Today we’d like to introduce you to Nichole Dandrea-Russert.
Nichole, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I have been a dietitian nutritionist for the past 23 years with a focus on whole foods and natural healing through a plant-rich diet, but it wasn’t until my last business did I truly realize the medicinal power of plants.
In 2006-2007, when dark chocolate started getting media attention from the research that emerged about its health benefits, I started making it in my kitchen. I wanted to create healing dark chocolate treats that were supercharged with antioxidants from, not only the dark chocolate, but also from other superfoods like blueberries, matcha tea, walnuts and pumpkin seeds.
Two years later, in 2009, I officially launched nicobella organics. My goal with nicobella organics was to use it as a platform to educate and inspire people to eat more whole plant-based foods for their health using dark chocolate as the vehicle. While nicobella organics was a vegan chocolate company, I wasn’t yet fully vegan myself. Even though I always loved animals, I never connected them to the food on my plate.
At that time, I was not eating chicken, pork or beef, but I was eating fish once or twice a week and cheese whenever it was in front of me! Through nicobella I donated chocolate to animal organizations’ fundraisers to help them raise money for farm animals and was often invited to the events.
It was at a Mercy For Animals event in Los Angeles in 2012 where I watched a short film about the dairy cow industry and gave up all animal products and never looked back. (Similar to many people trying to go vegan, cheese was the last thing to go.)
It was at these events where I realized that I was contributing to a cruel system through the food I was eating. I was basically voting for something I didn’t believe in through my dollar. For me, going fully plant-based has helped my skin, digestive system, energy levels, and focus. I’ve never felt better. The way I felt inspired me to dig deeper into the research behind a plant-based diet. I was amazed at the overflowing amount of evidence that supported plant-based eating for health. There’s no diet out there that compares. Plant-based eating has been shown to reverse heart disease, prevent cancer, prevent Alzheimer’s, clear skin conditions, improve digestive health, fight depression and anxiety, and so much more. As a bonus, you look and feel better, and lose weight (if that’s a goal).
However, the positive impact on animal welfare and the environment is truly what motivates me to live a compassionate, vegan lifestyle every day. I am forever grateful for nicobella organics because it personally changed my life for the better.
The packaging, manufacturing and selling chocolate component of the nicobella business took me away from my true passion—educating and inspiring folks to eat more plants. After nine awesome years, I recently made the difficult decision to close nicobella organics in order to go back to my roots in nutrition. I recently started my new venture Purely Planted to offer guidance and coaching to folks who want to incorporate more plants (or go fully vegan), whether it’s for their health, animal welfare or the environment.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My journey as a dietitian has been extremely valuable, and I feel incredibly grateful for all of the experiences. I started my career in diabetes education, educating moms with gestational diabetes and patients who were diagnosed with non-insulin and insulin-dependent diabetes.
From there, I focused primarily on women’s health, from prenatal nutrition to gestational diabetes education to neonatal nutrition. I learned so much in these roles because I worked closely with medical teams that included physicians, nurses and pharmacists. I also specialized in sports nutrition during this time, working with athletes was so inspiring! The biggest struggle, for me personally, was working in a traditional clinical setting.
While it was a valuable experience, learning how different disease states impact each and every system of the body, I wasn’t practicing traditional western medicine in my own life. Instead, I practiced non-traditional approaches to heal such as yoga, meditation, music and aromatherapy…and of course, nutrition, which I’ve always believed to be the foundation of healing.
When I worked as a clinical dietitian in the 90’s and early 2000’s, people thought the yoga and meditation I was doing in my personal life was quakery. I guess that was the biggest challenge for me at the time—I truly valued the experience of learning in a hospital setting, however, my personal traditions and beliefs contradicted traditional western medicine. I think there’s a place for medicine, but I feel that prevention through diet and other natural approaches to healing can be tried before prescribing medication.
Nicobella organics and making chocolate became an outlet for me in 2007 while working at the University of Pennsylvania as a women’s health nutritionist. I also started teaching yoga at that time. (I had been practicing since 1999 and received an invitation to teach under my yoga teacher in 2007. It wasn’t until 2009 that I officially obtained my yoga certification.)
Nicobella, yoga and my continued passion for holistic healing through whole plant-based foods eventually lured me out of the clinical arena. However, I am always grateful to have that clinical knowledge background, which I continue to use daily.
Please tell us about Purely Planted.
I just launched Purely Planted about two months ago, so it’s a little green (pun intended!). Right now, I offer nutrition services from private individual coaching to supermarket tours to in-home meal preparation for folks who want to incorporate more plants or transition to a fully plant-based diet.
I feel that plant-based eating is the cornerstone to optimal living, but equally important is movement, stress-coping skills, relationships, positive affirmations and giving back. I offer yoga therapy, meditation and lifestyle tips in addition to nutrition coaching for those who are looking to truly optimize their health.
The Purely Planted blog and social media channels are places where I share recipes, nutrition information, eco-living tips, inspiration, and animal-welfare news. My goal is to inspire people to eat more plants through whatever motivates them—their health, the environment or animals—and to live their life to the fullest.
My approach is nonjudgmental and I like to meet people exactly where they are. I was also once a meat and cheese lover, so I can relate to the challenges of changing to a plant-based diet. For me, it’s not about perfection. Instead, it’s about doing your best each day. The quote by Socrates, “The secret to change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new” embraces my nutrition coaching philosophy. When I work with clients, I like to focus on adding high energy, vibrant foods to their diet rather than taking away everything. Eventually, those high energy foods end of replacing foods that are not lending to optimal health, and plant-based eating naturally becomes part of their lifestyle.
Whether folks want to add one vegan meal a week to their diet or go completely vegan, I’d love to help! Small changes can create big health benefits. It’s not an all or nothing approach for me, and it’s not about perfection. It’s about starting each day positively and doing the best you can with the resources you’re given.
In the future, I’d love to offer week-long detox retreats with nutrition classes, recipe workshops, yoga, and meditation daily, and more healing modalities to help people reset. The retreat will help people detox and recharge, and the classes will be essential for them to continue the lifestyle and apply what they learn in their home.
We all get stuck in our day-to-day living and unhealthy habits. Sometimes it requires removing ourselves from our everyday space so that we can break old habits and create new healthier practices. It can be tough to do in our own environment. Ideally, one day, I’d love to have a retreat space for people to visit, heal and reinvent themselves.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would have gone vegan a long time ago! I’ve never felt better about my health and food choices. Plus, the food is delicious. It’s so much fun experimenting with plant-based foods to make dishes that are hearty, satisfying and scrumptious while knowing that what you’re eating is better for your health, animals and the planet.
Pricing:
- Nutrition Coaching: 90 minutes for $150 ($99 for Voyage Atlanta readers through December 31, 2018)
- Individual Yoga Lesson and Meditation: $75 for one hour ($50 for Voyage Atlanta readers through December 31, 2018)
- In-Home Meal Prep (2-3 hour workshop — plant-based cooking in your home, including three prepared meals): $250 ($199 for Voyage Atlanta readers through January 31, 2019)
Contact Info:
- Website: purelyplanted.com
- Phone: 609.792.5231
- Email: nichole@purelyplanted.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/purelyplanted
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/purelyplanted
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/purelyplanted
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