Fitness and Movement

PYP 080: Mike Crockett on Overcoming Addiction, Reconnecting with His True Nature, and Becoming an Unlikely Love Warrior

December 11, 2014

Mike Crockett, aka Big Bald Mike, has an amazing and inspiring story.

A young, gentle giant whose soul hungered for music and peace.

A childhood in Marlin, Texas, being fattened up like a calf for slaughter so he could dominate high school football games.

A carnivorous hunger that had him eating 2600 pounds of meat in a single year – and had him topping out at 571 pounds.

A long spiral into addiction, crime, violence, and self-loathing. A world in which numbing out the pain – physical and emotional – became a full-time job.

A dark night of the soul that culminated in a attempted-suicide overdose that would have killed five ordinary men.

And a path to redemption that includes professional wrestling, a caring lady, kale, and bunnies.

PYP 077: Julie Piatt on Influencing Others, Coming Back to Ourselves, and “Meditating on One Foot in the Moonlight”

November 26, 2014

Julie Piatt is a musician, plant-based chef and healer, yogi, home-schooling mom, cookbook author, and contributor to MindBodyGreen.com.

She’s also the muse and support system that her husband Rich Roll leaned on to transform himself from sedentary, junk-food and late-night TV addicted couch potato to one of the world’s fittest men in the span of just a couple of years. (Read his story in his bestselling book, Finding Ultra.)

In some sense, Julie “lived the fantasy”: influencing her spouse to change in a big way.

Don’t most of us have a fantasy like that? If not about our spouse, then about our kids, or co-workers, or boss, or politicians, or customer-service reps on the other end of the phone, or – probably most common – ourselves?

PYP 066: Glenn Murphy on Systema, Subverting Fight or Flight, and Remaining Human No Matter What

October 30, 2014

In addition to being a bestselling science author, musician, and tiger-handler (really!), Glenn Murphy is an instructor of one of the most powerful, esoteric, and valuable martial arts ever developed: Systema.

Heart Health Can Be Simple

October 23, 2014

A new study shows that good heart health is really quite simple. Just five things can make the difference between a long and healthy life and one compromised and cut short by heart disease (our number one killer – sorry, Ebola!) Here they are, in order of importance: Eat a healthy diet (the more whole plants,…

PYP 063: Matt Frazier on Running Long Distances, Plant-Based Nutrition, and Building a Movement without Trying to Convert Anybody

October 7, 2014

OK, so I’ve been procrastinating writing this intro to the Matt Frazier interview for about a week, because I wanted to get the prose just right.

Matt is the founder of No-Meat Athlete, originally a blog, then a book, and now a movement growing on its own steam.

PYP 062: Elana Priesman on a Junk-Food Childhood, “Try Anything” Desperation, and “Plantsformation”

October 1, 2014

Elana “Titanium” Priesman is an unlikely subject for a magazine devoted to fitness.

Overweight as a child, obese as a young adult, uninterested in sports, picked last in gym class to the groans of her teammates, Elana achieved a stunning turnaround a couple of years ago.

Culminating in her profile in the October 2014 Vegan Health and Fitness magazine, in an article titled “How I Lost 100 Pounds.”

PYP 057: Emily Nolan on Radical Honesty, Radical Kindness, Radical Self-Acceptance, and Going “Topless”

September 17, 2014

Emily Nolan is one of my heroes. She’s an internationally sought after model, a former Olympic trainee, a serial entrepreneur, and a tireless advocate for kindness, self-acceptance, and positive body image.

As the founder of MyKindofLife.com, Emily writes and creates media that provides “inspiration for kind people.”

And as the founder of the non-profit “Topless,” Emily empowers women and men to accept and love their own bodies in a public way, through yoga classes and other live events.

PYP 055: John Pierre on Fueling Ourselves for Action and Compassion

September 15, 2014

John Pierre is fitness trainer to the stars, including Ellen DeGeneres, Pamela Anderson, and Emily Deschanel. He’s also a tireless advocate for the voiceless, powerless, and dispossessed: animals, the aged, and abused women.

PYP 048: Lara Heimann on Yoga as Preparation for Life

September 4, 2014

Lara Heimann runs the Yogastream studio in Princeton, New Jersey. Originally trained as a physical therapist, Lara brings anatomical and functional sensibilities to her classes to enable her students to push their limits in a safe and powerful way.

She’s been completely plant-based for the past 12 years, and sees a strong mind-body connection between eating plants and moving the body joyfully.

PYP 047: Lani Muelrath on Debunking the Fitness Myths

September 3, 2014

Lani Muelrath is the author of Fit Quickies: 5-Minute Targeted Body-Shaping Workouts, which is a lot more comprehensive than it sounds. It covers exercise physiology, diet, health, mindset, and just about everything else relevant to a happy and healthy life.

PYP 080: Mike Crockett on Overcoming Addiction, Reconnecting with His True Nature, and Becoming an Unlikely Love Warrior

PYP 077: Julie Piatt on Influencing Others, Coming Back to Ourselves, and “Meditating on One Foot in the Moonlight”

PYP 066: Glenn Murphy on Systema, Subverting Fight or Flight, and Remaining Human No Matter What

Heart Health Can Be Simple

PYP 063: Matt Frazier on Running Long Distances, Plant-Based Nutrition, and Building a Movement without Trying to Convert Anybody

PYP 062: Elana Priesman on a Junk-Food Childhood, “Try Anything” Desperation, and “Plantsformation”

PYP 057: Emily Nolan on Radical Honesty, Radical Kindness, Radical Self-Acceptance, and Going “Topless”

PYP 055: John Pierre on Fueling Ourselves for Action and Compassion

PYP 048: Lara Heimann on Yoga as Preparation for Life

PYP 047: Lani Muelrath on Debunking the Fitness Myths

Support the Show

Contact me

This Book is Better than Its Title

Your free copy of Sick to Fit

My other books

Recent Podcasts and Blog Posts