ATHLETE Spotlight: Amanda Meggison- Her Journey, Incredible Business + How Myolab and Myotherapy Have Helped Propel Her Forward 

From the trails and the kitchen, how this plant-based athlete has her feet firmly planted on the ground with the help of MYOLAB.

We had the opportunity to sit down with one of our incredible athlete’s and business owners, Amanda, and delve in deep about her journey, achievements, business and how MYOLAB and Myotherapy has impacted her journey! We are so inspired by people like Amanda, and are so excited to share this with you!

Who is Amanda Meggison?

Amanda is a plant-based fitness and running enthusiast, food coach, nutrition advisor and cook. At the age of 34 she entered her first fun run and hasn’t looked back! At 40 she moved up to ultra marathons and now at 41 her life revolves around regular competitive endurance events – proving that it’s never too late to get started and age is no barrier when you’re powered by plants. Her days are now chock-full of marathons, half marathons, ultra marathons; endurance bike rides and endurance trail runs. Amanda pays close attention to her nutrition in order to properly fuel her active lifestyle, and she is on a mission to educate the world about the limitless power of plant-based health and fitness.

 

Amanda created Tarian Pantry to prove that a real-food, plant-based performance lifestyle is achievable, sustainable and utterly nutritious. She now mentors others who wish to include more plants in their diet as well as those who are ready to take the plunge and become vegetarian or vegan. She is a guiding light for anyone in need of support for fuelling their active lifestyle, increasing sports longevity, enhancing recovery and smashing through performance goals.

 

Who is Tarian Pantry?

Tarian Pantry is a business 100% powered by plants and your gateway to living, learning and loving a vegan health and fitness lifestyle. They are your plant-based guidance counsellors, guardian advisors and one-stop vegan online shop and resource site for plant-based fuel options.

 

Tarian is the fond abbreviation of vegeTARIAN, but they embrace and welcome all and sundry to discover the benefits of plant-based health and fitness, whether you’re vegetarian, vegan, veg-friendly or plant-curious. Their tribe of like-minded beings includes vegan athletes, casual fitness enthusiasts, the busy and the burnt-out, the sedentary and the somewhere in betweens. The one thing they all share is a passion or curiosity for pure plant energy.

 

Visit www.tarianpantry.com.au to find out more about the services and offerings including their Positive Eating programs.

A little from Amanda, Founder Tarian Pantry

Tarian Pantry is an extension of the lifestyle I lead; I practice what I preach and I believe it’s my plant-based diet that assists me to achieve my goals both in a personal and professional capacity.

 

I feel very fortunate to work daily talking about my main interests in life of food + fitness. I am an advocate for what I call a ‘back to basics’ lifestyle where we should all look at food from the ground up and spend time breaking down what it is that we need to function outside of food + fitness – mindfulness and mindful practices.

 

I believe we should be more in touch with our food, know where it comes from and even better know who grew it. Food is our lifeline and to be far removed from its origin and to mutter those words ‘I’m too busy to cook’ send shutters down my spine for without food we start to lose our health and wellness.

 

Plants power me. A plant-based vegan diet keeps me functioning, keeps me subtle and importantly keeps me young. Below is an insight into my training, my goals and the body maintenance required to help keep me focused, strong and fit-ablolous all the while being powered by plants.

Training & Goals

“Its only hard until it becomes easy.”

 

I train 6 days a week; 5 runs per week, 2 yoga practices and 2 strength and conditioning sessions make up my training week. To say I love what I do is an understatement; I thrive off the challenge of movement and the chance to grow and develop with each session; to be sedentary is just a crime. We were born to move. This becomes even more important as we get older. Our bodies change with age; mobility reduces, muscle mass reduces and recovery naturally slows down but we can challenge this and I do this each and every day.

 

I have two BIG and BOLD goals for 2017; to run my fifth 100km ultra (UTA, Blue Mountains in May) and to attempt to finish my first 100mile race; the Great Southern Endurance Run from Mt Buller to Bright in November. I guess you could say I don’t do easy but as my late coach, Craig Percival always said to me ‘there are no limits, only possibilities”.

 

Training for endurance races is a way of life; I spend most weekends in the great outdoors; Dandendong Ranges, Mt Macedon, You Yangs, Mornington trails and as far and wide as Bright, Mt Buffalo and Mt Feathertop in the Alpine region. I love the hills and mountains; I love the opportunity to be at one with nature, this helps keep me grounded and in touch with what means the most in life; our ability to move freely.

 

To carry out this type of training and work towards these BOLD goals you need to be dedicated, determined and willing to put in the hard yards even if the couch is calling you. You need to be strong of mind, to trust and believe in yourself and you also need to be comfortable with your own self, after all you are training 18+ hours a week so the ability to get along and understand your thoughts is fundamental to you being able to carry out the physical side of training.

 

I am human powered. My body gets me from A to Z and all that is in-between but I am also mindful of the kindness that I need to repay it with in order to continue on my endurance journey. Like Bert and Ernie and acai to a smoothie bowl; you can’t have one without the other and my journey couldn’t have training without Myolab.

MYOLAB Treatment

Having been exercising regularly for almost a decade I wish I had met Matt and the team earlier in order to experience sooner the healing properties of Myotherapy and body management. It wasn’t until around 2 years ago that I really begun to appreciate the power of this type of treatment – I guess good timing as this is when I took up endurance running as my chosen sport.

 

Myotherapy, Dry Needling + Deep Tissue Massage 

These are intense, a mixture of pleasure and pain especially when my muscles are tender from a hard training session or race. I understand the benefits and the role this type of Myotherapy & massage plays in my physical and physiological wellbeing and say with all honestly, this type of Myotherapy & massage is not exclusive; they are of benefit to any individual who is experiencing pain whether this be sports related or general lifestyle.

 

My treatment during my ‘on season’ of racing consists of weekly Myotherapy, massage and dry needling to not only help revitalise my muscles and ligaments but to help manage the stress of my body, decrease anxiety and enhance my state of well-being. My time on the slab is a welcomed relief from the trails, hills and stairs.

 

Functional Movement + rehab 

When I first started running, I just ran in a forward motion. Then I started cycling and once again kept moving in a forward motion. It wasn’t until I started to see Matt did I realise in order to limit injuries I needed to move my body in more than one direction – I needed to work on my functional movement to have longevity in my chosen sport.

 

Functional movement such as monster walks were the starting point to assist me to challenge all the joints in my body to make me more fluid, increase my strength and ensure I am strong and my body is injury resistant.

 

Under the guidance of Matt, I have become a stronger more agile runner, I am more aware of the workings of my joints and muscles and am able to zone on every part of my working body in when it comes to mental focus both during a myotherapy treatment and a running race!!!

 

 

My body is my temple and if I continue to fed it well with high net gain nutrients, care for it with healing hands and treatments then the longevity of the tool in which my mind lives in will ensure I remain strong and willing to keep challenging myself in the journey of life I still have ahead of me.