“I am not after mediocre results with my health or life. I want outstanding results!”

By: Janeen Alley

For as long as I can remember I’ve loved health and the human body and was fascinated with how it worked. I also knew that in my life journey I really wanted to help people. Fortunately, I found plant-based nutrition early on, but it wasn’t until after a few unhealthy detours. Currently, I’m a health and life coach and run my own business. I’m passionate about educating others about the newfound energy and life I discovered after I stumbled upon plant-based nutrition in 2004.

After I graduated from college, I got a job working as a personal trainer in a gym in 2001. I had taught anatomy as a teaching assistant at BYU for 2 years, so it was an easy position to transition into.

The job proved to be more challenging than I thought. As a trainer, I couldn’t give specific nutrition advice to my clients because it was beyond my scope of training. I could ask if they were eating “a balanced diet” – if they said yes, I could move on to their workouts. If they said “no” – I could point them to the My Plate guidelines, and then… move on to their workouts!

I knew diet mattered, but at the time, I didn’t realize how much. When my clients failed to reach their goals, I was devastated for them. I was also frustrated and embarrassed I couldn’t figure out how to troubleshoot better and get them the results they were after.

At the time, I thought I had a “pretty good diet.” My dad was a physician and my mom made everything from scratch. They lived by the Moderation Mantra: everything is okay, even healthy, as long as it is consumed in moderation. I have found that this thought and lifestyle only creates mediocre results. I don’t know about you, but I am not after mediocre results with my health or life. I want outstanding results!

I knew how the body worked – down to the nitty gritty details – but I couldn’t figure out how to get outstanding results for my clients. According to my training manual, I was doing everything right. But I was still confused by ALL the conflicting information out there on nutrition, and I definitely didn’t feel good about recommending gym supplements because I knew there were some dangerous side effects.

When my husband started dental school in Philadelphia in 2002, I was more than relieved to get away from my frustrations at the gym and move on to the next phase of my life. Our first two children were born while we lived there (2002 and 2004). But not only had I stopped training clients, I stopped taking care of myself. As a result, my energy levels tanked, I put on weight, struggled with my acne, and lost a TON of hair during my pregnancies.

I remember being exhausted! When my son was about 9 months old, I have memories of being so tired I couldn’t get up off the floor. I would lay down and try to stay awake while he would crawl on my legs and back to try to get me up to play with him. I felt like a horrible mom. I didn’t want to take him to the park or to the library because I didn’t have the energy. I knew I needed to do something different.

At the time, we had a couple in our ward who were both very charismatic. Before meeting them, they had been the winners of Bill Phillip’s Body for Life competition. I was intrigued because when I was working at the gym, we had promoted and sold Phillip’s book (and, of course, his supplements). I was desperate and so I decided to give this program a try. I read through the book quickly and I made the decision that we were ALL IN with the program and promptly purchased 3 months of shake supplements – and let my husband know after-the-fact! (oops!)

The program worked great for a little while. I liked the structure; I knew what I was going to eat and what my workouts were. Every day, we ate 5-6 meals and 2-3 of those were either a chocolate or vanilla shake. Even though the shakes got old really fast, we kept going. My body changed and my energy levels were back up. BUT… the food was not sustainable. The ingredients in the shakes were horrible for our health; they were expensive and tasted more disgusting every day. So instead of “Body for Life” – it ended up just being “Body for 12 Weeks.”

Because my energy levels were up, and I had been feeling so good, I was determined to find something that really worked! It needed to be healthy and something I could do for the rest of my life.

At this same time, my husband was home teaching a family who we loved, but we noticed they ate really weird. Like, all these veggies! They always brought a salad to church functions, and they were vegan. *gasp*

For Christmas that year, they gifted my husband a book called Disease Proof Your Child by Joel Fuhrman. When my husband tells this story he talks about how hesitant he was to give me the book because he knew I’d read it quickly and be hooked. And he loved to eat meat – that’s where you get all your protein, right?!

I read the book in a day and when my husband came home from school that night, I announced, “Hey hon! We’re vegan!” After I had enthusiastically wrangled him into the Body for Life diet, he knew I was serious; I was ALL IN! (That’s kinda how I roll.) This time, he protested. He did not want to be known as THAT guy who eats all the veggies and was afraid that the food would be gross. I persevered and let him know that if he wanted to eat meat, he could grab it from a food cart down by the school, but this was how I was going to cook at home. Fortunately, he was a good sport and decided to give it a try.

At first, the lifestyle was a huge switch. Everything in my cooking repertoire had meat in it. And finding all these new veggie ingredients was challenging too. I remember walking in to my local grocery store and asking where the kale was—they had no idea what I was talking about. I finally found a sad, wilty bunch of kale at a local co-op. I bought it and chopped it up for my first kale salad. I chewed for a LONG time, but I muscled it down!

The thing that really turned me on to this way of eating was that it was NOT a diet – it was more of a lifestyle. And I loved how well Dr. Fuhrman talked about the health benefits of eating so many plants. The common diseases of affluence that are so prevalent in our society don’t have to be a given part of the aging process.

The thing that sold me on a plant-based, whole-food, near vegan diet was that it correlated so well with the Word of Wisdom. It CLICKED! I was more determined than ever to figure it out.

Again, I was ALL IN. Almost overnight. I started reading more and more – anything I could get my hands on about the benefits about plant-based eating. My diet wasn’t perfect, but I did my best, and I noticed pretty significant results quickly: my weight stabilized, my skin and hair were healthier, I stopped taking my two kids to the doctor for ear infections and bad colds (my youngest two kids who have always eaten a WFPB diet, have never been to the doctor except for their well-checks and have never been on antibiotics!), my energy levels started to soar and I started to feel so good – naturally! My husband started to notice some incredible changes as well with his energy and stopped sleeping through his classes.

Over the last 15 years, I have been able to use plant-based nutrition to overcome my own struggle with depression and anxiety. Among other things, I have taught spin classes, done a 100-mile bike ride around Lake Tahoe with my husband, taken the eCornell to get certified in plant-based nutrition, completed three Half-iron triathlons, became a certified health coach, and just recently, became a certified yoga teacher.

Back in 2004, when we took the leap, we were so weird! I knew it, and I didn’t care. I shared the information with anyone who would listen because I felt like it was really the ticket to OUTSTANDING health. You truly are what you eat – that’s not just some fun catch phrase. It’s true. If you are eating the best food on the planet you are going to have outstanding health. I wouldn’t trade it for the world!

I love how the Lord really gives clear instructions to achieve outstanding health with these specific promises: “health in their navel and marrow to their bones”; “wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures”; “run and not be weary…walk and not faint”; and “the destroying angel shall pass by them” (D&C 89:18-21).

Today I am SO glad I followed my gut (the Spirit, of course) and kept going!

When we moved our family to Japan in 2007, people started asking me to teach them what I was doing so I put together a 6-week plant-based workshop that had a lot of success. I continued teaching and tweaking my class. Today, that little workshop has turned into a weekly podcast Vibrant Wellness for Busy Moms and online coaching course and business with a specific emphasis on behavior change to help people bridge the gap from where they are to where they want to go. I LOVE being able live my dream of helping busy moms transform their lives through a plant-based lifestyle.

Janeen Alley (age 41) lives in Parker, Colorado with her biggest fan and husband, Merrill, and their four amazing children, who she enjoys home-schooling. She is a health and life coach and the owner of Fit-it-all-in Fitness and Health, LLC. Janeen produces a free weekly podcast (Vibrant Wellness for Busy Moms) and has created a transformational course to help women achieve outstanding health. Currently, she also teaches yoga classes locally. Her website is: https://www.janeenalley.com. You can email her at janeen@janeenalley.com.

See also, Merrill Alley’s whole food, plant-based journey!