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This week Victoria Moran shares the benefits of a vegan lifestyle. Victoria was named Peta’s sexiest vegan over 50, she’s an author of many books, podcast host, creator of The Main Street Vegan Academy and all around amazing human! I seriously love Victoria and I think you will too after listening to today’s show.
Find out more about Victoria on her website : http://mainstreetvegan.net/
music by ben sound. com
Transcript:
Hello,
I hope you guys have been loving this series on nutrition. So this is the third and final episode in this series where we’ve been diving deep into how to really heal your body. So we’re not really talking about weight loss in this series, although it ends up being sort of a sidebar to what’s going on. But we really dive deep into foods that bring healing vitality, foods that make you glow. And so in the very first episode we talked about, and I kind of gave you like a maybe longer rundown than you needed, of how I sort of came into this whole process of investigating exactly what I was putting in my body and then doing sort of like some biohacking and figuring out what worked for my body and what didn’t, and then I sought out the guests to share with you. So the first one was Dominica, and she went through a 30 day juice detox, and cured a lot of things in her body and has since moved from a vegetarian to a vegan lifestyle. And then this last episode was with the juice guru with Steve. And that was amazing. He’s been juicing for 25 years and just his insight and how he was really able to cure and heal a lot of things about his body not just obesity, but getting over being a cigarette smoker and bringing other people into the fold. Now he that is his life’s work to share this juicing. And now today I have a new guests to share with you. Her name is Victoria and she has been a main street vegan for 32 years. She is so glowy and beautiful. If you haven’t seen the picture of her, you’ll have to go to my website to see or go to her website. There’ll be a link in the show notes. She currently holds the title of pitas. Sexy is vegan over 50. So you’ll need to check her out for sure. But she’s actually an obesity survivor, she’s maintained an over 60 pound weight loss. She’s the best selling author of 12 different books. She has a an Academy where she teaches people all about becoming vegans in training them to be certified in teaching other people how to become vegans in her Mainstreet vegan Academy. And really like she’s just so interesting. And when you listen to this interview, I know you’ll feel what I did was this big, huge heart of compassion and kindness towards the earth and the inhabitants of the earth. And I just really feel like I learned a lot from her. And it really helped solidify my path that I was doing things in the right way for me, and that I was learning along this journey. And that’s all we can really hope and expect from each other. So I hope you love this interview. I loved interviewing Victoria, and so I’m anxious to see what you think so be sure to share with me jump into the online Facebook group so I can hear what you think you can find that at SS lb community comm It stands for start small, live big community.com I really want to hear what you think about this whole series and especially this week about Victoria. So here we go. Welcome to the art of living big. My name is Betsy Pake entrepreneur, author and personal success coach. This is the show that brings you stories and small ideas to help you live a big life. I hope this once a week podcast will inspire you, motivate you and encourage you to think differently about what could be possible for your life. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let’s go live big. All right, I have with me today. Victoria Moran, thank you so much for being here, Victoria.
Thank you, Betsy. It’s a pleasure to be with you. So I’m crazy excited.
You guys need to look at the picture of Victoria because she seems very, very Paris France to me. I kind of love you. So I want everybody to tell you tell everybody a little bit about you. And then when they look at the picture, they’re gonna go Oh, it all make sense why she’s so fabulous. So go ahead. No, or anything.
It’s funny that you said Paris because two years ago today. I was there. I went there to celebrate do we share ages? Yeah, sure. My 65th birthday. So that means that 67 is coming right up. Yeah. And crying now
everybody needs to look at your picture because Okay, crazy, okay.
And I think that is so much a part of who I am today, because I’ve always been very invested in the idea of living fully. I’ve written a whole bunch of books, and the one that says sold far and away more than the others was called creating a charmed life because I think that that’s what we’re here for. Yeah. And so now in this time of life, When a lot of people say, Excuse me, will you step out of the way? My attitude is no, you can get somebody else to do that.
I love that. So how I found you was, in my research for this whole vegetarian, really alternative, I use the word alternative, you can correct me about alternative way of looking at food. And I wondered, as we communicated on Twitter, and I saw your picture on Twitter, is that one of the keys to really staying so young and vibrant, is what you’re putting in your body?
Well, it certainly has to be if the old saw you are what you eat, if we’re really eating food that is dead. And I know there’s a lot out in the world, about processed foods and junk foods and everything that’s wrong with them. I don’t think anybody disagrees with that. But the problem with animal foods is there is nothing more dead than a corpse. And that is literally what people eat when they meet. And then of course, as a vegan, I also don’t consume eggs or dairy products for various reasons, mostly ethical, but certainly for my own health, too. And so I think what happens when people are vegan when they eat a plant exclusive diet, number one, it means we just eat a lot more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, which are the most life imparting foods. But we also have this wonderful relationship with other beings, we understand that we’re a small minority, and that animal agriculture is a thing. It’s a business just like making automobiles or baby toys. Yeah. But to us, it is an institution like slavery that is on its way out. And the fact that we know that we are living in a way that doesn’t exploit others to the best of our ability. I think that makes you younger, too, because it just makes you feel like you know what? My life matters. It’s worth something. It’s making a difference.
Yeah, I like that a lot. You know, for me, I started exploring this. And I and I’ve told this story on the podcast in the last couple weeks that people will have heard, but I’ve always been really active and competitive in athletics, and just found that I had gained some weight. I’m about to turn 46. And so one morning in meditation, I asked my body, like, what’s going on? And what’s happening? What would you like? And I heard very, very clearly vegetables. And so Oh, darn, it was it. It was a weird moment. Like, I know, some people listening may or may, you know, rate that on the woowoo scale. My husband rates that on the woowoo scale, but he’s used to my woowoo. And I’m comfortable with it. But But I really heard that that was I heard that from my body. It told me that. And when I did that, within three weeks, I had lost 10 pounds.
Wow.
Yeah. And so and I didn’t suffer, I wasn’t like stroke. I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t but I cut in that process. I cut out animal protein, just because I was really attempting to put in so much more. More vegetables that it was full. Yeah. And I felt this really strange, wonderful way of being. And so that’s
Yeah. Well, that’s what a lot of people find. And of course, unlike your husband, I don’t think it’s woowoo at all, because of course. That’s the world I live into. Yeah, I do believe that our bodies can communicate with us, if we allow them. And so often people say, Oh, my body likes animal protein, my body blah, blah, blah. But I think sometimes, it’s like, if you ask a heroin addict, what are you craving? He’s not going to tell you fruits and vegetables, right. Got something else going on? Yeah. And I think we can. We can eat so many foods that our bodies don’t understand that that communication is impaired. Sometimes, obviously, in your case, you were hearing crystal clear. And I think sometimes too, there’s even more than that. I’m going to go into advanced whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, 201 and love and that is that I really believe that. Sometimes it’s time on a spiritual level for people to take another step, another step in compassion. Another step in really changing the cellular makeup of the body based on the fuel that you give it. And sometimes that happens with a message like you got sometimes someone will just happen on to a documentary like Forks Over Knives or there’s a brand new went out called, what the hell? Oh, it’s really really wonderful. Yeah, um, or somebody will just happen to catch a headline or or something on Facebook, because today is the day for them to take another step forward.
Yes, yeah, I like that a lot. And, you know, I have lived my life. When I was much younger, I tried to be a vegetarian for ethical reasons.
But I didn’t have any support. And we didn’t really have the internet. So I didn’t know what to do. And so you know, we kind of lost I ended up just eating a lot of processed food, and then eventually just went back to eating what everybody else ate. But and I think that this last time, it you know, it started because I wanted more vegetables. But I do wonder I’ve been on a very profound spiritual path, and in a feeling of being connected to everything, and if that’s where that has, you know, where that has stemmed from, and I have been one that if I see a video of like, you know, a cow or a pig, like being treated terribly, even if it’s true and real, like, I just can’t look at it that that. For me, that wasn’t motivating enough. I know that sounds terrible. But it wasn’t motivated enough, because I didn’t, I wanted to pretend it wasn’t real. And so it wasn’t real to me. Does that make sense? It does. And it sounds like your higher power just had to get to you through a direct route. Yeah, but it is true. You know, so many people will say to me, Oh, no, no, don’t show me. Don’t show me what happens when the baby calf is separated from the mother cow. Even in an organic dairy even in a family farm. Don’t show me that. Don’t show me that. Don’t show me that the baby chicks are masturbated or suffocated at birth if they happen to be boys and can’t lay eggs. And don’t tell me that my nice neighbor up the road had to get her at her hands from the same hatchery that kills the baby boys like this. Don’t tell me Don’t tell me. So what this says to me is not well, you terrible people, you just don’t care. That’s just the opposite. If they didn’t care, they’d say, Hmm, all right, what the heck, it’s just a chicken. They don’t say that. They say, Don’t tell me I don’t want to know. Because we really do all have a heart, we are made out of love. And so many of these things that we pursue in life, meditation, various spiritual practices, spiritual disciplines, finding a cause in life, and just doing what we need to do to be able to fix something in a particular area. That all comes from the love that we are. And in looking at, at swapping out these animal products, which are really products of cruelty for a plant based diet and lifestyle. That also makes us really gorgeous. And well, and then an energetic. Yeah, that’s a win win.
There’s so many benefits. And so if somebody’s listening, and they have they, they just have always eaten meat, and that’s the way their family lives. But they’re wondering if maybe they’re listening today, maybe they happened upon this podcast, because there was some little part of the universe that was trying to trigger them to think differently.
Yeah, and I hope that’s true. And I want to say that very few people were born vegan, my daughter was raised vegan, even she wasn’t born vegan, I was still just vegetarian. For anybody that doesn’t understand the difference. vegetarians don’t eat meat or fish. Vegans don’t eat those things. And also, don’t eat eggs and dairy, what we do eat, this is amazing array from the plant kingdom with all kinds of wonderful, wonderful dishes. And nowadays, there is really nothing that you can get from an animal that you can’t get better from a plant. But anyway, I was still vegetarian until my baby was born. But while she was still nursing, I wanted to give her the best life possible. And so I went vegan, but most of the vegans you’ll meet almost all of them spent the first you know, 20 3040 years of their life, you know, eating meat. So sometimes I think New vegans in particular, can come off as as a little bit holier than thou and you know, okay, I just told you why it’s bad. Why don’t you change, but it’s a big change in our culture. And I think we all understand that. So I think the first step is just to if this is touching your heart anywhere, if this is new information to you, and you’re thinking, Hmm, maybe I just want to look into that a little bit. Maybe I don’t want to look at those videos and see how bad it is. But maybe I want to learn a little bit. And that’s exactly what I should suggest that Do there are wonderful, wonderful ways to get information these days? I mean, certainly books. I don’t need to be advertising my own book. No, do it. Yeah, it Mainstreet vegan is so close to my heart. And I’ve written 12 books and when you’ve written 12, you know which ones are good and which ones could have been a little bit better. Yeah, thanks, street vegan really speaks to people. And that title is really just what it’s about. It’s for regular people. And when I went vegan, I was a young mom living in Wheaton, Illinois, one of the western suburbs of Chicago. I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, that has a state name for it. I mean, Mainstreet really speaks to me. And so the book is like that it’s 40, little chapters, a recipe at the end of each one. So that’s something to look into. But you can also get a lot of information online, there various Facebook groups that really help you understand why. So if you’re more in the health orientation, and you’re really looking to lose some weight, hedge your bets against degenerative diseases, especially heart disease, something that a lot of people don’t know, is that prior to 1990, it was believed that the atherosclerotic plaque that clogs people’s arteries, was just there. Once it was there, there was just not a thing you could do about it. And then medical doctor in Sebastopol, California, Dean Ornish, published research that with a low fat, virtually vegan diet, meditation, mild exercise and group support, this reversal could happen heart is the number one killer of women and men could be reversed. In the 90s, published in the early 2000s. That work was repeated at the Cleveland Clinic by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr. But he only used the food. He said, I don’t care about your meditation or your group support. Yeah, just do the food. Yeah, he got the same measurable results, no surgery, no drug. And no other diet has ever been shown to do that. And because heart disease kills more women and men in North America than any other cause. Maybe this is something you want to look at. And those documentaries that I mentioned before, folks, Forks Over Knives, what the hell eating you alive are all really wonderful. And then if you’re more looking at it from the ethical point of view, it doesn’t take a lot of research to find out what it takes to get meat, fish, eggs and dairy. It’s not a pretty picture. And then the next step is find out what you do instead, which is very pretty and very delicious.
Yeah, yeah, I think that’s one of the things people think is that it can’t be like delicious food, but I’ve had some of the best meals that I’ve ever had in the last couple weeks of just like experimenting and trying stuff. And you know, I talked the other day with the juice guru, and we were talking about cheeses and about how there’s so many great vegan cheeses. Now, it’s so different than it was, you know, 20 or 30 years ago,
very different. I mean, when I started out, there were no vegan cheeses, period, even bad ones. There was a recipe that I had it had two ingredients, you would put raw cashews, and celery sticks in a blender. And it made a kind of dip that was remotely reminiscent of cheese if you didn’t have a very good memory. And then fast forward another 15 or so years, we started getting vegan cheeses and they looked like vegan cheese. They looked like what you thought she should look like. But they tasted just absolutely awful. I mean, they were like Velveeta on a bad day. Yeah, and then fast forward again. And now. The cheeses are so exquisite. You could serve them to a French person. I just had some wonderful blue cheese just before we started our interview from a new company called bright life foods. Some of the bigger companies where you can find the cheese and Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods companies like treeline meos kitchen, kite Hill, these are really exquisite slice them on a cheese platter kind of cheeses and then if you just want something that melts for a pizza or a grilled cheese, there’s a brand called de a DIY a it’s not your big time fancy cheese it’s more like you know your regular grocery store feed it to the kids cheese but it does melt which was something vegan cheese never did before. Right? So If you’re gonna do this, this is you don’t have to make sacrifices to do it in 2017,
it can be an adventure, it can be like something really fun.
And that’s just a and compassion should be an adventure. It shouldn’t shouldn’t be a chore,
you know, in the beginning, and I say in the beginning of my, my journey six weeks ago, but in the beginning, I thought, like, I’ll still have dairy. But then as I learned more about the pitiful circumstances surrounding how I get eggs and cheese I have, now I don’t, I’m not saying I’m a vegan, I’m not saying I’m a vegetarian, I’m saying I’m plant based. Because to me, as I move through this, I’m giving myself a chance to, I guess, like, move out of old habits and start to,
I guess,
you know, what the real issue is, for me, is my family because they’re not eating this way. So how do I start to transform myself? While not like totally ignoring their needs? And so there were times where I would have something that had some cheese in it, and, and I’m okay with that, although I’m trying to move away. And as I do more and more, so do they, they become interested. So I think giving myself that grace period of like, now I know more, I can try and do better. And every day, if I can do a little bit better, I’m headed in the right direction.
Oh, totally. And that makes so much sense. There are a few people who can just make an overnight change. And it depends, you know, if somebody is really moved by cruelty, or whatever it is, or they go to their doctor, and they’re told that, you know, they’re on their way to bypass surgery. Yeah, an experience like that can cause somebody to say, okay, and do an absolute 360. But for most people, we do need to kind of ease and I love what you’re doing that you’re basically vegan. But when life interferes, you’re giving yourself a little bit of leeway. I think of that as like the elastic waist. And I think that’s so important. In the beginning. I certainly did that in the beginning. And now it wouldn’t even occur to me. But I’ve been at this for 32 years. That’s very different, you know, than somebody who’s who’s just starting out. And I know there are some people and I think in every kind of movement, or every kind of group of people, you have some people who are a little bit more stodgy than other. Yeah, yeah. And you do have some people say, you know, like, you know, you’re only saving the animals on the planet, you know, five days a week, or whatever it is. It’s like, yeah, you’re saving the animals and the planet five days a week. Yeah, whoa. So I think you have to be very kind and gentle to ourselves, and allow for change the way that we make change. And you can look at yourself as an individual and see what kind of person you are. The example I always give, is, if you left a bad relationship, and that was it, you never even texted the person after that, then maybe you’re somebody who could do an almost immediate turnaround. But if you’re somebody that to kind of went back a few times, Yeah, totally. Yeah. wrote in your journal and all Yes. Then you’re going to need a little time and it’s all good. There is no wrong way to do this. Right. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, for restaurants and stuff. I have found that now that I look for vegetarian stuff. It’s surprising how many places really have really good options. This past weekend, my husband wanted to go to Red Robin, which is like a hamburger joint. And it was a family thing. We were all going to go and you know, we were going to look at makeup first at the makeup store. We were gonna go to Red Robin. So my daughter was excited. And I didn’t want to miss that. And so I went to Red Robin, and they had Boca burgers. And it was it was delicious. And with all the lettuce and tomato and all that you couldn’t tell it wasn’t me like, yeah, it was no. And I thought good. Like I’d made a good choice.
That’s wonderful. And I think it’s important to make a note of places like that so that when people in your local area say but where do you go? Yeah, so you’re able to tell them? Because it’s really exploring something new. It’s like going to a on vacation somewhere you need a guidebook, you need something to kind of show you the ropes. Yeah. And that’s what each of us can do for other people who want to try this. And I think in terms of the family, it’s really true. I run into people who will say, Well, I used to be vegan, or I used to be vegetarian. And sometimes they’ll say, and I never felt better, and then they should support them. You know, yeah, go off and do better know why they stopped and other people will say things like, well, it just didn’t feel good. And what’s interesting is I have never, ever, ever once in my 32 years as a vegan and my 40 whatever years as a vegetarian Ever heard anybody say, Well, I had to stop because I became obese, I became diabetic I developed heart disease, I developed some degenerative condition. This is not to say that this is a panacea, and certainly vegans get sick too. We’re all gonna die. But the people that leave it, don’t leave it because something terrible happened because something terrible doesn’t happen as a result of this only good things happen. But we are a gregarious species. Our families mean more to us than anything in the world as they should. And we also care about what other people think and not being really weird. not expecting other people to eat our weird food. So yeah, first thing on that we have to stop thinking that it’s weird. It’s plants. They grow in the ground. And we really are a frugivorous species. If you look at the human body in terms of comparative anatomy. We are designed I we have hands designed for picking fruit. We have a very, very long intestinal tract, where animals designed for eating meat have a very, very short intestinal tract to get rid of that putrefying matter. Yeah, very quickly. We have grinding mowers we have these little teeth that somebody named canines, but we couldn’t rip apart. A field mouse much less a cow with our little canine. Yes, yes. So we’re designed to eat plants. And so when people say your food is weird. Well, I did a little bit of research on that word. And it comes from old Middle English, meaning destiny, and then it morphed into an adjective meaning able to control your destiny. Oh, weird. Yeah. Nowadays, we use it colloquially to mean strange, but that’s not really what it means. It means it helps you control your destiny, which is exactly what we do when we’re taking control of our own health and making things better. That is like
my new favorite. I got goosebumps when you said that. That’s like, my new favorite thing. I love being weird. Let’s start a weird movement.
Amen.
You know what? Something that I have you ever heard of the matrix?
No, what’s that? Okay.
Whoo, I’m excited that I’m gonna get to share something with you. Yeah. So have you ever seen the movie The Matrix I have, okay. So that, you know, they give the the take the red pill pill, if you want to see how life really is, like the blue pill if you want to stay the same. So the matrix its matrix is a cartoon. And they give me a, which is a pig on a farm, the red pill, and he sees how farming really is that it’s not this like beautiful farm out in the middle of nowhere, where people come and pat you and feed you like that. It’s really this, you know, commercialized machine. And those videos I watched, because I still haven’t been able to watch the real videos. But it gave me the real information, the facts without showing me like something that would truly give me a nightmare. So for me, I think that made a big difference. And so if someone’s listening, and they want to understand what really happens with factory farming, or what am I really eating, you can go to matrix.com. And it will show you these all these videos, there’s a ton of them. And it’s sort of a nice way to be able to get the information without feeling terrible. You know,
is it METX? It’s me like me a tow neat.
Yeah, I mean, meatrix cool, right?
Yeah, very cool. Oh, that’s great. Well, I’m happy to know about that and share it. And you reminded me and talking about the pig, that one of the great things that you can do with kids, is take them to a farmed Animal Sanctuary. They’re all over the place. I don’t know specifically of one in your area, but I’m sure you could Google and find it. Yeah. And children are very close to animals. This is why we give them stuffed animals. We raise them on Wilbur and Bambi and all these stories. And yet, at some point, we have to tell them the truth, which we never do. We always kind of, you know, gloss over it. And when children go to a farmed Animal Sanctuary, and they meet the cow, the pig, the sheep, the goat, the chicken, the turkey, the rabbit, all of a sudden, the idea of Oh well, everybody else’s having chicken nuggets, just loses all of its power. And all they know about is Oh, this is a chicken. This chicken talk to me. This chicken hung out with me. I was at a farm animal sanctuary a few years ago and this big Tom turkey took a shine To this guy who was only there, because his new girlfriend wanted him to go, and he wanted to get some new girlfriend points. Yeah. And I don’t know what it was, maybe it was kind of like your little woowoo experience when you were told eat vegetables. But this turkey would not leave this man alone. And whenever we were told to sit down and you know, listen to a little talk or something, the turkey would come and get in this guy’s lap. And the man said, What has happened to me? I did not come here to change one thing about my life. Yeah, but this Turkey has convinced me. I can never eat an animal again. Yeah. So I was at the same sanctuary this past summer. And I asked the woman in charge of the animals said, Remember that man from it was maybe two years ago, and the turkey really liked him. And she said, Oh, yeah, he went vegan that day. And he volunteers here every So hey, that’s so cool. Yeah,
that’s so weird and amazing.
Yeah, I really love that there’s so much good stuff. And I think that, you know, as people are listening, you know, maybe this seems really far fetched, and that’s okay. But even if you just for the health of it, add more vegetables to your plate, you’ll find you start eating less meat, which will be better for your system. And, you know, slowly but surely, you can start to move in a direction where you feel good, you know, both ethically and inside, you know? Sure. And
I think we need to add to that. So when people hear vegetables, they think salad, or they think the overcooked kind of carrots from the school cafeteria. Yeah. But when we’re talking about plant source diet, we’re talking about some some nice, hearty heavy foods too. You’re not going to replace barbecued ribs with a salad. You know, they’re very different kinds of foods. So you’re gonna replace the barbecued ribs, with something based on beans and whole grains and lentils, hearty, hearty, hearty, or you’re gonna get some of the foam meats. And a lot of people say, oh, poo poo. Why do you want something that looks and tastes like meat? Well, because we grew up on it. And a lot of people don’t know that the first phone meats were developed by Buddhist monks in Japan 1500 years ago. Oh, really, because they had stopped eating meat because the teachings of the Buddha Yeah, compassion and harmlessness. But they had grown up eating meat and fish. So they figured out ways to texturize plant protein to create foods. That seemed like meat, like you talked about the Boca burger that you got it at the burger place. Yep. Now again, kind of like the cheese, although the plant meats used to be kind of, okay, where the plant cheeses used to be terrible, right? They used to be okay. And now a lot of them are so good. And a lot of them are so meaty, that I personally as someone who hasn’t eaten meat, since Oh, my gosh, who was president before Nixon, whoever that was, it was that long ago that I didn’t even meet Yeah, I can’t even stand it. There’s a thing called Beyond made. And they’re wonderful company. They use a pea protein primarily. A lot of people don’t want gluten and some people don’t want soy. And beyond meat doesn’t have either of those things. It at least in many of their their products, I guess speak for all of them. But they do these chicken strips. My husband loves them. My dog loves them. Yeah. I can’t chew one, because it’s too much like chicken. But if I were to just come from eating chicken last week, yeah, that’s exactly what I would want to have for dinner tonight. Right?
Yeah. See, and that’s a good way to I’ve been starting to substitute stuff like when I make stuff, I say I’ll substitute out a little bit here in a little bit there just to see if anybody notices and they don’t. And so that might be a good one, you know, where I could substitute out and just see if anyone here at the at the house notices,
right. And there’s something that I have in Mainstreet vegan. It’s a special sidebar about how to live in a family where you’re the only vegan without making two completely separate meals. And there are a lot of tricks. One is simply to make a vegan meal that’s so fabulous that you don’t even have to say Guess what, no meat and there’s no dairy in this, right? It’s just like, wow, this is really good mom and you just say okay, yeah, yeah, you know, you can do something like a stir fry, and there’ll be some kind of chicken or whatever on theirs and you put something else on here as you know, some sort of template or something of that nature. You can do chili veggie chili is fabulous, just as is. But if they want meat in theirs, and you don’t feel like doing the ground beef list crumbles, which I think are really convincing. But if you still want to use regular meat, and there’s then you can do yours the other way, and all it takes is scooping some out before you put the meat in. Right. So it’s not terribly difficult. I think the main thing is love that, whenever you make a change like this, the people who aren’t making the change, are feeling a little bit judged. And so you don’t want that to keep to keep you for making the change. You just want to let them know that we are all on a path. And our timing is what it is. Yeah. And you love them to pieces. And oh my gosh, wasn’t that pizza that just happened to be vegan, the best thing you ever ate,
right? Yeah, I really like that a lot, because I don’t want to push them away from it by forcing it. You know, and and i think that that can happen if you’re not careful.
Another thing I’ve talked about the documentaries a little bit, maybe more than I should, but they’re so powerful. And that’s also something that a lot of people can interest a spouse in watching, for example, I’ve heard of so many people. So many women whose husbands have decided to make this change after seeing cowspiracy. That’s like conspiracy, but it’s co w Yeah. And that was about the environmental impact of animal agriculture. With all that we hear about carbon and this and that. The fact is, according to the National Academy of Sciences, the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, animal agriculture causes more greenhouse gases than all transportation combined. Wow. And sometimes just to have that information and of course look it up Never believe anything that you hear anybody say, right? Go do do the research. But when you really get it that that is indeed the fact then it makes it a little bit easier to say Honey, you know, just just put those meatless beefy things in the chili to now be good. Yeah, that
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s, that’s kind of how what my path is. And on some of the other shows, in this series, I’ve talked about some of the documentaries that I saw, one was Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. That was That was so good. And that’s really when I was like, Well, I’m gonna try to juice which kind
of helped
to in transitioning, because you didn’t have to try to make something, you know, you just deuced it, and then you drink it. And in the end, the effect was so quick, you
know, where I was like, Oh, I feel different. It didn’t take long at all, which I think kind of helps reinforce the path to, in my view, juice is magical, fresh juice, mostly greens and vegetables. absolutely magical. And you know, so often people will say, but I crave I crave a monster cookie at three o’clock, okay, have a glass of fresh juice at 230. Yeah, and then if you still crave a monster cookie at three o’clock habit, except you won’t, because drinking juice changes you at the desire level, which for anybody who has had a problem with overeating, or binge eating, and that’s my history. I write all about that in my book, The love power diet, if you’ve got any of that in your character and personality, the idea that there is something that you can consume, that for the next few hours, at least, is gonna make the junk food and the extra food just seemed like what? I didn’t want that. I never wanted that.
Yeah, yeah. Well, and I think it takes away the power of like, where you feel like you have to moderate because really, I mean, how I could eat a lot of greens without gaining any weight. If I want a snack, and I feel snacky I can grab a bag of carrots or, you know, cut up bell peppers, then, you know, like, I could have a whole mixture of cut up cucumbers and all of that and it’s yummy, delicious. And I could eat, you know, till the cows come home. No pun intended. But yeah, so I think that that’s like there’s just so so many angles to it that are good. Okay, I have one last question for you. And this is something that I’ve run into a lot and, and I find it kind of funny, but people weren’t concerned concerned with me beforehand about how much protein I got.
But once I said
I will plant base they were very concerned.
It’s as if the entire population has been programmed, that you run into a person who is moving in a plant word direction, and all of a sudden you have to say, but where do you get your protein? Are you getting enough protein. Now what is interesting is, there are some things to look out for, certainly, you want to be making sure that you get b 12. Because b 12 is made from bacteria. And because we wash our vegetables, and we eat all this really clean food on a completely plant source diet, you’re gonna need to take supplemental b 12. Very easy to do just a little sublingual under the tongue, little pill. Yeah, but nobody ever asks about that, even though that’s a real thing. The protein thing is not a real thing. But we all believe it’s a real thing. It’s sort of like
a marketing machine of the protein industry,
right? It’s, it is in the it’s in the water, it’s in the air. It is just the most bizarre thing, people who have never thought about protein, or any kind of nutrition, the minute they run into a vegetarian, it’s just as if they have been programmed, like those dolls that you used to, you know, pull a string. Yeah, say something. So here’s the deal with protein. Of course, it’s important. It’s a macronutrient. The other two are carbohydrate and fat. Has anybody ever said to you, are you short on carbohydrates? Are you short on fat? Very seldom Are you going to hear that? I mean,
people are trying to cut carbs, they want low carbs. Yeah,
that’s the thing. And they also don’t know the definition of carbohydrate. I hear people say things like, Oh, it’s those carbs that are killing me, the ice cream and the pizza. Those are fat foods. I mean, all food has everything other than egg white, which is completely protein, salad oil, which is completely fat, and refined white sugar, which is completely carbohydrate. Everything is a mix of protein, carbohydrate, and fat, and also water and fiber. And so it’s not like anybody is just eating one thing. But what you need the most of to survive as a human person is carbohydrate. Now, so our brains run on Yeah, that’s exactly it. And we have this idea that carbohydrate is only the stuff you can buy in the candy stand at the movie theater, when carbohydrate is beans, and oatmeal, and brown rice and sweet potatoes and asparagus and onion and kale. And all the best food there is our predominantly carbohydrate. Now they do have some protein, and they do have some fat because everything has everything right? So yes, you get plenty. And here are some answers to that. Where do you get your protein question? One is, where do you think I get it? Because obviously, you’re walking around, you’re not sick, you’re looking good. So obviously, you, you get it. Then another thing that that you can explain to people is that there are whole cultures that are vegetarian, the whole continent of India, until very recently, when we started exporting our food over there, most people were vegetarian. And most cultures in the world have been predominantly vegetarian, all of China and all those billions of people. They have so many people in China, that they passed a law that people had to limit the size of their families must be the rice. It’s just it’s a non issue. But it’s like so many things. If people believe something. It’s true to them. But it’s so important that we seek the real truth. Yeah, I mean, there are a couple of stories in the news lately that I think there are three or four very prominent sports figures. I mean, guys making millions of dollars. And they subscribe to the Flat Earth Theory. They believe the earth is fat flat. One of them was quoted yesterday saying, Well, I don’t know. I can drive from California to New York, and it doesn’t seem to curve. And it’s like, Okay, if that’s what you believe that’s what you believe. But I am not going to base my real life on your alternative facts, right. Yeah,
yeah. Well, yeah. And I think like, we got to go to science, which if you go to science, it shows how our cancer goes down. Our obesity goes down, like all of these different heart disease. And all of these things go down when you incorporate a plant based diet. So that’s science. So if you’re thinking of it in a different way, it’s almost like you’re thinking that the earth is flat and you’re not looking at real science.
Exactly. And another thing that’s a couple of things that are impressive when people ask you about the protein one is asked them if they know the medical term for protein deficiency, and there really isn’t one, some people will tell you quarshie or core, that terrible disease of the starving children with the swollen bellies, that is protein calorie malnutrition. And that can happen in a state of famine, it can happen to an anorexic, it can happen to a late stage alcoholic who only drinks and doesn’t eat. It doesn’t happen to people on a very plant based diet. Another thing that kind of stops people in their tracks is the true tale, that dr. john McDougall, who’s an internist in Santa Rosa, California, he’s written a lot of books, well known guy, you can google him, way back in the 1980s, opened a bank account with $10,000 in it, that would go to any physician, nutritionist or dietitian, who could come up with a diet based on a variety of plant foods that was deficient in protein or any amino acid, which are the components of protein. Yeah. Now that was the 1980s. This is 2017, that money is still in that account? Because nobody can do it. You’re fine.
Yeah, yeah. Well, I always say I get my protein where the cows get their protein. Very good, right. So they grow up to be big and strong. So I figure I can to
the strongest animals on earth, and the ones that we have hitched to chariots and plows and Budweiser trucks, they’re all herbivores. And a lot of people would say, Well, yes, but that’s how they’re made. Well, you know, what we are made to eat fruits, roots, nuts, seeds. And anyone who is a biblical, religious person, the original diet in Genesis was fruits and nuts. And after the fall of God said, okay, things are gonna get tough. Now you’re going to get sick and die and have these problems. So you better eat the leafy greens, you can start having the vegetables now that were originally just for for the cattle and the other animals. So you can look at science, you can look at religion, or you can look at your own life. 30 days after you’ve done this and know that you’re on the right path.
Yeah, yeah. I love that. Well, this has been fascinating. I’m obsessed with you, and all things about you. So I’m gonna put all the links inside the show notes to the shows that we talked about and to your books, and just so people can find out more about you. But I appreciate you taking the time. I know that you’re very busy. And I appreciate you taking the time to come on. And, you know, open our eyes a little bit and get weird with me.
But it’s been totally totally weird. And
and I hope to meet you one of the days and somebody city.
Yes, I hope so too. Thank you so much.
You’re welcome.
Okay, wait, don’t go yet. So as it seems to be typical lately, after the podcast was done being recorded, we got talking about other things. And so I want to share with you about her main street Academy, because it’s really cool. And it might be something that you like, so forgive me because I we have closed to the podcast, but I’m going to open it back up here, just so you can hear this little snippet where she describes it because it’s really great. And if anybody wants to go with me, then hit me up. Let’s make it a trip. So here you go hear a little bit more from Victoria. Okay, so tell me a little bit about the main street Academy. What is that?
Well, when the book Main Street vegan was in the works, the editor didn’t like the term Main Street. And so I had a miracle I ran into this really famous person on the street who said, No, that’s the right title. Let me talk to her. Really who I had kind of the famous Well, I sometimes hesitate to say cuz I know some people can’t stand it. But I’ll say Anyway, it was Michael Moore. Oh, yeah. So yeah, we had a three way call with with him and my editor in May. And I didn’t know her politics or anything. I don’t know if she would like him or not. Yeah, he convinced her about the title. So anyway, once I had the title, all these other things started popping. So we’ve got Main Street vegan productions, which has our first documentary in the works the compassion project to introduce this way of living to people of faith. Yeah, we’ve got the main street vegan podcast that happens weekly, and then lives forever, as you know, your podcast. Yeah, but the thing that really, really rose to the top was Mainstreet vegan Academy training and certifying vegan lifestyle coaches and educators. So people who are already vegan This is not a how to go vegan course. Isn’t it? who already live this way? come to New York. And in five and a half magical days, being taught by incredible medical doctors, dieticians, environmental experts, animal rights experts, fashion designers, bloggers, business experts, learn vegan principles, communication principles and business principles so that they can go out into the world and either be coaches and educators which a lot of people do or some of them take the entrepreneurial route and start vegan businesses. So we’ve got Riverdale cheese in Brooklyn, a wonderful little vegan cheese shop. One of our graduates is Kat Mendenhall who has a fabulous custom cowboy boot company in Texas. And not only are there all these great classes in this very, very intensive week together, but we take field trips because New York City is kind of like Disneyland for vegans. Yeah, it’s just the most fun ever and all the information is that Mainstreet vegan dotnet, just like Khan Academy.
Oh, awesome. That sounds like such a cool thing. I love the idea of doing that. And how cool is that you have all these, like, offshoots from your Academy that are doing awesome things in the world. I mean, talk about a ripple.
Well, that is one of the most beautiful aspects of my life. I don’t know if my daughter who has now been married for over 10 years is going to have children. She may not. But I feel like I have 217 grandchildren from 16 countries spreading this message literally around the world and there’s just nothing more gratifying.
That’s so cool. Yeah, well, I will put that on my to do list. That was really cool.
Thanks for including me in your journey today. Remember, you can find me all over social media at Betsy Pake. I’d love to hear what you think. And, as always, here’s the little message from my husband.
That’s it.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
