I occasionally mention my diet, which has spawned some questions in a recent thread as well as in my survey results.

So this week I’m going to explain my diet in detail, focusing on what I eat, why I eat it, and the facts behind the food.

The ideas aren’t mine originally, and I’m certainly not the only person to eat this way, but I call it the MaxDiet because there is no formal name for it, and from the research I’ve done it appears to be the best possible diet.

Why MaxDiet?

The diet is optimized for overall health, longevity, and disease prevention. Although it’s not the best diet for muscle gain (the best diet for muscle gain is very unhealthy), it is conducive to building muscle.

The most musclebound person I know is a 40 something year old in Austin who goes by the name “Tarzen”. He eats the same way.

I have personally gained muscle on this diet and so has Todd. Critics who will say that they can’t do this diet because they are working out are mistaken.

The diet is also highly effective for weight loss. There are a variety of ways of losing weight, the most effective being not eating at all.

There are two main reasons for losing weight: vanity and health. If you’re losing weight for health, this is the diet for you. I’d also argue that it’s best for vanity as well. People are attracted to healthy looking people, which is what you’ll be on the diet.

Given my firsthand experience with people eating this diet, it’s safe to say that it will bring you to a naturally healthy weight that looks good on anyone. I will explain more on why it works like this in my next post.

Secondary issues like acne and poor body composition are also remedied by it.

My philosophy towards diet is that one should eat a diet that fits with their lifestyle and is permanently sustainable. Fad diets that people turn to to “lose 20 pounds in a week” or whatever are not sustainable.

True improvement in any area of life comes from the cultivation of constant daily habits. This diet is intended as a permanent lifelong change, and is easily sustainable as such. I’ve been eating this way for two years or so with no regrets.

Sticking to the Diet

Sticking to the diet is simple and agreeable once you are accustomed to it. The first month or two will be a challenge, just like nearly anything worth doing.

Now that I am firmly established on the diet I take a meal off here and there. I actually dread doing this now (whereas I originally looked forward to these meals), but I do it as a matter of necessity because I travel so much and occasionally find myself in a position where there is no available food that’s on my diet.

I don’t worry about these occasions, and neither should you. Just as a daily McDonalds eater won’t miraculously become healthy by eating a handful of spinach, you won’t become unhealthy if you eat a bad meal once a month.

The idea is to do the best you can (for yourself) at all times, and not worry about the rare occasions where you have to compromise.

I continue to read more about diet and am open to change. If I find that a new way of eating is healthier I will switch immediately and update this as well.

Destiny and History

Occasionally people bring up the fact that we can readily eat and process many foods that aren’t on this diet. While some scientists believe that we are evolutionarily intended to be vegetarian, there are just as many who think we are intended to be carnivores.

In the end, it doesn’t matter.

I believe that we are designed for survival, which means that we are designed to eat EVERYTHING so that we don’t die. We have processes to handle a wide range of food and make good use of it.

However, that doesn’t mean that it’s all GREAT for us. A diesel engine can run on regular gasoline, but it’s not as efficient as when it’s fed its optimal fuel, diesel.

We live in a time where we have access to great variety and can make the choices that benefit us most. We no longer have to rely on our evolved ability to digest sub par foods but can instead use our evolved brains to make the best choice.

There’s also the fact that most foods we eat today are so new and unnatural that there is no possible way that we could have evolved around them yet. I will get into specifics in the next couple posts.

Life Expectancy

It’s difficult to estimate the gain in life expectancy by following the Max Diet, because I’ve been unable to find a study where a sample group approximates the Max Diet.

Some studies actually show veganism as being no better that eating meat.

This makes quite a bit of sense to me since most vegans I’ve seen actually eat worse than meat eaters. Instead of cutting out meat and increasing vegetable consumption, they turn to highly processed foods.

However, it just so happens that the biggest study ever done on human diet, The China Study, does track both meat consumption as well as processed flour consumption, which are the two big evils we avoid.

The study was conducted by T Colin Campbell, a nutritional biochemistry professor at Cornell, and it definitively shows that these two types of food must be avoided.

I recently sent him an e-mail asking about life span and he said that the best research indicates that eating the MaxDiet (which is essentially what he recommends in his book) will add around 10 years to your life.

Perhaps more important than life expectancy, the diet greatly improves quality of life. Rather than thinking of it as adding a few (or more) years at the end of your life, think of it as adding them now.

People who follow the Max Diet get sick less often, particularly with serious ailments like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and strokes. Their moods are steadier and they have more energy. I’ll go more into detail on those topics later this week.

Coming up Next…

Now that we’ve covered what to expect from the diet and a few common objections, on Wednesday we’ll cover the worst thing you can possibly eat… something you probably eat plenty of right now.

Continued in Part II

A couple days ago I read a book recommended by Tyler, whose blog is the only blog I read religiously.

Anyway, the book is about mastery, and it really rang true for me. In it the author talks about the different types of people who are NOT masters, and I am pretty clearly one of them. I’m “the hacker”.

What that means is that I get some level of proficiency below mastery, get satisfied with it, and don’t progress. I’m acutely aware of this - I get to the level where other people respect my skill, but never push myself as far as I could go / would like.

This is terrible for a few reasons. First, I’m not reaching my potential, and second I’m clearly way too into what other people think. I hate to admit that because I want to be the kind of person that doesn’t care, but it’s obviously no coincidence that I stop around when I’m accepted as “good”.

It’s obviously not that cut and dry in real life, but as an overarching trend, this fits me pretty well.

I took some notes on the book while I read it (which is always funny to me because I’m not sure I ever actually took notes in any class), and one of the big things I got out of it is that I need to have long term goals. So I whipped out a text editor and came up with some. I tried to really focus on it and be exhaustive.

Here’s my text file. I thought about editing it and cleaning it up for putting out in public, but it’s probably more interesting to read how I actually wrote it. Italics are added to explain my reasoning:

Goals for before I’m 32

That’s five years away, close enough that I can plan it out a bit.

Travel:
Master Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Italian (maybe)

I’ve got a decent start in Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese. TONS more to learn in all of those to be fluent, but I have a grasp of them.

Visit 50% of the countries of the world, understand how the bigger / more important ones work

I’ve learned so many subtle things so far this year, and so far I’ve only been to countries I’ve been to before. I wish I could elaborate, but it’s hard to .The closest I can come is to say that my brain has made all sorts of little connections that weren’t there before. Things that individually don’t mean much, but together help me understand the world as a unit, nature, and human nature.

Travel 6 months a year at least

In retrospect, this a stupid one because it’s a hard rule that in of itself brings no benefit. I guess I leave it because I think that I’ll do it anyway.

Relationships:
Be in a  stable but exciting long term three way relationship.

I could probably write a whole post on why I want this. A lot of it is because I like trying new things, and for some reason I have this idea that a three way relationship could be really stable and happy for everyone. Ideally the girls would like each other slightly more than they liked me to minimize jealousy.

Learn to be less stubborn and more affectionate.

I used to think that girls were too sensitive until EVERY girl I’ve ever dated has made comments along these lines. Stubborn is going to be tough, but I do know that I’m bad at expressing how special my girlfriends are to me.

Learn to appreciate girlfriends more (actually all people).

I’m quick to find faults in people, which is a really bad trait. I need to focus on finding the good in people, and focus on the good traits of my girlfriends. One thing that has helped me is thinking “this person is just trying to find happiness”. When I think of that goal it puts things in perspective sometimes.

Be a better listener (to everyone, not specifically girls).

I tend to focus too much on myself and forget things people tell me.

Invest more in other people’s lives.

People get invested in my life, what’s going on, and what I’m doing. This is partly because I have a really interesting life, but a lot of it is that most people are more giving in this regard than I am. To boil it down, the amount of investment I have in other people’s lives doesn’t mirror my respect or appreciation of them.

Be a better friend.

I think I’m a pretty good friend, but I’m aware of ways I could be a much better friend. I think a lot of the appeal of being my friend is that I do interesting things, am unusual,  and am very trustworthy. However, I don’t always go out of my way to do nice things for my friends like they do for me. That’s something I really appreciate in them, so I should put in a better effort.

Health:
Stick to crossfit religiously, record progress, push myself, learn to love the pain and repetition.

If I find something better, I’ll switch, but I will be constantly improving (not just maintaining) my body. More importantly, I will appreciate the pain and the repetition of working out, rather than looking forward to the end of it.

Learn and practice self sufficiency, growing my own food and foraging.

I’m really fascinated with the idea of total self sufficiency. I’ve gotten more of an appreciation for nature recently, and I want to learn to grow food like people used to do. I would also like to learn and practice eating food from the woods so that I can always eat no matter what. This may include eating bugs since they are plentiful.

Practice cooking vegan.

I used to be really into cooking (my one scar is from a flan accident), but I stopped when I started eating healthy. I have a bit of a knack for it and I really enjoy it, so I’m going to become an excellent vegan chef.

Learn more about balancing foods for macro/micronutrients (or discover that this isn’t too important)

I know which foods are good and bad, but I haven’t done enough research into the proper proportions of them. I have a hunch that since I eat all whole foods this probably isn’t a big concern, but I should make sure.

(these goals are likely to be adjusted as I learn more about food and nutrition, and as more studies are done)

Personal Traits:
Stop putting my own values on other people / having expectations for anyone.

I could write a whole post (and probably will) about this one too. The gist of it is that I hate it when people put their values on me, so I shouldn’t do it to them. This is a bit of an issue because I think I know everything.

Focus more.

I need to learn to focus more and be distracted less. I do okay with this, but I’m not at the mastery level.

Learn to eliminate possibilities and be happy with it.

I try to learn and be able to do everything. This is pretty cool, but doesn’t leave me with the time/energy/whatever to really drill down and master things.

Keep every area of my life up to my standards.

For example, stop being content having a crappy sense of directions. There are some things I take a lot of pride in and others that I let slide a bit. Everything is a reflection of everything else, so I should raise everything up.

Constantly raise my standards for myself every year.

Kinda speaks for itself… don’t get complacent.

Be more expressive.

I don’t express my feelings very well. This comes through with my rap as well as my posts, actually. If you notice, I put very little emotion into it, which is probably my biggest deficiency as a writer right now.

If you think about it, that’s probably why I have so few female readers. Women like emotion, and I don’t put much out.

Be more empathetic / see other people’s point of view.

I’ve been working on this one, but I have it here to make sure I stay aware of it. I’ve been letting go of being right. Getting the right answer is important, being the one who provided it isn’t. It’s an ego thing. It’s hard, but I am trying to focus on discovering the truth rather than being the truth.

Part of this is listening to other people’s opinions. For example, about 5 people told me about Casa De Luz, but I refused to eat there. Then it became my favorite restaurant. A guy in SF told be about crossfit WAY before I started, but I assumed he didn’t know what he’s talking about.

I need to put more faith in other people.

More discipline.

I’m very disciplined, but I have this idea that there’s a whole class of people that I’ve never met who are way more disciplined than I am. Or, at least, I can see areas of improvement for myself. I’m very good at black and white things (do a language tape every day, don’t eat crap food, etc), but grey areas are hard for me.

Do not be annoyed by anything / appreciate everything

I almost have the first one down. Nothing big will ever bother me. But little things bother me sometimes, like Todd playing music that I don’t like. Instead I need to see that as a challenge of either enjoying terrible music, not paying attention to it, or valuing his enjoyment over my dislike for it.

I would also like to appreciate everything. EVERYTHING in this world is amazing, but sometimes I gloss over that in every day life.

Skills:
Learn to play the piano.

I’m not 100% committed to this one. I didn’t like playing as a kid, but I think I would really enjoy it now. I would like something like this that would give me a good opportunity to practice fundamentals and learn to enjoy the practice.

Become a better writer.

Constant improvement. I think I’m a good writer, but then I read some people who are GREAT writers. I want to be great. My initial thoughts on this are to be more transparent, more expressive, and put more of myself on the line.

Become a better rapper.

I don’t think my rapping has gotten much better in the last year. I don’t have a recording set up anymore, so I’m less motivated.

Learn to dance.

I’ve always wanted to do this. It will be an excellent chance to work on humility, because I am a terrible dancer. I’d like to learn hip hop.

Learn a sport (maybe basketball).

I think it’s important to be involved in sports. I wish I had taken one up a long time ago, like basketball when there were school teams and a hoop in front of our house. Sports are a good way to associate pleasure with the pain of exertion.

Learn the soroban

This is the Japanese abacus. Once you get good at it you can do any calculation super quickly just by PICTURING the abacus.

Business:
Follow through every project to full success / don’t start projects I’m not willing to do that with ***

Enough said. This goes along with spreading myself too thin. I forget why I put stars next to it.

Write a great book on living an awesome life

I’m not ready to do this yet, but I’m probably ready to start. The one area of life that I really need a better handle on before completing this is making money.

Become a brand

This should come as no surprise to anyone reading. I want to make my living just by living my life and being me. This is what I do already, but I will need to do it on a much larger scale.

Learn to delegate better and trust other’s abilities

Every time I hire people I’m thrilled with the quality of their work (in many cases they do my work better than I do), but I still have this nagging resistance because I never think people will care as much as I do and do as good a job.

Be exceptionally valuable to people

There are some people, Tim Ferriss comes to mind, who are universally sought out. This isn’t the reward in of itself, but it is a good indication that he’s reached a point of mastery.

Increase my readership exponentially

The bigger an audience I have the more motivation I have to spend time writing, and the more feedback I can get that will help me (people on my forums have been particularly valuable to me). Like the girlfriend thing, I probably don’t express to you how deeply appreciative I am that you read this.

Complete a full rap CD

If for no other reason than the fact that I like listening to my music more than anyone else’s, even legends like Jay-Z

Anyway… that’s what I have on my plate. There are a few problems that I’ll have to work out… like how am I going to have a relationship or farm if I’m traveling all the time? I plan on writing some articles about some of these goals. If some of them are more interesting than others, let me know and I’ll cover them first.

This is something I’ve been wondering about recently, and I’m very interested in people’s (in depth?) responses.

I have a billion things to work on, and a billion things that other people do better than me, so this isn’t meant to be a “look how great I am” post (like every other post on this site…).

One thing that I’m particularly good at, though, is figuring out the best action to take and just doing it and sticking with it. Not always, but close. I figured out the best exercise program and still do it. Two years ago I decided that being vegan was the most healthy thing to do and have stuck with it since. I wanted to travel more so I left and am traveling the best way I can figure out. Blah, blah, blah.

Let’s take cutting out sugar, for example. Sugar is never good for you. Period. I’ve heard weird justifications like “everything is good in moderation”, but that’s just not true. Eating sugar is always bad for you. White flour is the exact same as sugar - your body can’t really tell the difference.

This isn’t a matter of opinion, it is a proven scientific fact. Sugar is bad for you - it will increase your body fat percentage, it will increase your chances of getting cancer, and it will decrease your lifespan. Full stop.

Yes, we all know some dude who ate fudgesicles every day and lived to be 105. There are always outliers who are exceptions, but all scientific studies say that eating sugar is the root cause of a lot of bad things.

Yet I know a lot of very smart people who know these facts but still eat sugar.

WHY?

Another example is smoking.

Here’s something that EVERYONE knows is terrible for you. There is no debate. Yet millions of people smoke. It is so stupid. If you are a smoker, how is your #1 priority not to quit RIGHT NOW?

How as that possible? Is there anything you could possibly do in your life that would bring you as much enjoyment as living way longer and not getting lung cancer or some other nasty ailment? No, there isn’t.

I can’t fathom how this happens. How do people, when confronted with these facts, keep eating sugar or smoking? It makes no sense to me. Is it going to get easier tomorrow? Nope. Today is the easiest day to change. Every day you allow a suboptimal habit is another day it gets entrenched in your mind and your identity.

Maybe it’s peer pressure. A lot of people look to the general consensus or government to make decisions for them.

“Everyone I know does it. It can’t be that bad.”

“If it was really that bad, the government would ban it.”

Or maybe it’s fear of change.

“I don’t like eating things like spinach. I’ve always eaten corn dogs.”

WHAT? You’re not willing to eat something moderately unpalatable (which you will certainly love within a month or two) in order to greatly improve your life?

I wonder if the real reason is that we’re too used to everything being easy now. People are unwilling to take on any challenge other than constantly dealing with a life they’re not thrilled with.

If we want to feel achievement we play a video game. If we want to feel happy we do drugs. If we want to experience excitement we watch a movie.

Anyway… if you eat sugar or smoke or do something else like that, I’d really be interested in hearing why in the comments.

I’ve been doing Crossfit for the past eight months. The past two months have not been perfect, sometimes for valid reasons, sometimes not. I’d give myself an 85% for those two months and a 99% for the rest. I’sm getting off topic, but I feel like it’s necessary to address on my blog the times I screw up too.

I love Crossfit and think it’s the best program (of those I’ve researched) for me as well as most people out there. I believe that I could have probably made bigger gains muscle wise with a strict heavy lifting and high protein diet, but it would have been at the expense of other benefits.

I’ve gained some weight and a lot of muscle definition. Muscle definition is always more impressive to the person experiencing it, because we’re honed in on the nuances of our bodies, but when I look in the mirror and flex, I look like a little Greek god in training. With the standard amount of downlighting in a bathroom I have a clearly defined six pack, and when I flex my arms I have little bicep mountains.

I haven’t had easy access to a scale recently, but I am probably up about 20 pounds total, most of which was gained early on when I could gorge myself on food at Casa De Luz.

I can lift a lot more, as a metric and also in a practical sense. When there’s something heavy to be lifted I am confident I’ll be able to do it, rather than before when I’d be sure of the opposite.

I was used to being the weakling in a group. It didn’t make me feel insecure or anything, because I know I’m great at a lot of things, but it did make it clear that I had room to improve.

Now I’m usually middle of the pack, or even upper middle depending on the context. People occasionally gasp at the amount of weights that I lift (not impressive for serious lifters, but good for my size).

In Tokyo we walk a lot, often with our packs, and are always going up and down stairs. No problem. No heavy breathing.

The best benefit of all is that I now actively enjoy physical activities. I realized this just today.

We stood at the bottom of Mount Misen near Hiroshima, Japan. It’s a small mountain that apparently was where Buddha became enlightened.

Two options were presented - a strenuous 2.5 kilometer hike up the mountain, or a ride in a cable car to the top.

I chose the hike. That in of itself is no big deal. I would have done that anyway.

The difference is that before I would have thought “I’d rather do the cable car, but I can’t let myself be lazy, so I will do the hike.”

This time I thought, “Awesome! A hike!”

Riding the car had no appeal to me. I actually tried to figure out if there was a harder route up the mountain.

I’ve gotten a lot of tangible benefits from Crossfit, but internally valuing physical activity and seeking it out is the best part.

Something strange has been happening to me over the past year or so. I haven’t written much about it because I’m almost in denial that it’s happening.

I’m caring far less about money.

This is scary to admit. A lot of my identity, at least internally, is based around the desire and eventuality that I will become rich. Losing my motivation to be rich is like losing a part of myself. I feel like I’m right on the edge, as if I could just say, “forget it…” and never look back.

I’ve never been super rich, but I’ve owned cars I previously fantasized about, lived in places I dreamed about, and have literally been at the point where I bought everything I wanted and couldn’t think of anything else to buy.

At the other end of the spectrum, I lived in my RV for almost a year. I had only the water I could hold in my tanks and the electricity I could get from the sun. My backyard was the curb of a public street. The fridge broke, and I went through a Texas summer without air conditioning.

Total luxury versus the complete lack of luxury.

And you know what? Niether was more fun that the other. Niether made me happier. Money didn’t affect my life in any measurable way.

And believe me - if anyone wanted to believe that money means something, it was me. I remember talking about this with my friend Hayden.

He laughed and said, “What? You actually thought money mattered?”

I did. People who told me that it didn’t never seemed to believe it themselves, so I didn’t either.

I think some rich people miss out on authentic experiences by being rich. My friends and I rented the cheapest car we could in Panama, we drove through the countryside, and joined the locals in a tiny interior town and celebrated Carnival with them. It was perfect.

After the celebration we slept in the car for a few hours and drove back to the city. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.

But would Donald Trump even be able to do that? Would he go to a town that doesn’t have a hotel rated more than one star?

That’s not to say that all great experiences have to be cheap. Another time I was in Vegas with a high roller friend. He won $40k and we celebrated by getting huge hot fudge sundaes sent to our 5000 square foot suite.

After thinking it all out, I guess that what really matters, to me at least, is having as full a range of experiences as possible. I want to hike through a forest and stay in a tent in the middle of nowhere. I want to have a private jet to fly around the world with my friends too, though.

So I want to get rich because doing so will give me a broader range of options, as long as I don’t become a snob and think I’m above any of them.