Carnivore, vegan, low carb, high carb…

Sleep 5 hours a night, wait no 7-9 hours…

Exercise is bad…

Lift weights, wait no...do body weight exercises...actually only go for walks…

No, wait you’re going to overtrain.

If you’ve ever peered into the online health space you know how confusing it can be.

You enter trying to improve your health and leave stressed and confused.

It’s not your fault, I don’t even think it’s (most of) the creator's fault.

Of course, liars are trying to get a quick buck off you.

But many are there to help.

The problem is a 40-minute-long podcast clip explaining nuances will get cut down to a 20-second reel. This spreads half-truths with no fault to the original creator

With the hopes of helping you cut through the noise.

I am starting the Fundamentals of Health series.

I have 2 goals with this series:

• Provide actionable takeaways

• Provide you with a solid base to explore from

The teachings I put in here are a collection of data, research, and content from well-respected individuals, all of which have been litmus tested through my personal experience and the experiences of people I have helped.

In this issue, I am going to give a broad overview of the five fundamentals and give you an actionable takeaway for each one.

In the coming issues, I'll dive deeper into the specifics of each of the 5 fundamentals.

Introduction to the Series

To make this series actionable I will not go into hyper specific topics, like biomechanical movement patterns.

These are the fundamentals that will get you 80-90% of the way to healthy living.

I will be sharing what I (and others) believe to be the 5 basics of health and in the process, I hope to shed light on new ways to think about the idea of health. So that if you ever decide to learn about specifics you have a solid way of thinking to stand on.

Without further ado…

The 5 fundamentals of health are sleep, diet, movement, mental health, and environment.

Sleep

Sleep is your body's fountain of youth. During a night of sleep, you repair the damage (aging) of the day.

As a bonus, good sleep will maximize the effects of everything else on this list.

(Other than your environment.)

If you want to know the importance of it, deprive yourself of a good night's sleep, nothing will ruin your day faster.

Here’s a little data highlighting the importance of sleep:

• One night of sleep deprivation affects your blood glucose to have a similar response to that of a diabetic

• Sleep deprivation increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all causes of mortality.

• Lastly, long-term sleep deprivation has the equivalent risk to that of smoking

Actionable tip:

Tonight, around sunset or 1-2 hours afterward as your bedtime nears. Dim your lights and stay away from screens. Ideally use candles for lighting if you have them.

Bonus- in the morning before checking your phone open a window and look out of it for 1 minute to 5 minutes. The window must be open. You can of course go for a walk outside.

Diet

I debated talking about this to not open a can of worms. It’s as if diet has become the new religion. Before continuing I want to say this. Do not think I am telling you to diet. This invokes an idea of restriction. I am purely taking it for what it means the food/liquids that enter your body.

The way I would implore you to start thinking about diet is:

Don’t think-healthy food and unhealthy food. Instead, think human appropriate food and human inappropriate food. Just as lions have food appropriate to them, so do we.

(We'll dive deeper into this in the diet issue)

Actionable tip:

(Again hard to open a polarizing topic in a short space but I want to give some value right now)

At each meal depending on your size I want you to do 3 things:

• 25g to 100g of protein on the plate

• Protein sources tier list - seafood (shellfish/small fish), organ meats, muscle meats (game then lamb and goat then beef, then pork, try to stay away from chicken

• If vegan/vegetarian make sure that you have the right range of amino acids by mixing grains and nuts/seeds (stay away from fake meats)

• Eat most of the protein on the plate first before touching other stuff

All this will help you stay satiated, get micronutrients, get macronutrients, and get energy requirements.

Again not perfect if you know your nuances shift as needed (applies to other tips)

Movement

Our bodies are designed to move.

Movement covers breathing, exercise, and general movement.

And I would bet that you're moving way below your potential.

I’m not saying to run a 100-mile ultra-marathon (although you probably could with enough determination).

Instead, move more than you think you need. Or move a little more than you usually do daily.

Walk, breathe, squat, jump, climb.

Actionable tip:

Go for a walk but with a twist.

I want you to walk as you did as a kid.

If there’s a rain puddle jump in it.

Pick up (heavy) stones, squat (deeply), and randomly start running.

Lastly, breathe through your nose throughout the day.

Mental Health

You’ll come to notice that as your physical health improves your mental health will too.

Some problems can’t be solved this way.

It will take extra work.

Actionable tip:

I want you to grab a pen and paper.

Make a list of things (people, habits, place, etc.) that make you feel off in any way-anxious, insecure, etc.

Pick one that jumps off the page.

I want you to do 2 things:

1. Take a step back from them-cut them out or distance yourself if you can’t (at least for now)

2. Take 5 minutes to journal about it-how it makes you feel, when, why…

I will be diving deeper in the Mental Health issue.

For now, if this is something you’ve been struggling with as of late I hope these free resources can help:

Happiness Habits

Previous newsletter on reoccurring negative thoughts/improving your mindset

Environment

This is perhaps the most important yet least talked about or considered influencer of your health.

It affects all the other aspects above.

“You can’t heal in the same environment you got sick”

Here are some aspects of the environment I will dive deeper into in its issue:

• Light

• Temperature

• How it affects your habits

• Food availability

• Air

Actionable tip:

Open your windows, this will:

• Allow unfiltered light in

• Allow new air in

Wrapping things up

Remember no matter who you are getting information from. Take it with a grain of salt.

Think critically, and realize the nuances of how it will apply to your situation.

The goal of this letter was threefold:

1. Introduce the series

2. Give you actionable information

3. Present you with ideas to potentially research

Don’t miss part 2 of the series-sign up below to get it straight to your inbox.

If you think this series can provide values to others-click the icons at the top to share it.

Thanks for reading, I will see you all very soon:)