Optimize Your Morning Routine To Begin Your Day Right

Welcome back to our second spin around the listener Q&A merry-go-round! Due to popular demand (and all the great questions flooding our inbox), we're happy to once again banter on the subjects, issues and topics you want addressed. In this episode Julie and I cover a ton of ground, name dropping resources like an over-caffeinated publicist. Here's a top down view on the landscape: * The importance of the morning ritual to optimize your day; * Inspirational and educational books, websites, podcasts & other online resources; * Resources to facilitate your shift to a Plantpower lifestyle; * A few (very brief) thoughts on high carb / low carb / gluten and nutritional density; * More brief thoughts on certain foods to avoid and others to embrace; and * A few closing thoughts on running volume. No need to break out pen and paper. Due to the hard work of my trusty right hand Chris Swan, everything is detailed, itemized and hyperlinked for your convenience in the below show notes. So just sit back and enjoy. Special thanks and shoutout to everyone who submitted questions. Keep them coming! Peace + Plants, 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?

  Eating well rarely falls apart because of one big failure. It's the daily question that wears you down, like, what am I actually going to make tonight? What's in the fridge? And it's exactly why we built the Plant Power Meal Planner. It's a personalized, plant-based meal planning program that matches you with recipes based on your taste, your allergies, your cooking skills, and how much time you actually have. You build, through this program, a balanced, nutrient-dense plan for your entire household in a few minutes. Then it generates a grocery list for you with one click that plugs right into our delivery partners. All the recipes in the program are built by dietitians with culinary training. Plus, you get your own food coach to help you problem-solve along the way.

• 0:44Rich Roll?

  It's kind of an amazing thing. For listeners of the show, all you special people, we're offering an exclusive $20 off an annual subscription right now. To get it, go to meals.richroll.com, take your quick personalization quiz, and enter promo code RICHROLL20 at checkout. Welcome to episode 124 of the Rich Roll Podcast, Ask Me Anything with Julie Piatt.

• 1:25Rich Roll?

  Hey, everybody. I'm Rich Roll. I'm your host. Welcome to my show, to the Rich Roll Podcast. I'm here with Julie Piatt. Hey.

• 1:32Speaker 01

  Hey, Rich.

• 1:33Rich Roll?

  How's it going?

• 1:34Speaker 01

  It's going awesome.

• 1:35Rich Roll?

  Do you know what I do?

• 1:36Speaker 01

  I do. I know a little bit about what you do. Probably more than most.

• 1:39Rich Roll?

  I'm an ultra-endurance athlete. I'm a bestselling author. I'm a wellness evangelist. I'm a lifestyle entrepreneur. I'm a husband, and I'm a father of four. What do you do? What are some of the things that you do, Julie?

• 1:50Speaker 01

  I don't do that much. I sort of just watch you do what you do.

• 1:54Rich Roll?

  That's not true at all. You do all those things and more.

• 1:56Speaker 01

  Do you really want me to say anything about me?

• 1:59Rich Roll?

  Just fire them off.

• 2:00Speaker 01

  Okay, fine.

• 2:01Rich Roll?

  Bullet point.

• 2:02Speaker 01

  See, I'm a yogi, I'm a chef, I'm a Renaissance artist, I'm a musician, I'm a mother of four. I'm a... What am I? Spiritualist?

• 2:10Rich Roll?

  You're a wife.

• 2:11Speaker 01

  Meditator. I'm a wife. I said that already.

• 2:13Rich Roll?

  You did.

• 2:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, I did. So I do some of those things.

• 2:16Rich Roll?

  I've been coming home lately, walking into the house, and Julie's sitting on the floor in the main room of our house, practicing her sitar. Like, she has this huge sitar. You're getting pretty good at it.

• 2:28Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 2:29Rich Roll?

  It's pretty cool to watch.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  It's been really amazing, actually.

• 2:32Rich Roll?

  I mean, it's like the hardest instrument to learn, right?

• 2:34Speaker 01

  Oh, I don't know. I think, yeah, I think I had that same kind of thought before I began, but actually, it's, you know, it's like anything. It's music, it's universal, it's been around for thousands of years, and there's been many, many people that have played. Of course, you know, not at a Ravi Shankar level, but I'm really, really enjoying it. It's quite beautiful, and surprisingly, I'm, I'm learning it.

• 2:59Rich Roll?

  What we should do is just have you record a couple bars, riffs. We can just use it in the podcast.

• 3:05Speaker 01

  Okay, that'd be cool. That'd be awesome. Yeah, that'd be good.

• 3:08Rich Roll?

  Well, do you know what we do here at the show?

• 3:10Speaker 01

  I know what we do here at the show.

• 3:11Rich Roll?

  Do you?

• 3:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:12Rich Roll?

  Each week, I sit down with the best and the brightest, the most forward-thinking, paradigm-busting minds in health, and in wellness, and in fitness, and in sports, and in nutrition.

• 3:22Speaker 01

  And it's been amazing.

• 3:23Rich Roll?

  And in spirituality, and in entrepreneurship. Why? Why do I do this?

• 3:28Speaker 01

  You do it to inspire all of us and to help us.

• 3:31Rich Roll?

  To help you, all of us, discover, uncover, unlock, and unleash our most authentic selves together.

• 3:38Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 3:38Rich Roll?

  But we're doing it a little bit differently today. Not that you're not one of the best and the brightest. You're certainly a paradigm breaker. But this is our second stab at the Ask Me Anything question and answer format version of the podcast. Thanks so much to everybody who tuned in for our first one, which we did a couple weeks ago. I thought it went pretty well. The feedback was pretty good.

• 4:04Speaker 01

  We're showing back up.

• 4:05Rich Roll?

  There seemed to be a demand for us to do it again, so you guys kept sending in your questions, things you wanted us to talk about, to ask about, to pontificate on. So that's what we're here doing. We're gonna be doing, I'm gonna be mixing it up, too. I'm gonna start bringing in some other guests.

• 4:21Speaker 01

  Oh, you're kidding me.

• 4:23Rich Roll?

  I'm gonna rotate you out.

• 4:25Speaker 01

  I'm so bummed.

• 4:26Rich Roll?

  Now, I already talked to Preston Smiles about it. He wants to do it, too. He'd be good, too. I think Charlie Knowles would be cool to do it.

• 4:35Rich Roll?

  I don't know, we'll figure it out.

• 4:36Speaker 01

  It'll be great.

• 4:36Rich Roll?

  But don't worry, your place in the show is secure.

• 4:39Speaker 01

  I'm not worried.

• 4:40Rich Roll?

  You're not?

• 4:40Speaker 01

  I'm not worried.

• 4:41Rich Roll?

  All right. Is there anything you want to talk about before we get into these questions?

• 4:44Speaker 01

  No, I'm just prepared to be of service.

• 4:53Rich Roll?

  Well, we got a whole ton, and they ranged from very broad to incredibly specific. Some people would ask questions that were just so specific to their certain situation that I didn't feel like it was appropriate to address in this format.

• 5:10Speaker 01

  Really?

• 5:10Rich Roll?

  But there was one kind of consistent theme that went through a bunch of the emails, which was about the morning routine. And I think that's a good thing to talk about because that's something that I've been kind of focused on lately. That's an evolving thing for me. It's certainly an area where I needed to look at and improve upon, and that's what I've been doing lately. But the question basically is, you know, how do you start your day off right? What's your morning routine? How do you, you know, what are the things that you do when you wake up to get yourself ready for the day? So I can talk about what I've been working on, but why don't you, like, sort of lay the foundation for what you do or what you think is important for people to think about?

• 5:53Speaker 01

  Well, I guess I would say that establishing the morning routine, for me, in its most powerful form is in the wee hours of the dawn before the sun has come up.

• 6:05Rich Roll?

  You're going to do the 4:30 thing again.

• 6:07Speaker 01

  No, but it's just, it's, you know, you asked me to share my experience.

• 6:10Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I am.

• 6:10Speaker 01

  That's the truth of what it is. So I can't, you know, I can't say something else, just, you know, because it's more comfortable for the masses or whatever. So, but, I mean, I would say as a mother of four, and, you know, my nephew lives with us, and we now have, you know, we now have nine members living in our community, plus we just rescued two beautiful dogs. So we now have 11 beings living in our space, and...

• 6:31Rich Roll?

  Right, well, explain that a little... So it's you and me, and it's our four children, and then we have two dogs.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  And my nephew.

• 6:37Rich Roll?

  And then we have, yeah, Harrison.

• 6:39Speaker 01

  And then Drew and Rain who live in the airstream.

• 6:42Rich Roll?

  Drew and Rain who live in the airstream, yeah.

• 6:43Speaker 01

  That's right. So it's like, at any given time, there's 11 people.

• 6:46Rich Roll?

  The commune, we're gonna start throwing down yurts and it's just gonna be a full-on.

• 6:49Speaker 01

  It's always been my dream, anyway.

• 6:51Rich Roll?

  Mooney, it's gonna be a Mooney conversation.

• 6:53Speaker 01

  Don't use that word. It's gonna be a transformational experience. But anyway, so with that comes, I mean, it's, it's, it's hard. It's hard to, it's challenging, I would say. Sometimes I will be in a space where I'm ready to kind of drop in and suddenly five people will walk through the door. And I have that moment of, I can't believe you're walking in right now. And yet, at the same time, you know, that's, that's what's happening and it's in alignment, it works for us. So especially after the first of the year, I mean, I had a full moon meeting with my band, who also happens to be my sons, Tyler and Trapper, and also Harrison, and we were really, really setting down structure. So we're cleaning out clutter, you know, opening

• 7:36Speaker 01

  up spaces, and we're establishing very, very strict, you know, structures, I won't say strict, but structures around our life so that we can creatively bring in what we, you know, the power of our deepest visions and greatest visions, most expanded dreams that we're actualizing right now. So for me, what that means for me, being the mother of, of all these people and holding that energy, is that I have no choice but to get up at 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning, because if I don't have, if I don't do that, my day is already taken by everybody else as everybody wakes up.

• 8:14Rich Roll?

  There's just too many people intervening in there.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  And I mean, at, you know, 6 o'clock, Ty's, Ty's coming in, you know, to get ready. And we kind of had this, this ritual where we have this, you know, sort of superfood latte together that we create. So, you know, it's a mix of, sometimes it's Brazil nuts and fresh coconut, and then, you know, warm water and a date. You know, sometimes it's hemp seeds and ginger and turmeric. But we, we have a kind of ritual where we sort of sit together and, you know, we drink this together and then he goes off to work. And, you know, that's kind of a special thing for a mom to experience with her 19-year-old at this moment in time. And so, you know, I'm reticent to say, hey, you know, let's, I gotta go,

• 8:58Speaker 01

  or I have to go meditate. So I just have to get up earlier. So a lot of that comes, you know, and for me also, I will just add, and then, and then I'll let you have the mic, and that is... You know, there's a preparation for the morning as well. I'm not only addressing spiritual issues or topics or inspiring things or things that will help me break through barriers in that morning hour. I'm sort of preparing for it throughout the day. So oftentimes in the evening, when I'm practicing sitar, or, you know, I will seek something or find whatever I need for that inspiration and it will set up the next morning. So I'm not, I'm sort of prepared for the morning when it arrives, when it arrives.

• 9:36Rich Roll?

  Right, but anything else about your morning routine that's sacred or you think is important? Like, I'm trying to distill it down to very specific tools or practices.

• 9:44Speaker 01

  I have to give away my deepest secrets? No, no, I don't know.

• 9:47Rich Roll?

  You don't have to do anything.

• 9:48Speaker 01

  No, I don't know. I am, well, again, it's like, you know, I, I, I believe rising before the dawn is very, very powerful. Washing your hands, your face and your mouth. So if you, if you want to sort of imagine that you're going to sit down and you're going to speak to the divine, to like the most expanded consciousness, you don't want to sit down with bad breath or with an unclean body. So there's something about that, washing the hands and feet, you know, brushing your teeth, drinking a clean glass of water with lemon. And then depending on how you are, you know, I usually light a candle, then I have, you

• 10:28Speaker 01

  know, some kind of tea and then I do my visualization, set my energetic space, which involves really a visualization. And then I dive into meditation after that.

• 10:42Rich Roll?

  Okay.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  Is that specific enough?

• 10:45Rich Roll?

  Yeah, that's specific enough. I mean, all right, so here's where I'm coming from. You know, I'm an insane, obsessive compulsive personality and my proclivity, like my, you know, my default setting, my preference is to wake up, spring up, immediately check my email, get online and get out of the house as fast as possible so I can start my day because every minute not being productive is a minute wasted, right? And life is short. This practice-

• 11:14Speaker 01

  Is insane.

• 11:15Rich Roll?

  Has gotten, yeah, it's gotten me so far. But it's also running me into brick walls and it's not serving me. And as I want to say on this show and in life, the road gets narrower. And certain practices that I have been able to kind of live with or get away with throughout my life suddenly become no longer workable in my life. And I have to let them go or I have to look at them and I have to try to find a better way. It was true with drugs and alcohol. It was true with food. It's true with exercise and you know, it's becoming more and more true with other things like watching television or checking Twitter on my phone. All these things that are distracting me, removing me from the moment, making me less mindful and ultimately less productive, less engaged with those people around me that I

• 11:59Rich Roll?

  care about and making me a less fully actualized human being. So the morning practice, the morning routine is certainly part of that. And part of my 2015 is about setting up structures for a better way of doing this that is counter to my instincts. And if you look at the habits of the most successful people in the world, I think there is a consistent theme. And some of those practices, well, one of them that's pretty consistent with most people that accomplish tremendous things is they get up really early in the morning.

• 12:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would have to agree.

• 12:35Rich Roll?

  You know, whether you're Richard Branson or

• 12:37Speaker 01

  You're not sleeping until 11.

• 12:38Rich Roll?

  Even The Rock on his Instagram, like he Instagrammed his, his, his wake up call, his alarm on his iPhone. He gets up at 3:45 in the morning to go to the gym, right? He doesn't have to do that. So, so developing a habit of rising early and that, that involves like getting good, good sleep is important. So that begs the question of what your evening routine is also to prepare yourself for the night. We could talk about that maybe on a different podcast, but rising early, whether it's 4:30 or some other, you know, number, but pre-dawn I think is important. And then also developing a specific practice of deliberate mindfulness in the morning to prepare yourself for the day, whether that comes, you know, and you'll see that in different forms with different people.

• 13:21Rich Roll?

  But I think sort of being slow, deliberate, preparing, visioning, journaling, meditating, these sorts of things are really important to set a tone and a trajectory for how you're going to navigate yourself throughout the day as opposed to being reactive, you're being proactive. So this is something that I've been putting at the very top of my list. So what I, what do I do? I get up. I could be getting up earlier than I've been getting up, but I've been having issues. You said it, I didn't. Yeah, I know. I need to, I need to look at that. Sleep's very important to me, though, and my sleep's been very erratic lately.

• 14:00Rich Roll?

  And then, water with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar shortly upon awakening to alkalize the system is important. And then, I make myself some tea. I've been drinking black tea in the morning, although I probably should be having some pu erh tea, or some, maybe some raisin tea. Pu erh, or something. Instead, yeah. For interesting teas, go to livingtea.net. That's the place to get the good. That's our dear friend Colin. He'll hook you up. He works with Wuda. Exactly. If you listen to Wuda on the podcast. I got a lot of questions about tea also. Okay, good. We'll do that later. So, make myself some tea, and then, I go upstairs and I have a little routine,

• 14:41Rich Roll?

  a meditation routine, where I recite some visioning words. In great faith and trust. In faith and trust, right? And that's a very personal kind of thing that I do. And then, I do a 20-minute meditation. And I've been playing around with the Headspace app for that, which I found to be great. I think it's very, it's a very accessible practice. It's very beginner-friendly, but it's also tried and true practices that would work for anybody. And so, that's a 20-minute kind of guided meditation that I do. And it's been great. You know, I've been doing it, I don't know, I've been doing it now pretty much like 40-some-odd days without, without interruption. And I've already noticed

• 15:26Rich Roll?

  some pretty significant changes. What are some of those changes? Well, on the physical level, a really interesting thing is, I have fingernails. That's crazy. For the first time in my adult life. I've always compulsively

• 15:44Rich Roll?

  Like picked and chewed my fingernails, down to the quick where I have like bleeding cuticles and it's just a nervous kind of anxiety thing that I've always done.

• 15:52Speaker 01

  The entire time I've known you.

• 15:53Rich Roll?

  As long as you've known me, right?

• 15:55Speaker 01

  Always.

• 15:55Rich Roll?

  No fingernails.

• 15:56Speaker 01

  No fingernails ever.

• 15:57Rich Roll?

  No, and now I have, actually broke a nail, uh, two days ago. It's the first time I've ever broken a nail because I've never had fingernails.

• 16:04Speaker 01

  Let me see those, hold those up.

• 16:06Rich Roll?

  So.

• 16:06Speaker 01

  See, they don't even look like your fingers.

• 16:08Rich Roll?

  I know, now they're like too long, like I need to.

• 16:11Speaker 01

  No, they're fine.

• 16:11Rich Roll?

  It's just weird.

• 16:12Speaker 01

  Enjoy them. They're not like, you know, flamenco guitar long, they're just, they're just like an eighth of an inch, but they're just not, they're not chewed, that's crazy. And so what do you, what do you attribute that to?

• 16:24Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I have compulsively chewed them out of anxiety or whatever. It's not even a conscious act, like I don't even know that I'm doing it and suddenly that stopped.

• 16:32Speaker 01

  Right, that's interesting.

• 16:33Rich Roll?

  Like without a conscious decision, it wasn't like, my new year's resolution is I'm not going to, you know, bite my fingernails anymore. Like I didn't even think about it, it just, suddenly it just wasn't happening anymore. And I looked down, I was like, wow, I have fingernails, what happened?

• 16:47Speaker 01

  That's amazing.

• 16:48Rich Roll?

  And the only, what is the variable? Like if you're doing an experiment, like what is it? Well, the variable is this morning routine.

• 16:54Speaker 01

  Meditation.

• 16:54Rich Roll?

  So if that's what's happening, like in the physical realm with my hands, my fingers, I think that's suggestive of an inner kind of calm or peace that is starting to take root. So that's interesting in itself and I've noticed, just as I go throughout the day, I'm just more mindful and grounded. Like, I'm still human, I get riled up, I get reactive, I get angry, I get all of those things, but, but it's just a little bit, I don't know, I'm just, I'm productive, I'm economic and efficient in the use of my time, I'm less reactive, and things just tend to, they seem to be going more smoothly.

• 17:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's amazing. And I mean, this is just one of the things, and it's like, you know, in, you know, yogic tradition, it's like, you know, um, you don't quit anything, like you're not suppressing anything, you simply go into the practices and then you may wake up and find yourself transformed. You know, it's, it's the other way around. So, um, it's very powerful and you're experiencing a very visceral, physical demonstration right before your eyes. That's a wonderful, um, like leg of, of proof for you to grab onto and continue on your.

• 18:06Speaker 01

  Exploration.

• 18:07Rich Roll?

  Right. And so, all right, so I do the meditation, I do the recitation, then I do the 20-minute meditation.

• 18:14Speaker 01

  And what is that meditation? Are you following your breath? Are you doing pranayama?

• 18:18Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's basically a following of the breath, you know?

• 18:21Speaker 01

  That's great.

• 18:21Rich Roll?

  And Andy from Headspace kind of guides you through it. I'm having him on the podcast.

• 18:25Speaker 01

  Oh, awesome. That's good.

• 18:28Rich Roll?

  But what I like about the Headspace app, you know, listen, I've tried tons of different kinds of meditations. I'm not a newcomer or a beginner to meditation, but what I've always struggled with is being consistent in the practice. I have fits and starts. And so what Headspace has been most helpful to me with is creating momentum and consistency because it's an app and they're like, okay, you're on day seven, now you're on day eight.

• 18:52Speaker 01

  Right, so you can chart it.

• 18:54Rich Roll?

  And you kind of feel like, oh, yeah, you can chart it. It keeps, you know, it keeps track of it for you. It'll send you an email. You did, you know, four days in a row without, whatever. And just on a weird kind of like semi-unconscious level, you just feel like, oh, I have to, you know, it's like that app compulsive, you know, like I don't want to break the...

• 19:11Speaker 01

  There, you're still, you're still on an app, which is so awesome.

• 19:14Rich Roll?

  But it's working for me, you know what I mean?

• 19:16Speaker 01

  Well, good. Go for it.

• 19:17Rich Roll?

  And just, I'm enjoying it. So, you know, I would suggest that. And then what I do after that is I have a little, like, moleskin journal. And then I do a...

• 19:26Speaker 01

  Is that vegan? Moleskin?

• 19:28Rich Roll?

  I don't know. It's not real moles.

• 19:30Speaker 01

  We better make sure.

• 19:31Rich Roll?

  I make it out of mole, well, whatever. I have a little journal. I don't know. I should check that out. It's not made out of leather.

• 19:37Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 19:38Rich Roll?

  I have not. I should look.

• 19:39Speaker 01

  It's just another one of those things we have to clear out.

• 19:41Rich Roll?

  No. And I do a gratitude list. I make a list every morning of the things that I'm grateful for.

• 19:47Speaker 01

  Oh, that's good.

• 19:49Rich Roll?

  And then I do like...

• 19:49Speaker 01

  See, I'm learning this for the first time, too, because this is his private thing.

• 19:52Rich Roll?

  And then I do, and then I do like a mini journal. Like, if I have more time, I'll do a full, like, sort of earnest way, three pages of journaling. But it's like, how many things do I have to do in the morning before I get going? So I kind of truncate it. And I usually just write down a couple sentences. And then also, just to free my mind, like, sometimes when I'm meditating, and I'm always trying to bring my...

• 20:15Rich Roll?

  You know, bring my mind back to the breath. Like a thought will enter.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 20:18Rich Roll?

  And then it leaves and I'm bringing my thought, you know, I'm trying to bring it back to the breath. I'll jot those things down in a journal, like the things that keep coming up in my mind.

• 20:26Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 20:26Rich Roll?

  That are kind of preoccupying me. So at least they're on paper and I can kind of dismiss them from, you know, looping in my head.

• 20:33Speaker 01

  Right.

• 20:33Rich Roll?

  And then I brush my teeth and I get dressed and I either go train or I go to work to padlock on the day.

• 20:40Speaker 01

  That's great.

• 20:40Rich Roll?

  So that's the morning routine.

• 20:41Speaker 01

  Happy it's working for you.

• 20:42Rich Roll?

  But I think whatever you're, I'm not saying that that's what everybody should do. That's an example of something that's working for me. Yours is a little bit different. But I think the, the message is decide upon, make a conscious decision about how you're going to spend that time in the morning as opposed to just waking up and being reactive and being on autopilot.

• 21:01Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 21:02Rich Roll?

  And I think that because those, you know, those first, that first hour of your day is super important. And I think it's a time of the day where you want to be conscious about the actions that you're taking.

• 21:13Speaker 01

  And setting it up in the right way.

• 21:15Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 21:15Speaker 01

  Yeah. And if some of you are more like me and you're ready to dive in a little bit, little bit deeper and, you know, my meditation on the Rich Roll website is extremely powerful and it consists of a few different techniques, but the first one is a humming practice, which has been absolutely transformational for me. And I've seen it work with children and, you know, experienced meditators, beginning meditators. And it's basically a humming practice. And so you hum into your heart center and then you listen to some mantra that is from, it's Tu Ganesh, which is the remover of obstacles, this amazing elephant boy deity.

• 21:56Speaker 01

  And then it has a very powerful sealing practice, which I really, really feel is essential for all of us in the world today. It's learning how to manage your energy field and how to seal yourself so that you know what feelings are yours and what feelings and emotions are others that should not be in your space. So if you have a desire, you can check that out. And I would suggest committing to it for a set period, like saying, I'm going to try this for 21 days, you know, or 40 days. And then just do it without judgment and see where you're at at the end. And maybe you'll have really long fingernails.

• 22:33Rich Roll?

  Maybe you will. It's frightening. All right, let's move along. There was also a series of questions that were all very similar about resources, books we read, podcasts we listen to, website resources, et cetera, et cetera. So just to kick that off, Anne, Anne Holmes, hi Anne. Hi Anne. From British Columbia, wanted to know, among other things, can you recommend five books that inspired you along the journey? Do you have five books that- From each of us? Yeah, I made a little list. Do you want to go first? Yeah. There's so many books, but I was trying to think of what are the core ones that have been the most profound or impactful to me. It's hard to make that

• 23:17Rich Roll?

  list, but I would say that, well, the top of that list would probably be the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous. That's huge for you. Yeah, well, I got sober with that book. That's right, man. I still reread it all the time. Without that, you wouldn't be alive. So I'm reciting it constantly. So that's probably at the top of my list. That might not be everybody's- Hopefully not. Not everybody needs that. Actually, there are tools in that book that are applicable to everybody, wherever you are. Like, these steps are really kind of revelatory for everybody in their journey and process. So that's one. The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. You love that one. Instrumental for me. It's about sort of unlocking your inner muse and getting

• 24:00Rich Roll?

  in touch with your more creative self, developing that connection, that relationship with the best part of who you are, and learning tools and ways to express that in your life. So I would definitely suggest that one. Similarly, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, hugely, hugely important book to me. It's about overcoming procrastination and learning how to be creative and be able to express your voice. It's a fantastic book. It's a super short, easy to read book, too. I haven't read that. Autobiography of a Yogi. Of course. By Paramahansa Yogananda. A classic. Is an amazing book. I've read that at least three times. Must read. I would suggest that one.

• 24:45Rich Roll?

  The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.

• 24:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:48Rich Roll?

  Tolle is, I've always said it Toll and then suddenly people are saying Tolle all the time.

• 24:52Speaker 01

  I don't know, we always said it Toll.

• 24:53Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 24:54Speaker 01

  But whatever.

• 24:55Rich Roll?

  I've read that one a long time ago.

• 24:56Speaker 01

  He doesn't care, trust me.

• 24:57Rich Roll?

  I don't think he does either. Yeah, that's a must. I mean, everybody kind of knows that book, but even so, that doesn't mean that it's any less impactful.

• 25:03Speaker 01

  And he also wrote his new book, The New Earth, which is also amazing. It's an amazing perspective. Those are huge. And if you can get Power of Now on audio with him reading it, you will get zapped through the, through the CD.

• 25:15Rich Roll?

  His little gnome-like energy.

• 25:16Speaker 01

  No, it's amazing. I mean, he will, you will receive some transformation from listening to him. That's amazing.

• 25:22Rich Roll?

  Right. Alright, so Artist's Way, Autobiography of a Yogi, War of Art, The Power of Now, and the big book. So that's, that's like a starter pack.

• 25:31Speaker 01

  It's a starter pack. And then if you want to go to the next level.

• 25:34Rich Roll?

  What kind of craziness do you have written down over there?

• 25:37Speaker 01

  If you want to go to outer space, then come with me on this journey. No, so I would also have to say just Autobiography of a Yogi, I had it written down as well, but let's just say Divine Romance, or any of the other, you know, many, many, many books that Yogananda wrote. I also want to mention his, there's a film out about his life right now. It's called Awake. You can go, I don't know, search it. I think it's awake.com. I saw the film on Sunday. It was extraordinary footage of him and of Sri Yuk Teshwar and Ananda Moi Ma. And it just, it took my breath away. Beautiful, beautiful. And it was his

• 26:17Speaker 01

  birthday yesterday. And I learned some things that I didn't know from the film. And if you get a chance to see it, or organize a screening in your town, please check it out because it's, it's really, really exceptional. So I would also say, okay, so one really amazing, amazing sort of guidebook that really sort of was with us through many, many trials over the years where we were being dismantled and kind of reconfigured. So if any of you are going through that kind of very sacred experience right now, and you know, things are pretty intense. Pick up a copy of Oneness by Rasha.

• 26:59Speaker 01

  And Rasha is actually a collective consciousness that channels through this woman. So it is a communication from off planet. And it explains in detail different stages of development of the human experience and what's happening here. So it's very humanly useful. So it might talk about, you know, what's going on if you're, if you have relationships falling away, or what's going on if you've lost your job, or you're losing your house. And so, you know, our copies were completely tattered and it really kept us company and was an extreme source of support. So check that out. Then I would have to say The Star Seed Transmissions by Ken Carey.

• 27:42Rich Roll?

  Oh, no. You're getting super out there.

• 27:45Speaker 01

  You asked me.

• 27:46Rich Roll?

  I know, I'm asking you, go for it.

• 27:48Speaker 01

  Okay, what are you talking about? This is amazing. This is an amazing, amazing, amazing book for anybody who's on the brink of really opening up their spiritual awareness. And it's an old book. It's a little, it's a thin book, but he actually talks about a time on the planet, you know, these times that we're in now, and about communities coming together. And while a lot of it may not be exactly literal, it's really very, very powerful and beautifully, beautifully written. And also, it is a channeled work he received. And he actually dedicates the book to a group of trees that were on the land where he received this, this body of work.

• 28:28Speaker 01

  And then, just to really make Rich Uncomfortable, I'm going to say, Bringers of the Dawn.

• 28:35Rich Roll?

  Oh, man.

• 28:35Speaker 01

  Teachings from the Palladians. These are a star race. And it's by Barbara Marcini, Marciniel, Marciniel. Really amazing, amazing perspective if you've never even thought, you know, if you've thought beyond your backyard fence, like if you've ever managed to look over and, and see what else might be out there. And the Palladian energy is a very, very loving, very soft. Very beautiful energy and so check that out. And then I would have to say the entire body of work from the B-Har School of Yoga books.

• 29:15Speaker 01

  The B-Har School of Yoga was founded in 1964 by Satyananda Saraswati. And he was a disciple of Shivananda, who came from Tamil Nadu. Still to this point in my life, they are an incredible source of pure yogic teachings and technique. And it is pure and true and just a beautiful, beautiful body of work. And you can get all of these at the, I think it's called bharschoolofyoga.com. If you're a yogi, you must have these books.

• 29:47Rich Roll?

  Right, well, I'll put, I'll put links up in the show notes to all of these books to help you guys pick it up. All right, so that's your list?

• 29:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's my list.

• 29:54Rich Roll?

  That's an out there list.

• 29:55Speaker 01

  Is that good enough for you?

• 29:56Rich Roll?

  It's fine, it's your list, it's awesome.

• 29:58Speaker 01

  Why are you laughing at me?

• 30:00Rich Roll?

  I'm not, because, well, you make it easy, that's why.

• 30:03Speaker 01

  That's another one of my talents.

• 30:14Rich Roll?

  All right, well, a corollary to this question is, is other things that we, other types of content that we enjoy, whether it's other kinds of books, or website resources, podcasts, et cetera. And in terms of some of the websites that I find myself frequenting to read, I like Brain Pickings, brainpickings.com. I like Zen Habits, Leo's website, always chock full of great wisdom. He started a new website called Unschoolery, which is kind of a forum and resource for parents who are

• 30:47Speaker 01

  Unschooling?

• 30:48Rich Roll?

  Who are homeschooling and unschooling, which has been really great. And what other, what other things do you read on the internet?

• 30:56Rich Roll?

  I don't have that much time. I know you're gonna go to some crazy.

• 30:58Speaker 01

  No, I would say, again, it's like, if this isn't for you, then just laugh and don't pay attention. But if this is for you, I mean, our life is now.

• 31:07Rich Roll?

  You're not gonna say like, "The Huffington Post." You're gonna say...

• 31:09Speaker 01

  Of course I'm not gonna say "The Huffington Post." Why would I? I don't really troll the internet for whatever. No, I mean, our life is now. The time for transformation is now. And we're spiritual beings having a human experience. And I'm not really in a place anymore where I feel I have to apologize for that point of view.

• 31:28Rich Roll?

  I'm not asking you to apologize.

• 31:29Speaker 01

  No, it's incredible. And it's like, people are asking for more information. I just gave them my best. Like, that's the truth. And so, in order to be authentically in service and really serve, I have to offer what's true.

• 31:45Rich Roll?

  I'm not asking you to do anything other than that.

• 31:47Speaker 01

  Okay, so, there's two websites that I think are amazing. And again, you'll know if you're this person. If you're this person, you're gonna be going, "Oh, thanks, Julie. Thank you so much." So, you're welcome. I tell you, you're welcome. And if it's not for you, then you won't hear it and you won't be able to find it, anyway. So, the most amazing resource, okay, this is for anyone who is at that moment or experiencing extreme health situations. I'm talking about life or death situations. Just anything. If you're on that brink of spiritual transformation, check out [email protected]. She has

• 32:29Speaker 01

  been a dear mentor of mine and of my family. Rich and I would not be standing here as well as we are were it not for her. She is very, very in-service to humanity. It is a very advanced perspective on spirituality. So, if you're one of those people, there it is. And if you would like things in a little bit lighter package, there is an amazing woman on the East Coast. Her name is Lauren Gorgo. And she has a site called thinkwithyourheart.com. I think she has now. Thinkwithyourheart.com. And she sends out a monthly newsletter and has a very beautiful sense of humor and

• 33:11Speaker 01

  lightness about her, even though she's talking about some of these very dire situations that are happening on planet Earth, you know, all over the world, which, you know, it is a very intense time out there. So I hope that's helpful. And also, shrimati.com.

• 33:25Rich Roll?

  Yeah, your website, of course.

• 33:28Speaker 01

  For the deeper story. But I haven't been posting there because I was finishing the cookbook and I'm trying to organize my nine, my 11 family members at the house. But I will be hitting, I will be starting to step up spiritual communication and stuff on that site in 2015, so.

• 33:41Rich Roll?

  All right. And I would say that to supplement that, I like to read fiction at night. I can't, I have a really hard time reading like how to type stuff in the evening, like when I'm trying to wind down. And I really enjoy great books. So I just finished reading 1Q84 by Murakami, which I highly suggest. It's like a thousand pages. Took me a while to read it, but it was great. And now I'm reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, which I am loving right now. And I'm on the how to front, I'm reading Zero to One by Peter Thiel. I just cracked it, so I can't really give a full review on that. But those are just a couple of the things that I'm looking at right now. In terms of podcasts, people

• 34:26Rich Roll?

  want to know what kind of podcasts do you listen to?

• 34:29Speaker 01

  Well, I think our family, what, they listen to Serial.

• 34:33Rich Roll?

  Well, everybody listens to Serial. That's like, that's hardly, that's like-

• 34:37Speaker 01

  That's hardly like news.

• 34:38Rich Roll?

  Yeah. All right, Serial, of course. I mean, I love, I love WTF with Marc Maron. He's my interview hero. I think that guy's fantastic. I love the way that he speaks to people. So that's really always kind of like at the top of my list. But I also listen to Radiolab. I love Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. It's fantastic. And I listen to Tim Ferriss's show and James Altucher's show. And I love Off Camera.

• 35:03Rich Roll?

  Which is great, kind of long-form conversations with your favorite filmmakers and actors. It's Sam Jones, and I interviewed him for the podcast that's coming up in a couple of weeks, which is great. He's a photographer and a documentary filmmaker, and he has a show off-camera, which is also a television show on DirecTV, but he does it as a podcast. And he does a really nice job, so I enjoy that. The latest one was with Jeff Bridges, which was fantastic, and the one with Matt Damon was really good.

• 35:29Speaker 01

  They're both amazing, so it would have to be.

• 35:32Rich Roll?

  And then the second corollary to this question is, a couple of emails came in about resources, online resources or books for people that are looking to step into getting plant-powered, right? Like, how do I, where can I go online? What other books, resources can I avail myself of that will help me make this dietary shift? And if you listen to this show, you know that we recommend our Ultimate Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition course at MindBodyGreen.com. We're really proud of that, and I think that that's very helpful. Of course, Finding Ultra and our cookbook that's coming out this spring, The Plant Power Way. If you do have a copy of Finding Ultra, you will notice in the appendices

• 36:15Rich Roll?

  that I have a huge bibliography of all these books, as well as a long list of website resources that are all really helpful. But if you don't have a copy of the book, maybe you should just pick it up, right?

• 36:28Speaker 01

  Now's the time. Why wait?

• 36:30Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I mean, some of those would be, I mean, anything by Dr. Neil Barnard is great. The books by Brendan Brazer are great. The books by Rip Esselstyn, The Engine 2 Diet Might Beef with Meat, Brendan Brazer's Thrive series. Neil Barnard's book, books on reversing diabetes are fantastic. Of course, T. Colin Campbell's books, Whole and the China Study.

• 36:54Rich Roll?

  Dr. Esselstyn's book Prevent or Reverse Heart Disease is amazing. Kathy Freshton's books are good and kind of very user-friendly. Joel Furman, Eat to Live. Let's see, as far as websites, pcrm.org, that's Neil Barnard's site. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is fantastic. NoMeatAthlete.com is good. ForksOverKnives.com. EngineToDiet.com. NutritionStudies.org, which is T. Colin Campbell's Foundation website. And my favorite is NutritionFacts.org, which is Dr. Michael Greger's site. So those should keep you busy for a while.

• 37:32Speaker 01

  Great DVDs that he can send your way.

• 37:34Rich Roll?

  Yeah, and all the videos there.

• 37:35Speaker 01

  And for any of you yogis who are interested in Ayurveda or in sort of studying more deeply the role that yoga plays in lifestyle, you can check out a workbook on living a high-pronect life at swamahiman.org. It is written by His Holiness Vidya Dushananda. And I attended a workshop and I'm actually cooking out of this cookbook, and it's quite a treasure of information, and you can only get it on their website.

• 38:08Rich Roll?

  Very good. All right, before we get to the next question, I wanted to do an addendum to our last Q and A. Remember when I read a question by a guy called Pete, and he claimed to be a recovered alcoholic? And I went, "Recovered? How'd he do that?" Well, he heard me. He heard me say that, and he sent in a clarification, right? So, a brief response to your response. "I use the quote-unquote 'recovered' word for a specific reason. The Big Book tells us numerous times that we do recover and suggests that we be introduced to the new man as, quote, 'someone who has recovered,' close quote. I am sponsored by Big Book Thumper, whose belief is that if we no longer suffer from the hopeless state of mind and body, we are recovered, never cured."

• 38:53Rich Roll?

  Just food for thought. So, that makes sense.

• 38:55Speaker 01

  I like that, Pete. Thanks for clarifying that.

• 38:58Rich Roll?

  Thank you for that. And apologies if you took my statement before the wrong way. I didn't mean any offense to that.

• 39:05Speaker 01

  No, but it's good that he clarified it.

• 39:07Rich Roll?

  Right. How about a little specific nutrition question?

• 39:12Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 39:13Rich Roll?

  So this is from Ron.

• 39:15Speaker 01

  Hi, Ron.

• 39:15Rich Roll?

  Ron B.

• 39:16Speaker 01

  Hi, Ron B.

• 39:17Rich Roll?

  He says, have you, well, there's much stuff here, but he says, have you found yourself cutting back on your carb intake during this plant-based journey? The thought of cutting back on carbs/pasta is a little scary. So I think what's behind this question is kind of there's this low carb movement right now, cut out the carbs, and there's a little bit of confusion here because I think there's a difference between reducing your carbohydrate intake versus reducing your intake of kind of empty, nutritionally poor sources of carbohydrate, like the pastas or the crackers.

• 39:54Speaker 01

  White bread.

• 39:54Rich Roll?

  Or the white rice and the white bread, and all these sorts of things, right? So where do you stand on this?

• 40:00Speaker 01

  So, I mean, I would say, I think that, okay, so the correct, the correct way to form the question would be for whom and when? So I don't know where you are in your journey, you know, into plant-based nutrition, but it's all a journey and, you know, it's not black or white, it's gray, and it evolves kind of at its own pace. But I would say that as you start to eat more whole foods that are organic, local, in-season, you will find that you will be craving those things less and less and less. Okay? But I will tell you that being a pasta lover myself and having traveled extensively in Italy, and Rich and I used to host these beautiful yoga retreats in the Italian countryside,

• 40:45Speaker 01

  and the food was insane.

• 40:49Speaker 01

  So the idea of never eating, you know, a pasta again was not, not a very beautiful thought to me when I went completely vegan. But I will say that there is an amazing product and a lot popping up now, but in particular one, and I'm forgetting the name of it, is it Exotic?

• 41:11Rich Roll?

  It's called Asian Exotic or ExoticAsian.com, something like that, and there's a hyphen in it, I can't remember because I was Looking it up. You're talking about the mung bean and the zucchini bean pasta.

• 41:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's incredible. And they make like a fettuccine out of mung bean and all it is is mung bean. The same thing, they have zucchini spaghetti, they have black bean spaghetti, and they have brown rice pad thai noodles. So start looking, look online. Actually, I know for a fact you can get it on Amazon. So you can click through the richroll.com, click on the Amazon banner, and go source your pasta online. Try these products out, and I don't think you're going to be disappointed. I think you're going to be quite inspired. I just can't say enough, I really feel gluten is not good for us. And I don't, I don't really even care if you're gluten sensitive or not, because I thought that I wasn't for

• 42:06Speaker 01

  a very long time. And the way that our wheat source and, you know, other kinds of breads are being produced in the US at least, you don't want that stuff in your body. And the workbook that I mentioned from the, the Vedic monk that I studied with, he feels very, very strongly about gluten and what it's doing to the body. So try to get off it and, and try to find cleaner sources. And I have some amazing pasta sauces and dishes that are coming in the Plant Power Way that I think you will enjoy.

• 42:43Rich Roll?

  Right. So first of all, I found the website. It's explore dot asian dot com.

• 42:50Speaker 01

  There you go.

• 42:51Rich Roll?

  Explore hyphen asian dot com.

• 42:53Speaker 01

  Explore, okay.

• 42:54Rich Roll?

  Yeah, so they have all these zucchini bean pastas and all different kinds of pastas made out of beans. And, and they're very low carb and low fat and high protein. So it's a complete win across the board. But I think in terms of, of, you know, of reducing your carbohydrate intake, I think a better question is trying to increase, increase the nutritional density of the foods that you're eating. So, you know, I'm not a proponent of like cutting fruit out of your diet. I think that, you know, a prudent amount of food, fruit in your diet is a fantastic thing. And I'm more a proponent, excuse me. Of cutting out nutritionally poor foods. Foods that are high in calories or high in carbohydrates but don't really have any

• 43:37Speaker 01

  Processed foods.

• 43:38Rich Roll?

  Yeah, or processed and don't really have any nutritional value. So I think that's really the greater focus of your inquiry. In terms of gluten, certainly experiment with removing it. Pay attention to how you feel. The hybridized wheats and grains that we're eating these days are certainly not the grains of our grandparents. They've been stripped of a lot of their nutritional value. And in so doing, there has been an increase in the gluten content, among other things, that are being shown to be maybe not so good for us.

• 44:10Speaker 01

  Not so good, no. And I heard another thing recently, actually, and I didn't read this myself, so I heard it, you know, third party. But I heard that in order to kill the wheat and make it easier to harvest, it's being sprayed with Roundup, which is an extremely toxic poison. So it's just not a great thing.

• 44:30Rich Roll?

  Well, that's how Monsanto sort of does this whole thing. They create a seed that's Roundup resistant, and then they can spray, they spray Roundup on it. So it's all vertically integrated.

• 44:40Speaker 01

  Yes, horrible.

• 44:41Rich Roll?

  So they create, the GMO of the seed, the genetically modified seed, is specifically conceptualized and conceived so that it can withstand

• 44:49Speaker 01

  The Roundup.

• 44:50Rich Roll?

  That pesticide. That's the whole point.

• 44:52Speaker 01

  Horrible.

• 44:53Rich Roll?

  That's most of the point of why they're doing this. So, anyway, yeah, all the more reason why you should look for, you know, obviously if it's certified organic, it won't have that. But, you know, when you can, then that's what you should be looking for.

• 45:06Speaker 01

  And also, look for heirloom grains. And the good news is, is there's a lot of creative, amazing people that are getting on this. And, you know, I know we live in California, so we have access to a lot of things, but there's a lot of people developing new, new improved, creative, you know, healthy food. So I have faith in us. We'll be okay.

• 45:33Rich Roll?

  All right, here's a question from Cecilia. I don't know if she wants to be...

• 45:39Speaker 01

  Hi Cecilia.

• 45:40Rich Roll?

  Hi Cecilia.

• 45:40Speaker 01

  Nice name.

• 45:41Rich Roll?

  She wants to be anonymous, so I will assume that she does. "Hi Rich, I really enjoy your show and I'm so thankful for it. I have transformed from eating junk and being an alcoholic to being a green juice machine, runner and surfer. I lost 30 pounds within a year's time. I'm now running long distances once a week and running 30 to 40 miles per week. A few folks are worried I'm running too much. I want to run for the rest of my life without getting injured. How can I... How much can I run per week? I may want to be an ultra runner. You're so inspiring, going with the flow and surfing the wave that comes my way. Happy 2015." So, all right, so a few folks are worried I'm running too much.

• 46:19Speaker 01

  Those few folks. I wonder if those few folks are the same few folks we know.

• 46:25Rich Roll?

  The folks that are projecting onto you their worry about how much you're running is saying a lot more about who they are and what's going on with them than about you. Right? So what is going on with them that it's important for them to be kind of levying judgment upon something that seems to be working for you? I think that's the first thing to think about. I'm not... You know, we don't know these people. Maybe you are running too much. I don't know. But I think that it's important to develop a sense of self where you start to know what's right for you and have the wherewithal and the self-esteem and the self-confidence to rely on that, trust on that and act upon that irrespective of what other people are

• 47:10Rich Roll?

  telling you you should or shouldn't do.

• 47:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, like how is your energy level? How is your balance? Are you, you know, getting injured? Are you, you know, missing experiences that are important in your life with your children, your partner, your kids, your lover? Or are you just running a lot? So you have to say.

• 47:30Rich Roll?

  Well, running 30 to 40 miles per week is not like running 100 miles a week. That's not that huge of a time commitment. I think that it is important.

• 47:39Speaker 01

  It's impressive.

• 47:40Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's great.

• 47:41Speaker 01

  Don't get me wrong.

• 47:41Rich Roll?

  You should be very proud and happy with.

• 47:43Speaker 01

  I'm not running 30 or 40 miles a week.

• 47:45Rich Roll?

  How you've changed your life around. And it's funny, it's the joke that I always say, like, nobody's concerned and worried about you when you're eating junk food all day long.

• 47:54Speaker 01

  When you're not running.

• 47:54Rich Roll?

  Because that's comfortable for the community. But once you do something that is a little bit outside the box, even if it's in the direction of self-improvement, that sometimes can be threatening to other people. And you would think, like, when you do something good for yourself and you change for the better, that everybody else will notice and give you a pat on the back and say, "Good job." But that's not always how human behavior works. Because if you could make that change, then that's a mirror up to that other person, showing them that, hey, maybe they could too. And that's scary for a lot of people. So what do they do? Instead of giving you a high five, they'll react negatively because they want to bring you back down. And unfortunately, that happens. So it's about developing the acuity to be aware of when that dynamic is starting to

• 48:39Rich Roll?

  take hold and being able to kind of say, "Okay, this is what's going on. Like, I understand." And either extracting yourself out of it or just with that understanding, knowing how to respond accordingly.

• 48:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, and sometimes it's also, you know, like, people don't like change. And so they're trying to figure out how you fit into their image of you, of how you were, you know? So they're just trying to find a place to put you. And you're running a lot, and it's feeling very unsafe to them.

• 49:07Rich Roll?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 49:08Speaker 01

  So, I mean, it's not, you know, it's kind of human nature. And so, you know, it really just comes from that, of that fear that you've broken some boundary and, "Oh, my God, what's beyond that? And what might I have to look at?"

• 49:19Rich Roll?

  What are you doing? Why are you doing? I remember when I first started, because it was very different from our crowd of friends, that I would be doing something like that. And they'd be like, "You're doing what? Like, why are you doing that? And like, "Yeah, I don't think that's such a good idea."

• 49:32Speaker 01

  Right, and I remember even after your first race, and you were like, "Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what's next." And the people were like, "What do you mean, 'what's next'? Go back to work. It's over." You know? So people just, I don't know. And, you know, we're all just doing the best we can. So I'm sure those people really do care about you. And I'm sure that they're just trying to find their balance. So just stay neutral. Find your own truth. Send love and compassion.

• 49:56Rich Roll?

  It is true. You do want to be careful not to run too much.

• 49:59Speaker 01

  Don't run too much.

• 50:00Rich Roll?

  Because you can get injured. So you have to be very, very cautious and judicious about how you increase your running volume. And it should be done very responsibly and incrementally with rest days and rest weeks built in so that you allow your body to slowly adapt and heal from the training that you're doing. What you will find is that your heart and your lungs will develop more rapidly than the tendons and the ligaments in your legs, right? So that's where injury comes in because you feel like you can, you can keep going, like your, your, your breath is good, your heart feels good, you want to go. But you haven't put in enough miles for the ligaments in your knees and your ankles and everything

• 50:40Rich Roll?

  like that to kind of adapt. And that's where trouble comes in. So when in doubt, do err on the side of doing a little bit less, and that will pay dividends in the long run.

• 50:54Rich Roll?

  You have anything to add to that?

• 50:56Speaker 01

  Well, I guess I would just say that, you know, listen to your body. Your body knows.

• 51:04Rich Roll?

  Here's a fun one from Joe. Do you think it's possible for someone to be on a healthy, plant-based lifestyle while still consuming a vegan alcohol if that person is not troubled by alcoholism? And to that I say, if I was not an alcoholic, I would get drunk every day. Knock yourself out.

• 51:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think it's...

• 51:23Rich Roll?

  You know, I can't really like, listen, if you don't have a problem with alcohol and you have a glass of wine, like...

• 51:28Speaker 01

  But do you have a problem with alcohol? No, I'm kidding.

• 51:31Rich Roll?

  But only an alcoholic would ask that question.

• 51:32Speaker 01

  No, I'm not an alcoholic. No, um, yeah, I would say that it's a process. I wouldn't worry about it. I'm glad that you're enjoying great, you know, vegan, organic alcohol. That's awesome. Good for you. And I think that the more... The more you tap into your spiritual connection and the more that you connect with living your authentic self and eating amazing foods, I find that that tendency just falls away. But it doesn't mean you will never drink again in your life, but it becomes, it's sort of like, it's just a side symptom. So I wouldn't worry about it. I'd just be yourself and enjoy how great you're feeling.

• 52:09Rich Roll?

  Here's an interesting aspect of his grammar choice and syntax in this question, though, because he says, he says, "Do you think it's possible for someone to be on a healthy plant-based lifestyle while still consuming vegan alcohol if that person is not troubled by alcoholism?" So does that mean that that person has alcoholism, but it just doesn't trouble them that much? Or does it mean that they don't have alcoholism?

• 52:33Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 52:34Rich Roll?

  I don't know.

• 52:35Speaker 01

  But I'm just happy that he's on the path.

• 52:38Rich Roll?

  So, yeah, listen, if you want to have a little alcohol and it doesn't interfere, the question really is, is it interfering with your, is it undermining the quality of your life? Do you wake up the next day and feel lousy and not able to be as present and productive in your life? That's really the only thing. If not, then...

• 52:57Speaker 01

  But I mean, let me share from not being an alcoholic, because everything that we talk about on the show is always from, you know, you're sharing your addict's perspective, right? It's all in that. No, it's fine. But it's like, you know, for me, you know, I use plenty of drugs and alcohol, more than most people should. And oh, my God, I'm lucky I'm alive, quite frankly.

• 53:15Rich Roll?

  You still do?

• 53:16Speaker 01

  No, I did in high school. And, I mean, I was done with drugs by like 11th grade. So it's, I grew up in a very, very, very wild town. And, you know, a lot of stuff went down, and I wouldn't recommend it for anybody, but I survived. And, you know, it was part of my mastery, I suppose. But the way that, you know, just recreational wine drinking, because it is, you know, it's a social, it's a social, you know, event. You go out, you have a drink, you know, even... I was drinking, you know, I always liked to drink good quality because I was so sensitive and I would, you know, not feel well the next day. But I would just say that as I started practicing more and more yoga and meditating and eating better, then I started noticing just how, how I really didn't feel like I was at the

• 54:01Speaker 01

  top of my game the next day. And I would think to my, you know, feel to myself, why did I drink? Why did I drink? And it was a lot of time of me asking myself, why did I drink? Because I really didn't feel good the next day. And then, when I tapped into a certain amount of, of sort of life force and this kind of connection to consciousness from practicing yoga on a regular basis and meditating on a regular basis, that I could say that, that, that need or that desire simply fell away from me and I no longer desired it. And, you know, you say to me often, you know, you should drink, you know, have a drink, you know, you should, you can.

• 54:37Rich Roll?

  You make it sound like I'm pushing it on you. I don't ever do that.

• 54:40Speaker 01

  No, but you're like, you should, you know, you, if I told you I wanted to have a drink, you'd be like, great, have a drink. Because I'm not an addict.

• 54:47Rich Roll?

  Well, I don't care one way or the other.

• 54:48Speaker 01

  No, but I'm just saying that I don't have the desire. It doesn't exist in me. And I can't even remember the last time I took a drink, you know, of anything. Before then, it was like an occasional half a glass of champagne at some special event. You know, now, it's just not, it's just, it's just not how I want to be. I don't want to feel that way. I want to feel myself in full force. So, I think-

• 55:10Rich Roll?

  So, what is it, what is the advice or the recommendation that you're giving?

• 55:12Speaker 01

  No, I just think it's, I think it's, it's his own path. I think it will have its own trajectory. And if he's truly not, if he's truly not an addict, then as he develops deeper and deeper aspects of himself and connects more deeply to himself, it, it will likely fall away, or it will likely be only an occasional thing.

• 55:32Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 55:33Speaker 01

  Could be.

• 55:34Rich Roll?

  All right.

• 55:35Speaker 01

  Might not be. He's his own person.

• 55:37Rich Roll?

  Good enough. Well said. I mean, I can't express an opinion from that side of the fence because I don't have experience with that.

• 55:44Speaker 01

  It's okay because I already did.

• 55:45Rich Roll?

  All right, good. All right, well, that's all the time we have today.

• 55:49Speaker 01

  That's it?

• 55:49Rich Roll?

  We're gonna wrap it up.

• 55:50Speaker 01

  That's all?

• 55:51Rich Roll?

  Uh huh. We've gone an hour.

• 55:52Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 55:53Rich Roll?

  So, thanks for-

• 55:55Speaker 01

  Thanks for having me on your show, Rich Roll.

• 55:57Rich Roll?

  ... joining along with us today.

• 55:59Speaker 01

  It's been a pleasure.

• 56:00Rich Roll?

  Good. Thank you for doing it. If you guys are enjoying this Q and A format, let us know either way. Like, what do you guys want to hear? Is this working for you? Is it not working for you? What are your suggestions? We're open. This show is an evolving, organic organism, and we're open to your ideas. If you do have questions you want answered, we are going to continue to do this, so please send me your questions. If you want to get your plant-powered diet and nutrition program jacked up, what do you do for that, Julie?

• 56:38Speaker 01

  You tell me.

• 56:40Rich Roll?

  You go to the Ultimate Guide for Plant-Based Nutrition on MindBodyGreen.com. And it's the new year, new year, new you, 2015. You have goals, you have resolutions, but most people, they don't really know how to pursue those goals properly or, you know, follow through. And that's why most people abandon those resolutions by mid-February, right?

• 57:02Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 57:02Rich Roll?

  So, how do we avoid that?

• 57:03Speaker 01

  To keep going.

• 57:04Rich Roll?

  Well, I've got a couple of resources for you that I think might be helpful in my Art of Living with Purpose course, which is all about getting connected with your higher self, learning how to set and properly achieve goals. And that's my second course at MindBodyGreen.com. Both those courses are on the homepage. Just click "Video Courses" at the top of the homepage menu, and you can learn more. For all your plant-powered provisions, go to richroll.com. We've got t-shirts, we've got schwag, we've got some tech t-shirts, running tech t-shirts with the leaf pattern on them. Those are pretty cool. We've got digital products. Julie told you about her meditation program. We have a digital- Cookbook called Jai Seed, that's pretty awesome.

• 57:46Speaker 01

  You can keep it company until the other one comes out.

• 57:49Rich Roll?

  Yeah, we're going to be coming out with preorder incentives for our new cookbook, The Plant Power Way, pretty soon, so stay tuned for that. So I know that you guys have lots of choices for your content, and I appreciate you guys tuning in and giving us a listen. If you're enjoying the show, please give us a review on iTunes. Use the Amazon banner at richroll.com for all your Amazon purchases. Thank you so much to all you guys who have been doing that. And if you want to go back into the early shows, the back catalog of the RRP, the best way to do that is to get our free iOS app in the iTunes App Store. Just search Ritual and it'll pull it right up. So that's it. Let's close it down.

• 58:32Speaker 01

  That's amazing. Thanks so much.

• 58:34Rich Roll?

  Thanks so much, you guys. We will see you back.

• 58:36Speaker 01

  Happy 2015.

• 58:38Rich Roll?

  Yes. Peace. Thanks.

• 58:41Speaker 01

  Namaste.