A Plant Based Diet Offers Abundance, Not Restriction: Be a Plant Based Trendsetter
Feeling like the Plant Based Vegan Diet is restrictive? Let. It. Go! Let go of that mindset and focus on your new abundance!!! There is a magical world of flavors, textures and deliciousness that is also packed with health and nutrients.
Real life example: If I ate scrambled eggs and bacon and biscuits for breakfast, I would never know how delicious raspberries and pomegranate seeds were on steel cut oats with cinnamon, soy milk, maple syrup and the magical medjool date. With those two options of breakfast laid out in front of me, there’s no way I would choose the bacon and eggs! The word “oatmeal” may conjure an image of grey grool for you, but that is not at all what it entails! Envision more of a Sundae of Magic! So much texture and flavor, not to mention super-doses of nutrients and mouth and stomach satisfaction. Bonus! It comes along with feeling great the rest of the day. Boom! Discover pomegranate seeds, am I right?
If ate boxed pancake mix or restaurant pancakes- I’d never have experimented with making carrot cake pancakes with whole grains and rolled oats, real carrot shreds and raisins. Or sweet potato pancakes, holy smokes! I mean- you MUST trust me when I tell you there’s so much more out there for you to taste and explore, and it is SO MUCH YUMMIER!!!!
My snack foods as a plant based eater are along the lines of fresh cut pineapple, apples, oranges, nuts, berries, bananas, dates! Chocolate zucchini muffins, celery sticks with homemade hummus. When you take the time to prep these in advance (Sunday Funday in the kitchen!) then they are just as grab and go as the toxic crap you’re pulling off shelves. And they are considerably more satisfying and delicious.
It may seem like those sparkly packaged chips and cake snacks and cookies are going to give you a boost, but how often have they not quite lived up to your expectations, so you keep eating them because you aren’t really satisfied? Trust me, enjoy a ripe apple or orange, even if that sounds boring, and tell me you aren’t surprised with how much satisfaction it delivers?
Changing your mindset will set you up for success, what you can believe you can achieve and all that. Manifest an abundant plate!
Discovering new flavors and textures and foods is one (awesome and adventurous) part of this mindset shift in your diet, but if we are getting real, let’s talk about my personal favorite benefit of eating an abundant Plant Based Diet. Focus on that word: Abundant. Say it out loud, slowly: “Abundant. Abundant.” (Did that make you feel like Elf repeating “Francisco?”) Oh, maybe that’s just me.
What’s the Number One Bonus? You get to eat SO MUCH more food!!! Yeah man! The calorie density in plant based whole foods is so much less dense, that you get to eat larger quantities. This is absolute music to my ears. Other side to this everyone’s-a-winner coin? The nutrient density is way higher! This means that while eating processed foods will give you more calories, it gives you less nutrients. While you keep grazing to get your nutrients in, the high calories take up much smaller mass of the food, so you are stuffing your face with tons of empty calories. All the calories, none of the benefits. So you keep stuffing.
On the flip side, whole plant based foods take up a lot of space with few calories and tons of nutrition. That means you can stuff to your heart’s content, and you’ll never have to count calories. Eat and eat, and then eat again! Since you are actually packing your body with nutrients, you will feel full when your body gets what it needs. So you don’t mindlessly stuff all day. But you totally can.
Another upside, when you’re “stuffed” with a huge plant based meal, you don’t walk around feeling “stuffed.” You are satiated, but not bloated and uncomfortable. Your body breaks these foods down quickly and easily, and you aren’t sluggish and roly poly looking for a place to lie down. You’re looking to the next fun thing to do! (Pssst… men, plant based meals make some of those “fun things to do” work a lot better with your lady, so there’s a benefit we can all be happy about.)
If you are looking for inspiration, check out this post for some ideas on how to put together some meals and find ideas to try new things. Fool Proof Plant Based Meals
Be inspired the next time you go to the grocery store to seek out nutrition in the yummiest packages. Buy fruits and veggies you aren’t sure about, or think “aren’t your norm.” I WANT you to go outside of your norm! Discover why oat milk and soy milk are the creamiest. Try some new seasonings with health benefits, like cinnamon, garlic, turmeric, herbs. (Maybe not all together.) Put fresh lemon on lots of stuff. Try some seasonings and foods outside of your culture. Put a new frozen fruit in your blender with peeled frozen bananas and soy milk. What’s up with maca and matcha? Try it! Try everything!
Try nutritional yeast (in my house called “flavor sprinkles”), golden flax meal, chia seeds, sesame seeds. Buy some Brazil Nuts. Find out what you can do with tahini. (And please let me know when you figure out how to stir it properly. #30yYrLearningCurve)
When you Live in Plant Based Abundance, go tell all your friends about it. People love hearing about new flavors, and you will now be the exotic taster in your group. People will start to ask you to try new foods they’ve heard about before they do, “Hey Fred, have you tried soursop? I heard it was good for you, try it and tell us!” You’ll learn about more stuff. Open the door and open the dialogue. Be adventurous and walk away from grey grool. We Plant based trendsetters live in the land of Sundaes.
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Aloha!
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