#253: Men's Health Matters: Broccoli Rob's Victory Over Testicular Cancer and Mission to Raise Awareness
Learn more about Robert at robertpklein.com
June is National Men’s Health Month and we’re honored to feature today's guest, Robert Klein, aka "Broccoli Rob."
In June of 2017, he was unexpectedly diagnosed with testicular cancer, throwing his young family and career into a tailspin.
Research led him to the The China Study and the undeniable benefits of a whole foods, plant-based diet, which he adopted virtually overnight.
Today, he is an avid athlete, health coach, and vocal advocate for men's health. He is a licensed Food for Life Instructor teaching and you can learn more about his upcoming classes HERE.
We hear a lot about the importance of self-exams for women’s breast cancer, but we just don’t hear enough about men’s health and prevention.
Thank you, Robert, for being so open and honest with your journey. It will save lives!
Episode Highlights
2:11 Discovering Testicular Cancer and Surgery
3:57 Robert Journey to Whole Food Plant-Based Nutrition
8:12 Understanding Testicular Cancer Statistics and Diagnosis
9:37 Men's Health Awareness and Testicular Cancer Taboos
12:22 Testicular Cancer Blood Tests and Tumor Markers
16:21 Risks, Recovery and Side Effects After Lymph Node Dissection
23:12 Transition to Plant-Based Nutrition Post-Surgeries
26:11 Influence of The China Study on Dietary Changes
29:20 Diet Restrictions and Recovery
32:53 Commitment to Physical Recovery and Becoming an Avid Multisport Athlete
49:20 Creating a Plant-Powered Communities
52:42 Advocating for Men's Health Strategies and Self-Exams
54:55 Finding Purpose Through Adversity
Broccoli Rob finishes the 2023 NY Marathon!
About Robert Klein, aka “Broccoli Rob”
Robert Klein was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer at age 34. At the time, he had a wife and 2 year old daughter at home and knew he had to make a change.
The research, the science, and all the data kept pointing to plants.
After making the switch to a plant dominant diet, he was amazed at the positive changes he experienced and is now committed to helping others experience those same benefits. Robert is now a licensed Food for Life instructor.
In addition to being a health coach and committed multisport athlete, Robert is also a men’s health advocate. Learn more at robertpklein.com or ppmny.org.
Episode Resources
https://wholecommunities.nutritionstudies.org/
tinyurl.com/PPMNY - for the June Men's Health Series
Plant Powered Metro New York Website
Testicular Self-Exam Resource from The Cleveland Clinic
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Full Transcription via AI Transcription Service
[0:00] I'm Rip Esselstyn, and you're listening to the PLANTSTRONG Podcast. June is National Men's Health Month, and you're going to love today's guest, Robert Klein, who was very unexpectedly diagnosed with testicular cancer in his early 30s. At the time, his daughter was only two and a half. So, needless to say, it threw his young family for a major loop, cut to several months later, and the discovery of whole food, plant-based nutrition. Today, he is cancer-free and is now affectionately known as Broccoli Rob. He's coming up right after this word from PLANTSTRONG.
[0:48] Hopefully you know by now that we're on a mission a major mission to PLANTSTRONG to make it easy delicious and convenient to eat more plants one of the most powerful tools in our toolbox is the pPLANTSTRONG Meal Planner members of the meal planner get access to hundreds of delicious community tested whole food plant-based recipes that are all oil-free and made without refined find sugar or excessive sodium. The meal planner lets you create and save personal menus and you can reduce waste with our search by ingredient feature to help you find ways to use up what you have on hand. We also have interactive grocery lists that make it super easy to shop along with cooking videos to help you gain new skills and confidence in the kitchen. You can even have your meal-planned groceries delivered by Instacart right to your doorstep. Members get exclusive discounts at PLANTSTRONG Foods and with other partner brands like Vitamix. Simply visit liveplanstrong.com and then click on the meal planner. Save $20 off the annual membership with the code PSSUMMER20. That's P-S-S-U-M-M-E-R 20. Get PLANTSTRONG.
Discovering Testicular Cancer and Surgery
[2:11] Imagine as a young man waking up in severe pain in your groin as if you've been kicked you know where. This is exactly what happened to Robert Klein in April of 2017 and within a few hours he was shockingly diagnosed with testicular cancer and wheeled into surgery two days later. It was a whirlwind of confusion and emotion for this young husband and father.
[2:42] After another surgery in June to remove several lymph nodes, Robert was home, recovering when he started to research lifestyle changes and happened upon, you know who, the China study by our friend T. Colin Campbell. This naturally led to other pioneering physicians like my father, Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, and many more. And once you've rung the bell, you can't unring it. Robert changed his diet and started moving his body as he never had before. Since 2017, Broccoli Rob, as he is affectionately known, has competed in multiple triathlons and and running events, including a full-distance Ironman triathlon and the 2023 New York City Marathon. Way to go, Broccoli Rob. He's also become a Whole Foods plant-based lifestyle consultant, helping people transform their own lives and adopt a healthy and sustainable way of eating. Go, Rob.
Robert Klein's Journey to Whole Food Plant-Based Nutrition
[3:58] Hey, Robert Klein, welcome to the PLANTSTRONG Podcast, my PLANTSTRONG brother. Thanks for having me, Rip. I'm a huge, huge fan of you and your family's work, so I'm very excited to be here. Well, if I'm not mistaken, that is a Plant-Stock t-shirt that you're wearing. It is, absolutely, 2021. So I've been following you guys since 2017, actually. Well, I can't wait to dive into why that is. And it is so appropriate that we have you on the PLANTSTRONG podcast this month, June 2024, because June is Men's Health Awareness Month. And it seems to me that you always hear about women's awareness around, you know, self-examinations for breast cancer and mammograms and the like, but not as much on the male side. And so I love it that you're here to share your story, which is absolutely very apropos. But now before we dive into that...
[5:09] Your name is Robert Klein, but you affectionately go by Broccoli Rob. Why Broccoli Rob?
[5:19] So years ago, actually during the pandemic, one of my friends, one of my best friends from growing up was telling me I should start an Instagram because I was just starting to cook up a storm, all plant-based. And he's like you have to think of some kind of catchy name um on instagram for something to grow and and he's like why not broccoli rob it's a play on words it's it's a dish um that's your name, and so it just it's it it was a joke at first and then it just sort of stuck and and now it's like it's everywhere so i mean i have i've had t-shirts uh when i was doing iron men i had like 25 people wearing Broccoli Rob t-shirts. I have a decal on my bike. It's Broccoli Rob. So, I mean, it's become a whole thing.
[6:11] That's awesome. Well, I know that lately I've been having a lot of Broccoli Rob. It's kind of like almost a cross between broccoli and asparagus, if you know what I mean. Yep. It's very, very cool. I just had it actually last night, I think, in honor of having you on the show today. Perfect. Very fortuitously. But you are in the house of kale now. There you go. I love it. Love that shirt. Thanks. So I think for starters, I'd love for you to, and I know you've told your story a bunch, but I don't know if my audience has heard it. So let's start at the beginning. What happened and how did you get diagnosed with cancer and what type of cancer?
[6:58] So this is going back to now, April of 2017. Uh, I, I woke up one morning, uh, and for lack of a better term, it felt like someone had kicked me in the, you know, what? Um, and I was just in pain. I literally just woke up in pain one morning. Um, and it, it ended up being testicular cancer. Um, we, my wife is like, we got to go to the emergency room. Um, my daughter was two and a half years old. At that point, we dropped her off at daycare. We immediately went to, um, the ER, the local ER, uh, and basically within like 30 minutes, they're telling me that I have testicular cancer. Um, there was, there was like just, they did an ultrasound, they saw us something and that's it. And they, you know, and they're just telling me you have cancer.
[7:54] So that's, so a few hours between when you woke up in, in agony, feeling like somebody kicked you in the nuts to a couple hours later, you've had an ultrasound and they're, they have, they have definitively diagnosed you with testicular cancer.
Understanding Testicular Cancer Statistics and Diagnosis
[8:12] Is that right? They were, yes, they were. Yes. Pretty, pretty sure. I mean, no, no, no. It was definitive. It was definitely definitive because they were, uh, I ended up. Basically, in two days, that was a Wednesday, and that Friday, there was a surgery. I had a surgery to remove the cancer. Okay. If you don't mind, and I hope the audience doesn't mind and you don't mind, if I just ask you questions around testicular cancer because I don't think it's something that is talked about as much as it should be. And i and just going back you know i can think of just off the top of my head, two people that i know that have had testicular cancer one is a good friend of mine lance armstrong very very well publicized about his testicular cancer and then the other is scott hamilton the olympic gold figure skater who also had testicular cancer but what can before we dive into more about your cancer. Can you tell me like, what are the stats on testicular cancer around men, the average age, ethnicity? Do you know the stats on that?
[9:23] So the average age is, is very young. Uh, I mean, for, for cancer, it's definitely, I believe in your, in your thirties, um, it might even be in your twenties, um,
Men's Health Awareness and Testicular Cancer Taboos
[9:35] late, late twenties, early thirties. So I was 32, um, when, when I was diagnosed and I mean, it's, I wouldn't say it's a rare cancer because you, I mean, most, most people know someone who has had it um but but it's definitely not talked about like at all i mean like anytime someone mentions men's health or men's cancer it's always prostate cancer um it's never a testicular cancer why do you think why do you think that is yeah i mean is it could it be it's taboo i mean guys don't want to talk about their their nuts um but um or they're just embarrassed um and then, And yeah, I think that that could definitely be one of the reasons, right? Right, right. So let's go back to you.
[10:26] So you get the ultrasound. They're like, okay, you've got testicular cancer. And what was the recommendation? It was basically they want to remove the testicle? Yes. The recommendation was to basically immediately have the cancerous testicle removed. And so I was I'm in the New York City metro area. So they told me to go to the best hospital, which is Memorial Sloan Kettering. Yeah. And so luckily, which is the crazy part, my in-laws. So my father-in-law's cousin's son married someone who is actually the head surgeon for this exact surgery that I needed. And so I ended up getting into his office the next day. Like I said, it was Wednesday. I was in his office in the city on Thursday. And he said, okay, you're going to get this removed tomorrow. And I'm like, and I was like, fine, get it out. I wanted it removed as quickly as I could.
[11:41] And honestly, I felt a lot better. As soon as it was out, I felt a lot better. And it could be just in my mind, but I just, I felt better just knowing it was gone. Well, I would imagine so. I mean, the thought of, okay, I've got, I've got, you know, testicular cancer in my right testicle. I want it out as soon as possible. Did they do any tests to see if it had metastasized at all throughout your body?
[12:11] Right. So the first step is to do that surgery.
[12:16] And then there are tumor markers in your blood. They can do blood tests.
Testicular Cancer Blood Tests and Tumor Markers
[12:22] There's two different types of blood tests that they do for this specific cancer. And so my numbers were very, very high, obviously, when I had the cancerous testicle. Uh, and then they, they monitor it, um, for a number of weeks after the surgery to see if the numbers actually stabilize. Uh, and so if that's the case, um, they can't actually stage the cancer. Uh, and so that, that ended up having to have me do a second, much more invasive surgery, which was actually, I mean, that's like where all, where my whole journey started. Um, I would say, uh, because I, I had to go through this, um, surgery where they're basically, they, they opened up my, from, from like right below my sternum, um, all the way down to like my abdomen around my belly button. They sliced my abdomen open um and removed or basically took out some of my intestines put it on the on the operating table oh boy and then and then just put them aside just for a second.
[13:45] Uh and they removed the lymph node they basically removed like a hundred lymph nodes um around the area where it could have spread and that is how they were able to to, um, to stage it. So, okay. If you don't mind, I'd like to go, I'd like to go back a little bit. Sure. Um, this is, and I find this to be, thank you for sharing this. It's very, very, it's very, very, to me, very courageous of you to share this story. Um, did you notice, so you woke up that morning and you felt like, you know, you were in excruciating pain. Had you had zero, like, did you ever like, you know, play with your balls and be like, Like, oh, my right testicle just feels like a little larger than the left, or it feels like it's got a little something on there. Did that ever happen?
[14:36] Not really. I mean, I definitely was feeling off for, like, looking back on it. I was definitely, there was something wrong for a few months, at least, before then. I don't know if I ever actually noticed it was there. There, but just my energy levels and at some point I was at a party and I was having stomach cramps and it could have been.
[15:08] I mean, it could have been something related to that. Like, I don't know, but, but really it was, it was, it was a complete shock to, to me and my entire family. I mean, it was just, it was literally, it was like a kick in the nuts. Yeah. So what, what is your, I mean, do you have any advice for, for guys as far as what they should do as far as checking their testicles for, for uh for any kind of um anything that might be suspicious yeah they they do recommend uh and i still do that with with the one testicle that i still have um um to while you're in the shower when it's when you have warm water and everything is relaxed to basically just um thumb thumb your finger across and see if there's, if you can feel any like abnormalities there. Um, and so, I mean, there's plenty of, of, uh, videos that you could watch, um, just, just to, you know, it's, it's, it takes 30 seconds less, um, and just do it once a month basically. And you're good.
Risks and Recovery After Lymph Node Dissection
[16:21] Okay. So if you don't mind, I'm just trying to get the timeline line arranged in my brain here so in april of 2017 you went in you had the surgery to have the testicle removed and then how how many months later was it before when you had uh the 100 plus lymph nodes removed and your intestines taken out and all that other jazz yeah the surgery was called an rplmd which stands for i should have had it on my screen here retro peritoneal pineal lymph node dissection. I think I got that right. It was close, close enough. Um, so the, the cert that surgery was June, uh, June 9th, um, of, of 2017. And so they had, they basically, they wanted to wait like two months to see, um, how the numbers, uh, normalized. And thankfully, they did normalize to less than zero, the number, which is what it should be. Is that after the June surgery or after the April surgery you're referring to? After the April surgery. Okay. Yeah, they basically brought me in and they said, okay, your numbers are...
[17:39] Are good um you could there's an option to do this surgery um you can do this surgery uh, and basically if you do this surgery we will we will know 100 or with pretty very high percentage if it has spread or not uh and you will have a less likelihood of it of anything returning if you do this surgery because the first the first place that this type of cancer or spreads is the lymph nodes in the surrounding area. So if they remove those, then it's not going to spread anywhere else. And no, it hasn't spread anywhere else yet.
[18:20] So they suggested to do this surgery. It was really an optional surgery. I mean, everything's optional, really. But this one was like, look, you could do it. And then depending on what we find, we're either going to recommend that you have chemo or not. And so they found nothing. It had not spread. And so I did not need chemo, thankfully. And that was basically the end of my treatment in that June. So when they gave you the option of having the RP, give me those initials again, R what?
Side Effects of Lymph Node Removal and Recovery
[19:04] RPL lymph node dissection. rplnd okay so when they gave you the option of doing the rplnp surgery or not did they say there's are there any side effects to removing all these lymph nodes uh potentially unnecessarily yes i would imagine they're there for a reason right well the lymph nodes i mean the side effects, i i haven't had any side effects from from removing them but i think it was really it was actually, uh the surgery was was very invasive uh it took me i had it in june it basically i wasn't back at work until the middle of september um and so because they could they basically cut open your And so your abs, your ab muscles have to completely heal from scratch. It's like I had no core. So I could barely even lift myself out of the bed after the surgery. And so, and there's also some...
[20:15] Possible issues with, uh, the nerve damage that they do when they do the surgery. Um, but this surgeon was, is the best surgeon in the country. And so, um, you know, thankfully it was, that was, that was fine, but a lot of there, there's a risk for having, um, what's called retrograde ejaculation, uh, which means when you ejaculate, you can still ejaculate and everything thing still works except it goes into the bladder instead of out of the penis and so that was that was certainly a concern so it's a backfire right exactly that's exactly right yep and and i i don't know what the percentages are right at this point but most most people regain that within within a year or so.
[21:10] And when it, do you know, when it backfires, is that a bad thing? Uh, is it, I mean, no, no, it's, it, there's no issue with it. I mean, it's not, it just, you basically just pee it out. So it's, it's not, it's, it's not like a health issue, but obviously if you're looking to conceive, that's a problem, right? So, and, and we were in the middle of our childbearing years. So, you know, I will be completely honest here. We have one amazing child, and this whole ordeal –.
[21:46] Probably is the reason why we only have one right um so you know it is what it is i'm thankful for for every moment i have with her and uh i mean she's just an amazing amazing uh so we call her she her name is abigail we called her we call her uh avocado abby.
[22:07] Broccoli robin avocado abby what about your wife does she have a nickname yeah she does but she She doesn't really like it. Her name is Emily. And so we came up with Eggplant Emily. She doesn't like it too much, though. Or Emily Eggplant. I don't remember what order it was, but we've been signing things that way. Well, all the listeners know that I'm not a huge fan of the eggplant. I haven't figured out how to really make that to where I'm a huge fan of it. But so if you don't mind, I'd like to kind of summarize for a second here. In April of 2017, you had one of your testicles removed. In June of 2017, you had the RPLNP surgery that was successful. Going into that, your blood numbers look good. They removed the lymph nodes. They sliced you open. You're now recovering at home until September-ish.
Transition to Plant-Based Nutrition Post-Surgeries
[23:13] What happened that made you interested in whole food, plant-based nutrition? Who brought it to your doorstep? What documentary did you see? Why? Yeah, so I had a lot of time at home during those months. And this even happened actually in June. Yeah, it was during the time between the two surgeries that I ended up finding this plant-based lifestyle. And it was actually my parents who, not even knowing, they were just looking for something, something that we can do, right? And they found the China study. I've heard of that. Yeah. They gave me this thick book. I mean, it's sitting sitting right here. Here it is. You still have the same copy, right? It's from 2017.
[24:13] And the moment I read this, this study that's in there, or at least parts of it, where T. Colin Campbell was able to basically and not basically he was able to reverse cancer growth just by removing or adding the protein. casein, which is basically dairy, um, in, in rats. And so when I heard that, I immediately stopped eating dairy. I mean, so that was the first thing that was the first, that was the first and the hardest thing to get rid of for me personally. And I think that's probably the case for most people. Were you, were you, were you a big consumer of dairy?
[24:52] Um, yes. And, and I think I think most people in this country are, and without even being aware of it, even if I say I don't have milk and I don't have hard cheese, anything that comes out of a box, it basically has dairy, right? It has whey or some type of dairy product that's in there. And so that was my first exposure to the plant-based lifestyle. And then basically I went down the rabbit hole. So, I mean, I went down a huge rabbit hole. I found your family. I read the Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by your father, Essie. And then that got me on the no oil. So then at first I was having these cheeses that had oil in it, the non-dairy cheeses, and then that went off. And then, you know, it just – you know how it goes. It just keeps going. You know, you find Dr. Fuhrman, you find Dr. Greger, and you read all those books. And then, you know, and then once I started doing these triathlons, it helped me even further. So I don't know if you want to. Yeah. So, um, yeah.
Influence of the China Study on Dietary Changes
[26:11] You read the China study, you read how he was able to turn on and turn off cancer growth just by adjusting the level of the protein casein. At what point did you look around and go, hey, mom, hey, dad, hey, whoever, I'm going to do this. How did you get started? it. I mean, going from, you know, the standard American diet to this is it's, it's, you don't just, you know, do it one day. Right. Right. So there, there was, I definitely went through stages. Um, uh, I did hire, uh, a, a nutrition, uh, I guess it was a nutrition coach, um.
[27:01] Who didn't follow this, wasn't a whole food plant-based, but was close to it, or at least it was more natural things, and that's what started it. And then once I started learning about whole food plant-based, it got me more in that direction. But I was definitely nervous to tell my wife that I wanted to try this. She you know I mean I remember like she makes these or she used to at least it doesn't anymore she used to make these sweet and sour meatballs with the meat sauce and the pasta and and, She had made it and I had already decided I'm not having any more meat. And I was just picking around at the pasta and not having the meatballs. And she asked, she said, what, you don't like it? I thought you liked it. And so I told her and I mean, she was very supportive. She's like, of course, try it. I mean, she was vegetarian for many years in college. college and, and even when I, when we met, she was doing it at some point. Um, I made fun of her, of course, for it, like most men do. Um, because I loved my steak, uh, you know, I loved my steak back in the day.
[28:19] Uh, but she was, she was fine with it. And so she ended up doing it with me, not the dairy. She's kept eating the dairy, but she did everything else, um, for a couple of years. And then at some point after, after she had seen me, seen this transformation and just seen the level of energy that I had. And, you know, she, she found her own way into it and that was with starch solution. So she found it by herself, you know, Dr. McDougall, good McDougall. And then she started to start solution in 2020, I believe it was for 2021. 21. So she's been whole food plant-based since then. And my daughter also, I mean, there she, you know, she's 10, but she's, she's pretty close, right? She says she's a vegan. Um, so it's good. Well, with a dad named broccoli, Rob, I hope she, she, I hope she's proudly wearing that, that, uh, that vegan badge.
Diet Restrictions and Recovery
[29:21] Yeah. I'm glad your wife decided at some point to be done with the casein that's uh no bueno no you know definitely not now in doing my research rob i understand i understand that because of what happened with your with them removing some of your intestines and and the scarring that can occur um with the intestines they They asked you, I think, if I'm not mistaken, to go on a very, very, very low-fat diet for several months. And so were you doing the plant-based thing when you did that? Yes. Yes. It was actually – I remember at one point I was almost in tears because I couldn't have any fat, and I just –, My body was craving it, and I just couldn't. And I was just dropping pounds like every day because I wasn't having anything.
[30:22] So because of the way that they handled the intestines, there was some type of possibility of scar tissue. And so I couldn't even have nuts or seeds either for a certain amount of time. I couldn't have carbonated water. I couldn't have seltzer. I couldn't have any of that or any type of fat. And so, I mean, I had to find specific bread that had zero, like I was eating like rye bread that was zero fat. I mean, most breads have something in it. But yeah, I mean, I did what I needed to do. Well, what's interesting there is it sounds like, I mean, just for the audience, you weren't eating zero fat because everything has fat in it. Like even kale is 11% fat by calories. But you weren't doing any of the kind of overt fats. It sounds like, you know, the nuts, the seeds, the avocados, you know, probably things of that nature. They gave me, I mean, they gave me a list and basically some type of food plan to be on. It was probably a restriction on the amount of fat grams. I don't remember exactly what the details were, but it was, you know, it was low. It was definitely low. So how long did it take you before you were like back feeling like, you know, the Rob of old?
[31:44] Or I should say the Rob of new. Yeah, it was. So when I was in the hospital, I told my wife before the surgery, I said, I'm going to when I get out of here, I'm going to train and I'm going to run the New York City Marathon. And so that was my original goal to come back from this and run the New York City Marathon. And so I started in the hospital. I mean, they have you walking the floor like Like immediately after, as painful as it was, they would have you walking around and you had to be able to walk stairs before they let you go home from the hospital. And so I was walking. I got myself a Fitbit and I started walking the entire summer. I was just out walking. To the point where my wife was yelling at me. I like, she's like, you know, we still had a two and a half year old. Right. And I was home and yeah, I could have probably taken care of her more than, than I was.
Commitment to Physical Recovery
[32:49] I was literally outside walking, uh, because that's what they told me to do. And I was listening to them because I, I needed to get better. So, uh, I, I ended up doing that. And at some point, uh, I started running, uh in the fall okay so 2017 fall uh were you able to do the new york city marathon.
[33:11] Well that's a whole other story oh okay i can i can make it i can make it as short or long as you as you'd like but uh the short version is i i said to myself that's really hard 26.2 miles uh uh, that's a lot of running and I've always been interested in triathlon. I've, I've watched the Ironman events and everything. And, you know, why don't I do a sprint triathlon? Cause the sprint triathlon is just a very short swim, like a half a mile swim to 12 mile bike. And then you do a 5k and the 5k, if you're tired, you can just walk and you can, if you walk it, you're still going to finish it in like an hour. So I decided I wanted to try, try triathlon and that that's how it, that's what got me into that. And then that spring, the spring of 2018, uh, I hired a coach and, um, basically the rest is history. Um, and he's still working with me. Wow. And I mean, we're, we are now talking about Boston qualifying. So, I mean, this is, it's, it's a seven year journey and it's, you know, every, every, every year it's, uh, it's different. Okay. So what, what is the qualifying time in your age group for, for Boston?
[34:26] Uh it's so my age group is 41 to 45 the qualifying time is 3 10 3 10 that's uh wow that's that's aggressive i mean you're that's getting after it yeah and i'll be honest i'm not even close to that right now but this is my new i already i'm already a full iron man i did that and now i'm setting my sights on on on this this new new goal wow so tell me when did when did you When did you complete the New York City Marathon? Because I know that there was a year or two where they didn't have it because of COVID. Right. So the plan for my coach was I started in 2018. I did a sprint triathlon. I loved it. I got the bug. I ended up signing up for an Olympic triathlon like a month later. And so, and then after that season ended in 2018, my coach is like, okay, so your original goal was to do the marathon. So let's do the marathon. And so in order to qualify for the.
[35:37] The year you can either enter the lottery, which almost nobody wins, or you could run nine races with the New York Roadrunners who puts on the marathon the year before. And then you have to also volunteer in one race a year prior to the marathon. And so I took the entire year. I started in January of 2019 and I and I ran 10 races. Um i volunteered in one and i ran in nine of them uh and then i and that was qualified me to have guaranteed entry into new york city in 2020 and so i was i was gonna run the 75th anniversary yeah no it was 50 i think it was the 50th it was it was a big number it was like one of those flagship anniversary numbers that was supposed to happen in 2020 it never happened, you know i mean we all know what happened right yeah yeah so what year did you end up running it, i ended up running it last year 2023 2023 it took that long to get to run a full um, standalone marathon i had run marathons now in you know ironman on the back end of an ironman but never a standalone marathon so why didn't you do it in 21 or 22 do they have it then.
[36:59] They gave me the option to defer they basically they gave me in 2020 was canceled they said you can choose either 21 or 22 to do it i wasn't sure what was going to happen in 21 so i decided to do it in 22 and so i was training to do it in 22 and then like three weeks before i got covid it. And so 22 was out and then I had to do it again in 23. And so now my wife saw me do this marathon. I was wearing the broccoli Rob shirt and they were all cheering and she basically went home and that week signed up for nine plus one. And so now she's training for a marathon, um, for, for next year,
Conquering an Ironman
[37:44] she's doing those nine plus ones to do in 2025. Yeah. How does it feel to be inspiring and motivating others it's amazing it's really it's it's one of the best feelings i think that you can that you can have uh it's it's it's just it's hard to even describe but it's it's great and so you have done you've done it you did an ironman triathlon which ironman did you complete.
[38:12] Lake Placid. Oh, that's a hilly one. Oh yeah. Oh my God. It's very hilly. Yep. Hilly and loop, loop courses, loop swim, I think, and loop bike and run. Right. Very hilly. Um, and it was actually abnormally hot in the mountains that year. So there were lots of people side of the road that did not finish. Um, but that was, that was brutal. Yeah. So do you have any aspirations to do another Ironman or are you good now that you've done it. No, I think I'm going to do it again. Uh, I promise why my wife, I wouldn't do it for a couple of years, at least, at least maybe until my daughter's in high school or college. So, but I'm still doing, uh, the 70.3s. So I think that that distance is, is much more manageable. So, uh, so broccoli, Rob, tell me, what is it like, give our listeners an idea. What is it? What's the average day of eating for you look like, breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Love to get a kind of a grasp of what that is for you. Sure.
[39:16] So I know like most people that eat this way, you know what I'm going to say, right? For breakfast, right? Either Rip's Big Bowl or oatmeal. So it's going to be one of those two. And there's a variation of, you know, I've gotten those ingredients to your bowl, So I don't have to necessarily buy your exact one, but, um, it's, it's like 90% of the time it's going to be oatmeal. Um, so it's either overnight, overnight oats, or, or I make it in the morning, um, with as much fruit as I can get. Um, you know, I put the chia seeds in, I put the flax seeds in, um, and so that gets me going good, uh, in the morning. Um, how, how, how big, how big of a bowl is it? Is it small, medium, large, extra large?
[40:08] Uh, it's, it's a big bowl. Um, I I've, I've had to actually, I've purchased a lot of different size, large bowls that are, that are like serving size bowls, like for, for salads that I do for lunch. Isn't that, isn't that, you know, we'll go out of town and we'll go to like stay in an Airbnb and they have these little dinky, like saucer type breakfast cereal bowls. And I just I just go right down to the cupboard below and I pull out the big old sauce pan, you know, the two-quart sauce pan, and that's what I use for my breakfast cereal bowl. Yep, that makes sense. Makes a lot of sense. I like a cold cereal too. So, I mean, and I always use soy milk. I just like the taste of it. It's more creamy. Yeah. And it is protective.
[40:56] Don't let anyone fool you. It is very protective against cancer, specifically breast cancer. But any of these cancers that are hormone related, which is ones that I had, you know, soy milk is very, very healthy. Yeah. No, good point on the soy. Especially, I think we should caveat that by saying it's the whole soy products. So, you know, soybeans, edamame, tofu, tempeh, right? But not the soy protein isolates and concentrates. Yes. Once they isolate it, it actually does cause some damage. That's known. Okay. So breakfast, usually the oatmeal, the fruit with all the toppings, the usual suspects. What about lunch? So for lunch, depending on where I am, I will have a salad, like a large salad. A large salad. We're talking like a chopped salad sometimes if I have time. So I'm putting in like a pound of the green leafies and then all the vegetables. So, you know, you have cucumbers, you have peppers, tomatoes. I do like pickles. So I have pickles. Yeah. I like the sour kind.
[42:17] You could throw some nuts and seeds in there. And then also some type of ancient grain to get some more protein in there. Um and i know people like to say where do you get your protein but protein is really i mean it's in it's in all of the plants and that's where all the animals get it from that you're eating so uh but it's it's going to be like either farro or brown rice that i mix in with there to just to make it more hearty uh and then i like to use a flavored balsamic.
[42:50] So there's there's a bunch of different companies that that sell these these flavored balsamics which is basically just, just balsamic vinegar with these amazing different flavors. Yeah. Is there a certain company or brand that you like? I tend to like the California balsamic just because they have a lot of different options, and they always come out with different flavors. There's a dill pickle one that's really good. There's a Hawaiian one that's like pineapple. So you can get sweet. You can get savory. There's even a hickory smoked one. Chocolate. And again, this chocolate one, yeah, the chocolate one's good to drizzle over. I drizzle the chocolate one over waffles. Yeah. Have you ever been on the Chef AJ show? No, I have not. It's on my list. Yeah, because because every one of her guests, you get a four little sample, two ounce or three ounce jars of California balsamic vinegars. Yeah, I know those jars. Well, those little samples, because those are those that's what we bring to like restaurants and things like that. The little sample size. That's super smart. Bring your own dressing and what is it? It's one ingredient. It's your flavored balsamic.
[44:15] I'll keep going with the lunch. If I'm coming back from a two-hour ride, I'm not going to only have a salad.
[44:24] I learned this from actually, I think it was from one of your guys. I think it was from, from the cooking show with your sister and your mother.
[44:38] I slice firm tofu like a deck of cards. They say like a deck of cards. And I throw it on the pan with parchment paper and just a little bit of coconut aminos. And we bake that for 30 minutes. And I do this every week. I do this. And I do it just once a week. And I have for the entire week. week um and so i eat that just as snacks uh i make sandwiches out of out of that so there's a whole different variety of sandwiches you can make with that and believe it or not i have not gotten tired of that meal uh in over two years yeah so i mean it's like you put arugula on it you put the tofu on it with some type of dressing that you can make or even just avocado um it's it's great yeah pickles tomatoes and then and then um remind me because maybe you said it and i can't remember typically what is your leafy green of choice that you like for the foundation for your salads is it arugula is it is it kale is it spinach is it chopped romaine yeah i i like i I like spinach. I know not to have too much of it. I do like to rotate it. There's a mix from Trader Joe's that's like field greens. That's good.
[46:00] There's a baby kale that I just started getting into, which is definitely interesting because it doesn't have that. It's not as bitter. people it's not as bitter a lot of people don't like kale including my wife um because it's just the texture of it is actually very it's you know i find the curly kale is a little bit more unwieldy i find that the dinosaur kale the lucinato is much more friendly and, even even texture wise it's yeah yeah absolutely yeah okay uh let's keep going on your, on, uh, what a day with broccoli Rob looks like. So yeah, for dinner, it's, it's going to be, um, I, I do, I like to make stir fries. Um, so I learned how to cook without oil. Number one, um, from, you know, I took, I took these online cooking classes with Ruby. So I've taken, I've gone through two classes with them. Um, the forks over knives, plant-based certification. And then the professional, there's a pro one that you can take. So I have these techniques on how to saute without oil.
[47:17] And there's just... You know, whichever, whatever produce is in season is what we use. And so, you know, we just make a stir fry, um, again, with an, with a grain, uh, and we like to make these like, uh, taco bowls. Uh, we do sometimes with corn tortillas, we even sometimes microwave the corn tortillas to make them into actual, like those toast, tostadas, I think what you call them. Yeah. So we do that. I'll do a tofu scramble even sometimes, even for dinner, just because I've gotten into that recently.
[47:54] So but there's and the dinner is where I play with a lot of different recipes that I've collected over the years. Right. That's really good to know. So would you say that maybe part of your success and the reason why it's been so sustainable for you is you keep the breakfast and the lunch kind of very similar? Maybe you adjust some of the toppings you put on it, and that just gives you a great foundation for the first two meals of the day? Day yeah i would definitely agree with that uh it's i mean the oatmeal keeps me satisfied and full as long as you have enough of it um you know and you can never have too much i know your father says he's had he has it twice sometimes in a day you know so no for sure for sure once well he has it once for for breakfast and then he has a little after dinner snack Mac. Right. Yeah.
[48:53] That's awesome. So I love everything that I'm hearing, Broccoli Rob. I love that you've absolutely...
[49:01] You know, conquered cancer. You've conquered the whole food plant-based diet. You are active. You're running marathons. You're doing, you know, Ironman triathlons.
Creating a Plant-Powered Community
[49:15] You're an inspiration for your family and your friends. Tell me a little bit about what you got going on with this group that you're a part of called PPMNY and why that should be of interest to us. Sure. So I hooked up with Plant Powered Metro New York is what the organization is called. In 2020, I was just finishing up my plant-based nutrition graduate certificate from eCornell, which is based out of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies. and in that in the curriculum there they were talking about these plant pure communities throughout the country and so there are these pods throughout the country of of people that are living this lifestyle and so i was looking to create a pod uh in my in my area which was which i live in connecticut which is a i guess a suburb of new york city um that my part of Connecticut, actually.
[50:21] And so there was nothing in my area, and so I wanted to create one. And I was looking on their website, and I found this PPM and Y, which...
[50:32] Uh, just had incorporated like six months or a year before that. And they were actually in New York city. There were like five or six of these pods, like one in every borough. And then there was like two in Manhattan. And so, uh, Leanna, who's the, who's the network director there basically said, why don't we join forces and just create this massive pod that then turned into a nonprofit organization for plant-powered education, basically, in these communities in New York City. That's fantastic. And so I found them. I started, I got involved first by mentoring. And then I was doing, they have these, they match you with people that are looking to do this and you could just mentor them. And then I also got involved with their 21-day jumpstart. And so I started mentoring groups that were going through these 21-day jumpstarts. And this was during a pandemic, so it was all virtual. I was able to do it from the comfort of my own home, which was amazing, actually. And it really got me all this experience. Like, I went through these – like, I've helped hundreds of people through these jumpstarts now at this point.
[51:49] And it's just an amazing organization. And so at one point, they suggested that I get certified as a – I get licensed, basically, as a food for life instructor to teach these courses that are – the cooking courses that run through PPMNY. And so I just did that last fall. And so that's where I am. So do you have anything going on this month that we can all partake in? No.
[52:18] So we do. So we, we have, uh, it's called, uh, the savoring health, smart eating strategies for men. Uh, it's a three-part series, uh, for the month of June, which is men's health month month. Uh, we've actually found four, uh, food for life instructors that are all men.
Men's Health Strategies
[52:39] Um, so all four of us guys are running these sessions. Uh, um, and it's, it's three Sundays, June 9th, June 23rd, june 30th yeah uh you can you can register if you're interested um uh if you go on to go to ppm and why that yeah and and this so this uh podcast is not going to air until after june 9th can you sign up for the last two or yes so you can sign up up until the friday before the sunday class um the the one on june 23rd is called uh gauging the pressure uh how food can improve blood pressure. And then the one June 30th, which I'm leading is better in the bedroom. How would you improve sexual wellness? Well, you'll have to give us a little bit of a peek under the sheets on that one.
[53:33] Yep. So it's tiny, it's tiny URL slash PPM and why to register if anyone's interested in that. Wow. That's, that's, that's really cool. And so if people So are you personally taking on clients right now? Yes, I am. So I do have a website. It's robertpklein.com. You can also get to my website through choppingbroccolirob.com. So you could find me on Instagram at choppingbroccolirob. And then for a complete schedule of my cooking classes for the upcoming months, uh it's on my website uh we're going to be if you're local to the stanford area um i have two classes scheduled with my partner maddie sobel uh at a farm a local farm called fairgate farm and that's going to be june 11th and august 8th and we're going to be just teaching a class on whole food plant-based um cooking with the produce that's uh you know local to the farm yeah that's That's great. Wow. Well, it sounds like you have really, um, you found your higher purpose. Uh, thanks in, in, in no small part to testicular cancer, looking back on it, uh.
Finding Purpose Through Adversity
[54:56] Do you find it's a good thing, what happened to you? Yeah, you know, it's definitely, it was a blessing in disguise. I, you know, we went, my whole family and I, we went through a lot. So, you know, I wouldn't wish this on anyone, but I know 100% I would not be the person I am if that didn't happen. And I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you if that didn't happen. And I certainly wouldn't be an Ironman if that did not happen. There's no way that that would have happened. So, yeah. Well, good stuff. Broccoli Rob, I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting you. This is the first time that we've ever connected. Yeah. And again, I want to thank you for putting it all out there, sharing your brush with testicular cancer with everyone and all the great work you're doing today. And I look forward to the next time that our paths cross. Appreciate it, Rip. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Hey, give me a virtual plant strong fist bump. My plants. There you go, baby. Boom. Boom. See ya. Thanks.
[56:12] We hear a lot about the importance of self-examinations for women's breast cancer, but we just don't hear enough about men's health and prevention. I want to thank Robert for being so open and honest with his journey. We have to normalize these types of discussions in order to help save lives. To learn more about Broccoli Rob, visit his site at robertpklein.com. Klein is spelled K-L-E-I-N, .com. And I'll be sure to link to that in the show notes. If you want to learn more about his lectures and work with PPMNY, visit ppmny.org. I'll have that there for you too in the show notes. As always, thanks so much for listening and sharing the PLANTSTRONG Podcast. And always, always keep it PLANTSTRONG.
[57:13] ThePLANTSTRONG Podcast team includes Carrie Barrett, Laurie Kortowich, and Ami Mackey. If you like what you hear, do us a favor and share the show with your friends and loved ones. You can always leave a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And while you're there, make sure to hit that follow button so that you never miss an episode. As always, this and every episode is dedicated to my parents, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. and Anne Crile Esselstyn. Thanks so much for listening.
