357: Transforming Health with MamaSezz: Meg Donahue on Plant-Based Nutrition

00:00:00 Meg: Because how can it be true that only changing your food can make this much of a difference? You know, where and everyone, you know, I lost inflammation, weight, I was, you know, all of that. My blood pressure, of course, was normalized, cholesterol reduced, so all of those things. So you're right. I was on a trajectory, I didn't even know because I looked fit up until this time and seemed to be fit. And it's not just the sick person.

00:00:31 Maya: This is the Healthy Lifestyle Solutions podcast and I'm your host, Maya Acosta. If you're willing to go with me, together we can discover how simple lifestyle choices can help improve our quality of life and increase our longevity in a good way. Let's get started.

00:00:50 Maya: Friends, welcome to another episode of the Healthy Lifestyle Solutions podcast. I'm your host, Maya Acosta. Today we have Meg Donahue. She is an influential leader in the field of plant based nutrition. As the co-founder of MamaSezz foods, a thriving whole food, plant based foods and lifestyle company, Meg is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives through nutritious foods and lifestyle choices. With her extensive educational background and passion for promoting healthy living, Meg works closely with medical professionals, scientists and nutritionists to develop innovative solutions that enhance overall wellness. She holds an impressive list of qualifications, including a BFA from the College of William & Mary, a MS in Technology Management from Marlboro Graduate School, and plant based nutrition certificate from eCornell University. Meg's expertise and unwavering dedication makes her a valuable asset to the health and wellness industry. Her commitment to improving people's lives through plant based nutrition and lifestyle choices is truly inspiring. And her innovative solutions continue to make a significant impact on the industry. Welcome, Meg.

00:02:11 Meg: Well, thank you and I'm delighted to be here.

00:02:15 Maya: I mentioned to you, Meg, before we started our recording, previously mentioned to you that I learned about you a few years ago. I also saw you on Chef AJ. And during that time, I went to one of the Facebook groups and kind of asked around, like, I explained to some of the people in the groups that my mother has been battling with type two diabetes for a few years, and she doesn't live in the same state as myself, and she doesn't have support. She's in her late seventies and no one in the family is willing to cook for her. And so this is why we're going to have this conversation. There are a lot of people that could use the support that you offer. And let's first start by learning what was the inspiration for creating MamaSezz.

00:03:03 Meg: Sure. And thanks for ordering our food. You're one of the exactly the type of people that we want to help and I'll get more into that. How we started is my mother was 80 years old and she had very significant congestive heart failure. She had less than 10% heart function. And a lot of things had started to cascade and fail her kidneys and things like that. And anybody who has had that severe of a heart failure understands that it's a very kind of rapid decline. And so she was at the end of her life, and we had been told to get her in hospice care because she couldn't take care of herself anymore. And she also lived a state away from me, a few states away. And so I brought her home to live with me. I just had a baby, and so I brought her home to live with me for what I thought were going to be the last three months of her life.

00:04:01 Meg: And we renovated a little apartment, which is now called a tiny home in our garage and started researching who has survived this level of heart disease. And it was really just like a Hail Mary pass, we call it. I didn't have an expectation. I mostly wanted to extend her life so she could see her granddaughter. And I came across the work of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and T. Colin Campbell, and specifically the book, Prevent And Reverse Heart Disease by Dr. Esselstyn. And it was the reverse part that got my attention because we were beyond the prevent. And so I just followed what his book said to do, and it was for anybody listening who is new to plant based eating or just kind of on the edges or might know somebody who is new to it, that was me.

00:04:57 Meg: I grew up in New England. I was a relatively healthy eater, so I thought I ate organic food. But we grew up in a… we're a dairy state. We're, hunting family. So that was my background. And so I was asking the questions that everyone asked, what's she going to do for protein? Should I give her an egg? That was where I was at. But what we did was follow exactly what they said to do. And within like two months, because she was very sick, she couldn't feed herself. So I was really doing the primary care. She started to get some color back in her face and a little bit more strength, and then she just gradually started getting better. She got… so she could walk around her little apartment, and in about six months, we were doing a little walk in the driveway. And within a year, and this was going, I mean, there's a very well known hospital here, Dartmouth–Hitchcock in New England.

00:05:57 Meg: It's a very well known teaching hospital. It's associated with Dartmouth University. Her cardiologists were there, and so we were keeping in touch with her cardiologists and doing all the work that we could. But within a year, she was back to driving again. She has had its ups and downs because she was never a good driver in the first place. She was back to driving and swimming. So she was swimming three times a week, had joined the senior center in a new community, was reaching out and making new friends and starting to live her life again. And the part of it that I was very skeptical about, is this real or is it because her family was around? And so she had more support. We were at Dartmouth and so I really wanted to know, has her heart function really changed? And it was the coolest thing.

00:06:48 Meg: And I don't have one with me or I'd share it, but I have them. The cardiologist wrote a note on her report that just said, this is amazing. And it was early on, it was like in the first year. And she had gone from 10% to 25% and then up to 45% heart ejection fraction. And the high end is about 60%, which she is at the normal end now at 92. So she was 80 when she started and 92 now. And it blew my mind. I thought, how did we not know this? My dad died of Alzheimer's and he had heart disease. And we know that there's a correlation between those two diseases frequently. And I thought, how do so many people not know this? How do people who have simple curable diseases not know that food is so important? And how did I not know?

00:07:42 Meg: And so I began telling everybody naturally because I was blown away. My sister had hypertension. I said, sue, you got to try this. She did. And her high blood pressure is gone, off medications. And it just went on and on. And my partner and I come from a food background. We had a very large organic bread company or bakery. We made a lot of bakery products and had sold that company. We were the private label bakers for Whole Foods and Trader Joe. So we knew, very big production and thought we were done because I was in my fifties at this point. And we just said, we have to do this, we have to… well, first of all, I tried to find a company that was doing it.

00:08:25 Meg: I wanted to find a company that was whole food, plant based, no oil. And so basically if you were going to get the biggest benefit from going plant based that you would get it. And we just couldn't find one. We found a lot of companies that did vegan food, had a lot of sodium and all the goodies that they put in food to make it tasty, but that aren't great for your health. And so not finding one, we said we have to start it. And so it felt like it was very purpose driven. Most of my work has been but this felt so personal. And our thought was if we can get more and more people eating this way and more and more companies, competition comes that are making whole food, plant based food and we end up with it. There's so many people flooding the market that we can say, okay, we'll declare victory and go home. We can stop.

00:09:22 Meg: But that hasn't happened yet. There's still a lot of companies out there that aren't quite doing it because it's hard to do. It's hard to do what we do. But we wanted to deliver on the promise. And that's our motto, is we deliver on the promise of plant based eating. If you're going to bother to go eat plant based, get the most bang for your buck. And so that's how we started. And we produce all of our own product. We ship and deliver out of New England nationwide. And we've been growing every year, so it's pretty exciting.

00:09:56 Maya: Wow. Incredible that you had this experience already in the food industry, in a sense, and then you came back after you discovered that basically it was your food that helped heal your mother.

00:10:09 Meg: Exactly. And all of the research that everyone before me had done, and I just followed what they said to do. And it wasn't easy. It was hard. We were so motivated. It wasn't as hard as some people who struggle with the cultural, like, oh, we were just very motivated because it was a life and death situation and my whole family was on board. And so the switching was we went into it with a sense of adventure and then kind of desperation for my mom. But it was difficult. It was time consuming, and it was to source the right food and to figure out the details. And so that's the part that we thought, that's the nut that we want to crack. That's what we want to help people with, is that all the shopping chopping, the heavy lifting of plant based eating, if we can make products that make it super easy to do that center of your plate deal, and then you can add a side dish and things like that, so add your own creativity. And that's where we ended up with the line that we have.

00:11:14 Maya: And I also wanted, for listeners who may not be familiar with Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's book on Prevent And Reverse Disease, if you'd like to recap it. I'm familiar with the work. My husband often references his study. But–

00:11:29 Meg: Yeah, just as I remember it. And what struck me is that he has and visuals are great because when you look at an artery that is clogged and then you see the results afterwards from a lifestyle change, meaning that they started eating a very different diet. And from a clogged artery where you just see it's like a clogged pipe with all of this gunk around it to a very clear artery. And patients who ended up not needing heart surgery and basically reversed conditions that were really significant and life threatening. I think what strikes me is that it's doable and we don't know it. I think that was a very brave thing for him to say, I'm going to go ahead and try this and that it actually works, that it is so powerful and so simple. And the Esselstyn's have become very good friends. I reached out to him early on to thank him and have spent time with the family. And Ann and Jane and I have done a lot together because they're on a mission and they have never deviated.

00:12:41 Meg: I think that's something that's really hard. When you have a product that is commercial, you need to sell it. And in the food industry and having a background in it that it's very easy to sell food that has a lot of sugar, salt, and oil, even if it's vegan, it's a much easier thing to do because it alerts people's taste buds. And so what we do is we give people food in the purest form and allow them a couple of weeks and educate them of, like, this is what's happening in your body. This is what's happening to your taste buds. Because once your taste buds change, it's like a miracle. All of a sudden, everything tastes so much, you can differentiate taste so much better. They're not all, like, salty or sweet. A radish tastes amazing. A tomato. Everything has these really clean flavors. And so that's what we try to do with ours. I mean, we do do that. And I think Dr. Esselstyn was so clear about his mission and what to do and not to do, that it's very helpful, and I recommend that book to many people. We used to send it out. We have a bundle that we created for his patients, and we used to send it out with our bundles. Just a great book.

00:14:02 Maya: Jane and Ann Esselstyn have also been on the show promoting their cookbook.

00:14:07 Meg: That’s right.

00:14:07 Maya: And they are the two individuals that are behind a lot of the recipes. Yeah, they’re, as you know, you're friends with them. They're very entertaining, and I have enjoyed for a long time watching both of them prepare their meals on their YouTube channel. It's just so interactive and so much fun to watch them cook together. And it was Rip Esselstyn who pretty much got my husband on board in learning this way of life. And then my husband saw him. Yes, Rip Esselstyn came to Dallas, and he gave a lecture way back when he was promoting Engine 2, and my husband was shocked, went home or came home, I should say, and read The China Study and Prevent and Reverse Heart disease and said what? How in the world is it that I didn't know this stuff?

00:14:55 Maya: And so here we are, living today, very passionate about this work, just like you are. First of all, I just want to really acknowledge what you did for your mom. Her name is Millie, and I've heard you really talk about how she's thriving today, and that's incredible. This is why I want my listeners to learn about your meal plan, because it was your food that helped improve the quality of life that your mother now has. And I also would love for you to share your story because I heard you said that it was, not only was your mother at one point dealing with heart failure, but you were in the hospital. Your newborn was in the hospital, and your mother.

00:15:39 Meg: Right.

00:15:39 Maya: All three of you. Am I correct on that?

00:15:40 Meg: It’s true. Thank you for bringing that up.

00:15:43 Maya: What happened?

00:15:44 Meg: It was a very dramatic, it's kind of biblical the way it all happened. I had a baby late in life. I was 49, and I had preeclampsia, which is a condition you can get when you're pregnant. It's life threatening. Most women who die in pregnancy outside of developed countries die of preeclampsia. And so your blood pressure goes up and your body swells. It basically can't get rid of fluids. And so I was in the hospital. I've gained 65 pounds in a week of water weight. And what they want you to do is just hold on long enough because I was only 26 weeks pregnant, which is not, that's six months. And so I just hung on in a hospital and then had my daughter. And the day that I had my daughter, my mom, who was very sick, had been in Maine and called my sister. And this is kind of like those mother daughter psychic connections.

00:16:45 Meg: She called my sister and said, you have to take me to Dartmouth or I'm going to walk. And it was, like, in Maine. So she's like two states away. But my sister took her to Dartmouth because my mom was at this point in a wheelchair, or it had to be, like, moved around in a wheelchair. She could walk, but she was moved around in, wheelchair. And so they came to the hospital. I still hadn't had my daughter, Annie. And my mother came into the hospital room, and I was so sick. And I remember her getting up, out of her wheelchair and standing up, and she looked to me like she was in her 60s again. And it was like she had just galvanized all of her energy. And she stood up and she whispered in my ear, you're going to be okay, and your baby's going to be okay. And then she collapsed.

00:17:34 Maya: Wow.

00:17:35 Meg: And I believed her. You know, how you just, I believed her. And two hours later, I had to give birth, so I had to have a cesarean. And my baby was indeed, she was a micro preemie. And so that's the tiniest of tinies. So she was a little under a pound, and she was in the NICU for three months. But all of the things that can go very wrong at that early age - eyes, nose, brain, eyes, lungs, brain, everything was fine. My mother was right. I was okay, and I was very sick. So I was in the ICU. My daughter was and then my mother collapsed, and she was, too. So we had three people in, the worst you can be, as sick as you can be. And then we all kind of came back to my house at the end of it and started this whole food plant based journey. And sometimes I think, had I been plant based prior to, in my pregnancy, I don't think I would have had this. I suspect because I was very healthy up until the… or active, I don't know how healthy it was. I was very active. Playing tennis. Felt great. And then within a day, everything changed. But then we came home and started this research and found Dr. Esselstyn and never looked back.

00:19:02 Maya: Incredible. Many times when there's a family member who is sick or has some sort of chronic condition, the immediate family sort of feels like the only person that needs to make a lifestyle change is the sick patient, not understanding that probably they themselves could be susceptible or on the same similar path. So you immediately were affected. We have spoken about preeclampsia here on the podcast. We talk about a lot of issues related to women's health. So I'm so glad that we can talk about this as well, because we know that even if you go through your pregnancy, you had the complications, you delivered. Mother and child were both healthy and doing well. So glad that you came through that. But we know that if you don't make a lifestyle change, you could have been on a path toward developing more complications in your life.

00:19:59 Meg: That's a great point. And it was definitely I am really grateful because what ended up happening is I had had arthritis, and I'd been an athlete most of my life and played tennis, and so I had the beginnings of the arthritis things that people get as they age and a lot of pain. And that kind of went away at the beginnings of macular degeneration. That went away. And when I say these things, I feel like I'm just, like, lying. I remember telling our banker early on about the stories that we knew, and she goes, If I didn't know you, I would think you're just like making this up. And I said, I feel like it, because how can it be true that only changing your food can make this much of a difference? And everyone, I lost inflammation, weight, all of that. My blood pressure, of course, was normalized, cholesterol reduced, so all of those things. So you're right. I was on a trajectory, I didn't even know because I looked fit up until this time and seemed to be fit. And it's not just the sick person. In fact, it's usually, as you know, it's a family dynamic. And if everyone can get on board, at least some, it makes everything so much easier.

00:21:21 Maya: Absolutely. It's really the support system that we all need as we make this transition. So as you're talking about some of the complications that you also had, I was thinking about how, I think it's so important when you first start off to make a list of all the things that bother you. Whether it's, like in terms of health, like whether you have a sort of allergic reaction or you have acne or you have palpitations or you have the swelling of a leg or an ankle, whatever it may be, just make a list. Because what you'll see over time is you will start to see those improvements. And I know that sometimes, Meg, I'll just be living my life and then I'll think about it and I say, oh my goodness, I don't have this thing going on anymore. This particular thing that used to bother me, it's gone. When did it stop? So I continue to see improvements even seven years later after I went plant based, I have noticed improvements in my health.

00:22:20 Meg: That is such a smart idea because we get kind of an amnesia and we forget like, oh, I used to have trouble getting out of the chair, or I used to have trouble bending down, or I used to get out of breath and when they go away gradually, you don't mark them. So I love that. I'm actually going to put that out to our customers and I'll credit you on that one because I think it's great is to make that list because it's so cool when you see how far you've come in such a short amount of time.

00:22:51 Maya: Absolutely. So going back to MamaSezz, I did read in your bio that you consulted medical professionals as well as scientists and nutritionists. So your food wasn't just, well, of course your food is delicious and it's whole food plant based, but it's been very deliberate as you're consulting the right people to guide you towards the best foods that you would recommend your customers consume. So tell us a little bit more about that. I know you've just talked about your partnership with the Esselstyn’s, Dr. Esselstyn and also Dr. Jami Dulaney, who was one of the first podcasters that I myself started listening to years ago. And she also has transformed, she's a cardiologist, right, who transformed her practice into a lifestyle medicine practice. So tell us about how you developed your foods and the partnerships that you now have.

00:23:48 Meg: Sure, well, I can start with Dr. Dulaney because she's wonderful and she was an early adopter of lifestyle medicine and she's also a really accomplished triathlete. And so when we, I interviewed her early on because I was fascinated by what she was doing and wanted to know more. And I was interested in performance food for athletes because I thought if you can have something that can help an athlete’s stamina and endurance and that's going to be awesome for anybody who, probably awesome for somebody who has a heart condition. And so she helped us develop our Breakfast Power smoothie as a recovery drink, as a pre and recovery drink for her triathlons, her multi day, and she does like the big ones, like the three day triathlon, 100 mile things. And so that's where we developed our beet smoothie with her. And we have other people that we work with, the Mastering Diabetes folks. We developed a specific bundle that meets the fat and carbohydrate ratios that they need so that people just don't have to think. Because that's one of the biggest things when you don't feel well or if you're scared to have to make too many decisions about your food can be really overwhelming and it can be too exhausting. And so people just say, it's too much, I can't do it or I just won't do it today. And so they get kind of mixed results. And so with them, we were really specific on the foods that we put in and the items.

00:25:20 Meg: The same with our weight loss. We worked with a nutritionist because I have a love-hate relationship with weight loss programs. I really resisted it because I don't want to shame people or to make it the most important thing that somebody be a specific weight. What I realized is, and it was from our customers that it would really concern people. And I thought, well, if we can heal the thing or address what is really concerning a lot of people, it's like I can't get rid of this weight and it's uncomfortable. And if we can help with that, then all of the other… and then help heal all of the other things, like it's not shaming. And for the most part, people don't even realize they're eating food that's hooking them and making them eat other foods. They haven't been given the tools on how to set up a structure so that they can unhook and then just go and live their life free. And so we designed. It's called a guaranteed weight loss program. And it's so people who are, and with a nutritionist who are, want to lose from whatever amount you want to lose, that we give the tools and the support and so that you can do it. And if you follow it, you're going to lose weight.

00:26:37 Meg: If some reason happens and you don't, we just give people their money back. But mostly I wanted to be supportive, to be non shaming, to just make it as natural as anything, to be free of food obsession. And I think that was, we heard over and over from customers and maybe you've experienced it, that that freedom from obsession that people didn't know was the white flour and sugar and all. They didn't know that's what was dinging their brain to make them want something and overriding their willpower. And so that's really the goal there. That was awesome. We worked with Dr. Joel Fuhrman to create a specific nutritarian bundle for him. And it's great because people can get exactly what they want. And I will say that what we also have with Chef AJ, we have an SOS free bundle, and we have an SOS free line of products. And all of our products are whole food plant based. No oil, gluten free, no processed sugar. So they all have a baseline of exactly what you want, but then they're tweaked depending on specific needs. And I didn't want to be the company that said, eat chia seeds and it will cure your cancer. You know, this kind of woo woo science. I really wanted to just keep it very basic, practical, kind of based in the Blue Zones type philosophy that if you eat more whole food plant based than not, you surround yourself with a community you care about. You have something that's important to you and a faith in your life that's bigger than you, whatever that is, then odds are in your favor. That you're going to have a longer, healthier life or the life that you have, you'll live better. And so that's our goal. We wanted to simplify it, make it easy, and give people that really just basically good food, that it's going to do what it says it does.

00:28:38 Maya: You want to help people heal that relationship with food, the obsession that people have with food, the fixation, there is the science behind how some of these processed foods are put together. They're designed for us to be addicted and for us to binge eat while we're distracted, watching TV, watching a movie, whatever it may be. That's all kind of a part of a lifestyle that we have, the fast paced, fast food lifestyle that we combine a certain way of living with stress, with convenience foods. And it's important for me also, and I talk about it often when it comes to weight loss. Of course, we want to encourage people to lose the weight that they want to lose so that they can feel great. But because I come from a background of dieting, mainly, women in my family, just having this yoyo dieting that has never been shown to actually work, it's discouraging. And sometimes I have to find a way to talk about how do you lose weight in a way that is sustainable without being fixated on the number on the scale or being fixated on calories? And the tweaking that you talked about is also very important. Like, for example, Mastering Diabetes. So I'm now well read on their program type Mastering Diabetes and what they say about the foods, what do they call it? The traffic light system?

00:30:11 Meg: Yeah, the green lights. Right.

00:30:15 Maya: So when I learned that you had the Mastering Diabetes meal plan, I thought it was perfect because now I understand, like, the traffic light system that they refer to is that some food can be whole food plant based, but if you have insulin resistance, you might want to minimize your intake of certain foods that are still whole food plant based. And so that's the meal plan that I ordered for my mom. That's why I bring it up, is because I wanted her to have foods that are easy.

00:30:41 Meg: That's great.

00:30:42 Maya: Yeah. I'm so glad that you talk about that. The weight loss, and then, of course, tweaking, depending on what it is that you're wanting, what your goals are. And then you have the Chef AJ plan. I remember when that one came out, which she is completely SOS free. Salt, oil, sugar free. I love this. And also, I'm a big fan of Dr. Joel Fuhrman. So I like that you have that partnership as well.

00:31:11 Meg: What you did for your mom, we call it the sandwich generation. I don't know if you've ever heard that term, but there are people who have parents, and they might have kids, and they're kind of in the middle, and it falls more on women, but not always, to do the caretaking on both ends and really stretched and want to do it all. And so that was something that we really think about as well, is how do we, if you have parents, if you have somebody you care about and not eating is one of the biggest things, or just kind of going to convenience foods as you get older and not as energetic and might not feel as well. How do you make sure there's good food in the house? We're not meat shamers. Everyone is welcome at our table. We just believe attraction, not promotion. The more you see and are around people and experience eating this way, the more you're going to want to do it. We try to invite everyone to the table, and I think with parents, especially, the more they can have that food available to them or an older generation, the easier it is for them to do it and the easier it is for them to begin to feel good.

00:32:27 Maya: Absolutely. So I wanted to talk about MamaSezz in terms of what the meal plan looks like. I will say, Meg, when I first started, the first year, I didn't know what the heck I was doing. And I ended up gaining weight because I started to eat the convenient vegan, processed food. So I say this a lot, which is why I always want to give my listeners resources, because I didn't have these resources when I first started. So there are different types of meal plans that people can subscribe for. Some companies sent you the ingredients and then the instructions, and then you just cook at home, you cook these meals, but MamaSezz makes it even more convenient. And many of us, I say this often too, we would eat healthy meals if somebody just cooked the food for us. If we had a personal chef, no problem. I will eat what you feed me. Okay? Hardly anybody can afford that. So tell us what to expect when someone subscribes.

00:33:26 Meg: So we want it to be kind of that, more like your absolute favorite whole food plant based aunt came over and brought you dinner and that I say we're not super fancy. We want to have taste profiles that people are used to. And we want it to be something that is in your fridge, just as, like a staple, just like your plant based milkwood. Your MamaSezz garlic ginger strips are with their protein strips or our lazy lasagna. So they're just the staples that you have in your fridge and so you can eat them. They come ready made in a multi serving pack, two to three servings, resealable, fresh, so they're not frozen. You can freeze them if you want to. But the beauty of the products is that you can mix and match them with other products to create something. You can mix them with something you already have to create something to stretch them because a lot of people are concerned. I don't know of anybody who isn't about their food budget. And so these products are really meant to be. These are the highest quality, whole food, plant based products you can get. And you can stretch them. You can eat it as it is. You can mix it with beans. You can mix it in a salad. Like we make this great tuna-ish where we partner with this company off the coast of Maine who harvests kelp.

00:34:54 Meg: And you can have it in a salad. So you make a big salad, you put in some tuna-ish, you put it in, we have these great tortillas. You can put it in a tortilla. So there's a lot of ways to use the product, so it becomes familiar and not like one of the experiences that I had because I ordered from all of the food companies in this space when we were starting as a research. And I felt like with a big family, everyone was eating kind of like a special meal. Either it was frozen and that felt weird, and we're sitting down with our frozen dinner or one or two had a special meal and everyone else was doing something else. And I thought, I like the promotion of family dinners, whether it's just you or you and your spouse or you and your kids or multigenerational of a time of community and joy. And we're all kind of in this together. And so that's kind of the vibe of MamaSezz products that if somebody in your family eats a hot dog and they're not going to want to eat plant based, they can still have our chili on their hot dog. So it's not like there's this big line between plant based and meat based foods.

00:36:02 Meg: And so we keep it very upbeat and very welcoming. And our products are, they're very familiar. And you order them, you order them in a bundle. You can either pick your own products and put it in a box, or we curate bundles, depending on what people's needs are. And so you can order it either way. In the curated bundles, like the Mastering Diabetes, you get a specific meal plan to follow. So you don't have to think. You can follow it or not, but it'll just tell you what to eat when. And all of our curated bundles are like that. And some have extra help, like, the weight loss and the detox. We give a lot of extra support there, which is great. People love it and they're super successful. And the other ones, a lot of our customers, longtime customers, they started with the, Get Me Started, because they didn't know what to do. They figured out what products they love, and then they purchase an ala carte bundle every couple of weeks. Don't have to do it on a subscription. This was another thing. We hated subscriptions. It was probably not a good business model because I just thought, I don't want somebody getting a box of food when they're on vacation because they forgot to cancel it. And so we offer it, we set it to a subscription. You can also do a one time purchase. You can cancel at any time. Our goal is to make it convenient, not to trip people into buying food. And most of our customers are on like, a two week cadence because the food lasts really long, because you can use it in a lot of different ways. It's not just a simple meal. You get ten meals and then you're done. This, you can use it in so many ways, mix and match, expand what you're eating, introduce your own creativity to it, or just eat it. How we do, right out of the bag.

00:37:50 Maya: Very convenient. And the idea of mixing and matching and combining some of your food with what the individual might want to prepare that day, that week, makes a lot of sense. When I think of, like, I tend to have canned goods in my pantry for convenience, but when I'm thinking of beans, for example, as you know, Meg, when we're shopping for black beans or any kind of beans, you always have to consider the amount of sodium that may have been added to that food. And there are other preservatives. There is always something that we are concerned about when it comes to packaged foods. So if you're going to have chili, why not have it from MamaSezz, right? Because you don't have to worry about all the other added ingredients that may not be the best. So even if you haven't changed your diet completely, at least you know that you're adding healthier fiber into your diet by eating MamaSezz.

00:38:47 Meg: It's absolutely true. And that was something that when we first started, it was a challenge to create a product that had a taste profile that was just yummy and have it be whole food, plant based, no oil, not loaded with sodium. But we found a lot of chefs. We worked with a lot of chefs. We had a lot of fails, a lot of, like, oh, my God, I can't believe we just made all that. And it's bad, but we wanted to find the secrets of how you do it. And so that's what we work to do. And we have some that I can't tell, but there's some that are really simple for people who are cooking their own, and you may have heard it, you want to have a fat and acid, a sweet and a salt. And so if you can put those items within and they don't have to be sugar, there's a lot of  ways to get fat, acid, sweet, and salt. So whatever those items are, that will really round out a dish. And so that's kind of the base that we look at. And then our secret concoction of how those things go together with real food, real, whole food is kind of the magic.

00:39:58 Maya: Absolutely. So do you have any kind of testimonials or what are the common improvements that your clients are telling you that they are seeing and experiencing?

00:40:10 Meg: Every week, and business is hard for anybody, so there are difficult weeks, but every week, we get testimonials, and I have a place where I reach out personally to some of our customers and say, write back to me, and I will write back to you. It might take me a few days, but I will get back to you. And some of our customers, it's just so moving from, heart condition. Now I feel safe enough to take care of my grandchildren too, weight loss is common. So many people have found, not that they just lost the weight, but really the freedom from that lifelong craziness that we have around food and dieting. And to be free of that is just those are some of the more heartwarming of just, like, I can get up, and the first things I'm not thinking about are, will my clothes fit? What do I weigh? Blah, blah. That's not in my life. I'm just thinking about what I want to go do. Like when you were a kid, when we were kids, we got up, we went out, we played, we came in, we ate. And then somewhere along the line, it got tainted. And so to have that freedom back, so many of our customers feel that, and really, if they're on the weight loss or not, but the weight loss most prominently. And then the people like yourself who are worried about a loved one and have found something that they can trust, and they either know the doctors that we work with, or they've heard of them and feel comfortable, oh, I can give this to my mom or my dad, and they're okay.

00:41:49 Meg: I know they're going to be okay, and they're feeling better, and they're happy. So we have thousands and thousands of customers and testimonials that have told us this, and it's amazing, that's why we do it. That's why we got started. I want to keep doing it. Or even if half of the people in the United States could eat more plants, it would be mind blowing the impact that would have on our healthcare system. We also work with Blue Cross, Blue Shield, and so some of our meals are reimbursable. That came about, our meals are, they do what they say they're going to do. We were approached by them, actually, and it just worked out for some of their specific programs. And it's in New Jersey. We were incredibly excited, and it's a process. I think that's why a lot of people, it's not like I'll call them up and they're going to do it. It took some time, but it's amazing. And that's what we want to do. I want to work more with, oddly, insurance companies are more amenable to it than hospitals because if you think about it, insurance like Kaiser Permanente, large healthcare, health management company, if they can keep their patients healthy, their insured patients healthy, then they save money. And so they have a very strong vested interest in whole food, plant based education. And so insurance companies have been more and more open to, hey, let's add this type of meal to the meals that we offer our customers. So we're excited to keep moving on that direction, too.

00:43:33 Maya: Wow, I'm impressed.

00:43:36 Meg: We're starting a retail line, and we were slow walking that, very, very slow because we were in retail for years. We weren't an eCommerce company. We were in retail. So we were in a lot of big stores up and down the East Coast and across the United States, and it's a very different business than eCommerce. But we were asked, we have a great distributor here in New England who is aligned with our mission. And so we said, okay, we'll step back in and we'll see how it goes. And so we'll have some retail products coming up soon.

00:44:05 Maya: Okay. Very impressive. I mean, I was familiar with your company, period, but where you're going with this is really like, you're becoming the company, the food company that I would say medical professionals are prescribing to patients. I've tried, like I said, like my first year, so I tried a lot of meal plans, but none of them had this sort of partnership the way that you have. And many of them had, even though, say, all the ingredients came prepared and ready to be cooked, there was always oil in there or coconut milk and a lot of saturated fat. And I remember trying this stuff and going, oh, my goodness, even when I was choosing my meals for the following week, I would stress about, there aren't that many healthy options. I myself have to be careful with, like, I no longer consume coconut milk or is it coconut milk or yeah, the concentrated coconut milk that you can add in Thai dishes. Because that can contribute to weight gain. So, I mean, you just have to be very careful with some of the foods out there.

00:45:12 Meg: And we wanted to take all of that off people's minds and plate, that they don't have to think about it. And don't worry, every product from MamaSezz is exactly what it says and it will do exactly what you want it to do. It's a whole food plant based. It's going to give you the bang for the buck because it's hard to do in this world where there's a lot of other options. And if we can make it easy to get a few more plants on your plate and people get healthier and feel better, we're excited.

00:45:44 Maya: I'm so happy that you came on the show. Meg, is there anything else that you'd like my listeners to know about you or about MamaSezz?

00:45:54 Meg: I guess one, I want to thank you because we offer the food, but what you do is you give people the education and environment in a really palatable way, no pun intended, to take in this information and to maybe change their views a little by little. You have such a variety of people that you talk to and you really bring out the best in the people that you talk to. And it is so important because if we don't have what you're doing combined with what we do, then it makes it a lot harder because then we have to try and educate people. And it's so helpful. So I want to thank you for that because it's really important work and so many people need to hear what you have to say. They just, so many need to. And I'm just delighted to be here. I love the work that we do. I'm still passionate about it. My mom, we have a video and I'll send it to you. I don't know if you had a chance to see it, but our founding story video, and it's really moving. It's basically a love story. It's a love story of my mom and my dad and how they got to be, where they are and then her health condition and then how a company grew out of that. And it might sound a little schmaltzy because things are a little jaded in this world, but it's really true. And sometimes a true voice can be the loudest and without shouting. And so that's what we hope for. We're delighted to help as many people as we can, kind of on their journey in, plant based world.

00:47:36 Maya: Yes, well, I'm very happy, like I said, to have you on the podcast. And I hope that my listeners will check out your website and definitely share this with other people like you talked about the sandwich generation. And there are also people in the space of being caregivers or caregiving, taking care of others who might be sick. And that's, tremendous responsibility to not only care for all the needs of the patient, but also just meal prepping. And so this can help individuals that way. And what I love about it is if you're not there to take care of your loved ones, if you live in a different state like I do, you can still ship the food out to the individual to make it easy. It's just another way to introduce people to healthier options. And yours is vetted. Like all your meals. You've had the medical–

00:48:29 Meg: It’s vetted, right. That's a great way of seeing it. Yes.

00:48:32 Maya: Medical professionals, scientists, nutritionists, they have all vouched for you. They have all contributed to developing your programs. And so I'm just very happy that you're here. And again, tell us your website and any social links that you would like to share with the listeners.

00:48:50 Meg: Sure. It's MamaSezz.com. And the name came from, do like your mama says. Just eat your fruits and veggies, go outside and play, and everything will be fine. So it's M-A-M-A-S-E-Z-Z.com, and we're on Facebook and Instagram, and you can just go right online. You can order. And we should have, you know what? I'll give you a code for your listeners because I'd love to give them a discount for their first order if they want to. Why don't we just call it Maya 25, and it'll be a $25 discount for anybody who orders.

00:49:27 Maya: Awesome. Thank you so much.

00:49:30 Meg: Yeah, absolutely. And just go check it out. We have a great blog. We do a lot of interviews. We do a lot of science based articles from the beginning to the middle part of the journey. So a lot of folks come to our website just to learn and just kind of noodle around. We have a lot of transformation stories from our customers, on there as well, which are always inspiring to heal. And here, some of them are weight loss, some aren't. It's just all of these conditions that have just been dragging people down, and people think they're normal. Like, it's normal I have diabetes, it's normal I can't sleep, it's normal I have anxiety, it's normal I have high blood pressure. And it's not. It's really not. You know, so much of it can be mitigated by this simple step. And so if not with what MamaSezz, I encourage, just start, any of the listeners. Just try it. If we can help, great, but don't not do it. It's so worth it.

00:50:28 Maya: Yes. And you know, Meg, you are familiar with Jumpstarts, whether it's a seven day or a ten day jumpstart, and we talk about them on the podcast as well. But if you just give yourself a chance to do this, to live this way, to eat this way for about ten days, do your biometrics right before you get started, like, check your blood pressure, see what your blood sugar is like, anything like that. Check your cholesterol and then check it ten days after you've solely eaten this way, have eaten this way, and you're going to see a difference in just those ten days. And so when people, as you know, we too don't like to guarantee that you're going to heal completely, but we know that this is one way that you can help manage and improve your type two diabetes, your hypertension, you name it, this way of eating does help support the body. I mean, that's the main pillar of lifestyle medicine that we always focus on, is that out of all the things that you can do to improve your health, what you put in your body three times a day is the greatest way to create change and see improvement.

00:51:38 Meg: That's beautiful. And that's so smart. Pay attention to the data, get your stats and then compare them. And then it's not something where you're subjective. You've really been able to see, this is real. This has really changed my body.

00:51:53 Maya: Absolutely. Meg, it has been a pleasure. Thank you so much for taking your time today to talk to us about MamaSezz and to support my listeners. Thank you again.

00:52:05 Meg: Absolutely. Thank you so much. Bye bye now.

00:52:09 Maya: You've been listening to the Healthy Lifestyle Solutions podcast with your host, Maya Acosta. If you've enjoyed this content, please share with one friend who can benefit. You can also leave us a five star review at ratethispodcast.com/HLS. This helps us to spread our message. As always, thank you for being a listener.