10 lessons from my 10-year Plant journey: Helpful WFPB tips you can steal!
I figured out how to “hack health” so you don’t have to
At the time of this writing, I’m celebrating TEN years of living the whole food plant-based lifestyle. My journey started slow and has had ups and downs like most epic tales. I’ve had to figure most things out on my own, but now have all those years of experience to share with you. If you’re wanting to take more control of your health, are curious about eating more plant foods, and want a healthy retirement and beyond, keep reading because I’m sharing my best (and often overlooked) whole food plant-based (WFPB) tips.
This article isn’t to boast, but to encourage you to make small changes that add up and lead to more freedom in wellness.
On a health journey, everyone starts somewhere. I hope you steal my tips below so that you can give yourself a boost to better health starting today from wherever you are currently.
These are some key lessons learned over the years. It’s an overview of what it’s like to change from the Standard American Diet to a whole food plant-based (WFPB) one. Nobody seems to talk about many of these tips, especially when it comes to the WFPB diet. But I’m talking about them here so you can benefit and win in health!
Here goes…
Briefly, My Story
In summer 2015, I was 42 years old, wife and mom of two. I had some stubborn belly fat, was chronically constipated (sorry, probably TMI) and had low energy come day’s end. I was too young to feel lousy, and didn’t want to face a future of medical issues.
Just like most young moms, I was active and ate a Standard American Diet, which meant that I ate pretty much anything including processed foods and those high in fat, oil and sugar. But during the summer of 2015 I discovered what a whole food plant-based diet is. I had never heard about it before. I had heard about ‘vegan’ and ‘vegetarian’ diets but not this.
The WFPB diet is not really a diet like we’ve been told about before. Instead, it’s a lifestyle or an eating pattern that nourishes the body all the way down into its cells. This eating pattern promotes good health and prevents disease for the long-haul. And like I always tell my clients, “It’s never too late (or too early) to start eating more plants.”
Plant-based nutrition helps protect us from illness and diseases, may stop and sometimes reverse chronic illness, and helps us look and feel amazing. It’s a lifestyle that helps with wellness-related conditions big and small like energy, wrinkles, gut dysfunction, hair condition, heartburn, weight management, mental acuity, emotional stability, vascular health, achy joints, many forms of cancer and more.
Diets come and go. We hear about them in the headlines. I tried dieting: I counted points, ate tons of fats and protein, downed miracle shakes and exercised like mad. None were sustainable. None helped me like the WFPB lifestyle does.
Read on ‘cause I’m spilling the beans to help you live healthfully, happily and be able to fully use the gifts and talents you’re meant to share with the world.
Here are some helpful tips I’ve learned from the past ten years of trial, error, training & education. They’re yours to steal and apply in your own life!
Tips At A Glance:
Tip #1: Good health starts with what’s on your plate every day.
Tip #2: Stop excuses. Don’t wait.
Tip #3: Take small steps, building up volume & consistency
Tip #4: Don’t get sucked into the diet culture ‘reductionist’ hype
Tip #5: Shift your mindset from one of deprivation to one of abundance and opportunity.
Tip #6: Everyone is on a different timeline (and that’s ok)
Tip #7: Be confident in your choices.
Tip #8: Get experienced support
Tip #9: Sustainable change means getting informed by sound, reliable sources
Tip #10: Give yourself grace
Steal These: Top WFPB Tips From 10 Years of Experience
Tip #1: Good health starts with what’s on your plate every day.
In 2023, I spoke at a lifestyle medicine retreat about healthy weight management at any age by following a WFPB diet. The keynote speaker that day is a physician and he boiled his very elaborate, research laden and case study-supported lecture to three words, “It’s the food!”
If you want to change the outcome of health concerns, change your food, or more specifically your nutrition. Not just today or on Mondays, but every day.
When you get the food right, everything seems to improve.
Tip #2: Stop the excuses & Don’t wait.
Most people I meet don’t switch their overall dietary pattern unless there is a medical emergency or unexpected diagnosis. Luckily, I wasn’t one of those people. Instead, I’m a nerd and dove into the research behind this diet’s claims, and today, I share the info with everyone I can.
Don’t wait until it’s late in the game. Start making changes today.
Do excuses get in your way of success? So many women I talk to have negative self-talk (“I can’t give up XYZ.”), fear the unknown (“What if I don’t like it?”), or have family members who opine different opinions about what’s healthy and what’s not (“My sister says I need 120g of protein every day.”).
Rhat all adds to confusion and frustration.
What goes on in your mind and around you? Do you wrestle with hurdles that can be overcome? Are they excuses that hold you back?
Put excuses behind you. That can be the difference between changing the trajectory of your health and continuing down a path of illness.
As the Bible says, “be bold and courageous.” You can do it.
Case study
I worked with a client who came to me for help with changing her food choice towards a plant-based diet for weight and medical reasons. She suffered from chronic gut pain and had tried medicines and other methods with no sustainable relief. She didn’t want to go down the same road as many of her ill family members. She has two meat-eaters at home and sought dietary change without them. She prioritized herself, stopped excuses and negative self-talk and readied herself for real lasting change. She went through my digital course and participated in weekly coaching. In a matter of a few months, her pains were gone, she lost weight and later had a colonoscopy that revealed her pre-cancerous polyps from the previous year did not grow or return! During this time, this client’s husband suffered a heart attack and underwent surgery. Fortunately, he survived. That medical scare motivated him to also change his food choices. Over the months, he too improved his mobility, increased energy and lost weight, all from making important plant-forward changes to his dietary routine.
Tip #3: Take small steps, building up volume & consistency
I get it. Food is sentimental, cultural and a source of pleasure. Oftentimes we find our identity in the type of foods we eat. Bar-b-que pit bosses stand by their recipe and method, wooing diners and earning accolades. One’s food culture is important and hard to change, but not insurmountable.
Regardless of where you are today, I encourage you to take one small step towards incorporating more plants and eating less meat, dairy, oil and highly processed foods. What you take away, replace with a plant-based alternative. That’s one small step. Then keep doing that same small step and take another small step. Eventually, you’ll build up the plant-based foods into a more steady consistency in your routine.
Healthy Habit Builders
In my Second Youth Wellness Method course, I call these baby steps “Healthy Habit Builders.” They’re specific strategies to repeat and build into a lifestyle that promotes good health. They become habits that help promote good health.
To give you a word picture about Healthy Habit Builders, it’s like turning up the volume on a radio dial. The ‘louder’ you turn up the plant-forward healthy habits, the more your body will respond in kind with wellness.
You have control of that volume dial, so ‘rock out’ often!
“Dial Up” the plants on your plate.
You’re in control of the volume of healthy foods you eat.
Tip #4: Don’t get sucked into the diet culture ‘reductionist’ hype
A WFPB diet seems almost too simple, yet incredibly effective on so many levels.
The free market is driven by commerce. Companies make money selling stuff. It’s hard to make a large profit margin selling fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, bean, nuts and seeds. They make piles of money selling supplements, miracle shakes, and packaged foods. Modern diet culture has us thinking our problems are reduced down to needing their product to solve them: If we buy it, we’ll be better.
Additionally, medical companies make money selling pills and procedures. They don’t have the financial interest in everyone being well. Patients feel that help is reduced down to what they offer; a pill for a pain. They fix something that’s missing.
Don’t get me wrong. Many medications and procedures are necessary. But ‘wholistic’ prevention can negate the need.
A WFPB eating pattern consists of whole plant foods, most like they were found in nature, not high-margin products.
The more consistent and more often we eat whole plant foods (see Tip #3), the better nourished our bodies are from the inside out and the less likely we need to ‘fix’ something that is missing. A WFPB diet addresses health “wholistically” not as a reduction of missing individual things.
Tip #5: Shift your mindset: deprivation vs. abundance and opportunity.
When I work with clients, I help them replace foods in their diet that contribute to illnesses with ones that promote good health. If not done properly, this can lead to a dieting roller coaster due to the feeling of missing out on beloved food.
Instead of feeling deprived of something you are eliminating, like a beef burger, replace it with a similar plant-healthy alternative like a black bean burger. Both burgers are similar in taste and structure, yet one is full of fat, cholesterol and calories and the other is full of vitamins and minerals.
The new plant-based alternative creates biological opportunity for the body to heal and thrive. And it makes you feel good!
If you take out something from your diet, don’t leave a vacuum. Something will always go in its place, and it’s usually something unhealthy, like salty, fatty, sugary foods.
Tip #6: Everyone is on a different timeline (and that’s ok)
Something I learned in my health coach education is that everyone is in a different place on their health journey. We call this the Stages Of Change.
Most people want different health outcomes and want to change, but they may not actually be ready to change. That describes the stage we call Contemplation.
If you’re in Contemplation, you’re thinking about making changes but don’t actually take action steps toward change. Most people get stuck in the Contemplation stage, and may stay stuck there for years. You can be stuck in Contemplation for your entire dietary eating pattern, or a part of it. So even if you’re eating plant-forward, you may still be Contemplating change in certain nuanced areas like alcohol consumption or desserts.
Until you’re ready to change, you won’t. That’s human nature, plain and simple.
Get yourself ready to change by whatever it takes. Don’t let excuses keep you stuck (see Tip #2).
“Action” is the next Stage Of Change. If you’re stuck in Contemplation, you’re not taking action steps toward making changes for your health.
Some people are forced to be ready to change by an emergency or diagnosis.
Some people are motivated to change when they finally have the information they’ve been needing.
Others make behavior changes when they have the right steps, or playbook of sorts, to follow.
Coaching Corner:
-What will it take to get you unstuck from the Contemplation stage and move into the next stage, Action?
-What do you need today to help you progress in the Stages Of Change from Contemplation to Action?
-What will help you move into taking action steps that will help you reach your health goals?
Tip #7: Be confident in your choices.
Let’s face it. Not everyone thinks of a WFPB lifestyle as easy, good or healthy. Even within my own family, I’ve received comments, eyebrow raises and ‘looks’ when adhering to my plant-based lifestyle. But I have 100% confidence that the foods I eat will nourish my body well so that I can enjoy my later years fully, instead of feeling old, and needing medicines or procedures. I know I’m not Superwoman and one day I may need medical support, but I’m doing everything in my power now to prevent, delay, or reduce the need for such interventions.
Be confident in your choices. If you choose to lean into consuming more plant foods, be confident in that choice, tying it to your deep, personal reasons for making those choices and evidence-based research (see Tip #9).
Tip #8: Get experienced support
This is where things can go off the rails, or stay on track.
I’ve seen in many times. My clients who do the work, follow the course, adhere to the food protocol and have accountability, are the ones who succeed the most. When clients don’t show up for coaching, the accountability goes down and it doesn’t matter if they did the things or not.
In my coaching practice, if they don’t follow the Second Youth Wellness protocol much at all, they don’t experience many positive changes.
But the clients who show up for coaching sessions, implement steps from sessions or the course, and rely upon me or a friend or family member who’s making the same changes, then those are the people who experience the fastest and most positive, lasting changes.
Please note that if your support system does not understand the WFPB path you’re on or back your desire to change your food choices, then it’s more likely your plant-based journey will be short-lived. Environmental resistance from loved ones often prevents people from making changes, or stopping their road to success.
Tip #9: Sustainable change means getting informed by sound, reliable sources
The internet is full of opinions, nuanced advice and diet plans. Just yesterday did my gym instructor say she’s confused by all the different information and she doesn’t know who to believe. That’s why research studies are paramount.
>Sustainable change only sticks when action is grounded by evidence-based information paired with reasonable behaviors.
Nobody likes a diet roller coaster.
My Expensive diet roller coaster ride
I weighed the lightest in my adult life when I counted points, but it wasn’t sustainable. Once skinny, I spent $800 on a new wardrobe for my new body. Turns out, those clothes were an expensive lesson. The points I was ‘allowed’ to eat were SO hard to maintain and ultimately I gained most of the weight back. What I realize now is that I was undernourished. Sure, I was skinny but it wasn’t sustainable or realistic.
Reliable research
Studies that are funded by neutral sources (ie: not the egg board, milk council or company selling products) and that have large sample sizes are the most reliable. Observational studies with 50 people is not medically significant, it’s just interesting.
Real lasting change that’s grounded in medical nutritional research is why I include links to studies in my Second Youth Wellness Method course. I give students the “why” behind the “how” to inform their choices and so positive change sustains.
When I started my plant-based journey in 2015, I started reading books by nutritional researchers, many of whom had their own paradigm shift during the study they conducted. Some of those researchers were raised on milk or animal farms and set out to prove the opposite of what they actually found. The data spoke and they couldn’t deny the data findings.
Even to this day, I keep up with new medical research studies and see time and time again that the evidence strongly suggests a diet made primarily of whole plant foods (>80%) is the dietary pattern that promotes the best overall health for the longest duration.
Tip #10: Give yourself grace
One of my clients put it very succinctly in our post-course interview, saying “give yourself grace.”
Nobody on this side of Heaven is perfect. Early in my plant-based journey, I messed up. I ruined recipes, ate fatty, sugary food and that’s ok. That’s ok because it’s how we humans learn and grow.
Try. Try to make the unfamiliar recipe. Try to select the healthier option. Try something new and keep going.
Over the years, I learned what my body can tolerate and what it can’t. I can’t tolerate refined sugar. I can’t tolerate much white flour or oil. My body responds with heartburn, gut cramps or lethargy. I don’t like feeling that way, so I remember the connection between the food and the feeling and that informs my future decisions.
Admittedly, I don’t always choose the perfect WFPB option, even to this day. But when you’re 85-90% plant-based, your body is more able to be resilient, so going off track once in a while ends up not being that big of a deal.
Grace. It’s valuable.
“Give yourself grace.”
These wise words come from a Second Youth Wellness Method client who transformed her health and has hope for a bright, healthy future.
Steal my Tips & Transform Your Health!
Take advantage of my decade-long journey, education, training & experience
I’m proud of my hard work and consistent efforts that are paying off. I’m now 52. I’ve spent a decade eating 95-100% plants. And now as a National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach and certified Lifestyle Medicine Coach, I’m sharing what I’ve learned in that decade with you. I want the same kind of health and happiness successes for you that I enjoy, all because I made an important decision in 2015.
Few things in life impact one’s health and happiness like dietary and lifestyle changes. Aging starts from the time we are conceived and continues to the grave. The length of that timeline is by-in-large up to us.
By in large, we are in charge of our journey. What we do, the choices we make, and the habits we repeat, all affect quality of life, and often times, the length of it.
Decision Day
I hope this article inspired you to move from Contemplation into Action, getting unstuck from a rut. Today is Decision Day. What will you decide to do regarding your eating pattern and health?
May you take chances, make changes, try something new, be strong and courageous and love yourself well through your food.
Live well, my friend. Live well.