iPhone

I love my iPhone.

4.5 hours of sleep?

I woke up around 5 AM this morning after having gone to sleep at 12:30 AM. I don't know how I was so full of energy, but I took my morning rhodiola rosea, hit the track and did my HIIT. I even grabbed a double shot of wheatgrass on the way home and now as I type this I'm nursing my Ironman-approved green smoothie.

Good times on boats!

More China Study

I've ordered probably another half dozen copies of the China Study in the last week for friends I've met who unfortunately ask me "what have you been reading recently?" or "what have you been up to?" Sadly I cannot stop myself from talking about it. My sister Kathleen and I are both huge advocates of proper nutrition through plant-based diets for obvious reasons, as our mother died over ten years ago after a long battle with many cancers. If only we knew then what we know now about how much nutrition plays into the picture, I am completely confident we would have saved her.

Then again, her situation was desperate in the final days. I've met several people in the last two years who have loved ones who are dying of cancer, yet they still laugh at the concept that diet will have any net effect on their conditions. Most people, as the China Study points out, are more likely to accept that they will die of cancer or heart disease, or have horrible cholesterol or high blood pressure, or have osteoporosis, or age much faster, than they are willing to even consider a notion as heretical as dietary change, especially with--gasp--only vegetables and fruit and nuts! Yuck!

I'm one week into my high-raw, all-vegan diet and loving it so far. I don't miss meat at all, but I do find it tough at times when I can't find anything without meat, and even worse at times when I end up resorting to potato chips or other "bad vegan" foods. Still, the rhodiola rosea seems to work a lot better on the vegan diet, and all the intelligence I've read suggests this diet is optimal for long-term health. Just stay away from the bread and pasta and white rice. (some intel suggests whole grain pastas, breads, brown rice, wild rice are OK, but it's still better to avoid them)

It is somewhat cool understanding that I can lose a pound per day until around 185 lbs just by eating a raw vegan diet. I just can't wait to see what that combined with all the high intensity workouts will lead to -- a whole new world, no doubt.

Working with the Best

I have to give a shout out to my team. We've had such an amazing set of past few weeks and I feel like I'm working with the best crew one could ever assemble. An old friend once told me that if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life, and I never really believed her until joining my current team. Not only is what we're doing the most amazing and important mission on the planet, the people involved forever humble me. Several of us have been battling colds and flus over the last few weeks, but we're still cranking and keeping the engines running (with a little help of Red Bull and, in my case, Rhodiola rosea). I used to think my crew at Cornell was the best, but I've found that the Cornell/Stanford/MIT blend we've got now are more than one could ever hope for, and I intend to be friends with them long after we've made our mark.

I went back to visit my old town, Seattle, last weekend for recruiting and I had the chance to check out the Imperial campus (Microsoft). Talking with my old coworkers, I could barely remember how I survived there for 2.5 years! But it led me to where I am now and that has made all the difference.

I sometimes contemplate what might be ahead for me professionally down the line, but frankly I don't think I could ever work for another company unless it was my own. Once you've set the bar as high as we've done here, going back to anything less would be simply unacceptable.

It's a beautiful thing.

Veganity -- One Week In

Overall I've found veganity to be relatively painless, but I can totally see how people can become fat vegans. In one week I'm up five pounds, and over the weekend I had a whole lot of potato chips due to lack of veggies where I was staying. Fortunately when I'm not actually on the road I do a pretty decent job of the high-raw/all-vegan diet of fruit at breakfast, salad during the day, maybe an apple here or there, a big green smoothie after any workout, and some light cooked vegan meal for dinner.

I've been sick for the last few weeks so I haven't been working out much, which blows, but this week I'm looking to get back into things. I'm planning to wake up every morning at 8 AM, hit the nearby track for some high intensity interval training, followed with pushups (I'm going to restart the 100 pushup challenge at week 4), and hopefully kipping pullups. (not sure if there is a pullup bar at the track)

I'm also going to check out the nearby Brazilian Jiu Jitsu places to get a taste for the school culture and the overall program. BJJ is a ridiculous workout--everyone I've seen who's a student in BJJ is ripped like a mofo and every time I've ever wrestled I've usually been drenched in sweat within a few minutes. A combination of HIIT and BJJ on top of the HRAV diet should lead to a significantly reduced bodyfat percentage in a relatively short amount of time -- i.e., under a month. I'll keep you posted.