About me

A vegan what?

Win at Brute Force 16 with trainer, Pedg
What's that you say? A vegan boxer, a vegan kickboxer?
What do you eat? How do you get your protein? What about iron?
This is my blog, about me, my experiences, my opinions and how I manage everything I do on a plant based diet. In it, I will attempt to explain and answer questions about why I'm vegan, who inspires me to be a vegan athlete and actually, just articles about whatever I want. Sometimes I will even share some of my favourite yummy recipes - albeit stolen from friends or recipe books. So lets get into it...

Boxing and martial arts has always interested me. From my early teens I was thrilled by the theatrics of professional wrestling. I loved watching WWE's Royal Rumble and man, I still love the Lucha Libre. Living in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2005, my boyfriend and I went once or twice a week to Arena Jalisco to watch all the legends like Psicosis, Blue Demon Jnr, El Hijo Del Santo and Eddie Guerrero. One time they wrestled right out of the ring and nearly knocked me out of my seat - I was stoked.

Me and 'Super Porky' Mexican wrestler
We also went to professional boxing bouts in Guadalajara and on the recommendation of one of our Mexican friends, I gave boxing a try in Guadalajara in the garage gym he was training at. Despite my aching, taco laden body, it was so cool and I loved it. Once back home and settled in I started at Melbourne Martial Arts in the city and have never looked back. I started kickboxing in roughly 2007 and began competing seriously in 2010. Recently my trainer and I decided to give straight boxing a try, mainly just to fill out the time between my kickboxing bouts and this has led me to the most success I've had so far. I won the 2012 Australian Amateur Boxing Championships in the Elite Women's 64kg division so while I'm not ruling out kickboxing in the future, boxing is certainly my focus for now.

My faithful MAPEX kit in the studio

So I'm also a drummer. I've been drumming since I was 12 years old when I started at high school. I idolised Dave Grohl of Nirvana, Ben Gillies of Silverchair and loved Frenzal Rhomb - even though I didn't know who the drummer was. 16 years later, drumming has taken me all over the world. Touring with my band of 7 years, Straightjacket Nation, we've been to the USA twice, Europe, South East Asia and toured Australia several times. I'm also currently drumming for Melbourne punk band, Bloody Hammer who have an LP coming out soon.

Straighjacket Nation playing on a boat, Melbourne 2010

 

Wedged between reading, writing and selling organic fruit and vegetables, boxing and drums require a physical robustness not typically associated with the vegan stereotype. In this blog, I will attempt to show you how all these things fit together - and compliment each other - in my life. How my understanding of global politics and the world has reinforced my local politic and how this works for my two loves (apart from my boyfriend and cat) - boxing and drums.
Bloody Hammer, 2011




I hope that by sharing a little about me and introducing people to those who inspire me for whatever reason, people will gain a better understanding of veganism and other cool stuff that gets basically no decent coverage in the mainstream. And in case you're interested, I'll try to post regularly with flyers of upcoming boxing and kickboxing events and gigs that I'm playing - or just any interesting and related updates.

Thanks for reading!
EMILY