Friends in the High Places

But I’m going to eat you, because you are made of protein…

This is the second time in my life I’ve tried to go vegetarian.  The first time was in 2000.  For the past 18 months I’ve been “mostly” vegetarian, say, 80% (vegetarian during the day, meat at night 3-4 times a week).  There are plenty of successful athletes who are vegetarian (even vegan), but I haven’t figured out how to get it to work for me.  I felt like training was going well, but at the end of a hard week, I felt like I had no energy.  The same thing happened to me when I tried to go veg in 2000.  So on the recommendation of the Hulk at the local supplement store, I dramatically upped my protein intake.  What a difference!  Almost immediately, performance and strength went up, I estimate by about 20 percent.  I was eating maybe 70 grams of protein a day before, compared to about 200 grams a day now.  I’m eating more, and more often as well – about 30 grams of protein every 3 hours – but dropping some fat at the same time as increasing speed, endurance and power.  Thanks supplement guy!  But I was finding it hard to get enough protein from vegetarian sources.  I’m only interested in chickens, turkeys, pigs, fish, and the occasional cow for now, so the rest of the animal kingdom need not worry.  Of course some new things might find their way into my diet once we get to Nepal (squeek squeek), stay tuned…