#259: Eric Soelberg - How He Ditched the Drive-Thru and Gained a New Life
Rip and Eric celebrate being PLANTSTRONG!
Eric Soelberg was a high school athlete-turned-young husband and father and, like many on the family, marriage, and career track, he lost sight of himself and his own health.
Food became an escape and a way to numb, and in this episode, Soelberg vulnerably shares some of those moments when he realized he had fallen into unhealthy eating behaviors and addiction. Not only was he hiding food, but he was visiting fast food drive-thrus multiple times in a day – feeling the shame, but also satisfying the cravings.
Yes, he watched Forks over Knives and read the China Study – and it all made sense – but as we know all too well, having the information and making lasting change are two different things. It wasn’t until 2021 when he started feeling neuropathy and tingling in his toes and fingers that something clicked. He was 260lbs.
Driven by a newfound commitment to health, Eric sought guidance and he shares his recipes for regaining his health and life. Whole plant-based food is the grounding element, but it’s about so much more for him now, including education, community, and daily self-reflection.
Eric may be your (self-proclaimed) “average guy,” but you’ll find him anything but…
Episode Highlights
1:54 Getting to Know Eric Soelberg
14:58 Eric's Weight and Diet Challenges
26:14 Picking up the Plant-Based Journey
28:48 Food as a Crutch: Solitude and Fast Food
36:54 Making Health a Priority and Seeking Support and Coaching
49:00 Eric “Chooses Himself” with his Daily Routines
53:45 Creating Space Between Those Feelings and Action
56:48 Plant-Based Eating is a Bountiful Feast
1:02:20 Changing Your Relationship with Food is the Key to Succes
Episode Resources
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Full Transcript via AI Transcription Service
Hello, my PLANTSTOCK cousins. I got to give a shout out for PLANTSTOCK 2024. After a four-year hiatus, we are bringing back our in-person event with all the Brock stars that you know and you love. Carly Bodrug, Mrs. Plant You, the social media sensation. We have Dr. Will Bulsiewicz , Mr. Fiber Fueled. We have Dr. Gemma Newman, who's over from the UK. We have Dr. Dawn Mussallem with the Mayo Clinic. We have John Mackey, who recently retired from Whole Food Market Stores, where he was at the helm for 44 years. We have Doug Evans, who is Mr. Sprout. And of course, what would a plant stock be without Jane Esselstyn and her co-pilot in crime, Anne Crile Esselstyn. You are going to have endless buffets of plant-strong food. We're going to have more More activities than you know what to do with, whether it's pickleball, yoga, hiking, walking, cornhole, frisbee, golf, live music, dancing, stargazing.
[1:35] And of course, our in-person slots are filling up very, very fast. This event will also be virtual. So we will have an endless number of virtual slots available for people.
[1:46] Simply go to liveplantstrong.com. Click on PLANTSTOCK2024 and sign up. I cannot wait to see you August 16th to the 18th in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Make it happen.
[2:04] I know many of you are going to resonate with today's guest, Eric Soelberg. He was a high school athlete turned young husband and father. And like many of us on the family, marriage, and career track, he lost sight of himself and his own health. Food became an escape and a way to numb himself. He was visiting fast food drive-thrus multiple times a day, feeling the shame, but also satisfying the cravings. And yes he watched forks over knives and read the china study and it all made so much sense but as we know all too well having the information and making lasting change are two different things and it wasn't until 2021 when he started feeling neuropathy and tingling in his toes and fingers, that something finally clicked. He was 260 pounds. Today, he shares his recipes for regaining his health and life. Food is the grounding element, of course, but it's also about so much more for him now. Eric, may be your self-proclaimed.
[3:32] Welcome to the PLANTSTRONG Podcast. Awesome. Glad to be here. So happy to be here. Thank you. Well, it's a pleasure to have you on here. And every once in a while, we like to change it up. Instead of having another doctor or another nutritionist or somebody else, we like to have these incredible success stories. And you emailed me probably a couple months ago and you just wanted to say thank you. In fact, I want to read the first line of your email that you sent me. You said, hi, Rip. I feel compelled to write you an email just to say thanks. And then you put thanks in quotations. It's such a small sounding word for what I hope to convey. Let me explain. lane. So I, I'd love for us to talk about your journey. That is, I think so many people are where you were either in 2010, 11, 12, or 2021.
[4:44] And so I want to talk about all that, but first Eric, where am I talking to you from? Where are you today? day. Awesome. Yeah, I am. I am all the way up in Maine. So you and I share the Austin, Texas connection. That's where I went to high school. And, but I went off to college and met and married a wonderful woman who, who's from Maine. And so that's how we ended up here. And we've been here 14 years, just outside of Portland.
[5:10] And so everybody knows the way that Eric was able to find my email, you little dirty little rascal is, is you, you actually know Adam Sud. And so Adam Sud gave you my email and that's how I got your email, which was again, I, I never get tired of getting emails like these. You send it to my personal email. A lot of times I get them at the, the company kind of email called hello at PLANTSTRONG .com. So Eric, let's start kind of from the beginning. You grew up in Austin, typical, you know, standard American household eating what? Typical fare, is that fair to say? Yeah, yep. I would say standard American, you know, food, you know, felt great. We ate at home a lot. My, you know, often family dinner around the table. And, yeah, I would say very typical, I guess, what most people would have probably been growing up with. In Texas, we ate a little bit extra barbecue, I would think. But, yeah. Yeah. And growing up, were you, were you heavy? Were you athletic? Were you the perfect weight or was it something you never even thought about?
[6:33] You know, I never really thought about it. Um, I, I was really into sports growing up. So, um, my, my high school sports, I played football and I wrestled. Wrestling was my, was my number one sport.
[6:46] And then, uh, thing in track. track so um and uh yeah loved all those sports so wrestling was interesting in particular because i you know got used to managing my weight and making sure that i could make weight and i wrestled at 135 pounds in my freshman and sophomore year and then jumped up to 152 pounds in my junior and senior years so made the big jump from one that's right 152 and how tall were you then and how tall all are you now oh 5 10 probably then 5 11 that's what i am today i'm 5 11 right i have mad respect for you wrestlers that is such a demanding one-on-one just fierce sport do you do you miss it at all i actually do i am passionate about wrestling it's weird there's i think only people who are actually fans of wrestling and watch it regularly like college wrestling or olympic wrestling are people who wrestled in the past so it's a tight-knit community but um i still follow college wrestling a lot um and for those reasons i think i learned a lot about life through that sport to be honest like to get out in front of a stadium with the lights dimmed and just a spotlight in the center of a mat and just you and you and one other person in front of a whole crowd of all your friends in high school i mean that's it's nerve-wracking but but i i feel like i learned a.
[8:10] Lot you know from that experience yeah there was a guy that i grew up with in cleveland ohio he actually stole away my sixth grade sweetheart martha dickerson his name was paul bartolone and he was this like the best wrestler like sixth seventh eighth grade he went on to be like state champion in Ohio.
[8:34] Um, and he was as fast as lightning and so incredible at like diving down, getting your legs and then, you know, flipping you over super fast. What were your strengths as a wrestler? Oh gosh. Um, I was, uh, I was a slightly above average wrestler, but I was not state champion level. Um, I always had better upper body strength than quickness. So I was, I was more likely to, you know, kind of want to grapple with somebody a little bit, but I can't, I probably couldn't have competed with your, with your.
[9:08] With your nemesis, whoever he was. Paul Bartolone, never forget him. Did you ever get any cauliflower ears from all your years of wrestling? No, no. There's a point when you start taking off the headgear and you just kind of wrestle around, and that's what really gives people a cauliflower ear. But no, thankfully, I never got that. Right. That's a new trophy that sticks with people. It is. And you also were a pole vaulter. I have such respect for pole vaulters. I did pole vaulting in the 7th and 8th grade, and I think my highest was 10.5 feet.
[9:43] How did you fare in the pole vault? I think my max was like 12.5 was my PR, which didn't win me any state titles. Again, it was good but not great, but it was a lot of fun. And speaking of high school girls, that was the, the reason I got into pole vaulting was my, uh, my, a girl I was interested in at the time was in track and I was like, oh, I'll go out for track. So, um, turns out I didn't get the girl, but I loved the sport. So I, I guess I, I got something out of it. Well, 12 and a half feet is nothing to shrug at, especially as a high schooler. Wow. Way to be. Um, okay. So you're, you're going along and then college, where'd you go to college? I went to college at BYU in Utah, Brigham Young University. Yeah. And went there for a year and then went on a church mission for two years in the Philippines.
[10:39] And lived there, learned the language, really immersed there, and then came back and finished my undergraduate and graduate. So I lived five years in Utah with a two-year stint in the Philippines in there. And you learned the language. Yeah. That's incredible. Do you remember any of it to this day? Oh, gosh. I came back and taught it for a little while, but there's not a lot of Tagalog speakers around, so I haven't had a lot of chance to practice. Right. I'm not even going to venture to put any out here on the podcast. That would haunt me, I think. So you get a little rusty with it all. Yeah. Okay. And so how long have you been in Maine?
[11:23] Um, let's see. So I've been in Maine. So full life story is we went to Boston. So my wife, again, you know, so I, I was, uh, I graduated in accounting. I was a CPA. My wife's a teacher. Um, so we kind of could pick where we wanted to live and we were deciding Austin or new England and we picked Boston. That was about as far as I was comfortable going at the point at that point in time, Maine felt just a bit too far. Um, so I, we lived in Boston for a couple years and i just fell in love with the area i still love austin as well but um it was just great up here loved the seasons loved the you know the the ocean um and so when we we have three kids, twins who are 14 and then an eight-year-old um so when when our twins were on the way we were like you know what i don't think we want to live in the city in boston anymore let's move up to maine and be closer to family and kind of quiet our life and so we've been in maine for 14 years which is the same amount of time of our same age as our oldest kids.
[12:25] Got it. And what do you do for work these days? I work at L.L. Bean. I've also been at L.L. Bean for 14 years. So people may know L.L. Bean. It's an outdoor clothing and equipment retailer and a hundred plus year old brand. And at some point in that journey, I switched over from finance and into marketing. So I do marketing at L.L. Bean. So if you've ever gotten an L.L. Bean catalog or seen a TV ad or anything, that's my world. Wow.
[12:58] I think about L.L. Bean so fondly. I used to do these canoe camps in the summertime, and the footwear that was like –, So popular back then in the, I'd say, late 70s were those L.L. Bean boots.
[13:17] The rubber and then they had the leather that went up to your ankles and the laces. You know what I'm talking about, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're so great today. In fact, it's still one of our most popular products. It's crazy, but it's fun. Now, is most of your sales through online, D2C, or is it through stores, through retail?
[13:43] So it was a strong catalog heritage. So if you go back 20 years, it would have been 70% catalogs, maybe 80%. Nowadays, it's about 70% online, another maybe 20% or 15% to 20% retail. And then the rest is catalog. So, so as online has grown, you know, our, our business has grown with it, you know, onto the website and then, you know, very digitally oriented, but we still do put quite a lot of catalogs in the mail and it drives our business. Yeah. Yeah. And retail footprint. Yeah. And are the, and I remember those catalogs, I haven't seen one in years, but did a lot of it used to be like hand-drawn if I'm not mistaken or. Yeah. Yeah. They always, They always, in the holidays, would commission artists and they would put two or three catalogs out there with commissioned pieces on the cover. Yeah, good memory. Yeah, yeah. Well, I've always loved the brand and I didn't know how old it was, but the fact that it's over 100 years, that's saying something. It's got some sticking power.
[14:51] I was looking for a catalog. I thought I had one at hand, but I don't. Oh, yeah. No worries. So let's talk about...
[14:58] Let's talk about your plant-based journey. So at what point in your life did you start to kind of look down and go, wow, I am, I'm heavier than I want to be. And, and when it, well, first, maybe before plant-based, when did you start dieting because you knew that weight was an issue? You yeah you know so it's interesting i would say you know so i probably graduated high school and i was in the probably 160 170 range when i married my wife i was on the young side we were 20 i was 22 um you know both of our recollection i was around 175 you know 180 something like that um, and i would say i was really unaware would be the best way i would describe it unaware of my weight unaware of what was really healthy. I can think about some funny stories in my life of when I realized like that cheese isn't like a health food, you know? Um, and you know, I, you know, just had no idea. Um, so you just said something really profound to me in that, and that is you said you didn't even realize that cheese wasn't, was not a, uh, a health food. And I think that.
[16:18] Most of us have been marketed and conditioned to believe, especially back then, that cheese was healthy and it was a great source of calcium and protein and we needed it. I can remember getting home back when I was in grade school and the first thing I'd do is I'd get out the Ritz crackers or the Wheat Thins and I'd slice up a thing of cheddar cheese and I'd go through like half a thing. That would be my afternoon snack. that yeah cheese sticks or just go grab some cheese in the fridge and yeah it's you know felt like a natural food or it felt like a you know um okay yeah i had a lot of fun fun fun realizations like that over time but i i would say yeah i did i was real i don't remember seeing 180s i don't remember seeing 190s and i just remember i had it like deeply ingrained belief no matter like i I tried so many different diets and I'd get down to 210. I remember I'd get down to 215, you know, and so you got down to that from what, 240, 250? Yeah. I can remember like, you know, in 2010, I remember that we had this challenge at work. It was a health related challenge of set a goal for yourself and then, you know, try and achieve it. So I can remember setting a goal to get to 215 pounds and I was like 230.
[17:35] Um, and this was in 2010. So, um, you know, yeah, 14 years ago. Um, and I just couldn't see the good, I was doing P90X. I was exercising like crazy. I was, you know, trying to, trying to get down. And I, I started to believe that it was like physically not possible for my body composition to get below 200. I was just, I don't know, big boned or something. Um, yeah. Yeah. Isn't that, isn't that something? And so in 2010, how old were you? Were you in your late twenties?
[18:10] Let's see. I was 27 at that. Okay. I was born, I was born in 83. So yeah. Well, that's, so you, yeah. So you were able to gain a fair amount of weight in a relatively short period of time. If you were married at 22 and you were, you know, one 70 ish, and then now you're up to, you know, two, two 32, 42, 50. Yeah. You know, it is, it is interesting. There are parts in my, you know, and we'll get to this probably at some point in my story, but the year of 2021 in particular, you know, I think I gained maybe 35 pounds that year, 40 maybe. And it is interesting again. It's, I would say for me, as I look at that period in my life, it became clear that food started to play a role for me in.
[19:01] I probably switched from what I would say was unintentional and unaware about food and its impact on my health and my weight to, at some point, it started to serve even a different need for me in terms of stress reduction, escapism, and it was almost a medication in some ways. And um i don't ever remember perceiving that shift but it was clear to me at some point that that had happened um and i think as i think about those years of growth as we know we haven't had young kids at home kind of a burgeoning career trying to figure life out and you know more often than not food was my sort of escape and so um that coupled with just generally i mean i've always been active but not super aware of, you know, certainly not aware of plant-based eating and, and health food in general. So, but I want to go back. What do you, can you remember what year you got married? Yeah. I'm not going to fail that test. It was 2005. All right. 2005.
[20:13] So what, what do you remember was like, what, what were you eating that allowed you to get up into the, in the mid two hundreds? I mean, what did it, what did a day look like? Like, you know, for me, I've always loved, I've always loved salads, plant foods, all the vegetables. Like I'm not one of those people who was repulsed by it. So I would eat really healthy. And my wife has been a healthy eater forever. Like she, um, you know, so, so that was easy. I didn't have to know swimming upstream as it relates to like eating at home and all that. But I would, you know, pizza, you know, burgers, ice cream.
[20:57] I can, here's a story. I mean, a thing that I used to do that I used to love that I didn't, again, I was really kind of unaware of how bad it was for me, but I would like at the end of a week, if I had a, either a great week or a bad week at work, it doesn't matter if it was, you know, sort of needed some either consolation or, uh, or, you mean, meaning consoling or, or, or celebrating, you know, I would, I would get those, a jar of that Tostitos cheese, the stuff that you can pour. That's, I don't know what, what actually it is, you know, um, and some chips and I'd, I'd heat that up in the microwave and I'd watch a movie and eat chips and cheese, you know, chips and queso as, as we'd call it in Austin, but, you know, put some jalapenos in there and be like, oh yeah, I'm just having a snack. Um, little did I know what I was, you know, putting into my body, but well, you know, for me, it was, it started to become a, you know, so it was that kind of stuff. It was, it was not the absence of good food. It was all the inclusion of all that, all that other stuff. Yeah. Well, just looking at your chips and your, your, your, your queso that you poured on top of the chips, you know, and this is for the audience that is pretty savvy and well aware of calorie density, but you know, those chips are probably sitting at.
[22:14] 1,800 to 2,000 calories per pound. And that queso is probably sitting at probably 3,000 calories a pound because it's probably mostly canola oil. So you've got a snack that you're eating there that's probably 2,500 calories per pound. And can you remember how many days a week you do something like that?
[22:38] Two or three, something like that. Not always chips and queso, So, but you know, whip up a box of brownie mix from the store with the eggs and oil added and then put, put it on top, put some ice cream on top of it. You know, I had, I had my favorites, but, um, I'd say a couple of times a week I'd do something like that just to celebrate, you know, and then what about ice cream? Did you have a favorite brand and type and flavor of ice cream that you would buy? No, not really. No, just, um, and this gets into where. It started to become clear to me at some point that food was serving a different need for me, almost like an addiction. I would think, you know, where, um, you know, if I knew that I was alone for an evening or an afternoon, I might watch a sporting event and eat a whole thing of Ben and Jerry's though, you know, one of the pint or whatever that size is, you know, the, yeah, the size you get, um, in one sitting, you know, no problem. That would be easy. And, and, uh, you know, it just felt, I thought it was normal or, or at least I, I didn't think about it. I I don't know if I was, again, sort of intentionally trying to rationalize for myself, but, um, All those decisions, all those things were added up for sure. Yeah. What about your wife? Did your wife say, hey, Eric, I think you're putting on a couple LBs there, buddy.
[24:04] No. I love her for this. Her approach has always just been supportive. You know, when, when I started to wake up to what was going on, you know, just, I would describe her as, you know, just having a steady hand at my back as I was trying to make change and encouraging me. But I think she knew me well that, you know, I, I sort of needed to arrive there myself and, and to, um, want the change for myself, but, but surely, you know, set a good example all along, you know, she's, I think she's probably exactly the same size as when, when we first got married, maybe even, maybe even, uh, a little bit more fit and trim now. Um, and she's always just, you know, likely to grab an apple before a, a pint of ice cream kind of person. Not that she doesn't ever eat sweets or snacks, but, um, so, so I think that's been her way, which I, you know, for me, she knows me well, that probably was the best, best approach for me. Is she, is she still, is she now following the same regimen that you are, which is whole food a plant-based 100 yeah so i actually and if she were here she would say i was the one that sort of.
[25:12] Did all the research you know like we watched forks over knives together i can still remember it the watching that that was sort of our first what year was that 2012 i think it was 2013, if i recall okay um i can remember the setting and i'm pretty sure about the year but i can't remember exactly it was on netflix it was the time when it right when it came out on netflix We were like, oh, hey, let's check that out.
[25:40] And but I quickly dove into the China study and blitzed through that. It was the summertime. I remember just blitzing through the China study. And then I read your dad's book next and prevent reverse heart disease. And you kind of went down the list and just consume, consume, consume. And I, you know, all that information. And I shared it with her and it just clicked for her. And it wasn't a big leap that she was making at the time, but yeah, we, we now are both aligned in how we eat a hundred percent.
[26:14] Um, all right. So, so, so you, you did the research, you watched forks over knives, you probably watched cowspiracy and all the other documentaries in 2019. Did you get to see the game changers? Yes. Yes. Right. Showed that to our kids as well, you know, as they were kind of preteens at the time And, um, yeah, that was a great one. Yeah. And so how did you do, I mean, what, what, what happened between 2013 and 2021? It was this.
[26:48] In that period of time, um, lost weight, gain it back, lost weight, gain it back. Um, and this might resonate for some of your listeners. You know, again, I think I represent the sort of average, average listener, uh, probably more, you know, probably relatable to many. I would, I would hope, um, where I had the information, um, and I, I'm a, I'm a generally like a researcher by you know like that's how i would you know i read so many books i watched so many documentaries i was really into it i bought it so i feel like i knew what to do and my hardest the hardest thing for me was was the change like actually fighting off the urges that i you know would have to eat and and the recognition for me that food served almost a a, a sort of, you know, psychological release or, or, um, you know, uh, role almost like an, again, like an addiction would. And so I, I don't use that term lightly and I'm certainly not a doctor, so I'm not sure if that's the clinically appropriate word to use, but that's what it felt like to me. And so I was, I feel like there was a period of time, seven years, eight years where, I just felt like I was battling that and just had a really hard time.
[28:16] Fully kind of making the, making the, making the jump. And so I had, I had lost weight. I mean, and you know, all in this time, like I've run four marathons, I've been really active. Um, I I've always been active. It's not, it's not the eating the good food that's the problem. It's not the activity again. And it's just, you know, getting away from food as a crutch or food as, you know, a way to numb some emotion that I didn't want to feel. Yeah.
[28:48] And I'm looking at some notes that I did in preparation for this. And you mentioned how, like, you would go out on an errand and you get excited to go out on an errand by yourself because it gave you permission, I guess, with nobody else with you to kind of go to the fast food or, you know, buy a box of cookies and eat the whole thing. Is that, is that accurate? Oh yeah. Yeah. I, I, um, you know, I would notice that I would be, you know, eating in solitude or, you know, I can remember telling my wife, like when I was really trying to commit to the change, like, Hey honey, like I made it home without going and getting fast food today. And I'm really proud of myself. And it's like such a weird thing to, yeah to say but i realized at some point i got to the you know in that 2021 you know where i was.
[29:38] Out on the road a bunch doing different stuff and uh you know so a lot of opportunity to just swing on a swing on through a drive-through and it became a real habit almost um and um yeah i think i i think i said to you like i've never had uh you know like one one cookies one cookie is too many, but 10 is not enough is kind of a, is a way to think about it for me. Like I couldn't, you know, I don't, I don't, I have the tendency to just want to like eat the whole sleeve and not just, you know, one or two. Well, yeah, you're not alone there. That's for sure. What about, so when you would go to the fast food restaurants, was there any in particular that you enjoyed?
[30:22] A lot of McDonald's, to be honest. What would you like to order? Burgers and fries or a sausage burrito. Sometimes I'd go for breakfast. Sometimes I'd go for lunch.
[30:37] I can think of times when I'd go through the drive-thru and eat in the parking lot, and then I'd go back through again because I was still hungry. Yeah, how about that? It's those moments where it's like, I know. I just felt so gross physically. And then also, of course, like, you know, not proud of myself in that moment, but, um, you know, you just like, what, this is not, this is not who I want to be, you know? Um, and I think rip in 2021, I, I, I feel like that was the moment when the pain of continuing was greater than my perceived pain of making the switch. And when the when that when that started to become clear to me is when i think i finally started, having the right recipe to to make lasting change well and i want to i want to talk about what was the right recipe for you before we do i i still i want to i want to continue to dive into kind of your your your mindset when you didn't have the right recipe you were driving through the fast food restaurant or driving through the fast food drive-through you'd park, you'd eat it. You'd drive through again, where you say that you were hiding food in your house. So like, what would you hide and where would you hide it?
[31:56] So here's a funny story. Um, this is, this one is, you know, certain memories just will stick with you. I had one where I went to the, um, grocery store in the middle of the day and, uh, I can't remember. I think I was running an actual errand, picking something up, but I picked up some of the cookies from the bakery aisle and, uh, just, I don't know, whatever regular old cookies and um i put them in a drawer in my in my office where i work and i thought yeah i'll just grab one when i feel like it and these will be just my cookies you know and so i i put them in the drawer they were sort of hidden and and and i think i you know certainly was feeling shame.
[32:39] About that or not wanting that to be less about hoarding and it was more about hiding i think um and then And I was outside doing something and one of my kids came up and said, hey, Casco, that's our dog, found these. So she, her dog had sniffed out the cookies and was like sniffing around the drawer where I'd hidden them. And I was like, oh, yep, yep, hid the cookies in there. And I didn't make a big deal of it, you know, with the kids. But it was, you know, one of those moments where, you know, the dog had found my stash, which was funny to look back on. but yeah, certainly a memory I have. Um, and I mean, I have so many stories rip of just like these behaviors that they didn't seem clear to me at the time, but you know, wow.
[33:25] Um, you know, how much I, I was just, you know, I'd get excited about, Hey, I'll go pick up the kids. I'll go do this errand, you know, cause I could swing by the gas station and grab a candy bar or, you know whatever um that was just it ended up being my norm it was it was um it was easy to see these habit these habits sort of um grooves being being formed in my my brain and my in my in my behavior yeah and so in 2021 you say you've gained 35 pounds you got on the scale and it said 260.4 pounds, you, you, um, started feeling some tingling sensations at your hands and your feet, which is kind of like neuropathy, which potentially could be, uh, construed as, or in fact, you know, the beginnings of type two diabetes and you just were like, enough's enough. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly how it went for me. I, um, It was the Christmas holiday. I was off of work.
[34:35] And yeah, I just remember feeling like my toes and fingers started almost hurting, you know, and tingling. And I called the doctor and certainly got my labs done. And turns out, you know.
[34:48] You know, thankfully wasn't at least clinically pre-diabetic at the time, but that's what I was worried about. I had just finished Eric Adams book healthy at last. I think I learned about him through your podcast and, um, and you know, so, and he talked about neuropathy, you know, in his eyes and he talked about, um, that, so that was, I was sort of like, Ooh, is that what I'm experiencing? And, and, uh, I can remember even just getting up and off the floor, playing a game, a board game with the kids on the floor over Christmas break and just feeling like this was harder than it used to be. And, and, uh, uh, you know, just carrying so much extra weight. And so I hopped on the scale and, and sure enough, 260 pounds. And, uh, I just, you know, I had a lot going on in my life, you know, busy with kids and busy with work and, And, you know, just extracurricular stuff that I had going on. And I just said, I am, I will, I am eating myself to death. And I didn't, you know, it started to become clear that this might be the beginning of, you know, a sad set of, you know, physical symptoms that just go downhill, downhill, downhill. And I just had a moment. I just said, enough.
[36:09] I can't do this. you know, I can't, I can't, I can't. And did you, when you, when that moment hit and you said, all right, enough is enough.
[36:19] I have got to make some, some serious changes. Was it to yourself? Did you approach your wife and what's, what's your wife's name? Camille. Did you say Camille, I am making this change and I need you to help me or how did you do it? Yeah. Um, that was part of of it. Um, I have a good friend, um, who, uh, actually I know he's emailed you as well when I hit my weight goal. Um, and his name's Andrew and, and I told him, um, but I kept it kind of to
[36:53] myself, you know, I'm not on social media. I was not, I wouldn't be the type to broadcast that anyways, but, um, I also, I still read it every day and I, I created, you know, just a really.
[37:07] Self-care oriented morning routine where I read a set of intentions and affirmations and, you know, and at the top of it, it says, you know, my number one priority in my life is to get healthy. And if I don't do that, then nothing else matters. And it matters more than my work. It matters more than where I live. It matters more than anything because. If I don't have that, then I'm, then I'm dead and I'm not going to, I'm not going to be there for other people. So, so that's how I got to that point where I said, nothing else matters, but I did engage a few, you know, key supporters who I knew would be there with me. Um, and I remember I told my parents pretty shortly thereafter where, you know, they've, they've kind of been with me on that journey as well. Well, so yeah. So if you don't mind sharing, like, so who, who are those key supporters in case there's somebody that's listening, thinking, wow, wow, I am exactly where Eric was when he hit that inflection point in 2021. And they want to enlist some key supporters. So who was it for you? And maybe it could be this similar for them. Yeah. So, you know, again, thankful for my wife, where I felt like I could just really, it was actually, so we'd been married almost 20 years at this point, you know, probably 17, I guess at the time.
[38:35] And even then I know her so well, it was hard for me to say, even the things I've said on this podcast were really hard for me to say out loud, you know, um, that, you know, I, these are my behaviors. This is the result that I've had. And I, and I'm trying to make a change. Um, so I was so grateful that I could go to her first and foremost. Um, and again, my, my, my really close friend, we run together several times a week. We text daily. I'm, I, you know, I'm grateful to have a friend who is also, uh, that close that I could share that with, but it was an extremely vulnerable thing because, um, you know, I had had decades, I guess, at that point of trying and not succeeding. Um, so in addition to reaching out to those core people who were going to really put their arms around me and support me and not not judge me and continue to give me.
[39:36] Grace and space and also encouragement um that's when i actually sought out and and reached out to adam um so adam was key to me in that time so early 2022 i reached out to him so for the people, that i don't know if we've talked about it so that's you're referring to adam sud who's been on the podcast i think three different times he is the plant-based addict uh adam back in the day was addicted to Adderall cocaine, was suicidal, addicted to fast food, and has turned into one of the most amazing coaches, human beings, motivational speakers that you could ever imagine. And so kudos to you for reaching out to Adam, who, what, you listened to him on the podcast and that prompted you to then reach out to him. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. And again, Again, you know, just a quiet and short plug for what you're doing. You know, I would say the life change I've made, similar to that email I sent you, you know, thanks doesn't say enough. It's not a strong enough word.
[40:43] So much of what I know today, this, your podcast, your books, and all the plant-based education that I've gotten has been the sort of backbone. And I branch out from there. um but yeah i actually learned about adam um from the podcast i remember there have been a few podcasts on this PLANTSTRONG podcast that i can remember uh i can remember listening to the the first one that i heard of adams i can remember pulling over i was just getting like choked up hearing his story um i listened to that one several times and then i followed him on instagram and then at some point he was kind of taking new coaching clients and so i said hey would you be willing and the funniest thing is that um we ended up it ends it ended up that we we graduated the same high school class together i moved there my junior year and it took me a while to catch up and meet you know meet people and make friends and we had a huge class in our high school um big texas school, the football heritage. And so, you know, just graduating class. So you went to Westlake where Drew Brees graduated.
[41:57] Yeah, yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So that was, that's actually when I moved to Texas, I stopped playing football because it was a different game in Texas. So I moved from Oregon halfway through high school. And so Adam and I got on our first call and we were like, Like, wait, do you, where did you grow up? What year did you graduate? And we quickly, I went in the basement. I said, hold on. I went in the basement and dug my yearbook out. And sure enough, Sud and Soelberg are alphabetically very close to each other. We were on the same page in the yearbook of our graduation. Yeah.
[42:34] So anyway, Adam is just as genuine and as good as he sounds when he shares his stories. And he really helped me with a bit of arm's length, kick in the pants when I needed it, tons of great education when I didn't understand the why behind something that my rational brain sort of has to come along with me on change. And he helped me so well informed. But he's done it before. He made the transition. So what my wife or my friend Andrew couldn't exactly provide was that hand of, hey, I've been there in the hole. I've climbed out of it. Let me help you.
[43:16] So I'd say that was another part of the recipe that I needed. Mm hmm.
[43:21] And I also you said the most important thing and the thing that you write down in your journaling every morning is that your most important thing is your health. Right. It's not about losing weight a certain number, but it's your health. And by and by going after your health everything else kind of falls into place so when you said like you reached your your buddy andrew your running partner contacted me to send a video message to you what what was that that number that you wanted to get to knowing that that was secondary secondary to you know your health goals yeah it's kind of an interesting dance between weight as a goal and then lifestyle change as a goal, weight was clearly a goal for me because I just had a lot to lose. Um, but I knew that in the end I had to rewire my brain. I had to think differently, but my actual goal. So I was at two 60.4 at the end of 2021.
[44:31] And, um, I said, I've never been below 200 uh that I can remember not never of course but like you know it's been so long it's like a mythical weight for me I couldn't even imagine it um so I said I'm gonna get there by the end of the year um but then I you had in 2022 a summer of 2022 I think Juliana Hannah Hever, Choose You Now diet book.
[44:59] Absolutely. Yes. Right moment. That one clicked for me. So I'm halfway through the year. I think it was like June, July. You had her on the podcast.
[45:11] Bought her book. It just clicked. And she talked about this formula that sort of you can use to set a target weight. And the concept that you can kind of choose ultimately what... Where you want to land on your weight and that you can kind of work a plan to get there. And that, that was such a foreign idea to me. So I applied the formula and it came out with one 70 for me, height, weight, other, you know, everything, everything all in.
[45:43] And I thought, geez, that sounds like totally unachievable, like crazy pants. Yeah. But I said, Hey, I've been that size as a, as an adult, maybe could I. And so that's the moment somewhere in the middle of 2022, I sort of resolved to say, I'm going to, I'm going to try and get below 200 this year in this year. And I did. Um, but then one 70 was the goal. So I got to one 95 by December of that year of 2022, and then not until March of this year. So it took me to lose the last 25 pounds, lots of, that's a story I could tell too. We could talk about that is how do I go from 195 having lost 65 pounds and I knew how to do it, but to get to my last 25 pounds, it took me, you know, you know, maybe 15 months or so. Cause it was hard to get started again, almost in that, in that journey of losing a little bit more. Yeah and so how do you feel at 170 compared to 195 oh it's so different yeah it feels i i would i mean it feels like the weight i i should be um yeah there's a before and after so that was october 2022 on the left and i was probably oh 250 at that point or 245 and then And then one year later, October 2023.
[47:13] Same place, obviously, which is kind of funny. This wasn't intentionally a before and after photo, but this is one year apart. Eric, we need you shirtless here. You're wearing these big baggy jackets. I never did the shirtless photos. I guess in some ways I'm grateful.
[47:30] This one here is out on an island in Maine. On the bottom picture, this is August. This is an anniversary trip, August 2020. Two. Yeah. And then there I'm full 255, almost 260. And then one year later with my daughter's same spot, um, I'm about one 90, one 95 in that picture. Right. So, so I'd love for you to dive in and let us know what were the tweaks that you made?
[48:03] To go from 195 to 170? And was it about losing weight? Was it about health? Was it about portion sizes? Was it about the configuration of the foods on your plate? Because I'm sure that you had hit a plateau and now you had to make some adjustments. Yeah. Now I'm going to share how I do it. And this works for me and it relates, like sort of my brain works this way. One of the things that Adam taught me was think about change as a series of two-week experiments. And it's test and learn, test and learn, try, pivot, and just take the emotion out of it and just say, okay, I'm tweaking and I've got a theory. If I do X, Y will happen. And, um, if, if the outcome isn't what you expected, then adjust in some way. Um, so that was sort of the approach I'd taken all along as it sort of worked for me.
[49:01] Um, and then it's just sort of day in, day out for me, my actual sort of tactics, uh, that, that, that I employ, um, I, I do intermittent fasting. I still do it today. Um, so I generally I generally eat, you know, seven or eight hours in a day, usually between I ate my lunch around 12 or one. That's my breaking the fast for the day. So you don't do breakfast?
[49:26] Nope. Right. Nope. Water, coffee, tea in the morning, but no food. And then I'll finish up after a family dinner. So six, six thirty seven, something like that. So you're eating two meals a day. Is that fair to say? Are you snacking at all during the day? Yeah. Yeah, I, all along in this journey, I've really, like, my goal with intermittent fasting isn't as much to, you know.
[49:59] It's not so much, it's not, that's not about the calories as much as it is just helping to create some strong boundaries so that I don't just snack all day long. Right. But I probably eat five or six pieces of fruit a day. Um, today when I broke my fast before this call, I had three bananas, a Kiwi, um, a huge bowl of my, I call it my hash. My family, when they listen to this is going to chuckle my hash. It's almost mythical at this this point, but big bowl of sweet potatoes, beans, kale, and then usually like a mushroom onion mixture. I like it spicy. So jalapenos and, and red pepper flakes. And, um, that's my almost, almost every day, seven days a week, all the time. That's what I usually eat. Bunch of fruit and then, and then, and then that hash.
[50:49] Yep. Yep. Wow. So, so do you make a whole bunch of sweet potatoes batch cooked so you have those ready to go yep yeah i cook two sheet pans at a time that'll last me and that's five sweet potatoes that'll last me two to three days um and and it's just my lunch so i'll eat so basically i'm eating probably one or two sweet potatoes at lunch every day um and so again i don't i don't eat i'm one of the things i love about plant-based eating in general. It's not about, in my experience, starving yourself or eating small amounts and hoping that you don't get too hungry.
[51:32] And I don't feel that hungry in the morning when I intermittent fast, really.
[51:38] So that's the way I break my fast. And then I eat whatever we're eating for dinner most of the time. But I start with a huge salad most nights. And then I'll grab grab whatever we're cooking. And again, I'm grateful and lucky enough that we eat plant-based at home. We eat plant-based with our kids now, too. And so that makes life a little easier, my choice. I don't have to have separate Eric food. Yeah.
[52:04] That's really, really, uh, I love, I love hearing like specifically how you've, how you've managed to, to, to do that, navigate it. And then what do you, I think, um, what do you do every morning? Don't you have a routine that you do where you, you write or you meditate or
[52:24] you do something like that? Yeah, I forget if I told you about that. Yeah. So for me, that's become like, I'd say the thing that I don't hear people talk about enough that for me, I would say is a key is mindfulness, practice, meditation. Um, so if I have a perfect morning, which I do this probably five days a week or six, um, I get up, I jump in a bathtub that has cold water in it. Um, that's my wake up call. Yeah. Um, and I love to do a little bit of yoga and stretching and then some meditation. And for me, that sets my day, right. And then always, you know, I run or I do some other weightlifting lifting exercises, but, um, and I always journal. I start with gratitude. I read my affirmations that I told you about.
[53:12] I write three things I'm grateful for, usually two short and one long. And then, uh, and I just put reflections and oftentimes, and I weigh myself, um, every morning right after I wake up. And so I've got daily weigh-ins for, you know, for this whole journey. Um, and I don't, it's objective. It's just data. It's like, all right, how did that go? And I can use that to make micro adjustments.
[53:36] And I reflect a little bit in writing. And that works for me.
[53:41] I'm a writer that helps me process my thinking and get some clarity. Um and i find those days when i practice that mindfulness where i just sit and just breathe and and try and just be present that helps separate that stimulus and response so for me, that practice helps me because most often what can happen when i do slip up and i do you know and and i realized i just ate five cookies and not one because they were sitting on the counter i don't even like those moments happen so fast and they're so unintentional they're so unthoughtful for me and i can just get caught up um in it and it's just creating that little bit of space between the stimulus and the response like oh i want to eat that cookie i'm having an urge if i can just create a little moment in there i win i can win that moment um, I heard someone call it once winning your fight throughs, but I, you know, you've got to fight through a moment and I can say, Oh, you know what?
[54:47] Rationally my future self won't want me to have eaten this cookie so i'm just going to move on, but if i can't figure out how to kind of create that space then then it just can just run off the rails quick i think i think in our coaching program they've they tell people to create that space go have a eight ounce glass of water right drink something a lot of times that can help help, you know, help hit your stretch receptors in your stomach and kind of give you a little bit of a, uh, deviate your mind from thinking of that vegan chocolate brownie that looks so good. And you can imagine exactly how it tastes. Yeah. Right. Well, you know, the thing rip too, is like, you know, when you, when you, when you talked about how did I get from one 95 down to one 70, that was harder. You know, obviously the first pounds are always the easiest. it wasn't eating non-vegan things it's like too many tortillas or too many you know it's it's this it's the non-whole food plant-based what i realized if i ever stalled in my weight it's when i wasn't eating truly whole food so it's to me i can eat all the carrots and fruits and you know so so yeah like even if something's vegan or made with plant-based ingredients to me i can't I can't eat that all the time, you know? Yeah, that's a really good point that you make there.
[56:16] If you always come back to True North, which is whole food plant-based, and you truly are honest with yourself, how much processed, refined vegan crap have I had over the last week? And yeah, a lot of times that can be a really great way to make a course correction. You talk about how plant-based eating is a bountiful feast. So describe what you mean by a feast.
[56:49] So I, I, um, I, it has been, again, I have, I struggled to find the, the words that are the right size for how I feel about plant-based eating list. Like the word, thanks that I sent you. Um, it is a feast and it's a feast in two ways. Um, the food is just delicious. Like, um, I don't ever feel like I'm eating less than, you know, food. I'm not jealous of the cheesy pizza anymore. I don't even want it like that, that kind of stuff. I don't even, doesn't even interest me anymore. And I go out to eat and I just order a bunch of sides and I'm so happy with a huge pile of, you know, veggies. Um, but the food is delicious. So many great recipes.
[57:42] Um, I have, I mean, I, I just, I have, I brought with me here just for fun, you know, so many cookbooks and I love all the, all the, all the cookbooks that come through the podcast. And I, I ended up buying a bunch of them and trying out the recipes. So the food is delicious. There's no lab in the world that could ever recreate the gooeyness of a date or, or, you know, just the, you know, try to recreate a tomato in a lab. You just, it's impossible. Um, so for me, the food is a feast and it's, it is a delicious food.
[58:18] Um, and it's almost, it's almost like, I'm guessing my kids would just poke me with fun about just the, the idea of plant-based eating is a feast um it it started for me for health right i i sort of was like i got to get healthy and this seems like a great way to get healthy um over time i have learned how not just healthy from a weight perspective but all the systems in your body it is the miracle drug as it relates to just physical health you know whether it's you know all that i've learned about your gut microbiome and protecting you from, you know, diseases. I got hit with COVID so bad in November, 2021, double pneumonia after a terrible COVID bout. And I, my body was not ready to fight it and gotten COVID sense and, you know, easy. And I attribute that to plant-based eating. So just all the things that it can do for you from a health perspective, and then you open up.
[59:30] Ethical treatment of animals. And then you think about the planet, um, and it just goes on and on and on. And to me, you know, and, and not only just like not hurting animals or being healthy, but you're actually putting your body in the best place to perform athletically. If you want to be an Olympic, you know, cyclist, or you want to run a marathon, like the best way is to fuel yourself with plant-based food. And, um, so I, I just can't, every, every new book I read, every podcast I listened to, I feel like, oh my gosh, I go and tell my family, Hey, I learned this other new thing. And hopefully it's not an annoying way, but they, but they, they're probably,
[1:00:11] they chuckle at the number of things that, you know, plant-based eating can fix or cure or prevent. Um, yeah. So for you, it's, uh, it's a healthy feast of, of information and knowledge that you're continuing to, um, divulge and, and, uh, take in. Yeah. Yeah. Well put. That's a good succinct way to put it. I feel like there's so much more to learn as well. I just, it gets me excited. Yeah.
[1:00:39] Are your kids, uh, PLANTSTRONG plant-based? They, I would say they, uh, we, we don't force it on them. Um, at home we eat almost entirely. I mean, I, my wife and I, entirely plant-based, every now and then something non-plant-based will kind of sneak into the house. And we don't say you can't eat pizza when you go to the birthday party. But it is interesting. I think it's the right recipe for our kids to give them enough education and experience, but then also the chance to make their own decision. And so far, they all seem to be really gravitating that direction. So, um, right. Yeah.
[1:01:21] Well, you're, you're doing it right. And Eric, I can't even tell you how many little gems I feel like you have dropped for the listeners today. And I know there's going to be so many great takeaways that they're going to be able to apply to their PLANTSTRONG journeys. That's going to allow them to get to their health goals And that's what I love. That's why I love having people like you on the show is because everybody has something important to share with everyone else. And I can't even tell you how much I appreciate you sharing your journey. I know you, you know, in your email, you said, you know, I'm just a normal guy and if I can help, great. And I'd love to be able to, you know, maybe there's somebody that will, that will grab something from what I have to say. Well, we've grabbed a lot, a lot, and I am super appreciative.
[1:02:20] Let me, before we close out, is there anything else that you want to say to, Anybody that's out there and is where you were in 2021? Yeah, thanks, Rip. You know, that is the way I feel. Like, I feel humbled even just to be considered to kind of share my story. And thank you. I feel very average, normal guy.
[1:02:45] And my hope is that I'm guessing most of your listeners, you know, are on some part of their journey. And, you know, if you're in the dark part of the journey, the hard part that you haven't exactly kind of flipped the switch, um, and, and seeing the success that, that you want to see and maintain it, um, keep, keep at it, um, keep staying, staying in the lane and, and trying new things and, and adjust. And, um, and I really believe that anybody can make the change. And I also know how hard it is. Um, so hopefully that the people can take hope and take courage that change is possible. Because I know I've gotten so much of that inspiration from the podcast myself. Yeah. I just find it, just reflecting for a second on kind of the conversation that we've had over the last hour, just how you got the information back in 2013 and the impetus was forks over knives and then you read the China study and prevent reverse heart disease and you started following it.
[1:03:50] But for whatever reason, it wasn't until you were 260 and you were having issues getting off the floor and the neuropathy and some other things that you were like, whoa, I got to take a step back. I got to reevaluate and I got to make this thing work. You weren't looking for like, it sounds like, you know, a wonder drug or another diet. it, you somehow intuitively knew whole food plant-based was the path.
[1:04:21] You just had to figure out how to make it stick and kind of perfect it, so to say. Yeah. I needed to fundamentally change the way I saw and used food. And I knew that as long as I stuck with whole food, plant-based, everything was good, everything was safe. And it was just so clear and easy to me. And I felt great when i did it um but it was the changing my relationship with food um that was the trick and as you said i needed that wake-up moment of realizing that what i my relationship with food was accelerating my my death ultimately and uh i just wasn't going to accept that you know yeah Yeah. Well, we're so glad that you didn't.
[1:05:13] Eric, this has been an absolute pleasure. I really want to thank you, my PLANTSTRONG brother. And, you know, on the way out, I always like to give up, you know, a little PLANTSTRONG virtual fist bump. Could you do that with me? There you go. So Eric, bam, keep it PLANTSTRONG.
[1:05:34] I look forward to checking in on you in the not too distant future. And again.
[1:07:18] Music.
