IMO vegetarians and especially vegans have no business touching gear for any reason. If you want to be big or more successful in your fighting you should utilize the high energy calorie sources provided by animal fats and proteins; after all it was this capability that helped us evolve from apes 7 million years ago. The energy provided by animals allowed our brains to develop to the size they are now. If you're doing the veggie thing for health reasons you have no business with gear; you will negate such reasons. If you're doing it for ethical reasons, eat the organic farm raised stuff or fish. Embrace this ability that we've acquired over millions of years of evolutionary iterations to become the lost successful animal on this planet.
good post and I respect your opinion but I disagree and here is why:
black bears in the south are mostly vegetarians, so are gorilla's. (both eat very very little animal maybe some insects or larvae but they don't eat meat) and they are pretty damn muscular
you don't need to eat meat to grow muscle, I know cause I was a vegan for 2 years myself and i was built like a freight train. as long as you workout like a beast you will grow muscle even if you eat slop everyday. of course a great diet will aid greatly, but a vegan diet is actually better than the shit diets i see a lot of guys eating that make them overweight and fat. many men eat too much meat and they have huge bellies, so eating a lot of meat isn't gonna make you the hulk.
again i was one for 2 years so i have been there, done that. a lot of vegan hippie type guys you see around don't work out so yeah they are skinny, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't be capable of growing muscle. complete myth.. its a fair stereotype because 99% of them don't workout, but it doesn't apply to all. I still to this day eat very little meat. i will have some grassfed beef, wild fish, and some baked chicken spread out over the course of the week... but I am far from a meat eater and I am carrying plenty of mass.
as for soy i would agree with you on that, its shit. its pretty much sugar in a different form (null of nutrition) and has no health benefits. and i agree the OP should swap that out and get some cage free eggs and eat SOME animal protein which is ethical instead of nasty soy..
i actually catch my own fish rather than buy from the store because of the environmental threats fishing boats pose to the oceans and other sealife. and i won't mess with farm raised fish that are fed who knows what. so I am in your boat OP, but you don't have to be so stringent.