Top Nutritional Tips For The Vegan Runner

If you’re a runner, transferring to a vegan diet won’t limit your fitness. Removing animal products from a diet takes away the densest source of calories from a runner’s diet, so it’s important that you replace these calories. Make sure that for every animal product you subtract, a fat or protein is substituted in: take away the animal products from a chicken caesar salad leaves you with nothing but lettuce and croutons – you won’t be able to eat enough lettuce to provide enough calories for exercise, so make sure you’re substituting, not just removing.

Here are some helpful tips from vegan runners thriving on a plant-based diet:

Tools

You don’t need to renovate your kitchen to accommodate a vegan lifestyle. A high-quality knife, high-powered blender and maybe a spiralizer if you’re feeling fancy, will be enough to prepare great vegan dishes.   

Simplicity

Sometimes the best meals are the simplest ones. A great rule of thumb when preparing meals is the rule of three: ‘grain, bean and green’. For example, make a soup with rice, lentils and spinach, then use spices such as turmeric and cumin to give it great flavour whilst providing essential nutrients.

During a run

It’s important to top up your calories on long runs and foods like dates and brazil nuts are essentially natures energy gel-packs. They are packed with slow-release energy as well as protein and require no packaging.

Smoothies

Smoothies are a great way at packing in nutrients when you are constantly on the go. A simple breakfast smoothie can provide a densely nutrient rich dish that you can eat on the move.

Go big on salads

Going vegan usually means exchanging small, calorie heavy meals with larger nutrient heavy meals. When you make a salad, you should be eating huge salads - and we mean huge. You need to pack more onto your plate to get the necessary calories, and all those greens will be packed with nutrients to make you feel great when you step out for running events.