Welcome to 1-3-1 Fridays, my weekly newsletter where I reveal evidence-based strategies to get lean, strong, and create optimal health.

What's in store for today:

• A plant-based food that naturally boosts vitamin D (without supplements).
• The Minimum Effective Dose (MED) method that helps you get 10x results with half the effort.
• My favorite exercise of the year and why you should be doing it for full-body strength.

It's hard to observe yourself without slowing down.

I've been slowing down the past few weeks.

Not with my work but with my projections.

If you're familiar with Jung's work, Jung talks about the concept of projecting.

We all do this.

This happens without our conscious awareness and without thought.

But the problem with projections is that you can lose your power.

You're off-centered and ungrounded.

When you project, you reaffirm that you've cut off a part of yourself.

Why this becomes relevant for a fitness newsletter is because the more you give away, the less focus and drive you have for yourself.

A common example is when you admire or look up to someone.

You see their courage or drive and think to yourself, 'Wow, they're so disciplined or they're so focused.'

Unconsciously, you're projecting that part of yourself that has the capacity to be focused and disciplined (like the person you admire) and projecting that onto them.

I did this for years.

I fell into the pitfall of hero worship with those I admired and later when I started hiring mentors.

My mistake was that I repeatedly gave away my power to these individuals.

It didn't make me self-sufficient.

I also spent a large bulk of my life living in self-doubt.

When you start to reclaim each part of yourself (from a psychic perspective), you start to regain your power.

Most of us leak energy (or focused attention... aka power) from ourselves all day long.

Media, social platforms, and the news are designed to keep us off-center.

The more you focus on your goals, your vision, and what you want from life, the easier and faster this becomes.

Where attention goes, energy flows.

If you want 2025 to be the best year for your health and body, then your attention is your most precious resource.

It's a goldmine for creating and reaching your goals with ease.

The more you pay attention to certain areas of your life, the faster you'll see changes within them.

I can't stress this enough.

Your focus is a gift.

Wherever you put and stay there consistently with it, the more changes you'll see in that area.

Having the right accountability to help you stay focused can be helpful if you've struggled with this by yourself.

2025 isn't the year for more information on your fitness.

It's the year for more implementation and focus on your fitness.

That's my goal for this year.

Do less but with more focus.

Lesson: Where focus goes, energy flows.

Here's Your 1-3-1 Friday:

1.) The Best Food for Plant-Based Vitamin D

Vitamin D is often called the "sunshine vitamin."

But if you're like most people, you’re probably not getting enough—especially if you spend most of your day indoors or live in a place with long winters.

For plant-based eaters, the challenge is even bigger.

Most natural food sources of vitamin D are animal-based (think salmon, eggs, or dairy).

That’s why many people default to supplements without realizing there’s a natural, plant-based alternative hiding in plain sight:

Mushrooms.

Here’s the cool part: Mushrooms act like humans when it comes to vitamin D.

Just like our skin produces vitamin D when exposed to the sun, mushrooms can generate their own vitamin D when placed under sunlight or UV light.

So what does the science say?

Studies have found that mushrooms exposed to UV light produce as much vitamin D as traditional supplements (Keegan et al., 2013).

This makes them one of the only vegan-friendly whole food sources of vitamin D—and a super underrated one at that.

How to get the most from mushrooms:

• Choose UV-exposed mushrooms: Some grocery stores label them as "Vitamin D Mushrooms." If they don’t say UV-exposed, you can make your own…
• Place mushrooms in direct sunlight: If you buy regular mushrooms, leave them outside in the sun for 30-60 minutes before cooking. The more surface area exposed, the better.
• Use them in everyday meals: Toss them into stir-fries, salads, soups, or grain bowls for an easy boost.
• Aim for 100 grams per day: That’s about a cup of chopped mushrooms, which can give you a solid dose of vitamin D.

If you’re feeling low energy, struggling with recovery, or just want to optimize your health, adding sun-exposed mushrooms to your routine is an easy and natural fix.

2.) Use MED to 10x Your Workouts (While Training Less)

Most people overcomplicate fitness.

They assume that to get stronger, leaner, or more athletic, they need to:

• Train for hours every day.
• Lift more weights, do more reps, and grind harder.
• Push through exhaustion, soreness, and burnout.

But here’s the reality: More isn’t better.

Less is more when you do this right.

This is where MED (Minimum Effective Dose) comes in.

What is MED?

The Minimum Effective Dose (MED) is the smallest amount of effort required to trigger a positive adaptation.

It’s a concept used in medicine, nutrition, and training.

In medicine, it means using the lowest possible drug dose to produce the desired effect.

In training, it means doing just enough to stimulate muscle growth, fat loss, or endurance—without adding unnecessary volume (extra work).

Why does this matter?

Research shows that you can get 80-90% of the results with far less volume than most people think (Burd et al., 2010).

This means you can:

• Build strength without spending hours in the gym.
• Get leaner without endless cardio.
• Improve fitness without burning yourself out.

How to Use MED for Faster Gains in Less Time

• Strength Training:
  • Instead of long, exhausting workouts, focus on 3-4 full-body sessions per week.
  • Pick 4-5 compound movements (squat, deadlift, press, pull-up, carry).
  • Train each muscle group 2x per week to maximize strength and growth.
• Fat Loss & Cardio:
  • You don’t need 60 minutes of steady-state cardio.
  • Instead, do short bursts of high-intensity sprints (4-6 sprints of 15-30 seconds with full recovery).
  • Walk 8,000-10,000 steps daily for effortless calorie burn.
• Recovery:
  • Instead of adding more workouts, improve sleep, nutrition, and stress management.
  • Quality beats quantity—always.

Bottom line:

You're probably doing too much if you're training hard but not seeing results.

While this isn't always the case (since it's possible to not do enough), it's the case with many of the overachievers and high performers we work with.

Cut out the fluff, focus on the MED, and watch your results skyrocket.

3.) My Favorite Exercise of the Year

If I had to pick one exercise that gives you the most bang for your buck, it's pull-ups.

Why?

Pull-ups are the ultimate test of upper-body strength.

Unlike machines or isolated exercises, they build functional, real-world muscle that carries over to almost any sport or movement.

What Makes Pull-Ups So Powerful?

• They hit multiple muscles at once.
  • Back, shoulders, biceps, forearms, and core all engage.
• They build real strength.
  • Research shows that pull-ups engage muscle fibers more than any other upper-body exercise (Youdas et al., 2010).
• They improve grip strength.
  • Strong grip = better deadlifts, better lifting, and better overall performance.
• They’re a true strength test.
  • Being able to pull your own body weight is a sign of elite strength.

How to Get Better at Pull-Ups (Even If You Can’t Do One Yet)

If you’re not there yet, don’t worry—here’s how to build up:

1. Start with dead hangs. Hang from a bar for 30-60 seconds to strengthen your grip and shoulders.
2. Use assisted pull-ups. Either use a resistance band or an assisted pull-up machine to make the movement easier.
3. Do negative reps. Jump to the top position and lower yourself down as slowly as possible.
4. Train your back and biceps. Add rows, lat pulldowns, and face pulls into your workouts.
5. Practice 3x per week. If you stay consistent, you’ll be shocked at how fast you improve.

If you already can do pull-ups, challenge yourself:

• Aim for 10+ reps in a row.
• Add weighted pull-ups.
• Experiment with different grips (wide, neutral, close).

Final Thoughts

• Eat more mushrooms to naturally boost vitamin D and support energy, recovery, and strength.
• Train smarter, not longer. Minimum Effective Dose (MED) helps you get better results with less effort.
• Master pull-ups to build elite upper-body strength that carries over to everything else.

1 Action Step

Choose one exercise you want to master over the next 90 days and commit to doing this exercise in your workouts 2-3x a week.

You'd be surprised how fast your body will adapt and start to master the movement.

Client of the Week

‘It’s one of the best experiences I’ve had - the workouts, nutrition, habits, mindset, all of it’.

Until we started working together, Barbara struggled with dropping weight and getting lean, toned, and fit since her pregnancy.

Lost and confused, she was uncertain HOW to drop the weight and do this permanently and sustainably.

A novice in her fitness journey, married with one son, and a busy teacher working with special needs children, Barbara was uncertain which way to go when it came to getting lean, toned, and strong in her body.

Before we started working together, Barbara was:

❌Keen to drop 20+ lbs and shred inches from her waist, arms, and legs

❌Busy raising her son and taking him to after-school activities while managing her full-time role as a phenomenal teacher in her field

❌Not familiar with fitness or health practices and didn’t feel certain walking into the gym or how to manage her nutrition while enjoying her favorite foods

❌Didn’t feel confident in her body and was overstressed, overworked, and hadn’t worn a bikini in months

It’s kinda like wanting to change your financial life, yet all you do is keep spending and not controlling your budget.

It would be crazy to expect different results in your bank if you didn’t take stock of what was happening and then decide to change your course of action.

The difference between people who succeed in their fitness and health year after year and those who don’t is ONE thing:

They ask for support and help and persist until they reach their goal.

Strategy: We focused on three high-level pillars for Barbara right out of the gate:

• Dial in her nutrition and set a cadence of 5 days of tracking her meals (while aiming to stay within 150 k/cal of her caloric goal)
• Hit 3 strength workouts per week while increasing her weights or reps each session (aka train hard and push herself)
• Get 7,000+ steps per day and 1-2 days of focused cardio sessions (for heart health and to raise her activity levels).

It took us time to dial this in.

As a busy mother and teacher, Barbara has a lot on her plate.

Learning to rewire her relationship with her health and body can with its own struggles.

It also took her time to build her confidence in the gym while learning her way around the machines.

But she persisted.

We kept building on her progress month after month.

Which is why Barbara was able to:

✅Drop 20+ lbs while shredding 4+ inches from her waist and drop three clothing sizes

✅Increase her squat from 20 lbs up to 155 lbs, deadlift from 15 lbs to 165 lbs, and bench press from 12.5 lbs to 40 lbs

✅Confident in her body and health and becoming a positive role model of health for her son and her family

✅Confident to show her belly and wear a two-piece while showcasing her lean, toned body

If Barbara can do this with a busy, jam-packed schedule while taking care of her family and working a highly demanding career, so can you.

You can do anything you set your mind to.

Where your focus goes, energy flows.

If you're ready to make 2025 your best fitness year, here's your next action step:

 ​Apply here to get lean​, strong, and healthy using plants. Deadline to apply each month is the 20th. Create your best health and body using a fitness system that's handcrafted for you.

One Quote To Finish Your Week Strong

I went to a vegan potluck last weekend.

Ate good food.

Made some friends.

Want to do this again sometime.

Also, it's too cold here in the South.

Where's the warm weather at?