I’m sooooo excited to share today’s “Jacked Pals” interview! Not only because it features two of my all-time favourite vegans but because it’s almost Valentine’s Day so I get to ask them all kinds of romantic, sexxxy questions!

What better vegan power couple to interview than my friends and teammates Dani Taylor and Giacomo Marchese?! Not only does this duo run VeganProteins.com (every vegan’s fave online supplement shop) but they’re also the owners of Team PlantBuilt: THE world’s biggest and best, ALL VEGAN muscle team! And I’m not just saying that ’cause I’m on it. 🙂

I thought I loved Dani and Giacomo before. But damn, now that I’ve interviewed them, I love them even more! And I’m so stoked to now share the inside dirt on their personal lives here on the blog! From fights and farting to love and romance, here is:

My Interview with Vegan Proteins & Team PlantBuilt Owners Dani Taylor and Giacomo Marchese

How many years have you guys been vegan?
Dani: 12 years
Giacomo: 10 years

How did you meet and would you say veganism brought you together?
“We met on VeganBodybuilding.com, NOT looking for relationships at all! We just both liked lifting and were vegan! When Robert Cheeke decided to host a big vegan bodybuilding meetup, we decided to fly out together, because Dani was too nervous to fly alone. We hit it off by making fun of each other. Yes, I would say veganism definitely brought us together.”

What’s it like running a business with your partner?
“Hmmmm…. How to answer this nicely….. It’s been a “learning experience”. Is that the right way to say it?! We are completely different people and work in very, very different ways. In some ways, it’s nice because we each are able to fill in for the other one’s weaknesses, so we have most of our bases covered at all times. In other ways, it is enraging because of our completely different energies and living, working, and training together can be a lot. We are together nearly 24/7. That goes pretty much how you would expect it to. 🙂 ”

LOOK AT THAT HAIR! Who knew Giacomo also played the Vampire Lestat back in 2008 in “Interview with a Vampire” 😉

What’s your favourite body part on each other?
Dani: His butt. He has a girl booty. It’s fascinating and mesmerizing and hard to look away from.
Giacomo: Dani’s lats! Her back is incredible! It defies nature. Not many girls like being told how wide they are, but Dani can spread her wings and fly!

Not to keep interrupting the interview but if I were Giacomo, I would’ve said Dani’s uncanny resemblance to Jennifer Connelly!

Who would friends and family say wears the pants in this relationship?
Giacomo: Sigh….
Dani: Hehehe. I don’t know how this happened, but I think it’s me. We try to be as equal as possible, but when it comes down to it, a lot of the time, he thinks I should call the shots. So I do.

Who spends more time flexing in front of the mirror? Please give us a rough count of how many mirror flexes each of you do per day.
Dani: Oh, this is definitely Giacomo. In every reflective surface he finds…. He can hypnotize himself with a mirror. Rightfully so, I guess!

Who’s the bigger cheese ball? What’s the cutest Valentine’s Day/romantic moment you can remember having with each other?
Dani: Again, this is Giacomo! I call him a “grand gesture” guy because he’s always doing these huge romantic gestures that make me insanely uncomfortable. When we started dating, I lived in Massachusetts and he lived in New York, and he wrote me a letter every single day for well over a month. I couldn’t read his handwriting, but I still have them all to this day.

Do you annoy each other more or less during competition prep?
We annoy each other constantly. We are known for our bickering. It’s mostly in good fun though…. mostly. Contest prep can be particularly trying though and we do have to retreat to our own corners a lot more frequently!

Being vegan bodybuilders, we’re definitely no strangers to farting. But we’re all dying to know, do you fart in front of each other?
“Wait, are you not supposed to do that? We have farting wars.”

Favourite healthy and/or competition diet vegan food?
“We eat the same types of foods all year. Haha. Hmmmm. Dani does make this weird tofu chocolate pudding though that tastes much better than it sounds and is a craving killer.”

Favourite unhealthy and/or off-season vegan food?
“We love to go to Veggie Galaxy in Cambridge and get big veggie burgers with onion rings on them and then ice cream or lemon meringue pie for dessert.”

Cardio lovers or haters? Bedroom cardio doesn’t count grrrrrrowl!
Dani: Hater. I’ll do whatever it takes, but cardio can go to hell.
Giacomo: I love it and I have to stop myself from doing too much.
Dani: He can go to hell too.

Favourite vegan protein source, complex carb and healthy fat?
Dani: Upton’s Seitan Bacon, Potatoes, Peanut Butter (aka food of the gods)
Giacomo: Seitan, oatmeal, peanut butter (Dani is actually right here…)

Favourite obscure, vegan specialty item?
“We are vegan cheese snobs. Give us all the vegan cheese!”

What exercise makes you feel like a savage vegan beast?
“Squats turn us both into animals!”

What exercise do you dread doing and hate with a passion?
“Besides cardio? Are we assholes for saying that we don’t dread any lifting exercises?”

Vegan supplement you can’t live without?
“Unanimous decision of creatine.”

Favourite animal charity/rescue?
“Ooooh, that’s tough. We love a lot of them. We did get to go visit For the Animals Farm Sanctuary in New Jersey and we absolutely loved it there!”

And lastly, how can we follow/reach you?

Dani:
@VeganProteins (Instagram)
@IronVeganChic (Twitter)

Giacomo:
@leanandgreen719 (Instagram)
@VeganProteins (Twitter)

Both of us:
VeganProteins.com
Facebook.com/VeganProteins

– By Samantha Shorkey