Oct. 28, 2025

365: No Cheat Days Needed - Create the Life You Don’t Want to Escape

Tired of counting down to your next cheat day? God never intended food to be a source of guilt or restriction. Join Christian healthcare professionals Jarrod and Anita as they reveal how ministry leaders and purpose-driven entrepreneurs are creating a plant-based lifestyle so enjoyable, they never feel deprived. Discover the freedom that comes from eating the way God originally designed.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL DISCOVER:
• Biblical principles for whole food plant-based eating
• Why Christian leaders struggle with traditional diets
• God's design for sustainable, exciting healthy living
• The simple way to make plant-based meals sustainable
• The mindset shift to break free from restrictive eating forever

PERFECT FOR YOU IF YOU'RE:
• Ready for your body to finally, fully support your God-given mission
• A Christian leader seeking natural health solutions
• Called to model biblical wellness in your business and life
• Ready for sustainable plant-based living
• Done with worldly diet culture

Transform your approach to healthy eating. Join us for this practical episode bridging biblical nutrition with simple, enjoyable whole food solutions.

Click here to have our favorite fruits and berries shipped straight to your door.

💃🏻 Ready to love the meals that fuel your purpose? Inside Accelerator, you’ll master our proven 5-Step Whole Food Plant-Based Framework to gain steady energy, clear focus, and lasting joy for your God-given calling. 🌿 Join the Waitlist - doors open soon! 💕 Not yet in our Peak Performance Network? Join today for faith-filled support and simple strategies that last. 🥣 Craving flavor? Grab our Cookbook Bundles and discover how delicious healthy can be! Click here to get our favorite dried fruits and frozen berries shipped directly to you.

00:00 - Redefining Health As Daily Joy

01:30 - Welcome And Listener Shoutouts

03:25 - Guest Features And Where To Watch

04:12 - The Frozen Superfruit Delivery

06:05 - Create A Life Without Cheat Days

10:20 - New Berries, New Favorites

13:40 - Tart Alert: Sea Buckthorn Stories

WEBVTT

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So, in the same way, you don't want to have a life that you just need a vacation from, right?

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You want to live the vacation every day.

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We want to set up our life like that in eating healthy foods.

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If we love it so much and we never feel deprived and we don't have to restrict our portions or count our calories or eat food that tastes nasty in the name of health, you're setting yourself up for huge wins that are going to last.

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And that is what we're all about.

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Hey sister, welcome to the Power on Plants podcast.

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Are you tired of staring into the fridge wondering what to eat so you can just feel better?

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Do you want to avoid spending hours in the kitchen making complicated meals in the name of health?

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Would you love to leave fatigue behind and finally have the energy to do all the things you want to do?

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Hi, we're Jared and Eatery's Hell Christfollowers, healthcare professionals, parents of four, and big fans of great tasting food.

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We too tried exercising more, eating natural and clean foods, but we still found ourselves struggling with what we thought were changes that come with age or bad genes.

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And we weren't finding answers the traditional route, so we dug into the research and created our secret nutritional weapon, sustainable plant-based living.

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The truth is you can eat more whole plant foods, and it's not hard.

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You just need the way that's realistic and delicious so you never feel deprived.

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If you're ready to enjoy your meals, no longer be held back by your health struggles and actively live your life, then you're in the right place.

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So grab your favorite plant-based cup of happy, pop in those earbuds, and let's get started.

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Hello, Sunshine, and welcome to the Power on Plants Podcast, where Jared and I show you how to eat more whole plant foods in the way that's simple and really enjoyable so you can heal naturally, finally feel good, and 10x your productivity to fully enjoy living your God-given dreams.

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I'm Anita, a nurse and certified integrative nutrition health coach.

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And my name is Jared Roussel.

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I'm a physician assistant, husband, and father.

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Oh, you got fancy there, didn't you?

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I was branching out.

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I have some extra important credentials there.

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We are so happy to have you joining the Power on Plants family.

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Now, I know I may be very partial, but I think that we have the absolute best community out there.

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And we want to start out today's episode shouting out two of our listeners who took the time to leave us a review, sharing how this podcast has helped them in some real practical and exciting ways.

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The first one is John, who said, This is absolutely my favorite podcast because it's full of information and resources.

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When I listen, I gain wonderful insights on a wide range of topics, including lots of fantastic ideas for making meals taste great.

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Not only that, Jared and Anita are very accessible.

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Unlike other famous podcasters and YouTubers, you can actually join their community and get real support.

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Best of all, they bring a unique biblical aspect to plant-based living.

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Brother, we love having you in our plant-based family.

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And thank you for taking the time to leave us a review.

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And Aubrey wrote, Anita and Jared are so much fun to listen to.

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They are a wealth of information on so many topics regarding your health and plant-based eating.

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This podcast is a hidden gem.

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Well, Aubrey, I can promise you we are not trying to hide.

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We actually are having so much fun receiving requests to be on other podcasts as well lately and to be expert guest blog authors too, which reminds me we were just invited by Heather Bedard to be on her amazing podcast, Holistic Health Strategies for Moms.

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We're on episodes number 91, 92, and 93 of her podcast.

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If you want to catch the audio, or you can watch the entire video interview, which you can find on YouTube using the at symbol, followed by Power on Plants.

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That's at PoweronPlants.

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This is an interview you are not going to want to miss.

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Jared and I dropped pure gold after pure gold.

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So go and check that out as soon as this episode is over.

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And today we want to share with you something that we recently received that felt like a great big birthday surprise delivered right to our front doorstep.

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It was a huge, beautiful box of colorful, freshly frozen whole plant foods.

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I mean, it really doesn't get any better than that in front of you.

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No, beautiful foods, delicious, and delivered straight to your door.

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It just doesn't get any better.

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So here's the thing: it was shipped all the way across the United States.

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And as many of you know, we live in the panhandle of Florida, and this was summer.

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I mean, we're now getting into fall, but it was summertime still.

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It's still hot down here, shipped all the way from the Pacific Northwest.

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We didn't expedite it, didn't ship it fast or anything, but the way they packaged this produce was amazing.

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It arrived here, it still had plenty of dry ice left, and it was frozen, solid, and absolutely delicious.

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And the best part is inside were foods that we don't normally see in our local store.

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That's one of the big benefits of being able to order online.

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Take advantage of this because there are things that you can buy online that you maybe can't get in your area, and it's just going to have even a wider variety of nutrients.

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And the most incredible thing is how fun it is to try something new so you don't get stuck in a rut.

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Inside our package, we had honey berries and lingon berries and sea buckthorn, pomegranate arrows, dried tart cherries, dried bilberries, and aronia berry powder.

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Now, if you're thinking, well, Anita, what in the world?

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I haven't even heard of many of these things, much less tried them.

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This is your perfect invitation to discover another brand new favorite.

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These are the kind of finds that make this lifestyle fun and sustainable.

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So in case you don't know, Jared and I have this philosophy about life.

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And it all started with a spontaneous beach vacation to this area where we live now several years ago.

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And I want Jared to tell you what that philosophy is.

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Create a life you do not need a vacation from.

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Now we didn't coin this phrase, it's not unique to us, but several years ago, we took it to heart.

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We discovered this area somewhat by accident and just absolutely fell in love with it.

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And I say accident because it was really a last-minute vacation that we weren't originally planning to take.

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I had a conference where we were going to go to Orlando for about a week and a half.

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A few weeks prior, I called Anita and I said, Hey, this doctor that I'm working with is going to be gone the week before the conference.

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Would you maybe like to go to the beach before we go to the conference and cut that time in Orlando a little bit short?

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So have a vacation before the conference.

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That's all I had to say.

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Listen, he didn't have to ask me twice.

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If you say beach, you do not have to ask me twice.

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I was online typing, my fingers were flying at the speed of lightning.

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And it was such a great opportunity to discover something new.

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So we found a new area to try, and lo and behold, it's a place that we absolutely love.

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So while we were here, we're thinking, why in the world are we living in a way that we've set up our life to where we're living for that one or two weeks of vacation a year?

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And the rest of the time we're just working and living for those one or two weeks.

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It doesn't make any sense.

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Why not just live the dream every day?

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And so that's why we decided to move.

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That's why we're here.

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And the reason we wanted to share that is because we want you to start thinking about your whole food plant-based journey or your journey to healing in the same way.

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So when it comes to whole food plant-based eating to gain optimal nutrition, why not create the life you don't need a cheat day from?

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So, in the same way, you don't want to have a life that you just need a vacation from, right?

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You want to live the vacation every day.

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We want to set up our life like that in eating healthy foods.

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If we love it so much and we never feel deprived, and we don't have to restrict our portions or count our calories or eat food that tastes nasty in the name of health.

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You're setting yourself up for huge winds that are going to last.

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And that is what we're all about.

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So to use the example again of the beach, let's say you happen to be like us and you love the sand, the sun, the ocean waves, the breeze.

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Imagine every day waking up, you open your door, and that is your view day after day after day.

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Imagine that feeling.

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Now take that in to this way of living, whole food plant-based.

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You don't need a cheat day.

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You're not suffering through six days out of the week for that one day, or that 50 weeks out of the year for those two weeks at your most favorite place to be on the earth.

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Think about how crazy it is that many diets even build in a cheat day.

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If you have a diet that you have a cheat day that needs to be built in, what does that tell you about the other six days that you're living?

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I think it automatically on the onset says you're not gonna like it.

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You're not gonna like it.

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You're already breeding in that idea.

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It's really like planning for failure, I think.

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It is, it's setting you up for failure, and you don't need any more of that.

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You have to break those cycles of the things you've done before that did not work.

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This is the new and better way.

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Setting up a lifestyle that you love so much, you don't ever even think about needing a cheat day.

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And this is how you do it finding the new foods, finding your new favorites, the things that you love.

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So, how much you work these new types of berries into your life?

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Well, the frozen ones, the first ones we mentioned were all frozen.

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So the honey berries, which are awesome, they're like blueberries, but elongated, not quite as sweet, but they have that same type of flavor.

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They are purple, so you're gonna get the anthocyanins and some really great benefits from these.

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They're amazing.

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The lingon berries, sea buckthorn, and pomegranate arrows, all of these were frozen.

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So we're using them by simply blending a tablespoon or two into our smoothies, sprinkling them on chia pudding bowls and smoothie bowls, even eating them plain by the spoonful.

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They are really that good.

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Now, some of them have a surprise kick.

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You know where I'm going with this, don't you?

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I do.

00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:12.320
I was imagining I'm not eating some of these by the spoonful, at least not by themselves.

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You're talking about the sea buckthorn.

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I am talking about the sea buckthorn.

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Yep, sea buckthorn.

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That was it.

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Okay, so the sea buckthorn.

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The funny thing is, on a recent coaching call with our accelerator members, I broke open the sea buckthorn bag for the first time and I had tried them and I knew how tart they were.

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They are like the tartest sweet tart you can imagine without any of the sweetness.

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They're they're tart, not sweet tarts.

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They're just tart.

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They are delicious.

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And I gave Jared about three and he pops them in his mouth and he has a smile, and all of a sudden he has the sharp pucker on his face.

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It was so great.

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I don't know.

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I mean, maybe it was kind of mean, but I think they're delicious.

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They're just really tart.

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So when you put them into something or onto something like a smoothie bowl or just the smoothie, blend it into a smoothie or in your chia pudding, they taste amazing because you add other things that are sweet, like I'll add banana or a little date or some raisins or different things like that that make it a little sweet.

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And so it really does start tasting kind of like a sweet tart.

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It more balances the flavor.

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Would you say that they're about like cranberries as far as the tartness level?

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No, I think these are more tart.

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Yeah.

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The Lincolnberries are like mini cranberries, they have the cranberry flavor, but they're not as bitter.

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Those are amazing.

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I really love those two.

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My favorites have been the honey berries.

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I've actually been using those with my morning oats.

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So I'll still put blueberries and then throw in about a spoonful of the honey berries.

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And the flavor, it complements blueberries.

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It's not exactly the same, a little more tart than blueberries, but that has become my new favorite mix.

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And the pomegranate arrows are just the inside of the pomegranate, the seed coated with that fruitiness that you always get when you crack open a fresh pomegranate.

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So they've just been frozen.

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And since we can't get them year-round, because they're only in season in the fall, it's nice to have these on hand to drop into your smoothies or to eat in your yogurt bowls and things like that.

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I love those.

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So I could just eat those by the spoonful.

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I'm a big pomegranate fan, and they are wonderful for fighting inflammation.

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They're incredible seeds for that.

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So some of the benefits of these berries, tart cherries, we got those dried.

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Those are amazing.

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The wonderful thing about this company is most every dried fruit that I saw that they carry, and I don't want to say everyone because I didn't look at the back of every label, but I have a feeling that all of theirs are this way.

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They have no oil added and no sugar added.

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And I want you to start looking at the back of your dried fruits.

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You will not believe how many dried fruits have these inflammatory-causing ingredients on them.

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Why do my cranberries need oil on them?

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Please explain that to me.

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And why do they need sugar?

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They do not.

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They taste amazing.

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They're tart and delicious.

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And there are other better ways to sweeten them, you know, quote unquote, if you need to, than just adding plain sugar, like being able to mix it with another favorite berry.

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So the dried tart cherries have been a big hit.

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They're almost gone.

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I think we're down to about two or three.

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I have to reorder those soon.

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And pomegranate supports heart health and circulation, as well as it's just a great anti-inflammatory, as are all berries.

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The bill berries are linked with supporting vision.

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Aronia berries are packed with antioxidants for cholesterol, high blood pressure, and inflammation.

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But what we want you to walk away with again, as always, is the fact that you do not need to memorize every benefit of everything that we're sharing here.

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You don't even have to try to remember these things that we drive ourselves crazy with.

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There's too much going on in real life.

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We're growing businesses, we're out there taking care of our family every day, spending time with our friends, wanting to travel the world.

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We don't have time for remembering all of that.

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So, what the big takeaways here are if you just eat a wide variety, you're going to get the nutrients that your body needs.

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So a wide variety of color, a wide variety of raw.

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So you're going to get much more raw food, living food with the enzymes and everything intact when you start adding things like these berries to your life.

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These are vibrant living foods that make you feel amazing.

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So always go for variety.

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Variety in color, variety in types.

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It's one big way to succeed with whole feed plant-based living.

00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:23.759
And if you'd like to add variety and flavor to your meals while giving your body the nutrients it craves, we want you to check out this company.

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We're going to link in the show notes about this company.

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It's Northwest Wild Foods.

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You can just click in the description and it'll take you directly to their website.

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They offer organic frozen berries shipped right to your door, dried fruits, nutrient-rich powders, and unique foods that you're most likely not going to find in your local stores.

00:14:43.919 --> 00:14:57.919
And even better, if you'd like the insider peek into our full unboxing of everything that we bought from them on our first order, join us right now inside our free community at poweronplants.com forward slash pie.

00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:02.159
That's poweronplants.com forward slash PIE.

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We're showing you the complete unboxing there.

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Food was never meant to be restrictive or boring.

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God designed it to be abundant, colorful, flavorful, and naturally healing.

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Genesis 129 reminds us of God's original plan.

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And every colorful, delicious bite of these foods is a reminder of his goodness and his abundantly good provision.

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So this week, Jared and I want you to challenge yourself to find one new type of produce to try.

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And once you're inside the community, make a quick post to let us know about it.

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We cannot wait to celebrate with you.

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We hope you have an amazing week, Sunshine.

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Remember, you are loved, you are prayed for, and we will see you again very soon.