This is a chapter from my book, The Personal Health Tracking Blueprint. You can view the table of contents with links to the rest here.
Phil Jackson, the legendary basketball coach who won 11 NBA championships, had an obsession with the fundamentals of the game.
During his first practice session with the Lakers, Jackson had his players pivoting, setting picks, and making layups, all without a basketball.
Putting some of the best basketball players on the planet through these JV-level drills was not some publicity stunt. It was an effort to instill in the players the importance of the basics.
Phil Jackson knew without the fundamentals, nothing else mattered.
The Pareto Principle states 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results. Achieving your health goals is no different.
To lose weight… You don’t need to do intermittent fasting, time your carbs, and eat “superfoods.” You just need to manage your calorie intake.
To get stronger… You don’t need to “confuse your muscles” and do complex circuit training programs. Just pick a few impactful compound exercises, do them every week, and increase your weight on the bar over time.
To build wealth… You don’t need to invent the next Instagram or build a real estate empire. Just spend less than you earn, save 20 percent of your income, and invest in low-cost index funds.
Respecting the fundamentals
The fundamentals are often overlooked because they aren’t sexy and take consistent work over years and decades.
In today’s world, we have become accustomed to instant gratification. And money-hungry marketers are exploiting this by pimping their pseudoscience and quick-fix “solutions” to the ignorant masses. Weight loss supplements, fitness scams, and get-rich-quick schemes outnumber real evidence-based practices.
By respecting the fundamentals, we can achieve our goals with less waste. Return to the basics and you will save hundreds or thousands of dollars and countless hours of frustration.
When it comes to health, like in basketball, personal finance, or any other endeavor, there are a few key fundamentals that are non-negotiable for success. You must master these fundamentals if you want to look and feel your best.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 20-year health and fitness journey, it’s that you will be better served by ignoring all the fads and focusing ruthlessly on a few key things. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that if you focus only on these things and nothing else, you will find yourself in the best shape of your life much sooner than you think.
There are only a handful of these fundamentals and you already know what they are. There is nothing groundbreaking or earth-shattering about them, which is why they do not get the attention they deserve. But they will yield results, which is what matters.
I call these fundamentals the 5 pillars of health tracking.
The 5 pillars of health tracking
Without further ado, the five pillars of health tracking are body composition, nutrition, sleep, steps, and exercise.
See, I told you. Nothing spectacular.
But let’s quickly discuss why each of these matters. We will cover them in more detail in the coming chapters.
Pillar 1: Body Composition—Achieving and maintaining a healthy body composition won’t just help you look better. Your life depends on it. In some countries, obesity is on track to overtake smoking as the leading preventable cause of cancer. The good news is the fourth to last word in that last sentence: “preventable.” There is a scientifically proven way to get leaner and healthier that you will learn about in Chapter 3.
Pillar 2: Nutrition—Your body requires a certain level of nutrients to function at its best and a minimum level of nutrients to function period. The default Western diet simply does not provide an adequate level of nutrition. I literally know people who do not eat a vegetable. You will learn a specific form of data tracking to override these dietary tendencies in Chapter 4.
Pillar 3: Sleep—Sleep has been on the decline in many countries over the past few decades. This is ruining our ability to grow and repair cells, hindering our short and long-term cognition, and increasing our mortality risk. Sleep is currently the most underrated of the five health pillars and I feel compelled to help spread the awareness by sharing how we can easily measure and therefore manage our sleep (Chapter 5).
Pillar 4: Steps—The longest-living people on the planet share a few common practices and one of them is an abundance of low-level activity, or walking. Like nutrition and sleep, movement is on the decline due to modern lifestyle factors like sedentary jobs, more efficient modes of transportation, and easier access to food. Once again, these environmental factors can be overridden by some basic tracking and self-awareness, which you’ll learn about in Chapter 6.
Pillar 5: Exercise—Exercise is the compound interest of health, which is why it deserves a place in the five pillars. Unlike the other four pillars, whose benefits can be felt immediately, consistent deposits of training in your exercise bank will compound over time and really improve your life when you’re older. I strongly suggest taking a few minutes to watch this short YouTube clip by trainer Mike Vacanti on why training matters. We’ll discuss exercise in Chapter 7.
The 10-minute health tracking system
Now that you are familiar with the five pillars of health tracking, let’s discuss the system you will use to improve your health through tracking.
As you are aware, knowing what to focus on and doing it are two different things.
This is why you need a process to help you maximize your output in each of these areas.
My 10-minute health tracking system is comprised of 3 steps:
- Data collection (5-6 minutes per day): The first step is gathering the relevant personal health data which is key to improving your health over time. You will do this on a daily basis for all 5 pillars. Throughout the rest of this book, we will discuss exactly which data to focus on and how to collect it. Using modern tools and technology, much of this data will be captured automatically in the background without you having to do anything.
- Data entry (2-3 minutes per day): Once you set up your data collection through a series of apps, wearables, and daily habits, you will want to take one extra step and compile your data into a centralized place like an Excel spreadsheet or Google sheet. This might seem trivial, but taking a couple minutes a day to do this is extremely valuable. Data entry provides a layer of accountability beyond just letting the data sit in the apps. It also makes the next step infinitely easier.
- Data review (1-2 minutes per day): The final step is taking a couple minutes each day or a few minutes each week to look at your aggregated data and analyze your performance. When you have your key data metrics compiled in one place, it’s easy to do this. You don’t need anything complicated – just a basic spreadsheet with columns for each of your metrics allowing you to see trends over time will give you a great deal of insight into your overall health habits and where you can improve.
We will discuss steps 2 and 3 in more detail in Chapter 8.
Note: it will take you longer than 10 minutes to do all of this when you first get started.
At the beginning, you might want to give yourself a few more minutes per day on each of these three steps.
However, if you stick with the system over time, you’ll discover ways to streamline each part of the process and spend no more than 10 minutes per day on it. I will outline how long tracking each pillar should take at the end of each chapter.
P.S.
I’m not saying these 5 pillars are the only things that matter for your health. But we will focus on them because they are measurable on a daily basis (which is what this book is all about). They are also foundational and have a domino effect on other key variables.
For example, your circadian health is strongly influenced by your activity and sleep habits. Your hormonal health is strongly influenced by your nutrition and exercise habits. Your mental and emotional health are strongly influenced by your habits in all 5 areas.
Remember, the 80/20 principle is always at work.
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