Ep 279 – What If Going Vegan Was Easier Than You Thought?

Going vegan can feel overwhelming at first, but it doesn’t have to mean changing everything overnight. Giacomo and Alice share practical advice for getting started, from simple food swaps and easy meal ideas to convenient vegan protein sources like tofu, soy curls, and seitan. They explain how to build confidence in the kitchen, find satisfying foods you enjoy, and avoid overcomplicating your nutrition.

They also discuss navigating family gatherings, eating out, and making the transition more sustainable by taking it one step at a time. Whether you’re considering going fully vegan or simply adding more plant-based meals to your routine, this episode offers approachable tips to help you get started without feeling overwhelmed.

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TRANSCRIPT

Giacomo (00:00)
Welcome back to another episode of Vegan Proteins Muscles by Brussels Radio. My name is Giacomo.

Coach Alice Robeson (00:05)
I’m Alice.

Giacomo (00:06)
the show. I don’t honestly

Coach Alice Robeson (00:07)
Okay.

Giacomo (00:08)
don’t know how Ben starts these things anymore because we used to say the episode number. I I got no idea. But you know what? I just finished recording a another episode with him, Alice, and I didn’t usually he waits for me to chime in and be like, all right, Jacqueline, fine. We’ll we’ll do some small talk. And I just let him go right into the what we were talking about without saying a single word. And then at the end he was kind of looking at me a little bit.

kinda dead in the face. I’m like, is it because we didn’t have any small talk, Ben? Were you waiting for me to to say something? He kinda looked at me and he didn’t say it, but he was like, Yeah.

Coach Alice Robeson (00:43)
Yeah,

yeah. Well small talk. Well, so we’re we’re like batch recording a ton of episodes for you guys right now. Like Ben just like came up with this really, really long list of podcast topics. And so we’ve like at least me, I’ve literally got this list here of just like podcast, podcast, podcast, like all the dates and times. So like the small talk might be a little bit less because it’s like we’re just gonna be chit-chatting all the time.

So you can only update each other, but so much, right? So some people may be happy about that and other people may not be as happy about that.

Giacomo (01:17)
I’m all for it. I love being a fly in the wall for people’s conversations. It’s one of my favorite things to do when I listen to my favorite podcasters. So hopefully y’all don’t find us boring. Mm-hmm.

Coach Alice Robeson (01:26)
Same. I’m really wanting that like

feeling like that human connectedness from the podcast. Like it feels like you’re just having a conversation with a friend. And so I think that that’s a really important part of people in our community and people who are curious about our community, potentially getting to know us a little bit more. especially because most people are o are working with one coach, and maybe they don’t have time to join the group calls, right? So this is a really great way to just

Like get to know a little bit, little pieces of everybody on the team. It’s good.

Giacomo (01:57)
I haven’t asked at all how Savannah Ellie am I getting it right? Sorry.

Coach Alice Robeson (02:02)
Elaine. Savannah Elaine.

I know it’s that’s okay. Well, so you think that you keep thinking Ellie because we we talked about how I’ve been buying Savannah Elaine is my new brand new newborn niece, guys. and I decided at some point that I was going to buy her pink elephants. So and I was like, mm I told Giacomo this and

I also told him that like the her middle name like kinda inspired that. But like I can’t remember exactly where Ellie comes is it is it gosh, is the is it the Flying House movie that has the Ellie with the elephants? I can’t remember. I can’t remember. but that’s where you got that from. But it’s Elaine. Yes, Savannah Elaine.

Giacomo (02:42)
You did say Ellie though at some point.

Coach Alice Robeson (02:44)
Well we talked about I was like, yeah, it’s in a movie somewhere. Like the Ellie is some character’s name. Oh gosh, man, if I knew you were gonna pin this on me, I would have looked it up before we started the podcast. Now I’m just looking dumb and uncultured. That’s okay. The important thing is, guys, I have a new niece and she’s almost on Saturday she will be three weeks old. And I am obsessed. And yes, I like buying her

pink elephant things. I’ve gotten her lots of onesies, lots of toys. I I went me and my friend went to go paint some pottery and I painted a little plate with like this baby elephant’s like sleeping. And so that’s on her bedroom wall and all kinds of things. So I’m kind of going a little nuts, but I’m allowed to. She’s my first niece, likely going to be my only niece and or nephew. So yeah.

Giacomo (03:33)
And we are going to a s Italian circus on Saturday with our niece and nephew. And I’m looking forward to that. And right now, my nephew and I are building a 600-ish piece robot. And I’m like, what did I just get myself into? But I when I commit to something that there’s no it it must be done. It’s like a thing that is just a part like that’s just the way that I am. I can’t once I say I’m gonna do something.

I do it. So we’re I think we’re on like piece twenty and I’m like, my gosh. my gosh. And like every little p they’re just all over the ’cause when I was a kid I used to build model cars,

Coach Alice Robeson (04:09)
Okay.

Giacomo (04:09)
right? With like glue and pieces and Dani was like, He likes animatronics and likes robots. I was like, Okay, so we’ll build a robot instead. So that’s been fun. Hm.

Coach Alice Robeson (04:16)
So it’s kind of I is this kind of like a

Lego robot that you’re looking at or and and the you mean Cirque du Soleil? You guys are going to like Cirque du Soleil this weekend? My questions.

Giacomo (04:27)
It’s not Lego, but it’s it’s Lego like, but it’s a little more engineered, like it’s got some moving parts. I don’t know. I I didn’t really build Legos. I think by the time Legos came out and I got them, I was a I was at that age as a kid where I was do want needing to having to do things on my own and my parents didn’t have time for me, so my Legos were just kinda like thrown all over the place in my room. So those those weren’t a thing for me as a kid. And it is Yeah, exactly. I remember.

and it was just a matter of like pick everything up and put it somewhere, but I didn’t actually play with Legos. But the what do you call it? The it’s a Cirque-Sole kind of thing, but we we’re getting a Nor’easter this weekend. I don’t know what that

Coach Alice Robeson (05:01)
Yeah, yeah.

Giacomo (05:02)
means. Dani was like, I hope the tent stays up. I don’t know. Well Yeah. And of course,

Coach Alice Robeson (05:05)
Tent? What tent? for the for the circus? okay. Yeah.

Giacomo (05:10)
being a vegan, I like already looking to all the concessions. I was like, what is gonna be there? Blah blah blah, and

spoiler, there’s like no options as is usual, so we’re probably gonna like

Coach Alice Robeson (05:18)
Popcorn with oil?

Giacomo (05:20)
what?

Coach Alice Robeson (05:20)
Popcorn with oil?

Giacomo (05:21)
Is popcorn a meal?

Coach Alice Robeson (05:22)
No, but that’s circus food.

Giacomo (05:24)
Could be. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Alright. Fine. But I don’t know. Usually we wind up like packing things, but sometimes I just get like I don’t know. Over the idea of needing to go somewhere and be prepared before I go out to eat or like go somewhere where there’s food. You know what mean? but then I guess like the

Coach Alice Robeson (05:42)
Mm. Yeah. I mean I I would bring something.

Giacomo (05:44)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yes.

Coach Alice Robeson (05:46)
I never leave the house without something. ‘Cause otherwise

I regret it.

Giacomo (05:51)
Yeah.

What are you eating before you go to the gym?

Coach Alice Robeson (05:53)
these days, usually I haven’t had enough carbs, so usually I just have like a little bowl of like store brand frosted flakes just to be like quick carbs, go to the gym. at least it’s not at least it’s not applesauce. Yeah.

Giacomo (06:09)
You like

what you like, right? So if for us it so some sort of like cornflakes are a thing for you pre workout.

Coach Alice Robeson (06:13)
Yeah, yeah, it’s just it’s just because, you know, y I need I’ve gotten to the I’ve reached the point in my training in my life where I need some good fuel. if I go to the gym without enough carbs, then I’m gonna regret it. Yeah. But I’m also just an overly prepared person. Like I’m people used to say that it was like very mom ish of me. I’m like, mm, it’s not because I’m trying to take care of everyone else. I’m actually just trying to take care of me.

and I’m just very generous in like offering up the help. So you’re just benefiting by my over preparedness. so yeah. Going to the going to the circus, I would probably have at least one meal and two snacks and a drink packed, at least.

Giacomo (06:52)
Okay. So what

you’re saying is that I need to make sure that you’re invited to the circus because I won’t go hungry.

Coach Alice Robeson (06:58)
Right, right. I do share, at least. But it’s coming from a

Giacomo (07:02)
gosh, fair enough.

Coach Alice Robeson (07:03)
place of selfishness and just taking care of myself, like, hmm, I’m gonna be hungry in about twenty minutes.

Giacomo (07:09)
Yeah,

I I guess that’s a benefit of being a vegan is that we’re the ones that get to share food. I mean this is what we wanna do anyway. I was thinking about like because it came to mind that because we had just finished doing an event, the other talks that we’ve done in the past, and we’ve literally done this same talk that we’re doing about to do an episode on right now here as we get into it, on how to well, the way that we framed it back then was because we haven’t done those talks in a while, but it’s like how to

Veganizers on your plate. Anything you could eat, I could eat vegan. But it’s based, it’s the same thing, like it’s the same thing. Like a plant-based diet is obviously, if you’re unfamiliar with it, how do you get started? And there’s like so many questions around that, and and the questions are non-stop. But rather than thinking about the questions about how to get started and ease your way into a plant-based diet instead of going all in, which most people don’t, what’s the first thing that comes to mind for you?

Coach Alice Robeson (07:59)
I mean, I I think just like the c the first thing that I that I wanna tell people is like, don’t try to veganize overnight, right? Is that what you were asking? because I find that when people try to veganize everything overnight that it’s very, you know, I think I think it’s very like all or mu nothing thinking, but I think we hold ourselves to a really, really high standard and

ends up not working out because you know we just make this really big life changing decision and we don’t really have like the research or the preparedness to be able to like feed ourselves adequately. So you know, it ends up being something that like just will lead to like, I don’t know what to eat. So then you’re like massively undereating calories.

and going hungry and then you may you try to maintain that for like the sake of being vegan, right? For this new ethical stance, which, you know, good good intentions, but you end up burning yourself because you’re just you’re you know, y you under eat for too long. Yeah, we’re gonna have some weight loss. It’s one of the biggest reasons why people experience weight loss when they first go vegan. and then it just sort of like continues to a point where it’s no longer it’s not like it

Well, it was never beneficial because you’re just severely under eating. You’re gonna feel sick, right? You’re just and then you’re gonna say, I can’t be vegan, you know, because it made me, it literally made me ill. It literally gave me a health issue. And it’s like, well, probably weren’t eating enough calories, probably weren’t eating enough nutritional variety. so my number one thing that I I talk to people even at the booth is like, don’t go vegan overnight. Like start with with you know, researching

w what swaps you can make. I actually like I have a whole section on this in my book, Athlete’s Guide to Go Vegan. like a whole like exercise, what people can do and like how to like slowly transition your household. So if you’re looking for something really in depth, that’s there. But I wanna but I just want to start out touching on that for sure. Like don’t do it overnight. Like what do you think of like some of the like biggest low hanging fruits that people could like swap right at first, Giacomo?

Giacomo (10:07)
Well, it’s interesting when you say to not do it overnight. I feel like that decision making comes from a moral and ethical place for some, or the dire need to improve their health if they have some sort of health marker that’s way off. Or worse, they’re trying to reverse a disease or prevent it from progressing. So I understand people’s reasons for doing that, right? But to your point, it’s

For something to stick, you need to ease your way into it. Even if you’re only even if you wind up only consuming a hundred percent plant-based diet and you make the switch, like it still makes sense to give yourself time for

to find a way to have recipes that you enjoy, meals that stick, et cetera, et cetera. Give you some give yourself some room for trial and error, whether you do it overnight or whether you transition into it. And then the whole easing your way into it and transitioning and not going vegan or vegan or plant-based overnight, the I feel like it it’s a a way to not judge yourself, right? Or put too much pressure on yourself to make a change that you want to make.

Right. You gotta do it a in a way that makes sense for you. So and so your question to me, Alice, is what kinds of foods or what kinds of I forgot. Hm.

Coach Alice Robeson (11:16)
Yeah, like do you

think like what are some of like the first what was the fur what would the first thing be that’d be the easiest thing that people could make a swap with?

You have like a hot list or anything like that.

Giacomo (11:27)
Well, step one, don’t do it like I did it.

Coach Alice Robeson (11:30)
Yeah.

Giacomo (11:31)
I used to have you know the light life gimme lean sausages?

Coach Alice Robeson (11:35)
Uh-huh.

Giacomo (11:36)
I used to take the giant thing as sausage and just just knife it and fork it and eat it. It was just I was a gross

Coach Alice Robeson (11:42)
You wouldn’t even cook

it? That’s not fair to light life.

Giacomo (11:45)
If I wanted to ch well

but I used to cook the tempeh, but I used to just grab the brick of tempeh, take it out of the package, smack it onto the frying pan and like put a little a little soy sauce in it with the soy sauce would burn at the bottom of the pan. I I don’t know why anybody works with us. I could you think of a more lazy process for a c I’m kidding. I’m kidding. Obviously it’s not like that anymore.

Coach Alice Robeson (12:08)
It’s very it’s a very

male like approach I think.

Giacomo (12:14)
In my defense,

I begged my mother to teach me how to cook and my dad was like, He doesn’t have to learn how to cook. I’m like, but I really want to learn how to cook. Like, could I get some like I wanted to. I know, I know, I know, but well. Eventually you learn. Sure.

Coach Alice Robeson (12:28)
Yeah. I mean, so I’d

say the the easiest thing that people could could make the swap with is milk.

Giacomo (12:36)
Go

ahead. Milk. Ooh. You know what?

Coach Alice Robeson (12:38)
Yeah. Because

Giacomo (12:40)
I soy milk, tell me if you agree or disagree. Soy milk if you like whole milk and almond milk if you like skim. Agree or disagree?

Coach Alice Robeson (12:47)
Yeah, I mean overall agree.

Giacomo (12:49)
Okay.

Coach Alice Robeson (12:49)
I think, you know, if you’re looking for to get more okay, if you’re a picky eater, how about that? If you’re a picky eater, then I say like try soy milk. And don’t I know, so a lot of people the other the other kind of I don’t want to say mistake that people make, but I it’s like I don’t really know a better word. Other the other biggest mistake people make when they first go vegan is of course we wanna be eating healthier, right?

and so they kind of start purchasing vegan alternatives and vegan options that are like ultra, ultra healthy. And then they’re like, vegan food is gross because they bought all of the completely unsweetened, completely unsalted, completely unflavored everything. And they’re just like, vegan food’s disgusting, and they don’t know how to cook it or prepare it or improve it themselves.

So for for if you are a picky eater or if you have kids or other picky eaters in your household, like I say first swap to original soy milk. So in the vegan world, if you guys aren’t familiar, there’s there’s original and original unsweet, and there’s vanilla and vanilla unsweet, right? and of course, like you’re thinking, let’s go to the unsweet one, but people don’t realize this.

Traditional dairy milk is very, very sweet. Very sweet, guys. So if you make that switch, and you you know you have you have good intentions, but chances are you’re not gonna like the milk. So like just original soy milk is probably going to be the closest thing, mouthfeel-wise, taste-wise, it’s gonna be the closest equivalent.

to to regular milk and the easiest like, you know, work your way up later. If if that’s your eventual goal to end up with unsweet like milks, like do that. But not right away, ’cause otherwise it could just be like, I’m I’m burning myself like I’m step one. Right? You have anything else

Giacomo (14:47)
Mm-hmm.

Coach Alice Robeson (14:47)
that’s like super easy like that, Jacob?

Giacomo (14:49)
Well I

well, I do think the way that you wrap your head around a plant based diet is helpful also because when you think a plant based diet, you say to yourself, Well, I had my my Greek yogurt in the morning or egg whites and I had my my lunch and it was maybe a chicken wrap or whatever and then I have my dinner and if I’m not ordering Chinese or going out and getting pizza like I want, maybe I have my my

People don’t really have steak out that often these days at dinner, like whatever, you get point, like pork or I don’t know, burger. And then you say to yourself, well, now it’s plant-based. And let’s say on top of that, all you’re doing it for health-based reasons, and you say to yourself, So how do I eat apples and berries and kale all day long? And am I

gonna be able to do this. And obviously that couldn’t be further from the truth. So the first, there’s two things and one of my thoughts slipped away. But the first thing that’s still there in the top of mind is look at what’s already on your plate that’s plant-based. And it and it gives you it gives you an easier buy-in to what you’re doing. Like, and if and if there’s not enough that’s on your plate that’s plant based, then are you eating enough nutrients? So in other words, there should be vegetables on your plate.

at least once a day, but preferably twice a day. There should be some sort of starchy carb, like a grain like a rice or or some sort of other grain or like whatever, like potato, squash and if on your plate one to two times a day. You know you want to be doing that if you’re eating healthy. And hey guess what? Spoiler, that’s already vegan. And then of course there’s the the more contentious thing as far as what’s on your plate, it’s it’s the meat. It’s the protein. It’s the whole reason why we started this company in the first place, Vegan proteins. Where do you get your protein, right?

And I think the path of least resistance, Alice, is to is to get the stuff that you could buy already pre made in the grocery store as opposed to like trying to make everything on your own. Not to say, I look, it’s super easy, right? As you know, I mean, how many recipes have you made and Dani made and all of us made and we have available with our membership and and also out there on YouTube for free for you to look at. But like I wouldn’t I wouldn’t start there if you right away. You know, I would I would go the safe route, like get some get some package stuff from the store and like

experiment a little bit, beefless ground, or chicken

Coach Alice Robeson (16:54)
Yeah.

Giacomo (16:55)
strips, or whatever. I think those are the two easy ones that are pretty pretty fast swaps. And as far as the cheeses go, like just there’s so many different types, textures, tastes, like experiment. Instead of saying, I don’t like vegan cheese ’cause I tried Violet, okay, well have you tried Deia, have you tried other kinds of cheese like like the more gourmet ones like tree lime for example or whatever.

Coach Alice Robeson (17:15)
Yeah.

So yeah, really you made so many good points right there and hopefully I can keep track of them all. but first of all, starting out, you’re talking about, okay, look at the stuff that’s on your plate that’s already vegan. So I like to think a lot of people when they are first thinking about going plant based, they they start trying to imagine how long the lists of food that they can’t have. Like all imagine this huge list of foods that

are now

gonna be off limits. Let’s not focus on that. And instead, like you make, you know, I like to have like a little flashcard or a little like sticky note to be like, actually, you know, if you’re a vegan, it’s not just about having vegetables. I want you to have vegetables, I want you to have fruits, I want you to have legumes, which is everything beans, lentils, right? I guess technically soy is included on there, right? Beans, lentils.

green beans, right? And also grains, like you said. So still pasta and breads are are in the mix, guys. And especially having like whole grains, really important to include too, but don’t feel like again we have to go for the ultra ultra healthy stuff. We want you to find the foods that you that you currently like, right? Whole grains, and nuts and seeds.

as well and that includes the things that we love like nut butters right it includes like if you aren’t already including you know chia seeds flax seeds walnuts your omega 3s hemp seeds right like try to think of like actually being a good vegan or good plant based eater means I’m including all of those things and then you can also sort of think about like protein as another category which of course we’re gonna get to but so

I l second thing you said about

Giacomo (19:02)
Mm-hmm.

Coach Alice Robeson (19:03)
leaning towards some pre-made foods, that’s a great, great tip. And it makes me think of my brother because I was just out visiting him in San Francisco and he’s out here now to meet our brand new niece. and we there’s a Trader Joe’s like within walking distance to his house in SF. And we walked out there and I was and I was like sort of semi-teasing him because

He’s still eating the same foods as when before he moved, which is like a lot of like the Trader Joe’s vegan meals and vegan foods. So Trader Joe’s has a lot of really friendly, like especially like Indian kind of like some microwave meals. and they have really, really probably the best deal on like best prices of tofu like out there. They’ve got several

really popular protein options that are mock meat wise, right? so those are great. And I guess I’d like to add to that some of the some of the food some of the meals that I recommend for brand new vegans that are just really easy, right? A PBJ.

Giacomo (20:07)
Mm-hmm.

Coach Alice Robeson (20:08)
A PBJ. A tofu sandwich, which you’re probably

Giacomo (20:11)
Love it.

Coach Alice Robeson (20:12)
probably not familiar with Tofurky yet if you’re brand new to the plant-based world, but

Tofurky hickory is where it’s at. Tofurky sandwich. a burrito bowl or almost anything Mexican because it’s there when you think about it, Mexican food is like almost all whole food. so and if you are, you know, not sure about vegan cheeses yet, we can talk about that in a little bit, but you could also just be like, hey, instead of vegan cheese, I’ll just do some avocado, right?

A bowl of chili or black bean soup or lentil soup, leaning on inspo from Sawyer, ramen, ramen, a lot of that is vegan, right? spaghetti marinara, avocado toast, and tofu scrambles. Those are some of the easiest

Giacomo (20:52)
That’s a pretty comprehensive list.

Coach Alice Robeson (20:54)
easiest meals that you could learn to make in two seconds. Two seconds, guys.

So there’s there’s a jump start guide. If you want to just make that into a list, along with the list of here are all the foods that I can be eating, right? And probably should be trying to include. And it feels like your world is a lot bigger, right? It doesn’t feel like the world of food get has just gotten a whole lot smaller.

Giacomo (21:19)
Yeah.

I do feel like it helps to find community too, because when you make a dietary change, people are confused, especially family. Right? And so it’s there’s gonna be some friction there in the beginning too. Like when you’re going out to eat with your family, or you’re going over and all of a sudden they don’t know what to make for you, or they don’t know

what to make of how you’re eating, for example, or what you bring over. Right. So what are what are your thoughts on on those kinds of scenarios, like when you’re with family and and this is all brand new for them?

Coach Alice Robeson (21:52)
Yeah, you know, you may not be ready to have a big ethical conversation about it, and and that’s fine. You know, I try to leave it at, you know, here’s my reason for making the decision, you know, yeah, I decided to go vegan, for the animals. I you know, I I no longer want to partake in in, you know, eating animals. I don’t feel like animals have to, you know, die for for my meals. And don’t, you know, you don’t have to like give a whole lot of

of like backstory. I would say like, you know, just me maybe you could transition the topic to be like, yeah, so I brought some of some of my own food today. I just brought a little vegan version of, you know, hopefully I like to ask what my family is going to make for for like holidays and stuff. Even so my family, we’re very close. We get together for every little holiday and big holiday. And so I always ask like what is the entire menu?

And I bring things that are vegan versions of what they’re having. And a lot of times that sparks a lot of curiosity and they’re like, can I try that? And so like when you shift the tr the the the conversation to, look, yeah, I brought my own food, so the pressure’s off of you, a lot of times they’re like, can I have a bite of that? And it actually like leads to really positive,

positive conversation and it’s also I’d say probably my family’s biggest way of showing support for me as a vegan. I was very lucky because my brother went vegan first when when he he was vegetarian in high school, was vegan as the day he graduated high school. so a lot of the difficult conversation, the most difficult parts of it, like he paved the way, right? but

that I’d say that’s the biggest way that they support me. They try my vegan food whenever I bring it. and they try to make a couple of things that are like non-meat dishes vegan for me. It’s usually one or two things, right? at Thanksgiving, the sweet potato casserole they make for me vegan. if they’re having if they’re having some kind of veggie, of course, they’ll make sure not to add butter, right?

So things like that, things like that. And they usually try to find a vegan like biscuit, because my my family’s all about they always have to have bread when we’re celebrating. It’s like you gotta have actual bread with with butter and jelly, right? So little things, little things. That’s that’s how I approach it. What about you?

Giacomo (24:09)
Well,

to and another thing I want to add into the mix is use it as an opportunity to go out and eat at different kinds of restaurants that you normally wouldn’t go out to eat at. It does they don’t have to be although they could definitely be vegan restaurants, but you may not have access to many vegan restaurants and like you mentioned earlier, I think you said Indian, right? Yeah.

Coach Alice Robeson (24:28)
Yeah, in Indian

food, Indian, Mexican, any kind of Asian food,

Giacomo (24:33)
Mm-hmm.

Coach Alice Robeson (24:34)
it’s usually very easy to find vegan options there and a lot of those restaurants also have tofu. Mexican restaurants a lot of times, at least here on the East Coast, will have soy meat, as they call it, here in the south.

Giacomo (24:48)
Yeah.

Some Mediterranean restaurants like Greek, for example, and Lebanese, they can be a little more mm-hmm, exactly.

Coach Alice Robeson (24:53)
Falafel. Mm-hmm.

Giacomo (24:55)
And then Ethiopian, maybe a little harder to find, but also an option. And then what was the other one I was just thinking? I spaced on it, Alice. But you know, there there

Coach Alice Robeson (25:04)
Are we thinking Italian?

Giacomo (25:05)
are no Italian’s kind of difficult, honestly.

Coach Alice Robeson (25:08)
It can be, especially

in the south, because in the s actually so real Italians they don’t

Giacomo (25:12)
Yeah.

Coach Alice Robeson (25:12)
want cheese added to like their sauces and stuff. But here in the south, there’s cheese secretly added to everything. So you gotta be really careful.

Giacomo (25:19)
Okay, got it, got it. Yeah, but I mean there like there are so many different things that you wouldn’t normally go out and enjoy and explore. And as far as family goes, well, on a personal level, I’m pretty fortunate because my mom just loves to cook. So she saw it as a opportunity to challenge herself to see what she can make that’s

Coach Alice Robeson (25:36)
yeah.

Giacomo (25:37)
vegan but also will go over well with everyone. But at this point, many years into it, we we typically have like a half vegan spread and a half non-vegan spread on the table.

And they’re both equally as good and and usually the non vegans stick to the non vegan stuff and the and the the the vegans and vegetarians in my family stick to the vegan stuff. But

Coach Alice Robeson (25:57)
Mm-hmm.

Giacomo (25:58)
but there is some crossover too. Like there are some dishes that are interchangeable. So it’s not really but in the beginning, I don’t think my family knew what to do with me and they didn’t know how

Coach Alice Robeson (26:06)
Yeah. I think that’s normal.

Giacomo (26:08)
to Yeah, exactly. So it’s just it there’s it takes a little bit of time and I would like you, I would make stuff for my family and

Like you, my family is big and supportive and likes to get together and and whatnot. So they would be open to the idea of it. But it took a little bit of time for me to get to the the tempeh on a pot to like a wonderful charcuterie reward that everyone wanted to dig into. So in the beginning it was a little bit of a harder sale. Fortunately, it’s no longer the year 2000. We’re in what, 2025 and then some now. So there are so many options. There’s so many.

Places you can go to for support, for community, for recipes, to ask questions. Obviously that’s what we do here. So seek out support. I mean, you and you could even just experiment with something as simple as, let me try, let me try the meal plan and do like a meal prep for a week. That’s 100% plant-based. Not

Coach Alice Robeson (26:57)
Yeah.

Giacomo (26:57)
necessarily with the intention on doing that week after week, but like give it a go for a week and see what happens. And then you’ll wind up having like more.

staples that are plant-based in your pantry and and and you’ll also have the confidence that hey I did this and I can do it again and then you

Coach Alice Robeson (27:13)
Mm.

Giacomo (27:14)
can start thinking about like what things you liked, what things you want to branch out and and try that you haven’t tried yet, et cetera, et cetera. Which again is a really nice way to do it instead of just trying to go cold toe firky all at once.

Coach Alice Robeson (27:28)
Yeah, for sure. And again, I have I have this all like written down in my book, like a whole like exercise to help you like make some lists and make a transition plan. But you know, similar like talking about so like the vegan meal prep for the week. you know, I would say sit down and like honestly reflect and write down the list of like meals and snacks that you ate within the past two to three weeks.

You know, and try to think about things that like you actually ate, not the way that you want to be eating once you are fully vegan and you have achieved a a level of eating that is more healthful, right? I want you to do I want you to be successful. I want you to be successful in being able to go vegan and stick with it, right? So writing down that list, including things like what are some of the things that you ate when you were just like

starving and had no time, right? What is the thing that you like grab from the refrigerator real quick or the pantry? and what are the things also that you cook when you do have time? Like what are the things that are in your standard rotation that you actually ate recently? your standard breakfast, your standard lunch, your standard dinners, like really, really, really what you’re eating. And then you can start to think like, all right, what can I start to work on?

you know, ch making vegan. Some of the things might already be vegan, like if you’re like all that list that I that I gave you, right? it could be like, you know what, I eat a lot of Mexican already. So I can very easily just like, bam, instantly have vegan burrito bowls, right? and some of them it’s like, okay, well, you know, I like maybe boxed mac and cheese or something, right? That’s definitely like something that’s big in my family is mac and cheese, right?

and so it’s like, do I you know, f if it’s if it’s literally the boxed, there are these amazing box mac mac and cheeses already for sale in your Whole Foods, in Micro Ogre, right, in whatever vegan friendly grocery store you have. but you could also look at like, do I wanna make this from s from scratch, right? ’cause it’s actually pretty easy making like scratch vegan mac, right? Scratch any mac and cheese.

And just like one by one, like focusing on one meal at a time, one snack at a time. And this will let you slowly make that change in a way that is comfortable for you and familiar to you. And you won’t end up with a plate of just vegetables and being like starving and feeling like you’re missing out and hating your life. Cause I don’t want you to under eat. That’s that’s my biggest thing, ’cause I that’s

Again, that’s the biggest challenge that most people face when they’re first going vegan.

Giacomo (30:08)
Yeah, and you can look at the recipe making as something that’s enjoyable and a way to get more comfortable in the kitchen. I became a cook when I went plant-based because I had a need to. And now I love making all kinds of wonderful things. With three simple ingredients, I could make my own vegan chicken in five minutes, for example.

with two to three simple ingredients. I can make my own cheese sauce, for example. It’s and also I don’t have to look at what’s on my plate as a health pro yeah, as a as a project, like a a health science fair project. Like, I need the thing on my plate that is protein and it needs to be meat and it’s gonna be pure protein. Like, hello. What you have together on your plate, like

It comes together organically. Yeah, put an overt protein on your plate. Put something that’s gonna beef up the protein and make sure that you’re getting in what, 20, 30, 40 grams in in a nice meal, like post-workout meal or whatever. But it doesn’t have to be the fava bean tofu that’s zero carb, zero fat, 40 protein. Like you can have some chick some chickpeas in there and some quinoa, and then all of a sudden you turn around and that’s a third of your plate, and now you already have 15 grams of protein on your plate. And now you throw some dark.

Green leafies on your plate, like I don’t know, spinach or kale or whatever. Maybe you have a sal a salad on the side. And there’s another, and maybe put a little bit of nutritional yeast on it to like make give it some sort of nutty cheesy texture. Now you have another five, seven grams of protein. And now you have maybe a piece of seitan or whatever. Or maybe you don’t even need to put an overt protein in your plate because you already got like the 20 plus grams of protein. So it’s like you can get out of that mindset of I need everything on my plate to be

just so for for health-based reasons because you’re getting protein from a variety of sources because you’re getting nutrients in. Because I mean honestly, if you put if you put a slab of meat on your plate, what are you getting out of it besides protein? And the risks that come with said piece of meat, the dietary cholesterol and God knows how that thing was processed, right? Instead, you could put something on your plate that’s healthy for you, easy to digest, is nutritious as well, right?

And you can get your protein from other sources as well.

Coach Alice Robeson (32:14)
Yeah. Proteins. So, you know,

Giacomo (32:16)
Mm, mm-hmm.

Coach Alice Robeson (32:17)
as I’m ta as we’re like talking about, okay, with things to write down on your little like cheat sheet that you maybe have on your fridge or something. talking about some of the easiest proteins to work with. the probably the hardest thing I’d say for people is to learn how they like to eat tofu. There’s so many different recipes available. I recommend that you start working on trying tofu early on.

and if you try one recipe and you don’t like it, do not give up. Because tofu is one of the most versatile foods. When it when you purchase tofu, usually it’s completely unseasoned. Right? So that’s the like opening up a pack of tofu and just being like eating it like like Giacomo sometimes talks about doing, is basically like the equivalent to like yeah, you would have it you would have a cooked chicken breast, right? But

Putting zero salt, zero pepper, zero seasonings whatsoever on it. Guess what? It’s gonna be pretty freaking gross. Okay? Zero oil, like no seasonings. Okay? So you have to learn how to cook it, right? super firm tofu, extra firm tofu. you know, I would work with those first, doing a simple, like air-fried, like s slightly, lightly breaded like recipe. And then really.

The secret to making tofu like taste good like from day one is tossing it in a light sauce after you’ve cooked it, right? So something that you already know that you like. Like hoisin sauce is a great example. Most hoisin. I think almost all hoisin is vegan, right? By default. And there’s plenty of other there’s plenty of other options, but like easy peasy. You you toss that in your favorite sauce.

Throw it on a bed of vegetables, maybe have it with some sweet potato or with some rice, and you have this amazing, like well-rounded bro meal. Something a

Giacomo (34:01)
Yeah, yeah.

Coach Alice Robeson (34:02)
vegan bodybuilder would eat, right? so start experimenting with tofu recipes like early, early on. Again, Trader Joe’s is a great place to get it like dirt cheap. some of my other favorites that are really, really easy. soy curls from Butler’s brand.

You have to you do have to order them, but my gosh. They come dehydrated. they’re super super quick and easy to whip up. In my opinion, they are hands down the best swap, taste-wise and mouthfeel-wise, to like a pulled chicken, right? and it’s

Giacomo (34:34)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Coach Alice Robeson (34:34)
also one of the only rec like highly recommended mock meats from Dr. Greger, by the way. He is partial to soy curls. He likes that they are one ingredient.

some other ones that my clients love, daring chicken. Especially, you know, if you’re looking for something that doesn’t have a whole lot of calories, get the one in the green bag that has no breading, right? the tofu, right? That’s great. Abbott’s brand, very clean, very easy to find, very accessible for a lot of people. Morningstar Farms has a lot of really good products.

That I love the chicken strips, chicken strips, the the breakfast patties, the steakhouse style burgers. These are these are all like really, really good things to to add into your rotation. and then you know I can’t recommend enough like trying to make your own seitan. because seitan, in my opinion, is the best thing about being vegan. Like I was not a huge like meat eater as a child.

but as as an adult, like I had a fair amount before I went vegan, right?

Giacomo (35:36)
Mm-hmm.

Coach Alice Robeson (35:37)
and so I actually like seitan, which the this is the main like type of vegan mock meat, way better than than I ever enjoyed meat. It’s interesting because it’s made from gluten protein. So it’s that’s a little bit more like bread like, but you can make it into a consistency that is like meat.

And my gosh, that stuff is just heaven. I make my own seitan as a weekly meal prep thing every single week. And I’m very unhappy if I don’t have my homemade seitan. We have tons of recipes of making proteins. Yeah.

Giacomo (36:09)
It’s so versatile too. Yes. Yeah. No,

I like how you can make it into deli slices, you can make it into meat stock, like little chunks of meat. You can do all kinds of things with and you can flavor it up all kinds of different ways too. And you can make it suit melt super fast, or you can make a recipe that takes a long time. Like yeah, I mean it’s just such a versatile

plant-based protein to work with. And yes, I agree. It’s very, very chewy. And it’s just simple. It’s just something that’s simple and easy to enjoy. I like all the options that you suggested too that are easy to find, the the package stuff. Yeah. And of course there are the your other creature comforts that you may have already been enjoying that were not plant-based and you could switch from like whey to like a plant-based protein blend that has the exact same amino acid profile, actually.

So that’s pretty cool. And there are different kinds of protein bars. I like Nugo Slims personally, but I also like builder bars, for example, and there are many other ones that are out there. And then you could buy protein based cereals, like a premier protein cereal or whatever, and you can have that for breakfast. So and there there are high protein yogurts as well. yeah, pastas. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. yeah. Yeah.

Coach Alice Robeson (37:17)
Pastas. Any pastas. I recommend

the Barilla Protein Plus and the Explore Red Lentil. Those are my top two contenders of the the plant-based protein, protein pasta stuff.

Giacomo (37:35)
Maybe

throw like some Garden Meatballs in there or beyond meatballs or something like that.

Coach Alice Robeson (37:38)
Yeah. Gardein

is also really, really a great brand, and very easy to find. you know, if you’re a picky eater, you know, start out with the black bag Gardein products if you’re really trying to lose weight, and then I would say look for the white bag products. They’re a little bit more macro friendly, but like the the black bag products are like what’s meant to be like really, really tasty, right?

Giacomo (38:02)
Gotcha. I’ve been enjoying ordering from Beyond Test Kitchen, their

Coach Alice Robeson (38:07)
Mm.

Giacomo (38:07)
store, Beyond Test Kitchen dot com. And because they brought back the chicken strips that are

much more macro

Coach Alice Robeson (38:13)
Mm-hmm.

Giacomo (38:13)
filling. They’re really good. They remind me of dairy chicken, for example, like a similar like taste and texture. They over really well. And when you order from them on their site, it’s like the same price as what you would pay in this in at a grocery store, which I think is pretty cool.

Yeah, they got tons of options there too. So I mean there are options all over the place, in person, online, et cetera, et cetera. when it comes to proteins, there’s no shortage whatsoever.

Coach Alice Robeson (38:37)
And if you are someone who has never liked meat and are kind of like, I don’t know if I believe you, Alice, about seitan being that much tastier than regular meat, trust me it is. but you can also use vital wheat gluten, which is the main ingredient in seitan, to mix it with different flours and create all the protein baked goods your heart desires.

Protein pancakes, protein bread, protein bagels, whatever it can be made with a flour can be made high protein with vital wheat gluten. And it is heaven. It is heaven if you are a girl who loves girl dinner. I’m sorry. And we’ve got a lot of those recipes too in the vegan proteins recipe library. So definitely check those out. anything else for protein?

Giacomo (39:25)
Yeah. We’re talking

a lot about tips and ideas for foods. We’ve talked about different meals to prepare and whatnot. we’ve touched upon some like scenarios of different kinds of things that you might be facing when making a dietary shift, going out to eat, family. What are we missing? What have we hit yet, Alice?

Coach Alice Robeson (39:44)
Can I just want to talk a little bit about like a more about not feeling the pressure to go vegan overnight? because it took me a long time to really be like solidly 100% comfortably vegan. I tried so hard to go vegan overnight. And at that time I was in a relationship with someone who was not interested in going vegan, who also had two children who were very picky eaters.

also not interested in going vegan. and it was so hard and so challenging. and that’s why it took me so long to really, really like get to a point where it’s like, all right, I got this. So I wanna encourage people, like not only like, you know, no vegans are asking you to go and throw away all your non vegan food right now. Right. It’s okay, like

So a lot of there’s a big thing in the vegan community about like, you know, once you’ve pr obviously now we’re all like, ooh, eating dead bodies is gross, right? But when we think about this on a big scale too, like you’ve already purchased these foods. So a lot of there’s a lot of people that talk about how like the damage has already been done when you spent the money, right? on these meats and dairy products, right? So

Arguably just throwing them away is just creating more waste and are adding to an already like terrible habit that we have as a country of just being this throwaway society, having having too much excess going into the trash, right? So as you are, you know, trying to make this transition into going vegan, like I would encourage you as you’re exploring and finding the recipes, like finish off what you have. Finish off what you have.

And that way you’re gonna be even more like solidly pffff like ready to go, right? And you’re and you won’t have this risk of of not ha knowing what to eat, not you know, under eating protein, getting any kind of like just nutritional deficiencies because you’re just you don’t know what to eat, right? This isn’t the fault of veganism, it’s just not understanding the nutrition of veganism, not understanding

what is at or like what you can eat and can’t eat, right? so

Giacomo (42:01)
Mm-hmm.

Coach Alice Robeson (42:02)
I like I like to clear that up and don’t feel bad as you’re as you’re making this like responsible transition. A lot of us also don’t have the money to just go out and be like, I’m gonna throw away everything and that’s not vegan in my pantry and my refrigerator, or even donate it and then just go out in this huge shopping spree, replace everything in my house, right? So there’s lots of layers to this.

and also there’s there’s never gonna be any vegan police coming to knock on your door and be like, hey, you’re not you’re trying to call you out for not being vegan, like throughout this process. If anything, like anyone who has been vegan for a significant amount of time is gonna be like, No, what you’re doing is great and encouraging and positive, right? They’re not going to look for holes in your non-perfect vegan world right now.

And this includes things not just with your food, because some some of you are listening to this and thinking, how can I transition into just being plant-based eating? But if you’re thinking about the whole vegan scope, no vegans are asking you to throw away all your non-vegan household items, right? We’re not asking you to throw away your coats and your boots, all your leather, all your bedding, all your furniture. We’re not asking you to go out and buy a new car because your car seats are made of leather.

Right, we’re talking like most vegans are going to be using these products through the end of their natural lifespan. And then when it comes time to actually replace these things, all right, now I have an opportunity to do some research and figure out how I can make the best purchasing decision that I can for the animals, for the environment, because some of these things, too, it’s not always going to be a perfectly vegan option, right?

So I just want to shed light on that and comfort you and just encourage you to take your time and not overwhelm yourself because it’s a big world. It’s a big world that you’re stepping into.

Giacomo (44:03)
Yeah, very, very true. I don’t know that I have anything to add to that actually. should we wrap it up here? Do you have any parting thoughts?

Coach Alice Robeson (44:10)
I think I think that’s it. I think I think it was really

Giacomo (44:12)
Yeah.

Coach Alice Robeson (44:13)
scary, you know, going ’cause I went vegan. I the only person I knew was my brother. And it’s great that I had my brother, but I lived in Virginia and he lived in San Francisco. So

Giacomo (44:23)
Mm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Coach Alice Robeson (44:25)
beyond, you know, asking for some basic tips, I feel like I mostly went vegan alone.

You know, I didn’t have any friends

Giacomo (44:32)
Yeah, I get it.

Coach Alice Robeson (44:34)
or s support or community. So

I just wanna impart as much wisdom as I can.

Giacomo (44:40)
Yeah. personally I just spray painted my my sh sheep fur black and I just walked away a little bit and then I came back like it’s still me. But yeah

Coach Alice Robeson (44:50)
Ha ha

Giacomo (44:51)
it it takes time and sometimes you have to go on your own path for a little bit and then eventually people come around and the universe gives you back what you put out. It just takes a little bit of time.

Coach Alice Robeson (44:59)
And again, like if you need a whole transition guide, I’ve got a guide in my book, how to transition your pantry, how to transition your household, lists of recommended products that I’ve personally used. so it’s very I try to be very, very in-depth. So if you want a step-by-step guide to really help you like feel confident in this journey, please check out my book on the vegan proteins website, Athlete’s Guide to Go Vegan.

Giacomo (45:23)
I’m I’m tempted to let you wrap it up, but you said, hey Giacomo, you finish up so we could do it together. That’s okay. Well, I had a whole

Coach Alice Robeson (45:28)
I am not confident in doing the intro and the outro. I’d hate that.

Giacomo (45:34)
thing scripted for intro and outro, and then Ben came and took over the whole dang podcast, and now he’s just mixing up, and I don’t know which way is up or down anymore, Alice. So I’m good. It doesn’t even matter. I missed the old days. It’s funny, one of our listeners was telling.

reminding me of when we used to have Biff Naked’s we had gotten Biff Naked’s permission to use her her song in the beginning and we used to we used to plug it in the beginning and then at the end we had a cow moving at the end of ours. It was like this whole intro outro soundbite thing and he was like, You should bring that back. It’s like for like like an old school kind of thing. I was like, Yeah, I totally forgot about it. But if you l listen to some of our earlier episodes, they were they were a little more consist they were super consistent with like

Sound bites that we had in beginning and the end. But it’s all good. Maybe, maybe, maybe I’ll I’ll do a moo at the end of this one just for that one listener. If he knows, if he’s listening right now, he probably knows who he is. Anyways, thank you so much for tuning in, everyone, to another episode of Vegan Proteins Muscles by Brussels Radio. You are the reason why we do this. I hope that you enjoyed this episode. If you have any questions, comments, feedback, please email coach at vegan.

Proteins.com or to make it even easier, hit the contact button on vegan proteins if you’re interested in one-on-one coaching. That’s what we do. We’ve been doing it longer than anyone else for 18 plus years over here. There’s five of us. We’d love to have a conversation with you. I’ll get back to you in under a day and we’ll find out and learn more about what you’re looking to do, and we’ll help you if ease your way into a plant-based diet or improve what you’re already doing with a 100% plant-based diet. And there’s so much more here. I could just keep going. But

I will stop and leave it there for now. Once again, my name is Giacomo.

Coach Alice Robeson (47:10)
I’m Alice.

Giacomo (47:11)
And we’ll talk to you soon. Bye everybody.