One year ago, we were in transition.

We had just moved from Connecticut late March.

However, we weren’t moving to our new place in Asheville until later in October.

Most of our summer would be traveling.

So our stuff was stored at my mother’s in New York.

It was chaotic.

I knew once we were grounded again that there were a few upgrades I wanted to make.

And I was eager to continue to optimize my family’s health.

Once we unpacked everything in Asheville, I got to work.

Here’s the 3 best fitness investments I’ve made in the past 12 months:

#1 Hire a coach

I was in between coaches with our move down south.

And my fitness had taken a hit.

Part of the reason why this was my most impactful investment was because when someone is holding me accountable - I perform better.

I enjoy being challenged and called out.

Having a high quality mentorship is important for me since it pulls out the best in me.

So I re-hired a mentor who I worked with several years back.

Dr. Cody is one of the best in the world at what he does in the fitness and sports performance realm.

I was also fortunate to enroll into one of his remaining spots open for the year.

(similar to what we do here in VFR, we also have a waiting list and work only with serious students).

For me coaching is part application and part education.

Every time I invest in a new (or old) mentor, I invest in the results and the education.

The results are up to me to create.

But having a highly specialized plan (that I could build for myself but do NOT want to) makes the world of difference.

I’ve also found that having an objective perspective especially when it comes to body composition changes is massively helpful.

It’s easy to be self-critical.

Or think that you aren’t seeing fast enough results.

Having a sharp eye that’s detached from your emotional experience takes this away.

The other reason why I was keen to reinvest into a coach was because I want to share some pretty neat health AND fitness experiments I’ve been running on myself for the past 6+ months.

Part of those experiments include health protocols.

Other parts of them include fitness and body composition results.

If you’re curious to hear more about these experiments, let me know below. 🙂

I plan on sharing more as we move into the second half of this year and I finalize my experiment results.

To summarize - investing into a mentor has been the best investment I made in the past 12 months.

I’ve 10x’d the ROI on my fitness with the renewed energy, focus, and strength I’m bringing to my family, health, and work.

Health is truly priceless.

Keep that in mind.

#2 Invest in organic mattress

The next best investment I made in the past 12 months was an organic mattress.

I wrote about this nearly 10 months ago in an earlier letter in 2023.

Here’s why I invested in the highest quality organic mattress I could find on the market:

(courtesy of Scott Jeffrey)

'Here’s a list of the toxins found in most commercial mattresses:

• Mercury: can cause headaches, mood swings, breathing difficulties and more
• Lead: can cause cognitive problems, especially in children
• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs): can cause headaches, dizziness, and skin irritation
• Chloroform: linked to depression, liver damage, and a weakened immune system
• Cyanide: can cause dizziness, eye and skin irritation, and overall weakness
• PBDE Flame Retardants: can cause thyroid issues and damage the endocrine system'

Aware of this, I was unwilling to settle for less than the best for my family.

With our family expanding and growing, I also recognized we needed the space with our little one joining us.

After hours of research and due diligence, I decided on the brand Avocado Mattress which has one of the best non-toxic mattresses on the market.

You can research their products but for reference we choose the vegan avocado king mattress. ​

Sleep is one area I did not want to be cheap on.

We sleep on average 7-9 hours per night.

1/3 of our life is spent sleeping.

1/3 of our day is spent sleeping.

1/3 of the results from your health come from sleeping.

Sleep matters.

And what you inhale over those hours has a profound impact on your health.

Sleep is one of the most critical times of the day for us.

It's when we're able to:

• Build lean muscle (since muscle building happens when we recover and rest well)
• Release and 'burn' off fat tissue (did you know that adipose tissue 'fat' is released when you sleep via breathing?)
• Recover from your day, workouts, and life in general
• Let go of negative emotions and release overall daily stress (there's a correlation between the dreams we have and our daily experiences)
• Rebuild connective tissue and repair our bodies

The list goes on.

Sleep is a foundation for life-long health.

#3 Invest in standing desk

One of my core commitments coming down to Asheville was to stand more.

While I stand for the majority of my day, all of our summer travels had me on my butt for hours of driving and flying.

Standing more was a non-negotiable.

I've shared this before, but standing more is a prerequisite for modern living.

We can ALL benefit from standing more.

Energy blockages commonly stem from sitting too long and too frequently.

Our body was designed to live and move in an upright position.

This is why we don't all look like hunchbacks and have 'seated designed bodies.'

Yet, the modern human is rapidly moving closer to the hunchback model.

Standing more will be your crucial habit if you want to avoid looking like Quasimodo.

So I invested in a high quality standing desk with the option to sit during writing sessions like these… and stand for the rest of my day.

I take nearly all of my daily meetings standing (98% of my meetings, 1:1 coaching sessions, and group training classes are ALL done standing).

There's a dozen and a half ways to stand more often.

Choose ONE and commit to it for the next 21 days.

Then, layer in the next habit.

Ideally, aiming to stand for at least 50% of your day is a solid goal.

You can then increase from there.

Our bodies were designed to stand and move all day long.

It’s only due to recent ‘modern’ changes that we’ve begun to regress and atrophy our body’s natural design.

Nature knows best.

Protect your back and stand more often.

Bonus: #4 - Invest in EMF protectors

I invested a lot into our family’s health last year.

A bonus fourth purchase that I made was EMF protectors.

Our modern world has become more dangerous than many of us realize.

One of those dangers is what’s in most of our pockets and hands each day:

Our phones.

5G may be one of the worst inventions we’ve made as a species.

The amount of studies pouring in from world renowned researchers has pointed out the fact that radiation from 5G along with other electromagnetic products (including wifi, bluetooth, and blue light emitted from these devices) is destructive to our health.

The health implications are harmful.

Many of us also have heavy metals and neurotoxins within us due to the chemical poisoning of our skies, water, food, and other ‘healthcare’ products.

The microwave effect is something to keep in mind.

If we have heavy metals in our body and we’re constantly exposed to radiation (like a microwave) what happens to metal when you put it inside a microwave?

As humans, we're bioelectrical creatures.

Everything in the universe can be broken down into two components: energy and matter.

Yet, as humans, our energetic body vastly outweighs our material body.

It's estimated that up to 99.9% of our body is energy.

Which puts things into perspective when it comes to being exposed to different frequencies 24/7.

One of those is the EMF waves emitted from our beloved cellular technology.

And the recent changes that are happening globally with 5G towers and antennas being placed worldwide are increasing this problem more rapidly each day.

​240 scientists from 40 different countries made an appeal.

According to the International EMF Scientist Appeal:​

“Numerous recent scientific publications have shown that EMF affects living organisms at levels well below most international and national guidelines.

Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on general well-being in humans.

Damage goes well beyond the human race, as there is growing evidence of harmful effects to both plant and animal life.”

So here’s how how you can protect yourself from EMF waves:

• Turn OFF your 5G as often as you can. I personally use Wi-Fi as much as possible and keep my 5G off when traveling (if you travel as much as I do, download Google Maps offline mode). And whatever you do, keep your cell phone away from your body as MUCH as possible (especially near your head or groin).
• Turn off your wifi router when you're not using it. I turn ours off every night to help limit exposure during resting hours.
• Invest into EMF radiation blockers. I invested in Bon Charge which has some of the best EMF blockers on the planet and purchased their phone EMF blockers and the phone pouches for an extra layer of protection.

These have been the best health investments I’ve made in the past 12 months.

I’m looking forward to the next 12 months and continuing to invest into our family’s health.

Health is our birthright.

As such, it’s our responsibility (not someone else’s) to take ownership of it.

Keeping our health sovereignty is more important than ever.

To your best health,

​

- Gabriel