I’ve always sought out new challenges. I transitioned from being a pure mid-distance runner to a triathlete at university and kept pushing myself throughout my time there. A marathon here, a couple of Half-Ironmans there. I was training six days a week and figured that I was in the best shape that I could be. I figured my plateau in fitness was my limit and my constant sense of fatigued was the inevitable result of my rigorous training schedule.

I had never looked at my diet in a critical way and figured that loading up on carbohydrates and recovering with animal based protein was sufficient to meet the demands I was placing on my body. My weight was dependably at a slim 152 lbs, so the thought that it played a major role in my performance never entered my mind.

Graduate School ended up being the start of an extended hiatus from triathlon and endurance sports in general. I picked up boxing and weight training and continued with my animal protein dominated diet. By the time I was back in the States, I was packing between 165-170 lbs. I wasn’t feeling bad. I just wasn’t feeling great.

Back in August, something changed. After a couple months of contemplation, I decided to take on a new sort of challenge. Tired of fluctuating energy patterns, I committed to a plant based diet.

The first week was fairly simple. I ordered my massaman with tofu rather than chicken and went from there. The results were unbelievable.  By cutting out meat and upping my grain and vegetable intake, I soon found myself filled with bountiful, consistent energy. My body leaned out and I dropped a bit of weight. I gave up on eggs sometime in the second week and had switched over to almond milk by the end of the month.

I’m three months into this lifestyle change and back into my triathlon training. I raced my first triathlon in two years back in September and hit a time that I would have been happy with back in the peak of my training and I intend to keep moving forward in that department. I’m back down to a lean 150 lbs., and I’m finally in a position to build myself up in a cleaner, healthier way.

The most surprising thing about this change for me is how easy it actually was. I haven’t felt “tempted” to jump back into animal products. The hardest part has been avoiding the trace amounts of dairy that seemed to be in everything, but I was already used to that aspect of ingredient awareness due to my corn allergy. (Again, something that seems to be in everything these days.)

Planted based nutrition works for me. While I have other reasons for deciding to challenge myself to give up animal products, the primary, definitive reason is that it works! I will continue with this approach to nutrition as I train for my next event and hopefully for many years to come.