EP32: Plant-Based Eating for the (Wellness) Win! with Kathy Davis

This is winning with wellness, a podcast about inspiring the wellness warrior in you. If you're feeling lost or alone in your wellness journey, or looking for new ideas and inspiration, you are in the right place, a place you can learn about all things wellness, in business life and living. Your host Jenny rice, we'll be bringing you inspiring stories and practical tools to improve your overall wellness personally and professionally. Imagine what living a life of wellness would be like. Thank you for joining us today.

Welcome everyone to another episode of winning with wellness. I cannot thank you all enough for being here and sharing your mind and your energy with us. It is an honor and I'm filled with gratitude that you are sharing your space and moment wherever you are with Kathy and myself. My guest today is Kathy Davis. welcome Kathy.

Hi, Jenny. Thank you so much for having me Hello to all the listeners and really excited to be here and share my story.

We are thrilled to have you so I'm going to share a little bit with the with the world who have Kathy Davis is I'm going to do that like official piece. And then we're going to dig right into conversation. So Kathy Davis is a plant based accountability and empowerment coach, the CEO of veg inspired and the author of three cookbooks, the 30 Minute whole food plant based cookbook, the super easy plant based cookbook and the budget friendly that's a huge one you guys, plant based diet cookbook. Kathy empowers high achieving professionals to elevate to their energy, step into their genius and crush their ambitions by teaching healthy living habits. Hence why we got you on the show. Yes, thrilled to have you here, Kathy. Okay. Dig in. So plant base. Does that mean tell people what okay, because there is all kinds of buzzwords about plant based Can we can we dial it into what that really means?

Absolutely. And I love this question because as somebody who grew up eating the standard American diet, when I heard the term plant based, or vegan, which they're often used interchangeably, I was very resistant. And my husband actually introduced me to this way of eating about eight years ago after reading a couple of articles and was like, We really need to look into this and I'm like, I'm not giving up my burgers and blue cheese dressing. So we really started to focus our philosophy, I'm just eating more plants. So for me, even though I'm now eight years later, an ethical vegan. I really help people eat more plants to elevate their energy and really show up at their best their best. Because what I've found is I feel better when I'm eating more plant based foods, things like grains, things like greens, things like vegetables, beans, fruit, and I often get people are like well plant based I can't just eat a salad I'll be hungry and I'm like of course you can't just see the salad I would never recommend

ordering. Although salads are delicious. I don't want to give ourselves a bad rap.

Right? Me neither but I want to make sure that you're adding in those high fiber foods like potatoes and beans and brown rice and you hear me saying specific things like whole grains I'm not saying eat you know vegan junk food I'm really tuned into plant based as a definition of whole plant foods that are as close to nature intended so your unrefined grains, your unrefined starches, things of that nature.

I love that. So can we just because for many people, we are influenced or educated through what we see on TV, media commercials, etc, etc. So without without saying anything against specific brands. There's a lot of stuff out there right now that's claiming to be plant based. And we think because it's got that stamp, and it's in the grocery store or wherever we purchase, that it's automatically healthy for us. Can you can you dig into that for me a little bit?

Absolutely. One of the big things that I found and again, maybe I need to back up my story a little bit so eight years ago, introduced to plant based eating, it took me six months to really adopt it as a way of life. I spent those six months trying different foods, trying different recipes, and a lot of them were, you know, foods that I was familiar with. So potatoes turned into tacos, you know, seasoning the potato, the potato pieces like taco and putting them in a taco shell.

Okay, that's possible. I know I have access to your cookbook, so I'm totally digging in. Sounds delicious.

Yes. And who doesn't love potatoes. And after switching about six to eight months in six to eight months into eating more plants, switching to more of a plant based way of eating more, more of the vegan way of eating, actually spent five years eating the vegan foods, and I love them. And I am grateful that over the eight years that I have been, you know, living this way, new foods have come on the market. But the big thing that I've found is that a lot of those foods contain a lot of unhealthy ingredients that lead to people having alternative issues, things like oil, which is artery clogging, right, you might not have cholesterol in plant based foods, but you have oil in these heavily processed alternatives. So I always say, people go vegan for the animals that they eat plant based for their own health. And there's a lot of companies out there that are like, ooh, plant based, we're gonna slap that plant based label on our product, and people will buy it. Well, I always have a, you know, a piece of caution. Sometimes they have animal based ingredients in them. Like I've seen plant based products in the grocery store that have eggs in them. That's not plant based extra income from a plant. And so really looking at those labels. But above all else, when we eat plant based or when I talk about eating plant based specifically, I'm talking about the whole foods, right, the unprocessed things, the beans, the veggies and fruits that you can get in the produce section. You know, your whole grains, so not necessarily having to read labels, because the food we eat is the ingredient, right? You eat the spinach, you eat the bean, you eat the tomatoes, you eat the soup that does only has vegetables in it, and really channeling it back to those more holistic, wholesome ingredients and foods. And I love that.

And you know, I think what's so interesting is, as a society, many of us are trying to find the fastest way to be healthiest. Right? So can you give an example of what a day of prep looks like? Because honestly, I can see why those that that industry is growing that fast food grab of plant based is growing because the majority of the population feels overworked, exhausted. So how do you set a client up to win like I you know, we've got someone here listening right now that dying to dig into plant base, but is like I do not have the time? How do we set them up to win?

That's a great question and one that I definitely handle on a daily basis with my clients and even with people that are just in my space. One of the biggest things to consider when adding more plants to your meals is that we really want to start the process by adding more plants to your meals. So if you're typically eating a cereal or grab and go cereal bars or granola bars, look at the amount of sugar. Look at the amount of processed foods. Is there a way that you can get one that's more whole foods, you know, without specifically identifying brands? But are there certain ones that have more like whole nuts that have more whole oats versus those Uber processed, you know, ground flour and a lot of enriched flowers and sugary cereals? What I always tell people is my favorite two breakfasts are oats. So I literally take half a cup of rolled oats. Here's a recipe for those of you listening half a cup of rolled oats, about a half of a cup of unsweetened soy milk. And the other half of those who can't see

because we're on there is a cat. There is a cat in the in on the show. Okay, so we've got oats we've got what was the next one. We've

got half a cup of oats about a half a cup of non dairy milk. I like soy milk unsweetened because I can choose how much sweetener I put in half a cup of frozen blueberries. It's about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of maple syrup depending on your desire. And then I like to throw in a teaspoon of ground flax. Put all that in a bowl I just use old fashioned rolled oats, put it on a bowl, let it sit on the counter, let it sit overnight in the fridge however you need to prepare it whatever your timeframe calls for and then just eat it cold. Now I'm I travel full time so I choose to chase flip flop weather and I like it cold if you'd like it warm. I've also thrown it in the microwave for 30 seconds just to warm it up a little bit and it gets this great texture. It doesn't have to be hard It just is making that decision to do it for lunch. I boil potatoes or cook brown rice or baked potatoes depending on the time of the year. And I have them for the whole week and my lunches literally take some type of starch and a nice salad. So while I'm reheating my my rice or my potatoes I'll chop up the veggies for my spinach vegetable and bean usually garbanzo or chickpeas salad and then I'll do a quick vegan dressing maybe it's balsamic vinegar and tahini or maybe it's maple syrup and mustard and you know just kind of thinking outside the box for the different flavors that I'm looking for for that salad

Delicious. Delicious.

Super easy to and you know when you when you fuel your body with those, you know, unrefined low, you know, energy sustaining foods you aren't crashing at two o'clock in the afternoon right like you know you eat we so many years I spent eating junk for lunch and I didn't understand why I was so tired in the afternoon or why was ravishing when I got home from work. And it was because I wasn't beating myself the right foods during the day to sustain my energy and keep me satiated for long enough to not need to snack.

Oh, the snack. Curious what is your favorite snack? Because we'll have a day.

Yes, so we always have hummus in love hummus. Yeah, I we just make a very simple hummus with chickpeas, some tahini, lemon, cumin, garlic, buzz it up, we actually like to cook our own chickpeas, but you can do it with canned chickpeas. We don't add oil to it, but we do add some balsamic vinegar. So I've been using this smoky balsamic vinegar and it is so rich and so delicious. And it is so good. And I love to add it and so sometimes I'll do it on veggies if I need something fresh. But if I really need that crunch, I like it on big Tostada chips or wasa crackers or Mary's crackers, or even the low fat Triscuits. The low fat Triscuits have a little bit of oil, but not nearly as much as the high fat. So that's the only reason like I don't recommend low fat foods for that reason other than reducing oil because it's a processed ingredient.

I love it. Oh my goodness. Okay, so we you know, I want to ask this we all end up doing what we're doing a you've shared your a bit of your story. What would you tell yourself like knowing, knowing where you sit right now? And knowing the wisdom that you have right now and the journey that you've been on? When you think back to a younger version of yourself? What would you share?

I would have told myself to eat more plants. Yeah, I mean, I'm a I'm a burger lover, blue cheese dressing lover, like I would probably have not cut that out of my life, just let's say 15 or 20 years ago, but gosh, I could have eaten more plants, I could have eaten more of a diverse array of foods. And that's really what my goal is to accomplish. You know, with veg inspired I really want to inspire people to eat more plants. So that's what I would have told myself just eat more whole plant foods, more beans, more rice, more oats, more vegetables, more fruit, rather than grabbing all the processed foods because I struggled so much for so much of my my life with weight and self confidence issues. And if I had just eaten more plants, those things might have been might not have been as much of an issue.

And I'm a firm believer and you know, I've shared this on the show in multiple different episodes. We are what we consume, everything. Anything that goes in our mouth goes on our skin, we read, we watch all of those kinds of things. And I did a huge redesign of my diet as well. Oh my gosh, I keep saying it was five years ago. So probably 13 years ago. I have no idea I gotta find the date. But what I found so interesting is it healed many of those things that you're talking about. And I've never been somebody that was would you you would look at and say they have a weight issue. However, I was obviously carrying weight that I didn't need to have because I was full and hungry and like I would eat and I was healthy and I was shedding pounds. And it was because I was eating the right foods versus what I thought was healthy. So when you've got somebody that's brand new to this concept and like I know that you shared start small. So what happens if they live in a household? Let's say it's the chef of the house, the mom or the dad or the you know, the husband, the wife, whoever it is the chef of the household is responsible for all other beings. And everybody's like, you know, the concrete walls like you say, I'm not giving them my burger, my blue cheese. Do you have any advice to try to get people on board because we know People can't change unless they want to change. Do you slide it in? Do you have any tips?

Yeah, so my biggest tip is to use familiar foods because there's fear in the unknown, you know, people who don't eat tofu, they're scared of that, they might be scared of it because of the flavor of the taste or from something that they've read. You know, they might have heard the word vegan, and now you're bringing a vegan cheese or something vegan into the house. And, and that panics them. But most of us eat potatoes, most of us eat brown rice, or some type of rice or quinoa. And when you, you know, work this way of eating in, you start with the things that you can control, swap vegetable broth, for the chicken broth, right, like, just get rid of the animal broth, start using a vegetable broth, right, swap out maybe the non the non dairy products are swapped in the non dairy products for the dairy products in places that you can control. Like maybe it's a new, you know, unsweetened yogurt that you use in place of regular yogurt in a smoothie. Maybe not feed your you know, your, your people that you're responsible for, maybe don't feed them the vegan stuff, first, maybe start to add it in so that they start to get the taste and the texture. Because I'll tell you early on, I didn't like vegan cheese. You know, the one for the one for one trade doesn't always work. So for me I would I always did was I always made guacamole. So tacos always had guacamole on them. Because that was something I loved. I didn't need the cheese when I had that rich fun guacamole. It took a little bit if I didn't want to buy the guacamole from the produce section. But it gave me that satisfaction that creamy, that luxury of luxuriousness into the into the taco. And it didn't make me miss the sour cream or the vegan cheese. And, you know, really harnessing those foods that they're already eating, maybe it's as simple as changing the brand of potato chips, you know, just starting to swap in the healthier, more wholesome foods as you're adding more plants. So maybe it's two side dishes of vegetables instead of one. Maybe it's cooking without oil or cooking with minimal oil. You know, as you start to swap that out, because it is such a processed ingredient. Maybe it's you know, finding cashew sauces. You know, a lot of people like cashews, so you can use cashews, and they're not scared of cashews, but they might be scared of a mayonnaise made from tofu. So starting to really look at the ways that you can enhance what you're already doing with these plant based options. And I do get people to say, Well, gosh, making a sauce out of cashews is really really time consuming. I don't know if I can do that, then that's not the option for you. Maybe slicing up avocados faster, maybe buying the guacamole from the grocery stores quicker. Maybe looking for some brands that have those creamy plant based sauces made out of nuts, you know, it really depends on what you're trading Are you trading time Are you trading budget? Like where are you in the in this in the process in the space of of what you're trying to accomplish? Because a lot of times it's I don't want to trade time so I buy the convenience foods well if you're already buying the non vegan convenience foods then swapping them in for the vegan convenience foods might be an altered tentative to you know adding in those more wholesome ingredients and I when I say the vegan alternatives I'm thinking like a cheese made from nuts or a sauce in the produce section like checking

the ingredients making sure they're true to i It's interesting because when you share that what I what I valued was, I'm the chef in the house. And when I decided to change my diet and I'm quite comfortable to say I'm not full on vegan, but when I changed my diet I told my family unless you're going to learn to cook you're going to eat what I'm eating. Like I was very like I am not cooking two meals. So you just step in or figure out your own plan. And what was so interesting everybody liked the food better everybody they're like you were a good cook before but this is delicious. And it's because it was real you know I take the time I make my own dressings now I thought it takes took a lot of time it doesn't I make my own barbecue sauce I make my own you know marinades I make all that stuff that I don't get me wrong I still I've got a great cashew. You know that's from the grocery store cashew tahini. Like I've got all that those kinds of things. However, I'm here to tell you if you plan ahead and put a little bit of thought and make sure the ingredients are reliable it's it's quite quick. It's it's just getting into the headspace the mindset around it.

That's that's the number one thing it is a mindset and I was listening Something earlier and it was, you know, this age old saying you're one decision away from a completely different life. I mean, it's just the decision, you're either gonna do it or you're not. And a lot of times we get caught up in all the excuses as to why we can't. And what about why you can? What about what about what it's going to do for you? You know, I had somebody asked me, What's, what would you say is something that you notice after eating plant based, and it's the biggest thing I noticed was that I felt lighter. And I can only describe that as a feeling inside my body where I didn't feel over full and sick all the time. I never, I wasn't sick. I wasn't sickly. But I just felt, I mean, I'm sure it was bloated. I'm sure it was the dairy, the blue cheese dressing the burgers, like I can't imagine that any of those things processed well in my digestive system. And now I'm feeding it like all these high fiber, whole grains, vegetables beyond belief. And I think it's just, it's a different feeling in your body. And once you experience that you really don't want to go back.

Amen. I can actually second that. People you used to ask me other than the obvious, like,

I look lighter. People are like, how do you feel?

I'm like, it's hard to explain. But I feel light. And clear minded, I think was one of the biggest aha, pause for me was how clear no brain fog. If that makes sense.

That makes sense. And energy to I mean, hmm, those are like the big the big three, right? You feel lighter, you have more energy, you have more, more clarity in your mind, but also an ability to focus. Because you aren't, it doesn't feel dumbed up with, you know, some of the things that are in the products that we've been that we've been eating.

So talk me through. So as as let's say, I've got people on here that are like, Okay, I got to work with Kathy, what does it look like to work with you? What you know, I mean, what does that look like? I'm sure for some people, it seems unobtainable. So I've left for them to understand what it looks like to step in with somebody to be supported. Like, what does that look like?

Absolutely. The biggest thing that I like to start out all of my, my client work with is really a disc. And that allows of stepping into your role and your way that continues to drive you through the likely obstacles that you're you'll face. And I offer a year long program with my clients because I can see them through the lens of life. Right? that most of us have done, done some kind of life change, or I hate to use the word diet, but we've done the we've done the things, we've done all the plans, we've done everything. And we feel like a lot of times we feel stuck, like this doesn't work. And what I've found is that a lot of that is the mindset shift. And until you step into that decision and step into that mindset, it is like this cycle, this hamster wheel of trying, trying and starting trying and starting trying and stopping and starting and off the wagon, and then we have to go back up. And so we really tried to eliminate that through a really intense discovery phase on what your goal is, and what drives you to get there. And some people it's it's their business goals, like they want to be able to show up energized for eight hours, 10 hours in a day. And yes, we all want balance. But if you're an entrepreneur that wants to work, wants to have the energy to follow your passion, you do want to show up on our seven of the day is the same energy you had when you got out of bed, the same passion, the same drive. For some people, they just want to be able to play with the children in their lives, grandchildren, children, nieces and nephews. And they just don't have the energy to carry that out after working all day. And so we really take a look at what drives this decision to eat more plants. And then we map out what eating more plants looks like for them. We work through the systems we work through the foods, you know, some people might be I have a couple people that I work with. They're diabetic, so they pick food that I held accountable to and then work through the implementation and really getting into what it looks like at their level in their house. It's not a one size fits all webinars. It's all live content delivery, one on one calls, office hours, lots and lots of hand holding to get you to that place where eating more plants feels intuitive and comfortable.

I love that. And so I invite anybody who's listening who's feeling remotely you know, you're if you're saying I want to do this, but I want to do This spot Cathy's your gal, okay, um, correct me if I'm wrong, Kathy, you do have a workshop that's coming up that you? Yeah. Can you talk about that?

Absolutely, I have a workshop coming up. It's called using food to fuel your goals, healthy habits for high achievers. So if that's you, if you're out in the audience, and you're like, holy cow, I need healthy habits, I need to be in space, it starts December 6, and you can register for that on my website bed inspired that calm master class. So it is a five day master class on with Re is started number six. So you if you go to veg inspired.com/masterclass, you can get registered, you'll have access to all the replays all the content, and we can connect that way.

Awesome. And for those of you that the show notes, if you're, if you're jogging right now, or you're driving your car, please do not do something crazy. And we will be putting this information in the show notes. So you will be able to access Kathy and find her so do not worry. So Kathy, as we finish up the show, I can't believe it. I would like to know, is there anything that you'd like to share? Is there a question that I haven't asked that you would mean, we could talk for hours, but is there anything you'd like to make sure that we've covered today before we finish up?

You know, Jenny, the one thing I always like to leave people with is I really want you to just consider eating more plants. You know, for so many of us our guard goes up when the words plant based vegan stream lifestyle. And, like I've eaten all ends of the spectrum, I've been standard American diet. I tried raw vegan for a while high carb, vegan whole food plant based Daily Dozen starch solution, you know, all these things that you may not even know just generally plant based vegetarian, I really tried it all. And what I can say is when I eat more plant foods, grains, greens, beans, veggies and fruit, I feel better. And so if I can leave you with one piece, one piece of advice, swap out the processed food in your afternoon snack for fruit, or veggies. Add a salad or vegetable soup at the beginning of every meal. Just focus on eating more plants. Make it accessible, make it one step at a time. And really just enjoy it. Enjoy what Mother Nature gives us.

Well, I'm gonna drop the mic on that one. Thanks. Oh my gosh, Kathy, thank you so much. And also to for those of you that don't know Kathy is kind of cool. She lives in an RV and travels the travels around and works and lives her best life by, you know, stepping into who she really wanted to be her and her family. So we're going to have Kathy on a different episode to really dig into what that looks like. Three 310 square feet, is that correct?

310 square feet on wheels,