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“Many people don’t change until the pain associated with change is less than the pain of staying the same.”
Chef AJ
Let’s be clear: just because you’re vegan doesn’t mean you’re healthy.
To be sure, for so many reasons, eating animal free is awesome. But it’s not a wellness panacea. Oreo cookies and Lay’s potato chips are vegan. Unless your diet is liberated from the growing abundance of refined and highly processed processed foods, you’re prone to confront the same weight management issues and chronic lifestyle illnesses that plague the average consumer subsisting on the standard American diet.
Just ask Chef AJ. A vegan chef for almost 40 years, she nonetheless struggled mightily with obesity for decades — prisoner to an addiction to processed snacks, refined sugar desserts, and an array of vegan junk foods that left her not only chronically overweight, but seriously unwell.
AJ’s salvation came only when she finally became willing to confront her unhealthy relationship with food as a true addiction. It’s a journey that required her to completely let go of habits that no longer served her, accept help, and embrace an entirely new relationship with food in the form of a whole foods, plant-based lifestyle.
This is her story — an inspiring tale of triumph and personal transformation that will leave you rethinking your own habits. Enabled with the tools required to achieve and maintain your optimal body weight. And empowered to live your best life.
A former comedian, today Chef AJ is a renown plant-based chef, culinary instructor, public speaker and member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine with a certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from Cornell University.
An expert in food addiction, emotional eating and creating meals to transform health, AJ is the host of the television series Healthy Living with Chef AJ and has appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Show with David Letterman and more. In addition, she is author of Unprocessed: How to Achieve Vibrant Health and Your Ideal Weight*. Her latest book, The Secrets To Ultimate Weight Loss* comes out soon (release date TBA).
Full of life, AJ is one of my favorite health warriors, totally committed to serving others. Picking up where we left off in RRP #56 way back in 2013, this conversation is a must listen for anyone who struggles with food addiction, unhealthy cravings and a fluctuating waistline.
As impactful as it is entertaining, it’s an exchange about the often under-addressed emotional aspects of eating. It’s about the hows and whys behind empowering a new relationship with food. And it’s about the joy, vitality and self-esteem that can be experienced by breaking the chains of food addiction.
I sincerely hope you enjoy this interaction as much as I enjoyed having it.
More importantly, my hope is that you put AJ’s insights to work — because if she can do it, you can too.
A reminder that the podcast is also viewable on YouTube here: http://bit.ly/chefajrrp
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Peace + Plants,
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Thanks to this week’s sponsors
Note: One of the best ways to support the podcast is to support the sponsors. For a complete list of all RRP sponsors and their respective vanity url’s and discount codes, visit my Resources page and click “Sponsors”.
SHOW NOTES
Check out Chef AJ’s book: Unprocessed: How to achieve vibrant health and your ideal weight* now!
NEW book: The Secrets to Ultimate Weight Loss*
Background, Context & Reference
- Connect with Chef AJ: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
- Recipes by Chef AJ at Forks Over Knives
- Recipes by Chef AJ recipes and episodes at FoodyTV
- Posts by Chef AJ at: Naked Food Magazine
- Health Center: TrueNorth
- Happy Herbivore: Interview: Chef AJ by Lindsay S. Nixon
- Plant Fueled Life: Chef AJ: Gets Rid of Pre-Cancerous Polyps, Loses over 50 Pounds, and Shows Others How to Make Healthy, Delicious Meals
- YouTube: Chef AJ on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson | Chef AJ
- YouTube: Dr. Greger Live with Chef AJ | Chef AJ
- Book: Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America* by Robert Whitaker
- Book: The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force that Undermines Health & Happiness* by Douglas J. Lisle
- Film: What The Health
Notable People Discussed In Today’s Podcast
- Dr. Alan Goldhamer: American chiropractor, author and founder of the TrueNorth Health Clinic
- Dr. Doug Lisle: Author of The Pleasure Trap*
- Dr. Gabor Maté: physician, specializes in neurology, psychiatry, psychology, treatment of addiction and podcast guest
- Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn: American physician, author and former Olympic rowing champion
- Dr. John McDougall: Physician & author who has written extensively on the benefits of a low-fat, whole foods, plant-based vegan diet
- T. Colin Campbell: biochemist who specializes in the effect of nutrition on long-term health, author of The China Study*and podcast guest
- Michael Klaper: physician, author, vegan and podcast guest
- Andrew “Spud Fit” Taylor: ate only potatoes for a year. Listen to our podcast!
Related Podcasts You Might Enjoy
- RRP #56: Chef AJ: From Junk Food Vegan to Whole Food Plant-based Chef
- RRP #258: SpudFit: How Andrew Taylor Lost 114 Pounds Eating Nothing But Potatoes For A Year
- RRP #188: Addiction Is Not A Choice: Dr. Gabor Maté’s Call For A Compassionate & Holistic Approach To Healing
- RRP #077: Michael Klaper, M.D., On Leveraging Nutrition To Treat, Prevent & Reverse Disease
- RRP #164: How Chef Seamus Mullen Leveraged Holistic Lifestyle Medicine To Heal Himself
- RRP #125: How Food Can Fix Your Mood With Heather Lounsbury
Thanks to Jason Camiolo for production, audio engineering, interstitial music and show notes and Blake Curtis for graphics. Theme music by Ana Leimma.
*Disclosure: Books and products denoted with an asterisk are hyperlinked to an affiliate program. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
The Plantpower Way: Italia is now available — pick up your copy today!
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Support The Sponsors: One of the best ways to support the podcast is to support our sponsors. For a complete list of all RRP sponsors and their respective vanity url’s and discount codes, visit my Resources page and click “Sponsors”.