So, what exactly have I been doing re: wellbeing?
In the previous post I tried to start off with the context for this journal. In this post, I have delved a bit more into the details of my personal wellbeing project.
What got me started?
Routine blood tests indicated that I had breached key markers of metabolic health.
Given family history, I took this as my last wake up call
How did I prepare?
I spent a lot of time sampling the works of various experts and ultimately locked on to Peter Attia’s works.
His approach strongly resonated with me because:
he was curious, collaborative, humble, scientific and tireless in the search for answers on wellbeing.
he had skin in the game - his own wellness
his podcasts and writings were detailed, thorough and also approachable.
What would I suggest for anyone starting out?
I can’t recommend his book highly enough as a starting point. It gave me me the tools to think about mattered and devise a strategy personalised to my needs.
I would also suggest a subscription to his podcast - at least to go over his AMA episodes as they cover the basics.
What were the broad outlines of my strategy?
Taking a leaf out of OKRs, the first step was to figure what actually matters to me in this context and how to measure it.
Functional fitness for the next 40 years which is mainly a function of cardio vascular fitness and strength (That’s the vision)
Metrics that act as proxy for this e.g. VO2 Max, and ALMI
A 5-10 year high level plan (mission) towards the vision (e.g. target VO2 max which puts me at a higher percentile for my age group in 10 years)
The side effect was that I stopped getting distracted by vanity metrics (how fast did I run today, how much do I weigh). Unsurprisingly, working on the right goals over a long time helps improve vanity metrics in the long term.
The next step was to define the strategy/guiding principles for the project plan for the year 1 target.
Movement
Improve ability to burn fat (mitochondrial health)
Improve aerobic base and VO2 max (learnt from the works of Alan Couzens, Dr. Inigo San Milan who were also interviewed by Dr Attia)
Improve muscle strength
Nutrition & Hydration (I found Layne Norton’s approach very useful)
Reduce insulin spikes, with blood sugar levels as a proxy.
Maximise chances of cellular cleanup (fasting protocols) without sacrificing muscle loss.
Maintain energy balance
Sufficient proteins for muscle growth
Support gut health
Sleep
Understanding what promotes (optimal body temperature) and inhibits (e.g. alcohol) good quality sleep
Strategies to deal with jet lag
Stress Management
I also spent time refining the data strategy that ties into the overall project strategy/plan
systems for continuous tracking of key data
Apple Watch for approximations on sleep, workout, resting heart rate,
Polar H10 for HRV
Carbon app for planning diet macros
Lactate meter for understanding the zone at which I had worked out
Ketone measurement to track my ketone level during long fasts etc.
understanding poor data. For e.g. non-animal sources of protein aren’t bio available, or that apple watch’s heart rate measurements can be inaccurate, etc.
measuring the baselines
establishing a measurement cadence
figuring out what not to
Most importantly, I took inspiration from the Agile, Lean schools of thought and James Clear’s Atomic Habits so that
The processes/plans evolve in a positive direction rather than aiming for perfection from the get go.
The targets are chunked into weekly/monthly targets and checkpoints, instead of trying to boil the ocean.
I can treat this as a continuous improvement project guided by the strategy rather than a fixed target with an approach that is set in stone
Takeaways:
I found it super useful to do the prep, and research thoroughly before setting long term goals.
Understanding what mattered, the various tradeoffs, pitfalls of vanity metrics, the ability to quantify goals, etc. helped make a realistic roadmap that can be tracked.
Perhaps for the first time, understanding the issue as a single system ensured that I wasn’t relaxed on a parameter (say alcohol) because I was doing exceptionally well in another area like workout or even protein consumption.
While there’s a lot of information above, I didn’t do everything from day 1. It was a slow, incremental project with continuous improvement enabled by
vision, mission, guiding principles which helped me evolve the plan when I hit the inevitable road bumps (sickness, kids being unwell, work deadlines, unexpected travel, etc.)
ability to baseline, measure and recalibrate at regular cadence.
I will add detailed notes on some of the areas (data, tools, elements of my guiding principles, my specific plans, etc) in due course.
The specifics of my strategy is unlikely to be useful for anyone else, but hopefully they provide a template. More importantly, I wish there was a way to enable others (at scale) to construct their goals, strategy and plan personalised to their context.