GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME

“As a kid, I got three meals a day, oatmeal, miss-a-meal and no meal.”

Mr. T, actor

 

For me a typical trip to the grocery store usually includes a stop in aisle 27. That’s where they stock the shelve with oatmeal. After all, if you want to be a champion, you have to eat like a champion. If oatmeal is good enough for the winner of the Kentucky Derby, then it’s good enough for me, a marathon runner.  Check out this proverb,“It is not the horse that draws the cart, but the oats.”

Secretariat, the record setting hall of fame racehorse, ate 15 quarts of oats a day. And when it was time for a workout, to turn the oatmeal into muscle the champ did speed work. I’m not quite up to 15 quarts, I’m holding steady at one bowl of oatmeal a day. Splash in some vegan friendly milk and some berries then say grace and were ready for breakfast. I’ll use some toast and a fruit smoothie to bring my fuel tank up to full.

My speed work is done on a track near my home or on a treadmill at the gym where I also lift weights. Long runs take me to the bike path that stretches sixteen miles across town. And yoga is done in the comfort of my living room.

Time for lunch where I will share the salad bar with an elephant, rhino, hippo, bison, wildebeest, manatee, deer, whale, and yak who, like the horse, are vegans.

Eating vegan is not a new idea. Some great minds caught on to the benefits of this lifestyle many years ago. Plato, one of the big thinkers of ancient Athens said, “The Gods created certain kinds of beings to replenish our bodies; they are the trees and the plants and the seeds.”

Going vegan makes better use of water, air, and soil. Vegans live longer, have lower cancer rates, and heart disease. They also have more fun on a date.

“I personally choose to go vegan because I educated myself on factory farming and cruelty to animals, and I suddenly realized that what was on my plate were living things with feelings. And I just couldn’t disconnect myself from it any longer.” Ellen DeGeneres, entertainer

A whole bunch of athletes are now enjoying the benefits of going vegan. I like the way actor and author Pino Caruso said it, “People eat and think they will become strong as an ox, forgetting that the ox eats grass.”

Patrik Baboumian, who holds world records in power lifting, is a vegan.

Scott Jurek, one of the greatest runners of all time, is a vegan.

Venus Williams, one of the best tennis players ever, is a vegan.

And then there’s Jerry Snider, that’s me. I’m not yet a household name in the world of sports, entertainment or literature, but the game is not over yet. Meantime, please pass me the tofu fries.

Thank you.

Peace and love.

 

 

 

 

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