I love my wife! I've been a Buddhist (officially, LOL) for five years and it was not until she decided to go vegetarian that I had the cojones to try it myself. Yes, I read all the same books about our meat supply and how really nasty it is, how much waste goes into its production, all the hormones used in growing the cattle, etc etc. I still held out because I believed that the only way to stay fit was to eat meat.
I believed that in order to fulfill my boddhisatva vow to save all sentient beings, I had to eat a few sentient beings now and then, because it was necessary to maintain muscle strength so I could carry big guns and wear a heavy equipment whilst carting rather surely characters to the pokey. Then one day my wife said she abandoned meat because it was like eating suffering. Wow, that was like getting hit in the face with a plank! She never took the precepts nor the boddhisatva vow, but I swear she is a better buddhist than me!!
So, after picking around the edges, I decided I could no longer eat animals. Thanks to the wonders of Google I found a number of web sites profiling vegetarian athletes.
ESPN has an excellent article entitled: "Who says you have to eat meat to be a successful athlete?" by Jonah Keri. Mr. Keri Profiles a variety of successful professional athletes who also happen to be vegetarian. My personal favorite is the profile of Mac Danzig, MMA pro.
Researching Mac Danzig lead me to Mike Mahler's website. Mr. Mahler is a vegetarian strength athlete that trained Mr. Danzig.
And, in case there was a need for appropriate recipes: The No Meat Athlete is an excellent resource.
In order to test the vegetarian diet for myself, I will be doing Crossfit workouts, while maintaining strict dietary discipline. Let's see how it goes!
