Going vegan is a lifestyle choice that requires a lot of commitment, especially for WWE Superstars who must maintain rigorous health care routines. Despite the challenges, several superstars have adopted a vegan lifestyle for health or ethical reasons, cutting out meat and dairy from their diets.
CM Punk: The Straight Edge Vegan
Former WWE champion CM Punk is a vocal advocate for the straight edge lifestyle, which he portrayed throughout his WWE career. He introduced veganism to his life to test his self-discipline. While he was definitely a vegan in 2012, he eventually gave up on the diet due to the pressures of being on the road. It is unclear if he ever went back to being a vegan after his time with WWE came to an end.
Punk has since retired from the WWE but he made a name for himself in the industry with his razor sharp promos and ability to push the envelope. His popularity is apparent whenever WWE holds a show in Chicago and the crowd takes over with CM Punk chants. Since his exit from the company, Punk has also been a part of UFC where he trained and fought two bouts. However, he couldn't win either.
Lita: Animal Rights Advocate
Amy Dumas, better known as Lita to WWE fans, is a passionate animal rights advocate and founded the animal charity Amy Dumas Operation Rescue and Education (A.D.O.R.E.) in 2003. She adopted a vegan lifestyle, revealing the choice during an interview in 2014 and remaining a vegan to this day.
"Another big lifestyle change is transitioning back to vegetarianism and now vegan. I was vegetarian since I was 14, and then I wasn't when I was on the road wrestling. It was just hard for me to find healthy choices, especially at that time when I couldn't punch whatever I wanted into my phone, and my phone would just take me there.
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Lita was one of the pioneering members of the women's revolution in WWE and was involved in the first three Monday Night RAW main events featuring women. In addition, she also faced Victoria in the first-ever women's steel cage match in November, 2003. Making her debut in 1999, Lita left quite an impression on the WWE universe, leaving the company as a four-time WWE Women's Champion. Lita was also associated with the Hardy Boyz as a part of Team Xtreme, while her feuds with real-life best friend Trish Stratus have produced some of the best matches in women's wrestling. She was officially inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014 and remains a dedicated animal rights activist to this day.
Maryse Ouellet: The Sultry Vegan Diva
One half of the 'Most Must-See' couple in WWE, Maryse Ouellet is a former Miss Hawaiian Tropic Canada who went on to become a professional wrestler. 'The Sultry Diva' stated that she was a vegan while re-tweeting a post from PETA in 2015. This has also been explored in the reality TV series 'Miz and Mrs', where she is the main star alongside her husband, The Miz. Maryse also tried convince The Miz to adopt vegetarianism during the reality TV show, Total Divas. During a trip to a farm, she challenged Mike to go a full week without indulging in meat. and if he succeeded, she would then eat anything he asked her to.
Maryse signed on with the WWE back in 2007 and during her time with the company became a two-time WWE Divas Champion.
Daniel Bryan: The Environmentalist Vegan
Much like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan's career in WWE has been heavily influenced by his personal life choices. His vegan diet was part of his early wrestling personas in WWE. More recently, he returned as a heel prophesising the superiority of choosing a vegan lifestyle. His on-screen character became a frenzied environmentalist who constantly berated the WWE fans for their blatant consumerism, as well as damaging the environment.
“[Vegan food] is the stuff that makes me feel good,” he once shared with Sports Illustrated. In 2012, he was awarded a Libby Award from PETA for being the Most Animal-Friendly Athlete. However, Daniel explained later in the year that he was no longer a vegan due to the complexitiy of traveling with WWE. In addition, he had also developed a soy intolerance and could not find enough non-soy vegan food.
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The Vegan Bodybuilder: Derek Tresize
Derek Tresize, a pro bodybuilder and owner of Root Force Personal Training, has won three bodybuilding contests, most notably in men’s physique in the World Natural Bodybuilding Federation. When his 5’11” figure walks on stage, he weighs 186 pounds and runs at three percent body fat.
Tresize says that he and his clients have found that their recovery between workouts improves after the vegan conversion, which he attributes to the enormous amount of nutritious, inflammation-fighting vegetables and legumes that he prescribes, but he doesn’t follow a different training regime from the average bodybuilder. The trick is nailing the diet.
Building the Vegan Plate
According to Tresize, when bulking up, he consumes about 4,500 calories per day, which isn’t an unusual amount of food for someone chasing a physique like his. That’s not difficult to hit if you’re consuming plenty of beans and greens. The exercise gets tough when he’s dieting down. At the end of his contest prep, Tresize consumes about 500 calories below his maintenance level each day-any more and he risks losing muscle. That means he devours about 2500 calories per day. That’s roughly 160 to 180 grams of protein, 300 grams of carbs, and 50 to 60 grams of fat.
Nate Diaz: Vegan MMA Star
Nate Diaz speaks about vegan diet for first time since beating Conor McGregor in UFC196 on March 5th in Vegas. McGregor was the firm favorite to win after his original opponent dropped out and Nate stepped in with only 11 days notice, however Diaz pulled a shock victory. Usually MMA fighters are preparing for upcoming fights for months in order to have the endurance and be in peak condition on the day of the fight.
Nate along with his older brother Nick say that his vegan diet has played a significant role in his success.
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"If anything, meat’s gonna slow you down", Diaz told Men’s Journal.
Even though Nate’s been vegan since 18 years old (and in the last few years mostly raw vegan), he doesn't mind that more MMA fighters jumping on the vegan bandwagon.
"People are jumping on slowly but surely," he acknowledges, adding, "but I think it’s cool. I think you’re a smarter and more intelligent fighter. Me and my brother are at the top of the game and have been for a long time. We’re obviously doing something right. Besides knowing how to kick somebody in the head, you should know how to feel good tomorrow."
Guys like Nate can feast on everything from bean-based pastas and tempeh or tofu twists on typical entrée dishes to healthful bowls of oatmeal, berries, nuts and fruits. The result of eating plant-based is more energy, fewer preserved foods slowly digesting, and a built-in less calorie-dense diet, making you far less likely to suffer from obesity and all the increased health risk factors that come long with meat/diary consumption.
And after a while, Nate promises, not only does your appetite naturally crave earthier foods, your body necessarily rejects the alternative.
"I stopped eating dairy when I was about 17 for a fight," Diaz recalls. "And about a month went by that I didn’t eat cheese or milk, and then after the fight was done I got a big bowl of Fettuccine Alfredo, and I was like, ‘Finally, I get to eat what I want.’ Then I went home and was sick and had a headache and was in and out of the bathroom for a week. That shit really messed me up. So after that cleared up, I was like, ‘OK, I don’t need that anymore.’ I felt better and realized I work better without that stuff."
Other Vegan MMA Stars
The totally animal-free diet is still quite rare amongst the majority of other MMA fighters, however there are numerous examples of great vegan MMA stars other than the Diaz brothers.
Mac Danzig, one of the first vegan pro MMA stars, made the switch about halfway through his career in the mid-2000s and was prominently featured in the 2011 documentary Forks Over Knives.
It's not just male fighters experiencing success on a plant-based diet - Heather "Hurricane" Clark is another example of a vegan MMA fighter succeeding of a vegan diet.
And there's plenty of other examples… UFC featherweight fighter Alex Caceres, who defeated Masio Fullen this past January via unanimous decision, converted to veganism within the last couple of years. Retired UFC combatant and former Ultimate Fighter welterweight winner James “Lightning” Wilks has long advocated plant-based eating. High-profile UFC signee CM Punk is a longtime vegan who also swears off any booze or intoxicants.
Common Misconceptions About Vegan Diets
- Vegan proteins are inferior: It’s fair to say that many, though not all, meat eaters have some unresolved emotions about the way a living animal makes its way to their plate. One of their popular misconceptions is the idea that vegan proteins are inferior because of they tend to be “incomplete,” which means they don’t contain quite as many essential amino acids as animal protein. That’s not always true-soy and quinoa, for instance, contain the full spectrum-and even when it is, it’s easy to combine vegan proteins to form a complete protein. It’s as simple as combining rice and beans, hummus and pita, or peanut butter and bread. “As long as you eat a mix of different protein sources, you’ll get all the amino acids you need,” Berardi says.
- Vegan diets are too high in carbs: That a vegan diet is usually pretty high in carbs when compared to their nemesis, the Paleo diet, also earns it plenty of scorn. But while a lot of carbs could be detrimental to the average, sedentary American, there’s not a shadow of a doubt that they’re very important for active people and bodybuilders, who are typically advised to eat at least twice as much carbohydrate as protein when trying to build muscle.
- Humans are designed to eat meat: The notion that we’re “designed” to eat meat is another common fallacy that doesn’t hold much water when you realize that there are countless vegans who live long, healthy lives. “None of us really have the opportunity to ask ‘the designer’ about this,” adds Berardi, and those kinds of questions are loaded and unscientific anyway.
The Principles of Building Muscle and Maintaining Health on a Vegan Diet
The cornerstones of building muscle, shredding your abs, and maintaining overall health are practically identical whether or not you’re a vegan. It barely matters. The principles of getting ripped, he explains, are to focus on minimally processed foods, limit refined sugars, eat foods that are high in nutrients for their calorie value, and make sure you’re getting protein and omega-3 fats.
Sample Vegan Meal Plan
Here’s what Tresize's day looks like:
- Afternoon Snack: A bean shake, one of his trademarks. Tresize mixes about two cups of mild-tasting beans, like cannellini or navy, with soy milk, flax meal, frozen greens, one or two scoops of protein powder, and plenty of berries.
- Dinner: Legumes with rice or sweet potatoes.
Sustaining a Vegan Diet
If you’re a vegan and you’re thinking about getting ripped, these instructions might seem simple enough, but it’s worth remembering there are practical skills that are involved as well. How will you sustain your effort over time? How will you eat so that in six weeks you’re not sick of the same foods every day? Are you going to put the time into preparing your food? Do you know how to constructively deal with hunger? Berardi’s advice: Buy a cookbook. Tresize’s advice: Fit the occasional treat into your calories. Shredding fat is a numbers game. In the end, it has nothing to do with meat.
The Downside of Pushing Veganism as a Gimmick
A personal health decision does not a superstar make. Rather, letting a superstar be themselves, or play the role in which they are most comfortable, creates a true superstar.
Daniel Bryan does not have the microphone ability, nor the charisma, to make a Vegan angle work. The gimmick is just too stupid for anyone to really make work. Clearly, the WWE is trying to play this up to get him more heat. But, choosing not to eat meat, no matter how much you rub it in someone's face, is not going to generate significant heat.
There are no pro-meat wrestlers. You can't even do an angle where you can force Daniel Bryan to eat meat. Because Bryan Danielson doesn't believe in eating meat and you'd be violating his personal beliefs as if you had tried to force CM Punk to drink a beer. There's nowhere to go with this. Especially not at a World Championship level.