The Power of Plants With Vegan Athletes Ricky & Tui

In the 10th episode of the Principles of Change podcast, I discuss ethics, plant based diets and the power they have on lifting weights, CrossFit training, endurance and cardio, with amazing vegan athletes Ricky Scomparin and Tui Van Renterghem.

In Today's Episode:

• Intro
• How Ricky & Tui met
• What made them go vegan
• Ricky's failed attempt with veganism
• Tui's achievements
• Power of plants and recovery
• Ricky & Tui's principles of change

Links:
https://www.instagram.com/tuivanrenterghem/
https://www.instagram.com/rickyscomparin/

Download this app to help animal sanctuaries and non profits at NO cost to you!
https://abillion.onelink.me/42TD/abp

📖 Find out more on my work and get your free ebook: www.sebalex.org 

Transcript

Intro

How Ricky & Tui met

Ricky's background

Tui's background

How Ricky went vegan

Tui's journey & competitions

Cycling 370 km

Tui's achievements

Their Principles of Change

0:00

Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. I hope you're doing well for those of you don't know me. I'm Sarah Some the middle east speaking society. I'm an animal rights activist lecture, author of the ebook, one animal rights and logic meats that you can download for free in 20 languages. And host of this show, the principles have changed podcast. And each episode, I get the chance to sit down and talk with amazing game-changers for making this world a better place for all beings each in their own way, using their own gifts, talents, and strategies so that we can all learn more and get inspired to take action in whatever way we each can to make this world a better and more just place for everyone. Before I tell you about this week's guests. I want to share with you an amazing tool that you can start using today. Very easily to help humans and other animals alike just from the comfort of your chair. And that is my favorite social media application called a billion. That's a, B I double L I O The way a building works is very easy. It's an application where you can see where to eat vegan and plant-based options. See reviews of figuring and plant-based products. And most importantly, leave reviews. And the reason why that's so great is because every single time you leave a review. a billion converts that review onto a dollar that you can donate to animal sanctuaries and organizations around the world. So you can leave as many reviews as you want, and in return, donate as much money as you wish without using your own money. All you have to do is snap photos of vegan products or meals that you've bought at restaurants. And then leave a review. If you sign up with the link that I provided, the description of this podcast, you'll immediately get a first dollar to donate just for joining a billion. Today's guests are Ricky and Tuohy. We We are athletes and just overall amazing human beings who are trying to make the world a better place by showing people the power of plant-based diets. I had the opportunity to record this podcast in person. And it was absolutely amazing. I recently had a lot of help from Ricky. Actually, when I joined an Ironman 70.3 competition. By training only for 75 days. And of course his help and guidance definitely helped a lot. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoy it, recording. And I'll see you on the other side. Thank you so much for being here, guys. I really appreciate it. And, um, it took us some time. We were supposed to start an hour and a half ago, but we had a lot to chat about and a lot of, um, small minor issues with the equipment Uh, but I'm happy you're here. Thank you for having us. Yes, we're excited. Thank you for having us. And honestly, it was one and a half hour well spent. We had a laugh with Chi Chat, so you know. Yeah, yeah. Usually what happens is if you start long conversations before a podcast, you kind of like get into the subjects you're gonna be talking about, and then during the podcast you start repeating what you said in the conversation before. Um, so for those of, uh, for the people who are watching or listening, um, could you please start by introducing yourself so that in case they don't know you? All right, I'll start. So, I'm Ricky, a 29 years old guy coming from Italy. Um, I'm in the fitness industry. I'm a now a CrossFit coach. Um, I started as a basketball player. That's what I've done the majority of my life, and that's what I wanted to do, for the rest of my life. But turns out that you don't always get what you. And so, um, after a lifetime playing basketball, I've done things around, I've been working in, uh, like say corporate industry, like office jobs. And that's when I realized that I didn't want to do that. And, uh, I started to change my life around. Took me a little bit around the world, fell in love with the fitness industry, and that's why I'm here in Bali now. So this is just a little bit of, a little bit of a background with me. What about. Well, I'm the, I'm the wife So I'm Tovan Randrick. And uh, I'm also in the fitness industry. I coach vegan women online and I'm a CrossFit athlete myself. And, uh, yeah, I fell in love with this guy and forgot. All right. And when did you meet? So that's a whole story that, that needs a little bit of time. Cause if you. Yeah, cuz if you go through it, uh, so we actually, we didn't met, we're like the, the product of today's society of, uh, online meeting. All right. That kind of worked that way cuz um, It's, uh, yeah, so basically I saw her on Instagram one day cuz we both were coaching fitness in Bali. You know, it's a very small community, so you, you kind of know who's coaching where, and I found her. And so I decided that the best tactic was just to like 50 pictures in the hope that she would notice me. Because I was like, I have nothing that bright that come in my head that I could message her. And I thank God she, she did the same the day after. Even that I thought he was drunk. I was, it was Christmas. I was like, this guy must have been out. But he was good looking. So let me just like a few pictures back and uh, and that's how we started. But at the time I was in Dubai, she was in Bali. So on Christmas day, three years ago is when I liked and she liked back. And then we start talking and then for nearly a year we were. Because she was in B and I was in Dubai. And then we decided what to do. So we moved to, we moved to Bali and it's crazy cuz we met three years ago on Christmas Day. And then two years ago on Christmas day is when I actually moved to Bali. And so it was, it was nice to have like that date. So on Christmas day, the first time we talked, and then on Christmas day, the year after, he's gonna move. And, um, we got engaged, what, six months in, like the fifth time we met and then the world shut down and now we have been together 24 7 since. So we went from being apart for a year to be working, leaving training and everything together for two years. But we're still doing, still doing well. That's great. So it was a, yeah, it was a good story. Start with like a, how do you meet on Instagram and take away a little bit of the romance, but then if you look into it, it was actually very, there was a lot of romance, that's for sure. Um, so did you both start straight away with CrossFit or were you doing, I mean you had basketball before, but were you doing like, let's say, um, the, the, the usual gym workouts or calisthenics or how did it start for you? For me, it was a random meeting with CrossFit cuz uh, when I stopped playing, I needed to find something to do. Cause I've always been active, I've always done something. And then so you know, when even your identity is so connected to what you do. For me, when I stopped playing basketball, I was like, All right, who am I now? Cause you know, I. Like for me, basketball was huge. And also for me, basketball is fun. If it's done in a certain way, I don't just go and play. I go and play. Yeah, And so, you know, when that, uh, when that was off, I had a little bit of a, Alright, so what do we do now? And, um, I just started to do a few things. I tried to do a little bit of MMA or white tie and it just didn't click with me. I started to go to like a normal global gym and I started lifting. And then one day, a guy, a friend of mine, he was like, Look, why don't you just come do CrossFit with me? And I was like, To do what? I was like, CrossFit. I was like, got literally no idea what you're talking about. I was like, Just come with me. You're gonna have fun. And um, I went in, I, it's so hard, but the first time I thought I was fit, but it was not fit for that. And it was, it was very hard, but I got hooked cuz it kind of brought in the same things that I loved about basketball. It was like very competitive. You had to kind of push yourself a bit. It was not just lifting weights, but also like the cardio component of it that I really enjoyed it. And so I started as a normal guy, just like I just started to go to the gym. I just started to enjoy it while I was doing my office job. And then I just, you know, I've always had a passion for fitness cause I've always done something. I, I knew I didn't like to work in an office and I really liked what I was doing outside of it in the, in the CrossFit world. So I look probably it's, you know, I should invest some time in, you know, educating myself, learning, and um, and just see where these go. He flew in very naturally. Um, I changed Jim after a while and uh, that's where I met one of my best friend Tommy, and he was like, Oh, alright, start training with me. So he took me like under his swing and I started to train with this guy a little bit more. Then one day out of nowhere I was like, You know what, you're gonna coach the next class? And I was like, To do what? Like, you're gonna coach. I, but I'm not ready. Like, yeah, I'm not gonna leave the gym. I'm gonna be here with you, but you're gonna start doing. And, uh, it was not really in my mind to coach until that point. And then he put me on the dance floor. I was like, Go ahead and do it. And, uh, and I just did it for months. I was like, pleased, but you don't need you to pay me. Just let me do it. And I've done that for months. And then I, I loved it and that's really how it started. It was not meant to be, and kind of people showed me, So I like this. So let's, That's great. And what about you? Did you start straight away from CrossFit or did you have some other background before? So when I was a kid, I really loved sports. I was doing like everything I remember in the kindergarten, I was always like chasing the guys to like run against me and that. At that point, I was so fast that they could go with the bike and I would still win. And uh, so then I got into track and field and I was like, especially loving the, the running and the, the hurdles and stuff. And then when I got into my teens, I got into the, all the partying and stuff. So then I kind of like dropped the athletic career there. Um, and then after a year in Australia, like doing the backpacking, the, the basic. then I found myself in really bad shape, which I never was, uh, before. And I was like, Oh my God, I need to do something about it. So I got into body building and I got really into like the basic kind of gym stuff and, and doing the nutrition, right? And then I got really passionate about it and I started my, uh, my body started changing and then I wanted to actually start like helping other people do the same. So I started, I went to study for my, uh, bachelor's in sports, and then I was like, uh, working out a lot and stuff like that. And then one, one, uh, day one of our classmates, he was like, Yeah, let's like, come train with me. Let's do this like CrossFit style workout. And I was like, Cross what? Like, and then we, then we went to the gym and I thought I was like, in quite good shape, but I was always just doing the basic stuff. And then he was like, writing this workout and like all these things. I was like, I had no idea what it was. And he was like, Yeah, just like showed me how to do it. And he was like, Yeah, so then you do these like pullups here and that. And then I couldn't do like one pull up. And then I started realizing like, I'm really bad shape for this, whatever that. And that kind of like, um, awakened my curiosity. And then I wanted to do like the, the introduction for the CrossFit, the, the on ramp it's called. And then when I went to the CrossFit gym and I walked in and I saw people do like handstands and rope climbs and like, you know, all these Olympic lifts. And I was like, Whoa, like this looks so cool. Like I wanna. Stuff. Um, and then, yeah, so then, um, I did the chorus and then I realized like, okay, I have got a good background to do this. Um, and then I started training a lot and I remember going to Dejima my own time, like when there was no one, I was just like looking user videos and practicing like how to get better and got. I got quite good really fast. And then, um, the gym owners asked if I wanna coach for them and then they kind of like got me into coaching. And then same thing, I fell in love with it. And then, um, that's also my ticket, how I got out of Finland, where I'm originally from. Cuz I was like, I wanna, I wanted just to do this coaching of CrossFit and training. And then, um, I got a position in Thailand and that's how it kind of like Nice started. And um, at what point did you go. I went vegan actually right before I got into CrossFit. So I was still doing like the body building stuff and I was eating a lot of animal products. I was like all into like the, the macros and protein. Um, and then, uh, I was, I was studying the Netherlands at the time. I was doing like an exchange over there and when I saw like the house video. Originally like, uh, made me do that decision. I was like, Okay, I have no idea what I'm gonna eat, but I have to do this thing because I don't wanna support this industry. But at the same time, I was like, Okay, I'm just gonna say goodbye to my muscles, because I didn't know any vegans at the time and I was like, kind of like, Okay, I just have to do this thing, but I'm probably gonna. Gonna become like really skinny and all that, but I was, Okay, I'm gonna figure it out. And it was kind of in that transitioning phase when I became vegan. And then right when I got back to Finland, that's when I got introduced CrossFit. And there was also challenging because everyone was telling me like, Oh, you can't be vegan and do CrossFit. Like it's stupid. You're gonna, you know, you're gonna be feel weak. You can't get enough protein. So I was kind of in that phase of confusing and thinking like, who, who do I have to trust here? But I was like, I'm gonna freaking show you. Uh, and then, yeah, it was kind of like everything happened the same time, a little bit. But then I started finding my way out of it and I started to actually see how much better I started to feel with the Palmer Diets. And I had so much more energy and I didn't have like, the joint pains anymore. And it just like started to actually turn my benefit rather than what I first fear that I'm, you know, gonna lose that, uh, the body and the gains that I had built. So it actually turned out. I think it's really amazing that you thought it's gonna be more difficult and you're gonna lose your muscles and stuff, and you still decided to do it because, for you, the ethics were more important than like, the lives of these animals that are getting killed were more important than let's say the muscles that you had built. And uh, what about you, Ricky? How long has it been since you've been vegan? Now? For me it's been, uh, two, a little bit over two years now. And, uh, but I have a two-phase veganism cuz uh, I didn't fail. And when really against it cuz um, I think it was about five years ago and uh, some people around me were vegan and it was not at like really mainstream five years ago. Especially in Italy, you know, it's like very cheese and ham. Like those stuff are, are big. And so like I heard these people like, yeah, eat vegan, it's healthy. And that, that's a whole nother topic. Like healthy and vegan are sometimes are associated. Um, But, um, so I remember was like, Look, I'll give it a try, but I had no idea what I was doing. Like, uh, nutrition has not been my thing for a long time. Like she knows a lot more nutrition than I do. So like all I did was just completely get rid of anything that was animal based and didn't replace anything else. So I just ate empty salad from for a month. And you can tell that, you know, that that's not the best way to fuel your body, especially when you, when you play. I was playing basketball at the time. After a month, I was like, Look, if this is the life I have to leave, I'm not gonna do it. And um, and so I, I, I kind of went against like the whole vegan stuff. I was like, I was literally what I'm trying to fight now. And um, yeah, I remember like kind of make fun. I was like, you can't call that like that. That's like, it just leaves, that's not, uh, lasagna, like, you know, things like that. I was really kind of against it. And um, and part of me was also cuz you know, I, I knew what happens to animals wrong, but the admitting part is always the hardest one. So, you know, just kind of push that back kind of made me feel a little bit more at ease. And also knowing that I've tried and it fail cuz it's bad. That made me feel like, well I've tried is it's just not good and it's impossible to be done. And so I just kept on going my way and, um, I haven't thought about it like since. And, um, Fast forward like a few years. Um, as I said, I was living in Dubai at a time. Um, I was working a gym with BA Meals, so I was just on a meal plan of the gym, and so I went like full paleo pretty much. And then when we started talking, I saw that on Instagram share, like something big and related. So I was like, Well, that's gonna come up at some point So I was like, We're guess we're gonna have a conversation. But it was not like you. It was not much in my head. So it was not like, Oh my God, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna eat? I was like, Of course she's coming. Uh, cause we met in Dubai the first time, so it was like, she's coming to Dubai, we're gonna have to find something. I have no idea where to eat vegan here. Cause I was eating burgers and steak and um, and I remember I was impressed cuz like I saw of course her on social media. But when you see someone, social media in reality might be different. And when I saw her I was like, she's big. It's like in a good way. Like she's strong and muscles. It's like, oh, that. Those that work. So that's probably the thing that like sparked my career a little bit more cuz I was also living in the vegan stereotypes, especially in a place where I was working with like meat hat like heavily. And of course you kind of vegan were made fun of. And I was the one when I showed up with my vegan meal plan, I was like, Oh, you're gonna get, you know, the usual, the usual jokes that you get for just eating veggies for whatever. But um, I see where that was coming cause I was that same person too. And like of course seeing her so fit and strong is what changed my perspectives. Well then you must be doing something right that I didn't know at the time. So just kind of show me a little bit how you do and um, and as I said, like I had this in my mind. Like I knew that what prince to animal is wrong. I remember always being like pretty grossed out by milk. Like the idea of it, you ever since I was a kid, always grossed me out. I remember like if I had to like chicken and I would find like a ve or a joint or something, it was always like, ugh. So I always had that a little bit of being uncomfortable if what I ate resembled a little bit too much, what it used to be. And so I was like, well, there's probably a place in my head that I know that this is, um, this is not the, the right thing to do. So one day we were out for. This place in Dubai was called Ity. Yeah, I know it. Right. So it's cool. So I met like the, the owner, the girl was there. So we sat down, we chat for a little bit. She was like, Look, I think today or tomorrow is the last day we offer like a meal plan for athletes. Yeah. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. And it's kind of like half the price. I was like, we're at this a sign. I need to sign up and switch my meal plan. So I went from Palio to vegan overnight pretty much. So my, I just signed up to the new meal. And that's pretty much how it started. And um, you know, of course felt great. Like, like uh, a lot of time people tend to tend to take a message, for instance, from like game changer and stuff and it's like, you know, it's not enough to eat plants and you're gonna start lifting 50 kilo more. Of course not. You don't eat plants and live 30 kilos, have you? The, the major change for me that I've seen within a week is like, I could wake up in the morning, my hips fine, my knees were fine. Like no joints pain, no, like stiffen. That's quite common in, in CrossFit. Notice there can be, you can injure yourself more often than other types of, um, let's say working out and things like that, cuz you're, Um, like different movements that we usually don't do, especially like, it's, it's relatively a new sport. Let's say if, if we can call it sport, um, is it categorized as a sport or more like a workout system or, Well, like CrossFit is a brand essentially. Okay. Yeah. Uh, the training methodology is like functional fitness, but CrossFit itself is a, is a brand, for instance, like iron. Ironman is a brand, but then like, you know, the Lon is the discipline that you do. So you do swimming, running, and cycling, and it's the same with CrossFit. So CrossFit is a brand that pretty much envelopes anything that is fitness. So you can go for a run, you can do a workout. Then both of them could be CrossFit, because yeah, everything fall under that umbrella. So everything that is fitness is uh, chemical, CrossFit. But definitely CrossFit is. It can be a more injuring prone sports for the reason that you have to try and learn so many different things. So, you know, in many sports you try to craft one thing and make it like that's the, your skill. Whereas here you have to be good at all the sports. And so, you know, it's very, it's more likely that something else happened. But I think also that's, that's kind of one of the stigma that's with CrossFit. You know, there's a lot of different ways to coach. And, um, and I think that's for us, especially like the, the transition we've had from just, you know, when you start coaching, it's like you just want everyone to be tired at the end. Like, Oh, let's go, like, doesn't matter for the day. And then I think the more you progress into your, to your career, The more you start to understand, like for me the importance now for health and fitness is that you have to be injury and illness free. That's the foundation. If you have injuries or if you're ill, you can't be fit cuz it's very hard to build on top of that. Right. So whenever I coach you or give you advice, that's where we start. And then on top of that, we can build whatever you want. So if you come with me and you wanna do pure CrossFit, so you want have marbles over your head, you wanna do the funky pullups and everything, I can teach you all of that. But there's also so many other people that might be scared to come into CrossFit cuz they're not very interested in having marbles over their head, but they just wanna do fitness. It also goes down to understand like, look, those people don't really care about that and they can definitely live a healthy and happy life without having Barbara's overhead. And so it's our job to coach people for what they want to actually achieve. Mm-hmm. And, um, and that was like, that's for me so important. Now with the, like the, the being pain free for me was such a wake. Call when I change the way I eat cuz it was like every year, every day I hear like, Oh my shoulder a bit pinch here. My, when I squat down, my hips is a little bit stiff. I was like, Guys, we can literally reverse that a little bit or just make it better just by fixing a few things outside of what you actually doing to the gym. That it goes from checking your nutrition to make sure that you sleep things that are very easy for you to do that don't require much. Then when you come into the gym, we can do lot of stuff cuz you have no pain and we can actually work with the things you wanna do. So I remember before meeting you, I had a friends tell me about what you're doing and he also said that you had the one, uh, Competitions and you even wore vegan t-shirts at the competitions and they happened to be in very like meat based, value based, carnival based environments. Um, how many competitions have you been in? Um, are you interested in doing more of that? How many have you won? Can you tell us a bit? Yeah, I did like first column play, what is not two and a half years ago, something like that. I actually. Didn't wanna compete. And I started CrossFit because at the time I was really insecure and I was like, I thought like, I'm not good enough to do that. But then when I started progressing and I started to, um, work on my mind basically actually start to really enjoy, like pushing the limits. And then, um, I did my first com in Jakarta and I really loved it. And I realized like how much further you can push yourself when you're actually on the competition floor. Um, the only problem is saying, obviously now with the pandemic, there hasn't been that much around and it's a little bit challenging. Also be here in Bali, like to fly to places. So in Europe there's like com site basically weekend, so it's very different. But yeah, like that's for me personally, um, I've kind of like found where I'm at. Like I wanna push myself and I wanna get better, but I don't have any desires to prove anyone else, so I'm just doing it basically for fun and also, Like inspiring the world that you can be very fit, uh, on a vegan diet. And, um, yeah. So for me it's just like having fun, uh, pushing the mates and definitely wanna compete more, but just at the level that it's not like too serious. Yeah. Um, had you done the Wonders competition, was that in Jakarta or was that here? Uh, the Wonder List Competition of last year. That's actually a year ago. So that was here. Um, and that's also been kind of like a nice wave you. A lot of our friends in the cross food world, they are like the paleo, even Carni wars. And there is of course a little bit of friction even that's in a kind of friendly way because we know we are in very different kind of edge with that. But I think it's also like me and Ricky do, it's kind of like showing in that CrossFits team where everyone is just about like eating meat. It's like, hey, not every vegan is. You know, this, this skinny, weak person, so they have to kind of take you more seriously. And also like when we have those conversations, like they can be really constructive and we, we talk about how our view is really like about the ETS and also the, the environment inside of things. So I believe that's just kind of like, yeah, planting seeds because you know, we wear lots of the vegan message t-shirts and we train as well. And then people come even if they wouldn't wanna go vegan, but they. Eat more plants. You know, like everything, every chain's positive when it's to the right direction. So, yeah, that's definitely one of my big motivators. So I wanna keep like, doing that sport because it's, uh, it's changing, but it's still very like, pain carnivore heavy. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it's more, more vegans popping out also in the, in the world of frost, which is, That's true. And was it, I think the top three best. It's CrossFit athletes in Germany. Were they all vegan or something like that, that you shared as well? Yeah, so this, uh, this year in the CrossFit Open, which is the, the first kind of qualifier for the, eventually the CrossFit world Championships. So the um, three best females in Germany, they were all vegan. So that was also like very, very cool. That's a let's start and what about you and competitions Ricky? So, yeah, we've done a few, uh, I've done competition before going. And I've done competition after that. And luckily I've been able, like I've managed sometimes to win on both sides, both vegan and not. And sometimes, of course you may get second or third or fourth, whatever the case is. And um, and she said we tried to like show the message like, look, you're not giving anything up. Like you can still do a lot of cool stuff and, um, and do it in a little bit of a different way. Um, I think like the motivator for me to. This competition that I'm interested in doing, and there's like challenges that I set myself up to do, uh, even just by myself, Just like, Look, you can do this stuff. And, uh, it doesn't have to be necessarily on, um, on a competition format is, is more like, as we talk earlier, like for me, health comes the beginning. So you have to be healthy, uh, to, to build on top. And I really believe in the connection that is between like planetary health and human health. And you can't really separate the two things. So the message for me is like trying to, you know, show people that we can do better. Like we clearly, of course, like not in the best place on, on how the planet's running. and um, like we're very lucky cuz you know, we are on the bridge side of the world, so we're always like the last to suffer any sort of consequence. So whatever we overdo or overuse or overproduce, it doesn't take away from us. It takes away from someone else. And you know, like I think, uh, there's one thing that I love, like from Rika Gervais, like a quote that is like, um, one of the privilege with freedom of speech is to use that voice for those who don't. You know, we're so lucky we're in a position where we can have all the possible alternatives We have, like, you know, it's so easy to do the things that we do. Yeah. And so like, you know, for me it's like if we want to enjoy the planet as we have it, if we want to have, like we're the animals that get no animals, get as sick as human, so we must be doing something wrong. And, uh, and so for me, my mission is just try to show people and break stereotypes a little bit cuz I'm, you know, I'm a big guy and usually you don't expect, you are big. It's, it's not often that when I meet someone I look up like, cuz I'm 180 5, which is not very tall. But most people that I meet are, are either my height or shorter. But whenever I see you every single time I see, I'm like, I forgot how tall he is, how big he is, you know? And uh, and honestly I wanna use that as a, you know, something in my advantage cuz you know, the vegans stereotypes always bring more up. Like you're not strong, He's potentially skinny. You can't really do sport at a certain level. And now we've seen, like with more athletes coming up, the girls in Germany as well as other games athletes as well as endurance people or strength, it really works. And so for me, you know, I've. I've always been told, even when I went vegan the first time and I was working in Apollo Place, it's always been like, Oh, it's not gonna work. You're gonna get injured, you're not gonna be strong. And so it's know, those claims are very easy to make the beginning, but then for me it's been over two years. And in these two years I've Max Max all my previous lifts. So my strength has definitely improved. And of course that's not just the food. Also, my training has been better. So there's a lot of component that goes into you progressing in your fitness, but that shows me that it didn't get worse. First of all, they didn't stay the same. It actually went up. And so, you know when when you hear someone say like, You can't just eat that cuz your performance gonna suffer, or you can't do that cuz you're not gonna be strong or you can't do that cuz you can't cycle for so long. And then, Keep on doing those things. So, you know, for me it's more just to show people that there's a way, cuz if, if, if you just say stuff, It's like, no, you can go vegan and be strong and you're weak. Well, I don't really trust you much then, But if you say like, you know, you can go vegan and be strong and this is how, or you can be vegan and took any sort of like challenge you wanna do or even just stay healthy. Like, I haven't got any injury in the past two and a half years. Like I don't get. And, uh, and, and as we spoke at the beginning, that's the baseline for me. I haven't got a flu in two years. Like, you know, you just get the Bali belly every six months here, but that's just like, you know, to Bali, you get it, you know, I haven't gotten that. I think it's because I grew up in Lebanon. I already have the good immune system you for that. But you, you know, like just showing people like, you know, you can stay healthy. You don't need to get sick, you don't need to get hurt. You can still do a lot of fitness that you want. You can still have. Good food as you want and it's good for your health is good for the animal and is good for the planet. So we just look a little bit more what's just for good for me, Alex. That's what I want. And we think about more like we and everybody else. And you know, I was thinking today is like, you know, if the three of us here and we have three glasses, it would be very unfair that I drink the whole three. And you two are Thursday. That's kind of what I feel sometimes we do in society. You know, we take away from other people, so we over produce, we over consume. Mm-hmm. we overdo a lot of stuff and then someone ends up with nothing. It's like, why don't we just share the three glass? We all have a little bit of it and we all Exactly. That's a perfect way of putting it. Now you did mention, uh, something, uh, you, you talked about cycling long. Now you and I went cycling a few weeks ago and um, You did great. Yeah, it was nice. It was a nice ride. I actually wanna do it again. Especially the route that, uh, that we took was super nice. But a few months ago you had done a whole tour of the island. Yeah. Which was around, what was it, 363 360 9 3 7. So 370 kilometers. Um, why don't you talk about that, because from what I remember, you also didn't prepare for it in way, you just like went full in. So I watched the UT video, if anybody wants to see it, do check it out. Um, on the Rick's channel, I'll put all the information in the description. Uh, so please tell us about that adventure. Well, that was just, uh, you know, I saw someone doing it, but like cyclists, like people that have been cycling for a. And I was like, You know what? It would be cool to do it now. Like I, I'm 110 kilo. So, you know, when you move the whole thing, it takes, it takes some, some energy and some work. So it, it really went on, um, as I saw someone doing it, I was like, I wanna do it. And, uh, the preparation for it was very minimal in the sense that I've prepped, uh, I've done like one ride by myself. It was 180 kilometer a week before that, and that was at the time my longest ride by myself. And then, uh, I got food poison that weekend. And so I was like, until Wednesday I was in bed. Uh, cause probably I ate something that was wash. Well it's a common thing if you live in Dali. Unless, unless it's you. They never had it, but everyone else had. And uh, so I was like, maybe this is not gonna happen cuz I live in bed, uh, with the, with the Bali Ballet. And I was like, you know what? Like I have my holiday book next week and if I take a week off, I'm not gonna do it a week after. So might as well just go and. And the whole purpose behind that was to show myself that I can do stuff and to show people that you can do stuff. Cuz I've literally been fueled by, I just had like watermelon, I had mangoes, I had two vegan donuts. And then I start for past that lunch. You know, it's like you can fuel yourself. So the whole ride, it's, it's very cool cuz it's not just like, you know, doing 370 kilometers almost. It's, you know, also 2,500 meters of climb. And then Bali's fairly hot. fairly, the completions is not like, you know, your country ride soul flats and you just go with the wind. Like for the whole north coast of Bali, you just have wind face. So if, you know, if you haven't been cycling, you know you're gonna be for eight hours with wind blowing into your face that slows you down. Oh my God. And doesn't make the experience necessarily easy. And um, and yeah, for me it was just like, you know, It was, again, I tried to make a little bit of a statement that you can be, I was still strong at the time, so I was not a cyclist. I was still like very strong, uh, big guy. You can just eat your fruits and veggies, you can go cycle. So the whole cycle took. I think 13 hours of actual cycling and like 17 hours of total times. Then we had to stop to get food and water every now and then. And I think I burned 10,200 calories that day. Oh my God. And um, and the day after, it was fine. Like day after we went out for, I remember the day after, Oh yeah, we left for breakfast. No, it wasn't the day after, I don't think so. Because you went to, like, you guys booked a place for a few nights maybe in I. And then you went, you started working out two days later and I was like, How is he not, So I was just gonna say he was like, just like recover it like that. And then he was just lifting heavy. And that's like something as well, like previously that would never have happened, right? No. Like it's the, the biggest changing for me is always, is literally been like, how, how healthy my body is and stays and I quickly recovers. Mm-hmm. And that's why I'm like, I'm vegan for, for like a moral choice. For me, what we do to animal, it's wrong and I don't want to be part of that by any mean. And so that's my reason. But I understand that that doesn't really click with some people. So my job is also, I work in the fitness industry, so my job is to make people healthy. Mm-hmm. So if my job is to make you healthy, then I have to make sure. I give you the information, or at least I point you towards solution that has something to do with health. Mm-hmm. and I don't have a vegan restaurant. I don't make meal plans, so even then, like I'm really, I just coach fitness and so I've not, I've no interest financially in you going to a restaurant and starting to be plan-based. I have no affiliation link, have nothing to gain. but I just have, you know, it's, it's, my job is to make sure that you live the longest possible in the best possible ways. Then if you want to be a cross feeder or an athlete or whatever, we can look into those options, but my job is to make sure you live long and healthy. Yeah. And so, like, how can I not tell you that eating in a certain way is of course, better for you than than others? Like I, I often work with like guys, In their thirties, forties, or even fifties. And like the rate of like cardiovascular disease amongst men in those ages, it's through the roof. And it literally takes a two minutes research to understand why, um, you know, like I don't have like Simon's Hill like knowledge on all this research stuff. So if you listen to the episode with you guys, you can get a lot more information in detail, but it's. For an average person, it takes two minutes. Who's like, what is a cardiovascular disease? Who does affect the most? And what is, what's the things that can trigger it more? And then, you know, like everything is not just one thing. It can be where you eat, how you sleep, how's your lifestyle, what's your job? But you know, just if one thing at a time we start to think those things, then it's uh, it's a no brainer. It's like, the thing that blows my mind is that, how did I not find out sooner, Like before I met her. That's true. Because the thing is a lot of people will change if they had the information. Yeah. But not only right now a lot of people don't have the information, but there's also a lot of misinformation out there. So it's like two things that are taking. Now I wanted to ask one thing to be a few days ago, or I think it was yesterday, I may be wrong, doesn't matter. You uploaded stories of you deep, really deep, squatting, a hundred kilos. Um, all I could think about that was. Doing it perfectly and doing it heavy. Um, what are some of your, uh, personal records that you can share with us? I'm really interested in that because maybe the hundred wasn't your max. I don't know. No, wasn't no. Yes, no. Um, I think my back score is, Like 120, It's like a one red max, um, debt lift is one 50. This is or kilo kilograms. Um, and then snatch is my all time favorite lift. So, uh, Snatch is the most proud of, uh, that's 75 kilos. Um, snatch is one, is the one where you have like a wide grip and then you like go. So you don't bring it up to your chest first and then push up. It's literally from the floor up to over your head. Yes. In one motion. Okay. So that's the snatch where you have the wide grip. Yeah. And the one you're talking about is the clean and jerk where you bring first on your chest. Yeah. Clean and jerk. Um, I think my max is like almost 90. I'm 87 I think. Wow. Um, Yeah, I, I, I'm not looking at the numbers that much anymore. It's more also in CrossFit. It's like, it's cool to have that one Red Max, like that big number, but it's more about like how much you can sustain within a workout at like, you know, 70%, 80% of, of that max. Um, but yeah, of course, like strength is my favorite part of CrossFit. Like, I love lifting, I love barbells, I love weights, I love heavy weights. So that's always been also something, you know, um, that. The bonuses that it impresses people when they are like, find out you're vegan. And they're like, Oh, I didn't think that you would be vegan. They're like, You look bigger than usually, you know? And then they, you know, So where do you get your protein? So there's like a good kind of introduction into, into also kind of like having those constructive conversations because, People see like what you're able to do, especially as a female in CrossFit. Um, and then they're like, Oh my God. Like how can you teach me also how to, how to do that ways? Yeah. And, and you train only women or do you also train men? Uh, at the moment I only coach women. I don't have the capacity, uh, to take on men. Even that I get requests. Quite often, so maybe I have to expand at some point. Uh, but yeah, at the moment is stay. Okay. And you mentioned protein, so let's quickly, like very fastly, if you can mention, um, what is your best way or most, uh, effective way or healthy way to get protein in your diet? Yeah, so especially like in strength sports, it's really important for us to get enough protein. Like if you're a regular person, you don't actually need to worry about it that much. Mm-hmm. But if you're like an athlete or especially into building muscle building strength, then a little bit more like attention needs to be paid. And like for me it's really easy because I love the kind of traditional vegan protein sources. So like Satan, Tofu, Tempe, that's like a very big stable in our diet. Like we have. But pretty much every, every day on lunch and dinner. So it like covers a big part of protein. Like I'm eating a lot of protein, like two grams per body weight kilogram. Wow. Um, and, but for me it's never a problem because I like, you know, it's just kind of like once you learn how to do it and then you, you know, you just kind of have that routine and then, you know, including, um, other things like some soy milk and some other like soy products. It just kind of ramps. The protein quite quickly. Um, so yeah, I think it's just about like people have this massive fear not getting enough protein, but then once you learn like which vegan sources have protein, it's quite easy to kind of just like swap them. Yeah. And make sure that you get them every day. All right. So you're doing two grams per, per kilogram. Um, how, what's your weight at the moment? 70 kilos. 70. So you get 140 grams. Yeah. Easy. Yeah. And what about Ur do you look into the macros? And So I'm not as macros as she's, but I've, I'm trying every now and then to just have a little bit more of a look. Cause for me, as we spoke, like, you know, for an athletes you have to get twice, uh, to ground site your body. For me, it's a lot. Cause I'm 110 kilos, it means it's 2 20 20. So that's quite some, that's quite some. So like, I don't, I don't wanna track all my meals, all the. It actually does help. Yeah. And on that hand, it's good to have her sometimes to remind me or, or check just so you get an idea, because oftentimes it's like, Oh, I don't get enough protein. Cause how many do you need? Like, if you don't know, that's, that's the first step. And also, like, you don't get enough, so how many you've got. So if you don't know how much you've got, you don't really know what, what you've, what you're. So actually tracking a little bit can be a bit more of an help. And for, for me, I found out that I actually have to have, you know, like a smoothie in the afternoon with little bit of extra protein or something like that just to make sure that I get. And, um, but as, as she said, like, you know, for a regular person you probably don't need it for her. It's quite easy to get it. For me, I'm a little bit of an extreme case cuz it's not, you know, he's expensive. Yeah. Like he's, he's like one family, but you know, there's not that many people that waits that much. Like it's a small minority of the population that might be struggling to actually go to the target and has to supplement a little bit more with either bigger portions or like an extra snack or something. But, um, but I think it's actually like that's something that I haven't done at the beginning. Uh, like tracking a little bit because my, my motivation was, uh, like the animal welfare, but if you're looking into go actually plan based, cuz sometimes people's like, Oh, I went vegan and it didn't work for me. Cuz it's very hard to change something you've done for 20, 30 or four years and expect to work in month one without actually, you know, without a little bit of guidance or with actually really knowing what you're. If you would've to change your job after 30 years, you've done one thing and do the opposite jobs or something completely different, you're not gonna be a master within a month. That will take a little bit of time for you to, to get through it. So probably actually having someone helping you out and give you a little bit of an understanding, being or not, it's just good to know what you're eating, first of all, so you just get a, you know, an idea of what's going on. But, But then, especially if you're liking to the sports side or you wanna gain some muscle or something having, you don't have to track forever for the rest of your life, but get an idea of what 50 grams of TOEFL looks like can really help in, uh, in what you're gotta do. And then, you know, find out what food works best for you, what doesn't work good for you. If something makes you bloated, if it's just cuz your body's getting used to fiber or it's just the food that you don't digest. There's a little bit of trial and error when you do this, uh, this sort of stuff. So I would say that, you know, if you want to get your nutrition right, you need to first know where, what right means for you, Yeah. I think, um, that's one thing that a lot of people say, like sometimes they say like, Have you done uh, a blood test? And I'm like, I think everyone should do one blood test, uh, like every year or two years, like vegan or not. You know, I mean, we can talk about the fact that the scientific data that we have, like so far shows that non vegans are more likely to have deficiencies than vegans. But I think that's also simply because when you go vegan, you just start being more careful about what you are consuming. But I think one other thing that happens is a lot of people, Say they're, they're hungry all of the time and, um, they're losing weight and things like that, and they just forget that a plant-based foods are less calorie dense. So you're not supposed to eat as much as you used to eat when it came to non-vegan food. You just have to increase your intake by just a bit to compensate that difference of calorie. And, uh, I wanted to ask you, do you have any future plans like to be with your business, what you're doing now with coaching? Do you have any specific plans for the future? Or what's, uh, what's cooking Yes. So my mission is to like build that as vegan women. So I wanna just, you know, I've been just kind of like building the, the roots and, and building the systems and, uh, the plan is to start flying. So I wanna be able to help more people eventually, even men, like, I don't wanna. Because of the gender, it's been like, I don't have the capacity and because the palm based movement is growing, so there is more and more demand coming up all the time. So yeah. And the same with Ricky. Like I just wanna help people to feel good and, you know, be healthy and confident and limitless as well. So for me it's just about like, um, yeah, helping as many people as possible. And of course in that also, like for me, the animals is a very big part of it because the more people obviously eat more plans, the less animals have to suffer and die. So, All combines together. Perfect. And what about. I'll tell you No, but I wanted to add one little thing to the, to what we were just discussing now. Uh, I think oftentimes there's also, when people turns plant based or vegan the first time, there's a misconception that whatever's vegan's necessarily healthy. Yes. Which is not necessarily the case. Cause I've heard that many times and I was like, Oh, but I had those cookies and they were vegan. I was like, Yeah, but it's still like, you know, a hundred grams of sugar in it. So that's something that I've had conversation many times with, especially, you know, people like. When you talk with Carni bars or P, there's always like, Yeah, but that's vegan and that's not healthy. And there's a lot of vegan things that are necessarily not healthy. Like for instance, this table is vegan. But I wouldn't recommend a diet where you eat a table a day, you know, like white sugar, it's vegan. Popcorn are vegan, like oil is vegan. But I wouldn't tell you to drink oil for your diets necessarily be. So even when you go vegan, like you have to pay a little bit attention to what you're actually eating. Cuz if you're just putting like a ton of sauce into whatever you eat or stuff like that, you can still be vegan but you necessarily not healthy. Like what I was trying to explain to people oftentimes is like vegan is just means that it doesn't come from an animal. So vegan is necess, it's a moral stance more than a diet. So vegan is just like, you don't want to cause harm to animals. It doesn't means that it's healthy necess. There's also vegan stuff that might not be environmentally friendly. So vegan, it just means that you don't want to hurt animals. But then if you want to have a healthy vegan diet, it's very different to just eat anything that is vegan. And so I think oftentimes people get caught up into like, Oh, vegan people are healthy, so whatever. I eat that it's vegan is necessarily good. I think that has been labeled oftentimes it's like, yeah, you know, those people went vegan and now they're sick. So the problem is the vegan diet. So no, probably the problem is that the diet was not structured by any mean, and like any diet that has no foundation or it's just completely random, it doesn't matter if it's vegan, pescatarian, carnivore, whatever. If it's random, it's just not gonna work. So when you go, like if you're interested in go plan-based, or if you wanna do something, just be careful. Just because it's vegan, like the fact that it's vegan, it just means that all animals kind of was armed for it, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's healthy. That's true. Also one that came up as well, like being in the fitness industry, like the conversation we always end up with is like many people who are not vegan, they don't understand that vegans often go vegan for the animals. Like that's the most common reason. And then they always go, just talk about the macros. And it's like almost frustrating. It's like, yeah, I understand the macros. And it's like, it's not just about the macros. Like we can talk about protein all day long and how it's, you can optimize maybe with like animal pro, like there's so. other things also in the picture that like many fitness people and many fitness coaches as well, I have so many clients come to me that they got frustrated with their previous coach because they were like, Oh look, you can't achieve your fitness goals on the vegan diets. It's just like they, if you don't upgrade your knowledge, you don't know how to do it. Like at least don't tell people that it's not possible because it's just like wrong, wrong information and it's all just the kind of macro approach, but it's very kind of like tunnel vision in my opinion. Yeah. Um, you know, it's about delivering information, the whole picture. It would be, you know, when you, when you think of your food or you eat, I, you know, that's why I don't like to just look at Micros, cuz like, that's literally one slice of it. Like 20, uh, 20 slice is pie. And just look at one slice. You're gonna have to look at the whole. It would be the same for me as a coach, You know, if one of my athletes just want to be as strong as possibly in the back school, so I make sure that that person's like super good in a back school, but then they have lower back pain. They can't sleep at night. They so well, like, we have achieved a goal, but I completely trusted you in three other aspect of your, of your life, you of everything. That's why I think like, looking at what you eat or are you trained in a, in a full picture. Especially for health and longevity, it's uh, it's a much better approach in how you should be looking at things. It's not just the one thing, but how that could potentially affect other stuff that would eventually come back to you. Later on or in different forms. So that was my, yes, And what about your future plans with what you're doing? So future plans. So I coach online, um, I coach men and women vegans or not. So I also have like a lot of clients that are not plan based and we actually do have a lot of good conversation about it. So I'm not, uh, like if you're non-vegan, I'm not gonna kick you. You know, we can have conversation and then understanding what's what works for you, what potentially be good, and, um, we'll find out. So what I do is I coach people for fitness. Some of the people I coach are people that wants to compete in CrossFit. Um, some other are just busy CEO with 30 minutes a day and they can only train in their office, and some others are just moms that needs to go back into shape. So it's a very broad audience. As we spoke earlier, like I kind of grew, uh, with CrossFits and now I just wanna work with fitness in generals. And fitness can take a lot of different shape according to whatever's person's goals. So my goal is to keep on working with, uh, uh, we offer individual coaching, uh, tailored on the needs that someone has, as well as we offer like a program for groups that is more specific towards cross. And we do that all online, me and my partner in Australia. And then after that, it's like something else that's cooking. It's very big, but I'm not gonna tell now. Um, to finish off, I ask every single guest what their core principles are that are pushing them to fight for a better world. So toy, what are your principles that push you to fight for a better world and make you do what you're doing? I strongly live by the, like, treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. And for me, it's just not humans. It's like all living beings. And, um, yeah, I, I embrace that in everything. Like I'm very compassionate and I believe that's a very big strength even that many people see. Sadly as a weakness that like, um, that you actually care. So for me it's just like, um, I'm so, like when I went to vegan and I actually started to align my actions with my values, it's just kind of like a wo woke and such a big power because that anger kind of. Turned into passion. And uh, yeah, that's like what gets me out of bed in the morning because I'm so passionate about building better worlds for everyone. Like in the way that everyone can be happy and suffer free, and that we can live in a beautiful world. So I strongly, I'm really optimistic and I believe that, uh, we can have that kind of reality and future. So that drives me every day. Uh, what about you? For me, one of the things I like a lot is that kindness is the ultimate strength. Mm-hmm. And so for me it's like being kind is one of the, one of the nicest thing. And um, you know, it's like, well again, like try and break the stereotypes. Like oftentimes if you're kind, you seem like as weak or less masculine or, you know, then like try and break those fears. Absolutely. You can be kind, you can be free everybody and everything and just still be strong in everything and. What I live by is like, you know, I like to make people physically and mentally stronger, but then like emotionally, let's say softer cuz that's how you become stronger when like you're able to soften up on certain topics and that's what make you stronger, like emotionally. But then like mentally and physically we can still build mm-hmm. and be stronger. Like one doesn't exclude the other. And so like show people that there's a different way of leaving your fitness, your life, and the planets. In a bit of more kinder way so that we can be everyone as happy and healthy as possible and have as much opportunities as anyone else. Cuz we got very lucky, like, you know, so just we were talking earlier, just being born into a different place can really change the opportunity that you have. So if we live in a world where we all treat a little bit more equally and nicer and kinder, that those opportunities can go to everyone a bit. Perfect. Well thank you so much for the listeners and those who are watching. If you want to book, um, great coaches, you know where to go, I'll leave all the information in the description. Thank you for making the time for this. I look forward to working out with you very soon. We were supposed to do it yesterday, but that didn't work out. Um, and definitely let's go for another bicycle ride even though it's rainy season, but let's find the time and day to do that. Thank you again for joining me. Thank you so much. Thank you for having us. Thank you again for joining this episode. If you felt inspired or learned anything new, please feel free to share the link with at least one friend or maybe on your social media pages. That definitely helps us reach a lot more people with our work. And if you wish to support this podcast and my work in general, as an activist. Check out my website set alex.org. Thank you again for joining. I'll see you in the next episode.