133: Dynamic Thrust: Chiropractor “Adjusts” Career, Becomes Elite Podcaster – with Jesse Chappus

Are you thinking about changing careers? 

He went to chiropractic school, studying medical science for years. Then, he opened his own business, running a chiropractic clinic. Most people at that point would coast for the rest of their life. Stay in their comfort zone and enjoy the “nice income” of a chiropractor, and chill till retirement. 

That’s the conventional plan for most chiropractors. You can’t blame them. After devoting so much time, energy, and finances to a career like chiropractic care, who wants to start over in a new field?

Jesse Chappus, that’s who. 

Jesse is an “outside the box” thinker. After only four and a half years working as a chiropractor, he knew that he had not yet found his ultimate career path. His passion for health and wellness was evident to his patients, yet Jesse wanted to somehow help more people in a way that felt better aligned with his personality and skills.  

While his chiropractic business steadily grew, Jesse enjoyed listening to podcasts. What he didn’t realize is that seeds of destiny were being planted every time he hit play. 

This episode is fantastic for budding entrepreneurs in the health and wellness space. Or people not yet in the health and wellness space wanting to pivot their career in this direction. 

Listen in as Jesse shares how he made the dramatic career change from chiropractor to full-time podcaster. You get the full story – no sugar coating: the financial “tightness” at the beginning, his transition, and how Jesse grew his Ultimate Health Podcast over time to be one of the most listened to health and wellness shows on the internet. 

As a lifelong learner, Jesse continuously researches the most current information on nutrition and natural health. 

In this episode, our host Wade Lightheart also gets Jesse to share some of his perspectives on health and wellness. Jesse is a former long-distance runner and cyclist who now enjoys focusing on shorter, more purposeful exercises to accommodate his current lifestyle as a busy dad.  

In this podcast, we cover:

• How Jesse shifted from chiropractor to podcaster
• The structure and goals of The Ultimate Health Podcast business
• Some of the “extreme” health programs Jesse has experimented with and what he learned 
• Why Jesse is a big fan of kettlebells for exercise
• Jesse’s current diet and his history of eating plans 
• Some biohacks and technologies Jesse enjoys using
• Why Jesse likes the Oura Ring (link below)
• Why red light therapy is one of his favorite biohacks 
• Why Jesse kept referring to “getting back to the basics” of health

How does it feel to do what you love for a living? What are the mental health benefits?

Jesse said: “It’s huge for me. I get to learn about what I would be learning about anyways (as a chiropractor.) I prepare for interviews intensely, going really in-depth with my questions. I interview a lot of authors in the health and wellness space. I soak up their books. Then I have these incredible conversations where I pick people’s brains, and I get to continue to learn. That is so phenomenal. 

Everything is so aligned with what I do. It’s hard to put into words. I get to learn and make money doing something I love. Plus, I get to help people at the same time! I am so grateful for this. 

It was just something that came together organically. Me and my wife doing what we were passionate about as a career. All I can say is just ‘gratitude.’ Even the way we make revenue with our business is just beautiful. We’re sharing products that we use and love. That’s how we generally make money is through sponsorships and affiliate links. We help people and make money doing that. It’s a win-win-win-win all around. I’m very grateful!” 

Testing the Extremes and Coming Back to the Middle

Wade is a big believer in pushing the limits for a short period of time for learning purposes but then pulling back to the center to regain equilibrium. Wade asks Jesse, “What are some of the extreme things you’ve done in experimentation that taught you a lesson, and then you pulled back from the adventure or the dysfunction or the breakdown and centered back in the middle? 

Jesse: “I mentioned earlier about diet. I’ve experimented with diets across the board – from raw food to keto. And then I’ve come back to the middle. That’s where I am now. Again, it’s not sexy to talk about, but I like eating organic, whole foods. I’m just eating clean foods all the time. It’s a default. There’s no choice in the matter for me. 

“We talked before about having too much on my plate when I was building the show with my wife. I was working all day and even between patients working on the show and then coming home at night and pushing it till maybe 11 pm working on the podcast. Then, waking up and doing it all over again. On the weekends, I was doing most of the traveling to meet my girlfriend (now my wife.) I was redlining – pushing real hard.. 

Now, I can look back at that time and see the importance of balance. Now I’m lucky enough to be in a position where I can say “no” to many things and go all-in on the show. I’m so big on focusing on what you do well, what you love to do. I’ve been an advocate of that for years. I’m a big fan of focus. If I had to pick one word in business that I would stand behind, it’s focus.”

Jesse Chappus’ inspiring story provides hope for those feeling like something is missing in their career. Wade describes it like “your music is missing a bass guitar.” Do you feel like something isn’t quite right with your career or life? If you’re seeking to enter the health and wellness space, be sure to tune in to this episode. Successful podcasters in the health and wellness space like Jesse are some of the happiest people you will ever meet. 

Whatever new career path you want to take – go for it! But listen to what Jesse has to say first! 

Episode Resources:

Ultimate Health Podcast website
Ultimate Health Podcast on Instagram
Ultimate Health Podcast on Facebook
Ultimate Health Podcast on YouTube
UHP Interview with Matthew McConaughey
Oura Ring
Berkey Shower Filter

Read The Episode Transcript:

Wade Lightheart: Good morning. Good afternoon. And good evening. It's Wade T. Lightheart with BiOptimizers with another edition of the awesome health podcast. And today we have a very special guest. We're going to talk about how to build a business in the health and wellness space and how to pivot in this case, our guests pivoted from being a chiropractor, to being a podcaster. And that might seem like an unusual jump, but in today's world, I think all of us need to consider about pivoting into maybe a new career, a new business, a new opportunity, maybe a new location, who knows. Very uncertain time. So that's why we are doing this podcast because health is about a lot of these things. And of course, our guest today is Jesse Chappus, who is a lifelong learner and continually researchers, the most current information on nutrition and natural health in 2016, in April of 2016, he retired from the chiropractic business after being in clinical practice for four and a half years, he decided it was time to take his message, his health message online to reach a larger audience. So Jesse has always had an active lifestyle. He used to focus on the long distance running, you know, marathons and cycling, but now he has a more holistic approach to movement and fitness. He is a firm believer in the proactive model of health, and he has a tremendous podcast called the ultimate health podcast.com. But you can reach also on Instagram, Jesse, welcome to the show.

 Jesse Chappus: Wait, excited to be here. How you doing?

 Wade Lightheart: You know, as Charles Dickens once said, it's the best of times and the worst of timesthings have never been better at BiOptimizers. And of course we are dealing with the politicization. We talked a little bit before this of science and everybody. And I think there's a lot of fear and a lot of pressure, both socially and disinformation and stuff that's going out there and we need podcasters like yourself who are actually breaking down information so that people can understand and take action. Right? I think we've become in some ways voyeurs in society, we've gotten used to looking at our screens so much that we're getting the feedback of I'm doing something. Cause I learned something, but really the mastery is when you take action, would you agree with that?

 Jesse Chappus: I would totally agree with that. And I find even after, you know, taking in the knowledge and applying that into a healthy lifestyle, one of the trickiest things can be doing that long-term because there is so much out there and whether it be, you know, meditation or a certain diet, or we could go on and on, I find that to be the trickiest piece. It's not knowing what to do. It's not even taking it, once you're inspired from like a conversation like we're going to have here, but it's like, how do you put that into place long-term and that's something that even myself I've been involved in this world for so long, and I still, you know, dip in and out how my ebbs and flows with different pieces of this health and wellness package.

 Wade Lightheart: Yeah. I always like to say… I was just actually writing an email to a group of people. And I was like, if the title's like you've been hacked and not in a good way. I think people's decision-making process is getting into analysis paralysis and you know, you can kind of get, find supporting information for almost anything, but how do you get practical information that's implementable in your life? And of course, as a chiropractor, your history back there is your taking people and implementing a philosophy to help them have a better quality of life, better health and everything. But I find it interesting. So I want to back the truck up a little bit and go back into your history for our listeners. What got you into chiropractic care? What was your career like in it? And then what made you decide to change? Because that's a big time, energy, emotional financial investment to become a chiropractor and build a clinic and all that stuff. Like that's a major thing. And then just walk away and become a podcast there. Like I'm sure there were some people shaking their heads or like questioning what you're doing. Like how did you get involved in that whole industry to start with?

 Jesse Chappus: And this is a number of years ago, you know, you talked about the pandemic we're going through now. And a lot of people are making a lot of pivots within their career. Some people are probably forced to other people are probably evaluating, you know, situations that they've been involved in and realizing there might be a better option. But for me, this all started… The podcast, I want to get the timeline right here. The podcast started six and a half years ago. And at that time I was a practicing chiropractor already for a couple of years, but let's go back even further than that, you asked about getting into chiropractic. I've always just had a passion for health and wellness. And I took kinesiology in university and just love learning about the body, physiology, anatomy, just always just so fascinated by that. And I loved that program. And for quite a while, I thought I'd get into physiotherapy after that and had an opportunity to do a co-op under a chiropractor while I was in school while I was in university and realized, you know, I really liked this chiropractic thing and pivoted my focus a little bit into chiropractic. And, you know, just during going to chiropractic school, it was through YouTube that I found like this alternative health world beyond, even though chiropractic's alternative, it's still, you know, kind of under the conventional umbrella with a lot of the teachings and the science and I mean, science is science, but just the way that we learn, it's still pretty conventional, but just through YouTube, I ended up dipping into the raw food worldeating plant-based and dipped my toe into that world and actually went vegan for a while and ate a lot of raw foods. But it opened my mind during chiropractic school, after I had already made that commitment and I've already invested so much time and money into kinesiology, and then I'm already halfway through this other program, but, you know, at that point still figured I was going to come out and practice chiropractic and that would be my lifelong career. And when I came out, you know, I got into practice slowly built that practice up and loved a lot of things about that. I mean, I'm a people person. I love, you know, interacting with people one-on-one and I would my time with patients and teach them a lot of these alternative tidbits. I was picking up in the online world and through my readings I was doing. And when I met my girlfriend now wife, I knew like she was a nutritionist and we both had this passion for health. So this is like a, maybe a year or so into practice. And I'm beyond the chiropractic school here, I'm out in practice doing my thing. And I just brought it up to her. I was into consuming podcasts at that point. And I was like, you know, we should start a podcast and she didn't maybe even know what a podcast was at the time. She definitely wasn't very immersed in that world. So it took a bit of convincing. It took some time, but over time I convinced her to start a show and it was eight, no, September, 2014, my wife and I started co-hosting the ultimate health podcast together. And it was quite a while that we did that while it was in practice. So in the beginning, I'm practicing during the day, if I have breaks in between patients, I'm like editing the show and, you know, lining up guests, taking care of emails. There's a lot too. And obviously as a podcast. So, you know, there's a lot too the podcasting thing. It's not just jumping on and doing a recording and then hitting posts. I mean, well, maybe we'll get into that later, but there is a lot involved in running a show. So again, I'm practicing, full-time, I'm actually in a long distance relationship. So my girlfriend's not even in the same city. So we're recording the show on weekends. We're about four hours apart, traveling back and forth on weekends, recording on weekends. And it's just a grind. I mean, I'm in practice again, treating people loving that aspect, but over time, I'm realizing as the show continued to grow, that I just have such a passion for this medium. And it's just reaching so many different people all over the world. And I just love the fact that I could create a piece of content and it just had this evergreen ness to it that working one-on-one with patients just wasn't able to do, like I'm able to really help people in a different way, working with them in person. But I think I can have more of an impact trying to, you know, grow this podcast and put more and more energy and you know, that's what eventually happened. It was just more and more my time and energy would go into the show. It grew to a point where we could take on our first sponsor. I think it was, Oh, I said about a year into the show. So in the beginning, you know, you're paying to host and paying to do all this stuff and working hard and it's not paying at all, but it's a pure passion project for the two of us. And then because of a prior relationship my wife had with the company, we ended up getting a sponsor. I think that's pretty early a year into, you know, creating this podcast and this content. So, you know, and that wasn't a lot of money at the time, but it, you know, it was a start and it planted a seed to see, you know, the potential and over time it just grew and grew. And it got to the point where it could sustain us. Well, she had an, I want to take a step back. She actually had another career teaching vegetarian cooking classes at the time, I mentioned she was a nutritionist, so she was doing that. And it got to the point where I could actually leave my practice, do the podcast full time and then she could do her teaching. And then over time again, growing the show, growing the show, putting more and more focus into it, she was able to leave that. And the two of us were able to do this full time. And now, I mean, there's a baby involved that we recently had a child about 14, 15 months ago now. So that's why she is no longer hosting and she's taken on her own podcast and started it on mothering and babies. And that's her new passion. And now I've taken the reins on the ultimate health podcast and just, I love it. I just, all I can say is I love it. I feel so grateful to get to connect with people and read the books, preparing for the interviews and continuing to learn and share that information. Like I mentioned before with such a wide audience. So I'm not only learning it for myself to apply in my own life and with my family and friends, but being able to take that and put it out into the world as evergreen content that continues to get downloaded and listened to. And we're on YouTube as well. And getting a lot of people subscribing to the channel and that's a whole another area of growth and passion of mine.

 Wade Lightheart: Super great to hear that. And I guess there's a couple things that come up you kind of grew things organically here in this situation, right? Like you kind of come to a point like, what was it like though that decision point where you said I'm going to leave chiropractic? How was that? Was it an easy decision? Was it a difficult decision?

 Jesse Chappus: It was easy knowing I was doing the right thing, but financially it was tight. It was giving up, you know, a certain amount of income. I was still growing my practice at that time. It wasn't, you know, I wasn't 10 years in and had a full practice or anything, but it was significant. I was doing well for how long I'd been in practice, but it was taking, yeah. I stepped back in finances and what I was bringing in on a regular basis. So yeah, that part was something to consider. But at the time we didn't have a child and, you know, we were younger and we could afford to take a little bit more risks than we could these days. So it waswe could see the growth and we had done it for long enough that we knew where this was going, but it was, things were tight for awhile. And, you know, it was we knew that going into it, but it was, we could see the bigger picture.

 Wade Lightheart: I think that's really great to be able to make that pivot and go into an extension of your career, essentially. It was an extension of what you were doing. Just like you said, they'd have more impact, but being willing to take the short term financial sacrifices in order to free up the time to really grow the business. I think there's a great lesson there for people. I'm kind of interested about your thoughts around health and vocation. So I don't know a lot of people look at what they're doing in life and it's, they're doing it for the money and they rationalize it. Well, I need this job for this XYZ. And it's a very strong argument, right? I mean, it's always a strong argument and yet it can suck the life out of you. You know, it can take the soul away for a minute, having treated so many people in your past, and you probably came familiar with kind of people that are going through the motions of life. What would you say out of curiosity is the role of a job or a gainful employment or your purpose in life. That's in alignment with your core values, as opposed to a financial outcome? How much do you think that contributes to your overall state of wellbeing and health?

 Jesse Chappus: It's huge for me, the fact that again, I get to learn about what I would be learning about, anyways, again, prepare, I go really in depth preparing for my interviews. And a lot of times it's authors, I'm interviewing in the health and wellness space and these are books I would just be soaking up and digging into anyway. And having these conversations and picking people's brains and continuing to learn, I mean, there's, it is so phenomenal. I can't really express. It's like, everything is so aligned with what I get to do. The fact that I get to learn, I get to make money doing something I love doing. I get to help people at the same time. It's so much gratitude. And I'm so aware of that and talk about it all the time. It's just, there's luck involved too and timing. And again, I mentioned before, there was a time that I could take a risk when I did take the risk on this. And now I can't necessarily take the same risks I could with the young daughter. And, and, you know, I'm married now and it's just, we have a family it's different, but I just feel so grateful that early on in my career, before I had, you know, invested, you know, 10, 20 years and built up that practice, it was like, I saw this other out. And I can't say asserted when we started the podcast that was apparent to me that there would be an opportunity to find the now, but it was just something that was so organic and it just involved me and my wife following something we were so passionate about. And all I can say is just gratitude. I mean, there I can't think of anything, including the way we make our revenue with the business. Like, it's all just so beautiful. We're, we're sharing products that we take and love. And, and that's how we generally make money through sponsorship and affiliate links. So it's like we're helping people, we're making money doing that. And it's, win-win-win-win all around. And that's all I can say. It's just, I'm very grateful!

 Wade Lightheart: When it comes to the ultimate health podcast. So would you say is your overall goal or structure for people who are tuning into the podcast? Like what it's about? What would you say your core messages and what are you hoping to communicate to people so that they can implement, like how does that all fit within the podcast?

 Jesse Chappus: Well, one thing we learned early on is that there are so many different avenues in the health and wellness space and new ones that are opening all the time. And a lot of them, you know, contradict other ones. So apparently it looks that way, but early on we decided we were just going to interview people across the spectrum, even if we knew that the philosophy didn't totally align. I mean, there will be no way that the philosophy, if you look back at the previous guests, we've done over 400 interviews now, and there'll be no way they could all line under one philosophy. I don't even know how it'd be possible, but I mean, we've had raw vegans on and the other end of the spectrum, carnivores and everything in between. And I think every one of these guests has so many different nuggets to offer the listener. And it's all about taking in that information and seeing where you're at as a unique individual and where you're at on your path, which again, over a lifetime is going to change as well. And taking those nuggets and experimenting with them, seeing what works for you, and then holding onto those, like we talked about at the beginning and making them habits and making them part of the health and wellness routine. But yeah, that's been a big Avenue, a big part of the Avenue we've taken over the years. And I think that's different than a lot of the other shows where they kind of pick, pick an alley. And again, it's just going to limit the number of people that you can interview. For us, it's like, I don't want to play that game. I don't want to play the game of trying to decide for you who you should be listening to. It's like, let's just bring everybody on that. That is bringing a unique piece to this health and wellness space and let people decide for themselves, including myself as I'm reading these books and chatting with these people, I'm changing my routine, all the time. I mean, whatever I would talk about today, it could be different in a week from now, a day from now, like pieces are always changing. And I think that's a big part of, you know, for me at least embracing this health and wellness space, realizing that the learning never ends. There are so many different avenues to take. And like I said, again, we're all different, we're all going through different phases.

 Wade Lightheart: Right. So would you say though, there are some overarching from all the 400 guests plus that you've interviewed, would you say that there are some themes that come through for people who want to express ultimate health that you've kind of noticed that are kind of part and parcel with everybody?

 Jesse Chappus: Sure. Yeah, there would definitely be themes. And one of them that comes to mind right away is no big surprise. And that's the thing about, I think a lot of the general themes, they're the cliché things that you would hear time and time again, the fundamentals. So, you know, drinking, clean water and eating a clean diet, whatever that is for you, taking time for self care and moving your body on a regular basis. They're not sexy things that are like profounder. And things that you know, are exciting necessarily to talk about because we've all heard them so many times, but these do build the foundation for a healthy lifestyle. You can't deny them. I'm trying to think of other ones off the top of my head sleep, that's the one that comes up time and time again, you know, getting your sleep, getting your sleep. Right. And I think that I've really found over the years is that's worked well for me is testing the extreme on a lot of these things as an over time coming back to the middle. So yeah…

 Wade Lightheart: I want to get into that for a second.

 Jesse Chappus: Okay.

 Wade Lightheart: Because I'm very much of that belief as well. And I call it the formula one formula. And that is, you know, if you look at formula one race cars driving around the track at a couple of hundred miles an hour, going to these crazy hairpin turns and it's very dangerous and you could die in that whole kind of experience yet the technologies that's developed by developing engines and performance and tires and braking systems and technology, and all these sorts of stuff that when you push the limit of race car driving, then those applications have really positive ramifications for whether it's fuel efficiency for the environment, whether it's braking systems that help you stop the car in an emergency situation, new tires that gives you better track in poor conditions. There's always gains to come from those people that are on the edge. And I think that's why we need people on the edge in every area of society, the freedom of expression and people to push the envelope. And yes, there's risks involved for those individuals, but the overarching benefit for society is certain or it's a fact whether it's people jumping out of planes are flying, you know, trying to break the sound barrier or all these different things that throughout history, astronauts, you know, they were explorers that went to the new world. All of these kinds of things are people on the extremes. What are some of the extreme things that you've done in experimentation that you'll learn the lesson that you're able to kind of come back from the adventure or the dysfunction or the breakdown or whatever it was. And come back to the middle. You got any that come to mind?

 Jesse Chappus: Well, I mentioned earlier diet and I've experimented with diets right across the board from the raw food diet to more keto diets. And again, like I mentioned, coming to the middle, that's kind of where I am now. It's like the basics. Again, it's not sexy to talk about, but it's like eating organic and whole foods. And I don't really have a certain paradigm that I fit under when it comes to that. But it's like, I'm just eating clean foods all the time. It's just a default. Like, I won't give up, I won't, I'm looking for a certain word here. I won't, there's no choice in that matter. It's just default for me now. And I would say another one is just pushing the limit a lot. And this comes back to, we talked about before of having too much on my plate when I was building the show with my wife where, you know, I mentioned working all day and even between patients working on the show and then coming home at night and pushing it till, you know, maybe 11 o'clock at night, getting things together for the podcast and waking up and doing it again. And then on the weekend I was doing most of the traveling. So I would do the four hour tractor to go meet my girlfriend at the time. And it was red lining. I was pushing really hard. And now I, you know, I can look back at that time and realize the importance of balance. And I'm lucky enough to be in a position now where, you know, I've been able to say no to a lot more things and build, you know, go all in on this show. And that's something I'm just so big on focusing in on what it is that you do well and that you love to do. And I've been an advocate of this for years. I'm a big fan of focus. If I had to pick one word in business that I would stand behind, it's focus. And I think that's a big part of the success of the show where it's like, when somebody asks me what I do, I say, I'm a podcaster. It's not a podcast is a piece of what I do. Like I'm all in on this. And that's the kind of personality, I am. I'm an all in type of person. And I'm always wanting to learn, not just in the health and wellness space. I want to learn about podcasting and the newest software we can use to get better quality interviews or better sound or, you know, I'm into the art of podcasting, just as much as the health and wellness information. So I kind of took it on a tangent there, but to go over a couple of them, the diet I've been across the board and experimenting with the extremes there, and then I've pushed into the red line quite a bit in the work realm and out of necessity at the time to get things to where they are today, I had to really push. And now I have so much gratitude for the balance that I do have and that I've, you know, worked so hard to have at this time and to enjoy.

 Wade Lightheart: I love it. I think, you know, there's a lot of growth that happens in that red line when you get to, you know, as an entrepreneur and you're trying to kept carry your health and all that sort of stuff. You almost, everyone I've ever interviewed gets to the point where things start to break down, but it's kind of like that external pressure. It helps you get clarity about what's working and what's not working. I think it's easy to kind of go through kind of a fussed out world well, you know, it's kind of like, but when you really push it into your max, you find out where the limits are, and then those limits you're like, okay, I've got to make some adjustments. One of the adjustments that you talk about is you were an endurance runner, is that right?

 Jesse Chappus: Yes, did a number of marathons and was really heavy into that world for a number of years.

 Wade Lightheart: What was that like?

 Jesse Chappus: I started getting really into running and chiropractic school. So it was, I'm trying to think how many years back that was maybe like 12 years back now. And again, I'm an all in type of person. So when I got into running, I, you know, I saw the marathon there and saw that as being the gold standard of what I wanted to Excel in. And yeah, I was all in, I was running probably six days a week and putting in huge amount of kilometers and I was also eating a plant-based diet at the time. So for me, I really leaned out with the two of those together. And again, there's so many different ways. I know you're plant-based, we talked about this on my show when I interviewed you, but there's so many different ways to do a plant-based diet, but what I was doing at the time, plus running all those kilometers, I got pretty thin and it probably didn't help, you know, the situation of how demanding chiropractic college was. And it's, it's a whole another world of busy on top of what I'd already experienced at university. So it was an interesting time to get involved in that. ButI just loved the competition. I loved having, you know, a goal and it kept me fits. And I ended up doing, I think it was six or seven marathons within a handful of years. And then just realize like, this isn't healthy for me. This is, you know, I get a lot out of the challenge of it and the competition. I mean, I wasn't competitive, like I'm gonna win the race, but I had my own goals. And I felt like it was doing really well, considering where like the amount of time I'd invested in and how seriously I took it, but I just realized like this isn't, I'm all about health and wellness and doing what's going to make me feel good. And this was, you know, if you're looking at like a U curve, I was pushing it so hard. It was affecting my health, I'm sure, the other way, I can't say I had overt symptoms from doing it, but I just, I felt like I was underweight where I wanted to be. And I would just was, I was depleted. I was, again, I would run, sometimes on Sunday when I would do the long runs. It could be up to like, I think my longest might've been like five and a half hours, so you're hungry and depleted all the time. And it was a lot so enjoyed it at the time, got a lot from that. And I'm proud of, you know, what I accomplished in that realm, but now I'm a runner and more recently really picked it up in a more serious way, but it's shorter runs. It's doing it for health and wellness and wellbeing. It's not competing. And so the goals are different. And I think that served me well at the time. You know, I learned, I'm sure a lot of lessons and in handling pain, you know, running those marathons. And I'm not sure if you've done a marathon yourself.

 Wade Lightheart: I haven't done it. I haven't done a marathon yet. It's always in the back of my mind that I keep thinking, God, you know, I probably should go do that just to, just to get it off the list.

 Jesse Chappus: Right. It takes you to a level of pain that maybe was, I would say it was probably helpful as an entrepreneur, you know, just to experience that and realize, you know, just like any kind of pain you come out the other end stronger. So I feel like it was good for me at the time. And I got a lot from that, but then I, now I'm all into fitness and exercise and movement from a health perspective versus a competitive.

 Wade Lightheart: So what are the some of the other things that you're currently doing in regards to your health now that you kind of, so you run how many times a week, let's say?

 Jesse Chappus: Probably about four or five right now,

 Wade Lightheart: That's quite a bit. And then your average run would be?

 Jesse Chappus: I'm only doing, like I said, lately, they've been about half an hour. So it's just, it's more about just fitness. It's not like I'm or kilometers or anything. And I'm just big into kettlebells. I'm big into body weight exercises, really basic stuff. And I guess that's going to be a theme here where it's like, you know, I've experimented at the extremes, but I've come back to the basics and the fundamentals and find that they do me well.

 Wade Lightheart: When you talking about kettlebells, it's a big you know, I think became very popular, particularly when Haval Datesween brought his, I think he got published through dragon door or something like that about 25 years ago. And here is this guy with this crazy abdominal development. He had one of the most unusual abdominal developments I've ever seen. And then I remember seeing him at the Arnold classicI think in 19 God in 1998, 1999, something around there. So it's a big bodybuilding and fitness show run by Arnold Schwarzenegger. And I remember looking at him and going, Oh, this guy has got an very interesting development. He wasn't like super big, but his strength with these kettlebells were phenomenal, like when he was throwing around these kettlebells. And I was like, these things are really tough and me being big, those days I was a big bulky bodybuilder and the waiting and the movement of kettlebell movements is so much different than say barbells or dumbbells. It's a completely different thing. What have you learned about kettlebells and why has that become part of your routine? Because, you know, as a chiropractor and as a former runner, I think that's a very interesting combination that say, Hey, I've found that, you know, kettlebells is something that I implement into you, that you implemented your routine. Why is that? And what are some of the movements that you like the best for that?

 Jesse Chappus: I'm really basic with it, to be honest. And the reason I would say the primary reason that I do it is because it is so easy to fit into my routine and I can hit so many muscles within one movement. I actually keep a kettlebell here in the office. And then in between, you know, doing work, I'll pick it up and do some swings. So it's, you know, my fitness routine at this point, you know, again, it's basic, I'm not deep into the weeds on the kettlebells, but I just, I do basic swings one arm two arm. I mean, I've done some other things back in the day but now it's all basics and efficiency is a big part of that. And I just enjoy it too. It's something that I don't resist doing. And I think that's a big part of creating consistency as well. I enjoy, I feel good after I do it. And it's just an easy thing to fit into my routine. What about you? Are you a big fan of them or do you use them?

 Wade Lightheart: I got a little bit of kettlebells. I'm still one of the old school bodybuilding guys that likes to go lift dire and I always say lift heavy inanimate objects and linear planes, which is kind of, I'm a very boring well, I have some kettlebells here at the house cause I have a rooftop gym that I built during COVID, which actually turned out to be pretty fun. It's really nicely. I've got a nice view of Venice here and I get up there and looking at the Palm trees and the sun, the ocean I'm like, Oh, okay. Now I know why they started muscle beach down here, back in the day. This is a great weight training outdoors is remarkably different than training indoors. And so I split my time between here and Gold's gym. I'm always fascinated with kettlebells though, is because it builds such a unique level of whole body strength, which is very different than say bodybuilding, which is kind of, bodybuilding is all about the aesthetics. I would say where kettlebells is more about the functionality. Would you agree with that assessment?

 Jesse Chappus: Yeah, I would say it's more incorporating functional movement versus an isolate of muscle. So, I mean, I've been involved in more so back in the day, but doing a lot of more isolated movements and weightlifting that way too, not even near to the extent you have, but just in keeping fit and getting strong.

 Wade Lightheart: What about other biohacking modalities food? Like, so what's your current diet style like today and then maybe any biohacking modalities that you tend to advocate and do you and your wife follow a similar type diet or are you got a difference?

 Jesse Chappus: Yeah, no, that's a good question because I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but my wife and I, when we met each other, we were both heavily involved in the health and wellness space. And that's how we met. And both of us were on a plant-based diet at the time. And we were both advocating that heavily for ourselves. And as a way for other people, you know, to be healthy. And my wife actually wrote the book plant-based diet for dummies. And so she was just totally immersed in that and sharing that message. And then just over the years, you know, we pivoted and start incorporating some chicken and fish and now there's no, I think I quickly mentioned this before, but there is no specific, I guess if I had to put a label on it, I would call it a paleo wish diet, but it's just all about quality. So like we're not going out and getting, you know, if we're going to a restaurant and they have like crappy conventional meat, we'll plant base for that meal. We typically, my wife's also a chef, so we eat at home a lot and she loves to cook and she's an amazing cook. So I'm really lucky that way. But yeah, especially when it comes to meat, it always has to be grass fed organic top quality. And whenever we can, we buy organic produce. It's just, just whole foods. I mean, it's basic stuff, but it's, we feel like at this time, it's the best for us. And yeah, we're always tweaking with different things, learning about new foods and it's the health and wellness space. These days, things are just changing so fast and new foods are being brought to the forefront. There's always new things to try new supplements. So it's a lot of fun just keeping up with that and experimenting and trying different things. But I would say part of what fits under the eating umbrella for me, something I've done more seriously over, I'd say the last six months is intermittent fasting. And for me, typically I do that during the week. So I'll eat dinner with the family and we usually knit earlier dinner just cause I do have a young daughter. So we'll eat maybe about five 30 on average. And most nights during the week, I won't have anything after that until the next day around earliest, I would say, I would eat would be about 11:00 AM. Oftentimes I'll stretch that to noon. And again, I'm not hardcore about that. If all of a sudden we decide one day, we're going to make gluten-free pancakes and have a family breakfast. Like I don't like to be too rigid. I like to be rigid about the basics. Like I, don't not just, you know, eating crap, but if it's healthy food and it's like, I can see an opportunity to have a fun meal with the family. I think ~the pros outweigh the cons in that situation. And especially on weekends, the weekends we'll do like, we'll go to a healthy restaurant, have brunch together, and we'll often make like pancakes or something like that and do it as a family and just enjoy that whole experience, put music on and just make it a whole event. But I do enjoy, you know, just giving my body a break by doing the intermittent fasting, giving it a break. I mean, I back even when I was eating healthy, I was somebody that always would snack in between meals and it was always good quality food, but it was always thinking about food and always putting food in my body. And there's just so much freedom that comes with intermittent fasting where you're just like, okay, that's not like, I know I'm planning on going till 11 or 12. And it's like, okay, I'm going to sit down and go get some work done. It's like one less thing to think about. And it's given audio break. Cause I think we're in general, we're just constantly, constantly working our bodies and digestion is just, you know, eating up so much of our energy. So I like the idea of giving my body that break and then taking that window between noon and say 6:00 PM and just enjoying healthy foods during that time. I do like to avoid snacking when possible, but again, I'm not hardcore about it. If we're making a healthy family snack or whatnot, I'm going to partake in it. And it'sI've just found over the years, moderation is good for the wellbeing

 Wade Lightheart: Any biohacks or technologies or things that you like to do. Like some people are into saunas of your ice fast. Some people use PMF devices, some people use blue light bloggers. I mean, there's an endless array of things. Anything that you incorporate in your life on any of those areas?

 Jesse Chappus: I am a big fan of, we have an infrared sauna at home I'm out of the routine to using it right now. And actually it's kind of funny since we had our child, we've built like a play area for her that kind of blocks the sauna. So it's been my excuse slash physical barrier that kind of blocks it. So I'm out of the routine of using it. But I do get into routines where that becomes a regular thing and part of my routine, I think it's hugely valuable. And then you mentioned…

 Wade Lightheart: You do in the morning or the night, which do you prefer?

 Jesse Chappus: I usually do night. I'll do tonight when everybody's kind of simmering down and it's quiet and I'll put a podcast on or watch something educational on my phone in there. And I am big on that too, when I can stack healthy habits like that, where I can take in information and, you know, in that case biohack, and I like to stack things like that. If I'm going for a walk, I like to put a podcast on and not to the point again where it's gets too intense because you can take that too far and then become, you know, you can have so many inputs and it could become stressful, but it's like for me, like if I'm doing sauna or going for a walk, I think putting something educational on is definitely something I like to do. And you mentioned blue light blocking, and I'm a big fan of blue light glasses at night. My wife and I just have them out and it's a no brainer. You just get used to it. And we just, well, if we're going to watch a Netflix show or something together at nightwe'll pop those on and just make sure we're not exposing our eyes to the blue light before we go to sleep, affecting our sleep and our melatonin production. That's just over the year it's become a no brainer for us. And we incorporate that. What about you? What are you into the glasses? The blue light blocking glasses.

 Wade Lightheart: I got my… Here's my other ones I got on me. These are the ones that kind of like the day ones. And…

 Jesse Chappus: I don't wear the day ones. But I'm adamant about wearing the nighttime ones.

 Wade Lightheart: Yeah, it's, I'm very blessed on the sleep program. Like I, for whatever reason, I don't have too much trouble sleeping and I don't require a lot of sleep. Like a lot of people you know, six, seven hours is great for me. If I sleep more than that, I get groggy. And I typically will do infrared at night as well as opposed to earlier in the day, some people like to start the day with it. So I think it's, you have to kind of find out what your jam is or your groove any other devices that you like to use or to tech.

 Jesse Chappus: Trying to think devices I'm into red light therapy. I have a juke device. That's something I'm not into the routine of using right now and totally transparent about that. But I have gone through periods where I've been very serious about using that. And I think it's a great device.

 Wade Lightheart: It feels great. It feels great. Red lights. There's a definite sense when you're under red light. That's okay. Something good is happening to me here.

 Jesse Chappus: And for me, that's more of a morning thing. I like to have either a morning coffee or tea, go down in front of the device. Again, put on a podcast and just enjoy that time. So it's, but again, this ties back until we talked about before, how do you make that a regular party? I mean, you can't just keep adding in, adding in it's like you have to find what's most valuable to you and make that a regular part of your healthy routine. And I think I'm going through somewhat of a unique thing. I mean, there's lots of dads out there with young kids, but I am going through a different period in my life right now, versus a couple of years ago before I had a young child where, you know, getting in front of the red light device and making that more of a routine was an easier more regular occurrence. So we're talking about these things that have kind of like ebbed and flowed and the sauna and the juve right now have are kind of on a hiatus. But again, that's partially because again, just time in general and with the young child, it's prioritizing and I always prioritize the family so…

 Wade Lightheart: Any tests or other gear that you use to kind of modulator, monitor health parameters or things that you think people should be paying attention to?

 Jesse Chappus: I'm a big fan of the aura ring. I've used that now for over a year. I love tracking my sleep. I love the fact that you can put it in airplane mode and it's not emitting, you know, EMS when you're wearing it throughout the day. Or do you have one? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I know a big fan of that, and I love how you can test different things, especially when it comes to sleep. So you can, you know, you can take a product like your magnesium and, you know, take that for a few nights and see the effect on your sleep. And then maybe like we talked about the sauna, like try the sauna in the morning, see how you sleep for a few days, try the sauna at night, see how you sleep. And I liked the idea of having objective data, because a lot of stuff, when you really get involved in the health and wellness space, you know, things start accumulating and you keep adding in adding in, whether it be supplements or different. Again, bio-hacks and stuff. And it's like, it gets a little bit muddy on what is doing what. So I like the fact that the aura ring is gives you that objective data and you could play with different things and then see what again is working for your unique biology.

 Wade Lightheart: A hundred percent. I think that's anytime that you have a feedback loop inside of an experiment and data collection provides insight that you can track and make definitive decisions when your brain can't remember, you know, most people can't remember what happened two days ago, or let alone two weeks ago and start to track trends. And then of course there's genetic variance for people. And so for example, you can run a wife and a husband that are running different parameters or taking the same supplements or doing the same philosophy. And they have completely different results for both those individuals. And I think one of the challenges that people naturally gravitate towards, they get kind of like, well, that worked for this famous person. It should work for me or so-and-so said this, but that didn't work for me. So then they throw the baby out with the bath water, because they're not accounting for genetic individuality or epigenetic expression because of maybe contaminants or non contaminants or something, you know, all these kinds of mutations that happen. Do you guys do any testing, hormones, anything like that, that you monitor?

 Jesse Chappus: It's been awhile, but we've done a lot of testing with functional medicine doc back in the day, a few years back, but we work with a functional medicine team and we are due to do the whole gamut of tests. Again, it's not something we've kept up with over the years, but I want to become, we have our baseline and I want to get more regular with that because I do see good value in that looking for parasites and checking hormones, like you said, and there's, again like the aura ring it's objective data for all this, you know, healthy living that we're doing. And it's important to see and there could be something in a blind spot, like a parasite, or who knows, you know, there's living healthy, but there could be a blind spot that you're not noticing.

 Wade Lightheart: Yeah. I just finished a whole series of parameters to test like I did. I just did the whole gamut with all this craziness going on in the world with the mitigations involve around the planet. I was like, you know, it's, I need to do the whole gambit. And so I just ran all the gambit, still waiting for a couple of tests to come back. But I find it's very reassuring as well is you're able to catch things beforehand, or you're able to see potential risk factors that you can adjust one's lifestyle towards to mitigate whatever your genetic mutations, genetics doesn't dictate the whole thing it does. It gets expressed. And you can manage that through lifestyle. Any other lifestyle pieces that you think helps people get to the ultimate health podcast, your philosophy that you think is really mission critical for people.

 Jesse Chappus: Come back to the basics again, hydration, are you drinking enough water? Are you starting your day with a nice glass of filtered water? Do you have filtration on your water? I'm a big fan of the Berkey water filtration system. And we've been using that for years and feel really good about it. We also have the Berkey shower filter. So the water that we're showering in is filtered. I think that's a big one that a lot of people can miss. And it's just so easy, once you know about it and you order the filters and see how easy they are to install. It's like, you just put it in your calendar when you need to replace it. And it's, I think obviously through both their drinking water and the water you're bathing in having proper hydration is foundational.

 Wade Lightheart: So good. You know, so, any last words and where people can find you here for our audience about the ultimate health podcast, where they can reach you, how they can find out or anything that you'd like to share with our audience?

 Jesse Chappus: No, other than, I mean, if you're watching this, I'm like I mentioned before, putting out interviews now on YouTube, so go and check those out. If you're listening to this, there's over 400 episodes of the ultimate health podcast. You can go back and listen to. And pretty soon your episode is set to go live weighed on our show. And I'm excited to share our conversation with everybody and just go and check out the information that's we've been putting out for a lot of years. We're really passionate about it as I'm sure you can tell and just, you know, reach out if you have any questions or if you want to connect and I'll keep doing what I do.

 Wade Lightheart: Awesome. Well, there you have it folks. Jesse Chappus and the ultimate health podcast sharing, you know what, it's not as complicated as you think you got to get the basics, but you got to do the basics regularly, make the pivots in life that you need to make to live your best life. And I want to thank you for joining us this edition of the awesome health podcast. I'm Wade T Lightheart from BiOptimizers. I wishing you as super healthy, awesome day. And of course take good care of your health. It's your best investment.