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Welcome to David Madow Radio! I’m Dr. Dave. Welcome and this is The David Madow Lifestyle Show! It’s great to have you! I’m the “Vaygan”.  This is the show where I help you live stronger, thinner, healthier, happier, and a lot more. I’ve got a great one for you today.

Be sure to follow my LIVE daily broadcasts on Periscope at www.periscope.tv/davidmadow.

You’re going to hear me walking through some leaves as they rustle because I am in my outdoor studio. I talk a lot about being outside. A lot of you go to the gym. I used to have a gym membership but I don’t really go to the gym anymore. I truly believe that when you are outside and you are one with nature; you see some real changes in your body, in your life, in your mental capacity, whatever it is.

I recorded a Facebook live video that went out to my Facebook audience just a short time ago. Right before I came on here and pressed record for this episode. I talk about the “Magic 4” which I’ve talked about quite a bit with you. I believe it’s a life changer. I tell people that instead of running on a treadmill at the gym, go outside and experience the Earth. Experience your feet touching the Earth. It really does make a difference. Trust me on this one. Unless you’re living in a climate that’s so difficult to get outside, and I doubt many of you are.

When I am in Colorado in the winter, I still get outside way more than I’m inside. I’m outside almost all day walking and skiing because I just love being with nature. It really is a game changer.

I started off by saying it was going to be a great episode today and I was just thinking about that. Well, I am here to change lives! I’m here to change YOUR life! And I can’t do that with a mediocre episode. So every episode that I put out is a great episode. So if you hear an episode and you don’t think it’s so great, I want you to write to me and tell me. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. Now, there might be a topic that you don’t love. It’s possible. But I try to give every episode my 110%. I really do. Because I want to help you. I really do.

Now, before we get into today’s topic. I started a Facebook group just a few days ago. Go to superchargehangout.com. That link will redirect right to my Facebook group. We’re going to supercharge your life. No question about it! It’s an incredible group of people. Come in with a great attitude. We don’t judge. We just help everybody. We do.

Join Dr. David Madow (The Vaygan) and his wife Yoko at their beautiful home in rural Reisterstown, Maryland for the transformative experience of a lifetime! Check out www.weekendtoawesome.com.

I want to share something with you. A great guy, a listener, a fan, a friend of mine, and viewer named Steve Moore wrote a letter to me. Actually, he posted it in one of my Facebook groups. I want to read this letter to you. And I am going to answer Steve on this podcast. It’s fairly lengthy but as I get into it you’ll see why I want to read this letter on this show today.

Before I read it I do want to tell you one thing. Steve uses the word “vaygan” in this letter. And as you know if you’ve been with me for some time, I call myself the “vaygan”. And it’s kind of just a light-hearted way of saying vegan. Kind of with an accent. No harm meant, it’s just fun. A lot of my fans and friends call me “Dr. Vaygan” or “Mr. Vaygan” or just “The Vaygan” in public. Well, Steve likes that. Let me read his letter and share this with you.

“Dear David,

I listened to your podcast this morning titled Why do they makes fun of us? This got me contemplating about it very deeply that I went for another walk this morning. And it turned out to be a very long walk. This after doing my Magic 4 already this morning.

You and Yoko became “vaygan” because of your love for animals and the way they are being treated. My wife and I became vegetarian and now “vaygan” because of our desire to be healthier. Don’t get me wrong, we both love and care for animals that was just not our motivation for becoming “vaygan”. Most “vaygans” preach about the way animals are treated to the extent that non “vaygans” get very tired and frustrated to the point where they’re considering “vaygans” as an extremist group. Now Dave don’t get upset with me until you have read my entire rant 🙂

We’ve looked into joining some “vaygan” groups here in Oklahoma City but have been turned off from them due to the get togethers being all about the mistreatment of animals. Nothing about being healthier or helping others to become “vaygan”. We left one get together early because I was being ridiculed for saying “vaygan” instead of vegan. The whole group was trying to tell us that saying “vaygan” was damaging to their cause. We no longer attempt to join any of the groups now. These types of groups are what everyone is seeing and hearing about.

There was a news story here about a speaker at the New Jersey Veg Fest that said if you were a vegetarian that you did not belong there. You are either a vegan or nothing. I don’t know if this is true or not but this is what the media is putting out there for everyone to hear. It’s why most non vegans make fun of us. Save the animals now sounds no different than save the whales to most people. They just hear it too much.

You talk about different views and reasons for being a vegan. The healthier lifestyle needs to be pushed out to the public through the media a lot more than it is. Which its not at all here in Oklahoma.

You have brought me a long way in my lifestyle change which I can’t thank you enough for. You’ve come a long way from that idiot “scoping” in Breckenridge from his living room not even in front of a window to being an awesome mentor. We need a lot more people like yourself in this world.

After seeing how the change has affected my life and how I feel, our son and his wife are now starting the change towards veganism. Yay! 🙂 He used to be one of them that made fun of me when I decided to change. But now he’s changing. Yes, we have lost some good friends because of it but I wouldn’t change a thing.

THANK YOU DAVE! Sorry this turned out so long but like I said it was a very long walk”

Steve

Steve, first of all, I thank you for that letter. It’s an incredible letter. I will try to touch on some of the points you made but I first want to let my audience know that I had the pleasure of meeting Steve. When I was on hippie road trip #1, some of you may remember this, but I was driving from Phoenix, AZ to Memphis, TN. And on the way there was a city called OKC or Oklahoma City. When Steve saw that I was coming through his town, he said “hey Dr. Dave, “Mr. Vaygan” can you meet up with me?” So I said sure let’s meet up. We met at the Panera right off of the interstate 40 which was not out of my way at all. So I figured I would go into Panera and meet up with him for 2, 3, or 4 minutes and shake his hand.

I walk into Panera and the first thing I heard from this man sitting at the table, he stood up and said “Mr. Vaygan”. The whole place stopped and looked up. He looked at me and I looked at him and I think we gave each other a big hug. He looked at me and said “you will never know how much you’ve changed my life.” And Steve, I will never forget those words. And up until that point I had no idea. And the 2 or 3 or 4 minutes I was going to spend with Steve turned into 10,15, maybe even 20 minutes. We did a video together, he shared some stories with me, it was just an incredible time. And let me tell you Steve if I had more time, I would have spent hours there with you. It was a really great morning.

So I have come to know Steve. And Steve is one of my fans on Periscope, right here on this podcast, in my Facebook groups, he’s a big fan. But you know what’s more important than him being a big fan? He’s changing his flippin’ life!

Steve is a retired truck driver. He grew up and worked in Oklahoma and Texas his whole life. The land of beef, cattle, meat. In Oklahoma and Texas they’ve never heard of vegans. Pardon my terrible pun here but Steve decided to take the bull by the horns and change his life. And that he did. He’s lost weight and medical issues have gone away.

Steve is going to be at my Weekend to Awesome in April 2017. I am only taking 10 people total but if you happen to be there you can hear his incredible inspiring story.

But getting back to some of the things that were said by Steve in this letter. I feel really bad about the groups that you have come into contact with back in Oklahoma City. I’m gonna use the word “vaygan”. I don’t care what they say. You can play this for them for all I care. I want you to play this podcast for the people in the group because they are narrow-minded backwards people. Because if they make you feel bad about using the word “vaygan” when clearly you know the real word; and, clearly you are doing it like I do tongue in cheek to have some fun. Life is about having fun too! It’s not about being flippin’ serious every second of every day.

And let me tell you something. I donate to animal charities, farm sanctuaries, I can’t even tell you the number of animal charity envelopes I get in the mail every year that Yoko and I donate to in order to help some animals. And not only that we’ve gone to farm sanctuaries and held the animals and helped out so it’s not just money but we do whatever we can.

We’ve tried to save animals when we can. We love animals. We have animals. And guess what? I use the word “vaygan”. So using the word “vaygan” does not mean that you don’t care or you’re some weirdo. It doesn’t mean that. It means you’re having a little bit of fun in life. And if this damn group cannot understand that then they’re not helping anybody. I don’t care what anybody says. They are just not helping anybody. Because if they would make fun of a member and his wife that are coming there to join in to their cause and they make fun of this person who not only wants to help the animals but Steve says he loves animals in this letter. And they want to make fun of him and ridicule him. They don’t even realize how much of an ambassador Steve could be in the Oklahoma City area for becoming a vegan. Just because he pronounces the word a little bit funny. Steve I think it’s pitiful. I think it’s really really sad what they did. They lost a good person.

I recommend that you look around and try to find some other groups. There’s got to be something. There might be something under the radar, Steve. I know here in the Baltimore area there are tons of get-togthers and groups. All of them are just a little bit different. My friend Sharon runs a group that’s definitely geared pretty much all to health. She talks about eating plant based whole food. And she’s really really smart when it comes to health. My friend Don Robertson runs a group and has been a guest on my show. He’s probably a little bit more towards the animal ethics but neither of them would ever make fun of somebody who’s trying to spread the word as well. That’s just crazy. It makes me sad.

As far as the New Jersey Veg Fest goes Steve, I am very close with Kendra Arnold, the person who runs the New Jersey Veg Fest. She and her friend Marissa are the ones that started it. This is their first year. I was there. I was a speaker there this year and I didn’t hear anything about another speaker saying anything to the effect that you have to be 100% “vaygan” or that you should just leave. I didn’t hear anything like that there. I saw many of the speakers. I didn’t hear anybody talking about that. So there may have been some misinformation there Steve. I’m just not sure. The New Jersey Veg Fest was an incredible event. I was proud to be a speaker at the inaugural event. I think next year they are probably going to double their attendance. It was just awesome.

Steve, I appreciate you. And when I am talking to Steve, I am actually talking to all of you not just Steve. But I appreciate you sending in this lengthy letter. I’m glad I had a chance to comment on it.

There are all kinds of people on this planet. Are all vegans good? No! There are some crazies out there. Are all meat eaters bad? No! I’ve got family members and friends that eat meat. I’ve said this almost every show. I do not look down on anybody because we are all in different stages of our lives.

I’ve been a “vaygan” for just about three years now. And I’m thinking back and five years ago if somebody were to look down on me and tell me I was a pathetic person because I ate meat, that would not have set well with me. Because I was not a pathetic person. I was actually a very caring person but I just wasn’t ready to hear the message yet. That’s all. That’s the only difference. I just wasn’t ready. And some people maybe will never be ready. And that’s ok. That does not mean they are bad people. Everybody does things on their own timeline. That’s just the way it is.

I will be back with you next week with another great show. Of course hang out on my Facebook group. I want to see you there. The easiest way to get there is www.superchargehangout.com. But if you want to say something private, you can send me a Facebook message or you can send me an email (see below for contact info).

Hey guys! It’s been great! I’m Dr. Dave. I’ll see you next week.

CONNECT WITH ME AND SHARE

“Thank you very much for listening! The show is literally downloaded by the thousands each week now. In fact, we have passed the 320,000+ downloads mark! Wow! I so appreciate you listening and sharing this show with your family and friends. I love to help people live a healthier life! It is so great that we have listeners from all over the world from the United States to the UK to Canada to Europe to Japan to Australia. I love hearing from people all over the world on Facebook, Twitter, Email, and our phone hotline too!” – Dr. Dave.

Did you enjoy today’s show? Do you have any questions for me? Do you have any comments or feedback? You are not alone! We want to help you live better, stronger, happier, thinner lives!

—>My website:

Website: https://davidmadow.com

Check out the podcasts, recipes, blog posts, and more!

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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidmadow

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Do you have a friend that needs to hear this show and live a better life? Share this show with them and send them to https://www.davidmadow.com

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Welcome to David Madow Radio! I’m Dr. Dave, the “Vaygan”, and this is The David Madow Lifestyle Show. Thank you so much for being with me! It’s going to be a great show today.

Be sure to follow my LIVE daily broadcasts on Periscope at www.periscope.tv/davidmadow.

I am in my outside studio today as usual and I welcome you. If you’re a brand new listener, thanks so much for being with me. You’re going to become addicted! I promise you! If you’re not new to me, if you’ve been around for quite some time, you know exactly what I am talking about.

Big Stomachs

Let’s get right into it! I’ve got something special to share with you today. A new project. It’s going to be coming out in 2017. Long awaited. It’s something that I think is going to help many many people all over the world. It’s called FLAT FREAKING STOMACH. When you go out and look around, I don’t know maybe when you look in the mirror, you might see yourself or many other people with a big stomach. Bigger than you want it to be. And I’ve got to tell you something, it’s one of the most difficult things to be flat. It’s very very tough. And there are all kinds of experts out there that will tell you how to do it and that it’s easy. And let me tell you something it’s not easy! It is not easy at all!

It’s starting off as a book. I’ll be releasing this in 2017 and if you want to get on my early reader’s list I welcome you! And by the way if you get on my early reader’s list, I am going to select 100 PEOPLE  to get an autographed copy of my book mailed to them. It’s very simple to do. Just go to www.flatfreakingstomach.com and you’ll be on your way to achieving a FLAT FREAKING STOMACH.

Steps

So I want to talk to you about something today. I know I have talked to you about this before. It’s something that I bought several months ago that has helped me in my life immensely. It’s the Fitbit. I got it just before Hippie Road Trip #1 and I wear it everyday without fail. I held off for years. But it’s changed my life and I wouldn’t be without it. If I lost this one today, I would be on Amazon or going to the store to replace it today. I even just bought one for Yoko. Yoko saw how I was enjoying mine so I bought Yoko a Fitbit as well.

So what’s so good about a Fitbit? Well, I wear it and it tracks a lot of things. Probably the most common thing that I check on all the time is the number of steps I have taken in a day. You can set it to any default that you want. So for example, I think mine is 10,000 steps. But I set mine to 16,000. That’s my goal. That’s my minimum goal every single day. I want to take 16,000 steps which is roughly equivalent, for my stride, to about 8 miles. So by the end of the day, I know if my Fitbit says 16,000 or more, I’ve walked the equivalent of at least 8 miles every day. I start off every day doing the Magic 4. That is walking 4 (or 5) miles right off the bat every morning. I’m already up to almost 10,000 steps.

This is why I love the Fitbit. I’ll give you an example. I’m at my office today and I went to lunch. It’s about a 3-4 minute drive down the road to go to this place that I love to go for lunch. But it’s a nice day and I said to myself that I wasn’t going to drive today, I was going to walk today. Because I know if I walk, I am going to get a lot more steps in. It was about a 20 minute walk. I had my lunch and did a lot of work since I had my laptop with me. I got my stuff and walked back. The Fitbit helps me make these types of decisions. Before the Fitbit days or B.F. (before Fitbit 😉 ), I probably would have just gotten in my car and drove off.

The Fitbit makes me a lot more aware of what I’m doing every second of the day and not only that but I truly believe that the most powerful exercise that you can do in your life is walking. No matter how old you are. No matter how young you are. No matter what shape you are in. You can pretty much get out there and walk. Not everybody but almost everyone. You can pretty much get out there and do some walking.  I truly believe that it is the best exercise that human beings can do. Sure I run marathons, and half marathons, I ski a lot, I backpack, and I do all kinds of crazy things. But I still believe that the best exercise known to man is walking. Just putting one foot in front of the other at a decent pace and walking. It’s great!

One of the things that I have been doing for a long time is that when I go to a shopping center or wherever it may be and they have a large parking lot, I park really really far away. People that drive with me think I’m crazy. They say, “Dave, why are you parking so far away? We can park so much closer.” Well number 1 is that God gave me legs for a reason. Why do I need to park so flipping close that people ding up my car doors and there’s just so much congestion? I drive a 2005 Volvo XE90. If you saw it, you would think the thing is brand new. And the reason is that not only do I take care of it because I’m just a neat person but since 2005 I’ve learned to park it far away. And not get my doors dinged up, and not get people bumping into me, and not doing all kinds of crazy things with it. And more than 11 years later, it could pass for a new car. Not only that but think of all the walking I’ve had to do over the past 11 years parking this car far away as opposed to close.

What else do I do? I never take an escalator. Well, if the escalator is the only option, I will always walk or run up the escalator steps. And it gets me really irritated when somebody is in front of me on the escalator and they don’t let me go by. That just irritates me because I want to keep moving my body. And I will not take elevators unless I am on the 21st floor or something like that. It’s not that easy to run up 21 flights up steps although I have been known to do it. Let’s say I am in a hotel on the 6 th floor, I will take the steps. It’s just so much better for me. I don’t need to get into a lift or something electronically up several floors because my body doesn’t want me to do that. My body wants me to move, so I move.

My Fitbit tracks all of that. It tracks the number of steps taken in a day, it tracks how many actual stairs I’ve climbed, it tracks my heart rate while I’m exercising, it tracks my heart rate when I am sleeping. It only cost me just under $200 but I only wish I would have bought one several years ago. I only wish. It’s helping my life.

I talk about the scale and the scale is an instrument to measure your weight. Some experts out there say that you shouldn’t get on the scale and that you should go by how you feel. I can’t tell what I weigh. Maybe if I gained 40 pounds and nothing fit me. Yeah I would. But I like to use the scale as a measuring device so I know where I am. So I know if maybe I need to back off a little bit because I ate a little too much the past couple of days. Hopefully that won’t happen but I use it as a tool. As an instrument. And now the same thing with the Fitbit. I use it as a tool. Without it, I would be in the dark. I wouldn’t have any idea how I’m moving my body, how many steps I’ve taken, or what my pulse rate is everyday. It’s great! It’s truly changed my life.

I used to be one that looked at people that wore Fitbit and said what do you need that for? Why do you need to track everything? But now I see. Oh it’s nice. It makes all the difference in the world.

If you’re not sure which one to get, I’ve got a couple recommendations on my website. If you go there, you are not buying it from me and it is an affiliate link but you are buying it from Amazon. I just want to make it easy for you. I’ll be putting some more things up there but right now I’ve got a couple Fitbits up there and a vegan protein powder that I really like a lot. Anything you see there under products is what I’m actually using. I just try to share with you and help you. I do all the research and testing and then I share it with you. That’s what I do! I’m here for you! I just want to make your life better and easier and healthier. And did I say happier yet? Yeah, and happier too! You could be exercising all day every day but if you’re not happy what good is it? What are we living for?

Happiness

I’ve made all the mistake in my life. Trust me, I have made them all. [Dave laughs] A couple episodes ago you heard me talking about the toughest part of my life. I hope you heard it if not go back and listen to Episode #157: The Darkest Part of My Life. I share stuff with you that I’ve never really shared before. I had 10 years of my life that were really really difficult. Trust me, they were really tough. And I don’t want you to have to go through what I went through. I am over it now, it’s fine. And no I was not addicted to drugs, I was not addicted to alcohol, nothing like that. You won’t guess it unless you listen. I want you to listen to it because I truly believe that as much I am into eating right, and being plant based, and walking the “Magic 4” every day, and being financially responsible. As much I am into all that and that stuff is really important. It is uber important. But I want you to be happy in this life. That seems to be the underlying theme when I speak to a group, like when I speak at a Veg Fest or I speak anywhere, I look into the audience and I just want everybody to be living a good life. The lives of their dreams.

I know somebody that a few years ago sold his business for 30 million dollars. No that’s not a mistake. He earned 30 million dollars! Now you might think oh wow! If I earned 30 million dollars I would be set for life. I would be so happy. I wouldn’t have any worries and I would be fine. Well that’s what he thought. But here we are a few years later, after getting a check in the mail for 30 million dollars, and he’s having some serious life problems. I watch him and see what he posts on Facebook. And he’s admitted that he’s having some really tough problems. That’s why I don’t think money solves problems. Money is not the answer to everything. Now, being financially responsible, yes that’s really really important. But you could be making 440,000 a year and spending less money than you earn and not having any debt and be extremely happy with that. This guy is literally a multi-millionaire. 30 million dollars! I can’t even imagine what it would feel like to wake up one morning and have that number in my bank account. I cannot even imagine how that would feel. I guess it would feel pretty darn good knowing that I could do pretty much anything I want in my life. Well almost anything. But no he is troubled to the point where I hope he is ok and he gets the help that he needs.

That’s why sometimes I think that God or the universe or whatever you believe, has been really kind to me. You know what I mean by that? He has not given me 30 million dollars. I have to wake up and be really creative during the day. I have to work and I have to earn my money. I did not come from a wealthy family where I did not have to work and I have all this money sitting in an account somewhere. I’ve been through some tough things in my life especially my divorce. And because I had a tremendous amount of alimony that I had to pay. I am not super wealthy. Some people would look at my bank account and say oh he has nothing to worry about. People would say he is set for life. But you know it’s not that easy. Thank God that he (or the universe) gave me a certain amount. He didn’t want me to have too much. Because maybe, I am not sure if this is true or not, but maybe with too much comes more problems. I don’t know the answer.

I think I would be ok with 30 million. I think I would be the same person. It’s easy for me to say that now because I don’t have 3o million dollars sitting in my account but I think I would be the same person. But I think the universe just keeps that away from me to kind of keep me honest about life.

I’ve got a calling. My calling is to help other. To teach. To help you. I work hard for it. And maybe that’s the way it’s just supposed to be. And I’m totally fine with it. Again, don’t feel sorry for me as I said. I don’t have my friend’s 30 million dollars. Not even close! Not even close! But I am comfortable. I am comfortable to have enough. I need to work but I don’t feel the pressure that if I don’t make enough money in a month that I won’t be able to eat. Or that if I don’t make enough money in a year that I won’t be able to eat. I don’t feel that pressure at all. I am ok. I am pretty good. I have worked really hard for what I’ve got. Even with paying an obscene amount of alimony to my ex-wife and we got that finished up last year. I don’t want to throw her under the bus. She’s a good person. There are no bad feelings whatsoever. But that’s just the way it was. And my life is fabulous now! But I don’t have 30 million like my friend has. But if it would get me to turn out like him then I don’t think I want it. [Dave giggles] I don’t want it. Keep it away from me!

Hey, I’ll see you next week! I’m Dr. Dave

CONNECT WITH ME AND SHARE

“Thank you very much for listening! The show is literally downloaded by the thousands each week now. In fact, we have passed the 320,000+ downloads mark! Wow! I so appreciate you listening and sharing this show with your family and friends. I love to help people live a healthier life! It is so great that we have listeners from all over the world from the United States to the UK to Canada to Europe to Japan to Australia. I love hearing from people all over the world on Facebook, Twitter, Email, and our phone hotline too!” – Dr. Dave.

Did you enjoy today’s show? Do you have any questions for me? Do you have any comments or feedback? You are not alone! We want to help you live better, stronger, happier, thinner lives!

—>My website:

Website: https://davidmadow.com

Check out the podcasts, recipes, blog posts, and more!

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Facebook:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidmadow

Check out videos of the show and send questions/feedback

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/davidmadow/

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Google+

https://plus.google.com/+DavidMadow/posts

—> Tweet with Dr. Dave on Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/davidmadow

__> Subscribe to Dr. Dave’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/rundrdave

—>Connect with Dr. Dave and his professional portfolio on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmadow

—> Send Dr. Dave an Email:

dave@davidmadow.com

—> Share the show with a friend:

Do you have a friend that needs to hear this show and live a better life? Share this show with them and send them to https://www.davidmadow.com

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Hey it’s David Madow! Welcome back to The David Madow Lifestyle Show. This is the show where I help you live stronger, thinner, healthier, and happier. I’ve got a great one for you today maybe even a little surprise for you.

So I am in my car driving back from speaking at the Charlottesville Veg Fest in Charlottesville, VA. And let me tell ya it was awesome! This episode I am going to share a lot of my thoughts with you and my feelings on life. You’ll like this a lot.

There were definitely many hundreds of people there. It was a hot day in Charlottesville, VA. A lot of exhibitors, a lot of booths, a lot of vendors, a lot of people selling food. Wonderful vegetarian and vegan food. I went with my wife, Yoko. I spoke at around 12:30pm to a room packed full of people.

I started off with a little sound check this morning. They were a little bit disorganized but that’s ok they were trying to get their stuff together. They couldn’t have been any nicer.

I was a little concerned that the equipment wouldn’t be ready in time but they got it all together. Not only that I was worried that it wouldn’t be a full room. I was in an indoor location a little bit off the beaten track where the main stage was. So I had concerns but as time went on, they were kind enough to let me make an announcement from the main stage. I just kinda pimped my talk a little bit from out there.

By the time I went on, there was standing room only. All the seats were taken and people were lined up on both sides of the room and there were people standing in the back. It was incredible!

Be sure to follow my LIVE daily broadcasts on Periscope at www.periscope.tv/davidmadow.

I’m not telling you this to tell how great it is speaking to a packed room. But the main thing about this veg festival is that people kinda came together for fun, learning, peace. Was everybody there vegan or vegetarian? No but there were a lot of people there that were interested in learning more about why they should change their lifestyle. They were eager to learn. They were asking great questions. It was a really positive experience. I was so happy to see so many people come out from the community. This week was Charlottesville, VA, next week I’m going to be in Morristown, NJ. All over North America there are are people that are curious to know how they can make their lives better, how they can go vegan, how they can go vegetarian. I am a big proponent of going vegan and not vegetarian but vegetarian is definitely a step.

But there are people that are hearing the message and they’re trying. It’s not everyday all day. But they’re trying. They’re changing. We’re all changing lives of people and of animals.

I was having a conversation with Yoko as we’re driving. We have about a 3 hour drive going back. And I was asking Yoko as we were driving, and I want to be nice about this. But it kinda just puzzles me. As I have said before many of my friends and family aren’t vegan yet so I don’t judge anybody at all. Everybody is kind of in their own timeframe of life for where they want to be and where they can be. It took me 58 years to figure out that this is the absolutely best way to live but not only for me, not only for me at all, but for the planet and for the animals that don’t want to die. That have committed no crime. They feel pain and sadness just like we do.

Yoko and I were staying at a bed and breakfast before I spoke at the Veg Fest. They have 2 baby goats there that are just so cute and so happy to be free and loving life. I held them and we kissed them. These animals don’t want to die. They don’t want to be your food. They don’t want to be on your plate, trust me. And the same thing with cows and chickens and pigs. They do not want to be cut up on your plate. They want to live their lives just like we do.

So I was saying to Yoko on the way home here that it just puzzles me why when we go to a family gathering let ‘s say for example a holiday, and everybody is celebrating, and in order to celebrate they are cutting up birds or cutting up animals? I still just don’t have the answer.

So Yoko said that when she was in Japan recently her family totally respected the fact that you don’t want to be eating meat. And when they had her over for dinner or whenever they went out, they were always very careful to not only take her to a place that had vegetarian options but to totally respect and not make fun of your lifestyle.

So I am puzzled. I am a little bit sad sometimes. Because I hear the comments and hear from family members that just want to get their jabs in about how I’m a little weird, and I’m not normal, and I eat this weird stuff. They are the normal ones because they eat meat. After everything I have been through and studied and observed, I don’t think that’s so normal. I don’t think it’s normal to be eating a cut up animal that had to suffer on your plate. I don’t necessarily think that’s so good. If you’re going to do it that’s ok, I still love you but please be careful not to make fun of somebody like me or Yoko who tries to be so compassionate and peaceful and so loving. Please don’t make fun. Don’t make fun of vegans on Facebook. Don’t make jokes about it because in the end it’s really about the animals that we care so much about. Try to be very careful and compassionate.

I’m going to pass the mic to Yoko just for a little bit and listen to what she says because if you listen to her words she totally gets it.

Yoko: “Hi! There are many many different kinds of people on this planet and each one of them has their own beliefs. We should respect each other so that we won’t have any fights. That’s my big big thing. So David and I really believe being a vegan is good because we can save the planet. We can be healthy. And also we can save animals. And then somebody may make a sarcastic [comment], oh we can be healthy eating meat. Of course you can. But that’s what you believe. If you want to do it, it’s ok. I respect you but you can’t respect me. I really felt comfortable being at the Charlottesville Veg Fest. Because people care about other people, and care about animals, and people care about the earth. There were lots of booths. People selling eco-friendly soaps, signs for human rights petitions and of course animal rights too. Some factory farm just abusing animals is what I really don’t want to happen. So that’s why I became vegan. Whatever you believe is ok but I hope that whatever you believe has compassion to others, either environmental or ethical. We all live on this planet. If we don’t have compassion for the place we live and the things surrounding us, then what’s going to happen? It’s gonna destroy everything and make it more uncomfortable to live on this earth. Right? So I really hope everybody has compassion for others.”

Yoko, somebody a couple of weeks ago that I was sitting down and having dinner with sometimes makes fun of me being vegan. In a fun way but you hear it enough and it gets kind of annoying. If you’ve been a long time listener you know that I would never force you. I would never ever do that. That’s not the way I teach. I teach by example and by compassion. And if you choose to follow one thing, some things, or all things, that’s ok. I really appreciate you listening to the podcast. It’s very important for me to have you as a listener.

Anyhow, he sat down with me and said, “Dave I understand what you are doing but you are not going to save the world. People are always going to eat meat and you are not going to be able to change this.” And I said well, I understand what you are saying and maybe it’s not going to happen in my lifetime but I am definitely making a difference. And not only that I think the number is something like 80 BILLION land animals that are killed every year for food and clothing. 80 BILLION! So I said to this person that even if I’m helping just a few of those 80 billion by me not eating meat, and by Yoko, and all of the other people that are following me and my message, I’m doing a job. That animals that are being saved are happy. They are living their lives.

So I do believe that I am making a difference. Yoko is making a difference. You are making a difference. If you are my follower or friend, you are making a difference because you are hearing the message. Whether you are vegan or not, I thank you because you are making a big difference. Just by being here and listening to the message, you are one step ahead of most people out there. Because the average person goes about their lives not thinking where this thing may have come from that is on their plate. They don’t consider it. YOU are at least thinking. That is all I want you to do. If you’re not going vegan now, I get it. But just be mindful of what’s going on around you. And when you’re ready, if you are, great!

But after this Veg Fest I feel like I am on top of the world. I hung out with hundreds of my closest friends. They are just so compassionate and I love it! I’m pretty much always in a really good mood because the way I live my life I follow my principles. Today I spoke about 10 Ways to Supercharge Your Life and I do everyone of those. And it really helps a lot. Being on top of the world and being positive, I am able to inspire others. No matter where you are on the timeline, you are doing it and we are all making a difference.

About a month or so ago, Yoko and I did a podcast together about climbing two “14ers” Mt. Cameron and Mt. Lincoln. We felt so great after climbing those. And I had Yoko on the podcast. We talked about our day, and what we did, and how we felt. And I had so many people message me and tell me how great it was to have Yoko on the podcast and hearing her voice again.

So we were having a really good conversation today in the car about Veg Fest and about why do people not get this. And I said, “Yoko we have to record this so that I can get it out to my listeners.”

I want to Thank Yoko for being with me and supporting me today. I had a bunch of people come up wanting to talk to me and ask questions. And while I was doing that Yoko was kind of in the background packing up my guitar, packing up my laptop, packing up everything else to make room for the next speaker coming on stage. It’s just so great traveling with Yoko. I want to publicly thank her for that and for just adding so much positivity to my life.

If I inspired or helped one person in the room today, it made my day. If I get one person or just one idea to change their lives, I’ve done my job. And today I have a feeling I did a little more than that. So thank so much! I’m Dr. Dave. Thank for being with me! And I can’t wait to see you next week!

CONNECT WITH ME AND SHARE

“Thank you very much for listening! The show is literally downloaded by the thousands each week now. In fact, we have passed the 320,000+ downloads mark! Wow! I so appreciate you listening and sharing this show with your family and friends. I love to help people live a healthier life! It is so great that we have listeners from all over the world from the United States to the UK to Canada to Europe to Japan to Australia. I love hearing from people all over the world on Facebook, Twitter, Email, and our phone hotline too!” – Dr. Dave.

Did you enjoy today’s show? Do you have any questions for me? Do you have any comments or feedback? You are not alone! We want to help you live better, stronger, happier, thinner lives!

—>My website:

Website: https://davidmadow.com

Check out the podcasts, recipes, blog posts, and more!

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Facebook:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidmadow

Check out videos of the show and send questions/feedback

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Instagram:

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—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Google+

https://plus.google.com/+DavidMadow/posts

—> Tweet with Dr. Dave on Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/davidmadow

__> Subscribe to Dr. Dave’s YouTube channel:

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—>Connect with Dr. Dave and his professional portfolio on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmadow

—> Send Dr. Dave an Email:

dave@davidmadow.com

—> Share the show with a friend:

Do you have a friend that needs to hear this show and live a better life? Share this show with them and send them to https://www.davidmadow.com

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Welcome back to The David Madow Lifestyle Show. I’m Dr. Dave and it’s great to have you here. Of course, as you know, this is the show where we help you live stronger, thinner, healthier, and happier. And a lot more than that but that’s enough to keep you going for a while 😉

Be sure to follow my LIVE daily broadcasts on Periscope at www.periscope.tv/davidmadow.

If you’re a brand new listener, we appreciate you! Thanks for being with us. And I have to warn you, as I have said before this show can become addicting. You will want to listen to every single episode. A new episode comes out every single Monday morning online. Some people think that you have to listen to it when it first comes out on Monday morning, but no, you can listen to it whenever you want. It’s available to you on iTunes and of course on this website.

I am actually take a walk now with our guest that will be on today’s show. But before I introduce him, I just wanted to remind you about the beads that I wear everyday. I get these beads from my friend Desmond at www.beadsbydes.com. They give me so much energy. I can’t really explain it. I never really take them off except when I am in the shower or running. But they give me a sense of peace and energy. And Des has made a special offer to you for anybody that listens or is my friend. If you go to his website and enter the offer code ‘DAVE’ he will give you free shipping. I’m not sure how long he is going to keep that up, but take advantage of it. See the photo of my bracelets below.

So I am taking a walk with my good friend Don Robertson today. It’s a beautiful day out here. Don Robertson is the Founder of EarthSave Baltimore. It’s a great organization that creates awareness for living peacefully and not harming animals. They do a lot of great things like sponsoring dinners, and events, and speakers. I will let Don tell you a little bit more about it. But that’s not the only reason I’ve got Don. Don is a great guy. I’m going to ask him some questions and he’s going to share some of his experiences with you. We are going to change some lives today. There’s no question. I always say if I change one life by this show then I’ve done my job. And I have a feeling today that we will be changing more than one life.

Dr. Dave: “Don, how’s it going? Welcome! This walk is beautiful today. What’s going on?”

Don: “Hey Dave! Really glad to be here, thanks for inviting me! What we’re doing with EarthSave Baltimore group is that we’ve been doing this since 1997. I founded our local Baltimore chapter and ever since then we have been having a vegan dinner with a different speaker each month and it’s been going really well. The interest has grown so much it’s just amazing. It’s really exciting to see the way things are developing now.

I just came back from the Vegan SoulFest in Downtown Baltimore. And my goodness! This is only the third one and there must have been 5,000 people there. It was like woah something is changing, something is in the air. I find it really exciting.

I remember way way back when my mom first told me that we kill animals for food. I was like ahhh really? C’mon now?! It really hurt my heart. Like most kids, I loved animals so I was like, wow that is what’s on my plate!! So way way back then the first time I heard about vegetarians, I thought vegetarians are cool because they do something every day to help animals. And I thought maybe one day I could be a vegetarian.

A whole bunch of years went by without me thinking too much more about it because like most us I just kind of fell into the pattern. We are told that these 4 basic food groups are what we need. And of course that’s all scientifically vetted, right?! So all these years went by. It wasn’t until I started working with the Humane Society that I started seeing this literature come in showing the kind of living conditions the animals are subjected to and I said whoa what third world country is this in? Where is this? Where are they treating animals this way?

So I started learning about it and realized oh it’s right here. So that didn’t sit well with me. It was like ok, I am part of the problem. I had to do something about it so I started studying up on it because I thought you had to be a nutrition expert to learn how to eat a plant based diet right?! And I started learning about it. I thought wow! It’s not really as hard as I thought. The nutrition thing is really more of a problem for those who don’t eat a lot of plants, fruits, vegetables, and legumes. So that touched me. I thought this is probably doable.

The other thing I learned when I started reading up that really impacted me deeply is how wasteful our current agricultural system is. We are growing all these mountains of grains and soybeans to feed cows. We are feeding cows about 12 pounds of grains just to produce 1 pound of meat. How are we going to feed a hungry world like that?

So I said ok I’ve gotta do this. I’ve learned more than I need to know to know what I’ve gotta do. And I thought, but I’m such a habit driven person, how can I do this? I realized that I’ve got to give myself some time. I’ve got to allow myself to take this a little bit at a time. So I thought I am going to give myself some time to make this change but I am not going to go beyond one year before I go vegetarian. And at the end of the year, I was still eating one thing, McDonald’s chicken filet sandwiches. And I was like ohhh do I want to give those up? I really didn’t want to but I had learned too much about the way chickens are raised. They are probably the most mistreated animal on the planet.

So I went vegetarian and stayed vegetarian for a year. Then I started hearing about sinus infections being linked to dairy products. It reminded me that way back when I started singing at the age of 17, another singer told me to never drink milk before going on stage because it will cause a mucus buildup in your throat. And I thought well look, if it’s such a healthy food as it’s supposed to be, why am I getting a mucus build up in my throat? So I said oh I am going to try this. It’s worth an experiment. I’m going to go ahead and drop all dairy products overnight. It was the most health affirming and life affirming thing in my life. I was more energetic almost overnight. I understood what people were saying about sinus infections and dairy products. They were on to something there! So I’ve been vegan now for 26 years. Plus the additional vegetarian year. And I’ve had 1 sinus infection in the last 26 years. I used to get 2 or 3 bad ones every year. So pretty cool changes! Pretty cool!

I also dropped a lot of weight as well. I didn’t even think about dropping weight. But I had gotten up to 209 and I was really about 30 or 40 pounds too heavy for me. I am 6′. Over the next two years, after making that change, I got down to 170. And I thought wow, I am a lot lighter than I was. That’s a surprise!

Another cool benefit was that my lower back pain went away. I used to get lower back pain. Even at a young age. Even in my pre-40s. And it didn’t really make much sense to me that back pain could have anything to do with diet until I read Dr. Neal Barnard’s book, Foods That Fight Pain. It talks about lower back pain having a possible connection to cardiovascular disease. I said ohhh that could be it because I never get lower back pain anymore. So really really good stuff.

But you know it’s a wonderful thing to look better, feel better, be at a healthier weight, and will probably live longer. A few years later I thought what’s the big thing that I got out of this? And I thought really the big big thing I got is that now I can look an animal in the eye without feeling guilty. I know I am here with you and I am doing something to protect you. I made the commitment to step up every day and to make the effort to do what I can to educate people and encourage them to make some of these same changes. So exciting stuff!”

Dr. Dave: “If that’s not a great advertisement for becoming vegan/vegetarian I don’t know what is. And you said it was how many years?”

Don: “It’s 26 years plus 1 year as a vegetarian.”

Dr. Dave: “26 years! That’s amazing Don! Congratulations on your message and what you’re doing.”

Don: “Thank you!”

Dr. Dave: “I want to switch gears a little bit because there’s something else I want to know about you. But I want some help on this and I know my listeners want some help on this as well. I don’t know if this happened the same time you went vegan or if you were always like this. But I gotta tell you, you are a kind peaceful individual. I don’t know you intimately but we’ve been friends long enough. I’ve seen you interact with a lot of people in real life and online. And I’ve never seen you say something unkind even if someone’s attacking you for being vegan or doing this. I’ve never seen you say an unkind word. So speak to us on kindness and on peace? How do you do it? I’m getting there. But I think my listeners want to be kinder people all around.”

Don: “Yeah thank you David. That’s a good question. The whole kindness thing, that is so impactful. I came to an insight It was a life changing insight about how connected we all are. I don’t want to point any fingers at anybody, we’re all still evolving right?! It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been vegan. We’ve all got steps to take. I don’t want to tell anybody that they should be here when they want to be where they are. It’s like everybody is where they need to be in the present moment of their evolution. That’s something that it might take something special to arrive at that understanding. That’s a challenge.To just accept that, ok there’s a lot of cruelty in the world and a lot of suffering in the world. But if the way I try to make a difference is to point a finger at somebody and say, ‘you should be’ or ‘you ought to be’. It just doesn’t work. None of us like being blamed. We like to accept the possiblities within us. And accept the encouragement of others to take some of those steps. And know that people have confidence in us. That’s what they really need to hear.”

Dr. Dave: “Let’s even extend it beyond being vegan. Let’s talk about our lives in general. I’ve never been in this situation with you but you’re driving down the highway and somebody cuts you off or somebody flips you the finger or somebody says something really nasty to you. I’m just going to take a guess because like I said I ‘ve never seen you in that situation. But I am going to guess you don’t do something bad back to them. You’re a really really peaceful person. How do you handle them trying to get aggressive with you in your life? Let’s fact it, we all have that. How do you handle that?”

Don: “It’s really about understanding where others are coming from. And it’s usually coming from fear or coming from anger. Anger comes from fear. People who are flipping you the bird, they’re thinking that you ought to be some other way than you are. They feel that you shouldn’t be cutting them off, you should be thinking about them and not yourself. That’s where they’re coming from. So I understand that. I have to understand that where he is at right now is a tough place for him. It’s like ok he’s gonna vent. What can I do? I can try not to get caught up in his anger. It takes practice. It does! Especially when we are dealing with some aspect of our lives where we’re used to doing things. And most of us do have some areas like that where we know someone can really push our buttons. And it’s like so what can I do? Well maybe the best I can do right now is to suck it in.”

Dr. Dave: “Don talk to me a little bit about spirituality. If I may ask you that. If I’m getting too personal I understand but it seems to me that you must be a very spiritual person so talk to me and my listeners about that.”

Don: “Thanks Dave! Yeah, thanks for that affirmation. Spirituality was something that for many years I wasn’t sure about this God “thing”. I called myself agnostic for many years. It wasn’t until some revelations I had about forgiveness of my father. That was a big one. It was like It dawned on me at one point that if I was going to be angry at my father then I am going to be angry with myself too. So I started coming to a process of forgiveness. And releasing anger, and releasing blame releasing the need to control life. That was huge. The other big big piece for me was the whole veg/vegan movement and the animals rights movement. All of that. The more I contributed to that and the more I stepped into that advocated role the better I felt. And it was like wow! I am really starting to get what mystics mean when they talk about oneness. I am feeling connected to all life, to all living beings. Everything comes back to animals and it comes back to me. And it’s like woah ok, what Jesus talked about is right! Treat your enemies with kindness. Turn the other cheek. There’s wisdom in that. You don’t have to be manager of the world. We can slow down, be ourselves, and do what we can to inspire and educate others. When we are doing that, we are doing our job. It’s like ok there’s not a whole lot more we can do.”

Dr. Dave: “I love that answer. You are inspiring so many people at least in the Baltimore area for sure. But in the couple minutes that we have left, if you could make any change or changes in your life, what would you change if anything at   all?”

Don: “Oh yeah U always have things to work on. People will ask me how to do food preparation and it’s like ohhh I’m a philosopher, I’m not a cook. I get bored with the food that I make for myself so I want to have joy when I eat. And I am not getting that joy anymore so it’s time for me to step up to the plate. Come up with some recipes and give some new recipes a try. I want to do some things that could enthusiastically encourage others to do at the checkout. I saw a cool recipe today. Somebody was a real lover of hot dogs but they’re vegan now. And so they came up with a way of using a marinated carrot in place of the meat hot dog. It looked really good. They were putting various toppings on them. They were showing ones with mustard on them and ones with onions on them and ones with relish on them. I think I’m going to try that. Probably not the most healthy thing we can do but it’s kinda neat. Kind of a cool idea.”

Dr. Dave: “The marinated carrot actually sounds pretty good. I am ready to get some lunch and maybe we’ll get ourselves a couple of marinated carrot hot dogs. The point is though that people think that we have to remove things from our diet. There are options that are so healthy and so delicious and they are actually made from plants. That’s a great example right there. The marinated carrot hot dog that sounds delicious and it’s probably not all that unhealthy if it’s made of carrots.”

Don: “Especially if you have healthy bread with it!” 🙂

Dr. Dave: “Exactly, exactly! Help us out if anybody is interested in finding out more about you, your website, or your upcoming events. A lot of my listeners are really all over the planet, they’re not necessarily Maryland based but I’ve got a lot that are Maryland based. And maybe some people travel to some of these events, you never know. So share with people how they can find out more about your events.”

Don: “I am really active on Facebook. That is the easiest way to find me. I love posting daily acronyms that are also educational. Things like – Vibrant Empathic Global Action
Network (Vegan) or People Everywhere Answering the Call the Evolve (Peace).

Dr. Dave: “That’s beautiful!”

Don: “Thank you Dave. They’re a lot of fun. Somebody suggested that I do a daily guide with a different acronym for each day. And I thought well, that would be fun but I can’t come up with 365 peace acronyms. And at this point I have nearly 600 so I’m getting there!”

Dr. Dave: “Well I think a book might be in your future of all the different acronyms you’ve put up over the years.”

Don: “I think so too. I’ve been thinking about that. It hasn’t become my priority yet but I want to do that.”

Dr. Dave: “That sounds really cool! Anyway Don, listen we are out of time but I really really appreciate you taking your time and walking with me on this beautiful day. I have a really nice studio in my house with microphones and mixers but there’s nothing like being outdoors on a beautiful day like this. So Don, I appreciate you being here and being my guest and being my friend. Keep up the good work brother because you are doing some great stuff for people, animals, and basically every living being.”

Don: “Thanks so much David! I really appreciate your show!”

Dr. Dave: “We will see you next Monday. Remember a brand new show comes out every Monday. Thanks so much for listening. I’m Dr. Dave and we’ll see ya!”

CONNECT WITH ME AND SHARE

“Thank you very much for listening! The show is literally downloaded by the thousands each week now. In fact, we have passed the 320,000+ downloads mark! Wow! I so appreciate you listening and sharing this show with your family and friends. I love to help people live a healthier life! It is so great that we have listeners from all over the world from the United States to the UK to Canada to Europe to Japan to Australia. I love hearing from people all over the world on Facebook, Twitter, Email, and our phone hotline too!” – Dr. Dave.

Did you enjoy today’s show? Do you have any questions for me? Do you have any comments or feedback? You are not alone! We want to help you live better, stronger, happier, thinner lives!

—>My website:

Website: https://davidmadow.com

Check out the podcasts, recipes, blog posts, and more!

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Facebook:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidmadow

Check out videos of the show and send questions/feedback

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/davidmadow/

—> Connect with Dr. Dave on Google+

https://plus.google.com/+DavidMadow/posts

—> Tweet with Dr. Dave on Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/davidmadow

__> Subscribe to Dr. Dave’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/rundrdave

—>Connect with Dr. Dave and his professional portfolio on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmadow

—> Send Dr. Dave an Email:

dave@davidmadow.com

—> Share the show with a friend:

Do you have a friend that needs to hear this show and live a better life? Share this show with them and send them to https://www.davidmadow.com

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Hello! Welcome back to The David Madow Lifestyle Show. This is the show where I help you live stronger, thinner, healthier, and happier. I’ve got a great show for you today. I know I pretty much always say that or almost always say that. I think every show is great. I really do! I wouldn’t publish it or broadcast it if I didn’t think it was great. This show is going to be incredibly great. Make sure you are in a quiet place and listen to this from start to finish. I promise you, this is going to be a life changer!

Before I bring her on, I do want to remind you that I have a VIP list. It’s totally FREE! If you haven’t signed up yet, go to my website at www.davidmadow.com and on the right hand side you will see “Join my VIP list”. All you have to do is type your email address and click submit. The reason I have a VIP list is that I try to say as much as I can on my podcasts, on my Periscope broadcasts, on social media, or wherever I am giving information. But sometimes there are some things that I don’t want to say out to the universe and I kind of keep a few things privately to people on my VIP list. I will never sell your name or spam you.

Be sure to follow my LIVE daily broadcasts on Periscope at www.periscope.tv/davidmadow.

Let me explain what the show is going to be about today. Those of you that listened to me last week, I talked a little bit about this last week. It’s about a book I read a short time ago. It changed my life. The book is called “This Is Not My Beautiful Life”. I’ve got the author of the book on the show today as my guest. Her name is Victoria Fedden.

Dr. Dave: “There’s no time like now to bring her in. Victoria are you there and how are you doing?”

Victoria: “I’m here and I’m doing great! Thank you! How are you?”

Dr. Dave: “Victoria, I’m doing great! I’m up in the Maryland area. And I know you’re in Florida but let me tell you we’ve been having this summer that’s a killer. It’s been super hot and humid here every day so I feel like I need an ocean here next to me. It’s just crazy. It’s been super super hot. It’s probably cooler where you are. I think you are in South Florida right?”

Victoria: “Yeah, I’m in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and I assure you it is not cooler. [Laughing in the background] It is like living in a sauna. It is really hot!”

Dr. Dave: “We’re going to have to have a little face off here. I bet you that it’s hotter here. [Dave giggling] Anyway,so I want to talk to you about this book you wrote. I want to let you know and I don’t think I have ever told you this before but I am not really a serious reader. I read business books and self-help books and motivational but I’m an outdoors guy and I like running and stuff like that. Typically, I will buy a book on my Kindle and after a few chapters, I just kind of stop and I am on to the next thing. But I talked to you on, Facebook I think, for a short time about this book that you just came out with. And I think I said something like Victoria do you think this would be a good book for me? And right away you replied and said absolutely! So I downloaded it and once I downloaded it and started reading it, let me tell you something, from the very first page or two I was sucked into this thing. I could not put it down. I remember right from the first chapter, you were in your parents house and their was a knock on the door. You were in your pajamas and were like 8 or 9 months pregnant. And the knock on the door that you described went on to change your life forever.”

Victoria: “Yes, it did!”

Dr. Dave: “It did change your life forever. And I couldn’t put the book down. I think I messaged you somewhere along the road as I was reading it. I remember I was busy, I was in Colorado and had a full schedule and I said Victoria, it will probably take me a long time to read this book because I will probably read a little at a time. But I finished this book in world record David Madow time. This is really weird. I don’t know if anyone has told you yet but I was really hoping there was more. I read the epilogue and the note from the publisher. I just kept reading this thing and I kept hoping that it keep going on forever but it didn’t. I just want to let you know that this is really special because it kept my attention the entire time.”

Victoria: “Well thank you so much! I’m really really flattered to hear that.”

Dr. Dave: “And not only that, when I was probably half way through, I did a Periscope broadcast and insisted that my viewers buy this book and read it. I made it their homework. Seriously. And to make it easier for them I put an Amazon link on my website and told them to go there and read it. And many of them have bought it. No one has finished it yet because it was just last week that I told them about it. But somebody on Periscope today told me that he was on chapter 20 and was loving it. So again, I want to thank you so much. But I’ve got a bunch of things I’ve got to ask you about with this book.”

Victoria: “Ok perfect! Ask away.”

Dr. Dave: “Well I guess the first question is, you definitely did something magical here. I want to hear from you. Why did you write this book?”

Victoria: “I wrote the book because I knew I had a good story. On the day of the raid, I actually told my parents, one day I am going to write a memoir about this and it better be a best seller. And everybody laughed and me and was like haha, Ok Victoria Ok. But I knew from day one. I didn’t know what was going to happen but I knew that I was going to have a good story and one day I was going to write that memoir. But that doesn’t necessarily answer the question of why. Besides being a good story, I felt that I needed to get the story out of me. I felt that I had grown and changed so much as a person and that I had learned so many lessons that although it was an unusual situation the lessons I learned were universal. And I really felt like what my family and I had been through I needed to use that in some way to help other people out there.”

Dr. Dave: “Incredible! Now I have to be very careful, as I told you before we chatted a little bit before I pressed record and to be fair to our listeners I don’t want to give too many things away because I really want them to read this book from start to finish and I don’t want to tell them what it’s about or what happened. But it is totally a life changer. I am going to recommend it. You basically talked about a 4 year slice of your life and what happened. It’s not only about you but it changed my life. It got me to look at my life a different way and realize that everybody, and I mean everybody, has stuff going on in their lives. Maybe on different levels but everybody’s got something going on. When you were going through this 4-year ordeal, I noticed that you talked about yoga a lot maybe half way through the book. You started going to a yoga class and you hated it as first. You made it very clear that you were horrible at yoga and you were not like the other people in the class. But then as the book went on and progressed, you became a lot more comfortable about yoga and the poses and it started really changing your life. I would like to talk to you a little about yoga. I am in the same situation. I definitely practice yoga. I’ve been doing it for 6 or 7 years now and when I first started I was kinda like you were. I just felt really uncomfortable with it. But once you keep doing it, it really really is a life changer. So tell me why you think yoga was really a major player in getting you through this 4-year period of your life?”

Victoria: “I think what it was is that is really helped me to calm down. I also met a lot of other people that were really going through tough times too. Many of them far tougher than what I was going through. So I started to see that everybody was there for healing. Everybody was trying to get by. Everybody was trying to learn skills to cope with their life and it wasn’t just me. It’s hard to explain how just stretching for an hour and a half in a dark room, but it’s life changing. I’ve tried to put my finger on what exactly it is about it but I think a lot of it has to do with focus. It helped me to focus. It helped me learn to set intentions. Not just while I was in class but every day. Because at the beginning of every yoga class they say, Ok now set your intention. I never quite understood how to do that in class so I started making it up on my own. I would say Ok today I am going to stop fighting. Today I am going to love myself more. Today I am going to just try a little bit harder. Or today I am going to be more open minded. I’m still not entirely sure if that’s what the teachers want us to do but that’s what I do and that’s what works for me. So I started doing that off of my mat too. So every morning now when I wake up, I set an intention for the day. It’s not the same as a to do list where my intention is to go to the grocery store or go to the post office. It’s not that kind of intention. It’s an intention to be more mindful, be more compassionate, or to be more open-hearted.”

Dr. Dave: “Now you didn’t really make it clear in the book and when I was reading about the yoga part which I loved hearing about. You definitely talked about the hot room but you didn’t make it clear so is it truly like the hot yoga (Bikram yoga) that you were doing or just regular yoga and the room was warm?”

Victoria: “Not Bikram no. But I think they keep it between 95 and 97 degrees in there.”

Dr. Dave: “Ok that’s definitely hot. [Dave laughs]”

Victoria: “Well yeah. I live in Florida so I guess I am used to the heat. In the beginning I felt like it was hot but now when I go in and take a yoga class, I don’t really think about the temperature anymore. It doesn’t phase me too much.”

Dr. Dave: “Ah excellent. I remember something else that I’ll never forget and I believe it was when you were sending your daughter to a private school and you were noticing how the other mothers would being their kids in and they would be these perfect looking women, and everything was great, and it looked like they had all this money and their lives were just so simple. And then you started to get together with some of them and you started to go around the room and some of the women started to open up and it was like they all had pretty big problems. And they started talking about them. And oh my god it was unbelievable.”

Victoria: “Oh it was! That was a completely life changing moment for me. And I have to continually remind myself of that moment because thinking that other people have perfect lives. It’s actually something that I still struggle with. I call it my tragic downfall that I will always idolize other people without really getting to know them. So that’s something that I am still working on. But when that happened, I was in this room and they all had their hair perfectly highlighted, and drove really nice cars, and they all had their Starbuck’s cups, and their kids were always adorably dressed. I felt like I was a big mess. When they started talking about the truth of their lives, I saw that I was definitely not alone. I was in very good company. And some of those women are my very best friends to this day and I am so thankful for them.”

Dr. Dave: “Wow! I learned a lot from that. I am kinda the same as you are. You look around and you see some of these people that are just making so much money, and they live in these mansions, and they are driving the fanciest cars. But guess what their lives are probably just as screwed up as anybody else. They just don’t really show it or talk about it. So I thought that was an amazing part and I will never forget that part of your book. It was really really cool. So I was on Periscope this morning Victoria, and maybe I’m obsessed because I talk about your book a lot, I mentioned that I was going to be interviewing you today and one of my viewers typed in a question and said can you please ask Victoria this question? And I said type it in and let me see what it is. So if it’s Ok I want to ask this question? It’s actually from Steve, one of my viewers and listener of my podcast also. He said that it seemed like your husband was almost in the background when you were going through this crazy crazy 4-year ordeal and he wasn’t all that involved. He wanted to know did you look to your husband for support or did he not give you support? What was the story there? Did he maybe give you support that you didn’t write about. He wanted to know a little more about that.”

Victoria: “He did give me support that I didn’t write about. There was a large period of time there where he wasn’t physically around. I mention it very briefly a few times in the book that because of his job he was travelling a lot. So we spent several weeks apart. There were a few times when I went up to Delaware for a couple months at a time. So there were parts when we really were not together. But we did speak every day and we Facetimed every day. So he was there and he was giving me emotional support. But also I think that a struggle that we have had in our marriage is that he is more introverted than I am about making things like this public. And I think it can be hard for someone who is much more private and much more guarded to be married to a person like me who is not guarded at all and has zero secrets whatsoever. So I need to respect that boundary with him as much as possible all the time. So I try not to write about him too much.”

Dr. Dave: “Ok that totally makes sense then. And I understand. The reason I understand is as you know my life is really out there and it seems like if something happens crazy in my life, I share it. I think there’s always a learning experience. I feel that if something happens to me in my life I share it with my listeners, my followers, my viewers. If I can help one person in their lives then I feel good about that and I kinda suspect I help a lot more than one. So I totally understand. My life is really out there as well. You mentioned several times in the book about being from Delaware and there were at least one or two times that you went back there to visit some family. And it’s funny some of the things that you mention, being in Maryland and having lived in Maryland for most of my life, a lot of that sounded very familiar to me especially some of the things you talked about being at the beach. But I was curious. You talked about being at the beach but you never mentioned the beach by name. I’m guessing it might have been Rehoboth Beach but am I right or am I off?”

Victoria: “Yes, it was Rehoboth Beach.”

Dr. Dave: “Ok. I have so many childhood memories there so a lot of the things you were talking about that I could totally identify with. It was amazing.”

Victoria: “Oh I loved writing that section too because I have so many fond wonderful memories of Rehoboth. It’s easily one of my top five favorite places on Earth.”

Dr. Dave: “It’s a great place! And I loved when you wrote about being in Delaware one winter and I think you said basically the beach isn’t open and there was nothing going on. And you kind of painted it as though there was nothing going on very cold there when there’s not a lot of people going to the beach. So I could totally identify with that and really loved it. There were many times in the book where you questioned yourself whether you’re a good mother or a good wife. And we’re not going to give too many things away because I want everyone to read this book. So how are you doing with being a mom and being a wife now that this ordeal has passed and you are in another phase of your life? Are things going ok with that?”

Victoria: “Yeah they are. I think I’ve healed a lot. I still have a lot more healing to go of course. I think that’s a lifelong process for anybody. Anybody who’s self aware at least. So I’m always going to be working on myself and I’m always going through some sort of a healing process I think. I don’t really see myself and seeing enlightenment in this lifetime but you never know. [giggling] But I’m in a much better place. I have good days and bad days. Depression and anxiety is something that I still struggle with. In the book, I was actually medicated for part of the book. But I am no longer taking any kind of medication now. I try to control all of my depression and anxiety with yoga, meditation, exercise, and eating halfway decently most of the time.”

Dr. Dave: “I like that. I like that. Eating halfway decently most of the time. [Dr. Dave laughs] That gives you a lot of leeway there Victoria.”

Victoria: [giggling] “I’m just trying to be honest.”

Dr. Dave: “No, no. I like that. You’re totally honest. In this book you talked about some of the foods you ate and let’s face it a lot of them were not very healthy. And you talked about your depression and how your doctor finally put you on medication. You really were out there and talked about your life. I think that’s one of the reasons that I couldn’t put the book down. It was so real. It was not a made up story. It was a true story. And you pretty much didn’t hold anything back. It was really greatly appreciated. For someone that is reading this book, what is the take away? What would be the one thing that you want people to learn from this book?”

Victoria: “I have a lot of takeaways actually. One thing that I really want people to take away from it is that other people are not perfect. What we see on Facebook and social media, or what we see during brief interactions such as preschool drop off, that’s not real people’s lives. That’s just a very very tiny part of people’s lives. And we all have hard things happen to us and we can all get through them. It’s best not to hide what we’re going through. And it’s best to be open and honest and not be ashamed of your story.”

Dr. Dave: “You know it’s funny that you said that. I talk about this so often on my podcast and on Periscope as well. It’s so easy. On Facebook, no one’s going to put a bad picture of themselves, they’re going to put the absolute best pictures taken from the absolute best angles possible so they look great. And they’re not going to post that they’ve had a horrible depressing day. They’re going to post something from a beautiful restaurant or their vacation or a brand new car. Something like that. So what you said is so true. And you’re kind of preaching to the choir because it’s almost unfair to look at Facebook or some type of social media platform and see everybody out there because you’re not seeing the real thing. It’s probably something else that just attracted to your book and got me hooked. I think I’m probably going to read it again. Unless you’re going to write something really quickly. Because I’ve got to read something else from Victoria Fedden. I’m just curious. Talking about your writing a little bit. I don’t think this is your first book. You’ve had at least another book or so. But I’m guessing that based on what I’m seeing on Facebook and hearing, this book has exceeded your wildest expectation and dreams. If I’m right on that I would love to know a little more about that. What’s it like to be this author that’s now famous and getting this recognition? It must be incredible.”

Victoria: “It is incredible and a lot of times it doesn’t even feel real to me. I have a lot of people emailing me, texting me sending me Facebook messages, and many of them are total strangers. And they’re telling me that my book has helped them so much, and it’s changed their lives, and taught them lessons. That is what really blows my mind. It’s not so much seeing the book in all the airport bookstores or anything like that. I’ve got people that I really don’t know contacting me and saying, hey I’ve read your book and it really affected me. And I really needed this and needed to hear your words. That has just been mind blowing for me.”

Dr. Dave: “Isn’t that a great feeling? That must be amazing.”

Victoria: “It is! It is amazing. I had a few moments of insecurity where I felt like maybe I wasn’t worthy of that. Because I still feel like me who’s really bad at yoga and doesn’t always eat the best food. [Dave laughs] I’m still that person. Sometimes I feel like oh my gosh am I up for this? Am I worthy of this? But yes I feel like the universe chose me for this mission and I will do my best.”

Dr. Dave: “That’s amazing! Do you have time to answer everybody that messages you?”

Victoria: “Not always. A few times I’ve gotten very overwhelmed with it. But what I do when that happens is that I just set everything to the side. I’ll take a break. I’ll read. I’ll go for a walk. I’ll go to yoga. And then I’ll come back to it later. But I feel very very grateful for every person that buys my book and reads my book. And I feel like I need to acknowledge my readers. So yes I do message everybody back as best as I can but not always immediately.”

Dr. Dave: “No no. Good for you. You probably don’t even know how many people you are helping out there. That’s great! So Victoria the book is titled This Is Not My Beautiful Life. I actually put a couple links to the Kindle version and to the hard copy version on my website. So if my listeners want to go there, I just like to make it easy for people. It is one of the recommended products. Sometimes I speak to authors Victoria and they prefer that people go into a regular store and buy it and give the brick and mortar places business. Does it matter to you where people get it?”

Victoria: “It doesn’t necessarily matter to me. Wherever people get it. Whatever is most convenient for the reader, I think is best. But I do strongly support independent bookstores.”

Dr. Dave: “Sure. I know down in South Florida there are a bunch. So what’s you next project? Anything on the horizon at all?”

Victoria: “Oh yeah, I never stop writing. I write for hours at a time. I write every single day even on the weekends sometimes and I do a lot of freelance work. I write a lot of articles. I have my own website at www.victoriafedden.com. I write for www.babble.com. I’ve written a few pieces for www.scarymommy.com. On www.elephantjournal.com, I’m a regular contributor. I love that website. And I’m hoping to add a few more. In addition to that, I am working on another memoir. I have two self published books from a few years ago that I actually took off the market and I have a lot of ideas for what I want to do with those. I would like to re-edit those and make those a lot better and try to do something else with them. I think they were great books with a lot of good stories but I feel that now I am a better writer and I can actually improve those two books. So I am working on that too.”

Dr. Dave: “You are a really really busy person. So I recommend that everyone go to my website. As I said I want to make it really easy. Victoria’s book is there. Both versions whether you want it on Kindle or hard copy. But Victoria if someone wants to know more about you should they just go to your website? Can they connect with you there?”

Victoria: “They can connect with me there but I really feel that the best place to connect with me and see everything that I am doing is by going to my Facebook page.”

Dr. Dave: “Ok and share with us how they can find you on Facebook?”

Victoria: “It’s www.facebook.com/victoriacfedden. And on my Facebook page I put links to every single article I write from every site. I write several posts a day. I do a thing called Morning Pages which is really a journaling exercise that I do most days. I started making my morning pages public because I felt like a lot of really interesting things were coming through that could really be of service to others. So those have been really popular too. I get very raw with those. I definitely expose a lot of my personal truths in those. So that’s there. I write inspirational quotes. I also share others people’s articles and things. So I think that’s probably the best place. And readers comment and interact there a lot and I always try to comment back to everyone.”

Dr. Dave: “That’s fantastic! So as your homework, you’ve gotta read the book, This Is Not My Beautiful Life. I’ve shared with you where to get that. And make sure you connect with Victoria on her Facebook page. I have to admit I knew you had a page there but I probably haven’t spent as much time as I should. You made it really enticing for me to go check some stuff out there too. So I’m going to do that as well Victoria. Listen we went way over but I’m not complaining because this has been incredible. I really appreciate your time. I just want to ask you one final question. And I want to thank you so much for being here too. You can come back anytime Victoria. This has been awesome! And I know I am going to get a lot of listeners. But my last question for you is, is this your beautiful life?”

Victoria: “Yes definitely! This is definitely my beautiful life even the parts of it that are ugly.”

Dr. Dave: “I love it! I am glad to hear that! From what I’m seeing you are absolutely living a beautiful life. I congratulate you on all your success and your writing. I can’t wait until the next one comes out because I’m going to absolutely be the first in line to read your next book. I promise you! But until then I invite you to come back anytime Victoria. Thanks so much for your time and we will talk to you soon for sure.”

Victoria: “Oh I hope so. I absolutely loved this! And thank you so much for having me on. It was such a wonderful experience.”

Dr. Dave: “Your welcome anytime.”

Victoria: “Alright, thank you!”

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Welcome back to the David Madow Lifestyle Show. This is the show were I help you live stronger, thinner, healthier, and happier. And actually a lot more! Welcome to this episode, it’s going to be a great one. Get comfortable wherever you may be. If you are a first time listener, I welcome you! I have to admit you are probably going to become addicted. If you are a long time listener, welcome back it’s great to have you!

Be sure to follow my LIVE daily broadcasts on Periscope atwww.periscope.tv/davidmadow.

The reason I think it’s going to be a fantastic show today is because I have kind of a superstar guest with me. This is amazing! Let me explain. For those of you that have been with me for a while, you know that I spent 5 days at Vegetarian SummerFest held at the University of Pittsburgh in Johnstown, PA. It was an awesome experience and I did some episodes from there. But I have got somebody here with me today that I actually met there. You are going to love this guy. I am going to bring him right in! His name is Mark Reinfeld. He is a multi-award winning author. He is also the executive chef at Vegetarian Summerfest. He cooks incredible vegan food for a 1000 or so people. He also travels internationally conducting workshops teaching people how to become vegan and how to cook and prepare food properly. He’s just an all around great guy.

Dr. Dave: “So Mark are you with me? How are you doing? Welcome!”

Mark: “Hey David! It’s great to be on your show. And it’s great to connect again. It was wonderful meeting you at SummerFest.”

Dr. Dave: “It was a blast Mark! You were like a true superstar there. I can’t believe they let you walk around without security.” [Mark laughs in the background] I mean it! When I saw you for the first time and you were walking around and you didn’t have escorts with you, I was thinking that people were going to be coming up to you and getting your autograph, and shaking your hand, getting pictures, and asking for recipes. This was a true event. First of all I want to congratulate you. How many years have you been doing this is a row being the executive chef at SummerFest?”

Mark: “This is my 5th year.”

Dr. Dave: “Wow! How did you score that gig? That’s an amazing gig!”

Mark: “It was a great opportunity and I definitely pushed myself beyond my comfort zone when I accepted. I tend to say yes to things and then figure it out once it happens. I had experience in a restaurant setting For a big event, we would do maybe 100-200 people. And this was a peak of about 750 people at SummerFest. So I just applied and sent them some recipes. I took the dive and it’s definitely gotten easier over the years.”

Dr. Dave: “I just want to say coming from me, I notice a lot of things. The food was delicious. There were 2 actual cafeterias where you could eat. I usually went to the quieter smaller one downstairs because I like to have a little more space. The one upstairs was just packed. The food was amazing. But I can’t even imagine what it takes to prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 5 days for 700 plus people. It was an amazing thing. So I just wanted to congratulate you. the quality of food coming out of your kitchen was just amazing, Mark. It did not go unnoticed.”

Mark: “Thanks man! Thank you. Thank you. It’s definitely an honor to provide the food for such an incredible event. And I encourage people who are interested in looking into it a lot of the top vegan educators, chefs, and authors are there. So I encourage everyone to experience it. And you may catch a glimpse of the wonderful Dave Madow singing Vegan on A Jet Plane which is worth the price of admission alone.”

Dr. Dave: [Dave laughing] “Worth the price of admission, I love it! I totally love that. I tell you if I come back next year, which I hope I do, I’ve got a new song that I am working on. It’s going to be amazing. But Mark let’s go back to basics a little bit. You’re a chef, you’re an author, you travel all over the world, people know you and you do a lot of teaching. Tell us about your becoming vegan. How did it happen?”

Mark: “In 1990, I was on a kibbutz in Israel and I started seeing animals in their natural setting. I had never really seen a baby cow before. They also had baby chicks there. And several experiences on the kibbutz opened me up to connecting with animals in a way that I didn’t want to eat them anymore. So that was my journey. Then I learned more about the dairy and ag industries and the environmental impacts and then the health benefits of a plant based diet. It’s been a journey since then.”

Dr. Dave: “So on the kibbutz did you actually see the animals suffering or you just saw animals walking around and you didn’t want to see any harm done to them? What was the extent of that?”

Mark: “Have you eaten your lunch yet?”

Dr. Dave: “Well, I have not eaten my lunch yet.”

Mark: “One of the tasks was that we had to bring the chickens from where they were and put them in crates. It was a very horrendous experience. I had been eating chicken 5-7 days a week. I won’t go into the gory details but the chickens did not go willingly into the crate. So it was a pretty hardcore experience. I worked hard in the process of eliminating that from my life.”

Dr. Dave: “You get it. I get it. But I just don’t understand how anybody would want to take part in or be responsible for the killing and suffering of these animals. Same with me Mark. As soon as I learned what was going on out there through reading, and podcasts, and videos my wife and I just one day said that’s it we’re not going to be involved in this anymore. I’m not going to do a meatless Monday and ease into it. We just said we’re out of this. We are never consuming another animal product again as long as we live.”

Mark: “Wow that amazing! Yeah, for me it’s a complex issue. There’s a lot of layers to peel through to get to that decision. Family traditions and senses of comfort and home and security. So parts of our being may be aware of it and the impact of the cruelty but other parts override it. So I think you were the low hanging fruit at that time. And you were able to make the change right away. So I congratulate you on that!”

Dr. Dave: “Yeah I mean it is complex. Most of my friends are not vegan. And same thing with a lot of my family members. So it is very difficult during holidays or when you get together for social events but I don’t make any exceptions. If I go to someone’s house and they’re serving something that’s not vegan, I may bring something of my own or eat ahead of time. I make no exceptions. That’s how strongly I feel about it. Tell me about becoming a chef. When did you decide to do that? Were you already a chef when you were in Israel at the kibbutz? Did you do that afterwards?”

Mark: “I was on the kibbutz in between graduating college and going to law school. I went to law school for a semester at NYU and it was during the trip that year I traveled through Europe. I was in Berlin when the wall opened, on the kibbutz in Israel, did a trek to Mt. Everest, was in the Indian Himalayas. It was on that trip that I became vegetarian then vegan. After a semester at law school, I realized that wasn’t my path. So I moved out west with whatever fit in my car basically. I started working in a health food store out there and that’s how my culinary career got started.”

Dr. Dave: “From a health food store? Let’s take a step back and talk for a minute or two about that because I have been doing this podcast, The David Madow Lifestyle Show, for about 3 years now and I talk about healthy eating and moving your body. I talk about all the good stuff. But, what you just said struck a chord because one of the things I talk to my listeners about all the time is happiness. And doing what we want to do in our lives. And you went to law school for a semester and somehow during that semester you realized that was not for you. You couldn’t see yourself being a lawyer or doing that for the rest of your life. And you decided to take a step back and work in a health food store.”

Mark: “Yeah I didn’t know at the time what the plan B was, I just knew that year of traveling I spent really cultivating this sense of joy and freedom. I was feeling alive and the wonder of it all. So after a semester of law school I had a glimpse of what that path would have been and at that point I wasn’t happy. It’s cliche to say follow your dreams but it’s actually, I think, when you do tune into that and it’s guidance it takes you in the direction that you need to go. So I didn’t know what my plan B was but I just knew that when I got to California that I always loved cooking. So I just started out and after a few years I branched off and formed a consulting service. And then wound up opening a restaurant in Kuwai. And then my career as a cookbook author occurred then as well. So when I left law school I had no idea what the next phase was going to be at all.”

Dr. Dave: “So can you ever now look back and wonder what would have happened if you would have just stayed with the program? I don’t know maybe there was some family pressure. What do you think would have happened in your life and you had stayed with the program and became a lawyer? Wearing a suit everyday and going into courtrooms. What would your life be like?”

Mark: “I think that’s a great question. Challenging to project. I think there probably would have been that voice in my head that was saying you know this isn’t for you. There’s something else. So making that decision of just following my dreams in that way has been very fulfilling to know that I listened to that part of myself.”

Dr. Dave: “So I am going to take just a 15-20 seconds out and I am speaking right to my listeners. Listen if you’ve heard this before. You’ve heard me talk about it. You’re hearing Mark Reinfeld talk about it. You’ve got to follow your dreams. You’ve got to listen to the inner voice or listen to your heart if it’s telling you something. I used to practice dentistry for 13 years and the inner voice in my head told me that it’s a great profession and I had a great practice but that I was not going to be doing this at 55, 60, or 70 years old. I had another direction that I was going in. I listened to that voice just like your story. I love it! So congratulations!”

Mark: “Yeah for me at that time there was really no path to follow so I was like in the bush with my machete kind of forging a path. [both laughing] It’s been an amazing journey and one of the most deeply satisfying things. That decision and that intention to listen that part of myself.”

Dr. Dave: “Well if I can say this from just observing you, and we just met at Vegetarian SummerFest for the first time, you seem incredibly happy. There’s not a question in my mind. You just seem like you got it going on. You seem like a nice modest guy and that you have figured out how to live your absolute best life ever. So I applaud you. I really think you’re doing great work.”

Mark: “Aww thanks man!”

Dr. Dave: “Yeah you’re welcome! You’ve got this book that just came out, Healing the Vegan Way. Talk to me about that a little bit. What made you write that? What’s it about?”

Mark: “It really explores the healing qualities of plant based foods. I always like to say that plants have the capacity to heal and transform our lives. I’ve always been interested in the healing quality of foods and there’s over 200 recipes and I have really strong expert testimonials from the leading plant based medical doctors and dieticians many of whom you probably heard at Vegetarian SummerFest, Dr. Greger, Dr. Klaper, Brenda Davis. They gave really concise expert testimony and I included 200 recipes that show you how to work with the plants. There’s a nutrient chart showing what plants provide what nutrients and the parts of the body they are good for. So it’s pretty comprehensive. I feel really happy with how it turned out. And it goes over some of the major conditions people can prevent and reverse with a plant based diet such as heart disease, diabetes, certain forms of cancer, high cholesterol. You know the list.”

Dr. Dave: “Oh sure sure! I’ve got a lot of listeners, a lot of people that listen to this show in particular and a lot of them are plant based vegan already. But a lot of them aren’t Mark. Speak to the people that are kind of listening with a lot of curiosity. They are not sure. There’s a lot of social and family pressures out there. There’s a lot of reasons out there why people just don’t want to do this. Speak to those people for a few minutes. Why should they really consider leaving the standard american diet (SAD) and entering the world of this beautiful wonderful multi-colored plant based world?”

Mark: “Yeah technicolor living. [Dave laughs] I like to describe as there’s 3 different doors you can go through when you are interested in becoming plant based. One of the health and medical door, the one of the environmental or political door, and one is the ethical and rights doors. Usually it’s one of those main reasons that inspires people to eat more plants. All the doors lead to the same room and once you get into the room you can learn about the other reasons. So whatever your sensitivity is, so if you’re health isn’t what you like it to be there’s just an incredible amount of evidence showing that plant based foods are the way to create optimal health. I am a proponent of every little bit counts So if you have a meal a week or a day a week of plant based, you are going to start to see the benefits. If you tend to be environmentally inclined, if you do the research, you’ll see that a plant based diet is really the most sustainable way that we can feed ourselves and ensure a livable future for humanity. Those are the two main reasons. And then if you just start looking at animals differently. Like look at your cat or your dog and if you feel a connection to them you could allow that to extend to other animals as well.”

Dr. Dave: “Yeah when we visit these farm sanctuaries we see that all animals are just full of love. They are smart and they just want to live their lives like we want to live our lives. Mark, I know when I was at SummerFest there was sort of a buzz phrase going around a lot that I heard and I wanted to ask you a little bit about this. The phrase is food activism. People were talking about that. Describe what food activism is and if you want to go into a little bit of detail with it feel free to.”

Mark: “Sure, thanks! I love framing things in that way of referring to this as food activism. Some people would join the Peace Corps or Habitat for Humanity as a way to affect positive social change. For me, empowering people to prepare plant based cuisine that tastes amazing is another form of activism. All the information is out there as to why eating more plants is good for us. The key factor is having that taste good. Because if it doesn’t taste good, the information isn’t going to go very far. So that’s why I love teaching people and empowering them how to prepare plant based food that tastes incredible. You’ve probably heard the saying, if you give a person a piece of tofu you could feed them for a day but if you show them how to bake the tofu you can feed them for a lifetime. Or some variation of that expression. It really is empowering to see people take their health back into their own hands and the benefits to the environment and creating a peaceful world. So that’s why I like to use the phrase food activism.”

Dr. Dave: “And you know some of the things you can do with food. People think that eating plant based or eating vegan is very boring or dull and that there are a lot of things you can’t eat. But I’ve gotta tell you something and I haven’t told many people this because I am not a dessert person but your desserts that you prepared at Vegetarian SummerFest, they were addicting. My wife kept going back for more and more and of course I would eat off of her plate sometimes [Mark laughing] There was some chocolate cake that was plant based. I don’t know whether the desserts are the healthiest things in the world but I know there’s no animal products and they’re absolutely better than eating the typical pies and desserts that people eat after a meal. I love them! I had to kind of put the brakes on a little because I know you just can’t eat too much of that stuff. But some of the foods and even your main meals are so tasty. People look at me and say Dave, I know you can’t eat _______. It’s not that I can’t eat _______, it’s that I choose not to eat ________. I don’t want to eat bacon. I don’t want that stuff. It’s not that I can’t eat it.”

Mark: “Yeah that’s the big myth. It’s not that we can’t eat it, we choose not to. For me, just because you make the decision doesn’t mean you need to give up flavorful enjoyable meals. That’s why I do feel that it’s crucial to be able to say that we are not depriving ourselves of anything. We can create any flavor we want to. And now with the world of plant based cheeses and desserts that are on the cutting edge of the revolution. There are amazing flavors and a lot of people don’t know that they are plant based. I particularly enjoy that.”

Dr. Dave: “We certainly are not depriving ourselves of anything. I am not walking around hungry, trust me. The food we eat is absolutely delicious. And I can say that and you can say that Mark. I like to say to people that I have been on both sides. I was an omnivore for most of my life. I’ve done it both ways. So if anyone out there is listening and you haven’t tried this yet, you can’t really speak to it fairly unless you give it a try. There is no turning back for me. I feel better than I have ever felt in my life. And not only that I’m proud that I am saving some animals.”

Mark: “Yeah it’s fulfilling on so many levels. Once you try it your body tells you to keep going.”

Dr. Dave: “Yeah it certainly is. There’s no way to turn back. There’s really none. I know a lot of people might be listening to this and saying you know this sounds good and you’re a chef but I am not really sure what to cook at home. What am I going to do? So do you have any quick tips or simple you can give my listeners so that they can prepare some easy tasty meals at home?”

Mark: “Sure yeah. I work with people that have no experience in the kitchen all the way up to people who are certified cordon bleu chefs. I’ve worked with people of all skill levels. And it’s really a lot easier than people think. You just have to keep persisting and not being hard on yourself. There’s a psychological component of just being gentle with yourself as you experiment and know that you do have the capacity to create food that tastes really good. So the psychology I think is really important. The two things I encourage people to do when they want to get started is 1) be more creative with your salads. Find new veggies to put in your salad. And also try green smoothies where you’re mixing up different fruits and different greens. That’s a way to just get your palette used to these flavors. And then things like making spice blends. I encourage people to make a moroccan blend, an ethiopian blend, mexican, italian, indian, etc. And then you keep these spice blends on hand. Even sprinkling a spice blend on some rice or quinoa you’re going to take it to the next level. The books that I put out, The 30 Minute Vegan series are geared towards people that are just starting to work with vegan foods. The meals are done in 30 minutes or less for most of them.”

Dr. Dave: “Unbelievable! You asked me earlier in the show if I ate yet and no I didn’t eat yet. You are making me very very hungry. [Mark laughs] I just love this stuff. I can’t talk about it enough. Mark, you’ve got several books out there. If anybody wants to learn more about you or about your books, what’s the best way they can do that?”

Mark: “Through our website at www.veganfusion.com. You can sign up for our newsletter. We send out free recipes and news about events, and when I travel, and training. I also have vegan fusion certified trainers. I know you met Kelly and Madelyn. They call themselves the fusionettes. They have an event coming up in Maryland in September and so there’s constantly new events being put on the calendar.”

Dr. Dave: “That’s great. I want you, my listeners, to make sure you go to www.veganfusion.com to find out about what Mark is up to and find out more about his books. And I really invite you to come next year to Vegetarian SummerFest because I am sure Mark will be there and I will be there too. It’s basically a 5-day fun filled time where you see some of the best speakers, the best experts on the planet talking about being plant based. They’ve got vendors there. It’s like a summer camp almost. It’s amazing! And not only that you will get to experience and taste some of the most delicious vegan food on the planet. I guarantee that. Mark what’s next for you?What do you have coming up over the next few months or a year? What’s going on in your future?”

Mark: “Well I am doing more of these trainings. I have some training scheduled here in Denver. I am doing a new workshop based on the book Healing the Vegan Way. That will be offered in Portland. And we have an online culinary class for people who can’t make it to an event. It’s a 10 part program where you can learn the basics, download the training manual, and there’s videos up there. It’s all available on the website.”

Dr. Dave: “Well congratulations for everything you have done. You’ve accomplished quite an amount of stuff and you’ve got some great stuff coming in the future. Mark, I can’t wait to see you back at Vegetarian SummerFest, if not before.”

Mark: “Yeah let’s definitely meet up before. It was great meeting you. And I loved giving you that brief glimpse into the kitchen.”

Dr. Dave: “Oh yeah you remember that. That made my day. It was just incredible. [Mark chuckling] I asked Mark, I said how do you prepare food for all these people? And Mark was kind enough to say hey come on into the kitchen, let me show you what’s going on. It was amazing so thanks for taking time out of your busy life to spend time on The David Madow Lifestyle Show. I invite you back anytime.”

Mark: “I’ll take you up on that.”

Dr. Dave: “Believe me I would love to have you back. And I am not just saying that. We will absolutely have you back in the very near future. Thanks so much. I appreciate it!”

Mark: “Thank you David! And I wish you the best of luck in everything that you do.”

Dr. Dave: “To my listeners, see you next week on Monday. Until then, have a fantastic week!”

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Highlights from today’s show…

1. She’s back! Yoko is live on today’s show.
2. Dave & Yoko talk about what is was like to summit two 14ers!!
3. Dave gives you some homework that will change your life! Can you do it?

It’s Dr. Dave here and welcome back to another episode of The David Madow Lifestyle Show. This is the show where I help you live stronger, thinner, healthier, and happier. I am in my outdoor studio today as usual but today my outdoor studio is in Breckenridge, Colorado.

If you are a long time follower, listener or friend, you know how much I love Breckenridge. Not only how much I love it here in Colorado but my guest today loves it as well. It’s been a long time since I have had this person on my show. She used to be kind of a co-host but I don’t know, it sort of faded away a little bit. It’s my wife, Yoko. We’ve had a lot of requests for Yoko to come back on the show. So I am glad she is on the show right now and there’s a reason she’s here. I am not bring her on just to have her. There’s a reason. And the reason is because today outside of Breckenridge, we summited 2 “14ers”. If you are not sure what a 14er is a mountain that has an altitude or a summit that is over fourteen thousand feet. Colorado has a lot of them. I think at least 30-40. I am not sure of the exact number.Today we did two of them, Mt. Cameron and Mt. Lincoln.

Be sure to follow my LIVE daily broadcasts on Periscope at www.periscope.tv/davidmadow.

There is a technicality here, I will tell ya. Technically, mountaineers do not consider Mt. Cameron a 14er. It has to do with the amount of distance between the saddle of the two mountains and the altitude of the summit but we’re not going to get into that. Let me tell you, when you summit both Mt. Cameron and Mt. Lincoln in one day, we consider that you did two 14ers.

So I want to bring her on. First of all I want to congratulate you. It’s an incredibly invigorating day when you wake up at 3am to get out of bed, have breakfast, and pack up your stuff. To get to the trailhead by about 6am because storms in Colorado in the summer roll in and you want to be off the peaks before any kind of electrical storms come in or you could be in big trouble. So when you are climbing mountains in Colorado in the summer, you have to be very careful. You have to watch the weather and the time of the day.

Dr. Dave: “Yoko, I want to congratulate you for helping me. We did two of them today. It’s evening now. We got back, took a little nap, and got something to eat. We are in our outdoor studio right now. So how do you feel?”

Yoko: “I feel wonderful. Very very good. I mean, the first time we did 14ers was Quandary Mountain 3 or 4 years ago. It was a little difficult for me because of the altitude. My body had never ever been at 14,000 feet so towards the end I was out of breath. Just maybe ten steps and then I have to rest, and then ten steps, and I have to rest. But this time I wasn’t like that. I kind of kept going. It feels good.”

Dr. Dave: “You were like a machine. It’s hard to explain what you feel if you’ve never hiked a 14er. By the way, here is something I recommend on my show. Pick an extreme activity whether it’s a marathon, a half marathon, or maybe your first 5K. Pick something with a goal in mind. Train for it and do it. It does not have to be a 14er. Just something that you’ve got on the calendar that you know you’re gonna do. What it does is force you to train for this.

Now, as Yoko said, several years ago we did our very first 14er and it was very very difficult. Number 1, it’s difficult to hike up a steep mountain. But when you are hiking up a mountain at 14,000 feet, there’s not a lot of air up there. Sometimes if you’re not acclimated you are just gasping for air. Your heart and your muscles need oxygen so it’s difficult. It was very challenging. Yoko, as you said a few years ago when we did Quandary, it was difficult and we had to stop every ten steps maybe and take a breath. Today, now that you feel you’re more trained and acclimated to the area, it’s just a totally different feeling?”

Yoko: “Yeah, totally different feeling because last year we did Mt. Democrat and them Mt. Cameron. So we couldn’t do Mt. Lincoln. So this year I really wanted to summit Mt. Lincoln which we have to pass Mt. Cameron on. We have been here a little over one week but since Dave had to work I just tried to walk, hike, and tried to go up the mountain. I trained for it. I prepared. Once it’s in my mind, I’m going to do it. Like Dave said, I know I want to do it. So then I want to do it comfortably. So that means if today I feel lazy, but I can’t be because I have a goal ahead. I know I should do something. That was my motivation for a while.”

Dr. Dave: “And we did it! We had a goal, we had it on the calendar, we knew we were going to do this, and guess what? We summited two mountains today! So again, you might be sitting on the sofa right now or you might be in your car driving right now and you’re thinking; you know, I need to get out there and do something kind of cool and should really challenge myself so what should some of the things be? I know a lot of people that do these multi-day bike rides. Most of them are for charity. A lot of people sign up for marathons or half-marathons. And of course triathlons, but that’s pretty extreme. You don’t have to do something that extreme. But the most important thing is to just come up with something as a goal, get it on the calendar, and train for it.”

Yoko: “And also I was just thinking. Why am I doing this? Why? Because I love it! I just want to do what I love. Of course, sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to but life is only one time. For me, I don’t want to regret anything in my life. So that’s my motivation too! In my head, I’m thinking oh I want to do this. I do it.”

Dr. Dave: “Yeah, so that’s a really good point. If you do something and you’re not loving it, you’re not going to continue it. One of the things we love is hiking and climbing mountains. And I just want to describe a little bit about what the day was like. My alarm went off around 3am. So I got up and made some breakfast. Hung around and packed up our stuff. By 5am, we are out the door in the car driving to the trailhead of the mountain which took about 50 minutes. We got to the trailhead and it was just getting light. We started to hike up the mountain. It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to reach the saddle, which is a concave area in between two mountains. When you reach the saddle, there’s some pretty serious hiking and then you have one final big climb up to the summit. So it started to rain a little and the rocks were getting a tiny bit wet and we saw the clouds rolling in. But we wanted to do this so we summited Mt. Cameron. It got to the point where I just decided I was going to get there. I put one foot in front of the other even if I am tired or if it’s hard to breathe. There were time when I took maybe five to ten steps and then I stopped and just rested for a few seconds. And then took five or ten more steps because you just have to keep doing it. Keep plugging away. We got to the top of Mt. Cameron and then Mt. Lincoln. We hung out there for a few minutes. We ate some. We didn’t really spend a lot of time eating lunch. Yoko was freezing! So we did a Periscope broadcast from the top of Mt. Cameron.

As we started coming down, the rain started rolling in. And we’re hiking down a 14er. Picture this. It’s very very rocky and there’s a lot of scree (a mass of small loose stones). As it’s raining, and the rain is coming down harder and harder, it’s getting more dangerous and more slippery. We have hiking poles but you have to watch every step. One slip on a rock could mean a very serious injury. You have to be very careful. Our last 15 minutes down the mountain, it’s raining really hard. I didn’t have true rain gear on. We both had rain jackets but by the time we got down to the car we were pretty darn wet. Not only that but you have to be very careful because of hypothermia. If we were in the middle of nowhere and we weren’t prepared, hypothermia can set in and we could get really chilled. It could be a very dangerous situation.

All in all it turned out to be an incredible day. At the end of the day I looked at Yoko and said, Yoko I had a great day today. It was just so much fun. And she looked at me and said the same thing. It was a blast. I encourage you to get out there. Do something cool!

We happen to love Colorado. One of the reasons we love it is because we walk almost everywhere. I wear a Fitbit and on an average day I take at least 15,000 steps. We walk to the grocery store if we want to get something to eat. We walk everywhere. We walk on trails. It’s just a really really healthy lifestyle here. And Yoko loves it too. It doesn’t have to be Colorado. It doesn’t have to be a particular area. Wherever you are you can do something. You can move your body.

You can also eat well. Yoko and I both eat a vegan diet. We’re totally plant based. We don’t eat any meat, any fish, anything that comes from an animal. I think that’s really helped out lifestyle over the past several years and we just feel great. The first time we summited Mt.Quandary I don’t think we were vegan at that point. I don’t remember but I don’t think we were vegan at that point and I noticed a difference. We’re getting older. We’re all getting older. But as the years go on, I am finding it easier to summit these 14,000 foot mountains and I think that a lot of it has to do with being plant based and not having these toxins in my body. Maybe it’s just my imagination, I feel so much better. But I don’t think it’s my imagination because whenever I go in for a physical I get great reports. And a lot of it has to do with being vegan.

So Yoko as we are walking here and looking around we see the mountains in the background. Why is it that you love Colorado so much?”

Yoko: “Why?”

Dr. Dave: “Why do you love Colorado? What is it about Colorado that you love so much that it’s like a lifechanger?”

Yoko: “Hmmmmm. I don’t know. I love everything.”

[both laughing]

“Well first of all summer is not humid. It is so comfortable. Of course sometimes it get a little hot. But since it’s dry, it’s good for exercise. I feel that with this weather I have to move my body. Sometimes I am very weak with humidity and hot temperature. So once it gets hot in Maryland I feel like I can’t move my body. But here I want to move my body. And also of course in winter I just love skiing. I love skiing on the mountains. I just want to be there. Also this sounds a little weird but I feel a connection here. It could be my previous life. I don’t know. Deep deep inside my body and my heart something is telling me this is my place. That’s what I feel here. I love it here!”

Dr. Dave: “So I am going to give you some homework. AS Yoko said she feels a real connection here. I do too! We love the mountains. I am looking up at them now. It’s evening and we’ve had clouds coming in. Your homework is to close your eyes. And you can do this right now. You can do this while you are listening to Yoko and I. Imagine yourself being somewhere. It doesn’t have to be on a mountain. Maybe you love the water. Maybe you love the ocean or maybe you love to be on a river or on a lake. Maybe you love the desert. Wherever it is. Just close your eyes and think about where you want to be.

Because let me tell you something. Life goes quickly. It goes really quickly. I cannot remember the number of times I have had people come up to me and say Dave you are so lucky. You get to do all these cool things. You get to go to Colorado. You get to do this, you get to do that. And I respond the same way every time. No, I’m not lucky. I plan my life out. There are things that I want to do that are very important to me and there are things that are important to Yoko and we plan our lives. We make it a point to put things on the calendar. We do things. Maybe you don’t have enough money to go to the mountains right now. Maybe you don’t have enough money to go to the ocean right now. But if you put it on the calendar and you make it a point to save up some money maybe it’s next year. But let me tell you something, life goes too fast and you have got to act on it. Too many people I know sit back and say I wish I would have done _______ or I never got to do ________. And then one day you are going to be too old. You are going to look back and say you know something Dr. Dave was right. I should have done that. I should have tried it. So I am urging you to please do it.

Mountains are our thing. We love coming here. As Yoko said we love skiing and winter sports here. We love hiking in the summer and stand up paddle boarding. Believe it or not they have a large lake around here where you can do it. At Lake Dillon you can do kayaking, canoeing, stand up paddle boarding, and boating. It’s incredible! So we love it here. But again maybe you love something even more. So just imagine what that is. I urge you to do it. And please put something on the calendar. Whether it’s a trip like this or it’s hiking. Maybe you want to hike a 14er? Maybe you want to try that. With some training, you’ll be able to do it. Trust me it will be something you will never ever forget in your life. Yoko what do you think?”

Yoko: “I just want to say whatever you love and whatever you do, just don’t regret you life. Never ever. So just think about what your life is. 10 years later, if I don’t do this right now am I going to regret it? That’s my thinking always. So of course if I want to do something, it costs money. But if I have a goal in my mind, I will always save money like not going out with friends, not buying clothes. My thinking is please don’t regret anything in your life and be happy. I feel very lucky and I think Dave too. We are fortunate. If we think we are lucky and we appreciate our lives, more good things will come to you. It’s good to feel like you are lucky and appreciate everything I have right now.”

Dr. Dave: “So again your homework is two things. Get something on the calendar, not an extreme event, but something that’s going to cause you to train for something. Whether it’s your first 5K run or whether it’s a marathon or whether it’s hiking a 14er, anything like that. The second thing I want you to do is to close your eyes and imagine yourself somewhere, whether it’s in the mountains, whether it’s at the ocean, whether it’s something you’ve dreamed of being, or whether it’s just something you feel very connected to. I want you to go there. Maybe it won’t be for 2 years. Maybe you’ve got to cut down on some things. Like Yoko said she cuts down on buying clothes and things like that because we live a pretty minimalistic lifestyle so that we can travel all over the place and do some of the things that we do. So we don’t buy a lot of clothes. We don’t have a lot of things in our lives. We don’t need things. We don’t need clutter. This is what life is all about. So I am going to leave you with that. Thank you so much for listening. It’s Dr. Dave.”

Yoko: “And Yoko!”

Dr. Dave: “And I will see you next time. If you want to hear Yoko more on the show, send me an email to my new email address at dave@davidmadow.com or message me on Facebook and let me know. She’s with me a lot and we can certainly do more shows together if you want. Until next time, see you later!”

Yoko: “Bye bye”

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Highlights from today’s show…

1. Dr. Dave has two special guests on today’s show! Have you ever heard of a “happiness freak”?
2. Laura and Mark share how to be happy. 
3. Dr. Dave, Laura, and Mark discuss forgiveness and how it can be affecting your happiness. 

Hey! Welcome back to The David Madow Lifestyle Show. This is the show where I help you live stronger, thinner, healthier, happier, and a lot more. As a matter of fact I want to share this with you. We’ve been doing this for about 3 years now. We talk about everything from eating, exercise, happiness, forgiveness, meditation, and yoga. We talk about so many things. But it seems to me that whenever I do a show that has the word happiness in the title, for some reason the number of listens and the number of downloads goes crazy. It goes to show you that we as human beings want to be happy. So I’m thinking, is happiness the most important thing in our lives? I have been talking about this for quite some time and I believe that it is. No matter what we eat or how many yoga poses we do, it seems to me that we just want to be happy.

Be sure to follow my LIVE daily broadcasts on Periscope at www.periscope.tv/davidmadow.

I did some research and I found the two greatest happiness experts on the planet. They are guests on my show today. Their names are Laura and Mark Tong. And they are actually “happiness freaks”. That’s what they call themselves! In fact, their website is postivelyhappy.me .

Dr. Dave: “Welcome Laura and Mark! How are you doing?”

Laura: “Thank you so much David. We are doing fine. And thank you for having us here.”

Mark: “Absolutely fabulous tonight!”

Laura: “You’ve really racked up the pressure now haven’t you calling us experts? C’mon!”

Dr. Dave: “Well, then you’ve got to live up to that. (chuckling). Share with my listeners just a little bit about you. Including that you don’t sound like you’re in America. It seems to me that you are across some big body of water. So tell us where you are and what you do.”

Laura: “Yes, it’s a giveaway isn’t it? We are in England just a little north of London. In this beautiful green pocket of woods, trees, and wildlife which makes us very very happy. As you said our site is postivelyhappy.me because that’s what we are all about. We are about all positivity and happiness.”

Dr. Dave: Mark, did you have anything to add or was that a good enough intro for the purpose of this show?”

Mark: “That was definitely a good intro. I think so, yes!”

Dr. Dave: “I think she actually did a fantastic intro. So let’s talk about happiness. You heard my intro and it really is true that whenever I do a show that has the word happiness in the title I get a ton of listens and a ton of downloads. Which leads me to believe that people are more interested in how to be happier than their weight or the way they look or the way they feel. So, do you think that most people are happy? And how can we even tell if we’re happy? Is there some sort of measurement? How do I know if I am happy right now? I’m smiling…”

Mark: “I think there’s a bit of confusion. The thing about the word happiness is that everyone has a different interpretation about what happiness means. For us happiness, I suppose in some ways, almost always translates into contentment. Unlike day to day happiness which always goes up and down. The ancient Greeks saw happiness as a completely different thing. They saw happiness as the sum of your life. In fact, a lot of great philosophers have said that you couldn’t tell if you had been happy in life until the day that you died. That was their view. So really I think it’s a much bigger thing than I think that people look at it now. People think am I happy? Am I smiling? Am I happy in the present moment? That’s not really what we’re about at all. Happiness is a much larger deeper thing than you just had a nice beer and you’re feeling quite relaxed. That’s not where we’re at.”

Dr. Dave: “Laura do you have anything to add to that or did Mark pretty much sum that up?”

Laura: “Well I’ve gotta say he did sum that up but I do have something to add actually. The thing about happiness is that people do confuse it with contentment very much. And I think there’s also a huge pressure on happiness. I think people worry about the fact that they’re not happy and I think they get confused about what happiness actually is. Whereas what I would say is that Mark and I, we’ve set our lives up to be happy. So if we look at something and it isn’t going to make us happy, we don’t do it. For a lot of people, and this is in no way judgemental, but a lot of people will say that the important thing is money and having a proper house and a proper car. We’ve tried that and it didn’t make us happy. We gave it all up. So people might look at us now and think that we’re not doing so well with cars and houses. But to us, it’s very much a conscious thing. It doesn’t make us happy. We’ve tried all that. We didn’t enjoy it in any way. We live a very simple life and we are extraordinarily happy. It’s a choice. That’s what happiness is. It’s choices. You need to decide what makes you happy. Or you need to go and explore and have fun and decide what makes you happy. And then when you find it you need to go with it to be happy.”

Mark: “I think one of the really big problems is that you’re taught from school age on and it’s thrust down your throat what is going to make you happy. Then by the time you are an adult, you have very little idea for yourself what is going to make you happy. So you go and do what is supposed to make you happy and for some people it works. But for other people it doesn’t work. Which kinda comes back to your question David, are people happy? I think people could be happy or a lot happier if they stopped trying to fit themselves into this sort of one happiness fits all model. I don’t think one happiness fits all. Happiness is different for everybody.”

Laura: “Let me ask you a question David, if I may. As you said, how would you know if you’re happy right now? Do you think you’re happy right now?”

Dr. Dave: “Laura that’s a great question. And I am totally going to answer it but before I answer the question I want to share something with you. A few years ago I ran into an old friend of mine that made some life changes. He moved to another city and I think his job was a little bit different. And I said to him John, you’ve made all these changes but are you happy now? And he looked at me in the eye and I’ll never forget these words, he said to me I think I’m happy. Just like that. That to me said he’s not happy. So I’ll answer your question Laura, yes! If you had to ask me right now on a scale from 1-10 how happy I am, I’m going to emphatically give you a 10. I am really really happy! And I’ll tell you why. I’ve got a lot to compare it to. I’ve been through some fairly tough times in my life. I was in a marriage for 23 years that did not end very well. I was lonely and depressed after I got divorced. I couldn’t find myself. I was trying to fit into a mold that I thought society wanted me to fit into. At one point I said this is ridiculous. I’m gonna live the life that I want to live. I don’t care what people think I should be doing. I want to be the real me. I want to be the true David Madow. In the past I think I was trying to be somebody that I was not. But ever since I realized that, I am going to be me. If people like it they like it if they don’t like it they don’t like it. As soon as I figured out that I am going to be me and I don’t care, guess what? This whole new feeling came over me. I’m with a wonderful woman now and we’ve been together for the last 12 years. When I am with her, I feel that I am happy every day. Even when I travel a lot and we are not together. I feel at peace doing what I want to in life. People think I am crazy and totally immature but it’s the real me. So yes to answer your question in a very long winded way, I am really really happy.”

Laura: “That’s fantastic!”

Mark: “I think David you absolutely nailed it. That’s what I was trying to say about happiness. Happiness isn’t how you feel at this present moment depending on circumstances. That’s not happiness. I’ll give you an example. At 4:00 this morning I woke up with really bad pains in my leg which I get sometimes. And I couldn’t go back to sleep. I was hobbling around and it lasted most of the day. But that didn’t stop me from being happy. Because on the base level just like you, I am really happy. You have these circumstances on top of that base level happiness. You asked how you can tell when you’re really happy? That’s when you can tell that you’re really happy. Because when you have these things happen, you’re still happy. It hurts or occasionally things go wrong but at the base level it doesn’t disrupt your happiness. That’s when you really know you’re happy. When small things that happen on a daily basis don’t knock you off. If it keeps knocking you off you’re happiness pedestal, then you’re not really happy. You haven’t really got it nailed.”

Dr. Dave: That’s really well said and I will add to that Mark. I mean look, I am a human being. Do I ever wake up in the morning not feeling fantastic or do things in my business not go well or do I ever get sad? Absolutely! Of course, I am a human being with emotions. But whenever that happens to me I take a step back and take a look at my life. I say to myself that this will pass. I am loving my life and I am doing great and I know that this is just a temporary condition. I want to just take a step back though. I believe it was Mark that talked about living a life with fancy cars and material possessions. Speak a little bit to that. I talk about this all the time. I am right now at the point where my wife and I are trying our best to downsize our lives. We found that things do not make us happy! We don’t need a lot of things. I don’t need a large house. I don’t need fancy cars. I wear no jewelry except for a Fitbit and a few beaded bracelets that give me energy. And same thing with my wife. We just don’t need these expensive things to make us happy. We are inherently happy. Tell me about you guys. What happened with the cars and possessions and things like that?”

Mark: “Well I’ve gotta say first that happiness is a choice and it also is individual. If nice things make you happy, go for it! You know? My family is half French and they believe in l’art de vivre and joie de vivre and fancy things. And they like fancy food and nice restaurants and all this kind of stuff. So if that’s your bag that’s absolutely fine. It just happens to be for us it isn’t. We tried all of that with three houses and four cars. We tried the materialistic life style. But for us it didn’t work. We are basically minimalists through and through. And I think Laura would back me up on that.”

Laura: “Absolutely! But I think it goes back to what you said David and that is that you have to be you. What we had to do was that we had to find who the real us was. So we got to a point in life fairly early on were we thought we could do better in life. We went down the normal route. We went down the fancy career path and had money. So we spent more money and bought more things. As Mark said we had houses in three different countries. We had four different cars. And life was an absolute nightmare. We had so much stuff we couldn’t keep up. We were so busy keeping up with stuff that we stopped keeping up with friends. And life got really small. And then one day we just looked at other and said this is really dreadful. We sold everything. And everything we couldn’t sell, we put in the car park outside of our house and we burnt it because we wanted it gone. We now live with the bits that we have left and we have never been so happy.”

Dr. Dave: “I love that story. I would like to even know more about that at some point. That is a great story, seriously! Ok so let’s shift gears a little bit now to forgiveness and letting go. I know it’s connected to happiness and it’s another big topic with my listeners. I am one that has found out over many years that holding a grudge or holding bad feelings or hatred or anything like that. I have people in my life who have done bad things to me but when you hold it in it’s only hurting you. I’ve learned to let go and forgive. I’ve been teaching this to my listeners for quite some time now. Occasionally, I do get somebody that says that this person wronged me in such a bad way that I will hate them for the rest of my life. What do you think about that?”

Mark: “Well, first of all let’s be realistic about this. It’s really hard to forgive someone if you think that they intended to do some harm. It’s great talking about these things but in real life situations it’s really hard. If someone is struggling to forgive somebody you have to give them a lot of credit. It’s just not as easy as it sounds. Having said that, if you want to be happy, you’ve got to forgive people. Look at it this way, take the example of the chap you are talking about. The reason you don’t want to forgive them is that you think that they’ve done you a lot of harm. So you’re going I can’t forgive them because they have done me a lot of harm. If I forgive them it’s kinda like they’ve gotten away with it. Right? But if you carry on with this rage and anger inside of you about what they have done, then they are winning aren’t they. All you’re doing is just giving them the power to carry on harming you.”

Dr. Dave: “Exactly!”

Mark: “The minute you say I don’t care about you, I don’t care what you’ve done, I don’t care what you do in the future, then all that power they’ve got to harm you disappears. So you’re winning then. You’re the boss at the point! That’s the way to look at it, I think.”

Laura: “I think the other way that I would say is that the reason we find it so hard to forgive people is that we have a different idea about what forgiveness is. To me, I am very happy to forgive somebody just by letting it go. If I said David you wronged me but I forgive you, people think that it means that I think that what you did was ok. No it doesn’t necessarily. I might not think that what you did wasn’t great, but it doesn’t bother me anymore.You’re you, I’m me and we have different point of views. It really doesn’t matter. I can move on in my life if I let it go. A lot of the time when I say forgiveness, that is what I mean. I don’t hate you for it. But I don’t have to like you for it either. We’re neutral. It doesn’t matter. I think that is the thing that is so important for happiness. If you don’t manage to forgive or let go, you are keeping yourself in that painful space. And you are never going to be happy in a painful space.”

Dr. Dave: “Perfect! I love that. If you could give my listeners some tips so that my friends here can start moving forward. How do you forgive? How do you do it?”

Mark: “If you see someone in public, that really is very hard to cope with. But if you think about it, all the time that you are seething inside you are giving them that power to carry on doing what you are saying is so bad. So if you can just think about that and think no I am not going to let them have all this power over me anymore. The way to do that is to take all the emotion out and say no you are not going to affect me anymore. Then you’re winning. You’ve reversed the situation. That’s the way to go isn’t it?”

Dr. Dave: “Right, so here’s the scenario. You’re in a public place, let’s say a restaurant, and you run into this person or group of people who have harmed you in the past. It’s always difficult to see these people. But now you’re confident and you’re ready to let go. Do you acknowledge them? Do you say hello to them? Or do you look the other way? How do you handle them in public?”

Mark: “Here’s where you’ve got to be honest about these things. I would say what you could do is just smile, shake their hand, and forget it ever happened. You probably won’t get that far down the line. I’ll give you an example. Somebody did do something to me that was perhaps incorrect. It cost me an awful lot of money and it meant that I had to leave the country I was living in and go to another country. In the end I had to take him to court and it was proven that I was correct because they were informed to pay me a lot of money. I didn’t want to do any of this. I tried for months to handle it without going through the court but they wouldn’t respond. In between, that person had been slandering me on the internet trying to ruin my reputation. To which I hadn’t responded to at all because I never respond to anything like that. I then ran into the chap purely by accident about three months later. He tried to talk to me but I simply acted as though he wasn’t there. That’s probably as far as a human being can get for being put on a mountain. Because to me, I don’t wish that guy harm at all. I just needed to get my money back because I had done a lot of work for him and he hadn’t paid me. I’ve got no problems with the guy at all. But when I saw him and tried to talk to him, I might very well have gotten angry. So instead I just ignored him completely. You have to give yourself a huge amount of credit for however they handle the situation because in real life it’s really difficult to do these things. But if you can get to a point where they don’t have any power over your emotions then you can do stuff like that. And really you’re the one that’s happy and they’re not.”

Laura: “Another way to look at it, and we found two other ways to look at it, is that everybody has different roles. There will come a point where we will have different ways of looking at something. And if somebody is acting in a way that is really detrimental to anybody’s life, I actually feel really sorry for them.To me I look at those people and think that I actually feel really sorry for them. I think it’s a bit of a tragedy that is how you get kicks in life. And I think that is says to me that you are not happy. I think at that point I actually feel sorry for them rather than angry.”

Dr. Dave: “A lot of great great information here about happiness, forgiveness, and letting go. Guys, we are just about out of time. So to wrap up is there anything you want to leave my listeners with as far as happiness, forgiveness, and letting go.”

Mark: “Yeah, I’d say don’t look at anybody else and wonder if they’re happy. That’s the biggest mistake a human makes. If you look at anybody and you think they’re happy, you’re wrong. You have no idea. Everybody in life is struggling with something. And some people are much happier than they look and some people are much less happy than they look. You want to find your own way to be happy. And when you find it, you want to just stick with that and not compare it to anything else. And that is really hard to do. That’s the thing. It’s no good looking at anybody else who looks happy because they may not be. Happiness is a unique thing and you want to find your own version of it. And if you want to be truly happy, you have to take that as your basic core decision and then you have to go from there to make all your other decisions. If you want to be happy, you have got to forgive people because if you don’t forgive people you can’t be happy. That’s the baseline.”

Laura: “I think the only thing I would add to that as I said in the very beginning everything we do has to do with happiness. all our choices, all our opinions, where we live, what we do, how we earn our money, everything single thing we do, we do it to be happy. To measure we’ve got one rule. Will it make us happy? If not, we don’t even entertain it. That might be a little extreme. And maybe you will have to work up to it, I don’t know.”

Dr. Dave: “This has been a wonderful show. And I am going to invite both of you to come back any time you like because I think we can speak about happiness. I think maybe we touched the tip of the iceberg today but we’re gonna expand on that in the future. Share with my listeners how they can reach you.”

Mark: “The best thing to do is to come along to positivelyhappy.me, that’s our website. On there we’ve got a lot of resources about happiness. If you come to the site there are a lot of things on there for you to spider out from and see how you can be happy. What really important is that you can come and find your own way through to be happy.”

Dr. Dave: “The website is positivelyhappy.me. We’ve just had Laura and Mark Tong on the show. I want to thank both of you again. It was wonderful. Anytime I can get people on that can help my listeners that’s what this show is all about. Thank you both so much. I appreciate it. Sorry for any technical problems.”

Laura:“Thank you David! That was really fun!”

Mark: “Thank you! That was fabulous!”

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Highlights from today’s show…

1. Dr. Dave is LIVE from Vegetarian Summerfest in Johnstown, PA! 
2. Dr. Dave has a special guest today talking about all things vegan.

Hi! It’s Dr. Dave, “Mr. Vaygan”. It’s episode #146 of The David Madow Lifestyle Show. This is the show where we help you become stronger, thinner, healthier, and happier. I have a great one for you today. I am still hanging out at Vegetarian Summerfest. I have done a couple recordings here, so if you are listening to this I am not actually still here.

Be sure to follow my LIVE daily broadcasts on Periscope at www.periscope.tv/davidmadow.

So I am roaming around the University of Pittsburgh campus in Johnstown, PA. There are a lot of people here. There are a lot of people here and most people are looking happy and having fun. So I came across this young guy who coincidentally has a black shirt on. The front of the shirt says Speaking of Vegan and the back of the shirt says The Vegan Airwaves and then speakingofvegan.com. So I stopped to ask him what is speaking of vegan? He said that it was a podcast that he did. I thought to myself, “Wow! I just met another guy here who’s vegan and who does a podcast but not only that I felt a true connection to this person even though we hadn’t met before. Just they way he answered the question, I liked the guy within the first within the first 5-10 seconds of meeting him. So we started talking and I asked him to be a guest on my podcast. He agreed and I am going to bring on him in just a few minutes. His name is Anuj Shah.

Dr. Dave: “So the first thing I am going to ask him, before we get into anything else. Anuj, tell me, Am I correct? I connected with you right away and I feel like you are a happy guy. Did I hit the nail on the head?”

Anuj: “Hey Dr. Dave first and foremost I want to thank you for having me on your show. This is awesome. It is so much fun to be on your show. And I really want to echo your thoughts. You meet all kinds of people and its like you said. People are great and it’s a lot of fun but there are certain people that you meet that you just form a connection with. There’s an instant chemistry and I feel that with you too. I’m really happy that we met.

And that answers part of your question, am I a happy guy? The first thing I’ll say is a resounding yes. And you know happiness is an interesting word. What I will say is that there is happiness, there’s joy, there’s fulfilment, there’s a lot of different ways to look at this but I will tell you that I feel so incredibly blessed.

The last few years I have really been living in a state of gratitude for even the simplest things. Even the fact that I have eyes that can see and ears that can hear, and I can eat, and function, and run and walk, and jump, and work out. So that’s certainly one level of it. I know that everybody is doing the best that they can. And a lot of times what happens with us in these sort of Western industrial societies is that we’re all in this rat race just trying to survive. It’s hard for people to connect with their deeper selves in all the business of life and I certainly understand that. I think I was able to find a why and a purpose. When you find a deeper purpose or deeper fulfillment within yourself you really connect with a deeper level with yourself. And that really is something that can produce joy and happiness. And I feel so blessed to have done that and so lucky to have done that.

Way back when I was a teenager, back in 1989, I came across some literature that had me start looking at what I was eating and the choices that I was making around food. And overnight one particular day I decided that I would be plant based diet. I didn’t know what the word vegan was at the time. There was no such word. The book that I was reading at the time was Fit for Life II : Living Health. There was a big chapter on animal products. I still remember it was February 28th, 1989 at 2:35am and I am reading this chapter and I finished the animal products chapter and I said oh my gosh, I can’t put this stuff into my body. And I said I am never eating animal products again. I thought to myself, you mean to tell me that the chicken sandwich I had this afternoon with my friends at at XYZ restaurant is the last meat I’ll ever eat? And I thought for about two seconds and I said yeah I guess that’s it. At that time, that wasn’t my “aha” moment as in this was the purpose to my life. But something clicked within me at that time.

A couple of months later, I read a book called Diet for A New America. That book is so beautiful. It basically transformed my life. The book has four parts to it. Basically there are four reasons why people would want to be on a vegan diet. There’s the health aspect of it. That’s something that there is tremendous research in favor of so we don’t need to talk about it. There’s the environmental destruction that happens from animal agriculture and that’s been coming up more and more. There’s a wonderful documentary called Cowspiracy that has come out within the last 12 to 15 months. It’s gone viral on
Netflix and that kind of thing. There’s also a world hunger connection and of course there’s the animal connection. It’s how these animals are treated, how they’re bred, how they’re being caged and mutilated and dismembered and finally slaughtered in these farms and slaughterhouses.

That connected so deeply with me. I had never thought of that before. I think I always chose not to look at that. But I started connecting with a much deeper part of my heart and myself. And I remember crying through different parts of the book. Right then and there something hit me and I thought you know what? This is going to be the purpose. I think we are all better than this. All of us have a deep level of love and compassion within us. For some of us it might be buried deeper than others. We all have different life experiences. But right then and there that summer of 1989 is when I found my why. And ever since that time it has transformed my life.

I am actually a lawyer right now and I find a lot of joy in my practice and I love it. And you’ll never hear a lawyer say that. I am probably one in a thousand. But I really loved law school and I love practicing law. I love the fact that I am vegan and that it has really transformed my life and how I look at the world. It’s just a different paradigm, a different way of living. I’m so blessed with the career that I have, a wonderful family, and I have all my health. What is there not to be happy and joyful about? So it was a little bit of a longer answer that you might have anticipated Dr. Dave but I am just so deeply humbled when I think about how blessed I am. Yes, indeed not only am I happy but I am deeply fulfilled and I’m deeply joyful. And I am thrilled and honored to be able to share that with you.”

Dr. Dave: “I think I was actually correct when I came across this guy Anuj. I hit the nail on the head. He is just the kind of guy that you want to hang out with. And I know you gave a long answer but that’s ok. I said before we started for you to talk as long as you want because I think it would really help my listeners a lot. I have all types of listeners. A lot of them are vegan but a lot of them aren’t. A lot of them are listening to the message and I know what they’re thinking. They’re thinking it works for Dr. Dave, it’s working for Anuj, and Dave tells me all these great stories but I need my yogurt in the morning, I love my cheese, I can’t give that stuff up, it will be tough in social circles. How will I explain to people that I am vegan? I know it works for some people but I just don’t think I can do it. I’m not convinced it’s really the type of thing that I want to do. But I am a plant based vegan and it’s changed my life like it has changed yours. So talk to the person who has been listening to the message and maybe are considering it. What’s going to get them over the edge? Can you help me with that? Again, I don’t push people at all, I lead by example. I’ve told my listeners many times Anuj that I still love them. Whatever they are doing in their lives. I don’t look down on anybody that is still eating meat and using animals. A lot of my friends and family still do. I was doing it myself several years ago. Speak to the person that’s listening to the message but is not really sure what they want to do.”

Anuj: “Dr. Dave you raise a few really great points and I absolutely agree with you. It’s not even an issue or a question of looking down. We are all people. We are all brothers and sisters on this journey of life together. And as you said we all have different timetables, different life experiences, and different backgrounds. Until I was 18, I was actually anti-vegetarian. It’s really funny. In high school when I was doing debates, I would be on the anti-vegetarian team. And somehow something opened up in me when it did. And I came across the literature I explained a few moments ago. Something shifted in me. All I know is that have lived an incredibly blessed and incredibly vital life. I have so much energy. I am so healthy. I am just grateful! You know what? I am in my 40’s now and I appreciate the fact that you referred to me as young.”

Dr. Dave: ” I never would have thought that. I would honestly guess much younger. Seriously! How old are you 41?”

Anuj: “ok, I am 45.”

Dr. Dave: “Wow! I know my listeners can’t see you but I would have guessed about 35. Honestly. I am not kidding.”

Anuj: “I think the only reason you would have guessed that Dr. Dave is that I have a lot of silver in my hair now. I think if I dyed my hair (which I don’t want to do) I would look much younger than that. I feel vibrant. At my age, most American men are on some kind of medication. They are taking blood thinners, cholesterol lowering medication, people are having their hearts stop, or they are having diabetes pop up. And I have nothing. In a quarter of a century, I have never taken a pill for anything. I live an incredibly vibrant life. I exercise regularly, have good relationships, and love my career. And I eat a wonderful plant based diet. All of that combines to create so much health and vigor and vitality that it really is a way to live by example.”

Dr. Dave: “I want to share something with you Anuj. I think I told you how old I was earlier. I am 61 and guess what? I take zero medications. I believe the statistic is that average people in North America over 45 are on at least 3 types of medication or something like that. I am on zero and you are on zero. I think that is kind of like big to me. It’s not a scientific study but it does say something.”

Anuj: “Dr. Dave huge. I mean and 3 sounds really low. When you start to think of all the health issues that people start having in the United States on the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.). When you start hitting 40 and above, people have cholesterol, they have diabetes, they have heart disease, they have different organs that aren’t functioning properly. So I mean 3 sounds kind of low. So I want to echo your sentiments about living by example. We are not judging anyone. I lovingly offer information. I am passionate about my podcast because what I do is I talk to different kinds of people. I have interviewed bodybuilders, scientists, nutritionists, and doctors. I have interviewed people from an ethical point of view about animals. I have interviews on my schedule for the environment and the ecological connection with animal agriculture. I am offering information because we want to educate and inspire people. Because this information is not that readily available. Whether it was divine intervention or destiny or whatever you want to call it, those books landed in my hands for a reason. There is no reason that those books should have necessarily landed in my hands but they did. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to create these podcasts and interview incredible people that have done wonderful research and are making a real difference in the world in their fields. We have huge multi billion dollar industries that are interested in keeping people taking drugs and prescriptions and eat meat foods. And so this information is usually hidden and is not really available. So it’s great to be able to share this information to allow people to listen to things they haven’t heard in other arenas. Hopefully you’ll feel inspired and educated to open their hearts and minds and say hey I want to live this way.”

Dr. Dave: “You just shared something with me a few minutes ago when we were chatting before we began recording. You said that you were doing something later this month and where will you be in California?”

Anuj: “Sure, so I am on the board of a number of organizations. I have been vegan for almost 3 decades now and have traveled the world and been a part of several vegan rights organizations. Currently I am on the board for Go Vegan Radio that stems out of California and they have the World Vegan Summit. It is coming up on July 29th, 30th, and 31st. It’s a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It’s going to be an incredible event. The World Vegan Summit last year was in Los Angeles in March. It’s a 3 day event where people come together to discuss these issues. What’s happening in the world around vegan food, plant based agriculture, animal ethics, and all kinds of wonderful things. When you are in a place like Vegetarian Summerfest, like we are now, and you have like minded people who share a common passion and a common goal, it just fills your cup in a whole new way. You leave feeling so inspired, so invigorated, and so rejuvenated. You feel like you are not alone. And you’re not! In 2016, this is an exploding phenomenon. When I was vegan in 1989, I was kind of alone. But this is a whole different thing. And it’s wonderful to go to these events, make connections with people, and feel like you are not alone. I know the Western culture tends to talk about individualism and we think it’s great to be an individualist and there’s nothing wrong with being an individualist in a lot of ways but we’re also people who crave social connection, love, joy, and companionship. So it’s great to be in environments like this where we can share that with each other. All these things combine for a wonderful way for us to get together and inspire people.”

Dr. Dave: “I call it a giant vegan mastermind group. I don’t know how many people are here – hundreds or maybe even a thousand. By the time this podcast is released I think your event may be close to over, I’m not sure. So if you can’t make it this year, make plans for next year for sure. Anuj let my listeners know exactly how to get in touch with you. I have a feeling you connected with many of them today. ”

Anuj: “Well, again thank you so much for having me on the show. It’s been such an honor and I feel so humbled to be able to do this. It’s wonderful. I hope I connected with people because I know that it’s all on everyone’s time. For whatever reason, like I said moments ago, those books came into my life and I connected with those authors and their message. And so if there is anyway that I connected with people here and they are inspired, I am just overjoyed. My website is www.speakingofvegan.com. The podcast is available right there and you can listen live. If you have an iPhone you can listen on iTunes and subscribe. It’s all free and it will automatically download to your phone when a new episode is released. We release one episode every couple weeks.  Please invite people to listen. Like us on Facebook. Send comments and suggestions. If anyone out there is inspired and wants to be on the show if you’re vegan or you have ideas, I would be thrilled. This is a community. It’s not a one man show. This is a village!”

Dr. Dave: “Thank you so much Anuj for taking time out of your busy schedule to be on the show. I am honored that you could be on my podcast. Let’s do something in the future again. Episode #146 is almost in the books. I will give Anuj the last word. See you guys next week! Here’s Anuj for the last word”

Anuj: “Hey guys! It has really been an honor to connect with you here. I am interviewing Dr. Dave for my podcast as well. so tune in to Speaking of Vegan. We have a bunch of interviews we are doing here. So stay tuned and as soon as we are up and running I will send the info to Dr. Dave and he will let you know. Be well. Be safe. Open your hearts and I hope you go vegan.”

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