“I Tried Every Diet”: How Juan Brady Found a Sustainable Plant-Based Lifestyle
For most of his life, Juan Brady struggled with his weight.
He tried diet after diet. He lost weight. He regained it. Then the cycle started again.
At his heaviest, Juan says he weighed 240 pounds.
“I did all the diets in the book.”
Today, his relationship with food looks very different.
Juan is a plant-based health coach, advocate, and founder of Vibrant Powered by Plants. In a recent episode of the Plant Based Support Podcast, he sat down with lifestyle medicine physician Dr. Nikki Davis to talk about what finally changed, why simply “going vegan” was only the beginning, and why he believes support can make the transition dramatically easier.
And perhaps the most important part of his story is this:
Juan didn't discover another temporary diet.
He found a way of eating and living that he could actually sustain.
Can a whole-food, plant-based diet support healthy weight management?
Research suggests that well-planned vegetarian and plant-based dietary patterns may support weight management and improve certain cardiometabolic risk factors, although individual results vary.
A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis published in JAMA Network Open examined 20 randomized clinical trials involving 1,878 adults with or at high risk of cardiovascular disease. Across an average intervention period of about six months, vegetarian dietary interventions were associated with modest reductions in body weight, LDL cholesterol, and HbA1c compared with control diets.
The American Heart Association’s updated 2026 dietary guidance similarly emphasizes eating patterns rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, while limiting added sugars and many ultra-processed foods as part of an overall heart-supportive eating pattern.
The science matters.
But knowing what to eat and actually building a life around it are two very different things.
That is where Juan’s story becomes especially useful.
Juan had spent years losing weight—and gaining it back
Juan describes struggling with his weight from childhood into his 30s.
Like millions of people, he knew how to go on a diet. The harder part was what happened when that diet ended.
He would lose weight, stop the program and eventually regain it—sometimes gaining even more.
Over time, the cycle became discouraging.
Then Juan and his wife made a decision that initially had very little to do with weight.
They decided to go vegan.
Their motivation was compassion for animals.
After watching documentaries together, they felt they could no longer participate in the same food system in the same way.
But going vegan opened a second door Juan hadn't expected.
Nutrition.
His 8-year-old son changed the way Juan thought about food
One of the most powerful moments in Juan's story came when his youngest son, then 8 years old, asked his parents why they were eating differently.
Juan and his wife explained their decision.
Their son decided he wanted to join them.
Suddenly, Juan wasn't thinking only about his own plate anymore.
He was feeding a growing child.
That responsibility sent him searching for better information about nutrition. He began studying plant-based nutrition more deeply and eventually completed certification through the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.
And as Juan learned more, his diet continued to evolve.
Being vegan was no longer the finish line.
He began focusing much more heavily on whole and minimally processed plant foods.
Beans. Lentils. Whole grains. Vegetables. Fruits. Greens. Nuts. Seeds. Potatoes and other starchy vegetables.
Food that looked like food.
That distinction mattered.
“Vegan” and “whole-food plant-based” aren't always the same thing
One of Juan’s biggest lessons is especially relevant today.
A food can be vegan and still be highly processed.
Cookies can be vegan. Chips can be vegan. Frozen convenience foods can be vegan.
For Juan, those foods can have a useful place—particularly when someone is transitioning or needs a convenient option—but his everyday eating gradually became centered around whole plant foods.
That was when he says he noticed the biggest change in his ability to manage his weight and maintain his new habits.
And importantly, Juan doesn't talk about perfection.
Neither does Dr. Davis.
During their conversation, they return repeatedly to a much more realistic idea:
What you do consistently matters more than trying to eat perfectly.
That philosophy is also closely aligned with how Plant Based Support approaches sustainable change: turn evidence into practical steps, then use community and accountability to help those steps become habits.
Then something else changed: his energy
Weight was only one part of Juan's transformation.
He also began noticing how he felt.
He tells Dr. Davis that when he hikes with friends his age, the plant-based guy they like to tease is often the one with energy left.
The word Juan keeps returning to throughout the conversation is vibrant.
It eventually became the name of his coaching business: Vibrant Powered by Plants.
For him, it describes something larger than a number on a scale.
Feeling capable.
Having energy.
Enjoying food.
Cooking creatively.
Feeling that his actions are more closely aligned with his compassion for animals and the planet.
Having a sense of purpose.
As Juan puts it during the episode, he believes people deserve the opportunity to know what feeling vibrant can be like.
His plant-based kitchen became a creative playground
One of the persistent myths surrounding plant-based eating is that removing animal products leaves you with a tragically lonely bowl of lettuce.
Juan’s kitchen apparently missed the memo.
Before going plant-based, he was primarily the family’s Sunday breakfast guy.
After the transition?
He says he essentially took over the kitchen.
He began experimenting with recipes and figuring out how to transform familiar foods into plant-based meals his family actually wanted to eat.
That eventually influenced relatives, too.
Instead of trying to force his family to change, Juan began noticing something interesting: people became curious.
Family members started requesting the portobello mushroom burgers he brought to cookouts.
That experience helped reshape how Juan approaches advocacy today.
He wants people to see what the lifestyle can look like, experience good food and ask questions when they're ready.
Why changing your environment may matter more than chasing motivation
There is another theme running through Juan and Dr. Davis's conversation that deserves far more attention:
Sustainable change rarely happens through willpower alone.
Imagine trying to change decades of eating habits while everyone around you eats differently, your kitchen isn't stocked for your new routine, you don't know what to cook, conflicting nutrition advice follows you everywhere online, and your first attempt at eating more beans leaves your digestive system sending strongly worded complaints.
That is a systems problem.
And systems can be redesigned.
Juan now works with people specifically during the transition period because he believes that is where many people become overwhelmed.
His coaching may involve looking at meals, recipes, grocery shopping, food preferences, movement, routines and the very normal adjustments that can happen when someone begins eating considerably more fiber.
Instead of handing someone a meal plan and disappearing, he describes his approach as highly hands-on, with regular contact and adjustments based on the individual.
“I don't know what to eat” is a solvable problem
This may be one of the most relatable lines in the entire episode.
People often understand the idea of eating more plants.
Then dinner arrives.
What exactly are you supposed to make?
Juan identifies that moment as one of the places where people can drift back toward familiar habits.
So the answer isn't simply:
Try harder.
It might be learning three easy breakfasts.
Finding five dinners your family genuinely enjoys.
Keeping beans, lentils, whole grains, frozen vegetables and fruit available.
Learning one batch-cooking routine.
Finding restaurant meals you can reliably order.
Knowing what to eat when you're tired.
And having someone to ask when something isn't working.
Those small systems remove friction.
Repeated long enough, they become a lifestyle.
Community may be one of the missing ingredients
Juan spent years with a very small plant-based circle: essentially himself, his wife and his son.
Finding Plant Based Support gave him something different—a larger community of people navigating many of the same questions.
During the podcast, both Juan and Dr. Davis discuss just how valuable that connection can be.
Because knowledge is important.
Belonging helps us keep using it.
You can read a hundred nutrition articles and still have a difficult Tuesday.
Sometimes what you need is another human saying:
Yep. I've been there. Here's what helped me.
That philosophy sits at the heart of Plant Based Support. Our goal is to make plant-based eating more accessible and sustainable through evidence-based education, practical resources, expert guidance and real human support—without shame, perfectionism or hype.
Watch Juan Brady’s full story
There is much more to Juan’s story than can fit into one article.
In the full conversation, Juan Brady and Dr. Nikki Davis explore his lifelong struggle with weight, what changed when his family went vegan, raising a plant-based child, learning the science behind nutrition, navigating processed vegan foods, cooking for a non-vegan extended family, finding community, coaching people through the transition, and why he has become so passionate about helping others build habits that last.
