Lisa Gawthorne is a world title-winning duathlete and animal advocate who has been vegan for over 20 years. Lisa also owns Bravura Foods, a sales, marketing and distribution service for vegan and vegetarian products. Quite simply, Lisa lives and breathes our movement every moment of every day. Our sports writer Alex Gladley caught up with Lisa to find out the secret to her success.

VegClub (VC): Lisa, it’s been just over a year since you became both European and World AG Champion in Sprint Duathlon. What an achievement! How long did you train to reach those heights and how many hours did you put in on a weekly basis?

Lisa Gawthorne (LG): It was quite unusual to train for, as the two competitions fell within six weeks of each other. In previous years, the gap was more like five to seven months. The plan with my run and bike coaches was to get me fit for the first race, the European Championships in Italy in March and then to try and hold on to that sharpness without doing anything too crazy in the weeks that followed before the World Championships in Spain. Training-wise, it was very much a mix of alternate days—one day on the bike, one day running, which changed to incorporate a few brick sessions in the final weeks before the competition. I was training pretty much every day of the week, only really taking a rest day when needed or when life got too busy. Not every day was flat out, so there was time to recover nicely between sessions. The main training block started twelve weeks out from the first race in Italy and hours-wise, that tended to be at least one hour daily on bike or run sessions each day of the week and 30-45 minutes of strength training on four days of the week. We kept that up when returning from the European Champs in those last six weeks before the World Champs, and it really worked a treat. I was still nice and sharp and ready to go. I have been competing in duathlon for seven years and really grafted at it from the start. I was ranked 16th in Europe and 10th in the world in my first championships. Each year, I improved and got faster, fitter and stronger, moving up the rankings until my first world podium in 2022 in Romania, where I got the bronze medal. I was ecstatic with that, so you can imagine how happy I was to upgrade that to double golds one year on!

VC: As an accomplished athlete and long-time vegan, how has a vegan diet impacted your performance and recovery in sports?

Lisa Gawthorne

LG: It’s so obvious the role my diet has played in fitness, as I can actually feel the difference and am very in tune with those changes. Changing from a vegetarian diet to vegan in 2003 was the time where I noticed a big change in many things—from better sleep, improved recovery, increased strength and speed, more energy and even better digestive and skin health. This combination of generally feeling better and less sluggish undoubtedly gave me more motivation and energy to attack my training and just follow a path of continuous improvement. As time went on, I learned more about nutrition—I completed a Vegan Nutrition Diploma and studied T Colin Campbell’s certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition, started to eat more functionally and enjoyed the differences and notable improvements I got from tinkering with my intake of different grains, vegetables, fruits and protein sources including legumes, nuts, tofu, tempeh and seitan.

VC: What advice would you give to any athletes considering a switch to a plant-based diet?

LG: You only have to look at all the high-profile sporting achievements worldwide being achieved on the diet to know how powerful it really is. I always talk about it as being a superpower and it really is—I mean, what other way of eating is healthier for you, kinder to the animals and safer for the planet?! When switching, the one thing I would say is pace yourself. It takes time to sift out your favourite foods and to substitute things, so I always say maybe start with replacing the milk first—try the different plant-based milks out there and find which suits you best, then move on to cheese, then mock meats and protein sources, etc. There are so many good products out there—you may have some unpleasant experiences (which happens with any foods really) but don’t let that put you off. I generally find for every bad-tasting vegan product, there are at least 15-20 that get it right, so keep up the pace of working through new products and being creative with them in cooking until you are happy to make the final switch. It’s also easier than ever with so many recipes and food pages online and on social media to get some inspiration from.

VC: Do you have a favourite vegan treat that you always keep stocked for when you get back from those big training days? It can be naughty or healthy!

LG: My healthy version is organic chocolate protein powder mixed with vanilla yoghurt to create an amazing little high-protein tasty snack. My less healthy version is cookies—I absolutely love them. My current favourites are the vegan cookies in Co-op—GRO, Café Nero—they now have two variants at the till point and M&S with their Plant Kitchen Cookies.

VC: You are an entrepreneur, author, athlete and vegan advocate. Where do you find the time to do all this? It feels like you must have eight days in a week!

LG: I do cram a lot into each and every day, but to be honest, I am the kind of person that can’t just sit around and relax for too long. I always like to be working on new things and planning new goals to keep me motivated, as I like to have things on the horizon to aim for. A lot of it just doesn’t feel like work, as I am so passionate about all things vegan.

VC: Do you have any tips for keeping motivated?

Lisa Gawthorne

LG: Breaking things down into goals of the day, week, month and even year definitely helps. Once you have set that end point, it’s much easier to work back from that, whether that be planning a new business venture or training for an important race. Having flexibility in plans also helps, as life can get in the way and it can seem frustrating if you are ill or injured. If you have flexibility in what you are trying to achieve, it’s much easier to deal with and accept.

“It’s so good that we have so many products out there now for vegans.” about vegan options

VC: You’re the co-founder of Bravura Foods, which specialises in helping vegetarian and vegan brands with their sales, marketing and distribution. What unique challenges did you see for those types of brands and how do you overcome them?

LG: It’s funny because when I started Bravura Foods thirteen years ago, veganism was still a bit niche and it was much harder to get exposure on the shelf with new brands, as retailers weren’t dedicating much space in-store. Fast forward to today and the new challenge is fighting it out amongst a never-ending list of vegan brands all hoping for that same space in-store. It’s fantastic to have witnessed the explosive growth in the market over the last five years, but that has really made it even more important for any new products to be quite innovative. If you haven’t got something that is new or different in some way with consumer benefits, or you can’t offer a better price to deliver value, then it’s going to be an uphill battle. You have to constantly scan the market, see the gaps, add those benefits and try to deliver on value if you can to stand the best chance of success.

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VC: We know you’ve been vegan for over 15 years now. The leaps that the vegan food industry has made in that time are incredibly exciting. How do you see the market for vegan products evolving in the next few years?

LG: It’s like a different market when I compare it to when I first went vegan and it’s so good that we have so many products out there now for vegans. Moving forward, I think there will be more emphasis and scrutiny put on ingredients, nutritionals, sustainability and overall ways of doing business. The vegan way of life goes far beyond just what we eat. We are all very much interested in animal rights, motivated to support animal charities and we like companies that work alongside those charities. It’s also important that we know the ingredients are coming from a sustainable source, that they are good for the planet and are healthy choices for us. All of this is set to heighten in importance for consumers and manufacturers.

VC: How crucial is community support for individuals transitioning to and sticking with a vegan lifestyle and what are some effective ways for them to find or create such a community?

Lisa Gawthorne

LG: The beauty of being a vegan in today’s world is that we have so much available to us at our fingertips, from organisations like Veganuary, The Vegan Society, Viva and Peta. They all have so much information and lots of helpful resources, which I always feel is a good first step in branching out and furthering communications. That’s even more intensified when you consider the number of groups, both on Facebook and in the real world, that often meet, share ideas, recipes, news, fashion updates, new product launches and tips that you may miss without that group involvement. If you are the kind of person that wants that ‘buddy feeling’ all the time, then there is a plethora of community groups online in sport, fitness, food, etc. Even if you are not very groups orientated and a bit of a lone wolf, you can still learn more and keep up your motivation levels by checking out some of the many vegan documentaries and following inspirational people, brands, businesses and charities on social media. One thing I will say is that this community is always super encouraging, informative, enthusiastic and friendly, as we all share the same vision and have such similar key values. So, it’s nice to immerse yourself every now and again.

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