On Plant-Based Eating

I have no doubt that plants have a capability of healing the spirit that borders on mystical.

Add a few plants to a living room and you’ll probably find your own blood pressure lowering. It could be their mere presence doing the healing. Numerous studies have documented this. Run in an area with trees and you’ll find what anxiety you have will slowly diminish as the minutes tick by. Hiking is often seen as a therapeutic exercise not because it involves a lot of walking, but because it involves a lot of nature.

To this date there has been nothing made by humans that matches the healing capabilities of plants.

I mention this because I’m writing about something that I’ve told almost no one: I’ve been focusing on a plant-based diet. I can’t help but wonder: if the presence of plants soothes the mind, does favoring plant consumption heal the body?

I mostly keep my dietary habits private because diets tend to emit strong emotional reactions from people. At some point in recent history, diet became an ideology. The idea of “arguing about diet” with other people does not appeal to me. I’d rather just share my thoughts and experiences.

I do think that there are numerous moral justifications for striving towards veganism. One of the top reasons for me personally is that the American diet tends to be heavy on animals that I consider to be both highly intelligent and woefully mistreated. Industry commits some pretty horrific acts on these animals.

Urban American dog parents, for example, find the idea of eating dogs to be diabolical if not purely savage, yet are frequently eager for their bacon and sausage. Why, other than cultural norms? There is nothing to classify a dog as morally superior to a pig. Both are intelligent and highly affectionate species of animals.

My switch this year was not a sudden shift in belief. I planned to switch to either vegetarianism or veganism a long time ago. When I turned 21, I promised myself that I would switch to a plant-based diet before age 40. This year I’m turning 38.

My initial desire to eat plant-based food was a mostly selfish one: the potential for longevity. I’m too aware of the rates of heart disease in America, and to put bluntly, I want to live. I aimed to switch before 40 because I figured the body would only become more susceptible to disease in middle age.

I never planned to switch to veganism for the sake of athletic performance, but I can safely write that so far, my results as they pertain to running are bettering my expectations. I’ve heard arguments both for and against veganism as it relates to athletic performance. To that I respond, athletic performance is pretty secondary to me at this stage of my life. I was already an athlete with a full collegiate career and retirement, so I’m not “chasing” marginal gains.

A vegan diet can be broad in food intake, and I should emphasize that I focus on plant-based whole foods. I’m not munching on “vegan cookies” all day. I am fully aware that being “vegan” does not necessarily make one “healthy.”

I find myself feeling better by the week. I’m convinced that I’m healing. My aches, pains, and stresses are minimal, and at the same time I’m running more miles per week than I ever have in my life. I’m recovering from intense exercise well and sleeping steadily better. By every metric I am more fit now than I was before I broke my collarbone (I started experimenting with vegetarianism a few months before my collarbone break, and have been attempting veganism through 2023). Obviously time will tell how this diet transfers to running and cycling events, but I don’t see a plant-based diet as a detriment to my exercise. So far, I’d say it’s boosting my performance.

Sustaining veganism practically requires the ability to cook ones own food, in my opinion. Don’t just quit eating meat and looking around for microwaveable meatless foods. It helps to have the ability (or learn the ability) to cook meals with all-natural, plant-based ingredients that you enjoy. Otherwise it can be an act of masochism.

I find that eating until I’m full is key, and that requires eating what can visibly appear to be larger portions (the food is less calorie dense). On a diet without meat, it can take a very, very full plate, or several plates, to fill the stomach. But enjoying what you eat is the only way to make it sustainable.

I’ve been mostly enjoying the recipes in Dan Buettner’s book, The Blue Zones Kitchen. My own dinner staples have been mostly from the book: herbal minestrone, tofu stir fry, and corn hash. I like to supplement those with buffalo cauliflower or air fried kale chips. I bring this up to emphasize again that a consistently hungry vegan will probably not be a vegan for long.

I observe that there are a lot of sick people in the US right now, which is one of the reasons I want to mention veganism’s potential. A lot of sickness can be remedied through food choice. That’s especially difficult when grocery stores are plagued with 90% processed crap and when fast food tends to be the most affordable option. Affordable veganism is possible and can be relatively easy to prepare. A primary problem, in my opinion, is that it’s not a common part of our culture; those who need it most are often unaware of its existence.

So if you’re reading this and had floated the idea of veganism before, I say give it a try.

Party Like It’s ‘99

On Wednesday I finally saw Rob Zombie live for the first time. He was my favorite solo artist in high school and I still listen to his hits from time to time.

Rob Zombie is immortal. He possesses more energy and vitality than lead singers half his age. He’s highly mobile throughout his show and rocks the dance moves of a lithe professional dancer. He’s a perennial headliner for a reason. Viewing the elaborate stage setup at his show is like glimpsing into another gothic world. His bandmates are also perfectionists. John 5, the lead guitarist, is possibly the most skilled soloist I’ve ever watched. The guy can flat-out shred.

Zombie is currently 57 years old and looks as lean and fit as ever. He’s also vegan and has been vegetarian since childhood. This is noteworthy to me because most long-lived cultures I read about eat a relatively large portion of natural carbohydrates and a relatively lower amount of meat (not all, but most). I am not vegan, but I often consider this.

What was my takeaway from watching my teenage idol perform at a crowded amphitheater in front of thousands of fans? Love what you do.

Do I love what I do? I find myself yearning for my hours when I’m free. I love cycling and have gained an appreciation for running. I love connecting with other runners and cyclists who share similar goals, who find themselves aging, yet are eager to accomplish physical feats that they never have before. But that’s not what I do.

An aspiring marathoner told me on our jog last week that he’s training to “give his son a story of something that he accomplished.” That’s what I enjoy learning about: people on their journeys, and how those journeys parallel my own. What can I learn from them? How many miles can we actually crank out together? What is our true limit on this planet?

“Love what you do.” Watching Zombie was a reminder that I need to write more and create more content.

Willingness to Experiment

I ran this morning with minimalist shoes. Running with minimalist shoes is something that I’ve been slowly and steadily reintegrating into my routine. Most of my “runs without cushion on my feet” are slow-paced and shorter in distance.

Upon returning to minimalist shoes and the occasional barefoot walks, I quickly rediscovered the value of minimalist running. Minimalist shoes do quickly bring me closer to what I would describe as a “natural stride.” Cushion tends to blunt the mind’s ability to register bad form. We have a gazillion nerve endings in our feet and their duty is to detect danger; numbing them with foam doesn’t necessarily help our form.

Minimalist shoes also seem to work the calf muscles more than “maximal shoes.” I certainly felt more of a “calf burn” on the last mile.

There is value in trying new things. I’ve gained something from running in both maximal and minimal shoes. I don’t necessarily prefer one over the other. I can say that when running at a high intensity for a large number of miles, I find cushioned shoes to be pretty useful. I also find minimal shoes useful for correcting my form and general casual activities.

It’s important for me to not peg my identity on a brand, a style, or even a category. I’m not a “minimalist runner” any more than I’m a “maximalist runner.” I simply run by using whatever manner works, and I’m willing to try a different method if it reads as interesting. At the end of the day it’s an activity that we were born to do, and it should be fun. So, I’m willing to use whatever methods make running fun.

On another front, I’ve also been experimenting with diet. For example, upon returning to the US from China I dedicated myself to intermittent fasting. I stuck with it for the better part of three years and had a degree of success with it. How much of my improved health was actually a result of fasting, though, versus a multitude of other factors (caloric restriction and increased exercise, to name two factors) is difficult to say.

I abandoned intermittent fasting because I found it difficult to maintain running and cycling performance while adhering to a feeding window. I’ve tried a few long fasted runs over the past few months and even completed a fasted half marathon. However, I found my power to be limited and my abilities in a fasted state to be confined to a “low heart rate range”.

Also, there is no extra medal given for completing a run without food. If you lose to a guy who ate pancakes for breakfast, you still lost.

Moving away from intermittent fasting was simple because my feeding window was simple: I skipped breakfast.

Are there advantages to fasting? Sure. When deprived of carbohydrates, the body uses fat as its primary fuel source. The advantage of this is that fats are an extremely efficient form of energy. If my aim was simply to walk around the world on minimal fuel, a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates might be a wise option. Fasting can also be an effective means of weight loss for this reason, especially if your body is not adept at fat oxidation due to carb overload.

For me, fat is not the best fuel source when seeking running and cycling performance. Glycogen provides me more power and arguably requires less oxygen to burn. The downside is that glycogen depletes quickly, so you need a lot of fuel. That said, for what I’m seeking (my best possible marathon time), I prefer relying primarily on glycogen.

This means I’ve largely abandoned my fasted runs and fasting routines. Maybe I’ll do some fasting during the occasional break from running, but I don’t view it as a priority. I haven’t noticed any diminishing returns from eating breakfast yet and it’s been about a month since I quit fasting.

Like I regard running shoes, I don’t want diet to define me. It’s easy to label oneself based on current diet. One can be “keto,” “vegan,” “carnivore,” “paleo,” or “low carb,” among a multitude of other things. I don’t want to permanently peg myself in any one category because it prohibits the opportunity of trying another. There’s a valid argument to be made in a lot of them; otherwise, they wouldn’t have popularized.

I can say that these days I’ve limited my meat intake and increased my carbohydrates. I generally feel better and I’ve noticed a very sizable performance increase. I’ve been eating some meat for the occasional dinner, but that’s about it. Starchy foods and vegetables have largely replaced what was once plates rife with beef.

The point is not that one diet is better than another, though: the point is that there is value in self-experimentation. We only have one life so we might as well learn what we can!