Q&A with Alise Miksta
A thought-provoking and at times controversial account of a minimalist – vegan and active lifestyle enthusiast. Alise has run several multi-day races over the past years and is passionate about living her life in the most healthy way with a minimal impact on the physical environment of this planet.
Do you see yourself as an athlete?
No, I see myself as an active lifestyle enthusiast. I love running, traveling, eating loads of fruits, fasting and simply enjoying life, I also like to keep my material possessions to a minimum. I think with my lifestyle choice I’m far from being an athlete.
What are your passions both in sports and other hobbies?
I love adventure. Whether it’s running a multi-day race in a country I have never been to, or cycling from one country to another. I love challenging myself. I started running ultra-marathons just over a year ago when I saw a race happening in Sri Lanka covering 250km in 5 days. I thought it would be an amazing way to explore the country and challenge myself by running a distance I’d never done before. It was epic.
You and I had many discussions about lifestyle, food and health in general. How would you describe your lifestyle and the standards, or rules you set for yourself?
Well, I’ve been vegan for 5 years now and I’ve been living on a high fruit diet for several months, I also don’t drink much water, if anything I don’t even think about staying hydrated on water because I simply don’t believe that the water we get in plastic bottles will hydrate me so I rather focus on eating living foods which are fresh fruits and vegetables. In the past 8 months I have had maybe one liter of water and that’s only because I was running in the desert and there was no fresh fruit juice so I had to cool myself down with cold water. I question everything, it’s simply not enough when someone says it’s scientifically proven, it actually makes me question who funded and what was their agenda and what is science? It’s only ongoing research. I have started trusting myself and paying attention to how I feel when I eat or drink certain things and I have realized that a lot of the information that is out there regarding the nutrition makes no sense. I focus on eating foods that are easy to digest and will leave my body effortlessly. I prefer simple food, no salt and keep the fat to a minimum, yes even the good fat.
What moral, or ethical beliefs underlie the lifestyle choices you make?
It’s all quite simple when you are in nature. When you are on top of a mountain it’s so peaceful, no one cares how much money you have, what shoes you are wearing, how many followers or likes you have on your Instagram, so why should I? I believe in simplicity. If it costs my peace, it’s too expensive. I rather take a day off than work to earn money for a new pair of shoes. I believe happiness comes from within not the outside world, we really need so little to be happy. For me it’s not happiness if I know that other living beings suffer and lead unpleasant lives, or are killed for my needs. When I see meat on my plate it’s like having blood on my hands of another living being. Milk in my cup of coffee makes me think of the cows being forced to be impregnated year after year and it feels totally wrong. Just think about it!
How do you manage training and ultra-running with the lifestyle choices you are making?
It’s all about planning and preparing. Since I don’t drink water, I have to prepare fresh coconut water or juice before, I also have to plan my longer runs and see where I can leave the icebox with extra juice in it. When it comes to races, I haven’t participated in one yet where I’ve been on fruits only, but I don’t need a race to run, I want to carry on running as natural as I can, no coffee, no supplements, no stimulants, just nature, fruits and vegetables.
These are weird times, but is there anything specific you are training for, or would like to train for?
I think this is a great time to slow down and revalue what you have. After completing 3 multistage ultra-marathons in November last year I fell out of love with running and it took me a long time to start running again. I’m finally back to where I feel like running again and this August I ran 46km in the desert in more than 40 degrees Celsius. It was challenging. It made me realize that I don’t need a race to run. I do want to achieve the level of strength where I can run a 50km loop in the Al Qudra desert weekly and feel good.
Do you have any insider tips of where to run in The UAE?
It depends on what kind of run you want to do. If you are in Dubai you really have no excuse for not running as the tracks are everywhere. In the city if you start running on the beach and then carry on running around the canal, that’s a cool track to do little bit of sightseeing too. I live in Sports City so I like to wake up, put my shoes on and go for a quick run around Jumeirah Golf Estate. One loop is about 8km and by the time I run there and back it’s about 11km. It’s a beautiful route with palm trees, birds and plenty of greenery. Of course you can’t beat the mountains for some trail running. You really have everything here…
Thank you Alise!!
Although we at Sported certainly don’t agree with some of Alise’s choices and we would urge you to plan and think carefully before adapting some of her ways – We do admire her for her self-discipline and standing up for what she believes in. If we all lived a bit more like her the world would most likely be a healthier and happier place.
Follow Alise @alisemango
Interview by Rianca van Dijke
