Why did this Vegetarianism happen to me?

As I’ve observed first-hand, the first few questions that people will ask you when learning that you are a vegetarian are as follows:

1)       Why?

2)       How Long?

3)       How Much Longer?

These are all very legitimate questions with a plethora of possibilities. Here are my personal thoughts and experiences on each:

1)       Why?

a) What I’m Tempted to Say: Because I hate plants that much.

b) What I Usually Say: Because I lost a bet.

c) The Real Answer: It happened accidentally. One thing about me is that I can be annoyingly logical in certain situations, so if I experience an immediate benefit, I can sometimes convince myself to make a hard and fast change – or as I like to think of it – mind over matter. In this case, I was really liking the way I felt about not eating meat, so I just went with it. I also started taking an interest in organic products (expect a future post on this topic) and so a vegetarian was born. What do I miss the most? Buffalo wings!

2)       How Long?

a) What I’m Tempted to Say: It’s been about 20 minutes.

b) What I Usually Say: As of today, about 7.5 months.

c) The Real Answer: As a delayed new year’s resolution to improve my diet and exercise regimen, for which I’m historically a poor performer, I went several days of eating salads, vegetables and anything that seemed healthy. About 4-5 days later (or in raw food terms approximately 40-50 meals later) it occurred to me that I had not eaten meat in said amount of time. I suppose it was easy for that to happen, given that I had almost entirely eliminated the consumption of beef about a year prior. Parlay that with some exercise and taking it easy on the social activities (read: happy hours) and I felt a noticeable difference in my sleep, energy level and possibly waist size. More than likely the last one was a just a combination of wishful thinking and getting better at sucking in.

3)       How Much Longer?

a) What I’m Tempted to Say: You know what – I’ll just stop now.

b) What I Usually Say: I have no idea.

c) The Real Answer: Until I see compelling research that suggests I should. Prior to eating meat I ate fish about twice a year – Geftile fish on Passover and when my mother would invite me over for supper and serve her savory salmon croquets. Think kosher crabcakes. Speaking of kosher, I was raised with it and have actually never eaten shellfish in my life. That’s right I have no idea what I’m missing. Anyway, since ditching the flesh from my lunchbox, I realized how hard it is to get protein and iron. Getting back to my logic over emotion attribute, I decided that I was going to start eating fish on a regular basis and so I have, effectively increasing the likelihood that I will remain vege- (ok well you probably gathered at this point that I’m a truly a pesce) –tarian.

-Josh

Running – From Hate to…Love?

I’ll admit it – I used to hate running. Until recently I still did. To be fair, I never really gave it a chance. In elementary school I was one of the lower percentiles that used an interesting strategy to face the dreaded day that was the 1-mile run. I was usually effective with my “just keep moving my feet” approach for the first few minutes, finding myself somewhere in the middle of the herd of a hundred. Then reality would set in and I would huff and puff my way while shamefully walking for nearly the rest. I typically avoided conversation with any of the 7, 8 or 9-minute mile finishers and instead would hang around the finish line waiting for the last of the class, as if I had been there for a while.

I recall one year in middle school, Mrs. Wegman clocked me with a finish time of 8:28 for which I was completely ecstatic. I wondered what I could have possibly improved over the course of the last year to accomplish such a feat. Then a neighborhood friend, Eli, pointed out that I had only run 2.5 laps instead of the 3.5 laps around the soccer field required, effectively making my time 11:51 and reverting back to the mean of my historical performance. Another shameful year of being in the 12:00+ club. Another year of consistently hating running.

Fast forward to a few months ago and I was just as uninspired as ever to run. A sample of the thoughts which filled my mind included:

• What if I play basketball or racquetball more often? Isn’t that good enough?
• Running is so boring that I can only do it for so long.
• It’s too hot outside. It’s too cold outside.
• I always run out of energy really quickly.
• My knees and shins might start to hurt.
• I just wasn’t meant to run.

It was this backward logic that enabled me not to run for my entire life. Instead of thinking about the health benefits of running, such as:

• Improve Overall Health
• Relieve Stress
• Boost Confidence
• Lose Weight
• Fight Disease
• Gain Strength

I was too focused on the risks and tradeoffs of running. This is quite consistent with how and why 90% of smokers do not change their lifestyle and continue to smoke, even after having complex procedures, such as, coronary-artery bypass. However, when smokers build a support network and focus on the benefits of not smoking, an astonishing 77% quit the habit for good. How does this relate to smoking you may wonder? If you equate the act of not running to smoking and the act of running to not smoking, you’ll find many commonalities.

Just like anything else, a transformation doesn’t happen over night and awareness is not necessarily an impetus for change. For me the tipping point came from a book that I recently read entitled Born to Run. In it the author, Christopher McDougall, explains to learn to love what you hate, in this case – running. While the book is likely to change anyone’s outlook on running through his amazing accounts and interactions with some of the greatest runners in the world, he helps to resolve the great divide between all of the golden tidbits of knowledge that runners have accumulated and the rest of us. While there are probably 100 things that I do which are sub-optimal when it comes to running, I’d like to share some things which have helped to improve my speed, distance and confidence in what’s shaping up to become something that I love:

• Stay Hydrated – Buy yourself a Nalgene Bottle and Humangear Capcap and carry it around with you everywhere
• Go to a local running store to understand how you run and buy some good shoes. While there is a lot of debate about traditional running shoes vs. minimalist shoes vs. barefoot, at a minimum learning a little about the nuances of your stride can go a long way. Just because you buy a really nice pair of shoes which are very comfortable, doesn’t mean that they are right for you.
• Focus on distance and not your time. A good way to do this is to not run any faster than a pace at which you can carry a conversation.
• Download an app (i.e. Nike Running+) or buy a GPS watch (Garmin) to track your progress. This will help a lot with goal-setting.
• Make an awesome playlist with songs that get you pumped up or take your mind to another place.
• Let your mind wander and allow running to be an opportunity to clear your head. This took me a while to do because in the beginning I would desperately count down the seconds of my runs. However, once you establish a good and steady pace, you’ll find that your mind will occupy itself and you’ll go for minutes at a time without even thinking about running.
• Find a friend. Don’t be intimidated or bashful to ask someone to go on a jog or run with. Chances are they will be flattered. In fact, consider this an open invite from me to be your partner, as I’ve had plenty that continue to help me along the way.
• Any run is a win. Even if you only have a few minutes before you have to meet-up for dinner, take any opportunity to get out and get your heart rate up.

– Josh

Welcome and My Promise to You

Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, May 2013

Hello! I’m Josh. I’ve long considered starting a blog, but with millions out there I never quite arrived at where to begin or what to say that hasn’t been said before. Sure, I’ve experienced things and have valid arguments, but the last thing I want to do is be another painfully obvious voice of conventional wisdom that leaves you feeling like you’ll never get back those precious moments in life after reading my wandering tangents.

I suppose I hit my tipping point today on, Friday the 13th, by finally realizing that I get satisfaction and fulfillment from helping my family, friends and anyone willing to listen. I believe that everyone has their own discovery and self-assessment to do on their own, but what I can offer is a glimpse into the tribulations of my life experiences and hopefully connect you with information or ideas that I have subjectively deemed credible and helpful. In a nut shell, my ultimate goal of this blog is to share information that will do one or all of the following:

1. increase your awareness or understanding of a topic
2. unleash new ideas and help apply them to your life
3. save you time, research or money when you encounter similar decisions
4. provide some type of entertainment value

I love feedback and suggestions, so please let me know if there is a topic that you’d ever like me to write about. And don’t worry I won’t make up stuff.

Josh