Speaking Life Into Motherhood ~ Routines, Time Management, Holistic Health, Self Care, Autism, ADHD, Neurodiversity, Special Needs, Disabilities

28 Biblical vs. Modern Medicine: The Exhausted Mom's Guide to Holistic Health Without Compromising Faith with the Christian Nutritionist Chelsea Blackbird

Season 1 Episode 28
  • Are you exhausted from hitting dead ends with doctors who never ask about your diet, leaving you feeling like poor health is just "normal"?
  • Do you struggle to show up as your best self for your family because you're constantly tired, achy, or lacking confidence in your own skin?
  • What if God's design for healing was simpler and more accessible than you ever imagined - found right in the creation story?

In this powerful conversation, Chelsea Blackbird, The Christian Nutritionist, shares her incredible journey from digestive issues and infertility to discovering God's blueprint for wellness in Genesis. After overcoming health problems doctors said were permanent and conceiving naturally through dietary changes, Chelsea now helps Christian women reach optimal health using biblical principles. She introduces us to the Genesis Prescription - a holistic approach that combines sunshine, grounding, real food, rest, and relationship to help moms feel well so they can serve well.

Connect with Chelsea:

  • Website: thechristiannutritionist.com
  • Podcast: The Christian Health Club Podcast
  • Social Media: @thechristiannutritionist

Resources Mentioned:

  • "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" book
  • Genesis Prescription Quick Start Guide (free download on Chelsea's website)
  • Naturopathic medicine approach
  • Amino acid therapy (mentioned connection with Laurie Hammer)
  • Morning sunshine and circadian rhythm support
  • Grounding/earthing practices
  • Schumann resonance and earth's natural frequency


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Connect with the host: Elyse Scheeler


Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the guests and hosts and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Speaking Life Into Motherhood. None of the advice or discussion on the podcast is medical advice. Always consult with your medical provider before using any supplements, essential oils, or therapy methods.

Chelsea Blackbird (00:00)
And six weeks after making those changes and some of the changes in the book, I was pregnant. And I was shocked and also kind of upset in the way that it made me reflect on my journey.

you know, not one doctor had ever asked me what I'm eating.

Elyse Scheeler (01:14)
Welcome back everyone. Today I am excited to introduce to you Chelsea, the Christian nutritionist.

After hitting dead ends in the medical system for digestive issues, infertility, and a genetic skin condition, she discovered the transformative power of real food. Chelsea overcame health issues doctors said were permanent and conceived after trying for over a year, all through changing her diet. Feeling God's call to share this knowledge, Chelsea now helps Christian women reach optimal health so they can show up as their best selves for their families and their communities. Her approach meets real food with real life.

Believing that when we eat well, we feel well and serve well. I know her wisdom will encourage you today. Welcome Chelsea!

Chelsea Blackbird (01:58)
Thank you,

I'm so happy to be here.

Elyse Scheeler (02:01)
Yes, thank you so much. know when we were just chatting before recording, I just love everything that you stand for and I'm just so excited to hear everything that you've been doing and the ways that you can support us mamas who maybe are struggling with some of those things, especially related to food. Can you maybe give us a little bit more background and more details on what brought you here today?

Chelsea Blackbird (02:21)
Sure,

so I always tell people I never thought I would be doing this. What I do today, but when God calls you, you never know where God's gonna lead. So yeah, as you mentioned, I struggled with my own health issues growing up. I had digestive issues, had genetic skin condition, went to doctors for years and years. And they were just, we really kind of just hit that brick wall. After a while, like this is just normal, or we don't have any more.

answers for you, did all the things, know, every cream, every medication, all the things, surgery, everything. And so finally I was like, well, I guess it's just my crust to bear. We all have, you know, something, right? And you just kind of accept that, like, that poor health is normal because so many people are in, you know, poor health and have all these conditions. So I just thought that was just part of it. But it wasn't until I was having trouble conceiving and, after about a year, we went back to the doctor and he recommended fertility.

treatments and I was like, all right, let's do it. Because I was like, I'll do anything to have a baby. Well, my husband wasn't on board with that. And he's like, no, we're not doing that. And that was crushing. And that was a hard time in our marriage because I was like, you're preventing us from, you know, having children. But what it did is maybe just start researching like, is there anything I can do? Is there anything within my control to help? And so I started looking into different things. It led me to going to a naturopathic doctor.

I was also reading a book called Taking Charge of Your Fertility, kind of reteaching myself about my body because nobody had really done that. Went to a naturopath. He recommended some dietary changes. He gave me some supplements to kind of bridge the gaps where I was lacking. And six weeks after making those changes and some of the changes in the book, I was pregnant. And I was shocked and also kind of upset in the way that it made me reflect on my journey.

you know, not one doctor had ever asked me what I'm eating.

⁓ You know, and I just felt like lots of recommendations and timing things were off and it made me mad. And so I kept up with, you know, the nutrition and just researching it. you know, of course, over time, my digestive issues went away, my skin condition that is a genetic skin condition, like there's, you know, no hope for that. It's also considered an autoimmune condition. There's like nothing we can do.

I totally managed that through what I eat and my lifestyle choices. So after a while, I went back, got my certification because I was just so passionate about learning this. Really, I had no plans to do anything with it except just help my family and friends. Actually, I wanted them to listen to me because they wouldn't. Maybe if I have some letters behind my name, they'll actually listen and they really don't, but that's okay. ⁓ sometimes they do.

Elyse Scheeler (04:59)
Mm-hmm.

Chelsea Blackbird (05:10)
I really had no plans to do anything with it, but once I made it through that course, felt deeply God calling me to this work. And felt him calling me to call myself the Christian nutritionist. I would never have chosen that name for myself. In fact, I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am not, I don't know enough about the Bible. I'm a brand new nutritionist. Like this very bold and out there. And I was like, no, I can't do this. I am, you know, I am not equipped, but.

We know what the saying is, he calls the, yeah, but God, he calls you and then equips you. So I went for it and I've been doing it for over 10 years, close to 12, 13 years and had two more children. So I have three children and it's been amazing. It's been an amazing journey. I have just, it's been so rewarding to connect with other Christian women and really just dig into our health.

Elyse Scheeler (05:39)
but God.

Chelsea Blackbird (06:02)
in a way that aligns with what he says about it and not about all these influencers and all these, you know, all this inconsistent messaging we're getting just really coming back to the Bible, to the Lord, to the creator of our body and how he made our body to be well.

Elyse Scheeler (06:16)
Yeah, I love that. So much of what you said resonates with me too. And when I was having my difficulties with infertility too, was like, yeah, nobody listened. I did have one doc who did run like a bunch of blood tests for me, but of course everything was like, fine, quote unquote. Right? And I'm like, well, it's not fine because I've been trying for over a year to get pregnant and I'm not getting pregnant. And so I, same type of thing. I totally changed my diet. I did the autoimmune paleo diet, was able to get pregnant and then miscarried.

Chelsea Blackbird (06:32)
normal.

Elyse Scheeler (06:46)
married.



But again, everyone was like, well, that's not why it was. And I was like, hello, this is the only thing that I've changed. And this miraculously happened. And something similar too. I have some thyroid cysts. And from the first time that I went in, after I insisted that they check it out, because I'm a speech therapist, I'm like, I'm having swallowing issues. don't have, I know this structure. This is my area. There's something else going on. Sure enough, they found several cysts. And that was all within that same time period. And after I changed my diet, I went in for my next ultrasound, and my cysts were almost gone.

And they're like, that's strange, that never happens. And I was like, well, I changed my diet. That didn't have anything to do with it. I'm like, what are we even doing? ⁓

Chelsea Blackbird (07:26)
What? Ugh. I know, I know.

It's crazy. It is crazy.

Elyse Scheeler (07:31)
And I think that it's one of the things that hopefully you and I are both passionate about saying is that as moms, whether it be for yourself or for your kiddos, it is okay to advocate. And when God puts that questioning and...

wanting to pursue and to push a little bit more on your heart, it is okay to do that and finding someone who will actually listen to you. They might not have all the answers either, but at least starting that process. What do you say to mamas? The mamas who listen to our podcast are typically ones that have some kiddos with maybe some additional needs, maybe some diagnoses. I talk a lot on the podcast about how we really got to focus as mamas on ourselves and our well-being in order to be able to be the best moms for those

kiddos. What is something that maybe you guide or lead moms to when they're just getting started and learning about ⁓ ways that God wants them to support themselves and maybe do some self-care?

Chelsea Blackbird (08:28)
Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, we all know that saying you can't pour from an empty cup. ⁓ And it is, it's so challenging to show up into everything that God created you to be ⁓ and to serve in your family and in your community when we feel crummy, right? When we're exhausted, when we're achy, ⁓ when we're not confident in our skin. I mean, that's a big one too, right?

We just kind of shrink up and it's just really hard to live out the full purpose in our service. And so that's where I kind of come in and that, taking care of our health and I find it something that we all women typically put on the back burner. A lot of times we put God on the back burner too. know, he's there, he'll always be there. And so that's one thing is just, you know, making sure we're connecting with him every day, you know, taking that quiet time with him.

I find that when we invest that time with him, he makes the rest of our time more fruitful. It feels like sometimes we feel like we don't have that time to just sit with him for five, 20, 30 minutes. But he really blesses the rest of our day when we do that. But really, food can make so much difference in the way that you feel. I have had so many women over the years. I had one woman.

you know, after we just made some pretty simple tweaks to her diet, just getting her macronutrient ratios really in check, which helped her blood sugar regulation. She was like, you saved my marriage. I'm like, wasn't me. Yeah, I'm just the messenger of this information. But when she made those changes, her mood changed, her energy changed, the relationship with her husband changed, because it changed the way that she showed up. She also owned a company, and her employees were like, what are you doing? You're so much nicer.

Elyse Scheeler (09:53)
Yeah.

Hahaha

Chelsea Blackbird (10:13)
I was like, wow, how did that conversation go? But she just, you she was tired. She was angry. She was, you know, just really moody and just simply ⁓ tweaking that diet, you know, taking a little bit more time with what she thought, putting a little bit more thought into what she was going to eat ahead of time instead of kind of reactively like, what am I going to eat? And I'm a drive through, ⁓ you know, that kind of thing really helped out.

Elyse Scheeler (10:39)
Yeah, absolutely. Before we were recording, you were talking about one of the programs that you have that I think I would love to learn more about. can't remember what it's called. The Genesis? The Genesis Prescription. Tell us a little bit more about that.

Chelsea Blackbird (10:48)
The Genesis prescription. Yeah,

it's my, it's such a huge thing on my heart. So I, after working with women for about six to seven years solely in nutrition, solely in nutrition, I felt God just kind of stirring in my spirit, kind of giving me this download to look in the book of Genesis and the creation story and just really kind of telling me, you know, everything we need to be well is right there in that creation story. We are a

part of creation, a part of the larger story of creation, right? And when we look and we look at those things that God created, ⁓ light, it's a sunshine, water, earth, plant food, animal food. He created us with breath through our nose, not our mouth, which is really important when we're talking about nervous system regulation and being calm and having peace, breathing through our nose. He called us to rest, He called us to be in fellowship, and He called us, created our bodies to move.

And so those are all the elements of the Genesis prescription. And I love teaching on what each one of those means. you know, food is an important part of that, but you can see in this bigger picture, it's not everything, right? And so for a lot of people, maybe if food feels overwhelming, I'm like, let's start with sunshine. That's, you know, let's get outside. Let's get some sunshine in our eyes and on our skin that really helps inform our circadian rhythm. A lot of our hormones, our cortisol and our melatonin ratios.

the way that those hormones work in the body is very dependent on our exposure to light. And so when somebody is very stressed out and has, know, as we mamas are, right, got a lot of stress going on and we're trying to manage that cortisol, getting out in the morning sunshine and just being outside and letting that light get through your eye, it does all this kind of stuff in your brain, really helps regulate cortisol, that one thing. is so, it's such a simple thing to do.

Yeah, we can take supplements. Yeah, we can do other things. We can also go outside and get sunshine. Just the natural way that God created us to regulate cortisol. It's just so amazing to me.

Elyse Scheeler (12:56)
Yeah, that's amazing. So I think that one of the other parts to this too is that

When we are working on ourselves, we can also support our kids. So having that be, and again, I think that a lot of the moms that we talk to, and I'm sure you do too, it's like, I can't worry about me. Okay, that's fine, but then worry about your kid. So chances are, if your child needs to get outside to maybe work on some of those hormones things, and we know that they sleep better right when they get out in the morning as well, hey, you're gonna get that benefit too, right? So incorporating that and thinking about things maybe more of like a bundle and a package in that like I'm getting ⁓

Chelsea Blackbird (13:25)
Absolutely.

Elyse Scheeler (13:31)
multiple things done. We all like to multitask. I say I can, my husband disagrees, but you know, it's fine. That's what happens when we try to do too much as moms, but that is a really good multitask, being able to do some of those things at once. So getting outside is one of the pieces. What are some of the other pieces as part of the Genesis prescription?

Chelsea Blackbird (13:33)
Yes.

Yeah, so

another one of those is ⁓ grounding, earthing. I don't know if you've talked about much of that with your audience. ⁓ And it sounds so kind of crazy. And over the years, people are like, this sounds a little woo-woo. But ⁓ what that is is simply having your bare skin, like your feet or your hands. So if you're gardening, if you're walking around barefoot in your yard, we pick up ⁓ electrons. This sounds like we get a little science here. But we pick up electrons from the Earth. The Earth is the greatest reservoir of electrons.

And our bodies are meant to stay in a net negative charge, meaning we need more electrons than protons to stay, that helps balance out not being inflamed, inflammation. And so it's such a weird sounding thing, so simple, but what I always tell people is God did not make our healing inaccessible. If we need something, he's gonna put it in nature. If we are supposed to get light signals, if we need more electrons than protons in our body,

You can get them very easily so we can just step outside and do that. So talk about habit stacking You know being outside just kicking off your shoes or doing some gardening you're under the Sun you're getting grounding I say, you know, take a phone call outside take a book outside play with your kid outside You know the more time that you can do that and you know, maybe take your work outside I do I take my computer outside and do work on my laptop, you know different things like that, but it's such a simple thing

Another thing that goes along with the earth is that the earth kind of has this, it's called, they call it the heartbeat of the earth. It's the Schumann resonance. And it's just the kind of frequency that the earth rolls on and it matches the same frequency in our brain, the kind of calming frequency. And so again, our bodies become more aligned and calmed and less inflamed when we do that. And there's all kinds of science to back this up. We don't hear about it a lot because

who benefits from you getting free care, you know, from outside? There's so many healing benefits, but there are a lot of studies that really explain this, unfold it. The way I like to explain it is through this biblical lens, and it makes it a little bit less, I don't know, woo-woo scary for people, like unapproachable when we think about the way God.

⁓ Made our bodies in relation to creation We are part again a part of this bigger creation story and we're meant to work synergistically With all all of this creation right just like we are meant to eat plant foods and animal foods You know that that is the way those are the things he gave us to eat to be well so he gave us give us all of these inputs and The way that we embrace and receive them is up to us. You know, ⁓ that's the thing we have to always remember is that yes we can pray for good health and

We always should pray for good health. We also have to step out and receive what he's already given us to be well.

Elyse Scheeler (16:38)
Yeah, absolutely.

And I think sometimes we fall into the culture traps of, I mean, can't tell you how many, if you watch any commercials on TV and they're gonna solve all of your problems and maybe give you 45 other ones in the process with all of those side effects, but it's simple. It's a pill, it's a cream. And sometimes doing some of these other things takes work and planning and thought processes. And I like the, like you said, with the habit stacking where if you think about a couple small things or

Like you said, sounds like a lot, oh my gosh, how am going do all these things? All you need to do, you can get all three of these things done in 15 minutes. If you take your kid outside during the light, have their shoes be off, play with them, you're engaging with them in relationship as well. And look, you've already done more than you thought you could. And I think as moms, have to, I don't know, maybe I'm speaking for myself, but I overcomplicate it. And it's like, okay, well, I have to plan exactly and I'm going to...

in a time block and we're gonna do, because now we're homeschooling and so it's like I have to do all these things and it's like no, I just got everything I needed to done in a short period of time and I didn't have to put all of that pressure on myself and that's one of the things that we as moms sometimes do. I'm looking at, I found the Genesis prescription. The next thing is it says that you talked a little bit about kind of the plants and animals. that kind of fit into the food then and that nutrition?

Chelsea Blackbird (18:00)
Okay.

Elyse Scheeler (18:08)
piece as well.

Chelsea Blackbird (18:09)
Sure, mean,

you over the years I get a lot of people like, well, you hear it, you know, in social media, what is the perfect diet, you know, is vegetarian or carnivore, I mean, we've got opposite ends of the spectrum, we've got all kinds of different dietary approaches. And obviously, let's come back to our anchor, you know, let's come back to what does the Bible say, what is our diet, what does God give us, he gives us plant foods and animal foods. And the combination of that, the highest quality of that, that, you know, you can find and that is within your resources.

That's you what we want now some people might need a little bit more Plant-based or a little more animal based kind of depending on what they've got going on, but generally speaking. That's a good place to start balancing those macronutrient ratios You know protein our protein foods are best source from from animal foods And then we get our that's the foods that build up the body every part of our body is uses amino acids which come from protein and you cannot

know, make anything without amino acids, including these brain neurotransmitters that, really modulate so much about our mood and our happiness and our drive and everything. So protein's really important. find a lot of people under-eat protein, ⁓ don't get enough good quality protein. And then the other two macronutrients, ⁓ carbs and fats, are what give our body energy, also give us some vitamins and minerals. And so those are ones that we want to work on and kind of in a balance with each other. don't...

usually people kind of overwhelm the body with energy. People like to call it calories. I like to call it energy because that's what it is. So we just, we've got to watch how much energy we're putting in our body versus how much building blocks protein we're putting in our body. And so I find that when we have a nice macronutrient ratio of protein to be between 20 and 30 % ⁓ and then let the other two fall into place, ⁓ then that's a really good starting place for getting those balanced. And that's

Elyse Scheeler (19:38)
Yeah

Chelsea Blackbird (20:01)
really what has been so helpful for a lot of my clients over the years in balancing that blood sugar is bringing up bringing up those amino acids, the protein, a little higher in fat, sticking more to real food, carbohydrates, so plant foods, ⁓ know, cleaner plant foods as much as we can. And it's a game changer. It really, really is.

Elyse Scheeler (20:22)
that I had a guest on recently and she does amino acid therapy and yeah and yes and I have been telling like so many people about this and I just think that what you're saying really goes into that so some people may need more like specific targeted you know treatment for that but really it could just be for some people just adding more good solid proteins to your diet.

Chelsea Blackbird (20:26)
I'm at Laurie Hammer. Love Laurie, yeah.

Yes,

it's always a good place to start. Yes, I love targeted amino acid therapy. We do that as well ⁓ in my groups. But really, what we want to do is be able to make our own neurotransmitters right as much as we can. And that starts with, you can't make them without amino acids, these essential amino acids, and you can't get the amino acids unless you consume them, either through food or through supplement. That's the only way you can get them. And so it's truly.

what we eat builds our house, builds our holy temple. That's the materials that we use. as a joke, if somebody's using Cheetos and Mountain Dew to build your house, your house is not going to be very stable. We're not building our house on the rock, like we want to, ⁓ physically or spiritually. So yeah, exactly. That is exactly right. Creating those amino acids through our diet is really the first step we really want to be focusing on.

Elyse Scheeler (21:28)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I love that. know that that's, we're always talking, my husband is very, that's just how, I think he, it's one of those things where it's like I had to learn for whatever reason, but he just very innately is doing a lot of the stuff. works outside, so he rarely gets sick. He gets all of his sunshine. He eats protein and veggies, and that's the main part of his diet. And it's like, why don't you ever get sick? I wonder. Hello, he's naturally doing all of those things. And then the last part of the Genesis prescription,

Chelsea Blackbird (22:08)
Yeah.

Elyse Scheeler (22:15)
is that God rested. Tell us a little bit more about that and how moms can incorporate that thought.

Chelsea Blackbird (22:19)
Yeah, we

just, don't rest enough, right? We don't take that time for rest. And a lot of us are just, we are so tired to end the day ⁓ and we might plop down on the couch and, you know, like watch Netflix or, you know, watch some show or something instead of going to bed at a decent hour. But it is one of the most critical things that we can do is get sleep because that is when all of our repair processes happen. It's when our detox, our main detoxification is happening at night while we sleep.

We think we go to sleep and like everything's shutting down, but it's when our body comes alive with so many of these incredible cleanup processes ⁓ that God designed us to have. And they kind of bell the ding, ding, ding, let's get started with this, is the melatonin bell, the hormone melatonin. And what surprises people to know is that one of the most important things that informs melatonin about our melatonin going off at night is the morning sunshine.

When you get that morning sunshine in your eye, it is telling cortisol what to do and it's also saying, hey, in about 12 hours, we're gonna be kicking off melatonin and that's gonna be the time we're gonna start winding down and melatonin get ready. It is also creating, ⁓ building up the storage of serotonin that will turn into melatonin. So that's also being built through sun signals ⁓ in the brain. And so there is so much of this chemistry happening through the circadian rhythm and the signals.

So I'm saying all that to tell you that melatonin is really important. And think a lot of us struggle with that, ⁓ going to sleep, right? But that sunshine can really help kick off that melatonin at night. Also seeing sunset is a big trigger to our melatonin, like, let's get going. And so I would say just taking that time to go to sleep, to go to sleep a decent hour, let your body detox, let your body rest, let it.

you know, just come into this posture of peace in the evening. ⁓ And I think a lot of us, that's when we want to get things done or just plop down and watch TV like, good, everybody's in bed, I'm going to do all the dishes or I'm going to finish this last piece of the project of work, you know, and that kind of thing. ⁓ Instead of honoring that true need to be in rest and also be in rest with the Lord.

Elyse Scheeler (24:32)
How much time do you usually recommend? Like is there a specific, ⁓ like it has to be at least 15 minutes in the sunshine or half an hour or does it matter?

Chelsea Blackbird (24:44)
Well, I always say the more the better, but also do not let perfection be the enemy of progress. I there are mornings, especially in the school year, I mean, you know, I'm like making breakfast, like signing things, things are flying, we're getting ready for school. I might stick my head out the door, the back door for 15 seconds. You know, that's, it'd be better if it was closer to three minutes, if we could see ⁓ the sun the first thing in the morning.

But any amount of time is going to be helpful. And then I try to say, listen, let's cheat for 30 minutes a day, whenever you can get outside. It doesn't have to even all be together. And so I'm like, wow, that seems like a long time. Until you think about, OK, there's 24 hours a day. I'll be sleeping some of those times. But that means 30 minutes. So what I'm going to be inside for during the day for like 12 hours. When you think of the difference, it's just 30 minutes out of your entire.

Waking day. It's a drop in the bucket, you know But it's so it's a kind of a good goal to start and definitely if you have to break that up throughout the day That's okay Just get outside when you can each part of the day is giving your body different signals About what to do so it's great to you know get out at different times of the day But that morning light is really really influential and so you know anytime you know sunrise is a great time anytime between sunrise and that first hour or two after sunrise is a really

Just really important time if you can get some sun in your eye any amount

Elyse Scheeler (26:07)
Yeah,

I love that. We're gonna start wrapping up, but I'm just wondering if you had like one thing, so one takeaway. So mom's listening and she's going, okay, I can get outside. I really though know that I'm not, know, my house is built on Cheetos and Fritos right now, right? And she's going, okay, I wanna be better about that. What maybe would be like one...

Chelsea Blackbird (26:21)
Yeah.

Elyse Scheeler (26:28)
Like if somebody came to you as a client, it was like, okay, I'm overwhelmed, I can get outside for 15 minutes, I wanna start working on my diet. What's one thing or like a good starting point that you usually recommend for people? I guess outside of building up that protein.

Chelsea Blackbird (26:41)
outside of building it, because that's always my number one, is doing some, you know, a little batch cooking, if you will. Like, don't make, I'm like, make hamburger patties for a couple days. Just have something handy. I mean, truly, that, having something like that is ⁓ probably the best thing that you could do, because when we don't have that protein, we're gonna be grabbing for the energy, ⁓ the energy foods, right? ⁓ Which may not always be good. So, that's my first one. Prioritize protein, try to do a little batch cooking.

While you're cooking, you might as cook a little extra. I mean, I always find it easier. But also, just know that you don't have to be perfect. ⁓ With it, a couple things. You don't have to be perfect. And the more that you're doing the full Genesis prescription, getting your rest, getting some sunshine, ⁓ things balance out in a way that you don't have to be perfect with your diet. In the intro that you mentioned, real foods meets real life. I'm somebody, I like to bake cookies with my kids. I'm going to have a glass of with my girlfriends.

I wanna have birthday cake, wanna celebrate in the holidays, I wanna go on vacation, I don't wanna feel bad about myself, that I did something wrong. And so we have to build in those times of grace in our life and our body can handle a little bit of insult some of the time, as long as we're giving it real food most of the time. And I think just understanding that and having that grace for yourself goes so far so we're not always in our head beating ourselves up like, I'm not doing it right or.

I'm not doing it perfect, because you're not going to eat perfect every day of your life. That's just not going to happen. It's just not. So I think having that approach to it, having grace, prioritizing protein, getting some sunshine, getting that rest, those are things that, to me, they're just so incredibly critical.

Elyse Scheeler (28:26)
Yeah, and I think something that I have learned throughout my journey too is exactly what you're saying is that I still have some pretty significant food sensitivities and stuff, but what I have discovered is when I take out most of the bad stuff that my body's having to work overtime to try and detoxify, having something that I wouldn't normally have doesn't affect me as poorly, right? Because my body's like, hey, my liver and everything else isn't having to worry. I'm working at 110 % to try to get rid of all of this junk in my

my

system when I have, like you said, have something that maybe I wouldn't normally have, it's kind of like, okay, that's good, one time. And I think that knowing that for moms too is really a helpful thing. And also, like you said, the key word is grace, right? We have to give ourselves grace and all of these things start with little steps. And you've been at this for a long time, I have been at changing my whole perspective on life and health for a long time too. And it's a couple steps forward, a couple steps back sometimes. And as long as we're continuing to work,

And God knows too that we are not perfect and he is there behind us. And think giving it up to God too sometimes. I don't know what your experience is with that, but like, okay, I'm struggling with this and just going to bed, like you said, getting that rest and giving this stress up to him, he might come up with some other ideas for ways that we can continue to improve our health. So I love this. Can you remind our listeners where they can find you on all the socials? I know you have a podcast as well.

Chelsea Blackbird (29:52)
Yeah, yeah,

so my podcast is the Christian Health Club podcast. ⁓ And then I'm the Christian nutritionist across social media. That's my website. ⁓ so I've got, yeah, I've got some free downloads there, like a Genesis prescription quick start guide that will kind of go over all that. So that might be helpful for people. But that's, the best ways to find and connect with me.

Elyse Scheeler (30:13)
Yes, I love that. Well, thank you so much for being here today.

Chelsea Blackbird (30:16)
Thank you so

much for having me. I loved it.