My sleep has been off the past few weeks.

Due to international travels, Anthony’s first flight, and moving to a new time zone for the next 5 weeks, I’ve lost sleep.

A lot of it.

Morning routines, energy levels, and immune system have all been impacted by this.

It hasn’t been fun.

Yet, I’m reminded of the importance of sleep especially when it comes to fat-loss and muscle-building efforts.

Nearly every day I speak with busy vegans who want to get healthy, strong, and lead by example.

Yet, nearly every one of them sacrifices their sleep to work and do more.

Sleep is the catalyst for a lean, strong body.

The better your sleep?

The better your health and physique.

Sleep is where all the magic happens for body composition.

Don’t sacrifice your sleep to ‘do’ more.

Do less and get more results.

(while doing the right things in the right order).

Health is built by winning in multiple areas of your fitness.

Not just by working out and hitting your macros.

We’re multidimensional beings.

Address each area of your health.

Lesson: Sleep is where the magic of body composition happens. Treat it as such.

Here's Your 1-3-1 Friday:

#1.) Burn Fat Using This Simple Method

If you want to shed body fat faster, use this simple method:

Increase your daily steps.

When it comes to using body fat storage more efficiently, walking is one of the simplest ways you can increase your rate of fat-loss with minimum effort.

Instead of looking for the hardest exercise or program to do - use MED.

MED = minimum effective dosage.

It’s the bare minimum that you need to do to see great results.

Rather than the ‘all or nothing’ mentality that plagues our society, focus on simplicity.

The great thing about walking is that it can be done anywhere.

Anyone can walk more.

Indoors. Outside. At home. With others. By yourself.

It can happen anywhere.

But how does walking stack up against other forms of cardio when it comes to calories burned?

Here’s a quick breakdown:

• ​In a study done on 15 healthy women with walking vs jogging, the interesting conclusion was that walking burned nearly an EQUAL amount of calories as running.
• While there’s different studies that point out that running may burn up to 32% more calories than walking, there’s also the idea of exercise longevity… which is how long you’ll consistently do said exercise.
  • Can you run every day? Sure. Will you? Probably not. But walking? No reason you couldn’t walk every day of your life.

What’s also great about walking is that there’s also a ton of health benefits that come included.

According to the National Institute of Health: ​

• Adults who took 8,000 or more steps a day had a reduced risk of death over the following decade than those who only walked 4,000 steps a day.
• Step intensity (number of steps per minute) didn’t influence the risk of death, suggesting that the total number of steps per day is more important than intensity.

The average office worker gets 3,000 - 4,000 steps a day.

Don’t aim for average.

Take ownership of your health.

It doesn’t take much to rise above the ‘status quo’.

#2.) The Best Lower Body Exercise

While squats and deadlifts are hailed as the best lower body exercises, there’s one exercise that might be better.

Bulgarian split squats.

While not as well-known (or well- liked), bulgarian split squats are potentially the king of all lower body exercises.

Here’s why:

• Improves stability
• Core strength
• More accessible if you have knee or back pain
• Improve muscle imbalances
• Emphasize quads and glutes (legs and butt)

You also train several muscles all at once:​

• Quads
• Glutes
• Hamstrings
• Calves
• Core, including abdominals and spinal erectors

Another reason why split squats are the best is because of their unique ability to train unilateral movements when most of us have stopped using this skill set.

If you’ve stopped playing, running, or playing sports, you’re most likely underutilizing unilateral movements.

And if you don’t use it - you lose it.

Unilateral training (or single leg training) using split squats is one of the fastest ways to build single-leg strength.

Pound per pound, split squats will create high levels of leg strength.

If you struggle with squats or lower body exercises, split squats are a powerful tool to have in your exercise arsenal.

They’re simple.

They work multiple muscles at once.

And get incredible results when worked consistently over time.

Here’s one of the best videos showing how to do split squats correctly:

​

#3.) A Fruit You Should Eat Daily

‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’.

That’s how the saying goes.

But is it true?

According to the research - it is.

Apples come with a multitude of benefits.

They’re the symbol of health for good reason.

Here’s a few of them: ​

• Vitamin C: Also called ascorbic acid, this vitamin is a common antioxidant in fruits. It’s an essential dietary nutrient that has many important functions in your body.
• Potassium: The main mineral in apples, potassium may benefit heart health when consumed in high amounts.
• Quercetin: A nutrient that also occurs in many plant foods, quercetin may have anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anticancer, and antidepressant effects.
• Catechin: A natural antioxidant, catechin is also present in large amounts in green tea and has been shown to improve mitochondrial health.
• Chlorogenic acid: Chlorogenic acid has been found to lower blood sugar and cause weight loss in some studies.

Apples are also a powerhouse for digestion.

They cleanse the colon as it moves through your intestines.

Apples also have cancer and diabetes fighting properties.

Multiple studies have shown that the cancer and diabetes risk dropped by over 20% while eating apples consistently.

Guess the old saying was right?

Apples are easy to carry.

Convenient.

The one thing I would add is making sure to wash them thoroughly.

Whether you’re buying organic or not, since you eat the skin of an apple (which is great for fiber content), it’s a good practice to wash apples well since they may get contaminated during shipping.

Other than that?

Enjoy your apples.

(apple pie anyone?)

1 Action Step

Add split squats to your workouts. Test out for 4 weeks. Retest your strength after a month of using them. Enjoy your strength gains.

One Quote To Finish Your Week Strong

I’ve been grounding 20 minutes daily the past week.

And I’ve been feeling so good recently.

Wonder if both of these are related?

- Gabriel

Whenever you're ready, there are three ways I can help you:

#1 Join our free high-performance fitness FB group to get access to dozens of live trainings recorded along with a tight-knit group of leaders who want to get healthy, lean, and strong.

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