Exercise does not help a lot with weight loss, however it is very important in preventing weight gain or weight regain. So in a weight loss program, it can almost act like a locking mechanism preventing or minimizing weight gain

Quote by Daniel Lieberman

I heard this quote and it really resonated with me. The idea is that you can be born with certain genetic disposition such as diabetes or heart disease, however it is your environment and how you interact with it that typically determines the final outcome. If you have a family history of Type II diabetes but you exercise and have a good diet and sleep routine, odds are you won’t become diabetic. However, if you are sedentary, are sleep deprived and eat like there’s no tomorrow, odds are that you will. It’s the classic nature vs nurture and I believe it’s along a spectrum in terms of the tolerances your body will allow (ie how/how much you exercise, eat, and sleep)

There is a tendency for people to lean towards comfort, so when we want to go against that we have to make the action necessary (health crisis/scare) or rewarding (focusing on the long term benefits)

Having clutter can be distracting and prevent you be being focused. I’ve lived with clutter most of my life and my distracted thinking was normalized. When I finally got around to keeping a clean space, I felt my mind was clearer

With any endeavor, you want to set yourself up for success.

In that regard, do not strive for perfection. Perfection is an illusion. That is setting yourself up for failure.

Strive for progress. Don’t let the fear of not being perfect stop you from working towards being good.

Exercise

Sleep

Nutrition

Everything else is secondary to those 3.

Exercise should be a mix of cardio and weightlifting.

Sleep should be ~7-9 hours of sleep daily

Nutrition should be plant based, leaning away from processed foods and more towards whole foods.

Avoid alcohol and minimize sugars.

This is the foundation to solid health.

There is also a mental element: one should be doing mentally challenging things to minimize brain atrophy. Keep your brain challenged

There’s a lot of conflicting data on probiotics, which I believe is due to some unappreciated nuances we may not be aware of.

I think it’s overall good, but the question is whether probiotics are temporary or can we change our gut flora permanently. I think there’s a few points we should consider, one is the loading dose. I think for probiotics to take over, they have to compete against an already established gut microbiome and I suspect one needs a large dosing to overcome that.

Additionally, there are things are prebiotics which help probiotics propagate, or at least that’s the theory. But it makes sense in that you not only need to plant the probiotics, but you need to feed it. This typically involves fiber rich food and fermented foods. I think the fermented foods help feed the probiotics. Also, perhaps sourdough bread may be helpful here, as it’s essentially flour that’s been broken done by yeast and bacteria which are killed during the baking process leaving behind nutrients for the probiotics. Now, it’s also possible that the baking process changes some of the broken down compound, but I’m thinking there should be some that do make it through that are beneficial to the probiotics.

One should remember that it’s not like the probiotics are diplomatic communities, I’d say that it is more like warring tribes with the battle grounds being our intestinal tract and the food we consume. So by adjusting what we eat, we can make it more advantageous for the good bacteria to grow and the bad bacteria to not.

I believe that bad bacteria thrive on unhealthy food and good bacteria thrive on healthy food.

By eating the healthy food we are giving the good bacteria the higher ground and by take probiotics supplements, we are sending reinforcements to win the battles. The question is how many reinforcements do we need and once they’re there, how do we keep them fed? At some point, will we not need to send to supplement? Unfortunately, I don’t have answers to these questions. The GI is a bit of a black box in that regard, but I feel that we may need higher dosing than what is typically recommended. Could be wrong.

Those are my thoughts for now

Best way to eat a cupcake is to remove the bottom half of the cake and put it on top of the icing, making a cup cake sandwich with icing in the middle. That way you can get icing with every bite and I feel like it’s less messy

It’s good to have goals, but you also need perspective and understand why you have those goals. Know your values (easier said than done) and they will help guide you.

Be mindful of ways the world and society are unaligned with those values. It can be insidious as we accept them as a given. One example is consumption. There’s nothing wrong with buying things and we need to buy things to a certain extent. We need food, clothes, shelter. We probably need some comforts and luxuries too, but I feel we can lose sight of the important things. Missing the important for the bright and shiny.

Know your values and see what in your life is aligned with those values and what isn’t so aligned.

Be aware that their are influences around you, some are conscious and some are subconscious

Read that somewhere and seems like the simplicity of the statement.

Be honest with yourself and be able to discern the difference. If it feels like a chore or you’re doing it out of obligation instead of desire, it may be more lust than love

Read this quote and thought it was nice:

“Being old isn’t about age. It’s about what direction you live your life – you’re old when you live your life looking backwards instead of forwards”