The Big Idea: Adopt a low-carb, high-fat diet. Early to bed, early to rise. Move more throughout the day. Lift weights. Practice yoga. Limit social media. Meditate regularly. Prioritize experiences, friends, and family. Get healthy, start finding your answers to questions like how much does the bar weight at the gym?
Identify => Measure => Improve => Evolve
Identify (pick a new health habit to test) => Measure (how do you know if it works for you?) => Improve (decide whether it’s worth keeping or discarding) => Evolve (add it to your lifestyle)
We usually just accept what doctors tell us without pushing back, even if things seem wrong. A concierge doctor has very different incentives than most doctors. Functional doctors often serve as a solid foundation for building your medical dream team .
Avoid processed sugar, processed foods, refined carbs, fried foods, vegetable oils, legumes, traditional flour, farm-raised fish, GMO foods, cheap grains.
Eat whole foods, organic foods, healthy fats, unlimited vegetables, foods that are in season, fruits sparingly, nuts, avocados, healthy oils, almond/coconut flour, sea/Himalayan salt, wild-caught fish, pasture-raised chicken, grass-fed beef, olive oil on cold food, butter, ghee, lard, tallow, suet, avocado oil,
Drink coffee sparingly and avoid alcohol.
Do these two essential things: 1) prevent insulin resistance, the catalyst for Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease; and 2) dramatically reduce inflammation, which causes a host of ailments.
Lower your protein consumption and raise your fat consumption.
Intermittently fast, typically by skipping breakfast.
Finish eating at least three hours before bed.
Steam vegetables and other foods instead of microwaving them or boiling them.
Find and remove foods that cause allergic reactions.
Before you do any supplementation, get a baseline blood panel.
Get your D3 level tested.
Get more omega-3, perhaps through krill oil if you’re not getting enough through your diet.
It’s critically important to balance the amount of both omega-3s and omega-6s in our diet.
Prebiotics (chicory and fermented foods) are specialized plant fibers that help to grow healthy bacteria in the gut.
Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts that are good for your digestion.
Improve your sleep and you waking hours will be much more productive.
Go to bed early (dusk) and get up early (dawn).
Track sleep with an Oura ring.
Avoid blue light before bed by removing the TV, getting blue-blocking glasses, or installing f.lux.
Don’t eat within three hours of bedtime.
Invest in a high-quality mattress and pillow.
Keep your bedroom as dark as possible.
If you snore a lot, you may have sleep apnea and might want to get a CPAP.
Focus on moving when you can throughout the day, instead of bursts of exercise.
Focus on diverse workouts that build your strength, and don’t obsess as much over doing endless amounts of cardio.
The important thing to target is your heart rate variability (HRV).
Participating in endurance sports can damage your body.
Invest in a standing desk, go on a walk, do a few push-ups after your conference call to get the blood flowing.
People have been getting massages for hundreds of thousands of years.
Take a cold shower.
Turn off fluorescent lights.
Take a walk. Whatever you do, never sit at your desk or remain inside for the entire day.
Put a process in place. If you’re struggling to optimize your productivity and haven’t read Getting Things Done by David Allen, stop what you’re doing and get yourself a copy now. This book is a classic for both productivity and process.
Learning to delegate is a skill that you can develop both intellectually and emotionally. Delegation freed me up to do more valuable work that was more in line with my primary skillset, and also positioned others to take more ownership of the company’s success.
Get an assistant or virtual assistant.
Stick to your routine and what works for you.
Keep it simple.
Turn off ALL notifications on your phone and computer.
The only thing that pops up on any of my devices are calendar notifications — necessary interruptions to remind me of meetings.
Put everything in your calendar.
I’d take an email over a phone call any day.
Yoga helped me to realize that mindfulness was the missing link in my life.
Build meditation into your routine, but don’t let it become something that you set out to “check off” your to-do list.
Practice regular box breathing.
Wim Hof, whom I referenced earlier, incorporates breathing exercises with cold exposure.
Practice Stoicism
Prioritize: experiences, friends, and family,
To give kids a break from electronics, try playing board games, making arts and crafts, building something new and interesting, or competing in a sport outside.
Cut out television, social media, and news, especially in the evenings.
Limit social media.
Consider another way to accomplish the tasks you don’t love to.
Remove negative and stressful people from your life.
Read, learn, and rejuvenate your mind.
Replace the background sounds of television and news with TED Talks and audio books.