The Agonist's Alissa White-Gluz Stays Healthy On The Road

Posted on Aug 20th 2009 12:00PM by Jay DiNitto Comments

It's easy for a touring band to fall into unhealthy habits: partying too much, too many fast food stops, strange sleeping patterns, stress and exhaustion. Alissa White-Gluz, vocalist for Canadian metal band the Agonist, makes plenty sure she doesn't get trapped into a physically destructive routine on the road, though. "I'm always, always really health conscious -- even more so on tour," she told Noisecreep. "I'll rarely eat junk food anyways, but I do not eat junk food [on tour]."

In addition to staying fit while at home in the city of Montreal -- she even works at a gym -- Alissa continues her exercise on the road. "I drink lots of water," she explains further. "I do minor warm-ups. I work out a lot. I started to work out on the road as much as I can, but I work out a lot at home to keep myself in good shape."It's not all about just staying healthy for health's sake; there's a practical benefit for her diet and exercise with respect to her demanding role as as a metal vocalist in a live setting. "There's this company called Vega that sponsors us, and basically what it is is a vegan health optimizer," Alissa said. "But really it's a protein shake that has all the vitamins, all the enzymes, all the minerals, all the carbs, all the proteins ... everything that you need to set yourself for the day. I actually drink one of those on stage, so I feel like it kinda helps my throat keep going if it's a longer set."

She credits her health-conciousness partly to her upbringing. "I was raised vegetarian, my whole family is vegetarian, and I became vegan about 11 years ago. And so just did it because it made sense to me ... Same thing with being straight edge: I just sort of picked it up because it made sense to me."

Once in a while, just like anyone, Alissa will give into temptation and soon learn to regret the decision. "It just feels like 'God, what did I do?'" she wondered with disgust, when discussing potato chips. "Every once in a while, I'll get a weird craving or whatever, and I'll eat some. For the next day, and sometimes for a week afterwards, I'm like, 'Why did I do that?'"

Filed under: Interview

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