It’s safe to say that most bodybuilders have concerns about protein.
And with the apparent protein crisis we vegans find ourselves in
at least according to the concerns of every non-vegan we encounter,
you’d think a vegan bodybuilder would be extra vigilant.
Well my guest today is a pro vegan bodybuilder who’s been
vegetarian since birth, has one of the most astounding physiques,
and has accomplished all of this without even tracking his protein.
Almost makes you think the whole protein thing is really a non-issue.
Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget.
Torre Washington is not your average bodybuilder, or even your average
vegan bodybuilder. Raised vegetarian and vegan since 1998, he’s made his gains
exclusively on plants. Let’s see how that’s working for him.
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I think he’s good.
If you want to hear about Torre’s journey to being a pro
vegan bodybuilder check out my first interview with him here.
While I had the pleasure of speaking with Torre, I had to
of course ask the question most vegans, and particularly
competitive physique athlete vegans, receive quite often: what do you eat?
With such a precisely tuned physique, you may be surprised by Torre’s
more intuitive approach to nutrition.
Emily: Well Torre I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your
schedule to be here and to share some of your experience with everyone.
Torre: I am, I think I've told you before, it's an understatement to say I'm honored
because I'm so, when I get people that want to do interviews.
It's like a nod, like wow. You know, I'm doing what I love to do and to be
recognized for it, so I’m very thankful to you Emily, I really appreciate it.
Emily: Could you kind of share in a, however you’d like, you could do it in a general way,
like what, what you eat in a day, and you can either speak to whether that shifts
around competition or not just to kind of give people an idea?
Torre: You know it's, the interesting part about that when I started out, it was more
rigid. You know, you could only eat this, you had to eat this many times, you had to
break it down to every certain amount of hours. As I progressed in my journey
and understanding of how my body works, how the human body works--we are all
unique and there's no one method that fits everyone. So, my eating
types of foods doesn't really change.
So, for example if I have--my mornings can be unique--some may, some mornings it’ll
be, because I’m not your average individual. But it comes to people that say “that’s
not for breakfast!” It’s breakfast for me. It doesn’t have to be pancakes or waffles
or scrambled tofu. It can be, for me it could be a burger, a black bean burger, or a shake
or, I don’t know, it could be beans and salsa, you know. Tostitos chips and salsa.
So, for me , like let’s just give you an average: so sometimes I’ll have, let’s
say I’ll have fruit in the morning with, I definitely I always get up and have water,
I always, I always every morning I drink sixteen ounces if not more. I love oatmeal because
in Jamaica we ate a lot of porridge, porridge is very similar but it’s usually made with
cornmeal or they make it with banana, banana meal what have you. So I love oatmeal. So
I usually have oatmeal. Sometimes I put peanut butter in there, raisins, cacao, agave, you
know, and I’ll put in there raisins or I’ll put apples or I’ll put fruit in there. That's
the one of my staples I love to have. So I love oatmeal so it’s not like, and I'm a
person that I can eat almost the same thing every day. But I don't mind switching it up.
So that's breakfast plus fruit. Sometimes I’ll have Ezekiel toast with it, sometimes
I’ll have a bowl of salad with it, or asparagus with it, then my other meal may consist of
either seitan or tofu or tempeh or beans with Japanese sweet potato. That's my one of my
favorite things, favorite potatoes. Regular white potato, or you hear of asparagus
a lot and I love asparagus, so I use asparagus, all the greens, I love spinach, I love kale,
I love romaine lettuce, leaf lettuce.
There is really nothing Vegan that I don't eat and as long as I know how to prepare it,
I’ll have it. You know and now I’m learning how to massage kale and make great salads
because I didn’t know that you had to massage it and get it to that state it needs to be
to have it more of a raw state. Because I may blanche it or cook it a little bit, just
for to get some of the added flavor to it. And then my other meals are basically similar.
I throw in doughnuts, I throw in cupcakes, I throw in vegan cookies I throw in all that
stuff because I don’t think, I’m not, I don’t think on restriction any more. I
focus more on enjoying a variety of foods to get the different nutritional value from
these different foods because sometimes you’re not getting everything. So you need to mix
it up in order to get everything. That's what I do now.
So even, I drink about a gallon and a half on a daily basis of water. So as I get closer
to a show the only changes I make, Emily, are I cut back on sweets because they're more
empty calories. Lot of time they don't carry enough nutrition I want to have. I want to
give my body more nutrition at that time. I still may have them, because I'm cutting
back on calories. I look for certain areas where it's better to cut the calories and
then it starts there, also I just found out, two days ago, that processed sugar affects
my face, like I’ll break out and so, not like fruit or agave or something like that
but more, when you get your refined white sugars and white flours.
Although I love them, my sweet tooth is huge. I'm starting to realize what it does to my
skin and so I’m cutting back a little bit. I'm not cutting it all out because I still
eat it now and then so, closer to a show I increase my water, which most people tend
to say they cut it out, I increase it. I increase my intake of vegetables, even more. You know
the raw green vegetables I increase them more. And then I don't increase protein no that’s
not something I do, I’ve never, I’ve never tracked protein, I've never tracked carbs,
I've never tracked fat I just ate. And I can look at my physique and kind of gage, ok how
much I need to eat, how much of this I need to eat and I can watch it cause I watch it
all the time, so it’s not something that I track often at all really. I think I may
have tracked it once I don’t even remember what it was just to kind of get an idea because
I had, I’ve gotten that question so much “hey man, how much protein you get in a
day?” I don’t know, you know, so, I said to myself well maybe I should track it and
just see, I don’t even remember what the number was but.
So that's all I do, I really just cut back on calories and I may increase, I increase
activity more so. Meaning, currently I don't do any cardio, for real, I may just do ten
minute warm up and then work out. If I want to get a little tighter for a show, I may add
in high intensity training interval session. Basically, I do a HIIT where I’ll do sprints.
I usually do sprints on Sunday or one day of the week. If I'm getting ready for a show
I need to get a little tighter I may add in another. Just do that and I may up my cardio
two minutes, meaning, instead of an eight to ten minute workout a eight to ten minute
warm up it may be ten to twelve minute warm up. Just a little bit, depending on how far
I started out. So if I don't make much drastic changes because I don't go that far away.
And I don’t even do protein shakes. And protein shakes, I have not done them consistently
at all it's more like here, there I’ll take them I'm not that wake up in the morning,
“I gotta get my protein shake or after this workout I've got to get my protein shake”
that's not me. I get up, “I gotta eat” after my workout “well I gotta eat, what
we going to eat, where we goin?” you know, that’s what, that’s what I’m thinking
about, I’m not thinking about gotta get this down, no I’m not thinking about that
I’m thinking about where is that next meal coming from let’s go.
Emily: Well again I just want to thank you so much for your time.
and, and for just the, the example that you set for others to kind of find this
way of life. So thank you very much.
Torre: No. Thank you I really appreciate it. It is my pleasure to
be able to share a little bit about Torre.
I hope you enjoyed hearing Torre’s approach to his nutrition. I think there’s something
to be said for the body knowing best over scales, meticulous macro calculations and
sports nutrition theories. I’d love to hear your thoughts about Torre’s more laid-back
approach. How do you handle your nutrition? Are you similarly intuitive or a compulsive
tracker? Let me know in the comments!
Be sure to check out the links to Torre’s website and social media in the video description
below so you can get connected and keep up with his work.
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Now go live vegan, settle down about your protein, and I’ll see you soon.
Oh man, what’s wrong with me? I just feel so weak today.
Ah, there it is. I’m 0.01g below my protein requirement. Pfff, No wonder!
What would I do without you?!
(kiss)