Plant-Based Diet for Athletes

Check in from the Holistic Holiday at Sea Cruise!

By: Matt Frazier

Sadly, today is our last full day on the weeklong Holistic Holiday at Sea vegan cruise.

And while that’s a shame, I’ll be leaving with a distinctly different feeling than I’ve ever had at the end of other cruises I’ve been on — namely, a renewed sense of enthusiasm for this diet and lifestyle.

Oh, I’ve been motivated to eat and live better by cruises in the past — but that motivation is always of the rock-bottom, “I can’t believe I ate and drank that much” variety. This time, it’s an inspired, enlightened motivation, owing to dozens of talks and classes from amazing lineup of speakers, and a menu much lower in oil than what we usually eat at home. Not to mention being surrounded by 1800 other people as passionate about all of this as I am.

Don’t get me wrong; we’ve done plenty of “normal” cruise stuff this week too. The massages (hot stones!), the beaches, the pina coladas, the gambling, the devouring of all five courses at dinner when three would have done just fine.

But all that has been balanced by the packed schedule of health content on the ship: my wife and I have attended talks by T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn, Michael Greger, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Robert Cheeke, and Chef AJ, to name just a very few. We’ve gone to yoga, pilates, meditation, and Qi Gong classes most every day, and still found time to relax and just be.

And none of this is to speak of what we’ve done off the boat — finding an off-the-beaten-path vegan Rastafarian restaurant in Jamaica that served just one dish, relaxing at a beach in the Cayman Islands with water so clear you could see your feet at any depth, and renting scooters in Cozumel to go to another secluded beach. Today, we’re in the Bahamas, and tomorrow we’ll round out the trip with the NMA Miami running group for a few meals and a run before heading back to Asheville.

And when I get back, I’ll have some changes to make. New books to read. Blog posts to write. Podcasts to record. And lots of thinking to do. This cruise has been exactly the refresher I needed, and I hope I succeed in capturing some of that here over the next few weeks.

Longer recap coming when I get back!

3 Ways I’m Training Smarter than Ever for My Marathon Comeback

By: Matt Frazier

Note: This post is sponsored by the Cherry Marketing Institute. Opinions are entirely my own. It’s been a full three years since I last ran a marathon, and over five since I last ran one hard. Or, to be fair (since they’re all hard), the last time I was last in PR-shape. Although I haven’t […]

3 Habits to Turn to When You’re Just Not Yourself

By: Matt Frazier

If you’re anything like me, you go through inexplicable rough periods now and then, those times when you’re just not feeling it. Not quite depression … just a funk. You know what I mean: Things don’t excite you the way they usually do. You wake up at night wondering if you’re doing what you should be […]

No Easy Task: How to Balance Food, Fitness, and the Rest of Your Life

By: Matt Frazier

The prompt for this final post in my partnership series with Garmin and Whole Foods asks how to balance food, fitness, and life. More than with any other prompt, I feel qualified to write this one: one of the things I believe I’ve done best as an adult is to follow an (arguably) extreme diet […]

The Post-Workout Meal: Revisited and Simplified

By: Matt Frazier

Although what you eat before and during your workout is important, I don’t think of those as “meals” — for most workouts they should instead be liquid, or quick-digesting foods like dates, fruits, smoothies, etc. When it comes to what to eat after your workout, I do still eat the high-carbohydrate, fast-assimilating food, but only […]

What Counting Your Steps Will Teach You About the Value of Running

By: Matt Frazier

This is post #4 in a 6-part series I’m doing in a sponsored partnership with Garmin and Whole Foods. (Not to mention the 9th day in a row I’ve published a new post, which I think is pretty awesome.) Before this year began, I had no idea how many steps I took each day. 4,000? […]

19 Great Reasons to Back Down

By: Matt Frazier

I don’t have time. There’s too much conflicting information. I can’t afford it. The timing isn’t right. I have a family to think of. My spouse is unsupportive. My body isn’t meant to do it. Everything in moderation. I wouldn’t know where to begin. I’m too old. I’m too young. I’m not smart enough. Nobody […]

A Ridiculously Easy-to-Follow Roadmap for Building a New Habit

By: Matt Frazier

Most of the advice we read about habits is fairly general: start small, create accountability, have a reward system, etc. All great advice. But why so vague? Because people have lots of different habits they want to change, and general advice can (hopefully) be applied to any of them. People like Leo Babauta and James […]

The Most Important Habit to Start Today

By: Matt Frazier

So many of us, adults in particular, feel we can’t change anything. It doesn’t take many failed attempts at change before we begin to doubt our ability, lose trust in ourselves. This is where the “start small” advice draws its power. By making promises that are easy, ridiculously easy to keep (“I’ll run for 2 […]

My 7 Favorite Pasta Recipes (and How to Make them Vegan)

By: Matt Frazier

I’m here to come to the defense of pasta. We’ve been conditioned to think of pasta dishes as inherently unhealthy. Carbo-loaders, sure, but beyond that? Junk. An indulgence, and nothing more. But why? I’ll concede that wheat and most grains aren’t exactly bursting with nutrients per calorie. And if you have a gluten sensitivity, then certainly, […]