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Season 2 Episode 4: Food Fuckery with Stephanie Harter
131 Plays4 years ago
Stephanie Harter is an award-winning entrepreneur, author of the book The Skinny On Eating Like You Give a Damn, and is the co-instructor currently serving over 1,100 students internationally in the Vegan Nutrition Health Coach Certification course. As a former health coach with the winning strategy to achieve 5-figure months fast, Stephanie now helps plant-based coaches achieve a big income and impact in their business without sacrificing their freedom.
She is a speaker and the host of the popular Eating Like You Give a Damn podcast where she interviews experts, innovators, and celebrities about the global movement towards a plant-based future.
You’ll likely find her actively involved in a personal growth event, helping out at a farm animal sanctuary, or kickboxing at her local gym in St. Petersburg, FL.
Find Stephanie
www.eatinglikeyougiveadamn.com
https://instagram.com/eatinglikeyougiveadamn
Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr
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Transcript
Introduction to Fabulous Fuckery and Guest
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to Fabulous Fuckery. I'm your host, Baroness Brie. Fabulous Fuckery is your sophisticated destination for discussion on wellness, dating, family and blurred life. Come with me while we discuss emerging fabulously in spite of life's fuckery. It's your girl, Baroness Brie.
00:00:33
Speaker
Hello, everyone.
Stephanie's Plant-Based Journey Begins
00:00:35
Speaker
Welcome to this week's episode of Fabulous Fuckery. This week's episode's a little different. We're gonna call it Eating Fuckery. This week's episode is featuring Ms. Stephanie Harder, who is an award-winning entrepreneur and the author of the book, The Skinny on Eating, like you give a damn. So I met her at Potfest 2019 in Orlando, Florida, and she's amazing. Welcome, Stephanie.
00:01:00
Speaker
Girlfriend, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you. No, this is fantastic. Thank you for talking to us and joining us to talk to us about your health and your food journey. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about how you got started with the whole eating like you give a damn movement.
00:01:18
Speaker
Wow. Well, that was a long time ago, but a very great question. And the Reader's Digest version would be back in 2009, I read a book and that book really started to open up my mind to
00:01:33
Speaker
the types of choices I was making about food and how it was going to impact my body, but not just my body, but how it also impacted other things that I cared about. And at the time, I really was resonating with what was happening with the animals.
00:01:51
Speaker
and also how it was impacting the planet. So I never realized just how my food choices were impacting more than just myself and that just set me on a journey to start unfolding exactly what it was that I could eat. And it turned out that as I followed the journey towards crowding out
00:02:13
Speaker
animal products and replacing them with wholesome plant-based foods, I started to feel a lot better and started to learn about how it was affecting my body in such amazing ways and I just
00:02:26
Speaker
you know, had chronic digestive issues ever since I was a kid and all of that stuff just cleared up. And I call that a natural, like really nice side effect to living in accordance with my values and making choices that really feel good for me. And since then it's just grown into a movement where
Creating Community and Sharing the Journey
00:02:45
Speaker
I started on an entrepreneurial journey and really getting in touch with this passion of mine to share this message because it was very disruptive to me at the time in my life when I first found out about all of these things that I didn't know about on all the foods that I had been raised to eat and love. So I made it my mission to share it with other people, but not in the traditional sense that you would see other
00:03:15
Speaker
vegans and plant-based dieters sharing it with people. I really wanted to invite more people to kind of hear my story. And if it resonated with them, then I can help them along their journey wherever they were at. And that's how the movement grew. I wrote a book, I published it and started a podcast and I've been growing a community for about a little over two years now, ever since.
00:03:39
Speaker
Well, you have definitely changed me. Some of my friends and family have decided one day we were going to go pescatarian, not knowing what any of that meant. And we cut out meat and started cutting out chicken, and we really thought we were doing something. But learning how the foods we eat really affect us, really has changed our diet. We were watching the weight drop off, but it's more than just watching our weight. It's a whole lifestyle change.
00:04:08
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, it definitely is. What do you recommend to the veg curious? That's the term you use on your podcast that I think is adorable. How can I explain to someone getting started? This is a great way to begin the plant-based journey.
00:04:28
Speaker
Well, that's an awesome question, because really it starts with having an open conversation with somebody who's willing to want to take those first steps. If they're wanting to learn more and they're wanting to move forward with the learning process, because the learning takes time. But really, it's just finding out where they are in that journey, finding out what they already know,
Starting Your Own Plant-Based Journey
00:04:51
Speaker
and then just kind of formulating from there. Like for me, it's usually
00:04:57
Speaker
A lot of people love to actually see, in story form, some of the things that can be easily learned about living plant-based or living a holistic sort of a lifestyle. It just depends on where they are in their journey and what is most important to them.
00:05:18
Speaker
So when I have a conversation with somebody and I kind of figure out just by asking questions, you know, just asking a lot of questions in the beginning, like, you know, when somebody says something about, well, you know, I know I should give up dairy. I know dairy is not good for me. I'll usually ask them, you know, what is it about dairy that that's not so healthy as far as what you've learned? And whatever that feedback is, I can kind of build upon that and suggest other resources for them to look into, you know, when they
00:05:48
Speaker
have their time or I'll send the resource to them and then it kind of grows from there. So really, it's less about teaching certain statistics and everything. Usually in one-on-one conversations with people, we just find where their heart is. If it's truly a personal journey that starts with their health or if it's something jarring that they've learned about animal cruelty,
00:06:16
Speaker
or about the planet, what animal agriculture is doing to our planet and climate change being a really big conversation right now all over the world. Just finding out what the most important thing is and then take it from there. We're meeting people where we are and where they
Plant-Based Fast Food Options
00:06:36
Speaker
are.
00:06:36
Speaker
And the thing that's kind of popping up everywhere are these Burger King Impossible burgers. Yes. And everyone's like, oh, and I said, well, you can't eat those every day. It's almost like eating a burger. It's plant-based, but it's still, you know, a little fatty. What's your opinion on those burgers?
00:06:56
Speaker
Yeah. So I guess it's interesting that you should say that because, uh, you know, I come from a health coaching background. I was a health coach and now I actually am a business coach for, uh, vegan and plant-based health coaches. But, um, you know, during that health coaching journey, I realized that.
00:07:11
Speaker
It goes back to meeting people where they are. If they're already eating fast food on a regular basis because that's their lifestyle and maybe at this point in time, their health isn't paramount. If it's not on the top of their minds, I could stand there all day and talk to them until I'm blue in the face about how
00:07:32
Speaker
It's super important to like care about your health because it affects so many other things in your life. The people that love you and care about you and you want a healthy body. You want the energy to be able to be successful in whatever it is you're doing from day to day. But the reality is.
00:07:47
Speaker
Some people, they are living within a certain budget, they have a certain means, and they have a certain way of life that maybe they're just not ready to make a big transition yet. So when it comes to the Burger King Impossible Burger or the McVegan that's going to be hitting America sometime soon, they've already released it over in Europe. And like KFC, they have the, I think it's called the imposter,
00:08:14
Speaker
or something like that. So they have these new plant-based options. Yeah, yeah. So they have these plant-based options, which is really, really great. And so it's great to help those people that they have a choice now. So if that is their regular thing to consume fast food, whether it's just once a month, whether it's several times a week, whatever that looks like for them, they have a different option to choose.
00:08:42
Speaker
And what's really cool is to keep a tab on the news as far as that's concerned and seeing just how that is actually making such a really great impact. I mean, the sales are through the roof on those particular foods. But yeah, but, you know, necessarily they're not all that healthy, sure.
00:08:59
Speaker
It's crazy, but it's making the adjustment and wanting to do the right things and eat the right foods. So for your book, you had a giveaway. Is that still available? Is that still a download you're doing?
00:09:13
Speaker
Yeah, it's really funny you bring that up right now. I don't know when this is going to air, but I will have this fixed by now. But at this point in time, I'm just now starting to make some transitions with my website. So as of like two days ago, I think that that bonus download kind of got put on hold. So that's something I'm working on fixing and getting back up today. I will chop that down.
00:09:36
Speaker
and I will say at the end okay yep perfect a bonus when you purchase the book available yes thank you no no no no worries so now my other question for you as a podcaster um how do you think this book has helped you to create your community
00:09:55
Speaker
Well, I actually started the community first. So yeah, so it's funny because I lived overseas for several years and this was all during the very beginning of our
00:10:10
Speaker
plant-based journey of our vegan journey. My husband and I, we were living over in Bahrain for a year, so in the Middle East. And then we moved over to Naples, Italy for three years. And this was all pretty much in the beginning stages of us trying to learn more about crowding out meat, dairy, and egg foods.
00:10:32
Speaker
Podcasting was the one thing that really made me feel connected because after moving out of the States, I just felt so disconnected from community, especially when it comes to a vegetarian and a vegan community because it was still pretty foreign over there. This was several years ago.
00:10:55
Speaker
It was still for him. So podcasting I really like was just so grateful because I could put in my earbuds and you know I could you know do things around the house or I could plug it into the car while I'm driving somewhere and I could actually listen to certain podcasts and certain influencers that were in the vegetarian and vegan and plant-based space.
00:11:16
Speaker
to help me learn and grow. So I always knew that a podcast was going to be the thing that I was going to end up starting and doing to help my community. But I actually started growing the community first as I was writing the book. So when I made that commitment that I was going to write this book, The Skinny on Eating Like You Give a Dam,
00:11:37
Speaker
I decided to go ahead and start a Facebook group and just started piling up all of my friends and my local network and then from there it just grew, which is amazing because now there's about 500 members in there right now and that's without any paid advertising or anything to grow it.
00:12:00
Speaker
To grow it in any other method. You're amazing.
Building and Marketing the Book Community
00:12:04
Speaker
Okay, you have a wonderful personality. Oh, thank you You're awesome Stephanie so It's interesting to me that you built the community before writing the book because I can't tell you the statement that I always use is that we're all not Beyonce we can't have a product that pops up in that night and
00:12:24
Speaker
Mmm, but don't we all try to be like Beyonce? Yeah, girl, I was cheering you on you jumped on that stage. I was like, yeah Just can't get my hips involved as much as you can
00:12:55
Speaker
You really just, I have a lot of people who are writing books, and I'm actually in the process of working on one myself. Congratulations. That's awesome. Thank you, and I just really love talking to people about their journeys because we all have information we can share with each other. Mm-hmm. This is true. And, you know, not everything should be available for free. However, sometimes it's easy to give someone encouraging word or quick tip. So, you know, building the community before you start is a great tip.
00:13:23
Speaker
because some people just write their book and they're like, okay, it's here now, how do I market it? Whereas you had one, Stephanie was at pod fest, she had on a shirt that says, even like you're giving a damn, she's got goodies, she's got this picture, her book covers a picture of her eating this badass burger, you're like, what is she eating?
Personal Challenges and Recommendations
00:13:45
Speaker
And then you read the book and learn about her food journey and you understand and
00:13:51
Speaker
what she's thinking and the fact that her husband is on this journey with her.
00:13:54
Speaker
Yeah. It's a remarkable to me. So congratulations to you guys. Well, thank you. That's very sweet. What is a good vegan cheese? What's the alternate, what's the cheese that melts? Oh gosh, my favorite is by Follow Your Heart for sure. Yeah, there's a lot of brands available and they're all really, really great. But if we're talking about, you know, the consistency specifically, I really love Follow Your Heart and the flavor and consistency. I just keep going back. I love it.
00:14:25
Speaker
Thank you, because I've been trying, okay? I'm being honest with you. That's awesome. I am a mac and cheese girl for the holidays. Hell yes, me too. I love mac and cheese. We have a certain, you know, black people got a certain expectation of what mac and cheese is supposed to be like. I understand, girl. I grew up Southern. I grew up on the Southern American diet, okay? My mama put fat back and whatever else she called it in our collard greens, like with the
00:14:53
Speaker
mac and cheese, the fried chicken, we had the whole nine, I get it. Okay, so you had a proper Southern upbringing. Hell yes. But yeah, but no, you know, you're sitting here and you're trying to tell my kids about healthy eating. And so I made cauliflower, mashed cauliflower, without talking to them about it. And there was a full on riot in here. Oh, I can imagine. And put, you know, a little pest up
00:15:15
Speaker
They weren't having it. They said, this is not potatoes. We don't want this. So I'm trying to bring other alternate foods into my family's diet little by little because I can teach them things they can take with them. Yeah.
00:15:27
Speaker
But the mashed cauliflower is not it. So we're trying to, you know, I get them to eat sushi. They haven't quite given up chicken yet. The oldest one actually refuses to give up red meat. But I've explained to him that if we reduce the amount of red meat, we can balance out our health, we can keep ourselves our blood pressure low, our cholesterol low. How old is he? 18. Okay, yeah.
00:15:52
Speaker
Yeah, you know, very dominant young man personality. Sure. Oh, yeah. Teaching them some good eating habits. The little ones 12 he pretty much will eat almost anything I eat. Uh huh. And I say almost because he is not having it with the vegan cheese.
00:16:08
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
Influence of Media and Advertising
00:16:10
Speaker
It's definitely a learning experience for sure, but the fact that you're actually trying some new things, that's what makes the difference though, because you know, nobody's going to figure out what they like until they try it, right? So this is really good that you're exploring different options. Eventually, you all find stuff that you like.
00:16:27
Speaker
Um, and that's, that's where the, this becomes a journey as opposed to like, you know, a lifestyle change that people can just easily make overnight. Like I still yet have not met anybody in person. I hear like these, you know, like unicorn stories of people that, you know, just changed overnight, but I haven't met one or talked to one yet. So, but, uh, but yeah, it's definitely a journey. And, um, you know, as far as, you know, them being young men, you know, are at the advertising in our culture, it's just,
00:16:57
Speaker
it predominantly targets young men, right? Especially when it comes to fast food and just food culture in general. If you look at all the marketing, they really target men heavily. And there's a new film that just came out. I think you would all enjoy watching it as a family, actually. It's called The Game Changers. And it really focuses on the health aspects of performance and recovery as far as
00:17:25
Speaker
you know, how food affects these things. And, and they have a website right now, let me tell you, I was going through that website, I was like, damn, the recipes they have on there, it sounds like it would be like right up your alley, because it's all foods that are rich, like that I grew up with, but they just do it like plant based style. And it's amazing.
00:17:45
Speaker
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00:18:11
Speaker
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Maintaining a Diet While Traveling
00:18:29
Speaker
I'm the substitute queen now and it's like can I say about this and put that and do that and they hate me but Going to I'm in the DC area. So we have some pretty decent food options. Nice Go out to other parts of America. They don't necessarily have the vegan options available and that's where I struggle is when I'm incredible I'm
00:18:53
Speaker
I'm reverting back to my old eating habits because it's like, oh, that fried chicken looks amazing. They don't have anything else I want. But, you know, reading your book has made me realize that I can eat, you know, veggie, veggie sushi rolls, I can eat the pasta version of the marinara versus getting really sad that I can't have the meat lasagna.
00:19:13
Speaker
you know, eating the, eating vegetable samosas, eating basami rice with the lentils, just remembering everything doesn't have to have lamb in it. Yes, girl. Yes. So it's just, it's been a learning process and I want to just thank you for giving us the tools and, you know, the fact that you're offered, that you, I know you're no longer coaching full time, but the fact that you're offering coaches your wisdom is very, very useful.
00:19:40
Speaker
Well, yeah, thank you for saying that. And thank you for actually just being willing to be open to the message and finding resonance with it and actually starting that journey of just making some different decisions. And if you don't mind me asking, is health maybe the primary motivation for you and your family right now? So to be honest with you, I want to change my eating habits before it becomes a necessity. Okay.
00:20:09
Speaker
Because as I'm getting older and my parents unfortunately did not have long life spans, but I can do what I can now to stay healthy versus trying to get healthy when I get sick. That's a really great plan. I wish more people fought like you. That's really awesome. We got to do better, even though I will say Thanksgiving is coming. Oh, yeah, for sure. All the cakes and pies are going to be mine.
00:20:35
Speaker
And I will say, I try to keep a pretty, like I said, for the most part, we're doing pescatarian. So sticking to various fishes and a lot of vegetarian options on the side. But lamb is definitely my Achilles heel.
00:20:54
Speaker
I can't eat as much as I wish I could, but what's happening is that I'm learning in moderation.
Dietary Adjustments for Health Benefits
00:21:02
Speaker
We can do certain things. So maybe if you eat that thing once a year, you can do it. I haven't had pork products in over a year and some change. Wow. Very cool. No, so pork has been two years and red meat has been one year. Well, that's really great to celebrate right there. Cause I just know like, you know,
00:21:21
Speaker
In my heritage, growing up with southern food and having southern roots like pork and red meat, those are my two biggest things. We just had those either seasoning everything or as the main source of food on the plate. So that's a really huge adjustment. So congratulations on that.
00:21:44
Speaker
Thank you. I'm sure I've eaten enough ham and pork for six lifetimes at this point. I hear you girl. I can go without it for a little bit. Now, question for you, as far as your beauty routine, are you doing anything that's, you know, do you have a plant-based beauty routine? Are you doing an alternate routine?
00:22:03
Speaker
That's a good question. I don't know that I really have a beauty routine, to be honest. You're so pretty. You're so amazing. Thank you. I think you're gorgeous as well. My God, my head is not going to be able to fit through the door by the time I get off the phone with you.
00:22:21
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know that I have a beauty routine, really. I think just focusing, I think balance has a lot to do with it, maybe, as far as I noticed my skin cleared up, right? So when I was growing up, and even into my early 20s, I had like adult acne. And that started clearing up the more that I was eating more in alignment with my values, my personal values.
00:22:47
Speaker
So just eating a lot healthier and my, my, we sort of follow like the 80 20 rule at home because I feel like that's our good balance. That's what works for us. And I've gone through many, um, stages or seasons in my life where I've, you know, gone, uh, pretty close to like a hundred percent of like a whole food plant based, maybe 50% raw, you know, doing a lot of juicing.
00:23:13
Speaker
you know, doing some, um, Ayurvedic supplements and things like that to, you know, all the way to like going through a season where pretty much I was eating like Gardein, um, you know, prepackaged plant-based, uh, you know, processed foods and the man, you know, the vegan mayonnaise is in the vegan butter and things like that. I find right now at this season of my life is my husband and I, we love this 80 20, right? Where it's like 80% healthy whole foods.
00:23:43
Speaker
And the 20% we have to play with so we can go out and have that impossible burger every once in a while or have the vegan cake and brownie and cookie or whatever. So really not much of a beauty routine per se, but I think a lot of it just comes from putting the focus on wholesome food first.
00:24:03
Speaker
and then enjoying the occasional reward, whatever that reward looks like for you. For me, it's usually sweets or a big juicy vegan burger. Yeah.
00:24:18
Speaker
OK, well, you know what? You are amazing. Thank you so much for giving me your time and telling my community about your community.
Social Media and Encouragement
00:24:26
Speaker
That's how we cross pollinate. Yes. You know, if you could just share really quickly your social handles where people can find you. Yeah, thank you for asking. So I'm Stephanie Harder. I can be found at eating like you give a damn on Facebook and on Instagram.
00:24:45
Speaker
And a part of when you get her book, eating like you get, I'm sorry, the skinny one, eating like you give a damn, her book comes with a free bonus, which I love, which is the endless plant-based food guide that gives you a lot of family-friendly meals. They're not nasty. They're really good. You know, just it's another tool for you to consider because we're winding down the end of 2019. We're about to go into 2020.
00:25:13
Speaker
Some of us may have health and weight loss goals on our list of to-do. Why wait till 2020 when we can start practicing now? We have a little bit of time before the year ends. Start being healthy now. Don't wait till January 1 because we're not going to do it then either. Thank you, Stephanie. I really appreciate you. Thank you for calling in. Bri, you're amazing. Thank you so much for having me.
00:25:37
Speaker
Thank you. And guys, I'm Baroness Brie from Fabulous Fuckery. You can find me anywhere at Baroness Brie and at F-A-B Fuckery, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Twitch, and anywhere else you may find and listen to podcasts. Have a wonderful day.