44 Nuggets of Wisdom About Whole-Food Plant-Based Eating and Living

In honor of my 44th birthday last year, I’m sharing 44 nuggets of wisdom about whole-food plant-based eating and living. Here they are, in no particular order, one small nugget for every dance around the sun I’ve taken so far. 🧡

1. There is no late to the party, whether that’s eating more plants or, ahem, writing an email. 
2. Wash, dry, and store your produce directly after you get home from the store or farmer’s market. It will help you eat what you buy. 
3. The texture of food can be just as important as the flavor. Generally, the more textures, the more interesting and yummy the dish.
4. Eating different variations of the same breakfast every day makes life easier. This is one of my favorites.
5. People are going to have opinions about what you eat no matter what, so you may as well eat how you like. 
6. When in doubt, eat some blueberries. 
7. An Instant Pot, a good blender, a fine mesh strainer, and the Clean Food Dirty Girl portal are priceless when eating plants. 
8. If you’re going somewhere that has food, like a wedding or a birthday party, eat something before you go, and bring some fruit or a sandwich in case there aren’t any plant-based options. 
9. Make your own convenience foods by batch cooking our meal plans. Stick to the simple plans if you want to get in and out of the kitchen faster. 
10. If you don’t want to batch a full meal plan, cook a few components to have throughout the week, like a soup, a dressing, and a sauce. 
11. The best way to heat up a Food for Life sprouted corn tortilla is to put it in the microwave for 20 seconds. 
12. Losing weight is not about eating less food, it’s about eating better food. 
13. Meet yourself where you’re at, be kind to yourself, and do the best you can. If that looks like one plant-based meal a week to start, bravo!
14. Cooking your own plant-based meals, moving your body, getting enough sleep, and cutting down or quitting drinking are not always easy, but you will never look back and wish you hadn’t taken such good care of yourself. 
15. A big bowl filled with grains (like quinoa), beans (like black beans), veggies (like sautéed peppers and mushrooms), and a sauce (like a cheesy sauce) is one of the easiest ways to fill up on plants. 
16. Chopping up leafy greens, like kale or collards, and adding them to a bowl with some hot soup is an easy way to get more greens into your day. 
17. Cooking without oil is much easier than most people think. Follow our recipes to see for yourself. 
18. Stop “starting over.” If you have a goal and there’s a setback, focus on the next best choice to keep you moving forward. 
19. Plants can’t help you unless you eat them. And the only way to eat them is to eat them. 
20. Learn to love the food that loves you back. 
21. Drinking unsweetened sparkling water from a wine glass makes me feel fancy. Turns out, I don’t need wine, just the glass! 
22. Act as if it’s impossible to fail.
23. Leave your phone at home and take yourself out for a solo dinner date. Enjoy your own company, you’re awesome.
24. No one can eat healthy for you. 
25. Blanching collard greens and using them as tortillas is a fabulous way to increase the nutrient density of your wraps and burritos. 
26. Focus on the following foods for optimal health: veggies, fruits, whole grains, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds, and minimally processed plant-based ingredients (like tofu, tempeh, and sprouted bread).
27. Spray some Braggs Liquid Aminos on air-popped popcorn before dusting with nutritional yeast for a yummy movie snack. I sneak this into theaters all the time. A few weeks ago, I snuck lentil soup into the movies. Anything is possible, my friend.
28. If you have the means, hire someone to batch cook for you from time to time. 
29. Don’t overthink plant-based eating. Just do the best you can and if you need help, ask in our kind and supportive Facebook group. 
30. Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re satisfied. If you’re eating meals made from whole plant foods, you can start to trust your body’s hunger signals. 
31. If you eat a plant-based diet, take a vitamin B12 supplement. It’s non-negotiable. Even non-plant-based eaters over the age of 50 should be supplementing with B12. Here’s the multivitamin I take with B12 (affiliate link).
32. Consider taking vitamin D and omega-3 supplements. 
33. If you have a hard time digesting raw veggies, stick to cooked veggies until your microbiome adjusts. 
34. If you have a hard time digesting beans, soak them overnight, toss out the soaking water, bring them to a boil with new water and some kombu (a type of seaweed), and cook until nice and soft. You can also take a supplement called Beano when you eat beans until your digestive system gets used to all the awesome fiber.
35. Eating plants is a habit. 
36. It takes 15 minutes to cook some quinoa, steam some broccoli, and heat up a can of beans. No more excuses, get into your kitchen and do it! 
37. You have to eat. You may as well eat in a way that helps you. 
38. Every time you get hungry, it’s an opportunity to fuel your body with vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, antioxidants, and fiber—the stuff that has been proven time and time again in well-designed human studies to help humans thrive. What foods are bursting with all that goodness? You guessed it! Whole plant foods. 
39. If you don’t like kale, that’s okay. You don’t have to eat kale to live a plant-fueled life. 
40. Don’t be afraid of carbs, just keep an eye on simple carbs (like cakes and cookies) and focus on eating lots of complex carbs (like beans and grains). 
41. For the record, I love eating cake. I just make sure it’s plant-based and then watch out, I’m diving in! 
42. If getting enough protein when avoiding animal-based foods was a problem, all my fellow humans who were raised in meat-free hippie households and I would be long dead. I’ve gone 44 years without meat, and so far, so good. I even work out, lift weights, and go to Pilates several times a week. No meat, no problem. 
43. Being the food police just isn’t cool. 
44. Instead of focusing on why you can’t, focus on why you want to. Focusing on why you can’t will produce more obstacles. Focusing on why you want to will create motivation to make that shit happen.

All the wiser

Which nuggets of wisdom stuck out to you? Do you have any to add to the list? Share about it in the comments below. 

Wishing you a plant-fueled trip around the sun.

Xo 

Molly