Erewhon: LA's Most Famous Grocery Store, My Erewhon Collab Is Here!
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Harris to 500-500. The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Hi guys, it's Mari and you're listening to The Pursuit of Wellness.

Okay, guys, today on the show, we have Jason Widener, an experienced and knowledgeable figure in the health and wellness industry. He's currently the vice president of purchasing and distribution at Air One. He's dedicated to sourcing the best products available and ensuring they're stocked for customers seeking the healthiest possible lifestyle at the famous store Air One. I'm

I've had the pleasure of working with Jason over the past few months on an exciting collaboration we are going to be talking about in this episode. I've been dying to get him on the mic to hear more about his story. Jason, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Tell us about what you currently do at Air One because it sounds like you wear a lot of hats. Well, yeah, we can go back to the vice president of purchasing and distribution. It's not, I mean, I've been involved in purchasing online.

for the first few years of my life at Air One. I've been with Air One for 13 years and it's been a journey that has been, I mean, there's, you walk into Air One, you feel the love and there's a, there's a recipe for that. And to be a part of that journey has been incredible.

So now I'm vice president of culture development, team building, new stores. Got it. And just really being a part of the wellness movement. So you're kind of keeping the brand alive. Like you're making sure that you guys stick to the mission. Absolutely. Mission Vision is the spark that started it all off for Air One in the 60s.

And that spark has been, you drift off and you come back to it. But Erewhon, the actual mission and the vision has always been the same, is to inspire people to make better choices. And that's where it all began. So what was the start of Erewhon? Like, where did it come from? Erewhon, so the name Erewhon comes from a book by Samuel L. Butler. It was read by a man named Michio Kushi, who was...

the 1940s in New York reading this book called air one and it was a satire Victorian Society and and it he was blown away by you know the responsibility of the human being in this book to take health into their own hands that was kind of one of the big points of it he didn't know how to change the world he was a macrobiotic genius he ends up becoming a doctor and it becomes this huge leader in the movement and

But in the 40s and the 50s, the natural food movement was just beginning because pesticides, herbicides, everything exploded during that time. You know, monocultures, farming. And he decided through food, I can change the world by being truthful and honest and bringing the right people together by us holding each other accountable. And that was the seed that was planted in Erewhon and it's still growing today.

So when did the first store in L.A. open? Because it's still currently just in L.A., correct? Started off in Boston. Oh. Yeah. Started off on the East Coast, and then it came over to L.A. in, I

I think the 70s. I think it was the early 70s. And it was in a little small spot there off of Beverly. And then they needed a bigger spot. And so then they moved down to the current spot, which is on the Beverly location in Hollywood. And that one has been there for over 30 years. Wow. And then it went through some different owners' hands. And then these magical people came along named Tony and Josephine and Tosi.

And they carried a spark that really empowered all of us wellness warriors to the next level. That has been the game changer for Air One and just the movement of wellness within our city. Is it fair to say that Air One is currently at its peak of popularity or like fame? We have never done anything...

we were in the background the whole time. I still feel like we're in the background, even though we're connected and we're working with celebrities and doing collabs. We always believe that if you do the work and you put others first...

You're going to be fine because you're, you're, you're trying to search. We're all searching for that authentic self, right? If you know your authentic self, then you can actually be truthful with people and build great relationships with people. So we have great relationships either. It doesn't matter what happens with, with, you know, the economy or whatever happens with celebrities or we're still going to be who we are because we've stayed true to who we are because we've had a strong mission. We've had a strong vision and we stuck to it and we don't bend for it.

And I think that's, you feel that when you walk in, the integrity. 100%. I mean, for those of you who haven't been to an Erewhon, it is like the health Mecca of Los Angeles. It is pretty...

pristine at all times. Everyone in there knows exactly where everything is. It's the one place I think I've ever been where I feel 100% that I can trust what I'm putting in my body. And for someone like me, that's super important. And I think for a lot of the people listening, we want to be able to walk in a store and know these ingredients are safe. They're good. The people who chose them have our best interest in mind. And I think that's becoming more and more relevant.

rare nowadays. I mean, it's one of a kind, I feel like. Well, yeah, the standards are very high and they have to stay high because everyone that works at Air One...

You know, they're wellness. They are wellness warriors. You know, we found like minded people to come together so that we can sit there and analyze like, OK, is this ceremonial blend or OK, how's it picked? OK, when was it picked? What farm is this? I mean, we ask a lot of questions because we want to know where it came from. So. Right. So you feel it when you walk in. Like I said, the integrity you can you can go to our nutrition, you know, aisles and they'll blow you away. I mean, they are in the.

Pursuit of wellness, right? They're in that pursuit of wellness. I love that tagline, by the way. Thank you so much. You know why? Because it's so true because the mental, the physical, the spiritual. I know. Being in the pursuit, making that choice is...

I want to get into that, but it's such a big choice. And you made that choice. I made that choice, and I also feel like I'm still making that choice. I think people think that a fitness journey has an end line, and it's a constant. You're constantly learning more. You're constantly on the pursuit of wellness. That's where the name came from. And I want to talk about your wellness story. I'm 49. I feel like I just began. Wow. That's how I feel, and I've been through so many different things.

chapters in my life because your body changes. Your mindset changes a little bit. Your spirit changes. Where did your health journey begin? Who were you at the beginning? All right, I'm going to try to say this. A long story short, I was brought up in some crazy stuff when I grew up. From one to eight years old, my biological father left when I was two.

My grandfather was beating my mother in front of me. I saw my mother strangled in front of me. I used to get in fights. I was seven years old getting into fights. I was in the bad neighborhood. It was crazy. And I didn't know who's in charge. Is it me? Is it them? Is this just the world?

So there's something that clicked inside of me when I was very young that I did make a choice back then to say, I don't want to be like, whatever's happening here, there's something wrong with it. And the only saving grace I had was my mother and she was...

She just believed in me so much. And she knew what we were going through was just circumstances of just what the world, it's just where we were. And from there, obviously that journey didn't really, really take place until when I was in my 20s.

when I was still confused and trying to figure out what my path is and why do I need a path and all those questions come. Are you just doing a job to make money or do you want to make a difference? Where does that all start, right? And I think for someone that wants change, anger is a good place to start because anger means you want change. When people say, when I see someone angry, I'm glad you're angry. I'm glad you're mad. That means you want change, right?

it's when you give up that that's a hard place to come out of but there's always that spark and that spark is that action that you know that you can take not hope it's action and to do that i think you have to understand your self-critic first because you can't change your mindset unless you understand where those voices in your head come from is it my parents is it the is it the is it the mentor that i

the wrongfully picked mentor is it my friends is it the music is it the movie is the books that i read all these things come together to start molding who you want to be and why you want to be this person and ultimately for me personally i knew i wanted to make a difference i didn't know how i just knew i wanted to be there so i had to understand that critic in my head and know that

I can do these things. I might not be the best, but I can get better. And that's kind of where it all started. And that's why I'm 49 and I still believe I'm still, I'm a student and I've only just begun. And the practice continues.

So I think it starts there. Your mindset, understanding that self-criticism, those silly voices in your head, which is noise, getting those out of your way. But you don't have to get them out of your way, but you need to be aware of them. You need to sit still, get out of the noise. Like just turn off our cell phone. I like how you and I looked at each other and we're like, we're turning off our cell phone and putting it in our pocket because you are important to me and we want to connect. And

That's the same thing you have to do with yourself. You have to connect with yourself. And that's, that's, that's self-love, that's self-care, that's self-inner journey that once you start doing the work, it's every day. You don't stop. It's every single day you wake up. What is your practice? Do a little bit of your practice. It could be just one minute, could be an hour.

And that's how you start this journey. - What is your practice? Because it sounds like you grew up in a very chaotic household. I can relate in a lot of ways. And first of all, it's very refreshing to hear you say that the journey doesn't end in your 40s and that you just began in your 20s. 'Cause I think a lot of people listening feel like they need to have it figured out and that the voices don't go away. The voices are always there. The self-doubt is always there. It's about the practices. So how do you wake up in the morning?

I think once you made a commitment to want change and you want to make a difference and you want to put others first, because it comes back to you. You know, you've seen it. It's true. It's real. I started doing, I mean, I was a rock climber. I was a gymnast. I did a lot of sports when I was, you know, I was a barefoot water skier. So I had a ton of injuries. I had broken bones. I've like, you know, I've ripped cartilage in my back and neck pain, everything.

Imagine going 45 miles per hour barefoot water skiing. You catch a toe and you go, wham, on the water. I've done that probably like 50, 60 times. I don't know what I was thinking, but it was a lot of fun. So I did that when I was young, and then I got into the gymnastics and the barefoot and martial arts and things like that. But what I found was doing – I studied Qigong, Xinyi, Bagua, a lot of Chinese martial arts.

And because I love the healing aspect of it. As much as there is the fighting aspect, there's the healing aspect. And you learned how to fight, you know, you know, we box, we did, you know, I love that, put myself in that situation where there's fear, because if you can relax in that fear, that's a seed of personal growth is where you have that fear. So I wanted to do the work in martial arts.

But then I realized the healing stuff was just so, so satisfying. Like I started working on people, had clients and I did this before Erewhon. What I learned was one of my favorite things to do was, is just stillness practice or meditation, whatever you want to call it. And it's about aligning your spine. It's about creating space in your spine and, and

There's certain ways you can get into it, and there's Taoist breathing. What you do is you pull all this stuff together, and biologically, you've got all these things that are happening inside of your body, right? You've got your heartbeat. You've got your energetic pathways. You've got your breath. You've got your spinal fluid that pumps seven or eight times through your spine every minute.

So you have these, this thing where, you know, they, they call it flow state and some people get there through doing yoga. Some people get it through doing, you know, a boxing gym or riding a bike or swimming in the ocean. It's a, it's a type of flow state, but what it does is it takes you out of that external, all the noise in it and it taps you into a rhythm, the biological oscillators of your body, this rhythm inside of your body. And I think that is where you can have some acceptance, right?

You know, where you're just like, I'm here, I'm present, and this feels good. There's so much depth in that. And I think, as you just said, it looks different for everyone. It does. For me, it's horseback riding. Yes. As you're speaking about this, I'm imagining being on the horse. I know it sounds crazy. No, but that's beautiful. That's amazing. So how often do you ride? I try to get down there three times a week, but it's hard. It's really difficult to...

It's so funny because it is so healing and it is when you're doing it you're like wow I need to be doing this so much more but it's so easy to kind of like Push aside when the schedule gets busy and when work pops up But it's so important to set aside time for those things. It's just the uncut like I

You got to make like these non-negotiables with yourself. After a while, you have to hold yourself accountable. And, you know, one thing that I always try to do, and I'm lucky that I have the most wonderful wife in the world. Like she is my best friend. Like she's incredible. We just really push each other in all the right ways. And we try to like just hang every morning. I know that sounds crazy, but I feel like your spinal cord is such a –

Something that people don't think about as...

piece of their wellness routine. Oh, hang as in like off of a bar? Just hang. Oh, I see. Hang. I thought you meant hang out. No, hang. My husband also loves to hang. There's something about hanging. Yeah. And the fascia inside your body, you know, you have your brachial plexus through here, which is a crazy highway of nerves running through your shoulders. And of course, your neck alignment, right? Most people have

So many injuries in their neck that they don't even realize. And just simply hanging in the morning just for like a minute, two minutes, realigns your back, your neck, and strengthens your fascia around those capitis muscles. And just from there, then you start thinking,

Maybe I'll ride the bike. Maybe I'll do some jumping jacks. You know what? I'm going to work out. Then I'm going to do my cold bath. And then I'm going to do... And that's how you just... It's like in yoga terms, they say, hit the mat. Doesn't matter. Hit the mat, get in child pose, do it for a minute. Yo yourself that. And at least if you can do that, you can start that physical practice, which taps you into the other deeper work, which is...

you know, building relationships, being honest with yourself. I love that concept of taking action before you let yourself think too much. Like I, on my fitness journey, I used to do the five second rule where I just count down from five and start like get out of the bed, pick up a weight, whatever it was. I think just by taking that physical action, you prevent thinking yourself into a spiral. Agree. That brings me up to like habits, right? Yeah. How do you even know you have a bad habit?

That's part of that journey is, okay, I need to recognize that bad habit. What is it? Then you got to recognize what the good habit is. Okay, now how do I make that a preferred habit? That's when the real magic starts to happen and then you start getting into your routine. Thus, your lifestyle changes because you're feeling good because at the heart of it all, what is it about? How do you feel good so that you can

Not only so I can infect my children, I can help infect my wife in a positive way and the people that I run into so that we're smiling together and hopefully we come away from this both. Like, ah, that was a good connection there. Yeah, like you leave with your cup full rather than empty. And I feel like you have accomplished that within the Eron community so well.

Summer is right around the corner and Greg and I are starting to plan for some summer barbecues. One of our favorite barbecues in the world.

our favorite things to do in the summer is invite friends over, have a grill out, do some burgers, some hot dogs, some corn, and just hang. And when it comes to buying meat, we are very, very conscious with quality. We really want to be consuming quality meats, but at a convenience. And that's where we found ButcherBox. Our freezer is currently full of ButcherBox. They have 100% grass-fed beef, free-range organic chicken, pork ravioli,

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So head to hatch.co and get free expedited shipping on your new Restore 2 so you can start feeling well rested ASAP. When did you get started at Air One?

So that was 13 years ago, and I started off as just working behind the tonic bar. I built a business plan, and I was going to do my own juice bar, cold-pressed juice bar. And the owner, Tony and Josephine, and this is what they're brilliant at, is...

They find people that are passionate, find people that want to make things better. And they just said, hey, why don't you just run in this direction? Why don't you build a cold press juice program? Why don't you run the wellness bar? Why don't you run some stores? And they just let you, they empower you. And they're just great mentors. They're great mentors to people. They know how to put all these different aces in places because I'm such a small part. I mean, I am...

Air One is so beautiful because there's so many pieces to the puzzle. I mean, there's department directors that float store to store, and our corporate headquarters have

I mean so many brilliant people that are driving collaborations and building the digital space, the marketing, and then you got the floor which is just, you know, they're just pure hospitality and service first leadership. And that's contagious. And I feel like the work that we do,

from the human side is just as important as the food side. Yeah. So how has your role with Air One developed over time? Like what have, what areas of the company have you touched? Well, we were scrappy at the beginning. We were only one store. We were one little baby store. And, and then we, we, you know, we opened up Calabasas and, and, you know, that was successful. And, and, and then the owners, you know, Tony and Josephine said,

I think Venice would be a cool place to open up. And I said, Venice is cool. And we found this cool building that has like these, you know, big boat truss ceilings and it feels like you're in a ship or something. It's just beautiful. Right. And it was, you know, it was a scrappy neighborhood and that's, and that's where it all began. Like, you know, that, that nucleus of LA where it just exploded, then Venice and Santa Monica, then Silver Lake, then studio city. And then

So I've just played a lot of different roles and I'm just here to be of service and go where it's needed, right? So I was running stores. I was running marketing for a while. Now I'm not running stores, but I'm just – I'm overseeing the development of leaders and just trying to create tools for people so that they can be of service to people, right? Because if people are confused, they don't have the tools –

that causes too much stress. I don't want, I don't want my team to ever be stressed because they don't have the right tools because I want them to connect. I want them to share with them that like, Hey, this is my health journey. You should try this vitamin C or you should try this awesome matcha. Cause it's, you know, this blue matcha cause it's ceremonial grade and it's got a lot of antioxidants and it's a slow energy release and, you know, cut down on the coffee. Doesn't mean you can't have it just cut down on a little bit. Try, try the matcha. Yeah. You know, so it's,

Those are the conversations that are happening day in, day out. So yeah, my role now is just, I'm just happy to be here and to be able to share with the team and you and the community, you know, just...

Health and wellness. And as you just mentioned, the process that you guys use to review products before they go into Air One is super rigorous. And I can say that from the brand side now because officially I'm announcing this right now. Bloom Matcha, Mari's Matcha, is available in Air One, all Air Ones, right now. It's on shelf. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. Because we look at every single matcha and we say, okay.

Why this matcha? Mm-hmm. What do we have on the shelves? What makes us different? What makes us, you know, what, what, why is this leveling up?

And this matcha was super important to me from the beginning because I'm a big matcha fan and I wanted it to be ceremonial grade. I wanted it to be 100% organic from traditionally stone ground from the best fields in Japan. We spoke with the people who sourced it. And I think having it in Irwan is such a big moment for me and also for the Bloom community while they're listening.

Why do you think it's so important that you have this rigorous process about getting products? And why is it so important that customers know what's in their products at Air One? Yeah, I mean, we set the standards high. We have limited space, first of all. We want the consumers to be able to come in and look at the granola section or the matcha section or...

the collagen section, doesn't matter what it is, and know that I've got a price range here, right? You know, I got options. But I also, they all have a story to tell. Because if you don't have a story to tell and you don't know where it's coming from, and so for the most part, you know, that's how it's all vetted. You know, you got to know, you know, who are they? Why are they doing this? You know what I mean? Is it...

Is it a fat? Is it not a fat? Or is coconut real? People are trying to understand, is coconut meat and coconut water and coconut cream, is this really good for you? And then the medium chain triglycerides. And then everyone started talking about how I can actually help with weight loss, even though it's

You know, it's a certain fat that people think could be bad, but it's actually not. There's a lot of things that are trending. And so we try to just thread that needle to find out what's trending, what has the health benefits, which has the functions. And then what separates yourself from everyone else, like as far as the story. And that's how we choose. What are some of your personal favorite brands at Air One? Yeah.

So many. I love them all. I mean, okay, well, let's talk about your bowl real quick because some of my personal favorite brands are in this bowl. Or you don't want to talk about it? No, let's talk about the bowl. I haven't announced it yet. Oh, jeez.

We're doing a, guys, we're doing a freaking bowl at Erewhon. It's amazing. It's the first bowl. It's the first bowl. Mari's Bloom Bowl is the name. It's amazing. It's incredible. We've been working on this for the past few months and guys, like the detail that went into this bowl. Yeah. And it's so freaking delicious. Beautiful. So many health benefits. Yes. And it's the first freaking bowl. I mean, how long have you guys been doing these collabs for?

Couple years. Yeah, a couple years. With some of the biggest celebrities out right now. Bella Hadid. Yeah, and bowls are actually harder to make. They're more detailed, and it's the same functionality because I'm using the base of the matcha and organic mango, coconut cream, bananas, pearl. And then I got all these other cool things that I got inside, like a really good clean almond milk from Three Trees, which I love.

Sun butter, which is an crazy organic sunflower butter, which just tastes fantastic. It has its own flavor. And of course you got your collagen, which is, you know, we all know about collagen and how it supports so many things inside of your body. And then you got just basic things like granola, but this is not your normal granola. This is made...

around here in LA and it's grain free and it's just filled with the best organic nuts and fruits you can get and it's just fantastic. And then you have this coconut cream. I use this coconut cream a lot from Zuma Valley.

And I love their quality and I love their story because they come, you know, it's a multi-generational Filipino family that like it's a first press, cold press coconut cream. I mean, it's incredible. You know, it's just the flavor and the authenticity of this bowl and the brands that are involved.

Especially this one. Especially Bloom, guys. Especially Bloom. It's just, it's incredible. Yeah. One of my favorite parts, guys, is that the bowl looks like a flower. So when you have your bowl with all these incredible ingredients and brands in it, it has a strawberry flower on top with a beautiful granola. And then we have...

This is my favorite part. The raspberry whip. Yeah, raspberry whip. Yeah. Made with the coconut cream mixed in with raspberry, I think, pitaya, too. It's like pink. Yeah, then you got the matcha coconut flakes. Mm-hmm. And then...

and i and there's going to be a little surprise flower in there too so you know just i really i really pushed for the flower guys i was like i'm not going to be a diva i'm still testing the flowers i got to taste them you got to make sure they're legit and you can eat them i really wanted a flower on top to represent bloom because it's mari's bloom bowl and the flower does look gorgeous but with or without the flower the bowl is absolutely delicious and i want to mention we are doing this

bowl in honor of mental health month. May is mental health month. As we've been speaking about, mental health is super important and very important to me and my story. So I'm donating a hundred percent of my proceeds to the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. And they specifically research borderline personality disorder, which is my diagnosis.

and they really put all of their money to good use. So 100% of my proceeds are going there. That's amazing. It's for a great cause, and I feel like the Bloom Bowl, I mean, it's such a moment. It is a moment. And I'm glad you brought up the charity piece because we don't really talk about that much, but we've raised so much money for different charities, and we built a—

Whole wing in Africa we built a school like a like a whole wing of a school in Africa Which was the way we got connected with it like just you know, I'm just magic happens You just get connected with different charities or and just like yours. I mean, it's it's people even know it's like there's so many different charities that we've gotten to donate and so people don't realize that when they're paying for they're coming to get a smoothie or you know, whatever smoothie, you know, the Haley smoothie or the Frankie smoothie or any of the other ones and

There's money that's actually going, it's going to charity. Right. And everyone has a different cause, a different purpose, a different mission. Just so you guys know, the bowl is out on May 15th, Monday, May 15th. You can go and get the bowl. You can go and get the bloom matcha on the shelves. I believe this episode is coming out on May 15th. So as of right now, you can go and get the bloom bowl. So this is incredible. So exciting. It's so exciting. It's so exciting.

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So in terms of the collaborations, you're running the collaborations. Yes. Vito Antosi is Tony's brother. He runs the brand collaborations, but he, you know, he always talks to me. He's like, hey, what do you think about this? Like, let's work with this.

And then once we decide on the brands and the person, then it's kind of crazy. You went through the process. It's like, okay, let's figure this out. Let's meet at the stores. I mean, as you said, it took a long time for us to figure out what the recipe is, how is it going to look, what's the function behind it. Then it's teaching the teams. Then it's

All the teams learn about it. Why is this functional? Why does this work? You know, why this matcha? Why organic? Why a grain-free granola? You know, and then from there, you've got to learn. We're doing these every single month, so it's quite the symphony of activity, and it's a lot of fun. And you're working with some of the biggest celebrities in the world on some of these collaborations. I mean, it's insane. Yeah.

Yeah, no, it's really cool. And like we said before, we never did this to, we do this, our purpose is authentic and it's health and wellness. And it's, like I said, I want the tagline of everyone to be the pursuit of wellness since 1968. Do not steal my tagline. Let's work on this. Jason's actively stealing my. I'm actively stealing the tagline, yes. But it does apply, I agree. Can we erase this part? No.

Since Eerwan is kind of like the place everyone goes to discover the new health trends, like personally that's I go, I look around at the products, I see, okay, like what's new, what's happening. What would you say are some of the newest health trends in the industry right now? You know, that's a good question because I feel like for the last decade there's been so many, you know, the coconut, the probiotics, you know, adaptogens, the mushrooms, you

You know, right now, I don't think there's like this one thing that's just popping out right now. That's just, this is it. I think.

I think people are realizing that the human body is so you, you trying to figure out what works for you, like, like what works for you is not going to work for me. And I think people are realizing how special we truly are. And, and, you know, coconut, I think it's fantastic. It just might not work well with your system. So, so for me, it's, it's, I don't think there's anything that's just busting out of it. Seems trending. Cool. Anything like that. I mean, it's,

I wish I had a better answer, but it's integrity. It's things with integrity. It's like milk, right? I feel like dairy is kind of having a comeback. Yes. Dairy is definitely having a comeback. Our sales have gone up a lot with dairy, to tell you the truth. Interesting. And my favorite stuff is kefir dairy. Oh, right. If I was going to say something cool and trending, I feel like kefir dairy is...

Kind of starting to uptick for sure. Kefir is a probiotic yogurt, correct? Yeah, it's a grain. It's a type of grain that they use to get the fermentation. It's fantastic. My wife and I have been drinking it a lot lately, and you just feel good. I don't know what it is. It's easy to digest. You're getting all these proteins, all these minerals and vitamins and things like that. Then you're also getting the probiotics at the same time. So you can mix that with blueberries and bananas in the morning, and you're just like...

You're like that's that's pretty nice. I want to try that yeah Yeah, you can make smoothies out of it, and you know yeah, and how about the hot? I feel like the hot food bar at air one. Oh my gosh Yeah, is having a major moment the hot food bar has always been dynamite the culinary team. They're truly their craftsmen I mean they're they're artisans they're they're more than just artisans though. I feel like a craft craftsman and

And they care about, you know, everything, the texture, the craveability, the purpose behind it. And it's always it's always beautiful and fresh. I mean, and I see the food safety side and the food, you know, the back end side. And you just see how just rigorous everything is and just the way that they keep everything just fresh.

up until the time that they serve it at the deli. And it's incredible. I mean, the combo plates are more famous than the smoothies probably. I don't know. It's kind of a close tie. Everyone at the Bloom office has either a smoothie or a combo plate every single day. You got to get the Air One combo plate. It doesn't matter what you get. I mean, they have... I mean, they make...

I've seen them have jambalaya, different kinds of lamb. I mean, you know, grass fed, you know, all kinds of different vegan dishes. I mean, they're coming up with stuff all the time. They have like, they probably have 200 recipes. They probably have more. I'm probably not even like doing them service. Like literally have probably four or 500 recipes. It's insane. I have to get more adventurous because I always just get the salmon and carrots and a salad, but it's fantastic. What is your response when you hear contributions

controversy in terms of pricing at Air One? Well, it's like the smoothies. Like, we don't even talk about the $2 that's going to, you know, donations. And then if you see my footprint at the store, you feel the integrity, the love, the presentation, the quality. I have a lot of people that work at each store. Could I operate 40, 50 people per store? It'd be a skeleton crew, but I have 150 people that work at each store.

Like a Whole Foods has, you know, their stores are 20, 30,000 square feet more, 40, 50,000 square feet. I probably have just as much employees as they do sometimes in a small footprint. So we're packed on each other like sardines because we have so much action from the front end, the customer service. You got the wellness bar. You got this. You have this culinary team. These culinary teams, there's 60 to 70 employees.

team members on one culinary team. And there's 20 just for the wellness bar. And then there's 20 for the front end. Then there's, I've got a receiving team in the back that's checking temperatures and logging. And I mean, there's a lot that goes into the quality and, and just the atmosphere of air one. Yeah. And there's a lot of prices that I'm sorry, it's word the same as everyone else, if not cheaper sometimes. And I also think,

If you are someone that really cares about quality of food and where it's coming from and the story behind it. And discovery. And discovery. Because it's pure discovery. You come in, air one, you don't need a shopping list. You can just say, you know, I'm having...

One of those days where I, you know, I'm just going to go air one. I'm sure I'm going to like, I'm going to catch fire here in a second. Like, okay, then you go and then you start talking to the wellness practitioners and you talk to someone at the wellness bar and all of a sudden you're like, man, you grab a basket and you're shopping and you're inspired. Especially if you are gluten-free, dairy-free, nut allergy. Vegan, keto. There's something for you. There's something for you, yes. And when you're on that journey, you just want to hear people's perspectives. Yeah. You're not going to get that at a lot of grocery stores.

And I don't even think we're a grocery store. I don't know what we are, to tell you the truth. We're like just a wellness hub. Yeah, you almost are like a social club. I mean, I see the same people at Venice Erewhon every single day. Everyone knows each other. We're all hanging out. We're all comparing what we're getting. You know, well, what did you get today? It really is a community of people who genuinely care so much about their health. I also think I heard Vito say on the phone, we were talking about it, and he was like,

People go out and spend $15 on a glass of wine like that. Yeah, but they won't think about it But they won't spend it on a healthy meal for themselves. Oh, absolutely We spend so much money on things we don't need and I truly feel that The work the internal work it all it all comes together while you what you eat who you hang around Your practice in the morning or throughout the day, you know, and it's to me I think when you when you level it up like this and

you're holding yourself more accountable too, because if I'm going to spend, you know, a little bit more money for this granola that I know is incredible and it's, it's, it's, there's no grains and it's, it's organic, it's local. I'm gonna feel good about eating this and I'm going to make sure that I'm treating my body right and my mind right so that I do it justice, right? I don't want to just,

I'm just not eating for pleasure anymore. I do it, and I can eat for pleasure, but I eat because I'm trying to fuel this thing that I'm doing. I want to make a difference, so how am I going to fuel this? How am I going to sleep well tonight? How am I going to digest everything so that I'm not fighting all night my digestion? And some people will say, well, you're taking the fun out of it. No, no, no, no, I'm not actually because I still know how to eat awesome food.

plays from the freaking heroin hot bar and I can eat clean and you start craving these simple ingredients that are organic and you don't crave the other stuff anymore. I always say that. You just don't crave it anymore. I don't even think about it. I'm so hungry right now. Oh,

Are you actually hungry? I'm hungry now. I mean, because we're sitting here. I'm just like, you know, I'm thinking about the bowl. I'm thinking about the hot bar. We have all these ingredients in front of us for the bowl and they do look fantastic. And I'm thinking about the bowl right now. For anyone listening who isn't in L.A. and doesn't have an ear one and wants to recreate the bowl, what's the best way to go about it?

We're going to – I'm going to give it to you, and you blast it out to whoever you want. The whole recipe. Because, guys, I think the best part about the bowl is it has that thick base. Yeah, it's thick. You've got to have the right – listen, if you really want to get into smoothies or making, like, homemade ice creams at the house, you've got to have a – I always say invest in a Vitamix. I know there are a lot of money up front, but I'm telling you something. I bought one probably 15 years ago. I'm still using it to this day to make crazy probiotic blueberry –

I put greens in there. I put all kinds of stuff there. But I make them nice and thick. I mean, it's like literally you're eating ice cream. And the Vitamix, like the VitaPrep 3 is amazing. And you just got to buy a good Vitamix because you can replace the parts really easy. And you can cook anything. You can make soup in it. Yeah, I have one. It's fantastic. I use it every day. Yeah. And so once you've got that, then you start experimenting. So just to give a little rundown of the actual recipe here, we have the Three Trees Organic Almond Milk. Yeah.

We have the bio-sil, four drops of bio-sil, which is the collagen. We have two scoops of mangoes, half a frozen banana, which I feel like is super important for the thickness. Half a teaspoon of the matcha powder. And by the way, the matcha powder is super, super concentrated. It's strong. It's very green. It's high quality. I was using a full teaspoon at first. I was like, whoa, this is really strong. It's really strong. And that's what I wanted because I like it like that. One teaspoon of sunflower butter.

We've got another scoop of collagen, half an avocado, a tiny bit of maple syrup, and we made sure it was tiny because I'm not a big sweet person. So it's definitely a creamier blend. Blend until smooth. And then for toppings, we have the granola. We have the raspberry cocoa whip. Insane. We have the fresh strawberries. We have the coconut cream, a little dot in the middle to make it look like a flower.

like a flower, and then we have white coconut flakes mixed with the berry green matcha, so it has this cool green flaky look. Yeah. It's crazy how... I mean, it's beautiful. It's stunning. So if you want to make it at home, guys, tag us. We want to see your creations. Absolutely. Jason, where are you at now on your pursuit of wellness? Right now, I've been taking...

Quick story. I was backpacking probably in my 30s, and I wasn't doing cold showers or cold plunges or anything like that. But I literally was up at 12,000 feet one time, and I was with my girlfriend, and I got naked, and I jumped in the water, right? And I remember it taking my breath away, and I remember thinking, I have never felt this good in my life.

There's probably many reasons for that, but there is something about that connection with the cold, the scariness of the cold. And I know people talk about the cold plunge and stuff. And so I started doing showers, cold showers. I've been doing that for years now. And just recently, I just finally got like a real cold plunge where, you know, testing the water, making sure it's good. And my wife and I literally every single morning, we jump in this thing. And it's, talk about mindset.

Once you face that, because you don't want to do it most of the time. Every time. 70, 80% of the time, you don't want to do it. But I think that's where some of that practice comes in as far as letting it go and just knowing that your body will... You'll be okay. That stress, that...

That challenge you will breathe through it. So like you just get in and the health benefits of it are incredible I mean for your lymphatic system your circulatory system. I mean your your skin I mean it is incredible for you and it wakes up your nervous system and and I truly believe your nervous system is

Think about your body, how incredible it is. Think about you got your mind, right? You got your brain and you're now from there. You got your brainstem. That brainstem connects into your spinal cord, which connects to your peripheral nerves that go out through your whole body. Your whole body is an extension of your mind, which is crazy. And this cold plunge lights you up.

it's incredible and then you you know work go go about your day you can do anything after that i've done a cold plunge bring it on let's go i feel like there's so much to that i love getting done the first the first thing in my day the most challenging part of my day because once you do that you're showing yourself evidence you can keep doing hard things all day long absolutely and and you don't have to be

that stressed about it. Because I think when you put yourself through the physical stress, some of that, you know, cold plunge is kind of a mental stress thing.

It fortifies your mindset for the future, for the future, for that day. Right. And I think that's when you're constantly doing that. Now it becomes I'm looking forward to the challenge now. I want that sinking feeling in my heart and my gut when I have a huge problem in front of me or I have a developmental problem with inside my team because I'm like, how can I help them now? Because this is challenging. How do I? Wow.

I'm going to have to reflect on this. And I'm looking for that feeling now. And I think when you feel that feeling, I always say lean into it. Don't run away from it. There's something you're supposed to be doing here because that's why your gut and your heart is pounding, you know, when you're put in that situation. So lean into it and know that that fear is going to be gone the moment you start addressing it. Yeah. How do I breathe into this problem? Yeah.

Jason, now it's time for the question we ask every guest. Uh-oh. I started this podcast because I believe everyone's pursuit of wellness looks different. What does wellness mean to you? You know, your authentic self, feeling good, sleeping well, and then just lighting it up through the day. That's me. I love it. Yeah. Anything you want to share with us? News? When's this bowl coming? Bowl is the 15th. I think it's next Monday. Or actually, we're here now.

It's actually happening right now. It's happening right now, guys. Right now, the 15th. The first ever bowl collab Air One has ever done. Yes. It's delicious. It's going to keep you full. It's going to make you feel good. Tons of protein, tons of health benefits. And I couldn't be more happy than to do it with you because you are just such a magical person. And it was funny before when we started doing this bowl, one of our managers, one of our leaders at Venice, she calls me up. She goes, Armin.

are we doing a ball? Are we doing something with Mari? I'm like, yes, we are. She goes, she's changed my life. She's like, she is an amazing person. I go, really? I go, you know her? And she's like, yes, I know her. She's like, she's magical. And she told me all about you. And I just thought that was really cool. That means the world. I do want to give a shout out to Anya because she honestly was one of my first friends

friends in Venice like when I first moved to LA I went to go get a smoothie at Erewhon and she was like hi I'm Anya you know I use your products and we've been connected ever since then and she's such a special human and she literally helped us make this bowl happen which is such a full circle moment to have someone that's so connected to me it's really it's like you're in Anya's bowl I know

It's insane. So Anya, we love you. We love you, Anya. You did a great job. Killed it. And thank you so much for the support and thank you for helping make this happen. Yeah, absolutely. You're awesome. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. Go comment on my last Instagram at Mari Llewellyn with the guest you want to see next. I'll be picking one person from the comments to send our bloom greens to. Make sure you hit follow so you never miss my weekly episodes. If you enjoyed the conversation, be sure to share and leave a review. See you next week.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.