Hello all! As I have been going through this journey called life, I am continually seeking to do so better. Don’t we all? I want to dispel the myths that as we age we will get shorter, fatter, on more and more medications and not as mobile as we were when we were younger. While there are some exceptions, for the majority of things that will kill ourselves and our loved ones, “Our genes are not our destiny”. I want to stay as Vibrant, Active and as Drug free as possible through the remainder of my life to fully enjoy all the richness that it has. I believe that this is made best possible through a Whole Food Plant based diet. Not to go on a diet, but it is the diet of your everyday eating to choose. I will add several sections here as I build out my content. Additionally, I am going to start a YouTube Channel of the same name to share the delicious and nutritious recipes that I am making for my family. More to come!
Resources
Must See Movies
Although in no particular order, the first three are what I recommend as places to start. Don’t have time for these? Skip down to the TED Talks below. Quick and to the point!
- FORKS OVER KNIVES – this is the starting place for many vegetarians and vegans. It was the first movie I watched over 5 years ago along with Fat-Sick.
- THE GAME CHANGERS – one of the newest of these films, now on Netflix also, done by James Cameron. This one really appeals to athletes or if you want to improve your performance in training for anything!
- FAT SICK AND NEARLY DEAD -this is some extreme juicing! But in one man’s journey that revealed the changes in Joe’s life… getting off many drugs and losing a lot of weight! I started my journey doing this for 30 days losing 25 lbs. From that point on I changed to vegetarian. Over the years afterwards, I slowly put the weight back on and have shifted more towards a whole foods, plant based diet – eliminating cheese, as I was truly addicted to it having some at every meal! Barnard’s TED talk below helpe me to get offf cheese.
- WHAT YOU EAT MATTERS – this is also a newer one. Shows many things from Forks over knives and summarizes many points. Warning: the second half of this gets into explicit videos of the treatment of animals. That alone shifts many people from eating animals.
- PLANT PURE NATION – can stream or on Amazon Prime still. Pretty good.
- HUNGRY FOR CHANGE – still on Amazon Prime. Pretty good, but been a while since I watched. Gets into the lies presented to us and many stats.
- FOOD MATTERS
- HOW EATING PLANTS CHANGED MY LIFE – HOW IT COULD CHANGE YOURS – this is a Vegan body builder giving a Talk at Google. He talks about AHIMSA, which was a new concept to me.
- WHAT THE HEALTH – I’d call this more of a grass roots ‘B’ type film, but it did have many good points. Also on Netflix.
Favorite TED talks
Don’t have time for the longer movies above? TED talks are all around 15-20 minutes, EZ!
- The food we were born to eat: John McDougall
- Food as Medicine | Michael Greger, M.D. or The Plant Based Diet
- Dean Ornish – proof in the science
- I Love Nutritional Science | Dr. Joel Fuhrman
- Power Foods for the Brain | Neal Barnard
- Tackling diabetes with a bold new dietary approach: Neal Barnard
- The Most Powerful Strategy for Healing People and the Planet | Michael Klaper
- Making Heart Attacks History: Caldwell Esselstyn
- Sugar — the elephant in the kitchen: Robert Lustig
- Plant-strong & healthy living: Rip Esselstyn
- Why is the Science of Nutrition Ignored in Medicine? | T. Colin Campbell
Favorite Speakers’ Websites ..or Meet the Experts
There are many! But these are some of my favorites. You can get advice, their books and more importantly cruciferlicious recipes 🙂
- NutritionFacts.org | Dr Michael Gregor
- This is almost a Go To site to learn about almost anything about vegantariasm topics. Whenever I hear about something in a video, I go to ALL TOPICS – and almost always, he has a ton of videos on each topic. His latest book How Not To Diet is a followup to How Not To Die. There are longer talks from him on each of those that can be found on YouTube or his website.
- Physician’s Council for Responsible Medicine (PCRM.ORG) | Dr. Neil Barnard
- The Physicians Committee is dedicated to saving and improving human and animal lives through plant-based diets and ethical and effective scientific research. – Just all good stuff! Dr. Barnard is right up there with Dr.s Gregor and Fuhrman as my favorite speakers.
- The Nurtritarian Diet | Dr. Joel Fuhrman
- His manin premise is to increase nutrient density with lower calories. How you do that? Eat Plants. I love everything about this site except I tend to not like it when they sell supplements…..which is no different than selling pharmacy drugs that aren’t needed to simply generate big $$. Other than that, what could be bad about more nutrients and fewer calories!
- Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease | Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn
- I have the most respect as he has spent more time in practice and surgery than most all of these speakers at the prestiguous Cleveland Heart Clinic. If you have a family history of heart disease or have conditions that are not good, this is your go to diet. He is the most extreme, but his results are scientifically proven and documented in Forks over Knives above. In his 80’s he is still practicing strong!
- Plant Strong | Rip Esselstyn
- There was a documentary on Netflix called the Engine 2 Diet. Rip is Caldwell’s son and turned over an unhealthy Fire Department to go 100% plant based, which turned around their bad health numbers. The number 1 killer of fire fighter is not fire fighting, but heart disease!
- Center for Nutrition Studies | T Colin Campbell
- Campbell and Esselstyn are the Forks over Knives stars. Campbell is a research scientist that led the China Study.
- McDoughall’s Health & Medical Center “It’s the Food” | Dr. John McDoughall
- He is all about the STARCH (see the TED Talk) – gotta love that! He is also famous for his color picture book that even a 4 year old can understand – what foods are poison and which ones you should eat.
- Ornish Lifestyle Medicine | Dean Ornish
- Dr. Ornish has a more holistic approach to Eat Well, Move more, Stress Less and Love More. His personal story that led him to this is inspiring.
- Moving Medicine Forward | Dr. Michael Klapper
- I keep bumping into him every once in a while and like his advice.
Recipes
I’ll break this down into two categories. What’s out there already and what I have made. Since I have always loved to cook, I just see or have something I like at a restaurant and then try to recreate it at home. ‘Almost’ always works 😉 Likewise I’m thinking or something, like roasted cauliflower recipes, and will BING it or search YouTube, and then mind meld the favorite ideas into my own. Just tweak them every time for something different!
YouTubers’ Recipes
I’ve just started to follow a couple, and will note their site plus a couple of their recipes as I ‘discover’ i.e. try and test them.
- Simnet Nutrition
- his recipes are quick and easy. These are the ones I’ve run into most and trying them out a bit.
- Foody TV with Chef AJ
- Just discovered this must try! This Cheese is Nuts! just one video, but on the righ more will follow. May have to get this book.
- This Vegan Smoked Almond Cheddar ball looks great!
- Simply Quinoa
- Avante Garde Vegan
- Jane Essestyn
- just started watching this one. Very cute. The wife of the famous Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn from Forks over Knives. So this is hard core plant based, but makes you think about ways to eat just plants they may never have occurred to you!
- Dr. Gregor in the Kitchen – not a channel, but he is starting to post recipes on YouTube worth checking out.
My Tried and True recipes
For each thing I make that really comes out well, I’ll start to document each one on its own page. I’ve started with my first staple Overnight Oats and more will be coming!
- Overnight Oats – I eat this almost every day. While traveling I just eat oatmeal at the breakfast bar and add as many seeds or nuts as I can without too many buts.
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