The Rich Roll Podcast - Ripped At 73: Chef Babette Davis On Self-Love, Fitness, & Reinvention At Any Age

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

Chef Babette Davis is a 73-year-old vegan chef, fitness icon, and star of viral social media videos. This conversation explores Chef Babette’s journey from childhood hardship to health advocacy, her philosophy on food as medicine, and her mission to heal communities through plant-based eating. We discuss her lessons to vitality at any age, the power of self-love, and her spiritual approach to life. Before wrapping up the conversation, Chef Babette wows with impromptu push-ups! Chef Babette is an incredible spirit and a powerful lighthouse. This conversation is inspiring and practical. Enjoy! Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube Newsletter Sign-Up Today’s Sponsors:  On: Enter RichRoll10 at the checkout to get 10% OFF your first order 👉on.com/richroll Peak Design: 20% OFF thoughtfully designed backpacks & more 👉PeakDesign.com/RICHROLL Squarespace: Use the offer code RichRoll to save 10% off 👉 Squarespace.com/RichRoll AG1: Get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs  👉drinkAG1.com/richroll Check out all of the amazing discounts from our Sponsors 👉 richroll.com/sponsors Find out more about Voicing Change Media at voicingchange.media and follow us @voicingchange

The only person that can truly take care of me is me. I am responsible for me. I'm responsible for my health. Chef Babette is back. I view life as an amazing gift. At 73, still learning so much. What can you do about anything that you're stressed over right this moment? It's just reminding yourself, I can embrace this moment and be happy in this moment because I control my thoughts.

I control my heart. And all of that stuff, it's not real. It's not real, Rich. Hey, everybody. welcome to the podcast, where today we're going round two with one of the most popular guests of 2023, my favorite septuagenarian, Chef Babette Davis. You know her, you love her. She is the renowned vegan chef at the helm of Stuff I Eat, the restaurant that is uplifting

her underserved Inglewood community. And this is somebody who at 73 years young is just a badass fitness icon and an absolute motivational force of nature. Today, we pick things up where we left off, going deeper into fitness for longevity, food as medicine, and spirituality as source. But that is the best, and this one is a banger. It's all coming up quick, but first. Traveling is one of my favorite things. I love it.

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and a team of craft nutrition coaches at the ready to guide you. And you get all of this for just $1.90 a week. So to learn more and to sign up, go to meals.richroll.com or click on Meal Planner on the top menu on my website. So good to see you. Oh, so good to be here. Great to have you back. It's been, I think it was October of 2022

when you were in here. Yeah, so it is coming up on two years. It's been a minute. So you're 73 now, yeah? I'm 73. 73, glowing. You look amazing. Thank you. Of course, not surprised. How's life treating yeah? I'm 73. 73, glowing. You look amazing. Thank you.

Of course, not surprised. How's life treating you? Wonderful. Yeah. Everything is good. And I feel so good, Rich. I do. I feel amazing.

And, you know, every year when you're a senior citizen, you know, they always want you to get the different insurance packages and all that kind of stuff. All the social security stuff, you know. And I had been always talking about the fact that I don't even have a primary care physician. So I said that on an interview one time and people were like, she really needs to get a primary care physician. And so I signed up for one. I've never met him. You still haven't gone though. I still haven't gone, but I want the- It would be interesting for you to go in

and just get all the tests and get the blood work and just see exactly where you're at. But if I feel good, Rich, if I feel amazing, if I feel amazing- You just don't want something going on that you wouldn't feel. I'm 73, Amazing. If I feel amazing. You just don't want something going on that you wouldn't feel. Rich, I'm 73, Rich. I know. 73 and 22 is how much?

73 and 22? Yeah, is how much? It's 85. Is that all? No, 95. It's 95? Yeah, it's 95. Well, what do I need? So is it 73 and 32? Plus 22? Oh, that's 105.

That's 105? Now I only need 100. So 73 and, Rich, your math is as bad as mine. 28 to get to 100? I don't know, what are you driving at? I'm trying to get to 100. What's the equation you're trying to solve? And I'm trying to say, if I'm chilling

and I'm feeling amazing and there's nothing wrong with me, why would I need to go do all that? I feel you. I hear you. Check this out, though. I did have an incident where I was feeding an eagle. I was in the gym. December the 5th, two days before my 73rd birthday, I was feeding my ego. I did a 45-minute spin, and that ego said to me,

you should go get on the treadmill. Remember how you used to do that little eight-minute mile after that, after you get off the spin bike? And I said, yeah. So I go over to the treadmill. I hadn't been on a treadmill for at least two years. I get on the treadmill. This girl walking next to me.

That's what I should have done. But my ego said, turn it up to seven and sprint. I did. I was getting it. Then I saw my trainer come in, got off the treadmill, went into the training room. He could hardly train me. I was showing off, Rich. I get to the restaurant. I bend down

to wipe a spider web off and my right knee cracks three times. Yeah. It was not good. The ego always gets you. The ego. And that is what I've been sharing with people to stay in your lane. I had absolutely no reason to turn that treadmill up to seven and sprint. I had not been on a treadmill and had just got off the spin bike. That was way, way too much. Yeah. And I learned such a valuable lesson.

At 73 years old, I learned to check that ego at the door. But you still didn't go to the doctor to check out the knee. No, I didn't. No, I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. Is it all right? There you go. Yeah. But no, I didn't go to the doctor. So you are human. I'm human and, you know, of course, but as long as I am ingesting good nourishment

and good thoughts and I feel amazing, there's nothing wrong with me. Why do I need to go to the doctor to tell me what- I don't know that you need to. I guess my only concern, as I said earlier, was just that you wanna make sure there isn't something going on that you wouldn't otherwise be unaware of

because you're asymptomatic. That's all. That's like the Western mind inside of me that's looking out for you. You know what? I'm just giving you a hard time. I should go to a doctor and do all that stuff you said. I really should.

I would like you to go so that he does all the tests and is amazed. And then you have the ability to just show anybody who questions what you're doing. You know what I mean? You're like, well, look at it here. Everybody says, oh, the way that you eat is not healthy or you're nutrient deficient or you're not getting enough of this or that. And you can have all the blood work and you're like, here it is. But you know what though, Rich?

I don't really care about them saying that. Yeah. Because the only person that can truly take care of me is me. I am responsible for me. I'm responsible for my health. I understand what you're saying about having knowledge if something is up with you. Well, let's talk a little bit more about this idea of your responsibility to yourself. That's not unrelated to this idea of self-love and you always talk about putting yourself first.

We talked about that a little bit last time, but maybe we can go a little bit deeper into that. So what do you mean when you say that? Basically, I view life as an amazing gift, a beautiful human experience. And for me, the only way that I can show how appreciative I am of this gift is to practice self-love and self-care. And that includes my thoughts, the people that I surround myself with, how I nourish myself. Just how am I caring for this human body so that I can live at my purpose?

And I feel right now I figured out what my purpose is. And it's sharing my journey because it's so inspiring to so many. And so, yeah, I'm just really crazy about me right now. That's great. We were talking before the podcast and we were joking about the fact that the last time you were here, I was sort of chiding you about the fact that you wouldn't hire anyone for the restaurant and you're still in there at like 2 a.m. chopping vegetables. And you could hire a young person to do this. Like you don't still have to do this.

I know. Because fundamentally your job is to be you, right? And you just said it yourself. I know. So you know it, right? I do know it. I know so much. And at 73, still learning so much.

That's what's incredible. When I talk about the knee, I learned a lot that day. I learned a whole bunch that day. But man, when it comes to the restaurant, you're right. Finally, my husband hired a couple of folks, really awesome couple of people that are just coming out of a culinary arts academy. Great attitudes. They know what they're doing. It's awesome. I still have not been relieved of, you can look at these hands. I do have a trigger finger. These two fingers don't bend. And I have carpal tunnel

syndrome. So ladies and gentlemen, I do sleep sitting up at night with a rubber ball because the blood flow is so bad. Now, I've been challenged with carpal tunnel before. I had carpal tunnel surgery, trigger thumb surgery, carpal tunnel surgery, trigger finger surgery. Now I have trigger finger again and carpal tunnel again. That is called overuse syndrome. It's not anything I'm eating. It's what I'm doing. But I'm doing it for my business.

And yes, you're right. It's time for me to stop. You can delegate that part of your business. I have to delegate it. But you can't delegate the job of being Chef Babette. I know, that's the only thing. Right? But this idea of self-love,

I surmise this was not always the case, right? Like we talked about your past when you were here before, but I think it would be good to kind of travel back a little bit for people who didn't enjoy your first appearance on the show and just kind of create some contacts here. You mean back to where before I knew that I was supposed to love self?

My point is you've gone through a lot. I have. And you've come out the other side, you've endured a lot, you faced many obstacles in your life, and you sit across from me so pure of heart and so radiant in your positive energy. I can't imagine that you were always this way.

It feels like you were always this way. No, I wasn't. I wasn't always this way. But I've come to realize that this human experience is full of a lot of bumps and knocks. And it's a beautiful thing to be able to get through all of that and then still be high enough that you're willing to share you with the masses. And that's what I do every day. And that is what I'm embracing. And I love so much about my journey right now.

It was really, really hard. I think about, man, I think about, so remember I talked to you about some of the guys I was with? Yeah. The husband that kind of calmed my life out, he passed away last year, April, in April. Yeah. Had you stayed in touch with him?

I had been in touch with him. He was the really nice person. Now I'm with Rondo right now. He was husband number three? Let's see now, let's see now. We had, Warren died. That was the first one. That was my daughter's father.

He passed away. The old man that used to batter me around, that guy. Yeah, he kind of had, what do you call it when you can't remember anything? Dementia. Dementia all the time. He was walking around, didn't know where he was. He died. And so, yeah, chemo's dead.

But I think it's only about two of them that are still standing. But you're still going strong with Rondell. You know, Ron and I still are figuring everything out. You still maintain separate households, right? You know, we do that. We do that pretty good. We do that pretty good. And he moved me into this gorgeous place that I'm so blessed to reside in.

But he has a studio. He's into music. When I'm getting up in the morning, he's going to bed. And so it's working out. He's 76. I'm 73. And instead of sleeping in separate bedrooms, we're just sleeping in separate square spaces. Yeah, I get it, I get it.

You know what I mean? I get it, whatever works. Whatever works, whatever works. I have no judgment on that. Thank you. But I think, you know, to the point of like cultivating self-love and this positive energy, what you endured would have broken most people.

So why, you know, how were you able to emerge from that different? Like what was the catalyst for you to go a different way? Or what was the experience or the book or the individual that reframed how you were reflecting on your life? What Rich is talking about is my journey to date. I was battered. I was molested at five years old. I was beat up a lot through this thing called life. I was sickly, eczema, asthma, couldn't digest my food. I was pretty unhappy for the most part. And the thing that really got me though, Rich, was when I walked into the City of Angels Church with Reverend Dr. O.C. Smith.

And then I went over to Agape Spiritual Center. And when I was introduced to metaphysics, if you will, that was when I began to understand the oneness on this planet and how we're all connected. Through the Reverend Michael Beckwith. Reverend Michael Beckwith. And how you cannot separate yourself from that intelligence that created all of this. I'm just a mere expression of it. So that rather than being angry about the journey, I accepted the journey. And now I just decided I was going to be full of love going forward. And I understand that that is a lot stronger than hating. And I think I mentioned that

in our other interview. What does being angry get me? Just a grumpy old lady being angry. Right. I'm full of life right now. I'm happy. All that stuff is back then. Yes, I am who I am today because I went through all of that. But man, I'm so much better than I was.

Well, those experiences ultimately made you stronger, right? And I think there's a beautiful freedom when you can just embrace your past in that way and not hide it for the sake of shame or be embarrassed about it. Like you share these stories and these horrible things that have happened, but you're so liberated from their power

to control your behavior and your refusal to let them victimize you, which is really empowering. There's agency in that, right? Yes. to control your behavior and your refusal to let them victimize you. Yes, for sure. Which is really empowering. There's agency in that, right? Yes, baby, I've learned to stay present. I don't have to move too far in the future and I ain't hanging out back there.

How do you hold onto that though? It's one thing to say, yes, we're not separate. Everything is one or we only have this moment and we shouldn't be obsessed with what happened in the past and tripping on like what might happen in the future. But to actually live that. I live it. How do you get there?

I live it. How do you do that? I live it because my daughter said to me, I think it was yesterday, I was talking to her. She's, everybody goes through whatever it is they go through. And she said to me, I'm just so stressed right now. I am so stressed at this moment right now. We've got a lot going on with family and the whole nine yards. And I said, what can you do about anything that you're stressed over right this moment? What can you do about any of that?

She said, nothing. I said, so why don't you just take advantage of right now and let's just make each other laugh and just move past that. And I found some silly, something on YouTube that was really stupid. And I sent it to her and we had the best laugh ever. It's just reminding yourself there's absolutely nothing I can do about any of that right this moment, but I don't have to let this moment go. I can embrace this moment and give thanks for this moment and be happy in this moment because I control my thoughts. I control my heart and all of that stuff, it's not real.

It's not real, Rich. I heard you say one time, something along the lines of, people say, all you have is today, like live today like it's your last day. But you say, live this moment like it's your last. Cause that's all you got. Another moment. That's all you got.

We're not. Are we gonna make it through the end of this podcast? Hey, we are. Hey, we are. Yeah, you might. We're not done. No, we're not done. We're not done.

That's really beautiful. And I agree with you and I have moments where I can embody that, but they so quickly pass, right? Like where our default settings are so overriding at times, they're so powerful that it takes a lot of kind of strength and consistency to like resist that. You need to understand, Ron and I can get into some serious battles.

Oh, I bet. Let me tell you, but you know what? Oh, I bet. constantly teaching me, who are you, Babette? You don't like what he said? You thought he said something that you just thought was not, but who are you? Do you know who you are? I do. Did he say, was he on point when he said that? No, he wasn't. So why did you buy into it?

Why did you buy into that? And that is what, that's how I reel it in, Rich. I have to make sure that I understand who Babette is. And why are you so bothered about something somebody else said about you? If it's not you, know self and love self. I feel like everyone wants to talk about your fitness regimen and all the pushups that you do and how luminescent your skin tone is and how you're aging in reverse and all these things. But I think, and that's all great. And we can talk about that all day long.

But I think what gets missed or is sort of underserved in this discussion around your approach to life is this spiritual peace, is this knowingness around oneness and this real commitment to cultivating forgiveness and compassion and self-love and love for others. Like fundamentally, like that's the real engine,

I think behind all of this. It is. And the pushups are just the outward manifestation of that inside work. Which is harder for people to get their heads around. But I think you could do is, you can do pushups all day long, but if you don't have that piece,

which is the foundation, then there's really nothing to talk about. And I wanna, I don't wanna just feel good physically in this life, emotionally. I wanna continue feeling like I'm on top of the world because I came from a space where I was so low, especially with the crack when I was doing that. So Rondo told you to tell me.

Rondo said, are you going back on there and tell that man you were a crackhead? He said, you were not a crackhead. You smoked it, but you weren't a crackhead. I was like Rondo. I was crawling around on the floor looking for cocaine rocks. People are going through all kinds of stuff. And if I can come out of it. For you to share like the experience

of crawling around in the rug, looking for rocks or how you navigated these abusive situations to demonstrate, to like model that level of vulnerability and to show people that you can do it without that like veneer of like shame and embarrassment. That is a way for other people to connect with you and to find hope in their own story. Like I don't have to walk around with this shame

that I've been holding about this other thing that is nothing compared to what the bet went through. And I think that gives people a path forward. I mean, we're humans and we're on a journey. It's an experience and we're going to go through stuff and we're going to experience all kinds of stuff in this thing called life. And there's absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing. And like I said, right now, I'm constantly teaching Babette. But to me, I'm embracing Babette. I'm loving Babette. I know I'm not running 100, like nobody is, you know? But like with the knee, you learn and you go forward with it. And I share it.

I share that with everybody, especially women that are just now getting in the gym, that are stepping out of their lane, trying to do way too much. You'll hurt yourself. Don't do that. Yeah. You know?

So for example, when COVID was at its peak and you were trying to keep the restaurant from closing its doors and you were under to keep the restaurant from closing its doors and you were under tremendous financial pressure. And, you know, like that would be- That was rough. Like a situation that would be very difficult for anybody, no matter how much PMA you got to like gracefully walk through.

Yeah. So when the times are really hard and you're feeling it, like what is the practice? Like how do you get to that place and walk forward? You know what's so weird about it, Rich? I'm so glad you brought that up because I really haven't given that a whole bunch of thought. I remember being in that time and trying to hold on to stuff I eat,

closing our doors, maybe only opening Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, four days a week instead of six, you know what I mean? But I don't know, for some reason, I wasn't fearful. I didn't feel frightened. I didn't feel like, oh my God, I never felt that. What Ron and I felt were, we're going to do this, we're going to do it this way. We're only going to do that right there. And we just kept it moving, Rich. We didn't get so shook about what was going on that we felt like it was our demise. We had each and every moment to get through it and we got through it. And I never, I never felt like we would lose stuff I eat. I never felt that at all.

It was a moment and we were making the adjustments and when this stuff is over, we'll be good to go. And that is the way we felt. Now, you know what? Rondo handles all the money. That's the way I felt because I don't pay a bill.

He might have felt differently. But I didn't feel, I just felt like we're making adjustments and tomorrow it will be better. Yeah. I also imagine if you were to reflect on the worst case scenario, like it's just nothing compared to where you came from.

So how bad could it be, right? How bad could it be? You've been to hell and back. So this is just a blip on the radar screen. And it is. Yeah. Cause. Let me see those pipes.

Yeah, you wanna see them? That's pretty good. That's not bad. Yeah. And I haven't been in the gym since December 5th. How come? I busted my knee. Oh, for the knee thing.

So you can't do any upper body thing? I can do it now, I'm back. I see. I'm back. But look how long it took me. Yeah. Somewhere almost in June. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That was December 5th. So did it take longer to get back into it? I mean, it's sort of a use it or lose it thing, right? I detoxed. I went on a 12-day water cleanse fast. And then I did a detox. It's time for me to do another detox right about now. But I just got rid of a lot of inflammation,

stayed off of it. I still had, I went in every single day and chopped those potatoes though, Rich, every day with bad knee. Yeah. But wow, what does that say about chef? I'm pretty awesome. Well, resilient.

At 70 some odd years old. Yeah, yeah. I got it done. You did, you did. I odd years old. Yeah, yeah. I got it done. You did, you did. I really did. But you're back to the pushups now. I'm back to everything now. I'm good to go.

So this idea of oneness, like I wanna explore that a little bit more deeply. My wife and I went through a period where we were going to Agape a lot. So I'm very familiar with Reverend Michael and his beautiful way with words and the community that he's cultivated. And I know that your kind of food journey began

with you like sort of serving food in the parking lot, like in front of that organization every week. And what's interesting about that, like when you really reflect on oneness and this idea that we truly are not separate and everything is interrelated, it perfectly dovetails into not only the self-love piece, like if we're truly not separate from anything else,

how could you love anything if you're not loving yourself? But also in your relationship with what you put in your mouth, right? Exactly. If we're not separate, like how are we, how are we conducting ourselves, comporting ourselves compassionately with that sort of sensibility, right?

Wow, listen to you. So talk a little bit about that, because your relationship with food began first as a means of healing your inflammation and all these problems that you were having, but it's evolved since then. It's about something much more than that. It's much bigger, much bigger. I wasn't thinking about not one animal when I transitioned. My husband fed me my very first vegan meal and I felt amazing after eating that meal. And it was properly combined. So I didn't have any indigestion, indigestive issues.

And then when he gave me the books, The Fit for Life and The Mucusless Diet. I read those books and began to understand the importance of knowledge. Before, I didn't know. I felt like everything sold in the supermarket was okay for us to eat. I mean, we have government agencies that check out the food that they're selling. So everything is okay. And I began to understand that that's not necessarily the case. And because I understood that I was a mere reflection of that which, that intelligence that created all of this. So there's no way that I can separate myself from that, but it created all of it. So that means there is a oneness and we are all connected, but the intelligence also gave us a diet for every species that walks the planet Earth. There is a specific diet for that species. And as I began to read and learn more, I understood, wow, I'm that species that can pick

an apple off the tree and just eat it and be nourished from picking that apple. I don't have to slaughter anything. I don't have to murder anyone. I don't have to use heat. I don't have to cook. If I don't want to, I don't have to do any of that stuff. Because that intelligence put it here for me. Nuts, seeds, I can just pick it right off the vine and it works for me. Therefore, I understood I don't have to murder a chicken to nourish myself. I don't choose to do that any longer.

I don't want to eat another animal's intestines, i.e. chitlins. No, thank you. You understand? So I understood that chicken has a diet, that cow has a diet, that horse has a diet, that kangaroo has a diet. You eating kangaroo meat? No, I'm not. Somebody just told me about somebody eating kangaroo meat. Anyway, somebody just told me about somebody eating kangaroo meat. But anyway, so and then I began to understand I don't need to bother anybody else to nourish myself.

It's been put here for me and it's very easy for me to consume it. And that to me says that's practicing love of others as, as well as self. I don't, I, I, I'm so disappointed in the human species that trips on complexion. What? The intelligence created more than roses. Flowers come in all different colors. We love them for being what they are. We're all expressions of that which created us. I love you, Rich. I don't care about your unmelanated ass. I'm trying to get more melanated. It's too foggy out though. I like being in the sun. But the bottom line is we're all one in this

and we should be embracing. If we learn to love one another, if we learn to just love, love of self, like you said it, if you don't start with you, it's impossible to love outside of you. Yeah, you can't truly love another unless you love yourself. And I think there's confusion around the self-love piece.

People will say, oh, that's indulgent or it's selfish. Like I have all these kids and I have multiple jobs. Like I can't afford to do that. This is an experience that is reserved for people that have a lot of free time or whatever. Put your oxygen mask on first. Or you're not going to be there to help anybody else. This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. Thank you. for building that standout digital identity. Their latest innovation is called Squarespace Blueprint, and it's really revolutionizing web design.

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The additional little ripple here is that when you are engaged in that practice of self-love and you are cognizant and compassionate towards all other life, and you make this choice, like I'm not gonna participate in that cycle of suffering that your body ends up doing better. Like you heal yourself, you're vital, you're 73 now, you're crushing it.

You don't need to go to the doctor, you're not on any meds, none of that, right? Right. And I think that blows people's minds. They get confused around that. And that's another thing that humans do when they see something that they can't quite understand, even if it's aspirational,

our minds will immediately try to find an argument why you're different and that doesn't apply to me. It's so true. It is so true. You must, you've been reading those comments, haven't you? They don't play. I get them. I get those comments also. Yeah. They don't play. They don't really get it. And this is the path that I'm on is not to put anybody else down. It's just the path that I'm on.

It's just the path that I'm on. I appreciate life. I give thanks for life. And I show how grateful I am each and every second of the day. to take a deep breath, go outside and come back and be like, okay, all right, you're back. You're good, you're good now. I wanna be a fly on the wall for one of those fights. Yeah, sometimes. On the point of other people sort of being confused, curious but confused,

it's inevitable that the protein question comes up, especially as we age, there's more and more research coming out. We need to eat more protein, sarcopenia and all this sort of stuff. But I just saw you flex your bicep and you only got back into the gym in December and it's impressive. No, no, no. I've been out of the gym since December. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah. Oh, okay. So you're still not even back. I'm just now, I have a beautiful gym at my new apartment. And yesterday I was interviewed by Jillian Barry and she had me in the gym showing, that's the first time I've been back in the gym

since I hurt the knee. Oh, wow. But see- You're hanging on to that muscle though. That looks good. Yeah. Yeah. No protein powders. No, but I do a lot of sea moss.

So I have a sea moss. That's your thing, right? Why is sea moss such a big deal to you? Because I'm selling it now. Yeah. You had to find out. You just had to go there, didn't you? Hey, earth and sea wellness. I'm giving you the opportunity.

Earth and sea wellness. It's a green light of that for you to promote. I put sea moss in everything, every sauce, every smoothie, every juice. I just make sure I get my little dose of sea moss in there. Because? But a girlfriend and I. Because, come on, listen, you guys Google everything. Google the benefits of ingesting sea moss, please. Okay. We'll do it. All right.

It's good. I take it. Yeah. Anyway. So, so the sea moss and, and I'm on, I'm on Orlo now because I was never the person that I was horrible with taking vitamins and every day popping something. But are you hip to Orlo? No, what's that? That is a vegan omega-3. So my levels were very low. They tested me and I had really low omega-3 levels. And so now I take Orlo and I take it every single day.

And I'll advertise for Orlo whenever they want me to advertise for them because it's a good product. Well, those omega-3s are important. Yes, they are. Yeah. So walk me through a day in the life of food then. Day in the life. Okay. So generally, like I fell asleep so early the other night, Rich. I mean, last time you were here, you're telling me you go to bed at like five or six

and you get up at like one or two, one or two in the morning. I do. What time do you wake up today? Well, I had fallen asleep so early that day. I woke up around 10 to use the bathroom. I was thinking, is it one or two? It was only 10 o'clock. You can't get up then. Anyway, so I still go to bed early, but I spend a lot of time with self. I have come to really love being with me. I tell jokes and crack myself up. And I'm like, is this some senile stuff you're on here? Because you sure hang out with yourself good and you talk and you laugh and

just have a great time. But I get plenty of rest. So if I fall asleep at six or seven, I'm awake. Like Chris, my manager sent me a message yesterday and he sent it at 745. I was already out. I didn't get it till two o'clock this morning. but I'm still waking up between 1.30 and two and I start my day. Now, since it's gym time again, after I'm up, I'll get myself together. I'll go to the gym and then I'll come back, freshen up, go into stuff I eat. You know what? Chop up a box of potatoes. You know what I do. But I start my day nourishing myself with either fruit or juice. Now we have a big Ruby's juicer at Stuff I Eat, so I'm juicing anyway. So I'm going to have myself some juice. So most of the time I'm at the restaurant till

afternoon. Lately, Rich, I don't know where all these people are coming from, but so many people are showing up just to get a picture with Chef B. Oh, that's nice. It is so cool. But most of the time, if I leave, when we open, I miss them. So what I need to do right now is get a big picture of myself that they can- Take their Instagram photo with? Take their Instagram photo with. Take their Instagram photo with. I saw Maria Shriver did a story on you.

Oh, she did, yes. Yeah, that was cool. Wasn't that cool? Very cool. That was very, very cool. Yeah, so you're out there. I know, and my numbers are just like, I don't know, but these people, what they're doing nowadays, they're grabbing bits and pieces from interviews like this

and putting together their own videos. That happens a lot. I never saw that before, but my numbers every day, they're just inching up. I'm almost at 400,000. Wow. Yeah, I'm growing up. Good for you. And that's translating into foot traffic

into the restaurant. That's the important thing, yeah. A lot of people, a lot of sisters come in there. And brothers too, they come in there. When I say sisters and brothers, I mean men and women. I'm not talking about, you understand that? Do I have to tell you that? The level of melanin?

I'm not talking about just melanated people. When I say sisters and brothers, I'm talking about humans. I get you. Okay, I just want you to get me. Oneness, oneness. Yeah, right. All right, keep going. We're up to the first day's juice.

They're inspired. Yeah. Of course. Come on. Well, you're an inspiring person. But to be an inspiration after the shit I've been through, really to think. But that's what makes it inspiring.

Isn't that just amazing? I would have never- Because it's not just the message, like the food and all the information, the knowledge, it's the vessel, it's like who's carrying the message. And when you have lived a life and gone through a lot, you carry a certain resonance, a gravitas, an authority, right? And your story is so powerful, it allows people in

and makes them more open to connecting with whatever the information is you're trying to impart, right? Yes, it does. Cause you're not trying to bullshit anyone. And I would never. You might be selling a little sea moss, but beyond that, there's no pitch here.

Okay, Rich, you got me. Yeah, all right. It's earth and sea wellness. Right. So I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised that Maria Shriver wants to write about you and that you have people showing up on the doorstep of the restaurant

trying to get a glimpse of you. It's so wonderful. Because people want that energy. Yeah, that's what it is, the energy. The energy that you're emitting is contagious and infectious. Yes. And we're all starving for it

and we all want and need more of it in our lives. And I think we get in our own way. I'm a big hugger too. We complicate it and we struggle with trying to get a little piece of what you seem to exude so effortlessly. I like the way you put that. So that means every hug, did you feel it when I hugged you today? Did you feel that energy? Of course. I hug everybody. I don't even meet strangers anymore. How about that? What does that mean? I don't meet strangers.

I just feel like I know everybody. I do. Isn't that weird? Is that weird? I just don't know. I think that's consistent with this oneness idea, right? Yeah. All right.

So you make juice in the juicer. I make juice in the juicer. We're on the what you eat in a day. And then, you know, come on. You know what, Rich? I can't even eat my own soul food platter anymore. It's too much food. It's gluttonous.

And it's so, I can make a handful of nuts a meal, you know, salads. I do have a quinoa bowl. It's stuff I eat that I really, really love. I just, I'm not wild about too much cooked food. I'd rather have a little bit more life on it. Yeah, I mean, you're kind of primarily raw, but you're not entirely raw, right? No, no, no, no. I have a restaurant that our menu is pretty transitional and I eat cooked food, but my preference is more live food.

And so that's why my manager, Chef Chris Tucker and I are getting ready to do a cooking show. Tell me about that. And it's going to be called Hot or Not. And so I will be doing the live version of the dish and he'll be doing the cooked version of the dish. So we'll have two dishes each day. One will be raw and one will be cooked with the same name. Like if I was going to make you some raw chili, you know I'm about to use walnuts up in that bad boy, right? That's going to be my beans. The walnuts are going to be my beans. So that's the kind of fun show it's going to be my beans. The walnuts are going to be my beans. So that's the kind of

fun show it's going to be. And you advertised my book last time, Cash In on Cashews. And I do have another book set up. The Stuff I Eat book is being written right now. So I will definitely send you a copy when I'm done with it because you talked about me last time because I only had that dessert book. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You remember that? I that dessert book. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You remember that? I do. Okay.

Yeah, yeah. Well, anyway. That's good. So the cooking show, I'm really, really, really excited about that. When does that launch? Oh, as soon as we sit down. I just got into my spot. We're going to shoot it at my residence.

They've got a beautiful kitchen. And so we're going to shoot there. And I'll definitely let you know as soon as we got it going, because I'm so excited about this show. It's gonna be a really good show. Is it something you'll record before a live audience or no? No, it won't be a live audience. Not initially. It'll just be Chris and I knocking them out.

Right. Yeah. That's cool. Yes. Do you do like live kind of community events in the restaurant for the Inglewood community? I'm about to do an event that it's a round table. I call it a round table and what I'm doing. And there's so much illness in our communities, but especially in black communities. The heart disease, the diabetes, all these illnesses, and most of it is because of the way we nourish ourselves

or attempt to nourish ourselves. And so what I've decided is to bring in some hard hitters, doctors in particular, melanated doctors. I've got Dr. Bobby Price. I've got Dr. Baxter Montgomery, Dr. Baptiste, Dr. Zarif, and Dr. Shabnam. And they're going to be a part of the roundtable, and we're going to have an audience. So you'll be able to listen to what they have to say and ask as many questions as you need. So I'm planning on having that event in, it's going to be in Burbank though, at a studio. That's July, 2021, two day event. So I'm really excited about that. I haven't really, I used to do a lot more in the restaurant years ago, but for some reasons, it just wasn't quite as comfortable for me to give events there in that spot as I would desire it to be. So whenever something makes me feel a little uncomfortable, I just move it.

I just do it somewhere else. I just need to feel good when I'm doing what I do. And if I'm not feeling good, if I'm feeling too tight, if it's too weird, no thanks. That's part of the self-love. Okay, I don't wanna feel it. You gotta honor the intuition. That's it.

Yeah, I think that's a beautiful mission. Clearly black and brown communities suffer the most. When you look at the food deserts and the availability of fresh, healthy produce and other foods in urban areas, it's a real problem. And I think with respect to the plant-based movement and community, it's often just associated with being of a higher kind of socioeconomic echelon.

It's like considered this luxurious lifestyle that you'll find at Erewhon and is only available to a certain type of person who can afford it. When in truth, most of these foods and the foods that you prepare and that you talk about, I mean, this is like basic stuff, right? It really is. Quinoa, beans, nuts and seeds, leafy greens and the like.

And these things, although affordable, depending upon where you get them, are not as accessible as they should be. And this has a downstream negative impact on the Inglewood community and communities like it. And I think your message is so powerful because you're invested in changing that. And this is where we need to see the change the most. Well, see, the reason I'm pulling the round table together is because not only do we have, we don't have access to a lot of good stuff in certain communities, we have a lack of knowledge.

We don't even know we should be eating differently. I mean, like I told you, there was a time that I thought everything that was sold in the supermarket was okay to eat because I'm trusting my government has my back. I'm bothered by the fact that we eat out of boxes and cans and bags, a lot of processed foods, and we think they're okay. We have a lack of knowledge. We don't understand that if we don't get life into our system, we're not nourishing ourselves. Everything that's just manufactured in a warehouse is like a food-like substance. It's not necessarily nourishing food. And so many of us don't understand that. So it's a lack of knowledge too. So just don't, we don't, so many times we don't even realize we need to be eating something differently.

I'm sure you saw our friend, John Lewis's documentary, Hungry for Justice. Yes. Yeah, which addresses that head on, right? Are you, did you appear in that? I was in there. You were in there. Yeah, okay, it's been a while since I've seen it. I wish more people had seen that movie.

It's good though. Yeah. Yeah. It is true that it is a knowledge problem, but it's also more complicated than that because you can provide people with the knowledge, but then it's about the willingness to make the changes. And not everyone has the same level of willingness. You could provide people with the knowledge.

For sure. But food is tough. We have our habits and those kind of preferences are very hard to break. And it's further complicated by all the complicated social messaging around it. We associate certain foods with love and nostalgia and the way that we were raised and those habit change,

you know, kind of journeys are hard for a lot of people. I know it's challenging. It definitely is. But do you know how many people have gotten in touch with me on the death bed? How many? Too many.

Young people, people that grew up with my daughter. And now they wanna know, what can I do? Do you have a doctor I can go see? After the diabetes is really bad or the obesity is out of control. Or the cancer, whichever. And now you're gone. There was nothing anybody could do because you waited.

You were stubborn. I've been stubborn. I have an addiction to sugar. Refined sugar is poison. My mother put it in everything. When I was doing that water fast, I'm going to tell you, 12 days, that was challenging. That's tough. Just water?

Do you know what I wanted to do? I don't know. Kill Rondell? Just water? Do you know what I wanted to do? I don't know. I want to take that agave syrup bottle and just squirt it in my mouth all day long. But I do have the knowledge and I understand you can't just sugar, sugar. I don't care if it's agave, maple syrup or what it is.

You have to understand that you cannot be on sugar overload. That's not good for you. But I will claim addiction to sweeteners. But I have to check myself and I have to calm myself down. Even when I make sweet potato pie in the restaurant, Ron has a totally different palate than myself. He doesn't like it too sweet. If it's too sweet, he can't ingest it. Sweet potato pie is supposed to be sweet as far as I'm concerned. Hey, my mother put 12 eggs, a dozen eggs in her sweet potato pies and 40 cups of sugar. So that was my palate. Right. But I still have to make the adjustments. Yeah, I could be stubborn about it and keep zits in my face and be stuck on, I don't eat animal products and just continue eating the sugar and have bad skin and the whole nine yards.

But I don't choose that any longer because I did get away from it. I saw a difference to my body. I saw, I felt it differently. You understand? So you have to try, at least give it a shot. Now, like you said, everybody's, everybody's not going to do it, but for those, and everybody that goes into church on Sunday, wherever Michael knows, he ain't catching everybody, but if he catches one person, he's done his work. So. and he's done his work.

You know what it's like to be free of those kind of addictive yearnings, right? With sugar, et cetera. So you've had that experience. You can like remember that when you're in that struggle. And I think through the restaurant, the way that you try to get people on this journey is to provide them with not just healthy food, but food that's delicious, right?

So that they can have their version of that experience and know what it's like to actually feel better, perhaps for the first time, right? And there's a compassion in that, but there's also like a trust. You, like me, like I don't tell anyone what to do. Like I'll share my experience, but I'm not here to tell you, don't do that and do this.

But here's some delicious food, you decide. What is the experience that you're having? Is this better? Do you want more of this? Here's some information if you wanna embark upon that journey. And I feel like that's why food is so powerful. Like serving food prepared with love

that is made to nourish the body, to really honor the body. And it is like a living kind of three-dimensional like vehicle for self-love. Exactly. Because self-love is nothing more than, you know, performing acts of self-respect and love for oneself. Right? And food is the way that we do it three times a day.

Yes, it's all over that. Have you noticed changes in the Englewood community? Like, is this starting to ripple out? Like, are more and more people starting to... You have more and more people changing their lifestyle, but we also have more and more meat restaurants opening up. Yeah. You know, it's just, it's gonna be it's going to be. You know what I mean?

It's going to be. And those people that are going to transition and move away from it, they're going to transition and move away from it. I'm like you. I can't sit here and put anybody down for the choices that they make. But I can say this to everybody. The choices we make on this planet today has consequences. Every one of us, whenever we make a choice, it has consequences, whether good, positive, or negative. There are consequences. our consequences. And with the amount of, I find it disgusting that we are destroying forests to grow as many soy plants as possible to feed animals. Cows normally graze. And now we just determined that we're going to give them a new diet. So there are things that we do that have consequences in terms of the health of our planet, our home. I don't know of any other place to live outside of here, not in this human form.

And the planet is going through changes because of our choices. I find us, we're responsible for it, but we're sensitive as well. We're super sensitive. And someone would hear me say this and be like, well, and I don't want it to come off that way. I'm just saying we're still responsible. No matter what your choice is, you're still responsible. That is 100% true. But I think a lot of people struggle to receive that message and just think, well, I'm just one person.

What does it matter? My decision or my choice around food is gonna make a difference. And second to that, a lot of people also don't care. They don't wanna shoulder that responsibility. They just want what they want. And you're a thousand percent correct. You're a thousand percent correct, but it ain't going to make me shut up. It's not going to make me stop sharing the message that I know to be true. I live this. I live this every second of the day. I know what I am talking about, period.

And I remember a mother. My mother, the bathtub that I have right now, my mother could never climb in that bathtub, sit down in it, let alone get out of it. At my age, she could never have done that. You know what I mean? But I am so blessed. That tub is so deep. I've never had a tub that deep. I get down in that tub. Do you know I feel like the Hercules girl? I get down in that tub and I can get out of that tub without any help at all. That is just... And just so we're clear and for people that don't know, you went totally 100% plant-based in 1990.

1990. You were 40. You just got a good ass memory, yes. 40 years old. 40. That's when I made my change too. Yes. Prior to that, eating whatever,

all kinds of health issues, all kinds of problems. But since 1990, which is 34 years ago, no animal products, no doctors, climbing in and out of the bathtub at 73. I mean, it's pretty fucking rocking. You're a powerful example of this lifestyle. It's quality, sweetheart. And that's so important to me.

The quality of life is everything. I can live in that apartment. When I moved into that apartment, they had these beautiful... You know how you go into a hotel and they got the luggage carts? Somebody had taken the luggage cart. I made a hundred trips carrying crates, all kind of stuff, from the basement where my car is parked to the second floor where my apartment is. I made so many trips, even after having a bad knee. If I wasn't having a good quality of life, I could have never done that by myself. All by myself, Rich. That is such a blessing. That is, I'm blessed. I read that, or I saw a video that you super glued your hand to the counter of a Starbucks. You got in on that?

Explain this to me. got in on that? That's my manager, Chris, got me hooked up with all kinds of stuff. Yeah. So, man, you know, being a sister, you know, that was kind of weird. I'm in Starbucks, gluing my hand to the counter. And at first I was terrified, but then I understood. But then I understood there's a homeless woman in my, in, in Englewood, in my neighborhood, when that's usually at Vons supermarket early in the morning, she is broken out with eczema on her face. It's ripped. It's just horrible. Every morning, cause I'm always, you know, hooking her up every morning morning she goes into that Starbucks and she buys whatever it is she buys, but she can't afford the non-dairy.

So they just give her the milk free, but it's jacking her skin up. And I thought about her. She doesn't need the dairy. She's allergic to it, but she can't afford it because they're charging 70 to 90 cents. They do the upcharge on the plant-based milks. On the plant-based, but they give you the calf's mama's milk or the calf's milk.

It's for the calf. It's not supposed to be for you, and you're giving it away. You're not charging me for that, but you're going to charge me for the plant base. I can't tolerate dairy. Never could. I had eczema, asthma, the whole nine yards. And so thinking about that, I felt like, well, this is a decision that I'm going to make because I need to be vocal about this. And that's why I did it. You glued your hand to the counter.

And made a lot of noise in there. Yeah, basically protesting this upcharge. Which is interesting because Starbucks doesn't upcharge for plant-based milks in other countries. No, they don't. And their competitors actually don't, not all of them. I don't know which ones do or don't, but there's plenty of competitors

that don't upcharge either. We could be better. That's the only reason I was there. It's just to say, come on, we can be better with each other. So what happened when you did that? How long were you there? We were there for a while.

The only thing is the police came and they were like, you guys can protest, but you gotta go outside the store. And I said, well, my hand is glued to the counter. And he said, well, we'll get the paramedics to come and get your hand unstuck. And the girl from PETA said, if the paramedics come, we're going to jail. So she made sure I got my hand off that counter

and we did, we completed our protest, but we were loud in there. We were not playing. But they didn't change the policy. But hey, things don. But they didn't change the policy. But hey, things don't change right away. Ask Martin Luther King how long it took.

But you gotta stay focused. You gotta stay on it. You gotta make noise. And then maybe one day they'll do the right thing. they'll do the right thing. Everybody's got their morning routine. I'm no different. And one of the sacred non-negotiables of mine is AG1.

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and they make the change versus the person who just says, I can't do it. Like, but that's special, but you know, I can never do it. Why are there family members like that? So what do you think that is? Like, what is the difference between those two people? Some people are ready and some people are not. Some people are ready and some people are not. Some people are ready and some people are not.

And so every minister, every time he's in church, he's speaking to the folks that are ready. He speaks to the masses, but the people that get it are the ones that are ready. And what do you think leads to that readiness? Pain? I don't necessarily feel that it has to be pain. You just, hey, I got a word we're gonna use today. You just woke. You woke up.

You just woke up and you decided it was time for change. Yeah, that's what I did. I met Rondo and fed me a meal and gave me a book. After he hiked backwards up a mountain with you, right? Yeah, showing off. Yeah, he was, yeah. He was showing off. It worked.

It did work. Yeah. I mean, you know. But prior to meeting him, you wouldn't have known that you were ready. I thought to be a vegan or vegetarian, you had to be Hare Krishna. I was so ignorant. I was like, no, I don't want your herbs.

I don't know. Thank you. I was that. That was where I was. Do you think that part of it was you just, you just, you liked him and you wanted to kind of get on his page because you guys were early in your relationship? Let me just tell you, first of all, I wasn't a big reader. So I'm going to meet this brother and he's going to give me two books. He's like homework.

Really? You can't just go on a date, you know? just going on a date, you know? So I, once I began to read, I started understanding a lot of the stuff in Fit for Life, I was experiencing some of this discomfort. Eating different foods that shouldn't have been combined. I shouldn't have been eating them together and making myself physically ill. Come on, we're the only species that has to medicate themselves after they eat Tums. Anyway, and when I read that, I could actually connect the way that I felt with a lot of what was in that book. And then when I read the mucusless diet healing system and his thought was, I don't care what name you give your illness or your disease, it's an overload of mucus. You're inflamed, period. And that just hit me and I understood, me and I understood, wow, I've been doing this all wrong. So I started playing around with the suggestions in the book of how to combine foods properly. And I never felt what I used to

feel. Every time I ate, Rich, every time I ate, I was so bloated and I belched. I was so miserable every time I ate, but I was just combining my food poorly. Of course, eating some of the wrong things, but definitely miscombining food. Was your sort of journey around self-love, was that already underway at this point? It's sort of a chicken and the egg thing, right?

Like you don't really wanna start eating in the way that is healing to your body until you have some self-respect and some self-love, but it is in the, you know, eating that way is one way to kind of cultivate that, right? Right, exactly, exactly. The other thing that really, in terms of the whole love thing,

was the fact that I understood that my connection, I began to understand my connection with everything and the fact that I felt one way when I was up and loving, and I felt another way when I was down. And I just felt like I had more power in a loving space. But to be perfectly honest with you, it did take a little bit more time after I met Ron to really, really have a grip on love and how I'm going to make that more important in my human journey than anything is loving and understanding and forgiving and forgiving me. All of that. It wasn't, yeah, it didn't come real quick. First, it was about, oh, I feel better when I eat. And then it was constantly learning, constantly. And I was really at agape a lot back then.

Yeah. And just really, really understanding, understanding life. Understanding life, that's pretty much what it was. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful. It didn't have to be as beautiful as it is right now. Cause it's really, I really have a good life right now. You do, you do.

I do. I recently returned from India where I had the opportunity to basically sit this far away from the Dalai Lama two days in a row. Man, how was that? And it was a series of talks led by this man, Arthur Brooks, who teaches at Harvard Business School, but really has kind of become this scholar on happiness.

And he led this discussion over two days. And what was interesting about it was that no matter what question was posed to the Dalai Lama, his answer was some variation of one single idea, which is that the answer is always love. Like it's just on one level infuriating, like really, like we came all this way and like we're hearing this thing that we already know.

And on another level, like perhaps the hearing this thing that we already know. And on another level, like perhaps the most profound thing that he could say. And I think we hear that word so much that it's difficult for us to really like embrace the true profundity of it. If we were to actually like live it in the way that you're speaking about. You have to live it.

And because we're created in and of that, that's what we are. And once we live it and continue to live it and understand the importance of living it, wow, it just makes such a massive difference. Is the restaurant mostly an expression of that love? I feel like it's sort of a way for you to show your love with your community, but with the people who come in and have the food.

They love it. They love it. And like I said, sometimes, come on, Rondo's 76. He could be grumpy sometimes. Can you turn your phone down, please? Well, I don't want to hear you speak, on down, please. Well, I don't want to hear you speak, but other than that, they understand what we do with the food. Come on. I pat the burgers out myself. They're made out of walnuts. You know what I'm saying? I pat them out myself. And I feel like people ingest that love. And we have some really great customers, very, very, very loyal customers and so many brand new people coming in, loving what we're sharing. I feel like it's almost an act of courage

to eat this way and live this lifestyle because all of the incentives and all of the messaging everywhere we go, every single day from the moment we wake up are pushing us in the other direction. You are so- You know what I mean? Like all the food that's accessible,

that's cheap is the food that's killing us. All the billboards that we see in the television that we watch and the news that invades our brains is selling us on this idea of separateness and division as opposed to oneness and love. And so you really have to be intentional and determined to rebut all of those incentives and all of those cultural forces that are pushing us apart

and making us sick and making us loathe ourselves and separating us from our true nature, which is to really embrace this idea of oneness and love is kind of the answer to all. You got it. You, man, you are on point. Yeah, but like I say this now and five minutes later, I'm gonna be grumpy and like,

I'm not a naturally grateful person to that. Like I can brush up against it once in a while, but I'm lost in the Maya most of the time. No, you're not. Yeah. No, no, no. I communicate with you too well. You get it, you're not. Yeah. No, no, no. I communicate with you too well. You get it.

You get it. I just want to tee you up for a sermon. You get it. Like, tell me the truth. What do we need to know? What's the secret? I'm giving it to you. That's all I got.

I gave you all I got. There's more. I gave you all I got. There's more. But I am a happy girl. That's all I got. There's more. But I am a happy girl.

And I don't want this to come off like I'm sitting here trying to act like there's perfection here. Come on, I busted my knee showing out. But once you live it and you experience it and you live that whole loving thing, You don't want to change that. You don't want to go back to anything else. I watch MSNBC. That's my news source, MSNBC. I listen to political news. That's what I do. But it does not stop me.

It does not hinder me being able to embrace love. It does not get in my way because I know how I feel that way versus the other way. And I know there is such a difference in the way that I feel. The other thing that Dalai Lama said was that if you don't understand what he means when he's talking about love,

or you are challenged to really feel that energy, look to the mother's love of a child or look to an animal's love for its offspring. And all the answers can be found in that incredible bond. And it's this metaphor, like basically what he's saying is, can you take that and bring that into your lived experience and treat all life in the way that a mother treats its young.

In other words, like the mother energy is the most powerful force in the universe. I would agree with that. If someone comes to you and they're like, oh my God, I just, you know, I want what you have. How do I change my diet? How do I, you know, how do I cultivate more compassion for myself?

Like, how do you- I get that question. Yeah, like I'm sure people ask you this all the time, right? Like, how do you get people to take that first step and move forward? I usually talk to people about knowledge. I can't go away from that. I don't want you to try to transition or do anything differently if you don't know why you're doing it. If it intellectually is not important to you or you don't have a full understanding as to why it is important that

you transition. I think for me, a lot of times we just don't succeed. So the first thing that I'm telling people is to, you know, the first thing Ron did was gave me books. Boom. That worked for me. Okay. And then I start thinking about once you know what works for the human species in terms of nourishment and what doesn't work, what are the foods that clog arteries?

Is that coming from the apple, the corn, the peach? Is the clogged artery coming from that? Or do you know where the clogged artery is coming from? Make yourself understand who and what you are and why there's a certain diet that works for you. Those are the first things I talk to them about. I try not to go hard. Like we talked about it before, we used to, why am I not eating that salad? We don't really mess with people like that anymore. Now you can choose if you want a salad with your entree or not. But I just don't believe in killing animals to nourish yourself. So, I mean, you know,

they understand that that's how I feel. And I don't have a problem asking them questions like, would you, with the pus, would you ingest body fluids from yourself? Would you do that? And most of the times the answer is no. So why are you ingesting body fluids from another species? Why would you do that? So it's just, you know, just think about certain things. And a lot of times people say to me, you helped me so much. I never thought about it that way. I never did it. But let me tell you what I've been doing. I got that book you talked about. I got this book you talked about. I'm doing this nowadays. That to me is everything because I didn't have to spend a lot of time with them to just make them aware. Just start with that.

Just start with the real reason that you need to make a transition. Just start with that. And that's not to say that I have things that I probably need not to ingest right now, that I don't know that I don't need to ingest it. I'm not running a hundred, but I know the way that I feel, and I prefer to feel like this than the way I used to feel. I think your superpower though, is just modeling this aspirational way of being.

I think that's the most powerful thing because people experience you, they encounter you, they see you, they see what you're capable of doing. They feel the energy that you're putting out into the world. And that's something that's infectious. People want, you know, like, how do I have more of that in my life? So then you have the opening and you can say,

here's a book or you can read this or try this meal or what have you. But I think just being a lighthouse where you're standing in your power, emitting this, you know, beam out into the world that is luring people towards you. And I think that's a very different energy from the activist energy or the protester

or the person who's judging and criticizing and shaming. Cause I think that that's the antithesis of love. Like that's just leading to more separation and division. It's true. And it's not winning the hearts and minds of people and it's not inspiring them. And it's not an aspirational thing that somebody wants more of in their life.

And I think to each their own and we need activists and we need people who are out there on the front lines, you know, demonstrating what's right and what's wrong and the need for change and the like, but your energy is one that I think is served best in the way that you're using it now. It works better that way. Which is bringing people together.

It does, it really does. Yeah, cause gluing my hand to that counter, that was some weird shit, I'm telling was some weird shit. Was it super glue? It wasn't super glue. It was some kind of super glue. It was weird. Because you're going to peel the skin off your hand. How did you get your hand off that counter?

It was just really weird. She put something on there and got my hand off. Yeah. But I did get a few messages from friends going, really? Yeah. You into that now, huh? I mean, it's cool you did that, but I don't know that that's the best use of your superpower. But my superpower is just what you said.

Yeah. That just extending the love, just, yeah. It's a beautiful thing. Just sharing. You know, I think, and the thing is, it's like, this is work that has no end. I know. You know?

I know. And you're a drop in the ocean, but you believe that the decisions that you make and the way that you carry yourself in the world can make a difference. And you're doing your part to do that. But it's not gonna overnight solve the urban food desert crisis

or the disproportionate way in which lifestyle illnesses are afflicting black and brown people. Inch by inch, you just put it out there, you do your part. That's all you can do is do your part. So what's the dream? What's the dream? You know what I really want? I love gardening a lot.

I've had one garden in my life and we moved from that place and I have not had a garden. So I believe that before I leave this planet in this human form, I would love to have a plot of land that I can actually spend time growing food. I would love to do that. Are there urban community gardens in Inverwood? I'm sure there are, but I wanna have my own. You want your own, yeah. Yeah. I feel like you could like grow the food

for your restaurant. I loved doing that so much. I had watermelons. I grew watermelon in LA. I grew watermelon. My zucchini, of course they were too damn big, but they used to get big as watermelons. I really, really enjoyed that. And that's something I would really, really love to do outside of truly learning to swim. I've taken swim. I can help you up with that. I've taken so many swimming classes. I'm so pitiful.

That's an easy one to solve. Even though you've almost drowned two or three times, it's still easy. I think I can help you get there. You could help me get there. Yeah, I'd be happy to help you. Would you? Yeah, I really wanna know how to swim.

I mean, and be out there on my own without my, like, I have a brand new pool that I have access to. I got this big styrofoam thing that I have to put on to go to the pool. I want to go in my bathing suit and look like a chick. I don't want to go out there with a big old styrofoam, big blue styrofoam. Yeah, we have to solve this problem. You can help me. It's not. No, I can.

Even though with all the love in my heart, I'm still scared as hell in that water. There's no reason why you should be scared. We'll sort that out. Please. So maybe we can end this with just a powerful call to action for people to reclaim their health by being more conscious about the choices that they're making.

When you open that Bible and you believe in it so strongly and you believe in the word and please show appreciation through the practice of loving self and caring for self. Show that appreciation. And that includes knowing how to nourish yourself, movement, loving, watching your thoughts, practicing love of self is everything. Because then you are saying to the oneness, to the intelligence that gave us this life, thank you. Thank you. Yes. So now I'm healthy and I can be on my purpose and stay on my purpose and feel good while I'm on my purpose.

You ought to let me get down there and do you a pushup or two. I want to see it. When? Right now. Okay, watch. Yeah, do it right now. Okay. Okay.

All right, let's see it. Ready? All right. You've got form too. Say what? The form. Oh, the form's good? It's dialed.

I'm slipping though. Okay, can I get up? You're good. You proved it. You proved your point. Yeah, amazing. Sit back down. Let's take people out properly.

How we gonna take them out? We're gonna take them out by me throwing a little love at you. You gonna throw some love? How you doing? Which is me saying, I just wanna honor you a little bit. Can I do that? Please.

You are an incredible spirit. You're a powerful manifestor and a powerful change agent. I think that you are a catalyst for growth and expansion and so many people through the work that you do and the way that you live your life. And I'm just, I'm very inspired by you. I'm in awe of you. And I just want you around for many more decades.

And I want you to spread this message, this powerful message that you have, as loudly and as broadly as you can. So I am winning your sails for anything you need. And I just want to thank you for coming here today again. Thank you, Rich. I love you. Peace.

Love you too. Bye, y'all. Bye. Peace plants. We're brought to you today by On. Visit on.com slash richroll and use code RICHROLL10 at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase. That's it for today.

Thank you for listening. I truly hope you enjoyed the conversation. To learn more about today's guest, including links and resources related to everything discussed today, visit the episode page at richroll.com, where you can find the entire podcast archive, my books, Finding Ultra, Voicing Change in the Plant Power Way, as well as the Plant Power Meal Planner at meals.richroll.com. If you'd like to support the podcast, the easiest and most impactful thing you can do is to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, and on YouTube, and leave a review

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Namaste.