Packing a punch: Lauren the vegan boxer's fighting talk on food

Our understanding of what foods power the best boxers in the world was skewed back in the 70s when Rocky Balboa chugged down raw eggs before his morning run.

After that movie was released, there must have been a million wannabe champs gagging over cups of gloopy egg, wretching as they convinced themselves that it would lead them straight to victory.

Just looking through Instagram at the #fitfam (a hashtag for fans of fitness) shows muscley men and women doing 'meal prep', which seems to involve steaming chicken breasts and vegetables. Every day, chicken breast and veg, chicken breast and veg.

Sounds intensely boring and, we learned when we caught up with current English champion Lauren Johnson, rather unnecessary to boot.

The 31-year-old one-time national champion, two-time Midlands champion and England v USA intercollegiate champion (phew, that's a mouthful) is solely plant powered.

The vegan athlete doesn't eat meat, fish, eggs, cheese or other dairy products, instead fuelling herself with an entirely plant-based diet.

The Wolverhampton-based boxer tells us about her blossoming knock-out career.

"I've been boxing just over three years now," she says. "I wanted to lose weight and someone told me that boxing was a good way to do that, so I started and the weight just dropped off. Because I was strong, my coach suggested that I start competing. I wasn't really up for it at first, but we started looking for some matches anyway.

"It was really hard to get matches, and so they said that the only way I could get one was if I went into national competition. So we went into the nationals where I had to fight the British and Irish champion. I kinda didn't want to do it. . ." she laughs.

But, like all true champs, she did it anyway.

"I did it anyway, and I knocked my competitor out 53 seconds into the first round. I've never looked back from there."

It's quite an achievement for a girl that had only set her sights on dropping some weight. "I just wanted to keep active. I've always lifted weights but I wanted to improve my cardio, just to keep the weight down. I was 15 stone before I started, and now I box at 11st 11lbs."

Lauren suffered a different kind of blow a few years ago, when her father was taken ill.

"When my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he was given just four months to live. The doctors suggested we put him on a vegan diet, and so that's what we did. He lasted for 18 months after that, and it wasn't even the cancer that killed him in the end, he had some sores that got infected when he was in the hospital.

"After he died I was a bit down, and I thought, you know what? I'm going to do this vegan thing for my own health, and get back into boxing. I'd taken 11 months out when he was ill, and I wanted to get stronger and fitter than ever."

That was nine months ago, and the veggie-only life has been working wonders for the boxer ever since.

"Since I've been vegan, all of my fights have been against full-time athletes and I've outworked them and beaten them.

"My uncle, my dad's twin, is vegan so he helped advise me on what to eat. I did a lot of research on the internet into what to eat to get all of my nutrients. I watched a few documentaries and started to think how meat just isn't good for you. So I'd ask people what to have instead.

"I have my porridge every morning, but I have it made with coconut milk rather than normal milk. I always snack on nuts and berries through the day. For lunch I'll have a wrap with avocados, to get my healthy fats, and houmous. I have vegan cheese and alternatives too, as well as loads of vegetables."

When she's not boxing, Lauren is a security guard at Shrewsbury's Buttermarket and C:21 venues, and has been for 18 months. The Peach Tree restaurant is also part of the group, and they sponsor Lauren in her boxing endeavours. They also cook mean vegan dishes, too. "They cook vegan food to get me ready for my fights. They do a really nice mushroom risotto and the chef will put nuts and things on top for me so I get enough protein in my diet. There's The Peach Tree and Momo·No·Ki, which is a Japanese restaurant. So I have tofu and stuff from there too."

Her bosses may be supportive of Lauren's eating habits, but her coach took more convincing. She's trained by boxer Varuzhan Davtyan at Wodensborough ABC in Wednesbury.

"When people find out I'm a vegan they always ask me where I get my protein from. Even my coach was sceptical, he said there was no way I could train without eating meat, especially as I wasn't eating cheese. But since my last fight, how I outworked my opponent, he admitted that it was the best he'd ever seen me work and so then he couldn't say anything about it!

"He's on my side now with the veganism. I don't think I'll be able to convince him to go vegan, but he's definitely supporting me with it now."

The future is looking bright for Lauren, and with the help of The Peach Tree, her dinnertimes are looking pretty bright too.

"I don't know what's going to happen next with the boxing," she admits. "I just want to get a few more internationals under my belt and see what happens after that. We've got the nationals coming up now, and we're through to the pre-quarters in Liverpool. If we win them, we go on to the finals at the Echo Arena in Liverpool. That's going to be on Sky, so we're focusing on that at the moment."

We've got a good feeling about this.

By Kirsty Bosley