I feel very
honored that I get this opportunity to share my story about becoming vegan and
passion for all living creatures on this earth.
I have been vegan for 12 years now, it wasn’t a hard transition for me
because I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do for the animals,
planet, and my health.
I’ve been
playing sports my entire life and after becoming vegan my stamina increased, my
strength increased, I was able to build muscle faster, I had more energy and my
immune system was so much stronger. My
mission is to lead by example, that you can build muscle, strength and do
anything you want living a plant based lifestyle.
Sports has
always been a huge part of my life. My first love was basketball, I became a
high school All-American and earned a scholarship to Colorado State University
and had the opportunity to play professionally and after my career I took up
boxing and became a 3x Colorado Golden Gloves State Champion. I started lifting weights at age 15 because I
was always the shortest on the court. It
gave me such an advantage, I didn’t get pushed around, my speed increased, it
helped prevent injuries and I became an overall better athlete.
9 years ago I
lost my father to cancer, I was so devastated because we were best
friends. After his passing it made me
realize that the path I chose being vegan was the right choice. I want to make sure as I go through life that
I take care of my body the best I can.
We only get one body and I believe we should do whatever we can to take
care of it and protect it from disease.
For myself I focus on counting nutrients not calories. I eat mostly whole plant based foods. My food is what gives me the energy to get
through my day. I wake up at 4am every
morning and workout twice a day on top of work. I have a crazy amount of energy each day
because of the way I eat. I eat very
simple and very clean. I usually eat 6
to 9 times a day. I eat a ton of fruits
and veggies, legumes, seeds, nuts and grain.
People ask me all the time where I get my protein? This is a question I get asked daily. My protein comes from veggies, quinoa, pea,
tofu,buckwheat, chia, nuts, hemp, spirillina, beans and I also do a vegan
protein powder called Powerootz. I don’t
ever keep track of how many grams of protein I’m getting in a day because I
know all the foods I consume have plenty of protein in them. Even working out twice a day I don’t consume
an excess amount of protein. I usually get about 100 grams per day. I am able to recover quickly from workouts
and able to sustain a high intensity day after day.
My workout
routine varies all the time, however my intensity is always very high. I strength train every day, focusing on one
body part a day. I usually spend about
an hour and half on each body part, really blasting the muscle. I will give it five days of rest then hit it
again. I lift very heavy but I also lift
lighter as well to give my muscles a break.
Even when I’m lifting lighter I still am pushing my muscles hard. For example, I will do 50 reps on a certain
exercise for a few sets to really shock the muscles. As for my cardio I love to box, sprint and
hike with my four rescue chihuahuas. I
do cardio almost every day because I truly enjoy it. I love to push my body to the max, the harder
the workout the more I love it. I have
to give credit to my father, he was the one that showed me what a hard workout
really is and to never give up. My
father was a professional boxer, one of the top ten ranked feather weight
fighters in the world. Growing up we
would run outside in the winter together, it didn’t matter how cold or if it
was a blizzard, we were training. He
would tell me “don’t let the cold beat you” and till this day I run outside in
any kind of weather.
I do a ton of sprinting on a turf field, my typical
workout is ten 100 yard sprints, ten 50 yard sprints and ten 20 yard sprints or
I will do a interval sprinting workout for 30 min to an hour. I sprint the side lines and jog the end
zones. As for my boxing routine I hit a
heavy bag, I will set a timer and do ten, 3 min rounds, resting 30 seconds in
between. On top of all my cardio I
always make time to walk my four chihuahuas. (I have a total chihuahua
obsession) My mom and I walk them almost
everyday for an hour. Living in Colorado
we are lucky that we have so many sunny days that even during the winter months
we hike. My four fur children are my
pride and joy and I have to say they make my life complete.
I hope to be an
inspiration to many, not only in the vegan community but to others who are
thinking of going vegan. My mission is to show the world that you can be
muscular, be fit or have whatever type of dream physique you desire without
harming other creatures.
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