Month: February 2025

We watched a couple seasons of Masterchef with our kids over the past months – focusing on seasons that were most loved. While I have a few reflections coming on the whole experience, one of my favorite moments was in the semi-final of season 4.

Jesse, one of the three semi-finalist, forgets butter and asks her fellow contestants. Natasha, who always was “hardcore” about her approach to competition, refused to give her butter even though she had multiple sticks sitting around.

Luca, on the other hand, just tossed her a stick without her even asking him. He shared a lovely behind the scenes note about the moment – “I don’t think a piece of butter is going to make her dish stand out that much. If it does, good for her. I’m going home. Tomorrow I can still look at myself in the mirror. I’m a good guy. Forget about it.”

The irony here was that Natasha was in need just a couple challenges ago and relied on Luca’s generosity to help her out.

Luca went on to win the season. He demonstrated visible growth in his abilities over the course of the season.

But it was this moment I found most inspirational.

I wrapped up my 4 week experiment with the Continuous Glucose Monitor/CGM a week ago. Here are the 4 reflections from the 4 weeks –

(1) Sleep’s impact on metabolism was fascinating to watch. The single biggest distortion I saw in my metabolism was when I was sleep deprived. My glucose trends were fairly steady on most days. Then there came a day when I only slept 4 hours – the next day’s glucose graph read like the stock market.

(2) My ability to metabolize glucose slows significantly toward the evening. The same meal would cause steeper and longer glucose spikes in the evening. Ergo – eat lesser in the evening and leave at least 2 hours before bedtime.

(3) Moving after a meal has a big impact on our metabolism. This was my biggest takeaway after my first week. This held true throughout. Movement helps us use the glucose from the meal and, in theory, prevents it from being stored as triglycerides. I say “in theory” because I look forward to validating this when I get blood work done in a few weeks after keeping up this habit.

(4) Ordering of nutrients can have a near magical impact. Starting with fiber/salad, moving to protein, and ending with carbs is dramatically different vs. simply eating the same carbs without anything else. That sounds like an excuse to eat more and an invitation to gain weight. But a good friend who went through this process and lost weight said one of his biggest takeaways was that quality of nutrients matters a lot more than quantity.

These 4 weeks with the CGM were transformational. Getting to observe my body’s response to food was both educational and empowering – I’ll never look at food and lifestyle the same way again.

If you have 5 or more priorities, you have no priorities.

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” | Richard Feynman

Indeed.

A while ago, a teammate shared the “this is fine” meme.

We have this dog drinking coffee and saying “this is fine” in a room on fire.

She shared it as a way of sharing what she felt she was going through. We all laughed.

I’ve thought about that meme many times since. We all go through ups and downs. As we navigate the downs, we can take a lot of inspiration from this dog.

This is fine.

It will also be fine in the end.

Even this will pass.

A key part of becoming a better decision maker is recognizing when we’re ready to make a decision.

There is no need to rush a decision we’re not ready to make.

The end result is almost always downside.

It is only prioritization when the options are painful.

When you lose a game that matters to you, make sure you take the time to understand why you lost. A key part of this is taking accountability for everything – emphasis on everything – that was in your control.

The best time to do that is when you feel the pain right after the loss.

That combination of pain and reflection is what results in learning that helps us make progress.

A friend I play soccer with is a master of the game. He has a way of elegantly taking control of the game. That means his mastery goes beyond slick ball control to the way he reads the game.

The other day, he shared some feedback with folks on the other team. When they lost their first goal, they began showing signs of frustration.

That then led to them giving away a few more. By the time they began fighting back, it was too late.

He pointed to that initial show of frustration as the turning point. “It is a game of errors. You can’t let one error get to you. Move on.”

That idea – a game of errors – is truth. When we forget it, we dwell on the errors of the past and lose focus on the present. That only leads to more errors. The longer we hold on to those errors, the more we spiral.

It is a game of errors. Accept the error, move on, and focus on playing the best you can.

Applicable in soccer and in life.

Built to Move by Kelly and Juliet Starrett is built on a simple thesis – our body is built to move and the quality of our lives are dependent on making sure we’re allowing our body to do what it does best – move. They focus on 10 habits based on 10 vital signs –

1. Getting up and down off the floor
2. Breathe easy
3. Extend your hips
4. Walk
5. Future-proof your neck and shoulders
6. Eat healthy
7. Squat
8. Find your Balance
9. Create a movement-rich environment
10. Sleep

Each chapter has an assessment and a physical practice.

This book has inspired the following changes:

First, I’ve added 10-12 minutes to my morning workout routine to focus on the exercises laid out in the book. Specifically,

• Mondays: Floor exercises – Sit and rise, various floor sitting stretches
• Tuesdays: Hamstrings – mobilization, lockout, hip openers
• Wednesday: Hips – extension, isometric, split squat
• Thursday: Neck + shoulders (and some balance) – Airport scanner, rotations, wall hang

These workouts are all described in the book. While I carry the list with me on my phone, I keep the book near my workout mat so I can use it like a mobility manual of sorts.

Second, I’ve adopted a few of the small tweaks from the book – e.g., eating while sitting on the floor, balancing on one leg while I brush, and so on. These are easy and fun.

Third, a key part of building a movement rich environment is not sitting for more than 6 hours per day. I was definitely exceeding this regularly. Since the start of the year, I’ve made changes to ensure this happens – including defaulting to a standing desk and standing during meetings.

Fourth, thanks to both Built to Move and Good Energy, I’ve increased how much I walk and have lifted my daily average to 10,000+ per day. This has meant making tweaks too – e.g., parking 1000 steps away from the building where I work.

My final reflection – my lifestyle has changed dramatically in the past 15 months or so. It started with some significant changes after reading Peter Attia’s Outlive, accelerated significantly with Casey Means’ Good Energy, and then leveled up further with the Starrett’s Built to Move. These 3 books combined have changed my life.

In retrospect, I think “Good Energy” and “Built to Move” are the 101 books that I can’t recommend enough to anyone interested in these topics. They lay out the basics and lay out the path for a significantly healthier lifestyle. “Outlive” is the 201 book once you’ve made those changes.

Either way, I’m grateful to these authors for creating these books – they really are the user manual for my body that I didn’t know existed.