Even before I finally decided to start planning this experiment, well planning to begin the experiment in the very near future, I always suffered thinking of the notion of not getting to experience holidays with everyone else.  So much of our family holidays surround certain foods and good drink.  What would a birthday party or New Years Eve be without a good toast of champagne?  What would Christmas Eve be like without being able to chow down on some big bowls of Scungilli salad, crab claws or pasta in mushroom sauce (with of course some nice bottles of wine to wash it down)?  What would Christmas Day be like without noshing on a nice charcuterie and cheese plate and later a high stacked keilbasa and ham sandwich with freshly grated horseradish on dense traditional rye bread?  I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.  However for the duration of the experiment, which could be upwards of two years, these will not be in the cards at all.

As with an a early post to any new blog, it is fitting that I lay out who I am and why you should care about anything I have to say. First, I’ll say what I am not. I’m not a doctor or a personal trainer. While I have stayed in plenty of Holiday Inn Express hotels, scoured WebMD and online medical journal sites countless hours through the years and had a keen interest in human physiology I can make no claim of being a licensed expert in these fields. I’m not here to claim to be a health guru either. I don’t have some new magical elixir to sell you that will magically make you healthy, feel twenty years younger or be able to live into your 100’s. I’m not an adherent to any particular diet principle, tried and true or relatively newly discovered. I’m not a film maker working on yet another recast of a Morgan Spurlock adventure.  So who am I?

…that is the question posed by Ben Greenfield on his Facebook page based on a discussion he found here: http://b-reddy.org/2013/05/20/issues-with-foam-rolling/ .  The article by Brian Reddy certainly makes a compelling argument against it, or more so against only doing foam rolling or to foam rolling in excess.  I think he presents a false dichotomy though.  He points out how foam rolling can’t fix underlying movement problems.  His main points are summarized in big bulleted letters, but I think over-simplifies the argument and creates that false dichotomy:

Power yoga kicked my ass, that or a combination of that plus allergy medicines, allergies and overly light breakfast.  Comfort food was in order for lunch, but still didn’t make me feel better.  A 3+ hour nap in the afternoon after taking rest of day off of work did however.  Hearty steak and salad dinner with some yogurt and mango dessert (plus some pita chips and brownie bark) made for a not terrible but not great SAD diet day

How long should I be trying each diet out?  I’m taking great care to consider the proper phasing and timing of the entire experiment.  I’m trying to make sure that I’m not setting myself up for failure by doing things overly aggressively.  I’m also trying to make sure that I don’t bias any results for a given diet.  It would be a pity if I switched off a diet just in time for the effects to be felt.  At the same time I don’t want to make the period so long that it takes years for this process to unfold.