Soul Mates
Two year’s ago Valentine’s Day, Winnie and I celebrated our love by going to a small pastry shop for afternoon tea. I remember our conversation like it was yesterday
Winnie: “We were really lucky to find each other. I have never met anybody that fits me so well.”
Me: “I know, I feel the same way.”
Winnie: “I bet we feel so comfortable with each other because we have been together in past lives, like soul mates”
Me: “You think so? I believe that”
Winnie: “Yeah, and maybe in our next life we will be together again. I could even be the man and you be the woman”
Me: “You think?”
Winnie: “Yeah… but, maybe you could lose some weight first. I’m not really into fat chics”
True love… how sweet it is
The Way It Used To Be
In high school, I was a 3 sport athlete. At 160 lbs, I could bench press 245 lbs and squat 425 lbs. I ran 40m in 4.6s, was solid muscle, and could hit like a truck, a combination that led to being selected Academic All State in Football (but it wasn’t that cool, because I also won the Math Award… so… yeah)
As the years passed, desk jobs replaced daily sports training and my midsection expanded. I was still in decent shape (round), biking 100+ miles a week in the years before we retired, but now I was doing it with a muffin top
Breakfast of Champions
Early retirement was great for my psyche… but with unlimited time, unlimited budget, and a love of food, it wasn’t helping my physique. You can’t spend $1000+/month on food, and not expect some of it to stick around. Yeah, I’m surprised too
Making Changes
A friend of ours in Seattle is a personal trainer. He is a good looking gay gentleman and the neighbor lady calls him Adonis. He offered to help me get a Gaudi (a gay body, get it?) But we wanted to travel, not stay in a gym in Seattle
Another friend of ours is a trainer for Ironman competitions. His body fat percentage must be like 3%. He offered to give me a workout plan that I could do at home, I just had to commit to an hour a day of intense and painful exercise. It sounded like hell
Enter Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Chef
Years earlier, I had read The 4-Hour Workweek
. I was thinking the 9-5 for 65 thing wasn’t for me, and here was a book about this crazy guy traveling the world and doing ridiculous unconventional things. I liked him immediately
Tim Ferriss’ ideas of mini-retirements, global living, and life on your own terms helped me see the world differently, and were a big impetus for our own developing plan for early retirement and world travel
So when I decided I was shamed into trying to drop a few pounds, I turned to another Tim Ferriss creation, The 4-Hour Body
The 4-Hour Body
Following the eating recommendations in the book, today I had a bacon cheeseburger, truffle cheese fries, a pint of hard cider, a pint of Belgian Trappist ale, a pint of Haagan Dazs cookies & cream ice cream, a piece of chocolate molten-lava cake with vanilla bean whipped cream, 3/4 of a large Italian style sausage pizza, 1/2 of a large piece of lasagna, a shot of limoncello, and a mint chocolate mocha. But it’s only 8 pm and like Cinderella, I’m keeping this party going until midnight
Bacon Cheeseburgers & Truffle Cheese Fries (with MMM inspired grill mark)
The results are unmistakable. In the last 15 weeks, I have lost 17 pounds, 4 inches on my waist, and 6 inches on my hips. I’ve also had noticeable strength improvement through twice weekly kettlebell workouts of about 10 minutes each. Sometimes I forget, so that is maybe 4 hours of exercise in 15 weeks. Diet is 10x more important than exercise
Jeremy’s 4-Hour Body Experiment
The key to this big change is the Slow Carb diet (Slow Carb subreddit) During the week, I don’t eat anything white… no rice, no bread, no potatoes, no pasta, no sugar. I eat primarily vegetables, beans, eggs, and protein in unlimited quantities. On Saturday, or Faturday, I eat as much as I want of whatever I want.
This works well for my personality, because I’m OK with abstinence but once I start eating something I can’t stop. Winnie can stretch a pint of ice cream for 2 weeks. I’ll devour the whole things in 2 minutes
I can satisfy all of my irrational food desires, but in a way that incentivizes my body to burn fat and build muscle. I’m almost back to my high school weight, and I’m trending downward in body fat and upward in strength. (Now Winnie is jealous because for the first time ever, my circumference is smaller than hers haha)
Note: I don’t often run around topless except at the beach, but there is no better way to see the results
Last Year’s Pants
Kettlebell Thrusts
Based on a visual comparison of photos in The 4-Hour Body, we estimate that I dropped from about 30% body fat to 15%. If that is even remotely accurate, I lost 29 lbs of fat and gained 13 lbs of muscle. Pass the donuts
Winnie says, “I put in a squirrel to protect your nuts”
I Will Cook Like a Pro
Now I’ve picked up another Tim Ferriss creation, The 4-Hour Chef
The book promises to teach you to learn any complex topic, using food as the medium. All of the recipes are Slow Carb. Many of them look incredible
To be completely honest, I’ve read through much of the book but… I have yet to make a single dish. Winnie won’t let me in her kitchen
But as soon as she is on bed rest after childbirth I am taking over. That’s what she gets for calling me fat
———-
I’m more of a borrow from the library kind of guy, but when I really love a book I buy it to thank the author. All 3 of Tim’s books are on my Kindle
Thank You Tim!
Has Tim Ferriss Had An Impact on Your Life?
Any of his books or his podcast are a great place to start
“Diet is 10x more important than exercise”
Now you tell me!
Sad but true :)
The “4 Hour Chef” is an impressive book – buy it as a real book (not just on Kindle).
I would, but physical books don’t fit with our lifestyle
I understand. It is a really heavy book. I was very surprised.
I had the 4HB as a physical book also. It served double duty as a weight if no barbells were around :)
I sold it though before hitting the road, it isn’t practical to carry books with us so the Kindle works great
Wait……so the diet and workout regime also gets you from a nice tan to pasty white? ;)
Winter is harsh bro
Great results! I’ve tried the 4HB diet in the past and it’s pretty great. Right now it’s hard to stick with while traveling all the time for work.
I read 4HWW a few years ago and really liked it, but it took a little while and a couple early retirement blogs before I really committed to achieving FI, I guess for me it takes a while for things to sink in :)
I haven’t picked up the 4HC yet so I’m looking forward to a review once you dig into it.
4HWW for me was mind opening, and the 4HB results speak for themselves. I’ll be making the first dish in 4HC, Osso “Buko” in the near future
Incredible results. Off to the library…
I like your style :)
People make losing weight a lot harder than it seems. I haven’t read the 4 Hour Body, but it seems like the plan revolves around cutting out a lot of carbs during the week, which in essence is just lowering your total caloric intake. This is just a simplified version of the science which is you need your caloric intake to be a deficit to the calories you “use” throughout your day to lose weight. But hey, not everyone wants to count calories and macro nutrients, so I bet this system works great for those who are very busy and are just trying to get more healthy and don’t want it to be a part-time job. Good work!
Maybe. But then again, all of personal finance can be summarized as “spend less than you earn”
Well isn’t it that easy? :)
So true about working a desk job. A sedentary job really is awful for your health…plus I have a long commute which adds to more sitting. Man it might be tough for me to cut out rice…I am Asian after all! And I really don’t like brown rice. Gotta check out the book.
I used to bike to work most days… I had 3 different routes I could take, 8 miles, 21 miles, and 23 miles. The 8 mile route required getting on a bus across the bridge, but there are bike racks on the buses in Seattle. Usually if I did a 20 mile route I would take the bus home or vice versa
There is no better way to commute than riding a bike
Sorry to say, brown rice is still white. No rice at all, except on Faturday
Uh-oh, looks like increased spending in the (slim-fitting) wardrobe department is in the pipeline for the next expense update…
Congrats on the great results!
Haha, that will be in the February spending report :)
I tried holding off as long as I could because my waist kept getting smaller. I think I’ve mostly plateaued on my hips though so I bought some new jeans
I read this post while eating a Slow Carb breakfast, and I got into lifestyle design, which eventually lead to following excellent early-retirement blogs like GCC due to 4HWW :)
Here’s what I have eaten for breakfast almost every non-cheat day since I picked up 4HB when it came out ~4 years ago:
*Low fat cottage cheese
*3 whole scrambled eggs with 1/2 can of beans
*For lunch, I have a Slow Carb approved vegetable sauteed with more beans
The great thing is that I get all this from Costco:
*Breakstone Cottage Cheese sold in 3lb tubs for ~4.50USD
*Eggs range from 7.50-11.50USD for a palate of 72
*Goya Black Beans for ~4.00/pack of 6
*French beans sold in 5lb bag for ~9USD
The best thing is that I batch all my breakfast and lunch cooking together on Sunday so I know I have Slow Carb approved food waiting for me each day. Here’s what I do:
*I cook Goya beans for a bit, then add eggs (for every day I work that week, I add 1/2 can of beans and 3 eggs)
*Add spices liberally for taste
*Once cooked, immediately place into container to cool, then cook the french beans and Goya beans (I guestimate how many french beans to add; Goya beans are still 1/2 a can)
*Once beans are done, put into second container
*I use a 3-container tiffin for lunch each day. This way, I prepare it the night before so I can just roll out of bed and go
Thanks, Jeremy and Winnie for this excellent website. I really appreciate all the insightful articles you provide on early retirement and how to crunch the numbers. Your site, along w/MMM, MadFI, and Jim Collins, are my go-to for all matters FI related!
Thanks Tom! It’s an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence with those guys
That sounds like a great system! Easy, efficient, and good value
My breakfast today is fairly typical, 2 eggs, home made black beans, and herb marinated pork chops. Winnie has been making a big pot of beans once per week, and then I just heat a single portion at each meal
Lunch might be something like a Chipotle burrito bowl, except made at home, and a side of greens
We mostly go out for dinner, and I focus on vegetables and protein
The 4HC is awesome. I love Sexy-Time Steak and Feijoada.
Just yesterday I saw pictures from a friend on facebook of sexy-time steak. That will have to get moved up the list a bit :)
The story at the beginning. I actually laughed out loud. :) great story… Also answer yo my question Mr. T Ferris.
So many blogs so little time
The stuff she says sometimes… it could easily compete with the “stuff my girlfriends says” tumblr site – NSFW, but oh so funny
Fantastic story! I’m equally intrigued by the early retirement. Any advice on that?
Hi Mike! Yes, I have lots of advice on that :)
Most of this blog is about the finances of early retirement, at least those posts that aren’t about our travel
This one is a good starting point:
https://gocurrycracker.com/10-years-and-a-day/
Awesome Jeremy. And I bet you have more energy too! Is oatmeal white?
Hi Sunny, yeah oatmeal is white. Basically no carbs during the week
Energy is definitely improved. It is hard carrying 17 extra pounds with you wherever you go
Very cool! Haven’t read Tim’s other two books looks I will. The diet you described sounds a modification of whole30. My wife and I have done whole30 a few times now (we’re on the 3rd round) and I’ve lost about 2 kg each time.
This is pretty much a life change for me. I don’t see any reason to stop eating this way. I still have another 5% body fat to lose or so
I think there are a lot of different ways to get results, but this is the first one I’ve seen that fits my personality
Jeremy,
Nice results. Congrats!
I’ve never read any of Tim’s stuff. Maybe I’ll check to see if our local library has some of his books to take a peek.
I’m lucky in that I became interested in fitness in my early teens and I’ve never really stopped. My diet could be improved, but I’m the kind of guy who’d rather eat a few slices of pizza and then hit the gym a little harder to burn it off. To each their own.
Best regards!
Thanks Jason!
I used to do the same thing, but along the way the exercise patterns changed and the eating didn’t.
If you are open to considering an alternative opinion about the long-term health consequences of low-carb diets, you may be interested to research information on this site: https://www.drmcdougall.com/.
Hi Robert, always good to read both sides of a point of view. There are always pros and cons. Thanks for the link
I followed the link open-minded and ready to research. After some time doing so, I was astonished when I went to this URL:
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/education/free-mcdougall-program/before-you-begin/
…and read the following:
“If you follow the diet strictly for more than three years…take a minimum of 5 micrograms (mcg) of supplemental vitamin B12 each day.”
To each their own, and what’s right for me might be different for others, but IMHO, anything that has to be supplemented over the long term with outside vitamins, isn’t really a lifelong eating plan.
I’m curious how this works with rice since you have an Asian wife. My Asian wife seems to be fueled by white rice and it accompanies maybe half our meals.
Do you eat different foods from her? Has she ditched her rice habit?
I’ve tried to mix brown and white rice but the wife has given that the nix.
Overall, the diet sounds pretty effective and the results are obvious.
Brown rice is still white, so no rice at all except on Faturday
We eat 90% the same stuff, I just skip the carbs and replace with beans. Winnie still eats the same way she did before
Wow, not even brown rice? I could probably skip the rice but that smell of freshly cooked rice as you open the rice cooker and the steam shoots up? Mmmmmmm. Sorry, I should have waited till Faturday to post this. :)
I’m also cursed with a wife (otherwise perfect in every regard!) who doesn’t like beans. They didn’t have beans in the jungles of Thailand growing up, so she claims. Which means we would have to cook two sets of side dishes (rice and beans) to get us through a meal together.
I’ve never really been a fan of plain rice. It doesn’t do it for me. It can be good with curries though, as a vessel for something else. Which is kind of how I use beans. They just carry the flavor of whatever herbs and spices they are prepared with
Winnie is allergic to several different kinds of beans, probably because of no exposure to them early in life. Most of the beans that are eaten in Taiwan are served as dessert (red bean/adzuki soup, for example) which is kind of gross
Winnie has just been making a large batch of beans once per week (in the steamer, actually) and then I just heat up a single serving at each meal in the nuker
Awesome results! We love kettlebells.
No gym membership, no personal trainer, no fancy uniforms, just you and a giant hunk of iron! Grrrrr
Tim defintley had an impact on my life, though probably not the one he intended. Reading it in 2012 got me thinking out of the box and gave me the mental strength to “live life on my own terms”. But instead of starting a business or making my first million I decided to take 5 years off to be a stay at home dad.
That extra time off work then led me to finding marksdailyapple and the paleo community (dropping 40 pounds myself) and eventually to MMM and sites like yours. Certainly I have had other influences and changed myself quite a bit along the way. But reading 4HWW first got me to see there are options.
My long term plans include “mini retirements” of 8-10 weeks during my wife (teacher) and kids summer breaks and hopefully retiring around 45. We shall see.
PS – loving all the new posts lately!
That’s awesome! Sounds like you had your priorities in the right place.
I had a similar 4HWW experience. I experimented with different ideas for a “muse” but nothing seemed to click. But my attitude was never the same after that, because now I truly believed that another way was possible
More posts are coming, thanks for the encouragement!
Great job! You better keep trim, as your wife looks like the settler! lol
She’s got spunk, that’s for sure
Hey Jeremy, glad to hear this is working for you. Curious, what effect has this diet had on your cholesterol? Also, has there be any downside/trade-off? A little more gassy? :)
I haven’t had a physical this year so I can’t give any objective answer. Gas isn’t a problem, even with eating beans. I feel better overall, more energetic
I own all three of Tim’s books on Kindle as well. I love how unconventional his approach is. And how experimental and scientific he is with his approach.
He has definitely contributed to the impetus for me to start a blog. I look forward to pursuing the 4-hour workweek as a lifestyle entrepreneur as they call them. Not that I actually plan on working on 4-hours or that Tim only works 4-hours.
But building a location independent business with the right systems in place is for sure the goal.
I also think he is on to something in mastering a new skill. The old rule of thumb was that it took 10,000 hours to become an expert and master a skill. Where Tim makes the argument that if you focus on the most important 20% that you can become really good at the thing in far less time than 10,000 hours.
Great work getting your fitness back.
Cheers!
Thanks, its good to see my toes again :)
Yeah, the 10k hour number is to become competitive on the global level. I don’t really care if I can swim as fast as Michael Phelps, and most people could become really good swimmers with just hundreds of hours of practice
I think Tim Ferriss has some great ideas, but I don’t like the way he makes crazy, unverifiable claims to prove them In the 4 hour workweek, he mentioned winning a kickboxing and dance tournament. In the exercise one, he mentioned putting on 34 pounds of muscle in one month. No one puts on that much muscle in a month unless they’re juiced out of their mind. Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof and he doesn’t provide it.
However, I must say that you’ve inspired me a bit. Tonight, at dinner, I went without the bread and will continue to do so.
He does like chemicals and has a penchant for sensationalist marketing
You won’t regret skipping the bread. I think MMM refers to bread as “weight gain squares”
But what about Sunday? I would probably add Funday to Faturday, and then Monday also sounds like Funday, so that needs to stay in too…
I tried that plan. See the “Before” pic :)
Love this post! It is always encouraging to see people finding their soul mates! It looks like I have been doing the 4-hour body thing for a long time without realizing it. Now I know what to tell people when they ask why I don’t put on weight when I eat like a horse on the weekends!
horses know where it is at
Screw the diet. How did you and Winnie meet? :P
I actually did slowcarb for about 4 months, I plateaued pretty quickly after 10 lbs loss with no further results for the next 2-3 months. Pretty sad, but I suspect I wasn’t nearly strict enough on the types of beans. (The bean dishes I ended up making were too good, crockpot style)
Usually Winnie tells people I met her on obediantasianwife.com. If that’s the case, I have a great false advertising claim
We actually met through work, she was working in sales and one of my coworkers was friends with one of her coworkers, and we were all on business in Beijing…
In my weight chart above, I was the same weight for 3 to 4 weeks at a time. But while my weight plateaued, there was noticeable change in strength and waist size. The chart shows my weight on Saturday morning, and sometimes I was 5+ lbs heavier on Sunday after all the carbs on Faturday. I mostly ignored the weight
Do you lug that kettlebell around with you on your travels?
I wish, but not practical. I’ll sell this one when we leave here, and buy an used one in the next place or adopt a pure body weight workout. That’s one of the nice things of long term slow travel
Wait, are you having another kiddo? Did I miss a previous announcement??
I could not stop laughing when I saw the squirrel and then when I read what Winnie said, I laughed even harder!! You guys should co-author the next post!!
Does it work until now?