CRISSI’S A LEAN BIKINI MACHINE ON GREENS
THIS Gold Coast athlete is fuelled by beans, greens, tofu and organic grains.
Bikini body builder Crissi Carvalho of Elanora cut meat, dairy and eggs out of her diet five years ago after a cancer health scare.
She survived the scare but cancer claimed her best friends’s life.
“I didn’t have it ... and had some mass cells removed ... but my best friend had a seizure and they found two brain tumours,” she said.
“We were in fitness for years, why would we have cancer? My diet is beans, greens, organic grains and my protein is beans, tofu and seitan. I have a variety.”
Founder of Vegan Fitness International, the 44-year-old now coaches vegan athletes in Australia and overseas.
Ms Carvalho said she had come across scepticism, including from coaches, but said more athletes were turning to a plant-based diet.
“No one was losing muscle mass or their status within the industry,” she said.
“I do higher carbs, moderate protein and lower fat. I never lose mass in competition prep. Most people (who eat meat) do eight to 16 weeks of prep and lose half a kilo to a kilo muscle.”
Next month Ms Carvalho will head to Ohio in the US in a bid to win the Arnold Classic bikini opens and masters titles, which she won in 2016.
She is the only vegan on the team of 20 Australians.
“(Vegans) are still a minority on the team,” she said. “It can be a little awkward. People tend to think you’re self-righteous.”
Once when Ms Carvalho was competing in Hong Kong, she shared a room with a fellow competitor who ate meat. “She said: ‘I’ll still be cooking my steak in the morning’. And I said ‘no problem’. Everyone is on a journey, I didn’t go vegan until I was 38 or 39.”