Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a beautiful, valuable book. First, the photos are gorgeous: not just of the food, but of the feeders and the fed. Julie and Rich and their family share their lifestyle in a way that feels welcoming and intimate; we're given a seat at their table, and we get to hang out in their kitchen before the party as well. Another thing I love about this book is its deft balancing of big ideas and tiny details. The recipes, lists of kitchen gadgets, pantry management tips, and guidance for changing habits complements the larger vision: remaking ourselves into the best possible versions we can imagine. One wonderful example: Julie (an inspired and inventive cook but by no means a trained chef) tells a story about a professional chef attending one of her early cooking demos. After the class, he approached and asked her, one pro to another, about her choice of a particular knife to cut the zucchini. She replied, slightly embarrassed, that it was the closest knife. It's a great metaphor for our own paths of transformation. Many times I've aspired to some standard of perfection, only to give up when I couldn't attain it. Many times I've wished I could start somewhere else, further down the path, rather than where I am in this perfect moment. Cutting the zucchini with the closest knife reminds me that I can only start where I am, and that my own sincere, mindful efforts are all that's ever needed to begin the process of change. The other thing this book did for me was reinforce how absolutely possible such a transformation is. When I first heard about Rich Roll, it was in the context of the story he told in his previous book, Finding Ultra. In short, a 40-year-old junk food addict, unhappy with life and career, overweight and unhealthy, turns his life around and competes in some of the world's toughest endurance events within the space of a few months. In other words, mission impossible for the rest of us. Rich is some kind of freak of nature, a caterpillar destined to find his wings and soar above the everyday world that you and I inhabit. Only after meeting Rich and Julie and their family did I come to see them as "ordinary" in the best sense of the word: regular people who simply make a fierce commitment to their own reinvention. They reminded me of the simple way Cambodian Buddhist monk Bhante Dharmawara described the Buddha: "He was just a man who remade himself." And that's where this book bridges the gap between Rich's Hero's Journey and our own. While we may not choose to run 5 Ironmans (Ironmen?) in 7 days, we each have a mission encoded in our spiritual DNA. Something that we are meant to express, to give, to do, to become. And very few of us will ever discover that mission, let alone have the guts to start and the stamina to persevere, unless we respect our bodies enough to fuel them lovingly. Or as Julie and Rich put it, the PlantPower Way. Which brings me to the bit of the book I found most moving and powerful, their discernment of the three paths on the PlantPower Way: vitality, performance, and transformation. While they inform and reinforce each other, each path represents a starting point that will resonate with some of us but not others. You might aspire to elite athlete status. I might want to feel well enough to dig a small pond in my garden. Someone else may be looking to head off heart disease in order to accompany their child down the aisle in 15 years. In one sense, this is another vegan cookbook, which is how it's categorized on amazon. In another, deeper sense, this is a playbook for family creativity, harmony, and delight. Get it. Share it. And find your own version of Ultra.