— Toni Crawford

I'll give you the one minute version. I worked at Whole Foods Market, I was a marketing team leader. I got a memo that said, we're bringing in this new program. It's gonna be Whole Food Plant-based, no oil here. Your instructions go with it. And then several weeks later, uh, a memo came out company-wide, saying that, uh, they were inventing the, um, an immersion for employees. And I, I sort of was like, oh, that sounds nice, that's kind of nice. But then I went to a regional meeting and our, um, regional president came into the room and he looked markedly different. And he had shared that he was doing this 28 day challenge with the Engine two Diet, and it made him feel so good. So 20 seconds after the meeting, I ran to a bookstore. I went grocery shopping, and the next day I said, I'm gonna be a vegan for 28 days. 'cause it was only a 28 day challenge. And, uh, you know, I, I did this thing. I ate a lot of oats and a lot of greens, and I kept a little record of what I was going to eat on the 29th day because I was like, pizza, you know, everything from the standard American diet. But on day 10, I woke up and I thought, oh my gosh, having had a lifelong history of osteoporosis, I had absolutely not one second of pain. And I made this correlation that, oh, maybe Hippocrates was right about Food is medicine. And then about three or four months later, I got invited to go to the inaugural Engine two immersion, which was one of the richest experiences of my life. And it's where I saw the director's cut of forks over knives. And if you have not seen the documentary, uh, you can, I think you can still find it on Netflix. I'm not sure. I saw the, the director's cut of Forks Over Knives. And every seven seconds it would come, director's cut, director's cut. So I got home from the immersion feeling as though, uh, I had been just electrocuted with, with change. And I called up Rip Essel and I said, this is my name. This is where I work. I would love to show Forks Over Knives to my community. And several months later, RIP came to Philadelphia and we did the unofficial premiere of Forks Over Knives in Philadelphia. And that's it in a nutshell. So, uh, rip is a very good friend of mine and I adore his mom and dad and his sister Jane. And, um, I come from a family, uh, with people who have heart disease and cancer. And my, my strict belief in my heart is that the only way that I know not to, um, sort of carry on their medical history is to follow a whole food plant-based diet to the best of my ability and, uh, embrace good health. And that's why, um, excuse me, that's why Rouxbe, for me was sort of like the, uh, yellow brick road to better health because I had this bunch of knowledge that I had gotten from taking the e Cornell course and from reading lots of articles and books and things like that. But I was looking for a conduit to sort of solidify everything that I had learned. And I often tell people that if I had not had my Rouxbe experience as a student almost, uh, 10 years ago, um, I don't know where my life would be because Rouxbe, for me was sort of like a trajectory to have a whole new life professionally, personally, and otherwise.