Simon Ward and Jack, Kirsten, and Louisa

This week I have 3 guests, all of whom have appeared on the show previously as guests discussing other topics. What they have in common today is that they all follow a plant based diet.  Jack Maitland is a high performance triathlon coach and in his athletic career was a full time mountain racer and then triathlete, winning major international mountain races such as Sierre Zinal and representing Scotland in the Commonwealth games triathlon. Louisa Homes is my regular physio (I sometimes call her the White Witch) and raced as a professional triathlete on the Ironman circuit. Kirsten Steffenson is a full time yoga teacher who embodies the ideal of total body health and performance.

The reason for getting all 3 together is because I observe and hear a lot of resistance to a meat and fish free diet and wanted to share their story, especially as Louisa and Jack followed a plant based eating regime while they were competing as full time athletes.  During our conversation you will discover:

Our guests answer listeners questions including:

• Is it necessary to supplement a vegetarian diet with missing vitamins and minerals such as B12?
• How can a vegan athlete fuel for an ultra marathon?
• Is it possible for athletes to get enough calories following a vegan or plant based diet?
• What is your “why”? Understanding the reason why you are changing to a plant based diet.
• The catalyst for each guest to exclude meat and fish from their diet.
• Why education is crucial when replacing meat proteins with plant based alternatives.
• How turning cooking and eating into an adventure can help overcome your resistance to excluding meat.
• Why giving yourself more time to plan and prepare foods can help make a change of eating direction much easier.
• Some simple suggestions on how and where to find your plant based proteins.

To find out more about Jack and Kirsten you can join their Facebook group The Sports Ashram.  Louisa is a practising physio at the Coach House Physiotherapy Ciinic in Leeds and also teaches weekly yoga classes at the same venue.

In this episode we also talked about the book by ultra runner, Scott Jurek Eat and Run.  Louisa mentioned the website Happy Cow, dedicated to helping you find vegetarian and vegan restaurants nearby.

To find out more about Simon’s coaching please visit his website here.

To follow Simon on Facebook, click here.

For more information please go to www.SimonWardTriathlonCoach.com, or www.TheTriathlonCoach.com, or email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.