#165: Raymond "The Noodnick" - This Plant-Powered Athlete Defies Gravity
We’re thrilled to bring you the gravity-defying, jaw-dropping artistic calisthenic work of Raymond, “The Noodnick.”
His strength, grace, and skill of his movements shouldn’t come as a surprise because Raymond is PLANTSTRONG, baby! In fact, his Mom and Uncle were the original founders of the Nasoya Tofu brand that you see today in grocery stores.
Raymond has fascinating stories and philosophies on life, love, nutrition, and compassion that he shares with his hundreds of thousands of followers and with us today.
It was a breath of fresh air to chat with someone who seeks love and true fulfillment every second of the day Of course, the real magic is watching his calisthenic routines, so we’ll put links to some of his videos below.
Episode Resources
“The Noodnick” Instagram - @thenoodnick
“The Noodnick” TikTok - @thenoodnick
To stock up on the best-tasting, most convenient, 100% PLANTSTRONG foods, including our broths and soups, check out all of our PLANTSTRONG products HERE.
Give us a like on the PLANTSTRONG Facebook Page and check out what being PLANSTRONG is all about. We always keep it stocked full of new content and updates, tips for healthy living, delicious recipes, and you can even catch me LIVE on there!
We’ve also got an Instagram! Check us out and share your favorite PLANTSTRONG products and why you love it! Don’t forget to tag us using #goplantstrong 🌱💪
Want to live your best PLANTSTRONG life? Join our exclusive PLANTSTRONG Community of friendly, plant-loving peeps! This is a goldmine of resources, recipes, and incredible support to feed your PLANTSTRONG life.
Speaker 1:
Hey, PlantStrong family. It is officially soup season, which means it is hot in our house, especially around the stove top because we love, especially as we head into the weekends, cooking up some sort of a stew, or chili, or soup. I've been recently making a corn chowder, a sweet potato corn chowder, in fact, using our sweet corn broth as the base. And I'm telling you right now, our family could eat it every day for the rest of 2022, it is that good. In case you guys didn't know it, we have four unsalted, organic, no added sugar, no added oil, PlantStrong culinary broths that have the best distinct flavors that can elevate each and every one of your favorite recipes. For example, my wife Jill, loves using our Spanish style sofrito broth, it's got all these great aromatics of onions, and garlic, roasted peppers as the base for a chili recipe that she's been making, and it really gives nuance to each and every bowl. So if you guys love broths as much as I do, you can pick up a sampler at planstrongfoods.com today
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I see everything I do as a spiritual practice. So essentially, I want my soul or whatever it is that animates me, that desire to create. I want it to connect stronger with the computer, which I would consider the computer of a car, which is my mind. And then I basically want to connect the neurons within my mind to the motor units of my muscles. And I want to strengthen the electrical connection throughout my body. So I figure the more control over the motor units of my muscles and my body that I have, that my mind has access to, the more they are electrified. And the more I have feedback from them, the more I will be able to do and the more I'll be able to set myself free ,and essentially just create the feeling of elusive dream. I want to be able to feel what it feels like to fly in a dream. But while I'm awake.
Rip Esselstyn:
I'm Rip Esselstyn and welcome to the PlantStrong podcast. The mission at 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 PlantStong journey, and I hope that you enjoy the show.
Hey everyone, we have got an absolute doozy of a conversation for you today. This one, really to me, was one for the record books, because what this guy can do is almost otherworldly, and he does it by fueling himself with plants. He has not only fascinating stories and philosophies on life, love, and nutrition, and compassion, but he also thinks in a very unorthodox way that to me, I find so incredibly refreshing and compelling and inspirational, all at the same time. And everything that this gentleman does, his name is Raymond. And if you want to go see, actually, I insist that you go to either Instagram or TikTok, and you put in the TheNoodNick, N O O D N I C K. And you need to watch some of this artistic calisthenics that he does. So you can appreciate it ahead of listening to this conversation.But I can tell you that this was such a breath of fresh air, talking with Raymond. And to see somebody that is seeking out love every second of the day. And I really hope that you're going to enjoy this as much as I did. In the meantime, just hang on to your hats and get ready to be blown away by Raymond.
All right. Hey, Raymond, it's a pleasure to see you, to get to know you a little bit. You're very unique man with a lot of unique passions that I really want to dive into today with you.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Excellent. I'm very excited.
Rip Esselstyn:
And I love people that aren't following the status quo and blaze their own path, and you have done that in absolute spades. And it's almost like it's one of your missions in life is to do stuff that very few people do because it just seems to resonate with you. So, does that all sound about right?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
As best way to describe me is as I could ever hope for, I really appreciate it, being described that way. Absolutely, that's what I live for.
Rip Esselstyn:
So we're going to put some videos of your art form in the show notes. People also feel free to go to TikTok or Instagram, because to me, I don't really want you, the listener, to listen to the conversation that you and I are about to have here for the next hour or so until they can see with their own eyes the art form that you perform in a way, and I could be wrong here, but you tell me, is there anyone on the planet that you know of that does what you do as artistically and as flowingly?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
They do it a bit differently than I do. I don't want to say yes or no to that. Just I do things a bit differently and I'm not too aware of people who do things the same way that I do. I'm in no way the best, but I'm definitely one of a kind in that I know of, at least, in the way that I do these things. And certainly doing them the way that I do in public.
Rip Esselstyn:
And you do things that again, people, you need to go stop right now and either go into the show notes or, tell me right now just so people, where can they go to see you performing this art form?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
They could see me on Instagram at the TheNoodNick, on TikTok at TheNoodNick or on YouTube at TheNoodNick. So I make things a bit differently for all three platforms.
Rip Esselstyn:
Okay, so that's your homework assignment. Go do that right now and then come back in about five, 10 minutes, okay?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Thank you.
Rip Esselstyn:
With that being said. I mean, you defy gravity, you do things that I'm watching going, "Okay, there's got to be ropes or strings that are attached to his ankles, his arms, his neck." I mean, please.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I appreciate that.
Rip Esselstyn:
No, really. I mean, I cannot even imagine, Raymond, the amount of time and energy and resources and just mental fortitude that you've put into be becoming just one of a kind at this craft. What do you call this craft that you do?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I call it calisthenics, but specifically artistic calisthenics. So it's a branch off of body weight exercise. So anytime you're doing pushups for a number of reps or sets, I would consider that a body weight exercise. Calisthenics is once you take body weight exercises and focus on art, art or skill of the movement that you're performing. And then what I do is it's just strictly artistic calisthenics. So I'm just only focused on the flow patterns and the ability to move seamlessly, however my mind sees fit, however my soul desires essentially.
Rip Esselstyn:
And I mean, how did you decide, "All right, Raymond, you know what? This is a pretty cool, cool passion project that I want to dive into as deep as any human being ever has." What was the lightning bolt that struck you and made that happen?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Well, it all started originally when I was 13 years old, so 27 years ago. I just wanted to climb trees, I've always been obsessed with kind of experiencing the feel of a lucid dream in my waking life. So I wanted to just sprint up trees as fast as I could. And I wasn't strong enough yet, so I had to get stronger with pull-ups, and then I went more into that. And then I realized people enjoy seeing little party tricks and fun ways where you defy gravity. So that was fun in my teenage years. And then I went into all the general fitness modalities, all the weightlifting modalities, all that. And then I had a bit of a career in fighting, particularly grappling. And I just-
Rip Esselstyn:
What is that? I have no idea what that is.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
It's like MMA, but without the punching and kicking because I like my brain, I don't want to get traumatic brain injury. It's all the strangulations and joint locks and all that. And I did that and I always used calisthenics in the background because I enjoyed the body weight strength, I enjoyed the ability to control my body and it carried over well into my sport. And then when the lockdown happened I was like, "Yeah, I'm going to put my stuff out there and focus on that." And luckily it connected with people and it worked out well.
Rip Esselstyn:
So let me go back for a second on grappling. So is grappling a form of wrestling?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Essentially, it's wrestling but without the objective to pin your opponent. Rather than pinning your opponent or holding them on their back, your objective is to either strangle or apply a joint lock and get your opponent to submit, end the match.
Rip Esselstyn:
And how do you submit, do you say uncle?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah, basically you usually tap. You could do verbal submission if your hands aren't accessible or you know, could usually just tap. Generally it's done as a tap and the ref will stop it.
Rip Esselstyn:
All right, so you switched to this, what are we calling it again? Artistic...
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Calisthenics, just Calisthenics is fine.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well, come on dude, you're underselling it. I mean to me, I think we need to call it, let's think of something really cool for.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Cirque du Soleil in public.
Rip Esselstyn:
Okay. Yeah, exactly. It's like, yeah, this Cirque du Soleil stuff. So when did you start doing your Cirque du Soleil stuff?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
So I always did it in the background. So for the past 27 years I did it a lot. I did primarily what I call the meathead version of it. It's just like handstand pushups, weighted pull-ups, muscle ups, things like that. Pulling myself above and below the bar.
Rip Esselstyn:
Which is not easy, which is not easy to do. I mean I can't do it. I consider myself a pretty spectacular athlete and I can't even come close to doing that. I can do do pull-ups, but you have to show me the technique.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
It's very similar. The rings are the best way to understand it. So rings, people struggle with the technique because rings are so much more technical than say a bar. A bar is more really just explosive strength and dynamic effort. But rings, there's all sorts of things you could do with proper grips, hooking the rings there, which will shorten the length of your arm, give you a little bit more of a physics advantage. Things like keeping tight elbows, that's why I loved rings, particularly when I was grappling, because grappling was all about separating the elbow from the body and the hollow body position. So it's spinal alignment, what position your spine is in to shorten your body and make you stronger and activate your core more.
On a muscle up on the rings, you can bring your elbows very tight during the transition phase, which is difficult when you move from below the rings to above the rings. And by keeping your elbows tight, you'll actually connect the tricep to the lat, and it just makes it a lot easier. Whenever you connect your body, you create structure and you're far stronger. So much of what I do is entirely skill based, and I'd love to talk about that more because I'm obsessed with the skill of it.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, and it seems to me too, you have a sense of body awareness that is so incredibly honed and-
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Thank you.
Rip Esselstyn:
... precise and you know exactly what's going on, it seems like, with every little bone, muscle, in your body. What are you activating, what are you not activating, when are you pushing, when are you pulling? I mean it is spectacular to watch. I probably watched a hundred of your videos.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Oh my god, I'm so honored, thank you.
Rip Esselstyn:
And I'm just going, "Oh my gosh, this guy has such a handle on his body." Are you honing that even now after however many years?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yes, absolutely. It's an ongoing process. The best way that I describe it is I see everything I do as a spiritual practice. So essentially I want my soul, or whatever it is that animates me, that desire to create. I want it to connect stronger with the computer, which I would consider the computer of a car, which is my mind. And then I basically want to connect the neurons within my mind to the motor units of my muscles. And I want to strengthen the electrical connection throughout my body. So I figure the more control over the motor units of my muscles and my body that I have, that my mind has access to, the more they are electrified and I have feedback from them, the more I will be able to do and the more I'll be able to set myself free. And essentially just create the feeling of a lucid dream. I want to be able to feel what it feels like to fly in a dream, but while I'm awake.
And it really does, a lot of the things I do feel incredibly similar. And one of the greatest things that I ever did to strengthen that mind body connection was I film everything that I do. And it's not just this incessant need to post on social media or show off the art form. The main reason why I film everything, even the warmups, is at all times I'm trying to create a synesthesia effect within me. So what that does is while I watch what I do, not only do I want to see myself incrementally improving and just looking for just the slightest micro adjustments and studying any little thing that will make me somewhat better. Just basically a grain of sand forming the beach is what I'm trying to do when I'm filming myself, and believe that the sand is piling up. Because our heads and the way that we narrate our lives and experience our lives, it's not always honest. So I like to see what I'm doing and actually start believing and strengthen the belief in myself.
But one of the main reasons why I film what I do and I study my film is I want to create synesthesia. I want my sight to become tactile feel and physical sensation, and I want physical sensation to become a mental sight. So when I'm watching my videos, I'm watching them and I try as hard as I can to enervate and feel everything in my body exactly how it would feel when I'm doing it. And then when I'm doing it, the vision is then recreated in my head so I know exactly what it's going to look like on camera. I can see my movement patterns just simply from the translation of the feel. And that's not something special, I had to develop that over time. And really all it comes from is just filming myself and then studying it with the intent to feel it as I'm watching it and vice versa. And then reverse that feeling so that when I'm doing things I can then see the movement in my head as I'm performing it.
Rip Esselstyn:
You use the word twice there, synesthesia. I don't know that word. What is that?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
It's when senses get cross mingled and confused. So essentially hearing colors, if you hear a sound you'll mentally see a color, or if something you eat gives you a vision, anytime senses get crossed. So when I use synesthesia, what I'm saying is when I feel something physically, it translates to an image in my head. And what's interesting about it is I actually see it from where the camera is, which I find that kind of interesting just because that's how I learned it. So basically I want physical sensation to become mental image and vice versa mental image to become physical sensation.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well okay, we're going to come back to that. And you kind of lit up when you mentioned skill based, and you want to dive back into that. But let me ask you this, so in watching your videos and you doing your art form, I am deeply impressed with the body that you have created to allow this art form to exist. Because to me the two are very much go hand-in-hand, they're very much intertwined. Okay, you're watching your videos, you're watching your body do its thing you going, "I'm liking what I'm seeing." Are you like, yes, this is good?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Absolutely. It's that process of seeing myself change, seeing, believe. I just want to see myself and believe in myself because, I mean I guess maybe we all are, but I'm certainly inherently negative towards myself and it washes away all that negativity, washes away that self critical voice, I shouldn't say self critical because it is good to be self critical, but that dishonest self critique that we give ourselves and that I certainly gave myself. So yeah, absolutely. It's seeing is believing and again, it all boils down to a grain of sand forming this beautiful paradise beach that I'm hoping to continue forever going towards.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. Let everybody know how tall are you, what's your weight? What does that look like?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
So I'm six foot two, 40 years old, and I weigh 165 pounds.
Rip Esselstyn:
165?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yes.
Rip Esselstyn:
And so have you been 165 for the last 10 years or have you become even leaner?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
So I guess around my thirties I was doing a lot of heavy weight lifting. Right around when I turned 30 I wanted to be as big as possible, I was 230 at the time, but.
Rip Esselstyn:
230?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah, it was a lot of muscle. Not a four pack, not the greatest, it was a little sloppy because none of those special supplements. But yeah, it takes a lot. So I only eat once a day, as well as being vegan. And I just want to stay as lean as possible and not only just to look a certain way, but a part of me also believes that fat tissue is hormonal and I just don't want anything negatively impacting me. I don't want any negative hormonal influence, I don't want negative gut influence, I don't want my microbiome to be negatively influenced by the foods I eat. I want to be clean. So I always work out fasted, I always do these things fasted. I don't want anything interfering with the process. I just want to be clean and as little on me as possible and nothing in me.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. Well, okay, so you said a couple things there that we need to talk about.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Sure.
Rip Esselstyn:
One, you mentioned that you are vegan.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yes.
Rip Esselstyn:
I'd like to know, in your opinion, what does that look like? And then also you mentioned that you eat one meal a day, that's pretty unique in keeping with you and your personality being in just a unique guy that does his own thing. But before we touch upon that, I want to dive a little bit more.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Sure.
Rip Esselstyn:
So in looking at a lot of your videos, I noticed that you go through different transformations or looks, like your hair. Tell me your hair changes it seems like every other month. So is that just cause that's a fun thing to do? Or what's going on with your hairdo?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I cut my own hair. Again, it's that I've always had a lot of different hairstyles throughout my life, I don't know.
Rip Esselstyn:
What are you doing now? What are you doing with it right now?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I got the long bun ponytail in the back.
Rip Esselstyn:
All right. Cool.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah. So, it's just long hair. It's about mid chest length. Just been growing it out now for a while. I'll probably keep this for a very long time. I love having long hair.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very, very cool. So you do all this Cirque du Soleil gymnastics. Do you also do any cardio? Do you feel like that's an important part of what you do or not?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I haven't done any cardio for, well, I can say the last time I did cardio, it was on my birthday in 2020. It was the last time I taught grappling in a gym, in a fight gym. So that was the last time I did cardio was coming up three years ago pretty soon.
Rip Esselstyn:
I mean, I would imagine with what you're doing and the number of reps and sets and the way you work out, that it's probably a pretty darn good cardio workout.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
It works. And I should mention, I don't do any reps, any sets. It's always just trying to put together as many skills as possible. No flexibility, no stretching, no warmup, no nothing. It's just exactly what you say is exactly what I do.
Rip Esselstyn:
Now, hold on, hold on. Cause I have seen you do this thing where you go into the splits and you touch the floor with your different arms and elbows. So that to me is a form of flexibility that you work on.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
It is. So I'll do that at the end of my workouts. I'll do some mobility flow, and really all I'm doing is I'm just practicing movement patterns. When I can't move through the air anymore, I'm just trying to move seamlessly in the ground. And also cause I'm too lazy to do legs and I kind of have chicken legs. So I just want them to be strong and be able to move wherever I want them to move, as opposed to looking a certain way.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well I am in incredibly impressed with your flexibility.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Thank you.
Rip Esselstyn:
But that's really interesting that you don't necessarily do anything-
Raymond "The Noodnick":
No stretching.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Just stuff like that. Exactly what you see on my social media is exactly what I do.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, phenomenal.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Thank you.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well, you have a lot of really interesting life philosophies.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yes.
Rip Esselstyn:
And that's another thing I want to intertwine in this interview, along with what you do and why you do it and how you do it and how it's all skill based. But also some of your life philosophy, so let me just throw out one. And then you kind of go off on a little diatribe. So let's start with chasing love.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Oh yes, yes. So my definition of love is the dissolution of time, whatever makes time go away. It's the opposite of fear, because when I'm fearful or in an adrenalized state, a second will feel like an hour. I want the opposite, I want an hour to feel like a second. I want to be around people I love, I want to be doing what I love all the time. I want my life to go by as fast as possible, essentially, because that means I'm doing a lot of what I love and I'm around people I love. So that's really my philosophy is just the dissolution of time. Be around people that make time go away, do things that make time go away.
Rip Esselstyn:
And so do you try and make that happen on a daily basis? And I would imagine it happens when you're doing your Cirque du Soleil gymnastics flow set, but have you been able to have that ripple into other aspects of your life?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Into everything, yes.
Rip Esselstyn:
Really? Give me an example. Wow.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Even if I'm doing a mundane task that I don't want to be doing, there's always the mental freedom. So if I can't be physically free, I'll always try to be mentally focused on something that I love, something that passes time in a productive way that's better, that I feel like I'm enriching my life and just doing my purpose. I only try to be around people that I absolutely adore. I'm not very social, I stay around people I love only, I just try to eat things I love, be kind, just do things loving.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well I know that in one of the videos I watched, one of the 100 plus, you mentioned how, you're not a very social guy and you love hanging around your mother and your son, right?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah.
Rip Esselstyn:
And you're like, I just dig it. I love it. And I think that's so cool. I love being around my family, my mom, my dad and all that. But that's cool. So are you not married, are you single right now?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I have a girlfriend. So I'll spend time with her as well, I love being around her. Not married, no. I even live with my family now. So I lived away from them for a long time and then I thought about it, I was like, if I stay on this schedule, I might only talk to my mom and see my mom a hundred times more in my life. So I live with my mom, my sister. I live with my family, I'm very blessed, I get to live with everyone I love.
Rip Esselstyn:
Wow. And where do you live?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
In Long Island. So I live in Long Island, New York.
Rip Esselstyn:
You like New York?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I'd like to be somewhere warmer. I don't do very well in the winter, so I love it in the summer. I'm halfway between Manhattan and the Hampton, so it's beautiful. Beautiful beaches, it's a good place.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I'd like to be somewhere warmer though.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, I don't sense... maybe a typical New York accent.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
No, everyone thinks I'm from California.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, yeah, very much. All right, so when you are working out the way you work out, or flowing, or meditating, let's call it flow state. I look at you and what you're doing and I'm like, ouch. My shoulder wants to go out on me or I'm getting a strain in my neck or I get a little tear in one of my abs. So what do you do to prevent injury? Or if you get injured, what do you do to heal?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I essentially accept injury, it' a part of it. Luckily from grappling, it's not nearly as bad as grappling was. Grappling was just a litany of endless amounts of injuries because people are attacking your joints. So I have tons of existing injuries from that, but certain things are bad. For instance, my left hand from all the one arm handstands, I haven't felt my pinky essentially in two years. And it just doesn't matter. I think loving what you do and being obsessed with it, in a sense, is a limitless drug. So it just gives you abilities to persevere through things. Like I'm in pain, but I just don't care. To me when I'm in pain, it just means that I've been able to do what I love and that I'm still going. So I mean, I also work out seven days a week. And-
Rip Esselstyn:
Do you have an average time that you work out? Or is it just depend upon how your mood is that day?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
However long my body will allow me that day.
Rip Esselstyn:
Wow.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Every day that I do something, I want to do something I've never done before. So it's always my job to figure out a way to do something I've never done before. Today I was holding one arm handstand and throwing and catching a 10 pound dumbbell while holding one arm handstand. Just for some fun stuff with my bros, just to do some challenges. But that was fun, I never did that before today, tried it and took me a lot of tries and I finally got it. So whenever I can do for the day. I didn't have the endurance to do complex flows that day, but I had some meathead strength so I was able to mess around that way. Whatever my body will allow, I'm just grateful for and I'll do.
Rip Esselstyn:
Now, where do you do most of your workouts? Are you a member of a gym or do you have a private place you go?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yes, Lifetime Fitness. Occasionally friends gyms, but not as much anymore. And then in the summer, I'm just anywhere I can be outside, I'll just find places I love outside. For what I do, especially for human flag stuff, playgrounds. So I'll look for empty playgrounds where there's never any people around or anything like that. I try to be cautious of putting people in my videos and I don't want to be... so playgrounds are great. They have great workout equipment. If you can find one that doesn't have a lot of people around or just anywhere beautiful. And unfortunately when it's cold out, I'm a wimp in anything under 70 degree Fahrenheit. So if it's under 70, I'm inside and I'll usually be at Lifetime.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well, that's what happens when you got 3% body fat.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah, it's pretty bad. I don't know, it's down there though, I get cold. I get really, really cold. My finger, my fingers go numb at like 65.
Rip Esselstyn:
Now, I can't even tell you how cool I think it would be to be Raymond for a day and to be able to do what you do. Go into one of these gyms and knock one of these one armed handstand out where I'm doing my feet and all kinds of weird stepping positions. And then people come up to me and they go, "Oh my God." I mean, what kind of comments do you get from people?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
It really runs all over the place. Always very positive, always a lot of respect. So it's really grateful, people are very kind and gracious to me. And then I do it a lot and it's kind of like the magician doing the trick over and over again. I think I just annoy people with my antics doing that a little, I don't even know. But people are very loving very kind.
Rip Esselstyn:
I mean, do you ever have anybody come up to you and say, "Hey, can you teach me how to do a particular move?"
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Uh-huh. Usually if somebody asked me, I'll usually spend an hour or two hours, invite them to work out with me, whatever. My Instagram originally was all just giving away tutorials and trying to teach people. If I can help anyone kind of transcend where they're at and do stuff that they didn't think was possible. I'm just endlessly gracious. So no money, no anything. I guess I'm just a crazy hippie who wants to spread any type of greatness that I can to people.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well it's a beautiful thing. So one of your other life philosophies is to make it challenging. And I think that you've succeeded in that one.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Thank you. Yes, yes.
Rip Esselstyn:
Where did that birth from? Why are you so enamored with making something challenging? What's wrong, Raymond, with taking the easy way?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
If it's complex, it's worth doing. I don't know. There's something, there's something beautiful about unfolding, or putting together, a complex puzzle, doing something that's incredibly challenging, doing anything that you think is impossible at first. And then figuring it out and then making it easy eventually. And then once it becomes easy, making it your own and then just exploring all the possibilities that you can explore. Because everything's essentially just a human system. So if I really want to enjoy the most out of my humanity, I have to at least look for the most complex of human systems to try give my time to. So that's basically it.
Rip Esselstyn:
You certainly have, wow.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Thank you.
Rip Esselstyn:
I wrote down in one of the 100 plus videos I watched, you basically said, Hell, in your opinion, hell is getting everything that you want in this world without working for it or earning.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yes, yes. So I'll go with that. All right, so my take on it is God or whatever I feel called to whatever is calling me to do the things I believe that I know it's going to be difficult. I know anything that I want is going to be incredible sacrifice. But I believe that, at least my God, gives me the strength to endure what I'm here to do, and the things that will matter to me, and the things that will bring me my version of heaven while I'm alive. And I think I view the Devil's bargain is it just gives you things that you fear you need. So I don't believe in free will, I believe I'm here to do whatever makes time go away for me and then just go as deep into it as I possibly can. Whatever I feel called to do, I feel that's what I'm here to do.
And I used think I was in control and try to do things because I thought I needed to do them or I thought it would make me cool or this, that, the other thing, really, it would just always blow up in my face because yeah, I'd get the result in the beginning, but then the result would never turn out to be what I wanted. It's the classic Devil's bargain, I don't want that mean. My worst nightmare would be if heaven was real, it would be horrible. Love matters because I can lose my loved ones, that vulnerability is what matters most. I want the vulnerability. So appearing in some magical place where no one ever dies and you have everything you want, that's my definition of hell, there's no vulnerability anymore. Where's the love? Where's the purpose? It's just playing a video game on cheat mode where you can't lose, there's no fun in that.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well, again, in one of your videos you mentioned, is this heaven? Is this heaven now? Is this the afterlife? Because this is kind of what I would like.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah, yeah. I have people I absolutely adore, I do what I love. And there's of course consequences to my actions. There's incredible difficulties I'll go through. But that's beautiful. Getting through those difficult times, getting through these things. When I am injured, it'll force me to work on something that maybe I've been neglecting, maybe find something that I never would've looked at. I don't see things as good and bad, I just see them as, they're just things. They're all gifts. They're all meant to be experienced. So yeah, I enjoy.
Rip Esselstyn:
I'm going all over the map here because this is just like, so I find you to be an absolutely fascinating human being.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I'm truly honored, thank you.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. So when you look at your body, do you find that there's a part of your body that is a weakness that you're trying to strengthen?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
My elbows are so damaged from my grappling career, from all the arm bar pops. And my knees, I have torn meniscus in both my knees, everything. Because I use my body as a unit. So everything from neck, when I'm in hands, then doing one arm balances and stuff. Have people always ask what are you mostly using in balance? Little flaps of the ankles and trying to curl my big toe under, down to the toes. Everything has to be engaged.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, it is incredible. Again, I'm going to come back to the body awareness that you have when you're doing your flags, when you're doing your one arms. It is absolutely, And I use this word with the greatest amount of respect, it is sickening.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Thank you, I appreciate that. I really appreciate that.
Rip Esselstyn:
All right, we'll circle back to this. So do you like to say you're plant based, you're vegan. How do you identify?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I don't really know how to identify. Plant based, vegan. I don't even view it as a diet necessarily. I view it as a commandment from my God. I'm not allowed to eat any animals, I'm not allowed to eat suffering. I don't want species in my microbiome causing me to do things that I disagree with. I just don't want to consume anything that died. I don't want to consume any sentient being that died. And I don't want anything within me that craves that. I don't want my microbiome releasing toxins and neurotransmitters craving those things. So to me, I don't even see it as a diet. So whatever people want to identify me as, I'm fine with.
Rip Esselstyn:
Right. All right. So I'm going to identify you as PlantStrong. Cause I like-
Raymond "The Noodnick":
PlantStrong, so I like that better, honestly. It's a better version.
Rip Esselstyn:
So you're a PlantStrong man. What time is it where you are right now? Is it about four?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
It's four o'clock in the afternoon.
Rip Esselstyn:
Okay. So have you eaten yet today?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
No.
Rip Esselstyn:
Okay. So when you decide to eat, do you know what you're going to eat or are you going to go into the kitchen and whip something up? And what does that look like?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I'm going to go into the kitchen and whip something up. Normally, as I said, I live with my family, my mom and my sister are culinary wizards. So usually I'm very lucky.
Rip Esselstyn:
That's why you moved in with them.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I just adore them. But yeah, it is a beautiful perk. And I mean, my mom is an absolute genius, we should definitely talk about her later. She's got a beautiful garden, most of the food is homegrown. While they're away, I'm just going to be making myself some food. So as much as I could eat primarily carbohydrates. I'd say I mainly only focus on carbohydrates, probably just a little bit of protein, fats, whatever. But carbohydrates are my main focus. I'll probably eat about 80% or more carbohydrates.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well, it's perfect. I mean 80% carb, maybe 10% fat, 10% protein or that's perfect.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah. If I eat 60, 80 grams of protein a day, I'm lucky. So I have a lot of younger meathead friends and they think it's wild how little protein I eat.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well, and again for people, if you haven't gone and watched any of his videos, you have not been behaving. Thank
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Thank you. Thank you, Rip.
Rip Esselstyn:
But you'll see how absolutely shredded Raymond is. I mean, his biceps, his 18 pack, the list goes on and on and on and on. So obviously you work out as hard as anyone on the planet and you're getting all the protein and all the nutrients you need to basically recover and repair yourself.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yes.
Rip Esselstyn:
So that's pretty kick ass.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Again, seven days a week. I'm 40 years old, so you can just keep going. You will repair, we need amino acids, we get plenty of it. I guess really though, what it boils down to is you should really just eat however you feel most vibrant and most alive. And I feel most alive this way. So I don't worry about my nutritional content, I eat the way that will make me feel most alive. And I just assume it's doing its best for me. I assume it's doing its job.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. Are you enamored with fruits or vegetables? I know you say it's carbohydrate, but can we dial in a little bit. Are you a huge fan of bananas or kiwis or grapefruits?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Kiwi's the only food on the planet I'm allergic to. I do love them though, but I can't eat them.
Rip Esselstyn:
What happens, your tongue swell up?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
No, it's the weirdest thing. I feel like I have this metallic secretion coming from behind my molars. It's not even that big of a deal, but I basically just sit there.
Rip Esselstyn:
Okay.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
It's just really awkward and terrible. I mean, pretty much anything that isn't eggplant or portabella mushrooms, I kind of enjoy, I hate all the vegan staples. I love pretty much everything.
Rip Esselstyn:
You know what? It's so funny you mentioned those two things and anybody that is a long time listener of the PlantStrong podcast knows I cannot stand eggplant, have yet to meet an eggplant that I like.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
1000000%. And the fact that people used to try pass off eggplant in portabella mushrooms is like a steak sandwich or a hamburger. It's like, this is why people are mad at you. What are you doing? This is not even food, this is disgusting.
Rip Esselstyn:
Exactly. And then portabella mushrooms, mushrooms in general. They have to be prepared just right. Meaning on the grill, all the water just suck dry. Like Derek Sarna, I don't know if you know Derek Sarna, he's just a master world class, plant-based chef, and he does a number where he'll put his mushrooms in a cast iron skillet and then put another cast iron skillet on top.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
That's smart.
Rip Esselstyn:
Press the dickens out of that thing.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
That's smart. Now that I love. I love shiitakes, most mushrooms, but portobella mushrooms are just these big soaking wet, awful. They're awful. Everything about them's awful.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yes. But I will say I've had portabellas that when you wring them dry and you put the right seasoning on them, they can work
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I've had portabella jerky. portabella Jerky was delightful. And I was like, okay, okay. I've eaten my words. Delicious. But ugh. Prepared portabellas is I've yet to experience.
Rip Esselstyn:
What about beans and grains?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yes. I eat a ton of beans, grains. Everything grain wise, rices, pastas, breads, anything I can get grain wise, cereals, anything. Beans, I love beans. Anything be related. Beans are fantastic. My main staples are tofu, satan and beans.
Rip Esselstyn:
All right. I'm going to send you a bunch of cereal, Rips Big bowl Cereal.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Oh my God, thank you. Oh my God, thank you.
Rip Esselstyn:
We'll knock your socks off.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I would love that.
Rip Esselstyn:
Oh yeah. Well you have to let me know what you think.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Absolutely.
Rip Esselstyn:
What about tofu? Because I know with your mother, there's a little bit of a connection there with tofu, you like tofu?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I've been eating tofu since the day I was born. My uncle Robert, he started soya back in the seventies. My mom was making tofu ice cream, tofu cheesecake, tofu mayonnaise, all the tofu things before there was even tofu in the supermarkets. Back then you could only go to Asian districts, you could go to Chinatown in Manhattan and get buckets of bean curd. But the modern tofu, the way it exists now, it's crazy. I grew up on this, tofu has been my life since the day I was born.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. Do you have a favorite way of preparing tofu?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Absolutely. The way my mom makes, it's just a mixture of soy sauce, Dijon mustard, and just pan fry it till it's crispy, like thin pan fried, it's delicious.
Rip Esselstyn:
I mean, Soya is probably one of the best known and number one tofu brands. I don't know about the world, but at least the United States.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yes. Yeah. So my mom was the one who got it into all the stores on the East Coast back in the very early eighties. Before I was born, she was going to food demos and everything with me in her stomach. So I was on that journey inside my mother.
Rip Esselstyn:
Wow. So that obviously influenced you as far as how you eat. Did you ever eat animal products or have you been-
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah, unfortunately I did. We ate very, very normal in a sense that we did eat chicken, we didn't eat very much red meat or anything like that. But then there would be a lot of seaweeds, a lot of unique health foods. Especially health foods, at the time, because this was the early eighties. I was born in 82, so all of the early eighties I was eating these foods that really didn't become mainstream even knowledge until I guess the later nineties where it started catching on more popularity.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. Well when did you take the full dive into no animal, no dairy?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
So I always knew that it was wrong, but I was just that conventional wisdom. I was trapped in the thinking paradigms of the time. And then my early twenties, I started exploring vegetarianism. So I was on and off with vegetarianism from late teens, about 13 years with breaks in between. And basically eggs would always make me fall off the wagon, because I always really loved eggs and I just didn't want to eat animals anymore. And then as I'd eat eggs, it would become a slippery slope where I'd make more. Then I'd be like, oh, maybe I'll put some milk in my coffee and then oh, maybe I'll get an egg sandwich and there'd be cheese on them. Oh, whatever. And then eventually accidentally someone will put bacon on it or something. I'd be, oh, I accidentally ate it and then it'd fall off.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Then it was eight years ago where I was just like, I don't ever want an animal in my body ever again. So the only way to do this is just to never eat an egg ever again, so.
Rip Esselstyn:
What was it about eggs that you adored?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I like them. I just like how they taste and that's it.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. It's so funny because to me eggs are right up there with eggplant.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Oh, you don't like eggs? We have chickens and they lay these beautiful eggs, I'm just like, can't touch them, can't even look at them.
Rip Esselstyn:
How did you like your eggs when you ate them?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Fried. Just fried. No runny yolks, I think runny yolks are disgusting. Just fried over hard, I guess you call that. I don't know the egg lingo.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Don't speak egg anymore.
Rip Esselstyn:
I don't either, I don't either. So one of the things I noticed in watching a lot of your videos is you got a very eclectic taste in music. Tell me about your music.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I go all over the place with it. So I have a very eclectic taste in music and sometimes I'll post things that are for me, but sometimes I'll just do things that I think will do better in a video. I hate when I fall into that what is popular or what might work better in algorithm trap. But I usually try to find things that I think works well with the music. What's interesting about that is I never have any music playing when I'm doing the things that I do. So what I've had to do to make things match up really well with songs over time is I kind of had to develop a metronome in my head and tempo my movements. And I know based on whatever movement tempo I'm working on in my set, and as long as I flow to a specific time sequence that I could always match it up and I'll know exactly which song to use for it. So a lot of times, whatever I feel like displaying, will select the music that I'll then eventually use.
Rip Esselstyn:
Do you think one of the reasons that you don't have music when you're working out is because it helps you be more in that flow state and it's a distraction?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
No, I think the music would actually help me. Sometimes if I'm in a gym and there's a class going on, there'll be some music, I'm like, oh, this is good. I could do better, and I actually have something to flow to and then I'll automatically know the beat pattern when I upload and choose a different song. But it really just boils down to, I'm using my phone to film myself. I don't have anything to listen to music on.
Rip Esselstyn:
You can get one of those little Bluetooth speakers and your set.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah, it's still got to play off my phone and my phone is filming. It's too much effort, I don't care enough.
Rip Esselstyn:
There you go, there you go.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I'm lazy.
Rip Esselstyn:
No. Well maybe in some aspects of your life you are. It is funny. And I know you don't ever do reps, but tell me this. If I was to say, Raymond, I got a hundred dollars bill here that says you can't do 50 pull-ups, would I lose that a hundred dollars bill to you?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
No, you'd keep that a hundred dollars bill.
Rip Esselstyn:
Oh, really?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah. I can't do 50 pull-ups in one set. The last time I did a set did 30 like 4 years ago, there's no way I'd be able to do 50, and also clean. I'm not talking these pull-ups that you see guys doing in the gym. Full range of motion. 0% chance I'd do 50.
Rip Esselstyn:
Wow. Well because to me, I watch you where you go over the bar and up and I sense you rattle off eight of those, it was like you were like a feather.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
It's just so different. Yeah, it's so different. It really is very different. And also if I'm moving quickly or there's so many different ways to make something seem more eye popping, then people realize it is. There's a lot of ways to cheat reality.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. So you're going to have that one meal here in couple hours.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah.
Rip Esselstyn:
Do you just eat until you're comfortably full, really full? Because it's got to last you for 24 hours.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I eat until I feel like I'm about to die. I really eat to the point where I don't want to eat again for 24 hours. Then I have a two hour window after I eat where I'm just like, I feel like I have no energy. I just literally feel horrible and then I go back to feeling amazing about two hours later.
Rip Esselstyn:
Wow. So during the day before you have your last meal, before you die.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Literally.
Rip Esselstyn:
Do you experience much in the way of hunger pangs or?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Not at all.
Rip Esselstyn:
Not at all. That's just something that doesn't really, no.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah, not at all. I'll have some black coffee, tea, water, seltzer, stuff like that.
Rip Esselstyn:
Are you drinking water during the day?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah, water. Just black coffee, tea. Nothing with calories in it, but yeah, no hunger pangs whatsoever.
Rip Esselstyn:
Oakay. It's interesting because again, in one of the videos I saw, you mentioned how you want eat yourself up. You want your body to basically go into this state where it like kind of, you just eat yourself, you eat all your proteins, you eat all your fats, eat all your muscles up. I thought it was a very wild thought.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah. So it's part of my philosophy. Everything with the life cycle of birth, life, death, rebirth. That's how I want my day to go. That's I view my nutritional process. During the day, I want to consume myself. I want to be in a catabolic state, I want to be eating my fats, I want to be eating my proteins from myself. I want to consume what is left of me, consume my old form, and then be born anew at the end of the day before I go to sleep is when I'll consume my building blocks. I don't see food as fuel whatsoever. I see it as building blocks and that's why I eat it at the end of the day. So then while I'm sleeping, my body can utilize it and just rebuild me. I want every day to just go through that life cycle and then be born anew the next day in as much of a new form as possible.
I just want to consume as much of my old self as possible. Very much the same way with the things I've done in my life. I kind of want to replace the person who I was before those things. And as those things become me, become something new and something different and do things that I didn't enter adulthood as, just think differently. Just keep evolving as a person and I want to eat myself and that, I mean a lot of it's too, I also want to trigger autophagy through the fasting and just try to kill off as much of me as possible to then rebuild as much of myself as possible the following day and become something else.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. So you just used the word autophagy. Will you explain what that is to people that don't know that word?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
So basically these little things called autophages in our bodies that when we're in a fasted state, particularly when we're in a fasted state, other things, they will go around and just kill damaged cells. They'll go and destroy damage within your body. That's what I do for nutrition and for health, so fasting is the performance hack that I've always wanted my whole life. It's the most profound thing I've ever done. And yeah, [autophagy is a beautiful benefit for just overall health. At least that's the placebo in my head what I'm telling myself. And it seems to work that way, and yeah it's a beautiful thing.
Rip Esselstyn:
Since long have you been doing the one meal kind of fasting?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
A little less than veganism. So I just did it intuitively when I was in my teen years, just in the summer just to look good. But then as I was in my thirties and maybe a year or so after I went vegan, I was like, I got to bring the fasting back. That was very profound and the internal voice was saying bring back the fasting. And then it was just life just got so much better and easier. Sure, there's a misery that the hunger pangs that's really just your stomach clearing out. So it took a two weeks to a month or so to get used to the hunger pangs, and just my stomach to realize, oh it's okay, you're just empty. It's not like you need fuel, it's just your stomach's empty. You literally got through step one of digestion, you're good to go. So my fear went away from that and then just got used to that and then it went away quickly. So that was basically the process. Maybe like a year or so after going vegan.
Rip Esselstyn:
Do you consider yourself a vain person?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yes and no, somewhat. I would consider myself vain in that I'm very happy with my appearance. I love how I look. I wouldn't want to trade places with anyone. I just want to be exactly who I am. But I wouldn't say that I'm vain in that, it's not the purpose of why I do the things that I do. So I've done body building and stuff like that before, working out with a purpose of looking a certain way. And I find that kind of a bottomless pit. You're crawling around in abyss forever, looking for some little bit of sunlight entering. Because no matter what, if you're just going for hypertrophy to build muscle or to lose fat or just look a certain way, you could always look better, you could always be bigger, you could always just look better. So there's really no vanity in what I'm, but in order for me to do the things I love, it does have a nice side effect of good aesthetics. I mean, I can't be that vain. I mean, I shave a bathroom.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, yeah.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I have chicken legs. But yeah, I like how I look. So there I vain in that I'm very happy with how I look, but not vain in that it's not my focus. It's just a beautiful side effect that I'm very grateful for.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. Let me ask you this, and it may be an odd question considering that feel like you're in heaven and you know love everything, but would you say you're a happy person?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yes. And again, all things I go through. I don't believe in emotions necessarily as anything other than the release of neurochemicals in your head and just trying to understand the chemistry of what's going on inside of me. I'm much happier and I'm much more even keeled. But yeah, of course I've gone through negativity. I've gone through it. That also makes me happy when I'm going through something bad or I'm going through hell in my life, because I see heaven as the other side of crawling through hell. So while it might not be pleasant for me, I see it as a beautiful opportunity to then be more of what I want to be and get to a place where I am happy.
But yeah, happiness also isn't good because then there's just that you get jaded by it or I get jaded by it. So I want that cycle. I want the highs. I want the lows, highs, lows, highs, lows. And I'm happy that I'm alive and experiencing them. And I'm very happy that I see them from a place, not of like, oh, why is this happening to me, but yes, this is happening to me now. I get to have fun and conquer this and do this.
Rip Esselstyn:
I'm really impressed at how masterful you are at articulating these, I think very kind of just deep emotions that we as human beings kind of go through. But I don't think many of us give it enough thought to really be able to explain it in a way that you have on a myriad number of different topics here today, so I appreciate that, thank you.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Thank you. Same with you, it's a learned skill, communication, speaking. I'm sure you've gotten so much better over your beautiful career. And I've practiced and it's really all I focus on. So these are all the things I think about all the time. And I don't have a TV, so there's that, I don't have a TV, so you could just study the TV in my head.
Rip Esselstyn:
I find that to be really remarkable. You don't have a TV. Is that because you don't have a TV or there's no TV in the house that you're in right?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Oh no, there's TV. I don't have a TV because I think it's mental poison, and I don't want to be programmed. I don't watch others succeeding. I want to see the people I love and the people I care about. I love watching others succeeding, but I don't want to see it in this fake Hollywood way. I don't want the news entering my mind. I don't want people spins on things. I want to my life to be my own and my thoughts to be my own. I don't want to watch Hollywood movie or something with their CGI effects and all the nonsense with people pretend to be others. I want to watch my life and the people I care about going through that journey, that rise to power, that ascension process. I want to watch that in real time. I want to see things without the special effects. I want to do things without the special effects. I want to formulate my own opinions, my own judgments on things and not just have some talking head trying to convince me of complex world issues in about 30 seconds.
Rip Esselstyn:
So you haven't seen Avatar?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I have seen Avatar. I stopped watching TV about five, six years ago. So I've seen Avatar.
Rip Esselstyn:
Gotcha. So you didn't see the Giants play this last weekend?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
No, God no. Even as an athlete, I don't watch sports. I've never watched sports. I can't even watch the sports that I do. Play sports, but I can't watch them.
Rip Esselstyn:
Right. Do you have a computer? Do you ever watch YouTube or anything like that?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah, yeah. I like watching individuals. So I do hearing individuals thoughts. I love the interactive aspect too. I don't like people being placed on pedestals. I like approachability. If I could do things on social media and if I respect someone, I can connect with them, and also often there's like that mutual respect and have honest conversations with learn from people that I respect rather than people who are just placed in front of you and then they try to lure you into respecting them or looking up to them. The fake, all the glitz and the glamor. Truly the definition of the word glamor. That fake seduction that is going on within our minds that they're luring us in with. I don't like that. So I do independently produced things. I like things directly from a human being. No middle man, no Hollywood puppet masters, none of that.
Rip Esselstyn:
So your nickname is TheNoodNick, right?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yes.
Rip Esselstyn:
What in the world does that mean and why have you taken that on?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Okay, so it is a misspelling of the Yiddish term Nudnik, which means boring pest. And it's kind of an inside joke that I like to play on people where I think I'm a boring pest. I talk about consciousness and calisthenics and this is what I obsess about. I can't talk to people about what's going on in culture or the Kardashians or whatever. So I'm a boring pest. I'm the guy, if I see someone doing a calisthenics exercise, I go up to them and talk to them. It's a joke about exactly who you see here, and also I figured it would be funny and people would think the nick calisthenics that would think they would think that. And then it's also great because people think my name is Nick and I like having an alias and being separated from who I really am.
Rip Esselstyn:
That's awesome. Let me ask you this, if you had to be any bagel, what bagel would you be?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Everything bagel.
Rip Esselstyn:
Now, just for context here, you've got, I think it might be a TikTOk video where you're there and I think somebody else's voice says something like, Well, you know it better than I do.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Which one?
Rip Esselstyn:
You've got a video and it's just like, if you had to be a bagel, what bagel would you be? Something like that.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Oh yeah, that was just some trend that was going around and I was just, I thought it was funny because I got probably the worst thing I could have got. So I was like, okay, there we go. Share it. But yeah, it would definitely be everything bagel.
Rip Esselstyn:
Very, very cool. Do you have any mentors or do you not believe in mentors?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I wish I did, but no, I'm always been self-taught at everything I do. But what I do have is I have people who inspire, and I have people who I'm inspired by and that I love and I look up to. For instance, one of my good friends on social media is Z Black Turbo. We do very different things, but he inspires me because he works out every day, we have very similar mindset, we're very open and engaging with people. So I have people who inspire me greatly and that's what I look for. And I really try to befriend my heroes and my inspirations and try to let them know what they mean to me. But yeah, unfortunately I wish I had teachers, but then again, I also don't because I don't have mentors and I get to figure it out for myself and I guess be exactly who I am instead of being in someone else's shadow, I guess. I'm not sure not, I guess it's a double edged sword not to have mentors.
Rip Esselstyn:
I'm looking at you and I'm seeing you're wearing a necklace. It looks pretty kind of unique. Can you tell me about that?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
The only thing that's necessarily special to me is this was my grandma's feather. This is three different chains from, I guess the 1800's are just brass chains. And these are just little trinkets that the mother of my son got while she was going around the world. She's a well known jewelry designer and she specializes in antique charms and things like that. So it's just a cool unique piece, it's basically not worth anything. But there's nothing else that anyone has like it. So yeah, it's just special to me.Yeah.
Rip Esselstyn:
Tell me this, I notice when you're working out, you wear really comfortable clothing. What do you like in the way of shoes, socks, workout pants, a nice little T-shirt.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Okay. So I'll usually wear as little of a tank top as possible if I have to wear a tank top. I prefer to wear no shirt whatsoever. My pants, recently I started wearing pants from Born Primitive, their sponsor mine, they gave me some pants and they're amazing. So I adore them. So Born Primitive, thank you very much. I always worked out barefoot and did this barefoot forever. And then recently Vivo, Vivo Barefoot started a relationship with me and they gave me some sneakers and I absolutely adore them. So I've been working on Vivos recently,
Rip Esselstyn:
So are pretty thin cause they look like they're lightweight.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Very, very lightweight. Maybe they weigh a half a pound at most. And why I love them is they're the first shoe that doesn't throw off my flow patterns. I feel like I'm wearing nothing and I feel like they don't alter my flow in any way. That's why I never wanted to wear shoes. There's an ongoing joke with people that I'm close to in the calisthenics community where we call sneakers, ankle weights. So yeah, the Vivos are the first shoes that I ever enjoyed. Also, they look nice, so I them them stylistically and I love how they feel. If you asked me this a week and a half ago, I would've said, I only work out barefoot.
Rip Esselstyn:
Well, we'll have to put those in the show notes. Both the Vivo and what was it, Born Primitive?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah, Born Primitive. They gave me pants and I absolutely adore them. They're wonderful pants. They're very comfortable. But yeah, before that just.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Bathing suits, anything strange, just strange patterns on bathing suits. Just whatever I feel comfortable in.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, Raymond, I got to say that this is exceeded you all my expectations. One of your philosophies is don't replicate, be uniquely yourself.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yes.
Rip Esselstyn:
And you have mastered that. I mean truly I have found this to be such a fascinating conversation with somebody that goes by his own drum beat and follows his own path. And I think that's one of the things to me that makes you so special and magical and is allowing you to live this lucid fantastic dream that you're dreaming.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Thank you. I really appreciate that. Thank you.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. Is there anything that else that you'd like to say before we wrap things up?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah, so I'd like to thank some people that really were inspirational to me in veganism. Particularly one of the main ones that helped me go vegan is my friend Frank Madrano, who I'm very blessed to be friends with now. He was a major influence to me. He was one of the first that got me into that just for seeing what he was doing, be like, if he could do this, and that's great. He's strong, he's doing all this as a vegan. So that was my first main inspiration in veganism. I definitely have to thank Mark Liebert of Liebert Fitness, the inventor, just dear friend of mine. And I couldn't do it without him. And also, I really want to thank David Weck, the inventor of BOSU ball. The, I mean, I don't know what I'd do without the BOSU ball. He's also a dear friend of mine. I'm so grateful to those three, particularly in terms of what I do. I'm very, very grateful for their influence and their inspiration and also the path that they've led before me. Because without Frank's trail in veganism with calisthenics and body weight exercises, that was a major inspiration to me. And Mark with the Equalizers and David with the BOSU are just, I adore them. I really, really.
Rip Esselstyn:
Tell people they don't know, what is a BOSU ball?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
BOSU ball is the thing that I always do my handstands on. It's the blue disc you see in every gym. It's like the blue inflatable disc with the flat platform on the top. So I do all my handstands on top of that. And what I love most, so everything that I focus on in handstands and flags is really scapula strength and the ability to elevate the scapula up like this, and really the BOSU is supercharges scapula strength. So the BOSU is so essential to my shoulder health. And then really the equalizer is just the portable P bars. And I adore them really. They're in everything I do because the things that I support and that I talk about, I use them every day and I adore them and I love them so much.
Rip Esselstyn:
You mentioned Frank Madrano interesting because I was going to ask you about Frank, but then I was like, nah, he's not into Frank or he didn't have. I would watch Frank, I don't know, maybe six, seven years ago where he would be doing stuff and you're like, what? A lot of it is on a bar, right? He's doing stuff and going, that is insane. And I was going to say, so much of what you do reminds me of Frank. It's really wild.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I followed in his path and then branched off on my own. But I'm so grateful and honored to call him a friend. And seriously, I thank him so much for the path that he laid before me. Because he was a major inspiration in seeing what he had done and being like, if he can do it, then that means I can do it and I can be healthy with veganism and I can finally get rid of the eggs and get rid of the worry of ever going back to meat. So I really owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude.
Rip Esselstyn:
Right. Before we came on today, I've got a pull up bar out in the garage, and I was doing a couple of pull-ups and I followed something that you said, which was, when youre doing a pull up, just focus on bringing your elbows Yes. To your chest, right?
Raymond "The Noodnick":
To the ribs, yes. Yes.
Rip Esselstyn:
To the ribs. And it's incredible to me, just that small little hint and visualizing that made it that much more efficient and effective.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
That's the beauty of so many things that people think these things are impossible, but they're really not. Once you under, it's just little, little hacks. Little hacks will make all the difference. Like, like I said, the main thing I do when I'm doing one arm handstands is I'm worried about how my ankles are, that's my main focal point is my ankles. Certain little things like that. I mean, just something when you're on the rings, just understanding where your elbows are. It just the tiniest things make the most profound differences.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah. Well, and I can relate, so I'm a big swimmer and I swim every morning.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Okay, nice.
Rip Esselstyn:
And I have some sessions where I am literally, Raymond, feel like I am flying through the water effortlessly and I try and scan my whole body and figure out what's going on so that I don't lose this. And then it seems to be unfortunately, very elusive and I'll have it for a couple days and then it's not there. And I find it to be so frustrating.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
If there's a way to film yourself, it would be profound if you can film it because it's crazy. The smallest little things in the way we use our body will create magic. It really will. I'm sure your form is just perfect. Because I don't know, I'm a lot weaker than I used to be. Like I'm not as strong as I was in my early thirties, but I can control more. I'm more aware of these things and just the slightest things. It really is mind blowing.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, yeah. Well.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Rip, thank you, seriously.
Rip Esselstyn:
You have blown my mind. And I think that you're going to expand a lot of people's minds with your-
Raymond "The Noodnick":
I hope so.
Rip Esselstyn:
... with what you do and your fantastic philosophy on life. So thank you. And I really hope to meet you someday.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Yeah, I hope to too. I definitely want to get more involved in the vegan community and get out there a little bit more and just give back. Because veganism's given so much to me getting all this cruelty out of my life. So thank you, and it would be an honor to meet. It's an honor to talk to you, you were also a large inspiration for me when I was entering into the vegan world, so thank you so much.
Rip Esselstyn:
Yeah, you're absolutely welcome. Hey, give me a PlantStrong fist bump.
Raymond "The Noodnick":
Thank you, and that's what I am now. I'm PlantStrong, so thank you, Rip. Thank you for giving me a better way to describe this. I like that. Thank you. Yes.
Rip Esselstyn:
I think you'll agree with me. That was truly remarkable. And yes, we may never be able to do the gravity defying moves that Raymond can do, but the lesson from this podcast to me is always surround yourself with the people and the things that bring you light, love and joy. I mean, what more could you want in this life? Right. Okay, my cruciferous cousins, thanks so much for listening. Make sure that you visit the episode page at planstrongpodcast.com to see some of Raymond's workout demos in the meantime. Until next time, take care of yourself and always keep it PlantStrong.
Speaker 1:
The PlantStrong podcast team includes Carrie Barrett, Laurie Kortowich, Ami Mackey, 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. Esselstyn Jr. and Ann Crile Esselstyn . Thanks for listening.
