The School of Greatness - 169 Increase Your Energy, Reverse Disease, and Lose Weight by Eating Plants with Rich Roll

Episode Date: April 27, 2015

"We really can impact the way we feel . . . based off of what we put in our body." - Rich Roll If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, the video interview, and more at www.lewishowes.com/169.

This is episode number 169 with Rich Roll. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome everyone to the podcast.

Thank you so much for joining me. If this is your first time being here, then welcome. I'm excited for you to take on this next step in your journey. And we've got an interesting guest on today. He's a good friend of mine. His name is Rich Roll. And he's got a new book out called The Plant Power Way. Now, for those that don't know who Rich is, I've had him on before about a year and a

half ago. He's a graduate of Stanford University and Cornell Law School. He's a 47-year-old accomplished vegan ultra-endurance athlete and former entertainment attorney, turned full-time wellness and plant-based nutritionist, advocate, motivational speaker, husband, father of four, and an inspiration to many around the world. Never makes me feel bad when I eat meat, but I always love to hear his take on wellness and nutrition and healthy living. And he's got a great story and he's going to dive into more about the importance of living a healthy lifestyle and really why he transitioned into this lifestyle in the first place. Without further ado, let's go ahead and dive into this episode with my good friend, the

one and only Rich Roll. Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. I got my man Rich Roll in the studio. What's up, brother? What's up, dude? Good to see you, man. Pleasure to hang with my brother. Yeah, I'm excited. And you've got a new book called The Plant Power Way. I'm going to show the camera really quick because this is a video podcast as well. Plant Power Way. I'm going to show the camera really quick because this is a video podcast as well. Plant Power Way with yourself and your wife. That's right. What was it like writing a book with your wife?

Co-author with my wife. Julie's amazing. Julie Pied is her name. Yeah, she brought the magic for this one. I mean, this book, my first book was a memoir. So it was just me writing it, finding ultra. But this one is really a lifestyle guide, kind of a lifestyle primer as well as a cookbook. And Julie is a magician in the kitchen. She's an artist and she really brought the heat to create something special. So yeah, it was interesting. You know, I'm, I'm like, as a writer, I like to hide out, you know, like do my thing in isolation. And this was very much a collaborative effort, not just with her, but with a whole bunch of people. You had to work with her as opposed to be an introvert. Exactly. Yeah. Which is my default. Right. Right. Right. Right. Um,

but it was great. You know, it was, uh, you know, we were sort of a yin and a yang and kind of what we brought to the equation. And I really think that that's what is gonna make it really special. I like it, man. And it's all, uh, whole food, plant-based recipes, but also lifestyle stuff as well. Right? Yeah. I mean, it's, uh, you know, I'm a plant-based guy. I've been plant-based for eight years in our family. We've got four kids and our nephew lives with us. We've got a lot of people in our house and, uh, and, and, you know, we're a plant-based family, but this really isn't, it's not a book for vegans.

It's really oriented around just the modern family. You know, it's sort of like people that are just trying to eat a little bit better, live a little bit better, make better choices. People who don't have the time to go online and research nutrition, they know like, yeah, I should probably buy organic, but like, does it matter? And I've heard of GMOs,

but like, what's the deal? Like we tried to make everything really elementary and simple and also create just super delicious food, whether you're a meat eater or a vegan or whatever, to be able to put really great dishes on the table that are gonna please everybody, including your kids. It's sort of like, the question that we get all the time is,

how do I get my kids to eat healthier? They're eating macaroni and cheese and all that kind of stuff, so there's a lot of information and kind of tips and tools and resources to help create healthier, sustainable trajectories. Because sustainability, everybody can go on a diet, but like, how do you actually shift your lifestyle and make it stick?

Yeah, I like it, man. And, you know, for those that don't know your story, you've been on the podcast before, so we'll have that episode linked up. But for those that don't know your story, if you want to give a quick recap to how you got into the whole plant-based living in the first place. Yeah, sure. I'm 48 years old right now. But about eight years ago when I was 39, I was tipping the scales a little bit heavy. I was about 50 pounds overweight, working as a corporate lawyer, kind of toiling away the 80-hour work weeks, riding the elevator

up and down and kind of living that lifestyle. i was having a little bit of an existential crisis about my place in the world like i you know i was married and i was building family and of course i i love them but at the same time i just felt like i was on the wrong path professionally and it was confusing it was almost like vertigo because my whole life had been premised on this idea of, you know, get good grades, get, get into the best college, like then go to law school and get the best law firm job. And like when you kind of, you know, are on the precipice of being a partner in a big law firm, you think, well, I did everything right. Uh, this is, this is what I was promised my whole life was going to make me happy. And I wasn't, I was not fulfilled. And I looked around me at the people I was working with, and I just didn't aspire to have any of their lives. And so I was

having this kind of, you know, kind of internal crisis about what I was doing with myself. And meanwhile, I wasn't taking care of myself. I was eating what I like to call the window diet. Pull your car up to a fine dining establishment, roll the window down and they hand you food. That's what you eat. So I was subsisting on, you know, cheeseburgers and French fries and nachos and pizza hut and Taco Bell and all that kind of stuff for years and years and years. And it was starting to catch up to me, you know, 50 pounds overweight. And then one night, uh, shortly before my 40th birthday, walking up a simple flight of stairs, I had to pause. I was winded out of breath, shortness of breath,

tightness in my chest, sweat on my brow. And I honestly thought I was having a heart attack. And I realized in that moment that I needed to change how I was living. And that really began the journey of exploring healthy foods and healthy lifestyle habits. I ended up adopting a plant-based diet, which, you know, look, you know, I'm the last person in the world that ever thought I would go vegan. Like for me, like vegans are like guys that kick the hacky sack and smoke a lot of dope

and like have dreadlocks, you know, which is fine. That's cool. But that was, that's not my trip, you know? So I never identified with that. But when I started eating whole foods, plant-based foods, I really started to feel so much better. Like incredibly better. You had a lot of energy too, right? Resurgence of vitality I could have never predicted. And it really kind of solved that equation of food is medicine, you know? Hippocrates said it in 340 BC.

And of course I'd heard that quote, you know, growing up, but I never really thought about it. And I was starting to realize like, wow, we really can impact how we feel and how our bodies function and how our minds operate and how we interact with other people based upon the things that we're putting in our body. It's so elementary, right?

But I don't know that we really take that to heart enough. And so that's what happened to me. And it's a long story and we talked about it in the last podcast, but ultimately I ended up becoming an ultra endurance athlete. And I started killing it in these crazy super multi-day, double Ironman distance triathlons. And

in 2010, I did something that no one else had ever done, which was do five Ironman distance triathlons on five Hawaiian islands in under a week. Wow. So, and that kind of- They take like 24 hours, don't they? No, I mean, an Ironman- Or triathlon. Yeah. So, a single Ironman, for your listeners who might not know, is a very long triathlon, which in a period of one day, you do a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, and then run a marathon. So I did five of those in a row on five different islands, like traveling, flying. You did five Ironmans? Five Ironmans on five Hawaiian islands.

In a week? The goal was to do it in five days. We ran into a bunch of problems and logistical challenges and sleep deprivation and all kinds of craziness uh wow but we got it done and no one it was i did it with my buddy jason lester and no one had ever tried it before so it was it was sort of a cool kind of thing and to do that at age i was 44 at the time when i did that um was a really cool thing and that's kind of like what my first book was about kind of going from couch potato, schlubby lawyer guy to, you know, middle-aged, uh, ultra endurance. Right. Why do you think eating a plant-based diet is so intimidating for a lot of people?

Because there's this new trend and people are going vegan and people are starting to just live off of, you know, plants, but why is it so intimidating? Well, I think it's intimidating for a number of reasons. I mean, the first thing is, is it sounds like a huge deprivation diet, like, oh my God, you know, how can I go a day without eating cheese or, you know, how can I, how can I, you know, go a day without eating a cheeseburger and, and these kinds of foods, animal products find their way into most of the things that people are eating on a typical Western diet. And so I think that right off the bat, people are like, whoa, not so fast.

You know, that's kind of scary. And by the way, we've been told our whole lives that if you want strong muscles, you need to eat, you know, beef is what's for dinner and milk does a body good. And, you know, I certainly believed all of those things my whole life. So it was really kind of anathema that you could not only breathe air in and out of your lungs, but actually be an athlete without eating those things was something I would have never predicted. And so part of my message is that plant-based foods are incredibly healthy and they contain everything that you need to live. And also, and this is what the Plant Power Away is really about is it doesn't have to be a deprivation.

Like we look at, we always say focus on all the new exciting foods that you're bringing into your diet like nutrient dense foods that are super healthy for you as opposed to focusing on the couple things that you're giving up. Gotcha. And what would you say are the highest performance foods out there? Interesting.

Well, I think performance from the perspective of being an athlete. Yeah, I mean, just running optimally in your life, but also giving you the most energy, the most recovery benefits, you know, whatever it may be. I think that making sure that you're getting lots of dark leafy greens into your diet, you know, we're all talking about kale these days, at least in Los Angeles, we are. Yeah, it's all about kale. So I always start my day with a smoothie, a blended smoothie, and like our high powered Vitamix blender that usually contains spinach and kale and things like that. And they're so rich in phytonutrients and micronutrients, and they just energize you. They just like, instead of eating like a really heavy, like breakfast of like waffles or something like that. Chicken and waffles, man. It's so good.

I know it is. I know. Look, I know, man. Um, but to start your day by like drinking a salad and just, you can almost feel your body coming alive. That's true. It's a miraculous thing. So I always say to people, like if you're gonna just, don't worry about vegan or plant like you're 100%, whatever. Just like start drinking blended, dark leafy green smoothies in the morning and like watch your life change.

Body change. Your body change. Well, I mean, I think it's your body, yes, it's your energy levels, but as you know, when you have good energy, that affects everything. Everything. It affects how you perceive the world, it affects how you interact with people.

Your mood. Yeah, your mood. Stress levels. And the ripple effect of that applies to everything in your life. Yeah, that's true. Tell me, what are a couple other foods besides the dark? Uh,

I, I like, uh, I like to eat a lot of lentils and beans are very high in protein. So as an athlete, that's important. Of course. Um, I also, uh, I'm a big fan of veggie burritos. That's like my go-to lunch. Yeah. In a pinch when you're driving around town, I can always, especially in Los Angeles, I can always find, uh, you know find rice and beans and guacamole. Right, right, right. What else? I mean, I love superfoods. There's a lot of talk about superfoods.

I don't think there's any superfood that's a panacea. And I think a lot of people want to jump on the superfood bandwagon before they've cleaned up their diet. I look at that as like the cherry on top of the sundae. Like when you're eating super clean, then superfoods can give you that added, um, that added edge. So like cordyceps, I love for athletic performance, spirulina, which is the highest protein content by weight of any food on the planet, including really including beef.

Like spirulina is good. Yeah. We could have a whole podcast about superfoods, but that's a different thing. Next time. The next book. Okay, so juice versus non-juice. Is it better to juice your salad or blend your salad? Juice versus blending. Yeah, we get that question a lot too. And I think they both have their place. I think that if you're blending your drink, like you're packing all these foods, beets, spinach, kale, hemp seeds, flaxseed, you know, all these kinds of things into a blender and you're blending it down into a drinkable form.

So you're getting all the fiber, you're getting like all the nutrients. They can be very calorie dense because you're getting the entire food in there. They're almost like an incredibly super packed nutrient dense meal. Sure. A juice extracts the fiber from the food,

from the fruit or the vegetable. So it's a very highly concentrated dose of phytonutrients. And I look at juicing more as medicinal. I think you gotta be careful with juices, especially when juices are very high in fruit because the sugar content can be super high. So they both have their place, they just have different purposes. Gotcha, but you're saying you shouldn't have like a

bunch of juices every day or you shouldn't just live off of a juice diet well i think it depends on what kind of like if it's just pure if it's pure kale juice you know as opposed to orange juice you know and i think there's also a difference between you know the kind of juices that you'll see in los angeles that like juice or, you know, blueprint juices, these very high kind of like, you know, artisanal, you know, organic juices that can be very expensive. You can make them at home for super cheap with your own, with your own juicer. Um, so I think it depends on, on what kind, but I think you do have to be a little bit more cautious about just, you know, pounding juices all day long. Gotcha. Okay, cool. So let's say I'm surrounded by a lot of healthy athletes all over the place. I work out with healthy guys who are shredded, six packs, ripped, super high energy throughout

the day who aren't vegan, who aren't plant-based. Right. So why should someone who is already super healthy consider a plant-based diet? Yeah, that's a great question. And the first thing I would say is- Like if it's not broke, why fix it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The first thing I would say is I'm not here to tell anybody what they should or they shouldn't eat. That's everybody's own personal choice. I'm here to share my experience

and how my life had changed by adopting a plant-based diet. So that's the first thing. So I'm not here to proselytize any one perspective or another. And I think everybody's different. And I'm the first person to recognize that. The second thing I would say is that just because you're shredded doesn't mean that you're healthy. You can look super fit. It's surprising, actually, if you look at professional athletes and start to talk to them about what they're actually eating. There's still a long way to go in terms of healthy eating. Yeah, of course.

Like there's still a long way to go in terms of eating. So I look at it in terms of long-term lifestyle and health and longevity, especially as I start to get older. If somebody's feeling super great, you know, I'm not going to tell them they need to change what they're doing. And I would say that it's not that eating a plant-based diet will inherently make you a better athlete, but I will say this, and this has been my experience. will inherently make you a better athlete, but I will say this, and this has been my experience, that the typical Western diet or a diet, I should say, that is sort of high in animal products, dairy, and processed foods, which is becoming a bigger and bigger problem, obviously,

tends to be very acid-forming on the body. And we have to work very hard to maintain an essentially neutral pH in our body. Like all of our systems try to regulate our pH to keep it in neutral. And the air that we breathe, the amount of sleep that we get, the amount of stress in our lives,

and particularly the foods that we eat can influence that pH. And so when you're eating a diet that has a lot of processed foods and a lot of animal products and dairy, that's very acid forming. And then the body has to work, go into hyperdrive to bring the pH back to neutral. has a lot of processed foods and a lot of animal products and dairy that's very acid forming and then the body has to work go into hyperdrive to bring the ph back to neutral and to do that it

has to leach minerals out of the bones and it produces a lot of inflammation and as you know as an athlete inflammation impedes recovery yep so uh the quicker you can recover in between workouts the harder you can go you can go the longer you can go the between workouts. The harder you can go. The harder you can go. The longer you can go, the less likely you are to get injured, the less likely you are to overtrain, to miss workouts. So it's not that overnight you're a better athlete, but when you protract that out over a course of a number of seasons or years, you're going to realize tremendous performance gains by eating a very anti-inflammatory diet or a more alkaline

forming diet and plant-based foods on the on the whole on the average i mean there's certainly there are plant-based foods that are acid forming but on the whole it's very alkaline forming and very anti-inflammatory so that's allowed me to go i mean when i trained for my first ultra man which is a double iron man race that it's like a 320 mile triathlon that circumnavigates the big Island of Hawaii. The first time that I attempted it was in 2008. And I really only had seven months to prepare for it. And I really think that I was able to drop all the weight and go from essentially a couch potato guy to Ultraman in such a short period of time is because I was eating in this particular fashion. You completely cut everything out, all dairy, I mean, all meat products. All meat products, all dairy, and essentially all processed foods. I mean,

I would eat, you know, coconut oil and olive oil and things like that are technically processed foods. But, you know, trying to reduce as much as possible the extent to which any of the foods I was eating was processed. Sure. Okay. If you could go back and tell your pre-vegan self one thing about health from all that you know now, what would you tell that person? One thing about health. Or a couple of things from all the information you know now, and you can go and talk to that guy, you know, five years before he's, he stopped eating all the bad foods, what would you say that you know about health? I think the biggest thing is a very general thing, which is that we all have so much greater control

over our health than we sort of walk around believing. Like we sort of abdicate our health choices to our doctor and we think that our doctors know everything. And, you know, the truth is, is that, you know, really in medical school, they don't really teach nutrition. It's like an elective course. Most of them don't know any more about nutrition than the average person who spends a little bit of time researching it. Uh, and my, my, my call to action really is to take control of that decision-making process for yourself and to understand that you can dictate your longevity and your emotional state and your physical state by making better choices. And not just by doing it in a short-term way, but doing it in a way that works within the construct of your life so that it's sustainable.

And I think that there's a lot of people that walk around, they're in poor health, and they go, well, it's genetics. I'm genetically disposed to have this or to be like this. And so they take a medication. And our doctor told me I need to take statins. And what I think most people don't realize is that these medications are not curing their ailments. They're basically taking care of the symptoms so that people can walk around and not have to think about what actually led to this problem. So it's about getting back to really healing yourselves and being preventive in your approach to health so that you don't get into that situation to begin with and to understand that you can reverse so many conditions. I mean, right now, to understand that you can reverse so many conditions. I mean, right now, Lewis, we're in this crazy time

where people like you and I are super into health and we like to talk about it. We have audiences that enjoy hearing about it. But the truth is, is that we've never been more sick as a society. One out of every three people will die of a heart attack. Wow. 70% of Americans are obese or overweight.

And by 2030- 70%? Americans are obese or overweight. And by 2030- 70%? 70%. Oh my gosh. And by 2030, 50% of Americans will be diabetic or pre-diabetic. That's crazy. That's crazy. Unless we do something about it. And the greatest irony in all of this is that 80 to 90% of chronic illnesses like those and others are reversible or preventable.

Reversible through simple diet and lifestyle alterations that we can control these things. If these are reversible and preventable, then why aren't doctors educated on food as medicine? And why aren't they being, why isn't this a mandatory lessons that they need to learn in school as like, a serious thing that they need to be educated on?

You're preaching to the choir. I mean, I don't get it. This is part of why just drugs. This is part of my advocacy. And, and part of my mission is to help, uh, you know, make that that be the protocol, you know, and there are amazing doctors out there right now who are doing incredible work. Doctors like Neil Barnard and Dr. Esselstyn and Dr. Dean Ornish and many, many others. Lisa Rankin's even written a book about it. Lisa Rankin, she's amazing. Yeah, there is a trend. And I think the reason why it doesn't exist right now is purely economics, you know, right now. And especially in terms of big medicine and big pharma and kind of how research gets funded. there if there's not some ip at the end of this

road that we can patent and sell as a drug who's going to throw a ton of money at you know trying to figure out if broccoli is good for you like there's no money to be made by that so we need to rethink our whole process of medical education and it really does need to get prioritized to be on functional medicine and preventive medicine. And you're starting to see it changes at the beginning. So it's an exciting time. And I guess the pharmaceutical companies can't make money unless people are sick. Right.

If everyone's healthy, they're broke. Right. And if you talk to a doctor, there's a lot of pressure for them to see as many patients a day and to just diagnose and prescribe. And it's, that's, it's not that they're, they're not bad people. They're, they got into medicine because they want to help people, but they have bills to pay. And this is just kind of the way it's set up. And I, so, so I think that, you know, unless you're an outlier, unless you're someone like Frank Littman, who's trying to create, you know, these functional medicine clinics and do something

a little bit different, it's very difficult. So it's a systemic problem that we need to look at. What can the average person do about that to support? They can start to tend to themselves in a mind, body, spirit way. They can start to explore things like meditation and yoga and healthy eating and functional movement and functional body strength.

Like all of these things are important. It's not just, you know, health begins and ends with what's on your plate. You know, there's nothing more powerful that you can do to change how you feel about yourself and what you're eating. But I think that's just the beginning. You know, there's a whole pantheon of lifestyle practices that, you know, I'm continuing to learn about and explore that are improving my life. What's the things you're learning lately? Well, meditation for me has been the biggest like watershed this past year. And, you know, I've been meditating on and off for the better part of 17 years, but I've always struggled with trying to find a way to make it stick and be consistent about it. And the busier I get, the more difficult it is to kind of,

the more conversations and excuses you come up with. Of course. You know, and like, look, you know, I got a bunch of kids. I got a lot of- How many kids you got? Four or five kids? Four kids.

And my nephew lives with, yeah, like we got, there's a lot of energy in my house. Yeah, yeah. So it's very easy for me to say, I don't have time. But what I found, I've really made it a priority this year to do it every morning. So what's your daily ritual look like?

So 20 minutes in the morning without fail. And it's a simple breath practice. And I've been playing around with the Headspace app, which has really helped me a lot. I have that, but I haven't used it yet. Yeah, it's great because it just kind of, I have it right on my iPhone. You know what I did? I put it down on the dock at the bottom as one of the four main apps. So I always see it.

And it's just, it's, you know, I like the practices that they offer on the app. They're very accessible and there's not a lot of woo-woo in it. Andy Putacombe, who is the guy behind Headspace, records all of the meditation programs on there and they're very easy to follow. It's that good, huh?

It just makes it easy and like it holds me accountable. So I think accountability is a huge thing with changing lifestyle practices. And so, yeah, there you go. Yeah, but you haven't logged in yet. You gotta like create your account. You got the app, but you haven't used it yet. I haven't used anything yet.

Yeah, it's like anything. Like I have it, so I think that I'm doing it, but I'm actually not doing it. Well, I actually do a pretty good meditation for, I think it's about 12 minutes in the morning and then at night. So you do 20 minutes using Headspace. Yeah. It's just a guided meditation, basically breathing.

It's a guided meditation. Yeah, it's breathing, it's breath, there's some visualization, and they have all different kinds of programs depending upon what you, like if you're having problems with stress or sleep or whatever, you can pick and choose. But the point really is just that you're doing it, not that you're adhering to something. I think a lot of people are like, well, I need the perfect practice. I need this to be right. It's the same thing with exercise.

Well, I can't go out and run until I have the perfect pair of running shoes. These are all barriers and excuses to actually just doing it. And I've just noticed that it really, improved my life in every single way by just making it cons consistency is King. In the last year you started this, right? 20 minutes in the morning. What's the biggest benefits you've seen since doing this? Um, being able to navigate through a lot of, uh, stimuli coming at me, you know, like yourself, like I'm sure you get a million emails and you're like, you're doing all these podcasts and you're, you're juggling a lot of different things. You're writing a book. Like I, these are all things that I'm doing as well. And it's very,

very easy for me to get overwhelmed and stressed and stressed. And then, and then I'm not productive because when I'm doing one thing, I'm thinking about the other thing that I'm not doing. And it's allowed me to just ground myself and just focus better and be able to navigate relationships, phone calls, emails, and all of that kind of thing with a little bit more grace and ease, right? And just my interactions with people are better. I'm more present. I'm more focused. And as a result, like that 20 minutes that I spend in the morning turns into, you know, maybe two hours of saved time because I'm more productive throughout the day.

Let's talk about presence. How many, uh, how does food affect our presence during the day and how present we are in moments? A lot, you know, I think that, uh, and is there research backing this? Well, I mean, look, let's, let's just talk about anecdotal research like if you go out and eat like a heavy lunch like what how's how's you know from food coma yeah you're like you're down and out for a good 90 minutes yeah so what if you could eat something for lunch that would actually make you feel better after you ate it than before you ate it so you could come back and and and really and just hammer for the next two hours and get a bunch of stuff done rather than like kind of be like sleepwalking for a little bit. So, you know. There you go.

You don't need any more research than that for me. But I think also, you know, having, maintaining a high level of energy throughout the day so you don't have these peaks and valleys. Like, look, man, you throw down a monster drink or a Red Bull and smoke a cigarette and then, you know, like you're up and down, you're bouncing off the walls, you're crashing, you're high, you're all these different things. But just to be able to acclimate to just a really solid, good level of energy that's consistent from the moment you wake up in the morning to the moment you go to bed. I like it, man. What other rituals are you doing besides meditating in the morning? Meditating in the morning. Do you cook all your own foods or do you go out and eat uh you know plant-based foods or is a little bit of

both i mean uh usually we cook at home and you know my wife is the artist especially when you got kids yeah so she gets all the credit for the cooking she's unbelievable her food is so i mean this is all her food on the cover, right? Yeah, these are all. That's the other thing with this book. Like, we didn't go out and hire some chef to, like, create recipes for, you know, to create a book. These are all very authentic to the way we live, to the food that we give our kids. And, you know, my wife really is quite the genius at that. Right, right. So, usually we're eating at home. And what we do is we make a priority out of the family meal.

It's a ritual. We involve all the kids in it and it's getting back to the beauty and just the value of sharing that time together, the process of making the meal. Community. Yeah, making it into a thing. And when you look at the cultures that have the most longevity have you heard of the blue zones book yes okay so Dan Buettner who's the guy behind the blue zones he's a National Geographic fellow he's a friend you should have him on the podcast yeah it's like the happiest people in the world he's a buddy I'll hook you up he's amazing and he went around

the world and studied where are the people the happiest and where do they live in the longest yeah and from that he extracted um and he found these blue zones across the world like okinawa and ikaria which is an island in the aegean japan right yeah that's okinawa um and a you know a bunch of other like sort of remote places and he went to these cultures and he studied them and he said what are they doing that we're not doing isn't there one in like north carolina as well or something or there's one no there's one in loma linda in southern california yeah yeah that's a blue zone it's a blue zone because um because it's all vegan yeah they all they all eat that that's a big part of

it well it's very it's a it's a um it's a religious community and and they all eat plant-based they live based on the principles in the there's some there's a passage in the bible that basically says you should eat plants from the i don't know exactly what it goes but yeah um and they and they're a very tight-knit community and they're very family-oriented so he he kind of divined these principles out of these cultures and and you know eating predominantly plant-based food was a big part of it but also um like respecting your elders and keeping them around and creating community and, and really keeping the family tight. And the family meal is a big part of that. So we try to practice that in what we're doing, but we eat out my son, my oldest son, Tyler, it was his 20th birthday last night. So we went to Gracias Madre, which

is like came down here. Yeah, of course. Yeah., you should have told me. I would have came by. Yeah, I know. It's right down the street. It's the best, right? So good. It's like, you know, we're in this time right now where people are understanding, you know, the beauty and the power of eating plant-based or mostly plant-based. And there are restaurants cropping up. Gracias Madre is one of them. Crossroads.

It's a completely, yeah, Crossroads is unbelievable. So good. They're plant-based restaurants, but they don't advertise as being vegan. They just have better food. So good. You know, Crossroads is probably the best restaurant in LA. It's amazing. You know, Tal is a genius who's the chef there.

So good. So that's the way that you are ultimately going to get people to shift their lifestyle habits to eating better is by making the food just taste better. Yeah, exactly. to shift their lifestyle habits to eating better is by making the food just taste better. You know, across this Madre, not one, there's not one thing, place where it says this is a plant-based restaurant, this is a vegan restaurant. They just give you amazing food that's delicious.

And you're like, oh, that didn't have meat in it? That didn't have dairy in it? I would have never known. I went to a, I mean, I don't know if you know Bill Glazer, but he's a friend of mine. I think you've connected via email. And he takes me to Crossroads and that's like the only place he won't he won't go out to you know with me to eat

and we went to have brunch one time for like Sunday brunch and the chicken and waffles was unbelievable man I was like I could eat this you know every Sunday it was so good not only that like if you're visiting LA and you want to see movie stars. Oh, they're constantly there. Yeah. Constantly. That's crazy. You talk about cooking being an art form. What's that all about?

I think that, uh, that cooking, and this is, this is a better question for Julie. It'd be a great guest. You should have her on too. Um, she, you know, she's an artist, she's a painter, she's a sculptor, she's a musician and she approached food just as any other medium. It's a medium to express yourself. It looks like art, you know? Yeah.

It looks like art. And when you approach food from that perspective of what can I create? How can I combine these things to create something different and new? And how can I infuse this with my love, like my positive energy to then, you know, deliver to somebody else in service to say, please enjoy this. That's a beautiful, sacred thing, you know? And I think that's something that we should honor

and take seriously. As opposed to just trying to whip something up quickly, instead of make it like a hobby, something fun. We're in this crazy convenience lifestyle where everything is about speed and how fast I can eat. And we're just eating on the go, you know, and there's really something to be said to just stopping and saying, let's really be grateful for what we have in front of us, the blessings that we have. I mean, look at the world that we live in. I mean, we're so lucky, man. It's amazing. We're so lucky. Human beings have never, you know, in the history of humankind,

like we've never had it so good. It's amazing. And yet we walk around resentful and we're pissed off because this guy didn't call us back or whatever it is, you know, just to like stop and say, you know, for right now, this is what we're doing. And let's just be present with it. I like it. You talk about in the book, the three lifestyle paths to living plant powered and it's vitality, performance and transformation.

Can you talk about those? Yeah. So throughout the book, I mean, you know, it is a cookbook. There's 120 plus recipes in there or whatever. But really, what distinguishes it, I think, is really all the lifestyle guidance. And so throughout the book, we've created three lifestyle paths for people that are kind of new to this idea. Like, well, I've never really thought about, you know, eating plants. And, you know, I don't – and we wanted to create three programs based upon um you know what your interest might be like if it's a guy like you lewis you're an athlete you don't really

need to lose weight but performance is what's going to motivate you so this is a guide that will kind of key code throughout the the book um the recipes that you're going to want to pay most attention to and we have kind of a day in the life, here's a typical way of eating and conducting yourself throughout the day that includes meditation in the morning that's gonna help you unlock your inner potential that might still be a little bit dormant because you haven't quite explored foods

to the extent that maybe you should. And then the other ones, transformation is for people that really need a complete whole reboot to their life. Like maybe they're super overweight or they've been sick. Like you, years ago. Yeah, exactly. And they're like ready to just go full bore and do it hardcore because they want the whole shebang.

And they need it because they're at a place in their life where they're ready. They're willing to make that kind of a sacrifice and a change. And their life depends on it. Otherwise, they might have a heart attack at some point. Right. And then the other one is just for really living sustainably and more balanced. Yeah. And so it's not for anything super dramatic on either side of it.

It's just like I want to be more balanced than I am. And I think a big part of the book and a focus of it too, that we haven't really touched on is sustainability. Sustainability in healthy lifestyle practices and in eating practices, but also kind of getting out of ourselves and our selfish concerns about how we feel and really contemplating what's most sustainable for the planet. Because when you look at it, well, everybody wants to be a good environmentalist, right? Like, maybe I shouldn't use so much gas.

I should ride my bike and we recycle. We're doing all these things now to kind of be better citizens than maybe we were 30 years ago. But there's a lot of stuff that I think people don't realize. And when you kind of take a look at how we produce food to arrive on our plates, it's quite eye-opening.

You know, when you look at animal agriculture, just the business of raising animals for food, it's incredibly wasteful. It's crazy, right? And it exerts an extraordinary toll on the planet. So we all look at like fracking and, you know, the extent to which we're dependent upon fossil fuels. But the truth is that animal agriculture is far more detrimental to the planet than I think it's like animal agriculture accounts for something like 13 or 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than all of transportation combined. And when then you look at it and when you look at the extent to which the rainforests are being destroyed, the amount of water use, it takes 660 gallons of water to produce one hamburger.

Like if you're just an economist and you look at this, you're like, this is crazy. This doesn't make any sense. Like we're wasting so many resources to take this little animal and blow it up into a huge animal that we can eat for food um and you know the runoff the the methane everything you know it's it's it's basically creating alcohol blooms in our oceans where no life can live and really it's it's really insane there's a movie that I'm involved with called Cowspiracy. It's a documentary that takes a look at what animal agriculture is really doing to our planet.

It's gonna be coming out this spring on Netflix. Look for that. And it's really quite amazing when you look into that. And so what my message is and what the book's message is, is like, let's be a little more conscious of our choices. Like, it's not just about what I need or what I want or what tastes good. Like, we have a greater responsibility to our planet.

And I think we all need to kind of really honor that a little bit more. Yeah. So you're not telling people you have to eat vegan plant-based, but if you're going to choose meat, be conscious about it and eat in a sustainable way, the best way possible. Yeah. I mean, I think we all have a responsibility to try to increase the extent to which we're living sustainably. Right. I like that.

A couple of questions left. What are you most grateful for, Rich? What am I most grateful for? The moment right now. I like it. What about your life recently? Yeah, I am. Well, I'm really grateful to be living my authentic truth. And I'm very grateful that as a result of some things I've been working on very hard, that I found an audience that cares about these things.

And I really do think it's making a difference so i'm grateful to have found a way to be of service you know and i find a lot of gratitude in service and i was reflecting as i was driving over here about the first time that we sat down for our podcast yeah and it was almost two years ago and i remember coming into your apartment here and you had a crappy little, you had a crappy little mic, you know, and I'd started, I had a little bit of head start on you. Yeah. And I was like, come on, man, let's get you a good mic, you know, let's sort you out. And then to see where you are now, like, I'm just, I'm so proud of you. And I just marvel at,

at what you've been able to do with this show and all the things that you're doing. And I think that when I look at you and I think about other people that are trying to make a difference, I think about what they're doing, but more importantly, how they're doing it and why they're doing it. Because I think the how and the why is just as important, if not more important, than the what. And I really respect the how and the why of what you're doing. And I couldn't be happier for you for the growth. And so in my practices, whether it's through my podcast or the books that I'm writing and the public speaking and all of that, I'm always thinking about the how. How am I doing this?

I know what I'm doing, but how am I doing it? And always bringing it back to the why. And the why always comes back to service. And the more grounded I am in service and genuinely, honestly, being in that place of just wanting to help and serve, then my life flourishes around that. And that's been a very powerful lesson and experience for me. So I'm grateful that I understand that. And I have no complaints in my life. My health is good. I have beautiful children. I'm happily married. I'm living a miraculous life. And there have been plenty of times in my life where I didn't think I was going

to make it. I'm a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. I've had some very dark moments in my life. And, and the idea that, you know, even several years ago that I would be sitting here talking to you about, you know, passion and living your best life and all of these things would have just sounded insane. So I'm just grateful to be here. I love that. In 50 years from now, or maybe a hundred years, cause you're going to be living that long with a plant-based diet, what do you want people to say about you? And better than that, what would you like to have accomplished in the world? I would like to look back in my old age and see that I've made a difference, a difference in the quality of people's lives,

not just in the foods that they're eating, but in their perspective on their own lives with respect to health, mental health, emotional health, spiritual health, physical health, and to help people understand that no matter what their circumstance, irrespective of age or circumstance, that there is always a better, healthier, more authentic version of themselves inside of them that can be unleashed. And I know that's consistent with your message as well. And I think that we live in such a fast-paced world and we walk around with blinders on and we're just on autopilot. And just to be able to inspire people to stop for a moment and reflect on their lives and do that inside work so that they can truly be living the life that they're meant to live. Because I think we all have something to offer and we all have something to that we can that we can use to

be of service to other people that doesn't mean you're going to be you know manny pacquiao or whatever but you have your own version of that you know and to the extent that i can help people cultivate and express that that would make me happy and i think 100 years from now unless we make some serious changes in the way this planet is operating, Lewis, we're all going to be plant-based. Really? Because we just can't continue to feed the number of people that we have on this planet the way that we've been doing it. We just can't do it. Yeah, and the population isn't shrinking.

So get on board now. Get used to it now. Yeah. I like it. Well, I want to acknowledge you for two things. I didn't get to do this last podcast. So the first thing is I acknowledge you for seeing where your health and your life was going downhill and having the courage to make the change. Because that's probably the hardest thing is to make that drastic change.

And you went cold turkey on everything because you knew that you needed to have a better life for yourself and your family and for the people that depended on you. So I acknowledge you for first making that change years ago. The second thing I acknowledge you for rich is your commitment to serving others and teaching them everything that you've learned. You're like so dedicated to this and you travel all over the world and you teach people, you write the content, you do the research, you're doing a lot of hard work to educate people like me and other people who need this information. So I acknowledge you for being a symbol of inspiration for so many people who need this. And, uh, it's an honor to be able to interview you and be your friend. So thank you for what you're doing. I appreciate that, man. Thank you so much. And like I said, uh uh i'm so happy to see you thriving and and

growing in the way that you are and and i think that your advocacy is something to marvel at and i can't wait to see where you're headed because i know the sky's the limit with you man i'm just latching my train on yours it's gonna be fun if we're both doing we're both doing great it's gonna be fun uh final question I've asked you before, what's your definition of greatness? My definition of greatness. I was driving around, I was like, I know he's going to ask this. I should probably think about that. And I can't even remember what I said last time, but I will say this. I think my definition of greatness is when your purpose and your actions and your values are in perfect alignment,

when you are truly blazing your authentic path in service to other people. The legend of Rich Roll. Thanks for coming on, man. Thanks for having me, man. There you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, make sure to go check out the full video interview over at lewishouse.com slash 169. You can check out me and Rich here in my studio in Los Angeles and get a close-up of what we're up to.

Also, make sure to share this with your friends. If you have any friends who are having any nutritional questions and lifestyle questions, then make sure to send them this episode again, lewishouse.com slash 169. I'm sure they'll appreciate it because Rich has got some great information. Make sure to check out Rich's book, The Plant Power Way. We'll have that linked up back on my show notes at lewishouse.com slash 169. If this again is your first time being here, then I welcome you to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher or SoundCloud and keep coming back. We've got some incredible guests coming up. We've got Tim

Ferris, who is coming up on the next episode, a great video of us doing some competition that you guys are going to want to make sure to check out. Again, that'll be episode number 170. But if this is your first time, make sure to subscribe, Check out some previous episodes. We've got some incredible guests on here from the past, and we've got many more to come. So, and that's it for our show today, guys. Thank you so much. Again, we've got a big one coming up in a couple days with Tim Ferriss talking about some incredible things that you're going to want to make sure to listen to. Be sure to be on for that one. Also, I'm over on Snapchat now.

So, yes, I'm big on Instagram now. So yes, I'm big on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter. I'm Lewis Howes everywhere over there. So make sure to follow me. But if you want to learn more about what I'm doing behind the scenes, make sure to check out over on Snapchat,

Lewis underscore Howes. Follow my stories. I'm going to be posting a lot this month. So make sure to check it out. And I've got some cool behind the scenes things that I'm doing there that I'm not showing anywhere else.

With that, guys, thank you again for coming on you know what time it is it's time to go out there and do something great ស្រូវនប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ប់ Thank you.