How to Eat Healthy When You Just Can’t Find the Time

iStock 000023148476XSmallAs you may know, two weeks ago we welcomed the fourth member of our family into the world. She is beautiful, mellow, and most importantly, healthy. And for that, we’re incredibly grateful.

We’re also not getting any sleep. Which doesn’t slow down our three-year old one bit, so the fun is compounded.

Every minute, morning and night, it seems, is occupied by a kid. Our house is a happy, lived-in, played-in wreck right now, and it’s all I can do to carve out an hour to run each day. (Mega-props to my wife, Erin, for holding down the fort while I got in 24 miles on Sunday in preparation for my 12-hour race, in just nine days.)

So you can bet the coffee is flowing. But although I’m a bit more caffeinated than usual (on my second cup, as I write this), I’m pretty proud of how well we’ve managed to keep eating well, during this time when I’m sure we need good nutrition more than ever.

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From Overweight to Ultra-Endurance Athlete: Our Interview with Rich Roll

Podcast Radio2Late one night after a long day of work, just before his 40th birthday, Rich Roll polished off some fast-food cheeseburgers as he watched TV before heading to bed.

As he walked up the stairs, Rich had to stop, bend over and catch his breath before he could continue. Sweat was on his brow. The stress and busyness of life on the partnership track at a law firm had taken their toll on the body of this former Stanford swimmer.

Instead of blaming his work or coming up with another excuse, Rich did what most people don’t. He seized the moment. He decided then and there that things would change — that things had to change.

It’s hard to believe that just two years after the staircase incident, Rich finished one of the most grueling endurance events on the planet — Ultraman, essentially a double Ironman-distance stage triathlon — in 11th place, no less. And the following year, Men’s Fitness magazine named him one of the 25 Fittest Guys in the World. (Oh, and did I mention Rich did it all on a plant-based diet?)

In this episode of No Meat Athlete Radio, Doug and I had the absolute pleasure of hanging out with Rich, author of Finding Ultra and now host of the wildly popular Rich Roll podcast, to pick his brain about the behaviors and mindset that allowed him to make such dramatic changes, going from overweight and unhealthy at age 40 to one of the most famous vegan athletes in the world — all in the span of about two years.

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Why Vegans and Paleos Should Stop Hating Each Other

Last week after I wrote a post called 10 Foods Worth Eating Every Single Day, something interesting dawned on me:

Most of the foods that I eat — and those in a typical healthy vegan diet (as opposed to the junk-food variety) — are Paleo.

Sure, the seeds are iffy. And I probably eat beans three or four times a week, and even wheat once in a while, which Paleos wouldn’t do.

But beyond that, the foods on my list, by and large, could have been eaten by a caveman.

Guess what? The converse is true, too. Most (yes, most) of a Paleo dieter’s foods are vegan. They’re whole foods, including a ton of vegetables and nuts, a fair amount of fruits, and no dairy.

Though we focus on the differences in our diets, and fight like pissed-off hornets as a result, the healthy versions of both Paleo and vegan diets look an awful lot alike.

Here are just a few of the things we agree on:

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10 Foods Worth Eating Every Single Day (and How to Make Sure You Actually Do It)

iStock 000002424643XSmallNobody needs another “10 Healthiest Foods on Earth” article, or another “25 Can’t Miss Superfoods” slideshow that makes you click “Next” 24 times.

They’re fun, sure, and everybody likes saying “Hey, I eat that one already!” But as far as actually helping us to eat better, lists like these are pretty worthless.

The problem? None of them helps you to eat these foods habitually. We see the list, we make a mental note to eat more X, Y, and Z, and then we forget we ever read it as soon as someone sends us a cat video.

With that in mind, I present my version of the list — with a twist. The foods here are the ones I actually do eat every single day for their health benefits, but more importantly, I explain how I make sure to eat each one.

You’ll see that incorporating these foods daily (or any food you want to eat daily) is like creating any other habit.

You’ll also see why I link to the Perfect Smoothie Formula so often, and believe that adopting just this one habit can make a dramatic difference in your health. 

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15 Fabulous No Meat Athlete Shirt Photos

Well, spring race season is in full swing, and that means bombard-the-NMA-Facebook-page-with-your-shirt-photos season is too!

It’s been a while since I put up a collection of my favorites, so … here goes! The best ones we’ve gotten since the beginning of the year (as judged by me, based mainly on factors like coolness, absurdity, and general running-carrotness).

Enjoy!

NMA All-Stars

Gregg and Kellie, proud finishers of their first ultramarathon, the 50K Trail Mix Ultra in Minnesota. Yep, that’s snow.

gregg and kelly

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Simplifying Healthy Eating: An Interview with Leo Babauta of Zen Habits

Podcast Radio2What happens when one of most trusted, respected, and downright loved bloggers on the web starts eating a plant-based diet?

Leo Babauta has been vegetarian for quite some time now — in fact, the decision not to eat meat was a major factor in the life changes that prompted him to start Zen Habits, which now reaches over 1 million readers with advice and strategies for living a simple, healthy, fulfilling life.

But more recently, Leo has embraced a completely vegan diet. And to answer the question I posed at the beginning of this post: When a blogger like Leo goes vegan, he introduces a lot of others to this lifestyle — in his decidedly non-preachy, no-pressure, strikingly effective manner.

Thus was the born the 7 Day Vegan challenge, a collaborative project that Leo created by bringing together lots of well-known vegan bloggers, cookbook authors, and athletes (including fellow podcaster Rich Roll).

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12 Guidelines for Fueling Your Triathlon

Post written by Susan Lacke.

Like most new triathletes — especially those who started out as runners — I had a lot of really strange questions when I first decided to take on a triathlon.

Though I was comfortable as a runner, learning how to add a swim and bike turned me into an inquisitive pain in the ass around my triathlete friends:

“Why do you wear those pointy helmets? Can I wear arm floaties on the swim? Where did all the men’s body hair go?”

One of the questions I had was particularly puzzling:

How the heck does anyone eat at these things?

I know I’m not alone in that bewilderment. As I’ve worked on the upcoming No Meat Athlete Triathlon Roadmap, I’ve encountered a lot of people who once felt the same way. For many runners-turned-triathletes, their fueling routine for running was nailed down, but triathlon was weird.

In a marathon, I knew to fuel early and often, taking in carbohydrates nearly from the start of the race. So in a triathlon, did that mean I was supposed to start eating during the swim?

What? How? Didn’t Grandma say something about waiting an hour?

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What It Means to Be a Runner

Plenty of people who run, marathoners even, will tell you they’re not really runners.

There’s no shortage of posts from running bloggers claiming they don’t deserve the title, despite logging 30 or 50 or more miles every week. (Here’s mine, from over three years ago.)

For me, it took six marathons and a Boston qualification before I began to think of myself as a runner. But now that I’m comfortable with the name, I understand that being a runner has absolutely nothing to do with achievement.

Rather, it’s a mindset, a sense of connection with other runners … something that you just feel.

You feel it when you pass the same runner, day in and day out on your little neighborhood loop, and exchange that almost imperceptible nod that says, I understand.

You feel it when you’re in the car and you drive by a runner laboring to get her day’s miles in, and you wish that your little tap on the horn and thumbs-up could somehow express to her, I know exactly what you’re feeling, I’ve been there; come on, you can get through it.

And you felt it yesterday — Patriots’ Day, Marathon Monday, our sport’s proudest day – when you heard that something had gone horribly wrong at the Boston Marathon.

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