"I don't feel like meat eaters have an edge on me. Different things work for different people."
“Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar,” CrossFit Founder and CEO, Greg Glassman advised in World Class Fitness in 100 Words.
Determined to fuel her workouts with the right foods, long-time vegetarian, Jenn Halvorson listened to Glassman’s advice. However, she made one change. Instead of meat, she eats plant-based proteins.
The 33-year-old from CrossFit St. Paul in Minnesota has been a vegetarian for nearly half her life. She’s quick to explain she doesn’t do it for health reasons.
“I think doing it for health is misguided. I still believe eating meat is beneficial, and if you eat high quality meat you’re probably better off,” Halvorson explains. “I do it for the animals. When I was growing up I was always trying to get my mom to stop for hurt animals on the side of the road.”
At 19, she decided she wouldn’t leave them dead on her plate, either.
Although she doesn’t believe her diet is ideal for performance, her numbers aren’t shabby. The 150-pound athlete has a 255-lb. back squat, 303-lb. deadlift, 200-lb. bench press and 4:48 Fran. It has made her confident that people unwilling to eat meat can still do well at CrossFit.
“I don’t feel like meat eaters have an edge on me. Different things work for different people,” she says. “Get to know your proteins and keep a good track of what you eat.”
She eats four meals a day and pays specific attention to the breakdown of macronutrients.
“My meals are 40/30/30: carbs, protein and fat,” she says.
This is a typical day for Halvorson:
Breakfast – three eggs, three strips of tempeh bacon, one apple
Snack- coconut, dates, seaweed
Lunch - baked tofu, salad (lettuce, tomato, onions, olives) with olive oil and vinegar
Post-workout shake- almond milk, whey protein, spinach, strawberries and half a banana
Dinner - Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, tempeh (cooked in coconut oil) and salad
Daily block total - 19 blocks of carbs, 14 blocks of protein and 17 blocks of fat.
Earlier this year, Halvorson and her team made the cut for the 2012 North Central Regional. CrossFit St. Paul finished in 22nd place. The difference between Halvorson and her teammates, she believes, wasn’t athletic. It’s simply not convenient being a vegetarian among carnivores.
“The biggest difference between me and my teammates was that I had to go to the store everyday,” she says. “Everything else at Regionals was full of meat.”
Despite the slight inconvenience of packing food and bringing veggie burgers to grill outs at her box, Halvorson makes it work. She even takes part in food challenges. “No grains and no processed sugar is my version of the paleo challenges the rest of the community does.”
She says she’s not trying to teach anyone how to eat, but simply figuring out a way to stick to what she believes in while following the fitness program she loves.
“I’m not here to change the world through what I eat,” she says. “I do what's best for me.”
