The Athletic Chef: Dan Churchill on Food, Fitness, and Performance

Dan Churchill is a NYC-based performance chef and published author with a Masters in Exercise Science. He is the CEO + Founder of the production company The Epic Table and the Chief Brand Officer at Alma, the AI-first nutrition app. A regular on the Drew Barrymore Show and GMA, he is known for colorful cooking designed to be easy, inexpensive, and highly nutritious, as well as his dedication to fitness and human performance. His latest book, Eat Like a Legend, debuted in May 2024.

In This Episode, They Explore:

• Daniel Churchill explains what it means to be a performance chef and how eating with intention can improve your energy, recovery, focus, and overall quality of life, not just your physique.
• Learn practical meal planning and grocery shopping strategies that make healthy eating more sustainable, including how to source high-quality ingredients and simplify cooking during a busy week.
• Discover why food quality matters, from supporting regenerative agriculture to choosing better proteins, and how those choices can impact your health and performance.
• Dan shares his approach to balancing travel, training, and nutrition as a hybrid athlete, along with realistic habits anyone can implement to stay consistent on the go.
• Plus, hear Dan's philosophy on intentional living, setting meaningful goals, and leading by example, with actionable takeaways to help you fuel your body for long-term wellness and peak performance.

Learn more about Dan Churchill here: danchurchill.com

Download the Alma App here: https://www.alma.food/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the High Vibration Living Podcast. I'm your host, Chef Whitney Aronoff, Health Supportive Chef, Founder of Starsea Kitchen, and creator of nourishing food rooted in real ingredients, intuition, and intention. This podcast is a space where food, wellness, spirituality, and everyday living meet. We explore how what you eat, how you live, and what you believe all shape your energy, health, and overall sense of well-being. You have a physical body, a mental body, an emotional body, and a spiritual body, and all need to be recognized and nourished so you can feel balanced and truly thrive. Only you know what your body truly needs. Let this be your reminder that you already have the wisdom to tune in to your food, your self-care, and your spiritual practices and choose what supports you best. Through personal insights and conversations with experts across food, wellness, and spirituality, we'll explore how to nourish the physical, emotional, spiritual, and energetic layers of who you are so you can feel your best and live with clarity, vitality, and purpose. Let's get started. Hi friends, and welcome back to the High Vibration Living Podcast. Today's guest is Dan Churchill, an Australian-born performance chef, author, entrepreneur, and endurance athlete based in New York City. Dan is the author of the cookbook Eat Like a Legend, and he has worked with elite athletes, contributed to Chris Hemsworth Center platform, and built a career helping people fuel their bodies for peak performance through evidence-based nutrition and delicious food. And many say that Dan is the man who coined the term performance chef. The idea of having a personal chef support you for performance in all areas of life, not just being an athlete, but whether you're in the boardroom, you're a mom, or you're an entrepreneur, and you just are someone that needs to be able to show up for life day after day at the highest level, that's performance cooking and performance chef support. So Dan is such a pleasure to chat with. You're gonna love his energy and his positivity, and then also just learning about how he feels himself and how he's able to follow through with all of his commitments around the world, traveling and still being able to work out, show up for himself, stay focused, staying grounded, and get good sleep. We talk about a lot of his tips and lifestyle habits that, of course, end up trickling into all the work that he shares with you through YouTube and social media. So without further ado, here is my conversation with Dan Churchill. Enjoy. Cheers. Dan Churchill, welcome to the High Vibration Living Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Thanks for having me, mate. Excellent chat.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

I could chat with you, like I mentioned, on so many different topics. But what really interests me in you as a chef over here on the West Coast is it's been so much fun watching you online. I've been following you for about five years. So seeing your work as a chef, your videos help you help clients, but I love watching how you help yourself. Like I love watching you as a chef feel yourself, feel your friends, explore what lights you up and how that's changed over the past few years.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Thank you, mate. Yeah, I think it's been a it's it's so interesting, like coming from like my journey as a chef is a little bit like um convoluted. So it wasn't like going straight into like from 16 into the kitchen. Like I went, I came from more of an athletic background and became a chef. And then you know, I think I recognized pretty early on how much um how the the the industry can be quite unhealthy, but I was quite a healthy being, relative, and I didn't want to lose that. Like it makes me it does, as you said, lights me up. So, you know, the past I've realized how much of responsibility, particularly as you grow in the kitchen and and get roles that create leadership, you find it's really important to lead by example. And so instead of just talking about the foods to eat and uh and like how to live, I wanted to actually show it. And you know, I've had many people both in our industry and and not and beyond talk about how like that's cool to see, and ultimately it's what makes me realize some of the biggest impacts you can have is through your actions and not your words.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Absolutely. I say that every time to people that want to help their family members or their friends or their partners or their kids, you know, make better choices, take care of their body, like choose healthier foods. And it's never through conversation or screaming or taking food away from people. It's always by living by example because like when you glow, when you shine, when you exude happiness, you know, other people want that. I feel like it's always the scene in when Harry met Sally, when the woman comments, like, I'll have what she's having, right? Like sometimes we just see people and we're like, you know what, let me just copy their routine for a little bit and see if that works for me because I want to radiate like that.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

100%. I also think like, you know, with the way that social media has evolved, people are learning to be more inside the life of people and see the real life of people. And I I recognize that you know what was um influential, call it 10 years ago, is different now. But ultimately, I think people love people, they love to relate to people. And you know, I could say five things in a video, and you may only stick with one of them yourself that you relate to, but it still makes enough of a connection for you to follow along. And so, you know, I'm not I'm not a mother of three kids, you know, but I can still find a way to show how important family is to then maybe get them inspired to live. And I think at the end of the day, I'm I'm driven by impact. I'm someone who's like, well, I do what I do, not for the I want I want to find a way to continue to support my my family and and my future family. But ultimately, when I look at the things that do light me up, it's when I get to meet people, hear their stories about how the work that the team and I are doing has helped initiate, you know, something for them, and then they've carried through. And we just had high rocks on the weekend, and I had every like I was so blessed. I had like a 16-year-old kid right up to a seven-year-old lovely woman talk me through like the reason why they're there, it's because they saw some stuff I was doing, but it takes them to take the action, and what's really cool about that is they will then influence the people around them, like their families, which is exciting. So you then it's like when people cook our recipes in their kitchen, it's like with their family, it's like you're sitting at the table with them, and that's like that that is exactly why I started cooking in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

I love that. Well, I know one thing that has really shifted in what you're sharing about your life is how much you're working out, you're running your fitness program, pursuing marathons. Have you had to change how you cook for yourself over the past year or two as you've like really stepped up your performance?

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Yeah, I definitely have. You know, I mean, just in general, my output on my body is is increased pretty substantially. You know, since since um my last operational role in the kitchen, I've had more time to train. Um, I'm not having to taste food as consistently. I'm still doing a lot of these culinary um roles, but I'm not I'm not operating. So I don't have to be tasting every single dish that goes out. So that's that's on one side of the fence, my my my my control of what I'm eating is is much more consistent, but my output on my body is consistent, is is so much more higher. So, you know, I'm I'm working out two hours a day sometimes, uh two times a day. This morning I went for a ride at 6 a.m. for three hours with a couple of buddies in mind, and then this afternoon I'm working out and a different it's a different type of training. But the point is my body needs food, so yeah, 100%. Like my output has changed, therefore my input has to also change. But what's really cool is despite the output and the input, my direction on food philosophy hasn't. You know, everything has to be delicious. Whole foods, you know, find ways to to make wholesome ingredients that way. And and I I whenever I find myself almost falling into a routine that's too consistent, and this is just probably you and I in the world that we're living in, we love we live, love being creative. I I always look for inspiration or something else to cook and and and recreate. So but yeah, I think in principle, high level, I'm I'm now consuming anywhere between 37 to 4200 calories a day, which is you know pretty significant compared to what I was, sometimes up to 5,000, depending on how much I was um how much I'm training that day. And you know, the ratios of my both micronutrients and macronutrients are are are different. So I and that's to support my my performance, it's not to support my aesthetics. I think that's one thing I'll definitely say is like I've evolved as this performance chef and finding ways to support everyday legends, not just athletes who everyday legends perform better. I want people to realize that if you eat for aesthetics, you're probably gonna be more scripted around how you look at your food, and therefore it's gonna be boring and dull and just a means to get there. Whereas if you eat for performance, you're gonna enjoy the food you're having, and aesthetics will come as a byproduct of that anyway, so which we're really enjoying.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

You brought up something that I've been hearing so much more in the past year is that is performance chef. So I went to culinary school in New York City, I went to a health supportive culinary school, and the term that we always use was health supportive chef, health supportive cooking. And then it moved to for chefs that were working for professional athletes, um, it moved to like paleo or keto chef. Now I'm hearing performance chef. Can you tell me in the audience a little bit more about what a performance chef is?

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Yeah, for sure. I think it's really interesting. Someone we've had this question a lot. People saying that I've coined the phrase. Like I've I essentially started this new genre of chef. And I don't know if that's actually accurate. I think we've gone down the line of being um building a brand around a new type of chef, and I think performance is is indicative of someone who's building nutritious meals that embody the ability to help people improve their ability to perform every day. So, for example, performance is not me performing on stage. I'll get that one out of the way, and it doesn't mean you have to be an athlete to want to work with or be associated with a performance chef. A mother of two children needs to be able to perform at work, at home, support her children just as much as a dad, just as much as a Noah Lyles, just as much as you know, anybody in any phase. Like our bodies are essentially athletes in any way you want to look at them. Our job is to meet people where they're at and then identify any deficiencies they have. And instead of just being a you know, supplement in the box situation, is to ensure that people understand there are wholesome meals that can support the micronutrients more than just the macronutrients to help them perform as best as they can.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

So it's just helping people better understand that this chef is gonna support you with food that's gonna make you feel good and it's gonna make you be able to show up for life. And I think that's what like I'm trying to convey with people as well, as a health supportive chef, and with my personal chef business and everything I do, like this podcast, is helping people understand the foods that they can eat that taste delicious, but that make them feel good too, so they can show up, not want to, you know, go sit on the couch because tonight they have a stomachache after they had, you know, a really delicious meal. It doesn't have to be that way.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

No, without a doubt. And like, you know, it can it can be on different it can be on different scales of um intensity. So for example, you can do everything from responses to blood work, you know, uh subjective questionnaires, but the idea is to, as you said, like help people provide themselves with the energy through nutritious natural means. Um and you know, I think I think the the concept of it is is a chef is still a chef. Our job is to make food delicious, so it's not broccoli and steamed chicken, it's not that. It's like wholesome meals, they're just more intentional towards the individuals, or helping people realize that when they're cooking at home themselves, we have techniques and and means that can be more specific to what they are requiring.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

I love it. So tell us a little bit more about what you chose to ate to eat for breakfast and lunch today, because you knew it was a day where you were doing a big, you know, three-hour morning workout, you know you're gonna hit it again in the afternoon, you know you have to show up for a podcast. Like, what did you decide to fuel yourself with?

SPEAKER_00 13:34

So, yeah, it's a great question. So this morning we um got up at 5:30. I had I always have black coffee first. You know, I don't take caffeine or pre-workout with caffeine. I I always have caffeine through coffee. That's again like just me being a snobbish Australian, but as a chef, we love our coffee. So yeah, I had my long black to start the day, and then I did uh two toast two pieces of sourdough with butter and honey on them, and then a banana, along with a two scoops of G1M Sport from BPM, which is a carbohydrate and electrolyte complex. So it's really good for those who are looking for energy through carbohydrates, which is really quick acting, but then the electrolytes support um, you know, your your your not only your hydration means, but everything else for uh contractions and everything you need throughout the performance. So, all in all, I'm probably doing you know somewhere between 100 to 120 grams of carbohydrates from the food, another 40 from the from the GP uh the BPN, and about 200 milligrams of caffeine before my ride. I then take a bar, like it's called a Go Bar again from BPN. I I I confidentially, well not confidentially, but transparently, I work with BPN. I love their products. Um so that's about 200 grams, I said 200 milligrams of sodium, another 40 grams of carbohydrates. And then this is the best part when you're doing a three-hour ride, you can have what we call coffee and cake, where you can get a coffee and any cake you want, because you're churning through carbohydrates the needs of the energy very quickly. So I went and got a muffin uh at this uh turnaround point, which is 90 minutes outside the city. So that and back. So, all in all, within that three-hour period, I probably had anywhere between you know uh 150 to 200 grams of carbohydrates, um, minimal fat, and a little bit of protein. When I came back, I had my power bowl, which is like everything I have every day. It's you know, one little bit, so one and a quarter cups of uh oats, peanut butter, natural yogurt, uh walnuts, um cheese seeds, hemp seeds, honey. Uh that thing's delicious. Um I then had three eggs, two pieces of toast with avocado, uh, tons of water. And then also, what then I had for lunch, I had uh I actually had a sweet green bowl today. So um uh shout out to the boys at sweet green and I got the hot honey chicken. So that's now what time is it? We're at when is it? Is three o'clock and I'm probably gonna have another meal or two before dinner, and that's not because I need to, it's because I'm hungry because I had three hours of work. So I essentially will have I I'll I will stack my morning typically for food. I just perform better that way, and um that way I have one more meal towards the end of the evening that will tip me off the edge to make it supportive.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

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SPEAKER_00 18:01

Okay, so I can't bring this up right now because on my laptop. But essentially, what I do is every Sunday night, so I love cooking. Everyone's like, as a chef, do you still love cooking? I love it. I love cooking. So I typically cook at least one meal a day. It's not a breakfast, right? Or I if if I if I know I'm busy, I may cook double the meals for one night, but typically I like to cook my meals. What I do is every Sunday night I write out a list of things that I'm gonna do that week. And it's everything from the workouts that I'm having for maybe a goal for the day, and then also what I'm gonna cook. And when I do that, it allows me to then populate a grocery list of all things I need. And so then what I do is I put that into my Whole Foods grocery list. I then go and say, I got a pickup, and literally what I do is instead of going through the store, I just walk in, pick up my groceries, and come home. So I'm one of those people as well that I love ingredients, so I'll naturally just walk through the store and continue to pick up more things. And then I like it's all this stuff when I get home, and like, well, sweet, like I just got inspired by something. Oh, anchovies, you know, capers, all this anyway. Um that's why markets are dangerous for me. So like we haven't easily across the road. If they had the system to automate what I'm talking about right now, where you can pre-order and pick up, I'd honestly probably go there, but they don't. So it's easier for me to do this system. Um, I prefer the I prefer a lot of the produce actually at Italy, but that's a quick way for me to get one grocery shop done for the majority of the week.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

I always like to learn other people's systems because sometimes like the barrier there's a barrier to entry for so many people in order to like start to shift the way they're they're eating or cooking at home. And it's different for everyone. So you're you know, you'd always just have to try to find a little workarounds and then you just have to push through the resistance. So for me, I had this big resistance and gets ordering my meat directly from farms. I just, you know, I was comfortable with my routine of getting it from a local butcher shop and Whole Foods, and I just could not like break that resistance. But once I did, now I can't go back. It's so much easier. I get better quality meat. It's in my schlepping all over, you know, the area to get to get my skirt steak and different cuts. And it's like, God, it it was actually so easy that that resistance stopping me from creating actually a better habit was so strong. But once you break through, uh your life gets so much better.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Yeah, I think like first off, we love our butchers. We're not saying don't go support your local butchers, like they're awesome, but as a like I I like going to them on the weekends and like picking up an extra couple pieces. To your point, like I get to go on force of nature and order regenerative, you know, ranch meat and chickens in one thing and I get delivered to me. I I trust it, it's easy, it's the quality that I want. And there's this is the new age. Like, this is something that you can do now. Who do you who do you go with? Who do you select?

SPEAKER_01 21:03

I go with Star Walker Organic Farms, number one, up in Northern California.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Number spoken.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Yeah, number two, I like Herd and Grace because I really love the flavor of meat from New Zealand and Australia, and that's where they source some of their from, and just some of it is just the flavor is so good.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

So good.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Yeah. And then so those tend to be my two. And then my third choice is here in Orange County, we have a butcher shop called The Butchery, and I really like getting um my hanger steaks, skirt steaks, some of their ground beef from them.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Yum, how good. I also it's like I don't know, it's it's people are gonna say it costs more. I'm like, but it's the it's just stuff to spend a little bit more on. It's like there's things I will not spend money on. I will not I like I avoid Ubers, right? Like that's why I bought a super seventy three. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

I won't spend my money on that. But I will I will spend the money on like an incredible skirt steak or Higher quality ground beef or ground beef with organ meats, um, that has so much more value to me.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Totally. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Okay, so where are you ordering your meat from?

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Uh so Force of Nature gets them from all around the country. Um, and even some of them, I believe, they source from Australia as well. But the process of their sourcing is pretty high end. Essentially, it's because it's regenerative ranch, the soil, like it's not just the meat of the animal, it's also the soil and the way that that soil is maintained and supported in the ecosystem, and then how it's you know, not just once the soil, how it is now, it's like how it's continuing to be. So I love the process, and you know, as you know, and a lot of your listeners may know, it's like the meat's one thing, but you need to take care of the soil, because that's where it all begins. And if we aren't finding the systems to do that and supporting the systems to do that, and supporting the systems financially to do that, then it's just gonna go out the window. So that's why I love Force of Nature. And I honestly, they're they're beef, like their ancestral blend, which is including so it's like you get the beef itself, you got bison, and then you've got their ancestral blends, which include like heart, liver, in a ground product. So, like for kids that don't know they're having spaghetti bolognese, they're getting essential vitamins and minerals that you typically don't get from just conventional beef. It's really, really good.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

Yes, I highly recommend to people their venison breakfast sausage. Oh my god!

SPEAKER_00 23:36

I literally just had the first time yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Yeah, it makes breakfast so much better. I do that with a little potato and my eggs in the morning, um, and then I top it with a little kimchi or sauerkraut. It's the best. So I highly suggest if um if you're going online to order from them to get the venison breakfast sausage.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Yeah, 100%. Oh wait, that's so amazing. That's so good.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Yeah, it is. And that's the that's the thing is you know, good quality food food should be ridiculously delicious and then to make you feel so good, be filled with so much more energy. It's a win-win all around.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

100%. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

So what are you when you're making your plans for your food every week, you also mention that you're setting an intention or a goal for the week.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't like it to be, it's more like I actually write down, so I write down four things a.m, PM, focus, and meal. And so I do a.m and p.m. in my workouts. And the reason I do that is you know when you woke up to a gym sometimes and you're like, oh, what am I gonna do today? It's like knowing firsthand before you even start the session what you're doing. That also helps you understand how to prepare yourself even for recovery prior to the session. For example, if I know that I'm doing, I don't know, say I'm doing a three-hour bike session on a Wednesday morning like I did this morning. My night last night, I'm like, I need to go to bed early and I need to make sure I don't do legs Tuesday afternoon. So that's where like that kind of planning comes in. When it comes to the focus, it's it can be honestly anything. It's more like, okay, I'm gonna focus on say um a new version of a reverse sear for that day. Like I was like, I've got steak, I want to look at this, or focus on changing the degree of a sous V for a little bit and adjusting, or activating your hamstrings during this exercise because you've been not performing at your best in this given moment. Um it could also be like create an AI bot for this thing that you said you would, and it's like it's it's or take 20 minutes to learn or read this book again. You know, it's like it's essentially the more I read, which is something I do every day, the more I realize that thinking and trying to have one thing that's against the grain to learn from every day is such a cool way to challenge your mind. We can get into these routines every day of just like doing the same thing, same like that's why morning routines are great, but within them you still have to find a way to continue learning, and so that's where I think the intentions are really good. Like the focuses, the focus mindset that I have with that is is it's always one thing. It's not like don't try and do too many things, just do one thing.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Are you keeping these notes in your note tab in your phone? Do you have a notebook? Where does this live? Yeah, it's a notebook.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

I I love writing, like you know, it's it's it's really hard for me to I found like even for reminder lists, it's been challenging. I've now realized that you know, sometimes I'm on my computer, sometimes on my phone. So, you know, writing in in notes is finally working for me. But for these other things, like writing it down with pen and paper is really the way that I like love it. It makes me feel it makes me feel committed, you know, and I'm I'm I'm I'm doing it with myself, and that's really, really cool.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

I know you're traveling a lot this summer, and people listening are probably traveling a lot as well. Do you have any uh things that you always bring with you so you can stay, so you can stay, you know, healthy and balanced, and you know, essentially within these routines, no matter where you are?

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Yeah, I mean, right now it's a lot different. But um, so for example, I've recently come to this conundrum. Um, so people call me a hybrid athlete because I train like a hybrid athlete. Uh, so I am one. And when you travel, it's unlike anything else as athletes, really, because you're not looking after one modality, you're looking after multiple. And so, you know, for example, I've got Stockholm next week, right? So I'm going to Stockholm, I'm going there for high rocks, but um, and whilst it's a D-load week and I'm tapering, there's still other things like I have to train for with Ironmans and whatnot. So, like, I have to take my bike, I have to take my swim kit, I have to take my three different types of shoes, I have to take my bib, my my my my shoes for my bike. Like, and that's before I even get to like my classic fit. So two years ago, it'd just be a day bag with like my AG1, you know, my um my rep, my clothes, my camera, and you know, my set of toiletries that to me are unique. Now it's like my my stack of supplements is like I need I need my creatine, I need my G1M sport, because I need to have the carbohydrates I need my obviously my AG1. Um and and then I need to have a separate case for my bike, I have to have all the stuff I need for swimming, I need my Hyrux shoes, uh and and it's it's honestly so funny because like I was having this, I'm like, do I do a video on what like being an athlete like is is like in 2026 now, but that's the reality of the way it is. But if I was to say, as an everyday person, um I I really believe the things that I still come back to that are the first thing to look at are like okay, what's gonna what's gonna be my biggest challenges that will prevent me from staying at least healthy or keeping in my routine? And travel is such a challenge when it comes to your health in routine, but also sourcing the right foods that you typically have access to and control. So that's why like AG1 I've had for eight years, so that's in and I usually do double the portion of that on that on that day. So that's one thing. I'd also say like I do take an eye mask and and earplugs because sometimes just the lighting or the setup or the noises from something can just disturb your sleep. So anything I can do to maximize my sleep is huge. And then the other one is my coffee setup because I go to countries, I go to cities, and sometimes cafes aren't open until 8 a.m. I'm the weird guy with the hand grinder and the scale and like everything that when I get up in the morning at like 6 or 5:30, whatever it is, I want my coffee first thing, I want to read. And if I don't have that to start my day, I am, you do not want to be around me. You do not want it's like it is the worst thing ever. So I've learned to buy really good beans, to have my personal grinder, my scale, my V60, andor my espresso portal machine. And that is my, that is what, for everyone else, not selfish for me, but for everyone else, a necessity when I travel.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

I want to take a moment to share how Team Starseed Kitchen can support you beyond the podcast. I'm Chef Whitney Aronoff, founder of Team Starseed Kitchen, my personal chef and custom meal prep service. This is for people who want to eat well, feel better, and be supportive of nourishing food without the stress of planning, shopping, or cooking. Through Team Starseed Kitchen, I work with a trusted team of health supportive chefs who prepare fully customized meals based on your needs, preferences, and lifestyle. Whether you're focused on clean eating, hormone balance, digestion, energy, or simply having high-quality food. Ready for your week, we meet you where you are. All meals are made with real full ingredients, no seed oils, no refined sugar, and no shortcuts. Just thoughtfully prepared food designed to support your body and make your life easier. This service is deeply personal. It's about having food in your fridge that you can trust. Food that supports your health, saves you time, and helps you feel grounded and cared for. If you're ready for consistent nourishing meals made just for you, you can learn more about our service and apply to work with us on starseepkitchen.com or follow the link in the show notes. We have chefs ready and available across the country, and we so look forward to nourishing you. Now let's return to the episode. So, have you also gone the length to have filtered water in your room when you travel? That's my problem. I'm the person, especially with long road trips, I have large gallons of filtered water in my car that I show up into the hotel room. And I did that last weekend so I could have that with my in the in the tea kettle for the green tea. Do you know?

SPEAKER_00 32:37

Oh, this is a set. Now you now you're stepping into a okay, you know what? I think it is I think it is absolutely normal to have that as a requirement. So I think I I have five you, mate. That is exactly what we need more of that. We need that is the new standard. If people, you know, that is wow, that is awesome. Good for you.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

Well, you'll like this. So I have it all prepared. I have all my water um in glass prepared for a trip I'm doing tomorrow. I'm driving to Sedona. And so I then, you know, load it all into my hotel room there. So I have fresh, you know, filtered water for cooking, for drinking. Then you don't have to run around town trying to figure out where you're gonna fill out your water bottle. And then at the end of the trip, I go to a natural spring that's in Sedona and I fill up all the glass with the natural spring water and take it back with me home. So then I have this little treat of uh the mineral diversity that I'm gonna get from that natural spring water, which I couldn't get anywhere else. So it's a little bit of, you know, high maintenance, but then at the end, I feel like I get this treat of having an experience of going to get, you know, natural spring water.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Look, now that I know there's water semelliers out there, I think this is totally acceptable. Like, in all honesty. Someone's like, hey man, I'd love to give you a water tasting. I'm like, a water tasting. I'm like, now we're at a whole new level. I think you just having wanting, you just wanting filtered water, you're fine. That's that's that's normal.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

But wouldn't that be nice in your travels when you book your hotel reservation? If they're like, would you like filtered spring water from our local natural spring? Or, you know, do you need, you know, filtered wall a case of this type of filtered water in your hotel room at arrival? Because otherwise, I fly into a country, I have to drive to the local health food store, buy a case or two of water and glass, you know, unless you're in Austria where the water's good, and then you know, schlep it into your hotel room because in so many places in the world you can't drink the tap water. If I could drink the tap water, I would just drink the tap water.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

But like just where we are right now. Yeah, you're creating uh you create you'll you help me take mental notes from my user experience as we develop hotels and things like that to support the means of everybody. This is good. This is good. This has become an RD call. Who would have thought?

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Well, so where are you headed next?

SPEAKER_00 35:09

So Sweden Monday, come back after a week, and then I go to Italy for two weeks after that. Uh, then I come back from Italy, and then I travel actually West Coast and then back to Europe again. So, yeah, quite a bit of travel coming up. So I'll be I'll be doing all the things I just highlighted in my packing ways.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

I love it. Well, let's do a few rapid fire questions as we wrap up. For sure. I might know a few of your answers, but you know, you can surprise me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

What do you got?

SPEAKER_01 35:41

Coffee or tea?

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Coffee, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

And do you have a variety or a brand or a single origin that you prefer most?

SPEAKER_00 35:50

You know, what I do like to do is when I do travel, I do like to find like one of the better coffee shops and support them, but also learn the tasting profiles. And I'll typically buy a set of beans upon arrival, and that will be like my memory to myself, and I'll take it home and use it. Um, I mean, I I love I mean I love the obvious wines. I love uh Onyx. I think Proud Mary does a really good coffee uh honestly. Some of the like I was just in um I was just in Ottawa and the coffee there was insane at a place called Palmer. And it was this beautiful, cool little cafe. Um, but the coffee was insane. So typically for me, I like the espresso, uh the espresso set. Um I'm a big fan of Costa Rican single origin uh typically, but you know, I'm not gonna if you give me something from Ecuador, I'm not gonna say no. Same with like Ethiopia, not gonna say no. Um I love I love the way that single O's truly represent a particular farm and the the climate of that region.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Yeah, I do too. I love single origin so I can really taste the flavor, and it's like tasting the soil. It's such a treat. Favorite superfood?

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Sweet potato. I love that stuff. Sweet potato chips, fries, wedges, you name it, game on. That micronutrient dense, great amount of starch, it's a power food. Big fan.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

Me too. Most underrated food people should be eating for their health.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

According to the American Heart Association, vegetables, because apparently we're not eating enough vegetables. I'm gonna say bokchoy. Because bokchoy has a significant amount of vitamin C and um an iron support. So I would say it's so easy to use, like it's cooked so quickly, too. It's as okay. So my my argument is one, it's easy to use, it absorbs flavour, and it's really quick to cook with, which is gonna be a reason why people like, yeah, absolutely. It's a dominant green and uh yeah, underrated in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

Good call. Uh, food everyone should avoid.

SPEAKER_00 38:00

Fried food straight up. Just like I mean, obviously, I'm someone who still has fries every now and then, but I'm talking like deep fried. Like, I I don't use that. I like it's funny. In the restaurants I'm associated with, I don't really make I don't I'm not very good with fried food. Like I don't I don't test it, I don't use it that much. So I think I just naturally shy away from that stuff. I also just don't think it has any nutritional value to you. There's other ways to get crunch as well.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Good call. Favorite spice?

SPEAKER_00 38:33

I'll say cumin if you want a single one, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Interesting. Zitar is I have so much sitar in my pantry. I struggle with ways to use it. I have too much sitar and I don't use it. What's your favorite way to use it?

SPEAKER_00 38:48

Yeah. I could go as simple as like a roasted cauliflower or a poked cauliflower, then roasted with zitar on top. Like you can you treat it like a seasoning agent. Um you know, I think I think it goes insanely well with veggies. You know, I think it's you can obviously like if you do a um a fridge dried chicken skin, and and then like if I was to butterfly chicken, salt, dry fridge, then put the tar on top also, then sear it. Oh my god, that shit's so good, and then finish with like a lemon dressing. Wowza. Okay, wowza. Yeah, I I I finish, I think the simplest way is like think of it as like in a roast, big fan.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Okay, I'll try that like a roast chicken with potatoes and do the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

For sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Good call. Uh, best health habit you've added into your life this year?

SPEAKER_00 39:41

Reading fictional books before bed. It's helping me get into a better deep sleep. I'm excited to get into bed, and I feel like a child again, and it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

I love that. And last question. If someone listening wants to improve their health through food, what is one change you can suggest that they make?

SPEAKER_00 40:05

Um, you know, it's funny. Like I people ask me a a relatively similar question, and I can tell you right now that majority of people, if I said name three things you should do to change to support the way you improve your health, they'll all say, like, if I give a moment now, if everyone think about it, think of three things. What are you gonna probably say? And there's like five answers that typically get pulled up. So there's three. The three ones that I typically refer to are this is gonna be a shocker, remove refined sugars, eat an X amount of protein naturally, and eat more vegetables. Now, I bet you all three of those, you're like, no one's gonna be like, oh my god, I don't need to write those three things down. That's a like the problem is we all know this thing. So it's not a knowledge situation, it's an action and intrinsic motivation problem. So I'm gonna kind of rephrase the question slightly. It's like, what's one thing they can change, not from what they eat, but it's their attitude. It's ultimately, I'm just gonna say, in the other day, as my old man said, if you want to get anything done, you have to do it yourself. I can't I can sit here and tell you what to do, you're gonna have to be the one to do it. And if you don't do it, that's fine, just nothing will happen. So every day you don't do it, it's one less day away from hitting whatever target you want. And I think that's a that's a it's probably more important for people to realize that the education isn't the problem. It's the lack of action and probably you know procrastination around being healthier. So there's plenty of ways you can find out what to do there. Take action.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Daniel, where can people connect with you and learn from you and also to stay abreast of all the projects that you're working on?

SPEAKER_00 41:56

Yeah, so uh my YouTube is just my name or Dan Churchill Cooks. That's always a good one to increase the community on. Instagram, Dan underscore Churchill, and then danchurchill.com is where you can find all my recipes and ebooks and which are free and all that kind of stuff. So um, anywhere you see Dan Churchill, other than the legend there's another Dan Churchill in Ethiopia, that's that's me. So I'm the Aussie looking one.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

Perfect. And then anything coming up this summer or this fall that we should be aware of that you're doing or working on?

SPEAKER_00 42:26

Uh let's say, like I've got two really big media projects that you guys will know a lot about. Um, hopefully, if you you've listened to media. But you know, continue to watch the YouTube, which is really exciting. I've got a couple of restaurant things that are coming as well that I'll be sharing soon. But um, yeah, I'm getting married. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 42:45

Fabulous. Well, have a wonderful summer. Good luck on all your adventures. I hope that it's just great water and great coffee every place you go, and some good runs to new places. Um, and it's such a pleasure to connect with you today.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

You too, mate. Thanks for the time. And for everyone to listen to this pod, wherever you're listening to it, it'd be really helpful if you follow or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, because it really helps the podcast itself. And leave a comment. You know, what did you learn from today? I know growing my own podcast. This is really helpful. So um, if you that my only like a request is if you do that for whip right now, that'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

Thank you. That is super helpful, and it really does make a huge difference. And it's free. It doesn't cost you any money. Totally free. Thank you so much. Such a pleasure. See you, mate. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the High Vibration Living Podcast. If you enjoyed today's conversation, I'd love for you to leave a five-star rating and a written review wherever you're listening. It truly helps this podcast reach more people who are looking for this kind of support. And if something resonated with you, please pay it forward and share this episode with a friend or loved one who could benefit from it. To learn more about Starseed Kitchen in my organic spice blends, you can visit starseedkitchen.com. You can also follow along with me on social media at Whitney Aronoff, where I share recipes, behind the scenes, chef life, and everyday inspiration. You can also follow Starseed Kitchen and Team Starseed Kitchen on Instagram as well. Thanks again for being here, wishing you nourishment, balance, and a vibrant life experience. I'll see you in the next episode. Cheers.