Lifestyle Science with Hana Brannigan: vegan recipes and intuitive living

Written by: Deepa Somasunderam

Asian girl smiling and holding a smoothie — @thishanabee

Welcome to our latest series, Lifestyle Science. These are interviews we are doing with POC leaders in the health and wellness industries where we deep dive into their lifestyle. They give us their personal guide to living well so your in touch with emerging wellness trends, nutrition and self-care for glowing mental and physical health.

If you love plant-based food, travel and the beach you’ll want to know Hana Brannigan. Hana is a vegan influencer, food coach and traveller and shares her own health journey with us.

Hana is committed to telling everyone why she became vegan She says she “finally felt connected to some bigger purpose” and she is open about how becoming vegan helped her on her journey in recovering from an eating disorder.

At The Beautiful Societies, we are all about empowering you to take control of your own wellness journey and we couldn’t wait to chat with Hana about her ethos of intuitive living and the importance of making decisions for yourself.

3 reasons to go vegan:

I started incorporating “vegan days” into my week after I learned animal agriculture is a leading cause of environmental destruction. But I didn’t make the complete transition to 100% vegan until I learned about the horrific things animals have to go through to become food on our plate from a YouTube video called “The Most Important Speech You Will Ever Hear” by Gary Yourofksy.

That video made me realize I don’t want to participate in or contribute to an industry that mass exploits and murders sentient creatures only for our taste pleasure. It felt like their life was worth more than that. And when people can thrive on a plant-based diet, it just seemed like an unnecessary evil that I didn’t want to have weighing on my conscious.

And the third reason? I feel incredible! I’ve never had as much energy and strength in my life! Even though I’m not getting any younger, my body feels the healthiest it’s ever felt.

How I get protein while being vegan:

It’s actually quite easy getting protein! We’re taught we need meat for protein (I thought that too), but you can get quality protein from lentils, beans, tofu, seitan, tempeh, and even vegetables!

So far, I’ve had no problem with it. And it’s not just me, a lot of athletes are becoming vegan and finding their energy and strength have increased while their muscle recovery time has decreased. It’s incredible how much plants can give our bodies!

Eating plant-based while travelling:

My partner and I cook a lot at home. We’ve been traveling around Mexico mainly for the past 3.5 years, and we usually shop at tienditas or mercaditos for our produce. The fruits and vegetables in Mexico (and South America) are amazing. I always miss them when coming back to the States!

So cooking at home definitely makes it easier to eat plant-based. But veganism is also growing worldwide, and many cultural dishes are very plant-forward. So we’ve found a lot of amazing vegan restaurants while on our travels.

It hasn’t been too difficult for us personally, and I’m grateful for that. I thought it would be more difficult than it is or maybe I would “miss out” on experiences, but we’ve had plenty of exciting vegan food adventures!

Favourite travel destination for plant-based food:

Probably Tulum! The yoga/spiritual community is huge. So I think naturally, plant-based eating tends to be the preferred way of eating. Mexico City also has great vegan options!

My favourite smoothie recipe:

Right now, I’m obsessed with this smoothie.

Here’s the recipe:

2 cups liquid (I use soy milk and water)
3 frozen bananas
1/4 to 1/3 cup frozen blueberries
1/4 to 1/3 cup rolled oats
1 tbs chia seeds
2 tbs peanut butter

My favourite vegan meal:

Oh gosh, I have a lot. Right now, I would have to say rice noodles with tofu, veggies, and peanut sauce! Here's a similar recipe.

My go-to snacks:

I actually don’t snack a lot, but if I do snack, I love peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, avocado toast, fruit, dates with peanut butter, popcorn, or dark chocolate.

Supplements I take:

B12, either in the form of pills or nutritional yeast!

When I’m sick…

I like to have soup when I’m under the weather! Something nice and soothing and doesn’t take a lot of effort to make, eat, and digest but will still give me the nutrients I need to heal.

If I have a fever, I love having frozen mango. I feel very fortunate to not get as sick as I used to.

My weekly grocery shop contains:

I don’t buy these every single week, but in a month I will always go shopping for lentils, rice, pasta, pasta sauce, fresh veggies (especially onion garlic, and broccoli), frozen veggies (like edamame, corn, and peas), tofu, lots of fruits. oats, peanut butter or nut butter, some creamy “smilks” (as I like to call plant-based milk) like cashew or oat or soy, popcorn, and jam! I’m probably forgetting quite a few things, but that’s what comes to my mind right now! The staples at least.

Every time my partner and I go to the grocery store, we also like to buy something we’ve never had before. Whether that’s a new product or some vegetable we haven’t cooked with before — it adds a little fun to the routine.

Foods I avoid:

Just animals! Coming from an eating disorder background, I don’t purposefully avoid any food unless I’m allergic or genuinely don’t like it. There aren’t many foods that I don’t like, though, and I don’t view animals as food anymore.

The health mantra I live by:

This is a good question. Only because I feel like there’s a lot since I used to have an eating disorder. I guess listen to your body!

There are so many apps and diets that tell you what to do and tell you how you’re supposed to feel when eating. And I feel like that’s taken away our ability to listen to our bodies. But our bodies are so amazing and can tell us so much about how we feel.

No app can replace that intuitive connection we have with our own body.

The biggest misconception about being vegan:

There are a lot of misconceptions actually. One is you can’t be healthy, but many studies have shown that people can not only be healthy but thrive and live long lives on a plant-based diet.

Another is that you don’t make a difference by going vegan. But the movement is growing and expanding, and I think that speaks to the power of how our actions DO matter!

If we all thought we can’t make a difference, there would be no progress in the world. Individually, we CAN create a ripple effect.

My favourite health and wellness resources:

I love following anti-diet dietitians — bonus points if they’re vegan! I just really believe in the power of taking an intuitive approach to health and wellness.

I love following people like Find Food Freedom, Joy Kim, Mallory Page, Dr. Adrian, Taylor Wolfram, and Ashley Kitchens.

I also love following recipe creators who create colorful and accessible meals like Rainbow Plant Life, Pick Up Limes, Carleigh Bodrug, and Caitlin Shoemaker.

There are so many amazing creators and resources out there, though!

Keep reading: How to practice gratitude, from a positive psychology expert

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