From Diet Culture to Compassion: A Joyful Plant-Based Life with Jenny Cheifetz

What if the way you eat could bring more joy—not just to your body, but to the world?

In this powerful and honest conversation, Rachel sits down with Jenny Cheifetz, vegan lifestyle coach and host of The Flirty Vegan Podcast, to explore her journey from chronic dieting and burnout to a compassionate, plant-based life.

Jenny shares how the pandemic became a turning point—leading her to heal her relationship with food, discover personal development, and ultimately embrace veganism from an ethical and environmental perspective.

This episode goes beyond food—it’s about identity, values, and what happens when you align your choices with what truly matters.

💡 Key Takeaways

• Diet culture disconnects us from joy
  Food becomes restrictive, stressful, and tied to self-worth. 
• Healing your mindset comes first
  Jenny’s transformation began with addressing binge eating and emotional patterns—not food rules. 
• Veganism isn’t just about food—it’s about compassion
  For animals, the planet, and ultimately yourself. 
• Plant-based doesn’t automatically mean healthy
  You can still eat processed foods—intentional choices matter. 
• You’re not just nourishing your body—you’re shaping your energy
  Jenny highlights the emotional and energetic impact of what we consume. 
• Small shifts can lead to big transformation
  Simple swaps and batch cooking make this lifestyle approachable. 
• You don’t lose anything—you expand your options
  A plant-based lifestyle can feel abundant, creative, and freeing. 

🧠 Topics We Covered

•  Breaking free from binge eating and dieting cycles 
•  The role of the pandemic in personal transformation 
•  Ethical vs. health-driven plant-based journeys 
•  The emotional and energetic impact of food choices 
•  Navigating family dynamics when changing your lifestyle 
•  Misconceptions about veganism and health 
•  Practical tips for transitioning to plant-based eating 
•  Aligning your values with your daily habits 

🥗 Simple Plant-Based Swaps & Ideas

 🥣 Breakfast upgrade:
Oats + plant milk + berries + seeds (hemp, flax, chia) 

•  🥤 Smoothies:
  Fruit + greens + plant milk + optional beans/seeds for protein 
•  🍲 Batch cooking staples:
  •  Brown rice + lentils 
  •  Air-fried potatoes 
  •  Tofu (cubed, crumbled, or blended) 
  •  Canned beans & tomatoes 
•  🍜 Easy meals:
  Grain bowls, stir-fries, soups, and stews with different spice profiles 

👉 Key tip: Change the seasoning or cooking method to create variety—even with the same ingredients.

🔗 Resources & Links

•  🎙️ Podcast: The Flirty Vegan Podcast
•  🌐 Website: The Flirty Vegan 
•  📱 Instagram: @theflirtyvegan 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to Joy Unfiltered. I'm Rachel, and this is a podcast about joy. Not the shiny performative kind. Not the everything happens for a reason kind. This is joy as a strategy. A way to stay steady when life feels loud. A way to stay human when things are hard. A way to lead, love, and live without burning out or checking out. Some episodes will be just me. Some will be honest conversations with people who have lived their way into a deeper, truer joy. No fixing, no bypassing, just real stories, real tools, and room to breathe. Let's get into it. And I, and I know I say this every time, but I really am super excited today to have our guest on. We have so much good stuff to talk about because we have some similarities, but you know, I think we're gonna have some a good discussion. So let me just get right into it. I have Jenny Schaeffitz with me today, and Jenny is a vegan lifestyle coach and educator at the flirty vegan. I love that name. She is a mom, wife, and lives in New Hampshire. Guided by her ethics, she supports women who want to look and feel better through plant-based nutrition and lifestyle modifications. Woo! She helps clients maximize their health potential, reduce risk of disease, and glow from the inside out. And who doesn't want that? All while minimizing harm to the environment and honoring animals. Jenny enthusiastically shows that we can thrive on plants, and I believe it. She shares science, recipes, which I was told I need to collect some today, simple swaps and support so clients can feel excited and encouraged to make lasting changes. In addition to coaching and facilitating workshops, Jenny is the host of the Flirty Vegan Podcast that showcases stories of inspiring vegans living with purpose. Oh my goodness, welcome, Jenny. I'm so excited that you are here. Thank you, Rachel. It's so good to be here. Yeah, well, let's just get right into it. Although I would love to know. So my first, very first question is how did you come to the vegan um decision? Or has that always been part of who you are?

SPEAKER_01 2:48

No, it it was not who I was at all. Like most people, since we know the vegan population is very small, like most people, I grew up with your typical American diet, meat and dairy and fish and all animal products at every meal. Uh and for most of my life, the only thing that I ever considered was dieting. That was how I approached food, not as joy, not as fun and abundant, but as restrictive and um uh punishing, really. So uh so it's kind of a funny thing what veganism has given me, but we'll get into that in a moment. Uh so I was doing the dieting thing, doing the obsessively exercising and you know, cortisol spiking my my life away. And then something happened, and it was called the pandemic, and it's the best thing that ever happened to me for some reasons. Um so one night early into the pandemic, I now I couldn't go to my gym, so I couldn't do my my back-to-back spin circuit classes, my boot camps, all the all those things. So I'm trying to do the thing in the basement at my house and juggling the homeschooling, just like every other person in the world. And I'm still tracking and counting and measuring and weighing and and um depriving and also binging. So that was my drug of choice for as long as I could remember, going back to the early teen years. So I'm scrolling through Instagram again, early into the pandemic, and I see an ad that was so targeted to me, it's bizarre how that happens. And it was an ad for a 30-day challenge for a binge eating program, and it was a way into working with this particular coach, but it was a great uh low-ticket entry point, and so I didn't even hesitate. I'm lying in bed by now. And it was supposed to be starting on a particular date. I think I was a day or two late to start it, but that was fine. I checked and um I didn't even care. I whatever it was, it was $30, so I didn't care really what was what I was gonna. I'll I'll make it up. It's fine. Um, I'm a quick study. So I bought that program and started working with that coach, and I did more with that coach after the 30-day challenge, and that led me to do more and more personal development, which I'd never really done before. Uh you know, I thought I was conscious, I thought I was, I don't know, just like self-aware, but I was not as I did the work and discovered these things about myself. And the point of that program was to relinquish the dieting life, to make peace with food and my body. And I began to do that. And so I continued to work with that coach because it was so profound. And eventually that coach uh introduced me to her mentor, who was someone who's certified in life coaching. As I was contemplating that decision, I saw a nature documentary. Now we like nature documentaries. I like watching, you know, the Disney baby animals grow into big animals. And I like learning about the world. As I said, you know, I like to learn quick study. And I've also been a very good girl my whole life, you know, the people pleaser rule follower, which many of us evolved women are coming to grips with and trying to surrender. However, this was a case of the rule following really suiting me. So I see the documentary, and at the end, the narrator said, Okay, so the world is falling apart, the planet is burning down, and the thing you can do to help is go vegan. Which I had never in my life considered. And I'm I just spent an hour or two watching the planet succumb to devastation at the hands of humans. And so the guy is saying, if this bothered you, here's what you do take a personal responsible action and go vegan. That's how you help. Since most of us can't go down to the Amazon and stop the logging industry or the animal agriculture industry ourselves, what do we do? We can participate in this way. Now, I am a firm believer, since I can't go back in time and ask my earlier self this kind of question. I just have to look from this position today. And I am a believer that had I not worked with the binge eating coach for six months and the binge eating coach, don't I didn't mean to interrupt you?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

The binge eating coach was not so that wasn't she wasn't plant-based or okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

No, and we didn't necessarily talk about specific foods, it wasn't like meal planning or anything, it was just deal with your stuff, like more mindset, more mindset stuff. Yes, like whatever your stuff is, deal with it. And here's here's my formula. And so uh, so when I saw that documentary and heard the message to go vegan, I was like, okay, I guess that's what I'm doing tomorrow. Like we're starting day one. And so, in my typical frenzied let's learn about everything, because I didn't know how to go vegan, I started consuming massive amounts of podcasts and books because, as one does, how do we learn things, especially during the pandemic, when I can't congregate and find conventions to go to? I have to just find the material. So I found myself reading books, listening to podcasts, and I came across someone named Victoria Moran who wrote a book called Main Street Vegan. So I read that book and then learned that she had a coaching certification program. But now I mentioned that the binge eating coach introduced me to her mentor who's certified in life coaching. So now I've got two possibilities in my head. What do I do? Do I go to that program or do I do this Main Street vegan thing? And someone in my life said to me, I won't out that person here, but someone said to me, uh, I think the vegan thing is a bad idea. It's really narrow. You're gonna you're gonna come out of that with a certification to help people who already think about veganism with veganism. So that's very limiting. What about the people who want help with their self-esteem or their bad marriage or their um narcissistic parent? What do you do? Sure. So I went with the other coaching program, which I do not regret because it's all part of the journey and it was wonderful, and it led me to the next step and the next step and the next step. So it all served a purpose which led me to being in the most recent cohort of the most of the Main Street Vegan Academy for Vegan Lifestyle Coaching. So it's just it took me a while to get there. I did get there, but I had to travel this windy road first.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Sure, as we all do, as we all do. So when you watched the documentary and you listened at the end when they said, okay, and this is what you can do, even though you didn't go into that certification right away, did you become vegan then? I mean, did you just cold dress you you just said that night I am never eating another animal-based product again? Or what what was your transition like? I I can I share with you why. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

No, and and and look, that's the point of my podcast is also to hear people's vegan journeys. So it's it's also fascinating. Uh I I actually don't, you know, I don't have in my calendar going back to 2020 to know the date that I watched the movie, but I do know it was right around Thanksgiving 2020. So we had plans for Thanksgiving, not the usual one because it was COVID, but we had a plan to go to someone's house who we were comfortable with. And I believe it was the day after that weekend. It might have been the Monday after Thanksgiving. I'd like to say it was, you know, the moment I watched the documentary, but it might have been four days later. Sure. And I only knew of, I didn't even know personally, I knew of one vegan in my town. And it's just funny. Like, that's what you do. You know the vegan. Like that lady in the yellow house is vegan. And so I knew we had a mutual friend, so I had that mutual friend introduce me because I again, like, yes, I can read the books and watch the movies and listen to podcasts. And this is why I'm a coach, because there's only so much that other information can help. I do believe, and I know you would agree, that working with a human and and not even um, I wouldn't even think that in 2020 Chat GPT was a thing. Nowadays, yes, people can turn to chat and get meal plans and get all the advice on how to go vegan. I still don't think it replaces an actual human. Sure. So I reached out to that person and I said, What do I do? How do I go vegan? And she very generously and patiently assisted me. And then on that day, whether it was the day after Thanksgiving or that Monday after I shopped and got all the things, then I was like, it's day one, let's go.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

So did you feel so so many questions? So let me let me take it one by one. So your choice, then your transition into this lifestyle or into this way of eating, and we can talk about all the language and all the stuff at some point, um, was really it really was an ethical decision. So you made this moral, ethical decision that you did not want to cause harm to animals or to the planet. And so this was going to be your contribution to that.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Yes. And what I like to share with people is that I have never been a tree hugging, peace loving pineapple kind of person. I I we we barely recycled. I'm outing us right here. You know, we had we had geothermal in our house. So we felt like, well, that's a really big assisted, you know, a big, I don't know, like you said, contribution to the world. So everything else, meh, like, do I need to recycle? Do I need to uh really care about the environment? Again, I'm not throwing trash out my car window, but I wasn't your typical environmentalist. I wasn't lobbying for anything, I wasn't picketing anything, but I somehow saw that movie and it just triggered something really big. And I do believe it's because I had done so much personal healing that I was able to kind of separate myself and this whole dieting vanity baloney and say, oh my God, what is what is going on in the world? And this is horrific, and it doesn't even matter what size my jeans are, this is so much bigger than me. So if that means not counting calories and eating the four-ounce piece of white meat chicken, I'm good with that. I'll have, I don't even know how much fat is in tofu. I don't know how much fat is in beans because I don't care. Now, that being said, I did spend the first four years of my vegan journey not caring so much that I it was very altruistic and to the point of martyrdom. Like, it doesn't matter what happens to me and my health as long as I'm not eating animals and harming the world. So I ate all the vegan junk food because it was cruelty-free. So I ate everything that was presented to me that was, quote, plant-based and animal free, which was not the best choice for my health or my figure. So someone asked me the other day, oh, you're vegan. Are you skinny? This was a someone over the phone. And I said, I didn't tell that person, but I'm thinking to myself, I'm so offended by that question. It's such a just such a terrible thing to ask. Um, no, I'm not skinny. Um, I am prioritizing my health now alongside my ethics, which I didn't know was a thing. Now, people who went vegan in the 70s were probably skinny and healthy because there wasn't such a thing as Ben and Jerry's non-dairy ice cream.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Or tofu firky or all the things or or what is in my freezer right now that I honestly I don't eat very often. But I mean I love uh I have it all. I love chicken nuts, the fake chicken nuggets, whatever it is, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:38

I have the garden, you know, steak bites, and I have all of those things. But I I'm much more conscious and and um strategic about how I eat and for vitality, for longevity. It's not for a size, it's for health promotion. I don't want my kids to be, you know, wheeling me around and and having to lift things for me because all my mobility and flexibility is gone. So it's it's like I can care for myself and all the other living beings. It was the compassion that was taught to me through veganism, I learned I could apply to myself.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

I love that. Well, and a couple of I love that. So let's just sit with that for a second. But um, I love some of the things, the clarifications that you said as well, because one of the one of the big misconceptions, I think, um, and I tend to use the word plant-based a little bit more than vegan, and we can talk about we can talk about why. Um, but eating that way doesn't necessarily equal or equate to healthy. Because there is, and especially, and I would say, because I've been vegetarian for 25 years-ish, um, that and even 25 years ago, there just wasn't as much junk food that wasn't, you know, the plant-based junk food. So just being vegan or being plant-based doesn't necessarily mean healthy, right? It means you're right, not destroying the earth quite as much, um, or not destroying the earth, um, or harming animals for sure, harm not harming animals, but it doesn't necessarily equate to healthy. So that is one thing um that we just need to get out there. You can eat, I mean, there is there are plenty of there's plenty of crap to eat. Yeah, right. And and I don't necessarily always like to put negative connotations on food because it is just is, but there are some things out there that isn't actually food, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:38

I mean, I think people would agree in general that if you were to survive on potato chips, twizzlers, and coke, that's not a great choice for optimizing your body. Correct. But I am I'm thrilled that a lot of the things exist, not all of them. I do think some things are just absolutely toxic and shouldn't exist. But for the most part, I'm thrilled that Beyond and Gardeen and Morningstar and a lot of these and the the Ben and Jerry's non-dairy and and all the other Planet O, everything. I think it's so great that it exists for people who aren't prioritizing weight loss, cholesterol lowering, diabetes avoiding. You know, if you want to sit on the couch, binge watch all day long, do scratch tickets, and eat junk food, but you're gonna do it plant-based, you can. I'm throwing a a spiritual party for you.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Yeah, right, right, right, right. Because you're doing it for you're doing it for those other, you're doing it for those other reasons. And I guess you were saying something and I had a thought and now I missed the thought that, but it'll come that that will come, that will come back. I do that all the time. But I think, but, but I also I love the space that you you and I entered this space from really different realms. Um, but I do think that after years of eating in this way, that we all come together in some sort of middle-ish space. I mean, I entered it more from the, well, I actually got, I actually became vegetarian because it was a it was a dare from my ex-husband. He's like, I bet you can't go a month. I'm like, I bet I can't.

unknown 20:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

And then I just never went back. Um but for me, it was more from the that the health perspective health side of things. Um and my transition to 100% plant-based was really slow. So it I was vegetarian and then everything just kind of I kind of morphed, not morphed, I it was a long transition, like a 20-year transition to this plant-based space. But um, along the way, after watching some documentaries, and we can get into which ones we love and which ones I can't watch again, but that it was that about yes, do I care about the planet? Do I care about animals? Do I care about the rest of these things? Yes. But so I love, as in most things in life, that we can come from different spaces, have good conversations, and then kind of be in that same space together. The question I have, and well, I've got lots of questions that I've kind of written down, but one of the things for you for sure is so did you feel like um once you chose to go 100% plant-based or 100% vegan, that that whole binging, did it start to heal that relationship that you he that you had with food, or what did that happen before with the coaching that you were in?

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Yes, it happened before, which is why I think I was able to do this so so seamlessly, is because it didn't it didn't show up in the context of a diet. And I I'm a firm believer. Like I said before working with that coach, if I if someone had said to me, want to try vegan, it would have been just another thing, oh, well, I haven't done Jenny Craig yet either. So when do you want to do that? Yeah, let's let's first do Jenny Craig, then we'll do vegan. Like it would have just been an experiment to see how much weight I could lose. Sure, sure. Yeah, but because I had done all of this growth and healing and evolution when it came on my radar, it was like, oh my God, why is the whole world not seeing what I'm seeing?

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Yeah. So, and when you made that choice, because you came to it from, or not because, but you did come to it from the ethical stance of things, do you embody the whole vegan lifestyle? Like no leather, no um, no usage of any. Well, leather is the big thing for um, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

So I I love leather. That's why that's why I say plant-based instead of vegan. And and I'm gonna give you some grace on that one. Hold on. Um, so Dr. Michael Greger, who a lot of us health nerds obsess over, I love how he talks about the kind of the good, better, the better spectrum. And I just think it's important that we do better, better than how we used to do things. So I am a believer in also not wasting, like nonsensically wasting. So I had a closet full of leather shoes. Not all leather, I mean, of course, we all have some canvas shoes and some pleather shoes, and but I had a lot of leather items in my possession. As someone who cares about the world, like I just said, it would be absurd to then throw all those things out, even if I was donating them, but to now have to replace all of them, that just seemed wasteful to me. That just seemed unnecessarily uh expensive, frivolous. So I have kept things. Now I believe in um basically like driving it into the ground. So I'm going to wear my UGS until they are not wearable. And when I wear them, I acknowledge. I'm not saying I sit and say a prayer every time I get dressed, but in general, I do I do periodically acknowledge the items in my house that came from animals. I give myself grace because I purchased them before I knew otherwise. And I I highly recommend you do the same. And I give myself grace for using them because uh they're already in my possession. And now I know better. So the next time I need a pair of seekers or a pair of boots, I'm conscious about where they came from. So there is leather in my house. There is suede in my house, and I am fully aware of the crime, the pain, the cruelty that went into bringing that into a store to land in my house.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Um so you make this, I'm gonna transition just a tiny bit. So you make this transition in November of 2020. And I'm assuming you were married and had kids at that time. So what did your family say?

SPEAKER_01 25:38

So my husband I think saw it kind of like your 30-day challenge. Um, so he he joined me for a little bit. We disagree on the amount of time that that actually was. Several weeks, let's say. And my kids were young teens, young mid-teens at the time. So um they lived in my house. I mean, they weren't going out and buying their own groceries, but I still succumbed to their wishes. So I would buy the Cheez Its, I would buy the ice cream that they wanted. Um it wasn't until the last year that I put my foot down and said, I'm not buying it, I'm not preparing it, I'm not cleaning it. And I really don't even want to look at it or smell it, but sometimes I am stuck because I have shared space with other people. Uh it and also I go out into the world. So I'm aware that the majority of the world does not see things the way vegans do. I do walk around supermarkets and have to see flesh and carcasses and secretions. I do uh go to restaurants and watch other people consume food that I don't look at as food because I choose to engage with other people. But um, you know, if I could design a perfect world, there wouldn't be any of this. Yeah. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Gotcha. So so what advice? So uh, well, I mean it, I mean, I'll hold off on that for a quick second. So, okay, you so you mentioned that you started when you were transitioning or or learning all about this new lifestyle. You read books, podcasts. What are some what are some you mentioned, Victoria Moran already? What are other ones that you're like, oh, this was really good. I really liked this one, or ones that you would recommend or that you do recommend that other people totally listen to.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Um, I do think people should listen to my podcast now. Of course they should.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

The flirty vegan, and we'll put we will for sure put the um the link in the show notes. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Now I it's funny. I as much as I went into it with the ethics, there was that, like I said, recovering dieter within me that that I, you know, still have to nurture from time to time. And so I did seek out plant-based health information. And I found the exam room podcast right from the beginning of my journey. So I had vegan, like like the ethical stories and things that I was getting from, say, Victoria and Victoria's podcast, which is like, oh my God, I don't know, 14 years old or something like that, 15 years old. So I did listen to Main Street Vegan for more anecdotal. Um, still there was science, there was stuff like that. Sure. It was educational, but I got a lot of the ethical values from her. Whereas the exam room is predominantly, every once in a while, there's a surprise episode, but it is usually about nutrition and the impact of plant-based versus animal-based foods on the body. So I found the exam room. I still listen to the exam room religiously. I at some point found the NHA, the National Health Association podcast. Dr. Gregor has a great podcast with very short episodes. Um I mean, I started going down different rabbit holes, like when I really got the health-focused, which which ebbed and flow. I mean, I say that in the last year I started to focus on my health, but there were periods during the whole vegan journey that I dove into that and then jumped out. So I found crispy, crispy cancer is um, you know, very health-focused and empowering. And sometimes, and sometimes, admittedly, it feels extreme. You know, I don't want to juice 100% of the time. I don't want to.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Did she start off as the green goddess or the so it's a it's a guy? Oh, that's what I'm thinking of. I'm thinking of Chris Carr, I think. Oh, I don't know that.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Um, okay. Okay. So this guy, Chris, you know, there's his approach, um, or he interviews people, but it's it can be very focused on raw and juicing and and it's to heal disease. Like that's the point of. So I'll when I'm when I'm worried about something, if I hear that somebody has thyroid cancer, then I'll turn to crispy cancer and now search up thyroid cancer and see if there's any episodes because I want to go down that rabbit hole. Um, Melanie Joy is amazing. She wrote the book, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows. So there's a lot of her content out there. I found Colleen Patrick Goudreau, who is known as the joyful vegan.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

I don't know if I know her. I probably should. Okay. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

She's written a bunch of books and she will be on my podcast at one point. Um, so she's very, you know, now she's got a lot of health-focused information, but what she writes can be very ethical. So I I found a way to get both of those um like veins of information coming coming in. Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

That is so interesting. I had I've been taking notes now, Jenny, about kind of some of those things. Again, interesting how how we came to it from different um aspects, because I think I came to it from more of the more of the health thing. And you know, some of the ones that um you know that I think about are you know definitely forks over knives. But have you did you read, did you read? Did you see the documentary? And I can't remember what it's called. Maybe it's just called twins. Um, the twin study one.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Yes, it's not it's not called twin. It's has a different kind of name. It's it's a it's an intriguing title, and it's I can't put my finger on it, but yes, I did see that four uh that four-part series on the twins.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Yeah, for those of you listening who haven't seen it, and will I I'll look up what the name is and put it in there. I just thought it was an interesting, it was four sets of twins, and they then go, and I don't know how long it was a six-month study or something that, but they had one of the twins on a plant-based or a vegan diet and one of the twins not, and then had them on there. And then it was interesting to see what the and this was from the health perspective again, yeah, but um to see the differences in their biomarkers throughout the course of six months, and I found it fairly fascinating. So, but you know, again, I like to see the ending because it was, you know, pro plant.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Yeah, I mean, one of one of the earliest ones I started after after that decision, then I was like, I need to consume, consume, consume. What's out there? And so, yes, it was forks over knives, what the health, and then I forget which which one, which documentary shows the firefighter, the Rip Esselston firehouse, where he put his whole Oh yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 33:03

I can't remember if that was I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

Was that engine two just by itself? I don't remember, but that was so powerful where you took a bunch of like macho firefighter guys in the firehouse and and saw their cholesterol plummet and their blood pressure and their weight and their and then on the flip side their energy skyrocket and their complexion and their you know vitality, vivaciousness, and it was just that that was that was very uh compelling.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Yeah, I liked that one as well. So I I listened to his podcast, Play It Strong, and I think he does such a good job. And now John James, John something, there's a um, he's an Iron Man, um, but he comes from a really, really rough background, and every other word in his vocabulary, I think, is profane. Um but he and I can't remember what the book is too, but but so I love, but he talks about it from such a male, really dominant male perspective in terms of this isn't just fluff. John something, I can't think it was played. It was in some some really hardcore bands or something. So he lived this really hardcore lifestyle, but love the fact that again, you get all of these um people that you that um break the stereotypes, like I think Rip does in terms of the firefight fighters, John and John Joseph, something maybe it's just John Joseph is his name, um, talks about that as well to say, you know what, this isn't just fluffy tree hugger or that. And he talks about it both from the health perspective, John Jane, John Joseph does from the health perspective and also from the ethical vegan perspective as well, which is so delightful, although I don't think that word would ever be attributed to him. Again, I'm gonna reference him in the show notes, but what a what a fascinating space that we can all be in this together and that all of our efforts, then those of us who are choosing to eat in this fashion, um, can provide, and I'm gonna bring it back to joy, can provide joy to the joy to the world, right? So the joy to our own bodies, because I do believe that from the health perspective, we are nourishing ourselves in a way that is more helpful, but also then that we are contributing to the health and well-being of animals and the planet.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

For sure. Yeah. I do want to give another shout out to real men eat plants. That's another one that I just recently came upon and was just so excited because it's a circle of dudes talking about being vegan. And it just, yeah, that's it's so supportive to men on the journey. And but I enjoy listening to their conversations, so yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

So, one of the things that I was tasked with as I was coming on, and I told Jenny this beforehand, but so my fiance was like, maybe you can get some recipes and stop just cooking like tofu and broccoli. I'm like, Well, I know, um, not that great of a cook and I'm not that imaginative. So the so getting into kind of the things that you do and how you coach and what you have to offer as the flirty vegan, are there, I mean, do you have things on your website? Are there other suggestions, or perhaps what is what are your go-to's in your household besides tofu and broccoli?

SPEAKER_01 36:36

And and before I before I share some actual food items with you, I just want to comment on the joy thing because as I had mentioned in my 30, 30 plus year dieting journey, food was not joyful. It was not, it, it did not feel light, it did not feel exciting, it felt heavy, it felt dreadful, uh, and it it felt critical. And so this choice has led me down a path of joy that I'd never experienced before because I always feared what is this, what is that one meal going to do for my body? How am I gonna fit into my genes tomorrow? And will I look puffy? And is that a good choice? Did I have too much of it? And none of those thoughts cross my mind anymore. And I'm not again, not all vegan food is healthy, so I could have an impossible burger and fries and and look kind of puffy tomorrow because there might have been way too much salt, way more than I'm used to. So that you know, there's there is that, but going through the journey that I did with the binge eating coach and then stepping into this very compassionate, loving, joyful stance has made food fun. Even if it's not super exciting, even if it's not uh super creative, it's it fills me with joy knowing my food didn't harm anyone.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

So I just I love that. And one of the things that I don't get to talk about very often, because I don't, I'm not a, I do tell people I'm not a pusher. This is my choice and this is how I choose to live. Um, but one of the things that makes me feel good as well is that I'm not eating fear. Yes, I think about, and I don't like to think about, but you know, clearly when animals are being killed, that they secrete. I mean, we all are gonna secrete those hormones or those all those chemicals that that we that happens when we are afraid. And so I'm no longer consuming that. Yes. And again, makes me feel joyful. And that and that and that and I think it it's it's both that I know in my brain that I'm not consuming it, but my body knows that I'm not consuming that.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

And I I truly believe, and I have interviewed people that have spoken to this from a scientific standpoint, it there is a massive connection between the food we eat and our mental health. And so to me, all of the anxiety and depression that I see in the greater world, as well as in my community, in the amongst the people that I know, I think to myself, okay, I I'm not so naive to think that going plant-based is putting on a bulletproof vest for all medical conditions. But when you think of the vibrational stuff, the the not consuming fear, death, torture, separation, all of those feelings that um, because these animals feel just like we do. So when you take a calf away from its mother, both of those animals are enormously pained. And so whether you're having the dairy from the mother or the veal from the baby calf, you're consuming their sadness, their grief. And I feel like it's it's just so obvious that it's manifesting as all of the mental health issues we're seeing so prevalent. And and so I just feel like, well, duh, if you want to feel happier, eat happy food. It's it can't again, people say to me, you can't simplify it that much that ever that vegan is a cure-all. And I said, no, it's not a cure all, it's a cure something. It's a cure something, and I guarantee something in you will improve if you took out that category of of pain from your diet.

SPEAKER_03 40:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

I I'm we are we are on the same, on the same page. We are on the same page in that. So talking about that then, let's let's transition into like what are your what are your go-to? Okay, yeah, what are your favorite easy things to make for people who are not gourmet chefs?

SPEAKER_01 41:14

Yep. And I think a lot of it is just tiny tweaks. So for breakfast, I know a lot of people who like to have cereal or oatmeal or uh, you know, kind of granola parfait. There are ways to just swap out. So if you're having an oatmeal bowl, I mean, duh the the simplest thing is just to swap out the milk. And there's there's countless non-dairy milk options. So you can make this huge, plentiful, vibrant, nutritious bowl with oats, plant-based milk. I put canned pumpkin, berries, hemp, flax, cinnamon, uh, you know, I load it all in. I have this huge bowl, and it's so satisfying, it's so filling because all plants have fiber. So you're not getting that from your white meat chicken or your egg whites. You're getting fiber, which now, if you do have some diet culture tendencies, well, you're full now because you didn't just have a dan and non-fat yogurt, which is not filling. Yeah, all right. It might be 100 calories, but it's not filling. So my breakfast now might be way more calories than someone feels comfortable having, but I'm not picking because I'm not, I'm not grazing because I'm not still hungry. So it there's just much more of a satisfaction when you have fiber-rich food. So that could be a smoothie. And if you're having a smoothie, the plant-based milk, so much fruit, so much fruit. No one should be avoiding fruit because they think, oh, they're natural sugars. Yes, they're natural sugars, they're not added sugars, like what might come in your Starbucks coffee, or what show up in your um your yogurts and and whatever the packages of stuff people eat. So it's like okay, have fruit, spinach, again, more of those seeds, the chia, the flax, the plant-based milk. Sometimes I'll throw beans or something kind of um, you know, uh out there into my smoothie because you don't end up tasting it, because something like berries are so strong in flavor.

SPEAKER_03 43:30

Right.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

So smoothies can be very nourishing. Um, I always, I'm not, I'm actually not like a super creative, fantastic chef. I mean, I'm I'm good. I feed myself, I'm very happy with what I make. I follow a lot of recipes or I get inspiration from a lot of recipes, and there's so much available on Pinterest, and there's great cookbooks like the fiber fueled cookbook from Dr. Will Bolsowitz, the um Um, I can never remember her name, but the one uh Carly who wrote um Plant You, which is, I mean, she's got like six million followers on Instagram, so her cookbook is very successful. Uh, she's written a couple. Uh, I interviewed Chef Bailey Ruskis for my podcast. She's written a couple of cookbooks. One of them is breaking up with dairy. So there's a lot of good content out there, but I'm a big fan of batch cooking things, the components that could go into a bowl. So I always have brown rice mixed with lentils. I do that in the rice cooker together just to bump up my brown rice. I started adding lentils to it. So I have my brown rice lentil combo. I will air fry the little mini potatoes that you can buy in multicolored. I'll I'll batch um air fry the hue, whatever the bag is. It's a three-pound bag or something, whatever. It's maybe it's just a one-pound bag, but it's a lot of potatoes. So I always have potatoes. I will again on the better spectrum. I know some people have issues with cans, you know, metal. I I don't have metal toxicity, so I I use cans. Cans are a lifesaver. So I always have canned beans, canned tomatoes. Um I will also batch cook air fried tofu, uh air fried tofu. I just eat sometimes I'll take the time to slice it, other times I just crumble it up, add spices, air fry that. So I can make those Buddha bowls. Yeah. Um yeah, I I mean sometimes it just comes down to the right sauce. If you sometimes you can buy them if you don't have an issue with salt, really is is the main culprit in package things. But you could buy these these vegan peanut sauces and gochu gang and and different things that if you make noodles and vegetables and throw a can of beans or tofu, and then now you've got kind of a stir fryer, a lomain that you would have gotten from a local restaurant. So there's a lot of I do a lot of variations on the same thing. I do a lot of soups, chilies, stews, where I just throw everything that's in the fridge in the pot and maybe change up the seasoning, go from like Mexican flavors to Asian flavors to Greek flavors, and it becomes a different meal.

SPEAKER_00 46:37

Yeah, and that's what I think for sure. I mean, I joke a lot about, although we do eat a lot of tofu in this house. Um but changing up the seasonings is for me the the lifesaver piece of it. I think the more challenging thing once in a while um is making sure that that we're getting enough protein. Um, especially as a woman of my age, want to make sure that I'm getting enough protein as well. So like in like thinking through those things. But for me, spices is I'm not a big sauce person, um, but spices are a huge thing. Just to like just to switch that up.

SPEAKER_01 47:10

So and sometimes you could take the same food and prepare it differently. So like you could take potatoes, you could do potatoes a million different ways, or you could take tofu and you can crumble it, you can air fry it, you could stir fry it, you could throw it in the blender and like pulverize it.

SPEAKER_00 47:27

I made I make this a really awesome vegan chocolate mousse with my um yeah. My fiancé is like, what? That's tofu. I'm like, it's tofu.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

Right, exactly, exactly. So there's so many, it's sometimes you know, it's just preparing it differently, spicing it differently, using a different uh appliance, whether it's the air fryer or the um what do you call it, like a saute pan or the oven, or there's so many different ways to have the same thing. So even if you do like tofu and broccoli, you can do it differently.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

Yes. And we do eat a lot of tofu and broccoli in our house. So um, oh my goodness. I feel like we could talk forever about all of these things, but I'm just watching time as well and want to be considerate of your time. Um, so is there anything, Jenny, that you're like, oh, I really wish, because I have two other questions. I really wish everyone would know X. And then I want to talk a little bit about how you work with people and how people can get connected with you as well. But is there something in your experience now over the past see six years? What is it, 2026, the past six years that you have learned that you're like, oh, if I would have known this five years ago, my life would have been so much easier.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

Truly, it comes down to the cruelty that you know I'm sure you've heard it, Paul McCartney's famous quote that if slaughterhouses had windows, everyone would be I think he said vegetarian, but in this context, same thing. Um however, vegetarian is full of cruelty. If you are a egg and dairy consumer, it's just the the cruelty we are shielded from it because it is so devastating and yet by being shielded from it, we contribute to it. So I feel like we have a duty to know where our food comes from. And if someone doesn't want to know well, then I think there's some other perhaps personal growth that could be looked at. And and look, these most people I know are not vegan. So I'm speaking not just to massism, I this is to my friends and family. People don't want to know, but if you want to be a conscious member of society, do you really want to walk around with fingers in the ear, la la la la la? It's I think it's good to know. And if you choose to make certain decisions after you know, well, you're a well-informed consumer. And I I can't argue with that. But I if there's one thing I wish people knew is where their food came from.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

Yeah, yeah. Yes, and I'm I'm with I'm with you on that. So how do you work with people? Are you working with people who are still eating um a traditional American diet and then or a traditional diet, I just want to say American, um, and wanting to transition? Are you working with people after they transition? Like where's your where are your and where's your sweet spot? Like what do you like doing the most? Um, and what are your how are you working with your clients?

SPEAKER_01 50:46

Yes. Okay, so the short answer is yes, um, all of those things. I do so people have to want some some kind of change. And so, I mean, it's it's called the flirty vegan because you're flirting with with this idea. So if if you're walking around again like that person who wants to sit in a lazy chair, binging TV, maybe playing some online poker and drinking beer and eating fast food, that's not someone who is going to hire necessary or I I shouldn't say they won't, but that's not the ideal clientele for the personal trainer or the health coach, unless they get so fed up with themselves that they want to make a change. But typically the people who I communicate with are poking around options, you know, they've heard about plant based from you know that article in Cosmo or something. They've heard about it, they see it slapped on the front of a bunch of products. So there's it's more often a health approach, but assuming your audience is comprised of people who've tried a diet or two in their lifetime, uh diets don't work because they feel punishing, they feel like we're we're in the grips of something outside of us, which is why if you can uh get into the ethics of veganism, well then making health changes is easy because it's that self-love, it's that joy, it's that spiritual component. If you're just looking to drop a couple pounds and you think going vegan is the answer, um again, we we can all go on a diet. Anyone can, you know, do a crash diet or lose 10 pounds. It's that's not the thing. If you're looking for sustainable health, if you're looking for a a lightness to your spirit, then I'm much more likely to have success with you. Uh yeah, you know, yes.

SPEAKER_00 53:01

And I I we're speaking the same language in terms of yeah, it's not it's not a diet, it is it is choices, and I think it's an actually pretty freeing choice. So there are so many options then. When you are living into your values, and so if your value is um non-cruelty, then you can then you know the world opens up in terms of options that you that you have. So when people work with you, is it um like more specifically then do you have a program or is it individual coaching? What does that what does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 53:36

Yeah. Um, so I definitely encourage individual work because people have individual approaches and you're gonna get more attention one-on-one. So I do have packages for individuals. I have um I did I did a uh what do we call it, like a first round of an online, a virtual group program that I ran from January into February. And that went really well. And I'd I'd love to do that again, where we just kind of hit on a bunch of topics related to plant-based nutrition, the benefits, health issues, diseases, socializing, kind of wrapping, wrapping your whole being around this concept. Um, so there's group program options. I've done a lot of workshops, both in person and virtual. So that's a fun option. So if people have community groups who, you know, my garden club wants to learn more about this. Yes, I I love opportunities to connect with groups who are curious, open-minded.

SPEAKER_00 54:48

Yes, love it. Curious, open-minded. And besides then, the flirty vegan is that how do they get a hold of you? So they listen to your for sure they need to go listen to your podcast. Um, and how do they, where else do they find you?

SPEAKER_01 55:01

Yep. Well, if they went to the podcast, then the show notes have links to everything. Or if someone went directly to Instagram, which is just the flirty vegan, all the links are in the um the bio. And then if they went to my website, the flirty vegan, everything is accessible from there. So, you know, everything connects out to each other.

SPEAKER_00 55:23

You are the flirty vegan everywhere. People want to look for that. I will make sure to put all of those links in the show notes. Any last, any last thoughts? Any lot anything that you want to leave the audience with today, Jenny.

SPEAKER_01 55:37

Ah I know you said you don't want to be pushy. And of course, I don't ever want to be pushy or judgy or come across that way. I I just would really invite people to open up to the possibility of this life. I didn't mention this earlier, but before COVID, I actually had a home-based bakery for 10 years. So I loved sweet. I love sweets, and I baked sweets every single day. So I have a sweet tooth. I do appreciate when someone says, Oh, but you're vegan, so now you can't have chocolate cake or you can't have ice cream or you can have brownies. No, you can have everything, and it tastes so much better because no one had to die for me to eat that. And so I just would really invite people to consider a life led by compassion.

SPEAKER_00 56:39

I think that is a beautiful way to end that. I love the invitation. I hope many of you accept the invitation and at least go check out the flirty vegan. Again, thank you, Jenny, so much for being here today. I loved our conversation. And for the audience, remember I am Rachel, and from my heart to yours, I am celebrating you today and every day. So have fun, live well, enjoy.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

Thank you.