Free · Independent programs · One simple path
Feel Better, Eat Better
🧠 The Lift Project for your mood and mental wellbeing
🥗 Full Plate Living for adding more fiber-rich food to meals you already eat
🤝 And the option to do it together, in a group or at your clinic
Plain disclosure, up front: Both programs belong to other organizations. Kitchen Monk has no affiliation, sponsorship, affiliate links, or payment from either one. Putting them together on one path is Kitchen Monk’s own suggestion, not an official joint program. Offers and access can change, so please check each program’s own site for current details.
Why pair them?
How we eat and how we feel are connected, and both are easier to change with other people. One program helps with the plate. The other helps with the mind. Together they fit the Kitchen Monk path: Learn → Practice → Belong → Sustain → Flourish.
🥗 Full Plate Living
AVAILABLE NOW · FREE
What it is: a free healthy-eating program that teaches you to add whole, fiber-rich foods to the meals you already eat. No food is banned, which makes it a good fit for small steps.
Who runs it: Ardmore Institute of Health, a nonprofit.
What’s inside: a self-paced Core Program, workshops, hundreds of recipes, a private online community, and follow-up courses on diabetes and weight.
Cost: free.
Good to know: it’s nutrition education, not personal medical nutrition care. Full Plate Living’s online, self-paced program is certified by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.
🧠 The Lift Project
AVAILABLE NOW · ACCESS VARIES
What it is: a mental wellbeing program that brings together lifestyle medicine, positive psychology, and brain science in short, practical lessons with weekly challenges.
Who runs it: The Lift Project, developed by Dr. Darren Morton of Avondale University in Australia.
How people join: online on your own, through a group led by an endorsed provider, or through an employer, school, or community that sponsors it. Ardmore announced in 2025 that Full Plate Living members could get free access. Check whether that offer is still open.
Good to know: it’s a wellbeing program, not therapy or treatment for depression or anxiety.
Follow The Lift Project & Dr. Darren Morton
“Dr. Morton” is Dr. Darren Morton’s own page. “Org” buttons belong to The Lift Project, the program he developed.
❤️ Why this path matters to us · A true story
Kitchen Monk’s founder learned from a former mentor, Dr. Ron Weiss, that good care uses more than one tool: food, yes, and also calm, mindfulness, and support. Later, in a recorded Chef AJ conversation about Lyme disease, he saw that even healers sometimes need someone to care for them. That’s why this page pairs a plate program with a mind program, and why nurses, Certified Nursing Assistants, and Licensed Practical Nurses can bring both to groups, a pathway we call 🥷 Nursing Ninja Heart Lift!
INDEPENDENT PROGRAMS · NO PARTNERSHIP Everyone signs up directly with each program. Full Plate Living is free for all, and nurses apply to The Lift Project on their own to lead Lift groups.
Dr. Weiss is a past mentor. He did not create, review, or endorse this page, this pairing, or Kitchen Monk, and he isn’t affiliated with it. The recordings are not medical advice.
✅ Start free in 5 steps
Tap each button in order. Each one opens the program’s own site in a new tab.
If the free Lift access through Full Plate has ended, you can still start with Full Plate alone, ask your employer, school, or community whether they sponsor The Lift Project, or contact The Lift Project directly.
📅 The Kitchen Monk 10-week path
A gentle way to pace both programs: one mind lesson, one plate lesson, and one small step each week. Fall behind? Just pick up where you are. There’s no failing this.
📅 Week 1
🧠 Mind (Lift): Lesson 1
🥗 Plate (Full Plate): Core Module 1
🌲 Kitchen Monk small step: Add one plant food to a meal you already eat
📅 Week 2
🧠 Mind (Lift): Lesson 2
🥗 Plate (Full Plate): Core Module 2
🌲 Kitchen Monk small step: Take a five-minute walk after one meal
📅 Week 3
🧠 Mind (Lift): Lesson 3
🥗 Plate (Full Plate): Core Module 3
🌲 Kitchen Monk small step: Stock one “better convenience” food: canned beans or frozen vegetables
📅 Week 4
🧠 Mind (Lift): Lesson 4
🥗 Plate (Full Plate): Core Module 4
🌲 Kitchen Monk small step: Step outside for a few minutes each day
📅 Week 5
🧠 Mind (Lift): Lesson 5
🥗 Plate (Full Plate): Core Module 5
🌲 Kitchen Monk small step: Call or text one person
📅 Week 6
🧠 Mind (Lift): Lesson 6
🥗 Plate (Full Plate): Core Module 6
🌲 Kitchen Monk small step: Go to bed 15 minutes earlier
📅 Week 7
🧠 Mind (Lift): Lesson 7
🥗 Plate (Full Plate): Core Module 7
🌲 Kitchen Monk small step: Cook one recipe from the Full Plate library
📅 Week 8
🧠 Mind (Lift): Lesson 8
🥗 Plate (Full Plate): A workshop or a follow-up course
🌲 Kitchen Monk small step: Share a meal with someone
📅 Week 9
🧠 Mind (Lift): Lesson 9
🥗 Plate (Full Plate): Pick three favorite recipes to repeat
🌲 Kitchen Monk small step: Notice what’s getting in the way, and make one thing easier
📅 Week 10
🧠 Mind (Lift): Lesson 10
🥗 Plate (Full Plate): Plan your “ordinary week” plate
🌲 Kitchen Monk small step: Choose the one habit you want to keep
A Kitchen Monk pacing suggestion, not an official schedule from either program. If your Lift version has a different number of lessons, simply follow its order.
👫 Do it together
People often know what to do. It’s doing it alone that’s hard. Both programs can be shared with a group: friends, a church or community center, a workplace, or a clinic.
🥗 Host a Full Plate group
Ardmore offers a free, scripted 8-session Group Program with slides, in English and Spanish, and a free, optional facilitator training. You don’t need to be a health professional to lead it.
🧠 Bring Lift to a group
The Lift Project is often run in small groups by endorsed providers, and by employers, schools, and councils for their communities. Ask whether your workplace or community already offers it, or contact The Lift Project about a group.
🌲 Find people near you
IN DEVELOPMENT Kitchen Monk-hosted “Feel Better, Eat Better” circles are something we’d love to offer. None are running yet.
🩺 For clinicians: free shared medical appointment curriculum
A shared medical appointment is a clinic visit held in a group: each patient still gets individual attention, plus more time for education and peer support. Ardmore Institute of Health offers a free Full Plate Living shared medical appointment curriculum in 1-, 4-, and 8-session versions, with scripts and slides in English and Spanish. Ardmore states it can be delivered in person or virtually and billed. The curriculum is free; the appointment itself is a clinical visit, so cost or insurance may apply. Pairing it with The Lift Project adds mental wellbeing to the plate.
Coverage, coding, and who may bill vary by payer, state, and scope of practice. Confirm with your organization’s compliance and billing teams. Continuing medical education approval periods also change; check current credit status on Full Plate Living’s site.
📜 Shared medical appointment continuing medical education credit update — October 16, 2026: Full Plate Living’s registration page lists its free Implementing Shared Medical Appointments Utilizing Full Plate Living course with up to 2.00 American Academy of Family Physicians Prescribed credits for the approval term June 12, 2026–June 12, 2027. Registration is required. Confirm your profession’s eligibility and credit acceptance with the provider and your licensing board before enrolling.
⚠️ Safety first
Taking medicine for diabetes or blood pressure? Eating more fiber-rich whole foods can change blood sugar and blood pressure, sometimes quickly. Tell your clinician before you start, and never stop or change a medication on your own.
Struggling with your mood? A wellbeing program can help, but it isn’t a replacement for mental-health care. If you’re in crisis in the United States, call or text 988. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911.
📚 For the curious: some of the evidence
Morton DP, Renfrew M, Matthews S. The American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s offering of a mental health and wellbeing program (The Lift Project) to its members: caring for the carers. Am J Lifestyle Med. 2024. Read the Lift Project study ↗
Lacagnina S, et al. Lifestyle medicine shared medical appointments. Am J Lifestyle Med. 2021. Read the shared medical appointments article ↗
Full Plate Living’s own research list. Full Plate Living bibliography ↗
Individual results vary. Program evaluations often rely on participant surveys, and not every study has a control group.
🥗 Nutrition Garden · Scripture & reflection
“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”
Genesis 1:29 · KJV
“He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;”
Psalm 104:14 · KJV
Excerpt from Psalm 104:14–15. (“Meat” in the KJV means food.)
🌿 Reflection: These verses invite gratitude for food that grows from the earth and for the shared table. They offer a spiritual reflection on plant foods, not clinical proof. Our nutrition guidance rests on its own evidence, listed in the Evidence Library. No food or diet guarantees healing.
🍎 Invitation: Before one meal this week, pause to name something you are grateful for. If you can, share the meal or the gratitude with someone.
Independent resources. Full Plate Living is a free service of Ardmore Institute of Health. The Lift Project was developed by Dr. Darren Morton. Neither organization sponsors, endorses, reviewed, or is affiliated with Kitchen Monk™ or this page, and Kitchen Monk receives no payment, commissions, or free access from either. The 10-week pairing is Kitchen Monk’s own suggestion. Program names belong to their owners; details were checked against their public websites in September 2026 and may change. Educational information only, not medical care. Drafted with artificial intelligence assistance and reviewed by Kitchen Monk; report a correction. Trust & Transparency
🌿 Explore the National Health Association meal library
Kitchen Monk™’s most recent documented National Health Association catalog review (November 2, 2026) reports 527 deduplicated National Health Association source-version records, including separately documented recipe formulations; this is not a count of 527 unique dishes. The historical October 23, 2026 index contained 539 web/PDF entries (316 National Health Association website recipe-page entries plus 223 conference-PDF recipe entries), with overlaps: 539 is not a verified count of distinct recipes. These are our working inventory figures, not official National Health Association totals or a fresh complete recount. We credit original recipe authors and link to source recipes; videos and grocery-list features vary by entry. Check each source ingredient list before calling a particular recipe salt-, oil-, and sugar-free: some originals include sweeteners or prepared condiments. · Official National Health Association recipes ↗
Nutrition status: We have not yet calculated verified per-serving nutrition for this National Health Association collection. Estimates will be shown only after checking ingredient amounts, substitutions, recipe yield, and matching ingredients to documented United States Department of Agriculture FoodData Central records; otherwise we mark analysis pending. Cronometer is independent and optional: its free Basic account supports manually created recipes; paid Gold provides website recipe import and friend-to-friend recipe sharing; and Cronometer Professional can share custom foods, meals, and recipes with connected clients (Cronometer documentation updated October 29, 2026). These features do not create a universally public Cronometer URL for each recipe. Verify every ingredient match and serving yield before logging, and note that our sites do not sync any recipes or personal diaries to Cronometer. Kitchen Monk and Flourishing Nursing™ endorse the National Health Association for patient education. This is our own endorsement; the National Health Association has not endorsed or sponsored either site.
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” 
