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Buzz Cut… I’m Giving Up Coffee for 2 Months!

The T on Caffeine:

  • 90% of the world’s population consumes a meal or drink that has some caffeine in it every day.
  • 70% of caffeine is consumed as coffee.
  • America is the largest consumer of coffee (followed by Brazil), with over half of American adults drinking it daily.
  • The physical effects of caffeine we experience are mainly due to the placebo effect.

Experiment: No coffee for 2 months… after an initial two-week weaning period, no caffeine of any form for the remaining 6 weeks (aside from trace amounts in dark chocolate… let’s not get crazy now).

I’m moderately terrified of this challenge, a sign of its worthiness. I have given up meat, dairy, dessert/sweets, alcohol, TV, breakfast, “adult activities,” and social media for periods of time before. Each had its challenges, but none intimidated me the way giving up caffeine does. I’ve thought about giving it up for years but have never pulled the “drip” cord.

Ok, so why…

  • The people have spoken. Thanks to all who suggested I take on this experiment next… we’ll see how thankful I feel when it starts, haha.
  • I’ve become caffeine dependent, even if it’s largely mental, and would prefer to not let any substance hold that much control over my behavior. While I only have 1-2 cups a day, the thought of not having that first cup in the morning is like the thought of not putting on any clothes in the morning. I could do that when I’m working from home and shut all the window shades and maybe it would feel briefly liberating but a) it would be cold—at least in the morning/evening, b) it wouldn’t be super comfortable on furniture, and c) why? The mere discomfort with the thought of giving up caffeine is motivation enough to try grinding it out.
  • This challenge falls right in the Goldilocks zone of personal growth… Tackle something too vast in scope and you can feel helpless and overwhelmed. Tackle something too easy and there’s no real sense of accomplishment or growth. Finding goals in the optimal zone—challenging yet achievable—can be a great source of happiness.

Uh oh…

  • Another reason I haven’t tried to cut the morning buzz yet is productivity. Coffee in the morning feels like my own little fairy work-mother, at its worst clearing away the morning brain fog—and sometimes crankiness—and at its best giving me that glorious, let’s-f’n-go I-can-do-anything-right-now feeling. None of the other indulgences I’ve given up before could have a negative impact on my work, and many benefitted it. Hence my wariness to pull the plug on the electric kettle. But I plan to be a father in the near future (hopefully next year) and the challenge of reduced sleep that parenting a newborn produces will be greater if anything. In fact, this experiment seems like good initial training for that new challenge.
  • Another concern: with Intermittent Fasting, I look forward even more to my morning cup of coffee. Even though I wait 60-90 minutes after I wake to enjoy my first hot cup o’ brew (Why? See this 2-minute clip from one of my favorite authors, Dan Pink), it is often among the 1st things I think about in the morning. How will I cope with this… perhaps herbal tea or some other new reward/indulgence as a replacement?

About that…

Two months… why so long? As my cousin pointed out, it takes some time for your body to adjust to the removal of caffeine from the system. To set myself up for success, I will be phasing caffeine out like an awesome t-shirt you don’t want to admit has stains in it—maybe from coffee? Meta. The first two weeks I’ll be sipping on some green tea or yerba mate–each of which has just 30-40mg of caffeine via tea bags, as a weening period. After that, it’ll be all caffeine-free herbal all the time, baby.

Let’s be clear… practicing discipline builds inner strength and can teach us to want less, which can make it easier to be happy. The less you feel you need to be happy, the happier you are with what you have. However, the goal is not to punish myself or remove something that brings me joy. In other words, the intention is not to give up drinking coffee forever. The goal is to change my relationship with caffeine, i.e. maintain the joy I get from the experience of drinking a warm, rich cup of coffee without the daily caffeine dependency.

I betcha…

After experiencing an initial dip in energy, I’m wondering if this will improve my overall energy. This is my hypothesis and my hope. I’m envisioning a graph showing time without caffeine on the horizontal axis, energy on the vertical axis, and a line resembling a Nike swoosh that eventually flattens out, but we’ll see soon enough… here we go!

References:

https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-quit-caffeine-in-one-week-e041892698ec

https://addictionresource.com/addiction/caffeine-addiction/

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Breaking Up with Breakfast: My Experience with Intermittent Fasting

Experiment: Only Eating 8-10 out of 24 Hours a Day

Intermittent Fasting… it sounds kind of like sporadic self-torture… and it is! I kid, but it does take a little adjusting to.

Ok, so why… bother restricting your eating to 8-10 hours a day? There are many health benefits to Intermittent Fasting (IF), such as:

  1. Reduced insulin levels, which aids in fat burning
  2. Increased level of human growth hormone, supporting muscle development
  3. Cellular repair and immune system support
  4. Reduced inflammation in the body
  5. Potential benefits for heart health and cancer prevention
  6. Good for your brain and may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease
  7. May help you live longer

Uh oh… I luuurv breakfast. I eat eggs scrambled with assorted veggies, herbs, and savory nutritional yeast every day (check out some of my favorite eggy dishes here). Since the most straightforward way to implement IF is to skip breakfast, I’m going to have to reconcile how to give up this joyous part of my day.

About that… I’ve also adopted a grazer diet for years, eating small frequent meals and snacks throughout my waking hours. I had previously heard this was the best way to keep the caloric oven constantly burning and maintain steady energy levels. Without my regular feedings, will I shut down like a neglected wind-up toy? Will my energy levels be low until I eat and then low again because my stomach is digesting a significantly larger meal than it is used to?

I betcha… This experiment is simple in theory but will be challenging in practice. I expect my body will adjust after the first week or two and hopefully my energy levels will improve. I do think I’ll like the indulgent feeling of getting to eat all my day’s food in a shorter window though… like a post-fast Fat Tuesday every day but without the weight gain.

Week 1-2 Notes:

  • The first day was surprisingly easy; it may have helped that I’d had a big dinner the night before. Aside from my stomach’s occasional hunger yelps in the mornings, my body continued to feel good the 1st couple of days. I noticed I was slightly irritable but more aware. While I missed my breakfast routine, I enjoyed having some extra time in the AM for personal work and reflection (an ideal time to meditate) and not having that post-breakfast slump I’d attempt to combat with coffee.
  • The first real challenges came with a couple morning workouts. I’ve always been told—and practiced—that you need some energy in your system before working out and to recover with healthy carbs and protein after. Several IF practitioners advocate just consuming some BCAAs (branched chain amino acids) to help with protein synthesis until your first meal of the day. I’ve just ordered some capsules, so we’ll see!
  • Who says I can’t have “breakfast” foods for lunch, the time when I’m literally breaking my fast? Not a damn person. Besides, breakfast time is just an intangible idea we’ve all agreed to believe in… so I’m breaking up with this belief and eating whatever I please, starting at noon. I’m not alone, after all; LA restauranteurs decided years ago that brunch goes till 4pm. Game on, afternoon eggs!

Week 3-4 Notes:

  • My body has adjusted. The slight irritability from the 1st few days is gone. Some days I still aggressively check the clock, especially around 11am, but others I get into a rhythm with whatever I’m working on and realize it’s 1 or 2pm before I eat.

via GIPHY

  • In addition to having more time in the morning, without cooking or eating breakfast, I’ve been feeling a supercharged level of alertness that has led to greater productivity while I’m fasting. The impact was less noticeable in the afternoon, though I found my normal afternoon circadian slump hasn’t been hitting me as hard or often.
  • While weight loss has not been a goal for me and I haven’t been restricting the number of calories I eat during the “feeding window”—that phrase makes me feel like a farm animal—I’ve noticed a clear leaning out of my body, which appears to be a conversion from fat to muscle. I say this because I haven’t lost weight and have increased muscle definition. The BCAA capsules I’ve been taking pre/post-morning workouts may be helping here, as they aid in synthesizing protein, promoting muscle growth and speeding recovery.

Whoomp, there it is…

  • Energy level impact: While my afternoon energy levels improved only slightly during this period, my morning energy levels and feeling of alertness and productivity increased greatly while I was fasting. I’ve had a taste of supercharged mornings, so… sorry breakfast, but I’m not coming back anytime soon.
  • I like the simplicity of having one less meal to prepare and the way my body looks and feels too.
  • This experiment is being renewed indefinitely!

References:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-health-benefits-of-intermittent-fasting
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/intermittent-fasting-surprising-update-2018062914156

Drop me a line with any feedback. Also, please leave me a comment with what you think my next experiment should be:

  1. CrossFit 3x/week
  2. Sensory Deprivation Therapy (Float Tank) 1x/week
  3. Give Up Caffeine for a month
  4. Guided Breathwork
  5. Daily Journaling
  6. Cryotherapy
  7. Your suggestion?
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A Month of Meditation: The Proof is in the Sitting

Note this is a follow up to my initial Meditation post you can check out here.

Obvi but necessary disclaimer: No guru here, just a student of life interested in sharing what he’s gathered from multiple sources and experiences.

December seemed an ideal time to escape the holiday crazy train, look inward and prepare myself to best deal with the added end o’ year excitement. I’d also just gotten married (woo hoo!), traveled to South America for our honeymoon, was visiting family across the country for the holidays, and was getting ready to move cities… all exciting changes, but a lot of change, nonetheless.

The first few days of sitting to meditate were rough… I caught myself checking the time like a man on death row and realizing I’d been following a runaway train cruising off into some remote region of thought, including meta thoughts about the experience and what I’d write about it (d’oh) before nudging myself (more of a mental headbutt) back to focusing on the meditation guide’s voice. Day 7 was first day I made it through a session without once checking the time remaining – woo hoo!

What did I do right?

I found a great free beginners’ course on the Insight Timer app (with whom I have no affiliation) that had me looking forward to my sessions. I continued with guided meditations vs. freeform—meditating silently or to some ambient sounds—as it keeps me more focused. I learned tips and heard affirming messages–e.g. an orchestra of monkeys is banging their cymbals inside other people’s heads too–from the guides that helped make the process enjoyable and productive.

What did I do wrong?

I let the holiday/travel craziness influence the timing of my practice, meditating at different times of day. It worked for December since I’d been applying Dojo-like diligence to fitting it in, but I need to be more consistent for sustainability going forward. Ended up missing a day (d’oh) though learned to be more compassionate with myself with minor setbacks like this. After all…

“Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.’

-Confucius

Final Meditations

The combination of this experiment along with two books I was reading at the time, Daily Stoic, and 10% Happier, has made another noticeable change to my outlook. There was a piece in Daily Stoic suggesting that our devastation is directly related to how likely we believe an event is to occur. You shouldn’t be (that) devastated about having to file your taxes this year because we accept and expect tax season to come every year. Along these lines, imagine your favorite mug already broken. If at some point, it gets knocked off the coffee table by your dog’s overactive tail—a likely scenario for me—you will be less bummed because you’ve made yourself conscious that this could easily happen at any moment and that you should appreciate having it until that point. Similarly, if, hypothetically speaking, you expect a president to sputter an endless stream of ridiculous, selfish, and inaccurate remarks, you may be slightly less enraged when his actions are fully in line with your expectations. Expect to be unexpectedly and inconveniently caught in traffic and understand it has nothing to do with you—no one is conspiring against you to make it happen—and it will lessen the blow a bit.

(I recommend both of the above books, especially Daily Stoic for those who appreciate the manageability of literally having just one page a day to read.)

Finally, I’ve concluded that meditation is like running and eating salads. I know it’s good for me and that I usually enjoy the experience more than expected but I sometimes struggle to take the first step/bite/breath. Just like setting out clothes the night before a morning run or buying the tastiest salad ingredients (yes to avocado and pepitas, no bitter greens or raw red onions, thank you) and finding an ideal time, comfortable spot, and tool to help simplify (ahem, Insight Timer) will reduce the friction to building good habits. Starting with guided meditations of 5-10 minutes and eventually building to 10-15 minutes work well for balancing benefits with compliance. Again…

“Perfect is the enemy of good.’

-Voltaire

I’ve carried my practice into 2019 with me and look forward to continuing it, knowing it ain’t gonna be perfect, but it’s gonna be good.

Leave me a comment with any experiences you’ve had with meditation, tips to share, or what you think my next experiment should be:

  1. Daily Intermittent Fasting (restricting eating to 8-12 out of 24hrs)
  2. CrossFit 3x/week
  3. Sensory Deprivation Therapy (Float Tank) 1x/week
  4. Daily Journaling
  5. Your suggestion?

As always, any other feedback is welcome.

In the meantime, I’ll be training for and competing in an insane, unsanctioned ultra relay race experiment called The Speed Project with some badasses from Electric Flight Crew.

Peace!

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A Month of Meditation: Moving from Glorified Naptime to Centered Practice

Intro: Flirting with Meditation… My first exposure to meditation came from Shirley the Loon on Tiny Toon Adventures levitating cross-legged and chanting her mantra, “Ohm, what a loon I am.” Fast forward a few years [ahem, decades]… With the constant inflow of emails, texts, beep-boop-beeps, deliveries, ads, and phone calls—which ironically have become the least problematic among these—I’m often operating in a semi-distracted state. In the past, I’ve dabbled with meditation and while not a cure-all, it’s like a little natural Adderall for the monkeys playing bumper cars in my mind.

My history with practicing meditation started off decently. I first used Headspace’s free Take 10 program, which involves 10ish-minute guided meditations narrated by founder Andy Puddicombe, with his soothing voice and delightful English accent. It’s highly beginner-friendly… I mean, there are animated cartoons to go with the sessions. I would highly recommend this as an intro to meditation.

While I loved the intro program, I opted not to continue with the paid version. The frugal gene I inherited from my wonderful parents questioned the need to spend any money on something I could easily do for free. The amount of money I spend on running each year tells another story. Don’t worry about that…

Next, I joined a series of group meditation sessions via Google Hangouts led by my friend Jess. This was both the best experience I had and the least practical to recreate. It was the best because Jess provided direction and she and the group added accountability with a side of solidarity. However, varying schedules alone make a group virtual session the least likely to be sustained—for me, at least.

Finally, I started using guided meditations on the excellent, free Insight Timer app. However, things deteriorated from there. While I continued to use the app nearly daily, it was to put on the soothing ambient sounds for 10-15 minutes of naptime. This has its own benefits, but meditation it is not.

 

Ok, so why… You’ve probably heard about the many benefits of meditation, like stress management, improved immune system, better sleep, improved happiness, and a better Uber rider score (ok, maybe not directly, but indirectly…). The main benefits I’ve experienced when I’ve practiced for multiple consecutive days are a calmer presence and ability to keep the little things in perspective, e.g. accepting that not everyone handwashes their dishes the second they finish eating and uses the dishwasher as a big, fancy drying rack like I do or that when our dog has a big accident downstairs, it’s usually just that. I would like to achieve these again and to be more present in each activity I’m doing and most importantly in my interactions with others.

Uh oh… How many times has a doctor, trainer, or Oprah suggested we just start simple habit X that will only take us 10 minutes of our day? It’s easy to say, “yeah, I’m gonna start doing that… not today, or tomorrow, but oh boy starting next month…” at which point, after 1,000s of emails/texts/ads/shows have throttled and distracted our mind, we’ve conveniently forgotten about it. There are often good (and seemingly good) reasons to make an exception and skip following through with the new habit but with good prioritization, you can make it happen.

About that… It’s been nearly 30 years since I could comfortably sit cross-legged. So, I will either sit cross-legged with a rolled-up yoga mat under my butt for support or sit up straight (without being too rigid) on a couch for the meditations. For the 1st couple weeks, I’ll use the guided meditations on the Insight Timer app, since the app was never the issue—just my use of it as a nap soundtrack. I’ll then decide whether I want to try freeform meditation, with just the ambient sound playing… but sitting up, not lying down… we know what that leads to.

I betcha… I’m confident I’m going to enjoy and appreciate the benefits of this experiment. Finding the optimal time and location and eliminating distractions will be the keys to keeping this as a daily practice.

Leave me a comment with what you think my next experiment should be:

  1. CrossFit 3x/week
  2. Sensory Deprivation Therapy (Float Tank) 1x/week
  3. Daily Journaling
  4. Daily Intermittent Fasting (restricting eating to 8-12 out of 24hrs)
  5. Your suggestion?

As always, any other feedback is welcome. Namaste, y’all!

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I Wore The Same 4 Outfits for 4 Weeks. Here is What Happened…

[This is the follow up to my Spending Less Time Getting Dressed! post.]

“Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly. It’s your masterpiece after all.”
-Nathan W. Morris

 

Week 1-2 Notes:

  • I love it. Fewer options means less time deciding what to wear. Since I picked some of my favorite clothes, I’m always wearing something I like. I never have that silly urge to wear something just because I haven’t worn it in a while… even though the sleeves are too long, and it’s got a coffee stain, and it’s from the 90s.
  • I’m so excited to pare down my wardrobe that I’ve already flagged 18 or 1/3 of my short-sleeved shirts to get rid of! Sorry not sorry, oversized polos – you’re dunzo.
  • You can do this too by going through each item in your closet. Maybe limit yourself to one section at a time to make it easier to start. For each item, if it’s not a hell yes, I’d wear this shirt this week—if there’s any real hesitation—flip that hanger around to flag it or add it to a give-away pile in your closet. Later, donate or trash everything in that pile or with a flipped hanger.
  • It can be hard to ditch your precious threads but anything that doesn’t look great on you or has noticeable stains or holes is ripe for pruning.
  • Darker options can be your friend if, like me, your somehow mysteriously end up with food or other unidentifiable spots on your clothing from time to time.

 

Week 3-4 Notes:

  • Ask for help: my partner Will was doing a load of laundry this week and he let me throw one of my Ts in that needed a full wash, which helped stretch out the time ‘til my next required load.
  • Workout clothes and athleisure wear are probably the biggest challenge because they need more frequent and thorough cleaning. Fortunately, you can save yourself from doing extra laundry loads by taking gear in the shower with you and washing with Dr. Bronner castile soap—an all-purpose wonder—or soaking in Oxi Clean in a tub or spare bathroom sink. (Full disclosure: I’m not getting anything from these brands for saying this, though maybe I should be.) This works best with non-cotton blends, which dry faster and are less prone to wrinkling.

 

Whoomp, there it is…

  • This was the spark I needed to do an aggressive shakedown of my wardrobe.
  • A shopping paradigm shift: If I feel the need to get something new now, it will likely be a color, cut, etc. that I already know works, if not an exact clone of something I already own rather than something completely different.
  • However, this experiment has shown me how few pieces of clothing I really need, which helps alleviate the already negligible shopping pressure I feel altogether.

 

What’s next? Drop me a line with any feedback. Also, please leave a comment with what you think my next experiment should be:

  1. CrossFit 3x/week
  2. Sensory Deprivation Therapy (Float Tank) 1x/week
  3. Daily Meditation (10+ minutes)
  4. Daily Intermittent Fasting (restricting eating to 8-12 out of 24hrs)
  5. Your suggestion?

I will likely pause the experimentation for a few weeks as I’ll be embarking on one of the most popular global, longitudinal experiments in history: getting married. Cheers!

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Spend Less Time Getting Dressed!

Experiment: Wear the same 4 outfits for 4 weeks (+3 for workouts).

Wardrobe minimalism. Jobs did it. Zuckerberg does it. Doug Funnie and the rest of your favorite ‘toon characters did it. I may be dating myself as an elder millennial with that last reference and I’m ok with that. In fact, Zuckerberg appears to have literally grayscaled this aspect of his life.

Ok, so why… Similar to my 1st experiment (eating the same 7 meals for 7 weeks), this one is all about reducing the number of choices you have to make in a given week to free up more time for your highest priorities… and your Netflix to-watch list. (Speaking of which, one more plug for Elder Millennial which should be on that list!)

Uh oh… This means not even one unique outfit per day of the workweek, let alone a full week. And given that I work out 6-7x/week, I’m gonna have to get really good about the sink suds, scrub, and hang-to-dry method. Also, I enjoy the variety of colors and styles I get to wear and my—as cliched as it sounds—freedom of personal expression.

About that… Confession: I work from home. This helps me in two ways. 1) I don’t have coworkers who would consistently see me repeating getups from one week to the next. 2) I don’t really have to wear much at all, particularly in these warmer months in LA… and without A/C. But I do still crawl out of my hermit cave and need to be presentable—as low as the SoCal standard may be—for meals with friends, group workouts, occasional client visits, and if for nothing other than to walk Zara thrice daily.

That said, I was originally planning on 7 outfits—one for each day of the week—+3 for workouts, which seemed somewhat reasonable given I don’t have a closet full of the same gray Ts like Mr. Z and will have to do a lot o’ hand washing. Well, I cut that 7 down to 4 to ensure this challenge is, well, challenging.

I already only wear a few pairs of shoes so no issue there. Socks and undies aren’t part of the issue and are exempt from this challenge because ew.

I betcha… I expect to benefit from some newly freed mental RAM as with experiment 1. However, I’m doubting the likelihood of me wanting to continue this approach as is. The constant manual laundry effort does not seem sustainable. If I’m really feeling less conflicted at the closet, then it may be time to invest in some multiples of my favo’ faves and ditch some of my third-string threads.

 

The Lineup:

Left half is a jacket and the 3 workout outfits. Right half is the 4 daily outfits.

If you see me wearing something else in the next 4 weeks, heckle away!

 

Do try this at home: Look at your closet and/or dresser and ask if I could only wear 4 shirts/sweaters and 4 pairs of pants/shorts for the next month—or better yet year—what would I choose? (Dresses would count as one outfit.) Sentimental but ill-fitting clothes are quickly stricken from the consideration set.

Items that are the most comfortable, best fitting, and versatile win for me. Solids are generally a great choice. In addition to matching with more other clothes, people are less likely to notice you wearing them over and over. I still included a few printed shirts because of their great look, fit, feel, and versatility… and, in one case, fabulousness.

Stay tuned for my results in a few weeks!

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Experiment: Same 7 Meals for 7 Weeks!

Ok, so why… Like several of the experiments I’m considering, this aims to cut a little time, stress, and money out of the equation. I’ve crafted 7 of my favorite meals that are also healthy and can be prepped in less than 30 minutes. By limiting the number of ingredients, cooking tools, and recipes I’m using, every meal will require a little less thought and effort. That means more time for other priorities, like wine tasting and posting adorable Instagram stories of our beautiful and weird dog Zara.

Uh oh… I tend to sample everything interesting on a restaurant’s menu before repeating. As a lover of discovering new flavors and foods, I am really hoping I don’t get bored by restricting my options. Also, even simple recipes require some planning so that you have all of ingredients you need—and they haven’t gone bad—when you’re ready to make a meal. Will sticking to set ingredients cause more work than my current “kitchen sink stir fry” approach?

About that… I will continue to eat a couple meals out with friends each week, so the 7 below will account for ~90% of my meals. Also, I’m a grazer—I eat smaller meals with snacks interspersed—so I’ll have a set list of snacks below for midday munchies.

I betcha… Since these foods represent a large subset of my current diet, this should be an easy way to simplify things, not to mention cut out nearly all dairy, grains, and processed foods at the same time. If it doesn’t make me crazy, I may want to continue this going forward.

 

The Meals:

1)      Eggs with coconut oil, onions, mushrooms, refried pinto beans, avocado, Herbs de Provence

2)      Jumbo shrimp stir-fried in ghee (or coconut oil), with broccoli, peas, black beans, curry powder

3)      Baked Salmon marinated in EVOO, Dijon, lemon & cayenne with sweet potato & roasted garlic

4)      Tempeh in coconut oil with green beans, red bell pepper, refried black beans & smoked paprika

5)      Spinach salad with EVOO, red wine vinegar, avocado, nutritional yeast and Turkey Meatballs (click for quick, easy recipe)

6)      Eggs in grapeseed oil, black olives, tomatoes, spinach, black beans, avocado, Ancho/Ghost chili pepper

7)      TJs Veggie medley and cauliflower in grapeseed oil, with green olives, nutritional yeast, basil, garlic powder

Add sea salt and black pepper to all. Optional adds: nutritional yeast and cayenne (where not indicated).

 

Curated Snack Selections:

1)      1st thing each morning: 1 scoop protein powder + creatine + almond milk

2)      Sliced Apple with nut butter OR Half banana with handful of nuts

3)      Persian Cucumbers with eggplant hummus

4)      Red bell pepper slices with Tahini

5)      Sweet potato (medium)

6)      Kombucha or pressed green juice

7)      Olive oil-popped popcorn with nutritional yeast and Chili Lime seasoning

8)      1 square dark chocolate (70%+ cacao), washed down with unsweetened vanilla almond milk (Do yourself a favor and try Whole Foods’ 365 version of this almond milk if you haven’t!)

 

Week 1-3 Notes:

  • Grocery shopping became simpler and faster. Walk in like a boss with the list ready to go and little room for deviation from the plan and you’ll be done in no time. This is especially helpful for me, since I work in consumer goods and have always been fascinated by product assortment, innovation, and seeing how many thimble cups of free coffee I can squeeze into one Trader Joe’s trip. Plus, half the staff at my TJs knows me by name, and vice versa.
  • Batching food prep—making 3-4 servings of each meal to be spread throughout the week—also keeps things easy like Sunday morning. In fact, that’s a great time to do a bulk of the prep.
  • At mealtime, I just have to pick from 1 of 7 options—fewer really since during most of the week I’ll already have prepared some of the meals—vs. a spiraling vortex of options. This means less mental RAM required at mealtime. Hooray! Prioritizing any dish that has an ingredient that might go bad sooner, e.g. ground turkey, can help expedite the decision-making too.

 

Week 4-7 Notes:

  • My compliance ain’t perfect but it ain’t bad either. I may szush up—I’ll be using this phrase until Jonathan from Queer Eye trademarks it, thank you—my food with some Sriracha here or there, but a few minor exceptions like this are expected. (Sriracha also helps when food becomes dry from reheating.)
  • I’m experiencing the benefits of time and mental savings as I can go into auto-pilot at meal time, referring to my super handy saved email to myself with all the meal options or just reheating one of my premade dishes.
  • A chink in my armor: free food. Few things are more grating than blatant food waste and few more gratifying than free food, especially when it’s healthful food that I enjoy. Social meals can spill over into leftovers. As long as these don’t take me too far off course though, my practical and socially conscious principles of avoiding food waste transcend the boundaries of the experiment.
  • I’m no doctor but I’m pretty sure dry, overcooked fish leads to depression. Here’s how I overcame this blunder to make the most moist mustard-marinated salmon I could muster: Be generous with the oil! Also, cook at a higher temperature for less time to prevent it from drying out, e.g. ~12mins at 450° in my oven. Fish internal temp should reach but not greatly exceed 145° at the thickest part.

 

Whoomp, there it is…

  • This has been great. In addition to simplifying things in the kitchen, I’ve felt a bit healthier, with a little more energy and better sleep. I bet the foods I picked—mostly veggies, proteins, and healthy fats and minimal processed food had a direct contribution to this and I’m sold.
    • In full disclosure, I’ve also started taking a couple supplements recently—magnesium for general health and to prevent muscle cramping and lithium for cognitive function and mood boosting. Ugh, the challenges of being a self-development tinkerer. It’s tough to create completely controlled experiments. While these supplements may have had an impact too though, I attribute the benefits primarily to the 7 magic meals.
  • That said, I plan to continue this regimen for the foreseeable future, with a few tweaks to the ingredients every 4-6 weeks to keep things interesting. I’ve been at it for over 7 weeks now, with one menu shakeup so far.
  • Feel free to use this for an experiment of your own. You can copy the recipes above, making some swaps, e.g. snap peas or shredded Brussels sprouts for broccoli, to “do you.” I highly recommend emailing yourself the list of recipes or keeping them in an app like Google Note for easy reference.

 

Drop me a line with any feedback. Thanks for reading!

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Introducing Grayscaling:

Black or white. Conservative or liberal. Gay or straight. Masculine or feminine. Carnivore or herbivore. Placing each other into buckets helps us organize the world more quickly and easily. But it belies the nuances that exist in almost every aspect of our being.

Most “black” people are not actually the color black. The same goes for most “white” people. The few extremists at either end of the U.S. political spectrum are caricatures hardly representative of the majority of citizens that identify with one of the two major parties… not to mention those who identify with neither. We all have a combination of masculine and feminine qualities in varying ratios. But acknowledging complexity takes effort, so we simply round to the nearest answer, pretending there are just two options on the scale, when there are an infinite number of points along the way. We live within glossy, oversimplified social constructs.

This is not to mention the impermanence of many qualities. Think about how vastly different a day in your life is now vs. when you were 7 and vs. what it might be at 77. You do, feel, eat, and believe things now that you would not have dreamed of as a child, nor would you dream of later in life.

For this reason, it benefits us to adopt a growth mindset vs. a fixed one. “I’m a strong runner but not a good swimmer”—something I’ve uttered many times—becomes “I’ve put in decades of deliberate practice to become a strong runner but have not done the same with swimming yet.” I may never become a great swimmer but I’m leaving the door open and acknowledging that not being one is a temporary state, not a permanent characteristic.

It’s through open-mindedness and experimentation that we can shift our current identity toward our ideal one. As Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project says, “Challenging yourself to learn something new brings happiness because it allows you to expand your self-definition. You become larger.” With this goal in mind, I will be taking on a new challenge… well, many mini-challenges. For 4-6 weeks intervals, I’ll be trying something new—a diet type, exercise regimen, sleep technique, social behavior, or personal care practice—to inch closer to my ideal approach to living. I’ll be pinpointing my shade of gray along the spectrum in these key aspects of life. I’ll share my plans, concerns, expectations, and results so that you too can choose to take these experiments for a spin too and find your shade of gray.

Mini-challenge Format:

  • Ok, but why… (Motivation)
  • Uh oh… (Concerns)
  • About that… (Caveats)
  • I betcha… (Expectations)
  • Whoomp, there it is… (Takeaways)

Look out for Experiment #1 in the next two weeks. Hint: it deals with food.

This blog, like each of us, is a work in progress, so I welcome any feedback. Thanks for reading!

Grayscaling