Some people go vegan to get a killer bikini body. Others go vegan for ethical reasons
and then get a killer bikini body and use it to promote veganism by winning pro bikini
competitions.
Okay so not a lot of people do that. But at least one does. And it….is not me…
Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. Today is the second
video in the new Vegan Athletes series and I’m excited to introduce you to a brutally
honest spitfire of a woman, Samantha Shorkey.
Samantha is a two-time winning vegan bikini athlete, certified personal trainer, the first-ever
vegan WNBF bikini pro and author of “Jacked on the Beanstalk: Plant-Based Fuel for Vegan
Athletes.” A Journalism graduate and meat-free since eight years old, she shares her tips
and experiences via her blog at JackedontheBeanstalk.com. She is also a member of the PlantBuilt vegan
muscle team and a featured blogger at MeatFreeAthlete.com.
And not to negate the value of her impressive resume, but she’s kind of a babe.
Right?
For those of you not familiar, bikini competition is one of many divisions of competitive female
bodybuilding and looks more of a lean than overtly muscular body.
So enough of me yammering on, let’s talk to the newly pro Samantha Shorkey about how
she came to be a vegan bikini competitor.
Thank you so much Samantha for taking time out of your busy schedule to be here
on the channel and share your experience with the viewers.
Thanks for having me.
Alright, so just to start off can you tell us a little bit about how and when you
went vegan?
Yeah, so it’s been a long time since I’ve eaten meat. I went vegetarian
when I was 8 years old. And basically I went vegetarian at such a young age because I grew
up in the country. My parents live in a log house on 12 acres of forest and spent a lot
of time outdoors. We had 40 or 50 deer in our backyard, kind of everyday. My mom would
feed them and I just always loved animals, so much that when I was 8 years old, I kind
of said, ‘why do we eat them when we love them so much?’, and I made the decision
to stop eating them. I was kind of a freak at school, like we would have pizza days and
it was always pepperoni pizza, and I’d be that weird kid saying, ‘can I eat your crust?’.
And you know, hot dog days where I’d have to miss out. I was definitely the freak at
school but it just stuck and I went full vegan in 2011 when I moved to Vancouver, which is
Canada’s vegan heaven. And I learned more about what was going on in the dairy industry,
and eggs as well, and realized that, hey I’m still contributing to the problem. And learned
all kinds of new ways to cook that didn’t involve dairy, and that there was just as
many awesome desserts without the eggs. Yeah, ever since I’ve felt better than ever.
So, when did you, how and when did you get into bodybuilding and eventually becoming
a pro bikini competitor?
Well, I kind of...I’d always, I guess been pretty fit, with started doing
Billy Blanks Tae Bo videos at home, VHS of course, at home years and years ago. I started
dating a personal trainer about 4 or 5 years ago, and he taught me a lot about the gym,
and how to lift weights kind of thing. Then after we broke up, I was like ‘you know,
I think it’ll feel pretty good to take it to the next level’, and see how I can do
competing. Then I started Googling ‘vegan bodybuilding’, and you know, plant based
bodybuilders, and there were some men like Robert Cheeke who’s, you know, the legend
godfather of vegan bodybuilding. But there wasn’t a whole lot of information on females,
and specifically, vegan bikini competitors. So, I was like ‘huh, maybe I should see
how I can do on my own here’, and I can be that person to provide some info for other
girls who decide to pursue the same goal.
As an athlete, a vegan athlete, and now a pro vegan athlete, how have you, what
kind of reaction do you get when you’re in the bodybuilding realm or in the gym, and
people find out that you are plant based? Like, has that, has it mainly been positive
or does it open the door to have a conversation, or just what have the reactions been for you?
Well, it’s funny, I think it all boils down to you can’t argue with results.
And my first year of competing when I started putting myself out there before I’d ever
even down a show, I was getting pretty mean comments on, you know, I’d post a before
and after, and I’d have random strangers telling me I looked anorexic or a skeleton,
and you know ‘go eat a steak!, she needs to eat a steak!’. And then, as luck would
have it, my very first show was an untested show. I was going against girls on fat burners
and hormone blockers, and some on steroids, and anavar, and all these different things,
and I won first place as a vegan in my first ever show. After that it’s amazing how I
rarely hear people say anything negative and I’ve just been on a pretty good winning streak
ever since. So, more than anything people are just really fascinated and they want to
know how I do it. And you know, of course the million dollar question that we all get,
‘well, what do you eat for protein?’, you know but, there’s protein in everything
and I eat a very typical bodybuilders style diet. It’s just I replace the dead animal
with plant based options and if anything, I feel like it works better because my digestion
runs smoother. I know girls who compete and they’re constipated for days and days and
days because all this animal protein is clogging up their intestines, whereas I’m like, ‘ahh!,
I definitely do not have that problem’, so…[laughs]
[laughs] That’s an extra bonus.
What’s coming up for you and where can people go- online or otherwise- to find you and follow
what you’re doing?
Well definitely check out my blog which is JackedOnTheBeanstalk.com and there
you can find social media links to all of my pages. And a cool thing coming up exactly
three weeks from today- I am part of the Plant Built team- I will be joining them in Austin,
TX in three weeks to compete at the Naturally Fit Supershow. And I will be doing the Pro
Bikini show. So I’m pretty excited- this is my pro show debut and I’m feeling good,
I think I can take this. I hope I don’t regret saying this later, but a huge part
of it is the attitude right? So you’ve gotta believe you're going to win. I’m feeling
pretty confident, so we’ll see. And I”m looking forwards to eating Vegan Texas Barbecue
HogFest after.
Do you offer one-on-one training for people if they’re interested?
I do. I do online coaching- I actually only train vegans- for competition coaching
or just anyone wanting to lean down or put on some muscle. Definitely shoot me an email:
sam@jackedonthebeantalk.com or check out the blog.
Thank you again so much for your time, I really appreciate it, especially with you
preparing for your first pro competition I know you're very busy so I very much appreciate
it.
Awesome. Thanks for having me!
I hope you enjoyed hearing from Samantha on her journey to being a pro vegan bikini competitor.
Stay tuned for more with with Samantha in this series including what she eats in a day
and her thoughts on body image in the bodybuilding community.
Now I’d love to hear what you thought about Samantha’s story- let me know in the comments!
And definitely go check out her blog or better yet her pro debut on June 6th in Austin, Texas.
I’ll have all of her links in the video description.
If you enjoyed this look into the life of a vegan bikini pro, give the video a big thumbs
up and share it around to show what kind of body plants can build! If you're new here, do
hit that big red subscribe button down there for more awesome vegan content every Monday,
Wednesday, and some Fridays and not to miss out the on the rest of the Vegan Athlete series.
If you want to help support Bite Size Vegan, check out either of the support links in the
video description below or click on the Nugget Army icon or the link in the sidebar. Now
go live vegan, get jacked on the beanstalk, and I’ll see you soon.
We all know who has the REAL bikini body!
You’re just inspiring vegans left and right with your beauty!
You did a good job on the video.
You worked very hard!