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The Plant Powered Collective Podcast helps women in their 40s, 50s, and beyond live vibrantly and nourish boldly. Hosted by integrative nutrition coach Lori Willinski, each episode blends science-backed nutrition with approachable strategies for hormone balance, energy, and healthy aging. Rooted in lifestyle medicine and personalized coaching, Lori shares her story of thriving on plants since age 14 and managing autoimmune disease with nutrition. Discover how a plant powered lifestyle fuels not only your health, but also your leadership and your future self.
If your energy has been inconsistent, if you are feeling more inflamed than usual, or if you have noticed brain fog creeping in, I want you to hear this. It may not be your schedule. It may not be your stress. It may be your gut. My name is Lori Walinski and I am the founder and integrative nutrition coach for The Plant Powered Collective.
Speaker 1:Today we are going to simplify what gut health really means and how one intentional shift can change how we feel, think and show up every day. And I'm also sharing something new I created for you to help you actually do it. Let's dive into the podcast.
Speaker 2:There are moments, even when we know
Speaker 1:what to do, when our body reminds us that knowing is not the same as living it. And recently, I had one of those moments. Over the last few weeks, I started noticing subtle shifts. Nothing dramatic. Nothing that would stop me in my tracks, but enough.
Speaker 1:I felt more inflamed than usual. My energy was crashing in the afternoon, and the one that always gets my attention was brain fog. That feeling where we are showing up, leading, making decisions, moving through
Speaker 2:our day, but we're not as clear, not as sharp, not as steady as we know we can be.
Speaker 1:And this is how I felt. And starting a business with a lot riding on the business, brain fog is not my friend right now. And if you are a professional woman in midlife like me, you may know this feeling. We do not have the luxury of not feeling well. People rely on us.
Speaker 1:We rely on us. We have built lives that require us to show up. Show up for our family, show up for the teams we manage, show up for our community, show up for the people in spaces and things that are important to us.
Speaker 2:But listen. Those symptoms of inflammation, energy crashing, and brain fog, they're not random. They are signals.
Speaker 1:So I want to let you in on something, even as an integrative nutritionist. Even living this lifestyle for as long as I have for more than forty years, I needed the reminder. Gut health is not something we can fix once. It is something we support consistently. It is habit driven.
Speaker 1:And when things feel off, the answer is not doing more. It is coming back to the foundation. For me, that foundation note is always the same, plant diversity. And that is exactly why I created something new. This is the first challenge inside the Plant Powered Collective community, and I am sharing it with you first.
Speaker 1:The challenge is called 30 Plants Challenge and is designed to help us support our gut in a
Speaker 2:way that is simple, realistic, and fits into exactly how we live. Let me explain this clearly.
Speaker 1:The Plant Powered Collective Community is a space where we can come together. And that word collective, when I was building this business, collective was a word that I chose intentionally because it is a collective of people. It's a collective of habits. It's a collective of intentions. It's a collective of things that we do every day.
Speaker 2:All coming together so we can be healthier as we age. It is not about doing this alone. This is about doing this together. Inside the community, we share ideas, learn from each other, build sustainable habits, and support one another. And it's a place for us also to be vulnerable together.
Speaker 2:And right now,
Speaker 1:to join is completely free. When you join, you get my gut health guide, you can start the 30 Plants Challenge, and you become part of something that supports you. And you can join anytime for free between now and May 4. Before we talk about how to do this, let's ground ourselves in why this matters. Our gut is not just about digestion, it is our foundation.
Speaker 1:Our gut houses about 70% of our immune system. And about 90% of serotonin, our mood regulating hormone, is produced there too. So when we feel low energy, foggy, inflamed, and just off, our gut is often involved. A healthy gut supports energy, mood, hormones, skin, immunity, and mental clarity. Those afternoon crashes, the brain fog, the inflammation I've been feeling, they are all connected, and I know this.
Speaker 2:And even though I know this, I didn't do it. I wasn't consistent, and my gut has been affected because of it. So this
Speaker 1:is where being part of
Speaker 2:the collective matters, because most of us do not need more information. We need simplicity and structure and support. When we
Speaker 1:are part of something, we stay more consistent. We feel less alone. We stay engaged, and that is where change actually happens. Let's make this simple. When we eat more plant variety, three important things happen.
Speaker 1:Number one, we feed our gut bacteria. Prebiotic fiber from plants fuel the good bacteria in our gut. Number two: We reduce inflammation. Plants contain polyphenols that our gut turns into anti inflammatory compounds. Number three: We support our entire body
Speaker 2:protective benefits. And here is the key. Different plants do different things.
Speaker 1:So the goal is not perfection.
Speaker 2:The goal is variety. And that is why 30 plants matter. And this is what makes this doable. Plants include vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices. Yes, even spices count.
Speaker 2:So this is not about overhauling everything. It is about expanding what we are already doing. So let's make this practical. I want to share what I did last night to increase the plans in my dinner. So last night,
Speaker 1:I was going to have, baked tofu, crispy smashed potatoes, and kale. Simple dinner. And here's what I did
Speaker 2:to add more plants to that. So with the tofu,
Speaker 1:I breaded it with whole grains with a quinoa flour. In the quinoa flour, I added za'atar, which is
Speaker 2:Middle Eastern spice that is just delicious, and also some smoked paprika. I put that I breaded the tofu, put it
Speaker 1:in the oven, and baked it with the potatoes. I boiled the potatoes first. In the water with the potatoes, I added quite a
Speaker 2:bit of salt, and believe it
Speaker 1:or not, baking soda. What that does is it brings the the the carbohydrate out of the potatoes, and it almost, like, coats the potatoes a little bit. Then put them on
Speaker 2:a baking sheet, pounded them, smashed them, put a little
Speaker 1:bit of nutritional yeast on the potatoes, crisp them up in the oven so that they were nice and crispy. And then I topped the potatoes with tarragon, fresh tarragon, by the
Speaker 2:way, and fresh thyme. And with the kale, that was super simple. I simply sauteed some garlic, added the kale into a pan, sauteed the kale. So
Speaker 1:I'm just gonna pause for
Speaker 2:a moment and count how many plants that was. So we have the tofu, the quinoa flour, the za'atar, the smoked paprika, the potatoes,
Speaker 1:the nutritional yeast, which, by the way, gives the potatoes almost like a little bit of a cheesy flavor, and it's plant based. The fresh tarragon, the fresh thyme,
Speaker 2:the kale, and the garlic. So in all, 10 plants in that one simple meal.
Speaker 1:One third of what I needed for the
Speaker 2:whole week in that one meal. So it's not about overhauling everything. It's just about expanding what we're already doing. I was already going to make baked tofu, crispy potatoes, and
Speaker 1:a sauteed kale. And I just added a few little things to it and to those items. And number one, they were way more delicious than they would have been.
Speaker 2:And number two, I have fed my gut some amazing food and plants that will just feed all the good bacteria in my gut. So I hope that that just gives you an idea about how simple it is and how it can be structured in such a way that makes it super doable. So I wanna talk about the health guide a little bit. Inside the community, the Plant Powered Collective community, you will also get my gut health guide.
Speaker 1:And it walks you through understanding your gut, a little bit of science y stuff because, you know, I'm a little bit of
Speaker 2:a science nerd. Not overly done, but enough that you can get a high level understanding of your gut. Assessing where you are, there's an assessment.
Speaker 1:There's an there's also a goal setting
Speaker 2:work worksheet in there as well. And then for me, one of the most helpful things is there is a list of all of the vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, spices, and herbs, and nuts and seeds, which makes it super easy
Speaker 1:to say, oh, yeah. I can add some tarragon to those crispy sweet potatoes. And not only will they taste more delicious, but it's another, you know, another plant. And to be honest with you, talking about tarragon, I had forgotten about that herb for some reason even though I love it. But I was at the store the other day and after making the lists, for this guide, when I saw the tarragon, I'm like, oh, yes.
Speaker 1:Let me get that because I'm making the crispy potatoes and I'm gonna put the tarragon on there. So, you know, it's it's simple reminders because awareness changes everything. And so let's talk a little bit about the challenge, the 30 plant challenge. There's no leaderboard. Right?
Speaker 1:There's no ultimate winner. There's no pressure. The win is participation. There's no first place, second place, third place winners. There's no winners and losers.
Speaker 1:We're all winners when we choose to show up for our gut. Because what we gain is a healthier gut, obviously, more stable energy, less crashing in the afternoon, clearer thinking, and less brain fog. In something just as important, we become part of the collective, a group of women choosing to support their health intentionally through nutrition and good habits. So as you think about this I want to leave you with something simple. You do not need to overhaul everything.
Speaker 1:You do not need a perfect plan. You just need to start. One plant, one small shift, one intentional choice. And if this resonated with you I would love for you to join us inside the Plant Powered Collective community. It is completely free right now and you will get the gut health guide.
Speaker 1:You can jump into the 30 Plants Challenge and you will be part of a group of women who are doing this together not perfectly just consistently. Because this is where change actually happens. You can find all of the links in the show notes so it is easy to get started And if you know someone who has been feeling off, low energy, dealing with brain fog, or just not quite themselves, share this episode with them. Share the community link as well. This is something we do better together.
Speaker 1:I will be there with you inside the community sharing ideas recipes and supporting you along the way. Next week I'm going to walk you through exactly how to get to 30 plants in a way that fits into your life So make sure you come back for that. And before you go, just take a moment and ask yourself, what is one plant I can add today? That is where this begins. Alright, I will see you next time and until then nourish boldly and live vibrantly.