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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.
Hello and welcome to the Plant Powered Collective podcast where we explore how to nourish boldly and live vibrantly through the power of plants and intentional living. If you're new here, I'm Lori Walinski, integrative nutrition coach and founder of Plant Powered Collective. This podcast is for women and men, but mainly women who are curious about how food, lifestyle and daily habits influence energy, health and vitality, especially in midlife when our bodies begin asking us to pay closer attention. Today we are talking about something that sits at the very center of integrative nutrition, bio individuality. And if you take away nothing else from today's episode I want you to remember this your body gives feedback every single day energy levels, digestion, sleep quality, cravings, mood, focus.
Speaker 1:These signals are not failures they are information and in integrative nutrition we call this bio individuality. It recognizes that every body responds differently to food, stress, sleep and lifestyle. What energizes one person may deplete another. The work is learning how to listen to your body with curiosity rather than judgment. When we start listening nourishment becomes clearer.
Speaker 1:Let's dive into the podcast. One of the biggest challenges in modern nutrition is the idea that there is one perfect way to eat. That there is one size fits all approach. That there is the quick fix, the fifteen minutes that if we follow this for three days we're going to achieve optimal health, optimal nutrition. Every few years, right, there's a new trend, low fat, low carb, keto, paleo, juicing, fasting protocols, the list goes on and on.
Speaker 1:And the interesting thing is that many of these approaches can help some people, but no approach works for everyone. When someone tries a diet that doesn't match their body's needs, something predictable happens. They assume they failed. I went on this diet. My neighbor, my friend, my sister, my brother, my cousin lost weight, and I didn't.
Speaker 1:But the reality is often the opposite. This diet simply didn't match their biology. This is where bio individuality becomes incredibly empowering because the question shifts from what diet should I follow? What worked for my friend, my cousin, my sister, my brother, my neighbor? To what does my body respond well to?
Speaker 1:That is a completely different question, and it leads to a completely different relationship with food. Bio individuality means each person has a unique nutritional fingerprint. Our bodies differ in many ways genetics, microbiome diversity, hormone balance, metabolism, stress response, food sensitivities, lifestyle patterns. Even our life stage changes how we respond to food. And this is something I experienced very personally when I entered menopause.
Speaker 1:It actually could have been perimenopause but back then, you know, more than ten years ago, there really wasn't that idea about perimenopause and menopause. At least with my doctors. There could have been. But not with my doctors. I remember when my hormones began shifting and my body started changing in ways that felt confusing and super frustrating.
Speaker 1:My weight began increasing even though my eating habits had not dramatically changed. And when I asked for advice, something very interesting happened. Several people told me very confidentially, you probably need to start eating meat. Otherwise, you'll never lose weight. My doctor told me that.
Speaker 1:My nutritionist told me that. Now remember, I had been plant based since I was 14 years old. For decades, I had nourished my body with plants. It aligned with my ethics. It aligned with how my body felt.
Speaker 1:Yet suddenly, the narrative became that my plant based lifestyle must be the problem. At the same time, my hormones were shifting dramatically. Not only, you know, were my female hormones or, you know, sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone shifting, my thyroid labs were all over the place. One test showed hypothyroid levels, and then the next week it would show hyperthyroid levels. And then the week after that, it would look normal.
Speaker 1:The fluctuations were constant. My body was in shift. And what struck me was that none of that complexity was being considered when people explained my weight gain. I kept on bringing it up because intuitively I was making connections. My professional background in systems and in structures and in leading people always was looking for connections.
Speaker 1:But in Western medicine they weren't looking at that. What I knew was that my hormones were changing, my metabolism was shifting, my body was adapting to menopause, yet the solution offered was a one size fits all answer. It was a simple quick fix. Eat meat. That experience reinforced something I already believed deeply.
Speaker 1:Nutrition must be personalized. Our bodies are dynamic systems. Hormones shift, metabolism adapts, stress affects physiology, life stages change everything. Bio individuality reminds us to consider the whole story of a person. So here's the thing, and it's beautiful.
Speaker 1:Your body is communicating with you all day long. Energy, digestion, mood, and focus. And one of the most common signals people notice is something many of us have experienced, the mid afternoon energy crash. I know since I stopped working in a traditional office and started working in nutrition and I work from home, I have a mid afternoon energy crash where I just feel like I need to take a nap. I mean, if I cannot keep my eyes open, and for me, it happens, right around now, actually.
Speaker 1:It happens to be around 03:00 right now, and I suddenly feel tired. My focus drops, and I'm thinking to myself, if only, like, I eat something that will be full of energy. You know, maybe something sweet or with me, it's something salty sometimes. I also think maybe I need to have another cup of tea. I assume, as do many people, a lot of my clients assume, that this just means that they didn't sleep enough the night before.
Speaker 1:But very often, this type of crash is actually connected to how your body processed your last meal. One of the most common reasons we experience a crash in energy is blood sugar variability after eating. When a meal is high in refined carbohydrates and lower in fiber, protein, or healthy fats, blood sugar can rise quickly. Your body releases insulin to bring that glucose back into balance, but sometimes the body overshoots that response, and blood sugar drops more sharply than the brain prefers. That drop can create fatigue, brain fog, irritability, and renewed hunger.
Speaker 1:I know it does in me. What I also notice is that if I'm sitting down a lot and I haven't moved my body, that I need to get up and move. When I feel that midafternoon slump, you know, I just will even go outside for a quick moment and walk around my cul de sac. But let's get back to nutrition. We now have strong research showing how this drop in blood sugar can create that fatigue, brain fog, irritability, and renewed hunger.
Speaker 1:A study published in Nature Metabolism in 2021 titled Postprandial Glycemic Dips Predict Appetite and Energy Intake in Healthy Individuals examined thousands of people as part of a Predict One study, one of the largest personalized nutrition studies conducted. Researchers discovered that many individuals experienced significant dips in blood sugar two to three hours after eating, Those dips were strongly associated with increased hunger, lower energy levels, and higher calorie intake later in the day. Now, what are refined carbohydrates? Refined carbohydrates is white bread, pasta, anything that is processed. A complex carbohydrate, don't be afraid of them, are beans, legumes, sweet potatoes.
Speaker 1:Those are not bad to have. What may not be great to have, because I don't wanna say it's bad, but what isn't great to have is refined carbohydrates. In other words, the afternoon crash people experienced is not imagined. It often reflects real metabolic changes happening after a meal, especially after a meal with a higher than normal amount of refined refined carbohydrates. And this is where bio individuality becomes incredibly important.
Speaker 1:Two people can eat the exact same lunch. One person feels energized for hours, and another experiences a blood sugar dip and feels exhausted. That difference is not about willpower, it's about biology. A midday crash might be your body telling you your meal needed more fiber, more protein, more healthy fats, or slower digesting carbohydrates. Your body is always providing feedback.
Speaker 1:When we learn to observe those signals, to listen to that feedback, we can create meals that support steady energy throughout the day. Now I want to share something that's super personal. Bio individuality is not just something I coach. It is something I have lived. My journey with nutrition began early.
Speaker 1:I chose to become plant based at 14. Meat just never sat well with me. I've always been intuitive and intentional about listening to my body. Now that's ebbed and flowed over the years, but I knew at 14 that meat just wasn't the right thing for me. Then two years later, something happened that shaped my life even more deeply.
Speaker 1:At 16, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. So every year, our music teacher in in our in in the high school I went to, had a Broadway musical that he produced. So anyone that was part of the cast for this Broadway musical would be after school a couple days a week to practice and learn the dance moves and learn the songs and all of that stuff during the last half of the year. And then right before school would get out, the Broadway musical would be performed. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I loved being in the Broadway musicals. I was never I never had a big part. However, that wasn't the important part. The important part was that I pushed myself because I was a super shy academic kid, and I was in the musical. And this year, this particular year when I was 16, I remember, I was a hot box girl in Guys and Dolls.
Speaker 1:That was a super big change in who I was as a person day to day. And on opening night, I was in the dressing room dressing with all the other all the other females, in the production. And a friend of mine said, Laura, you should see the your spine. It's all red, and and and it and it looks crazy. I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1:Now back then, scoliosis was a big deal. And in at least in Massachusetts where I grew up, the schools the school nurses all checked everyone for scoliosis, that curvature of the spine. And everyone was saying, you must have scoliosis. This is must be scoliosis. But I also knew that my other joints were inflamed as well.
Speaker 1:I figured it was just from schoolwork and practicing for the Broadway play and working because I worked a couple of different jobs. But what I found out was I had an autoimmune disease. Needless to say, I did not perform that evening in the musical nor in any of the other shows that were scheduled, and I was put on a ton of medication. I had been experiencing really bad headaches, so they put me on some migraine headache. I was on medicine for inflammation and all sorts of other things, and I was a zombie.
Speaker 1:I remember falling asleep in class. And listen. I was an academic kid. I knew that the important thing for me to do was to go to college, so I was very focused on my academics. But I would fall asleep in class, or I would ask to go down to the office to call my parents for, you know, an early dismissal, and I would, you know, fall asleep, in the principal's office.
Speaker 1:And for many people, that diagnosis would have felt limiting. And for a while, I felt really limited, and I felt frustrated and upset, and I didn't understand what was going on. And then I decided to reframe it and turn it around, and it became an invitation, an invitation to learn, to understand my body, to explore how nutrition and lifestyle could support resilience. I took myself off of all the medication. Now I do not recommend this to people.
Speaker 1:It's something that I did for myself. And this was back in, I don't even know, the late seventies, early eighties. Over time, I began paying close attention to how my body responded to food, what supported my energy, what created inflammation, what helped my immune system function well. And what I learned was simple but powerful. There was no universal formula, but there were patterns.
Speaker 1:When I nourished my body with whole plant foods, for instance, during the summer, when my parents had a garden and my grandparents had a garden, I felt stronger. In the fall and in the winter, when we ate a lot of canned vegetables, and back then they were with very high sodium, I did not feel as good. When I prioritized sleep and movement, my body responded. When I managed stress, symptoms improved. When I ignored those symptoms, my body let me know, and it still lets me know.
Speaker 1:That is bio individuality in action listening, adjusting, learning, adapting. Personalized nutrition does not mean complicated meal plans. It actually means something so much simpler. Learning to observe your body. For example, notice how you feel after breakfast.
Speaker 1:Notice how different foods affect digestion. Pay attention to how hydration influences energy. Something that was really interesting for me is I choose to drink really high quality water, and when I have that afternoon slump, if I drink, and I am drinking it now because I'm in an afternoon slump, drinking water with with some lemon in it, I feel better. Observe how stress changes your appetite. These observations allow us to make small adjustments, adding more fiber, balancing meals differently, increasing plant diversity, eating more consistently.
Speaker 1:Personalization is not perfection. It is awareness. Even though bio individuality means we are all different, there are still some fundamental principles that support most bodies. One of the most powerful is plant diversity. Whole plant foods provide fiber, phytonutrients, antioxidants, minerals, and healthy fats.
Speaker 1:These compounds nourish the gut microbiome and support metabolic health and reduce inflammation. But even with plant based nutrition, personalization still matters. Some people thrive on large raw salads. I do not. Others digest cooked vegetables more easily.
Speaker 1:That's me. Some people need more protein. Others need more complex carbohydrates. The key is curiosity and experimentation, and then intention and awareness. Before we close today, I want to share a simple recipe that reflects what we have been talking about.
Speaker 1:One of the most powerful ways to support health is increasing plant diversity and phytonutrients. Phytonutrients are protective compounds in plants that support immune health and reduce inflammation. Here is one of my favorite meals, and I call it Rainbow Phytonutrient Nourishment Bowl. So the ingredients are cooked quinoa. Quinoa is an excellent protein.
Speaker 1:Roasted sweet potatoes. I roast a bunch of them whenever I have a few minutes. I just pop them in the oven when I know that I have, like, a half an hour, and, then I have them for the rest of the week. Kale, roasted chickpeas. I'll usually roast the chickpeas along with the sweet potatoes.
Speaker 1:Purple cabbage, avocado, carrots, pumpkin seeds, and fresh herbs. The dressing is tahini, lemon, fresh ginger, and maple syrup. What makes this powerful bowl is diversity of plant compounds. Purple can purple cabbage contains, anthocyanins, and that is great for brain health. Sweet potatoes provide beta carotene for immune function.
Speaker 1:Leafy greens support detoxification and hormone balance. Seeds provide minerals and healthy fats, and the carrots are also great for beta carotene. Meals like this nourish multiple systems in the body all at once, gut health, hormone health, and energy production, all through whole foods. I invite you to try this recipe. Well, it's not really a recipe.
Speaker 1:Right? It it's really a bowl, and so much better than going to one of those fast fast casual places. It's things that you can have in ready made, ready cut right in your refrigerator and make it from home. And the dressing, whole foods, no preservatives, very minimally processed. Maybe the only thing that's kind of minimally processed is the tahini and the maple syrup, but if you get good tahini, organic tahini, and maple syrup that is a better maple syrup.
Speaker 1:That is really amazing for you. Let me know how you like the bowl, and thank you for listening. And remember to eat the rainbow, to experiment with food, with curiosity and experimentation. If there is one idea I hope you carry away with you today it is this. Your body is not broken.
Speaker 1:Your body is communicating energy levels, digestion, sleep, cravings. These signals are not problems to silence. They are information to understand. Bio individuality reminds us that health is not about forcing ourselves into someone else's formula. It is about discovering what allows your body to thrive.
Speaker 1:My journey began when I chose to go plant based at 14. It deepened when I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease at 16 and it continues through the daily practice of nourishing my body intentionally. When we begin listening nourishment becomes clearer, health becomes collaborative, food becomes a tool for vitality. Thank you for spending this time with me today. If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who might benefit.
Speaker 1:And if you're curious about what personalized nourishment could look like for you, visit plantpoweredcollective.com Until next time, nourish boldly and live vibrantly.