Everyone has their own challenges! It’s just that some people choose which challenge they want, while others take what’s thrown at them!
Today I interviewed one of my and my http://smallmoves.co/001-carrie-paxton/ (wife’s) closest friends, Arvind Budhram. I can’t think of anyone else in my life who has undergone such a dramatic change in their life in a shorter time than Arvind has, so today’s show is something of a case study on how to take on new challenges in a smart and effective way.
He is a software developer by trade. Grew up in Yonkers, NY, just outside of Manhattan, and recently moved to https://www.austintexas.org/visit/ (Austin, TX). He made the shift from typical college grad of gaming, drinking, and generally making bad choices (See: everyone in the world who lands a desk job right out of college and makes more money than they should in their 20’s for reference), to someone who is in better shape than most normal people you’ll come across. He skis, works out more regularly than the average Joe, eats/drinks/sleeps right, and seeks out work opportunities that foster this healthy lifestyle, rather than building a lifestyle around the job he happens to have landed!
Arvind reads a lot of books that influence his relatively new experimental mindset; http://amzn.to/2xJfXUJ (Sapiens), http://amzn.to/2fcCDVK (The Third Chimpanzee), and http://amzn.to/2y7FrHA (The Pleasure Trap) just to name a few we discuss. These books, among others, (not to mention the documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAnCOHCVjyU (Supersize Me)) helped him to craft a personal strategy he calls a 30 Day Challenge. As creative as that name may be… it’s so simple in its implementation that anyone reading this can do it starting today. Basically, if you want to do anything (fill in the blank at your own leisure), commit to challenge yourself to do it for 30 days. Aaaaaaand, GO!
-Eating vegan? 30 days, Go! Keep notes and evaluate after.
-Take up yoga? 30 days, Go! See how you feel after 30 days. Don’t like it, stop.
-Start saving a fixed amount of money for retirement… 30 days, Go! See if your normal activities were badly affected or not. IF not, keep rolling!
Structuring things as a 30 Day Challenge, you have a known stopping point, so to help alleviate the fear of “Oh God, This is never going to end!”
Arvind also talked about the importance of joining/creating a “crew” or “tribe” to go along with in these goals. A similar point was made by my guest in http://smallmoves.co/004-cory-smith/ (episode 4, Cory Smith), in that those people looking to train for running in an event have a significantly higher percentage of sticking to their training.
This was a great conversation with a good friend who is up on the the latest research and science behind health and psychology and just has one of the greatest takes on life as anyone I’ve met. We discussed the researchers that he’s followed in the area of health and fasting, http://www.healthpromoting.com/clinic-services/staff/alan-goldhamer-dc (Dr. Alan Goldhamer), author of http://amzn.to/2y7FrHA (The Pleasure Trap), and https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/theory/ (Dr. Jason Fung), author of http://amzn.to/2fdFfCI (The Obesity Code). We also briefly discussed the research regarding ketogenic diet as applied to cancer treatment by http://eatingacademy.com/dr-peter-attia (Dr. Peter Attia) and https://twitter.com/DominicDAgosti2 (Dr. Dominic D’Agostino). You’ll be glad you came across him, as I very much am! All the links to everything we talked about today including resources, books, links to the profiles of the researchers we discussed are all below. Click away!
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