Inspiring vegans

Before I dive into more philisophical, political, ethical or scientific topics I've decided to simply highlight a number of famous successful, influential and generally admired individuals who attribute a large proportion of their health, wealth and success to their dietary or lifestyle choices.

For the most part I'm going to focus on athletes because this group of people really emphasize the scope for health, fitness and wellness that a vegan diet can produce. As I've said before my big wake up call to the capabilities of vegan health was demonstrated to me by the numerous individuals I'd met at my local yoga studio.

David Haye- Haye turned vegan after looking into the most efficient ways to recover from injury while also researching the "horrible" way animals are treated.

He said: "All roads kept leading back to a plant-based diet." and when asked how he feels his diet change has effected him he's said "I’m now fitter than I've ever been. I punch harder than ever. I’m more determined. I’m faster…”

Timothy Shieff- Professional freerunner, winner of seasons one and four of ninja warrior UK and winner of the 2009 Barclaycard world freerun championship. "I'm healthier and happier than I've ever been and most importantly, no animals are harmed. Since going vegan I can train longer and harder and even noticed my body heals a lot quicker.'' Like many vegan athletes, opinions have not always been positive, although this is unlikely to discourage Tim. “People have their input, often nutritionists and other 'experts' think

its not prime for optimum strength etc but I always say even if I'm weaker or less of an athlete I'm grateful for everything I have and to think 5% more strength is worth the death and enslavements of hundreds is ego at its finest work. But I actually feel stronger and more efficient anyway. There's more to life/nutrition then science currently knows, that’s for sure.” Tim observed that many people are motivated to try veganism for health or the environment, then accept the arguments in respect of animal abuse later. “For me I saw that and straight away felt like I'd woken from a trance, of course we promote kindness and compassion and being nice to others to our kids but when it comes to animals there is a huge hypocrisy in our society and I am not one to live in denial once I see the truth.”

Steph Davis- Steph is a world-leading climber, base-jumper and sky-diver, and is the only woman to have free-solo climbed a 5.11 grade mountain. Having been a vegan for 12 years, Steph began venturing into the lifestyle to improve her athletic abilities as a climber, and soon discovered veganism reached aspects of her whole life: “I have found that eating a vegan diet gives me optimum physical and mental awareness.” She also believes that going vegan has

given her a better adaptive connection with her environment.

Cam Awesome- Cam is an 8 time national super heavyweight boxing champion, and captain of the USA National Boxing team. After various obstacles in 2012, he fell short right before the 2012 Olympic Games. Following this disappointment, he was inspired by a fellow boxer in his local gym who he saw grow stronger and fitter on a plant-based diet. He says he “went vegan ‘cold Tofurkey’", and fell in love with the lifestyle after two weeks. Cam adds: "since being plant based, I am 23-0, winning 3 International Golds and 2 National tournaments and can thank my new lifestyle.” Cam now feels more agile and healthy with a shorter recovery time.

Jehina Malik- Jehina has been a competitive bodybuilder since she was 19 years old – and vegan since birth! There’s nothing like starting young, and Jehina’s rare status means she is likely the only vegan-from-birth in the profession. Having won the 2013 NPC Eastern USA Bodybuilding Championships in the lightweight category, Jehina aims to be placed in the top 5 in the USA.

Rich Roll- Rich is a 50-year old, accomplished vegan ultra-endurance athlete. As a comptetitive swimmer in his earlier years at Stanford University the subsequent abuse of drink and drugs put a halt to his health and fitness and lead to 100 days of rehab treatment and essentially a choice between life or death. Rich overhauled his diet, became a dedicated vegan, put on his running shoes and jumped back into the pool. It wasn’t long before ambition took hold and his quest to participate in Ultraman slowly began.

Two years later, 50 pounds lighter, and fueled by nothing but plants, he surprised the triathlon & ultra communities by not only becoming the first vegan to complete the 320-mile über-endurance event, but by finishing in the top 10 males (3rd fastest American) with the 2nd fastest swim split — all despite having never previously completed even a half-ironman distance triathlon.

In 2009, Rich returned to Ultraman twice the athlete he was the year prior. Despite a stacked field, he took home first day honors with a blistering 2:21 swim victory (6th fastest of all time) and a third fastest bike leg to win the day with a 10 minute lead on the field. On Day 2 Richard suffered a serious bike crash but managed to salvage the day in 6th place overall. With an injured knee and shoulder Richard nonetheless went on to a 7:51 Day 3 double-marathon to hold onto 6th place overall.

These individuals are just a tiny handful of athletes who exemplify the possiblities of a vegan diet. If you'd like to see a more comprehensive list of vegan athletes please take a look at http://www.greatveganathletes.com/athletes.

When you realise you can not only survive but absolutely thrive on a plant based diet we're left to look at our eating habits from an ethical perspective of 'does our preference for taste and convenience take precedence over the comodification and exploitation of animals'?. The skeptic in us might argue that these people are somehow genetically more suited to a plant based diet and that a 'normal' person wouldn't prosper as these people have but whats stopping us from at the very least trying?

These are the role models who personally inspire me from a physical health and fitness perspective but if you don't have aspirations to compete or even have any real interest in sport or fitness then there's plenty of vegan celebrities who teach the benefits of a vegan lifestyle. These people including Joaquin Phoenix, Ellen DeGeneres, Olivia Wile, Moby, Bryan Adams, Emily Deschanel, Casey Affleck, Tobey Maguire, James Cromwell, Zoey Deschanel, Benjamin Zephania, Russell Brand and one of my personal favourites Woody Harrelson all highlight the fact that in the pursuit of a happy, succesful and healthy life the consumption of animal products is in modern times wholly unneccesary and once given the non biased, non deceitful truth (many posts to come on this) we have no moral justification for our current treatment of animals, the planet or even ourselves.