Posted April 28,, 2026

Eight days in March, I enjoyed the blessing of cruising on the Holistic Holiday at Sea’s Vegan Cruise with stops in Mexico and Honduras. This beautiful cruise is in its 21^st  year and what an amazing experience! There were about 800 vegans on this cruise of about 4,500 passengers.

Bon Voyage!

The journey began with a Bon Voyage Party in Houston the evening before setting sail—amazing in and of itself. An added VIP option included line dance lessons with Dr. Neal Barnard, supporting the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. This was more fun and invigorating than words can say.

Along with the fabulous talks led by vegan visionaries, delicious plant-based food, and wonderful companionship, I found myself pondering. Perhaps it was good amount of time on my own, time to think and reflect. There was a moment on the Holistic Holiday at Sea, a feast for the senses, that stuck with me:

We were all on the same ship, MSC’s Seascape, sailing the same beautiful ocean, enjoying the same gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, with the same inspiring music drifting through the air. And yet, there it felt like two very different experiences were unfolding at once.

One Ship, Different Ways of Being

On one level, we were simply people on a cruise, enjoying rest, entertainment, and vacation time. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Joy, relaxation, and celebration are an important part of life. Yet within that same space, something else was happening, a quieter, deeper current: group of people intentionally gathering around shared values: compassion, health, awareness, and connection on the Vegan Cruise.

Same ship.

Same setting.

But a different way of moving through it.

A Microcosm

What intrigued me the most was not the contrast itself, but what it showed. This wasn’t just about a cruise. It was a reflection of the world we live in every day. We share the same space—the same planet, the same world, even with our differences. And yet, we are not each experiencing it in the same way.

Some move through on autopilot. Others begin to ask questions. Some live within the default culture. Others intentionally choose something different. Each of us does each of these things at different times. On the ship, however, the contrast seemed to stand out more.

The Vegan Calling

For many of us in the plant-based/vegan community, that “something different” is not just about food. It’s about alignment. It’s about intention. It’s about asking:

• How do my choices affect others?
• How do I live compassionately?
• How do I care for my body, the Earth, and every being I share this precious planet with?

This path often isn’t easy. But it is joyful.

It can feel like we’re swimming against the current. But the current is changing.

Spaces like Holistic Holiday at Sea remind us that we’re not alone.

A Moment of Connection

One of the highlights of this experience was connecting with leaders and other vegans who have helped shape this movement. Moments like these remind me that this way of living is not fringe, it’s growing, grounded in science, compassion, dignity and community.

A Different Kind of Awareness

What I experienced on that ship was not separation, but awareness and connection. Not judgement, but invitation. An invitation to notice that even within the same environment, we can choose:

• To be present or distracted
• To be intentional or automatic
• To live in alignment or out of it

And those choices shape our entire experience.

Bringing It Home

The most powerful part of this experience was not what happened on the ship, but what happened afterwards. Because the same choice exists in our everyday lives. We may all be moving through the same world, but we each decide how we will show up within it.

The MSC Seascape became a kind of mirror. It was a reminder that even in the same place, living side by side, we can be part of very different experiences. And for those of us on a plant-based vegan path, it’s a quiet but powerful affirmation:

This way of living matters.

Not because it separates us, but because it calls us to live more consciously, more compassionately, more empathetically, and more fully awake as we sail on this ship of precious and magnificent Planet Earth.

Happy Sailing! With Love, Rev. Dina

Rev. Dina Miani Lauman is the founder of the WellBeing, a sanctuary for vegan Christians and spiritual seekers. An Ordained Minister in the United Church of Christ and an Ordained Animal Chaplain through the Compassion Consortium, she serves where faith, compassion, and Creation meet.

Dina integrates plant-based living with spiritual and emotional healing as a Main Street Vegan Academy Vegan Lifestyle Coach and Educator. As a narrative experiential practitioner and counselor, she helps clients reconnect with their stories and embodied wisdom—guiding them toward wholeness, wonder, and thriving. She also loves Disney Magic and will meet you there to explore possibilities and imagination.

Dina pastors a charming country church in Northern Illinois, where she integrates spirituality and psychology into her ministry. Her congregation is one of a kind, with cherished therapy dog and beloved church member Queenie, reflecting a deep commitment to interspecies compassion and inclusion.

Let’s stay connected in compassion.

Episode 552, air date April 23, 2026. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

Inside the Fight for Farmed Animals with Dan Shannon

What would it take to truly transform the global food system?

In this compelling episode, I speak with nonprofit leader and animal protection advocate Dan Shannon about the strategies, challenges, and breakthroughs shaping a more humane future.

Dan shares insights from his decades of experience in advocacy, philanthropy and corporate campaigns, explaining how sustained public pressure and collective action are driving major shifts, including recent landmark victories in the push toward cage-free eggs. He also offers a behind-the-scenes look at how change happens at the highest levels of the food industry and why progress is accelerating.

This episode explores how everyday choices, combined with organized advocacy, can help reshape a system that affects billions of animals and all of us.

In This Episode

What consumers might not realize about the egg industry

Why transforming the food system is urgent and possible

What the shift toward cage-free eggs really means

Surprising trends in consumer behavior

How global campaigns create change across cultures

The power of collective action in animal advocacy

What a fully humane food system could look like in the future

About Our Guest

Dan Shannon is a seasoned nonprofit strategist with over 2 decades of experience in campaigns, philanthropy, and animal protection, including leadership roles at PETA, Purpose, and Tides. As CEO of The Humane League, he drives corporate campaigns, public policy, and global coalition-building to accelerate progress toward cage-free eggs and end factory farming and he is also the co-author of two acclaimed vegan cookbooks and continues to promote compassionate living through his writing and advocacy.

Connect with Dan

Website: https://thehumaneleague.org\

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehumaneleague/\

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehumaneleague/\

X: https://x.com/DanShannonTHL

Subscribe and review our podcast to help more people discover the joy of living with vitality, spirituality, and compassion.

Sign up for our newsletter at www.mainstreetvegan.com and receive our FREE e-book, ‘Recipes to Help You Age Like a Yogi’.

And become an insider by joining the Main Street Vegan Podcast Listeners Group on Facebook.

Complement are supplements made by vegans, Pamela Fergusson, RD, PhD, Matt Frazier the No-Meat Athlete, and Joel Kahn, MD, for vegans to enhance your already excellent diet. Check them out HERE, and enter ‘MAINSTREET’ in the discount box to save yourself some money.

Posted April 21, 2026

To those who really don’t understand how easy and liberating it is, the word vegan carries weight—moral, social, logistical. To make it even more complicated, meat and dairy industry marketing wants us to believe that vegan implies an all-or-nothing commitment to plant-based whole foods. Meat and cheese or bread and water. This feels impractical for most people.

Meat and dairy marketers want us to believe family dinners would be too complicated. Travel will be harder. The idea of giving up something beloved for good is too much. This is enough to make people abandon the thought entirely and change nothing.

But the research does not ask for all or nothing. You can get moving in the right direction toward fabulous skin, mind, and body, and help the planet a lot if you move plant-forward, inching towards a plant-based whole foods lifestyle. Ultimately you may even ask why you didn’t do it sooner.

The Case for Getting Going – Even if It Means Doing Less than what You Think Is Needed

Flexitarian eating, a primarily plant-based diet that occasionally includes animal products has emerged as one of the most significant nutrition trends of 2026. According to a major nutrition industry report ¹, 82% of food and wellness experts surveyed see flexitarianism as having the greatest growth potential of any dietary lifestyle. It is not a niche movement. It is what most health-conscious people do when they are honest about their habits.

While any consumption of animal products is tragic for the individual animals involved, health outcomes for flexitarians show real yet modest improvements over standard omnivorous diets that include meat, fish, and/or cheese. The science is equally clear that whole-foods plant-based vegan eating produces the strongest results. A landmark randomized clinical trial from Stanford University studied 22 pairs of identical twins. One twin from each pair was assigned a healthy vegan diet and the other to an oxymoronic healthy omnivore diet for eight weeks. Because the twins shared genetics and grew up in the same households, researchers could isolate diet as the variable. The results were as expected by healthy vegans and surprising to the twins themselves.

The twins eating a whole-foods vegan diet showed a 20% drop in insulin levels, a 12% drop in LDL cholesterol, and an average weight loss of four more pounds than the omnivorous twins—all within 8 weeks. ² The omnivore group’s LDL barely moved. The lead researcher, Dr. Christopher Gardner of Stanford, concluded: “Anyone who chooses a vegan diet can improve their long-term health in two months, with the most change seen in the first month”.

A Plant-Based Whole Foods Diet Is Slowing Aging

The same study’s epigenetic follow-up found that the vegan twins also showed measurable improvements in biological aging markers, meaning the cells themselves were aging more slowly. Slowing down aging is not a benefit you get from flexitarianism: that takes being a plant-based, whole-food vegan.³

There is also solid evidence that vegans have significantly lower rates of type 2 diabetes than either vegetarians or omnivores, with possible additional protection against prostate cancer. The EPIC-Oxford and Adventist Health Study-2 cohorts, two of the largest long-running dietary studies in the world, both show that the more animal products are ejected from our refrigerators and our minds the more health protection increases.⁴

A Big Bonus: Reducing Climate Anxiety from Your Plate

Meat products from cows, pigs, chickens, and lambs are the most resource-intensive, planet-degrading systems of any—far worse than fossil fuels. Livestock production consumes trees, land, water, and fossil fuels at a scale that vegetable, grain, legume, and fruit agriculture simply does not. Every meal where plant-based whole foods replace meat is a vote for life on earth, stopping waste and deforestation, and a vote for rewilding the planet to its best functioning self. Fewer hurricanes and wildfires everyone?

If most of the global population adopted a flexitarian-style diet aligned with the EAT-Lancet planetary health recommendations, global dietary greenhouse gas emissions would drop by 17%. ⁵  If all eight billion of us joined in for a plant-based global diet it would reduce those emissions by up to 60%.⁶ The direction is clear: the further from animal products, the better for the planet, for animals and people.

Three meat-free days per week is enough to qualify as flexitarian. That is not a sacrifice. That is just Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. And throwing in a couple more days gets us anti-aging bonus credits. But if you want the full picture, for your health and the planet’s health, the destination is whole-foods, potatoes, rice, beans, lentils, grains, vegetables, and fruit. The goal is progress. The science says keep going.

Starting Points that Actually Stick

The most durable dietary changes are the ones that do not feel like deprivation. Start by making plant-based meals genuinely delicious, which is easier than it sounds when you build them around beans, grains, potatoes, and seasoning. A spiced garbanzo stew. A ramen bowl that takes 10 minutes. A lentil soup that is even better the next day.

Let protein come from legumes, the highest-fiber, most climate-positive, and most affordable protein sources available. Eat what you love. Just make vegetables the center of the plate more often, and keep the direction of travel clear, onward to plant-based nirvana.

Boon Broth, the product I am proud to have created, is made expressly for the person who is not going fully vegan (yet) but is making deliberate, consistent choices to fuel their body with plant-based whole foods. Boon products, made from nutrient powerhouses – mung beans, sea plants, pea protein – and packaged to compost, are for the table you are building, not the one you are leaving behind. Shop Boon Broth

1. Trend Report Nutrition 2025. Nutrition Hub, in collaboration with the Federal Center for Nutrition (BZfE), Dr. Rainer-Wild Foundation, EIT Food Region West, and Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg Heilbronn. Published 2025. Via: premiummedicalcircle.com
2. Landry, M.J., Ward, C.P., et al. “Cardiometabolic Effects of Omnivorous vs Vegan Diets in Identical Twins: A Randomized Clinical Trial”. JAMA Network Open, November 30, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.44457. Stanford Medicine: med.stanford.edu/nutrition/research/completed-studies/twins.html
3. Dwaraka, V.B., Aronica, L., et al. “Unveiling the epigenetic impact of vegan vs. omnivorous diets on aging: insights from the Twins Nutrition Study (TwiNS)”. BMC Medicine, July 29, 2024. doi:10.1186/s12916-024-03513-w.
4. EPIC-Oxford & Adventist Health Study-2 analysis: “Vegan or flexitarian which diet is healthier?” tabledebates.org. Referencing: Davey GK et al. EPIC-Oxford. Public Health Nutr. 2003; and Orlich MJ et al. Adventist Health Study-2. JAMA Intern Med. 2013.
5. Willett, W. et al. “Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems.” The Lancet, January 16, 2019. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4. Also cited in: The Lancet Planetary Health, January 2025. doi:10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00305-X.
6. Springmann, M. et al. “Analysis and valuation of the health and climate change cobenefits of dietary change.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), March 21, 2016. Vol. 113, No. 15, pp. 4146–4151. doi:10.1073/pnas.1523119113.

Sally Malanga is the Plant-Powered Powerhouse with a Philanthropist’s Heart. She is an eco-warrior by passion, entrepreneur by mission, wordsmith by necessity, and Main Street Vegan Academy graduate. Sally blends advocacy with mindful elegance—rallying communities, rewriting tired narratives, and elevating plant-based living into a movement. Sally is Founder of Boon For All. She is all in for replacing animal bone broth and animal collagen powder to save animals and glow skin.

Posted April 14, 2026

Grandmas and grandpas are crushing it on vegan diets. Public Sector Catering reported a 24% increase in the number of vegan and vegetarian care home residents in November 2024. In 2020, Cargill, a privately held food and agriculture corporation, reported, “One in four consumers age 50 and older are embracing the plantbased trend, and nearly as many say they are willing to pay a premium for products featuring plants.”

Clearly, interest in vegan living doesn’t stop at Generation Alpha. Seniors demonstrate with their pocketbooks that they regard plant-based diets beneficial. But is veganism as health-supportive for seniors as it can be for younger people? After eating the Standard American Diet their whole lives, what would make a senior switch to a vegan diet?

Health Motivation

Healthy as we might be at 20, our bodies are subject to constant assault from lifestyle, genetic, and environmental factors that influence chronic disease.

For example, our arteries stiffen as we age, making blood pressure control an issue for many. Type and quality of food intake, physical activity, and sleep quality are among factors that influencing health as we age. Oxidative stress and free radicals are factors as well. Adding antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables can limit free radical damage leading to cancer and heart disease, among other conditions.

Digestive discomfort is often improved by a high-fiber plant-based diet. Currently, Americans spend between $1-2 billion yearly on gut remedies. Older Americans on fixed incomes may feel that a healthy diet is a better way to spend their money.

Other Motivators

Of course, animal rights and climate issues resonate with many people, regardless of age.

How Do Nutritional Needs Differ for Older People?

Protein

It’s important to know recommendations have changed for all ages over the years. They may change further still, as additional studies are done—currently there are only two published interventional studies looking at vegan diets and their impact on muscle in the elderly.

Currently, for healthy, older adults, ESPEN (European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism, an international authority on nutrition guidelines for older adults) recommends 1-1.2 grams per kilogram per day, abbreviated 1-1.2g/kg/day. As an example, a 100-pound senior needs 45-55g protein daily. (Divide a person’s weight in pounds by 2.2 to convert to kilograms (100/2.2 = 45.5kg))

45.5kg x 1-1.2g of protein= 45-48g protein daily

For those seniors recovering from illness or weight training on a regular basis to build muscle, 1.5-1.6g/kg is recommended. In that case, our 100-pound senior would need 1.5-1.6g/kg, or 68g-73g protein daily.

Sample Daily Menu to Achieve 105-150g Daily Protein

Breakfast (~25 g)

• 2 slices high-protein whole-grain bread (10 g)
• 2 tbsp peanut butter (7 g)
• Sprinkle 2 tbsp hemp seeds (6–7 g)

Lunch (~30 g)

• High-protein Buddha bowl:
• ½ block firm tofu (18 g)
• ¾ cup quinoa (8 g)
• 2 tbsp hemp seeds (6 g)

Snack (~10–12 g)

• Edamame (1 cup = 17 g — but ½–¾ cup is more typical) or Soy yogurt + 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds (~10 g)

Dinner (~30–35 g)

• Tempeh and bean chili:

• • 4 oz tempeh (22–24 g)

• • ½ cup black beans (7 g)

• • Vegetables and spices

• Optional: 1 whole-grain tortilla (4 g)

Daily Total: ~105–120 g protein

Nutritionally Dense Foods to Build a Menu

• Fortified plant milks for calcium;
• Beans, whole grains, and pumpkin seeds (eaten with a vitamin C source to; enhance absorption) for iron and zinc;
• Chia, flax, and walnuts for omega-3s; and
• Tofu, tempeh, legumes, nuts, lentils, or seitan for protein.

Their texture is also malleable, for those with altered texture requirements.

Vitamin B12 Supplementation

Much like protein intake is a common topic vegans contend with, so is B12. But B12 isn’t just a concern for vegans.

For B12 to be absorbed, we need both adequate stomach acid and intrinsic factor (IF), a molecule made by the stomach. Any issues that disrupt stomach acid or IF production reduces B12 levels over time. These include normal aging, which may reduce stomach acid production, gastritis, and common medications such as H2 inhibitors and proton pump inhibitors, both frequently used for heartburn, and metformin, used for blood sugar control in diabetes. However, because B12 storage is very efficient in most people, it may take years for deficiency symptoms to manifest.

Plant-Based Diets Do Support Healthy Aging

As with other age groups, peer-reviewed research consistently finds that well-planned vegan diets can support healthy aging. Remember to pair healthy diets with adequate activity, and keep in mind what a “well-planned” vegan diet means emphasizing:

• Whole grains
• Legumes and soy foods
• Fruits and vegetables (especially leafy greens and berries)
• Nuts and seeds daily
• Minimal ultra-processed vegan foods

Vegan meal plans don’t require pricey or exotic ingredients or complicated prep. Many comfort foods translate easily:

• Oatmeal with fortified soy milk, walnuts, chia seeds, and berries
• Lentil or split pea soup with whole-grain bread
• Baked tofu or tempeh, mashed potatoes, and green beans
• Pasta with white beans, olive oil, garlic, and sautéed greens
• Bean-based chili or stew, cooked until soft for easy chewing

Always check with your health care professional before making any dietary changes.

References

Baden, M. Y., et al. (2023). Plant-based diet quality and risk of chronic disease: Findings from large prospective cohorts.

Domić, J., Grootswagers, P., & L.P.G.M. de Groot. (2020–2022). Perspective: Vegan diets, protein distribution, and muscle health in older adults.

Kwasniewska, M., et al. (2023). Healthy plant-based diets and multimorbidity in older populations: A systematic review.

Rizzoli, R., et al. (2021). Plant-based diets and bone health in older adults: Benefits, risks, and nutrient considerations.

Satija, A., et al. (2022). Healthful versus unhealthful plant-based dietary patterns and cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes.

Schürmann, S., et al. (2021). Nutrient intake and nutritional status of older adults following vegan vs. omnivorous diets.

van Vliet, S., et al. (2021–2023). Protein quality, muscle protein synthesis, and plant vs. animal protein in aging adults.

Shivappa, N., et al. (2021). Plant-based diets, inflammation, and cognitive aging.

Mary Brewer has passionately served as a registered dietitian for more than four decades, combining that expertise with many years’ experience as a registered nurse. Mary advocates for plant-based nutrition and compassionate living and is a Main Street Vegan Academy graduate.

She resides in the serene Blue Ridge Mountains with her husband of 20 years, Lawrence, who is also a compassionate vegan. Together, they care for their beloved rescue friends, Edina, Lulu, Patsy, Petie, and Spike. Mary is committed to health, wellness and social justice, particularly as it pertains to fair and equal access to affordable, nutritious food and healthcare.

Complement — supplements made by vegans — Pamela Fergusson, RD, PhD, Matt Frazier the No-Meat Athlete, and Joel Kahn, MD — for vegans to enhance your already excellent diet. Check them out HERE, and put MAINSTREET in the discount box to save yourself some money.

Posted April 7, 2026

You’ve done the coolest thing. You’ve decided to make food choices and life choices based on compassion. You’re setting into motion a ripple effect that will enrich the lives of people and animals you’ll never know, and others who’ll show up on earth after you’ve left it. It’s a tremendous thing, this surrender to caring. It clears your head, keeps you young, and lifts a burden you didn’t know you were carrying until it was gone.

I’ve done a lot of writing, speaking, and thinking over the past 30 years about living a charmed life. I wrote two books on the subject, one a bestseller in 32 countries, and presented on this topic for associations, corporations, churches, and huge health conferences. But only recently did I come to fully understand that the most important component of a life we’d call charmed is the deep peace and satisfaction of knowing you’re striving to do the most good and the least harm that’s feasible in your life situation. Being vegan is the foundation of a life that works. You’ve got that. Here’s the rest.

Know that you are worthy

         Most of us waste a lot of time distrusting ourselves and discounting ourselves. But the real truth is: you are an expression of the beneficence that brought you forth. Of course you have more to learn as you go along, and you’ve done things in the past that you wish you hadn’t. Even so, nothing you have done, nothing that was done to you, and nothing anyone else has ever said to you or believed about you erases the inalienable truth that God made you and you have infinite value.

Start a serendipity log

            It’s a pity when someone is living a charmed life but doesn’t know it. Preventive medicine for charmed-life blackouts is to keep a serendipity log, an ongoing list of  wonders, delights, and delicious coincidences. To get started, put a little notebook in your purse or pocket and make note of the serendipities showering you throughout the day. These are little joys such as, “A coworker gave me a copy of the novel that I can’t get from the library for another six weeks,” or “I just found out that I’m going to be in Cincinnati the same weekend as my friend from Seattle.” The key is to appreciate allserendipities and not judge them by their size.

Bring back chivalry

Because it is one tall order to live a charmed life in an uncharming culture, it’s up to each of us to bring back chivalry, updated for our times. Reduced to its fundamentals, chivalry is being the heaven-sent friend or stranger in a story that goes, “I don’t know what I would have done if (s)he hadn’t shown up.” How about stopping to help someone whose grocery bag breaks, or the embarrassed fellow shopper who’s just knocked over a towering display of bathroom tissue? Or talking to the bored little boy in the post office line while his mother chats on her cell phone? Or giving a hand to the stranded motorist trying to change a flat?

Wash the dishes with all your heart

You virtually guarantee a charmed life when you give yourself as fully to doing the dishes, and tending to the other miscellanea of living, as to some grand adventure.  You can count on the dishes. They’ll be there alongside the grand adventures, and if no adventure is immediately forthcoming, the dishes won’t let you down. Try some conscious dishwashing. Release all judgment.  Just be with the process and with every plate and fork and measuring cup until the task is through. In a charmed life, the best thing going is what is happening now, even when it’s scouring a skillet.

Gather the gurus

The informal but venerable gurus I’m alluding to are our glorious friends.

Gather them by hosting a salon, either to learn something (bring in a teacher or speaker), address an issue in the community, or simply hang out with intriguing people. Or connect with a prayer partner (make contact daily by phone or weekly in person for prayer; or a gratitude buddy: the person with whom you share what is at this moment is filling your heart with gratitude. I think of it as counting your blessings in the presence of a witness.

Love it, then maybe leave it

 Any situation in your life that ends before you come to love it, you’ll run into again. Oh, the names and faces will change, but circumstantially you’ll be right back where you were five or ten or twenty years ago, again presented with the opportunity to learn to love. This seems counterintuitive because we think of love as the “tie that binds.” But love is also necessary when ending a relationship or leaving a position, organization, or locale. Leave some love behind and go forward free.

Claim a café

Claiming a café is not the sole province of writers and students. We all need a place to go where we can be alone with company, where the waiter or barista knows our order in advance, and where a certain corner is, more often than not, ours. At your café, you get the energy of the people around you, inspiration from a woman’s locket or a little boy’s lollypop, and heartening freedom from undone chores, a ringing doorbell, and, if you leave your cell phone at home and don’t sign up for WiFi, other people’s demands on your time.

Indulge your simplest pleasure

Certainly you enjoy many things, but your simplest pleasure: is basic, easy to access, cheap, and not dependent on any other person. Think carefully of what your simplest pleasure is. For example, “sitting in front of a crackling fire” can be your simplest pleasure, but only if you have easy access to a wood burning hearth. What’s your simplest pleasure? Dancing maybe, or puttering in your garden. A steamy soul-soothing bath, or watching your favorite comedy shows. Reading with a cup of tea. Once you’ve named it, enjoy it every day.

Live richly

People whose souls thrive on simplicity can live elegant lives on relatively little cash. They exploit the low and no-cost riches tucked away in the library, consignment shops, beauty schools, eBay, barter, matinee movies, free day at museums and galleries, and every park in town. (By the way, some of the people who live in this frugal fashion are wealthy. They simply like simplicity—and using their money for other things––changing the world, for instance.)

Proceed despite detractors

Chances are there is someone close to you who is convinced that they missed out on having a charmed life and they don’t think much of your odds either. Their resignation is like a black hole in the next cubicle or on the other side of the bed. Your assignment, then, is to live a charmed life despite them, not to spite them. Claim your autonomy. You’ve been entrusted with a precious life all your own. Although you owe those around you kindness, consideration, honesty, and respect, you owe yourself a life well lived.

Victoria Moran is the author of 14 books, some shown here, including the international bestseller, Creating a Charmed Life, as well as Main Street Vegan, The Love-Powered Diet, and her newest, Age Like a Yogi. She is founder and director a Main Street Vegan Coach Training Academy and host of the long-running Main Street Vegan Podcast. She is a cofounder of the Compassion Consortium (interfaith spiritual support for animal advocates), recipient with her husband, Rev. William Melton, of the 2025 Homo Ahimsa Award, and inducted in 2024 into the Vegan Hall of Fame. Victoria and William live in New York City with an adopted chihuahua, James, and rescue pigeon, Thunder. Follow her on IG @VictoriaMoranAuthor and FB @VictoriaMoranAuthor and on YouTube @VictoriaMoranOfficial.

]]> https://mainstreetvegan.com/your-charmed-vegan-life-by-victoria-moran/feed/ 0 https://mainstreetvegan.com/how-our-first-family-dog-gave-the-gift-that-keeps-giving-60-years-later-by-laura-toussaint-ph-d-vlce/ https://mainstreetvegan.com/how-our-first-family-dog-gave-the-gift-that-keeps-giving-60-years-later-by-laura-toussaint-ph-d-vlce/#respond Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:00:52 +0000 https://mainstreetvegan.com/?p=25589 Posted March 31, 2026 I thought the story about my polydactyl cat, Taffy, would be the only book I would write about a pet. And then, the story of my parent’s dog, Heidi, started making an appearance through conversations with them. Heidi was very important in shaping their early married life and as parents of […]]]>

Posted March 31, 2026

I thought the story about my polydactyl cat, Taffy, would be the only book I would write about a pet. And then, the story of my parent’s dog, Heidi, started making an appearance through conversations with them. Heidi was very important in shaping their early married life and as parents of two little girls, Heidi served as a well-loved nanny!

A Gift of Love Transcending Time and Space

While Taffy’s book helped me grieve my kitty, Roxy, who had passed a few months before I started volunteering at the shelter where I met Taffy, Heidi’s book was truly a gift to my parents, honoring Heidi’s still-present sweet influence on our family. It shows how love transcends time and space. And ultimately reinforces why we, as vegans, work so hard to advocate for a world that loves and protects our animal friends, showing their unconditional love and joy in this physical life, and beyond.

To this day, my mom still tears up when she talks about Heidi and how this little abandoned runt became the center of our family. For years I wanted to do something special to honor Heidi. I considered hiring an artist to paint her from one of our photos, but the only framed one we had didn’t seem to capture her essence. Then, while searching for photos to create a tribute to my parents’ 60^th anniversary, I got into some serious digging in the attic (you know, the ones in the bins so covered with dust you don’t even know what’s in them anymore?).

Photos Unlocking Memories

A few photo gems of my parents as newlyweds with Heidi inspired many conversations about Heidi and new stories I’d never heard, sparking the idea to write them down. Reflecting upon the way Heidi came into my parents’ lives, literally brought to their doorstep after being abandoned in a sports car, I realized I needed to share the larger remarkable story of their early married life of which she was such an important part.

Heidi’s story is written around her photos. I considered hiring an illustrator as I had done for my previous book, The Tale of Taffy, the Polydactyl Kitty: What Makes Us Different Is What Makes Us Awesome, but I kept discovering more and more pictures of her. How meaningful would it be to my parents and fun for others to see the actual pictures of this most amazing dog and the family so blessed to have her.

These pictures show Heidi right there with us as the center of our family life. Heidi’s gentle, steady presence rooted seemingly ordinary moments in sweetness. In fact, I credit Heidi with instilling my deep-rooted sense that there is no such thing as mundane, and that when each moment is savored, its magic can be felt and appreciated.

Challenging Yet Fun

This was simultaneously the most fun and the most challenging thing I’ve ever written. Fun, for the experience of going down memory lane with my parents about their first baby as a young married couple and their other adventures (such as the helicopter wedding escape that you’ll have to read the book to learn about!). Challenging, because when you accept the sacred obligation of writing somebody else’s stories, you want to do right by them. And that includes respecting the timelines of my muse, who fortunately allowed me to get this published before my parents’ 60th anniversary in April, so now I have an early gift for them.

The flipside is when my muse politely demanded I stay up writing the story during the times that she saw fit to give me downloads on how best to integrate these real life occurrences in a way that would make sense, that meant a few weeks of going to bed anywhere between 3 and 5:30 in the morning! As a bonus surprise, I continued to find pictures to include in the book, necessitating additional rewrites to incorporate each new photo. The journey of writing Heidi’s story within multiple stories and weaving timelines has been such an honor. I hope it will encourage readers to discover what stories in their own family hearts want to be told, and to let the adventure of memory lane surprise them.

Some of the Best Things are Unplanned!

What started out as a tribute to our dear Heidi also turned out to be a tribute to my parents, as I wove the story of how she found them as newlyweds into an amazing 60-year adventure together—and still going strong!

I concluded Heidi’s story recognizing that there is truly no end to her impact on our lives:

“To this day, Heidi remains the heart of their family. She lives on in them through their love for her and for each other. Their hearts have eternally expanded thanks to their first baby and greatest teacher.

They are still planners, but because of Heidi, Tom and Barb know from experience that the best things in life are unplanned!” (Toussaint, 2026: p. 70).

Reference:

Toussaint, Laura. 2026. Amazon KDP. Heidi’s Story: How An Abandoned Runt Found Her Forever Family.

Laura Toussaint has been an advocate for animals since childhood, when she donated her allowance to SpokAnimal Care. At seven years old, she convinced her parents to let her keep an abandoned kitten she found, insisting it would be for “a few days until we can find him a good home.” Her plan, of course, was to prove the best home for the kitten was with her family! That is exactly what happened, and the kitten grew into a cat named CC, who had a wonderful life with them.

Laura is passionate about helping others recognize their unique contributions to making the world a kinder place. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology from American University and is a college professor. A graduate of the Main Street Vegan Academy and long-time vegan, she enjoys sharing how veganism can be a powerful way to save animals and protect the planet.

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Posted March 24, 2026

On the Greek Table, the Lenten Fast, and What It Means to Be Fed Separately by the People Who Love You

My aunt figured it out on her own. The message came through Facebook Messenger, the way it always does with her, and I read it and laughed. She’d been watching me for years, trying to place what I was doing with my food, and then one day something clicked. You’re fasting, she wrote. You’re fasting all year long.

She said it like she’d solved something. And in her terms, she had. But what stayed with me was the translation itself. That she needed one. That the word vegan passed through her without landing, and fasting she already knew.

In Greece I use her language now. When someone asks why I won’t eat what’s on the table, I tell them I fast all year. It works better than the alternative, which requires a small lecture and ends, always, on fish. Even so, they look at me the way you look at someone who has chosen a difficulty that seems, to them, unnecessary. How is that possible, they ask. All year?

What no one says is that the table they’re defending is not the old one. My grandparents came from a mountain village in Central Greece where meat arrived on Sundays, if at all. The week was legumes, greens, olive oil, whatever the land gave. My parents’ generation ate differently, more meat, more often, the markers of arrival. By the time I was making my own choices the table had already shifted. I was moving back toward something they had moved away from. The Greeks who find my eating strange are eating in a way that would have seemed strange to their own grandparents.

I’ve understood this longer in my body than in my head. I went vegetarian thirteen years ago and vegan a year after that. A few years into it I started sitting with Vedic philosophy, eventually at a temple in New York, and found the same root I recognized from the Orthodox Church I grew up in, the understanding that what we consume is not separate from how we live, that the practice of restraint is also a practice of attention, a clearing. I don’t hold the two traditions apart. They are asking, at the bottom, the same thing of me.

What Lent gives back is the table.

In the first two weeks of August, Greece fasts for the Dormition of the Virgin. The fourno has xortopita. The taverna has fasolada. I sit down with my whole family and we are eating the same thing. There is no separate plate, no quiet accommodation, no one rearranging what they’ve made. For those two weeks I am simply inside the meal. The fast that marks an exception for everyone else is, for me, just a Tuesday. But at that table it makes no difference. We are all there together.

I kept Holy Week strictly as a teenager, seven days, with my best friend who was also Greek. We didn’t know how to cook. We leaned on pasta. We counted down to midnight on Holy Saturday the way you count down to the end of something hard, with relief and a little pride. We didn’t talk about what it meant. It was just what you did, the way certain things are simply what you do when you come from where you come from.

I don’t count down anymore. But I still feel the calendar turn. Lent arrives and I notice it the way you notice a season, not because everything changes but because you’re paying attention and you can finally name what’s been true all along. The Church asks for this table forty-eight days a year (including Holy Week), and more, if you count the Wednesdays and Thursdays, the feast days, the two weeks in August for the Dormition. Fakes. Fasolada. Briam. Xorta, which my Yiayia cooked down in olive oil until the greens gave up all their water and the whole kitchen smelled like the earth they came from. I eat this way every day. For those who follow the calendar strictly, the distance between us is smaller than anyone says.

Then Easter comes and the table changes back.

The arni. The pastitsio. The tzatziki. I can make versions of most of it, and I do, and they are good. But I eat them from a separate pot. Everyone else is inside something together and I am next to it. This is the part that doesn’t resolve with time or with better recipes. The food is almost the same. The table is not.

My Yiayia understood something about this without ever naming it. Her kitchen on Easter was loud, cousins stealing loukaniko, my uncles

hovering, and she would shoo them all out so she could finish her work. What I didn’t know until it arrived at the table was that her work included me. Not a scoop set aside. A whole pot, a mini pot of orzo veganized and placed above my plate like it was simply part of the meal, because to her it was.

My cousins teased me about it, gently, the way family teases when something is also a little tender. She’s spoiling you, they said. I didn’t argue. I was being spoiled. There is something about being cared for by your grandmother that you don’t understand is finite until it’s gone.

My mother makes the lamb and orzo now. It’s her contribution to the Easter table, which belongs to everyone to build together, and she makes my orzo separately without being asked. The gesture passes from one woman to the other, and I receive it the way I always have, with gratitude and with the knowledge that it is still a separate pot.

A Recipe for the Lenten Table

When I was seventeen and keeping Holy Week with my best friend, we didn’t know what to make. We ate a lot of pasta. If you’re navigating a Lenten table and want to cook something that actually feels like the food I grew up with, I’m leaving a recipe below.

And if you want more—a full Lenten kitchen, the dishes my Yiayia made without thinking about it—my on-demand cooking class recordings are available [here]. 

The kind of food that doesn’t need a fast to justify it.

Greek Fasolada (White Bean Soup)

A humble village soup built from simple ingredients—white beans, olive oil, and a handful of vegetables—slowly simmered until the broth becomes rich and comforting. The key is tasting as you go, allowing the beans, olive oil, and lemon to find their balance.

Prep time: 15 min

Cook time: 1 hour 30 min

Total time: 1 hour 45 min

Serves: 4-6

Equipment: Large soup pot or Dutch oven, Wooden spoon, Chef’s knife, Cutting board, Citrus juicer (optional but helpful), Ladle

Ingredients

• 1 cup dried Great Northern beans
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil (preferably Greek)
• 1½ cups onion, diced
• 1½ cups celery, diced
• 1½ cups carrots, diced
• 1½–2 teaspoons sea salt, plus more to taste
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 6–8 cups water
• Juice of 1–2 lemons

Preparation

Step 1

Soak the beans: Place the beans in a bowl and cover with plenty of water. Let them soak overnight. (If short on time, bring the beans to a boil for 5 minutes, turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for 1 hour.) Drain and rinse. Before cooking, take a moment to look at them—plump, pale, and ready to soften into the broth.

Step 2

Build the aromatic base: In a large soup pot, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and carrots with a small pinch of salt. Cook gently for about 5–7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Notice how the vegetables begin to soften and release their sweetness. The onions will become translucent, and the kitchen will start to smell warm and comforting. This is the foundation of the soup.

Step 3

Add the beans and water: Stir in the drained beans and add 6–8 cups of water, enough to cover everything by a couple of inches. Bring the pot to a gentle boil, then reduce to a low simmer. Let the soup cook 1–1½ hours, stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender. As it cooks, watch the broth change. The beans will release starch and the soup will slowly become more golden and full-bodied.

Step 4

Taste and adjust: About halfway through cooking, taste the broth. Add salt gradually, tasting after each addition. The goal is a broth that tastes full and alive—not flat. If it feels too thick, add a little more water. This step is where the soup becomes your own.

Step 5

Finish with lemon: Once the beans are tender, turn off the heat and stir in the juice of one lemon. Taste. If the soup feels like it needs brightness, add more lemon juice little by little. The lemon should lift the soup without overpowering the beans and olive oil.

Step 6

Serve Ladle the soup into bowls and finish with: A drizzle of good olive oil Freshly ground black pepper Serve with simple bread for dipping. Fasolada is often even better the next day, when the flavors settle and deepen.

Christina Gdisis is a first-generation Greek American, founder of Conscious Vegan Kitchen, and a writer and guide exploring what it means to live in harmony with food, season, and the cultural rhythms that hold a life together. Drawing on her Greek roots, Vedic philosophy, and fourteen years of conscious eating, she currently writes personal essays, offers plant-based cooking classes, leads a virtual dinner book club, and hosts intimate retreats in Greece. Her work brings people back to the table – to the food, the season, the culture, and the daily rhythm that makes a life feel whole. She lives and writes in Beacon, New York, at christinagdisis.substack.com. (Please visit her Substack and consider subscribing. This wonderful essay first appeared there.)