Christian Van Camp - The Art of Vital Living

Stuart Cooke (00:48)
Hey guys, this is Stu from The Health Sessions and I am delighted to welcome Christian Van Kemp to the podcast. Christian, how are you, mate?

Christian Van Camp (00:55)
Doing fantastical, man, doing amazing.

Stuart Cooke (00:59)
Good stuff, good stuff. Looking forward to sharing some of your knowledge today. But first up, for all of our listeners that may not be familiar with you or your work, I'd love it if you could just share a little bit about yourself, please.

Christian Van Camp (01:10)
Absolutely, yeah, just a little foundation to get off of. I've been studying the vast realm of just ancestral wisdom, modern science stuff over the past just about 10 years. So I got into this world when I was about 17, 18 years old, mostly stemming from my family's health, a lot of stuff that was not personal as much, but that led into a lot of inspirations to wanting to be there for the family by studying this vast world of natural health, nutrition, fitness, a lot of different functional movement modalities.

One thing led to a next after studying it time and time again, I ended up having this inspiration to share this online, this wisdom through Instagram and that ended up leading to some people asking and requesting if they needed some support on coaching. And so one thing led to a next, I'm coaching over 400 one-on-one clients over the past years and supporting them with these healthier habits when it comes to gut health and supporting that, supporting their functional movement, know, reducing pain all throughout the body and also just cultivating healthier habits holistically. So I've been

working as an online holistic health and performance coach for the past just about six years. And that's branched on into me hosting retreats today and a lot of jungle beach towns in Mexico, Costa Rica, you name it, and all over the place. So I'm all over the map when it comes to it, but super inspired by natural health, wellness, the totality of it, and also just all the little intricacies of masculinity, sovereignty, and through my own personal story and things relating to my family.

Stuart Cooke (02:31)
Fantastic, a lot to cover. So where do you start? So if you've got an interest in health and I've read your story on the website and all of your socials as well, it's fascinating and it's heartwarming as well, but just, I wouldn't know where to start because health is so consuming. Do we start with nutrition? Do we start jogging? Like what do we do? Like what led you to think, right, I need to start here and then.

Christian Van Camp (02:48)
Mmm.

Stuart Cooke (02:58)
which has now taken you to where you are today, which is all encompassing it out across all of the pillars of health.

Christian Van Camp (03:04)
Yeah, so my personal story, I actually began through fitness endeavors, a lot of movement and practical movement things. After high school, which during high school and throughout my life, I played a lot of soccer, a lot of baseball, all sorts of different sports, ran track and field, the 400 meter dash, all these different things. And that left this void in my heart after high school of not having these sports to keep active. And so that inspired me towards fitness and lifting weights and just getting into some more of the movement based foundations.

After that, I realized that was not enough. You can't just work out to be healthy. You can't just move consistently to be healthy. Even those are great things. Then it led me into the world of nutrition and fortifying my body with the nourishment to have that output through movement. So that led into obsessing about nutrition, all the intricacies with gut health, healing the gut, detoxification, different forms of Ayurvedic, traditional Chinese medicine, nutritional protocols, all under the sun, really.

testing out carnivore diet, know, Saladino based things, testing out even a period of time of veganism just to test and see if it clicks with my body, you know, all under the sun, basically, supplementation, you name it. That was still a physical plane based thing, the nutrition and fitness. So for me and my story, it led into the mindset later on and a lot of changing up the self-talk, the orchestration of my thoughts, of, you know, my mindset and patterns and.

and the habits that come from that and spirituality then blossomed out after that, after the mindset. So for me, it was like a layering effect of fitness, nutrition, mindset, and more of a spiritual component and connection with God and something bigger than myself. But going off your question, most people, think, just go right to the core of it, which is the spiritual questions, like why? Why am I here? What is my purpose? What is my mission? What are my values? And if you know yourself,

it makes it so much easier to make healthier decisions for your life with the physical plane-based things with fitness and nutrition. So I encourage anyone listening and anyone at all to really focus on the deeper knowings of oneself, right? Working towards connecting with God more, connecting with something bigger than themselves, know, feeling more gratified with your personality, with your tendencies, your mannerisms, all those things, and really asking questions more to get to the root of who you are.

So if you know that, everything else kind of bounces and ricochets off of that.

Stuart Cooke (05:18)
Yeah, exactly right. It's very broad, I think there's such a broad spectrum out there and oftentimes people just zone into a particular message or personality on whether it be social media or TV or whatever. And they often want to emulate. I want to do what you do. But as you mentioned, it's so multifaceted and it's encoded in you and it's part of who you are and where your journey takes you.

Let's just jump back then into nutrition because you mentioned that you tried a whole heap of stuff and nutrition can be so complex, but oftentimes I think the answer is often so simple. So you dove into, sounds like everything from fully plant-based all the way to the other end of the spectrum that was probably devoid of all plants. Where did you...

Christian Van Camp (05:44)
Mm.

Stuart Cooke (06:07)
Where did you land on that spectrum?

Christian Van Camp (06:10)
Right, dude, the spectrum thing is funny by the way, Stuart. It's just funny because our culture is extremism, right? We love extremism. We love going towards like all out on something because it's much easier than finding that quote-unquote balance of it. Like being an omnivore today is taboo, right? So I think it's one of those things that like I personally love extremism in many ways because it helps me understand where is that sweet spot. If I know this side of things, then I can go to that side of things and I can kind of mesh the two together. So for me, I mean,

Stuart Cooke (06:26)
Yeah.

Christian Van Camp (06:38)
I always had a deep intuition with nutrition, intuitive eating and whatnot. That's what I teach a lot of my clients as well, like not just obsessing about numbers and macros and like this, you know, kind of orchestration of eating. For me, I had many obsessive tendencies in the past when I was growing up. I would actually have a form of like binge eating at night when I'd come home after high school, I'd be like partying or something like that, you know, alcohol and cannabis and stuff. And I'd come home and I would, you know, just binge eat a bunch, like a box of Cheez-Its or something.

Hesitate on whether or not I need to go upstairs to my bathroom because I didn't have one in the basement at the time where I was sleeping of Going upstairs and just letting it out and just purging, you know engine release or sleeping it off So a lot of times I would either sleep it off and just wake up with puffy eyes Just feeling real tired and drained and got in distress So going through a lot of those epiphanies of extremism of like all out not really finding the balance over time It helps me cultivate like this feels good. This feels bad. Let's continue going down the straightener of the middle ground. So

Stuart Cooke (07:15)
Well, yeah.

Christian Van Camp (07:35)
But you know even going off of the diet trends. I've always had an explorative mind I've always been super open-minded with testing and trying new things whether it is like different supplements or different protocols or different foods or different fitness routines or you know mindset hacks I've always had that since I was a young boy So for me with nutrition, was the perfect outlet because I could like test out what foods really felt good on my gut that felt bloating right and over time I'd refine it. So going all out on just trying out plant-based was more

It wasn't really a moral reason for me. It was just like testing to see if my body clicked with it. And the same even goes for like a carnivore where I'm cutting down and eliminating all greens and herbs and things. So, you know, over time it just, it refined as it went and now I've cultivated more of an omnivorous plant-based carnivore approach.

Stuart Cooke (08:09)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's tricky for many people as well because you mentioned that you're super interested in the realm of gut health and gut health was something you have been recording for almost 15 years on the podcast and at the very inception of the recording, gut health was completely taboo. was woo woo, it was wacky. If you spoke about it, people laughed. But now obviously it's become the cornerstone of health. And I think that that can be very telling.

Christian Van Camp (08:36)
Mmm.

Stuart Cooke (08:45)
for the way that you eat as well, because oftentimes people want to jump in and develop a great love for all plants and vegetables and make these huge salad bowls, which are super fibrous. But it can be very hard on the digestive system when your gut health isn't optimal, as you probably know. So oftentimes, even all the way to the carnivore, which is supposedly the ultimate elimination diet.

Christian Van Camp (09:03)
Mm-hmm.

Stuart Cooke (09:11)
sometimes it is the best tolerated method. So people think, I've got to go that way. But for those people that know that something isn't right in their guts, where could they start? Because there are so many different protocols and procedures and supplements out in the space as being the next best thing for gut health. I still think it's very confusing. oftentimes as well, the timeframe needed to really work on the gut is way more than people would.

Christian Van Camp (09:28)
Mm.

Stuart Cooke (09:35)
perhaps like to offer.

Christian Van Camp (09:38)
yeah, I mean it just it takes over a hundred to twenty days just to completely flip I think it's almost like six months actually to completely flip over and Change the cellular structure of the epithelial lining. So it takes time It takes over six months to completely change and flip it. So ultimately with that being said, yeah, it does take patience and time It's not like you doing this one protocol for three months. It's gonna change the world and that's one thing, you know Instagramification for anyone listening just do your best to be patient with some of the protocols you put in place The one I would recommend number one for clients is just start with a basic elimination diet

Stuart Cooke (09:46)
Hmm.

Christian Van Camp (10:06)
similar to what you mentioned, some type of carnivorous approach. It's low in any kind of like FODMAP related stuff. It's low in any kind of fibrous or even oxalate lectins, things that may irritate the gut. And just doing your best to eliminate and swap out a lot of the processed foods and just go back to whole single ingredient foods relating more so to this animal based approach. I personally say just like find five foods, stick to those five foods for two weeks and just see how you do with that. just.

Have it in more of a quote unquote restrictive approach. Make it delicious though, but find those five foods and interchange it. So my recommendation for those five foods could very well be any kind of ruminant animal like beef, venison, bison. Just find one of those that you enjoy. Make that every single day. Switch that around to some eggs for some meals to get that protein up. Eggs, beef, right, there's two right there. Throw in let's say coconut, any kind of coconut varieties. could be coconut oil, coconut mana, coconut whatever, like coconut water, like just have coconut. That's a great one right there. And then throw in something maybe like avocado.

Right has a little bit of chlorophyll the green in it the antioxidants that's four and then maybe a fifth one right there Let's get some more carbohydrates up raw honey, right load up on the raw honey every meal You can have two to three tablespoons four if you really want some good quality Nutrient dense raw honey load it up in the propolis the pollen these different compounds that can support your well-being and if I guarantee you most people truly just stuck to beef eggs coconut avocado some raw honey and

maybe one more if they really want to, like blueberries or something, like you're gonna do great. Just make it to where it's those foods, see how you feel for two weeks. Now you can start integrating more foods that are easier to digest on top of that. And it really allows you to tune into that intuition to see if it really clicks for you and your biology.

Stuart Cooke (11:31)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's great. And I guess important to note that, boy, I mean, those five foods are so bursting with nutrients, it's not funny. It's just next level nutrition right there. You've kind of got the building blocks of everything that the body needs to be able to start work. Alcohol, coffee, other stimulants of that nature, know, green teas, things like that. Where does that sit on in the health spectrum?

Christian Van Camp (11:50)
Right.

Mmm

Yeah, that's a good question. You know, a lot of people go OCD Maybe I mean it's not like a better term But Paul Saldino would say don't have any tea don't have any coffee personally. I'm a coffee connoisseur I love my coffee, right? I load it up with butter every every morning with some raw eggs in it even I've been doing a raw egg coffee I can share more about but raw milk and things like that are loaded into it some raw honey cacao But you know, I think there's time and place for it

Stuart Cooke (12:12)
Yeah.

Christian Van Camp (12:27)
A big part of the caffeine is what I go to and the stimulatory effect of like green teas and teas and coffees. You know, they are stimulating. They are cortisol dumping in some degree. So many of us already are just so high in the cortisol clock. like, you know, adding another layer of cortisol isn't the best. So, you know, if you are going to have these things like do a Swiss water method decaf, most people won't do that in all honesty. So I would say just.

Recommended stacking a ton of magnesium with it taking some L-theanine with it some things that will mitigate some of the stressors maybe just some glycine take it with a cup of Joe take it with a coffee and The you know the green tea or tea or whatever and it's gonna smooth it out much more for the cortisol part of things But you know then you get into the nutritional part of it like you may know with some of the compounds like it's oxalate rich or whatever so It's all on how you prep it. It's how dark it is. It's just there's so many nuances it know, is it pesticide ridden coffee or pesticide ridden teas? Is it?

Stuart Cooke (13:12)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Van Camp (13:19)
in a plastic sachet, like it's the tea you're steeping in microplastics. Like so many nuances in this. I don't want people to obsess about it, but like look into these things, because if you're doing it as a ritual, it's gonna stack up over time and lead to some consequences. So those are just some basic things. So make sure it's organic quality, stack the fats with it, those kind of things.

Stuart Cooke (13:27)
See ya.

Yeah.

And how about timing? So still on the topic of food, obviously, now I think we've made eating or at least when to eat more complicated than it used to be. Some people skip breakfast and they like to fast. I've heard other people say, look, that's great, but maybe it isn't. Maybe we need to be, maybe we should be hungry when we wake up, setting their foundation for the day and suppressing cortisol, et cetera, all of that stuff. How do you eat?

Christian Van Camp (13:59)
Mm.

Stuart Cooke (14:05)
Do you fast? you eat early before you go to sleep? All of those things, questions. What do you do?

Christian Van Camp (14:06)
Yeah

Yeah, this is a can of worms because I mean back then one thing I would do as a protocol I'd be consistently having like I'd push my inner intermittent fasting clock to where I'd eat later in the day at like noon and then it would push it to where I'm eating later before bed so Personally, I think that's a big problem today is a lot of people are doing this intermittent fasting They're actually eating too close to bedtime messing with your sleep messing with hormones. So

Stuart Cooke (14:14)
Ha ha ha.

Yeah.

Christian Van Camp (14:33)
I don't recommend that. actually have been seeing much more research come out. You may have been seeing this too. It's like, your protein rich meal within an hour of waking. Like do your best to get like some 40, 50 grams of protein within an hour of waking as a good metric or even two hours. Just try to have that big protein rich meal. could be those eggs or even beef or something along those lines. Put in some good sufficient carbs with it of some sort and just have a balanced meal. I personally enjoy that. Like it's funny, I bring up this whole like coffee thing with the raw eggs. That's actually been one I've doing as of late is,

having, I have an elixir in the morning with a bunch of electrolytes and Shilajit and things like that. And then about an hour after that, I'll have my cup of coffee. I delay the onset of the caffeine about an hour after wake. That's when I actually load up five to six raw eggs with this. I whip it up with like, you know, half a cup, cup, two cups of raw milk, throw in some raw honey, you know, and pimp it out with some little bit of salt and some L-thene, magnesium, those kinds of things on the side with it. But I have this 50 grams of protein coffee.

And with all these fats and butter and things in it too, and that is just like I feel nourished It doesn't hit my bloodstream as fast with the caffeine. It's a slower absorption The raw eggs are are great super assimilated like I don't have a fear of salmonella personally If they're good quality resource pasture raise local organic like if you're getting some big, know The the styrofoam ones you see like Walmart you're probably gonna get some weird kind of haunted parasite thing going on or bacterial infection So, you know quality is key, but that's what i've been doing man for like my first meal of the day an hour after waking

Stuart Cooke (16:00)
Fantastic. I mean, that's a fatty protein bomb of a meal in a cup right there. So then you would gravitate to, mean, lunch would be at lunchtime for you, I'm presuming, and you'd still gonna be hungry at that time.

Christian Van Camp (16:06)
Yeah, right.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, I mean, even even me bringing up this whole coffee thing, I don't have coffee every day, so that won't always be the go to. I'll actually just cook my eggs sometimes and I'll have like the yolks preserved, the nutrients are preserved, and I'll just have like six to seven eggs with some coconut oil or butter and maybe throw some like cilantro or basil with some herbs, usually every day. Maybe a couple of raw carrots with it on the side to have some of the fiber boost with it and a cup of berries or mango or something on it with it too.

So my meals are always changing, but it's kind of what I'm feeling when I'm waking up, what is intuitively what I'm aiming for, especially if I'm training or wanting to take it easy that day. There's all these factors I go into. But yeah, that's usually the routine. then three, four hours later, I'll have another meal. Three to four hours later, I'll have another meal, snack maybe here and there. But that's usually the routine. And I have my last meal about three hours before bed. anywhere from 5 to 6 PM, go to bed around 8, 9, 10 PM sometimes.

Stuart Cooke (16:51)
Hmm.

Great. Tell me about your sleep routine because I'm sure you'll agree in some way, shape or form, we've, or I find that sleep is probably one of the biggest pillars that we have in terms of where health is concerned. And it does require, it does require work. And I have a sleep routine and I've been fastidious in dialing that up all of the little nuances just to optimize my sleep routine. think I've got it down pattern. I track.

Christian Van Camp (17:12)
Mmm.

Sure.

Stuart Cooke (17:36)
sleep with an aura ring and things like that. I do, yeah, I just have aura ring. I've been using that for probably four years and it's great because it gives you a perfect insight into what you're speaking about. If I have an evening meal too late, resting heart rate stays too high and you don't get as much deep sleep and it's really impacted that way. So what does your sleep routine look like?

Christian Van Camp (17:37)
You use like an aura ring or something?

Yeah, nice.

Mm.

Yeah, I mean it's the basics. I always go back to like mitigate blue light That's why i'm a i'm blue light nazi when it comes to this stuff So like cut all that blue light out, know, two three four hours if you can before sleep like My whole house is like the red light district like there's this red lights all glowing everywhere So I have blue blocking glasses and you know turn my phone on red mode if I can and you know All those things i'll take advantage of so like no blue light because all that cortisol dump you get decreasing melatonin It's just going to cause so much havoc on sleep

Stuart Cooke (18:04)
Yeah.

Yeah

Christian Van Camp (18:26)
Many people are like, I sleep fine. I blast all this blue light during the day and right before bed, I sleep fine. I'm like, no, actually, you may be feeling like you're sleeping, but you're not activating that part of your brain with deep sleep rhythms later on. So I encourage everyone, I think that's the silent killer of today is too much blue light, the flashing of it, all those things. Get some fluorescent bulbs before they're completely illegal everywhere, because they're really trying to take those out. Or incandescent, excuse me. Just make sure you make some of those switches, right?

Stuart Cooke (18:30)
year.

Christian Van Camp (18:52)
So I think it's a big one right there's a big pillar is the red lights, you know Get some good red lights get some blue blockers and cut off the blue light. Another thing is just maxing on Getting that's that food before sleep get the digestive fire going well So you can actually have some of your organs like right around 1 to 2 a.m You have a lot of liver phase 1 and phase 2 detoxification So really important to give your body that little rest before sleep to allow the liver to do its thing You know in TCM you guys can actually look this up traditional Chinese medicine or Chinese medicine

Stuart Cooke (19:12)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Van Camp (19:20)
Organ clock and you can see all the different organs that are activated throughout the day liver is one of those at night So it's really important to keep that liver healthy and happy so, you know eat a little bit earlier two plus hours before bed is a good metric Right before bed. I like to take a little bit of sugar though funny enough So I'll have like a spoonful a little small teaspoon of honey that's been shown to have a lot of support with deep sleep for me I feel amazing doing that a little bit of raw honey or tart cherry juice can be beneficial to load it up in antioxidants

Stuart Cooke (19:40)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Van Camp (19:47)
Natural source of melatonin great for sleep. But generally it's just really simple stuff little mobilization active movement Maybe go on an evening walk keep the the blue light mitigation eat early take some magnesium L-theanine take that quite often before bed glycine I mentioned those already this this podcast So those those are basic fundamentals and just keeping stress low, you know turning off tech if you can Unplugging the Wi-Fi router, you know want to mitigate some EMS and keep the phone in airplane mode before bed

Pleased by the grace of God too, there's coming out with more research on this. Keeping the phone plugged in by your bedside, huge no-no. So if you guys are leaving your phone plugged in with the outlet, it actually is taking all this battery power and at some point, an hour or two later, it's already filled up, so it's just magnifying all this radiation right by you. So I encourage you to just get the phone out of the room or put it away from your bedside and headset. Look in the...

Stuart Cooke (20:31)
Hmm.

Christian Van Camp (20:35)
Actually at the the bed head to where your head is laying if there's an outlet to just try to avoid like sleeping by an outlet because that's also Radiating a bit so your head could be really close to that in the wall So these are like things I'm very aware of when I'm doing travels and stuff like I'm in Costa Rica right now So making sure all that stuff covered and well, so there's some basic foundations though

Stuart Cooke (20:54)
Great, yeah, well worth investigating more, I think, because sleep is just that one thing that if you nail, I think it just starts the journey to great health and all of the other decisions seem to fall into alignment. Now, I just wanted to dive into tech because you're coming at it from obviously surrounded by nature and using the cues of nature to be able to optimize our health, which is super important. And I want to duck into

Christian Van Camp (21:04)
Mmm.

Stuart Cooke (21:21)
bio-culture and things like that soon, but technology obviously has a dark side. It has addictive traps, takes us away from being present, constantly taps us on the shoulder with notifications and bells and whistles and chirps and chimes and things like that. How do you balance technology? Because obviously that side of things for you is pivotal for you to be able to spread your message.

Christian Van Camp (21:44)
Yeah, I always you know really tell a lot of people I Encourage them to just get in the mindset of how can I create not consume on this device because that's where it is like the extrapolation of my soul When we're always reaching for the phone just to consume something whether it's a text from someone a call from someone It's a memo from someone It's flashiness online or this new post or this new YouTube video or whatever it is. It's like it's all about consumption, right?

So if we can move away from that mindset of I'm consuming and shift it to how can I create on these little, these matrix devices, that is just like an epiphany in itself to change your entire life, right? That creation through life force is key. So I really encourage anyone that is wanting to cultivate a healthy relationship with tech, the thing that's helped me immensely is I love creating, whether it's creating a story on Instagram, it's creating a post, it's creating something on YouTube, it's creating an email to someone so it impacts them, it's.

messaging someone to voice memo like any of these things are forms of creation and I have zero games on my phone like my phone is used for business and growth and professional development so anything that I put online or through this like network www it's making an impact and somehow God in the future is gonna give back to me tenfold like I just believe in that if I'm just giving giving giving I will receive without the expectation to receive so I encourage people to like use these devices

by creating as much as possible. Because everyone has the capacity to do this, Stuart. You've built your business, right? It's so beautiful. How can you help people and create that impact through these Macbooks, through these iPhones, through these Androids? Make something. Create something to make an impact. Everyone knows something. I think we doubt ourselves a lot, but there's a lot we already know. We don't need more education. We just know what we know and let's share that, right? So that's one thing that's helped me a ton when it comes to that healthy relationship with tech.

Stuart Cooke (23:29)
Fantastic. I remember, and I don't know whether you've watched the documentary, The Social Dilemma, but once you realize what's actually going on in terms of why am I so addicted to these devices? Why do I keep getting these notifications? And you realize that ultimately, every time something pops up on my phone, someone's making a dollar somewhere and it's in their best interest to keep serving me ads. Frightening.

Christian Van Camp (23:34)
yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Exactly,

poor children, dude, I think it frightening mostly for the younger generation, for sure. I'm sure your head space is in that too, yeah.

Stuart Cooke (23:55)
frightening.

Yeah.

Well, I have three daughters and they have been raised in a digital age and I'm constantly like the grumpy old dad saying, I remember when this stuff wasn't here and life was good. We used to daydream like, yes, we'd be bored, but that was a good thing because we used to switch on our brains and think and create.

Christian Van Camp (24:05)
yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Hehehe

Yeah.

Stuart Cooke (24:21)
just as you mentioned previously. it's very hard for the kids because now it's innocuous. It's everywhere. These devices are endemic and oftentimes the conversations that have on the devices are replacing real time face to face. Yeah, I don't know where it's gonna go, but bring back the 80s. That's what I say. Good times. Yeah, unbelievable. So bioculture.

Christian Van Camp (24:37)
Right.

Yeah, I was just talking to a buddy about that too. Exactly, exactly.

Stuart Cooke (24:50)
Now I've read and seen a lot of content on your channels around bio culture, but I'm not familiar or wasn't familiar with the term. So why don't you just tell us a little bit about that.

Christian Van Camp (24:50)
Mmm.

Dude, bioculture is the coolest thing that has erupted on the face of this planet when it comes to merging our four core pillars, which is sovereignty, vitality, collaboration, community, and just overall having people come together in these core aspects. It's the coolest thing, man. I mean, it's really merging this technological creation, I was saying, through Lifeforce and getting the symbiosis of a content creation agency with a retreat system.

So we're basically hosting these epic retreats in jungle beach towns of Mexico, of Costa Rica. We're even going to Peru next year. Doing them just about once a month. That is the scale we're going at. people that are going to these are high level performers, everywhere to guests that want to hang out with some of these content creators that are in the health hemisphere. They're into anything that is pointed towards the sovereignty, vitality. And we're collaborating like crazy. We're basically...

leveraging brands that partner with us that are in the health space. We're very particular about who we work with. We got companies like Biooptimizer, which we worked with, some bigger brands like Sheila's Heat Companies, things that are just really top notch on the planet. And what we're doing is actually helping leverage their marketing strategy through the content creators in the health space that join these retreats. So we're able to get tons of these feed posts out through.

Instagram so if you're a brand that wants to work with us That's a big part of it like we'll sponsor you and get tons of content out there for your discounted rate batch batch products But more importantly, it's about the experience right these retreats were hosting are just so potent and powerful. There's so much spiritual and physical and Mental growth in these they're about five to six days and you know, is it since we're in Mexico? We kickstart with the classic Temescal, which is a traditional ceremonial

Sweat lodge in Mexico. So it's a beautiful experience. We open up with that opens up everyone's hearts anywhere from 20 usually 15 to 30 people show up at these retreats And we open that up and we get into this the most nourishing foods from raw milk, know quality grass-fed beef Like you name it all the most quality resource stuff on the planet eating that at every meal We're doing yoga in the mornings breath work sound healing

You know, we're having masterminds and all sorts of subjects relating to like sacred sexuality talking about, you know how we can leverage our businesses with marketing we talk all about You know, how can we optimize our nutrition? How can we optimize our mindsets? Like it's just the most beautiful space being held for guests sponsors brands and content creators all in one so it's been something I've been cultivating with my buddy Dakota Mays Mays yoga on

platforms and we've been building this up and I've been supporting him the past seven months on that and it's going to the moon for sure. It's a really beautiful experience.

Stuart Cooke (27:30)
Hmm.

And where can we go if we want to find out more about that because that does sound next level

Christian Van Camp (27:42)
Yeah, it's a mouthful man. I mean, it's really cool It's a bio culture retreats calm like you can learn everything on that website book a call with us if you're interested in joining one of them for sure

Stuart Cooke (27:51)
Fantastic, well, we'll put that in the show notes. So tell me, you've got a whole bunch of health practices there and a lot of them could be seen as quite new. Are there any health practices that you may have once dismissed, but now find super valuable?

Christian Van Camp (28:04)
Mm-hmm.

this is a good question. I would say I in all honesty, it's funny you say dismissed like I told you earlier like I've always had a curious mind in this space and open mind to try new things I've never really dismissed anything I would say mean a little bit was probably like juicing like I always thought juicy was kind of overhype or something like that But I think there's some profound benefits if you do it right with some proper juicing you know when I say juice, I mean, it's like

I personally have had a great experience with celery juice, good quality celery juice, mixing that with some like ginger here and there and some lemon and you know, maybe throwing in some orange juice and like carrot juice and things along those lines. I've had great hydration experiences with that. So, and I'm sure some detoxification and whatnot, but you know, ultimately when it comes to, you know, dismissing anything, I've never really been like shut off or closed off to any sort of thing or modality relating to health, but I have had a certain.

Mindsets averse to like veganism like I think it's overhyped in many ways in our culture And I think there's deeper state propaganda related to it But I think it can be beneficial for some people in the short term like if you really want to amplify amplify detox pathways It may be beneficial just to throw that in for like a week or two weeks or three weeks But once you start going after like the five month six month period you just hear the catabolism you hear the nutrient deficiency You hear all about the things that happen with it. So, you know, that's one thing that I will

be a little off kilter, you know, with like a vegan heavy or plant based diet. But outside of that with nutrition, mean, I'd say just like foundations of nature. I've gone closer and closer to going back to nature for everything. Over the years I've had, know, certain companies have worked with like EMF mitigation tech and whatnot. I think there's some profound ones that have been proven through some studies and science to be beneficial.

Stuart Cooke (29:46)
So we're kind of coming up on time. So I've just got a few questions now. So integration of nature into wellness. It offers so much in terms of sunlight and grounding and just

I guess experiencing nature and all of the cues that it sends to the body to make us feel amazing. How do you recommend that we best use nature to our advantage for wellness?

Christian Van Camp (30:09)
Mm-hmm keeping it simple right? always say kids keep it simple. Keep it Simple silly. We'll keep it nice here Ultimately just really doing your best to get some grounding in every day if you can right get those free electrons Really dissipate any of that inflammation we carry throughout the day, especially in this modern era with all these EMFs So, you know, I encourage people for 30 minutes every day if you can, know 15 is even good But like 30 minutes every day is a minimum shoot for that going outside in the mornings Even if it's cold outside we're at in the wintertime like doing your best to get some grounding in

You know really get out in some grass get out even if it's cold like like crazy cold You know snowy ground like just do your best to get that grounding in with your feet It's gonna help so much when it comes to inflammation pain in the body and stress So like that's a great way to connect with nature in the mornings and grand risings I encourage people you know going back to the whole foods That's a great way to connect with nature and your inner nature, Eating foods from nature is a single ingredient. Is it fruit from nature? Is it food?

That is, you know, carnivorous from nature, single ingredients foods, just do your best to aim for those. Sunlight exposure, man, that circadian clock. The biggest hack I can say for anyone that works, especially if you're working from home, is do your best to get outdoor light as much as possible. Most outdoor light, even on a cloudy day like right now I'm outside, is over 10,000 lux light energy. That's gonna be sending signals to the brain to help out with activating the awakefulness response and helping you sleep deeper at night with increasing melatonin for deeper sleep.

So I encourage anyone at all to do your best to get outside as much as possible out of the artificial lights, away from indoors and the windows, away from just shut off in these little cubicles. Go on walks if you can frequently, know, 15, 20 minute walks, three times a day. Like just get outside as much as possible. Set up your work site outside if you can. And if you can't do that, cause it's cold outside, just go on those walks. Bundle up and go on those walks. Get that light into the eyes. The number one thing, we're light beings, we need that natural light.

These artificial lights are really killing us very slowly. It's that silent killer we were talking about earlier with the blue light at night. So encourage people to do that and going back to just breath, just take a breath even right now. Like are you trapping it in the chest? To connect with nature, breathing that fresh air, just doing your best to calm the nervous system down. Four or five seconds in, seven, eight seconds out. That longer respiration is gonna help a ton when it comes to.

supporting your nervous system response, boosting metabolism, and all the little minute details there. So focus on that breath, right? Get that long exhalation and inhalation in.

Stuart Cooke (32:23)
Yeah.

Fantastic. Yeah, it's a game changer. So if our listeners could make one single immediate shift to their routine to improve their health, what do you think that might be? Would it be movement, breath related? Would it be diet related, sleep related? Where would you start?

Christian Van Camp (32:45)
Yeah, I mean we talked all about the physical playing stuff in the beginning that I was going on rabbit holes on Go back to the mindset go back to yourself talk, right? What kind of words are you using? Are you constantly using words? Like I'll try like the word trying I'll try to do that or I'll get to that someday that word someday. It's future related. It's not taking action now It's actually a very deep victim mindset, right? We're in a culture today that is ultra sensitive and that victim mindset is holding us back from actually

Achieving the life we want and achieving the dreams we want in the the now right? So I encourage anyone just to remove and do your best any of those victim words any of those Conflict language right that is going against the grain of who you truly are in your highest self removing words like try maybe kind of possibly probably Those kind of words really holding us back or even just saying I want that or I need that those words are sending signals that I'm deficient in those things Which is sending to the universe receive more deficiency instead of receiving abundance

Stuart Cooke (33:20)
Yeah.

Christian Van Camp (33:40)
So go back to gratitude. Gratitude is like the absolute purest medicine that you can put in your mind and body. And it's the most healing thing ever is activating gratitude, changing that self-talk from victim mindset. That's for sure numero uno.

Stuart Cooke (33:53)
then just as a wrap up question, so your personal daily non-negotiables, and I'm sure you've probably covered a ton of them there, but if you've got your back against the wall and you're up for a new day and you think, I've just got to crush maybe two or three habits and I know I'm going to be fine for the whole day, what might your default non-negotiables be?

Christian Van Camp (34:16)
Numero uno, I said start the day with a good protein rich meal, but also pre post meal or pre first meal of the day. Focus on getting a lot of good quality hydration and focus on some good quality filtered water, reverse osmosis, enhance it with some minerals. I encourage you to get a good quality electrolyte powder, throw in some good quality mineral rich salt that is lower in the microplastics and heavy metals. There's many brands out there. Throw a half teaspoon of that in the water.

Stuart Cooke (34:23)
Yeah.

Christian Van Camp (34:42)
And then throw in some lemon, do a daily lemon with that organic lemon, juice that up, put a splash of apple cider vinegar with some of the mother in there. That right there getting that digestive fire for like, you know, 12 ounces or just like a cups worth is going to be so beneficial to flood your body with that after a long night of going without the hydration. So that right there is number one. I would say another big one is just going on walks after meals, speaking of nutrition. like post-prandial walks, there's so much evidence of that being so beneficial for digestion, for metabolism, for energy levels. So.

After each meal, just be active. Whether it is going on some light yoga or going on a walk for 15 to 20 minutes, that is so beneficial for blood sugar, energy in the day. Very easy thing that everyone can do if you have legs. So take advantage of that. And I'd say last but not least, another habit that is huge is start building something. I think, especially for us men, we're here to build, we're here to create in many ways outside of just, for women specifically, they're...

Stuart Cooke (35:23)
Ha

Christian Van Camp (35:35)
really designed by God to create a beautiful baby on this planet. Men are also, women are also designed to do that too and have a mission, but men especially, like we really need to build something, create something bigger than working for the big man, right? So I encourage you just to, little by little, if you're working a side job, just like create something that is beneficial for the greater good, that you can really feel lit up from. I think that is just the most important thing for all around is having some form of occupational wellness lit up inside of you, which can then lead to some financial wellness as well.

Whether that is sharing something online is a copywriting gig It's making a podcast and starting a conversation with someone that can eventually grow who knows but like create something create something online Something that is like really passion driven core value driven. That's gonna be huge So however that looks, know that could really just be reaching out to people in networking or starting to post something online Like that is a really powerful way to go

Stuart Cooke (36:25)
Fantastic, that is great advice. There is something in there for everybody and no holds barred, just get out there and do it and whatever it is, start small, but start the journey. And I think things will just come right in the end if we continually to continue to work on our health. So for all of our listeners that want to find out more about you, your retreats, bioculture, et cetera, your messages, all of your learnings online, where can we go to get more of you?

Christian Van Camp (36:34)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so I'm at CVC Wellness on all platforms, CVC Wellness. If I'm on Instagram, I'm super active there. Twitter, I'm extremely active, or X you can call it. I'm tweeting every day some really helpful, beneficial stuff. You can get on my website as well. can access all these things, cvcwellness.com. I'm all over the map. I'm here to support you too. Reach out personally. I'm here to start a conversation to support you on this journey, this health hike, I like to say.

Stuart Cooke (37:11)
Fantastic, fantastic. look, really enjoyed the conversation. We got loads and loads of useful tips, tricks, tools, strategies, whatever we call them, packed full of info that you can apply to your health in order to take yourself to a higher place. Christian, thank you so much. I really enjoyed the conversation and I hope at some stage that we will connect again in the future.

Christian Van Camp (37:32)
Yeah, to Vitality, my friend. Appreciate you, Stuart.

Stuart Cooke (37:35)
Thank you, mate. Thank you.