Welcome to 1-3-1 Fridays, my weekly newsletter, where I reveal evidence-based strategies to get lean, strong, and create optimal health.
You'll receive:
- 1 reflection from me
- 3 ideas you can use
- 1 question for you
Let's dive in.
What's new this week:
For the next 14 days, I've opened enrollment for our new program, Rebuild.
Tell me if this sounds like you:
- You think you need to starve yourself to lose fat
- You don't know how to eat to build muscle and strength
- You’re confused about how to train to maintain muscle and maximize fat loss
- You think fat loss means a rigid, joyless meal plan that involves giving up your social life
- You don’t have time for long workouts that leave you beat and sore for days on end
- You’re constantly second-guessing what you’re doing
- You’ve tried fitness programs before that leave you hanging after the program ends
This is highly personalized, well-thought-out health & fitness programming for the go-getter.
If you're an action taker and want to get lean, strong, and healthy in minimal time, then this might be for you.
Plus, there are a few cool bonuses for the first few spots (only), as well as our Rebuild Promise:
'Love it in the first 30 days or leave - plus, I'll 'buy back' your first month from you'.
Spots are capped at 5.
*I’ve added a special discount for those who finish our Reset Challenge. If you took part and completed it, check the curriculum for your extra discount.
If you weren't part of Reset, I'd suggest applying earlier, since we review applications in the order received and then move others to the waitlist.
The faster you apply, the better your chances of getting one of the few spots open this round.
If getting lean, strong, and healthy while being a positive role model for your family is important, this is a great way to start fall in your best health.
The program is $250 per month over 3 months. It's even less over 6 months and even less if you pay your investment in full.
Basically, the longer your time horizon in your health, the better the investment comes out cost-wise.
The average restaurant meal where I live in the South is around $60 for a family of three.
Multiply that by 4 weeks, and you're averaging nearly $250 a month in extra food expenses. Eat out one less time each week. In a month, you’ll cover your investment in your health.
Plus, grocery shopping gets cheaper when you buy healthier foods.
Rebuild gives you a clear plan and all the tools to lose fat and build muscle over the next 12 weeks and beyond. You won’t need a fad diet or feel confused.
To be clear: this isn't coaching or accountability (that's what our Accelerator, Inspire, and Mastery programs do).
This is highly specialized health & fitness programming tailored to your body and goals with weekly guidance.
Here's my personal Rebuild Promise to you:
- Love it or leave it — your first 30 days, unconditional. If you're not satisfied for any reason, get a full refund, no questions asked.
- Rebuild 90% Promise: Follow the Rebuild standards for at least 12 weeks, 90% of the time. If you can show me you did the work and followed the instructions, but still don’t feel stronger, leaner, or more energized, I'll refund 100% of your money, and I'll keep training you for free until you do.
I think that’s a win-win.
Priority spots open now.
Get the best value and reclaim your health and strength—learn more below.
ONE REFLECTION FROM ME
For the past few years, I've been hinting at an ongoing health experiment I've been working on.
It hasn't been easy.
In fact, it's probably the hardest thing I've done in my health journey.
And at the same time, it's also been the simplest.
I've written here and there about my experience using raw living plants to help reclaim my health.
I even recorded a podcast specifically on this topic.
But I'm finally ready to share everything.
Part of my concerns over the past few years were:
- Will this work for me?
- What will others think of me?
- Protein? Not this problem again...
- My peers will ridicule me, and I'll become a laughingstock.
- Clients will lose respect for me, and my reputation will erode.
- What if I fail and this is all one big mistake?
That last one, in particular, stopped me from sharing more in-depth over the past few years.
The podcast episode is the closest I came to spilling the beans (or in this case, the fruits).
But after 4.5 years of my health journey, I've come to my own conclusions by observing reality with neutrality.
The last sentence is important:
Reality isn't what you like or don't like.
Reality is what is.
Without our projections, biases, or assumptions.
A beginner's mind is a prerequisite to climb your own health mountain.
Most folks never reach the first level of their health journey because of their own biases and beliefs about health.
You have to challenge the status quo and everything you know about health.
For some, this will be hard. For others, it will be easier.
One thing I've found true, though, is that if you believe something will be hard, it will be.
If you believe something can be easy or become easier, it will be.
Your mind plays a tremendous influence on the actions you take and how you perceive them.
I'll share this on YouTube and document it step by step, as well as on the ZH Podcast, and write in-depth guides for each topic that requires further education.
I firmly believe in the scientific method.
I also believe most of us are brainwashed about what health is, rather than what it really is.
As Dr. Alan Goldhamer bluntly says:
'Society is built to keep you fat, sick, and miserable'.
I'll also add that society, or the powers that be, also likes to keep us heavily distracted.
When I began this journey, I wanted to show myself I could heal from a chronic autoimmune disease. Doctors, naturopaths, acupuncturists, and dermatologists said I'd live with it forever.
The internet and 'science' said the same.
'Autoimmune is for life', they said.
'Once you got it, you can't heal,' they said.
'There's nothing you can do to heal yourself; you can only suppress the symptoms'.
The difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset is that one keeps trying and loves challenges, and the other gives up quickly and stops trying.
Guess which one had me stuck for 20+ years?
What started as a journey to heal myself from the bloody open wounds that covered my scalp and joints since I was 10 became something very different as each year went by.
Recently, time with family and coaching clients (who also inspired me), made me realize the best way to step up my own health is just to share my journey along the way.
Health is simple. It's not complicated, confusing, or complex.
It's simple. But it's not easy.
You have to decondition your mind to recondition your body.
The psyche is where you'll get the most tripped up in your health journey, not your body.
The body always wants to be healthy and heal.
The acquired mind is what keeps us stuck.
Don't let the latter dictate the former.
Lesson: When your desire for health is greater than your desire for 'tasty' food, you will become healthy.
3 IDEAS FOR YOU
I.
Simplicity has always been the most effective way to see sustainable results.
But making something simple requires hacking away at the unessentials.
The human mind is constantly hijacked by the Trickster archetype.
This makes it easy to believe that for something to ‘work,’ it needs to be hard.
Fitness isn’t easy. Neither is nutrition. At least not in the beginning.
When you start something new, the beginning is always the hardest.
But with the right standards and systems, health should get easier over time.
Again, simplicity is the key to sustainability.
Keep it so simple you could do it on your hardest, most overwhelming day.
Simple beats perfect.
Simple beats complex.
Simple beats hacks.
II.
The purpose of fitness tracking is straightforward:
To track your progress in health & fitness.
Different tools accomplish different results.
Some tools are better than others.
But before you start focusing on which tool is the best to track your fitness progress, let’s start with what and why:
- Why do you want to track your progress?
- What do you want to specifically track?
The more clarity you have on both questions, the faster and easier it is to decide which tool to use.
Track with intention.
III.
Most people track their nutrition inefficiently.
If you want to save more time tracking and live your life, here’s what to do:
- Create a database of 6-8 meals that you eat consistently
- Save those meals on MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, or your preferred tracking tool
- After you save your meals as templates in your tracker, stick to similar meals each time you eat. If you're cutting body fat or building muscle, a set meal plan will cut your tracking time significantly.
- Each time you track, use the meals you’ve saved as templates and adjust the grams per ingredient (if needed). For example, if your meal template is lentil tofu stew, but on Monday, you added more tofu, adjust the grams for the extra tofu for that particular meal.
- Bonus step: If you use Cronometer (which I recommend or our ZH App, which tracks meals as well, you also have the option to set up your meals as recurring. This is a game-changer because you can save your meals for the next day and repeat them indefinitely. This means you only need to tweak grams per meal (if needed).
You’ve saved over 50% of the time tracking your meals.
Reinvest that saved time in your quality of life, workouts, or time with family.
You might even get some extra sleep.
Enjoy.
ONE QUESTION FOR YOU
What was the biggest win in your health this summer?
Client Spotlight
What if going into your 40's meant something different?
Instead of getting older, you got stronger.
Instead of gaining weight, you got leaner.
Maggie is a busy mother and wife.
She’s also an animal activist and vocal leader in her community.
Yet, over the years, Maggie stopped putting herself first.
In one of our first conversations, Maggie shared that she despised working out.
She never really liked it.
Yet, she recognized that as she entered her 40s, she needed to take care of her health.
Feeling out of shape, overweight, and ‘weak’ in her body were her biggest concerns.
So we got to work.
𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆: We focused on a gradual ascent with her habits.
Our first priority was helping her enjoy her workouts.
3 days of lifting and falling in love with exercise.
We then focused on increasing her plant-based protein because her protein intake was low.
Finally, we further specialized her training after she had a knee procedure in the first few months of working together.
Because of gut issues, we focused on optimizing her health routines and worked with her naturopath to achieve even better results.
𝗪𝗶𝗻𝘀: Maggie didn’t skip a beat. She could have missed a workout during her knee surgery. She didn’t.
She could have stopped tracking nutrition during her stomach issues. She didn’t.
Part of Maggie’s success came down to her mental and emotional transformation.
She went from having a fixed mindset to creating a growth mindset.
She consistently attended our weekly mindset classes inside our Accelerator Program.
She dropped 5+ inches from her waist, 12+ lbs, and tripled her strength to the point that, even with her small stature, she could easily carry 50+ lb cat food bags.
If she could do it, so can you.
Make fall your best health season.
1 QUOTE FROM OTHERS
I.
“Exercise is beneficial, and I strongly recommend it. But a lack of exercise is not the primary reason for weight problems, and exercise can never take the place of a healthful diet.”
― Neal D. Barnard
Back home.
Traveling was rough.
But home safe and sound.
The sun is shining.
And grateful to be back South.
As promised, your 1-3-1 Friday in less than 5 minutes.
Until next week,
P.S. Did you know this food beats red meat and lentils for iron absorption rates?
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