On March 1st, 2017, I became a Vegetarian. Since then, I have seen my actions inspire others to eat less meat and have gained a better perspective for how Vegetarianism and conscious food choices can have a positive impact on our bodies and our planet.
In this post, I’d like to frame the conversation around four repeatable and transferable strategies that might help others on journeys of their own.
Recently, I discovered the open healthcare data available on CMS.gov and downloaded a few different reports to see what helpful insights I might be able to discover. One of the more interesting data sets I uncovered was the Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data, which I used to produce this simple Cost Comparison Tool.
Did I lose you yet? What does that even mean? Let's try and break some of those convoluted healthcare terms into plain English.
When I first read Peter Thiel’s “Zero to One”, I was struck by the now popular question he asks in interviews: “what important truth do very few people agree with you on?” While discussing the book with a co-worker the next day, he asked what my answer would be.
The response popped into my head uncontrollably, as if it had been waiting all along: “If you asked most health professionals how to lose weight, they would focus on exercising more and proper nutrition, but before approaching physical fitness I would address mental health.”
Anyone who knows me well knows that I suffer from chronic pain.
At first (like...for more than 2 years!), I denied the facts staring me in the face. I always told others that I just had acute pain and felt confident that I could solve it with a simple fix, either via self-treatment or with the help of a health care practitioner.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I suffer from chronic pain.
At first (like...for more than 2 years!), I denied the facts staring me in the face. I always told others that I just had acute pain and felt confident that I could solve it with a simple fix, either via self-treatment or with the help of a health care practitioner.
In 2013, I became interested in meditation as a form of developing mindfulness, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence to improve performance and general well-being. Like most people, I was incredibly skeptical at first. Sitting still and quiet has never been something I’ve found particularly enticing; I’m much more comfortable being constantly stimulated by music, TV, podcasts, and the internet. However, I've also noticed that in many ways, technology has shortened my attention span and altered the way I think and work. This has driven a personal interest in products that are able to flip the paradigm and have the opposite effect, sparking deep stages of productivity and calm.
Despite millions of dollars spent annually on eating healthier, achieving nutritional goals is surprisingly difficult in today’s world. Americans are surrounded by processed foods, bombarded with advertisements from big food conglomerates, and led down misguided paths from government agencies lobbied by special interest groups. A well-known fact among the health and wellness community is that if you want to learn about nutrition, you’re going to have to do a lot of research and experimentation yourself.
In an attempt to regain some control over my daily habits, I underwent a September experiment: I wouldn’t drink for a whole month.
Now this might sound crazy for a 23 year old single guy living in one of the best cities in the country, but really though, how long is a month in the grand scheme of things?
It turns out a month is a very, verrrryyy long time
I’m much more excited about the potential of HealthKit, GoogleFit, and other connectivity platforms that promise to centralize previously disparate sources of data in the growing Health and Fitness application ecosystem. Hopefully, by enabling both medical professionals and developers with the opportunity to paint a more complete picture of an individual’s health, we can drive real outcomes in the healthcare system.