Abstract Health

Exploring the space between science and self.

Author: Abstract Health (Page 2 of 2)

Health Isn’t Magic — It’s Maintenance

June 11, 2026 / / 1 Comment

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It’s easy for health to feel almost magical—
as if it lives somewhere between science and superstition.
This is especially true when health products are dramatized and oversold.
We can start to believe that health requires the right spells, potions, and rituals.

But it’s not magic or mystical.

It’s mechanistic.

Witchcraft and wizardry don’t apply.

Now, to be fair—
the human body is incredibly complex. That reality can’t be overstated.
The systems that sustain life in this biological machine are precise, adaptive, and deeply nuanced.
Not perfect—but remarkably capable.

And yet…

The inputs required to support that system are much more pragmatic.
And, at times, a bit boring.
Health doesn’t require perfection.
It requires sufficient input within a functional range.

We don’t need optimized nutrition—
we need nutrition that adequately supports our needs.

We don’t need optimized exercise—
we need movement that supports our function and capacity.

We don’t need perfectly optimized sleep—
but we do need sleep that is consistently sufficient.

One of the most effective ways to understand health—
and to protect yourself from misinformation—
is to view it through a simple lens:

Maintenance.

When people define health, they often say:
“I want to feel better.”
“I want to avoid disease.”
“I want to be around for my grandkids.”
“I want to enjoy life when I retire.”

These are all valid.
But they are outcomes.

They describe what health gives you—
not how it actually works.

A more useful model is this:

Health is vehicle maintenance.

We want our vehicles to be:

  • Functional
  • Reliable
  • Capable of performing when needed
  • And relatively inexpensive to maintain

We understand that if we want those outcomes,
we have to take care of the vehicle:

  • Oil changes
  • Tire rotations
  • Routine maintenance

Not because it’s exciting—
but because it works.

We understand the high-leverage, best practices for maintaining that system.
The same is true for the body.

Whether we like it or not, we inherit responsibility for the system we exist in.
Not by choice.
But we’re here.
Living in this biological machine.

These systems evolved under conditions very different from the modern world, a concept we explored in Primitive Beings in a Modern Age.

And to our knowledge—
we may not get another.

So we must accept the system.
Its strengths.
Its limitations.

And we move forward.

We learn.
We experience.
We grow.
We feel.

We live.

If we want this system to be:

  • Functional
  • Reliable
  • Capable

Then we invest in maintenance.

Sleep, movement, and nutrition
are simply the equivalents of:

  • Oil changes
  • Tune-ups
  • Tire rotations

Different domain—
same principle. Same relationship.

If we provide the right inputs, consistently enough, the system is far more likely to function well.

And here’s where choice comes in.
Not everyone needs—or wants—to maintain their system the same way.

Some people will pursue optimization:
Dialed in. Structured. Precise.

Others will aim for high-quality, consistent basics,
and spend the rest of their time, energy, and attention on other areas of life.

All paths are valid.
There is no universal rulebook.

But there is a reality:

The more you understand what matters most,
the more intentional your choices can be—
and the more likely your energy and focus are able to provide a return on investment.

Context, not commands.

There’s another layer to this.
One that matters just as much.

Mark Manson discusses a useful distinction between fault and responsibility.
Something may not be your fault.
But it is still your responsibility to decide how you respond to it.

You don’t get to choose:

  • Your genetics
  • Your starting point
  • Your environment

But you do get to choose how you interact with those realities.

You’re here. In this system.
So the question becomes:
What do you want to do with it?

The terrain of life doesn’t get easier.
But it becomes more manageable when the system carrying you through it is capable.

So we learn to maintain the machine.

Not out of obligation.
Not out of fear.

But because:

Everyone deserves
functional independence,
quality of life,
and the freedom to pursue meaning, fulfillment,
and the life they want to live.

Suggested reading: Purpose and Burden

Back to the Primitive: Swapping Intensity for Intent

June 4, 2026 / / 3 Comments

The initial layer of friction we experience in the modern health environment is mismatch.

Our biology evolved over hundreds of thousands of years…
while our environment has changed rapidly in just the last century or so.

We are, in many ways, still operating on ancient wiring—
in a world that no longer resembles the one that shaped it.

But mismatch alone doesn’t fully explain how this feels.

Because the modern environment didn’t just change.

It intensified.

When the Volume Gets Turned Up

We exist in a world of access and amplification.

Food is no longer simply available—it’s engineered to be highly rewarding.
Entertainment is no longer occasional—it’s constant and personalized.
Stimulation is no longer intermittent—it’s continuous.

What used to feel like calm water…
has become a series of strong currents—
and we’re still learning how to move through it.

The Biology We Bring Into This

For most of human history, reward was a guide.

Sweetness and fat signaled energy and survival—fuel in a world where fuel was scarce.
Novelty signaled opportunity—the pull toward something new and potentially valuable.
Connection signaled safety—protection through numbers.

These weren’t luxuries.

They were signals.

At the center of this system is dopamine—not just as a pleasure chemical, but as a driver of motivation and reinforcement.

It helps us learn:

What is worth repeating?

When Reward Becomes Engineered

Modern systems have learned how to interact with these pathways through continuous refinement of what people respond to.

Food is consistently upgraded and engineered to maximize appeal.
It can now be designed to hit precise combinations of salt, sugar, fat, and texture.

The concept of the “bliss point,” developed by Howard Moskowitz, reflects this—identifying the formulation that drives the highest level of enjoyment and repeat consumption.

These foods are not just satisfying.

They are efficiently rewarding.

Easy to eat.
Easy to repeat.
Easy to overconsume.

Historically, reward required effort.

You had to move, search, scavenge, prepare, and wait.

Now, many rewards are:
Immediate
Passive
Endless

You can experience dozens of reinforcing inputs in minutes:

Scrolling
Snacking
Drinking
Watching

Individually subtle.
Collectively significant.

Digital Overstimulation as the Default

The modern environment rarely goes quiet.

Notifications.
Screens.
Background noise.
Constant input.

The result is subtle, but meaningful:

  • Mental fatigue
  • Reduced attention capacity
  • A sense of always being “on”

Not because something is wrong…

but because the system rarely gets a chance to downshift.

This Isn’t a Villain Story

It’s easy to frame this as manipulation—and we often do.

It’s a reasonable assumption.
But it misses the full picture.

These systems didn’t emerge from a singular malicious intent.

They are the natural result of:

  • Consumer preference
  • Technological advancement
  • Economic incentive

Food is optimized for taste and convenience.
Technology is optimized for engagement.

As explored in works like Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss, there is awareness within industries of how these factors influence behavior—but that awareness exists within a broader system shaped by demand as much as design.

As much as we like to have a scapegoat, this is less about blame.

And more about interaction.

When Intensity Meets Biology

When you place a biological system designed for variability and scarcity into a high-intensity environment, certain patterns emerge.

Not as failure.

But as adaptation.

  • Overconsumption becomes easier
  • Hunger and fullness cues become less reliable (or more easily ignored)
  • Reward sensitivity shifts, requiring more for the same effect
  • Attention becomes fragmented, and recovery becomes less complete

The system is doing what it was designed to do.
It’s just doing it in a different environment—at a much faster pace.

The environment changed faster than adaptation can reasonably occur.

Reframing the Experience

Many people interpret this as a personal shortcoming.

“I should have more discipline.”
“I need to try harder.”
“I just need to control myself.”

But that removes context.

A more accurate interpretation might be:

I’m operating in an environment that is more intense than what I’m naturally equipped to regulate.

That shift doesn’t remove responsibility—but it restores clarity.

It allows us to see the actual terrain we are navigating.

Back to the Primitive

Not as a rejection of modern life.
But as a recalibration within it.

It doesn’t mean abandoning human progress.

It means reintroducing the conditions your biology expects—
within the reality you live in.

Swapping Intensity for Intent

The goal is not to eliminate stimulation.
It’s to stop being passively shaped by it.

To move from automatic and overwhelmed
to aware and deliberate.

To become reacquainted with choice.

Not perfectly. Just more often.

A quiet, steady awareness running in the background.

Where This Begins

Not with restriction.

But with noticing.

  • Am I actually hungry, or seeking reward?
  • Did I choose this, or is it just routine?
  • What does this input actually provide?
  • Does this help the future version of me?

These aren’t rules.

They’re moments of awareness.

Context—not commands.

Small interruptions in an otherwise automatic flow.

Enjoyment is not the enemy

But being consumed by it can be.

Reintroducing Pause

Friction often feels like inconvenience.

But it can also be a regulator.
Deliberate deceleration.
A pause between impulse and action.
A moment where intention has a chance to exist.

Not as punishment.

But as space.

A space to explore choice.

A space to decide, rather than simply react.

A space to step outside the reward loop—
and allow agency to re-emerge.

So that we may swim…
rather than be pulled under by the current.

A More Accurate Standard

You were never meant to operate at this level of intensity all the time.

And the fact that it feels difficult…
is not a flaw.

It’s feedback.

Closing Thought

The modern world didn’t just give us more.

It made everything faster, easier, and more stimulating.

“Back to the primitive” isn’t about going backward.

It’s about remembering what your system was built for…

and choosing to meet it there as we move forward—

in a way that makes sense for you.

Primitive Beings in a Modern Age

May 31, 2026 / / 1 Comment

The first disconnect.

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We exist as primitive beings in a modern age, and we face a unique challenge: thriving in an environment that changed faster than our biology could adapt.

As we established in the last post—Purpose & Burden—maintaining health requires effort.

While this is true, it doesn’t make it any less unfortunate.

We have to go out of our way to learn:

  • How to sleep
  • How to move
  • What to eat

And in many ways, we are the only species that has to do this.
The only animal that has to consciously figure out how to take care of itself.

This raises a fair question:

Why?

It’s easy to assume something is wrong with us.

A lack of discipline.
A lack of knowledge.
A lack of consistency.

But the issue runs deeper than that.

We are out of place.

A common analogy is a fish out of water—something removed from the environment it was built for.
Awkwardly flopping on dry land.
Cursing the air.

But that’s not quite right.

We’re not gasping on land.

We’re still in the water.

The water has just changed.

For most of human history, life required:

  • Regular physical movement
  • Exposure to natural light and darkness
  • Real, whole, minimally processed food
  • Effort tied directly to survival

Our food came from a plant or a mother.
We moved to build, to hunt, to gather, to protect.
We slept in rhythm with the sun. Darkness was only penetrated by firelight—not bright, artificial light that stimulates the brain and delays rest.

Our physiology was shaped in that environment.

Not over decades.

Over hundreds of thousands of years.

Then, in what is essentially a blink of an eye on that timeline, everything shifted.

The first Homo sapiens appeared roughly 300,000 years ago.

Our biology—our need for movement, nourishment, rest, and recovery—has remained largely the same.

But the environment we live in has changed dramatically in roughly the last century:

  • The rise of ultra-processed, highly convenient foods
  • A shift toward sedentary, desk-based work
  • The introduction of artificial light and extended waking hours
  • A culture that increasingly prioritizes productivity and output

The scale of that shift is difficult to grasp until you zoom out.

As Yuval Noah Harari notes in Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, since the 1500s:

  • Human population has increased roughly 14-fold
  • Energy consumption has increased 115-fold

We’ve created a completely different environment.

And yet…

Our biology is largely the same.

Food is no longer something we seek.
It’s something that surrounds us.

Movement is no longer required.
It’s something we have to choose.

Sleep is no longer governed by the sun.
It competes with artificial light, stimulation, and modern demands.

In a very short period of time, we became:

Overfed, but undernourished
Stimulated, but exhausted
Connected, but often disconnected from ourselves—
from our nature and primitive needs

And then we ask:

“Why is this so hard?”

It’s not just you.

It’s the world that surrounds you.

We have become a product of our own advancement—
living in an environment shaped by convenience, efficiency, and technological growth.

But this doesn’t mean modern life is the problem.

It has given us safety, longevity, and opportunity that previous generations never had—especially when compared to our primitive past.

But it does mean this:

The environment no longer supports health by default.

Which means health is no longer automatic.

It requires intent.

Reconciling the Disconnect

This isn’t about rejecting modern life.

It’s about reintroducing the conditions your body still expects.

Not perfectly.
Not obsessively.
But consistently.

That might look like:

  • Choosing foods that resemble their original form more often than not
  • Getting exposure to natural light, especially early in the day
  • Reducing light and stimulation later at night
  • Building movement back into daily life—not just what we do in the gym
  • Creating small boundaries in an otherwise boundaryless environment

These aren’t advanced strategies.

It isn’t about obsession or optimization.

It’s simply a return to baseline conditions.

The foundation.

Because when those basics are in place, we’re in a much better position to experience:

  • More stable energy
  • Improved sleep
  • Easier appetite regulation
  • Movement that feels more natural

Not because we’ve “hacked” our biology.

But because we’ve stopped working against it.

Where This Goes Next

This is only the first layer.

Because it’s not just that the environment has changed…

It has intensified.

And that changes how our brain, behavior, and biology respond in ways that are far less obvious.

That’s where we’ll go next.

Back to the Primitive: Swapping Intensity for Intent

Purpose and Burden

May 28, 2026 / / 0 Comments

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Life is as complex as it is interesting—
a mosaic of experiences and fulfillment, as well as challenges and responsibilities.

Many philosophical texts discuss the reality that struggle is an unavoidable part of the human condition.
The advice that follows is typically to learn how to accept this truth and adapt to it as best we can.

If we can’t outrun it, at least we can learn how to better integrate with it.

This is also reflected in our relationship with health.

Health is something we think about often.
A consistent responsibility.

Some yield to that responsibility.
Others take a contrarian path and choose to live in spite of what they view as an additional ‘command.’
And everything in between.

And I get it.

To feel like you must take on another responsibility isn’t just cumbersome—it can be irritating.
To feel like you never had a choice in accepting that responsibility can feel… unfair.

And that’s exactly why we need to discuss it.

Because the reality is, it’s less about commands—and much more about context.

And regardless of our perception… this responsibility continues to matter—whether we’ve assigned it meaning or not.

The good news is that it’s not without return.

Health can sometimes feel like another cost because of the effort it requires.
But if we accept the reality of that effort, we begin to see something else.

It’s one of the greatest opportunities for investment that we have available to us.

More Than Metrics

Health is often reduced to numbers:

  • weight
  • lab values
  • steps
  • calories

If you ask people to define health, they often point to outcomes—energy, physical ability, disease prevention, etc.

And these are all important—and correct.

But they are not the purpose.

They are indicators. They are the metrics.

The number on the scale doesn’t matter on its own—
it matters because of what it represents in your ability to live your life.

When we lose sight of that, health becomes easy to misinterpret.

We start chasing numbers…
instead of protecting the life those numbers are meant to support.

Goodhart’s Law states: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”

It’s easy to focus on individual pieces.
But it’s just as important to step back and see the full picture—
how those pieces fit into something larger.

Because the bigger picture is this:

Health is something deeper.
It is the medium through which we experience our lives.

What Health Actually Gives You

At its core, health supports three things:

1. Functional Independence

The ability to move through life with agency in pursuit of our own journey and fulfillment.

2. Quality of Life

Energy. Presence. The ability to fully experience each moment.

3. Freedom

The ability to do what matters to you—without your body holding you back.

The Search for Meaning

I believe the meaning of life is to give life meaning.

A life well lived is one characterized by intention, fulfillment, and contribution.
Health provides a foundation for all of this to occur.

It doesn’t define the meaning—
but it shapes our ability to pursue it.

Can we pursue these things without any focus on health? Absolutely.
Is our self-worth defined by our health? Absolutely not.

But any investment in health makes the journey less cumbersome.

Life provides plenty of friction, challenge, and struggle.
But if we can build up the system to better withstand that friction…
we become far less vulnerable to it.

Why It Matters

Over 2,000 years ago, Herophilus said:

“When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied.”

Health doesn’t just sit beside the rest of your life.

It supports it.

Quietly, but constantly.

A Broader Definition

The World Health Organization defines health as:

“A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

Not just avoiding illness—

but having the capacity to live well.

The Part We Don’t Always Acknowledge

Taking care of your health does require effort.

It asks for:

  • attention
  • consistency
  • small, repeated choices

And in a busy world, that can feel like one more thing to manage.

There’s also another layer to this—

Health outcomes are often lagging indicators.

The effort you put in today…
may not show up in a meaningful way for weeks, months, or even years.

Which means you’re often asked to invest in something
before you fully feel the return.

That, too, can feel like a burden.

Reframing the Effort

But perspective matters.

Instead of:

“This is something I have to do”

It becomes:

“This is what allows me to live the life I actually want”

The Deeper Question

Think about the things that matter most to you:

  • The people in your life
  • The work you care about
  • The experiences you want to have
  • The interests that fulfill you

Then ask:

Is your health supporting those things… or getting in the way of them?

Because health doesn’t just affect how long you live—

It affects how you show up while you’re here.

Responsibility—Without Pressure

We don’t control everything.

Genetics, environment, and life circumstances all play a role.

But within that, we still have influence.

Not to be perfect—
but to move in a direction that supports the life we want to live.

Health isn’t an all-or-nothing pursuit.

The investment doesn’t have to be perfect—
it just needs to be pointed in the right direction.

Closing Thought

Health isn’t everything.

But it touches everything.

And when you start to see it that way…

It becomes less about obligation—

And more about opportunity.

Bridge Forward

And this leads to an important question:

If health matters this much…

why does it often feel difficult to maintain?

It’s not just a matter of motivation or discipline.

There’s something deeper at play.

And that’s where we go next.

Primitive Beings in a Modern Age

Why Abstract Health

May 25, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Why Abstract Health Exists

Health is supposed to improve our lives.

To increase the value and potential of each day—because we have the capacity to build a better life.
To whatever degree we choose.

But for many, it can feel like the opposite.

Something that should contribute to function and freedom often becomes another source of pressure—

another set of rules to follow.

Another area of life that feels like it constantly needs attention… or else we’re falling behind.

These days, there’s more information than ever — more experts, more opinions, more systems, more headlines.

Yet people often feel more confusion than comfort.

Most people want to listen, but it can be incredibly difficult to find the core signal amidst all the noise.

The modern health space is incredibly loud.

News outlets and social media feeds are filled with supplement ads, research headlines, expert disagreements, personal experiences, podcasts, books, and endless streams of advice.

We often laugh at health-related marketing from decades past, but every day brings new claims, warnings, optimization strategies, fearmongering, and so on that are often equally as ridiculous.

The sensationalism, aggressive marketing, and performative health can feel like an assault to the senses.

What’s worse, appropriate prioritization and nuance get drowned out by the loudest voices.

The least important topics get the most attention.

And the most important ones—foundational, simple, and often unexciting—are barely detectable.

It starts to feel like trying to pick out the sound of someone’s voice in a crowded cathedral—sifting through the infinite roar of echoes.

At a certain point, it becomes difficult to determine what’s actually true, and we get annoyed by the wasted energy of trying.

For many, the health space has become so chaotic and convoluted that they choose to disengage with the topic entirely.

This is understandable, and respectable.

We have lives to live, and boundaries need to be set whenever the cost of an endeavor is more than the benefit it provides.

The unfortunate reality is that the benefit hidden within that noise is well worth the effort—
we just need better guidance through it.

The term “health” also means much more than we typically give it credit for.

Health is physical.

Health is mental.

Health is also emotional, social, relational, existential…

We don’t experience health in isolation.

We experience it through our thoughts, emotions, behaviors, relationships, environment, and the broader context of our lives.

When these layers are ignored, we end up trying to solve complex human problems with simplified, often short-sighted solutions that don’t take our individual lives into account.

We can start to believe that our lack of health is a product of not having the perfect meal plan, exercise routine, supplement, equipment, fitness clothing, morning routine, etc.

While some of these solutions may be useful, they are rarely enough on their own.

Pattern recognition is important.

If you work in any field long enough, you begin to notice common threads—the core, foundational principles that continue to hold up, regardless of trends, debates, or new waves of information.

And we realize the exciting, complex insight that often pulls people into health-related fields is less useful in everyday life.

What feels like depth often turns out to be detail.

And that detail, while valuable in the right context, is rarely what most people are actually missing.

At some point, it becomes necessary to step outside of the field.

We have to expand our view to include behavior, habits, beliefs, and even the health conversation itself.

Not to reject it.
But to better understand it.

An unexpected path.

A few years ago, someone asked me why I hadn’t started a health blog or YouTube channel.

My answer was immediate.

I didn’t want to add to the noise.

My external response was calm and direct.
My internal response was much more jarring—visceral.

The thought of adding another source of information, and noise, felt wrong.

It felt irresponsible to add another voice. Another echo in the cacophony of noise.

But over time, that perspective shifted. The noise didn’t go away, but my position in relation to it changed.

Abstract Health exists as a way to step outside of that noise.

Not to add another system. Not to compete for attention.

But to examine the conversation itself.

To explore the space between science and self.

Between what we know… and how well we live.

This is a space for perspective more than prescription.

It’s about identifying the signal amidst the noise—while still honoring the reality in which the signal exists.

It’s about relieving pressure.

Most people just want to know how to take care of themselves and those they care about.

They shouldn’t have to study like they’re trying to become a health professional just to do that.

You won’t find fear-based messaging here.

Or exaggerated claims.

Or constant pressure to optimize every little thing.

Just grounded, honest perspectives intended to make health feel a little more understandable—and a little less overwhelming.

Because the goal isn’t optimization.

It’s clarity.

It’s relief.

And the ability to move forward without constantly feeling like you’re doing it wrong.

Welcome to Abstract Health.

A different way of approaching something that was never meant to feel this complicated.

Or this heavy.

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