He Lost 200lbs & Became An Athlete: Josh LaJaunie | Rich Roll Podcast

[Music] what is this the third time that we've done this yeah third time third time right yeah only three last time was a couple years ago in a little motel on the off the freeway in in Marshall Texas right huge huge town in Marshall Texas it's been a it's been quite a road even blazing my friend yeah I don't know it's uh it doesn't feel like I'm blazing it it just feels like it's happening and I'm along for the ride and I'm okay with it and because uh I don't feel like I'm in control most at a time it's a surrender bad you know I mean and you're being guided I think yeah yeah I think so too well it's been a while since you've been on the show the hardcores the longtime listeners know your story well but the show's grown quite a bit yeah so I think it would be helpful to just recap your story a little bit I don't want to dwell on it because we've gone into it so much in other episodes but for the people that are new let's like take a look back for a minute yeah well look back is uh you know a kid on the Bayou in south Louisiana living the dream of hunting and fishing almost every weekend with all the people you love and fry and everything and drinking beer and telling jokes and making friends and connections but also getting really heavy and mixed with that I had an identity of being a football player so I really felt like being a big guy and just those things mixed together and that lifestyle and that culture and that identity by the time I was 32 or so I found myself about 420 pounds right how old were you done about 30 to 32 yeah and and talk to me a little bit more about the culture the culture fashion is good some of the best people you ever meet in your life and you and you know what we do what we do is it's almost like this this a fancy phrase it's not my phrases how its phrase but it's a toxic imitation of respecting like our ancestry because what they really were doing with the foods that we really sort of overeat today those things were founded in times of scarcity is like a survival to you know how to eat every single piece of the pig in a Boucherie or whatever or get crawfish out of the small and that culture what we do today is we sort of over indulge in those things that were really just helping us get through times of scarcity and the bulk of those old Cajun meals were a lot of like vegetables you know backyard garden vegetables and things like that but we kinda have gotten off of the rails and are just sort of watering in this toxic imitation of honoring our ancestry by killing ourselves with these survival techniques they use to make it through times of real difficult scarcity you know well I would suggest it's even more complicated than that because it's so intertwined with I mean those traditions are so intertwined with family and love it's very emotional yeah and so they symbolize more than just fill in the belly right this is it this is about you know honoring you know honoring these traditions that have been going on for generations and generations where you come from to break ranks with that is more than just hey I want to slim down it's a it's a rejection of a lifestyle it's a slap in the face to my mom it's a slap in the face to your uncle so-and-so who fries the best fish or fries the best gratz hanz what do you mean you know uh-huh and like it literally pissed off at you yeah so that's difficult you know so growing up playing football hunting fishing drinking drinking the football went away they really balloon oh you what were you when you were at your fighting way playing ball playin ball I was like 292 330 in that range you still had a hundred to go yeah and tell me a little bit about what it's like to carry that kind of weight around it's it's a job man it's a full-time job I didn't I don't you know you don't think about it at a time that that will you know boil frog kind of a thing you don't realize it because it happens so slowly mm-hmm but it's just tiring your feet are always hurting your ankles are always hurting you always just trying to you're on your feet but you are immediately need to get to another place to sit down that's a lot of work it's it's you know the funny things like like in the first conversation we had about being on an airplane and needing an extension or then moving me to the front of the plane that stuff is embarrassing yeah but but not only that just the physical pain and then the physical things that think about just the way I think about this because I'm dealing with my back over the past year so the way my spine would have to contort when I have this big giant belly and I'm bending over to tie my shoes it put on line my own you know socks and without it mashes against my lumbar spine I spend so much time thinking about what I've done to my body um but it regardless of what I've done to it today feels a hell of a lot different than it felt back then being mashed down to the earth with right a extra 200 pounds on my body I can't imagine I'll throw on a 25 weight vest right now to go do some training hikes and I can't imagine having 200 weight vest I'm not going for yeah I can tell you yeah what about emotionally it's like night and day in my life honestly you know I got bitter I was angry a lot sort of mad at myself but really projecting that anger mm-hmm in situations on other people like God and the wonderful things on us look at all like what is wrong you know you know now I still have a lot of those pressures a lot of those stress sores in my life that stuff going on but I feel lighter not only physically but in my inside of my mind inside my heart and I handle those things in a completely different way I cry a lot more than yeah you know like you cry all the time but I'm okay with it like my bambam cried a lie he was a tough bastard so but it's okay to wear your heart on sleeve you know and that has helped like it it's it's cleansing mm-hmm and that has helped me I think release a lot of physical weight as well really sort of dumping in mindset and and listening to my first virtual podcast is where I started to turn the rudder that in that direction you know that you you were where I was learning these things right yeah you first I mean I've told the story a million times but for people that are new you first came across my radar when you tweet it you tagged me in a tweet that had a before and an after picture I just I just couldn't believe it was the same guy this enormous you know 400 plus was like another picture of a guy who looked like Bradley Cooper I'm like this camp this is like early days of the podcast I'm still doing Skype interviews and and that was all I knew and you I think you had written like a manifesto on your blog yeah and I was I was touched by that and that's all I knew about you and I was like I'm gonna I'm gonna take a flier and get this guy on the show and then you came oh we did a Skype call and I just could not believe your story and that and that testimony you you know you trusting me to kind of you know share your experience touched a lot of people and I said to you in the wake of that you've got to find a way to like share your story I don't know what you know I don't know what your career situation is what's going on down there but I'm telling you man people need to hear your story it's super powerful so do whatever you need to do to get yourself out there and and and not only have you like taken that and run with it like it's just amazing now to look back and and see I mean you had made so much progress up to that point but after that you've gone on and I mean at that point I think you'd run a half marathon you hadn't even get a marathon yeah you know yeah I don't know how many marathons a lot of marathons doesn't know you've run ultra marathons you won an ultra marathon and now you're sitting across from me because you were attending the plant Rishon you know the plant Rishon conference the big plant based nutrition conference that's held every year you're you're getting up on stages you're sharing your story mm-hmm you're writing a book right now it's like it's so inspiring to see that that see the impact that you're making now and I think it's just starting and well it's just about getting you know honestly I learned it from you I learned it from like like you know that a bunch of the podcasts I'm drawing a blank on the guys name right now I hate it it's what it was I've texted you before it's one of my very few French champion and remember that Oh Jeff Spencer yes yes and so that like things like that was like nuggets where it's like oh it's not about this race specifically it's a bigger thing it's about something greater it's about being part acting in a way that you sort of organically collect the team around you that helps you get something great you know and I was seeing you do that you you were doing it you were accumulating and in an organic way and that's all I've done is like hey this is something I can do this is something that feels good I like talking to people I like running is fun we have we're building and community I'm helping keep helping friends that I know avoid heart disease lose some weight this is awesome it's right in the vein of my happiness and you just start chasing that and it grows and serendipity happens along the way and like these amazing things but you go to a place like play nutrition cut the plant tration project and it's a it's a thousand doctors who most of them are already plant-based but some of them maybe are there because their plant curious and you're looking and they just heard them some science Ted's got him but to be staying in there as like a C student from Jack Bay Louisiana worried about and being able to talk to a doctor about what we're doing you know and have that person come up to me and want to take my picture because they know me from the ritual podcast is a hell of an icebreaker I know what I mean that is a huge like validation to me that I don't know if you know that you gave me that just it feels good to be able to use that in a way that it's helping other people you know well you are helping a lot of people and I think when I look back on on how you kind of went from from that place to where you're at now you know I'm sure people come up to you and say like how did you do that how are you in this place where you get to you know give talks and the like you just showed up and said yes to the next thing it's not like hey I'm gonna I'm gonna wipe like training for a marathon where you're like okay here's the date and here the work outside to put in it's more like surfing you've gotta like ride this wave and when you're president you're paying attention and and you've done enough interior work to be able to trust your instincts you know what the right next move is you do that and you be open to the possibility that that will guide you or lead you to the next thing and their tiny little steps that seem like they mean nothing in the moment or yeah I'm gonna go down to the community center and talk to whatever but you don't know what's gonna come of that you don't know who's there who's gonna talk to somebody else that'll lead to some other thing and I think the and this has been my experience as well like people like how are you like how did you go to Nantucket Pro how are you doing it's like I just showed up man I said yes a lot you know this it was I opened my heart and and then I really feel like I've been guided it was not a it was not a plan then I laid forth in front of me like this is where I want to be it was about saying yes and and learning how to surf that wave and that means saying no to other stuff too like what's what's moving you forward what's not but you've done that in such a beautiful way but I think of all the things that you've done or that you're involved with it's really cool to you know look look the weight loss story is like the weigh-in because that's so dramatic and you know obviously that's what everyone wants to know about with you and then you look at the the races that you've done ultra marathons like all this crazy stuff is super inspiring but to me the most inspiring thing that you do is how you give back to to your community and the love that you have for your neighborhood essentially and I think that is what is most needed and lacking right now not just in the health and fitness nutrition plant-based movement but in society at large like we need that was a big theme of the Nantucket project this past weekend Lincoln neighborhoods community how can we learn to better and more effectively communicate with our fellows and that's something that you're succeeding at in the way that you're serving people calm so can you talk a little bit about that I just want to have a conversation with with people at home that's my audience that's who I talked to that's that's where that's where I'm facing everything I ever posted on social media um because they're closest to my heart they're closest to me geographically I've been me people don't even know their name maybe I've seen them five times in my life but I've seen that person five times in my life at Walmart because we're both from Toledo like and so that matters that's that's where you speak the language that's where you can have the most impact and these are the people that not only need it the most but our you know the people that that are sort of forgotten yes like absolutely I could go do some talk in Brentwood it's like they're already hip to it or whatever I'm in my silo you know but my trailer park I'm not about to go to plan stop they're not going they're not going to the veg fest you know so you're able to communicate with these people in a way that almost nobody else can mm-hmm and so what is that like how do you do that and what is that about I just use the same language that I would talk about deer hunting or fishing or anything else with but we just have that same report over this stuff I've learned about food and this stuff I've learned about running and hey you should try it a little bit and luckily our local hospital has built this giant Wellness Center in Thibodaux so it's kind of like the in thing to do to be active so I have conversations in the locker room would not become the in thing to do because they spent 70 million dollars on a gigantic Wellness Center that is it's the lot edad now in Thibodaux man that's where most of it just sits around you know shooting the [ __ ] and now I'm talking at the bench um you know not really doing a whole lot not breaking a whole lot of sweat but they're there and it's and it's alive in the in the you know in the community like there's at least a movement towards less moving some not he still serve crazy stuff and cafe and all but I get to talk about that to them through my social media you know without necessarily directly railing against people in the trial I don't I try not to make myself you know on what but it's difficult sometimes and exactly crafting like how to talk to the people on the body about a plant-based diet and about disease reversal without and then listening to me is I'm just the Trailer Park guy from Jack baby why should I listen to you my cardiologist says you don't know what you're talking about I'm gonna go with him alright so but being able to come and let the people that are back home see me do what I'm doing right now see me go to see me on social media go to other places and go oh yeah he might just be from shagged me but people all over want to hear from him so maybe even though he sounds like us he walks like us he talks like us maybe he doesn't know what he's talking about just goes from chadway maybe you know it doesn't necessarily mean he's a total dumbass what if someone doesn't know you from social media like what's the opener like you go into a group of people maybe it's a community gathering you got people that are obese or you know have diabetes type 2 diabetes they're you know spent their entire life eating poor boys and you know doing what you do and fishing and hunting coming from a completely different perspective from you know the kind of kale chomping you know vegan that sure the west side of Los Angeles sure I just told you know if you think about our grandparents if you think it's a lot of garden vegetables does a big part of of being a Cajun is having a garden and having those garden vegetables like on a regular like a lot of it you know I let's steer towards potatoes I'm not asking you to stop being a hunter I'm not asking you to stop fishing I'm asking you to pay attention for just a second about something that I learned about these heart attacks that we go to funerals for all the time and there's there's a know whether or not you want to do anything about it once you learn this that's on you don't you do you but for right now let me show you this and here's how we can get it done and you can still have your cake and eat it too you can still go fishing if you want you still go hunting if you want but let's do let's get rid of dairy let's get rid so they to understand where my friends are at the moment and be willing to talk to them where from that place without trying to shatter their whole world right and have a conversation about their health and about what that means to their family pod that means a lot to them you know so that's where we have the conversation that's where I have the conversations with the guys about how to get traction or how to even get desired 1/2 traction in this behavior change yeah it's one thing if you're you're staring down the barrel of like a crazy health crisis like your doctor dealing you you're gonna have a heart attack any day now or you're gonna get your foot amputated or something like that like that will inspire and motivate somebody to make a change but but what if you're just you know you're walking around with 50 extra pounds on you and you don't look any different than anyone else and you feel okay well Nakata you get through to somebody like that who's like yeah I hear what you're saying like what you've done is inspiring like I should probably better do something different but like how do I even begin to do that well that's the thing is that's where for me that's the health come there the health part of it is because it doesn't matter I know they're people that are completely slim that have six-pack abs they drop dead of heart attacks because you there's ways to physically manipulate the amount of adipose tissue you have on you your body that does not necessarily translate to healthy endothelial and then this is that is like from just a dude that went to check the elementary I just read a couple of books and listen to dr. Esselstyn on a documentary you don't have to like become scientists to understand that and see that so you can be only fifty pounds overweight you can be proud of me for having lost 230 pounds you can feel like you don't really need to do anything cuz you not 230 pounds overweight however if you're eating the standard American diet you are gonna be on the road to like at least being the bevy of cardiac medications that that's that basically you go in for the first thing and you get on all of those things you know the first cardiac thing you could give you it on all of those meds you're at least gonna have that if not you know what is it 25 percent of the time that the first sign of cardiovascular disease is a sudden death right that's that's a big number to me I don't want to play that game especially since I know that my families especially all the men in my family seem to die of heart attacks so I'm gonna do it different and I'm I'm onto some information they were not on to it seems irresponsible of me to like it forgive me and bam bam if I was following him in a boat and he ran across a sandbar and he added the sandbar and then I followed him right into the sandbar I hit the same damn sandbar but I'd be in trouble you know pay attention and that's all that that's what I would tell that person it ain't about your belly I'm gonna god I don't care if you lose the 50 pounds or not you do you but this is about something bigger this is about why we lead the nation and heart disease this is about why we lead the nation and obesity and diabetes and all these things one of the things that that that is pretty remarkable about what you've done is that you you did it in this community really without any support at least not any support in terms of boots on the ground sure no Whole Foods nearby no immersion program down the street you know something inside of you just just clicked and you made it happen essentially on your own and I think that's probably a big part of what compels you to try to create you know programs in your area so that the next person doesn't have to do it alone but one of the biggest things you hear about the plant-based lifestyle is I you know I can't afford that food you know like I'm not you know I'm on a budget here that's great and for you but you know it's not gonna work it's not gonna work for me so as somebody who lives you know we're in an area where most people do their shopping at Walmart and like what do you say to those folks you doing it wrong you're doing it wrong if it's expensive you're buying the wrong [ __ ] at the store sorry you I'm not that's what you may need to adjust what your mind stay in the produce department and you need your buy rice and your buy beans and your buy potatoes you need to get the you know that's that's the bulk of our food it is expensive to buy processed stuff it is expensive to buy premade meals it is expensive I agree with you on that but that's not where we should be eating we should be eating these things that we can buy 10 pounds of it at a time and we'll be fine it's traditionally Popper food right it is exactly what it is and so and I love the quote that I heard from dr. Esselstyn and in one of his talks one time is there's a certain dignity in simplicity and when you stay in the produce department and you walk out with you know a ten pound bag of potatoes some bell peppers a few you know a few onions a couple avocados and a bag of kale and some may be a thing full of almonds or some walnuts like I'm ready to go home and you know make some foods all you need you say and that's not that's not expensive you know um so that's what I tell people all the time when it's like oh man it's just so expensive and no you're really doing it wrong if it is expensive because the bulky bulky your calories should be coming from like really cheap food really really cheap food you're in you're coming off an injury right oh yes so you got a rough year very man yeah what was the last race that you did Liverpool and mate of 2017 that was like I've done races since then but that was the last one like I was trained for and raced it I've done a 50k since then and in at mount cheetah and I think it was February in this year but I was injured doing it like I was like I'm just gonna get in your cutoff I'll be fine just take all day to do so what happened like what's the injury and it's kind of a long road back yeah man it's it's something that's been there since football like I've always had this it's the reason that us stop playing ball in the first place and got really fat um was I have this disc between l4 and l5 and my back that that's a severe protrusion we know now because I've had an MRI done since like in the past six months or so and there's a severe protrusion and some some canal stenosis there and so that's there that's that's the thing right and not only the head I made it worse from years of you know playing football and being morbidly obese for decades afterwards that afterwards but then my hobby that I picked up once I lose the weight and everything is ultra marathoner and then not only ultra marathoner but running really fast - on top of that in I really after my hundred mile race would I've spent so much time thinking about how I hurt myself right but after my hundred mile race I got into training for Liverpool because runners were sending me to Liverpool and another thing and so I wanted to do that Boston training I wanted to get fast new is gonna take me a long time I get faster yeah so I wanted to hurry up and start running and I started training probably three weeks after my hundred mile er not enough time and it just got worse and worse and the closer I got to the race the more I was ignoring my back pain and BJ knew who she was like but she knew what I was doing she knew that I was just trying to make it through Liverpool you know but it was rough and I'm and I was like I can I can grit it out I know I'm in good shape I've been working really hard and man between the plane ride because we flew flew over there on Thursday late Thursday I raced on Sunday and a flew home Monday uh-huh and and and and so what happened I mean now since you're back see stuff on you you can I was like crippled man for months just couldn't my back was on fire I couldn't be sleep so I wasn't healing it was just one and then I was trying to get back to running every time I would make a little bit of progress I was trying to hurry up and get back to running because I had hired I just never took enough time off yeah so I made all the 2017 was like it was I kept reinjure in myself I know now I kept I kept going back to early I kept going back to early and running too fast and then getting in the hills and trying to do vert and trying to get ready for a mountain hundred mile and so it kept knocking me back down and at the same time I'm still going through a bunch of emotional stuff because I'm fighting through all of it because the pain is bad mm-hmm when it hurts me it's bad like it's it's really bad so where are you out now right now I am yoga has been a life changer I've been doing yoga at least three four times a week uh-huh for a few months now that has been a monumental I'm feeling amazing my mileage is back up this is about my six or eight thirty-five plus mile week I'm starting to run hard again but yeah I still have some pressure back there and I feel something going on but I'm trying to live with it what do I need to do you know in my practice in my power to not have surgery what it was that mean for me to I need to run faster do I need to run slower do I need to run shorter what what is what is it that I need to adjust in my life to be able to keep doing my thing without making that blow up because that is diff that's a difficult thing to get through man yeah it's a different kind of just to see what people give up and go get surgery like yeah I mean not that people not that it's giving up but my mom the reason I'm so averse to surgeries my mom has an 18 inch steel rod in her back from severe scoliosis and I watched her suffer with the like after effects of back surgery her whole life and she's railed against it and when they want they suggested and in football shoes I know you just don't play football anymore and and so it's been that's not an option unless it's has to be yeah and there's I don't know when she had her surgery but I'm sure there's been I'm sure yeah you know I've always been like hesitant of of it at all for that for boys I've seen you last the last option so but it's really it's not it's not purely it's a bad is it you know from everybody who's looked at it this like you know it should be operated on yesterday uh-huh and do you do any kind of cairo like yes I had hanging upside down and the decompression and all I had was a mate I found a guy in down the body a little bit from Thibodeau well actually a high school buddy of my running friend my really good buddy JT that runs with me all the time and um man it has been he does it different like so all of it you I would normally go and I just get just getting cracked from head to toe break off crack all my hops and he does a different ways he's like he just finds the most out of alignment thing or the most he calls a primary and he'll just do that one adjustment and then we'll come back in 48 hours or so and see see what's next and that approach mixed with my yoga and and having a coach helped me stay calm and stop going so damn hard so early hey I didn't get faster until I slowed down so you really should slow down chill out man relax yeah so I had someone who I trusted telling me that so those things combined I'm in a much better place right now so much so I'm feeling like feeling like actually racing again you know um so I have some stuff on them on the horizon and I'm looking forward you picked it if you picked a race yeah well I have a 50k I've already signed up for but it's in February but I'm gonna go back to the first one I ever did that woman Dustin I didn't want a Destin on the beach that was the one we talked about it in 2015 but me and my buddies who did that race we're gonna go back to it now they've been knocking out 100 miles like crazy since then I've only done one you know and they just smash it on me one of those done a tour duty since then and oh yeah people like oh man I can't believe you front office I'm like man I'm the weakest off your honor of all of our friends guide like led the charge well it's I'm glad to hear about the kyra war and you know people give Cairo [ __ ] but like it's it's done a lot for me yeah it's been super beneficial you know I have some lower back pain stuff I'm spondee and you know like some curved spine so I have to stay on top of that and one of the things that that that my guy had me start doing which I definitely need to do more consistently than I do is something called the Foundation series you heard about this I know look it up on youtube so Siri it's like a 10-minute little routine that you can do every single day of like super simple just static you know postures yeah help with alignment that that sounds interesting because I find myself like doing things intuitively it would be nice to maybe have something like some specific direction yeah Oh cuz I can feel like when I'm driving I can feel that but I can feel my pelvis getting looser and I my sacrum cuz I went to this guy in New York when I was long is so crazy how the universe works this I went to the Good Morning America show right I want to get into that with you yeah it's so wild but anyway while I was up there Howard has a friend who put me in touch with another friend he had another friend and then like three friends later I'm in touch with this like body worker fellow in in in Manhattan mm-hmm and so I was like I was in touch with him via text message and I said I'm gonna come he said this is right on my side of the street I see why my friends sent you here this is right up my alley I can help you and so I went to him and he kind of showed me what my problem was that was a big issue was I didn't really understand where the pain was coming from I knew ahead the bulging disc but that's I had paint all in my like in my groin and in the hip part of me and all and so they did a lot of explaining and gave me some exercises to do to get to wake up my hip muscles and all cuz a lot of stuff I'm sure is frozen from not only running so much but also being so fat for so long I'm sure my pelvis is a weird yeah shape sometimes I don't know but he showed me how to get started moving my body and that was the first step it started changing and it made me go you know what I should do yoga it made the movements he did felt like yoga movements I was like okay instead of having to go to Manhattan and see him you know I'll just start doing yoga and see if it helps and it has been it's been like magnificent yeah just really open up the hips and the psoas and and create that space yeah you know it's like it's about like loosening it off so there's motion in the breathing like because I think the lungs like when you from the inside what it does to your spine as you eat physic as your body physically he's in you know makes breath you know because there's something that happens when I'm breathing you know the cat-cow stuff I always hear things moving right doing cat-cow well it takes a certain level of discipline to know that you actually have to back off and and you've been really good about that like even and you know like on Strava you still like post all your stuff but it just feel like I want to walk ya know and it's like yeah it was like it's okay and you know I think for for people that get into running and then become obsessed with running and it's one race after another you feel like you're you're you know a superhuman and you think you're never gonna hit that injury oh praise God but everything you've had to learn that lesson the hard way from trying to go back too soon which i think is a really good thing like I feel alright like I'm gonna go hit it again and then yes I'm never heal yeah letting like obligation letting a race obligation sort of push me ahead like before I was ready I know cuz I know I had a race on I had a race on the horizon that's why I kept going try to because like man I live in there's a mountain hundred mile that I wanted to do in September right it's like man I don't have enough time to get it [ __ ] if I take two more weeks I'm not gonna be able to build my base all right so to the two of the kind of huge media events that occurred in your life since the last time we spoke is and you mentioned it you landed the cover of Runner's World magazine which is crazy all right yeah and then unrelated to that really you ended up on Good Morning America because of this face Facebook group that you created dogs yeah to start with the runner's world thing yeah that was crazy something like just a bunch of people on social media just kept like tagging me in this thing that this promotion that runners roll was doing like a cover photo contest and it wannabe and it was a bunch of before and afters is what it wound up being but it was that wasn't the theme of the deal but anyway it was just about your running story and so I was like okay I'll do that and I'll put my running story in there about my especially specifically with you know the Crescent City classic and you know that yeah explain why that races so because okay so I mean in the very beginning the first race I ever did was the 10k the Crescent City Classic in New Orleans and it took me like an hour and 43 minutes and that race that that distance became like a like sort of like Oh indication of something to me like I just wanna check that on like before what you were still in your journey of losing sure that was a first one I had lost some weight but the first one I still waited like 330 340 something like that in the first one that's why it took me an hour and 40 minutes to do a 10k and then the next year you know I so my my story the next year I was I wanted to do under an hour and I got that done and that sort of set me off into trying to like be a better runner which sent me to you and all this other stuff and then the neck and then the next year I wanted to get a poster for the first time and and this race if you there's 30,000 entrance so if you get a top 500 finish you get a special commemorative poster and it's like a big [ __ ] deal in New Orleans like if you were running and you New Orleans like you got a poster this year that's the thing like we want to know like where are you oh you oh you're not a post you didn't forget a poster okay like so this year next year right and so I think kind of I was like starting to get into running circles right and starting to understand it and I was like I wanted poster damn it and I got a poster how many attempts 33 times 1/3 yeah I had no idea about a poster until I was training to break 50 minutes in the third room that's what I was really wanting to do and the third one was the break 50 minutes but what wound up happening is uh I broke like 40 I ran 46 and change and a training run and then the people that I ran that with said dude you should probably try to get a poster this year yeah and then he's like if you could run sub 45 you could probably get a poster so that third year around forty 308 so I was like an hour in three years yeah but since then I broke forty minutes for the first time Howard came down and he he wanted a poster he's like I think I could run fast enough to get a poster and and he did he got a postive man he got a top 550 got one way it was hot that year a lot of people fell off and he wound up finishing 40 we 5:15 I'm getting the poster I broke I got thirty I ran 39:55 and that's still my 10k prpr yeah and so into in the context of like this runner's world story that so just I shared that shared that sort of continuum about my running in a more abbreviated version obviously for the to fit the contest rules and I've showed and I shared a before picture of me and asked my friends on social media to vote for me and um and I didn't see the vote totals getting up really high sorry and I think anything would ever happen but it turns out the votes were just like a tiny part of what they were really how they were really gonna choose the thing you know so they had Bart Yasso and the chat eeeh the editor-in-chief of runner's world and mr. Jin whether like the CEO of Brooks and they just sort of really kind of went through all the stories and picked the top ten and brought all ten of us in yeah I'm still friends with all of them we got to go Ronny and yeah like a photo shoot yeah and then and then after that they were like okay so then it was like the final thing and then he picked who the girl winner was and the guy when it was yeah you know and I wouldn't I know it was I was like I was beside myself I couldn't imagine what is that like to go you know to a newsstand or you know to see that magazine on it you know sitting around somewhere it's funny like I wrote cuz I can't even compute yeah okay it's a runner's world and I'm on the cover I mean I it almost doesn't even seem like real it's um it's powerful I feel proud of myself in ways I've never felt proud of myself before in my entire life and it's almost like a in bloom it's almost like a look I didn't just lose weight you did this mmm-hmm but what I get from you is it's not a hey look at me no it's it's a symbol of like all this journey like all the work that put in to completely transform yourself from this you know person that you were yeah into this person that you are today it's like it's like a totem right it just it represents that shift you know it's not like hey how many people read the magazine it's like it's like it's just an acknowledgement and that's what that's exactly right it's being like people going being acknowledged for something that people think I did that has value right to to to others which that's that's like you know that's powerful to feel like you're valuable to someone or valuable to lots of people mm-hmm just because of what you've been through do you find that that the flip side of that is that now suddenly people who like a big part of your whole thing is like you're very relatable like people can connect with you because you're like a dude right right but suddenly you're on the cover of a magazine yeah maybe not so relatable you know well Josh did that but like look he's on the cover of magazines he's all fancy-pants now you know yeah that's not my life yeah I know it's tricky but it's if once people I guess meet me they they they uh they can understand that's why I try to stay so raw in on my social media I really don't like because that way people do understand it I'm not any I'm just a normal person right you know you'd going on ramp like 4:00 in the morning in your trunk yeah exactly I'm just a normal dude there's nothing really special about me like results are typical if you apply you know the power of plants to your life and the power of bipedal locomotion and getting outside and getting some sunshine and using this human body the way it was intended to be used and loved some body man I mean it's pretty simple and to be really damn happy it's a shame is such a secret all right Josh like I I get it I'm inspired by like does it have to like the plant-based thing like I'm hearing a lot of good stuff about this low-carb diet maybe I'm gonna go keto like what's the deal with the plants like why is that the truck for you the thing is I think you would agree to it nutrients are very important in our diet and there's no more nutrient dense way to eat than a heavily plant-based diet so we don't let's not even call it plants let's just say we're gonna eat a nutrient-rich diet that's high in fiber and very calorically dilute because we're trying to lose weight right now now if you can do that with some hamburger meat show me show me how we do that but we need these things to do the thing you say you want so if you say you want that this is what we have to do if you do otherwise then you're not choosing the thing you say you want so you got some work to do you're lying to yourself a little bit and I don't know how to help you I can only show you some some you know some data and tell you what I did and help you through the thing but ultimately it's up to you use your plate as a volume knob on potential disease or current disease is something mm-hmm how is your approach your diet evolved since the first time that we talked like what have you learned how has it changed how if you dialed it in got it's gotten really simple it's gotten a lot simpler since then less I do lots more savory for breakfast than I used to I used to do lots of um oats and fruit and things like that not that that's bad it's just uh it's not my thing I'm much rather a good warm bowl of real soupy white beans over some kale uh-huh you know big giant ass bowl of that after a long run in the morning after a good eight nine mile six eight mile run in the morning um that is where that's what I want after my run so you know getting simpler having savory pretty much all the time I don't really I don't do a whole lot of sweet I do I do like apples for snacks and things like that but when it comes down to sit down and eat miel it's almost every single mule it's gonna be something hot and savory and that's simple just keep something against the pot and do different things with it as I eat it and you cook all your meals pretty much during the week for sure on the weekends when my wife and I and our puppies in New Orleans we go to our our favorite you know plant-based joints in in the city but most the time yeah we just cook our own stuff we we have aunts the pot on the spawn of it I mean on the counter and BJ she makes amazing black beans she does awesome red lentils with some Ethiopian spices in it and stuff and we'll have like one of three things for the week and on the wrong it just stays hot it's the part you know and she's she she didn't originally she wasn't on on the same page as you know the beginning right so where's she at now she's on she's on she's on the board and what is that what is that been like it's amazing cuz she's on her own little world of like sort of growing her own curiosity in different directions for mine so like fasting and just different things and she's dabbling in that stuff and teaching me about it is you know so it's it's less about like being plant-based per se and more about like being being curious about where I would like to grow what I would like to experiment with you know and that's as a couple like that's really fun too that's really fun to engage in at what point did she kind of click in to this though cuz at first it was just this is your trip right yeah yeah she um she she still doesn't like she's not gonna want to beat on any of my social media post next with 100% guys T that's clear that's clear I was there was a moment where I was like she's still married is everything okay you know oh everything you know great all right good and it's because she's not on my social media yeah everything is great she's not a fan of her because of her before pictures for sure so but yeah she she didn't see the need at first to get rid of like her she's like yeah get rid of me that's gross she's been after me like she would never obtain cold deer meat and I would have to trick her into eating and making it heart-shaped patties or something so you have to guilt her into eat it and uh but when I got rid of the meat it wasn't that big of a deal for her but the the dairy and stuff but yeah watching folks over knives changed that for her and then she moved she moved forward and not only does she do it and go all in as a registered nurse she saw the she saw the science she understood it it made really good sense to her and like she says once I knew it I couldn't Unknowing you know and so now she's a you know she's an employer herself and and she's got 30 employees lots of them are nurses and nurses aides and stuff and so like her assistant is plant-based the her um her partner in the in the in the business is plant-based now older oh he's older than us he's not old at all but he's just an older guy he's older than us and he's like I didn't even know I had 30 pounds to lose we bought him eat to live for Christmas one year yeah and he's like oh my god I'm off all of my mat I'm all following my statins I lost 30 pounds that even though I had 30 pounds lose I feel like I'm gonna live forever it's like so she's being infectious in her little community as well like her little yeah median environment and they got she's got old people is so adorable she she's a baby I'm taking the Vitamix to work today I got some miss so-and-so miss you know Boudreau wants a green smoothie she wants me to show her how to make one you know so that's that's fine man yes so when people approach you and say you know I I want to do this but you know I have a partner that isn't on the same page or isn't you know isn't it isn't supportive I mean as somebody who has had a little bit of an evolution in your own relationship with that like what is the kind of advice that you can give to that person just you know you got you got an exhibit consistency on your and if you really want it to happen you have to exhibit it you have to do it and you have to be willing to accept that that person may never ever do it mmm and and you're gonna have to love them through that and luckily I didn't have to go past that step luckily I didn't have to figure out how to do it with someone in the house that isn't on the same page as me luckily um BJ you know was a pragmatist and saw the same thing I saw and jumped right on board with me but I I feel I get frustrated with I hear a lot of the the husbands who are who are like you know women who have type 2 diabetics who this could reverse that and fix it but they gotta go home here I don't want to do all that vegan [ __ ] you better cook me some steak and macaroni yeah that's so dumb that's not mainly at all you know and to hear those stories from ladies we're trying to help is like dog it's tough it's weird it's bizarre that our sense of what it means to be a man is is is oddly tied up in what foods we choose to eat when you really think about it it doesn't make any sense but that's the fact that's the truth that's the way our culture function is reinforced with constant advertising I think it didn't you even post something the other day about like somebody who was it was it you owe me it was me my he's like I watched an NFL game like every ad you know was reinforcing this is a masculine stereotype that you have to eat these certain foods or your your [ __ ] [ __ ] yes yes exactly right and so that is not leading us in a positive direction in terms of health when you consider the fact that one out of every three people suffers a heart attack from heart disease yeah and I mean you know honestly I don't know if the ribs aren't tibideaux but they're probably higher bad yeah it's what we would say I mean you can't give me a typical like a snapshot of you know what it looks like down there in terms of okay so just I'll just walk you through our locker room like in so in a Wellness Center we have I would say just a rough guess a good half and I'm being generous here of all the guys that are going in a gym I love them I'm not picking on them but at least half of them or would be technically morbidly obese and I would say maybe more of them who are my age or older or on statins you know and some of them are having dialysis cuz they've had they I don't know what what you've had so long that you wind up needing dialysis but I have a buddy I talk to all the time who he's losing weight now but it's because he is so diseased so whether you go to Walmart you go to rouses or people riding in buggies and people always talking about the next heart attack or the last heart attack or the cancer that a god or the that's ubiquitous man disease is ubiquitous and especially on the body so much so it's a normal it's normal hmm and when it becomes normal yeah then there's then it just feels like there's no need to do any like if ever if everybody's in your predicament mm-hmm then there's no urgency to change yep yeah and but it's book in the only way honestly that someone like me is will is willing to are able to go against the grain in that environment is because I know I have people that have my back that are really smart they might live in California or they might live in North Carolina I'm not all alone and me being able to have that confidence to stand in a place of vulnerability among the people I know where I speak the language in order to sort of win some some you know some sort of influence in having their ear for just a second right you know that's that's powerful yeah when you look at the kind of conversations that are happening online around health and diet and nutrition you know I don't know about you but it's pretty toxic a lot of people yelling at each other yeah throwing you know epithets at each other yeah you know whether it's you know vegans against the low-carb people and the ketosis people on the intermittent fasting PETA there's all these camps right everybody's got the same goal how can we improve health in America across the world we have different ideas about how to do that but the level of communication that is taking place right now has devolved into this mudslinging affair whereby nobody is benefiting nobody's listening to each other and certainly the people who need the most help are not able to hear any of it and I think that reinforces a paralysis it keeps people stuck in their habits that are no longer serving them and you know big you know big thing that I've been spending a lot of time thinking about is how to how to transcend that like how to have better communication how to have better conversations how to really understand where other people are coming from so that you can find an effective way to have a conversation that perhaps could have a positive impact and I think it starts with empathy hmm it starts with you know sort of taking a beat maybe letting go of whatever Dogma you're holding on to and why it's so emotionally charged for you yeah and just pausing to try to understand somebody else and I see you as somebody who's been very effective at taking these tools that have transferred your life that you've learned from people who live outside the bio coming home and finding a way to translate them into a way that can incite positive change in other people so when you look at that dialogue at that conversation that's either happening online or or even you know in communities face-to-face with certain people like how do you think about that what is your opinion on that and how could we do better well I keep I think if we just keep having a conversation even when it's ugly even when it's gross even when it feels like mudslinging whatever it is let's be consistently talking about it let's keep pushing the let's keep pushing the snowball up the hill but you know I think what lacks and a lot of all of the talk that I'm participating in myself and witness and read online is a lot of sincerity is what is missing you know I think if we approach with a lot more even if we're wrong in something if we're truly sincere about trying to convey something of value to someone I think we are headed in the right direction the reason is I mean I have words with people online you mix it up because this is not playtime for me this is I'm not selling Herbalife of something hmm this is not what we do in here bro this is not what we do in here we're doing so I am talking about something I'm talking about grabbing and grabbing a machete and going after something that I know now took my grandmother away at 67 years old made my grandfather miserable for the last few years of his life you know I know that it's it's a it's it's a beast and so I'm not playing it's not a joke to me and so I don't mind speaking out so I I don't think it should be unicorns and lollipops this this the context of this nutritional whatever you want to call it this battle that's happening online sometimes but I do think that it likes a lot of sincerity I think a lot of people are faking the funk and preaching at people before they even have a foothold on [ __ ] themselves and that's where a lot of the noise comes from you know but being Frank and real with somebody is needed as long as it comes from a sincere place and I don't mind apologizing if I was incorrect but I'm but I'm gonna try and speak my mind try and try and stay to what I think and know is real is my world and if I'm wrong tell me I want to know if I'm wrong yeah well I mean I think you you accomplished that I mean you're unbelievably real and authentic and how you you know share your your unique experience and and and what you've gone through and how you've gotten to where you're at right now and one of the one of the kind of things that you've done that that really stood out to me was that time that you that you took some pictures of you without your shirt on with all the extra skin yeah and down he's like this is the truth of what happens when you go from 420 or whatever you know where you're at right now like you're gonna look like me my you know Dom's like I tell every time Dom's poster should like or even Garth they posted a picture without a shirt on uh so I put on a shirt man hey y'all killing me because you're sitting across from me right now for Hitler just listening to this you're you're jacked you got your guns on you also had you go at like of stretch marks yeah you know I have this these things my body has gone through a lot and even with all of this even with all of this it's not it's so much less worse than I imagined it when I was 420 pounds because I was like even imagine if I lost all the weight how much extra skin I would have I remember getting my first stretch marks worn my way to get fat it ruined my whole summer it ruined my month my uh my senior trip we were in Cancun and I took my shirt off and I was about to go to the beach with all of my friends and I passed by the mirror and bathroom and I saw stretch marks down my side and I was hot what were you pushing then oh and oh I was probably 300 pounds right but it was the stretch marks that got you the stretch marks got me and so I made up the fact that I was bored and I didn't I wasn't enjoying the trip and I played like a fuddy dudd just to avoid going on the beach with my friends mmm it made everybody mad at me you know mm-hmm so this skin has been around for a long time and I've also in and still like on that say hey what it looks like right and then also understand though the skin is an organ and it's alive you know and it's constantly adapting so I'm in process like where is it now compared to where it was at two years ago oh God really really good right does it contract States better and better but my what body fat I have left is held really loosely and flabbily like around my belly button I don't know if that'll ever go anywhere I mean I don't see a whole lot of like X like people who've lost 230 pounds doing shirtless cover shoots yeah um so I don't know I don't know if there's examples of that without surgery without cutting it off of yeah so you could go to Beverly Hills and snip it all yeah we're gonna skip down so that I better just put some effort into being pretty damn okay with it and when I think about it especially when I look at it against my clothes right cuz my clothes are so huge I know you save some of that you share something about that the other day like you put on one of your old Jessie way I want people to think about yeah I look weird a little bit but the thing is think it because it's mostly heavy people that are asking me this question it's like you're so worried about looking as bad as you think I look under my shirt that you're scared to lose 200 pounds how silly is now it's a crazy it's crazy oh but yeah you think about the shirt though the extra material one of five or six extra-large some of my t-shirts with six extra large and you think about the extra material in a shirt and you compare that to what extra material I have in skin on my body my body did pretty damn good right it's doing base winning yeah there's more there's more cotton than there is right yeah so what was that what was the reaction when you posted that it was it was it was it was heartwarming it was nice there were comments that people make that think they're being you know supportive that it this one bothers me and I hope I don't offend anybody who said it who's it because a lot of people say it so it's not like one person but I'll post something like that and they tell me how brave I am and I don't feel brave at all like this is like that's almost confirming that I look bad to tell me how brave it is of me well it takes courage to be vulnerable like yeah I guess to do that is a is a is is is to put yourself in a vulnerable position I guess so but it can't help how it feels when I read it you know what I'm saying cuz it still doesn't land right yeah it doesn't land now it's like oh if I looked like that I could never take off my shirt that's the way I read it you know right but that's just third layer than me there that it's just it's yeah people are there just look man it's still a lot of like stuff I work through day every single day of thoughts that are twisted that I'm untwisting still you know getting offended when I probably shouldn't have been and like I'm still learning well let's talk about that person let's talk about that because the the weight loss thing is just to surf that's on the surface sure that's what everyone wants to talk about how to do that but you know what are the changes that have happened emotionally like you know what is this this spiritual trajectory that you're on like where are you at with all of that how has that changed or evolved the last couple of years yeah never like I was really religious when I was a kid well I wasn't really just my family was my grandmother was the daughter of a Baptist minister my mom BAM Bam's wife and so it was Church twice on Sunday we're going on Wednesday night and I grew up in a very Protestant right-wing Baptist environment and in a lot of ways I've railed against the hypocrisy I saw as a kid you know cuz I know the behind stuff go behind closed door stuff that happens and then all the stuff that happens during fellowship at church all right and so moved away from that as I've grown older in my life and although I'm not religious at all I see where religion come is coming from you know I see what is trying to get it the more I move forward and and maybe it's just from getting older but that spirituality means something bigger to me than anything religion could ever encapsulate you know and it's so simple it's so much simpler than all of those rules and things and really surrendering to just living you know an authentic life for myself that helped that was that simple little phrase really helps free up a mind you know you know to unlock and unleash a more first authentic self and that in and of itself like your self-love that's your religion that's religion that's how you thank God for your existence and I'm glad to have like come across that you know and I'm because it I feel fulfilled I feel whole and I feel like when when you're in that place even though I have tons of [ __ ] to deal with all and still to that's not fun but I feel complete and then you feel like being of service for other people what's that that continuing with learn one do one teach one well the feeling of completeness comes from the giving back anything and over and over from you yeah this is something that you've like really taken on you know like you really you really have made this commitment to make your life about giving back this gift that's been given to you in your community and you know this the Facebook group you're wearing the wristband for the missing Gio's club I'll give you what I don't really I never got big enough to have a second chance maybe a little dip right so when did you start that and how did that like lead you to Good Morning America well that's a fun story because like so you put me out in a social media world and then like so then people started connecting with me and other people who had lost big weight we're like oh I lost weight too and I'm on a plant-based diet - and my name is so-and-so and let's be friends and so that's sort of happened and you accumulate all of my friends they Anthony Massey yellows and the Jason Cohens and you know all of my buddies that Tim Kaufman my you know fat man rants and all these people that I was connecting with individually I was like man we should all be in the same place and I didn't want it to be something that we were gonna like turn into a Facebook page and sell t-shirts about and like because there were ideas about doing it that way and I just sort of said no I want to do let's just do a secret Facebook group of just us and we get to talk about our stretch marks and our deflated man boobs and how difficult it is people don't understand what it's like to train for a marathon when you got you know extra kid skin flapping around at you got to make sure you get the right type of compression shorts for so you don't yeah those conversations like the audience while you're honest you're afraid to talk to him right with the only god Zach might be able so that's all it started it was like maybe 20 of us uh-huh and one of those guys in that group is as Eric oh great he's so he's a he's a missing chin you know you familiar what his story would be and so Eric said hey man this is really cool I have a friend that works for one as well I think he would like to do an article on it and that was it and so Eric Eric sent sent the idea to his friend at runner's world and then they did an article on the missing Chin's they came down all the ones that live geographically close enough to me they showed up we did a photo shoot and Peltier parking timid Oh secret groups not so secretly great all said but we like that the writer get access to the see was on the page I get I got permission from the guy because I did I and I and I'll include the men but I also did for the girl that was a that she was producing for the GM it for Good Morning America so what happened was after the after the runner's world thing People magazine picked it up and did a similar story and then after that I was just laying around hurting really bad my back was bothering me and um and I was depressed and I get a phone call and almost didn't answer because I didn't recognize the number and it was a lady she got one too yeah I don't know anyone in two ways so she's like hey I'm so so a good more in America I was like okay we would like to see if you would like to do a story if you'd be even interested and I was like yeah so ultimately I just kept you know how those things go and email a million and you you get guys hopes up because they think they want to do one thing and it's like you're the bad guy because you're delivering these crazy messages is like you think I think I'm gonna be able to get all of you guys to come and then you owe only these guys can come although you got to swap it around they want this now they wanted to be and so being the messenger and getting people disappointed and excited that would that part kind of suck but that's all that happened was they read about the missing Chin's and then they they it was an inspirational story for the end of the year and so they asked us to put together to come and if we'd be willing to come up and so that's what it was I called a few guys from around the the country to represent like a wide swath right how many how many people are part of that group that's that point at that point Oh probably a hundred a hundred yeah and they were like what like nine of you or something like that that that showed up for the segment um there was a group of like no I don't ever sick yeah it was just like yeah just I think it was just five of us I think it was just five oh so good morning yeah yeah tripping and I just saw I watched it I was just thinking about what was going through your mind talking to Strahan I wanted to talk someplace no I got to remind him about a about a 40 burger that the Saints put on his defense the year he retired and he was like oh ha remember he said I've been trying to forget that I've been trying to forget about that game since I retired you know but it was his it was his last game in the dome I think if they won the Super Bowl that year so ultimately he's lucky yeah he wins but they got their ass handed to him in the dome right I think for me it was emotional seeing you on television because unlike the runners world thing like this was this was about like something that you helped to build that wasn't about you yeah you know and that's really what it's about like how can you scale beyond your own personal achievements in a way that can impact people positively for the long-term mm-hmm and it was a recognition of that again like a symbolic thing it's not about like being on Good Morning America it's like culture is recognizing that that that not just that you created this thing but that there are opportunities for a better way forward to address these problems that so many people have yeah and these guys you I mean look rich you'd be so proud of like they come together and come to each other's aid like they'll start group messages and raise money for each other to help each other by like buy what they need I go I don't have a running watch I'm gonna saving up we'll see and then we'll like either don't and we have like a thing like when when one of the chins is about to get rid of if he buys a new watch and he'll and it's a watch that he wants to just give away or just post and say who wants it in the first got it asked for it just send it to them in the mail like it's a real deep Pat gets a community it's it's a it's tight-knit and you know we had a hundred people for Good Morning America I don't think we have more than 200 because how many invites solicitations did you get after that tons man but the thing is it's secret so it's hard for people to find it unless they find us they gotta go look at the video put remember how to spell our names and then go find us on social media and message us and ask us and give us a little story about themselves and convinces that they deserve or not deserve but belong with us in our group you know so it's a barrier to entry on purpose because we want the right people want you really looking how to find us uh-huh and when you do almost what's that what's the weirdest thing that you guys have had a chat about on that group oh my god this guy was trying to raise money would a GoFundMe or something and it felt fishy and awkward and so one of the guys like researched his name and it turned out he had done like this GoFundMe fraud before and so we start calling him out like he was trying to use the missing Qin's Club okay everyone daffodility like sorry the sob story like he was trying to do that and then when we called him out he went off calling us like like like some of the nicest old got like we got some older fellows in there that are struggling and trying to get this [ __ ] together and and I just be like he just went off like what talking about wanna kill everybody and like it was crazy it was the so we had all kind of little messages gone like who is this guy what is going on he's the only person that we've had to block you had to banish yeah that's the lone case Wow and what is a what are some of the success stories um so my buddy Adam brown is one of my favorite he's this a you know redheaded kid from the sticks I think up in I'm sorry Adam it's Illinois or Pennsylvania he's up from up north somewhere right and anything north of Georgia and you a redneck I don't know so it's so so yeah so Adam he lives up in the sticks he lives in the woods just like we do so he came down for the Louisiana Marathon ate the Louisiana Marathon gave us a bunch of free entries gave us like 20 entries for the marathon or half whatever you wanted just fought mr. Chen's buddies and so he drove down to take advantage of one of those this guy Adam and he we talked and we talked he was just getting started with his plant-based stuff he was I think pre-diabetic or type 2 not sure but he was overweight and but he hunted and he lived in the country and he had all of these identity things that my story really resonated with him you know and what if for whatever reason his his mindset clicked he kept he stayed consistent he kept trying I could tell when I talked to him at the marathon he was really skeptical about believing he could do it you know now I get it cuz I've been there and now I haven't worked without him at all I haven't done [ __ ] Adam has just done it all on his own but just being a part of this organic community where he just passively gets information and inspiration since then he's lost a whole bunch of weight I don't know how much but it's pretty impressive to see his before and after and it's and he's got it he's when it's clicked oh he gets how simple it is and now just like Tim coughing man and and like all these other guys Anthony Masiello and myself it's it's automatic and it's gravity and now it's his just taking up the balls went downhill it's my decibel mentally and a little taste it's not just sunrise another guy so it's a crazy story I have a buddy who lives right next to me named Jason and Jason is from Philly right but he lives in Schriever Louisiana and so jason has a so jason has lost a lot of weight and because he's so close to me we've run together before and we've gotten together online and he he's been he fought with low carb for years and wound up going plant-based and it helped him a lot with his with his weight loss and so he was trying to talk to his buddy Jeff up and in Fillie hey his buddy was really overweight you should join the missing Chen's with us we're gonna help you out and Jeff struggle man Jeff was he came in and he always had questions but it was a lot of self-deprecation in his way he was asking questions soon we'd even really answered her questions most the time we just talked about the self deprecating home and just made you a bad son of a [ __ ] but what you're talking about get up get your head together and so you know over time jeff has lost 100 pounds I saw him he I didn't even recognize his clothes all [ __ ] baggy and stuff is so crazy he I saw at Leadville he just comes to Leadville and he's got just jump shorts and a regular white t-shirt and then all his stuff is bagging he's like man hundred pounds man and he's all excited about it you know Kevin there's a there's I can go on there's dudes on the body there's dudes right there in Thibodaux that are in this thing you know and they're they're they're plant-based they're not like all out in the world about it they don't want to be Josh about it like I'm doing this because I was inspired to by a mentor of mine not everybody has to go and get on a microphone and you do the thing your weight do your thing but there's a lot of guys that are you know changing they get it it's they get it they see the power and then they're deciding how much of it they willing to take right now and they take bite after bite and I think the bites get bigger as they go you know the community piece is so so important that's all they talked about a plant Rishon this weekend it was so massive that's the sauce man for the projection eulogy in Mass yes the connectivity the feeling like it you're not doing it alone if there's somebody who can answer your questions there's somebody who will hold you accountable there's somebody who will pat you on the back and you know I think culturally we've we've just you just live lives way more isolated than we were genetically wired to do we need that you know we need that to move forward I think that's a huge part of why we've slid so far down this rabbit hole disease and for health man because we're not connected we're not being held accountable yeah and we can in and from me the first thing that really sparked my community or my desire for newer community was becoming a runner and doing my very first run group it is you you know people dismiss me when I talk about the running and it like as if it's just a calorie burning activity it's not exercise this is how we do it this is how we did we're pack animals we would move by pili in in like groups man this is what we do this is what Chi and this is why hard what I was talking about with Sanjay were what exactly yeah dad I had to pause that one halfway through so I could finish buffering my brother like my eyes were rolling you haven't seen the movie yet I have no I have not you love it yes all right gosh I have to what else was going on at plant Rishon well you know the normal line up of all stars really cool stuff because of you people you know coming up to me like that was that was a really surreal thing we we had a booth you know the hour well start thing in Howard and yeah I remember that yeah sure and but we had that and people these doctors are coming up and talking to me and I'm like a little apprehensive to talk to a doctor about something about my expertise right but a lot of them would come up to me and want to take a picture of me because they knew about me from you right oh you wants one of my favorite podcasts I tell my patients about you all the time I got that at least and I'm not exaggerating rich at least eight times this weekend yeah well as a target-rich environment of course is like high concentration or let's bury no yeah no it's great he's long me too it's awesome it's pretty cool to be right you know that you know the last time we did the first time we did the podcast was 2013 mmm-hmm you know yeah that struck a chord it was a Skype call I'm sure I haven't gone back and listened to it I mean I'm sure audios terrible I had no idea but it was so powerful that it just transcends all of that nonsense and the fact that people are still discovering a conversation that we had literally five years ago and then followed up three years ago is insane yeah you know it feels awesome to be part like you know to be part of that conversation that that is such a gift that I don't and I know a follower myself you know always thanking you for but it's just the truth and it's just such a gifted like I'm just this guy from check me and I'm not like I was raised in a trailer park dude I'm nothing special and to have you say oh look at this guy what he holds value man that's huge for me the story is super powerful and I would say to you what you tell people in your face group Facebook group like why you you know why you why you denigrating yourself in that way because what you did is extraordinary the way you did it perhaps even more extraordinary and it would be a crime had you not made that decision to share your story because it's it's a pilot light man it is a catalyst for so many people out there who are struggling who just need a lifeline who need to find somebody that they can connect with and we all have our various ways of carrying this torch and I know that you know I can reach certain people but there's a huge swath of people that can't relate to me that can relate to you and and you know that's why it's so powerful the the vibration that you're carrying and so I'm not surprised that people are still you know saying that that was impactful for them but you're the one just like in the way that you decided to get to work and put those running shoes on and you know commit to this lifestyle change and then to give it back like you're the one who's done the work and shown up to build this thing that you've built that has brought you to you know places like the plant Rishon project and connected you with people like Howard and and to this well start yeah project that you're working on and this book that you're writing so like tell me about what's going on with that yeah that's it all started just because you know another another sort of nudge from you about getting my story in a book and like to really pursue that that should be something that I should be working towards so I took that to heart and I'm in a rope I wrote a lot I wrote a lot and I put together everything I could think of and a very raw sort of manuscript that I mean it was tons and tons of my life and deep dark stuff that I've never really told a lot of people and I didn't know really what to do with it you know but met up with Garth the year after you were at health fest and Garth put me in touch with with Howard long story short right now Jacob salaries or sound on the podcast a long time yeah yeah in his podcast what you was powerful for me and it sent me down the road to go read whole which the way things were put in hole was really something that meant it really lends itself to being okay with surrender the way hole is couched you know so it's so complicated forget about it back up back up let's just seed Whole Foods and I got that and that was a huge thing and so to have the off the co author of that book contact me via Facebook message and said thank you for accepting my friendship request I was like are you [ __ ] kidding me haha yeah and so we just struck up a conversation on messenger and then we had a phone call and then one thing led to the next and it's like I have a whole bunch of stuff that I rolled how it's ready to like move to the buyer yeah and how it's so next thing you know it's like I'm he said well I think maybe the next step is we should meet each other and I was like yeah so you know over the years Howard and I have just become like brothers man just like in that that that last podcast with you I said I've never had a big brother now like I have multiple big brothers people who are literally like I look up to like I would look up to a big brother and like I've shared deep things with Howard and spent long long conversations and so we've got really really close and he knows a lot about me and he knows a lot about what went into me being able to get traction and he knows what's important along the way in my in my journey you know and he's just a brilliant writer and so Howard has been able to from writing my helping me you know get together with all of the stuff that I wrote plus writing what-what he added to it to make it better write all of that stuff in doing that practice at the same time we worked on this coaching platform because how really he already does the coaching stuff and he thought that I would be a good fit for that and he saw an opportunity for us to work together as a team and he and he proposed like hey we should start this this program this coaching program so we did and he used a lot of what he learned from my story and building the curriculum making a lot of things teachable about menu and movement mindset and how how to couch a lot of the things the way that I sort of captured in my brain and and and so we did that for a few years and one of his podcast guests just so happened to be this tech person who was building a an online platform and it was gonna be an app and all and she was kind of it she's like she saw what we did with our with our coaching stuff she's like I think we should have an opportunity so we kind of right we flirted with that for a while and wind up mashing together and now I'm a founder of this tech company right right yeah we're gonna have a native app in in about three or four weeks we just had a meeting so we just had our first like corporate meeting in San Diego that was really cool all face to face and I feel all like I'm part of something it's it's exciting it's scary cuz I have no idea what I'm doing and I know what I'm doing when I'm talking to people when I'm relating what what Howard and I've been working on and honing but when it comes to like this the the being part of a start-up or a tech startup especially I'm kind of like it's kind of overwhelming at times but it's really fun and something very rewarding the surrender to I have to say that's cool so so it's called well stars but it'll be like an app that'll have online coaching or yeah it's it will have Howard's built out this 12-week program and then we do like these weekly coaching calls where it's like a group coach on video right group coaching calls on video once a week and we have a we have a plant-based diet ition and we just try to help everybody orient into that growth mindset we're not gonna tell you what to do right now we help you identify where you are and we're trying to help you nudge into that direction of better that we've identified because you have type 2 diabetes or you're overweight or we've we've quantified we've made specific goals here and so that's that's all we do and through a 12-week program we do that I'll do like daily like two-minute videos where we text the people and I get a challenge their songs yeah get a bunch of those other people look like people love them so we just keep doing some funny and um but it seems to really help we have some amazing success stories in there and I'm really made some real deep personal friendships and relationships through this whole thing with some of the people that have been through the program we live in do you have a date for libraries or no in the the the CTO said three or four weeks Wow in the meeting so that's exciting that's the that's the plan super and that would be really cool and what was really cool was as we're at plan trician and we have the booth out and we sort of explain what we're doing and now we have dr. sera stanczyk as our as our of our chief medical officer she's because she was a fly on the wall in our program she was like oh my god this is what we need this is what physicians need and so she was mouthpiece in us and a plane trician all weekend it was just really surreal for me to be there and have like Michael Greger standing there talking about well start with us going I really that's pretty cool you know that's amazing to me yeah that is that's amazing to me you know come a long way my friend right but it's so and I got it who knows where it's going and it's so fun like every day is a mystery like I'm in and I'm sitting I'm sitting at your house right now I wouldn't I mean this is crazy to me I was just I was welling up with tears just driving up as the as the he got closer and closer is like four miles - miles I was like oh I just like touch that you drove all the way from San Diego - come on yeah we only got a few minutes left here and I can't let you go without spending a little bit of time trying to get practical ons on some tools and some takeaways for some people who are listening who you know maybe are stuck maybe are flirting with the idea of trying to change their relationship with food or fitness or trying to get into running you know what are what are the common things that people come to you with and what are some of the ways forward like how do people just you know make that start and then make it stick well we I'm gonna say something that my grandfather always told me on a job site right because I was always the boss's grandson on the site and he didn't want me standing around getting caught like looking lazy or not doing something and so he told me he gave me directions when I was like when I was very young that he said I want you doing something even if it's wrong so so that's the first step we got to do something you analyze you think you think plant basis analysis paralysis at now exactly so what we want to do is we want to do something I don't care which step that is I don't care what it is we want to do something let's get a result and let's let's let our results dictate the sufficiency of what it is we're doing today and must be objective and pragmatic about it because dammit we're trying to get somewhere let's do this on purposes do it with purpose and let's understand it we have a community of people around us that are kind of dependent on us it's hard to be motivated yourself when you see every around you failing so play your role be a part do it for yourself do it for your community do it for the family around you and um and you know let's take the first step whatever that is do it man yeah one of the things that that you talk about on the regular is this idea of majoring in the minors yeah yeah that's a yeah yeah which I love and I think it's so true so like explain that yeah that's actually my buddy my buddy Ryan and and he works at the Wellness Center in Thibodeau and he posted an Instagram that he that's what he called it majoring in the minors were you worried about all that he's tiny my new detail is about arsenic in rice and glyphosate in here oats but she ate chicken last night you ate you know you ate pizza last night so let's take the low-hanging fruit right now let's identify that and let's go after the low-hanging fruit let's not worry about the six fist-sized servings of kale a day right now let's stop eating pizza right now and let's move a start it's not necessarily about the food it's about the purposeful habit change it's about being conscious of what you're doing and doing something on purpose that's different because we want different outcomes and we understand we had the power to manifest those mm-hmm and and so it's a growth mindset it's not plant based it's not it's a it's that's what it's about it's about understanding how to get pragmatic and how to adopt a growth mindset and love yourself enough to perpetually creep forward and when we can do that I think everyone's gonna wind up plant bass everyone's gonna find it for a runner if you really honestly do that and let gravity have its Pettit's way the growth mindset thing is key because I think what happens with a lot of people is they'll be a window of opportunity or some moment where they're blessed with the willingness to make that change and they're pretty good for a couple weeks but then something will happen they got to go out of town or you know I don't know you know they just they have a weak moment and they faceplant in the Papa John's or whatever yeah and then they're like well I couldn't it and done you know and then they're just back to whatever they were doing and it's so hard to recreate that momentum but if you really are in a place where you're adopting this growth mindset it's much easier to just get back on track okay but I'm not gonna like shame myself right out of the game I'm just gonna look forward what's the next best thing that I can do and get back on track and start to recreate that momentum or not allow that momentum to lose too much of its acceleration that's exactly right you know is it's just the old adage of how you eat elephant one bite at a time we have to you have to just keep taking bites it's can and I get you know from you it's it's consistency over intensity that's what's most important of course you know yeah so you're at you're a plant Rishon and you got a booth and you got to start out your startup founder and you know you're just a guy from the bio who did a podcast one day and then said yes when you could go meet you know the three old ladies down the street and teach them how to cook something a little bit healthier yeah so hot you know that happens with taking those tiny bites out of the elephant every single day that's exactly right you know the elephant may not okay think of this whole behavior change think of your life think of this whole thing as growing something literally because if you think of it Disney can make a very convincing oak tree but it's not an oak tree right if you what it takes to really make an oak tree is years and years of nurturing in slow growth consolidation Feldman I know like they want that what's the Hat that's that's an issue let's talk about that because that's got to go away you know we don't want pay debts that's that's a that's uh that's in the way that's in a way of what we're trying to do so we gotta we gotta back off of that we need to talk about we need to talk about planting a seed and then fertilizing that seed and then growing it nurse into a tree that ultimately bears fruit that's what that's what we need to do and if we can build community around that then we have this growth medium for those roots to really set in you know and that's how we grow not only individual behavior change but a movement and how we move in a direction to not only you know save this country but really save humankind man because it's on a terrible trajectory and it's this sad because it's just because of the [ __ ] we eat it's crazy times so much of it is hey come on it's not that complicated I love you brother I could go on for another two hours but please come back when you're gonna have this freakin book done it's gonna be it's gonna be soon actually yeah we're just gonna give away we have this we have I have a memoir of mine it's that's later down the road but we've basically taken everything that comprises our big our our um well well start program and put it into a book free Kindle inversion so to give it a lessee right and I'll go hand-in-hand with that correct that's all you just have it and then you don't need us but if you want us we're there yeah we'll give you all the stuff we're gonna give you just whatever that's good man yeah and 50k in February 50k in February and just I'll be taking I'll be taking I'll probably pace a few friends along the way for half's and fools as I get ready but I'd like to do if I think I want to race a 50k before I try to race another marathon so I really love the ultras yeah they're spiritual odyssey's man you know they look real good I Love You Man love you too Vegas so much it's been an honor and a privilege to observe your trajectory and I'm so proud of you man it's beautiful what you've created and like I said at the outset I really do think it's just the beginning and I think you're you're just on your way to making a profile impact on culture and people and and bless you man man's you thank you so much for being there for me and just being a friend that you are you people don't know how much of a mentor you already with texting and you're constantly there for word for advice and any questions you give you just an amazing human being enough thank you very much for everything that you've done for me it really means a lot my pleasure man josh is easy to find on the Internet at joshula Johnny I mean instagrams your main job yeah yeah and Facebook too right yeah you're a small Twitter but like your Facebook and if you can find if you can find a missing chins and and compose some kind of eloquent letter yeah leave GoFundMe is out and maybe he'll let you in yeah and that's it man is there anything about well start on the internet if people want to read about that no other know what I'm putting this podcast up maybe it'll coincide with the launch so let me know when that is yeah sure I don't know yeah I don't know exactly when the when the native app launches we're live right now on our on our website it behaves like an app on the phone when I would done at well story Hill it's like mobile optimized right what's the website for them well start we'll start health.com we'll start like you're not sure about know it sergeant all right now until we until we meet again you take us out peace plants [Music] you

Channel: Rich Roll

Views: 60,196

Keywords: rich roll, vegan, health, fitness, diet, nutrition, athlete, podcast, inspiration, motivation, plantpower, plant-based, wellness, spirituality, mindfulness, meditation, self-help, josh lajaunie, weight loss, new orleans, hunting, fishing, nutrition density, ultramarathon, running, marathon, training, heart disease, diabetes, runners world

Id: MKdGDl4lK9k

Length: 104min 41sec (6281 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 11 2018