"So in the course of that newly-found alone time after the divorce, I joined the gym, took up yoga and went full vegan. (OK — I needed a hard shove from my doctor to go vegan, but I did it.)"
I have a hard time believing his doctor "shoved" him to be vegan.
This guy doesn't sound 'old' to me and has already had a heart attack? He might have some really bad cholesterol profile that makes any type of animal fat dangerous. Just saying, the doctor could have been dramatic like, 'if you want to live another 10 years give up animal fats...' IANAD
The Portfolio Diet [1] is vegan, doctors know about that, and it's reputed to do really well at lowering LDL. Although I think it's more common to recommend the Mediterranean Diet.
The Cleveland Clinic is large enough that they've got at least two different groups that manage this. One group (Caldwell Esselstyn's group) relies on a low-oil vegan diet, then there's another one that relies on the Mediterranean Diet. I don't think either approach is particularly unusual in the "you need to change your diet right now" realm.
I have a close friend who had the same recommendation from his doctor, i.e. to go vegan. His genetics were predisposed for food-driven health issues related to cholesterol as he aged, and his blood test continued to come back with bafflingly concerning results. Since going vegan, his blood work has been stellar. It drives his family nuts sometimes, but the results are hard to argue and they've learned to "deal". Everyone is different, but in his anecdotal case his doctor's recommendation to go this route seems to have helped him quite a bit. It's worth noting that he's in his mid-forties, very fit looking and quite active, and was prior to his doctor's advice about permanently changing his diet, too.
Not a lot of content here and it's debatable HN material but if there's a key takeaway for this audience it's that you should save some of yourself for your relationship if you are in a couple.
It's very easy to go "all in" on your startup or project (as th author did with his book), but 9 times out of 10 if you take it too far you're going to end up single, quickly.
I've seen it happy to many of my married programmer friends who took their job commitments too seriously.
To me it just sounds like he needs more friends to fill the gaps. Why can't he bring a friend to the zoo? Why does it have to be a girlfriend? I've had long stretches of my life where I was single but I was rarely ever lonely. I was aside from some rare moment rather well surrounded.
That seems bizarre to me, why? I mean, certainly it's harder because everyone is busy with adult responsibilities, but why can't you still get together with friends from time to time?
I do think it becomes harder to do this as said friends all get hitched. As a single guy I rarely see the same friends male or Female, who are now married. As a couple they gravitate towards spending time with other couples too.
This doesn't preclude anyone from making things happen (our childhood friend group still meets up away from our SOs), but it does get harder as the years pile on.
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[ 5.7 ms ] story [ 51.5 ms ] threadI have a hard time believing his doctor "shoved" him to be vegan.
http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/features/portfol...
It's very easy to go "all in" on your startup or project (as th author did with his book), but 9 times out of 10 if you take it too far you're going to end up single, quickly.
I've seen it happy to many of my married programmer friends who took their job commitments too seriously.
This doesn't preclude anyone from making things happen (our childhood friend group still meets up away from our SOs), but it does get harder as the years pile on.