Do any of these situations feel familiar?
You're at your grandmother's house and everyone has an opinion about what you're eating. You're there for Sunday dinner, and the table's full. There's rice and peas, oxtail, curry chicken, macaroni and cheese, and fried plantain. You love this food. It's everything you grew up on. But you've been trying to eat differently, and you're not sure what to put on your plate. Your cousin notices you hesitating and says, "don't tell me you're doing that vegan thing now." And suddenly the whole table is weighing in on why you need meat to be healthy.
This is your fifth attempt at eating plant-based, and part of you is already waiting for it to fall apart. You've done this before… felt amazing for a few weeks, your joint pain eased up, you felt lighter and more alive, and then life got busy, and you slipped back into old habits. Now your knees are aching again and you're dragging by noon, and you're starting over from square one.
Every time you look for guidance on going plant-based, it feels like it’s just not for you. You're at your laptop, feeling bloated and miserable after dinner again, and you go to YouTube and type in "how to go plant-based." But every thumbnail is the same thin white woman, the same aesthetic, the same girl boss energy that has nothing to do with your life, and not a single dish that looks like anything you grew up eating. You close the tab.
You know you want to go plant-based, but when it comes to actually knowing what to eat, you have no idea where to start. You're scrolling Instagram and come across someone’s before and after. In their before photos, they look tired and sluggish, and their after photos show them looking vibrant and energized. They mention how their fibroids have started to shrink, they lost weight without trying, and their brain fog cleared up. You start feeling hopeful that you could have that same transformation. But when you try to picture what you'd actually eat for dinner tonight without meat or dairy, your mind goes completely blank.
You've been trying to make plant-based versions of your favorite foods, but nothing tastes the same, and you’re starting to wonder if eating healthy means never enjoying food again. You sit down to dinner with your fried "chicken" made from oyster mushrooms and cashew "mac and cheese" that took two hours to make and ingredients you had to track down at three different stores. You take a bite and it's... fine. But it's not the same. You eat half of it, then pick up your phone and order takeout. Again.
You join a plant-based membership hoping to finally get some support, but the community is overwhelmingly white and feels like it has nothing to do with your life. You start going through the content and it looks good. You're feeling cautiously hopeful. Then you make your way into the community section. One of the first things you see is a photo of a white woman with "locs" holding a bowl of fruit. A few posts down, a white guy is "rapping" about beating up meat eaters. The comments are mostly fire emojis. You just wanted to learn how to eat more plants. You're not sure what you just walked into.
You finally find a black plant-based community that feels like home, until someone shares their pronouns and the comments turn ugly. You spend the first few days just reading, nodding along, feeling a sense of belonging you haven't felt in any of the other groups you've tried. Then someone posts a sweet introduction, sharing their name, their health struggles, and that they go by they/them. Some people welcome them warmly, but then things shift. Someone calls it an agenda, and the comments just get uglier from there. You scroll looking for a moderator response, only to see one of them heart-reacting the ugly comments.
You come across a post from a white plant-based coach you follow using slavery imagery to make a point about diet, and the comments are full of praise. It's an AI-generated image of enslaved black people in chains with the words "stop eating like a slave" written over it. Underneath is a list of foods from your culture. The post has hundreds of likes. People in the comments, most of them white, are saying things like "so powerful" and "this needed to be said." You read through waiting for someone to push back. Nobody does.
If you recognized yourself in one or more of these scenarios, you're exactly who this is for.
Who I work with…
If you're still not sure this is really for you, I work with black women and femmes at any stage of their plant-based journey, including:
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Complete beginners who have never tried plant-based eating
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People who have tried going plant-based before but keep starting and stopping
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Vegetarians or vegans who heavily rely on packaged products, vegan junk food, and meat substitutes, and want to start eating more whole plant foods
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People who are already plant-based but not seeing the health improvements they expected, or even feeling worse
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People who have tried a raw vegan diet, but found it unsatisfying and want to incorporate some simple cooked foods without feeling guilty
There's just one more thing I want to mention before you decide if this is right for you.
My approach works best if you...
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genuinely believe that food can change how you feel in your body
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are willing to take things slowly and trust the process
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care about where your food comes from and what's in it
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are open to learning and trying new things in the kitchen
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are willing to be honest with yourself about your habits and patterns
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are open to questioning conventional ideas about diet, health, and healing
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want to understand why this way of eating works, not just blindly follow a plan
Does this sound like you?
If so, I'm confident I can help you go plant-based and stay plant-based, in a space where you can actually relax and be yourself, without feeling deprived or overwhelmed in the process.
Want to stay connected?
I'd love to walk alongside you and support you on your journey. Every week, I share things I've learned and simple meal ideas to help you stay consistent. Plus, you'll hear when I have openings for 1-on-1 support if that's something you're interested in.
