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:

• My exact strategy to stay lean, strong, and healthy in 2025.
• A step by step blueprint you can adopt for next year without living in the gym or kitchen.
• 10 timeless fitness lessons from this past year (you can adopt into your health without my pitfalls).

You can solve any problem you face.

This year I've challenged myself.

The challenge?

To solve each problem I face.

My approach in the past has been to ignore or suppress problems.

In fact, I would even go as far as saying I didn't have any 'challenges, problems, or struggles'.

Didn't work out well for me.

The ego (or ego complex) is an interesting thing.

Yet, maturing as an adult (which is rare) requires us to take ownership.

Owernship of our health.

Ownership of our body.

Ownerhsip of our life.

You are a problem-solving creature.

But many of us don't ever fully unlock our problem-solving abilities.

Trauma, in particualr, can create blockages which if left unaddressed, will hold back your full potential.

Few leave their childhood untouched.

I didn't.

I don't know many who do.

While we could talk about the origins of our trauma story and what we've gone through collectively as a species, I'll let that topic rest for the moment.

Rather, I want to highlight the incredible problem solving capabilites we ALL have.

Every single one of us.

Every human on the planet has the ability to solve problems.

Creativity is in our DNA.

It's our spiritual birthright as humans.

2024 has taught me more about this topic more than anything else.

You can solve anything you face.

(and that's not philosophy... it's physics).

When you undesrtand the full potential of your mind, the whole world opens up.

It's amazing.

I wish I knew this earlier in life.

I sure as hell will remember this for the rest of my life.

Time to solve problems.

It's what we're meant to do.

Lesson: Every challenge you face in your health or body is a problem waiting to be resolved. You can solve any puzzle you face.

Here's Your 1-3-1 Friday:

#1) My Body Transformation Plan for 2025

2025 is going to be a great year.

I've been working on formulating my body transformation plan for 2025 this month.

If you've got goals for next year and you're waiting till New Year's to start, you're starting too late.

Preparation is the name of the game for winners.

Championships are won in the pre-season.

The World Cup is won in the pre-season.

The SuperBowl is won in the preseason.

Why would your health and fitness be any different?

2025 is a defining year in my health and fitness.

So here's my blueprint for body transformation next year:

1). Eat a whole foods plant based diet 80% of the time

A whole foods plant based diet creates optimal health.

This is no longer debatable.

Dozens of top scientists and researchers continously prove this each year.

2024 was the year I focused on a particular health challenge.

I've made tremendous progress.

I've also been tracking each data point to share once I solve this health problem.

But more than anything this year, I've converted to a full believer in plant nutrition.

This is the year I've realized at my core that food is medicine when you take the right foods in the right doses.

Food is a drug that can heal or harm us.

Fruits are one of the most healing foods on the planet (they're 4x more nutrient dense than vegetables).

Veggies come right in behind.

Whole foods from the soil and plant-grown along with herbs and spices fill in the remaining.

For health, this how you create a high quality life with day-long energy.

I plan on balancing this with high protein foods and a few of my favorite plant-based foods (cakes, pizza, and Thai food) later in the year.

But right now I'm in the middle of a health experiment working on targeting a particular invader that feeds off of certain processed foods.

For now I'll be hitting hard on my health going into the new year.

Food is medicine when taken correctly.

2) Lift weights 4 days a week to 70-90% max intensity

One of the things I'm stepping up next year is my strength program.

Working with Dr. Haun has given me insight into my fitness.

What you measure, can be improved.

This year has rocked my fitness because of our son's arrival, constant travels, and moving to a new home.

However, even with all those factors, I've still averaged 3 workouts per week.

Next year, I'm stepping it up.

Lifting weights gives your body a signal.

The signal says:

'OH, I'm getting hit by heavy rocks... I should probably build lean muscle as a DEFENSE mechanism to protect myself next time I get hit by these heavy rocks.'

Lift heavy rocks.

Countless studies have proven that strength training defies the aging process.

If you want to be lean and strong for LIFE, lifting weights will do this for you.

As a side note, your entire body benefits from strength training:

• Your bones
• Your ligaments
• Your connective tissue
• Your muscular system
• Your cardiovascular system (your heart works here too)

The ROI on lifting weights is priceless.

Your body will thank you in your 50s and beyond.

3) Sleep 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night

I've probably gotten the least amount of sleep this year.

Learning to live with a newborn and now infant has changed my sleep patterns.

Sleep impacts everything.

It's the reason we hired a sleep consultant to support us with our sleep systems.

It's also why sleep is a BIG part of my body transformation program next year.

Sleep is where your body repairs and builds muscle, releases fat, and restores health.

Your body will still do this even if you don't get enough or quality sleep.

But it helps getting proper sleep.

A standard to aim for is between 7-9 hours per night.

Studies show that athletes training to drop fat and build muscle saw significantly better body composition results after 12 weeks of training when they had above 8 hours of sleep daily.

That hasn't been my reality this year.

It may not be yours either.

Don't beat yourself up.

Aim for 15-30 minute incremental improvements each night.

Optimize your sleep environment.

Remove blue light.

Read before bedtime.

That's what I'm doing to win my 2025.

4) Walk 8,000 steps per day

According to ​​this study​​, ⅓ of the global population aged 15 years or older engages in insufficient physical activity.

In particular, there’s 3 primary dangers of having a sedentary lifestyle:

• Sedentary behaviors reduce lipoprotein lipase activity, muscle glucose, protein transporter activities, impair lipid metabolism, and diminish carbohydrate metabolism.
• It decreases cardiac output and systemic blood flow while activating the sympathetic nervous system, resulting in reduced insulin sensitivity and vascular function.
• It also alters the insulin-like growth factor axis and the circulation levels of sex hormones, which elevates the incidence of hormone-related cancers.

A 4th danger which is fascinating to be aware of is the impact on the body’s gravitostat and body weight’s homestat.

Both factors correlate with how your body navigates through weight and fat gain.

Aka - the more inactive you are, the more ‌your body will prefer to restore future food as fat storage vs lean muscle mass.

As the saying goes, if you don’t use it, you lose it.

Walking 8,000 steps per day allows me to stay active, mobile, and use my body.

If I get more - awesome.

But 8,000 is the bare minimum I'm not willing to go beneath since it's sustainable and achievable based off my lifestyle.

5) Drink 100 ounces of filtered clean water daily

The Hyper Hydration Protocol is one I've been testing in 2024.

I've seen phenomenal results so far.

Nearly every person is walking around dehydrated.

Water is the basis of all life.

Our bodies are 60% water.

Our muscles are 80% water.

Water fuels everything in health.

Our cells require water for healthy cell functioning.

Most of us are chronically dehydrated.

Even being dehydrated by 1-3% during your workout can lead to a 10% drop in strength and muscular performance.

So…

How much water should you drink daily?

And what kind of water?

As a rule of thumb, ½ to ⅔ of your body weight in ounces per day is a great aim for daily water consumption.

Clean filtered water is the second part of the equation.

Most of our water, especially in the States, contains chemicals and toxic materials.

I prefer to keep those out of my body.

Next year, I'll be stepping up my hydration even more.

6) Do 2 cardio sessions per week

Most people do cardio incorrectly.

They do cardio for weight-loss.

Do cardio for cardiovascular health.

Eat less for fat-loss.

There's guidelines on how much we should move each week.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, here are the recommended guidelines:

Perform moderate-intensity aerobic activity for a minimum of 30 minutes, five times per week OR vigorous-intensity aerobic activity for a minimum of 20 minutes, three times per week.

This is a significant jump for the average sedentary desk worker or manager who gets 3,000-5,000 steps per day.

And over time, this will compound for you.

That guideline above may be FAR or CLOSE for where you’re at.

Start where you’re at right now.

If you haven’t been moving much, the goal is to move more.

If you have been moving more, keep this your standard and raise the bar slightly.

A great way to increase your movement is to choose your favorite cardio activity and do this consistently.

This can be a sport, playing with kids (tag is an easy way to win here), biking, hiking, swimming, etc.

The main thing (again) is consistency.

Choose something you love and then commit to it wholeheartedly.

I plan on planning soccer again in the winter season on Jan 6th so 2 cardio sessions will ramp up my aerobic and anaerobic conditioning to be in tip top shape by next year.

I'll most likely do a HIIT style training for the aerobic & anaerobic benefits but also a longer steady state workout to help build my aerobic base.

I don't like feeling out of breathe when I walk up steps or run.

They say the moment you get old is the moment you stop jumping, running, sprinting, and playing.

Every time I play and move, I feel young.

I plan to keep this for life.

7) Track my progress minimum 1x weekly

What gets measured can be improved.

What doesn't, can't be.

Once a week, I plan on tracking my body measurements, photos, and weight.

Over time I may move photos to bi-weekly.

I'll track my weight 2-3 times a week to see fluctations and notice how the psychology of scale impacts my emotions.

I also recently invested into a new bodyweight scale (keeping name private to determine how effective it is) which will track body fat, muscle, bone density, visceral fat, and biological age (along with other metrics).

Data is queen when it comes to making the right decisions.

You don't need to be ruled by numbers.

But they can make a positive impact since numbers tell a story.

Being neutral and detached is another important part of how I'll be approaching my tracking.

It's achievable, measurable, and specific.

That's how I'm building my goals.

Do the same for your goals.

It's interesting what happens when yourself a clear target to aim for.

8) Track my food using hand portions & macros

I've been tracking my macros for years.

I believe it's a great starting place for nearly every person.

However, if you've been tracking for a long time, and want to level up yuor nutrition, hand portions can be the next step.

Next year, I'll be double down on my hand portion tracking system to ensure I'm getting the right balance of protien, carbs, and fats each meal.

This will also help me relax on days when I'm looser with macro tracking due to my busy schedule, travels, and meetings.

Even though hand portions aren't AS precise as macro tracking, studies have shown that they are up to 90% accurate in tracking calories without the extra hassle of logging each ingredient.

Macros are where we typically start with ​new clients inside of VFR.​ 

However, once students get this down, we typically advance to hand portions, hunger signals, and creating a perfect plate.

This creates a healthy balance of tracking that's sustainable and lets you do this for life.

If you'd like to learn our plug and play nutrition systems and get them handcrafted for your health and body, ​learn more here.​ 

9) Spend quality time with family and in nature

Fitness isn't just macros and workouts.

Health isn't just fruits and veggies.

It's deeper than this.

It's about being healthy and fit in mind, body, and spirit.

The combination of these 3 (since we're multi-dimensional beings) is what creates a healthy human.

Self mastery is a topic I discuss often inside these letters.

Self mastery means taking ownership of each part of ourselves.

Family time is an important value for me.

So is time in nature.

Honoring both of these values and spending more time fully prsent with my family and in nature are part of how I'll win in my health next year.

It will require me doing less work.

Creating time to be with family and nature.

Creating your dream life starts with creating your dream day.

My dream day includes both of those values.

What's your dream day include?

10) Meditate, visualize, and Qi Gong every morning

I've curated my morning routine the past 8 years.

I've tested dozens of habits that have resonsated with me (or not).

These are the Core 3 that have stuck with me over the years.

They'll most likely stay with me for the rest of my life.

Stress is a part of life.

Yet, 95% of us are ill-equipped to handle it skillfully.

2024 has been a stressful year for me.

Yet, I’ve navigated it well (all things considered).

There’s 3 reasons I’d attribute to my success:

a. Creating an environment that defuses stress

b. Committing to my routines (a ‘destress’ daily practice that allows me to recenter)

c. Reflecting each week on how to eliminate stressful things from my life

I'll provide more details on the third point.

Having a practice that allows you to convert negative stress into relaxation is non-negotiable in our modern age.

 This can be multiple things:

• Grounding in nature
• Sitting in silence
• Moving meditation (like Qi Gong)
• Shaking (yes, shaking your body; it’s been proven to release stress. It’s also why many athletes shake their bodies before matches)
• Journaling and self-reflection

Any of these can help release stress positively.

But there’s a price to pay when you keep holding onto stress.

Just like there’s a price to pay when you create a new health habit.

I'm not willing to pay the price for the former.

Meditation = creates solitude and silence for my spirit and body

Visualization = allows me to create my daily reality

Qi Gong = energy medicine to cultivate day-long energy and healing abilities

These are my Core 3.

What's yours for next year?

1 Action Step

Write down your 2025 goals. Clarify the specific outcomes you want to see by January 1st 2026. Think big and write down what you really want. Then, go after it.

Client of the Week

Can you drop weight while working full-time, studying, and supporting your family?

Jennifer did.

She’s a busy student, working full-time, and becoming a veterinarian.

Her schedule is typically maxed out every week.

Yet, she was keen to prioritize her health and drop the stubborn weight that had crept up.

She wasn’t happy with her body or appearance, yet she wanted to be a positive example for her family (especially after going vegan).

Her packed schedule was a challenging obstacle. However, she was committed to her health and the changes she wanted to see.

Our strategy: We started initially with 4 days of lifting and tracking her nutrition 5 days a week.

In moderate deficit, we also started to work on her self-language and how she spoke to herself.

Being an overachiever and perfectionist, she tended to be the most critical of herself, even when she was making progress.

Later, we added silent meditation, worked on increasing and improving her sleep, and taught her how to release stress positively.

Our wins: She’s down 21 lbs of body fat net total from her start, down to her leanest body fat %, and the strongest she’s ever felt lifting personal records like her leg press at 680+ lbs.

All while working overtime, taking care of her family during challenging times, and learning to love herself (while releasing her perfectionism).

She’s a testimony of what it means to be coachable and have an open mind - even when facing difficult times. 🙂

 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

Finished my current book.

Looking for my next read.

Any recs? (favorite genre - nonfiction and depth psychology).

Whenever you're ready, there's 3 ways I can help you:

1. Connect with me on ​Facebook ​and ​Instagram ​and let's be friends.
2.  ​Join our free Facebook Group​. Get free trainings on how to get lean and strong with plants.
3. Want to drop body fat and build lean muscle in a fraction of the time with ease? ​Apply for Accelerator 1:1 coaching.​