Ray's Take

Welcome. So happy you made it here :)

You want to start taking control of your health program. What now?

There's 2 ways in which humans can make changes.
- Big and sudden - IE throw all the bad shit away in your house and completely start over
- Small and gradual - IE cut out 1 type of food

A business analogy is, you could fire the entire management (big and sudden), or you could reprioritize certain strategic initiatives (small and gradual).

If you are the type of person that needs to go with "Big and sudden," you'll know. And you should do that. You can't fire yourself, but essentially you are bringing in a whole new way of doing things (which will not be easy).

But I'd say most people making it here will fall into the 2nd category. You are a motivated person that has achieved success in your life. You know the process of learning what to do, executing, and getting results. You just haven't focused on the strategic initiative of optimizing your health.

Let's go through what to do step by step..

1 - Design your objective

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).

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.

2 - Assess your current state

Background

You have a program already. It's what you do every day.

We need to improve our program to fulfill our objective. To do this, we need to measurable "key results" that signify we are working toward accomplishing our objective.

Yea its like an OKR. And yea OKRs are annoying, but if done right, they work.

Assessments

To pick key results that make sense, we need to know our starting point.

I would recommend to do as many assessments as possible:
- Blood tests (link)
- DEXA scan (link)
- Strength
- VO2 max
- Nutrition

You should 100% get the proper blood tests to evaluate heart disease and diabetes risk. And you should 100% get a DEXA scan to know body fat %, lean mass, and bone density. Schedule ASAP.

Both of those assessments will give you valuable information AND increase motivation.

For the sake of this article, you can't have that info right now. So let's focus on nutrition and exercise, two things that drive every single objective anyways.

Nutrition assessment

Nutrition is tricky to quantify. It's hard to be objective and measurable because there is no single "best" diet and its complicated how what you eat affects what you care about. All we know is it matters, a lot.

It's also annoying AF to track all your food. To make things more complicated, if you aren't weighing your food, your tracking is wrong anyways.

Thus, we'll try to make nutrition as objective and measurable in a way that fits into real life.

• Level 0 - I eat whatever I want. I don't think about nutrition. I am not happy with my current status, and I'm not moving in the right direction.

• Level 1 - I try to eat healthy sometimes. I don't know much about nutrition. I am not happy with my current status, and I'm not moving in the right direction.

• Level 2 - I think i'm eating healthy. I superficially know something about nutrition. I am not happy with my current status, and I'm not moving in the right direction.

• Level 3 - I'm focused on eating healthy. I know some fundamental principles about nutrition. I am not happy with my current status, but think I'm moving in the right direction.

• Level 4- I know I'm eating healthy. I am sure about fundamentals principles of nutrition. I am not happy with current status, but know I'm moving in the right direction.

• Level 5 - I know I'm eating healthy and don't need to think about it (its automatic). I am knowledgeable about nutrition . I'm either happy with current status or on autopilot to get there.

What level are you?

3 - Nutrition -> Key result

The goal is to just get to 3 as efficiently as possible. This is when you know something about nutrition, and are making measurable progress. If you are already at 3 or higher, I don't think you need to change anything. Just keep measuring your progress via blood, DEXA, scale, etc.

After you get to 3, just keep on gaining knowledge about nutrition and you'll auto get to level 4.

If you get to level 4, just keep assessing if you are happy with what you are eating and measuring progress. If yes and yes, you'll auto get to level 5.

If you get to level 5, you made it.

Nutrition - START

I'll give you some knowledge I'm very sure about.
1 - Eat more veggies and lean protein
2 - Eat less refined carbs and added sugar

We can argue about carbs, fat, keto vs low fat, fruit, dairy, gluten free, bla bla forever.

However, I'm very sure that veggies and lean protein are good. Have more of those.
--->Here are starter recipes, orders, etc.

I am very sure refined carbs (white bread, chips, pretzels, candy, anything else that is processed in a package with high carbs, low fiber) are bad. Eat less of those.

If you want to lose fat, add one extra step- don't eat if you aren't hungry. Specifically, this means two things:
- Don't snack mindlessly (don't even have a "healthy snack." Go for water, tea, coffee, or something else with 0 calories. It's vital to build habit to not snack)
- If you are eating a meal, once you are satisfied, stop

For this week, use our app to check in what you are eating, and how you are feeling. This doesn't mean to track every single one of your foods (though you can if you want to). Just write down your thoughts, plans, questions, and even include photos to show types of foods and portion sizes.

Exercise assessment

Strength

Have you lifted weights in the last month?
If yes, your strength is whatever you did last time.
If no, we'll have to start over. Just assume you are low/medium strength (we'll quantify later).

VO2 max

You can get an estimation of this from Apple Watch or other wearables (if you have). And yea this isn't as accurate as the official test, but it works on a relative basis (comparing you, to yourself).

If you don't trust it or don't have it, you can also do a validated test -> see how far you can run in 12 minutes. It's called the Cooper test and you can do it RIGHT NOW. If you do this, there is a high chance you will succeed, so you should do it.