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Comment by grecy | Hacker News Reader

Eating to me is a leisure activity, like going to the movies, but I don't want to go to the movies three times a day.

For anyone that doesn't understand that statement, I recommend taking a few years off work, where you spend your time getting up early every day, doing something all day (hiking, walking, gardening, building, whatever) and go to bed late in the evening (i.e. Full days of activities you want to be doing). I spent 2 years doing this, and I was shocked how much time is wasted buying, cooking, and eating food three times a day. It's really a huge chunk of time you can't spend doing what you want.

Now I'm back in the 9-5 routine, and it's not so obvious - partly I think because taking time away from my desk to eat is actually nice, as-is dinner with my girlfriend and others.

When you've got other things you'd rather be doing, eating is a time-consuming PITA.

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> For anyone that doesn't understand that statement, I recommend taking a few years off work,

I really don't, how do you define what is a waste of time and what isn't? Why eating is a waste of time and working isn't?

If you could not work but still get all of the benefits that work gives you (salary, stability, etc), would you continue to work? Would you decide, maybe I'll work just once a week?

No one is saying that eating is a waste of time.

The OP says it like: Eating is a leisure activity for him like going to the movies. But he doesn't want to go to the movies 3 times a day for the rest of his life.

I don't know what your situation is, but personally, being married, I love spending time cooking with my wife. For example, last night we spent 2 hours cooking crab cakes, chocolate souffle, kale chips... it was fantastic. We both enjoy one another's company while cooking.

For some people, it may seem like a waste of time, but for me, it's a way to connect to other people.

I don't think there is any argument that cooking can be a pleasant activity. However, the truth is that's the only option because we need to eat every day.

Tonight I can get home from work and spend time with my partner cooking and it'll be great. And after work tomorrow, if we want to spend time together, we can cook or eat out. And the day after that... more cooking.

The opportunity here is not that we'll never cook again but, instead, that maybe we can do something else together once in a while.

Another option is to live somewhere where there are healthy options (for whatever definition of healthy you choose) that you can purchase. You can then (or I can) be done in 10-15 minutes. Whether that's a cafeteria, a convenience store, a restaurant, a waiter.

Examples: Working at a company that serves breakfast lunch and dinner I can leave my desk, get food, eat and be back at my desk in 15 minutes. Or I can grab food and be back at my desk in 5 minutes.

Living in Japan I could stop at a convenience store and get reasonably healthy food on the way to, from home (at least in Tokyo you're likely to walk in front of probably an average of 6 convenience stores between your place of work and your home as well as many other food sources).

Living in the bay area there are places like Whole Foods that have large relatively healthy salad/meal bars. I happen to live a 2 minute walk from one.

Note: Personally I like taking time out to eat. I dislike spending 15-60 minutes making something that's consumed in 10 but I like spending time making something and sharing it. But still, I notice that I can eat pretty quick if the food is pre-prepared.

I so miss the convenience stores with actual edible food. In NZ they generally just have a pie warmer :(

While the cooking is a big part of it, I would argue it's really predominantly the company you're enjoying. Subtract the enjoyment you get from cooking alone day in and day out from the enjoyment you get from cooking with your wife, and see what's left over.

This really hit home for me one winter vacation when I decided to fast for 5 days straight. I had absolutely nothing to do so I mainly played video games and read. I couldn't believe how not hungry I was and how utterly bored I was because I wasn't occupying my days with procuring, preparing, eating, cleaning.

Whilst I understand your point, that's a matter of choice (or needs). You can perfectly buy, cook and eat 3 times/day without wasting too much time. Of course, if you want to have a gourmet experience in every meal it would be complicated.

I have had different phases in my life (currently I eat mostly paleo), and even though now it is the moment of my life when I spent more time cooking, I used to cook only once per week, having to re-heat the food on each meal.

You can also prepare food using slow cooking if you know the time you will be having the meal.

In my case, I "parallelize" and I work/study/work out/whatever while things are being cooked.

I am still unsure of the viability of these systems where they mix every single thing "needed" by the human body. How much time is needed to ensure this method of feeding is viable for humans?

PS: the drink kind of reminds me of Wall-E...

"How much time is needed to ensure this method of feeding is viable for humans?"

Yes ha ha.

(For those who don't get the joke there's long been available a liquid meal replacement called "Ensure(tm)" as with many "tech" novelty stories a supposed inventor is actually just walking on very well trodden ground rather than inventing anything.)

A quick google suggests that ensure is marketed as a high calorie product designed to help you gain weight. Is there another version of it that's nutritionally complete and low calorie like Soylent (supposedly) is that I'm missing?

Yes: http://abbottnutrition.com/Products/jevity-1-cal

There are several meal replacement programs sold in the dieting community. I was on one for three months where I could choose to consume zero solid food and get all my nutrition from powdered soups and shakes; the US equivalent seems to be Medifast, though that includes a single food meal daily. It was not a healthy plan, but my energy levels were great and I lost a significant amount of weight in that time (45 pounds or so). The composition was designed to induce and keep participants in ketosis, but I don't see why a little more carbohydrate couldn't be added to avoid this.

> For anyone that doesn't understand that statement, I recommend taking a few years off work, where you spend your time getting up early every day, doing something all day (hiking, walking, gardening, building, whatever) and go to bed late in the evening (i.e. Full days of activities you want to be doing). I spent 2 years doing this [...]

How did you afford this, financially? What was the before/during/after story of how you organized life to do this?

Suddenly up and leaving my job and financial obligations (of which I have few), for a period of a year or two and then resuming where I'd left off does not seem even remotely feasible.

I saved for ~18 months, then spent two years driving from Alaska to Argentina, because I wanted to.

I blogged the whole time at http://theroadchoseme.com

All the financial details are at http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-of-adventure

You'll be interested to note I only spent $1200/mo on the road, which is almost exactly what I was spending month-to-month to go to work every day.

I'm currently back working as a Software Engineer, saving for the next adventure. This time I plan on saving up enough money, and maybe contracting a day every two weeks, that I can go traveling for at least 4-6 years next time. Current estimated departure is spring or fall 2014.

I'm extremely passionate about helping/encouraging other people to do the same thing. If you have any more questions, or I can help in any way, please don't hesitate to contact me (here, my blog, email, whatever)

Nice. I'm more or less in the same boat in that I'm trying to save some money but don't want to spend so much time working to do it. The problem is that most companies are looking for long-term employees, so it's more difficult to find something on a shorter term.

What's wrong with signing on as a full-time employee then quitting a few years later?

My company has fired many loyal full-time employees in the last 18 months with very minimal notice, so I feel no compunction about doing the same.

There's nothing wrong with it per se, but I'm not thinking of spending years with a company, because I want to start travelling sooner. Last time the discussion came up with a company, they said they were looking for someone for at least 2 to 4 years, and I couldn't lie to them and tell them I would stay that long.

> and I couldn't lie to them and tell them I would stay that long.

That's a choice you have to make.

Keep in mind, even when they say they are looking for someone for at least 2 to 4 years, they'll fire you with zero notice if it makes sense to their bottom line.

If there is nothing in writing, you are not bound to them any more than they are to you. Circumstances change, and you need to do what's right for you.

Yeah, I should think more like that.

Are you a full time employee?

I'd be interested in knowing what your current employer thinks about you have a scheduled departure date that far in the future.

Yep. They don't know I plan to leave.

As I said elsewhere, they have fired a lot of loyal people in last ~18 months, so I have no problem with leaving. We're all free to leave anytime we want, be if for a different position, start our own business, or to go traveling, or anything at all.

It's awesome to run into you on HN. I'm building travel plans based on your blog postings!

Nice! You'll find my side project, http://wikioverland.org extremely useful.

If you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Thank you! I actually found your blog because I stumbled upon wikioverland.org; I plan on doing the Pan American Highway route.

I'll definitely get in touch!

Hey Dan, I couldn't find any contact info here or on your blog. I have some specific questions I'd like to ask about your trip and the aftermath. Could you please contact me?

zachwass2000@gmail.com

Thanks!

I just wanted to say thank you for sharing this info, I honestly was not expecting such a detailed and thorough reply!

Oddly enough, for me, playing The Sims taught me how much time is spent eating, defecating, and sleeping.

In The Sims that effect sometimes happens because time in that game is so much faster. It's like "The ride for work will arrive in one hour." -> Well I'll just make my Sim eat breakfasts. Suddenly, The Sim arrives at the kitchen after crossing the house to get there and two hours passe.

In addition to this, even those of us who sit at a computers for 7-8 hours a day and then spend the rest of our time doing other activities.

I try and go surfing every week day, and most of the weekend, and i don't want to be bothered with taking time out to eat (i've got 2 kids too - so I don't have much time). Sure I can easily go grab some junk food and eat on the go but I really don't want to when I'm trying to keep my body in good shape.

I usually mix a bunch of raw nuts, raisins, fruit/berries, yogurt into a smoothy and have that as food. but it still requires time to make a clean up, not to mention the cost of fruit and nuts. Dinner is usually cooked by my wife, so that's not an issue for me because it's time with the family.

There's this triangle of food - cost/time/consequences.

You can spend little time and little money, and get something that's not very healthy for you. The dollar menu, for instance. You can spend a little time and a lot of money buying pre-prepared food at say, the deli at Whole Foods, and get something pretty healthy. If you have the time, tools, and knowledge, you can make cheap healthy food at home.

It just depends on what resources you have and what sacrifices you want to make. Shopping, cooking, doing the dishes, those things all take time you could use to do other things.

Taking off work to do this, is absolutely great and i recommend it for everyone as long as you can. But whether something like cooking is a PITA, is mostly up to you and what you make out of it.

in 2008 I've took a seven month unpaid leave from my job to travel through central america and the caribbean. I never felt buying, cooking or eating was wasted time. Quite the contrary. Some of the most memorable moments of my whole journey came with those. Being it, cooking with people from all around the world in hostels, learning how to open a coconut and make a spoon out of the shell with a machete (yes, pretty touristy), or getting invited by a local family and let the kids show me how their favorite dish is done.

And I wasn't an avid chef before. I barely cooked by myself back home. Now i love it. Every step of the process. Its like programing – with real time compilation.

Yes, it is really time consuming. When I had other things to do, i just didn't spend that much time on it. I actually never had three meals a day (and i don't have now either).

I understand the statement and I find the idea of a having a food replacement in some cases very interesting. Its not anything new after all. But in my opinion, his motivation is questionable. Honestly, this Soylent-Shake thing remembers me of employers trying to squeeze everything out of their workers for sheer productivity. But, to each his own. If that guy is happy with his choice, he should continue doing it. If people blindly follow his way, its not his fault – they'd follow someone/something else. (As long as he is not starting a big campaign, saying that his way of life is the only right one)

I think if you've wrapped your daily lifestyle so tight that eating is actually disruptive, then your lifestyle is the problem not the eating.

It's got nothing to do with a "tight lifestyle" more like a "I'd rather be doing something other than eating" lifestyle.

You want to talk disruptive? Let's talk about the other end of the digestive tract. Some people spend inordinate amounts of time pooping. I claim that they are flushing away their valuable productivity. In our culture, eating at your desk is considered acceptable, but due to social biases, pooping at your desk is not yet accepted. Let's hope that Google tackles this problem soon. Until then, the only advice I can give you is to avoid beans and dairy products.

If I could afford to give up work, I could afford to not cook. The actual eating takes up very little of my time.

> If I could afford to give up work, I could afford to not cook.

Conversely, if you cooked more, you could afford to give up work sooner :)

(One of the ways I was able to go 2 years without working was by cooking almost every meal. The only ones I didn't was when it was cheaper to buy than cook, i.e. an entire meal for 0.75 USD in cheap countries)

I don't get it, don't you have to buy, cook, eat every day even when you are working?

I think the point is that doing these things is a welcome distraction from work.

Eating becomes a chore when you could be doing something better.

Yeah, but then that better thing becomes a chore, when you do it all day every day.

That's why you fill your life up with lots of varied "better things" so no one of them becomes a chore.

Even if they somehow did, you can just pick new "better things". The drain of buying/cooking/eating/cleaning up food is you can't easily opt out.

Now step back and consider how much of a time-consuming PITA sleeping is.

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