#124: JD and Chrissy Roth - Turn Your PLANSTRONG Dream into a Reality
Chrissy and J.D. Roth
As we round the corner on a new year and a fresh start, we can think of no better way to lift you up than with this inspiring talk from J.D. and Chrissy Roth recorded from this year’s Plant-Stock event.
J.D. is an iconic television producer and creator of shows like “The Biggest Loser,” and “The Big Fat Truth,” which helped participants lose weight, fight diabetes, and attain a healthy lifestyle through whole foods, plant-based nutrition.
Chrissy Roth is a physical therapist, fitness instructor, Mom of two boys, and, of course, wife of J.D. She was the driving force for her family’s habit change and, today, she reads a couple of her personal blog posts that span years as she guided her household of stubborn boys to a new life of vibrant, colorful, whole-food, plant-based living.
We love the universal takeaways from their presentation - be patient, stay the course, remain resilient, and relentless.
This conviction transformed her household and, together, J.D. and Chrissy are now relentless in their own pursuit of changing the landscape of TV and spreading this message to a broader audience. We know it will take time, but the Roths are unstoppable.
Episode Resources
Watch the Episode on YouTube
Join the FREE 2022 PLANTSTRONG Seven-Day Challenge - January 5th-11th
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Full Transcript
JD Roth:
If we're getting back to the plant-based reality, the reality was she wasn't giving up. And so I think that one great thing, if you're considering going plant-based is you got to be relentless that anything worth anything in life is worth fighting for. I didn't just get her on the first date, you know what I mean? She was worth fighting for and I spent the time fighting together, and 30 years later we're still together. But I think that's the most important thing, somebody in your family has to have that relentless gene of not willing to give up. And so we feed off of her and that's why it worked.
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah.
Rip Esselstyn:
I'm Rip Esselstyn, and welcome to the PLANTSTRONG podcast. The mission of PLANTSTRONG is to further the advancement of all things within the plant-based movement. We advocate for the scientifically proven benefits of plant-based living and envision a world that universally understands, promotes and prescribes plants as a solution to empowering your health, enhancing your performance, restoring the environment and becoming better guardians to the animals we share this planet with. We welcome you wherever you are on your plant-strong journey and I hope that you enjoy the show.
Rip Esselstyn:
Happy, happy holidays my PLANTSTRONG, brothers and sisters. This is Rip Esselstyn, I want to welcome you to another episode of the PLANTSTRONG podcast. Cannot believe that we're just days away from rounding the corner and diving into a whole new year, a fresh start with 2022. I think that we all can use a good dose of a new year and a whole new vibe, but I can think of no better way to lift you up than with this inspiring talk from JD and Chrissy Roth that was recorded from this year's Plant-Stock event.
Rip Esselstyn:
You all, whether you know it or not, you all know who JD is. JD is the iconic television producer and the creator of one of the most popular shows in the history of television, The Biggest Loser. And then also more recently the big fat truth, which helps participants lose weight, fight diabetes and attain a healthy lifestyle through whole food, plant-based nutrition. Yay!
Rip Esselstyn:
Chrissy is a physical therapist, fitness instructor, mom of two boys and of course, the wife of JD, she was also the driving force for her family's habit change. And today she reads a couple of her personal blog posts that span years as she guided her household of stubborn boys and one man to a new life of vibrant, colorful whole food plant-based living. And I love the universal takeaways today, such as be patient, stay the course, remain resilient and relentless. This conviction transformed her household and together, JD and Chrissy are now relentless in their own pursuit of changing the landscape of TV and spreading this message to a broader audience. We know it will take time, but the Roths are unstoppable.
Rip Esselstyn:
And speaking of unstoppable, we want you to kick off 2022. The PLANTSTRONG way by participating in our free seven-day challenge from January 5th to the 11th, with literally thousands of others who will be starting or restarting this journey with you, dedicate seven days to eating whole food plant-based. We're going to support you every single step of the way, and we're given away all sorts of prizes and giveaways.
Rip Esselstyn:
Hop over to plantstrong.com and join right now, or visit the shownotes@plantstrongpodcast.com. Now, are you ready for a PLANTSTRONG pep talk? I know I am. All right. Let's get to it with JD and Chrissy Roth.
JD Roth:
All right. Thanks, Rip, who has actually been here at this house for dinner before.
Chrissy Roth:
Yes, he has.
JD Roth:
Which was an awesome night.
Chrissy Roth:
Yes, it was.
JD Roth:
So we're going to be talking about plant-based realities and in our life, there were two realities. One reality is when we went plant-based and the other reality is reality television-
Chrissy Roth:
That's right.
JD Roth:
... which for the last 20 plus years, I've been known for transformational television specifically in bringing weight loss to prime time. So I created shows like The Biggest Loser an Extreme Weight Loss Edition on ABC and many other weight loss shows, including the only plant-based-
Chrissy Roth:
That's right.
JD Roth:
... TV reality show in television history, which still stands today called The Big Fat Truth.
Chrissy Roth:
Okay. So yes, we will be talking about two plant-based realities or multiple plant-based realities and I think first we're going to talk about our family's plant-based reality, which was when we decided to go plant-based for. When I decided that we were going to go plant-based, it was 2014 and it was tough. It was difficult. We-
JD Roth:
I don't remember it that way. I remember it as you serving these amazing meals, and me eating them and saying, "This is great."
Chrissy Roth:
I'm glad you remember it that way and we'll talk about that. He always wears rose-colored glasses, which is why I love him, but it was tough in the beginning. And I think for some people it is, I think for some people they dive right in and kind of I was there, if it was just myself, it would've been easy, but trying to convert a whole family of meat-eating, they had a meat chant, they go, meat, meat, meat, when they'd make burgers, and they had a whole thing around meat.
JD Roth:
Well, it's like this guy thing that you share with your boys, you know what I mean? You're in the backyard, grilling up burgers and steaks and every big moment is like, "I would take one of the boys out for a steak dinner to have that serious talk."
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah, so-
JD Roth:
You know what I mean? It's part of the culture.
Chrissy Roth:
So you see why it was hard for them. Now we make veggie burgers on the grill, so it's fine, but it took a little while to get there. So hopefully, us sharing our story will help some of you or help you to help someone else, who's maybe struggling with the change over. So that's our first, we're going to talk about that first and then we're also going to talk, as JD mentioned about plant-based reality, a plant-based reality show and just our reality in reality TV.
JD Roth:
But we should say that we are like idolized the people that are speaking.
Chrissy Roth:
Oh, my God.
JD Roth:
I can't even believe that we're being considered as someone speaking amongst these people and most of which have had dinner at our house-
Chrissy Roth:
Yes.
JD Roth:
... From Kristi Funk, who you actually introduced plants too at a meal at our house-
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah. We talked a lot about plants.
JD Roth:
... Yeah, to Dr. Greger who I just cannot speak highly enough to. I mean, T. Colin Campbell's been here with this whole family.
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah.
JD Roth:
We... These are people that are in our life, and we can't even believe we're being considered to talk at the same-
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah. So we're going to leave the science then we don't need to talk about science. We're not going to get real scientific because that is well-covered by the best and the greatest in the world, in the field. So, all right, so we're going to start... We thought that best way to start, especially because JDs memory of this is a little fuzzy. I was going to start reading my blog. I started a blog when we started going plant-based back in 2014, because a lot of people were saying, "What is this plant-based thing? I don't understand." "Like you're just eating plants?" "Like you're just eating lettuce?" "What are you eating?" So I started a blog which started out with our experience, the blog morphed into more just education. But the first few years were just our experience as a family and the trials and tribulations.
JD Roth:
Well, we should say, we're known in our neighborhood way before being plant-based as the health fitness, focused on health and fitness always.
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah.
JD Roth:
That was always our thing.
Chrissy Roth:
Right.
JD Roth:
So people in the neighborhood always kind of looked to us for that, anyway.
Chrissy Roth:
Right. I didn't eat a lot of meat. I called myself a flexitarian. I don't even know what that means anymore, but I didn't eat a lot, but I ate enough. I obviously ate enough to jack my cholesterol up because as soon as I started eating plant-based that all got wonderfully under control. So-
JD Roth:
So show your proof of what you got.
Chrissy Roth:
... okay. Here's my proof.
JD Roth:
I know. I believe that.
Chrissy Roth:
So as I said, I started in January, 2014. This blog is from April of 2014. The title is Hubby Update. I have not commented on my blog lately about JD because I felt like a failure. I probably shouldn't feel this way since he eats about 75% less animal protein than he used to trying to get him to make healthy lunch choices became nearly impossible because he eats out every day and does not like whole food plant-based options. He's definitely an example of the issues. Start your kids on beans and lentils earlier in life. He couldn't stand those. Couldn't, he likes them now. Trying to start him on them at 40-ish years old has proven to be difficult, if not impossible. I'm not giving up though, if you have to give children foods 10 to 15 times before they develop a taste for them, maybe it is 50 times for a 40 plus stubborn husband. Is any of this ringing a bell?
JD Roth:
I mean, I guess a little bit, but I would say-
Chrissy Roth:
Oh my gosh.
JD Roth:
... you were relentless. Like you would not take no for an answer. So what happened is she would bring out a dish. Me and the boys, right? The two guys, we would go, "We're not eating this." And to her credit, instead of getting angry or upset or like eat it or else, nothing was conditional. She would go back in the kitchen. I don't know what you would do, but you Houdini'd it and you'd add something else and come back and eventually after keep coming back, we'd be like, "Yeah, all right, we'll eat it." And then you figured out ways to continue to make it better and better all the time.
Chrissy Roth:
Right. So I just worked on becoming a better cook. We kind of had our meals down before this I was trying to make plant-based meals that they would like, and I had to figure it out. So it was a lot of trial and error, and there was a lot of me crying.
JD Roth:
But she was smart though. She would get one good meal, check that box and move it aside and start working on the next one. So she had Monday down and then she'd work on Tuesday and then Wednesday. And eventually, it got better.
Chrissy Roth:
Because if you think about it, whatever diet you're having, you have like maybe 10 things that you mostly have. So, that's all they needed to get down.
JD Roth:
Yeah. I would say one good trick she used, which I loved that worked on the boys, because they were kind of young at the time, is she'd make them do their homework at the island by the kitchen. And then she'd immediately put like onions in a pan and that sizzle, and then their senses, they might start getting hungry, then pretty much whatever you put in front of them at that time they would eat. So she would pre-cut up a red pepper, some broccoli, sugar snap peas, whatever it was. They would start smelling the onions and hear the sounds and she would immediately slide that in front and pretty soon what would happen? They'd be like?
Chrissy Roth:
Oh yeah, they'd be chowing down on it. Right.
JD Roth:
They'd be arguing over who gets the last red pepper.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. I remember that was one of my blogs as my kids just argued over who was going to get the last red pepper. They would fight over that before they'd fight over whatever it was before. And now they'd fight over the last red pepper, which was a huge victory.
Rip Esselstyn:
But in the beginning it was tough. I would say that you just have to work hard at it because there's a lot of things that are tougher. I mean, Kristi Funk will talk to you about breast cancer. It's pretty tough. You don't want to go through that. Dr. Eston will talk about heart disease and getting your chest, he always talks about getting your chest cracked open. How hard is that? It's a lot harder than trying out a bunch of different meals until your family will eat them.
JD Roth:
What else you got? It's just one blog. You know what I mean?
Chrissy Roth:
Okay. All right. Well, actually the next, I skip a year now, so I go to the second. This is one year down, January of 2015, habits are hard to change and I had to make some of the same dishes or serve some of the same foods close to 15 times before the boys would develop a taste for them. And that is the truth. It is amazing because that's kind of what the data says and then you do it and you're like, "Oh, my gosh." Now they're eating these things that they would never ever eat before, including you.
JD Roth:
For sure.
Chrissy Roth:
So my teens were super resistant, but now they actually like so many foods and they eat so many beautiful plant-based meals, happily. They crave red peppers, carrots, cucumbers, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, green beans or snap peas. And they expect that now when they get home from school, which is what you were just talking about. The flavor blasted goldfish are out, there are no chips around, so they ask for veggies. And that's another thing, it's getting rid of all that stuff. Okay, let me finish this. It was a slow ween off all of the junk food and it wasn't easy. It was a grind saying no over and over and getting the death stares and the eye rolls, it was rough.
JD Roth:
Right. But the reality for getting back to the "plant-based reality," the reality was she wasn't giving up. And so I think that one great thing, if you're considering going plant-based is you got to be relentless that anything worth anything in life is worth fighting for. I didn't just get her on the first date. You know what I mean? She was worth fighting for and I spent the time fighting together, and 30 years later we're still together. But I think that's the most important thing somebody in your family has to have that relentless gene of not willing to give up. And so we feed off of her and that's why it worked.
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah. I mean and also... Yeah, I was... I guess would call it relentless, but it was done with love and they knew that like, they'd go downstairs to watch TV and I'd say, "Hey, watch this." And they'd watch forks over knives. And they're like, "That's why she's doing this." You know? So you start sprinkling education in and then the kids were getting older and they were able to be educated like, "Oh, yeah." And they were also started paying more attention to their body like, "Hey, how you doing at track, Cooper?" He's like, "Oh, my gosh, I am running so fast. I have so much energy." And then yeah I said, "Well, maybe I should come talk to your track team about nutrition." He's like, "I don't know. I'm kind of like in my edge." Remember that?
JD Roth:
Yeah.
Chrissy Roth:
So-
JD Roth:
But that is kind of what I like about the whole plant-based movement is they invite you into the tent to share like, "Hey, how do you feel when you try this? Did you feel better? What signals in your body did you get from it versus you have to do this and you can't do that?" That's not the plant-based movement is much more inclusive than that and that's why I like it so much. There's like this collaborative feeling to it.
Chrissy Roth:
It's true. It's true. Yeah. So anyway, that's the end of the blog. That blog was... Yeah, pretty much I was being told I was crazy. Why couldn't I just be a normal mom? I mean, yeah. They would throw kind of everything at you, but-
JD Roth:
It didn't stop you.
Chrissy Roth:
It didn't stop me.
JD Roth:
It didn't even slow you down.
Chrissy Roth:
And to you and to all of your credit, you guys were very open. I mean, these blogs were written in moments in time where I was probably called crazy, but generally you guys were pretty open and willing to try. Okay, so do we skip forward another year?
JD Roth:
Yeah.
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah. So, okay. About a year later, I'll just read the title of my blog, which is, It's official! My husband is eating a plant-based diet. So I remember the moment we were standing over by our stove and he came to me and he's like, "By the way, I'm done. I'm not eating anything animal anymore." Do you remember that?
JD Roth:
I do. Yeah.
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah. And I think I was so excited.
JD Roth:
Yeah.
Chrissy Roth:
I was like, "Oh." Because I know it was for real too, because I knew that... It wasn't a slow rollout. It had been a couple years and up until then, I had only, by the way, made plant-based meals in the house-
JD Roth:
Yeah.
Chrissy Roth:
... from the moment I started, it was just when he was out. Like, if he'd go out to dinner, he could never figure out what to get.
JD Roth:
I used to love the way you'd put it though. You'd say look before the plate used to the meat was the star of the plate. And then all these vegetables and all these things were around the star. And then what you started doing is reducing the star and then making the other stuff. And pretty soon the star was on the outside or the old star and the new star was on the inside. So there was this gradual, even from the eye perspective of the plate changed, you know what I mean? All of a sudden the meat was on the outside and the stuff that she wanted me to eat was on the inside. And so slowly but surely it happened and I will say if... Guys are simple, if it tastes good, we'll eat it. You know what I mean? So, but it has to taste good.
Chrissy Roth:
Right? And he keeps saying, guys, this applies to girls, guys. He keeps saying guys, because we're a family, me and three guys, which is why he keeps saying guys like obviously if your family consists of a bunch of women, women are simple. Like everybody's simple as far as food goes, as far as you want to eat something that tastes good. And there's so many... Once you get over eating food that is full of calories and fat and salt and processed food. It does takes some time to get over that and once you get over that, I know Dr. Klaper's going to do a talk on that. Once you get over that, things that are simple taste so-
JD Roth:
Don't you think-
Chrissy Roth:
... good.
JD Roth:
... that people eat for pleasure and that when you mentally convert and I did this on The Biggest Loser as well, when you mentally convert you change that don't eat for leisure, eat for what you always used to tell me?
Chrissy Roth:
Oh, yeah. So eat to live versus-
JD Roth:
Yeah.
Chrissy Roth:
... living to eat. Yeah.
JD Roth:
Yeah. Yeah. And that takes a while to get over. But I do remember the moment saying it to her. I also remember one of the reasons why 98.6% of the reasons all had to do with her. The 1.4% was one saying that Dr. Greger said to me and I come from a family of a lot of people lost due to cancer. There's a lot of genetics involved in my family, no matter how helpful you are. And the one sentence he said that stuck with me was, "Genetics load the gun, but your decisions pull the trigger." And that kind of stopped me in my tracks. Yes, I was enjoying the food that she was making. I was enjoying how I felt. I was enjoying the fact, "Hey, anytime you do something, it makes your wife happy, happy wife, happy life." Like I love all that stuff. It just literally stopped me when he's like, "Your genetics did load the gun. But the decisions that you make after that pull the trigger," meaning that all of the stuff you do in your life matters.
Chrissy Roth:
It does.
JD Roth:
And if I end up losing that battle one day, I never wanted to look back and say, "Ah, if only I didn't have that burger."
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think once he was all in and we were both all in, we started trying to bring as many people as we could into the tents, right? So we started having whenever we had people over for dinner, we'd have a plant-based dinner. And in the beginning we kind of joke because they didn't even know what that was, like I said, a lot of people thought we were going to come over and have lettuce, but as it started going, people started, oh, so excited to come over our house. They'd be like, "Oh, what are you making? And what is this? How do I make this?" I've sent more recipes out after having a dinner party in the past eight years than I think I ever had, because everybody wants to know what it is, why it's so good, how they can make it themselves. So-
JD Roth:
Well, we used to joke that people would go, either they would leave our house so excited about a plant-based life and changing everything, or they would leave our house and go straight to in and out.
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah, no.
JD Roth:
But over the years-
Chrissy Roth:
That was a joke.
JD Roth:
it converted to everyone coming over, as recently as a couple nights ago, a family of four came over just to sit outside as the sun was going down and they were kind of like, "Do you have anything on upstairs. We didn't eat dinner." And of course she had one of her red lentil-
Chrissy Roth:
I did. It was so good.
JD Roth:
... suit for veggie and it went down and I mean, everyone devoured it.
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah.
JD Roth:
So it's interesting how the culture, food culture has started to change even, not just our family.
Rip Esselstyn:
That's right. That's right. And there's so many more options if you look at a plant-based reality from now till over from eight years ago to now, there's just so many more options. Granted, a lot of the options, there's a lot more junk food options too. We try to stick with whole food plant-based, but it's been really nice. So it's been nice to include others and inspire others by just what we're doing. And we're happy to do it.
Rip Esselstyn:
Okay. So 2017, this is my next blog. We'll skip forward another year. So here it is. JD and I are working together, and it's so much fun. He's producing and hosting a show based on his book, The Big Fat Truth. We take different groups of people, all prone to be overweight, like night nurses, teachers, diabetics, chefs, and we help them lose weight through introspection, motivation and a plant-based diet. So, that was-
JD Roth:
Yeah. I mean, you think about the evolution of all the transformative shows that I've done, right? The Biggest Loser changed the conversation at the dinner table. That really was my goal in the beginning, when I created the show, you know how like when you have Thanksgiving dinner and there's all your relatives are sitting around and they immediately go to the smoker and they're like, "You know what, Aunt Sophie, you smoking kills people. Like everybody knows that you got to put those things down." Then they go to Uncle Larry and they're like, "Hey, Uncle Larry, maybe a few less drinks." You know what I mean? Like you drink a little too much, but they would never go to Aunt Sally and say, "You know, if you move more and eat better, you could have a completely different life." No one ever did that at the dinner tables, embarrassing. You would never go to someone overweight and call them out on it.
JD Roth:
Our show changed that conversation at the dinner table. That's what I'm most proud of. How much people lose this and that. I never talk about what people lose. I talk about what do they gain and gain is a horrible word in health and fitness, right? But what did you gain? What part of your life did you act? Are you able to go out and play with your kids? Are you able to sleep better? Are you able to get out of a chair? Are you not out of breath when you walk up to the top of the stairs? Those types of gains are everything in life. And I think that's what we tried to focus on on that show, but for The Big Fat Truth, it was everything I learned from her and listening to Dr. Greger on his treadmill. Right. And T. Colin Campbell and reading, right? You took the Cornell T. Colin Campbell's course.
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah. I took those. Right. I took that. Well, I took that very early on that that was adventure.
JD Roth:
Right. And that's where we got all of that knowledge from, I wanted to put that knowledge to use. So how could you do it? Okay, well, plant-based show. That would be amazing. We actually took five people that we cast that had type two diabetes that were told not to eat plants and-
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah. Don't eat fruit, don't eat vegetables, don't eat grains.
JD Roth:
And by the way, guess who guess tells them that, it's at their introductory meeting on the first weekend to learn how to use their medication and who sponsors that. I'll let you fill in that blank. So we were like, "Wait a second. We need to get someone on board to help us with this." And so we reached out to Dr. Greger.
Chrissy Roth:
Yep.
JD Roth:
Who the time we were friends with and said, I would love, are you interested? And of course, to his credit, he was like, I'm in-
Chrissy Roth:
Of course.
JD Roth:
... whatever it takes, I'm in, which was awesome. And in less than 30 days of eating plants, all five, one of which was told that she was bleeding so bad behind her eyes in less than a year, she would probably go blind. And even that didn't get her to stop drinking milkshakes, needing hamburgers. She came on the show and in less than 30 days, all five were completely off all medication. And that's just one group that we worked with. We even took ex-Biggest Loser contestants who gained the weight back.
Chrissy Roth:
Oh, yeah.
JD Roth:
And we had them on the show to say, "Hey, if you did this in a plant-based way, is it a different experience? How does the weight come off? How do you feel? Is it more something you can do more long-term?"
Chrissy Roth:
Well, yeah, exactly. So we knew that this diet is sustainable. So he felt very good about doing this show because they could change their life and sustain it because a lot of the criticism of Biggest Loser was like, "Nobody can sustain that. That's impossible." For some people that was true.
JD Roth:
Yeah. I mean, the pushback I would say is if 50% was about the average of people who lost the weight and kept it off. If 50% of America lost all the weight that they had and kept it off, how many billions of dollars a year would that save?
Chrissy Roth:
Right.
JD Roth:
And I think that is what I focus on. It's never going to be perfect.
Chrissy Roth:
Right.
JD Roth:
You're never going to get 100% on anything, in anything in life, and so I don't think that should ever be the goal. The goal is the journey that you're going on and how can we literally changed the paradigm of weight loss because it's great, like doctors see patients. How many patients can a doctor see in a day to give the knowledge to, 10?
Chrissy Roth:
No, more than actually.
JD Roth:
Twenty?
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah. But...
JD Roth:
Our finales had 25 million people so the messaging is so important. However, we always talk about the messaging of like, at the end of The Biggest Loser, the champion would be on the back full page of the USA Today with a milk mustache.
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah.
JD Roth:
And I, at the time, I didn't know.
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah, we didn't know. I know, I mean, like the commercials, the integration with like Jennie-O Turkey and then whatever it was like-
JD Roth:
Right. And all those integrations, of course, those are big partners. They have lots of money to spend. They spend money on the show. That's what gets put out there, which some of it is good and some of it is troubling. And so in the end, when you have this show than under 30 days completely eliminates type two diabetes. To me, that's headline news. That is a plant-based reality. That's what we're talking about. That's headline news. We reached out The Today Show. Good morning, America, all of them. "Hey, we just reversed type two diabetes with Dr. Greger. JD and Dr. Greger should come on the show with a couple of the people and show it happened." And guess what happened? Not one of them would put us on the show.
Rip Esselstyn:
We can't do that. We can't advertise that. We won't have any advertisers on the show.
JD Roth:
So what they wanted us to say is, "Well, you can eat some meat, you can have some of those things," and we weren't willing to do that. And I think that's what I struggle with the most. The fact that Greger says it the best, "There's no big broccoli, there's no big asparagus," and that the support system financially to push this type of thinking and this way of thinking isn't supported and isn't there, but the milk mustache and the Jennie-O Turkey and all.
Chrissy Roth:
Yeah.
JD Roth:
All of that has huge backing and huge funding. And that's what makes a difference.
Chrissy Roth:
Hopefully we're getting there. I don't know.
JD Roth:
And that's why, sadly, The Big Fat Truth is the first and only plant-based show because of that. But just like her being relentless, trying to convert me and the boys. We are going to continue to be relentless to try and change that plant-based reality that's out in the world. And it's people like you who are watching this and supporting this event-
Chrissy Roth:
Right.
JD Roth:
... and supporting Rip and the cause and his dad and everyone else that we're talking about, literally we are going to make a change because this is not a moment, this is a movement.
Chrissy Roth:
That's right.
JD Roth:
And when you think in terms of that, of like, "This is a movement and I'm part of something," and share your knowledge, don't be afraid to tell someone. Don't be afraid to make a meal for someone and have them enjoy it because those are the moments that I've watched my wife change more people's opinion and more people's way of thinking by leading with love. And I think in the world, there's only two emotions, love and fear. And everybody acts out of fear and nothing good comes from fear. Everything comes from love and if there's anything I've learned over the last 30 years of being with this one, that she always leads with love. And so when you support the idea by bringing some food or sharing some knowledge, instead of preaching and forcing, and making people feel bad, then that movement grows and grows and grow.
Chrissy Roth:
It's true. So I show up at a dinner party with a plant-based meal and just share it and have it be delicious and have people try it and that's versus, I don't know. Well, I guess we do get a little preachy, but at the same time-
JD Roth:
I think we do our best to lead with love.
Chrissy Roth:
... if we try to educate, when we try to educate people.
JD Roth:
If someone's in pain and they're hurting, or they're not healthy. You say, "Hey, have you tried this? Can we help you?" She's the first one to bring a smoothie or bring a soup or bring a salad, and I think growing things is really important. So if you have kids at home, if you grow one green bean, they'll eat an entire bowl of green beans, because they think they grew them. Really enjoy the process of putting your hands in the dirt and planting something, watching one little flower turn into... I'm 53 years old, I'm still amazed. Every time I see a little flower turn into a vegetable and then I take it off and eat it. Right. I still can't get over, how it works.
Chrissy Roth:
And he is that excited. He's like, "I have a tomato!"
JD Roth:
It's amazing. And then the part I don't eat, I put in the compost bin, we mix it up and the dirt goes back in and grows more tomatoes like... It still blows my mind.
Chrissy Roth:
So I think you're hearing from him that plant-based nutrition is it's a way of life. It's not just plant-based nutrition, right? It's a plant-based way of life. We live everything this way now and when you start getting into, honestly, that you start getting into animal welfare. You start getting into the benefits on the environment is such a no brainer. It's hard to wrap your head around not doing this so...
JD Roth:
Nobody could argue at any other way I don't think and I think the fact that you have all these people joining this, listening to us, listening to all of the... I can't wait to listen to everyone's-
Chrissy Roth:
Me too.
JD Roth:
... 20 to 30 minutes, like we're super excited about it. And we will do anything to support Rip and his family and his family of people that he has around them. We are amazed that we're included and if there's anything that we can do or any questions we can answer, we're easy to find.
Chrissy Roth:
That's for sure, yeah.
JD Roth:
And she will spend all day trying to help you. So yeah, that's it.
Chrissy Roth:
All right.
JD Roth:
We're going to enjoy everybody else.
Chrissy Roth:
Thank you so much for listening-
JD Roth:
Yeah. Thanks for listening. And you know what, you know what they say after 30 years you become like your wife and your wife becomes like you. You're a pretty good host. I was impressed.
Chrissy Roth:
Well, thank you.
JD Roth:
Yeah. I was very impressed.
Chrissy Roth:
Getting better. All right. Bye, everyone.
JD Roth:
See you.
Chrissy Roth:
Have a great day.
Rip Esselstyn:
I could absolutely eat those two up. They are just such wonderfully delicious human beings and no doubt they're going to remain undaunted and resolute in their mission to change the narrative around weight loss and show us the beautiful reality behind a PLANTSTRONG lifestyle. I just got to give a big kale yeah shout out.
Rip Esselstyn:
Okay, everyone, as we wind down the year, I want to extend my sincerest gratitude to each and every one of you for following and sharing this podcast in making it a part of your weekly routine. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I don't take you for granted not for a second. And in fact, I am here to help along with the rest of the PLANSTRONG team.
Rip Esselstyn:
And don't forget that. Also, don't forget our free PLANTSTRONG seven day challenge that kicks off January 5th. Simply visit the shownotes@planstrongpodcast.com or visit plantstrong.com for all the details and to register. All right, let's make 2022 the year for you. Happy New Year, my friends. I'll see you next year.
Rip Esselstyn:
The PLANTSTRONG podcast team includes Carrie Barrett, Lori Cordic, Amy Mackie, Patrick Gavin, and Wade Clark. This season is dedicated to all of those courageous true seekers, who weren't afraid to look through the lens with clear vision and hold firm to a higher truth. Most notably, my parents, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselsteyn Jr. and Ann Crile Esselsteyn. Thanks for listening.
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