My name is Vlad Coste. I am twenty-seven years old, and I am a CrossFit athlete, coach, and gym owner. My main goal in life is to promote health and help others live longer.

I was born into a family of farmers in a small village in Romania. I was the only obese boy in the entire village. My diet was what people today call “very healthy”: grass-fed meat from my parents’ farm, a lot of fresh milk and dairy products from the cow that I was taking care of, eggs every morning, and veggies from our garden. But at eighteen, I was diagnosed with level two hypertension (worse than my grandmother, who was older than sixty). My life was in such danger that I had to wear a Holter monitor day and night. No doctors suggested any changes to my diet, but they did recommend that I take pills every day (up to 6 per day!).

When I first started going to the gym, I went four days a week. Then five days a week. I had no results, even after ten training sessions per week (five sessions of cardio and five sessions of weight lifting). I started doing long-distance road cycling, but my weight was always up and down. After years of training and trying all diets, I still had no significant improvement.

More and more people are adopting a whole food, plant-based diet in my gym because of the immediate benefits in performance and health.

Three years ago, I heard about Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s research, which was the exact opposite of everything I had ever heard about nutrition. I found myself very empowered by the idea that diseases are not genetically programmed but rather based on controllable factors. From that point on, I started cutting animal products from my diet, and eventually, I started feeling better not only in my everyday life but also in my performance. This improvement was beyond anything I had ever experienced from my training.

My muscles became bigger and stronger than they were when I was eating more than ten egg whites every morning. I also started to notice a significant improvement in my mental concentration and focus. Additionally, my heart disease healed. My parents also benefited: after adopting a whole food, plant-based (WFPB) diet at over fifty years old, both of them healed their high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes!

I am very thankful for meeting Dr. T. Colin Campbell one year ago and for completing the certificate from the Center for Nutrition Studies, which gave me the tools I needed to live a long, disease-free life. I have since opened a gym, and more and more people are adopting a WFPB diet in my gym because of the immediate benefits in performance and health! I am also currently working on my first book, which will be a nutrition plan that combines intermittent fasting and a WFPB diet for those who want to achieve optimal health. There are no reasons to choose another diet if you want to enjoy a strong, healthy, long life.