While on the surface, complex problems require equally intricate solutions, sometimes, the answers can be more easily found, and that is precisely the case with the unendingly confusing industry known as group health plan benefits. We would all do well to focus on what the individual can do to improve their own health status. Without that, financial peril will continue to plague health premiums, no matter how they are assessed, financed, offered, etc. Perhaps my perspective on the matter may be best showcased with historical perspective in mind; over 2,000 employer groups having been analyzed as a retail-based insurance Consultant as well as through the lens of a Program Architect, or General Agent, who actively builds health plans in the market. Being ripely 40, my entire professional career has been dedicated not only to repeating broken quoting cycles ad nauseam, but mostly in reinventing processes, learning from subject matter experts, and unwinding, to the degrees possible, what is implicitly dysfunctional, best put, or even broken with legacy insurance plans and populations. It has been an illuminating journey for me, and in having the honor to work with peers at the top of their proverbial games, I actually feel very lucky to be able to strike to the core of what matters when it comes to group health plans; controlling risk by focusing on health. Irrespective of type of population, group size, financing arrangements, special programs, etc. the commonality that continues to warrant time and attention is quite simply people’s health. 

Of course, almost nothing can be more personal than that, however, we can all agree that if someone is healthy, they are at their optimal state, performing their daily tasks with ease, excellence, and enthusiasm. They are their best selves, and arguably, at highest productivity in their endeavors. Good health has benefits that cascade into so many areas of life that it is quite challenging to think of a negative collateral effect to being in as pristine health as one can manage. Yes, it sounds overly simplistic, I know, but with an obesity epidemic casting a national shadow on now the majority of Americans, it begs the question of how we can simply get healthier by going back to basics. In having recently devoured and being inspired by a number of nutrition-focused books, with Metabolical by Dr. Robert Lustig being particularly poignant and impactful, I have personally come to realize that food should be thy medicine, and medicine should by thy food (oh, perhaps cliché that a modern Greek would be a fan of Hippocrates, himself, but no surprise). Coming from a non-clinician, advice on health and nutrition, I’m sure some eyebrows will be raised, but like any good student, I see myself as a receptacle of knowledge, so learning from credible sources has not only proven to be a great foundation, I’ve also been able to prove the authors right with my very own health status, so it seems I may be onto some axioms that I’m thrilled to share. 

There seems to be a fundamental lack of granular advice when it comes to diet and exercise, with most of us having read or heard the following, ‘be mindful of your diet and exercise’ as the blanket advice that can be given to address an innumerable variety of ailments, chronic diseases, or even phases of life. Well, this advice could certainly change lives, but what if someone already believes they are adequately active, mobile, strong, etc., or that they do follow a healthy diet? The advice falls short and people become frustrated. Guess what happens then? Their habits continue to compound and even a minor downward trajectory builds upon itself until the body is positively screaming for change and amelioration. Your busy, but when a pipe bursts water in your house, you make time. Cries for help manifest differently depending upon the person, scenario, sickness, etc., but most often, once someone is unable to do the things they need to do, or even love doing, the wake-up call arrives, and action needs to be taken. The perspective that people in modern societies spend their health making money, and then their money trying to fix their health rings so true that it is difficult to successfully counter. All of this begs the question; where do people turn for advice on health and nutrition if ‘diet and exercise’ isn’t enough?

Health comes down to the self. I recently shared that people lie, the body does not, which may seem a bit harsh, but isn’t it the case that if someone consumes anti-nutrients, empty calories, artificially created sustenance, sugary food and beverages, that the body responds with declines to metabolic health? We cannot avoid that what we consume has implications that continue to impact the body until our last of days. With reference back to Metabolical, it was enlightening to discover that dysfunction in these systems produces collateral illnesses that may become chronic, and many also produce the unwanted side effect of weight gain, which continues to be an issue everyone would like to solve for (read: popularity with new medications that suppress hunger and result in weight loss). Perhaps it’d be best to insert my personal story to outline how I believe I earned a solid understanding of how my body works and what my goals, habits, activities, and the like need to be for positive health to be achieved and maintained.  

I’m a believer in applying data to health (surprise!), and when I began to do so, my real journey began! I had read in Outlive by Dr. Peter Attia about wearables, and while I used an Apple Watch for years to help track my workouts, I knew I was only receiving a partial picture of how my body was doing (just during my exercise, for the most part). My Whoop strap was a welcomed new way to see how my stress levels were throughout the day, sleep quality, heart health (heart rate, variability, respiratory rate per minute, and the like), and what tended to impact these variables based upon my behaviors, diet, and the like. It was so eye-opening that it led to significant positive reinforcement of my great behaviors and a minimization of those that were clearly of negative impact to my well-being. Alcohol use, for one, has the single most deleterious effect on me, personally, in comparison to anything else I ask my body to undergo. Because I put this in the magnifier, I am critically attuned to my decision to imbibe or pass, but in having put data behind my suspicions, I now have convictions to better guide my decision-making in this area, and so many others. I learned how to recover, the amount of physical work I should put in, how much sleep I needed to optimally perform the next day, and much more. Sleep is arguably the single most important aspect to recovery, but how many people do you know who are not getting enough? Here’s my data over the last 6 months: ave sleep need has been 8 hours and 14 minutes, and my hours in bed averaged 9 hours, 23 minutes, which has resulted in 95% sleep performance. I’m not even at 100%, despite my spending 9+ hours in bed each night. That should be a wake-up call for many, and sorry, I couldn’t resist the wordplay. 

So far as diet is concerned, several books, Substacks, podcasts, and videos later, I arrived at the conclusion that real food, unpackaged, and as purely as it can be had, is fundamentally one of the most important aspects of good health. Limiting processed, refined, packaged, and sugary foods has been key. The advice I distilled into personal practice was to eat 5-7 servings of vegetables per day to line the gut with the two types of fiber needed to ensure proper functionality of the digestive system (and also to slow down the bad stuff to avoid spikes, when possible, if you DO consume something refined and quickly absorbed, ahem, sugar), lean into oily fish, unheated oils, nuts, multi-colored foods that show their antioxidant properties on the outside, and a paring down from meats. For reference, I had gone down the road of Carnivore habits for a couple of years, thinking it was for the best, but then realized I was overnourished (polite way of putting overeating), and actively fighting instead of helping my body. My system didn’t like it, and whenever that happens, it responds. I will say that embracing the diet I have come to enjoy, today, over the last few months has produced very positive results. If you haven’t ascertained yet that I’m someone who likes to go to extremes, or in the very least, down rabbit holes that I deem fascinating, I also adhere to a 22 hour fast, daily, and have for about 5 years. This does, in my estimation, give my body time to flush out toxins, work on using fat reserves for energy, and gives me a positive charge throughout the day, energy-wise. I’ve come to love this schedule, but know it isn’t for everyone. It’s also easier to be strict about what I am eating since that only occurs once per day. Like you, I thought that because I was a snacker my whole life that I would never be able to just have black coffee and water and only consume calories in one 2-hr window. In the beginning, it took getting used to, but after just a couple of weeks of shrinking my eating window, I was on an OMAD (one meal a day) routine and have stuck to my guns about it. Opinions are great, but I’m most interested in results. Personally, in having taken interest in nutrition, teaching myself, and applying data to my exercise and routines, I’m nearly back to my 18-year-old weight. I feel great, too! I’m not special, or unique, or particularly advantaged, or by any means have nutrition and fitness deciphered, but in being my own guinea pig and enjoying the fruits of my efforts by being in good health, I want to scream that achieving optimal health status pays tremendous dividends. Positive heath costs the healthcare system dramatically less than ignoring these areas until the body cries that it is too late. I’ll also share that everything I’ve done to improve my health station has only cost me time and effort; fasting is free, buying real, unprocessed, natural, and healthy food can be exceedingly cost-effective, and even my workout routine all year has been bodyweight exercise-driven, so that’s membership-free, too. I can’t make money on you becoming healthier, and in fact, many organizations lose boatloads of it, but you win, and the healthcare system does, and perhaps your employer due to lowered claims. Isn’t that an admirable goal?