Who Is Willabelle?
Willabelle shares a common passion for OCR racing and we enjoy seeing her at races across Asia. Willabelle also gives us constant food envy with her plant-based creations. We strive to reduce our meat intake where possible for environmental reasons and with plant-based eating becoming a more popular choice we thought we’d shine a light on how this works for Willabelle as an OCR racer.
Check out all of Willabelle’s creations at: @thelazyplantbasedkitchen.
A PLANT BASED JOURNEY
My name is Willabelle and I have lived in Sunny Singapore all my life (ignoring the torrential rain the last few weeks). My first spartan race was back in October 2018 when I took part in the Sprint and Super open category and I was sold from that moment forward. I started challenging myself to take part in the Spartan age group category since the beginning of 2019 in Spartan Stadion and I was hooked to it and went on to take part in more races around Asia – Malaysia and Philippines and it was phenomenal.
It all started when my mom lost her health back in 2018 due to a critical illness, an aneurysm in her brain. Not only was she working very long hours, her diet was irregular and dairy products were a big part of her daily consumption. This has allowed me to connect with a friend of mine whose mom suffered from a modern-day disease as well, and who was newly turned plant-based back then. My decision to turn plant-based in June 2019 was influenced by all the research I made and a movie on Netflix called “Forks Over Knives”.
Not much time had passed before I realised my energy level was increasing and I was no longer stuck in the cycle of lethargy. Trail runs in MacRitchie used to get me out of breath. However, I clearly remembered the moment I did a full loop at MacRitchie 2 months into my plant-based diet. It felt like I could run forever, I was free.
Subsequently, I went on to take part in the Super category for my age group at Bukit Timah last year and even bagged 2nd place for my age group (but unfortunately rules are rules in Spartan and it has to be forfeited with an additional 30 minutes into my timing for starting at a different flag off time). Nonetheless, this has shown a podium is possible and my goal this year is to get the podium done. I have celebrated a year of being free through my plant-based diet. Not only my energy level is higher, level of focus and productivity in my training and everyday life has increased tremendously as well. I am able to be more present in the things I do.
Some foods that I’d recommend while on a plant-based diet are choosing traditional grains such as quinoa, cous cous, lentils, oats, millet, barley, teff, red and black rice over modern-day grains like your white rice because modern grains are highly processed with lots of added sugar in it that causes a lot of excess sugar to flow in your bloodstream which is something meat eaters should highly take note of. This is usually where diabetes occur.
Turning plant-based for me was easy because I was on a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet in 2018 for 100 days for my grandma’s passing (A lacto-ovo vegetarian eating pattern is based on grains, fruits and vegetables, legumes (dried beans, peas and lentils), seeds, nuts, dairy products and eggs. It excludes meat, fish and poultry or products containing these foods).
This time I have chosen to go with foods as close to its natural source as possible and food preparation has been much easier and faster. My ideal meals are having shredded carrots, diced tomatoes, broccoli, avocadoes, tempeh/tofu with traditional grains mixed in and choosing to come up with different types of sauces each time to spice up the dish. Some of my favourites that I’d recommend are: miso ginger sauce, cashew tofu cream cheese, miso tahini sauce and avocado pesto! I took this passion and decided to share it with others and as a result I recently launched my own IG page, focused on inspiring others and sharing recipes, you can check these out at @thelazyplantbasedkitchen.
As plant-based athlete, protein is important but you don’t wish to overdo it by having too many legumes. But my absolute favourite is having a nice icy cold protein banana shake with Nuzest’s golden pea protein, which I have successfully integrated Nuzest’s clean lean protein into my bakes to ensure I have adequate protein intake – you can hop on to @thelazyplantbasedkitchen for more creative recipes!
I have lived a year so well on a plant-based diet and live a much happier life now, it’s no turning back. I mean it is all about making conscious decisions in life! So what conscious choices are you making today to change your life? Drop a comment below and let me know!
Willabelle.
