The Rich Roll Podcast - Julie Piatt: Food As Medicine

Episode Date: December 2, 2012

Because she was such a sensation in our first episode, Julie Piatt is back for more. Today we talk about food — as energy, vibration and medicine. How Julie healed herself with nutrition and meditation. The perils of the word “vegan”. What it means to be Plantpowered. And getting back to food as a global uniter. Thanks to your overwhelming support, I woke up this morning to see that our little show hit #1 on iTunes in the Fitness / Nutrition category and #2 in Health. Amazing. We will do our best to live up to the early praise and continue to provide the best content we can. Thank you! Enjoy! Rich

The Rich Roll Podcast. Yes, sir. Check, check. We're back. Episode three of the podcast. I'm back with Julie Pyatt. Hi, everyone. The star of episode one. Oh, wow. The shining gem. Who knew?

Nobody knew. Everyone's like, who is this Julie person? I've been silent for years. That time is now over. She needs to have her own podcast. I want my own podcast. Yeah, she does. She's like, ooh, I like this.

It was fun. I want my own show. It was fun. Thanks. You should, because then you can go, you could just go really off the rails. I could go. Spiritual deep end. she does she's like oh i like this it was fun i want my own show it's fun thanks you should because then you can go you could just go really off the rails i could go spiritual deep end i could go to places you've never gone before yeah sometimes i'm scared when julie talks because she'll just she'll just go so far out of into into distant galaxies stuff she's talking about. And I get nervous.

Yeah, but you're always nervous. And then the one person at the event that completely is on my frequency will then come up and speak the same thing to me. Yeah, the one. That's true. The one. So we had a great guest for this morning, Rodman Machado, who is an amazing chef. He's the executive chef here at Common Ground. And this guy spins food out of the ground and creates these incredible delicacies that are divine. He's an amazing artist. Yeah, he really knows how to apply art to food. And he's been feeding us and the people here at the restaurant. And he's a very, very interesting guy.

He's a Hawaiian native. And he was our guest. He was meant to be our guest this morning, but there's a big event here at Common Ground this morning and he's scrambling to prepare food and get ready for that. So, and he was gonna come in here, but he was prepare food and get ready for that. So, and he, he was going to come in here, but he was going to be rushed and everything like that. So we thought we'd

reschedule him. And since we were all set up here to do an episode and, and the feedback from Julie being on the initial virgin episode of the podcast was so overwhelmingly positive. We thought we would just go for it, but we're going to have to wing it a little bit today. We didn't prepare some big, you know, step-by-step thing to talk about. We're going to dig deep into our history and see if there's something. Exactly. That's interesting. You, the audience, will be our therapist today. We need one. therapist today. We need one. We recorded our second episode yesterday afternoon with Chris Jabe. It's up on iTunes. Check it out. He's a fascinating guy. It was a really, really interesting interview with a guy who's lived a very unique life. And so if you haven't checked

it out yet, check it out. It's up on iTunes. we're up on stitcher now i think we're all configured and we're figuring this stuff out as we go uh and i woke up this morning to discover that our little podcast that we've just started here and don't know what we're doing is uh number one on itunes in fitness and nutrition and number two in the overall health category, I think. It's really quite stunning. I'm shocked. And of course, very pleased. I mean, I would have never predicted that. Just literally, we just started this thing a week ago and I just figured out how to get it up on iTunes. Like I honestly don't even know what I'm doing. So the fact that, you know, we're already like the number, at least for today or an hour ago, maybe it dropped down by now. But like when I woke up this morning and just made

sure that the episode we recorded last night was up on iTunes, I saw that and I was like, oh my God. And, you know, it's not like it's an uncrowded space. I mean, Jillian Michaels has a podcast. Rob Wolf, who's the paleo guy, has been doing a podcast for a long time. He's a very successful podcast. He's a smart guy. And we were like above that.

I mean, it's crazy. So, you know, I just think that, that it means that, you know, people are looking for something new, you know, people are, are open to a new way and, and a different way of looking at things and are obviously, you know, responding in a positive way to the ideas that we're putting forth. And we really haven't even begun, you know, I mean, I think people who know me are, you know, subscribing to the podcast or checking it out because they're interested in, you know, changing their diet or getting more plant powered or getting more fit. And we haven't even really talked about any of that stuff yet. We're just kind of, you know, going long form on these, on these interviews that, that, you know, these

conversations that just take us in whatever direction we want to go in. So we haven't even gotten into the specific nitty-gritty of all the stuff I talk about in the book and everything like that. And of course, we'll be pursuing that. Today, we're going to just talk, I think. But what do you think? We could just stare into each other's eyes and see if it transmits. That's good radio. That's great podcasting.

I think it's really cool and really, really exciting also. It's really fun to do a podcast. I mean, we had such a good time. We're brought to you today by recovery.com. I've been in recovery for a long time. It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety. And it all began with treatment and experience that I had that quite literally saved my life. And in the many years since, I've in turn helped many suffering addicts and their loved ones find treatment. And with that, I know all too well

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I don't know. Everyone else seems to think so. I don't know. I might have to rename the podcast. I would love it. And it's so liberating because so often when I'm trying to write a piece or write about a complicated subject or blog, you know, and you're trying to weigh between the length of the piece and how in-depth you go, it's just so much easier to communicate when you're speaking.

You can really clarify a lot of points that could be otherwise, you know, just not fully communicated. So it's a very freeing medium and it's very exciting. It's very, it's like a, it's kind of a wild west medium. I mean,

it is a brand new medium and I think there's a lot of people that are sort of applying the rules of radio to podcasting. And I guess that's fine, but, you know, I don't really see it that way. Like I see it as a completely, well, you know, it's sort of like, hey, you know, here we are with our podcast and, you know, coming up and, you know, here's this segment and that segment. And, you know, I listen to podcasts like that, and I get a lot out of that. But I think, you know, what is really freeing about this is that you can just have a really long, interesting conversation. It doesn't matter how long it takes. You just talk until it's played out. And that could be three hours or that could

be a half an hour. And, you know, some of when I, when we recorded the first episode, I kind of sent it out to some people that I trust or, you know, I respect their opinion and they were like, oh, it was great. But, you know, maybe you should, I think you should keep it under an hour, you know, really shouldn't be any longer than an hour. And I'm like, why? You know, I mean, it's not like you're tuning in and then you're going to miss the end. If you get bored, you can just turn it off, right? Or, you know, and it's like an audio book. I mean, you just, you know, you're on the treadmill, you're driving in your car you listen to it and if you lose interest you can you can turn it off but if you're engaged then you can listen to the end i mean i don't i don't really see a point in

coming up with a specified end point or time period no i i totally agree i mean i think by leaving the space allowing the space to to hold whatever arises to express itself. It also makes it very relaxed because as somebody who's speaking and sharing, you're not thinking in the back of your mind that you have to get these points out or you have to say it in an order or you're going to run out of time. Well, it's like saying, well, your dinner conversation should never last longer than 45 minutes. Exactly. They last as long as they last, right? All right, so let's see how long this lasts. Yeah, well, at this rate, it's not going to last very long.

What's that? The links. The links? We're getting advice from our producer. Tyler, our producer, is saying to give the links. What are the links? I don't know. Which links?

I don't know. Well, if you haven't checked out my book, Finding Ultra, you can find it on Amazon. And we are quickly using up our bandwidth from the initial subscription that I signed up for for the podcast. So this is going to start getting expensive quick if we're doing four of these a week or whatever. And in order to pay for the bandwidth, I decided to do something that I never thought I would do, which is put a banner ad up on my website, richroll.com. It's just an affiliate link. So if you're going to buy something on Amazon, like Finding Ultra, instead of just going to amazon.com, just go to richroll.com and click on the banner ad on the right-hand corner. I don't think it shows up on the homepage. I think you have to actually

go to the blog or the podcast section. You'll see it there. Click on that and then buy whatever it was you were going to buy anyway. And it doesn't cost you any more. Whatever price you're paying for whatever you're buying will be exactly the same, but it throws a little bit into our pot. It's going to help us cover what are quickly escalating bandwidth costs. To be greatly appreciated. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very much. I mean, it's just a couple shekels or whatever.

Thank you. If you want to learn more about what Julie and I are doing together, you can check out Jai Lifestyle. We have a downloadable e-cookbook there called Jai Seed. We have my Jai Repair Plant Power Nutrition Recovery Formula, which is my formulation. It's a tri-blend of three different plant-based proteins, hemp protein, sprouted brown rice protein, pea protein.

It has powerful antioxidants in it like resveratrol and grape skin extracts. It has cordyceps mushroom extracts, which I've been using for years. Studies have shown that they enhance oxygen uptake and lung capacity. And I found them to be very beneficial in my endurance training and in my recovery, which is why I included them in this product. So you can get that right now exclusively. That product's only available at gilifestyle.com. We're working on trying to find some distributors. Shipping costs are expensive with it. So for people that are overseas, we're working on it. And we also, this is very exciting, we have a vitamin B12 supplement. So for those of you that are plant powered, eating plant-based diet, vitamin B12 is really an important supplement. I believe in

supplements. I don't believe in overdoing it on supplements. I think there's a lot of people that are too focused on supplements, but I think, is the only food that we use that just naturally, it's naturally occurring in it. And you can get vitamin B12. A lot of foods are fortified with vitamin B12, like the plant-based milks, like almond milk and coconut milk and breakfast cereals and things like that. But if you're not eating those, you're not eating a lot of those you really do want to make sure that you're getting your vitamin b12 i think a lot of people are vitamin b12 deficient and when you're vitamin b12 deficient you're just not functioning entirely properly and it actually has a negative impact on your mental capacity among other things so it's a really easy way to get it it's just it's spray, so you just spray it in your mouth.

Yeah, so our product is actually going to go live on Jai Lifestyle, and we're just configuring it. The product is done. It's manufactured. The labels are on. It's ready to ship. We just haven't got it up on the website yet for sale. So we're going to do that in the next couple days.

Again, it's not up yet, but check it out soon. And it's just a spray. Yeah, you spray it. Just one spray in your mouth every day. It'll take you a nanosecond to do it. It's a very affordable product and cheap to ship because it's a tiny little spray vial. So look out for that, and I'll let you know when it's actually up on the site and available to buy. So that's it for links.

This is like, I don't want to do like a big ad. You don't? No, we're done with the ads. Let's do it. Right. Tyler, did we miss any link? Yeah. Only my music.

Yeah. Julie's album, srimatimusic.com. Julie is a beautiful musician. She recorded her album, Mother of Mine. Tyler produced the album, and Tyler and Trapper, my two boys, are the musicians performing on it. You can find it on iTunes, Srimati Music, S-R-I-M-A-T-I, music.com. If you want to find out more about Julie and her music, go to SrimatiMusic.com. Yes, and if you're connecting with me on a spiritual level or you're feeling any resonance in that way

through my words, the music is really such a pure representation of my journey finding myself. It's sort of my finding ultra. That's right. What do you think that link is between music and spirituality? I think it's huge.

I think we're not going to talk about music, though. We're going to talk about food. Yeah, I know. Well, we won't talk about food. Music is so pure. And I mean, part of me, and I can rapidly see that I am going to be writing a book, and I am going to be sharing more with written word and also just spoken word, you know, communicating like this podcast, but.

Be very afraid. Be very, but the, no, music is, music is so beautiful because it's such a pure way to communicate because it doesn't have to go through the brain. It doesn't have to go through an analysis of, of what the brain thinks about it, right? So it can literally be absorbed into your cells in a moment, in a frequency. And that's why I think music is such an incredibly powerful medium to express something. And especially the way that I came to sing and write this music was as a result of a meditation practice. I was not even trying to write a song. The song simply wrote me.

And that's what makes it extremely powerful. As an artist, it is the most powerful thing that I've ever expressed. Yeah, well, the thing about music is there's no thought involved. Like you said, it just goes right in and you have a visceral kind of full body response to it positive negative whatever your emotional response is to it it doesn't really involve the brain no right yeah

old is time all this time all right food you want to talk about food let's talk about food what do you want to talk about well why don't we um uh i kind of wanted to share my experience with plant healing. Plant says medicine, food is medicine. Let me just set the stage for this a little bit. So Julie has a very fascinating story in her own right, in her journey with food that really kind of set the stage for my transformation and this journey. And I had written in an earlier draft of my book, this whole story and this thing that occurred to her. And I talk about it when I've been traveling around and speaking, but it actually got edited out of the book. And if everything that got edited out, this is the one thing I actually wish that was in there

because it really kind of, it's a powerful story. And I really think that if that had not happened, like I don't know that I would have sort of latched on and done what I did. No, it's definitely a major catalyst in our journey. So what happened? So what happened is, I'm going to estimate the time frames

because I'm not that good with timelines. My meditation works really well and I'm in my own world. She has a vitamin B12 deficiency. Probably. So anyway, so I woke up one day and I noticed that my Adam's apple was rather large and growing.

It was 2004. Okay. 2004. Yeah. When was Jaya born? I don't know. She's five. This is what happens when you have more than two children.

It's like, which one am I holding? She's the youngest, right? Okay. Yeah. So she's, come on. So she's born in 2007. So yeah, maybe 2004, 2005, whatever. So around there.

So anyway, so I had this cyst develop in my neck and it was growing and it actually became the size of a small golf ball visible right in the front of my neck. And, uh, so immediately I thought, oh, you know, something's with my thyroid, something's wrong. So I went to see a doctor. It looked like, I mean, just for those of you out there, I mean, it looked kind of like a goiter, you know, it was a big, I hate that word, goiter. I know, but that's the closest thing i mean have you seen

pictures of people with a goiter i mean yeah it's it was it's similar to that i mean it was a large growth on her neck that really grew to the size of like a golf ball sized growth protruding like from the right hand side of your adam's apple yeah like right in front it was, very visible. So anyway, so I went to see doctors and, you know, UCLA and they did an MRI. And, you know, the good news was it was not cancerous. They gave me these bits of information. You never really know why or how they say that. But they said, okay, it was infected, but it's not infected anymore. And this is something that usually happens in children between the ages of, I don't know,

six and 10 or something. And I was in my 40s already. So it was just very strange. And they said, okay, it's, you know, I had originally thought, well, maybe they can just pop it, you know, stick something in it and extract whatever was making, whatever the inside was. And then they gave me the news that, no it it wasn't an easy surgery it was actually sort of a medium medium level surgery and they would have to take a cross-section out of one of my vertebrae like

the cyst was actually growing between two fused bones so there was no way that it could be healed naturally. And I, you know, I, I think I went for three opinions or something, at least two. So it was, uh, it was diagnosed as a thyroglossal duct cyst, which is a, it wasn't, it's not cancerous, but it was a, it's a tumorous growth. It was not a malignant tumorous growth. It's a cyst, I guess. Yeah, a cyst. So they said, I said, listen, you know, I'm kind of into healing and I don't really, you know, I'd had a tonsillectomy as an adult

when my oldest son was like one years old. I'd had a tonsillectomy on the advice of my doctor and I tried to heal the inflammation myself for some time with some Chinese herbs and it didn't work. And then the surgeon just convinced me that it was very easy. It was no big deal. It was going to be a week.

And I kind of, you know, bought the lie and went in for the surgery. For the tonsillectomy. The tonsillectomy. And they did something. Something was wrong. Something happened for the surgery. For the tonsillectomy. The tonsillectomy. And they did something. Something was wrong. Something happened in the surgery, which I'll never know because I was under anesthesia.

But when I came out, I was in such massive pain that morphine was not working. And they would send the pain doc up with a cart. I remember this young boy, and he would kind of try to mix me a cocktail that would relieve the excruciating pain that I was in. And it was being referred from the back of my throat into my eardrums. So I was readmitted to the hospital two times, and I was on an IV at home.

And I'm pretty thin anyway, I lost, I think I lost like 20 pounds after that surgery. I had Because you couldn't eat. I couldn't eat. I couldn't eat and I was, at the time I was living on, you know, like a Jamba Juice a day. That was the healthiest thing that I was aware of at that time.

Not that healthy but it's a step. It's better than Diet Coke. it is. So anyway, so I lost a lot of weight. I was in a lot of pain. And I remember one of my key references for realizing the power of pain and just what it takes you to is at one point they prescribed for me this prescription drug called Dilaudid, something like Dilaudidid I know what Dilaudid is you had to I don't what is it let me tell you it was so awesome it is awesome have you used have you used it before uh I had one instance that we won't talk about but actually when I was in rehab there were like a lot of guys that love that were like

Dilaudid oh yeah they would get pharmaceutical grade Dilaudid. Like when I was in rehab, the rehab that I went to was kind of the place where there were two professions where the sort of governing bodies of those professions would send their people when they got into trouble. And now I know this is an aside, but I have to tell this story. Pilots and doctors, right? The two people that you completely give your life over to, like if you're,

if you're like sort of releasing complete control over your destiny to another human being, I mean, those are the two people, right? That is crazy. Commercial jetliner pilots and doctors, right? So I spent a hundred days in the rehab, like hanging out with these guys and they would tell the craziest stories you have ever heard. And so I will never, like now I never used to be scared when I flew, when I flew. And now I'm just, I'm terrified because I, well, I, because, well, I don't want to divulge. Anyway, so, but anyway, Dilaudid is a very popular. But the Dilaudid wasn't working for me, but obviously the surgeon that cut my neck was on,

was using it, right? Maybe he was using Dilaudid himself. So, but I remember you had to have like an original signature. You had, there had to be like some major ID, like you couldn't have someone else pick it up It was a big thing to like get it And I remember I took

I think the dose was, you know, take one And I think I took two and it did nothing I had zero reaction Still in just incredible pain And then some weeks later After I had recovered more And started to I'd been out of the hospital

And started to come back I had a flare up started to, I'd been out of the hospital and started to come back. I had a flare up and I took one of those and I literally was laid out flat on the bed and I couldn't lift my limbs. I mean, I couldn't even lift one part of my body. That's how strong that stuff is. It's a powerful controlled substance. But when you're in pain, when you're in that much pain, it just doesn't even work. It's crazy. It's such a crazy thing. So anyway, so getting back. So this is why, one of the reasons why, and also the fact that I had started to really embrace natural healing and also realize that, you know, the ancient peoples and indigenous peoples of our planet have healed themselves with herbs and plants since the beginning of time. So, you know, when did we start handing over our

power to the doctor? Like the doctor knows, do what the doctor says. Well, yeah. And I mean, I, I, uh, you know, coming from a traditional academic background and I actually went, you know, I, I was pre-med for two years in college. Like I thought that I wanted to be a doctor and then I got a little wayward there and lost sight of that. But anyway, you know, I'd always been a very firm believer in Western medicine and doctors know best and, you know, look, they've gone to school forever. Like they know what they're doing. Like you cannot, like if they say you need to do this, like that's what you need to do. Like I'd never, it would have never occurred to me to question that.

Right. Well, and then, and even as, I mean, when you look at it, that as women, we've given our power back over to doctors to tell us how to birth our

children. I mean, it's crazy when you really think of it at a, at a natural core level. So anyway, getting back to, to this cyst that I had. So I made the decision. I was very, very resolved that I was going to heal it myself. I was not a fan of that decision.

And you were not supportive at all. But it's okay. I still loved you. So yeah, I went. I kind of checked things out. I was like, okay, so, you know, explain to me what this is. And they said, you know, it's not malignant now, but it was infected. And if it gets infected again, it could turn malignant. And, you know, that could have just been a scare tactic or it could have been the truth. I don't

know. But they said, you will not heal it yourself. It's an impossibility. It is impossible for you to heal it yourself. But you can try. You have a little bit of time, and you can try it out. The knife's waiting. That's right. The knife's always there. That's right. So I went home, and I called my dear friend Perry Reeves, actually,

who is, actually she plays Ari's wife on Entourage. Yeah, she's on Entourage for those. Gorgeous, gorgeous, beautiful yogi. And actually was raised on a completely pure diet since she was a child, which is one of the reasons she looks as amazing as she does. She's very well preserved. She's gorgeous. She's really gorgeous

so um anyway she we had been uh we had done a program together an advanced uh tantric yoga program at my house at jai house with uh just a small group of people and wait a minute hold on a second yeah no you can't just say you did a tantra program and not clarify exactly what that was. There's going to be a lot of conclusions being drawn from that. Okay, so tantra is a lineage and it's a tradition of yogi sacred knowledge. Get to the sex part. There's no sex. There was no sex.

That's so disappointing. No, tantra does not no sex. There was no sex. That's so disappointing. No, tantra does not mean sex. There is one kind of arm of tantra that could include that for exploration reason, but that was not the tantra that we were exploring. It's a very sacred, powerful, ancient lineage. And it has many parts. It's a whole way of living,

a whole body of living a whole um a whole body of of being um and and one of those is sexuality because as humans we are you know that's part of who we are but um but people latch on to that it's yeah in other words what you're saying is is tantra is sort of a uh a philosophy of life that touches on everything, but we kind of focus on the sex part. And it's very much about being very much in the body, which is really who we are. It's like, you know,

my meditation is changing my child's diaper. You know, my prayer when I eat is to eat the food and be present. It's a very grounded way. It's beautiful. So anyway, so Perry was in that group and I had sort of asked her early on. I mean, I was eating vegetarian at the time, but I was still drinking a little wine socially. I'm not an addict.

I have used drugs as a young person, which I can share later, but I'm not an addict. And I just, you know, I would drink wine when I wanted or lattes or, you know, it was sort of just living, but eating kind of vegetarian, kind of a very sort of mainstream vegetarian diet. And I had asked Perry to refer me to a doctor that she worked with, an Ayurvedic doctor. And she asked me if I was ready to change my entire diet and my entire way of eating.

Because she said if I wasn't, she wasn't going to give me the number because it was sort of like a waste. It would be a bad thing to waste the herbs because the herbs are sacred. So if you're going to embark on this, you need to commit to make the dietary change. And at that point, I wasn't ready. going to embark on this, you need to commit to make the dietary change. And at that point, I wasn't ready. Well, then the cyst arrived and I called Perry and I said, I'm ready. So she gave me the name of the doctor, a beautiful, beautiful, simple, gorgeous man named Dr. Patel. I do not know his other name. And Patel in India is like Smith, right? So I've actually tried to find him recently and have been unable to find him again. But anyway, I went to see him, went down into his condo that he lives in

Chatsworth, very simple place, and went down into his basement where he has all these jars of herbs all over the room. And before you get into that, can you, so he is an Ayurvedic doctor. Yeah, physician. What is Ayurveda? Ayurveda is an Indian science of medicine where actually the core philosophy, first of all, this is passed down from guru to student. And it was written on palm leaves. So it's a sacred science that has been shared through thousands of years.

And it's from gathering herbs from nature and in the forest, you heal yourself. And the premise of Ayurveda isn't that the herbs heal you. This is such a beautiful truth. And that is that the herbs actually assist your body to arrive to a perfect balance so that the body may heal itself. So everything in Ayurveda is done with the awareness that the body is God, is a perfect organism. It knows exactly how to rejuvenate itself or heal itself. So they don't cut. There's no cutting. There's no surgery there's

no this kind of stuff but it's about it's about looking at where the imbalances are and addressing those balances to create a harmony yeah a harmony which will create an environment that will allow the body to heal itself that's right and the way these physicians can tell is they actually take a pulse and they can tell from your pulse how different energies in your bodies are out of balance. And I mean, it's a very, very detailed, so we're not, I'm not going to go all the way into it, but it's, it's tri-dosha. So people have one of three sort of, of doshas, which is vata. It's like, um, an energy, let's call it like an energy. So it's Vata, Pitta, Kapha. And everybody has some combination of those three. And then they can tell by your pulse, you know, how, what the mix is,

what's out of balance. What are those three mean? I can't, I mean, I can tell you generally, yeah, Vata is very... We'll put some links in the show notes if you want to check out and learn more about Ayurveda. This is very, very, very detailed. So I don't want to, and I'm not an Ayurveda physician. I just healed myself through using it. But Vata is like a windy, tends to be like thin, sort of wiry people. It's a windy energy. Pitta is fire.

You would, you're a very Pitta. You're a very Pitta person. Because I'm very fiery. Yes. And, and yes yes and what angry angry sometimes sometimes no and then uh kapha is you know very sort of um sluggish like like wet and and kind well i'm using other terms now but sort of like larger with large eyes like i would have kapha eyes i have very large eyes that's a kapha quality. So anyway, so enough of that. So getting back to

this beautiful man, I went to his basement and we had a beautiful spiritual talk. He's a devoted yogi. And we spoke about the Bhagavad Gita, which is an ancient Indian text, which is like the Bible, but one of the oldest scriptures that exists. And he sort of asked me, you know, what kind of stress do you have in your life? And I gave him a lot of excuses of why I had such a crazy life. And I couched it in that I was very creative. Well, you know I'm very creative, so I have all these things going on. And I was very ambitious at the time. I had a lot of ambition to express a lot of different things in my life. And so he kind of just narrowed those down and got very real with me. And he gave me a schedule with the time that I would rise in the morning, I would rise between 4.30 and 6 a.m.

I would drink a water with lemon first thing. I would then wash my face, my hands, my teeth, use the bathroom. Then I would sit and pray, mantra, chanting, sitting in meditation. And then my day would begin. And I ate off of uh he made a list of foods it was on one one sheet of paper and I ate off that same sheet of paper for two and a half years it was one list and it was primarily lentils uh rice dark leafy greens um sweet fruits like app sweet apples sweet grapes um i could um i could eat honey and then he would have me drink a cup of warm milk at night and of course like in india the cow is sacred and so at that time i was really more into goat milk. So I convinced him to let me drink goat milk. So I drank warm goat milk with a little ghee, which is a butter, an Indian butter, clarified and some spices. And then he, I had these, these herbs. You can tell him about the herbs. Yeah, so all I know is that I was on the receiving end of this equation and she came home from this doctor and she's like, I'm gonna do this thing

and I'm gonna try to heal myself and I'm trying to be the supportive husband. I mean, I was in a very different place at the time from where I am now. So I was not, at the time I was not, believe me, I did not, at the time I was not, believe me, like I did not think this was going to work. You know, I was wishing and hoping that you would just sort of do, you know, go through this for a couple weeks and go to the doctor. But, you know, we were married and, you know, you got to support your spouse.

And yeah, I was trying. I was like, okay, I'm going to, I have your back. Like I will support you. And so she would prepare these meals and, you know, I wouldn't eat those meals. I, you know, she would make me something different. And then at night she would take out this, well, first of all, you came home with all these sort of zip, Ziploc bags that were like, didn't, that had like strange leaves in them and like weird, you know, powders and they weren't even labeled. And I'm like, where did these even come from?

You don't even know. Not only you not know what's in these, you don't know where they came from. You don't know. This could make you extremely sick. Like what is all this? I mean, literally it was like it filled the refrigerator in the cabinet like with all this stuff. And you're like, I don't know what it is. Like you didn't care., with all this stuff. And you're like, I don't know what it is. Like, you didn't care.

You were trusting this guy. I mean, talk about, like, turning your power over. I mean, you made a decision to embark on this path and really, and something about this guy spoke to you enough where you were willing to trust him and take this leap of faith and start eating these teas and these brews and these potions or whatever that he had advised you to take without even really questioning what was in it really. That's right. Well, I remember every time I would come through the door, you would want to see

what was in the little brown paper bag in the sack. What did he give you? What is it? And I'd say, I don't know. And then we would make a game of it with the boys. We'd open it up and smell it. We'd be like, oh, that's terrible. And then at night she had this paste it was like this brown paste it looked like a thick hummus or something like

that and she would take it out and she would rub it on her neck yes and so her neck would be all stained brown like even after you washed your neck it was still stained brown from this and at night you'd put this paste on and then you'd apply this giant bandage to your neck and go to bed and i was like all right well you know he was like she's a crazy knock yourself out and it's the stuff smell i cannot tell you how bad this stuff smelled our entire kitchen smelled like a sewage dump it was the most vile stuff i've ever i've ever taken in my body in my in my life it was sort of like a combination of sewer dirt and sulfur yes this was an extreme protocol so it was I guess but you know what it's sort of like well extreme but is that i mean what's

insane doing that or having somebody take a scalpel and like slice your body wide open i mean what is really extreme you know we accept surgery as sort of you know you know what you do or whatever but like that's what's crazy that's what's crazy you have you know you have a heart attack and they crack your sternum and they take this thing and crank your rib cage open and then reach into your thoracic. I mean, that's extreme. So anyway. Well, and so the thing is,

and you're talking about my trust with Dr. Patel, it's like we share this inner knowing of the lineage of Ayurveda. And I just knew, and the beautiful thing about Dr. Patel is he never once said to me, okay, so we're going to try some things. We're going to try it and we're going to see if it works. Never. What did he say? He said, you will heal yourself. you will heal yourself. These work, you know, it is, that is the truth. That is the truth.

He never had any hesitation or any doubt that my body would heal itself and that this would be an ongoing way of life that would enrich my life and change everything, really. That's interesting. And also just, you know, getting back to the Western, I mean, we're so, we live in such a litigious society now that no doctor could ever give you that assurance statement. There's no way, because if you didn't, then he gets sued,

you know, and that's incredibly negative because the mind is so powerful that if, if, if a patient sees a hesitation within a doctor, they can attach onto that reality. And in fact, that can enter into their healing process. Yeah, belief is powerful. It's very powerful.

Very, very powerful. And I mean, there are even studies that show that the placebo effect, even when the person knows it's a placebo, there were these studies that even when the person knows it's a placebo yeah there were these studies that even when the person like there's a you do a double blind study and you know somebody's testing something on somebody here take this pill you're taking a sugar pill and you're taking this new medication we're going to study it they've done these studies where they actually tell the test

patient okay you're taking you're going to be taking the placebo. And they, they tell them that, and the person still thinks that it's working. Like that's how powerful belief is. It's amazing. Yeah. So anyway, to be able to, to plant that seed of conviction, I think, you know, is important in all things in life. I mean, when it's like, if you're, if you have a mentor in something and that mentor believes in you and says, you can do this and does it with conviction, there's nothing more powerful than that. Even if you don't know what you're doing or even if the guy actually had some doubt or whatever,

but he's able to convince you that you can. Well, that's one of the things that I give you a lot of credit for is that I kind of feel through this whole thing that I've had an inner knowing of kind of a greater awareness that maybe you didn't have, but you knew that I believed with such conviction that you were able to go through all of this journey that we've gone through, believing, knowing that I believed and sort of trusting that. And I think that took a lot of courage. Like a lot more

courage than it took for me. And so maybe I was kind of that mentor to you in a way. Yeah, I think that's true in many respects. It's pretty cool. So thank you. But anyway, so I want to show this one thing about Dr. Patel because it was really, really

impacted me on one of my sessions. I would go back just once a month. It was extremely reasonable. I want to say I think he charged me every time I saw him for all of the herbs, this big bag of supplies that I would bring back and all the consultations. He charged me $269 every time I went to see him. How often did you go to see him? Once a month, maybe once every six weeks, depending on my herb supply. But let's just say once a month. Let's just say once a month and compare that to the cost of surgery or

hospitalization or cancer or something else that, you know, we deal with. I mean, it's ridiculous. It was just ridiculous. But one time I went in to see Dr. Patel and he was weeping. And he told me that someone had just brought him a young boy for healing and that they had cut his colon out. And he was devastated because he said, what can I do now? Like, what can I do now? They've taken out the body's mechanism.

You know what I mean? The perfect anatomy of the body that is perfect, that knows exactly what to do. And it just really touched me. What was wrong with the kid? Do you remember? You know, I can't really remember. It was, you know, some, maybe colon cancer or something like that. I don't know. I really don't know. But I just know that at that point he was devastated because he was, that was not a, that was, that, that was a limitation. If you've cut the body and you've removed parts from it,

then suddenly- You've impaired the body's ability for self-healing. Exactly, exactly. So the way this went down is I did this process and I had a lot of pressure from family members, from Rich, from friends. I still remember going to meet a friend for lunch and I'd sit down and the first thing they'd say is they'd look me in the eyes and they'd point at the cyst and they'd say,

what are you doing about that? Because of course they were very concerned. And, you know, I got all of the, um, you know, the, the, the cases like, you know, you're a mother and, you know, and I just, I don't know. I just knew. And the first three months that I was on the herbs, I had like a hundred whiteheads, pussy zits on my face every single morning, I think. And they were full of fluid, like it was like runny fluid. True statement. And you were so amazing. I mean, our relationship and our connection was so solid that I felt safe enough that I could do that because it was not really fun. But I even remember my facialist calling me and begging me to stop taking the herbs.

Everybody was saying, stop taking the herbs. They're making your face break out. Meanwhile, your sister and your mom are calling me and saying, you know, you need to talk to her. Your mom, Julia's half Chilean. Her mom is from Chile. And a beautiful woman, she called, You need to talk to Julie.

You need to tell her she needs to see the doctor. There's enough of this nonsense. Yeah, well, everybody was like that, you know? And then slowly- And I don't, and by the way, like I don't, you know, I don't begrudge them for that. I mean, they love you and they care about you and they were worried about you, you know?

And it's like, I was too, you know? So when Vilna, you know, was calling me, I'm like, you know, you're right. I need to talk to her. I'm trying, you're right. I need to talk to her. I'm trying. I was trying to balance this equation of supporting you and giving you the respect and the space to, you know, I could see the conviction on your face. Like you were committed, you know, and you believe that this was going to work. But, you know, we're not talking about two weeks after you first saw Dr. Patel. I mean, we're, you know, we're well in, we're months and months and months into this thing.

Yeah, it's true. But I don't know. I mean, you know that I don't like being told what to do. So that's actually, that's not a good thing to do. I'll probably do the opposite. And I don't know. I just knew. I just knew. And you know what? I felt like I'd been given a gift. I felt like I'd been given an extraordinary gift of life because it was not cancerous. It was not like, okay, you're going to die in a month, you know, or you're going to die in three months. So what are you going to

do? That would have been a different choice. But now where I'm sitting now, I know exactly what my protocol would be for me personally. I just know this. All right. So just getting back to this. Let's just get back to how. So we're talking about the zits and the concern. And what was happening was everybody wanted me to stop taking it.

But what was happening was the imbalance was coming out of my body. The herbs were ejecting it out of my body. And so all of those years of whatever had caused the imbalance was coming out of my body. And I was adhering to the diet, which was a main part of it, and then I was taking these herbs. So together, hand in hand, and internally, topically, I changed my lifestyle. So my stress level was way down. I had my lifestyle in order, my whole lifestyle in order.

And I no longer was working with stressful clients. I was not accepting business from people that were out of balance. I changed my way of how, what Dr. Patel used to say, who do you invite into your home? You don't invite crazy people into your home. He said, sometimes they show up and you have to deal with them, but you don't as a rule, invite that into your home. So it was the first time that I realized, oh wait, I have a say here. So it was the first time that I realized, oh, wait, I have a say here. Like I don't have to have this 80s business mentality that just whoever says they want to work with me, I've got to take that work because that shows that I'm, you know, connected and I'm going to be successful or whatever. So it was a really beautiful shift from personal ambition into

living from the lifestyle. And then it was those sessions of sitting and actually listening and meditating that started to bring the deeper messages of my soul. And so this was really my first experience with plants as medicine or food as medicine. And also just honoring, you know, if you have any doubt, if there's a God, all you have to do is look inside the human body. The human body is this miraculous creation that no one can really even explain how it rejuvenates, how it, you know, how you breathe all day long without even thinking about it. Just every single thing about the body is magnificent. So So I think it was maybe two and a half years later or something like that.

And then also the other part of it is I started singing, right? So the songs came during the meditation. Then I started singing and the cyst in the throat, that's another energetic assistance, right? So about two years later, I think I just woke up. It was getting smaller and I saw I was gaining ground and you relaxed because it was going away. And then it was gone. I remember it taking two years though. I thought it was like 11 months. It could have

been, you know, I'm not really good with time. I mean, it did, it did take a long time. It was not a fast thing. That's the point. Like you walked around for a very long time with this thing sticking out of your neck and like zits on your face and, and a lot of people, you know, criticizing you or sort of taking your inventory and saying, you know, she's turned into a crazy lady. That's right. You know, and thank you for loving me. I appreciate it. The point is it went away. Like you did heal yourself, right? It is gone. It went away. These doctors at Cedars-Sinai, at UCLA, the specialist,

you know, all of them universally said it's never going to go away on its own. You will never heal yourself. You will have to get it cut out. There's no need to panic. It's not, you know, it's not malignant, but you know, you are going to have to have it surgically. They said it could turn malignant. That's what they said to me. It's not, you know, it's not malignant, but you know, you are going to have to have it surgically. They said it could turn malignant. That's what they said to me. Right. They said,

it's not now you have some time, right? Is what they said. So if you want to go do your little thing, you know, that's fine. We'll see you in, you know, a couple months. Right. And you know, a lot of people ask me, they said, well, did you go back to the doctors and did you show them that it was gone? And I said, no. And they said, why? And I said, because they just make up some other reason why. You know, it's like they don't have the language. This was my sacred journey and I know what it is to me and I don't need to. Well, it doesn't matter.

It wasn't going to change them. What is that going to do? No, no, no. Yeah, exactly. Like they're going to, they'll have their, you're not going to change their mind. No. You know, it's the same thing when, you know,

I'm talking to, you know convinced that paleo is the healthiest way to go or a nutritionist who studied a certain program in school. Right, exactly. And they're having none of me. I can say whatever I want about my diet and my beliefs around it and how I feel that it repaired my health and how I feel that it allows me to perform as an athlete, et cetera, et cetera.

But if your audience is not receptive, that's a fool's errand, right? I mean, what is the point of that conversation? Right, and it's just about, anyway, it's just about all of us returning deeper into our own journey and everybody's different, but we're just sharing our experience. Exactly. I think that, yeah, I mean, for me, Anyway, it's just about all of us returning deeper into our own journey. And everybody's different. Everybody's different. But we're just sharing our experience.

Exactly. I think that, yeah, I mean, for me, it's always about just making sure that you're, you know, there's a difference between proselytizing and sharing your experience. Yes. You know, those are two different things. And I think that, you know, for me, it's always, you know, you just stick to, stick to your own personal experience. Keep your hands to yourself. Exactly. It's pretty simple. So anyway, yeah, I had written, I had written about this story. The editor didn't like it.

Yeah. I can't remember. I'm trying to remember. I mean, there were so many drafts of the book and the book was getting long and, you know, a lot of stuff had to get cut. Yeah, I can't remember. I'm trying to remember. I mean, there were so many drafts of the book and the book was getting long and a lot of stuff had to get cut. And I think it's sort of a pivotal, crucial aspect of the story that I, in retrospect, like I said, I wish was in the book because it really sets the stage for kind of what followed with me.

But that was the first time for me that I really saw upfront and had a personal intimate encounter with food is medicine. What Hippocrates said back in whenever BC, that is the truth for sure. And I would have, if it was up to me and I was calling the shots, you would have been at UCLA, you would have had to cut out, and that would have been that, right? It's a good thing you weren't calling the shots. It's usually better when I'm not. That's my big lesson.

But, you know, the other point is that, you know, I was always fairly thin. I have a thin frame, right? So I never had a weight problem. So I never really looked at food at a vibrational level or as a way of feeding my body temple. And that experience changed that whole thing for me. So now it's not, you know, it's just ingrained in me. It's about how do I want to feel?

How do I want to perform? What kind of energy do I want to invite into my body? And that's the main reason that I don't eat animal meat is it's the frequency. Right. I mean, let's talk about that. I mean, food is energy. I mean, everything is energy. You know, when you get into, like, if you really want to drill down and you start getting into, you know, physics at the sub particle level where, you know, they can't tell whether something, you know, the properties are both energy and matter at the same time. And you can't pinpoint in any given moment where a particular subatomic particle is in space. And, you know, it gets pretty trippy, right? And just

sort of extrapolating on that idea that, you know, everything is energy, that matter at its most finite level demonstrates properties of pure energy, then of course energy is in everything, right? And everything carries with it a very specific vibration. And what is the vibration that you're inviting in? What is the frequency and the vibration of the food that you're putting into your body? And what is the impact of that on your system, on the way you perceive the world, on how you feel, how you sleep, how you interact, everything? No, it's true. I mean, it's huge. It's huge. It's huge. And when you see the way that, now I was raised in Alaska. My dad is a game hunter. He's a hunter, a bush pilot hunter. I grew up on caribou tacos and moose meat and salmon. He's more than that. Julie's dad, literally, this guy is like Indiana Jones. He's an amazing, amazing guy. And he has a passion for being outdoors.

And he's a hunter and he's a fisher and that's what he loves to do his whole life. And he moved his family up to Alaska so he could do more of that. And he's done some amazing things in his life. And when he sits down and starts to tell you stories about when he was a young man, mapping the jungles in South America,

which is where he met Julie's mom in Chile. And that's a whole other crazy story. But he'll tell stories of crashing his plane on a sandbar off the coast of Peru or something like it was. It was a Peru or Guatemala and- Like Ecuador. Yeah. Circled by sharks and having to stand on top of his sinking plane. And he told a story one time where he was on, he was, uh, on this mountain peak, uh, somewhere in South America, I think. Panama. Oh, in Panama. And, uh, he was mapping, you know, he was mapping this forest or this mountain region and, and. An easy task. Yeah, exactly. And, and and he was he was going to be picked up by this helicopter who was that was flying overhead and was hovering low and he was trying to get in the helicopter but the

the helicopter was losing it couldn't hold its altitude because they were at such a high altitude it kept dropping and so they dropped a rope out and he grabbed the rope and then the helicopter started to like kind of go down the side of the mountain because it couldn't hold its altitude and he's hanging from the helicopter and he's literally like out of a movie and he starts telling these stories and then it's like uh so rich you uh you have any stories you'd like to share you know i just feel like such a pussy around this now you have a good story yeah yeah well i think he always looked at me i mean this is a guy who you know wears a wears an nRA hat, you know, and he has a certain belief system

and he's a lovely, lovely man. He's an amazing guy. But, you know, I'm like the complete opposite of him. Like, hey, we went to a party at PETA last night. You know, it's like, so I think he always looked at me like, who is this guy with my daughter? You know, it wasn't until I did Ultraman

or wrote the book that I think he like had any respect for me whatsoever. Well, I mean, what, and talk about, you know, different vibrations. I mean, I'm the Yogi daughter and he's the, you know, Indiana Jones hunter. So it's quite a, quite a different, but we've, you know, we found a way. And the thing is, is so I grew up on game meat. So I'm not, it's not like I'm not, I haven't been around it or I don't have experience with it, or I don't understand, you know, what hunting is. And I would just say that, you know, if he, if he goes out like in the bush for three weeks and, you know, sleeps on a glacier and like crashes his bush plane and has

to like, you know, hit the propeller back straight to get it back on and fly out. And he kills a grizzly bear and he packs it out and skins it. He has every right to eat it, like eat away. Cause you know, that's an extraordinary amount of, you know, effort and experience or, you know, to, to bring to that. Um, but I guess what I want to say is for my own journey, as I started to get into yoga and as I started to practice yoga, the frequencies just started to change. And like I was saying to somebody at our event the other night here at Common Ground, she was asking about, you know, how do you work this within the family And how do you bring in vegan lifestyle like into eating? And I said, all you have to do is start eating, start drinking a couple plant blends a day and don't make any cuts from your diet.

Just add those two things in and then your body will drop what is not right. You know, your body will eliminate naturally. So there's nothing to let go of. Because that frequency, that vibration is going to have a certain impact on you. That's going to change your perspective, your cravings, your whatever, right?

Everything. It will begin, it will catalyze, you know, a shift in your trajectory. Right, like eat that way for two months and then go to McDonald's and eat a French fry. Take a bite of one and you will feel the lard on your teeth. You will feel the grease and fat. You know, last night at the restaurant here in Lihue, I ate a french fry that had been fried.

I instantly had headache, like residue in my brain from eating something that was cooked in some gnarly oil, you know? But the thing about the meat in our society is primarily it is not harvested in a hunting manner, right? It's these processing plants and the cruelty and the violence that is inflicted upon the animals the violence of the person killing the animal shocking the animal slipped slitting the animal's throat this is all in energy it's an experience you know it's an experiential event and then that energy is going into the meat that then's being packaged that then you're eating and putting in your body. For me, that is the key awareness that is necessary to wake up to.

And the frequency, even the frequency of who's preparing your food affects what you put in your body. It's all energy, baby. It's all energy. And you remember that, do you remember the, you know, well, remember White Lotus where we met, where we fell in love,

where we had our first kiss in the Kiva? How can I forget? That's in the book. Anyway, so at that retreat center, there was- You should have taken that part out and put the part in about your- Yeah, why did they leave that in? I don't know.

Anyway, so are you ever going to release be able to release like a like a like the unabridged version of the real story of finding ultra because you also like dedicated gave the whole book to me in the end and they cut that out too i guess it wasn't good what do you mean well you basically offered me the whole you you said that i was the ultraraman, I think is what you said. And they cut that out. Oh, I think, yeah. Oh, I said something about how you were the real Ultraman. And they were like, no, that's not going to sell well.

No, it can't be about her. It's got to be about you. And I'm like, well, now that we have the podcast and you can run your mouth all day long, then everyone will know. Everyone will know. Yeah. So anyway, so let's get back. Actually, you should start your podcast and we'll have a little like, we'll have a war in the rankings. We'll see who can.

That would be great. That would be great. That would be a healthy relationship exercise. No, we already cleared all that competition ambition, I hope. We're now unified. We're working for the same purpose. It's beautiful. But anyway, the energy. Okay're now unified. We're working for the same purpose. It's beautiful. But anyway, the energy. Okay, so who prepares your food? So remember at that retreat center,

and I'm going to use a different name because I don't want to speak disparagingly. Can you say that word? Disparagingly? Yeah, about anybody. You already said the name though. No, I didn't. I didn't say the name of the person. There was a chef there. There was a beautiful chef there that actually made extremely tasty vegetarian food. Very tasty. And every time we would go there for a retreat, everybody had the worst stomach aches and digestive problems the entire retreat. And the yoga teacher that we would go with would take his own food. He wouldn't eat the food. Everybody else was eating the food.

And it wasn't until years later that I realized, well, I knew she was very angry then. She was a very angry person. And she was putting that energy into the food, which was making everybody sick. So even if- It was like she was resentful that we were there. And preparing the food with this huge resentment. And it's like, with the way she was resentful, very much preparing the food with this like huge resentment and it's

like, you know, with the way she was chopping, it was bad. I mean, but over months and months and probably years, people were sick. And, and it, again, it wasn't because she didn't have her technique down. It's the frequency, it's the energy. So when you're preparing your food, that's why mom's food or cooking, you know, from a loving mother, just, it just can heal you. It can be whatever, it can heal you because her love for you is so pure. And so she wants the very best for you, right? So that's why in the old times, the spiritual hub of the house was in the kitchen. It was by the fire in the kitchen. That's where the sacred energy came from. So,

I believe that there's a big power in getting back to that and actually cooking for your family. We had this discussion the other day. We were talking about, you know, an option of preparing like, you know, or using frozen foods or using, you know, quick things that just take five minutes to make because nobody can take the time to prepare a meal. And my sort of point that I raised to this was, why not? Why can't people take time to prepare a meal? I mean, it's a pivotal, core, important part of our lifestyle of bonding, connecting, sharing, and nourishing our body. What could be more important than that? That needs to be given the space. Well, I mean, socially, we've just, as a society,

we've just moved away from that. I know, and it's a problem. It's not a priority anymore. And it's a distraction and eating is something you do on your way to go doing something else. And we've lost that beautiful tradition that seems to exist only in remote places of the planet now or underdeveloped nations.

And it's killing us. There was that article that was in the New York Times Sunday magazine a couple of weeks ago. That one Chris sentence? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We read it and I picked it up about this Greek village. It was a Greek island, right? Where these people would live to insane old ages. And, you know, it talks about their diet and their lifestyle and,

but essentially, you know, a core aspect of this was their pace of life and the importance they put on the communal sharing of the meals together and the time that they would take to, you know, prepare and commune together. And that's something that we've just, we've gotten away from, you know, prepare and commune together. And that's something that we've just, we've gotten away from, you know, and it's, I wrote about that in the blog post that I threw up when we first got here to Common Ground about, you know, why we came here and what we're doing here. And, you know, a big part of it is about trying to recapture that sense of community that comes with food. I mean, food is the great uniter of people, right? It is the thing that, I mean, food is the great uniter of people, right? Absolutely. It is the thing that we all share and that brings us together and allows us to create community.

And from small villages that had to work together to grow the food and prepare the food and share it together, we don't have that anymore. And that's a great loss. And now food has become the great divider. It is a subject of debate, of passions running high and arguments. And it's very difficult to even raise an issue about food without it being fearful of some argument you're going to get into. It's like talking about religion or politics. It's like, oh, well, don't talk about that or whatever. Right, right. or politics. It's like, oh, well, don't talk about that or whatever. And the iPad and the TV and the TiVo and the computer and all that kind of stuff has supplanted the family meal. And we're just too busy. We're too busy to do it. And so it's almost like it's become, oh, it's an obligation because it's good for the kids. If the family sits down and has dinner, we do it for the kids, but we don't do it because we want to,

or we enjoy it, or it's what we're sort of supposed to do. And it's bred into our DNA. It's how we evolved as a species, you know? And I think that it's incumbent upon us to retrieve that and bring that back and make that a priority in our life. Yeah. Well, I know from our own experience, I mean, from, you know, when you decided that you were going to do Ultraman the first time and you were out training and, you know, I never had an

idea that I was going to be a chef or write a cookbook, you know, and I was in sort of a in-breath time of my life, kind of a quiet time, call it dismantling, benched at home. But you were starting to train a lot. And so you would go out on these long training, you know, sessions, and I would then go, okay, we got to feed Rich when he comes back. So what are we going to make? So then I would just create something, then the kids would test it and we sort of got into it. And then about a year and a half later, we had a cookbook. And part of that experience, I mean, that's been an extraordinary experience for me, cooking with Tyler and Trapper and Harrison and having them actually, in the beginning, tell me,

you know, are we having lentils again, like lentils again? And then fast forward to three months later, mom, please make your lentils. So, you know, every day they were going out the door with a kale drink, you know, they're, they, they know how to make their own kale chips. They know how to make their own raw, um, pasta sauce. You know, they know how to make cashew cheese. Like suddenly we're all cooking as a family. We're creating as a family. And it's, it's been, it's really, really just added so much to our, to our own lives. yeah it's the ultimate uh enricher it is family life you know it is and i mean the way we did that you know also just to share a little bit about you know becoming vegan or how did we you know how did it how did it work out in our household because when we started

you know like one of our sons was still eating some meat. And then the girls were eating, you know, some organic dairy like yogurt or, you know, organic cheese or something like that or milk. So what we did in our household is we didn't make any rules. We just started showing by example. And I think that that's the key thing that maybe a lot of parents, as parents, we don't really understand. You can't be eating your dove bar and then telling your child to eat their spinach or their broccoli.

Like that doesn't work. You have to be living what you're saying. It's not the words that you're saying, it's the action that you're living. And over time, if you just continue to blend the healthy drinks and prepare the healthy meals, there will be a shift. And so now I can say that we have three vegan children in our household, and we have two that are all primarily vegan. They eat occasional, the little ones,

if we're out, they eat occasional yogurt or cheese. But even, I was still preparing eggs for them and then they both told me, mom, we're done with the eggs. Right, so they have to arrive at it on their own, which is really, I mean, that's true of, any real sustainable shift or change has to come from within that person. They have to be responsible for that decision. They can't be

doing it because somebody told them to do this or this or that. And it's, you know, I see that in recovery all the time. It's like recovery isn't for people who need it. It's for people who want it. So there's plenty of people that suffer from addictions or whatever, and they have interventions on, you know, their family intervenes and they send them to rehab or whatever. You know, clearly this person is in need of a solution. But if they're not ready or they don't want it for themselves, maybe they'll be able to stay sober for a short period of time. But it's never going to stick. It has to come from within. It has to be a decision that is made by that being to move in that direction. So with respect to food and kind

of how we've approached it as parents, it's never been, you have to eat this or you have to eat that. It's like we prepare the healthy meals. We include the children in the shopping and in the preparation. We allow them to have input. We help them children in the shopping and in the preparation. We allow them to have input. We help them learn the recipes and let them try out their own recipes. We serve them the food we make and we let them say, I want this or I don't want that. And yeah, we have to be responsible. We're not going to fill the cupboard with Diet Coke or whatever. No, absolutely not. But we never said, you have to eat this or you can't have milk or you can't have cheese or you can't have ice cream. We just sort of slowly kind of

stopped buying that stuff or, or, uh, you know, preparing healthier things. And then they kind of arrived at the choice or that place themselves. Yeah, yes. And everybody has their own path. And I've always said that, you know, if I wake up tomorrow and my body says, you need meat, I'm gonna go find the healthiest, you know, consciously harvested meat there is, and I'm gonna say a blessing, I'm gonna eat it.

Like, I'm not gonna get caught up in the fact that with this vegan label, you Like, I'm not going to get caught up in the fact that with this vegan label, you know, it's not about that. It's about having more plants in your diet. If you're somebody who, you know, who is eating meat, fine, you know, just try it. I would say, just try to make sure that it's as pure as possible, but everybody can benefit by including more fruits and vegetables, vegetables in your diet and whole foods. And then let your body tell you, you know, what you need and which way you're going. Yeah. It gets really tricky with the labels and, you know, yes, I'm vegan, you're vegan,

we eat a vegan diet, but you know, that word is a very loaded word and there's a lot of emotion that circles around that word, positive and negative word and there's a lot of emotion that circles around that word, positive and negative. And there's a lot of attachments and some of those attachments to that label or that lifestyle, you know, could be characterized as out of balance or unhealthy. And I think that, you know, we always try to kind of, yeah, I mean, I say, yeah, I'm a vegan, we always try to kind of, yeah, I mean, I say, yeah, I'm a vegan, I'm a vegan or whatever. I'll use that label, but I actually prefer to not use the label because somebody who hears that, they will conjure up an image in their mind or they have a preconceived idea of what that is, or they will project something onto me that's informed by some past experience with somebody else who's vegan

or what that means to them or something they read or imagery or what have you. And it becomes problematic, really. I mean, because basically, I just wanna eat really healthy plant foods, right? And so, but there's all this other stuff that comes along with it. There's a lot of politics

and there's a lot of activism and advocacy and differing points of view. And there are these camps even within the sort of vegan or plant-based community. And even where they're arguing about low-carb, high-carb, high-protein, low-pr low protein or whatever. And then, I mean, forget about the sort of paleo versus plant-based sort of dialogue or to put it mildly thing that's going on right now, which is the subject of many future podcasts, I suppose. But the point is that we get really caught up in these labels and it becomes more about the argument

than anything else. And a perfect example is I did the Joe Rogan podcast, Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Right, that was great. The reason that that happened is that Joe had Rob Wolf on and Rob Wolf is a paleo advocate. He's written a book called The Paleo Solution. He's all about paleo.

And I tweeted Joe and I listened to the podcast, and I like Rob. I think Rob is a really smart guy. He has a lot of great ideas about nutrition. I don't have a problem with Rob. I disagree on some things that he says about paleo and eating meat as it relates to my personal experience and what I've experienced. But that doesn't mean Rob is a bad guy. We have the same goals. Like Rob wants people to be healthier, right? Like, right. There's nothing wrong with that. And, and I can get into a dialogue with Rob about where we differ, et cetera. Um, but I tweeted Joe and I was like, maybe you should have some vegan athletes on for,

for a different point of view, which is how I ended up on his podcast. And there was a lot, and then I did his podcast and then there was a lot, and then I did his podcast. And then there was a lot of people who said, you know, you should have a, you should have, you know, Hey Joe, you should have Rich and Rob on and some other people and have this big debate, like some kind of like showdown or whatever. Like as if that's going to, as a result of that, we're going to get to the bottom of this. Somebody's going to win and somebody's going to lose. And then one label will be better than another label or what have you. And, and I, you know, Rob and I have gone back and forth on email and we talked about it. And I was like, I don't really see the point of that. Like, what is the point

of us having like some big fight? You know, it's like, it's salacious and I think it's counterproductive. You know, we both. It could be funny. Yeah, it could be funny, but like, I don't know. You know what I mean? Like I like to eat plants. I think it could be funny, but like, I don't know. You know what I mean? Like I like to eat plants. I think it works for me. I've done really well. And like, I just, I want people to eat more plants and I think they'll feel better if they do.

And I have some rationale and some reason to believe that it's, you know, that it's made me a better athlete as a result of that. That's my story or whatever. But it's also important for me to remain open-minded and not too, you know, locked into this label, that label or whatever. And I think, was it Swamiji who always talks about, you know, we all have these stories that we tell about ourselves. We create story around our life and those stories become reality because we continually tell them and they become reinforced

and then, you know, and we think that they're real. But they're not. But you have to step back and go, well, is that really real? I mean, that's the story I've been telling about myself forever. Right. But is that, you know, objectively true? You know, it's usually not. Right. Right. Right. Well, I mean, each being has its own path. It's about respecting everybody. So it's like at the end of the day, we all came here to just live our own heart, whatever that is. And so it takes all different kinds. There's all different colors. There's all different types and versions and colors and frequencies of of energy and so we're just sharing the energy that we are and the frequency that we are and then people that vibrate to that will will join and we're gonna have a party we're gonna have a party down man a plant power party power party but that power party. But that doesn't mean that the paleo people aren't going to have a party too. They can have their party. We can both have

a party and everything's fine. Right. It's easy. I know. I mean, getting back to the label thing, I think the one thing I wanted to mention though was that when you use the vegan label, people get intimidated. You know, people want to be healthier. Like, look, you know the vegan label, people get intimidated. You know, people want to be healthier. Like, look, you know, this podcast, like one, two episodes in, and we're like number one in this category or whatever. Like, people want to be healthy.

They're looking for answers. They're looking for information. They're looking for inspiration. They're looking for guidance. And I think that when, you that when you hear the vegan label, it's intimidating to people because it's a very, it's an intense thing. Like, oh, if somebody is eating the standard American diet and you go, well, you can't have any meat and you can't have any dairy anymore. And they're like, well, I can't do that. You know? And so they, so they don't try or they don't begin because they think they can't do it

perfect. They can't live up to this standard that's been set. And whereas in reality, it really, it's like you said, it's just like, just start eating more plants. See how you feel. Start this journey. You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to know where it's leading. You don't have to be perfect. You just have to start making a few simple choices. And we all choose every day what we put in our mouth, and we all have domain over that choice. Start changing a couple little things like that. Like, hey, you know, when you go to the grocery store next time, instead of buying milk, you know, why don't you buy almond milk? Or, you know, just do one thing and start like doing a couple little things and don't relieve yourself of that pressure. Just eat some kale. Start eating kale every day. That's easy.

And see how you feel. See how you feel. It's all about the kale. It is. It's amazing how like a couple of years ago, nobody knew, nobody had ever heard of kale. And now it's like, you know, that's all anybody talks about. No, it was hilarious. It was that crew from Dallas that came to shoot us for the HGTV Stream Homes episode. And so in between when they were shooting us, I was making them blends and I was giving them healing foods and talking to them and doing puja and doing all this stuff.

And they were, they were amazing. But I remember they came up to the island and they said, is that kale? I've never seen it. Is that what that looks like? And I started laughing and I said, you guys, I said, to me, it sounds like you just said, is that a banana? I've never seen a banana. But anyway, they had never seen kale. All the way from Dallas. Who knew? Our work is not done. It's not done. It is not done. Yeah. It's not exactly like

you know dallas is the middle of nowhere no i was shocked i mean i was just it was surprising yeah but anyway they were very sweet and they love the blends and we're going to be working more with them in the future you love to like secretly slip people your i do healing drinks here drink this drink this just have this. Just have this drink. That's like, it's easy. It's easy with, easy like the music. But I also think, why is everyone so emotionally,

completely freaked out about food? Like if you tell them you're a vegan or you go, oh yeah, I don't eat that, they take that as a personal assault on their character. Well, but there there's i understand why because tell us because there is a because they're immediately attaching that label to some past experience they've had or somebody they know or something they read about you know somebody who

was vegan or whatever and they they link that all right And then there's a story there. And that story is when you say, if you say I'm vegan, what they're hearing is they're not here. What you're intending to say is like, we choose to eat plants. We like that or whatever, what they're hearing is you think you're better than I am. And there's a piousness that comes with that. And that is where, you know, that's, that's a, that's a problem that I have with that label because that's not the message that I want to put out. I'm not saying I'm better than anybody. I'm an extremely flawed person. Believe me. I know.

No, I'm kidding. You're lovely. It's true. You know, I don't do, you know, I am far from perfect in every single category and most things I'm doing poorly. No. No, it's true. So that is the last sort of vibration that I want to put out to the world. Well, I mean, you know, you kind of... I want to put out a healthy message of inclusion. I want to create a sense of welcomeness. I want to be inviting to people. I want them to feel safe and comfortable and having a dialogue with me

about food, about their, you know, their health challenges, whatever it is. But when you say, hey, you know, and it's like, that's that joke. It's like, you know how you know somebody's a vegan? Like, wait five seconds, I'll tell you about it. And it's like, you know, look, I love you, babe, but you do that a lot. Like, you know, you go to a restaurant and you're like, well, we're vegan, you know? And it's like, we're vegan and we need to, you know, like, I love you, babe, but you do that a lot. You go to a restaurant and you're like, well, we're vegan. And it's like, we're vegan and we need to like, you know, is there anything on the menu? Seriously?

You did it last night. I don't think so. Yeah, you did. No, I didn't. They knew we were vegan and they had already prepared. You're doing it with a pure heart. I'm not saying I don't do it either. You're doing it with a pure heart.

But what I'm saying is you might be underestimating the way that that is received because a lot of people will be like, oh, you know, well, screw you. You know, like there is a sense of- Says the vegan endurance athlete who's like plastered all over the place. I know.

Yeah, like here's the problem, right? Here's the problem. Yes. So, so let's talk about plant power. That's why I'm not done talking about this. Go ahead. Let me finish. I mean, do you not agree? Do I not agree? Why? With what? That, that, um, that I say that I arrive to restaurants and say, hi, we're vegan. Yeah, I don't agree at all. Actually, not at all. That's a small fractal of your perception, but. What I'm saying is, do you agree that like,

if you say like, I'm vegan to somebody, that they will, that there is, that on occasion somebody will take that. Oh yeah. And draw a conclusion that makes them defend. You're saying, you're, you're asking me, you're saying, why are people so defensive when I say that? And I'm saying, I think I understand why. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So no, I totally agree. No, I mean, even if I say, you know, I'm not, I'm not drinking orange juice for like,

on the Ayurvedic diet, I didn't, I couldn't drink orange juice when I was clearing my cysts. So I just said to someone, you know, I don't drink orange juice. And the immediate, I love orange juice. You know, it's like, it's this, it becomes a commentary about the other person, but it's not about the other person. Or how about when you're vegan and you just go to your parents' house or you go wherever, like how many times has your mom tried, attempted to serve us chicken? And we're, we've been vegan for years and we go and sit down and she's made chicken like every time. So it's,

it's, uh, I don't know. It's like, uh, it's a disconnect. And I love your mom too, but,

um, it's a disconnect. Yeah. So anyway, are you mad at me now? No, I'm not. Anyway, you want to talk about plant power? That's what we've been talking about. Is it not? No, I was just, I was bringing up the term plant power because you've always said that you didn't want to be vegan and that you didn't like the term vegan. And so, you know, you've been using

plant power. And so we usually say plant power. That's really the term that we're talking about more. It's just neutral. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. It's neutral. And that doesn't mean that I'm not compassionate towards the animals.

And that I think that, you know, our factory farming system is, you know, deplorable and all of those things. You know what I mean? But I think that, I don't know, deplorable and all of those, those things, you know what I mean? But, but I think that, I don't know, man, I just want people to feel safe and okay about like eating plants and, and as men, you know, it's like, there's this, there's this idea that you are emasculated if you're not eating meat, right? That like eating meat, grilling, barbecuing or whatever is like a manly thing to do. And if you're going to say, I'm not doing that, that you're some kind of wimp or

whatever. And it's just, it's a complete fallacy. I mean, and if you think about it, it's like, it's not like the man is going out and like hunting, you know, with a bow and arrow and like, you know, putting the animal on his shoulder and bringing it home and cutting it up and grilling it. He's going to Ralph's and he's buying a cellophane packaged, you know, couple, you know, ground beef patties and he's putting it on his grill in his backyard. So I don't know how that makes you more masculine than anyone else. It's again, it's a story. It's a story that we tell and we reinforce ourselves. So what I'm saying is that there is an issue with men and masculinity and how that applies to, you know, making, you know, making a commitment or a decision to say, I'm not going to eat meat

and how that, how that is perceived societally, like how to, how do other men perceive you? Because, you know, as a man, you want to be perceived as, as strong, as respected, as, you know, whatever. And, unfortunately, it's sort of perceived as a chink in your armor. Like you're less masculine if you're not eating in this way because that's just the rule that we've created in our society.

Yeah, and you're a great role model to the contrary. Absolutely. Why, thank you. You're welcome. All right. Is that what you wanted You're welcome. All right. Is that what you wanted to talk about with plant power? Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

I just wanted, you know, we, I just wanted you to talk about the term and the fact that we, you know, that's really how we choose to speak about our lifestyle of eating. Mm-hmm. So, and I think the thing is, is that, you know, it's not, I guess the way that we are sharing our experiences from a very authentic place and it's by being authentic, it allows other people, like the way you were so courageous with your book and you told about all of your struggles with addiction and, you know, all the sort of, you know, dark little stories of things that, you know, most people would never need to know about you and the fact that you shared it, it allows this humanity to enter into the conversation. And so that makes it very easy to sit next to you because we're all human beings and we all have those dark places in ourselves. And if we haven't, if we're not in touch with that,

then we're not really whole. We're not really connected because there are both experiences of the life, not all roses and all sweet and everything's super duper, the super dupers as I call them. Can we just talk about that for a minute? Super, super. Yeah, absolutely. The super duper, the super dupers, as I call them. Um, can we just talk about that for a minute? Super, super. Yeah, absolutely. The super duper. They're the guys who like, when you, you, you run into them and you're like, Hey, how are you doing? They're like, super, super, no matter what. No, but you know, it's just the humanity. I think that's it. And I think that's

what everybody, what we're all trying to find. We're trying to find some humanity and some divinity and share it and sort of join forces and, and, uh, and affect to change in many different areas on the planet. And food is the first portal into that. So food is the entry. And,

uh, you know, it's a very, very, very powerful, powerful tool. As I learned with my healing experience, as you have learned becoming

a plant powered endurance athlete. And you can't even say that with a straight face. No, I was giving it to you with just love there. But the other thing is, yeah, I mean, I just, I didn't even realize, I didn't realize how, just how much people are affected by food. And, you know, it's known in ancient sacred lineages of all walks of life that preparing meals and preparing food for people is one of the biggest blessings you can receive to actually be the preparer of the food. And that's, it's a powerful thing. And I think that if we start to really shift our awareness into food as medicine, and we stop projecting outside of ourselves, you know, and comparing ourselves next to the person

standing next to me as to what my food choices are. Just make your own choices. Get in touch with yourself, meditate, connect, get clear on who you are, and eat to nourish your body temple. Eat to nourish yourselves. And understand that plants are also sentient beings that have an energy of healing over thousands of years. They have an information in them that is way beyond any recipe you're going to get in my cookbook or anybody else's. So simply start to incorporate more plants into your diet. Show the example, be the example, and stay in neutral compassion for all people, no matter if they're, whatever they're choosing to express, because it's all part of the divine plan. And anyway, at the end of the day, you know, it's only about you and you.

So, you know, find out who you are and express that. And eating plants can help you get to that Eating plants can help you get to that quicker and in a more focused way, in my experience, in my humble experience. I think everybody can now see why I married this beautiful woman. So I can't top that. I could keep talking for another hour, but it's not gonna get any better than that.

So I think we should just wrap it up right there because that was such a beautiful articulation of where we're coming from. So thank you for that. Thank you. So listen, people, use food to unite, not to divide, all right? There's a lot of energy that goes into arguing about food

and dividing people. And it's time that we come together and let's just get healthy. All right? Peace, plants. That's it. We're out. Thank you.