Today's bite size episode is sponsored by AG1, a daily health drink that has been in my own life for over seven years. Now this is the time of year when our immune systems are under the most pressure. It's natural to look for extra ways to support our immune defenses, but most people don't want to juggle multiple pills, they want something simple, effective, and easy to stick with. AG1 is a daily health drink that provides key immunity supporting nutrients, vitamin C, vitamin A, zinc, and selenium, all of which contributes to the normal function of the immune system.
These nutrients are included in highly bioavailable forms, meaning they are much easier for the body to absorb and use. And the best thing of course is that all this goodness comes in one convenient, tasty daily serving. For a limited time only, guess a free AG1 flavor sampler and AGZ sampler to try all the flavors, plus free vitamin D3 and K2 and AG1 welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription order. That's $87 in free gifts for first time subscribers.
See all details at drinkagone.com forward slash live more. Welcome to Feel Better Live More Bite Size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 28 of the podcast with the inspirational wellness advocate, the best-selling author and fellow podcast host, Rich Roll. In this clip, Rich shares his incredible journey from being someone who was struggling with his health as well as alcohol addiction and how he transformed his life and became a whole food plant-based ultra-endurance athlete.
He also explains why finding your purpose in life is crucial for your health and well-being. I was a corporate lawyer. I was doing the typical 60 to 80 hour work weeks and really very focused on my career. And I was coming off of a rehab stint at age 31.
I'm recovering alcoholic. And when I kind of emerged from that, I was very intent on repairing all the records that I had created as a result of my drinking and drug abuse. And I was successful in that regard. By the time I was 39 years old, I was on the partnership track at a prestigious law firm here in Los Angeles.
I was driving a really fancy sports car. I met my wife. We were building a family. We built this home.
We built this idea of the American dream and was winning at that game, so to speak. And so from the outside, looking in on my life, it looked like I had certain things figured out. But on the inside, I was really suffering. I was very unhappy with my chosen profession.
I'd never really taken the time to think about what it was that I wanted or what it was that I wanted to express. I just sort of did what I thought I was supposed to do. And it was catching up to me. Meanwhile, I hadn't been taken care of myself.
I was 50 pounds overweight, subsisting on essentially a junk food diet, which is how I'd been eating throughout my adult life. I didn't realize at the time was the extent to which I was medicating my emotional state through food. And I was also a workaholic. And that was another way to self-medicate, my emotional dis-ease.
And this sort of poor health collided with my existential crisis shortly before my 40th birthday when I was walking up the flight of stairs just over there to go to bed one night. And I had to pause halfway up the flight. I literally couldn't walk up a whole flight of stairs without taking a break. And I'd been a world running swimmer in college, like I was an athlete my whole life, and kind of had been walking around still thinking that I was a fit swimmer.
That's how denial works. And it was really a scary moment. I had tightness in my chest. I had sweat on my brow and hunched over.
And it was a very scary moment. And it really hit me in that moment. I had this epiphany where I realized, I can't live this way any longer. And not only did I understand that I needed to change my lifestyle habits, but I had the willingness.
I wanted to change. That was the biggest difference. And it was very similar to the day that I woke up, broken eight, nine years earlier, and said, I've got to rehab. I can't handle this problem anymore.
I need help. I was willing to accept help. That decision that day had changed my life so dramatically that I think I understood the power of these moments that I think we all have at certain times if we're paying attention, these kind of pivotal moments where if we make a certain decision and act on it in a swift and decisive way, it can change our life in dramatic ways. And that was really the beginning.
That was the beginning of me exploring how to better take care of myself. It was the beginning of my exploration into nutrition, which ultimately led me to adopting a plant-based diet that rejuvenated my health, restored my vitality. And it got me interested in being fit again, like I had all of a sudden, it wasn't that I had a desire to return to becoming a competitive athlete in my 40s. It just started out with me reconnecting with my physical well-being in a very basic way.
I started thinking a lot about potential because in a very short period of time, like in a matter of four or five months, I'd lost those 50 pounds. I felt years younger. I had this incredible resurgence in vitality, like I mentioned. And it was really the result of just making some pretty basic decisions about how I was living.
And I thought if I could change this much in this short period of time by just doing like literally two things, where are the other areas that I've been blind to where I'm sitting on top of untapped potential? And that's what ultimately led me into the world of ultra-endurance sports and really exploring my own potential in that realm. Wow. It's such a powerful story, which I think there's just so many elements of that, which people will resonate with.
People listening right now will be resonating whether it's using food to soothe some sort of emotional and discomfort, working extra hard to, you know, so you don't have to maybe think about things that you don't want to think about. I was somebody who always believed that everything that I had accomplished in my life was a result of my ability to outwork my fellow classmates or teammates. I was never the most talented student or athlete, but I have this incredible capacity to suffer and to go the extra mile. And I always thought that was my secret weapon.
And it wasn't until that couldn't resolve my alcoholism that I was forced to confront a greater truth, which is that the solution isn't in that kind of forcefulness, but in surrender in acceptance. And that's been the greatest teacher for me. And it's an ephemeral concept, but in truth by letting go, I allow the space for what is meant to be to move into my life. Just incredible, Rich.
So I don't know if that makes any sense, but yeah, to me, perfect sense. And I think a lot of people will resonate with that. So thank you. I think if you don't know what your why is, then you need to start figuring it out for yourself.
Because if you don't know your why, why are you doing the things that you're doing, then you're probably not living your life intentionally or as mindfully as you could be. I know what that's like, because I live that way for a long time. And I will say that when I was newly sober, journaling was a very huge part and continues to be a huge part of that connection process. So it began for me with getting a book called Artist Way by Julia Cameron, which is an amazing program for unlocking, it's technically for unlocking creativity for people that are like writers, but it's really about creating a greater connection with yourself and what makes you tick.
And one of the practices in that program is something called Morning Pages, which entails getting a journal out every morning, first thing in the morning, you write three pages, whatever comes your mind. I hate journaling. I hate journaling. Why am I doing this stupid?
Whatever it is, just get out and start writing in this free form kind of way. And what it does is it's, over time, it starts to unlock aspects of your unconscious mind that really start to put the pieces together that help you answer that question about your why. And I think when you begin to do that, the sky starts to clear and you get a better sense of the best direction for you. You cannot be of maximum service to others, to your family members, to your kids, to your partner, to yourself, unless you take care of yourself.
And so as selfish as that may sound, it's actually the most selfless thing that you can do. It's why when you get on an airplane, they tell you if you're an adult, you put the oxygen mask on before you put it on the child. You've got to tend to yourself before you can tend to others. And when you develop healthy habits around that self care, you become a better example to those in your life that you care about and you become a more productive example.
And I think that process of investing in yourself contributes to greater self esteem that has a ripple effect that will positively impact you in every aspect of your life. So my call to action is to make a commitment to yourself. Maybe it's two minutes a day to meditate like you always talk about. Maybe it's just doing those glute exercises in your kitchen in the morning while you're brewing your coffee.
It doesn't have to be some massive thing that you're going to post on Instagram. It's simple, tiny actions that you build into your daily routine that you do anonymously that are going to move the needle. Consistency is the most important thing. Finding a habit as small as it is and doing it until it is rote and part of who you are.
Yeah. Inspirational, which really is I hope people listen to actually really take it on a bull and just think about what he said about a journal, you know, do it, you know, it's what have you got to lose in so many ways. I think you're such an inspirational figure of what you do. I think you're inspiring people, including myself all around the world by sharing your story and your journey.
And you're an absolute prime example of somebody who has felt better and now is living more, which is just perfect for this podcast. I wonder in your life experience, you know, with alcohol before you revolutionized your diets or this kind of stuff, before you went on this journey of self discovery, what would you say is the single biggest truth that you've learned along the way? We are spiritual beings having a human experience and not the other way around. Wow.
We're so caught up in the details and minutiae of our material lives. And like I said earlier, I think most of us are living reactively. We're not taking the time to really reflect on what's most important. And in my experience, and again, this is just my experience, when I prioritize my connection with something greater than myself, which can be of your own definition, my life takes on greater meaning.
When I ensure that I am prioritizing service to others, when I am connecting through meditation and mindfulness practices, this weird equation takes place where everything in my life starts to make sense and work more freely. So that doesn't necessarily make sense in a logical, rational way. There's a weird inverse relationship with time that takes place where the more I invest in meditation, mindfulness, service, you can call it prayer, I don't really call it prayer, but engaging with a relationship with a power greater than myself, the more time I spend doing that, the less time I need for everything else. And everything seems to get done better and things work out the way that they should.
We're all searching for the hat. We're all searching for the quick fix, right? But that's not what life is about. Yeah.
I mean, everybody wants the shortcut. They want what they want, when they want it, now more than ever. They want every episode of every Netflix show on demand. They want their pizza delivery by drone, you know, they people, we're in this instant gratification culture and we're all looking for the end run around the work to achieve our goals and what we're missing and what we fail to appreciate is that what really gives our lives a sense of fulfillment and purpose is embracing the obstacles and the challenges that life and the pursuit of any goal or dream inevitably presents with.
So let's stop trying to end run around that and just embrace it completely. And I think when you do that, suddenly you have a sense of coming alive. And I think like if you really want to know what you're made of and who you are, put yourself in an unbelievably uncomfortable, frightening situation that you don't have to, and you will soon find out what you're about and your flaws will come out, your character defects will come out. You will meet and confront yourself in a very profound way.
That's what I'm seeking in my life. And I think when you forget about the life hacks and the shortcuts and the 80, 20 rule and you commit yourself to mastery in whatever it is that moves you, whatever it is you figure out is your life purpose. In my experience, that's when you become a fully actualized version of yourself. If you enjoyed that bite size clip, please do spread the love by sharing this episode with your friends and family.
And if you want more, want to go back and listen to the full conversation with my guest and if you enjoyed this episode, I think you will really enjoy my new bite size to Friday email. It's called a Friday five. And each week I share things that I do not share on social media. It contains five short doses of positivity articles or books that I'm reading, quotes that I'm thinking about exciting research I've come across and so much more.
I really think you're going to love it. It's the goal is for it to be a small, yet powerful dose of feel good to get you ready for the weekend. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, make sure you have pressed subscribe and I'll be back next week with my long-form conversational Wednesday and the latest episode of Bite Science next Friday.