Body
What I use to train, track, eat, and sleep, and which protocols have lasted.
These are the tools and protocols I use for training, tracking, food, and sleep, each dated so it is clear which ones lasted.
Tracking
- WHOOPusingChosen over the watch for the optimization side. One caveat from five months in: heart-rate variability stopped predicting my willpower.
- Apple Watch UltrausedWHOOP superseded it for training.
- Morning weigh-in, one log lineusingIt is the simple habit that keeps the rest in place.
- StrongusedA lift log, on and off. Since 2026 the rule is to track only that I went.
- CronometerdroppedI used it for precise nutrition tracking for a season.
Training
- The apartment gymusingBarbell, dumbbells, a high-row machine, a Peloton. The rule since July 2026 is to be at the gym rather than go to it, because presence loads the state and the workout follows.
- EquinoxdroppedThe variable that mattered was whether the environment made training run, and a premium gym did not change that.
- Fitness SFusedChosen for its machines: a selectorized machine is already configured, and setup friction turned out to be most of my resistance to training. Not renewed once the habit was installed.
- 30x30usedThirty days of thirty minutes, completed December 1, 2025. Restarting as of August 2026.
- Bread-and-butter sessions, purposefully underdoneusingBelow about seventy-five percent effort the mind cannot tell the difference, so the reps are worth getting in on any day. A three-minute warm-up counts as entry.
- Back-dominant split, push as correctionusingBy August 2026 the sessions read bench, dips, and triceps, with two plates for eight.
- Ab Ripper X as the finisherusingIt is the P90X ab routine, at the end of a session.
- Gym clothes as the default outfitusingWalking somewhere while talking is the right template; I arrive already online.
Cardio and walking
- Long walks, talkingusingSix hours of walking while talking into a recorder produces six hours of notes and a cleared head. Outdoors, thought feels generated rather than injected.
- 35-minute elliptical, morningsusedThe spring routine, gym before food. In July it got paired with a live language conversation on the phone.
- PelotonusingForty-five minutes goes by fast with the right music.
- PickleballusingIt is effectively a full workout.
- Bike ridesusedA twenty-five-mile ride on the day the wearable arrived, to see whether the strain score matched reality.
- SprintsusedSprinting punctuates the monotony of the bread-and-butter work.
Food
- Costco as the pantryusingCooking at home from bulk groceries beats delivery on cost and on behavior.
- Huel as the floorusingHuel at night and nothing late is the policy that works.
- One large lunch, light or no dinnerusingThe combination that reliably works is gym, a walk out, and a light dinner.
- KetodroppedTwelve years as doctrine. The real game turned out to be high-satiety food and a calorie count. Low carb survives as a heuristic.
Sleep and recovery
- Two hours at the ideal wake time, replaced by going outside early.
- Eight SleepusedI ran it on a manual schedule.
- Warm, dim evening lightusedThe purpose is circadian, not decorative.
- Cold shower, Wim Hof breathingdroppedState-transition habits rather than virtue habits: each one creates another chance by changing the state I am in. Both retired in August 2026.
- SaunausedIt is worth a 5am trip on its own.
- Morning mantrausedVersion eight. The stack loads the operating state before the day diffuses. Last done in June; restoring it is on the list.
What I learned
- Non-negotiables are engineered, not willed.Sleep, training, eating, and socializing are things I engineer around rather than decide daily.
- A morning session sets the day.It prevents the delivery-order cascade.
- I train without audio.Splitting attention made it worse.
- A commitment device is worth its price.A $180 voice recorder buys forty to fifty thousand steps a day.