Get Healthy Sacramento 2019 Recap

What an exciting weekend we had with our friend and mentor Chef AJ. She stayed with us this past weekend as she was a speaker at the Get Healthy Sacramento Speaker Series organized by our friend Linda Middlesworth. It was an amazing afternoon of plant based super stars! Several people commented on the incredible energy in the room – we felt it too. Everyone was so excited to be there and to have the opportunity to meet and greet people we admire who have helped us in our plant based journey.

Chef AJ gave an eye opening lecture on calorie density which is one of the secrets to permanent weight loss. She also demonstrated how to make her Black Bean Mushroom Chili in the Instant Pot. Chef AJ is coordinating the Ultimate Weight Loss Program Live in Vegas Labor Day weekend. Check out the link and see the amazing lineup of speakers. In addition to the plant based speakers and vendors there will be awesome UWL compliant food and activities to keep us all busy. Tom and I will be there and would love to see you there too! I joined her UWL Online Program 4 years ago and finally ended my yo-yo dieting! Chef AJ interviewed 32 specialist about The Real Truth About Weight Loss for a free summit that you won’t want to miss!

I was delighted to run into Esther before the seminar began. Esther has lost 150 pounds eating an SOS Free Whole Food Plant Based diet. We just recently became friends but I feel a kinship with her. Her energy and enthusiasm for life and this way of eating is contagious.

Thomas from California Balsamic was at this event. California Balsamic vinegars are my favorite flavored vinegars – no added salt, sugar or artificial flavorings. You can get two free sample bottles with a purchase by entering Nutmeg Notebook in the comment section on the checkout page – also note in the comment section which two flavors you would like as your free samples! See my blog post and video all about California Balsamic here.

I have been given a couple gifts of Local Spicery items but have never been to their store. Nicholas & Evelyn mill, blend, package and sell their spices at the peak of freshness! You can order online at Local Spicery.

I am very excited to try the new spices I purchased. When you don’t use salt spices become very important for flavoring your food! The fresher they are the better they are. I’m thinking about a plant based gluten free pizza for the Pepperoni Spice. I’m not sure how I will make it but I know there is one in my future.

I will try the Gingerbread Spice blend in my Quinoa Banana Oat Muffins. A fun little tidbit – a wonderful group of people volunteered to bake no oil healthy muffins for the seminar. One of the volunteers whose name is Judy, baked my Quinoa Banana Oat Muffins and she was delighted to tell me that people were coming back for seconds of them! That made me so happy – I was smiling from ear to ear. Thank you to Judy and all of the volunteer bakers for providing healthy treats for everyone!

Pumpkin Pie Spice is one of my favorite sweet spices and it’s perfect for the Fall Pudding recipe. Which by the way is delicious all year long not just in the fall. The cinnamon will have to go in the Apple Cinnamon Dessert Hummus that I will share with my little granddaughter “Sweetpea.” Although she likes to call it pudding and is just as happy to have a bowl of it and a spoon instead of apples slices for dipping. I was approached by Chef Lisa from San Francisco who has a business educating people about a whole food plant based lifestyle. Lisa shared with me that she had been making my Dessert Hummus for her cancer patients who are avoiding processed sugar and they were loving this recipe! I teared up when she told me this and as I type right now the tears are welling up again. Tom and I want to make a difference in people lives by sharing with them how to make whole plant based foods taste delicious but also healthy. When we get positive feedback like this, kind comments from our readers, stories about how people are now eating salads because of our Chopped Salads technique and how husbands are even enjoying their partner’s plant based dinner based on recipes shared here it gives us the incentive to keep this blog going. Please continue to share with us your success and which recipes are making a difference for you. We want to know your story.

Our dear friend Linda Middlesworth runs the Sacramento Vegan Society and also coordinates the Get Healthy Sacramento Speaker Series. She works long hours as an animal advocate, a PCRM Food Instructor, an aerobics instructor and runs her own 30 Day Vegan Health Watch program. Linda follows a McDougall lifestyle and credits her whole food plant based diet with saving her life! You can read more about her on her website Vegan Mentor. Linda says that if we don’t eat a healthy diet and save ourselves, we can’t save the animals. Did I mention she just turned 75?

Steve Lawenda M.D. was one of the speakers. He shared his own plant based journey, the sad story of his dad’s health problems and the inspiring stories of his own patients. We are so fortunate to have caring doctors like him promoting this lifestyle and spending their free time at events like this one.

In addition to Dr Lawenda we were privileged to hear lectures by Chef AJ, Anthony Lim M.D., James Bennie M.D. and Bettina Chrysofakis-Baiduc M.D. There was an open Q & A with Dr Bennie which was a nice change of pace and there were plenty of interesting questions. The one thing all the speakers emphasize is that nothing seems to work as well as a no oil whole food plant based diet to prevent and even reverse so many lifestyle related health issues. Be it heart disease, diabetes, dementia, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, cancer, arthritis, inflammation, obesity and many more – a whole food plant based no oil diet has no negative side effects! Now that the doctors are educating their patients about lifestyle changes and encouraging them to adopt a plant based diet they are seeing amazing results!

Although we didn’t hear anything new after having attended a number of these type of events it’s alway good to hear the basic information again. The energy from the day gives us a boost that we carry on into the next week. It’s also an opportunity to make new friends with like minded people.

Thank you to everyone who came up and introduced yourself to Tom and I. It’s such a pleasure to meet you in person and put a face with a name. We feel blessed to have such a wonderful group of people following the blog.

Get Healthy – Stay Healthy – One Meal At A Time

Tami

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