Since we already know that a vegan diet can allow people to be very healthy and active, it doesn't come as a surprise that there are many vegan professional and hobby athletes out there. Today I'm going to talk about how to be the best vegan athlete you can be! :)
Brendan Brazier
Almost every vegan athlete has heard of Brendan Brazier, "a former professional Ironman triathlete and two-time Canadian 50km Ultra Marathon Champion. He is now a successful performance nutrition consultant, the bestselling author of the Thrive book series and formulator of the award-winning line of plant-based Vega nutritional products." (Source). He lives in North Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada.
His resources are fantastic place to start if you're looking to learn more about maximizing your athletic performance, or just feeling healthier.
He has a free online "course" called Thrive Forward. It's quite good if your looking for quick info on vegan health that relates to your specific issues. He has also written books on vegan athletic health:
- The Thrive Diet: The Whole Foods Way to Losing Weight, Reducing Stress, and Staying Healthy for Life (Penguin, 2007)
- Thrive Fitness: Mental and Physical Strength for Life (Penguin, 2009)
- Whole Foods to Thrive: Nutrient-Dense, Plant-Based Recipes for Peak Health (Penguin, 2011)
As mentioned above, he has a line of products called Vega (only in the United States and Canada), which are nutritional supplements/shakes/protein powders/etc. I've been using the Vega One nutritional shake every day for the past few weeks, and it has totally improved my health in so many ways. It contains 50% of your RDA of many vitamins and minerals, though, so you probably shouldn't use it if you have an overdose of a specific mineral or vitamin. (And it's expensive.) You can figure out whether it is the right choice for you. Here is the website: http://myvega.com/
(UPDATE: A lot of people have found this product to cause them sometimes severe digestive problems. I stopped taking it recently because of this; I recommend using other products that you can take for vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, instead. However, reading his books or using the course may still provide valuable information, since it does not demand that you use his product. In fact, I recently took out The Thrive Diet from the library, and it looks like a really good book-- not just for losing weight or for athletes, but for everyone looking to be healthy!)
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| Brendan Brazier. Photo Courtesy of Thrive Forward |
If you want to see examples of successful vegan athletes, just head on over to http://www.greatveganathletes.com/ and bask in the awesome vegan-ness of it all!
No Meat Athlete
The No Meat Athlete website is about vegetarian running. It isn't solely vegan (which I'm not too happy about), but a lot of the recipes and tips are perfect for vegans and vegetarians alike, so it's a great resource for you to use (just don't be tempted by the non-vegan recipes, please!). Matt Frazier, the author of the website, is a vegetarian ultramarathoner. He's written a book called No Meat Athlete, and his website provides a lot of other resources for vegans and vegetarians. Surf his spiffy-looking website to learn more!
Bye for now!
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