Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:00

Welcome to the Deficient Vegans podcast. I'm the muscle deficient vegan here with the protein deficient Vegan. Do you wanna say hi?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:05

Hi.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:05

Hi everybody. This is episode 31, and this week we have a guest.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:10

Our first ever guest.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:12

Yeah. Hopefully we don't suck at the interviewing thing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:14

Oh, we're definitely gonna suck. Well, but like, you know, you learn.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:20

That's right. So we'll be talking with a team member from an organization called Switch4Good. But first up, new news.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:25

New news.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:27

So Impossible Foods won the Inc. Best in Business Award the second year in a row.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:32

Wow.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:32

Last year they won in the Food and Drink category. It looks like this year they won in the marketing category.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:37

Man, i'm like trying to think of any marketing I've seen from Impossible in the last year and I can't think of any, but I see a lot of stuff from beyond.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:45

Yeah. I feel like the marketing award should go to the guy or girl who runs the threads account for beyond.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:49

Oh yeah. That little cow in a cape on threads. It makes threads a good place. Yeah. I don't even like threads, but it makes it worth going there.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:56

Yeah. Maybe the marketing is because Impossible has a lot of partnerships with restaurants.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:01

Mm. That could be.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:02

Burger King and others. I've seen most of the time, if I see something in a restaurant, it's an impossible patty.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:06

That's true. Yeah. Yeah. I think they both taste the same to me, personally.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:11

Yeah. Next up, New York Fashion Week made a big decision to ban fur on the runway.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:17

This is really exciting.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:19

Yeah. Now I don't know anything about fashion, but I've heard of New York Fashion Week, so this must be a pretty big deal.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:23

Yeah. I also know nothing about fashion, which you'd know if you ever saw me in real life.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:29

I think you're extremely fashionable.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:31

Okay. That's 'cause you're also not fashionable.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:37

Oh, uh, they said they won't promote fur on social media or at any of their events. This starts September, 2026 to give their designers time to plan and recreate fur free designs.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:48

That's awesome.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:49

Yeah, that's pretty cool. Also, kind of related to that, Poland just passed a bill to ban fur farming. This one has a little longer horizon. The last day that fur farming will be allowed is December 31st, 2033. Mm. Uh, but they are giving incentives to businesses to stop fur farming sooner. So the sooner you stop doing it, the more of an incentive payout you get.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:11

That's great.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:11

And eventually it'll phase out to where you don't get any extra payment at all.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:14

Yeah. So stop using it quick if you want money, Poland.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:18

That's right. They joined a long list of other European countries who have also banned fur farming.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:23

Yeah. I think it was like 20 something.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:25

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:25

Go Europe.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:26

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:27

Fur is so weird to me because I really have trouble seeing how it's any different from leather or like why isn't leather also banned? I don't know. You're just wearing skin. It's just weird.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:39

It is a little weird.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:40

You know?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:40

Especially now that we don't need to do it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:41

Oh, I know. And then if you watch Silence of the Lambs, like everyone thinks Buffalo Bills some fucking weirdo, right? Yeah. But I mean, he's just doing what we do to animals.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:52

You're making some pretty good points there.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:55

So anyway.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:55

Unfortunately.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:57

I think leather needs to go next, and that's all I'll say on that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:00

Yeah. We banned human skin a long time ago.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:02

Yeah. Human skin's not allowed to be worn on hats and stuff. Probably. Oh my God. I actually, I saw this, there's apparently this service where now they're like making some kind of a coral reef structure out of ashes. And then like putting it in, um, areas in the ocean that need extra, uh, coral reef or something, and it's supposed to help with the marine, yada yada.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:25

Where do the ashes come from?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:26

Humans, human remains. It's like a, like a, like a way to honor your deceased family member or beloved pet.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:34

Feel free to turn me into coral reef. That sounds okay.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:37

Yeah. I mean, I was thinking diamonds, but coral reef sounds even cooler.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:40

Yeah. Next up US Senator Adam Schiff, who is a vegan along with Cory Booker.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:46

Yes. He doubled the amount of vegans in the US Senate. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:49

He introduced a new bill that would give $500 million in R&D budget to develop alternative protein sources.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:57

This is really cool.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:58

Yeah. So the reasoning he put forth for this is basically that protein is exploding in demand and our current food system cannot meet that growing demand for protein as is. So there are a lot of like nuances and details in the bills. We'll link it in the show notes, but the basic gist of it is they're gonna try to earmark some money to come up with alternative proteins and also try to make sure none of that money goes back into just like animal farming.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:21

Yeah. I think that makes a lot of sense, especially from like an environmental perspective. You know, if the population keeps going up, like. Obviously, I think most people know that factory farming is really bad for the environment, so continuing to do more of it is going to only be worse for the environment. So reducing it, I think is the best thing we could do for the environment too.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:40

Yeah, definitely. They got fun with the name. It's called the PROTEIN Act. And the acronym stands for Producing Real Opportunities for Technology and Entrepreneurs Investing in Nutrition.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:51

Oh man. I just, I just thought it was protein.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:53

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:54

That's fun.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:55

So yeah, if you're the type that likes to reach out to your Congress people, uh, let 'em know that you want to support this act. If that's how you feel.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:01

You know, you're probably calling 'em for lots of other really fun stuff lately. So just tag this onto the end.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:06

Okay, so that's it for the news. We have here with us Lucy Whitney from the Switch4Good Organization. Lucy Whitney leads Switch4Good's Campus Action Now program through which she works with professors and undergrad students on community oriented service learning projects about dairy and the environment, public health and more. She's an NYU Graduate and New Roots Institute fellowship alum and she's passionate about how experiential education can help bring about a more sustainable food system by jump starting the next generation to create meaningful change. Hello. Nice to meet you.

Lucy Whitney: 5:37

You as well.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:38

Thanks for coming on. Did you just wanna start by telling us a little bit about Switch4Good?

Lucy Whitney: 5:43

Absolutely. So Switch4Good is a nonprofit advocacy organization and we're working for a plant rich food system, with the motivations of animal welfare, food equity, and dietary justice. Health and performance for everybody, and more planetary responsibility in the face of climate change. So we lead campaigns on public policy, corporate policy, and we support individuals who are looking to participate in that plant rich food system change. So we focus a lot on dairy. So we have a lot of resources and support for dairy free athletes, individuals, students, et cetera.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:20

That's awesome. It's definitely a worthy mission and I know some of the other vegan organizations focus on different things, so it's good to hear one that focuses specifically on dairy reduction.

Lucy Whitney: 6:29

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:30

I know you have a few different programs there, so maybe we can talk about a couple of those. And since you lead the Campus Action Now program, maybe you can start by giving us a little intro on that.

Lucy Whitney: 6:39

Yeah, for sure. So like you kind of said earlier, it's an experiential education program, so we use a teaching and learning model called service learning where we as a nonprofit partner can work with professors who teach undergraduate courses and they'll be teaching something related to our work. It can really vary. So whether it's a public health course, environmental studies, sustainable business, really anything that we can tie to the food system. We on the CAN team will come up with a service project that helps our mission, gets the students out of the classroom involved in real world applicable work, and ties into their course learning objectives. So we'll work with the professor and make sure we are elevating the education of the students and the project helps us at the organization. And then for the semester we'll work with the students, get them involved, keep them reflecting on their impact in the community. And also we get to bring food systems into classrooms in a way that really hasn't been done in a widespread nature in the US in that undergraduate level. So we're really excited about making food systems part of every degree program across the U.S. We also run an internship program in the summer. I always feel like I, I kind of forget to mention that we have an internship program, but a lot of our service learners will then find that they're really interested in this work and want to dig deeper. So then over the summer they can come onboard and work a few more hours every week and really dig into the work.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:09

That's pretty cool. So the service learners, are those the, the students on campus that are working with the program?

Lucy Whitney: 8:14

Yes, exactly.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:16

Okay. How many schools are involved in this right now?

Lucy Whitney: 8:20

Off the top of my head, I'm gonna say about 25.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:23

Oh, okay. That's pretty cool.

Lucy Whitney: 8:25

Mm-hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:26

We saw some of the service project options you had, and it looks like a really interesting concept to kind of do a project that leans into some of the plant-based mindset things. We're particularly interested in the one about plant-based recipes and trying to get those installed in the, looked like in the campuses maybe? Do you have any examples of where some of the projects resulted in some actual changes or actions as a result? Or are these more of like a concept?

Lucy Whitney: 8:53

Yeah, that's a good question. So service learning is a unique model in that we sometimes have to hold back on pushing really, really hard for change in service to making sure the education part comes through.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:11

Yeah.

Lucy Whitney: 9:11

But we have found some actual change to come out of our projects, which is really exciting for us. Um, 'cause it wasn't, that's definitely a goal of the program, but we have so many goals that it's, it's kind of exciting. What do we achieve? All of them. And so I can give an example of something that's gonna have a good ripple effect is. So you mentioned that recipes project, so that project students will go out into their peer community on campus. Maybe they live in a dorm, maybe they're on a sports team, maybe they live in like a Greek-life house. They learn about the dietary wants of the people who live kind of in similar situations to them where maybe they don't have access to a kitchen or a grocery store, or they're on a limited budget, and they'll come up with recipes that are plant-based that fit the needs of the students around them, and then they'll try and get them shared with their peers. So we had one student who lives in a sorority house at the University of Missouri and she did this project and she was able to work with her sorority house chef.'cause sorority houses often have food service contracts that they, they have an in-house chef.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:17

I didn't know that.

Lucy Whitney: 10:18

Yeah, I also didn't know that. But that sounds cool. Um, and the chef was really enthusiastic about the project and is gonna bring in some of her recipes into like the weekly rotation of food in the house. So that's one example where one student was kind of interested and then, you know, they serve about 150 people every day. So one student has already made an impact just through her curiosity and the relationship she already had in that house.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:46

Okay. Yeah, that's a cool example. So how does students get involved with you? Are you guys on campus in a booth like handing out flyers or do they reach out to you? What's the typical way a student gets involved?

Lucy Whitney: 10:56

Um, it sometimes happens where we're doing like volunteer fairs and they see us at a booth. A lot of the times schools have their own internal kind of volunteer database systems that we are listed as an option in. So if a student's curious about, you know, serving, somehow they'll see us there. And then a lot of the ways we do find students is we will partner with a professor so all of the students in the course will work with us. And that's a decision made by the professor. So that's how we get a lot of the students who have never really considered their interest in this area before, but then through the course, we are able to develop that interest into something maybe a little longer lasting for them.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:34

I think it's definitely worth keeping our ear to the ground and seeing how this program expands.

Lucy Whitney: 11:38

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:39

Is there like a particular degree that you normally do internships with? I'm just curious about the internship program specifically?

Lucy Whitney: 11:45

Yeah, that's a good question. Um. I would say no, it's really varied. We've had ethics students, we've had biology students, we've had students who like are business majors and have so much diverse business background. I have no business background, so I'm always really curious about what they know because it's so far from what I know. Um, so yeah, it's really varied a lot.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:09

Are you guys actively working to grab some more colleges into that list of 25? Or like what if a kid is at one of the schools that don't already work with you, how would they get involved?

Lucy Whitney: 12:19

That's a great question. So they can reach out on our website. I think it's just Switch4Good.org/CAN C-A-N. A lot of the schools we're not actively working with, that might just be for this semester, but we might already have a relationship with them. But maybe the professor we usually work with isn't teaching this semester or something like that. So it's always worth checking. And then if a student is interested, we're, we always have a spot for any student who's interested. We will build a relationship with the school around them if need be. We always also have volunteer spots that are just Switch4Good wide that students can get involved in. And any student from any school can apply to be an intern as well. That's open to anybody.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:59

That's really cool.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:00

Yeah. So you mentioned there, I think that you, like you had a professor you work with, maybe they're not in for the semester. So is your relationship with the school always through professors or do you sometimes work with the school directly on more of a wider net?

Lucy Whitney: 13:13

Yea both.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:14

Yeah. Okay.

Lucy Whitney: 13:15

Sometimes it's through professor and then a lot of schools have an office of service learning where there's some manager or coordinator whose job it is just to get community organizations into the school. Okay. So sometimes that's our contact.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:28

So what I'm hearing is if you can at least convince maybe one professor you have a chance at doing something with the program.

Lucy Whitney: 13:33

Exactly, yes.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:34

Okay, cool. Awesome.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:35

Is there any intent on like moving this towards high schools as well or is it mostly the focus around colleges?

Lucy Whitney: 13:42

I would say I really am excited about the idea of moving this into high schools. The program's only about a year old, so we're definitely like figuring out how to grow and where we want to grow, and I think high schools is a really exciting place. It is just something I've learned over this past year. Undergrads and high schools operate really differently. They have really different objectives in what students, you know, student development, et cetera. So I'm really excited about it. Um, maybe I think it's kind of in the back of my mind for like the next year or two. Is that somewhere we can move?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:16

Cool.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:16

Cool.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:17

Now something that you guys at the organization have been working with quite a bit is the FISCAL act that just went through, I think it just got signed by the house on Monday, right?

Lucy Whitney: 14:27

Mm-hmm. Yes.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:27

So do you wanna tell us a little bit about the history of the act or what that will do for the students?

Lucy Whitney: 14:34

Yeah, definitely. So the fiscal act. Um, started a few years ago under another name. It was called the Add Soy Act. Um, and it's been through a few iterations, but basically it is to amend and reform the National School Lunch Program, which is the federal food program that provides funding to public and non-profit private schools to let them offer free and reduced price lunch to students. So if you ever see, or if you yourself were ever like a reduced price lunch kid that food was being paid for by the federal government.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:08

Yeah.

Lucy Whitney: 15:09

Means that the government has some say in what can be served. And for the whole entirety of the program, cows milk was required. It was a milk mandate, is what we call it. And it really did a disservice to lactose intolerance students. It was a massive waste issue in terms of food waste and taxpayer dollar waste because all the milk got thrown out was paid for by taxpayers.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:32

Right.

Lucy Whitney: 15:32

And so the fiscal act allows schools to be serving non cows milk as part of the National School Lunch Program, which is really exciting. So it's gonna let students who are lactose intolerant or allergic or have ethical issues with cows milk have another type of milk, so they'll get the nutrients, they won't be in pain in school. Lactose intolerance also affects children of color at higher rates than white children. So this was an instance of dietary racism that will now be alleviated to some extent. So we're really excited about that as well.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:05

Yeah.

Lucy Whitney: 16:05

And so we're excited for these schools to have plant-based milk.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:09

That's awesome. When we first came across Switch4Good and saw this program, we were actually pretty surprised that this hasn't been a thing for a long time already. I didn't realize that dairy Milk was the only option in school.

Lucy Whitney: 16:19

Yeah. Yeah. It's one of those shocking things once you get into it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:25

Yeah. So, assuming this does get signed, what do you think it will look like in a school setting? Like, how is it enforced? Are the schools required to carry plant-based milks, or is it just optional? How does that work?

Lucy Whitney: 16:35

Yeah. So in a school, it's gonna look like for schools who know about it. So the next step that we're taking on is school education. Because if they don't know about it, they won't know that they can buy the plant-based milk and be reimbursed. So when a school knows about it, they'll be able to buy the plant-based milk, be reimbursed for it, and have it publicly out on display in the cafeteria for students to choose. Students won't have to bring in a doctor's note, so. Before this bill, students who were lactose intolerant, et cetera, would have to have a doctor's note to be able to get a non cows milk option. Now they will only need a parent's note, which really lowers the barrier, especially we know healthcare access in this country also is inequitable. So that will also help. And then students will be able to just take it much more easy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:26

So is there like a standard plant-based option that they can get reimbursed for? Is it any of 'em, like, can they only do oat milk or soy milk or almond milk?

Lucy Whitney: 17:34

Yeah, so no milk is specified in the bill language, but these federal food assistance programs must adhere to the dietary guidelines for Americans, which are the nutrition guidelines published by the federal government. And in those soy milk is the milk that is recognized as nutritionally equivalent to cow's milk through protein and micronutrients. So soy is the obvious choice.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:56

That makes sense.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:58

That's our favorite too. Um, so once this gets signed, when does it actually go into effect? Like when will the option be there for the students?

Lucy Whitney: 18:07

That's gonna be up to the school.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:09

Okay.

Lucy Whitney: 18:09

We are gonna launch into this educational tour, touring across the country, meeting with schools and getting them to be aware. And then it will be written into their food service contracts when they order the milk, so as soon as possible.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:21

I'm sure that's gonna take you guys a long time to get to all the schools in America.

Lucy Whitney: 18:26

Oh, yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:26

If there's a plant-based child listening to this or maybe the parent of a plant-based child and they're listening to this, is there anything that you would recommend that they do once this bill's passed to try to get those options in their own school?

Lucy Whitney: 18:39

Absolutely. I think advocate for themselves, bring this bill to their school board, to their school administration and say, Hey, you have this new option. Um, it's a great thing because it's not putting another financial strain on the schools. It will be reimbursed by the federal government. So bringing it as a positive new option for these schools to expand equity and access. Um, yeah, bring it to them. Tell them.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:05

Awesome. Yeah, we'll try to spread the word as much as possible too. Obviously we have a vegan audience so I'm sure a lot of people will be interested, but the point you brought up about lactose intolerance I think is a massive one.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:14

Oh yeah, I think this is really interesting'cause I was vegetarian in high school, not vegan, but I mean, there were just so many limited options. Even as a vegetarian, I can't imagine how hard it would be as a vegan to try to eat school lunches.

Lucy Whitney: 19:25

Yeah. Yeah. It sounds really hard. I also wasn't vegan in high school and gosh, it sounds so challenging.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 19:33

Sounds brutal.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 19:36

Yeah. And then last Switch4Good has an athletes program. Do you wanna tell us a little bit about the athletes program and the athletes that you're working with?

Lucy Whitney: 19:45

Absolutely. So our athletes program was founded because we as an organization, we were founded by an athlete. Our founder, Dotsie Bausch is an Olympian, and she, during her career as a plant-based athlete, really felt the, the pressure from coaches, the media, everybody that somehow what she was doing was impossible or really like somehow miraculous when in fact she was just following sound nutrition advice. And so we provide this community of plant-based athletes who are, you know, any level of athletics. We don't have a very high barrier of entry. If you consider yourself an athlete, you are welcome with us and we provide recipes. We provide, we send out newsletters to direct people to new resources from us and just from the world. We have events where we bring each other together and celebrate each other. We like to feature stories of the athletes on our website. We have lots of merch and support and it's, it's a really fun, supportive kind of respite from the world of athletics that can be so tough on plant-based folks.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:53

Yeah, definitely. So how do you connect with the plant-based athletes? Are they mostly coming to you? Are you going out to them, or how does that work?

Lucy Whitney: 21:01

Yeah, it's a bit of both. Uh, through the Campus Action Now program, I definitely bring in some student athletes who do our program and then say, oh, I'm. I'm an, I'm a student athlete. I would really like to get in touch with everybody else in that world. We also, we go to a lot of events. We've been to marathons and bike races and we're out having fun supporting our athletes and meeting new athletes. Also, our website is always the best place to find us. We have a form that's, if you're interested, you can just type in your name and your email and we'll reach out.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:30

Awesome. So I'm curious for the student athletes that you do end up with, do you have any resources around supporting them in their household that may not be plant-based or just generally unsupportive? Have you run into that at all?

Lucy Whitney: 21:45

Yeah, that's definitely a, a common conversation we have. We don't have any written resources, but that's a great idea and I think we should make one. Um, so thank you for that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:56

Sure.

Lucy Whitney: 21:56

But we're definitely always here to talk people through it. We ourselves have all had those conversations. And we can give some pointers on how to make it an open-minded and productive talk. Okay.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:10

So if there is an athlete out there that does want to get involved, what's the best way for them to do that? And then can you give some examples of maybe some of the specific resources you might be able to provide 'em with?

Lucy Whitney: 22:18

Yeah, so the best way to get in touch with us is, like I said, our website Switch4Good.org/athletes this time. We have that form on there. And then some of our resources, we have advice columns from athletes and dieticians about protein consumption, inflammation, recovery after workouts, et cetera. Really specific tailor made athlete specific tips. We have really short ones too, just like. Really easy, you know, if you're in the grocery store and you wanna find some swaps for some of your favorite high protein snacks, what to look for, how to read ingredient labels, all of those really specific things that kind of can make or break a plant-based diet. And then we also have lots of, like I said, stories about inspiring plant-based athletes, inspiring through, you know, success, but also through how people get through their challenges and lean on each other and really form this community.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:10

I think I saw something on that page about, um, some kind of interaction with plant-based pro athletes. What form does that take? Is that like a webinar situation or are they writing articles or is it just a spotlight of a pro athlete, or what does that usually look like?

Lucy Whitney: 23:24

Yeah, so we have those webinars in the articles and writings, but we also have kind of a network, because our founder, Dotsie is a pro athlete. She is kind of in that world. So Dotsie will come and speak to our athletes and talk through her experience and hear from others about their experiences. She also knows so many athletes that we're always collaborating and bringing other folks in.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:46

I was just curious, you mentioned that sometimes you'll go to meets for some of your athletes and stuff. Is there like a network where they're kind of talking with each other?

Lucy Whitney: 23:55

Yeah, we use, um, an online community platform where people can post what they're up to, share photos, share, you know, like the times and dates for their events so we can come out and support each other.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:07

Oh, that's amazing.'cause I know like especially when you're new into plant-based eating, it can feel very lonely. So that's actually really cool.

Lucy Whitney: 24:14

Yeah. It's great. It's really fun.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:18

What is generally the best way for people to get involved with Switch4Good as a whole, and some opportunities to either, you know, donate or like actually get involved with some of the programs. How can they do that?

Lucy Whitney: 24:29

Yeah, so once again, our website Switch4Good.org, there's a button at the top that says support us. That will take you to the donation pages for monthly giving or one time donation. There's also ways to get involved through volunteering through campus action now we have action alerts for just like one click advocacy support. If you wanna help us with that educational tour we're gonna do with all these schools. Yeah. Feel free to reach out if you have a school in mind that you think you want us to come talk to, feel free to let us know. But yeah, our website has all the contact information anybody could need.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:03

Okay. Awesome. Well, I appreciate you joining us today.

Lucy Whitney: 25:05

Of course. Thank you so much for having me.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:08

Yeah, thanks.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:08

Thank you.

Lucy Whitney: 25:09

Bye.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:10

Bye.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:10

Bye.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:11

Okay, so that was a lot of fun. Let's get into our myth of the week this week. The myth of the week this week is that spot fat reduction is a thing. In case you're not familiar with what this is, this is the concept that if you want to get rid of fat on your arms, there's some way to target your arms to get rid of that fat specifically.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:29

Yeah. I remember. Okay, so my mom was one of those moms that had a bunch of those tapes from like the eighties that are like super stomach or like toned arms. Right. And like the whole, well it's really, it's, it's kind of fun to watch. But they're like, they're like in pastel colored gym clothes with like leg warmers and stuff, and, and they're doing very targeted, like super stomach workout, you know?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:55

Or like where the headbands with the triangles on 'em.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:57

Yeah, exactly.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:59

I can like picture it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:59

And there's like mellow, but energetic music in the background. Yeah. And we're just targeting stomach fat because that's, you can do that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:07

Right.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:07

So you're saying this isn't true?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:09

No. You can't do that at all, actually.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:10

Are you saying my super stomach video that I stole from my mom on VHS doesn't work.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:15

Well, here's the thing, it will work, and it will probably eventually reduce the fat from your stomach, assuming you're eating in a calorie deficit because you just lose fat. You can't determine where you're gonna lose fat from. So as you lose your body weight and as you lose your body fat, it'll come off from.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:31

Wherever.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:32

Wherever. Usually, the last place it was going on is the first place it'll come off, but all that depends on genetics and man versus woman and things like that. It's pretty specific to your body. You just kinda have to go through the, the motion and lose the body fat until you're, you know, satisfied with where it is.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:50

I feel like this is always so funny. I feel like girls have like the weirdest places that it comes off of first, because you always hear girls that are like, I immediately lose boobs as soon as I lose any weight. Yeah. And that's sad. If you wanted boobs.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:03

Yeah. Not really much a way around it, I guess.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:06

No, but I think that's probably where like the super stomach targeting fat comes from.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:10

Now one way that can kind of look like you're spot reducing fat would be to maybe grow a bunch of muscle. So like if you got, you know, much bigger biceps, then it would definitely look like you lost fat just in your arms. Like if you hadn't really lost body fat. But I mean, we're talking about, you know, maybe a pound or two of muscle in your arm over a couple of years. So, it's not like super good way to do it. Especially for women, it's gonna be a lot harder.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:30

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:31

But yeah, you just have to kind of lose body fat and it'll come off from wherever it wants to come off from. Gain a little muscle along the way. Everything gets a little more, uh, quote unquote toned, which also isn't a real thing, but that's a different myth of the week. Maybe.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:43

I feel like you're using a lot of bud buzzwords that are just kind of like thrown at women, you know, like you want your fat spot removal.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:50

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:50

And you know, you wanna tone your arms and your tone your legs and.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:54

No, that's true. I think a lot of that is marketed towards women, which is unfortunate.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:57

Men are just like, get stronger and women are like lose fat in very specific areas of your body.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:04

Yeah. I think the difference may maybe for men is like, there's not anywhere where we really want the fat, you know? Mm.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:11

Is that true? You guys don't want butts?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:13

Maybe.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:14

Oh, Hank Hill wants a butt. Remember he had to buy like a special cushion when he was riding his lawn mower?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:20

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:20

Because he doesn't really have an ass.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:22

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:23

Had like butt inserts. There was like a whole episode on it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:25

I do remember that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:26

King of the hill.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:29

Yeah. I mean, uh, you grow a little bit of muscle in the glutes, you'll get a little bit more butt, but it's mostly gonna be fat.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:35

Hmm. Interesting.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:36

Yeah, and you also unfortunately might end up, you know, fairly lean and still be holding a little bit extra fat somewhere you don't want it, but you don't really wanna lose more weight. So your only option there would be to keep trying to build muscle and see if it works itself out the way you want, but you may just be having to deal with a little extra fat in some places.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:52

Yeah, especially around like stomach, right? Like, yeah. People like trying to get a six pack for many, many years.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:57

Yep. So spot fat reduction is a myth, not a thing. Next, what have you been

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:04

I have been doing a lot of holiday baking. Oh. You, you would know you've been eating it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:09

Yeah, you know, I ask so everybody else knows, but I'm pretty well aware, although you do a lot of stuff in there, I don't really know what's going on. It's like your magical workshop and I just walk in and there's peppermints and candy canes and rice Krispy treats and it's pretty awesome. It's like an having an elf, but they make food instead of toys.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:26

I could probably make toys. Yeah. I don't know. I've also been knitting, you know.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 29:31

Well we have, now I'm thinking maybe we're Santa's workshop.'cause we have been making some toys on the 3D printer this week, so.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 29:36

That's true. And I've been knitting scarves. And also I have about 30 paper cuts on my fingers from wrapping a lot of presents, so. Yeah. Yeah, just Christmasy things. Um, I, I put out a couple new recipes, um, high protein puppy chow. Which you had never had before. Right. But I make it with edamame puffs and it's about like 30 ish percent protein. Yeah. And then I also made no-bake cookies. Those like peanut butter chocolate ones. But with TVP instead of oats.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:07

Yeah, those are really good. Turns out I like the puppy chow as cereal also. Yeah. So I can eat, I can eat, uh, way more of it than you're probably supposed to.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:16

Yeah. 20 servings for who? It's like five for you. We're really going through the puppy chow in house. Uh, yeah. I also have been working on like a biscoff cheesecake recipe.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:30

Oh, that's delicious.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:30

That I just put out. And then I've got a couple more. That I'm putting out on Monday probably. So yeah, keep your eyes open.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 30:38

Looking forward. I love all the holiday recipes. They're my favorites up with pies and things that taste like candy, but they actually have protein in them. I don't know, it's, it's been awesome. Yeah. Although the biscoff cheesecake not really a protein recipe.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 30:50

Not protein at all. Yeah. I mean it's like 10% protein, so about as much as a potato. Yeah. So it's as, it's as healthy for you as a potato. I'm lying. It's not healthy at all.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:02

It is great though. This is, this is definitely one you could take to people who aren't vegan and they'd never. Yeah, yeah. They would just be a like a cheesecake pie thing to them. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:10

Yeah. I'm not much of a cheesecake eater, like in general. I never really have liked it, but I actually think this one's pretty good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:16

Yeah. I think this is our last episode before the holidays, so hope everybody has a good, uh, Christmahanakwanzika Solstice Saturnalia. Yeah. Or whatever it is you have going on.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:27

Happy whatever you celebrate. Merry things. We hope you get everything you want and, uh, you know, good luck and stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:36

Yeah, and hope you have a good time with your families.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:38

Or not with your families, depending on what you wanna do, you know?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:41

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:41

The new Stranger Things comes out so that's something to look forward to, even if you don't wanna hang out with your family.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:46

Yeah. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, Christmas is a day to celebrate this year because the new Stranger Things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 31:50

Happy Stranger Things, and the end of the Taylor Swift docuseries. So it's, yeah, it's gonna be a good week for me personally. I'm gonna have the best week.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 31:59

Looking forward to that. Yeah. So if anybody has any questions or feedback they want to give us, you can find in the show notes, you can send us a text message. You can comment on Spotify or go to our social medias, which are linked in the show notes websites. Leave us a message or comment there. We'll be happy to talk to you.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:13

Join our Discord.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:15

Oh yeah. We also have the new Discord. I think we're up to 13, 14 now.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:18

I think it's like 16.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:19

Yeah. So we're doing pretty good in there. We still need to add some material and get. You know, get moving on.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:24

Conversation flowing.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:25

To be perfectly honest, people have joined a little quicker than I expected, so it wasn't like a hundred percent ready, but it's really exciting.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:31

Yeah, yeah. We're excited. Come join us.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:35

Cool. So I think that's it for this week. Do you wanna say bye?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:37

Bye.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 32:38

Bye everybody.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 32:40

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the...