Almost 7 years ago, I decided to become vegan. In doing so, I declared to stop eating animal products for good. For most of my life, I thought that we had to eat animals based foods to be healthy and strong. This thinking fuelled the way I looked at food, driving me to eat more meat, especially as a young athlete. Growing up, my parents encouraged my brother and I to play / compete in sports. During various years, we trained Taekwondo, basketball and eventually swimming, which was our dominant sport.
For many years, we would swim on a daily basis, covering many kilometers per day. It wasn’t the easiest of experiences, because competitive swimming is tough. As with anything though, you get better over time. With that comes more challenges, and training gets harder. So, for many years, I dedicated a lot of my time into swimming. The time I spent on swimming helped build an integral foundation for discipline and competitiveness.
However, at 17, I started to swim less, and I began channeling my energy into the gym. That is when I learned more about fitness, health, and diet. I watched videos, read forum articles, and medical journal excerpts. To my surprise, I saw veganism come up a lot in the content that I was consuming. At the time, I had known two vegans. I found their viewpoints rather extreme, and a bit cut off from reality. Like many people that come across veganism for the first time, I didn’t buy into it. Not only did I think that it’s false, I also researched claims that discredit the lifestyle. Ironically, I became a vegan myself in the end.
Building a Foundation
As a preface, the pointers that I’m going to share with you in this article work for me. Not only that, it took me many years of learning, and trial and error to get to this point. I understand that my perspective as a vegan can be valuable to some, but be wary that we’re all different! This is a continuous learning experience.
Now, I have to also admit that I was never the most consistent person to exercise post-swimming. I have had my periods of inactivity and useless training, and dirty eating. Nonetheless, what matters most is learning from our errors and working on ourselves. As such, I think that the first step here is building a foundation.
If you want to work out, it’s important to note that there is no 1 size fits all. People train for different reasons whether they want to add muscle and strength, or to lose weight. Some people prefer more repetitions, others prefer heavier weights. At the end of the day, find what you enjoy, and what works for you. To do so, you have to understand what your goals are. Are you trying to become stronger, or are you trying to lose weight? Moreover, what kind of equipment is available at your disposal? Do you have access to a fully equipped gym or do you have a park nearby? These are important questions, because they will determine your training style. If you’re unsure, hire a coach! A cheaper method would be to follow fitness educators, they will know what’s up. I recommend Jeff Nippard and veganism’s finest, Clarence Kennedy.
Building a Routine
Once you have the above figured out, the next thing is to lock in on your target. I believe in visualisation and specifically seeing ourselves accomplishing our goals. However, this also involves us putting in the effort. I think that it’s integral to immerse ourselves in the process. If you can align your thinking with your actions, then you will feel motivated to achieve your goals. Bettering ourselves is not easy, so it’s important to have the correct attitude when facing a challenge.
But how do we get there? By building habits. When we build a routine around our goals, we will find ways to ensure that we’re on track. This is more difficult than it seems, especially if we are altering our lifestyles to accommodate a positive change. This also involves a mental and physical alignment – our thinking has to match our actions. For example, if you want to lose weight, you will have to eat less. On paper this sounds easy, but nothing worth getting comes easily. As such, how do you make sure that you’re inching closer towards the goal on a daily basis?
There will be days when you don’t feel like training, or eating healthily, and that’s completely fine. These days come and go. However, what matters is the resiliency to not fall in a rut. How do you ensure that you’re still on track after a prolonged “rest day”? If I can’t gym on one of my days then I’ll move the training day over to the following one. If I can’t access a gym for 2 weeks then I’ll make do with body weight exercises. In the end, having a “will do” attitude will enable you to continuously work on yourself without fail.
To summarise, doing something completely new and challenging is hard. Doing it over and over again is even more difficult. However, as time goes on, it becomes a habit. You will feel good doing it, and it will become a part of your daily life. There will be days when you’re not feeling it. On those days, it’s important to make sure that you prioritise your wellbeing within the confines of your goals.
Understanding Diet
There aren’t that many vegans around the world. Heck, there are even fewer vegan athletes. For me, it has been quite difficult to meet people that are doing what I’m doing. The people that I train with are omnivores, which makes relating to each other more difficult. Nonetheless, there’s a ton of vegan fitness influencers and athletes who create valuable content. A large chunk of this content relates to diet, especially high protein foods. Without going to deep into this, protein is essential for muscle growth. Depending on your level of activity, your body will require more protein to rebuild your muscles. Thus, protein (amino acids) help to ensure that we grow and maintain our muscles.
It might seem daunting for someone to be a vegan athlete, and for good reason. There is an association that vegan diets lack in protein. However, this isn’t the case at all. You see, there are a ton of vegan foods that carry protein, namely legumes like soy, beans, chickpeas and lentils. I for one have no issue eating the protein that my body needs for muscle building. With that in mind, it’s important to align your nutrition with your fitness goals. My current fitness goal is to lose some fat and gain strength and muscle.
As such, I need to be in a caloric deficit, whilst eating a lot of protein. The way I continue to be on track with my diet is by meal prepping my food. Before, I used to cook my food on the spot, or eat leftovers. The issue with this was that I would eat very late, overeat, and not consistently tick my dietary requirements. I realised that this was not sustainable for 3 reasons. It was not efficient from a time perspective. It was not economical. And thirdly, it deterred me away from my goal. So, I started to meal prep my food, which means that I’m actively accountable for what I eat.
The results that I’m seeing from meal prepping are obvious. I have lost fat whilst actually putting on muscle and strength. I am saving a lot of time by not having to cook my food on the fly. And, I am spending less money on food per week. There are alternative options to consider as well. There are pre-made vegan meals and recipe boxes that serve the same goal above. This is a choice that you can make if you want to diversify what you eat. However, the consideration here is that this can be more expensive than prepping your own food. In the end, the choice is yours.
Summary
To summarise this article in a few words, I want to highlight the importance of physical training. For the able bodied, having the opportunity to exercise is a privilege. Growing up, I learned the importance of sports on character building, but also on health. This has followed me throughout my young adulthood. Although I’ve had different phases in my athletic journey, what matters most is the perseverance. If you have a goal in mind, and you want to achieve it, then go for it. The road towards the destination is long and definitely hard, but it’s one that is worth doing.
When it comes to my own athletic journey, I’m doing this all without animal protein. As I mentioned, planning your diet accordingly will drive you towards your results. A planned diet goes a long way, irrespective of your dietary preference. However, being vegan should not be synonymous with weakness and fatigue. We can derive our protein from plants without a doubt, and we can operate optimally as well. If you want to live a cruelty-free life and crush your athletic goals, then a plant-based diet has you covered!
Anis