Monday, April 16, 2007

Eat Your Veggies. Ride Your Bike. Be Awesome.

This blog is intended to be a resource for veggie cyclists. The more time I spent writing about vegan food and nutrition in my personal blog, the more questions I got asked about what to eat and how to prepare it. I also found myself talking about veganism and vegan issues to other bike racers more than I'd ever talked about veganism in my previous life as an animal rights activist.

I've sort of felt like the veggie stuff has outgrown my blog and this is my attempt to make room for it.

In many ways, this is a project that doesn't need to exist. Now, more than ever, there are so many resources for vegetarian and vegan athletes that I feel a little funny about throwing in my .02. Still further, there's really nothing unique or special about being vegetarian or vegan and racing your bike.

Seriously, choosing not to eat meat or animal products doesn't pose any particular difficulties or disadvantages to a cyclist over any other dietary choice. In this way, I feel sort of funny about saying there is something special or unique about being veggie and being a cyclist by creating a project aimed at veggie cyclists.

Still, I've heard stories from juniors whose coaches have told them they can't be vegan if they want to race. I get questions from long time vegans about grocery shopping and meal planning. Recently, I've seen multiple threads on cycling message boards by people looking for information on vegetarianism and cycling. Clearly, there's a desire for more resources and information.

So, the plan is this: I'm going to try less to focus on original content and more on collecting cool resources I've found. What I can offer is suggestions from spending half my life as a vegetarian, the past eight years as a vegan, and the past four as a cyclist. I'm not a doctor, a coach, or a nutritionist.

I'm not interesting in converting people or propaghandizing. I don't think veganism is necessarily morally or nutritionally superior to other diet choices. It's just different.

Mostly, I know about cooking good food, and I want to share that. There'll be lot of good food, shopping tips, meal planning, and general awesomeness.

1 comment:

Tuco said...

Similar to you - once I started getting more concerned with factory farms and found myself ranting about them on my cycling blog, I started a veggie blog so that I could rant there (though I've calmed down a bit since then).

and you're a professional book reader! We're very similar - I'm a current librarian and a former book store clerk / publishing production assistant!