I'm Going Vegan in 2014

New day, new year! I've decided that in 2014, I am going to eat vegan diet. I was inspired by several members of my community to do this, but namely New York-based boxer, MMA champ, fitness trainer, and community organizer Omowale Adewale of CP Fitness, who I first met through his work with Grassroots Artist Movement several years back. This new years, he made a very bold and public declaration to turn 100 people vegan in 2014, and I'm glad to be among the people is he is donating his time to coaching through this process. He will be leading weekly coaching sessions on diet, nutrition, and exercise, as well as answering questions and providing more tips and tricks for sustaining a vegan diet through his facebook group. Send a request to join here. Below is his original article on his motivations, as well as registration information.

Boxer Omowale Adewale Wants to Help 100 People Go Vegan

By Omowale Adewale

I have declared that next year my aim is to create more vegans, at least, 100. One hundred people will become vegans through coaching and training sessions and lectures. Being vegan isn’t as hard as people make it seem, but in a society that stresses the need for animal meat as the center of lunch and dinner it can create hesitancy in switching to become vegan. In addition, misinformation about where to extract protein and iron in a vegan diet may prevent others.

First let’s slice and dice protein. Cutting right to the chase, most people eat too much protein. As a fighter, I need protein, more than the average person, but definitely a lot less than a bodybuilder. The average person needs only .4 grams of protein per pound. A bodybuilder will eat well over 1.5+ grams of protein as his/her daily estimate. I fit somewhere between .6 and 1 gram. Keep in mind that athletes and bodybuilders must routinely repair muscles and replenish amino acid levels.
Do you work out? The average person taking weight-gainers may lose a lot of money buying excessively processed powders. Depending on the quality of your workout, time of ingestion and amount per serving you can literally be flushing your money right down the toilet or creating more fat.

Cholesterol. First, there is no recommended daily allowance by the USDA. But the maximum is 200mg a day. Your body already makes adequate amounts of cholesterol, especially if you have no aversion to oil, coconut, olive, vegetable, etc. They all induce more cholesterol throughout your body.
Why is cholesterol necessary? Cholesterol provides necessary cell protection of your body as a white soft padding around the cells of your nervous system. Pretty important. However, too much of a good thing is overkill, and it’s killing you.

For the past year, I’ve asked young people almost annoyingly as possible “What did you eat for breakfast?” I generally ask all my clients this, but young people tend to cook a lot less for obvious reasons. Cooking is somewhat of a skill that is perfected as an adult.

The most common meal I hear from youth for their breakfast if they do eat is bacon, egg and cheese. Eating this very fatty, oily, cloggy combination every morning can send you to the hospital in ten years for a coronary artery triple bypass surgery procedure.

Each item is made from an animal’s fatty skin or secretion. They all have high levels of cholesterol and fat, not to mention the oil that the sandwich is fried in. Each sandwich meets your quota of fat and cholesterol for the day according to the USDA.

Just the sight of this sandwich and the love that this sandwich conjures reminds me of how durable and adaptable the body is. The body makes half of the amino acids that it needs to rebuild cells; therefore, depending upon your body’s resistance to unhealthy food it can resist a lot for years.
However, so goes the game of Russian roulette; it’s only a matter of time that poor health judgments take its toll on your body. Ugh. That was morbid.

The good news is here’s a great breakfast for champions by champions! I can get a sufficient amount of protein, iron and sweetness in a bowl of steelcut oats, granola cereal, or oatmeal. Or say a nice non-gluten 3- 5 stack of coconut pancakes. You can substitute the white flour for teff, rice, almond or buckwheat and the eggs by adding bananas. Use maple syrup or water down your agave. Or blend real fruit and real water. The same can be down for waffles or French toast. You hate bready foods? Eat some grapefruit, bananas, papaya and chill out. Stop being so difficult.

My lunch may look like sautéed kale, chard and collard greens with seitan in a black bean sauce on top of quinoa or brown rice.

And for dinner, it’s bean patty time! You can make patties out of lentils, kidney beans, chickpeas, and any bean you can name. All meals lack the cholesterol but overwhelm in taste and provide adequate vitamins and minerals.

Bean Patties (Recipe)
Grab 2 cups of dry beans, soak them, and then boil them. Drain excess water. Mash them.
Chop up spinach. Mix with beans.
Season 2 cups of coconut or garbanzo flour with your favorite zesty spices very well.
Take ¾ cup of flour and add to beans and spinach.
Mold mixture into flat ½-inch patties.
Heat a pan of coconut or olive oil.
Dip each patty into a plate of water and then cover completely the left over seasoned flour.
Fry in oil till brown, flipping on both sides until brown. Enjoy!

This is my vegan gift to you. The New Year is full of healthy promise. If you would like to stay in touch with me to receive support in exercise and health and to offer your vegan 2014 story please “like” my page on Facebook “Total Fitness CP” and prepare to go vegan with ease.

Register for GoVeg2014

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