Exploits of a Vegan Wannabe

Hi friends,

I have asked Sandy to be a guest contributor for the day. Enjoy.

Vegan athlete Bill Simmons

One of the most common conversations that crops up for those eating a plant-based diet is what about proper nutrition for athletes?  Not the garden variety, staying-in-shape kind of physical exertion, but high performing and competitive athletes.  It seems that old schools of thought push the notion of physical high octane can only be found in consumption of animal protein.

Dispelling those myths comes in tiny steps usually through “proof in performance”, showing repeated real life examples.  It is easy to understand why this is the case.  Most of us can conjure up visuals from youth, like that of a coach telling his players the night before the big game to eat a huge meal, one loaded with animal meat, usually with steak at the forefront.  This way of thinking is partnered with believing this is how to build muscle and have lasting endurance.  Simply stated, this is not the case.

The good news is that today it is becoming much easier to find examples of world class athletes who fuel themselves on a vegan diet.  Fortunately, they are sharing that insight more and more.   There is even a website, Great Vegan Athletes, dedicated to the premise of sharing that great athletes can be fueled on plants.  From their site, they state:  “These myths (that only animal proteins can fuel you) do not have a foundation in science, and athletes build muscle, endurance and ability on plant sources and many go on to achieve great things. The performance of these athletes is proof that veganism can and does enable excellence.”

Vegan ultra marathoner Scott Jurek

They feature dozens of top performing athletes, men and women,  from professional hockey, football, baseball, basketball players to boxers, body builders, cyclists, race car drivers, ice skaters, tri-athletes and one of our new favorite stars, Ultra Runner, Scott Jurek.  We heard him speak at VegFest this past Sunday and he is truly an inspired presenter, bursting with energy and willing to share everything he can about how he fuels himself for success.

Scott is a lot more than a runner, he is one of those intense competitors in endurance running, an ultra-marathoner, racing 100 miles plus at a time.  He has titles under his belt for many ultra marathons, including the Badwater 135 mile race across Death Valley and the Spartathlon, running 153 miles along an ancient route from Athens to Sparta.   He thrives in running while on a plant-based diet, consuming up to 5000 calories a day while he is training.  Wow, that’s a lot of veggies Scott.  He is a proponent of whole foods of course, consuming foods that your body can readily convert to fuel and give you optimum performance.

Hearing firsthand from Scott was a refreshing experience, he is disarmingly candid sharing about his personal journey.  He watched his mother steadily decay from a debilitating disease and began to piece together that food is a key variable in health.  He wasn’t a scientist, just an average guy who connected these dots that we now know are overwhelmingly true about a plant-based diet.

Synonymous with his fascination of the ancient Greek ultra-marathon, he also cited Hippocrates, who stated centuries  ago, “Let food be thy medicine”.   Scott lives by that premise today and even has written a book called Eat and Run, in  which he chronicles “my unlikely journey to ultra-marathon greatness”.  Here is the link to buy the book on his site.  He is an inspiration for anyone, couch potatoes, armchair athletes, casual runners, weekend warriors and high performance athletes, all at our own levels of greatness.  If you have the opportunity to hear him speak one day, I hope you will share with us on Exploits.

Have a delicious day.

Tags: compassionate eating, Eat and Run, fueling athletes on plant based diet, Great Vegan Athletes, plant based diet, plant strong, Scott Jurek, trying vegan, vegan athletes, vegan wannabe