Ready to Nourish Boldly?

If you're ready to move beyond simply knowing what you "should" be doing and start building a way of nourishing yourself that actually fits your life, I invite you to check out Nourish Boldly: Small Shifts, my new four-week Plant Powered Collective program.

The Founding Cohort begins October 12 with a special Founding Cohort investment of $797, before the program becomes evergreen at the intended $997 investment.

You'll receive lifetime access to the core program and downloads, plus three months at the paid level of my personal Substack beginning as soon as you register. That's where you'll pull up a chair at our Founding Table to continue learning, asking questions, connecting and putting what you're learning into practice.

Explore Nourish Boldly: Small Shifts and reserve your seat at the Founding Table:

bit.ly/4iJ1NbV.

Nourish Boldly. Live Vibrantly.

What nourishes us?

At Plant Powered Collective, I talk often about what is on the plate and around the plate. But in this episode, I’m adding another question:

Who’s at your table?

My guest, Beth Housewert, has been at mine for years.

Beth and I met when we worked together at a children’s museum. She led the education department, while I managed development and membership. We worked closely together creating fundraising experiences that also had to be educational, engaging and meaningful for children and families.

Somewhere between the events, creativity, problem-solving and probably a little chaos, we became friends.

Today, we are both entrepreneurs. Beth is the founder of Inspired Impact, consulting with museums and museum leaders, while I am building Plant Powered Collective. We belong to entrepreneur masterminds, meet regularly to talk through our businesses and ideas, and are also part of a very informal group of women navigating menopause that keeps the conversation refreshingly real. 

Yes, it is called Hot Bitches. 

Because sometimes nourishment looks like talking about leadership and business strategy.

Sometimes it is sharing what is happening with our changing bodies, hot flashes, nutrition and midlife.

And sometimes it is simply laughing with women who understand.

In this conversation, Beth and I talk about:

• What is nourishing her on the plate and around the plate
• How colleagues become lifelong friends
• Why the people at our table matter
• Beth’s journey from museum education leader to entrepreneur
• The story and mission behind Inspired Impact
• Leadership, confidence and entrepreneurship
• Why entrepreneurs need relationships that go deeper than networking
• The importance of community for women navigating midlife and menopause
• Why play and curiosity are not just for children
• Bringing play, experimentation and creativity back into food
• The difference between support and simply agreeing with someone
• How friendship, purpose, work, laughter and connection are all forms of nourishment

And, of course, we finish with a speed round.

This episode is an invitation to think beyond what is on your plate.

• Who makes you think differently?
• Who makes you laugh?
• Who gives you space to say what you are really thinking?
• Who challenges you?
• Who reminds you that you do not have to figure everything out alone?
• Who’s at your table?

And perhaps just as importantly:

Whose table are you showing up for?

CONNECT WITH BETH

Learn more about Beth Housewert and Inspired Impact:
https://www.inspired-impact.com

Connect with Beth on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-housewert-3b6b8284/

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION WITH LORI

I’m also writing more personally on Substack about nutrition, midlife, leadership, caregiving, lifestyle, relationships and what it means to build a life that actually nourishes us.

Find and subscribe to me on Substack at @loriwillinski.

Subscribe to the Plant Powered Collective Podcast wherever you listen, and share this episode with someone you are grateful to have at your table.

Nourish Boldly. Live Vibrantly.

Show Notes

What if supporting your gut health did not mean buying more food, following another protocol, or eating another giant salad?

This week on the Plant Powered Collective Podcast, we are talking about something much simpler: leftovers, plant variety, and resistant starch.

Most of us have been taught to focus heavily on protein, and protein absolutely matters. But gut health needs a broader conversation.

A salad is wonderful. Spinach in your smoothie is wonderful. But eating the same few plants repeatedly is different from eating a variety of plants. Different plants bring different fibers, phytonutrients, textures, flavors, and compounds to the table. That variety helps create a more diverse food supply for the community of microbes living in your gut.

In this episode, Lori Willinski, Founder of the Plant Powered Collective, breaks down resistant starch in very simple language and explains why cooked and cooled foods like potatoes, rice, and pasta can be interesting for gut health.

But this episode is really about something bigger. It is about making nourishment easier.

You will hear how:

• Plant variety supports a more diverse gut environment
• Protein matters, but it is not the whole nutrition conversation
• Plant foods can contribute meaningful protein too
• Cooked and cooled starches can contain more resistant starch
• Leftovers can become building blocks for completely different meals
• Herbs, seeds, vegetables, beans, sauces, and condiments can quickly increase plant variety
• Kitchen systems can reduce decision fatigue and make nourishing choices easier
• The 30 Plants Challenge is not about perfection or reaching a magic number

Lori also shares a real lunch she made from leftover pasta with parsley, basil, tomatoes, banana peppers from her friend Mary Jo’s Massachusetts garden, spring onions, white beans, yogurt, and lemon, while her father added leftover salmon to his.

Same foundation. Different plates. Bio-individual eating in real life.

This Week’s Simple Experiment

The next time you cook something that keeps well, make a little extra. Then instead of asking: “How do I reheat this?” Ask: “What can I add to this?”

Takeaway

Cook once. Use it more than once. Add variety each time.

The goal is not to completely change the way you eat. Start with what you already do. Then add.

Reflection Question: What is one food you already make regularly that you could make extra of and turn into something completely different tomorrow?

Download the 30 Plants Challenge (https://community.plantpoweredcollective.com/plant-powered-collective-gut-series) to take a closer look at the variety already showing up in your week. Then join Lori's Substack (https://substack.com/@loriwillinski) for more nutrition and lifestyle insights.

What if employee wellness stopped treating mental health, nutrition, stress, energy, and performance as separate issues?

In this episode of the Plant Powered Collective Podcast, Lori Willinski sits down with her friend and colleague Dr. Charity Godfrey for a conversation about what it really means to support people as whole people, especially in the workplace.

Lori and Charity are also co-founders of The Vantage Collective, a corporate wellness collaboration bringing together clinical mental health expertise, integrative nutrition, lifestyle, and leadership experience.

Their belief is simple: how we eat, sleep, manage stress, think, lead, communicate, and recover are interconnected. And those factors do not stay at home when someone walks into work.

In this conversation, Lori and Charity explore:

• Why employee wellness needs to go beyond checking a box
• The relationship between mental well-being, nutrition, stress, and performance
• Why supporting the whole person can influence energy, clarity, resilience, and decision-making
• The importance of sustainable habits rather than short-term wellness interventions
• Why organizations need wellness strategies that reflect the actual lives of their employees
• How different professional perspectives can come together to create more meaningful workplace wellness

This conversation is also a glimpse into how Lori and Charity work together through The Vantage Collective, combining two professional lenses around one goal: helping leaders, teams, and organizations operate from a position of greater clarity, sustainable performance, and well-being.

WORK WITH US

If your organization is rethinking employee wellness, leadership well-being, professional development, or whole-person performance, we would love to start a conversation.

The Vantage Collective is available for corporate presentations, keynotes, workshops, customized programs, retreats, and organizational wellness consulting.

Learn more, contact us, or explore how The Vantage Collective can work with your organization: the-vantagecollective.com

Clarity. Performance. Transformation.

What if supporting your gut started with adding more, not taking more away?

In this episode of the Plant Powered Collective Podcast, I’m introducing the 30 Plants Challenge, but perhaps not in the way you expect.

This is not a diet. It is not 30 vegetables. It is not an elimination plan. And it is definitely not another exercise in nutritional perfection. Instead, I want to use 30 plants as an invitation to become curious about the variety already on your plate and discover simple ways to expand it.

The idea of eating more than 30 different plant foods per week gained attention through the American Gut Project. Researchers found differences in the gut microbial communities of participants reporting more than 30 plant types per week compared with those reporting fewer than 10. Importantly, the research does not establish 30 as a magic number or a universal prescription. It gives us an interesting framework for exploring dietary diversity. 

And that is exactly how I want us to use it.

Instead of asking: What do I have to stop eating?

Let’s ask: What could I add?

In this episode, we talk about why I would like to move away from the word diet altogether, how plant diversity can fit into the meals you already enjoy, why your starting point matters more than hitting an arbitrary number, and how to build variety gradually without turning gut health into another full-time job.

You’ll also hear why I believe better nutrition often begins with curiosity rather than discipline.

In this episode

• Why the 30 Plants Challenge is about diversity, not perfection
• What the American Gut Project actually tells us about plant variety
• Why 30 should be viewed as a framework rather than a score
• Why I want to move the conversation away from dieting and restriction
• How herbs, spices, nuts, seeds, whole grains and legumes can contribute to plant diversity
• How to assess your current plant variety before changing anything
• Why adding can be more sustainable than eliminating
• How to make meals you already love more plant-diverse
• Why bio-individuality still matters
• How to increase fiber gradually and listen to your body

Your challenge this week

Before trying to eat 30 plants, count what you already eat. No judgment. No grade. That is your starting point.

Then ask:

What is one meal I already love that I could make just a little more plant-diverse?

Join the Free 30 Plants Challenge + Gut Health Series. We’ll take the science around plant-forward nutrition and turn it into practical, sustainable action that works in your real life.

Start here:
https://community.plantpoweredcollective.com/plant-powered-collective-gut-series

And if you know another woman who is ready for a nutrition conversation that feels more expansive and a lot less restrictive, share this episode with her.

Nourish Boldly. Live Vibrantly.

The Plant Powered Collective Method: How to Build a Healthy Lifestyle That Adapts to Real Life

What if the healthiest lifestyle isn't the most perfect one? What if it's the one that can change when your life changes?

In this episode of the Plant Powered Collective Podcast, I’m getting personal about where the Plant Powered Collective Method actually came from.

Long before I had words like Listen, Clarify, Nourish, Design, Practice, Reflect, and Integrate, I was already learning what they meant in my own life.

What is one part of your lifestyle that needs to evolve for the season you're in right now?

• You don't have to change everything.
• Listen first.
• Get curious.

Then decide what needs to shift.

You can continue exploring the Plant Powered Collective Method through my short talking-head video series on social media and YouTube, and join me on Substack, where I’m going deeper into the personal experiences and thinking behind nutrition, lifestyle, caregiving, brain health, midlife, and Plant Powered Collective.

Nourish Boldly. Live Vibrantly.

Welcome back to the Plant Powered Collective Podcast.

If you've ever wondered why it's so difficult to stay consistent with healthy habits, this episode may completely change the way you think about brain health.

The truth is, your brain isn't asking you for more willpower. It's asking you for better routines.

In this episode, I explore how simple, repeatable daily habits can support memory, focus, energy, and long-term cognitive health, especially during midlife. Together, we'll talk about why decision fatigue happens, how routines reduce stress on the brain, and why small, consistent actions often matter more than dramatic lifestyle overhauls.

I also share personal reflections from my caregiving journey with my father, who lives with dementia and primary progressive aphasia, and how that experience has reshaped the way I think about caring for my own brain.

You'll also learn practical ways to create "brain anchors" through nutrition, movement, sleep, environment, and connection, along with a simple brain-supportive meal that fits real life.

This conversation is backed by research showing that habits are built through consistent repetition, not perfection.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why your brain prefers routine over willpower

• How decision fatigue affects your daily choices

• The science behind habit formation and neuroplasticity

• Five simple routines that support brain health

• How to design your kitchen and environment to make healthy choices easier

• A delicious brain-supportive meal you can prepare ahead of time

Research Highlight

Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C.H.M., Potts, H.W.W., & Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology.

Join the FREE Plant Powered Collective Community

The Plant Powered Collective Community helps women turn plant-forward nutrition and lifestyle insights into practical, sustainable action.

Book a complimentary Integrative Nutrition Strategy Session

Listen to previous Brain Health episodes

Subscribe so you never miss a new episode released every Monday.

Remember...

It isn't about building the perfect routine.

It's about building one you can repeat.

Nourish Boldly. Live Vibrantly.

Show Notes

One tray of roasted sweet potatoes can become far more than a repeated side dish.

In this episode of the Plant Powered Collective Podcast, I explore how one familiar ingredient can become several delicious, nutrient-rich meals when we change the fragrance, acidity, texture, flavor base, and presentation.

The sweet potatoes began as one of several nourishing toppings at a make-your-own nacho dinner with friends and their three boys. I made extra so I could use them as the foundation for meals throughout the week.

Those extra sweet potatoes became two completely different dishes:

• A warm sweet potato, beluga lentil, and charred radicchio salad with pear, orange, sherry vinegar, pistachios, and pumpkin seeds
• A miso-glazed sweet potato and soba noodle plate with edamame, shiitake mushrooms, bok choy, ginger, quick-pickled cucumber, and toasted seeds

The ingredients are delicious, but their purpose goes beyond flavor. Sweet potatoes provide fiber and colorful carotenoids, including beta-carotene in orange varieties. Lentils contribute plant protein, fiber, folate, iron, potassium, and other nutrients. Pumpkin and sunflower seeds add unsaturated fats, plant protein, minerals, earthiness, and the textural contrast that soft foods often need.

Vinegar, citrus, ginger, herbs, and quick-pickled vegetables add acidic fragrance and brightness. They help make simple plant foods more interesting without requiring heavy sauces or complicated preparation.

This episode also continues the conversation about nourishment around the plate. I share how I am focusing on restorative sleep by limiting evening screen time and lowering the lights in my home as the sun goes down. This is part of supporting my brain today, building a foundation for my future brain, and creating a calmer evening rhythm for my father, who is living with dementia and primary progressive aphasia.

Controlled studies have found that prolonged evening exposure to light-emitting screens can suppress melatonin and delay circadian timing. Individual responses vary, but the research supports my decision to experiment with a gentler transition into the evening.

In This Episode, You Will Learn

• Why roasted sweet potatoes are a flexible meal-preparation foundation
• How sweet potatoes contribute fiber, carotenoids, potassium, vitamin C, and vitamin B6
• Why seeds add both nutrients and essential textural contrast
• How to dry-pan toast pumpkin and sunflower seeds
• How to use vinegar and citrus to add acidic fragrance
• How to balance sweet, bitter, savory, acidic, soft, and crisp ingredients
• How to prepare a warm beluga lentil and charred radicchio salad
• How to make a miso-glazed sweet potato and soba noodle plate
• How to make quick-pickled cucumbers and other refrigerator pickles
• How one prepared ingredient can become two completely different meals
• Why plant variety matters for the gut microbiome
• How evening light and screen habits can influence the transition toward sleep
• How to introduce plant-forward foods while respecting individual preferences

A Science Nerd Note

The peer-reviewed American Gut Project found an association between the number of different plant foods people reported eating and the diversity of their gut microbiomes. Participants who reported eating more than 30 types of plants per week had greater microbial diversity than those reporting fewer than 10.

This was an observational association, not proof that everyone needs to reach a particular number. It does, however, reinforce the value of eating different vegetables, fruits, beans, lentils, grains, herbs, spices, nuts, and seeds over time.

Recipes Featured

Warm Sweet Potato, Beluga Lentil, and Charred Radicchio Salad

Roasted sweet potatoes are paired with beluga lentils, charred radicchio, pear or apple, arugula, parsley, orange, sherry vinegar, pistachios, and pumpkin seeds.

Miso-Glazed Sweet Potato and Soba Noodle Plate

Roasted sweet potatoes are glazed with miso, ginger, lime, and rice vinegar, then served with soba noodles, edamame, bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, scallions, quick-pickled cucumber, cilantro, and toasted seeds.

Reflection: What familiar ingredient could become the beginning of something delicious, nutritious, and completely new?

Continue the Conversation

Join the Plant Powered Collective Community and share how you use one prepared ingredient in two different ways. 

The Plant Powered Collective Community helps women turn plant-forward nutrition and lifestyle insights into practical, sustainable action.

You can also schedule a complimentary integrative nutrition session to explore how plant-forward nourishment can fit your needs, preferences, family, and real life.

Show Notes

What if your kitchen did more than store food?

What if it encouraged creativity, made nourishing choices easier, and helped you introduce more plant variety without creating more work?

In this episode of the Plant Powered Collective Podcast, Lori explores how an organized pantry and refrigerator can support brain and gut nourishment by reducing friction, encouraging curiosity, and making flavorful plant-forward meals more accessible.

This is not about creating an Instagram-perfect pantry. It is about organizing your kitchen so you can see what you have, combine familiar ingredients in new ways, and feel more confident preparing food for yourself and your family.

Lori also shares what is currently nourishing her on and around the plate. Seasonal tomatoes are inspiring fresh salads, roasted dishes, simple pastas, and composed hummus plates. Around the plate, she is adding intentional resistance to everyday movement by wearing a weighted vest while working, caring for her father, and moving through her home.

In This Episode, You Will Learn

• How kitchen organization can support brain and gut nourishment
• Why cooking curiosity can encourage learning, sensory engagement, and plant variety
• How to organize a pantry according to meal function rather than appearance
• The five pantry zones that make plant-forward meals easier
• How fresh herbs, spices, citrus, and vinegars create fast flavor
• Why toasted nuts and seeds add important texture and earthiness
• How to make quick-pickled vegetables
• How to create elevated but approachable composed plates
• How familiar food and experimentation can exist on the same plate
• How to build flexible meals for people with different preferences

A curious kitchen does not require unfamiliar food or complicated recipes.

You can begin with a tomato, a can of beans, a handful of herbs, or a bowl of hummus. Keep one foot in your comfort zone and place the other in possibility.

What familiar ingredient could you present, fragrance, or combine differently this week?

Join the Conversation

The Plant Powered Collective Community helps women turn plant-forward nutrition and lifestyle insights into practical, sustainable action.

Join the community:
https://community.plantpoweredcollective.com/offers/omN4KQ2j/checkout

Schedule a complimentary integrative nutrition session:
https://community.plantpoweredcollective.com/offers/T4eNw9ki/checkout

Visit:
plantpoweredcollective.com

Nourish Boldly  |  Live Vibrantly

Brain Health for Women: Menopause, HRT, Caregiving and Healthy Aging

Brain health is not separate from the life a woman is living. It is connected to nutrition, sleep, movement, stress, hormonal changes, mental and  emotional wellbeing, relationships, purpose, work, caregiving, and the environments we create around ourselves.

In this personal episode of the Plant Powered Collective Podcast, Lori begins with the foundations of brain health and explains why the familiar habits we discuss repeatedly still matter. Knowing that sleep, movement, plants, and connection support health is only the beginning. Repetition creates rhythm, rhythm makes nourishing choices easier to repeat, and repeated actions can become habits.

Lori then shares how brain health has become deeply personal through caring for her father, who is living with dementia and primary progressive aphasia. She speaks honestly about the love, grief, frustration, tenderness, humor, exhaustion, and complicated emotions that can exist together during caregiving.

At the same time, Lori is building a business, writing a brain nourishment book, creating meaningful community work, and learning how to protect her own capacity while caring for someone she loves. This experience has also encouraged Lori to become more intentional about her personal health. After lab work confirmed that she is postmenopausal, she worked with her healthcare provider to begin hormone replacement therapy cream as one component of her individualized health plan. The goal is not to pursue an impossible version of perfection. It is to become the best version of herself: present, connected, clear, purposeful, and able to live vibrantly according to her own definition. Through these experiences, Lori has recognized that Plant Powered Collective is building something much broader than a nutrition plan. It is helping women establish foundations for their whole lives.

In this episode, Lori introduces three foundational Plant Powered Collective concepts:

Agency: Taking an active role in the design of your health, lifestyle, relationships, work, home, and future.

Relational leadership: Leading your life through awareness, curiosity, context, connection, and respect for yourself and others.

Stewardship: Intentionally caring for your health, mental wellbeing, energy, time, relationships, home, resources, purpose, and future.

You will also hear how the Plant Powered Collective imagery of the plate, table, and chair connects nourishment with the full context of a woman’s life.

The plate represents nourishment.

The table represents the physical, emotional, relational, environmental, and lifestyle factors surrounding our choices.

The chair represents agency and a woman’s place in the conversation about her own life.

This episode also includes an introduction to the upcoming digital brain nourishment book, publishing in September 2026, and the work Lori and Dr. Charity Godfrey are developing through The Vantage Collective.

In This Episode

• Why brain health must be supported on and around the plate
• How repetition helps nourishing actions become habits
• The relationship between nutrition, sleep, movement, stress, connection, and brain health
• Lori’s experience caring for her father with dementia and primary progressive aphasia
• The complicated emotions associated with caregiving
• Building a business while carrying invisible personal responsibilities
• Lori’s postmenopausal health journey and decision to begin prescribed HRT cream
• Why HRT is one part of a bio-individual health plan
• What it means to become the best version of yourself
• The broader foundation being built through Plant Powered Collective
• PPC’s definitions of agency, relational leadership, and stewardship
• The plate, table, and chair framework
• The upcoming digital brain nourishment book
• How The Vantage Collective supports whole-person wellness and leadership

Reflection Questions

• What part of your lifestyle is supporting your future self?
• What responsibility are you carrying that others may not see?
• Have you normalized a symptom because you have learned how to function around it?
• Where do you need to reclaim agency?
• Where could you replace self-criticism with curiosity?
• What part of your life needs more intentional stewardship?

Join the Plant Powered Collective Community

You do not need to redesign your entire life at once. Begin with one meaningful shift, repeat it, and allow it to become part of the foundation supporting the woman you are today and the woman you are becoming.

Join the free Plant Powered Collective Community for practical resources, plant-forward recipes, personal reflections, upcoming book updates, and supportive conversations about building health on and around the plate:

https://community.plantpoweredcollective.com/offers/omN4KQ2j/checkout

Nourish boldly. Live vibrantly.

Educational Disclaimer

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individualized medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Hormone therapy and other healthcare decisions are bio-individual and should be discussed with a qualified healthcare professional.