TLDR

• You are the founder of your own health program
• As founder, you first must define your health objectives
• Next, get a baseline for where you are today
• Your mission is to find things that you love, and help you reach your goals
• These things must fit into your unique, busy, lifestyle. Then just repeat

Ray's Take

Welcome. So happy you made it here :)

Let's start with a fact. You are the founder of your own health program. This is by definition, not by choice.

You're thinking your product needs to be better. And now you have a choice.

Do you want to improve it?

In startup, the goal is to make a product your customers love. As founder of your own health program, your goal is to make a program you yourself love.

But what does love mean? It means doing things you like that also help you make progress.

How do you do this?
- try something new
- If you like it, repeat it.
- If this helps you make progress toward your objective, you'll start to love it.

---> Add it into your "love list"

Your mission is to add as many things to your "love list" as you can. The more things you add, and the more often you do them, the more successful you will be....sustainably.

Who am I

This is where I come in. I'm Ray (why you should trust me.)

Tool photo I know, but included to demonstrate I practice what I preach.

I'm 39, an Ivy League trained engineer, MD, MBA, Mckinsey consultant, YC founder (with an exit), home cook, and practitioner of trying to reach optimal health. I've been focused my whole life on preventing disease, performing my best, and looking my best -> maximizing youthfulness. Perhaps most importantly, I love everything about my health program....

My mission, is to share all the knowledge I've gained (and will continue to gain) with you from the latest scientific research, scientific facts, my personal experience, and what others in the community are executing with success.

I will tell you what obviously works, what I would do, (what I actually do, and how/why I love it).

Then you, as the founder of your own health program, can try things that you think you might like.

What you like may not be the exact same as me, but I'm sure you will find what's right for you. These things you like will turn into things you love. Repeating what you love will become automatic and progress will flow, effortlessly.

This article will give you a concise prescription of how I would start developing your health program.

There is a lot of information, so don't feel pressure to go through it all in one sitting. There are also links to more articles, videos, and guides. I will never stop adding more information :)

Keep in mind, we are in this for the long term. We are not getting ready for a trip to Vegas day club. Today is the starting point, but there is no deadline.

Let's get started...

Define your objective

First step - clearly understand why you are re-focusing on your health program.

This can be as easy as two words:
- "Get jacked"
- "Not die"
- "Feel younger"
- "Look hot"
- "Less fat"
- "Prevent diabetes"
- "Less depressed"
- "More energy"

You should know your objective already. Pick one. Write it down.
(Yea yea, you're prob not gonna stop right now and write anything, so write it in your head, until the end of this article. We also have an app you should download, but you can get it when you feel like it's worth it. I'd recommend now.)

There is probably benefit to writing your full "why," but thats a personal choice. If there are deeper reasons you are focusing on your health now, journaling them could be cathartic, motivating, and clarifying. I'd recommend it. But I also know many people don't know what they want other than "get jacked."

Just do what works for you.

How to succeed

Background

You have your first objective already. (Did you write it down?)

There are 5 buckets of activities you can do, to optimize (or ruin) your chances of getting there.

They include:
- What you eat (Nutrition)
- How you move (Exercise)
- How you recover (Sleep)
- What you take (Medications/supplements)
- How you talk to yourself (Mindset)

You should recognize that you have a program already. It's what you do every day in each of the 5 buckets.

To fulfill our objective(s), we need to make updates to our existing program.

To do this, we need measurable "key results" that signify we are working toward accomplishing our objective.

Yea its like an OKR (Objective and Key Results). And yea, OKRs are annoying, but if done right, they work.

The measurable "thing" is called an assessment.

Process of improvement

Simple:
- Get baseline assessment (one time)
- Gain knowledge (daily)
- Execute (daily)
- Measure to make sure we are making progress (weekly, monthly, yearly)

You don't need to measure every single day. It makes no sense. What you should do every day is learn something about yourself or for yourself. For example, I like spaghetti squash and 1lb is only 120 cals, I did bench press 5 sets 8 reps of 225 lbs, I should eat 150g protein per day to maximize muscle growth, etc.

This knowledge should feed into what you execute, every day. If you like it, repeat it.

Then, just measure if you are making progress on a weekly or monthly basis. Some things don't even need measuring more than yearly.

Love, revisited

I want to re-emphasize this concept of love. It is the most important concept.

Again, loving something means you like it, and it helps you make progress. Progress is key.

When you first try something, you're not sure you're gonna like it.

If you don't, then kill it. Forcing yourself to like something you don't like usually doesn't work.

If you like it, repeat it. If you repeat it and find that its working, and you still like it, you'll start to love it.

The more often you do things you love, the faster your progress will be.

I should mention you'll also get better at doing things you love. I am WAY better at making cauliflower today, than I was 10 years ago, and I fucking love it now. I am also better at bench press than I was 20 years ago.

I'm going to tell you a bunch of things I love, and you can try them. You can also discover other things you may love yourself.

Your mission is to fill up your love list...to the max.

My love list is overflowing. There are SO MANY foods and activities I love everything in my health program. This is why i've gained and maintained my objectives , "look great," "prevent disease," "six-pack," "feel young," over the last decade....without trying.

Action Items

1 - get our app
2 - "Check in" your health objectives
3 - "Check in" your current assessments you can get immediately (weight, selfie, and any recent blood work or medical tests).

After this, start looking into the other categories. I'd start with nutrition first.

• It's the most important category
• You are going to eat anyways
• You can start executing, today