Plant-Based Diet for Athletes

Is This What’s Missing from Your Healthy Lifestyle?

By: Matt Frazier

If you’re like me, you’re always looking to improve … and maybe a little too much.

Whether it’s your diet, your mindset, your fitness, or your work, you know you can do better. And even if “be better” is illusory as a goal, the growth that occurs as you chase it is what life is all about, isn’t it?

But I’ve come to realize that you reach a point where the harder you try to do better and be healthier, the more you sabotage your own efforts.

A lesson learned

I’ve been traveling this month, and it’ll still be a few more weeks before I get home. From the 4th of July at the beach, to a vegan Italy tour, to a friend’s wedding in Cape Cod, it’s been a whirlwind of a trip.

And in the process, my habits have gone to hell.

Running has been spotty at best. I’ve eaten far more white flour and oil than usual, and far fewer salads and smoothies. Not once have I found a quiet 30 minutes for meditation or reading. And the amount of wine I drank in Italy … well, you get the point.

And yet I feel healthier. Happier. More fulfilled than ever.

In a word, content.

So what gives? (more…)

A Look at No Meat Athlete — Oklahoma City

By: Matt Frazier

If our first two running group successes, Miami and Virginia Beach, have been surprises, our third is a complete shocker. Oklahoma City … that’s beef country, isn’t it? But continuing on the theme of our other successful groups, the lack of vegan options and activities nearby makes for strong, tight bonds among NMA OKC’s members. […]

If You Want to Stay on the Path, Build a Wall Around It

By: Matt Frazier

One day last week, I planned to run fairly early the next morning, and I set my alarm when I went to bed. But a loud thunderstorm and hard rain woke me up that night, and I couldn’t get back to sleep for several hours. When I finally did fall asleep again, it seemed like only […]

Frustrated with Your Inability to Change? How a Simple Shift in Focus Can Make All the Difference

By: Matt Frazier

Imagine that a change you want to make is a thousand-pound boulder you’ve got to move. You push with all your weight against it, and it doesn’t budge. Not an inch. So you take a break, and try again. It still doesn’t move. Try again; same result. Eventually, you realize the boulder is not going […]

A New Method for Creating Changes that Last

By: Matt Frazier

When it comes to the best way to create a new habit, there’s a great schism in the personal development world. One classic approach is massive action. You go all-in, all at once, and you hope that by sheer force, lots of willpower, and a huge initial surge of motivation, you’ll be able to make […]

A Look at Our No Meat Athlete Virginia Beach Group

By: Matt Frazier

Just like Miami and our other big running group successes, Virginia Beach came as a huge surprise. In an area that’s home to several military bases and training centers — which means a transient population and (I figured) not a lot of interest in plant-based diets — one of our most active, tightest-knit running groups emerged. And […]

17 Ways to Finally Make That Change

By: Matt Frazier

1. Make the first step smaller than you ever have before. Then do this tiniest possible action each day for a week before you let yourself do more. Or … 2. Go all-in, all at once — but set an end-date, instead of facing “forever.” Make it a 7-day or 30-day challenge, and once you make it […]

The Real Value of Commitment (and a New One I’m Making to You)

By: Matt Frazier

There used to be a quote on a Starbucks cup that started out, “The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating.” I always liked it and knew that somehow I could relate it to my running, but I didn’t quite understand how. Finally, I do. This quote has a sister idea, which says that […]

Running on Plants in the Magic City: An Up-close Look at No Meat Athlete Miami

By: Matt Frazier

When last fall we kicked off the No Meat Athlete running groups project, with 75 groups around the U.S. and world, I thought I knew pretty well which groups would thrive and which would have an uphill battle from the beginning. Surely, I thought, the big, vegan-friendly cities that we all think of as such would provide […]

Sleep Matters: 7 Ideas for Doing It Better

By: Matt Frazier

This post is sponsored by the Cherry Marketing Institute, the third in a series of six I’m doing in partnership with them this year. Back when I was in college, I used to hear the joke that of good grades, sleep, and a social life, you could have whichever two you chose … but only […]