rich roll

In the wake of my recent article for CNN, I have received hundreds of e-mails from people all over the world wondering how I could train for and be competitive at an event like Ultraman on a diet entirely devoid of animal products. The queries ranged from curious wonderment to outright disbelief. Some called me irresponsible or even unrealistic. Some even called me a liar. No meat? No dairy?!? That is impossible!

No, it is not impossible. Not only is it possible, I suggest that in some cases, and for some people, it just might be advisable.

Just so we are clear — I am not a doctor. I’m not a registered nutritionist. But I have done my homework. And instituting a plant-based diet has made an unbelievable difference in my life. I believe it is the future. But please know that I am only here to share my personal experience, not to proselytize. Always consult your physician or registered dietician / nutritionist before implementing any drastic changes. Begin slowly, and be patient. This is not an overnight miracle — it is a long term life changing plan that should be embraced as an ongoing “process” rather than a “destination” with an end point.

I realize that conventional wisdom suggests that one MUST eat meat and dairy if you want not only optimal wellness but also if you want to train and race at your peak, build muscle, and recovery properly. I respectfully disagree, at least when it comes to me. Maybe its the punk rocker that lives deep down inside me, but part of the past two years have involved taking this notion head on and putting it to the test. Turning it on its head. I think my personal transformation and Ultraman results speaks for itself.

In response to all the questions, this is the first in many posts in which I will share what I do and what has worked for me as I endure 20 – 30 hour training weeks in preparation for my second Ultraman World Championships, all while simultaneously working full time and being a husband and a father.

First off, if this subject interests you at all, I suggest checking out a few books that are incredibly informative on the subject, two of which are written by incredible endurance athletes I respect tremendously:

THRIVE: by professional Ironman athlete, ultra-runner and friend Brendan Brazier. This book is a cornucopia of great scientifically backed information on not only overall wellness but also on performance nutrition on a plant based diet. It is pretty fascinating.

THE ENGINE 2 DIET: by my buddy and former pro triathlete and All-American swimmer Rip Esselstyn. Currently a fireman, Rip put his fellow fire-fighters on an all plant-based diet, sat back and watched their cholesterol levels and weight drop in dramatic fashion. Its a great read and if macho firemen can become converts, you know this is not for sissies. This book is lighting up the best-seller charts — you might have caught Rip in one of his many TV appearances on shows like Good Morning America and the Today Show, among others.

PREVENT AND REVERSE HEART DISEASE: By Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Rip’s father and renown cardiologist. Dr. Esselstyn has conducted the longest-running study, with the most impressive results, of any study in which heart disease has been arrested and reversed. By instituting a low fat plant based diet for his patients, Dr. Caldwell has actually and very dramatically reversed heart disease in countless patients. The before and after angiograms are nothing short of astounding.

REAL FOOD DAILY COOKBOOK: I am lucky in that I live near a fantastic vegan restaurant Real Food Daily, among others. Plus my wife is an unbelievale vegan cook. But if you are not in LA and don’t have a wife like mine, no worries — you can get the RFD cookbook, which has great recipes for everything from nachos to burgers to amazing desserts, all vegan.

The cornerstone of my plan has been my Vita-Mix. Its like a blender with a jet engine that makes juice out of literally anything. And unlike a juicer, you can blend and entire fruit or vegetable into juice into a form such that your body is able to easily digest maximum nutrients and obviating the need to go through the boatloads of produce a juicer requires (and which also extracts much of the nutritious portions of the fruit or vegetable). I use this machine daily, often 2-3 times per day. Its expensive (about $400) but I can’t imagine not having it. Well worth the investment in my opinion.

In very general terms what I have discovered by virtue of this diet is that I tend to have good lasting energy all day, without the peaks and valleys I used to constantly endure. I eat smaller meals and sometimes more than 3 meals per day, and my appetite is significantly reduced. Why? Because the foods I eat are so high in nutritional value that my body is sated. When you eat processed foods or foods lacking in significant nutritional value, you may be getting calories, but these calories are generally “empty”, leaving your body wanting, sometimes starving for real nutrition, which creates hunger and a cycle of craving that is difficult to break.

In addition, I have found that I am able to repair my body and recover well from workouts and am able to bounce back fresh day in and day out. Believe me, if I felt like I really needed to eat meat or dairy over the last 3 years, I would have. I just never felt like I really needed to.

Ultra marathon legend and plant-strong Scott Jurek claims that his body has become so adept at absorbing his nutrient rich foods that he needs to eat less and operates at a higher efficiency. I can honestly say that I know what he is talking about. And I think he and Carl Lewis (who performed at his peak on a plant-based diet) know what they are talking about.

A contributing factor to this is the fact that a plant-based diet (if done right) is highly alkalizing, stabilizing the body’s optimally functioning pH. In oversimplified terms, animal products and processed foods tend to be highly acidic, and an acidic pH leads to inflammation, fatigue and disease, among other things.

There is also this well-held notion that you need a lot of animal protein in your diet to perform as an athlete. I simply do not believe this to be true. In a future post I will address this subject in detail. But for now, suffice it to say that there is alot of misleading information out there about protein intake and just how much (and what kind you need). In essence, you can and will get all the protein you need from a plant based diet if properly implemented.

Here’s a brief rundown of some of my standbys and favorites, meal by meal. If you have a Whole Foods or similar type of grocer nearby, you can get everything there. Otherwise, you may need to check your local health food store for some of these foods, such as gluten free pastas and breads, etc. If you strike out there, everything is available online.

Again, this is just a general starting point, and I will begin to flesh out my program in greater detail in future posts:

BREAKFAST:
I usually have some variation or combination of the below ingredients in a Vita-Mix blended drink, which I vary day to day. All produce is organic.
Carrot, beet, kale, spinach, orange, apple, blueberry, banana, lemon, avocado, coconut oil, coconut milk, flax seed, chia seed, macca, VEGA EFA Oil, VEGA Whole Food Optimizer, blueberries
Gluten free toast with peanut or almond butter
Gluten free cereal (corn flakes or corn or rice based cereals)
Almond milk or coconut milk
Hemp protein powder
Coconut water

SNACK:
Organic energy bars
Almonds
Raisins
Kombucha
Gluten free crackers
blueberries
walnuts
coconut water
kale chips (baked until crunchy with small amount of olive oil and sea salt)

LUNCH:
brown rice & beans (green, black or kidney)
Veggie Burritos (preferably with a gluten free tortilla, but this can be a tall order)
various veggie broth based soups
Veggie Sushi
Salads of all kinds (just no dairy based dressing); I use Bragg’s Aminos
Avocados
Juice (carrot / beet / kale / wheatgrass / orange / berry) – preferably organic
Kombucha

DINNER:
Rice
Beans (all types of green, red & black)
Lentils (black & red)
big salads with assortment of veggies
Vegan nachos (see Real Food Daily Cookbook — cashew cheese)
Veggie Burgers (prefer homemade but if store bought, I make sure gluten free — most of them are not — its the gluten that makes them stick together)
Gluten free pasta (with tomato or vegan pesto sauce)
Veggie chili
Soups (non-dairy)
Cauliflower (with cashew cheese)
Greens of all kinds — broccoli, spinach, green beans, brussel sprouts, etc. The more the better. Organic greens are always the focus.
More juicing!
Potatos — salad, baked, broiled; potato salad made with vegenaise & sea salt
Water — lots of water!

CONDIMENTS:
Bragg’s Aminos
Vegan Ceaser dressing
Sea salt
Olive oil
Coconut oil
Flax seed oil
Mustards
Veganaise
Peanut / almond butter
Jellies
Earth’s Balance buttery spread

Again, this is just a very general overview from 10,000 feet. I plan on going into greater detail in future posts subject by subject.

I hope this is helpful!

Its an understatement to say that the last 48 hours have been a complete mind-bender.

A couple weeks ago I had a nice conversation with Danielle Dellorto, who is a producer for CNNHealth and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. She asked me to write a short little guest blog — a bit about my story and maybe a few tips to help people begin getting fit or improving their diet. I thought it sounded fun. I pondered what I might have to share for a couple days, bearing in mind that she had asked for about 500 words.

I wrote a piece that was twice as long as what she asked for and sent it in with the knowledge that I would likely need to cut it down. But other than a few tweaks, they decided to run the piece as is. My expectation was that it would end up on the margins of CNNHealth.com — something you would probably have to search for to find.

Instead, and much to my surprise, they decided to run the article as the lead piece on the Health page this past Tuesday. Click HERE to view the article.

And what resulted over the next day rocked my world. The article ended up being the most e-mailed story on all of CNN that day. Yesterday they even moved the article to the front page of CNN.com I went from getting about 200 – 500 page views on my site to 90,000 on Tuesday alone. I got calls from radio programs, TV shows and newspapers. It became a primary trending topic on Twitter and the article was reprinted and reposted all across the Internet like gangbusters. My Facebook and Twitter exploded with new followers and friend requests. It was truly incredible.

But by far the most impactful to me were the almost 400 e-mails I received. People writing me from all over the World expressing thanks for my insight, inspiration and sharing and relating — often in great detail — their own very personal stories and struggles with health, wellness, fitness and diet.

In a case of sympatico, Tuesday was also my wife’s birthday. As we were driving into town to celebrate by attending a yoga class together followed by dinner, I read her a few of the e-mails and completely broke down. The outpouring of such support from so many people striving to connect on such a highly personal, sensitive and intimate level about their lives and challenges was so moving I couldn’t control my emotions.

It was overwhelming in the most beautiful way I could imagine.

I cannot express how happy it makes me feel that I just might have something to say that could be of benefit to others. The Universe is supporting the message and I am newly energized to find new and creative ways to help promote health and wellness in a helpful manner. So thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who might have found something helpful, no matter how small, in what I am sharing.

On another note, its going to be very difficult for me to respond to everyone who wrote with a personal reply, but I am going to try.

And there was a common thread in many of the letters. In particular, people seem keen to learn more about plant-based nutrition in more specific terms. I apologize that the nutrition section of my website is not yet complete, so the first thing I am going to do is work on building that out with some helpful information. Check back in a week or so for updates.

Please know that I have been touched by all of you and I have new perspective on my service role on this Planet. I hope to fulfill it as completely and as responsibly a I can. Thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy lives to read the article, write to me and follow me on Facebook and Twitter and I hope to meet all of you on this most awesome path to long-term wellness!

Its been a great week.

On the training front, I’m feeling healed, the legs are good and everything seems to be back on track since my crash. I have some work to do in the pool, but that’s an easy fix. My cycling power continues to increase even as my weight goes down a bit and my running is ahead of schedule. All heading in the right direction for Ultraman.

On another front, I have been asked by CNN to be a guest blogger for CNNHealth along with (I’m told) fitness trainer Jillian Michaels (you might have seen her on the NBC hit “The Biggest Loser”) and none other than Lance Armstrong! Its all in conjunction with Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s “4 Months to Fitness Initiative” — his quest for himself and America to get in the best shape of their lives by October. You can join the party by following Sanjay’s BLOG and Twitter. And remember, post all relevant fitness / wellness tweets with the suffix #1023 (Sanjay’s birthday) such that it shows up for relevant searches and we can all benefit from our collective experiences. In any event, I sent CNN my first post the other day, which they seem to like — I’m told it will go live sometime next week. I’ll be sure to let everyone know when its up.

Last night I had the honor and the privilege of attending the ESPY Awards as a guest of my inspirational endurance brother Jason Lester (that’s him in the picture), who was nominated for Best Male Athlete With a Disability. If you’ve been following my blog, you know I love this guy, a man who has overcome insurmountable life challenges to complete Ultraman with one arm, just a month after he raced the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. And if swimming 6.2 miles, cycling 260 miles and running 52.4 miles with only one functional arm isn’t imporessive enough, he suffered severe jellyfish attacks on the swim. On the brink of anaphylactic shock (and disqualification), he got the job done — finishing 24th overall. He is a true inspiration for us all.

So there we were amongst the athletic hoi polloi — Kobe, Tyson, Phelps, Torres, Tebow, LeBron. You name it, they were there. It was the Oscars for sports. And I was very proud to see how much attention swimming received. The Olympic Men’s 4×100 Free Relay took home “Best Moment” kudos to roaring cheers; Dara Torres nabbed “Best Comeback” and Phelps walked away with a slew of honors, including “Best Male Athelete” — man swimming has really come a long way since my day.

But the moment of the night for me? Jason won the ESPY! I’m so proud of you brother! What a moment to be there for him. Once in a lifetime…As Jason would say, NEVER STOP!

Today was a cool day. As I do every couple months, I went in to Phase IV in Santa Monica to do lactate testing.

For those who are not familiar with this process I will attempt to explain in layman terms (but for those doctors out there, please let me know if I misspeak!)

In its most general sense, lactate testing is a scientific way of determining specific fitness levels by incrementally stressing the body and monitoring heart rate (“HR”) levels as well as acidosis — a testable marker for the cause of muscular fatigue, or muscle cell depolarization.

This is how it works: I mount my bike on what is called a CompuTrainer – sort of a stationary bike connected to a computer that monitors my heart rate, cadence and most importantly my watts — the amount of energy I am expending to pedal the bike.

I warmup for an easy 15 minutes at a low wattage — 50 watts in my case, keeping my HR below 100 bpm and my cadence between 85-90 revolutions per minute.

Then the watts are increased incrementally. I begin at 70w, then every 4 minutes the watts are raised (or the resistance increased) by 30w, while maintaining my cadence at 85-90. At each 4 minute interval, the tester marks my average HR for the interval, then pricks my finger for blood to establish the level of acidosis, or blood lactate level, measured in millimoles.

The intervals increase until I reach failure — in other words when I can no longer maintain a cadence of 85-90. I then warmdown for 2 minutes and blood is taken again to determine the rate at which I am able to recover from the effort, or more accurately, the rate at which my body is able to process and thus remove the lactate from my bloodstream. The lower the HR and lactate levels at each increment, and the quicker the body can process and remove the lactate from the bloodstream after the effort, the more fit you are.

The results of the test produce a chart, which when studied reveal a relatively keen look at just how fit I am. From the chart I am then able to properly establish a variety of vectors or “Zones” that are critical to training properly, avoiding overtraining and understanding just where I need to be to properly train my aerobic system to best prepare for Ultraman – an event in which anaerobic training and the use of my “anaerobic engine” is of reduced (almost minimal) importance — at least at my level of proficiency.

In other words, the test provides me with the data to pinpoint the exact wattage and HR levels I need to hit when riding or running for particular workouts to ensure that I am training the proper engine for that specific workout. In my case the focus is almost entirely on the aerobic engine, as I am training for a very long multiple day endurance race.

Most of my training is in what is called ZONE 2, which is the HR/wattage range covering efforts up to (but not above) my “aerobic threshold” (or “T1″) — the point at which anaerobic energy pathways begin to operate.

To build endurance, most of my training focus is maintaining my level of energy output just below T1 such that I am maximizing stress and building the efficiency of my aerobic endurance engine without crossing over into an anaerobic process of energy expenditure. By staying in Zone 2, I facilitate the proper mitochondrial and blood pathway development, which teaches my body to work in a highly efficient manner to use oxygen to burn fat rather than glucogen, which is a much more efficient and longer lasting source of energy — the preferred “food” of the endurance and ultra-endurance athlete.

This is to say that for what I am focused on, its really not about getting “faster”. To go out and ride as hard as I can is actually counter-productive, works the wrong energy system and will only result in fatigue, overtraining, potential injury and reduced recovery time between workouts (I intend to post later about recovery in detail — given my relatively extreme training volume, it is critical that I recover properly from day to day and this requires staying within my zones). Instead, its almost entirely about becoming “more efficient” such that over the period of the season the level of energy I expend to ride at 120bpm, or 200w for example, will decrease. In essence, the foundation i built from the bottom up. Therefore, it is critical for me to always know exactly where my Zones are.

And today I found out! I was anticipating lower numbers than my last test, since I was out of training for almost 2 weeks due to my crash. However, I was very pleased to discover that I continue to improve. My lactate levels were significantly lower than my last test in May, which is great news. However, my HR levels were actually higher at each interval, despite the reduction in lactate. I need to confer with my coach Chris Hauth as to the reason for this, but my best guess that I actually have been riding a bit too hard the last 2 weeks (trying albeit imporperly to make up for lost time), not taking my own advice about staying in my Zone 2.

The great news is that when I compare my results to where I was last year at this time, its a joke. My cycling has improved dramatically, which is and has been my goal for this year given that cycling was my big limiter in last year’s Ultraman.

Onward and upward…and stay PLANT-STRONG!

Its been a rough month, but I’m now in the thick of my prep for Ultraman Hawaii coming up this Thanksgiving weekend.

After my crash, I was out almost 2 weeks healing up. And I’ve only swum twice in the last month due to the accident, in part a result of some neck and shoulder issues. I’m going to see the chiropractor this week and hoping to get some alignment work done that will allow me to get back in the water and start focusing on that Day 1 10K swim.

Its odd, as my greatest strength (swimming) is now a weakness — this was not the plan. I will need some serious focus in the water if I hope to achieve my goal of winning the Ultraman swim this year and this setback was not part of the plan. I am trying not to panic and take it day by day. The good news is that with my swimming background I will be able to get back on track far more quickly than most, but I will have to rejigger my training plan to incorporate much more swimming over the next 90 days, as well as some significant strength work to regain much of the strength and muscle mass I lost while benched.

The good news is that my cycling (last year’s big limiter for me) is progressing nicely and I am light years ahead of where I was last year on the bike. Given that Ultraman is relatively bike-centric, this is good news and I am feeling great about both my power and endurance on the steed. Headed into lactate testing this week, so I will know much more about where things stand in a couple days.

As for the running, this is basically on track. My mileage is not too high, as I am focusing on developing most of my endurance on the bike and don’t want to ramp up the miles too early and risk injury. I will be fine on the run and on track for significant gains as long as I stay healthy.

Ultraman is on the brain and I have returned from Michigan more focused and ready to ramp it all into high gear — very excited. Some BIG training weeks await as the summer continues to unfold. As my boy and fellow UM competitor Jason Lester says, NEVER STOP!

Just getting back from a week + in Chicago and my parents summer lake home in Northern Michigan on the Leelanau Peninsula (Glen Arbor / Sleeping Bear Dune for those in the know).

What a great family vacation. And so nice to be out of LA. In the wake of my recent bike crash, it was exactly what I (and my family) needed.

Following up on my “Dismantling” post a few weeks back, my crash has really given me good pause to reflect on my life, what is important to me, and what is in the best interest of my wife and kids. It has been a revealing and eye opening experience that was only elevated by this trip.

I am coming to a place of truly embracing the present moment and experiencing gratitude in the present for what I have been given. But also compelled me to look at my life and how I can make it better. What do I truly want to expend my energy on during this short life? How can I be more of service? What things no longer serve me that must be excised? All great questions we should all be asking ourselves daily of course, and yet rarely do.

And so my wife and I have been putting our minds and spirits together to come up with a plan for change. And possibly even big change — maybe even moving out of LA, downsizing our lives, co-creating what we really want. What we want for ourselves and the experience and example we want to set for our children.

In Chicago, we hit all the museums, the zoo and many a great meal. In Michigan we reveled in the woods, in family and the childlike freedom a small town can give our little ones. The simple joy of a Fourth of July Parade; big dinners with my family, parents and sister; tossing the footbal on the beach and going for a paddle. And it gave us pause as we experienced so many things that are a really not a part of our busy lives in Los Angeles. It was great.

And I was able to spend many solitary hours on the bike, out running in the woods and swimming in Lake Michigan, training throughout the secenic Leelanau Peninsula, enjoying the flat roads, the trees, the remote beauty and simplicity of it all. And I wanted more.

I don’t know the answers to the questions I am asking. But I’m asking. And I’m paying attention, focusing on the ever widening possibilities and the idea that we can have the wonderful opportunity of creating for ourselves the life we want. One thing I do know? Just because I suffered a serious bicycle accident, I’m not getting off the bike. If anything, I want to spend far more of my life involved in endurance sports, pushing my spiritual and physical limits, deeping my commitment to wellness and nutrition, finding new challenges, and exploring all the lifestyle and potential business opportunities this might bring our way.

I can’t wait to see where it all leads.