When you're sick, you're willing to try anything to heal. Our guest Zana was able to send her Crohn's into remission after switching to a plant-based diet

I'm so thrilled you're here today . Let's get started . Welcome to the show Plant-Centered Listener . My name is Ashley and I'm your host and your interviewer . Today we have a very special guest named Zaina and we cover a topic that I don't think we have covered yet on this show , so I'm really excited to share that with you .

Wherever you are today , whatever you're doing , if you've listened to the show before , welcome back . I'm so glad you're here . If this is your first episode with us , thank you so much for being here . We are thrilled that you have tuned in . Today I am coming off another weekend of hosting family .

One benefit that I've noticed in the past couple weekends with hosting family is that it kind of invigorates I guess in B&I's excitement for the vegan options in this area .

We don't eat out very often , maybe once a week , but when family comes into town they're excited to try new restaurants and we're excited to showcase how many vegan options there are in the Raleigh Durham area . So that's been a lot of fun , just going to different restaurants and not different to us , but different for them and trying new things .

Well , again , we're not trying new things , but you get what I'm saying . I wanted to let you know and I don't know if I've shared this on the show yet before , I've definitely shared it on some of my social media channels that I was invited to compete at Mr America this year and let me tell you I am honored to be on belief .

I just feel so privileged that this team invited me to be part of their team , which I will explain kind of what that looks like . Of course , I'm also very , very nervous , but I'm also really excited . So Mr America this year is October 6th through October 8th and it's in Atlantic City , new Jersey , which I have never been there before .

So I'm excited to go up there and compete . So I'm part of a team called Plant Built and it was started quite a while ago .

I don't want to give you too much information , because the whole reason I'm telling you this is in preparation for this big competition that's coming up at the beginning of October , I'm going to be interviewing the founder of Plant Built , along with several other of my teammates who will be competing there as well , and some of them just have such remarkable stories

about going plant-based or going vegan . And not only did they see just incredible health benefits from changing their diet , changing their lifestyle , but also how it's fueling their sport now . So , mr America , which I've had to look this up Mr America was originally a bodybuilding contest and it was first held on July 4th 1939 .

So quite a while ago and it has since morphed into . Now . There's a variety of sports that Mr America offers , I guess . So one of them being CrossFit , and that's the team that I was invited to compete with .

They also have kettlebell sport , powerlifting , olympic lifting and a bunch of other things , and obviously the bodybuilding and the physique competitions as well . So there's quite a few of us on the team . We actually interviewed someone last year to talk about the competition and what that looked like and everything .

But this year , since I'm a part of the team , just so gratefully , I'm going to interview several people and we'll release those episodes kind of leading up to the competition . So keep a lookout for those , because some of these stories . I was just blown away and then , yeah , I think that's it there . That's what all I was going to tell you there .

So really excited for that , looking forward to that and , like I said , also very nervous .

So today's guest , we are actually going to cover the topic of Crohn's disease , and if you're unfamiliar with Crohn's disease , what it is is an inflammatory bowel disease that causes this chronic inflammation in the GI tract , so it can extend from your stomach all the way down to your anus and it is incredibly , just from listening to Zana's story .

It can be incredibly debilitating and you may know this if you have Crohn's or if you know someone who has Crohn's disease .

It obviously it affects people differently , and so the story today is just a really remarkable one of how Zana used diet and lifestyle to put herself into remission and I won't give you too many details because she goes into all the details , but I was just blown away by how she really just went all in with diet and lifestyle and it made a pretty huge impact

on her life . So Zana , she is a recipe developer and a cookbook author she has a really cool cookbook , by the way , and she started her career as a computer science engineer but , of course , soon after starting her first job , she got very sick .

She was eventually diagnosed with Crohn's , which she says was just the cherry on top of all of her health problems that were going on . Long story short , because she goes into great detail here . She ends up changing her diet and she's been in remission since 2012 .

She ended up quitting her job , which she never thought she would do , because she really wanted to share this with the world and she really wants people to know that they are not helpless . And I know , with Crohn's disease there's obviously nutrition is ever changing .

There's more and more information coming out about diet and inflammatory bowel diseases and we go into some of that . We also I don't think we touched on this , but Dr Greger , who is a plant-based doctor . He covers this on his website called nutritionfactsorg .

If you type in Crohn's disease , he has several videos and blog posts that really go into more detail about diet and how it can impact the inflammation that's going on in your body with Crohn's disease .

And , of course , like I said , there's also just more research papers coming out just kind of showcasing the benefit of maybe monitoring your diet with Crohn's and with Zana .

Obviously , every person is different when it comes to their diet and lifestyle changes and how it impacts their own disease , and so this is Zana's story , which is very personal to her , and I'm really excited to share it with you today . So , without further ado , let me jump into my interview with Zana .

I hope you enjoy this one and have a good rest of your day , but I want you to tell us just so the listeners kind of aware of where you're from , what life is like , where you're living and everything kind of give us a little background on who you are , because I'm curious to learn as well .

On the map it looks like a chicken , so it's really funny . Everyone is always laughing when I tell them that and I'm currently living in the capital of Slovenia , which is Ljubljana , and I've been living here ever since I came here to study . I didn't study anything related to food or cooking or anything . I'm actually a computer science engineer .

I used to be a programmer , a software developer . That's what I was actually working on for 10 years , and then when I started to get sick and started to research my diet and everything , that's when I actually left my job because I realized how important this is and if I could help myself , what could I do for everyone else ? Yeah , yeah .

I was the only woman in my office , my department , when I started working and learning new things and everything , and I was just like stress is a big part of what I think got me into my health problems .

And also there was diet because , as I told you , I had a lot of health issues around that time I had a high blood pressure , I had constipation , I was tired .

I wasn't actually aware that food was the big part of that but , I realized it when I got my Crohn's disease diagnosis , because I ran into a doctor who told me my diet was to blame and I was having a pretty standard diet for someone in Slovenia . I ate a lot of meat , a lot of dairy fish .

Like at every meal , there had to be some meat , or at least some dairy , because otherwise you would die , you know .

My diet is great , you know , just like they taught us in school .

live like that Right .

They drew some blood , they did a blood work and they saw like my white blood cell count was really high and then they started to look into my abdomen with an ultrasound and later with colonoscopy and everything .

So that was the first time I actually got the real diagnosis because of the real , because they really looked into it , as opposed to before I had symptoms , but I didn't know what was going on .

I was like I just finished my college , I got my first job and it was supposed to be great , but I was so unhappy because I was sick and I was really really like I wanted to change that and I was prepared to do anything . It was challenging for me because I'm such a technical person . I need evidence . I'm not into wishful thinking or stuff like that .

I need to see things on paper . I need to understand things . So that's why I started looking things up and reading books and anything I could get my hands on . And that's also why I decided to take the C Colleen Campbell Nutrition Certification , because I needed someone to tell me what you found online has studies to back it up .

Because you can find anything online , like anything . You can find a study proving anything you want , because there are people who found it . The studies who guess it's to say what they want . So it was a really , really interesting to start getting into it . Researching diets because it's such an interesting field oh yeah , it really is .

Or how did you even arrive at plant-based eating ? Because it could have been anything .

And there was a common denominator to those people the majority of them were mentioning the plant-based diet , and that's how I got the idea . The doctor at the hospital actually mentioned like processed meat and stuff , because that was around the years that processed meat got declared as christenedin , like right around that 2012 . So , yeah , he

mentioned that . And then I went online searching for people with similar problems and they were all talking about a plant-based diet and then I was like , let's see what is a plant-based diet , yeah , yeah .

You were open-minded to like looking at all of the evidence that was out there , and I think it's so helpful too , when you are diagnosed with something or you feel maybe really isolated or alone on your journey , to find other people who are going through something similar , to maybe see what they're doing , what's working for them , and in a way , I mean kind of

experiment on yourself to see what's going to work best for you and it doesn't mean that what one person's doing is going to work perfectly for you , but I think it is . It's really helpful to find other people , what they're talking about and see if you can apply some of those things to you .

They don't have to do it completely the same as I do , but it's a great way to start out , to see that it's possible to get the , because you feel so helpless , you feel like you can't do anything , and when you see you can actually do something , it's really so great .

So it was actually quite funny that the EC Campbell program was the last thing I did , because that was when I wanted to share what I learned with others and I wanted to check if I'm on the right track .

You know , because I was following people like Dr Greger and Dr MacDougall and C Collin Campbell and anyone I could find online talking about a plant-based diet , and I tried many different varieties of a plant-based diet and it took me a long time to realize what's working and what's not , at least for me , because you can find so many different varieties of a

plant-based diet and I really wanted to see what the science says , what's the thing that most people agree on and what can I share with others , and because I don't like to talk about things I don't know much about . That was actually why I looked you up .

That is why I found you , because I like to work with registered dietitians who know how to explain to people why certain foods are good for them , why certain eating habits are good or better than others , and I like to provide the tasty recipes which no one can resist . That's true .

If you can make a plant-based tasty recipe , then that is a win , absolutely , I think it's a must-have because , at least for me , I was such a foodie before I went plant-based and I was actually making fun of vegans . It was karma . You know , I was awful . And then when I Mike the vegan I don't know if you know him he has like a cute saying .

He says when I took my meat goggles off , I could see clearly now and so many things changed for me like really . But yeah , I was a foodie and I needed tasty foods even if I went plant-based . So I think it's really important to find to find how they say something that works for you .

Like , as I mentioned , there are so many different ways to be plant-based and I know I have to be healthy and also feel good and feel like I'm not missing out and enjoy my food and , yeah , I think that's really , really important .

And , zana , I appreciate you talking about how it took you a little while to go plant-based , like it wasn't just this , like you snap your fingers and overnight it's like you're eating this perfectly planned plant-based diet .

Because I think what a lot of people don't realize is it does take time and you kind of have to again figure out what is best for you because there are so many different ways to do plant-based and there are all sorts of lengths of time that you can go to become plant-based .

I mean , personally , it took me about three years to really figure it out , like , okay , what's gonna work for me ? And then , once I figured it out , I was like , oh , this is easy , but it took a while .

And I saw something recently on social media that said people who make things look easy like , let's say , you and I eating plant-based , for example , since we've been doing it for a while now they started somewhere and in the beginning it probably wasn't that easy . So I think that's always just a good reminder .

They still have to do their work and their time for their body to adjust and everything , but at least I hope I will save them some of the errors I made , because I actually did try to go plant-based overnight and I didn't know how to make it work

. I was very tired and hungry all the time when , I started because I didn't know how to make balanced meals .

I didn't know how much I have to eat and at some point I was afraid that my teeth were going to fall out because I heard somewhere I'm not getting my calcium and I was running to the store getting some dairy because I was like , oh my God , what am I doing to myself ?

So , yeah , it took a lot of time to understand things and to make meals that satisfied all my needs and desires , and not just cellar reduces or smoothies all the time .

But fortunately , even though I started out not really great , my digestion got a lot , a lot better and that is why I decided to stick with this , even though I was hungry all the time and tired and then when I started to figure things out , I was like I'm so happy .

I like stuck with this , because in the beginning so many people give up because it's not working for them , and I understand that , because it's really not that easy . Well , it is , once you figure it out , right ?

What kind of changes in your body did you notice the more plant-based you became ? What kind of symptoms maybe weren't as profound , or how did you start noticing that difference , to be like oh okay , these people online my doctor maybe too is right , there is something to this .

That was something that was like wow and it got me thinking why are we eating foods that make us sleepy , if we are eating to get energy Right ? It was such a revelation for me because I used to be so tired after every meal I had to have coffee and go lay down and all that things . So that was one of the first things I really noticed .

Yeah , and later it was more energy . I felt more energized and even happy , more happy from time to time , just because I was healthy again . Yeah , so yeah , that was nice yeah .

I mean , trust me , I walk out of the bathroom sometimes with a huge smile on my face because I know that this experience now was not the same , you know , 10 , 15 years ago , and so I can completely relate to that .

Okay , zana , I'm curious to like flare up wise , like how has that been since you started going plant based ? Like what have you noticed maybe in differences there ?

There were no , no inflammation , no car ring or anything like everything healed up so quickly . It was amazing , wow , yes . And ever since I was like I had no symptoms .

Every now and then I like felt when , especially when stress builds up , I can feel like it's getting close , not like anything serious , but then I take time off , I stop working , I take a time day off and I'm really like conscious about my body , what it needs and giving it the nutrition and the stress relief it needs .

So I think that's how I managed to stay in my remission for more than 10 years , yeah .

But I didn't have any problems and all my regular checkups like regular doctor appointments the blood work was fine , everything was fine . They just see that I have there is my Crohn's diagnosis mentioned in the in my history , and they're like oh , you have Crohn's . And I'm like yeah , and that's it , I'm not even arguing anymore .

You know , everyone is struggling with something health related and that is why they relate to me very quickly and they like see , see options for them as well , like , even if it's not the same disease , they get it like and they feel very , very inspired and I'm so happy , like to tell them my story .

I never give out medical advice or anything because I'm not a professional , but I lead with example and I'm like really , really happy when I can inspire people .

So there's there's just nothing like a story like that , in my opinion .

Like you maybe will eventually like even going plant based . You know , it's like . You know , I don't know about that , I don't know if it's really that great for the environment or the animals or for my health , but once you're ready to receive that information , like you said , once the meat goggles come off , it's like wow , it's a whole new world .

So , zana , for someone who's thinking about going plant based or maybe they're in you know where you were many years ago , where they can , couldn't imagine life without me , or dairy or fish or anything like that at their meals what's some advice that you would share with them ?

You know , and many people say that you can make anything plant-based , and that's true . But I usually advise people not to do that in the beginning , because I remember when I went plant-based and I was like trying to make the same food I was used to before , I was so disappointed . I remember crying . I was like this is what I have to eat now .

It wasn't even that bad , you know , but it was not the same as the old food , and that is why my advice is to try new things , to try new foods , because there are so many foods out there you haven't tried like ever and they are so good and so delicious and they can remind you of the foods you know , but don't try to replicate them like to a tea .

You can do that later on , when your taste buds change , because your taste will change and then when you come back and you replicate your favorite foods , you will be like whoa , this is even better .

And so to kind of embark on that journey to try new things and branch out , it is an exciting part of going plant-based and for you listening , hopefully we're like jazzing you up a little bit , because I'm sure you're like , yes , it's true .

And then , like you said , when you go back to those foods that maybe you loved growing up and you recreate them , then that again you're like , wow , this is sorry , mom , so much better than how mom made it growing up .

It's better to start somewhere else .

Oh my gosh , I'm so nervous .

You can find me on Instagram , facebook , youtube , even TikTok , and I share new recipes every week . I also have a cookbook which is very , very popular in my country and it's actually changing the way the people in my country eat . It's like so amazing to see the whole family is enjoying plant-based food .

You know , it's designed to make people excited about cooking . So I think it's great because then when people cook you know when they sent me photos other people see that and they get inspired and it spreads like crazy .

I'm so glad that we connected on social media and that you were able to come on the podcast . I mean , that's , you're being vulnerable , so I appreciate it .