Next course: Spring 2021
Please stay tuned for an announcement on the exact course dates.
To be notified when enrollment opens, join the Fresh Start wait list.
EAT BETTER, NOT LESS
Learn to prepare delicious meals that are satisfying and nourishing, from wholesome, natural ingredients.
Healthy and delicious are not mutually exclusive.
With some expert guidance, you can prepare your own yummy meals without ever feeling deprived, and still do right by your body.
Live Healthier
Prepare and eat several healthier meals each week, making a whole-food, plant-based diet a consistent part of your lifestyle
Prevent Illness
Dramatically reduce your risk of the most prevalent chronic diseases in the US, and do the same for your family
Build Knowledge
Learn why a whole-food, plant-based diet is healthful and be sure you aren't missing any details... or nutrients
Eat Your Fill...
And still drop excess weight as a happy side effect, because the nutrients and volume of whole plant foods are high, while the calories are low
Stop "Dieting"
When a whole-food, plant-based diet becomes your lifestyle, you can halt the cycle of over-indulgence followed by intense restriction
Shift Perspective
As your tastes adapt and change, you'll find yourself naturally craving healthier foods and willfully declining junk food
Course includes:
Plant-Based Recipes
5 per week, with step-by-step cooking instructions and shopping lists to eliminate guesswork
Nutrition Education
Daily bite-sized lessons on the health benefits of plants, backed by scientific evidence
Preparation Strategies
Learn small weekend tasks to set you up for a healthier week ahead
Mindfulness Lessons
Start or develop your daily meditation practice to bring awareness to all areas of life
Kitchen How-To's
Learn food prep and cooking techniques for following recipes and improvising on your own
Community & Support
A private group for food photo sharing, Q&A, accountability and encouragement
Who is this course for?
Fresh Start was designed for:
- Anyone craving more creative, wholesome recipes to break up the monotony of home cooking
- People who have put self-care on the back burner for too long and want to take back control of their health
- Omnivores who want to add plant-based meals to their weekly rotation
- Vegans or vegetarians who rely heavily on processed foods and wish to learn more recipes using whole-food ingredients
- Those who have heard about the benefits, but are afraid they'll miss their favorite foods, be lacking in important nutrients, or feel deprived on a plant-based diet
- Those who tend to feel drained and wish they had more energy
- Anyone who wants to be better informed of the science-based benefits of a plant-based diet
- Animal lovers who have a hard time reconciling this with eating meat, and who would be thrilled if they could feel healthy and satisfied with their meals, without harming other sentient beings
- Environmentalists and nature lovers who are aware of the toll animal agriculture takes on the planet, but who need guidance on how to shift their diet
Amazingly Delicious Recipes
By the end of our four weeks together, you'll have learned 20 new crave-worthy recipes the whole family will love.
"After this course, I feel HEALTHIER and I am *informed* about what I'm putting in my body. It's so empowering! I loved that there was no pressure to change everything in my life, all at once. I was able to incorporate new recipes into my diet at my own pace and based on my own food preferences."
Jaimee
Past Course Participant
"Stefanie‘s Fresh Start course taught me to how to cook in a way that aligns with my values, and to make wholesome and delicious plant based meals for myself and my family. It provided just the right amount of structure to give me the confidence I needed in the kitchen. At 42 years old I finally love to cook, and have the peace of mind that I’m doing it in the healthiest way possible!"
Bree
Past Course Participant
"My husband and I were instructed by our doctors to make some 'dietary changes' to improve our health; however, there they had no nutritional advice for us. We decided to try Stefanie's Fresh Start program this past fall, and we were so impressed with her knowledge of nutrition, her enthusiasm for helping us try whole food plant-based eating, and her communication and responsiveness. We love her non-judgmental approach, her passion to share her knowledge, and we LOVE the results! The recipes are clear and well-planned for our busy lifestyle. I'm learning all about new ingredients, new techniques and new flavors! "
Mary
Past Course Participant
"I took the Green Sage Fresh Start course this past summer and was blown away by how delicious the recipes were. I had tried a plant-based diet years ago and ended up giving up because I didn’t have the knowledge to sustain it in a nutritional or appetizing way. This course gave me a wonderful new approach to plant-based eating and showed me how delicious and fulfilling healthy food can be. I am so excited to have new, healthy recipes in my collection. I loved how easy to follow the instructions were and all of the extra tips that were thrown in. I also really appreciated the section on mindfulness, as I think this is such an important component to living a healthy life. This course gets my highest recommendation."
Kari
Past Course Participant
"I can cook. I have time to cook. I enjoy cooking for my family. These are three sentences I have never uttered until Stefanie’s coaching changed my life forever for the good. I used to be an eat-to-live type of person, and now I LOVE TO EAT. I never knew I would enjoy food this much! The variety of vegetables, grains and spices have awakened me to a whole new world. If you want to eat healthy, lose weight, cook gourmet meals for your children or family all while saving the earth and our precious earthlings, look no further."
Gina
Past Course Participant
"I started the Green Sage Fresh Start course 9 months into my vegan journey. I was struggling finding balanced healthy vegan meals and ate a lot of junk food. The Fresh Start course gave me amazing go-to recipes and easy-to-navigate cooking tutorials. I am a total newbie, so learning how to cut an onion or bake vegetables was invaluable. I recommend this course to ANYONE looking to revamp their diet and change their life."
Danielle
Past Course Participant
"I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about cooking and nutrition and took the course looking to expand my recipe base and continue to move toward plant based living. I gained SO much more from the course than recipes, even though we do cook at least 2 of Stefanie's meals each week! The daily nutrition lessons were so informative and really helped shape my mindset and confidence about the move toward plant-based eating. Above anything, the personal support and encouragement made the entire experience extra special. Stefanie is always there to answer questions or help modify meals to accommodate dietary needs. After taking the course, I am now eating about 85-90% plant-based each day and am astounded at the change in energy. Take the course; you'll be so glad you did."
Becca
Past Course Participant
Frequently Asked Questions
- 20 healthy, delicious plant-based recipes, complete with step-by-step, fully photographed cooking instructions
- A printable download of each recipe so you can start your own notebook of favorite go-to meals
- 20 bite-sized nutrition lessons backed by real scientific evidence
- 4 live webinars (once each week) with Stefanie on an educational topic, with opportunity for Q&A
- Weekly shopping lists and specific guidance on where to buy ingredients
- Weekend prep tips to help make busy weekdays easier
- How-to lessons on prep tasks like chopping/prepping veggies, cooking lentils, and roasting vegetables, for example
- A module on how to begin a daily meditation practice
- My personal recommendations on the best kitchen tools and appliances
- Coaching on bringing mindfulness to all areas of life, especially with regard to eating
- A private community forum for sharing photos, highlighting "wins," crowdsourcing solutions to your challenges, Q&A, accountability and making friends
The course includes 5 new recipes each week. You get to choose which ones you make, and when to make them, so that it suits your schedule.
Each weekday of the course (Monday-Friday), you'll receive a bite-sized nutrition lesson that will take only a few minutes to read.
Each of the meals takes about 30 minutes or less to cook (some take only 10 minutes), while some require additional unattended cooking time.
In many cases, you can do the cooking once, and then have enough for leftovers to eat on other busier days.
No worries! Once you're a member of the course, it's yours forever (or at least for several years -- as long as the course exists online).
If you get "behind" or go away on vacation, you'll still be able to go through the course content on your own time, at your own pace.
No. The approach here is to ease you in gradually.
It is NOT a 3-meals-a-day, 7-days-a-week meal plan.
You'll receive 5 new recipes each week, and you can work them into your schedule whenever you want, whether it's during the course... or after it ends.
The rest of your meals each week can be whatever you like.
I believe this gradual approach will set you up for better long-term success because it's not overwhelming.
By the time you complete Fresh Start, you'll have a collection of 20 new healthy, delicious recipes.
You'll have learned how to make a plant-based diet a simple part of your everyday life.
You'll have a solid understanding of the nutrition science behind why a plant-based diet is so good for you, and how to get all the nutrients you need to thrive and feel amazing.
If you're new to cooking, you'll pick up several basic kitchen skills, and everyone will learn strategies for planning and prepping in advance for the week ahead.
You'll also learn the basics on how to meditate, and receive coaching on bringing more mindfulness to other areas of life, as well.
A regular meditation practice does more than bring calm to our daily lives.
It also teaches an important skill: how to observe our own impulses, and then make conscious decisions about whether or not to act on those impulses.
This skill becomes extremely valuable when cultivating healthy habits surrounding food choices.
If you can momentarily take a step back from the urge to eat something, examine whether or not that urge is healthful and aligned with your priorities, and then make a conscious decision to honor it (or not), you're more likely to be successful in shifting your habits over the long term.
Meditation can help with this, so I believe it's a valuable supporting lesson for this course.
Nearly all of the recipes in this course are gluten-free as written. For those that are not, I've included a gluten-free option.
The recipes in this course are whole-food, plant-based recipes, and as a result, no pre-packaged soy-based burgers or meat substitutes are used.
That said, there is one recipe in the course calling for organic tofu, and one recipe that suggests sautéed tempeh as a side dish.
If you are avoiding soy due to allergy, please let me know. I am happy to make alternative suggestions for you, for those recipes.
Each of the 20 recipes in this course were chosen based on two main criteria:
- They're simple enough for a beginner to make.
- They're so delicious that you'll want to make and eat them again and again.
I walk you through even the most basic kitchen tasks.
For example, I don't assume that you know how to dice an onion -- I show you how, with step-by-step photographs.
No one is left behind in this course.
If you have any questions about this course that were not answered here, please feel free to email me at stefanie {at} greensagelife {dot} com and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
Your Plant-Based Lifestyle Coach
Stefanie Ramsden Dougherty is a plant-based lifestyle coach, recipe developer, cooking instructor and nutrition educator with a certificate in plant-based nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies at Cornell University.
She founded Green Sage to offer guidance to those wishing to transition to a healthier plant-based diet and lifestyle.
Stefanie welcomes clients with kindness, optimism, honesty and zero judgment, no matter where they currently are in the journey.
Her approach is characterized by a gradual, manageable shift to using more whole-food ingredients in daily home cooked meals, while simultaneously cultivating habits that bring more mindfulness to everyday life.
Connect with Stefanie on Instagram (@greensagelife) or Facebook. She always welcomes questions and inquiries.
Join the wait list today!
It's time to make self-care a priority again. Shift your diet to whole food, plant-based and begin to align your food choices with your values, have more energy, and feel great about what you're eating.
