Healthy Podcasts

Rich

I listen to three, very different, podcasts on nutrition and health - the Rich Roll podcast, Ben Greenfield's podcast and Vinnie Tortorich's podcast.  Taken individually, they are each totally entertaining, each presented by fascinating people and subscribe to very different approaches to a healthy athletic life.  Collectively they highlight that the "standard American diet" that has been exported globally, is killing us bite by bite.

Ben

I've spoken about Rich Roll before, the plant powered athlete with the qualities of personal determination and holistic ethos that is something I can both admire and relate to in equal measure.  He doesn't push a specific carb/protein/fat ratio that many others do, instead Rich leads with his vision of a spiritually more connected world where we use plants as fuel and medicine for our bodies and minds. His primary message? Eat more plants. Can't go too far wrong with that concept, making it beautiful in it's simplicity and adaptability for each person's situation. 


Now Ben Greenfield is something different altogether. His approach is much more bottom up, which focuses the details and how the individual variables can be tweaked and tuned to "hack" our systems. This appeals massively to my inner geek - I'd love to think of my body as something I have as much control of as my PC.  Don't like how it is running? That's fine, just take this supplement, do this exercise, use this programme or take this test.  While he does stray quite far into pseudo-science at times, usually it is fairly rooted in a modern understanding of health.

Vinnie

Last up we have Vinnie, "America's Angriest Trainer", who for someone who is supposed to be so angry, he sure likes to laugh a lot!  Vinnie's #NSNG (no sugar no grains) approach is basically a healthy low-carb approach that helps simply the process of cutting out all the processed crap that we normally shovel into our mouths with great abandon. I cut out excess sugar a long time ago and have reaped massive benefits to both my energy and weight.  While I still think that carbs have their place, I totally agree that sugar's place should be complementary, not superior to, fats and protein.  Vinnie also swears a lot and occasionally says completely inappropriate things - something I can certainly relate to personally :)

The more I read and learn about nutrition and health, the more I'm confronted with conflicting and contradictory advice and views.  Especially around the topic of nutrition and fitness.  However I think this is actually quite wonderful!

Why? Well, we only understand a tiny fraction of our world, so no-one has all of the answers. Each of us is trying to work out how to best function within the system, based on our own knowledge and beliefs. These three guys are each trying their best to get out of the rut of apathy that is quite literally killing us. Each of them is advocating change.  When I realised I was getting increasingly more sedentary, fat and heading for an early grave, I had to change as well. 

I'm now in a constant state of change; evolving my diet, attitudes, ethics, beliefs and training. Trying to find that sweet spot that works for me. And do you know what? That probably won't work for you - you have to find your own system that works for you.  In the meantime, I'll take what I can from people who have something to share, see if it fits and even if it doesn't, I'll have learnt something else new about myself.

Love the journey :)

The Diet Jouney - Part 2

In part one of my journey series I described how I employed low-carb diet to successfully shed a lot of weight and kick start my exercise.  In this one I want to go into my journey from a low-carb, meat-centric diet to one that is now wholly plant powered.

Which brings up a point around motivations.  One of the key drivers underpinning my dietary choices has been the daunting task of managing my weight.  While I enjoy being fit and care a great deal about both animal rights and the sustainability of our fragile planet's ecosystem, much of my drive has come from a delightfully vain desire to look good. Or look the best I can in any case.

With this as a major motivator, I was happy with a lot of the changes that had taken place with my body. Gone was the chubby cheeks, flabby arms and budding man-boobs. To achieve this I was running three times a week, doing some weights at the gym and eating (somewhat) moderately.  However my dilemma was that I was stuck in the dreaded "fat and skinny" zone.  As demonstrated by the photo below, taken not long before I went vegan:

Fat and skinny

It is clear that while I'd lost a lot of weight, I was carrying a lot of fat around my belly.  Not exactly the 6-pack that men aspire for.  So I had plateaued at this point, the tummy fat wasn't going to budge, it was here to stay. If I wanted to break out of the deadlock with my body, I needed to change it up a gear.  Since I wasn't prepared to starve myself or try out another fad diet (no shortage of those around), I needed something sustainable.

Enter the vegan super athletes!

Inspiration comes in many forms, for me it was in endurance athletes.  Check out this photo of Rich Roll, plant powered ultraman extraordinaire:

Rich Roll - spot the difference much?

Now he isn't some 20-something who is just naturally buff, this is a 40-something year old family man who has transformed himself into one of the fittest people in the world, the plant powered way.

This got me thinking.

So I started researching and the more reading I did, the more people I found who were plant powered and amazing athletes.  I've mentioned Scott Jurek before as another example of someone who has achieved prominence as a vegan athlete.  I started the tally up the pros and cons and decided this was something that really meshed with me.

The positives:

• I don't have to control portions.  Quite important since I suck at it.
• I was able to eat a much wider variety of foods than when I was low-carbing it.  
• I don't have to think about it too much.  Just eat lots of plants of different types.
• It feels "right" to me.  The moral choice to not eat meat just agrees with my psyche. It feels like a load has been taken off my spirit/soul.
• It has proven to be a healthy choice for top athletes.
• Finally, it is a lifestyle change, not just a diet or shortcut.  It is sustainable over the long term - this is possibly the most import of all the points.

The negatives:

• I wouldn't be able to have cheesecake any more.  On second thoughts, this might be a positive.
• Eating out can be a right pain in the ass.  That said, I probably shouldn't be eating out so much anyway.
• I wouldn't be a cool meat-eater any more. Oh for shame! I'd have to forgo the extremely masculine task of hunting my prey down in the meats aisle of my local Tescos.  

It wasn't such a hard choice to make when it came down to it.

So how is the 6-pack going?  Quite well thanks - 5 months in and the flabby belly is nearly gone. No photos though, I think this post has quite enough manly-ness already :)

Instead, here is a fry up I made post long run yesterday, proving once again that being vegan is never without variety!

This is my new version of a fry up - garlic spinach, fried mushrooms and onion

Race Report - adidas Silverstone Half Marathon

Last weekend I did the adidas Silverstone Half marathon, my first race since going plant powered!

The starting straight, feeling good

I picked this particular race as I thought it was quite unique, set on the Silverstone F1 racing circuit. I pictured myself tearing through the track, kissing the corners and zigzagging through the chicanes.  The reality was much more sedate than that, averaging 13.5km/h rather than 135 :)

The race itself went really well. The new-improved-plant-powered Matthew entered the race feeling good and a full 7 kg lighter than when I did the Royal Parks Half. I felt really strong throughout and my only enemy was my own mind.  I realised that you need to train mental strength just as much the physical, which is something I need to work on. Since this wasn't an A race, I had to push myself to keep up a good pace, with a constant inner struggle of "slow down, no one will mind!" competing with "run faster you lazy bastard!"over and over.

Just before the finish line, smiles all round

Made it through strongly in the end, finishing with a personal best of 1:34:58.  Since my target was 1:35, I'd call that a success.  Based on that performance, my marathon should be 3:30 or less.  I need to get down to a 1:30 half to target a sub 3:10 marathon (and entry into the London Marathon)... Which gives me something to aim for in any case. 

Really happy with everything on my first running test, so a big thumbs up for vegan athleticism!