Hello Steemit! I'm Samantha, 17 years old & hockey player from South Africa

Hey Steemit! I’m 17 years old, from South Africa! I've lived here my whole life. I decided to transition over to a fully plant based vegan diet in October of 2015 and haven’t looked back since. I feel happier and healthier as an active vegan. I enjoy cooking and baking as I am always discovery new vegan foods to try. Veganism is not very common in my part of the world but since I made the change, 3 of my close friend have also become vegans.

I follow a high carb, low fat vegan diet. I promote clean eating and cook entirely without oil. I find that this high carb diet has really aided in my athletic performance. Too many girls my age are restricting calories and cutting carbs - I hope to show them that a healthy diet is one where you can eat as much as you like if the food you put in is not damaging to your body. These restriction diets destroy your metabolism and although you lose weight short term, they are not sustainable and will result in you gaining all that weight that was lost and more.

I attend Rhenish Girls High School in Stellenbosch. It is a beautiful school, always flooded with student and tourists. Around the corner from Rhenish is the University of Stellenbosch, commonly known as Maties, where I often attend various hockey clinics.

I’ve been taking part in numerous sports since the age of 6, but hockey is by far where my passion lies. Last year I was chosen for the junior national training team after our u/18 IPT tournament in Potchefstroom. Besides for hockey I also enjoy swimming, which I use to do competitively. Now I swim every now and then as I believe that it helps as cross training to reduce my chance of picking up an injuring. I am also part of my schools athletics team.

As you can tell, I love sport. Sport and food are where my interest seem to lie at this stage in my life. I hope to share that with you here on Steemit and am super excited to be part of this community.