From Healthy-ish to Thriving

I used to think I was “healthy-ish,” until I realized moderately healthy wasn’t thriving. Opening Fruitive changed my habits and what I believed was possible. This is the beginning of my story, and inside the membership, I’ll share the strategy that helped me build consistency in health, relationships, and big goals, including a Harvard admission attempt.

From Healthy-ish to Thriving

How plant-based living changed my habits, and my goals

In 2012, when I opened my plant-based restaurant, Fruitive, the brand felt aspirational to me, not because I didn’t want to be healthy, but because I wasn’t there yet. I kind of ate healthy… or as my twelve-year-old likes to say, I was healthy-ish.

I believed in moderation and prided myself on being “pretty good.” But here’s the truth I didn’t understand back then: moderately healthy isn’t thriving. For me, “moderately healthy” came with frequent headaches and cavities. I didn’t feel terrible, but I didn’t feel great either, and I didn’t realize how much better life could feel until I experienced it.

Fruitive started as the healthy part of my diet, and then it became my diet.

At first, the Fruitive menu was meant to be the healthy portion of what I ate. But it grew on me. Over the years, that “healthy portion” expanded, until eventually, the Fruitive way of eating became my full-time lifestyle.

And something surprising happened when I fully committed to a plant-based diet. I didn’t just change how I ate. I changed how I lived. Along the way, I built healthier habits in fitness, family, and learning.

I’m still a work in progress (maybe now I’m “healthier-ish”), but most people who know me well would say I’m just… plain healthy. I rarely get headaches, I feel good in my body, and most importantly, I’m able to meet most of the goals I set for myself, even big ones.

One of the goals I’m most proud of: a daily story for my parents

Some of my proudest goals are the ones that have nothing to do with performance and everything to do with relationships. A couple years ago, I set a New Year’s Resolution to connect with my parents daily. Around the same time, I set another resolution: to write a 100-word story about each day.

Within a few months, those two resolutions merged into one simple habit: I text my parents a story every day. I haven’t missed a day since, much to my parents’ delight. It’s easy to underestimate small habits like that, but when you do something daily, it becomes more than a habit. It becomes a thread that strengthens your relationships over time.

Another big goal: 1,000 burpees in one session

At one point I decided I wanted to do 1,000 burpees in a single workout session (because apparently I enjoy choosing goals that make me question my sanity). I hired a coach online to help with my workout plan and made steady progress.

In April of 2024, I did a burpee marathon with one of my sons watching. At 7 burpees every minute without a break, it took me 143 minutes exactly to complete.

But the part that still amazes me is what happened afterward. I wasn’t too sore. My body recovered quickly, and I was on to my next physical challenge. A healthy plant-based diet plus consistent training didn’t just help me finish the goal, it helped me bounce back.

The most meaningful goals are the ones you can actually sustain

If there’s one theme I keep coming back to, it’s this: big goals aren’t usually about intensity. They’re about consistency. Most people don’t fail because they don’t want it badly enough, they fail because the plan doesn’t fit real life: busy schedules, kids, stress, travel, low-motivation days, and the moments when you’re tired and everything feels harder than it should.

The shift for me wasn’t “more discipline.” It was learning how to build a lifestyle where the healthy choice becomes the natural choice, and where habits can survive real life.

And yes, I tried something that felt completely unrealistic: Harvard

Along the way, my daily reading habit stayed strong year after year. And eventually, I decided to try something that felt both exciting and a little ridiculous: I decided to attempt to get into Harvard.

How could I run a business, pursue health goals, stay present for my family, and still be a student? I had a strategy. Not a “superhuman willpower” strategy, a real one. A simple structure I developed over years that helped me do hard things without burning out.

Want the rest of the story?

This post is the public version. The membership is where I go deeper.

Inside Plantbased.com, I’ll share:

• the turning point that made me stop being “healthy-ish” and start building real momentum
• the strategy I use to build habits that actually stick (even in a busy season)
• what happened with Harvard (yes, I’ll tell you the outcome)
• and the bigger vision behind what I’m building, starting with community and daily practices that make the biggest difference
  

If you’re someone who wants more energy, more consistency, and a healthier lifestyle that doesn’t feel like a constant reset, I made this membership for you.

→ Become a member to read the full story and get the strategy
(Inside the membership, I’ll share the full story and the strategy that helped me build consistency in health, relationships, and big goals.)