BOSH! Healthy Vegan

WELCOME.

As BOSH!, it’s our mission to help you get more plants on your plate, more taste in your food and more joy out of your mealtimes. We want you to live a long, healthy, happy life. Our aim in this book is to share with you what we’ve learned about healthy eating and the power of plants.

Four years ago, we were slightly overweight meaties. We adopted a plant-based diet and found our lives changed for the better. The weight fell off, our sleep was better, and our energy levels improved. But a couple of years later, we had become indulgent eaters, often cooking and eating up to five meals a day as we tested recipes for our cookbooks. We had taken our focus off health and wellbeing and were eating too many white, processed carbs – classic vegan junk food! It was delicious, but our health had started to suffer.

So, we made some changes and started learning a new way of living. We learned how to balance fun food with fit food. We’ve done the hard work – and made the mistakes – so you don’t have to. In this book we share with you over 80 healthy recipes, meal plans and all the advice and guidance you need to be a happier, healthier, leaner you – whether it’s every meal, or one meal at a time.

But this isn’t a diet book. Quick diets and promises of instant transformation don’t work in the long term. If they sound too good to be true, that’s because they are. With the latest diet craze you may see short-term benefits, but these can often be at the expense of your future self.

Quick-fix diet plans can lead to an unhealthy relationship with food, encourage a negative self-image and they can even permanently change your body’s metabolism. More often than not, once the diet is over you’ll go back to your old eating patterns anyway and any benefits will be reversed. We’ve all been there.

We are going to show you how eating plants can transform your wellbeing, for good. Making a small change to the way you eat, you can feel incredible and live healthier. And the best part? The food is delicious!

When we adopted this plant-based way of eating, we felt more energetic, slept better, trained better, laughed a lot more and, hopefully, we will live longer, too!

This book is for everyone, whatever your dietary lifestyle. Whether you’re vegetarian, vegan, a flexitarian, a pescatarian, a meat eater – this book is for you. We’ll show you how to eat the rainbow, whether you’re looking to lose fat, eat for fitness, or just be the healthiest you can be. It’s about finding the balance that you feel comfortable with and incorporating plant-based eating into your life as much as you can.

If you’re looking to lose fat, become leaner or shape up, a plant-based diet is one of the best ways to do that. Eating the right plants will help you feel fuller for longer, which can help you start to shed fat.

If you’re looking to build muscle, you’re in the right place. Colourful plants are packed with protein and a load of vital nutrients to help you get maximum gains and experience optimum recovery after exercise. We’ll show you how plant-based nutrition can help fitness and muscle building.

If you’re just looking to be a healthier version of you, then this is for you. We want to help everyone reach their optimum health. These recipes will help your gut, blood, heart and immune system function at their best.

Our recipes are delicious, easy and offer the best in nutrition. They have been put together using the latest medical advice available for a plant-based diet, and according to government and NHS healthy-eating guidelines (the EatWell Plate) and other national food guidelines. And we’ve worked with a registered dietician to make sure that all our dishes are balanced, health-giving and well portioned.

The recipes all follow the principles of eating the rainbow. Packed with colourful plants and their unique health-giving phytonutrients, they reflect a varied plant-based diet. The meals are also full of dietary fibre and high-quality carbs, proteins and fats, and are low in salt, sugar and saturated fat (saturated fat has links with increased cholesterol, heart disease and stroke, so a diet that’s low in this is great!).

They have all been nutritionally analysed – you’ll see labels beneath the recipes indicating whether they are a particularly good source of protein or fibre, or are low in fat or sugar, as well as the calories per serving.

We’ll show you why eating plants is a great choice for your health. You’ll learn how to eat plants the right way, while discovering delicious new recipes. We’ll also give you some ideas for when you want to relax the rules a little, so you can enjoy life in balance. We all need a treat sometimes!

We’ll help you get healthy in other areas of your life as well – sleep, exercise, routine and lifestyle – so you feel more able to to start making positive, lasting changes.

We’re going to show you how to eat and live healthily. You’ll soon see just how good you can feel eating plants. Most importantly, this is still BOSH! food: hearty, comforting food that you want to eat – but with fewer calories, less sugar, and less fat.

We’re going to share with you everything we’ve learned and help you find the best you. These changes could last a lifetime. And along the way we’ll share some of the tastiest and most vibrant recipes we’ve ever created.

We’re delighted you’ve decided to join us on our healthy vegan journey.

Henry and Ian x

WHY EAT PLANTS?.

In this book, you’re going to discover delicious, moreish, comforting food that is good for your body, will nourish your soul and help you stay healthy. And moreover, everything is easy and you won’t be spending ages in the kitchen.

You’ve probably heard that a plant-based diet is good for you. There’s a reason many of the world’s top athletes are adopting plant-based diets. It’s the new buzzword in fitness. And it’s being recommended increasingly by doctors as a lifestyle promoting long life, weight loss and health.

We have found that it has loads of other benefits, too, like better sleep, improved recovery after exercising, and more consistent energy levels. It’s better for the planet too. We felt like we’d discovered a superpower when we first made the switch. We are now fitter, happier and healthier than we’ve ever been.

PLANTS ARE GOOD FOR YOU.

Your parents always told you to eat your greens, and they were right! Eating more plants is a sure-fire way to turbocharge your wellness: most plants are absolutely jam-packed with phytochemicals which have various positive benefits for the body, from offering anti-oxidising properties, to providing vital vitamins and minerals, and supporting good gut health.

You may also find, as we did, that the higher fibre intake and a reduction of what are thought to be inflammatory foods characterised by eating vegan leaves you with better digestion and a healthier gut.

The easiest way to maximise nutrition on a plant-based diet is to remember to ‘eat the rainbow’ (we talk more about this on here). It’s also best to avoid over-processed foods as much as possible. Get a variety of colours, flavours, textures and spices into your diet on a daily basis: aim for your plates of food to be beautifully colourful.

STILL EAT ALL YOUR FAVOURITE FOODS.

‘Surely a vegan diet just means eating loads of salads and rabbit food? Lettuce and carrots, right?’ We beg to differ! A good vegan diet, packed with health-giving properties and general planty goodness, can still be hearty and comforting.

We started BOSH! to show the world just how delicious plant-based food can be. We created our videos to prove that you can still have all your favourite foods, but without the meat and dairy. And with our new, healthy recipes, nothing’s changed.

Incredible-looking burgers, luscious roast dinners, wonderful stews and curries and even pizza can still be on the menu! And we’re not talking about processed burgers or cauliflower-base pizzas either. We’re talking about proper hearty meals made as you like them, with just a few small tweaks to nudge the meal in a healthy direction.

‘Going vegan made me stronger than I’ve ever been… I feel better than ever, I look and feel younger.’

David Haye – British Professional Boxer

DITCH THE DIETS.

We all know about those best-selling ‘healthy’ or ‘fat-loss’ cookbooks that contain meals packed with meats, fish and cheese. Many are based on the same principles of the ketogenic or Atkins diets, which encourage your body to burn fat instead of glucose. These books and their exercise plans may result in weight loss in the short term, but chances are it will be short-lived. They may also be very high in fat and saturated fat.

And, if you aren’t doing the exercise plans associated with these diets, then you may not even see the benefits. You could even end up putting on weight rather than losing it, due to the high calorific content of the food.

Crashing in and out of different diets with different approaches to weight loss, by eating less, or eating more fats and proteins, you could end up affecting your body’s metabolism. Your body has an optimum balance, and it may adjust how it operates so it can remain there.

Unlike those diets, our approach to nutrition, healthy eating and fitness is flexible. You don’t have to be doing complicated aerobics routines every day. We’re not saying you should avoid exercise – we are big advocates of it! – but our approach to eating works independently, with you moving and getting your body active in your own way. Perhaps a brisk walk to work or cycle to and from the shops is enough to get your heart beating faster. That’s fine – you’ll still feel the benefits from eating our meals. Or, if you are a regular gym-bunny, then this book will work for you too, and later on we’ll show you how to tailor your meals to achieve your fitness goals (see here).

HEALTHY EATING IS FOR LIFE.

This book will help you work through a few small changes to your lifestyle (and when we say small, we mean small), to steer yourself towards a happier, healthier you: one, two, three years from now. We hope this book will help you take control of your health, your body, your food, your energy levels, for once and for all.

By learning a few simple rules on how to nourish yourself on a plant-based diet, you can take the stress out of mealtimes for good. We certainly won’t tell you what you should or shouldn’t look like either. Loving your body as it is, right now, is more important than anything else.

THE PLANT SLANT.

Until recently, concerns about nutrition put some people off a plant-based diet, and the word ‘vegan’ was almost seen as a dirty word. Now, many doctors are moving towards recommending plant-based eating, and more health professionals are recommending plant-based – or as some people call it, ‘plant-slant’ – diets to patients for promoting long life, fitness, weight loss and better recovery from illness. Eating only plants – or a lot more plants – is now seen as the optimal way to eat. And it’s better for the planet and all its inhabitants, too.

‘I am a firm believer in eating a full plant-based, wholefood diet that can expand your life length and make you an all-round happier person.’

Ariana Grande – Pop Star

VEGGIES ARE EASY TO COOK AND GOOD VALUE.

Vegetables are easy to cook and don’t require long cooking times: you just need to learn how to make flavours work. We design our recipes with easy-to-find foods, so you can get most things from your local stores. And eating more plants can save you money, too. You don’t need to worry about splashing out on expensive high-welfare meat. You just want fresh veg. And if you buy seasonal or discount items (plants stay good for longer) then your shopping can be ever cheaper.

DO IT YOUR WAY.

You may well not be vegan, but this book is still for you! The more plants you eat, the better. Maybe a totally plant-based diet is just not for you. Maybe later. Maybe never. This book is written for everyone, however many plant-based meals you choose to eat each day or week.

‘Not only does it help me on the court, but I feel like I’m doing the right thing for me. It definitely changed my whole life. It changed everything.’

Serena Williams – World Class Tennis Player – on adopting a plant-based diet

THE BOSH! STORY.

The worst of times.

In 2014, we were both in a bad place. Henry had just celebrated his thirtieth birthday. He woke up with ‘the fear’, having forgotten everything about the night before, and tried to work out what had happened. Luckily, save for embarrassing himself, no real damage was done. But he was also a work-hard-play-hard kind of guy, and food and alcohol were taking a toll on his life. That was the wake-up call he needed.

Around a similar time, Ian was looking and feeling under the weather, and had been for a while. Carrying a little more weight than he wanted, and inbetween jobs, he had lost all motivation. He denied that anything was wrong, but he was spending far too much time eating junk food and drinking, and not enough time looking after his body. And he was doing absolutely zero exercise. No running, no stretching, no cycling, no weights, not much walking. Nothing.