Ep 184 – Be The Change – An Interview With Sally Andersen

Sally:

I was hoping that would help you cut some background out. Yeah, got it.

Giacomo:

OK. Let’s see, introduction and then we’ll get started. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of vegan Proteins, Muscles by Brussels Radio. My name is Giacomo and this is episode 183. Thanks so much for tuning in to another episode. You’re the reason why we do this thing. We don’t do many interviews, but we’re trying to do more of these because it keeps the conversation interesting.

I feel like since we’ve brought others onto the team, the conversation has really gotten more interest instead of like day and night just talking at each other for years upon end. But this is even, this is even cooler in my opinion because we have Sally Anderson who’s been a member of the vegan Strong Plant team.

Sally:, Giacomo:

I think it, I think since, has it been since year one, year two, I think it was year two, 2013.

Sally:

Yeah.

Giacomo:

Crazy. I mean, I definitely want to get into what you’re doing this year with the Crossfit team and your involvement with Plant Built and all that. But I would love to come and I honestly, I, I just got bits and pieces of your back story and who you are. Right. And I just know you because we’ve known each other for so many years.

But I, I have not had the pleasure of hanging out with you and just talking and all about what got you to where you are today. So, I guess, you know, where, where would you like to start? Like, where, how did things start for you as far as getting into fitness?

Sally:

I actually have a very distinct time in my life. I was 25 which is when my fitness routine habit, life

started. as a kid, I had a very strong desire to be an athlete. I wanted to be on every sports team. I wanted to be so involved. I loved it. I was high energy but I, I couldn’t play sports to save my life. And as a kid, that’s kind of the only option you can either throw and catch a ball or you can’t.

And I could not. So I tried every sport I gave every four mile haul but just wasn’t, just didn’t have the coordinations. So instead I got into very negative habits. I became a binge drinker. I spent about eight years of my life blacked out drunk from 16 to 24. I was on eight medications. I was just, I was living my life for the next drink, living my life.

For the next trip to the bar. I was dating bartenders. So I was getting my drinks for free and there really was just one moment where I was just like, this is it. I’m done. I’m sick of this and I’m done. And Giacomo, I was living in this apartment that had two partial flights of stairs up to my apartment. They weren’t even full flights. It was maybe 89 small steps and I’m 25.

At the time I woke up the 1st 89 steps. I had to stop on the landing, hold on to the railing and catch my breath for a second. And I just turned and slowly looked at my hand holding that railing and I was like, holy crap. I’m 25. Anybody walking down the street probably would say I’m fit, I’m healthy, I’m skinny, whatever, by looks. I had to stop and catch my breath after nine stairs, I was mortified.

So I made changes that very day. I sat on the staircase and cried for, who knows how long it felt like forever. And then I went inside and I knew nothing about fitness. Like I said, I knew nothing. and also it’s probably an important to note to say that I grew up in the eighties in a very small middle of nowhere town. So, like we didn’t have gyms. There was a Y MC A that opened when I was in high school.

40 minutes down the road and that’s it. That’s all I knew about fitness outside of sports. So I knew running. That’s what people talked about. I knew that running existed. So I went inside my apartment finally, I looked for something to go for a run in. It was pajamas probably from like the dollar store or something. So, I probably looked real awesome running down the street.

But I did it. I ran and I made it two blocks. I turned around and had to walk back the next day, I made it three blocks, four blocks. Eventually, here’s another opportunity to date myself. I made it to Blockbuster. And then that became my routine. I would run to Blockbuster. I would buy a movie from the like dollar B or whatever was super cheap. I would come home and I would watch it instead of going to the bar.

So I would just get a movie. That would be my night. I might get take out food or make myself a really awesome meal. But that’s how my habits started. Then it very quickly. I caught that bug of like, it can’t just be this. It has to be more. So I started going to the free gym at my apartment complex where I learned body pump. That’s where I learned to deadlift my little 18 pound body bar.

I also started evaluating my food. I started making changes of, I don’t think I can eat pizza this often anymore. I don’t think I can eat. I, my first switch was to go to take meat out animal flesh and I switched to fish thinking that was a alternative because that’s what the media was telling me that I was looking up, I started to feel a little bit healthier, but it still wasn’t enough.

the final kick for me was accidentally going vegan. I took out the dairy, I took out the fish because those are the last things to me that were like, all right, let me try getting rid of these. And it was a

game changer. When I got rid of dairy, I felt like a whole new human being and like, Blockbuster didn’t stand a chance anymore. I needed to run past Blockbuster and back and back again multiple times.

it was just like my lungs opened up like my breathing was just like this whole whole new world. I felt like I could actually breathe for the first time in my life. I ended up getting off of all eight medications with the support of my doctor. I ended up getting picked up by a sponsored track team. I got a shoe sponsor, everything. So it was like, oh, my gosh, these dreams of being an athlete that I had my whole life are actually starting to come together and then all of a sudden I looked, and

I was like, oh my gosh, I think I’m vegan. So you’ll notice in my Instagram profile, it just says 15 years plus because I don’t know when it happened, I know that it happened at some point in the year that I was 2526. But it was just such a natural progression for me to find ultimate help for myself to become a vegan athlete. Both of those, those had to be together for me to find the ultimate help for myself once I then did the research on, ok, I think I’m vegan.

Now, let me look up what that means and how I should be eating. That’s when I found all of the plant built aspects, all of the, all of the animal rights issues coming up. And I was like, wow, I will never go back. You can’t tell, I don’t care if my health takes a different turn. I’m not going back. So I like my tagline is, I became vegan for myself and I stayed vegan for the animals.

Giacomo:

Crazy. Yeah. And I did not know about your aha moment. I knew that you had stuff that you went through bef when you were a teenager and whatnot. I can definitely relate to stuff like that. I didn’t realize that you wanted to play a whole bunch of sports as a teenager though and that you were unable to, if you don’t mind me asking what kind of sports were you trying to participate in.

Sally:

So, if you look back on it now knowing myself as an athlete. The problem was I was a power athlete and nobody knew what to do with me. So I played two seasons of Little League in elementary school. I was the only elementary school girl to hit the ball out of the park. But like, I didn’t have the agility, I didn’t have the coordinations to actually play the field for soccer.

I played three years of soccer. I was only allowed to be stopper or sweeper. I was the only athlete allowed to do throw ins or kicks because I could throw a soccer ball more than halfway down the field and first try. Like the first time you ever put a soccer ball in my hands, you taught me how to throw it. It’s half to three quarters of the way down the field. But then they didn’t know what to do with me the rest of the game because I couldn’t do anything else.

And then with track, I won, I hit county regionals for long jump, triple jump. But he asked me to run at the time. You asked me to run like, six times around that 2 400 m track. And like, I’m getting bored, my A DH she’s clicking on and I’m looking around chasing the birds. So track, cheerleading, little league soccer gymnastics. It was pretty much if it was available and I could get my mom to sign me up for it. I did it.

Giacomo:

That’s wild. So, you were ok. I’m trying to put the pieces together here. Were you, you were on teams then?

Sally:

I was for no long, never longer than 2 to 3 years.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. And was the hope to do this as an adult as well. Play sports.

Sally:

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Even in elementary school I was like, I’m gonna be an athlete. That’s what I’m gonna do. And I would, I would watch, I would get even like step aerobics VHS tapes from, you know, yard sales, I would curl soup cans in the closet, trying, hiding, trying to get my biceps, still working on that still don’t have a peek.

Giacomo:

But gotcha. Gotcha. Ok. And then that aha moment and then you started. So as an adult you got sponsored to run. Is that right? Track and field? I mean, everything, what was that like?

Sally:

That was like a dream come true. True. Absolutely amazing. I was like, ok, this is it. I’m happy now. I don’t need to drink. My depression is gone. I got my life together. My shoes were showing up for free. I had a coach that picked all my races. He paid my entry fees. I got driven around with a team. And then I think, you know, this part of the story was I was leaving practice one day and I was in the middle of a track series that I was slated to win and I got hit by a car and I got, I had already been

tapped by a car as a pedestrian. And then this day I got smashed into and pinned on my bike between a driver from out of town and the side of the road, the sidewalk and street signs and everything. And I was never able to recover. So I lost it, lost what I thought was my dream.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. Ok. That marked the stopping point for you running.

Sally:

Yep, that was 2011. So that was two years before I met you.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. And then between then and when you resumed sports, what was that whole period of time in your life?

Sally:

Like I found a barbell. So first, initially though, when it first happened, the depression just spiraled right back out of control. But I like to say that life knocked me literally on my ass for a reason because I was not listening because Giacomo, I did not love running. I hated running, but I liked that. I was finally good at something like I could do it.

I could run, I could win. I didn’t enjoy it. But I liked the whole process. I liked finally being on a team, I liked finally being a winner. I never in a million years would have stepped away from it. Had life not literally knocked me off my bike onto my ass. So then I bounced around a couple more. I tried cycling. I tried Cyclocross. I tried bodybuilding.

That’s when I found you and it wasn’t truly until I found the barbell that I found genuine happiness like genuine from the inside out when I became a powerlifter was just like, oh, this is what it feels like to just wake up happy. Like that was my moment. So when you first knew me, I was still fighting a lot of battles for that first year.

Giacomo:

Was that the first time you really picked up a barbell and started lifting?

Sally:

Yeah. It was one of my coworkers was like, listen, I know you can’t do this, you can’t do that. You’re still recovering. You’re trying to find your way. She’s like, just come deadlift with me. And I was like, oh, what’s that?

Sally:, Giacomo:

She taught me how to deadlift and I never looked back that, that is wild.

Giacomo:

I guess. I assumed that with all of your athletic stuff that you would have lifted sooner or trained sooner. But no, it was that particular moment after you got taken out of the game with the running happened with your lifting before you and I, you and the team with plant built connected. What was lifting? Like, was there any competition element to it whatsoever?

Sally:

Nope. I don’t know if I told you that I’m really good at selling myself. So for I was, I did start, I work, started working at a gym just to get myself really? I wanted to change other people’s lives. I felt like there was, this secret fitness was the secret that no one had told me about. And I felt like everyone kept telling me about all the medications I could pile on to be happier to get rid of the acid reflux, to lose the weight, to get rid of the anxiety.

And I was pissed off that people kept giving me medications and that no one said, have you tried working out? So I decided that instead of ruminating in my annoyance in nobody telling me I was gonna turn around and tell everybody else. So I became a personal trainer. I became a group x instructor. I dove in head first and on our breaks, me, my boss, my coworkers, we would bodybuild like they would teach me everything they knew.

We started bodybuilding and they all competed in bodybuilding shows. So we would even do like the posing in between. And it was fun to me because it was this community aspect. I was learning, I was growing, I was watching my muscle change, but I was like lacking in that competition. So I talked to a lot of my clients about it.

And one day, one of my clients brought veg news into me and she was like, I know you’re really hungry for competition. She’s like I saved this magazine for you because there’s a team called plant built that is looking for vegan athletes, you might be interested and she handed it over to me and I contacted you that same day.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. How did they find that magazine?

Sally:

How did that all I, she’s not, she wasn’t even vegan. I don’t know how she found it, where she found it, why the universe put it in her hands that day. But they did.

Giacomo:

So. Thank you Brenda Carey for putting that vegan health and fitness magazine into. She had

distribution Whole Foods and all this and that. We had a lot of coverage back then for what we were doing. And we had just had our very first year as a collective, there were nine of us, I wanna say doing bodybuilding only. And we got such widespread media coverage and media distribution that we decided to continue to go with that crazy idea.

And then we started recruiting and in the beginning it was just like, like doing something stupid and crazy, like how most ideas start? And we said to ourselves, well, we’re all into this. So why don’t we just start a group and see what happens? And we did and it was just insane. I have no words for how it just completely became its own thing larger than life. We’re like, all right.

Well, if this is gonna keep going, why don’t we try to find athletes? And then you came into play and I remember like it was yesterday, we were like, oh yeah, like Sally, is it, you need to be a part of this thing and that’s how we connected. And then the second year through, we were still, I forget we think we weren’t doing just bodybuilding.

Sally:, Giacomo:

At that point, it was still bodybuilding only.

Sally:

So that’s what I remember talking to Danny about and being like, I train like a bodybuilder. I know how to pose. I was like, but I, I’ve never been on stage. She was like, if you’re willing to get a coach, I can connect you with someone. So you guys connected me with Tiffany and Tiffany coached me through the first show that year.

Giacomo:

Did you have any interest in bodybuilding?

Sally:

I loved the training. I had never thought about competing in it until then.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. Was it? So in other words, was it more about joining a team and doing something competitively more so that as opposed to the actual sport itself, it was the vegan aspect for me.

Sally:

If, if you would have been just a vegan, if you would have been not vegan and looking for athletes and willing to talk to me, I would not have connected. But because I was, I mean, at that point, I was like only 34 years into being vegan and you know, that new vegan feeling of like, like I still feel like I have to tell the world but at the beginning even more. So you’re like, I gotta tell everybody.

So I was like, I need to prove, I need to prove something about veganism and I mean, we’re talking what 2014, 2015 like vegan athletes, there was an Instagram, there wasn’t like you couldn’t Google hashtag Vegan crossfit and find a million different people to feel motivated by. So I had to motivate people. That was my mission.

Giacomo:

So did during that moment where you, where everything connected, right? And you also changed how you ate and how you felt about what you ate, you went vegan, right? Was there any insight to that? As far as where it came from? Where the idea was birthed from? Or was it just that particular moment in time where it all came together?

Sally:

my mom will tell you that she could have seen it coming that so my mom very much a hippie, like all of our food was, you know, fresh made salads with 17 different vegetables. Maybe we had meat, maybe we didn’t like, it wasn’t a staple in our household. And when we did have it, it was very much so as a child, I always needed to know what animal it was. You couldn’t just put it on my plate and tell me it was a steak.

I had to know what animal I had to. You had to, I’ve never, I’ve never touched meat with a bone. I didn’t want it to appear that way to me. I didn’t want gristle. I didn’t want meat, juice on it like nothing. Keep it clean for me and my dad was vegan in the seventies when he lived on a commune. So I come from a background where I was raised to think a healthy meal did not have to have me.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. Ok. Some family influence for sure. Yeah.

Sally:

And some, some innate disgust just from birth, which I know all kids have but maybe, maybe because of the environment I was raised in, I was allowed to feel that disgust and not told to forget about it. Like I think too many parents wanna like squash it in their kids. When kids are trying to make that connection of, is this a cow I’m eating?

Am I actually eating the old mcdonald’s farm cow? Parents are like, yes, yes, yes, because that’s what we do now eat it. It’s healthy for you. Whereas my mom was like, it is if you don’t want it on your plate,

you don’t have to have it on your plate.

Giacomo:

Gotcha.

Sally:, Giacomo:

There was some support there, there was an option.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. And then when you made that switch, when you would, it was right on when you start to run. Right.

Sally:

Correct. It was literally like the same week, same week or two. I’m a very much an all or nothing person.

Giacomo:

And when you went all in right then and there remind me because I’m forgetting what, what exactly clicked for you.

Sally:

It was, do you mean what click to like make it stick? Yeah, I guess I would say the fact that I could breathe, my lung functioning became normal when they told me I had asthma before that I was able to go off of all eight medications with the doctor’s support. Like we ran a test for every single medication I went off and she’s like, I don’t get it. It’s gone. Wait, I don’t get it. That’s gone. Wait, I don’t get it. She just kept being, like, mind blown. She’s like, what are you doing?

It is working. I never felt healthier. I lost a lot of friends but they were toxic friends. So I never felt happier. I never felt so much like it was just easy. Life was just easy. You know what I mean to like, not like by no means were my bills being paid and that part wasn’t easy, but just li like, I didn’t have to fight to be me. I was happy I was healthy. I was breathing. I so cool and I never saw a reason to change anything back.

Giacomo:

Yeah, totally. OK. So let’s get back to and fast forward to you join the team. You competed with plant built at the time, right? What was that experience like?

Sally:

So the one year bodybuilding I felt like I loved the process. I love the team and I did not get a high off of competing that I get off of other things. It was just kind of like, no, what? Like after the show like it just wasn’t the same for me. So I spent a lot of time right afterwards reflecting on what I was gonna say to you when we talked about the next year because I was like, I don’t know that I was able to give it what I know I have because I didn’t find that passion for that sport.

And then when I started powerlifting, I don’t remember how or when you reached out to me, but I remember you reaching out and being like, I think we’re gonna other add other sports. And I was like, oh, hallelujah, can we do powerlifting? Because I’m loving it and I’m good at it and there’s a high I’m getting and Jam Mo, if you put me out there with that Barbell, I will be any non vegan.

You put up against me on that stage, like let me win that. I will win that powerlifting me and I did the next year we did powerlifting. A one met, hit a bunch of pr s I, I’m trying to remember how many years I did powerlifting with you at least two years, three years.

Sally:, Giacomo:

Not sure because I did it in Texas at least two, if not three, but you stopped powerlifting and then you moved on to crossfit.

Giacomo:

Is that right?

Sally:

Correct. That wasn’t until so during, during COVID, I started having all new or shut down quarantine whatever work PC places to call it these days. When the world closed. I started having a whole new realm of health, health issues that I mean, hormones stimulated. Some of them, some of them, if you look back in life, I had them. They were just never that prevalent.

And it became very hard for me to show up for powerlifting sometimes because in powerlifting, there’s no flex. Monday is bench day. You’re gonna bench for an hour, you’re gonna do accessories for 45 minutes if you show up and some of my symptoms are neurological. So, meaning I might not be able to control my arm for the day. I get a lot of out of control flailing with my right arm.

So if I showed up to power lift and it was bench press day and I couldn’t use my arm and I would text my coach and tell me that he’s like, I guess just take a rest and we’ll see if you can squat tomorrow.

And I was like, ok, and I started really slipping back into depression. and my husband was into Crossfit and I was always into watching Crossfit following Crossfit.

I could tell you every athlete’s name. I was watching the Crossfit games between sets as a powerlifter. So I was like, ok, well, I won’t tell my coach, but on the days he tells me just to take a rest day, I’m gonna play around with some skills and see if I can figure anything out. I need something to move. I need to move in some way in order to maintain this happiness that I found, I cannot get rid of it.

I have to hold on to it. So let me find any way possible. So, on the days I wasn’t able to show up in power lift, I turned to just learning new crossfit skills. And what I found was this amazing new thing of whereas in powerlifting, there’s be squat deadlift in crossfit. I don’t think I have enough fingers and toes to tell you how many different things there are.

I could do. So on the days my legs aren’t working. I work on my grip. Strength hanging from the pull up bar, I work on my pull ups on the days my arms aren’t working. I’m working on my pistols, my single legged squats, my running, my conditioning, there is always something I can do no matter what state my body is in.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. You found your calling the sport that makes it so that no matter what you’re working toward the goal of being more competitive inside sport and it was cooking for you.

Sally:

Exactly. Exactly.

Giacomo:

Cool. Nice.

Sally:

And you know what? You know what? I didn’t even point out as we’re talking about it. The timeline of becoming vegan before I ever started lifting. Like that’s a huge point of pride for me. My muscles are 100% plant built. I never touched a weight until I was 100% vegan. Like, I can’t believe I skipped over pointing that out.

Giacomo:

Works nice. All of your games came on a plant based diet as a vegan.

Sally:

Yup.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. Just like that. Cool. So, and where you’re at now we started doing cross because we took a break. We took a hiatus from competing together as a team and we also took a break even after resuming. Well, no, but we, when we took a break, we weren’t doing crossfit and we hadn’t really been competitive as a crossfit team either. I mean, kind of, I think if memory is certainly right.

Sally:, Giacomo:

But like, not like, really competitive, but last year doing crossfit, you were iffy.

Sally:

When you reached out to me about competing, I was like, j I can’t do powerlifting. I was like, I can’t do it. I was like, it’s just not, it’s not what I’m training for anymore. I don’t have the capability to guarantee you a win anymore and I’m not showing up if I can’t know that I’m putting, that’s my best foot forward. I was like, I’m in crossfit now. If you do crossfit, hit me back up and you were like, what about Olympic lifting?

And I was like, that’s my weakest of the crossfit things. Like I’m just learning. I was like, again, I’m not technical, I’m not gonna win that. Like, I can’t, I would love to do crossfit. So call me when you do crossfit and you were, you were, like, hearing your voice? I’m sure it was all right, my friend. All right, my friend we’re in for Crossfit.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. And what was that experience? Like your first time competing with us in Crossfit?

Sally:

Absolutely. Incredible. Incredible. It was my first ever live in person crossfit competition and I swept it. I won.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. Nice. Cool. And then you stuck with it this whole time. You’ve been training for Crossfit. Right. And then fast forward to last year, I think on the whole, as a team, we performed our best collectively.

And there you have continued to become more and more competitive since back then.

Sally:

Correct? So at the first year I was doing online programming, going to a gym. It was kind of like a one year tester to see if I wanted to, if I wanted crossfit to be declared as my sport. and that sold it for me being able to compete with you guys being able to dominate and win. I was like, I’m in. So I got myself an official coach. I’m very proud of who my coach is.

people in the crossfit world may know who he is. So I’m working with, coach who is with brute strength. He chose me like I applied for just general brute strength programming. They have several coaches. He is one of their top tier coaches, he coaches to name drop. So he’s with Danielle Brandon who will be competing at the Crossfit games in a couple weeks. He’s her coach. He’s with, oh, I’m not going to try to say the first name.

It’s one of the pan checks. It’s either Saxon or Spencer. He’s with one of the twins. he’s got him at the games right now. He’s with Kelsey Keel who just, did dominated her first year as an athlete and then he’s with Sally Anderson who’s about to dominate with her third year at the crossfit with plant built the vegan strong plant build team. So he took, he helped me win last year too.

Giacomo:

OK. Stop pause. Yeah, your win. W walk me through the competition floor from start to finish. And what that was all like.

Sally:

So last year was a whole new world for us. as you know, but telling everybody else, so we went in expecting to be individual athletes for crossfit again. And last minute the flow of the competition was changed and it became partners only and my social anxiety my, well, I got newly dosed at newly diagnosed with a DH D which is some of my health issues they believe are spawning from burn out of that.

But in my brain, I think nobody likes me. Everybody judges me. I think I’m annoying to everyone. I replay moments in my head over and over again. I feel like I, I don’t know how to socialize. I don’t know how to interact with other human beings. I mean, you saw my first year. Like, I know I, I like, I latched on to Aaron and then I latched on to Kelly.

Like that latching on, like, saved me those couple years because it’s a very overwhelming for me to be in those type of settings. So now that I understand myself more, it’s easier to understand that I don’t think the same way. But when you texted us and said, or George, who was the captain of the crossfit team texted us and said it’s partners, buddy up and there are five females on the team.

I was in, I was like, I’m out. It’s gonna be my first year not competing with the vegan strong plan build

team. Nobody’s gonna want to be with me. I’m the weakest. I’m the newest, I’m in my forties. They’re all in their thirties and twenties. I’m like, nobody’s gonna want to be with me. Nobody like it was so much anxiety built around that and then I was just prepared to step back and say you guys are better athletes than me.

I’m looking on paper. You guys have been in crossfit longer than me. You should be paired up. You should be with her and you should be with her. And Ashley texted me and was like, I wanna be with you and I’m like, why the hell does this girl? I don’t know, wanna be with me and I was like, no, no, no, no, no. Annie. Those are the ones they are so good. You wanna be with them again.

Universe Shao Universe keeps pushing me where I need to be with your team because then one of them dropped out and suddenly there’s only an even number of females and like suddenly it became Ashley and I were the females of the team and Ashley and I, Ashley who for some reason saw something and wanting to be my partner and I feel like I bonded with her, not latched on to her.

Like I didn’t rely on her to be my guide and my happiness in being with the plant built team. I found her as my equal for some reason. Maybe it was understanding my own brain or the fact that she reached out first before she was forced to be with me. She said she wanted to be with me. It gave me a new sense of confidence in being in that partnership and it was just man when we first met and said, hello, we were like, do you wanna try some burpees together and see if we could do things synchro

because that’s the hardest part of a partnership with Crossfit is there are synchronized movements just like synchronized swimming. Your chest must touch the ground at the same time, you must stand up at the same time, you must hit the box jump at the same time for these movements and we just instantly flowed. It wasn’t forced it wasn’t something we had to work on. It was just like you would have thought we competed together for years. It was amazing.

Giacomo:

Was that a first for you as far as buddy up and doing that kind of?

Sally:

Yeah, I’ve since partnered with my husband and let me just confirm for you. It is not normal to naturally flow together. My husband and I have tried three times now and we have finally decided we will never compete as a team or a partnership again. It is not for us.

Giacomo:

That is definitely a thing on a personal tip. I’m feeling that out with Danny and who knows what the future is going to bring. We’ll find out but back to you. So, ok, so they, they call it right bef right before they, they announce everything. All of a sudden you’re like, oh crap because you were already committed to doing this and then you went and you were in sync and everything and now you’re on the competition floor with Ashley. What happened? What was that? Like?

Sally:

It was magical because she’s been in crossfit. I don’t wanna even claim her number of years. I know it’s many, many, many years of a decade, but she’s up there in years that she’s been doing crossfit and at the time I was a year and a half in. So there are just nuances you don’t know until you know, and until you just literally get on the floor and experience it. There’s no way to figure it out.

So she was able to guide me and she was able to say, hey, follow me, this is the pace we’re gonna set. I want you to mimic my pace. So I didn’t have to worry about trying to pace myself. I didn’t have to worry about trying to keep up with anything else or pay attention to anyone else. I just followed her and she kept me straight. She kept me moving.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. And you won everything.

Sally:

We had to fight for it. We had to fight for it, but we won which I, I liked that we had to fight for it because the first year I did not have to a fight for it. I just dominated. And I walked away feeling like, oh, that was cool. But man, maybe it was just who showed up that day? I didn’t get any good competition, like not to knock anybody that showed up that day.

But that was my personal train of thought was maybe I just dominated because of who showed up. But then to have to like legit fight and like we didn’t win every event. We down to the last event we had to win the last event in order to win and it was a head to head the top two teams. It came out with handstand walking which Ashley is incredible at. There was max reps on or some sort of reps on back squat with the VAR bell, which my powerlifting background loved because it was a heavy barbell and

it was 100 and 45 pounds and I heard the other team, I heard the teammates talking and the one girl turns to her teammate, she goes, listen, whatever you do don’t try to keep up with the pink haired girl on the barbell because she’s a powerlifter. So that gave us that, that little edge of confidence just to be like, oh, this is ours.

Sally:, Giacomo:

Oh, they’re nervous, right?

Giacomo:

Got you. And then you were able to take it. We did nice now get me hyped or get our audience hyped, I should say because I’m already like, I can’t even put anything into words right now in all honesty. And I

want your perspective yet our audience here hyped about what’s happening this year with the context of the fact that you are now the you are the 2024 team captain for crossfit. Talk about the team that you put together and what you think is gonna happen this year with the team.

Sally:

I am so so hyped for our team. I like I told you, I wish we had a few more men. So if any male crossfitters are out there listening and can be a really good competitive crossfitter, please DM me, Jim girl Sally on Instagram and we’ll hit you up for 2025. We do need to grow some men on our team. We have a couple of amazing men for sure. We just are largely female, everyone on the team.

Like it’s just top 10% in the world in their age group and in their divisions, like if you look through the overall worldwide standings on the crossfit leader board, I finished this year, top 800 women in the world in my, in 40 to 45 as the age group. Just my second full year of crossfit like blowing my mind. Who else? I know? Oh, we were talking numbers of lifts last year.

last night in the group text thread like the women are going to put me to shame on the barbell, which you I told you. Barbell is my thing and I am so proud to call this our team. Like I don’t want to give their numbers away, but it’s just sub 200 pounds that they’re looking at for a complex that’s four dead lifts, three hang cleans, two front squats and then a full squat clean. And like these women are talking just under 200 pounds. Like I’m hoping for 100 and 50 100 and 60 pounds and they’re

like, yeah, I probably won’t hit 200. It’s like we are gonna show up and like I’m proud of that aspect. Like maybe it’s my background as a strength athlete, but, you know, back in the nineties it was vegans are weak. So it’s like if we’re running that’s, people could be like, oh, sure.

But like put a, put a weight in their hand. Like, no, you’re gonna put a weight in these vegan women’s hands and they’re gonna show you what for, like, they’re gonna show you what vegan muscle is capable of.

Giacomo:

Nice.

Sally:, Giacomo:

And, and the event, yeah, the event is huge.

Sally:

Like you all chose a great event. It is big scale. My field is not full, there are still opening, so I’m still putting it out there that I want a full field to compete against. However, like most of the most of the playing games sold out right away, like most of the fields are completely full sold out. It’s a huge event

and let’s go back to my name dropping Danielle Brandon who’s about to be at the crossfit games.

She is the guest athlete at the Tampa Bay Games that we are going to. So she’s gonna be there. So, you know, I’m gonna be texting my coach giving him a little push to be like, you know, you got a couple of athletes there, you could go.

Giacomo:

Gotcha. Nice. I hope so. And if we don’t have more athletes on a team this year with some better male representation, there’s next year, I hope if we get to do this again next year and my thoughts are what we’re doing in Tampa, we feel that out and if it’s something that we can grow like why not get back into Olympic weightlifting too, which is something we haven’t done as a team in a long time.

And this will be the first year ever that we’re competing in two at two different sports festivals the same time. So your crossfit team will be at the USA Fit fest September.

Sally:, Giacomo:

I want to say 6th and 7th and eighth and 7th, 8th and 7th, 8th and 9th USA Fit fest Tampa Florida, our whole crossfit.

Giacomo:

And then in October, we’ll have all of the other sports that we compete in and the team will be at Mr America on the I think 12th and 13th or whatever. But this, this is brand new and if this goes well, we can grow our presence at the USA Fit Fest and I have, has have any of our athletes competed at this particular event before.

Sally:

No, no, but I have, I have connected with the event organizer. He’s very excited to have us and just pushing like how many different sports are there? Like he’s been really talking to me about how proud, proud they are of that. So I would love to return the push back like you’re saying, and come back next year, hot and fired up with more than one sport.

Giacomo:

Yeah, that’d be super cool. What are you expecting as far as the competition out there and our team?

Sally:

Ah, I am, it is so hard to judge, you don’t know who’s going to show up, like it’s all about who shows up. There’s no way to know it’s a blind leader board right now, meaning you don’t see the names. I’ve tried stalking on Instagram to see who’s like tagging it, who’s hash tagging it. And there just aren’t many showing up. I found like one woman in my age group on there.

She seems super cool, super, super awesome, super like I may take her, I may not, but I’m gonna have to work for it. I think I will. But again, like most sports like you just don’t know till you show up. What I do know is that we are all super badass on this team. There is not one person that I don’t feel confident that they are going to put a run in for the podium.

Giacomo:

Gotcha that I’m beyond excited. I have no idea what to expect either because we have never been to the USA Fit fest. So I’m hopeful and I think we for sure we have something to be proud of as far as what we’re bringing because again, the the athletes that we have on your team are thanks to you. I mean, they, I don’t know how you found them. Honestly, it was crazy.

You did a hell of a job bringing together a squad for this year. They’re but far and away. This is gonna be the most competitive we’ve ever been So I’m really psyched about that. If anyone wants to help volunteer for this, we could certainly use a volunteer crew to capture the moment, support the team, et cetera, et cetera and obviously cheer you all on. Here’s a question.

So say someone’s listening to this and they’re inspired by your story, they’re inspired by the team and everything that we stand for and everything that we’re doing. How would you recommend someone gets into being a competitive athlete going vegan making this a large part of what their focus is, their lifestyle, et cetera, et cetera.

Sally:

So let’s look at fitness side first is evaluate what you’re doing, but most of them evaluate what you love because that’s what I failed to do. Initially, I did not evaluate the fact that I didn’t love running and like that never would have stuck for me long term if you’re not passionate about it. If you’re not hyped and motivated to show up day after day, it just won’t work.

So don’t be afraid if you want to be an A to there’s so many different sports now and so many that are so similar, like you’re even saying like Olympic lifting, powerlifting, strongman, crossfit, all share so many aspects that maybe that first one isn’t for you, but maybe the 2nd, 3rd or fourth one is like, try it. The only way you’re gonna know is if you try it.

And right now, especially like people, especially in strength sports and crossfit, the community aspect, like people want to help you. And if they don’t, that’s not the right place for you, walk into another gym and say, hey, I’m thinking about trying to be a competitive crossfitter. Can you help me out? Because when I walked into this gym where I’m at right now, I said, he’ll still tell you the owner of this gym knows when I came in.

I said, hey, what is the most expensive membership you have that will allow me to be inside of your gym whenever the doors are open. And I was like, I want to be here all day, every day. Do you support that? Because if you don’t support me being here sometimes for four hours straight, this is in the gym for me and he just smiled, gave me a high five and he’s like you found the place.

Let’s go, let’s do this. You don’t have that kind of support behind you. The kind of motivation to show up every day. Like those are the two aspects you have to have to have, you have to have the community support, you have to have the passion. And then as far as veganism goes, like I may have done it seemingly over for most people that’s not gonna work.

You’re gonna have to change one at a time. You’re gonna, you’re gonna have to find what’s that small change that you can make? That’s going to be sustainable, make that small change and don’t be hard on yourself if it takes a week or a month to make that first change, make it and then make the next one and then make the next one. For me. It was like a week or two turnaround because it took me a couple of hours to make each change.

I understand my brain doesn’t work the same way. So make a change, make it stick, make the next change, make it stick, make the next change and give yourself grace and forgiveness because it’s a learning curve like you probably didn’t grow up knowing about nutritional yeast. If you weren’t vegan, like you probably didn’t grow up incorporating hemp seeds unless your mom was a hippie.

Like there are just so many things nutritionally that you might not even know about that you need to take time to learn about so that you can be a healthy vegan, strong plant built athlete. Like you want to be a healthy one you don’t want to step up with. You know, suddenly you have these health issues, suddenly you have declining nutrients because all you’re doing is now eating pasta like that’ll work for you for a little while and then your nutrients are gonna start dropping.

So just make sure you educate yourself along the way and you guys are so fortunate and lucky like to have the world Wide Web to have the Google all of this. Like I was calling online numbers and like leaving voicemails to get veg pamphlets mailed to me in snail mail. And I then turned around and became a volunteer that was the person answering those phone calls and mailing it back out because I appreciated it.

But there’s so many resources out there for both of these. Like, do your education find what you’re passionate about. Stick with it. And if you lose passionate on the vegan side, remember what got you there in the first place and reignite that spark, you know, look up the videos that as vegans, we don’t want to look at none of us want to see at this point, the torment and the torture of the pigs and the chickens and the factory farming.

But you know what I if I ever once I have not, but if I ever once in my mind was like maybe, maybe it’s not that bad. Maybe I will have a chicken nugget. First thing I would do is pull that video up and remind myself of that aspect that I do not want to be a part of. And I’m fortunate unfortunate in that I do live near Delaware, which was the birthplace of factory farming for chickens.

And like there are times I will pass those nasty ass trucks on my way there and I send out that little fast fire. My mom calls it a fast fire prayer like out to the universe of like God, I hope those babies just like, I almost help. I cannot help the pig on that truck that I’m driving by on my commute to work. But I can say like, dear God just let them die in transport, like take their life in transport.

Like that’s what I hope for them that they don’t have to. So like, look at that guys, if you want to make the change, look at that because if you have a heart, if you’re a human being, you won’t be able to look at it and then turn around and eat something. That was that animal, you just won’t be able to do it. And if you’re able to do it, like reach out to me, I’ll smack you f and silly six ways from sideways like I’ll, I’ll call you every freaking day.

I’ll send you a text message to have a picture of a different animal every day. Like if you have the slightest inclination to not eat it, don’t freaking eat it. Like just don’t, it’s not required.

Giacomo:

Now, how do people find you?

Sally:

Gym girl, Sally, anywhere you look, gym girl, Sally, I’m gym girl. Sally. The best place to connect with me is gonna be Instagram. I love my Instagram. I love connecting on Instagram again. A DH D I like those fast fire videos and pics. I share my training plan. I share my health problems. I share my food.

I like I share my whole journey. I’m an open book and if you want to see it, you wanna follow it, you wanna be a part of it. Connect with me on Instagram. If you saw it and something I said today resonated with you or something I said today pissed you off by all means. Drop into my D MS, right on.

Giacomo:

Well, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for sharing your story. Getting everyone hyped up for what we’re going to do with the USA Fit Fest with the digging Strong Ple team. I’ll make sure to leave Jim Girl Sally in the show notes so that our viewers and our listeners can find you in the future and I’m looking forward to hanging out with you and cheering you on in just a soon, really soon.

Sally:

Don’t count the weeks for me. I got some training to put in.

Giacomo:

So right on. Other than that, I want to thank everyone so much for tuning in to another episode of vegan proteins, Muscles by Brussels radio. And you can feel free to stay in touch with us at Muscles at Brussels and that vegan proteins on all the socials and you can hit the contact button at Vegan proteins.com for anything and we will get back to you right away. Once again, my name is Giacomo and we’ll talk to you soon.

Sally:

All right, bye.