A Plant-Based Life with Micaela Cook Karlsen
In her new book, A Plant-Based Life, Micaela Cook Karlsen gives readers an evidence-based, step-by-step guide to transitioning to a more vibrant way of eating. The book is packed with fascinating research on the many benefits of eating plants, and peppered with stories of people who have transformed their lives by changing what’s on their plates.
Micaela knows her stuff. Under the supervision of T. Colin Campbell, she co-launched the T. Colin Campbell Foundation, where she served as Executive Director and helped to build and launch the Certificate Program in Plant-Based Nutrition through eCornell Inc. She also worked on the New York Times best-selling book Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health.
Micaela knows from personal experience that it isn’t always easy to eat well, especially when our environment and social pressure work against us. In A Plant-Based Life, she strikes a beautiful balance between giving readers the science-backed facts and generously guiding them on the joyful journey.
A student of behavior change, Micaela knows what it takes to make change stick. Whether you’re ready to move forward at warp-speed, or you want to make change slowly and incrementally, her book will walk you through. In one of my favorite lines, Micaela writes, “It took me years of trial and error to arrive at a peaceful and successful place with my eating and my diet. I’m grateful for what I’ve learned, and now I’d like to help you skip some of that difficulty.”
After gobbling up the book, I sat down with Micaela and got the scoop - on what inspired her to write it, and how she creates a beautiful, plant-based life everyday.
What prompted you to write the book?
I worked for Dr. Campbell (at the T. Colin Campbell Foundation) for many years, and we heard from so many people who were really excited about plant-based eating, but they had no idea how to start. They were really stuck about what to do with their food, and what to do in their kitchen and the grocery store.
I wanted to share something that would be useful for people - for those who wanted to start for the first time; for the people who maybe knew something; and then for people who had tried and run into trouble. They all needed more specific behavior change strategies to navigate the modern food environment. And I wanted to write a book that I felt like I should read.
Micaela’s Salad Niçoise. Click here for the recipe.
I loved your inclusion of hard-facts research and an easy-going and compassionate tone. Was that a difficult balance to strike, or did it come naturally through the writing process?
In my work, I want to share research and evidence with people who aren’t aware of it; I want to share what we know. Scientific papers are dry and third-person. Maybe it gets a little juicy in the discussion, but it’s mostly supposed to be dry and factual. This (self-help book-writing) is the opposite.
At the same time, one of my core values is that I honor everyone’s right to make their own decisions, I’ve been working on that as a practice for the last 10 years of my life or so. So, in writing the book, I really wanted to respect the reader’s personal journey.
Micaela’s Interstellar Lasagna. Click here for the recipe.
You write a lot about our physical and social environments supporting or preventing us from making healthy choices. Can you illustrate how you have made your environment support your plant-based life?
I see in myself so many examples. When I visit other people in their homes, my willpower is really tested, and it starts to degrade. But overall, I don’t sweat the details. If I end up eating something that isn’t my ideal, that’s OK. But I am also very intentional about what I let myself be exposed to. What I keep in my own house, what I stock in kitchen and what I cook with helps me stay out of the “Pleasure Trap.”
The longer I ate this way, and the more my home environment didn’t have questionable ingredients, the easier it has been to stick with it 100% and not be tempted by things I encounter day-to-day. Of course, the longer you eat this way, the less you enjoy really intense foods with added fat, sugar, and salt, so the challenges in the environment become easier too.
“Personal choice can only go so far. Your most effective strategy for easy and permanent success is to reshape your environment so that it is rarely necessary for you to rely on willpower. When the easiest, most obvious choice is the healthiest one, you are set.”
Guacamole Salad with Baked Corn Chips. Click here for the recipe.
How has the reception to the book been this far?
It’s only been a few weeks since people started getting their copies, but the people who I’ve heard from have been really appreciative and enthusiastic. Some people have even sent me pictures of the recipes they’ve made. I didn’t picture that, and it’s so fun! It makes me really happy.
Best of of all has been hearing from physicians who feel like it’s a resource they want to recommend to their patients - that is exactly what I was hoping for. I think that the more resources there are, and the more that we give - the better for ALL of us.
To follow Micaela’s delicious recommendations - customized for you - visit her Lighter profile.
Join Micaela online this fall! She’s a featured speaker at PlantPure Summit 2016: The Convergence of Plant-Based Nutrition, Lifestyle and Healthcare. The webinar series runs September 7-16, 2016, with four speakers per day. Find out more here.
More from Micaela:
MicaelaKarlsen.com
SustainableDiet.com
Plant-Based Research
Twitter: PlantBasedResearch
Twitter: Micaela