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Rich Roll didn’t really figure out his life’s purpose until his 40s. On the eve of his 40th birthday, the former collegiate swimmer-turned-corporate lawyer was ascending a flight of stairs when heart pain took over. With a history of heart disease in his family, he knew he had to make some major changes to his lifestyle ASAP. Changes that wouldn’t just shift his health for the better, but the trajectory of his entire life.
The day immediately following his staircase moment, Roll overhauled his diet, eventually becoming a strict vegan. Within weeks, he was running, biking, and swimming. Within two years? Roll completed his first Ultraman, a 3-day, 320-mile double-Ironman distance triathlon in Hawaii.
Today, the father of four inspires millions with his bestselling books and self-titled show, The Rich Roll Podcast. We caught up with the 55-year-old in the wake of his new collection launch with Ten Thousand to hear about a typical day of eating, his best advice for anyone looking to implement healthier habits into their regular routine, and the somewhat surprising spot he frequents for burritos when he’s on the road.
For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and everyone in between about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.
GQ: I’ve heard you talk about intermittent fasting before on the podcast. Is this something you do regularly?
Rich Roll: Every day isn't the same with me. A lot of my day-to-day is contingent upon how hard I'm training or what's going on that day. I'll do some fasting, and those days look quite a bit different than a typical day in food. On an intermittent fasting day, which is something I do a couple of times a week, I'll basically have a cup of coffee in the morning, drink a bunch of water, and then I'm out the door to train. I'm a morning person. I get up and get it done right away. Otherwise it becomes infinitely more challenging to squeeze it in.
And what kind of training happens in the morning?
I’ll go to the pool for a swim, trail run, or get on my bike for a couple of hours. I try not to schedule work stuff before 12 p.m., so that the first part of the day is just for doing my stuff, including training, journaling, writing, all that kind of stuff. No phone calls, no podcast.
So on the intermittent fasting days, when would you eat?
Sometimes I would go all the way to dinner without eating anything, just hydrating. But, obviously, that's not really what you really want to know about. You're asking about what a typical day of food looks like. So, let’s talk about that.
You’re doing my job for me. Let’s begin with breakfast.
I still have a cup of coffee. Generally, I head out and train without eating anything first, unless I'm in heavy training in which case I would typically have a green smoothie. That smoothie always begins with a base of dark leafy greens, like spinach, kale, or a combination of both. Then, a mix of berries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, hemp seeds, chia seeds, water, coconut water, some beets, and beet greens are always great. That’s the ideal, but all of this is contingent upon what I find in my fridge. I've got four kids, so I honestly never know what's going to be in there. Typically that smoothie’s good enough to get me out the door. If I'm starving, I'll have some oatmeal or some granola or some gluten-free toast with almond butter on it.
What do you eat when you’re done with your workout?
I’ll drink the remainder of that smoothie, but add a scoop of plant-based protein powder to that. That will get me through until lunch, which is generally a huge salad. I try not to eat heavy food during the day so that I can keep my energy high. Just typical salad stuff with a lot of vegetables and a light dressing.
Do you snack?
Sometimes fruits and nuts like almonds or Barukas nuts. I'll add some Athletic Greens to water if I'm dragging a little bit in the late afternoon.
What’s for dinner?
I kind of go hog wild and eat tons of food. Like, I have a huge appetite. I appreciate going to fancy restaurants and eating delicacies and things like that, but on a day-to-day basis, food like rice and beans is the staple. A proper example could be rice, black beans, guacamole, some hot sauce, and greens on top. I’ll eat a variation of that three or four times a week. Or, a vegan burrito—which is basically all of those things just in a wrap.
You travel a ton. How do you navigate being vegan on the road?
Well, when I'm travelling, I know there’s always a Chipotle and I can go in and take care of myself that way. I’ve been 100 per cent plant-based for almost 15 years. I’m lucky that my wife is an amazing cook, so I’ll usually eat whatever she whips up—obviously no animal products. I'm no maestro in the kitchen, mostly because I'm always pressed for time and juggling a million things and we also have to take care of the kids.
Do you feel entirely different eating an exclusively vegan lifestyle?
Oh, completely. Throughout my thirties, I was working gruelling hours at big corporate law firms, living a mostly sedentary lifestyle. For a good decade, I really didn't take care of myself in any kind of way when it came to fitness or what I put into my body. I got sober at 31. In the first decade of my sobriety, I realised in retrospect that I transferred a lot of that addictive energy onto medicating myself with food, making terrible food choices. I was really a junk food addict, and I would frequent drive-throughs and Jack in the Box, McDonald’s, Chinese food—you name it. Just before I turned 40, I was 50 pounds overweight, super lethargic, and had a huge health scare in which I was defeated by a flight of stairs trying to go up to my bedroom after a long day of work. So, I had to take stock of how I was living in a very purposeful way, which began this journey of trying to find a way of eating that would be healthy for me.
It wasn't overnight but eventually I found my way towards a plant-based diet, and it really agreed with me. It boosts my energy levels in ways that I could have not predicted. At the start, I was doing this without a lot of mentors or anybody within my circle or community, just trying to figure it out for myself.
And was it during this time that you got heavily into fitness?
Definitely. For the first time in a long time, which at first was just a very casual relationship with going outside and jogging, swimming, or biking with friends. I lost the weight really quickly and made some pretty significant improvements in compressed periods of time. That started getting me thinking about challenging myself, because although I had been a swimmer in college at Stanford, alcoholism really kind of destroyed that career. I had this inkling that I hadn't achieved my potential as an athlete, and this new phase of life was really reigniting that passion again. So that's what ultimately lured me into the ultra-endurance world.
What's the biggest perk of sticking to a plant-based diet?
Aside from just feeling good in my body, my experience of eating a plant-based diet has been most profound in the manner in which it allows my body to recover expeditiously in between workouts. It's not per se that eating a plant-based diet makes you a better athlete. I think that's overstating the case, but just by virtue of eating lower on the food chain foods that are very high in micronutrients and phytonutrients, they’re more anti-inflammatory and higher in antioxidants. These foods allow your body to expeditiously repair itself in between workouts. Remember, you make gains in the periods of time in between your workouts, not when you're working out. So if you can shrink that window and allow your body to get stronger faster, then you can train harder. You’re also at a lower risk for injury or losing training time because you're sick. When you protract that out over an extended period of time, that's going to translate into some pretty significant performance gains.
I attribute this diet and lifestyle to how I was able to prepare myself to compete in races like Ultraman, after coming off the couch and losing all this weight only, you know, a short time prior.
Seems like small changes over time and learning your body really made a major difference, then?
That and consistency. We hear about these overnight successes and huge breakthrough moments, but the reality in my case—and in the case of every exceptional person that I've ever met or had on my podcast—is that the results that they have experienced have come because they've devoted themselves to a certain process. They undertake tiny little things every day, and it’s that devotion to consistency that moves mountains over time.
I started in motion years ago, if not decades ago. And now I'm able to be someone who's perceived as successful in a variety of areas, but I’ve been baking this bread for a bit. So for the person who feels stuck or feels like they can't do X, Y, or Z, the solution really is in the beginning steps. Can't run well? Well, can you put your shoes on? Like, can you tie your shoes? Break things down, make the journey more digestible.
As humans, we want to know what that path looks like and how it's going to play out before we ever take that first step. But that is a mindset that keeps us stuck and paralyzed in our current situation. You have to let go of that and trust that the answers you seek will be revealed, but they're only revealed through the doing of the thing itself. The doing begins with those tiny little steps. One step today turns into two steps tomorrow. As long as you're just focused on what you're doing today and let go of where it's leading you six months or a year from now, you're in a better situation to actually achieve what you aspire to and manifest.
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