Finding Ultra [Book]
I used to be a chain smoker when I was in university, like 18 years ago. Enjoyed it most of the time. After university, I started working and years passed, my smoking habit started to looke like a burden to me. Long story short, I quit smoking and started running. Ended up running several half marathones. Life gets in the way, I have ups and downs like everybody else, made me start smoking again (I cannot remove myself more from resposibility:). Then quit again. I am not 100% sure how many times this cycle repeated. But at this very moment, I have not been smoking for months and not taking alcohol for couple of months and even I am on a plant based diet.
So, I read this book in this context. I was looking for some motivation, inspiration and some information. I can say that I got them all. Especially the questions I have about being a vegan and an athlete at the same time, are answered by a person who accomplished EPIC5. (This is a crazy endurance challenge like you do 5 ultra distance triathlones in 5 days in 5 different islands in Hawai, in a row). The short answer is, yes, it's possible to be an endurance athlete on a plant based diet. More then that, Rich says he could not manage to become the endurance machine he became withouth his plant based diet.
If you are also interested in plant based diet, you can also watch The game changers on Netflix.
Benefits of plant based diet
- Keeps you away from industialized, higly processed junk food. (basically 80% percent of the supermarket is out of your grocery list according to my personal experiences)
- Keeps you away from animal fat. (animal fat is far worse than animal protein. very hard to digest and heavy for your hearth)
- Makes your diet more diverse (Since you do not consume any animal product, you start becoming more creative eventually like adding seeds, nuts, more fruit, different grains, more lentils and so on.) (I can say that the variety of the food in my plate has increased in last few weeks)
- You wake up more relaxed and rested.
My meals are very light now. No more feeling bloated after a fatty and heavy lunch. Let me give you an example. Last weekend we decided to go to a lake with the kids right after breakfast. I called our family friend and he said they can join us 3 hours later and we can go together. Then I realised that I had 3 hours for a morning run. I hit the road right after finishing the breakfast and ran about 12Kms. That would not be possible if I had consumed animal products like sausages, egg, cheese and diary products that I used to consume, I believe. I am no expert in diets but I know my body.
My breakfast looks like this nowadays.
What is the book about?
In the book, Rich starts telling his story from a hihgh school swimmer to chronic alcoholic. The moment he realised that he is living a life he doesn't want. Then the phases of transformation, quitting alcohol and starting a plant-based diet.
In the second section, he talks about plant based diet and even at the end of the book you can find some receipes.
Main take away: I am convinced that it's possible to have a healthy life become (even an endurance machine) with a plant-based diet. My experiment with being vegan is still going on and I feel like I am on the right track.