When your dad鈥檚 in the Coast Guard, you move around a lot. For two-time International Surfing Association World Champion , that meant every three years for the first 18 years of her life. While the constant uprooting was challenging, the places she lived were pretty sweet: Puerto Rico, California, and Hawaii. Naturally, Blanco took to surfing at a young age, competing at age 12 and winning her first national title at 17.
Today, Blanco lives in Southern California, where the pro surfer is training for the 2019 Pan Am Games, at which she鈥檒l represent Puerto Rico, the island where she was born 22 years ago. To surf at that level, Blanco trains or surfs every day, which isn鈥檛 all that unusual for a pro athlete. What is unusual is that she鈥檚 a vegan. Thanks to the influence of her vegetarian mom, Blanco has never eaten red meat in her life鈥攁nd six years ago she (and her entire family) went vegan. Now Blanco promotes vegan eating on a dedicated Instagram page, . 鈥淚鈥檝e seen people chase the vegan diet as a trend or to lose a few pounds,鈥 she says, 鈥渂ut a vegan diet has huge impacts on the earth and your health. Before you start, research how to do vegan right.鈥
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Look for Protein in All of Its Forms: 鈥淚 eat a balanced vegan diet rich with nuts, seeds, beans, and legumes. Even the quinoa I eat is rich in protein. I like protein shakes because I like the taste of them, not because I鈥檓 protein-starved.鈥
Staying Fit Means Staying Active: Blanco sometimes surfs for eight hours a day, but when she鈥檚 not on the water training she鈥檚 practicing her daily yoga, running with her dad, lifting weights with her personal trainer, or riding bikes for fun. The diversity keeps the workouts from feeling like work. The key is to keep moving.
Forget the Recipes and Just Cook: 鈥淢y mom has always been an amazing cook. She never measured anything so it鈥檚 hard for me to replicate what she did. But I don鈥檛 follow recipes either. I do what I think is right. Sometimes that鈥檚 hard when I鈥檓 trying to recreate something for Tia鈥檚 Vegan Kitchen.鈥
Advice for Would-Be Vegan Athletes: 鈥淚 would say that the most important thing is to educate yourself on the diet and the lifestyle. My boyfriend is a vegan now. He was a heavy meat eater his whole life. He lost five to eight pounds the first week but gained the weight right back. You need to learn to eat more when you鈥檙e eating lower-caloric foods. As athletes [he鈥檚 also a pro surfer], we鈥檝e seen the vegan diet have positive impacts on our performance and our health.鈥
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