How to Do Plant Based Eating 100% Shame Free with Dr. Yami Cazorla-Lancaster, DO, MPH

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Episode 54. This episode is truly one of my favorites. And that’s saying something, because I am incredibly jazzed about each and every one of my guests, truly. In this episode of Motivation Made Easy, I got to talk with Dr. Yami Cazorla-Lancaster, DO, MPH, MS, FAAP.

Interview Highlights and What to Expect:

Answers to the questions that I’ve been asking myself on and off for the past year: can an Intuitive Eating approach truly jive with a vegan or plant-based lifestyle? How can you know if it’s restrictive?
Dr. Yami’s take on food addiction, and I think you are going to be surprised and impressed with her answer
The sobering facts about the Standard American Diet and how you can use this information in an empowering and positive way
The crucial common myths about dairy and animal protein you must understand (from a pediatrician with decades of experience, who also has family who were dairy farmers)
What to make of information from other physicians who talk about things like “The Plant Paradox” and how to know who to trust? Her answer here was SO GOOD. Do not miss it.
Tips to move towards adding in more whole plant foods and reducing ultra processed foods in your diet today, without being restrictive or it feeling like a diet

Who Is Dr. Yami?

Dr. Yami is a board-certified pediatrician, certified lifestyle medicine physician, certified health and wellness coach, author, and speaker. As a passionate promoter of healthy lifestyles, “Dr. Yami” champions the power of plant-based diets for the prevention of chronic disease.

Dr. Yami is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a diplomate of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. She also holds a certificate in plant-based nutrition and is a certified Food for Life Instructor.

In 2013, Dr. Yami founded VeggieFitKids.com to educate families about the importance of making healthy food choices and show them how easy it can be – even with today’s busy schedules. In her podcast, Veggie Doctor Radio, she explores diet and nutrition, healthy habit formation, behavior change, and motivation. New episodes are released weekly, featuring leading experts in plant-based nutrition and healthy living.

Dr. Yami’s pediatric micropractice, Nourish Wellness, is located in Yakima, Washington, where she lives with her husband and two sons.

You can follow her on Instagram here.

She has an incredible amount of free resources about practical ways to increase plant-based eating here.

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Are You New Here?

Welcome! I’m so glad to have you. You might be wondering what this blog and podcast are all about.

We relate everything in this podcast back to motivation, but not the hustle and grind kind. We promote truly sustainable motivation that keeps you feeling energetic and engaged in your life for the long haul. We talk about why “I’m just not motivated” is a myth, and why the TYPE of motivation you have is so important to fully understand. If you are ready to learn about motivation and respecting your body in an effective way so that you can live a life you truly love, you are in the right place.

Check out the Foundational Episodes of the Motivation Made Easy Podcast here!

Introduction: What is this podcast all about?
Episode 1: Want to Get & Stay Motivated? A Crash Course on Motivation, Weight Loss, and Health
Episode 2: How Dieting Steals Our Motivation
Episode 3: How To Get Motivated To Improve Your Health (Motivation 101)
Episode 4: How to Transform Health Fears Into Forward Progress

Do you ever worry that you are wasting your life?

I definitely did. In fact, I wrote that in my journal many years ago when I was in the middle of the diet-binge roller coaster ride.

I woke up every day thinking about food, my body, and what I would eat that day to “be healthy”.
The notebooks I had filled with calories and points could fill up a spare bedroom.
Social events and vacations immediately prompted the thought “they will notice I gained weight” or “I need to lose weight by then”.
Deep down I knew I wasn’t living life the way I wanted to, but I didn’t know how to pull myself out of it.

If this is you, I want you to imagine what it would feel like to feel empowered in your body and proud of your choices on a consistent basis. I promise you, it isn’t too late.

Dieting steals our motivation. It makes us ineffective. It keeps us spinning our wheels in a system that was never built to work.

If you are ready take the first step to motivating yourself with what matters to you, download my free Create Powerful Motivation guide (which is quite beautifully designed if I do say so myself!), and walk through the 3 simple steps to create motivation that works for YOU in 15 minutes or less. You will get a simple formula to write ONE SENTENCE that you can use to motivate yourself on a daily basis.

You can write it on your bathroom mirror, put it on the background of your phone, or just read it and repeat it in your mind.

Look, I know how much it hurts to live a life worrying you are missing out, not stepping into the person you are truly meant to be: vibrant, passionate, curious, vulnerable, and brave.

You can listen to the podcast all day, but taking that first step, putting the pen to the paper (or typing on your phone) is required for true lasing change. It’s time to start living my friend.

It’s 100% free, so what are you waiting for? Grab your free copy of the guide today at DrHondorp.com/Motivate

Main Takeaways

Intuitive eating and food freedom are about freedom of choice and doing what feels best for YOU. Dr. Yami said it SO WELL in this episode. Only you know what your motivation is. If you are following a vegan or plant-based diet in secret hopes of shrinking your body, versus feeling better, reducing disease risk or just helping your body function optimally, it is probably going to feel restrictive. However, on the flip side, if you are doing it as an experiment, or just incorporating changes to help you feel great, then that doesn’t not mean you are “on a diet” or doing something “wrong.” Dr. Yami and I are both examples of getting fully off the chronic dieting roller coaster ride and making empowered choices, with varying degrees of plant-predominant eating.
There are sobering facts about the Standard American Diet and myths about dairy and animal protein that you deserve you know. I worked in the health and wellness field for many years before being exposed to the data on plant-predominant eating styles. I wish I would have known sooner. I don’t believe this information would have or has to influence your relationship with food and your body. Our family moves towards plant-based eating styles due to our known genetic mutation that increases our risk of cancer, but the reality is, many of us are at risk for chronic disease with the ways we are eating. There’s nothing to feel ashamed of in this, but there is a lot we do have in our control. And shrinking our bodies really has nothing to do with it. Changing our eating patterns, moving joyfully, managing our stress, and increasing connection with loved ones, just to name a few, are WAY more important, and we can feel empowered with this information.
They key is honesty – with yourself. The thing is, only you know how you feel about your eating pattern. Others can make suggestions, but following our intuitions and intuitive eating, to me means fully trusting yourself to take in outside information and incorporate it in a way that fits you.
You can learn to trust yourself, but it will take time. Trust builds over time. My guest last week, Stefanie Michele actually used the example of a severed friendship and how re-building trust in that will take time. Same goes for trusting your body, and yourself. You can and will be able to trust your food choices again, but it takes work, patience, and perseverance. And ironically, a whole lot of permission giving (aka “unconditional permission to eat” if you will).

Support Independent Bookstores Near You!

Did you know that if nothing slows their momentum, Amazon will have almost 80% of the book market by the end of 2025?

Look, I love the convenience of Amazon, but I’ve got a super cool way that you can support local bookstores and my blog and podcast simply by buying books like you already do! You can choose any bookstore on the list in the US and Canada (they plan to expand to other counties in the future) OR you can just let the donation get split between all stores. As of this recording, they have raised 15 million dollars for local bookstores. On my bookshop, you will see my absolute favorite books related to health and wellness, courage and vulnerability, and even my favorite fiction and kids books!

My recent favorite related to improving the quality of our lives was Digital Minimalism. Our family actually decided to do an optional screen free August to re-evaluate the role of screen time in our lives.

So if you believe in supporting local businesses, please consider buying your books through Bookshop from now on!

The Psychology of Wellness Bookshop Link.

Disclaimer: This blog and podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual professional advice or treatment, including medical or mental health advice. It does not constitute a provider patient relationship.

Disclosure: Using the Bookshop.org links in this post means that I would get an affiliate fee if you purchase from the online bookshop (this supports my business, and local bookstores too!).

Credit: This blog post was co-written and edited by Sarah Grace Rapoport, podcast and blog manager and Psychology of Wellness Intern, and Dr. Shawn Hondorp.