Holistic health mastery comes with time, patience and often through trial and error. A living testament to that fact is our guest for episode 10 of BiOptimizers' Awesome Health podcast, my good friend Ronnie Landis. Ronnie is a former martial arts expert and Olympic hopeful who changed paths in his 20s to pursue holistic health through vegan and raw foods. He has become a master in this arena and he's here today to talk about the turning points in his journey, and his top three recommendations to start making changes to your health. Join us on this edition of BiOptimizers' Awesome Health podcast to hear those topics, and more. More About Awesome Health with Ronnie Landis Today Ronnie is a savant and master of his holistic health craft, but his passions began elsewhere when he was a child. From the age of 4 he was raised as a martial artist. He recalls his first conscious memory being Bruce Lee's movie, Enter The Dragon. Not surprisingly, Ronnie grew up to pursue a career in Taekwondo and basketball. He was an Olympic hopeful for Olympic-style Taekwondo and would later walk away from a try-out with the Golden State Warriors (a National Basketball Association team in the U.S.). What drove him to pursue excellence in both of these arenas was the exploration of his potential as a human. These two passions consumed him until he was 19 when he began considering the health aspect of performance. He understood his eating habits were not sustainable (he was eating crap, he admits) and his body was starting to experience some wear and tear from his athletic pursuits. He re-evaluated his food and lifestyle choices, turning to organic food. Then slowly he started to get into whole foods, grass-fed chicken, raw milk, etc. The Power of Plants and Raw Foods A few years later he realized his dharma was to be a role model for plant-based nutrition, which came about when he had his second knee surgery. A lot of light bulbs went off at the time - he realized performance was important but so was recovery. After his two knee surgeries, he didn't know how he was going to pursue his athletic career and was riding on faith. Then his awareness shifted to the power of plants in the human body. He started eating more fruit and vegetables, and going to the farmers markets. He became educated on raw food nutrition, the biggest epiphany for him as well as the practice of barefoot grounding. When switching to 100% plant foods and raw, he noticed within 30 days he could run 5 miles in the hills without pain - something he had been scared to do for years because of his knees! On a visceral level, he understood his path and his life could change; he felt the reality of living a vegan and raw food diet. He went away from his athletic pursuits and passed on a try-out with the Golden State Warriors. Instead, he was going to become the biggest speaker on the importance of a raw and vegan diet. That was nearly 20 years ago and he's been pursuing that path ever since. Ronnie's Deep Dive Into The Raw and Vegan Lifestyle I wanted to know if there was a person or event that shifted him from exploration into deep dive mode on raw and vegan food as a lifestyle. Ronnie says he began exploring what was out there, going to YouTube and studying the people in this arena. He followed Paul Chek's work and then Marcus Patrick, who has since become a good friend of Ronnie's. Ultimately though, his biggest catalyst was David Wolfe. Ronnie knew if he wanted to master this way of living he had to follow the masters, and David is one of them. About two years after pursuing this way of life, Ronnie went to an event in San Francisco and met David. While that was an incredible experience, what was even more powerful for him was meeting so many people in this industry and discovering the power of the community. To this day many of the people he met there are his closest friends. I asked him if this event in San Francisco was the turning point for him that solidified his desire to be a sp