Personal wellbeing & longevity practices

I’m writing this guide for myself, and making it public so it might help others. I’m going to version it as I make changes. I’ll cover holistically a wide range of topics.

Nutrition

💧 Hydration

  • keep water bottle full, but don’t overdo it

🥗 Diet

  • Mostly Paleo. Avoid gluten, avoid cow dairy.
    • Breakfast: oatmeal, eggs, bacon, chia pudding, berries
    • lunch: animal or plant protein + veggies, raw or cooked.
    • dinner: plant protein + starchy veggies / rice / grain-free carb alts (eg. almond flour/casava pasta)
  • Mini elimination protocols twice a year, ~15-30 days
    • for SIBO control + digestive health
    • for me: strict grain/dairy-free + low FODMAP + no refined sugars (even if “paleo” treats with things like coconut sugar, agave, monk fruit, etc.)
  • Meal Hygiene
    • Don’t graze between meals. This keeps digestion “on” all the time, and it needs rest to go through it’s processes well. At each meal, try to eat all your food within a 30m window, then stay fasted until the next meal. Snacking is ok, but sit and make it a real snack with fasting before/after, and only eating within a small window to avoid drawn out grazing.
    • Don’t eat within a few hours of sleeping. Metabolism keeps body awake and impacts sleep negatively.
    • Chew very well — slowly, intentionally when possible. Gives enzymes in mouth chance to break down food more before stomach, leads to better digestion overall.
    • Drink fluids before meal (not during or after) for optimal digestion. More fluids = more dilution of digestive juices
  • Fasting, time-restricted
    • Default to 14:10, but shift to 16:8 (or more) when needed
    • Currently no extended fasts or water fasts
  • Glucose feedbackk: GM twice a year, check which meals spike again, check how quickly i get back to baseline
  • No alcohol; rarely to socialize (~1 drink or less per month), and always wine or sake. No beer, no hard liquor.
  • Poop monitoring
    • ~daily or so practice
    • use the 1-7 scale
    • pay attention to see how it changes with what you eat
  • Food journaling
    • as-needed to diagnose issues when I’m having gut or energy problems
    • usually 1-2 weeks of it. Just drop notes in Notion, none of the apps are fast enough.

🌿 Supplementation

  • Daily:
    • 4g/day, DHA Omega-3 (fish oil, viva naturals or omegagenics)
    • 500mg - 1g curcumin phytosome (aka tumeric extract, currently getting from Thorne)
    • Homocysteine Supreme (aka B-complex, currently from designs for health) - 2cap/day.
    • 2k-4k IU daily, Vit D3/k2 (currently from orthomolecular)
    • ~40-80mg, caffeine (1 espresso worth per day; one or two more espresso drinks with decaf for the ritual)
    • 310mg magnesium + 100 mg L-theanine, ~1hr before bed (via moon juice’s Blue Lemon magnesi-om)
  • As-needed:
    • Creatine, ~5g, on workout days (~3-4x/week, currently using from thorne)
    • Adaptogenic herbs (Ashwaghanda > Reishi > Chaga = Cordyceps = Lions Mane) in times of higher work/parent stress (so, every other month I do a ~1-2wk cycle)
    • 200mg Resveratrol + ~10mg quercetin (from life extension) - paused.
    • SIBO-related supps (eg. RepairVite, DGL powder for mucous membrane support) - paused.
    • pre/pro-biotics (I use seed ds-01) - paused, I pull it out

🍲 Cooking

  • Keep basic ingredients on hand weekly
    • Fruits (berries, bananas, oranges/mandarins, apples, stonefruit, kiwi, lemon/limes)
    • Veggies (onion/shallot, garlic, celery, carrots, bell peppers, mushrooms, leafy greens like spinach/arugula/kale/lettuce)
    • Starches (rices, gluten-free pastas, sometimes GF breads – no buckweaht, no millet, no sourghum)
    • Meats (salmon/cod fillet or smoked; canned small fishes like anchovies/mackarel/sardines… Patagonia Provisions is tasty; pre-cooked chicken via Kevin’s; ground beef 80/20 grassfed pasture; heritage pork bacon)
  • Weekly Meal prep: sunday after farmers market I try to chop/prep fruits and veggies. Put them in a clear jar (re-using from my meal delivery services) so it’s easy to see in fridge and take out for cooking/snacking.
  • Prepared meal delivery: I use Methodology and Territory for meals weekly. Usually only a handful (2 proteins, 2 veggies, 2 carb sides, 2 “desserts”)

Sleep

🌒 Preparing environment (cool, dark, circadian rhythm, clean sheets)

  • No A/C, but I aim for a cooler room (under ~70 seems to work well.)
  • EightSleep set to ~85-88F.
  • Blackout curtains

🌅 Consistent schedule

  • in bed by 10:30pm most nights, sometimes earlier (especially if I need to feel more refreshed), sometimes later (if I have energy and can afford to burn it)
  • Wake by 7am most mornings, 8am the latest. I need at least 8hrs a night to feel refreshed.
  • Outside walking twice a day. Once in morning, once in afternoon / before sunset.
  • No eating after 6pm for best sleep. I can push it with lighter meals until 7 or 8 if I don’t mind disturbing my sleep
  • Avoid: alcohol, heavy meals (high in fat, high in protein, pushing to “full”, heavy in refined sugars/deserts), moderate exercise, and higher stress activities (eg. work, competitive video games, addictive shows) — all of these disturb sleep (can keep me up later, make it more difficult to stay asleep, interrupt REM/deep, keep HRV low + RHR elevated, cause bloating, etc.)

💤 Evening wind-down routine

  • reading (Kindle only)
  • Warm shower to cool core body temp
  • Breathwork… relaxing 5-5-5.

😴 Catching up on sleep

  • if too many consecutive (2-3) crap sleep days (< 8hrs), I prioritize 8+ days to get back to baseline.

Physical Fitness

🌳 Walking

  • Try for 2-3 walks a day, one slower pace, one faster pace
  • Aim for 15m+, but even squeezing in a 2m walk outside is healthful; often I’ll get a 1-2hr walk with a phone call or podcast
  • Silence, meditation, problem solving, music, podcast, etc depending on energy + goal.

😤 Breathing

  • Use nasal breathing + avoid mouth breathing, even during exercise.
  • Switch to conscious breathing when I want to be more present
  • Use different patterns for different activities
    • eg. 5-4-5 in-hold-out for unwinding; holotropic pattern (1s quick in belly, 1s quick in chest, moderate 2s exhale) for deep focus
    • eg. resistance training = inhale to prep, exhale on the effort
    • eg. cardio/endurance = consistent, smooth deep inhale deep exhale, no pause after the inhale

😎 Sun bathing

  • as much as I can get (which is usually ~1hr of direct sunlight on skin with a shirt on)
  • on nicer days, shirtless in backyard with direct exposure, rotating every ~5m

💪 Personal training

  • I have both virtual and in-person coaches. The combo works exceptionally well, with my virtual coach taking cues from the in-person trainer, and the in-person coach knowing I’m making serious progress + acting on guidance between visits.
    • In-person at a PT clinic, my coach is a certified physical therapist (DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT) and helps me understand root cause of injuries, and guides me through movements to recover + strengthen. I see them monthly.
    • Future Fit for virtual - paused. They used to handle my programming. My performance coach is a certified PT (DPT, OCS, CSCS) Current focus is bodyweight, lower-weight resistance and mobility injury rehab to prep me for heavier barbell work. We text via app almost daily.

🤸 Stretching and Mobility

  • controlled articular rotations and RAILs/PAILs (see Kinstretch)
  • first thing when waking, light movement + stretching
  • foam roll / lacrosse ball as needed for targeted (eg. occipital FR, scapula/rotator, sternum)

🏋️Lifting

  • Olympic lifts weekly (squats, deadlift, overhead press, bench, snatch)
  • dumbbell / kettlebell work for core/trunk

🚲 Biking

  • 2x a week, low impact. Usually a 20-30m ride on Peloton. Or, outside with my kid, more casual, ~1hr or more.

🏊 Swimming

  • Paused. Waiting for summer pool opening.

🔥❄️ Thermal hormetic stress (hot/cold therapy)

  • I don’t have regular access to a sauna (working on it.) My go-to is a bathhouse with ~170f sauna + ~60f cold plunge that I cycle through. Normally 10-15m sauna, 1m break, 2-3m cold plunge, then let body get back up to temp (~5m) before sauna again. Repeat 2-3x.
  • Cold plunge at home, weekly in summer, monthly in winter. Stock tank, 170gal, 4 ice bags from 7-Eleven for $20 gets it down to high 40s F
  • Cold showers few times per week in the morning. At-home, as cold as it gets (~65f), I go for ~1-2m of rinsing. Sometimes evening, but usually feels best as an energizer in the morning.

💋 Sex

  • as often as possible, prioritized monthly (kids timing is toughhhh), try for weekly

Emotional Fitness (Mindfulness)

  • Practice: self-awareness, empathy, mindfulness, curiosity, play, resilience, communication
  • Being present in as much as you can (relationships, work, self care, etc) — Wait But Why “this could be the last time” calendar
  • Leadership coaching as-needed
  • Deep focus work
  • Tarot for self reflection (see Jessica Dore)
  • Gratitude: “everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about” ← build that empathy and kindness.
  • Walking and thinking
  • Gardening

Stress Relief

  • video games / hanging with friends almost nightly
  • cooking
  • working out
  • being in nature
  • chores around the house (dishes, laundry, picking up + organizing, groceries, meal prep)

Relationships

  • regular meetings to connect
  • txt rituals
  • (chosen) family focus
    • daily phone calls with mom + pops
  • presence — putting away all distractions and being singularly focused on another person when we’re together

Longevity

  • Supplements (see above in Nutrition.)
  • Biomarker discipline (tracking biomarkers regularly and adjusting practices as-needed) - see my labs spreadsheet here
  • Wearables (Levels yearly check; Apple Watch for movement, paired with Future for workouts; Oura for sleep quality, especially when I start slipping.)
  • Resting HRV monitoring as sign of stress (lower HRV = higher stress because of sympathetic nervous system association, see Peter Attia pod.)
  • Healthcare team (Parsley, functional med doc, performance coaches, leadership coach, therapy)

People I’m Following

Next up

  • my own interpretation of biomarkers to watch and why, deeper dive into HSPs, sirtuins, resveratrol, HRV parasymapthetic
  • people of note: mini bios of folks doing work in longevity, what they’re known for, and why i’m following