18 Days in India - with Special Guest Sheila Barden

Sam Fischer (00:13.88)
We're back with the most interesting person in the world that I know. Sheila Barden and, Sheila last time was going down route 66 in a car. and, today we're actually sat, we're not at a desk or anything, but we're seated in a warehouse at a Duralete in New Jersey. and, welcome back third time guest, Sheila Barden. How are you today?

Hi, Sam. I'm great. I'm in Jersey, like you said, in an actual literal, you know, 100,000 square foot warehouse right now. Yep. And now EnduraLite is, I recently became a customer. like your hydration sticks. They're orange. They're awesome. And apparently you're working on making them better today. So I guess that's why you're in New Jersey. Right? I am. Yes. So hydrate is mainly

Like 38 % of the formula is salt, pink Himalayan sea salt. And if we know anything about Himalayan pink sea salt, it is that it likes to absorb moisture. And because it likes to absorb moisture, if there's any moisture in the air at all while it's being manufactured, it likes to become gummy and sticky and not ideal. So we're currently in the process of handling some behind the scenes fun, endurally

manufacturing issues. It sounds like such an adult job. I'm just shocked. Sounds like adult job, adult title, adult responsibilities. It's amazing. However, I am, let me just be clear that I am not an adult. In fact, last night I was at dinner with the owner of my parent company, Mark Blazier, who is absolutely amazing, freaking hero.

And he and I had a convert, we're having a conversation. He started in neutral violent 1996. it's now one of the top supplement companies, in the U S and in the world. we're now shipping things to, Libya, to Chile, to Iran, to places that, you know, he never thought. And I asked him last night at dinner, I said, you know, Mark, have you ever had a five year plan? Is this what you.

Sam Fischer (02:38.976)
you saw for Nutrabio, you know, 28 years ago when you started and he looked at me and he said, Sheila, do you have the five day plan? And I said, And he said, I don't either. And he said, and that's why I've been so successful. while the title. You guys get along and that's why he hired you. That's exactly right. Yeah. And that's why he lets me run the company the best way that I see fit.

he lets me fail. He lets me, succeed. He, he lets me, I think the reason he lets me fail is because he knows that he learned from failure. And so he lets me fail and then try again. And then after, I screw up twice, then he's like, all right, I'm gonna help you a little bit here. It's awfully nice of him to let you fail with his money. What a guy. You're not wrong. I tell him, thank you frequently. And he's like, yeah. Yeah.

hilarious Sheila Barden, where does your energy come from? gosh, that is a wonderful, awesome, great question. And I'm going to be honest, I literally have no idea. If you ask my parents, they would tell you that even as a child, I never stopped smiling. I never stopped laughing. I said hi to everyone as soon as I could wave and say the word hi.

I said hi to literally everyone at the grocery store, at the park. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely days that when I wake up, I'm like, this is one other day. And then it takes me less than 20 minutes and everyone in my life will attest to this. Less than 20 minutes, I can be ready out the door and as smiley and as giggly as I have ever been.

That doesn't exhaust you, No, you know, and I actually think it gives me life. I think that I think the opposite would happen if I just sat or I chose to just like, kind of like close in on myself. I think that would be far more exhausting to me ever than waking up and just knowing that I'm happy to be alive. And

Sam Fischer (05:04.558)
I could have not woken up, right? Every day is a good day because I woke up. Yeah. Yeah. There's a, your male equivalent is a guy by the name of, I think, think you know him. Ben Collins. yeah. actually saw him a few years ago in Arizona. Okay. Yeah. So he's, he was, he's a guest this year. It's like two time guests too. And he's just like,

I mean, both of you guys, after I interview you, just like have to go take a nap or go away. It's just like, I hear you're interesting, interesting, energetic people. But they're the kind of people I like. Surprisingly enough, you're the kind of people I like to be around in the gym because it's just, you know, it's, because I, because I ended up being that way and I started yelling at people and I started getting excited. So it's, it's, it's interesting.

That's interesting. So you've been traveling a little bit. That's really the impetus of this podcast is a course I follow you on social media as many tens of thousands do, but, you know, you recently went to India and we'll talk about that, but, best trip ever. That was your dream. It was your dream. So how, how, is, how is your trip to India or traveling in general?

Let's talk about Tripta India. How has that influenced your perspective on fitness and health? on fitness and health. So India, India is the most vastly different place from America that I have ever been. And at this point, I don't know exactly how many countries I've been to, at least 25. And India,

was so vastly better. The amount of fresh food that you can find in India at all times is wild. Nobody is frying things, nobody is over-processing things. You go down to the street market, you buy your fresh fruit, your fresh vegetables, your meat that they are literally butchering on the street. Here in America, we think it's not sanitary.

Sam Fischer (07:29.58)
And maybe it's not, however, they're butchering chickens on the street. You buy the chicken five minutes after its head was cut off. Yeah. And you bring it back and you cook dinner at the house. So they don't even, do they have refrigeration? And I don't mean to be condescending or anything like that, but do they, do they even use refrigeration? Okay. Great question. So I was lucky enough. I did stay at some very nice hotels. I was as usual traveling by myself. So while.

Sometimes on social media, it looks, people always ask if I feel safe, if all those things, if I'm being safe. And I am very, very good when I'm in a foreign place, whether that's in the United States or outside, about making sure that when the lights go off and the moon comes out, that I am somewhere secure. So first of all, I did sit at, I'll be honest, very nice hotels because I was traveling by myself.

And so at these very nice hotels, you can get American food. You can get European food. They definitely have refrigeration. I also stayed with a family and they had a very small refrigerator freezer, something that we would consider slightly bigger than what you would find in a dorm room, but not anything that we have here in America. And then there is the slums.

What do they have in their refrigerator? Butter, milk, they don't keep eggs. Yeah, dairy products. The family that I stayed with did have ice cream in their freezer. They, if they have leftovers, which wasn't very often, but if we did have leftovers from a meal, those were kept in the refrigerator. Other than that, nothing. Yeah. You don't, there was no ketchup. There's no ketchup.

condiments sauce. no, they make their own condiments fresh at every single meal. So they make tikka fresh every single meal. It is absolutely amazing, beautiful, wonderful. And then I did also visit the Darvi, which is the third largest slums in the world, the largest slums in Asia, and I'm sorry, second largest in Asia, largest in India.

Sam Fischer (09:53.23)
over a million residents in Darvi and there's no refrigeration in Darvi. And we, I will definitely absolutely talk about Darvi. It has nothing to do with health and fitness. That was by far the most life changing part of that entire We've got several questions up here that we'll talk about wealth and poverty and some of those issues and perceptions and so forth. Cause that's what I'm actually most interested in about. I mean, India was,

You stayed in the first, think the first podcast we ever had, that's where you wanted to go. And so, I mean, what motivated you, why India? What motivated you to visit India? That's a great question. I was just pulled to India and that sounds wild to anyone who...

maybe as a strong believer in one form of religion. I have said this before, I've said it a million times, I'm very agnostic. Maybe there is a God, maybe there isn't a God, maybe there's hundred million gods. And I'm really good with all of that. And I think that if I have to really introspectively look inside of me,

I do believe that there are former lives and I'm going to have next lives and and I know Miss Sam is like laughing like crazy. Well, I'm laughing because one of my signature catchphrases that I think I came up with is you only live once unless you're Shirley MacLaine. Now you do you even know who Shirley MacLaine is? No. Figures Shirley MacLaine is a

famous old actress, she believes in reincarnation and come back as many souls and so forth. So my, my favorite saying is that I always say is you only live once. Alistair Shirley McLean and your attitude is you only, you don't live once. enjoy every life that you live. That's yes. And I don't know what. Okay. I don't know what me to India, but I've been pulled to India since before. I think I could process what India was.

Sam Fischer (12:11.168)
I also, as a small child, and my parents will tell you this, before I think I even left the state of Michigan, born in Michigan, raised in Michigan, when I was very young, maybe even before elementary school, I would talk about Texas. I would talk about living in Texas, visiting Texas, doing things in Texas. I have no idea what pulled me to Texas. I've no, there's no family here. I had no friends. I have no reason.

to want to ever to go from Michigan in the North, thousands of miles and go south to Texas. And yet somehow, even when I was a tiny child, I knew I was gonna end up in Texas. And you know, it just took me, I don't even know what that was, 30 years to get there. And so now when I need the time, anybody asks me if I'm from Texas, I tell them, but I got here as fast as I could. And I feel like that's the same with India.

I'm not from India, but I got there as fast as I could. Felt pulled, felt called. So there's some kind of spiritual something pulling you or pushing you or calling you. Yeah, I don't know because it's not even, I don't feel called. I just know that I'm supposed to go. It's, don't know how to explain. Intuition. Hmm. You felt that in your gut or did you feel that in your heart?

I I felt it in my whole being. Okay. Yeah, I think I just.

I remember when I, so I would have been living in Chicago at the time. So it would have been right around 2008, 2009. I ate my first Indian dish and it was Tandoori chicken. And there were no Indian restaurants in Northern Michigan where I grew up. And I love my parents, but they are very,

Sam Fischer (14:08.47)
Americanized eating, like my dad likes steak and potatoes. He'll eat that every meal. And that's awesome. So that's I grew up eating. Lots of steak and potatoes and chicken. I never had a chance. And I just remember randomly walking into an Indian restaurant and just ordering Tandoori chicken as if I had been ordering it my entire life. And I remember taking the first bite of, it came out in the clay pot and it was on a bone and I ate it. And I was like, this is

Yep, this is it. This is what I've been missing my whole life.

Sam Fischer (14:44.654)
Interesting as usual. What were your initial impressions of India? mean, obviously, so now you're there finally after all these years and you get on the ground. What were your initial thoughts or impressions? So I actually was supposed to land around 8 a.m. and we what I didn't know because, know, I don't

I'm not a huge like, let's research things before I do things. I'm a let's book it and figure it out kind of girl. And what I didn't know is it was monsoon season. So July is monsoon season in India. And so I was supposed to land in Mumbai around 8 a.m. And we got diverted about four hours north to, a Bob, I'm gonna say it wrong, to a city four hours.

And we sat on the tarmac for six hours because it was a monsoon in Mumbai. And so little secret. Okay. Everybody's like, man, it must be so nice to travel the world. save all my credit card points. So I flew business class for free on points to India. my- it's worth it when you're traveling like that. It's totally worth it. I've done that. Yeah. So worth it. And so I just slept in my lay flat seat on the tarmac. And when we got back up, we got to Mumbai.

We landed in Mumbai, all's good at the airport and I got in a taxi and I thought we were gonna float away. The rainwater was up past where the door opens, as in like the bottom part of the door. So the water came into the car as we're driving down the street to get me to the hotel. So my first initial impression was like, holy shit, we're about to float away.

and the craziest thing to me was that the locals, they Bombayans, they acted as though this was just that it's no big, they were walking around and everybody walks around when it's a monsoon like that. Everybody walks around shoeless. There's no umbrellas. There's no raincoats. It's just, we walk in it. Some of them would try to hold up their skirts or, but most of them were just walking down the street as if that was normal.

Sam Fischer (17:10.774)
I must not have broken glass down there, I guess. I must be pretty clean. I that's why I use shoes. I don't want to step on broken glass or nails. You know? I don't know if I would, if clean is the word that I would use to describe India or Mumbai. Yeah. But it is, it is beautiful. My first impression was that the people were resilient. The people were incredible. The people were humble.

loving, accepting. My first impression was that, that I couldn't wait to start exploring. I just, I was so excited to be there. It was awesome. It was amazing. The first initial monsoon was the best way that I ever could have landed in Mumbai.

you were over there for what? Two, three weeks, two weeks. Yeah. Eighteen days I was on land. So it took about a day to get there and then about a day and a half to get back. And I was, I was in India for 18 days. Gotcha. sorry about that. It's my wife's lunch hour and she, I knew she'd be texting. yes. Hey Siri, turn on, do not disturb. Sorry listeners. There you go with that, that AI again.

Chad will cut that out, but the video, you all get to see that one. How did you find the balance between poverty and wealth in India?

so I've been very lucky to travel the majority of the US. So I've been to 48 of the 50 states. I'm missing Maine and Alaska. And I haven't just visited the states and gone to the sites. I've explored most of the big cities in America. I've explored the back alleys of New York.

Sam Fischer (19:17.366)
in Chicago and I've gone on adventures that most people will, they will never even read about, right? It's things that people don't even know about in the US. And I thought I had seen most things that could shock me. And I've never seen poverty, extreme poverty and extreme wealth.

nestled and inner mingled so much in my entire life. I'm talking less than two roadways. So a normal road in America. Walking distance. You have the world's most expensive home. $2 billion home. That is a street.

two cars away from Daravi, which is the largest slum in India. for those who don't, I didn't know this. So this is for those who don't know exactly what a slum is, a slum is homes and homes is relative that have been built on government land. And now in India, for example, Daravi is protected.

So it was immigrants coming from other areas of India. They would build basically tents and they would kind of stake land that was previously owned by the government. And they built a community called Daravi. And so this slum became protected in 1995, which means that if your home had electricity,

before 1995, the government or anyone for that matter, no one can come and tear your dwelling down. And sometimes these dwellings are, you know, four pieces of plywood or four pieces of metal and a metal piece on top, but no one is allowed to touch it. And the fact that the two,

Sam Fischer (21:42.222)
the extreme wealth and the extreme poverty live next to each other, but do not interact. the more we get into Darvi, the more I'll kind of talk about that. But- Well, it's a caste system, right? Which means, and I don't even know how it's divvied up, is it like the shade of your skin or am I thinking of another country? No, it's not even shade of your skin. It's just what family you're born into.

Okay. So it's basically the community that you're born into. you can't, you can't get out of that. You're staying. Yep. and it is so I went on a, I did a, I did a whole ton of tours while I was there with locals, very cool. A nonprofit. I did four different tours with this nonprofit group, that puts money back into Darvi and they,

their explanations of things, I'll go into eventually about the caste system is that it is still very prevalent. It's still very real, but it is not as bad as it was as say in like the 1980s. So it's better, but it's still there. Interesting.

Sam Fischer (23:05.838)
What, so what lessons did you learn from the people living in poverty? my gosh. So I, I don't even know where to start because I cried multiple times while I was in India. This is a story that I haven't shared, on any of my social medias and I haven't even really told that many people, but

I was very blessed to be able to live with a family. How did you just found them or they found you or did you know them in advance or how do you live with a family in India? How does that work? I want to go to India. I need to find me a family. I'll go with you and then you can stay with the same family. So this amazing, wonderful coworker Deepa, who I've known for the last almost seven years.

And she was born and raised in India. And I had told her six years ago when I first met her, I said, my gosh, Deepa, I have always, always wanted to go to India. And she said, next time I go to India, Sheila, you can come with me. You come with me and you can live with my family. You can do all these things. And I said, that's awesome.

She hadn't been back to India since I had met her. So it'd been almost seven years since she had been back to India. And her family, she was born and raised in a city called Hyderabad. And so I flew into Mumbai and then her family was amazing. They actually booked all my flights once I was in country. They flew me from Mumbai to Hyderabad. I stayed with her sister, her brother-in-law, her niece. And then we went and visited her mom and dad who live about

30, 40 minutes from them. And so I stayed with them and they surprised me. Once I got to Hyderabad, I thought I was going to spend six, seven days in Hyderabad. I landed on the first day in Hyderabad and the very next morning they surprised me. We got on another plane and we went to Delhi. So from Delhi, went, they had hired a private

Sam Fischer (25:31.822)
tour driver, tour guide, all of these things. And we went from Delhi to J-pur, which is where the Taj Mahal is. We went to, my gosh, now I can't even think of the names of all the cities, but we went to Taj Mahal, we went to Monkey Temple. my, absolutely amazing. Spent time in Delhi. We...

And then, this was a huge surprise for me because I thought I was going to get to explore Hyderabad, which I did. but then we flew back to Hyderabad at the end of that trip and I spent another two days in Hyderabad and I got to see most of Hyderabad. so I got to stay with, and then I, they flew me back from Hyderabad. Then they flew me back to Mumbai for the last three days of my trip. And so that is how I got to, to live with the family. okay. I was interested in that.

So I erupted you when I, you're in the process of answering the question. What lessons did you learn from the people living in poverty in India? So you can answer that now. Sorry. That's okay. I, I, know how I am in these podcasts. get sidetracked into a hundred million. I was one that interrupted you. So I'm sorry. It's okay. The biggest lesson that I learned, is to appreciate absolutely everything. And it's crazy because.

I thought my entire life that I did appreciate everything. And I've always said it's a blessing that I woke up today because, you know, lots of people didn't wake up this morning and they were the true reminder that things are not important. Community is important. Friends, family, they...

take care of each other like I have never seen. Without. Within their cast. Yes, okay good point. Yes, they take care of their community. Their community. is their cast system. When I do say that things have changed, Deepa, for example, Deepa and her family, her sister still lives in India. She has a sister who lives in

Sam Fischer (27:55.114)
England and then her and her family live here in New Jersey. And her father worked for the government in the tax system of the Indian government. And Deepa was telling me stories about how this is really when I saw it. Her, she would take her say her lunch money or her lunch or whatever. And she would actually give that even in school, she would give that

two people in a lower caste than her family, but that is not the norm, right? And so she took money during our trip and actually gave it to people that were living on the streets, and not technically slums, but on the street. Now I'm gonna interrupt you again and screw AI, because now these are Sam questions, but told Sheila, AI generated, which is sort of true. All my answers are AI generated. Like when you say money, like,

Like $100, know, $100 is like the new $20 bill. mean, it's whatever. I mean, to me it is. But if you gave somebody $100 in India, that is a humongous deal, is it not? That would feed a family for an entire month. That's amazing. Families in India that are living in the slums are living, this is all expenses, everything.

All in less than $280 a month. It is, I, and I, I've said this to many people and I, this is when it like clicked in my brain. I am notorious, notorious for once, twice a month going and splurging on a dinner out. And I have no issues, not one issue at all signing the bill.

for $300 for a dinner. And. When are you gonna invite me? Whenever you're in the same area. we're gonna start with that bullshit. we can go to Red Ash in Austin. That's my favorite. January 31st. No. you mean when I'm in Miami? Yeah. Stay in town just to see me for a day. Come on now. Anyway. sorry. I'll talk to Mark. Yeah.

Sam Fischer (30:21.72)
So the...

I guess it's hard. It is, that is one of the biggest lessons I learned, or maybe it was a re-lesson. It was a reminder to just appreciate absolutely everything and how blessed we are. And while I was on that tour of Darvi, I was actually with a local. So this nonprofit is very cool. They hire people who were born and raised in Darvi. but before they do that, they actually have a

Well, we would consider a charter school in America. There are not enough schools in Darvey and the kids of Darvey can't go to the outside schools. There's not enough schools inside of Darvey to properly educate these children. So they will do, you might have school Monday morning when, so Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you might be in school from 8 a.m. to noon and that's your schooling for the week. And then there's another group of kids who have school from

1 PM to 4 PM on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And then there's another group that has Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday morning, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday afternoon. But then there are a few nonprofits that have schools in there that will help teach kids technology. They teach them English. They teach them how to write in English. They teach them things that the school system in Darby is unable to teach them. There's just not enough resources. And so this charter school, it's a lottery.

So the kid's name is drawn and then the kid goes to this school, this charter. So they go on the off days. So if they have school, Darravy School on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, they'll go to the charter school on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, say afternoons. So they get extra education that other kids are getting, which is absolutely amazing. The kids that really excel in this charter school.

Sam Fischer (32:19.374)
They pass different literacy, English literacy tests. And once they get to a level five, they go through a full interview process, which is very cool. They teach the kids how to go through an interview process. And then if they so choose, if they do well in this interview process and all these things, then they can actually get hired by the nonprofit to give tours of Darby. So I got to have a one-on-one tour.

and to give you an example, it was a four and a half hour tour and it cost me $93, including the tip that I gave my tour guide, which was a one equivalent to $20 American tech. I went, I did a, in Switzerland to give you, this is stark example in Switzerland in January, I did a dog sledding.

that was two and a half hours and it was over $400. So the stark differences and that was with a group, right? There was five of us in that dog sledding and this was a one-on-one tour. So I asked all the questions. I cried multiple times. I did all the things. And he, so I got to take this tour with this local and to hear him

to hear his stories, to give high fives to other people that he knew while we were giving this tour. And at the end of the tour, I looked him in the eyes and I said, I just want you to know that this tour has completely changed me. said, I feel terrible knowing what I have in America compared to what you are living off of daily. And he looked at me and he said,

Sheila, don't feel bad for us. He said, that is your destiny and this is ours. And I just started bawling. I was just, so whether that is that the caste system is so ingrained into their psyche that they can't see outside of the caste system or whether that is me

Sam Fischer (34:48.11)
taking for granted the things that I have been blessed with in my life. I don't know, but it was like the universe literally like shook me and was like, wake up. She will like your life is so amazing. Like it was just a reminder. It's called perspective. Yeah. It's called perspective. Now for those watching this video, they're wondering, people are wondering why am I crying? No, I'm not. I can't find my eye drops today. My eyes are extraordinarily dry. I apologize.

I'm not crying. I am. I know you are. I've got no shame in crying. You and Jeff Bethworth. How do you think happiness is perceived differently in India compared to other places you've visited?

Wow. That's a good one. How do I think that happiness is perceived differently? I don't, I think that in America, for American to be happy, takes all these things. It seems to me, need a big house. need the new keep up with Joneses, that, you know, jazz. agree. And in India, no one is concerned about buying new things.

And most people are concerned about if they're going to be able to eat later that week. They could not care less what you or they are wearing. They are happy. They are the epitome of being happy that they woke up that day. So what do they think when they meet Americans? Do they think

What would they think like they're interesting people or they don't have a bad attitude about them? Like, I mean, because you just pretty much said that. But what do they perceive Americans as? Do they ever like chastise? I'm sure they didn't. But I mean, did they ever say, you know,

Sam Fischer (36:57.454)
I was welcomed with open arms, period. Every single where every single place I went. I'll have to send you over. I'll find them in my phone. White people in general are not common in India. It took I didn't see another white human being. And that's right. Just facts until I was at the Taj Mahal.

I didn't see any in Mumbai, none in Delhi. People in India would actually stop and want to take a picture with me. I was stopped frequently. And I think that's it. To me, it made me just like, I was so happy to do it because I was an anomaly, right? I was the outsider and I've never been, and I didn't feel like an outsider. They didn't make me feel like an outsider.

Right? And I didn't, I actually forgot truly that I was not the same color as everyone else until somebody would be like, where are you from? America? Can I take your photo, my photo with you? And, it's broken, very broken English. And most of the time it was like America. And I'm like, yeah, let's take a photo. they, did they say what I noticed in your people want to know if I was from California, did they ever ask you that?

They didn't ask me where I was from, they did. But they would ask me if they knew if they could speak English pretty well, they would ask me where in America. And when I would say Texas, they all knew Texas and most of them would be like cowboys. And I was like, yeah, it's like it was very cool. And you said not eggheads. Check out the podcast. Yeah, exactly.

Most of them do not have I do people I do have people from India download this thing which is I don't know good. It's crazy. That's awesome. Yeah, that's very cool so Yeah, I think I I don't know where their happiness comes from other than that. They they are just genuinely happy and to be honest most people in India Won't ever leave their own

Sam Fischer (39:20.206)
city or like countryside that they were born in, let alone the country. they just don't have the opportunities. Well, I, there's people in my home County, Cherry County, Nebraska. I don't, they've left Cherry County, but not very often. and they, they certainly have more opportunities in these folks. It's home. That's where I mean that we've talked about home and you and I've talked about home, but I mean, it's, they're happy. They're happy where they're at.

They have no desire. Yeah. That's not to say everybody. mean, your friend obviously had curiosity to go somewhere else. but for the most part, I would imagine they just, you know, they're, they're fine where they are. Deepa's niece, when her parents surprised me with, or I guess Deepa's sister, when they surprised me and said, Hey, we're getting on another flight and we're going to Delhi. I was beyond excited.

I was like, I get to see another part of India. And in the same breath, they told the daughter, Hey, we're going to Delhi. We're to go to Jay Per. We're going to go see the Taj. Her first response, first response was, I can't go. have tests tomorrow. I don't want to go. She had no desire to leave Hydra back. Her parents did. She did come, which was awesome. Was it the first time that she'd left Hydra?

she'd been to like one or two other places, but she'd never been to Delhi. She didn't want to go to Delhi. no, she had no desire to leave Hydrobad. She wanted to go to college in Hydrobad. She wanted to stay. She wanted to work in Hydrobad. no, not even in Inkling. And then when I was like, my gosh, I, you so excited? We're to go to monkey temple. We're going to go to Taj Mahal. We're going to get to see all these things. And she said, well, I've seen pictures of them.

And my mind was like, I was like, can't relate to that. That's what was earth shattering to me. I was like, yeah, so am I. And I didn't see them in person. Yeah. It was it was just.

Sam Fischer (41:31.392)
It was life altering.

We've talked about differences. there any similarities between, you know, your community and the communities you encountered in India? Are there any similarities? Yeah. So I would say yes. And it's because I have consistently in my life surrounded me with people that cheer me on, that love me, that build me up, pick me up and

who would, you know, do anything to help me at the drop of a hat, just like I would help them. And so some similarities, families lived together a long time. And so my brother, my youngest brother lived with me for a long time. I cried the day that he bought his own house and moved out. That is definitely a similarity that I found between my personal community and India. I think that I've,

I'm pretty sure we've talked about this before, but America is one of the few countries that I've, I mean, I live here, but that I've ever visited anything where it is get out of your house as soon as you turn 18, get out as fast as you can. Every other country, there's some type of familial, like stay with them a little bit longer. And in America, right, we're like, okay, you turn 18, get out.

whether that's college or you're your own place, cause you got a job, whatever that looks like, it's, it's get up and go. And in my life, right, I've always wanted to be intermingled with that. India is definitely more like you kind of stick with your family a lot longer. Interesting.

Sam Fischer (43:31.054)
before I move on from India, there anything else you'd like to add about India? Obviously it was a life changing moment for you. And I was so excited that you got to go because you've talked about it for a long time. you know, what happened? I asked about India that I should ask about India. Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. If you, if anyone ever has the opportunity, the chance, go. Just

Go don't plan things. Don't don't try to to turn it into America. Don't don't try to turn it into a trip that you would take in America. In America, everything is fast paced in India. It's you're on Indian time. And I learned that quickly. So I how did your again? I mean, the food that they eat over there is different. And so how did your digestive system react? Not good.

Not good. It was not good. Cable, this is a Cowboys Not Eggheads thing, folks. And this is not disrespectful to anyone, but Larry the Cable Guy, one of my favorite jokes he ever said is, I could poop through a screen door without touching a wire. Was it that bad? It was that bad. It wasn't that bad. Because your digestive system isn't used to it. And I was very cautious. So I never

drank any tap water. I didn't have any ice in anything that I drank. I didn't eat any street food. I was very cautious about what I ate and I still got sick. And I actually did very well when I was only eating at the hotel. So I stayed at the JW in Mumbai and so I stayed at a top end hotel and while I was eating there, all was good. When I flew to Hyderabad,

the first meal that I ate with the family, which was delicious. It was amazing. First ever home cooked Indian meal I've ever had in my whole life. Absolutely amazing, delicious. I haven't been that sick in a long time. My stomach mean, were you, was it, so was it throw up and bathroom? it was only bathroom and it was like four days straight. almost, I couldn't even drink water without needing to go to the bathroom five minutes later.

Sam Fischer (45:56.59)
My stomach was. So did you adjust after time? You're there 18 days. Nope. I never readjusted, unfortunately. And that's so strange. I mean, it's not strange. It's just interesting to me that our digestive systems are. I mean, if you're not attuned to that kind of food, you're going to, know. And I think it was more the way that it was prepared because it wasn't we ate biryani, which is a

a rice dish that is very famous in Hyderabad. And it's, delicious. I've had it multiple times here in the state from authentic Indian restaurants. There's an Indian restaurant in Edison, New Jersey that is very authentic. And I've eaten the biryani from there many times and never, never gotten sick. I honestly think that it was probably the water that the rice was cooked in and

you know, maybe the, the pans that they'd been washed in the water. And I, I just, it wasn't that the food was delicious and I wanted to eat more and more and more. And my stomach said, no, no, no. And it took me about, it took me about four to five days of being back in the States before my stomach resettled. So basically from day six on, the first six days,

The first six days were really good.

so you're a former CrossFit elite athlete, and used to work out all the time. And, know, when I first started CrossFit, when I traveled, I was, I had swallowed the Kool-Aid so much that I too like, I got to make up this workout. Cause I missed it at the gym or I'm at whatever gym and not, not anymore. I mean, I just, I just last two weekends I've been traveling and I, I, I could give two shits about where the nearest CrossFit gym is. but.

Sam Fischer (48:00.622)
How did you, did, do you work out when you travel? I, are you talking about internationally? Yeah. Like when you were in India for 18 days, did you ever work out? Did you like, you know, like, I'm going to do some burpees now. I mean, did you ever. I didn't work out one time. Not once. Not once. I went on one bike tour and I did lots of walking. I had, yeah, you're gonna walk a lot. Yeah. A lot, but I had zero, zero desire.

to go into a gym to spend time. You even thinking about it. No. didn't. No, it didn't even. And I know that there are, or at least I'm 99 % sure that there are a couple of CrossFit gyms in Mumbai that I could have gone and visited. And instead I went to a cow sanctuary. You would been a rock star, dude. You would have been a rock

Here comes the American girl. not only was, you know, not only is she white, but she's also, like a prospect games athlete. It would have been cool. Yeah. I think it probably, and you know, I just, so I have genuinely in the last 18 months, I have really separated myself from the gym. just, I, I tried to hold onto it. I tried to.

to keep that little piece of me for as long as possible. And actually the new house that we just got on the north side of Austin in Georgetown, it actually has a detached 400 square foot garage. And I am in fact reopening OneShot. so for those who don't know,

My original gym, my original home gym that I ever created was called One Shot. When I moved to San Antonio, I changed its name to One Shot Project. And now that it is making its third reappearance, it is being named One Shot Reload. And so it's open to anyone who would like to come visit, Sam.

Sam Fischer (50:23.502)
For God's sakes, I'm on vacation on do that. I don't don't I don't want to burpees with you. Are you much stupid? I don't want to do burpees with me So well, I've been to the previous two so I guess I have to make it three in a row Yeah But you for 18 months you really haven't gotten the gym but you're you're gonna it it must still be there if you're

Well, you've got the equipment and stuff for it. So, why not? And that's kind of, I, I do not, and I can finally say this after, you know, six years of not competing. can finally say that I no longer miss working out daily. I used to, I used to draw, I used to, it drove me nuts.

Right? My entire life revolved around my workouts, my training. And yeah, I can, I mean, hours a day for eight, eight years. mean, it's legit, like legit. It was a full-time career and I, I slowly replaced that with other things without even realizing it. And I now

can go visit my niece and nephew in Southern California and just enjoy it and be like, you know what? Yep. I'm going to wake up at 7 a.m. with you and we're going to play and eat breakfast. And then we're going to go to the zoo all day. We're going to come back and we're going to eat dinner. And at the end, I am also exhausted. And when you go to bed at eight o'clock, I'm going to bed, too. Right. Where I'm going to shut down for the day, where it used to be.

I guarantee you though, when they get older and they want to play pickleball or tennis or basketball or any of that shit and they challenge you, it's going to be game f-ing on. I just know you. Which is why the gym is being built. Because... You want to maintain something, huh? They are already getting to the age where Callie, my four-year-old niece, is saying things like, Auntie, race me down the street.

Sam Fischer (52:46.766)
And I'm like, yeah, let's race. it's on like Donkey Kong. Yeah, you win. You're not going to lose. She gets mad and I'm like, sorry girl, but until you can legitimately beat me, I'm not going to let you just win. Like you can go talk to your mom if you want to just win. She's awesome. I love her. But you, she'll, she'll let you win. I'm not going to let you win. And so she has gotten to the age where she started to like challenge me on some things. And so I can only imagine when she's.

eight, nine, 10. So I need to be good. I want her to call me. I'll coach her and I'll say, here's how, here's how we're going to get under her skin. This is how we're going to take her soul. She's going to need it. She's going to all the nieces and nephews are going to need it. They, yeah. So that is the, I, I'm rebuilding one shot, one shot reload. it'll be open here hopefully in the next couple of weeks, probably before this podcast goes live. And I am serious when I say that any

listener of your podcast, is cowboys. Not eggheads. It's more than welcome to message Sam message me. If you are in the Georgetown area and you want to come work out the gyms open. also, I also now own seven bikes. Seven. Huh? I just want an e-bike ride the other night. That was fun. Thanks. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. was a blast. Was it the

Power assist where you still had to pedal. Power assist. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. had a blast. Yeah. Well, not my, my CrossFit, podcasts. Like I did three podcasts where we went over to open last year, which you'll love because I do them with my buddies. And so it's from my perspective, you should listen to them. You'll, you'll love them. Totally from my, like, this is stupid kind of perspective.

But anyway, they were like the least, I don't think I have a lot of CrossFit listeners out there. They were like the least downloaded. cause it's so specific, you know, but who knows? That's awesome. we'll take my sister-in-law. take you up on that. guarantee it. loves you. yeah. Yeah. how do you think travel has changed you as an athlete and as a person? Cause you still are as an athlete. It's changed me to just.

Sam Fischer (55:11.502)
you know, in be able to enjoy the moment because while I was competing in, in CrossFit, gave up two things that I loved before CrossFit and that I have now found a love in again after CrossFit. And those two things are travel and snowboarding. And I gave up snowboarding while I was doing CrossFit because the risk of injury is so high. And I gave up travel because

I couldn't figure out how to balance my own life. so travel has changed me as an athlete, reminding me that, that chapter was a really amazing chapter of my life. maybe currently still my favorite chapter of my life. And I've done some really freaking cool things and that's probably still my favorite chapter of my life. And, but

traveling, the stories, the memories, it's just, it's just good. It's just, I love it. So it shouldn't be an athlete to remind me that, you know, I, that was one chapter, it's closed and now it's time for some new chapters. Is that chapter distant memory or is it something you miss?

I don't miss it anymore. so, and this isn't, isn't meant to offend anybody, but especially after this year's CrossFit games. don't even get me. Don't you even get me started. not going down that hole, but just to say the least, was unimpressed. I was, and, and this, it was, it shook me to my core.

And it, it was like, yeah, this is you're done. This is you're done. that doesn't mean, so let's take a step back because you know that I'm still competing in the random bike races. Like I, I took third in this random mountain bike race in Arizona in February, no training, never ridden the trail before against girls that, you know, had come out a week early and were

Sam Fischer (57:31.0)
were running that trail and it was a 40 mile bike ride through the mountains, well, through the desert of Arizona. Well, it was a competitive bike ride. That's why you did so well, because it was competitive. You like to compete. Yeah. And you still find me on the pickleball court and I will still whoop your A-double-S. Still haven't played it. I still haven't played it. I refuse to. Well, that's funny because the new house has

seven tenths of an acre is on seven tenths of an acre. And I've already figured out where the pickleball court is going to be built. I just need to, if anybody wants to start a GoFundMe for me, I need about $25,000 for this pickleball court. So anybody wants to start that for me, that'd be great. So send me two for the podcast and one for her, for her pickleball. I promised to donate some of the money back, but after we reached 25 grand, of course.

Right.

Sam Fischer (58:34.926)
What I, maybe we've covered this, maybe it's redundant, but what's, mean, I honestly, I, the folks that aren't watching the video aren't seeing me smile and giving her a thumbs up when she says she doesn't miss CrossFit, but, so what's, mean, is there anything one thing specific that has replaced that rush for you? Probably not. I mean, that's a rush that you just never have, that you'll probably never get again, huh?

I have not replaced the rush. And it's funny that you bring that up. The reason that I stopped working out for 18 months is because the addiction to the high of training, competing, winning, was, is all of that a true addiction for me.

And I know that I could relapse at any moment. And that's a hard reality. Yeah, because you know, you know, you know, they sell.

Yeah. Fascinating. know, one of the life lessons that my dad taught me or, well, actually I had no idea what he, when he said it, I had no idea what the hell he was talking about, but now I know what he's talking about. And he, you know, I had talk like this, but he said, too much of any damn thing. One damn thing will kill you.

He's right. He's right. Yep. And so now, now you and I both understand that. It's pretty funny. you have any future travel plans, Sheila? What's next on the docket? Okay. So I'm always constantly

Sam Fischer (01:00:40.294)
I'm talking international. mean, you're, traveling for work. Obviously you're, you're, just told me your, your schedule's screwed for the next year, but do you have any international things in the horizon? You want the places you want to go? Yes. I want to go to Warsaw and I want to go to Auschwitz. So Poland is very high currently on the list. I also want to go to Cappadocia, Turkey. So, I want to go take a hot air balloon. I want to get up into Turkey.

Budapest remains one of my favorite European cities that I've ever visited. Visited my, my brother and sister-in-law just, just, just got back from Budapest. And do they love it? I haven't, I only seen their social media postings, but according to those, yes, they did. I haven't talked to them about it, but they, anyone ever talked to you loves Budapest. It was amazing. I'm not a person to go back.

two places, but I wouldn't mind starting in Budapest again and then going to like Austria and getting into the mountains in Austria. They were there also in Lubbock. Yeah. They took it. They started out in Prague and they took a river thing boat and they went to all these places you've mentioned. Yeah. Perfect. And I I've been to Prague and Prague was like a, like a fairy tale book. Really? You walk out.

of your hotel and you're like, I'm in a fairy tale right now. It was very cool. Yeah. Yeah. You take a picture of it and it's like, yeah, I mean, we're, we're, our country is such a baby. I mean, it's just, it's, it's, just a youngster. yes, even our oldest buildings, it's nothing. Nothing, nothing. No. So there, there, I've seen buildings that took as long longer than our history of the, as the, as the United States to build. I mean, it took 300, 400 years.

Some of these cathedrals I found in. That's what I was referring to in Notre Dame in Paris. And it burned, they're fixing it. yeah, just incredible. Incredible. It took several hundred years to build this thing. What? And then the biggest. Yeah, what's the biggest one? Obviously a safari. Africa. Yeah, so.

Sam Fischer (01:03:05.582)
I was actually, it was on the docket to go in December of this year. And unfortunately my boyfriend, Ian had to have a second back surgery last week. So India is now on a back, or I'm not sorry, not India. Africa is on the back burner currently. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to travel back problems. Yeah. So that.

When that does happen, that will be another full 21 day trip. So about a day down, 18 days in and Masai Mara is, I would like to go to Masai Mara, which is one of the most beautiful parts of the safari supposedly. But I'll do it like I do every trip. I won't end up just in Kenya. Mount Kilimanjaro.

climbing Mount Kilimanjaro has been high on my list for a long time. so Mark, who the parent company, Nutribile, he really wants me to climb some mountains as well. So we haven't really talked about work, I'll jump into work here just for a second. I was gonna ask you what happened I covered, so go ahead. Yeah, so Nutribile, my parent company, that was a company that sponsored me during CrossFit. So that's how I knew

and became friends with the owner Mark, very clean, highest, highly tested, highest quality products, on the market, whey protein isolate, creatine, and vitamin D, C, K, whatever you need, over 400 skews. And so after I retired or was forced to retire, however you want to look at it,

Once I was no longer competing in CrossFit, know, Mark came to me and offered me Enduro Elite and said, I want you to run Enduro Elite. And I was like, my life's pretty good. I think we talked about this before, but I was like, my life's pretty good. It took him three times of calling me to convince me to join the team. And it was by far the best decision I've made post CrossFit. He sent me all over the world.

Sam Fischer (01:05:29.516)
doing it, which is pretty cool, all over the country. And I really do have a lot of freedom. lets, we talked about this a little bit earlier, but he's, lets me make mistakes on his dime. And then, you know, he, he'll help guide me in the direction that will make myself and in barely very, very successful. And so it does sound like.

like I have a big girl job at this point and I guess technically I do. I make a salary, which is incredible because that's not a thing in my life. I'm not ever concerned about, and maybe that's what makes me so happy too. I'm never concerned about making money. That's not my end goal. but Mark.

has let me continue to be me, which is the only reason that this job works for me. And so he, when I say, Hey, Mark, I'm going to go to India for three weeks. He was, he's like, my gosh, go take back. Yep. Exactly. Have the experiences, do all those things. Make sure you check your email every once in a while and you're good. And he.

When I mentioned to him, still while I was Crossfitting, that I wanted to climb Mount Kilimanjaro because it's the quote unquote, easiest of the seven, so the seven summits. So that's the highest in Africa for those. Again, because if you're not in that world, you kind of get lost, right? But Kilimanjaro is the highest peak on the continent of Africa. And when I told him I wanted to climb Kilimanjaro, he was like, that's so cool. You should do it, whatever.

And then it was about maybe six or eight months ago before the India trip. He randomly asked me, like, so when are you going to climb Kilimanjaro? And you know, most people do not have bosses who are like, Hey, you're working, also by the way, you should probably go do this really cool thing. And I'm very blessed that he lets me do Sheila things, which is go explore.

Sam Fischer (01:07:52.25)
we were also, I was at dinner with him last night and we were talking about how I worked 16 straight weeks earlier this year, 16 straight. and that was seven days a week of traveling events, stopping at customers, visiting with people, working with athletes 17 or sorry, 16 weeks straight before I took those 18 days to go to India. so big believer in work hard, play hard. And so Kilimanjaro.

is I would love to tie that into that same trip. But I don't know that I'm going to get to do, I can do all the things that I want to do in one African trip. I think I'm going to have to separate it out into two. Gotcha. Well, it's interesting because I, my big on my, I'm looking at my board over here is I want to do Vermont and Montreal. I want to do Italy.

I want to do Australia and New Zealand and I want to do Greece. So all those, none of those things you mentioned. So what we'll compare notes. I would, yes, I would love to because I haven't been to Greece. haven't been to Australia. I've been in New Zealand. and they are on the list. It's just that. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Awesome. Well, it's awesome catching up with you, my friend. you know, it's, I used to get nervous talking to you, but now I mean, it's like, it's just Sheila. exactly. I love that because, that's how I want everyone in my life to be. And I want my door to always be open. And I mean that like, I never want somebody to be.

afraid to ask me a question. I never bought somebody to be like, I wonder how she'll react to that. I want to be that, that constant in people's lives that they're like, I can ask her anything. And that's why I love, that's why I love you having me on the podcast. Cause it's a, you know, it's, it's, it's all on the Yeah. There's nothing, honestly, you could ask me anything and

Sam Fischer (01:10:11.18)
I don't know. It's just, and that doesn't mean that every day is a great day. I was just telling Sam before we actually started recording that I ended up in New Jersey because I, I got mad in the middle of a zoom meeting and I was the only one not in New Jersey while the rest of the team was in Jersey. And I got interrupted three times and I said, this is bullshit. said, I'm going to book a flight because I can't get anything done from here.

and I booked a flight a couple minutes later and got on a plane less than 24 hours later. So it's not that I am always happy, but it is that I make the best of every single situation. Thank you, my friend. No, thank you.

Sam Fischer (01:11:02.286)
All right, I'm going to...