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(Cheers) (Applause)

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So as he said I am Josh.

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I grew up in a family[br]of meat and potatoes.

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I had a gourmet chef grandmother,

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a deli daycare where[br]I would be dropped off everyday

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eating amazing food.

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So if you take a look[br]at my family background,

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it's not really surprising.

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So on my mom's side,[br]they grew up in Argentina,

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this is the place where you have[br]a lot of dairy farmers

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including my family.

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You add to that my dad's[br]side of the family,

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Fort Worth Texas born and raised,

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myself as well.

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This is a place where[br]you literally still have

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cattle drives through the middle of town.

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So you put those two together[br]and what do you get?

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Not surprisingly,

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pretty much every meal that[br]I ate was a giant pile of meat.

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At one point in my life[br]I really would literally brag,

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that I ate steak, every day,[br]for forty days.

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And I thought that[br]it was an accomplishment.

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So it all changed,[br]on a very fateful trip.

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I like going up to lake Tahoe,

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one of my favorite things to do.

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This is a trip that normally[br]takes 4 or 5 hours,

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We got stuck in a really bad snowstorm,

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so about 10 hours,

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into what should be a 4-5 hour trip.

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We are all really stir crazy in the car,

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and we are having lots[br]of crazy conversations.

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At one point we were making animal noises

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to keep ourselves entertained.

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We got the car turned off,

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everyone was basically[br]sleeping in their car.

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and we got on the subject of nutrition.

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So a very good friend of mine up in[br]the back of the audience, Brian Robin,

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was really the man with a plan.

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He started talking about[br]a plant-based diet,

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and you had a car full of[br]extremely skeptical people,

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myself included,

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we had you know, four other people[br]in the car besides Brian,

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we are peppering him with questions,

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saying there's no way this is possible,

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there's no way you can be healthy.

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You know coming from my perspective,

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you know all I really knew,

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I learned a lot about cooking[br]from my grandmother

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and I really enjoyed cooking,

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I enjoyed cooking for my friends,

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but the foundation of everything[br]that I would cook was really meat,

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and so I may make a side dish,

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but it's a side dish[br]it's a second thought.

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So, you know after this long[br]conversation with Brian,

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I think he did a very good job[br]of inspiring the rest of the group.

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So those four others of us in the car,

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all decided to go seven days,[br]no meat whatsoever.

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So we were all a little bit of a[br]support group in each other,

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challenging each other[br]to try seven days no meat.

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I think if you were to ask[br]those who knew me at all,

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they would say: "Josh,

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going seven days,

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with no meat?"

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Not only no meat, but no[br]animal products whatsoever.

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They'd have told you that[br]it's absolutely impossible.

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And so after the seven days,

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day eight,

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the first thing I did

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A - I ate a giant pile of pulled pork,

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and then B - I sort of reflected,

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it was actually very easy for me[br]to go seven days with no meat,

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no animal products whatsoever.

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And I took a look at[br]my own family history.

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I have two grandfathers who[br]had quadruple heart bypasses,

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not very surprising given

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what I have been talking[br]about my family history.

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I have a grandmother who[br]passed away from diabetes,

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I have lots of cancer in my family.

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And so all these things together,

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really said well maybe[br]I can try thirty days,

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and so thirty days quickly turned[br]into more than a year and a half,

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on a purely plant based diet.

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And so I didn't go into it lightly,

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when I took a look at my own situation,

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I spent 10 or 12 years[br]really bulding my body.

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I really enjoyed physical fitness,

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I really enjoyed bodybuilding,

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and I had a major concern[br]that I would waste away,

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I would be skinny and sickly,

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and all this work that I put in[br]would just completely disappear.

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So after more than[br]two and a half years now,

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of doing not only plant-based[br]but then maybe mostly vegeterian,

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totally a non issue.

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I actually found that not only[br]was I able to continue

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increasing my strength[br]and my performance,

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but also saw massive gains[br]in endurance as well.

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So the other big concern,

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one of my favorite things to do is to eat.

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It's one of my favorite ways[br]to interact socially.

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And so I was concerned that you know,

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this is going to be a very[br]difficult thing for me to do.

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It's going be a battle, day and[br]day out resisting things.

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So for me it was much less[br]about what I was giving up

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and much more about what[br]I was actually coming to learn.

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So rather than feeling[br]I got missing out on foods,

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I really felt,

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that I was opening my mind[br]to so many different things

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that I would have never put on my plate.

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I haven't been focused still[br]on that giant pile of meat.

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The results,

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you know unfortunately[br]I didn't get younger or taller

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as a result of this experiment.

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I did precipitously drop my cholesterol,

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and this is a level that[br]maybe some people,

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wouldn't say that was extremely dangerous,

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but pretty high level cholesterol,

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that cholesterol drop[br]happened extremely quickly

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as did the weight drop.

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I didn't think I had 35 pounds to lose.

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But I lost 35 pounds, I dropped[br]my cholesterol precipitously,

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noticed massive improvements in:

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my performance, my ability to function

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in my work and in my job.

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Some mental improvements,

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as well as physical improvements.

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And so I think this all really[br]started with my friend Brian

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and a lot of literature that I read,

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and my own family history inspiring me,

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to take about, you know, 30 days

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to make this change.

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And hopefully, my inspiration,

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these things that inspired me,

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can also be an inspiration for you,

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to believe that this is [br]possible for you as well.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)