- We're literally eating everything you said you hate.
- Yeah, yeah.
- I forgot that I was supposed to be doing this.
- There were free cupcakes on offer.
- [Quinton] Now I ain't gonna sit here
and say I killed this, but uh.
- It's delicious.
(gasps)
- I'm gonna scream.
- Do it!
(screams)
(fast tempo music)
- I always wanted to do one of these videos
where I try to be vegan for a while,
because end of the day,
that's like my end goal.
I think being vegan is like a smart choice.
- I'm excited to do this challenge as well.
I'm nervous!
Because I haven't done a big diet change.
I eat large portions at time.
I had two bowls of rice and steak for lunch today.
- Whoa, what?
- I love a good all-you-can-eat buffet.
You should come with me to Vegas.
Is that on the, uh--
- [Woman] Vegas buffets?
- Is it? - Absolutely not.
- Oh.
- I'm expecting some changes to the way I eat,
because I love sweets.
(Quinton exhales sharply)
- Usually my day-to-day is
like a acai bowl in the morning.
- Looks too healthy for me. (Quinton laughs)
- So good.
When I go out to grab groceries and what not,
I definitely go for some fruit.
I love strawberries, love bananas.
Some steak, some chicken.
I love eggs.
I get grits, bacon, sausage.
- (whispering) What are grits?
- What?
(laughing) Separate video.
And then I love sweets, oh my gosh.
You feel me?
- I (beep) feel that.
- How 'bout you?
- My favorite food in general is just pasta.
I love Italian food.
I do love steak too.
Chicken, dark meat, eggs.
Not a big berry boy, no strawberries.
- Okay.
- There's a grocery outlet near me,
they give discounted like Toblerone.
- What the hell is that?
- Oh.
- Separate video?
- Sep-- we'll do a grits, Toblerone swap.
(laughs)
- I don't have a lot of least favorite foods.
I'm open to try things.
- I'm not.
Cauliflower, don't like it.
Broccoli, don't like it.
I hate most legumes.
Quinoa, no.
- What!?
- Sweet potato, no.
- What!?
Have you ever had sweet potato pie?
- No, that sounds horrible to me,
like what a waste of a pie. - Oh, my, God.
- Black beans, eh.
Kidney beans, eh.
- Eh? - Brown beans, eh.
Almonds, are they a legume?
When I see a salad with nuts in it,
I'm thinking, 'What a wast of a salad.'
- That's fair.
(quizzical music)
- So, Blue Zones are areas around the world
where people live statistically longest.
And the Blue Zone Diet is exactly what people
who live to 100 have eaten most of their lives.
- [Woman] First thing is,
you're going to ensure that your diet is
90-100% plant-based.
- Oh my, wow.
- That means that some meat can enter this diet.
- [Woman] You're allowed to have
under 2.5 ounces a week of any sort of meat that's not fish.
- Damn.
- [Woman] And you're allowed less than three ounces
up to three times a week of fish.
- You were saying pescatarian.
- Yes, yeah.
- That's the jump you can make.
- [Woman] So mainly what you're gonna be eating
is a lot of greens,
which is like spinach, kale turnip tops, chard, collards.
- Does broccoli fall into any of those?
- It is green. - So, you're also gonna be
eating a lot of cruciferous foods,
which is broccoli and cauliflower.
- Oh, (beep).
- Oh, man, you're gonna hate that.
- Yeah, it's not gonna be very fun for me.
- [Woman] And a lot of beans.
- Oh, no!
- We're literally eating everything you said you hate.
- Yeah, yeah that's true.
- Like literally the entire list.
- But you like broccoli,
so I'm gonna sneak you the broccoli.
- [Woman] Some of the main ingredients of this
are beans, grains, sweet potatoes.
- Oh my God, sweet potatoes too?
(laughs)
- [Quinton] What are you gonna eat? (laughs)
- I don't know.
- [Woman] And you're allowed three eggs in a week,
if you want.
- Oh! Eggs. - There you go.
- Three eggs total in the week?
- [Woman] Total.
- Damn. - I will eat three eggs
in one sitting. (laughs) - For real.
I'm trying to think how I'm gonna make this happen, like--
- I'm still panicking about it.
- [Woman] There's more.
- Oh, great.
- Oh goodness.
- [Woman] You can only consume about seven teaspoons
of added sugar daily.
- What does that mean?
- It's like one candy bar. - Is that a bag of M&Ms?
One!?
(Quinton chuckles softly)
I may as well not have any at that point.
Must?
- [Woman] You have to have between a half cup
and a cup of beans everyday.
- A half cup to a cup? - Goddamn.
- That's a lot of (beep) beans!
- [Woman] You can have tea and coffee.
- Milk? - No cow's milk.
- Oh, wait, almond milk though?
- [Woman] Mmm-hmm.
- (beep)
This thing's rigged against me at this point.
- [Woman] You're gonna have two handfuls of nuts daily,
that's what you can snack on.
Drink mostly water.
- Love water.
- [Woman] You're encouraged to have red wine at lunch.
- Let's go. - At lunch? Oh.
- [Woman] Or you can have three glasses throughout the day.
But if you don't drink, you don't have to drink.
- No, I'mma drink.
- I'll drink some with you.
- [Woman] So, four foods you should always have
are gonna be nuts, beans, fruits you love,
and 100% whole-wheat bread or sourdough.
Foods you should never have.
- Oh no.
- [Woman] Soda.
- Okay, that's fine.
- [Woman] Chips
- Yeah. - Okay, that's fine.
- [Woman] And any packaged treats.
- Oh, c'mon, man! - Damn!
That's where I draw the line!
- This is very complicated.
- [Woman] I'm gonna give you guys also a cookbook.
- That's nice, that's good.
- Yeah, that changes the game.
- Okay, that's helpful. - A little bit. (laughs)
(intense jazz music)
- The first day was tricky for me
because I actually had to film a video
that morning, off-site.
And normally, after the shoot,
I would probably get something quick to eat with the crew,
or get a little snack on my way back to the office,
but I preemptively did buy organic dried mangoes.
(light music)
Hm.
They are good.
That one's a little sour.
And I actually nibbled on organic mangoes
throughout the rest of the week.
So much to the point that I think
I'm actually kinda sick of them.
- All right, so it's day one of this Blue Zone diet.
I forgot that I was supposed to be doing this
and I feel like I'm already messing up.
But usually my day-to-day is like
(slowed down) like a acai bowl in the morning.
If remember correctly,
there was not supposed to be a lot of sugar.
- Back in the office now, I'm with Megan.
Megan's my friend.
- I am!
- Yeah, she's had sexual dreams about me.
- (laughs) What is this for!?
- This is my handful of nuts,
for the day.
- Is this a handful or two handfuls, do you think?
- Wait, you can't!
(mutters in disbelief)
You can't just--
- I missed the free catered meals,
so I Postmated some vegan falafel place.
Very unhappy with my falafel,
so I'm gonna give this falafel to Q.
Here's for Q, "A beautiful treat for a beautiful man."
- My boy Aria came through.
He brought me some falafel.
I think Aria knew I was struggling today.
Brought me a sweet little gift.
What a beautiful note.
The first day, I don't know what I had going on.
But Aria came through.
He saved the day, kept me on track,
it was amazing.
- End of day one,
I don't think I've broken any of the rules yet, so far.
Okay, that's a lie.
I didn't finish my bowls of nuts.
I've got pasta
Here's Merle.
This is vegan.
- So this is approved.
It's delicious.
- Ah, what can I say,
I can cook,
I can, I can.
I don't know.
(Merle laughs, Aria gasps)
- I just left work, still got two cups of nuts to go.
My biggest mistake is that I didn't prepare.
I'm gonna get my groceries tonight.
Tuesday go in for work,
I feel like I'm gonna be on my A game.
(upbeat music)
- Tuesday was a little bit tough for me
because actually I was filming a 24-hour challenge that day.
I'm in the green room right now, with Merle.
- Yeah, because I have to be handcuffed to him
for 24 (beep) hours.
- I'm annoyed, there's many snacks in the green room,
none of which I can have.
- I feel like you can have some of that.
Why?
Packy?
- Can I have packy?
Oh, you're in the shot.
- Yeah, I just look so good.
- All right, so I'm on my shoot.
- Yeah, yeah. - With my boy Ify.
- Hey, how's it going y'all?
- Got the red wine.
- Yeah, yeah, here it is.
- Drinking with some people, you know.
- The real toast sounds.
- I mean would do this normally,
but I'll do it for the video.
I knew I needed to be prepared,
and I knew the biggest part about it was gonna be the beans.
Took a couple of these.
We definitely need some of these.
I honestly didn't even know where to find tofu at.
Can't lie, I feel like simple stuff,
I've been having trouble finding everything.
(bags roll out and rip)
Oh (beep).
I just need a small one of these.
I don't even know what the hell this is.
I did get to grab some fish,
it was different.
I tried a couple different variations.
All right, overall that wasn't that bad.
I feel like I found everything I needed.
Just going through the grocery store
and not being able to grab what I usually grab
and going into deep, dark places,
looking at some weird mushrooms
and like vegetables,
it was odd, but it was good.
'Cause now I know that dried mushrooms are a thing.
- We're still handcuffed together.
Merle did cook a vegan dinner.
- Yeah, it's Blue Zone approved.
- Blue Zone approved.
But then I did kind of--
- He derailed. (Aria drowned out)
- Because I made vegan cinnamon rolls.
That definitely had a lot of processed sugar in them.
(whispers) They didn't even turn out that great.
- Since he did such a bad job making them,
he's not gonna eat that many.
- That's true.
- So you might meet your sugar requirements.
- Tofu comes in its own little pool of water.
And it popped out and just went all over my face.
(sizzling)
Can't lie, making this dish is oddly satisfying.
I never made tofu before
I like the experience so far,
can't even lie.
You know, you have like a type of joy
when you make your own food.
And then when it's something new,
it feels pretty good.
I mean I'm not gonna sit here and say I killed this,
but, uh.
(laughs) I mean.
I don't know.
(happy music)
It's actually pretty good.
The tofu's like really crispy.
Not bad, I could do this.
(quizzical music)
- Okay, here's my lunch.
Crispy, seitan thingy,
with green thingies, and sweet potatoes,
and whatever this is.
I have no idea how this is gonna taste.
This is actually my first time ever having seitan.
Merle talks up seitan all the time.
(sighs)
Here we go.
Ooh, I like that!
Don't we love it in these videos when
someone's sitting there like,
"Oh, I don't like this thing."
And then they try it and they,
"Oh this is great!"
This is one of those moments.
(coughs)
Oh, I got so excited I choked.
I'm at work and I am feeling pretty good.
I can't lie, I'm tired,
like I feel like doing this challenge
is a lot more challenging than I thought it was going to be.
I thought I could just breeze through it,
eat a couple beans, do whatever.
But, nah, like this thing is pretty intense.
I'm gonna keep trying to stick it out.
I'm gonna try and finish strong,
but it's getting tough.
- Tonight I will be making a pasta dish
and tomorrow a risotto.
Back at home now.
I'm using the ingredients I got from Trader Joe's
to make this summer pasta with fresh tomato and "ba-sil."
Basil.
I have fresh tomatoes, red onion, pasta cooked al dente.
It was really nice.
And I actually I've never made pasta with a raw sauce,
'cause that sauce wasn't cooked.
It was quite flavorful.
There was olive oil, there was seasoning,
I added a little bit of red pepper flakes.
Truly, as they would say in Italy, it was
very delicious.
This is how the dish turned out.
It looks good!
Don't know if it tastes good.
We'll see.
That is very good.
I'm very, very pleased with this.
That was delightful.
Wow.
Yeah, I'm just gonna eat the rest of this,
probably gonna finish this entire bowl.
I'm wearing AirPods.
I'm very wealthy.
(light music)
Thursday, day four of the challenge.
I've been making some more avocado toast today,
but since the diet plan allows for up to three eggs a week,
I'm gonna take this opportunity today
to have a kinda myself a little, I guess,
it's a little past breakfast,
so I'm gonna give myself a little brunch, I guess.
And then tonight--
(toaster dings)
Ooh, there's my toast!
Tonight I will try making the risotto.
There it is.
Breakfast.
(loud crunch)
- The most important ingredient
in every longevity diet in the world is taste.
If you don't like them, you're not gonna eat them
for long enough to make a difference.
If you can find recipes that you love,
you're set for decades.
- I had never made risotto from scratch,
I usually eat it from a box,
but this time I made it from scratch
with my own stock,
I bought dried mushrooms, which were seven dollars
for like five pieces of dried mushroom.
So far it's looking good.
All right, there it is, it's done!
Everything seems to have cooked properly,
I'm looking forward to seasoning it up a little bit more
and then eating it for dinner.
- I thought I was gonna be tired of these by now,
but that's the idea of beans, (ding)
you can't get tired of beans.
(ding)
(light music)
- One of the biggest challenges for me is
that I do have a very big sweet tooth.
(whispering) This is very upsetting to me.
There were free cupcakes on offer.
- Very tasty, tasty.
- Nuts were my biggest problem throughout the week,
because it's so hard to eat two handfuls of nuts for me.
It's just it feels tedious.
(nuts rolling, crunching)
(swallows) Okay.
As tough as they were tough to finish, all those nuts,
they definitely are quite satiating,
'cause I'm definitely, I'm not hungry.
- Oh my gosh.
I'm on set, it's a really busy day,
and I forgot my beans.
Like, I think that's been the hardest part,
is actually trying to stay prepared
and do this whole beans thing, like.
How many cans of beans do I have to make
to make it through the week?
This has been really tough.
- I'm also heating up my risotto.
That's the beauty of cooking your own food,
you get leftovers.
One of the things I've done badly
in this challenge this week
is actually finding the time to eat with other people.
Today I'm making up for that.
I'm going to be eating this lunch
with some beautiful people.
- So what are we doing?
- We're expressing gratitude for our food.
- Wow.
- Before you take a bite, let's, uh,
we're thankful.
Thankful to...
To the Buddha,
we're thankful to life,
we're thankful for, what else are we thankful for?
See, I'm eating with people right now,
a real treat-- he asked me to wave.
- [Man] Who are you showing this to?
- [Aria] Part of the diet is eating with people.
- [Man] Nobody was looking at you or talking to you.
- [Aria] Trying to hurt me.
- One thing that I will say is I felt like the fish,
like something about eating fish more felt good to me.
Like that's where I'm trying to go.
I feel like pescatarian is very achievable goal for me.
I know this isn't just regular fish,
but I feel like it counts.
Sushi is basically fish and rice.
I'm so thankful for this sushi,
hopefully it nourishes my body.
- This is my first time cooking tofu, actually,
for this recipe, so, uh.
Noodles are drained and done, I can add some sesame oil.
I'm plating some of the vegetables I got.
I'll put them on small plates,
as per the Blue Zone.
My noodles are here.
I seasoned it up a little bit.
Thank you to the Korean supermarket
where I bought most of these ingredients,
thank you to the people of Okinawa, Japan
for supplying me with this recipe,
and for being the birthplace and training home
of Mr. Miyagi from the "Karate Kid" franchise.
And I actually will be taking a lot of the lessons
I've learned from this week
into my continual eating habits.
Yes, I think the great thing about this diet
is as much of a challenge it is for you,
at the end of the day it's gonna make you feel good.
- Yes.
I would say it wasn't the most convenient,
but I feel like if you plan it out the right way,
it'd be great.
- What I hope these two guys get from this is,
number one: gain a few new skills
to cook food that's healthy for them.
Number two: they tried a few dishes
that I hope they like,
and I'll bet there's a few in there that they love.
And number three: I hope they've made
at least some kind of a social network
around this healthy eating.
- And you know, there's just more satisfying about eating
something that you've made.
- Yes, and also eating something healthier.
So it's like, you've saved a little bit more money,
you ate better, and then also you actually made it yourself.
- Yeah. - Feels good.
(light music)