Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life

didn’t have to travel a great distance. Don’t be deterred if local farmers don’t have organic certification, as certification is too expensive for many small operations. Despite this, many of these farmers grow their fruit and vegetables without using herbicides or pesticides.
     

grazing
     
    Since most people are on the go while on the road, grazing has a definite advantage: You may not even need to take a lunch break, and when dinnertime arrives, a big salad and a vegetable serving will likely be enough.
     

restaurants
     
    Travel and business often involves eating in restaurants—mine certainly does. There is no need to avoid restaurants just because they can’t make you a quinoa beet pizza crust topped with sun-dried tomato marinara sauce and vegetables. Almost any restaurant can make you a salad. In fact, some of the best (the biggest, and with the most seeds and avocado) salads that I’ve eaten have been while on the road, and from unlikely sources. Ironically, many steak-houses make good salads. If your colleagues or companions are going to a restaurant that you don’t think will be able to accommodate your eating style, be flexible. Most restaurants will be happy to load up your salad with extra vegetables, or put together a large plate of vegetables, even if it’s not on the menu. Brown rice and avocado will be on hand at many restaurants as well. A bowl of rice, sliced avocado, and lemon juice squeezed on top, accompanied by a salad, is a reasonable meal, and made with common ingredients. Mexican restaurants often have fresh, homemade salsa; try it with vegetables.
     
    I know that I won’t be able to get a balanced, complete Thrive Diet-approved meal in most North American restaurants, and that’s fine. I simply eat lightly and have a nutritionally balanced smoothie when I return to my room. For these times I use an individual-serving-size pouch of Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer powder (see Resources) mixed with water. It covers all my nutritional bases and is easy to travel with; that’s one of the reasons I developed it.
     

the meal plan
     
    The Thrive Diet 12-Week Meal Plan is structured in such a way that it balances nutrient intake throughout the day. Portion size is not an important factor of the Thrive Diet. Since all the food is healthy and non-stimulating, feel free to have whatever serving size you like. However, since there are three meals and three snacks each day, you will likely find that small to moderate portion sizes are all that you want.
     
    Since the meal plan is based on nutrient-dense foods, it is common to fill up easily; yet, eating more is certainly an option. The Thrive Diet is not a diet of deprivation. If you feel as though you need to eat larger portions, do so. Gaining excess body fat is hard to do on the Thrive Diet. If you roughly stick to the meal plan, large portions of the recipes at each meal and snack can be eaten each day without gaining weight, as long as you are eating at the right times.
     
    Timing of nutrition is an often overlooked aspect of overall health. It is possible to eat all the right food but at less than optimal times, therefore inhibiting effectiveness. For example, a snack high in dense carbohydrate will boost muscle glycogen levels and speed recovery after a training session. Yet, it would hinder the release of growth hormone if consumed close to bedtime. A high-protein meal a few hours after exercise will help repair damaged muscle tissue. Conversely, a high-protein meal immediately following exercise can inhibit proper hydration, leading to prolonged recovery. A sugary snack during an intense training session can improve endurance by supplying the muscles with readily available fuel, whereas a sugary snack eaten while sitting in front of a computer will, within an hour or so, make concentration harder and precipitate fatigue.
     
    The meal plan is meant to serve as a guide only. You can follow it closely, or you can simply incorporate elements of it into your existing meal plan. Of course, the closer it’s followed, the quicker you will reduce nutritional stress and improve your overall health. However, even one snack or one meal from it each day will be helpful. Start slowly, including a smoothie each day in your diet, progressing to eating a salad a few times a week, and take it from there. Once you’ve recalibrated your system, the meal plan will be easy to stick with.
     

the thrive diet 12-week meal plan
     
    Unless