Hello everyone, I’m Seonkyoung Longest. 

I’m a chef, food creator, and author from Korea living in Hawai’i.  I’ve been a chef and food creator for over a decade and became plant-based in 2021. I became plant-based not only for the environment and animals but also for my health. I don’t call myself vegan because I don’t live a vegan lifestyle, but I do my best when I can. I don’t believe in veganism, and I’m not Buddhist. I believe in truth, love, and miracles.

I have a small farm in Maui where I grow my vegetables and fruits. I used to have pigs, ducks, and chickens too, but due to our frequent traveling lifestyle, we had to find a new home for them. Now they are happier than ever with the new home. ❤️

Before we start, I wanted to say that, this is my honor to create this Holistic Meal Plan for my teacher, The EMPOWERED Yoga Challenge with Travis Eliot! If you want to transform your body and awaken your soul for a happier & fulfilled life, this challenge is absolutely for you!! I’m the proof of his practice works! 

TAP HERE to Start Your EMPOWERED Yoga Challenge! 🧘‍♀️🧘

I met Travis last year through Youtube (thanks to the Youtube algorithm! 🙏🏼). I did a lot of yoga at that time by following Youtube yoga videos. When I found Travis’s videos, it was during the time I was looking to challenge my body and something that could fill an empty hole in my heart… because last year, I lost my baby boy Smokey and I was going through a pretty tough time. Travis was a perfect holistic teacher for me. All the stories he shared during yoga were able to guide me throughout the day.

I learned yoga is not just for your physical body but also strengthens your mind and soul.

Tap here to visit Travis’s Youtube Chanel!

He has a great Youtube channel where you can practice yoga and meditation with him and countless videos you can choose from. But it didn’t take long for me to desire to try his full programs. I’m a big subscriber of his YouTube channel even though I signed up for InnerDimensionTV, his paid subscription yoga program. I decided to try InnerDimensionTV, and I haven’t looked back since. I have done Level Up 108 (my absolute favorite program!), Power Yoga 108, & Detox 30. I do Flexibility & Beyond when I need a break from power yoga and just need a more calm practice. I LOVE Lauren’s restorative yoga; when I do it, I always get to sleep like a baby. There are so many great lessons I have learned from both Travis and Lauren that I still repeat them daily in my head and heart. I still practice with Travis’s Youtube videos to spice up my yoga routine.

I was lucky enough to attend one of Tavis & Lauren’s yoga retreats, meet them and practice in person. Their beautiful holistic souls inspired me so much, and I can’t thank them enough. 🙏🏼❤️

They probably don’t know, but during one of the most challenging times of my life, their teaching holds me tight to stand with my two feet firmly. I learned not to fight through my life anymore but embrace it as what it is. Either good or bad, know that “this, too, shall pass.”

Everyone is looking for good food for their body and health. Isn’t it ironic that now more than at any other time in history, we have an abundance of food and information at our fingers tips, but we are still not free from disease? It seems like the more options we have, the more issues we face. 

This Holistic Meal Plan is inspired by Korean Buddhism temple cuisine. Korean temple cuisine’s ingredients are 99% homemade (including all the sauces and seasonings), and most vegetables are wild-grown from the mountains/land where the temples are. It’s best to grow your vegetables if you can and make your own soy sauce from fresh soybeans that you harvest, but it is not realistic for most people nowadays. So I was focused on creating recipes with ingredients you can get easily from local grocery stores all year long. 

Temple cuisine is such pure food. It uses limited seasoning to bring out the ingredients’ flavors and aromas. It’s also simple and harmonious. If you add too many seasonings to your food, all the different vegetables taste the same. When you start cooking this meal plan, you will notice quickly that the smell of food in the kitchen does not last long. This is because the ingredients and cooking methods are straightforward.

The human body’s 60% is water, so it’s essential to hydrate yourself. What we eat becomes our skin, muscles, and bones, so we are literally what we eat.

No matter how simple the recipe is, it must be made with care, love, and sincerity. 

So bring your yoga practice to the kitchen and take this opportunity to heal your body, mind, and spirit. Learning the preciousness of all lives and cooking meals without harming others is a virtue of practice.

By now, you are probably curious, what is the difference between temple cuisine and plant-based? The most significant difference between temple cuisine and plant-based is that temple cuisine has banned vegetable ingredients. In Korea, we call these ingredients “Osinchae.” These five banned ingredients are spring onions, garlic, shallots, chives, and leeks. Onion is in the same family, so most monks don’t consume onions either. 

Although these foods are healthy in a regular diet, the Osinchae is banned because they are energetic foods that warm the body and that are very stimulating. This can make it difficult for those who are trying to meditate often. Temple food is used as a meditation meal that helps calm you to find your inner self. 

These five ingredients are not found in temple food eaten by monks. However, you can eat foods containing these ingredients when you are sick. You can even eat both meat and seafood if your body needs it. The Buddha is always open to exceptions. The absolute is only the truth. 

I hope this Holistic Meal Plan can help you be EMPOWERED physically, mentally, and spiritually. Good luck!

The meal plan schedule is only a guide, so feel free to add or omit the ingredients and the menu to fit your diet. 

Tap Here to Download the Holistic Meal Plan! 🥣