The One You Feed - Rich Roll and Julie Piatt

Episode Date: April 30, 2015

This week we talk to Rich Roll and Julie Piatt about the challenges and the joys of transformation.Rich Roll is a 47-year old, accomplished vegan ultra-endurance athlete and former entertainment attorney turned full-time wellness & plant-based nutrition advocate, motivational speaker, husband, father of 4 and inspiration to people worldwide as a transformative example of courageous and healthy living. He is the author of Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World's Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself. Julie Piatt aka "SriMati" is a plant based chef, singer songwriter, spiritual guide, and mother to four. Julie has spent decades finding the divine in all her endeavors. Living from a deep place of devotion she experiences the presence of God: the conscious eternal flame in all life experiences, the seemingly light and dark, joyous and painful. Together they are the authors of the excellent new book The Plantpower Way: Whole Food Plant-Based Recipes and Guidance for The Whole FamilyIn This Interview Dale and I Discuss...The One You Feed parable.How what we think about grows.The Plant Power Way.Eric's diet transformation.For full show notes and more visit our websiteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You can't read about going through a hardship in a book and then speak to it. You have to go through it so that you can share with someone that's a little bit behind you on the path. Welcome to The One You Feed. Throughout time, great thinkers have recognized the importance of the thoughts we have. Quotes like, garbage in, garbage out, or you are what you think ring true. And yet, for many of us, our thoughts don't strengthen or empower us. We tend toward negativity, self-pity, jealousy, or fear. We see what we don't have instead of what we do. We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit.

But it's not just about thinking. Our actions matter. Instead of what we do, we think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it's not just about thinking. Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort to make a life worth living. This podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction. How they feed their good wolf. I'm Jason Alexander and I'm Peter Tilden and together our mission on the really no really podcast is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why the bathroom door doesn't go all the way to the floor what's in the museum of failure and does your dog truly love you we have the answer go to really no really.com and register to win 500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign jason bobblehead

the really no really podcast follow us on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts thanks for joining us our guest or shall i say guests today are rich roll and julie pyatt this episode is a landmark for the one you feed because it's not only the first time a guest has appeared on the podcast for a second time but also the first time that we have interviewed two guests at once if you don't already know rich roll from his books, podcast, or his career as a vegan ultra-endurance athlete, you might remember him from his appearance on The One You Feed episode number 17. Joining Rich on this episode is Julie Pyatt. Julie is an artist, musician, chef, and co-writer of the beautiful new book, The Plant Power Way.

Here's the interview. Hi Rich, hi Julie, welcome to the show. Hi, Rich. Hi, Julie. Welcome to the show. Hey, Eric. Thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks so much for having us. It's great to talk to you again. You are our first time second guest, Rich. So you are the first one who's ever made it back. Oh, I'm touched and deeply honored. Thank you. And we have your wife, Julie, with us this time also, which is great. And we're going to talk about your new book here shortly. But first, let's start off like we always do with the parable.

And this time I'm going to let Julie give her interpretation of it. So there is an old parable of the two wolves where there's a grandfather who's talking with his grandson. And he says, in life, there are two wolves inside of us that are always at battle. One is a good wolf, which represents things like kindness and bravery and love. And the other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed and hatred and fear. And the grandson stops. He thinks about it for a second. He looks up at his grandfather and he says, well, grandfather, which one wins? And the grandfather says, the one you feed. So i'd like to start off by asking you julie what that parable means to you in your life and in the work that you do well wow

that's beautiful um what the parable means to me is that what you put your attention on is what grows uh and what informs your experience um and even more than that is that as co-creators and as divine beings that came into a body, I believe that we are spiritual beings having a human experience, that we in fact even have the power to shape our experience through the lens or perspective that we choose to adopt around any dark or light experience. Excellent. And maybe you guys could spend a minute, I know you've got a new book, either depending on exactly when we release this will either just be about to come out or will have just been released. This is a book that you guys wrote together. It's a beautiful, beautiful book. I got a copy of it and it looks great. Maybe give the listeners just a brief

overview of what the book is about and what your goals were with it. Yeah, absolutely. So about three years ago, I wrote my first book, which was called Finding Ultra. And that was kind of my memoir. It was an inspirational kind of story. And interlaced in that was all kinds of nutritional information that's been kind of transformational for me. And what happened was a lot of people read that book and they were inspired and said, you know, I want to do something like you. I'm ready to go, but what do I eat, right? And so, although I provided all this nutritional information, I didn't give specific guidance as to, you know, recipes, etc. So, it was kind of an obvious next book to put together a cookbook. But it's been an interesting process in trying to put together something that I feel like

had never been done before. Because when Julie and I kind of perused what was available and looked at all the books, you know, all the vegan cookbooks, plant-based cookbooks, healthy eating, paleo cookbooks that you will find at your local Barnes and Nobles. There's certainly no shortage of amazing, beautiful, and informative books. And I thought, well, I don't want to just do a book because it seems like it's the next thing we're supposed to do unless we can really figure out a way to contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way. And what I noticed was that there didn't really seem to be anything out there that was providing guidance for just the typical modern American family who's just looking to eat healthier, be better, and help their kids,

more importantly, or as importantly, learn healthier lifestyle tools to make better choices. And so this book kind of was born out of the idea of trying to create a welcome mat, um, and a mouthpiece to really kind of invite, uh, people in who, you know, are not necessarily vegan or don't even necessarily know that that's what they want to do into, you know, the world in which we live, which is healthy, vibrating, you know, plant-based foods close to their natural state. And so the book is, you know, it's very much a cookbook. It's got 120 plus delicious, easy to prepare plant-based recipes that, you know, will fuel my athletic pursuits and basically seat the desires of our children and the more carnivorous of our friends.

But at the same time, I would say about half of it is lifestyle guide. You know, it's packed with tools and resources and, and opinion pieces, basically everything that you need to know to kind of transition into a healthier, more sustainable way of living and being. Excellent. Well, it was been a little over a year since we had you on the show the first time, Rich. And at that time, I made a commitment to eat plant-powered for 30 days. How'd that go? Yeah, how'd it go? Well, I did it for 30 days. And then I continued and I, I have to say that it's a little over a year later. I don't eat 100% plant based, but I bet it's 95% plus. I've not gone back to eating any meat. I have the occasional dairy or butter is pretty much I would say say, the extent of it. Beyond that, it's pretty much been all whole food based or at least all plant based.

I have a weakness towards like kind energy bars or that sort of thing, which I know are not great, but boy, they're convenient and easy. Yeah, it could be worse. Yeah, that's fantastic. It's impressive. Yeah, that's amazing. I didn't realize that you were so on board. That's really amazing. Yeah, it's been pretty transformational in just overall health. It certainly makes it easier to make good decisions for me when there's

pretty clear laid out rules. I just did again recently, I did another 30 days where I was 100% committed to only whole plant-based foods. And I do well on that plan because I do good without ambiguity. When I'm like, well, I'll probably eat mostly better, I tend to only mostly improve. Right. Because you're trying to feed two wolves. There you go. That's exactly right. It's confusing. That bad're trying to feed two wolves. There you go. That's exactly right. And that's confusing. That bad wolf is a hungry character sometimes.

So what is your experience, Ben? You know, I certainly lost some weight. I mean, I don't, I'm not, I certainly wasn't really overweight, but I lost weight. And I think the biggest experience is that when I eat, I just don't feel bad after I eat. I never really have the experience of, unless I, you know, I think I've had pizza like twice in that time period. And afterwards, I was like, oh, man, after I got done eating. So I think that's been the biggest for me is that I just, I don't have that after eating sense of tiredness or feeling too full or feeling lousy. Um, that's been a big one. Um, I think it's hard for me to know energy wise. I tend to be, I'm kind of on the go a lot. I do a lot. So my energy level tends to be pretty

consistently high. Um, but it certainly has, um, it seems to have leveled out those periods where it's not so much so i've obviously i'm still doing it so i really like it yeah that's great great to hear man yeah so thank you for the uh inspiration to try it chris has been vegetarian uh longer than that i remember when he became vegetarian i was like i don't know about that. Um, and so when I started this, I was like, well, I'm just going to do it. But it was, uh, you know, one of the things that I did as part of that 30 days was I was like, well, I should probably learn more about food and where it comes from and all that is a way to support me, which absolutely did that. Cause it pretty much, um, changed my relationship to food forever, watching things like Food Inc. and some of those different

things really made me see the world totally different. And then, you know, a lot of the stuff that you've continued to do has been very important in supporting me on that eating plan, too. Super cool to hear. So you guys wrote a book together. And so what I'm interested in is how that experience has been you guys working together on creating a book. And I'm curious about how it goes in general. But I'm also curious if you guys are willing to be a little bit more open about there's got to be challenges that come up in that process. and how do you guys handle those? Right. Yeah, I mean, I think it's been a very interesting journey, and it's been cool.

When I wrote Finding Ultra, I just locked myself up in a closet and kind of banged it out. I worked with an editor, but it was very much kind of a singular solo experience. And this book is very different. Whereas my book was my story And this book is very different. You know, whereas my book was my story, this book is our family story. And so our whole family has participated in the creation of this book. And, you know, there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen. We have photographers and graphic artists, and I was collaborating with my wife. And so it was a team approach and, you know, it's been, uh, it's been, I think that that has raised the bar on the quality of what we're able

to put out because we have so much talent that's, that, that this book is infused with. Um, you know, and for me, it was a, it was an evolution of learning to learning, learning to let go, try not to be a controlled freak about certain things and you know to let everybody uh excel at what they're most talented in you know i certainly wasn't going to be in the kitchen telling julie you know how to create these amazing uh you know artistic recipes and dishes that she has conceived i I mean, that's her, that's her thing, you know, so we, we divided up the work and then we would meet and get together and try to figure out, you know, always pushing the envelope on how we could make it better and better and better.

Yeah. And I mean, for me, it's like, you know, uh, really the creation of the book was just a natural, authentic extent extension of how we live our lives. And it really came about when Rich was training for the beginning Ultraman races and he was doing these insane amount of hours, you know, training out for, you know, eight hour bike rides and, you know, running 40 miles, you know, as a training run and this, these type of things. And, uh, what I realized is that I didn't really understand what he was doing because as his wife and his partner, he would just leave, go out the door and the door would shut. And then eight hours later, he would come back through that door.

But I had no context for what he had done in those eight hours. And I usually would hand him a child and I'd say, okay, your turn, I'm out. Like I'm going to go play some music or go practice yoga. It's my turn now, right? And one day he said to me, you know, play some music or go practice yoga. It's my turn now. Right. And one day he said to me, you know, do you, you, you understand, I just ran a marathon. Like he said it to me as I was handing him a child and, and I stopped for a minute and I realized I had no idea that that's what he had done. And I thought, well, you know, this guy is really committed to this and, and I could really support him. I could really be supportive to him if I

really tried to feed him. And so I then embarked on this kind of creative process. I'm an artist, a musician. I use whatever medium is in front of me to express myself creatively. And so I turned to the kitchen and I started just creating these recipes with the intention of nourishing him, replenishing his, you know, reserves so that he could get up and go out and train the following day. So after, you know, a period of time, I had a collection of recipes, which ended up being, you know, an online book that we did originally called Jai Seed, which is 44 recipes. But then eventually, you know, we wanted to do a full coffee table book. And so I'm very, very, you know, I feel very blessed that every single recipe in this book is one of my recipes. It's a recipe that I developed in the kitchen with

my family. And they are recipes that we eat on a rotating basis. So it's very authentic in its presentation, and I think that's a very, very powerful and transformational place to come from. Yeah, it seems very authentic in that way, and I have to say that my plant-powered eating life would be far improved by having you in my life making these delicious looking things that are in here. That is for sure. Well, what I hope is that you'll cook out of the book and you'll get some techniques because the other thing that is really amazing about my recipes is that they are incredibly simple and easy to prepare. I am a very busy person. I'm a mom of four. I'm also an artist. I'm recording music and

painting and writing. And I don't have hours and hours and hours. I'm not spending my entire Sunday planning my weekly meal plans. So I think you'll find if you flip through this book, with the exception of some few recipes that are in there, most of the recipes can be prepared in under 30 minutes. And they're extremely tasty and easy. And I really believe that anyone, even if you're not a chef, or you're not a cook, you could, you could master a lot of these recipes and really have a transformation in your life. Yeah, they look like they would be within my reach of cooking ability, for sure. I'm sure they are. Yeah, yeah.

I'm certain that they are, yes. So early in the book, at one point, you talk about that you guys embarked on this transformational journey. I think it sounds like, Julie, you've been involved in thinking about transformation maybe a little bit longer. But as a group, you really started in, and it said it's been about eight years. And you say that during that time, you had some unimaginable highs matched by countless low lows. And I would be curious, what are some of the lows that you guys have found as you've gone through this process? Oh, wow. Well, I mean, where to even begin with that? You know, I think people that are familiar on a surface level, you know, with my story

and parts of our story as a family, there's a tendency to kind of project, you know, this idea that, well, he could go out and do all that training because he was a lawyer and he had money saved in the bank and they live in a nice house and all this sort of stuff. And the truth is, is that, you know, our journey has been extremely hard fought and it has been marked by, you know, more come to Jesus moments and dark nights of the soul than I care to, you know, recall. And, you know, specifically, we've had days where we had to send the kids to school without lunch. We almost lost our house. We went and lived in yurts on Hawaii, wondering whether we would ever be able to come back to our house. You know, like we've, we have fought very, very hard to craft this life that we have and we risked everything for it. You know, we put everything on the line and walked away from a very different life to embrace this heart-based, faith-based

lifestyle so that we could pursue what we love and share a message with the world that is helpful, you know, hopefully helpful to other people. But, you know, it has been very much a warrior's path, and we know we've bled for it. And it's very, it makes it all the more gratifying now when everything is congealed, and the pieces are coming together. And it all makes sense. And, you know, people can look at it and say, well, wow, what they're doing is so amazing. They don't see, you know, how hard we had to fight to get to this place that we're at right now. Yeah, I think that's so important to share that with people because there is a perception with anybody who's been successful a lot of times that they just came that way or it was easy for them.

And I think that that can hold a lot of people back from trying to do things that they want to do. I think hearing the journey that people go through, the struggles they go through, particularly when it's people that a lot of people look up to or who are in the public eye, that's so powerful. Yeah, it really is. I mean, you know, life doesn't discriminate. And if you're a human being, you're going to be given a certain, you know, set of events, you know, that are laid out across your lifetime. And to, you know, portray the illusion that it's all a cakewalk is just irresponsible and just not true. It's just not true.

And as human beings, we have an opportunity to transform through these. We change and we become who we are much more through the adversarial moments than we do through easy times. Not to say that I, you know, I still am calling in lots of easy times for us. You know, we really had our share. So I'm extremely grateful. But the other part of it is that, you know, we don't take any of what is happening for granted for even one moment. I mean, the other, Rich sent me a text just last week

and he was like, remember when we couldn't eat. Remember when our cars got repossessed. Remember when we thought we were losing the house and this went on for many, many years. So it wasn't just a small three month period. It was a step into the unknown and a commitment to walk the path. And because we did that with pure heart, courage, and surrender, creation or the divine force has delivered us

much more than we ever imagined in some aspects. Some things that have happened to us are just crazy, amazing. But yeah, every human being gets that opportunity to have that experience. And for people to think that the human life, you know, is all easy for someone, it's just, I think it's untrue. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden. And together on the Really No Really podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like why they refuse to make the bathroom door

go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you and the one bringing back the woolly mammoth.

Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts his stuntman reveals the answer and you never know who's going to drop by mr brian cranson is with us hello my friend wayne knight about jurassic park wayne knight welcome to really no really sir bless you all hello newman and you never know when howie mandel might just stop by to talk about judging really that's the opening really no? No, really. Yeah, no, really. Go to reallynoreally.com and register to win $500, a guest spot on our podcast, or a limited edition signed Jason bobblehead.

It's called Really? No, Really? And you can find it on the iHeartRadio app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When you guys talk about a lot of the challenges here, you're talking about financial. Was this really in making the transition, Rich, from you being a lawyer to pursuing what you guys do now, which is encouraging others in changing their lifestyle? Was this really where the challenge was in making that transition out of sort of a paid job to a career that's focused

on what you do now? Well, I would say that's true in a macro sense, but I think the finer points of it are a lot more, there's a lot more gradation to it because it's not like I had a high paying job and then I just quit and walked out and did something different the next day. I mean, it was more gradual than that because the first step that I did was leave a large corporate law firm. And then I was practicing law with a couple other friends and we had our own small little law firm. So that was a move kind of away from what I was doing

that gave me a little bit more freedom because suddenly I didn't have a boss. And then it was a move kind of away from that while still doing that, stepping into the ultra endurance world while still like having one foot, you know, I was feeding two wolves. I was practicing, you know, still trying to hold onto my law practice on some level, but I was trying to step into this other world. So as a result of trying to do both of those things, my law practice was suffering. The income was starting to decline. And meanwhile, I was, you know, gaining success in the ultra endurance world, but not making

any money. And that's when it's sort of, okay, well, what are we doing now? And then I got the book deal and I got a nice advance, you know, for a first time writer who'd never written a book. It was, it was really cool to get like this nice advance. But, you know, with four kids and those checks kind of, you know, divided up into, you know, you get 30%, you know, 30% here, 30% there, whatever, it doesn't end up being enough to really support my family and not enough to like, sort of in a fiscally responsible way, say, I'm going to walk away from my career.

irresponsible way, say, I'm going to walk away from my career. But when the book, you know, finally came out in May of 2012, I understood implicitly that I was being gifted with an opportunity with this book to be able to step into, you know, a new way of navigating the world professionally. But that was only going to happen if I was willing to put in, you know, go the extra mile and put in all the work that was going to be required to I was willing to put in, you know, go the extra mile and put in all the work that was going to be required to really push the book out there and get it in front of people. Because I wasn't like a famous athlete or anybody that anybody knew. I didn't have a podcast. I mean, it was not, you know, it was a very different time. And, you know, people write books all the time and they come out and a couple of weeks later they're gone and

they're a blip on the radar and nobody knows anything about that. And I knew that if I didn't really commit that, you know, that, that, that was most likely going to be the trajectory of my book. And so I said, now's the time I'm going to, I'm shuttering the law down completely, and I'm just going to step into this. And I didn't have a business plan. I didn't know how it was going to look or where the money was going to come or where the money was going to come from. I just trusted that this was the right path for me and that somehow we were going to figure it out. And, you know, it's sort of that adage of, you know, when you have faith in the universe, it will conspire to support you. But, you know, I was looking for the safety net

and Julie and I were falling and, you know and we bounced off the pavement a couple of times before that net appeared. It was not a linear, graceful landing. It's been bumpy. But ultimately the outages proved true, it just didn't unfold in the way that would have provided us a little bit more comfort and ease. And the timing's always kind of an issue too, because divine timing and our timing are two

different things. So I think we expected that net to appear long before it did, and we kept the faith. But there were moments where we were questioning all of our decisions. And we were at this moment where I told Rich, I go, we're either going to be, we're on the precipice of complete annihilation or realizing everything we've ever dreamed together. And it could be either. But it wasn't going to be in the middle. It wasn't going to be in the middle. Well, it's congratulations on getting to the other side of it. You know, at least for now, there's always another challenge waiting. A question I'd be interested in asking you guys about, because it's one that comes up

on the show a lot and that I think about is there's a paradox of striving and being ambitious and wanting more out of life, which you guys clearly do, and you go for the things that you want. There's that paradox with accepting where we are, being content with what we have. And I'm curious how you work with that paradox in your lives. Well, the really key part of this whole journey, which we call a dismantling, is that through the dismantle, you know, Rich and I had a lot of these dreams when we first met and got together, you know, I don't know, 14 or 15 years ago. And we had an idea for kind of a lifestyle company and it had a different name. It was called Jai Lifestyle, but we sort of had a lot of these ideas. And we thought that they were very

altruistic, kind of nice ideas. But in hindsight, we still had some alchemy to go through. We had a lot of personal ambition that was still wrapped up in those ideas, you know? And so in order to be able to really serve really as true healers and as examples, you know, you can't read about, you know, going through a hardship in a book and then speak to it. You have to go through it so that you can share with someone that's a little bit maybe behind you on the path. So one of the key things of this whole experience of the dismantle is it rendered us on our knees in a very horrific and also divine way. So we had nothing to cling to. No external source was seeming to feed us,

was seeming to be there for us. And so we had to offer our life over in devotion to a force outside of ourselves. And for me, that's divine mother. So it was basically like you offer at the feet of this force, I live my life for you. All the successes and all the failures, all the car repossessions and all the book deals, it's all yours. And I am simply yours to use. So direct me, lead me, guide me, and show me the way. So that then takes all the ambition out of it.

So we're taking action from a very different place. Rich worked until three in the morning last night. But we're so grounded in service that we aren't working out personal ambitious ideals or ego trips. It comes from a different place and so um that's how we balance it is when we're doing when we're working or when we're sharing we're rooted in that in that beautiful uh experience of alchemy that sort of rubbed off all of the mud from us and revealed that which we are at the core. How about from your perspective, Rich? Well, I mean, that was a mouthful. You know, I think that Julie hit it right on. I mean, I think that it's all about trying to get objective with yourself about that balance between ego and service, right?

I think that Julie and I have fought very hard to be in a place now where, you know, we're very blessed and privileged and grateful to have a platform and an audience of people who are interested in what we're doing. And I think it's very easy to get tripped up. And I think this kind of plays into, you know, the parable of, you know, and the dichotomy of the good and the bad wolf in the sense that, you know, it's very, it's very easy to tip into, this is all about me and it's coming from my ego and how can I, you know, sort of advance this to make me look good. And that's a dangerous place to go because this was all born again, not out of any kind of, you know, business plan or intellectualized design, but because it was meant to be. And because Julie and I took this risk and allowed ourselves to kind of thrust ourselves into the unknown and, and had a willingness to accept whatever would happen.

And here we are in this place and it's about remembering about how we got here and honoring that. And the way that we do that is by giving back. And when we're in that true, honest place of service, not because we think service is the best way to get ahead, but because that's truly what this is all about, then I know that we will be taken care of. And the way in which we get taken care of will not be how I imagine it. And it won't come when I want it or in the form that I

would prefer it most likely. But I know that we will be taken care of because that has been my experience over and over and over again. And so it's about arresting the ego and it's about trying to get out of yourself and into the best possible way to be of benefit to the people who are devoting precious time out of their day to tune into our podcast

or read something that I put online or pick up a book that we wrote. Like that's a huge responsibility. And when you put a book out, it's infused with energy. What is that energy, that potential energy? Is it deriving from the bad wolf? Is it deriving from the good wolf? And what is the causal effect

of putting something like that out into the world? And that's something that I think a lot about and I'm always trying to improve. We're human beings, we're fallible, we're not perfect. So it is that gray area of it coming from both places. It's about tipping the scale and the proper balance. Yeah, I've been thinking, I mean, I agree with everything you guys said. And I think that it's one of those things that I think we have to keep working on, at least for me, right?

It's like I make progress with it and then I slide backwards and I make progress. And I've actually, I was recording a mini episode for, well, who knows when it'll come out, but I was talking about this idea of, I think when it comes to spiritual growth and emotional growth, there's a thought that we will hit a point, something will happen. We'll have an experience. We'll have an epiphany. We'll have meditated long enough, whatever that thing is where now it's all easy sailing. And, and the analogy I made I made is a physical one, which is that there's no exercise you can do that then will make you in shape the rest of your life. There's no food you can eat that you'll get the nutritional benefits of the rest of your life. All this stuff, at least for me, and I'm realizing it more and more, is the consistent application of that effort, the consistent feeding of the right wolf, not once in a while,

but going back to it over and over. Yeah. And I mean, and the beauty of that is that the power is in the moment, right? It's in the now moment. So every, every new moment you have a chance, you know, uh, really at, at a form of rebirth. So let's say that you, that you chose the bad wolf. Well, in the next moment you can change that and you can, you can change the reality. So it's a, it's a process and it happens over and over and over again. And, you know, I think creation is always evolving, whether you're in a body or you, you've left your body, it, it body, it goes on and on and on and on. So it's, no, it's not static. It's always changing. There's various points in the book, Julie, where you write about, I like that word you used there, alchemy, a little bit earlier, where you kind of point to this idea that, like you just said, it's always the now. We can always

start over. We can always look at what happened and reframe it, see it in a different light, try and transform these things that are in our lives in a positive way. Yeah. And I mean, I really believe that. And I believe that there is a need or a space that really can serve us in a very high way. And that is to expand our compassion and our non-judgment around food. that is to expand our compassion and our non-judgment around food. So, you know, people have so many emotions tied up in their food, you know, and they're, you know, medicating themselves for many different reasons. And it makes it such a hot button. Like you can't even talk about,

you know, if you like asparagus and somebody doesn't like them, or you, you know, you're not an eat meat eater or you're paleo or you're vegan or whatever. And I just feel like these labels are confining and they're not doing us service. And individuals are very unique and people are at different places in their evolution, in their own life path. And no one person is more valued in the eyes of consciousness than another. The sun that is shining isn't discriminating on the gardener versus the lawyer versus the actor.

So I just feel like we need to bring a lot of compassion into our food and into our homes and into our kitchen. And we need to allow people their own process and their own evolution. And, you know, Rich and I always say that, you know, in yogic tantra, you know, if you ask, you know, well, is this good for someone? The answer is for whom and when.

You know, it depends. Who is the person? Where are they living? What stage of life are they in? Because, you know, it might not be the right thing for someone to go all raw. It might not be the best thing for, you know, someone to eat a certain kind of diet, you know, at the same time. It's individual. I'm Jason Alexander. And I'm Peter Tilden.

And together on the Really No Really podcast, our mission is to get the true answers to life's baffling questions like... Why they refuse to make the bathroom door go all the way to the floor. We got the answer. Will space junk block your cell signal? The astronaut who almost drowned during a spacewalk gives us the answer. We talk with the scientist who figured out if your dog truly loves you. And the one bringing back the woolly mammoth.

Plus, does Tom Cruise really do his own stunts? His stuntman reveals the answer. And you never know who's going to drop by. Mr. Bryan Cranston is with us today. How are you, too? Hello, my friend. Wayne Knight about Jurassic Park. Wayne Knight, welcome to Really, No Really, sir.

Bless you all. Hello, Newman. And you never know when Howie Mandel might just stop by to talk about judging really that's the opening really no really yeah really no really go to really no really.com and register to win 500 a guest spot on our podcast or a limited edition sign jason bobblehead it's called really no really and you can find it on the iheart radio app on apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts i'm'm going to ask each of you guys this question. I'd be interested in your answer. What is the lesson that's taken you the longest

to learn or that you're still working hard to learn right now? I suppose. Oh man, where to even begin with that? There's so many for me. Uh, I got a whole bag of them, but I think for me, I've traditionally always struggled with and I'm always trying to work on is balance. You know, I'm prone to extremes, my pendulum swings, you know, pretty deep. And I can vacillate from, you know, all kinds of, you know, extreme behaviors, good and bad. But what what what eludes me is that ability to gracefully navigate life kind of in the middle. In the macro, I think when you look down on my life, it looks balanced, but it's a, it's, it kind of vacillates between one extreme to the next,

whether it's work or training or family or relationship or travel. You know, I always tend to, you know, it's always a struggle for me to kind of get the pieces to come together in a more even-handed way. And I'm getting better at it, you know, but I think that's my biggest lesson is in trying to embrace that way of living more than I traditionally have. Yeah, I think that's a challenge. And I like what you said, though, if you look at it in a macro way, because there just seem to be periods of life, you know, for everything, there's a season, right? And for me, I've had to get a little bit more comfortable with like, this is the short period of life where this is really an intense focus. And then it goes back over there. But on the whole, over time, am I balancing my priorities in a good way? But I get stressed out by the same thing. How about you, Julie? Well, I'm a little bit different. I tend to learn my lessons that I'm given pretty well,

so I don't repeat them, but I'm always getting new levels of lessons. So I wouldn't say that mine's a repetitive one. I think the one that I am working with right now that I'm being shown, didn't say that mine's a repetitive one. I think the one that I am working with right now that I'm being shown and, uh, and I don't really, I'm, I'm not really through it is I'm being shown what it means to be, uh, a feminine energy in this world where the feminine has been so dishonored, um, and so objectified. And so, um, you know, uh, really just, um just um you know there's been huge violence that's been uh perpetrated against women on this planet for many many many years and um in my earlier days I wasn't really focused on that I think I've been very sort of engineered to assist with the healing of the masculine so I've been you know working with my boys and working with Rich

and also the masculine inside of myself because we both have both energies inside of ourselves. But I think right now I'm on an exploration of what does it mean to be a fully embodied woman and what are the paradigms that I want to break around certain limitations and ideas that exist for women on the planet? Excellent.

So I've got one more question for each of you. And then I think maybe you can tell us a little bit about where to find the book and different things that you guys have coming up, and then we'll wrap up. But I would be interested in one of the things that I often think is the bad wolf personified is the negative self-talk, those voices that go on in our heads that are perpetual, habitual, and often can be negative. And I would like to ask you guys how you handle negative self-talk in your own life. Yeah, that's a great one. You know, negative self-talk has accompanied me life? Yeah, that's a great one. You know, negative self-talk has accompanied me, you know, my whole life. And I think the way that I have learned to deal with it

boils down to meditation and mindfulness practices that really help you understand that the idle chatter of your mind, uh, which, you know, is not always your friend, um, but is also not your higher consciousness, that there is a distinction between your thinking brain and your higher self. And the more that you kind of delve into meditation and mindfulness practices, the more you're able to identify that distinction and understand that there are tools available for controlling the idle chatter of your mind. In other words, just because your brain is telling you X, Y, and Z doesn't mean that you have to take that to heart or, you know, entertain that or take it seriously. And it's about mastering the mind rather than allowing the mind to control you. And, um, and I think, you know, the more that we can be aware

of that and the more that we can, uh, incorporate practices to better master, uh, that idea, uh, I think that, um, that is probably the most powerful tool that I can think of to get a handle on that kind of, you know, that kind of thing that I think a lot of people suffer from. Yeah, I think so too. And in regards to mindfulness and meditation, great job with your interview with Andy from Headspace. That was a great one. I just listened to it today and we've got him coming up in the fall, but really I loved. That was a great one. I just listened to it today. Oh, cool. Thank you. We've got him coming up in the fall, but really, I loved that one. So, great work. Thanks.

How about you, Julie? Negative self-talk. So, again, I don't really experience negative self-talk. It's not in my vernacular. It doesn't occur for me. But I would say maybe my counterpart to that would be some intense emotions that are imbalanced, that are coming from the little child aspect of myself. So when those kinds of things appear in my field, the way that I work with them is I do yoga breathing, so pranayama breathing. And it's a skull shining or a breath of fire, different kinds of pranayama. And I'll find that even if I'm in a very intense moment and it's very overwhelming, if I do this breathing for 45 minutes, the feeling is completely transformed from my body. It doesn't even exist anymore.

So that's an extremely powerful tool to transform emotional residue that comes up. Can you give us a minute or two starter course on that type of breathing? Sure. The first thing that you could do is you could just do alternate nostril breathing. So what you would do is you would take your ring finger and your thumb, breathing. So what you would do is you would take your ring finger and your thumb, take your two, your index finger and your middle finger first, actually, and put it on your third eye center. And then you're going to plug beginning with the, we're going to breathe with the left nostril first. So you'll use your thumb to gently plug your right nostril, and you're going to take a deep inhale in from the left nostril. You're going to hold at the top and plug with the ring finger now the left nostril,

and then release the right thumb and exhale out the right nostril. the right thumb and exhale out the right nostril. And then you would inhale from the right nostril, hold at the top, and then exhale through the left nostril. And so you would just continue this alternate breathing, long, deep, fluid breaths. Try to make the breath as long as you can.

And let's say you would inhale. Let's say you inhale for eight on the left, hold for four, and then exhale for eight on the right. And then you would inhale for eight on the right, hold at the top, and then exhale for eight on the right. Hold at the top. And then exhale for eight on the left. And continue this kind of breathing. And it balances your left and right sides out. And it's extremely powerful just as a daily practice. Excellent.

Well, Kristen, I just gave that a whirl. And for you left-handers out there, those fingers will be reversed because I'm a left-hander. And I just noticed that as you were giving me the instruction. Sorry about that. No, no, it's fine. Thank you for that. So yeah, I'm always looking for, you know, small things that we can start to incorporate into our lives to help us get more in touch with physical things versus just being in the mind all the time. Yeah, well, the breath is extremely transformational and it's available to all of us. And it's a very, very powerful force. So it works.

Well, guys, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show. The book is available now. I can attest to the fact that it's beautiful with lots of great recipes, as well as I would say a lot of inspiration about the ability to change our lives and make them better. Yeah. Thanks so much, Eric. Thanks for having us on.

It's been great talking to you and we really appreciate the opportunity to connect with you. Yes. Right back at you. And there'll be links to the books and Rich's site on the show notes. And you can also go, what is the best site to find you guys at? Best site is richroll.com. That's where everything that I'm doing is. And you can learn about the book and my podcast and our products and everything there. If you're interested in Julie, Julie's point of view and her music and her writings, you can go to her website, which is srimati.com,

S-R-I-M-A-T-I.com. And the Plant Power Way is available everywhere online. And we always try to encourage people to try to purchase it from your local independent bookstore, because I think it's good to support our independent booksellers. So maybe that's something to bear in mind. Well, thanks so much, guys. Best of luck with the new book. And we'll talk again soon. Thank you so much for having us on. It was lovely to spend the time with you. Great talking to you, Eric. Thanks. Take care. Bye. Bye-bye. you can learn more about this podcast and rich roll and julie pyatt at one you feed.net slash plant power