I've been a vegan
since the beginning of the season more or less.
At the beginning I wanted to try it for a couple of weeks,
kinda to like detox my body and stuff,
but I just felt so great after it, that I,
you know I've been for like more than six months now.
For me the most important things,
it's like the inflammation in the body after the games
and in the speed that my body recovers compared to before.
And you know I always had a little bit of problems
with my ankles when I had played very hard games,
and they would get a bit inflammated,
then they would be very stiff,
and now it's like I don't even have to
strap them to play anymore,
it doesn't just make a difference in your body,
but I think, I strongly believe that
you know what we do to earth we get it, paid it back.
Getting rid of all the food that I was eating
and then going into plant based diet,
it did take those few days to actually feel better,
but then when it got to like beginning of the third week,
or however that week, I just felt so good,
and I was waking up in the mornings
and I had so much energy,
where as before I used to be that person that would snooze
the alarm like five times before I got out of bed.
And people say, like being a vegan,
the only thing you can eat is salad, or this and that.
When you think protein, you think chicken,
you think steak, you think all these things,
but actually there are so many things,
like you have your legumes, you have your dried nuts,
all this stuff that actually has so much protein,
but we're just not used to eat it that often.
As a professional athlete you have to be very
almost technical with what you are eating,
like you need to make sure
that your intakes are on point every day,
it's kinda like when I go out,
if there's not a vegan meal on the menu,
you know, I know what to ask for,
I know how to, how to make it work for me.
Players like Nacho Monreal, I hang with him a lot,
and even Koscielny, they always tell me,
Hector, where's the meat on your plate,
why are you not eating meat today, and stuff like this,
they always try and put that meat on my plate,
and stuff like this, and you know,
it's all fun and it's all good.
If this is a way for people to like actually see
that you can be an athlete and you can do it,
and that kinda opens doors for other people,
of course I would do it to help them.