Two years ago my mom slowly began incorporating plant-based meals into her life. She is fully plant-based now and states “I have no desire to eat red meat ever again”. She may not admit it because of fear of a relapse, but she is physically doing very well. She has suffered from chronic pain for 20 years, arachnoiditis. She is the inspiration behind Hope For Pain. My husband and I knew after years of research that food can be used as medicine. My mom slowly caught on and made small changes to her diet, but over time she realized she felt better.

Make introducing plant-based foods to your loved ones a fun occasion. Challenge yourself to one night a week, researching new recipes to test on each other. Don’t expect your loved ones to create the dinners in the beginning. Soon they will want to try it because the food tastes so good. Use holidays to get creative. We made a vegan Irish stew last night for St. Patricks Day. Give your evening a fun name and hashtag (#sundayswithNaNa). Post on social media, share with us at @thehopeforpain or #healingthroughfood. Keep the recipes you love, to use again and again. Create a fun journal of all your recipe favorites. We at Hope for Pain love the “Forks over Knives” recipes, often sourced from vegan chefs all over the world, or try your creations.

Here are some of our favorites to help you get started. I do love cabbage so the two below are heavily laden with cabbage. Any recipe from the Fiber Fueled book by Dr. will Bulsiewicz https://theplantfedgut.com/. They are all so good, with my favorite being the “Sunday Pasta”. And https://www.eatingbirdfood.com/teriyaki-tempeh-and-broccoli/ , a local chef from Richmond Virginia.