Ann and Jane - Their YouTube Videos, Cookbooks, and their infectious zest for life and food!!

Once I knew my eating life was going to change and center mostly around a plant based diet, 

• ... and once I found a way to control my disappointment that this would be forever, 
• ... and once I recognized that my body had already been evolving in that direction anyway, 
• ... and once I accepted the time involved to develop a library of meals that were good,
• ... and once I adopted the idea that I would need to do more cooking (!!yikes!!), 

Yeah ... once I got passed a few little bumps in the road - I decided to change up my approach.  After all, what we enjoy in life is frequently influenced attitude ... and I had to 'go find me' a different attitude!! 

I started with YouTube videos because they were cheap (free) and I could skim through various feeds quickly (‘cause not everyone out there is good at this, you know.)   I don’t know how many videos I started then skipped before I came to an almost hour long video called:

                Fresh Start! An Intro to Plant-Based Eating for Newbies

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That's me - Newbie and a Fresh Start is what I was looking for!  

At first a man was briefly going over the main points of this diet.  Ok, I was good with that. But behind him his wife starting doing silly things as each point was introduced.  That was corny.  I decided to skip it.  I watched and skipped a few other videos, and then I came to another video with this same woman (Jane) and her mother (Ann), and they were cooking together, chatting away, and obviously enjoying each other’s company. Something just drew me in.  I paused that video, and I returned to the Fresh Start video - and this time I listened to the full hour.  What followed was Ann (mother, age 87) and Jane (daughter, age 56) cooking together and talking about the topic of Plant-Based eating.  They were charming.  It looked totally unrehearsed, the background was Ann’s very normal kitchen, there were no edits,  or no glossy professional food pictures. The video just ran and their little disagreements were captured but never taken seriously, and they both were filled with enthusiasm and joy for this Plant Based diet.  By the end of the hour, I was totally hooked!

In the picture on the right - the two ladies in the Yoga pose - Ann, the mother, is on the right.
At the time the book was published, she was 88!  

What wasn’t evident initially was the real science from the Esselstyn Foundation and family life experiences behind this very like-able pair.  Ann is the wife of Dr. Caldwell B Esselstyn, the author of a book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.  Ann then wrote the recipe companion book called Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook.   In addition, their whole family, (adult children, adult children’s spouses, and grandchildren) are all plant based.  Ann and Jane have over 140 videos on YouTube demonstrating various food prep strategies, and they are the authors of the book Be A Plant-Based Woman Warrior which I ordered.  It is an amazing book.  Extremely well done and very inviting.  

So ... did I find my new attitude?  I did.  I totally love these two lovely ladies and their approach. 

Now here is my disclaimer on all this. 

My goal is to improve my diet.  I believe eating a more plant based diet will do that following many of their guidelines.  But have I adopted ALL their practices without exception? No. 

Here are my exceptions.

• Eat nothing with a face: Well ... if you are plant based, that is an expectation, but in social situations I'll be flexible just to be polite.  That shouldn’t happen often.  This is about diet choices, not cult obedience! One animal protein meal now and then won’t undo months of plant based eating.
• No eggs, no dairy: Hmm ....  I eat eggs or egg whites every morning.  If I start my day with anything else, I am hungry at 10:30 am.  I'll listen to my body for now and keep to my routine.  And no fat plain greek yogurt is a healthy choice in almost every other diet. It will remain in my diet occasionally. 
• No oil:  I can drastically reduce my oil intake, but minimal olive oil will stay.

Other plant based guidelines strongly recommended by Dr. Esselstyn and company that I can get behind are:  avoid salt (buy salt free products) and minimize sugar, eat greens 6 times a day - as much as possible, eat more oats - as much as possible, eat lots of beans and lentils, eat whole grains, limit coconut, nuts and avocados (eliminate those 3 entirely if you have heart disease,) eat a tablespoon of chia seeds and/or flax seed meal each day, drink lots of water, read the ingredients of any item you purchase.  

Got it!

 

I suspect their ideas are very similar to that of others who espouse plant based eating.  But what the mother and daughter team brought to me was their total joy and fun and enthusiasm for cooking and eating a plant based diet ... all of it presented in a way that says ... “Yup!! - you can do this -  follow us.”

I am following.