1KHO 622: Choosing the Hard Things on Purpose | Heath and Chrissy Evans, BUILTREADY

Summary

The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: "Choosing the Hard Things on Purpose"

Guests: Heath and Chrissy Evans (BUILTREADY)
Host: Jenny Urich (That Sounds Fun Network)
Date: November 16, 2025

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Overview

This episode dives into the powerful story of Heath and Chrissy Evans—a couple who have both overcome tremendous personal challenges (Heath, a former NFL player and TV analyst, and Chrissy, who lost 150 pounds and kept it off). The conversation centers around purposeful decision-making, faith, resilience, adoption, health advocacy, and redefining what it means to "choose the hard things" for a life of growth, purpose, and service. Their shared journey underscores the importance of faith, discipline, and willingness to step into difficult paths for meaning and impact, especially within family and holistic health.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Rock Bottoms and Personal Transformations

• Chrissy’s Weight Loss Journey
  • Explores failures of quick fixes and weight loss surgery.
  • Realization that sustainable change comes from deep-rooted discipline and mindset shift rather than shortcuts.

  “I was going to be on a billboard for weight loss surgery failures. ...I haven’t fixed any of my issues. I’m as unhappy as I ever was.” – Chrissy (04:22)

• Heath’s NFL and Career Crisis
  • After a successful NFL career and transition to TV, faces a wrongful accusation scandal that forced life re-evaluation.
  • Faith and personal failures led him to deeper purpose beyond accolades.

  “Super Bowl rings and, you know, big weight loss hero company. This stuff just doesn’t satisfy a human soul... we need our sins forgiven and we need the love of the Lord.” – Heath (06:04)

Meeting, Marriage, and Blended Family

• Unique How-They-Met Story:
  • Slid into DMs; connected quickly around faith and health.
  • Married in ~100 days during COVID, emphasizing simplicity, transparency, and wise counsel.

  “When you know, you know. We knew and we met and we got married. ...If you’re considering getting married, you’ve only known someone 100 days—you should probably do it.” – Chrissy (08:23)

• Blending Families and Adoption:
  • Chrissy became "bonus mom" to Heath's teenage daughters.
  • Decided to adopt four children—sibling group from foster care—rooted in biblical vision for caring for the fatherless.

Adoption, Foster Care, and Bethesda Ranch

• God-Driven Motivation:
  • Continuously drawn to the scriptural command to care for orphans and the fatherless.
  • Founded the Bethesda Ranch nonprofit, visioning a safe, nurturing environment for foster kids:

  “I want to take over the foster care system in the state of Texas. I want all 45,000 of these kids to be under our care... put them out in the sun.” – Heath (14:08)

• Choosing Hard Adoptions:
  • Opted for "legal risk" placements and large sibling groups often considered unadoptable due to trauma or behavioral risk.
  • Faced systemic foster care obstacles and failures but persevered with faith-driven commitment and practical tools:

  “We had to look at each other and we’re like, we’ll figure it out. ...We’ll take a fire starter. ...But it’s such a humbling thing because... my sin’s been no less gnarly. And yet God loves me, God saved me.” – Chrissy (16:06)

Parenting Philosophy and Overcoming Fear

• Faith as Foundation for Risk and Resilience:
  • Their approach: embrace hard paths, trust God's plan, and parent with truth and transparency, even when it's difficult for the children to hear.
  • Reject fear-based living, teaching kids that safety and identity come from faith, not circumstances.

  “Everything God asks his children to do is impossible... but he strengthens us to do it.” – Heath (28:00)

• Healing Trauma with Truth and Love:
  • Honest conversations about biological parents and the realities of their past, rather than soothing lies prescribed by the system.

  “We’re going to grieve with them. ...We are going to have hard, hard, hard conversations and the truth of God’s word always bears fruit.” – Heath (29:22)

• Overcoming Fear in Children:
  • Instilling confidence by modeling faith and reliability, building trust through consistent love.

  “I want to raise fearless young men and a fearless little girl. ...They were scared of their own shadows when they got here. Now we're having to reel them back.” – Heath (31:52)

Disciplined Living, Health, and Holistic Advocacy

• Lessons from the NFL:
  • Team mentality, humility, and the limits of worldly success.

  “To accomplish something together is way better than to accomplish something all by yourself. ...All by yourself is lonely.” – Heath (33:34)

• Critique of Big Pharma and Processed Food:
  • Advocates for moving away from over-medication and ultra-processed foods.
  • Encourages seeking root causes, using whole foods, simplified supplements, and lifestyle changes.

  "Culture really wants you weak... big pharma’s goal is to get you just enough better to keep coming back for more.” – Chrissy (41:24)

• Personal Health Choices:
  • Experience overcoming dependence on birth control and antidepressants.
  • Emphasizes side effects and masked symptoms, advocating for informed, faith-centered health decisions.

  “There is a steadiness and a peace that no anxiety pill can give you.” – Chrissy (53:27)

BUILTREADY, Viceroy Nutrition & Their Mission

• BuiltReady:
  • Offers health coaching for sustainable lifestyle change, combining professional sports nutrition with real-world experience.

  “We want to be… that company that helps people get healthy for the glory of God. ...Slow and steady. We preach more food, not less food. We want well fed, because well fed... will sleep well, think well, love well.” – Heath (54:00)

• Viceroy Nutrition:
  • Provides specialized supplements—the best-quality protein, minerals, and hydration support.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On true discipline:

  “Success, discipline, they suck. But being unsuccessful and undisciplined sucks way worse.” – Heath (05:07)

• On faith and doing the impossible:

  “Everything God asks his children to do is impossible. ...We can’t do it, but he strengthens us to do it.” – Heath (28:00)

• On the reality behind foster care decisions:

  “What are we going to say no to? ...We’re just like, oh yeah, we’ll just take everything, I guess.” – Chrissy (16:39)

• On how trauma shapes "hard kids":

  “I know I’ve had such season of dysfunction where people had to be patient for me...my sin’s been no less gnarly.” – Chrissy (16:08)

• On purpose and wealth in the NFL world:

  “I’ve been in this position of power and prestige... you see a whole bunch of unhappy, unsettled, discontent people, and yet they have everything the world says they need to be happy.” – Heath (35:22)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:41 – On personal wake-up calls and ongoing process of change
• 02:23 – Chrissy describes the pain and lessons from weight loss surgery failure
• 06:44 – Heath describes his NFL-to-TV crisis and how pain led him to deeper faith
• 07:15 – The story of meeting and marrying quickly during COVID
• 13:04 – Discussing blended family, adoption, and founding Bethesda Ranch
• 16:39 – Deciding not to place limits on what type of kids they’d adopt
• 18:23 – Adjusting to parenting kids with trauma, but finding gratitude and resilience
• 26:29 – On faith driving their bold life choices and risk-taking
• 28:00 – The impossibility of faith-driven tasks and how God strengthens
• 29:19 – On establishing honest, loving discipline and overcoming kids’ trauma
• 32:25 – Teaching children to overcome fear through modeled faith
• 33:34 – Lessons from professional sports about teamwork and happiness
• 39:47 – Critique of big pharma, processed foods, and shifting to whole health
• 44:41 – Chrissy on getting off pharmaceuticals and regaining true peace
• 54:00 – Launching BuiltReady and practical nutrition advice

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Childhood Outdoor Memories

• Heath: Football from early childhood; connection with his dad ("all my joyous moments were me and dad throwing the ball...").
• Chrissy: Nostalgic outdoor play with neighbor, using "Ninja Turtles walkie talkies" for hide and seek.

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Final Notes

• Heath and Chrissy encourage embracing purposeful discipline, honest self-appraisal, and undaunted faith, challenging the cultural currents of fear and comfort-seeking.
• Their story underscores that choosing “the hard things on purpose” yields deep rewards—including overcoming personal struggle, building resilient families, and making a difference for vulnerable children.
• Follow their coaching and health initiatives through BUILTREADY, Viceroy Nutrition, and Bethesda Ranch for practical guidance and inspiration.

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For more:
Find links to Heath & Chrissy’s organizations in the episode show notes.

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Host Praise:
“Thank you for all that you’re putting out into the world… you’re not afraid, you’re gonna go, you’re gonna try things and you’re gonna leave your mark on the world.” – Jenny Urich (56:13)

Heath’s Parting Compliment:
“You’re really good at what you do. ...It’s a gift. To be good behind the camera and on the mic is tough and you did really well.” – Heath (57:41)

Transcript

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Nespresso Gift Magical mornings with Nespresso Vertuo Pop. Compact and stylish, Vertuo Pop is made to meet every morning coffee craving. From espresso to coffee, hot or iced, at the click of a button. And celebrate the season with Nespresso's limited edition coffee flavors. Sweet almond and hibiscus, cinnamon and candied tamarind and festive double espresso. Magic in the making Shop the holiday gift Collection [e-mail] Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast.

[Jenny Urich]

My name is Jenny Urich. I'm the founder of 1000 Hours Outside and I have a power couple with me today. Like, a total power couple. Like, the guy was in the NFL and the girl lost 150 pounds and kept it off. I mean, this is incredible. You guys have done a ton of other things as well. But like, I was like, whoa, these people are amazing. Heath and Chrissy Evans, welcome.

[Heath Evans]

Well, thank you for having us.

[Chrissy Evans]

Yes, we're glad to be here.

[Heath Evans]

Playing in the NFL is hard, but losing 150 pounds is much harder.

[Jenny Urich]

It's incredible. I kept it off. And you guys have done so many things. You've been all featured all over the place and you're really just out there helping people with their health, their faith, their discipline and just figuring out how.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

To live better lives.

[Jenny Urich]

Better marriages, better families, better spiritual walks, better holistic living all around. So it's such an honor to like, see, kind of study you a little bit and then to have you here to talk with us. You both had these pretty big wake.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Up calls in your life.

[Jenny Urich]

Did those happen before you met?

[Chrissy Evans]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Chrissy Evans]

Like we don't have the answer to that question.

[Heath Evans]

It's a loaded question, right? I mean, we're kind of always in process, right?

[Chrissy Evans]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

Physically and spiritually, like, there's just no neutral. And so I think we're like, yeah, that happened before. And then it's just kind of been ongoing and it's been a that now we just get to do it together.

[Chrissy Evans]

I've had too many wake up calls. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, which wakeup call are we talking about? No, I'm just kidding.

[Heath Evans]

So share your story first or.

[Chrissy Evans]

Yeah, yeah, that's good.

[Jenny Urich]

Let's hear it. Because there's. Well, you at least had a big moment. Like Heath, you talk about there was.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Some issues with the NFL and you.

[Jenny Urich]

Got wrongly accused of some things. And then, you know, I saw the pictures, Chrissy. I was like, oh, my gosh you look like a completely different person. So you know at what point you're like, okay, I'm going to make this.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Big change for my health.

[Jenny Urich]

I mean, I think a lot of people try to and. But you actually did it.

[Chrissy Evans]

Yeah, it's really hard. I tried every shortcut. I unfortunately learned that those don't work all too well. I was doing skinny wraps and all sorts of things that I could try. I'm trying to even Remember, was it 2013? It's been a while. I had several co workers. Ozempic wasn't around yet, but weight loss surgery was. That was the thing everybody was doing. And everyone's like, oh, you're gonna lose all this weight. You're gonna eat whatever you want and you're just gonna lose a bunch of weight. So I'm like, cool, I'm gonna do it. I put it on a credit card. I couldn't afford to pay for this thing, but I'm like, I'm gonna change my life. And so it became kind of like my ultimate rock bottom moment because I've like always been a bit of like a tell everybody my business, live out loud transparent kind of gal. And so everyone in my personal circle, like, knows that I have had weight loss surgery. And during the first phase, it's like you lose weight and you're like, like you're having only liquid. So of course you're losing weight. And then you start eating real food again. And you know the doctor is telling you to have like sugar free popsicles and bone broth and I'm having frappuccinos and mashed potatoes because that sounded better to me. And so what I really quickly realized is after kind of an initial drop is I was in the same place I'd always been. I'm up, down, I'm up, down. And I just remember like crying my eyes out on the way to work and being like, I'm going to be on a billboard for weight loss surgery failures. They're going to be like, call a 1, 800 number. You might have a claim. Because I'm the poster child, right? I haven't fixed any of my issues. I'm as unhappy as I ever was. Maybe I'm 40 pounds lighter at the time, but, like, this was a rock bottom moment for me that is like, I have to change. I have to change. And so you fast forward. I started dieting, I started exercising. I really tried to seek healthy mindset change and just like discipline change. My whole life changed, really, as a rock bottom of weight loss surgery. Not being everything I thought it was. I just. I wanted the easy way out. I remember being at a, like a class beforehand where they're like, telling you how you're going to eat one day and all the how, you know, they're showing you your plate and how much should be protein. And I'm like, I'm planning when I'm going to get a taco casa on the way home. I'm just sitting there thinking about, like, I'm going to get a big burrito and it's gonna be awesome. And so I wasn't ready to make changes. And so it. Luckily it served as a very expensive and painful way to show me that, like, nothing is gonna help. Like, nothing's gonna help me and nothing's gonna change until something changes. And so from there was kind of the domino effect where my physical transformation really just skyrocketed and just took off from there.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah, we have a saying that success, discipline, they suck. But being unsuccessful and undisciplined sucks way worse.

[Ad Voice]

Oh, that's true.

[Heath Evans]

And so her rock bottom moment, it was kind of this, look yourself in the mirror and you're like, well, doggone right, I've spent all this money, but I still have to eat better. And this stomach is still going to stretch back out. And so doggone, I'm just back to square number one, where I've just got to choose to be disciplined. And it's going to be hard, but it's also really rewarding and very fruitful. And the. It is just not fun. We've all been in undisciplined seasons of life. We've all been in unsuccessful seasons of life. And though my story is obviously different because it's NFL related, I was the little chubby white boy from Palm Beach, Florida, that said, I'm going to play in the NFL and then go into NFL tv. And in God's kindness to me, that's what I did. I played 10 years and then went right in NFL Network and NFL on Fox. And then, you know, eight years later, me, myself, and, you know, Warren Sapp and Marshall Flock and all these hall of Famers are getting accused by one woman of sexual harassment. I'm like, well, this is like a great friend babysitted my kids. This is nuts. NFL kind of me along and then, you know, tries to make me go away quietly, and I'm like, screw that. And, you know, here we are today. But those hard times have made us. And I think specifically, really for us, the Lord really kind of broke us in Those seasons of hard times and made us see that and the super bowl rings and, you know, big weight loss hero company. This stuff just doesn't satisfy a human soul. Like, we need our sins forgiven and we need the love of the Lord. And so our rock bottoms have kind of found us there and, well, God found us there and we're grateful.

[Jenny Urich]

So then at what point do Chrissy and Heath, like, at what point of the journey, like, you've lost your weight, you're out of the NFL Network at this point. Like, where do you meet up in the story?

[Heath Evans]

When I slid into her DMs, he.

[Chrissy Evans]

Slid into my DNA on Instagram. He sent me a video. Like, you know when it says like a message request and it's a video and I think like three and you're like, is this gonna be bad? Like, I don't know this guy, you know? Well, I opened it. It was. It was risky.

[Jenny Urich]

It is. It's risky. Yeah. I don't really know.

[Heath Evans]

Well, earlier in the day, she had seen a post that I had posted all about Jesus and she liked it. So obviously in our world, I liked.

[Chrissy Evans]

It because I thought he was cute and it was about Jesus.

[Heath Evans]

So I had a young daughter, still do. Who needed some help in the weight loss category post my divorce. Things just are hard, right? And being a daddy and trying to help your girls stay healthy is just difficult waters. And so I reach out to Chrissy. I see weight loss hero come up on this. Like, you know, I'm like, weight loss hero. I'm like, and then I see John, you know, 3:30, that he must increase, I must decrease. I'm like, that's not the normal, like, kind of Instagram. Not so what's the the kind terminology? Maybe not. Not so good. Christian girl puts John 3:16. And then they're kind of opposite of everything a Christian woman should be. I'll just leave it at that. And then I messenger, I'm like, hey, do you work with young teenage girls? And she said, I have in the past. And then we were married like a hundred days later.

[Chrissy Evans]

Yeah.

[Ad Voice]

What?

[Chrissy Evans]

It was insane. It was crazy.

[Jenny Urich]

Also through Instagram.

[Chrissy Evans]

Through Instagram, yeah. It was around 100 days, maybe a few days shy.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Chrissy Evans]

I was in Texas, he was in California. They say when you know, you know, we knew and we met and we got married. It's been all. It'll be this year will be five years. It's. It's been amazing. So it was a great deal. So if you're considering getting married, you've only known someone 100 days. You should probably do it.

[Heath Evans]

I don't know. We've counseled a lot of people not to do it.

[Chrissy Evans]

Yeah. Actually, you know, for us also, Covid, which. That was just a weird time. You know, there was just a lot of things that. It just made it very. So it was during 2020, and he was in California. So, like, we hadn't. We couldn't even go inside a restaurant. Like, when we were. When we were dating.

[Heath Evans]

Dating was very inexpensive. Like, we just cook it at the house.

[Chrissy Evans]

There wasn't a lot of choice.

[Jenny Urich]

How do you get married in 100 days? You just keep it simple.

[Heath Evans]

Things were very personal, and things were very sacrificial. I quickly made my intentions known.

[Jenny Urich]

Did you send another video?

[Heath Evans]

Oh, no, no. This was verbal. This was.

[Chrissy Evans]

But it's always.

[Jenny Urich]

I mean, it must have been really quick.

[Chrissy Evans]

He's a video guy.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. Well, listen. I mean, like, we have this technology, and anyone can hide behind a text when you get on FaceTime. Right. Like, I'm going to see a lot of quirks. She's going to see my quirks. And so kind of the way it was, I quickly knew I had sincere interest, and so I said, hey, listen, I'm kind of in a season with this pastor. He's discipling me. So I've been through so much with NFL Network. I've been through a divorce. The Lord had saved me. I'm just. I'm learning to love Jesus, learning to lead like a godly man should, all these different things, and have two daughters. And so I had three books to read, and I'm like, I'm. I can't see you. Or you can't come to Cali to see me, or me to Texas until I'm done with it. So I became a speed reader, and she was pushing me along.

[Chrissy Evans]

I was.

[Jenny Urich]

Three books.

[Heath Evans]

Oh, my gosh. One was called Humility. I've read so many since now.

[Jenny Urich]

Who told you you had to read the three books? The pastor.

[Heath Evans]

So pastor friend named Mark Dever. He is in D.C. capitol Hill Baptist Church.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

He.

[Heath Evans]

He found me on Instagram, too. I was running my mouth online about Jesus, and he just messaged me, and then we end up meeting on FaceTime, you know, every night during COVID for a long, long time. And he married us and kind of walked us through the marriage process, and it was just. It was kind of a. It was a beautiful time.

[Chrissy Evans]

So when he was having to, like, meet with this pastor and read these books, I remember telling one of my friends like, yeah, he meets with the pastor like every day. And she's like, is he on parole? You know, like the condition of his probation. Have you asked these questions? And it was so funny because like, in hindsight, like, who does that? Like, not. It was just circumstantial cuz the church was closed. So he's like, well, let's. Let me disciple you. Like let's meet every day. And so it was funny. He's not on parole. I found out.

[Jenny Urich]

You found that out within the hundred days. You knew that before you got married?

[Chrissy Evans]

Yeah. Well, our wedding was super easy. We actually just found this bluff in California that we technically weren't even allowed to really gather at because you couldn't have like gas gatherings of more than three. And we just dropped a pin and we're like, hey, let's show up and hope the police don't come. And so, you know, we all socially distanced. No, I'm just kidding. But we, we all met at bluff.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Chrissy Evans]

And I showed up, I went to the bridal store and I'm like, hey, I need a wedding dress. I told him my date and they're like, okay, is it next year or the next year? And I'm like, no, it's like next weekend. Like we're just gonna find something off the rack. It's gonna be good. It's gonna be good.

[Heath Evans]

It sounds chaotic. It was, it was very. Between Pastor Mark and I had one other man that we met with this morning, my good friend and you know, a man that has kind of walked me through all the tough seasons of life. Lee Basin. You. I said, hey, listen, you've. You've got to be around these guys and they're going to Q and A you. And we're going to make sure that we're compatible and we're going to make sure that this is, you know, doing marriage the wrong way is really, really hard and it's really, really hurtful to a lot of people. And so having gone through that for both of us, we were both just very intentional and transparent with people to, to really seek wise counsel and hey, are we being wise? Right? Are we compatible in the way that, you know, the scriptures kind of command us to be? And are we on the same page with parenting and all the different things that can be. And so we've had the best marriage in the world and it just gets better every day. And we're, we're truly, truly grateful for each other and God's grace in our life.

[Jenny Urich]

I was like, you don't have to do it the way everybody else does it. No, you can go your own path. Because additionally. So, Heath, you've got two daughters and then since then you have adopted four kids.

[Heath Evans]

We have.

[Jenny Urich]

So tell us about that.

[Heath Evans]

Chrissy's the bonus mom of six and she's the best mom in the world and best wife in the world. Yeah, we have. Chrissy's always been so kind and so helpful with Ava and Naomi. And obviously Chrissy came along. Ava was 16, Naomi was 13. You know, now they're 21 and 18 and it's crazy. And she's just been such a gift to me and such a gift to them in numerous ways. Right. And our four littles. You know, as you read the Bible, you see God's heart for the fatherless, and it's just everywhere. And her and I, even though we were reading different parts of the Bible.

[Chrissy Evans]

When we first got married, through a.

[Heath Evans]

Series of months after months after months, like, we just kept seeing like, God's faithful to the fatherless, he's the father of the fatherless. And it's like this heartbeat just over and over and over. And so God just kind of birthed in us a true heartbeat for adoption and to help the fatherless on a grand scale. And so we formed a non profit called Bethesda Ranch. And Chrissy just got us really, really busy on, hey, if we're saying we're going to be about the fatherless, we need to be about the fathers. We might not know what Bethesda Ranch is going to fully be yet. But for me, you know, I want to take over the foster care system in the state of Texas. I want all 45,000 of these kids to be under our care. And I want to school them and raise them and discipline them and take them to church and all the things.

[Chrissy Evans]

And put them out in the sun.

[Heath Evans]

Oh, that's a given, right? They're all going to be outside. You can ask our four littles about that. But we just got busy and we were going after the children that no one else really wanted. And at first we thought that was going to be kind of like the physically and mentally handicapped. You know, Chrissy has a brother, our brother now Matthew, has had severe limitations in life. And so we were all thinking, like, that's probably where God would have us minister the most. Well, turns out there's a lot of programs and a lot of helpful things for those kids. And those kids are, in a lot of ways, well taken care of. You've got this whole group of bad kids that nobody wants and nobody wants to touch. And so we were like, well, man, the Lord took care of us and we didn't deserve his mercy and love. And so we're just go after those kids and we'll just trust God.

[Chrissy Evans]

Well, and just to clarify, you either see sibling groups, which is what we adopted is four, very hard to, I mean even two, it's very hard to find someone to take one, much less four. So that would fit into a. Like when he says, like who, like nobody wants. The foster care system destroys kids. And so you have kids that I think outside of that would have never been dog stabbers or you know, set your house on fire in the night. But they've gone through very traumatic, horrific things. And so even when you're sitting down like it's your final day, you're getting licensed, they're like, okay, we're going to go through a checklist and you have to say, yes, you'll adopt this or no, you're not interested. And they're like fire starters. And we had to look at each other and we're like, we'll figure it out. Yeah, we'll take a fire starter. And they're like animal abusers. And we're like, we're like, our dogs.

[Heath Evans]

Will take care of themselves. They might need the kids.

[Chrissy Evans]

It's like, but it's like, it's such a, it's such a, a humbling thing because it's just like, I know I've had such season of dysfunction where people have had to be patient for me and I didn't set anyone's house on fire and I didn't like hurt a dog. But my sin's been no less gnarly. And yet God loves me, God saved me. And then also I, I've been shown, you know, I've just been shown this grace and mercy. And so it's like we get to the point in the list and we're like, well, what are we going to say no to? Like, how crazy is this going to get? Because so they said we were one of the easiest ones because we're just like, oh yeah, we'll just take everything, I guess, you know.

[Heath Evans]

Well, Ava, Ava and Naomi were of an older age and they're also my daughters and so they know how to take care of themselves. I wasn't worried about, you know, 11 year old boy beating up my two older girls, right? And so we had some kind of safet built in because of age and disposition of our two older, where we weren't worried about Them being kind of hurt or abused or some of the things that other families need to drastically consider. And so we were on our way to Houston. We had left our house in the middle of a freeze two years ago to pick up two very problem child driven boys. Halfway there. CPS call says, you can't have them. We had bought beds, we had bought clothes.

[Chrissy Evans]

We had kind of like with no explanation.

[Heath Evans]

Right. And just for no reason. And this is kind of. The system is so rigged and so dysfunctional. We're heartbroken. And we turn around and about 15 minutes later, you know, our team calls us and they're like, hey, we got four kids. They're sibling group. They're not troublemakers. They've been with this family. The family's kind of hanging up their hat. They're retiring from foster care. Are you interested in them? We're kind of looking at each other and we're like, sure, let's meet them. So we met them that weekend and then they moved in with us two weeks later. And they've been ours ever since.

[Chrissy Evans]

I think that the ad, the, the statement was that. That one of them talked a lot.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah, we, we went for kids who might burn your house down or stab you at night. Yeah, the oldest one, he just doesn't shut up.

[Jenny Urich]

Which death loves, which is so common for some kids. I remember one time we were with a, like a family member and I. They lived out of state. We didn't spend a lot of time with them. And I think she was like nine and we were driving somewhere and I mean, she did not stop talking the whole ride. So some kids are just like that and they're kind of like, what is going on in your mind? You just have so much to say.

[Heath Evans]

Our oldest boy used to be all about Legos and video games. And that changed. Not the Legos, the video games changed day one when we got into the house. But now it's, mama, love you, dad, I love you, Mama love you, dad. I love you. He's the most grateful, like, sincere, loving little boy. He still talks a lot, but it's just. It's all words of affection for his mama.

[Chrissy Evans]

Yes, these, these kids have been through a lot. We had made a decision when we first decided to adopt was that we wanted what's called legally free kids. So that means that. It doesn't mean that they don't cost. Like, there's not a cost. It means that this, the parents, the biological parents rights are no longer in place, is what that means. And what that means is, is that you would just have like a short little foster placement and then you would just adopt them and you wouldn't have court cases and possibly lose the kids. And we learned really quickly that these kids just circle in foster care for a reason, because once they get to that place, like, nobody's really caring about getting them adopted. I mean, we probably applied for at least 30 kids.

[Heath Evans]

Well, it's crazy to adopt. Even the fact that we were kind of like health coaches, we got there was one little girl that could have massively benefited from being in our home. She had physical ailments that could have been fixed with healthy nutrition.

[Jenny Urich]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

And we knew it and we spoke clearly about that. And the foster care system wouldn't give her to us because they thought we were going to be too regimented with her nutrition to help her heal because she likes cookies.

[Chrissy Evans]

So we wouldn't be good parents.

[Heath Evans]

We'd take away Coke from her. And so we're bad, right? So again, like the, the nonsense noise is on and on and on and on.

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[Chrissy Evans]

Yeah, so we made a decision to take what's called a legal risk case. That means that the Biological Parents Rights are in place, but it is headed towards termination. However, they often won't terminate those rights and put the kids in a position to be adopted and move on, move forward, unless there is a viable family that would consider taking them. And so when they, their fire, their prior foster home retired, it's like they really needed an adoption motivated home to get this case closed so that way these children could be adopted and they could move forward and they could thrive and live life and not just circle in the system. And so it was like a crazy God only story. I mean, we're sitting in these court cases genuinely wondering like, are, are these, are the, are we gonna lose these kids? Are these kids gonna go back into harm's way? I mean it was, it was very viable and, and it was the craziest. Like I can't even explain all the details, but God just made the way straight. And I mean, I remember it was like what we were praying for and then what God did and we wound up being able to adopt them, I mean, months, if not years sooner than we would have been able to.

[Heath Evans]

It was less than seven total months, which you have to wait at least six months to even once, you know, once you start the foster care process, you have to have them six months before you can legally adopt. And you know, most people wait years. And the way the court case just ended up unfolding and it was just a beautiful thing of God's providence and care for these kids and, and care for my wife's heart, you know, she had to, I had to testify and so I didn't get to sit in the court cases. So she had to sit there day after day after day and listen to all this evil that had been done to these kids, right? And so, and that's another thing is like we knew, like even before we illegally adopted them, like we knew about this much of the hurt and harm and danger they've been in. And then when you truly adopt and we're not going to talk about you much, we'll just start crying and bawling and we won't get any good video out of this. You figure out just how awful the system is to let parents do the things over and over and over and over to these kids. It should be stopped immediately, you know, so we're grateful for four awesome kids. They're watching them grow and get emotionally and physically healthy has been awesome watching them learn and it just, it's just been such a beautiful thing.

[Jenny Urich]

We live in an age of just a lot of fear, a lot of control. A lot of perfectionism. What do you think it is about the two of you that made you be the type of person that's like, I'll get married in a hundred days. No big deal. We're gonna go pick up two boys. Oh, that didn't work out well. We'll take four kids. Like, what? I mean, I would say, I would imagine that the majority of people would not be that carefree and that sort of trusting to make, you know, these big choices and just to go for it.

[Heath Evans]

You want to answer?

[Chrissy Evans]

Yeah. I mean, for. For us, it is 100% our faith. You know, I think it starts with just kind of who God made us. Just our genetic makeup and the. The gifts, and then that God would breed these two people that are just kind of crazy in the same ways together. Um, because you're right, a lot of couples, like, there might be one that really wants to adopt and one that feels really, really fearful about it. But I just really think that when God opened our eyes to his Word and we really see that we're adopted, and when we see ourselves rightly, like, when we really see who we really are, we're like, I wouldn't have adopted me. You know, I'm saying we all like to think we're good, but, like, when we. If. If someone was to, like, look at your. Your. Your low light reel of your life, like, not the highlight, but the low light, things would not look good. You would not be wanting to be adopted. And yet, you know, Christ died for us, and God adopted us. And so that's where this. This picture we. And we also know, and we. We firmly believe with good parenting, with healthy eating, with good sleep, with hours outside a day, all of these things, like, we're just crazy enough to be like, there's nothing we can't overcome with. Well, and with prayer first, that should have been number one.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Sorry.

[Chrissy Evans]

But there's just nothing we. That we just don't believe. Like, we just. We just trust that God's gonna work it all out. And if, like, one of them burns down our house, well, then we signed up for that, literally. So it's like, we're just gonna. We're just gonna be okay.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

Everything God asks his children to do is impossible.

[Chrissy Evans]

That's true.

[Heath Evans]

Every command he gives, we can't do, but he strengthens us to do it. And so in God's grace to us, he has given us a gift to believe. We don't prop ourselves up because of our faith. Our faith was a gift. We have literally nothing to do with it. We know the scriptures that we, we want to build our faith. And so we read our words and we're planted in a local church and we try to do the things God asks us to do. But we ultimately know that we believe God. And God's word speaks very, very clearly about a lot of these matters, about how to discipline your children, how to love your children for me, how to serve and live in an understanding way with her, all these different things. We believe God's word that he will empower us to do it. That doesn't guarantee us that all these kids are going to leave our home and go be successful. But when a man is in control of his home in a God fearing, God loving way, kids will not rule the home. The father will lead the home well and the wife will feel supported and loved and she'll feel like the most powerful person in the world because the husband's loving and supporting her not perfectly, but with effort and intentionality and sacrificially. And those kids see it and those kids feel safe because of the way I love her and the way she loves me. Those boys all the time kiss mom and dad, kiss mom and dad. They love the affection that we show for each other.

[Chrissy Evans]

They like scream when he kisses me. They think it's the coolest thing ever.

[Heath Evans]

But all they saw was dysfunctional what they thought was love. And so we've had to teach them and we've had many hard conversations. Boys. Noel, your parents did not love you and that's not your fault, right? Love is an action. Love is a choice. Love is not a word. It's not some cheap thing we throw on to make someone feel something about themselves. And we don't mean. And so in telling them hard truths that broke their hearts. We've watched God heal them. And so the CPS system tells us to lie and do all these things. Tell them the parents are doing the best they can, they love them and they're coming home. No, we're not going to lie to these kids. These kids have been lied to their whole life and lying is a sin and it's a wicked offense against God and it crushes these kids. So we're going to grieve with them. We're going to hold them, we're going to cry with them. We are going to have hard, hard, hard conversations in the truth of God's word always bears fruit. And we've just seen it over and over and over again. And so we have tried to rightly apply God's Word. And then when we screw up, we're quick to say we're sorry. And those kids have grown, trust us, because they know we're not perfect, but we're following a perfect Savior and that's who our faith and our strength and our full reliance is on. You know, daddy's gonna fail him, Mommy's gonna fail him. Christ will never fail. And, and by God's grace to us, they get to see that on a daily basis in an imperfect way.

[Jenny Urich]

So there's nothing to be afraid of and nothing to control because you're following Christ and he leads and you follow, and that's where you get your direction from.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

What a message.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. If you ask one of our kids, will you scare? Nothing. God's ordained my days, right? You go ahead, kill me. I'm gonna be with Jesus. Right? And, and people laugh at it, right? But we have taught them the word of the Lord that they were knit together in their mother's womb. And before the foundation of time, God had a plan for their life. And that God's plan brought them here. And even though there's been great pain and turmoil, right, God wasn't off his throne. And so. But today we can be grateful for the rescue plan that God put in purpose for their life and everything else. And we're teaching them to trust God's word that no one can kill them, no one can hurt them, no one can do anything to them without really God's permission. We see it all throughout scripture. And so I want to raise fearless young men and a fearless little girl. And by God's grace, we're, we're on our way to, to see where they came from. I mean, they were scared of their own shadows when they got here.

[Chrissy Evans]

Now we're having to like, reel them back. You're like, you almost have like a little, little too little fear now. Like, you should be afraid of that. You know what I mean?

[Heath Evans]

Like, well, I have a picture where I'm throwing Noel and she 10ft out of my hands. You know, I'm just. And she's just like. But when I first got her, she wouldn't jump off a chair to me, right? And now she just, that's my dad ain't going to drop me, you know, and it's, it's just been those type little steps of over and over and over again of just conquering fear. But it's not because we're tough. It's because now we know who rules the world.

[Jenny Urich]

Do you think he's, you know, being in the NFL and then working for the network. So I am not much of a sports person, but I am going to read this because maybe somebody listening is going to be like, whoa. Beith Evans played 10 years in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, and New Orleans Saints, who he helped win Super Bowl XLIV. Why do they do that? 44 again? Okay. Helped win Super Bowl 44.

[Heath Evans]

Indianapolis Colts.

[Jenny Urich]

Indianapolis Colts. And then you turn out to be after that. You do that for 10 years and then an NFL analyst, and you do that for a fair amount of years. What is it like to be around? And you are one. You're in this group of, like, famous and successful people. I think that's really a unique situation to be in, surrounded. I mean, for almost two decades, people that are really famous, really successful, really well known, have all these resources at their fingertips. What do you walk away from that learning? Like, what are some of your biggest lessons that you walk away from that learning?

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. Humility goes a long way. You know, I'm always quick to. The greatest superstar I played with was Tom Brady. And Tom was one of the most kind, humble, compassionate, competitive monsters you'll ever be around. But I was blessed to be around a whole bunch of superstars that really cared about team. And that taught me a lot, you know, that to accomplish something together is way better than to accomplish something all by yourself. All by yourself is lonely. So even if you're the best wide receiver or the best running back in the league, but you get there selfishly. The mountaintop sucks, and it's not enjoyable. And sure, there's fruits, financial fruits, and all these things, but at the end of the day, the greatest moments of that NFL career was doing life with other selfless men and kind of putting our own wants and desires aside for the betterment of the team. And that teaches you a lot about family, it teaches you a lot about fatherhood, it teaches you a lot about masculinity, it teaches you a lot about life. I think the second thing that I learned is, you know, when I. When I signed with New England in 2005, Tom Brady had just done a 60 Minutes interview, and in front of the world, Tommy had just won his third super bowl ring. You know, he obviously went on to win seven. It's the greatest of all times. It's not even close. But he said in that interview, when he only had three rings, if money and women and super bowl rings are all this world has to offer me, I'm in trouble because I'm not happy. And so I've been in this position of power and prestige, billionaires, the best of the best at every level, right. And you see a whole bunch of unhappy, unsettled, discontent people, and yet they have everything the world says they need to be happy. And yet they're more miserable than most. And it's this eye opening experience of like, man, we're all created in the image of God. And, and there is something that we so need God to fill in us, that no money, no beautiful wife, no kids, no super bowl ring, no nothing can satisfy this sinful heart other than our Creator. And I've seen it, and I still see it over and over and over again. You know, it's like kind of in this football world and NFL Network world and bodybuilding world and like, by God's grace, I've got the greatest, coolest friends in the world. And yet they're just broken and they're unhappy and yet they have everything, so to speak.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Yeah, that's got to be a really.

[Jenny Urich]

Eye opening to see that right up close to see that right in person. What does a fullback do?

[Chrissy Evans]

Great question. I couldn't tell you.

[Heath Evans]

I always said we're kind of like a glorified guard. A guard is an offensive lineman. They're thumping all the big D linemen.

[Chrissy Evans]

He also says that he's the big toe of the team.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Jenny Urich]

Okay, so you played on the offense?

[Heath Evans]

I did, yep.

[Jenny Urich]

So that's when the quarterback's out. So, okay, you're on offense.

[Heath Evans]

I would block for Tom Brady a lot. I would block for the other running back. So a lot of times there's two running backs. I was mainly the blocking back. Now I was a little more athletic. So I got to catch the ball and run the ball quite a bit for a fullback. But yeah, Chrissy said I tell people, big toe. During my day in the NFL, I was very important. But no one really knows what you do or appreciates you. Right. You're. You can't really balance without me, but you can kind of forget about me. So that's how you explain the fullback position.

[Jenny Urich]

I mean, it makes sense because you have to make sure like that the quarterback has time to throw the ball and that the ones that are running that they can get where they need to go. So that's what you're helping all of them do, basically, more or less. No, I didn't do a good job.

[Heath Evans]

You did a great job. Here's the thing. In the NFL world now, especially in the college world, my position doesn't even really exist. Anymore. So it's kind of. Yeah, it's kind of been kind of cast to the side. They still exist, but not with a lot of teams.

[Jenny Urich]

What do they do instead?

[Heath Evans]

They bring another wide receiver on the field instead of a running back. So the game has become, simply put, it's more spread out. So they spread the field out. Your 11 players on offense, they just kind of want to space them out, which creates somewhat of different challenges for defenses.

[Jenny Urich]

Okay, this is super interesting. I just learned a whole lot. All right, so.

[Heath Evans]

Okay, a whole bunch of listeners, thank.

[Jenny Urich]

You for answering all of my questions. All right, let's switch gears a little bit.

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[Jenny Urich]

I went and spoke at the Kellogg's petition march back last year in October talking about getting the food dyes out of and and there's actually a lot of other things but in these ultra processed foods. So this is something else that you talk about in terms of health and nutrition. You talk about big pharma, you talk about big food. What kind of messages are you helping to spread to families about those topics?

[Chrissy Evans]

The one thing I'm the most sad about right now is it has just come to my attention the Chick Fil a adds food dye to their pickles and I love Chick Fil A's pickles And I'm like, why do we have two food dyes in our pickles? Like their color is beautiful, how they're just grown, you know, I don't think we need to do this. And yet it has come to my attention that, that we. So this, so this is, this is a big, this is a big, these are big topics. We believe that culture really wants you weak. It is big pharma's goal to get you. It's like, I feel like the trifecta is what birth control, antidepressants, anti anxieties and cholesterol lowering drugs. And then now zempic is kind of the new thing. Like, oh, you're a little overweight, let's just throw you on this too. And I walked that world myself. I've been on antidepressants, I've been on anti anxiety medications. I am by God's grace, free of those. I actually really wanted to get free of those even before God saved me. I was just doing my thing and being a central train wreck. But that was a big desire. I didn't, I just didn't want to, I didn't want to feel like I had to take a pill every day. And it's just amazing when you even go back and you look at birth control being one of the first things that it's like big pharma was like, wait a minute, we can get people to come back every month. And it was like downhill from there. And when you think about it, a pharmaceutical company, should they make a drug that actually helps cure an ailment, they would put themselves immediately out of business. It would be the worst business plan in the world. No one would make pharmaceutical drugs because there'd be no money in it because they would just help people. And so it's like almost like the goal might be to get you just enough better to keep coming back for more. And that's what we see just in the medical industry at large. And it's like there's so much fear for people to stand up and even just have an opinion that could hurt someone's feelings. When I was so glad for opinions that challenged my thinking, because a lot of those opinions and things that I read and maybe things that hurt my feelings ultimately help set me free. And I'm not having to take like 10 or 12 prescription drugs every single month. And you know, you, you get on this thing, you're like having to take one drug for another drug for another drug. And then it's just like, you don't even know why you feel bad anymore? Like, is it the diet? Is it all of the medicines I'm having to rely on to survive? And obviously I'm not saying every pharmaceutical is bad. Right? There are plenty of things that are truly chronic conditions. We live in a fallen world. Our food system in especially in the United States is poor. It is not great. We put food dyed pickles and so we have a lot of things against us. But I think with the goal in mind of on less and not more and trying to look for whole food real life solutions to problems. This is just a side note, like Chat GPT can be so like beneficial for things. By the way. This is just a little thing to note. Can I go here?

[Ad Voice]

Sure.

[Chrissy Evans]

I love it because like I'll be like, like I. I had a pelvic surgery last year and I started a new workout program and I started getting like this low pelvic pain and I was like, oh no, it's coming back. It was a uterine fibroid. And I'm like, no. I mean it felt the exact same. So I go to ChatGPT and I'm like, I'm just going to give you my whole health history really quick. Do you have any other ideas of what this could possibly be? Except for that I need surgery and it was like, literally like, I think it could be the low abdominal exercises that you're doing. Here's a few things that you should consider because it knows I'm. I tell it I'm crunchy or like partly crunchy is my term. Very partly crunchy. And so it did, it gave me some stretches, it told me some of my exercises to avoid and it's like my pelvic pain went right away. It was great. But it's like sometimes there's such simple things. I would have gone to a doctor, they would have done scans, they probably would have put me on medicine because they don't know what it is. So we'll just give you pain meds. And all along I just needed to just stop doing an exercise.

[Jenny Urich]

It's an interesting world that we're in, right? Because like you said, I mean it's, it, it can find all the things and you've got, you know, a human that doesn't know everything and sometimes they miss stuff. Okay, so then here's the question then, Chrissy. I mean you're at one point you're on birth control, you're on other medications. I started off our married life on birth control. I had no idea to not, to not do it. Like, no One was like, hey, that might not be the best idea. And then for the whole first year of our marriage, I cried every day, 365 days in a row. I'm not a big crier. So I was like, like, this is odd. So then I went off the birth control. At what point? So, like, you're doing a weight loss thing, but, you know, I mean, that could or could not have anything to do with pharmaceuticals. At what point were you like, oh, I might want to change this too?

[Chrissy Evans]

That's a really good question. There's actually been two different times that I got off antidepressants. Specifically, birth control. I was on birth control for a very long time. You know, as a kid, it's, oh, your cramps are too. Your periods are heavy and cramps are hard. Here you're. You're 13 or 14. Let's give you birth control. And then what was crazier? I jumped around. I'm sorry, but I'll come back. What's crazier is that they introduced this one birth control, where you only have four periods a year. Yeah, it was a whole thing.

[Jenny Urich]

That's a good idea. Oh, my goodness.

[Chrissy Evans]

17 year old.

[Jenny Urich]

I did on the FDA Commissioner Marty, Dr. Marty McCary, and he has this phenomenal book. It's called Blind Spots. And it's all about, like, he's like, the peanut allergies. He was like, the studies weren't there. They told all the parents not to do peanuts. He's like, now we have the biggest peanut allergy in the entire world. And he's like, it's a blind spot. So he's talked about, like, using your common sense. And so, like, common sense would be like, four periods a year. That doesn't seem like common sense.

[Chrissy Evans]

The FDA says it's totally safe and you only need for a year. Don't worry.

[Heath Evans]

Well, and the hard part is, is when we come to female hormones, they disturb so many things when they're out of order. Namely that, like, we're all created in the image of God. We're built to create God, made male and female to come together and procreate. It is the greatest gift in the world. Like, it is awesome. Well, what do all these drugs attack? Hormonal imbalances that keep women from getting pregnant. Right. And it is just this systematic ideology that's just at its core, it's wicked and evil and people just don't know. People in the church, people outside of the church. It's not. It's ignorance, but it's not necessarily anyone's fault. We've been lied to for so long about purpose and structure of medicine that we just got to start asking questions. And like you said, common sense can go a long way if we're willing to at least wrestle with the truth that's out there.

[Chrissy Evans]

Yeah, I. I didn't have a lot of common sense at the time. It's like, what could possibly be right? I'm 17, 18 years old, and, you.

[Jenny Urich]

Know, if you're a kid, you're like, four periods a year. Sign me up.

[Chrissy Evans]

This is awesome. Why. Why would I not do this? Like, there's not even a thought process. Like, I feel like you have to start getting into your 30s and things just start breaking down when you're like, hold on. We have to analyze what we're doing. Is it the. Is it the candles? I don't know. Like. Like, we just got to try stuff, right? And again, that's where we don't. We don't try to get obsessive with this. But with birth control, I went the IUD route. I don't remember really why I did that, aside from maybe, I don't know, taking a pill every day was a lot of a commitment. I'm not sure. When Heath and I got married, I had never looked into the iud, and by the way, I haven't looked in a couple of years. So perhaps the literature has changed. But the last time I looked it up, and I'm like, how does it work? They're like, we don't really know how it works. We believe it might work by doing A, B, and C. So what's crazy is you don't have to go into too many Reddits of people who, like myself, we've been trying to conceive for almost five years and, well, four and a half years, and have had no success. And you go into these forms of same thing. It's. It's very light cycles after the iud, very abnormal. It's removed. And I can't point to that and say that caused the problem. But I can show you all throughout the Bible where population control was the MO and all of a sudden, not only is it population control, but it's also trillions of dollars. So it's, like, beautiful because they're able to do the same thing they've always done that. We point to the guy in China and we're like, you're so, so wrong for that. And they're like, we do it here, and we make a bunch of money off of people while we do It. And so it's really a crazy phenomenon that you see that it's always been the same objective and it's always been the same lie that's been sold. It's just sold in different ways and packaged in different ways to say, how can we benefit from this? So I. When I realized, I did not know that with the iud, not that anybody wants to talk about uteruses on this podcast, but if we can go there, we're there. We already start.

[Jenny Urich]

We already did uterine fibroid. So we're.

[Heath Evans]

We're good.

[Jenny Urich]

We're good.

[Chrissy Evans]

I mean, you know, you can hashtag that, I'm sure, and, you know, we could just see where this goes. But with. With the iud, is that. What I didn't realize is that essentially it creates a hostile environment in your body for a baby to thrive. But a baby can be conceived. So theoretically, every month, Heath and I can conceive a child, and then I have done something that takes the life formed, which. This is a hot topic. I mean, I'm pissing people off so much right now. But you know what? This is just what we believe.

[Jenny Urich]

But it is. It is. I mean, when that. That connection, that's the soul, There is.

[Chrissy Evans]

A life formed, and then because of something I have done, I'm going to make it to where that child can't live. And the moment that I knew that, I'm like, this sucker has to go. So I had that taken out of that point. Now, obviously, getting off, taking off birth control or an IUD isn't such a big deal. Antidepressants were a totally different situation. I had two periods of time, one when I was, like, in my weight gain, unhealthy, overweight phase. I never liked the feeling of antidepressants because while they certainly help you not have the low lows, that's what people don't want to feel, right? I mean, life is hard. And then we. We get panicked and we get frantic and we get sad and, like, we have all of these emotions. Like, we feel like we're going to go nuts. That's. And that's where we can run to food or we run to alcohol. And it's like, wow, you just take this pill. And it's like, I can breathe because I feel like everything's going to be okay. But then there's this. There's the cost on the other side. And this cost on the other side is like the joys and the highs, like, until you come out of it. It's like you're in a fog and you don't even see it. And I just hated this feeling. And the thing is, is, you know, you go to these doctors, they don't even ask you questions that they hand me an iPad. This was a decade or more ago. They hand me an iPad like. Like, we had those a decade ago. And they're like, just take a quiz. And they're like, oh, you're ADHD and a touch of depression. And then you come in and they just go, so how's the depression? Are you still feeling sad? And you might be like, yeah, you know, sometimes they just feel a little anxious. They're like, oh, up. Let's just give you another medicine. And there's no thought that it's like, wow, what if there's something else at play? Spiritual, physical, emotional, things that need to be addressed. And so the thing is, is all of the things driving all of those things are still there. They're just masked. And if anything, I almost feel like they just grow. And so when I got off of them, I had no health insurance at the time. I had no ability to, like, go to the doctor and taper down safely. I literally had to culture turkey. I do not do that. That is not recommended. It's. It's a bad idea. I had these things called brain zaps, which was really scary. Like, what is happening in my brain that I feel like electrical vibrations and. And noise zapping across my head for weeks after stopping taking it. Like, that's crazy to me. And it's very common if you look them up. But it was so freeing because getting off of those in time, I met a point now that I genuinely like, I have sadness, but it doesn't last because I also have joy and I also have hope. And I've placed myself, my hope in something that doesn't change and something that is sure and something that is steady, where I didn't have that before. And so when we don't have that, well, I mean, when we're sad, like, we have everything to fear. Like, our kids being like, God's in control. If you don't believe that, you have a lot of things to feel afraid of at times, all the time. And so there is a. There is a steadiness and there is a peace that no anxiety pill can give you. And if it can, it's only going to last for the shelf life and the half life of that medication, and then you're back. And so what are you going to do now? And it's where, whether it's antidepressants or like I said, all the different things. I feel like I ran to everything. It's why I was overweight, it's why I struggled with alcohol in a season. It's why I was on antidepressants, is because I was running to the wrong thing for the solution that I was looking for. When there is only one thing that can truly give me peace. There's a verse in the Bible that says that you keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts you. And here's the thing. I didn't know God. I didn't trust God. But I will tell you when I am lacking peace today, I'm thinking about me. I'm thinking about things I cannot control. I am thinking about the future. I am not at all thinking about the Lord. And when I do, it doesn't mean that the, the thought goes away that something bad could happen. But there is a trust of knowing that like I trust God. And that sounds crazy sometimes, but I do. And that brings me so much peace.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Wow.

[Jenny Urich]

So people can follow online because you are talking about these things all the time. Faith, family, fitness, you have your own companies. Just tell us real quick if people are interested. You've got Viceroy Nutrition, you have built Ready and then you have the ranch. Where can people find more information about those and what do you offer?

[Heath Evans]

Well, Built Ready is our, our coaching company. We just kind of want to be like this intermediary for people. There's so much information and I was like, I'm thinking, I'm like, chrissy's talking. I'm like praying for women that are listening not to be confused and not to be hurt because there's just so much out there to kind of digest. So we want to be. She calls it partly crunchy. I just call it like just gently honest or this company that helps people get healthy for the glory of God. Right. So we'll, we'll teach you how to work out.

[Narrator/Ad Voice]

Right?

[Heath Evans]

Right. We're going to teach you how to eat. Right. But we're not going to bombard you with all these things. You got two different people from two different worlds. I've had the best nutritionist in the world. She went to the school of hard knocks. And so we're just really good at coaching people how to get healthy. Slow and steady. We preach more food, not less food. We don't want women and men that are starved. We want well fed because well fed, well fed women and men will sleep well. They'll think well, they'll love. Well, they'll be energized. Well, and then Vicero Nutrition is our supplement company to help people supplement a healthy lifestyle. We need more protein. We need people to get hydrated. If we could just take those two things, if we could get men and women and our children the right amount of protein every day and get them hydrated. God sovereign, overall, everyone's going to live to 95 years old. You're going to avoid most of the diseases because of hydration alone. If you find a good qualified doctor, they will tell you 90% of chronic disease is chronic dehydration. If we can just get people some salts and some minerals, vitamins back into their system, get them some good milk, get them some good protein, life can get really healthy real quick. It's not that hard. The disciplines are hard. The remedy is simple. And so we give people a lot of encouragement, a lot of accountability and help them just get healthy for the right reasons. And so Vicera has the best tasting protein in the world. It has, it has all the, you know, the, the animal glandulars in it, but we've covered up the taste phenomenally well. We've got creatine and collagen put together. Yeah, we've got some good stuff. But we just want to help people think well about nutrition, think well about how to live well, and it's not that hard. And the disciplines reap so many rewards so quickly when people will just kind of trust us and follow our lead.

[Jenny Urich]

Well, I will put all the links in the show notes so people can find where to go with those. This has been such an honor. You have got a really cool, an interesting story, and even just from there, I think it'd be cool for people to follow along. You're the type of people that go for it. You're just gonna go for it. When you're married, we're gonna get these four kids, you know, we're gonna start these companies, we're gonna help other people. And I just think in this day and age, we need more people like that, people who are willing to, like, step out and try things and make decisions and iterate and keep going and keep going and also share that. Like you're not afraid you're gonna go, you're gonna try things and, and you're gonna leave your mark on the world. So, Chrissy and Heath, this has been amazing. I mean, what an honor to meet the both of you. Thank you so much for spending this time with us. We always end our show with the same question. What's a favorite memory from your childhood. That was outside.

[Heath Evans]

She might have a hard one with that. For me, it was always on the football field. I loved it. From four years old, I'm playing in the NFL and all my joyous moments were me and dad throwing the ball or scoring touchdown touchdowns or knocking someone out. I don't know. She wasn't the most athletic, outdoorsy type.

[Chrissy Evans]

No, I didn't spend a thousand hours outside, but I did.

[Heath Evans]

Kids do.

[Chrissy Evans]

I did. I did have this cool next door neighbor that had Ninja turtles walkie talkies and we would like go play hide and go seek with each other with the walkie talkies. And I do remember that. Sarah, I love you. We had so much fun. So we did that outside.

[Jenny Urich]

I love that. Walkie talkies are the best. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for all that you're putting out into the world.

[Heath Evans]

Can I tell you something to encourage you? You're really good at what you do.

[Chrissy Evans]

You are.

[Heath Evans]

And I don't tell many people that. You're free flow. You're good at listening to answers. You did really good. You did really, really good. And it's a gift. To be good behind the camera and on the mic is tough and you did really well. Thank you.

[Chrissy Evans]

Thanks for having us.

[Heath Evans]

And Doug here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat helping people their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug. Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us. Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you [e-mail] Liberty.

[Chrissy Evans]

Liberty, Liberty.

[Heath Evans]

Liberty Savings. Very unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates. Excludes Massachusetts.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

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