Behaviors

Recommended posterior chain exercise for strengthening the back and posterior chain and maintaining power and posture with age.

Take a long lunge with one leg back and the other forward; raise the arm on the same side as the back leg overhead; turn the palm parallel to the ceiling/sky and rotate so the pinky turns toward the head. Hold 5–10 seconds while breathing normally, then switch sides. Intended to stretch the psoas and create a sense of spinal lengthening/open hips.

If you have shoulder or back tightness, make sure you do enough pulling exercises to balance pushing exercises like pushups, shoulder presses, and bench presses.

Weekly structure of 3 resistance training sessions, 3 cardiovascular training sessions, and 1 complete rest day; intended as a sustainable minimum-effective schedule. Resistance work can be organized as legs, torso, and arms/small body parts.

Include one weekly resistance session focused on quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and tibialis/anterior shin work.

Tailor exercise selection so you do not aggravate preexisting injuries or induce new injuries.

Include some neck strengthening work if additional neck strength is needed; can be added on torso day or small body parts day.

Include one weekly resistance session for smaller muscle groups that recover quickly, typically 45 to 50 minutes and up to 60 minutes maximum; can include biceps, triceps, calves, neck work, and abdominal work. Use additional small body part work when needed for balance, stabilization, or aesthetic reasons.

On the long cardio day, get outside and move as much as possible; try to get outdoors at least once per week for movement, nature exposure, and cardiovascular benefit.

If feeling run down, exposed to illness, or if training would require caffeine late in the day and disrupt sleep, skip the workout rather than forcing it and prioritize sleep and overall health.

Use isolation exercises on small body parts day, but if torso day was skipped, add compound torso movements too, such as chins, pull-ups, and dips, to make sure torso muscles are trained as well.

Best to complete the workout if it can be done safely and without compromising nighttime sleep.

Every 30 minutes or so, do 1–3 minutes of movement such as walking, light jogging, push-up breaks, air squat breaks, or soleus pushups; if needed, set timers. Framed as keeping glucose channels active and improving 24-hour glucose and insulin control.

At minimum, get annual metabolic testing including fasting glucose, fasting triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, hemoglobin A1C, total cholesterol, waist circumference, and blood pressure. Additional useful markers mentioned: ApoB, uric acid, fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, hs-CRP, liver function tests, and GGT. Suggested retesting frequency: 3–4 times per year to assess whether diet and lifestyle strategies are working.

Try a strategy, retest in a few months, and use your own labs to see whether you are moving in the right direction rather than relying on ideology alone.

Shift more carbohydrate intake earlier in the day because the same meal later tends to produce higher glucose spikes.

Use a continuous glucose monitor as a learning tool rather than trying to game the system for perfectly flat glucose.

Use CGM to assess whether glucose peaks around 45 minutes after a meal and returns toward baseline by about 90 minutes to 2 hours; slower recovery may indicate insulin resistance.

Use CGM to assess how spiky glucose patterns are; lower glycemic variability is better.

Monitor the morning glucose rise on waking; she said she would want to see less than about a 10-point rise rather than 20–40 points.

Replace sugary snacks with options built around protein, fat, and fiber to reduce glucose spikes; examples given included grass-fed cheese, flax crackers, and a venison stick.

Before bed, repeatedly rehearse the intention that you will remember your dreams and instigate control in them to increase the probability of lucid dreaming.

During the day, repeatedly perform reality checks so the habit carries into dreams and triggers lucidity when reality behaves differently. You can set an alarm as a reminder and use checks like flipping a light switch on and off or pressing your hand into a solid surface.

Listen to sleep stories to get the mind off itself and reduce rumination when trying to fall asleep.

Assess whether you snore by using an app over a couple of nights. When recording, start the app and place your phone face down so it can listen to your breathing all night.

If you know upcoming nights will be short or disrupted, sleep longer beforehand to build sleep credit and lessen the impact of the upcoming debt.

When awake in the middle of the night, avoid trying too hard to fall back asleep because effort and frustration push sleep further away. If sleep is not coming, stop forcing it and instead lie there and enjoy the concept of rest, even with eyes open if needed.

If you consistently wake too early and cannot get back to sleep, try delaying bedtime later, for example from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., and maintain it for several days to build sleep pressure.

If early awakening persists, speak with a board-certified sleep medicine clinician.

For menopause-related sleep disruption and hot flashes, keep the bedroom cool.