Good Life Project - Fueling Vibrant Health the Plantpower Way with Julie Piatt

Episode Date: April 21, 2015

"One of the biggest struggles we deal with as parents is making decisions for our children that feel safe for US."I have been interested in getting to know today's guest for months, ever since I interviewed her husband Rich Roll for Good Life Project a couple of years ago. If you haven't watched that interview, I definitely recommend it for an amazing story of transformation and re-birth.The conversation in today's episode is equally inspiring and fascinating as I talk with Julie Piatt, the plant-based chef, healer, wife, mother, and artist who has created a remarkable health movement with her husband and co-authored the fantastic new book - The Plantpower Way.One of the things I loved about Julie, her plant-based philosophy and book, is that she defies all stereotypes, keeps it beautifully real and absolutely accessible and inclusive. Put another way, there are no "shoulds," only invitations to explore. In this wide-ranging conversation, we delve into her childhood in Alaska being raised on game meat and salmon, her journey through raising 4 children with an ultra-endurance, plant-powered athlete husband, and her extraordinary story of healing an "un-healable" cyst in her neck by changing what she ate. We also take an unexpected, yet eye-opening look into the world of homeschooling, and the power of supporting children in finding their own paths, and then moves into the vibrant plant-based lifestyle Julie and Rich have created both in their home and in the world.No matter what your ideas about food are, this conversation will open your eyes to think in ways I'd venture you haven't before.Follow Julie:Website | Instagram | Facebook"You have to be the healer of your life."Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKEDVisit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

life challenges are brought into your field to give you the opportunity to access the higher realms of who you are which in my world we are spiritual beings having a human experience and not the other way around. or sleepy. And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary.

Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were gonna be fun. January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is?

You're going to die. Don't shoot him! We need him! Y'all need a pilot. Flight Risk. So it's kind of funny. Last time I was recording an intro for one of our conversations, you heard all sorts of bird sounds in the background. I was doing it from the side of a mountain in Costa Rica where we were running our immersion.

And this time you may hear sirens and lots of rain noises as I'm back in New York City. And we're replacing the birds and nature with sirens and rain on air conditioners. So oddly, they're both kind of calming to me. and nature with sirens and rain on air conditioners. So oddly, they're both kind of coming to me. This Life's Conversation is with Julie Fiat. And she is a fascinating person, a musician, a healer, an author, a married mom, somebody who is obsessed with the way that we take care of ourselves and feed our bodies. And she's also co-author with her husband, Rich Roll, in a really fantastic new book that I'm loving called The Plant Power Way, which is how to fuel yourself largely with plants. And I'm not somebody who is really entirely plant-fueled.

So the conversation got really interesting. But what also was really fascinating in this conversation was that Julie and I both ended up in our 40s with something wrong with us that I was told, we were both told was unhealable. I took the path of having surgery to have it removed. She took the path of something very different and was actually able to completely heal what we were both told was unhealable without surgery. And that story, um, kind of surprises us because we didn't know, um, about this beforehand. And it's something that's pretty rare in the world. So, um, so we get into that and, um, really just a wonderful conversation with a soulful human being, um, about how to get the best out of life. I'm Jonathan Fields. This is Good Life Project.

So I'm really excited to hang out with you and learn a little bit, you know, in part because I'm fascinated by your journey, in part because I know the journey of your husband, Rich, and we become friends. And I've always harbored a secret fascination with who is the woman that's sort of gone along with this kind of insane, crazy journey. And the way that he tells the story also had a very substantial role in transforming, I guess, his life. Um, and, uh, so, so with your permission, I'd love to kind of, uh, take a step back in time at first, just to kind of figure out a little bit about you and your journey. So where'd you actually grow up? Where are you from? Um, I'm actually was born in Colorado,

but I was raised in Alaska. All right. How'd that happen? How did that happen? Well, my dad is, my dad, my dad's 92 now, but he was a, you know, for lack of a better analogy, he was a true Indiana Jones type of man. And he's a structural engineer and then became a, was actually a Navy pilot and then later just wanted to fly and actually hunt and fish. So he, midlife, quit his corporate job and drove to Alaska and set up a practice there. And two years later, we followed. No kidding. Yeah. How old were you?

I turned nine on the way up. We drove up to Alaska in an AMC Hornet with five kids and a dog. Oh, my God. And for those who aren't old enough to remember the AMC Hornet with five kids and a dog. Oh my God. And for those who aren't like old enough to remember the AMC Hornets, it's not a massively huge car. It's not that good. It's not that fun. Yeah. So you end up rolling into Alaska and literally like at the immediate age of nine years old. Um, all right. And something jumps out at me immediately, so I might as well just dive in here. So your dad sounds like a real man's man, Hunter Fisher.

You end up – so you were not brought up in a household because you're known as somebody who's plant-based and very, very, very health-oriented and conscious lifestyle-oriented. It sounds like that's not the household you were brought up in. No. and conscious lifestyle oriented. It sounds like that's not the household you were brought up in. No, well, it was, you know, I mean, listen, we're one of the reasons that I, you know, you inspire me and I follow you as you know, we're fellow yogis. And, you know, I've always, I've been very spiritually driven my whole life or inspired my whole life. So it's kind of this thing that I just incarnated in this family that I love my family. They're amazing. My, you know, it's, they're lovely. I'm very different, you know, than obviously my dad and I couldn't be more, two more extreme

people in the same family. So you were, so you were the hippie in the hunter gatherer fisher family. Basically, yeah. Basically, or you could say black sheep or, you know, misunderstood or... Right. But was it the type of thing where like you were, everyone was cool with it or did it cause friction? Oh, it's caused friction. Yeah. A lot of friction over the years, you know, and also everybody's cool with it. You know, it's been a process. It's been a journey. And I mean, as a spiritual healer and somebody who really looks at how we heal and how we transform energies, there really wouldn't be much transformation if I had incarnated into my hippie yogi family, right?

And I find this in my journey of meeting many people that I come across when I'm teaching yoga or, or doing healing or just, you know, just moving in the world. I think it's a classic kind of setup for a healer yogi or, or anybody who's out of the box who came here to transform things and change things. I think many of them are in families, maybe a lot more severe than, than mine, you know, than, than the differences in mind where they feel like, you know, what am I doing here? Who are these people? Yeah. You know, it's so interesting that you say that because I think sometimes the opposite is true. Also, I remember, um, a lot of years back I was doing, uh, like a yoga training thing with, um, somebody who was a very big name in the yoga world and came out of a lineage, a family lineage. And he was telling me on the side one day, he was like, you know, I got to tell you, you know, when I was a kid, you know, my dad was this famous teacher and I couldn't run from yoga fast enough. It's like, it's like, I just, I wanted absolutely nothing to do with it because

that was especially, you know, sort of like the angsty teen years, because that was, you know, that form of rebellion was, was going away from, you know, that the practice that was the fiber of what represented his family and his family lineage, you know. Sure. I think I know that person. I think I know that person that you're speaking of. Not that we're saying anything bad about him, but I just, because it was a private conversation. But I think now he's returned back to that. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. He is that.

Yeah. Well, you know, yeah. I mean, I could say if I had had my preference, it might've been an easier journey to have been in that. But, um, you know, I'm sure every, every journey is, um, is marked by its, um, its challenges. Um, and that's how we learn and that's how we become better healers and better people and better lovers and all of that. So let's jump back to Alaska. So you growing up, and you spend your – I guess then your formative youth or like your teen years in Alaska.

And what are you interested in? Because as a kid growing up, did you, you know, so you're known now as a healer and a yoga teacher and an artist and somebody who's deep into, like we said before, plant-based nutrition. And when did all of that start to take root in you? Well, I think again, you know, I was born with the, you know, with the burning question about what happens to us when we die. So that devotion and the perspective of divinity and all things has been with me since as long as I can remember. What's your earliest memory? I mean, really, when you were itty bitty, you were fascinated with what happens when you die. Yeah. Yeah. How did that, how did that express itself?

Well, a lot of it was a lot of kind of waiting around for myself to be old enough to go out and do what I wanted to do. So I, if I would characterize my childhood, I would say that I was waiting to be old enough to leave. I know that sounds. So I was the youngest of five kids. There was kind of a lot of commotion going on. I sort of had an observational kind of experience. I would just watch the chaos with everybody else.

I loved animals, especially dogs. And I just kind of was sort of hanging out, waiting for the moment that I could make a move. So, you know, some of that was, you know, it was not I was nice because I was in nature a lot. And so I spent a lot of my formative years hiking in the mountains of Alaska, completely really unsupervised, quite frankly. Like when I think of what I did now and me being a mother, it's like, I don't understand how that happened. And go into the wilderness for, you know, 20 hours with just a couple of kids, you know, with, I don't even think we took water. We were just drinking out of streams.

I know. It's amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. And now you hear news stories of kids getting – parents getting investigated and arrested for that now. I know. Like how are we alive today? But I also think that that kind of nature that my parents and my family gave me as well in Colorado as a young, young child, I was in the mountains. And so most of my play happened in the forest. It wasn't with plastic toys. It was, you know, creating an imaginary world in some natural setting. So, which is interesting now because you're a mom of four

kids, right? Yes, four. Right. So does that flow through to the way that you're raising your kids also? Basically giving children a lot of freedom to self-regulate and discover what their passions are and then supporting them in those endeavors. So I would say, yeah, I had a lot of really credit a lot of it to having that time to find my own voice. I think it was really, really like a key foundational element of my evolution. So I do, I try to honor my children in the same way and, you know, trust them, recognize them as beings that have lived, you know, thousands of lifetimes before they chose me to come to me. And I try to respect them from that level. Okay. So I don't know where to start there. No, I mean, there are just so many things I'd love to explore with you from your, the last comment, which is the lens that you bring to the sort of level of consciousness of your children, you know, to the choice to homeschooling slash unschooling. Let's start

there actually. And then again, I want to jump back into your journey, but because I'm actually, they're increasingly, you know, I'm in the middle of New York City and increasingly, but I also live in a world where there are a lot of people where I have friends who can live anywhere in the world and they very often choose to. But they're also grownups with families. And increasingly, I'm finding people making the choice to homeschool. And there's, I guess, so much misconception about what that really is these days. And I guess unschooling is sort of the next level. Can you break those down a little bit? Because I'm sensing a lot of people are listening to this

are probably curious. Okay, great. So let me start off with what the catalyst really was. I have two older boys who are now 20 and 18. So now I'm sort of an expert, right? I've been a mother for 20 years. I can't believe that. But anyway, I gave birth to my first daughter, Mathis, who is now age 11. And she arrived with a very interesting energy signature, I call it, that did not fit into normal school structures. So as a parent or as a mother, I, of course, love my child unconditionally as all parents love their children. And I was called to step up in a different way in order to serve her highest interests. I could have gone, you know, tried to put her into school, which then medication would have followed, different diagnoses.

You know, there's all kinds of labels and things that people like to throw around when you're dealing with children that are unique or, you know, just sort of operate in a different way. And because of who I am and because of my spiritual awareness, I wasn't having any of that. So I decided to do my own thing. And luckily, for the benefit of the Christian community, you know, they have paved the way for homeschooling and established wonderful laws. So it was very easy for me in California, you just have to file an affidavit. and you can, you know, you can homeschool and there's no, there's no educational requirement. You don't have to have, you know, some degree or a special teacher. You just have to meet, you know, a certain state requirements of, you know, different

subjects, et cetera. So my catalyst was my daughter. It was not an easy journey. Probably Julie, the personality, would have rather she just fit in school at the time. But that's not the package that she came in. And I would credit her in transforming me probably more than any other person I've met in my entire life because she required my presence with her all the time, 24-7. And I'm very, very pleased and inspired to see her thriving today. So I have proof that my method was in fact the highest for her. Yeah. And I guess for her is really kind of the key word there, which is that we each have to make really just decisions based on what's right for us as parents and what's

right for our children based on who they are, not so much on what's trending or what's sort of expected publicly. And I think my sense is that people who choose homeschooling or unschooling or nontraditional paths, that's getting easier for them. Yes, I think it sense is that people who choose homeschooling or unschooling or non-traditional paths, that that's getting easier for them. Yes, I think it is getting easier. And I think the key thing too, and I think is that, yes, it is about what is right for your child. And I think as parents, one of the things that we struggle the most with is making decisions for our children that feel safe for us. We like to apply our experience to our kids,

and there's a safety in that. And that may work in some cases, but in other cases, your child may be completely differently oriented than you are. So I like to really focus on the child. What is of the best interest for the child? And then as parents, work on releasing any fears around educational issues or other sort of root issues, which really are our responsibility to clear out of our own self rather than project that onto our kids. So let me ask you a really practical question about this. You're in a position where you can make these decisions and I am and a lot of people are, but there will be, if you're in, let's say a position in life where, and I just, I don't know the answer to this because I just don't know the available options. But I'm really curious. If you're in a position in life where you have a child who arrives here who's with a similar energy signature to your daughter, and you're somebody who's struggling financially, you're not in a town or an area where you have substantial resources, and even if you did, you, you, it would be very difficult for you to, to cover them financially. What's,

what's the possibility for, for that person to make similar choices for you? Well, first of all, yeah. I mean, um, let me just offer that when I was doing this homeschool with Mathis for the, you know, the large part of these years, these were years where I didn't have resources financially. So we were being completely dismantled financially in every single aspect of our lives. So I didn't do this with a ton of resources, hiring fancy teachers to come in and do, you know, all these other things. I, um, you know, I use resources online. I use my own creativity and I used people that I knew in the community that could, you know, that were friends or that wanted to help or that fit in just sort of naturally. So, so making this decision is not a dollar, it's not a financial decision. Um, it's, uh, you know, it's not the same as like,

you know, deciding to send your child to private school and having a big tuition, you know. So, and I would say, yeah, it is, it took a lot of courage and a lot of strength within myself. There was a lot of judgment coming from a lot of different, you know, avenues about what I was doing. And I think that you'll find that education is a very, it's a hot button actually with people. Yeah. And I, I didn't really know that until, um, until recently, I guess part of my denial is what allowed me to just, you know, keep going forward. Like, no, this is, you know, this is a great thing. Um, but yeah, there's a lot of judgment. There's a lot of fear about, well, what if,

you know, my child doesn't make the grade? You know, what if I don't, you know, prepare them so that they can, you know, go to college? But the world is changing very, very, very quickly. And I don't know if you've seen, I'm sure you've seen the TED Talk with Sir Ken Robinson. Yeah, of course. It's phenomenal. Yeah, it's like the most downloaded TED Talk. So it's like the world is changing so quickly and we have so much, so many issues with debt and with, you know, kids that, you know, go into debt for hundreds of thousands of dollars for college degrees and they're coming out without the jobs to pay them back. And, you know, I would say that setting up a child in that big of a, of a, of a deficit,

you know, like to, to begin your life with that weight on your shoulders, um, I would argue that that's not really in service to them. Yeah. It, it is interesting. And, um, the equation, you know, around the decision to go to college these days is radically different than I think when we were of an age where we were making that decision where, you know, the path was different. The cost of an education was profoundly different. And the likelihood of being able to repay the debt was, you know, pretty high. It's a very different world. And like you said, very much a hot button issue in conversation right now. So, but I think compassionately is, it's like, you know, anybody who's listening is again, the question is, is for whom and when,

you know, so I'm not, you know, my, me sharing this experience of how, you know, I was actually forced to meet my daughter in this framework, you know, so I didn't have a choice. But that's, you know, it's no commentary on anybody else's choice. Everybody has to make their own choice. You know, I would just say to anybody who's listening, if you're one of the people who's being faced with sort of, you know, the opportunity to step out of the box, just understand that it's being done, you know, in increasing numbers and in a lot of creative, amazing ways. So like for now, for instance, Mathis is very, very interested in fashion design. And so she actually launched her own fashion company. And this is a result of working with a mentor. So after some

years, then, you know, things shifted for us. And I was able to have some finances to hire a mentor two years ago. And she works with this fashion designer actually downtown now in the fashion district. And she has her own blog and she's using vegan leather and she's aligned with Wolf Connection to help with the preservation of wolves. So this experience of homeschool has informed her in pretty expansive ways and it's served her well and she's thriving in it. Yeah, and you said she's 11 now? She's 11.

Oh my God. That's incredible. She's 11 and she's making, you know, she's made custom patterns and, you know, she's been sewing for now two and a half years and she was always, you know, very, very unique. She was painting as a, as at a very young age and, you know, I'm an artist, so I would get her big canvases and just let her go crazy. You know, I mean, I had a room in my house where the kids could paint on the walls for like, you know, six years. So a lot of freedom, I think, so that people can find themselves, so that children can find themselves. And I think, you know, there's a lot of comparison that happens in society today. Like when you're outward looking and you're looking at other

people, it tends to paralyze you and make you insecure and make you think, you know, make you hesitant to step out. But if you're not looking outward and all you are is expressing yourself, you have time to develop your own voice and you start to feel yourself. And then you can look out and you can see what other people have done. But I think in the, in the early formative years, especially up to like eight years old, um, I think that children can, can do very well being, uh,

lovingly, uh, sort of contained and given the space to find themselves. Yeah, that's, that's definitely some powerful, um, wisdom. Yeah. It's, and I'm a parent raising a kid, um, you know, with my wife in the middle of New York city also. So the opportunity for comparison is, I don't think there's a place in the world where it's probably higher. So it's always interesting to try and, you know, to try and equip your kid or equip them with the experience where they can discover for themselves how to, how to, how to dance with that, um, in a way that's constructive. Mayday, mayday, we've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were gonna be fun. On January 24th.

Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're gonna die. Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot? Flight Risk. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here.

It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-nest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary.

So let's jump back into your path because there's still a lot of story to tell. We're still really early. At some point, and tell me if this is jumping ahead too much, you end up in a bit of a health crisis. Yeah. Well, it was really interesting because I was, you know, I'm a skinny type person. You know, I've never struggled with weight my whole life. And I grew up on, you know, mousse tacos and caribou stew and reindeer sausage and, you know, lots of salmon, an extraordinary amount of salmon. And, you know, not that many fresh vegetables. We lived in Alaska and except for in the summertime, you know, I don't know if you know, but have you ever seen the huge vegetables in Alaska that grow in the summer? No. Well, you know, they have, you have daylight almost year round. So they have these big fairs and the farmers there, they have contests on, you know, who has the biggest carrots or the biggest cabbages. Like if you Google it, you'll see, you know, like cabbages,

like, you know, six feet across, like it's like these, these giant vegetables because of the amount of sunlight they get in such a concentrated time. That's amazing. It's weird. Yeah, it's really funny. But I mean, for the most part, for nine months of the year, there's not really anything fresh, especially more now today when you're there, but not when I was a child growing up. So later in my life, actually, this is kind of a two-pronged thing that you will, I think, resonate with,

and that was that I was in my 40s, actually. I was already, you know, pretty healthy. I've been practicing yoga probably for 10 or 12 years at the time. And so just naturally, everything started to drop from me. So I'm not, I don't like to create a boundary around myself or to flow with life. And I find when I embrace things that are very nourishing to me and that are in alignment with my spirit, then anything that's out of balance or that maybe could be called a negative issue will just drop, drop. So in my experience, habits drop me.

I don't drop the habits. So I had started to eat, you know, a lot cleaner, a vegetarian diet. I think I was still drinking some, you know, good quality wine and definitely lattes, that kind of thing. But overall, you know, fairly, fairly healthy diet. And then actually it was the second wedding anniversary of Rich and me. And I was, you know, we lived in a teepee and an Airstream when we built our house. And we were having like a romantic night in our teepee as, you know, celebration. We were going to spend the night in our humble abode that we had lived in during the construction. So I was packing my bag to just carry down the hill, you know, to go to the teepee.

And I passed by the mirror and I saw my neck. I saw this huge mass on my neck, like the size of a golf ball. And I was so, so surprised that I didn't, it came on so suddenly. There was, it was just not there and then there as far as I knew. So I kind of felt into it and I thought, wow, is that my Adam's apple? Like, I didn't think I had an Adam's apple that big and then I decided not to tell Rich that night but the next morning you know I just said hey babe you know like something's going on my neck and I could tell

by the look on his face that he was very concerned so I'm not one to frequent doctors but of course I did I went and got an MRI and it was diagnosed as something called a thyroglossal duct cyst. And it's a straight, it's like a rare sort of condition. And I believe it's present in kids between the ages of like eight and 12. Like that's usually when it comes on. And here I was in my forties and I had this. So, you know, everybody was, the surgeons wanted to cut it out. And, you know, my friends and family and Rich included were very, very concerned about it. It was not malignant. It had been infected.

Somehow they could tell it had been infected. But it was not malignant, but they wanted to cut it out of my neck. So it had been fused between two bones. It's something when your tongue evolves, when you're in embryo stage, it drops down and then forms your thyroid, and then these two sort of ducts close up and bones form around them. Well, somehow in some people, the ducts don't fully close, and it filled up with something, a mass of some kind.

So they explained to me that it was not an easy surgery. It was in fact a medium level surgery and they would have to cut it out of my neck. And I wasn't that hip to this. I had had a botched tonsillectomy when my son was like a year and a half old and something went wrong in the surgery. I lost my taste buds for almost a year and I lost about 15 pounds. I was completely unable to eat and in massive pain that was referring into my eardrums. So when the doctors told me, well, we're going to have to cut this out of your neck, I was like, yeah, I don't really think so. I don't think I'm letting you in again. So they told me that I had some time.

I let the doctors know that I was a healer and that I was into natural methods. And they kind of patted me on the head and said, we'll see you back in a couple months to get it cut out. So I called actually my friend at the time. Her name's Perry Reeves. I don't know if you know her. She's an actress now on Entourage. But anyway, we were dear friends and we were doing a yogic, a tantric workshop actually here at the house. And I knew she knew a lot about Ayurveda and she had been raised in a very conscious household. And she referred me to a physician and she said, get ready to change everything about the way you eat. So I went to see him and he prescribed the smelliest herbs that you could ever imagine.

When I would make my preparations, the boys would go, you know, screaming and running from the kitchen. But I took these herbs diligently and also applied a topical paste that I would wrap around my neck with a bandage every night. And also there was a lot of lifestyle, you know, changes as far as meditation and having a very scheduled practice. But much to everybody's shock, I healed it in about a year and a half. It was completely gone. So this is fascinating to me on two levels. One, your story. Two, you're the only grown-up that I've ever met who has had the same thing I've had.

You did? I actually had surgery for it. You did not. I did. And that's why when you were like saying that it was called, I'm like, I know what it was called because I literally, I was, I was speaking and this wasn't that long ago. I was in my forties also. And, and I saw it was either a picture of a video of me on stage when I got back. And I was like, has my Adam's apple always been that big? I was like, maybe it's just like, does your Adam's apple grow with age?

And I kind of blew it off. And then a week or two later, my wife looked at me. She's like, has your Adam's apple always been that big? And I'm like, I don't know. I freaked out. And then we went through the whole thing that you just described, except I chose the other option. So I know to a certain extent what you're going through. It's fascinating for me to hear that there was a potential alternative pathway, which had never even entered my mind. That's crazy. Well, that is so, you're the first person I've ever met in my life who ever had the same thing. I, that's just crazy. And you're here and you're well. And so thank, you know, so you three months I had pus come out on my face, like hundreds of sort of like, you know, blemishes that were filled with fluid. And, you know, it wasn't pretty. Like it took some time. And I even had, you know, my family members were freaking out. They were like, stop taking the herbs. You know, they're not, you know, they're making this happen. And I was like, yeah, this has to happen in order to clear it. I have to face the ugly, so to speak, in order to

go through this healing. And from my perspective, you know, I felt that, you know, I had been given a gift, a gift of exploration, you know, it was, you know, probably now in hindsight, it was a critical foundational point of my evolution and my journey. You know, now that I'm a vegan chef and I'm, you know, teaching the, you know, the healing properties of food. But I felt like I wasn't going to waste it. You know, it's not like I had cancer and they were like, you know, you're going to die and you have four kids. So decide. It was a gentle opportunity for me to sort of dive into Ayurveda and meditation and sort of, you know, explore the healing properties of food. And that was my path.

But, you know, I guess probably it took about, you know, four months and then I started to see it go down. And then in six months, I really saw it change and I knew I had it. So then it just increased my, my resolve, you know, to keep working on it. Yeah, that's amazing. And I guess also, you know, because there will be people who listen to this and say, and, and, and very sadly in the news very recently, you know, there's, there's been coverage around the loss of some people who are adored in the health and wellness world who took a natural approach to trying to treat their or live with cancer and didn't make it. And there will be people who listen to this and think not good things. But I think part of what your message is and what your story is and

what you're saying here too is like, I was in a very unique decision. There was a very unusual condition that I had and I made this decision for me and it was the right thing for me. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, no one can tell anybody else what their life decision is. You know, all of us have personal responsibility for our own lives. So you have to, you know, you have to be the, you know, the healer of your life. You have to make that decision. And for some reason, the place that I was standing in, you know, combined with everything that I am, I saw this, this potential for me, this experience for me. And I, I chose to experience it that way.

Yeah. Which also really just speaks to the frame, the lens that you brought to the experience, which is, which is so unique. You, you mentioned also, so as part of this, that, um, you know, you were sort of, uh, in the, in the, the early years of marriage to Rich and, and in case I hadn't, hadn't remembered to set this up in the introduction that I'll record after this, your husband is Rich Roll, who's a well-known ultra endurance athlete and author and has his own pretty astonishing story of intense workaholism and addiction and recovery. But it's not just his story. That's your shared story. And I've, I've always been really curious because I know Rich and we've talked about his story and he's talked so lovingly and just, he has such deep love and appreciation for you and the role that you played in his life. And I've, I've always been really curious since

I've known him in that story, how you experienced being a partner in, in, in that. In Rich Roll's world? Yeah, not just his world, but in that, especially in that, you know, that time of his life where he seemed to be in an exceptionally dark place and you were there with him. Right. Well, yeah, I mean, first of all, Rich and I are soulmates for lack of a better word. We're extremely well matched. We're a very, very strong pair and we're very, very different. But there's a deep love and also this kind of, you know, ease with which we interact with each other. I think we're the best of friends and we're also the deep of the deepest of lovers and soulmates. So that, that foundation right there informs a lot of what we do. Um, I would say when I met

Rich, actually he had been sober a year and a half. So I have never been with Rich when he was drinking. So but that being said, it's like, you know, the the alcoholic energy is part of a lifestyle. So, you know, we met and we had a lot of amazing dreams that we wanted to share with each other. And part of what I've always expressed is that, you know, we're here, you only have one life or, you know, no, you don't actually, I believe you have thousands of lives, but this life right here is very important and you can use the time any way you choose. And I was always advocating to, you know, to really live your authentic heart. And I would say that I'm a rebel and I'm a risk taker. And there was nothing about the fact that Rich was a recovering alcoholic that gave me pause

to marry him. So I would say, though, that, you know, it's a journey. We were married in 2003. We had an amazing spiritual ceremony. It's still one of the most beautiful days of my existence. So worth just coming into a body just to have amazing day. And we have created this creative life together at this home that we built, Jai House. And about 12 years ago, you know, we had a lot of the sort of blueprint for, you know, what's become what we're creating today, which is the Plant Power Way. Then it was called Jai Lifestyle. But we were doing yoga retreats, you know, overseas, and we were, you know, we had amazing products, and we wanted to teach yoga and spread the word of healing and, you know, all these things. So it was at a moment in our life when Rich started to go through his

transformation, we realized or he realized that he was not happy in his life as a lawyer. Um, and I knew that his true core was that of an athlete. And, you know, he started to explore some of these sort of, I don't know, inspirations in his heart. And there was no way that I couldn't support that because it's the very essence of my being. So it didn't exist in me to tell him to not train and go do more law work. I just, I couldn't say that. So even though we were struggling, and struggling is an understatement, we risked every single thing in our lives. We risked everything to make this leap and make this transformation.

And, you know, the outcome has far surpassed anything that either of us could have imagined because we were rooted in devotion and in service to, you know, a force outside of ourselves. And when you do that, in my experience, what shows up is worth way more than what you bargained for, or we didn't bargain, but you know, way more than what was on your list. So how does somebody find that level of faith? And I guess, you know, the way you're describing your circumstance, you're kind of, the bottom was falling out in a lot of different ways. So there's almost, you know, only, there was really kind of nowhere to go but up. But still, there was a lot that was invested in the past and a lot to leave behind. And there was a huge amount of faith

that had to be part of the equation. Now, it seems like you guys are kind of wired more to lean into that. But for those who maybe aren't, how do you find that? You cultivate it. Well, I mean, you know, I don't know. It's hard for me to comment on that exactly because every person is unique. It's just from my perspective, and, you know, this is more, you know, I'm really more the one that has been, you know, I mean, if you doubt the existence of an incredible force of creation, you know, simply look inside the human body. You know, the human body is a miraculous, absolutely a miracle. I mean, you know, it can't even be explained how all these functions operate, you know, how we exist. So, you know, if you question that, start looking inside your own body, which is what brings me to rich in my work, you know, with food as medicine. You know,

it's like the beginning of getting in touch with your soul and your transformation and your higher purpose exists within your very physical body. And the beginning step of that is by eating high vibrational foods. So sometimes if we don't pay attention, our soul will bring us a gift in the form of some sort of disease, dis-ease, right? It's something's not flowing. That's why it's called dis-ease. And some of us get kind of a harder knock than others, you know, just everybody's different. But I truly and firmly believe that those, you know, those challenges, those health challenges and also life challenges are brought into your field to give you the opportunity to access the higher realms of who you are, which in my world, we are spiritual beings having a human experience and not the other way around. We're not humans trying to have a spiritual experience. Anyone listening to this podcast or anyone is no less spiritual than I or you.

We are spiritual beings having a human experience. So it's just getting back to that remembrance. And in my experience and in Rich's experience, the way, the first way through is through high vibrational food. So it means getting more plants into your diet, eating more green leafy plants, fresh fruits and vegetables, local, many varieties. And in my opinion, you don't really have to change much else. You don't have to give up meat or call yourself a label or say I'm vegan or I'm paleo or whatever. You just simply eat more plants and let the plants inform your body. And then your body will tell you what you need and what you don't need.

And then after that, you'll start to receive communication from the higher aspects of yourself. So, I mean, it's interesting because I'm somebody who tends to be science minded, but the older I become, um, the more open I become to the wisdom of things that I have a zero explanation for rationally. Um, so, you know, if I was having this conversation with you 10 years ago, even though I was in the yoga world, there's a good chance that I would be secretly thinking, I don't know about this. Right. You know, and what's so interesting is that I think very often you reach a point in life where you framed it beautifully. You know, you have the gift of your body having to go through certain things.

And, you know, and those things will keep presenting themselves and very often in more and more aggressive ways until you respond to them, until you figure out how to move through them, how to learn from them. And sometimes the learning doesn't come from books. Sometimes the learning doesn't come from things that are easily explained. You know, so how do I let my, you know, foods vibration inform me? Um, I haven't seen that in a textbook yet if I'm eating a certain way and I feel better and it makes me yearn for something else or it makes me want to move more. Um, how can I deny the wisdom of that knowledge? Yeah. Beautifully said. I mean, we have, you know, we receive, you know, thousands of emails and communications from people all over the world. And it's just, it's so immensely

inspiring to hear them share their story of how literally changing to a plant-based diet has shifted everything for them. And it's a full spectrum. It's from, you know, you know, grave disease to, you know, someone who's, you know, lost half their body weight, you know, who can sleep now, whose anxiety has disappeared, you know, or just who found their true love, who found, you know, their true passion that they hadn't been connected with. You know, it's really a full range. But there is power in the plants. thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X,

available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing.

Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. So let's talk about something else then that kind of comes out of that conversation. Plant-based diets, I think, is a very strong growing movement. At the same time, and this was interesting, right, because we're friends with the people over at MindBodyGreen,

and there was a really interesting conversation in the retreat that they did out in Arizona last year where it was sort of like the paleo heads versus the vegan heads. Right. We were all there. Right. So do you have a lens on, um, on, on that conversation? Well, I think, yeah, I mean, it was really cool. First of all, it was an extraordinary event, an extraordinary event that MindBodyGreen put on. And, uh, I think, you know, Jason's and Colleen's amazing heart and who they are as individuals just, you know, permeate through, you know, organic, local, in season, like all those things everybody was in agreement on. You know, it's really not that different.

You know, in some cases, it's just adding, you know, one thing on. So again, you know, I have to go back to my yogic training and this is where I always am. And that is, I can't tell anybody else how to live their life. That's not, you know, there isn't one prescription that applies to season, then for every individual, depending on how you incarnated, where the planets were when you came into a body, then at what stage of life are you in? Is it, are you a child? Are you a teenager? Are you, you know, are you an adult? Are you, you know, in middle age? So, you know, so you can't, you can't make a prescription and go out and say, this is your prescription. But across the board, we have seen that eating a plant-based diet, non-GMO, is the catalyst and inspiring magnificent

change all over the planet. Yeah. And what's interesting to me too, and we're probably very friendly with a lot of the same people. And so I know a lot of people in the paleo world and also in the vegan world and vegetarian world. And I actually see very little difference between them. I mean, they're the one stark difference is that, you know, one says eat grass fed beef and wild caught salmon.

But outside of that, it's, it's largely, there's a huge amount of crossover in what people are saying to do. And I love the fact also that you spoke to the fact that it's not just about making an individual choice, but, and this was something that really struck me in a conversation I recently had with Chris Kresser, is that don't assume also that what's right for you in this moment in your life is going to be what's right for you, you for you 10 years, 15 years, 20 years from now,

that we evolve and our needs evolve. And so saying that I'm paleo or I'm vegan or I'm vegetarian or that your needs as a human are going to change and evolve and just labeling that this is the system I belong to rather than just saying what do I need at this given moment in time based on who I am and, and, you know, how my body is, um, you do a disservice to yourself to sort of box yourself in. No. And I mean, I always say, you know, that I don't have any boxes around myself because

that wouldn't be a yogic way to live a life. You know, if you, it would be a prison cell, right? So, but what I would say is that, you know, is that it's for whom and when, right? That's the, that's the real question that needs to be asked. And the only person that can answer it is the person who, who we're speaking to. The second thing is, you know, the, the immense emotional baggage that is attached to food must be considered and looked at. So why is there so much heat around food choices? And what is the food either suppressing or what is the association that is causing, you know, these, you know, these extreme reactions,

you know, to, you know, taking a stance over whether, you know, I eat an orange and you eat a peach. So, so I would just like to offer that. I think that there's a wealth of expert, there's a, there's a lot of work that can be done in that area. And, you know, Rich and I always try to, you know, we, we open our arms wide. Our, our plant-based lifestyle fits with anybody. You know, you can, you can eat that way no matter how you're eating. So I think we need to find ways that we can connect rather than ways that we are separate. So great. Beautifully said. So speaking of connecting and ways to share your, what you guys have figured out over your lives together, um, you guys have collaborated on a,

a book that, um, I'm going to call gorgeous. Um, thank you. The plant power away. Um, I got a copy of,

you know, an early copy from you guys. And I was funny because at first, I think I stumbled upon the video trailer for the book a couple of weeks back. And the trailer just made me smile. And then when I saw the book, it's beautiful. So what was the inspiration to take that next step and co-create this together? He was training insane hours and insane distances, you know, getting in preparation for his, you know, double Ironman races. And he was completely plant-based, meaning no animal products. And I didn't really get it at the beginning. You know, we had young kids and, you know, he was just gone. I would see him kind of leave out the door and then he would return eight later, and I would hand him, you know, the youngest and say, here, take her now I'm going to, you know, place, I'm going to go record music or go play, you know. And finally, like after like the fifth time I did it, you know, he kind of looked at me and he was like, Do you realize I

just ran a marathon? You know, he said one day, and I kind of stopped and I actually didn't realize that that's what he had done. So then I kind of stopped and, you know, took stock a little more. And I was like, yeah, this guy is really, you know, putting a lot of effort into it. And I thought, you know, wouldn't it be great if I really, really nurtured him and really took care of him and really just had amazing food ready for him when he got home. Like that's how I could really love him, really show him that I love him. And I, and, uh, I'm an artist, you know, as you know, and I just, I sort of use whatever creative, whatever medium is in my, is in my field at the moment. And so I've always been, you know, fairly prolific at cooking. Um, it's easy for me,

you know, I'm a cancer. I love having people at my home. Everything is about my home for me. So I started like experimenting and I just started creating recipes and then he was coming home and he was more and more excited and really appreciative, super appreciative. It was probably very good for our marriage that I decided to do that. And then the kids started weighing in and then we just sort of after a year and a half, you know, I had, you know, probably, I don't know, 50 recipes. And I said to Rich in between races, could you please just get this up online and let's do an online cookbook because I have enough recipes. So we didn't know what we were doing. We put

together this online cookbook. It's called Jai Seed. We used images of our family that we all had taken. We're all artists and we're always taking pictures. And so we had some pretty amazing shots. And I had gone and crewed for Rich's race in Hawaii on the big island at Ultraman. And I had rented a huge lens. So I had some good shots of him, you know, in the race. So we put together this cookbook and Rich went into his office like on a Friday and came out on a Tuesday. And I always say he Ultramanned the first cookbook. So it was done. We threw it up and, and, um, you know, that little book is still selling. It's under $10 and, uh, you know, it fed us groceries like that. That was how we were eating basically was, you know, by selling that product. So now after, you know,

everything else sort of clicked in and a richest book finding ultra, you know, sold amazingly well. And, you know, the whole thing started, started to shape up. up, then of course we were going to do an actual real cookbook. So yeah, so it's 120 recipes of, they're all my family plant-based recipes. They're all recipes that we eat in our house. I didn't source out for anything. It's all authentic. And what I like to say about my food is it's real food.

You know, I have real, I have an Ultraman. I have two grown teenagers. I have, so my kids are 20, 18, and then two girls, 11 and 7. And, you know, we have a lot of people over for dinner often. And the recipes are tasty and they're wholesome and they're easy also, which is pretty amazing. I would say I think one of the things that I hear feedback on a little bit is that people then assume that it's a raw cookbook. And it's not. About 70% of the recipes are cooked and about 30% are raw.

So it's not a raw life. It's not a raw food lifestyle at all. So that's how it happened. Yeah, and it's beautiful. I actually can't wait to dive into it and start to play with some of them. And the thing that turned the corner for me, to be honest,

is the fact that it's not just two grown adults who've made a choice to eat this way, but, you know, these recipes are actually, they're based on intensive testing on kids of, you know, all ages that, you know, that's sort of the ultimate test for me. So I'm like, okay, if it's good enough for them, I need to dive in. Yeah. Well, and the other thing is, is that you, you know, listen, it's been a journey. So when we started this, you know, originally I was eating vegetarian because I still was eating some ghee from my Ayurvedic, you know, healing practice. And then Rich became vegan. And then one of my boys was vegetarian, but the other one was eating what we thought was clean meat at the time. And the little girls have never eaten any meat. So we're a normal family. It's not like we just, you know, we're all born vegan and, you know, this is what happened.

It's been an evolution and that's why Rich and I say, you know, it's an evolution revolution. And we, you know, we allow everybody their own space in their process. So we didn't like announce one day like, okay, we're vegan. You know, it's, everybody is honored for their own space and their own journey and where they are. And I just kept preparing amazing plant-based food. I just kept doing it. Just keep, keep doing it, keep doing it. And over time, the microbial environment shifts in your gut, you know, the, the population living in your gut that actually is responsible for your cravings, it will shift and you will find yourself starting to crave healthier things. I mean, just this morning, my 11-year-old, I'm at the blender and I'm making

a smoothie and she says to me, mom, could you please put some aloe vera filet and some spirulina in mine? And this is my, this is my vocal protester, by the way. This is the one that likes to push back at me. So I was, I thought, well, absolutely I could do that. And I chuckle under my breath, but you'll see these things happen. And it doesn't mean that they don't, you know, still want the piece of pizza or it doesn't, you know, it doesn't, it's not static, you know, it's just like spiritual practice, right? It's a process. You keep coming back to the now. You keep coming back to healthy plant-based meals. You know what I mean? So, anybody can do it. It's not all black and white. And the benefits and the changes that you will see inside your family will just inspire you and delight you. And there's always the next meal and there's always another opportunity to make a great choice. Love it. And inspiring. So the name of this is Good Life Project. So I'm guessing

you know the next question coming. It's my wrap up question for everybody who I had the opportunity to sit down with and learn from. If I offer that term out to you, to live a good life, what does it mean to you? To live a good life for me means to live a life of devotion. Is that too short? No, it is what it is. It's beautiful. Thank you so much for the conversation. I so enjoyed it. Thank you, Jonathan. It's an honor and a pleasure and a blessing to share the airwaves. And I look forward to meeting you soon. Yeah, me as well. Okay. Thanks so much for listening to today's conversation. I hope you really enjoyed it. Thanks so much, guys. Wishing you a wonderful week ahead.

I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project. it. The Apple Watch Series X is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum.

Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg.

You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight Risk.