Abstract Health

Exploring the space between science and self.

The Big Three: A Framework for Prioritizing Health

July 2, 2026 / / 0 Comments

There is no shortage of health information.

Open your phone, turn on the television, browse social media, or walk through a bookstore, and you’ll find an endless stream of advice.

Most of it isn’t wrong. In fact, much of it is genuinely useful. The problem is that it all competes for the same attention. When every article, podcast, influencer, and advertisement claims to hold another important piece of the puzzle, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish the foundational from the optional.

Some people become overwhelmed and stop trying altogether.

Others head in the opposite direction—pursuing increasingly smaller optimizations while overlooking the habits that produce the greatest return.

Health itself hasn’t become more complicated.

The human body hasn’t fundamentally changed.

Our attention has.

Most people already possess a surprising amount of health knowledge.

Ask someone what contributes to good health and you’ll likely hear familiar answers:

  • Sleep
  • Exercise
  • Eat well
  • Manage stress
  • Don’t smoke
  • Limit alcohol

They’re not starting from zero. The challenge isn’t a lack of information. It’s understanding the hierarchy of that information. Not all health information deserves the same amount of our attention. Some ideas meaningfully shape health. Others produce modest improvements. Some are only relevant under specific circumstances.  And some simply distract from what matters most.

When we lose sight of those differences, everything begins to feel equally important. Ironically, that’s when progress often slows.

Because when everything becomes a priority…

Nothing really is.

Rather than asking, “What’s the best thing I can do?”

a better question might be: “What are the largest things I can influence?”

That distinction matters.

Not everything that influences health is within our control.
Genetics matter. Environmental exposures matter. Access to healthcare matters. Life circumstances matter. Randomness matters.

But many of those variables are only partially—or not at all—under our control.

Instead of chasing complete control over our health, we should focus on maximizing the variables we can meaningfully influence.

Our goal isn’t perfect health.

It’s to consistently move the odds in our favor with the variables we can actually influence.

This idea resembles the logic behind Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Before pursuing higher-level goals, we first satisfy the foundation. You don’t build a house starting with the roof. You don’t install drywall before pouring the concrete. The foundation isn’t exciting. But it determines how well everything else performs.

Health works much the same way. There is a difference between building health and optimizing health.

Optimization has become incredibly popular.
Cold plunges. Continuous glucose monitors. Supplement stacks. Longevity protocols.

Many of these have contexts where they may provide value. But they should never compete with the foundation for your time, attention, or energy.

The foundation comes first.

Everything else is built upon it.

For most people, three habits account for a disproportionate share of the health we can actually influence.

The Big Three

  • Sleep
  • Movement
  • Nutrition

Surprised? Probably not.

Good.

This isn’t about introducing something you’ve never heard before. It’s about revisiting familiar ideas and organizing them into a clearer hierarchy.

These aren’t the only things that influence health. They’re simply the best place to start. Because they influence nearly everything else.

Energy. Recovery. Mood. Metabolic health. Hormonal regulation. Cognitive performance. Physical function.

Sleep provides the opportunity for the body and brain to recover, repair, regulate hormones, consolidate memories, and prepare for the demands of the next day.

Movement preserves physical function, improves cardiovascular and metabolic health, strengthens muscles and bones, supports mental well-being, and helps maintain independence throughout life.

Nutrition supplies the energy and building blocks the body needs to function, recover, adapt, and protect itself from disease.

We’ll explore each of these topics in much greater depth throughout the following articles.

Without first addressing the Big Three, trying to identify the source of a health problem can become like searching for the source of a smell in a landfill.

The problem isn’t that the answer isn’t there. It’s that too many variables are competing for your attention before the foundation has been addressed.

The signal is buried beneath unnecessary noise.

Knowing what matters is only half the equation. The other half is understanding how to approach it.

Nearly every practical recommendation we’ll discuss can be filtered through three simple questions:

How well?

How much?

How often?

Or, stated another way:

Quality.

Quantity.

Consistency.

Let’s refer to this as The Health Triad.

This isn’t another rule. It’s a lens. A framework for evaluating nearly every future health discussion.

Whenever new information appears, ask yourself: Is this improving the quality, quantity, or consistency of one of the Big Three? Or is it simply another variable competing for attention?

Health recommendations are built around patterns that consistently help the greatest number of people.

They are probabilities—not absolutes. There will always be exceptions. Some people become ill despite doing almost everything right. Others remain healthy despite years of poor habits.

Individual stories matter. But they don’t replace population-level evidence.

Our responsibility is to make decisions based on what reliably shifts the odds in our favor, while remaining humble enough to recognize that certainty doesn’t exist.

Health information will continue to grow. New supplements will appear. New diets will emerge. New technologies will promise better outcomes.

None of those things are inherently bad.
But they should always be evaluated in relation to the foundation.

When the foundation is strong, optimization becomes more meaningful.
When the foundation is weak, optimization often becomes distraction.

We don’t control every outcome.
We influence the probability of outcomes.

And for most people, very few habits influence those probabilities more than sleep, movement, and nutrition. Everything that follows builds from that foundation.

Health doesn’t become confusing because we know too little.
It becomes confusing because we struggle to distinguish the foundational from the marginal.

The purpose of the Big Three isn’t to tell you everything that matters.
It’s to make sure you never lose sight of what matters most.
To restore hierarchy to the countless ideas competing for your attention.

Hyperoptimization and Diminishing Returns

June 25, 2026 / / 0 Comments

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“The perfect is the enemy of the good.” — Voltaire

Sometimes the pursuit of health starts to shift focus.

We begin by wanting to feel better. More energy. Less pain. Better mobility. Improved labs. More experiences. More years with the people we love.

These are reasonable goals.

But somewhere along the way, many people drift from pursuing health toward pursuing optimization. Those are not always the same thing.

Modern health culture often creates the impression that every variable and topic deserves equal attention. Every ingredient, every supplement, every meal timing strategy, every recovery tool, every environmental exposure, and every new biological “hack.”

But the human system does not weigh everything equally.

Some variables matter tremendously.

Others matter only slightly—if at all.

The difference between sleeping four hours and sleeping eight hours.

The difference between being sedentary and moderately active.

The difference between eating mostly nutrient-dense foods and eating mostly ultra-processed foods.

These are among the highest-return investments we can make in the health of the human system.

Yet once our foundational needs are reasonably met, the return on additional optimization often begins to shrink.

Not because nuance is meaningless. Not because marginal variables are useless.

But because our biology appears to reach a point of diminishing returns.

The foundational improvements tend to create the largest changes. Later improvements often require more effort for increasingly smaller outcomes.

This pattern is not unique to health.

The difference between no maintenance and routine maintenance on a vehicle is enormous.

The difference between routine maintenance and elite performance modifications is comparatively small.

Yet modern health culture frequently convinces people that the performance modifications are the priority.

This inversion creates confusion.

People begin obsessing over electrolyte packets, supplement stacks, peptides, cold plunges, seed oils, greens powders, red light therapy, and countless other strategies that promise incremental improvements.

Experimentation on top of a foundation of fundamentals is perfectly reasonable.

Deprioritizing adequate sleep, regular movement, sound nutrition, stress management, and other foundational behaviors in favor of that experimentation is not.

We also must consider the cost of optimization.

Every health strategy requires an investment of time, money, energy, attention, or mental bandwidth. As those investments grow, we should continually ask whether the benefits are truly worth what they displace.

Sometimes they are.

Often, they probably aren’t.

The body is influenced by nuance, but it is governed by fundamentals.

And unfortunately, fundamentals are difficult to market.

Sleep is not exciting.

Walking is not exciting.

Managing stress is not exciting.

Eating enough protein and vegetables is not exciting.

Consistency is not exciting.

These things are simple, repetitive, and often unremarkable. There is no secret knowledge attached to them. No exclusive club.

Marginal optimization, however, feels advanced. It creates endless discussion. Endless products. Endless content. And endless opportunities for monetization.

There was a demand for optimization, and naturally, a market emerged to meet it.

This is where the topic can easily start to sound cynical or conspiratorial, but that’s not necessarily the case. It’s simply the reality created by the right combination of variables.

As discussed in Back to the Primitive: Swapping Intensity for Intent

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

They are the natural result of:

  • Consumer preference
  • Technological advancement
  • Economic incentive

This is where many people unknowingly become trapped. Not necessarily in poor health behaviors, but in the psychological burden of excessive optimization.

This happens when our perspective causes us weigh everything equally.

Diminishing returns are not just physiological.

They can become psychological. Logistical. Financial. Social.

A strategy that provides a tiny physiological benefit may simultaneously increase stress, consume time, create anxiety, complicate schedules, strain relationships, or reduce enjoyment of life.

At that point, we have to ask an important question: Is the tradeoff worth it?

Because health does not exist in isolation from life.

The purpose of health is not to become imprisoned by routines, fear, or perfectionism.

The purpose of health is function. Freedom. Resilience. Presence.

The ability to participate more fully in life.

Optimization becomes problematic when the pursuit itself begins consuming the life it was meant to improve. It can also become self-perpetuating as people lose sight of the difference between foundational practices and marginal refinements.

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

Health metrics are useful because they point us toward better health. But when optimizing the metrics becomes the primary objective, it’s easy to lose sight of why they mattered in the first place.

This does not mean nuance is irrelevant.

Elite athletes may care deeply about marginal gains. Certain medical conditions may require highly specific strategies. Some people genuinely enjoy optimization as a hobby.

There is nothing inherently wrong with that.

But for most people, the overwhelming majority of meaningful health outcomes are likely driven by foundational variables:

Sleep.

Movement.

Nutrition.

Stress management.

Relationships.

Purpose.

Avoiding major destructive behaviors.

These are the big rocks.

Everything else exists around them, like sand and pebbles that fill in the spaces between the monoliths.

Modern wellness culture often sells the final 5% as though it were the first 95%.

But most people would experience dramatically greater benefit by improving the fundamentals they already know matter.

Not perfectly. Just consistently.

Because the goal is not perfect health.

The goal is to build a life that health supports—not one that health consumes.

To use health as a means of better experiencing life.

Sometimes the healthiest thing we can do is stop trying to optimize every variable and start living the life our health was meant to support.

After all, the perfect is often the enemy of the good.

Human Stat Points and the Reality of Change

June 18, 2026 / / 1 Comment

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Learning, improvement, and growth are built-in parts of the human experience.

From the moment we are born, we are constantly developing skills, behaviors, habits, beliefs, and ways of navigating the world. This process is influenced by family, environment, education, work, relationships, hobbies, interests, and countless other variables.

Interestingly, this process is not entirely unlike what we experience in many games.

In the gaming world, it is common to begin with a character that has a pre-loaded distribution of traits and attributes. Strengths and weaknesses. We then work to change that distribution. As the game unfolds, we gradually invest points into the areas we wish to improve or that become important to the way we play.

Human beings are remarkably similar.

Our consistent traits and habits are somewhat similar to stat points in a video game.

Over time, different behaviors and tendencies become more or less developed depending on environment, awareness, repetition, stress, social connections, personality, upbringing, resources, and circumstance.

Hydration. Daily movement. Sleep consistency. Cooking at home. Protein intake. Time outdoors. Emotional regulation. Walking. Resistance training. Deep breathing. Boundary setting. Interrupting sitting. Limiting alcohol. Meaningful conversation. Stress management. Recovery.

Some of these habits become strengthened naturally through supportive environments, passive reinforcement, and intentional growth.

Others deteriorate through neglect, chronic stress, injury, aging, trauma, circumstance, or poorly engineered modern environments.

If we are aware of the ability to increase these attributes—we can start to pursue change in a more realistic and meaningful way.  

A way that makes sense regarding the currently available resources in our actual life.

Sustainable consistency—not infrequent perfection.

This is where the Human Stat Points framework becomes useful.

Imagine life as a collection of sliders within various categories.
Health. Career. Parenting. Relationships. Finances. Recreation. Learning. Household responsibilities.

At any given moment, you possess a limited pool of resources to distribute among them.
Time. Energy. Attention. Motivation. Recovery capacity. Mental bandwidth. Emotional bandwidth.

The mistake many people make is assuming every slider should be maxed out all the time.

Reality does not work that way.

A new parent may temporarily invest more points into parenting and fewer into fitness.

Someone building a business may allocate more points toward work and fewer toward leisure.

Someone recovering from illness may need to direct points toward healing while other areas temporarily receive less attention.

These tradeoffs are not necessarily failures. They are often reflections of reality.
Life requires resource allocation. This does not mean improvement is impossible.

It means improvement must be prioritized.

Every meaningful change requires resources.
Time. Attention. Effort. Recovery.

Which means every “yes” is also a quiet “not right now” to something else.

Mature change is often less about adding everything and more about deciding what deserves investment during a particular season of life.

Most beneficial health recommendations are commonly known.
Walk more. Sleep more. Exercise more. Cook more. Read more. Connect more. Stress less. Spend more time outside. Prepare more meals at home. Limit alcohol. Lift weights. Do cardio. Practice mindfulness.

Each recommendation sounds reasonable in isolation, but they are presented to us as a package.

The burden comes from accumulation.

Every recommendation draws from the same finite pool of resources. Eventually the demands exceed available capacity. And what is often interpreted as laziness can simply be resource depletion.

Many people assume they are failing because they cannot do everything. In reality, they are attempting to satisfy more obligations than their current capacity allows.

This is one reason health advice often feels simultaneously helpful and overwhelming.

Each individual recommendation may be beneficial. But when dozens of beneficial recommendations are stacked together, they begin to feel like obligations rather than opportunities.

Over time, health transforms from a source of support into a source of burden.
And burden changes behavior.

It’s easer to mentally deprioritize something when it seemingly becomes more of a burden than a benefit. When people feel they must perform perfectly across every category, they often experience things like frustration, guilt, shame, decision fatigue, burnout, etc.

Part of the problem is that we often approach change irrationally.

Most people understand that major life changes rarely happen overnight.
Yet when it comes to behavior change, we often forget to apply that same logic.

We seek the overhaul.
The overnight transformation.
The cold turkey solution.
The resolution.

In mountaineering, climbers sometimes experience what is known as summit fever. The summit becomes the only acceptable outcome. As a result, they begin ignoring changing conditions, realistic pacing, fatigue, and risk.

Sometimes the only focus is to scratch and claw our way to the top.

Although we may know what to do, we often do not give ourselves time to figure out how to integrate the knowledge into the complexity of our unique lives.

Consistency and maintenance relies upon lived experience, not temporary application of information.

Change is incremental. It requires time. Consistency. Patience. Resilience.

If we are truly committed to change, we do not begin by sprinting toward the ideal endpoint.

We simply begin walking in the preferred direction.

Slowly. Consistently.
And we adjust as we go.

Is this the answer we want? No. But it is reality.

So why waste time on fiction?

Health is rarely a perfectly balanced character build.
Some people consistently hydrate well but struggle with sleep.
Some move regularly but overconsume alcohol.
Some eat nourishing meals but remain chronically overstimulated and mentally exhausted.
Some maintain physical health while neglecting emotional regulation and relationships.
Others struggle because the environment surrounding them creates friction against beneficial behaviors.

The goal is not perfect optimization or maxing every slider simultaneously.
The goal is not becoming biologically flawless.

The goal is gradually improving the areas where improvement is realistic, sustainable, and meaningful.
In a way that works best for the individual.  

And importantly, awareness itself is often part of that progress.

Sometimes meaningful change begins long before behavior fully changes. Simply becoming aware of the forces influencing the system can fundamentally alter the relationship a person has with themselves.

Awareness creates the possibility of intentionality. And intentionality, repeated consistently over time, slowly begins moving the sliders.

This perspective also creates space for compassion.
Because many people are not failing due to laziness or lack of intelligence.

Often, they are attempting to distribute limited resources across an overwhelming number of competing demands while operating inside systems and environments that constantly pull beneficial habits off course.

We often think of a full list of stat points as the ideal, and we get frustrated with ourselves for not being able to achieve it.

We lose sight of how much progress we can make by just being consistent with small things and progressing as we go.

Other times we can’t keep up. Or perhaps choose not to.

That deferred maintenance can accumulate to the point of affecting the way we look at ourselves.

Eventually, people can stop viewing themselves as under-supported systems and begin viewing themselves as broken people.

One of the biggest misunderstandings in modern health culture is that people often try to negotiate directly with outputs while overlooking the inputs that influence them.

Sometimes the outputs are simply reflections of prolonged input imbalance, accumulated wear, and insufficient capacity.

And importantly:

Deferred maintenance may make things more difficult in the moment, but that doesn’t eliminate the opportunity for future improvement.

Stat points can still improve.

And that matters.

Perhaps that is the real goal of health.

Not perfection. Not optimization culture. Not becoming superior.

But understanding that life requires tradeoffs and then allocating resources intentionally according to your current reality and values.

The answer is rarely complete optimization.
The answer is rarely complete neglect.
The answer is usually found somewhere in between.

The healthiest life is rarely the most optimized life.
It is often the one that allocates its resources intentionally, adapts to changing circumstances, and continues moving in a better direction over time.

Not perfect.

Not complete.

Just progressively better.

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

🔴🟡

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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