Chris and Lauren Pronger | Hockey, Wellness & Marriage

You see athletes that go bankrupt and just spend money on the most ridiculous thing. After three years pro, bankrupt, divorce, three years, post-career, I think it's seventy percent. What happens when your world revolves around being a champion? Only for it to be turned upside down by a career ending injury. Trust yourself. Don't worry about what's back there. Use the lessons you learn, implement those into your life today and in the future and continue to grow. Don't take life so serious. Don't care so much about what other people think. Christopher Pronger is a name that resonates with hockey greatness, a hall of famer, a Stanley Cup champion and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. But after battling post-concussion syndrome and vision impairment, the legendary defenseman had to step away from the game he loved. There's a big renaissance right now with people say, oh coffee's bad. Depends on who you talk to. I don't know what the future holds for my body, but I do firmly believe that by looking at my system and how I can keep that all at bay and calm that from within, I'm doing a good job. His wife Lauren stood by his side through the highs and the devastating lows, helping him navigate life beyond the ring. It would be a disservice to who I am as an individual. If I was not here sharing my story and it is my mission and like everything that I'm passionate about in serving people, I'm excited about it. In this special episode, we not only hear from Chris but also Lauren as they open up about the reality of life after hockey, the physical and emotional toll and how their relationship became their strongest defense. This is a story of resilience, partnership and redefining success after the final buzzer sounds. Welcome to success story. I'm your host, Scott Clary. The success story podcast is part of the HubSpot podcast network. I'm also a big user of HubSpot products. I've supported the show for over three years now and for all entrepreneurs out there, I need you to go back to a time and place when building businesses as tough as it is can be sometimes a little bit fun. When you're marketing, it should be fun but marketing is not so fun anymore because it's very time consuming, it's very difficult and it feels like there's just a lot of friction. Content was simpler to make, leads were easier to capture and we weren't all spread so thin. As marketers, as entrepreneurs, the bottom line is that marketing used to be fun, it's not so fun anymore. But with HubSpots newly launched marketing and content hubs, I've been using it myself. It brings a little bit of fun and creativity back into marketing for your business. They're going to generate better content, they're going to generate more leads and next level results which really make marketing fun again. So with tools like content remix, you can turn existing assets into all new pieces with just one click. Lead scoring helps you shine a light on the leads that are most likely to purchase and analytic suites they built out will help you with reports, KPIs and just a gold mine of AI-powered insights. It's quick to get your results, it's easy to use, it connects all your teams and your data, so put the fun back into your marketing funnel with HubSpot. Visit HubSpot.com to get started for free. Usually I die right into it but because of the dynamic both you are on here, I think it's good to just talk about how you met and that's going to tell a lot about origin stories where you both came from. So let's start there. So how did you guys meet? Wow. What a great way to start. What a way to steal my question. You want me to start? And you'll finish? Yes, I always add some color. Alright, chill out color. So after a game, backup goalie and I used to hang out a lot and he went out with a couple buddies from the other team. I was going home. I knew her friend who liked our backup goalie and so she was calling me as I'm driving home. I'm like, I'm just about home, not going out tonight. Jamie may come later, I don't know, but you know, you're happy if you want to come over and hang out, feel free because she's like, I got a friend of me, I'm like, okay fine, just come on over, whatever. I got my suit on and everything and I'm walking over to the door and I'm like, what if she's good looking? The friend and I'm like, and sure enough, I walk over, I get to the door and I'm like, great, she's good looking. And so we just hung out that night for about six hours and chatted for a date. Yeah, it was a great first date and yeah, unannounced first date and got to talking. There was nothing, as she likes to say, there was no sparks. We're in flying, but it was a good introductory meeting or encounter however you want to put it. And we just chatted for like six hours. I was planning on going and get a workout in the morning and then going to, we had a, we were catching a flight to go to the West Coast and I didn't plan on drinking and the initial meetup, one glass of wine turned into six bottles of wine, turned into six in the morning, turned into me not getting my workout in and getting on this flight. It was a, yeah, impromptu evening with, with little Lauren here. How old were you guys? That was 25 years ago. So I was 25. Yes, gosh. I was 21. No. 22. Yeah. 22. Yes. So yeah. And then from there, what happened? How did we continue? So then we didn't exchange numbers. We didn't do any or six hours. What's wrong with you? What's the real real strategy? I got to go. Okay. I got to go to bed. And so I tracked down her number the next day. We got to LA. I tracked down her number. It's called left to message. Hey, we call me back. Back then, by the way, the rotary phone. No, it's on the line. It's on the phone, but she didn't. Yeah. And so, you know, I don't even know if you had an answering machine. So left a message with a roommate. Hey, can you ever call me? Here's my number. She called me back and I said, hey, we're coming back late Friday night. I'm having a party on Saturday. Would you like to come? And I'm like, you know, Saturday night. And she's like, well, I don't know if I can come Saturday night. I got to pick up a friend in the airport. I'm like, okay. Calls her back. Hey, by the way, we're going to have this party in the afternoon. Why don't you come on over on Saturday afternoon? You want me to? I'll add my color to that. So friend was I'm always a very transparent individual. So through that six-hour conversation that we had, I said, you know, I'm just coming off of a three-year relationship and I am excited at all these things that I'm doing. I'm applying to law schools and yes, and I was I just significant amount of your life at 22 exactly. And I really enjoyed just the conversation with them because I was fascinated by his story and, you know, being a hockey superstar that I was not a big hockey fan, but my brothers were big fans. And so I obviously knew who he was. And he probably was intrigued by the fact that I wasn't like, oh, like all the other girls. And I was kind of like talking to, I don't know, a buddy, a friend. And so at that time when I told him I was just coming out of this relationship, I said, actually, I said, he's coming back in a week. He had been this ex-boyfriend at the time, had been a way interviewing for all these different jobs and different opportunities and so forth. And I said, we're hoping to have a nice friendship when he returns. And I promised to pick him up from the airport on Saturday night. So Chris stored that in his memory bank. And he was like, I got to get in before he comes back on Saturday night. And so I'm proud of him because he did track down my number. And when the phone rang the second time, I knew what he was doing. He was like, I'm getting in before it. So I'm not going to name his name. He comes back on Saturday night. So I was like, kind of like the fact that he's so determined. And I appreciate that. And so I was like, okay, you know what? And my girlfriend in the background was hearing all this and she's the one that liked his the backup goalie. I was like, yes, we're going, you're going. And I was like, okay, we're coming over Saturday afternoon for a barbecue in January in St. Louis. This is odd. But why not? It's snowing outside, you know? And I went, we went over to his place and I'm telling you, it was like fire sparks everything after the six hours. Well, you got to remember, I had just played 30 minutes at night too. So I was exhausted. So you weren't being your best. I didn't have my game face was not prepared. Did he have it on? I mean, it was impressive. So the two of us were like, you know how you see those cartoons were that's like the the googly eyes of the like hearts and everything. We were so locked in. Nothing was discharging us. There was not a soul in the room that could take us away from the conversation we were having. I was like, buckled over laughing because he is very funny individual. And yeah, he was just kind of like history from there. And I guess the question is did I end up picking him up from the airport that night? I'm asking you guys. And 25 years later, he's still studying to the left of me. How was it? So you were still very young. You were super young when you started, when you started dating. G probably has more questions than me about this. But I mean, athletes get so much attention. So obviously, it probably wasn't easy. And I have no idea because I've never gotten that amount of attention at a young age as an athlete. But how do you navigate that? Is that an issue? Is that not an issue? Was it stressful? Like you're living my dream teenage life of being a hockey wife. And I've always, you know, loved hockey players. I've loved hockey like I'm Canadian. That was the thing. And I always thought, oh man, marrying a hockey player would be so fun. And then the older you get, the more you realize that it's actually very stressful. There's all these millions of women after you're a man. There's like, you know, attention and travel and time away. How did you deal with all of that, especially at such a young age? Yeah, that's a great question. I would say I've always been a very confident individual. And I think that probably is what attracted Chris to me because I really was not enamored by like, oh, you're a Chris pronger. I was very comfortable in my own skin of being who I am as an individual, not Chris pronger's wife. And you know, it does take a lot to get used to in terms of, you know, the women and the puck bunnies that we're going to call them. But I'm not going to ever sit here and say, you know, our journey was perfect by any means. I mean, I think there were a lot of ups and downs through his career and, you know, road trips and all those things, which I love that I'm a mentor for a lot of wives and girlfriends that are in professional, married to professional athletes. Because it's not an easy road. And I think nowadays with social media and all their up against it makes it that much more challenging. I have such a heart for that. But I think it comes down to, do you really love that individual? Do you want to fight for that relationship? Do you respect each other? Are you really up for, you know, like, respecting each other on that deep level of, I want to make this work versus I want to have a quick dopamine fix of these hits of fans. And I think ultimately, who Chris is as an individual, as a husband, as a father, as a friend? He's always been bigger than that. And that's a man I married and the man that I love, he's not perfect. I'm not perfect. I'm not a perfect wife. I'm not a perfect mother. But I would say ultimately, when it comes down to it, we knew what was so important and that we truly loved each other. And I say to this day, like, and I think the two of us feel this way is whatever life throws at us, we've been through so much. And it has been so flawed and so imperfect. But it has taught us the value of saying, bring it on. Like, go ahead, bring on whatever else you have for us because we're in for it now, whatever we have been challenged with, we have been able to overcome it. And I think there's a lot of strength in that as a marriage. Well, I was curious. I mean, even from the athlete's perspective, I would assume that when you're young, it's nice to think that you can go after any woman you want and you get all this fame and you get a lot of money early on in your career that a lot of people really aren't expecting or really know how to handle. But then if you look back and I'm super curious, Chris, if you feel this way, if you feel like it's actually a blessing to have more of a stable home as an athlete that has to be high performance all the time. No, absolutely. I think when you look at who you choose to be with and who you select to be with matters a lot, whether you're an athlete or a professional or not, I think just life in general. You have a good partner beside you that you're going to be even more successful because they're going to support you. They're going to help guide and steer you and push you in those difficult moments. And I think for me, when I look at my career arc, the highest of highs were always with her by my side and helping and steering guide me and push me and pick me up when I was at my lowest and be there for all the successes as well. And there was a lot of ups and downs and injuries and championships and the different things that we all know about and can Google. But I think when you look at the life of an athlete, those that have Google always listening. When you look at the life of an athlete and you see those that struggle the most, they're not selecting for the right reasons. And the ones that do, you see them, I think, have longer careers, more stable careers, and the best post-career lives with their families and their spouse. Well, you see, I mean, you see athletes that go bankrupt and just spend money on the most ridiculous thing. I think the status after three years, pro, bankrupt, divorced, and I forget the third one, homeless, I think it is. Oh, three years. Post-career, I think it's 70%. Really? One of the three. Oh, combination. So actually, it's funny enough. So Chris, I mean, I've known about Chris as like a hockey player, but actually Chris put out a Twitter thread because he was doing Twitter because of Sam Parr. I think that's okay because he's also, Sam's also from St. Louis, from Namaste. And you did a like a tweet thread, whatever on, on athlete finances. And how much you get tax and how much goes to your agent. And that thing went viral. And I don't think people, did you, did I send that to you? I might have sent it to you. But I don't think people realize how much money you end up going everywhere. I was sitting there saying that what was me and what was the athlete, but I was more trying to draw a light eight for those athletes that were following, but be for people to realize how many 18, 19, 20 year olds that get a million dollars or more have the financial wherewithal or understanding of eight to think responsibly what they're going to do with that money and invest it and be are already thinking about retirement when their career is just beginning. I don't know any young athlete or any young person period that thinks that way. They're always thinking, go, go, go. And I'm Superman. I'm invincible. And here we go. So that's kind of the same wherewithal that you must have had at 25 meeting this woman and being like, hey, I want to give this my all. I want to make sure she feels that she can trust me. She feels safe in this relationship. And like, I'm sure like your success as a couple had a lot to do with how safe you made her feel and how respected you made her feel. Because I mean, it's really like, I think a lot of it was on you as the, you know, the hockey player of the couple to make her feel so like safe being with you long time. Yeah, and I think that was part of our initial interaction. That six hour conversation was just trying to get to know each other and you know, I had been dealing with some other stuff in my career at that point too. And just was, was that home a lot? And you know, was, you know, trying, I had just gone through my time in St. Louis early on of, you know, being traded there for a fan favorite and getting boot every and and had worked my way through all the adversity to get to this point where now I was the captain and I was kind of the focal point of the team and my career was starting to take off and it was obviously a lot of pressure, a lot of outside distractions and things like that. And and was probably for one of the first ends of my life open to finding a true partner and somebody to to call my wife. Like, that's wisdom at 25. It is wisdom at 25 because I think that when you go home and it's actually a really interesting thought because people that don't succeed in life, I spoke to a whole bunch of really smart doctors on on trauma and the number one indicator of somebody not succeeding is if they have even trauma as a very early kid and they don't have a safe home to go to and when they go home, there's always stress and anxiety in that trauma just starts looping in your brain and then it manifests in all these different messed up fucked up things as an adult. So that safe home environment is so important as a kid as somebody coming up in their career. Anybody that wants to perform at a peak level, like I mean a lot of people listen to show our entrepreneurs and trying to build. I think most of my like my success and I mean I try and act as the same amount of trauma free for G but I think most of my success is attributed to like shit hits a fan and then I come home and then she's here and then she sort of sets my head right mentally. So it's not like I didn't have a traumatic childhood but I'm sure that if I had this super combative angry relationship or you're like everything suffers all and you don't and you think you're better than that you think you can sort of like muscle through it but I don't think many people can if they come home and it's just kind of no right for the short childhood. Well that's how you have that like internal anger right that combust and you take it out on the people that are closest to you a lot of times like a lot of people do that and I feel like that comes from that kind of trauma a lot of times. Like for me it's like whenever something doesn't work out you feel like it's the end of the world and then she's like no Scott it's not the end of the world. That's a different kind of trauma because he came from such a stable loving calm beautiful house. I didn't even come from an entrepreneur background right. He's too a lot of adversity. So he's like oh this camera died like life is over like he starts to spiral and I'm like listen that's nothing. There's like way more serious problems out there but like you know he's lucky enough to have come from such a stable beautiful family that now I have to just like kind of center him and be like you can't this is not what we're spiraling about. Yeah they're a bigger problem. So maybe even like tell a story because this is obviously like it pertains to both your lies and careers but tell a story about like some of the the harder things that you've gone through. It could be could be inside your relationship. It could be you know when you were actually still an athlete you're still playing pro hockey. I mean you had a lot of health scares too. I'm sure some that you only you know about but there's obviously something that were pretty public as well. Let's talk about some stories that you went through. Where would you like to start? There's a lot. The one that I mean yeah he had so many injuries but the one that was probably the scariest for me as his wife was his career and incongestion and we had battled so many times I can vividly remember the conversations and the arguments with and not yelling at each other but just trying to have this conversation with him with three kids in the back of the car as he was driving down the road and he couldn't really even see the road because he was seeing stars and I had to pull over and I had to drive the rest of the way home and I was always pleading with him on wearing a visor because he had a dear teammate Al Makennis who had a very traumatic eye injury ended his career correct and that was one thing that I always feared was his eyes on top of obviously concussions and so when that incident happened I had just I had all three kids in the bathtub we were in Philly and we always had this rule on school nights where we didn't or I didn't take the boys to games and so he was playing and you were playing in Winnipeg? No, in Philly. Yeah. How do you know? Gina doesn't know the story. Yes. We had a home game together so against your fan favorite Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah. So I had all three kids in the bathtub and Lyle was in a little pumpkin you know what like seat in the bathtub and so forth and Jack wanted to like skiddattle off get his PJs on to start watching the game and I always let him watch the first period and so he ran off got his PJs on started watching the game. I had George and Lyle is still in the bathtub and Jack came running back within five minutes and he just had this look upon his face tears coming down his eyes and he was like mom he was like you need to come to the TV he's like it's dad and I was like oh my gosh okay so I grabbed yeah Lyle I yeah he was the first one to see it grab a Lyle out of her little seat in the bathtub George jumped out we all went running down the hallway and all I remember was seeing like the flashbacks of Chris and he grabbed a towel and the trainers were out there and covering his face and his legs were flailing he was on the ice and I'll never forget what they were saying they were like at this time we just think about the family and what his wife is going through and I remember literally like buckling to my knees with Lyle on my hand and like ball and crying but like please tell me it's not as I like that's the one thing I didn't even think about the brain at that time so much and and we really didn't know anything because he left the ice with the towel over his head and the next day I know the trainers were calling me and saying we just don't know at this time really what the situation is other than you know it's it's probably something with the eye there was a lot of blood a lot of trauma we can't get him to calm down he's flailing escaped on the table because they have you know there's like emergency rooms in the underground what are you calling like the trainers training room and they have bright lights coming down on him I can hear I'm screaming and yelling at the trainers because he is a very physical individual there were a lot of f-bombs lying around and I'm trying to get answers it was just panic all around I had three little kids thank god dear friend neighbor came over so that I could kind of get down there and um that was probably one of the worst times in terms of injuries for me because I felt so helpless and we really didn't know what the outcome was going to be because at that time I was all focused on the eye and he had a massive hematoma and a lot of blood in there they put an eye patch on him he came home and they said let's give him 10 days in the in the bedroom let him sleep it off and then let's reassess and then I had to put drops in my eye to disperse the blood and kind of clear my eye up because there was so much where what actually got hit the my eye so the stick was a follow-through from his stick and I put my stick out to put the puck in the crowd and his stick went up my stick and I could see it coming and as the stick was getting closer I saw it moved and instead it would have shattered my eye socket instead it hit me right directly in the eye so all the full trauma from the the force from the stick just hit me right in the eyeball so my eye internally was bleeding and there was a blood issue it's wild that that didn't blind you yes yeah I get lucky yeah that's absolutely what why did you never wear a visor I tried a couple times I tried a few times in Prague like I hurt my knee the one year and I had surgery and I'm like yeah let me try to wear a visor when I was coming back and I like I just want to try to get used to it and see if I can wear it and I just I couldn't I couldn't as funny as it sounds I just I'd never got used to it because it didn't have to yeah and you know if it was okay you have to wear it yeah you figure out how you can learn I didn't have to wear it so players that I mean going going way back when if you didn't have a have to wear helmet you got grandfathered into the old rules you didn't have to wear a helmet so they would never put on a helmet and I played with the last guy to do that Craig McDowell yeah that's right yeah that's absolutely wild so you were so focused on the eyes because like as someone who doesn't know the eye injury is like something to look out for like that happens a lot yeah I mean the doctors are giving me all the you know like look out for this and watch and we were putting drops and he's sleeping a ton they had a hole you know like gamada pharmaceuticals you know sleep is all these things and so it was really you know the two of us when the kids were at school where I was watching over what was going on I had seen him go through multiple concussions I knew all the warning signs and things that he had gone through in the past and I was like this is like up to a whole new level this is a concussion on steroids and giving him you know all the drugs I was just banding like a bandage and kind of like grain and and making a lot of noise to what was really going on there he was having a hard time even walking to the bathroom with and he's a big guy he's 6 foot 6 2 and 20 pounds and so I was you know trying to help him get to the bathroom and it was just not a good situation so I essentially had to be an advocate for him and pulling the trainers aside and talking to the doctors and saying I think we need to take a bigger look here at what is really going on it's not just the eye it's also the brain there has been a lot of trauma going on there and had it not been for me really telling them that I think Chris would have been put back on the ice and you know I know he would always stand up for himself but he is very much a mind over a matter type of individual he loved the game so much and I don't blame him I mean the smell of the ice all the things and he had just signed you know a 7 year deal but you know I think you could probably take it from here up like where yeah so I got after I got heard I did 10 days in my bed and then I rode my bike at home for day 11 and I went to the rink and worked out for day 12 skated by myself practiced with the team day 14 and then I left on the road trip and played game at day 15 and played and played in Tampa then I played in Florida then we played in Carolina then we came home and played against Phoenix and then we went to Winnipeg when they first got their team back and it was crazy loud in there and every with every game I was getting worse and worse and so yeah no I could feel the symptoms were bad there were every game it was getting worse and I was telling the traveling I don't at first you know you're you're trying to play it off as you know I'm out of shape you know two weeks off not doing anything you're not going to feel like you did before and so I was playing it off a bit to that and you know you're in denial and you're trying to come back and play and you want to play and that came in Winnipeg was the wake-up call where it was just the building was so loud and it just I was getting headaches were bad I was really nauseous and then I started doing stuff that I'd just completely out of character I went to take a one-timer and I fell I went back for a loose puck and I knew the guy was right there and I still turned casually if he wanted to he could have put me through the fifth row like just stuff like that if I didn't have the rep I had I definitely would have been in the fifth row and just things like that that I never did I'm just like okay I'm going to get hurt this is not good yeah and and as his wife watching these games and one thing that and I didn't know a whole lot about hockey but watching him through the years being so good at what he did he had lost that sixth sense and it was so scary because he was vulnerable out there and in the past you know he always knew five plays ahead and he always knew who was coming head his back whether they were you know distances behind him and he he had lost that ability and it was so scary because I was like you know it's like a bruise peach and you don't want to have that continue to happen and I think at that time it was just you know I could take a quick look see know where everybody is and I wouldn't have to look again because I know yeah how fast that guy's going nowhere this guy's going nowhere my teammates are going to be pick up the puck and immediately turn and know where I'm going to go with it just by taking that quick line I didn't have that anymore I couldn't sense where anybody was you know going back you're like somebody's got it somebody's closer you just know when you kind of tense up and know you're going to get hit or whatever right yeah I didn't have any of that it was just gone and so after that game I told the trainer like something's wrong man I gonna I gotta go see a real doctor and even and get get a full work up and just get checked out to remember when the kids when you were still healing before I think it was maybe when you were had come back before you went to the doctor and the kids came cruising down the boys came cruising down the back staircase and you did not know they were coming down like my kids would scare like you know you normally you sense people around a corner or whatever you lost all of it good now my kids scared the living shit out of me and I almost slapped my kid because I was so scared I was scared like came up behind me and I you know I wasn't expecting it because I was just I couldn't hear him and and just you know everything was elevated and I was like oh yeah but that's it that's a so scary physically because you you feel like you lost something but then you have the realization that okay so what's next yeah you know what I'd done a pretty good job of we had a good glide path as to you know finances and things like that and you know what we're gonna do post-playing and things of that nature but what I thought I had two or three year window to kind of get to that and then it was just like it's gone yeah and you know I spent the first you know 16 18 months of just working on getting healthy and just trying to I wasn't so you know that was a nice thing about having five years left of my contract is I could focus on getting healthy and not worry about any of the other stuff you know that's very and you don't even know the other story when his heart stopped on the ice too do you remember the Demar Hamlin incident the Buffalo Bill's player the collapse on the field it was two years ago two years ago so there's a that that happened to me 25 years ago so we got a puck you got a puck and I was the first I was on his heart for a second so again this is 1998 so pre the internet was dial up still the internet was dial up and there it was on Fox so it was the you know the tracker yeah thing and all that stuff uh no I I blocked a shot it hit me right in the heart and in Detroit so I don't let these people see it in pain right so I might get up cover the puck get the whistle in my head I might get to the bench but I had blocked out but on the video you could see I still stood up I was trying to get to the bench and then just collapsed and the next thing you know I woke up and I've got all my stuff cut open and I'm staring up at the banners at Joe Louis Arena and I'm looking around like this like what the hell's going on and I look over at our bench and like players are crying and you know I've been laying there for about a minute you know not moving not breathing and uh it was traumatizing to see the joys of being married to a professional I thought it was just gonna say here's here's all the fun did you say I'm glad I never I would not be able to handle all of that and that was uh two incidents of 16 surgeries so yeah a big shout out to HubSpot and the HubSpot podcast network for sponsoring success story if you enjoy success story you're gonna enjoy a ton of podcasts brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network including hustle and flowchart hosted by Joey Fierre the hustle and flowchart podcast with Joey is all about how to build a business so it gives you the freedom and fuel for your life you're gonna join Joey as you discuss his systems mindset tweaks reframes and strategies for entrepreneurs and really anyone to enjoy the process of being in business and having fun this isn't for entrepreneurs looking to build a billion dollar business it's for somebody who wants to build a lifestyle somebody who is looking to build systems that work listen to hustle and flowchart wherever you get your podcasts you're so strong just like I mean you're strong to do all that but like you're strong as like watching someone you love go through that because I can't even watch him like you know have a cold I'm just like no like I would not be able to like I remember like in high school like you know you need hockey players and this and that and like they would like get injured and you're like oh no and like I would just like not be able to handle it I was just like I was a mess so I'm like I don't think this is for me were you stressed after get the stupid question you're very stressed but after the realization that career is gonna be different life's gonna be different what what's going through your head um yes and no I would say knowing who Chris is as an individual and how intelligent he is um of course first and foremost was his help let's let's get him healthy let's get him back on his feet so he feels optimal um and in terms of believing in him and stress about well jeez what is the future hold absolutely not like 100% have all the faith in him um and I actually thought our life is going to be bigger and better when he gets to launch into this next chapter in his life was it earlier than intended absolutely did that make me sad 100% like nobody wants to be ripped away from their life's passion that early because Chris had it in him probably to play for another 10 years or longer I firmly believe uh how old were you when that uh 37 turn 30 yeah so what cellos do uh yeah I told them when I signed the contract he said this is the I've got five years that's it but in in terms of intelligence I mean and what I know he has the power to do it was kind of like I can't wait for the world to see behind the the jersey and so many people don't know that you all know that a little bit and um I think Chris has always been a very guarded individual he is a very small circle and he shares who he truly is with that small circle but he's at a place in his life now where he is open to sharing more about that side of who he is who he is and what he can offer which excites me because I'm like oh my god please share with the world all your gifts and talents outside of being this incredible you know gifted hockey player um and people when they do get to know him outside of like oh my god I'm your I was your biggest fan like damn he's smart damn it is unexpected I mean it is that's very tight cast right there yeah I said I've been around the lot of them it is very unexpected he's a keeper but that's why okay so I mean Lauren you have a really amazing story too so one second one second sorry this is another reason why she's a package yes because not only was she like so supportive about all of that but she wasn't even freaking out about like his like career like you know ending and all these other things she was just like he has even more to offer yeah like that is a life yeah yeah I love that I love that in your spouse and uh I mean that's when you really know that you've got you know somebody that has your best interest at heart and knows the gifts that you offer the world because we've been around plenty of professional athletes and wives and girlfriends where it has all fallen apart as soon as their career ends and it's very sad for whatever reason and but I've always I mean that was a thing that attracted me if we were talking about when we first met and not for six hour conversation I knew this is an incredible individual whether I was going to date him or not I was like wow there's a lot more to this guy than my brothers telling me he's the best hockey player on the face of the earth I'm like great whatever like I'm having a beer with them yeah so show me more and damn did he impress me and I was like I want to know more of him and it has been an absolute joy and pleasure to be his number one cheerleader I know that's on so corny but I'm I am very particular in who I support and who I believe in and I was like I will back you to the day I die and I mean I mean it I mean I just it's easy to believe in you sorry I just had to give her some props because it's like it's just like it sounds like the hardest journey to me because of like all the watching him go through all this pain and all of that and the fans and all that and then also it's actually easier to go through it than to watch it right like playing yeah when you're immersed in your playing it's easy but if you're upstairs and you're watching your teammates and you're watching the game it's nothing worse it's way harder to do not and way more tiring yeah it's emotionally more taxing yeah no you just have a lot of grace and you know emotional intelligence and a chose thank you I appreciate it I wanted to I wanted to go through sort of where you came from in your origin story because you have a really interesting story too but that's also what ties into kind of what you do now because you had a sort of a past of travel and there's a reason for that I think it's important just to keep that up yeah no thank you um you know I've always had an empathetic heart and I just am very in tune with my own body health and wellness kind of starts with my journey as a young girl when I was six years old my father was diagnosed with colon cancer he was 35 self-made from a small town in Oklahoma and he you know really was a determined individual very forward thinking he put himself through school he was a great wrestler and he ended up going to law school at Washu in St. Louisbury met my mom and he had three little kids you know built the dream home and all the things and then he gets his diagnosis at age 35 and very young and he basically turned to the doctors and he said you know if I've got a year or two if that's the prognosis and back then they didn't have a whole lot for what he was going through in terms of you know procedures and and treatments and so forth it was a lot about chemo and just bazooka his system with chemo and so he had asked the doctors he said when my kids are out of school can I take those couple of months like two three months off and go travel the world because he had never seen the world and he was also thinking about how can I seek holistic healing methods because I'm not getting this in western medicine and in America and he was studying a lot about acupuncture meditation deep detoxes sanas and and so forth as to how do I prolong time for western medicine to catch up so this is so early like so early 80s this is so forward thinking so ahead of the curve yeah and um so the doctors said okay yes we will give you those two months off and so through my sexual thighs all I knew was how sick he was when he was on chemo and the sights the smells all the whether you want to call it post-traumatic stress I can vividly remember it and then when we traveled abroad and he was in Asia he was whole and he was healthy and he was vibrant he was laughing and enjoying life because he wasn't going through all that now obviously there's a lane for chemo and he needed that but when he came off of it through my eyes I saw travel as magic it's healing my father so if you go back to kind of like that was my first experience of travel and it gave my father the tools and I always say like building up your holistic tool belts and now to this day I have my own which we'll talk about I'm sure but he was the first one to show me that and the power of that and he took those tools brought it back when he came back into his treatment with chemo and so forth and it gave him more time to fight and endure all that he was going through and then by three years they did have a radical treatment and the funny part of about the story is the doctor who came to St. Louis was named Dr. Butcher so you're gonna have some funny funny side of the story and so Dr. Butcher said you know I'm gonna you know probably perform this very radical surgery and if you believe in it I think I can save your life and so my father was willing to do that and with that he lived until he was 70 he was always compromised with his health and so forth but he met all three of the children you know he walked me down the aisle he met my husband all these beautiful moments in our life and as a family my own family we all traveled it wasn't about the gifts under the tree it was truly about travel and experience as in creating memories together and seeing the world and the gifts that the world could provide were so much more and you know kind of getting back to my father it essentially healed my father and gave him what he needed to live his life and so then when I fast forward to when we met and Chris was top in the game and so forth and very regimented on I have to eat this way after training this way and so I said hey when you're out of the season this was read for we first met and we're kind of started to date and so forth and I think we were we were engaged with that yeah and I said I'd like to travel with you you know and see the world together and he's what I can't do that I can't leave all these people I have in place and I you know like this is my regiment situation and so forth and I said actually if you trust me I think I can teach you a lot of value with what the world can offer in helping kind of like take down your central nervous system whether you learn some holistic healing modalities or methods or things that you don't do in your everyday life that are going to compliment your game and make you that much better of a player and I said hmm okay I'll give you one summer I was like okay it's done deal and back then it was like the gyms were the size of a broom closet you know they didn't have a whole lot of wellness travel offerings um but we travel that summer and then the next year he was MVP of the league best of the whole league and he was like okay it's like I can't argue with you I guess you want so you you felt it after a game some of the stuff that you were doing on that summer yeah I and I think you have to realize it if there's playing the game and then there's preparing for the game and then there's pressure and and things of that nature that can affect how you play the game it's not always just the physical side is the mental side and now that sports like all of that stuff is all incorporated in kind of what she's talking about whether it's yoga breathwork or you know all that must have been from somebody okay this is your only career this is how you're making money you're like you're not MVP yet but like your top of your game and and then your wife is saying no forget what the trick not forget but like I have more even though these trainers have spent their whole lives trying to figure out the exact formula on how to become like this best possible hockey player trust me yeah by the way it's funny too you think back then to what they do now they incorporate all this stuff now which is crazy what was the stuff that you were doing when you first did that trick back then it was more about breathwork again calming the central nervous system and back then well Chris was very famous for being spending a lot of time in the early box maybe maybe was a little intense the mission the goal was to keep him out of the penalty box for you know as much as possible and yeah be like a meditator yeah meditation breathwork and just you know I feel like he was curious about different diets and I was very very very plain Jane with how I ate yeah a lot of yellows browns whites I'm the same there was no colors of the rainbow how did you change that because please tell me I'm in fine I'll get a picture slow and steady for sure um but uh yeah no so we traveled a lot as a family and as a couple and I would say social media then started to pick up and I had my little private account because there were so many puck bunnies and fans and so forth so Chris was always very protective about Lauren keep everything on social media very lockdown I don't know how these girls do it nowadays um but just recently launched everything or opened everything up but back then with our private network of other or mine other wives and girlfriends from different sports golf basketball baseball that I was friends that they were like wow this is really amazing what you're doing and can you curate exact same trip for our family because I'm doing the same issues my husband won't travel because of this reason this was in this reason and he's also curious about how to level up his game so I started working with you know five friends 10 friends 15 and I knew I was on to something and it was a niche untapped market and at that time you know Chris was retired he had kind of really given me this space and this opportunity to have some time to build out this business and what a beautiful complement to our marriage how things come full circle and you know because I really I had given up the idea of applying to law schools at that time knowing that was not the right path for us as a family and a marriage and so forth and I knew down the road I wanted to have a career of my own and um I didn't need to have a career but I wanted one and so it was so wonderful to have Chris really support me at that time our kids were that much older I remember clear as day I sat down at the dining room table he was in the kitchen cooking food for the kids and I just wrote my journey and it was my story of my father and here is my vulnerable raw real story and whoever wants to listen great and started the business and he was so supportive along the way obviously well inspired travels comes from the wellness component looking back at what my father taught me on wellness and travel inspiration comes from my father as well and then the travel side of things um and I'm proud as at you know pioneering the industry a female leader and and and thought leader of wellness travel before it was a thing back in 2017 really formulated by 2018 um and now it's projected to be a 1.4 trillion dollar industry by 2027 and as a female that really you know like establish that space and being the authority before it became a big thing and then our network is truly professional athletes and high net worth individuals that take their health and wellness very serious and I come at this approach with two beautiful unique lenses of the luxury wellness travel advisor and then a luxury wellness consultant with 10 year I mean 10 different certifications and so I kind of have blended both but I mean I'd love to get into the burnout side of the story but we can get to that we can talk yeah I don't know I think that I think just to even draw a parallel from like professional athlete to business person is understand this kind of travel or the the different how many what what were you calling them again the health uh oh have it oh have it's sacking yet so we should probably back up to 2011 because these are all been built over years and years and years and I and I do want to understand from like your perspective as an athlete eventually how how these help performance and that's a huge piece of it that's why that's why you're successful but we can back up we can back up to because you what we sort of left off you're talking about that summer when you convinced Chris to go and and you liked the trip or whatever you set up what was that became MVP MVP MVP what was that like what what was the first version of of well inspired travel yeah so kind of I would go back to 2011 yeah and that was truly the genesis of it all and I like to say usually the gifts happen in the hardest times and the most imperfect challenging times in life and it's scary as hell but I tell all of my clients and friends I'm like lean into that space because something beautiful is about to blossom and it's hard to believe and it's hard to trust but in 2011 he had his career in incacution he was bedridden my dad had a stroke he fell out of the bed in the middle of the night debilitating stroke my mom had breast cancer I had three little kids and I was doing all the wrong things trying to keep up with everybody that needed me and I had no clue I'd always been really in tune with health and wellness and staying optimal because of what I witnessed as a little girl with my father but at that time you're burning the candle all on because you're I was taking care of him I was taking your red dad I was taking your mom you know three little kids and I was getting up early in the morning and I was feeling myself the coffee non-stop I wasn't giving myself proper nutrition I wasn't eating the rainbow I wasn't you know all the things I was running instead of lifting weights because that was my stress relief spike in that cortisol getting that adrenaline going I would take it down by drinking a couple glasses of wine when I was trying to cook dinner and then the room meeting thoughts come at night and you're not sleeping well so I had essentially turned my whole system upside down I had flipped my circadian rhythm my cortisol was up in the middle of night and down in the day like it was just I was a hot mess and my thyroid had gone to put I had never had any of this go on in my whole life and it was at that time where I went to my internist and she looks at all my blood work and we were talking about blood work earlier and how important it is as females and I appreciate western medicine doctors and she was trying to help me but the quick fix bandaid was here's sleep aids here's anxiety here's antidepressants and I said thank you and I really think she was trying to help me but I was like it's not what I want and that's when I went back to school so to answer your question was that's when I started on the journey of knowledge is power and I went and I applied to the Institute of Integrated Nutrition in New York and I took their flagship program year one very intense you do boards and so forth then I went on another year of hormone health then I went on into the year of gut brain connection health then I went to nutritious life and then I got certified as a thermo less instructor with a doctor in Denmark and then I got certified as a therm I mean as a transcendental meditation specialist and a breathwork specialist and it was just habit stacking building it yes the yes the holistic tool belts if you will like what my father was doing because that was the way I was going to rebuild myself because I was no good for my loved ones I was as beat down and a hot mess and so with that I was able to help everybody and I never would have come to this place and who I am now had I not gone through that hardship of that burnout and you know having that education and then having the experience with travel and really merging both of those has led me to this place of this deep rooted passion of how can I help individuals and you know where that has really led me now and I feel like what we have built and I know we'll probably get into well and spare travels and kind of how that all came together as a couple because that's an interesting aspect of very interesting yeah building a business well you talked about athlete and business person and they deal with the exact same stuff from the stressor to stress stressful life and spouse at home not understanding what they're dealing with and kids time all that stuff that you know an athlete deals with and a CEO of a company deals with it's the parallels are so so much the same it's just so we have a unique understanding of putting yourself in their shoes and really understanding what they're dealing with on a day-to-day basis and what they may or may not need from the standpoint of you know getting quality family time or you know you're just you're being pulled in so many different directions that it can be hard at times to really prioritize and understand what what you need to be doing and also just one one thought because I think it's actually really smart what you did because all the things that you need to understand to navigate this high performance life it's going to affect it's going to affect basically every part of your life your body your your health your wellness mental physical and I think that people look at one solution or one answer you meant you got all these certificates and you got all you went through all these programs you understand all the different things that can impact you but people just look at one thing or they just teach one thing or they subscribe to one thought leader or one point of view or one opinion and they assume that's the only way it's going to be and then they just like zero in blinders on to this one like I'll give you a very basic example somebody wants to go keto or whatever and there's like keto is the answer and keto is going to solve all my problems and there's so many other components to health wellness clarity layers and if you this is what I hate about social media is what I hate about YouTube and thought leaders because they there's no there's people are almost like they're like they have this like it's my way or the highway no one else is right and that's that is wrong that's always wrong so I like you you learn all these different modalities and then you can see like now I understand the whole body works together because that's how you thrive I think absolutely and it's truly listening to our clients and meeting them where they're at in their journey yeah as Chris talked about mentorship that's a huge component to wellness by our travels it's a huge component to me working as a wellness consultant with individuals because it is such a noisy space and I don't have all the answers and actually I'm going to say let's peel this way back let's get back to basics let's simplify the situation and in terms of travel when individuals come to us I always say it's it's our mission to have you go out into the world travel the world find seek things that are going to teach you to be a better individual when you come back into your everyday life so often we get people that are like oh god I deal with you know like my wife my girlfriend or my you know like whatever it is it or I hate my my job and and all these complaints and they just want to run away from it and our job is to say you know what actually learn something that the world can teach you to come back into your everyday life to be more optimal more super well if you will and that has always been my mission because it goes back to my upbringing seeing what my father was seeking in his own journey it gave him his life back and the world is so beautiful there's so much opportunity out there and and really that's what we do and what we're passionate about is curating these trips for and do individuals when we listen to what they're dealing with on you know a wellness front or just a mental front emotional front how to broaden your horizons and so that that's kind of like just a lot of it yeah be able to implement one thing into their everyday life and and come back with another piece for your tool belt if you will and exactly so okay so then how did you okay so you you're retired now and then you're trying to figure out what to do next I'm retired from life not retired from life not even close not even close so um what's the what's the sort of the business so you started the business first and then Chris joined or how did this work yeah I was I was playing I was playing I was working for the Florida Panthers so when I while I was playing and you know what dream I always thought I wanted to be a GM president a team and you know do something in hockey and you know thought it would you know that was something that was very interesting to me and when I started to go down that path it was not what I thought it was going to be or had illusions of grandeur I don't know but it just for me it didn't didn't do it for me and and at the same time she was building this business and I was helping her on the business front and kind of some of the um business plan I think that nature and and started to I went to a an event whether and sports and hospitality or polar opposites one everybody's miserable and just pressure pressure pressure stress got to win got to win and hospitality it was happy and everybody's wants help everybody out and you know so being in that environment coming from this environment was a brush a breath of fresh air and something where you're like man it's pretty cool everybody's helping everybody and it just was very collegial and I was not used to that and so just you know wanting to be a help her with her business and be a part of it in that regard and then she she invited me to be a part of well inspired travels and knowing what I was getting into certainly helped you know had I not had that experience I don't know what I would have thought it was so that was interesting and we went on a little trip blackberry mountain we went to blackberry mountain to it had just opened we wanted to go check it out we were big fans of blackberry farm and I'd been there to check it out and she had a nice little contract turning written up to why don't you explain what you put in it to work out of you lawyer lord stipulation elsewhere lawyer lord I mean of course I valued his business mind and he was really helping me along the way and I said okay well if we do this because we were talking more serious about it I said I'm gonna drop a contract because number one it cannot affect our marriage and number two can affect our family and a few other ones that were not nearly as important but if those two were ever going to be an issue we had to figure out a way to bail out whether we're going to sell the business or what have you and because I took those things most serious and well inspired travels was never going to break us we don't like I said we've been through so much so I think we slept on or you said let me sleep on it as you always wrote a contract yes okay we have a funny story about that I learned a valuable lesson always sleep on it no matter what there are a few things in life I didn't sleep on and did not make the right decision but what did you say so you realized listen sounds very pretty very wise you're very wise yeah why don't you let me sleep on it and we can talk about it in the morning and so and I delivered the contract you delivered the contract next morning you know because we talked about it they said you know I want to sleep on it say great I'll work on this and I did I was on my computer friends delivered it and we walked through the dynamic of what it was gonna look like what were you what were you I didn't mean I did not have a lawyer look at it so technically what were you what were you worried about going into business together I would say we're both very strong headed individuals passionate driven I am the creative visionary dreamer he is very logical numbers execution yes so actually we are a beautiful compliment together but but heads in terms of but I want this to happen and I have this vision and he is very practical when it comes to numbers so I would say you know like that was a bit challenging but we are this great balance together and you know like if it were ever become an issue where you bring work home and it affects your family where you can't turn it off and there were a lot of years because I mean that was back in 2017 really when we started talking about this and then built it in the 2018 and where we are now I would say our toughest years were probably those first three years and I was like God do I pull that gosh darn contract out again like and look at it as a refresher and meeting all these populations and then I look at when we bumped into COVID and a travel agency that was still trying to get off the ground and people didn't take wellness as serious as they do now so that was very forward thinking in terms of the travel space and so when we hit COVID that was very challenging for us and Chris was mindful on numbers and budget and so forth and I really used that as a time of saying hey there are a lot of women females that are getting laid off in St. Louis and I wanted to use that time is actually building up power and bringing individuals on for business development and the back office the computer systems and so forth having a heart for women like seeing what my mom went through when my dad was sick and the unknown of how to bring in money and so forth and I had such a heart for that being a female entrepreneur and so we went out and we hired some of the best females in the travel space and they are so loyal to this day I mean dear friends we you know like always stay in touch and they are part of everything and woven through well inspired travels to this day and I look at that is like almost like Mario Bros at that time you know like COVID was really hard we were like squished down I'm going back to the eighties here you know when he was like the little guy and then he like ate the mushrooms or whatever he did and he grew like powerful that's how we came out of COVID and Chris trusted my vision and he was always you know like watching the numbers and so forth but we did we came up that much stronger swinging like Donkey Kong I'm going back to all the videos yeah my listen is my childhood but we we did and and hit the ground running because at that time everybody wanted to know about wellness and they were seeking answers and curious about like how can I travel how can I find things to be more optimal more super well if you will and so at that time we really dominated that space and now I mean like our business is thriving we have an incredible partnership we can take on so many different clients and we've got an awesome back office it supports us we always do all the onboarding and we love to call ourselves like the travel matchmakers because we take it very serious and we love to be involved in good friends and mentors with our clients because as Chris said you know like we've experienced most of what they're going through these are professional athletes other high net worth individuals and we share our raw authentic journey with them of like we've been there and I don't know like if you want to share a little bit because I know a lot of times you're talking to clients and yeah I think just talking to them about you know we've seen a lot of what they're dealing with and they've gone through a lot of what they're dealing with and have an understanding that unique understanding of how to navigate some of these situations and not always you know just the pressures of life in general it can get you and you know we've talked about the stats of athletes and 70% you know in three years or either broke divorced or homeless I mean it's it can be pretty daunting and you know high net worth families and CEOs and business business people are they're in the same boat too that's as funny as it sounds so well inspired travel it's not necessarily about escaping your life it's about kind of getting reinspired and refilling your toolkit with the knowledge to kind of live your best life correct yeah yeah I love it look at you yeah she's she's very good I've always I've always been so nervous about going into business 100% with this battle so you know you mentioned the the contract so when we first started dating yeah I was very business-minded and and or she runs my therapist says and her and her sisters and and one of their childhood best friends they built together and it's very successful so it's not like they aren't business-minded but I'd say that I'm business first creative second she's more and her sisters are more creative first business second and I saw so many opportunities and I wanted to help out and it's like all you know savior complex whatever I'm actually I actually wrote because I was so frustrated she wasn't listening to my advice I wrote an NDA that I signed and I'm like just legally if we break up I won't I won't talk good about your business because to me he's like I understand that it's hard for you to maybe don't trust me I'm an outsider like you and your like sisters and your friend like you're all like very like private you don't talk about work but that's so many ideas because this is like the space I'm in anyway it's what I'm passionate about and if it helps even makes you feel better to trust me with this work stuff I'm gonna sign NDA here it is I wrote it I signed it to keep it yeah I'm not going to actually want me to do it yeah you need to have that frame it needs to be someone yeah I don't know that I should frame that any of you yeah I will that's what I literally said I was like I need to frame this because it's so funny I look at it I'm like I didn't ask this he's like no I know but like I wanted you to have it and I'm like I don't care about this it's not why I'm not listening to him but it's not why I'm not telling you it's scary to go all in because you think about if this doesn't work it's tough for a couple of reasons it's tough because as a man at least your identity is a really tied up in your work like a mind was always tied up my work and something I still would struggle with if I just didn't have any of my own stuff and keep in mind I still help her with a lot of stuff from my therapist says but I still do my own thing and that to me is that to me it means a lot to me but I think that I would be stressed about if I quit my I think if I quit my podcast not running a business not doing anything and I'm just working from my therapist literally my family was like hey do you want to come on board and be like a co-CEO and like help run things because he knows operations well and sales well and all these things that we're kind of like less experienced that because we know I'm just a girl we're so busy with it we need our parts and like you know the business development and everything and we're just so full of ideas and we needed someone to kind of just like do this stuff we don't want to do yeah yeah and he's like no I don't want to work with or for your family yeah I don't I'm not gonna do this no first of all it's like he's like I don't want to put all the eggs into one basket and I feel like it is a little bit of a male ego where he's like I don't want to work for my wife so yeah so but um so now he all I get is like I don't know maybe like 30% of your time to help me out the stuff I don't want up for the time yeah I mean I insist I'm like hey I need you to help me reflect this email he's like oh I'm doing this I'm not gonna fail for doing this right now oh my god but I love it because it sounds like you guys found a beautiful balance and this dance that works yeah um because I do think as you were talking about the male ego it's a big thing so you have this superstar NHL player and kind of getting back to you know when I started well inspired travels he was essentially in the kitchen I mean truly in the kitchen with our kids and you want to talk about a man that shifted from being the best on the ice and didn't take that hit the ego and was like this is your turn more this is your opportunity to shine and like that is impressive for an individual and a man to do that and the funny part it too is our kids what did they could say about dad you were from mom mom hired you that's like yes I did but it is it's it's about finding this beautiful dance with your spouse and and your companion on how do we compliment each other how do we stay in our own lane but yet also support each other respect each other allow each other to level up lift each other up and support each other when we're down at our worst but also you know like give them the opportunity for growth when it's your turn and that's hard because it's really hard balance yes a lot of individuals and couples there's somebody gets jealous or competitive and I think Christmas all I mean it hasn't been perfect but we've done this incredible dance through our journey and life so far together of 25 years of of really loving each other in meeting each other where we're at and I'm grateful for that. Thank you thank you I am too I actually want to dance yes I would love to dance oh my god let's do it Monday night where do we dance in Miami anywhere anywhere I was about to say anywhere that's the right city for us that's the last thing we need to do my question was so you're doing this incredible dance as a couple as a thing and then you had kids I assume pretty young and how like right now it's very trendy to be like oh for the success of the marriage the couples should put each other first and then focus on the kids afterwards like you have to not overlook each other a new relationship and intimacy and love by focusing everything on the kids like that's how a lot of I guess our parents ended up the worst and how a lot of like love kind of disappears eventually and like the everyday life takes over what kind of was your philosophy in that sense like losing your family and not losing this spark because there was a spark we can all see it and I would just I love to know yeah how are you still like this like you know hot fun and like excited to play each other I would say you know you have to be mindful of that for sure in terms of stepping away and having that intimacy and that time as a couple because you can get caught up in the day-to-day life of not nurturing your relationship with your spouse and Chris and myself have always done a great job at being present parents he came from two awesome parents I did the same and I think they taught us a lot about the value of family and raising a family and I would say we always were mindful of our social interaction was going on trips together it wasn't about going and you know like during our face off at the country club or you know like him going off you know like with a bunch of dudes we just when we were ever away from our kids it was actually about the two of us nurturing our relationship traveling the world together and we have lots of friends but family has always come first and I think if you are present with your kids and making that the number one value then it allows you to space when you are together to not be stressed out because the worst thing in the world is then all hell breaks loose at home because you haven't been mindful parents and now seeing where our kids are jack 22 thriving and successful and just on the cusp of like launching into the finance world and I mean like I think you could probably share a little bit about where our kids stand with like seeing us as parents and what we'll provide it for them I don't know yeah I think when we first got married to go back and then I'll go forward we I was 26 she was 23 and I think that's right yeah jack how old were we no we were 28 and 25 yeah that's it we were 28 25 27 20 whatever I'm three years older I know I look like I'm 40 but I'm not trust me but I think initially she was I wanted to have kids right away and she was like I don't know none of my friends who've been married yet one of those and now she doesn't look like she's got a 22 year old and a 20 year old and a 16 year old and we're just coming into the second phase of our life we're going to be empty nesters in a few years and you know it's it's yeah we're in a great place but to see us dig into our kids and you know always you know be present and and be invested in them and their success and teaching them life what what we know you see them now kind of start to you know you look at always your older kids emulate you the kids are listening all the time they know what's going on even when you don't think they are and to kind of see where they're at now and and to kind of see how they're thriving at school and listen that's up and down as we talked about earlier it's not Instagram filter perfection here it's there's ups and downs just like we do every single day but they're doing really well and and they they are very appreciative of the fact that we were invested in them and in helping them succeed but allowing them to fail and figure things out on their own but you know keep the guardrails somewhere where if they clip that too far out we would be there to you know have a little chat and tell them it was you know where where they needed to fix themselves or what they could do to write the wrong or what have you so you know we're very proud of all three of them and we'll kind of where they are in their lives and what's next for them especially our oldest this Lauren said he's senior in that SMU and looking at doing something big in the future and I would say you know like the value that we provide for our clients and who we are as individuals on the platform that we're creating in this chapter too we don't have it all figured out but we're here to share like marriage and parenting and growing in business together and I think there's a lot of value in that leveling up leveling up together like it's not easy we don't we don't have it all figured out the more you have conversations the more you learn it's as we talk about on these trips you can implement one thing that you learned in your everyday life it's the same thing with every interaction and every conversation yeah if you pick up one little tidbit you can add to your arsenal of your your tool belt you're you're gonna be that much better and even on you know that note as we were talking about like imperfections and vulnerabilities and so forth like our boys model everything their father does and they you know like Chris I think recently has leveled up his own health and wellness and I'll let him share a little bit about that but kind of on a funny side and then he can get to it is our boys are so proud of their father and there was a moment about a year ago where they were not so proud of him and he you know like how to come to Jesus with their father and and that was a hard thing but now they're like this the kids use this like terminology about correct I'm sure you probably have heard this it means like good I don't know I don't know all the new yeah it means like he's doing good he's making good choices in his life and like that is so correct he is so good like he's amazing and the way that they look at him and the approval and the admiration is a hundred times bigger than when he was MVP of the week that's so interesting what people look up to yeah and and I mean I don't know if you want to share a little bit about like kind of what happened so I would just you know I would say I had a let's go I had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol I didn't I don't know if I have a problem had a problem however you want to describe it I would I liked the taste of it I you know some people you can tell they don't where they're like but they still do it and I'm I just enjoyed it and it was just something you know something we always did what happened the year ago this situation with my kids happened a year ago but you know just in general over the years I wasn't a big drinker you know I wasn't a big drinker playing summer times it was kind of when I would party in drink and and let some steam off whatever and then you know just your retire and you're you know just golfing and you're just doing things you know it just random things right and it just COVID wasn't good you started drinking earlier you just what are you going to do and it really I know that's as sad as it sounds I think that's probably one of the things that happened in over COVID I just started drinking a lot more every single day and and since my concussion when I would drink I could feel it immediately in my head like the moment it touched my tongue boom I could just feel it in my head and you know you're just kind of sluff it off whatever it's not a big deal like everything else mind over matter and you're just like ah it's not that big a deal you're not stressed about it you're not worried about it and you know as time goes on you're drinking more more you're you're doing all these things you're not really you don't really see it like anything when you get when you're in shape or you're out of shape the delta between the two you don't realize how much out of shape you are or how in shape you are because you see yourself every single day it's like it's like it's like have it's sacking but diverse exactly yeah yeah you're starting to open up and we'll pass now so as I'm as I'm going through it I'm like you know you start drinking more and more and then you start drinking more and more each time you drink and you don't really realize you're recognized and ultimately my kids are like okay we don't like you being this hammer all the time we don't like being around you we don't like how you're acting you know you're supposed to be the adult in the room you're not a college rat guy you know etc and I'm like okay well I guess if this is worth this is sad I need to do something about it and just made the decision right I'm I'm gonna do 75 hard which is a you know big training thing and you know stop drinking and just all right well then I'll stop drinking if it's that big if you guys think it's that big a deal so what you could say said that so like that's the year ago when they said that they said that to you and so I just say all right well then I don't I don't have to and just said okay then fine I'll stop drinking and I don't think well actually I mean I do feel like I was always in good shape yeah like I well you know the first couple now hold on the first hold on the first couple years of my career I was not like a die hard workout guy I was somebody who relied on his talent and you know I had pretty good cardio just naturally what I was I didn't train properly I didn't put the effort forth and you know dive in and and try to perfect and and be the best possible player I could be once I did that then I took my game to the next level and and took off my career took off and the same as a year ago I was not in great I would pick and choose when I'd work out I'd pick and choose how I felt I'm picking choose a lot of excuses like everything a victim with mentality of my back sore my knees sore my body sore you know 16 surgeries you know all these all these other maladies whatever and you make excuses as opposed to okay man up and okay you said you're gonna do it do it yeah and I would say I think when that happened with the boys and it truly I remember clears day it was actually October was your almost exactly year ago and they sat their father down and it was truly a come to Jesus of you need to clean yourself up and he could have said screw you guys I'm fine and look at you guys you're in college you guys drink your face off but silently Chris stepped away from that and I watched him make subtle changes I have always been very mindful of my wellness and being optimal whether you want to say you know like I've put this protective body armor on because I know what I was given in terms of genes my father's colon cancer runs through me my mom breast cancer so I have all these things and so that's always been kind of like very important to me but I was never gonna push that upon Chris it had to be on his own terms because that's who he is and if I were to ever say hey I want you to start being more mindful of not drinking so much eating better stress management all these things he would have shut down it would have been really tough on our marriage I would have need to write a contract of yes yes so I was I was proud of him because he just put the wheels in motion and it was starting with 75 heart and our boys both have gone through 75 heart as well and it has been life changing for him and I would say and maybe you can speak to this because I am so diligent about the habit stacking all the things I do in my life to stay optimal and super well he's always watched that and not that he wasn't you know I mean but I would say you weren't as on top of like doing the consistent things in an everyday life and I always lived by like kind of an 80-20 well done you know it was it was really great to see that you were starting to do these things on your own and like we just kind of again did this beautiful dance together in a different level of life of let's get super well together I call him my mister super well some stuff I like some stuff I'm like no I don't like that you know I don't want to do that you had to you had to pivot from doing it as a career doing it for you and I always and but I always was kind of a shape I wasn't in great shape but you know like playing shape but you're kind of like this I'm just why do she always interrupt me when I'm trying to know I'm just saying you what you look as good as you did when you won the Stanley Cup I know but I was about to say I was it in great shape but I'm not exactly there but I'm getting closer to that you look amazing thank you sexy beast I'm almost sir she's only interrupting to hit on you yeah I mean that's it okay mister super well I'm hearing a lot of like what he says to me all the time when I'm like trying to hammer down certain wellness habits and he's like no I look good I feel good I look the gym I'm good like that's not all the risk to it but they just seem to be from the same kind of school of thought it's like you know oh we work out we did this like you know play hockey goes to the gym he's like I'm good like this is all I need I'm like I feel like there's more to it well I and there probably is it's just it's just being stubborn maybe maybe he has to wait for his kids to have a come to Jesus now that would be that would be super tough for me that would be super tough if my kids like sat it was not easy to sit there and have your kid yeah thank you well and look at you and you know you could see they were not not having what it was a tough conversation to have well and I think also really sharing the truth like the whole true story was we were struggling as a marriage too like and I was like this is not gonna take us down after everything we've been through I was fighting my own battle like as a wife but then when you have your kids so he knew I was disappointed and I was like you need to clean your stuff up like this is really not the best version of yourself and I'm disappointed in you as a husband and then when your kids you know 21 year old and a 19 year old and your daughter kind of are like hey dad Chris could have made a lot of different decisions he made the right decision and I'm I'm so proud of him because not only did he execute but man like he has taken it to a whole new level and like I said our kids look at him I mean with such admiration bigger than when he want to Stanley Cup or a gold medal or anything like that and that's that's pretty unique for an individual that is gonna be 50 years old I think it's almost 30 or almost 40 yeah almost almost 40 but you know it's actually it's I've thought about this a lot people that are high performing at sports or at business they are one bad habit away from going down this really bad road because you are because you get addicted to the result yeah and that's the only way you could ever play pro anything or ever make x amount of that you have to be like a little bit on hinge to be able to go that far on the thing so if you pivot that toward something good life-changing beautiful you pivot that toward something bad then all of a sudden it's like that is so encompassing because you're all or nothing people that are successful in anything are all or nothing more often than not well I would I would completely agree with that and to be at that level you have to and for your kids to be so proud of you now like you say even more so than when he like won the Stanley Cup and all these things it just shows what is really truly important to them what they value like they don't care that their father like it's cool yeah but they won their father to be like his utmost healthy most you know clear credit yeah so that's actually incredible and a testament to how much your kids are and I always say that's that whole concept of I do you do we do you know like you they model everything we do and all three of our kids are very focused on health and wellness they all lift heavy they're like the boys are gym bros which they hate that term Lila who started training herself when she was 15 she writes her own programs I mean they all get to the gym and they model everything we do and I mean they eat really well like now I'm hiding my brussel sprouts and roasted mixed vegetables from my boys because they eat it all so fast and I'm like I can't cut fast enough but yeah when they were kids it was all craft mac and cheese and all these things and um you know so it's it's it's really amazing to see as a family how you evolve through challenges in life and you grow together because they're saying that mom and dad are perfect I mean we do the best we can to keep peace in the household growth that happens from the adversity absolutely that's when you grow it's not the the easy to happens in the easy days it's the hard days that's when you find true bro and and I think you know we've sat down and had so many conversations with our kids on values of you know girlfriends boyfriends and you know who to look for and and and I think they're curious as to this is a crazy world and these kids and social media and what they're up against and even choices of friends um and I think you know for the two of us you know we're all about really keeping your circle tight and and being with individuals that lift you up that are not um I think that's right I think people will lift you up not not not you want to be around people to make you feel good but but you know energy giving you and they yeah they uh they uh they help you level up but they're challenging you they call you out on your shit but they you know you're doing good hey man keep you're doing great keep that up people are hard to find because everyone's so worried about them selling or or themselves yeah yeah yeah exactly yeah they don't only have been accountable he's got from rich you pissed somebody off because you're holding them accountable sorry and I feel like they all do have this beautiful light about them and you know if you allow individuals to grab on that light and kind of dim that you know you're not able to share the gifts that you want to share with individuals and I just um I think you know like it's hard to raise kids in this day and age and and just what they're all against but so I yeah yeah I just just you've gone through like so many ups and downs as uh as a couple as as business partners if you're gonna look back I guess I think it's very interesting to understand out of all the different things that have sort of happened in medical uh career business kids what would be the thing that you find the hardest to go through as a couple well the hardest thing as a couple was probably Edmonton you know he went there I didn't bring it up I last year and and last year would be a probably a close second yeah you know the tail end of it but you know the whole Edmonton shit show was a lot of a lot of different things that happen again as I as I look back and we just talked about it yeah when I don't sleep on something or I've been drinking what happens that night we were at a friends 30th birthday I got the call that we got I just got traded and we went out grabbed a couple of books on Edmonton she didn't know anything about it you know whatever then she went to bed then I sat up having a couple beers my agent called me you know as I'm thinking about it and then I get on the line with Edmonton and I'm like oh okay they want to talk to him like okay and all of a sudden we're negotiating contract right there and I'm like what and so you know it's just as you look back when you when you have clarity and you're able to look at kind of your what you've done you look back and go okay well there's one mistake what were you doing oh you were drinking oh there's another mistake you don't got to do I went out did you negotiate the contract wasn't you're drinking yeah wow no my agent negotiated it and I you're you're doing this well I was no I was drunk I was drunk I was asleep I was what I was already you know I'd already been drinking yeah yeah yeah I know so that my friends realize when you said you didn't sleep on it it was like the same night no it was the same night I didn't sleep on it I got the trade notice that like nine o'clock I didn't sign it I just agreed to it could I have gotten out of it maybe but I agreed verbally to it yeah with all parties online oh wow we're going to move to Edmonton for the year thinking in the morning I'll wake up and so as I look at it I'm like okay there was one where I was drinking the DUI I was drinking the other time I got thrown in jail with that heart when I was with Hartford at in Buffalo I was drinking you know and you just look at all the situations like okay there's that there's that you're you're just looking at all the situation you're like okay I mean clearly something stands out yeah and it takes you know it just all comes full circle and something comes it becomes clearer when you stop doing something you're like okay and you you start leveling up when you're working on things that matter whether it's 2.03 point oh whatever you want whatever you want to see a common thread between all the doubts yeah the bad shit that happens to you there's a comment thread and there's a there's a reason or there is a specific reason things happen and then on the leveling up front you're just thinking so clearly and you're able to see exactly what you want to do and the different things that you can help people with with your experiences and you're like why am I wasting my one chance on earth doing all this dumb shit when like the opportunity I have is once in a lifetime people will kill for this yeah I got it and based on the experiences that I have and what I know and what I can help people with you know can you use that as a chance to pay it forward and help people level up and take their lives to the next level whether it's professionally or personally and you know I wanted to kind of see where that could take me I think it's a bless I want to ask like your answer the same question but I think it's actually such a blessing that you're both here you're both together and regardless of all the ups and downs you figure out a way to get through it because I actually think that if you give a young kid virtually at this stage in their life seems to be unlimited money and you're like go and figure shit out and not only that you're all it's not just money it's not like it's a trust fund kid you're also famous so it's like you get both at the same time and you're like go figure out life I'm sure that most people would fuck that up because I mean I'm thinking about how I was at whatever 18 19 20 like like I didn't I got in trouble too not that bad but I got in trouble too and I didn't have unlimited money so I can only imagine that when you think you know you're invincible to the world well and you're playing a sport that's physical so you are invincible you yeah 100% you're you feel that way you feel that way of all this money you know you don't you're not taught finance which is a huge issue actually you're not sure that you're not taught how to do this which is it's it's stupid but that's another that's another podcast that's another podcast yeah we can't we can't we can't fix everybody's health wellness and then redo the education system all in one bad guy that's your answer you know what I'm actually in that kind of pivot and I'm not going to focus on a particular moment what I'm going to say is let's talk about chapter two and how okay the hardest moments which is what Chris I think just talked about I would say that was probably the hardest moment that was just about rock bottom for him for us for our family and it was devastating to me as a wife of thinking is this really everything we've fought for that we thought we're never going to let anything take us down and this is what's going to take us down I am not standing for this no please Chris like bring us back like I couldn't ask him to do it he had to do it on his own and he did it and now I look at like okay chapter two that is unbelievable like where we're at in this place you know and it had to go from that to this and I love that extreme because I think now Chris has such clarity of his mind and he is able to really support what I'm wanting to do in my life he's seeing you know like the growth and the opportunity on all fronts of being optimal from the mind body and spirit because it all plays into each other and I'm just excited to see him on the cusp of 50 looking better than he has ever looked at this stage in life I mean truly I look at photos we've got him like mirror where we feed our dogs every morning and we scoop the food out every morning and there's this picture of him and the boys and he's flexing right before he won the Stanley Cup and I'm like oh my god because I see him every morning was he showering and so forth I'm like you look as good as you do now and that is something to be said for a man who has had 16 surgeries and gone through all he has gone through and I think it took getting back your question of getting to the hardest place to be where he's at and where we are now and now like seeing this rocket ship that we're both at this place in life and you know I always say like in terms of my mantra in life my own personal mantra has always been I am the well striving to be super well why the heck not and I'm here to be a guide for others to do the same because we're all this place of I don't want to just be well I want to be super well I want to be as optimals that humanly can't and every day I get out of bed he gets out of bed you get out of bed we make choices and how you are productive in your life and implement those choices are going to feed into the next day and the next day and the next day we're not perfect I always say 80 20 but when I am 80% on I am the best version of myself and I love to be just a guide and an inspiration to others to do the same and I feed off of that from individuals too because we're just at this place in life where there's so much confusion there's so much noise out there and I was given you know these genes as I was talking to you about you know with my fathers calling cancer my mom and breast cancer and so forth and does that mean that I'm going to say every morning well geez I'm just destined to have these terrible genes that I'm going to get cancer and or I'm going to get diabetes like my dad or I'm going to have a stroke or I'm going to do everything in my power to defy those odds make good choices not eat processed food try to sleep optimally and try to fuel my body from a nutritional standpoint lower my central nervous system tap into that person with that nervous system and I feel like all of us live in this heightened state all the time of the sympathetic nervousism the fight or flight aligns chasing us we're on all the time and we were talking about as females like our systems and our hormones are so hypersensitive to this world that is in front of us now it's not changing it's where we're living it's going to get worse how do we dial it back how do we really calm everything and get back to the basics of healing our bodies and that's where I kind of I have these eight pillars and I call it super well living method one is well aging optimally nursing nutrition getting back to nature none of them cost money none of them are that hard it's pretty simple yeah but yet yet it is something that fuels in this beautiful flow and eight is a very symbolic number for me because it's a continuous infinity symbol of no broken chains balance harmony and I always say bio rhythm for females is so important because dude you guys live in this like biohacking you know bros that are like I'm gonna cold punch like really hard and I'm gonna stay in there for 10 12 minutes and all this and and as we were talking Gina about like the HPA access the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal system and this delicate balance for females is is how we stay in balance and that that rhythm because if something is off from our mind body and spirit in this beautiful rhythm and dance is trying to play and there's like a confini and and a disruption whether it's your gut as we were talking about the gut health is slightly important that's our second brain it is going to disrupt everything and I just try to share with individuals the most basic concepts in phases because I need to meet everybody where they're at in their journey I don't want to intimidate I don't want to scare them off but it's truly getting out first in the morning setting your eyes on the sun no technology getting your feet in the ground in the soil um having lemon water with greens and all these basic things that I whether you want to call a habit stack it off but I also have a beauty element like I put on a red light therapy mask and I do a lot of things throughout my day like where I can have that on biomats I mean yeah you have like red light therapy and insanas and all these things that cost money but there's a lot of ways that I teach and guide individuals that don't cost any money and it's truly just calming our systems and you know I I just love to share it it's a deep rooted place of passion for me because it goes back to my father's journey and now my own journey of feeling my own sense of burnout and building this holistic tool melt and at any point in time I truly tell it individuals I'm like yeah your doctor can prescribe you this pill you got to take a pill then you have to let it react in 2015 whatever however long it takes or you can learn simple simple breathwork patterns you can learn meditation a mantra and that is the fastest way to tap into your personal theoretical nervous system your rest and digest which you were asking about my CGM here so I look at all my wearables I've got three right now I've got more coming and it's never ending crisis like more of stacking never ends I didn't even know all these wearables and and I always say the proof is in the pudding and so I was part of the beta testing for this CGM which is through levels health app and it's integrated through a CGM which measures your glucose and they have more coming out in the future that are going to monitor all different things in the body and it gives you your own bio individual numbers in data to how my body is reacting and as we were talking about how I hacked my system with the hormones and I did the whole infertility like ovulation monitors for three months because I always want my own data that's how I find comfort I don't obsess over it but I know that I see what's spiking my system whether it's my heart rate whether it's my glucose that's telling me something I'm not going to react the same way you're going to react I may be allergic to barley I may have heightened senses with something that you don't how I react to the cold tub how I react to stress how I react to too much high intensity workouts caffeine versus matcha so all these things that I have put into place over like since 2011 essentially my burnout I have gained so much insight and I'm not sitting here saying hey Gina okay your body is going to react the exact same way my body is but what I'm going to say is here are tools your ways that you should try out things and see how your body reacts see how you feel trust the process let's go from phase one to phase two to phase three and I have these digital courses that I'm working on that I'm really excited to share because I think it allows individuals to not be intimidated and ask any question you want no no I roll I just keep going I 100% this is all this is just the icing on this is real life no so when you think about so like Chris even all the all the problems that you had now problems and whatnot what did you start to include in your life that work didn't work and by the way all of the things that we do now and some of them the data is showing when I used to do them it was wrong like cold plunging I used to do the cold plunge after I worked out well it's for inflammation it's for this for that both the new data suggests that you should do it before you know so it's ever evolving it's always changing and adapting to new studies to new things that are going on I drink greens in the morning I I drink I let's see here what do I do first I get up I drink a glass of water then I do my greens then I do the infrared sauna then I do the cold plunge then I depending upon what my lift looks like I'll either eat or I'll do my lift depending upon what what the lift is and then I'll start my day and I'll start writing or doing things and then look at emails and do that stuff but I try to be technology free the first 30 30 to 45 minutes of the morning you find it makes like a huge huge difference I do I do I would I'm also very much into habits very much into habits stacking I have been like I'm very routine oriented very much into very much into having routines and structure and discipline on and so whether it's disciplined to training and eating and doing all these things it's having those in place so that I know exactly what I'm doing and then it's why am I doing it and what is it providing me and how is it fueling me or making me better yeah so you so I mean like you're probably I don't have 35 habit stacks not but you know but you include some that I do every single day that allow me to start my day off better yeah and in a more aligned morning line day and that sets up my day for success every single day you feel like it's noticeable and noticeable difference when you go through the routine versus not yeah yeah I have much my days are clear and more effective when I have structure to my day and when it's Lucy goosey I'm traveling early so I can't do certain things it just you're out of whack you're out of balance because you're not within the structure that allows you the discipline structure that allows you to be the most successful you keep talking about you don't even have it stacking so talk to me about habit stacking so I have a book I share I brought for you all too and yes it's it's truly AM to PM I don't follow it religiously I'm not obsessed over it I mean we all have to give each other grace but I and I add to it all the time I subtract sometimes I really base it on my wearables and I look at things and I adjust I track my hormones through I do like I have these ovulation kits that I've hacked my whole system with that and that's a female thing of like you know these dicks kind of like you know are you pregnant you're not pregnant but it's incredible the insights that I look at and I'm kind of my own scientist and biohacker of my system you know you know what regular is and you know what not yes absolutely and I like to say I'm kind of a guinea pig for all females in my area and and the great thing is is that I'm 47 so I'm not too young where you know like people older women don't take me seriously and I'm not too old you know like I'm right in this sweet spot and I I'm the first person say I am entering into Metapause with a soft bounce and that is my goal and my mission and it's a hot topic right now I know this is making you too uncomfortable right now but it truly is and I think you know like there's a way to approach it and in terms of habit stacking it plays into the hormones maybe even like just explain for the like what habit habit stacking is so okay so truly it's being as efficient as you can with your time and productive but mindful of the wellness component you don't want to stress yourself everybody can be like well I have this act for a time efficiency but is that stressing your central nervous system out because that is defeating the whole purpose if you just feel like you're the whole day is ruined if you don't get these things and then you got to get them at yeah I don't set my alarm my body naturally wakes up by circadian rhythm I leave the drapes open so I see the sun coming out and the first thing I do not technology is not in our space I literally put on my robe my glasses I step out the door eyes first on the sun the reason I do that is because circadian rhythm my eyes are telling my brain this is the moment waking up gearing up cortisol go ahead spike up let's let's get going let's get up for the day so then I go out there I do a little breath work kind of set my intention for the morning then I put my feet in the round at the same time you're walking around in the soil in the grass anytime of the season I mean obviously 20% of it's a snow ice day I might not renewing it but for the most part it really helps me and I know it sounds sooo and weird but like that connection that energy something just like just penetrates through the whole body and that energy and touching nature and the dewy grass and all of that I go right inside I don't turn the lights on the bathroom I have my lemon so I have this whole recipe oh it's quite the concoction it is but I I'm very time efficient without having these lemon ice cubes that I freeze every Sunday and fresh lemon juice but I put 50% water in and have them frozen these little ice cubes so I put it in a glass bottle so they're always sitting right next to that's sitting next to my bathroom sink I have my greens there I have apple cider vinegar I have all these things that I dump into it first thing to hit my gut after a night of like fasting I usually try to maintain like a 12 hour fast like I shut down the kitchen pretty early so that's the first thing and getting back to gut health and it reset the cleanse kind of like waking that up as I take kind of probiotics and I don't like overstress about supplements I know that people let's a whole noisy space too right there I take the basics official oil a couple basic things and then I go in and I have matcha and I mix it with pre-eating well I have my red light therapy mask on feed the dogs talk to the dogs still no technology sometimes I will do like a metabolic flexibility tool to check where my fat and carb burning is depending if you were traveling and if I see like hey I had too many carbs and because a lot is you want to be metabolically flexible burning fat burning carbs at certain times of the day most of the time now I've really hacked my system and I know where I'm at but it's a great check in but getting back to like red light therapy mask is on I'm kind of known for it's very goofy but I multitask have it stack with it on as I'm making kind of like morning matcha feeding the dogs all those things and then from there like I'll make breakfast usually lie will come down I'll really plug into her protein forward breakfast fuel my body I am not stable yes mouth I mean usually have like micro greens eggs chicken steak huge meal my oh my gosh women are like I always try to meet the goal yes yes I would my goal is a gram of protein per body weight or more and I would say the more I fuel my body with protein the more I eat in terms of like healthy good nutrition the skinnier I get and the more heavier I live the more my body shrinks it's just like it's like saran wrap on the body those are my two tips and tricks for women that are like my gosh like I'm getting so heavy in my abdominal area what is that that's cortisol dumping into your body that's cardio that's hip training all the wrong things I did it remember my burnout story and I felt it I saw it and I was like oh my gosh I have been training the wrong way fueling my body the wrong way so yeah protein forward breakfast then from there usually well I'll go down to contrast therapy by that time he's like mr. super well is turned on the son I'm already done by the time she's done and god forbid if I ever enter into that zone of like where he is and we have it I mean it's not glamorous it's in our storage closet in the basement I mean like that's what we have in there well we have our infrared son uh we have our cold cold tub we have uh our luggage and all of our holiday I see you I see you all do the all the social posts from the sauna yeah oh yeah Santa's there we got some where AV stuff and some of our HVAC stuff down there we know how to find stuff down in that room I think it's half the point of it though it's like whatever works just like get it get it done yeah it doesn't have to look pretty it just needs to work yeah yeah and it's truly just the efficiency of being right there having no excuses and so by the time he's done in the cold tub so the sauna is cranked up we've got a one that switches from traditional to infrared usually about I'll do 30 minutes in there it's about 140 degrees sometimes I'll okay there you go sometimes I'll do like light weights and I'll do a little arm routine in there I'm not jumping I'm not like doing any cardio or I'll listen to a podcast or I'll meditate do breath work like it just depends on my mood I again look at kind of like my wearables see where I'm at what I need to do um I'll always do the lymphatic brush like when I'm in there get all the like that going um the detox and so forth um I'll use like ice roller on my face I've got a couple different ones that I love I mean I've got a hat on my head to keep the hair from drying out it's a whole process and um and then it happened the cold tub and as I was telling you all got certified as a thermos instructor so I really know what my system means and that's like definitely a learning curve for females guys can go in there no problem but it's very interesting she's been hesitant to do the the cold punch thing yeah and it is it because it and I caution females because I think so often females want to try to keep up with men and getting back to that whole bio rhythm were very delicate and you have to be careful because I essentially broke my system the HBA access and doing too much going too hard and by looking at what my glucose does and my heart rate and so forth by the time I get into the cold tub and I practice breathwork like I usually do a four seven eight I can tap into that place in a minute and it goes from 130 my heart rate to literally a trans state of 55 it's insane in a minute how fast and getting back to where I said about a pill on a plane or anxiety situation of like if your doctor is prescribing you something how fast is that to control your breathwork that way in a panic situation because essentially when you get into cold tub your body is going into fight or flight it's going into that sympathetic nervous system holy shit what are you doing to me and if you know those tools and how to dominate your central nervous system you can dominate life and that is so powerful and I love sharing that with individuals because like do you want to have to take a pill and and you know like let that dominate you or you want to be able to say I know how to breathe through this or I know how to meditate through this and to me that is the best gift you could ever provide anybody with so yeah contrast therapy and then strength training and then lunch and then I mean all thanks always an evening walk the takeaway is super important people who are listening to understand again it's habits that are stacked there's habits stacking in the morning and having stacking at night that's her yes but that's not where you start that's not where you start well you find what works for you yeah exactly and that's the trick is you're stacking things that work for you that set you up for success throughout the day yeah it's not random stuff that trying the next new thing and yeah the next you know yeah like you were saying you know there's always the next influencer and tiktok where try this trend try this trend I mean like the now I think there's this whole trend on chai seeds and all of a sudden wow like the the one with we're soak it in water overnight and I'm like oh my god 12 years ago I was soaking chai seeds in water and now I'd like I've been using zem basil seeds but it's just but that's part of my habit stacking that I've been doing for 12 years but you ahead of the curve you know I don't have it all figured out but I think just through years of my education and you know knowing a lot about gut health and that if we're going to talk about chai seeds and zem basil seeds that's a whole tangent I could go down but you were talking about your gut and I would love to share my favorite recipe but it's really like a long time ago when people talked about chai seeds and now they're figuring out a few other different seeds that really help benefit they've got help and the microbiome is the reason you want to soak it is because it gets this beautiful gelatinous state and if you think about when things are gelatinous and they go down your track your digestion and they end up in your gut what are they going to grab they're going to grab all the good and the bad bacteria we want to get rid of the bad bacteria and so that is what kind of evacuates I know it sounds gross but it keeps you optimal and then the good bacteria is like hey we're going to have a party in here we've gotten rid of the bad because that's you know like how you're going to build up that great gut barrier and I always say to clients because I try to like create pictures for people and that gut lining like you got this like fishnet like this and for people that have leaky gut it looks a lot like this and then the point is is we want to kind of create this barrier like this where it's so locked in and nothing can escape in terms of nutritional value and so by you know doing that it traps everything good in there and then by doing like the chai seeds and certain recipes it evacuates the bad stuff so that's I could go on and on about it well you know you mentioned two things that were interesting because I've actually heard Hubertman talk about the the sunlight and like the touching grass the ground yeah so there's like there's a lot of I love actually walking on grass I love touching grass there's something very like grounding then and like just like relaxing about other nature yeah yeah yeah because I've actually seen you doing a whole bunch of on Instagram you're you're you're going on tracks through mountains and jumping in the pools and stuff it's all part of it yeah that's all part of it yes it is it's I mean wherever you are in the world you need to be one with nature and and touching your feet to the earth and connecting and just I don't know how to explain I know it sounds woohoo and all this weird stuff well no but that's why I'm talking about Hubertman because I think he actually does research and looks at the science of it yes I think there's like a lot of science behind it yeah and when you look at your wearables and what it does like it's it's incredible and I mean I feel like I have so many years of data and it's just kind of the proof is in the pudding what would you say the biggest misconception about wellness or any of these routines like something that you you think people believe is true but actually isn't that this one's a good misconception I would say complicating things and always thinking they can reinvent the wheel of like oh try this try that I firmly believe in the basics and I always like to say you know I approach this with two unique lenses I approach it from years of being a pioneer as a luxury wellness travel advisor and seeing what the whole world has offered in terms of that and then as a wellness consultant in my education and by kind of melding those two things together I see trends all the time and I know what works is getting back to like my father's journey and wow that was in the early 80s and I'm doing the same things that saved my father's life and it hasn't changed and I'm feeling more optimal than I have ever felt at 47 than I did it 20 and it's not a TikTok trend it's truly what my father did it was learning meditation being present with one self that's soulful connection getting out in nature son on the eyes walking with your loved one connecting that way seeing the suns that go down at night and I mean I'm a big believer in acupuncture and I have this hack of a acupressure mat on Amazon it's $20 and it's essentially like going to an acupunctureist yeah tell them your story of the acupuncture I like to fall asleep on feel good go ahead like a lecture yeah she just did acupuncture for the you I'm buying one of these you're not essentially has like all spikes oh it's called the bed of nails so like a yogi like a bed of nails it literally is like wow okay and so I bought this I don't know like 20 years ago and he was like okay now this is totally extreme more and you're crazy like you're batshit crazy he's like you're gonna lay on that thing I'm like yes I am and it's so soothing and relaxing and so I always like read I'll do 20 minutes on it before I go to bed and he's like fine I'm gonna try it he's that thing first day he tries it he falls asleep on it and he's snoring up a storm I'm like he's kicking me in oh it's so fun it's not kicking me the funniest thing is is now every night like when we're like getting ready for bed he has I bought him a Navy one I'm like pink one we like pull the bed out you know and everything and he's got his lined up and mine lined up and then even when we travel I have one that I always travel with hot pink he steals it from me and I'm like what do you think the maids are thinking they're like these people are really kinky that's better now better now I know she just did acupuncture a couple weeks ago and I've never I've never done up before but I've always been I'm so like scared of the needles and whatnot like I just never invited him to come in he was petrified like no one's poking you with needles when you go to somebody that knows what they're doing have you done it before yeah yeah it's not they don't feel it like that yeah and it's funny too when you know what is what is jacked up what's not what's not working properly what's not functioning right and they they never put it in that spot it's always some corresponding pressure point yeah and what you know they sit there in a you know five 10 minutes obviously they include some of this stuff in like in like pro athlete routines now is this something to do yeah yeah some guys do it now yeah and it's crazy like some of the clients that we work with the things that they request we make happen I mean cold tubs on yachts and pelotons and yeah that was my next question uh-huh like what is the difference between regular luxury travel and for people well look at you asking such a brilliant question I love this a lot of this is like a fascinating place to be in this industry and as I was talking about you know kind of like my areas of expertise and just I see it from both sides and we have this side of wellness travel and the medical travel medical travel is what my dad was doing you know he was seeking for a cure he was looking for more time to save his life wellness travel is like kind of your soft and fluffy a mirror of all opinion ranch you know kind of that side of things and there's I love that we have a lot of clients that look for those kinds of trips and so forth but the sweet spot and like where this trend in industry is going is right in the middle of both so the wellness medical kind of because those individuals are a lot like crystal myself that are very curious and also live very optimal and regimen in their everyday life so these 35 habit stocks we don't like to stray too far from what we do at home so if we're gonna travel we need to make sure that where we travel they're going to allow us to do those things and also learn something new and same with our clients as well so it's a matter of these properties kind of having this competitive edge if you will and offering new and cutting edge services to the travelers because that's where people are they're curious but if they don't have the time in their everyday life to seek out hey I don't know much about transcendental meditation or I don't know much about breathwork we're here to help you find the properties that are going to allow you to learn about those things that you can bring into your everyday life and start implementing it all the time at home or I'm going to help you find an individual or a specialist in your city that's going to allow you to keep doing that so where would you what's like where would you send somebody it's not like you're sending them to like even like a regular nice luxury resort like you mentioned I mean it depends on what their goals are and that's where a kind of this whole travel match making comes into play for us and we're really listening closely is it optimal sleep you're after is it stress management is it you're trying to gain more muscle mass like it depends on what their goals are and then we align them with the property it could be very clinical-based diagnostic properties which I'm a huge fan of a couple that are I mean some new ones recently launched one in particular shot wellness in Mexico oh my gosh big big fan of that but some people aren't individuals aren't ready for that and they need something that's a little bit more soft super well if you will and then you know like we'll maybe send them to a property like that because we need to meet them exactly where they're at we don't want to intimidate them and we don't want to run them off by you know this is too what's the one that your family likes that's the no they go to India oh wow is it another and Nanda I don't actually know what it's called but it's like in Kerala and my mother is a huge like believer in Indian medicine and like I've heard her and stuff like that so what she does is like usually for her optimal health she actually feels physically sick when she doesn't do it as often as she should so like every six months with ideally she would love to do is go to this resort in India and it's like a basically three week like a vegan program they do like like four body like four person massage on you with like the oils and like the avert massage whatever they have massage it's pretty good yeah four people are massage yeah like two to four people and then they like plan your like meals by your like goshas or whatever they're called and like it's like this whole like holistic treatment and you go there with real issues it's really a treatment like retreat right like it's like it's not really just like a resort yeah it's there's no it's like vegan there's no alcohol there's like nothing it's like very like treatment first yeah and she loves that like there are others that are more like like more luxurious less treatment more retreat more spa whatever but she likes like the intense ones because she's like the the way she feels in three weeks she comes back younger slimmer just like she's got like back problems and she doesn't have any pain when she comes back I mean often eight people eight hands massage yeah yeah yeah thank you so much that you have to do this I'm like I cannot leave for three weeks so yeah that's absolutely and I mean if you look at all of these properties now I mean everybody's adding a wellness can like some component to their offerings and the ones that are more clinical base you know are are more you know like can be intimidating to individuals but it's really listening to our clients and meeting them where they are at their journey and what their goals are and it may start with the soft and fluffy the four person massages and then you graduate to yeah or eight or how many people say eight hands four people yeah I've got a whole team yeah everyone's just for you yeah a big guy they each take a quadriple yeah well between that and the breath work and yoga all day and obviously and feed and eating super clean yeah you're gonna feel very these dogs and great and I mean from that the hope is that you bring it into your everyday life like I was saying implementing it back into your life yeah not running away from what your issues are and feeling more optimal at home because that's what my dad taught me at a very young age and you incorporate everything you learn yeah also people I mean like so what the people you're working with they want to live a long time because they have they've been you know financially successful a lot of different measures of success but they've been financially successful and they want to live a very long time so it's always interesting to look at people to have a lot of reasons to live a very long time and what they're trying to do or what they're trying to incorporate it into their into their lifestyle and that's what they're doing when they go to these retreats when they when they speak to both of you and that one as as as we know the what people look at as success changes a very yeah yeah every now actually every day you know what I thought was important I was 18 turning pro making yeah X amount of money was completely different than I was 28 now married with a young kid completely different 38 when I retired and three kids and now almost 50 48 you know at 48 completely different again yeah and your family and everything and so it just you see that you people evolve and you really don't see a lot of rich people smoking that's yeah sure yeah it's a pattern we've been noticing the more we like talk to people the more we're realizing the more success someone has had it's like the more they have to look for they're so into like the wellness all of a sudden you know what I'm saying the guy who's reverse yeah versing his age and he's doing a whole bunch of crazy stuff to figure out like two million bucks years something yeah yeah he's not streaming yeah but what do you what he almost looks younger than me almost not quite though not quite what are the some of the the most interesting new or things that maybe people don't know about that I'm ultra wealthy I want to include this in my life or I want to go to a retreat that's doing this thing what is something that I would be asking for you probably do a lot of this stuff already but you you're on like the cutting edge of yeah I mean things that they're like I want to level up and I want to try something yeah I want to try something what's new what's new for rich people the world is your oyster it was a super well off you know I mean I would say what are they dealing with in terms of their issues again because there's endless options I mean especially when you have no budget but people people are interested in you know peptides yeah stem cell and then but that's getting very clinical stem cells is what is a Panama the capital of Mexico too yeah and it's huge it's the rage so we have a lot of interest there but that's very clinical that can be very scary to people but I mean my gosh you know like really in terms of basic things it's I don't know I mean like would you say that there's some crazy cutting edge things that we push there's cutting edge up I'm not comfortable pushing it because there's no research or limited research we will send clients to properties certainly that the doctors and the medical staff if they're interested in that I feel confident in them sharing that with that with those individuals but am I going to push that I'm not going to recommend something and I'm she's in the same boat that is like super cutting edge there's limited data behind it yeah limited research and it's well this study showed that while I can show you study that also shows this I mean it's so what are the things that what are the things that are widely accepted by the scientific community that maybe not the average person is doing right now something you would be on yeah what do you feel comfortable actually recommending outside of the stuff that like you have your daily routine but obviously there's things that you cannot include your daily routine just because of the cost of the machine or the I don't know okay okay yeah yeah no I like this one so I would say the wearables I mean the CGM is a cost yeah because insurance doesn't cover it and that's something fascinating because you were getting real-time 24-7 data on your system through a filament you like put it in and it doesn't hurt I love biomass I think that's something that every individual should have in their home a PEMPF MAT so it's basically like an energy charge it's got crystals in it there's all different ones on the market there's some that are more powerful and more intense it's heat therapy and crystals that go through helps with joint pain energy lowering cortisol I sit on my all the time like when I'm doing my deep work computer work anything like that I usually lay on it and sandwich myself like a burrito before I get into the infrared sauna so I have a long full body one and then a short like mini one so that's you know an expense cold tubs or an expense infrared sonnas and we've got one that is a dual chamber so it goes traditional to infrared then we also have a very cutting edge so now you're making me reveal all our expensive stuff but but that's cool that's the people want to learn about it so we have this really incredible tub and it's like a dual chamber and it's outside it's pretty massive so it's got hot tub and a cold tub so you can flip flap from both sides and actually when you're immersed in the water the studies show and as I look at my wearables you get more of an intense shock to the system from the heat shock therapy and your body can't sweat and so it's just like that shock is really intense and the goal with cold shock therapy is to grow your brown fat so now I'm going to get really nerdy and scientific on you yes so the brown fat we are all born with and it's behind your neck and in your clavicle bone and it is your most mitochondrial dense tissue and it is what provides energy and speeds up your metabolism and the as we age we lose it but the only thing and the only way to grow it is through cold shock therapy and so all this study has been done by Dr. Susanna Sober who is kind of interviewer men's right hand gal and she is incredible that's how I got certified as a thermos instructor and he coined the term the sobered principle and the point is is that we should all end on cold be like when we end our contrast therapy so individuals will go from heat to cold and be like ah I want to end in a hot shower or back in the sauna you're defeating the whole purpose of why you put yourself through that torture because yes you want that shivering effect that thermogenesis that your body is trying to take that heat and like oh my god I'm shivering I'm cold and that is how we grow that brown fat that's how we turn all of our energies on and you increase your metabolism and all those things so I always say to individuals you always need to end on the cold so getting back to our little for our high-end products at home we have this dual chamber outside and in the winter you're in the hot and then the cold and in the cold and you're in out in nature you do a little grounding get the cold air yeah see your eyes in the sun then you go into the gym you're strength training on well man you're ready for a super well day ahead I'm laughing because she the cold is her enemy so I mean like that's actually super interesting so when you start to dabble in this stuff obviously there's unlimited levels but I think that you just have to start somewhere and we spoke about a whole bunch of sort of morning routines spoke about like health hacks spoke about machines some of them are going to be outside people's price range that's fine but know all the stuff that's out there and like all technology eventually is going to be this you know this is going to be very commoditized at some point so it's actually very interesting to see where it is right now and then five years it's going to be everybody can go buy it on Amazon on prime on prime day right we're just getting there what out of all the different diets because I have my own diet that I eat and obviously I'm sure you will have opinions of diets coming from professional sports background where trainers are probably super you know they're very regimented to your own sort of discovery and how it impacts your body and what you eat you see the results with all your wearable something real quick yeah finish your question it's a nutrition plan it's not a diet diets or fats is that how is that how they nutrition okay yes nutrition point yes good that he knows yes works yes so good mr. super well thank you what do you eat what's what because there's so many different kinds of nutrition right so you have what let's even name them you have like you can start I mean I all I would say is yeah some people like me some people don't like me yeah some people like fish so we don't like fish some people like chicken they're like chicken take the stuff that you are willing to eat and then build your plan around that so I mean getting back to the glucose monitor yeah that is a huge dictator of my body and I'm not obsessed over it but I have learned so much value and knowledge on what my bio individual body needs and the the goal is to try to stay as level with your glucose I mean obviously you're gonna have spikes every time you eat as you should but looking at that savory breakfast first thing in the morning no sugar but carbs are okay carbs are okay you need carbs for energy healthy carbs because you know you understand I'm asking that because some people do no carbs that's crazy to me but then they feel and then they feel terrible and also females for hormones you're not gonna have a period if you do that like there are so many no no's for that and like healthy carbs are we are friends we need those and getting back to like the tools that I have in place for metabolic flexibility and I breathe into this system every morning to look at where is my fat in my carbon I kind of know and sometimes throughout the day if I'm like I need more carbs that is the fuel that is something that we need to give our body like sweet potatoes brown rice quinoa whatever your system likes and and what you enjoy but protein forwards savory breakfast no sweets you know first thing in the morning I've learned that coffee is my enemy caffeine that was a big awakening for me I would have a 30-point jump in my glucose no sugar there's a big renaissance right now with people saying oh coffee's bad for you and it depends on who you talk to I know I've never heard that I like coffee yeah she but to her data says that her it spikes her CGM so she doesn't agree but you know why did that is is because I'm a high energy individual where I already have like just a lot of cortisol adrenaline going in my system first thing in the morning that's just my own body's makeup and so by adding the caffeine it just spikes my cortisol my adrenaline that much more which dumps into your glucose so then your glucose spikes it and I had no clue and I was not a big coffee trigger I'd have one cup in the morning and it still would do that soon as I switched to matcha then I still do my creatine 5 milligrams which is so vitally important for females for bone muscle growth everything so I dump that in and everything stays flat like just so balanced if I work out in the gym too hard it'll spike my glucose because I mean there's so much to that but getting back to your question about food and nutrition soon as I finished training I have a massive shake it is so calorie dense 12 ingredient protein milkshake is what I call it zen basil seeds I mean I've got tons of fiber prebiotics two different kinds of protein formulas another I mean like bone broth there's so much I've got frozen zucchini slice zucchini as a creaminess to it it's so thick I eat it with a spoon it's like a Wendy's milkshake it is my pride and joy tons of cinnamon for inflammation I mean I mean it's just and then I spice it up depending on the season sometimes I'll peppermint if it's winter and I'll add a little mocha flavor to it and the fall I mean pumpkin spice and then always Brazil nuts for the selenium for thyroid support three or four a day and then you know like lunch micro greens always I add micro greens to everything throughout the day I mix it with my eggs or always a base with roasted root vegetables salmon I do in the air fryer chicken he grills steak we vary our protein it's very clean it's very basic throughout the day and I'm not opposed to some dark chocolate a little little little little dark chocolate and yeah what else do we 80 20 yeah it's not perfect all the time like I just so what about when you go out right another part of sorry everybody and by the way everybody's different everybody's pallets different everybody's systems different so you could have figured what works for you it's not but you have here but you do have here yeah so everyone's systems different you do have like your best practices yeah that I mean you know what works for you and then you try to like you talk about they're eating the rainbow and how tight you are with yours and it's very bland I was super bland and it just you had slowly add something new try something new and ultimately your palate as you get older it starts to change and start like in different foods and yeah I'm very proud of your growth but eating the rainbow development I've had the diversification I've had in my my dinner plate so good the end of all you see on the plate is like a pyramid of vegetables but he just stands on one side just a few roasted vegetables everyone's on a journey here like when I eat roasted vegetables I'm like I it's so good olive oil garlic Brussels sprouts I know but I've been getting better yeah I've been getting better that's just my disapproving look yeah yeah there's something yeah I don't know but there's so good for your side aren't you eating them no it's not everyone you still is make them well right like growing up we didn't all eat vegetables done deliciously like the way we would prepare them now so like you know like a lot of times even go to like a restaurant or a wedding or something and they'll have like like blanched boiled vegetables and you're like why would you ever make them like that you're losing all the nutritional value yeah and that's what kids used to eat like boiled broccoli like why would you yeah teacher children that but a lot of parents still do because you think it's still good and that's when I think people grow up with like this distaste for vegetables or whatever but like what Chris was referring to was like some people swear by like being vegan they're like oh not eating animal protein makes me feel my best some people are like if I ate that way I would you know feel horrible yeah so it really is individual and it depends on you know and I think we really listen to our clients and again meet them where they're at if they are plant-based then we will align them with properties and I'm not against that it's just I know what works for my system I think he knows what works for his system and it's about being optimal I tried plant-based and my body hated it hated it I lost my period I mean I just didn't I lost muscle mass and at 47 I am all about like let's store up as much muscle as possible because I know I'm going to be losing it rapidly and there's so many things that I try to do as a female at this age where I site store that up in that bank because it's going to help with osteoporosis and all these things as I continue the age and head into metaphors so protein is very important for me but now there's also tests that everyone can do when you see what kind of is the optimal food groups for your yeah I'm saying this because I've done all these things yeah and I found them to be hugely helpful yeah and that really restructured the way I eat and it did make me feel a lot better yeah and it's interesting even like with the CGM I have been this guinea pig and and hacked all these different food like that food order I guess of how you eat things so I would have like an apple and then I would have an apple after I had some nuts and the change of the sugar because when you have that in your system first as a layer before you had that sugar spike it flattens the but if you have the apple and the sugar spike first thing that hits the gut it spikes or walking after meals we walk usually after every meal at least 10 or 20 minutes or move the body and it's crazy because even like when we're flying if I have a meal and I'm like oh my gosh I can't move my body even if I'm sitting there and I do calf raises sitting in the seat because your calf actually has the biggest dumper for glucose it's crazy if you just do calf raises and I can lower my glucose just by doing that it's like all these little hacks it's so interesting so the goal is like ultimately out of all these diets to take away is manage glucose manage glucose and that's really gonna make you feel the best I think so I mean that's where I have seen the biggest change and shift in my own health and being optimal when I started really tracking that level and the spikes and so forth and then looping it through my other wearables the loop and the aura and looking at HRV heart rate variability sleep stress management how I work out and it all plays into each other and this world of technology and wearables is growing every day and all these sensors that are coming out like this is just the beginning of it it's just I actually had sorry I had the founder of who bought and I was chatting with him yes yes and he was saying that he can look at somebody's sleep score is different kinds of sleep right look at somebody's sleep score and from that sleep score you can tell them if they have a happy marriage happy relationship how much money they make like it's what he correlates your sleep score to every you must be a billionaire billionaire oh well she shouldn't but he says this is an indicator so we can look at a sleep score and basically see how chaotic someone's life is central nervous system yeah and the respiratory it's fascinating yeah you guys are billionaires I don't know my sleep score is I actually have to get a loop I haven't I don't have one it's she's wearing it yeah no it looks the same it's it's like one of the fast actually whoop is a wild story because I think they're multi billion dollar company now and it's one of the only companies that has competed with Apple and all the other wearables that came from these huge tech companies yeah they actually you know Justin Thomas was wearing it the year he came back in fidget championship and won and they showed his heart rate when he had to make a pot to you know to take the lead in his heart rate you could see his heart rate and it just he was so calm yeah in this pressure pack moment it was controlled his emotions controlled himself made this pot you could just see his heart rate and that's where I was telling you when I get so when I'm in the sauna it naturally really taxes your system and your sympathetic nervous system that fight or flight is like DM it's hot in here especially when you've gotten to like 30 minutes and 150 degree temperature and then and I won't it and if I test the boundaries and I won't do my breath work and I'll just challenge myself and I'll do like an arm workout in there my body's like what doing soon as I go into the cold tub it's really going crazy because I just like to check and like see how far can I test this and then really get it spiked up and then soon as I do my breath work like I love like a 478 very simple deep from the diaphragm bringing it up holding it for seven seconds and a huge exhale with a big like release within a minute I can take it from over 130 down to 55 and I watch that and that is crazy and then I look at the glucose and how it just goes down to as he was saying that's the central nervous system in a minute how I change that one minute versus jeez do I need a pill to control that like that is the power of the mind and so much of kind of getting back to discipline the discipline that you have yeah discipline but also you know like okay I have these genes for cancer cells in my body and if we live in this stress body and and I'm constantly lighting up my central nervous system what is that going to do those free radicals that's going to set everything on fire in my body and if you want to talk and get really nerdy about epigenetics that's the environment that we're putting ourselves in and getting back to like super well living and my whole mission in my own and my for my children and for individuals in my community is to teach them ways of calming that system so we keep all that at bay because it's the environment we're living in and I am doing everything in my power to calm the fire of my cells in my body and I'm teaching that to my children and and that's powerful I don't have it all figured out I mean I don't know what the future holds for my body but I do firmly believe that by looking at my system and how I can keep that all at bay and calm that from within I'm doing a good job and I'm proud of that and I love to share it I love to share it with my children and and like I said it's protective body armor that's basically free I think it's important because I think that the way that most people's lives are structured like you mentioned you don't know what the future is but I can guarantee you the way that the average person lives their life it's definitely not going to be it's definitely not going to help yeah it's going to hurt yes yeah like I was just talking to Gal last night a good friend of ours at dinner and she doesn't have any family history of cancer but she talked about the environment she grew up in as a child and it was a very toxic environment her parents argued and had a very tumultuous marriage and she had cancer at a very young age I'm not going to talk about all the details her privacy but she firmly believes it was the environment she grew up in and you know I mean like I know some people don't believe in all of that but I'm a firm believer in it and I'm mindful of what I still do in terms of Western medicine and I get colonoscis every year and every single year I get polyps that are precancerous had I not started doing that when I was 30 I think 34 when I started doing it I would for sure have colon cancer I wouldn't even be here so yeah there is a place for what Western medicine but I'm mindful of doing those things in practice with the other things those holistic healing modalities in my tool belt that are keeping all of those things at bay and you know I mean I get mammograms and all those things from the breast cancer side of things so it's just you know like you really have to marry both sides of things and I'm off after you all the time about during the two you get a colonoscis. I did yeah last last year yeah yeah last like four pounds was good actually I was in the middle of 75 arc oh my god I had two yeah you really dropped I was in the middle of 75 hard so I you know you got to do what you got to do the day before so I did my walk started my protocol went in woke up I did a walk then I did my workout late just like it was it was a production trying to fit it all in but I did yeah you have to be yeah I think that's the whole point I didn't realize how into this you were go like I knew you were into it I know you were this into it I didn't know you had this whole routine set up but yeah but you have a reason that's why so the issue is when I don't have a history of of cancer in my family but then and I I do believe that being stressed out all the time and I do believe that you know your cortisol being through the roof all the time probably doesn't help your chances of not getting cancer so I think the people who don't have history are probably the most susceptible because they're going to be blindsided by it yeah and the interesting thing is this friend of mine that we were with last night for dinner who had this cancer when she had all of her blood work done when they found the cancer the doctor pulled her aside and said hey are you doing something really traumatic in your life most recently because your cortisol is through the roof and she was like no like this is my state I actually this is normal and then I think they went back into years of previous blood work and they looked at her cortisol for years and years she had been living in that state so she didn't know any different and I in talking to her I think that she grew up always just in that hyper cortisol sympathetic nervous fighter flight on fire all the time fueling that and I believe you know in society now we're just living in this place and that's why we're seeing it pop up more and more and you know I'm not saying that's the end all be all and the reason for it all but I do think that it exacerbates the situation and speeds up the process like I look at my mom like when my dad had a stroke she didn't have any cancer but after four months of taking care of him and all the stress all of a sudden she got breast cancer like out of the blue and then she got it again as he got sicker and sicker and was in and out of hospice and so forth two times so yeah I mean it's it I am very passionate about it and as I keep saying I look at it like a protective body armor I put on myself and knowledge is power and I do it for myself for my family for our kids and if individuals are curious I'm here to be a guide and I really don't you know I look at this as a gift that maybe God put in my world of an imperfect moment of burnout where it really smacked me in the face and until you go through that hardship I never would be in this place sitting on this couch talking about this had 2011 not happened to me I would have been floating through life probably playing golf tennis pickleball you know like writing horses things that I love to do but after that happened to me and when I started well inspired travels and all that I have gone through my life I feel like it would be a disservice to who I am as an individual if I was not here sharing my story and it is my mission and like everything that I'm passionate about in serving people and I'm excited about it because I'm excited for you I can see that yeah very proud of her taking it to the next level she's leveled up oh yes looking now you both leveled up you both leveled up what are we what are we not talk about I don't know we've been going for about three hours we live in Miami which is a city full of people that are now obsessed by hacking and wellness and all these things every single person with me does like oh my son I come over for cold winter song and this and that and all these things peptides yeah and no one has ever explained it in the way that actually made me want to try it like you have because I would just always look at them and I'd be like you being woohoo and weird and this is not for me you guys are all too like I think is a lot of it is trendy yeah yeah and every time something is too trendy I get very turned off yeah it's like you know before I move to Miami I was like into astrology now I'm just like oh my god this is crazy because everyone here thinks they're like you know it's like weird so people have a way of turning you off things when they're too into it and they can't explain why they're into it right that's the thing you do such a beautiful job explaining the reasoning behind everything and I'm like oh I could try this this I can this makes sense I understand why now you know so thank you for that I really appreciate that means a lot to me and and that's really my intention is to not overwhelm individuals tell my story and really the hardship of it that was the weakest moment of my life and a scary time I'm not proud of it but hey you know what it's it's a reason to share it with somebody like you because it's hopefully will help you understand like here the possible benefits of meeting you where you're at with what you're going through and it all is so it interwoven and I appreciate that because I try to make it digestible with that intimidating yes yes yes so it's yeah I'm always here for questions and I love I mean I've got books upon books and well I will definitely be hitting you on okay so so this is very important though so where should so still the what did we go into everything that you wanted to go into I think we went through a lot we did we went through a lot a lot it's very diverse it was I liked it so I liked it I mean well the digital courses are going to be coming out so where do you want to send people so where should people find first about also yet the social so yeah you're good at that if you want to go so for her stuff well inspired travels dot com Lauren underscore pronger on instagram that's probably the best place to find a lot of the information is on instagram linked in uh tick tock because for the for the under generation this 47-year-old mom's trying to be cool and tick tock your content on Instagram is good though you should put it on tick tock yeah yeah yeah and then my stuff chrispronger dot com I got my speaking platform talk about a lot of stuff that I've done Instagram at chrispronger twitter at the chrispronger yes opposite at the chrispronger is uh Instagram at chrispronger's twitter and I'll say go and then uh there's all goes in the show now so like you know yeah same like then newsletter she's got newsletter she's gonna be doing so people want to sign up on well inspired travels there's a form yeah but takes you to my landing page her landing page and on there you can sign up for newsletter and so all this stuff she's going to be geeking out with all these and then the digital course is coming out in january so it'll be phase one which is kickstart super well and then it's going to be super well glow up this phase two and then it's going to be super well superstar mastery so it gradually get from phase one to phase two because so this is really taking all the stuff that all of these the high net worth ultra high net worth yes are paying for on these trips right and then you're turning it into courses people can learn how to do and breaking it down and very simplified yeah if I got steps to take and they're ever doing yes without the expense like I have hacks that hey you don't want to go spend eight thousand dollars on a cold tub I'm going to give you a bazillion other ways to do it um yeah so it's kind of the different phases but starting with phase one and um I'll go through the eight pillars in each one of the digital courses so it's like well aging nourishing nutrition optimal sleep um nature connection I mean there's all the different and then I kind of hacks strategies tips for each one yep personal story so I always start with a personal story which you've heard a lot of them and I'm very open about hear the struggles so it makes sense because that's the connection you hear yeah as you were saying yeah and as you were saying which means so much to me because that's feedback I want to hear is I get what you're saying now I really make that connection because I'm not here just spitting stuff out of my mouth because I'm like oh I do this and I feel awesome that doesn't you know good yeah you're gonna be like yeah don't okay turn you off like move on to the next thing so it's my personal stories with each one of the pillars and then it's usually a client's experience and where I've met them in their journey and how I've helped them optimize um and then I go through usually three to five lessons in each one of the pillars and those are whether it's a breathwork a way to calm the system or a simple technique you know or a recipe um journaling it's it's always makes sense and it all loops through and they actually all interconnect all eight so that you're feeling incredible bio rhythm through all of it I love that all Chris I also want to give you a I'm actually super curious so where is where is your content going because I know you're going to start a podcast together but where are you focusing on right now so you are you doing your own thing as well like what's the content strategy speaking platform just trying to help people level up and serve people in the manner with which whether it's people looking to create culture be better leaders take that part of their life to the next level or just walk through my journey people you know they see the end they see the championships and the trophies and all the stuff over here but they forget all the stuff we talked about earlier on the bad times the DUI and the jail and all the other stuff that we talk about and not really knowing who I was and fighting against the system and caving under the pressure of being a hydrophic and not living up your potential and being booed at at home and all these things that went on in my early career and just realizing how I needed to and what I needed to do to kind of dig myself out of that and and get the most out of my talent and we all have decision decisions and choices to make are you what do you want to sacrifice what are you willing to do to be successful and we all are put to the test and finding that inner character and developing the character to take yourself to that next level your podcast is going to be good okay so I always ask this at the end I think it's I think it's great and you both have to answer from your own perspective so it's not it's not that crazy a question there's been a softball interview I'm not going to I'm not going to just like throw a nice cream cone on the way home no no you've been you've both been amazing first of all thank you because you went deep in everything and I think that's the audience got like too very useful two very two very useful sort of like streams of content and sort of too very useful lies that you sort of unpack in front of us so I appreciate you being so personal about it it's not easy to go into this the origin story behind every the real origin story not the not the BS origin story the real reasons is to why you both are where you are today um but the the best part about where you're at now is you can look back and you know on hindsight's 2020 and you wish you did this thing that thing differently or maybe you don't because maybe it made you who you are but if you could go back and you tell your younger self one thing both of you each what would that thing be I would say don't take life so serious um don't be so hard on myself and don't care so much about what other people think um I think I'm a perfectionist at fault and um I think I've always been so hard on myself and I think I've always cared as a female about what other people think and you know and I'm at this phase in life where I am so free and so excited to share all the imperfections as I was telling you all like I've never I never have held that back and not shared it but now I feel like it really gives a lot of credibility to my journey and there's a lot of power in that and I love being an individual that's saying I'm the furthest thing from perfect and hearing from others when they hear that journey and they're sharing like oh my gosh I love that you're letting your guard down and then they open up and provide so much to me that also gives me great values so I guess that's three things so I got an F for that three things are fine yes that's it I would say trust yourself you know you're you're there for a reason too often I think early on I was being told who to be how to act what to do and that's what I was pushing against that's what I was unwilling to buy into I you know I would steer into it and steer out of it and just I think it stunted my growth and didn't allow me to make the mistakes early on that I needed to make to become now who I am years later and you know there's obviously you know the financial stuff and there's all kinds of mistakes we make that what I know now I wish I wouldn't hold back then maybe I wouldn't be a billionaire maybe you never know you know like but but it all every you know I'm a firm believer everything happens for a reason I tell my kids this all the time stop looking in the rear-view mirror you're going this way you know don't worry about what's back there you got to worry about use the lessons you learned implement those into your life today and in the future and continue to grow that's why it's in the rear-view mirror it's it's a life lesson but it's not who you are and it's not it's what's helped you become who you are not who you are and too often I was pushing against that all the time and you know it's taken you know I don't really give a shit what people think but when you're young now well when you're young you kind of get steered directions and you get told how to do that act oh you can't say that you can't do this you know what I'm young like when am I supposed to make the mistakes you know like I tell her about orchids I'm like that was the time for them to make these mistakes they're not really gonna do too much you know the older you get the bigger the mistakes and you have to learn those are actually I think that's why I actually love the the concept of not having to not having to you know like people ask well if you could redo one thing or do something differently and I think the answer is always no because that's what's helped form who you are yeah and and create your character and you resolve and they're good in the bad and the makeup of who you are and you know we talk about culture and locker rooms only thinks it's not all good there's bad too and that's what creates that culture is the and by the way if you don't recognize the bad they don't never know what good looks like exactly or if you've never failed they go like if your kid skirts through life and gets a participant ribbon everywhere they go and they think they want oh how do they know what failing looks like with they wait till real life slaps them in the face exactly because it's not life is not fair as we hold them home thank you so much for coming thank you for coming to our home thank you for sharing your house yeah it's a beautiful home thank you you're our first guests in the south and we're very excited that it's you guys because the conversation has been so amazing you've been so vulnerable so open and as God said shared so much of your personal lives and your you know trials and tribulations and wins so I feel like a lot of people will really get a lot of insights from this conversation I mean meet myself included so I can't wait to continue um getting to know you and thank you thank you thank you so much