After last week’s hurricane adventures, things are settling down.

But this time of year is interesting:

- It’s a time to do your end of year reflections

- It’s an opportunity to end the year strong

Most people skip out on both.

Don’t do this.

Rather than slowing down as the year’s end creeps up, do the opposite:

Speed up.

Double down on your goals.

Refocus on your 2024 commitments you made at the beginning of the year or end of last year.

Don’t settle for less.

Instead, step up.

Step into the version of YOU who you know you can become.

Act as IF you’re already the person you want to be.

Talk, speak, think, breathe like that person.

The only way to change your behaviors (permanently) is to create a new model of reality to live from.

You acting as IF becomes that new model of reality.

So what’s it going to be?

Settle for less…

Or step forward?

Channel your inner warrior and get to it.

Onwards and upwards. 🙂

Lesson: How you end the year is how you’ll start next year.

Here's Your 1-3-1 Friday:

#1.) Shocking research on diet and longevity

There’s certain regions in the world where humans live up to 100+ years old.

These areas are called the Blue Zones.

The term was created by Dan Buettner in his quest to understand the role of lifestyle and environment on health.

On his journey, he found 5 places on the planet where people lived and aged gracefully while having high levels of health.

Here’s the 9 Power Principles that he uncovered along the way:

1. Move naturally

The interesting thing that Dan found was that the world’s longest lived humans didn’t ‘exercise’.

They moved often.

And they used every opportunity to move.

They also used physical activities with every chance they had.

Movement is a daily part of their life.

The more you move, the better your health.

Movement is everything.

2. Down shift

These people still experienced stress like you and I.

The only difference?

They have systems to release their stress in a healthy and positive way.

Prayer. Slowing down. Meditation. Laughter.

These are all built into their daily life.

It would be weird if they didn’t take a nap or slow down…

But for us - that’s what seems weird.

Maybe we have things backwards.

3. Purpose

What’s interesting with the blue zone people is that they are all connected with their sense of purpose.

They understand why they’re here on the planet.

And they do their best to live from this each day.

It’s estimated that people who could articulate their sense of purpose had a 15% reduced risk of dying earlier.

Purpose is everything for these people.

4. Wine at 5

Drinking alcohol is kept to a minimum.

The most commonly seen amount that’s seen drunk by these people is around 2 glasses of wine per day or less.

It seems like they discovered the hidden secret to longevity by protecting their organs.

Drinking less alcohol creates a longer life.

5. Plant Slant

In all 5 blue zones, researchers found that 95% of people ate plant-based diets.

They ate mainly plant-based proteins, healthy plant carbohydrates, and minimally processed foods.

Beans. Lentils. Healthy grains. Fruits. Vegetables. Plant proteins (tofu/tempeh).

95% of 100 year olds ate a plant-based diet.

They also kept meat intake to a minimum (or none at all).

Longevity isn’t hard when you’re eating the right foods.

It’s also easy to replicate with the right systems.

If you’re struggling to optimize your plant-based nutrition even with a busy lifestyle yet want to be a positive role model for your family and community, you can do this.

You just need the right systems.

If you want to plug and play our proven VFR Systems, ​apply here for a spot inside the Accelerator 2.0 Program. ​ 

Our tuition and program price will go up officially on October 22nd.

Apply and become your healthiest, strongest self this year.

You are what you eat.

6. 80% Rule

Another longevity secret is eating less.

80% less to be exact.

It seems like the oldest humans found that by eating less they had more energy and lived longer, higher quality lives.

Yet our culture promotes the opposite.

Eat more. Have dessert. Have seconds. Have thirds even.

All you can eat buffets.

Eating less creates optimal health.

Eating too much does the opposite.

Learning to slow down when you eat and removing distractions is a simple way to eat less.

In tandem, researchers found that these people ate a large breakfast, moderate lunch, and small dinner.

If you want a free link to the chronobiology training I ran on this topic, ​message me ‘CHRONO’ here. ​ 

Most of us are distracted when we eat.

Be present.

Slow down.

7. Loved ones first

The oldest humans put family first.

They value their spouses.

They spend time with their children.

They respect their parents and value their wisdom.

Family comes first.

Which is why they live longer.

8. Belong

Faith is also another important part of these long-lived human’s lives.

Being part of a spiritual community is important.

Those who attend a faith based service regularly also lived 4 - 14 years longer than those who don’t.

Whatever your faith, having faith is important.

So important that it impacts your health and longevity.

Faith matters.

9. Right tribe

Your life is the sum result of the 5 people closest to it.

This couldn’t be more true when it comes to longevity.

These intelligent humans create smart circles around them.

Their social circles reflect their values.

Their friends also engage in similar behaviors.

That’s why they also stay young.

Birds of a feather flock together.

These are the 9 Power Principles by Dan Buettner.

They’re proven by the 5 longest lived areas on the planet (the Blue Zones).

You can take this and model them.

Use these to fuel your health while leading your family.

#2.) How to eat to build muscle (using plants)

Building muscle is simple.

You just need to follow the right rules.

Here’s a breakdown of what you need to do (in the right order):

• Eat until fullness or slightly over
• Eat at least 1 gram of protein per bodyweight (e.g. if you weigh 150 lbs = 150 grams of protein)
• Lift weights and train within 80-90% intensity 3-4x a week
• Use varied plant proteins to get all your amino acids (building blocks for muscle)
• Eat whole foods, fruits, and vegetables to make sure you’re getting enough iron, calcium, zinc, and iodine
• Supplement as necessary: B12 for hormonal functioning and creatine for 10-20% increase in muscle and strength building
• Get healthy fats from plants to help with the muscle building process (avocado, nuts, and most plant proteins like tofu and soybeans which already have fat inside)

Let’s break this down a bit more.

1. Eat until fullness or slightly over

Food is energy.

Energy is stored potential.

We transfer the energy from food into our body.

We then can store that energy as body fat, use it to fuel us, or create future muscle.

How you use your food energy depends on what you do with it.

But you need to eat enough first.

Undereating or chronically living in a ‘deficit’ won’t help your muscle building process.

Eating to fullness or slightly over will.

(by the way - notice how this contradicts with eating less and longevity; constantly trying to ‘bulk up’ and ‘build muscle’ also impacts our health. That’s why balance is key here).

2. Eat at least 1 gram of protein per bodyweight

Protein is the building blocks for your body.

Without it you can’t build muscle.

(trust me - I’ve tried).

When you’re building muscle and eating to fullness you don’t need AS MUCH protein as when you’re dropping body fat and aiming for weight loss.

Which is good.

This makes things easier.

Since you can eat more, you’ll also have more secondary protein options available (not primary options - but secondary ones like high protein carb options).

This will make things easy when building muscle.

1 gram of protein per bodyweight is a good rule of thumb to keep things simple.

You can also use a ​nutrition tracker like Cronometer ​to streamline your tracking process.

Setup your meals for REPEAT once you create several recipes inside the app.

Automate your success.

3. Lift weights and train within 80-90% intensity 3-4x a week

Without resistance, there can be no change.

Resistance is how you create a change in your body.

(and life for that matter).

You need to give your body a REASON to change.

Lifting weights (or any kind of resistance training) gives your body that reason.

Lift weights 3-4x a week.

Train hard and aim to leave 1-2 reps in your tank each set.

Rinse and repeat.

Strength training isn’t sexy.

But it’s damn effective.

4. Use varied plant proteins to get all your amino acids

Not all protein is created equally.

While it’s true that plant protein has all the amino acids you need, sometimes they’re a bit lower than you need.

Not a problem.

You’ll just pivot with a few simple tweaks.

The Vegan Way is a simple technique to overcome any protein limitations.

It’s made of 70% pea protein and 30% rice protein.

You can mix this with two different protein powders…

Or my preferred method which is just to eat a lot of different plant foods.

Beans. Lentils. Peas. Rice. Grains.

Primary proteins: tofu, tempeh, seitan, plant mocks.

Mix and match.

Play around with different foods.

Tracking this on Cronometer will also show you which amino acids you might lower in and need to improve.

Leucine is one that’s been researched and often lower.

Since it’s an important amino acid in the muscle building process, using the Vegan Way Method will overcome this challenge.

Experiment. Test. Repeat.

5. Eat whole foods, fruits, and vegetables

Many of the vitamins and minerals you need come from whole foods.

Macros are talked about often.

Micros not so often.

Trace minerals like iodine and zinc are key to having great health.

Seaweed, pumpkin seeds, lentils, lima beans, tofu, chickpeas, spinach can all tick all these boxes for you.

Calcium and B12 are another group of vitamins that are important.

Dark leafy greens (like kale), almonds, seeds, and figs power up your calcium.

B12 (unless fortified from foods) is one that plant-fueled humans will need to supplement.

The caveat?

Nearly EVERY person on the planet is B12 deficient since B12 is produced by a bacteria in the soil and our soil is depleted worldwide.

I ​personally use this one each day. ​ 

(affiliate link above to give you best savings)

I also wrote an in-depth article on B12 ​if you’d like to go deeper into this here. ​ 

Protect your health.

6. Get healthy fats from plants

Fats are the least important macro.

And often people overeat fats in large amounts.

But fats do serve an important purpose in muscle building and general health goals.

A moderate to minimum amount of fat can help with multiple goals.

Foods like avocado, olive oil, seeds, and most plant foods (like tofu, tempeh, and even beans have healthy fats inside).

These fats will help in the muscle building process, plus with hormonal functioning.

Too much fat will clog your bloodstream.

The right amount will help build muscle.

1 Action Step

Choose one macronutrient to dial in this week. Which one are you low on? Track this for 3 weeks and reassess again.

One Quote To Finish Your Week Strong

Family time is precious.

Use the 9 Power Principles each day.

Leveling up #9 this month.

- Gabriel

References:

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK298903/
2. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/eat-more-plant-based-proteins-to-boost-longevity
3. https://www.strengthlog.com/build-muscle-on-a-vegan-diet/

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#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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(feel free to DM me anytime - I love connecting with new friends worldwide).