Blog Posts

I’ve been writing blog posts on myHealthSciences.com for just about a year now. In that time, I’ve published over 50 posts on fitness, nutrition, sleep, cognitive health, financial independence and minimalism. All of this to share the things that have helped me to become healthier and happier. But, what I’ve found is that even though the blog is a great resource for information, it’s also just a stream of conscience. Each week I write about one of the six core topics that’s been at the top of my mind but there isn’t any sort of organization or hierarchy of importance from post-to-post. What this means is that people commonly ask me, “how do I get started with nutrition?”. Or, “What matters most in regards to sleep?”. Or, “Where should I put my extra cash on-hand?”. And, my response is usually that the answer is on my website somewhere… Read More

The average person in the United States walks about 6,000 steps per day and has a high risk for heart disease and mortality. The people in Tsimane, a small village in Bolivia, walk about 17,000 steps per day and are known for their extremely low risk of heart disease and mortality. This correlation between physical activity (steps) and risk of heart disease or mortality has been cited a number of times in scientific literature. Therefore, we’re confident that being active helps produce a healthy lifestyle. But, with the current coronavirus lock-down measures in place, most of us are confined to our own homes all day. I’ve noticed my average steps per day declining to around 5,000 per day when I workout and 3,000 per day on rest days. This is far less than the 25,000 steps I average on a typical workday… Read More

For the first time in a while, times are getting tough. Real tough. A global pandemic is taking over. With more than 300,000 confirmed cases and 13,000 deaths, the rapid spread of the coronavirus is endangering the health and lives of many people. On top of that, it’s halted most trade, travel and business which has led many more people to lose their jobs or diminish their pay. There’s no doubt, this whole situation is causing pain for many individuals around the world. It’s a terrible situation. But, if you follow myHealthSciences’ guidelines, you can not only survive and thrive through this pandemic and recession but be better prepared for future emergencies just like this one. In this post, I’m going to detail how you can make the best out of this situation and come out better for it… Read More

My life, like many others, looks a little like this in technological terms. I was designed 28 years ago. The first few years, I was in a constant phase of rapid development and learning where everything was new. After my software became more stable and functional, I was sent off to elementary school for more structured learning. After a few years, I officially got an upgrade by completing elementary school. Subsequently, I got a few more upgrades after middle school, high school, undergraduate school and graduate school. Me as a person and as a software system were quite up-to-date. At least I had thought. Even though I had been completing major upgrades throughout schooling, I started to realize that not all of my various underlying components had been updated in a while. As I grew, my areas of interest and knowledge slowly tapered. I learned about nutrition for a year in health class years ago but was never taught anything since then. My parents educated me about money while growing up but once college started I didn’t see them as much. This meant that my source for financial learning had essentially dried up… Read More

I live in one of the richest countries in the world. The United States economy has made it possible for almost anyone to earn millions of dollars over their lifetime. Although difficult, it’s possible to save a million dollars even while living on minimum wage. Despite this fact, 78% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. This means if they didn’t receive their next paycheck, they’d have to leverage debt to fund their lifestyle. Let me say this again. Nearly everyone in the United States earns millions of dollars over their lifetime but about 78% of those same people can barely afford to live for a week. How is this possible and why does money even matter? I’ll get to these questions in a bit… Read More

Around four years ago I watched a documentary called Minimalism. Up until watching that documentary, I was your average American consumerist. I never thought about it that way but when you’re average, you tend to think everything is normal and this is how everyone behaves. But after watching this documentary, I learned about the practice of minimalism. It was the idea that having and consuming less, will actually make you healthier and happier. This idea seemed dumb to be honest. All advertisements we watch show people happier once they get a bigger house, newer car, or better iPhone. All people we talk to tend to love their in-style clothes, flashy jewelry and fun new toys. The idea of more is American and it’s what’s made us so wealthy and happy. But, after watching the documentary, it really made me question all of this… Read More

There was a time when my diet consisted of only processed foods. All of which had added salt, oil and sugar to a degree that was both addictive and dangerous in the long term. When I learned about whole foods and the benefit they provided, it caused me to reexamine my diet. In 10th grade, that meant reviewing what was in my lunch box. What my lunch box boiled down to was a peanut butter sandwich, barbecue chips, gushers, sugar frosted cookies and a Kool-Aid pouch. This lunch was the exact opposite of a whole foods lunch. It was heavily processed, salted, oiled and sugared. And, I was eating that everyday. You can see how eventually, that would have caused a problem if didn’t change my diet… obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, dementia, stroke… ok it would have caused more than a few problems… Read More

Let’s say you follow a sleep schedule where you go to bed at 10pm and wake up at 6am every single day. Great. I recommend it. Now, let’s say you’re required to go to bed two hours earlier at 8pm to wake up for an early meeting. You may find it difficult to fall asleep two hours earlier than normal. This is because your body produces melatonin, which induces sleep, based partially on daily routines and partially on your actions and environment. If you have a routine of going to bed at 10pm every night, your body will start releasing melatonin just before that to help induce sleep. So, if you’re required to break that routine and fall asleep at 8pm then your body likely isn’t producing much melatonin for this new sleep schedule yet. This is why its difficult to fall asleep earlier than usual and why the quality of that sleep is quite poor… Read More

According to Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit, keystone habits are “small changes or habits that people introduce into their routines that unintentionally carry over into other aspects of their lives.” One example of a keystone habit for almost everyone is exercise. Once a person introduces exercise into their daily routine, they start to unintentionally adopt other new healthy habits too. This new routine of exercise tends to trigger people into eating healthier, sleeping better and smoking/drinking less. Not only does this keystone habit of exercise trigger additional healthy habits, but it also is correlated with a host of other benefits too. In this post I’ll detail the benefits of regular exercise, how to structure your exercise program, and debunk a few common myths. Let’s get started… Read More

Throughout all of college I focused on learning, athletics and visiting my family. I never really thought about the cost of my meal plan, apartment and education. I assumed like most, that this is what college was and what everyone did. You focus on your schooling, interests and social life while allowing all of your expenses to be put on loans or some sort of debt. Eventually, when you got a job after college, everything would work itself out and your job would easily pay back all the accumulated debt. Well, 150 thousand dollars later, it turns out that almost any job would make paying back this amount of debt quite difficult. And, with a ~7% interest rate, that meant my debt was growing by around $10,500 a year. That meant, I needed to pay $10,500 each year just to keep my debt from growing. Wow… that realization shocked me. But, great lessons from my parents and education had taught me to be a problem solver and to see challenges as opportunities. With that mindset instilled in me, I put together an aggressive plan that helped me pay back all my debt within 6 years. And now, I’m using that same plan to invest and grow my wealth each month… Read More