Footy Foster

An Open Letter To Gregg Berhalter

Dear Gregg,

While many USMNT supporters are skeptical of your performance as head coach of the national team to this point in time, I would like to publicly say thank you.

Four years ago, you took one of the most challenging jobs in World Football. Being the coach of the USMNT is an honoring position but also a thankless job. The only way to garner the support of the entire fanbase would be nothing short of miraculous; winning the World Cup. Maybe they will do the impossible and accomplish that goal. However, that is undoubtedly a long shot.

You’ve been questioned about every decision you’ve made. Either you were “calling up the wrong players,” “starting the wrong players,” or playing “the wrong system.” Despite it all, you’ve accomplished incredible feats as the head coach of the USMNT. You’ve Mexico three times in a calendar year (all in competitive matches) and led the team back to the World Cup. None of the feats should be undermined.

You took over the team at one of the lowest moments in the history of the US Soccer Federation and got us back to the promised land. Doubters will say, “look at the talent at his disposal!” To a point, they are wrong. But those same people are also quick to dismiss that talent is very young. The average age of our European-based outfield players is 22 years. The USMNT is expected to be the second youngest team competing in Qatar later this month. This should not be ignored.

Just know that there are a lot of fans out there who are grateful for what you’ve done during your tenure. No matter what happens in Qatar, you should keep your head high, knowing that you were instrumental in this rebuild.
Now with that being said, we fans are expecting this squad to make it to the knockout stage. That is our only expectation. Anything less would be deemed a failure. I’m sure you know this and feel the same yourself. Coaches want to see their guys succeed, not personal glory or affirmation. The job is simple, win the winnable games and play for a result in the tougher matchups; I don’t think I spell that out too much.

The first game against Wales is fourteen days away. Let’s get the job done.

COME ON, STATES!

Reflections After Another Year of Life

This past Sunday was my 27th birthday. Damn, I’m getting old.

Okay, okay I realize I’m not ~that~ old. However, I am three years away from 30, and I’m closer to 40 than I am to 13. Not only that, I’m starting to feel the age in my joints. God save my poor knees.

All jokes aside, this past year has been the nest of my life, (which is what I will want to be able to say every year until the day I die) and I feel as if this year was filled with more growth and learning than any year prior.

In the past year, I’ve been on several trips to one of my favorite cities, I fell in love, moved to San Diego, taken risks, gotten into the best shape of my life, and so much more. It hasn’t always been roses, and it never will be.

The most important thing that I learned in the past year, was the vitality of persistence. This has been a common theme throughout my life, more aptly put, the lack of persistence. Oftentimes throughout my 27 years, when things get really challenging, I have a tendency to fade and withdraw from the situation at hand. This of course is not the correct way to handle problems. When life gets hard, when challenges arise, you fight and fight like hell. You simply cannot give in to fear and doubt.

Over the past year, I have made great strides in this area, but I still have a long way to go. I have progressed tremendously in the past year, but I still realize the is a lot of work to be done.

So for the next year, this is my goal. I want to continue to improve. I play on a Sunday League soccer team and recently have been playing fewer minutes. It is insanely frustrating, especially because I back myself as a good player. In years past I may have quit. I may have stopped showing up. That is not what I intend to do now. Instead, I have devised a plan to become a better player. To fight for my place, and to help my team improve. It is “only” a Sunday League, but I also feel as if it is a euphemism for life.

Next year, when I turn 28, I just want to be able to look back on the year and be able to say “I am really proud of myself for doing what I said I was going to do, and improving in all aspects of life,” and that is what I intend to do.

Footy

P.S. I plan to start creating more regularly again. With the World Cup looming, I want to create some content associated with the competition that developed my love for the beautiful game over twelve years ago. So be sure to follow my YouTube channel, as well as the blog and podcast. Thank you, folks!

The Joys and Burdens of Door-to-Door Sales

Before moving to California, I was looking for a job back in the solar industry. I believe solar is the future of electricity, and I was already familiar with the industry. I had a few interviews with different companies but ultimately took a position with Sunrun, the nation’s leading residential solar company. Sunrun in California essentially allows consumers to purchase panels or just electricity from us, replacing their expensive utility company. It’s almost a no-brainer for people to take advantage of our solar program, but the caveat to the job is that it is door-to-door.

I have done door-to-door in the past. Four years ago, I interned with Dish Network selling satellite tv in the North Texas region. It was a tough job back in the day. To make good money, you had to make several sales daily, six days a week. Similar to my current position, it revolved on saving consumers money. I learned a lot that summer but never got any momentum rolling as I had to leave Texas twice that summer for extended periods.

Since I have been back on the D2D grind, I’ve realized just how significant momentum is in the job. When you taste success, you can’t slow down or rest on your laurels; you must keep going and look for the next customer because they are out there.

The job is rewarding. I won’t go into specifics, but you can make good money doing what I do. Also, my direct leader told me in a conversation, “if you think about it, we are getting paid to do what people do on vacation, walk around San Diego and talk to people.” That does put things into perspective. Of course, not everyone is thrilled to have a conversation with the door-to-door guy. But my job is to find the people who want to have that conversation, and from there, it’s just about explaining how we do things and seeing if it’s a good fit for the prospect.

So the job is insanely fun and rewarding, but it can also be mentally taxing. As previously mentioned, not everyone is thrilled that I’m knocking on the door. In fact, most people aren’t too thrilled. I know better than to take things too personally from people, but when person after person is slamming the door in your face and rude, as rude as the day is long, it gets hard not to. That is easily the worst part about the job. It gets tough. You can wander the neighborhood you’re working in for hours without a good conversation or even a little bit of humanity shown to you.

On Saturday of this past week, I was in my territory working and got fed up and decided to take a break. I found a pickup soccer game not too far from me and went and played for two hours. It was a nice mental reset. I went home and showered, then returned to work and got a strong lead that could lead to multiple sales. Nothing is said and done, but at least by being persistent and resetting my batteries, I may have gotten a nice little paycheck.

This job has already taught me a lot. I expect to continue learning from it and grow as a person the longer I do it. Let’s build a world run by the sun.

-Footy

What It’s Like Living In Cali (so far)

Today marks day 21 of my living in SoCal. Damn, that still feels really weird to say. Alas, here we are. I have loved every minute of being here so far. That isn’t to say there haven’t been road bumps in the transition. There have been a few, to be honest. My new job has been more difficult than I had initially assumed. My relationship with my girlfriend has been strained for the first time since we started seeing each other. Everything seems insanely expensive here (a gallon of gas at Costco here is $5.79. In Fort Wayne, it is $4.54). Not to mention driving in general here is like trying to travel on a different planet entirely.

Sometimes I feel very overwhelmed by the gravity of a move like the one I just made. I live in an entirely different place; I went from living in a community of 10,000 people to a city with a population of 1.3 million. It feels crazy sometimes.

But then I try to change my perspective and realize how blessed I am to even be in a situation like this. The support system I have around me is fantastic. I have awesome parents who have been an enormous help to me in the transitional period. My girlfriend has been a rock for me, and her parents have also been incredibly beneficial. The job that I have and the company I work for are incredible. My flexible schedule allows me to work when I can and still make enough money to support us comfortably. I am surrounded by love and support. This makes me feel so grateful and like I can achieve anything I set my mind to.

Living here feels like paradise; It is sunny and picture-perfect weather every day; I live 11 miles away from the beach, and there are palm trees EVERYWHERE. The apartment complex I live in makes it seem like I wake up in a resort every day. Life feels pretty good here. My only worry is that my surroundings may make me feel complacent. I haven’t accomplished anything yet, and I am still far from achieving any of my lifelong goals. Learning how to manifest that hunger and drive is a challenge but one I will embrace with open arms.

My lifestyle has been relatively similar since I moved here from Ohio. I exercise similarly, although I fell off the bandwagon before/during the move. But since we’ve settled in, I’ve been exercising almost daily. I have hit personal records for my mile time and three-mile time, seemingly out of nowhere. We have a gym right here in our apartment complex, so there is absolutely no excuse to not work out on any given day.

I have been waking up earlier than ever before since we moved in. The first morning in our new apartment, I woke up at 4:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. That morning I couldn’t fall asleep due to sheer excitement to finally be here, but now I have settled in for a 6:00 am wake time every day, in which I typically hydrate, exercise, then come home, and journal, read, and meditate. I haven’t been as consistent with the routine as I’d like, but I will iron that out.

All in all, life has been pretty amazing these past few weeks. I feel like I’m living a dream, and if I feel that way every day, something must be going right.

-Footy

I Made It To California

A little over a month ago, I wrote my most recent post, where I shared that I would be moving to California. I made it out here two weeks ago, this past Friday. The past three weeks of my life have been an absolute whirlwind, but things are finally settling down, and I am getting back into the daily grind.
On June 10th, I flew out of Cincinnatti and landed in Denver, where my beautiful girlfriend greeted me. We shared a long embrace at the airport, knowing that the long-distance stage of our relationship had come and gone. All I had with me was a suitcase and a carry-on full of clothes, and hope and love in my heart.
We spent the next few days in Denver packing up her apartment. We took our time packing things up, going through old yearbooks, and playing games she had packed up along the way. We made a rather tedious situation fun and joyous. We spent time with her family as well. We went out with her sister and brother-in-law for drinks, went to a going away party with just her immediate family, and got thoroughly beaten in Scrabble by her father.
We left Colorado on Wednesday, June 15th, and started our 1,300-mile journey to a new life together. We drove her Jeep Wrangler, and her parents drove the Uhaul with all her belongings. We split up the trip pretty evenly; from Denver, we drove about 450 miles to Albuquerque; from there, we drove another 450 miles to Tuscon, her hometown, and on the final day, we drove the remaining 400 miles to our new home. The drive was easy and not to mention quite beautiful.
Making the trip in three days allowed us to make an adventure of it. We stayed in Airbnbs in Albuquerque and Tuscon. We tried two fantastic vegan restaurants in both cities. In Tuscon, Liz gave me a tour of where she grew up. I saw her childhood homes, elementary schools, and the park where she broke her wrist when she was eight. I got to know her even better being in her hometown with her. Being in a place where you spent a lot of time but haven’t been to in a while brings back a flood of memories. Those memories were shared with me left and right as we traversed the streets of Tuscon. I loved every minute of it.
On Friday the 17th, we arrived in San Diego. We got here at around 3:00 pm PST and started unloading the Uhaul. After three hours, everything was inside the apartment, and everything started to become all the more real. I was doing this. We were doing this.
The next day we went to Ikea and started looking for furniture. I kept getting bombarded with moments like that in which it kept hitting me that this was my life. Just eight days earlier, I was a midwest boy driving past corn and soy fields everywhere I went, and all of a sudden, now I am on the west coast looking at palm trees everywhere with the most beautiful woman in the world at my side.
We’ve had an eventful first two weeks here in San Diego. We pretty much have our entire apartment set up. I’ve started my new job, and Liz is preparing to begin law school in the fall. There is still quite a bit for us to get done, but having each other makes everything much less overwhelming.
With my new job, it will be hard to commit to posting on the blog as much as I had before moving, but I will try to get a new post put up reasonably regularly. The podcast is on hold temporarily as well for the same reason. Speaking of my job, I have started working with SunRun, the biggest Residential Solar Company in the United States. I will be a sales representative for them here in the San Diego area. I’m incredibly blessed and honored to be a part of the SunRun team, and I’m looking forward to my career as a SunRunner.
We have two weeks down, and who knows how long to go. This chapter of my life is going to be the best one yet. I want to make every day an adventure and try to improve upon who I was the day before. Follow the blog for updates on life here in California and tips about health, fitness, sales, and life along the way. Have a happy and safe Fourth of July, everyone.

-Footy

I’m Moving To California

For the last twenty-two years, I have lived in Ohio. I grew up here. I went to elementary, middle, and high school here. I went to college here. I got my first job here. I learned to drive here. Pretty much every “first” that I have experienced in my life has been in Ohio. In less than two weeks, I will move out of Ohio. This won’t be the first time I have “moved” out of Ohio. In 2018 I spent the summer in Dallas, Texas, working an internship with Dish Network. Four years ago, I always knew that I would come back to Ohio. This time it’s different. I’m leaving for good this time.

Back in January of this year, I took a trip to Denver to visit one of my best friends from high school. That trip would end up being life-changing. On that trip, I met a girl. I met the most beautiful, unique, intelligent, funny, loving, and passionate person. After that trip, we kept in touch, but I never thought she was all that interested in me. I was already crazy about her, though. I planned another trip to Denver shortly after returning. I went back to see her at the end of February. We had a fantastic week together. By the end of the week, I was madly in love with her.

I left Denver and her for the second time in six weeks and was distraught. I knew I had to be with this girl. I was back in Denver for just a few days, less than two weeks later. I confessed how I felt about her, and we decided to take things one day at a time. It wasn’t going to be easy. We were 1,000 miles away and had a time difference of two hours. But an old saying goes something like this: “What is easy is not worthwhile, and what is worthwhile is not easy.” She was more than worthwhile. We accepted the challenge and have been intertwined ever since.

A few days after I left her again, we were on the phone, and she told me she had something to say to me. I was prepared for her to tell me she didn’t want to continue dating, that the distance was too much, and it was too difficult. Instead, she told me she would plan a trip to Ohio to come to see me and visit my part of the world. I was smitten. I had to wait a month for this to happen, but she would be worth the wait.

So I waited. We talked every day; text, phone calls, snap chats, facetime, abundant. The time flew by. The month passed, and she flew to Ohio. I picked her up at the airport in disbelief. I was able to actually hug her and hold her. She was actually in Ohio. I thought I was hallucinating. Thankfully, I wasn’t. She was here. We had a magical week together exploring Northwest Ohio and Northeast Indiana. We did so much together that our time together seemingly lasted less than a day.

I dropped her off at the airport and broke down crying. I was devastated having to say goodbye to her again. It felt so unfair that I couldn’t physically be with the girl I was in love with. That morning I booked another plane ticket to Denver. I was going to spend her birthday with her. I just had to wait another three weeks.

So we waited. Three weeks felt like an eternity; I felt like a little kid waiting on Christmas to come. Luckily, we communicated so well that we got through it. We both kept as busy as possible to not focus on how long we had until we could just be in each other’s arms again.

The three weeks passed, and suddenly I was back with the love of my life in Colorado. Every time we’ve seen each other at an airport, it has felt like a dream. The most beautiful goal. You know, the vision that you have, and you don’t want to wake up from when your alarm clock goes off? That is what it felt like.

We spent her birthday week together. The weather in Denver was gorgeous, and my heart was so happy just to be back in her presence. She calms my soul. We had a busy week together. We danced, played tennis, went to Estes Park, countless restaurants, walks, and everything in between. My life felt like a movie.

Then I had to leave her again. I woke up that morning and asked her if I had to get on the plane. Being rational, she said, “yes, baby.” I obliged.

I got home that night, and we talked on the phone.

So she is about to start law school at USD in San Diego. She has been planning on moving there in June for a while now. This was another complication to our love affair. We would now be even farther apart and have an even more significant time difference. Ever since I met her, I’ve known that eventually, I would have to move to California if I was serious about her.

That night we talked on the phone. We talked for probably three hours. We missed each other dearly. We both had very emotional days. The distance was starting to take its toll. Saying goodbye had not gotten any easier. So we decided to move to California together, create a new adventure together, and accomplish our dreams together. Significant life changes like this can be scary, but it’s a lot less scary when you have a teammate like the one I have.

So now we wait. As of now, we only have to wait for less than two weeks. There’s so much to do between now and getting out there that I know the time will fly. The first week since we decided to move together has already flown by.

I’m saying goodbye to my hometown. I’m saying goodbye to my parents and my sister, my best friend, and my coaching jobs here in Ohio. But I am also saying hello to a beautiful new adventure with the love of my life, my new best friend. I’m saying hello to an exciting opportunity that will allow me to pursue my dream of coaching at the highest level. I have a lot of work in front of me and many new challenges, but with her at my side and me by hers, we will accomplish everything.

-Footy

My 75 Hard Journey Has Come To An End

Eighty-one days ago, on March 2nd, I started my 75 Hard Journey. Today it is coming to an end. Officially, I did not complete the challenge. I failed on three separate occasions, to no fault of my own. Even though I did not successfully complete the challenge, I learned a lot about health, lifestyle, and my own physical and mental limits. The challenge is intended to push you mentally to become a better version of yourself. Even though I failed three times, I feel like I ultimately have grown substantially and become a better person.

I failed for the third time last week. I traveled west to Denver to spend a week with my best friend and celebrate her birthday. I kept most of the requirements each day, but there were a few days in which I did not complete either my reading or my workouts. Oh well. Life is short, and time is fleeting. To me, making the most out of the little bit of time that you have with people you love is what this crazy thing that we call life is all about. I did that last week, so I’m happy. We had a fantastic week together. Now I am back home and trying to figure out the next step in the process.

Over the past three months, I lost fifteen pounds. I went from 190 to 175, which is the least I have weighed since probably my first year of high school. I am easily in the best shape I have ever been in. Today I ran my fastest mile (which is nothing crazy, 6’55”). Two weeks ago, I ran four miles at a 9′ per mile pace. This is something I have never been able to do before. I have a much better relationship with food. I eat until I am whole. I eat lots of fruits (and am working on the vegetable part). I read ten pages daily. I write online and in private. I have increased the quality of my personal relationships. I meditate and have been able to find inner peace (for the most part). I’m happy with where I’m at, especially in comparison to a year ago.

The question is, where do I go from here?
I have been thinking about this a lot since I got back home. I know that I want the principles of 75 Har to remain in place, but I also do not want to stress out about missing something in a day. Life gets hectic sometimes. Somedays, you’re on the move from sun up to sundown. It’s okay to slip up, but the important thing is that you get right back up. So, where do I go from here?

Win The Morning

You always hear uber-successful people talking about getting up early and conquering the morning to get yourself off on the right foot to start each day. From now on, that is one of my primary goals. Simple. Win the morning. But what does that look like? Everyone is different, but I think that implies the major self-care topics that I discuss here often. Exercise, meditation, reading, and writing. If I get up early each day and do these things before my actual day starts, I feel as if it will be fuel to crush the day in front of me. The hardest part for me is getting to bed early enough to get enough sleep to make this a reality. So the problem is a simple one to fix, get my ass to bed at a good time. At this point, I don’t see the need to make time for two exercises a day, as long as the first is intentional in what I want to improve about my body. Whether that is physical strength, cardiovascular, or sport-specific (soccer).

Now that I am at a healthy weight and feel good about my cardiovascular health, I believe that it is time to start adding muscle mass to help protect my skeleton. I do not know much about weight lifting, but luckily, I have friends and endless resources that I can learn from to start implementing a weight lifting regimen each week. I have never wished to look like a bodybuilder, but that doesn’t mean I can’t or shouldn’t lift. Lifting weights is challenging. Doing hard things is good for you.

I was bound and determined to finish 75 Hard, but ultimately I fell short. I’m still incredibly thankful that I attempted it, and I’ll never forget this period in my life. I’m excited about the future and looking forward to bettering myself each day. As long as we try our best each day, that is really all you can ask for. Thank you, Andy Frisella. I failed your program, but I still feel like I got the most out of it that I possibly could have.

– Footy

Championship Sunday! – Footy Foster Podcast Ep. 9

In the newest episode, I talk about the conclusion of an incredible Premier League season. The title was decided between Manchester City and Liverpool, the top four race between Tottenham and Arsenal, and the relegation race between Burnley and Leeds United.

I then sat down to talk about the Arsenal campaign and bright future with my friend and coworker Dylan Claus. Arsenal finished just shy of the top four, but as I said, the future is bright for the Gunners!

I hope you enjoy this week’s episode!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/footy-foster-podcast/id1620914853

Last Week’s Depression Funk (How I Got Out of It)

Last week was a weird week for me. I found myself in a funk, struggling to get out of bed, with little motivation to do anything, and not as friendly as I typically like to be. I felt depressed again. It hit me out of nowhere. I was in a bad mood more often than not and just wanted to give up. I guess that is one of the worst parts of depression. It can hit you out of nowhere when everything seems to be going very well.

After some reflection, I realized that I had gotten away from setting intentional time to do my journaling. I had fallen out of the habit of doing it daily. I’m not saying that this is what caused me to get into the funk, to begin with, but once I noticed it and corrected it, I started feeling better. I have two different journals that I use. One is my “jack of all trades journal.” I do my daily journaling in it and write down notes, lists, and writing exercises.

The other journal that I write in is my nightly notes journal. It is a guided nightly journal that has you list one good and bad thing that happened throughout the day and what you are thankful for, what your thoughts were, and what your dreams are. In addition, it has a section in which you write what you want or need to do the following day. This is the journal that I had really been neglecting. Getting away from this one had a much more significant impact on my mental state than I possibly could have imagined. Writing down what you are thankful for each day is very therapeutic. Writing down your dreams is a daily reminder of why you do what you do. Writing down what you need to accomplish the next day helps you stay motivated and on course.

Essentially, getting away from this made me fall off track in all of these regards. I didn’t even notice it. The wild thing is that completing these prompts each night takes no more than ten minutes. Setting aside that ten minutes each night apparently profoundly impacts my mental state.

To be clear, I’m not saying journaling cured my depression. Far from it. It can rear its ugly head at any given moment. I am saying that this helped me get out of the depressed funk I was in last week. I did a complete analysis of what had changed, addressed it, and fixed the problem. I suspect that I’ll deal with depressive states for my entire life. But the flip side of the depressive state is how happy and joyous I can be. If I can manage the lows and enjoy the highs, I think I’ll be alright in the long run. My advice to anyone who is really struggling with their depression, first and foremost, is to get some help. I’ve been searching for a therapist but have yet to find one. The sooner I do, the better. Secondly, I believe that self-care is the next most important thing. Exercising, journaling, reading, limiting screen time, and spending time with people you love. It should go without saying, but do something you love doing. For me, that is playing soccer and riding my bike.

I hope everyone reading this has a beautiful day; thank you for reading today’s blog.

-Footy

Two Weeks On A Vegan Diet

For the diet aspect of 75 Hard, I’ve gone from eating what used to be my usual diet, sans processed and fast food, to a vegetarian diet, to now being on a full-fledged vegan diet. My original beginning with 75 Hard was 65 days ago. Wow. I feel as if I have come a very long way. My diet at the start wasn’t anything to write home about. I knew that all the fast food and processed “BS” I had been eating wasn’t doing me any favors, so cutting those out was a good place to start. Then I failed after ten days. I decided to start challenging myself, hence going vegetarian. For the subsequent month, I felt phenomenal. Probably the best I had physically felt in my entire life. Then I failed again. With the help and guidance of my dear friend Liz, I decided to try veganism.

It’s been 17 days since I restarted the challenge, and again, I feel incredible. I’m not here to debate whether or not humans were meant to be carnivores, omnivores, or frugivores. I am here to say that this diet has changed how I view ‘food’ and how it makes me physically feel.

Yesterday, while completing my second workout of the day for 75H, I did an exercise that I first saw in offseason practice for the high school soccer team I coach. The activity is relatively simple. There are three cones set up in a large triangle, 25-30 yards apart. You walk from cone one to cone two, jog from cone two to three, then sprint from three back to the first cone, then jog, walk, jog, and sprint again. You repeat this pattern for 20-30 minutes. The exercise is designed to build endurance specifically for soccer. If you watch a soccer game, you’ll notice periods of walking, jogging, and sprinting.

I watched my student-athletes struggle with this a few summers ago, most of whom were definitely in better shape than me. Yesterday was the first time I’ve ever tried the exercise. I was kind of nervous about it. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to last for the entire time. However, the time flew by, and when the 30 minutes was up, I still had gas in the tank. I decided to stop after 30 minutes because there were other things I wanted to train, and I was a little pressed for time. However, next time, I will attempt this for a full 45 minutes.

I’ve also noticed since going vegetarian; my aerobic capacity has increased. Substantially. It partially is because I am training my cardiovascular system every single day. Still, I believe it is also partially due to the diet. Back when I was in high school playing soccer, I never would have been able to do that workout as well as I did yesterday. Not in a million years.

Many top-tier athletes these days are switching to a vegan diet. One that stands out to me is Chris Paul of the Phoenix Suns in the NBA. Paul is 36 years old, a dinosaur in NBA terms. However, this man has been on a tear in the league in the past few years. He is playing as he did back when he was in his mid-twenties. Paul switched to a vegan diet in 2019 while playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

His stats in Houston took a bit of a dip the year prior. At age 33, he had the worst shooting season of his career and his lowest points per game average since he was 25. The following season his field goal percentage shot up 70 points to .489, and he added two extra points per game while playing 12 more games than he did the year before.

At the age of 35, he made his first NBA Finals appearance as one of the Phoenix Suns team leaders that many people thought had no business being there. They are right back in the mix this season, currently up 2-0 over the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Semi-Finals. Paul has attributed his late-career resurgence to his diet.

As for me, when I play soccer or basketball with my friends, I always seem to be the first person to sprint back to the other end of the floor or field on defense after losing the ball. People have asked me where the energy is coming from a few times. I usually have kept my mouth shut because I don’t feel it’s my place to tell people what to eat. I am an advocate for people doing what is in their best interest. The vegan diet just so happens to be what is in my best interest.

Meals

Most days, I start with a breakfast of a bagel, oatmeal, and fresh fruit. Sometimes I’ll eat Special K cereal, maybe plant-based yogurt. On occasion, I’ll also eat Just Egg, a plant-based egg substitute that tastes just like the real thing. The fruits I eat are typically bananas, oranges, and blueberries. I also love pineapple and mango. You really cannot go wrong.

After breakfast, I’ll usually graze throughout the day, mixing in more fruit, nuts like pistachios, cashews, almonds, and pretzel crips with hummus.

For dinner, I vary between a few recipes I like. One of my go-to’s is potato tacos with cilantro lime rice. I eat a lot of pasta. Another favorite is Korean bibimbop bowls that feature jasmine rice, mushrooms, onions, peppers, potatoes, and/or tofu. The bowl is topped with a sweet, savory, and spicy Korean-style sauce.

There has been no compromise on flavor in my diet whatsoever. I find myself being more adventurous in trying new foods than I ever have been prior in my life. You know what they say, variety is the spice of life.

I will share my full-length recipes in a future post because I know you all will love how they taste, but more importantly, how they make you feel.

Thank you so much for the continued support! I’m thinking about selling Footy Foster merch here on the site in the future. Let me know what you think in the comments, or use the “contact me” feature on the site to give me feedback about the idea.

As always, peace and love!