Why Should You Care About my Diet?

I’m not a huge fan of selfie-fied blogging or social networking.

I understand that publishing your accomplishments online makes you more likely to stick to a plan, but frankly, I could give two shits how many miles you ran during your lunch hour today.

To top it off I’m not really a big fan of self-help plans or New Year’s resolutions in general. I think that both of these pursuits suffer from the misconception that change comes about from our conscious mind. There’s this American idea that we can will ourselves to become what we wish to be, and in my experience, this has not been the case.
Change happens in ineffable and unpredictable ways. The perfect example for me was becoming focused on early retirement after searching for a better way to travel for less. This connection was not obvious or planned, but it was powerful. Change happened (and continues to happen) in my life.

But more than anything I’m not one to let a little hypocrisy get in the way of a blog post that I want to write, so here goes.

My first bite of food happened when I was pretty young. As the story goes, my mother was walking through golden gate Park eating a ripe pear. I was a breast-feeding 3 1/2-month-old strapped to her back in some kind of a hippie backsling. She was apparently quite surprised when a miniature hand raced by her right ear and grabbed the pear. She was even more surprised when she peeled me off of her back to find me suckling the pear as if it were an engorged breast, juice dribbling down my chin.

Which is to say I’ve always been a bit food-obsessed.

On some level, my day is made up of long stretches between meals.

I won’t think twice to drag my family of five on a 1 hour 30 minute drive for no other reason then to sample piroshki at a Ukrainian market two counties over.

My idea of a day well spent is to wake up at five in the morning and smoke a brisket until five or six that evening, only to slice it and dress a slow fermented sourdough pizza skin which I then insert into my not exactly “legal”oven for a quick two-minute bake.

So you get the picture, I like food.

But let’s face it, I’m 40 now. Just consider me here at a wedding a couple of months ago.

Body by porchetta

To my credit I have an extremely attractive much younger woman on my arm, but just look at me.

If I can be said to have a look, it could only be described as “bourgeois puffy.”

There I am with the makings of a double chin, my IPA fueled navel gently nudging my tie leftward. It is, in short, a sad, sad sight.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my cushy, well fed life.

But if I could choose a look, “starving bike messenger,” would be closer to the mark, then say “milk-fed cardiologist.”

So I’ve definitely got some vanity pushing me towards losing a few pounds.

There’s also my health going forward, and the health of the planet which could both be negatively impacted by my meat heavy standard American diet.

But if I’m honest, it’s mostly just my vanity.

But what of dieting?

I’m very dubious of the whole dieting thing. While it may be easy to shed 20 or 40 pounds with some kind of a fad diet, this weight loss is generally temporary at best.

Which brings me to the New York Times food writer, Mark Bittman’s recent book Vegan Before Six. This came about, as Bittman describes it, after his 50-year-old well patient doctors visit.

He was told he was obese, with hypercholesterolemia, pre diabetes, and sleep apnea.

His doctor’s advice was simple; become a vegan or start taking lots of medicines.

His unwillingness to drastically change his lifestyle, as a food loving writer, gave him the idea to try becoming vegan before dinner time. He also swore off processed food and refined carbohydrates leading up to the dinner hour.

What he did not do was stop eating delicious food, or give up his food centered dinner-hour social life

I just finished the book, and I’m going to give it a shot and here are my reasons why.

1. Bittman has immediate credibility. He is a food writer who I’ve followed for years who clearly loves food. He’s also noticeably lost weight.

2. I can imagine this becoming a lifestyle change, as opposed to a crash diet. If the food is delicious, and the results palpable, I see no reason why I could not stick to this pattern of eating for the rest of my life.

3. This past year I’ve witnessed unexpected and positive changes in my own life, that have come about first from organizing myself to attack the travel hacking game, and then by awakening my mind up to new possibilities in terms of early retirement. These developments have opened me up to the possibility that change though unpredictable, can indeed happen.

4. I see the creative thinking behind the Vegan Before Six philosophy, as somewhat similar to the outside-the-box thinking behind travel hacking, and even early retirement theory.

This eating strategy seems like a big game. And when something is fun, I find myself continuously incentivized to pursue it further.

5. I don’t need to give up pizza, barbecue, or tonkatsu!

Which leaves one obvious question.

How is this diet in any way relevant to this blog?

And here is my answer.

This blog, like me, is a work in progress.

I’m not a fully formed early retiree biking around town, growing my own vegetables(yet).

Instead I’m a working doctor who each day is trying (and often succeeding) to make positive changes in my own life to move my family towards a better financial position.

I’m also no travel maven, jet setting around the world in first class, while maintaining my status on seven different frequent flyer programs.

I’m just a guy using the tools available to fly my family where it needs to go for free.

I’m unfinished. And I have no idea how this all ends up.

In short, it’s about the journey, and I’m making a stop over at Vegan Before Six.

As always, if you, my reader, are inspired, I’d love for you to join me. If not, don’t worry I’ll send you a postcard!

Full disclosure: on day one of this undertaking , I’m a well chiseled 6 feet tall and 204 pounds.