The Hidden Reason We Fail to Eat Healthy and How to Fix It | Carleigh Bodrug - EP 842

Plant You founder Carleigh Bodrug reveals how to overcome the time problem behind unhealthy eating, simplify meal planning, increase fiber and plant diversity, and build sustainable habits that nourish your health without chasing perfection.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:39John R. Miles?

  Coming up next on Passion Struck. Most of us know what taking better care of ourselves looks like. The challenge is finding the time to do it. And when life gets busy, even the best intentions can give way to whatever is quickest and easiest. But what if the problem isn't motivation? What if it's time? Take a listen to this.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  I believe people don't have a motivation problem. They have a time problem. The average person just really does not have time to get a healthy meal on the table the way that they would like. And this inevitably leads into this cycle where the drive-through or calling Uber Eats or picking up a prepackaged microwave meal just from a survival instinct seems like the best thing to do. And then what that leads to is you're eating crappy, so you feel tired. And then the next day, you're going to do the same thing because you're too tired to make the meal.

• 1:39John R. Miles?

  Hey, it's your friend, John, and welcome to Passion Struck. I'm so glad you're here. Whether you're a longtime listener or someone who just discovered the show, thank you for pressing play today. Maybe you've built the life you were supposed to want, but you've quietly wondered why it still doesn't feel like enough. If that's you, you're in the right place. Every week, I sit down with the world's top scientists, researchers, and thinkers to uncover what it actually takes to build an intentional life that matters. Thanks for joining me. Let's get into it.

• 2:20John R. Miles?

  Hey friends, welcome to episode 842 of Passion Struck. Earlier in the week, in episode 841, I spoke with registered dietitian Lee Cotton about our relationship with food and a powerful idea that we are worthy of nourishment. Lee reminded us that how we care for ourselves is deeply connected to how we see ourselves and whether we believe our wellbeing matters. But recognizing that we deserve to take care of ourselves is one thing. Finding the time and making the choices that allow us to do it is another. That brings us to our second conversation in our November series, The Art of a Life

• 3:02John R. Miles?

  Well-Lived, an exploration of how we nourish ourselves, discover what matters, and build lives guided by purpose. My guest today is Carly Bodrug, the creator behind Plant You and author of the new book, Plant You Quickies, 140-plus nourishing plant-based recipes for busy people. Through her recipes and online community, Carly has helped millions of people find more approachable ways to bring plant-based foods into their everyday lives. Her own journey toward plant-based eating began after her father was diagnosed with colon cancer when she was a child. Years later, learning more about that relationship between food and health inspired her to rethink

• 3:44John R. Miles?

  how she ate, teach herself to cook, and share what she was learning with others. In our conversation, we explore why perfectionism can get in the way of sustainable change, how small adjustments can make healthier habits easier to maintain, and why planning around the realities of your life matters more than following an idealized routine. Carly makes a compelling point that stayed with me. People don't necessarily have a motivational problem. They have a time problem. That insight has shaped the way she develops recipes, making nourishing meals quicker, more practical, and easier to prepare. Because a life well-lived isn't built through a handful of perfect days, it's shaped by

• 4:28John R. Miles?

  the choices we can return to day after day, even when life gets complicated. And if you're looking to bring powerful conversations and thought leaders to your organization, conference, or next event, explore Passion Struck speakers. Our speakers bring fresh perspectives on human potential, leadership, purpose, and intentional living. You'll find more information in the show notes or at passionstruckspeakers.com. Now, let's dive into my conversation with Carly Bodrug. Thank you for choosing Passion Struck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life that matters. Now, let that journey begin.

• 5:05Speaker 03

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• 5:38John R. Miles?

  Today, I am so excited to welcome Carly Bodrug, the founder of Plant You, to Passion Struck. Carly, it's so great to see you.

• 5:46Speaker 02

  I'm so thrilled to be here. Thank you for having me.

• 5:49John R. Miles?

  Carly, you grew up, as I understand it, eating what many of us ate, a traditional meat and potatoes diet. And then unfortunately, your father got diagnosed with colon cancer, as I understand it. And through that experience, it became one of the initial catalysts for you to completely rethink food. What happened inside of you when you first heard that diagnosis?

• 6:13Speaker 02

  I was actually 11 years old when my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer. And he had stage-two colon cancer, so the treatment protocol, at least at that time, was surgery and chemotherapy. So obviously, I witnessed that as a kid, very scary. And fast forward to 2015, I was probably around 20 years old, working up in northern Ontario as a radio host. And this breaking news came out that red and processed meat were now classed as Group 2 and Group 1 carcinogens. And I remember calling my dad and being like, did you hear about this? Particularly there being a link to colorectal cancer. And that was actually the moment where it was like, ooh, we have been eating the standard American diet.

• 6:57Speaker 02

  I don't think I've ever had a meal that didn't revolve around either meat or dairy. Maybe we should be rethinking this. So that was really the lightbulb moment. It wasn't actually the cancer diagnosis. Because what's interesting is throughout that whole diagnosis process, nobody ever mentioned that diet could have had a role in the cancer. And of course, we know more information today, but that was why it was really kind of the catalyst. So I decided to start looking into a plant-based diet, read all the books, started cooking along in my kitchen, had a journalism background, so it came natural to me to want to share about it. And I just felt so great that I felt very inclined to start talking about it more with

• 7:41Speaker 02

  my community, and we slowly grew. And now I'm on this podcast with you.

• 7:46John R. Miles?

  Unfortunately, I have had too many experiences myself with people who have suffered from cancer. And my grandmother passed away when she was in her 90s from colon cancer.

• 7:57Speaker 02

  So sorry.

• 7:58John R. Miles?

  Unfortunately, I had a very close experience with that, but my sister more recently passed away from pancreatic cancer.

• 8:05Speaker 02

  Oh, I'm so sorry. That's awful.

• 8:10John R. Miles?

  Well, it's a terrible disease. There's been some new news recently that's bringing more hope to extending people's lives. But I know Carolyn credited the fact that she went out of the medical system and hired a guru out of, I think he was out of Santa Fe, New Mexico, who specialized in crafting diets for people who were going through cancer treatment. So when she was first diagnosed, she spent a number of years eating completely a plant-based diet. He changed the complete way that she was eating, having her eliminate pretty much all sugar, all alcohol, a bunch of other things. And then when the cancer unfortunately came back, he then switched her to a keto diet,

• 8:55John R. Miles?

  so went the opposite way because it was known to help with the chemo that she was going to be taking and the strength that she needed to have. But it was so interesting to me to watch this play out. And yet, as it was with your dad, even today, we don't pay enough attention to diet principally before you even get cancer because it's one of the leading accelerators to not only that, but gut inflammation that you can have.

• 9:23Speaker 02

  I also want to say, I've also lost my mom to cancer, lung cancer. And you can do all the right things in the world and still get cancer. So I don't want anybody listening to this podcast to be like, oh, it was my fault or this person's fault that they got cancer. I think there's so many unfortunate circumstances where people, for whatever reason, have these terrible diagnoses. So that's one part of it. But can we make effort in our lives to help prevent? I think absolutely every single thing that we put into our bodies is either feeding or fighting disease often. So that's something that I do think a lot about, and I hope I can just influence people

• 10:04Speaker 02

  rather than just saying, oh, go vegan, which I don't expect anybody to do. It's more, can we get more plants onto the plate? Can we reduce maybe the amount of red meat you eat in a week? And I think those things can really move the needle on things like cancer diagnosis.

• 10:20John R. Miles?

  Carly, I have done now well over 800 episodes. And during that time, I've had a number of food experts, nutritionists come on this show, along with health professionals. And

• 10:33John R. Miles?

  I seem to have a camp who is very much plant focused. I seem to like Stephen Gundry is one who I've had who's always talking about plant-based diets. And then on the other spectrum, I've had people like Dr. Gabrielle Lyon on the show who are very protein-based. Why is there such a disparity, do you think, even now with these different camps? It's almost like political camps.

• 10:59Speaker 02

  It's very confusing, right? And I don't come on your podcast here to claim I'm a doctor or I'm an expert in this, but I think that the science is confusing. I think people's outcomes are confusing. Some people can have a really great experience on a ketogenic diet. I think if we look at research and we look at the realities of these things, one thing you probably can't deny is that eating more plants and vegetables is usually, barring a unique health condition, going to lead to good outcomes. So increasing our fiber intake, like we know as a society in North America, we're all meeting the daily recommended intake of protein, again, barring a unique health condition, but yet 95% of

• 11:43Speaker 02

  the American population is not eating enough fiber. And fiber is this critical component, which helps with our digestion, helps with our gut microbiome. And where does fiber come from? It's not in dairy. It's not meat. It's in plants. So again, I don't want to come on here and be like, oh, keto is terrible, or meat is the worst, even though I am vegan myself. I think that we could all benefit, especially kids and families, from getting more plants. If you look at that plate, more vegetables on it.

• 12:16John R. Miles?

  I think it's important that we start here. And that's why I wanted to start the conversation this way, because you didn't start Plant You as a nutrition expert. You started as someone who didn't really know how to cook at the time and was trying to figure this out for yourself. So given that, how important do you think it is for people to begin from where they actually are, rather than where they think they should be?

• 12:39Speaker 02

  I think that's the thing is that cooking is a lost art. And this ties into your kind of conversation about nutrition in general. If we all started cooking the majority of our meals at home, inherently, we're going to be eating healthier because we're using whole food ingredients. You're reducing the amount of oil that you're eating in butter and those saturated fats. So that's where my passion comes from. I taught myself to cook plant-based in a 500 square foot apartment, started sharing my really terrible recipes at the time online. And I think what resonated with people was that they saw themselves maybe in it. They weren't coming to my page for some gourmet chef-inspired meals. It

• 13:20Speaker 02

  was like, okay, I'm trying to duplicate my mom's Bolognese pasta with plants today. So I think that inherently, we need to start trying to cook at home. And I think some people find cooking really intimidating. But if you're cooking with plants, one thing I love to tell people is that the stakes are so low. I remember when I was like in my early twenties, the thought of cooking chicken and undercooking it, or the thought of trying to cook the perfect cook on a steak was so intimidating to the point where I didn't even want to try because I was worried it was going to get sick, or screw it up, or it was expensive. If you're cooking with plants, say you're cooking a big pot of vegetable stew, I promise you, if it's too salty, add a little more broth. If it's a little too

• 14:04Speaker 02

  creamy, add some water. These things are really savable. The stakes are low and you're going to end up with something really delicious. Worst case scenario, you throw it out and start again.

• 14:14John R. Miles?

  It's interesting to me. I talk a lot here on the show about wellness. Obviously, we're a wellness podcast. But a lot of the discussions get into identity transformation. And I think many people feel like they do need an identity change to become healthy. Meal prep, supplements, perfect diets, elaborate recipes. What have you learned about why that approach sometimes fails?

• 14:41Speaker 02

  I think we're very, as a society, obsessed with the idea of perfection and seeing ourselves as something different. Like you said, we need an app, or we need this certain supplement in order to get from A to B. But really, what is just introducing small, sustainable habits in the day that you're actually going to be able to stick to, that is going to move the needle. So instead of buying the next diet pill, or trying this really extreme, even vegan, being like, okay, tomorrow I'm starting and I'm going to be 100% vegan. Why not just try one little thing throughout the week? Instead of half of your plate being filled with meat, try crowding that out to three quarters vegetable and a whole grain.

• 15:24Speaker 02

  See how that does for you. Try swapping out the dairy milk in your morning coffee for maybe a unsweetened soy milk, or another one of the plant-based dairy options. So these really small tweaks that there's little resistance to is going to eventually lead you to that person that you're hoping to become, as opposed to just making that switch overnight and being way too overwhelmed and throwing in the towel. That's what I always say, especially as people approach a plant-based diet.

• 15:55John R. Miles?

  Thank you for answering that. And as I've become more and more familiar with your story, you ended up growing Plant You, from your own experiments, actually, into a community that's now in the millions. If I have the numbers correct, you have over 5 million followers on Instagram, almost 2 million followers on YouTube, etc. What did you end up learning from this growing audience that ultimately shaped your new book, Plant You Quickies, 140-plus nourishing plant-based recipes for busy people? And what were people telling you they needed that you weren't addressing in perhaps your earlier books or videos?

• 16:39Speaker 02

  I believe people don't have a motivation problem. They have a time problem. As a new mom, I became a mom a year ago, and my constraint with time really started before that because I was running my own business. My mom was sick. I got pregnant. So all of these factors created a life that, you know, in my early twenties, I had the freedom to be spending hours in the kitchen and making these kind of more elaborate meals, to the reality check that the average person just really does not have time to get a healthy meal on the table the way that they would like. And this inevitably leads into this cycle where the

• 17:20Speaker 02

  drive-through, or calling Uber Eats, or picking up a prepackaged microwave meal, just from a survival instinct, seems like the best thing to do. And then what that leads to is you're eating crappy, so you feel tired. And then the next day, you're going to do the same thing because you're too tired to make the meal. So knowing people that I think their largest barrier to getting a healthy meal on the table is time, and that's just a reality, I wanted to really write a cookbook and recipes that solved this equation. To me, these are not going to be like a meal from a restaurant, but they're going to get your fiber, protein, healthy fats, all into one place as quick as possible. So one pan,

• 18:04Speaker 02

  dump and bake, throwing things into a casserole dish, putting it in the oven and calling it a day, and you've got a meal that your whole family is going to like. That's really where we thrive. And when we were developing the recipes for the cookbook, I wanted to stay true to this promise. So we actually timed them. We would test the recipe, and then we would remake it, put a timer on, and make sure that we're actually meeting that promise of under 20 minutes, or the prep is going to take you like five, six minutes. So that's my mantra here, is now that I'm in this busy season of life, I maybe have lost a little bit of that flair for cooking, but I still want to get healthy

• 18:46Speaker 02

  food on the table. And I'm still not perfect. We could take out at least once a week, but the majority of the meals are home-cooked.

• 18:53John R. Miles?

  And just for the listeners who might not be familiar with you, your previous books were New York Times bestsellers. In fact, one was the number one New York Times bestseller. And when I went on Amazon today, this book was already a number one bestseller, and it's not even released yet. It must feel surreal for you to see how much engagement that you're getting from your community for these books. What do you think is the secret that so many people are clinging for this information? Is it the attraction to you, the community, or people are just looking for more healthy options in their lives?

• 19:32Speaker 02

  It's an interesting question. And if I had the answer, I'd really hone in on one thing. I think that, I hope, they find the recipes doable and approachable. I hear all the time, people get my cookbooks and they really use them. They're like, oh, I actually use your cookbook. So I think that the recipes are really, I like to think of the cookbooks. And I have my book here, Quickies, and I'll show you what I think makes them unique, which is an interesting thing. So I put all the ingredients at the top here, and then the finished dish on the bottom. And for anybody listening, it's like an infographic, so you can see all of the ingredients that are in the dish in a visual way, and then the actual finished dish at the bottom. And I think what it does for people is they can

• 20:17Speaker 02

  see how to get from A to B, right? It's like a very simple thing. You sacrifice kind of the beauty of a lot of those traditional cookbooks, but what you get in return is something that's a real workforce. So I think it's the practicality of the recipes. It's the promise that you're going to be able to get dinner on the table quickly, but you're going to be meeting those plant and fiber goals. You're going to be effortlessly eating more vegetables, which is what I like to do, whether it's hiding them into food or really amping them up. But yeah, it's also interesting because 95% of my audience is not vegan. So, but that's okay. That makes me happy because I'm like getting, my whole goal is to move plates, get more people eating plants on their plates. So as long

• 21:01Speaker 02

  as that's meeting that goal, I'm happy and I'm going to keep going.

• 21:05John R. Miles?

  Before we continue, I have a quick favor to ask. If you're listening to Passion Struck and haven't followed or subscribed yet, take a moment to hit that button. It's free. It takes just a few seconds, and it helps podcast platforms recognize that this show is worth recommending to other listeners. That means your follow can help these conversations reach someone who hasn't discovered Passion Struck yet. And if something in this episode makes you think of a friend or a family member, share it with them. Maybe it's someone trying to build healthier habits, someone juggling too many responsibilities, or someone who needs a more realistic approach to taking care of themselves. Thank you for listening

• 21:47John R. Miles?

  and for helping us grow this community. It really does make a difference. Now, a quick break for our sponsors. Thank you for supporting those who support the show.

• 22:05John R. Miles?

  You're listening to Passion Struck right here on the Passion Struck Network. Now, let's get back to my conversation with Carly. Carly, one of my favorite ideas in the book is got this, make that. And it's actually something I was talking to my wife Cory about last night. We were earlier in the day chatting about what we should cook. And we both realized that oftentimes we waste a lot of food because sometimes it's so easy to lose track of what's in your freezer, what's in your refrigerator. We were trying to be more conscious about using what we already had to try to create recipes. And so I love, that's a core aspect of this book, teaching people to start with what's already in their refrigerator or pantry.

• 22:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:51John R. Miles?

  What do you think that reveals about the way we normally think about cooking? And why does that help someone with making this more achievable?

• 23:02Speaker 02

  I think one of the fundamental issues people have each week when they're planning out their family meals is that they head to the grocery store without a plan and they fail to shop their fridge and pantry before they go. So we've got an afford food affordability problem. I think you and I can both agree that the price of groceries is just bonkers. So the cheapest food that you have is already in your fridge and pantry. And this kind of light bulb moment happened a few years back for me when I heard the statistic that the average American family throws out between 35 to 40% of their food. That's crazy. And when we think about that, where it often happens is we're heading to the grocery store

• 23:47Speaker 02

  without a plan. And so I always tell people, the first place that they should start is by opening their fridge and looking at what fresh food that you have. And then also looking at your pantry and looking at what staples you already have before you head to the grocery store. Then I always recommend, just get a piece of paper. You don't need any fancy app or craziness or even a cookbook for this. Write down like Monday to Friday, breakfast, lunch and dinner, and do a rough meal plan of things you actually know you're going to make during the week. Don't write it for some person that doesn't really exist. Write it for the reality of the season of life that you're in. And then make your grocery list from there, inspired by what you already have in your fridge and pantry. So this idea of got this, make that, it started in my Scrappy Cooking cookbook, which was the solution to this.

• 24:32Speaker 02

  It's a zero waste cookbook. So I was like, it would be really great if people could see what recipes correspond with using up certain vegetables and different things in their fridge and pantry. So I actually looked at the most common products, whole food products that the average American family buys. And then we list them out and correspond them to recipes so that if you're in your fridge or pantry and you see you have the wilting box of spinach at the back of the fridge, which is so common for everyone, I think you can see how to use that up in a multitude of recipes. But yeah, my biggest tip, if you're into meal planning, or if you're not into meal planning, I really think you should start is looking at your fridge and pantry before

• 25:17Speaker 02

  you head to the store.

• 25:19John R. Miles?

  So in the book, she has, as you were just describing, everything from potatoes and carrots to bell peppers, cucumber, cabbage, tofu, berries, bananas as starting points. And then we love to make smoothies. So I love that you had a number of smoothie recipes I can't wait to try, especially the green glow up and the Occident Alexa. Both of those sound right up our alley. And the other rise and shine one that spoke right to me was either the buttermilk pancake or the blueberry lemon muffins.

• 25:54Speaker 02

  Oh my gosh, you've really looked through this thing. It's funny because my last cookbook, Scrappy, we didn't have any smoothies in it. We just had like smoothie cubes and I had a bunch of smoothies in my first cookbook. People were so mad. That was like the number one negative feedback was like, bring back the smoothies. So I was like, okay, we gotta do a full spread. I think we have, yeah, six smoothie recipes in this book. So if you're a smoothie lover, you will love it.

• 26:18John R. Miles?

  One of the things I love during the winter time, I obviously don't want to eat soup in Florida when it's 90 degrees, but during the winter, it's a great thing. And to me, I always go into it and thinking that making a soup is going to be so difficult. I'm not sure why, but that's where my head goes. And I think you've proven in this with recipes that I would love, like your creamy tortilla soup and firecracker peanut ramen and dilly broccoli soup. How hard are these things to make?

• 26:54Speaker 02

  I always say like soups are one of, as a Canadian, probably with this cold weather, I'm obsessed with soups, but they're really such a fabulous way to get in a ton of vegetables. They're like a warm salad. That sounds very unappetizing, but if you think about the amount of veg you can pack into there, it's like eating a bowl of salad, but in soup form, very easy. And I think they're like what I was talking about earlier with plant-based cooking. I find when I'm cooking soups, they're one of the most forgiving. And one of the types of recipes, like we're talking a firecracker ramen, where you do a base of a peanut butter broth. It's really delicious. And then you top it with things like crumbled tofu, pickled onions and cucumber. You can really mix that up with whatever's in your fridge.

• 27:38Speaker 02

  So the recipes in this book particularly, or recipes online, if you're doing a soup, are really adaptable to what you have in your fridge and pantry. And I think all of the soup recipes basically in my book are throw things in a pot, call it a day. So it's not going to be too hard at all. And I'm confident that just about anyone can successfully make them.

• 28:01John R. Miles?

  Two other things I just wanted to talk about from specifically sections of the books is you have things in there like dump and bake. And the other one I loved was SOS Suppers, Save Our Sanity Suppers. And as I was looking at it, being someone who loves philosophy, there seemed to be, to me, almost something philosophical about that. You're acknowledging that sometimes I felt like the goal isn't to cook a perfect meal. It's simply to make a good enough choice on a difficult day. Was that intentional?

• 28:32Speaker 02

  I added this SOS meal chapter, I think in the last moment. And I turned in the manuscript the day before I had a C-section because my baby was breached. So it was the day before I gave birth, but I might've added the SOS meal chapter after because it was such an eye-opening experience, obviously, having this baby in like my time went from just being completely filled morning to night. And this SOS meal concept is taking processed food, I don't even want to necessarily use that word, but things like frozen pizzas, boxed mac and cheese, even a naan bread or

• 29:13Speaker 02

  a frozen veggie burger, and making them into more healthful meals. Because the reality is, we're all going to cook this stuff in these moments of desperation. But what simple tweaks can you make? What things can you add to the nutrient density? So that's what this chapter is all about. We're taking like your boxed mac and cheese and adding peas and kale if you want. We're taking a frozen pizza, but adding artichokes and roasted red peppers and a balsamic glaze to make it feel a little more fancy. One we do almost weekly in this house is we'll get a taco kick and we'll take a block of tofu and crumble it up, add the sauce and use that as our taco base.

• 29:55Speaker 02

  These were really like reality meals because I think we all have at least one night a week where we're like, we can't do it or I'm going to get takeout. But this will save you hopefully in this moment from spending unnecessary money. Cause I would say, when I get takeout, I don't know if you feel this way, do you eat out much?

• 30:14John R. Miles?

  We try to limit it, but we both work. So sometimes it's difficult.

• 30:19Speaker 02

  I always say if I'm getting takeout, I want it to come from a pace of joy. Like I'm excited to try this new restaurant or get this certain meal. I don't want it to come from a point of desperation. So I hope meals and chapters like this can solve that equation so that you're using either that budget or getting to try a new restaurant and experience rather than like being like, oh, I have to get a meal out tonight.

• 30:43John R. Miles?

  We have a restaurant right around the corner from us that we love called Karma. And it's based on healthy eating. Kind of weird name for it, but they do smoothies, juicing, lots of recipes that are gluten-free, vegan in nature, plant forward. But one of the things that makes it difficult is you get a juice there or one of their higher end smoothies, the ones that actually have lots of nutritional values. And you're talking 15, 16, 17, $20. It becomes ridiculous. So I think that's one of the reasons that a lot of people pivot to a cheaper, not as

• 31:28John R. Miles?

  good for you option, is because it's just not budget friendly.

• 31:32Speaker 02

  Affordability is a huge issue. It's a huge issue. And I'm not here to act like this is this like all solution. It's just like groceries are so exorbitant. But I think with careful planning, we gave that statistic earlier about the amount of food that the average family throws out. If you can reduce that, you're halfway there to slashing your grocery bill in a dramatic way.

• 31:55John R. Miles?

  What would your advice be to some of the listeners if they're plagued with this question, they've got a busy family, they've got to get takeout every once in a while, they want to eat healthy, but their budget seems to drive them towards a more convenient, less costly option. What have you found when you think of commonplaces that we eat where you could make a healthier decision?

• 32:20Speaker 02

  Are you asking how to eat healthy when you go out? Or how to approach being in this scenario where you're perhaps in a busy season of life? And you just don't know where to turn at this point?

• 32:31John R. Miles?

  I think it's a bit of both. I think it's one, how do you make more health conscious decisions when you're going out to eat? And then I think the second part is how do you approach this? When life gets extremely busy, you know, kids are back to school or

• 32:47Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 32:48John R. Miles?

  One of you is out of town or kids have tons of after school activities that prohibit you from being able to cook for them.

• 32:57Speaker 02

  I think a lot of it comes down to planning. And I mean, this again is a time thing, but careful planning. So taking at least 20 minutes out of your week on a Sunday, if you know, have a really busy week coming out and even ordering grocery delivery and making sure that you're set up for a successful week. If you have time, I think meal prepping is amazing tool. And when I say meal prepping, I don't mean those pictures that you see of these classic Tupperware containers in the same meal, five days a week. Component meal prepping, so perhaps prepping a couple of salad dressings, cooking up your quinoa for the week. When you get your bell peppers into your kitchen, making sure that they're sliced up so they're easily accessible.

• 33:39Speaker 02

  These little things, even taking just half an hour to prep some food can really make the barrier to putting together a healthy meal really a lot easier. But the biggest thing I see in it, this is very uncomplicated advice, is that I think everybody needs to develop a meal plan for their household that they can lean on. And what I mean by this is not what we talked about earlier, writing down the meals. You need those recipes that you lean on. I think when people look at my Instagram page, they think, wow, she's making all this elaborate food every week. And this is crazy. But in reality, we're making probably cycling through the same five meals every week. We're making some sort of curry, some sort of veggie pasta, some sort of taco.

• 34:24Speaker 02

  And maybe we'll throw in a takeout night in there. So, once you develop sort of your family meal plan of these recipes that you know, everybody loves, that you know, you can make basically with your eyes closed. And it can take some time to develop and recognize what those are. I think this all becomes a lot easier. Not everybody's eating the different things every week. So just getting those recipes dialed in. And then in terms of eating healthy when you're out, that's difficult. I think depending on your accessibility, I know in my area, there's not a lot of places I could go where I could get a vegan salad, so to say. But I think there's some simple tweaks that you can make by asking for salad dressing on the side.

• 35:05Speaker 02

  Looking at things that are more processed that you can maybe remove. Looking at restaurants like Chipotle, where you can completely control what is going into a bowl is a really great way to eat out. Rather than going through the McDonald's drive through and grabbing a burger and fries. Components where you are actually getting some vegetables in, I think is amazing. And not being too hard on yourself, because really at the end of the day, it's not about perfection. It's not about being like perfect a hundred percent of the time and eating in. It's eighty percent of the time. If you can dial in that eighty percent, you're going to save money, eat healthier, your body's going to feel good. You're going to have more energy to keep it rolling.

• 35:45John R. Miles?

  Curly, I want to switch off the food here for a second. And I want to talk about something I think many of the listeners struggle with. And that is they're running a business or going to work or doing something else like you are. And then in the middle of this, you're all of a sudden now a new mom, raising a family. As this business is going on full tilt, how do you manage all this? How with all this going on, do you still put out content, still show up for a community, et cetera?

• 36:25Speaker 02

  With a lot of help. So the big thing is in Canada, so we have maternity leave and paternity leave. So my husband is currently on paternity leave up to 18 months. So I don't want anybody to think I'm sitting here with a baby beside me. My husband has the baby right now. This is a very unique situation that I'm extremely blessed to be in, that he was able to get that time off. I unfortunately, as a business owner yourself, didn't have the luxury of taking a year off of work. But that's number one. Number two, my sister works with me full time. So I think when you, the biggest thing I've found in especially filming recipes is that if you have somebody coming to work, that's a huge accountability aspect.

• 37:10Speaker 02

  I know not everybody can afford to have an accountability partner there, but I want to be transparent and honest. When I first started my business, I was totally a one man band for many years. And I've been so fortunate before starting a family that I was able to build structures around me that we could keep the momentum going. And the other thing was leaning into the relatability of now being a mom. I was so fearful when I was becoming a parent that I wouldn't be able to do this anymore. That everything would change, that the time would change and nobody would want to consume my content anymore. Because it's a lot different than it was prior. And I think if anything, it's made me a better recipe creator.

• 37:55Speaker 02

  I have so much a greater understanding of the time limits that people face and the type of recipes that people really need now that I'm a mom. So leaning into it as being a superpower and multitasking as opposed to looking at it as a negative thing has really helped my mindset around it. It's also just crazy. The reality is it's just crazy. You're working after you put the baby to bed and you're, it's not perfect. It's messy. We make mistakes. All of that is true, but I think forward momentum is the root of it all to got to keep going, keep it rolling.

• 38:33John R. Miles?

  When it comes to someone who's trying to build a social presence, what have you found has made some of your ideas take off? Do you think it's, it's the way you're doing the recipes? Is it the way that you're showing up, showing other parts of your life? Is it a combination? What do you think brings success now as the algorithms keep changing on us?

• 38:58Speaker 02

  It's always changing, so you got to keep on your toes. I think a big reason that I've been able to scale my social platforms to the size that they are was by doing series. So Quickies was a series, Scrappy Cooking was a series. And I think what that does, I think almost anyone can make a food video go viral if they have like the instinct to film and create something beautiful. But if you're not giving a reason for that person to press the follow button and come back and see your other content. And this can be applied to so many different types of content, not just food. They're not going to follow through. They used to maybe six years ago, because the space wasn't overwhelmed with so much content. But you have to be giving of people a reason to follow you. I think more than ever in the last couple of years, showing your face on camera.

• 39:43Speaker 02

  We've really started doing a lot of talking to the camera videos where it used to be mostly just filming the food overhead. That's becoming more important than ever, especially in the age of AI. I see AI cooking videos on my feed all of the time. Soon they're going to be able to duplicate just what I can in my kitchen in terms of a recipe. But what they hopefully cannot duplicate, however, you never know, is me talking to the camera and the personal connection. So making a personal connection in that way with your audience. And then my biggest piece of advice for anybody who's creating content that I wish I had done at the beginning is start an email list. You want to have a direct point of contact with your people and your community that you own, that couldn't be taken away from you at a moment's notice.

• 40:28Speaker 02

  I don't own Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, those platforms could just disappear in a moment. So I always have that in the back of my head. And I try to drive people to have a relationship with me and my email list where I write a personal newsletter every week and try to connect on a deeper level. So those would be my top ones. Lighting is a huge aspect. If you can film, especially if you're filming food content by a window, is a huge element. It will change the performance and the brightness and the, the depth of your video in such a dramatic way.

• 41:01John R. Miles?

  Those are all great tips. I think one of the hardest things for me has always been just that comfort level of getting in front of this audience. And even when I have a talk track, sometimes it's just difficult. And you've got to do it five, 10, 15 times before you get it right. Do you find yourself even today?

• 41:24Speaker 02

  Oh, like if you looked back at my content that I film, I am saying the same thing. It's like, here's a quick recipe. It's like me doing that 30 times. So still so awkward. I try to shake it off and think about how I would actually talk to someone if I was on the phone with them. That, that's one tip, but I still filmed things 30 times. And I think that's normal. If you care about your content, you're going to try and, try and get it there. The other thing is like, if you look back at the content that I first started producing, when I first started doing this, 2018, 2019, it was horrible. Like the truly awkward, I was doing some weird voice. It was just not good. And everybody sucks when they start.

• 42:09Speaker 02

  And that's just the reality of it. But you have to, that's something you have to do again and again. I think we get caught in this process and it applies to cooking too. You get caught in the process of thinking, okay, the first recipe I make or the first video I make has to be perfect and viral. And I have to look a certain way and sound a certain way. You've just got to start doing, because all of this applies to everything we're talking about. But you need to get into that forward momentum, because once you do something a hundred times, you start noticing patterns of what is successful. You can look at your analytics and start understanding, okay, that did well. But how can I double down on it and really hone your own path there?

• 42:50John R. Miles?

  Thank you for sharing those tips. I wanted to make sure we got some of those in, because it's not every day I talk to someone who's been as successful as you have been on the socials. So

• 43:00Speaker 02

  Oh, thank you.

• 43:03John R. Miles?

  One of the things I saw you talk about in one of your videos was fiber. And it's crazy today that if my numbers are correct, 95% of people aren't meeting their recommended fiber intake. What does that tell you about the way we're eating as a society?

• 43:23Speaker 02

  It tells me we're eating a lot of meat and dairy because those two things are devoid of fiber and fibers in plants. And we're also seeing this uptick of colorectal cancer in younger people. And there's a couple of different elements here that they're talking about, one of them being perhaps exposure to a certain bacteria when you're younger, but also the lack of fiber in our diet. Because that's what moves things along in the digestive tract and helps feed good bacteria. What tells me that things are concerning, but what I'm also seeing is that there's kind of this shift right now where people are talking a lot about fiber, which I think is amazing. We're seeing, I think I saw this article the other day, and this is not, don't quote me on it, but something like the searches

• 44:06Speaker 02

  for fiber had overtaken protein on Google in the last month or something, which I think is an excellent pendulum swing, and something that that needs to happen. If you're looking to get more fiber, there's some low hanging fruit, pardon the pun, where you can inject some fiber into your daily meals, berries being one, add that to your morning cereal, something like hemp hearts, seeds have great fiber, sweet potato. So looking at kind of those top fiber foods and how you can interject them into your daily diet is really a key element here where you might start feeling a lot better. I think if you're eating a diet that's devoid of fiber, you might be dealing with some constipation. I know as a kid I

• 44:49Speaker 02

  was, so that's never fun. Definitely passionate about hoping people increase their fiber intake.

• 44:57John R. Miles?

  I'm glad that you brought up what you just did, because what's fascinating about fiber is that it's not just about digestion. It actually has so many positive impacts throughout the body, from the gut microbiome to metabolic health, to potentially long-term disease risk, as you were just describing. And earlier this week, I had Dr. David Perlmutter on the show, and we were discussing how dementia, Parkinson's, other neurological diseases they're finding more and more are linked to our immune system and our immune response. And he's a vegetarian himself, and he was also talking about how important plants are

• 45:42John R. Miles?

  to that aspect of our brain health as well. So there's so many downstream benefits to this.

• 45:48Speaker 02

  My sister's type one diabetic, and working with me, she's learned a lot about fiber. And she finds whenever she's eating meals that have more fiber in them, she can bolus less insulin, because you're not getting as much of a blood sugar spike. So even from a diabetes perspective, fibers are really a part of the important part of the equation that I think we're just starting to talk about and scratch the surface of. So yeah, if anybody takes anything away from this, away from this podcast, I hope they start eating more fiber. Beans are a huge source of fiber as well.

• 46:20John R. Miles?

  And before we leave fiber, and you just made that comment, you've mentioned some foods that people could start eating that that have higher fiber. And what's one higher fiber food you wish people ate more often, starting today?

• 46:37Speaker 02

  So one that is super high in fiber, and I might butcher the pronunciation of this, is called psyllium husk. And you can make your own jam from it, but we have these wraps that we're buying from Costco that are incredible. And they have 18 grams of fiber because the main ingredient is psyllium husk. And it's crazy, 18 grams of fiber, that's more than most people get in a day. So if you can buy that from the store, it's often in fiber supplements as well. You can make jam out of it by just mashing some berries, mixing it with some water, probably look up a recipe for that. But that's one that's really going to move the needle from if you're not eating a lot of fiber to you've increased and now needing your daily intake kind of low hanging there.

• 47:22John R. Miles?

  My wife actually takes it as a supplement. And so that's a great one.

• 47:29Speaker 02

  And it's affordable, too. I think it's

• 47:33John R. Miles?

  One other feature I wanted to make sure we talked about in Plant U Quickies is the Plant Point System. You're not simply telling people to eat plants, you're encouraging diversity. So can you talk about this?

• 47:47Speaker 02

  So Plant Points is actually a term that's trademarked by my friend, Dr. Will Balsowitz. And he's a great gut health doctor. If you haven't had him on your podcast, he's fantastic on a podcast. But anyways, he is huge into the gut microbiome and plant diversity. So there was this kind of groundbreaking study, I want to say it was in like, five years ago, where they found that if you eat 30 or more diverse plants per week, you'll have a healthier, more diverse gut microbiome. And when you hear the word, the term 30 plants, I feel like that sounds really overwhelming. But plants are not just vegetables. Plants include your spices, your seeds, your beans. Basically, if it grows from the ground, it is counted.

• 48:32Speaker 02

  So when I was making this book, and I knew I wanted to have the focus be on really quick recipes, but also helping people eat more diversity of plants and vegetables, I knew I wanted to include plant counter. So for every single recipe in the book, we have plant points. And it gives you a point counter, so you can reach those. We even went on the conservative side, this was a big discussion when we were developing the book about whether we wanted the plant spices to be included as points. So we did actually point two five of a point for spices. So it's a little bit more difficult to meet your 30, but quite easy. So I just flipped to this creamy street corn dip. This has 10 points alone. So you

• 49:15Speaker 02

  can imagine if you make like, even just a few of these recipes, you can easily meet that 30 plant counter pretty effortlessly. But if you're not really thinking about it, you might be eating the same thing again and not.

• 49:29John R. Miles?

  I know from doing this show, and we talk a lot about behavior, science, behavior change, that reducing the amount of friction that anyone has in a certain behavior, if they want to change it, is one of the most important things that you need to do. So when you think about that, and you've interacted with your community a lot, what do you think it is about the psychology of why people actually change their eating habits the most? Are you finding it's fear of disease? Is it wanting to feel better? Is it convenience? Is it community? What do you think is the main thing?

• 50:08Speaker 02

  If I'm being honest, I think it's usually a health scare where I see most people actually change their diet. That was it for me, right? Like my dad and that news coming out. And I think it's often a health scare that will initiate the change. But then people find they're feeling better, or they're now falling in love with cooking like they haven't before, and they see what an impact it can have on their life that makes them actually stick to it. But usually a health scare or something, and then maybe they want to lose weight, or they've hit this moment where they're just not happy in themselves, and that will usually initiate the biggest change.

• 50:48John R. Miles?

  Okay. And then what role do you think shame plays in changing diet and sticking to it?

• 50:55Speaker 02

  That's a tough one, because it's not my approach, right? I don't want, I'm very apprehensive. I do not want anybody to feel bad about themselves. So I'm never like, but it probably plays some sort of role, right? I think we've all had those moments. I know many times postpartum, I've been like, man, Carly, you gotta get to the gym. You haven't been to the gym in three months. This is not the type of person that you want to be. And that comes from a place of maybe shame, right? If it does the job, I'm okay with it personally, but I don't want to be the one projecting that onto anybody, even though it might be ineffective. Then what do you think?

• 51:35John R. Miles?

  I think it plays an obvious role. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to change a diet, I get into it. And sometimes I'm even into it for two or three weeks. And then what happened to me historically is I would go on a business trip, and all of a sudden, the structure that you've built around you is no longer there. And all of a sudden, your behavior changes. And then, of course, I feel shame, because I've abandoned the very thing that I said I was going to do. But I think what you've got to do on the other side of that is just real, realize we're all human, and get back on track and

• 52:16John R. Miles?

  start doing it again. Easier said than done. But that's how I typically think about it.

• 52:21Speaker 02

  I often think about diet as I relate to my relationship with the gym, because it's so easy to stay in it when you're in that momentum, and you're going three times a week, and you have your schedule. But as soon as, like you said, go on a business trip or vacation, why is it so hard when you get back to get back into that rhythm? But you've just got to do it. Because if you don't, and you've acknowledged, oh, I've already fallen off for a week, so what's another? Then you're just into a vicious cycle. But it's hard. So maybe shame, maybe being like, reality check is the thing there that's going to move the needle.

• 52:57John R. Miles?

  Carly, it's been such a joy having you on the show today. You're very discoverable, everywhere people can find you. But if they want to get more of the recipes, more information, where are some of the best starting points for them to go?

• 53:10Speaker 02

  So I'm on any of your social media platforms. If you're on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, you can find me at Plant U, that's P L A N T Y O U. You can find a whole bunch of free recipes and resources at plantyou.com. I think we have close to 1,000 probably recipes on there. And if you're interested in the new cookbook, it's called Plant U Quickies, and it's available anywhere books are sold. You can also go to quickiescookbook.com. We have a bunch of freebies there for anybody who orders the book as a thank you. But yeah, I'm always happy to connect over email, [email protected]. This has been such a pleasure, John. I've loved this conversation. I feel like we touched on a lot of things that I don't usually talk about. So this was a blast, and I'm excited for people to hear it.

• 53:54John R. Miles?

  Thank you so much, Carly, for joining us. It was such an honor to have you.

• 54:00John R. Miles?

  Carly reminds us that taking care of ourselves doesn't have to begin with a dramatic overhaul. Sometimes it just starts with a small change we can actually sustain. A different ingredient, a simpler meal, a little more intentional in the choices we make every day. One of the ideas I keep coming back to from our conversation is Carly's observation that people don't necessarily have a motivation problem, they have a time problem. It's a reminder that if we want to build healthier habits, we have to stop designing them around an ideal version of our lives and start making them work for the lives we're actually living. Because living well isn't about getting everything right. It's about finding ways to care for ourselves amid the demands, distractions, and imperfections

• 54:43John R. Miles?

  of everyday life, and returning to those choices often enough that they become part of who we are. And that brings us to a different kind of nourishment. What happens when we step beyond our own lives and consider the world we share with others? For our next episode, released in honor of Veterans Day, I'm joined by Major General Charles Bolden, former NASA Administrator, Marine Combat Pilot, and astronaut who flew four Space Shuttle missions. Charlie has seen our planet from space, served his country in uniform, and led NASA through a period of extraordinary change. But one of the most powerful stories he shares is about initially resisting the idea of

• 55:26John R. Miles?

  flying alongside Russian cosmonauts. People who he had been trained to regard as an adversary. What happened when he finally sat down together with those cosmonauts offers a remarkable lesson in the power of human connection, shared purpose, and the things that can unite us even when history has taught us to see another person as enemies.

• 55:47Speaker 04

  I trained all my life to kill those guys. And they trained all their lives to kill me. And I don't want to fly with no damn Russian cosmonaut. I went to dinner, prepared to go hand-to-hand combat with these guys or something. Sergey Krikalev, who ended up flying with me, came to the door and let me in. Spoke fluent English, tall. He had been a flight controller, so he was a unique cosmonaut. He was not a military cosmonaut. First thing we started talking about was our kids. I talked about Shay and Kelly, my son and daughter. All we talked about that night was our families and our kids, and what kind of world we wanted to leave for them. And how could we take this gift that had been given us with a wall coming down and bring our people together and make the world a better place?

• 56:31John R. Miles?

  Before we close, I want to invite you to explore another way to put these ideas into practice. If you're looking to strengthen your own leadership, clarify your purpose, and create more intentional change in your life and work, check out the Passion Struck Speaker School. It's designed to help you develop your message, share your expertise, and turn what you've learned into a story that can make a difference for others. You'll find the link in the show notes. Thank you to Carly for showing us how small, practical choices can make a meaningful difference, and for reminding us that caring for ourselves doesn't have to be complicated to be transformative. Until next time, I'm John Miles. Stay curious, stay intentional, and stay passion-struck.