When I was diagnosed with Cancer a few years back, I was advised to cut meat from my diet while on treatment and I noticed during that time my body responded very well to a meat-free diet.
After my illness I began running and I was worried that a vegetarian diet might affect me negatively in the long run. So I went back to eating meat.
I have been toying with the idea of cutting meat from my diet for a while now. As it stands I’m not a great meat eater but being a South African meat is a big part of our culture which to a degree has prevented me from going ahead with the lifestyle change.
A guy who’s opinion about being a vegetarian/vegan runner I value and who’s an expert (although he modestly denies this!)At making the change to a meat free diet is Matt – long and strong, take no prisoners – Frazier over at No Meat Athlete. I’ve been following his blog for a while now (well actually I lurk there – sorry Matt! 
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Matt really knows his stuff and most importantly he walks the talk. His blog is a rich resource of information about; following a vegetarian/vegan diet as a runner, a list as long as my arm of delish recipes – by Christine Frazier – to try out. There’s also loads of information about improving your running in other ways – not just food. The coolest thing is that Matt’s not preachy, in his own words;
I’m here to help, not to try to convert.
It obviously works for Matt, I mean this guy’s doing 50-mile ultra marathons, running on plants!
He tried for 7 years to qualify for Boston and 7 months after becoming a vegetarian, he qualified for Boston in a time of 3:09:59.
Now I’m not sure if that was mind over matter or if it was really the change in diet, although for some reason I find myself wanting to believe it’s the diet!
Let me just say right now that my apprehension is NOT because I doubt the facts, clearly it works. It’s based more on my – perhaps narrow minded – idea that I need meat to nourish MY body properly.
Ok, so my curiosity has been sparked – that’s obvious and the little voice in my head won’t stop challenging me to give it a proper go and see what the results are.
I Love A Challenge…
So there’s only one thing to do – well actually two…
I subscribed to Matt’s free newsletter; The Vegetarian Endurance Advantage: The Essentials of Plant-Based Training. In it Matt promises to show how eating little or no meat will improve your running.
Secondly I’m setting myself a 60-day-meat-free-challenge, kind of like an experiment to see if it really will make ME a better runner.
Join The 60-Day-Meat-Free-Challenge
Are You Hungry For A Challenge ?
If you are, join me in the 60-day-meat-free-challenge and see if it will make YOU a better runner.
All you have to do is subscribe to The No Meat Athlete’s newsletter to get the scoop straight from Matt’s pen and leave a comment below saying when you are starting the challenge.
I will be posting about my experience during the 60 day challenge and I would love for you to post about your experience on your blogs and websites. That way we can all share our experiences as well as motivate and challenge each other to keep at it.
C’mon it’ll be fun!