My Mission: A Green Persuasion to the Plant Based Lifestyle

How do people shift from a SAD (Standard American Diet) to one of whole plant foods?   My observations are these four categories.

1) The All In: These are staring down the barrel of impending doom (imminent death or disability, or are sick and tired of being sick and tired). They tend to adopt the plant based lifestyle on a completely compliant basis, follow prescriptions to the letter and reap the best results.These are the ones who tell the more experienced or their Plant-Based Physician: “Just tell me what to eat and what to do…I will do it.”

Many of these individuals have had a health crisis. I’ve met several who have had a bypass, and then after the recovery (always with some degree of cognitive impairment, almost none escape that “side effect”) they slowly start to slide back to their pre-crisis ways.Helping them find the reason for wanting a robust remainder of life is often the best remedy.

2) The Dabblers: Give up most animal foods but make a wide ranging set of allowances for mostly social situations:. cream in coffee, pizza with the grandkids, beer and hotdogs at football games. They insist that “moderation” will see them through. As Dr. Dean Ornish says, “those who take this approach experience the worst of both worlds, they aren’t neuro-adapting to a new palate so they constantly feel deprived and they don’t get much in the way of results.”

3) The “When I have a Health Crisis Crowd “ invariably, most chronic disease has a long evolution. It can take decades of SAD abuse to cause the damage, and in the case of heart disease, the first symptom is death in 50% of heart attacks. (My mother included).

4) The Socially Driven: Rigorously following the plan when alone or with other adopters, they will not “rock the boat” in social situations. Since life is social, results are sporadic and they ping pong in and out of successful weight loss or health metric reversal.  This seems particularly true for events like Mother’s Day where being taken out to a child’s favorite SAD restaurant results in substantial non-compliance. What if you asked your family to honor you by eating your way for a day?.

Food traditions weigh heavy.We are conditioned by lifetimes of cooking traditions passed down through generations. Disease runs in families it is not genetics per se it is poor lifestyle habits adopted throughout the family tree.

The most successful plant based lifestyle adapters seem to be those who are conscientious (a personality trait), driven to succeed (achievement orientation) and less concerned about social constraints.  They care more about their own health and well being, and much less about how they are perceived by others.  They have learned to ‘put their own mask on first, before assisting others” as the routine airline admonition mandates.

The least successful are those who are socially compelled, have not yet reached a health crisis and think that they can negotiate with science on their terms.  Somehow they appear to think that the tenets of a healthy lifestyle are somewhat optional and/or they will go “All In” when they have that warning health event.

Here is where I come in. I can guide people to healthier lifestyles via the Green Persuasion. I have seen all the speakers, watched all the documentaries and read all the books.

Contact me, I ‘m happy to help!