Have you used to-do lists before?
Most of us probably have. In fact, most of us probably have an active to-do list somewhere with tasks beckoning to be checked off.
But have you thought about why we use to-do lists?
At their simplest, to-do lists prevent us from forgetting tasks. Often these tasks come in the form of mundane tasks like buying stuff from the grocery store — lower priority tasks that aren’t top-of-mind and so we are afraid we might forget.
But at more advanced levels, to-do lists become mission-critical tools that serve not only to remind, but also to boost productivity, which we can define as making more effective use of our most valuable resource: time. As a wise man once said:
“Time isn’t money. Time is much more valuable than money. We can always make more money, but we’ll never get more time."
Read MoreAt the end of September last year, I put an end to my obsession with tracking my meals.
I had been experimenting with diet and nutrition for nine months prior and decided it was time to test out whether I could take what I'd learned and synthesize it into a simple set of guidelines for eating clean that I could follow indefinitely with minimal effort.
Read MoreAs 2015 approaches, I thought it would be a meaningful exercise to first review the things I’ve done in 2014 and then put together a checklist of things I’d like to do in 2015.
Read MoreDo you have a book that you've been meaning to read for a long time but just haven't gotten around to it?
For me that book was "Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. The book sat on my iBookshelf for nearly three years until I finally dusted off the imaginary cobwebs and started reading what is now one of my favorite books.
Read MoreThe end goal for my diet-related experiments has always been to eventually come up with a way of eating that not only optimizes health and performance, but is also truly sustainable in the long-term.
Read MoreI’ve been tracking my meals consistently for the past nine months, and I can honestly say that the habit has completely changed the way I look at food.
The more commonly used term for food tracking is “calorie counting”, but I avoid using that term since calories really shouldn't be the focus when deciding on what to eat. Instead the focus should be put on food quality and macronutrient content, which I’ll get into later.
Below are five reasons (from obvious to less obvious) why I think tracking your food — for even a brief period of time — can have a profound impact on the way you eat.
Read MoreWe seem to be at an interesting time in history for human nutrition.
In the 1980's, the USDA declared that eating a diet low in fat was the healthy way to go, and most of world followed. This has led to a massive 30+ year experiment on low-fat, high-carb diets that is still ongoing.
Read MoreAfter gaining a respectable 2.2 kg of muscle and only 0.2 kg of fat in July by adding white rice to my formerly-low-carb routine, I decided to see what would happen to this weight-gain experiment if I replaced the rice with pasta instead.
Read MoreIt's been one month since I started my Rice Bulking Experiment. The goal here is to learn how to spend minimal time and effort to gain weight and muscle mass while staying lean.
The reason I'm calling this a "rice bulk" is because I've been using white rice to make up for the increase in calories I need on top of my formerly-low-carb diet. White rice is inexpensive and easy to prepare in large batches. This has allowed me to keep the rest of my weekly routine relatively consistent in terms of meal prep.
Read MoreBack in May, I had planned on exploring weight gain, but my ridiculous cholesterol levels following my six-pack experiment gave me pause. Before embarking on an experiment that would require me to overeat for a prolonged period of time, I figured it would be best to first experiment more with my diet and get my cholesterol levels back down to levels where doctors don’t freak out.
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