We speak to GB duathlete Lisa Gawthorne about her plant based nutrition plans, training regimes and most successful year to date

The stigma around plant based eating and physical health has, for a long time, been an issue. There has always been a stereotype of the nutrient-deficient vegan, who can barely lift the block of tofu they love to eat. Of course, like most stereotypes, this has little grounding in the truth and people who eat plant based food can be healthier or unhealthier than anybody else.

Because of this stigma, there’s definitely a need to prove yourself when you transition to a plant based diet, and for Lisa Gawthorne, this has become a driving force behind her sports career.

We spoke to Lisa about her most exciting year to date where she has represented her country of Great Britain on the world duathlon circuit for the first time and to find out how she fuels herself on plants rather than animal products.

Hi Lisa, you’ve been veggie since childhood and vegan for 15 years, how has a vegan diet helped to focus your health and fitness regime?

It was always my aim to go vegan and as soon as I did all the research to make sure that all the relevant alternatives could be provided in shops, I made the change, went vegan and have never felt better. Not only has it improved my overall health, but it’s given me a new found energy that has seen me achieve personal bests in all the distances I train for from a running point of view — this is for distances like 5km and 10km and also middle distance track work too. I have definitely improved from being on a vegan diet in running and cycling. I also do a fair bit of strength and conditioning work in the gym and that too has come on in leaps and bounds since following a plant based diet.