THE STUDIES ARE IN. 🌱
Thirty-one years ago, I went vegan.
There were no juice bars on every corner. No beautiful raw vegan restaurants. No Instagram accounts making plant-based living look abundant or aspirational.
It was a very different world.
And if I’m being vulnerable, I didn’t begin this journey because I had everything figured out.
I was trying to heal.
I struggled with distorted eating, skin issues, and a relationship with my body that needed far more than another diet.
So I changed what I put into my body.
What I never expected was how profoundly it would change what was happening within me.
Over the years, I watched something once considered extreme become mainstream. Juice bars opened. Plant-based restaurants appeared. Living foods became celebrated.
And now science continues to study what many of us have experienced firsthand: a thoughtfully designed, nutrient-dense, plant-rich diet can significantly influence our health.
But my greatest transformation could never be measured on a blood panel.
Yes, my body changed.
Yes, my skin changed.
Yes, my relationship with food changed.
But somewhere along the way…
I healed my soul. 🤍
Food stopped being about controlling my body and became a way of honoring it.
Fresh fruit. Greens. Herbs. Sprouts. Vegetables. Seeds. Living color.
Food became connection—to the Earth, to my body, to gratitude, to God, and ultimately, back to myself.
Thirty-one years later, I still believe the closer we eat to the Earth, the easier it becomes to hear the wisdom of our own bodies.
Eat close to the Earth. 🌿
Prepare with intention.
Receive with gratitude.
Your plate can nourish your body.
But the journey can nourish your soul.
What Science Is Learning About Plant-Based Nutrition
I love that science is beginning to explore, quantify and validate many aspects of plant-rich eating.
But I also believe we have to talk about this responsibly.
A vegan label alone does not automatically make a diet healthy.
French fries can be vegan. Highly processed foods can be vegan. Refined sugar can be vegan.
The conversation needs to move beyond simply asking, “Is it vegan?”
A more useful question is:
How much nourishment does this food bring to my body?
The growing body of nutritional research increasingly distinguishes between simply eliminating animal foods and building a dietary pattern around nutrient-dense plant foods.
Vegetables.
Fruits.
Legumes.
Whole grains.
Nuts.
Seeds.
Herbs.
And, depending on the individual, thoughtfully chosen fortified foods or supplementation.
That distinction matters.
Plant-Based Doesn’t Have to Mean Perfect
One of the greatest mistakes I see people make when beginning a wellness journey is believing that transformation requires perfection.
It doesn’t.
Your body doesn’t need another reason for you to criticize yourself.
It needs consistency.
It needs nourishment.
It needs you to listen.
For one person, transformation may begin by adding a green juice.
For another, it may mean eating a beautiful salad every day.
Someone else might start replacing a few highly processed meals each week with colorful, whole-food meals.
And someone may eventually choose a completely vegan lifestyle.
Healing doesn’t have to begin with deprivation. It can begin with addition.
Add the greens.
Add the berries.
Add the herbs.
Add the sprouts.
Add the minerals.
Add the water.
Add the color.
Add the foods that remind your body what nourishment feels like.
Sometimes what naturally falls away afterward doesn’t require nearly as much force.
Why Plant Diversity Matters
When people ask me what I eat after more than three decades of plant-based living, they sometimes expect me to name one miracle food.
I don’t believe wellness works that way.
I believe in diversity.
Different colors represent different combinations of naturally occurring plant compounds and nutrients. A plate filled with greens, berries, cruciferous vegetables, herbs, legumes, seeds and other whole plant foods offers something very different from a monotonous diet built around a handful of packaged foods.
This is one reason I encourage people to stop thinking only in terms of calories.
Look at color.
Look at variety.
Look at freshness.
Look at how you feel.
Your plate is information.
And your body is constantly responding to that information.
A Healthy Vegan Diet Still Requires Intention
After 31 years, I also want to say something that sometimes gets lost in conversations about veganism:
Plant-based does not mean nutritionally automatic.
Long-term wellness requires awareness.
Vitamin B12 deserves particular attention because reliable natural dietary sources are predominantly animal-derived, meaning people eating a vegan diet need an intentional source through appropriately fortified foods or supplementation.
Depending on your diet, lifestyle, age, health history and individual needs, nutrients such as vitamin D, iodine, calcium, iron, zinc, omega-3 fatty acids and protein may also deserve thoughtful consideration.
This isn’t a weakness of conscious plant-based living.
It’s part of conscious plant-based living.
I don’t believe wellness is about blindly following an ideology.
I believe in becoming educated about your own body.
Get appropriate testing when needed. Work with qualified health professionals. Understand your nutritional needs. And remember that two people can eat under the same dietary label while having dramatically different diets.
Whole Foods Before Labels
Instead of obsessing over whether something fits into the latest wellness category, I encourage people to return to a simpler relationship with food.
Ask:
Did this grow?
How close is this food to its natural state?
Does this meal contain diversity?
Does eating this consistently support the way I want to feel?
There is tremendous freedom in moving away from dietary identity and toward conscious nourishment.
Food Can Be Information Without Becoming Obsession
This lesson is especially important to me because of where my own journey began.
I know what it’s like for food to become tangled with control.
That is why I would never want wellness to become another beautifully disguised prison.
If eating “perfectly” makes you terrified of food, disconnected from your body or consumed by rules, something deeper deserves attention.
Nutrition matters enormously.
But so does your relationship with nourishment.
The goal isn’t to create another list of reasons to fear what is on your plate.
The goal is to build a relationship with your body in which you can hear it again.
Nourishment Is More Than Nutrients
There are nutrients we can measure.
And then there are aspects of nourishment that don’t fit neatly onto a nutrition label.
Eating slowly.
Preparing food intentionally.
Sitting down instead of rushing.
Feeling gratitude before a meal.
Growing herbs.
Visiting a farmers market.
Touching the food you’re preparing.
Sharing a meal with someone you love.
Noticing what foods leave you energized and which leave you depleted.
These rituals may seem small.
But they change our relationship with eating.
Food stops being something we simply consume and becomes something we receive.
The Body Is Always Communicating
One of the greatest gifts my wellness journey gave me was learning how to listen.
Our bodies communicate constantly.
Energy.
Digestion.
Sleep.
Mood.
Skin.
Hunger.
Satiety.
Strength.
Mental clarity.
These signals are not something I believe we should obsess over—but they are information worth noticing.
Instead of constantly asking:
“What diet should I follow?”
Try asking:
“What is my body communicating to me?”
That question creates an entirely different relationship with wellness.
It moves us from external authority toward internal awareness.
And that, to me, is where intuitive wellness begins.
How to Begin Eating Closer to the Earth
You don’t have to reinvent your entire life tomorrow.
Begin where you are.
1. Add Plants Before You Subtract Foods
Before focusing on restriction, look for opportunities to increase nutrient-dense whole plant foods.
Add berries to breakfast.
Add greens to lunch.
Add herbs to your meals.
Add sprouts to a salad.
Add beans or lentils.
Add a piece of fruit.
Let nourishment become expansive rather than punitive.
2. Eat More Colors
Instead of counting everything, try looking at your plate.
How many colors are represented?
Green.
Purple.
Red.
Orange.
Yellow.
Deep blue.
White.
Nature created extraordinary diversity. Let some of that diversity find its way onto your plate.
3. Choose Whole Foods More Often
You don’t have to make everything from scratch.
But whenever possible, allow recognizable whole foods to form the foundation of your diet.
A plant-based diet made predominantly from whole foods is very different from one built predominantly from ultra-processed products.
4. Learn Your Nutritional Needs
If you choose a vegan lifestyle, educate yourself.
Especially about B12.
Have appropriate conversations with your physician or qualified nutrition professional about your individual nutritional status and whether testing or supplementation makes sense for you.
Empowerment comes from information—not assumptions.
5. Make Eating Sacred Again
Put the phone down sometimes.
Take a moment before eating.
Breathe.
Give thanks.
Notice the colors.
Notice the aroma.
Notice the fact that something that grew from this Earth is about to become part of you.
That alone can transform a meal.
Thirty-One Years Later, This Is What I Know
I went vegan believing I needed to change my body.
I couldn’t have known that the journey would eventually teach me to stop fighting it.
That may be the greatest lesson of all.
Wellness is not punishment.
Health is not perfection.
And nourishment should never require us to hate ourselves into becoming healthier.
Real transformation asks something very different of us.
Listen more closely.
Choose more consciously.
Honor the body instead of constantly trying to conquer it.
And recognize that food is only one piece of healing.
How we speak to ourselves matters.
How we manage stress matters.
How we move matters.
How we sleep matters.
Who we surround ourselves with matters.
Our boundaries matter.
Our thoughts matter.
Our spiritual lives matter.
And yes…
what we repeatedly place on our plates matters too.
My Philosophy After 31 Years of Plant-Based Living
I don’t need everyone to eat exactly as I do.
I want people to become conscious.
I want people to understand that wellness isn’t something that happens to us.
It is something we participate in.
Every meal is another opportunity to participate.
Not from fear.
Not from punishment.
Not because your body isn’t good enough today.
But because it is worthy of being cared for today.
There is an enormous difference between those two energies.
One says:
“I need to change my body so I can love it.”
The other says:
“I love my body, so I choose to nourish it.”
That shift changed everything for me.
Come Back to Yourself
Thirty-one years ago, I thought I was changing my diet.
Looking back, I can see that I was beginning a much larger journey home.
Home to my intuition.
Home to the Earth.
Home to gratitude.
Home to God.
Home to the body I had spent too much time judging.
Home to myself.
And perhaps that is why I have remained so passionate about wellness all these years.
Because the deepest form of health isn’t simply about living longer.
It’s about becoming present enough to truly inhabit the life you’re living.
So eat close to the Earth. 🌿
Prepare with intention.
Receive with gratitude.
Listen to your body.
Give yourself grace.
Your plate can nourish your body.
But the journey can nourish your soul. 🤍
🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸