Writing Buddha’s Diet

I never thought I would write a diet book. But I did. I thought some people might be interested to know why.

I’m a data scientist. In my day job, I’m Director of Analytics for Facebook. I spend my time there thinking about why people use Facebook the way they do and how we can make it better for them. After hours, I write a bit and I’m a practicing Buddhist. I teach sometimes at a nearby Zen temple. None of this has much to do with dieting.

Like a lot of adults, I put on weight after college. Not a ridiculous amount, and not all at once. But I had to buy bigger Levi’s every few years, and after a couple decades I had crossed the line to overweight on the official charts. I spent most of those years working at various high-tech companies in Silicon Valley, which brought me little exercise and lots of free soda. I tried making little changes — cutting out desserts, not snacking so much, exercising a bit — but it didn’t help. I didn’t worry about it too much, but standing in the shower or getting dressed in the morning, my body didn’t feel quite right. It didn’t feel good. It didn’t feel like me.

Then in 2014 I started a brief stint at a small food startup in San Francisco as their VP of Data. Suddenly instead of spending my days with out-of-shape software engineers, I was surrounded by food scientists, plant biologists, and accomplished chefs — and they…