Living With A Navy Seal, Running 100 Miles, Only Eating Fruit Until Noon & More With Jesse Itzler.

Ben Greenfield (0:01)

In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Show.

Jesse Itzler (0:04)

Physically, you know, we go in and out of shape all the time, all of us. We're in peak shape, then we slip, then we try to get back, we get better, we get work. But the mental part of it was really the part that had the best and most lasting benefit.

So for 10 days, I only ate fruit, and then on day 11, I had, you know, a bagel or toast or cereal or whatever, and I just felt disgusting. I felt so lethargic and bloated and just slow. I felt so much better the other way. So here I am 26 years later, and I've only eaten fruit until noon.

SPEAKER_3 (0:35)

He's an expert in human performance and nutrition, voted America's top personal trainer and one of the globe's most influential people in health and fitness.

His show provides you with everything you need to optimize physical and mental performance. He is Ben Greenfield.

Ben Greenfield (0:59)

Whatever it is for you that's the natural movement. Get out there when you look at all the studies done.

Studies that have shown the greatest efficacy.

SPEAKER_3 (1:11)

All the information you need in one place. Right here. Right now.

On the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast.

Ben Greenfield (1:33)

Hey folks, my guest on today's show only eats fruit until noon. He runs, I believe, hundreds of miles at a time, and lives a completely, and I'm taking this straight out of his bio, an out-of-the-box life. His name is Jesse Itzler. He co-founded Marquee Jet, which is the world's largest prepaid private jet company. In 2001, he sold that to Berkshire Hathaway, and then he partnered with ZECO Coconut Water and sold that to Coca-Cola. He's a former rapper on MTV. He produced and sang the NBA's Emmy Award-winning I Love This Game music campaign and the New York Knicks anthem, Go New York Go. He's the author of a book that I think you might find quite entertaining that we're going to talk a little bit about today called Living with a Seal.

And he is also the owner of the NBA's Atlantic Hawks team.

So when he's not out training for a 100-mile run or taking care of his four kids, you're probably going to see him at a basketball game. And he's married to Spanx clothing founder, Sarah Blakely. So Jesse's kind of a slacker, but I decided to get him on the show anyways. Jesse, welcome to the Ben Greenfield Fitness Show, man.

Jesse Itzler (2:48)

Thanks for having me, Ben. Let's do it.

Ben Greenfield (2:50)

Yeah, let's jump right in, man. You hosted a Navy Seal to crash in your living room for 31 days, which I know is kind of like the story behind this book, Living with a Seal. So why did you do that? And I'm sure that this will rabbit hole a little bit, but I'm very curious to hear what happened.

Jesse Itzler (3:07)

Sure. Well, like a lot of things in my life, this wasn't planned. I was at a relay race, a 24-hour running event in San Diego, running this thing with four friends.

And the way the race was set up is whatever team ran the most miles in 24 hours won the race. And there was a guy at the starting line who didn't have anyone to relay with. He was his own team.

And I noticed him because he was about, he was huge. He was about 280 pounds, big guy, African American. And the race was self-supported, so it means that you have to bring all your own supplies. They provide nothing for 24 hours. And we had a tent, we had food, bananas, the whole works. And this guy had three items. He had a fold-up chair, a bottle of water, and one box of crackers, which was crazy. And a mile 70, he had, because of his weight, he had literally crushed all the small bones in both of his feet. He just ran them till he crushed them.

And because he only had crackers and water, he had kidney failure. So he was literally peeing blood in his fold-up chair.

And I watched this guy basically duct tape his feet, get out of this chair, and continue to run another 30 miles to get to 100 miles, which was his goal.

And I was so freaked out by just this guy's drive and warrior mentality and will that I Googled him to see, like, who the hell is this guy? And I learned that he was a Navy SEAL with an absolutely amazing backstory. And I wanted to meet him. So I cold called him. I flew out to see him. And a couple of minutes into our dinner meeting, I said, you know, if whatever this guy is inside this guy that makes him tick, that got him out of the chair, to make him continue to run up through kidney failure and broken bones, if any of that, a little bit of that drive rubbed off on me that all the different buckets in my life, work, family, like training, everything, would be so much better. And I just asked him if he would be willing to move in with me and my family. And like a week later, he was at my breakfast.