Full transcript: Nimai Delgado on London Real
4:54 Brian Rose: This is London Real, I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Niemey Delgado, the vegan bodybuilder and influencer. You started competing in 2015, winning your first natural bodybuilding contest and are now the first ever vegan IFBB pro bodybuilder in history. You’ve been featured on the cover of Muscle and Fitness magazine and you appear in the new documentary film Game Changers, executive produced by James Cameron about high-performing vegan athletes. Nehemiah, welcome to London Real.
5:20 Nimai Delgado: Thank you so much for having me, Brian, dude. I’m super excited to be here.
5:23 Brian Rose: Good, me too, you know? How is London treating you, first of all? What’s it like when you come in here?
5:27 It’s obviously very different than California or where you grew up. What’s the vibe?
5:31 Nimai Delgado: London’s cool. I like London, but like, honestly, the last two times I’ve been here, I feel like I brought California Sunshine with me because I came back in May and the whole week it was sunny. It was not like the London I experienced like the previous time.
5:44 And then this time, it’s been pretty nice too. I mean, the weather’s been good, the sun’s been out, and then today’s been the only day that’s kind of been a little bit chilly. But, you know, you never realize how spoiled you are with weather until you leave California, and you realize how, like, I have not climatized to cold weather at all. I’m so used to 75 and sunny just year round now.
6:03 Brian Rose: Does it get boring or not?
6:04 Nimai Delgado: No, no, not at all. I’m from San Diego, and I forgot what it’s like. Well, oh yeah, I forgot, yeah.
6:08 Brian Rose: But like, I think lately, we’ve had a good year for weather here. London usually gets the bad rap, but we’ve had a lot of sun.
6:14 But I guess we have a few bad days too. How’s the vegan community here?
6:18 Nimai Delgado: London’s great, London’s great. So the first time I came to London was 2016 and I was a little bit skeptical because I was kind of like one of my first times traveling out of the country, not really knowing what the vegan scene would be like, but since then, I mean, even then it was good, but now, I mean, two and a half years later, it just exploded, it exploded. So there’s no problem finding vegan food, vegan options, even non-vegan restaurants.
6:42 I mean, you find vegan like takeaways at like these convenience stores, which like that’s not really a thing in the US yet. So it’s nice to see how open-minded the community is here and just kind of how normal it is.
6:53 Brian Rose: Yeah, I mean, this is all new to me and we can talk about my whole journey this year. I’m still plant-based, everybody wants to know. Luckily, my wife’s cooking up a storm and she’s like totally down.
7:03 But look, there’s a lot of great options in London. You know, there really are. And we’re in the East Village. I mean, sorry, we’re in shortage, which is like the East Village, which means there’s tons of options. So yeah, I mean, it’s kind of the way the world is moving a bit.
7:16 Nimai Delgado: It’s shifting, it’s shifting.
7:18 Brian Rose: Yeah, and I wanna get into that too. You know, you’ve got a great story and I wanna talk about all of it, but before we start, I wanted to take like a bird’s eye view and look back and just think like, what’s it like being a professional bodybuilder? And why do you think, you know, people are so kind of fascinated, I’m sure you get stopped by people all the time, people wanna ask you advice. You know, we’ve had a history here with people like Dorian Yates on the show where people look up to him and then also want to know more about him.
7:46 What is this kind of fascination with human physique? You must think about this sometime from sometimes like a higher level. What’s kind of going on?
7:55 Nimai Delgado: Yeah, it’s an interesting world, first of all. My entire life, I never planned on being a professional bodybuilder, never once crossed my radar.
8:03 But then once you become, even a bodybuilder just kind of look a certain way, people tend to approach you a lot more. They tend to make comments to you a lot more. It’s really easy to identify a bodybuilder. It’s not like as easy to identify like a race car driver or a cyclist, but a bodybuilder, it’s like that dude lifts weights, right? So the first thing people always wanna know is they make some ridiculous comment.
8:24 Like, bro, do you even lift? Like, you know, like, do you go to the gym much? And then the next thing you wanna know is what you eat, how much protein you take, do you take steroids? Like all, they just like, they just come out with a word vomit. And I’m always like, whoa, nice to meet you.
8:37 Like, how’s it going? You know, like I always take it back to them, But it’s just like on the beach or in the gym everywhere. It doesn’t matter checking out of grocery stores I always get comments, you know, I have like unusually large biceps So people are always like oh look at those pythons, you know, like the security guards at the airport Never fails like sir. We’re gonna have to check those guns Like you can’t bring them on the airplane with you and I’m just like,
9:01 Brian Rose: you know, do you ever get sick of that?
9:03 Nimai Delgado: Of course. Okay, of course It’s like I try not to because I try to put myself in their shoes You know and realize that this is the first time they’re seeing me so it could be like a clever comment in their mind But I’ve heard it all a million times So I just try to be respectful and just laugh it off and I can do is just laugh it off
9:20 Nimai Delgado: It’s typically guys. It’s mainly guys.
9:22 Brian Rose: Okay, right. It’s funny Yeah I started lifting probably back in no for something in my early 30s and I had a Guy that had lifted most of his life at the gym and we’ve been training for a year and he said, you know What Brian? He’s like he’s like we lift weights and the girls don’t care but it’s the guys we want to impress It’s a weird thing, isn’t it?
9:40 Nimai Delgado: It’s so true. It’s so true. Like, they have this, I saw this meme on like Instagram floating around one time and it was like what happens when you start lifting weights or like expectations and it’s like this little stick figure and it’s got like all these girls around it and then it’s like what actually happens and it’s like surrounded by a bunch of dudes and he’s just like, bro, what do you eat? What do you lift? What’s your squat?
9:58 Brian Rose: And it just ends up being this macho bravado kind of measuring contest, right?
10:02 Nimai Delgado: Yeah. And yeah, it’s just what happens. Girls don’t care. A lot of girls think it’s gross.
10:06 Yeah. Honestly. Isn’t that weird? It is weird. It is weird.
10:11 Nimai Delgado: You can’t do it for the girls. I mean, that doesn’t last long. If you do it for the girls, you’re in it for the wrong reason and you won’t last as a body builder, that’s for sure.
10:17 Brian Rose: Okay. And why are we so fascinated with the human physique?
10:19 Do you ever think that’s a bit odd?
10:21 Nimai Delgado: You know, I think it’s a lot to do with self-improvement and maybe starts with insecurity. Obviously everybody wants to look good. Not everybody can control, you know, their face and what it looks like, but you can control what your body looks like. You know, you can control how much muscle you put on, what kind of shape you have.
10:37 So I think it’s just having that control and that ability to change what you look like, it’s fascinating. You know, basically what you put in is what you get out. So it’s interesting, but it’s also like we talked earlier about it being kind of meditative. So there’s a meditative kind of spiritual aspect of it too to where it can be very fulfilling as well. It doesn’t have to be all about like getting on stage and posing in front of people.
11:02 It can just be about like another project like a very fulfilling project because you know exactly how much work you put in and you see The result and it’s it’s satisfying.
11:11 Brian Rose: Yeah I remember I read one book when I was lifting and the guy said think about Someone with a six-pack or look at the the sculptures we see and it’s like that person has to have a lot of things going For them, right? They have to have mental discipline Like they have to be disciplined in their training in their eating and it like it kind of says something Right about a certain development in their mind. It’s not just something pretty to look at It’s like to get there. You have to have done certain things. Right?
11:36 Nimai Delgado: Definitely. It’s definitely earned It’s not it’s not just given so you do have to have discipline You have to do a lot of sacrifice a lot of I mean bodybuilding in itself is a very very selfish sport It’s why a lot of relationships don’t work out if you’re a bodybuilder a lot of bodybuilders are douchebags for because they’re so self-centered so But the work has to be there you can’t just magically wake up one day look in a certain way it takes years and years of training and a lot of hours in the gym perfecting, fine-tuning, learning and that’s what’s fun about bodybuilding too is I’ve when I first started lifting weights I had no idea what I was doing but the more I got into it it was like this whole other world that I was learning about and
12:14 Learning how your body moves and how to optimize movements and how to maximize what you’re doing in the gym and then you see results and then you go back and like into the lab and like fine-tune your techniques and you fine-tune your diet and it’s just so much room for like knowledge and and learning how your body works is like you can know it better than anybody else. So once you can have an idea and have control of that, I mean, these are amazing things. Like, I come from like an engineering background. So I look at our body like a machine.
12:40 And once you learn how the machine operates, you can learn how to optimize everything. And you look you can learn how to perfect certain systems to where you maximize your results with minimizing efforts. See what I’m saying? Yeah. So it’s fun. It’s fun. I love it.
12:53 Brian Rose: Yeah. I remember when I first started lifting weights, I was like, oh, I just thought it was like push this from point A to point B. But then I realized there was a whole mindset and a technique and there was a lot more to it. And I’m a mechanical engineer by background too. Oh, awesome. So I kind of know what you’re talking about. I want to get into that later for sure. You know, Arnold Schwarzenegger once said that it was like a sculpture. He would look in the mirror and he’d say, okay, my, my delt needs a bit more. This needs a bit more. And he would go back. I mean, do you think of it that way too? Or do, what are your thoughts on that statement from him.
13:24 Nimai Delgado: There’s a lot of truth to that. There’s a lot of truth to kind of looking at your body and assessing it and then seeing what you want to work on and then going in the gym and working on it.
13:33 I’ve never really considered myself to be like, it’s weird. I think bodybuilders in general have like this false perception of themselves with what they see in the mirror versus what other people see. But I just wanted to improve and like I really did, you have to fall in love with the process. You can’t fall in love with the results or you’ll never get there. You’ll get frustrated, you’ll get, I mean, you’ll give up because it takes work and it takes a lot of time.
13:57 So I fell in love with the process and going to the gym, the lifting, actually putting in effort. There’s something that’s like really satisfying about going in somewhere and just putting in a ton of work and just walking away knowing that you’re going to get a return on your investment tomorrow, you know? So that’s where I kind of come from and not necessarily like wanting to be Arnold. You know, it’d be great to be Mr. Olympia one day, but it’s not, it’s never been my intention.
14:21 I just generally like being active, lifting weights, being body, like having body awareness with how I, you know, do things and how I operate on a daily basis. So just being more in tune with yourself essentially is what it is.
14:32 Brian Rose: Yeah. When you go in for that hour session when you’re lifting and you have a goals in mind, do you write those things down? Do you plan out exactly what you’re going to do?
14:41 Nimai Delgado: Yeah. Okay. All the time. And note, the thing is no one’s watching you. So ultimately, you have to be accountable to yourself, right?
14:48 Mm-hmm. work with you?
14:49 Nimai Delgado: I’m like, I’ve always been goal driven. I think it just comes from my childhood and everything else, but I like following structure. For me, it’s always been about structure like follow this and get this.
15:02 So for me, it’s like, I like writing down things and then checking boxes that’s satisfying to me. It’s just checking boxes. So it’s like, I’ll go into the gym with a plan, I’ll research new workouts, I’ll research new techniques and then apply them because like I’m always, it’s an evergreen process. You know, you don’t just figure it out after a year. You’re constantly changing, you’re having to force your body to adapt to new training techniques to stimulate muscle growth that used to work for you, it may not work anymore.
15:29 As you grow older, you might have to work a little harder and what you did at 21 isn’t going to work at 30 anymore. So you have to constantly force yourself to grow out of your comfort zone, which is something that I like. So I like to challenge myself every time I go in the gym and challenge myself with new workouts and things I’ve never done.
15:45 Brian Rose: Do you put yourself in the muscle? Are you kind of meditating yourself right into those fibers when you’re training?
15:50 Because you’re trying to get a certain goal from that muscle as opposed to, say, a sprinter or something else. Do you have some techniques like that? I’ve heard Arnold talk about that after the fact, but…
16:02 Nimai Delgado: Yeah, definitely, definitely. I think it develops over time.
16:06 It definitely develops. Like, if you don’t have any, let’s say, biceps, if you don’t have any biceps, even if you squeeze it, you don’t really know what you’re squeezing, right? So it’s like a synergistic relationship. You have to play with it and really create a lot of body awareness in that particular muscle group. For me, I like touching.
16:21 I actually like physically touching whatever muscle I’m working because I know it’s working and I’ll create a little bit more awareness, say bicep curls, in this area. So by touching it, your senses are a little bit stronger in that area so you can focus squeezing in that area and pushing back. So that worked a lot for me when I first started training. And even when I train with buddies, I’ll poke them, I’ll push them just to create that mind-muscle connection and create those kind of pathways a little bit stronger.
16:47 Brian Rose: Is there room for innovation in bodybuilding?
16:51 Nimai Delgado: There is and there isn’t. With the evolution of social media, it’s becoming more about clicks, views, likes, and everything else as opposed to just foundational principles. People get so caught up trying to figure out the new crazy world. You see it on social media.
17:12 They have like four bands attached to them and like they’re pulling this way and it’s pulling like three other machines with them and it just becomes comical at time because you don’t even know what muscles you’re working out but like going back to the basics is really effective that people tend to overlook because they think because it’s not sexy. It’s not like Instagrammable that it doesn’t really work but there’s still I wouldn’t say room for like growth and bodybuilding because a lot of the techniques are ancient. I mean, what Arnold was doing in the 70s, not much has really changed in bodybuilding.
17:46 It’s just about, I mean, supplements and everything else have changed, but if they could achieve that way back then without the supplements that we have now, then that says something about the supplement industry, right, but yeah.
17:57 Brian Rose: But they’re touching the muscle and stuff. That’s kind of new.
18:00 Nimai Delgado: Yeah, I mean, there’s different studies. Obviously, the science and the clinical studies show a lot, but let’s say those guys didn’t have it back then, and they still reached the results that they wanted.
18:10 So it’s not always about like the science proving it. It’s more about creating the body awareness and really just putting in the work in the gym. If you put in the work, you’ll see results. You can’t lie to yourself and go to the gym and then watch a clock for an hour and go back home and say, yeah, I went to the gym for an hour. It’s like, no, you just went and sat on your ass and texted and Facebooked and Instagram for an hour.
18:31 You didn’t actually work out.
18:32 Brian Rose: Yeah, I remember when I used to go to the gym, I’d be like, okay, I walk in the gym and I walk out an hour later and all these other people do. It’s like what do I do when I’m in there?
18:41 Nimai Delgado: Yeah, that’s that’s everything.
18:43 Brian Rose: Yeah, exactly I mean luckily and in a weird way for the last six years I’ve been studying, you know Would some consider one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time which is Dorian Yates And so when he was actually in the chair about five days ago And this subject came up and he was just like, you know, Brian it all comes down to hard work He’s like the last time I checked there’s three exercises for chest and it’s this this and this Yeah And it’s like and I used to train and it was just these mean nasty dirty weights and I just would go in there and do the work. He said that’s what it was about. Obviously, these days, maybe even to get on stage, your followers can help you and that kind of thing, but he’s just like, look, it all came down to the work and going to a really difficult and painful place over and over and over again. That’s what he stressed it was.
19:25 Nimai Delgado: And it’s true. Like I looked up to Dorian. He was one of the first bodybuilders that I came across and had like the mindset, right? He talked a lot about mindset and he talks about that and how it’s just like you can go in and do 10 sets of whatever, but it’s just you’re spinning your wheels. Go in there and get two sets, but really push yourself on those two sets and that’s all you need. It’s the basics and there’s no way of avoiding those uncomfortable places. That’s where the growth occurs is outside your comfort zone and most people aren’t willing to go there. The moment they start to feel something burn, the moment they start to feel Like their body fighting back their body normally wins and their mind gives up
20:05 Brian Rose: Yeah, the body quits. Yeah way before I mean the mind quits way before the body right?
20:09 Nimai Delgado: Yeah, we’re David Goggins Most people quit at 40%
20:12 Brian Rose: Yeah, exactly exactly We did a documentary with Dorian Yates and I went down to Marbella and I trained legs with him, right?
20:19 And before we went to train legs, he said Brian I’m gonna put you on this machine and he said I’m gonna ask you to do this rep And it’s like I got a gun pointing at your little baby’s head and I want you to do that rep And I just had a baby, so I was like, thanks, Dorian. And so he put me on this leg press machine and he pushed me to the absolute limit where I normally would have stopped and then he got three more reps out of me. And only I think he could have gotten that out of me.
20:45 And I was like, wow, is this what it’s about? He said, this is what it’s about doing it every single day, not just once. It’s about going to that most painful agonizing place where maybe it even feels like you might get injured and you do it day after day after day and having the discipline of the sleep and the diet and all of that other stuff. And that’s when I got a little glimpse into what you guys do, and that’s what no one else sees. They see the glamor, they see maybe just the gym workout when there’s 23 other hours in the day, right?
21:13 Nimai Delgado: Yeah, exactly, and I’m nowhere near Dorian Yates or even on the same universe as him, but I mean, he’s right, you know, you have to look at every single workout as that is the one goal for the day. Maybe if you’re a bodybuilder and your livelihood depends on it, then how hard are you willing to fight for it? You have to have that gun to the head mentality and it’s like if I don’t do it, then I’m going to lose. I’m not going to be where I want to be. It’s tough.
21:45 It’s tough because like you said, lifting weights, you might be in the gym an hour.
21:49 Brian Rose: If you’re somebody like Dorian, maybe you go twice, maybe two hours a day total. Total. He even like short workouts. He would go 50 minutes sometimes.
21:55 Nimai Delgado: Yeah. Just go intense. Yeah. 45, 45 to an hour. But you have so much more time in the day and what do you do with that?
22:02 And that’s where the real test, that’s where the real test happens and it’s how you maximize your time outside the gym that really determines, you know, how much you progress.
22:10 Brian Rose: Yeah. He used to talk about that as well with when steroids came up, he’d be like, well, if everyone has access to as much as they want, how come they’re not all on stage? He was just like, there’s more to it than that. It’s about going to these dark places like every single time.
22:23 Exactly. One of the things I realized about Dorian is that he’s a champion because he competes with himself. And I’ve noticed that about most champions who sit in that chair. Ultimately, they’re competing with himself at the end of the day. Sounds like you’re maybe similar in that sense.
22:36 Nimai Delgado: Yeah, that’s actually a really good point because bodybuilding, it’s like you aren’t competing against the next guy because you can’t control what he does. The only thing you have complete control of is how hard you work and what you do. So at the end of the day, even if you go on stage and you get third place, it’s not first and second place’s fault, it’s your fault, right? Like you have to take a look in the mirror and face the facts that maybe you’re not doing everything that you can do, maybe you’re not maximizing your effort in the gym, maybe you’re not maximizing your nutrition, maybe you’re not getting enough sleep, and maybe you’re just lying to yourself thinking that you’re working hard.
23:09 Brian Rose: But like you said, when you approach that point and you want to give up, and most people do normally they have way more that that bar is way farther than you think it is you’re just not willing to go there and that’s why that’s why bodybuilding is so interesting because you meet people and you kind of have to be extreme to put yourself in that or have some kind of obsession or some kind of driving factor that keeps you in that that state and that state of mind and pain and just like being okay with it and like reverting back to that reason why? Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? For this? Okay, let’s do it.
23:44 Brian Rose: Do you have to have some darkness and some demons?
23:47 Nimai Delgado: I wouldn’t I wouldn’t say so. It can go both ways. I think you can be motivated by fear or you can be motivated by love, you know, and I’m always been motivated by love. So I always try to send to approach it from a positive perspective. So what do I have to gain from this, you know, bodybuilding for me is not so much about me, you know, So the whole reason I started bodybuilding was to give myself a platform to talk about something that I loved.
24:15 And I knew that if I succeeded in this sport, then it would give me credibility. So I just thought, okay, this is what I got to do. This is what the tools I’ve been given, I like this. And if I’m good at it, then more people will listen to me because with what comes along with winning a bodybuilding show, with what comes along with being a professional in anything, you have some clout, you have some credibility. people are willing to listen to you. Let’s face it, if I was just 150 pounds, some skinny guy talking about veganism, I would probably be, you know, I could be doing more harm than good if I was talking about how, you know, you can get muscles and I don’t have any muscles or I’m not like competing on stage with the best in the world, people would probably be like, okay, bro, yeah, whatever, you know, like, I don’t care what you’re saying because that guy looks way better than you and he’s not vegan, he doesn’t, he does all the other stuff, you know, so it’s all about what motivates you. And for me, it’s about spreading a message.
25:05 Brian Rose: Yeah, I mean even Dorian said he said you wouldn’t be listening to me talk about, you know energy and spirituality if I hadn’t won Those contests, you know, that’s what kind of gets your attention so I can push it to the next level It’s interesting how everyone’s motivated by something different, you know Dorian it was never about his physique He never felt uncomfortable about his physique. It was never about looking good to women. It was just for him It was that mental discipline. He’s probably a lot like you and maybe me too where it’s like I’m gonna see how far I can push this I’m gonna see how disciplined I can be and I’m gonna try to be the best and if it’s not it’s my fault And I remember him saying when he when he got his first mr Olympia and he had to take over from Lee Aimee, he’s like wait a second if I win this That means I’m the best in the world. He’s like, how can I be the best in the world?
25:47 I’m some guy from Birmingham like all the guys best in the world. They’re at Gold’s gym He’s like, but wait a second. I train harder than anyone out there I know that and so he had to add this conversation with himself over the course of months and by the time he got to the contest, he was like, I am the best in the world. And he went out there and he won it. And it was just this kind of fascinating thing in his head.
26:05 Flex Wheeler, on the other hand, was just gifted with these crazy genetics, right? And he didn’t work as hard as he could have, and he even admitted it, but it was just a path for him to keep him out of trouble. He loved martial arts, but he had another, your goal now, I believe, is your vegan message, right? And for you, this is a platform to spread that, which is interesting, because it brings a whole other level of motivation for you. This isn’t about how Mimi can get out of Birmingham.
26:31 It’s not about how you can finally feel good about yourself because you were told as a kid, you were no good. This is like a different kind of message for you, right?
26:40 Nimai Delgado: Yeah, I mean, growing up, I was always athletic. I mean, I was always pretty short growing up, so I was never like somebody to look at and be like, wow, I look like that guy. I was kind of chubby, just like a regular kid.
26:53 No real crazy athletic ability, but I was still like relatively athletic, but I came from like when I started bodybuilding, I was in a good position. I was in a very good position in life, you know, I had just graduated college and had a really good salary. I started off with one of the best paying industries, you know, the oil industry, you know, so there was nothing for me to really worry about. But once, you know, I just didn’t feel complete and fitness and bodybuilding really filled that void for me because it was that place where I would go to to get that meditative state and once I started realizing that how much satisfaction it was giving me just not from necessarily looking better.
27:37 I mean yes it’s great to look good and to feel good but to work on something see the results and then see you know what just by looking certain way you can inspire somebody and once you talk to them you can kind of guide them to feel better look better become healthier and then once I went vegan, I realized how much of an impact that made on my fitness and just my overall view on life. I really wanted to share this message with people just so they could live the way I was living and experience the same type of happiness, experience the same type of mental clarity and just I mean it’s just so much to gain from it that I want to share with the world. Whether you want to or not, it’s okay.
28:17 That’s my whole thing. That’s a personal decision, but the way I always look at things, if there’s a better way to do something, then why not try it, you know? And if it benefits more than yourself, then it should be looked at a little closer.
28:29 Brian Rose: Let’s talk about the veganism, and then I want to talk about your growing up as well, because you have a crazy story. I mean, you look like the boy next door in Orange County, but you’re not.
28:39 You’re the only vegan IFBB bodybuilder right now. No one else is doing that.
28:43 Nimai Delgado: No, I actually think there might be two other guys now.
28:46 Brian Rose: Okay. You were the first yeah, and I did a little lifting when I was in my 30s And you know again, I was told to eat so many grams of protein per body kilo of body mass I was shoving all this way down my mouth and all of this animal protein And it was just the thing to do and no one knew why we were doing it I mean now I would have I would never do that again Not even because of the the animals involved. It was just always not even a real research thing to do So talk to me about the questions you get asked about being a vegan bodybuilder and the truth and what you found to be true And not true and the perceptions that we have
29:22 Nimai Delgado: Yeah, you know when I when I first started I was a lot like similar to you, you know But I came from a vegetarian, right? So I was vegetarian and then I went vegan,
29:31 Brian Rose: but you’ve been vegetarian your whole life
29:33 Nimai Delgado: Yeah, yeah, so I was born to raise vegetarian But when I when I kind of discovered veganism It was like this this veil had been lifted from my eyes and I kind of started like I’m I like to do research And I like to figure out how things work.
29:47 And the more I started researching nutrition especially, what I was seeing and what I was seeing being marketed and being portrayed on things like, you know, Bodybuilding.com, that was like my resource to go to most people nowadays it is. There was a lot of like conflicts there was a lot of like counter, you know, intuitive principles. Like what? And especially protein, protein is a huge one, right? Protein is so overemphasized nowadays that it’s like considered the only thing you need, right?
30:17 It’s like if you put protein on a label, it’s automatically considered healthy, right? It doesn’t matter how much you need, just try to get as much of it as you can. And if you get as much of it as you can, you’re going to grow up and you’re going to get big muscles and you’re going to be really strong, right? It’s not the case. And your stomach’s going to hurt and you’re going to have a lot of gas.
30:31 Brian Rose: That’s what really happened, right?
30:33 Nimai Delgado: Yeah. So that’s a big one. And I realize that there’s like a very limiting point, like there’s an upper limit there that you just don’t use anymore. So anytime you go beyond that, you’re just kind of shooting yourself in the foot and spinning your wheels.
30:45 Brian Rose: Which will hurt you when every moment counts, every calorie counts, everything counts.
30:50 Nimai Delgado: Of course. Of course. If you could shift those calories from protein over to, let’s say, carbohydrates or fat, which is like our primary energy sources, then you can push yourself harder, you can recover a little bit better if you’re already maximizing what you need from protein. So protein was a big one that opened my eyes a little bit.
31:08 The next big one was the fact that I thought at that time that I needed and I had to rely on like the dairy products. Dairy was a big one for me as a vegetarian because I already wasn’t eating meat. So there was no chicken, there was no beef, there was no eggs, there was no fish, a lot of these things that are staples in bodybuilding diet, I wasn’t eating those already. So I had to go for the vegetarian options which were like whey protein shakes, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, all of these vegetarian items.
31:41 But what I found was I overdid it with those because I was still in that kind of bro mentality where I was like, okay, I need to get 40 to 50% of my calories from protein. And what that does is I was… That’s a lot. Yeah, that’s a lot. So I was drinking two to three shakes a day because I was trying to make up for not eating meat and then getting 40 to 50% of my calories from somewhere.
32:01 So it would be the protein shakes, it would be the Greek yogurt, and I would just over indulge on those and I would just pay for it, you know, constantly throughout the day. My stomach would be just have like the bubbleguts is what I called it and you’d just be happy like really gassy. I noticed that I would be sore for like a long time too even when I was drinking those recovery shakes, right? So when I cut those out and I lowered my protein by significant almost like half and I replaced my protein shake with a plant-based alternative, I noticed immediately how much my gut health really started to feel different and just like overnight.
32:39 When I started training, the next day or the next two days, I wouldn’t be a sore. And then over time, I would introduce more greens. I would just play around with it because at first, I was so scared to deviate from my diet, my vegetarian diet, that I was like, oh, no, if I can’t let go of my protein because I’ll lose my size. What happened was actually the opposite. I started to gain muscle quicker than what I was on a vegetarian diet.
33:00 Brian Rose: Okay. Now, I can feel all the comments come in as we speak, no, there’s no way. So, how do you explain that? Is it the protein myth? How could that have just reversed that quickly?
33:11 Nimai Delgado: I mean, like I said, I don’t think it’s like a myth. Obviously, we need protein, but it’s overemphasized how much we need. So typically, a question that I get asked is, but where do you get your protein from? The moment they hear I’m vegan or they see online that I’m vegan, they’re like, yeah, but where does this guy get his protein from, right? The misconception is that plants and plant-based sources don’t have protein or they don’t have complete proteins.
33:33 It’s another big one. But the reality is they do. You just have to find the right sources. Obviously, if it’s a completely new lifestyle, you might not be aware of it. But once you start looking into the research and looking into just the nutritional labels and everything, there’s quite a bit of protein in plants.
33:48 But it’s not just protein like it is with animal products. Animal products is primarily just protein. You don’t get anything else with it, but with the plant-based sources, you get so much other benefits from it. You get your minerals, you get your vitamins, you get your micronutrients, you get things that help you recover and help your body thrive in more than just building muscle, you know? So it helps enhance all of your bodily systems and that’s where the real benefit is because it’s like putting super fuel into this machine when before you were putting in 87 octane you just went from 87 to like 91, like immediately then you went to jet fuel, you know?
34:21 So it’s like you just operated at a much higher level. So that’s why it always confuses me when I talk to like other elite athletes that are they’re obviously looking for any kind of competitive edge and they’re not willing to try it, they think it’s extreme. They’ll go through all these measures, they’ll do ice baths, they’ll do cryotherapy, they’ll do whatever supplements they can get their hands on. But that’s not extreme, but then just stop eating this and eat a little bit more of this and oh, bro, that’s extreme, I’m not willing to do that.
34:50 Brian Rose: Why is that? Is it because culturally we’ve been pounding our heads so long?
34:54 Nimai Delgado: Yeah. I mean, look, we’re both good friends with John Joseph. His book Meet Us for Pussies.
34:58 One of the earlier chapters, he talks about this whole manly meat connection, you know, that’s just, it’s in our subconscious in a way, right? Yeah, I mean, we’ve been conditioned to see things that way. You know, even cartoons growing up, they would show, you know, men in the Flintstones eating like these huge, like dinosaur-sized pieces of animal flesh. And then you grow up and you see the commercials. I mean, you see Arby’s commercials.
35:22 You see people saying like, oh, Arby’s, we have the meat, you know. It’s like, you see these guys with these big burgers And it’s just like, it’s very visual, you know, even as a child, you can still understand the message, even without understanding the words, you can understand that like, this big strong guy is holding this, this meat, and that’s what’s making him big and strong. So it’s like, we’ve been conditioned. You never see, you know, veggie burger commercials out there with some big buff guy chowing down on veggie burgers or eating salads or eating like Buddha bowls and saying like, you know, this is what gets you big and strong, it’s just not the culture.
35:56 Brian Rose: Because normally what I find is the hardest part is the social aspect for people to really adopt the lifestyle. And these elite athletes that you say, hey, why don’t you try getting your protein sources from vegetables, maybe try going vegan for a few weeks. When you say that to them, what do they say to you?
36:12 Nimai Delgado: Well I think I have a little bit of a better response from them because it’s coming from somebody like me who is like, normally their concern is that they wouldn’t be able to perform.
36:21 You know, especially if you’re an elite athlete, like your whole livelihood depends on your So anything that would take away from your performance is taken away from a paycheck, is taken away from other opportunities, so they’re very hesitant. So most of the time they want to get healthier, they want to build more muscle. So if they hear it coming from me, somebody who’s never eaten meat, somebody who’s been vegan the last four years, and I’m convincing them saying, look, you can do it, trust me.
36:46 You don’t have anything to worry about. I think they need that reassurance to really give it a go. And that’s why we need more people talking about it, especially, you know, in the fitness community and these other elite endurance sports, showing that like big guys like NFL players, you know, you have Derek Morgan and the Tennessee Titans like half of their defensive line is plant-based now and those are 6’5″, 350-pound dudes, you know, so if they can do it and they can push around other 6’5″, 350-pound dudes then, you know, what more convincing do you need?
37:16 So it’s mainly about the messenger I feel, you know, it’s why I tend to promote it from a health perspective and from a performance enhancing perspective because people are a lot more willing to listen in that regards rather than ethics or animal rights and everything like that. So they’re a lot more receptive to it.
37:34 Brian Rose: Yeah. And look, if we had had this conversation a year ago, I might not have listened as closely, but I’ve had this whole adventure this year because of what I do.
37:43 This guy named John Joseph was sitting in that chair about a year ago rolled up, never met John before in my life. The CV, as we would say, you know, lead singer, the hardcore punk band, the Cro-Mags, Hari Krishna Monk for 37 years, you know, vegan for 37 years, Hari Krishna Monk, former crackhead, you name it, John Stunt, at 10 Iron Man, finishes like nine full Iron Man. And he sits down in that chair, and I end up going on this crazy adventure with him this year.
38:12 And in February, I was in New York City, and he challenged me to do a half Iron Man with him. And I was like, okay, maybe. And then he said, if we’re doing it, we’re doing a 100% plant-based diet. Now I played around with Meatless Mondays in the past and I had talked to a lot of great people like James Aspey and Timothy Sheef and some great people that had talked about this whole concept, but I’d never done it. I’d never actually put up or shut up.
38:33 And John said, Brian, you’re gonna recover faster on a plant-based diet. And I did not believe him, I really didn’t. But I accepted his challenge and I went all in and I went full vegan, not vegetarian. Everything was off the table, all of the dairy products and everything. And I trained, I trained hard 13 times a week.
38:50 I put in three months of training and I never got a single injury. And I was running a lot and swimming a lot and cycling a lot and like nothing. So I became a big believer in this. Not to mention all the phlegm went away and like all that of the stuff went away. And sure, I had to get some B12 injections and some other stuff.
39:09 And I had to eat more and a lot of the things that you don’t know. And I had to resist the temptations, but now I’m nine months in and I feel great, I’ve gotten some muscle back since the damn Ironman, so I’m back up to 77 kilos, I went down to 73, and now I don’t ever believe, I don’t associate meat with muscle gain or performance, because I’ve been there and done that, and I know there’s not a correlation in my mind, but I had to really go all in to figure it out, so.
39:36 Nimai Delgado: And sometimes it takes somebody like John, that just tells it how it is.
39:40 Brian Rose: Yeah, and that’s the thing, John was a great messenger for me. I love his book, Meat is for Pussies, I know that title offends some people. And I know he’s like, Brian, I didn’t even want to call it that. The publisher wanted that. And I know we got some bad press from women, even though mostly I think it’s women that buy the book for their men.
39:56 But I needed John as the messenger. I needed a guy that was hard talking, New York guy, that was like, look, I’ve been there, done that. And I’m telling you, this is just, you know, this is a con and I’m gonna give it to you straight in my language. And for me, it was great coming from a guy like John who was real and he had been there and done that. And so like you said, sometimes it takes different messengers, right?
40:16 Nimai Delgado: It’s all about the messenger. I think it’s, even if you had the facts and you had somebody else telling you the facts, I mean, the messenger will determine whether or not you accept the information, right? Period.
40:31 Brian Rose: Yeah, exactly. So let’s face it, if Kobe Bryant or LeBron came out tomorrow and said, hey, I’m vegan now, can you imagine how many basketball players and young kids would be like, I wanna be like, or LeBron, I wanna go vegan, I wanna try it, like, Mom, let’s incorporate more vegan meals and dinners into our daily routine.
40:53 Nimai Delgado: It’s all about the messenger. Each messenger speaks to their respective audience. For me, it’s bodybuilders, it’s the fitness industry because the fitness industry is the largest over-consumer of protein, especially animal proteins. That’s why I talk about guys that eat two to three times as much protein than what they need. So even if they don’t go full vegan, even if they don’t go fully plant-based, even if they do a reduction in protein, it’s not only going to make them healthier, but it’s also going to have a huge environmental impact, it’s going to have a huge impact on the amount of suffering in the world.
41:27 So there’s a lot of benefits just by reducing it. You know, I’m not like a binary kind of guy where it’s just like either you’re in or you’re out. You know, there’s transitions, you’re asking people to change their lifestyle, something And they’ve been doing habitually for the last 20, 30, however many years. So you can’t expect somebody to see things the way you do overnight and expect them to adopt it. That’s why I’m all about progressive, you know, slow transitions.
41:54 I find it to be the most effective. I find to encourage people instead of discourage them by, you know, criticizing them if they slip up. You know, encouragement is always best positive. It’s always best to come from a positive place as opposed to a negative place and showing people, you know, sometimes it speaks to people when they see animal slaughter videos. I’m vegan, I don’t even like seeing that stuff and I know what happens in those facilities.
42:22 So I’d rather talk about the benefits, I’d talk about the positive side. Naturally people become more empathetic and compassionate after they realize that they don’t need the stuff anymore, you know? So I think that evolution happens over time because I’ve seen some pretty devout meat eaters and body builders especially go from one end of the spectrum to the other just by changing their habits because our habits and our thoughts are very strongly connected.
42:45 So once you change your daily habits, you’ll get a different mindset, a different perspective on what you’re putting in your body.
42:52 Brian Rose: And you feel responsible for this message. I mean, that’s a lot of weight to put on your shoulders. But that’s kind of why you do what you do. That can get you out of the bed in the morning sometimes and get you to be your best because you’re now representing a movement that’s pretty heavy.
43:07 Nimai Delgado: Yeah. Yeah. It’s pretty heavy sometimes. I don’t like to think about it. But sometimes I use it to my advantage too because it is that motivating factor for me whenever I don’t want to do something, whenever I don’t want to push myself in the gym or follow a particular diet or just do anything in general.
43:24 But when I fall back on that knowing that it’s not about me, you know, just by me succeeding, it’s like I got the team with me. You know, if I succeed, everybody succeeds. And that’s why it’s been like my ultimate goal to make it to the Olympia stage and be the first, you know, male, vegan to step on stage and just be like the first guy landing on the moon. You know, everybody said it couldn’t be done until somebody puts their foot on the surface and then somebody has somebody to point to and be like, that guy did it so I can do it too.
43:54 And so that is the goal right now. That’s my goal. Yeah. When’s that happening?
43:59 Nimai Delgado: Hopefully next year.
44:00 Hopefully next year. Yeah. I had some setbacks this year. Um, didn’t allow me to compete as much as I would have liked to. I launched a business, quit my job.
44:07 So all these other things, like kind of a lot to take on all at once. So competing kind of took a little bit of a, you know, on the backside, but I still very much working out. But next year I plan on taking it full force and seeing doing whatever I need to do to make it to the Olympia stage. But after, honestly after I make it, I know I’m going to make it, I’m going to manifest it right now, but after I make it, I really have nothing else to prove. You know, I don’t necessarily want to be Mr. Olympia, it’d be awesome to be Mr. Olympia.
44:36 But it’s never been about being Mr. Olympia for me. It’s just about using my voice on a platform where I can reach a larger audience and just help just shut out this myth that vegans look a certain way or vegans can’t do something or you need the animal products to build muscle to be an elite athlete.
