I went to hear Brendan Brazier speak at The Seed last weekend. I worship at his (nutritional) altar. Never heard of Brendan? Google him and subscribe to his Thrive Forward video series, at once! Start watching over the weekend! Get inspired.
Brendan is a professional ironman triathlete, which for those of us not intimately familiar with the discipline, involves 112 miles of biking, a 2.4 mile swim and a marathon. Well, you get the drift. He does all of this fueled by plants.
His is the ONLY nutrition program that has EVER made any sense to me. After observing all the craziness of “diet” diets—for me things went completely out of hand when someone declared a banana a carb i.e. bad and others did not allow fruit, period!—his program was god-sent. His principles are very simple. Here’s the charm: they work, too.
Eat plant-based.
Eat whole foods, nothing processed.
Eat high net gain foods, i.e. get your micronutrients.
Then worry not, because everything will fall into place.
My goal when I started eating this way a couple of years ago was to speed up recovery for my various adventures, mostly skiing and trekking, but it is now so much more, and the benefits apply to anyone regardless of the level of physical activity.
I believe that the body heals itself and is constantly recalibrating to be in a state of well-being. It is programmed by evolution to be healthy and is working hard for it if you give it a chance. What I found most fascinating is that almost every cell in the body is replaced by a new one every 3-6 weeks. One can do virtually anything for 3 weeks, right, so if you start let’s say tomorrow, you will be brand new before the summer even starts. One can actually even turn back one’s biological clock. How is all of that for a prospect?
Oh, I forgot about the beauty part. So here it goes: I know for sure that with the right fuel, everyone can have a spark, boundless energy, a positive outlook, and be curious about life and just happy. That’s my definition of beauty anyways.
Have a great Memorial Day!
PS: I also met Rich Roll last weekend, same event. That was something else. But his story is too “larger-than-life” to squeeze into this post, so watch out for it this summer.
PS 2: I seem to have this thing for endurance athletes, or maybe athletes in general, enter Rich and Scott Jurek, so thanks for indulging me.
PS 3: Remember “Be Good To People” from a few posts back? Start with yourself.
PS 4: Now over to you, my BFF, who shall remain unnamed: you may keep on calling me goji-berry, C, but let’s compare notes in five years, ok?
PS 5: And for heaven’s sake, people, stop worrying about protein.