Plant Powered Triathlete(Vegan)

I have been Vegetarian in the past, like a few years ago. I started eating meat again because family influenced that. But recently I read "The Starch Solution" by McDougall and have made a committment to a Vegan diet. I've only done it for a week and a half. And I'm injured so I can only swim and strength train right now, so I can't tell how it will effect training. I am not missing meat at all. I don't like meat. I'm missing dairy though. I like greek yogurt and cheese. So that's hard. I had tried to do the Paleo thing 3 separate times and was unsuccessful. I just don't like the meat and eggs all that much. I do love the grains though. And I'm enjoying trying some of the grains that are sold at the health food store that I might not have tried before. And I like my potatoes and corn too so I'm finding a vegan lifestyle easier to manage than that of the Paleo athlete. Good luck!

jami

Try the "Nutritional Cafe" forum. There have been several threads about being/going vegan or vegetarian in the past.

I went mostly vegan in January. I did it because I had heartburn for months that I couldn't shake and figured some dietary changes would help. I discovered through eliminating a number of things, that dairy was the culprit. Because meat is acidic, I decided to cut that out as well. While I love meat, cheese, and even used to make greek yogurt, I don't miss how it makes me feel. I have noticed that when I am consistent with my diet including taking my vitamins, I feel great. One challenge is getting enough B12 and especially iron, as I've been anemic on and off my whole life.

For me the biggest challenge is maintaining variety in my diet. I like to eat everything so I bought a number of different cookbooks: Crazy, Sexy Kitchen; Forks Over Knives; The Vegan Cook's Bible. I signed up for Vegetarian Times online and troll Pinterest for Vegan recipes- although I find that people are mostly trying to re-create cupcakes and other goodies so they can still have their 'treats'. If you go truly vegan, you'll likely stop craving salt, sugar and fat over time.

I should also explain why I said I was mostly vegan. The reason behind this is that I travel often enough for work where I'm provided meals and I do not have any input into what I am served. Sometimes the healthiest option is the salmon and the green beans that may have some butter. I am not choosing to do this for ethical reasons, although I do appreciate the small benefit my actions have on the environment, animals, etc. Essentially, my goal is to have my diet consist of items that are plant-based whole foods.

My other thought is that if you are going to go fully vegan, you need to pay particular attention to any fuel you may currently use for your training like gels, Infinit, etc. Or other products that you may regularly purchase.

I found PETA to be a good resource and they have a website that shows you Vegan or Veg friendly restaurants and stores in various areas. www.happycow.net.

My final recommendation is to watch your portions, especially with the beans and grains. I have fallen into the trap of "Oh, it's just vegetables and beans!" only to realize I've eaten 2x the calories I would normally eat for a meal. Good luck and feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Yes, yes and yes! I am excited to hear you are getting started on this life-changing journey. As a long-time, mostly vegetarian (sometimes poultry) eater I made the switch to veganism last September. My husband followed shortly thereafter. So far this triathlon season, I have had the best results of my life (posting three overall female triathlon wins, as well as winning a half marathon and 4 miler on the trails). My husband has had similar results and we both attribute the big improvements to our dietary changes.
My switch to veganism happened by accident. I stumbled across a book called, "The Lucky Ones," by Jenny Brown, which made the vegan diet a no-brainer. We then started reading some literature by vegan athletes, like Scott Jurek and Rich Roll, as well as discovering some neat info on my personal favorite- Fiona Oakes. If you want some insurance that you will forever remain a vegan, I highly recommend watching the Joaquin Phoenix-narrated documentary called, "Earthlings," and checking out Gary Yourofsky's speeches on youtube.
Adapting to the new diet plan has been surprisingly easy. As a long time dairy fan I didn't know how that would go, but it turns out that once my taste buds adapted I much prefer almond milk and soy milk to dairy milk. Earth Balance buttery spread has been a perfect sub and vegenaise for mayo. We originally cooked a lot of pastas, stir fries and bean dishes for our meals, but now my husband has also turned me on to a lot of soy-meat products that I once turned my nose up at, like smoky tempeh, smart bacon and lightlife chicken. Whoever knew vegan food was so incredibly delicious! Some other quick favs= veggie chili, veg burrito bowls from Chipolte and portobello mushroom burgers.
As far as noticeable physical changes, my frequent headaches are gone altogether, my asthma/allergies is no longer an issue whatsoever and we are both leaner and more vascular.
Best of luck on your aspirations and if you have any questions I could talk about this stuff all day

I'm not strictly either (vegan nor vegetarian), but I suppose I am a flexitarian...most of the time I eat vegan but I have no qualms about adding occasional meat.

I just have to say that of all the information "out there" by pro triathletes and elite performers...I have been most impressed by Rich Roll. He is down to earth, non-judgemental and just seems like "one of us" ... and happens to be wicked fast as well. I enjoyed his spreecast so much that he did recently that I took notes on it...and I don't do that often!

I don't think you can go wrong, but I think one key is to just change one or a few things at a time as you establish new habits.

I am plant powered.... and proud

I have been a vegetarian full time for over 6 years. I can't say I am a vegan or ever will be because I won't give up my parmesan and greek yogurt, and eat fish twice a week. I still sometimes miss some of my favorite meats/poultry, but this was a moral decision for me, so no going back. One of the things that endurance athletes especially need to be on the look out for is their protein intake and their B12 levels. I found that after training and completing a HIM and starting to train for a marathon in a hot humid environment that I was not performing well at all. Found out I was deficient in B12. So now I supplement B12 and I feel so much better.

Recommend that if you haven't read it yet, you might want to read Scott Jurek's "Eat & Run." He is a very well known endurance athlete and one of the most successful ultrarunner's in history. (features in the book "Born to Run." He started out as a regular midwestern athlete eating like most Americans do and then slowly converting to veganism. He is awesome and his book even has recipes of some great pre, during and post training/racing meals.

Check out: http://www.nomeatathlete.com/
I'm not a vegetarian (my wife is), but there seems to be a lot of good information there... even for meat eaters.

I've been vegan for 18 years now... well over half of my life.

I only started doing triathlons 6 years ago, so I've only known training for tris as a vegan, so its hard for me to compare what I've experienced to something else.

In a nutshell: I've done well for myself, or at least better than I expected.

I've found that with a relatively "fixed" diet, what influences my performance has mostly been training (or lack of it), stress at work, sleep, caloric intake, and training, and last, training.

If I train smart and often, that allows me to race well. That's pretty much it for me.

I also recently made the switch to a plant based whole food diet. I feel better, feel more awake, and have overcome several GI tract issues by making the switch. It is entirely possible to be vegan and be unhealthy, as mentioned above there are alot of vegan junk-food recipes out there and plenty of fried vegan food. Paying attention to the quality and composition of the plant based foods is important to make sure you are getting the nutrition you need. I still make poor choices from time to time due to convenience or habit, but don't dwell on it. I also try to make sure I have plenty of healthy snacks around the help make it easier to maintain the diet rather than grabbing for a bag of chips or cookies. I'm still working through the nuances of making sure I am getting a well rounded meal to keep my energy levels up and am excited to check out some of the websites mentioned earlier.

I train/race on a plant-based diet now going on 2 years and love it. I document everything on my blog. I also do a podcast about my plant-based triathlon journey. Both of these are in my signature line if you're interested. Good luck!

Hi Guys,
I have been vegan for more than 6 months now. I started running about 3 years ago and was seeking a way to improve my athletic life. I stumbled across Rich Roll as well and thought I would give the Plant-Based diet a go. I have not only improved my personal health in almost every aspect but have improved my running times and recovery times by huge leaps and bounds. I am now getting into the world of Triathlon (again introduced by Rich Roll) and am loving it.

Well done on the change, there is absolutely no downside if it is done correctly and you're not one of those "drink coke and eat french fries all day" vegans. Maintain a balanced plant-based diet and just give your body what it needs. Would love to chat to anyone about what your diet plan looks like. I am training for Olympic Tri distance at present and moving onto 1/2 IM so my diet reflects this type of training.

Cheers,

John.

Stevo,
Thats awesome to hear about your blog too by the way! I have just started a Video Blog (LINK BELOW) of my journey to Ironman. Hit me an email at [email protected] as I'd love to chat with you about your storey and journey and I'd love to support your blog in my video's!

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0oRMBHXH3pEp7zL7kruEEA

If the link doesn't work, just search YouTube for "John Pownall" and I'll be the first to come up. I am in the very early stages of it, but have some seriously big plans! Excited to hear form you mate!


John.

Hello,
I have been doing plant power for a year.
Bio... I live in S. FLORIDA... from Denver. I have done Boulder 5430 HIM (now an IM). 3rd place AG 40-44 in 2009 which was my last race there. A few weeks later I was hit by a car while training. I suffered a long coma and a traumatic brain injury. After years of recovery I gained a lot of weight. Last year I became vegan and began racing again - slowly. I have lost a lot of the weight but still have 10 lbs to go. Anyway, I am excited to find your post.

Let me preface this by saying what follows is my personal experience. Far too many vegetarians/vegans proselytize their diet as the only way to health. I've been a life long vegetarian and recent vegan and believe it's the healthier choice but that doesn't mean it's for every one or that it's a matter of right and wrong.

The most important aspect of training is consistency and that requires staying illness and injury free. Diet doesn't have much relation to injury but for me it definitely seems to affect the illness aspect. Since switching to being completely vegan I can honestly say I've only been sick once in the past year. The biggest change has simply been putting a lot more thought into what I'm eating and formulating meal plans for an entire week. As a vegetarian it was easy to simply avoid meat and say I was eating healthy but I, and this is my case specific, still ended up eating a lot of crap processed food that while it wasn't meat was nowhere near healthy. More then being vegan I'd say I'm whole/real food focused. For some people that may still include meat but it's taking an active role in thinking about what you are eating that's important. I don't think a certain diet is going to make anyone faster but there's a lot more that goes into being a successful athlete then simply speed and I know that since I've altered my diet I can tell a discernible difference in how I feel every day and how my body responds to training pressures.

I am a vegan. I can honestly tell you that i do not miss meat. I always felt so tired all the time eating meat. I am in the best shape of my life. I am very rarely sick and recover much quicker after workouts. always full of energy and feel much sharper at work. Trying to get my other half to change is different, he is a meat and potatoes kind of guy. So making meals are kind of hectic in my house.

Edited by yarislab 2014-01-02 4:24 AM

I eat anything that don't eat me first

Now a year and a half into Veganism, there is no going back for myself or my husband. We feel better, more energetic, and healthier. We recover faster and I feel stronger with improved endurance. After a successful multisport year in 2013 with various overall female wins, I look forward to a big 2014 with a focus on the bike. I owe a lot of that to veganism :-) Plant Power!

Thanks so much for your post. I have been toying with the vegetarian idea for a few months now, but haven't been ready yet to take the plunge. Your post and everyone's replies have been a real help so thanks everyone!

Interesting to stumble onto this today, one week after I decided to try being vegan for a month. I did this because I have a suspicion that dairy upsets my stomach and figured I might as well go for broke while at it. So far, it is amazing how easy it has actually been and that I do feel better. Granted, for meat, I only really ate chicken and fish before.

Honestly, the biggest thing I have noticed is that I am much more aware of what I am eating. It makes it easier to avoid processed foods when you look closely at the ingredient list!

Edited by MechEChick 2014-01-08 5:23 PM

Well done! Nice work giving it a shot; that's very open minded of you :-)

I did much the same thing as you (tried it out short term), and 9 months later I'm still 100% plant based with absolutely NO sign of ever wanting to get off it. I'd have a steak tomorrow if I felt like it, but after your taste buds start to change all they crave is fresh, healthy vegan food :-)

Again, well done! :-)