Special Guest Expert - Rico Caveglia: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert - Rico Caveglia: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Daniel Aaron:
What does it take to create a vibrant, thriving life? First, the sad news is that Thoreau was right most people are leading quiet lives of desperation, lacking in meaning, fulfillment, and vitality. But we choose more. We choose to create extraordinary lives and the art of vibrant living. Show entertains you with inspiration, empowerment and education to create your life into a masterpiece. It's time. Let's vibe up. Aloha, y'all. Daniel Aaron here. Your host. This is the art of vibrant living show the art of vibrant living. Barely could I imagine a guest that embodies that more. He's a freaking poster child for it. Super exciting show we got today, y'all. And in case it's not obvious from the title, this show is all about empowering you, inspiring you, entertaining you so that you can better live your most vibrant, thriving, amazing life. Please, please, please make that a priority. Make your life a masterpiece. It's entirely possible. One suggestion request, I implore you, I command you. I can't command you, but I suggest you do this. In today's show. You will get many gold nuggets. Commit right now to use one of those, by which I mean don't just say, oh, that's a good idea. Actually employ it in your life. Take action on what you learn. So is that cool? You up for it? Today's guest Rico Caveglia. Chronological age 82. Fitness, age 35, is America's healthy aging trainer and creator of the Ageless Living Lifestyle the vitality for life online training program, the Fast Fit 17 fitness system, the Fearless Aging Podcast. He's a speaker, author of 29 books, DVD programs, and a personal trainer and health coach for 41 years. He's a multi gold and silver medalist in the California State Senior Olympics. Holy moly y'all, we are in for a treat. Rico, thank you so much for being with us.

Rico Caveglia:
Oh Daniel, thanks so much for having me. And thanks for that great introduction.

Daniel Aaron:
Well total pleasure. I'm excited. Um, you know, I fancy myself a, uh, longevity enthusiast at the least. Um, I don't believe that we have to age like so many folks say. But how did how did this happen for you? How did you get into all this?

Rico Caveglia:
Well, I actually just just a stroke of luck, I guess. I just I moved to San Diego in 1980 looking for something new to do, and I just happened to meet one of the very first, uh, personal trainers here in San Diego. And he told me I I'm opening up a the first modern personal training studio in San Diego called Fitness by Design. That was 1982. And he said, I'm looking for some help. And, you know, I had always been, you know, an athlete and in pretty good shape and all that. But I, you know, I wasn't into any kind of regular exercise or nutrition or any of that kind of stuff. Uh, I hadn't really thought about my health because I was pretty fortunate to be pretty healthy and energetic. So I said, oh, this sounds interesting. So I took him up on it. And then as I began to learn, you know, all the things about fitness and then I what I realized, you know, when you're learning about how to make your health better and how to have more energy and and getting really good shape, and then you can also teach other people and get paid for it. I said, this is great. And so I feel very fortunate that I got able to do that. And then as you get into it, you realize how much more there is to learn, you know? So then I started studying about nutrition and, and the whole thing. And you know, how mindset comes into it. And everything about sleep and the way I developed my H.S. living lifestyle was. Just after a couple of years of being a personal trainer, my father died of lung cancer. And he, you know, he was a street kid. He grew up in the depression era and he started smoking cigarets since he's 11 years old. And back in those days, you know, nobody really knew that that was really bad, how bad it was for you. Right? And so what I realized was that if my father would have had been educated, our knew better, he probably wouldn't have smoked. And he was the healthiest guy. He was never sick. He's one of those kind of guys, you know, was never sick.

Rico Caveglia:
He didn't he didn't go to the doctor and get physicals or any of that kind of stuff. And he was really healthy all his life. But then all of a sudden when he's like 70 years old, he just got sick and they X-rayed his lungs, and his lungs were gone. And he died just real quickly. And so I realized that that's what's still going on today. So many people do not realize that it's their unhealthy lifestyle that's causing all these chronic illnesses and and becoming old and sick and dying way too young. So I didn't want that to happen to me, and I didn't want it to happen to my, my clients as well. So I began just researching all I could about all the different aspects of of how to take the very best care of your mind and your body. And that's how I developed what I call the ageless living lifestyle.

Daniel Aaron:
That's awesome. Very cool. You know, and so true what you said about when our health and fitness is pretty good. We tend not to think about it. Right. It's like, all right. No, you know, it's not a problem. We don't we don't pay attention to it until it is a problem. Right. Anybody who's owned an old car, you know what that's like. Yeah. And so for me, I grew up, uh, I was in a family of lethargic people. I was fat as a kid. Um, it's so negatively affected my life. And, you know, dampered my happiness it took for me getting into my 20s before I, uh. Well, late teens, I guess, before I realized, like, hey, you know what? I can change this, and it's worth it to change this. So I've been, you know, I wouldn't say obsessed, but it's been very important to me ever since then. So let's jump right in. Though, in terms of, I imagine our audience, whether it's live or by rebroadcast, are saying, okay, cool, right. You know, 82 and 35 year old fitness level. How do you do that?

Rico Caveglia:
Okay, well, maybe it's not quite as good as it seems, but it is true. Uh, there was a company out for quite a few years called Fitness Age, and they were actually a nationwide company, but they set up their headquarters here in San Diego. And I met one of their vice presidents. So they actually hired me to be their personal trainer for their staff and what it was. They had developed these basic it's basic five fitness tests that was actually developed by the YMCA and the YMCA way back in the 50s. I don't know, 60s, even maybe 40s, used to give people this test at the YMCA. It was like a little step test, you know, to check your cardiovascular health and then just to sit and reach, you know, if you touch your toes and then you measure your body fat, uh, and then let's see. And. Oh, yeah, how many push ups you can do in one minute, and how many sit ups you could do in one minute. So that was the test. And so they had all this data. But that was back in the day before computers. So they got the idea to get all this data that they had. And they had all these people by their age. So they put it in a computer. So then they could give you a and they had a, you know, a software program where they could plug in all your data, give you the test, and then it would compare you to everybody else by the age, how they, how they did. So, in other words. So the whole idea was if you were say, 40, but your fitness age came out to be 50, then it's going to be a really good selling point, you know? So they're going to have these little kiosks in all the gyms across the country. And so, so, so all the people in the gym could say, well, let's take your fitness age and then see where you're at. And then if it didn't look too good, you know, you were actually your fitness age was worse than your chronological age. They were going to be a good selling point to get you in the gym, but they actually, I guess they just got overextended and had some problems or people really weren't, weren't at the gyms taking really working it good. And so I never really caught on. But like I say, you know, I've been doing those basic tests with myself and some of my clients for all these years. So it's pretty simple, pretty easy for me to do because I, I've been doing it for all these years.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. Well that's cool. I like I like that, um, you know, there's a, um, saying mostly we attribute to business, which is and there's a book by this title measure What matters. Right. And when we measure the things that matter, when we, you know, track things, we look at what the results are of these different fitness tests, gives us information. And sometimes the information we get is like, oh, that's not what I wanted to see. And that can be incredibly motivating. Um, so tracking results, paying attention, uh, as opposed to the bury one's head in the sand. I'm not going to pay attention to that. Right. Whether it's our, our body or our car who haven't changed the oil in a while. Um, it's the same thing, right? Like there's a great value in paying attention to the stats and using that to be motivating.

Rico Caveglia:
Yeah, it's kind of a wake up call when you go, whoa, I didn't realize how messed up I was. Again, that's kind of my point. You know, so many people these days because we got caught up into this rush society, right. Of of being so busy. We got to do this, we got to do this. And the main focus is always on how much money can you make primarily. And they just forget about their health. You know, we have a saying here in the holistic community, here in holistic community in San Diego is that unfortunately, so many people spend their health building their wealth, and then they have to spend their wealth trying to rebuild their health. That's not a good strategy.

Daniel Aaron:
Absolutely. And there's that great saying that, um, a. A healthy man has a thousand dreams. An unhealthy man has but one.

Rico Caveglia:
Yeah, that's a good one. I haven't heard that before.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah, well. And for me, I, I work in a very holistic way and, and my one of the frameworks I use is a pyramid and say like all of these things are required seven layers to it, different aspects of life, you know, whether it's emotional health or financial health or spiritual health or relationship. And the bottom one, which in a pyramid, the biggest layer is health, um, vitality, physical energy. Because if we don't have that, none of the other things really work very well. Right? It doesn't matter if you have the best partner in the world or the most wonderful job. If you can't get out of bed, you're not going to enjoy it very much.

Rico Caveglia:
Yeah, it's the foundation. Your health and your energy and your vitality is the foundation for everything you want to do in your life. So I think that's the first really main point that we want people to understand is that it's so important to make, uh, creating good health and vitality and a good fitness level and energy level. That's got to be a number one priority, because everybody wants to be highly successful in every aspect of their life. Right. And where again, where it's a business and finance or the relationships or. But if you're not healthy and have the energy to do it, how successful can you be? So that's the important first. That's the first step is to realize how important your health is. You know, the unfortunate point is, Daniel, is that some of the most important things that that we really need to to live a successful life. We're not taught when we're little kids. We should be taught this when we're we're children, we should be taught how to build really good relationships. You know, how to how to communicate well with other people, how to take care of how important our health is and how how important it is to take care of our health. All these are the kind of things are that we really need to be successful in all aspects of our life, and we're not taught those things as a little, little kids.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. So true. And we could we could go off into talking about post industrial education and its purposes and pros and cons. I'm with you though. So much of what's most important in life, it's not in that kind of education, which speaks to the importance of, in a way, what we're doing here, which is adult learning or self education. Uh, that's really what matters in life, and especially because a lot of us, when we were in whatever kind of school, when we were kids, we weren't choosing it. We didn't really want to be there. It was that was what we had to do. And of course, our learning is so much less. But when we get older and this is how it was for me when when I discovered, wow, you know what? How much better I feel now that I'm not fat. How much better I feel now that I'm not so inflamed all the time. I was like, I want to learn more about this. And so I, I got really into it. So I'm curious. Rico, we, I want to ask more about, you know, what people quote should do or what they might want to do to bring their vitality to another level or to restore it. But first, let's talk about what are the things that mess people up that they might not be aware of.

Rico Caveglia:
Well, I think I think the most I think the biggest thing is as again, well, as we just mentioned, we're not really taught that as young children. You know, how important our health and our wellness is. And then I think, you know, and this society that that we have nowadays, you know, it's just we just got everybody overstressed, you know, by thinking that we have to I mean, our technology is great. It allows us to accomplish a lot more things. But the problem is we as human beings always seem to take things to extremes, right? I mean, I all this technology we have is good, but it's actually we've kind of convenient ourselves to death, you know, and then also we think that because we can accomplish so many more things, we think we have to, you know, and people just get have gotten caught up into this, this thing of being rushed. And I got to do this, I got to do that. And I'm and I'm feeling stressed about this and that. And so I think that's the biggest problem is that we've got disconnected to really what's our life are about. I mean, our life is going to be full of challenges, but it's not supposed to be a struggle. And we're not we're not here to suffer and to struggle and have poor health. We're here to enjoy our life and also to, you know, to raise our consciousness. And as you and I both believe, we're here with the divine purpose. And I think that purpose is to help, uh, learn how to live together on this planet in peace and create peace and prosperity for all of humanity. But we've just got so, so far off of what really our life is about. And so it's all about slowing down and stepping back and saying, well, you know, why am I rushing around? You know, why am I feeling stressed? You know, why am I doing a lot of the things? Uh, I don't even know why I'm doing it, you know? So the first step is, is clarity, right? It's really getting clear on what your life is truly about and what's really important in your life. You know, really dig down to see what really is important in your life. What do you really want to accomplish or enjoy or create? And unfortunately, most people are just going through life being reactive instead of proactive.

Daniel Aaron:
So true. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I remember for me years ago I had been for, for many years like obsessed. You know, there's that word again. Not obsessed, just very committed to a raw food lifestyle. I ate 100% raw food. And then I got into a relationship with a woman. And she wasn't so into raw food. She was pretty healthy, but not into raw food. And my, my, my previous standards kind of went down and down and down. And then I went to a seminar with Tony Robbins. And one of the things that he did that I had never really connected before is he he said, you know, what do you want to do in your life? What's important to you? What's your mission? What's your purpose? And then later, when he talked about health and nutrition and fitness is like, well, you can't do those things that you really want to do if you don't have the energy for it. And it was like instant association for me between my physical being and my my life's purpose and my goals and my dreams. And instantly I shifted so much of the way I had been treating my body right. Does that make sense to you?

Rico Caveglia:
Absolutely. I I've been totally agreement. As a matter of fact, you know, being a personal trainer for all those years and knowing, you know, the benefit of feeling energetic and feeling fit and and how it enhances your life in so many different ways, you wonder, why do people have such a hard time even starting or sticking with a fitness program or a healthy eating program? And then so what I finally realized is what you said. I think, unfortunately, we have a big disconnect between our spiritual self and our physical self. And really they're one in the same. So I so I kind of got that's why I kind of got into moved into more towards spirituality and trying to teach my clients, you know, that. That's my belief and many others. I'm sure you as well, that we're all eternal spiritual beings, and we're here on this planet for a short time with this physical body, and our body is a gift to do what we're meant to do here, to live our purpose and to grow as and increase our own consciousness. But also like, say, to learn how to live together and create peace on this planet, and also just to enjoy the beautiful world that we're in, all the all the possibilities that we can, we can do that. So I think if we can let people understand that and you can, you can kind of, uh, have a feeling for that, then that should motivate you, that you realize you've got to take the best possible care of your physical body as possible. I like to tell people. If you only got one car in your whole life, when you take really good care of it and they go, yeah, well guess what? You only get one body. So why aren't you taking the very best possible care of your body? In fact, some people take better care of their car than they do their body, don't they? I think so, yeah.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. There's some there's some irony in that.

Rico Caveglia:
So I think that's I think that's something that if you can just. I kind of tuned in to that that realize, hey, you're here for a purpose and you're you're important. Everybody's important. Everybody has something great to offer in this world. And and we need everybody to do that. So you need to step up and be your best self. That's what I say on my podcast. I say we're here to inspire you and empower you to become your best self so you can go out and make a bigger, positive difference in the world and so you can enjoy your life more. You know, again, we're here to we're here to enjoy this amazing planet Earth that we're on and all the individual people that we can enjoy and do. So that's why I think, I hope that this gives people some ideas of, of the really why it's so important. And then I want to add one more thing because people will say, okay, yeah, it sounds good. I know we need to get healthier and fit and all this kind of things, but I mean, and maybe live longer and all that, but but really, why? I mean, why should I really do that? Well, in addition to just how it's going to enhance your own personal life experience, I so again, it's my you know, as we age, we gain wisdom and we gain knowledge. And so we need more people as they age to stay healthy. And so they can give back their knowledge and their wisdom to help solve. As you know, everybody knows that we're facing some monumental problems, challenges these days as humanity. So we need more people as they age to give back their knowledge and wisdom to help solve these problems. And also, I think we need more, more role models of older people, you know, for younger people and also mentors for younger people. But unfortunately, we're sadly lacking in that because, again, most people are getting old and sick and unhealthy even way before they die, even around, you know, 70 or 80. So here's another important point, Daniel, is that. You know, lifespan is one thing, and I know we all do want to live as long as we can.

Rico Caveglia:
I think everybody knows that saying everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die, right? So we know everybody does want to live as long as you can. And so and we do. But here's the thing. It's really about healthspan as opposed to lifespan. In other words, how long can you stay healthy and energetic and contribute when you're alive? That's the important thing. We never know how long we're going to live. I mean, you know, we could get run over by a car tomorrow, but, but, but the thing is, you want to be as healthy and as energetic all of your life. That's my goal. And that's what I like to help, to teach people. So it's all about because right now, even though some people have lived to be 80, most people these days, and probably for the last 20 years, they're just on medications and surgeries and going to the doctor and don't have very much energy and good health. So they're not really making a contribution. So that's why this has got to change. You know, we have to this has got to change and we've got to. So that's another reason why we need you to to stay healthy so you can make a bigger contribution.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. Well they're not I'm with you. They're not making a the contribution they could be making. And they're not all they're also not enjoying their life nearly the way they could. And as you said earlier, they're spending whatever wealth they accumulated in those years where they were losing their health. Yeah. It's a it's a it's a funky model. And I'm really glad you brought that up because, you know, it's something I've encountered a bunch with people where when they say, well, you know, what do I care about adding another two years to my life or ten years, you know? And to me, the response to that is, whatever we do now to enhance our vitality, our health, our well-being, it makes our life today that much better. Yeah, it adds years. And in the flip side of what you said, I think, is that not maybe not everybody does want to live longer because they're not having a great time. And a lot of the reason they're not having a great time is their their vehicle is not operating well. They got cloudy windows, heaviness, inflammation. And, you know, they get sick often and they're not feeling the the great benefits of this physical organism as you spoke about it. It is such an amazing thing that in all the spiritual journeys we have, that we get to experience this life on earth and all the pleasures that come with a body.

Rico Caveglia:
Absolutely. That's that's exactly right. That's exactly right. So I hope that that that we've already we've, you know, we've given some ideas of why it's so important and also so next I think I'd like to talk about okay. So okay, so now maybe we got you convinced that you, you better start taking better care of your health. But how am I going to do that? How can I really do that? So first I'd like to say, you know, we hear so much about anti-aging these days. And I actually think that's the wrong terminology. We're sending the wrong message to our brain because you really can't stop aging. You know, aging is a natural process. When you're you're 40, you're 41, you're 42. And actually, if you look up the definition of aging, aging means to become fully mature, to reach your full potential, like fine aged wine. That's good. So we're here to age, but old is another story. The definition of all is to become worn out, used up unexcited about your life, unable to care for yourself. Now that's a whole nother story. But guess what? Being old is primarily just a state of your mind and a state of your body. And those are primarily choices. How you care for your mind and how you care for your body. So we have a say in it. Age of living lifestyle. We have to age, but you don't have to become old in the process. So what I teach is what I call anti growing old strategies. You know again we're going to age but you never have to be old because you are in control of that. You know another funny thing Daniel, is when I speak to a group I like to get people to tell people this, how did we ever come up with that saying of asking people when we want to know their age? How old are you? Where did that come from? I mean, we even asked a little kids, how old are you? Well, they're like, they're not old at all. And so again, that's just the wrong we need to shift that thing. If you want to know somebody how what their age is, ask them, what's your age, not how old you are. Because, you know, again, that's what I teach. You don't want to be old. You don't have to be old. But yet you also know that, I mean, you hear people in their 40s. Oh, I'm getting old and all that. So if you say that your your your words count, if you if you say, well, I'm getting old. Well okay. Yes you are. You're stuck with that. Right. So you got to change. That's the first you got to change your mindset. And so yeah. So I make a big distinction between aging and being old. And I think that's to me I think that's that's really important.

Daniel Aaron:
That's great. I love that so much of my work involves the language that we use. It's another way of saying it's the position we take or it's the reality we create is what comes from our words. My favorite way of speaking about what you just mentioned is I say to people, hey, what's your body's age? Right. And usually that takes people by surprise a little bit. Like what? Huh? Uh, I actually like even better. How many times have you been around the sun? But too many people don't quite understand when I say that one.

Rico Caveglia:
Even that one too. Yeah, well, that's just your chronological age. Yeah. How many times you've been around the sun? Yeah. So? So again. So here's the thing again. Okay. So since we know that that. Well, I think I should start with, first of all people will say, well that sounds great. You know, you don't have to get old and all that, but how can you how can you say that? Well, first of all, uh uh uh, science now tells us that our genetic potential is to stay healthy to at least 125. So that means our life span could be at least 125. And that's being healthy. And yet we know our life expectancy in America is only about 77 now. It's actually come down a few years lately. So first of all, science tells us that we can. And then actually there's people who are doing it. I think a lot of people have probably heard of the blue zones these days. The blue zones are areas around the world, all different places, mountains, islands or different places, uh, where the majority of the community does stay healthy and and energetic and able to take care of himself well, up to 100 or even more. So we know that's quite possible. And so that's why I can say that you never have to be old. But there's there's three main things that, that I'd like to talk about and how you can get started. So you can, you can. Uh, actually. I live a life that that won't allow you to become old.

Daniel Aaron:
Great. Um, let's. What are the three things?

Rico Caveglia:
Well, good. Thank you for asking. Well, number one, we've already touched on it. Number one is. And the most important of all is your mindset. You've got to change your mind. If you want to change your life, you've got to change your mind. If you buy into the normal, mainstream social narrative that that's just the way it is. You know, we're all going to get old and sick, and maybe we need to might need some assisted living or end up in a nursing home. Well, if that's what you you believe and that's what you say, that's what you're going to create. As you were just saying, our beliefs create our reality. There's no question about it. So the way it works is first, you have a belief about something and it can be true or not true. And then that creates your thoughts and that creates your words and that creates your emotional state and your feelings. And that's what creates the actions that you take in your life. So if that's what you believe, that that's just the way it is, well, then that's probably the action that you're going to take that are going to create you becoming old and sick and dying way too young. And on the same thing with peace. You know, Daniel, that's one of my main things too. I'm trying to do what I can do to make people wake up, that we can create peace. We could just instantly stop fighting and killing each other and realize how stupid we are. You know, why are we doing this? You know, why don't we just cooperate and be kind to each other? You don't have to like everybody but you. But you can be respectful and we can be kind to each other. So it's the same principle. If you tell a lot of people about that that we can create peace. They go, well, yeah, it sounds good, it'd be great, but it's just never going to happen. That's just human nature. Well, then I tell them, well, see, that's your. As long as you have that belief, you're part of the problem, not part of the solution. So you got to change your beliefs.

Rico Caveglia:
You got to change your mindset. And here's the good thing about beliefs we can believe anything you want. So why would you ever want to believe anything negative or bad about yourself? You know, why would you want to believe anything other than the greatest things for yourself? So always, whenever you catch yourself with any kind of a negative belief about yourself or your life or what's possible, just stop and just say, oh, stop, delete. I don't I don't need to think that just you got to shift your attention to what you want in your life, not what you don't want and what's possible and not what you think is not possible. So you got to shift your belief system. So that's the very first thing. So once you believe that you can stay healthy and energetic all your life, then you've got you're on the road to start to create it. Does that make sense?

Daniel Aaron:
100%. Um, there's a great book by Wayne Dyer which says you'll see it when you believe it. Exactly. And we and we know on in other areas we know that this, this mindset that's prevalent is, well, that's the way it's always been. So that's the way it's going to be. Yeah. Right. But that's, that's I guess that's an exciting moment. We got fireworks.

Rico Caveglia:
Oh that's pretty cool. That's cool. Yeah.

Daniel Aaron:
You know we know that that's not true yet. Sometimes we just it's like we get hypnotized. We say, oh yeah, that's the way it's always been. That's the way it's got to be. Yet we are infinitely powerful creators that personally, I, I firmly believe that we could live hundreds of years and that maybe we don't even necessarily have to die. Right? This whole concept of physical immortality, it's very fringe. Yet there's some evidence and. And why not? Anything is possible. We know that from quantum science now. So. Yeah, I'm 100% with you. Check on number one mindset.

Rico Caveglia:
Yeah. Change your mind. You can change your life. And again it's just I get I just hope people can I mean don't just say oh yeah, that sounds right. But just commit. You've got to commit to actually doing it. You know, you have to step up and do it no matter what. Uh, you learn, you know, I always like to end my, my, uh, uh, podcast with Einstein saying no knowledge without action is useless. And so I really like the way you started off. And you you do that at the very start. You've got to commit to what you learned. Otherwise it's just waste of your time, you know? So we don't want to waste your time or our time either. So you don't want to waste your time. So yeah, just got to commit. And it's as simple as that. It's not all these things are not that difficult. All the basic truths really are the whole universe are basic, simple things, aren't they really just basic, simple things. And if we would just tune into it and realize, hey, we can do that, and that's what we're here to do, then you can do it. There's no question about it. Yeah.

Daniel Aaron:
Absolutely. You know. What comes to mind for me, because part of what you said, it's not that hard. When I was a kid, I was used to eating processed food, junk food, that that was just what was normal in our family. And and our family was fat and lethargic and. Yeah. And so what I would do is I would lift up food or beverage and I would put it in my mouth and it was, you know, processed junk food, yuck, yuck, yuck, and too much of it. And then eventually I learned, oh, what if I eat this instead? Right. This thing over here and it's all the difference is, is okay, now I'm eating this as opposed to eating this. It's not that different. I remember this one amazing moment I had. I was working at Omega Institute in upstate New York, great Place Holistic Learning Center, and I was going through the cafeteria line. Cafeteria line. You know, they had these like, buffet tables with all the brilliant, amazing food, all kinds of beautiful vegetarian food. And they always had with the main course they would have the, the, the vegan version and then they would have the, the version that had dairy in it. Right. And it was the same dish, whether it was chili or, um, lasagna or whatever it was. And so one day it occurred to me like, gosh, they really look kind of the same. I think I'll try the vegan one. And I wasn't vegan at that point. I was vegetarian, but I ate all kinds of dairy stuff. And so I ate the vegan one and I was like. It tastes just as good. There's nothing wrong with that. That's good. And so for like the next few weeks, I just kept going for the vegan version. It's like, well, let's try this out. And then I went out with my friends to get pizza. Right. We're going to a movie. We got a bunch of pizza, I ate a bunch of pizza, and I'm talking about regular old pizza right now. I make vegan pizzas myself, but. And I ate a bunch of pizza. And for the next three days, all I did was sit on the toilet and sweat, and I understood what it means that dairy is digestive glue, I got it.

Rico Caveglia:
It was a gut bomb, wasn't it? It was. It was.

Daniel Aaron:
Horrible. And but it really cleared it up for me because, you know, part of what happens is we're just used to doing things this way. And so it seems normal and it doesn't seem bad or that's just the way it is. But, you know, sometimes if we get a different perspective or a little bit of a different experience or a little wisdom, like to me that's part of the value of fasting is like, well, what if I just stop for a little bit and then reset? Well, now I can choose in a different way. Does that make sense?

Rico Caveglia:
Absolutely. And you know what I thought of as you were saying that about all the different choices and things is that I think about this and this is kind of what I've boiled down. My agents live in lifestyle training to is, I call it, you know, learning how to master the seven essentials of life. And the thing I think what's what's what's really helpful about it is these are all the things that we're already doing just to stay alive. But we were never taught how to master them. You know, how to how to do them. Well, I mean, well, we're breathing, but most people are not doing deep breathing, not getting enough oxygen in your body. But most people still aren't hydrating enough. And drinking, you know, purified, healthy water. And most people we already food. You know, most people are not eating a diet of a healthy, primarily raw food and, and organic foods. And they're eating way too much processed food, but you're still eating right. And then the same thing, uh, with with movement and with exercise, you still are barely moving around to do something, but you're not doing it to the way that could really benefit your body. And then and then, uh, elimination. You know, we have to be able to eliminate the waste products and then sleep. Sleep is so so we're finding how critically important sleep is these days. And everybody is still sleeping. But we have a we have a real sleep crisis in America. People can't can't go to sleep. There's another reason, many reasons for that. I don't know if we have time to go into that. And then the other thing is, uh. Is just, you know, how are you? Well, we are touching that. How are you using your mind? How are you thinking? You know, so we're already doing all those things, but we're just not doing it in the best way that serves us best. So it's not that difficult. That was the whole point of this was it doesn't have to be that difficult, because all the things that you need to work on are things that you're already doing. You just have to tweak them a bit, or maybe, maybe some people a lot, but you just have to learn how to do the things you're already doing to live it, just in a better way that serves you.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. Exactly. So thank you. Well and that goes back to me, that goes back to what you said earlier about the importance of commitment. And I know for sure if any of us commit and say, you know what, I am going to create amazing health. I'm going to be someone who has incredible energy, vitality, health. Right. It's I'm amazed at how many people still believe they have to get sick. Oh, it's the flu season. Oh, that means I get sick. Like, yeah. Oh my God. You know, and no offense to anybody if that's your current reality, it's just it's optional right? I haven't had a flu in 150 years okay I exaggerate a little bit, but I can't remember having a flu since I've been an adult because it just doesn't count. I believe more than I believe in. Oh, it's flu season I believe in. I have an incredible immune system. So what happens when somebody commits is then we say, okay, what are these fundamentals? You just talked about the seven fundamentals and how can I make a tiny improvement. How can I learn a little bit about that today? Because as you said, most of us don't grow up learning those things from school. I didn't learn anything about health from my family. Um, so but once we make that commitment and we just move a little bit better, right? That Japanese concept of kaizen, a little bit of improvement, things start to change really rapidly, in part because because we said, no, I'm not choosing this anymore. I'm choosing this. And then, as the great quotation by Goethe goes, magic happens, Providence moves. Once we make a commitment. So absolutely did did we get to the third thing, Rico?

Rico Caveglia:
No, we haven't even got to the second. Really?

Daniel Aaron:
Oh my goodness.

Rico Caveglia:
Okay, well that was part that was part of the second. What you have to do. But really the second thing is, is to you need to get educated on what your unique particular body requires because we're all biochemically unique. So there's no one diet, there's no one anything exercise program or you know, that that is suitable for you. So it's so important that you you've got to take responsibility. Another important point to understand is what we call health care in the system. We really have a sick care system. You know, they try and do something for you when you're already sick. But it's not a health care system. It's something that that teaches you how to be healthy and prevent all these things. That's what a true health care. So you've got to develop your own health care system. You've got to take responsibility. And and the thing is, these days, there's no excuse for not getting the knowledge that we it's everywhere. You know, you can just I mean, you can Google stuff on the internet, but there's so many people out nowadays, you know, just like just like we are, Daniel. There's so many coaches and trainers and there's so many webinars and seminars and books and things all about all different aspects of health, you know, whether it's exercise or sleep and nutrition and, and, uh, all these different things that we need to that we know that, that we need to in order to create optimal health. So you got to get educated about what your, your particular body needs. So I highly recommend that you really should consult with, uh, like a naturopathic doctor or functional medicine doctor that can, you know, give you the appropriate tests and help you to guide you so you can determine what what foods are best for you, what exercises are best for you. You know, how can you sleep better? How can you change your mindset? How can you reduce stress? How can you have more fun in your life? All those kind of things. So. So you've got to develop your own personal wellness program. It's so important. You know, other people have a you might have an investment program or you have a, I don't know, educational program or other things, but do you have a wellness program for yourself? It's got to be individual. So that's number two.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah, well, that's huge and important. And I'll touch on, uh, in response just two sides of that because, you know, I remember when I was a fat kid, it's not rocket surgery, you know, I knew, I knew eat less, move more. We'll get we'll get another fireworks here. All right. Let's do it. Simple. Yeah, yeah. Let's move more. I would become healthier and I'll lose weight. The problem was, wasn't that I didn't know what to do. The problem was, I didn't do what I know. And that's, I think 83% of my work with my clients in coaching is helping them to do what they already know to do. And there's no shame in that, right? It's it's we got a challenging life. Being human is sometimes difficult. And it doesn't matter, you know, if. Go. Sorry. Go ahead.

Rico Caveglia:
No, I was going to say. Yeah, it's very challenging to be a human being. No question about it. Yeah.

Daniel Aaron:
And so getting support, getting help there's there's nothing to be ashamed of that it's just not at all. Yeah. Right. And the bottom line is is there more for me. Can I, can I live better and if so, well, if that means doing research on the internet or, you know, hiring a coach or a doctor or a trainer, if you can do that, absolutely jump on it. Why not? Because anything that's holistically helpful, that's not harmful, that's within your your sphere. Go for it.

Rico Caveglia:
Yeah. Your best investment is investing in yourself and investing in your health. And you know, coaching nowadays is known to be the surest and fastest way to achieve your goals. So whatever goals you have, you just be silly not to get a coach. Let's take a professional athletes. I mean, they don't just say, okay, let's go out and play a game and they just go out and do what they want. They have multiple different coaches to help them so they can excel at what they're doing. So so you got to ask yourself, you know, do I want to be a perfect do I want to live a professional life? And do I want to excel at everything I want to do or do I just want to plow through, like most people and and then end up with all these, these, these challenges and not be able to enjoy my life or really live my purpose or make a contribution in your life. So, so again, it's not that difficult, but you've got to take those steps. You got to change your mindset. You got to get up, create your own wellness program. And then number three is what we've been also touching on all along. You have to take action. You've got to step up and actually implement your program. But here's the thing. If you can just stick with a wellness program as like, I know what Daniel teaches and what I teach for for 90 days, you will see so much improvement. That will be the motivation and the inspiration to keep it going. I can guarantee you that if you follow your the guidelines that you set up in your program and you get some help and you, you know, some other things to stick with your program is, you know, if you can do it with a family member or a friend, you know, get somebody that that can do it along with you and hold you accountable is a big help too. But basically just step up and stick with it for at least 90 days, and then you'll be on your way because you're going to feel so much better. You're going to look better. You're going to say, wow, you know, what was I missing? Isn't it unfortunate that so many people go through the whole life and never notice what it feels to be energetic and fit and and vibrant and and healthy? That's so sad, you know? So. Uh, it's just a matter like. Like I say, take those three basic steps, and I guarantee you you can do it because many other people are doing it. So there's absolutely no reason why you can't do it.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. I'm so with you. And, you know, one of the one of the common cultural challenges we know is when people retire, they oftentimes more often than not, their lifespan falls off a cliff. And it's because, you know, they're not engaged and they're not active. And and I hear people like, I'm 54 years old or 54 years aged, uh, my age is 50.

Rico Caveglia:
You're not old no more old.

Daniel Aaron:
No more old. Thank you. I have not got that distinction.

Rico Caveglia:
Before, I love it. Yeah.

Daniel Aaron:
Right. So I've been around the sun 54 times. My body has an age of 54. I don't feel anything like what I see. A lot of other people in their 50s look like, you know, so many look not just look like. And that's a factor, right? Um, healthy living does produce more of a natural glow and vitality and a better appearance. However, it's also what it feels like. And I see people, you know, in between our ages who who really, like, just believe this hypnosis. And they're slowing down, not doing things, not engaging in life. You know, they're basically preparing themselves for the end of it. And I just think, oh, man, it doesn't have to be that way. Right? Like one of our legendary, uh, leaders in the health movement, Paul Bragg. Right. That I forget the exact thing, but he, he when he transitioned out of his physical body experience, he was in his 80s, late 80s, as I recall. And he was surfing, right? He was, you know, surfing at that point in his life. And it's just a shame that people don't live fully and other other creatures don't do this. I think about like, chimpanzees and gorillas, right? As they as they age, they become stronger, smarter, healthier. They rise in the ranks of their, their, uh, whatever it's called for, that species, their tribe or their, their group. And the same thing absolutely can be true for us. So I just so appreciate that you're opening people's minds and providing more possibilities for us.

Rico Caveglia:
Yeah. You know what, Daniel? I'm I'm learning more. And that's one of the biggest. You know, I have a and that's one of the gifts I want to give the audience. It's one of my, uh, ebooks. It's called the top ten anti growing Old strategies. And that's one of them is you've got to keep learning. Keep you know, because our brain our brain is just another, uh, organ in our body. And you've got to exercise your brain to just like you do your muscles. And so you know, I'm learning more all the time than I ever have. And that's what also it's one of the biggest motivations for me is you never know what you're going to think of, what concept is going to come to you, what insight or what you can learn. You know how you can just what else you can create or who you can meet or what you can do. And that's what excites me. So but again, if you don't have physical energy and health, you're not even you're not going to be able to follow through on any, uh, any inspiration you may get or any, uh, you know, insights or things that you want to accomplish. So you've got to keep learning. And then I got to tell you this, Daniel, way back in, uh, I way back in the 80s, they did a study on on centenarians. You know, these are people who lived to be at least 100, and we're still, you know, fairly healthy and at least could take care of himself and all that. And so one of the questions they asked him was, why do you think that you live this long? And, you know, you're still functional. And almost 90% of them said. Because I enjoyed my life, I had fun, I wasn't all stressed out, I had fun. So that's actually that's actually number ten on my list is to have fun. You know? You know, sometimes when I used to go out and speak at the groups, I used to always say, raise your hand if you're having a lot of fun in your life. And there's some quite a few people don't raise their hand and they should talk to some of these people.

Rico Caveglia:
And some people have gotten so like we talked about earlier, stressed and rushed and and so serious about their life, they don't even know what it would be to go out and have some fun, you know? So, I mean, got to have some fun, man. I mean, I'm having I still have lots of, you know, I'm trying to accomplish all I can, but I still take time every day to have fun. I have another book, the book too. It's called, uh, real happiness, real success, real fast. We could we could offer that to your to your audience as well. And what that's all about is all the things that are important to you in your life. Like, you got to take care of your health, right? You got to work on your business, your finances, you got to work on your relationships, and you got to have some fun every, every day in your life. You can't say, well, like most people, well, I got to work real hard right now, and then later on I'll do this. That doesn't get it, because your life is right now, today, as you were talking about right now. It's only right now today. So you got to have some fun today. You got to take care of your body today. You should work on your business today. You should work on your relationships today. You can do all those things and maybe not so much on one particular one in every day, but but, you know, real close together. You got to work on all those things every day. And that's what's going to create a balance and make you whole and make you live an enjoyable, productive, long, successful life.

Daniel Aaron:
That's awesome. Well, we better pause for a moment because one, the clock is ticking on us and the other is you have teased us with some gifts you just mentioned. So how do how do people access those gifts that you just offered?

Rico Caveglia:
Well, okay, I'm sorry to say I, I haven't got that. I mean, I mean, they're all on my website, but, you know, there's a slight charge for some of those, but I guess we can set up a special link. I'll have my my assistant set up a special link where they can just for your for your audience and they can just download all those different ebooks. And then also, you know, I definitely, you know, will offer your, all your audience, uh, a free, you know, I call it a wellness solutions call where we'll just, just just discuss what maybe what health challenges or fitness challenges or maybe sticking with the program you're doing. And we'll just have a friendly conversation and I'll try and get you, uh, going on the right track, and we'll work on any solutions that you might need for any kind of issues that you're dealing with.

Daniel Aaron:
That's great. Super generous of you. Thank you. Well, maybe. What would it be? A workable solution that people send you an email and then they can. Oh, absolutely. So what's, um, what's the best email address for you, Rico?

Rico Caveglia:
Okay. Well, should I just give them the easiest one? Sure. Yeah. The real easy one is just Rico cave r I c o k v e at gmail. So if you just send me, uh, an email at Rico Cave at gmail and just mention, you know, the Art of Vibrant Living show, then I'll have a whole I'll send you a whole group of my most popular ebooks that I think you'll be really helpful. That'll be really helpful for you. I have one too, called Real Fit Real Fast. Uh, I have a real weight loss. Real fast. I have a real energy real fast. And so, you know, these days, I'm just willing to share all those books with everybody, you know?

Daniel Aaron:
Uh. That's beautiful. Super generous of you. Okay, well, thank you. So let's make sure that's clear for everybody. Rico. Cave. Rick. Oh, cave at gmail.com. I think everybody has heard of that, uh, ending of it, so. Yeah. Great. And, um, otherwise, if people want to check out what you are up to, what's the best way for that? Rico.

Rico Caveglia:
Yeah. Well, again, you can go to my main website, Ageless Living lifestyle.com. And there right there at the start we have an aging assessment. So you can take our aging assessment. And I'd like to tell people if you don't like the results then you can you can write there too. You can book a what I call a wellness solutions call, as I mentioned before, and we'll we'll try and get you going on the right track. And then you can look around to you can see our podcast. And then also I have our online coaching programs that you can, you can check out. And if you'd like to get some help, some coaching, you can definitely, uh, check out that and contact me and uh, we'll see if we can get you going on on a coaching program.

Daniel Aaron:
All right. That's awesome. So the website everyone again is ageless Living lifestyle.com. And I think I don't even need to spell that out. Everybody's going to get that whether you're watching or listening. Fantastic. Well I think that brings us Rico to the final question. The big question, the impossible to answer question, which also means you can't go wrong with it. So would it be okay if I ask you that question? Oh, sure. All right. Yeah. For you especially, this is a difficult one because you've got so much experience and knowledge. And if you were to give just one thing, one piece of information, advice that would help people to live their most vibrant, thriving life, what's that?

Rico Caveglia:
One thing I would say is to to find your purpose. Without purpose, we don't accomplish really anything. So really take a little time to just slow down and think about. And usually your purpose is something that you love to do and something that you know you're good at and other people tell you you are, and that it it serves other people. So if you're just putting in your hours, you're passing your time and just just to get a few bucks, I mean, maybe sometimes we have to do that temporarily, but find your purpose and you have a purpose. You have a unique talents and abilities that nobody else has. So find find something that that really gives you joy and purpose and, and, uh, fulfillment and God and make it happen. Serve other people.

Daniel Aaron:
That is awesome. Hallelujah. And, you know, and I love that, especially coming from a guy who's so deeply into the fitness world and pays a lot of attention to body, that your number one suggestion is purpose, right? Whether we call it dharma or ikigai. I'm 100% with you. Everybody has a unique, powerful purpose. Yes, and life is so much about finding it, living it, growing it. So amazing. Rico, thank you so much. Not just for, you know, investing this time with us here, but also for all this work that you've done, I mean, your prolific writings and the experience and the teaching and speaking, you know, it gives you so much, uh, not just knowledge, but experience, which is incredible. So thank you.

Rico Caveglia:
Thank you. Daniel, it was my pleasure to be here. Thank you for all you do.

Daniel Aaron:
Uh, thank you for saying that.

Rico Caveglia:
My pleasure.

Daniel Aaron:
All right, so and y'all in our audience, most of all, thank you to you. Because if you're here, I know that means you are not only interested in upping the quality of your life, making your life a masterpiece, being having a more vibrant life. You're doing something about it. You're educating yourself. You're learning, you're paying attention. And not only does that make your life better, that makes the world better. The butterfly effect is real. So y'all, thank you so much. I hope to see you again soon. And in the meantime, please, please, please make your life a masterpiece. See you soon y'all! Hello! Mahalo for tuning in to the Art of Vibrant Living show, y'all! I'm Daniel Aaron and may you live with great vibrancy.

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