It all started when I saw this posted online today. A woman was having a difficult time embracing a whole food plant based lifestyle, and here's what she wrote:

“This is really hard for me!! Yesterday I didn't do well. I've been stressed and have given in to the sweets!! So today I'm preparing for a fight!!! Wish me luck!”

So here's the question: How is it that many have come to believe that we can not eat foods we love if we want to be healthy?

I believe that one big reason is general comments made by medical providers. Jarrod and I hear this much more often than we'd like: “My health provider asked me what my favorite food is, and when I answered them, they said I need to stop eating that food. Their advice was to avoid my favorite food for the rest of my life. There was nothing more…I was just told to stop it!” Now, my question is: WHAT are you supposed to DO with that? You have a food you love, and you've been told that to be healthy you can't have it anymore without any further direction. I want you to know that this…is…madness.

Then, diets set you up to think it's impossible to enjoy getting healthy. I mean, have you ever been on a diet that you really enjoyed, loved the foods, got long-lasting results, and felt fantastic because of that way of life? Most likely, the answer is a big NO. So it's no wonder you start to believe that getting healthy has to involve misery when you've been taught that it needs to include food math (counting calories, keeping up with points, macros, grams, etc), eating foods you don’t enjoy, feeling hungry most all of the time, denying your hunger cues, controlling your portions, and setting yourself up to desire foods you supposedly “can’t” have, like dessert, or in my case cheese and things like that. 

But the reality is that you CAN enjoy many the same kinds of meals you love now and still build the healthy life you deserve. You just need to learn how to have your favorites a different way…to learn how to love the foods that will actually love you back. What I want you to see is that if you love dessert, you can still have and enjoy sweet treats!

Here are just a few of the desserts that our family enjoys: baked bananas, brownie batter hummus dip with fruit, chocolate nice cream, creamy banana pudding, carrot cake gems, banana bread, oatmeal cookie dough bites, pecan pie pralines, berry cobbler with vanilla cream sauce, and delicious drinks like matcha latte, reeses cup shakes, and more. So please know that there's a whole lot more to whole food plant based living than salads. (Now, I do LOVE a good stick to your ribs salad with some amazing sauces on them, but that’s a story for another time.)

Whole food plant based living is delicious when you know what to eat and how to prepare it. It’s not hard, it’s just different. And like anything new, all it takes is a bit of time to learn, when you have someone who's been there that
can show you how. That's the way you turn what took them years to figure out, into days for you. 🎉

So today, please be encouraged and don't lose hope. It’s easy to feel confused with all of the random info that’s out there. It can cause you to become paralyzed with overwhelm because you don’t know where to start or which step to take next. If your goal is to build a full life without limits that you absolutely love, you need a simple system that will work for you, not confuse you, and leave you hangry, frustrated, and dissatisfied with lack of flavor. And that way of living has got to show you how to get your mindset right. This is a crucial step for healing that's often missed. What you believe affects how you live in really big ways, so mindset shifts are the first things that need to happen for long-term success.

Then you need to know the right way to set up your environment. This includes your physical environment as well as the choices you make regarding those with whom you choose to spend your free time.

Next, you’ve got to know which foods to avoid, which ones to get into their place, and how to create your meals in a way that’s quick and tastes really great too. Learning the simple way to balance your plate makes things even easier. And being shown how to navigate real-life situations like going out to eat, and attending social functions such as dinner at a friend's house are real-life situations that you need to know how to navigate with ease. Learning easy ways to save time and money in the process is the next important step.

To build your best life, the path you choose absolutely must be enjoyable and doable with your busy schedule so that you’ll love it long-term. Now if you start a new way of eating that makes you feel like you’re giving up everything you love because you never learn how to make recipe upgrades (that’s how to still enjoy having many of your same favorite meals, just in a different way) how successful will that be? If you say to yourself, “I can never again enjoy tacos, lasagna, pasta with alfredo sauce, pasta fagioli soup, zuppa Toscana, burgers, loaded baked potatoes, cheesy things, satisfying snacks, or desserts, how is that going to help you reach your ultimate health goals?”

The answer is, it’s just not going to work. So, instead of saying “I can't” I want you to start asking, “How can I?”

It's super important to find a healthy way to live your life that you actually enjoy if you want a long-term win.

It’s got to be easy enough for a busy woman to do on a regular basis. It has to taste good enough to want to keep eating that way. And it’s got to help you heal, which makes you feel amazing, and that is what opens up countless possibilities for your future! Thankfully, this is what we know is possible because it happened for us, it happens for our clients, and for many many other people all around the world. It can happen for you too!

You can do this. And when you know how, it’s not hard. Like anything new it’s just different, not hard.
Thankfully, you don't have to worry anymore that plant based would be difficult by wrongly thinking you'd need to give up all your favorite foods like burritos, shepherds pie, mac and cheese, burgers, or desserts.

You can enjoy a lot of the same types of foods. The key is understanding things like recipe upgrades, which is enjoying foods you love in a way that will actually help you prevent and reverse disease. It's about having your old favorites in an upgraded way that still tastes amazing. 

Then, you'll need some easy food formulas. That’s how you make great tasting, satisfying, stick to your ribs meals you love when you don’t even have time for a recipe. 

After that, you start understanding how to build the right flavor profiles, which involves putting your favorite flavors right into your new dishes! This is getting the right herbs and spices together in a way that makes your taste buds sing. Oh, and don’t forget about adding in some delicious sauces too! When these game-changing strategies start building upon each other, that's when life gets really enjoyable!

Learning replacement foodology will help you have a lot of the same types of meals you like now. This is making super simple substitutions for your old favorites ingredients. For some, sweet ingredients are the concern. They dread no longer enjoying dessert instead of learning simple new ways to replace their old favorites with new tasty ones that will fuel their body well. For me, it was the thought of “losing” an ingredient I was head over heels in love with, and that's cheese!

Yes, if you’ve known me long, you know that I was the Dairy Queen! So what do you think I needed to learn to replace?  You're exactly right! I had to learn simple new ways to eat the creamy and cheesy foods I love. I wanted to continue to enjoy creamy soups, alfredo sauce, cheesy lasagna, creamy mashed potatoes, and things like that. So I learned how and now I enjoy them guilt-free whenever I want. And you know what else? I don't ever get that gross post-food hangover feeling I used to get either.

Add to all this the fact that as you make the switch to whole food plant based living, your taste buds and cravings will change too. Food will lose its hold on you and you’ll find what Jarrod and I affectionately call food freedom! You'll no longer sit at one meal and start dreaming of what you'll be having for the next. The strong cravings go away too, and I’m telling you, that’s a glorious thing!

So there you have it. You can still have your dessert, and many of your other favorite foods, and at the same time prevent and reverse disease to build a FULL life you truly love living. Around here, we call that Plant-Based Joy. It's what we're all about! 🙂

Sister, the one thing I want you to walk away from this blog post with today is hope. You can do this, and you don’t have to give up all of your favorite foods, but you do need to learn some fantastic new ways to have them. You deserve to be healthy…to live a full life that’s not limited daily by your health struggles. I know what that's like, because I've been there. Thankfully that's no longer my story, and I don't want it to be yours either.

Right now, if you’re thinking, I just need a few recipe ideas to get started on my journey to health, grab a copy of the Power on Plants Cookbook. You'll find the current bonuses I've added to the cookbook bundle super helpful too. Next, open it and choose just a couple of recipes that you're going to try this week. And then the following week find a few more, and a few more after that. Before long you won’t believe how different you’ll start to feel, because as you get more of the great stuff into your life, the old ways of eating will just start to naturally get crowded out, and that's an ah-mazing feeling! So if you need some new recipes that are quick, easy, and healthy, grab a copy of the cookbook at Poweronplants.com/cookbook.

But maybe you’re thinking, “What I really need is to be around other women who are committed to living and loving the whole food plant based lifestyle, so we can walk this exciting journey together. And it sure would be helpful to have a simple step-by-step plan laid for me so I'd know exactly what to do next.” The Power On Plants Society was created for you. The membership is currently closed and only opens for one week about 2 times each year so we can work closely with our members, but the doors are opening soon! So if you don’t want to miss your chance to join us inside, get your name on the waitlist today at poweronplants.com/membership.

Are you ready to build your dream body and life? Jarrod and I can't wait to get to know you more, and we are truly honored to be a part of your incredible journey!