Petero Atkinson is a vegan personal trainer. An inspiration to many, Petero is passionate about spreading the word about the health benefits of the vegan lifestyle.
1. Why did you become vegan??
I was driving trucks while listening to audiobooks, the first one was called Living Health by Tony Robbins. I was already a huge fan of his and I learnt a great many things over the course of a few hours. I went from mass meat eater to vegan literally overnight. Since then I have bolstered my knowledge on all the aspects of this great lifestyle. Listening to this audiobook changed my life as I quit my job (and the transport industry) after 15 years and acquired my cert III and IV in health and fitness and now work as a personal trainer with a great team of staff.
2. How has your vegan diet affected your health and fitness?
At first I dropped a few kilos, though my strength stayed the same, I believe it was fluid retention and it was there because of the toxicity of my lifestyle, since then I have put more muscle on.
Also I have not needed my mouth ulcer or sinus medications (SM-33 and Rhinacort or equivalent all my life!), there is no coincidence here, this is 100% related to my elimination of meat, dairy and eggs. All my life I knew something I was doing wasn?t quite right? since going vegan I dont feel like that anymore.
3. What do you think are the main misconceptions of veganism?
One of my ?favourite? misconceptions is when I hear someone say, ?Well my doctor says you can?t get enough B12 or Iron etc on the vegan diet? along with other misled ?dietary? beliefs. Last time I checked doctors weren?t nutritionists and have little or no education in this field, and sadly many nutritionists had been totally misled during their education too. How do I know this? Well myself and every other healthy vegans out there are testament to this.
The negative publicity relating to our health is financed by multi-billion dollar businesses hell bent on maintaining financial control of those who, as of yet cannot see the truth, but rest assured I will be working hard against them (meat and dairy industry) for the rest of my life. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
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? ?4. What sort of training do you do to keep in shape?
Running on grass/dirt tracks (not big on treadmills), all sorts of resistance training and functional training. If I don?t do enough cardio I step it up on the weights, get the heart pumping and create a cardio style effect, along with big compound exercises like deadlifts and barbell squats ? not overly heavy though ? I want my body to last 
5. Could you give us a glimpse of what your average daily food ?menu? might look like?
Wake up: Banana, date and flaxseed oil smoothie.. a few handfuls of almonds a little later on.
Lunch: Wholemeal wholegrain bread with advocado spread on top, or red kidney beans, or natural cashew or almond spread.
Salad with lettuce, tomato, carrots, cucumber etc
Afternoon dinner: fruit with muesli and soy yoghurt.
Dinner: Tofu, Vegetables and pasta.
Later on: If it?s not too late I love vegetable soups? with plenty of good herbs and spices.
6. What?s your response when someone asks ?where do you get your protein??
It?s in most fruits and vegetables, and high levels in some, then you have nuts, kidney beans, lentils, tofu and soy products and much more
7. What do you think is the most important aspect of fitness?
Well I believe you need to listen to your body and not force yourself to train on days you don?t feel like it, you?re meant to be having fun and if you?re not then its your body?s way of telling you to take some time out or at least detrain, of course one needs to make the distinction between this and laziness though.
8. Do you have any advice and/or recommendations on useful books or websites for people looking at making the transition to a vegan diet?
I have watched many documentaries during my evolution as a vegan.?Eating Third Edition is excellent and focuses more on the health aspect of the two diets, animal and plant.
Food Matters is much the same, Australian produced I believe so even better for that reason
Earthlings is very graphic and deals with pretty much all of mans impact on animals.
The greatest speech I have ever seen was by Gary Yourofsky, this is that speech??and this is his website ? he is a true inspiration and vegan legend.?http://www.adaptt.org/.
The China Study is absolutely epic too.
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Thanks to Fawn Porter from Mean Green Personal Training for allowing us to re-blog this interview. www.meangreenpt.com
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