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  For Sweeney the weight gain had an even deeper implication. “I had tipped the scale at 300 pounds five years ago, then lost 125 pounds. When I saw an interview I did a few months ago and I looked terrible, it was a big wake-up call. I knew I could get to a point where I was incredibly unhealthy, so I had this motivation. I thought back and tried to remember what I was doing when I lost weight before. Exercise was the first thing we talked about, so Kevin and I went back to running,” recalled Sweeney. The two started waking up a half hour earlier each morning and running on the treadmill at the gym. “It was hard for the first three weeks, but then it got really addictive,” said Systrom. “We’d compare how many calories we burned at the end of it, and I realized you could actually map how much you exercise to how many calories you burn.”

  Healthy eating came as a direct result of this observation. “What’s interesting is we started with exercise, but we were seeing results by understanding that you spend this amount of time and you burn this many calories, so we would make a conscious effort to eat healthier,” Sweeney recounted. “We didn’t go into it with the mindset of dieting.” Systrom agreed. “Now I get angry when I see someone eating greasy potato chips, because I know that is a forty-minute run, and a forty-minute run is hard. So eating healthy was a consequence of starting to exercise.”

  Once healthy eating became a priority, convenience and foresight became the name of the game. Systrom found that stocking yogurt in the office fridge and picking up soups and precut carrot sticks from Whole Foods was the secret to staying on track. “The key for me was finding tricks so you’re not starving, but also so you enjoy eating healthy. I love Greek yogurt, because it fills me up, and the stuff is so good!” he explained excitedly. “I just had stuff around so that when I was hungry and angsty for food, I knew where to go, instead of going to the cupboard and getting chips.”

  Sweeney’s strategy included opting for the vegetarian lunch from the Instagram caterer. “During the week, I only eat vegetarian. It isn’t because I have anything against meat. It just seems like the vegetarian option on everything that comes in is more healthy,” he told me.

  Systrom doesn’t take it this far, but makes a point to load up on veggies and eat them first before allowing himself a smaller, more indulgent treat that he really enjoys. Both agree that it comes down to value. “To me, lunch at work is nothing special,” said Sweeney. “To go waste a ton of calories and go get a crappy burrito from around the corner makes no sense. I’d rather spend my weekends or one night a week going to a great restaurant where there’s great food.”

  Systrom and Sweeney began changing their healthstyle in May 2012, shortly after Facebook announced its plans to acquire Instagram for $1 billion. Before this time they didn’t worry much about what they ate, particularly Systrom, who considers restrictive dieting to be far too difficult in a startup environment. “It’s so painful. You get to work and you can’t think. The way we eat now is way more fulfilling,” he said. Sweeney would occasionally try a restrictive diet, but these temporary diversions never made much of a difference. “I once did this juice thing where I didn’t eat at all for a week. It was terrible,” he shared with a tinge of regret. But things are different now. “I don’t feel cheated at lunch. I find things that I like, and I realized, ‘Wow, I actually like vegetarian options.’ And I don’t feel guilty on the weekends when I go have a great dinner.”

  Finding time to exercise turned out to be easier than they expected. They realized that they had to work out in the mornings, since their availability in the evenings was inconsistent. So in the beginning they forced themselves to get up earlier and hit the gym. “The truth is you have to give up something. I give up sleep and a little bit of morning work time, and I’m okay with that,” Systrom said. But he went on to explain that what they lose in time, they gain in efficiency, since their morning workouts make them more alert. “I get in about thirty minutes later, but I’m so much more productive and can stay later,” said Systrom. The only time their productivity took a hit was in the early weeks when they weren’t yet adapted to the morning workouts. According to Systrom, “It wasn’t that easy the first three weeks, but I made a deal with myself that if it still sucked after four weeks, I would stop. But it didn’t. It was great.” Despite getting to work a half hour later and losing out on a little sleep that the lazier versions of themselves would relish, their new habits help rather than hinder their work. “We’re actually much more productive in the mornings now,” Sweeney agreed. “Having the structure was actually better all around.”

  Systrom believes that his newfound confidence in how he looks and feels also plays a big role in his increased productivity. “I feel way more energetic, but I think that’s because I’m more confident. I’ve lost twenty-five pounds now,* and people say ‘Wow, you look good!’ ” He paused briefly as he glanced down at himself, then over to Sweeney. “We can tuck our shirts in finally. Seriously, I can fit into a large now and not the bulky extra large, and that felt really good. And because of that I think I’m more energetic at work.”

  In the beginning, before they started seeing results and when waking up earlier was still really hard, there were two things that kept them motivated. “The only reason I was doing it was because we were doing it together. We stopped going to the gym together after a month, but it was necessary in the beginning,” Systrom explained. “I don’t think anyone should have to do it alone. It’s just really hard.” As mentioned in chapter 8, finding the motivation to exercise consistently should be your top priority when starting a new workout regimen. Once you reach a certain level of fitness, exercise becomes its own reward, but before that workouts can be painful and you need to find a way to push through those first few weeks. “If you find a buddy, you keep each other motivated,” continued Systrom. “Social accountability actually matters, and for us it just meant showing up.”

  The second big motivator for Systrom and Sweeney was having a way to quantify and share their progress with friends. “Nike+ was awesome for us, because you see how many calories you burn and how long you go. It’s infectious too. My girlfriend started running every day,” said Systrom. Modern electronic activity trackers allow you to both follow your progress and share that information with friends, even if you don’t work out with them directly. Being able to see your friends’ activity becomes a form of inspiration and motivation. “It’s not a competition in an aggressive sense,” Sweeney explained. “You get addicted to it, and it becomes fun. We continue to encourage each other.”

  Systrom believes these subtle psychological motivators are what enabled him and Sweeney to overcome the barriers that make healthy living so difficult in an office environment. “You can’t trust yourself in difficult situations. You have to set yourself up for success,” he says. “Changing small, contextual things in your life completely changes the game.” Tiny actions have the power to change whether you view a task as doable or difficult, and harnessing this power to help you build healthy habits is the key to achieving results. These actions can be as simple as bringing in yogurt and soup for lunch, sharing with your friends on Nike+, or packing your gym bag before going to bed. “I knew that if I didn’t pack my gym bag with the clothes I was going to wear the next day, I wouldn’t make it to the gym. I also needed to lay out my workout clothes. I’d wake up in the morning and just make myself a deal: ‘Listen Kevin, all you need to do is put on those clothes and you’ll wake up on the drive to work and you’ll be fine.’ Everything is set up for me. But if it’s too much work to get up in the morning, you won’t do it,” he reflected. “There have been times when I have literally considered sleeping in my running clothes, so all I’d have to do is get up and put on my shoes.”

  The same is true of food. “Preparation is so key. It’s all about doing things before you get hungry, because once I get hungry I make irrational decisions,” Systrom continued. “You don’t want to be thinking when you’re panicking, and hunger is a form of panic.” Habit usually c
ompels people to choose the most convenient foods when they suddenly find themselves hungry, which is almost never the healthiest or tastiest option. Having an easy, tasty, and healthy alternative is the secret to overriding this impulse. “You need to train yourself to have certain reactions in specific situations. When you get hungry just do this, this, and this, and if you just follow those, it all gets better really quickly. But if you panic, you just go get a burrito. Game-time decisions are never good.”

  At Instagram, Systrom and Sweeney developed a set of rewarding healthstyle habits that led to rapid and relatively painless results. For most people, the biggest fear in integrating healthy habits into their work life is that it will take up too much time and energy and that their productivity will go down as a result. The team at Instagram proves that this does not have to be the case and that the benefits of upgrading your healthstyle more than justify the initial investment. Moreover, if your job is the main focus of your attention and you’re spending more than forty hours per week in a work environment, your results may be even more profound than those for someone who spends less time at the office, since a larger proportion of your weekly habits will be promoting good health. “The best thing about this was seeing results—seeing weight go down was awesome, and that’s what kept me going,” said Systrom. Working long hours takes enough of a toll on your quality of life; it shouldn’t negatively impact your physical well-being as well. You owe it to yourself to stop finding excuses and start finding ways to integrate healthy living into your work life.

  THE BUDDY SYSTEM

  An essential component of Systrom and Sweeney’s success came from their simple decision to start on their journey together. Since the hardest part of upgrading your healthstyle is the first few weeks when your new habits are not yet formed, having a partner who keeps you motivated and accountable can be the difference between success and failure. In an office environment, however, having a buddy for support can have a profound social impact as well.

  I’ve had many people complain to me that one of the most difficult aspects of changing their habits at work is the social pressure put on them by their coworkers who don’t value health. Healthy eaters are often subject to ridicule and pressured to abandon healthy habits in favor of less healthy ones. In these situations, having a friend who is making healthy changes with you is particularly valuable. Social dynamics completely change when you’re doing something as a group instead of on your own. Instead of being an outlier, you are a team member and your actions are viewed as different instead of just weird. Even if some of your coworkers continue to mock your choices, at least you have the support of someone else to stick to your guns and do what you know is best.

  In talking to Systrom and Sweeney I was taken aback by the lack of blowback they experienced from colleagues. “It has actually been pretty neat. It started with just the two of us doing the vegetarian option and eating healthier, and now the vegetarian option counts for over a third of our office’s lunch order, because people want to eat a little healthier,” said Sweeney.

  A few people in the office joined their gym as well. “It’s infectious, and people around you start to notice. People catch on. Everybody wants to be healthy and look good, feel good,” he continued. Whether their coworkers would have been so enthusiastic if only one of them had started making changes is less clear. “I think everyone wants to eat healthy, but when they see other people doing it, it seems kind of cool. Like a trend,” Systrom explained. Having more than one person involved makes creating healthy habits a cultural shift rather than a lone mission.

  SALAD CLUB

  When you recruit colleagues to join in your foodist adventure, a world of possibilities opens up. E. Foley, copywriter and creator of the geek-centric dating site GeeksDreamGirl.com, developed a potluck-style salad bar at her office that she calls Salad Club.

  The first rule of Salad Club is to recruit as many members as possible. Foley was able to wrangle eight of her coworkers into participating. She created a shared spreadsheet on Google Docs and has members commit to bringing one or two salad ingredients for the week. On Monday, everyone brings in their goods and puts them in the office fridge. Then every day at lunch members can dig into the ingredients and create the salad of their choice.

  A Salad Club has tremendous benefits. One of the best is that eating a healthy lunch requires almost no effort or planning. You just need to go get the ingredients you are bringing and remember to take them with you on Monday. Lunch for the rest of the week is then taken care of. Another benefit is that you can try new vegetables and ingredients without committing yourself to an entire week’s worth of something you may not like. Similarly, bringing in a few of your own items ensures that there will be at least something there you enjoy.

  Also, if you have enough people participating, Salad Club makes it possible to eat something different every day. It will always involve healthy food, but you can mix and match flavors, so you never need to eat the same thing twice. Finally, Salad Club creates a social lunch experience that is far more cost-effective than spending several days a week going out with the crew. Foley explained that with Salad Club she spends less on food for the week than she typically spends on a single lunch when she goes out to a restaurant with coworkers.

  Salad Club is an excellent example of using the buddy system to overcome typical office obstacles to healthy eating. It makes healthy choices convenient, fun, delicious, and affordable. And if renaming your lunch hour Salad Club gives you extra inspiration by reminding you of a shirtless Brad Pitt with rippling abs, so much the better.* The only other thing you need to remember is that if this is your first time at Salad Club, you have to eat.

  PLANES, TRAINS, AND CONFERENCES

  Keeping work hours healthy can be especially difficult if traveling is a big part of your job. The quality of food at most airports rivals even the grossest of elementary-school cafeterias,* and things rarely improve once you nestle into your business-class window seat. It’s not just the unhealthiness of airport and airplane food that’s upsetting. Adding insult to injury, the food is disgusting. As Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Chef,2 once eloquently tweeted, “Each time I eat airport food, a small part of my soul dies.” Airport and airplane food is neither healthy nor delicious, which means none of those empty calories are worthy of a foodist’s indulgence.* Finding alternatives requires a little planning and foresight, but the effort is more than worth it.

  Step one in avoiding airport food is not being hungry when you get to the airport. This may sound obvious, but in my experience few people bother to plan for a proper meal while preparing for travel, and this is a fatal mistake. Making sure you eat something substantial before waiting in the security line can get you through a flight of up to six hours with little more than a snack. In contrast, skipping the meal virtually dooms you to at least one subpar dining experience for any flight over three hours.

  What you eat before you fly doesn’t have to be time-consuming or complicated, but it does have to be filling. If all you can find the time for is some quick scrambled eggs or a cup of yogurt with muesli, that’s still light-years better than a two-day-old salad or plastic-wrapped sandwich you’ll likely find at the airport. If you have time for an even more substantial meal, that’s fantastic. But five minutes is really all it takes to get you through your flight with minimal suffering.

  The next step in avoiding airplane food is bringing adequate meals and snacks. I rely heavily on nuts and trail mix for both short and long flights. They’re compact, nonperishable, relatively healthy, and pleasantly filling in a pinch. If you bring your own, you will have your favorites, but if you forget them, it is possible to find packs of almonds, cashews, or peanuts in the airport. Other useful, portable snacks include hard fruits like apples or oranges (though be careful if you’re flying across borders), jerky, string cheese, boiled eggs, and nori (crispy seaweed).

  When traveling on longer flights I often bring entire meals to get me through without rel
ying on the airline food service. Grain salads are particularly amenable to transport, since they are just as tasty at room temperature as they are fresh out of the fridge. They can be eaten on their own or used as a supplement to the better items the airline provides. Rather than preparing and packing a special meal on the day of your flight, you might want to make a large batch of farro or quinoa salad for lunch or dinner the day before the trip and then pack up the leftovers in a disposable container. When it’s time to go to the airport, you can just grab it on your way out the door and eat it at your convenience.

  Flight-Friendly Food

  Mexican-Style Quinoa Salad

  SERVES 2 TO 3

  1 cup dry quinoa

  ½ cup chopped red pepper

  1 green onion or shallot, chopped

  ½ cup grape tomatoes, halved

  1 clove garlic, minced

  ½ cup chopped cilantro

  2 tablespoons olive oil

  Half bag of arugula or baby spinach

  Salt and cayenne pepper

  1 lime

  Tapatio or favorite Mexican hot sauce

  Rinse and cook the quinoa in excess water until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. While the quinoa is cooking, cut up the pepper, onion, and tomatoes, mince the garlic, and chop up the cilantro, stems and all. If you are using a green onion, save some for garnish.