# @thebodybuildingvegan on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DaYCI7cOx-C
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/67375860-thebodybuildingvegan-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/2706642d29.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-07-04T15:11:44.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** John Thomas (@thebodybuildingvegan) — https://gondola.cc/thebodybuildingvegan

## Caption

My journey started probably very similar to yours.

I wasn’t born vegan. My parents didn’t force me to go vegan. But I did have some help.

At 10 years old, my best friend at the time told me quite bluntly, “If you eat that hamburger, you’re killing a cow.”

While I got angry and defensive, I knew she was right.

It didn’t happen overnight, but within a few months I went fully vegetarian. I thought that would be the end of the story.

Three years later, at 13 years old, I read a PETA magazine my mom handed to me. It changed my life forever.

Once I realized the horrors of the dairy and egg industries, I knew instantly that, for the same reason I went vegetarian, I also had to go vegan.

At that time, I had never lifted a weight, nor had it ever crossed my mind that fitness could be impacted by a vegan diet, positively or negatively.

I’ll borrow a quote from Robert Cheeke: “While I didn’t know what to eat, I knew who I didn’t want to eat.”

I wasn’t perfect. Not for a lack of trying, but because 20 years ago, as the only vegan I knew, I made mistakes. But I also stuck with it.

I wrestled for the first time at 14 years old, and even with this supposedly “protein-deficient vegan diet,” I still beat many competitors who were two or three years older than me. I was pretty good. I could run a sub-6-minute mile.

But I didn’t love wrestling.

After my first wrestling season ended, we started offseason weightlifting.

I never went back.

I loved the weights.

The structure. The sound. The certainty of knowing exactly how strong I was becoming.

I had no idea I would become a bodybuilder, but I knew I wanted to lift.

My dad took me to a commercial gym when I was 15 years old, and the very first thing the bodybuilding trainer told me was:

“If you don’t eat meat, you won’t build muscle.”

His words stung, just like my friend’s words about killing a cow had years earlier.

*But I knew my morals.*

And I think we can all see now just how wrong that trainer was.

What is your vegan story?

I’d love to hear it, and I’ll share more of my journey soon.

#veganjourney #vegan #veganbodybuilding

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## Tags

vegan, veganjourney, veganbodybuilding

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