Ep 256 – “The Vegan Diet Saved My Life” (Coach Alice’s Story)

In this episode, Coach Alice shares her deeply personal journey from growing up as a chronically ill child with exercise-induced asthma and ulcerative colitis to becoming a vegan bodybuilder, strongwoman athlete, and coach at Vegan Proteins.

Alice opens up about how years of struggling with inflammation, restrictive dieting, and digestive issues eventually led her to veganism, a change she says completely transformed her quality of life. She also discusses discovering bodybuilding during COVID, winning her bikini pro card in 2024, competing with PlantBuilt, and later transitioning into strongwoman training.

The conversation also dives into body image, learning to embrace growth phases, the importance of self-care, and why coaching is about far more than just weight loss. This is an inspiring episode about resilience, health, confidence, and finding purpose through fitness.

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TRANSCRIPT

Ben (00:00)
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Vegan Proteins Muscles by Brussels Radio. name is Ben.

Alice (00:05)
And I’m Alice.

Ben (00:06)
Thank you for tuning in to another week. So today I’m going to be talking to Alice about her personal health and fitness journey and eventually leading up to how she got into coaching and working here at Vegan Proteins on our team. But before we get into really the nitty gritty of everything, Alice, how’s your week going? Did you have a nice weekend?

Alice (00:27)
I’m used to going pretty well. I just, let’s see, this weekend we went out and got really dorky and played Dungeons and Dragons with some friends. And Saturday, I feel like we were just trying to catch up on life. know, everything falls behind throughout the week. Saturday not too exciting, but Sunday was really, really nice.

Carson and I have been getting into D &D, trying to find a new way to be social and a new way to get out of our phones and just really like use imagination. So that’s been a fun adventure. And as a person who used to play WoW, that World of Warcraft, it’s sort of like right up my alley, but at least it’s like attached to a computer screen, like so much else of what we do.

Ben (01:17)
Totally. I had a lot of friends who were into playing D &D and would run campaigns. And I used to play Magic the Gathering with my brother. And so that was a really nice way to just get more in-person interaction. And we would go to these tournaments when we were like, I was 15, he was 13. And so our dad would drive us all over New England to go play at these tournaments. And we’d just sit down at a table. And I remember I would always get…

these stomach aches because I would play for like eight hours straight and not eat anything. like, if you were in prep or something, that’d kind of be a little bit of a hack because it just takes you, I have this conversation with people sometimes, the busier you are, I find that the less concerned you are with food. And I think maybe that’s one of the reasons that my prep was actually maybe a little more challenging was I was just like sitting at a gym desk the whole time being, sometimes it was busy and that was the good time when it was busy.

Alice (01:49)
⁓

Ben (02:12)
but then when it was slower and I was just like looking at the clock waiting for my next meal, like that’s the worst when you’re just like staring at the clock waiting, waiting, waiting. But if you find ways to keep yourself busy, whether that be, I know you used to do like Pokemon Go with your steps, which I think kind of makes it more fun and goes by, or you know, if you get really into a game or something, some sort of activity that’s not food related and there’s so many of those, it just makes the time fly so much faster.

Alice (02:39)
Yeah, I can totally see you and Charlie, Charlie, right, doing that. I love that. I never played magic. I played Yu-Gi-Oh for a little stint with my brother. That was fun.

Ben (02:43)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it’s a ton of fun. Yeah,

it’s good to get those interactions to be able to, I think, express your creative side a little bit more. I feel like I don’t identify as somebody who’s, I guess, I think of creative in the traditional sense of like music and painting and that sort of thing. Whereas my girlfriend is very much that way. And so I’m always like, I’m not creative. But then she’s like, you are. It’s just in different ways that aren’t.

typical like I like to be creative with programming maybe for training or thinking about different ideas, maybe novel ideas related to fitness. So I think we can get into talking about the topic for today, which is you, Alice. So this is the last of our kind of coaching interviews and I’ve had some people say they’re really excited to hear yours.

because they don’t know too much about you. think when you’re working with a coach, obviously you get to learn more about them, but we don’t always know about the other coaches on the team or kind of what they’re up to and their background. So I’d love to just start by asking you a little bit about growing up, did you play any sports? Was that kind of something that was a part of your life or was it more so you got into lifting weights as one of the like first kind of physical endeavors later in life? What was kind of that journey like for you?

Alice (04:03)
Yeah, so no, I did not grow up playing any sports. have kind of the opposite of that. I grew up as a very sick child. That’s how I would describe myself. I had first and foremost, like activity induced asthma, which I don’t think a lot of people have heard of like that, but it’s exactly what it sounds like. Exercise brings on asthma attacks. So.

That’s what I mean as far as like the opposite. I was one of those kids that like kind of like feared PE and it was as fascinating. Now as an adult, I know that there were also a lot of undiagnosed allergies that went on with that. And the reason it went so undiagnosed is because all of my symptoms presented as like coughing. So I didn’t have the traditional like sneezing runny nose problem like my brother did, right?

All my siblings, we all have allergies, I think. so yeah, I would get a cough and have a cough like all the way from like the fall, late summer into the spring when it finally got warm out again. And I would just sort of stay sick. Not to make it too dramatic, but like I would get like co-infections like bronchitis and whooping cough and croups. like…

literally the opposite. I think maybe, I hope this isn’t the same way for like younger generations, but like, I really, really dreaded PE because like, people didn’t really have like mercy on you as an adult to a child. If you were sick, right? Unless like, especially if it was something like a cough, you know, or kids are just always sick, right? kids are always catching something.

It was beyond that and I think it was even worse because my dad was a doctor and anyone who has parents in healthcare has probably experienced this. You don’t get any medical attention for anything unless it’s just really bad, unless it’s clear you broke a bone or something. So no, no, no sports whatsoever. But finally, around 14 years old is when

my mom started taking me and my siblings to the gym. And that’s also about the time, like, you know, when you get into high school and your PE class, like eventually they do take you into a gym session. And so was around that time, like, wow, finally something that I actually enjoy, that’s something physical, right? And so because of my…

mom taking us and it being very family oriented it was very positive for me. I ⁓ was very consistent in going to the gym pretty much my entire life and I’d say like I don’t know do you want to talk I kind of get right into like the bodybuilding introduction you think that’s okay.

Ben (06:52)
Yeah, yeah, I was curious when you say go to the gym, were you starting out doing like lifting weights or was it more cardio? And did you see were there other women lifting weights at that same time as well?

Alice (07:03)
Yeah, so, okay. I was definitely lifting weights, but definitely was not lifting heavy enough. But so do you have a little bit more background? We went to like the YMCA, right? And I don’t know if anyone goes to the Y when you first start, you get two free like personal trainer sessions. The first one is just like asking like your goals and stuff. And the second one, like you can go into the gym and like they’ll the trainer will show you whatever you kind of want or they might write you a program.

For me, I was just like, can you just show me what to do? And so they took me through the circuit and I learned how to use all the Cybex machines. And from there on out, that was like my main thing. I would lift weights with like the Cybex machine style things and I loved it. Yeah, there was some cardio involved because of course it’s like, you’re a female, you must do cardio, rah rah rah. But.

I was definitely wasn’t my favorite thing. I did it and I will say the positives from the cardio that I did, did help me like overcome that activity induced asthma eventually as a young adult. So yeah, it was good things. No, there were, I would not say that there were other women lifting, but that never really bothered me. I never looked around and was like, huh, why am I the only female?

Ben (08:18)
That’s really cool that you were able to get some of the like cardio adaptations as well from lifting and that kind of helping some of that exercise induced asthma. I know for myself, you know, I grew up playing more cardio based sports and then getting into lifting weights. I found that it was still challenging those, those pathways. Like I would still get to the end of like a really heavy or hard set and I’d be, you know, I’d be breathing pretty heavily and pretty hard and

When I go and do cardio now, like I can just go for a run or do something that’s a little bit more strenuous. And I know for some people who lift, that’s not the case. Like some people who are lifters and they try to go to do cardio and they’re like, my God, this sucks. This is the worst. So I wonder if there is somewhat of the fact that like ultimate frisbee for instance, that is some of the best conditioning that I’ve ever done because you are just running around nonstop. So maybe there’s still some like

Alice (09:04)
Mm.

Ben (09:12)
lingering effects from that and the conditioning there. But I will say, I feel like lifting to a certain extent has made my cardio better because now when I go, like recently I’ve been walking on the incline on the treadmill and I’ll jack it up to like 15 on the incline and like see how far I can push the pace. And I’m surprised that like I can push the pace pretty hard and like regulate my breathing. So I do think lifting won’t give you all of the benefits of like intentional cardio.

but it will give you a lot. So I really feel like that’s another reason why we always say like, if you’re going to do one thing lift weights.

Alice (09:46)
Yeah, absolutely, totally agree. I’m glad that you were able to experience that through the ultimate frisbee. That’s so cool. That’s so cool. Your background. I wish I was sports, besides I had a very, short stint with like roller skating. But other than that, yeah, that didn’t last long.

Ben (09:52)
Yeah, yeah, yes, I know.

So then

how did it transition from you’re doing the circuits on the Cybex machines and you’re lifting weights into, you said you realized that you weren’t lifting heavy enough at a certain point. So when did you really realize that and how did that change the way that you were training?

Alice (10:20)
Yeah, so it was during COVID, I’d say that I started getting really curious about bodybuilding. And it’s kind of funny because yeah, during COVID, I know that there was this big push on social for women to start lifting. But at the time, like, I was purposefully off of all social media. So I still was like, I must have I must have seen some had some kind of influence, you know, some other way. I don’t know. I don’t know the answer to that. But I ended up

ordering Derek Tresize’s book because I was vegan at the time and I think it’s the vegan muscle and fitness guide something like that his book that ended up leading me to Robert Cheeke and his newsletter and eventually through Robert Cheeke’s newsletter I found Vegan Proteins became a client that you know really long story short

helped me realize that I wanted to become a coach and that led to me eventually working for Vegan Proteins and learning of course going through the bodybuilding journey with Vegan Proteins and won my pro card as a bikini athlete in 2024 and then also just did my first strong woman competition in January, so it built a lot happened really really fast and here I am today and just like

loving the athlete life.

Ben (11:37)
Well, it’s cool to see that that natural progression. And I think, you know, it sounds like you fell in love to a certain extent, or at least liked going to the gym enough to like keep doing it all the while. And then you got to a certain point where you wanted to know more and you wanted to do more as well. so ⁓ was working with Vegan Proteins and with Dani and going through kind of your first competition. I know that when you first started,

⁓ you did a, a build with, with Dani, like prior to doing your first competition season. was that where you feel like that skill of like really lifting heavy and lifting hard was developed during that kind of first build, which then allowed you to, ⁓ develop kind of the muscle mass for your, your first prep. Did I get that timeline right?

Alice (12:21)
Yeah, yeah. Well, I’d say just like so many other people started out doing like more of a cut and trying to put on muscle at the same time as losing body fat. And I saw great results. I got a lot of new muscle very quickly. I was really excited to learn how to use a barbell and really start to figure out what it meant to lift heavy.

I found that I’m actually really strong and a lot stronger than I ever thought possible. And yeah, it just progressed really, really sort of typically in that fashion. Like you do the fat loss first and it’s like, I want more muscle than this. so learning through experience that really, if you want to really move that needle, like you got to gain some weight.

So it went through that whole process and that build was a little over a year. So it was pretty significant. And yeah, thankfully it was enough to win my pro card.

Ben (13:25)
Was that something you struggled at all with was going through that first build was that I know that’s tough for a lot of women is like intentionally committing to that weight gain in the pursuit of adding muscle or was it something for you where it’s like, I know this is necessary for my goals to compete and so I’m going to do it. And I’m actually curious. How did you like make that decision from like, I want to put on more muscle or I want to be leaner, like just kind of more body composition focused to like, ⁓ now I actually want to compete. Like what kind of spurred that for you?

Alice (13:53)
Well, I mean, I had the urge, definitely the fascination to compete. mean, the moment I ordered Derek Tresize’s book, like you look at the front of that and there him and his wife, clearly bodybuilders. Right. And so I knew enough about him that it was like, this is something that might be in my future. And so that was kind of just this lingering interest and going pursuing the first cut wasn’t necessarily like, I’m doing this cut.

in order to compete right now. But being able to see how much my body changed and then see again that you are capable of going through a dedicated gaining weight phase and do it in a way that your body still looks amazing. You feel stronger, you feel more energized. You can still be gaining weight and your labs improve.

You know, like witnessing that like firsthand, like I never, you know, I didn’t always have the greatest relationship with food or with my body, but it definitely for me was something of like a positive and healing experience. Yeah, I’d definitely say that like bodybuilding has made me like learn to love and appreciate my body more than anything.

Ben (15:10)
I’m totally with you on that. think you come to just see yourself at different sizes and different body compositions and you’re, you maybe are a little bit uncomfortable at times, but then you kind of just get used to it. I think to a certain extent, the more that you do it and the more that you do the inner work alongside that to, know, to be okay with yourself and recognize like, okay, my value is not tied to the way that I look or the way that my body looks. And I’m doing this because I’m either chasing a goal or I want to kind of just like.

experiment and see what I like. And I think that’s a really powerful message for women out there too, to be saying that, you know what, you can actually gain weight. It’s okay to gain weight and you can actually look better. You can be healthier. You don’t have to, you know, shrink or be smaller. You can, you know, you can build and that’s okay to, you know, for everyone to have their own goals and their own, you know, definition of what, you know,

healthy looks like for them or what strong looks like for them. think that’s really empowering for probably a lot of people out there who are maybe scared of going down that path.

Alice (16:10)
Absolutely, and you know, I do work with a lot of women coming looking to build muscle and eventually we end up on a build and there are definitely uncomfortable moments, you know, the first time you’re going through it, it’s hard to wrap your head around because we’re literally like doing something that goes against what society has programmed us to do, but then we experience it and

maybe by the time we get through the build and come back down a little bit for another cut, know, like we look, they look back and it’s like, wow, look at the changes. I feel so much different. I feel so much more confident. I have feel so much more self-acceptance. It’s not, it’s not overnight, but ⁓ it’s definitely like something very, very powerful that I recommend. I recommend to a lot of you ladies listening.

Ben (16:56)
I feel like that’s also one of the reasons why it’s so important to not only talk the talk, but to walk the walk as a coach so that you can put yourself in your clients perspective and in their shoes and say like, I’ve been here, I know how it feels, it’s going to be okay, like this is what we’re going to do. them like seeing you as also like the physical example of like, yeah, Alice, she looks amazing, like I can do it too. And of course, everyone’s gonna have their own journey, but I think it’s just nice to be able to.

have somebody by your side who’s going to ⁓ say, I’ve walked down this path and I’m going to help you do it too. So going back to the bodybuilding topic, you embark on your first competition prep, you go through that process, you end up winning your pro card, which is amazing and I’m sure it was a fantastic feeling. Talk us through kind of like how that was for you, your first season.

maybe some kind of takeaways that you had, lessons that you learned and just overall like, know, what you thought about the process and did it make you want to say, you know, I want to compete again or was it something that’s like, you know, I’m maybe going to take a break from this for a little while. Like what did you kind of walk away from that season concluding?

Alice (18:03)
Yeah, so I won my pro card and I got invited to be on the Plant Built Vegan Strong team. And this was like, you so many things were coming into reality that I had wanted for so long. And I was like, there’s no way that I can turn this down, right? So I knew for one that I wanted to do my pro debut show. So I got, I literally like, just a few weeks after.

winning my pro card. went and competed in Georgia. That was a really positive experience. I won third place in my class. So still walked home with a trophy. I was just like, man, so much validation. This is so positive. And the only problem with me competing with the Vegan Strong Plant Built team is that it was such a long way away. I think at the time you and I were talking about that and it’s like, man, we’ve a

we’re gonna do this like that’s gonna be that’s gonna be a long like trying to maintain and then maybe cut again and but i i knew that i would regret it if i didn’t so i i did it you know i went and i competed at Yorton Cup and i competed at Mr. America i had been lean for too long it was very very challenging and i’d say like i learned more

lessons and takeaways from like that portion of the competition season than anything else. And especially like afterwards and the recovery process from that. Even more just learning about like what being too lean for too long can do to you like hormonally. And I think that that has led me to be able to help so many women

in perimenopause and postmenopause because the process of getting your hormones back in line is very similar in my opinion. lots and lots of takeaways. like just not that I ever thought to myself, I want to stay competition lean forever, like, whoo, now I have lots of ammunition that is like, no, you definitely don’t want that.

Is that good?

Ben (20:13)
I feel the same way. mean, you know, we were kind of on similar trajectories and paths there and I couldn’t even, you I was planning to compete at Mr. America and I didn’t even end up making it because I was so burnt out and like so psychologically fatigued that I had to, you know, had to tap out before it got any worse. And I think that like you, had I stopped my season in the spring, I think my reverse test recovery would have been very smooth. was feeling still pretty like, you know, I was grinding, but I felt like, you know what,

I, it’s like, I still had control around food. I still, it was like, you know, okay, I don’t mind doing this bodybuilding stuff, but then drag it out to the fall. And I’m like, you know, training isn’t that fun anymore. I want to eat everything in sight. I don’t even feel like going for like my normal walks, which I really like. So it was, it was tough. And so, I definitely learned a lot through it. And like you, I wouldn’t say that I regret it because I think it’ll, for one thing I know.

without a doubt that that will probably be like the most difficult prep experience that I ever have. That first one, because there were so many mistakes that I made and I kind of anticipated that would be the case. And I think like anything, you you try to find the silver lining in it and you say, you know what, that didn’t exactly work out the way that I wanted. But like, for instance, for yourself, getting up there and competing with the Plant Built team, like that’s an experience that you’ll always have. And I think that there’s always positives to come out of that. you have that.

you have that kind of post show period. If anyone wants to learn kind of more about ⁓ our prep experiences, we did do a whole podcast or maybe two on talking about our preps and some parallels there that you can go check out in the archives. And then you decided that you wanted to pursue strongman or strong women training. And I’d love to know how that has been going. You did your first competition.

And I’d love to kind of catch us up to present day and you know what your current training goals are with strongman, strong women and bodybuilding in the future.

Alice (22:06)
Yeah, so wrapped up by my season, Mr. America was November of 2024 and immediately went into a build. The goal being to build for two years before embarking on my next cut, not even before competing again. Like I wanted to build for like a solid straight two years. And

At some point, know, I don’t want to say boredom set in. want to say more like just like anxiety from the goal post being so far away definitely set in. And I thought, what can I do right now to help me like have, you know, small goals? Of course, I’ve always been very motivated by strength goals.

that would that would you know be a positive thing that would continue with my athlete career and so I’ve always been fascinated in other strength sports. I went to the Tampa Fit Fest last July so July 2025 and watched this was perfect because I got to watch literally every other team on the Plant Built team.

compete and get a little taste of what everyone was doing. Strongman, I was able to go and see all of the women go and pull a truck outside the Tampa Fit Fest. And I was just like really, really shook by that and especially impressed because just like even what I would describe

you know, as like some of the smaller competitors, like they were all pulling this truck and I’m just like, this is something that I could actually do one day. So I was really inspired and started looking, talking about potentially training for this. I ended up working with Brady, the great, Brady Crandall, the team captain of the Plant Built team for a few months. And he helped me prepare.

for my competition in January. It was very intense, very, very intense training, lots and lots of volume and did great at the competition. It was such a breath of fresh air, like how positive all of the other athletes were that were competing there. I had people, complete strangers just approach me and be like,

wow, you’re doing so great. We’re so happy to see you here. And even the promoter, like it was just very, very different than bodybuilding. Like the promoter would be reaching out to me, like regularly asking me, Hey, would you want to try this? Hey, what would you feel about me doing like a athlete introduction for you? I’m just like, Whoa, I wasn’t expecting any of this. And so like totally, totally different.

than the bodybuilding competition experience. So I definitely want to do more. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks before the Strong Woman competition, I did injure my low back. I believe it’s my QL, but also just like nervous system reaction as far as just like muscles locking up, right? So having that like protective mechanism.

activating, trying to protect my low back. So I was struggling with that for the weeks leading up to and actually the weeks after the competition. So that sort of like really pulled me back down to earth and made me realize like, all right, if I’m going to continue with this, I need to pursue a lot more like, I don’t know how to put it.

like functional training, I suppose, because I really need to do more for like deep core work, potentially more like traditional like strength and conditioning style training, just to get it to because when we’re bodybuilding, we really train like, you know, those, those muscles that you can see, right? We’re not necessarily getting like a lot of core work done. And I think that this like really, really

shone like shine a spotlight on that for me. So had the back injury was slowly getting over that and working through it with some sort of PT style stuff. And now I actually also fell down the stairs three weeks ago, and not only sprained my ankle, but had an avulsion fracture. So I have a little chip off of my foot. So it’s just sort of like one thing after another. That’s sort of like

All right, maybe this isn’t happening for you right now, but the plan is definitely to get back into at least building my strength. I plan on focusing on improving my deadlift, improving my axle clean and press, and improving, and just trying to at least maintain the grip strength as far as the farmer’s holds are concerned. And basically the lesson learned from this is like,

Bodybuilding and strongman volume together is really, really too much, right? But I’m going to continue building that strength. Like I’m too far into my bodybuilding journey to be like, all right, let’s just pivot. Let’s just drop this and go to strong woman. I have like unfinished business. plan to, you know, I would really, really like to compete in women’s physique, pro women’s physique.

for my next season, which is gonna be probably late summer, early fall, 2026. And honestly, I’m thinking at some point I would like to switch to more of a focus in Strong Woman. I’m just not quite ready to be there yet. And in the meantime, making those core foundational lifts, growing those so that I will, they’ll be able to translate.

into my Strongwoman career later. So hopefully that wasn’t too long.

Ben (27:43)
No, no, that was great. And you answer the question that I have, which would be like if you were, you know, with bodybuilding, what kind of next season were you considering? Did you mean 2027? So next year for okay, I want to yeah, I figured that would that would be the case. That’s awesome. I know that we’ve had some conversations about that as well in terms of, you know, kind of deciding, do you do you go off the category that you know, you’re, you know, maybe some people would say you’re more suited for or do you go with kind of what your

what your heart is telling you and what really you desire and have a passion for. And to be honest, it depends on someone’s goals, but I think being process oriented as bodybuilders tend to be and not as ⁓ outcome oriented, or I would hope so. I think you have to listen to what division you’re going to really enjoy competing in and what calls you to that. And I think that you can change over time too. Like you can start in one division and decide that you want to try another division. And I think that

Having something that really lights you up inside is really important because that’s what’s going to allow you to put your full effort and full self into that. So I’m excited to see you transition into a new division. And those poses are fun. The muscular poses are fun. Like I’m sure that it’s something that you missed in bikini is not being able to really like flex and show off all the muscles that you have. I think that that’s a cool part of some of the.

You know, like even with figure, it’s only symmetry poses. So you don’t really get to hit the, you know, hit the flexing poses. So I think that’s an awesome thing with women’s physique.

Alice (29:11)
Exactly. I did posing coaching for Carson throughout his competition ⁓ season last year. And that was an incredibly positive experience. ⁓ And of course accompanied him to his to his shows. And yeah, it I already had like, you know, I think I think all of us have sort of some kind of soft spot or some kind of admiration for

like the full blown bodybuilding posing, right? But yeah, being there with him, originally he wanted to compete in classic physique. And as we were going through the cut, I was like, you know, more and more I’m seeing mens bodybuilding. And at first that was so difficult for him to hear, I think. But when he started really, really like doing a deep dive and looking into the category, he was like, no, you’re totally right.

And I’m like, this is good news. Look at all these awesome poses you’re going to get to do. Right. And so he got some coaching from Jamal and he and then I also helped him with his posing the closer we got to competition just to help him like personalize things. And he got up there and like, I got to say, like he blew the other

competitors like out of the water as far as his posing was concerned and I was just like so proud. It’s fun and and I’m happy to I’m hoping that I won’t have to wear heels again. That’s another thing about women’s physique is you get to go out there barefoot.

Ben (30:41)
That’s a nice one. That’s definitely a pro is not having to, I’ve seen some federations, I don’t know if they’re the United States, maybe abroad, where they are hitting like women’s physique poses, but in heels, and that seems incredibly difficult, incredibly difficult. So you mentioned Carson, you guys are both vegan, obviously, and I’d love to know kind of transitioning back again in the timeline.

Alice (30:58)
you

Ben (31:08)
⁓ What kind of led to the decision of you becoming vegan? When did that start? Maybe when were some seeds planted? When did you kind of fully take that leap? yeah, what’s that whole process been like? any benefits that you’ve noticed or challenges, anything that you’d like to share.

Alice (31:25)
so much. Well, I always have to start out by mentioning my brother, my little brother, Andrew. He went vegetarian when he was in high school and went vegan as soon as he graduated and started going to college and becoming more responsible for his own food. He always inspired me and I was always very like envious of that. But I had

I mean like so many other people lots of challenges holding me back I had a terrible relationship with food growing up. I was very picky eater, but also to add to the complications I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis when I was 19 years old. It’s a genetic It’s a genetic disease. It is hereditary and so when you get a

When you get an inflammatory bowel disease like colitis or Crohn’s, the whole world is constantly telling you that the food, like different foods are the enemy and they’re out to get you. And you have to figure out which foods are causing all of the problems. So that was really, really challenging, especially as someone who grew up so picky and having such a hard time just enjoying eating at all.

And then adding on to the terrible, terrible symptoms of colitis. Literally, you eat certain things and it’s like you are punished immediately in the bathroom for it. And so I spent my 20s really looking for the perfect diet. They kind of teach you like, if you find the right foods, then maybe it’s gonna cure you. That’s sort of like…

the trend, the belief. It’s a lot more complicated than that. But so I tried elimination diet after elimination diet. I tried healthy eating behaviors after healthy eating behaviors. And eventually I landed on veganism. And at first it was, I did think that I had found the cure because it just transformed my day to day.

quality of life so much. was able to bring just like total body inflammation down. I’m sure over time I was also in the background building up so much more of a healthy gut bacteria. Now it didn’t keep the flare away forever. I don’t remember exactly how long I was, how far I wasn’t in my vegan journey, but a flare did come again. I have learned since that like, you know,

The vegan diet is what gives me the ability to thrive day to day. There’s the aspect of what the food can do to your gut, but then there’s the aspect of there’s still this genetic disease that can definitely cause you to have a flare, even if you are, quote unquote, doing all the right things. Stress can be a problem. Something in our environment that we don’t know what it is can be a problem.

And because it’s a genetic thing, know, like someone else who doesn’t have these genes could be eating the same way and not experiencing this, you know, quote unquote punishment like I do, you know, so it’s very complicated. But I take biologic injections now, and that is what keeps me free from having flares. I’ve been on that for, oh, three years now.

It’s as if I don’t, between my injections and between my vegan diet, pretty much all whole foods, I make everything. I make everything that I eat. So I eat a lot of mock meats and people hear me talking about mock meats, but it’s almost all homemade, right? Homemade whole food is what just like, I basically live without this disease is what it feels like.

So it’s super powerful. It can absolutely help so many people manage these debilitating diseases and in some cases, you know diabetes and such I’ve heard of people being able to cure and reverse it, right? So it’s transformational and it’s amazing and I’m so grateful and I tell people all the time that yeah, the vegan diet saved my life.

Ben (35:35)
It’s such a cool story and I think a lot of people could probably relate to this where they’re kind of looking for answers. They stumble upon maybe a plant-based or vegan diet and they see so many positive changes from that and adopting that. And it’s almost like how can you not want to tell people about that when you experience such a positive thing yourself and then you start to even learn more about, you know, there’s an environmental impact, there’s an ethical impact as well. And then it just like all these reasons kind of come together and

it keeps you, ⁓ on that path and, really, just like embracing the whole lifestyle that is, that is being vegan. And I think you come to like, it would be crazy for somebody to look at your story and say like, ⁓ you know, the vegan diet is like restrictive. Like it was, it was such a game changer for you and it like opened your world to so many, possibilities. So, I think it’s just like a, a really awesome, you know, end of one story to, share with people and to say.

Hey, you know, there might be something in this in this for you as well. So, you know, you what you go vegan when what went along that kind of the timeline was this was this when you had you gotten into bodybuilding yet? Were you kind of still ⁓ earlier on? ⁓ And did you find that your diet was then like changing once you kind of got more into into bodybuilding?

Alice (36:48)
So yeah, I was 19 when I got diagnosed with colitis I didn’t find Vegan Proteins until 2022 but I was researching and trying to coach myself Bodybuilding probably from 2020 on right? So it a pretty good gap of like me trying to figure it out on my own and like maybe doing some things Right, but I’m sure doing a lot of things wrong

So yeah, that’s the timeline. Sorry. What else? What else was the other side of that question?

Ben (37:19)
Well,

I know, think it’s, well, I think it’s just like, it’s a good illustration of the fact as well that, you know, if you’re trying to get there in a shorter period of time, having somebody to kind of help you with like, okay, these are the foods that are probably going to be good for your goals can just like fast track that process. And I think that’s, you know, you probably saw the value of coaching to such an extent that you were like, you know what, this is something that I really want to be able to help people out with is,

is helping them kind of see the value that I did. Was that kind of what inspired you to be a coach? Was that kind of own transformation you went on yourself?

Alice (37:55)
Yeah, well, I mean, if any of y’all have watched any of Dani and Giacomo’s content, you know that they’re very inspiring. And so I was inspired like just even by by Derek Tresize’s book by Robert Cheeke by Dani and Giacomo, like, you know, hearing that like, yeah, you can do this on a vegan diet ⁓ and having that positive community and that like positive source of knowledge is like so, so powerful. I said, you know,

At the time I was trying to figure out like a career change in my life and this just called to me. I knew that this is what I had to do. This was absolutely the next step. And you asked, sorry, I remember now you asked about how like my food and diet changed when I got into bodybuilding. Once I learned flexible dieting, actually that is when I learned that

actually foods that are very high in fat or having a lot of dietary fat, like all in one sitting, is something that almost always triggers symptoms for me. So that was very freeing because, you know, instead of thinking about what foods are the enemy, it’s like, actually, it’s more like, in this case, it’s more related to the macronutrients, like,

And it’s very common, it’s very common for people to eat a high fat meal, know, pizza, donuts, ice cream, and then experience gastric upset, right? So it’s no surprise that that is something that like has this huge powerful impact on my colitis. So that, like, once I learned that, wow, it was so freeing and so much better knowing that like,

No, there’s nothing wrong with a piece of pizza. There’s nothing wrong with a donut. It’s just we have to be cognizant of like how much we’re having, how frequent these are sometimes foods, right? There’s such thing as having balance with including these things in our life, you know, on occasion. So it was transformational. And that’s also when I discovered seitan. My first seitan recipe I ever made was ⁓

If you go into the Vegan Proteins website and you scroll all the way down to the bottom, Dani’s Smoky Maple Seitan Recipe is the first one I ever tried and I was sold. now it’s like seitan is my favorite part of being vegan. We make it all the time. We eat it every single day. And it’s funny because I was never really a person before going vegan to be like, I love meat. No.

But I definitely, definitely would say I love bread. I think a lot of ladies, can relate to that. But coming up with basically, you know, these, these, they used to call it wheat meat back in like OG vegan times, figuring out those recipes that I love. Like now that I have that, and I also use vital wheat gluten, which is the main ingredient in seitan to make like protein bread and such.

I get so much protein. It’s easy. It’s so easy for me to eat a ton of protein every day. So yeah, it’s very empowering, very empowering to learn track macros. It’s a lot of work right up front. But after a couple, you know, first month or two, wow, life starts to change and you start to understand food on so much of a deeper level. And it’s really sad and unfortunate like how

lost in our views we are like in general as Americans I would say when it comes to like nutrition education but highly recommend highly recommend you to have the skill to be able to look at a plate of food maybe not know exactly what the macros are but be like I know about how much protein is in there I know about how much fat is in there I know roughly amount of calories like that’s a powerful skill and one that can really like change your life

Ben (41:44)
I love all of that and I feel like you’re, I think of you as like the queen of high protein, like macro friendly recipes in our little Vegan Proteins universe. And you wrote a book, you wrote a book about The Athlete’s Guide to Going Vegan Is that, is that the name of it? Yeah. And do you want to talk a little bit about that and what inspired you to write that?

Alice (42:01)
Yeah, so wrote that book. was in every time that I worked for the vegan strong booth. So when I when I first started working for Dani and Giacomo, and I would see them go to this booth, I would just be like, man, how what do I have to do to help you guys out going there? started out volunteering for them, and making my own way down there and learning to kind of like learning the ropes.

and having many travel adventures and just like every second I’m there, like the energy is just so, like I can’t even really describe like the good energy. Being able to advocate in a way that you are speaking to being a vegan athlete and how much it has helped like change my life. Gosh, like.

nothing gets me more like pumped and excited. I’m so passionate about that booth. And so having all these conversations and having like, learning how to be a vegan advocate, basically, like, I walked away so many people would walk away so many times and I wish that I had something to be like here, step by step guide for you. We have we do have a booklet that has a little some really great information.

And it has a whole weekly meal plan, sample meal plan for people to try. And that’s already at the booth. But I wanted something that’s like, here’s everything you need to know about being vegan, about being an athlete and being vegan. And here are all my favorite recipes. And here’s how I do it. And talking about veganism more on a basic level, like what it’s really about, the animals, the environment, our health.

And so I was just, so many times I left that booth thinking like, wish I had something like that for people. And so it was leaving home or leaving from the Disney, the run Disney marathon that I was driving home and I just, I’m always so inspired like on the drive home, the road trips home. so I’m literally like dictating into my phone.

Like I wrote the majority, I’d say I wrote at least 60 % of the book on the drive home from Florida to Virginia dictating to my phone. And I knew I had to put recipes in there. So that was probably the thing that took the most amount of time to like finish up, wrap up. And that’s why the book wasn’t like instantly done. But I just finished it and self-published.

in February and you can get that on the Vegan Proteins website and you can also get it on there’s just a little website called payhip pay h i p pay hip.com forward slash Alice Robeson and look up how to spell my name because everyone spells it wrong but you can also just get on the Vegan Proteins website for for simplicity but

Yeah, it’s I think it’s a great experience. I’m not I’m not looking to be famous with this book. I’m not looking to make a ton of money. I’m just looking to like help people help make this lifestyle easier and just brain dump all of my knowledge like the matrix into someone else to be like here you can do this and you’re gonna you’re gonna do great and you’re gonna thrive. That’s what it’s all about.

Ben (45:22)
And that’s, that’s why we coach too, right? It’s, it’s not because we want to be, you know, billionaires or anything. We, we want to help people. And, I think, you know, if somebody is not ready for coaching or, it’s not a right fit for them at this time, getting that book would be a really great starting point for them. but going back to the topic of coaching, what do you feel like being a coach has perhaps taught you about others and about yourself? And has there been anything that’s kind of surprised you about being a coach?

Alice (45:48)
I mean, I think the short answer about what coaching has taught me about myself is just how much human connectedness means to me. I talk about this often. I’m just really, really driven by understanding people and supporting them through various challenges and helping people achieve their goals.

I know, I find a deep, deep sense of purpose in this career. Why else would you become a coach? You have to have that drive and that purpose. And I think also, I think it’s taught me that the whole concept of, you’re an introvert versus you’re an extrovert, I think that’s complete and utter BS.

you can absolutely learn to be more introverted and gain social skills and gain that confidence and learn to be energized by other human beings. I’m the perfect example of that. What changed my mind? What are some things that like coaching changed my mind about? Honestly, that like, and I don’t know if I necessarily thought this in the beginning or when I was first thinking about becoming a coach.

But I think that the general stereotype is that the problem with the fitness industry is laziness. And what I’ve learned and I feel so passionate about now is that we literally now live in this world that teaches us to put ourselves last again and again again. And we’re

so busy carrying the weight of like everyone else’s needs, whether it be our employer, our co-workers, our family, especially if we’re a caregiver, carrying all that weight, just makes us exhausted. It just makes us burn out. And self-care, I think, has just become an absolute lost skill, if that makes any sense. And so,

A lot of my time, feel like, is spent teaching people that it’s important to make time for yourself. Again, it’s important to learn how to put yourself first sometimes and balance in that area because we can’t go completely in the opposite direction, right? And honestly, like, I think also just it’s an important leadership skill to have too, the ability to just put, you know,

make the time to put yourself first and take care of your health and everything, everything that is included in our programs and in coaching programs in general. So hopefully that hopefully that’s all right.

Ben (48:25)
Yeah, no, that’s fantastic. One last question for you. If you could give one piece of advice to someone who’s just starting out on getting into their health and their fitness and they’re starting out on this journey, what piece of advice would you give them?

Alice (48:38)
Yeah, I think my biggest piece of advice is don’t make this entire journey about shrinking your body. I think that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having weight loss goals, right? That’s the main reason most of you are listening to our podcast, main reason most of you are here. But, you know, helping people lose weight is my specialty, right? But

Here’s the thing, the journey is not over when the weight has come off. It’s also going to be about building strength, building confidence in yourself. That’s a lot of what this is really going to come down to, building some self-confidence, gaining energy back because we’re just so zapped and so burnt out and so exhausted, and just giving you, giving yourself the gift of self-respect.

⁓ That’s like, I feel like that’s really at our core, like what we try to be about here at Vegan Proteins and not to mention just like investing in your health in a way that will last for decades.

Ben (49:47)
Really powerful Alice. Is there anything else that you want to leave the listeners with before we kind of close things out?

Alice (49:53)
No, just let us know if there’s anything else you want to hear about on these podcasts. I don’t talk about myself too, too much, but that was a really cool experience. And thank you, Ben, for giving me the microphone for that. That was fun.

Ben (50:06)
Yeah, absolutely. I learned more about you. I’m sure that the audience did too. If you have any questions for Alice and you’re listening, please be sure to leave them in the YouTube comments and we’ll forward them along and have those answered. And if there’s anything else that you want to hear from any of us coaches after we’ve kind of wrapped up this series where we learn a little bit more about all of us here at Vegan Proteins, please let us know. Obviously liking and sharing the podcast on whatever platform you’re listening to, leaving a review.

you know, giving us a rating, those things all really help to push the podcast out to more people. If you are looking to get assistance on your health and fitness journey with Alice or any one of the other coaches, you can head over to veganproteins.com and fill out a coaching application and we’ll get back to you within a business day. We really appreciate all of you tuning in as always. And if you wanna follow us, you can do this. So @veganproteins, @musclesbybrussels, @benamitchell, @veganproteinsalice and @soyboyfitnesscoaching.

⁓ on most social media, Instagram, Facebook, et cetera. And we hope that you’ve enjoyed this episode and we’ll catch you on the next one. Bye everyone.

Alice (51:10)
Bye.