Pro Natural Raw Vegan Bodybuilder Interview with Rezenkia Lee aka Zee

Too often I have heard people whisper that you can’t build muscle on a raw food diet…

While I know this to be false from both personal as well as professional experience working as a raw vegan coach and RHN, it is beyond awesome to see people like Zee crushing this myth as a low fat raw vegan professional natural raw vegan bodybuilder!

Enjoy this interview where we get deep into her story, how much protein she needs as a woman’s bodybuilder, and much more!

Rezenkia Lee aka Zee is a professional natural raw vegan bodybuilder. She obtained her pro card in 2021 with the Fitness Universe Federation. She has obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance, Performance, and Choreography and has earned her certification in Pilates Mat training. She also has certifications as a Reiki master teacher and practitioner and is foregoing her MS and PhD/ND in natural health and holistic nutrition. She has sixteen years of fitness training and nutrition experience with fitness gyms within the northeastern and southeastern regions of the country. She is the owner of Rezenkia Lee LCC and Owner of Zen Institute School of the Arts.

She is passionate about people. Through her expertise, enthusiasm, and caring personality, she is changing lives with one person at a time through health, wellness, and fitness.

Learn more, give Zee a follow, and connect for coaching on her Website rezenkialee.com

and on Instagram @rezenkialee

If you want to check out the 80/10/10 diet by Dr. Douglas Graham that we mentioned in the video

Peep it here, it’s the best book on human health and nutrition that I have ever read by far!

Enjoy this cleaned-up transcript from part of the video, watch the whole video for more 🙂

Chris: “Thank you so much for joining me today, and I’m really excited to talk with you. It’s definitely a joy to connect through our mutual friend, Dr. Doug Graham. How are you doing today?”

Zee: “I’m doing fantastic. How about you?”

Chris: “I am doing dang good. I’ve had an amazing day, been active out and about skateboarding yesterday, I worked out, and today was a down day. How about you?”

Zee: “I’ve been very, very busy, but productive. As I was sharing with you earlier before we got started, opportunities are just flooding in as a raw vegan bodybuilder, and it’s an adjustment, but it’s good. So I haven’t worked out yet, but that’s what I’ll be doing after we’re done here.”

Chris: “Yeah, I’m getting ready. I already ate, so I’m all charged up. So let’s start there. How many times a week do you work out?”

Zee: “Six times a week. Six days a week. Five days are strength training, one day is an active day with cardio. Well, I say cardio only, but sometimes that doesn’t happen, and I still throw in some strength training. And then one day is fully rest. I’m not moving at all.”

Chris: “That’s awesome. How long are most of your training sessions?”

Zee: “About an hour and a half to two hours.”

Chris: “That sounds good. I like to spend some time in the gym. I’m not six days a week in the gym. I was at one time when I was recovering from a car accident, but that was a totally different story. But I’m curious now, let’s go back a little bit. How did you get into raw food, and also, how did you get into training as a raw vegan bodybuilder? So maybe bodybuilding first and then into raw food.”

Zee: “And it actually happened in that way. So I got into bodybuilding in 2014. I did my first show and placed sixth out of thirty in my category. Then after that, I took a slight hiatus just to really figure out how I wanted to do it. After that show, I thought, ‘Next time I do this, it’s going to be done the way I want to do it. It’s going to be done in a way that seems natural for me, and I want to be at a place where, whenever that is, I’m able to step on a show whenever I want to, so I don’t have as long of a training period before hitting the stage.’ I was like, ‘I just want to be naturally fit so that if I decide to go on the stage in two weeks, I can.’ In 2020, through my schooling, I came across Dr. Doug’s book ’80/10/10′ from one of my courses, and I reached out to him, and he’s so lovely. He reached out to me in no time, and we connected from that point on. I said, ‘Hey, this is what I want to do. I want to train as a raw vegan competitor.’ We put our minds together, developed a plan, and just did it. I believe I trained from January 2022; my show was in August, and then there was a show in September the next month. I did two shows that year.”

Chris: “That’s quite a journey. Going from heavy meat and high animal protein to vegan, what were the shifts you felt? When you went vegan, were you focused on protein? Were you getting lots of beans and Tempeh? How was the switch from that O-type blood type diet to the vegan diet?”

Zee: “Just me listening to my intuition and listening to my body. To talk about the transition, when I was only eating according to my blood type, I had gotten sick, and I don’t know how, maybe from a coworker, but I had a little virus. I realized I wasn’t eating meat while recuperating. I thought, ‘Am I doing this?’ I was just eating everything else but meat. Then I came across the documentary ‘Forks Over Knives,’ and that blew my mind. That was in February 2017. It blew my mind, and I thought, ‘There’s something to this.’ Then, as I came to, I chose to try a little piece of chicken. I tried a small piece, and then I experienced sharp pain in my chest. I was like, ‘I’m not used to feeling that.’ After that, I didn’t go back. I just stayed on the track of being vegan.”

Zee: “When I was eating meat, I was always hungry, fatigued, and would get tired quickly. Transitioning to being vegan was different. I didn’t experience that fatigue. I started eating more nuts, and that was good. But then, when I became raw vegan, especially for athletic training, the fats weren’t good for my joints. I noticed joint pain when I increased my fat intake. But when I reduced fats and focused mainly on fruits and vegetables, particularly fruits, I didn’t have those joint issues. Think about it; you’re an athlete, lifting heavy weights repeatedly. If you’re eating lots of fats, your joints are going to feel it. This way as a raw vegan bodybuilder feels so much better for me. It’s also interesting that I don’t need as many hours of sleep now.”

Zee: “Experience is everything. I take information, digest it, see how it works for my body, and then share it. Depending on your goals, every path can serve its purpose. But being a raw vegan bodybuilder is the best I’ve ever felt. My energy is great, and my aesthetics are on point. I’m happy with what I see, especially if I were to step on stage. It’s just been really good.”

I hope you really enjoyed the interview with Pro Natural Raw Vegan Bodybuilder Rezenkia Lee, aka Zee, and that it helps you gain extra assurance that you too can gain muscle and become fitter, happier, and healthier with a simple low-fat raw vegan diet.

Thanks again to Zee for the fun interview and for crushing worries and myths around protein and building muscle as a woman on a raw vegan diet!

As Always

Wishing You Much

PeaceLovenSeasonalFruit ck