Jerry Pujals Lost 80 Pounds at the Age of 56 Adopting a Whole Food Plant Based SOS-Free Diet

hey everyone and welcome to Chef AJ live I'm your host Chef AJ and this is where I introduce you to amazing people like you who are doing great things in the world that I think you should know about my guest today is Jerry P Hol he lost 80 pounds following a whole food plant-based SOS free diet we're going to hear his story today please welcome him to the show hey Jerry how you doing I'm doing great Chef AJ how are you I'm great well you know if you lost 80 pounds I sure hope you're going to show us that you did I hope you have a picture somewhere because people like to see the proof but congratulations and I'd love to hear your story because um SOS free is not very common except for like with people in our community I mean people can lose weight without it but like you I found that that was like the easiest way to eliminate those things so I'd love to hear your story how you even found out about this way of eating and how is work for you well I'm going to get into a lot of that in the presentation Chef AJ I'm like like a little kid in the in the holidays right now just so grateful to be here with you and I can probably easily do a a presentation on the impact that you've had in my life and much more important than that in my family's life because the changes that you helped caus in me have impacted them as well um not that they struggle with weight like I have but we've improved in so many ways and I'm forever grateful and I probably I've also watched your show and I'm such a big fan that watch your show enough to know that you tend to get a little at least from where I stand you tend to get a little uncomfortable when people compliment you and um am I right well no I mean I just don't I don't want you know yeah I think you're right I mean I you know it's like that's the look that's exactly the look and and I'm sorry I'm not gonna take much time doing this I'd love to do a presentation literally on the impact that what you've put out there has had in my life because is is Broad and deep and it's I'll get into that in this in the slide deck but I just I just really can't can't thank you enough I almost get emotional thinking about it considering that I'm not necessarily an emotional person like that but the impact has been um so significant um things that I won't say on my slide that I really wanted to just share with you I'm a guy that's you know half Cuban half poto Rican we come from a long line of professional eating uh you know Grand really would have contest so to see who can eat the most rice and chicken uh at a sitting and and I'm not blaming anything on Grandma that was just her way of showing love and and it was uh it it made an impression and left it left an imprint uh and then you know I was born in the 1966 in the 70s we had processed foods come into our our world and after I started to watch you I really learned that most of this wasn't my fault that you know it was really Environmental and we we'll really get into that but I just um I I I learned I've learned a lot the other thing that um I've had the pleasure of learning and the journey has been with you is um early on in my career um uh you know I started uh I was in business for myself when I was 22 years old I started selling produce on the side of the street uh with $300 I started selling produce and then I end up with the S with a warehouse on the San Francisco produce market selling organic fruits and vegetables to over 200 restaurants in in the Napa Valley region only to suffer with weight because I would eat in a lot of those restaurants and that also would confuse me because I was selling the things that I like most but I was consuming what was processed and was affecting me uh the most so in that journey I I I struggled a lot it was super stressful working nights in the produce market I go from that industry into real estate to only learn that that business was even harder because that business was the business of real estate is really 247 so I really kind of learned a lot about myself and I learned that I was having a hard time confronting some of my fears I like you uh I've written a couple of books on the topic of real estate and when I wrote One Chef AJ I had to go out there and speak and to realize that my greatest fear was uh public speaking like it is for a lot of people and my second greatest fear was getting on an airplane and flying so I hope that for anybody that's struggling uh with confronting some of their fears or maybe what may be challenging because I don't want to paint the picture that what I've done for the last year has been easy is it's probably the hardest thing that I've done in my life but with that being said um and because many years ago when I was writing those books I read a book by a woman named Susanne Jeffers called uh Feel the fear and do it anyways that book like you Chef AJ changed my life that book gave me license to lean in it gave me agency to realize that I could lean into uh the things that I was afraid of which allowed me to you know speak at over 500 venues all over the country uh to real estate professionals and and and grow my business that way uh it allowed me to fly all over the world because now I fly and I'm not afraid of that anymore and I discovered that I had another fear that I had to con confront about 10 12 years ago was my fear of being alone at night so for that reason I went and confronted hiking the the John Meir Trail which is 220 miles by myself which which allowed me to confront some of these things and I didn't realize that a lot of what was keeping me from healthier lifestyle was confronting the fear of letting go of salt oil sugar and those processed foods that were literally killing me and um and I'll get into that U but I just I just wanted to share that with you well thank you so much yeah I'd love to hear your story because everybody loves a good success story well I'm going to say this is not a success story uh this is a a the story of a journey and I and I Ed the the Paradigm uh or pardon me the metaphor of hiking a lot for me life is a trail hiking is probably my favorite thing in the world to do I do it all the time and uh and the reason I like hiking is because I always find that I want to go further because there's a curiosity of wanting to know what's around the bend and wanting to know what's around the bend for me is a great metaphor for life because and following a lot of what you've taught me and many of the other doctors that are on your show and other people that that you know who have not had the pleasure of being on your show um I'm always curious as to what's around the B if I just go a little further and a little further and I'm just literally in my journey nowhere uh near uh an arrival but I I I don't believe uh life is about the arrival right I think we're all probably probably old enough to know that nice well I'd love to see your presentation let's get started there you go okay so the title of this is SOS Free Living unveiled and I know many of you out there know what I'm talking about but if you're new to Chef AJ's show um I'm really glad you're here uh it's it's been life-changing for me and I believe it could certainly be life-changing for you so just hang in there and see if any of what I say may resonate uh with you um also I highlight that the journey to Wellness in the uh the journey to wers is in the Napa Valley because environmentally it's a challenging place to to improve your health through through eating or eating a whole whole food uh plant-based uh lifestyle so with that I've learned a lot but I once in a while still go to restaurants but I don't find that I need it as much and I'll certainly uh start talking to you about that okay this is just a picture of my wife and I this is not yesterday this is not last week this is probably probably six seven years ago and I'm putting this picture in there so I can share with you how I struggle with weight in the way of yo-yo so when I was I didn't tell you this uh before we started Chef AJ but when um I was uh 15 years old I left home to to go live on my own uh in Miami Florida for Miami Florida by the time I was 16 I moved to New York City New York City Believe It or Not Chef AJ I actually did some commercial modeling and some Off Broadway acting and I had a lot of fun doing that but I'm an impatient person and things didn't go fast enough so somebody suggested that I mov to na and I met this lovely lady in 1987 changed my life got married to her in 1988 and here we are 35 years later and we're still happily married but again I put this in here so you can get an idea of weight fluctuation and what I've struggled with I talked to you a little bit about my produce experience in this picture you can see that I was gaining a little bit of weight a little bit more comfortable in my lifestyle I was probably about 24 years old there uh had started uh one of my two produce stores before I went to the San Francisco produce market and opened up a warehouse there but weight was always a battle even surrounded by what I love the most which has always been fruits and vegetables I gotta tell you Chef AJ when I walk into a grocery store and the and the produce department is up front it still puts a smile on my face I don't know what it is about the energy of fruits and vegetables that that just brings me to a different vibration I'm not a very fofu kind of guy with with things like that but I kind of do believe in vibrations and I do believe that you know when I walk by the by the Butcher Block I don't feel quite as quite as inspired and happy and and so and a lot of that has uh hit me by way of of you and and your friends so this is another picture I got thin again uh when I started in real estate but then after that uh you can see the many changes of me and some of these were even during covid so like for example the photo on the uh left side the upper left side that was probably right in the middle of Co I was as you can see by the look of my face just not not happy very um inflamed very bloated and I didn't even know that there was really anything wrong but that my back hurt my joints hurt incredibly you know I'm the guy I'm a guy that's always been able to drop and do 20 30 push-ups it's never been an issue but this was pretty much in my uh early to mid-50s so you know I was probably 53 54 in this photo and I was not doing more than one or two push-ups because my joints hurt so much um you can see I have three boys and one girl and my boys are all spelt my wife is spelt so I I live in a place with people that do not have an addiction to food or an eating disorder like I do I very much understand and I think I've always had understanding that food was my drug of choice um not a recreational drug guy not a drinking recreationally guy even though I would indulge in a gin and tonic or or even a glass of wine it's just never been my thing to relax food was always what I used at the end of the day to help me drop down a notch while I was building you know a business or businesses or doing some of the the things that I like doing uh even writing books and things like that because I find myself to be an ambitious person and possibly because I left home when I was 15 years old and I had to get out there and fend for myself so always being ambitious has led me to go to that drug or Choice which has been has been food um so the people around me have a a hard time understanding what that is like um and I have a hard time also understanding what things are like for them living with me when I want to change things in the house because I find myself unraveling so we've always had this dichotomy and this struggle of you know sort of what's wrong with that what what is it with food and people have always had a hard time understanding that that food that that there is an addiction to food for some people and some people don't understand that and again I'm not any different but I've Al also always struggled um with meeting people where they're at so that's been one of my greatest challenges and I've had to work through that over the last year and I think I've learned a lot um so right now at the moment I'm 57 years old uh again I said I'm married to Susan been married for 35 years years I I live an amazing life with her she puts up with my ups and downs my fluctuation it's never been an issue for her and uh I'll share a lot more about that with you because I think you'll find it interesting and also at the end of uh today's episode I really want to share with you from these photos to what I've able to do now and the goals that I have for next year what what may be possible for you as well because during these photo girl uh I have to say you guys I I was literally preparing for the end I was literally and I know some of you can connect with that I know some people are going to say what are you talking about you're only 50-some but there was so much chronic pain that I couldn't hardly walk to the corner of my street when I love hiking so I couldn't hardly walk anymore um I couldn't do exercises everything hurt so bad and so chronically that I also remember that my grandmother the one that used to feed me all those tasty meals back in Puerto Rico by the time she was 40something she was complaining of chronic pain and not being able to walk uh so she would complain about that in her 40s so I thought if I'm in my 50s now I got 10 years on her I did pretty well and and I just thought that was normal and I thought well I guess I just need to hunk her down um visit chiropractors visit the doctor probably going to have to face some type of blood pressure situation medicine and this is just going to be kind of like my my grandmother who actually lived into her 80s but the last 15 to 20 years of her life were bedridden and I just thought that's the way it was going to go for me so um so this is what happens it was time for my Ann my annual physical uh like some of you my least favorite thing to do when going to get my annual physical it was jumping on the scale so this time I jumped on the scale uh I broke the 280 PB Mark which made me the heaviest I'd ever been and my 50 to 60 up and down fluctuations 50 to 60 pound uh up and down fluctuations and when the doctor sees that she also noticed that my blood pressure was high but because I've never shown signs of high blood pressure by going to the doctor she she thought that maybe it was a white lap Coat Syndrome and she asked me to come back the next day and that's when I got worried because I thought wait a minute I I know how this works I'm going to come back tomorrow I'm over 280 pounds there's no way my blood pressure is going to be much better because I didn't feel anxious at all when she was uh checking my blood pressure and with all that being said I never came back to the doctor and that's literally when I started doing uh the research um that's not me because I don't have red hair but it was something like that I started doing all this research which you know led me to making some decisions you know you know you're going out there and you're seeing carnivore diets you're seeing um paleo you're seeing all the things that I had done before I don't I don't think I've ever I I've done High meat uh protein diets before but nothing like that carnivore but I have I have done literally everything since I was 15 years old I've tried every single diet in my journey of ups and downs but one thing that helped me was reconnecting to a book I had written uh that I had read many years ago and getting back to this book I had the book I actually had the book and I don't keep anything I'm sort of a minimalist and I get rid of everything but I still had that book so for some reason I still had that book and then I purchased the audio version and I listen listened to it a couple of times and I started to connect with with this type of this type of eating uh I've always again loved fruits and vegetables understood what they do for you on the micro level didn't quite understand the macro level but by reading this book I got a better feel for that so I'm just trying to keep up with my notes so make sure that I kind of stay on the flow you guys so bear with me so doing great thank you and and just so you know I have to say Chef AJ my blood pressure is up right now because I am very nervous although I have a a podcast and I've had quite a few guests on my podcast and I've been on the side of the the chair I think this is the first time I'm a guest on a podcast so I am literally confronting some fears right now so thank you for your well you're doing great and people are going to really resonate with your story so please thank you um so Dr Joel Ferman I connected with a lot of what he said although there were things that I thought I found some holes but at that point it was like feel the fear and do it anyways I knew that something had to change and I always you know and all the times that I've been watching Chef AJ I hear her ask people are you a uh sort of a dabbler or a dive you know feet first and good B indiff I am a dive feet first no questions asked just go because I was you know you finally get fed up and you're thinking this is just bad my blood pressure is gonna go up things are going to change I know I must be pre-diabetic I don't want to do any blood work I know where this is going so I dove in and I gotta tell you just by doing this in I want to say that in 30 days days I I lost probably close to 20 pounds I mean it was insane it's like the we the puffiness just went away in 30 days you know so I was down to maybe 270 268 pounds and already I can see the swelling throughout my my body particularly my face I can see that just change and that gave me so much hope that I thought I I think I'm on to something and then that's where I I dug in and it was during those days that I thought let me keep let me keep going down this path and that's where I ran into you Chef AJ and I knew of uh Dr John McDougall but then he also helped me fill in some of the holes that I thought Ferman had and not that Ferman not that I wouldn't practice uh Fermin's methods but I but for me I knew there had to be something else because I was missing some of the wet carbs and those things that I one point uh Dr Lyle helped me understand through Evolution that that we do need the wet cards because we are omnivores and and we do crave certain things and for us to be successful at eating and living this way for the long term that uh that the wet carbs are important and that really allowed me to stick with it and what I found was that for me the most challenging and what was the hardest was getting through the withdrawals of of sugar oil and salt I started to understand that you know the sugar withdrawals would last uh seven to 10 14 days something like that uh the salt was a little longer 30 45 days I want to go off of memory and the oil take a long time to to get out of your system but I didn't stop there from the beginning because what I haven't said to you is that when I jumped in both feet first I cleaned house I literally did I I removed salt oil sugar because I agree with Dr goldhammer caffeine is a drug and it is the modern day's drug of choice uh just look at how many Starbucks and and coffee places are out there and look at what we pay for a cup of coffee I mean people pay seven8 dollar for for for what was what used to be 50 cents so I removed that I removed alcohol I removed anything processed even obviously for Chef AJ I removed processed vegan foods because vegan cheese is not healthy cheese uh as far as I'm concerned I mean some people uh like it and find it healthy but I just find that anything processed is setting me backwards just like sort of what what they what the food industry did in the 70s so I'm really a fan of whole plantbase I remove meat products any dairy products anything like that and the longer I stayed with that the less that I would crave it so what happened after that um oh and on this light I just want to highlight what I'm up against in the Napa Valley so these are just a handful of restaurants that people might know of that live in the valley and these places are world renowned places people my cousins people from Miami uh and put EO that come visit me here you know now I can go and join them because I'm so far removed from Salt oil and sugar that I don't crave it anymore but for the first six months there's no way I would throw myself at that sword because it was a setup for a disaster so and and I have to share you something with you guys really uh quick because this is how hard this was when I started this way of eating was last November right before Thanksgiving so consider doing this the worst time you possibly can going into the Thanksgiving holiday so I did that I I made it through Thanksgiving without a without any issue but then in February every year I go with a group of friends to Las Vegas to go watch the Super Bowl with them in Las Vegas you could imagine that these guys don't eat much besides chicken wing beer um Italian restaurants all these foods and I found myself at an Italian restaurant with them during the first three months of me doing this Chef AJ it was probably the most painful thing I I'd ever done harder than than the 220 mile hike it was so hard to sit in that table and watch people pass all these dishes and the smells and the triggering and all that but what I found really interesting was how all of them and this was like 12 guys around the table how all of them were looking at me not upset what they wish is that at that point and they've all told me about it they wish they had the courage to do the same thing they all wanted to get off of that hamster wheel they didn't want to eat that and I've had a lot of conversations with them over the year as to how the how the journey is progress for me and some of them seem inspired to even start I'm going to meet them again this February for Super Bowl in Vegas which is actually in Vegas this year and I have no issues by the way Chef AJ I took an Uber from my hotel went to Whole Foods bought all of my produce brought it back to the hotel room and use my bullet ninja to blend all of my food so I can be satiated before I went out with him it was it was a gargantuan effort to stay on program during my first few months of doing this I have to tell you that now there's zero effort I don't feel any effort and I know for some people that's not the same thing but I have to tell you I'm I've been so far removed and I knew that time was going to be my friend I knew the long the longer I stayed away from the salt and the oil those two are just so brutal because I thought the sugar was going to be the tough one you know not eating a cookie for me is not an issue not eating cake for me is not an issue but when you come buying sugar oil and salt now we have an issue so this is what my cupboard would have looked like because I have grandkids so I wanted to give you an example what my cupboard would have looked like before I started on this journey but here's another image that doesn't seem likely in the thread of images that I'm putting front this is a representation an artistic representation of that of my wife somebody who looks this way never had seemed to have had an issue with weight but I I found that by me doing what I was doing because I drew the line and I drew the line very hard I knew at one point I had to put the math on myself before I can help anyone else in my family anyone else ever again if I was going to help anyone else ever again I had to stop the madness so I came and I told Susan I said Susan I'm gonna do this and at one point Susan says well you know I have to make sure that I have my snacks I have to make I said Susan I said no I I can't have the snacks can't do this if you need to go out to eat dinner with your friends go do that this and that and she was like well what's that going to look like and it started to concern her and again I said earlier that I have a real hard time meeting people where they're at I didn't know where Susan was at after 35 years of being married I had no idea where my wife was at so a couple of months into this I see Susan struggling and what she was struggling with was keeping her weight and and I'm watching this happen and emotionally I can see her also struggling and I'm and I'm starting to feel better now you know I'm starting to run I'm a guy that I never thought I would run again I'm starting to do you know I'd already lost I lost 40 pounds first 90 days so I'm starting to use movement as a thing that I never thought would come back to me and as much as I would go to her and say look at me look at me look how great this is I would see her withdrawing and I could see something was wrong till one day she finally said it she says I'm triggered because I don't feel like there is the food that's calorically dense enough for me to survive she says when you cook I'm not eating enough and I'm not getting enough calories so what I did I didn't know I I had already been once to the True North Health Center by myself and I had a great experience there I can I can do that like doing a hike by myself I can go to True North Health Center just like Chef AJ does just go by myself spend a week or two there and I'm just happy as can be it's something that I'm really doing for me but this time I thought let me take Susan with me and what we found we found the differences between an endomorph and an ectomorph you know an endomorph is somebody who who's lean and Bel and and doesn't seem to have issues with with food the way that I do an endomorph is more muscular holds on to more fat rounder um and those are two things that that make us different and Dr Lyle says the best when you know through Evolution you know we're the ones that survive you know we're the ones that hold on um there are people like my wife they're the ones that don't you know they don't make it because they don't hold on to these they don't have these store these storages or these stores of of fat so when we went to the True North Health Center you know one of the first things that my doctor asked Susan was do you like beans and Susan really doesn't even like beans so that kind of sets us back and we had to really address that and we had to have many conversations to work through how we were going to work through this situation of of the environment and what I'm really happy to report is that we're in a really good place right now where because I'm so far removed from the salt oil and sugar if my granddaughter and Susan decide that they want to have a vegan pizza made out of vegan cheese and do things like that they don't affect me the smell doesn't even trigger me anymore where the first 90 days they would have so what I find is that for me it was the first 90 days and Susan helping me through those first 90 days was probably the biggest gift or one of the biggest gifts she's given me because she's given me four kids and seven grandkids but with that being said um I was able to adapt adjust and meet Susan where she was at and I'm very excited for for our new life and our new journey I mean Susan and I do a lot of things together and a lot of them involved uh activity here I want to just to go back about what first got me kind of going and it was Dr Joel furman's gbms which I know you know what they are Chef AJ but you know of course the greens the beans the onions the seeds the mushrooms the berries that's literally what allowed me to drop I mean I did it for 90 days and I dropped weight and I was eating those salads that were the size of my head and and I think you're the one that I heard say that the salad is the size of your head chef AJ um my salads were twice the size of my head and my head is pretty big so uh I can I could just put down some insane salads but because of Chef AJ uh sweet potatoes have become a thing for me and those Jersey sweet potatoes are like something else and I do those probably three times a week There's always sweet potatoes in my refrigerator and it's almost like to a meat person what a a ribeye steak would be for me a sweet potato is like the the best thing you can ever have they don't need anything on them they just get so gooey you know no argument here unbelievable when I would hear you say that I would think what is she talking about it's just a sweet potato but it's not when but I never I've always boiled them is the baking and when that Sugar oozes out of it's ridiculous anyways um so I wanted to go into um some of the things that I'm eating now so this is a small salad for this is for a photo on one of my episodes on my podcast but this is just a clean little salad this normally would be in in a bowl the size of a bucket and and I can go through it it's amazing when you get used to eating salad how you can masticate this in a way that it just I mean you can consume it very quickly people struggle because they literally haven't built the muscles to work through salads the reason we haven't built the muscles to work through salads is because some of us are used to eating McDonald's considered that to eat a Big Mac you literally almost don't even have to shoe oh sorry sorry my Cuban Puerto Rican came out you don't have to to my wife would totally be laughing right now anyways she says I can't say chin and shin so I say them backwards so when you get used to eating vegetables in the raw form you literally develop that muscle in your jaw and when you have that muscle developed you can go through Sal it unlike anything and then you actually love them and appreciate the flavor because they really needs to they really need to be well masticated before they go into your system you cannot swallow them down like a Big Mac Big Mac takes one two shoot one two shoes and they go right down your throat so be mindful of that here's the one thing that stayed with me is uh you know what what they say about statistics statistics are and and some of you have heard this some of you may not and it's very discouraging to think that for most diets that are out there if for 95% of the people who do any of the fat diets out there gain their weight back within two years and that is a sobering statistic for me so for me I connected with the fact that now that I've removed salt oil sugar caffeine which is a trigger for me because caffeine really works my nervous system I mean look at how hyper I am without caffeine right imagine this on caffeine so if you're a person who has a heightened nervous system please consider taking caffeine out of your life it's going to be hard but that's only going to be hard for three or four or five days caffeine is the one that gets out of your system the fastest way fast than sugar oil or salt so once you remove caffeine once you remove sh uh the things that get you to come back because you get these dopamine hits that are constantly attacking you because they keep you coming back for more time becomes your friend time is your best friend the more it passes the better you feel every day going forward I feel better than yesterday and what I can share with you that I am 57 years old today my joints my system Everything feels like if I'm in my my early to mid-30s I don't even know that I can say 40 I feel like my joints are so well lubricated I don't feel pain in my hips I don't feel pain in my lower back you know and now we can we can get into V2 Max and we can get into other things that I've been diving into at the end of the conversation or on this live presentation I'm going to talk to you about the things that I'm doing now which again I had checked out of I I never and like you chef chef AJ I you know the the the lifting weights and the thing even though I'm a bigger guy and I hold on to some muscle and now you know I don't jump on the scale as much as I used to every three months I go in and do a dexa scan to try to measure not to try but to measure what my you know muscle muscle bone density muscle content fat content this and I'm more focused on that than on weight I still struggle with the idea of lifting a lot of weights I I enjoy enjoy much more the running the biking the the other activities uh even swimming I want to get into some swimming but I want to share with you at the end some of some of the goals that I have for for next year so again these are the things that I removed and my good friend Isam who worked with me did this little word cloud for me which I think I'm gonna put on a frame somewhere and because these are the things that by removing these things my life is entirely different and not just today my life is better every day than it was yesterday so that just keeps going forward this is the world that I live in now and I know it's the world that Chef AJ lives now and this is why she Evangel evangelizes this way of living because it literally helps you and it's so exciting um this was Susan this is who I live with somebody that whether is good or bad food doesn't attract her if you put blonde blonde hair on her she would be just like Susan and now I want to really get into kind of what uh what I've been able to do from the guy that you saw that was literally in the couch at Co not able to walk um so I'm excited that um I've been to Mount Whitney before but I Mount Whitney is for those that don't know Mount Whitney is the highest point in the lower 48 states it's in a town called line in Southern California and I did do Mount Whitney uh about 12 years ago uh when um when I did the johir trail because I did the johir trail from yede down to Lone Pine and then I hit Mount Whitney from from what's consider the back part of Mount Whitney but then I've always had this goal that I wanted to hike Mount Whitney through the face of Mount Whitney which is a 6,000 foot climb and I wanted to do it in one day so to do that in one day you have to start at one o'clock in the morning so remember my fear of being alone in the dark hiking by myself with a little headlamp so I took that on and I have to report that I only got uh I got so far as a thousand foot from the peak and the reason I didn't make it all the way up I think besides the fact that I probably wasn't uh in the shape that I am today but I just wanted to conquer this number one it was still swing as you can see behind me the photo on the top that's pretty much me calling at a and turning around cuz my I I ran out of water about two three hours before that so because I ran out of water because the leges were frozen I didn't take into consideration how much water to carry and when you're spending the kind of energy that you spend to do something like that and by the way you can't see that but up uh that that snow behind me that's almost as close to a vertical wall as you can because you need a pickaxe to climb it and literally climbing uh that l last uh that was about a 2500t climb I got, 1500t up it 1,000 feet from the top and I knew my system was shutting down because my bladder was holding on to water but I couldn't get rid of it and because I was retaining this water my system didn't want to let go of water I started to think this might start causing other problems and it's time to you know check my ego at the door and come home to my wife which is really ultimately what What mattered the most to me but it from that point coming back it was still uh I got back uh to my car about 800 PM so from 1:00 am to 8:00 pm I was about a 16 17 hour hike the fact that I was able to accomplish that was incredible to me and I was very proud of myself because just six months before that I was lit more like preparing to die than preparing to live and for this year coming on or before I get into that so I I did do that I I now I go out a few weeks ago I ran 12 miles non-stop consecutively ran 12 miles in my neighborhood and we have Hills um uh two Sundays ago I hiked for an entire 12 hours on some real steep terrain which is not as significant as Mount Whitney but but I hiked uh 12 hours non-stop from sun up to sun down and the other day I uh I hiked 15 miles uh non-stop just in the middle of the week have something to do recreationally so I'm doing some pretty cool things that I know most people are not able to do but can do if you consider this you know so I I really wanted to put this out there I also in confronting and doing hard things I couldn't think of any other way to pay this forward than to start a podcast I'm I'm a busy person like Chef AJ and I kept thinking how do I pay this forward how do I pay this forward and I thought okay walk into the discomfort and and and build a little studio and start a podcast so we've done that and I'm having the time of my life and if anybody resonates with anything that I said and would like to watch an episode or or send me a little note is uh is through it's it's in YouTube and it's called Body Mind index and we've had some real fun guests uh I'm going to start doing some monologues as well because some interesting things keep happening during this journey that I love to keep people informed because if anything that I do like everything that Chef AJ has done and is doing helps other people then let's just keep paying it forward and maybe one day we can help you do your own podcast um so that's kind of that's kind of the the the nuts and the bolts of it you guys and uh and I'm just glad that that Chef AG has been able to put this together and bring this community of people together who who have become stronger because doing this alone uh I find that it's just like hiking when I find myself hiking out there by myself the only reason I've survived some of the situations I've been putting myself in is because I run into people and when you run into people their legacy is really what gets us through so if there's anything that I've experienced that can help you get a little bit further um I would encourage you to to keep watching Chef AJ and keep doing the things that that are said and have been discovered by others because this is this is why I'm here and this is why I'm as excited as I am so thank you thank you if you want you can stop your share because I do have a few questions bring it so had you ever heard about a vegan diet or a plant-based diet let alone an SOS free diet before you adopted one oh my God I knew you'd ask a good question that would that would make me dive in a little bit so I yes I um you know I said that I left my house when I was 15 years old so you have to imagine I come from somewhat of a dis dysfunctional uh beginning my mom would literally uh leave my dad because my dad was physically abusive so she would leave and she would find shelter in uh yoga ashram so we lived in an asham for a while when when I was a little boy my sister and my brother and I was exposed to a vegan way of eating really early on so that was always deep in there um I have always resisted anything that my mother told me to do so I fought it and fought it and fought it and I think finally when I was able to let go of that and release uh I was able to connect with with a lot of what I've learned from you and and everybody else that you know I've been surrounded by wow did you always have weight problems even from an early yeah I was I was a chubby kid you know I was thin till I was four or five years old and then after that just chubby and you know happy and never um you know morbidly obese and all that but I've definitely hid the the morbidly obese stages up and down in and out of them um from the time I got married on I got married when I was 21 years old uh so it's it's been a it's been a roller coaster like for a lot of people did did you try other weight loss methods and were they successful and what were they yeah I I tried um oh man I'm trying to find the name Atkins Atkins I tried when I was 16 years old 17 and that's where I lost all this weight and then at that age people thought I was reasonably uh goodlook to be able to go modeling and that's what got me into modeling I found uh that the only reason I can keep that weight off is because I was a starving artist you know I I didn't have money to buy food in New York City imagine being 17 years old by yourself at Manhattan uh it was hard and uh and eating wasn't an issue because I didn't have money to buy food but by the time I got married and I started to become somewhat successful and some of the things that I was doing and I had uh resources then I just thought well my my cups are going to be stocked they're going to be stocked and they're going to be stocked and guess what they were stocked with garbage I mean cereal I can eat a box of cereal in one sitting an entire box of like like you know Honey Bunches of Oats had you heard of True North Health Center before going like because that you know so many people I'm I mean our community has heard of them but you know I'm in other types of classes in the world and when I talk to people they've never heard of Dr goldhammer they've never even heard of water fasting yeah you just again you with your good questions um that was amazing because I would hear you talk about it and and you know when I talk to to Dr Allan goldhammer we have so much fun talking because I said you know I I learned about you on Chef AJ and uh you know but but I I'm gonna go stay at your place but I've already lost 40 pounds he was like jokingly mad he's like really you're gonna come here when you've already lost 40 I wanted you right before the 40 pounds I wanted you here when you were really really uh at the beginning but I I heard about him through you and the last thing I ever imagined is that he was an an hour away from me I thought he was somewhere in New York or somewhere else in the world when I found out that he was right here I couldn't book the appointment fast enough and what I want to tell people is that it's so much more affordable Than People imagine I think people cheaper than a hotel I stay cheaper than a hotel I had a wedding to go to in that area and it there going there with the three Buffet all you can eat meals and the three lectures a day was cheaper than any hotel in the area yes it's not cheaper than a nice hotel cheaper than any hotel yeah absolutely absolutely H how did you find the food there at first are you kidding me I didn't have to cook I didn't have to C prepare I didn't have to do anything I I learned a lot because you know I joked with one of the doctors that yeah I'm definitely the guy that wants to go for the for the Web Bar s to speak for the the bar with the wet carbs instead of the salads but now I now I learned to go really get loaded on the salads and the veggies pardon me and then go get my uh you know get get the rice or get the other things that are uh the complex carbohydrates that are on the wet on the wet part yeah how how long were you there for the first time I went there for a week the second time was Susan I couldn't get her to stay for a week I think we stayed for four days I I like I like to go for a month one day one day I like to go I literally would like to go for a month because the class is I really want to do more of the classes and I at some point I want to talk to Dr Allen and see if I can maybe maybe even because I've done some motivational speaking in the past in the real estate world I I love to present maybe from that side of the of the equation you know this is this is hard this is this this is really hard you know but once you once you connect it's so gamechanging nice yeah once I was there for five weeks I used to work there just during the holiday season I remember five weeks it was it's in I I find it incredible I mean that's where I go on for just for a vacation so imagine if somebody actually had a need to go there what was the hardest for you sugar oil or salt salt yeah that's what everybody says salt yeah yeah yeah I I have to tell you this I probably should be telling you this offline so you can cut it if you want but I don't I don't I don't do that we don't edit so if you oh so be careful if you don't want people to know stuff don't say it well I tell you and I've offered it to I think I've offered it to either Dr goldhammer or Dr Lyall but but for you I I we have a guest house where we live you can come to Napa anytime my friend and we'll cook for you I mean we we are I mean my wife loves you I love you yeah you have a place you have a guest house you should probably use it to have people there and teach them how to eat like do your own like mini True North for one person maybe you can help me uh do that because I I love to do anything like that I I've had friends come over they just don't stay over but they come Cherry please cook for me do something because the food preparation when you when you do when you eat the way that you've taught me to eat it's so simple to prepare and to batch and and you know it's only been three four months that I got into the insta poot and now that's just blown my mind and my world has just changed dramatically and my kids again none of them struggle with with weight but they want healthier foods they're very aware and they just love the way that you know I prepare these Brown Rices with with cilantro and Italian parsley and and just the flavor of the rice alone it makes it a meal that's fantastic so was was it difficult so did you water fested right I did not water fast oh so you didn't even water fast and you that's amazing okay no I just went I went to eat nice well you know what there's nothing wrong with that cherry the first 12 times I went I didn't water her fast either I took me saw I saw you when I knew you were there I thought how creepy would it be if I went and stayed there while she's there oh if you could have only have gotten in but that that would have been great it was oh my God that's where I met Kathy Fisher and then I had her on my show because she was so delightful nice yeah she's she's the best she's the best so what what is your you live in Napa so is there is there any kind of support for just vegan and general I know SOS free is much harder yeah what I what I do now is there are several that I go to and I will you know do not often but when I have to I will do the the pastas just boiled in water without salt and some of the restaurants will do that for me you know and then I do steam vegetables with that and then a lot of times I bring my own little California vinegar little little bottles and that's been really really a a great way for me to hack the system and not be you know feeling awkward or weird but I honestly this is going to sound hum bug but I don't like eating out I don't even like what restaurants are charging me for food I just and I know it cost them a lot I just don't like that whole process by the way this is going to blow your mind but my grocery bill my grocery bill because I used to just strictly go to Whole Foods you know my grocery bill for Susan and I because we're Foodies considered Foodies was over $2,000 do a month maybe sometimes 3,000 and my grocery bill right now if I told you is about $600 $650 a month I don't know if you can believe that but I'm telling the truth it's it's gone down by so much because I don't just go to Whole Foods I go to different stores now and and I've been become so much more mindful because what I eat is so much simpler you know I don't need all the other aisles in a grocery store I mean there are very specific areas in a grocery store that I go to now that that I just don't feel like I need to go to any of the other aisles yeah I think I think 80% of the food in a grocery store isn't food is in food yeah restaurants are hard we've been lucky up here in Sacramento and plaster County because there were a lot of people that encouraged them to have vegan and SOS free men use but but that's not the norm and it's it's really hard I think for people that struggle so everybody always wants to know from every guest especially ones that have lost weight what do you eat in a day and and what did you used to eat in a day okay so now I'm actually have a coach uh uh an athletic coach that that helps me with macros because that's been a thing and I'm working out so much right now that I have to consider protein and you know that the whole protein thing and people get caught up on the protein thing and you know most people are not hiking 15 miles in a day so you you don't need to worry about protein you're going to get plenty but you know if you're are going to go like me into that into that realm and and by the way my goal right now Chef AJ is to do an ultramarathon but on my 60th birthday my goal is to do an ultramarathon which is 100 mile marathon so right now I'm working my way up towards an actual Marathon I haven't gotten there yet but I'm I'm G to just try and I'm having a lot of fun in the process but what I I eat in a day now is for example uh what I just had for breakfast was uh oatmeal uh a really good quality vegan uh powder protein with no flavor it just goes right in the oatmeal and then a few blueberries and then some walnuts so that's my breakfast um then I don't have a snack I go right into lunch lunch I will have some of that brown rice that I made yesterday with the Italian parsley The Parsley the garlic and spices no salt in those spices and it's delicious with a ton of garlic I'll have that rice and I'll have extra firm tofu I like eating tofu raw I put a lot of spices on little chunks of tofu and is delicious is what was on that photo that I had the bowl with the salad and then for I have a snack uh in the afternoon and that usually consists of um a little bit I'll do the oatmeal the protein powder again and and half of an avocado in the blender and I'll drink that as a smoothie and then in the evening I'll have an insanely large bowl of salad and then usually add tofu in there right now or lentils or beans into that with a little bit of sweet potato inside that salad as well so that's kind of the the gist and California uh vinegars uh although I've recently run out of them uh have become a game changer as well I must say that that that stuff is incredible I want to do those spritzers nice nice what did you used to eat oh man so you know real estate has been almost too good uh for for real estate people for a long time till things have adapted now and changed but you know I have a team of people and and you know we go eat once or twice a day we go out for for lunch we go to Don gvan go eat Italian food calamari um pasta stuff like that and then for dinner we go out again and and uh you know if if I usually don't feel like drinking but if I did that day I'd have a glass of wine and then you know have salad but then that salad is loaded with with cheeses and kinds of stuff and then I thought I was eating a salad and getting out I would definitely uh have cookies or dessert I mean I ate really poorly but because I was going to to fancy places I thought that was healthy food in some way I I kind of would justify that you know I spend a lot of money this is this got to be good you know I go to a good grocery store it's got to be good you know I was really disconnected how long did it take you to lose the 80 pounds the the the bulk of this weight literally came out in came off in six months it literally it literally melted off of me right now I'm in in a real fight with plateau and the fight with Plateau I think is due to the amount of the amount of training I'm doing I think I'm doing so much training every time I go do my dexa scan uh my muscle keeps going up my goes down but the scale is really deceiving me my psychological battle right now is with the scale and I need to I need to let that go You Better Watch the video I did with Dr dou ly on the scale he calls you guys scale monkeys but I you know I can only see your face so are you wanting to lose more weight do you feel like you need to lose more weight I'm pretty good Chef AJ I'm strong and I no I I that's the right question that's the right question I mean Chef AJ I'm wear wearing size 34 pants I'm okay you know it's good by the way this is what I did for while everybody's eating turkey I did a 10K and and uh funny story on that 10K because I was distracted uh Running With Friends I missed my turn off and I get to the end and I thought I finished my 10K in record time when only to find out I took the wrong turn off I ran 5K so it is what it is I learned another lesson don't talk to people when you're out there running you got to stay focused did did you exercise before losing weight no I haven't been exercising for a long I I stopped exercising years ago and I think a lot of it was the weight and the the lack of movement along with bulge two bulge discs in my lower back and those bulge disc I always had a feeling and I was literally uh scheduled to go in for surgery uh back lower back surgery the reason I didn't was because a great friend of mine who helped me in through this journey who became my physical therapist and and he became my trainer he says if you can get to the place where you can drop some of this weight you're not going to need surgery he says just hang in there he says Jerry if you can lose some of this weight he says you'll be running around your neighborhood one day and when John Stewart I'll give him a plug from Custom Fitness because I think John is just a magician when it comes to helping people with uh with pain chronic pain in their body and putting people back together because he's been broken several times himself and had to be put back together he had a big cycling accident and he literally puts himself back together John helped me through through realizing that that I was capable of all these things if I can only work on on the weight portion and he would try to help me with that but I wasn't I wasn't ready to hear any of what John had to tell me I I really wasn't ready so I had to it was the blood pressure thing that triggered me into I better do something or I'm really really moving towards the end or certainly moving towards statens and I knew Stans for me would be just not good just not good so you were you were going to consider consider possibly medication oh I don't know that I was going to consider them I didn't think I had an option I thought you you didn't need to go on them I me you're not on them now if I understand that's great that's great what has your friends or family felt about your success what have they said yeah everybody is super my wife particularly she's super proud I mean she's she's proud of it she's proud of just the guy that I am now uh active and just getting out there and doing these these intense things intense things now now what's I find interesting is that me changing me you know how they say you can't change people I think they're they're they're obviously right you can't change people you can only change yourself and by changing myself it's changed the relationships and it's changed them because they're all eating so much better they're so aware of how to eat and now they're going on these excursions with me my wife if I'm going to go hiking or camping or doing something off grid like I like to do she wants to go Oh and before Susan I mean Susan likes a four five star situation you know she likes hotels and she like right right now Susan's a different person Susan will go out in the wilderness with me and I just couldn't be happier it happened because of this journey do you cook for the whole family I'm I'm I'm I'm probably the one that cooks the most by by by a lot you know well that's great because then they got to eat what you make I love that it's it's and they love it you know they it's funny because I used to complain I used to say gosh if I cook somebody else better clean now I don't even care I just have so much energy I can cook clean do the whole get out of my kitchen I'm having a good time nice do you ever worry that you might gain the weight back and have you had any you know I I don't like this word relapses or I call them snacks events yeah I I'm very proud to say that I haven't had a relapse or a SN accident I love your terms um again I I attribute that to the time that has passed and I still stay optimistic that the more time passes the better that'll get um I have to say there was a day not long ago where there were so many cookies and so many things around the house that I did have to say to Susan hey Susan the environment is feeling a little dead I was gonna ask you do you keep non-compliant Foods or or tempting foods to you in your environment and if if so how do you navigate that yeah she um Let me let me get to this it's a gallon of water a day I'm drinking because of my food coach and it's working whoa that's a lot but it has a it has a timeline so you know hey it's morning and I'm already at 6 pm time so I've drank a lot of water already nice no it's an accidents and know I haven't had that but I am hyper hyper Vigilant to to how I'm feeling and monitoring my feeling it's there's sort of a there's sort of a little bit of an internal uh radar that if it comes up I vocalize it and I tell Susan hey that that was a little b or hey you know we took the grandkids for pizza at the pizzeria here and all that and I I probably didn't need to be there you know I can I can feel those but they don't have they don't feel the way they used to I mean there were there were times Chef AJ that Susan was sitting next to me in the car the first 90 days she was sitting next to me in the car and let's say she was eating peanut butter stuffed pretzels you know and she would Crunch and I would smell that it would trigger the salivatory glands and all that they would just go crazy and I was like Susan you can't do that you can't you can't do that it's almost like heroine in front of a herin addict it's awful I can't I can't stand it it would it would literally CA pain I do is always always the People Like Us end up with people that are like Susan like I have I have a Susan his name is Charles but he totally gets it but do you you think she gets it now that even though she doesn't struggle in the same way does she get that it it can be a problem for others chef chef she she gets it so well but I think she only gets it because now I get her because I get what she battles with and I get also what she battles with is a lot scarier than what I battle with and what is that what do you mean well she she when she was 17 years old Susan suffered from an undiagnosed food um reluctance she she didn't want to eat oh so she wouldn't want to eat so she's she's totally the opposite and she got down to about 89 pounds 90 pounds she's 5 foot7 so imagine what that weight and her mother was very scared that she was going to lose her and what my journey did for Susan especially at the beginning it brought back a lot of those triggers that she struggled with so when I talk about uh my inability to meet people where they're at it happens only when I don't listen or ask enough questions and now I realized that I needed to listen and that yeah this was really scary for her what what I was doing was very scary for her and um and I'm so grateful that that she wrote it out for the first 90 days because now she does to answer your question she does have you know her shelf in the top with her snacks you know the worst thing Susan eats is uh trail mix you know things like that that's not bad it's just calorically dense you know and almond and almond butter and things like that but for me Chef AJ I can eat a jar of almond butter you know what I'm saying if you let me I could you know because I'll combine almond butter with uh sundried apricots and there is the snack for an evening right there oh boy well you know I I saw your interview with Dr ly we're driven to seek the most calorically dens food in our environment have people come to you for help with their health or weight loss since witnessing your transformation yeah I've had several people I have several people over at my house I've cooked for them uh I yeah I um yeah I I have friends that I have people that have taken it on uh and uh one particular is doing really well with it and then I have a a friend around the fence and he reminds me of where I've been where I was for years where it's like preparing to get ready analysis paralysis because again you can't start any of this till you make that decision and and and like you say all the time there are people that need to dabble and just maybe start with one and maybe just remove the sugar I would say if you're G to remove one thing probably remove the sugar first I don't know if you agree with that you mean of sugar oil and salt yeah you know I think it depends on the person honestly because in terms of weight loss I would say the oil you know caloric density but I think I think it depends I mean you know I always think about how when I first met Dr goldhammer somebody said well what's worse you know sugar oil solar he goes well you you want to be shot or hung so I think that I you know because here's the thing Sugar by itself I don't think is a problem for most people I think it's sugar with fat sugar with caffeine I don't know a lot of people where it's just a Twizzler problem it's usually the combination but I think everybody's a little bit different but I think the easiest is to just get rid of all of them yeah I I think you're you're absolutely right what so Jerry what do you say if people I don't know if you've ever had people ask you about this but people that really do live in an unclean environment that not aren't as amendable as Susan to supporting their spouse or their family yeah I think that's another one of those good questions I I just I I believe that you have to make it we all have agency right or we should have agency and and having agency also means that we have the freedom uh and access to free will and and and how do you set those parameters and those boundaries around yourself is key and and honoring the fact that you can do so much more for other people if you do for yourself and loving yourself is a huge start and you know that whole I used to hear that whole thing of you have to love yourself you have to love yourself and and for me it was like what do you do hug yourself what are you supposed to do to what does love yourself I had no understanding what loving yourself man till I started this I mean loving yourself really means uh helping yourself first so you're better for others because the version of ourselves when we're miserable and we're in the throws of this is not the best version of ourselves I like when Dr goldhammer says if we're overweight and especially especially significantly overweight we're very sick and we are sick as a society most of us are are really battling and for me this is not I go back to that it's not a a destination it's just a journey and and living and loving the journey it's got to be a a part of it but I'm never going to sit here and say that that it's easy yeah well what do you say to somebody that maybe has given up hope that they could lose weight yeah that's a that's a hard thing because i' I've given up hope so many times you know because there is a part of me that when the weight starts coming on and I've gone through the yo-yos and this and that I just literally throw my hands up in the air and that's basically what I've done it's just okay so let's see let's see how high we go this time you know and then then I get scared into into coming down so I hope I'm not in that situation again the only thing I can tell you right now is the way that I feel and the way my pallet feels and the way my brain is reacting to things is very different to what I've ever what I have ever experienced before before I knew instinctively I knew I was going to put the weight back on this time instinctively I I anything's possible Anything Can Happen um you know sometimes people you know something catastrophic happens um I want to share one other thing um two weeks ago three weeks ago you know I was going through probably one of the hardest things in my life um with a very close family member uh with uh with mental illness as an issue and um I I would have imagined that at any other time in my life I would have gone back to what ever was soothing and whatever comforted me and I got to tell you that that didn't even come that didn't even that didn't even wasn't even a thing I just kept eating the way I was eating because it's what what I needed to do because it's what made me feel good and what helped me help that person get to the other site which by the way that person is coming out of that and on the other site you know the last time this happened that person did try to commit suicide um this time that person didn't get there and I think we were all better because of the way that we live now I I think we were all so much better and I I uh I would say to anybody who's in that place of you know you don't think you can um maybe if you're not doing it for yourself know that you're going to be doing a lot of good for for other people and you're going to be able to you're going to come out stronger how old were you when you lost the weight for the like going to say for the last time this will be your last time it' be 56 yeah so that's great and what I love about your story and so many of the guests that I feature on the show like Esther Lage is this shows it's never too late no matter how long you've suffered that when you get the right information it's really possible Chef AJ I'm to the point now that I don't care if you're 80 or 85 I think if somebody did this I think the best years are in front of them I tell Susan the best years are in front of us the way we feel and the way we play now it's amazing yeah I love it and you know it it's it's so cool your story because you're you know look I don't I don't get anything for promoting True North it would be you know Dr gold said it would be illegal for you to you know to give like a referral fee but I find that if people can go there and and you were what they call an unrestricted feeder you did not have to water fast that it seems like it solidifies these the I I don't know I you know I'm sure there are people that go there maybe that haven't had your success or my success but I got to say there's a preponderance of people that when they go there or do something like the McDougall program it's like they seem to get it and they they just they seem to do very well well I I was talking to my brother-in-law who's a doctor in in Florida and I was talking to him about Dr goldhammer and you know these doctors have the ability to take their licenses in any direction they see fit and what we have in our country right now is not a Health Care System it's a sick care system you know we want to we want to not not that they want to prolong sickness but sickness is what they're there to deal with they're not there to to promote health and what Dr goldhammer has done is found a way to promote health and everybody that comes out of True North comes out better for it it's just astonishing uh and what he has done is is literally confront the most challenging thing out there because it'd be so much easier for him to just go work at a hospital somebody or somewhere or do something uh as many doctors do and work as part of the sick care system this guy's actually just changing people's lives it's just fascinating to watch for an affordable uh again he's in Wine Country he can charge whatever he wants and and he doesn't it's just fascinating to me I know because he wants people to be able to stay as long as they need to to get well yeah yeah I met a lady there that I know you know who she is I'm just going to say she's been there more than a year and there's a reason for that because her life is better there well that if we could all only live there well Jerry it's just been such a pleasure hearing your story if people want to connect with you what is the best way your website social media everything you give me will be of course in the show notes but where should send people for now it's really just uh Body Mind at bodymind index on YouTube and that's where we have you can you can reach me through there you find me uh on Facebook I I don't manage my own Facebook I have people manag that for me through my business but outside of that uh love to hear from from anybody that I can possibly help doesn't cost anything like Chef AJ you just do this to to pay it forward it's B nice well congratulations on your transformation and thank you for everything absolutely and thanks all of you for watching another episode of Chef AJ live please come back tomorrow for another great guest

Channel: CHEF AJ

Views: 12,745

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Id: QOQgs4tsRN0

Length: 75min 47sec (4547 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 02 2024