Lee beefs up without meat
Bodybuilder shows Samoans vegans can build muscle Rugby star tackles vegan lifestyle
Most bodybuilders pack in copious amounts of red meat and chicken to build muscle, but Lee Ah Yen Faatoia has to do things a little differently as a vegan.
The 34-year-old’s lifestyle change two years ago has worked for the graphic designer, who has lost 36kg on the scales but gained muscle.
The Auckland man said the deaths of five relatives from dietrelated diseases, all under the age of 60, gave him and his family a wake-up call.
Since he became vegan in 2015, six relatives have followed suit after observing the impressive results.
Faatoia, who has Chinese and Samoan heritage, wants the Polynesian community to be exposed to more examples of healthy eating.
“I grew tired of seeing my relatives die from heart attacks, diabetes and cancer.
“Most Polynesians are always concerned that they’ll lose strength and size if they become vegan. This is my way to contribute to my community, by explaining and showing them you can be big without meat.”
When Faatoia began seriously training at the beginning of this year his 1.88m frame dropped from 127kg to 91kg and he packed on the muscle.
He intends to enter his first bodybuilding competition in 2019. Former All Black Eroni Clarke has gone vegan to save his health.
The 48-year-old father of five — along with his wife and two youngest children — is swapping a meat-heavy diet for lean greens.
Fifteen years ago when he finished playing, Clarke weighed 103kg. He packed on about 50kg more and knew he had to change.
“I’m a Samoan, for us there’s no holds barred really. I love my carbs. I love my Island food. I’m a heavy protein eater. Takeaways, fast food was my thing as well.”
“I think the challenge for me was really seriously thinking about ‘am I going to be around to enjoy the next 40, 50 years of my life with my children and grandchildren?’ Obviously I’m getting close to my 50s now and that’s a big question,” he said.
“I’ve put a long term goal in place that by the time I’m 50 — in 2019 — He can’t bulk up earlier because he has to maintain his current size for an American TV series he’s acting in at the end of the year.
He devours up to 4000 calories a day without eating meat. This includes a 1000-calorie 1L smoothie of four bananas, mango, raspberries, passionfruit and water every morning. When bulking up (adding muscle) this balloons to 5000 calories and when he’s shredding (losing fat and water weight) he’ll eat as few as 1000 a day.
“I get protein from broccoli, cauliflower, chickpeas, a lot of beans and I want to do an Ironman. I want to do the Coast to Coast before I’m 50.”
Clarke and his wife Siala had tried other diets before and had talked about going vegan.
But it was a conversation with another Pacific Island man who is a vegan, that really sparked his interest.
“It kind of really resonated with me. Meat is something to me that’s been a big part of my diet for so long — I really needed a complete change.”
When they broke the news to their kids the older three looked at them with “huge bewilderment“.
With help from his vegan colleague and a nutritionist, Clarke and Siala came up with a meal plan.
The couple have also signed up to be Safe ambassadors, who speak at lentils, quinoa. There’s actually quite a lot in them,” Faatoia told the Herald. “I really love eating my vegetables, lucky for me I love my broccoli.”
Currently, Faatoia exercises for three hours a day, six days a week, often rising at 4am to squeeze in his intense workouts. He includes boxing and martial arts in his training as he doesn’t want to be “big for nothing”. Now he feels younger and more energetic than he has since his teen years.
“It’s quite funny because I’m 35 this year. I still play basketball with For a video go to nzherald.co.nz media and attend events on behalf of the charity and speak out about issues affecting animals.
Although cutting out meat would be a big change, Clarke was excited about the new foods he’d be trying.
“The biggest comfort I think too is that I’m not doing this alone. It’s my wife and I that are doing this together and she’s usually the chef of our family, so that might help things out as well,” he said.
While they were certain to get some raised eyebrows and questions about going vegan, the people they’d told so far — including some of his rugby mates — had been supportive, Clarke said.
“There’s that respect. They understand and they know we all need to make changes.”
— Brittany Keogh some younger guys and my stamina is way stronger than theirs. It’s great, I feel like I’m younger. Not mentally, just my body.”
A key part of his philosophy Faatoia wanted to emphasis was this quote he holds dear — “It’s nice to be important but it’s important to be nice”. He said that message underpinned the fundamentals of veganism as not using animal products was the kindest thing you could do for all creatures.
“That’s the whole point of veganism, it’s important to be kind and nice to everyone.”