Anita: 0:00

Hey there, sunshine. Welcome to the Power On Plants Podcast, where your host, Jarrod and Anita Roussel and we're absolutely head over heels for whole plant foods, and helping you navigate this incredible plant based journey. That's because our lives have been completely changed by plant based goodness, we used to struggle everyday with excess pounds and low energy, vascular disease, joint pain and lack of sleep, just to name a few. And even though we're medical professionals, we still weren't getting practical answers that actually worked. So we dug into the research, we started living what we learned. And now we both of our lives back. And that's what we want for you to the truth is you can do this, and it's not hard, you just need a way that will bring real and lasting change. And that path, it has to be simple and enjoyable. And it's got to be delicious, too. So are you ready to live your life to the fullest, then you're in the right place, because Living without limits. That's what power plants is all about. So pull up your chair, grab a matcha latte, and let's get started. Welcome to part eight of this nine part series, this has been so much fun sharing all these steps with you. Because we get asked this question all the time. What do I do if I want to heal my body and lose weight and get energy? I just don't feel good. I'm tired all the time. What do I do to get the life that I want? So I quit being held back by my health struggles. And so we've been laying that all out in this nine part series. If you've missed any of the first seven parts, go back and listen to all those again, because each part of the series builds on the next. And we're moving into Part Eight today, which is actually

Jarrod: 1:42

step number six on the success path.

Anita: 1:44

I was just waiting for you and you just jumped right in there.

Jarrod: 1:47

That's what a good cohost cuz I'm your wing man.

Anita: 1:51

A wing man. What is that? What was his name on top again? Oh, what do you call? It

Jarrod: 1:57

was a good What's it? Yeah,

Anita: 1:59

I'll just start calling me goose

Jarrod: 2:01

be Maverick.

Anita: 2:04

Like nothing like Tom Cruise? I don't think that's gonna work. Plus, I don't think he was healthy plant base? Or is healthy plant based either? I don't think so. Yeah, it's not gonna fly. Anyway. Thanks for jumping in wing man. My pleasure. My pleasure. Now as cheered said, this is part six of our power plant Success Path. And the step is called Simple living. This is where we talk about navigating real life situations. And we talked about that in our other steps, too. But this is where we really focus in on it, because we hear a lot of questions that revolve around this topic.

Jarrod: 2:42

And I think in this particular step two, it helps to make you aware of certain pitfalls that you may encounter that you wouldn't have thought of ahead of time.

Anita: 2:50

Exactly. And these are the things that we hear all the time these questions like, How do I navigate this? How do I deal with this? Okay, my husband doesn't eat healthy plant based, but I want to start this journey. How am I going to do that when he doesn't eat healthy plant base? So this area is talking about or this step is talking about? How do you set your life up. So that can work for you if your family members donate the same way? And you want to and you know, you want to get healthy? And so we talk about how can that work? What can you do? Well, there are a lot of different ways you can handle that. But one of the big things is, you can just make the whole food plant based meals that you're learning. And then you go ahead and make their side. Like if they just have to have meat on their plate, you can make that side of meat for them to go with the main meal. And a lot of times what we find is because the recipes that we use in the MES methods that we use are so similar in taste, they might notice that it's different, or it's a new recipe, but right away, they're not going to be going oh, this whole food plant based, or this is all plants, because things are so close, and you get those flavors in there. And they like it. And it's shocking when they find out, you know, and then they eat clean their plate. Now, a lot of times when we first started this journey, and we were just doing the search across the Internet and looking for recipes and not knowing the other steps to take, we describe recipes here and there and try them a lot of times they fell flat, and it just was not a good experience. But when you have the right recipes, and they taste good, and they're not hard for you to prepare, and you're not, you know, anxious and angry by the time you get to the table. And they don't sense that in you and they're eating it go on what is this? This is good, especially if it's something that they already liked to eat. It's just a new twist on that verse on that version that they ate before, right?

Jarrod: 4:38

I mean, one example could be is that if you make chili, you could maybe just do some ground beef separately. Maybe even just put some spices in there. Put that separately, and then everybody gets what they want without the meat. And then the meat eaters would then add what they want to it.

Anita: 4:53

That's a great example. Cheese could be something Say cheese could be the same way so you put it out there if they want cheese or dairy or sour cream or something like that. And we give all these great replacements for those things, but just say they just refused our warning and interested in trying to some spouses are willing to try. And then with their children the same thing, what do you do with your children? If they're this age? Or if they're this age? How do you deal with it? And we talk a lot about that, in this step. How do you dine out successfully? I mean, we get that question a lot,

Jarrod: 5:23

another one, because a lot of restaurants they serve animal products and dairy

Anita: 5:27

and their eggs in a lot of their meals. And so what do you do? You don't want to be sitting there worried about it? And that's what happens with diets, don't you find that a lot of times, when people have been on diets, they sit there. I mean, we've experienced this before, and you're sitting there and you're going, Okay, everybody else is enjoying their meal. They're talking, having fun at the dinner and at the dinner table. And I'm just sitting here thinking, we've

Jarrod: 5:49

got to calculate the entire menu. Yeah, you're sitting there twice as many points and that many calories, and I have to mix and match. And it just, it doesn't make for a pleasant dining experience. Because I think a lot of times when you go out to eat, it's not about the food, it's about the company and about the dining experience. I mean, it's some about the food, because some restaurants are very nice, and the flavors are great. But it's not just that,

Anita: 6:13

right? But you think about if you're living in the old ways of doing things, we're for you, it's about adding it up and making sure you got the right numbers of this and that. And so you're missing that whole experience. I mean, there's a whole conversation you miss, by the time you got the math figured out in your head of what how many points? Or how many grams? Or how many calories? Or how many carbs, how many carbs does it have? How much protein does it have? How much fat does it have. So now you're worried about the macros. And that can drive you crazy. So to where you're missing out on your life, because you're worried about all these things that in the end, they really don't have to be a concern, if you know how to balance your plate, if you know how to get the food's right on your plate. But here we're talking about how do you make the simple and dining out as a part of that. He's got to know what to order, you need to know which restaurants are the types of restaurants that have things that are more, I'm more inclined to be vegan or vegetarian. But even if you're eating at an all American restaurant, they're gonna have something you can eat, if you know what to look for. I mean, you can make a really hearty salad or a big plate filled with sides. This is just one of a ton of different things you can do. And there are things you want to look for. And we tell people how to do that. Like, you want to ask, does it have even with beans? Okay, just take beans, that's one. That's a great example. What what is what we usually ask them? Well, we'll ask them if they have any kind of pork product in it, because they'll either be cooked well meat, but be cooked with it. But I've also heard of restaurants using just pork fat, or maybe drippings from stuff like bacon, whatever the lar and add that to it as a flavoring. And you may not really notice it, or know about it or not ask about it. Because we didn't know. And so we had asked in the past years ago, you know, does it have pork? Or does it have meat in it made? Is it even better to say because a lot of times it's not just pork, I mean, they might use B for some other type of meat. And so you ask? And they say no, no, there's me. We ask and then they bring it out. And later you find out oh, there was lard in it. So it's like a disconnect, you need things to add to their

Jarrod: 8:22

credits are very busy. And they may be thinking, No, there's just been no mate. But you have to be a little more specific. So see, these are some of the types of questions of the assist, if you will,

Anita: 8:35

these are the types of questions and this is just another example of something that happened to me and chair it you know, we used to eat out at this restaurant chain. And we would always get the veggies and get a bunch of sides and we get a baked potato and it was so good. And we'd have broccoli and different things on top that you can put on there. And but the thing is, is we would eat it, we'd enjoy it. And then we found out this restaurant chains slathers, their baked potatoes, the skins and everything. And I'm sure it gets in the potato with lard.

Jarrod: 9:05

Well, I think they were using fat baking, great Baking, baking grease, and then they would wrap their potatoes in the foil. And we didn't really tasted there was nothing about it that alarmed us to where we thought, hey, wait a minute, is there bacon in this, but, and we found out from a friend and then we asked the restaurant. They said, Oh yeah, we put it on there.

Anita: 9:26

You know, it's under their vegetables and you're just thinking, oh, there's nothing in here. And we didn't always feel the best after we ate there. But it didn't really make sense because we're eating vegetables right? And so these are just kind of the things that we've learned along the way. How do you navigate eating out? How do you dine out and not feel like dumb but the day after? That's you don't want to feel that way? No, you don't want to feel that. It's like having

Jarrod: 9:49

a food hangover. That's one of those situations. Yeah, I had a great meal. But man what happened to me last night something ran over me while I was asleep.

Anita: 9:57

Exactly. I don't feel good. Why not? So how do you dine out successfully? How do you live in a family environment where other people aren't on board yet, and what we have come to find out what that is a lot of people do come on board and the kids do get excited about it when they're exposed to it in the right way. And then they're involved

Jarrod: 10:16

to see that it tastes good. And hey, you know, I feel good after I don't have that, that slump after I eat this 30 minutes down the road.

Anita: 10:26

What about when you're traveling or camping?

Jarrod: 10:29

Those can also be tricky situations, if you don't know about it, don't think about it ahead of time. But there are simple solutions to this.

Anita: 10:37

Yeah, like I'm going to a hotel room, I'm going to be in a hotel room for a week away on business, or I'm going on a trip with the family. And we're going to be in a little condo. And you know, there isn't anything but the little mini fridge and a microwave. What do I do? There are a lot of things you can do you know, you can cook a lot of things that way? Well,

Jarrod: 10:55

I would say first thing you do. And we've said this before in previous episodes is Don't say I can't say how can I look at the situation and say, Okay, what can I do. And we're really trying to encourage you to think of these situations ahead of time. So that way you can formulate a game plan. But there are some simple strategies for those situations. We've done this before, where we have taken our Vitamix blender with us. And we say smoothies, you can make soups with it. I mean, there's a lot of things. It's not just about about just the smoothies now,

Anita: 11:26

but here's the thing, if you don't have six people in your family like we do, and there's only two or three, you don't have to take the Vitamix, you can take a little tiny Nutribullet, that's even easier to take. But truthfully, the Vitamix is not that big, super easy to travel with. And there are a lot of different things you can make with it right there in your hotel room. I mean, I'm talking a regular hotel room, we've done this at conferences before. It's amazing what you can whip up in a Vitamix with a Vitamix and a little microwave, you can make soups and things like that. I mean, it's not hard. You just have to know how it's another one of those things where you just know that it's possible. Exactly. Oh, yeah. Because that's a huge first step, if you don't even know as possible, and you're just used to the old ways of doing things, and you just can't even imagine something new. How do you eat plant based foods all the time? How do you eat a lot of produce and beans and things like that? In a situation where you're on the road? I mean, how do you do that? Same thing, just like what we're saying, you know, you've got the microwave there. What if you go to the store, and you pick up a baked potato, this is just one example, a baking potato and you could get in your microwave? Well, maybe generally, you don't like to normally use a microwave for some reason, some people do not. And I tend to stay away from it. But if you're on the road, and you got a microwave and a baked potato, it's not going to hurt you. I mean, you put the microwave, the turn the microwave on, put the baby potato in there,

Jarrod: 12:45

six, seven minutes later, and you've got a baked potato, you buy a jar of

Anita: 12:50

salsa, and you get a can of beans, which you can easily strain through your hand down a sink and rinse off your hand or bring the colander if you want to get really specific, okay, and then you mean salsa and beans on a baked potato and delicious. And that's just one of the many things we don't have time to go into everything today. But I want to give you some actionable steps in

Jarrod: 13:14

here. I'm sitting here thinking the steps that after you cook the potato, you pop up in the salsa doesn't require any other preparation. No canned beans already cooked. And frozen corn doesn't even have anything you could hate it. But if you've got that really hot potato, you Drain the beans stowed on there, the frozen corn, we do it all the time where we just throw that after the fact on our food. And it just warms it up. And it's sweet. I mean, that's it. And if you have a little refrigerator, I mean, they come with little freezers. Typically, you could throw a bag or two of corn in there. Absolutely. It's really minimal fuss,

Anita: 13:48

right. And you can travel with a little cooler that you take I mean, and you can keep that warm. I mean, cool. Keep that warm. Oh, that's hilarious. Keep that cool with the ice from the ice machine in your hotel. I mean, that's not hard to do. Right? True. And so you keep that thing drained out and you keep her ice in there. And there's all kinds of different things if there's a little store nearby, just make a little trip at the beginning when you first get there. Grab a couple of things to fit in a freezer when you know what those are. You pop them like the potato that doesn't even require freezer refrigeration.

Jarrod: 14:19

No, just stab a hole in it so that the steam can escape. Yeah, put a little bit of Yeah. Or you stab it with the fork a few times. Yeah, you don't want to exploding potato sticks. Now. I've never seen that happen. Someone warned me and I just trusted them and so from then on I either do the fork or the knife. Now you may be wondering, but I like the idea but I don't want to take a blender because I don't want people around me to hear and think something crazy is going on. We have never had our room called on because of the blender. I think those rooms the walls are so thick that nobody hears it Are they do they think it's just a vacuum cleaner or something going on? That's a

Anita: 14:56

good point. I've never thought about that. But it's true and we've never problem with it. So there are a lot of different things you can do that situation and camping, same thing. I mean, you fill up your your cooler before you go and the camping source have ice. I mean, unless you're going backpacking, that's a different situation. But even then there are things that are super easy to take with you that you can backpack with the work. Great. So another thing, let's talk about things to make life simple. That's what we're talking about here. Right? This is simple living, we are all about simplicity. Yes. So we talked about much as we can appliances and gadgets. Here again, I did talk about these in the savvy shopping area. Because there Tom site, verse two, we talked about saving time and money there. But this is where we really get into and do a deeper dive into appliances and gadgets that can make your life amazing. Does that mean you're gonna have to buy a lot of brand new appliances and gadgets to be able to do this? No, you can start it today with whatever you have in your home, you can start living healthy plant base, start getting more the five foundational foods to beans have to be cooked in an instapot no bullet save you a lot of time and make life simpler. Absolutely. Because if I can rent some dried beans that are very inexpensive, dump them in my instant pot with a few herbs and spices and some other veggies and press start.

Jarrod: 16:20

It's done. So you just walk away at times it and it dings whenever it's ready.

Anita: 16:25

I mean, I used to boil beans for hours on the stove. You don't have to have an instant pot, you can totally do that. And you don't have to completely stand over him. But if you're in a hurry, and you want to get it done quicker, and you don't want to have to check them and keep stirring them the instant pots the way to go. So yeah, choices.

Jarrod: 16:41

What about the crock pot? I don't think we've ever cooked beans in a crock. Yes, we have, have we? That's been years ago. Yes, we have done it. Nevermind. It's been a while.

Anita: 16:51

I did it probably about nine months ago. You just didn't know that. Yeah, I tested it again. Because somebody had asked me about cooking pinto beans and instant pot. So I did that for her crotch shot a little video. I mean, the crock pot. Yes, I did in the crock pot. And I shot a little video for because she's in our membership. And she asked and I wanted to make a video for just to let her know sorry, expensive, you could probably get him 2030 bucks, I would imagine, I mean not super expensive. There's a difference. There's a difference in consistency, though, it's easy to let them cook overnight. But to me, what I found is if you want to really creamy bean and a thicker bean, you can take the same vein and put it in the Instant Pot versus the crock pot. And you'll get a much thicker, creamier bean in Instant Pot, probably just because of the high pressure and it pushes in there. So there's a consistency thing too. Sometimes consistency can make or break food for us. But to make it simple in a safe time, these appliances are huge. And gadgets too. I mean, we have little gadgets that we just love. I mean, can you take an avocado, cut it in half with a knife and stab the knife into the into the pit which thankfully I never lose a lot, never lose, I never lost a hand doing that, right? So you put that in there, twist the pit, take that out. And then you can skip out avocado with a spoon very easy, or you can slice through it and skip it out. Yeah, but if you want to say doable, very easy. But if you want to save a lot of time and make life simpler, there's this little gadget that just costs a couple of dollars. And it will deep it slice it open it up, it does everything for you into beautiful slices. And our children can even use it because it's not sharp like a knife and you're not going to lose the hands. So there are ways to go about this to make everyday situations quicker and easier. And that's what we're all about. Because if it's not that way, it is never gonna work in this household for long term.

Jarrod: 18:45

And the avocado slicer just happens to be one of those little tools that just brings you so much joy,

Anita: 18:51

so much joy. I love it. As a matter of fact, I think one of our children tried to use it to slice through one that they cut open that was a little hard, even though they they know to kind of look for that. But this one was a little tricky. So they started slicing through it with a slicer and one of the times broke. So now I'm gonna have to go buy a new one because I'll tell you, it makes all

Jarrod: 19:12

those tools that after a while you love them and they become indispensable. And if something like that happens exactly. You just got to go get another one. And then there

Anita: 19:20

are tools that are just so good. I mean, if I found it back upon a stainless steel one of those, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

Jarrod: 19:26

So definitely I'm honestly surprised they don't make one already.

Anita: 19:29

Oh no. But then we have gadgets that just other ones that just light me up that I use at least twice a day. And that's our girl things like our garlic press. So we have this one that is stainless steel. It's amazing and it never wears out. I've had the thing for years. Actually, I almost forgot it at a rental house one time that we went to and I just remembered it and went in search before we left because that would have been bad. I mean, I love that thing. It's amazing. You can even crush the side of the garlic with it. Get it out of this In, and it's just amazingly simple clean up quick and simple, quick and simple. And that's what it's all about. Then things like how do you make real life situations work? When you have sweet cravings or you crave certain foods? How do you deal with certain cravings? Right? So that's, that's another thing you need to learn under this

Jarrod: 20:19

category. Definitely be a pitfall for some individuals.

Anita: 20:22

Mm hmm. Absolutely. So these are the types of things this isn't everything under this type of category that you would want to look at when you want to live a healthy plant based lifestyle and make it last long term. But if you can figure out how to navigate these real life situations, the social situations, how do I go to parties? How do I have friends cyber? How do I go to dinner at another person's house? What do I take? What are the types of meals that a non plant based person or vegan would love? You know, what would they enjoy eating? What should I serve? When they come over? What should I take with me to their function? And so again, dining out successfully is another thing. Living with others who aren't plant based? How do you do that and still have joy in your home? Right? And traveling fades like camping? Or if you're just on a little family vacation? Or maybe you work? And you work extended long term in out of hotels? Or there was one guy saw one day asking what do you do plant based and he worked on an oil rig and he was out, you know, he had access sometimes to his truck, but he had to then take things with him out on the rig. So he had to figure out what I do in those situations. And those are the kind of things that you need to look at for your life. Like, do you travel a lot with your kids? Do you run a lot of errands and they're always hungry? What do you do, so you don't have to stop by a fast food restaurant. Those are the kind of things we're talking about here. And when you can learn how to navigate these situations, this is when it all comes together. And all of a sudden, you've got a plan. You've got a blueprint, you know exactly what to do, no matter what comes your way. And this is how you find plant based joy. Every one of these categories, the big key is they're helping you to build a life in which you have joy, that you love the way you're living so much, you won't even think about going back not only because it tastes great, but because it's quick. It's simple. You know how to balance it out. You have, again, the foods you love, but it makes you feel so amazing. I mean, then you feel great, and you like it, it's gonna last long term, you don't have to dread a diet anymore until the point where you can't do it, right? Because with diets, right, you'll do it till you you're sick, you can't do it, you get

Jarrod: 22:37

the result. And then you hate it. And then you start living for cheat days, and just that whole cycle happens. And then you just abandon it. Yeah, it's off the wagon, you abandon it, you rebel against it.

Anita: 22:52

But the great thing about this success path and following these steps, even if you want to do it, try to do it on your own. You know, it makes it harder, you can't go as far as fast. And we know because we had to do it on our own. And there wasn't anything like this set up. Whenever we were on this journey. We had to figure it out and piece it together. And all we were finding was recipes. And we didn't have anybody to answer all these questions for us. And it made it hard. And we don't want it to be that way for you. So there are other options out there. The membership is getting ready to open up. We are thrilled for you guys because it is a game changer. But we want you to know today that there is hope. There's so many wonderful ways to make this work with real life. We are excited for you, and for what the future holds and for all the amazing opportunities that are waiting for you just around the band. We look forward to seeing you next time. And that's going to be our last installment in the series, isn't it?

Jarrod: 23:49

Part Nine, man will be step seven of our success path.

Anita: 23:53

Yes. And if you stuck with us this far, you are a trooper, you're the kind of person that is going to be able to take action and get amazing results. So we have loved having you join us again today sunshine and we'll look forward to spend the next time with you on power on plants, podcasts.