Hey there! I'm Jenny — I'm a juicer and in my happy place when I'm knee-deep in food prep or creating a new vegan recipe (or three 🤪). I'm also a self-taught, full-time plant-based experimenter 🌿. I went completely plant-based a little over a year ago after witnessing firsthand what food could actually do — and heal — for me. I had tried it ALL. Keto, Carnivore, Atkins, GLP-1, powders, pills… you name it. Nothing worked, and I was simply sick and tired of being sick and tired. So I joined a 28-day online fruitarian challenge — and went all in. 🥳 Since then, I've shed 60 lbs naturally, reversed pre-diabetes, dropped my fasting blood sugar from 165 → 72, lowered my A1C from 6.9 → 5.0, healed my gut, cleared my brain fog, healed insulin resistance, reduced inflammation, and finally started pooping daily (hallelujah 🙌). Once my body felt this good, my heart naturally followed — and that's when I became fully vegan. For the first time in my adult life, I've been able to maintain a healthy weight — and at 48 years young, I'm on ZERO medications, prescription or over-the-counter. That's huge, considering I was medicated for most of my adult life. Now I share the real, the messy, the delicious, and the always-magical journey of living plant-based — the food, the habits, and the everyday wins (and losses) — so people can see that healthy living doesn't have to be hard or boring. —> Rooted & Wild

First of all, welcome to our newest members, @Tatyana Madzharova , @Elena Maren , @Elizabeth R , @René Barlow , @Steven Bornstein , @Chelsea Sachs , and @Andrea Lecos !! Relaxation Saturday serves as a reminder for us to take time to relax TODAY, this weekend, and beyond. Relaxing can be as simple as taking a few deep breaths, humming and singing to yourself as you drive somewhere, or as involved as spending an hour in meditation and prayer. Whatever works for you, however you can fit it in, is just right! Sharing some videos of our amazing animals on this relaxation Saturday. Sheep eating grass, guinea hen doing the ancient art of “dirt bathing”… Spending time with animals and watching them just do their thing is one of my favorite ways to relax.

What about for this week? Do you have one thing, or is it 2-3? Either way is fine. Would love to hear what your focus is for today and for this week! Asking yourself this question regularly can help you get clarity around your next steps, and keep you on track. Asking myself this question often helps keep me focused and prevents overwhelm. My most important thing this week is getting ready for our trip to Bulgaria. I’m excited to connect with family I haven’t seen in over 8 years! All meetings are off the calendar. Other priorities can wait. My focus is on packing, cleaning the house so we don’t come back to a pig sty, getting animals ready for caretaker, etc.

It felt so good, but when I noticed the time, I realized I had missed starting the Relax and Connect Call. Oops!😬 So sorry if you happened to show up this morning. I’m on the Zoom right now , if anyone wanted to join me. You can find the link on the calendar, www.skool.com/releasetheweight/calendar

I started this community as a support group for anyone who struggles with emotional eating or excess weight. These are the challenges that I’m passionate about helping to solve and have become very knowledgeable about as a result of my own struggles. As you may have seen via posts and announcements, I’m playing with the idea of making Thrive a place that’s more generally about all aspects of health and wellness. The idea is to make this a place where various health and wellness experts and professionals can share master classes and we can all up our health and wellness game in a variety of areas, and discuss concepts we may disagree about, and learn and grow. But, I put the cart before the horse. It would have been good to ask before jumping in and making changes. Better late than never, so I’m asking now. Do you like the idea of sticking to the core concepts we started with…focusing on overcoming emotional eating and letting go of excess weight? Or does it excite you to have this be a group that’s more generally about health and wellness and not specifically tied to just emotional eating? Regardless of which direction we decide to go, I will still be here talking about overcoming emotional eating and letting go of the mental, emotional, and physical weight that holds us back. Vote in the poll and share your thoughts in the comments. Please and thank you 😊