When Jessica Mullen and I moved from the Midwest to Austin, Texas in June of 2008, we were overweight, out of shape, and drank a lot of vodka. We were not very productive.

But there is something in the water in Austin.

Now, almost two years later, we have given up boozing, don’t touch caffeine, eat a strictly vegan diet and prefer running to put us under the influence.

But it was by no means a simple switch. We began by making incremental changes to improve our quality of life, and with each new adjustment came many more questions to answer and opportunities for growth.

We started by bicycling 20 miles per week (4 miles each weekday), and Jessica took up counting our daily calorie intake using a self-tracking website.

That was just the beginning. The more we tracked our progress, the more progress we wanted to make. We used lifestreaming as a life-design methodology.

Lifestreaming is the act of documenting and sharing one’s life online. Combined with support from our social networks, this public self-evaluation made us more accountable for our actions, increased our self-discipline, and strengthened our reputations. With this tool, we learned to recognize and eradicate the patterns and social structures that negatively impact our lives.

We started running in November of 2009, just a few short months ago. Before then, neither of us had run a mile in our lives (outside of gym class requirements). Ironically, we were looking for a way to increase our activity level so we could eat more pizza and drink more wine.

December 14th, we went vegan. February 14th, we ran our first half-marathon. February 28th, we gave up caffeine. March 6th, we gave up drinking (maybe not forever, but for now).

And now here we are. Running changed us. We were on the right track, but running altered our entire outlook on life. It is a lifestyle. Its something we want to maintain for as long as possible, meanwhile eliminating as many unnecessary influences as possible.

Which is why we purchased our first pair of Vibram Fivefingers on March 14th— minimal running shoes for a minimal lifestyle. Our posts here will chronicle our process of adapting to both.