Tag: interview

How did your vegan journey begin?

I kind of just went through this period in my teenage years where I noticed I wasn’t feeling so good, and that’s when I really started to pay attention to what I was eating.

I was constipated a lot. My digestion didn’t feel good. I was starting to have joint pain problems in my early twenties and I came across a couple of books that opened my eyes. One was Diet for a New America by John Robbins and the other was Fit For Life. Both really opened my eyes to dairy, big time to dairy, and also to not eating meat, and phasing it out. So that’s how I moved into it, was phasing it out. There’s that magic time of about, I think a month, they say to really let the body change and adapt and your palate to open. And that happened for me.

It’s been over 25 years, but I can’t imagine having lived any other way. It was so obscure at the time. And I think living out West gave me a little more opportunity to feel that was accessible because there was more interest in it in the area that we live.

How did you get started writing cookbooks?

I was led into my cookbooks, I’d say largely, from moving out West. And at the time, my husband’s father had had a heart attack and his cardiologist in St. John’s recommended a plant-based diet, which was really unheard of.

I had been working in a marketing position in St. John’s and my heart was not in it at all. I was just like, I cannot see myself doing this for the rest of my life. People said to me, you know, when you talk about food, you light up. I was like, of course I do. Loved it since I was a kid. I knew my parents-in-law were needing help with recipes, and that’s when I just started to sketch things out myself. I wanted to create recipes that I felt like they could use, and they were healthy, whole foods, very low in fat for what health conditions they were going through.

That was the start of it for me. And then I kind of grew with it with every life change in a way, because the next book involves after having our first daughter and trying to incorporate more foods to feed her and those concepts.

How did you start teaching yoga and fascia classes?

 I felt great in my body through food, through diet. That removed a lot of pain and discomfort in my body up until about my 40s. And then things started to change where I was feeling like my joints were hurting and my body just the things I love to do like cooking, for instance, even caused me pain. I thought maybe I’m just missing something like alignment, how to align your body.

So I took yoga and I wasn’t sure if I was going to teach. To me, it was just to learn, but something kind of pulled me into wanting to teach.

So, I just kind of kept on that journey in the background and I was teaching at a studio. But the joint stuff didn’t go away and it was irritating to me because I felt like I’m doing everything right.

And then I came across this work to change your fascia, which really has changed my life because I don’t have the pain anymore. When I talk about fascia work, this is working at the tissues on a deeper level from the inside out. It’s a movement practice, but it’s not yoga.

Everything that we’ve done in our life has shaped the quality and health of our connective tissue. And we want to keep it healthy because if it’s not, it’s dense and dry and not pliable as it should be. It restricts the movement of the limbs. So this is why you have pain. When you can free up the fascia, then the limbs move better. You feel better in your body. And so it’s a really simple formula where you move to create the change from the inside out. It’s the most interesting form of movement that I have.

After a couple of months, I noticed, wow, I can turn my head again. I was like, wow, my tissues feel really different and I’m feeling good in my body again.

So when I started to feel shifts in my body, I can’t explain it other than I felt a draw to it. Just like when I started writing recipes, I felt a draw to it and I’m feeling that with this work.

I’ve had classes that I’ve been running online and now I’m soon to launch a site called Fascia Flo and running zoom classes and video recordings for people to also take.

How do you think healthy veganism and movement are connected?

I feel they’re so interconnected. I feel like you really cannot live well with only one. So let’s say that, because eating a vegan diet, if you’re not really paying attention to the health properties of that vegan diet, if you’re relying a lot, a lot on, we all eat some processed food. If you rely a lot on processed food, then you’re not going to feel good for it.

But similarly, if you’re not moving your body, then you’re also not going to feel good for it. And some people move their bodies all the time and don’t really pay attention to healthy diet. And that, you know, can cause stagnation and issues later on. And also people eat super healthy, but don’t really pay attention to the movement.

We are animals, after all. Species all follow a certain way of eating and they all move. We’re not meant to be as sedentary as we are, and you know, we have to work, we have jobs, we have these things, but we also have to pay attention to what we need to do to balance that out when that is part of our life.

I think when you’re following a plant based diet, you tend to then pull in all these other elements of wellness along the way. If you stay with it, right over time, you want to learn more about this part of wellness. All these little things start to kind of come in and movement’s part of that to me.

What inspires you?

I feel like learning inspires me. I mean, that sounds kind of corny in a way, but I’ve never really idolized people. I’ve looked up to people like I, I would love to meet Dr. Campbell one day. And people who’ve, who’ve taken a different path. even though it was so challenging for them to do so, that’s very inspiring. But also just seeing, you know, people do the things they want to do despite their challenges.

That growth of a human that’s possible is what’s inspiring, and knowing that it doesn’t stop, you know, you remember being in your twenties thinking you know everything, and then you get to your thirties and you think you still know quite a bit. And then you get to your forties and you’re like, I don’t know, I think I’ve got tons to learn. And so you really can keep learning and it’s exciting to keep learning.

This interview from PlantUniversity’s “Chat with a Vegan” series was hosted by Emma Levez Larocque of Plant-based RHN and featured Dreena Burton.

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Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Rian Peters, I am a recording artist. I go under the stage name I Am The Living. I’m based in Vancouver

Why did you become vegan?

I became vegan because a friend of mine sent me a video a few years back and I decided to watch the video, and when I watched the video, it really resonated with me it sparked something inside of me that I would never forget. He was talking about veganism and, the reasons why it’s good for the environment and good for animals, and for your health to turn vegan. There were some images that he showed within the lecture and yeah. I just built a newfound type of compassion and empathy for other living beings. So after I felt that I told myself I can’t continue to consume animals.

What were you concerned about when you went vegan?

To be honest, I didn’t really have any fear, I just felt that it was the right thing for me to do. It was more so just the gradual steps, a lot of people can go cold turkey, excuse the pun. But for me, I decided I’d take it to step by step. That really helped me on my journey to where I am today.

What piece of advice would you give to someone thinking about going vegan?How do you get your protein?

I would just say to them just be confident in your decision and also take your time. But at the same time, if they feel like they’re just ready to cut out certain things from their lifestyle when it comes to what they eat then, go for it. If they’re a bit more on the edge about it, not too sure of what to do take gradual steps. So, just take your time with it and know that this is the best thing for you to do for your health first and foremost, and for the animals, because if you’re not consuming animals, then the animals don’t have anything to worry about.

Yeah. It’s taken me to a place that I never thought I would ever get to. The foundation of my nutritional intake is a raw frugivore lifestyle. I eat an abundance of, natural whole fruits. This is a huge part of what I eat on a daily basis with tender leafy greens, juices smoothie bowls. I stick to uncooked foods. That’s where I’m at right now. I didn’t start that way though. But now, I’m in the best place I’ve ever been to in my life. I’m very happy with how I feel and the energy that I have.

Do you miss eating animal products?

I sometimes still get that question, but I remember when I did transition, a lot of people asked me if I had missed the animal products. From the start, I didn’t miss animal products at all because I knew that it was the best thing for me, for my health, and once my senses started to change and adapt to the foods that I that we are naturally supposed to consume, I didn’t miss the smell or the texture or anything to do with animals.

What benefits have you experienced going vegan mentally, physically, and emotionally?

Absolutely. All of those three. Everything just went onto another vibration. It’s the best I’ve ever, felt inside and out. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

When I was a lot younger I never had this amount of energy and freedom. I feel like sometimes the foods that we eat can really hold us down mentally and spiritually and physically.

What’s your favorite food?

My favorite, my number one favorite vegan food has to be the mango. Fruit is definitely my number one go-to. The creator created mangos for us to eat, you can just grab it off a tree and eat it. That’s my top fruit.

What do you cook when you’re trying to impress?

So there was a time I had a really fun gathering with a bunch of vegans. It was like a potluck, people brought, different foods and I decided to prepare some plantain wraps. They’re literally just made from raw plantain, I blend it up in the Vitamix add a little seasoning, and spread it out on the dehydrator trays, leave them in a dehydrator for a few hours and you can use them as a burrito wrap. So the plantain wraps definitely were a winner.

This interview from PlantUniversity’s “Chat with a Vegan” series was hosted by Brighde Reed of World Vegan Travel and featured Ravi Boghan.

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