No Meat Athlete

Should You Go Gluten-Free? Insights from Pro Runner (and Celiac) Stephanie Rothstein-Bruce

Written by Stephanie Rothstein-Bruce

Stephanie Rothstein, professional runner and Celiac.

“So, is there gluten in vegetables?”

I get this question a lot. I try not to laugh and poke fun, since the answer seems so obvious to me. But then I step back and remember gluten allergies are a new thing to this country, and a difficult concept for some people to grasp.

As a professional athlete, part of my job is ensuring my recovery and ability to train at a very high level on a daily basis. For years, I literally felt like my body was failing me and I had no idea why.

I felt like I was hungover, though I didn’t drink. I woke up with a headache and in a fog each morning. My iron levels were dangerously low, despite attempts to supplement twice a day. I couldn’t recover from runs, let alone life, and I feared my running career was ending before it really began.

Luckily, I had a team of doctors who helped analyze my symptoms. I went on a supervised elimination diet that eventually led to my diagnosis: I am allergic to gluten.

28 Comments

The 5 Most Valuable Lessons I’ve Learned in a Month of Living on Purpose

Written by Matt Frazier

At the beginning of the year, I wrote a post called On Turning Pro, about my new mindset for the new year, one of discipline and responsibility. The post really struck a chord, even though it wasn’t specifically about running or diet (but the ideas in it could, of course, be applied to fitness and food).

This is the first of several follow-ups I’ll write about my progress. If I were writing this post at the end of January, which I had every intention of doing, I would be celebrating a month of huge success at what I set out to do.

As it is, I’m still celebrating success, but of a different kind — this week, I finished writing my book! There’s still lots of revision and editing to be done, but the hard part — the sitting down, facing the Resistance, and writing — is finished. The cost of finishing, unfortunately, was abandoning many of the healthy habits and disciplines I had developed in January.

But I’m not deterred. The idea of the meta-habit (perhaps better called an “anchor habit,” by Brett and Amber) is a comforting one — rather than feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of having to restart 10 or 12 different habits, I know that all I have to do is get back to my daily habit of reading and listening to positive material, and the others will fall into place like dominos.

I’m excited for things to return to the way they were before the huge push to get the book finished. Reading over the journal I kept in January, I’m astounded at how much I learned about myself in so short a period.

I learned way more than I can fit into a single post, but I figured I’d start with the five most important lessons I learned during this month of dedication and discipline. I hope you find them useful, in some way, for your own life.

22 Comments

Start

Written by Matt Frazier

2011BRLogoSM2 I started. Really, actually, started.

The timing is good. This Saturday marks the end — of the hard part, at least — of writing my book. (I thought the same thing three weeks ago, but this time it’s for real.)

And last Saturday marked exactly 24 weeks until the Burning River 100 Mile Endurance Run, my “A” race for this year.

Twice in the past I’ve had plans to run 100-milers, even picked out the races. Once I even signed up, and wrote a blog post about it for a little accountability. So why am I not the proud owner of a badass 100-miler finisher’s buckle?

Because I failed to take the single most important step toward finishing anything:

I didn’t start.

32 Comments

My New Favorite Running Shoes and the Story of a Gigantic Chocolate Egg in a Suspicious Package

Written by Matt Frazier

1101411D725.070defaultpd My friend Jason Fitzgerald, who writes the brilliant blog Strength Running, taught me a philosophy that I think strikes the perfect middle ground in the barefoot-versus-shod running debate:

“Run like a barefooter, but do it with shoes on.”

What Jason means when he says to run like a barefooter is that you should run with a quick cadence, short strides so that your weight stays over your feet, and a midfoot strike, instead of landing hard on your heel. Running barefoot essentially forces you to do these things, since doing otherwise just plain hurts, without all that cushioning that traditional running shoes offer.

This lack of feedback caused by modern shoes, of course, is the main argument for barefoot running. Cushy shoes allow us (encourage us, even) to run in a way that’s unnatural and that, over time, leads to injuries.

The argument for wearing shoes is less subtle: a layer of cushioning between our feet and the ground protects us not just from the impact of the road (which is perhaps much harder than the surfaces we evolved to run barefoot on), but also from rocks, glass, etc.

You can see the appeal of the compromise: Run with the form nature designed us to run with, then throw in a layer of protection from the ground.

22 Comments

Everyone Welcome (Even “Hipster Vegetarians”)

Written by Susan Lacke

Leslie, Cathy and Jon at the No Meat Athlete tent after Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona

“So … are you guys, like, real vegetarians? Or just the hipster kind?”

It was 5 AM on a Sunday morning and I hadn’t found a cup of coffee yet. It was far too early for this shit. I looked the stocky dude at the next-door tent up and down.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Well, you know how vegetarians are. You guys probably say you don’t eat meat, and then you go home and eat a whole steak but don’t tell anyone.”

“Well, I don’t know about that, but …”

“Yeah, you just can’t resist bacon, right?” he interrupted.

I smiled politely and walked away in search of coffee.

I shared this story several times on Sunday, January 20, as I congregated with No Meat Athletes at our VIP tent at Rock & Roll Arizona. The response was always the same: an eye-roll and a chuckle of “oh, yeah, I’ve heard that before!”

To outside observers, our tent may have looked like any other team tent. There was a cooler full of water and juice, fruits and breakfast burritos on the table, and a lot of happy people in matching shirts. But for the 47 marathoners, half-marathoners, and mini-marathon finishers in No Meat Athlete shirts, it was something much more.

It was a community.

27 Comments

Finally — NMA Women’s Tanktops, Cycling Jerseys, & More!

Written by Matt Frazier

Hello from 24-hour lockdown! I’m in the thick of finishing up the No Meat Athlete book — the manuscript is due Friday, and it looks like the book is still on track to be released this fall. I’m excited; it has turned out really well and I can’t wait to share it with the world. Lots more details to come.

But as you can imagine, this final push to get it done has made it one of those weeks where I have no plans to change out of my pajamas except to run, and even then, certainly no time for a shower. And I’ve left the dogs in charge of babysitting our toddler. (I figured with two dogs for only one kid, that counts as acceptable parenting.)

Anyway, I wanted to quickly post three big pieces of news about the store before I get back to writing.

1. We Finally Have Women’s Tanktops!

grey shirt cropped with white background 300x288

Tank you for waiting!

For the past three years, people have asked about women’s tanks just about every time we’ve mentioned No Meat Athlete shirts on Facebook. Well, we finally have them …

Right now, we’ve got extremely limited quantities of two different styles of tanktops. One is a really nifty-looking, racerback-style tank in charcoal color, and the other is a more traditional tank in the same colors (green with white sides) as the men’s version you may have seen.

We only have 5-15 of each size, so I don’t expect them to last past today. But we’re going to try out something new once they’re gone — a pre-order to make sure everyone gets what they want, as long as they order ahead of time. If your size is gone already, you can sign up here to be notified when we’re ready to take pre-orders for the tanks.

Oh yeah, and we’ve also added a black version of the men’s tank. I’m a fan, myself, but perhaps I’m just a tad biased.

2. Cycling Jersey Pre-Order!

nma jersey 300x148 Another thing people ask about all the time is cycling jerseys. I’m actually nationally recognized as the country’s 4th or 5th worst cyclist, depending on who you ask, so I didn’t exactly have the fire under my arse that was necessary to get this done.

Thankfully, our lovable Susan Lacke did, and she helped design the shirts and make arrangements with Primal Cycling Apparel to have them print and handle the orders. (Okay, actually Susan did all of that. I didn’t help at all.)

The shirts look amazing, even to this non-cyclist. Without us making a cent on them, they cost 70 dollars from Primal (but people tell me that’s what cycling jerseys go for). If you’d like to get one, visit the Primal page, create your account, and then order before the deadline.

Mega-important note: This is a PRE-ORDER. That means there’s a firm deadline (Saturday, Jan. 26th, at 11:59 PM Eastern), and then it will take 10-12 weeks for the shirts to be printed and shipped. (That puts us in April.)

If it goes well, we’ll bring them back and do this again, but this your only chance to grab a No Meat Athlete cycling jersey for at least a few months. So if you want one, get it here, and before the end of the day on Saturday!

3. A Sale on Everything Else!

And last but not least, we finally got in the big shipment of stuff we’ve been waiting for ever since we ran out of just about everything during our Black Friday sale back in November.

So now through Monday, Jan. 28th, everything in the store, including ebooks like the Marathon Roadmap and the new Marathon Starter Kit (but excluding the new tanks), is marked at 15% off.

Why a sale? Because shirts went so fast in the Black Friday sale that a lot of people didn’t get a chance to take advantage of it before we ran out of everything, and I felt bad about that. So think of this as a make-up sale. And hey, sales are fun, plus it’s nice to get everyone all decked out in NMA stuff before spring race season starts!

Visit the store to take advantage of the sale before it ends on Monday!

Alright, that’s all from me. It’s back to writing, to get this book finished and out the door.

See you soon!

7 Comments

My Answers to 3 Questions about Protein, Avoiding Injury, and Vegan Cheese

Written by Matt Frazier

A few months ago, I posted an interview with my friend Leo from Zen Habits, where we talked about creating healthy habits and his new fitness program, Simple Fitness Habit, which is unique in that it uses the principles of habit change to keep you on track.

As part of the program, each month one of the contributors (of which I’m one) does a live webinar, and another does a Q&A to answer questions submitted by members. This month was my turn for Q&A, and I figured it’d be useful to share some of those questions and my answers here. (Don’t worry, I got the okey-doke from Leo, so I won’t likely get kicked out for this.)

Hope you find my answers helpful!

Q: How much protein is REALLY necessary and what are the best vegan sources? I do find I work out better having eaten some type of meat than when I eat more vegetarian/vegan, but is that because my vegetarian meal is lacking something? Thanks!

Read more »

19 Comments

The Paleo Diet for Vegetarians: Your Questions Answered

Written by Susan Lacke

Post written by Susan Lacke.

Almost immediately after I published my last post, How I Survived for 8 Weeks as a Paleo Vegetarian, my e-mail inbox was flooded with questions.

Though I knew paleo-vegetarianism was topic with few resources, I had no idea of the vast gap between supply and demand! There’s a lot of thirst for knowledge on this very topic of hybridizing the Paleo and vegetarian lifestyles — a thirst I feel slightly inadequate to quench. I’m not an expert on a Paleo diet, by any means, and I’m certainly not the be-all, end-all when it comes to adapting the diet to a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.

However, a dearth of information sometimes means an overgrowth of misinformation. It seems that many people believe that it’s impossible to combine the Paleo and plant-based lifestyle, solely because there isn’t any information out there on it.

To those naysayers: It’s possible. Here are the answers to some of your questions about my 8-week experiment as a Paleo Vegetarian.

35 Comments