This article is meant as my Christmas present for those who are interested in the subject and in testing new areas so I will go straight to the point to keep the message as short as it is useful and actionable.

A bit of context:

Probably the most important element in our lives, if not the most important, our health is often overlooked or ignored, as most of us have been trying to maintain healthy habits for long periods of time and yet, very few actually succeeded.

Most of us have felt/lived, often the hard way, the direct connection between our health & balance and our performance, be it our performance at work or in our personal lives.  And when I say health & balance, I don’t mean being on “green” with everything – from blood tests results, sleep quality and quantity, nutrition etc. - to quality relationships at home, at work, involvement in social activities that brings extra meaningfulness and fulfillment. But being towards green as much time as possible and doing our best to keep a decent balance, for longer periods.

More precisely, having most of the time, a healthy lifestyle we actually really enjoy and can keep. For many of us though – after many failed attempts – it is still a wishful thinking.

For those still believing there is hope, please allow me to share a summary of some of my personal experiences and of several people I have been working with in the last 4-5 years.

When realizing we live in a sick care* environment rather than a healthcare one (most services be it medical /insurance etc. function in sync addressing the symptomatology vs prevention) and the once symptoms are there (some dysfunction is usually there if not already a disease), I decided to take most of my health in my hands and try to do my best to increase it.

I promised to my children I will do my best to play with their kids/grand kids (if really lucky) sports or on the floor and will stand up by myself and quick. So, a few years ago, I decided to do everything in my power to keep my promise to them.

During this time, besides an average of 8-10h/week of study (nutrition science, microbiome, genetics, exercise science, brain science, stress management, breathwork, sleep, habit formation, mindset, supplements, etc.), regular discussions with scientists from top medical schools (i.e. Harvard, Stanford, etc) I have been fortunate to meet along the way, I have tested lots of scientific insights on myself. 

I have been using CGMs for more than 2 years (Veri & Supersapiens), sleep trackers (Oura), fitness trackers (Whoop and/or Garmin, Strava) and an AI for personalized nutrition and lifestyle choices starting from DNA and blood tests results (InsideTracker) - to integrate all insights, measure and correct before opening my mouth on the subject. I try to be very careful to recommend a proper medical check before applying any of my suggestions.

So, let’s start with some suggestions and experiences sharing:

Assessment Phase:

1. Plan and take your Blood Tests:
   1. Talk to your family doctor for the bi-annual/yearly checkup
   2. Check out this AI powered platform and first the blood tests recommended (around 54 biomarkers). In addition, I suggest that you assess once a year at least your heavy metals levels (Mercury, Lead, Arsenic, copper, etc.). Those eating deep sea fish have a high probability to have elevated mercury levels. I personally switched tuna which I like very much with sardines and salmon (as often as I can from proper sources).
   3. Check with your usual clinic if they can perform them and if not, look for one of the top 5 in Romania, they will definitely do them (I refrain to recommend one as I have friends in many medical networks and want to avoid discussions)
   4. Upload your results or send them to the platform for they will upload them for you in a few weeks.
   5. The platform will create a personalized plan for you and will provide tens of useful insights.
   6. Check them with your doctor before taking any supplement despite very detailed information about each of the recommendations made and about the peer reviewed studies around those recommendations.

The Action Phase – The Personalized Journey to a Healthier You

2. Explore getting a sleep tracker who analyzes at least deep sleep, REM sleep, HRV, RHR, respiratory rate, sleep consistency, etc. for it will help regulate other habits if you have them (late eating, wine, stress management, etc.); try understand what functions for you and what doesn’t. A few aspects that worked for me: no social media /blue light before bed, no late meals most of the time, limited wines to max 2 times /week while if in more days they are exceptions, dark room, not drinking water before bed, etc.
3. Explore training your mind/manage your stress either via meditation, prayer or breathwork – whatever works for you on, a daily basis. Forget about quantity. Consistency is key, not the time – at least for the first few months. I personally use positiveintelligence.com/program and if you want assistance with this, we could help.  By then, you could buy Shirzad Chamine’s book Positive Intelligence and/or Search Inside Yourself by Chade Meng Tan. Separately do whichever meditation, prayer or breathwork you might enjoy. Andrew Huberman has some dedicated podcasts on stress management and breathing techniques which I also shared recently on LinkedIn. For breathwork I also recommend James Nestor’s book “Breathe”. I personally do a daily 4-7-8 method of Dr. Weil, 5’ of box breathing of 5 or 8 seconds and /or several minutes of physiological sigh besides meditation, as they work for me. Try techniques that work for you and not necessarily what I do, as you might enjoy others more. There are many apps with guided meditations (Plum Village, WakingUp, Calm, HeadSpace, etc.) as well as devices (Reulay, Muse, etc.).

A very important part of stress management are the deep and genuine connections. Yearend, holidays, Christmas, NYE etc. are major opportunities for really re/connecting - as many of you know that the quality of our relationships is directly linked to happiness levels (see longest Harvard study on the subject).

4. Regarding exercise/sports – try to find your minimal daily period that you could allocate to exercise, be it 5-10’ a day (if you do not have already a longer and more robust fitness routine) and use exercise snacks as suggested by the sports scientist Martin Gibala. Stop using the elevator be it at home or at work. Park further or stop one bus/metro station earlier and do a brisk walk to the destination.

Ideally combine strength training with cardio (with at least once a week a HIIT), stretching and balance. For HIIT I suggest following the Prof mentioned earlier, Martin Gibala from McMaster University in Canada and read either his book or watch some of his podcasts/videos. Or take the free Coursera class led by him and his partner.

Recommended reading: Outlive – Peter Attia, Young Forever – Mark Hyman, etc. And you could pre-register for Protocols by Andrew Huberman.

Research for electrolytes in case of lots of sweating and of good quality protein. My favorites so far are from noord code.

5. Regarding nutrition and water: a simple and good book to start with is Glucose Revolution if you haven’t read it already. It can help you a great deal. For those more interested in nutrition science – Metabolical and Fat Chance are two good books from Robert Lustig, MD. For those interested in how diverse foods could influence our mood, I strongly recommend the books of Uma Naidoo, MD – The Mood Food Connection and Calm Your Mind with Food. And a nice website to check and podcast is Zoe.

BTW, ref water, specialists recommend a daily water intake of 3,5-4% of our body weight but not short before meals, during or immediately after.

6. Get a good body composition monitor/scale: Whithings, Tanita, Omron, InBody are some of the best.

I imagine there is quite a lot of info to digest and there is much more (about mindset, about making or breaking habits that counterbalance the cognitive dissonance many of us have on the subject etc). but it is a good start as they are the result of many years of study, measurements and trial and error. I did not put the sources on purpose. To not distract you from the article by entering the links. You could do that after reading it, once you know their name.

In case some wonder, I am not sponsored by any of the above and I am mentioning them for you to research and assess whether they could be for you or not. They are highly personal as for many people, measuring/tracking could be stressful. If yes, don’t use them as there are many analog measures which we share with our clients when trackers are not comfortable for whatever reasons.

I wish you health and love and stay well until we meet again!

Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2025!

Radu

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