The Vegan Gym Podcast

During a Zoom call with our clients, one of them, Michael, talked about how he often struggles with comparing himself to others. Towards the end of week 4 of our Vegan Superhero Academy coaching program, he was stretching after a workout and feeling super proud of all the progress he had made, but then he began scrolling through social media and comparing himself to others. He began thinking, "But I don’t look like that guy" and "I wish I was as strong as that guy." And then he caught himself thinking those defeating thoughts and told himself, "No, this is not the kind of conversation that I want to have in my head." We had an amazing conversation with Michael and the rest of our Vegan Superhero Academy clients about comparing yourself to others and we wanted to share some powerful takeaways from this conversation with you.Support the show

There are many common “broscience” myths in the fitness industry that have zero scientific merit. One of the most well-known bodybuilding myths is the idea that your body can only absorb a limited amount of protein from a single meal. Well, the truth is that your body can absorb nearly an unlimited amount of protein into the bloodstream. The more accurate question (that actually does have scientific merit) is, “how much absorbed protein can your body use from a single meal to build muscle?” Or in more technical terms, “what amount of protein maximally stimulates the postabsorptive rates of myofibrillar muscle protein synthesis?” That's the question we'll answer in this episode.Support the show

In this episode, we’re going to cover 6 lessons that I learned while training for my Ironman. Most of these are lessons that I re-learned or reinforced (they’re not groundbreaking new things) but my hope is that you take away a meaningful nugget or two from these lessons that you can apply to your own fitness journey.Support the show

IRONMAN Maryland 2021 was an exciting, challenging experience. In this episode, I'll tell you how it felt to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run 26.2 miles (140.6 miles total) in a single day.Support the show

We made a post on Instagram a few days ago with what turned out to be a pretty polarizing idea. The post said, “It’s not fat. It’s not carbs. It’s not sugar. It’s not alcohol. If you’re not losing weight, it’s because you’re eating too many calories. Period.”The post got nearly 8,000 likes and lots of positive feedback, but we also got slammed by a bunch of people. We got comments like, “this is false information,” “my thyroid says this is fake news,” and “this is very toxic and harmful information.”First of all, science is not fake news. But let’s forget science for a second and talk about the beliefs that these people hold. Do these beliefs empower or imprison them? Is telling yourself that energy balance is “fake news” actually constructive towards your goals? Or is that belief actually holding you back from building the body and confidence that you deserve?More broadly, do your beliefs about health and fitness empower or imprison you? Do you tell yourself that you’ll never be comfortable in your own skin? Do you tell yourself that you won’t ever be able to run a half marathon, deadlift your body weight, or complete some other athletic achievement that you would love to be able to do? Do you tell yourself that you aren’t fit enough to go to the gym? Do you tell yourself that you don’t have time to make healthy meals and move your body?As Henry Ford famously said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.”Support the show

Before starting The Vegan Gym, I worked as an engineer and ran a supply chain software startup with two friends from university. At the time, I felt like our startup was the surest path to success, at least financial success, but over the 18 months that I was involved in this business, I developed a burning passion for vegan fitness. I spent every minute of my free time writing vegan fitness articles and all I wanted to do was help vegans get healthy and fit. In this episode, I’ll share the most important lesson I have learned along my entrepreneurial journey, which is the same lesson that allowed me to fall in love with fitness over a decade ago. I hope it helps you too!Support the show

Until recently, peer-reviewed scientific literature actually supported the idea that you should consume protein as soon as possible after a workout. However, a recent meta-analysis that reviewed the data from twenty of these protein timing studies unveiled a common flaw among these studies’ designs. In this episode, we'll discuss the latest protein timing research and tell you exactly when to consume protein to get the most out of your diet and training.Support the show

When it comes to fitness, most people in the world need to be doing more. But if you’re putting in the effort and not seeing the progress you want, then there’s a chance that you are actually overtraining.Support the show

“The more we try to stay comfortable today, the more uncomfortable we'll be tomorrow.” - Gary John BishopSupport the show

Your body deserves that you treat food as fuel, not the enemy. It executes trillions of biochemical reactions every second of every day to keep you alive and healthy. And all it asks of you is for you to feed it the right raw materials (food) a few times per day.Support the show