How To Maintain Healthy Nutrition & Optimal Physical, Emotional & Spiritual Health During The Holidays

I've got news for you people. Like it or not, the holiday season is upon us. That special time of year when we tend to overeat, overspend and simply overindulge in everything across the board, all in the name of celebratory merriment. When we're not charging it on the card or spread paper thin desperately trying to fulfill all the expectations presented, we find ourselves weathering an unnatural battery of social engagements, not to mention the myriad of emotionally hyper-charged landmines presented by extended family get togethers. The result? A massive and unnatural outpouring of energy that leaves us utterly depleted — spit out the other side physically and emotionally exhausted to the core, all too often overweight and riddled with unnecessary debt. What if we could approach and experience the holiday season differently? What if we could revel in the pure joy of the season and emerge in January not just intact but truly enriched — optimistic, feeling great and energized for all the challenges and adventures presented with the birth of a new year? Today on the show, Julie and I sit down to hash out all things holiday season with a focus on providing helpful, experience-based strategies to assist in managing the financial pitfalls, dietary challenges, precarious social environments and heightened emotional states presented by this unique time of year. In my experience, these are issues common to us all. And yet issues we go to great lengths to avoid dealing with internally, let alone discussing outwardly — typically out of fear, shame or simply a profound need to keep up appearances — all of which ultimately leaves us feeling alone and isolated in what for many can become a state of true emotional crisis. In truth, the exact opposite of what the holidays should be all about. So rather than deny or repress, let's talk about it. Get it all out in the open. And work on a strategy for a different, positive and uplifting experience. On today's agenda: * How to avoid spending money you don't have; * How to maintain a healthy PlantPowered Diet throughout the season; * How to experience gift giving with children in a different way; * How to navigate and avoid emotional landmines with extended family; * How to say “No” to certain social obligations; and * How to nuture and preserve your physical, emotional & spiritual well being under pressure. Enjoy the show! Rich Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Rich Roll?

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• 0:44Rich Roll?

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• 1:12Speaker 01

  Welcome to episode 60 of the Rich Roll Podcast with Julie Pyatt.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  Hey, everybody. Welcome to the show. I'm Rich Roll. This is the Rich Roll Podcast. Hello, Julie Pyatt.

• 1:30Speaker 02

  Hi, Rich Roll.

• 1:31Speaker 01

  It's been about eight episodes since you've been my co-host.

• 1:34Speaker 02

  Has it really been that long?

• 1:35Speaker 01

  I think it was episode 51.

• 1:37Speaker 02

  You have such a good memory. I have no idea what episode it was.

• 1:43Speaker 02

  Well, this is awesome.

• 1:45Speaker 01

  We're back in the garage studio. We're not in the formal fancy new studio. So it might be a little echoey because we cleared the garage out for our haunted house over Halloween. So there's a little bit of bouncy noise here. But I thought we could talk... Well, first, let me introduce the show. What do we do here?

• 2:02Speaker 02

  What do we do? What do we do?

• 2:04Speaker 01

  We talk about wellness.

• 2:05Speaker 02

  That's great.

• 2:06Speaker 01

  We talk about health. We talk about nutrition. We don't have any specific, proper agenda. All we care about is having an interesting, open-ended, long-form conversation about all things health, fitness, and wellness. And along those lines, I've had all kinds of guests on the show, from world-class athletes, to doctors, to nutritionists, to entrepreneurs, all of which are here with the specific purpose of trying to provide you guys with the best information so you can take what resonates with you, discard the rest, and hopefully implement it into your life on your journey towards unlocking and unleashing your best, most authentic self, which is, that's the goal, right?

• 2:47Speaker 02

  That's right. And in a way-

• 2:49Speaker 01

  Why is that an important goal?

• 2:50Speaker 02

  Why is it important?

• 2:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:51Speaker 02

  Because it gives life meaning.

• 2:52Speaker 01

  Why should you care?

• 2:53Speaker 02

  Well, you should care, because if you're not going to know who you are, no one else is.

• 2:59Speaker 01

  Why is self-knowledge so important?

• 3:01Speaker 02

  It just is. It is because it allows you to live a meaningful life, and be connected, and contribute, and share with others, and live a life of meaning and connection.

• 3:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think-

• 3:11Speaker 02

  Or you could just pass. It's also an option.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  You can pass.

• 3:15Speaker 02

  You can. You can just sit on the couch. It's okay.

• 3:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, it's sort of like the Matrix, right?

• 3:19Speaker 02

  No judgment.

• 3:20Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, I think, you know, if you're, if you are connected with yourself, if you have a greater understanding of what makes you tick, and you get to a place where you're comfortable expressing more of that in your life, that you will be a happier person, and you will be of greater service to other people, and the world will thusly be more enriched by you treading, you know, on the earth, right?

• 3:48Speaker 02

  Well, your presence will be a gift to everyone around you by living your unique divine design.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it's, you know, for us, it starts with food, but food is not the be-all, end-all. Remember what John Joseph said on that podcast?

• 4:04Speaker 02

  What did he say?

• 4:04Speaker 01

  It's like, "Well, if it starts and ends with food, then you're an asshole."

• 4:09Speaker 01

  Food's the beginning.

• 4:10Speaker 02

  That's so John Joseph.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  But food is not the end. I mean, you can get, you know, you can dial in your nutrition perfectly.

• 4:17Speaker 01

  But if you're disconnected from who you are, or the rest of your life is a mess, then how healthy are you truly?

• 4:23Speaker 02

  Well, the thing is, we're much more than a physical body. So it's body, mind, and spirit.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  Body, mind, and spirit is true health and true wellness. Food is the beginning, I think, of sort of connecting those dots. At least it was for me. I try to just share from my own personal experience, but...

• 4:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think it was for you. Definitely.

• 4:41Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm. What about you?

• 4:43Speaker 02

  No.

• 4:43Speaker 01

  No?

• 4:44Speaker 02

  No.

• 4:45Speaker 01

  Food came after?

• 4:46Speaker 02

  Food came after. But no, food provided, well, an illness provided a deepening of that. But I say that I came in wanting to know the question, the answer to the question, what happens when you die? And really, who are we? Who am I? So I was seeking in the crib.

• 5:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, I had lunch with a friend the other day, and we were talking about death, and how our culture kind of tiptoes around the issue, and we all kind of live our lives pretending like it's not gonna happen.

• 5:20Speaker 02

  Like it's not gonna happen, right.

• 5:21Speaker 01

  And of course, we all experience it, you know, not just with ourselves, but with our loved ones. And how, you know, the kind of sort of discomfort and all of the, you know, weird emotions that kind of come up when a loved one is in the process of passing.

• 5:37Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 5:38Speaker 01

  And how our kind of culture is set up to put the blinders on and not really deal with it until we have to.

• 5:45Speaker 02

  Right.

• 5:46Speaker 01

  In contrast to something like Buddhism, where the entire religion, basically, is constructed around the idea of preparing to die.

• 5:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, the second you're born, it would be good to start figuring out how to die.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  Well, so explain that, though, a little bit more.

• 6:03Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, if you live your life with that awareness, if you have the gift of having that awareness of just how precious this life is, and how, I mean, it's a great, great blessing and honor to have a human body. So it's that in and of itself. Like, I always say, if anybody ever doubted the existence of a God or creation, just look inside the human body. It's an absolute miracle. And when you gain the awareness of how...

• 6:34Speaker 02

  How sort of non-permanent, the impermanence of the world, this world, the physical body, and how everything goes through its process, that doesn't have to be... I'm not... I don't live a depressing life. I live a very connected, meaningful life because I'm very, very aware of its impermanence and of the power of the present moment.

• 6:57Speaker 01

  Right. Well, I mean, I think it's... essentially what you're saying is, the more in touch you are with the reality of death, or the more you can kind of embrace that reality, and, not to say welcome it, but just to be in appreciation of the inevitability of that, then the more I think you value your moments.

• 7:21Speaker 02

  Well, it gives your life great meaning, you know, really deep meaning. And then you start asking yourself the question, you know, one of my favorites is, if I only had four months to live, what would I be spending my time doing? And how are my choices in alignment with that? Or what am I doing that's completely irrelevant to what I want to express or experience in my life? And a lot of times, for me, I think it's really powerful to identify the emotions that you want to experience in your life, rather than the actual event, because, you know, from where we sit, you know, you may not have the expanded perspective of your soul or greater consciousness. So, you know, I always call in the things

• 8:04Speaker 02

  like, I wish to experience grace, and joy, and creativity, and peace, and health, and connectedness, these type of emotions. And then, that seems to work in a more powerful way.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  Right. But that can also be really amorphous, like to say, I want to... you know, my priority is to experience joy, more joy in my life. Like, well, how do you get from A to B on that?

• 8:26Speaker 02

  Well, you don't need to...

• 8:28Speaker 01

  You know what I mean?

• 8:29Speaker 02

  It's kind of two things. I mean, yes, I understand what you're saying, but just, you know, just be open and expanded about this world, because if you get too specific, like if you decide in your mind that, you know, X is going to give you joy, I mean, how many stories do you hear of people that planned their ascent, you know, on a certain track, and when they got there, they discovered that it wasn't what they were looking for? So, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just presenting that possibly and most likely, your soul knows better than your personality knows. So, yes, you do everything else, and you vision, and you, you know, you, you create, and you take action, but always with the awareness that there's something greater. So, if you get out of the specifics of a certain... See,

• 9:13Speaker 02

  the specifics of something can also be a prison, if you're too tight with it. So, in my meditation that I offer, that's our Jai Release Meditation, there's a section in it where it calls in the experience you would like to have in your life. And that works also well as part of the meditation, because I can't know all the people that are downloading it and what their plan is.

• 9:35Speaker 01

  Right. I think it's also a question of who you choose to spend that time with. So, you want to experience these emotions, but also who are you choosing to share that journey with?

• 9:48Speaker 02

  Well, yeah. And I mean, the, the other thing is, is, you know, there are spiritual teachings around who you spend your, you know, who, what company you keep. So, there is vibration, and there are, you know, healing things about certain energies that could be supportive to a certain person. And then there are very destructive energies that are not supportive at all to a certain person. Neither good nor bad, just different. So, if you are clear about your mission and, and where you're going, you, it will support you to find like-minded people to gather with that will support you.

• 10:24Speaker 01

  And hopefully, this podcast is providing a few, at least a few breadcrumbs for people out there who are, you know, trying to identify what that is for themselves.

• 10:35Speaker 02

  But I think it's, I mean, I think it's profound, and I think that, you know, we actually weren't going to talk about death, but it's so great that you brought it up.

• 10:41Speaker 01

  No, we made a list of all the things we were going to talk about.

• 10:43Speaker 02

  And now we're talking about death.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  We're immediately talking about something else.

• 10:44Speaker 02

  Death was not on the list.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  Well, I know, but this is, this is the beauty of the podcast.

• 10:48Speaker 02

  Absolutely. But I really think that that's amazing, and I think that... I know that there is a lot of, would be a lot of gifts and comforts out of actually discussing and expressing this openly. I mean, I've had experiences with close loved ones in my life that have died. And, you know, for the most part, no one, no one knows what to do. They don't even know what to say. And it's kind, it's really sort of this surreal, ridiculous situation, because one thing is certain, we, we all will die, all of us, at some point in the journey. So I think the more that we get comfortable with it, and get familiar with it, and are able to support, and because, you know, the

• 11:31Speaker 02

  death of a loved, of a loved one is very traumatic, very, you know, most often. And, you know, the death of yourself could most often be, you know, kind of a big deal.

• 11:43Speaker 01

  I would qualify that as profound.

• 11:44Speaker 02

  As profound.

• 11:45Speaker 01

  In my life experience.

• 11:47Speaker 02

  No, yeah. You know, the thing is, is it's like, in some of my travels of studying spirituality, you know, it's explained to me, like, okay, so imagine you're gonna die. Okay, so you're, you're gonna die, which you could be-

• 12:01Speaker 01

  I can't imagine that.

• 12:02Speaker 02

  You can't? You should-

• 12:03Speaker 01

  Well, that's the point. Like, I don't think about it that much.

• 12:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think about it all the time. Every time I say goodbye to you, I am aware of that, every single time.

• 12:13Speaker 01

  Continue.

• 12:15Speaker 02

  But anyway, what was I saying? I can't remember now.

• 12:20Speaker 01

  Being aware of, being profoundly aware of the, the reality of, that you will be, that you will-

• 12:25Speaker 02

  Oh, right. Okay, so if you want to, okay, so let's just say, like, you're, okay, so you're my teammate, you're my partner, right? And let's say I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die, right? Which is, let's just compare it to, like, becoming a birdman and, and jumping off the side of, you know, shaman-y in one of those suits or something, which would, which would be very scary to me, although exhilarating. So if you start to view death as that sort of a jump, like, you're jumping into another experience, right? So I don't want my wingman, or my partner going- Like, oh shit, you know, like in a panic. Like, I need you to be solid for me. And I need you to be seeing the best outcome and sending me positive energy.

• 13:09Speaker 02

  And saying, you know, that's why a lot of people say loved ones will hang on until they're given permission, like, you know, because they're waiting for the ones that are here to not be traumatized.

• 13:19Speaker 01

  Right.

• 13:19Speaker 02

  So I think that, I know that if we use that energy, and of course, you know, grief is, is an actual physical thing, and, you know, I have experience with it, and it can't really be avoided and shouldn't be. But in those times, like, at least right around when the body is dropping and the soul is going, if we send that soul with grace and blessing and good thoughts, and almost like they're going on an expedition somewhere, that's more supportive.

• 13:50Speaker 01

  Right, but our fear culture tends to approach these things differently. And whether somebody's on the precipice of, of passing away, or they've contracted, you know, a serious illness, you know, leukemia or something like that, you know, people have a whole panoply of different reactions to that, that generally come from a place of fear. Like, for example, you know, people that have cancer will say, a lot of their friends avoid them because they don't know.

• 14:19Speaker 02

  What to say.

• 14:20Speaker 01

  What to say. It's not because, it's not malicious or anything like that. It just, it freaks people out so much that they can't really deal. And so they'd rather just not pick up the phone, or not visit, or, or whatever, and pretend it's not happening, or just don't really know quite how to act.

• 14:36Speaker 02

  Right. Yes, it's true. And also, probably, the real underlying fear in there is that it's contagious in some way.

• 14:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, maybe, possibly.

• 14:45Speaker 02

  But, you know, it's a, you know, it's a profound thing, and it's a part of life. And, you know, there's birth and there's death, and, you know, both, both are, are passageways. And we could all benefit by having this discussion together and, and, you know, being more open about it and sharing. And it's extremely painful and profound and traumatic and... You know, it brings you to your knees. I mean, it's a, it's, but it's a sacred opportunity to deepen your awareness of life and to really cherish what you're doing.

• 15:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, I get that. The irony being, of course, that I'm looking at you across the table and behind you. The entire wall is sprayed with like red blood paint from our Halloween party. Yeah, so I'm looking at this sort of gruesome depiction on the wall behind you.

• 15:32Speaker 02

  Not to worry.

• 15:34Speaker 01

  Which leads me to the next thing I wanted to talk about, which is kind of recapping our plant-powered Halloween party that we had here. I talked about it a little bit the other day on the podcast, but I think it's worth kind of hearing your perspective on...

• 15:47Speaker 02

  So rising.

• 15:48Speaker 01

  I mean, it was your idea to do this. You birthed it. And we had this amazing experience of trying to do something different that cuts across the grain of most people's idea of the Halloween tradition while still trying to stay true to what Halloween is and should be about and make it fun for kids, but do it in a way that is more, I guess, enriching or on a higher vibration.

• 16:14Speaker 02

  Right.

• 16:15Speaker 01

  With the exception of the blood splattered all over the wall behind you.

• 16:18Speaker 02

  You gotta deliver. You gotta have that. You can't, you could, we couldn't not have that. Anyway, that was Tyler's love offering, but let me just tell you, I'm not going that way. So don't worry about that, that blood thing. It's not my thing.

• 16:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know. Well, I did that with, I did that with the girls, I think.

• 16:33Speaker 02

  No. So anyway, well, you know, first of all, it was, it was an amazing experience. I'm very, it was very, very...

• 16:40Speaker 01

  Well, explain the idea behind what you wanted to do and why you wanted to do it.

• 16:43Speaker 02

  Well, you know, it's just this thing, you know, I get this kind of inspiration and it seems so natural to me and so easy to me. And I just think that everybody's gonna jump on board with me. That's my, that's my naivete of my perspective because I don't really see... That much separation between me and really almost anyone. And so I'm just looking at what we've been doing as parents. Okay, so we have Halloween and parents are getting more and more conscious about all the candy and the waste and the plastic and the paper. And, you know, we go from house to house and there's lots of plastic and lots of, you know, store bought plastic costumes and this kind of stuff.

• 17:24Speaker 02

  And most parents are trying to either bribe their children's candy away from them or, you know, say that the candy fairy will bring a gift and they'll take it back. But a lot of people don't want their kids eating that kind of candy.

• 17:37Speaker 01

  Right, and at the same time, we all love Halloween. It's a great holiday. We want to enjoy it and it's an amazing time for a parent to kind of bond with your child. You know what I mean? To create the costume together, to what's the plan? What are we going to do? How are we going to put this together? And then going from house to house and trick or treating, especially when the kids are real little and they're not sure, you know, do they have the self-confidence to go knock on a door? And all of these sorts of things are built into it that make it so magical.

• 18:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's so sweet. I mean, it's great being out in the night air and being out with friends. And, you know, so I think for a couple of years, I've been going to Whole Foods or going to natural markets, looking for candy that I could have or that I could give out or that I could insert into the process.

• 18:19Speaker 01

  And then you're the creepy weird mom with the, who's handing out apples and is like a big bummer. Like the rest of the kids, you know?

• 18:27Speaker 02

  No, the house that gives the toothbrush. And we're like, yes, like, yes. And the kids are like, oh, this sucks.

• 18:31Speaker 01

  There's always a dentist, yeah. You're not going to dentist the dentist's house and they're handing out like...

• 18:35Speaker 02

  They're like, look, mom, I got a toothbrush. And you're like, thank God, he got a toothbrush. No, but, um, so anyway, I just had this, I had this idea, you know, we have this amazing sacred place where we have our beautiful home and, you know, it's a, it's a beautiful community space and, um, you know, there's no lights around here. We don't have any convenience stores or anything, so it's very, very, very dark.

• 18:56Speaker 01

  We're not on, we're not on a trick or treating route. Like, no one would knock on our door to go trick or treating. Around where we live, we have to go to a neighborhood where, you know, like sort of the streets are kind of safe.

• 19:06Speaker 02

  We have to crash somebody else's neighborhood.

• 19:08Speaker 01

  We live kind of on a highway.

• 19:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, but, um, so anyway, I just had this idea that we could just get together and we could have a plant-powered Halloween and make good treats.

• 19:17Speaker 01

  A party.

• 19:18Speaker 02

  A party that, that were sweetened with, you know, maple syrup, or dates, or raw honey, and actually get involved in actually creating these treats that would be individually packaged in parchment, or tissue paper, or something that wasn't plastic throwaway. We wanted it to be a no-trash event, and we wanted each family to bring something to contribute, so you would bring a pop-up table and come and set up your own station, so that we, we could sort of mimic the stations and the kids could go from place to place and still feel like they had a little of the trick-or-treat experience. And then even more than that, or along with that, would be, we supported making handmade

• 20:01Speaker 02

  costumes that the kids liked.

• 20:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I think that part of that is, you know, parents are busy. It's so easy to just go to Target and like, pick out the whatever, you know? And you're done, you know? And it's like, when you're busy and you, you know, and the stuff's so cheap now, it's like, it becomes almost difficult to not do that, and yet, you know, because the idea of actually making a costume is hard. Like, I'm not somebody who knows how to do that, but to actually do it and show up for that, and do that with your child, is an incredible experience to have.

• 20:36Speaker 02

  It's very meaningful.

• 20:37Speaker 01

  Right.

• 20:37Speaker 02

  Well, and it's true, and it's not like, you know, hey, there weren't rules, it doesn't mean that you couldn't use a mask and then make something else, but it's just like, just don't go to buy the whole plastic thing, go, here you are, like, you know, put some thought and some energy into it. So we had two workshops here, um, prior to Halloween, and, uh...

• 20:55Speaker 01

  To help design.

• 20:56Speaker 02

  And just help other people, like, let's say there's somebody who doesn't really know what to do, you know, just to get the community together, and, you know, somebody else might have a good idea that could support another child, or parent, or family. So anyway, it was, um, it was really amazing, and it was also, I definitely got pushback, definitely felt the energy.

• 21:14Speaker 01

  How did it, how did it go down?

• 21:16Speaker 02

  Well, it was kind of, it's like that thing, like, the people that you think are gonna be there are not the people that actually came, you know? Like, there are certain people, families, I was like, oh, absolutely, like, they're gonna be there, and, and then it didn't work out that way. And so... You know, we put the energy out, and again, it wasn't a public event, it was a private event, just to, you know, keep things secure and, you know, make sure that, yeah, just it's not really a public event, make sure it's a community event. But anyway, it was, you know, I just, I felt the pushback, I felt some of the frustration of the parents for two reasons, and I thought it was interesting. One of the reasons why, we had like five families kind of blow up right at the end and pull out and say they're not coming, and they were coming originally.

• 21:58Speaker 02

  And part of that was because in some situations, they had like a revolt in the family, like some members of the family were just like, "That's it, I'm not doing that, like I'm going on the trick-or-treat route."

• 22:10Speaker 01

  Well, you can see a kid saying, "Look, I want to go with my friends from school," and this is what they're doing, and "I want to go to this neighborhood," and, you know, so it's hard, it's hard to like, you know.

• 22:19Speaker 02

  Totally, totally understand. And then the other reason was, I had some families not come because they couldn't figure out what to bring, which I find kind of more interesting. But again, it's like, you know, when you haven't made something yet, or you haven't, or you haven't prepared using these other ingredients, it can just be overwhelming. And I would never have said that someone couldn't come if they didn't have something, we would have made, we would have made it work.

• 22:46Speaker 01

  Right, we had tons of stuff.

• 22:47Speaker 02

  Of course. So, but anyway, all in all, I had, we had like fifty or sixty amazing people here, we had, we had, someone brought a, came as a gypsy and did tarot cards, and someone else, my friend Michelle, brought the real meaning of Halloween and made like, you know, brought the history and everything else, and made these little cakes called Soul Cakes. And we had another family that came and had all pumpkins, and we had, you know, kind of Rice Krispie treat things, homemade chocolates, homemade fudge, caramel apples.

• 23:26Speaker 01

  Right, so it wasn't, you still had sweets for the kids that they liked and all that kind of stuff, but just not really, you know, not the Snickers bars and all that kind of stuff?

• 23:34Speaker 02

  Right, right.

• 23:35Speaker 01

  And our friend Ron, he probably had the best costume, he made, what did he call himself? I mean, his, he had, he made a mask out of a real pumpkin that he put over his head, and he had it, he had the inside lined.

• 23:45Speaker 02

  It was so good.

• 23:46Speaker 01

  And then he had these gloves that he attached carrots to the ends of it, like he was a walking, you know, creepy jackal lantern, and it was pretty amazing.

• 23:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, he was great. He was really great.

• 23:55Speaker 01

  So anyway, it was really, um, it was really fun and the kids had a blast and I, I don't feel like any of the kids and they, it was a wide age range of children. Felt like they missed out on anything.

• 24:06Speaker 02

  No.

• 24:06Speaker 01

  I mean, they had a blast and they were running around, you know, playing games and playing hide and seek out in the yard until late. And everybody left kind of enriched and excited and thinking, you know, oh, next year we'll do this and, you know, we can do this. And so it was the beginning of what we hope to be a tradition. And the reason that we want to share about it on the podcast is because we want to, um, really support other families out there that are interested in looking for another kind of healthier option to Halloween. And, and we did it as an experiment and we didn't do it perfectly and not everything worked out the way that we wanted to. And I think it's a, it's a testament to how difficult it can be when you decide you're going to do something that cuts across a grain that is very entrenched in our culture.

• 24:50Speaker 02

  And Tyler and Trapper, our sons, spent two days and they created, they made a haunted house. And, and I think that really maybe that was the first time they ever worked solidly, solidly for two full days straight, creating something totally on their own. And they did it for the party and for the children. They did an amazing job. It was really good.

• 25:10Speaker 01

  It was cool. Yeah. Our whole garage, we, they took everything out and created this amazing haunted house. And it was really, it was pretty, pretty cool. It was quite something.

• 25:18Speaker 02

  I'm, I felt very, you know, very fulfilled and very connected. And I think that families that came felt the same way. And we had a wide age range, like you said, we had a lot of babies, which was great, you know, because those are the, those are the up and comings, all the way to age 18. Because Tyler was the oldest. And then they played hide and seek in the dark until really late and didn't want to leave. And, uh, I think they all had a great Halloween.

• 25:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:45Speaker 01

  My only, uh... My only misgiving is that I could have dialed up my costume a little bit better.

• 25:51Speaker 02

  You could.

• 25:52Speaker 01

  I tried.

• 25:53Speaker 02

  It could have been so good.

• 25:54Speaker 01

  I missed the mark a little bit.

• 25:54Speaker 02

  I thought you were Warhol when I saw you.

• 25:56Speaker 01

  Everybody thought I was Warhol.

• 25:57Speaker 02

  It's because you had bangs.

• 25:58Speaker 01

  I was trying to go as Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks guy.

• 26:01Speaker 02

  Which was actually epic.

• 26:02Speaker 01

  And I was wearing all the clothes he wears and I just couldn't find, quite find, the right wig. I should have just dyed my own hair white. It would have looked more apropos, but it's still kind of an obscure.

• 26:13Speaker 02

  Honey, there's always next year.

• 26:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I already know what I'm going as next year.

• 26:17Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 26:18Speaker 01

  So, but my thing is I never, I don't tell anybody.

• 26:20Speaker 02

  He just shows up.

• 26:21Speaker 01

  Right.

• 26:22Speaker 02

  That's so good.

• 26:22Speaker 01

  So, we got through Halloween, but now

• 26:25Speaker 02

  Guess what?

• 26:26Speaker 01

  We're officially into the real holiday season.

• 26:29Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 26:30Speaker 01

  And on top, we have all of the...

• 26:32Speaker 02

  On top?

• 26:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, on top, we've got Thanksgiving right around the corner, and before you know it, it's Christmas, New Year's.

• 26:39Speaker 02

  Hanukkah.

• 26:39Speaker 01

  Hanukkah, yeah, like, everything is coming up now and everybody's gearing up for the holidays. And we thought it was an appropriate time to kind of get into how to best navigate a period of time that can be tricky for a lot of people, dietarily, nutritionally, but also relationship-wise with the stuff that, you know, comes up with families. And we didn't want to do it like the day before Thanksgiving.

• 27:09Speaker 02

  No.

• 27:09Speaker 01

  Like, we have a little bit of time, we can talk about this kind of stuff. And we wanted to share some nutrition tips and recipes and some things like that to help people kind of stay on track with their plant-powered diets.

• 27:22Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 27:22Speaker 01

  Throughout the holidays.

• 27:23Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 27:24Speaker 01

  And strategies for kind of navigating the holiday parties and friends and family and pressures and all of that kind of stuff.

• 27:31Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:31Speaker 01

  Right?

• 27:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:33Speaker 01

  So, I guess we would say, before we get into it, we do have our cookbook, Jai Seed, which is...

• 27:42Speaker 01

  Got a bunch of recipes in it and we have our online Mind Body Green course at MindBodyGreen.com, the ultimate guide to plant-based nutrition. And we do talk about holiday stuff in there and kind of how you navigate tricky social situations and parties and travel and all of that. So if you haven't checked out that, you might want to go there and have a look at that, but we'll talk more about that stuff today, right?

• 28:02Speaker 02

  Yeah. And I mean, in Jai Seed, we've got a good core of holiday recipes in that cookbook. So you definitely can use that as a jumping off point. But I also have some new things that I'm going to share with you. I'll include a few recipes with this podcast.

• 28:26Speaker 01

  So holidays, recipes.

• 28:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:29Speaker 01

  What are we talking about?

• 28:31Speaker 02

  Well, I think, so just to get into the food a little bit and to empower all of you to, you know, just be free to create some new recipes of your own. So if you start to think about the holidays and what are the flavors that remind you of that, you know, special, warm and fuzzy place called home that you used to think was associated with a turkey, a sad turkey that gave his life.

• 28:58Speaker 02

  For your pleasure. No, I'm kidding. I'm just joking.

• 29:01Speaker 01

  A sad, really fat turkey.

• 29:03Speaker 02

  Well, if you killed it yourself, then I have a little bit more, you know, I come from a hunted family, so I can give you that one.

• 29:11Speaker 01

  Did your dad used to hunt the family turkey?

• 29:13Speaker 02

  No, but one time. I mean, it's really bizarre, but I swear to God, he used to kill pheasants.

• 29:20Speaker 01

  So for people that might be new to the show, explain a little bit about your dad.

• 29:24Speaker 02

  Sorry. I come from Alaska and my dad is a hunter. So I'm a yogi and he's a hunter. So we have this very extreme existence and he's still married to my mother. He's my father. And he's awesome. And he's just very different than I am.

• 29:38Speaker 01

  He's a fisherman and a hunter.

• 29:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, amazing, amazing man.

• 29:42Speaker 01

  And outdoorsman and a card-carrying member, proud card-carrying member of the NRA.

• 29:46Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 29:47Speaker 01

  Who moved your family from Colorado up to Alaska when you were young. And he has lived the life of Indiana Jones in many ways. The adventures that that guy has lived through are extraordinary. And he met your mother while he was mapping the jungles in Chile.

• 30:04Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 30:05Speaker 01

  And he's crashed his plane on sand dunes off Ecuador or Nicaragua.

• 30:10Speaker 02

  This is true.

• 30:11Speaker 01

  Circled by sharks and jumped onto low-flying helicopters. I mean, the guy's like, he's a pretty incredible guy.

• 30:17Speaker 02

  He is.

• 30:18Speaker 01

  Very resourceful, amazing person.

• 30:20Speaker 02

  That's right. And he just turned ninety this year. And I actually am going, we are going to go up and be with them, with my other brothers and sisters. And I'm going to be cooking plant-powered. Actually, he's asked me already. So it's a new experience for us, which is gonna be great.

• 30:36Speaker 01

  This is, yeah, this is an amazing thing because this is a guy who, you know, is, is very particular about his meals and his game meat and, you know, what he puts on his plate and has lived his life in a certain way. And the fact that he is open to the idea of Julie preparing the holiday meal, a plant-based meal.

• 30:57Speaker 02

  It's pretty miraculous.

• 30:58Speaker 01

  Is, is quite extraordinary.

• 30:59Speaker 02

  Not only that, but he's, he really wants you to give your speech about your book.

• 31:03Speaker 01

  I know. So we're going up to Alaska over Christmas. So he's, yeah, he's trying to get me a book. So if anybody's listening out there who lives in Alaska, if, if there are any groups up there that are interested in kind of hosting some kind of an event for me to come and speak.

• 31:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, let us know.

• 31:18Speaker 01

  You know, send me an email through the website.

• 31:19Speaker 02

  That would be great. Thanks, you guys. So anyway, so getting back to, so it's really the flavors. If you think about, you know, what, you know, what kind of spices and what kind of flavors make you feel like it's the holiday meal. And those tend to be herbs like rosemary, sage, thyme, pumpkin pie spice, or nutmeg, cinnamon. Cranberries always make me feel like it's a holiday meal. I can't do it without cranberries.

• 31:49Speaker 01

  Gravy.

• 31:50Speaker 02

  Absolutely gravy. Gravy's a big one. And probably if you're really going for classic, you'd need a mashed potato. I mean, there's other potatoes you could sub, but you're gonna want a mashed potato on, on Thanksgiving or holiday meal, right? And then the other thing would be stuffing. So, and you know, some pie options. And by that time, you're pretty much bloated and laying on the couch.

• 32:16Speaker 01

  Watching the Detroit Lions. So how do we, how can we get all of these wonderful holiday spices and flavors into our meals and still eat? Healthy, so we're not bloated, lying on the couch.

• 32:27Speaker 02

  So I mean, think of preparing the things that you normally would prepare and think of, um, think of using those type of spices. You know, that, that, that flavor things that make a difference. So for instance, like, I'm creating a gluten-free stuffing. I'm going to talk about that right now. I haven't even, I haven't achieved it yet, so hopefully I will have achieved it in two or three days by the time this goes up. But, um, so what I'm, what I'm feeling is that I could do it two ways. I might do a polenta, which is like a corn meal that you can bake and then cut into squares. You know, so that is sort of like a bread, bread stuffing. And I could also just get a really, um, good quality gluten-free bread. You know, like Rudy's or something and from the freezer case, it's sometimes in the freezer case.

• 33:12Speaker 02

  So what I would do is I would cube that, dry that bread out a little bit and then cube it up. And then I would start preparing to add my other spices to it.

• 33:20Speaker 01

  Can you get a GMO-free polenta? Organic polenta?

• 33:24Speaker 02

  Um, see, that's the thing, and that's the reason why I'm not sure if I'm going to do a polenta or not. I don't, I don't know. I, I have not seen one.

• 33:32Speaker 01

  Corn is increasingly scary.

• 33:33Speaker 02

  It is kind of scary. Let's forget the polenta, just do it with a, yeah, that's good. That's really important. So I'm going to do a gluten-free, uh, bread and I'm going to season it and I'm going to add some dried seaweed. I know it sounds like a little scary, but when you think you want to get some salt into it, right? So rather than load the bread with salt on the front end, I'm going to get some dried seaweed, toasted seaweed, organic.

• 33:59Speaker 01

  Like nori, you mean?

• 34:01Speaker 02

  It can be nori, or it could be some other varieties. You just have to use your intuition, you know. But in some of them, you would soak first. But maybe not a nori, because it might be too papery. I might use something a little bit more sea vegetable-like, but not a whole lot. Like, just maybe in a whole pan of stuffing, like, you know, a quarter cup of some dried seaweed. Okay, I'm just gonna start to try to flavor the breadcrumbs up a little bit. So I'm gonna put that in there. I don't usually cook with garlic, but since it's the holidays, I might go ahead and put some garlic in, either chop it up and grind it, or I could roast it and add it to, you know, afterwards. I'm gonna put some celery in,

• 34:45Speaker 02

  because celery always feels like Thanksgiving or a holiday meal. So I'm gonna chop some celery. And then I'm gonna go to the farmer's market, and I'm gonna get the best wild assortment of mushrooms. So a mix, like a box of a mix of mushrooms. And I'll probably put in maybe two cups of mushrooms that I saute first and season with lemon and a little namo shoyu. I'll write all this up for you guys, so you don't have to be taking notes.

• 35:14Speaker 01

  Right, I'll put the recipe up in the show notes.

• 35:16Speaker 02

  Right, so I'm gonna sort of combine all this together. I'm gonna take the drippings from the mushroom, which is gonna start to soften the bread, and sort of, you know, you know how stuffing kind of sticks together a little bit?

• 35:27Speaker 01

  So you're crumbling up the bread, though, right?

• 35:29Speaker 02

  Well, it's already crumbled. You just can kind of cube it, you know, and have it in a pan. And then you start to add the seasonings to it. Then you saute the celery and then add it to it. And then you're gonna saute the mushrooms and then add it to it, keeping the liquid, it needs some liquid. And then, you know, we already have a little bit of seaweed in there, so we're gonna check the salt and see how it is. And we may need to sprinkle some sea salt in there. And then I'm gonna see kind of how that looks. If you're a person that likes apples in your stuffing, then you could... You know, chop some apples and put those in. If you're a person that likes pecans in your stuffing, you could add that in at that point.

• 36:10Speaker 01

  Or walnuts, maybe.

• 36:11Speaker 02

  Either walnuts or pecans. I have a son who doesn't like fruit in, in straight ahead food, so I have a restriction there. I can't do that. So that, that would start to sort of show you how you could do a stuffing without turkey fat and without any, uh, my, my family used to put like all the guts and everything else in there.

• 36:32Speaker 01

  Right, yeah.

• 36:32Speaker 02

  You know, you need all that. So you don't really need all that and you can get the flavor with, with the seaweed.

• 36:38Speaker 01

  And the, and the mushrooms, sauteing the mushrooms will give it enough sort of, uh, moisture to give it like that sort of, um, I don't know, so it's not like a dry.

• 36:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, so that it's, and, and, and keep in mind, if it's dry, you can always just add a little filtered water. Like you don't have to go to the fat. You can just add a little filtered water, check it out, and then, you know, season as you go and you're gonna be serving it next to your mashed potatoes that I'm gonna tell you about. And then, um, also you're gonna be serving it with a great mushroom gravy that you can pour over the top of it.

• 37:11Speaker 01

  Right.

• 37:12Speaker 02

  So, you know, that's just an idea of, of how you can start to do that. And of course, you could add all kinds of other things that, that you like or you crave, but that's sort of like a good base to start with for stuffing.

• 37:22Speaker 01

  Base stuffing.

• 37:23Speaker 02

  That's right. Okay, so that, is that clear?

• 37:25Speaker 01

  So that's stuffing, yeah.

• 37:26Speaker 02

  Okay, good. And then, of course, you're gonna want a mashed potato. And we have a great mashed potato recipe in Jai Seed. Um, it is, it is made with veg, with veganes. Um, it's not low fat, so don't think that if you're eating these potatoes every day and you wanna lose weight, that that's a good thing.

• 37:45Speaker 01

  Right.

• 37:45Speaker 02

  So therefore, um, if you're training a lot, or if you eat a really clean diet and you're gonna have it occasionally, it's not to have every single night. But since it's Thanksgiving. It's in there and it's amazing.

• 37:58Speaker 01

  Right, and, and, uh, véganese, there's a couple of different kinds that are made with different kinds of oils. We usually use the one that's made with

• 38:04Speaker 02

  Grape seed.

• 38:05Speaker 01

  Grape seed oil in it. And there's a new product that just came out, uh, called, uh, Just Mayo.

• 38:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:13Speaker 01

  That's made by, um, a new company that's behind Beyond Eggs. Uh, and it's called, ah, it's Josh Tetrick's company. Ah, what is it called? Something Farms. Um,

• 38:25Speaker 02

  Won't get it.

• 38:25Speaker 01

  I'm forgetting it right now. But anyway, it's a new company, um, that is, you know, one of the, one of the many new companies that are coming out that are making very interesting, um, meat and egg and cheese and dairy analogues. And, uh, that is not to say that it is a whole food or your best option, but for people that are transitioning and just feel like they need like something that tastes like eggs or meat or dairy or whatever, they're great to kind of help ease that transition, I suppose.

• 38:56Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm. And I'm gonna try the new, that new mayo product this time.

• 38:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 39:00Speaker 02

  And see how it goes.

• 39:01Speaker 01

  Is there a way to make mashed potatoes without the véganese and without, is for people that wanna do a, you know,

• 39:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, there is.

• 39:07Speaker 01

  A truly like sort of no oil, low fat version.

• 39:10Speaker 02

  Well, you know what I would do? I would do a, a combination of, um, of cauliflower and potato. And that way, um, you could, you know, it's, it's all a matter of creamy. You could try it that way and add some nutritional yeast. Um, you know, add some garlic, some sea salt. Um, and that might be a really great op- option, especially if you're gonna do it, if you're gonna serve it with mushroom gravy. That would be a much cleaner way to do it.

• 39:34Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 39:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, that would be good. Definitely. Um, and then the other thing is cranberries.

• 39:40Speaker 01

  So, alright, so do we give people how to make these mashed potatoes though, or?

• 39:43Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, that one's in Jai Seed Cookbook, so I don't, and we have, uh, so I think I'm gonna, I'm gonna share some of the other ones that are more. I mean, unless you want me to go through. Basically, you just boil the potatoes. I like using red potatoes. And I, I don't like anything that's time intensive, so the reason I like red potatoes, organic. I use everything organic, so I'm advocating that. If you ha- if you have that ability, please. You know, I recommend it. I think it makes a big difference.

• 40:12Speaker 01

  So, red potatoes?

• 40:13Speaker 02

  Red potatoes, you're gonna boil them in a big pot on the stove with the skins on. And then I leave the skins on. I don't take them off. But if you wanted to, after they were cooked, you could kind of rub the edge under cold water and the skins just come off. And then you'd have to spend hours peeling little potatoes. So, I usually leave the skins on. I simply drain them, put them back in the original pan that I had them in. And then I use a little olive oil, a little earth balance, and a lot of végane, honestly. I mean, it depends on how creamy or how thick you want them, but...

• 40:53Speaker 01

  Alright, so if you want that whipped, like the kind of whipped vibe, you would use a lot of végane. But if you said, "You know what, I need to go, no oil, no végane", you still have these boiled potatoes and you can mash them up and use maybe a little sea salt and B12, or, I'm sorry, nutritional yeast.

• 41:14Speaker 02

  That would work better if you added the cauliflower in.

• 41:18Speaker 01

  But if you add the cauliflower, and how are you doing that? You're chopping it up and then just mixing it up?

• 41:22Speaker 02

  You would steam it until it's really, really, really, really soft and then add it in and then mix it in with the potatoes.

• 41:27Speaker 01

  I see, and that gives it more of a creamy...

• 41:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, and you could also process it. You could beat it with a beater at that point. If I was gonna really mash them, though, I would take the skins off. But I sort of cut mine with a knife and they're sort of chunky style.

• 41:40Speaker 01

  Right.

• 41:41Speaker 02

  So, those are the two variations.

• 41:43Speaker 01

  Right, like chunky peanut butter.

• 41:44Speaker 02

  Absolutely, like there. Okay, so then getting to cranberries. So, cranberries are really tricky because cranberries are really super tart. And if you're making them the traditional way, they require a lot of sugar. So, what I discovered was...

• 41:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think, not to interrupt, but when people buy cranberry sauce, like canned cranberry sauce at the store, I think people have no idea how much sugar is in that stuff. I mean, it's almost entirely sugar because they are so incredibly bitter on their own.

• 42:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, they are. So, but what you can do is you should cook them on the stove in water. And, you know, the more water you get, the runnier they're gonna be. So, not that much water because as they start to cook, they release water. So, I would do... You know, depending on how many cranberries you have in there, like half as much water, like don't cover the cranberries with water. And put it on high and just start cooking it and let them break down. Let them break down, break down, break down. When they get more broken down, then I would suggest adding soaked dates. So you're gonna add anywhere from probably five to seven or eight dates.

• 42:56Speaker 02

  And just add them in and then go ahead and cook them a little bit more and you could transfer them to a processor or a Vitamix and actually whip them and incorporate the dates.

• 43:08Speaker 01

  The dates and the cranberries together? Or the dates separately?

• 43:10Speaker 02

  No, no, no, together, like into the cranberries. So the dates are gonna sweeten the cranberry. Okay, so then at this point, now if you do that, it's gonna be a very fine, it's gonna be a very fine cranberry sauce. Another way you could do it is just chop the dates kind of thick and then add them, of course, take the pits out, add them to the cranberries and continue to cook them as they start to reduce down. And then you're gonna have to taste it and see. At the end, you may add some organic maple syrup if it's not, if it's still too tart. Or you could choose, preferably when it's just warm, not hot, you could add some raw honey and actually incorporate that in.

• 43:54Speaker 02

  And that is gonna give you a cranberry sauce that has no refined sugar.

• 44:00Speaker 01

  And I don't think cranberry sauce is really supposed to be super duper sweet.

• 44:06Speaker 02

  No, but...

• 44:07Speaker 01

  You want it sweet, but you're not, it's not like a dessert.

• 44:10Speaker 02

  No, it's a, it's like a chutney.

• 44:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's like a side, so...

• 44:15Speaker 01

  And for, you know, lots of people don't like to use honey, so maple syrup or dates would be fine.

• 44:20Speaker 02

  Would be fine, yeah. And then, of course, you can add cinnamon if you prefer, or some people like to add orange, or any nuts, you know, I just, I kinda like mine just blank, just straight ahead.

• 44:35Speaker 01

  All right, so we got the mashed potatoes, we have the cranberry sauce, we have the stuffing, and mushroom gravy.

• 44:42Speaker 02

  Let's go to mushroom gravy, yeah. So again, you're gonna have gone to, it's so worth it to go to a farmer's market and just find some really good mushrooms. It could be any kind, but of course, the darker they are, and if they're varied, they add more flavor. You also could use a mixture of dried mushrooms, because dried mushrooms you can soak, and then that water gets really kind of brown and mushroomy, and then you can use that to season. So what I do is, in a saucepan over a flame, I'm gonna saute the mushrooms in a little bit of olive oil. When I saute in olive oil, I'm talking maybe a tablespoon. That's all I put in, maybe even less. Just enough, because I really don't like things oily.

• 45:26Speaker 01

  It's just enough to put that little film on the bottom of the pan so that it doesn't stick.

• 45:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, and it doesn't even go everywhere. Like, it'll get spread around, but just really, really look at the oil quantity you're using, and see if you can cut it in half. Because see how much excess, just out of habit. You know, we think that everything needs so much. So you're gonna put the mushrooms in, and you're gonna saute the mushrooms. Let me back up.

• 45:51Speaker 01

  Could you use coconut oil instead of olive oil?

• 45:53Speaker 02

  No, I wouldn't for this, because you're going for this specific kind of, it's kind of like, it's a specific taste, and the coconut oil, even though it's some heat, it kind of gets neutral, it's still gonna have that kind of island thing, and I wouldn't do it in this case.

• 46:14Speaker 01

  Right. All right, so then, if you're gonna use olive oil, then you need to make sure you're not overheating. You don't want your flame on like, high heat. You want to keep it at a very low simmer.

• 46:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, it should be lower, definitely. Or you could use grape seed oil, or you could use...

• 46:31Speaker 02

  Macadamia nut oil would be the best because it won't have the coconut and the nutty flavor would actually assist in this. You could also use a truffle oil too. So, anyway, I'm gonna back up a step. If you, I'm not a huge onion advocate, but this is the one recipe, one of a couple of recipes that I will use a little onion in. So if you get a shallot, which is like a small kind of onion, it's a shallot, it's not an onion, but a small shallot or about a quarter of an onion, or even an eighth of an onion, and fine chop it, put that in the oil first, just enough to get it going. And when it starts to sort

• 47:14Speaker 02

  of brown, then add the mushrooms. And you've washed the mushrooms and de-stem them, and you've put them there. Mushrooms have a lot of water in them. So you'll start to saute that. And then, when they get nice and brown, get a half of a lemon and squeeze a lemon over the top of them. At this point, you're going to transfer them into a Vitamix. Do you have a question?

• 47:40Speaker 01

  No.

• 47:40Speaker 02

  Okay. You're gonna transfer them into a Vitamix, and you're going to puree them.

• 47:49Speaker 01

  Can you use a food processor, Julie Piatt?

• 47:51Speaker 02

  Hmm, you, you could. It would, it will, it'll have more of a grainy, I mean of a...

• 47:59Speaker 01

  What if you don't have a Vitamix, you just have a regular blender?

• 48:01Speaker 02

  You could do it in a blender. You could do it in a regular blender. You could also, you could do it in a process.

• 48:07Speaker 01

  So you're sauteing them, they're hot, you're putting this hot mixture into the Vitamix?

• 48:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, you just turn it off and then just spoon them in.

• 48:14Speaker 01

  But that's the beauty of the Vitamix, it really does completely liquefy it into like a real gravy.

• 48:19Speaker 02

  That's right. And so, but what you're gonna do is, you're gonna need to add some fluid. So I would start with, you're gonna get something called arrowroot. And arrowroot is a powder. It's white. And you can find it in your baking section. And it's a thickener. So it actually helps things set up. You could also use something called agar flour. Or you could use something called Irish moss. But I use arrowroot for this. So it's like cornstarch. So if you put it in water and you don't, like, let's just say you dumped it in and you didn't blend it. It gets clots in it, like these, you know, chunks of powder. So you want to put it in a cup of water and beat it with a whisk.

• 49:04Speaker 02

  So it's all blended. And then, I missed a step. Okay, go back. We're gonna put, just go ahead and put some filtered water in the Vitamix and turn the Vitamix on and get that going.

• 49:18Speaker 01

  With the mushrooms.

• 49:19Speaker 02

  With the mushrooms.

• 49:20Speaker 01

  Alright.

• 49:20Speaker 02

  And see the consistency that it is. Then you're gonna taste it and see if, see how it is. If it needs more salt, you're either gonna add sea salt. You could add a handful of olives, Kalamaada olives, and blend that. And when I get it kind of the right flavoring, I'm gonna transfer that mixture back into that saucepan that I sauteed the mushrooms. And now I'm gonna take the arrowroot that's been dissolved in the water. And while I'm whisking, I'm gonna whisk it into the mushroom.

• 49:52Speaker 01

  And that will thicken it up. What is it, what is arrowroot?

• 49:55Speaker 02

  It's a, it's a root.

• 49:59Speaker 02

  It's a powder that they, it's in a, and it's a thickener. It's natural. And I don't know, I really don't know that much more about it. But I know it's a great thickener.

• 50:07Speaker 01

  So you, you, you've take what you've Vitamix and you put it back in the saucepan and you turn the heat on low again. And then you add this, this sort of arrowroot that you've already whisked.

• 50:15Speaker 02

  Right.

• 50:16Speaker 01

  And then you add it to desired thickness, right?

• 50:19Speaker 02

  Right. And if you were a gravy maker, if you ever made gravy in your life, it's the same process that you do with like the pan drippings. You, you have to add flour into it or, and you, you beat it in. So it's the same gravy protocol, you're just using a different thing.

• 50:34Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 50:35Speaker 02

  So, and then at that point, it depends on how thick you want it. You know, if it's too thick, you're gonna add more fluid. And, you know, hopefully it's not gonna be too thin, or probably not ever be too thin.

• 50:46Speaker 01

  Right. And I can attest to the deliciousness of this gravy. We use it all the time and it really is quite tasty. And I don't think about regular gravy at all. And I don't crave it anymore because this stuff completely hits the spot. And if you put this on your mashed potatoes or your stuffing. You will definitely be having your holiday meal experience. I mean, it tastes, it's just as satisfying and dairy-free, meat-free. You feel good about it.

• 51:19Speaker 02

  It tastes good. It's really good.

• 51:28Speaker 01

  So, there you go. So, that's three recipes, four recipes?

• 51:31Speaker 02

  I think that's four.

• 51:34Speaker 01

  But it's still, we still have the elephant in the room, which is like, what are you gonna do? If you don't have turkey, what are you gonna eat? What are you gonna do?

• 51:41Speaker 02

  Well, okay, I actually had thought-

• 51:44Speaker 01

  Or the big ham.

• 51:45Speaker 02

  The big ham. Well, what we would do is, I've actually created a series of vegan meatloaf recipes. And I actually developed this when we were living on Kauai in the yurts. It was one of, one of our great joys, was cooking over there all the time. So, I make a tempeh meatloaf that is, it has a lot of ingredients in it. So, I don't know that I, that I'm, do you want me to do it right now?

• 52:14Speaker 01

  Well, no, because it'll take like 25 minutes to explain.

• 52:17Speaker 02

  Right, exactly. So, but we're gonna have to give it to them, or that's not gonna be cool. They're gonna be thought they're turkey.

• 52:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, alright, well, I'll put it-

• 52:24Speaker 02

  So, I'll just do it real quick.

• 52:25Speaker 01

  Well, just do it real, just go over the basics of it, and I'll put the recipe in the show notes. So, you're gonna have to go to richroll.com to get the instructions.

• 52:33Speaker 02

  Okay, that sounds good. Okay, so, the vegan meatloaf is basically tempeh. And you crumble it up, and you're gonna mix it with a bunch of different herbs and spices. And then I make this roasted tomato sauce that we add in. And you bake it in, you shape it into a loaf, bake it in the oven, and it's awesome. It's a really hearty, really filling, and it has, you know, veggies in it, but really a great flavor. So, next to the mashed potatoes, the stuffing, the cranberry sauce, the mushroom gravy.

• 53:11Speaker 01

  You're sorted out.

• 53:12Speaker 02

  You're there. I mean, we just need to do dessert.

• 53:14Speaker 01

  So what you need to do, it's Saturday now, we're gonna put this podcast up on Monday.

• 53:19Speaker 02

  Oh my god.

• 53:19Speaker 01

  Can you write a blog post with all of these recipes out?

• 53:22Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 53:23Speaker 01

  Do we have any photos that we could include as to where all this stuff looks like?

• 53:26Speaker 02

  Well, my plan is, um, yes, I would say the answer to that is yes. Cause I'm going to do a kind of a spread on Sunday. So I hope you're hungry.

• 53:36Speaker 01

  Oh, good. So we'll photograph that and uh.

• 53:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:39Speaker 01

  And get it up.

• 53:40Speaker 02

  Actually, no, I want to mention, I want to mention our Twitter friend, actually, who's coming over.

• 53:43Speaker 01

  Oh, that's right, yeah.

• 53:45Speaker 02

  So I have the great pleasure of cooking for a guy named Al. Is it Sergel?

• 53:50Speaker 01

  Or Sergel?

• 53:51Speaker 02

  And he is a.

• 53:52Speaker 01

  He's the jazz chaplain.

• 53:53Speaker 02

  He's the jazzy chaplain. No, jazz chaplain.

• 53:55Speaker 01

  The jazz chaplain.

• 53:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, and he, as a, somebody that we've met on social media and just one of those dear people. I mean, just bless this medium of, of communication that we have. But one of those people that for some reason connected with us and, and uh, we've met by posting on each other's, you know.

• 54:15Speaker 01

  Instagram.

• 54:16Speaker 02

  Instagrams and Twitters. And uh, he's a, he's a beautiful family and just adopted a new little baby boy. And anyway, so he's in town now, so um, he uh, he tweeted me and, and uh, and I said, why don't you come up? And we'll, we'll have a spread with our family. So, and we're looking forward to seeing Al.

• 54:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, so we're gonna get, meet him and his family, we're gonna cook up a holiday meal, we're gonna photograph it.

• 54:39Speaker 02

  Maybe play some music.

• 54:41Speaker 01

  Play some music and we'll document it.

• 54:42Speaker 02

  He's a rock drummer.

• 54:43Speaker 01

  That's right. That's right. And uh, and we'll, and we'll get that blog post up when the podcast goes up with the recipes for everybody.

• 54:51Speaker 02

  That'd be great. So, and then the, so the last thing is, is pumpkin pie.

• 54:55Speaker 01

  Oh, right.

• 54:55Speaker 02

  So I'm gonna put in there.

• 54:56Speaker 01

  It's nothing without dessert.

• 54:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, you gotta have pumpkin pie. So there's a pumpkin pie in the Jai Seed cookbook. But I have a new evolution of pies that I'm doing that are mostly raw. So the way that I'm gonna do this pie is I'm going to uh, cook a real pumpkin in the oven. And I'm gonna take the mash out and I'm gonna combine it with coconut meat.

• 55:18Speaker 01

  That's not raw then.

• 55:18Speaker 02

  Well, I said almost raw.

• 55:19Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 55:20Speaker 02

  I'm gonna combine.

• 55:21Speaker 01

  Almost raw, except the part that you're cooking the pumpkin.

• 55:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it's different because it's ma, no, but usually, honey, when you make a pumpkin pie, you're taking it out of a can. Like, that's the standard.

• 55:31Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 55:31Speaker 02

  So, yeah, you, the pumpkin's too hard, you can't, you know, you couldn't eat it. So I'm cooking the mash myself, so that's fr- you know, very fresh, organic. And then I'm gonna mix it. With coconut meat and some other ingredients and it's going to go into a pecan date crust.

• 55:53Speaker 01

  Right, the crust is raw and it's, there's no grain in the crust, right? It's just nuts and dates.

• 55:57Speaker 02

  Just nuts and dates and then that's going to be frozen, so it's actually a frozen pumpkin pie.

• 56:03Speaker 01

  Right, these pies are insane. Like after you have these pies, you can't imagine going back and eating a normal pie. They're so good.

• 56:09Speaker 02

  It's so good and your stomach feels good.

• 56:11Speaker 01

  Why would you need dairy and eggs in a pie anyway? You know, you don't like these pies are so good and they're so fresh and, but you don't, after you, whoops.

• 56:22Speaker 01

  I just spilled. After you eat it, you don't have that crazy like sort of food coma where you gotta, you feel like you gotta lie on the couch and watch football for three hours.

• 56:33Speaker 02

  So hopefully all this food will be that for you, but the one thing that we want to just mention again is we always advocate and that is that before you embark on your holiday journeys, wherever they may take you and you're going to friends for different meals or families or preparing your own, please do start your journey off with a large blend of greens. I made one today for Rich and for me and it was with Italian black plums, black grapes, cranberries and hemp seeds.

• 57:09Speaker 01

  Mint.

• 57:10Speaker 02

  Mint.

• 57:11Speaker 01

  Fresh mint that you picked from the garden.

• 57:14Speaker 02

  And anyway, so it's always good to start with that so that you get your nutrients and your energized and your body is fed. And so you're not going into these situations starving.

• 57:25Speaker 01

  I mean, that's my rule wherever I go, holiday or otherwise, if I'm going to go over to somebody's house to eat or I'm going to a restaurant that I've never been to or you know, a work-related food occasion or something like that, I always drink a Vitamix before I go. So at least my body has been nourished before I go and then if it so happens that there aren't that many things that I can really eat and feel good about, that at least I'm, I'm okay and I can sort of pick around or whatever. It's just like a safety.

• 57:57Speaker 02

  You definitely eat less and it's just, it's just a much better experience all the way around.

• 58:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, you don't walk in starving and craving some, and then end up eating like the thing that you promised yourself you weren't going to eat.

• 58:07Speaker 02

  Exactly, exactly.

• 58:09Speaker 01

  So this is, we've covered like the food part of the holiday equation, which is really just the beginning.

• 58:14Speaker 02

  And also, before we go, I just want to mention, so Mind Body Green program, which Rich and I have available, has actually a demo of me making the pie crust, one of the pie crusts, right?

• 58:27Speaker 01

  Right.

• 58:27Speaker 02

  And processes. And then understand that if you, the Jai Seed Cookbook is part of, it comes with the program. So if you feel inclined to do that.

• 58:38Speaker 01

  Right, if you get the ultimate guide to plant-based nutrition at mindbodygreen.com, you get the cookbook along with that.

• 58:43Speaker 02

  Right. So, anyway, so check that out. And, you know, we have lots of, lots of tips and information. And, you know, all of this is about kind of seeing our process and looking at the recipes and using them as a base point. And then, of course, adapting them to your own family's traditions and your own way and your own creative expression.

• 59:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's not like this is the only way to do it. This is just a few things that we've done that we've found to be helpful. And you may have, you can, you know, take some of this information and expand on it.

• 59:12Speaker 02

  Hopefully you will.

• 59:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:14Speaker 02

  And then share it with us.

• 59:15Speaker 01

  So, you know, yeah, this is all fine if you're gonna make some stuff at home and have some people over, but that's not always the case. You're gonna get on an airplane and go to your aunt's house, or you're gonna go drive across down to your brother-in-law's house, or someplace where you don't have this kind of control over the food that's gonna be going on. And then, and also, and this is the other kind of side of it, is, you know, walking into potentially emotionally-charged environments.

• 59:45Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 59:46Speaker 01

  This is kind of what holidays can be about for a lot of people that trigger them into unhealthy behavior patterns. You know, and I see this, you know, being a recovering alcoholic, you know, the holiday times can be triggers for a lot of people. And there's always a lot of kind of discussion about how to navigate these treacherous waters with your head held high and kind of, you know, making sure that you're walking the path that you want to walk. And, you know, these relationships can be emotional minefields. And you get triggered, and then before you know it, you're eating something you don't want to eat, or you're saying something that you didn't want to come out of your mouth, and then you're in a fight, and, you know, like, everything devolves. And then you're like, "I hate the holidays."

• 1:00:31Speaker 01

  And, you know, and then you go home and eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Drop into a shame spiral. So how can we, how can we, how can we, how can we do it differently?

• 1:00:43Speaker 02

  Well, let's see. I mean, first of all, from, from my perspective, I've always wondered, I've had a big, there's, I feel like there's a big inconsistency with the natural rhythm of the planet and what's happening. So if you look at the seasons and what is happening, like what happens on the 21st of December on the solstice? It's like, it's the cycle, it's the year and the cycle of nature and everything is dying up until that point. So for me, I feel a tremendous amount of violence and disconnect between what's going on in my external world and what is happening within myself. And this often can really make, you know, can lead to depression and to, it's, it doesn't feel right.

• 1:01:27Speaker 02

  It's like, I'm supposed to be really happy. I'm supposed to be celebrating and wanting to spend a lot of money, a lot of like outward energy. I'm supposed to, you know, wanna be around a lot of people and a lot of parties. And really, the only thing that I wanna do is really go crawl, you know, in a comfy blanket and turn the fire on and have a cup of tea, you know? So

• 1:01:52Speaker 01

  Right. And part of that is because it's dark, you know, so much early, like for me, I'm very sensitive to the light. Like, I do not like this time of year where it gets dark at 4:30, 5 o'clock. Like, I really, it's not like the, the one holiday experience that we had that was different was when we went to Chile, South America, where it was summer there and it was like light out until 10:00 PM. And I was like, we should come here every year for the winter. There's something about that shortened day that really hits me hard and, and definitely affects my mood profoundly.

• 1:02:27Speaker 02

  Right. And so, I mean, I just wonder, and of course, you know, we're, we're speaking to the northern hemisphere, I guess we should, we should say, because this podcast goes all around, because you probably have a different experience. But for us here in this hemisphere, this is, this is what it feels like. And so why are there so many suicides around this time of year? Why is there so much depression and so many people that are lonely and don't have families and feel forsaken? And, you know, it's, it's, I, I tease with, you know, my own family that, you know, I think Christmas is great or I think gift giving is great and I love it, I'm all for it, but could we just please do it in the spring? Could we please do this in May? You know, and don't be afraid because I'm not going to advocate that because I'm sure that would be way too much of a push. No one would, no one would do it.

• 1:03:11Speaker 02

  But I do have some ideas about, you know, how to, how to navigate through the holidays in a sustainable way where you can make sure that you, you self-nurture, you take care of yourself. So you have a consistency, you have a balance. And I, I think it comes with really identifying what is really at play here. And, um, you know, the role of consumerism and how this whole thing gets sort of implanted and placed on everybody that, you know, we have to-

• 1:03:43Speaker 01

  These expectations are created that we have to live up to. And, and for a lot of people, it's too much. And we've been in that situation where we, you know, didn't have two dimes to rub together and we're going into the holidays and, you know, it's like, how are we going to get through this? And, you know, here we are, you know, a couple of days after Halloween and you go down to that commons, which is a little outdoor kind of village mall in our, in our town.

• 1:04:05Speaker 02

  Don't tell me they have the bell on.

• 1:04:07Speaker 01

  Well, the bell has started. You know, the, the Christmas chimes and the-

• 1:04:10Speaker 02

  So bad.

• 1:04:11Speaker 01

  And the, you know, the red ribbons on all the light posts are already up. And, you know, it's like, what, we just started November, like it's begun. And it seems like every year it starts earlier and earlier and earlier. And it, it wears you down.

• 1:04:25Speaker 02

  Yeah. And then by the time, by the time the day is here, anyway, everybody's just stressed out. It's like, I've had enough, you know, I can't live up to that. I can't, uh, you know, I can't deliver. And, you know, the kids are all swept up in it as well. And it's, um, I really, I really feel like it really is a violence and it's a setup. And sadly, many of us, because we've equated, you know, how much you love your child and what kind of gift you give them, or can you deliver and come through for your, you know, your baby. Sadly, many of us either are or have in the past just charge it. You know, charge these expenditures on a credit card.

• 1:05:06Speaker 01

  Right, deal with it later.

• 1:05:07Speaker 02

  And then, you know, you feel really good for a minute until, you know, that thing that you've suppressed comes up and you hit January and it's like everything is really out of balance. If you really look at the amount of stress that that puts on your your your system, your family, it's it's really not sustainable and it's a big yo-yo. You know, it's a big, you know, high for a big low. Um, and I, I think there's other ways that we can start to shift the way that we interact with these holidays.

• 1:05:43Speaker 01

  All right, so what do we do?

• 1:05:44Speaker 02

  What do we do? Well, first of all, just realize what's going on and realize that the natural cycle of life is maybe a little different than what is going on at the mall. And I think that.

• 1:05:56Speaker 01

  What is going, what is going on?

• 1:05:57Speaker 02

  What is going on at the mall?

• 1:06:01Speaker 02

  I don't know. Thank God. No. Um, it's just, um, I would advocate, and I know in our own experience in times, one of the great blessings that we had of having tough times is, is, um, you know, we have done things like we've created a creative contest, you know, where we took teams and each team had to come up with a present that had a ceiling. It had a cap on how much you could spend on it and there were certain parameters around, you know, the event. And then we went away with our prospective teams and we made these gifts. And then on Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate, we presented these to each

• 1:06:41Speaker 02

  other and it was actually really funny and really fun and really maybe more about what the holiday should be about. And that took time that we spent with each other, creating something, doing something, making something. So again.

• 1:06:54Speaker 01

  And there's no doubt that kids will remember those experiences more than, oh, I got the new Kindle or whatever. You know what I mean? Like, I remember one year we were, we were hurting pretty bad and I was trying to come up with something creative to do with the kids for gifts. And Mathis and I went to Target and we bought like a.

• 1:07:14Speaker 01

  Like an eight pack of like white t-shirts, Hanes undershirts or whatever for like $5 or whatever it was. And then we, we bought some sponges and some paints. And then we just, we like painted all the t-shirts. We painted like a different t-shirt for everybody in the family with different colors.

• 1:07:33Speaker 02

  That's right. I love that t-shirt.

• 1:07:34Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then we just gave them, and it was cool because like Mathis got to paint, you know, have a creative expression of painting these shirts and creating something. And then that creates an emotional connection to the gift that you're giving. Like you really, you know, she painted it and she really wanted to see what Tyler or Trapper, how that, how her brother was going to react when he opened that up because there's a pride of creation that goes along with that.

• 1:07:57Speaker 02

  That's right. And I remember Trapper and I made a short film. Trapper wrote and starred in a short film. I think we talked about it on the podcast before, but we could have, did you ever put the link up to it?

• 1:08:08Speaker 01

  Uh, Trapper ultimately wanted me to take it down.

• 1:08:12Speaker 02

  Oh, he didn't want you to have it.

• 1:08:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, I got embarrassed. But he made this awesome like video that we put on YouTube where, uh,

• 1:08:18Speaker 02

  It was called The Journey.

• 1:08:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was called The Journey.

• 1:08:21Speaker 02

  And he did impersonations of all the, all of my spiritual teachers that I had, I had played with.

• 1:08:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, he dressed up in costumes and imitated all these different, yeah, sort of like it's expanded consciousness personalities. And then, and then mocked like the kind of couch potato dad who was watching football on the couch yelling for a milk. It was really funny, actually. And it was set to music and, and we had, and we had a friend.

• 1:08:46Speaker 02

  And you were so surprised. No, I did. It was my, yeah, it was my gift. And you were, you were so surprised.

• 1:08:51Speaker 01

  It was great. And we're still talking about it. And if he had just given me like a shirt or something, I wouldn't even remember now, like what he did.

• 1:08:58Speaker 02

  Right. So, you know, you could do something like that. And, and again, or you could do a hybrid, you know, you could just designate like, okay, this is the allocation of what everybody's going to get. So Santa's bringing X and then after that, everything else is homemade. You know, it's same thing with a, Christmas tree, or in this kind of process, you could find a tree in your yard and put lights on it, or you could find a tree out on the street and put lights on it and see if you get away with it. And you can also-

• 1:09:27Speaker 01

  Don't go crazy now.

• 1:09:28Speaker 02

  You could go crazy. No, I just saw-

• 1:09:31Speaker 01

  You're telling people not to go get a Christmas tree.

• 1:09:33Speaker 02

  I know, but I just saw-

• 1:09:34Speaker 01

  So you're getting fringy.

• 1:09:35Speaker 02

  I know, and you guys fight with me every year, so I'm just putting it out there again because I would, I would like to be able to do that. They always outvote me, then they go get the tree.

• 1:09:43Speaker 01

  Well, not everybody, you know, has a tree in their yard, too. What if you live in an apartment-

• 1:09:47Speaker 02

  We have a tree in our yard right there.

• 1:09:49Speaker 01

  I know we do, but I'm saying if people who are listening-

• 1:09:51Speaker 02

  I'm just suggesting.

• 1:09:52Speaker 01

  Who live in an apartment.

• 1:09:53Speaker 02

  It's a suggestion, right? So people could decide if they want to do it or not. So, the other thing that I've done over the years is I've done different kind of themed Christmas trees. Like, one time I did, I just took all the toys from my children's room, and I decorated the tree with all of their toys.

• 1:10:11Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:10:12Speaker 02

  You know, so-

• 1:10:12Speaker 01

  Did we do a Dr. Seuss tree one year?

• 1:10:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, I did a, I did a Dr. Seuss tree with a pink wig at the top, and that was a whack. It was totally whacked.

• 1:10:21Speaker 01

  That was, I know.

• 1:10:22Speaker 02

  It was really fun.

• 1:10:23Speaker 01

  So, yeah, every year, like, rather than unpacking all the, you know, boxes of ornaments, we do kind of a different theme for the tree every year and do something different.

• 1:10:31Speaker 02

  And it could just be, you know, homemade cookies, it could be, you know, old-school popcorn, or it could be, you know, gardening tools, or just something really innovative. I'm sure, you know, everyone could come up with some really amazing creative stuff. So that's another way, to sort of not buy into more pla- more plastic and more waste.

• 1:10:50Speaker 01

  But how do you, how do you do that when your kids are like, have an expectation that it's going to go a certain way, or you've been doing it, like, let's say somebody's listening and like, well, for the last 10 years, you've done it this way, my kids are expecting that, you know, they're going to get X, Y, and Z-

• 1:11:03Speaker 02

  You have a family meeting.

• 1:11:04Speaker 01

  And like, I'm starting to freak out.

• 1:11:05Speaker 02

  Yeah. You have to have a family meeting. And I mean, the thing is, you have to be realistic, too. I mean, life is not, you know, I have a dear friend of mine right now who's going through what I call the dismantling. And, you know, for the first time, you know, she, you know, was really, really down to, you know, hardly any flow. And she, you know, was gonna have to tell her daughter that, you know, she couldn't buy her certain, certain clothes or a certain meal, you know, this week. And, you know, this is part of the gift of these experiences. You know, life is not about always getting what you want. That's not necessarily the meaningful experience. And kids are resilient and they're expanded souls that have lived thousands of lifetimes.

• 1:11:48Speaker 02

  And they're, it's not like they can't handle it. Nine times out of 10, they can handle it way better than we can. So, in our case, you know, in my style, is to, you know, treat them with respect. And, you know, we communicated really very openly with them about our choices and why we made the choices we made and what we were exploring and what we were endeavoring to create. And that wasn't always easy and they share.

• 1:12:16Speaker 01

  That way they have a really good idea of how to recite it to their therapist when they're 20.

• 1:12:22Speaker 02

  Well, whatever.

• 1:12:23Speaker 01

  That's a joke.

• 1:12:24Speaker 02

  I know.

• 1:12:25Speaker 01

  Maybe not.

• 1:12:26Speaker 02

  No, I mean, I think just being honest is, you know, really the best policy in my, in my experience.

• 1:12:33Speaker 01

  No, I think, I think the most important thing is that the kids know that they're loved and that you have their best interest at heart. And, and everything else after that falls into place. And so whether you can go out and buy a ton of gifts or you're in a year where that's not gonna be possible. If the kids know that they're loved and respected, then everything's gonna be fine.

• 1:12:54Speaker 02

  Well, also, they can participate in creating a new way.

• 1:12:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's an opportunity. You have to look at it not as a sacrifice or something negative, but as an opportunity to have a different experience and, and express something differently. And I think that...

• 1:13:09Speaker 01

  You know, the kids can relish that opportunity and the pressure really is felt by the parents, not the kids. It's the parents who are desperately feeling the pressure, the social pressure from family and friends and projected onto themselves from their imagination that they have to live up to X, Y, and Z, or Christmas, or the holidays, or Hanukkah, or whatever it is, is gonna be a failure. And I think, sort of, releasing yourself from that pressure, and just trying to, you know, do what is, what is sort of within your means, is much, you know, and being okay with that.

• 1:13:49Speaker 02

  Being sustainable. And there's also a very much larger conversation that's right at hand that's affecting all of us, and that's the, you know, the consequences to the planet and what is going on in a greater playing field. And, you know, do they wanna have a part in changing the course of the future? You know, it's just, we're just not in the, in the age of, you know, where consumption is what it's all about. You know, we're all learning how to simplify. We're all learning how to connect in a deeper way.

• 1:14:17Speaker 01

  Right. I mean, the holidays are really, you know, the heart behind these holidays is, is really rooted in service and like, you know, sort of, you know, serving mankind on a higher plane, right? So, it's not about getting a bunch of gifts that are made in China that you have to jackhammer open in plastic containers that are impossible to open without, you know, some kind of high-powered scissor machine. You know what I mean? And that, that the kid is gonna look at and enjoy for five minutes and then discard, because everything suddenly is, you know, free compared to what it used to be like when we were kids, essentially.

• 1:14:55Speaker 02

  Instant gratification.

• 1:14:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, there's this instant gratification kind of thing that goes along with... The holidays and we've really lost our way with that, you know, and it really should be about service. So whether that, you know, that can take the form of a formal, you know, like, oh, we go to the soup kitchen, or it can be something simple, you know, and, and, you know, not like sort of attention grabbing at all, just a gesture here, or, you know, anything like that, or just sort of carrying that consciousness, that higher consciousness of like, how can I be helpful to somebody else in need today is really what the holidays should be about.

• 1:15:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, absolutely. You know, and there's another way. You can always share food, too. You can share good, healthy, vibrant food that comes with love, that you prepare, that's from organic sources, pure sources, and you can pass the gift along to someone else and just introduce them, make them a great dish and show up with it. You know, that could, that could be the beginning of a major shift in their lives.

• 1:15:55Speaker 01

  How about the, dealing with the emotional sort of component of the holidays and sort of, you know, the travel to the relative's house, or we have to go see this person that I have a history with and how's it gonna go? Like, all that kind of highly sort of charged,

• 1:16:15Speaker 01

  not baggage is the wrong word, but like, you know, when you have to go, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm not articulating it very well. Yeah, you go, you, you know, the holidays inevitably involve kind of being in social environments that maybe you wouldn't choose to be in, but are sort of compelled to attend out of familial obligation or otherwise, right? And so, and this causes a lot of people a lot of distress.

• 1:16:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, and this is because, you know, we come into these families, you know, many times for the purposes of healing. So that's why, if you're sitting there scratching your head going, why did I end up in this family, you know, where I don't relate to anybody, or there's such a wide range, it's because there's a lot of transformation available when there's healing that can happen, when, when both sides can kind of transform and sort of And that being said, it's the most charged and the most difficult. You know, like, you know, they say that it's easier to go meditate in a cave, you know, in the Himalayas than it is to go home for the holidays.

• 1:17:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, there's no question about that.

• 1:17:25Speaker 02

  So if you think you're enlightened, go spend two weeks with your relatives and see how that's going. But what I would say, and something that I've learned over the years, it's been a valuable tool to me, and there is a very strong aspect of it in the Jai Release meditation. There's a second component of it, which is a visualization, a third, I think it's the third component. It's a visualization of sealing yourself in your own field. And again, I talk about this kind of frequently, but I really feel strongly, from my experience, this is one of the greatest things you can do for yourself, to connect you with your soul mission, and also make sure that you are not absorbing other people's energies that are not your own.

• 1:18:06Speaker 02

  So, that being said, let's say you have a charge with somebody that's just so, it's so hot that you couldn't even bring it up with them, or, you know, you just can feel the imbalance bubbling right there, that there would just be a huge fight, or a huge issue. Well, you have one option, and one really great option, to not having a physical confrontation with them, like, in a real person. So, if you just could imagine and just entertain that thoughts are things, and emotions are things, and so you can feel them in your body, and even though they don't have a physical

• 1:18:48Speaker 02

  form in front of you, they do have an effect. So, if I had one of these supercharged situations, I would choose not to have the confrontation in the real physical, because the thing that you want to avoid is any explosions, or any imbalance, where you're in extreme anger, or, you know, screaming, or all this kind of stuff. That's extremely detrimental to your health. It's detrimental to, really, everybody. It affects everything when you enter those. Spaces. So if you could sit down quietly in a place alone, first see yourself sealed in your own container, you know, like a bubble of light, to be very basic.

• 1:19:34Speaker 02

  And in my meditation, there's something much more developed. But if you saw yourself sealed in this bubble of light, and then you ask the higher form of the person that you have the charge with to come forward, and you are gonna have a conversation with them.

• 1:19:51Speaker 01

  This is a visualization.

• 1:19:53Speaker 02

  It's a visualization type thing. And I would say an imaginary conversation, but it's not really, it's a real conversation. I would, I would suggest that you speak out loud to them. So you're gonna call them in front of you, and then you're gonna have this time to say everything you need to say. You can say, you know, why, why you're mad at them, why you're sad about them, why you're hurt, what you thought was, you know, what you're holding on to, what you're resentful for, what you wish they had done differently. You go through all of it and just say it, like, right to them, like, as if they were standing there. And then, after you've done that, you're gonna ask your higher self

• 1:20:37Speaker 02

  and that person's higher self to disconnect any courting between the two of you. So thoughts or things, so just imagine that from this experience, there's a charge, right, that you're feeling in your body. So there is a charge. It's existing somewhere. You may even feel it in your body. You may say, oh, it's in my heart. Or when I sit there, I can feel it in my right shoulder. Or it's down my spine, or it's in my head. So as you identify it, please ask that any connection be removed from you and that this connection be moved away, right? So, again, you're clearing the field, you're keeping your own field, and you're giving the field back to the other person that you have the charge with. So are you with me?

• 1:21:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm with you.

• 1:21:20Speaker 02

  Okay. So then, at that point, you should ask that the qualities of unconditional forgiveness and unconditional forgetfulness be activated in the experience. And then...

• 1:21:40Speaker 02

  You will be able to thank this person for this exchange. Because everybody is our teacher. Even if it hurts, or it doesn't feel good. It's still your teacher. And from that point, okay, then you close. You can say, you know, this is ending. And I'm claiming my own power and my own will in this moment.

• 1:22:05Speaker 02

  When you go into the real life situation with this person,

• 1:22:12Speaker 02

  see if you can maintain a neutrality. Neutral, loving compassion. So no one is any better than you are. And no one is any worse than you are. They have their right to their own experience. And their right to their own choices. Just like you have a right to your own experience. And you have a right to your own choices. And you can just let it be. And I would stay very neutral. And, you know, in my experience, going into situations, this has been invaluable. An invaluable healing for really everybody. And I'm not saying that, you know, you can't predict. I'm not saying, you know, you're gonna end up being best friends.

• 1:22:56Speaker 02

  Or, you know, I can't say what's gonna happen. All I can say is that this is gonna clear the charge. So that when you walk in that room, that pain body is not looking for yours.

• 1:23:08Speaker 01

  Right. I think the thing, yeah, it's about trying to train yourself to be in a neutral place. So that when you walk into that environment and that person predictably says, you know, X, Y, or Z, usually that thing that is always gonna get under your skin, that it's, you know, it's water off your back. And it doesn't, it doesn't like provoke you in the way it historically has.

• 1:23:30Speaker 02

  Well, and by communicating and by taking care of your part. Because the reason it's provoking you is because you have a charge. So if you deal with the charge that's in your own field, and you've actually done a service by assisting them to deal with their own, I mean, at least by removing the tangled energy, right? I mean, they haven't-

• 1:23:54Speaker 01

  The polarization of the charge.

• 1:23:56Speaker 02

  They haven't been able to talk to you about how they feel about you, because you can't do that for them. But at least you've removed yourself out of the tangled situation. You have a much better chance of there being a healing, or maybe they'll just naturally move away a little bit, and it'll be okay. And not everything can be dealt with, you know, in this moment, in person, at every point, you know?

• 1:24:21Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:24:29Speaker 01

  I mean, I think, you know, one of the kind of primary tenets of recovery is that, you know, the recovering alcoholic does not have the luxury of justifiable anger or resentment. Like, even though, even if you're angry at somebody and it's completely justifiable because you've been wronged, you do not have the luxury of cultivating that emotion, because that is the thing that creates your own suffering and will inevitably lead to your relapse. So, so the idea is, how do you, you know, this resentment that you carry towards, you know, into a scenario and that you direct at a certain individual, how do you overcome that?

• 1:25:13Speaker 01

  And really, the only way of doing that, and not to be glib, because it's very difficult to do it, is to, is to, you know, essentially,

• 1:25:28Speaker 01

  you can pray for that person, or you send them goodwill, or you forgive them for whatever transgression it is. And that is truly the only way that you can free yourself. From that charge and that pain that it causes you. And that way, you're shifting the dynamic. So they tell people like, oh, if somebody's wronged you and you can't stand them, or whatever it is, you know, just send them goodwill every day, or pray, you know, pray for them, or meditate on good things happening for that person. And over time, that resentment will dissipate and eventually go away. And that doesn't mean at some point, you may not have to have a conversation with that person. And it doesn't mean that you don't create a healthy boundary for yourself.

• 1:26:13Speaker 01

  And when it's right, you exempt yourself from a social environment where that person is. There's all these other things that surround that. But ultimately, the principle is that really, you're the only victim when you resent somebody or you have anger towards them. You're the one who is, you're creating your own suffering over that.

• 1:26:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, I agree. I have a little distinction that I would shift slightly. And that is that I would say, one of the most powerful principles, or, you know, if you want to call the Christ, what a Christ, what an actual Christ principle would be, it would be seeing somebody in their highest divine light and holding that vision for them.

• 1:26:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, that's, it's essentially, you're saying the same thing.

• 1:26:54Speaker 02

  Well, it's a little different. And I just want to offer, because I think it's a little trap, because your ego can get trapped in this. When you say pray for somebody, or send them good thoughts, your ego can attach onto that as if you are superior to them. Like, oh, that poor fool, you know? And it's, it's, it's a trap.

• 1:27:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, I see that. But it's also like, I can't stand that guy. So I'm just, all I'm going to do is focus on, on, on trying to have good things come into his life.

• 1:27:28Speaker 02

  But can you really authentically do that?

• 1:27:30Speaker 01

  It doesn't matter, because you're, if you act as if long enough, you can get to that place.

• 1:27:36Speaker 02

  I would say just do the, do the healing and remove the thing and, and deal with it and say what you need to say, and then see them in the highest light. And then you're free, because You're not really involved in their evolution. They're involved in their own evolution. The point is to get out, to get out of the triangle.

• 1:27:53Speaker 01

  Right, but also you have to free yourself from that. Like if I'm walking around all day long obsessed with a resentment that I have towards somebody, how do I free myself from that pain?

• 1:28:05Speaker 02

  You need to go in where it's in your body. Go into meditation and remove it from yourself.

• 1:28:10Speaker 01

  Right, but how do you remove it? So what I'm saying is, the way that has been helpful to me in removing it is by what I just said.

• 1:28:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, but my question to you is, are you successful in being able to send somebody good thoughts when you're feeling resentful about them? That I find, I would wonder that.

• 1:28:31Speaker 01

  Well, no, you have to. That's where the act as if thing comes. And then over time, that when you're acting as if, that resentment will begin to dissipate until you wake up one day and you actually truly do wish them well. And it's a miraculous experience when that happens because you can't believe that you actually are feeling good things towards a person that used to make you insane.

• 1:28:57Speaker 02

  Wow, okay. Different perspective.

• 1:29:00Speaker 01

  So, not that different. It's really not that different, I don't think.

• 1:29:07Speaker 02

  I'll have to meditate on that one.

• 1:29:09Speaker 01

  All right, do what you want. But I mean, I think also, we're talking about the holidays and visiting relatives or having to go to social situations that maybe ordinarily you would choose to avoid, but you feel some obligation towards showing up at. And I think at times, it's okay to say, "I'm not gonna go." To, what is in, maybe it's not in everyone's best interest for you to show up at the thing where you're expected to show up. Maybe it's okay for you to create a healthy boundary for yourself and say, "You know what? I'm just, I'm not gonna do that thing that I do every year that doesn't end well."

• 1:29:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, you have to make those own choices, definitely. And there's definitely the, you know, there's a lot of self-responsibility and, you know, there are going to be changes as you evolve and change in your life, where there are circumstances that you may not be around the people that you always were your whole life. And it's not always painless. It's often painful and it's hard for us to even understand. In my experience, it just naturally will fall that way, you know, after some time. And there's, the more you resist, the more suffering you experience.

• 1:30:32Speaker 02

  So in just going with the flow and not resisting it, and, you know, chances are, you know, things will just align where you won't, you know, you won't find yourself in the same area of certain individuals after a time. And you just have to let it be. Does that make sense?

• 1:30:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think so. I feel like we're having this, like, we're presupposing that holidays are a big downer. Because they're not. I actually, you know, I enjoy the holidays. I'm not a big fan of going to lots of parties. Like, I just don't, that's not in my nature really anymore. So I don't, like, super relish that aspect of it. But I enjoy the holidays and I'm looking forward to them. So I don't want it to come off like, oh, no, you know, the holidays are coming, everybody battening down the hatches.

• 1:31:18Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:31:19Speaker 01

  You know, like, and a lot of people absolutely love it and have completely healthy, productive relationships with all of their extended family members.

• 1:31:26Speaker 02

  Really?

• 1:31:26Speaker 01

  I don't know, maybe, you know?

• 1:31:29Speaker 02

  Do you know any of those people? No.

• 1:31:31Speaker 01

  I think I know a few.

• 1:31:32Speaker 02

  I don't know. You know, I think the holidays are a great time and it's, you know, lovely to spend time with family. I think we're just sharing ways to help maintain the balance and to try to, to experience a more sustainable, more self-nurturing holiday experience. That's all.

• 1:31:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think it's, it's difficult to talk about these things. Like, I think there's a lot of people that maybe not dread the holidays, but are like, there are moments that come up during the course of the next, you know, eight weeks that can be uncomfortable and cause consternation and confusion about how to best navigate in a healthy way for all parties involved. And so I think it's just good to talk about, to sort of, you know, like... Release the pressure of talking about that and say that it's okay and maybe here are a few things that might, might make it a little bit easier for you if you happen to be in that scenario.

• 1:32:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, absolutely. I think a lot of people are. I mean, it's, you know, it's a highly charged time of year. So it's not, you know, there's, there is a correlation between, you know.

• 1:32:35Speaker 01

  I mean, it would be highly charged just the family part of it, but then you add on like the pressure to buy all these gifts for everybody and do all this other stuff. It's like the volume's turned up to 11 and then, and then everyone's eating terrible foods and feeling horrible.

• 1:32:47Speaker 02

  They're sick, they're out of balance, they get sick. Well, really, I mean, it's, it's really.

• 1:32:51Speaker 01

  And it's dark out.

• 1:32:52Speaker 02

  It's ex, it's excessive. It's excessive and it's, it's not natural. And it's, and we have an opportunity to take back some of the sanity and to, to make it a really deep experience, but feel free to say no to some of those scheduled things. You know, choose to, you know, not drink yourself into, you know, oblivion and, you know, choose to eat healthy food and keep your body fortified so that you don't end up sick, you know, for weeks at a time.

• 1:33:24Speaker 01

  Yeah. And, and so you're on the, you get to the other side of the holidays and you go, wow, that was really fun and awesome as opposed to that sense of exhaustion and relief that you just survived it.

• 1:33:35Speaker 02

  That's right. And, you know, you can always go for a hike and be outside or, you know, go skiing or, you know, have a snowball fight or just do something new and original and different that you've never done. I'm all for tradition, but I'm, I'm more for evolution, you know? Like if you, if we've done something, well, we've done it. So we've done that. So let's do something else. But that's, um, yeah, that's me.

• 1:34:00Speaker 01

  What else?

• 1:34:00Speaker 02

  What else?

• 1:34:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. How, I mean, how, how do you, you know, what about the person who does sort of suffer that like post-holiday depression? Or, I mean, it's so, you have this highly charged period of time and then it's over and then a lot of people are like, you know, they go into like that.

• 1:34:18Speaker 02

  It's really

• 1:34:19Speaker 01

  That depressing state.

• 1:34:21Speaker 02

  It's a really depressing time in my, I mean, I think of the year, it's, December is the darkest month for me. Just, I feel, that's how I feel. And it's not, it's because that's the time of the season that it is. And, you know, January, there's not much happening either, you know? Like, the beginning weeks of January are sort of, you know, not that exciting as well. So, I don't know. I mean, I think that taking care of yourself, making sure that you're, you know, well nourished, that you're paying attention to your emotions, how you feel, what do you need for yourself, that you don't overextend yourself, that you don't get caught in this debt trap, and charge all these things, and then, you know, be strapped for, you know,

• 1:35:05Speaker 02

  I think there was like a study, that they said that there was some high percentage of families in the US, that they spent most of the year paying off the debt they incurred around Christmas.

• 1:35:13Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:35:14Speaker 02

  So, I really don't think we're out of line with like, talking about this.

• 1:35:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:35:17Speaker 02

  I think it's actually verified.

• 1:35:18Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:35:19Speaker 02

  So, the point is, is that it's not gonna, it doesn't have to be a bummer if you don't have money, or if you choose to have a different experience. You can just create it. And you, you'll have some pushback. I mean, my kids this year on Halloween, they were like, you know, does it have to be on Halloween? And I said, "Yeah, you know what it does." And why? Why? Because we're creating a new way. Because we love our planet, and we love humanity, and we're gonna try a different way. So, that's why. So, is that a good enough reason?

• 1:35:47Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 1:35:49Speaker 02

  So, I hope it is.

• 1:35:50Speaker 01

  Okay, Mom.

• 1:35:51Speaker 02

  Well, they did it. And they had a blast. And they're excited for next year. And we already have people donating stuff. And my big, you know, hope is that other people will join. Maybe we'll start a whole internet infrastructure. And we'll take over the world with a Planned Parenthood Halloween now.

• 1:36:05Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, it would be great.

• 1:36:07Speaker 02

  It would be great.

• 1:36:07Speaker 01

  If like, other families wanted to start doing it, and they would start popping up in different towns. That would be, that's the idea, really.

• 1:36:13Speaker 02

  That's right. And I mean, all of our, the only thing that our kids, I mean, our beautiful boys, who, they are, they were so supportive of us, and so, such champions for us during this whole process. And, you know, they're, they just have a great sense of themselves, and they're very grateful. And they don't need much. And

• 1:36:36Speaker 02

  You know, don't get us wrong. I mean, we love, you know, I love money. I love certain comforts, you know, and I like having really nice things. It's not like, you know, we live in poverty. You know, we live in an amazing place, but, you know, we've been through our moments and I think these experiences shape us and they, they bring out the best in us. So, you know, don't think that, you know, your kid's gonna suffer because, you know, you can't do the big consumer situation that's been...

• 1:37:09Speaker 01

  Right. And it's the original rubber band scenario. You know, it's sort of like, "Oh, well, I overate and I overdrank."

• 1:37:16Speaker 02

  I overspent.

• 1:37:16Speaker 01

  And now it's January 2nd, I'm in debt, I feel horrible, I'm overweight, I'm hungover, and now it's time to make the New Year's resolutions and go on the diet and do all the whole thing. And like, and you're doing this weird slingshot thing all the time and there's no balance to any of that.

• 1:37:32Speaker 02

  That's right. And so if you, if we do it like this, I mean, just do a little prep, then we're just prepped just to keep moving, just really balance through the whole thing. We're gonna have, we're gonna have fun, we're gonna have meaning, we're gonna be healthy, we're gonna be well, we're gonna be spiritually connected. But we're not going to go to these extreme levels, which are stressful and detrimental to the body, mind, and spirit.

• 1:37:56Speaker 01

  There you go. I think that's a good place to wrap it up.

• 1:37:59Speaker 02

  Is that it?

• 1:38:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. What do you think? You wanna keep going?

• 1:38:01Speaker 02

  I think it's good. I don't know. Is there anything else?

• 1:38:04Speaker 01

  Well, you never run out of stuff. I mean, we could keep going, but I think that's a really nice bookend to what we're talking about. And if, if people want, you know, leave a comment on the blog page for this episode, and if there's more dialogue and discussion you guys wanna have around the holiday stuff, we'd be happy to reconvene and talk about it more. But, you know, leave a comment and let us know if there are other things that you wanna hear more about.

• 1:38:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:38:30Speaker 01

  Right?

• 1:38:30Speaker 02

  Absolutely. It'd be great.

• 1:38:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, cool. So...

• 1:38:35Speaker 01

  Julie Piatt is on Twitter at @JaiSeed, but your new favorite social media is Instagram.

• 1:38:43Speaker 02

  Instagram. I'm Srimati, @Srimati, S-R-I-M-A-T-I.

• 1:38:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, you gotta, you gotta keep them the same.

• 1:38:51Speaker 02

  How do I link those up? You have two different things. Then I gotta say goodbye to the Twitter people and then like how do I link them?

• 1:38:55Speaker 01

  You can change your, you can change.

• 1:38:56Speaker 02

  And keep my same following?

• 1:38:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't know how you do that.

• 1:38:58Speaker 02

  Well, I did that yesterday if I could do it.

• 1:39:00Speaker 01

  You're the king of too many names.

• 1:39:02Speaker 02

  Too many names.

• 1:39:02Speaker 01

  You gotta consolidate.

• 1:39:03Speaker 02

  What am I gonna do?

• 1:39:04Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 1:39:04Speaker 02

  Srimati.

• 1:39:05Speaker 01

  So anyway, yeah, on Instagram, you're sharing recipes and you're gonna be like posting a lot of pictures of holiday recipes.

• 1:39:10Speaker 02

  Yes, and also I'm working hard to get a food blog up, so it's a lot of new things after the new year. So we've got a second cookbook coming, very extensive.

• 1:39:18Speaker 01

  In the meantime, you can just put your food posts up on ritual.com and we'll do it there that way.

• 1:39:23Speaker 02

  Thank you. Thank you so much.

• 1:39:24Speaker 01

  We already have that, right?

• 1:39:25Speaker 02

  Okay, that's good. I didn't know I could do that.

• 1:39:27Speaker 01

  You can. And for, yeah, if you wanna kind of learn more about some of the meditation techniques that Julie talked about today and has talked about in the past, you can check out her Jai Release Meditation Program, which is up on ritual.com. It's like nine bucks, downloadable, a series of MP3s. And more recipes in the Jai Seed Cookbook, and we're working on a hardcover recipe book.

• 1:39:54Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:39:55Speaker 01

  I don't know when that'll be done and ready to be out, but in, it'll be, I don't know, soon.

• 1:40:00Speaker 02

  Probably early 2014, yeah.

• 1:40:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. And lots of requests for the Plant Power t-shirts. We are in the middle of reconfiguring the website. You might notice a couple of changes. We just changed the header and we're playing around with some new stuff and we're building out a new backend shopping experience. And these things take time and are not as simple as sometimes they might seem. So we're trying to get it right. It's taking a little while to configure everything and we're getting all the t-shirts in stock. We're gonna have a couple of different design options and we should have those up hopefully in time for people to buy them for Christmas or the holidays, but I'm not sure. I can't make any commitment on date yet for that.

• 1:40:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, we're just, we're really trying to get the color palette the way we want it. And we're working on a new logo and it just has to be right.

• 1:40:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, it's easy to slap up products, but we want to have some really cool, high-end, quality stuff. So we're just trying to, you know, sort of cross the Ts and dot the Is. But we will be getting those things up soon. And there's the Mind Body Green course. You can gift that for the holidays, too.

• 1:41:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, that'd be good.

• 1:41:10Speaker 01

  At mindbodygreen.com. And Julie's music.

• 1:41:14Speaker 02

  You can find my music on iTunes. "Mother of Mine" is my debut album. Or you can read more about me at shrimatimusic.com.

• 1:41:25Speaker 01

  Right. And on iTunes, it's just, you search Srimati, S-R-I-M-A-T-I, in the music store, and you can find her album there.

• 1:41:32Speaker 02

  That's right. And I just had a, I did a video blog for a beautiful singer named Sonnet. And it's called, "Living," oh, I forgot, "Living the Dream," "Living Your Dream." She did a great job. She interviewed me, and there's multiple videos there about the music. And it was really wonderful.

• 1:41:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, cool. I'll put a link up to that in the blog post.

• 1:41:54Speaker 02

  That'd be great. Be cool. And anyway, we had a great gig in Austin. Thanks to everybody who supported. And it was really fun to check out. Austin's a great town. We had some great vegan food. The boys and I had a great trip. And we're looking forward to our next gig. We'll let you know where that is.

• 1:42:10Speaker 01

  Right on. All right. Digging the Plant Power mission. Want to support the show, everything that we're doing. Want to expand Plant Power consciousness. The easiest way to do that is to tell a friend about the show. That's really all we ask. But if you're going to buy anything on Amazon, particularly all your holiday gifts that you're, of course, getting sewn up and configured before the holidays, right?

• 1:42:33Speaker 02

  Not buying very many.

• 1:42:34Speaker 01

  Please don't buy too many things. But if you are going to buy stuff on Amazon, click through the Amazon banner ad at richroll.com. It will not cost you a penny extra. And Amazon throws us a couple nickels and that keeps the bandwidth flowing and we appreciate it. There's been a lot of people using it. It's great. I think I'm going to start reading off like some of the interesting purchases that people are using.

• 1:42:58Speaker 02

  We can see what's trending.

• 1:43:00Speaker 01

  No, I can look on, like I can look at all the things that have been bought.

• 1:43:03Speaker 02

  I want to see.

• 1:43:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'll show you. There's some cool stuff. So maybe next week I'll pick a few and give some shout outs to some people. So we really appreciate that. Thank you for all the comments and five star reviews on iTunes. We love that. That helps us with the iTunes ranking. So if it feels right to you, go to the iTunes page for the show and leave us a nice comment. If you haven't done so already, subscribe at richroll.com and you get a free seven recipe download and then you'll be on our mailing list for our newsletters. To date, I've been sending out sort of podcast announcements and we're going to start sending

• 1:43:43Speaker 01

  out more informational, like a weekly email with kind of a curated, sort of a curated newsletter of interesting sort of topical news stories and videos and blog posts that are all kind of related to plant-based nutrition, fitness, health, all the themes and things that we talk about on the podcast.

• 1:44:03Speaker 02

  That's great.

• 1:44:04Speaker 01

  So yeah, sign up. It's this little subscription thing at richroll.com. You can check that out there. And I think that's it, right?

• 1:44:12Speaker 02

  That's it, I think.

• 1:44:13Speaker 01

  People can donate to the podcast if they want.

• 1:44:16Speaker 02

  And that's great. We appreciate that greatly.

• 1:44:18Speaker 01

  Some people have been doing that, which is really super awesome. So.

• 1:44:21Speaker 02

  It helps us a lot. Thank you so much.

• 1:44:23Speaker 01

  Thank you very much. It's touching that people would spend their hard-earned money to pay for something that is free and will always be free. So we greatly appreciate that. So join the Plant Power Nation. It's a movement, people. Come on. Are you on board? Get on board. All right. Are we done?

• 1:44:41Speaker 02

  I think we're done.

• 1:44:42Speaker 01

  All right, cool.

• 1:44:43Speaker 02

  Happy holidays, everyone. Have a beautiful journey and we'll see you next time.

• 1:44:48Speaker 01

  I think you'll be back before the holidays.

• 1:44:51Speaker 02

  I'm excited. I'll prepare my next show.

• 1:44:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:44:53Speaker 02

  Okay. Namaste.

• 1:44:55Speaker 01

  Thank you. Peace. Plants.