uh, the last thing I'll say about that is can correct me, on this to me and you can correct me on this, the to me, the, the, the diets that are, uh, a little bit strict about what you can and can't have, has the success has more to do with the person's personality. In other words, are the kind of person that said, you, for example, um, if you say you can't have french fries on this diet, they'll be like, have access to Then that's great because if I have access to it, I'm gonna, I can't control it. people So there, there are certain people, um, who seem to thrive with that. I can't have all this stuff and I just have my access to this.

That doesn't necessarily mean it's the best approach, but it might be the best approach for them.

 Right, and I do find that it's really difficult, like if, if I give someone a plan and I'm like, okay, meat, this is your amount, this is your amount of fruit, this is your amount of vegetables. They will follow that plan to a tea. The minute I start adding things back in and saying, okay, we've been in this phase of limit, you know, limitation like that is over, body has rested, everything's starting to heal.

Let's start to bring some of these foods back in. The nervousness kicks in and they're like, oh no, I have no idea what to eat. You know? And it's like, and that's when people start falling off the wagon and it's like, you can't remain on this strict, strict plan the rest of your life though. And then you, you have the opposite end of the spectrum.

Then you have someone who's, who feels, you know, so super deprived on that, you know, meat, fruit and vegetables. Not looking at it as like, , my body just needs to go on a vacation from all this stuff for a little while and then I can bring it back in. But the, the mind is just so stressed over the fact that there's this limited, you know, amount of food to eat when truly it's like super abundant if we think about it.

But they look at the limitations of what they can't have. And it's almost like they're falling off the wagon every week because, you know, it's like, oh, I just went ahead and ate the french fries. I just couldn't do it. It was just too much. It was stressful. So it really is, and the determination, and I've been really careful and you know, just making sure that people are ready for this process because while it can be simple, it's not always.

And having that good support system, having all those things in place, they're really a big key to your success.

 about your

Well I'm gonna circle back to the first thing you said about your. And I think that's, that sort of is a great way to wrap up this interview and say, when you have the right attitude towards creating a healthier life, as opposed to saying, how long do I have to be miserable? How long do I have to suffer through this? And how long are you gonna take my favorite foods like pizza and beer away from me? Then it's like, well, of course you're going to fail because all you're going to be doing is going, when can I quit? When can I quit? When am I done? And so attitude I think is, is something we have to. we kind of alluded to I think the identity where we kind of alluded to that earlier about, you know, how we associate the sugar and the sweet foods. Uh, there are people who, for example, have they, they have this identity of, I go to a, I go to a pub, a pub food all the time, right? And you have to say, if you want to transition to a healthy life, you've got to let go of that idea. There isn't a way that I know of that you can continue to eat the pub food all the time and continue to thrive and, and grow. So, aspects here even There's a lot of psychological aspects here, even though you are a nutritionist and, uh, basically, uh, and well-rounded one at that because you do it from the spiritual dynamic. The brain. The body. Um, I, I'm just so, uh, happy we're able to connect and help you share your message, Chelsea?

 Yeah, I've, I've loved this. Thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure and I, I really, I think that it's so important for people to see the full picture and the, like you said, the attitude is 1000% where it's at. If we can kind of see ourselves as the person we want to become, then we can become that, you know, it's really focusing.

Like if you want to be the person that takes medications the rest of your life, that's okay like that. If that's where you are perfectly fine, just own it, embrace it, and don't try the new like lifestyle plan. If changing your lifestyle is where you wanna go though, then you have to see yourself down the road as this.

Healthy person living this healthy lifestyle, doing the things like getting out in nature, making it fun, figuring out what it takes to enjoy the lifestyle. Because the more you enjoy it and the more you create your life around it, instead of putting it on as a diet hat, then the more you are gonna be likely to stick with.

and then your family's gonna see it and they're gonna say, oh my gosh, look at this person. I wanna do that too. And you're gonna create this ripple effect.

 Very well said Where can Well said Chelsea Very well said. Where can people find out more?

 I am@chelseaward.com. That's c H E L S I E W A R d.com. And um, I have a book there. I have a Metabo, a free metabolic guide there if you wanna find out the perfect diet for you. , you can just download that guide. Uh, there's a lot of information there. And also co coaching programs. If you feel like this is some work you wanna dive deeper into, you can look at those on my page as well.

And just whatever you do, take one nugget from this interview today and just go and apply it to your life one step at a time. And I think that's really what's gonna help us reach.

 and I I love it Sustainable progress and I did do the, I did do the guide, uh, and, and found it insightful. I, I appreciate you sharing that. you

 Great. 

Awesome.

 Well Thank you, so. much Chelsea.

 Thank you, Daniel.