#VeganWeek Interview: Triathlete Brendan Brazier (and Vega Giveaway!)

This will be a packed post, so be sure to read all the way through to learn how YOU can take part in #VeganWeek today and win an awesome pack of vegan goodness.

But first…many of you know that I am a triathlete — I have completed several sprint distance events and one Olympic distance (catch up on my races here). That means that I am hyper-aware of how my healthy living lifestyle impacts my athletic performance.

That sounds lofty…let’s just say, I know that eating fruits and veggies makes me go faster, even when I am craving s’mores and peanut butter sammies.

Anywho, when I was in Boston for the Healthy Living Summit, I received a box of Vega smoothies, as well as Brendan Brazier’s book, “Thrive.” The book is a story of Brendan’s journey from carnivore to vegan, and has amazing recipes, tips and more.

So, when Michelle and I first started our #VeganWeek challenge, I knew I needed to reach out to Brendan to see if he’d be willing to talk to me — and he WAS!

So, here is my interview with Brendan…enjoy!

SillyTaterTot.com: Interview with vegan triathlete Brendan Brazier from Kathryn Widrick on Vimeo.

Brendan Brazier is a vegan triathlete, with a great book and a business that’s all about healthy living. For my #VeganWeek challenge, I interviewed him to get his thoughts on how our diets can affect our athletic performances.

Brendan Brazier is a vegan triathlete, with a great book and a business that’s all about healthy living. For my #VeganWeek challenge, I interviewed him to get his thoughts on how our diets can affect our athletic performances.

If you don’t feel like listening, here are some of the highlights:

• He struggled with making the change to a vegan diet, and says it took him a year and a half to really embrace it!
• He discovered that his triathlon training and performance was much better once he gave up animal products, and started telling friends and even competitors about his new diet.
• Once he saw how interested people were, he started sharing his recipes and smoothie ideas, and that’s what eventually became the Vega products and his books.
• He’s not doing long-distance triathlon anymore, but loves training and loves the sport — and he agrees that anyone can do triathlon!

And Brendan has a new book that’s just out in Canada and will be out in the States in January:

Cute, huh? Sorry, Lucas. (Oh, and side note — for those of you wondering how my dear husband is handling the whole #VeganWeek thing…he’ll be doing a guest post here in the coming days to talk about her his((edited: um. oops.)) experience!)

Now to the good stuff.

Want to try a Vegan challenge of your own? Here’s a quick refresher. Vegan means:

**No animals.

**No animal products, including eggs, butter, cheese, etc.)

If you want to join in, whether it’s for the whole day or just one meal, join the ranks. Blog about your vegan meal(s), and link back to both Eating Journey and Silly Tater Tot in your post. Then come back and post your blog link in the comment section of THIS POST. The one you’re on right now. If you write more than one post about your vegan meals, leave one comment for EACH post.

Do this by midnight eastern time (USA) TONIGHT — Thursday, November 19th, and you’ll be entered to win a super-cool prize pack from the awesome folks at Vega. That’s right, Brendan’s goodies could be yours! (That sounds dirty.)

And guess what? You can do the same thing at Michelle‘s blog and get another chance to win. We’re so generous.

If you can stand to see more (Niecy Nash, anyone?), remember:

• The Glo Bakery giveaway is open until Friday at 7pmET.
• You can tweet about your Vegan-4-a-Day participation by using #VeganWeek. Be sure to follow me and Michelle on Twitter while you’re there!
• If you’re just finding out about this, check my Vegan Week page here and Michelle’s here.
• We’ll have more exciting posts through the weekend, so be sure to check back!

Tagged as: Silly Tater Tot, Silly Tater Tot