Almost 6% of Americans Are Vegans, i.e., 9.7 Million. (The Guardian) In 2014, the statistic was 1%. This 500% increase speaks to the fact that people in the US are doing more than just talking about veganism, says The World Animal Foundation.

For Scott Burgett he helps vegans lose up to 20 lbs in four months without crazy restrictive diets. He’s the founder of Evolution Vegan Academy. An online coaching program that helps vegans lose up to 20 lbs in four months using his M3 Fit System. He is a CSCS and Precision Nutrition Level 1 certified coach and has trained both professional and collegiate athletes. Living in Austin with his wife, dog, and son, Scott's mission is to help create vegans leaders in his community so they can spread their impact throughout generations. Rewind back to 2013. I’m fresh out of college, moved back to Arizona from Washington state, and starting in the world of working for myself. I graduated with a degree in Exercise Science and wanted to become a professional strength coach in the NFL. I played football my whole life, through college, and felt that was my calling. To help athletes perform at high levels. After working a couple of odd jobs right out of school, I landed a small role as a performance coach for the Seattle Mariners baseball team.

And during that time, I was first exposed to plant-based eating after watching a documentary in 2014. At the time, I didn’t think anything much other than, “that seems interesting, but it’s not for me.” A year goes by and I realize that I felt unfulfilled in my personal life. Working in professional sports was fun but also exhausting, with very little pay. So I decided to switch gears and landed a job at a bank as a Wellness Administrator in San Antonio, TX. My girlfriend at the time and I picked up our life and hauled our things across half the country to Texas.

During my time at this job, I really started taking a greater interest in health and documentaries started to become really popular on Netflix. In particular, docs about plant-based eating and veganism. I started to take more of a liking to them because I resonated with the message: take care of yourself, the planet and the animals.

It was April of 2016, and I started to experiment more with plant-based eating. I’d pack a mason jar salad for my lunch at work but started to swap my chicken for chickpeas. I’d start small at just one meal for a couple of weeks, then two, and so on and so forth until all meals were plant-based. Then my dinners became more plant-based and so did my breakfast choices. I felt great and was having a lot of fun with this new way of eating. And during one night I’ll never forget in January 2017, my wife and I were watching the critically acclaimed documentary Cowspiracy. I remember vividly I was washing the dishes in our two-bedroom apartment, my wife Cally was on the couch, and the scene came on the TV that showed the fate of baby male chickens. He joined me this week to tell me more.

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Facebook: @Scott Burgett