I love it when my two favorite things, dietetics and plant-based living intersect. Join me in this conversation with regional account manager from Dietitians On Demand, Sarah Heitzman, who has been a vegetarian for over 20 years! We swapped stories from our plant-based journeys that led us both down our career paths. Sarah, offers us a peek into her world where she reminds us that food is joy, not judgment.
Resources from this Episode:
Vegan Strong Team
Columbus Vegan Restaurants:
Dietitians on Demand
Dietitians Only Podcast
If you want to connect with Sarah, visit the following:
Email: sheitzman@dietitiansondemand.com
LinkedIn: Sarah B Heitzman
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Plant-Centered and Thriving
Podcast.
I'm your host, ashley Kitchens.
I'm a plant-based registereddietitian and virtual nutrition
mentor.
I was raised on an Angus cattlefarm, grew up with a lot of GI
issues and used the power ofplant-based eating to promote
healing.
Here you'll find inspiration,ideas and encouragement for your
(00:23):
own plant-based journey.
I'm so thrilled you're heretoday.
Let's get started.
Welcome to the show.
Plant-centered Listener.
My name is Ashley and I am yourhost today, and today we have
another story for you which I'mreally excited to share.
But before I do that, I wantedto let you know that I went to
(00:44):
the Arnold Classic a few acouple weeks ago a few weeks ago
at this point and it was areally fun event.
So I'm part of a group calledthe Vegan Strong Plant-Built
Team and what we do is we are ateam of vegan athletes from all
over the world and we gettogether to compete at places
(01:06):
like Mr America, which is whatwe did in October of 2023.
And that was a blast.
So what we did this year, ormost recently, is the Vegan
Strong Team went to the Arnoldand we had a booth set up there.
We didn't compete or doanything like that.
(01:26):
If you're familiar with theArnold.
It is not a natural event, sofor any natural athlete, it is
really impossible to win prettymuch impossible.
So we set up a booth at theArnold Classic.
There were so many vendorsthere and there were between
100,000 and 150,000 people thatcame in for this event.
(01:47):
It was insane there were somany people.
What was really neat wasobviously there were very few
vegan booths there.
We happened to be strategicallyset up next to a vegan
alternative like Meat Company,which was really fantastic and
it smelled delicious all day.
(02:07):
And what happened was is thatour sponsors were incredibly
generous and donated a bunch ofproduct to us, and so what we
ended up doing was we createdgift bags to sell to support our
team, so that we could continuedoing things like Mr America
and other events where weshowcase that you don't need
meat or dairy or any animalproducts to be strong, to be
(02:30):
athletic, to be incrediblycompetitive.
And so guess what ended uphappening?
We sold out of those goodiebags on a day two and we had a
whole other day ahead of us.
So the person who basically,like, organized the entire event
was obviously so excited, butwe had to figure out okay, well,
(02:52):
how are we going to be here thefollowing day and continue to
sell things and make money, youknow, and talk to people.
We had some like extra productsthat our sponsors had sent, so
we kind of just like puttogether these like fun other
goodie bags that didn't includelike everything originally, and
we were able to sell those andguess what?
We ended up selling out ofthose too.
(03:12):
So I say that because peoplewere interested.
You know, even though this wasnot a vegan event whatsoever,
people were genuinely curiousabout plant-based protein, about
being competitive as aplant-based athlete.
We even had a few vegans stopby, which were just a few out of
like the thousands of peoplethat we spoke to.
It was so cool to talk to thosevegans and, of course,
(03:37):
everybody else too.
But it was just a really funevent and it's so much more than
just bodybuilding.
We had actually this veganathlete she there's a
competition called StrongestFirefighter, I think that's what
it is, and she was competingthere and she was so excited
when she came up to us.
(03:57):
She was just absolutely amazingand you know she had competed.
She was also vegan and so shewas just beside.
Like it was just so cool tolike engage with her and also
engage with a competitor who'salso vegan.
There are there's like knightsfighting.
So think of you know, I don'tknow 1800s, people had like
(04:18):
armor on and they're fightingwith swords.
That was there.
Arnold Schwarzenegger wasobviously there.
He would walk around, he wouldjudge, he would talk to people
Just very, very approachable,and guess what?
He actually gave a talk and hetalked about how he eats, how
he's reduced massively his meatconsumption, and he talked about
(04:39):
that with a huge audience andy'all this is a meat loving
audience.
So it was really neat to hearhim talk about not just his meat
reduction but also how hisdoctor is much happy because
he's eating this way, his heartdoctor in particular.
He also talked about the impactof consuming less animal
products on the environment andit was very approachable.
(05:01):
It was not preachy, it wasn'ton a soap box and I thought that
I just was like, I just thoughtthat was really amazing that he
took the time to talk aboutthat, because he didn't have to.
So that was really neat.
If only we could get him tostop by the big and strong booth
that's like on the agenda fornext year.
So Arnold, from what Iunderstand, was introduced to it
(05:22):
in 1970 and that's sort of whatkick started Arnold
Schwarzenegger's like interestin Columbus.
He fell in love with the cityand after winning Mr Olympia, mr
World, which he won in Columbusin 1970.
It was like game on and that'ssort of how that all transpired,
which was really cool.
(05:42):
But while we were there, and ifanyone's familiar with Columbus,
if you live in Columbus, ifyou've visited Columbus there
are so many vegan restaurants.
I was amazed.
So I live in Durham, northCarolina, and I feel like there
are a lot of restaurants aroundhere.
I've seen a few of you ever endup visiting, write these down
because they were so good.
(06:02):
So if you're looking forsomething that's more whole food
, plant-based, maybe even raw,portia's Cafe was delicious.
I got some wraps from them andthey were amazing.
I've eaten there before evenstopping through Columbus.
Satan's realm is exactly what itsounds like it is.
They make their own Satan andeverything is pretty much
(06:26):
Satan-based.
So obviously, if you areallergic or don't eat gluten,
that's not the place for you,but if you can tolerate gluten
and you love gluten, dude, thisplace is amazing.
Nick, he went there because hebasically dropped me off for the
event and then went on up toMichigan to visit his family and
we stopped at Satan's realm forhim and he had what looked like
(06:47):
like a beef and cheddar fromArby's with curly fries and he
said it was absolutely delicious.
So that was a great one.
Fourth and state literally thenumber four.
Fourth and state they wereamazing.
They had stuffed crust, veganpizza, milkshakes.
They were incredible.
I mean, if you're going to hitone place up like, that place
(07:10):
was incredible.
We also went to WoodhouseBakery and Coffee, which was
delicious.
We went to a vegan cafe.
That might have been it.
Yeah, we went to a place calledCommune, which is a fine dining
vegan restaurant.
That was really cool.
I heard Yeez, asian vegankitchen is really good.
(07:32):
We didn't get to make it there,but I'm telling you, if you
ever like, pass through Columbusor if you're in the area.
My goodness, I was amazed byall the options, so I had to
tell you that.
Okay.
So let me get into today's guestand if you're interested or
want to learn more about veganstrong plant built or any of the
work that we do, feel free toreach out to me on Instagram.
(07:53):
I love talking about it and Ilove the work that these
nonprofits do so.
Today I have actually adietitian guesting and I'm
really excited to share herstory.
So she is an account manager atDietitians On Demand and she
talks about what that is.
Her name is Sarah and she'sbeen a dietitian for about seven
(08:14):
years and she has a lot ofexperience working in acute care
and long-term care andoutpatient and behavioral health
clinics.
So she's done a lot ofdifferent things and she's been
vegetarian for about 20 years.
She started at a pretty youngage and so she talks about what
it was like to go vegetarian,not just 20 years ago, but also
(08:37):
being young, like being in, Ithink, middle school age.
So she goes into all of thatand how it's impacted her life
and what she does and differentthings like that.
So I am excited to bring youSarah's story.
So let's welcome her to theshow.
Sarah, thank you so much forjoining us today.
I'm really excited just tolearn more about you and your
story.
How are you doing?
(08:58):
Good, I'm so happy to be here.
Yeah, I'm excited to have youhere.
So, before we get into yourpersonal journey when it came to
going plant-based, I would lovefor you just kind of give us an
idea of who you are what you do, even some fun hobbies that you
do, which I read about.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
I work as a regional account manager for Dietitians
On Demand, which is a dietitianstaffing company.
Prior to this position, Iworked clinically in hospitals
and long-term care facilitiesthroughout the Virginia Carolina
areas for a couple of yearsafter my internship.
I do also have, in addition tomy nutrition degrees, a
(09:35):
bachelor's in animal sciencefrom University of Connecticut,
so I have a little bit ofbackground in agriculture as
well.
For fun, I garden, I horsebackride and I foster cats.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Nice, lovely.
When you say Dietitians OnDemand is like a staffing
company, what does that mean forsomeone who might not know what
that is?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah, so think of like travel, nursing or contract
staffing.
So we do more than thatNowadays.
We were, I think 10 years ago,known more for contract staffing
, but our Dietitians are all W2employees of Dietitians On
Demand and we are nationwide, sowe place Dietitians in
primarily acute and long-termcare facilities throughout the
(10:19):
US.
And, yeah, I managePennsylvania, basically the
Northeast in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Oh okay.
Oh, I didn't know that.
That's amazing.
I wonder if we've actuallyworked at some similar
facilities, because I have gonethrough a consulting agency.
I've worked with them innursing homes for 16 years now
oh wow and before I was even aDietitian, and so I've covered
nursing homes in North Carolinaand Virginia and I really enjoy
it.
I have one facility now and Istill really like doing it from
(10:50):
time to time.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, I worked in North Carolina, primarily
Asheville.
Oh wow so.
I worked for Metz Culinary,which is a smaller food service
company and for whatever reason,this account in Asheville.
It's kind of it's so rural butit is like a city there, but
it's hard to get people to comein from other cities in North
Carolina, I think, because ofthe weather and the mountains
and everything.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yes, I can see that.
Yeah, I feel like those are theplaces that I go often to.
Most are the ones that are justin more rural small town areas
throughout Virginia and NorthCarolina.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, yeah, and that's primarily where we staff
is tough to fill, regionallocations and then tough
accounts as well.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
Well, good, so tell me moreabout, because you've been
plant-based for a long time now,longer than probably a lot of
us have, so tell me how thatstarted way back when my parents
were vegetarian prior to havingus.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
So they were, I like to think they were kind of
hippies in a day.
And when my mom got pregnantwith me, they went back to a
meat diet for health purposes itwas very hard back in the 80s
and early 90s to be plant-based,so, I think, just for
nutritional purposes of mywell-being and then they kept
(12:08):
that diet of eating meat whilewe were growing up, basically to
not force us to be on avegetarian diet if it wasn't
really our thing.
And then my sister and Iactually decided, without even
really them saying anything tous, when she was around 10 or 11
and I was 13, that we wanted togo back to not eating any meat.
(12:32):
For us it was more of a animalwelfare type of decision.
So I got sucked into in myteens a lot of like PETA videos,
which, of course, are quitetraumatizing for a young you
know, young kid or teenager.
And so, yeah, that's kind ofwhere it started from.
I've obviously loved animals.
I grew up around animals, soyeah, yeah, I think that's
(12:53):
amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
So for your parents in particular, it probably
wasn't as much of a shock like,oh my gosh, what are we going to
feed our kids?
Because they had already doneit for a while.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, yeah, I think it was.
At first.
I think they were a little bitlike are you sure you want to do
this type of thing?
Like do you really understandwhat it entails?
And then I think we did startoff by just cutting out red meat
, if I remember correctly, andthen we cut out chicken
eventually and we didn't eat alot of seafood growing up.
It was, I mean, it's stillexpensive, but it wasn't part of
our like day-to-day diet, sothat wasn't really something
(13:23):
that we had to cut out.
But, yeah, they kind of knewwhat it entailed back then.
We and my dad cooks a lot, sowe had beans and what or meat
alternatives were available, youknow 20 years ago, which I'm
sure we'll talk about, but itwas limited, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Oh, I bet it was.
So dad cooked a lot whichsounds fantastic A lot of beans,
and I yeah, I don't even knowif Morningstar was available
back then.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
It wasn't Okay we basically just had, from what I
remember, and we shopped at agrocery store chain called
Hannaford from upstate New York,so very much like Price Shopper
.
Hannaford were really the onlytwo grocery stores available to
us in the upstate New York areaand all I remember us getting
and it wasn't even very goodback in the day was, you know,
(14:10):
those like Square Tofu, likefirm and extra firm, like that's
all we had and it was expensiveand my parents were both state
workers.
So it's not like we were.
I mean, we weren't.
We were like middle class,upper middle class later on in
my childhood but it wasn'tsomething that like they.
You know, we grew up eatingbrown bread, which is basically
(14:33):
canned bread, and hot dogs andlike pasta, so it was a little
bit outside of our budget a lotof times.
So we ate a lot of beans.
Yeah, yep that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, cause some of those like foods that you're
talking about, like rice, beans,potatoes, are really affordable
.
But if you're going to goanything beyond that, it can't.
You have to kind of beparticular, I'm sure, especially
back then with your budget andeverything and it wasn't always
Hannaford.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
If they were out of stock, like that was the only
place we can really get it from.
I don't think Price Shaper evencarried tofu products in the
mid in the mid 90s, so I believeit.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Oh my gosh.
So that reminds me growing up.
We had a family.
They were vegetarians.
I grew up on an Angus CattleFarm, so very different from,
very differently from how I atenow and there was a family that
my mom was like yeah, they werekind of like the weird family.
They were vegetarians, theyonly shopped at like the health
food store and so, and probablybecause the options weren't
there like the regular grocerystores- yeah, yeah, now that's
(15:30):
different.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I'm sure you've talked about it on other
podcasts your background but I'dbe curious to hear, like, what
made you transition.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, yeah, for those of you listening if you haven't
heard my full story yet, justso real quickly.
I grew up on an Angus CattleFarm, but I also had a lot of GI
issues growing up, so Istruggled with chronic
constipation up until I wasabout 25 years old, even after
becoming a dietitian.
And so finally, there was justlike this light ball moment.
I had watched Forks Over Knives, which came out in 2011.
(16:00):
And I started making thisconnection of oh, maybe what I'm
eating is actually impacting mybody, how I'm feeling.
I mean, I was really only goingto the bathroom like once a
week.
It was that bad.
I was on medication, and so Istarted adding some more plants.
I swapped out my cow's milk foralmond milk because there
really weren't a lot of evenoptions, you know, 12 years ago,
milk wise and the more plants Iate, the better I started
(16:24):
feeling, and so I was just likeI don't want to go back to that
old way, because I just felt somiserable for so long.
I started going to the bathroommore regularly, didn't need
medication to go to the bathroom, so I was like, ok, I'm in this
for the long haul.
So that's yeah.
That was 12 years ago and herewe are today.
Awesome, awesome, yeah, yeah,very interesting, yeah.
So I'm curious, because youhave been plant-based for so
(16:46):
long, what do you do for yourvitamin B12?
And what was that actually like?
Was that talked about when youwere younger?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I think I took I've always taken a multivitamin.
I mean I recommend to most ofmy patients to take one.
There's always going to be, Ifeel like, in everybody's diet,
a deficiency somewhere, becauseyou don't eat the perfect diet
every day.
And we took vitamins back whenI was a child, so I was always
anemic.
It just wasn't something thatwas really talked about and
(17:20):
doctors really didn't know howto guide you.
So our pediatrician was greatbut didn't really have the
knowledge base back then toguide us, so we just basically
supplemented.
I definitely struggled with lowenergy.
I was a competitive rower inhigh school and so I would take
like basically like what proteinshakes and supplements are,
(17:41):
which I believe had some Bvitamins supplemented into them
as well.
Nowadays it's much easier and Ido still take a one a day.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, I think that is like helpful and I think it's a
good reminder for people.
It's like we do not eat theperfect diet, like it would be
really really challenging to do,and so, even if you did, your
body, who knows what it's goingto absorb and what it's not
going to absorb, whatenvironmental factors you're
faced with Right?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
So we're creatures of habit.
So, like we tend to eat thesame things.
Even if we think we have a verydiet, we eat the same very diet
.
So, like it's just and it's notyet.
Yes, it costs money, but I'msure we could save money
elsewhere by like your Starbucksdrink every morning to cover
the cost of that.
So it's really not going to doany harm.
(18:27):
I always used to give my horsesupplements and my dad just said
he had expensive P because heanything that he didn't have he
would just pee out.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
So I mean, it's not yeah.
That's amazing.
So do you take anything elsebesides a one a day supplement
wise?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I take vitamin D in the winter and but that's really
it, and then a melatonin forobviously sleep habit.
But I still compete, docompetitive rowing.
I went to nationals last yearwomen's nationals.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Amazing.
Yeah, I did not know that.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
So I, like I mentioned, I rode in high school
and I just got back into itlast year and we went to placed,
I think, seventh nationally inour women's four.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
What does that like schedule look like for you?
Training wise.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
It's not crazy, it's the master's program, so it's
not collegiate or anything likethat.
But we train, they're boundthree days a week until we're
like ramping up for a regatta,and so it's just a bunch of
working older, mostly women,although I do row in a couple
men's boats, mixed boats too.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
So just for fun now.
Yeah, that's awesome, though Doyou train on the river in
Richmond?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, so our season.
Basically the air and watertemperature has to equal above
100.
So we usually can get out onthe water in late March, so and
then we row up until like we hada race in November.
So really only off the waterfor like three or four months a
year.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Okay, and so then do you do like indoor related?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
rowing.
I don't, you can I have arowing machine at home and I
have a gym membership.
So I'll just to me like drivingdown to the boat house to row
when I could just do it in myhouse.
So I'll just I do otheractivities in the winter time to
kind of give me a little bit ofvariety as well.
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
That is nice.
Yep, yeah, that's awesome.
I did not know that.
That is really cool.
It's a fun fact.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Is there anything that'sparticularly hard about the way
that you eat, like anythingthat's particularly challenging?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
See, these days it's like even going out is there's
usually always somethingavailable which is so different
than it was even like five or 10years ago.
So I wouldn't, I mean, if itwas hard, I feel like I wouldn't
do it.
That's true, yeah, but we, Imade it through.
You know, college was achallenge so I made it.
I say that, but I did.
(20:48):
You know, I gave myself somecredit and made it through all
of that without really backslidinto it just for convenience
purposes.
So, yeah, I wouldn't really saythere's anything truly
challenging.
It's a little bit moreexpensive, but honestly, meat is
expensive these days anyway.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
So yeah, yeah, that is true.
Meat, dairy eggs, like I feellike those prices just kind of
gradually just keep going up.
So yeah, yep, okay, being adietitian this is a question
that actually someone had askedme recently, so I was curious
your response on this.
Being a dietitian, do you oftenjudge other people for what
they eat?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
No, never, because I don't want people to judge me
and it's really none of mybusiness.
So like if if somebody iscoming to me and asking me for
dietary advice, I'll give themmy two cents and we'll have like
a conversation about it wouldbasically be like a shortened
version of a, you know, dietaryrecall and what they're looking
(21:42):
to get out of talking to me.
But there's room in everybody'sdiet for them to enjoy life and
enjoy their food and whateverthat is to them.
That's, you know, that's theirdecision and I hope they I hope
they enjoy it, because I do yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I think that's the main thing we want for anybody
more than anything is just likethat they are enjoying what
they're eating and that theyhave a good relationship with
food, and themselves too.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, yeah that's really hard nowadays.
I feel like I see that a lot,especially in the female
population, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I could not agree more.
So, all right, well, awesome.
Well, thank you so much forcoming on and sharing your story
.
I appreciate it.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, where is the best placethat people do want to connect
with you?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
I'm on LinkedIn.
I don't go on super regularly,probably once a week, so if you
message me it might be a littlebit before I get back to you.
But you can also share my emailaddress in the show notes if
you want.
At Dietitians On Demand.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah, and if there's a dietitian listening or someone
who's maybe going to be adietitian, where is the best
place for them to get connectedwith Dietitians On Demand?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Our website.
We're super present on socialmedia, so Dietitians On Demand
Instagram, facebook, linkedin,but feel free to just if you
find yourself on our website.
Any of the forms you fill outwill direct you, basically, to
our company inbox, which we'llget a response from Whoever is
the most appropriate person totalk to you.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Yep and you all have a great podcast as well, which
is fantastic.
It's a great resource.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, you can find me on a couple of the episodes,
but we're recording for, I think, the next season.
I think it might be season fiveor something.
I don't manage it.
Amazing, sometimes I'm on there.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, and it's not Dietitians On Demand, it's
called Something Else.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Dietitians Only, I think.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Yes, that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, they might be rebranding, but right now it's
Dietitians Only.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
OK, all right.
Well, we'll include those linksin the show notes.
If you want to connect withSarah or Dietitians On Demand,
you can easily do that.
Again, sarah, thank you so muchfor joining us today.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Thank you so much for listening to the Plant-Centered
and Thriving podcast today.
If you found this episodeinspiring, please share it with
a friend or post it on socialmedia and tag me so I can
personally say thank you.
Until next time, keep thriving.
Welcome to the Plant-Centered and Thriving
Podcast.
I'm your host, ashley Kitchens.
I'm a plant-based registereddietitian and virtual nutrition
mentor.
I was raised on an Angus cattlefarm, grew up with a lot of GI
issues and used the power ofplant-based eating to promote
healing.
Here you'll find inspiration,ideas and encouragement for your
(00:23):
own plant-based journey.
I'm so thrilled you're heretoday.
Let's get started.
Welcome to the show.
Plant-centered Listener.
My name is Ashley and I am yourhost today, and today we have
another story for you which I'mreally excited to share.
But before I do that, I wantedto let you know that I went to
(00:44):
the Arnold Classic a few acouple weeks ago a few weeks ago
at this point and it was areally fun event.
So I'm part of a group calledthe Vegan Strong Plant-Built
Team and what we do is we are ateam of vegan athletes from all
over the world and we gettogether to compete at places
(01:06):
like Mr America, which is whatwe did in October of 2023.
And that was a blast.
So what we did this year, ormost recently, is the Vegan
Strong Team went to the Arnoldand we had a booth set up there.
We didn't compete or doanything like that.
(01:26):
If you're familiar with theArnold.
It is not a natural event, sofor any natural athlete, it is
really impossible to win prettymuch impossible.
So we set up a booth at theArnold Classic.
There were so many vendorsthere and there were between
100,000 and 150,000 people thatcame in for this event.
(01:47):
It was insane there were somany people.
What was really neat wasobviously there were very few
vegan booths there.
We happened to be strategicallyset up next to a vegan
alternative like Meat Company,which was really fantastic and
it smelled delicious all day.
(02:07):
And what happened was is thatour sponsors were incredibly
generous and donated a bunch ofproduct to us, and so what we
ended up doing was we createdgift bags to sell to support our
team, so that we could continuedoing things like Mr America
and other events where weshowcase that you don't need
meat or dairy or any animalproducts to be strong, to be
(02:30):
athletic, to be incrediblycompetitive.
And so guess what ended uphappening?
We sold out of those goodiebags on a day two and we had a
whole other day ahead of us.
So the person who basically,like, organized the entire event
was obviously so excited, butwe had to figure out okay, well,
(02:52):
how are we going to be here thefollowing day and continue to
sell things and make money, youknow, and talk to people.
We had some like extra productsthat our sponsors had sent, so
we kind of just like puttogether these like fun other
goodie bags that didn't includelike everything originally, and
we were able to sell those andguess what?
We ended up selling out ofthose too.
(03:12):
So I say that because peoplewere interested.
You know, even though this wasnot a vegan event whatsoever,
people were genuinely curiousabout plant-based protein, about
being competitive as aplant-based athlete.
We even had a few vegans stopby, which were just a few out of
like the thousands of peoplethat we spoke to.
It was so cool to talk to thosevegans and, of course,
(03:37):
everybody else too.
But it was just a really funevent and it's so much more than
just bodybuilding.
We had actually this veganathlete she there's a
competition called StrongestFirefighter, I think that's what
it is, and she was competingthere and she was so excited
when she came up to us.
(03:57):
She was just absolutely amazingand you know she had competed.
She was also vegan and so shewas just beside.
Like it was just so cool tolike engage with her and also
engage with a competitor who'salso vegan.
There are there's like knightsfighting.
So think of you know, I don'tknow 1800s, people had like
(04:18):
armor on and they're fightingwith swords.
That was there.
Arnold Schwarzenegger wasobviously there.
He would walk around, he wouldjudge, he would talk to people
Just very, very approachable,and guess what?
He actually gave a talk and hetalked about how he eats, how
he's reduced massively his meatconsumption, and he talked about
(04:39):
that with a huge audience andy'all this is a meat loving
audience.
So it was really neat to hearhim talk about not just his meat
reduction but also how hisdoctor is much happy because
he's eating this way, his heartdoctor in particular.
He also talked about the impactof consuming less animal
products on the environment andit was very approachable.
(05:01):
It was not preachy, it wasn'ton a soap box and I thought that
I just was like, I just thoughtthat was really amazing that he
took the time to talk aboutthat, because he didn't have to.
So that was really neat.
If only we could get him tostop by the big and strong booth
that's like on the agenda fornext year.
So Arnold, from what Iunderstand, was introduced to it
(05:22):
in 1970 and that's sort of whatkick started Arnold
Schwarzenegger's like interestin Columbus.
He fell in love with the cityand after winning Mr Olympia, mr
World, which he won in Columbusin 1970.
It was like game on and that'ssort of how that all transpired,
which was really cool.
(05:42):
But while we were there, and ifanyone's familiar with Columbus,
if you live in Columbus, ifyou've visited Columbus there
are so many vegan restaurants.
I was amazed.
So I live in Durham, northCarolina, and I feel like there
are a lot of restaurants aroundhere.
I've seen a few of you ever endup visiting, write these down
because they were so good.
(06:02):
So if you're looking forsomething that's more whole food
, plant-based, maybe even raw,portia's Cafe was delicious.
I got some wraps from them andthey were amazing.
I've eaten there before evenstopping through Columbus.
Satan's realm is exactly what itsounds like it is.
They make their own Satan andeverything is pretty much
(06:26):
Satan-based.
So obviously, if you areallergic or don't eat gluten,
that's not the place for you,but if you can tolerate gluten
and you love gluten, dude, thisplace is amazing.
Nick, he went there because hebasically dropped me off for the
event and then went on up toMichigan to visit his family and
we stopped at Satan's realm forhim and he had what looked like
(06:47):
like a beef and cheddar fromArby's with curly fries and he
said it was absolutely delicious.
So that was a great one.
Fourth and state literally thenumber four.
Fourth and state they wereamazing.
They had stuffed crust, veganpizza, milkshakes.
They were incredible.
I mean, if you're going to hitone place up like, that place
(07:10):
was incredible.
We also went to WoodhouseBakery and Coffee, which was
delicious.
We went to a vegan cafe.
That might have been it.
Yeah, we went to a place calledCommune, which is a fine dining
vegan restaurant.
That was really cool.
I heard Yeez, asian vegankitchen is really good.
(07:32):
We didn't get to make it there,but I'm telling you, if you
ever like, pass through Columbusor if you're in the area.
My goodness, I was amazed byall the options, so I had to
tell you that.
Okay.
So let me get into today's guestand if you're interested or
want to learn more about veganstrong plant built or any of the
work that we do, feel free toreach out to me on Instagram.
(07:53):
I love talking about it and Ilove the work that these
nonprofits do so.
Today I have actually adietitian guesting and I'm
really excited to share herstory.
So she is an account manager atDietitians On Demand and she
talks about what that is.
Her name is Sarah and she'sbeen a dietitian for about seven
(08:14):
years and she has a lot ofexperience working in acute care
and long-term care andoutpatient and behavioral health
clinics.
So she's done a lot ofdifferent things and she's been
vegetarian for about 20 years.
She started at a pretty youngage and so she talks about what
it was like to go vegetarian,not just 20 years ago, but also
(08:37):
being young, like being in, Ithink, middle school age.
So she goes into all of thatand how it's impacted her life
and what she does and differentthings like that.
So I am excited to bring youSarah's story.
So let's welcome her to theshow.
Sarah, thank you so much forjoining us today.
I'm really excited just tolearn more about you and your
story.
How are you doing?
(08:58):
Good, I'm so happy to be here.
Yeah, I'm excited to have youhere.
So, before we get into yourpersonal journey when it came to
going plant-based, I would lovefor you just kind of give us an
idea of who you are what you do, even some fun hobbies that you
do, which I read about.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
I work as a regional account manager for Dietitians
On Demand, which is a dietitianstaffing company.
Prior to this position, Iworked clinically in hospitals
and long-term care facilitiesthroughout the Virginia Carolina
areas for a couple of yearsafter my internship.
I do also have, in addition tomy nutrition degrees, a
(09:35):
bachelor's in animal sciencefrom University of Connecticut,
so I have a little bit ofbackground in agriculture as
well.
For fun, I garden, I horsebackride and I foster cats.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Nice, lovely.
When you say Dietitians OnDemand is like a staffing
company, what does that mean forsomeone who might not know what
that is?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah, so think of like travel, nursing or contract
staffing.
So we do more than thatNowadays.
We were, I think 10 years ago,known more for contract staffing
, but our Dietitians are all W2employees of Dietitians On
Demand and we are nationwide, sowe place Dietitians in
primarily acute and long-termcare facilities throughout the
(10:19):
US.
And, yeah, I managePennsylvania, basically the
Northeast in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Oh okay.
Oh, I didn't know that.
That's amazing.
I wonder if we've actuallyworked at some similar
facilities, because I have gonethrough a consulting agency.
I've worked with them innursing homes for 16 years now
oh wow and before I was even aDietitian, and so I've covered
nursing homes in North Carolinaand Virginia and I really enjoy
it.
I have one facility now and Istill really like doing it from
(10:50):
time to time.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, I worked in North Carolina, primarily
Asheville.
Oh wow so.
I worked for Metz Culinary,which is a smaller food service
company and for whatever reason,this account in Asheville.
It's kind of it's so rural butit is like a city there, but
it's hard to get people to comein from other cities in North
Carolina, I think, because ofthe weather and the mountains
and everything.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yes, I can see that.
Yeah, I feel like those are theplaces that I go often to.
Most are the ones that are justin more rural small town areas
throughout Virginia and NorthCarolina.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, yeah, and that's primarily where we staff
is tough to fill, regionallocations and then tough
accounts as well.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
Well, good, so tell me moreabout, because you've been
plant-based for a long time now,longer than probably a lot of
us have, so tell me how thatstarted way back when my parents
were vegetarian prior to havingus.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
So they were, I like to think they were kind of
hippies in a day.
And when my mom got pregnantwith me, they went back to a
meat diet for health purposes itwas very hard back in the 80s
and early 90s to be plant-based,so, I think, just for
nutritional purposes of mywell-being and then they kept
(12:08):
that diet of eating meat whilewe were growing up, basically to
not force us to be on avegetarian diet if it wasn't
really our thing.
And then my sister and Iactually decided, without even
really them saying anything tous, when she was around 10 or 11
and I was 13, that we wanted togo back to not eating any meat.
(12:32):
For us it was more of a animalwelfare type of decision.
So I got sucked into in myteens a lot of like PETA videos,
which, of course, are quitetraumatizing for a young you
know, young kid or teenager.
And so, yeah, that's kind ofwhere it started from.
I've obviously loved animals.
I grew up around animals, soyeah, yeah, I think that's
(12:53):
amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
So for your parents in particular, it probably
wasn't as much of a shock like,oh my gosh, what are we going to
feed our kids?
Because they had already doneit for a while.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, yeah, I think it was.
At first.
I think they were a little bitlike are you sure you want to do
this type of thing?
Like do you really understandwhat it entails?
And then I think we did startoff by just cutting out red meat
, if I remember correctly, andthen we cut out chicken
eventually and we didn't eat alot of seafood growing up.
It was, I mean, it's stillexpensive, but it wasn't part of
our like day-to-day diet, sothat wasn't really something
(13:23):
that we had to cut out.
But, yeah, they kind of knewwhat it entailed back then.
We and my dad cooks a lot, sowe had beans and what or meat
alternatives were available, youknow 20 years ago, which I'm
sure we'll talk about, but itwas limited, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Oh, I bet it was.
So dad cooked a lot whichsounds fantastic A lot of beans,
and I yeah, I don't even knowif Morningstar was available
back then.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
It wasn't Okay we basically just had, from what I
remember, and we shopped at agrocery store chain called
Hannaford from upstate New York,so very much like Price Shopper
.
Hannaford were really the onlytwo grocery stores available to
us in the upstate New York areaand all I remember us getting
and it wasn't even very goodback in the day was, you know,
(14:10):
those like Square Tofu, likefirm and extra firm, like that's
all we had and it was expensiveand my parents were both state
workers.
So it's not like we were.
I mean, we weren't.
We were like middle class,upper middle class later on in
my childhood but it wasn'tsomething that like they.
You know, we grew up eatingbrown bread, which is basically
(14:33):
canned bread, and hot dogs andlike pasta, so it was a little
bit outside of our budget a lotof times.
So we ate a lot of beans.
Yeah, yep that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, cause some of those like foods that you're
talking about, like rice, beans,potatoes, are really affordable
.
But if you're going to goanything beyond that, it can't.
You have to kind of beparticular, I'm sure, especially
back then with your budget andeverything and it wasn't always
Hannaford.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
If they were out of stock, like that was the only
place we can really get it from.
I don't think Price Shaper evencarried tofu products in the
mid in the mid 90s, so I believeit.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Oh my gosh.
So that reminds me growing up.
We had a family.
They were vegetarians.
I grew up on an Angus CattleFarm, so very different from,
very differently from how I atenow and there was a family that
my mom was like yeah, they werekind of like the weird family.
They were vegetarians, theyonly shopped at like the health
food store and so, and probablybecause the options weren't
there like the regular grocerystores- yeah, yeah, now that's
(15:30):
different.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I'm sure you've talked about it on other
podcasts your background but I'dbe curious to hear, like, what
made you transition.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, yeah, for those of you listening if you haven't
heard my full story yet, justso real quickly.
I grew up on an Angus CattleFarm, but I also had a lot of GI
issues growing up, so Istruggled with chronic
constipation up until I wasabout 25 years old, even after
becoming a dietitian.
And so finally, there was justlike this light ball moment.
I had watched Forks Over Knives, which came out in 2011.
(16:00):
And I started making thisconnection of oh, maybe what I'm
eating is actually impacting mybody, how I'm feeling.
I mean, I was really only goingto the bathroom like once a
week.
It was that bad.
I was on medication, and so Istarted adding some more plants.
I swapped out my cow's milk foralmond milk because there
really weren't a lot of evenoptions, you know, 12 years ago,
milk wise and the more plants Iate, the better I started
(16:24):
feeling, and so I was just likeI don't want to go back to that
old way, because I just felt somiserable for so long.
I started going to the bathroommore regularly, didn't need
medication to go to the bathroom, so I was like, ok, I'm in this
for the long haul.
So that's yeah.
That was 12 years ago and herewe are today.
Awesome, awesome, yeah, yeah,very interesting, yeah.
So I'm curious, because youhave been plant-based for so
(16:46):
long, what do you do for yourvitamin B12?
And what was that actually like?
Was that talked about when youwere younger?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I think I took I've always taken a multivitamin.
I mean I recommend to most ofmy patients to take one.
There's always going to be, Ifeel like, in everybody's diet,
a deficiency somewhere, becauseyou don't eat the perfect diet
every day.
And we took vitamins back whenI was a child, so I was always
anemic.
It just wasn't something thatwas really talked about and
(17:20):
doctors really didn't know howto guide you.
So our pediatrician was greatbut didn't really have the
knowledge base back then toguide us, so we just basically
supplemented.
I definitely struggled with lowenergy.
I was a competitive rower inhigh school and so I would take
like basically like what proteinshakes and supplements are,
(17:41):
which I believe had some Bvitamins supplemented into them
as well.
Nowadays it's much easier and Ido still take a one a day.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, I think that is like helpful and I think it's a
good reminder for people.
It's like we do not eat theperfect diet, like it would be
really really challenging to do,and so, even if you did, your
body, who knows what it's goingto absorb and what it's not
going to absorb, whatenvironmental factors you're
faced with Right?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
So we're creatures of habit.
So, like we tend to eat thesame things.
Even if we think we have a verydiet, we eat the same very diet
.
So, like it's just and it's notyet.
Yes, it costs money, but I'msure we could save money
elsewhere by like your Starbucksdrink every morning to cover
the cost of that.
So it's really not going to doany harm.
(18:27):
I always used to give my horsesupplements and my dad just said
he had expensive P because heanything that he didn't have he
would just pee out.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
So I mean, it's not yeah.
That's amazing.
So do you take anything elsebesides a one a day supplement
wise?
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I take vitamin D in the winter and but that's really
it, and then a melatonin forobviously sleep habit.
But I still compete, docompetitive rowing.
I went to nationals last yearwomen's nationals.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Amazing.
Yeah, I did not know that.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
So I, like I mentioned, I rode in high school
and I just got back into itlast year and we went to placed,
I think, seventh nationally inour women's four.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
What does that like schedule look like for you?
Training wise.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
It's not crazy, it's the master's program, so it's
not collegiate or anything likethat.
But we train, they're boundthree days a week until we're
like ramping up for a regatta,and so it's just a bunch of
working older, mostly women,although I do row in a couple
men's boats, mixed boats too.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
So just for fun now.
Yeah, that's awesome, though Doyou train on the river in
Richmond?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, so our season.
Basically the air and watertemperature has to equal above
100.
So we usually can get out onthe water in late March, so and
then we row up until like we hada race in November.
So really only off the waterfor like three or four months a
year.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Okay, and so then do you do like indoor related?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
rowing.
I don't, you can I have arowing machine at home and I
have a gym membership.
So I'll just to me like drivingdown to the boat house to row
when I could just do it in myhouse.
So I'll just I do otheractivities in the winter time to
kind of give me a little bit ofvariety as well.
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
That is nice.
Yep, yeah, that's awesome.
I did not know that.
That is really cool.
It's a fun fact.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Is there anything that'sparticularly hard about the way
that you eat, like anythingthat's particularly challenging?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
See, these days it's like even going out is there's
usually always somethingavailable which is so different
than it was even like five or 10years ago.
So I wouldn't, I mean, if itwas hard, I feel like I wouldn't
do it.
That's true, yeah, but we, Imade it through.
You know, college was achallenge so I made it.
I say that, but I did.
(20:48):
You know, I gave myself somecredit and made it through all
of that without really backslidinto it just for convenience
purposes.
So, yeah, I wouldn't really saythere's anything truly
challenging.
It's a little bit moreexpensive, but honestly, meat is
expensive these days anyway.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
So yeah, yeah, that is true.
Meat, dairy eggs, like I feellike those prices just kind of
gradually just keep going up.
So yeah, yep, okay, being adietitian this is a question
that actually someone had askedme recently, so I was curious
your response on this.
Being a dietitian, do you oftenjudge other people for what
they eat?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
No, never, because I don't want people to judge me
and it's really none of mybusiness.
So like if if somebody iscoming to me and asking me for
dietary advice, I'll give themmy two cents and we'll have like
a conversation about it wouldbasically be like a shortened
version of a, you know, dietaryrecall and what they're looking
(21:42):
to get out of talking to me.
But there's room in everybody'sdiet for them to enjoy life and
enjoy their food and whateverthat is to them.
That's, you know, that's theirdecision and I hope they I hope
they enjoy it, because I do yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I think that's the main thing we want for anybody
more than anything is just likethat they are enjoying what
they're eating and that theyhave a good relationship with
food, and themselves too.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, yeah that's really hard nowadays.
I feel like I see that a lot,especially in the female
population, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I could not agree more.
So, all right, well, awesome.
Well, thank you so much forcoming on and sharing your story
.
I appreciate it.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, where is the best placethat people do want to connect
with you?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
I'm on LinkedIn.
I don't go on super regularly,probably once a week, so if you
message me it might be a littlebit before I get back to you.
But you can also share my emailaddress in the show notes if
you want.
At Dietitians On Demand.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah, and if there's a dietitian listening or someone
who's maybe going to be adietitian, where is the best
place for them to get connectedwith Dietitians On Demand?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Our website.
We're super present on socialmedia, so Dietitians On Demand
Instagram, facebook, linkedin,but feel free to just if you
find yourself on our website.
Any of the forms you fill outwill direct you, basically, to
our company inbox, which we'llget a response from Whoever is
the most appropriate person totalk to you.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Yep and you all have a great podcast as well, which
is fantastic.
It's a great resource.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, you can find me on a couple of the episodes,
but we're recording for, I think, the next season.
I think it might be season fiveor something.
I don't manage it.
Amazing, sometimes I'm on there.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, and it's not Dietitians On Demand, it's
called Something Else.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Dietitians Only, I think.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Yes, that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, they might be rebranding, but right now it's
Dietitians Only.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
OK, all right.
Well, we'll include those linksin the show notes.
If you want to connect withSarah or Dietitians On Demand,
you can easily do that.
Again, sarah, thank you so muchfor joining us today.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Thank you so much for listening to the Plant-Centered
and Thriving podcast today.
If you found this episodeinspiring, please share it with
a friend or post it on socialmedia and tag me so I can
personally say thank you.
Until next time, keep thriving.
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