300: A Snapshot Of Our Life

Jesse: Something we’ve been saying quite a bit lately. A saying around our house, close the loops and this is just something I totally want to embrace from here on out. You can tell we’re both in this together. It’s like looking at life and seeing what maybe you’re avoiding, seeing what’s open and just finalizing things and moving on. Hello and welcome to The Ultimate Health Podcast episode 300. 300 what a milestone, Jesse Chappus here with Marni Wasserman and we are here to take your health to the next level.

Marni: Each week, we’ll bring you inspiring and informative conversations about health and wellness, covering topics of nutrition, lifestyle, fitness, mindset and so much more. And today you guys get yours truly as both the hosts and the guests and I know it’s been a while since this has happened but we figured it was due time especially to celebrate our 300th episode and we figured since it’s been awhile since we’ve checked in, we do an episode that’s really diverse covering a lot of the things that we’re up to and of course we’re going to have so many awesome takeaways for you. So here is some of what we get into our one year wedding anniversary plans, how we support local farmers, a current snapshot of our diet, how we make our relationship a priority, why taking time to slow down is super important. Our nighttime routine now and how we prepare for quality sleep, what it means to close the loop and what ultimate health means to us. So much great information. So excited for you guys to hear this. Here we go. 300 episodes. I can’t believe it. It seems like just yesterday we hit our first 100.

Jesse: Yeah, what a milestone. So exciting. And we thank you, the listener for joining us along this journey. We’ve just had so much fun and we thank you.

Marni: Yeah and I feel like we haven’t caught up with you guys in awhile. It’s been awhile since Jesse and I have done one of our own shows. I know we’ve been slacking on the Focus Fridays, which we do plan on getting back on track with those and we thought we would take episode 300 to just check in, give you a snapshot of what life is like right now, what we’re going through, the things that we’re up to, some of our goals, so we just want to have this little sharing session with you.

Jesse: And it’s such a great time of year. This is actually my favorite time of year. We’re in late spring, heading into summer, the weather is breaking and we’re able to get outside and get out in the sun.

Marni: And this year we don’t have a wedding to plan, which opens up our calendar quite a bit. We have a lot more free time. Not that our wedding was so complicated. If you checked out our Focus Friday on The Ultimate Wedding, you’ll hear all about how simple we made it, but still it takes up a lot of time. There’s a lot involved. You’ve got to do a lot of thinking, a lot of planning, a lot of discussing with other people. A lot of appointments and this summer we don’t have any of that.

Jesse: Yeah, lots of free time. Totally different. And I can’t believe it’s already been a year since we got married. We’re coming up on our anniversary, which is July 15th and we’re actually gonna do a little celebration at Iron Kettle Bed & Breakfast. The chef at the Iron Kettle was actually the one that catered our wedding. So we’re going there, we’re going to spend a couple nights and it’s about 45 minutes away from our house. So it’s a nice little disconnect and we’re looking forward to it.

Marni: The best part is he makes the most incredible pizzas and we had a pizza lunch for our wedding and he made a grain free pizza crust, which we have requested for our dinner on our anniversary. So really looking forward to that.

Jesse: And I think it’s just important, whether it’s an anniversary or whatever it is to have specific dates in the calendar where you can look forward to it with your partner or just for yourself. And I think it’s just so important for all of us to have something in the calendar to look forward to and this is just a little treat that Marni and I have had booked for a number of months now.

Marni: Yeah, and we actually got a guest of it get from your parents for our wedding, so we’re using that to go there, which is nice because it did force us to book something and you are right, Jess having things in the calendar, which was something really big for us right now is whether it’s something small like what we’re doing next weekend or something that’s a few months out. I really do think it’s important and we also try and make that a priority with our friends too by having them over for dinner or booking potlucks or going over to their house. That’s all part of it. I think just always making sure you’ve got things to keep you busy and entertained and a way to share and collaborate with other people, whether it’s for you and your partner or with other people in your life.

Jesse: And we actually have a vacation coming up with your parents, which has been in the calendar and planned for quite some time now and we’re going to be going on a cruise and I think right around the time this episode releases, we’re going to be on that cruise. And for me, this is actually the first cruise I’ve ever been on. I know Marni growing up, you’ve been on a number of them, but ah, this will be a new experience for me and I’m really looking forward to it.

Marni: Yeah, it’s actually been, I’d say over 10 years since I’ve been on a cruise or more and I’ve gone on probably at least five if not more. My parents love cruising and this is what they wanted to do and it’s their anniversary and we’re just happy to be part of it. It’s going to be fun. The nice thing about a cruise is you don’t have to think about anything. You know, there’s no cars, there’s no planning, there’s no, I have to do this, I have to do that. And figuring out how to get there with all the logistics, you’re just in one place. But of course the challenge that, you know, I’m thinking about because food is so important to us is are we going to be able to eat what we like to eat. And I think we will. A really important point I want to bring up and something that Jesse and I have talked about quite a bit is just letting go and enjoying things as they are, which outweighs, you know, the confusion or aggravation that I might have around food specifically. It’s more important just to be with family and enjoy the actual experience itself. So I think we’re doing that with the cruise. We’re going into this with an open mind and we’re going to find things. You know, we’re, we’re, so, we’ve really come a long way. When Jesse and I first met, I think we were both very militant about how we ate and where we chose to eat or who could prepare food for us. And we become more flexible over the years wouldn’t you say Jess?

Jesse: Yeah. And I think that’s a good perspective to have for a lot of things in life. That’s something I definitely keep in mind in life in general. Finding the middle, finding that balance and not being too extreme.

Marni: And I think the cruise is a perfect lesson for us and something that we can really embrace and it’s going to be really fun and it’s going to be sunny and we’re going to be in Florida and Mexico and Grand Cayman and who can complain about going to the Caribbean.

Jesse: And like I mentioned before, we’re coming into summertime and the weather is starting to break and now we’re getting to spend more time outside, which has been incredible. So we’ve been eating a lot of our meals outside at our picnic table out in our backyard. And we’ve also been working on our laptops out in the backyard too, which has been a real treat.

Marni: And we also inherited a couple of lounge chairs from your parents because they moved and that is something I’ve wanted to have in the backyard for a long time. So you will find me there in this summer with my laptop on my lap protected, of course with a Defender Shield. And just a comfortable place to work. But it’s so nice that we can just go to our backyard, sit in the sunshine, do work. We have an umbrella to protect us from the sun, although it is very healthy to get quite a bit of sun exposure and we’re eating our meals out there, our barbecue is there. We’ve been barbecuing a lot, which is delicious, but something that we don’t want to do all the time, but we do enjoy it in the summer months.

Jesse: Yeah, and it’s fun because usually you do all the cooking around here and now with the barbecuing, that is my area of expertise so I can contribute more to the meals and not just with the dishes.

Marni: Yeah, it’s great. And you do a great job. You’ve actually really perfected some of your skills and now we have a little veggie tray, which has been really awesome for our vegetables so they don’t fall through the grill and get burnt. So that is a little key tip. If you have a barbecue, maybe get a little tray, you can put your veggies on A, they don’t get as burnt and B, they won’t fall through the grill.

Jesse: And we’ve been at our house now for a couple of years in Windsor. We moved from Toronto and over these last couple of summers we’ve really put a lot into our backyard. And part of that is into our gardens and we have two eight foot by four foot garden beds in our backyard. And the first year we got here we put the first one in second year we put the second one in and this year we got some worm castings and we’re adding that in to replenish the nutrients in the soil. And we planted our seedlings. They’re really taking off. It’s only been a few weeks now, but I think the worm castings are really replenishing that soil because we can see things are really growing fast.

Marni: Yeah, and this is new to us. We’re just learning about this. We know it’s a combination of different organic matter including peat moss and I’m not sure what else, but whatever it is, it’s like the healthy version of Miracle Grow because it’s just adding in so many nutrients and as Jesse said, things are just skyrocketing. We’re already seeing such a difference between last year and this year in the time period between when we planted and things growing. And we also added some of that to our flower garden in the front of our house where we started to really kind of put that into priority cause we kind of left the front yard alone for the last two years and this year Jesse did a lot of weeding and organizing of the flowers. We’ve even planted some flowers and now we put the worm castings in there and it’s looking really good and really fresh.

Jesse: And it’s been really fun because the last couple of summers I’ve really done all the gardening and this year you’ve sparked an interest in this as well, so we’ve been able to go out there together. We bring the dog out there too. She loves being outside and the three of us can just, you know, go out there, embrace the sunshine, get our hands in the dirt, and we’re growing our own food, which is just incredible.

Marni: Yeah, it is true. I don’t have the patience like you have for getting everything perfected. Jesse, you’ve even built the garden beds, like he put the frames together, put that altogether. I would never take the time to do that. I like the harvest, but this year I am getting my hands dirty. I did some of the planting. I’ve put some of the organic soil and the worm castings down and it does feel really good to get your hands in the dirt and things that were growing. We’re growing tomatoes, we’re growing cucumbers, zucchini, collards, kale, swiss chard, squashes, watermelon, and we’ve got some herbs. We’ve got time parsley, sage. Oregano we pulled out because it was taking over our garden last year and we’ve got basil as well. So lots of different things growing, which is amazing, which keeps our food local. It keeps our food organic, we have control over it and we’ve decided and learned over the years how to really maximize certain things that grow better. And we are no experts. We’re still learning. But the first year I think we got cauliflower and we did all kinds of lettuces and we did broccoli and we’re realizing the things that don’t yield as much or take so long to grow. And then you end up with one little broccoli stock. So I know Jesse put it this way, it’s like let’s leave that to the experts and just buy that stuff as opposed to trying to grow it ourselves.

Jesse: And it’s interesting too, after you get your hands in the dirt and you’re actually growing this stuff and seeing how much work goes into producing these vegetables, you have a whole new appreciation for the farmers. And when you go to your grocery store and pick up, say an organic had a broccoli or cauliflower, you know, a lot of people even possibly us at times have, you know, complained about the prices. But after you see what goes into growing these things yourself, you just have an appreciation and you don’t really mind spending the money.

Marni: Well what was really eye-opening for me, especially this year when Jess, we went out to one of the farms that we get some of our produce from. We’ll get into that in a second. We’ve got a different, have few different resources that are delivering and we’re getting produce from. But we went out to get our seedlings from a local farm and we saw the asparagus growing and it was so cool and so interesting to see one stock of asparagus growing, which goes to show just how intense and laborious it is to grow asparagus. And we’re so grateful that we have local farmers who are doing this for us, organic and as I said, local and there’s just so much involved and people are doing this and they’re so passionate about it. So when I’m buying a bunch of asparagus now I’m just so grateful cause I’m never going to grow up myself and I appreciate the taste and what went into it.

Jesse: And speaking of Asparagus, we have been really eating the asparagus. It’s one of my favorite, if not my favorite vegetable. And we have been taking full advantage of consuming at this spring. And you mentioned the farmer and going to the farm and seeing the asparagus that brings up the fact that we’re part of a CSA and that farmer that we went and visited the farm is actually the CSA that we’re part of. Each and every week we’re getting a basket of vegetables from that farmer and she brings them from the farm into the city. And there’s actually two different locations we can pick from on two different days to go and pick up this basket. And it’s all organic produce. And Marni is the one that goes online every week and picks out what we want that week. This is either the second or third year in a row we’ve done this and it’s just a fantastic way to connect with the farmer and get great stuff.

Marni: Yeah, you just pay a fee at the beginning of the season and then you just use up credit from your account. So if you have access to a CSA and you probably do wherever you live, you can just look online. There’s going to be some kind of community shared agriculture that you can look into where you can be part of this co-op where you are getting food from a source, whether you go to the farm and pick it up. Some of them deliver, which brings me to, we have another company. It’s so nice to be surrounded by so many amazing people. We’re very grateful. We have lots of beautiful growers and farmers around us who are doing it right. So we connected with another company here locally that does a delivery of different produce every week. So that’s been great too. So we really have stuff from different places between our garden, the CSA, another delivery company, and then when Jesse and I go out and do our own shopping, we go to the farm that we actually got married at last summer who has a little shop locally that we go to when we just need organic eggs or sweet potatoes or whatever we need on demand. We just go there pretty much, I don’t know, two to three times a week.

Jesse: I would say. We like to go and get our produce every couple days, keep things fresh, connect with the farmer and we just love shopping for good, healthy food.

Marni: And we love eating good healthy food. And I would love to share with you just some of the things that we’re eating right now. We’ve gotten a lot of questions about what we eat typically and of course that changes based on the season. So right now we’re kind of in the the spring summer season. So to give you a little bit of a snapshot of what our diet, quote unquote looks like. It’s very fresh right now because we are in this abundance of growth of lots of greens, lots of fruit, lots of veggies. So breakfast is typically either a smoothie, a very loaded smoothie with berries, avocado, sometimes banana. And we love a lot of different protein powders. Again, if you’re a regular listener of a show, you know some of our sponsors are products that we use, so we use Sunwarrior, we use Organifi, we use Perfect Keto and we’ll rotate between those, put them in a smoothie, add some almond butter, blend it up. Sometimes I’ll make it into a smoothie bowl where I’ll put some granola or bee pollen or a coconut on top of that so that can be breakfast or a chia bowl. And lately I’ve been revamping Jesse’s old fav, his banana mush. Which used to be a base of bananas and now I’ve upgraded it to coconut and chia, so more fat based than more sugar based. And then I can add banana in there just a little bit. And make that as a breakfast bowl.

Jesse: And then what we do after that is we put all kinds of superfoods on top. So you have your base. And again, Marni got this from my banana mush recipe from back in the day, which we went a period of time without having, we’re not having it now either, but we have this new version too and it’s incredible. So we’ll just add all kinds of superfoods, goji berries, anything really just added on top and each and everyday you can make it a little bit different.

Marni: Yeah, and you used to make it green cause you would add in a greens powder and now we make it blue because we’re adding in phycocyanin in which is super fun and super beautiful. It’s actually amazing that nature has this blue color in a powder. So it’s a blue green algae. It’s more of a blue algae cause I don’t even see any green in there. And it’s called phycocyanin and you can get it from different places online and we just put a little bit in there and it turns the whole thing blue. And then you put an all the different superfoods, like Jesse said, cacao, goji, bee pollen, fresh berries and it’s delicious. So that’s another breakfast. And then another option we do once in a while, and I know Jesse wants it more often than not, is a savory breakfast. Things like organic turkey sausages and eggs and avocado. And I love that too. I don’t crave it as much. I do feel really good after it, but I’m on this routine where I love my smoothie in the morning, but I don’t know you, you love the savory.

Jesse: I like smoothies and smoothie bowls as well, but I find like within an hour or two I am starving and I’m just like ravenous and ready for my next thing. And with the savory I just get so much more out of that meal and it just lasts all the way to lunch and I’m good to go.

Marni: Even though the smoothies are super fatty and super high in protein. Yeah, for some reason they don’t hold you over. They hold me over like we don’t, I don’t put a lot of fruit in them at all. They’re mostly fatty. Mostly protein, but I think you just like to eat something. I think you’d like to chew and have this like hardy meal. Jesse’s a big eater, so the more I can put on his plate, the better.

Jesse: And good thing we have all these amazing different bars in our pantry that I can go to after breakfast. I’d say it’s been a couple hours and we’ve had a smoothie bowl. I’ll have like an Epic bar…

Marni: Couple hours, I’d say a couple of minutes, right?

Jesse: Depends on the day, but a Perfect Keto bar, Epic Bar, Sunwarrior Sol Good bars. I just love having these on stock and they make such a great snack.

Marni: So yeah. Gives you an idea of some snacks. Also, things that I like to snack on. I don’t typically snack in the morning. I’m more of an afternoon snack or between lunch and dinner I’ll have, could be a bar, could be a Perfect Keto bar. It could be an apple and almond butter. It could be a handful of coconut, it could be dark chocolate. Sometimes a smoothie or an elixir depending on the time of year. So I’ll make a blended beverage. So those are kind of our snack options. And for lunch we do something similar to what that savory breakfast is or it could be some other kind of protein, a salad, a wrap. Lately we’ve been really big on, well we love the Siete wraps. We’ve loved them for a long time, but we also found these coconut wraps. I think the company’s called The Real Coconut, something like that. We’ll put it in our show notes and it’s delicious. So I’ve been heating those up and putting, like today we had eggs and spinach and tomato and cucumber and avocado inside of a wrap.

Jesse: We do a lot of wraps.

Marni: Yes, we definitely do a lot of wraps. They’re just easy. You can stuff them with anything, whether it’s a protein or like an animal protein or a plant based protein like hummus and we’ll do that too. Or just veggies and they’re super satisfying and it’s grain-free and yeah, just super hardy. And then for dinner we will cook up a protein, could be a whole chicken, could be wild salmon, it could be chicken thighs. Once in a while we’ll do a grass fed steak on the barbecue. And the barbecue seems like the only way that we enjoy steak, it’s really hard to cook meat inside for some reason. I don’t know, just the smells I get really turned off. So the barbecue, it does us good. Sometimes we’ll do burgers, we’ll do turkey burgers or grass fed beef burgers and sometimes we’ll do plant based, we’ll have chickpea pasta or I’ll make kelp noodles or I’ll do jackfruit tacos. So dinners are really vary, we have lots of sweet potatoes, lots of cooked vegetables, lots of greens of course. So that’s a snapshot of our diet. And one snack I forgot to talk about was guacamole and how much we love guacamole with the Siete tortillas.

Jesse: And one thing I want to bring up too, you mentioned chicken and one thing you’ve been really great about lately is saving those bones when we’re having chicken for dinner and making bone broth.

Marni: Yes.

Jesse: So we’re lucky enough that at the place we go for organic produce in the city, we can get bone broth there to supplement the bone broth Marni’s making. But you’ve been really great lately about taking those bones, putting them in the crockpot and making homemade bone broth. And we’ve been having bone broth on the regular, which has been amazing.

Marni: So important, so nourishing, so healing, so healthy. And I love it. I just, I feel so grounded and nourish when I make bone broth.

Jesse: And you mentioned Siete chips and another area we like to go for our groceries is Whole Foods over in Detroit. So this is another area we go and get a lot of our staples and Siete is quite hard to find in Canada. So we’re lucky enough we’re a border city. We can go across, we can get our Siete wraps and we were just there the other day. I think you got three different kinds of Siete and all the different Siete chips. So the Siete products are a staple around here.

Marni: I feel like whenever I post them on Instagram I get a whole slew of messages saying are they in Canada yet? Where did you find those? So I feel bad because we are Canadian. You are correct. But we do live 10 minutes, 15 minutes from Detroit so we are so close which means we’re there all the time and stocking up on all this awesome US uh, goodies that they have, which I know is going to come to Canada very soon. So Siete is one of those things. But we also in Detroit, other than going to whole foods, which is amazing is we go to the Detroit Farmer’s Market, which is amazing and you have to sift through it because, because it’s so big, there’s a lot of conventional, a ton of conventional, very little organic. So you have to really get to know the vendors. But one in particular vendor that we love going to is the ones that sell duck eggs because it’s so hard to get duck eggs locally. I find that is a challenge. One of the things, you know, we love to eat regularly but we can’t find here, which is crazy.

Jesse: Yeah, and it’s just a great outing on a Saturday morning going across the border. When we go across the border, we usually do a couple things like go into Whole Foods as well. And we also have a mailbox over in Detroit as well too, so we can get things shipped from all around the US to that mailbox and pick things up while we’re over there and then bring them back home, which is just awesome.

Marni: And we’re getting to know some of the restaurants over there too because it’s been really cool. We’ve been introduced to a few great restaurants. Detroit has really changed over the last number of years. When you and I first started dating, it was kind of scary to go over to Detroit. It was just very barren and things are broken down. It seemed unsafe and now it’s just boomed as a city and there are so many restaurants, beautiful restaurants, and really kind of high quality food. And we’ve explored a couple over the last year. I know we went to one for my birthday and then we went to one randomly for like a date night, but ah really impressed, it was just fun and that just kind of brings me to getting out and having some date nights and we’ll talk a little bit more about, you know, things that we’re doing for our relationship. But I think it’s just important to plan those things. Like we said, putting things in the calendar even just for you and a friend or a significant other that you can look forward to.

Jesse: Yeah, and it can be as simple as dinner and a movie. And to be honest, that’s one of my favorite things to do with Marni is just have dinner and a movie on a Friday, Saturday night we get out, we enjoy a nice meal together. We disconnect. We try and not talk about work while route, which can be a challenge, but ah, we’re getting better and better at that and we’re getting better and better about not getting distracted by our cell phones, by social media and just trying to be really present with each other when we get out.

Marni: Yeah, we are and we’re constantly working on our relationship and little things like that, like making sure technology’s not getting in the way and making sure work isn’t always the topic of conversation, which is usually something I have to tell you about stop talking about the podcast or podcasts in general. We’ve got other things talk about, but it’s a work in progress. It’s hard when your work is your life and they’re kind of are no boundaries. While there are, we try and create them, meaning that we work together all day, we go for a walk, we can have dinner together. It’s sometimes really hard to cut that off. And you’ve probably heard us talk about this before, so we’re constantly working on it, but we are getting better and better. And it is about putting little things in place, like making sure that we do tune out and put on Netflix and get into a series which we’re having a challenge with right now. We can’t find a series that we both like. So if you have any recommendations, feel free to shoot us an email. But, uh, I think we’ve checked everything out and things are either really super scary and gory or they’re really silly and just not intelligent. So we’re having a challenge there, but otherwise the whole goal is to tune in to each other and into something that we can watch together. But, uh, yeah, we’re constantly evolving our relationship

Jesse: And I think it’s really important for us because we are together a lot of the hours each and every day, but it is so different when we’re in that mentality of work and figuring things out for the podcast and we need to make sure we’re disconnecting from that and flipping into that different mindset where we’re focused on each other and the romantic part of our relationship and us as a couple. And I think it’s something that you know, we’re going to have to constantly work at and we need to make a priority.

Marni: Yeah. And I think a lot of our guests have talked about kind of that masculine energy, which is something that I feel a lot during the day being work, work, work and so focused or thinking about the house and what to do next and what we’re having for dinner. It’s like all this really like intense energy when I need to kind of pull more into my feminine and just let go of a lot of that control and just enjoy the moment. And if I’m thinking about dinner or what to do, it’s just very relaxing and not so intense and like, I think that’s a goal of mine too in terms of our relationship and even just how I handle the things that we have to do is just not make it so task oriented and more just easy and flowing. You know, it’s all fun at the end of the day. We’re so lucky to have a life that we have and to be able to to do this and we just, yeah, I think one of our biggest goals is just that like tuning out and just making sure that we really put the relationship and each other first.

Jesse: Now we’re going to take a quick break to give a shout out to our show partner Outerknown.

Marni: We are still loving our amazing clothes from Outerknown. They actually have come away with us on our cruise that we’re on right now. It’s the perfect beach wear in fact the company owner himself was a pro surfer, so he obviously had comfort in mind when he was creating this clothing. It’s totally sustainable. It’s chic, it’s comfortable, it’s timeless. They have everything for both men and women and everything is so comfortable. They have a mission to provide great clothes that don’t harm the environment. And they also work with factories that pay fair living wages and provide safe working conditions. And this is a company with a true mission to do good and we fully support that. We’re so excited to not only have them in our wardrobe, but we’re also excited to have them as a partner on the podcast. So you’ve got to go check out Outerknown, we are loving wearing them.

Jesse: And as a listener of our show, you get 25% off your Outerknown purchase. And to take advantage, all you need to do is go to outerknown.com again, that’s outerknown.com and Outerknown is spelled o u t e r k n o w n. Apply our code ULTIMATEHEALTH and get 25% off your order. These clothes are incredible, Marni, and I can’t say enough go and check out their website and put your order in today.

Marni: And now a shout out from our other show partner, Thrive Market. Thrive is committed to sourcing products from good companies and we totally respect them for that because it means that they’ve already done the homework for you. And that means you can rest assured that every brand that’s on their website is something you would want to have in your body, on your body or in your home. They make it so easy and it’s hard not to keep adding things to your cart. I swear by this, when Jesse and I are on a website, it’s just so easy to keep flipping through the pages and seeing all the things that you love. And the best part is everything is 20 to 50% off of regular retail value. And as a listener of our show, you also get an additional 25% off your order off the top. That’s going to bring your total order way down and you’re also going to get free shipping and a 30 day free trial.

Jesse: Such an incredible offer, such an incredible company, and to take advantage, all you need to do is go to ultimatehealthpodcast.com/thrivemarket. Again, that URL is ultimatehealthpodcast.com/thrivemarket. Thrive Market is for our US listeners only go and put your first order in right now. And now back to our chat. And you mentioned being task oriented and I think this is an important point to highlight. Marni and I are really go, go, go task oriented type people and something we need to work on is slowing down and being more spontaneous. So a lot of times we’re working hard on the business during the week and oftentimes on the weekend as well. And when we’re doing other things, say we’re working around the house or spending time together, we’re often trying to get through different checklists and pushing forward and getting things done. And a priority for me up and coming is to create that space for spontaneity and create that space just to slow down and be and not always trying to check things off the list.

Marni: So important. And another way to do it, which is something I know we’ve been talking about lately, it’s to have even just like a master list things that you know that need to get done in general but don’t need to get done right away. So there’s a lot of things around the house that we need to get done and I’m sure you and your life have to get done, but you have to assess does it need to get done tomorrow or this weekend? And yeah, we do tend accomplish quite a few things in one day when really we could probably space it over three months and put more time in for slowing down and playing. And you know, going to the market, which we do. So we do, we have to acknowledge that we really do. We do go for bike rides on the weekend we take Goji for walks, we see friends. So the balance is there. I just think we want to tip it a little bit more into the slowing down, not so much to do in a day realm. So other things in terms of our relationship that we are constantly working on is holding hands and cuddling in bed and doing little things for each other, which is always important. Whether it’s buying a little gift for each other. And we both do this every once in awhile where we’ll be somewhere and we see something that’s special for the other person and we get it for them. And we both, I think want to do more of that for each other cause it’s always nice. So these are little things that, uh, that are just good and healthy to keep the relationship strong. And also another thing that we both do, which is nice, is we both have our areas in the house and in our life that we take care of, which is really good I think for any relationship because Jesse just knows that I’m usually always going to make meal. He’s going to have a meal made for him. If it was left to Jesse’s devices, you’d be eating bars and guacamole and banana mush. Things that are easy and mashable and in one bowl. But I’m always going to cook a meal. I’m always gonna put a meal together. I’m always going to put a lot of thought and effort into it. There’s always going to be at least five to ten sides with our meal. No, I’m kidding. There’s usually at least three or four. So I’m always doing that. And Jesse’s really good at taking care of the outside of the house. Like things like the garden and you’re just so good at. You know, making sure the lawn is mowed and the weeds are plucked and the recycling’s taken out. So those are all really important things that are all part of maintaining our relationship and our house and our life. So it’s great to, to know your place and I think it’s really important that we talk about some of the routines that we’re into as well right now, like just giving a little snapshot of what we’re both up to because we’ve shared with you several times over the last 300 episodes, you know, where we’re out with our sleep and our health and our fitness goals and things have really changed, really evolved with our diet specifically for sure. And those who’ve been listening since episode number one, you know that we have really changed our diet, although the core of it is the same. The core still is plant based, whole foods, lots of good fats, all that good stuff, but now we do eat animal protein. So that’s a huge change we’ve made over the years and that still stays true because for me it was out of, I don’t want to say necessity, but out of a healing crisis and out of my health challenges that I had with my Hashimoto’s and out of realizing that I really needed to make some changes for my health. So when I got my diagnosis a couple of years ago and a few months even before that, I had started to really shift things over and it’s paid off. Now I’m in a place where my Hashimoto’s, which is what I was diagnosed with and if you’ve listened to some of our episodes about what that is all about its a thyroid condition and it’s an autoimmune condition where my immune system is attacking my thyroid gland. And when I first was diagnosed, my antibodies were super high. And now with all the changes I’ve made between my diet, the supplements we’re taking, lifestyle, my antibodies are so low and it’s so rewarding to see that difference. And even just to see in my blood when I’ve had different blood tests done and see my vitamin D levels or my B12, all these different markers that when I was vegetarian weren’t in a great position that now that I’m eating differently I see in a much better position and I’m still working on it, but ah, I’m so grateful that the changes we’ve made specifically with our diet and have helped me in that realm.

Jesse: I love where our diets evolved to. We have a lot of plants as you stated before, and we have good clean protein and it just feels really balanced and it’s a great place to be. And an area we’ve really evolved in over the years, especially for me is our sleep routine. And we’d been getting to bed a lot earlier lately, which has been feeling really good and I’ve had a new appreciation for getting cozy, getting into bed early and reading in bed or listening to a podcast with you and then getting to bed really early.

Marni: Sometimes so early that it’s still light outside. Actually last night was a record for us. We got into bed at 7:30 and good thing we have dark blinds because we were able to block out some of the sunlight and yeah, you just read, I think I watched a Grey’s Anatomy. And we were just in bed and I think we went to sleep by 9:30 I was feeling not so well yesterday so it worked out well, but I have to give you credit Jess. When we first started dating, this guy was going to sleep like close to midnight. If not after midnight.

Jesse: We would probably go to bed more like 11 o’clock.

Marni: No, but when we aren’t, when we weren’t living together, I’m talking about when we were like texting or calling. I think the next day you would tell me like I went to bed like at one and I was like, or I, we’d be texting on and I would say, I’m going to bed now and it’d be like 10 30 and you’re you, you’re like still ready to go and work or go listen to podcasts or youtube videos? This is before we were to get like living together.

Jesse: Well when we were living together though, you’d go to sleep and then I would turn my podcast app on and listen to shows probably for another hour after you’d go to sleep. So we’d go to bed at like 11 and I would probably fall asleep more like midnight. And now the new routine is probably, I dunno. What time would you say we get to sleep on average? Like were we to 10 or 10:30?

Marni: Yeah, I think I’d say we try and sleep, get to sleep, like actually fall asleep by 11 and I like to fall asleep before Jesse because he does sometimes snore.

Jesse: Sometimes? You can be real.

Marni: If I’m out cold before him that’s a good thing. But some nights I, I can’t fall asleep and Jesse can always pass out within 10 minutes, like hard, deep snoring, sleep. So I always have to catch that window before him so I have to be really tired. But yeah, we try and sleeping by 11 and we’re trying for earlier and earlier. But it goes to show that you can change your rhythm. Like you now crave going to sleep earlier. Sometimes you’re like telling me hun let’s go to bed now. So it’s amazing that you can shift that. So if you are someone who’s listening who might be on this, you know, nighthawk wave thinking, you can’t change that. You absolutely can. And Jesse is an example of that. And you also get up early. You had to get up early before when you worked as a Chiropractor. Like you had to get up at 6:00 AM. So that was like kind of forced to wake up by alarm. But now we don’t have an alarm and you’ll get out of bed sometimes at four or five or I’d say between six and seven is our average. But some mornings you’re just up and out of bed early.

Jesse: Yeah, I definitely have a new appreciation for getting up early and getting the day started. Coming back to sleep though, I want to break sleep into two different parts where I have such an appreciation for that time in bed before we actually fall asleep and I have an appreciation for getting a good quality sleep. So things we’ve done in our bedroom that have really amped up that time before we go to sleep. Are we put on salt lamps. Actually I have this other crystal lamp, I don’t know what kind of material…

Marni: It’s like a white light but it’s, yeah, it’s like a white crystal light.

Jesse: And you have a salt lamp on your side of the bed. So we really set the mood in there and we have an essential oil diffuser which we haven’t been using. I want to get back into using that as well before we go to sleep and I just have this new appreciation for reading. I have loved reading, but more so to prepare for the interviews and now I’m getting into reading for fun on the side as well. So I’m doing a lot of reading because most times more times than not each and every week we have a guest that has a book and I like to read that to prepare for the interview, but now I’m getting into reading other things on my own. Like I’m reading Terry Gross’s book on different interviews she’s done and I’m reading a lot about money. I really want to learn about money and investing in index funds and I’ve taken that on as kind of a side passion project and I’ve learned a ton already and I’m getting into creating savings for us for retirement, which has been really exciting and I’m just really enjoying like Ramit Sethi his book, I Will Teach You To Be Rich. He’s just got a new version of that that’s come out and I just started digging into that and Dave Ramsey, I’m almost done his second book and money’s just become this thing that’s gotten me excited. I’m sure you can tell by the way I’m talking about it.

Marni: Yeah, you are really into managing our money better and looking into finances and investing and all that. That’s definitely become a new little passion project of yours, which I appreciate because I don’t like dealing with money. I’m not a numbers person, but ah, I’m happy to see you so immersed in that.

Jesse: But you’re involved in the banking to a certain point, which is great. You know, where the accounts are at and what’s going in and out. And we do our invoicing each and every month together. So you are involved, but you don’t like getting into the nitty gritty.

Marni: No, I don’t. And you won’t probably see me sitting down to read a finance or money book. It’s funny, I have this funny with reading. I don’t know. I have to be really in the mood or totally, you know, focused on it. I guess the more of the story is, it’s hard for me to just sit down still for more than two seconds anyways. But reading, I love the idea of it. I just have a tough time getting into it and I want to, because I’ve so many books, so many beautiful books, you know, fiction, nonfiction, you know, health, all kinds of stuff. But, uh, I got to really be interested in the subject matter. So there’s a couple right now, my hands on and I’m dipping into them, but ah, I’m not glued to it and before bed right now I’m actually more into watching my Grey’s Anatomy. So that’s kind of what I’m into.

Jesse: You took a number of years away from that show and just got back into it.

Marni: I did. My little guilty pleasure, which is so funny because it’s so like immersed in the hospital, which is so not my favorite subject. But I love it and I love watching it and I like feel like I know the characters. I feel like I’m part of their team, like I know everything about them. So yeah, Grey’s Anatomy has been kind of my little guilty pleasure right now.

Jesse: And one thing I want to evolve with my reading is to maybe get into some fiction or some stuff that’s really just pure for relaxation sake. When I’m reading about money that’s still a little bit intense before bed or if I’m reading again Terry Gross’s book about interviewing, it’s all kind of focused and I think I need to find books like before bed that I can have on the nightstand that are more just for enjoyment.

Marni: It’s true, you have an obsession with consumption of like furthering things, whether it’s business or finance or growth or whatever. But yeah, you need just like some dirty pleasure or something. Not like a dirty book but like something that’s like totally on a tropical island or fantasy or something that just like doesn’t have you thinking about the real world.

Jesse: Like Grey’s Anatomy for you.

Marni: Like Grey’s anatomy for me. Yeah. So another thing I want to mention about our bedroom and our sleep and something that’s shifted over the last little bit is well we’ve always been sleeping on an organic and natural mattress. That’s been a standard of mine for many years. I had a mattress before Jesse and I came together that was organic and then over the last year we got a new mattress from Sleep On Latex, which is amazing. And we love our new mattress. And we had a double decker mattress for a while because we couldn’t decide what to do. And we had one mattress on the other, but we knew we had to get rid of one, meaning the older mattress because we wanted to sleep and stay on our new mattress. So we went from a low profile bed to a very high profile bed, which was really funny. And then recently we were able to donate and gift that mattress to your parents, which is awesome because now your parents not only have a king size bed, but they have an organic mattress. And now we’re back down to a low profile bed, which is kind of funny. You get away from that for a bit. Now we’re so low, which means Goji’s head is high enough to peak over the side of the bed, which means morning kisses and cuddles are like, so in your face. And uh, yeah, so I just love being low again. But the highlight of the story is just being on a really organic mattress, which helps the quality of our sleep.

Jesse: Yeah, it’s an amazing mattress. We’re really lucky and I think to go a little bit deeper into this story, the fact that we had two mattresses stacked on top of each other for six months is rooted in Marni having a little bit of trouble parting with things. She couldn’t really decide what mattress she liked more and what we we’re going to do. So it went on and on. Finally she parted with the mattress, which takes me to an area that I’m really proud of her lately. What she’s been doing is selling a lot of our stuff on Facebook marketplace. So she’s been going into the basement digging up things that we no longer need. And I love this because I’m into minimalism and clearing old things out and you’ve really embraced this. You’ve been taking care of sales and people coming to the house and getting rid of things and it’s been great. We’ve been making some spare cash as well, which has been nice and I can tell you’re getting into it. You’re getting, you know, that spark of minimalism and clearing things out and what better time to do that than spring. So it’s been great.

Marni: It’s been great and it is harder for me for sure. I develop attachment to certain items. I do have that. What if we need it down the road mentality. I’m not a hoarder at all, but I do have a harder time than Jesse parting with things. He is very quick to get rid of things to the point where he’s willing to buy it again if he needs it where I’m like let’s stash it away just in case for that special day. But you’re right, the mattress did stay on because I was hoping that maybe there was a reason why we needed to organic king size mattresses, which is super indulgent. But yeah, marketplace has been amazing. It’s very easy. It’s easier than Kijiji and you can just take a picture and post it and you don’t have to go through so many steps and upload a photo and transfer it over. You’d just do it all right there on the app and it’s quick. The responses are quick and people will come the next day and then you figure out what kind of the pricing scheme, you know. So, yeah, this is actually kind of talking about money. This has been my little area where I’ve been having fun with money and figuring out the pricing to sell items, but it’s addicting to sell stuff and then get cash for stuff that’s just sitting in your house collecting dust. That is a treasure for someone else.

Jesse: It’s a win-win all around. People are reusing things that are just sitting there. We’re making a little bit of cash clearing things out. And I love to see you sparked about this.

Marni: Yeah. And minimalism, which is, I know you know one of our ongoing goals and something, again, we’ve talked about many times on different shows where we’re always trying to minimize and simplify our life and our things and our belongings. So it does feel really good when you declutter and get rid of, especially stuff that you don’t need and sometimes stuff that you might be using but you just don’t need it. So yeah, we’re really going through that and having a lot of relief with letting stuff go and especially, you know, being in a house for a couple of years now. Yeah, we’re really kind of taking inventory of what we’ve been collecting or what we’ve just been keeping for the last two years that we’re not using. So it really is a good chance at this point to really assess, now that we’ve settled in, you know, we’re focused on so many other things, just getting our house in order. Now we can kind of look back at, oh do we need that CD player or do we need your old chiropractic table or do we need that know DVD player? Like whatever it is. It’s just sitting around unplugged, unused. So maybe a little tip for you to just take a second look around your house at what you’re not using and what is of value to someone else. And I wouldn’t call this a hobby of mine, but it’s something that’s definitely taken up some of my time because it does take some time to do this. And I wouldn’t say that it’s something I want to, you know, do all the time. There are other things I like to do for pleasure. Like, I like to paint and I like to, you know, spend time with Goji. And this is the time of year that it’s just so good to take up certain things and have fun with things outside. But I’m also really big, always big on recipe creation and playing in the kitchen. So that’s really what I’m immersing my energy into right now. And you know, it’s just a fun way for me to spend my time. And Jess, you’ve been playing the ukulele?

Jesse: Well, I would say I’ve been trying to. Marni, you got me ukulele for Christmas and after that I got into it quite a bit and it’s been on hiatus for a little bit. It’s been collecting dust, I gotta admit, but I did have a lot of fun with it. I want to learn it and I will. And another thing that’s been occupying, so my time is Nintendo Switch. So I went a lot of years without playing video games. I grew up playing video games and Nintendo was my first system and I loved it. And I think it was because I wanted to have enough time to invest in growing our business and, and growing my chiropractic practice before that. So I kind of pulled back and didn’t allow myself to get into video games for a number of years and just early this year and last year I got a Nintendo Switch. And I’ve just had a lot of fun with that. And I love it too when we meet up with friends, there’s a lot of great games that you can play in groups and, and have fun like little Nintendo party. So it’s been a good addition to our routine.

Marni: Yeah. And when we see friends we can all play together. Although yeah, I don’t really gravitate towards video games, although Mario Kart is, is quite fun and quite entertaining…

Jesse: And you’re quite good at it.

Marni: I am quite good at it cause I’m a good driver so it means I’m pretty good at Mario Cart. And yeah, other things that we’re doing right now in terms of both of us together in terms of kind of hobbies and things keeping us busy is we mentioned before we’re biking to the farmer’s market but biking, we love biking. So happy the weather is good now cause we can just jump on our bike. When we were in Florida in February we were on a bike all the time so we had to kind of wait out the rest of the winter back here in Canada. Now it is high time to be on our bikes all the time.

Jesse: We both love biking. It’s so great to do together. And we’re central in the city so we can get around by bike and we’re actually set we got to get our bikes tuned up and all set for the year because you know things have collected dust in the shed and we got to them all tuned up. But yeah, we’ve gotten a couple of epic bike rides in already and we’re just totally going to be on those all summer long.

Marni: Yeah, and walking is still a big part of our routine. Jesse loves going for walks and we’ll go for walks together with Goji or just take a break during the day because we do work from home and most of the time we’re home together. Sometimes, Jesse’s at a coffee shop or something, but most time we’re here and doing our thing. But we just need to cut ourselves off at a certain point. Like usually two or three in the afternoon we’re like let’s get outside, let’s go for a walk, let’s detach, let’s go smell some flowers and you know, just be outside of this, go, go, go work all day, grind hard routine. So going for walks, I like to run in the morning, so running, I still do. Maybe a couple times a week I’d go for a jog or run depending on my energy and how fast or how long I want to go. And Yoga is something we actually need to get back to.

Jesse: Yeah, we were in a good routine for a long time and we’ve kind of fallen out of that in the last little bit here. But I think we might even go do yoga class tonight and we love our yoga, we love our Ying Yoga, restorative yoga, creating that balance with our go go go throughout the day. And yeah, it’s just fun that we can go do it together and we have a studio walking distance from our house so we can, you know, leave 10-15 minutes before the class, walk down together, walk back and decompress after the class and spend quality time together. It’s awesome.

Marni: It’s perfect. And a decision that we made earlier this year as well when it comes to our fitness routine, is we had a gym membership. We have a gym very close to us, so we thought, hey, why not? It’s affordable, it’s close. We’ll go all the time. We didn’t go all the time. And even though it wasn’t that expensive, it just became kind of annoying that it was, you know, being charged every month. But we never took advantage when we went. I didn’t love the atmosphere it just wasn’t conducive to the place that I like to train in. I like to be at home and when I was back in Toronto, the gym that I used to go to was kind of more boutique style. It had dimmer lights. It always felt kind of empty. I felt like I had space to go do my own thing or go into another room. This one was just fluorescent lights and it just, I don’t know, I just never felt good there.

Jesse: I think it was mostly the lights, the music. I mean you can’t get more convenient than literally, I don’t even know, like a four minute walk from her house. So no excuses to get down there and get our workout in. But we just weren’t using it. So it feels good that we terminated that. And who knows, there’s so many other gyms in the city we might end up, you know, trying out a different one and finding a better fit for us. But right now, you know, there’s so much we can do, especially with the weather breaking.

Marni: Yeah, and just at home, like we have some equipment in the basement. I love going down with my yoga mat and I’m doing kettlebells or band or I have right now a subscription to obe ob e and it’s something I’ve been trying out for the last couple of months. And it’s fun. It’s a really fun workout. It’s a whole bunch of people in a little neon box guiding you through different workouts. So, been checking that out. But this also brings back to the point of cutting things out that you don’t. So even though this wasn’t a physical thing, this is a financial thing that was, you know, digging us every month. Something that was kind of adding to our psyche, we were thinking about it like should we have the gym membership, should we not? So it was just, it goes to show that there’s more than just the physical items in your home. There’s things, probably subscriptions and online memberships and all these things you might be paying for that you don’t need. So you can declutter that. So when we canceled our subscription, I think we, we’re just at the one year mark. I don’t even think we got a penalty cause we did it. We may have just paid one extra month or whatever we did, but it felt so good just to not be paying for that anymore.

Jesse: Well something we’ve been saying quite a bit lately is saying around our house, close the loops and this is just something I totally want to embrace from here on out. You can tell we’re both in this together. It’s like looking at life and seeing what maybe you’re avoiding, seeing what’s open and just finalizing things and moving on.

Marni: Yeah. Cause it plays a toll on your psyche. So when it’s out of the picture it just feels really great. So yeah, closing the loop has been kind of our little internal hashtag around the house lately. Whatever it is. If it’s something on our to do list or someone we need to get back to or an email we need to answer, it’s closing that loop. Because when you leave more loops open, it drains you and you’re always thinking about it. So yeah.

Jesse: Now we’re going to take another quick break from our chat to give a shout out to our show partner Organifi.

Marni: So many of the products that are available at Organfi come in travel size packets, which makes it so great to bring with you on the go. Their green juice powder, the immunity and even their Pure which is their hydration powder. So great to put in your backpack, your purse or in your carry on bag when you are traveling. And right now we are currently on a cruise in the Caribbean and I brought a handful of these packets with us so that were ensuring we’re getting some key nutrients in while we’re traveling. Since we’re not really eating our typical diet, these packets are ensuring our diet is going to get a well rounded variety of different minerals and vitamins. So go ahead and get yourself some of the travel size packets.

Jesse: And as listener of our show you get 20% off the whole Organifi lineup. To take advantage all you need to do is go to ultimatehealthpodcast.com/organifi. Again, that URL is ultimatehealthpodcast.com/organifi and Organifi ends in an i. Get yourself some of these handy Organifi travel packs and take them with you the next time you go on a trip

Marni: And now a shout out from other show partner, Perfect Keto. Perfect Keto has their nut butter, which is delicious and Jesse and I love having it on hand, but they also come into to-go packets, which again is perfect for traveling. If you want to get a little boost of extra fat, you can just squeeze one of the packets into your mouth or you can put it on something while you’re traveling that you want to just boost up with nutrients, whether it’s a piece of grain-free toast or some Chia porridge or into a smoothie or a hot beverage. And this nut butter is complete with macadamia, cashew, coconut butter, and MCT oil. It’s delicious and a great way to get more fats into your diet.

Jesse: This nut butter is incredible, Marni and I love it and we know you will too. And as a listener of our show, you get 20% off your Perfect Keto purchase. To take advantage, just go to ultimatehealthpodcast.com/perfectketo. Again, that URL is ultimatehealthpodcast.com/perfectketo. Perfect Keto products ship worldwide. They have free shipping in the US go and get your nut butter on today. And now back to our chat. And one loop I definitely want to close is my email inbox.. And it’s been out of hand at different points right now I have it pretty under control but I’m reading a book right now called Bit Literacy and I’m not finished yet, but it’s pretty awesome and it talks about getting to inbox zero and the importance of that. And I’m inspired and I definitely want to get there and it talks about each and every day making sure you get to inbox zero. So Marni, I know you are inspired to clean up your inbox, but you have some work to do.

Marni: 6000 emails still which is pretty low for me. I used to be high. Now, these are emails that have been opened so don’t be thinking that I have an unopened big, you know, red notification tab at the bottom. No, they’re all open. They’re all dealt with. I just, just like I said before, I have a challenge getting rid of things because what if I need that email string from five years ago. Anyways, mentality has changed and yes I am getting more inspired. I’m going in and I’m just like hitting delete on like things that have like 14 emails back and forth.

Jesse: And you mentioned to do lists and this is an area I find where you can have certain things on a to do list for long periods of time and you can just keep putting it off, putting it off and maybe it’s not a big thing, but for whatever reason you’re just leaving it there on the list and again going at it with this new mentality, get in there, get it done, close the loop and we’re both gonna just take this on together.

Marni: Yes. I hopefully before the end of this year, if not much, much sooner, I will be at inbox zero. You guys can now hold me accountable. So something I’m working towards.

Jesse: So here we are 300 episodes in and Marni and I just want to take some time to acknowledge how grateful we are to be able to do what we do. Reach the people you reach, help people, and just do something that we love and I hope you guys can feel that. We just thoroughly love what we get to do and we get to work together husband and wife, we get to work from home. We’re working outside now in the sun a lot of days, don’t get me wrong, it is a lot of work. It is hard work, but it’s great work and I want to acknowledge how grateful I am that we get to do this together.

Marni: We do and I am very grateful because coming from Toronto and running a physical business that had a lot of demands, a lot of financial strains took a lot of time. It’s so beautiful to see another way of working and living that is so much more conducive to a healthy lifestyle. And yeah, it’s been two years living outside of Toronto, living in a home that’s got you know more space and more flexibility with the way we want to live and we’re renting, by the way, we have not bought a house yet, which is something we plan to do down the road. But we’re renting a house, which is all part of our financial plan right now, which is keeping things simple, simple living. We have a problem right now, our landlord comes to fix it. All of that plays into it and it’s just something we don’t have to think about right now and it’s a choice we made. We wanted to rent for a couple of years and then figure out where we want to invest and put money into buying a house. So I love all that and I love how we’re living right now and how easy it is to live in an awesome home that we’re renting. We got very lucky and we treat it like a home.

Jesse: Totally.

Marni: We are the best fricking tenants, Jesse, sometimes he goes too far with the garden where I’m like, honey, this is not ours. We don’t need to put like rocks and mulch and like all kinds of things down.

Jesse: Yeah we do.

Marni: That’s not going to come with us. So to our landlord who might be listening, you know that you have the best tenants out there, we have really put everything into this place and we love it. And those of you who follow us online, you would probably think that we bought this house and we didn’t. We rent it.

Jesse: And a couple of other ways that fits into the whole minimalism simplicity thing is it is a smaller home, which is great. It’s easy for us to maintain right now it’s enough space for us, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not a huge home. And I love that.

Marni: Right.

Jesse: And the two of us are sharing one vehicle, and we’ve done this since, I’m trying to think back. I think when I moved to Toronto, so this would have been about 2015 I sold my car at that time and we started sharing a car. And again, it just fits into the whole simplicity saving money thing. And because we work together from home, it just works for us and it’s super easy. It would be a waste for us to even consider doing anything else and getting a second car.

Marni: Yeah, exactly. Just minimizing, simplifying and we have that freedom and flexibility to do that. So yeah, as Jesse was saying, we’re very grateful and keeping a gratitude journal as something that’s part of my routine right now. I’m journaling, which is really important to me to get my thoughts down on paper and it’s just a great way for me to acknowledge the things that are going on in my life. And Jesse and I have recently said that we need to acknowledge more together the wins that we get or that we accomplish in life in business because so many good things happen all the time. We have amazing guests on the podcast. We hit 10 million downloads. We have someone come up to us in public and say, oh my gosh, are you Marni and Jesse, I listen to your podcast. And we’re always grateful of that. That like literally sometimes we both get tears in our eyes, but we need to acknowledge more like how lucky we are and how grateful we are and just celebrate those wins and not take them for granted because it’s so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of what’s next. Let’s go pick up the next podcast. Who’d we got to prepare for? Or what do we got to do tomorrow? Or what appointments do we have? And not stop and acknowledge. And I don’t know what it takes if it’s, you know, that much more than just stopping and acknowledging. But it could be going out and celebrating with a meal. It could be writing about it. It could be just us spending a half an hour talking about it and going for a walk and why we’re so happy about that. So whatever it is, we do it a little bit. We want to do more of it. And I think it’s just really important to vocalize this even for you to think about your life and all the good things that happen. Because we’re all so programmed to focus on what’s a negative and what’s not happening or what’s happening that’s upsetting us, depressing us, making us anxious or what didn’t work out today. And we really, again, you hear this all the time, we really have to focus on the positive. We really have to focus on all those good things and really celebrate them and sink into them and let that guide our day and our mood and how we’re feeling.

Jesse: Well to spin off that a little bit. I think part of the thing as an entrepreneur is that we have so many ideas and we’re doing so many things at once that it’s easy just to, you know, check it off and move on to the next thing. And that’s where focus comes in. And this is something I talk about all the time and I’m always, you know, trying to hone this in even better focusing in, and this fits into the simplicity minimalism thing as well where doing really good work at less things is always something I’m trying to keep top of mind for us. You know, do a really great job with that interview. Do a really great job with our show notes and creating a worksheet now and all the different things we’re doing and celebrating those. Again like you just said, when we’re reaching these different milestones and accomplishments, but ideas just keep coming and coming and coming as an entrepreneur and it’s like it’s great to have a list, a running list or a checklist or to do list but not expect all that to happen overnight and to celebrate the things that are happening. The things that are working right now.

Marni: And I’m such an idea machine, I always have ideas. There’s so many new things and projects that I have the podcast and as you just said, we’ve implemented quite a bit of them. And the one thing that we’ve always stayed true is the quality and the integrity of the podcast with really good audio, making sure the editing is up to par thanks to Jase. And now we have Wendy on our team helping to get, you know, all the day to day things and the week together. So that’s always been such a focus. And here we are at 300 and we couldn’t do it without these people in our lives without Jess. Your intense focus and integrity for making sure that every podcast is a work of art, not only in the audio and the tech side also you know in the conversation and the points that we gather and so that’s just been really super awesome and now we’re actually in a good place. We’ve got a bunch of recordings in the bank. Good news for you guys. We always have good stuff lined up for you but we’ve got quite a few that we’ve done ahead of schedule which is good for us too because it is the summer and we do plan on taking a couple of weeks not recording and we do plan on taking a couple of weeks where we’re not doing interviews but we’re still always going to release an episode. That way we both, when you guys get your episode, Jesse and I take a little bit of a break and we’ve done all the work upfront. This is a good place to be because sometimes we have gone week to week where we have just recorded an interview and then the next week it goes out and now we’ve got a bunch in the bank which is always nice too and we’ve got really good guests and really good conversations coming up and I know Jesse and I, our plan is to do more of these shows as well too where we’re talking or getting back on track with our Focus Fridays. And really creating a lot of content for you the listener where recently we have created the worksheets like you mentioned Jess, which is a resource for every episode now that’s going to have some special extra information that goes along with the episode. Something you can take away, put into action, print off or keep it digital. And Wendy’s been a huge help with this, our assistant putting these together and Jesse, you know you finagle it until it’s perfect in the end and these are free. You just go onto our website for the particular episode and just grab the worksheet. It’s there for you. So these are new. We started them I’d say like 10 episodes ago.

Jesse: Around there. Yeah.

Marni: Yeah, and we’re going to continue it forward. I don’t know for necessarily going to go back in time, maybe down the road we’re going to start getting transcripts out. Probably by the time this episode is released there’s going to be quite a few transcripts for some of our episodes available, so those people who want a pdf or a written version of our shows, that’s going to be available to you. And then eventually we’re going to backtrack. And the thing I’m most excited about that we recently released is our weekday workbook, which is our free resource that you can grab when you sign up for our email list. And you can grab that right at ultimatehealthpodcast.com and it is a workbook that allows you to track your goals for the day, for the week, keep your show notes in place. If you’re listening to an episode and you want to capture different things. We’ve had people over the years say, I need a place to write all this down so you have a page now to do that. You can print them off, you can keep it digital. And it’s also got a page with our six pillars of health on it with different tips and resources within that. So it’s about a six page resource, totally free. Just go and grab it. And you can also get it easily at ultimatehealthpodcast.com/workbook and yeah, over the last year I’d say I’ve been playing with this idea and how to put this together and what format do I want it physical, do I want it digital? Maybe down the road we’ll do a physical copy. Well we started with a digital and I think the feedback’s been really good.

Jesse: Yeah, you did a great job with it and people are downloading it. It turned out amazing. So great work on that, Marni.

Marni: Thank you. And we’re constantly evolving the podcast and the things that we offer. So you know, this is an opportunity even for us to ask you what do you want? What are the things you want from us? Whether it’s in the form of a product down the road, something you would invest in, what would that be? What do you want to hear more from Jesse and I? What kinds of guests do you want? What’s the content you want? This is great feedback for us to keep growing, keep evolving, keeping you happy. So feel free to connect with us on our website. You know, you can just go our contact form or email us a contact@ultimatehealthpodcast.com let us know what you want. And make sure that you’re also in our Facebook group because we’re in there all the time and that’s at ultimatehealthpodcast.com/community. And that is an awesome place where we love to connect with our listeners during the week, have good conversations and people can ask questions in there that we can either answer directly or take it as feedback that we can implement down the road. But we’re at this point now episode 300 where we want to keep evolving and keep growing and keep you happy.

Jesse: And this is just the beginning. We’re having so much fun with this 300 episodes. It’s been almost five years, but it feels like a long time. But it also feels like we just got started and we just have so many great ideas. We’re excited to implement and continue to evolve the show. So let us know what you like and what we can be better at.

Marni: And as you’ve probably noticed with the different guests that we’ve had on too is Jesse and I are really using the podcast for lack of a better word, to evolve ourselves. We’re really getting guests on that are helping us grow and teaching us what we’re wanting to learn about. So we know it’s also what you want to hear too because we have so many guests requests and we are getting those guests on. But we are really into the mindset, the self-help, the development, spirituality, we’re loving some of those conversations. And we also love our functional medicine doctors and you know, there’s always good content there. So it’s nice to have a wide mix, which we’ve always had from the beginning. We’ve had so many topics under that umbrella of health and I think we’ve really covered the full spectrum. So whether you are vegan, paleo, keto, into fitness, into yoga, into whatever, there is going to be something for you. And again, if you’ve been following along, you know that we don’t have an angle. We try and really leave the conversation open to you to extract what ultimate health is to you, how you want to guide your journey. A podcast at one point in time may not sink in for you, but maybe the year later you go back to and you’re like, yes, this is exactly what I need to hear right now. And that’s what happened to me. There were so many podcasts early on that we were interviewing guests and they were talking about something with changing their health and changing their diet. And I was like, okay, sounds great, but that’s not going to be me. And then of course, you know, a couple of years later I was like, okay, this is what I need to hear right now. This is the conversation that’s going to help me evolve and help my health get to the next level. And it has, and I’m, I’m so grateful for our podcast because it’s really transformed me as a person. It’s transformed my health physically and mentally and it’s so amazing that we get this opportunity to speak to all these incredible people who have perspective in different areas that can move us along on our journey.

Jesse: And I think it’s interesting, I’ve talked about this before, I don’t know if it’s being interviewed or on our show. But about how our podcasts, if you look back over time, you can see it almost like a journal of where we were, where we’re at. And we often are interviewing people during different phases that are of that interest that we’re in at that time. So like Marni said, we’re into a lot of like mindset stuff now. Maybe we’ll get into some stuff on money up in the future here because that is a newer passion of mine. We’ll see where it goes, but you can kind of get an idea of what Marni and I are delving into in our personal interests by looking at the guests that we’re interviewing.

Marni: Yeah, and there’s so many that we’ve had over the last year that have really stood out for me that really been, you know, impactful on my journey and all my health people like Dr. Datis Kharrazian, Sarah Wilson from more of a food waste zero waste perspective.

Jesse: I really enjoyed Dr. Andrew Weil. He was a recent episode and that was an interview that we really were looking forward to and I think it turned out great.

Marni: Yeah, and of course hearing, you know, the latest research on Hashimoto’s with Isabella Wentz and grain-free eating Dr. Perlmutter, all this stuff has been so helpful. And even if it’s a lot of, it’s taught me so much new, but a lot of it’s also confirmed everything we’ve been believing or things that I’ve been doing. And then I read about it in a book or hear it on the podcast and I’m just like so inspired and so excited about the content.

Jesse: I’m sure as a listener, a lot of the stuff you hear on the show you might already have heard of before you might already know and the same happens for us. But the thing is you have to hear that information maybe a number of times you have to maybe hear it at the right time. This kind of ties into what Marni was just saying about changing your diet around. And for each one of us, there’s only so much we can implement at one time. So you might hear, you know, 20 different things in one episode that all sound great and things that you eventually want to implement, but it’s not realistic to take all those right after the show and implement them into your healthy routine. So maybe you take a couple from that, you write them down, you implement them, and then you know, years down the line you hear something again on another show and the timing is right for you at that time to implement it. So I’m sure that happens with all of us all the time. And it’s not about these big fancy new ideas. It’s about hearing things that are fundamental, oftentimes simple, but actually having the capacity at that time to take that and implement it into your healthy routine.

Marni: And I think fundamental is the key word you said there, Jess. It’s like taking the basics and making sure you’ve kind of covered the lowest hanging fruit, which is things like our six pillars of health that you can go back and listen to our episodes on and you know, different topics that are just, you know, the baseline of doing the basic things and then start evolving and getting into more complex things like EMFs. You know, this year Jesse and I really for ourselves and our health and our home wanted to learn about the impact and implications of EMFs. We had two guests on that really delved into that. And if you listen to episode 270 with Nick Pineault, you saw how long it went because we had so many questions because it was so practical on how we can make simple changes. But you might be listening now and like EMS, you know, what is that? Or I’m not ready for that. I still got to take care of my diet. So it’s all where you’re at. And luckily, I don’t mean to toot our own horn, but we probably have a podcast that covers most topics that you’re into. There are a few holes that we know we want to fill. There’s certain topics that I know we haven’t covered yet and we do. We probably are aware of a lot of them but that’s also why we’ve asked you to please let us know some of the topics you want to hear about and see if there’s like a general consensus. We can’t always get you know, specific nuanced topics that you want, but if we get a whole bunch of people saying, you know what you got to cover this, then we’re going to try and find the best person to bring on for that topic.

Jesse: And while we’re talking about implementing different things into the healthy routine, I think it’s important to point out too that a lot of times you could take say the six pillars of health for example and say you chose nutrition. There is the 80/20 rule that applies to each of these. So what we can do is make maybe one or two changes in that realm and it’s going to have a profound impact. So let’s move into like say hydration or water. You can get say a Berkey water filter and some shower filters and you’re covered for like 80% this can take place in anything. You talked about EMFs maybe shutting your router off at night and getting a pad that goes under your laptop so your laptops not sitting right on your lap and it’s blocking the EMS from going on your lap. Like you can take a couple things in each of these big realms, make those changes and have a great impact. You don’t have to get into the minutia until you know way down the line i you want to.

Marni: Right, simple things that make a big difference. Low hanging fruit guys, that’s what it takes. And there are so many things that you can start today or tomorrow and yeah, we hope that you go back and check out our last 299 episodes and if you haven’t listened to them all yet or go find the topics that suit you best or suit what you’re interested in or share it with a friend, let someone in in your life that you love or you know that might need guidance, a certain area, share that podcast with them. It’s all about growing, growing our community, getting that knowledge out there. We are passionate about what we do and this is, you know, just a resource that’s available to you so take advantage. It’s there and we’re going to keep it growing, keep it going, keep having fun. We’re just excited and as you know, something we have shifted in the last little bit well we shift things all the time. You probably notice little changes in our podcasts all the time, whether it’s how we do our intro or outro and I’d say, I think it was in December, I believe it started with Tero Isokauppila the owner of Four Sigmatic when he did his episode on it When Santa Sold Shrooms, we started asking the question at the end about what does ultimate health mean to you? And this is something that we’ve just kind of evolved into. It’s so simple. Of course, you know, this is what our whole brand and topic is all about and we decided, let’s end with this one question. We used to do the rapid fire questions and then we were asking some other questions and then we figured let’s just ask them one question, find out what ultimate health means to them and we’ve gotten some amazing responses and I’m sure you are super curious about what ultimate health means to Jesse and I. And of course again, if you had been listening to the episodes or follow us on Instagram or follow us on Facebook or you’re in our group, you see that we live and breathe everything we talk about and we live this healthy lifestyle. We’re always striving for better. We never claim to be perfect. We’re on this journey, but I would say that we do fall in probably a percentile of pretty healthy people, but we do have our own definitions of what ultimate health means to us right now. This is us answering this question right now at this point in time. Of course it can evolve, but Jesse, what does ultimate health mean to you?

Jesse: What does ultimate health mean to me? It means spending time with family and friends, good quality time, prioritizing that. It means maintaining balance but also maintaining focus and it means accepting where I’m at within this health journey right now, knowing that I’m going to continue to learn and evolve over time.

Marni: Beautiful.

Jesse: And Marni, what does ultimate health mean to you?

Marni: To me it means simplifying life. A lot of the things that we’ve done already, but just keeping things really simple and taking time for myself. I love taking time for myself in the morning, sometimes it’s five minutes, sometimes it’s an hour and a half. I love taking time for myself during the day. Going to see friends or going to get some body work or things that are going to build me up so that I can show up as a better person so that when I’m with you and with Goji or with family, I’m more filled up and that is a big part of my ultimate health plan too, is just spending so much quality time with you guys doing fun things, having all these good things in the calendar and continuing to learn and grow and evolve and not being too attached to one thing or one way of eating or one way of healing. There are so many things that fall into the umbrella of health and so many things that have helped me on my journey, including a lot of lifestyle modalities and they are all part of my ultimate health package. So that is what ultimate health means to me.

Jesse: Love that and I love the non attachment. Again, it ties into mine where it’s accepting where you’re at and knowing that we’re going to continue to evolve and change over time.

Marni: Yes, it’s constantly evolving. There’s so much to learn and grow and as beings that’s just part of being human.

Jesse: And we’re going to continue to share our health and wellness journey, our evolution with you guys through the show. And we’re just going to continue to do what we do. Love what we do and we want to thank you for being part of this community, listening to the show, supporting us and sharing the show with other people. The show has just grown and evolved so much over the years and it will continue to do so. And we thank you.

Marni: We do thank you. And now I’d like to throw the question to you is what does ultimate health mean to you? And if you can answer this on Instagram in a story and tag @ultimatehealthpodcast, let us know. Say ultimate health means to me. Share it with a graphic, share it as a text box. We would love to see those. We would love to share them back with our audience on our stories. So answer that for us. What does ultimate health mean to you? And again, a big hearty thank you and so much gratitude and yeah, to the next 300.

Jesse: To the next 300.

Marni: We hope you enjoy today’s episode. We loved recording it for you and it was really good for us to be behind the mic for an hour just us talking. So if you enjoyed today’s show, let us know over on Instagram, be sure you are following @ultimatehealthpodcast and in addition, follow @marniwasserman and @jessechappus and give us a tag in your stories. Let us know what you thought or maybe your favorite takeaway from today. And what we do at the end of the week is we collect all these tag stories and on Fridays we do a share of some of these stories. So yours might just be included. So go ahead and give us some love.

Jesse: For full show notes be sure and head over to ultimatehealthpodcast.com/300 we have links there to everything we discussed today in a show summary, so be sure and check that out. And also we’d put out a free downloadable worksheet for each and every episode over in the show notes, so be sure and get that as well while you’re over there. Before we let you go, I want to give some love to our editor and engineer Jase Sanderson over at podcasttech.com Jase, we really appreciate all you do. Thank you. And this week’s fun fact about Jase is that him and his wife are planning on going to a waterpark this next week. It’s important to play as an adult. We couldn’t agree more. We talked about this on today’s show and it reminds me of an old episode we did with Charlie Hoehn and his book, Play It Away. Have an awesome week. We’ll talk soon. Take care.

Disclaimer: This is a raw transcript and it may contain some errors. To listen to the complete audio interview, go to ultimatehealthpodcast.com/300.