GO VEG 2014 – Vegan Boxing Champion, Omowale Adewale, Challenges Us To GO VEGAN!

by Danielle Bussone

The new year offers a clean slate and opportunities to create a healthier new beginning. Super Middleweight Boxing Champion, Omowale Adewale has created a vegan challenge to help us do just that. He is challenging 100 people to go vegan for a year, in an effort he calls GoVeg 2014. He offers himself as a guide through the labyrinth of choices we can expect in so dramatically changing one’s diet, as well as fitness guidance to get us living as healthy and energetic a lifestyle as possible. The challenge begins on New Year’s Day. Omowale is generously offering his expertise as an athlete and a vegan for free for the year, 2014, according to the needs of the participants.

Omowale Adéwale (Wale)
Champion Super Middleweight Boxer

About Omowale Adewale

Omowale Adewale, or Wale for short, was given his name from a friend, Moyosore who passed away in 2007 after his first African trip to Nigeria. The name Omowale means “The son has come back home,” and Adewale means, “The crown has returned.”

Wale became vegetarian when he was 15 before becoming involved in competitive sports.  Omowale began sports competition in high school and was a collegiate 2-gold champion. He also taught himself Jeet Kune Do, a form of martial arts. Omowale was a NABBA finalist (National Association of Body Building of America) in 1997. In 2012, he became Super Middleweight Champion in the Brooklyn Brawl. He became vegetarian for health reasons, wanting to become as fit and strong as possible. It wasn’t until early last year that Wale took the plunge and cut out animal products entirely.

“I became vegan because it makes no sense to slaughter animals for consumption or to wear as clothing. I sense that is a better way of life,” says Wale. “There are a lot of vegetarian people out there who realize they are not in need of eggs or milk products from animals. I prepare my own foods utilizing substitutes for dairy and eggs.”

Wale (Central Figure0

It is not surprising given the amount of scientific data now available which links milk and egg consumption to cancers, allergies, heart disease and numerous other ailments that Wale found himself naturally moving away from these items to include healthier whole foods with plenty of fiber and nutrition in his diet.

Omowale has three children who are vegetarian. Their mom is pescatarian, she eats fish, and the children are vegetarian. They will also be taking the vegan challenge. Family, friends new friends, anybody.

Omowale’s Children From Left to Right
Aziza, Rayne and Chisore entertaining themselves while waiting for the audience to begin arriving.

Why a Vegan Challenge? 

“When I first became vegetarian, I pretty much ate the same things all the time because I didn’t have anyone to teach me, I didn’t have a guide to teach me what to eat, how to cook and that sort of thing. My participants will also want to know what to do in terms of fitness. They will have general questions like, what are the best times to eat certain types of meals or what foods have a sufficient amount of protein or iron. People worry about getting adequate protein on a vegan diet.

I want to get people talking about their experiences. We are looking at evaluating our participants after the first month.  What are the main questions coming up?  A month gives people a sense that they can actually do this, that they are able to make these meals. They are really easy for the most part. I want to see people still on it after a month and I want to monitor people from week to week and they can contact me as often as they need to. They may have to wait 24-48 hours for a reply depending on the final number of people who sign on, but I will get back to them as soon as possible.

For me, becoming vegan was first about health but it was also about the animals. I hadn’t internalized what it means when you drink milk or eat meat. These animals are used up and then killed. Once you get some of the education about what happens to these animals, it becomes easier to give up these products. I don’t think you are winning most arguments by trying to force people to look at it from an animal rights issue, especially in our culture. It is obviously a health issue, so I begin there and the sensitivity to the suffering of animals follows.

We should always encourage people to become vegan over vegetarian. Don’t assume that someone is going to go and read something and just become vegan. It’s easy for those of us who have been in this lifestyle for so long. We need to understand that we need to work with people at their level. People need to have someone to guide them through the process. This is entirely new to them. If the best they can do is become vegetarian, we have to be accepting of that. If you are vegan already, be a guide. Send videos, recipes, support and let people know they can really do this. There is a lot of support out there. We are inundated with billboards of McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken and other meat industries but you never see billboards of vegetables, so you can imagine how difficult it is for people who have never tried it.”

Omowale With His Championship Belt

About GoVeg 2014

“Our challenge is to go vegan right off the bat. I train people who eat meat but I want to do one month where people can go absolutely vegan. As soon as January comes, we’ll stop eating animal products, and I’ll show you how to do it. You will notice after a month you are feeling better, losing weight and feeling great. By summer you if you continue, you will never want to go back.”

Wale realizes this challenge is going to be more difficult for him than for any of the participants. He has to make himself available for an entire year to at least 100 people, coaching them on Facebook and on his blog, emailing solutions and even speaking to some with more specific issues by phone.

“The most important part of this challenge is that people get access to me, they’ll have an experienced guide to help them go vegan and work with their bodies to achieve optimal health. We’ll go from breakfast giving them different recipes on what they can have for breakfast as well as lunch, dinner and snacks.  I want to explain why I want to eat certain types of food during this meal as opposed to others. Also, what you can substitute for animal products. For example, people don’t know what to substitute for dairy or eggs. I show them how to do that. Some foods don’t even need eggs or dairy to begin with. You can use applesauce or banana instead.

This challenge will do wonders for your health but it will also contribute to the welfare of animals by not killing them or wearing their skins just so we can consume them. It is also better environmentally for the planet. There are a lot of issues going on in terms of veganism and I will address them and offer support via social media and also by email and telephone for those who need additional support. I am offering this service for free in the context of this challenge. I will try to be accessible to people as much as possible.”

This project has already grown to nearly 100 people from all over the world and Omowale vows to do his best to accommodate everyone who wants to participate. People in Nigeria, England, India, Latin America and across the US are signing onto this project. The information has to cover a broad spectrum, and Wale is still working out how often he can offer access through email or by phone.

“This will be difficult for me to answer the questions of so many people but I feel this is something I need to do. People are always asking me, How can I go vegan? I want to lose weight and go vegan or get muscular and go vegan. They ask me about protein and how to manage protein with a vegan diet. People in our culture are conditioned to think you can’t get enough protein unless you eat meat. You are going to have more than enough protein on this diet.

We also have to consider the availability of particular foods in different regions of the world. We as Americans eat out of season so much because we have these foods available. That is not the case in many countries across the globe. So we have to look at seasonal foods, which is what we should be doing in America too. Eating with the seasons is the natural way to eat.

Omowale In The Ring

People have different types of goals, which is great. It shows how versatile a vegan diet is. You can still bulk up with big muscles or you can have a lean body and you are going to lose weight as well. There are many cultures which have basic vegan dishes. Just don’t add meat to it and you have a delicious vegan meal. Examples are Indian, Ethiopian, and Thai, to name only a few.

Participants can join  GoVeg 2014 by social network, signing up clicking on the links below. It will look like this, they will interact with me on social media, but sometimes they have individual needs. I train people so I know sometimes they don’t want everyone to know what their issues are. I want to keep this dialog as public as possible but I also want to address individual private concerns. They can in-box me and I can answer these types of questions. The information has to cover a broad spectrum. I’m still working out how often I can offer access through email or by phone. I also have a phone number they can use.

I would like to say in terms of people going vegan, there are a lot of different strategies. I know a lot of vegans who really want to emphasize the abuse of animals. Some people will not be swayed by that argument. In our western culture, we are accustomed to eating animals. We are used to having someone else do our killing and we are delivered packaged meats which we’ve been eating our whole lives. Now all of a sudden we are supposed to care about that?

It is easier for that person to look at his/her personal needs, like his/her health. There is no doubt that a vegan diet is healthier. So, we approach the idea of veganism from a health perspective, while addressing the idea that you are doing great things for other living beings and a providing a great service for the environment as well. At the end of the day, there are no cons, it is all pros. It’s very beneficial. There is nothing negative about going vegan.”

Omowale Giving Talk at Richmond VA VegFest With Son, Chisore

Omowale Adewale’s vegan challenge begins 1 January 2014.

Everyone can register for the campaign by going here: http://eepurl.com/Lyzr1

Folks can reach Omowale at the following:

http://facebook.com/Totalfitness

Twitter handle: vegboxer

instagram: totalfitnesscp

Omowaleboxing.blogspot.com

totalfitnesscp.blogspot.com

Phone: 240-516-8750

Co-founder and editor of Veggin’ Out and About, Danielle writes restaurant reviews, profiles and interviews of people making a difference in the plant-based community. She is currently writing a cookbook for vegans called, “Time For Change: Whole Foods For Whole Health.”

Danielle’s region is SW Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina and anywhere she happens to stop for sustenance along the road. Contact Danielle  directly to share your restaurant finds, to make comments or just to say hello.