Veganuary is Coming and I wanted to let you know we will be celebrating and hosting a cook-along in January.

Up until last year, I never thought much about Veganuary since I already eat plant-based year-round. Upon further reflection, however, it’s a great way to introduce plant-based eating.  

What is Veganuary? Veganuary is an organization that encourages people to try vegan for January and beyond. Their website has a ton of information and recipes galore. 

If the idea of eating plant-based for a whole month sounds hard, here’s a reframe: 

Don’t think of it as what you are giving up. Rather, think of it as what you are gaining: 

🌿 A whole new repertoire of foods to try,

🌿 Recipes to learn to cook,

🌿 An exploration into how living a healthy plant-based lifestyle can do wonders for your health,

🌿 Feeling empowered that you are contributing to healing, not harming, the earth via food you consume.

🌿 And of course, the ability to sleep at night knowing you didn’t harm an animal for your food.

There’s more, but that’s a good place to start. 

Plus, it’s only one month and if at the end you decide it’s not for you, then you can go back to eating whatever animal products you were eating before. 

BUT, you might also decide that it’s not as hard as you thought. Or, you might see some improvements in your health and want to stick with team plant-based. Or you might learn about the atrocities of the animal food industry and decide you no longer wish to participate. Or, or, or… 

Yes, there is a lot of wacky information out there about what is healthy. And yes, there is a lot of misinformation about the animal agriculture industry (such as how we are lead to believe that it’s humane). 

Yet, I hear over and over from people who are now 100% plant-based or vegan that their biggest regret is that they didn’t do it sooner. I’m one of those people. 

2024 can be the year you learn to cook and eat more plant-based. Or, at least January 2024 can be if you participate in our Veganuary celebration with us. 

We will be hosting a “cook-along” this Veganuary. Kind of an informal cooking class- super relaxed, fun and helpful. 

For more information about the cook-along, click here.

The theme of resilience has been front and center for me lately. I’ve noticed mental, physical and emotional resilience in many areas of my life. 

Resilience came into my purview while both of my kids were dealing with challenges. We discussed how when we deal with challenges, we build mental resilience.

Winnie the Pig

I saw resilience again when something that was said in our vegan community was met with negativity. OK, we vegans are criticized regularly- it happens every day.  Yet we move forward anyway, believing in our hearts that what we are doing is right. We are resilient when taking the flack yet continue down the compassionate path.  

What helps us be resilient? Community, love and support and having a deep resolve. Where are you resilient? Do you notice others being resilient? It’s a wonderful quality to notice in yourself and others.

I was tasked with creating a theme for our recent Vegan Toastmasters meeting. Given the state of the world, particularly the recent Hamas attack on Israel, the theme that jumped out at me was PEACE.

Peace feels so elusive, especially in the Middle East. Despite the complicated nature of the conflict, most of us are horrified by the brutality inflicted on innocent humans- no matter what your beliefs are about who is right. Violence toward humans happens all over the world for myriad reasons. 

Tangentially (but not unrelated) many of us are horrified by violence inflicted upon non-human animals. Humans massacre millions of innocent beings every day. Needlessly. While many readers will say “but an animal’s life is not equal to a human life,” I beg to differ. Perhaps animals don’t have the cognitive abilities that humans have. But they are sentient beings and feel pain. They have families and communicate and love their offspring. Not too dissimilar from us humans. 

Cows, pigs, chickens, fish (and any animals we consume, perform tests on, trophy hunt) deserve better than the horrible existence to which they are subjected. (Yes, even the ones who are “humanely raised.”)

The topic of animal slaughter and consumption is also complicated.  Our agriculture and food systems are enmeshed with major corporations and governments. Eating animals is normalized in most cultures and it’s how most of us grew up. 

We don’t have an easy solution for peace in the Middle East.  I will leave that to more learned minds than mine. BUT we do have an answer to animal slaughter and torture. It’s called being vegan. 

Will the world go vegan overnight? No. Billions of human beings are not ready to embrace a more compassionate way of eating. But could it happen for you? Yes. The number of vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians or reducetarians is growing all the time. And there’s more support than ever. One by one, over time, we make a difference. 

Peace starts within our own hearts. And choosing what we eat every day can help bring peace to our planet on so many levels. By not actively participating in acts of violence toward animals we become aligned with our inner values of peace and not harming others. This can map over to our compassion toward humans. 

Maybe someday there will be peace for all the animals: human and non-human. We can start by being vegan ourselves, then spread peace through our personal actions and advocacy. 

Even if you are not yet ready to be completely vegan or plant-based, every step you take toward consuming more plants and fewer animal products makes a difference. To you, the animals and the planet. Please reach out if you would like more information or support in eating more plant-based. 

And don’t forget to Give Peas a Chance!

If you, like many of us, are feeling helpless, and wish to contribute toward aid in embattled regions, Doctors Without Borders is an excellent organization. 

Life is full of irony, isn’t it…???

I grew up eating Baskin Robbins ice cream. Many of us did. Ice cream was my favorite sweet treat. 

John Robbins grew up eating more ice cream than most of us put together. Who is John Robbins? He’s the son of the Baskin Robbins ice cream empire co-founder. John has shared that his family had ice cream for breakfast lunch and dinner. His childhood home had an ice cream cone shaped swimming pool. And John Robbins was the heir to this fortune. 

But John noticed that just about everyone in his family had health issues.  Along the way, he learned about the negative effects of animal-based products on our health and the positive effects of a plant-based lifestyle. In time, he walked away from the financially lucrative but health harming ice cream business. Something must be glaringly problematic to walk away from that kind of fortune.

I do enjoy an occasional plant-based frozen treat. The operative word is occasional. Eating sugary, high fat foods is not health promoting. I just save them for special occasions. And they are always plant-based. Animals need not suffer for my dietary pleasure. 

Having this discussion enabled us to have an open dialogue about choices, cravings, and alternatives. 

I’m sure we will both have sweet treats again- including frozen confections. (And yes, Baskin Robbins does offer plant-based flavors.) Yet, we both came up with satisfying alternatives that enable us to reach our health goals without feeling deprived. 

These days I find fruit or dates or a cup of tea rather satisfying. My client discovered bananas with nut butter as a special treat. It tastes decadent, yet it’s plant-based and (relatively) healthy.  

I have found a good balance of healthy foods while not feeling deprived. This client is on her way too and it’s exciting to witness her joy in the discovery. 

p.s. I’m not going to deny that the ice cream photo looks inviting. When I think of all the suffering in the dairy industry, however, my desire to eat dairy ice cream evaporates.

It is normal not to want rock the boat in our social circles. Evolution shows that for survival reasons we experience safety when we stay in our community. 

Even when we want to do something that we believe in, if it goes against social norms, we often don’t do it. 

We don’t want to feel alone. 

Or like an outsider. 

This applies to going plant-based or vegan too. 

For whatever our reasons, we are ready for the benefits of eating plant-based. 

• We’ve heard about the health benefits. 
• It breaks our heart that we eat animals (and we usually don’t think about it so that we can eat like we normally do.)  
• And we are now aware of the negative impacts of meat consumption on our planet.

Yet, no one else we know is plant based. Our family certainly isn’t, and we can’t imagine what we would feed them if we ate plant-based. Or maybe we’ve tried it once before and it didn’t stick.

How can we possibly make the leap? Sure, we could find a few meals here and there, but every day? And what about gatherings with friends and families? Will we feel ostracized?

Or maybe our friends will be supportive and go out of their way for their “one vegan friend” and then be resentful. Or, gasp, maybe even talk about us behind our back. 

It’s easier, at least for social reasons, not to bother. 

But we are not Neanderthals anymore. For certain choices, like choosing to eat plant-based or go vegan, we aren’t going to be cast out of society. In fact, it is not only becoming more widely accepted, but there’s a whole vegan community waiting to embrace us with open arms.

Dinner with some of my Vegan Toastmasters friends.

Oh, and of course, we have our own Facebook group at What’s Plant-Based Cooking Good Looking?.

I follow a few interesting Instagram accounts too and a bunch of animal sanctuaries like Rowdy Girl, Animal Place, Odd Man Inn, and others. I love watching farm animals live their best lives and supporting the amazing people that care for them. 

And the longer I’m vegan, the more people I meet who are too. Plus, at this point, most of my friends and family are super supportive (even if they do whisper behind my back. I don’t care- I know I’m doing the right thing on every level. And what other people think of me is none of my business anyway).

Until you find your community, having even one person in your corner is helpful. As a coach, I help with the nuts and bolts of taking my clients step-by-step toward a plant-based lifestyle.  And I’m there to be an ally. If you are ready to take the next step and can use some support or more community, feel free to reach out.