5 Facts about Protein

Vegetarian Protein, Fitness Activities, & Energy

While in college I took classes in Feldenkreis, weight training and jogging as electives to balance my engineering studies. The Feldenkreis taught me about movement, thought and conditioned responses, the weight training taught me about the various muscle groups and methods to develop and isolate the groups, and jogging was a great cardiovascular routine.

Around this time my protein interest was on the climb. I did not think of my diet as a college student, and was often happy to have funds for tacos and a margarita post class. But after a semester with the various movement classes, I realised I needed to fuel myself better to enjoy and excel at my various fitness classes.

While many friends were vegetarians, I ate meat and did not consider eating vegetarian. I equated having no meat protein in a diet to not having energy.
Now I realize that the times I tried a vegetarian diet, I had eaten a hefty portion of brown rice. Brow Rice has high levels of trytophan, the sleep inducing hormone often associated with te Thanksgiving Turkey.

Flash Forward to today, I am 11 months into a vegetarian diet. My fitness routine has evolved to Yoga, circular strenght training, and tennis.

5 Interesting Protein facts I have discovered during my journey are:

1. Veggies are great protein source - Broccoli is surprising source.
2. You do not need to combine foods to ensure adequate protein is consumed while on a vegetarian diet.
3. Eat a variety of vegetables to ensure all essential amino acids are present daily.
4. Plant based based protein is digested and assimialted better than meat based protein.
5. Activity levels & weight loss goals help to determine the amount of protein an individual requires.

The list of vegetarian athletes is long. The list provided by John Robbins in The Food Revolution lists a few of my favorites:
Surya Bonaly - Olympic Figure skating champion
Desmond Howard - NFL player (helped define the return man, crushed my beloved
Patriots, Heisman trophy winner
Dan Milman - world champion gymnast
Martina Navratilova - champion tennis player
Bill Pearl - four-time Mr. Universe
Dave Scott - six time Ironman triathlon winner