No Meat Athlete, Revised and Expanded

No Meat Athlete, Revised and Expanded by Matt Frazier, Matt Ruscigno

A Plant-Based Nutrition and Training Guide for Every Fitness Level—Beginner to Beyond [Includes More Than 60 Recipes!]

Having dabbled a bit with the idea of moving toward a plant-based vegan diet and wanting to become more fit through diet and exercise I quickly requested this book when it came up on NetGalley. I may never run a marathon but do see that becoming healthier is a decision and not just something to contemplate and write goals about. That statement, and some of the recipes in the book, will be what I take away from and use for life. I enjoyed the personal anecdotes and complete information on creating training programs. I enjoyed reading that it is not all or nothing but a process moving forward and that one builds on accomplishments so not overwhelmed. As with other books of this genre the author gives tips and rules and recipes and plans that work for him but one does come away with these ideas and also with ways to adapt and move forward on a personal path as well.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Will I apply what I read in my own life? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Fair Winds Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars

One of the questions this book seeks to answer is, why did food/nutrition become so complicated? The answer is likewise complicated, since there are a lot of different dietary styles one can follow. The most important answer I am taking from this book is that whole food is important for the human body and that the human body can thrive on a completely plant based died.

After giving solid reasons for why one should choose to live a vegan life, the author explains how to get started changing one's nutritional habits and how to stick to new habits.

The recipes are easy to follow and have been chosen with the meat-free athlete and their families in mind.

This is a good step toward cutting meat from your diet. The athlete part is more directed toward running, which is my former sport, so it is isn't quite as applicable to my concerns. But it does offer recipes and suggestions about how to move toward more of a plan of a more thoughtful food sources.

It can be done, this is a good guide for a start.

An easy to follow guide to becoming a ‘no meat athlete’. Recipes, training guides, action plans - it’s all here.

Does Matt claim a whole foods vegan diet is the healthiest diet for everyone? No. But he does advocate a whole foods diet and share his own reasons for choosing a whole foods vegan diet for himself to support not only his ethics but his physical ability to run long distances.

The authors have provided a good plan for transitioning to a whole foods, plant based diet along with information on nutrition and healthy vegan recipes. Though some people are able to make sweeping changes overnight, for most, a more gradual change is more realistic for long term changes that last. This same technique is applied to the fitness portion of the book - start small, plan ahead, enjoy it. I love that Matt specifically says not to set a weight loss/gain goal, but to focus on fitness goals.

Some of the information is specific to running (plans for various distances, running form, etc), much the information can be applied to your exercise of choice. There's even a 12-week strength plan. This book would be helpful to anyone embarking on a vegan diet and wanting to begin or continue a fitness regime. This isn't the most in-depth book, but it's a great place to start!

Thank you to Matt Frazier, Matt Ruscigno, Quarto Publishing Group – Fair Winds Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this informative book. All comments are my own, unbiased opinion.

Matt Frazier’s No Meat Athlete is a good resource for either athletes considering becoming vegan or vegans wanting to become more active, especially if they want to become runners.

Frazier offers good advice at the beginning, especially in two forms: start (which might seem obvious, but he explains that a lot of people get too hung up on the plan, but never actually start), and make it a habit. I confess that I became a vegetarian overnight without a plan around 10 years ago. I’m still trying to make that plan and make sure I eat healthily. The other thing he advocates is eating whole foods, which can be easily forgotten in this world of convenient foods. As we have probably learned, convenient foods are not the healthiest.

Most of the recipes are fresh and welcome takes on old favorites. There are the ubiquitous smoothies, which I will never ever make because they are caloric and never filling (my personal bias, which has been stated on this blog more than once). I’m sure someone can argue otherwise. Included in the recipes are several bean and rice recipes, which look enticing, and as Frazier says, they encompass the full range of amino acids.

After the recipes, Frazier has sections on how to become a runner, including instructions on proper running technique, and a guide to strength training as well as a section on how to form and achieve your goals.

For the beginner, I think this is a well-written and thought-out guide to becoming both vegan and athletic, with the focus on running. I think a nice addition would have been a few menu plans as a guide for beginning vegans who are changing their way of eating so that they could visualize what a healthful daily menu would look like. All in all, this is a good resource.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The No Meat Athlete book is really actual and it fits totally in the actual reflexion about nutrition and sports. We have always thought we needed animal proteins to be able to perform in sports. Nowadays, a lot of no meat athletes are showing how this paradigm is not true at all.

The book is greatly documented and gives concrete advice on how to have a great plant-based nutrition while keeping a good income of proteins.

Matt Frazier is an accomplished marathon runner who credits his vegan diet with his continued improvement in his chosen sport. This is just one of his books on the topic. While sharing his stories of how to improve the quality of your life and sports performance through significant diet changes and their implementation, Matt and his co-author have also given us a training guide with some very good techniques on how to gradually increase your activity levels to reach your best. I found both sections of the book very interesting. The obvious impact of his changed diet allowed him to maintain and reach his goals. The guidelines are easy enough for most of us couch potatoes to implement and improve our health without having to run the Boston Marathon. Great book for those motivated to get more active and healthy.

Whether an experienced athlete or a true novice, No Meat Athlete is an excellent reference for vegans and aspiring vegans. Author Matt Frazier had tried and kept failing to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Yet, after transitioning to a vegan diet, even while he just recovered from a knee injury, Frazier improved on his personal best by ten minutes and finally achieved his goal of qualifying for Boston. He believes it was his vegan diet that allowed him this success, and his book shares his techniques.

No Meat Athlete contains two sections, one that covers plant-based nutrition for athletes, the other offering a training strategy. The first discusses problems with our modern diet and describes how vegan diets can surmount these issues. Based on current science, guest writer Leo Babauta outlines strategies for successfully changing habits of behavior, such as adopting a plant-free diet. Frazier offers ten food rules, such as choosing whole foods and drinking smoothies. (I think I follow 0% of these rules.) How to approach a vegan diet and how it relates to vegan athletes’ needs are discussed in detail before turning to cooking techniques.

Sixty recipes in categories such as “Substantial Soups and Salads,” “Main-Event Meals,” and “Sneaky-Healthy Desserts” are optimized for athletes. Frazier provides a personal introduction to each dish which made them more interesting to me. Though many of the recipies look tasty, they seem more complicated and labor intensive than I prefer, though I think I can handle the low-ingredient count S’Nuts and Simple Indian Street Bread. While I know these types of books don't traditionally have photographs, that didn't mean I didn't miss having them.

I was hopeful the second section, Running on Plants, would inspire me. While I am well-intentioned, I’m a couch potato at heart. Frazier provides a number of practical tips to making running a habit and learning to love it. Honestly, these approaches are good for any new runners, vegan or not and make running long races seem attainable. Robert Cheeke, a vegan bodybuilder, contributed a chapter on a 12-week strength training plan. Frazier includes detailed training plans for 5Ks, 10 Ks, half marathons, and marathons. These resources make even me feel like adopting a running program is possible.

While the nutritional information in part I is relevant for athletes of all stripes, the programs outlined in part II are geared toward runners, so the word “athlete” in the title is a bit of an overgeneralization, though No-Meat Runner certainly doesn’t have the same ring! Instead, this book should appeal to active people interested in adopting a plant-based diet, to vegans (and others) interested in how to develop a running practice, or people who fall in both categories. I’m not sure I can overcome my couch potato inertia, but if any book could do it, this is the one!

I was especially pleased to see the author is donating a portion of his royalties to one of the greatest non-profit organizations in the country, The Farm Sanctuary.

Thank you Matt Frazier, Matt Ruscigno and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

I give this book 4.5 stars

I didn’t have any high expectations for myself personally when I requested this book from Netgalley. I am not a natural runner, still closer to the couch to 5km category rather than the marathon status. This did not matter with the author. He writes in an incredibly easy, informative yet motivating way which made me want to get a playlist started and head to the treadmill again. He also made me realise that it is not too late to start running and he has given the tools to start doing so in a really clear way.

I also enjoyed the first section of the book which explains plant based diets, habit formation and some recipes.
What I loved most about this book is that the authors aren’t pushing agendas. They give the facts in a fun, easy to read way and encourage the reader to make small relatable steps to get where they would like to be. There is no pressure to become a strict vegan / paleo / whatever, more the emphasis is on a health fulled life with eating being a joy rather than a curse.

I highly recommend this book. Thank you for the opportunity to read it in return for my honest review.

I'm sharing this book with my husband and my sons who are athletes. They are very health conscious and are looking for ways to take their health to the next level. Very interesting options and reading material!

I found this book to be both interesting and useful as a non meat eater! There were some very hand hints and tips and would be very useful for anyone thinking of giving up meat.

The recipes contained in this book are comprised of whole foods and sound delicious. I tried two of the smoothies and the Emergency Quinoa which were all tasty and packed with nutrients. A good book for those looking for guidance on veganism to accompany rigorous athletic training.