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January 18 - January 27, 2020
hydration and circadian balance are the essential ingredients to the consistent perfect wake-up.
As a Stoic, Marcus suggested one remedy for getting over this hump: discipline. His sense of duty was what propelled him through the morning and into the world.
Health coach and sleep expert Shawn Stevenson calls that first glass of water in the morning “a cool bath for your organs.” Another way of putting it: it’s priming your internal fluids before hitting the road.
His nickname is the “Iceman” but he wasn’t born a superhero, he made himself into one. He isn’t a daredevil, either. He’s just dared to tap the potential we all have inside, by exposing his body to the resistance of extreme natural stressors, so that it—and he—may grow stronger as a result.
We choose cozy over cold, automatic over intentional, and with nothing to harden us, we get soft.
Our entire culture is built on the elimination of the difficult and the pursuit of the comfortable.
So you had to practice your resolve for doing the hard things. That cold plunge bred hardiness. It created courage, defined as moving forward in the face of fear. If you can conquer freezing water, even grow to love it, you can conquer anything.
“Today is victory over yourself of yesterday, tomorrow is victory over a lesser foe.”
You’re going to be far better off skipping breakfast altogether and waiting until you can get a good lunch or a snack with actual nutrients involved, rather than eating a bunch of sugar.
There is a time and place for sugar—it’s just never going to be at breakfast.
“To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.”
Eat whatever protein and fiber you like; as long as you add fat and cut the sugar, you are going to be in good shape.
It is also generally going to be better to reserve the more complex and hard-to-digest foods for later in the day, since the morning correlates to the lowest levels of digestive enzymes and gastric acid. Eggs are easier to digest than red meat, for example.
Except sometimes it’s worse, because when being right about something is your career, you have even more reason not to admit you might have been wrong.
A supplement is something that enhances or completes something else.
As I see it, you have two supplement choices: you can take multivitamins, which traditionally are notoriously hard to absorb, or you can reach for a multinutrient “green food” mix, which will cover a lot of your nutrient bases.
Whether that means scheduling time in the sun, eating mad greens, taking Epsom salts baths, or purchasing some supplements from a reputable source, the key is to treat yourself like a pro. Because you are a pro . . . you are professional at being you. You get paid for it, right? So be the best fucking you that you can be.
You know how nice it is to be home with no obligations? It’s like heaven.
He’s working toward something, and that something matters to him. That is why he is such a colossal force.
And happiness is a magnet for success. Happy people do better work and draw other happy people to them.
The formula has three parts: you need a mission you believe in, you have to own your space, and you have to work effectively.
Everyone needs a mission. Imagine the totality of your being, your work product, your energy, your will, expressed as a force. You could say that every force has a fundamental desire, which is to be applied to maximum effect.
While the meaning of life might be complicated, your mission in life should not be complicated. What are you, in this lifetime, on this planet, in this body, here to do? What do you want more than anything else?
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
They had a purpose, they had a mission: survive and win the war. This, then, is your job. To figure out your mission so you can own not just this day, but every day after it. Humans are happiest when they are working toward something. When they have a sense of purpose. Knowing your mission will help to turn your work from drudgery to a victory. Without a mission, it will take superhuman effort just to keep up the inspiration and motivation to make all the right choices necessary to own the day.
Laughter is the diffuser of intensity.
He has an incredible gift of pointing out the silliness and futility of many of our emotional challenges, which diffuses them immediately.
The moment you can laugh about something, the threat is over.
“Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.”
“Embrace the grind.”
IDEAL SOURCES: Grass-fed beef, wild-caught salmon, pasture-raised eggs, sprouted pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds
IDEAL SOURCES: Chia, flax, asparagus, guar gum
IDEAL SOURCES: Avocado, sprouted barley, mixed greens, popcorn, psyllium
IDEAL SOURCES: Garbanzo beans (hummus), dandelion greens, chicory root, onions
If you just do one thing for your nutrition, for your workday, and for your world, stop drinking conventional soda and stop giving soda to your kids. Sugar-sweetened beverages contributed to a staggering 60 percent increase in childhood obesity. Sugar-sweetened beverages that use fructose, like fruit juice concentrates and high-fructose corn syrup, are the worst of the worst.
IDEAL SOURCES: Yams, sweet potatoes, sprouted or fermented grains, certain fruits
IDEAL SOURCES: Coconut oil, animal fats, avocado, grass-fed butter, egg yolk, olive oil, MCT oil, cacao butter
Miso, kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha, dark chocolate, Greek yogurt
IDEAL SOURCES: Chia, flax, and sacha inchi seeds; wild-caught fish like sockeye salmon, sardines, and mackerel; grass-fed beef (as long as it isn’t grain-finished)
So here’s the move: anytime you can’t believe it’s not butter, or you see something with trans fats, throw that shit in the trash. Even if it says “0 g trans fats” on the packaging, double-check that the ingredients don’t include anything listed as “partially hydrogenated _____ oil,” because that shit is trans fat. Companies get to claim zero, because the FDA allows them to round down for anything that contains less than 0.5 grams per serving.
And as for canola and safflower oil, just do your best to limit your intake and vote with your dollars for products that don’t contain them.
When you’re cooking for your health, even if you’re indulging in some delicious pan-fried foods, you want to make sure you don’t heat your fats—olive oil, butter, coconut oil—to what is called their “smoke point.” This is where healthy fats start to turn unhealthy, because once they burn, they start to produce toxic compounds called aldehydes, which, interestingly, are also in the class of compounds that accumulate when we drink too much alcohol, making us feel hungover.
Pro Tip: Fry with Avocado Oil Avocado oil has the highest smoke point of all cooking oils. With a nice mild flavor, it’s great for any kind of sauté or stir-fry. And with a smoke point upward of 500 degrees Fahrenheit, you’ll be hard-pressed to scorch it unless you crank the burner to 11 and then forget about it.
No, just understand that pesticides are not good for you and that eating organic as much as possible will be the surest way to avoid the antinutrients conventional produce contains.
