He first celebrated his triumph directly in Paris in front of the eyes of the whole world. Now he has retreated and if it weren’t for the paparazzi, we have no idea where he is.
Novak Djokovic is enjoying his Olympic triumph on a yacht in the waves of the Adriatic Sea. “Curious cameras” found him near Dubrovnik, drinking his great triumph with champagne in hand.
This is a rare case when fans of the Serbian great can watch at least a little of his vice. The 24-time Grand Slam champion and from now on the Olympic champion is very careful about his lifestyle. He allegedly pays attention to every single sip of water.
But now he indulges and confirms how much he cared about the Olympic gold, which was the only major tennis success he missed.
The Serbian tennis player eats differently than most of his opponents. He left meat out of his diet. He has been working on a vegan diet for more than eight years.
“Many people criticized me for it, others did not believe that I could do it. But it’s not just about food – it’s also a new lifestyle.
Ethical reasons also lead me to it, because you are aware of what is happening in the world of animals, their killing and breeding. All this also has an impact on climate change,” the 37-year-old from Belgrade thought a few years ago.
Djokovic is strict with himself. He also omitted refined sugar from his diet, he indulges in it only exceptionally. For example, a small piece of chocolate after one of the Wimbledon triumphs.
“I believe that I can inspire other athletes to believe that they will have strength and muscles even when eating a plant-based diet. Of course, I’m not a weightlifter, I’m just looking for the right balance between strength and speed. I don’t miss anything yet,” he added.
“Well, I don’t like labels to be honest. I’ve been eating plant-based for quite a few years now. But because of the misinterpretation of labels like that, I just don’t like it.
I eat plant based and I think that’s one of the reasons I’m recovering so well. I don’t have any allergies anymore. And that’s how it suits me,” said the tennis player.
From a certain age, he even decided to completely eliminate gluten from his diet. It was preceded by a simple two-week experiment. He avoided gluten completely for two weeks, and then, on the advice of Dr. Cetojavica gave a proper wheat bagel.
“I felt as if I had spent the whole night drinking whiskey,” he describes in his book. He probably meant the morning monkey as opposed to the night drunk.
In this way, he diagnosed gluten intolerance, which he subsequently confirmed using blood tests using the ELISA method. Since then, he avoids gluten completely.
After waking up, he is said to drink warm water with lemon, followed by fresh celery juice. Later, he has a green smoothie with various fruits and algae. Djoković added that at this moment he also uses supplements with the so-called superfoods, which he says give him “mental clarity.”
“I eat a lot of fruit and salads in the first part of the day. I don’t like to eat food that requires a lot of energy to digest, especially in the morning, because that’s when I need the most energy for my training.
Then I eat very light meals, usually grains like quinoa, millet or wild rice, sweet potatoes and normal potatoes, steamed or boiled.”
“He is incredibly disciplined. When we play for Serbia, Novak has his own special food. Sometimes he also eats what others eat, but mostly you can see him with his own packages of food, which they prepared for him,” said Filip Krajinovič, his colleague from the Davis Cup team, in a podcast for Alesto.
Djokovic does not underestimate rest and especially sleep. According to his colleague from the Serbian team, he always tries to balance relaxation depending on which day the match awaits him. He likes to sleep as much as possible. “He’s definitely not an early bird, he likes to sleep in a lot,” confirmed Krajinovič.
Although he became famous for his veganism, he also, for example, does not drink alcohol. But it wasn’t always like that, he finally admitted it himself in an Instagram live interview with Maria Sharapova.
It might come as a shock to fans of the Serbian star. The native of Belgrade revealed years ago that he even started for his country in the Davis Cup “after a heavy monkey”.
In 2011, after the Wimbledon triumph, he traveled with his national team to Sweden, where he got on the court without really knowing how.
“It was my first Wimbledon triumph, I became world number one, all my dreams came true,” he recalls of the situation when he celebrated after the final at the All England Club against Rafael Nadal.
Evidently, he did not spare much in the way of celebrations.
“I traveled straight from London to the Davis Cup quarter-finals in Sweden. I had a monkey, I just wanted to watch the boys and I thought there was no chance of me playing.
Söderling did not play for the Swedes, we led 2:0 after the first day. Even though I didn’t want to play any official match, in the end, I don’t know how, I entered the doubles. I couldn’t even see the ball properly,” Djokovic said to himself.
At that time, alongside the experienced Nenad Zimonjic, who is now his coach by the way, he lost to the pair of Simon Aspelin, Robert Lindstedt, despite this, Serbia advanced over the Swedes after winning 4:1.
Source: sportweb.pravda.sk
