This is a point often lost — the best diet for athletic performance and the best diet for health or longevity have a lot of overlap (neither would have much sugar etc.) but at the margins they diverge somewhat. Essentially some of the things that stimulate growth are counter productive to slowing the aging process.

That said, most any diet is going to be a lot healthier than a standard American diet of whatever.

I tend to avoid this topic because people have such strong opinions about it. It’s usually counterproductive to discuss it. You brought it up, though, so I thought I’d add my two cents 🙂 I eat meat, but I try to keep my meat consumption pretty low as an overall percentage of my diet. I think there is enough accumulated evidence to suggest that people should be cautious about extremely high animal protein intake. Plus, there’s significant evidence that high vegetable intake is is correlated to low incidences of chronic disease, so I figure that’s the way to go until science can create me an ideal diet based on my genome 🙂

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The Effect of a Plant-Based Diet on Plasma Lipids

After 4 weeks, the participants eating the plant-based diet, rich in nutrients and phytochemicals, reduced their total and LDL cholesterol significantly more than the participants consuming a standard low-fat diet.
http://nutrition.stanford.edu/documents/Plant_based.pdf

Glycemic and cardiovascular parameters improved in Type 2 Diabetes with the high nutrient density (HND) diet

Diets low in animal protein and saturated fat and high in complex carbohydrates, fiber and micronutrients improve glucose tolerance, postprandial glucose and overall glycemic control, as well as decrease insulin resistance.

https://www.drfuhrman.com/members/m_library/OJPM20120300014_73341742.pdf

One of the most robust genetic associations for cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the Chromosome 9p21 region. However, the interaction of this locus with environmental factors has not been extensively explored. We investigated the association of 9p21 with myocardial infarction (MI) in individuals of different ethnicities, and tested for an interaction with environmental factors.

The risk of MI and CVD conferred by Chromosome 9p21 SNPs appears to be modified by a prudent diet high in raw vegetables and fruits.

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001106

Red and processed meat intake and risk of colorectal adenomas: a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological studies.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23380943

Consumption of red meat and processed meat, ethanol from alcoholic drinks (by men and probably by women), as well as body fatness and abdominal fatness and the factors that lead to greater adult-attained height or its consequences are convincing causes of colorectal cancer.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13668-011-0006-7

Nonlinear reduction in risk for colorectal cancer by fruit and vegetable intake based on meta-analysis of prospective studies.

Based on meta-analysis of prospective studies, there is a weak but statistically significant nonlinear inverse association between fruit and vegetable intake and colorectal cancer risk.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21600207%20

Red and processed meat and colorectal cancer incidence: meta-analysis of prospective studies.

High intake of red and processed meat is associated with significant increased risk of colorectal, colon and rectal cancers. The overall evidence of prospective studies supports limiting red and processed meat consumption as one of the dietary recommendations for the prevention of colorectal cancer.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21674008

Watching Frank Medrano definitely makes me want to step up my game. He’s at the level that makes people stare in disbelief

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFPsvF3UOdo&app=desktop

It’s interesting how powerful having specific goals can be. I remember we talked a while back about Derek Sivers’ claim that not openly stating your goals makes them more potent or something:

* Derek Sivers: Keep your goals to yourself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHopJHSlVo4

But honestly I think that’s just plain wrong. I can’t find it now, but I remember reading an article that did a good job of poking holes in the research he cites and why it may not be that generally applicable, so I’m not really buying it. At the very least, stating goals opening and often seems to make me push harder towards them because now I have my ego and reputation on the line. 😉

Here’s one you can all aim for:

There will be blood and sweat and tears. There will be crying mothers, orange masks and morbidly embarrassed children. There will be glory and there will be flying scissor body slams in this one day only event. The date is set and there is no turning back. Jason “Captain America” Roberts takes on The Wild Wolverine (with guest appearance by Justin ‘The Terror’ Vincent) for the coveted techzing belt in a in a one day only extravaganza.

Lucha Libre!!

When I saw the results of the race I noticed that the winner did it in <19 minutes. Now there's a challenge. I want to win the same race again next year, which in relative terms is a 25% increase in pace.

This will be harder work than what I've done so far, and I'm wrapping it up into "Project Six Pack". It's not that I particularly feel a need to have a six pack, but I think it's a good visual goal of building muscle mass and reducing body fat. So I'm currently focusing on strength training like you guys, whilst keeping the running at a reasonable level.

I'm 38, 6 foot tall, and weigh 67kg (148lbs), with around 13.5% body fat. I've got a body-composition monitor like Jason was talking about – I've just started taking the key measurements every day, but tracking them on a 5-day rolling average to even out the daily fluctuations.

Good luck to you both, and everyone else taking on similar challenges. It's good to get away from the desk every now and again 🙂

Thanks so much for the inspiration and I hope to see you both at the summit!