SO honored to be among this elite group, dang! So many bad ass vegan folks up in here! My name is Holly Noll, I co-own NewEthic Strength and Conditioning in Oakland, California with Ed Bauer, a totally vegan (though we have non vegan members) gym that focuses on CrossFit and Powerlifting style, functional, dynamic workouts in the form of super fun classes that build our strong vegan community as well as personal training and mobility. I also own FitQuick Protein Waffles, a company I started when I was still all up in fitness modeling and staying lean while eating all the waffles. It's a dry mix that just needs non dairy milk making macro-friendly, delicious, high protein, lower carbohydrate, high fiber, lower fat waffles hella quick. In addition to those I co-own a remote training company called Rise & Resist Training, with Lacy Davis, that was born out of the need created by the listeners of our podcast of the same name. I also compete on the international team of athletes called PlantBuilt and you can find me online here. Oh, I've also been straight edge since 1998, which has come to define me in the sense that it gave me focus, drive, integrity and clarity.
Jeez, now that I got all that out of the way, I guess I should get to my story! I've been into punk and hardcore since I was a kid (my parents are super cool) and exposure to the political undertones made me a full on activist in my very early teens. Listening to bands like Propagandi, Nausea, Dead Kennedy's and others, reading the record sleeves, and absorbing the punk news telling me about all the injustice in the world gave me a sense of urgency, a call to action. This meant starting many bands over the course of the next two decades but I also became light weight vegetarian, fading in and out of caring when I was 14, but getting more and more aware or serious as the years passed. By 20 I found myself in college teaching with an organization trying to end rape and domestic violence through education, and I was traveling to different Bay Area High School, Jr High, and College classes to spread that message. I was in school for gender studies and sexuality, and it would be safe to title me "anarcha-feminist" at the time. So, when I was 20 I found my vegetarian self in a co-op in San Francisco waiting for a friend to pick me up and, I know I'm dating myself here, but sans smart phones, I found myself picking up "zines" (small, independently released, magazines typically out of the punk and DIY scenes). After reading for a moment I came across a short article, not longer than a small page, that connected the dots between the oppression I was actively fighting in our culture, for reproductive and sexual rights and freedom for human women, to the oppression of female animals in the diary and egg industries. I realized, right then, that I was living a hypocrisy that was so easily avoided. I gave the rest of my cheese containing burrito to my friend when they came and I was officially vegan.
It's worth noting, here, that I came up in the restaurant industry. Much of my family are/were chefs so I was literally in baby seats in industrial kitchens. So when, 20 ish years later, I told them I was going vegan it didn't go terribly well. They said I was ruining my career as it was generally unheard of to be a chef that limits their range in food. Turns out it was actually one of the best things I could have done for myself. It gave me passion, drive, urgency. It gave me a reason to make everything I sent out perfect, because it was a tiny representation of the end of oppression, a tiny light on every plate saying that vegan food can be as good, if not way way way better, than oppressive food. Turns out I wasn't destined for a life of being a chef, however, but the skills I learned from work ethic to nutrition information has turned out invaluable when "macro hacking" so I can eat delicious food but have it make me look and preform how I'd like and in coaching nutrition for others. My history with food got me into nutrition first, where I became a health coach, helping folks heal themselves from heavy lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, cancer, asthma, and others. Understanding how to fuel your life, and your performance, is a crucial key to success.
Fast forward a bit and I'm in Seattle, working as a Sous Chef at several awesome veg spots and beginning my fitness journey. I started going to the gym because I knew no one, it was super dark and wet and depressing in the PNW and it seemed to make me happy. I started just running on treadmills, and doing basic lifts with lighter weights or machines. I say I "tripped and stumbled" through fitness for a few years then I found out about CrossFit.
I saw these epic strong women, and men, but the women really caught my eye. These ladies were on par with the dudes, not like other sports where women are an afterthought or entirely barred for participation, they were valued just as much as any other athlete. I saw these lady folks with huge shoulders, six packs, working their asses off to move big weight and slaughter workouts like I'd never even dreamed. I was in love... I never joined a CrossFit "box" but I started finding workouts online and doing them at 24 hour fitness. It wasn't the raddest but it got me started. I would watch videos of lifts online and then do them with the bar or very little weight until I got them down. It was not a fast process. But eventually, now back in California, I realized that I actually just wanted to focus on the heavy lifts. Enter Powerlifting.
I dug into the sport of powerlifting for a few years, culminating in 2015 when I got third in my weight class at the Naturally Fit Games in Austin, Tx (an event with over 10,000 competitors) with my team PlantBuilt. I love lifting heavy and it's worth noting that I got into it not because I wanted to "get toned" or any other printer inspired explanation, I got into powerlifting because it made me feel invincible. I felt like I got the bouncing star in Mario and I was untouchable. When you're a small lady, you are prey in our society. We haven't rid ourselves of the oppression of ladies and, as a survivor of sexual assault, I wanted to feel like I could take care of my own damn self. Powerlifting gave me that. It made me hold my head high, it helped me heal, not feel like a victim and so much more.
Recently I decided to diversify and will be competing in my first CrossFit competition in September. I've also gotten pretty deeply into training weightlifting, and would love to compete in that sometime soon but mostly, because my team is taking a year off, I'm currently focused on getting stronger, getting bigger, and being the raddest coach while nurturing and building up our community. Rise & Resist has been a huge driver lately too, as we have a certification process in the works, so big things are coming!
I love that, at NewEthic, we can focus on strength, and grit, rather than the typical globo gym mentality of diet diet diet diet diet. I my help people with nutrition and with any goal they have but it's not our focus. Our focus is strength, body positivity, and achieving goals that make you strong and stoked. It's way fun and the community rules. Lets hope the future of this rad strength journey I've been on continues to rule as much as it has historically.
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"Get Strong. Get Stoked."
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