Set Higher Standards by YogiRavi

Tony Robbins was on Larry King Live yesterday, and though I cannot find the recording online, I have something better…the full transcript! Larry interviewed Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Tony and a few others about diet and health. There are great tips in here.

Check out the full transcript here.

See my last post for a video of Tony’s last appearance on Larry King Live.

Below are highlights focusing on the comments made by Tony:

KING: It says scientifically proven. Do you buy that, Tony? [referring to claims made in Dr. Ornish's latest health book]

ANTHONY ROBBINS, PEAK PERFORMANCE COACH: Oh, yes. As a matter of fact, one of the CEOs of one of my companies back in 1990 had a massive heart attack. Dean and I are friends. We weren’t in those days. He went on his program. It’s been 18 years. His heart — you can’t tell that he’s ever had a heart attack. He’s highly motivated, as you may guess. He said you imagine what it feels like one day when you’re in total control of your life and you’re wearing your Armani suit, and ten minutes later you’re in pajamas and wondering if you’re going to live. He was motivated by that and he continues to work through. But Dr. Dean’s program is extraordinary. KING: So you break it down in categories, feeling better, living longer, losing weight, gaining health.

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ORNISH: Well, what we’ve been able to do is — our science says, as both Tony and Dr. Gupta says, we can use these very high-tech expensive state of the art measures to prove how powerful these very simple and low tech and low cost interventions can be. People think it has to be a new drug or a new laser to be powerful. We’ve shown that the simple chases that we make like what we eat, how we respond to stress, how much we exercise can really make a big difference.

But it’s not all or nothing. If you go on a diet, you’re going to go off the diet. The whole concept of “The Spectrum” is based on the idea that what really matters is your overall way of eating and living. If you indulge yourself one day it doesn’t mean you cheated or you failed or all the other very language we use. It’s a very bad step from feeling like you ate bad food to feeling like a bad person.

What I’ve done in this book is to categorize foods from the most helpful to the least helpful. So if you indulge yourself one day, just eat healthier the next. If you’re trying to reverse heart disease or major illness, you’re going to need to be eating more on the healthier end of the spectrum than if you’re just trying to lose a few pounds or get your cholesterol down.

But the medicine of the future is personalized medicine. This shows how you can personalize a way of eating and living that is just right for you.

KING: Sanjay, it’s not something you have to fear or find out this is going to be terrible.

GUPTA: I think that’s exactly the point, Larry. People do talk about diets a lot. You feel like it’s like eating your broccoli. No one wants to do it. They know it’s good for you. But no one really wants to do it. How do you incorporate it into your way of life in a way that people can do regularly and not feel like they’re somehow depriving themselves.

I read the book. I think what’s interesting, what he has sort of gotten at here, which I think is so important, is let’s not talk about what you’re depriving yourself of. Let’s talk about what you’re adding to your indict or adding to you life, so to speak. So it’s very forward-moving, Larry, which I think is very important for everybody.

Regardless, Tony Robbins is the picture of health. I can’t see Tony right now. But I’ve interviewed Tony. I know Tony. He’s optimistic. He has a very good attitude. That plays a huge role, probably, in his overall well being. I’m sure of it.

ROBBINS: I want to say something too. I think one of the great things that Dean has done — and I’ve talked about this for years, but he’s proven it with science and brought it to the forefront — is so many people live a life of fatalism. Their mindset is I can’t do anything about it. Genes now are so in the news. Everybody has a gene for the basis of the disease. Gene expression is affected massively by diet. We have more sensors in the mouth that will stimulate gene expression than almost anywhere else.
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KING: Why do you think people don’t pay great attention to the most important thing in their life?

ROBBINS: I think it’s because eating is emotional for most people, obviously. Most people are stressed. You look around at people today. They live with tremendous anxiety. Their e-mails are coming in. They feel over loaded. They don’t feel like they can succeed. They look for an escape. Food is a convenient escape and it works. In order to have real success, you’ve really got to have an alternative.

There’s another thing, failure. You look at somebody, anybody in business life — I was coaching Chuck Liddell (ph) ten days ago before his fight. He lost his last two fights. If you focus on what you’ve done in the past, you failed diets, you failed exercise, it’s already over. You don’t have the certainty. You can’t execute.

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ROBBINS: That is one of the most important things. You want to create a lasting change, you have to find somebody who is already successful to be your partner. It’s the easiest way. I was on a show — I won’t mention which show — with a group of ladies. After I was done talking they followed me out. They said you inspired us. We want to make this change.

They said, every time we do this, we make these resolutions and we go and work out together. But after a few days we drop. I said, you’re some of the most successful women in the world in this area, but your failure is in the area of your body, to be very direct. You can’t go — what happens is one person says, I’m tired. Let’s go to Starbucks and it’s over.

Get a partner that’s already successful and you’ll find yourself succeeding. They’re going to get your butt out of bed.