Plant-Powered Athlete Tips and Resources

We had a spectacular showing at our two Plant-Powered athlete panel sessions with great engagement and wonderful questions! We hope those who attended left with more information from our qualified panelists! For those of you who were not able to attend, we’d love to share this information with you!

If you still have questions, please engage on our new facebook group: Plant-Powered Athletes ATL. Please join!

Here are some of the resources that were mentioned during the discussion:

• The China Study - is a good scientific read about the research related to the whole food plant based diet
• No Meat Athlete is a great resource for plant-based athletes - nutrition, training plans, recovery tricks etc
• The Game Changers is the documentary we mentioned. It’s on Netflix, and other platforms.
• NutritionFacts.org - goldmine of plant-based science
• How Not to Die, How Not to Die Cookbook and the new How Not To Diet are all amazing books but the same author - Dr. Michael Greger (he is also speaking at Savannah, GA Fest on 3/22)
• Happy Cow is a great app for finding vegan, vegetarian or veggie friendly restaurants
• Some great podcast to listen to: The Rich Roll Podcast, The Plant Proof Podcast.
• For local podcasts – The Whole Health Cure is an Emory podcast focused on health and wellness more from healthcare perspective, Follow Your Kind highlights lots of local plant-based rockstars including all of the panelists from our event. *Full disclosure – Tina produces both, and host the latter.

Tips from Nichole Dandrea:

• Black Bean Burger recipe
• Plant Based Sports Nutrition book
• Power Plates Recipe Book
• purely planted Instagram
• purely planted Facebook

Tips from Jackie Merritt:

• Jackie Merritt's post-run smoothie recipe:

  • 1 handful kale, spinach or other green
  • 1 medium frozen banana
  • 1 handful frozen berries (blackberries my personal fav. If you want a cool looking green smoothie you can also use kiwi or mango.)
  • 1 tablespoon ground flax seed (can use whole for an extra crunch if you're into that)
  • 1 tablespoon chia seeds
  • 1-2 tablespoons peanutbutter or other nut/seed butter of choice.(i've also used almond, tahini, sunflower seed, pumpkin seed, and walnut butter in this -all delicious!
  • milk of choice - my favorite is Ripple (unsweetened no flavor) add last and fill so approximately half of the fruit is submerged. Power on the blender, ,start on low and slowly turn up to high until you can't seen any bits of green. Add more milk if you like it less thick. (I've found Vitamix to be best)
  • Optional:
    • 1-2 dates. I have found that I tend to like my smoothies less sweet than most people, so a little date addition can give it more sweetness.
    • Orange, grapefruit or other citrus. sometimes I add half of one if I've feeling zesty.
    • Coffee: Replace (in full or in part) the milk with coffee that has been chilled. This is actually my favorite version of this smoothie but it's probably not for everyone!

• Minimalist Baker Tahini Chocolate Banana Soft serve Ice Cream https://minimalistbaker.com/tahini-chocolate-banana-soft-serve/

  • 2 cups ripe sliced frozen bananas
  • 2 Tbsp tahini (sesame seed butter)
  • 3 Tbsp cacao (or unsweetened cocoa) powder - I personally use 1.5-2 tablespoons here)
  • 1-2 Tbsp maple syrup (I use a half tablespoon)
  • 1-2 ripe pitted dates (optional)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
  • 1 pinch sea salt (optional)
  • Put everything in the blender and start er up! Keep pushing everything down into the blades so that it catches. At first it will look questionable like it's not going to work and you will want to add some type of liquid- but don't do it! You should have the consistence of soft serve ice cream within 2 minutes. Here is where you will not regret those dollars you spent on your Vitamix! Other blenders may work but I have not tried.
  • Add to freezer to firm up into more "dip" ice cream texture. Can also store any extra in freezer.
  • Toppings: I love a little shredded coconut, walnuts and/or extra drizzle of tahini here
  • *How Not to Die has other versions of "nice cream" where you can add strawberries or other fruit to make your ice cream of choice. I have found this one so good that I have not ventured out much though.

• Here is a link to the free Daily Dozen app

  • She uses and brought up at one point during the discussion: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.nutritionfacts.dailydozen&hl=en

Tips from Vince Rountree:

• Vince’s free book, "Lower Your Blood Pressure with Food"
• Vince’s 10 Day Challenge and to help you experience plant based nutrition for yourself. It's called the, "Lower Your Blood Pressure in 10-Days Challenge".  But it's not just for people with high blood pressure.  It is for anybody that wants help transitioning to plant-based nutrition!  Vince will be online with you live sharing helpful information and answering your questions.  It is a great way to try it for yourself and get all the help you need!

Izumi contact info: iZOOMi Multisport Coaching  - FB iZOOMi Multisport Coaching and Instagram @ iZOOMi_coaching

Finally, our host, Tina! you can find her on Instagram, and Facebook. If you are affiliated with Emory – she runs a lifestyle medicine interest group there and would love to have you join.

May the plants be with you!

Oh… One more thing! Chuice! To get 10% of your purchase you can use "PlantPWR" at check out

Thank you to our organizers and panelists: Tina (Krystyna Rastorguieva), Izumi, Matt, Jackie, Nichole and Vince

Visit our website for more blogs with tips and race reports!