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Feeling your best during times like these can be a challenge on your mind, body and spirit. Here are a few simple tips we have been implementing into our routine that have been helping the days go smoother: 

• Mental health practices: ask yourself what makes you feel secure and grounded? It could be journaling, stepping outside into the fresh air, dancing like no one is watching, or practicing mindful meditation. Find what works for you and prioritize it! You deserve to take 15 minutes out of your day for yourself. 
• Get your greens: try your best to have something green in *most* of your meals. We know that 100% of daily meals is a challenge, so aim for 75%! It could be adding spinach to your smoothie, sautéing baby bokchoy or steaming some frozen broccoli. Raid the freezer section for your favourite versatile greens and add a handful into each meal, we promise it is easier than it sounds! 
• Get your vitamins: no surprise here! We encourage...

We’re thrilled to be the new owners of Veg Expo! 

Growing up in Vancouver was amazing. There was no better place in the country to transition to plant-based vegan living. But even here in Vancouver, we remember walking into grocery stores and wondering what to buy, what to eat, where to eat. But we did it. We journeyed together, with our families, including raising our kids plant based and are so happy to be a part of this amazing movement and community.

We want you to know that Veg Expo exists to support the plant-based small business community. We are so inspired to see all these businesses bring their amazing products, services, and messages to every Canadian.

And we are so excited to be a part of this: especially because so many of our friends and neighbours are asking questions about how to live their best life, how to care for our ailing planet, how to live with more compassion towards our animal friends, and how to regain their health and the health of those they...

You can't out train a bad diet.

Weight loss. Diet and exercise fads and books and supplements and exotic miracle cures – you name it – weight loss products are an enormous money-making industry. Some people look for an easy way to lose weight, and some people put in tremendous effort following one of the many restriction-based diets that remain popular.

The simplest way to understand weight gain versus weight loss is Calories in versus Calories out. People who want to lose weight essentially need to ensue they have what’s called a caloric deficit. This means that they are spending more calories (just living, exercising, etc.), than they are taking in in the form of food. While we’re on this topic, a helpful thing to know is that one pound of fat is around 3,500 calories, so in order to lose about a pound a week, you’d have to create a DEFICIT of about 3,500 calories per week, which would work out to about 500 calories a day. That might mean...

When you are away from home, sometimes you can feel stranded. You’ve committed to eating an optimal diet consisting of a variety of amazing plant foods and you have ditched the meat and dairy. You’ve gotten into a groove at home. You know how to stock your refrigerator and pantry, you know how to combine these foods and make them flavourful. You know how to shop, and you don’t bring in the things that you used to be addicted to and that used to make you feel lousy.

But you’re on vacation or on a business trip. It’s not just another outing from which you’ll be returning home on the same day. And you can only bring along so much from your own house.

How do you not give in to what’s around you and what’s being dangled in front of you? It’s that hurdle called convenience. Often what’s readily available simply does not jive with the choice we’ve already made.

Here are a few tips:

1. Go to the bulk-bin section of a...

“BUT WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR PROTEIN FROM?”

The first myth we need to squash is that plant foods are deficient in protein. We can get plenty of protein from legumes, which are the pod family of plants, such as beans, lentils, peas, and even peanuts. Even vegetables typically talked about as being starchy veggies, like broccoli, contain good amounts of protein.

Here's a quick list of Top 10 Vegan Protein Sources per 100g:

1. seitan 75g
2. hemp seeds 36.7g
3. peanuts 26g
4. pumpkin seeds 19g
5. almonds 21g
6. SUNFLOWER seeds 21g
7. tempeh 19g
8. lentils (cooked) 18g
9. cashews 18g
10. flax seeds 18g

There are twenty (20) amino acids that can make up a protein, but nine (9) of these are ones the body can’t make on its own and MUST get from food—that’s why these are called “essential amino acids.”

Animal protein has all nine amino acids, so people have charged vegans and vegetarians for eating sub-par or inferior protein because most plant proteins do not have all nine...