#42 Beyond the Crown: Miss Iowa 2017, Chelsea Constantino (Dubczak)

Former Miss Iowa Chelsea Constantino redefines nutrition by blending biblical wisdom with modern health science in this insightful episode. Inspired by her pageant experience, Chelsea shares how she developed a sustainable, faith-aligned approach to health - one focused on long-term consistency rather than extreme dieting.

Her book, The Guide to Eating Biblically in a Modern World, breaks down complex nutrition into seven biblical principles. From cravings to ancient dietary laws, Chelsea connects scripture with science in practical, thought-provoking ways. 

Whether you're faith-based or just curious, Chelsea's approach offers a grounded, empowering path to wellness. Tune in for a fresh take on food, faith, and feeling your best.

Chapters

• 0:58 Introducing Chelsea Constantino
• 5:41 From Pageant Stage to Nutrition Coach
• 11:03 Fitness Journey and Swimsuit Competition
• 20:21 Establishing a Sustainable Lifestyle
• 32:43 Understanding Cravings vs. Temptations
• 39:03 Biblical Perspectives on Nutrition
• 48:55 Clean vs. Unclean Foods
• 59:44 Key Takeaways and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Raeanna: 0:30

Hello everyone. Welcome back to Sash and Soul. I'm excited to introduce a guest to you today. We go way back. We're from the same hometown, but this is Chelsea Constantino, formerly Chelsea Dubcek, and she is Miss Iowa 2017. And now she is an entrepreneur, like Boss Babe, running her Coach Reign Nutrition program, and I'm excited because we get to talk about her new book today. You guys, this is so good. This is so valuable. This is going to be one of the best conversations that you've heard in a really long time, because so many of you are prepping for competition and fitness is top of mind, and nutrition and wellness, so this is going to be a really great conversation for you to hear. So I'm excited to dive in. Chelsea. How are you? It's been a while.

Chelsea: 1:16

It has been a while. I'm so good. Thanks for having me on. I'm excited to be here.

Raeanna: 1:21

Good what's?

Raeanna: 1:22

new? Tell me about your life lately.

Chelsea: 1:24

Oh my gosh, it's like what isn't new? No, things are really really good. I um, like you mentioned, I just published a book which is so wild. I'm still in the pinch me phase of that. I'm getting pictures, people are are finally. I had pre-orders open and people are finally getting their copies.

Chelsea: 1:46

I'm getting pictures right and left of I finally got your book, which is insane that this thing I've been working on for gosh like five years now is is in print. People anywhere around the world can actually just like hop on a website and order it, so that's the main thing. That's kind of consuming all of my attention.

Raeanna: 2:06

Crazy. And how's married life Still good.

Chelsea: 2:09

Marriage is awesome. I love my husband so much. He is truly my best friend. Um, actually, our our anniversary is coming up in a couple of weeks three years of marriage which is also crazy to think about. Thank you, yeah, we're gonna take another big trip. We love to travel, so if you follow along on social, I I post a lot about that, but we're taking a big trip to Italy to celebrate, which I'm very excited for.

Raeanna: 2:36

So, yeah, have you been to Italy?

Chelsea: 2:42

We, on our honeymoon, we took a Mediterranean cruise, and so the first stop was, and one of the last stops was, in Italy, and we knew once we were there, we're like, okay, we're definitely coming back here, and so that has been the plan. We're gonna make our. We're basically doing a whole tour of Italy, starting north, ending in Sicily, at the, at the bottom, and we're gonna revisit our favorite place that we went to on our honeymoon. So it's a little coastal town called taramina yes actually have you really okay?

Raeanna: 3:17

yes, because I was hoping that it was going to be a place that I had been. So we went on our one year anniversary trip to italy and we did something very similar to you. We were there for two weeks and taramina was one of our, one of our places that we stopped at. Oh my gosh, oh yay, this is so good.

Chelsea: 3:30

Yeah, oh, it's just so, it's a OK. So if anyone's seen White Lotus, the second season takes place in Tarmina and we'd already been there when we started watching that and in the intro we're like wait, that looks familiar, that train station looks familiar. We're like, oh my gosh, we've literally been here before. So yeah, it's just a beautiful postcard, perfect place to be. So we're, we can't, I can't believe we've been there. I've never actually met someone else who from the states, who's been there.

Raeanna: 3:58

So, yes, yeah, we went to Rome, we went to Positano, which I highly recommend, beautiful uh, terramina, sorrento and Catania oh dang, okay, yeah, italy great like italy is just so great, it's so great, I can't we want to move there. It is the food, the people, the sites, the weather, all of it all the things, yeah, all the things agreed yeah, all right.

Raeanna: 4:28

So for those of you that don't know you as a pageant girl, um, tell us a little bit about your journey. It's been a hot minute. I know I celebrated 10 years this year, so I get it. What I did, I did, but you're younger than me, so your time is coming, my friend. The decade mark. Yeah, it's fun.

Chelsea: 4:54

Dang, okay, yeah, yeah, I guess it has been 10 years um for you. I I'm close um, so, as you mentioned um in your intro, yeah, we go way back um. I started my journey competing in the Miss America program as an outstanding team when it was still called outstanding team. I was dating myself and progressed into the Miss competition. My first title was Miss Holman, which is also one of your titles, my very first title, miss Holman, was it?

Chelsea: 5:32

Was it Okay? Yeah, shout out to the hometown. And I just kind of went from there. I competed in the Wisconsin system for a little while, but I went to school in Iowa and after I graduated from university I stayed in Iowa. I was working there and so therefore, I was eligible to compete in Iowa and it really just came down to one year.

Chelsea: 5:56

Um, one of one of the other girls that we competed with was like, hey, are you gonna compete? We aged out this year. What are you thinking? And I kind of like, kind of put it away honestly. Um, she's like, just do it for the. I was in boatloads of student loan debt. I wanted an opportunity to sing again and so I just did that. One last, one, last rally, ended up winning my local title in in Des Moines and then competed for Miss Iowa and won Miss Iowa, got to fulfill the dream of Miss America and, quite literally, my life changed forever because of that experience wouldn't change it for anything when you first started competing and kind of like, through the time that you won Miss Iowa, your talent was vocal right and at the time we were doing swimsuit.

Raeanna: 6:51

yeah, what was the fitness journey like for you? And I ask specifically because I have an understanding of your fitness journey and I love it and that's really what I want to talk about most today.

Chelsea: 7:03

Totally, totally, um. Contrary to popular belief about what can happen in the psyche of preparing for a swimsuit in a pageant setting, I think it was quite truly the best thing for me. I learned so much in preparing for any any of the times I competed that required swimsuit, um, because it came down to the fact that, just knowing my body, I was never going to be the thinnest person up there. I just knew that I was always very I have an athletic, muscular build, um, kind of have tree trunks for thighs, which I, I love, and I I use that term endearingly but I was just never going to be the super small girl. And to me, I took very seriously you know they called it lifestyle and fitness and swimwear. I took very seriously the lifestyle and fitness part of that, regardless of what I was wearing, and so I really wanted to approach this as a sustainable, sustainable way that I could this. However, however, I was going to prepare for competition. I wanted to look the same at the end of my year as I did the day one of my year, and it was never more obvious to me that how important that was than when I was a state federal holder, and every day you are in a new place, you're often sleeping in weird hotels and you're just. You're always traveling, you have odd hours, you don't know what's going to be accessible to you, and so the skills that I learned in preparing for the state title holder job are really what sustained me through that, because every single day you show up as Miss State, whatever.

Chelsea: 8:53

There's a really good chance that whoever you meet has never met a Miss State and so that's their only experience and interaction with the Miss America organization in general or any title, any pageant organization, and so you have to be on every single day for a whole year, and if you're eating garbage and you feel like garbage and you're doing convenience because that's the easy thing to do, you're going to take a toll, and so I guess that's a that's a long winded way of saying it was truly the best thing for me and it has set me up for success where I now I mean almost 10 years after becoming Miss Iowa I I am very, very close still to my competition physique, just because it's literally my lifestyle, it's just how, how I exist. I didn't have to go through any arduous diet or workout plan specifically to prep for state or prep for up plan specifically to prep for state or prep for Miss America, or whatever. It's just how I exist, and so, um, did I even answer?

Chelsea: 9:58

your question.

Raeanna: 9:59

You did and I want to. I want to talk more about this because I was wondering, before I hopped on the call with you, if you did any of like the like, the building and then cutting type thing that that a lot of like bodybuilders or swimsuit competitors do.

Chelsea: 10:14

Yeah, I actually didn't know. I, um, when I was competing for that, that last time that I went to compete for anything and I ended up winning local and then winning Miss Iowa, I had just started my CrossFit journey. Up until then I really was doing random fitness things you know, pinterest workouts. I found I had a personal trainer for a little while who taught me a lot, but I didn't have really an organized fitness routine that was anything routine, that was anything purposeful and I didn't what I thought I knew about nutrition. Then I had really no idea. I just the the.

Chelsea: 11:00

When I first started it was kind of a okay, I'm not going to have mac and cheese when I would normally have mac and cheese. Like it was cutting out the obvious. This is not beneficial for me, health wise. Um, and that was at the really start of my, my pageant journey, when I was that last time that it really like mattered to me honestly the most. I was already doing CrossFit, which incorporates a nutritional aspect, so I was already learning that just for my own health and benefit and wellbeing. So it just translated super well into preparing for state.

Chelsea: 11:38

I quite literally did nothing differently preparing for state and preparing for Miss America than I was already doing in my everyday life. I actually remember this is kind of a funny story I was working for I was a voice teacher, part-time on the side, and I remember being in the kitchen at the voice studio between students just heating up my dinner. I always had dinner that I already made from my house and I'd bring it with me. I was heating it up and the husband of my boss essentially happened to oversee me heating up my dinner and he looks. He said I thought you were getting ready for Miss Iowa. I said yeah, I absolutely am.

Chelsea: 12:23

I said why aren't you supposed to starve yourself? That's a lot of food. Oh, and I will. I will never forget him saying that because at that moment I was like this is my chance to like, change the dialogue. And he said this is what I, this is what I eat every single day. Uh, this is my normal meal. And actually, no, you don't have to starve yourself. Um, I'm very much against that. I need to fuel my workouts so that I can build muscle, so that I can have a physique. I'm proud of my workouts so that I can build muscle, so that I can have a physique. I'm proud of walking on stage.

Chelsea: 12:59

I care more about being capable and alert than being as skinny as possible, and it just blew his mind.

Raeanna: 13:03

Wait, what were you eating that day, do you remember?

Raeanna: 13:04

I need to know what was on the plate

Chelsea: 13:06

I had meatloaf, brussels sprouts and like a sweet potato mash.

Chelsea: 13:13

So simple

Raeanna: 13:14

that sounds delicious,

Chelsea: 13:14

but it was a pretty like sizable Pyrex dish, you know, but yeah, oh my gosh, very delicious.

Chelsea: 13:23

I probably should have been more mindful about reheating Brussels sprouts in a community, yeah, but he was shocked about that and I'll I'll never forget that.

Chelsea: 13:35

That was a very proud moment for me of like no, actually, you don't. And then I even better, when I went to miss Iowa a few weeks later and I won swimsuit in my prelim and that to me it was just like, see, it's like this is I truly care about the lifestyle and fitness part of it, not just cutting as much as possible, to be as skinny as possible. And I wanted especially because that was my platform at the time, or my social initiative, right, I wanted I wanted to display true health and lifestyle. And again, looking the same at the end of the year as I did on day one was really important to me. And I think, for the same at the end of the year as I did on day one was really important to me. And I think for the most part there was probably some inflammation that's just comes from stress of the job, but for the most part I, you know I could still wear my entire wardrobe from when I competed to when I passed on the title.

Raeanna: 14:27

I love that I could, but it was because the stress was affecting me in in terms of, like, losing weight, and so I just, yeah, I that stress does not affect me like that anymore. My, my metabolism has certainly changed and my body chemistry has changed since then. I'm in my thirties now and so it's just a little bit different how stress affects me. But yeah, how long did it take you to get the physique that you had at Miss Iowa? So you said that, like you didn't do anything different from local to Miss Iowa, to Miss America. How long did it take you to get to that very stable physique that you said, that you still have right now?

Chelsea: 15:07

Not quite a year. Okay, I would say I mean gosh, gosh. If I think about the timeline when I graduated from school, I was the heaviest I had ever been. That was. That was when I had like pseudo retired from pageantry. I had a lot going on. I really wanted to focus on my singing career. I, I, my hormones were all out of whack. I had a lot of stress Like I. I honestly call that the worst year of my life, 2015,. Not great for Chelsea, um, and at that point I was just. I was the heaviest I'd ever been, not feeling great, very emotional, I think. I was honestly like pretty depressed and she, I, I.

Chelsea: 15:53

The only thing that really was kind of my saving grace was realizing that when, when everything in life was out of my control, the only thing that I could control was how well I could take care of my body, because it seemed like every direction I turned like someone really disappointed me, let me down, stab me in the back, or some job thing didn't come through, or a new bill that I couldn't pay happened, or someone else left my life, like all of these things kind of just came to a head, but the one thing I could control is how well I took care of my body and that was really the impetus to starting a gym routine and focusing on nutrition a little more seriously. Starting a gym routine and focusing on nutrition a little more seriously, um, and so I had hired a personal trainer even though I was like broker than a joke, honestly. I went to a local gym. Actually, this is what I did. I graduated and I was using different various friends who were still students. I was using their student ID to still get into the gym at school until, like, school started again and they needed their IDs back. So then then I went to, I did the free week trial at every local gym for probably two months and I landed at one where you know, they offered the free personal training session. It's pretty typical practice Happened have this free session, um, with a guy named eric, and like he was the first person to really show, like he genuinely cared and saw, saw potential in me, and like I don't know, just like one, he was cute and I was like, okay, I can maybe make this work.

Chelsea: 17:31

And two, he actually genuinely cared about me. And so I remember calling my mom and she said, chelsea, if this is the thing that's going to get you out of your funk, then invest the money will come back, okay, you know, if it's God's plan, he'll make it work, if it's going to make you feel good. And so I got a few personal training sessions with him and then he um, he helped me get out of my funk and actually helped redirect my career path that I became a personal trainer, and the rest is history. So shout out to Eric Um, we're still friends to this day, so, um, but yeah, that was like a year process to get into some sort of routine.

Chelsea: 18:14

Once I started being a personal trainer, I was relatively fit but still not super happy with my physique.

Chelsea: 18:29

I was still kind of recovering from a year of depression and just not good post-graduate life.

Chelsea: 18:31

And I would actually I had a coworker who was a CrossFitter and so we would leave on our lunch break and go to the CrossFit gym and get our workout in and then come back and train more people at the Globo gym and I would say it was about a year of that very consistently and starting to really dial in nutrition on a different level that I turned around one day and I was like, oh my God, like this is I am now the picture that I used to put on my vision board of what I wanted to be like.

Chelsea: 19:01

It it kind of it seemingly happened overnight, even though I know it was just consistent part of my routine every day. And then when I, when I became a state title holder, I still did that. I actually, when I moved across the state into the Miss Iowa apartment, I found a new CrossFit gym there, even though I had a sponsored personal trainer. I saw both, because I love the CrossFit workout and I love that community, but then I also love the personal trainer too, so it just was so much a part of me that I needed to incorporate it throughout. So anyway, that's another long winded way of saying about a year.

Raeanna: 19:40

Okay, I've heard this so many times and I still don't think I quite understand what it actually in practice. How does one dial in to nutrition and like the find their unique nutrition, you know, like what they need to fuel their bodies and how their body tabalizes things well, and like, how do you do that?

Chelsea: 20:06

Well, how much time do you have?

Raeanna: 20:08

I was going to say this is a really, really complicated question, isn't it? This is an easy answer, Well, yes, yes and no.

Chelsea: 20:16

I think we have a tendency to overcomplicate it, quite frankly, which is essentially why I wrote my book. You know I went through multiple iterations of okay. So I actually started with a paleo, like a paleolithic diet. That was when paleo was kind of on the cusp, kind of new, and I cut out all refined sugars and starches and and followed paleo very, very closely for a long time, which I think did a really nice job of healing gut health after college years when I definitely wasn't paying attention to my food. So I'm really grateful for that. But it came to a point where I was very diligent about eating according to paleo standards but I was missing out on some quality of life and my body still wasn't lean like I wanted to be. You know, I was slender but I was still fluffy, if that makes sense. And so then I started manipulating amounts and that's when I started.

Chelsea: 21:22

I did the zone diet which a lot of in the CrossFit world. That's kind of the direction they tend to take with nutrition. They teach the zone diet, which is just a way of um, portion control, essentially um or it's. It's another way of doing macro counting, if you've heard of macros. So so I started taking the quality of paleo and I paired it with the quantity of the zone diet and from there I started. I started to learn more about okay for me, if I actually have a little bit more carb centric stuff, I perform a little bit better at the gym, I can get more out of my workout, which means more muscle mass, which means better definition. You know, if I do protein a little heavier protein here and I just kind of started to learn how I felt based on different proportions of food.

Chelsea: 22:14

And what I've learned, both in my personal practice and through coaching people through this nutritional journey, is if we start with what I call the diamond meal, which just means you have protein, vegetables, carbs and fat every time you eat. You got those four points. You have the diamond meal every time you eat. Now we just need to figure out where the nuance of you specifically comes in is how much of each does your body like, based on you know, your uh, your hormones, where you're at in life stress levels, what kind of workouts are you doing? What's your overall goal, physique-wise, performance-wise? Those are all going to change those levers a little bit. Do you need more carbs? Do you need less carbs, more fat, less fat, and then just learning what foods fit into each of those categories is kind of a learning curve. But that's how you dial it in.

Chelsea: 23:08

Everyone can afford to eat. That's how you dial it in. Everyone can afford to eat cleaner, wholesome from the earth foods. That goes without saying. I think where people get stuck is I'm eating really clean, but I'm still not losing weight or feeling toned, or I'm still. Usually, people have better energy if they're eating clean, but it's just not all the way there. But I also don't think we need to weigh and measure absolutely everything for quality of life purposes. That's just. That's another stressor, it's another thing on the to-do list and can kind of create a relationship with food that is super transactional and ultimately negative, I found, and so I am more of a visual learner and an intuitive eater. After having done all of the other things, I just find it's the best and it's the most sustainable.

Raeanna: 24:03

So that's how you dial it in Quality then quantity and taking your time and having patience with the process than quantity, and taking your time and having patience with the process.

Chelsea: 24:15

Yeah, that's number one, honestly, because you didn't get to where we are. Think about it we eat every day of our lives, right From the moment you were born. You know, if you have the ability to listen to this podcast, you probably have the privilege of eating every day of your life. It takes a long time to undo things that you don't want that have accumulated over a long time. Now the difference is, you know, if you're like man, I've been eating this way for 30 years. It's going to take me 30 years, not necessarily because with dedicated focus and going the other direction, you can really expedite that process.

Chelsea: 24:55

But yeah, it does take time and it is a learning curve, and what works for your best friend may not, and probably will not, work for you. It's like putting gas in a Ford F-150 and putting gas in a Honda Civic. It's going to burn the same fuel very, very differently. You're going to get two totally different mileages out of those vehicles. It could be the exact same gasoline, but they're equipped differently to burn it differently. And so if the thing that's working for your best friend isn't working for you, okay, now we know we can check that box, that that doesn't work. Let's move on to the next.

Raeanna: 25:35

Okay, chicken and egg question, cause we like hear this very common saying of it starts in the kitchen. Do you agree with that? Like, what's what's more important, the fitness routine or the nutrition?

Chelsea: 25:54

That's a really great question. I just had 10 different thoughts of of how I can take this. Overall, I'm going to say the food is more important. You you cannot outwork a bad diet. You just can't. And I've had, I've had clients I've worked with who have lost 50, 60 pounds and haven't stepped foot in a gym not once. So it's possible, it's very possible, to drastically change your body just by what you eat. That being said, the gym is one hour a day and can be very, very gratifying or whatever workout routine you're doing. The one hour a day you get those endorphins, you feel powerful and capable and that can be a catalyst to wanting to eat well. So that's, that's how I like the order I did it in really is.

Chelsea: 26:45

Once I started working out and feeling good, I wanted more of that and I knew if I ate poorly I wouldn't like, I would die in my workouts and I dreaded that. So it was incentive to me for me to eat better so that I could push more in the gym. I could do more things. I wanted to, you know, squat my body weight, I want to do pull-ups, I want to do all these really cool, bad-ass things. But if I wasn't eating well, that all of that would suffer. So for me it did start with the physical stuff, but it wasn't until I I manipulated the food that I started to like actually see abs or muscle definition in my legs. Like that won't happen unless you're focusing on the food.

Raeanna: 27:28

I find myself getting really frustrated with, like, not seeing results or not being able to be consistent. I get frustrated with the way that my body's changing with my age, with hormonal stuff, with stress and other things that are going on in my life. Did you experience that when you were like early on in this journey and how did you navigate that for yourself?

Chelsea: 27:48

I think the frustration I actually think maybe it came from the other extreme, because there was a time there where I was so focused on being, you know, especially as a title holder, and my, my platform literally was ladies who lift, strengthening mind and body. So whenever I showed up somewhere, I need to exhibit that, and a lot of the things I did were very physical. I had people ask me to come to their gym, I had people ask me to lead workouts, you know I had to show up and be that, and so I was very, very dialed in and focused on that for a while, and I think the frustration ultimately came for me with letting go of the reins a little bit. You're not having to be so regimented for fear of backsliding, because I knew, I knew that that happens. You know, as soon as you stop doing the thing that got you to where you are, you're going to go right back to where you started. Um, so I think the frustration honestly was an inner turmoil of, well, what if I what I like get fat, or what if I lose, or get a, lose a bunch of muscle and gain a bunch of weight by not being this regimented? And what I ultimately learned is, you know, especially as a woman of faith, like that's not God's intent Once it. Once I reached that point, it became an idol for me and that's not healthy either.

Chelsea: 29:17

So, and I wouldn't say, you know, I didn't struggle with an eating disorder. I definitely had disordered eating patterns, just because it consumed so much of my thoughts, and so the frustration for me was just coming out of that. Not necessarily it was fear of the results I didn't want, and so combating that was an element of surrender, frankly, and just letting myself try and dipping a toe into the thing. That seems difficult and it can be used the other way around to, you know, just trying the thing. Maybe I should say it this way Doing less FAM is often the solution.

Chelsea: 30:01

The harder we work at this sometimes not to say that it's not hard work but if we're really punching ourselves trying to get to these results, we're just burning ourselves. It's a disservice, and I it is. It is yeah. So I think that's a really roundabout way of answering that question. But ultimately I did get to a place where kind of just let go trust the process and really lean on what I know to be true of like biblical principles and how the relationship we should have with food and our body, and how to best honor our body versus best punish my body.

Raeanna: 30:43

I think disordered eating is probably way more common than we realize, and I think it's actually more like socially accepted as well in some ways. So can you, can you touch on that? Can you touch on like what are the signs of disordered eating and how do we combat that? I would imagine it's a lot of just like radical acceptance and self-love and like changing like our habits of thinking. But from your perspective, what is? What does disordered eating look like and how do we combat that?

Chelsea: 31:16

So in my own experience and I guess with clients that I've coached too, it shows up as an it's all consuming. Every single thing you eat you think about. Every time you don't eat, you think about it. You think about should I eat, should I not eat? Should I eat this? What's going to happen if I do happen? What's going to happen if I don't? And then you eat the thing and then you think about should I have eaten that? Probably not, and it's just a constant thought process, this train that never turns off.

Chelsea: 32:05

So if you've noticed that about yourself, or you get done with a meal and you're not content, you're not okay, like you don't need seconds or you don't need to somehow manipulate your next meal because maybe you overdid it in this one. If you don't just eat a meal and you feel good after and you can move on and focus on the next thing, that could be a sign of disordered eating patterns. It is really, it can be really difficult to break free from that. What I notice a lot of times is it's often associated with those of us who count. So if we're counting calories, if we're counting macros, if we're associating numbers with food and we have this margin that we're allotted and if we go outside of that, it's you know terms for punishment. That's when we have this negative relationship with food and then we associate our worth and our achievement with how well we can follow that plan.

Chelsea: 32:48

Now, that's not to say counting calories and macros isn't effective and isn't good, like there are people I know who can do that every day for the rest of their life and be totally fine. But if, if those numbers are something that you follow and then those thoughts are things that you have, that to me is a red flag and the first thing I would do is just we got to stop counting. At least stop counting maybe carbs and fat, wean off of that and just focus on protein. Make sure you get your protein goals, let the rest come to you intuitively. And that's something I actually I teach a lot of my clients, because most women who come to me for nutrition coaching have that history with food. It's just, it's always a thought, it's always on the mind, and they just want to break free from that and have yeah, have that peace and freedom with food, to not overthink absolutely everything they eat.

Raeanna: 33:47

I think also just like labeling something as good or bad, like that judgment of it. Because the next question I was going to ask you and I realized it was almost like a one of those questions that's kind of laced in judgment is are cravings bad? And so then I realized, as soon as I asked if it was bad, I'm like, well, that's a judgment of cravings. But I do kind of want to hear your perspective on cravings, because, as you were talking about, well, let's stop counting calories, let's focus or at least count just the thing that we know we need to get the most out of protein, or at least count just the thing that we know we need to get the most of of protein. Then I'm like, all right, well, yeah, I can get protein in all day, but what about when I'm craving things that are high in carbohydrates or high in fats or high in sugar? Is that a bad thing?

Chelsea: 34:26

How do?

Raeanna: 34:27

you manage that.

Chelsea: 34:29

That's a great question. So to touch on the point really quick, on the good versus bad foods, I like to think of everything on a spectrum and I really, when I speak about it, I don't call foods good or bad. I call them healthful or not healthful. Or are they health promoting, are they health detracting? I love that. Is this thing going to push you the needle in the right direction or in the wrong direction? Not good or bad, it's not, you know, it doesn't have personality, it is what it is. But is it serving your goal or is it not? Is it detracting from your goal? And so that's how I, when I look at a certain food, and sometimes and I'll be totally honest food, and sometimes and I'll I'll be totally honest Sometimes the donut is the like, I accept the constant, the physical consequence to that, because my heart wants it, you know, and it's not often, and I have boundaries for that and we can get into that too. But, um, but I really, if that's the thought, instead of thinking about how many calories it is, and then if I am good or bad for eating it, I think how am I going to feel after this physically? And is it, is it serving my goals, or is it serving the flesh, as I call it Right? Um, so that's kind of the spectrum that I focus on that.

Chelsea: 35:50

As far as cravings go, I think it's really important to discern the difference between cravings and temptations. There's two very different things. I believe that God gave us cravings as a health measure and protective measure, and so here's how we know the difference. Cravings kind of come on out of nowhere, nothing really triggers it, but it's on the mind and it's almost insatiable. You can't not think about it until you've satisfied the craving. That's different than a temptation which comes after some sort of trigger. You thought about it, you saw it, you heard it, you smelled it. Someone brought it to the office, someone. You were flipping through Instagram. You saw it, something triggered it in your mind and now you really want that thing. But if you can distract yourself for like five minutes, you kind of forget about it. So if we know, the difference between those temptations are the things that are impulsive and we need to stay away from.

Chelsea: 36:54

Usually, not a lot of people are like oh my gosh, broccoli, I really want broccoli now. Like that's just not really a thing, right, it's usually the unhealthful, not serving our goal food choices. And so if it comes on because you saw it, heard it, whatever, and it's not infatiable, it's just like, oh, that sounds really good, I really would like that, and you can kind of forget about it after a little bit, you don't need it, whereas a craving is usually your body telling you, hey, I'm really depleted in XYZ, vitamins and minerals. I know in a way I can get those things from this food that you've once eaten before. I'm just going to keep sending signals for that thing. And so one thing that I teach my clients I have a whole chart on this is you know, if you're craving, say, like bread and pasta and carby stuff, a lot of times that means you're, you're nutrient deficient in nitrogen, you just need more nitrogen.

Chelsea: 37:54

And so if you know in nitrogen, you just need more nitrogen. And so if you know like I have on this chart some real food, health, nutrient dense choices high in nitrogen are high protein foods eggs, beans, nuts Okay. So if you have that craving for like breads and stuff that you know is not going to serve your goals, you kind of can't shake it If you can supplement that with the things like the meats, the beans, the nuts or whatever it is in that nutrient. A lot of times they just go away. It's pretty miraculous If you satisfy that craving with the thing that you need, you don't crave the thing anymore.

Raeanna: 38:33

There's just no real satisfaction when you have like leaned into a temptation versus, if you've like, satisfied a craving in a healthy way. That's a good way to generate like or to understand the difference between those two as well. So then, how does that tie into emotional eating? Because you also you mentioned like, differentiating between you. Know, am I eating because like, because it sounds fun to you, or like a donut right or versus like, I'm eating to fulfill some like deep pain or wound or stress or something?

Chelsea: 39:18

pain or wound or stress or something. What I like to teach is when, if you struggle with emotional eating, most of us have a good idea if that's something that that we are a victim to, but if something, well, let me pause because there is a lot of good emotion I tied, tied to eating and food. You know, think about babies. Before we can communicate, our really main mode of communication is vocalizing, right. So a hungry baby starts crying Mom knows that cry, feeds baby, stop crying. So we're really wired from a very early stage to be emotional and then treat that emotion with food. And that's because food gives us a dopamine response, that happy hormone in our brain.

Chelsea: 40:04

When it becomes an issue is that when we grow up and we can discern between those things and then we have a negative emotion and we also use food to treat that. You get bad news at work, or you have a stressful day, or get in a fight with your spouse or whatever it may be. Those negative emotions now cannot be solved via food. That dopamine is very fast, it comes on quick and then dies off quick. And so when we find that we're turning to food for the negative emotions, what I challenge is to anytime you're reaching for food, in that moment let's divert it to another activity, whether it's sadness or stress or fear or loneliness, those feelings where it's just easier, even boredom, where she's easier to grab food and like do an activity, do an activity that doesn't involve food.

Chelsea: 41:03

I have a client who, um how she walks around with a Sudoku book and anytime she like goes to mindlessly snack on something emotionally eating, she'll just do a quick puzzle, snack on something emotionally eating, she'll just do a quick puzzle and then her emotions have time to calm down, she gets more level, she finds out, oh, actually not hungry, I can go back to doing whatever I was doing. But I think also happy emotions are associated, like celebration, holidays, feasts. I have a whole chapter on that in my book, how feasting is quite literally biblical and we should have these happy emotions tied to it. You know it can quickly cross into gluttony, but that's another conversation for another time. But that's it's good Like we can have emotion tied around food. We just need to make sure that it's in alignment with the goals. If it's an emotion that's pulling away from the goal that we have around physique and health and our food intake, then we need to put some boundaries on it, if that makes sense.

Raeanna: 42:06

It does. I want to hear more about the biblical perspective of food and health and wellness. When I saw that you had released your book, I was instantly fascinated by this, because I don't think I've ever really heard someone use the Bible to help teach, educate on nutrition and wellness. But it makes perfect sense. I mean, I have a book behind me on boundaries that is biblically based in scripture and helping us understand what healthy boundaries are so like. Why wouldn't we have that for all other areas of our life? And so I love that you've taken the time to really interpret this. So tell me a little bit about how the project got started. I know that you have used your faith in your journey in everything that you've done, but it was a huge impact you've mentioned in your your health journey as well. So how did you get this idea to start, start a book and help other people make this connection?

Chelsea: 43:06

Yeah, it's been quite a rollercoaster, honestly I was. I was reflecting on this as it did publish. This has been about a five-year journey of writing a book and it really just came to me one day. I really felt like the Lord said I need you to write a book. I was listening to a sermon or something and later on he's like I need you to write a book. And I said, okay, lord, let's do it.

Chelsea: 43:33

And I remember very specifically, I went to a Barnes and Noble. I grabbed a fresh, brand new notebook. I made my favorite hike in San Diego, sat down and I was like, all right, let's go word. I mean just like a glorified journal entry about my life. And you know, because we all have very interesting journeys and our life experiences can help other people and we all tend to believe we have very interesting lives of our own. And so I was writing and it just I would hit writer's block and I was like do I like where do I start? Do I start from, like when I was born? That seems kind of extreme. Do I start from high school, college, like where I don't know? And I said put it away and try again and put it away. And eventually God said you know, chelsea, this isn't about you. I was like oh dang dang talking about some humble pie.

Chelsea: 44:37

Yeah, heard, okay. So I was like, okay, not about me, cool, got it? Um, so what is it about? Because I feel like if I'm gonna write a book, I should be an expert on it and really the only thing I feel like an expert on is my own life experiences. So they put it away for a little bit longer. And um, and then another.

Chelsea: 45:03

I love when god talks to me because it's like it just hits me like a ton of bricks and he told me I need you to teach people to eat the way I intended, as clear as day. And I was like, oh, okay, dang, um, do I even know what that looks like? And so it really became a journey in my own life of am I eating with what's in alignment with what God says? Cause, as you said, I turned to the word for guidance on everything you know, that is our. That is our like how to do life for dummies guidebook. I do that for relationships and conflict resolution and hope and grieving. Why haven't I done this for this major pain point for a lot of us, which is the health of our body and nutrition, and so I started diving in our body and nutrition, and so I started diving in, I read some other kind of Christian health food books and blogs and articles and, man, just so much was illuminated for me.

Chelsea: 46:10

What I found really was a lot of the principles that I was already practicing in my own life and already teaching as a nutritionist were very much in alignment with what the Word says.

Chelsea: 46:22

I just wasn't giving God credit, and so what I ended up doing is breaking it down into 10, well, essentially seven principles, which is actually funny because, biblically speaking, the number seven is a very powerful number. It represents completion and wholeness. And so he gave me these seven principles that really address how we in our modern world have a relationship with food that isn't in alignment with what God intended, and then backing it up with with scripture, and it kind of just took off from there. Once I got that focus I mean it's happened within like six months it just like flowed out of me and like God, I really believe that God inspired this book and he just like use my fingers to literally type it. So it's really exciting that it's in other people's hands now and I pray that it does teach people to eat the way he intended. So that's, that was the whole point of it from the start.

Raeanna: 47:28

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to read this book. I haven't gotten it yet. I literally like. I saw your post earlier this week and was like instantly.

Raeanna: 47:37

Chelsea come talk about it. I need to know more. I'm sure everybody else wants to hear about it too. Like just because we know in. In so many different industries, but especially in the pageant industry, it is so highly driven by a higher purpose and faith in something Um it was. Whether you're a Christian or some other religion, usually there is some higher power that is driving your purpose, and so we know that Christianity is a huge component to that. But you talked about there was a post that you mentioned that I realized you're not just talking about like christians, because you were talking about kosher food and how that actually ties in too. So can you talk about, like how there is some interconnections between, like you know what the bible says and what other religions say? Did you find that in like to be a common thing?

Chelsea: 48:33

specifically judaism, because christianity, christianity came from judaism, right? So just kind of context there. Essentially, what I have discovered is, for the most part, we should be eating. If you want to eat biblically, you should still be eating by most of jewish practices, the jewish law, um, and I I go into this in the book, but there's quite a lot of science that really suggests that what, based on the health evidence of these studies, if you eat this way which happens to be very much how Jewish practices follow the Jewish food ways um, you're going to, you're going to prevent all of these illnesses and sicknesses.

Chelsea: 49:21

And so, for example, in the book of Leviticus which is everyone's favorite book of the Bible very dry read, but I spent a lot of time with Leviticus and I've actually learned to quite love it there is a very lengthy list of clean versus unclean foods to eat, and you can, you can go look that up. There's a little bit in Deuteronomy too. But a couple of the things. It's fascinating to me how some of the things are like oh yeah, totally, like I would never eat snake, like that's cool, makes sense to me and I get that that's an unclean food. Or I would never eat, um, birds of prey, like vultures, like got it. And then there's things that are like pork on the unclean list and it's like but I really like prosciutto, like I, it's like I have this, like, but really, god, like, are you sure about? About like that one's changed though right, and so I have to. I have to really come to terms with these hard truths of okay, no, like the word if, if I, if I think it's an all or nothing thing, it's either all true or it's none true. And I'm of the belief that it's all true, because then my life is just totally upside down if I start to think and like pick and choose. So if I accept that the word is all true, then it's saying you know, for example actually I'll take this example shellfish is on the unclean list of foods, technically of the sea creatures.

Chelsea: 50:53

It says in scripture of the sea creatures, the ones that are clean and and good to eat, they must have both fins and scales, okay. If they are lacking one or both of those, they are unclean to eat. Okay. Now, just reading it that in scripture you're like okay, that kind of sucks, like I like shrimp and lobster and like I love crab cakes, but so, but like crabs or um, shellfish is a common one, right and so, but it's on the. It technically falls under unclean in in scripture and um.

Chelsea: 51:31

So if you just read scripture, it kind of feels like, all of these really harsh rules of like, why do you say yes to this and no to this? Like? Isn't everything that God created good? You know, isn't like. Why would he make foods that are not good for us? And what I've really come to learn is well, he made animals and plants, but he didn't make all of them for our food, and so he gave us very, very specific. These are for your food. These aren't. These have a different purpose.

Chelsea: 52:01

Um and so, for example, with the shellfish, um, lobsters, crab, shrimp, all of those shellfish are known as bottom feeders, so their role, quite literally, as a species, is to be the, the ocean floor vacuum. So they just eat all of the, the garbage and and the waste and stuff like, not human garbage, well, maybe, I don't know, but like all of the, the sea creature waste, that's what they feed on, and so if we fish that up and then eat it, now we are also eating the garbage and the waste of the water. They are, but they, they're set up. Their digestive system is set up to be a filtration system. If we eat that, we're eating what's in the filter, and so it's no wonder that there are so many, you know, people with, like, shellfish allergies, and a lot of, um, seafood illnesses come from shellfish.

Chelsea: 52:59

And it actually in my research I found that it wasn't until uh, early 1900s that shellfish was actually even considered a delicacy at all. Up until that point it was prison food, it was used as bait for other fishing. It wasn't. It just wasn't appealing until we had, uh, civilization inland and could ship things in and the people inland didn't know any better, and so they could mark it up, and now it became a delicacy. Isn't it funny how, just as culture evolves like, and then we just learn to believe because other people told us Right, and so I learned that and I went to a steakhouse like a week later, and of course, the surf and turf. You know, if you want to add the lobster tail, it's another $40. I'm like $40 for garbage fish. It's so crazy to me. So, you know, learning those things based on what the Bible says just illuminated so much.

Chelsea: 53:59

Now, that's I should, I should kind of put a caveat to that just because. So the difference here let me back up the difference here is with the Jewish law. If you are, if you're a practicing Jew, you still eat that way. Because you are, you believe that you must follow these rules for salvation. So if you are Jewish, following these laws is your ticket to heaven, like, that's how you make right with God, that's how you have your sins forgiven, that's how you get to heaven. As a Christian, we believe that Jesus did that for us, and so we are no longer bound by these laws for salvation. That doesn't mean that they're not good for us, and so we are no longer bound by these laws for salvation. That doesn't mean that they're not good for us. And so there's a place I forget. I should have this memorized.

Chelsea: 54:50

There's a place in matthew where jesus says because I well, I'll talk about the mark verse, mark, chapter 7 um. Jesus says um, don't you know that it's not the food that you eat that defiles you, because that just goes into your stomach, and then you disregard it, right, it's what goes into your heart that defiles you. And in Mark it literally says by saying this Jesus declared all foods clean. Okay, so as Christians, that's the thought process that we have Like okay, well, none of those things on the clean, unclean food list apply to us anymore.

Chelsea: 55:27

But what we miss oftentimes is the scripture in Matthew, where Jesus says no, no, no. This is Chelsea's paraphrase of the verse. He says no, no, no, no. I didn't come to abolish the law, I came to fulfill it. So hear me out Nothing, no, not a single command of God's, as small as it may be, will be disregarded until the whole thing is fulfilled. And so if you, if you follow the law and teach to follow the law, you will be regarded as as great in heaven. If you don't follow the law and teach others not to, you'll be called the least in heaven. And so in saying that, he's saying this is not your ticket to heaven anymore. I took care of that, but it's still really good for us to follow these.

Chelsea: 56:17

God made these rules for a reason for our benefit, for our health. So by following them, it's in our best interest physically, and you can look at the science. I lay out some of the things that I found. You can look at the science that we now know.

Chelsea: 56:32

For example, one of the old Jewish laws is not to eat from a cracked clay pot. And again you just read that and you're like it seems kind of harsh but okay, like you're actually supposed to smash it and destroy it. What we now know is okay. So at that time a lot of our vessels we ate and drank from clay pots. If it's cracked and you have food and water and wine and things going in there and it never they didn't have great sanitation back then. If it doesn't get clean, bacteria grows and then you get foodborne illnesses and then medicine wasn't super developed then either People would literally die from the food bacteria that was growing in cracked clay pots. So sure God maybe didn't like give us the whole why on it, right, but we shouldn't have to need the why just to be obedient to the law. It's really in our best interest.

Raeanna: 57:26

It's in your best interest, but we still have a choice, exactly, yep. So, as a coach who has written this book and done all of this extensive research and, you know, believes in practicing these things, how do you approach clients then that are like, well, like everything in moderation, or like man that sounds really strict to me? Or, you know, like, as a coach that wants to kind of, you know, fulfill these promises that you've made in your faith and lead people down the right path? How do you approach instructing someone to eat in healthy, clean ways?

Chelsea: 58:06

Yeah, ultimately it's your body, it's your choice, it's your relationship with food. You know if, if you are a person of faith, you know you are called to honor and glorify God with everything that he's blessed you with. This, this body you have is is borrowed property, and so I just want to make sure that I equip you with the knowledge you can. You can do with it as as you please, but I want to make sure you totally understand. Okay, here are the potential consequences of these food choices. You can make them, but you should know and be willing to accept those consequences.

Chelsea: 58:50

And sometimes I will say I mean, I have clients who know exactly what to do and then they just can't help but go to In-N-Out. And then they usually come back to me and they're like I get it now, like I, after being, you know, clean and I'm feeling good, and then just kind of dipping your toe back in the old way, like it's major conviction, and then it doesn't become a temptation anymore, and so that's really how I approach it Make sure you know what the potential outcome could be. You get to make the choice because ultimately, you know I'll be there with you and I can hold your hand, but I'm not going to force feed you, right. And then then the lesson sticks so much more if it's not just like you better not eat this, but it's like, hey, just you know this could happen. You try it and you're like, turns out she was right, yeah, but now you know this could happen. You try it and you're like, turns out she was right, yeah, but now you know from firsthand experience.

Raeanna: 59:47

Yeah, there's just something about our human nature that we just have to find out for ourselves, isn't there?

Chelsea: 59:51

It's got to be true. Yes, yeah.

Raeanna: 59:53

Okay, Wrapping up here. What was the most interesting or surprising thing that you learned as you were doing your research and writing.

Chelsea: 1:00:05

I think what I just did a whole Ted talk on with you like that we really should be adhering to kosher standards for optimal health. That really blew my mind because I, you know, one of the phrases that I teach my clients is if it once walked, flew, swam or grew, it's real and it it's, it's made for us to eat. It's God's food. I genuinely believe that pretty much up until I found that piece to write this book, um, and so it's.

Chelsea: 1:00:40

It's really made me rethink how I see food and and look at that, that list of clean versus unclean foods. Um, because, in genesis, so the creation story, um, we were, we were vegetarians to begin with. You know, he, he, god mentions, know, all seed bearing fruit and plants are made for your food, and then the green grasses are are to feed the animals. He made that distinction. Then, after the fall and after the flood, he essentially repeats those verses, but he adds animals to our, made for your food. And so that's where I got the idea of like, okay, well, if God created it, then we can eat it, you know, unless we know that it's poisonous. And then that that to me was like, yeah, one of those like asterisks, you know right, unless this, but God, god isn't like that. It is kind of a like this is how I'm saying it and if, if there is an asterisk, he'll give us the asterisk. So finding that was actually a lot of clarity of like that makes sense.

Chelsea: 1:01:54

Why, maybe it's just like I don't feel the greatest when I have pork or when I have, um, food that was not in its original design. You know, sure Cane, you know the sugar cane exists in nature, but then what we do to it before it gets to our plates totally changes the molecular structure of it. And then when we digest it, like I can do we can do a whole other podcast on dairy on this topic um, by the time I digest it, I don't feel good. Well, that doesn't make sense because, like the dairy example god made animals, milk is referenced and highly regarded in the bible all over the place. Why do I not feel good? It's because it's not. It's not the milk that god made, it's milk plus man manipulation that I'm digesting. You got to take that part out and now we're back to the roots that we should be. I think that really is the biggest aha moment for me. That connected. So many gray areas before are now very black and white for me.

Raeanna: 1:03:04

Yeah, so do you have a podcast yet?

Chelsea: 1:03:09

You are like the 40th person asking this. I don't know. I'm just I. I could talk about this forever, but do I will? Will people listen to forever? That's what I don't know. We'll see. I can be persuaded.

Raeanna: 1:03:25

All right, everyone, if you're listening still after oh my gosh, an incredible conversation. Gosh, I hope you are. That was I was on a podcast last night and the host was like, well, if you're still with us, and I was like, oh, that's kind of sad to think about that. People just like check out, but it probably happens, right, like this doesn't pertain to me, or I'm busy or I'm not even paying attention or whatever.

Chelsea: 1:03:48

Like that happens. Right, we all do it. But I just listen on one and a half speed there you go Get through it a little bit quicker.

Raeanna: 1:03:53

I mean, we can process it that quickly. So that's why I don't worry so much when I'm talking really fast, because I'm like people can process it, it's fine. Anyway, if you're listening and you're like Chelsea, give us more, tell us more. Like I need to know more about this, drop a comment, reach out to her because I agree, like I could. I could ask you questions for hours on this. Obviously, I'm like a sponge sitting here, like what else did you know? How else can I apply this to my life? So, as we wrap up, what is one thing that you want our listeners to just take away from your experiences, your expertise, what you learned for your book? Like this is my challenge to you.

Chelsea: 1:04:35

Narrow it down to one thing that you want to make sure that they hear from you in a world where diet, nutrition and health is so confusing lots of contradictory ideas, some things that work for some people don't work for others and just a very frustrating process for a lot of us in the midst of that world. We have a guidebook that tells us a very simple, straightforward answer to all of those questions, and so my challenge is, if you want to pick up my book it's literally a hundred pages you can get through it in a day and start to focus on your relationship with food and know that it can be super easy to feel good, therefore, look good and and not make food such a burden in our life.

Raeanna: 1:05:35

Wow, you really did pull that together. That was lovely, yes, amazing. Ok, I'm going to drop a link to access your book so everyone check it out. In the episode description. You'll be able to click right there. I'm also going to drop Chelsea's handles so that you can find her on all the places to follow all of her tidbits about everything health and wellness and faith in the journey and just how awesome she is.

Raeanna: 1:06:05

So, chelsea, thank you so much for your time today for hopping on to talk about something that we are all like. It's all on our minds because we all, like you said, we eat every single day, so this is something that is obviously really relevant to every single one of us, and then especially those of you that are listening that are trying to prepare for a competition. One of the things we didn't talk about that we could easily have dove into is, like the importance of building up your muscle, your strength, your endurance, and you do that like food, nutrition and fitness in order to be the best title holder and representative that you can be. So, as you're preparing for whatever upcoming competition that you have, keep that in mind that it needs to always be primarily like your overall health and wellness, endurance, strength, able to do the job really well and take it to the national level. If that's the next step, that needs to be the primary focus, more than how good you look on stage period Every time 100% Amen yes.

Raeanna: 1:07:04

Cool, all right. Well, thanks for listening everyone. Chelsea, thanks again for joining me. I'm sure I'll help you back at some point, because there's just so much that you can share. And for the rest of you, stay well, take care of yourselves. I'll talk to you next week. Bye.