2015- Year of the Vegfests!

April 15, 2015 by admin Leave a comment

Little known fact: when I was a little kid I obsessively watched- and studied- Russel Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam because I wanted to be a stand-up comic. I never acted on that desire- except for always trying to be the funniest kid in class- but now I get to travel and speak in front of crowds in a different way. Not quite a comedian, but fortunately the bar is lower for being funny when you are talking about health and nutrition. So maybe I’m almost a comedian? Kind of like I am almost a stuntman- the only other ‘job’ I dreamed about when I was young. Just see Strongest Hearts for my stunt work!

This is just a long way of saying I’ve a number of speaking events happening in 2015. The next one up is in the East Bay this Sunday for the Berkeley Vegan Earth Day. If you are in the Bay Area please come by- there are excellent speakers and my friends from Food Empowerment Project (amongst others) will be tabling. I’ll have books and Strongest Hearts merchandise for sale too. My talk will be focused on the theme that you don’t need special or exotic foods to be a healthy vegan. I’ll talk about what constitutes healthy eating patterns, based on the research, and how to apply it to your own life. But in a fun/funny way. I hope.

Links and details for everything are below. Thanks to all the organizers; I’m grateful for these opportunities.

2015

*Sun April 19 Berkeley, CA. Berkeley Vegan Earth Day. Unraveling the Myth that Plant-based Foods are Expensive and Exotic.

*Thur May 7 Boston, MA. Details TBD! In collaboration with Strong Hearts Vegan Power running team and Boston Vegan Society.

*Fri-Sun May 22-24. Paso Robles, CA. The Great Western Bicycle Rally. I will be leading rides and giving a talk or two.

*Fri-Sun May 29-31. Austin, TX. Vida Vegan Con! I’ll be giving a talk called Science is Awesome and will be on the Vegan Athlete panel.

*Sat June 27 Madison, WI. Mad City Vegan Fest. Plant-based and Powerful: What we know about vegan athletes.

*Fri-Sun Sept 11-13 Raleigh, NC. Plant-based Prevention of Disease Conference.

*Fri-Sun Nov 13-15 Portland, OR. Portland Health Conference and Portland Vegfest.

San Diego: 4 upcoming nutrition lectures!

February 24, 2015 by admin 2 Comments

I’m so excited to announce a series of nutrition lectures! With the help of Cycling Camp San Diego and Digital Gym in North Park, I’ll be presenting four 75-minute lectures on nutrition. You can sign up for just one or the entire series for a discount. This is an excellent opportunity to sharpen your nutrition knowledge! With four workshops we can really get into not only understanding nutritional science, but applying it. While my focus is plant-based, I cover the basics of nutrition, disease prevention and the practical issues of eating healthy in today’s world. And these are fun, I promise! You can sign up here and there’s a facebook event page as well.

All lectures start at 6pm at Digital Gym, 2921 El Cajon Boulevard, 92104 (map).

Wed March 4th, 6pm (1)- Nutrition 101: What you need to know about the food you eat
From carbohydrates to gluten to antioxidants, we hear a lot of nutrition terms, but what do they all mean? Which components of foods are most important to consider for a healthy diet? Matt will discuss the basics of nutritional science and give you the vocabulary to understand dietary claims.

Wed March 11th, 6pm (2) – Diet and Disease: What the research says about risk and prevention
Does sugar cause diabetes? Will eating only fruit prevent cancer? There are many claims relating food to disease, but what does the research say? Matt will cover some of the bigger long-term research studies that look at diet, disease and death.

Wed March 25th, 6pm (3) Hard Fight: The challenge of eating well in today’s world
Ever feel like the world is working against your diet goals? It is! The food environment in America in 2015 is ripe with unhealthy choices at every turn. It’s no coincidence that the proliferation of empty calories has lead to an increase in obesity and disease. In this lecture you’ll learn how we got to this point.

Wed April 1st, 6pm (4) Take Action!: How to make healthy changes that last
Having knowledge and applying it are two different things. In this lecture Matt will discuss the behavior change ideas that will help you apply what you’ve learned so you can make lasting, sustainable health changes. Plenty of time for Q&A in this lecture too!

Please help me get the word out on this series. If you have friends who are curious about nutrition please let them know about this. Four lectures for a cost less than one consultation with me is a deal. You can sign up here or join the facebook page here. Hope to see you! If you have any questions please let me know.

Speaking at Umass Amherst on Monday Feb 23rd

February 16, 2015 by admin 1 Comment

For those of you in the Northeast enduring the harsh winter, I’d like to invite you to this talk I’m giving at UMass Amherst next week. I’m honored to be a guest of the UMass Nutrition Association, Kinesiology Club, Students in Graduate Nutrition and the Department of Nutrition. The topic will be my work with plant-based athletes and my experience in alternative career paths for dietitians. It will be fun and there will be snacks! This event is free and open to the public. More details below and on the facebook event page. Special thanks to Eliza Beth Mellion who has done a huge amount of leg work to make this happen.

UmassAmherst

Be sure to follow me on twitter and instagram for photos of snow and cold and to see how 13.5 years of living in Southern California has made me soft!

Book signing and talks in Austin this week!

February 3, 2015 by admin Leave a comment

Austin, Texas is a great place. I was there on the No Meat Athlete book tour where we did an event at the Beard Bros factory and presented to the Whole Foods corporate office. And it happens to be one the first place I flew to on my own (with a friend) as a tiny, teenage BMXer. Austin, like where I grew up, is huge for BMX and an older friend / local hero had moved so we went to check it out and get away from the harsh Pennsylvania winter and ride our bikes.

Ever since, I have loved Austin so I jumped at the chance to be a part of the Whole Foods / Engine-2 28-Day Challenge this year.

Two Events This Week

Both are a combination cacao book signing and a talk about staying active while maintaining a plant-based diet. These are laid back events and I love answering questions so if you have friends in Austin please send them along!

*Thur Feb 5, 530pm. Bee Cave Whole Foods Market. Engine 2, 28-Day Challenge. Book signing and talk. 12601 Hill Country Blvd. Bee Cave, TX 78738.

*Sat Feb 7, 12pm. Lamar Flagship Whole Foods Market. Engine 2, Meet The Experts series. Book signing and talk. 525 N Lamar Blvd. Austin, TX 78703.

Going Back in May!

And I’ll be there in May for the awesome Vida Vegan Con blogger conference. I can’t wait. Strongest Hearts will be there and both Sasha and I are speaking!! And it just so happens the wonderful organizers will be in Austin this week and made this terrific map of vegan spots: Austin Vegan Food! And you can probably count on seeing food photos on my Instagram and the VVC Instagram. I know I can’t wait to eat some Tex-Mex.

I’ve a few other events already scheduled for 2015 that will get their own post, but you can peep them at my events page. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you at an event!