More Plants: A Vegan Podcast by Brownble

Hi everyone! I come bearing some news today about the future of our podcast. Listen in for this quick announcement before something new begins! To tide you over with more content while you wait, make sure to visit brownble.com 

Welcome everyone, to part 2 of this two part episode on grief and the process of grieving with special guest clinical psychologist and researcher Verena Kacinskis, my dear friend, and who to this day has some of the most downloaded episodes in our podcast’s history. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend listening to last week’s episode which was part 1 on grief and grieving, that’s episode 229, because Verena explains so much about the stages of grief and we both share some of the things that have helped us when we’ve been grieving, as well as some of the foundations of what grief means, what it feels like, and the importance of letting yourself sit in that place rather than resisting or denying it.   In today's episode, part 2, we talk about: Other forms of grief and grieving, including: Grieving during a separation, divorce, or when going through a breakup. Grief when dealing with the empty nest or retirement. The loss of a friendship or estrangement from family members Grieving the loss of a job or career. The loss of any kind of dream or life path we didn’t get to go through like grieving not being pregnant or becoming a parent, of finding a long-term partner, or any dream that hasn’t come to pass. Grief and the process of grieving the loss of a dog or a pet. The gifts and invitations that come with grief. How to deal with the difficult moments during grief or mourning like the moment of remembering first thing in the morning, and other special times of day. The best books and podcasts on grief and grieving. How to support someone who is grieving.   My hope is that these two episodes, and with this one, the last of season 9, you feel that there’s a hand extended to you in this moment of loss, that you feel less alone, that if you are not grieving but have someone you love who is, you can be the biggest source of support for them. Verena Kacinskis is a clinical psychologist and researcher. For the past 13 years, she has been integrating the concepts and techniques from psychology and a healthcare system called BodyTalk, seeking to deepen and expand therapeutic results for her patients. Currently, she has been splitting her time between seeing patients and developing content to both educate and encourage self-observation, always with the premise of sharing resources that people can use in their own internal organization processes. You can connect with verena through her website verenakacinskis.com  and through her instagram page @verenakacinskis. She is one of the most insightful, professional, dedicated, sensitive and wonderful people I know, I am so grateful to have her in my life and so grateful you get to meet her in today's conversation if you haven't before. Our sponsor for today's show: Etsy shop Green and Experience: Natural and Reusable Vegan and Cruelty Free Hemp Dryer Balls - get 10% off your purchase by using promo code: BROWNBLE10 For all the other links mentioned in today's episode, click here.

This episode, which I like to think of as: two friends walk into a bar and talk about grief, is raw, honest, and it is meant to bring you support if you are grieving, if the passing of a loved one is near, if it has been a long time since you lost someone and have had a difficult and prolonged grieving process, and it is also for anyone grieving any type of loss other than from the death of a loved one. It could be that you are grieving the end of a relationship, are going through a divorce or through the loss of a friendship, estrangement from family members, your kids moving away from home, the loss of a job or business, that you are grieving a dream that hasn’t come to pass or that didn’t happen for you, the loss of youth, the loss that comes from seeing your body change through the years through the process of ageing, the loss of health, and any other circumstance where grieving can take place. As you know I’ve had a lot of losses due to the death of loved ones, most happened in the span of a few short years at a very young age, and Verena comes to this conversation with the most candid and open hearted vulnerability, talking about her divorce after 13 years of marriage, right before the pandemic. What I loved about this conversation, was that even though I have experienced grief first hand, and I feel I’ve grown to understand it more and more with every loss, Verena explains grief from that perfect intersection between lived experience and her incredible professional experience as a therapist, and I learned so much from this conversation. We talk about: The meaning of grief and the grieving process, what this process is and what it feels like. The 5 stages of grief, what they are and examples for each of them. Traumatic and problematic grief. The wavelike cycle of grief with all its ups and downs. What can help if you are grieving and when and how to seek support while grieving. Grief due to the passing of a loved one, and grief after divorce, a breakup or a separation. Our guest, clinical psychologist Verena Kacinskis shares so many stories of grief and overcoming it from her professional work as a therapist. The role therapy and grief counseling can play when grieving and experiencing the loss of a loved one. Resources, tools and tips to help support you through grief and the grieving process. Much more is coming in part 2 coming next week. When I finished recording the episode, I was sitting with my husband Carlos having dinner, and when he asked me how the recording went, the first thing I said was “it was the episode I wish I had had when I first went through this”, and that is exactly what I wanted to give you, a resource, a lifeline, something to grab on to if you’re struggling with grief, or an episode you could share with someone you know who is grieving, because as you’ll hear in this episode, grief has so much to do with a feeling of loneliness, and I wanted you to know, that you are most certainly not alone, in the sadness or the conflicting feelings, or the guilt, or the regret or the anger, or the numbness. Verena Kacinskis is a clinical psychologist and researcher. For the past 13 years, she has been integrating the concepts and techniques from Psychology and a healthcare system called BodyTalk, seeking to deepen and expand therapeutic results for her patients. Currently, she has been spliting her time between seeing patients and developing content to both educate and encourage self-observation, always with the premise of sharing resources that people can use in their own internal organization processes. You can connect with verena through her website verenakacinskis.com  and through her instagram page @verenakacinskis. Our sponsor for today's show: Etsy shop Green and Experience: Natural and Reusable Vegan and Cruelty Free Hemp Dryer Balls - get 10% off your purchase by using promo code: BROWNBLE10 For all the other links mentioned in today's episode, click here.  

The travel episode you've all been waiting for! Brighde Reed of World Vegan Travel is here to give us all the tips you'll ever need for fun, delicious vegan travel. Brighde is a passionate vegan and advocate for animals, and in today’s episode, she comes with so many tips for vegan travel, resources, websites, apps, translating tips when travelling, and practical tips to help you navigate your adventures as a vegan with confidence. Who better, than the person behind organizing what are, at least to my knowledge, the most high end, spectacularly planned, luxury vegan travel tours and experiences out there, including exploring the beauty of Tuscany, Christmas markets in France, seeing mountain gorillas in Rwanda, going on safari in Botswana and more. She also talks about: Finding vegan friendly hotels, resorts and accommodations. How to talk about your vegan diet when ordering at restaurants and when booking hotels. How to find delicious vegan food while travelling and nearby vegan restaurants. How to use social media to find vegan food near you. Why travel guides aren't always the most up to date with vegan recommendations while travelling, and where to find these. How to get over the fear of advocating for yourself and asking for a vegan dish or vegan substitutions at restaurants and hotels. How you don't have to plan your trips alone and the options available to you so all you have to do is pack your bags. How to find vegan food city tours. Much more. Brighde spent her formative years in the UK and Australia before her desire to travel took over. The next five years were spent leading group tours for an Australian company around Southeast Asia, France and Morocco. She met fellow tour guide Seb in Marrakech, where they fell madly in love, and a couple of years later they discovered veganism together. She became passionate about promoting the vegan message as an activist. Widely travelled for both work and fun, one of her most important jobs at World Vegan Travel is ensuring the vegan food on their trips is second to none. She also makes sure everyone has enough treats throughout the day, and organizes the infamous trivia sessions during their final day’s parties. You can connect with Brighde through Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Youtube (as World Vegan Travel on all platforms) and through her website. Don’t forget to check out her wonderful weekly podcast The World Vegan Travel Podcast for even more tips and resources like the ones she gives in this episode, plus guests sharing about their trips around the world, the vegan restaurants they've tried while travelling, and much more. Our sponsor for today's show: Etsy shop Green and Experience: Natural and Reusable Vegan and Cruelty Free Hemp Dryer Balls - get 10% off your purchase by using promo code: BROWNBLE10 For all the other links mentioned in today's episode, click here.  

There are hundreds of ways to introduce Victoria, and I’m about to share so many of the incredible things she’s done, but to me, she was the very first author that made me see that there was a connection between my relationship with food, my values, spirituality, ethics, that every step I took had meaning, that even my messy past with food and emotional eating could find healing, and that most of the work with my issues had to start internally, not externally. She got me started on a path that has taken me to so many places since then, all on this quest to find peace with food, while still being in connection with the meaning behind my choices and my love for animals. In today’s episode we talk about her 38 years of being vegan, what she’s seen, how she’s stayed the course, how she found veganism back when there weren’t hundreds of books and podcasts and documentaries about it. We talk about having missteps on our journeys to veganism, how imperfection is a part of the process and what we can compassionately tell ourselves to celebrate even the smallest victories. We talk about some of the reasons many people stop being vegan, and one essential piece of the puzzle that can help keep us on course. We talk about the importance of taking things a day at a time, as well as the deeper, spiritual meaning behind our food choices. I ask Victoria a question I’ve been wanting to ask her for years about religion and spirituality. We discuss her passion for and practice of yoga, and why it’s so important, when practicing a philosophy that stems from another culture, to honour and incorporate its many teachings, and what is TRULY going to stay with us throughout our lives (spoiler alert, it ain’t that headstand!). Victoria talks about all the exciting projects she’s got coming up including the incredible documentary she helped produce “A Prayer for Compassion”, her incredible Mainstreet Vegan Academy where they prepare and certify vegan lifestyle coaches and educators, her upcoming and newly revamped podcast The Victoria Moran Podcast and much more. Listed by VegNews among the “Top 10 Living Vegetarian Authors,” Victoria Moran has written thirteen books including Main Street Vegan and Creating a Charmed Life, and was featured twice on Oprah. She is the founder and director of Main Street Vegan Academy, training and certifying Vegan Lifestyle Coaches and Educators since 2012; and she was lead producer of the 2019 documentary, A Prayer for Compassion, about food choices and spirituality. Victoria is one of the cofounders of the Compassion Consortium, an Interfaith, inter-species spiritual center for people who care about animals. After 475 episodes of the Main Street Vegan Podcast, she is about to launch the Victoria Moran Podcast, an exploration of vitality, spirituality, and compassion. Make sure to follow her work through her website, on instagram where she is @Victoriamoranauthor, as well as on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Our sponsor for today's show: Etsy shop Green and Experience: Natural and Reusable Vegan and Cruelty Free Hemp Dryer Balls - get 10% off your purchase by using promo code: BROWNBLE10 For all the other links mentioned in today's episode, click here.  

If you’re having a moment this week, this month, or this year, in which you’re losing your faith in humanity a little bit, this is the episode you need to listen to. Hava and Assaf are two of the founders of the Animal Love Rescue Center, a no kill animal shelter in Costa Rica, which is now home to over 1,200 animals including dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, sheep and goats, and their story is one of a dream created by 16 lifelong friends from Israel, who one day packed their bags, their 80 pets, and created a one of a kind vegan resort, adventure tours, a fully vegan restaurant, and somehow, by the magic of circumstance, almost accidentally, became one of the biggest animal shelters I have ever had the pleasure to encounter. We discuss so many things in this episode, from the story of how the organization got started, to how on Earth they manage to care for so many animals and do so with such great level of care. We also talk about dog and cat adoption, how to deal with some of the challenges that come with working with animals and the emotional burden it brings (both the hard and the wonderful). They talk about how you can plan a wonderful adventure to Costa Rica that will go into funding the rescue center and have a fully vegan experience while staying at their hotel, but my favorite part of this entire interview, other than the story of Ralph, the dog that keeps on kicking it to cancer, and the dog who after being in chains began to trust again, is towards the end of the episode, when I asked Assaf and Hava, what the animals have taught them, and how they’ve changed their lives.   They have helped thousands of animals through the years and have mostly been self funded through the activities of the hotel, restaurant and tours, but due to covid and tourism slowing down the shelter now faces a new situation and needs our support more than ever, and so we're encouraging any of our listeners who can, to please donate to help keep their organization going and these amazing animals in safe hands. Make sure to also follow them on Instagram @animalloverescue, on Facebook as well as their adoption Instagram page @animallove_adopciones  Our sponsor for today's show: Etsy shop Green and Experience: Natural and Reusable Vegan and Cruelty Free Hemp Dryer Balls - get 10% off your purchase by using promo code: BROWNBLE10 For all the other links mentioned in today's episode, click here.  

I am so pleased and excited to introduce you to our very special guest for today’s show, chef, cookbook author of the book Practically Vegan and registered dietitian nutritionist Nisha Melvani, who you might know on instagram and facebook as @cookingforpeanuts. In today’s episode we talk about how her multicultural upbringing influenced her cooking, her career path, how motherhood changed her experience in the kitchen and of course, the experience of writing and publishing her very popular cookbook Practically Vegan: More Than 100 Easy, Delicious Vegan Dinners on a Budget. Nisha comes bearing so many tips when it comes to welcoming non-vegans into the fold, inspiring people to take it one meal at a time, tips for new moms and seasoned moms when it comes to feeding lots of new foods to their little ones, as well as how to inspire teenagers to get excited about cooking and putting together a meal. She tells us the unusual way her cookbook came to be (semi spoiler alert: it involves Jonathan Safran Foer one of my favorite writers, giving an irresistible suggestion), and if you’ve been dreaming of writing a vegan cookbook of your own, of starting your own food business, of growing a social media following, she gives some very specific tips you won’t want to miss.Nisha Melvani is a Registeted Dietitian Nutritionist with a Master’s Degree in Nutrition from Columbia University), cookbook author of the book Practically Vegan, Graduate of Natural Gourmet Culinary School and the mom of three teenaged girls. A special thanks to our sponsor for today's show: Etsy shop Green and Experience: Natural and Reusable Vegan and Cruelty Free Hemp Dryer Balls - get 10% off your purchase by using promo code: BROWNBLE10 For all other links mentioned in today's episode, click here.

I’m so excited to introduce you to our very special guest for today’s episode, registered dietitian nutritionist Shannon Costello. Shannon is a professional at a very special intersection that includes pretty much all the things we talk about in this podcast. She is a plant based dietitian and passionate about vegan foods, she is also an anti diet dietitian, taking her clients along a new path to all encompassing well being and health through intuitive eating and each person’s specific circumstances, preferences and lifestyles. To top things off, she actually coaches her clients, in the kitchen, to find a way of shopping planning, prepping and cooking that helps make life easier, and helps people connect with their food and ingredients in a new way. Today we talk about the harm that can come with dieting, leaving the dieting mindset behind and reconnecting to yourself and your body. We also talk about what the experience is like when you walk into an anti-diet dietitian's office, dealing with dieting conversations with family members and friends, the differences between meal planning and meal prepping, as well as how to share meals with our partners or family who might eat in a different way, and so much more. Shannon also shares so much of her personal story with dieting and her journey to more balanced exercise habits with us, and if you’ve ever watched her very entertaining reels on instagram, I can tell you right now, she is just as fun, bubbly, genuine and honest as she comes across on social media.  Shannon Costello is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and plant-based culinary coach based in Maryland, USA. She inspires her clients to ditch the dieting mindset through kitchen therapy and intuitive eating while exploring new foods & flavors. You can connect with her, and book a consultation through her website and instagram where she is @chefshannonnutrition For all other links mentioned in today's episode, click here.

I’m very excited to introduce you to our special guest, registered dietitian, anti diet dietitian and certified intuitive eating counsellor, Charline Adriens. An expert on the intersection between eating a vegan diet and practicing intuitive eating, being plant based and also having an anti diet and non restrictive approach. I find it so helpful when professionals in the field of dietetics, health and mental health open up conversations about this very gentle approach that as you know has changed my life, and that is intuitive eating, leaving our dieting days behind, understanding why diets are bad for us and our health, and working on body neutrality, body acceptance and healing our relationship with food. I find it even more of a unique and special gift when people in these fields also dare to talk about how these approaches and making food choices due to ethics (for example being vegan or eating a vegetarian diet) can intersect. It is rare, and Charline is one of those people that just makes me feel understood, that allows space for nuance, both within veganism, and within practicing intuitive eating.  Today I ask her so many of the questions I had when I got started on my intuitive eating journey and this path towards body acceptance and making peace with food, some of the questions you have asked me, and some of the misconceptions there are about the intersection between vegan diets and intuitive eating. Charline shares some of her own personal journey with food, body image and becoming a dietitian as a second career, and we also dive into the topics of diet culture and its effects on our mental and physical health, into some of the intuitive principles, like rejecting the diet mentality, challenge the food police, honor your hunger and feel your fullness. She also shares her perspective on body image work and you’ll hear her say, the phrase you’ve heard hundreds of times in this podcast, food is never just about the food. She discusses the importance of doing body neutrality and body acceptance work, and how to navigate that question so many of us have "How do I love my body if it doesn't meet society's standards?", and "How to accept my body when so many messages tell me I shouldn't".  I find Charline incredibly helpful, compassionate and understanding of the journey each eater has to go through and I know you will get so many actionable tips from this episode. Charline Adriaens is a registered dietitian and proud certified intuitive eating counselor. As a vegan herself, she specializes in plant-based nutrition in her private practice. Nutrition is a second career for Charline who previously worked in the contemporary art world. While looking for a solution for her own difficult relationship with food, her interest in nutrition led her to becoming a dietitian and eventually to intuitive eating. She started her private practice in 2020 which is mainly virtual. In January 2021 she launched her very own podcast where she talks to her guests about how they eat plant-based and what intuitive eating means to them. As you’ll hear towards the end of the episode, Charline sees clients in her private practice which is mainly virtual so you can reach out to her for a consultation and learn more about her practice and resources, and enjoy her beautiful content on instagram @intuitief_plantaardig. For all the other links mentioned in today's episode, click here.

In today’s episode of the podcast I have such a special guest joining me to talk about finding a style of movement that is all about the joy. If you've ever said the words "I hate working out", "I hate going to the gym", "I hate exercise", "I hate cardio", "I hate working out at home", this episode is for you. Today’s episode is less interview style, and more so a conversation between friends, where we both talk about the movement loves of our lives, how to enjoy exercise, how to practice intuitive movement without focusing on weight or numbers, and how to find an exercise you enjoy.  You’ll hear some stories of mine you’ve never heard on the podcast before, and Sam will inspire you with a quite unusual coming of age when it comes to movement, and she shares how finding an activity that involves some kind of mental puzzle, can add extra benefits to the experience. We talk about a process oriented mindset vs a goal oriented one, the place community has in what type of exercise we choose and how you can start finding that form of movement that will make you hop or even better, skip to it. I also had a BIG surprise for Sam, one she wasn’t expecting, and which I reveal in the first few minutes of the show. We also discuss incorporating movement for your mental health, finding enjoyable workouts that can help you stay active without it being about discomfort or shoulds, and finding your very own brand of joyful exercise. Sam Anthony is a travel writer and editor. She's also been an archaeologist, full time house sitter, travel blogger, and podcaster! Originally from New York, she lived in Spain for 3 years and was nomadic for another 3 years before finding a home base in Buffalo, New York. While she’s always loved being active, it was during the pandemic that she began to really connect with movement as a way to stay balanced and support positive mental and emotional health. Connect with Sam on Instagram: @theroadgoesforeveron For all the links mentioned in today's episode, click here or visit brownble.com/blog