Shane Martin - If You're Overweight and Unhealthy, Here is How You Can Feel Better In One Week

Shane Martin was just an ordinary guy who was nearly 300 pounds, diabetic, and exhausted. A health crisis turned into his wake-up call. After watching the documentary Forks Over Knives, Shane went all-in on a whole-food, plant-based diet. Now he is a healthy and vibrant husband, father, grandfather, and recipe adapter. He wants others to know they can control their health and weight as they age. He makes simple, delicious down-home meals that anyone can make and enjoy. Shane discusses his ideas of what beauty is, living in the moment, and appreciating the people who truly matter.

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Transcript

0:01

Hi friend! I am thrilled for our guest this week, Shane Martin. He's just a simple guy who went from nearly 300 pounds and diabetic to 200 pounds and healthy. He now adapts recipes for all of our favorite comfort foods to healthy, whole food plant based versions on his website, Shane and simple.com. Shane shares his incredible journey and wants you to know what you can do to start feeling better within a week if you're overweight and sick. We also get his hot take on beauty ideals as we age. The only thing simpler than Shane and simple is if you could get whole food plant based, oil free meals delivered to your house. So this is a great segue to introduce our new partner, Whole Harvest Meal Delivery service. I have been very picky about our sponsors, and in fact, I have turned down several because I don't want to just recommend any old thing to you without integrity. But Whole Harvest delivers. Chef prepared, ready to heat and eat fresh meals to your door that are not only delicious, but their whole food. Plant based and oil free. So just go to whole harvest.com/badass and use coupon code badass at checkout for $20 off your first order. And this information will be in the show notes, so go straight there after you listen to the podcast. And thanks for listening. Hi friends, I'm Lauren Bernick and I'm flipping the script about growing older. My guests have been influencers since before that was even a thing. Welcome to the anti Anti-Aging podcast. Welcome to age like a badass mother. Who is Shane Martin? He's just your average, ordinary guy who makes plant based cooking casual, easy and delicious. He doesn't use fancy equipment or fancy chefs speak. He's a normal dude who loves to cook and eat good food that happens to be entirely plant based. Please welcome my friend Shane Martin. Oh, yeah, the crowd goes wild. Hello my friend. Hello. I was just saying that I love your intro because I asked you to send me over some stuff, and. And I was saying, normally I have to cut it down. Everybody sends their life story, and that's all he said. And I'm like, my wife will tell you. I'm like, when I ask a question, just give me the answer. You know, I don't want to know about your cousins. We can we can get into that. Like I never will forget one of the funniest stories. We I used to live in Nashville, and my family lives, my mom's family, we lived only about three hours south west of Nashville, in a little town in Mississippi where we live now, and it's about three hour and 15 minute drive. And I never will forget. This was back in the 90s, and my aunt, my mom, sister owned a little restaurant, little, you know, meat and three type of place. And we were all sitting around after closing one night and my mom's youngest sibling, her brother, he said, he said my mom's name was Becky. He goes, Becky, how far is it from here to Nashville? And she goes, well, you go through Adamsville and you go through Selma, and you go through over to the left. He goes, he goes, no, no, no, no, no, no, how far? Just tell me, give me a number. And I'm like. And sometimes I can be a little abrasive with that because my I'll, you know, my wife will. We used to joke when she would explain things to the kids when they were little. And we were homeschooling when they were younger and we were riding around one night and I can't remember the question, but my oldest daughter said, what's this for? My mom goes, well, there's this thing. And when it my mom, Andrea said, well, there's this thing and it happens. And it just it Maddie's like five years old at the time. And she goes, will it, you know, and then sometimes this and our little daughter Maddie goes, I have no idea what you just said. So now I'm the same way. Cut to the chase. But yeah, speaking of kids, so you have, like, what, 45 kids or. Yeah, we have. Yeah. Minus the 40. Yeah. Okay. So you have five kids. We have five in total So my oldest you know had a baby. And so we're grandparents now. And that's crazy of to live with the baby again. But that's awesome. Yeah. So we do miss it but it's. Yeah. And how old are you I just turned 5252. That's, that's a year of rebirth according to the Maya calendar. Did you know that? Do you feel like you're having a year of rebirth? I feel like I'm having a crisis of, you know, No, it's it's weird because, you know, I, you know, I look back and I think about my grandparents. And when you're young and you're like, seven, eight years old, they're typically your age now, right? But you remember them looking old and and, of course, where I grew up in the, you know, the, the rural parts of Mississippi, people had hard lives. Right. And and so they were out in the fields and, you know, my and they just looked older than they looked. Did you call them mama and papa? You know, my my, my mom's mom and dad were, were 90. And granddaddy, I don't know, they came from nanny and granddaddy and then my dad's mom and dad, we call them mama and papa. Mama and papa. Papa. Yep. And so you're in Mississippi. Well, so tell us the story of why you became. I know that you what did do you have some health problems. You lost 100 pounds. You went plant based. Tell us that story. Yeah. I, you know, I, I didn't grow up overweight, out of shape. I was an athlete from the time I could walk. I mean, I was, I mean, I played baseball and football were my primary sports and, you know, excelled through high school. I actually went to college on a football scholarship. So it's, you know, I never struggled, you know, with weight issues or anything like that. And, and, I left college right after my sophomore year because I'd been a musician longer than I'd been an athlete, and I wanted to write Nashville. So I moved to Nashville and quickly realized when I wasn't made the work out or, you know, got very undisciplined very quickly. And so I moved to Nashville when I was probably 20, 21 to be a musician. Yeah. And I was. And you were right. And I was. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was able to make a living for a good while doing that as a studio player and a touring guitar player. And is that what you did? You played guitar. Did you sing or anything else or play other? Yeah. I mean, I did gigs like on my own, like at coffeehouses and stuff like that, and I always wanted to be an artist, but I just because I could play too. I ended up getting hired as a sideman, which was a bad day. Playing music was better than any other, right. Exactly. Okay, so I interrupted, you know, started gaining weight and yeah, just over the years, I think when I moved to Nashville, I weighed like 185 pounds and was 61 and, you know, and then I got married when I was 26. So like five and a half years later and I weighed 240 pounds when I got married. What were the kind of things you were eating? Oh, crap. I mean, just, you know, I mean, for breakfast, if I ate breakfast, I mean, I love, you know, bacon, eggs, hash brown, you know, covered. I love ice cream house. I love waffle House. House. My little one used to call it waffles house. It's waffles. I want to go there. We call it. We call it the whoa ho around here. And the whoa ho! That's all right. Or the awful waffle is what? But, you know, that's where a lot of musicians you would go after a gig. Yeah, for sure, you know. And what else did you eat? So, fruity pebbles were my favorite cereal. Sugar smacks, corn pops, Apple jacks. Lunch was, you know, takeout, Chinese food, subs, you know, a bag of Doritos, you know? Wow, a big bag, a big bag. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I could, and it got worse. And then after a an after I left Nashville, I ended up working as a music director in a church and got up to about 255 pounds and I, remember working at night before, like, band rehearsals, and I would just stay at the, church office so I could prepare for that. So I was usually going to get takeout and I would literally go to McDonald's, get, like a Big Mac value meal, with a Filet-O-Fish sandwich. What, and like ten nuggets? Yeah. Oh my God, Shane. Oh, it was terrible. I mean, yes. What? So what was your wakeup call that like? Oh, I got a change. Well, the first time was when. So the first when I left Nashville, I moved to Charlotte. And that's where we were. And, one of the pastors I worked with was, like, real fit and, like, cycled and, you know, hiked and skied and did stuff like that. And he was actually so I was like 33 at the time, and he was like 53, 54, you know, very svelte and took care of himself. And, and, he, he said, you're going to see my doctor, you're going to go get a physical. You're just going to and I just, I have white coat syndrome to this day. Sure. I just do like, my blood pressure could be the greatest in the world. And I, when I walk into a doctor's office, it just shoots. I mean, I just, I don't know, and I've got family that are in the medical field, so, but I went and he run all the tests and everything like that, and I got a letter in the mail, and he was. I was pre-diabetic, fatty liver. My cholesterol was 4.99 or something. What? Yeah, it was it was terrible. I was pre-diabetic, Oh, my God. I mean, it was just. Yeah. And he said, we need to get this under control. I want to meet with you and start discussing options. And I never called him back because I was like, I if I ignore it, it just, you know, goes away, right? And so we were in Charlotte for about four years and, ended up right outside of Auburn, Alabama, at a church there. And I was coaching my son's baseball team, and we were out on the field doing drills one night, and I was pitching to the kids, and, they hit a ball and it was just rolling, wasn't rolling very hard. It hit a rock. We were on a dirt field, and the ball jumped up and hit me in the shin. Well, you know, there's no meat on your shin, and it just anything hurts on your shin. So. So anyway, you know, it turned red and started to swell up a little bit, but I got hit with the baseball. Well, by the next day, it looked like somebody had basically shoved a golf ball under my leg, and it basically turned into staff and just started getting redder and redder and redder. And, you know, and I finally had to go to, one of the urgent cares and not to be too graphic, but they had to open it up and stuff. It would gauze and put me on antibiotics. And, and I started just getting staph infections all the time, which is usually, a sign of diabetes. I was, I was I was getting staph infections. My I had black circles under my eyes. I was urinating a lot. I had two black patches on it, like like I was it. I was fortunate that I never got I was diagnosed as a pre-diabetic, but I was fortunate that I never got diagnosed as a diabetic. And how old were you at this point? I mean, 37, maybe 38. Not very. And how much did you weigh at that point? I was about 270. Okay. And, Yeah. And so I, I kept treating the symptoms, you know, because I kept getting these things. And I think when it hit me that I have an issue, like when I really, you know, because you never see yourself as others see you, you just don't, you know, and your wife was probably kind. She probably wasn't like, hey, Shane, take it down a notch. Well, you know, she was never crude or despair. Like she was never demeaning or anything cause it was almost like she'd be in tears. Like I'm really worried about you. Yeah, and we have five kids, right? Young kids. And, so I, I was dealing with another infection on my leg, and, went to the urgent care, got it treated again, got the medication again, and I had. And right across the parking lot was a target. And so I just went over to that pharmacy because it was the closest to get the prescription, and my leg hurt so bad I could not walk like, it just hurt to walk. So I got on one of those little motorized carts. Oh wow. And I started thinking, this is what I've become. And then when I pulled up and saw myself in the mirror, I was like, oh my gosh, that that's just the image. Just I still remember it. I still remember the shirt I was wearing and and, but but I think when it just really hit me as when I pulled up to get the prescription and I was blocked in and I had to back up and the beep start going BP, you know, and it's like wide load coming through like literally, you know, and I'm hitting in caps and I'm trying you know. And then just everybody's looking. And so that was kind of towards the end of that summer. Well I was probably 39. So it was the end of that summer. And and so nothing really changed for the next few months. But, about two weeks before my birthday's in February. So I go through the rest of that year. But about two weeks before my 40th birthday, I woke up one morning and I looked in the mirror, and I usually I would usually get up pretty early to get ready so I could go up to the church and just have time by myself before everything started. And just to be calm and just kind of hang out and think through the day and, the, I looked in the mirror and my face was red and bloated, and I was just tight and puffy and swollen, and I got on the scale and I think it's a 200 and Callie, I think it was 290 something pounds or something like that. And that's when it hit me. I'm about to hit 300 pounds. Like, that's just. And I had seen a video of a friend of mine who had lost a ton of weight and was interviewed by Ironman, and and I reached out. I couldn't get Ahold of him. He was a musician, too. He's on the road. And, I reached out to a mutual friend of ours and he goes, yeah, man. Thad went vegan. And I was like, well, I immediately went, no, I'm not doing that. That's stupid. And he said, you need to check out this documentary, Forks Over Knives, which I think that's like everybody's for a lot of us. Yeah. The entree into it. Right. Yeah. So I, my wife and I sat down that night and watched it and it was like I went cold turkey. Really? Yeah. And it was, and I think from. Well, and then to kind of just sum up, in the first two weeks, I lost 19 pounds. Wow. But I was also, you know, cutting calories from probably seven, eight, nine, 10,000 calories a day to, wow, three 4000 calories, you know? So how was your wife on board right away? Oh, she probably yeah. Andrea had. Yeah. Oh, totally. And Andrea had always, you know, watched what she ate. Not like portion. But she would think through it like she would always have greens like she always had, like, if she ate, like if you ever looked at her plate, if we had chicken or some kind of when we were eating meat at the time, you know, her, her the meat was the smallest thing on her, right? It was surrounded by broccoli and salad. And so she always, you know, was watching what she ate. She was on a better path. And if we were to go out to eat, you know, she would always say we kind of joke about it. She's like, she never drank sodas or anything like that. She all drink water and we go to a restaurant and she might have a salad for her meal because she was like, you know, if I'm going to have 2 pound calories at a restaurant, she goes, I would much rather save it for the chocolate cake, you know? So for me, I was eating the steak, the baked potato, two pieces of cake, you know, and the soft drinks. But. So she was totally on board. And when we watched Forks Over Knives, and I tell people this all the time, I think for me, it tore down a lot of barriers and stereotypes because, you know, when you watch vegan documentaries, they're all and it's important, but it's always about animals in the climate. It's never about you, right? Your health. I don't say that to be selfish. But the thing that I liked about Forks Over Knives is it focused on before you can go, taking care of anything else, you got to take care of yourself. And so it focused on the power of food. And it wasn't just about being vegan. It was about because there's a lot of unhealthy vegan food. Vegan. Yes. Healthy. Right. And so for me it was just about what food does. And and I went, oh my gosh. But when I but it busted a lot of the stereotypes too. Like, you know, you can't eat carbs and you can't eat potatoes and you can't do this. But when I saw, like, you know, doctor McDougall and Doctor Esselstyn and Doctor Greger and they're talking about corns, beans, rice, potatoes, oats, you know, you know, all these things. I'm like pastas, breads. Yes. This is you know. And then I thought I looked over at my wife and I said, I think I could do that. Like, I think I do that because they're eating. That's the thing. Our friends at Whole Harvest meal delivery Service have taken the hassle out of eating healthy. Now you can get delicious whole food plant based, oil free meals that are ready to heat and delivered to your home. The most recent menu has meals like burgers, penne Alfredo and red lentil tiki masala. Check out your choices at Whole harvest.com/badass and use coupon code badass at checkout for $20 off your first order. You can find this information in the show notes. Yes. That's what I always say, that I love this way of eating because I was always afraid to eat and I always was gaining weight, and now I feel like I can eat whatever I want within, you know, those parameters. But yeah. And so then so you thought, okay, I can do this. And then what? So we just started, we just started. Did you have any recipe books or. No. I, we started searching the internet. You went to. That's when I became just a huge Rip Esselstyn fan. Yeah, that was the biggest. And I'm still am to this day. I mean, because I got when I got to be on his podcast a couple of years ago, that was like, the highlight of my life. Yeah, no offense taken. Don't worry. No no no no. Well, this is the I'm just kidding is the second highlight. Okay. I, I totally I would be I agree with you 100%. Let me go pull the knife out of my spleen real quick. A good one. No, I totally get that. I'm he. You know what? I totally accosted him. He lives in Austin, where I live. And I saw him before I ever knew. Knew him or knew anybody in his family. You know, now, I've interviewed a lot of the assistenza, but this is years ago and had already been eating this way and knew who he was. And I saw him out in the wild, get at a movie theater with his wife. And I was with, my husband and two of our kids, and I just started freaking out. I was like, like, hyperventilating. And I was like, I just went up to him and sort of waving my hand in his face like an idiot. And my whole family, like, if you could see the looks on their faces, they were like, oh my God, what is she doing? They they had their heads in their hands and he was very nice. I was like, I love your family. Your father saved my life. His father being Doctor Esselstyn, who literally wrote the book Prevent Reverse Heart Disease, which I credit to saving my life. But yes, so I and I do understand. I'm just giving you a hard time. Well, and then I got to tell him the same thing. Like one of the things I always wanted to tell him, I was, is this. And I got to meet Doctor Campbell. Te Colin Campbell. Yes. When I was in Charlotte and I had Veggie Fest at Charlotte, and he was the keynote speaker, and he was walking by himself to the restroom and I stopped him and I just told him, I just I said, I want to thank you. You I don't mean this, you know, I mean, I sincerely mean this. You and Doctor Esselstyn and Rip Esselstyn saved my life. Yeah, I agree, and I got to tell rip that, you know, that was just kind of an apex moment. Yes. You know, talking to someone that you literally believed helped turn you. Yes. I mean, that's why I freaked out. Yeah. I mean, and I get it. So I think, you know, as far as the recipes, we, we lived on, Andre and I always like to do it. We lived on salads and tofu for about the first month, you know, I mean, like like we I the first place I started was breakfast, so I just, I never was a big oatmeal fan. Actually, before we got on here, you know, I've been running behind all morning, and I was ready, like, I crave oatmeal now. Yeah. So I was wanting to make some oatmeal, but then I realized, oh, it's five minutes until we're supposed to meet up. So I just threw some shredded wheat in a bowl with some berries. But, you know. So I just started by eating oatmeal, making steel cut oats, and just realizing, like, listening to them, like, and all the ancillary things you could add, like, the spices are real maple sirup and, yes, you know, and stuff like that. So, you know, I would flax and hemp seeds. So I would make steel cut oats and add cinnamon and apples with a drizzle of maple sirup, you know. So I was eating that every morning. Lunch. I just would have to force myself to eat a salad, you know? But then Andrea was trying recipes, and, you know, we were trying like everybody else. How do you cook tofu? But then you're learning that there's a difference in silken tofu and regular tofu, and silken is really crappy to try to slice and put it in the skillet, you know. Right. But you choke it down anyway. But then when I found the engine two website and just, we were making the and the. Oh, and I never will forget. There were a few recipes on the old engine two site. You know, we learned how to make some stroganoff and things like that, but I found the engine to diet book in the local library where we were. So I checked it out and just wrote down as many recipes as I could, but like making the chocolate a donna's cake. And yeah, and that's when I went, why doesn't everybody do this. Like and so we made the sweet potato lasagna that is their famous. Yeah. And I remember the first time we made it and of course we were cutting back on all the salt and the oils and the sugars and, and Andre and I we remember the first time that we made that lasagna because I was so used to just salting everything. And so we made it early on, kind of in our journey. And just remember, yeah, it's kind of bland, you know, but the way that I felt after eating it, that was kind of the trade off. Right? But then we realized that the whole 28 day game plan, things like that, it takes your taste buds right at about 28 days to reset. Yes. So we went on vacation, a few months later with Andrea's family, and we cooked one night and we made that sweet potato lasagna because we had been eating it. And like, we started, like, Andrea likes to say, we remember the day or she does. And then I do too. When we had something like that and the food just all of a sudden became a, she says food tasted electric. Yes. Like you could taste the orange of a carrot or the sweet potato in the green of the, you know, so you started tasting the food as a yes. Your palate is bastardized or I don't know if that's the right word, but it's which terrible. And then you have to let it adjust. And once it adjusts, like you said, probably about 28 days in. Okay. So then what I mean, so how how fast until you started seeing health results. You said you lost 20 pounds in two weeks, about two weeks. And then just a gradual decline. I started getting in some better habits, like I was, you know, I would eat late at night after bed, and, so I became a little more disciplined where I tried to once I ate dinner, that was it. And if I did not force myself to eat a carrot or a piece of celery, just something to chew on, you know, and then instead of, you know, I tell people all the time, I during the day, if I was craving like candy bars, like I used to, you know, I would come in and grab a couple of apples and a couple of bananas, and I'd just go out in the garage and eat 2 or 3 apples and a couple of bananas, like, oh, wow. But I was like, I wouldn't suggest doing that. But my point was, it's better than eating two Snickers bars. Yes. You know, and and so I guess where I saw the most significant results was about three months in and we were getting ready to have physicals done for life insurance. And in about three months I went from 200. I went from to, I lost about 66 pounds. Wow. I went from in three months. Yeah I went from about 290 to or 288 something like that to 225. Wow. Yeah. And we were getting ready to have a physical for health insurance. And I still remember telling Andre I was a little nervous. I said, because I'm anxious to see if any of this stuff plays out, like they talk about on this document because for me, this was my last hope. I had always dieted and I could lose weight quickly, but always gain more back. Everybody did. Yeah, because it's not sustainable. Yeah. It's not, it's you're you're depriving or you're not. You know, it's like I told when I was on chef AJ show, I told you know, I was like the way I describe this to people is you're literally gorging yourself. The health is weight, right. But, but I just I told my wife, I said, I just hope I see the results because, I mean, I won't stop because I feel so good, but it's just going to be super discouraging, right? Get on a pill or something. Sure. So they came. Did all the blood work, my blood pressure. So they you know, you do, you know, your blood pressure right away. And, what was your blood pressure? My blood pressure had gone. Oh, that was the thing three months earlier. Before I started, my blood pressure was 153 over 106 with a resting heart rate of about 100 beats a minute. Oh, well, you know, 90 to 100. So. So my resting heart rate when she came in was about six between 68 and 72 something which was really good. My blood pressure, you know, they take it three times and then they take the average or the middle one. And I want to say that it had gone from 153 over 106 in 3 months to 126 over 79. Wow. but the blood work come back. I was nowhere near pre-diabetic. Wow. Like, the blood sugar was amazing. And the biggest thing was the cholesterol. My cholesterol dropped 300 points. It went from 499 to 199. Whoa. Here's the thing. Here's the thing that I realized to get a good deal on life insurance, you had to be below 200 oh and point below 200. So, I had gone from 4.99 to 199, and I thought, that's 100 points a month. Wow, $100 a month. Well, I mean, yeah, but yeah, you think about it from 499 to 1 nine. Oh, you mean you dropped it 100 points a month? Yes. And yes. I was thinking about your life insurance policy. Money. Yeah, yeah, but I thought wait a minute. Oh, yeah. That's crazy. So that's when I went this works. All in. And then I just became the biggest disciple and, you know, evangelist and with it and just loved cooking and learning how to cook and then, you know, started finding more books and getting involved on, you know, watching every YouTube video. And, you know, I mean, so it's that's kind of how it all started, you know, and so that's incredible. And this last ditch effort his website is Shein and simple.com like plain and simple Shane and simple and Shane has the most incredible recipes and they're all wholefood plant based, oil free. Did you go oil free right away? Where did you. Yeah, I mean, you went, you see. That's okay. You said that you, you went cold turkey, but that means oil as well, right? Yeah. We we cut out the oils, you know, and again, I do, for the sake of transparency, you know, you're still learning, right? And you're still trying to weed out a lot of the bad information because there was always this thing of, you know, there was always this thing of olive oil. Is it healthy? Is it not? Right, you know, and and I never, I never was a really outside of using it to cook with, to grease a pan. I never was a fan of like, I want to go dip my bread in oil because it. Right. Even that was a bridge too far for 300 pound Shane. Yeah. Well Fruity Pebbles. Shane yeah, he's like, I'm not dipping my bread in oil. It makes sense to me, but, but I mean, yeah, I would say for the most part, like right off the bat, I mean, we still because I remember, you know, in Rip's book, the first book he wrote, when they were talking about things you need to get rid of out of your kitchen and then put into your kitchen and like, cooking sprays was a section. And he said, you got to remember, they talked about how the government allows them to say fat free and the quick right. You know, but he was like, you know, he said, they can serve a purpose, but you don't need to be thinking that these are fat free and like, you can't just go right, right. Pan. You know, the way that I had seen him do it or talk about it is like glisten the pan, wipe it. Yeah. You know and so we would because I didn't have very good cookware. So you know I use that. But but yeah, as far as the most part, as far as cooking, you know, it was learning right off the bat how to, how to do that. I, you know, I've said this before and I think that people find this difficult, but I think that maybe it's easier to just go full straight on in, in, don't, you know, play around like, don't dabble in it. It makes it hard. It makes it hard to, let your palate adjust. It makes it, you know, you have one foot in one world and one in another, and it just makes things difficult. And I think if you just dive right in and you just say, okay, I'm just going to find these recipes like, like I said, Shane has them on his website. There's a million books, there's a million websites. You just Google whole food plant based, oil free, and you can find these. And, I just want, you know, I wanted you to come on today because I have a lot of doctors on who say the same thing, and I have a lot of people who have aged well who say the same thing. But here is somebody, like you said, just a guy who's from Mississippi who likes to eat chicken fried steak or whatever, Fruity Pebbles and, you know, burgers and fast food. And if you can change, anybody can change. And if you can change your health trajectory, anybody can. Well, and I tell people that all the time, like, if I can do it, I know other people can because, I mean, I'm at first I'm a very stubborn person. And second, like, I just don't do things I don't want to do and, and you know, and two, yes, I still love to eat, you know, the same. I have to keep an eye on that. I mean. Yeah. And you can eat overeat on a plant based diet. Yes. But yes, I told you I had to throw one of your recipes in the garbage because it was so good. Well, it was like a cheese dip. What was that one? I don't think we've had that. Yes, I told you this. It was something. And I feel like you do. You you have you have coupled the cheese dips that that's my thing. It's not sweets. It's like a dip that's like to my brain up like cocaine. And I can't stop. And I think you have some kind of dip in. I want to say it's made out of almond flour. And what is that, garlic or. Yes, yes, yes, I was like, this is not meant to be for one person in one sitting. And this is what's happening. And I was like, I have to throw it in the garbage and buried in garbage. And that is, yeah. And you know, that that thing is that has become like a staple for Christmas gatherings. Yeah. Right in and I'll tell you the best, I'll tell you the best way to use that, that that dip though I can't make it chain unless I take it to somebody's house. Well, what you need to do is make it for someone and then write two tablespoons of it. We will get like a really good. There's a bakery about 20 minutes from here called, called Native Sun. And they bake breads and, but they do, a sour dough that's just got like four ingredients in it. And I love a good sourdough bread. Yeah. We will get some, like, big heirloom tomatoes now and we will slice the bread and we'll I can take that spread and use it as a oh my mouth and make and make grilled tomato sandwiches. Oh my God. Stop. My mouth is watering. Okay, good. Oh. So, wait. And I just want to say, since you brought up bread, Shane also has two cookbooks out to bread making cookbooks. Now that we've talked about it before, you were hired by this company after the recipes were already like, you know, thought about. And so it's not whole food plant based, oil free, but there. Yeah. Go ahead. No, you go ahead. The first book is, called Baking Vegan Bread at Home. And it's artisan breads. Okay. And specialty shop European breads. You know, Italian breads and but not necessarily healthy. Know their goal. So they used me as the creator for this. Okay. And just, you know, for disclaimer, it wasn't something I just totally jumped on board with. I had to think about it. But, you know, it was a it was an opportunity, you know. So it was and. Yeah. And you're saying, yeah. It's not a Shane and simple recipe. Right. But you're bringing vegan bread to maybe people who would never think about that. Okay. So yeah. So you have this. Oh go ahead. And then the second book is it's called it's the vegan bread machine cooks. And that is probably my favorite one. So that's awesome. So okay so you guys can can find that I'll put them in the show notes. But yes. Caveat it's not whole food plant based oil free or what you would normally make. But the and simple recipes are incredible. As I just attested I've thrown them in the garbage. They're so good. And not because they were bad. I never thought that I would look at that as a compliment, but it is. Oh, it's totally a compliment. I could not stop eating it. I was like, this is not the purpose that you eat all of this of the devil. Yeah, it was for me. It was like I just there's certain things that, you know, just really light you up and get you going and you can't stop eating them. And that was one of the, I'll have to say, like my when I feel like I just want to be like, you know, I want to be bad. Yeah. Bad. What do you eat is I make the the queso from the website. It's the cashew queso. I've never made your queso, so I need to know what that is. And we'll do, like, nacho bowls with it. But I will tell you and I can only make it a couple times a year now because it is so good. And, is the, buffalo chicken dip on the website. And we use soy curls to make the chicken. Oh, I love soy curls. Butler soy curls. Oh, gosh. We keep, order, by the box when we run out. However, you tell me that, Oh, yes, it is. So what? So here you are. What, ten years into this or 12? How long's it been? 12 years. can you imagine what you would be like at this age if you had not just done what you have done? I mean, thinking about at 39, you were almost 300 pounds, cholesterol was 500. You're diabetic like you. God forbid. I mean, you might not even be around. I was about to say, imagine where I'd be. I don't even know that I would be, you know, so, I mean, it's incredible. The. Yeah. I mean, I mean, I know I always talk about a plant based diet and, and maybe, you know, people who aren't there can, can maybe think about just starting to eat more plants. Yeah. And looking at some of your recipes, making it. Well, that and I tell people I kind of feel like, you know, I kind of feel like that's the niche I speak to. Like, it's like you said, if you go to my site, there are a lot of low fat recipes. Sure, that, but I think what I tried to do, the blog came about as a result of I was a foodie, I love food, I loved eclectic food, but I think for me it was always when I started learning how to remove this instead of this eat, you know, instead of that, eat this kind of thing and so for me, I feel like the blog became a way of going. I loved meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy. Gross. Yes. Loved it. Right. So I have meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy and creamed corn on my side. Right? It just looks different and it's delicious. And I make it with lentils and oats and all the spices and, you know, and I make the creamed corn with the corn itself, you know, and then the mashed potatoes, I make the mashed potatoes and I make the gravy, and I never will forget one time coming to visit and cook dinner for my brother and made all that. He goes, this is what you ate when you lost weight, because he was like he could not believe. Like I'm eating what I see. Like, right? You don't. You don't think of mashed potatoes and gravy and losing weight, you know? Yeah. So, and I think it goes back to a point that I wanted to jump on something you said earlier when you talked about just. You think it's better just to kind of go all in? Yeah. And and I was going to say that I usually tell people, you got to know yourself because my wife can do moderation. No problem, I can't. I'm an all or nothing. Like when I'm in, I'm all in. When I'm out, I'm all out. And it's futile to try to convince me otherwise kind of thing. But I don't know. Do you know Gigi Carter? I know that name. I don't. She was on Fox overnight. Not on the documentary, but she was like a champ. Became like a champion cyclist at, like, in her 40s after she went, oh, no, I don't know her. So anyway, but one of the things she says and is and I totally agree, is she always encourages people not to do it in moderation, she said. The reason is by the time you win yourself off 2 or 3 months in, you never have the experience of seeing of of the feeling and the corner that you've turned, so to speak. Yes. You know. Yes. So yeah, there's a it's harder to do it cold turkey. But you get that, that rush of seeing instant results, you know, within a week, two weeks. Yeah, yeah I agree. Yes I agree with that 100%. Now that being said, don't let eating more vegetables stop you. You know, like if you can't do it, just do what you can. But I yes that's what I totally agree, you know. Okay. Well, let me ask you, I want to ask you a question about aging. Do you, I know this helps you age. Well, like, I feel like I feel like the whole food plant based diet is like the fountain of youth. But, you know, I talk to a lot of women, and we talk about, you know, just talk frankly about how it feels when when your looks change, when your body changes, how how does that feel for a man like, is it the same. as far as the aging thing, I think what I deal with more if we're just being totally on. Yes, is that is the mere mortality of it. Like it's going to end one day. Our lives come to an end one day. And when you get to a certain point, like I think like I was thinking about the other day, you know, 20 years ago I was 32. And you go 20 years from 30 to, I'm just 50 to 20 years from 52. You're 72. Yes. That's that thing. Thought you know, and then you start looking at it and you realize as you get older you just realize, you know, when you're young, it feels like I look at a school year for my kids and I'm like, it's eight months. It's nothing. Not, you know, it's nine months. It's nothing. And I remember three months, two and a half months when you're in school feeling like it's an eternity forever. Forever, you know, and and so I think that I deal more with. Okay. I don't want to say I don't think I sit around. I'm not saying this. Sit around and mope and live in the dark going, I just don't want to go anywhere. But it does make me realize with a grandchild, come here now and seeing my daughter start her life where we were right 30 years ago, 20 years ago, you know, it's you just realize that we're mortals. And you know, and I want to make the most of the quality of life that. Yes, I want to do this lifestyle, this plant based lifestyle. But it is different for a man and I think so he used to tell me and I think because Andrea is. Oh, and I've heard other women say this, that they think most men seem more attractive as they age. I do think that that's really one of the, unfair truths of life, because I do think most men become a little more attract. They're just doofy when they're young, you know, no I mean, I think there's a lot of beauty in the aging. There is something like, and, I don't know, a teenager, if we're just being brutally honest, that when he's 13 or 14 didn't have that one teacher that was in her 40s. Right. And they weren't going, teacher, you know. Yeah. I mean, there's I think, I think there are elements of beauty in the aging, you know? Okay. And that's why I just like I'm not going to say I'm an opponent of plastic surgery. I'm an opponent of certain types and extensive plastic surgery. Like, I don't have a problem a nip and tuck here or a little list. But when I see people, when they can't talk and they sound like they got a stuffy nose and I'm like, you really think to me, I will tell you this to me, that is that's just not attractive, that that's when I go, look, don't don't hide it. It's not you're not preserving anything. It's inevitable. It's. Yeah. You're changing the very essence of who. Yes, yes, I agree. I think that's good. No. You did. That was great. Do you have a best piece of advice for aging? Well, just don't dwell on it. I mean, don't do well. I mean, I mean, you know, take care of yourself, you know, eat well, move around. But, I'll tell you this. I'll tell you this. And I think this just again, did you ever watch The Office at all? Yeah. No, I can see I've it's I haven't seen every episode, but. Yeah, I've seen it. That's like my favorite show in the world. Yeah. It's a great show that Seinfeld and The Andy Griffith Show are my three favorites. Andy Griffith is my husband's favorite. That's so funny. But they're on the very last episode. Ed Helms, who played Andy Bernard. Sure. He has the the best line on any sitcom. He said he said, you know, when I worked here, I couldn't wait to get my dream job, you know, go back to where I wanted to be. But he said, and then I leave and I get it, but I want to be here. And he said, what if there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you actually left? That's good. And I the thing that I think is really hard about aging, the things that you learn at 40 and 50 that you didn't know at 20 and 30 and you think about how much richer your life could have been. Yes. You know, and, and so I think what and one of the things that I learned is if there was somebody that I thought that I wanted to be in their group, even at 20 and 30 years old, and I tried to pursue a friendship with them, and you just kind of get rebuffed and you realize they're never going to let you in. You miss all the people around you that already love you. Yeah. And you're and you're basically I mean, it's it's and I go back to the office. It's kind of like the Dwight, the Dwight Schrute character. He loved Michael Scott, his boss. He worshiped him. Right. And Michael Scott wanted to be best friends with Jim and Ryan, and they just kind of kept them at arm's length. And the whole time, Michael is missing the fact that he has this one guy that would walk over broken glass for him, and he just doesn't invest in that relationship. And I think the one thing that I would tell people, especially when aging, you know, they always say you're only going to have like a handful of really close people around you. You know, eventually, you know, nobody has like 100 close friends that you just don't, you know. Right. And I think for me, later in life, realizing that it is okay to just not pursue people that, you know, are just not going to return and kind and waste all your energy trying to make that relationship happen and like, invest in the people that are loving you now and are there for you. That's really good. I think that's great advice. Yeah. It doesn't mean that you don't want to be nice to people. It doesn't mean that you don't want to, you know, help them. If something comes along. But when people are there for you now, regardless of you think they're the cool kids or not, like those are things I wish I would have had in high school, that I would have been a better friend of the underdog, that I would have been a better friend to the people that would, that I've known in my past that expected nothing more than just to be a friend and hang out Well, Shane, I have enjoyed our conversation. You're you're something and and go everybody check out Shane and simple get some recipes. Thank you for talking all the way though. Don't throw don't put him in the garbage. Well, unless you can't control yourself then you don't have a choice. All right. Thanks, Shane. Take care. Bye bye bye. Thanks for listening, friend. From my heart to yours. Be well. Until we meet again.