The Core Pillars Of Health

[Artsy]

Hey! I'm redesigning my schedule and trying to identify the core pillars of health to build minimum viable habit systems around, my current system is based around  Huberman's work. I am looking for blindspots, (as I don't know what I don't know,) such as pillars I have not identified, or habits to adopt that my current pillars lack, my outline so far is:

 

Diet -

Intermittent fasting 11:00am-17:00pm

3x Wholefood vegan organic meals per day

Multivitamin

B-Complex

Boron

Omega 3

Magnesium Threonate

 

Exercise -

3x Fullbody workouts per week

4x Neck/Abs/Cardio & Stretch workouts

 

Sleep -

Phone off at 20:00, no media consumption before 16:00

21:30-7:00 (I have a sunlight alarm which starts at 6:30)

 

Sunlight -

1-2 Hours Morning sun (Morning routine, largely Journalling practice & Calisthenics)

30 Minutes Midday Sun (During Second meal)

 

Social Connection -

Attending local meditation group

Attending Toastmasters

 

Purpose -

Daily Life-Purpose centred 4 Hour Deep work block

 

Are there any other pillars/areas of development you can suggest? Thanks in advance.

Edited April 16 by Artsy

[The Renaissance Man]

Hey @Artsy, I've been following Huberman's work for a while. Actually since when he got famous 3-4 years ago.

There's a thing (a BIG thing) I don't like about him: his advice tends to avoid the big things that actually move the needle of health in favor of the new niche study (and often irrelevant and very low value studies) and "protocols".

When you're not experienced he feels like a trustworthy person. But when you do solve one of the problems he talks about, you see how his episodes are extremely lackluster. You see how he actually doesn't care about your health, but only about his followers and bank account. If health is important to you, watch some serious Huberman critiques on YouTube.

 

Regardless of Huberman, you're doing great work in taking your health seriously. Most of his advice, which I can see reflected on your list, I would either drop entirely, or at least not consider it a pillar of health.

Here would be my pillars:

Diet

• 3/4 of the food you eat should be "healthy" food. Non-processed carbs, lean meat, plenty of fruit and veggies. This will supply with all the micronutrients you need. The final 1/4 is flexible and for enjoying yourself. It will make no difference to your health if you are a healthy person already. That's really all you need for diet.
• Limit alcohol consumption to 1 x week at most. And don't get wasted. Ideally don't drink alcohol, but for some that's a big ask.

Exercise

• Young people (<35) are actually perfectly healthy without working out. But some muscle looks good and it's attractive, so 3 full body workouts a week in the gym is a good compromise. Resistance training specifically. As you get older working out becomes more important to maintain muscle and endurance. It decays fast after 50. No need to train neck. Huberman is BSing you.

Sleep

• Wake up at the same time every day (that way you'll be tired at the same time every night). Place alarm far from bed so you're forced to get up.
• Cool room temperature if possible.
• Prevent anything that could disturb sleep. Blinds for light, ear plugs close ot bed for noise depending on situation.
• Screen terrorism is another BS thing. It's mostly about the content. If you watch "exciting" content it will be easier to stay up. In this sense a book is better. No need for blue light glasses and other BS. Same for sunlight. It's definitely not a health pillar, but more "protocol BS terrorism".
• Avoid coffee in the evening.

Other Health

• Learn how to brush your teeth, and brush them 2x day + floss. Do regular checks (every 6-18 months) for cavities.
• Get the basic vaccines.
• Get checked if something feels strange.

 

We're A LOT more resilient than Huberman would like you to think. I'm telling you, Huberman doesn't give a crap about your health. All his "protocols" require no serious emotional work. Notice that. That's very intentional. Because otherwise viewers would tune out. And he can't put out 2 hour episodes saying: actually staying in good health is pretty basic and simple.

He's shown again and again how the only thing he cares about is increasing his followers and bank account.

 

PS - This is actually good news for all of us. We don't need to do 100 "protocols" to not sleep 4 hours a night and grow tumors on our faces and die at 45.

PPS - Fuck Huberman, he wasted so much of my time

Edited April 16 by The Renaissance Man

[Michael569]

Looks like a pretty solid list covering most of the areas someone looking to be healthy would/should pay attention to 

3 hours ago, Artsy said:

Intermittent fasting 11:00am-17:00pm

3x Wholefood vegan organic meals per day

Might be tricky to do both at the same time. Restricting wholefood veganism with 6 hour fast might make it harder to get in enough macro and micronutrients. Still doable but needs a bit of additional planning. 

Other than that: 

• some deliberate down time which isn't used to be more productive can be helpful. 
• some outdoor activities to connect with nature - mountain biking, hike etc 

Overall great list. 

[Schizophonia]

2 hours ago, The Renaissance Man said:

Hey @Artsy, I've been following Huberman's work for a while. Actually since when he got famous 3-4 years ago.

There's a thing (a BIG thing) I don't like about him: his advice tends to avoid the big things that actually move the needle of health in favor of the new niche study (and often irrelevant and very low value studies) and "protocols".

When you're not experienced he feels like a trustworthy person. But when you do solve one of the problems he talks about, you see how his episodes are extremely lackluster. You see how he actually doesn't care about your health, but only about his followers and bank account. If health is important to you, watch some serious Huberman critiques on YouTube.

 

Regardless of Huberman, you're doing great work in taking your health seriously. Most of his advice, which I can see reflected on your list, I would either drop entirely, or at least not consider it a pillar of health.

Here would be my pillars:

Diet

• 3/4 of the food you eat should be "healthy" food. Non-processed carbs, lean meat, plenty of fruit and veggies. This will supply with all the micronutrients you need. The final 1/4 is flexible and for enjoying yourself. It will make no difference to your health if you are a healthy person already. That's really all you need for diet.
• Limit alcohol consumption to 1 x week at most. And don't get wasted. Ideally don't drink alcohol, but for some that's a big ask.

Exercise

• Young people (<35) are actually perfectly healthy without working out. But some muscle looks good and it's attractive, so 3 full body workouts a week in the gym is a good compromise. Resistance training specifically. As you get older working out becomes more important to maintain muscle and endurance. It decays fast after 50. No need to train neck. Huberman is BSing you.

Sleep

• Wake up at the same time every day (that way you'll be tired at the same time every night). Place alarm far from bed so you're forced to get up.
• Cool room temperature if possible.
• Prevent anything that could disturb sleep. Blinds for light, ear plugs close ot bed for noise depending on situation.
• Screen terrorism is another BS thing. It's mostly about the content. If you watch "exciting" content it will be easier to stay up. In this sense a book is better. No need for blue light glasses and other BS. Same for sunlight. It's definitely not a health pillar, but more "protocol BS terrorism".
• Avoid coffee in the evening.

Other Health

• Learn how to brush your teeth, and brush them 2x day + floss. Do regular checks (every 6-18 months) for cavities.
• Get the basic vaccines.
• Get checked if something feels strange.

 

We're A LOT more resilient than Huberman would like you to think. I'm telling you, Huberman doesn't give a crap about your health. All his "protocols" require no serious emotional work. Notice that. That's very intentional. Because otherwise viewers would tune out. And he can't put out 2 hour episodes saying: actually staying in good health is pretty basic and simple.

He's shown again and again how the only thing he cares about is increasing his followers and bank account.

 

PS - This is actually good news for all of us. We don't need to do 100 "protocols" to not sleep 4 hours a night and grow tumors on our faces and die at 45.

PPS - Fuck Huberman, he wasted so much of my time

Gay 🐋

[Majed]

@Artsy Sounds too mechanical and overly scheduled to me, i personally like spontaneity. 

[The Renaissance Man]

1 hour ago, Schizophonia said:

Gay 🐋

Nothing as straight as blue light glasses

[Hayato]

According to Anthony William intermittent fasting is bad for health and multivitamins are useless.

I highly recommend checking his work.

[The Renaissance Man]

@Hayato shhh you need 25 protocols and 52 supplements or you'll die tomorrow!

[Sugarcoat]

Stress reduction. Wow this one’s huge. Stress contributes to inflammation, disease, aging etc

[integral]

Do not for any reason go strict vegan, there’s no point gambling your health with potential malnutrition long-term, there is no indication that this will work for your genetics or Microbiome Long term

A beginner should go nowhere near a vegan diet

add healthy meat, Do not take any risk

Edited April 18 by integral

[integral]

The fact that Huberman is pushing a half assed vegan diet to 6,000,000+ people has made me lose all respect for him

every time I watch his content he’s just regurgitating basic cultural assumptions + basic scientific “truths” that have been repeated for the past 20 years on YouTube, this is beginner stuff

Edited April 18 by integral

[integral]

How can you take a bunch of supplements all at the same time when you have no idea how any of those supplements will react with your body?

[Norbert Somogyi]

A solid list, but when it comes to the vegan diet - pay close attention to how you feel. Some can thrive on it, while others feel something is missing (even with perfect planning) and animal products along with meat has to be re-introduced. Pay attention to related biomarkers too.

Others suggested nice additions, I'd add vitamin D to the list. The cofactors are mostly taken care of already, but K2 is hard to get by on a vegan diet (fermented foods like sauerkraut). Get your levels up and it can make a great difference in how you feel.

Another thing to note is don't take your list as a holy grail, don't expect yourself to be able to stick to it 100% of the time. At least you won't get disappointed if you fail one or more steps. Have some room for chaos - where you can just let go, play and enjoy life. This is just as important as the other aspects of health which your list mainly includes. That is, unless you are someone like David Goggins and thrive in such means to live.

[pero21221]

i would recommend swimming twice a week, it really works wonders for your body. Best form of cardio if you ask me.

[Yimpa]

Don’t forget to the Honey Goat Weed!