My name’s Rich Roll,
and I am an
ultra-endurance athlete.
I’m a vegan.
I am a husband and
a father of four children.
I also am
a practicing attorney.
So day to day
my life is made up of
being a dad to four kids,
practicing law,
getting my training in,
and enjoying family time
with my wife and kids,
making food together,
and enjoying our life
together here in the
beautiful Malibu Canyon
where we live.
In 2009, Men’s Fitness
magazine named him
one of the “25 Fittest Guys
in the World.”
He has been interviewed
and featured on CNN
on several occasions, and
invited by the network to
write about his inspiring
journey of self-awareness
and health built on
a plant-strong diet.
Within two years, Rich Roll
had transformed himself
from a miserable
40-year-old
in the worst shape
of his life,
to an extraordinary
vegan athlete competing
in the ultra-challenging,
Ultraman
World Championships…
and placing 3rd overall
in all Americans!
Just before
Supreme Master
Television visited
Rich and his family
in their gorgeous home,
he and fellow
vegan endurance athlete
Jason Lester,
had just completed
the Epic5 Challenge –
“an unprecedented athletic
and spiritual odyssey”
that involves not one,
but five separate
gruelling triathlons
on Hawaii’s five islands
– that’s five 2.5 mile swims,
five 112 mile bike rides,
and five 26.2 mile runs,
in the span of
five consecutive days!
Perhaps PETA said it best:
Superman is vegan!
When I first started getting
back into competing,
the most rewarding thing
for me was just
pushing my own limits
and trying
to achieve something
that I never done before
or go faster than
I had ever gone before,
something like that.
But now really
the most rewarding aspect
of what I am doing
is that I am sharing
a positive message of
wellness for other people.
That it’s not just about
a race performance
or how fast did I go
or what place did I get.
It’s about
an ongoing journey
that I am on of discovery,
where I am learning
more and more every day,
and I am here to share that
with other people.
And hopefully
some other people will
glean some knowledge
or insight or inspiration
from that,
that will help them
in their own life.
And to know
that that is working, is
the most gratifying thing.
Today,
on Vegetarian Elite,
on the first
of a 2-part feature,
we will get to know
the plant-powered
athlete, family man,
entertainment attorney,
and spiritually-centered
Rich Roll.
So, so after I turned 40
and became a vegan,
and had all this energy
and I started running
and swimming, and
getting back on my bike
again and riding and
realized that I needed
some structure to this
and I needed a challenge
to focus my energy
in a productive way.
And I thought maybe
an Ironman would be cool,
like lots of guys
who turn 40
want to do an Ironman.
It’s kind of
like the bucket list,
you know, check that.
Yeah, I did an Ironman
kind of thing and
I started looking into that
because I always thought
that would be a fun thing
to do one day.
And I just read an article
about this race called
Ultraman in Hawaii,
which is actually
a double Ironman
distance triathlon.
It’s a 3-day race,
it circumnavigates
the entire big Island
of Hawaii and it’s limited
to only 35 people.
It just captured
my imagination
and I just had to learn
more about this race.
So I went to the website
and started reading
about it, and it really,
there was something,
there was like a switch
that flicked in me
where I knew
I had to do that race.
And it just seemed
so extreme
and so impossible, and
yet the same time it was
like calling out to me.
And I think the reason
for that, is that
it wasn’t just a race
where thousands
of people show up.
It really looks like it was
this spiritual adventure
where these 35 people
kind of embark on
this extreme task together
and they’re
mutually supportive.
Although it’s a race,
everyone is kind of
looking out for everyone
and there was a kind of
a family aspect to it.
And I think the purity
of that spoke to me,
and so I was determined
to find a way
to get into that race and
contacted the race director,
kind of double talked
my way into getting her
to agree to let me in
even though
I hadn’t done anything
that would qualify me
as being ready to be able
to handle such an event.
I was able to,
it’s a long story,
but I was able to get in.
So I really only had six
months to prepare for it.
The Ultraman is a tough
3-day test of endurance
through a 6 mile swim
and a 90 mile bike ride
on the first day,
followed by 170 miles of
biking on the second day.
The last day of trials
is a 52 mile run.
And I just set out training
as much as I could
for that six month period,
and showed up
and actually ended up
doing fairly well.
I had a respectable
11th place finish that year.
And being able to
accomplish that in
such a short period of time
gave me the confidence
enough to know
that if I really focused,
that I can do really well
at events like that.
And Rich accomplished
all this after he transitioned
to a plant-strong,
animal-free, vegan diet.
I really do attribute
my nutrition program
with helping me
achieve those goals in
such a short period of time.
It’s a critical aspect of
how I was able to do that.
What was the most
challenging competition
that you did?
So I went back to Ultraman
the following year, and
that was very challenging
because I crashed my bike
on the second day
and had to
pick myself up injured
and complete the event.
And I ended up
finishing 6th, and I had
a great result and it was
a wonderful experience,
but it was challenging
in that I never
had to come back
after a physical injury
to complete a race.
So that was challenging,
and then a friend of mine
and I just completed
something called Epic5,
which was an event
that in which we did
five Ironman races
on five Islands of Hawaii.
We did an Ironman
on Kauai,
and then went to Oahu
and did an Ironman there,
and then Molokai, Maui,
and finished
on the Big Island.
So five
consecutive Ironmans
in under seven days.
It was
extremely challenging
dealing with the logistics
of traveling island to island
on a daily basis
with all of our gear,
being exhausted
and sleep deprived
and still trying
to get in an Ironman
essentially every day.
And now
I am getting ready to,
I’m in the midst
of my training
and preparation for
Ultraman 2010, which is
Thanksgiving weekend
of this year.
When we return
after this brief message,
we will get a glimpse
into the lesser known, yet
vital facet of Rich’s life –
his family.
We will also learn
what inspiration
fuels his training
for these extreme events.
You may be surprised!
You are watching
Vegetarian Elite
on Supreme Master
Television.
Welcome back to
Vegetarian Elite
and the continuation
of our program
on plant-strong,
incredible endurance
athlete Rich Roll.
By now, you are
probably wondering
how Rich keeps going
during these
super-strenuous athletic
events and training.
Where does he gain his
motivation to not give up?
My wife is
the biggest inspiration
and getting me
to get on this program
and to stay on it.
Is she vegan herself?
She is now,
but actually that the time
when this started,
she wasn’t. She is now.
She is a great catalyst
of growth in others
and always trying
to get people to achieve
their personal best
in whatever it is.
So she has been
huge inspiration in
my own personal growth
in many areas.
And though words
could never show
Still I wanted you to know
That your presence
Is really something in my life
As married life partners,
Julie Piatt and Rich Roll
together forged
Jai Lifestyle.
The concept has evolved
from producing
yoga retreats
in luxurious locations
around the world,
to include plant-based
nutritional products,
vegan cookbooks,
and instructional videos
on how to better one’s life
through a vegan diet,
meditation, music,
and so forth.
Their ideals are mutually
and wholly benefiting.
I’ve been vegetarian
for years,
but Rich inspired me
last summer when
I saw his piece on CNN,
he inspired me
to go totally vegan.
Rich’s, the distances
that he’s been training
and the type of races
that he’s doing,
it’s just completely
out of my imagination
how a being
could even do that,
it’s not in my make-up.
But one of the most
beautiful moments for us
was when we went as
a family to crew for him.
We’ve made a movie
together, we have
four kids together, we
built this house together.
So he was freaking out
and I was saying,
“It’s cool, relax,
how tough can it be?
We’ll figure it out.”
And when I got there,
he had a meeting for us.
He had everything
prepared, the course,
and what nutrition
he had to take
and it all has to be timed
a specific way.
It’s very complex,
very, very complicated.
But I realized
by being with him
on this experience
that he is a pro-athlete,
and I had never seen that
because
I had never sat with him
during that process.
So, I would say that day,
in the Ultraman race,
he won the first day.
And it was one moment
I’ll never forget in my life.
It was a huge inspiration
to us and changed all of us.
Julie shares with us
how unconditional love
helped Rich reach
these heights of
his physical fitness and
encourage his journey
of self-discovery.
When we married we had
a very spiritual ceremony,
and we met in yoga.
So for a long time
I had wanted him to come
on this spiritual path with me.
And I was immature
and didn’t realize
that the spiritual path is
totally solo, it’s a solo one.
So, I had seen
that he had some density
that was keeping him
from himself.
So I had offered
lots of things, lots of
meditation techniques,
lots of dietary advice,
all kinds of things.
And it seemed like
the more that I offered,
the more paralyzed
he became.
So finally,
after many years and
of trying different things,
I embodied the concept
of Divine love,
how are we loved
by Consciousness, and
it’s exactly how we are.
And if everything
is Consciousness then
Rich is Consciousness.
So I simply decided
to just love him
in a Divine manner.
And it was at that moment,
a couple months after,
he could feel
the difference, the shift.
He asked me to
get him herbs to cleanse
and even then I had no idea
that it was going to be
one week turning into
three weeks, turning into
become a vegan, and then
he would become an
ultra-endurance athlete.
I never, never had
any awareness of that.
Time and time again
The path is
leading me within
Still your smile
Is a light along the way
Your laughter filled the air
You spoke of mountains
And secrets kept
Information
on Jai Lifestyle,
along with Rich & Julie’s
vegan cookbook “Seed,”
can be found at
www.Jai-Lifestyle.com
I think spirituality
is a centerpiece
of my athletic endeavors.
And one of the reasons is
that I like multi-sports
triathlon so much
is that it’s involved
being outdoors a lot
and it’s involved a lot of
alone time, whether
you’re running on a trail
or out riding a bike
or even you know swim
in the ocean or pool,
you’re kind of
in an isolation chamber
and the training session
becomes like
an active meditation.
And it’s really been
a practice of
acquainting myself
with my higher self
and developing a greater
more profound connection
to my higher power and
to the universe at whole
and to my fellow man.
And so, for me,
training and racing
is really just a metaphor
for spiritual practice.
And it’s about an ongoing
learning experience,
a journey
in personal growth,
and greater connection
to the universe.
Visit
www.RichRoll.com
to learn more about
Rich Roll’s adventures
and vegan ventures
Thank you
gracious viewers
for being with us today
on Vegetarian Elite.
Please join us again
next week
for the second half
of our program
on Mr. Rich Roll and his
super human athleticism.
We’ll hear more about his
transformational journey
and what a vegan superman
eats every day.
And now
please stay tuned for
Between Master
and Disciples,
coming up next.
May you enjoy abundant
health and blessings
of inner serenity.
This is Rich Roll saying
Be Veg,
Go Green
2 Save the Planet!
My name’s Rich Roll,
and I am an
ultra-endurance athlete.
I’m a vegan.
I am a husband and
a father of four children.
I also am
a practicing attorney.
In 2009, Men’s Fitness
magazine named him
one of the “25 Fittest Guys
in the World.”
He has been interviewed
and featured on CNN
on several occasions, and
invited by the network to
write about his inspiring
journey of self-awareness
and health built on
a plant-strong diet.
Within two years, Rich Roll
had transformed himself
from a miserable
40-year-old
in the worst shape
of his life,
to an extraordinary
vegan athlete competing
in the ultra-challenging,
Ultraman
World Championships…
and placing 3rd overall
in all Americans!
So in the wake
of changing my diet,
that’s when I began
the process of
getting back in shape
and competing again.
But it really began
with changing the diet.
Just before
Supreme Master
Television visited
Rich and his family
in their gorgeous home,
he and fellow
vegan endurance athlete
Jason Lester,
had just completed
the Epic5 Challenge –
“an unprecedented athletic
and spiritual odyssey”
that involves not one,
but five separate
gruelling triathlons
on Hawaii’s five islands
– that’s five 2.5 mile swims,
five 112 mile bike rides,
and five 26.2 mile runs,
in the span of
five consecutive days!
Perhaps PETA said it best:
Superman is vegan!
Thanks,
Supreme Master TV,
for coming out
to talk to us today.
It’s a pleasure to have you.
Today, on the second of
our 2-part feature
on Mr. Rich Roll,
we will continue
our conversation with
the quiet-spoken
champion and learn about
the diet that progresses
his athletic performance
and enables him
to compete in these super
human endurance trials.
He shows us that
nothing is impossible
on the vegan diet.
And how did it
all start for you?
Why did you decided
one day to “Okay,
I’m going to start training?”
Well I was an athlete
in college. I was
a competitive swimmer
at Stanford and had done
quite well and loved
being a swimmer.
I’d been swimming
my whole life, but when
that chapter ended
and my college career
was over then
that was kind of it
for competitive sports
for me for a long time.
Life intervenes and
it becomes about family
and your career
and that’s kind of
what my focus was
for a long time.
And, you know,
I was turning 40, the eve
of my 40th birthday and
I was very overweight,
very out of shape.
I was weighing about
208 pounds at that time,
so not like
a super obese guy, but
very overweight for me,
and winded going up
and down the stairs.
So in order for me
to really enact
any kind of like lasting
lifestyle change I had to
do something
kind of drastic.
And so with the help
of my wife and
her encouragement,
I did a seven day
fruit and vegetable
juice cleanse,
which was something
I’d never done before,
never had even really
thought of doing before.
But that was
an incredible experience,
and after being
on just liquids basically
for a week, I felt so good
when I was done with that,
that I was ready to really
address my diet and
do something different.
So the first thing I did,
was I started
eating vegetarian.
But I just thought,
“Well I’m half way there,
why don’t I just try
a vegan diet,
see how that feels,”
which meant cutting out
all animal products out
of my diet, no more milk,
no more cheese.
I never thought
in a million years
that it was something
that I would be doing
or interested in doing
but I gave it a shot.
And I think at the time
it was almost to prove
that it wouldn’t work
for me.
But what happened was
within 7 to 10 days
of doing this, I really felt
a tremendous increase
in my energy,
I felt really good.
And it just kind of
built from there.
I stuck with it ever since.So in the wake of
changing my diet, that’s
when I began the process
of getting back in shape
and competing again.
But it really began
with changing the diet.
The plant-strong diet
powered Rich to compete
in the Ultraman
World Championships
after just a few months
of training.
He sheds light on
how veganism improved
his athletic training.
I think that there’s
a lot of misconception
in our culture specifically
about what kind of foods
you need to eat
to be an athlete.
There is some truth that,
yes, you need protein
in order to
rebuild your muscles
from training, etc.
But I think that there
is a way to do that
on a plant-based diet,
in such a way that
actually can improve
athletic performance.
For example, I believe
that my plant-based diet
allows my body
to recover more quickly
in between training sessions.
And as an athlete,
the more quickly
you can recover
the harder you can train
and the better you’re
going to get over time.
So I think that it’s been
actually a great benefit
to me in that respect.
This aspect definitely
proved helpful for Rich
when he competed
in the 2009 Ultraman.
Even after crashing
his bike the second day,
he picked himself up
and pushed forward
with the competition.
Despite injury, Rich
had an incredible finish,
placing 6th overall.
What do you do
to recover quickly?
I would try to eat
a 100% wholefood,
plant-based diet.
Which means trying to
not eat too many
of any processed foods.
Eating foods that
are alkaline forming,
in other words,
that properly balance
your body’s PH.
Because a lot of
the foods, especially
dairy and meat products,
are acidic in nature
or prompt an acidic
response in your body,
and that creates an
inflammatory response
which impedes recovery,
makes you feel tired, etc.
So it’s about eating
an alkaline diet or
an alkaline forming diet,
and the best way to
achieve that is through
eating plant-based.
Plant-based diet,
a lot of greens.
We eat a lot of kale,
a lot of broccoli,
a lot of all different
kinds of greens;
it’s a big part of our diet.
Are you now ready
for some diet tips
from a champ?
When we return
after this short message,
Rich reveals what he eats
in a typical training day.
You are watching
Vegetarian Elite
on Supreme Master
Television.
This is Rich Roll saying
Be Veg,
Go Green
2 Save the Planet!
Welcome back
to Vegetarian Elite
and our 2-part
special program
on plant-powered,
ulta-endurance athlete,
Rich Roll.
So how is it
a day of yours like,
what would you eat from
the morning to night?
If I’m doing a training
session in the morning,
if it’s a short one,
sometimes I will just
go out and train
without eating anything.
But if it’s going to be
a longer, like long bike
or something, I will make
a Vitamix smoothie
in the morning
that has some endurance
boosting foods,
super foods like chia
and maca, beets,
and some kale, and
maybe some coconut milk
and some Vega Whole
Food Optimizer
which has a lot of
your daily vitamins
and minerals in it.
Not a big breakfast,
you know, maybe some
toast with almond butter
to get me going.
And then my recovery
nutrition after I finished
a workout is all about
replenishing my glycogen
stores and then getting
enough protein in my body
so it can repair itself.
And so I’ll have
a Vitamix [smoothie]
with different kinds of
plant-based proteins
like hemp protein,
pea protein,
brown rice protein and
I think that there is
a lot of confusion about
plant-based protein.
A lot people don’t realize
that these plants actually
do have protein and
you can get enough protein
from eating them
to be an athlete
and sustain yourself.
Physician and nutrition
expert Dr. Michael Klaper
further explains the truth
of the protein myth:
If you’re eating
whole plant foods,
there is no way
not to get enough protein.
Any whole plant food,
any tomato,
any ear of corn,
any green bean,
is anywhere between
8 to 12% protein.
If you get
your 2000 calories a day
from whole plant foods,
no matter what they are,
fruits, vegetables, greens,
etc. you’re going
to be getting your
40 or 50 grams of protein.
I’ve been a physician
almost 40 years;
I’ve never seen anyone
walk in the office
with the diagnosis
of protein deficiency,
even long term vegans.
It’s not really an issue.
Plant proteins are, in fact,
superior to
animal-derived proteins.
A varied vegan diet,
like the one Rich shared
with us, improves one’s
health, vitality,
and longevity.
Renowned nutrition
expert, physician,
and author
Dr. Joel Fuhrman agrees:
If we mix the greens
and the beans now with
nuts and seeds, almonds,
cashews, sesame seeds,
sunflower seeds,
they have almost magical
super-foods,
protective compounds
that prevent against
cardiac arrhythmias,
irregular heart beats.
They lower
your cholesterol, they
make people live longer.
They prevent
sudden cardiac death.
They stabilize the brain.
They also make
the protein very complete.
Don’t forget
green vegetables are
high in protein, that’s
how come gorillas,
hippopotamus rhinoceros,
elephants, giraffes
get so big because
they eat green vegetables,
eat a lot of protein.
But here you have the
protein packaged with
lots of micronutrients,
with the phytochemicals,
with the antioxidants,
with the things that make
the body age slower.
And we keep our
youthfulness, our vigor
and our good health
until later years.
Authenticity speaks
louder than words.
Everything that I’ve been
trying to do is really
an effort to just be
my more authentic self,
to try to connect
more deeply to the things
that move me,
that I’m passionate about
and that I love, and then
to share my feelings and
emotions and my truth
and my experiences
in doing that.
And I think that resonate
with a lot of people.
Because if you’re
speaking from the heart,
if you’re speaking
your truth or
you’re living your truth,
that is like a magnet for
the universe that people
are attracted to that.
Are you ready
for the New Earth?
Stand up,
get ready to shine
Being is the place to be
Let it happen in you
So future projects
are building Jai Lifestyle
and producing
our retreats, which
I’m very excited about,
and then training
and racing.
Those are really the focus,
so getting the nutrition
products out,
getting the cookbook out,
and being prepared for
Ultraman in November
for a great performance
and seeing what
the world has to offer.
So I’d really like
to expand my wellness
advocacy and do public
speaking engagement
and the more
that I can motivate and
spread the word to help
people make healthier
choices about their diet
and their activities.
That’s something
I really want to move
into as much as I can.
Rich and I are going
to join together and
spread this message
of wellness and
giving people an example
how to refine
their environment
and their physical body
and their spiritual body,
so that they can hear
who it is that
they were designed to be.
They can hear their own
voice, their higher self.
And if Creation wants that,
then we’re ready.
But I also know that
it may not be the case,
so whatever it is
I am in service
to that Consciousness.
During our day spent
with Rich and his family,
he conveyed a warm
message to
Supreme Master Ching Hai.
Thank you,
Supreme Master.
Appreciate the love
and the beauty
that you spread.
We send our gratitude
to Mr. Rich Roll
for inspiring many
on this path of wellbeing
simply by living
as a shining example
of health and integrity
through the humane
vegan diet.
We wish you continued
success on your journey
of self-realization
and spirituality.
Visit
www.RichRoll.com
to learn more about
Rich Roll’s adventures
and vegan ventures.
Information
on Jai Lifestyle,
along with Rich & Julie’s
vegan cookbook “Jai Seed,”
can be found at
www.Jai-Lifestyle.com
Brilliant viewers,
we appreciate
your company today
on Vegetarian Elite.
Please come back
to join us on Friday,
November 19th
as Rich, Julie,
and the rest of the family
share a recipe and a
sneak peek of their newly
released vegan cookbook,
“Jai Seed.”
Coming up now is
Between Master
and Disciples,
here on Supreme Master
Television.
May your day be filled
with laughter and
the blessed company
of loved ones.