50 days of Health

This year I’m cutting my annual 100 days of Health drive in half. Not because I’m twice as healthy, but simply because that’s what fits between my travels this year. I’ve found that a health drive like this really helps me keep the rigorous container needed to get to a sustainable level that I can keep more easily for months afterward.

I share the details of this year’s adventure in part to keep myself honest about it, and mostly to help inspire you to do something similar if it works for you. Whatever container you decide to keep, and for whatever duration you decide to keep it, I want for you to start it smarter than ever before, and stay on it until you’re done! That’s always the tough part, isn’t it?

With practice, it does get easier! Here’s what I’m practicing this time:

• daily Tai Chi (morning)
• daily walk 2 miles (morning)
• 3x week strength training, alternating muscle groups (afternoon/evening)
• 16/8 intermittent fasting (eat 10:30am-6:30pm daily only)
• full 40hr fast/week (water, tea, coffee permitted)
• 1 pre-scheduled binge meal per week that breaks all the rules!
• water within arms reach at least every 30min
• screens off by 9pm, lights out by 10pm, Sunday through Thursday

Though I’m usually a Polite Vegan, for this year I will be adding animals & eggs to my diet for most of the next 50 days. So basically, it’s a modified Keto diet, focusing on plants & fats. That means sugar free (no fruits or added sugars or alcohol), gluten free (no wheat, rice, corn), lactose free (no cow cheese, milk), and slow-carb (raw vegetable carbs ok in moderation, nothing processed or > 20% of any meal).

Of course all bets are off for my once-a-week binge meal, which is when I eat enough of whatever I’ve been craving in the prior week to make myself not want to even look at it again for a while. Aside from the psychological benefits, this also creates a caloric spike that keeps the body from going into famine- mode and working against me. While the binge thing doesn’t work for everyone’s body, after doing stuff like this for over a decade, I’ve tested and proven that it does work for me — if it’s only one meal per week. I typically do my biggest workout of the week directly beforehand, which also helps both psychologically and physiologically.

Food-wise, my next 50-days generally look like this:
7am = coffee/tea
10:30am or later = large green/protein shake, vitamins, maybe half an avocado or other keto-snack if still hungry
2pm-ish = lunch, largest meal of the day
6pm = salad or soup, finished by 6:30
water any ol’ time, and lots of it…but not too much

Most of the diet & exercise parts of these 50 days originated in Tim Ferriss’s book The Four Hour Body that I read and began experimenting with myself back in 2011. Since then I’ve also incorporated elements of The Wahl Protocol, Bill Phillips’ Body for Life, James Clear’s Atomic Habits, and a few other things I’ve come across that I got results from.

The main key that I’ve learned over time is to focus on habits over outcomes.

I’m no longer weighing myself to see if I shed a pound, measuring the circumference of my biceps to see if I’ve gained muscle, or attempting to track the volumes of food I consume. For me, these were never really the point anyway. I want to be healthy, and these habits are ones that I know actively generate my health. Along the way, I don’t expect to that I will always be comfortable — building muscle often means being sore, making time for this means taking time away from other things I’d rather be doing. But I do expect that by the time these 50 days are done, my body will be stronger, my clothes will fit better, I’ll be less prone to injury and illness, and I’ll feel healthier and have more energy than I do now. To get there is not a sprint or even a marathon. It’s as simple and as challenging as a daily routine of carefully constructed and proven habits.

This is in many ways its own reward too! I don’t know about you, but I’m nicer when I get enough rest and eat well. I also tend to have a better attitude when I walk and listen to music/podcasts/audiobooks to start my day. And it does actually feel good in my body to go without sugar/carbs/alcohol, though it can be hard to really remember this until after I’ve gone a few days without any of them.

Day 1 is today and Day 50 is September 24th, the day before my two-week vacation when I return to Panama!

So that’s me, what about you? What have you found works well for your body, that I might consider as well?