Some people justify their stagnation in their sport by their vegan (vegan) diet… But is that a sufficient reason?
Today I would like to share something with you, and that is the fact that being vegan is not an excuse to stagnate, let alone regress.
So I’m making this video for you because personally, I stagnated for a few weeks, even months, and I really wanted to share this with you, if it ever helps.
What I want you to understand here is that when you stop eating meat, fish, etc., you can easily use it as an excuse to explain the fact that you stagnate, that you don’t fail to achieve your sporting goals and progress.
So this may not apply to you, but I still preferred to share this with you in case it happens to you now or in the future.
So after I stopped using animal products, I stagnated for a while.
So I didn’t really tell myself that it was because I no longer ate animal products but I veiled my face a little, I told myself that it was normal to stagnate, that it was part of the consequences of switching to veganism, which I was going to have to stagnate or at least progress much more slowly in the future.
Again, this may not concern you, I’m just sharing my experience with you. And when those around you go in this direction, tell you that it is normal that you are no longer making progress because you are vegan, it will play on your mind.
I’m not telling you that you are going to believe it, personally I absolutely did not believe it when I was told that I was stagnant because I was vegan, but simply you are not in an atmosphere that will make your job easier, which will facilitate your progress because your entourage puts you somewhere sticks in the wheels.
And so what happened was I didn’t stop there, and I thought there had to be a reason. And little by little, I started to eat better because I spent time informing myself, educating myself etc … And I started to improve again. It was really radical.
And this is where I am going with this video. Being vegan is no excuse to stagnate, we agree on that. And what happens is that there are vegan and vegan.
There’s basic vegan nutrition, or you’re just going to try to replace animal products with plant-based products, and there’s vegan sports nutrition, or you’re going to look to optimize your meals, your snacks, your protein, carbohydrate, lipid and especially omega 3 intake, vitamins, minerals, etc…
And the difference is fundamental. In fact I’ve noticed that when you switch to vegan nutrition you’re going to get to a point where you get to know what food is better than an omnivorous person. This is not a generality but it is something present for a lot of people, I will talk about it in a video or in an article.
But suddenly again this is not a generality and we all have to learn, me first, there is an infinite number of things to learn.
But if you don’t make sure to have the right nutritional intake at the end of the day, if you spend your time consuming similis-meat, you will not be providing the most qualitative food for your body and therefore you’re going to be much more likely to stagnate or regress.
And so before you start to wonder if vegan nutrition is causing your stagnation or regression, I really encourage you to look at what you have in your fridge, in your cupboards, to look what you put on your plates.
I had spoken about it in my conference in Bordeaux, and by the way, I will normally be able to give the same conference at VeggieWorld in Paris on Sunday, October 14.
There were more slots available so normally I will be able to do this talk at the end of the afternoon from 5:15 pm to 6:00 pm. So if you’ve already seen it on my YouTube channel there won’t be any surprises but I’ll tell you just in case.
In short, suddenly what I was going to tell you is that I had spoken about it in this conference, your ability to overcome the mental barrier between sport and veganism and therefore your ability to progress depends a lot on your food.
If you eat vegan anyway, it makes sense that you are stagnating or even regressing.
If you eat vegan but no matter what, if you base most of your meals on vegan cordon bleu, vegan nuggets, already prepared vegetable steaks, you will more or less weaken your immune system, you will tire your body, you will recover less well in terms of the nervous system and overall energy level than if you ate whole and natural foods.
You can’t say that it’s because you’re vegan that you stagnate if you eat poorly. Remember, food is your fuel. If you put water in your car, it won’t move, you agree with me. It’s exactly the same with food.
If you eat any way you are much more likely to stagnate or regress. So don’t use the pretext that being vegan makes you stagnate if you make these choices, if you eat anyhow, it’s clearly dishonest.
And it could also be that you eat poorly because you are in quotes “too confident” in the benefits of vegan nutrition. I’ll explain what I mean by that:
If you look closely you can see that there are quite a few studies that demonstrate the health benefits of veganism and if you don’t take a step back from that, if you ask yourself not what “vegan food” really means, you can say to yourself “Ok well great! Everything will be fine, I will recover better, I just need to cut out animal products and I will have health and sports benefits! ”
The point is, it’s not just cutting out animal products that can get you going. It’s also about incorporating good foods, highly nutritious foods, incorporating smoothies, vegetable juices, and consuming a minimum of similis-meat.
I wanted to talk about this because I know that you can easily see yourself grow wings and think that in the end it’s not complicated.
Obviously it’s not complicated, I completely agree with that, but there is a difference between a diet that will make you stagnate and a diet that will make you progress, and it doesn’t matter whether you are vegan, vegetarian or omnivorous.
And if not, the 2nd parameter is training. If you train anyhow, it’s obvious that you’ll also stagnate. So there it has nothing to do with food, but it is a bit like what we were talking about before.
If you have a very good diet, that you pay attention to all your intakes and that you start to feel a gain of energy, a better recovery etc, you may say to yourself “Nickel well now I will keep the same intensity in the sessions and I will be able to continue to improve! ”
In itself yes, you may progress but it will be in the short term. After a while, you have to increase the loads on your bars, you have to increase the difficulty of the exercises, or you have to find other parameters to progress, whether in weight training or in any other sport.
And if you can’t increase that intensity, and there we come to the overall conclusion of this video, you’ll really understand where I’m going, maybe it’s not because you’re vegan, it may be because you make the wrong choices on your plates, because diet will affect your performance.
After of course, these are not the only reasons. Personally, for the moment I am still with my mother, I do not have the possibility to do completely as I want in terms of food and training, so I am not progressing as I want, I am progressing in terms of energy, recovery etc., but I am progressing not as I want in terms of physicality and performance.
As soon as I have the chance, I’ll prepare very, very heavy for you on my channel, in terms of training and vegan sports nutrition, well at least I hope so, but I know it will be very different because I will have many more possibilities.
I’ll leave that to you, I hope this video has enabled you to come away with a slightly clearer vision.
If you are still watching this video, it’s probably because you want some advice on vegan sports nutrition.
In that case, I’ll let you download my free guide, I’ll put the link on your screen . You can also start a coaching , it will be described under this video.
Train with the heart, eat with the heart.