Cross posted From Veggy Magazine… at YogaJaya
Steph Davis, a rock climber, base jumper and sky diver based in Utah, made her first visit to Tokyo in July 2010, to give a talk at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Steph spoke about personal empowerment as a part of YogaJaya’s International Intensive Teacher Training program.
Known as one of the highest profile women adventurists in the world and specializing in free-solo (no ropes) climbing, Steph is also a committed vegan (eating no animal products at all), a choice that might be seen as exceptional, taking into consideration the demanding nature of her lifestyle.
So on that sunny, humid and exhaustingly hot afternoon in July, Steph opened her heart to us about her life, being vegan, and the philosophy that guides her. Here’s what she told us:
Vegan by Accident
By Steph Davis
I initially became a vegan 7-8 years ago, when I was trying to find better nutrition for climbing in order to get better performance. Generally, climbers eat very poorly. They just eat whatever they can. Back then, nobody (that I knew) had any clear, specific approach to diet. And we were either grouped into those who believed that eating meat was the key to getting strength, or those who do not eat and who starve themselves to be as light as possible. Basically, we were not very organized.
So, I started to experiment, three months at a time. I tried everything from the Zone Diet Plan (diet controlling the protein-to-carbohydrate ratio every time you eat), Blood-Type Diet (eating based on your blood type), a No-Fat Diet, to the Atkins Diet (low carbohydrate diet). But nothing really worked as well as I wanted. Having gone through all the experimentation, I went on a cleansing fast, which made me very picky about anything I ate. I became very particular, I wanted to eat cooked five-grain cereals, no eggs, no dairy, and all natural produce. And then I realized that my body was naturally turning vegan.
I had always thought of going vegan as my last resort, because my objective in changing my diet was to achieve better performance. Also at that time, there was a strong, prevalent belief that animal protein was the key to performance. So it had never even crossed my mind to try experimenting with a vegan diet. Yet after my fast, my body turned vegan by itself.
So, although I accidently became a vegan, all I had wanted to do was to eat the best I could in order to climb better. As a result, I observed myself. As a couple of months went by, I realized that I was actually doing better. I climbed better. Being vegan was working and it was amazing! So I kept at it.
From Physical to Ethical
After being vegan for 1-2 years, I learned about factory farming, something I didn’t know anything about earlier. In my early 20s, there was a phase when I abstained from eating meat, getting into vegetarianism for 3 years because I thought meat was gross and I felt sorry for animals. But then I didn’t know enough and I went back to eating animal products. However, when I became vegan the second time, I was more focused and I searched out more information, which led me to the revelation of factory farming.
To briefly explain factory farming, 97% of the animal products consumed in the U.S. are from factory farming. Animals are kept in truly horrible conditions; from uncomfortable to tortuous environments. The issue isn’t just about killing the animals. It’s not about death, because every living thing is going to die one day. No… it is about how the animals are kept and how horrible a life they are enduring. It’s about forcing animals into a horrible existence. And I do not want to have anything to do with it. Once you know, you just can’t. So now, it’s really more about this than anything else.
The majority of the animal products in any normal restaurant or supermarket in the U.S. are from factory farming. Thus, I no longer eat meat. And the bonus is, if you don’t, you become healthier.
On top of all this, I think it’s not good spiritually either. Bad for you. Bad for the animals. Bad for you, because if you cause harm to other creatures, doing so comes back to you. It makes you suffer, even if you don’t think so. Energetically, I believe it is the Buddhist way; if you do something bad, it hurts you. Be it now or in a different form in the future.
Better, Better, Better
Going vegan definitely gave me better performance and better health.
Among the other changes, I became less aggressive. If you eat something through violence, that violence goes inside you. There have been scientific studies that have shown that when animals die in a state of terror, there’s so much adrenaline and tension in them that it leaves chemicals spread through the body. Killing that animal and eating its meat filled with bad adrenalin and chemicals is obviously not good for your brain or your body. It makes people crazy and aggressive.
Also, being vegan, I don’t eat as much. When I climb a big wall or a mountain, I need to carry my own food. One often goes with a partner and majority of the time, my food bag is very small, while my partner’s is twice the size and they are often surprised by how little I eat. Since you have to carry everything when you climb, it’s a huge advantage when you don’t have to carry as much, and when you don’t have to eat as much. Your body becomes more efficient. As if you have bad fuel, you would need more. But if you use good fuel, you don’t need as much.
And perhaps I can also say it may have led me to become more calm. Though it’s really hard to say if it’s a direct result of being vegan, as it might be a combination of things, of growing older, becoming more mature, and learning more about philosophy. But as an adventurist constantly challenging things, being calm is very important. When you’re facing stressful dangerous challenges, it puts you under high pressure. So it’s good to learn to know how to be calm in a high-pressure environment.
The Myth
In terms of what I actually eat, it’s very simple. I don’t buy things that are ready-made. In the U.S., the whole supermarket is filled with boxes, cereals, cookies, bread, processed foods. I usually don’t buy any of those things. I go to the natural produce groceries section, buying brown rice, quinoa, tofu, vegetables, soy beans, lentils, and nuts.
The biggest mistake that people make is when the become vegan, they don’t eat whole-foods. That’s where the myth comes in. That it’s not as nutritious and doesn’t give you energy. Some people try going vegan and find themselves gaining weight because they are simply eating white bread, white rice, and white sugar all the way. I’m a vegan. I just try to eat normal food. And I try not to eat wheat, white rice, bleached products, and I avoid overeating bread.
Something I do daily is to make my own soymilk. I take some soybeans, brown rice, almonds, and soak it all in water. After a while, I put them in the soymilk maker with water, which makes it very hot and polarizes it. You then strain it and get soymilk. In the U.S., soymilk always has sugar in it and it’s a hassle to find any without sugar. On top of that, they are sold in plastic containers that are not good for you and are non-recyclable. So I just decided to make my own. One thing I do make sure when I make my soymilk is that it’s from organic soy beans. Non-organic soybeans are often affected very by pesticides and have lots of nerve toxins in them.
I also try not to eat refined sugar, especially corn syrup, as it’s a very bad form of artificial sweetener. As for sugar in general, I stopped eating it for 3 years, and then I lost the taste for it. I don’t like it anymore. Before that, it was like an addiction for me.
One thing that’s hard for me is wheat, because I love it. Fresh bread is so yummy, but it upsets my stomach, makes me less strong, tired, and less able to perform. Not eating it makes me feel physically better. So it’s great that there is a gluten-free trend in the U.S. right now, where even a restaurant will have a gluten-free choice on the menu. On the other hand, it’s especially hard when I’m traveling in Europe, where everything is bread and they all taste very good. It makes it hard to travel, and I the only reason I try not to eat it is because it doesn’t agree with me. So in this sense, Asia is good because people eat rice here… although I do go more for brown rice, since white rice –though it’s not bad – leaves me feeling empty and doesn’t give me lots of sustenance.
Being That Person
I think that today, a lot more climbers are vegan, and we’re all saying that we’re climbing better… and I feel that I am contributing to that outlook.
For instance, around 10 years ago, no one was supporting this idea. There was one famous top climber who wrote articles on training. Her approach to diet was generally starving herself, so a lot of people were doing the same, both men and women. And one time she wrote an article where she was told by her doctor to eat meat when she stopped eating meat. Everyone read the article, many people were talking about that, saying it showed that meat is crucial. So when I initially became vegan, everybody was saying “remember that article?”
Today, in a way, I’m trying to be the person that I have chosen to be. And I can say that since it’s working for me, you can do it too. And everyone can say, “Oh, Steph’s doing it, so I can too.”
Other examples include Scott Jurek, an ultramarathon runner who’s a male, vegan, and runs and wins 100-mile trail runs. He’s someone who’s doing the hardest physical thing, for which he needs to eat lots of calories. That then becomes a stronger message for climbers, who say girls and guys are different.
It’s nice that I can be a person who can be outspoken in terms of being vegan. If I can use the situation to spread that message, that’s good. If people remember for a decade about a training course I give, I also want to put out the information that I also just happen to be a vegan as well.
Becoming Active in A Different Way
It’s often hard when introducing these ideas to people who are not vegan. In the past, I have posted videos of factory farming, with no specific message attached, on Facebook. People have reacted in a very angry and upsetting way. That’s very weird to me, because I feel that if you’re sad about something, aren’t you ready for change? Why would knowing about the cruel side of animal consumption make you get angry at people for asking for a change? I have learned that some people don’t want to hear or think about it at all, and they end up becoming defensive and then aggressive.
So I have become active in a different way, compared to other very strong forms of activism.
Of course I do understand other vegan activists and where they’re coming from. When you know what’s happening to animals, it feels like a crisis and you feel like you have to stop it. So I can see the motivation behind their urges. But sometimes that doesn’t work, because if you say something too harshly, people will turn against it.
In a way, I have to hold myself back sometimes. Instead, appeal to people’s selfishness. Unfortunately, people are self-centered, and that is how to get into their heads at the beginning. You don’t talk about animals but instead, focus on health and athletic performance. Most people want that, and that is where I got started as well. Many people don’t even want to think about spirituality. So start with what people can relate to: their own wellbeing. And if you can bring people forward in a way that affects them, then once they begin, they will learn more, and they will begin to change. They will begin to realize and see the broader meaning. I know this, because that’s exactly how it was with me.
For me, the key is to appeal to people’s self interest, then lead by example, and be non-threatening by offering positive information. People won’t usually feel reactive in response to something positive… like offering them a good vegan recipe or like encouraging then to engage in positive activities.
This is something about which one has to be very careful. People begin to say that vegans are always preaching and I don’t want to hear it. So my priority is to find the best way to share information and convince people. Be it better health and performance, or be it not harming animals.
BIOGRAPHIES
Steph Davis is a rock climber, BASE jumper and wingsuit flyer from the United States. She is a top climber, specializing in free (no ropes) solo climbing the world’s most challenging peaks. She is a committed vegan. Steph has written the book High Infatuation: A Climber’s Guide to Love and Gravity. In High Infatuation, she writes about the universal themes of life, love, friendship, personal empowerment, and more, told through her career in climbing. She is also now working on a second book called “Learning to Fly,” about learning how to transcend fear, and how to discover evolution and freedom through flight.
A Japanese born in Paris, Satoko was raised to feel as a world citizen, brought up in six countries by a family that thrived on traveling and on integrating into local cultures. She has traveled to all continents except Antarctica and loves personal contact with new places and people, making frequent visits to art exhibitions, interacting with interesting and creative people, and discovering completely new perspectives. She is the Managing Director of ParaImpacto/YogaJaya, enjoying her life as a constant explorer, a challenger of limits, and an experimenter in new domains.
