Hi, this is Melissa Wood-Teperberg and this is the Move With Heart podcast.
Are you ready?
Just breathe it all in.
I want to talk.
I can't lie.
I was like, it's going to be short, sweet and very spicy.
And we're going to get right into it because apparently some of you are going to talk too
much.
So the best part of having a little technical difficulty was walking in to your bars that
you just launched and being able to eat one and sample it.
I'm such a sampler and I love to experiment with every product and the oatmeal chocolate
chip is where it's at and it tastes good, really good.
Yeah, it's dessert though.
Let's just be honest.
It's nice to have that option when you haven't had a chance to really sit down and meet a
meal.
Before we dive in anymore, I am so honored and thrilled and just so enthusiastic to meet
you, Vani.
Vani is a New York Times best-selling author.
He's the co-founder of TrueVani and you are a freaking trailblazer.
When I think of you, I just, you are such a force.
When you have this fire in you without me ever even really meeting you, that you're so
passionate about your mission and your message and what you're here to do.
And I mean, you've made such a difference in my life and opened my eyes to things I didn't
even know.
Well, welcome.
I'm so happy to have you.
Thank you so much, Melissa.
I'm just, I'm so glad the internet exists because I, you know, you enter my world too
and your enthusiasm and ability to share your life on a daily basis with those around you
on the internet like me, who I love you and we communicate and we've chatted like online,
but like it's, it's like, I feel like I know you because you share so much and it's so
amazing because you motivate me every single day to do the work, right?
Like I say.
And it's just awesome.
It's so good to be here.
Oh, I couldn't be happier.
I would love to know just more about like how you got started, where you are from and
where this passion, like where did that seed?
Where was it planted?
And just to give a little bit of your background story because I know some things, but I feel
like for our listeners, I always love to hear a story and to get a little juice with the
background.
Sure.
You know, I grew up with two immigrant Indian parents.
They had an arranged marriage in India back when my father was 27 and my mom was 22.
And she had gone to meet him for that marriage.
Like she never, never thought she was going to get married that weekend.
And then he, she ends up getting married and then leaves India forever.
Like he literally like gets her passport done within a few days of marrying her and whiskers
way to America to live for the rest of her life.
And she literally never even went back home to like pack up her things from like her room.
Like none of that.
It was just a crazy experience for her, but like my dad was so like America is amazing.
There's so much opportunity here and the food is so cheap.
Check out this.
And the first thing he introduced my mom to was a McDonald's hamburger.
Oh, she is.
This is so cheap.
Look at this.
We can eat this.
This is what they eat here.
And you know, Indian culture, like the cow's sacred.
So my mom had never had beef before in her life.
And it was a real like shock to her system.
She tells me when she started eating the American standard diet.
But that's how I was raised.
I was like one of the only Indian families like growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina
on my block in my school.
And I just wanted to fit in.
My mom continued to learn from her mother and from other Indian people that she became
friends with to like cook Indian and eat all the medicinal spices and all the vegetables
and everything like that.
But it didn't look like anything the kids around me were eating.
So I shun that and my brother shun that.
And we just, you know, I don't know if you have siblings, right?
You have two kids.
So you know, like the little one is always looking up to the big one, right?
Like how many copycat situations have you been in?
If the big one wants to suck or oh shit, the little one.
You know, it's like, it's like you're only two.
Now you can't have a sucker.
But anyway, so it's just like, that's how it was for me growing up.
I saw my brother like say no to this Indian food that was like now is like, I think the
best food in the whole world.
And like if anyone were to ask me what's the best restaurant that you've ever been to
or you would go to and it's like, I'd say like my mom's house, you know, like that's,
that's where I would go.
But I literally shunned her cooking for most of my life and instead my dad would pick up
like whatever fast food, you know, happy meal slash drive through meal.
He would bring home from his late nights working as a professor for us to eat or it would be
in the form of a processed food in the microwave, like a Salisbury steak dinner or mozzarella
sticks.
And I just ate so much processed food as a young child to the point where I had eczema,
asthma, like every single health issue you could imagine along with going on, you know,
antibiotics three or four times a year when I was little and like just always in and out
of doctors offices on steroids, you know, at one point in my life, nine medications.
And it wasn't until my twenties that I hit rock bottom and ended up in the hospital that
I finally made the decision to like take a look at what I'd been eating.
And one of the first books that I encountered after that huge kind of life changing situation
in my early twenties and this was the time period where I wasn't married yet.
I was dating, I was going out having so much fun, but I was also working in a job where
they just like took over your, they controlled you in a way because they wanted you to like
bill hours to the client.
I was working in a big consulting firm that worked for financial institutions.
So like you would show up at work at six a.m.
You wouldn't leave till eight a.m.
And they expected you to eat whatever they were bringing in for breakfast, lunch and
dinner.
And at breakfast, it was like, you know, bagels with not the good kind of bagels, like the
worst kind of bagels, tons of blueberry muffins and lots of coffee with tons of sugar.
And at lunch, it would be these huge spreads of barbecue with banana pudding at the end
of the, you know, table.
And then of course you would eat it because it's there and like you're working and it's
like, oh, anything to just get through the day.
And then at night, it would be like these Italian spreads with like, you know, everything
you could imagine, all the bread, all the, all of the, you know, huge, like heavy restaurant
food as, and then you'd end up with like, you know, a cake or a tiramisu at the end
of the day.
And then if you were to work late at night, the only thing that was open was crispy cream
so they'd bring in donuts.
And I just was eating so poorly and I gained so much weight so quick and that job felt
so horrible about myself.
Then it landed in the hospital.
And at that moment, I was missing like this awesome party with all my friends where you
go out and you like get all dressed up and you meet guys and you, you, it's so much fun
and everyone's shopping for the holidays.
And I was like in this hospital room, just recovering.
It took me forever to recover, but it just, it gave me that like momentum and that urge
to like never feel like that again.
And so I started to research and so one of the first books that I encountered was called
Conscious Eating by Gabriel Kussins.
And he had this concept inside the book that was like everything in the grocery store shelves.
That's like in the middle of the grocery store shelves is dead.
It's literally dead food.
There's nothing alive about it.
And that, that just woke me up to the possibility that the majority of food that I'd been eating
was dead and not alive.
No wonder I felt like a zombie and dead for most of my life.
Wow.
And yeah, so that's, that's basically what spawned this awakening in me.
And then to the point where whenever I, I want to research something, I research it to the
end, you know, to the end because I learned how to research in high school where I was
a debater and got recruited to go to college and was number one state three years in a
row and like was this really great debater.
And back then they didn't have Google.
So I had to like do everything the hard way, Google library, you know, check out the micro
fish and do all this crazy stuff to get articles to win debate tournaments.
And so I treated my health the same way.
And that's when I started discovering what had been done to the food industry.
How old were you at this point?
I was 23 years old.
Okay.
23 years old.
And I'm where were you living at that point.
I'm going to be 44 and about a month.
So yeah, looking good.
Look at that skin.
I'm just like, it works.
Look at her face and her vibrancy.
So you were 23 and you were, you were living where?
In Charlotte, North Carolina.
Okay.
Yeah.
But I was traveling all over the place with this job.
And so after I kind of came back from that hospital stint, I met my husband and I remember
he introduced me to oatmeal for the first time.
I had never had oatmeal before in my life.
And he introduced me to oatmeal.
And I was like, this is so good.
It is so healthy.
And like I started losing all this weight.
And I know that my husband's going to love me forever and forever and ever because he
met me when I was like, chubby, you know, so anyway.
So it's like he, he really, he spawned something in me too to like even take it further and
learn more.
And it was a period of time where I started to change so rapidly in the way that I was
looking.
I mean, everything started to clear up.
All the eczema went away.
My asthma went away.
My allergies got better.
Everything started to happen as well as my body changed into a different being.
I never like, I had never experienced like tone or anything like that because of just
all the crap I'd been eating.
And so I, yeah, I started working out and doing that kind of stuff, but it was really the
way that I was eating that really changed who, who I was and what I looked like to the
point where it's funny because one of my aunts told one of my cousins like something's not
right about Bonnie.
Like she looks like a totally different person to the point where she thought I had like
some kind of work done.
I don't even know what you get at that young.
Honestly, what you would do.
No, this same thing happened to me as well.
Like even when I look back on photos in my teens and twenties and I grew up very similar.
It was like we, there were so many kids.
We did whatever we could, whatever was thrown on the table.
You ate and it was a lot of fast food.
I grew up.
I mean, my girlfriend and I, her mom would take us to school every day in high school
and we stopped at Burger King every single morning for a breakfast sandwich.
I look, was it the croissant sandwich with ham?
It was loaded with all the things you don't want to put in your body.
And I look back on those photos and I look 30 years older than I do.
I mean, it's wild.
And your fit, the shape of your face.
I feel like there's so much inflammation in your face.
So much inflammation.
Right.
And all over your body that you just don't even know what's possible once you start to
find real, alive whole food.
And it changed my life in such a way I couldn't shut up about it.
Like I told everybody and in Charlotte, North Carolina at the time, we even have a whole
foods.
We had like one teeny little natural food store.
So I had to do like all of this from scratch, trying to figure this stuff out, like figure
out how to make everything.
Now you can go and get your almond milks and your everything out there that's like pretty
clean and good.
But back then I had to do everything from scratch.
So I just had to go through that process to teach myself how to take care of myself.
And I love your commitment to juicing all the time, considering the access you have to
all the juice bars in New York.
Yes.
But that was something that I took very seriously to at the very beginning to the point where
juicing just like totally opened up like a vibrant spark in my eyes I'd never seen
before.
I swear like my eyes got just like bright same for the first time in my life.
I know.
And I'm like, if this is what nutrition can do, wow, like everyone needs to know about
it.
And then also look at what not eating nutritious food can do as well, which is to make you walk
around like a zombie.
And I started foodbabe.com actually wanted to call it eathealthyliveforever.com.
Tell us how it was called foodbabe because I know a little bit of the story and I think
it's the cutest thing ever.
So tell us how you got the name foodbabe because I love it.
So when I was to the point where I just couldn't shut up about everything that I was learning,
I was telling everyone at my consulting job, which I was still doing, you know, traveling
all over the place, trying to figure out first of all how to travel and eat clean when I
was traveling from Charlotte to Detroit, I would literally take a little cooler with
me on my plane rides for like a four day business trip.
And I would have like my own lunch and like the refrigerator at work with my little kale
salad and all the things.
And people thought I was kuku for coca puffs.
Like they really did think I was crazy.
And to the point where they're like, every time you go out to eat with us, you ask way
too many questions to the waiter or waitress.
And you know, the best time though, I'll tell you this, I was at this dinner with all these
sea level executives of like the biggest bank in the world.
And we were in the MGM Grand in Detroit, this big casino and we were sitting at one of the
steak houses.
And it was just one of those days that I just didn't feel like eating meat.
And I wanted nothing was like really vegetarian except for like the sides on the menu.
And so I just like whispered to the waiter like, Hey, can you create like a vegetable
vegetarian dish for me?
I'll just take whatever vegetables, you know, just leave it up to the chef.
Well my thing comes out and it is like the most ridiculous meal in the whole world.
It's so beautiful to the point where all the executives around the table are like, wait,
what is she having?
I want one of those.
I want one of those.
And it was just like this moment of like, yeah, I did order the best thing on the menu.
I didn't order on the menu, but you know, it just felt so good.
So I start, I wanted to start this blog because everyone was like, Hey, what are you doing?
We want to know what is your recipe?
What's this juicing thing?
What's the screen drink you're bringing to work?
What's this other soup you're eating?
Like, just tell us what this stuff is.
And at the time I was not on social media.
I was actually scared to be on social media because I thought one day I might want to
run for office.
And so I just never put anything on social media.
And then my job too was super serious because I was working with all the sea level exactly
and I was like, I'm not going to run for the whole day.
And I was like, I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I'm not going to run for the whole day.
I yelled over to the other room, which was his office.
I said, hey, can you register this domain name for me?
$8healthyliveforever.com.
He's like, no, that's awful.
He's like, that's the worst domain name ever.
No one's going to remember that.
Ten minutes later, he yelled out from the other room.
I still remember sitting on the couch like cross-legged with my laptop on my lap.
I was like, wait a minute, food babe.
That's really catchy.
Yeah, food babe.
I go, but wait a minute.
I'm not the food babe.
Who am I to be the food babe?
No, I'm not the food babe.
I can teach other people to become the food babe.
That's what I'll do.
For the first year and a half of the blog, I'd never even had my photo on the blog.
Well, first I was still hiding because I was still working in the corporate world.
So I wanted to be about these other cartoon characters on the top of my blog that was like
a lady cooking a dinner.
They were actually very patriarchal now that I think about it, but they had just these
typical scenes of what women do.
I just hid behind this name the food babe.
I would sign every blog post food babe instead of Bonnie.
And it wasn't until I started sharing ways that I had been duped by the food industry
that I realized the power I had when it came to the community that I started to build.
One of the first things that happened very early on was I shared how there's this organic
yogurt chain that I had been eating at at the mall that I was so excited about.
They were like advertising organic healthy all these buzzwords to make you go in there,
but they were using artificial dyes and trans fats in their product.
Yes, they were starting with organic milk, but then they were adding all these artificial
ingredients.
And when I wrote about that and talked about how I felt duped because I thought it was
healthy, but wasn't, it went so viral to the point where the CEO of that company reached
me, sent me an apology letter and then took down the marketing.
Wow.
And it was such an amazing moment that I was like, wait a minute, like if that can happen
with this small yogurt chain, what can happen with all the ways that I've been duped in
my life when it comes to healthy eating.
And so I started writing about everybody from Chipotle to Chick-fil-A to Subway to craft
and started to use my voice.
And at first, the small community, I started to build my mom and my few friends, right?
But then they would share it on Facebook and then their friends would share it on Facebook
and it just started to go viral.
And it was just so cool to watch that people cared so much about like the fact that they
also felt this way.
They thought Chick-fil-A was healthy too because it was 400 calories and had all this protein
and et cetera, but they were really looking at the ingredients and seeing that one of the
first ingredients was MSG and ingredient in there that hijacks your taste buds and hijacks
your brain to the point where you just remember that flavor over and over again and want to
eat that food.
I can tell you that I share your posts more than I share anything else.
I really do because I'm just like, need to share that like everyone needs to see this,
look at Pringles, look at Goldfish, look at all these things that I mean, I feel like
that is probably the one thing that I feel like people will be like, where else are we
being duped?
Please help us.
What do we need to know?
I mean, you share it all.
And what I really respect about you is how fiercely you go for it.
And you've taken things, I mean, you've made a massive impact in the food industry in general,
but just a movement around standing up for all of us who a lot of people who have no idea
and are now gaining this knowledge, right?
And I am angry.
I know you get so angry too because I'm just like, this is in food that is marketed and
targeted for our children.
And then we look at autism on the rise and all of these things, right?
So if you could really hone in and maybe dissect a little about how you feel like we're all
really being duped when it comes to like what ingredients to avoid, what are things that
are you like?
These are non-negotiables because you have a very strong voice about things even with
like kids' birthday parties I want to talk about when you go to birthday parties and
you're like, food dies, I want you to like share it all here because I feel we all need
to know the truth.
And that is what you give is the truth.
Well, thank you for that.
So I think one of the most things that makes me the most mad, you talk about getting mad,
the things that make me the most mad are when food companies, American food companies,
are making healthier, better for you products that taste the exact same for citizens in other
countries, right?
And the reason they're doing this is because other countries have stricter standards for
food additives.
So for example, with artificial food dies, if you use an artificial food die in Europe,
you have to put a label on your product that says may cause adverse effects on activity
and attention in children.
And to avoid this label, manufacturers have said, okay, we don't want to put this warning
label on our product.
So we're going to use real food ingredients, beets, paprika, beta carotene to color our
products.
We're going to take out these artificial dies that are made from petroleum that are linked
to immune disorders, eczema, asthma, hyperactivity, allergies, gut issues.
The laundry list of things that these artificial dies are now associated with is just so alarming
to the fact that these food companies that continue to have these practices, I feel,
are so unethical and so hypocritical.
One for example is Kellogg's.
Kellogg's, I petitioned back in 2015 to remove artificial food dies.
And they made the commitment.
They were all over the newspapers.
They were in CNN.
I remember.
And York Times, like everywhere saying that they were going to do this.
Well, now it's what year is it?
2023.
It's been eight years and fruit loops and all of their cereals still have artificial food
dies here in America, even though the fruit loops in Europe doesn't.
It's not like they have to reinvent the wheel or make a new product or create something
new.
They already have the formula.
They literally could start serving American children healthier cereal today if they wanted
to, but they don't.
They make more money to selling us petroleum based dies.
And not only that, they've created new cereals like unicorn and baby shark and to grab hold
of the children of today of what they're interested in.
And it's absolutely disgusting what they're doing.
And so when it comes to a company like that or companies, there's many companies that
do that, not just them.
I really want people to know that this is happening so that when they see that brand
at the grocery store, they choose another brand.
They check the ingredients and they choose something better for their kids.
And I think once you learn this information, as you know, it's like hard to unsee it.
You can't just not ignore it.
You can ignore it for so much.
Like if you're traveling or you're in a tight spot, like, yeah, you can like look the other
way and you sometimes have to do that because we are literally inundated with these chemicals.
There's like no way to avoid them.
But in those circumstances where you do have a choice, I hope that my voice and my message
and everything that I share reaches out to people to the point where they make better decisions.
And I know it's happening because I see the marketplace changing and it's so amazing.
But one thing you mentioned to me was my fierceness.
And I have to tell you, my fierceness runs really deep because I never want anyone to
ever feel like I used to feel eating those foods.
I know how bad you can feel.
I know how much of your being on earth has to do with being healthy.
Like literally I was not able to find my calling or do the work that I needed to do in this
world until I got myself healthy.
But it was only because I got healthy that I was able to still work in the corporate world
and do that consulting job and start this blog on the side just for fun and have this
energy to do all of this stuff.
I didn't come home from work and veg out on the couch.
I got busy on my computer and blogging.
So it's like if people even knew what the possibility is for them in terms of what they
could create and make all their dreams come true, if they got themselves healthy, it's
just that's what I want to see happen.
And I'll tell you, there's a lot of people that don't want to see this happen.
All of the chemical manufacturers who make these chemicals, all of the scientists and
professors and other people who are paid by these food companies to speak at their different
agendas and to be spokespeople for those companies.
The companies themselves, they're making money off of selling us additives and cheap
dead ingredients that aren't real food.
And knowing that up against that big of a goliath at times is really difficult.
And it's actually one of the reasons why I started my food company, Truvani, because
when I had kids five years ago, I was like, oh crap, I can't just go storm Kellogg's headquarters
at this moment in time.
Like I had this little baby to protect.
And because of the worldwide attention I got on so many of my campaigns, whether it was
getting Subway to remove Azodicar, bottom, I had this yoga mat rubber chemical from their
bread, which was linked to cancer.
And if you inhale it, it gives you asthma.
So like all the workers who were dealing with this chemical, you know, were being exposed
to it as well as the fact that it was banned everywhere in the globe.
It was, you get fined $450,000 if you use this chemical, which is so crazy.
But Subway took it out of their bread.
It was like worldwide news when they did that when craft removed artificial food dies from
their number one selling product mac and cheese.
When I was featured on these different stories, I got a lot of attention from some of these
chills.
There's another reason to call them, just chills, right?
Chills, people who are spokespeople for these companies to come and like combat me, like
take me down and actually wrote a whole book, an investigative book about that.
It's called Feeding You Lies, where I go in detail and show you all of the freedom of
information request acts that I submitted to find out why these certain professors were
always showing up in the New York Times or the NPR articles or wherever coming up against
me and telling everyone, hey, she doesn't know anything.
She's not a scientist.
She's not a nutritionist, why you need to listen to her, like trying to do anything to diminish
my credibility.
And I was like, who are these people?
Who is this guy who's never met a chemical he doesn't like?
And I wanted to figure out what was motivating these people.
And so I found that out and actually revealed that all in my book, but also it was so eye-opening
to see what a web of deceit is out there in terms of the information that we are given
in the media.
The media hides so much from us in terms of what's really true.
Thank God for social media that we can get this message out.
Without social media, this message would have never gotten out, period.
I don't think that.
Our parents were just doing the best they could.
They were feeding us because we were kids and it was easy and cheap and they're busy.
With all the siblings you have, Melissa, I just can't even imagine.
I have two kids and it's like a struggle every day making sure they're fed correctly.
It's funny because my mom, even to this day, she says to me, she goes, I'm so sorry.
I'm sorry, I just didn't know.
And it kind of brings a tear to my eye because it's like she didn't know.
There's no internet.
There's no Facebook.
There was no social media to even learn about this.
She couldn't Google the ingredient on the back of the package.
She just believed all the marketing that she was being fed in the newspaper or on Parade
Magazine or Good Morning in America or wherever in terms of on TV, whatever show she was watching
or the advertisement or the commercial she was being exposed to or the magazines that
she read.
I'm thinking about the first magazine.
It was one of the ones that my mom read and people.
All the magazines back then, they still exist now.
But I'm saying that advertising's different now, but it's just not that much different
but a little bit different.
I went through a really kind of awakening point in my life where I was like, okay, I
am an activist, right?
And I still want to do this activism work, but I also need to change the food industry
from within.
And so when I started TrueVani, my goal was to create products that I had never seen in
the world that I wanted to create for myself.
And I wanted to make sure that we used the least amount of unnecessary chemicals including
everything down from the chemicals that you don't even see on the label.
It's just in the manufacturing of the product itself, whether it's the packaging, the machinery
that's being used, the processes used to extract some of these ingredients, every single thing
down to the testing, the heavy metals, the glyphosate, to the point where if someone bought
TrueVani, they could really trust what's on the label.
My die hard love for this product is so real.
You guys have heard me rave about a ray bloat supplement for a really long time and nothing
has changed because I'm just so obsessed with this product.
And the reason is because it works.
It is so clean.
The ingredients are minimal.
It literally consists of bromelain ginger root, lemon balm, dandelion root, peppermint,
slippery elm.
And I will tell you that this little concoction is the formula to get things moving.
If you know what I mean.
The array bloat supplement helps to optimize digestion, ease that uncomfortable bloated
feeling and it really just speeds up the breakdown of all the things that we're consuming.
And I just have to say it is also it's vegan, non GMO, gluten free, filler free, not free,
everything free.
You guys, and it works like really, really works.
I take anywhere from two to three whenever I'm feeling uncomfortable in the evening after
a meal, I have it with a little bit of tea before bed and it works like magic.
You wake up in the morning and you feel like a different person.
The code or discount is move with heart.
That's no spaces.
And this can be used on array.com.
That's a R R A E dot com at the checkout for 15% off or for 25% off the first month of
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I can't say it enough.
I know I've said it a lot, but I'm absolutely in love with this product.
And the truth is it's because it's effective and it works wonders.
Don't trust me.
Definitely try it on for yourself and experience some real movement, if you know what I'm saying.
When did you start, Giovanni?
When my daughter was, she was 10 months old, she's six now.
So like five and a little bit over five years ago.
And you have incredible protein powders.
You just launched the bars.
You have supplements as well.
Yes.
We also have toothpaste.
You do?
You do?
Yes.
I didn't know about the toothpaste, but I've tested the duoderm which really works.
It's like sad, right?
Like taking this in.
And I even think about my parents and they're doing the best they can.
We're all doing the best we can.
So I feel like it could be really helpful to talk about the shifts that anyone can take.
That's maybe right now the majority of someone's diet is mostly processed or fast food.
I feel like a lot of the time it's like people don't know where to begin, right?
And even like taking a step back to hear about like how you had a full time job, but you found
the time on the weekend.
I resonate so much with this.
Like I remember when I was like doing work that I didn't love, but I started to really
investigate everything and it started with food for me because I had so much acne and
gut issues.
And I was working a ton, but on the weekend it was like I put my time into all of the things
that like fed my soul.
And it's so amazing what happens in your life when you keep going, right?
Like it's so important to hear like how you started this.
But to maybe give like a little bit of hope or like guidance to someone who feels really
hopeless or lost or just like doesn't know what to do.
Like what advice would you give?
Well, Lent is coming up.
Whether you're Catholic or not, I highly suggest just removing television from your life.
And that is what spawned me blogging.
I gave up, even though I'm not Catholic, I gave up television for Lent.
And it was the best decision of my life because suddenly I had all of this extra time to focus
on the things that I was very interested in and passionate about.
And I'd spend every weekend investigating, writing, sharing this information.
And it was such amazing contribution to the world versus kind of being zombie-like when
you're sitting in front of a TV.
So that's one of the things that really sparked the opening of space for me was just to do
that one step.
So if there's something that you're wasting time on, just to eliminate it for a little
while.
If you do it for a few weeks and see what happens, that really helped me find the time.
That's such a powerful suggestion.
And I always say too, it's so funny, there's so many similarities in our story that I didn't
even ever realize.
But I always say one of my biggest turning points in my life was when I would come home
from like modeling all day.
And I used to just plop in front of the couch and I would watch hours of reality TV.
And when I stopped doing that, cold turkey, because I literally have no energy.
I don't even care what I eat.
I'll eat it in front of the TV.
I don't even taste it.
And then I'm just like shoving a bag of chips down my throat because I'm so mindless at
this point.
And then it's like you go to bed.
It's just a cycle.
It's a vicious cycle.
That was a massive pivotal point for me as well.
And I eliminated just being swallowed by television.
It's literally taking over everything you're visioning in the world right now.
So literally we create our own reality.
If anyone knows that, Melissa, you do.
We really create our own reality.
And so if you spend your time creating your dreams, literally doing one step at a time,
it doesn't have to be everything at once or just thinking about it, writing about it,
journaling about it, reading a book about whatever you want to create, doing the work
talking to someone about it versus letting a program on television program your mind,
it's game changing in terms of what you can contribute to this world and you can live
the life that you never thought was possible.
It's so true.
I love hearing that that happened to you too.
Oh, I mean, there's so many things.
Funny because I do enjoy like a show, like I love a doc.
And it's fine.
Like you can enjoy things.
I think it's really getting honest with yourself with where you put your time.
Everyone says they don't have time because they have no clue what they're giving time
to.
Yeah.
Right?
So the best things that I ever did was I love to read, but for a while I've been in the
cycle of having babies and breastfeeding and waking up in the middle of the night and I
just don't have any freaking energy at night anymore to like sit and read.
And so like sometimes I just like fall asleep at nine o'clock.
Like, you know, if I, if that's just one of those days and I started downloading all
these books that I wanted to read on my phone, audiobooks, and I literally listened to them
after I drop off my daughter for school, draw, listen, it's like 10 minutes back home, right?
It's 10 minutes every day than going there to pick her up or going to my workout class
or whatever.
It's 10 minutes there, 10 minutes back.
I mean, I literally have finished like I'm not even joking over the last six months,
probably 50 books that way.
Wow.
Literally in the car going to and from my regular stuff.
And it's so different from just putting on the radio to listen to music, which is fine.
Great too.
But in terms of like learning and growing and getting information that I really want to
learn about, like that has just been so pivotal for me.
So that's another thing that you can do is find kind of this dead space in your day and
fill it up with goodness.
And those thoughts and the things that you learn in those audiobooks or podcasts or whatever
medium you want to consume it in, I can just totally change your mind.
It's amazing.
I really can.
I always say whenever I like need a shift, if I'm like in a little bit of a mood and
I like did my meditation, I move my body, but I'm just, I always, I mean, I listen to
a podcast pretty much every single day.
And you inspired me just saying that.
So I'm like, you know what, I'm really going to try like listening more to audiobooks because
I do love to read a little bit at night before I go to bed.
But I just get so inspired when I have something in my ear that's like motivating me or you're
gaining knowledge and you just like you expand.
Like that's what makes us expand and ourselves vibrate.
And then it's like that's the energy that you bring into even maybe a job you don't love,
right?
I think it's so important because I think the majority of people, unfortunately, it's so
sad to say are walking around living lives.
They're maybe not the happiest with or going to work with jobs that they don't love.
So it's like, how can you bring this energy and this like zest for life into the things
that you do that you don't love and find ways?
And I think that's what attracts you to like finding these life synchronicities that connect
and ebb and flow for someone like yourself.
Give us a little day in the life.
Like what are your habits?
What are things that you come back to?
I mean, you look phenomenal.
Like I'm just in awe of you and I'm just like that skin.
It's just all of the things like give us, give us some of your rituals and things that
you swear by.
I am so low maintenance.
Like I love that.
Like really, really, really low maintenance.
I like to think that anyways.
I don't have, I don't know what it is, but I lost my patience for getting ready.
Just lost it.
I don't know.
Something happened where I just can't, I just can't spend the time.
So like even if I'm getting ready, like I was putting on my makeup today to do this
podcast and I was like, I'm going to listen to the rest of Dr. Becky, Becky Goodenside's
podcast right now.
She has Esther Pirel on about how to do that.
I can't wear clothes.
And I'm like, oh, I need a look.
I love that.
Let me just tell you.
Yeah.
It's shifted.
You know, I've gotten to this space because I've really worked on my routine quite a bit
to make it awesome.
But in the morning, so let's just talk about like what happens in the morning.
My son usually is the first person to wake up.
He's two and he comes in the bed.
I'm still breastfeeding.
So he's breastfeeding first thing in the morning.
Then, you know, he's potty trained now.
So for some reason he wants daddy to take off his soggy diaper at night.
So he daddy gets up and does that.
So which is awesome.
My husband's amazing and super hands on.
And I usually go put my contacts on and I go straight to the kitchen.
And usually if my husband's on his game, he has made me a lemon water, which is incredible.
Like having him make my lemon water and coffee in the morning has been game changer.
I used to make it myself for 43 years of my life.
And this just changed probably in the last four or five months where he saw how I scramble
in the morning to get my daughter's lunch made and out the door and the kids breakfast
done and how I'm trying to feed myself and then get out the door to do my workout before
my day starts.
Like all of that he saw how like I'm like running around with my head cut off.
And I said, you know, we just were sitting down talking and I said, you know what would
just be amazing is if you just did the lemon water and maybe even like make my coffee for
me.
And he just that was it.
That was the whole conversation.
And then he just started doing it and let me tell you my morning is so different.
Just knowing that my little two rituals are taken care of so I can take care of everybody
else is just like heart Noah.
Yes.
Listen to this.
Yes.
And I don't think he knows that and I should tell him about how you have to tell that's
so like knowing that I'm taking care of first thing in the morning has made such a huge
difference in my mood and I'm not scrambled.
I'm not frantic.
I'm not a morning person.
So it's really hard for me to even talk in the morning.
No, I don't want to say anything to anybody.
I'm not either.
My kids.
It's so bad.
People think I'm a morning person because I like wake up early.
I try, right?
I strive I always say, but I am not a morning person.
I don't like to have many conversations.
I don't want to be around a lot of people.
Yeah.
My kids.
I don't want anyone around.
And I'm just like, leave me alone.
Let me just take a minute.
You know?
So yeah.
I'm so proud that I do that.
I usually always take my daughter to school.
So that's my role in the morning to do that.
My son is not in school yet.
We have a nanny that comes in later and she watches him like when I'm in meetings and
calls, but I'm in the house with them all day.
So I get to have my playtime too.
I have like little pockets of the day that I block off that I get to spend with my son.
And I always try to have lunch with him like every single day.
And I'm breastfeeding throughout the day too.
So I'm having those little pockets of moments, which is just so awesome.
Like after I get off this podcast, I'm going to go wake him up from his nap and like snuggle
him and it's going to be amazing.
And then I have a 2.30 call.
Right.
So it's like, you know, it's just that's how the day is.
So then every day, so then I work out, I come home, take a shower.
I usually see my son for a few minutes, then I go to my office and I do my like kind of
creative work then like writing or organizing for the day or writing like what I need to
be doing that week.
And then I have when he's taking a nap in the afternoon after lunch, or so during lunch,
usually every single day I have, I get in these habits where I like have the same thing
for lunch because it's just the routine is so easy for me.
And I love that.
I mean, it's, you know, I try to like at least go out to lunch like one day a week.
I'm trying to do that like with somebody.
So I'm like out of my house, but I've been doing this smoothie where I take literally
all the vegetables in my, in my fridge, you know, any type of green celery, cucumber,
carrots, ginger, lemon, some kind of fruit, either mixed berries or apples or pears.
I try to do a different fruit every single day.
A different vegetable every single day.
And then I add in my protein plus greens, true, Bonnie and my marine collagen.
And, and that's what I have every day for lunch.
And then with that, I'll have other things too.
Like lately I've been loving making this recipe.
It's actually my new book.
I don't think I've told you that I have a new book coming out.
No, I don't know.
It's in October.
I didn't know you have a new one.
Yeah, you're fourth.
Like it'll be my fourth book.
Yes.
You're a machine.
And then all of September to December, because reason we never got to do this podcast then
is I was so heads down on finishing the book.
That's good.
It's called food, babe family.
Wow.
And it's a behind the scenes look at my family and how we eat real food and a hundred recipes.
Okay.
That's, I was like, I need to know more.
I'm like, what do you feed your son?
What do you feel like?
I want to know every single thing.
So I love everything.
I love this.
You're going to know everything.
You know, everything after this book.
And you have recipes like you have a cookbook.
Yeah.
I have a big kitchen is my first cookbook.
Yes.
And this will be my second cookbook and it's a family cookbook.
So yeah, and I'll have to tell you, I know you would resonate with this.
Imagine two days of like 60 family portraits.
Oh, how exhausting and girly and crazy.
Full day.
And then we went through that to create all the photography for the book and my poor little
kids, they made it through.
But I mean, just barely.
No, that's real.
I mean, when we take pictures, we do 30 minutes.
That's about the capacity that they can handle.
So wow, that's so incredible.
Lonnie, congratulations.
I cannot wait to get my hands on that because everything you do, you just do with your whole
heart, your whole soul.
You feel it.
It's contagious.
It really is contagious.
And like everything you do is it's like, I mean, you actually have an army called the
Food Babe Army.
You guys can subscribe and become part of Bonnie's army because you're making change.
Like you are changing the game.
You are changing the industry.
And I'm just, I'm so honored to have you here to share an ounce of you because it's just
there's so much to share.
I already know we need a part two because I can, and like I want to talk more about food,
supplements, all of the things.
I always end with just some rapid fire questions.
So we'll just bring it back to these.
I always say rapid fire and like, I don't know about you, but like whenever I have to
do rapid fire, it's a whole story.
So just give me whatever, whatever feels right.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
My kids.
Literally, right?
Yeah.
I mean, literally my kids.
There's no, there's not even time to think about the higher mission in life.
No, there's not.
No, Eleanor, there's just no time.
Then all over me.
And it's like the, the mornings are, I try to wake up before, but she wakes up with me.
So I'm just leaning into it.
You know, you just have to.
Right?
Someone said something.
I heard this today and it was like, this isn't permanent.
And it just made me like a take a deep breath because I feel like you get into these phases
with kids, right?
And you get so overwhelmed by it, but it's like, it's okay.
Like this, this moment, it's going to pass.
Like this isn't permanent.
Like I'm sure she'll sleep in.
God, please at some point, what motivates you when you're feeling down?
Oh, this is a good one.
God, I mean, is it awful, but it's my kids.
They really do motivate me when I'm feeling down.
Like there's not much to feel down about when you have two amazing kids, right?
Like, like I really think that's why we're here on earth, like to raise children to, to
be, to be, you know, the best humans possible and so that they can change the world.
And so it's like whenever I'm feeling down, I look at them and they immediately make
me feel better.
So yeah, anyways, kids again.
No, it's beautiful and it's so true before I even go to the next one because I realized
I mentioned this and we didn't talk about it.
So just because I love that you're not afraid to share this, you know, it's like we go to
birthday parties and people are sharing all of the things and the food dies and like,
how do you handle those situations?
Like do you give your kids the cake?
Emotionally, I don't handle it well.
It irritates.
Yeah.
But you know what out of me, you know, because I have made it a commitment and I talk about
this in food, babe family, the book that's coming out in October.
I talk about this, how I made a commitment to teach both of my children early on, early
as they can start picking foods for themselves, what ingredients are and what artificial dies
are.
My daughter asks now, mom, does this have artificial dies in it?
Is this something I should be having?
She asks me that, which is great.
And there's been a few points in time where the icing definitely does and the cake probably
doesn't.
And I give her the option.
I just say, hey, that icing probably has artificial die.
You can choose what to do.
I think that's great.
It's like one of those moments where I'm not going to say like, don't have the cake when
all of her classmates are having a cake at a birthday party.
But I'm going to give her the information and let her make the decision.
And that's been really awesome.
The other thing that I've done is given her the option of I think that I think we're going
to go to this party at so-and-so place and there's going to be a lot of processed food
and ingredients that are chemicals.
Would you prefer to have a different treat later on in the day and just not have that
treat there?
And sometimes she'll say yes, not all the time.
But sometimes she'll say yes.
And that has been really great to have in my back pocket, in my bag, wherever.
Another healthier treat, a yum earth or a giggle or whatever.
And sometimes she'll go for that.
Or like, hey, do you want to make cupcakes later or whatever?
And that really helps.
And then the other thing that I always do, which is it solves so many issues, is just
feed your kids something healthy before they go to a party.
Like feed them a meal early, like if a party's starting at 4 or 30 or 5, feed them their
dinner early.
Doing those kind of steps alone will prevent them from overindulging and all the crap at
the party.
They'll have one treat versus 10.
You know, because I know when I throw a kid's party, I get the donut holes.
Yeah, their donut holes are from a nice bakery or whatever.
They're not from Dunkin Donuts.
But I get the donut holes.
I have cupcakes.
I might even have a cake.
And then I have something else probably there too that's like, oh, the goodie bag or whatever.
Like I love throwing a big lavish kids party and having fun treats.
Like this lifestyle, eating real food, healthy whole food, is not about deprivation and not
living your life.
It's just about making the best decisions when you have the choice to make them.
And then also educating your kids so they know the truth about the foods that they're
eating and know the information so that when they're making the decisions for themselves,
when they're out shopping and able to grocery shop, I can't even imagine my daughter like
getting in a car and going grocery shopping like she's too young to even imagine that.
But when she does, like she's going to be so empowered.
Imagine if my mother or your mother, Melissa, had taught you about these chemicals or additives
and these different products and letting you know that there's different versions of the
same product that almost tastes the same but are so much better for you.
Just having that option.
You know?
I mean, it's a game changer and I love your approach with how you, I mean, it sounds like
it's like you have this great communication with your children and it's so funny.
I'm laughing to myself because I have a girlfriend whom you guys would love each other.
She is the owner of Spring Cafe in New York and Aspen and like will literally call and
be like, what treats are you?
What treats are you making?
Like I will come with a cooler with the healthier option.
Like I love her.
She's like a die hard and she has no shame in her game and I love that about her.
But our, our, we have two boys that are at the same age and they were like asking for
something and I think it was like Benjamin was like, well, there's food diet, diet and
her son was like, yeah, there's food diet and she's like, see, like she cares too about
food diet and I think it's so, it's, it was so cute just to hear like the kids talk about
like, well, you know they're not going to let us have that because it has food diet.
But I think it's less about we're not going to let you have it.
Like you know this like I always tell Benjamin to, I'm, I'm like your behavior changes.
There's like an outburst of energy that's not positive and it's, he's hard to handle.
So I love the way that you, you know, ask your daughter and it's like you give her the
empowering decision to choose for her.
But in my mind, I'm dying a little.
I did crazy.
Yeah.
Like, you should see the devil Bonnie that's inside.
It's like about to just like, you know, take everything and like swipe it off the counter.
Like, what is this crap?
I know because it is hard.
Like you said, once you know you can't unsee it, like you can't just get rid of knowing
this information that like contained your life, right?
Like the impact.
So that's so good.
I'm so glad I got that in there because I feel like it's so important.
I know I was, I was excited about that question too because that's such a tricky situation
because you're invited to a party to enjoy and you don't want to be like this rude guest
too, you know, and there's just so many different levels of nuance there when you're in that
situation.
It's, it is tough.
No, it is.
And I think too, even like you said, a lot of people aren't even aware.
Like some, so I think having these conversations to make people think about it and know that
there's so many great alternatives out there, that's the best part of it all, right?
It'd be different if there, there weren't, but there are, there are now.
And I think we just have to keep, we keep talking about it.
Okay.
Last but not least, what does moving with heart mean to you?
Having this podcast be move with heart, I always love to end with this one.
Yeah.
Working with heart means to find out why you were here on earth and do that work.
Like your sole purpose, like every human sole purpose, I believe is like to find out
what gift they can give back to the world and to literally move with your heart through
the world and your own heart and everybody has that special gift.
And it's, and it's like our purpose to find that really is.
It really is.
And for me, it all really started to unfold once I started taking care of myself and I
like prioritized my health and I started to ask, okay, what is acne?
Why am I breaking out?
What is gut health and why is every doctor prescribing me accutane?
And why do I have all these crazy side effects with it?
And then looking at my food and wondering how it got there and what's in it, it really
did all start there.
So I love you.
It's been such a pleasure to talk with you.
I could talk to you for hours.
I can't wait to officially meet you in person and hopefully just continue joining forces
and just sharing the power of this incredible work that you're doing with the world and
just empowering people along the way to take their lives into their own hands.
Well, thank you, Melissa, for being a part of the Foodbape Army and sharing this amazing
information with everyone you come across to because it's all, it's really about all
of us sharing this information that's going to change the world.
So everybody's important and I can't thank you enough for that.
You are so welcome and it's true, you guys.
It's all about the power of the share and every single share.
Like, it just makes a difference.
Where can everyone find you?
You guys have to follow on your hands down.
One of my favorite follows.
If you are looking to just elevate and really just feel empowered with food, choices and
knowing what you don't want to put in your body, where can everyone find you?
So on Instagram, it's at thefoodbape and you can also come to foodbape.com to find out
all the information about my books and true Vanni and everything.
So awesome.
I'm going to finish eating my true Vanni bar because it's so good and it really is.
I'm so ecstatic.
I'm so glad you love it.
There's like very few bars in the world that I like and I love it from like first bite.
Well, it's funny.
I just checked out a bar that you shared the other day and I'm like, oh, this looks so
good.
I need to try it.
It's really good.
Elemental.
It's a great, it's a great brand.
Yes, I want to try that one too.
It's really rare that even bars like that exist and you know, the reason we created the
only bar was because every time I looked at ingredients in the back of the package, they
were ingredients in there that I wouldn't make with my like in my own kitchen.
And so it was really important to create a bar that was like ingredients that I would
actually literally make a like a homemade bar with.
And that's where the recipe started.
The original recipe was like in my kitchen.
So I wanted to make sure that we could replicate that on a mass scale and it took a really
long, took four years.
Wow.
So it took a long time, but we did it.
And it's awesome and delicious.
It's delicious.
It tastes like dessert.
It's delicious and you did do it.
It's such it's I mean, it's something to be so proud of because usually even when the
ingredients are really clean, they don't taste good.
They taste like chalk and I'm just like, I cannot eat that.
I actually can't wait to finish it.
I was diving in right before we started.
So no, it's it's amazing.
I can't wait to share them.
I can't wait to share you this episode.
And yes, I'm so excited about this one.
I hope you guys enjoyed that episode.
God, I have to say it still feels so good to share that the evolution of the MWH platform
is finally here.
And we are giving you so much more on the platform with your membership.
We have a very special offer for our move with heart listeners.
We've never done this before for new members in addition to your seven day free trial.
We are giving your first entire month for free.
That's another 30 days free.
You guys, we never do this.
All you have to do is head to Melissawoodhealth.com and use code move with heart.
All lowercase, no spaces when you sign up for a monthly membership.
Let me tell you, if you did not know this already, MWH now offers so much more.
I cannot emphasize that enough in every category to help guide you in both movement and meditation
so you can feel not only your absolute best in your body, but most importantly, in your
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So don't forget to get your first month free use code move with heart when you sign up
for a monthly membership at Melissawoodhealth.com and follow me on Instagram at Melissawood
Tepperberg and MWH at Melissawoodhealth on Instagram and TikTok.
I cannot wait to see you all on the map.
Bye.
the next week.
♪♪♪♪