Justin David Carl

AKA "Dragon"

Vedge Nutrition Elite Athlete

Vegan Athlete & Entrepreneur |  Menlo Park, CA

🌟Inspiring people to truly live a life worth living for!
🐲@getgarten 🌱Vegan Athlete @vedgenutrition
šŸŒ“LifeAlchemist šŸ’ŖšŸ¼Fit: Mind-Body-Heart-SpiritšŸ—½FI

BIO

My mission is to inspire people to proactively design & truly live a life worth living for. I live my life from this personal mission.

My family, friends & colleagues call me ā€œDragonā€ as it captures my fiery passionate spirit & magical approach to life.

I consider myself to be a ā€œLife Alchemist.ā€ This is a personal philosophy & it empowers me to know & act from the fact that everything in life can be used to heal, learn, grow & transform. It’s all energy that is infinitely available to alchemize anything & everything in life. Because of this personal philosophy, I also believe & know that I thrive in all environments--no matter what is going on in the world or in my personal life.

Professionally, I am a founding team member of Stanford Startup, StartX & Y-Combinator company (Garten) which is a tech-driven food & wellbeing platform serving many of the nation’s top businesses as well as individuals.

Creatively, I live out my personal mission while growing myself as a Holistic Wellbeing & Fitness thought-leader through my work at Garten, my blog AlchemizeLife.com, Instagram & other platforms.

I’ve been into fitness for as long as I can remember. I was a super active kid -- bikes, rollerblading, martial arts, gymnastics, swimming, soccer, etc. I played soccer year-round from 5th grade through the end of my senior year of high school. Towards my last years of High School, I began to get into traditional bodybuilding through Gym Class. After High School, I took a gap year and I went and lived in Barcelona, Spain for about 8-months before attending college. I kept up with bodybuilding in Spain and then got even more into it during my time at Stanford University. Later I expanded my fitness repertoire & got super into yoga (while still bodybuilding) eventually getting certified as Yoga Instructor. These days I always keep a baseline fitness of bodybuilding & yoga, but also do a fair amount of calisthenics/gymnastics, rollerblading, hiking, & cycling. 

What made you switch to a plant-based diet?
In January 2020 I watched the James Cameron hit documentary ā€œThe Game Changersā€ and when I saw Nimai Delgado as a professional bodybuilder eating only plants I was like ā€œWTF?! I gotta try this for myself!ā€

Prior to watching ā€œThe Game Changersā€ the only athletes that I knew of that were plant-based were endurance athletes. And though I have massive respect & admiration for endurance athletes I’ve never desired to have their physical build. I’ve always been in pursuit of the gymnast & physique model body.

After watching the documentary, I started following Nimai & other Plant-Based Influencers on Instagram and got super inspired & made the switch.

Since going plant-based & eventually fully vegan my life has transformed for the better and my fitness definitely has as well. I track everything & I literally witnessed myself put on more muscle mass, gain strength, lose body-fat, recover faster & begin feeling better than ever before! For me, the plant-based lifestyle has become a part of living an optimal life.

Over time, as I got more into the plant-based lifestyle I began to learn how much of a positive impact plant-based living has on overall health & longevity. Cancer & other diseases run in my family and many of them can be prevented and even reversed on a Whole Foods Plant-Based (WFPB) diet. So the biggest reason I’ve stayed 100% plant-based (and 80-90% WFPB) is to be a Lighthouse for my family & others when it comes to overall health & longevity.

Lastly, another important reason I’ve become so passionate about Plant-Based living is because of the positive impact it has on the Environment (Earth) and all sentient beings (animals). I personally derive a lot of my magic from the Earth and I want to stand for a life truly worth living for and that includes ALL sentient beings.

For me, the plant-based lifestyle has become an integral part of truly living a life worth living for!

What is your source of inspiration/motivation?
I find this to be a challenging and/or complex question because I am inspired by so many things, people, & places in so many ways. If I had to be short & succinct, I would say that I am inspired by Life, Gaia & my Personal & Spiritual Development Practices.

What’s your biggest Achievement?
Getting into Stanford after being denied the first time. Then going back after 8-years & finishing my degree after dropping out.

Initially, I got waitlisted when I first applied. Unfortunately, they only admitted 8 people from the wait-list and I wasn’t one of them. I was crushed. Stanford was my childhood dream from about 3rd grade and everything I did in life up until I applied was based on the question ā€œwill this help me get into Stanford or not?ā€

After getting denied & failing on my biggest Life Goal to date I fell into depression.

One day, my Mom came to me & said ā€œJustin, you can either let this break you, or you can let it make you.ā€

It hit me like a thunderbolt. I decided this experience would MAKE me.

And this is when a Life Alchemist was born.

I took a gap year and redid the entire application process. All the tests, recommendations, etc. I literally poured my heart into the essays to point of crying tears while writing some of them.

The following year I re-submitted my application & patiently waited to see what would happen on the second try.

One monumental day I got a phone call & it was Stanford Admissions. They called to say that it was one of the best applications they received & that I had been admitted!

I was so excited & grateful that I was literally hooting, hollering & jumping up & down. I’ll never forget that day or that entire experience. It’s made me who I am today.

[I often cry when telling this story & definitely did while writing this out.]

How has Vedge Nutrition impacted you and your lifestyle?
When I first went Plant-Based I started trying tons of different Plant Protein Powders trying to find one that not only tasted great but was also made with great ingredients I could trust that could fuel my fitness goals. I tried a lot that were not very good… LOL!

Then I found Vedge & a truly delicious & nutritious Dragon Shake was born! It’s my version of a plant protein smoothie that I drink with a giant metal straw! I love it so much that I basically have it every day--oftentimes twice!

Then came the pre-workout… When I first went Plant-Based I couldn’t let go of my animal-based Pre-Workout at first. A good pre-workout has been a love-affair since college. I tried several Plant-Based pre-workouts but they just didn’t hit. This held me back from going fully Vegan for many months.

Eventually, I let go of my animal-based pre-workout because I wanted to go fully Vegan but I felt like I had lost something I didn’t really want to let go of.

Then Vedge released its Pre-Workout AND the Nitro Pump & Double-Dragon Powered Workouts were born! I got my pre-workout FIRE back & more! YEEHAW!

I Also love Vedge ā€œEssentialā€ as someone who is fully Vegan who pushes his body hard it covers my nutritional bases with just what I need -- B12, D3, Omega 3s and now K2 for better absorption!

As a Vedge Athlete, I’m super proud of the brand, company & products I represent as well as the people I work with. We are after the same thing from a vision, mission, & value stand-point.

Plus, it’s pretty f-ing awesome to be able to authentically claim that the person who inspired me to go Plant-Based & fully Vegan is the same person who cofounded Vedge! It’s also super awesome that the person who formulates the Vedge Products has become a great friend that I deeply trust!

On a holistic level, Vedge empowers me to deliver on my personal mission of inspiring people to proactively design & truly live a life worth living for. Health is true wealth. If we don’t have our health there is no way we can live a life worth living for. And we all deserve to Live Better & have the power to do so if we choose it.

What are your top 3 favorite go-to products & flavors?
Vedge Pre-workout & Nitropump (Peach Mango flavor) & Vedge Plant Protein (Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup). If I could only choose one it would have to be Vedge Pre-Workout -- it’s just so invigorating & I am all about the energy!

Favorite Cheat Meal?
A giant savory plant-based burger.

Your PR song - go-to for PRs
This changes over time, but I’ll often go back to the same few ones that have that special magic to me. Currently, it is ā€œGo Lightā€ by The Glitch Mob. 

GO-TO Vedge Products