{How She Did It!} Monique Conner & Jennifer Dent

Hey, hey, we are live!

It's okay. Did you move? No, no, I've always been in Houston. I do spend time in Dallas though, but no, I'm—

Oh, I thought you were in the Dallas connection.

Okay, we're close though, just a couple hours.

Yeah, at least I got the state right. Okay, so you're in Houston. Uh, let me just check my page to see if we are live, making sure technology is working for us.

Is this going to show up on your Facebook business page?

Yes.

Okay, it is.

I'm going to check my phone as well.

Okay.

And give people a little minute to join as well. I don't see us yet. Oh, there we are. Okay, cool. So I've got a round of questions for you, but first I'm going to write down the one that you just told me about. So for those of you who don't know me, I am a health and success coach and I help women get out of overwhelm so they can focus on what is best, which is eating for their health and for their vitality. And I've been doing these How She Did It series, interviewing various women in my community and the Stop Dieting Forever accountability group. And people that I know, like Monique, who have made radical changes, who have either lost weight or have just, you know, taken the bull by the horns. Probably a bad analogy for tonight. Um, maybe it's that Texas thing coming through. Um, but who have really just decided to make a change for the better, and they are doing really, really great things. And so I always feel like people can inspire other people by sharing their stories, so this is just a conduit. I am just a conduit of people, allowing people to share their stories of success to inspire others to do the same. Beautiful. So yeah, we talk a lot about, you know, plant-based lifestyle and what does that mean, what does being a vegan mean, can you eat meat, can you not eat meat. And all these things. So, Monique, why don't you tell everyone how we know each other and what you do?

Oh, I just am a big fan of you, Jennifer. You know that. Jennifer and I met, uh, 2 years ago in, um, an accountability group that we both joined to help us to build our businesses. And since then we've been friends. I think we talk on and off probably at least once a quarter now, but we always kind of keep in touch with each other online and check in. And, uh, Jennifer, you got a great heart, so you know I love you.

Oh, thank you, Monique. I love you too.

Love fest. It's not funny, ladies. Whoever's watching, Jennifer and I were talking just before this broadcast and we both had to pause to get our lipstick. I just love that. And we didn't plan it. Um, and so what I do, I also help women who are in overwhelm, but I help out professional accomplished women who are ready for more and want to know next steps. They've done the career thing and they're ready to either get started in the business that they love where they can show up and be themselves, or they're just ready to explore what's next for them outside of the career that they're in. And so I'm— I work on clarity, helping women get very clear. So with working with them, they get a strategy, they get to get clear on who they're going to be working with in their business, and also to develop their target market if that's the route they want to go. So I am your clarity coach.

I love that, clarity coach. And you can find Monique at moniqueconner.com. I just put her website up, so go definitely check her out and all the wonderful things that she is doing.

Thank you.

All right, so like you said, we keep in contact periodically, and you are really— Monique, you're the one who is always like reaching out just to check in, which I always appreciate. So I do enjoy our chats, but the last time we chatted You were like, oh yeah, I am vegan now, 100%. And I was like, what? How does a Texan go vegan? And you said you took your whole family with you, like your whole family is on this journey. And I was intrigued. So after you shared your story, I was like, you've got to share the story with my community.

Of course.

So How did it happen?

Well, I thank you so much for that. Um, for me, you know, I had started avoiding meat before my family, and I believe it was probably about 3 months before my family. And that was because, you know, I'm, I'm very prayerful. I do a lot of quiet time in the morning and just really reaching in. I just realized, you know, I just don't have a taste for meat anymore. And, you know, as I focus on helping people get clear, I wanted to get more clear in my thoughts and in my actions and taking specific actions. And so for me, coming off of meat really was a way for me to pursue a high level of clarity, to be honest with you. And there was so many benefits to it, and I just lost a taste for it. Like, I mean, if I had to have like one more piece of chicken, you know, it just got to that point, you know, and or the meat started smelling different to me and it wasn't appealing anymore, you know. So I just started to just listen to that and just to kind of avoid it. So it was like a natural thing. It wasn't like, um, you know, one day I have a steak and then the next day, okay, that's it, I'm done with meat. It wasn't anything like that. It was more like I just had a— I just lost it. It just lost its appeal for me. And the way the family got into it, which was about 3 months later, was very interesting. So it was a Saturday night, and you know, in my home we usually have like dinner every Friday night together as a family, and then Saturday night we just kind of hang out or whatever. And we were home and my husband says, you know, you guys want to watch a video, a documentary? And he said, I heard about What the Health, so why don't we just watch that? And so the 5 of us, I've got, you know, 2 boys and a girl, 5 of us sat down, we watched this, and it just was kind of eye-opening for everybody. We were all like, you know, I'm sure, I know you and I have talked about it briefly, but I don't know if everybody everyone in your community has had a chance to take a look at it. But if you have not, I do invite you to take a look at What the Health. It's on Netflix. At least it was.

I don't know if it still is.

It still is. Yeah. Okay. So we looked at that and from there my husband made the decision that he was going to get rid of meat. And then the boys kind of followed suit because what got my youngest was so funny is when they said that eating eggs was like smoking 5 cigarettes. Yeah, yeah, that stuck with him because he is, uh, an athlete, you know, he plays high-level basketball and he's hoping to get a scholarship. And, and so when he saw that, he was like, oh, you know.

And yeah, tell us how old your kids are.

Yeah, so my oldest, he just had his 21st birthday, he's in college and he still lives at home. Um, my middle, my girl, she's going to be 20. She's got unique needs, she was diagnosed with autism when she was 1 and a half. I'd love to talk about that as well because She's very high functioning. You can't even tell there's anything going on with her. Um, and that I can attribute to making changes in her diet as well from since she was 1 year old. And then my youngest just had his 18th birthday, so he's a senior, um, getting ready to finish up applying for college. And so he's the one where I would say, let's have some vegetables, and he would turn his face up, Jennifer. He was not interested. So that's why it stands out to me that he is not only vegan, but he's like championing it. I mean, he's got his friends changing, you know, he's got his friends' moms changing. I'm like, what an influencer he turned out to be with this, because he was the one that'd be like, vegetables, you know, he doesn't want it. So he'll give me the rice, give me the meat, you know, I don't want any vegetables. That was him. So for him to make that switch because he saw the eggs, that was, you know, that hit him really hard. The other ones my older boy, he, he, he wasn't hard at all because all he was pretty much eating was chicken anyway. And so for him to just stop eating that was not a big deal because steak used to constipate him and stuff like— so he just, you know, for him it was just giving up chicken and he didn't mind that. And so my challenge has been to find more, you know, nourishing, filling foods because meat is quite filling.

How do you live in Houston, Texas Which is like pork, cattle, like the land of the animal.

Capital.

And how does your whole family go vegan? Like, what do you do when you go out to eat? Like, how does that work?

Well, it's a beautiful question. We took a family vacation when we were fresh into this family decision. And we went to my husband's family reunion. And you know, my husband and I are both from the Caribbean. So the Caribbean diet is all meat. You know, it's seasoned meat with rice. I mean, everything is meat, meat, meat. Go to Costco, spend $400, you're getting meat, kind of meat. And so we went there with the, you know, the challenge. I mean, I think we all watched that film, I think it was 2 weeks before that trip. So here we are showing up at the family reunion talking about we don't eat meat. They were like, what?

These our relatives?

Yeah. So what happened was they did have meat one night, and because they had been off it for 2 weeks, they didn't have a taste for it. It almost kind of made them feel kind of different, kind of not so well. So it kind of made it easier to continue the vacation without it. Because— so then, because people became sensitive to, okay, so they're not eating meat, so we started to get creative, you know, creating meals. Because one of those things, those group meals, right? It was reunion, like 40 people there, everybody's eating the same thing. So when they realize that we weren't eating it, then they— okay, well, you just have some rice and beans, whatever. We started doing things differently. But yeah, it's— and it's not difficult. So like, to go out to eat, we, we go to places that has a variety of things. One of our favorite places is Sweet Tomato. I don't know if you have it in New York. I don't remember being in the Philly area. Sweet Tomato is, is a franchise. There's a few of them here in Houston where it's, you know, buffet-style type salads, and then you could add— and they've got— so it's, it's, it's all these salad toppings and chopped up celery, chopped up squash, tomatoes, you know, sprouts, anything you want, and you can get as much as you want. And then you go to the other side, there's like all these soups, and you know, and sometimes the soups are vegetarian, sometimes the soups have, you know, milk in it, whatever. So we get to choose our soups, and they have like muffins and the bread and stuff like that. So we'll go out to somewhere like that. I go to that place even before going vegan because, you know, except my son, he would not eat the vegetables. He'd get like 2 pieces of lettuce. He's funny now because he gets a whole plate of salad. But we enjoy it. Now my husband does eat salmon every now and then, so I would say probably like once every 2 weeks. So I wouldn't necessarily call him a full vegan, but I mean The rest of us pretty much haven't had meat in months.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's a good balance. I still eat fish, I still eat meat occasionally, but it is definitely cut back, you know, from what I was eating before. Now Yvonne just chimed in and said she—

Hey, Yvonne.

Hey, What the Health was amazing, changed her life. I know Yvonne and I've known her for years. And I heard that she was a vegan, so I texted her yesterday. I was like, um, I heard you're a vegan. I think you need to join this webcast that I'm doing with Monique.

Yeah. Yeah. Can Yvonne ask questions? I don't know.

Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Whoever's listening, if you guys have questions, you can type them in.

Okay. I'm curious as to what her thoughts are, if she is vegan and what that's like for her.

But yeah, we'd love to hear your experience. So what are your benefits, Monique? What have you noticed?

Well, one thing that I noticed that was vital, that was very surprising to me, is I used to have a hard time with my knees. They used to hurt me. I had an injury in college where I was, you know, doing like a gymnastic flip I had no business doing, and then when I landed, you know, you're supposed to land with both knees bent. I landed with my right knee bent, but my left knee kind of snapped backwards. My leg landed straight. Straight. And so I tore some ligaments in the back of my knee. And so, um, ever since then, every now and then I'd get like, you know, inflammation in my, in my leg. And it got to a point where I was starting to get it regularly. And, you know, exercising became hard. It was like, come on, I'm not old. Like, I didn't— like, I didn't like that.

Yeah.

Um, but what I noticed when I gave up the meat, it was like, like within the first 2 weeks, I started to notice that that pain was like not even there. Like, I'd sit for a long time and my legs would kind of lock up and that kind of stuff. All that's gone. All of it's gone. So I'm very excited about that. Another thing I'm noticing too is I pass a lot of mucus. Like, mucus comes up throughout the day. It's still happening. And, um, I do drink lemon and lime water, so I'm wondering if that has something to do with kind of bringing up some of that stagnation inside my body, but there's been a lot of that type of stuff coming up in a good way, not in a way where I'm sick or anything like that, but it's just like, you know, I have read that, um, and maybe you can help with this, that they say that mucus kind of helps to support arthritis in the body, and that's really what it is, like a big component of it. Dr. Sebi, Dr. Sebi said that. And so, so when I see the mucus coming up, I'm thinking, okay, because it makes sense. I no longer have the arthritic symptoms anymore in my left leg.

That's interesting.

So that was a huge benefit. Another benefit has been my skin. Like, my skin has this—

Gorgeous!

Thank you. And I know that's from that. I mean, because I don't use any skincare. I just literally use like a clay mask like once a week, and then I just put some oil on my skin at night and that's it. Like, I don't have like a nutritional skin mask kind of thing. I know that's because I've let go of the meat. I know that.

Yeah, your skin looks great. I mean, I can tell that—

I don't—

haven't seen you in person in about a year, right, since last December, but I can just tell on your pictures on Facebook and your live stream, like, wow, Monique's skin is like glowing.

Yeah, that's the— that's the meat.

Yeah, I just moved to, uh, oil cleansing, getting back into that, getting rid of a lot of different products. Oh, Toya says Mucus buildup, similar story. I think mine came from the dairy.

Yep.

Yeah, now she doesn't eat it and she doesn't have any more problems.

Good for you. Good for you, Latoya. I'm glad to hear that.

Yep. I noticed the mucus for me, it doesn't come up, but when I eat certain foods, um, I have a sensitivity to certain things. When I do eat it, it just collects right here.

Yes.

And I never knew what that was until I took a food sensitivity test.

Yes. So what are you sensitive to?

Uh, chia seeds, chocolate.

Oh, chocolate.

Yeah, chocolate definitely gives me glob. I call it glob.

Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?

Any chocolate, even cacao powder.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, wow.

So I use it sometimes, I just don't eat a lot of it, right? But you know, there still are health benefits from eating it.

Yeah, sure, sure.

I used to eat chocolate every day.

Girl, you're my kind of girl. I know, I love you. We can hang out with that. I love chocolate.

So tell us about your background. You said you're Caribbean, right? So you grew up around a lot of meat.

Yes.

Anyone in your family or anyone around you vegan or a vegetarian? Oh, in fact, no.

I'm like a Martian. No, no. And Not only was my family big meat eaters, we ate like the, the stuff that, um, you know, like what we call tripe, um, which was like cow intestine and cow stomach. And I mean, we just ate the parts, everything.

Yeah, yeah.

So it was, it was like no limits on the food. I mean, we could sauté it, we could season it, we could steam it, we could boil it, cook it, you name it, we got it. And so my mom visit me, and this is when I was like kind of weaning off of meat. And no, I should say when I went to visit her, I was weaning off of meat and stuff. She made some— she makes this steamed cabbage that I absolutely love. That's been my favorite vegetable dish. And she made that for me, and, and she made some fish and stuff. And I took a big plate of this cabbage with some rice, and like, that was my dinner.

She was like, that's all you need? Yeah, all I need.

Yeah. So it's, it's, it's No one's really in judgment of it, but it definitely is an adjustment. It's different. Yes. I grew up with the pastries with the meat in it, pastries with the cheese in it, you know, eggs for breakfast and homemade bread, stuff like that.

So what do you guys normally eat when you're at home?

Great question. So this weekend I wanted to share with you, in preparation for this interview, I said, you know, I'm going to make sure I tell you exactly what I did this weekend. I love to shop in non-American stores for food. So I love to go to like Mediterranean grocery stores because they bring their foods in from different parts of the world. And just having had a trip outside of the country going into Europe, I saw the quality of food. The quality of the food was different. Like I could eat gluten and pastries out there and not feel heavy and sicky, but I eat it here and it's like, you know, I'm hemmed up for 2, 3 days, right? So I knew there was a difference. So now I started to seek out grocery stores that offers these foods from other places. So with that being said, that's such a smart thing to do. I go to Mediterranean stores. I also go to a place called Fiesta. I don't know if they have it in Northeast, but they offer groceries from Central America.

Okay.

And so I'll get like roots, cassava, which is yuca, boniato. I'll get those types of roots and stuff from a store called Fiesta that offers foods from the Central American region. And I like to think that they're not as heavily fertilized and stuff like that like we get here in the United States. I actually go out and seek out these places, right? And so what we typically eat— so this weekend I went to an Asian American— an Asian market. Now I know that in Asia they do things probably very similar to us, so But what I got was some Asian noodles and some of their sauces. And I took that and I took some of the mixed vegetables from the Mediterranean place and I made laomian, vegetable laomian. And I use the wheat noodles because my sons and my husband can eat that. And then I have the rice noodles for my daughter and myself. And so we had the vegetable laomian and I made spring rolls with the rice shells. And I put— I put chopped carrots in there and scallions and lettuce and sprouts. Mung bean, like a rice paper, you wrap it in a rice paper, you wet it with some warm water, and I said to myself, I'm going to come prepared to tell you and this community how to do it because it wasn't hard. Yeah, just boil the water, you know, it's not— and I just stir-fried the vegetables. The vegetables was like carrots and peas, and I put bok choy, which you can get in the Asian market, scallions, and I use avocado oil and I sautéed it and I put the sauce, I use Bragg's Amino Acids and I use some of their sweet and sour sauce and I just mix it up together and I put that in the noodles and the family enjoyed the noodles with the spring rolls, dip it in some sauce and the sauce for protein I use peanut sauce you can, you can, and my older boy has an allergic reaction to peanuts, so he used the sweet and sour sauce to dip the spring rolls. Very easy to make.

And that was really good.

Yeah, we had that on Saturday. That was pretty good. And then tonight I'm making a lentil soup. And so what I do is I got— Me too. I got my lentils from the Mediterranean grocery store. Okay. So they actually come from Turkey. So the lentils taste different to me. So I got some lentils from there and I put in stewed tomatoes, uh, Roma— stewed Roma tomatoes with basil, and that I got from a can. I didn't make that myself. And then I just put that all together in a pot with some seasonings, a little bit of salt, and that's boiling now. And we're going to have that with some, some of the, um, rice. And so we— and I, and I like to cook where I don't want to be in the kitchen all the time. I used to.

Yeah.

Now, like, my kids take over, they cook, my husband cooks, and so it's a family affair.

I was going to say, because that is one of the downfalls of going vegan, is like you have to do a lot of cooking, a lot of preparation.

Well, you know, but then you also find foods that people can readily make. Like, for example, my kids like waffles in the morning. They, you know, two of them still in high school, they're finishing up this year. So I'll go get the waffles that are gluten-free from the grocery store, and I'll buy a bunch of those, and I'll put them in bags. They're frozen. They get to take them out as they want to and just use those. And they'll put like peanut butter on top for protein, and they'll put agave or coconut nectar on top. And they've got— and then they'll have a smoothie in the morning for breakfast.

Yeah.

And I'll put hemp protein in there, or pumpkin seeds or something, just to kind of hold them. Chia seeds, you know, with the fiber. And that'll hold them for several hours till they have lunch. And lunch could be typically leftovers from dinner, um, or they can make a sandwich. Now with my daughter, she's gluten-free, so I'll buy a gluten-free vegan bread for her. And then my boys, they eat like a rye bread, um, I, I, I buy like a sour rye bread from the Mediterranean restaurant, Mediterranean store, and they'll eat that and make a sandwich with it.

So your kids are in high school, two of them. Uh-huh. All of a sudden, you know, their friends are eating hot dogs and hamburgers and pepperoni pizza, and all of a sudden they come in with their, you know, spring rolls and, you know, gluten-free bread. What was that? Was there a backlash? Like, how did they handle that from their peers?

The, the youngest one, that the athlete I was telling you about, he dropped 17 pounds over the summer.

Wow.

And so he comes back into the school, they're all asking him, what is he doing? So everyone's— that's what I'm saying. People are changing because he's being consistent with it. His one friend said to him, if you don't eat meat, you're going to die. You're just going to die.

It's South Texas.

But he has been consistent. I'm really proud of him. He doesn't have a desire for it because he sees that his body has changed. And this is a kid. That's been playing basketball since 6th grade, and just within a matter of weeks was able to drop 17 pounds. Wow. Making that change. So for him, it's been a huge impact, you know. And he also had the hurting joints and stuff, but we all thought, oh, that's because he was just growing up and he's the athlete.

Yeah.

And, and yet he still continues to grow, but his knees don't hurt him anymore after years, years. So I think for him, more than anyone else, has been more of a physical this is, this is really happening for me kind of thing. And so he kind of embraces it. Now with my daughter, she, uh, she's fine in terms of the routine that we're on with the smoothie in the morning, and she makes her dinners, you know, she takes her dinner, she makes lunch. So there hasn't been any backlash there. But what's interesting though is Thanksgiving's coming up and she's looking for that turkey.

What are you going to do for Thanksgiving, Monique? That's a very good question. So quirky.

My sister texted me today and she has since also been impacted by this. Our family, she's gone vegan, her husband's gone vegan.

Oh good, look at you, spreading the love.

Yeah, yeah, well because they see the difference. I mean, I'm not groggy, I don't need as much sleep. I didn't mention that, you know, I'm energetic. Um, there's just been a lot of great things.

I really encourage people to do it for for like 2 weeks, just try it, try it and see, try it and see. You don't have to make a lifetime commitment.

No.

You don't have to, you know.

It's not prison, just try it.

Try it, yeah, but you have to plan, you gotta plan for it. Like you said, you don't wake up the day after you eat a steak and like, oh, I'm gonna be vegan today. Right. You have to mentally kind of plan, what are you gonna eat, you know, what are you gonna get rid of in your kitchen? It's a process.

It is, it is, and then just to go back to that moment for a moment, when I started, I was still buying meats for the family.

Yeah, right. You started on your own.

I just started on my own, and, and they, and they decided, and we actually, you know, they finished off the meats, whatever that was in the house. We just didn't go get any more. But I gotta tell you though, I am loving the grocery bill, okay?

Yeah, yep, yep. That was one of the things I was going to mention, is that especially for me, or when I do the 14-day detoxes, I, I facilitate seasonal 14-day detoxes, and you know, if you're used to buying like the staples, you already have that. But when you're not buying meat and you're not buying a lot of like processed snacks and things like that, your grocery bill is like slashed in half.

It is.

I'm like, you know, beans, produce, like, and fruits and vegetables.

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, my grocery bill, when I do my numbers, I mean, I used to drop like, you know, $1,500 a month. Because I was buying deli meat at, you know, $8.99, $9.99 a pound, and they were taking like 4 slices each sandwich.

You're counting the slices?

Like, I just paid $20 for that, and it's gone in like 2 days, you know? And it would be like that. And of course, when you're having the meat, you're hungry, you want to go have some more. And so then they'd have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then it was all the eggs. And so when you take all of that out of the equation and you just fill up more with things like quinoa and the beans. And when you buy a bag of beans, you can get a bag of beans for 99 cents, and I can buy them in bulk, and I can get a whole big bag for like $4, and that can last us. Put a little chili powder on there and some tomato. I got some chili, and it's hearty.

And lentils— love, love, love, love lentils. You can do so much with lentils.

I do too. So it's been a shift Um, but at the same time, you know, everyone seems happy about it. I make it my business to think of, you know, different foods that we can try. And, and so the way I do that, like I said, I go to these different stores and just see what other cultures are eating.

And that is so smart. I never, I never thought about doing that.

Yeah, because, you know, it can get boring, you know. How many, I mean, how many, how many times can I have rice in a week, you know? Like, really?

But also just the quality of food that comes from other countries, because I do remember when we were in Italy last year and I ate all the things that make me mucusy and yucky here and over there. No, no issues at all. Like I say, I wrote a blog post when I came back. I ate my way through Italy and I did not gain a pound.

Not a pound. No. And you didn't— and you probably slept well. You didn't feel sick.

Yeah, I felt fine.

And these things that we cope with thinking, well, that's— we think it's us. We think there's something wrong with us.

And it's our food.

Quality foods over there in Europe, they they're not able to bring all those preservatives in and treat the soil that way. The way anything goes here, this is the wild, wild west in the United States.

Yeah, it's banned. A lot of the food colorings and pesticides are banned in Europe.

Yeah, when I was able to—

they're not banned here.

No, no. And so when I was able to eat those pastries, you know, without staying up, my stomach griping me all night, I was like, oh my God, this is nirvana! Yeah, it's been an eye-opener. So I do, I go to these different stores, I check out the different cultures and the foods and where they're sourced from, and it's a lot of fun because, you know, once I find the brands that I like, that I trust, you know, then it's not even research anymore. It's just like, let's just go get this. And that's when, that's when the family comes in. I'm like, I can just make a list of, okay, go to this store and go get this, this, and this, and this, and they already know, you know, because you know the brands that we like, and it's a lot faster. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I just want to remind anybody— I'm sorry, I was going to remind folks if they have any questions, they can type them below and we will answer them live. But what are you going to say?

Well, I said I don't know if I fully answered your question around what we eat. Are you satisfied with that?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, unless somebody else has other questions or want, you know, some clarification, just type it in and let us know. But I wanted to go back to your daughter. So you mentioned your daughter is on the spectrum. And you've been changing her diet since she was 1. So can you tell us a little bit more about that?

When my daughter was, um, young, you know, I, I gave her the, um— well, Latoya has a question. Okay, so I gave her the, the regular, you know, I follow the doctor's orders plan, you know, getting her taken care of, you know, checkups, checkups, checkups. And we went one time and she did have her shots, and from then, you know, her language stopped developing. She was one— she was one year old, so this was her MMR shots. Okay. Um, and so by the time she was one and a half was when we got a full diagnosis because I got tired of everyone telling me, oh, she's gonna be fine, the language is gonna come. And I'm like, uh, no, it was coming and now it's not here.

Wow.

And so You know, once I found out, the doctor told me— very well-meaning professional doctor told me, this was in New Jersey— that we need to get her name on a list from now because she's not going to amount to anything and the most she's going to do is buy groceries. And this is what they told us, you know, this is what the doctors told us.

So really, that made my ear fall out.

So really, I have— you know, they say that, you know, everything happens for us if we can just learn to see the gift in it. And the gift in working with her has been being open to nutritional ways of staying healthy. So now I don't chase not being sick. I chase wellness. I am for wellness. And it was really because of her that I really started watching what I ate, because back then the internet was, you know, this is 20 years ago, so the internet was not as mature as it is today with information. And back then no one thought that people could get get healed from this. And I remember lamenting over my daughter because I'm thinking, there's just no way my daughter's just gonna be up in a straitjacket somewhere. That is just not— yeah, that is not her life. And so I have been championing her life, you know, and her well-being all this time. And so what it actually boiled down to was that because of this, her system was thrown off, and so she was unable to digest many foods. And it took me some time to get her tested and figure out what was going on. And so from the time she was 1 and a half, you know, I have been rotating foods. I have been avoiding wheat. I've been avoiding milk. I mean, you name it. And then my oldest, when he was younger, he had a problem. We found out he had a problem with peanuts. He had a problem with eggs. He had a problem with milk. And so that has been an issue for me where food is always something I had to take a look at. Like, I was never that parent where I can just go anywhere and just feed my kids anything. I couldn't just walk into McDonald's and just feed him a burger.

This is probably a good thing.

That's what I'm saying. I look at that, before it was hard for me to really see it. I saw it as me being a victim, but in reality it was quite an eye-opener to have to deal with this. So I'm thankful. And so when she was younger, we had a whole lot of behavioral challenges. And you know, there was, there were several ahas, Jennifer, but one aha outside of the dietary changes was when someone I met online whose son was in a similar situation, when she told me, well, when she's screaming is because she's in pain. And I'm like, she's in pain? And that's when I had some compassion for her. Because, you know, you're thinking as a parent, you're so exhausted, you're so tired from seeing your kid bang their head on the wall and just have all these outbursts and run away from you and all these different things that you just, like, get outside yourself and just be like, ah, you know? But then when she said that, I stopped thinking that my child was being belligerent. I stopped thinking that this was a child that was, you know, not going to have much of a future and all this. And I started trying to explore why was she in pain, what was going on. And so that's when I started adding things like essential fatty acids, um, her brain development. Yeah, the nutritional supplementation, stuff like that. And all of that stuff went away. All the screaming and stuff literally went away. And so by working with her has really caused me to, to learn to be present with food and what I'm eating, what my family is eating. So they've grown up on smoothies, they've grown up on vegetables and stuff. And so that's why I was saying earlier, it's a big deal that my youngest now is, is really gravitating to vegetable-based foods because he got to a point, I guess when he was like maybe junior high, where he started to start choosing that he didn't want vegetables and stuff and just started eating more junk when I wasn't looking and stuff like that. So This has been a huge blessing. Very well now. And so she's going to college next year.

And oh, wow, wonderful.

One of the major in computers, believe it or not, the same child that we're going to put away. And she also wants to do things around childcare. So we're trying to— we're going to create a curriculum for her where she gets to do both. But her emphasis is computer. And then I also have her helping me in my business too. Like, she helps me sort things in the office, stuff like that. That's part of my vision, that when I have my live events, that she comes and she's helping me. Nice. Yeah, create something for her. But yeah, yeah, no, she's very lucky to have a parent like you. He's doing amazing.

You didn't, you know, take that terrible news final.

He is on no list. As a matter of fact, I'm not even working with any of these companies because you try to work with them and the list is this long to just get looked at. And then, you know, I've always run into where you make too much for services, whatever. And then when I did get service it was, you know, people who just was preparing her for failure. Like, she's not going to amount to anything, so let's just give her this to cope. And I'm like, oh heck no, terrible, you know. So there's a whole mindset around it was just, this is it. So I just never put her in that environment, never.

Yeah, good for you, good for you. Let's go back to Latoya's question. Yes, about the foreign foods, are they cheaper?

Are the foreign— okay, yes, so comparable, comparable, Latoya. So like, for example, we like— I like to get rice from— that's from Egypt. And you know what, when I'm shopping here, I'll get like an Uncle Ben's or a Carolina Rice or something like that. Um, I'll pay like $4.99 for a bag of rice here, and I'll pay $7.99 for the same rice type, but a much higher quality and a larger bag. So it's comparable in price and size. And also for like mixed vegetables, now we love mixed vegetables. The mixed vegetables I get from the Mediterranean store is actually sourced from Egypt. A bag of mixed vegetables, which is peas and carrots, is the exact same price as the bag of vegetables.

Are they frozen? Are they frozen?

They're frozen vegetables, yes. These are frozen vegetables, but they're the exact same price. Exact. So like a bag is like $1.29 in the grocery store here. A bag same size is like right around $1, $1.30, $1.35. Same price, higher quality.

It's all about the quality of food. That's what I always talk about, upleveling your food quality.

Yes, yes. And so like when I do roots, for example, boniato, which is like a, like a Caribbean sweet potato. If I do yuca, or we know it as cassava. If I do those and I boil it and make something for the family, same price as potatoes, but totally different. It shows up completely different in the body. It's not as starchy, and it's easier for the body to recognize it and break it down. It's just a different digestive experience.

So yeah, I like to make pancakes every Sunday with cassava flour.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, delicious. I'm gonna try that. I have some cassava flour in the house.

So Latoya says she's glad she caught this because she's going through the same thing with her son and his speech development.

Oh, Latoya, listen, great news! Your kid can heal. Your kid can improve. My child— they wanted to give my child what they call PECS, which is like the picture exchange, where they had to learn to speak with— she had to learn to speak with pictures. And I emphatically said absolutely not, that she will speak just like everyone else, because when she gets out there on her own, that's when she— when she hits the real world out there, she's gonna have to function. And so Latoya, thank you for showing up tonight. I encourage you to champion for your son and know that whatever you believe for him is possible is true. Whatever you believe is possible. The way the system is set up, these caregivers, they are not allowed to encourage anything outside of what the parents champion for. And so if you don't champion for his well-being, That is deep. They are not allowed to. Wow. They are not allowed to. And so you have to champion for your kids' well-being, and you have to have— you have to have in front of you the vision of them being completely whole, completely healed. And then every decision you make is towards that. And that's the mindset I've had for my child from, from the time she was young, that she will be whole, she will be healed. That's it. So anything outside of that, I would be like I'm sorry, that doesn't support it. You're welcome, Latoya. You're welcome, sweetheart. Hey, hang on for a second. I need someone to look at my lentils.

Oh yeah, we can't let the lentils burn.

Hold on, let me call my kid. Hold on.

All right, if anybody else has any questions that, um, you have for Monique about going vegan, getting your family to go vegan, she just shared a beautiful story about her daughter who was on the spectrum and how nutrition has helped her, how nutrition has helped her son, who is an athlete in high school, lost 17 pounds and improved his performance. If you have any questions about that, type them in. We are happy to answer them. So Monique, what are some of your favorite vegan resources? I know we've kind of— we swapped some recipes, right? Where are your go-to places that you go to find your recipes?

I don't have one yet. What I do do is like I look, so okay, so if you have a taste for it, I'll look up a recipe. I'll be like, okay, I want to try some Nigerian stew because I have a girlfriend from Ivory Coast and every time I go home she makes it.

Oh, amazing! Dope!

Um, and she always tells me it's influenced from her family and friends in Nigeria. So I'll type in Nigerian stew and I don't have a specific site I go to. I more look for, well, I have a taste for this, so let me go look at that. So I haven't defined a go-to resource yet online. Mine has been the grocery stores and going outside of the traditional American culture and really exploring other cultures. I've yet to explore like the Greece, the store. We have some Greece supermarkets with Greece-type foods. I haven't explored that yet. Um, I haven't explored the Japanese foods, and so there's different foods, you know, and I like to do that because it— the variety keeps us excited about it, you know. And I got the idea for the soup I'm making tonight from a recipe I got online because I would never have thought of putting, uh, roasted Roma tomatoes in with lentils. Yeah, with mixed vegetables, but it makes an amazing soup. And so we're gonna have that, and then the boys want it on top of the Asian noodles. So hey, we're gonna—

You know, that's one of the fun things I love about being creative in the kitchen.

Yes.

It's actually a form of self-care. I just realized that. It is a form of self-care, and that I actually now take time out of my day. So every day at 6:30, I have on my calendar, like, go make dinner. And then it's like, let me—

Explore.

Let me explore and create some magic. And now I also try to create something new every weekend. I'll pick a recipe of something that I haven't tried before, like, oh yes, and just try something different. You never know, it may turn out fabulous.

Try the roots, like we'll do plantain, boiled plantain. I'll do that. We'll do, um, I'll add coconut milk inside of my foods to make it a nice sauce, and that's inspired by my Caribbean background. So I'll add coconut milk to make something, make it thicker and and tastier, you know, creamy. Put like noodles in there and nutritional yeast.

And I have to add, when you say coconut milk, I'm talking about real coconut milk, not like the So Delicious brand.

No, no, no, no, no, no, in a carton, in a can. The cream is this thick, you know, like you could eat the cream kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, we do that. And I also put that in my kids' smoothie too, because again, my goal is that they're feeling full for several hours while they're in the classroom.

Yeah, definitely that fat. Yep, those healthy fats really satiate you.

Yes, and, and for the brain, for my, you know, they're both in school, keep nourishing their brain, you know, that kind of stuff.

Yeah, yeah, I know when I put avocado in my smoothies, they definitely hold me over. Yes, or then when I don't put avocado in.

Yes, I had that this morning too, so it's been a It's been a benefit. Now, in terms of weight loss, I have not seen the weight loss for myself, and I attribute that to more of a sedentary lifestyle. Now that I'm working full-time, I'm at home, I sit a lot, and I have to factor in more exercise. So I did some yoga this morning because I love it, but I plan to— I've decided I'm going to exercise more. So you come back and see me in about 3 months and let's talk what the changes are.

I feel you on that, Monique. I, you know, I'm working from home too, and so making your way outside to go to a gym takes much effort.

It does, because you start early, 6:37, you have your quiet time, you get into it, you support your clients, and then next, you know, like you said, you look up at 6 o'clock, it's time to make it, time to make dinner.

Yeah, yeah.

So that, that's been it for me, inconsistency on the exercise. But I know that because I feel so clean Energetically, I know that. Yes, I start doing that, right?

It's a different type of motivation.

It really is to get to the gym. Yeah.

Um, family-friendly recipe you want to share? Anything that you all love that you eat all the time?

To be honest with you, yes. Chickpea pasta.

Oh yeah, we do that too. Yeah, we just actually— I made black bean pasta tonight.

Yes, I've tried that one too. They have like, they have like the spaghetti style. I've seen that. Yeah, um, they have the fettuccine style too, right? I haven't tried that, but I've seen lentil pasta.

Yeah.

Oh, I haven't seen that.

Oh, that's really good. Now that really tastes very pasta-like.

Like, oh, I'm gonna try that. Okay, so we do the chickpea pasta quite a bit. And, uh, Latoya, just so you know, the chickpea pasta is even cheaper than like the whole wheat pasta, or at least here in Texas. It's like $2.99 for a box, and I've seen it as high as $6. They'd be tripping. And when I go, I'll get like 10 boxes, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And, um, so to me it's like, it's a winner. We'll— I'll just boil that. Well, you know, kids will do that, put some pasta sauce on top, and, and I'll buy the, the diet cheese um, the diet cheese, or we'll put nutritional yeast on top. I'll put a little bit of avocado oil in it. Boom, that's like 30 minutes. So we'll have that at least once a week. We do falafels. You can— that's ground up chickpeas. You get that from Mediterranean store. That's literally frozen, just put it in the oven, heat it up, you got falafels.

Oh nice.

And a favorite meal of ours, seriously, falafel, a little bit of rice, and some mixed vegetables. Very filling meal. Yeah, you got your veggies, you got your protein, you know, you got your carbs. And the rice that we get, like I said, from Egypt, very low starch.

So is it white? What kind of rice is it?

It is white rice. Um, I have not seen a brown rice come from that part of the world yet. I'm sure it exists, I just haven't seen it. Um, but it's so different. The body can digest it, it doesn't tip heavy. You don't feel like your waistline has expanded the next day. I mean, it's just in and out. That's what I can say.

In and out. And that's what we want, right?

I love that.

Yes. In and out.

In and out. Yes. Make it roll.

You want the food to move and not stay stagnant.

Yeah. I don't want an antagonistic relationship with my body, you know?

Right.

And I was like, thank you, God. So thank you for inviting me, Latoya, and everyone else that's listening. You know, check out the stores in your community. Check out the non-American stores and just see what's out there. You'll be surprised. You know, outside of the US, foods are grown quite differently and they're, you know, healthier, they're more nutrient dense. And so I find that when I eat the rice, for example, I don't require a lot to feel full, very little. I'll eat that with some falafel and some vegetables. That's a meal. And I'll, and I'll do a lot of sour foods. I think I showed— I told you that. So I'll do like, uh, we call it sauerkraut and the fermented vegetables. Fermented, yeah, we do that. And in the Mediterranean, so yeah, that's awesome.

I'm gonna go find a Mediterranean store and an Egyptian— is that all in the same place?

Yeah, so in the Mediterranean store, this isn't— this is an import store, so you'll do get foods from Egypt. Oh, an import store.

Okay, that's what I'm gonna Google.

So I'll do a lot of spreads made from like eggplant and squash chopped up and seasoned nicely, and I just put it on my foods. It's delicious. It's a delicious experience. That's the other thing, lots of sauces and spreads and stuff.

Did you try the socca bread yet?

Not yet. Oh, it's so good. I haven't done any baking yet because in my mind, and I know this is a mind thing, in my mind is like everything requires egg. You know, so I, I really—

it's not even baking, it's like a— you just fry it up in a pan, it's not even baking.

So when you do your pancake, is that with egg, your cassava pancake? Or is that—

no, I make up the flax egg. Oh, so it's, um, a tablespoon of flaxseed with 2 tablespoons of water, and it just gives you the same consistency as an egg, so it binds the materials, ingredients together.

I love you.

Yeah, get your flax egg on.

I will do that.

Yeah, every Sunday we do pancakes.

So when you do like muffins and stuff, you use this wax egg?

Yeah, I haven't done muffins, but just the pancakes.

Just the pancake. Okay, love you.

Because I like half cassava flour, half spelt flour. I've experimented with that.

Yeah, doesn't spelt have gluten?

Yes, it does have gluten. Okay, so if you're gluten sensitive, yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't use spelt.

But I could do oat. They have gluten-free oats. Yeah. So I could do that.

Oat flour.

Mm-hmm. I would blend up the oat and make a little flour. Oh, I love it.

But the socca flatbread is super easy. It's just the chickpea flour with olive oil, seasonings like garlic, salt, pepper, water. And you just make it into a batter. I put it in my NutriBullet. And I take a little scoop. And then you put it in a hot pan like a flat tortilla. And it's the size of the pan, like 10 inches, and brown it, flip it over, brown it, and I can make like 6 from one recipe.

No oil?

Yeah, a little oil, a little olive oil. It depends on your pan, so if you're using a cast iron skillet or, um, I have a ceramic pan which I don't need a ton of oil. Okay, okay. Yeah, it's so easy. You just keep them in the fridge and just eat them with everything.

That's what you got. I remember you posted your husband loves that. Yes, he does.

Okay, good.

I enjoyed this.

All right, Miss Monique, any last words if somebody's thinking about, you know, taking the plunge to become vegan? I shouldn't even say plunge, that sounds so dramatic. It's really not that dramatic. What would you tell someone?

I would say I love what you promote about trying it out, you know, and really exploring it and see what's, what's there for you. Because for me, it's been a shift in a great direction. Um, so try it out, give yourself 2 weeks. You know, you may get some headaches and stuff like that, go through some of that detox. And like I mentioned earlier, you know, I did go through getting rid of mucus and stuff like that. But the rewards, the benefit of it is just— for me, it was so great because I, I can tell when I felt different, you know, as my body was clearing out. I can tell when my mind got clearer. I can tell when my legs felt better. Like, it was just you can feel it. It wasn't a gradual thing. It was just like, it's there for you. And for me, it's just been a great shift. So I definitely just give yourself the opportunity to explore it, try it out for 2 weeks, you know, commit for 2 weeks. Don't make yourself wrong if you can't, you know, do it, whatever. But, you know, maybe we just wean yourself off of, you know, one thing and just progressively work towards it and see how you feel. See how you feel. See if it takes you closer to a healthier situation than where you are today.

Start crowding out the meat with and crowding in more vegetables and plant-based foods.

Yes, yes. And also too, also too, that was a great question, by the way. I would also say look around you and see what else is out there, because I think the tendency is for people to think they're going to get bored real quick with the same thing.

Yeah.

When you think about it, we only meet like, we only eat like a few meats products, and it's just varieties of ways. So if we kind of like allow ourselves to think about, there's so many vegetables out there. And like when you go to these restaurants, you'll see fruits from other countries that you've never seen here in the States. And so like lychee, lychee is a fruit that I love. It's quite seasonal.

I only see it in the Caribbean on vacation.

See, so you know. Yeah, and this store I was telling you about, Fiesta, they actually carry it like 2, 3 weeks out of the year, they'll have it. So when they have it, I'm going, I'm coming out with a big bag.

A lot of it, yeah.

I'm sitting there with a t-shirt and jean shorts, girl. Juice is oozing. There's no glam, right?

Yeah, it's good. It's really good.

There's no glam. I love it. And only because I decided to try it. I'd never seen it before. And so just things like that, the roots, you know, cassavas, miyucas, and the boniatos, all that's available. Taro, you know, they look like potatoes, but they taste so much more creamy. Creamier. So check out these different options first so you know that there's options there for you, so you don't feel like kind of pigeonholed to just celery and lettuce.

And look at cooking as a form of self-care.

I love that.

Get creative in the kitchen, have fun, uh, put on some music, and like me, listen to a podcast.

Yeah, yeah.

And then just enjoy the experience of cooking really good food and putting lots of love in it.

Put a lot, put everything in it, all the tab stuff.

I love it, this is fun.

Thank you for having me.

I'm gonna put your site up one more time so people can find you, moniqueconner.com. Um, if anyone's watching the replay and you still have questions Monique did not answer, you can go ahead and type them below. I will tag her, make sure she answers them, or I will answer them as well. All right, Miss Monique, thank you so much for this episode of How She Did It. I'm so, so proud of you.

Thank you so much, and I'm, I'm proud of you too. Oh, thank you.

And we will talk soon.

All right, ladies, thank you.

Yvonne says thank you, great interview.

Oh, you're so welcome, you're so welcome, Yvonne. Adrienne, thanks for joining.

Joining, guys.

Alrighty, have a good night. Take care, sweetie.

Okay, bye-bye.

Bye.