#267: Gustavo Tolosa and Shayda Soleymani - Family Tradition Meets Plant-Based Nutrition
Shayda Soleymani and Gustavo Tolosa formed a lasting friendship through tradition and nutrition
Today, we invite you to meet Shayda Soleymani and Gustavo Tolosa. These two friends are from vastly different cultures - Iran and Argentina - but what they have in common is this: a shared love of their home country’s culture, food, and traditions.
They also share something else in common – successful health and weight loss journeys thanks to the power of a whole foods, plant-based diet.
Shayda shares her Iranian culinary heritage and how she adapted traditional recipes, while Gustavo discusses his Argentine background and struggles with weight and mental health before finding whole food, plant-based nutrition.
Together, they want to help you get your health back without sacrificing who you are or what you love with their book Live Your Healthiest Life, featuring over 135 SOS-free recipes (salt, oil, and sugar-free).
We know that family culture and tradition plays a HUGE role in our lives, and you don’t have to give that up in order to live your healthiest life.
Episode Highlights
3:16 Meeting our PLANTSTRONG Champions, Shayda and Gustavo
5:13 Shayda's Unique Iranian Upbringing
11:46 Gustavo's Argentine Childhood
16:53 The Power of Food and Memories
21:45 Transforming Recipes for Health
28:04 Celebrating Persian Traditions - the healthy way
33:15 Overcoming Health Challenges and Find the Movie that Changed it All
45:12 The Impact of the Chef AJ and John McDougall McDougall Program
51:42 Discovering Culinary Creativity, Success and Sustainable Health
59:06 Weight Loss Strategies Revealed
1:06:48 Simplifying Meal Preparation
1:12:13 Embracing Kindness and Love Towards Oneself and Each Other
Order Live Your Healthiest Life & receive the BONUS free recipes by emailing your receipt of purchase to: LYHLBonus@yahoo.com
Episode Resources
Watch the Full Episode on YouTube
Join our PLANTSTRONG Sedona Retreat - October 8th-13th, 2024
Order Live Your Healthiest Life and receive the BONUS free recipes by emailing your receipt of purchase to: LYHLBonus@yahoo.com
Follow Gustavo at https://plantemus.com/en/home/
Follow Shayda at https://healthycookingwithshayda.com/
To stock up on the best-tasting, most convenient, 100% PLANTSTRONG foods, including our all new chilis, check out all of our PLANTSTRONG products HERE.
Give us a like on the PLANTSTRONG Facebook Page and check out what being PLANSTRONG is all about. We always keep it stocked full of new content and updates, tips for healthy living, and delicious recipes, and you can even catch me LIVE on there!
We’ve also got an Instagram! Check us out and share your favorite PLANTSTRONG products and why you love it! Don’t forget to tag us using #goplantstrong 🌱💪
Full Transcription via AI Transcription Service
I'm Rip Esselstyn, and you're listening to the PLANTSTRONG Podcast. Today's episode features the twisting and turning journeys of two friends from vastly different countries and cultures, and the deep friendship and bonds that form with a shared vision of reclaiming your health. We're back with today's guests, Gustavo Tolosa and Shayda Soleymani right after these words from PLANTSTRONG. I just finished up swim practice. I swung by Whole Foods to grab a couple items, and I discovered that all 10 of our chilies and stews and all four of our whole, clean, fortified, plant-based milks are on sale until the end of September. Now's the time. Grab yourself some before I grab all of them right now.
[0:55] Today, I want to invite you to live your healthiest life with my guests, Sheda Salamani and Gustavo Tolosa. These two friends are from vastly different cultures. Sheda's family is from Iran and Gustavo's family is from Argentina. But what they have in common is this, a shared love of their home country's culture, food, and traditions. They also share something else in common, successful weight loss journeys thanks to the power of a whole food, plant-based diet. I'd like to read just a little bit from their new book, Live Your Healthiest Life, that I think sums up today's conversation really well. Shayda writes of meeting Gustavo at one of his piano recitals, quote.
[1:49] We were both devoted to the cultures in which we grew up. In many ways, our upbringings were very similar. There was the same emphasis on being kind, gracious, and hospitable, on showing respect for the elders in the community, and on centering your life around family. We met at a time when we were in the middle of our weight loss journeys, and we were both finding our way through a whole food, plant-based diet. it. We were both examining and experimenting how best to adapt our favorite dishes. Dishes that were passed down from our parents and grandparents to our new way of eating. We truly understood each other. Our friendship, which has always been based on mutual honesty, respect, and integrity, integrity blossomed. What a beautiful friendship origin story. Together, they want to help you get your health back without sacrificing who you are or what you love. We know that family culture and tradition plays a huge role in all of our lives, and you don't have to give that up in order to live your healthiest life. So with that introduction, let's meet renowned concert pianist, Gustavo Tolosa and Shayda Soleymani of Healthy Cooking with Shayda.
Meeting the PLANTSTRONG Champions
[3:16] All right, Shayda and Gustavo, welcome to the PLANTSTRONG podcast. It's a pleasure to have you two PLANTSTRONG champions. God, you guys have got exciting stories to tell, don't you? Thank you so much for having us. Yes, thank you so much, Rick. Absolutely, my pleasure. I mean, you two, and I'm not going to dive in yet, but I want to kind of tease the listener right now. Between the two of you, you have successfully lost over 200 pounds. You completely turned around your health destiny, both of you through whole food, plant-based nutrition. You both found your way there through different means, which I can't wait to talk about. But what's so interesting to me is how, you know, you two refer to yourselves as the dynamic duo.
[4:15] And, you know, Shayda, you originally are from Iran and Gustavo, you're from Argentina. You know, you both came over to the United States at different times. And uh and both kind of suffered from the standard american diet and fast food and all the trappings that that it brings with it and you were both able to successfully right yeah defeat it but it's incredible to me how you guys have you found each other as you guys say in this this wonderful book, Live Your Healthiest Life, right? One bite at a time, one meal at a time, how you guys found each other. And it was this instantaneous chemistry, like you were brothers and sisters, right? Right, right. So, so incredible.
Shayda's Iranian Upbringing
[5:14] But so just the way you guys weave your stories throughout the book, uh i'd love to weave this podcast with each one of your journeys and i i'd love to start with you Shayda and then we'll go to you gustavo but Shayda for starters please like tell the listener about your upbringing in iran and also about your parents and their arranged marriage i found that That's absolutely fascinating.
[5:49] So, yeah, back in those days in Iran, you know, when women wanted to get married or guys wanted to get married, it was all arranged marriage. And my father at the time was a dentist in Switzerland, and my mom was living in Iran. Well, when my grandmother was pregnant with my mom.
[6:12] My dad's mother was the midwife that helped to deliver my mom. So that was already, they already kind of knew each other. And then the story goes that my mom tells that, you know, my dad came from Switzerland and apparently he wanted to get married. And one day they were out shopping in the bazaar and, you know, his mom and him ran run into my mom, my grandmother, and my aunt, and they start talking. And his mother says, well, we'd love to come over one night and to see you guys. Well, that was an indication that they wanted to come over and ask for my mom's hand. And mom was in high school at the time. Now, my mom was 16. My dad was, I believe, 27, 28 years old. My mom had no intentions of getting married, nor was that part of the plan. But they came over. And before you know it, between the elders, they made the arrangement that mom was going to get married in two weeks. She was going to get pulled out of school and she was going to go to a foreign country in Switzerland where she spoke no French. She spoke Farsi. And that was really about it. Well, mom really did not want to get married. Mom loved going to school. She loved education. And but she wasn't going to go against what her father and her mom, her mom had arranged. Right.
[7:42] So mom gets married and off they go to Switzerland. And mom was there for, oh, well, I was born in Switzerland. So we were there for about two and a half, three years. Things were not working out between the two of them as, my mom was a fierce, independent woman, even from the get-go. And in Iran, men are pretty much dominant or aggressive or control freaks, whatever it is you want to call it. And my mom was not having any of that. And one day she called my grandfather and said, I'm done. I'm coming home. And my grandfather was like, what do you mean you're coming home? She goes, yeah, I'm done. I'm not staying married anymore. And to make a very long story short, and it's in the book, you guys can read all about it. You know, she she decided to move back to Iran. She grabbed me. And back then, the child went to the father and my mom was not having any of that. There was no way in hell she was going to let her daughter go.
[8:49] And there was a whole whole lot of stuff that happened in between all that. And she basically told my dad because in iran not only do you get the civil divorce but you also have to get the religious divorce so we you know we're jewish and we had she had to get both divorces the divorce literally took about seven years because it was not that easy and you got to remember something we're talking how many years ago but women did not ask for a divorce it was unheard of for a woman to say, I want a divorce. And nobody was having that. And my mom was not listening to any of that. She worked in the newspaper industry. She was the head of Lancôme where she traveled all throughout Paris. And she was a very, very independent, strong-minded, strong-willed person that when she set her mind to doing something, there was no stopping her. So here's one of the things that I want the listener to understand is that, so in the very beginning of the book, before they get to the 120 plus recipes.
[9:57] You each are recounting your stories and your journeys. And usually, Shayda, you go first, and then it's followed by Gustavo. But you always, each one of you, always in the first 40 plus pages, you always have in each section, you have a recipe that has a lot of meaning to you. And it harkens back to your days in Iran or Argentina. And it's really interesting.
[10:31] It's really powerful. And it made me realize and I think we've all known this, but there's such a powerful connection to to food and people and memories and traditions that you guys explore and you do you do so well. So one of the one of the first recipes that you talk about, Shayda, in the book is the Shirazi salad.
[10:56] Salashirazi. Exactly. So what exactly is that? It sounded delicious. Oh, my God. Salashirazi is really good. And it's basically, if you go to Israel, they're going to call it the Israeli salad. If you go to Iran, they're going to call it Salashirazi. If you go to another part of that world, they make up. But it's really simple. And all it is, is cucumbers, tomatoes, your fresh herbs, an onion. So you're going to have parsley, dill, cilantro, and mint. And in Iran, we used to put oil on top with lemon juice, but you don't need the oil. You don't need it. So I took the oil out because that's one of the salads that
Gustavo's Argentine Childhood
[11:42] we eat a lot of. And we eat a lot of that in the The summertime. Got it. All right. So, hey, Shayda, we're going to put you now in the parking lot. I'm going to go to Gustavo, okay? Okay. So, Gustavo, talk to me. Talk to me about Argentina and your upbringing there.
[12:04] Yeah. Well, my childhood was much more like a little, I don't know, fairy tale compared to Shayda, I guess. I grew up in a house where I had two loving parents and my dear, dear grandmother, my mom's mom, who was from Spain. And it was kind of a crazy household because my grandfather from Italy, my grandmother from Spain, my other part of the family was German. And from my dad's side was more local, Argentina. So it was all sorts of cultures and languages and, you know, how Italians are emotional and talking with their hands. And one minute they're happy, the next minute they're angry, you know. It's like growing up in a stage, in a theater play. But it was fun. It was always full with music. Yeah. I come from a musical family. My mother is a concert pianist. Her mom, the grandmother I talk about, who to me is the angel. Nonny. Nonny, my dear Nonny Aurora. That was her beautiful name.
[13:22] She also played the piano. And it just goes three or four more generations back. And my grandfather loved opera. And so there was always music. And and one of the things that I'm so thankful for is that my grandmother, Aurora or Noni, like we called her, she lived with us all of our lives until the last day of her life. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That was a true gift to grow up connected with your with your roots, because I heard all these amazing stories when they were crossing, you know, the ocean in this ship that looked like the, you know, the Titanic. And I don't know, just hearing all the wonderful things about Spain. And that was after they they were taking a two year vacation from their bakery. That's right. That's why I love bakeries.
[14:21] That's my, you know... Kind of my weakness in life. But yeah, yeah. So she cooked every meal. That is something that I'm very thankful for because Nonny's, I guess, work, besides spoiling me all the time, was to cook all the meals. Yes, there was meat, there was cheese and things like that. But it wasn't in excess like we're used to seeing in today's world, excessive, you know, fat, excessive sugar, excessive everything. So, yeah, I grew up with a lot of vegetables and fruits and homemade meals. And my mother and I, now my mother is 84 years old. She looks like she's 60. You know, she's plant-based also. And she and I have gradually transformed our recipes that have come from generations past, from Italy, from Spain, from Germany. We have transformed them to plant-based. And that's been fun and very unique. And they are, as you say, in the book. Yeah.
[15:34] I think, and I want to talk more about this in a little bit. it. But, you know, you mentioned music and the piano, but in reading the book, it became very apparent to me how important the piano and music was to you and your life and your path. And I think just your overall sense of well-being.
[16:03] And we'll touch upon that in a little bit. But one of the things, the recipes that you talked about in the very beginning of the book was, well, two recipes that I want you to talk about. The first was your favorite breakfast, even to today, which is your hash browns and greens.
[16:23] So what do you love about hash browns and greens? Why is it your favorite?
[16:28] Well, of course, I mean, I am a fan of your dad, who I have interviewed many times, and I just adore him. And so he has drilled in my brain, and I try to drill this in everybody else's brain, that we need to eat our five or six servings of greens a day.
The Power of Food and Memories
[16:47] And so in Argentina, that that's not the breakfast. Argentina's breakfast is bread. And so but as I transitioned to a whole food plant-based way of eating, one of the things that made it easier for me because I love potatoes and was to have hash browns. And so but I had them before they were all always with oil and they were served with other things, you know, that not plant-based. And so and it took me a while to get these hash browns crispy like the kinds you get at a, you know, at a restaurant. And then, of course, that is something that I just cannot think. I mean, every day, the first thing I think about is what are the greens, the five or six servings of greens I'm going to have today.
[17:54] So I always add some greens with whatever I'm eating. What's your favorite type of green?
[18:04] Leafy vegetable to add in the morning you have oh well i'm very lucky to have um a big garden so i have my own uh you know vegetable garden which provides a lot of um you know relaxation to go there and over there i have two or three types of kale kale is something that i eat almost every day If I don't eat kale a day, it's really weird. And then I love Swiss chard, which I also have in my garden, and spinach. So those for sure. Those for sure. And then, of course, the broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts. There are so many greens. I mean, I don't know how anybody can get tired or bored with greens. There's way so many. Yes, there are. Yes, there are.
[18:58] And then one other recipe, and then I'm going to go back to Sheda. Yeah. Is you talk about Nani's gazpacho soup that you adored. Well, I'm going to tell you something. The one that I adored, I'm going to tell about the gazpacho soup, but the one that is truly, I adore it. And everybody that tries it just goes crazy about it is the the baked polenta which we can talk later yeah yeah that is just it's just one of those things that is like is this really i mean it's too good to be true but it it is good and it is true well well let me say this because i actually wrote it down because i wanted to ask you about that baked polenta because Because you talked about how you'd be vacationing in the mountain cabin in the town of Carlos Paz in Cordoba. And that's where the smell of Noni's exquisite baked polenta would flow throughout the cabin. So, yes, tell me about the polenta. Yeah, well, oh, the polenta is just to, I already have several videos in my YouTube channel where I show how to make it. But it's layers.
[20:23] Polenta is basically corn that is ground up, okay, to make it simple. And you cook it with water. So it absorbs a lot of water. So right there you're having your water and your fiber and other nutrients. And it only takes two or three minutes to cook. so it's not doesn't take a lot of time you cook that first then you get a pan um like a glass pan or yeah it has to be kind of tall because you're going to make layers so then you have fun, composing a symphony of flavors and you go you know i always put some uh i make my own uh tomato sauce with spices and herbs. So I put a little layer at the bottom and then I go polenta and more tomato sauce and then polenta and some sauteed mushrooms with onions. But if people don't like mushrooms, it could be eggplant or I mean, it could be other things. Then another layer of polenta with sauce and then a layer of greens, of course, that I saute with garlic and onion. And then I end up with the last layer of polenta and some more tomato sauce that you put tight in the oven so that it gets crisp on the outside and very creamy on the inside. And it's just heavenly. Yeah.
Transforming Recipes for Health
[21:46] Well, certainly. Yeah, I bet.
[21:52] All right. Gustavo, I'm going to kick you off to the curb for a second. Shayda, come on in. So when you moved over to the United States, you I remember you saying that there weren't very many people from Iran that were in your your classes. But slowly but surely, at some point, there were three, four, five, six, maybe 12 people and maybe in the school.
[22:17] And what you one of the things that you would make as a as a celebration for for for them was your saffron rice pudding. That sounds so incredible and i know that saffron if i'm not mistaken is like it it's more expensive per ounce than gold so is this an expensive dish well your saffron is because it's so good yes saffron a good saffron is pretty expensive and i'm lucky enough that we still have friends that live in Iran or they travel to Iran and they bring us like they are they won't always ask what do you want us to bring back and I just want saffron that's all I want saffron is like the best thing and if you have your book this picture down on the bottom this is the rice pudding this is a short aside that we're showing here right on the bottom yeah and then in the yellow so yeah so does is that is one of the dishes that when you make it um the the regular way there's a lot of butter and a lot of oil and a lot of stuff in there and that's one dish that i had to veganize and it took a while my mom it was between me and my mom trying to figure this recipe out and believe it or not that dish that's about this big that's made with one cup of rice that's.
[23:40] It wow one cup of rice so So the main ingredients in there are the basmati rice because you want the long grain basmati rice.
[23:50] So it's basmati rice, saffron, cardamom, and rose water.
[23:55] And when you combine the rose water and the date and the saffron and the cardamom, it just gives you this aroma and this taste like it's to die for. And a lot of times Persians that come over and they try the food, they're like, Like, oh, my God, this is actually really delicious. You nailed the taste on it. And I said, well, there you go. We don't need all that extra oil and butter and whatnot. The thing that was really important to me, Rip, was I did not want to stop eating my Persian food.
[24:28] And transforming and eating a, you know, salt, oil, sugar-free diet. So it's really important to me to keep those old traditions and the old foods and try to convert them and share it with people. Yeah. You guys have done a phenomenal job kind of hanging on to the food of your culture in this cookbook. It's really phenomenal. phenomenal tell me you it sounds like you really had a close relationship with your grandfather as well who loved to exercise you say he exercised until even the week before he died at 96 he was exercising and he and he instilled in you the importance of exercise correct that is absolutely correct he exercised up until the day he rode his bike he used to walk five to six miles a day he He did his weights. He did everything. And I always loved to exercise. Even at my heaviest weight, I would still go to the gym and exercise.
[25:32] And when he, I'd say it was a couple of months before he passed, I walked up. I used to walk up to his room and watch him. And he'd be in there doing his, you know, butterflies and arm curls and his exercise. He'd say, Shayda, Shayda, come in here. And I said, well, he goes, let me show you how to use these weights. Let me teach you how to do it. And I tell you, before he died, he said, promise me that you will never, ever, ever, ever stop exercising.
[26:00] I said, I promise. Wow. And I have stuck true to that. And I have his dumbbells. His dumbbells are in my room, and I pick up those dumbbells, and I do my workouts with them. And you even became a collegiate swimmer, correct? Yes. I was swimming all the way through college competitively. So, yeah. Yeah. Now you talk about in the book, one of your grandfather's favorite dishes was the and I I'm sorry, I don't know how to pronounce it correctly, was the Kalam Polo. Kalam Polo, which is cabbage and rice. Yeah. Cabbage and rice. What a simple dish. But I I would imagine if it's prepared and cooked right with the right herbs and spices, it would be divine. It is really a tasty dish. And he just loved that rice. And, you know, people look at it and say, how do you mix cabbage and rice and beans and the herbs? And I'm like, it tastes really, really good. And it's a very, like you said, it's a very simple dish. The only thing with the way we cook rice, sometimes it does take a while, but the rice is sitting on the stovetop. So it's no big deal. It's not like you're standing over and making it. Yeah.
[27:14] I want you to talk about one more dish, and then I'm going to go back to Gustavo. And that is, you talk about the charoset. Charoset. Charoset. Thank you very much. So I'd love for you, and how every year you have it at Passover to honor your grandmother who died at 86. But what's the history of that dish? So Haroset, if you go to any Jewish home and they're celebrating Passover, they're going to have their own version of the Haroset that they make, depending on what region they're from. So it's basically the mortar, like, you know, the brick and the mortar.
Celebrating Persian Traditions
[27:58] And there's a prayer in the book that, you know, we say a prayer and we have it and all that. Grandma was really famous in making hers, but Grandma's version had so much nuts and the Manischewitz wine and this and pomegranate juice. It's really, really tasty. So her original recipe is in the book. But I took that recipe and I kind of made it a little bit healthier. And instead of using the Manischewitz wine, I'm using pomegranate juice.
[28:32] Juice so yeah so there's different ways of making the haroset and like i said it depends if you what region of like israel or iran or what where you come from everybody has a different take and twist on it and it's just a lot of nuts that's ground up nuts and a lot of wine and in fact you know when when she makes it after it's settled like the night that we're supposed to have it She'll pour a little bit more wine on top and mix it again. We're like, Grandma, we don't need any more wine. She goes, oh, no, we're drinking wine. So is this considered a dessert or a side dish or what is it? It's not. It's part of – so during Passover, there's certain dishes that you're eating.
[29:17] And each one of them resembles something that has to do with the story of Passover and all that. And this happens to be a dish that's part of that. So it's not a dessert. it's not anything but there's actual prayers that go with this dish so you will have this on top of a matzah that's one prayer another one is you can have it with uh romaine like stuff it in romaine lettuce and eat it that way or you could make it into a matzah romaine the haro set and then another matzah on top and make it into a sandwich so it's part of the actual service and you only make this dish during the seven days of Passover. You don't make this dish any other time. Got it.
[30:05] Can you talk about the spirit of food, the Persian spirit of food? Well, when we sit down to eat, it takes like three or four hours because everybody's sitting and they're enjoying and they're talking and, you know, the different foods that are there. And it's just a love affair with food. It is not a let's quickly eat and get up and go. You know, everybody's sitting down, everybody's talking. talking, everybody, literally lunch could take two hours.
[30:36] So, so it sounds like a really wonderful shared experience. It really is. And it was kind of a rude awakening coming from Iran to here to see how it's like, wham, bam, okay, got to go. Like it was a whole, whole different view. Yeah, no, very much so. You mentioned the pomegranate and it made me remember in the book where you You talk about, I think it was your grandfather who would take the pomegranate and put a straw in it and drink the juice. And I was like, oh, I want to do that right this second. Well, because I was a little, and I love, everybody knows that how obsessed I am over pomegranates. And I have two pomegranate trees right outside in my backyard. That's, I mean, I love pomegranates. So as a little kid, grandpa would go up to the tree, grab it. And, you know, they were only this big. They're organic, right? Right. He would just squeeze it in between the palm of his hand and then puncture a hole in it. And he goes, here, drink it.
[31:37] Yeah. Yeah. You can't get any healthier than that. Yeah. Yeah. And then you also talk about the pomegranate wild rice recipe. Oh, yeah.
The Journey to America
[31:47] You're making me hungry. We're talking about all these recipes. I know. I hear you. And poor Gustavo just sitting over there. So, Gustavo, come back to me. Come back to me. Yes. All right.
[32:02] So, Gustavo, when did you come over to America? I was in my 20s. And so, I mean, I just love America. It's my home. I spent more years there. Than in Argentina. And that was the place where a lot of my dreams came true. My dreams of having an international concert pianist career.
[32:35] Being able to receive a master's degree, a doctorate degree in music from these prestigious places that we musicians dream of. And I was very blessed to be able to do that. And then be able to teach, to be a university professor, start then my own music school, start a nonprofit organization teaching hospitalized kids how to make music while they're in the hospital. I traveled the world giving concerts.
Overcoming Health Challenges
[33:09] America, it's, you know, gave me just about everything that I have. And um and he gave me back my health because i was at a point it also took it away for a while as well for a while i almost died literally okay and i was very very scared and because i was searching that's the you know if you don't search and you don't care that's one thing but if you care and you want to get healthy and you search and search and all you find is confusion and and and cannot get the answer and i'm used to studying i mean uh and and and reading, researches and i just could not find the answer and it was frustrating and i was almost at the point of giving up i knew i was gonna die yeah i i don't want to talk about that fateful day yet Because one of the things that happened is between 1989 and 2013, if I'm not mistaken, you ballooned up from 180 to 270 pounds.
[34:19] You basically talk about how you got severely depressed, almost, you know, suicidal. You had to file for bankruptcy, bankruptcy. I mean, you you talk about how your life got very, very, very you almost hit rock bottom. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And you talk about it very openly in in the book. And I so appreciate you allowing yourself to be so vulnerable.
[34:48] It's not easy but i thought there are other people i have been now i've been very blessed and lucky to be able to to coach others um and i've noticed uh there are other people that are sometimes even in worse condition than i was at that point and i thought well if my story could help even one person i will be happy so i went ahead and shared some of those very personal yes yes yes well and what to me what's also remarkable is it sounds like even when you were at your lowest point you still wanted to give back and help people and that's when you you started your nonprofit, Music Angels, to help, you know, children in hospitals. And you said, you know, ultimately, yes, it helped them, but God, it helped you as well, right?
[35:50] Oh, my goodness. Those days were, well, yeah, it saved me because every week I would go to all of the children's hospitals in Dallas And I would get in the rooms that they would assign me to go to. And when I saw the suffering of the young children and the parents and the families, and then I went home and what I thought it was a tragedy. I mean, it seemed like nothing compared to what I saw. So it became sort of an addiction to me. I had to go every week. And at one point, it became almost like a full-time job. I finally gave up my university job. Yeah. Because this was my mission now. I could finally combine the two things I loved most, which was food and music. Yeah. And then...
[36:55] You talk about how, as a musician, as a pianist, you talk about one of Mozart's pieces, right? Where I think he starts out and it's very beautiful, and then in the middle, it gets really angry and choppy. And then at the end, it gets nice again. And you kind of refer to this as the hopeful A-flat major chord, right, that occurs in this piece, but how it also occurred in your life. So what was that A-flat major chord that occurred in your life? Well, okay, so yeah, that is a movement of a piano sonata by Beethoven, actually, although there are others by Mozart as well, but this is by Beethoven. And well, of course... My bad, my bad. It's okay. I mean, they're more or less in the same area right there. But yeah, yeah music has been my my blood my my life since i was little and so that hopeful.
[38:09] A chord that is bright and brings hope as opposed to what we call minor chords that sound sad or they can sound depressing or have other feelings but other than happiness that that chord was that one day that i saw uh by chance i ran into this movie theater in downtown dallas and And I walked in because I love movies. I don't care what it is. Mostly, I can go see a movie any time of day. And so it sounded strange. It had a strange title. And I thought, well, I have two hours before I have to go back to teach. So I went in and I saw this movie. And I literally, I cried like from the half of the movie to the end because I found the answer. And i couldn't believe it and so that that that was a amazing day and what was the name of the movie well the movie was forks over knives yes it was how about that and then and then and then through forks over knives that kind of sent you on your quest and then you found dr john mcdougall so with that i'm going to transition back to shader but let's come back to you and we're We're going to talk about John McDougall and you saving up for that 10-day program.
[39:36] Shayda, tell me about you, you know, after you graduated from college. And you say that in your early 30s, you started to kind of gain weight, correct? Early 30s and then 40s. Like, tell me about what happened over the span of about a decade.
The Quest for Knowledge
[39:59] Well, you know, I started eating like I was still working out six hours a day, you know, six days a week. And that wasn't going to work. And my weight would always go up and down, but nothing crazy. But when I stopped everything, I don't really recall exactly what happened. But one morning, I just like, I'm like, oh, my God, I've gained so much weight. And I used to go, I went to this very well-known doctor. And at that time, I really, I was probably about 30 pounds overweight. And he told me that, and he wrote it in a letter, and I still have the letter somewhere, that it would take Herculean efforts for me to ever lose weight. Now, I was already starting to get depressed because my weight had gone up. But when he said that, I don't know what it did in my head, but I just gave up all hope. And I just gave up everything because I thought, well, if it's going to take Herculean efforts for me to ever lose weight, then what's the point? Why don't I just eat what I want and do what I want and not worry about it?
[41:05] And, you know, that wasn't really the answer, but I did it anyway. My weight just kept shooting up and shooting up. And I would try all these different diets. And, you know, I tried Jenny Craig. I tried Weight Watchers. You name it. I did all those diets.
[41:24] And, you know, you lose the weight for the duration of you doing it. But then you gain all the weight back because they're not really teaching you how to eat. Now, I never really liked eating a lot of meat to begin with. But what I did grow up on was a lot of feta cheese and eggs and stuff like that. And I loved my nuts and I loved my dried fruits. So I was eating quite a bit more of those things. And I was still going to the gym, but I quickly learned that you can't out exercise a bad diet, you know, and it wasn't until 2000. 2000 I want to say no 2006 2007 I became highly allergic to um eggs and dairy products I was breaking out in hives like all over my body and my doctor said you're gonna have to get off all this stuff and he showed me a thing about this thick and I'm like well what am I what do you mean he goes you can't have dairy anymore you can't have eggs anymore and I said well does that That includes feta cheese, knowing damn well that it does. But I just didn't want to hear it because I love my feta cheese.
[42:36] And so I said, you know what? I can't do this on my own. And there's a place here in San Diego, Lemon Grove, called Optimum Health Institute.
[42:46] So I basically, he picked up the phone. He wanted to call the place and see what kind of place it is. And they're a raw food, vegan place. A lot of wheatgrass and a lot of, you know, stuff. But they do use a little bit of oil and not much, but it's all vegan. So he said, go. So I went for a month there and I broke out in so much high, like all this stuff coming out. But it set me on the right track. But then what happened was, OK, so then I became vegan. But I became your typical junk food vegan. French fries, Oreos, you know, you're driving through. And so, well, that didn't do me any good because then my weight really started to go up from that because I was eating all the junk food. And it wasn't until I came home one day to visit my mom because I lived in Los Angeles and she was listening to Dr. Furman.
[43:42] And she goes, we all know Dr. Joel Fuhrman. He's been on the podcast before. Right. So my mom's like, I think you would benefit listening to him. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I started listening to him and I'm like, oh, my God, what he says makes sense. What do you mean? I don't have to count calories anymore. I can eat rice. I can eat beans. I can eat potatoes. I can have fresh fruit, mangoes, like things that people were telling me I can't eat. So he was having a retreat in Utah and I signed up my mom and myself for it went there met a lot of wonderful people loved the food loved everything about it but then I came home and I'm like okay what do I do now like you know that was that was the problem until I went to a conference in Los Los Angeles. And who did I meet? I met a friend who introduced me to Chef AJ. Chef AJ. Absolutely.
[44:40] And I come to find out that she teaches cooking classes at her house. And that just changed my world. Because through Chef AJ, I met Jean-Pierre and I started taking her classes. I stuck to her like white on rice for one year. I did not leave her sight. Like I stayed in L.A. longer just so I could be with them. And through her, I met Dr. McDougal. I met your father.
The Impact of the McDougall Program
[45:09] I met Hans Steele. I met all these wonderful people. And I did the 10 day McDougal program. I did the True North program. And I'm like, oh, my God, I guess when the student really is ready, the teacher presents itself. and I just devoted one year of my life, And I just did everything, everything that they told me to do. And I did not cheat for one second because I told myself if it works, all the better. And if it doesn't, I haven't lost anything.
[45:41] You know, my mom instilled in me to always have that laser beam focus and just stay true to what you're doing. And, you know, don't look back. And I haven't. I haven't looked back since the day that I started this 12, 13 years ago. Yeah, it's really it's phenomenal what you've been able to do. And you even talk in the book about one of the sad things is, is that you have a uncle that died shortly after having gastric bypass surgery because of a little blunder that they made. Yeah, they punctured the main aorta, unfortunately, and he died three weeks after having the surgery. And I wish to God that he was alive today so that I could teach him what I know so that he wouldn't have to be, you know, gone with five kids. I mean, it just breaks my heart. And one of the reasons I started like my YouTube channel and doing recipes and doing all this is that if I can help one person for them to avoid having surgery, whether it's the sleeve, the gastric, whatever it is, then I've done my job. That's how I want to pay it forward. It's, it's, I want to help people so that they don't have to go through the tragedy that our family had to go through in losing my uncle for a needless, you know, for a surgery that yeah it went sideways I don't know what happened well and the unfortunate I think reality is that.
[47:05] And you, Gustavo, myself, we are unfortunately the few that have got, we've learned this message, we've embraced this message. And there's so many people out there that are absolutely blind and have no idea that this exists. So thank you. Thank you for that.
[47:31] When you, looking back, were you able to eat bananas and rice and mangoes and foods like that? Or were you told they were bad and to stay away from them because they're so carbohydrate heavy? I was told that I had to stay away from all that. So when I heard Dr. Fuhrman on TV talking the opposite of that, I'm like, oh, I want to go do that. I want that. I want to be satiated. I want to eat my potatoes. I want it because I never thought that bananas and rice and potatoes were bad until I learned that we were making it bad, you know, and so it was no, I am so, so grateful to your dad, your dad, and I have spoken many a times on the phone, and he's helped our family an awful lot. So thank you for that. And I'm just grateful to all the plant-based doctors for like opening our eyes and helping us and so that we could be healthy and thriving. Yeah. Thank you, Shayda. All right, Gustavo, come back to me.
[48:38] So when we left off, you were thinking about signing up for the McDougal 10-Day Program. And you were down to one credit card and all that jazz, but you decided that you were going to make it happen. Are you glad you did? Well, yes. That's the reason I'm here talking to you today. And I mean, honestly, I remember from that movie, I remember your dad, Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. McDougall, and I remember Chef AJ. I just could not, when I left the movie, I was so moved. I couldn't keep all the names in my head. And I, for some reason, the McDougal stayed in my head. So I started searching for it and searching and searching, because I thought I have to find some, one of these doctors who can, I don't know how to do this. I just saw the movie, but I don't know how to do it. So yes, eventually I found at that time, He was doing it in person, the 10-day program in Santa Rosa. I found the place. But it was impossible for me. I had just come out of a bankruptcy and a bad divorce and other things.
[49:59] And so it took, I was determined. It was that or knowing that I was going to die and not see my three children grow up. So I saved little by little. My dear mother helped me. I had one credit card that I could put some money in. I did all sorts of jobs that I did. Didn't particularly like, like playing background music at a party or, you know, things like that. And I saved the money and I was able to attend the 10-day program. And it was truly, I know it has, it may sound cliche, but it was, it was paradise when I was, the first time I saw MacDougall was It was like I was seeing, you know, a God.
[50:55] And I was soaking up every single word that he and Dr. Lyle and Jeff Novick and everybody was teaching us. I didn't skip one lecture. I mean, I was determined because I knew that I had found it. And I could see that it was sustainable, that I could finally, that I could do it. So when I went back home, I came home with this. It was the list of all the recipes that we ate during the 10 days for breakfast, lunch, and dinner because it was a buffet style. And I said to my partner and to my mother, this is what we're eating, and I'm going to make every one of these recipes.
Discovering Culinary Creativity
[51:43] And like Shayda, I was determined. I made all of those recipes. I discovered my inner chef inside. Wow. Yeah. I started my Facebook page, my YouTube page. And I was, I was, I consider myself the luckiest person on the planet because for some reason, Dr. McDougall and I clicked and, and I was able to be his webinar, you know, host and producer for years. So every week I would have the gift of talking to him before the webinar and after and getting to know him and learning and learning and learning. So it was having support, having support, I see that as being a major issue for people to succeed.
[52:37] And, you know, yeah. Yeah, you're right. What an amazing thing. What an amazing gift that you got from John McDougall. But obviously he saw something in you that resonated with him. Probably.
[52:55] We had fun. We really did. It was at a right time when he was considering. He told me, I am tired of traveling. I wish I could reach a lot more people at one time. But without traveling so much and i was just starting to study webbing webinars were just starting at that time in the 2012 or so you know there was just like one or two platforms and i was studying that to do music stuff uh for my music school and so i decided why not try something and so i one day i asked him would you do a webinar with me uh just 10 minutes i said just 10 minutes And the only problem is that it is for a group in France, so they don't speak English. Oh, wow. So our first webinar ever was in French with a translator. And that's kind of an interesting story. But after that, he said, hey, oh, this is really fun. Why don't we do another? And the second webinar was in Spanish, which is my home language. So it's funny how our first two webinars were in other languages.
[54:12] And then by the third, we were in English and he liked it and liked it. And then he just grew. Well, you know, I think it's really appropriate, especially since we're talking about John McDougall. You say that you're you're the sweet potato is your hero. Oh yeah we all know that potatoes were you know john mcdougall's heart and soul of the starch solution program oh yeah what why is the sweet potato your hero.
[54:43] Well, I just found that, I mean, I basically couldn't believe that every week I would drop like five or six pounds when I started. At one point, I actually went and bought a new scale because I thought this scale is broken. I cannot be eating so much food and losing weight. But somehow I noticed that the weeks that I ate more sweet potatoes than, let's say, rice or that my starch was potatoes and sweet potatoes, that those weeks I lost more. And, of course, this is my experience. It doesn't mean everybody. And the other thing was craving. For me, at night when I usually got or even now get some kind of craving, the sweet potato is what just stops it immediately. I mean, it's sweet and it's creamy. And if you could put some cinnamon or something, you know, so it helped me to overcome cravings at night. Do you bake it? Do you microwave it? How do you usually make your sweet potatoes? Yeah, no. Well, I most of the time is roasted at high temperature because I need this for me. I have a favorite, which is the Hannah sweet potato. To me, it has that natural vanilla. It's like eating cake to me.
[56:09] It really is. But whatever it is that I'm cooking, I roast it, but I roast it for longer than I think because that sugar has to start to come out of the sweet potato for it to be really sweet when you eat it. I couldn't agree with you more with the sweet potato. Jada, I'm coming back to you. Um now both of you have had tremendous obvious success weight loss Shayda you got at your heaviest 240 pounds if I'm not mistaken what are you today today well actually I weighed myself this morning at 130 okay 130 and then and then Gustavo you at your heaviest were 270 what are you today.
[57:04] Well, actually, my heaviest was 276. I was the heaviest. And then now I am 202. But my road has been a little more bumpy. I have to say that I never went back to eating meat or dairy or things like that. But from time to time, bread, because bread is in all the cells of my body, it gets the best of me. And if I start eating bread, my weight goes.
Success and Sustainable Health
[57:40] So it fluctuates from 200 to 202, 204. And I want to go below 200. So that's my goal. And from time to time, I attend the True North Health Center. But I have switched my thinking to lower my stress level from the scale to the health. So I'm thinking more of stay with whole food, whole, whole, whole food, plant-based for my health. And the weight is going to come off. And it does. But if I start to concentrate on the weight alone, I get stressed. And the stress is not good. It makes me want to eat things.
[58:23] Absolutely. And Shayda, I think what's so remarkable about both your journey and Gustavo's journey is you both have now lost substantial amounts of weight. You've reversed your health destiny in a positive way, and you've kept it off and done it for over a decade, each of you, which is fantastic. Fantastic. So in the book, you have Shayda's weight loss strategies and Gustavo's weight loss strategies. I'd love to talk about a few of them just to impart on the listener, because I find that they're really smart.
Weight Loss Strategies Revealed
[59:07] And some of them, you know, we've heard them, but I find it's always nice, as my father likes to say, repetition is the mother of learning. And it's always great to hear something from somebody else's mouth and how they kind of phrase it and present it. So I'll start with this.
[59:25] Environment. So you guys both talk about why environment is really important. Shayda, why don't you start?
[59:33] Talk to me about environment and why that's the number one weight loss strategy or health strategy for you. Because if your environment is not clean, and my environment, it's my house, it's my car, it's where I work. All of that is environment to me. And if I have foods that are going to be in this house, well, all it's going to do is be banging on my brain, I know that chocolate is in the house. I know that ice cream is in the house. So it's important to fill the refrigerator with healthy plant-based, all fruits and vegetables, potatoes, and healthy foods. So that way, if I do get a craving, I just go in the refrigerator, I open it up, and it's this beautiful array of different fruits and different vegetables and different foods. So my environment has to be pristine. I remember AJ coming to my house and doing a check. One time I left her at home while I went to go shop. I catch her in my refrigerator with the camera. She was trying to find something in my refrigerator, freezer, cupboard. Her and I just started laughing when I came back. I said, AJ, you're not going to find anything in my house. My car is the same thing. No food is allowed in the car.
[1:00:57] Where I work, at the office, it's got to be clean. We we get enough like when we're driving home you see mcdonald's you see del taco you see all these signs you see all the ads on tv we're getting inundated with all of that stuff and i remember jp used to tell me when the commercial comes on you go up and down those stairs every commercial you're going to go up and down the stairs or you're going to do push-ups or you're going to to do something. There's a lot of commercials. It's better not to watch TV or any of that. But I think if your house is not clean, like AJ says, if it's in your house, it's in your mouth and she is spot on. Yeah. Your environment is really, really crucial. It is. We, we actually have a saying at PLANTSTRONG and that is make your environment look like your goals, which I is very very smart you know number two on your list and you you mentioned it and that is have laser beam focus uh and you said that you you know you really taught that from worked helped taught that from John Pierre but you said that you've always kind of had it and you kind of think I think you kind of uh got it from your mother absolutely and it's carried over absolutely.
[1:02:19] Yeah. No, go ahead. Well, but you talk about how you have to own this and don't let anybody take it away. Can you expand on that kind of laser beam focus? Yeah. So when I first started this journey with AJ and Jean-Pierre, AJ had this 30 day unprocessed challenge. And that's how I started.
[1:02:44] And all my friends are like, what are you doing? I said, you guys just leave me alone for 30 days.
[1:02:50] It's either going to work or it's not going to work. And I'm going to go in with blinders and I'm just going to literally for the first time in my life, I will do everything that they tell me to do everything. And if at the end of 30 days it doesn't work, then, OK, nothing's happened. And if it does work well guess what then all bets are off at the end of 30 days when by at that time I had a torn tendon in my ankle so I could not exercise as much as I wanted to even though you know JP would give me workouts to do at the end of that AJ brought the scale out and I had lost 18 pounds and I said AJ you're out of your mind your scale is broken she goes okay let's get on it again we did it three times I could have sworn that scale was wrong but what I found is oh my god I am NOT going back so my friends called me up and they're like how did you do I said this I said I have found my answers and this is what I'm doing oh good let's go out and celebrate I said no you guys go out and celebrate I'm not deviating from this I'm not gonna let anyone tell me what to eat or what to do if it's unless it's these guys and what they're suggesting Like, I literally put the blinders on for a year and did everything that I was supposed to do. And the more I did that, the stronger I got and the more empowered I felt.
[1:04:20] Because I wasn't going to let anyone talk me out of this or anyone deter me in any other way. There was just no way. There was no way. And I guess it goes back because I learned this from my mom, how strong she is and what determination she had and the focus that she had in doing everything in her life. And she always taught me that. She goes, you can do anything that you set your mind to it. Just don't let anyone deter you from doing what is right and what is right for you. Own it. I love it. Yeah. Number three on your list is fruit and vegetable day. Yeah. What does that mean exactly? Okay. So this is one of John Pierre's modalities that he used when we were working together. Together and and um so what you what you literally do from morning till night you're eating only fruits and vegetables so it's basically 80 to 90 percent vegetables and about 10 percent fruit it could be steamed it could be raw it could be cooked it could be whatever you want but that's all that you're eating and i gotta tell you the first time that i did it oh my god nine o'clock at night, I saw potatoes on the counter. They weren't in little baby potatoes.
[1:05:39] Like I've got to have a potato. I just, I just have to have it. So I had one, but then after that, I'm like, ah, I get it. He's trying to teach me that nothing's going to happen to me that if I just have fruit and vegetable in a day, there's nothing like I have to get comfortable being uncomfortable yeah and that was the goal that he was trying that was the lesson that he was trying to teach me and i tell you now i sometimes will like when i i went to true north before going to true north i did 10 days of just fruits and vegetables and i learned that i don't have to travel with massive amounts of food with me because i'm going to panic that there's going going to be nothing at the airport or nothing anywhere, that I'm completely fine. And I learned that when I go to vacation with my friends, I can still go with them. And at the worst case, I will do fruits and vegetables.
Simplifying Meal Preparation
[1:06:42] On the holistic holiday at sea, there were days that all I ate was fruits and vegetables.
[1:06:48] And there was nothing. And now I'm so comfortable with it that I actually enjoy it yeah gustavo question for you so your first strategy is stop chasing recipes now you know this is a recipe book right but as you guys say you know recipes can be be can be for special occasions for weekends but what do you mean by stop chasing recipes gustavo.
[1:07:14] Well, yeah, yeah, that's important because I saw in my, you know, coaching, and I have this little modest seven-day program that I do online.
[1:07:25] And I noticed that a lot of people were falling off the wagon or giving up because in their minds they had to become another chef A.J. They had to become a chef. They had to make elaborate meals every meal, and I'm like, Like, no, no. I mean, I make the recipes and I make Shayda's recipes. I make mine a few times a week or for a special occasion. They are also recipes are good because they teach basics to then make up your own. But so when I say that is you can actually instead of thinking of recipes.
[1:08:09] Think of meal ideas. That's what I teach. Meal ideas is something like you have some frozen rice in the freezer and some beans that are already cooked. And you're going to take them out and make a burrito bowl with rice and beans. You're going to chop some lettuce and tomatoes and, I don't know, onions and put salsa on it. And that's it. You didn't do a recipe. You created a simple meal. Yeah. So that's what I mean by stop chasing recipes, because some people truly are addicted.
[1:08:45] And I have to agree. I have to say that I am, too. I still buy cookbooks and I buy the fork over knives magazines because I love to look at the recipes. And from time to time, I make some of them. But a lot of people, that's what they do. They chase recipes all the time and they never get to doing it. Yeah that's a great it's a great strategy gustavo and i think that you talk to anybody that's been doing this whole food plant-based successfully for over a decade and typically they have they keep it super simple super simple super super simple um you also one of your strat another one of your strategies is to only eat when hungry tell me about that yeah another one another one of of those aha moments is when I finally realized that, hey, I am eating breakfast because somebody at some time point told me that breakfast is at 8 a.m. Or, you know, or that I have to eat breakfast. And I thought, no, I don't. I mean, if I am. So now sometimes my breakfast is at 10, sometimes it's at 8. Sometimes I'm not hungry for breakfast and I just go to lunch. So learning Learning to listen.
[1:10:06] To your body's signals is something that happens through time. And I tell people, be patient. This is a process. Have a diary. Learn about yourself. All of these things that Shayda and I wrote in the book, it wasn't that one day we got this flash of knowledge. The option of giving up is nonexistent. That's my number one rule. It just doesn't exist. Yeah, maybe one day I'll have bread and I shouldn't have had that or maybe dark chocolate or something, but I'm not giving up. So that's what I mean when I say, you know, listen, don't give up. Be patient.
[1:10:52] Listen to your body. Eat when you're hungry. Well, you know, and, you know, and, you know, John McDougall certainly was a fan of bread, right? As long as it was a nice whole grain type of bread. But I understand that some people, they have a slice of bread and it leads to two, three, four, five pieces of bread. It can be a triggering agent of sorts. You also say, Gustavo, be kind to yourself, right, and just get back up. And it sounds like in what you've explained here, you know, with bread and chocolate and some other things, you're not beating yourself up because it just stresses you out. Well, what I really mean is that, and it happened to me, but I see it happening to a lot of people. You fall off, you ate, I don't know, something that, I mean, that was high in calories or in sugar or whatever. And just because you did that, you feel like, well, I ruined the whole day. I might just, I might, Keep ruining the whole day because I was, you know, weak and I was stupid or whatever. So you start beating yourself up. And it's like, no, like the book says in the title, one bite at a time. Okay, you had a bite that wasn't so good. Well, the very next bite,
Embracing Kindness Towards Oneself
[1:12:10] and I always have on my table here a platter with fruit. The next bite, you're back on. You're back on the wagon.
[1:12:18] And so you stop beating yourself up. You say, okay, well, I'm back on now. Yeah. Um, Shayda, you have a quote, it's, um, freedom has never tasted so good. Do you feel like this lifestyle, this way of eating, understanding the calorie density and see how to sequence meals has given you a certain freedom around food? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I have never felt this good in my entire life. I'm not obsessing about food. I'm not worried if I get up tomorrow and is that dress from six months ago, is it going to fit me? Is it not going to fit me? Is this going to be that? Oh, my God. It has given me the freedom that I couldn't be more grateful to everyone. I absolutely love this. Yeah.
[1:13:13] Your last strategy is a very, very important one. And so that's why I'm jumping down to it. It's number 10. And that is love and compassion. And I think that it's not enough of us really love ourselves and can look in the mirror and say that. So can you talk to me about this strategy? I think as women, especially, we are really hard on ourselves and we don't show enough love and compassion towards ourself. And in fact, I don't think sometimes we don't show enough love and compassion towards others as well. well, let me say that.
[1:13:54] There was a time when in one of AJ's classes, we were doing Louise Hay.
[1:14:01] And she goes, I want you guys to find a partner. And I want you to look in that partner's eyes and say, I love myself, I accept myself exactly as I am. And I remember AJ was sitting across from me, and I couldn't do it. I could not look at her in the eye and tell her that I love myself and that I accept myself without, I mean, I was just crying, crying like a baby. And I just those words just could not come out. Because what I saw is, again, I was beating myself up, because I was so heavy, and I was so overweight. It took over a year, I would say that I could literally, look in the mirror and look at myself straight in the eye and say, you know what, I love myself, And I accept myself and say it with determination and not just say it just to say it. It took a long time. And I think as women, we really have to be a lot more compassionate to ourselves than what we're doing. We're always judging ourselves with, okay, I have to be this size and I have to be this and I have to look like her and I have to do. No, no. You are beautiful the way you are and just own it and just love yourself. Can I, if you're comfortable with it, can I hear you say that affirmation to yourself? I love myself and I accept myself exactly as I am.
[1:15:31] Thank you. You also in this, under this strategy, you talk about how, okay, you have a food in front of you. Does this food reflect the love that I feel for myself? And I think that's a great question to ask before we potentially imbibe in something that might be destructive for us, as opposed to constructive. Yeah, I mean, you got to look at that plate and say, am I nourishing myself or am I hurting myself? And if that plate is going to hurt me, then why am I eating it? You can't. And I guess I kind of, you know, it's funny. I go out with my friends and I eat my food. And then I look at their plate and I'm like, oh, my God, they're hurting themselves. I look at it as just toxicity.
[1:16:27] It's really, what's so remarkable is I look around and it's like, it's remarkable that we only have 50% of our country that's dying from heart disease and that has diabetes and all this. It's like, how are people somehow avoiding it when they're eating all this toxic food? It's kind of remarkable. I have a refrigerator magnet that John Pierre did. And it says, am I fooling myself or am I fueling myself? Nice. Nice. And I love looking at that every day. Yeah. You guys have known each other since 2016. How frequently do you guys talk to each other? Almost every day. Now, I know that you each have coaching programs. Do you work together or do you have independent coaching programs?
Collaborating and Supporting Each Other
[1:17:19] I don't do any more coaching programs just because I'm busy with work and everything else that I do. But that's a great idea. Him and I should do something together. That's a great idea. Yeah. How about you, Gustavo? Are you taking people? Are you coaching right now? What I love to do is one of those things that also came out of, I guess, a mistake. I mean, I don't want to call it a mistake, but at least once a month I do a week of detox, kind of like what Shayda was saying, fruits and vegetables.
[1:17:55] And I just do it. But one time I decided, hey, I'm just going to announce it to my list that I'm going to do this. And if they want to join in, I'm going to log in twice a day for seven days and I'll show them what I'm eating and how I make it. And we'll have fun as a group. We'll talk. I'll give them mini lectures and I will answer questions and we'll have support, which I think is crucial. And that's and I did it just thinking I was going to do it one time and everybody loved it so much. People lost a lot of weight in one week and they asked me to do it again. And that was back in 29, no, 2022, 21. Yeah. So I've been doing now this for three years about.
[1:18:45] Well, you two, you've done such a remarkable job with this book, which came out in 2024. So it's not very old. So congratulations on this baby. I know it requires a lot of time and energy and resources. So thank you. Oh, you know, and I must say something that there were recipes we could not get in the book because there just wasn't enough space. So all of Shayda's rice recipes, including the Tadig and then my Argentine desserts, they're all whole food type desserts. They had to be kept out. And so Shayda and I decided to hire and what you call it, a designer. Yeah, to make a nice PDF to include five of her rice recipes and five of my rice desserts. So this is a PDF that has 10 of Sheyda's and Gustavo's secret Persian and Argentine recipes. And so everybody who purchases the book, if they send an email with a proof of purchase to this email that I can tell you, they get the PDF with the Tadig and the other rice recipe. So it's not it did not make it in the book. I'm sorry, but you can still get it. Yes, yes, yes. Nice, nice.
[1:20:15] Well, I want, you know, I've never, Shayda, we've never met before.
Conclusion and Gratitude for Contributions
[1:20:21] Gustavo, you and I have never spent any real time together. So I want you both to know just how wonderful it's been getting an opportunity to spend time with you both. both hear about your journeys, all the great work that you're doing. You two are such beautiful, authentic souls.
[1:20:44] And there's no doubt that the plant-based world is a better place because of you both. So thank you for your contributions. Thank you so much. And thank you so much for being part of the PLANTSTRONG podcast. Thank you so much for having us. It's been wonderful. Absolutely. really appreciated so on the way out what i'd love to do is if you guys could give me a virtual PLANTSTRONG fist bump ready got it ready one two three boom strong plant strong here we go stay there stay on the plant all right bye guys bye thank you so much bye thank you.
[1:21:24] I hope that you enjoyed getting to know Shayda and Gustavo as much as I did. I hope that their backgrounds resonated with many of you. Here's the thing. We all come from different and very rich traditions and families. Whether you're Polish, Italian, Irish, Spanish, Persian, Ethiopian, Greek, you get the point. It just doesn't matter. We all carry that pride and that deep history in our hearts, and we want to honor that culture. But, as Gustavo and Shayda discussed, it doesn't have to come at the expense of taste, flavor, or your health. Their book, Live Your Healthiest Life, One Bite at a Time, One Meal at a Time, is available now, and I'll be sure to put a link in today's show notes. As well, and Gustavo mentioned this, they have a free PDF with a whole bunch of additional recipes that you can get for free with the purchase of this book. And I'll also put that information in today's show notes as well. Until next week, embrace your culture, hold your friendships near and dear, and always, always keep it PLANTSTRONG. Thanks so much for listening.
