Blog / Fitness / Nature

Why I don’t eat meat, part 1

Why I don't eat meat differs from why I stopped eating meat, though the reasons overlap in matters of taste. As I mentioned, I lived over half my life since I stopped eating meat and, as you might expect, my reasons changed. The main reasons for the changes were realizing that I found no objective reason for eating meat or not. I've looked and they all turn out subjective. People have suggested lots of reasons for eating meat or not and none of them have been objective either. All reasons boil down to matters of taste and belief. If people disagree on their reasons, the reasons probably aren't based in objective truth. People claim their reasons are objective, but I don't find someone saying they…

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December 17, 2011
Blog / Nature

Why I stopped eating meat, part 3

Three days ago I mentioned I stopped eating meat for two categories of reasons: taste and intellectual reasons. Two days ago I covered taste. Today, intellectual reasons. First I'll mention that none of the following reasons motivate me anymore. Though I once did, I no longer find them compelling. I find their counter-arguments equally valid, or just as well, I find them equally invalid. I find talking about these reasons tends to promote arguments. As part of this series on food I'll write why I find the arguments uncompelling reasons not to eat meat (though I do find them compelling reasons to avoid factory-farmed and some other kinds of meat). From 1989 and until the past few years, my motivations for not eating meat included…

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December 16, 2011
Blog / Nature

Why I stopped eating meat, part 2

Yesterday I mentioned I stopped eating meat for two categories of reasons: taste and intellectual reasons. Today I'll cover taste. By taste I mean not just flavor, but what one likes or not, as in musical taste. I never liked eating meat. At least I don't remember liking it, but it was a long time ago. I remember disliking eating meat. My mom would say "It's all meat!" about the fat around a steak that, no matter how much you chew, doesn't break down in your mouth. So I had to chew that stuff while it made me gag. I think my siblings all remember the phrase. So if I ever liked steak I didn't like it after that. The tendons on a drumstick eventually…

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December 14, 2011
Blog / Nature

Why I stopped eating meat, part 1

People often ask me why I stopped eating meat. I wrote a few days ago about how often people ask in order to argue and how I find the question boring after having been asked roughly daily or so for decades. Still, I've learned to appreciate and even celebrate things I can't change so it doesn't get me down. I used to argue with people about food too so I empathize with them, though I learned to stop arguing, so I feel justified in expecting more of them. Anyway, before writing why I stopped eating meat, I'll point out most of my reasons for not eating meat now, which I'll write about later, are different than my reasons for stopping eating meat in 1989. I've…

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December 13, 2011
Blog / Fitness / Nature

More reasonable talk on eating, part 3

Yesterday covered more the physical side of the change in the trucker's life with food. Today let's look more at the emotional side. The movie showed that, however ingrained the punishment of "food" and its related confusion-based helplessness, just a few days of new experience can overcome it. The trucker's physical health didn't change overnight, but his emotional health did. And a major point of this blog is the fundamental importance of emotions in changing your life. Once he found that food -- something so simple as food -- could create power (ability to influence his life), joy, reward, and so on, he found he could create something to live for, which I believe was a better life for himself, spending time with his family…

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December 12, 2011
Blog / Nature

More reasonable talk on eating, part 2

Yesterday I wrote about healthy food, unhealthy "food," and how we've created industries that confuse the two, leading to people eating things they don't like and avoiding things they do. The day before I wrote about the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (view for free here, view trailers here). Since food can be such a rewarding part of life when you find ways to actively enjoy it, many books, movies, restaurants, and so on inspire people by removing the deception and confusion "food" vendors create to sell their products. Once you realize how much joy and reward food can create, you love it. Many have inspired me. A character in Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead inspired me most recently. The movie's main thread is…

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December 11, 2011
Blog / Fitness

First time sprints

This morning I woke up planning to do my first 2,000 meter sprint on my rowing machine. I had a great experience I'll describe after extolling the machine's benefits. Anyone who knows me knows I rarely promote commercial products. Non-commercial products like GNU/Linux, fresh fruit, and public libraries, I promote all the time, but commercial stuff, rarely. This thing has been great. I got it after Thanksgiving last year and have loved the workouts it gave me. I can't help recount how great it's been. Super-convenient -- from waking up in bed I can start working out in under thirty seconds. Running in Central Park takes at least thirty minutes just to take the train there, another thirty minutes back. Excellent workout -- along with…

2 Comments
November 12, 2011
Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Leadership

Should you get a coach?

If you're reading my blog you may be considering getting a coach, maybe even considering me. I've observed that the people who perform best at things tend to have coaches whereas the people who don't do so well remark that they don't need coaching or bristle at the prospect of getting help. Derek Jeter has multiple coaches. Forty percent of Fortune 500 CEOs have personal coaches. This week's New Yorker features a long article on coaching. While not scientific, it covers many of the important points one might want to consider on coaching, describes observing successful coaching describes the author's successful experience testing the waters being coached, and describes some research in the field. It doesn't say everyone should get a coach, but thoughtfully walks…

2 Comments
September 27, 2011
Audio / Blog / Fitness / Freedom

Audio interview: how I make eating well and exercising easy, fun, and rewarding

Do you want eating well and exercising to be easy, fun, and rewarding? In this interview, I talk about how I do it. Briefly, I associate things I want more of in life with happy, fun, or rewarding emotions and things I want less of with painful or unrewarding emotions. The result is I never do anything I don't want to, I always do what I want to, and I never have a problem doing what others try hard to do. Instead of trying to do something I don't want, I learned how to change myself to what I want to be, then behave consistently with who I am. The examples I give are silly and small, but like any skill, you practice on easy…

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September 19, 2011
Blog / Fitness / Tips

How to get others to improve your life

It's great to improve your life. It's that much better to get others to improve it for you. How do you do it? Here's one way. Share things you love. It's enough to tell people about those things. Here's an example. At my mom's house over the weekend, I asked my mom about the Vitamixer she has. She bought this super-powered blender from a late-night infomercial maybe twenty years ago. We all thought she was crazy. It turns out this thing is amazing! It's a blender like a Sherman Tank is a car. It destroys anything you put in it. You can put a whole egg in a smoothie, including the shell. It destroys the shell. You can drink it, probably getting some calcium. On…

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August 19, 2011
Awareness / Blog / Fitness / Nature

When 100% orange juice isn’t: Pepsi, Coke, and agribusiness turn fruit into chemical concoctions

Today is another pause in my series on exercises on communications skills, based on some posts I read on orange juice and how agribusiness processes it. Do you love orange juice? How could it not be just squeezed fruit juice? I love fresh squeezed juice. Fresh squeezed orange juice is one of my favorite things on earth. Growing up we got it from concentrate, I guess because we couldn't afford not-from-concentrate. Once on my own, I switched to not-from-concentrate. I never moved up to fresh squeezed for two reasons -- it was too expensive and it would go bad before I finished it. So I stuck with not-from-concentrate. But wait a minute. Why didn't the not-from-concentrate go bad? How did it differ from fresh squeezed?…

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August 1, 2011
Blog / Fitness

Walking is not dangerous

When you run in Central Park a lot, you see a lot of fun runs, races for cures, and light sporting events -- typically five kilometer runs raising money for charity. Typically also many of the people involved don't run; they walk most of the distance. They still wear workout clothes -- often higher quality gear than I wear. I don't think walking exercises you as much as running, but it gets them outside and moving at least. These races always give out water. They often have water tables every kilometer. Now, don't get me wrong. I appreciate that people need water to live. I also appreciate that event organizers don't want liability for anyone getting dehydrated. But walking or even running five kilometers does…

1 Comment
July 24, 2011
Awareness / Blog / Fitness

Have you forgotten you’re alive?

Have you forgotten you're alive? Do you want to escape the world -- the heat of everyday life? New York City is supposed to hit 103 F (39 C) today. Yesterday was that hot. People say it's horrible. If you think the world is that horrible, go for a run in Central Park. You'll feel alive. the heat won't bother you so much afterward. You'll remember we were born to live in this world. We adapted to it. We have what it takes to survive and flourish in it. The sign said 97 when I started yesterday. It was less crowded than usual, but people were still there. I got passed by more other runners than usual. People have crazy ways to remind themselves they're…

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July 23, 2011
Awareness / Blog / Fitness

Culture shock

People misunderstand culture shock. They talk about it happening when they go to a new place, but that's not when you really get culture shock. When you go to a new place you expect things to be different so differences don't shock you that much. You get culture shock when you return after having been away and having adoped foreign standards without realizing it. Then what used to be normal seems unexpectedly strange and you are shocked. I'm just back from overseas and the same culture shock hit me as always does, no matter how many times it already has because it's such a huge effect: Americans are fat.  

3 Comments
July 13, 2011
Blog / Fitness / Nature / Tips

Best solo workout I know

I've been loving the rowing machine I bought last fall, but I've been waiting to use it six months before posting about it to make sure its value endured a reasonable time. I'm going to write about my experience with it, but if anyone has other experiences, please let me know because I'm still new to it and would love to learn more. This is the one I bought (used, half price, on Craig's List). I normally don't endorse workouts or machines -- I've never bought one before -- but I am happy with this thing and the workout it gives. If your gym has one and you don't use it, give it a shot. Even if you do something else to keep in shape,…

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May 28, 2011
Blog / Fitness / Tips

Sometimes working harder is easier

The summer after high school, my friend Tuan and I rode our bikes from Philadelphia to Bar Harbor, Maine and back, about 1,500 miles. We were both sixteen at the time. The trip was amazing -- not that I remember many details anymore... quite an independent experience for kids that age. Everything went great. An amazing growth experience. We mostly found random places to camp, but also stayed in back yards, farms, parks, ... even a home for runaways when we were stuck in Poughkeepsie (finding free places to stay in cities was harder and it was hard to cross the Hudson otherwise). Anyway, I'm writing today to share a lesson I learned then that has stuck with me ever since. One day we were…

2 Comments
May 19, 2011
Blog

What do I do?

Do you want to live a life of the emotions you want -- happiness, joy, whatever -- freedom, and achievement? Then do what you love. If you believe you have to sacrifice what you love "to be practical" or "pragmatic," you are your own biggest obstacle. My life is a testament to the contrary. If you don't know what you love, find out. If you don't know how to find out, invite me to coach or lead a seminar for you. At least you should read my blog. I no longer value achievement like I once did, so I achieve more than ever, as side effects of doing what I love. If that seems paradoxical, read my blog for a more productive perspective. It's simple.…

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May 3, 2011
Blog / Education / Fitness / Humor / Nature

The fun side of raw food

One of my raw food friends met these guys who call themselves the Raw Brahs (sounds like Raw Bro's). They make goofy, funny, informative videos about eating raw food, being buff, living a life of abundance, and having fun. They eat tons of food, mostly fruits and vegetables, and are seriously buff. I watched them videotape their antics at a McDonalds in Union Square, which they made fun of. In a few days I guess I'll see it posted. In the meantime, I've been watching and laughing at their videos. Plus salivating at their smoothies and fruits. I'm ambivalent about raw food, but I like having fun, laughing, and enjoying whatever I eat, which these guys do in spades. Check them out.

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April 1, 2011
Awareness / Blog / Freedom / Tips

How insults can be calming, liberating, and informative

An insult says more about the insulter than the insultee. People usually look like the insulter is saying something about the insultee. Usually not. An insult expresses the insulter's emotions, directed at what brought them about. For example, if someone is insecure about their body and they see someone with a body they'd be insecure with, they might insult that person to try to feel more secure or deflect others from observing them. I came to that conclusion a while ago and it's amazing how calming, liberating, and informative the change in perspective has been. First, it's calming. When you have the perspective that everyone is responsible for their own emotions, you realize their anger, indignation, impatience, or whatever comes from their beliefs not fitting…

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April 1, 2011
Blog / Fitness

On reading the 2010 New York City Marathon results

I've written before how I like to read the results of the finishers of marathons I run, especially the last and oldest. From the publicly published information, it's the most inspiration you can get. I'm sure it barely scratches the surface of what some athletes overcome to finish, but I look for inspiration where I can. Since I registered for last year's New York City marathon lottery (but didn't get a number), I got the Road Runners Club's magazine with the times from last November's race. Before starting at the last finishers I notice they list the wheelchair finishers after the runners. I didn't realize there were two divisions where I thought there was one -- wheelchair and handcycle, men's and women's for each. Only…

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February 14, 2011
Redefining Possibility: My mom ran her first marathon at 67 years old.
Mom, around mile 7 in Brooklyn. (The "Fox" on her shirt is for the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the charity with which she ran)
Awareness / Blog / Favorites / Fitness / Freedom / Stories / Tips

Redefining Possibility: My mom ran her first marathon at 67 years old.

I've run a few marathons. In New York they publish the finishing times in the paper the next day. For some reason I would look at the later finishers to see the oldest ones. I don't know why. I guess I found it inspirational. In the ones I've run a 91 year old man and an 88 year old woman finished. I used to tease my mom: "You could train for twenty years and still be younger than a woman who finished one I was in." At the finish of my last one, the only one she had been able to attend, overcome with emotion, she said she would train for one. The farthest she had run by then was five kilometers, ten years ago,…

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October 1, 2009
Awareness / Blog / Creativity / Fitness / Freedom / Tips

Discipline

On a scorching August day, running along the Hudson I passed a sign: "Runners: Free T-shirt for Interview." I stopped and agreed to be interviewed. A sports apparel company was interviewing runners for a commercial. They had constructed a small plywood hut with the cameras inside that was air-conditioned. They had me wear a shirt over the one I had been running in to cover their competitor's logo. The interviewer sat facing me just to the side of the camera, clipboard in hand. He perfunctorily asked questions, which I answered, not sure if I should look at him or the camera. The questions were good, along the lines of why I ran, what about it I enjoyed, how running made me feel, how I prepared…

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June 18, 2009

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