Eating Compassionately

Compassion Begins On Your Plate!

➡️What losing over a hundred pounds looks like on Instagram vs. ➡️what losing over a hundred pounds looks like in reality.

This is a major vulnerability post for me, friends. In honor of Earth day, I am posting to remind you that going vegan is not only the best thing you can do to save the planet, but also yourself. I rarely took pictures of me at my heaviest. It was one of the hardest times of my life. The picture of me sitting is when I already started losing a little weight a year into me working at Whole Foods Market when I was on a trip to Chicago opening a store. At my absolute heaviest, I was in an abusive marriage and so lost. It took me going vegan to get my groove back after it all. Seriously. I started feeling happier and more positive. I felt like I wanted to move my body more and my back pain was feeling relief. There were days at my heaviest I didn’t even want to move because my feet killed me and my back made me feel immobile. The lethargy went away going vegan. I started going to the gym, and eating a lot of chia for energy, and never felt better in my life.

After I lost weight, I wanted to show it off and look my best. What I didn’t post was the stretch marks, and the stomach pouch I still had, and the ups and downs along the way. You always see me post myself wearing high waisted leggings or jeans holding in my stomach, or a tank top that is loose in the tummy and flatters me just right. Reality is that I often take a million photos and try multiple poses before I post one. Never get caught up in appearances. The main thing to take away from me going vegan is that it literally improved my quality of life from a drastic standpoint.

My point is, veganism saved my life and my health. It doesn’t matter what you look like. It’s a better quality of life for everyone, from a personal level, to how animals are treated, to how many Earthly resources are saved for everyone by eating plant based. Compassion truly begins on your plate: for the animals, for the planet, and for your health. 💚🌱✨💗

Earth Day: Compassion Begins On Your Plate

Posted by Julie Tourangeau

Compassion begins on your plate!! 💚🌱✨ I’ve always been a bit of a bleeding heart. I was 14 years old when I decided weight loss wasn’t worth eating animals. My entire family was on the Atkins diet, and saw short term successes (but long term health problems, cancers and death). I was repulsed by seeing family members eat flesh for every meal. I went vegetarian without really knowing how to be a healthy one. As a Midwest girl with limited nutrition knowledge, I just decided to eat anything that didn’t have eyes. This included tons of bread, pasta, and cheese. 18 years old wasn’t even my heaviest. I was heaviest in my mid twenties working in the insurance industry. I finally had a moment where I felt like I woke up. I found myself staring down a road I didn’t want to be on, and drastically changed my life.

Working at Whole Foods and learning about The Whole Foods Diet, and finding veganism was the answer I needed all along. It was not only the most compassionate choice for the animals, and the planet, but it was the most compassionate choice for myself and my health. I finally found the answer to all the questions I had about our nutrition, while still limiting our harm, and impacting the planet positively. The energy this diet gave me impacted my physical activities as well.

We are all so hard on ourselves sometimes, myself included. We are all imperfectly perfect. As I learned more, my mind evolved, my behaviors and diet evolved, and then my body followed. It wasn’t a perfect process. It took time. Transformation doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen. It’s as simple as making a decision on what you are making for dinner tonight, or to take that walk you are thinking about. May your life and actions be a celebration of the Earth, every day.

Southwest Tofu Scramble

Posted by Julie Tourangeau

Compassion begins on your plate!

I genuinely do not miss eggs as a vegan, and a major reason is that I’ve experimented and perfected my favorite vegan breakfasts. I am often asked how I cook my tofu scramble, and after lots of trial and error, I wanted to share my favorite recipe and cooking process that I’ve developed. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

You will need (serves two):

1 package organic, sprouted extra firm tofu

1 tbsp garlic granules*

2 tbsp turmeric

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

2 chopped basil leaves

1 dollop of your favorite salsa

1 organic avocado

2 organic golden potatoes

1/2 organic white onion

1 package of washed organic spinach

Wildbrine Kimchi Probiotic Sriracha*

Celtic Sea Salt*

Ground black pepper*
*Proportions can be modified to taste.

🌱Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

🌱Slice potatoes into circles. In bowl, evenly toss potatoes in salt and pepper.

🌱Place sliced potatoes on cookie sheet, and cook on top shelf in oven until golden brown. (Cook times may vary per oven.)

🌱Slice tofu package.

🌱Pour “tofu guts” into a medium saucepan. Crumble extra firm tofu and place in the pan, turning on medium heat.

🌱Add turmeric, garlic granules, basil, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper to pan.

🌱Stir as needed.

🌱Once “tofu guts” water has started to cook away, add a dollop of salsa to the scramble mix.

🌱Slice onion. Add to sauce pan with a little water. Cook over medium heat until onions start to caramelize. Add spinach, and top with salt and pepper.

🌱Cut avocado in half. Spoon out green avocado onto a cutting board. Sprinkle pepper. Cut into slices.

🌱Pour finished tofu into two bowls. Add spinach and onion mixture divided evenly to both bowls. Dress with slices of potato, avocado slices, and finish with Kimchi Sriracha. I love this Sriracha since it tastes amazing, and adds probiotics to any meal to help aid with digestion and support immunity.

🌱💚And, voila! You have mastered the tofu scramble. 🙌🏼💚🌱

Woman’s World Farmstand Diet: Flavorful and Rich Vegan Shepard’s Pie

Posted by Julie Tourangeau

Compassion begins on your plate! As mentioned in the cover story in the August 21, 2017 issue of Woman’s World Magazine on shelves now, attached is my recipe for whole plant-based, vegan shepard’s pie. I am so honored to be featured in the current issue of Woman’s World magazine for plant-based nutrition. To have my weight loss transformation be an example of a vegan, Whole Foods diet being the most compassionate and nutritious lifestyle is honestly a dream come true.

Although the article states you can lose 20 lbs in a week, my over-100lbs-lost story was a slow process over a year and a half, making good daily decisions on plant-based food choices. I never intended to drop the weight, just to do better. The weight loss has been a nice bonus. Always love yourself and your body at any weight. Make daily decisions on activities and food choices from love. Do all things from a place of love, not lack.

Also, I could tell you right now I would not have dropped weight if I continued eating cheese, even though the article suggests doing shreds of cheese on your salad. In fact, a huge part of my spike in energy was abstaining from any and all animal products and focusing on whole, real fruits and vegetables. Replace your eggs and cheese with tofu scrambles, like the recipe in the article. They are seriously delicious and won’t slow you down. 😉

I encourage you all to read “The Whole Foods Diet” book by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. He focuses on so many health benefits abstaining from animal products. He is so incredibly passionate about it. Case studies have shown people reversing and preventing diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even cancers. Weight loss is the least important benefit to consider.

Full Recipe: Flavorful and Rich Vegan Shepard’s Pie