Alexis Rondeau 95 Spring Street, New York Monday, 8:37 a.m. Dear John, Today I would like to share with you a few of those things I’ve found in the past years that keep on giving me tremendous value, inspired me and made me think and act in one way or another. These are keepers. 1. CONTACTUALLY Suck at being a friend? Staying in touch with friends is hard. Really hard. I have all these friends in my Gmail, but sometimes YEARS would go by until I remembered to send a quick, easy “Hey, how’s it going? Wanna get coffee?”. Well, these dark days of neglecting my social circle are over. Contactually is a very simple service that prompts me to touch base with 4-8 of my existing friends and clients every day. I’ve organized my contacts in buckets such as “Friends & Family”, “Current Clients” and “Mentors”. And I’ve set different intervals (60, 30 and 90 days respectively) to be reminded to say hi. It integrates with my Gmail account and it gives me a rating of my networking efforts. In the past 10 days I’ve caught up with 20 friends that otherwise would have gotten lost in time. If you struggle with keeping in touch with personal and professional contacts, try out Contactually today. The personal plan costs $20/mo. which, given that most of my professional gigs come in through my personal network, is well worth it. Highly recommended, top-of-my-list. Register today at Contactually and start getting back in touch with your network! 1. THE PERFECT HUMAN DIET Food is complicated. Vegetarian? Vegan? Eat meat? Don’t eat meat? What’s actually healthy? What should I eat? SO MANY QUESTIONS! I have finally found the answer for myself and this could be good for you, too. I started researching diet options a few weeks back when I noticed an unusual wave of fatigue in the evenings. I had the gut (hah!) feeling it was related to my diet. I also had gained weight, which is unusual for me. This is when I found out about this documentary called “The Perfect Human Diet.” It is basically a very well researched explanation of the Paleo Diet which suggests that our body “hardware” has not changed as fast as our diet in the past 300,000 years. We humans were eating a very different diet up until only 10,000 years when the agricultural revolution happened. Our bodies and digestive capacity however have not changed in accordance with our cultural changes and the documentary suggests that eating the way humans ate for the first 299,000 years is a good idea. It’s pretty simple: Good for you are lean meats, fish, veggies, salads, eggs and fruit Avoid wheats, cereals, rice, bread and any other carb-heavy foods Avoid dairy and dairy products Avoid processed foods and especially sugars Following this model for the past month I have a few preliminary findings: It’s possible and I feel consistently better since I’ve switched my diet I’ve begun to shed a few extra pounds and feel mentally and physically lighter Cutting out carbs immediately improved my alertness and overall energy levels Cutting out milk and dairy products is not as hard as I thought it would. I used to drink half a gallon of milk daily but I am not missing it as much. Sugar is a DRUG and I’m craving sugar still on a regular basis and have found a sort of ‘methadone’ replacement in raw honey. But man, sugar cravings still come up daily. I need to monitor my calorie intake especially when working out. In an instance I I did not have the explosive type of calories available during one work out and I suspect it to be the lean diet. Would I recommend this approach? Yes, absolutely. Overall, the effects have been positive and I feel healthy in combination with a working out. You should watch the documentary. It’ll only take an hour of your time but will give you a surprisingly good explanation of why this is good for you. Speaking of working out… 1. STARTING STRENGTH This is your secret weapon at the gym. I knew I should work out. I knew I should go to the gym. I wanted to be fitter and leaner and stronger. But all these different programs and fads and techniques were confusing. I wanted to stay safe and healthy and not hurt myself. And spend the least amount of time with the maximum amount of results. I first learned about strength training in Daniel Duane’s seminal 2010 article titled Everything You Know About Fitness Is a Lie where I learned about Mark Rippertoe’s book and DVD “Starting Strength – Basic Barbell Training”. This one book has been hailed as “The Bible” of strength training by the bodybuilding community. It contains exactly everything you really need to know what to actually do at a gym (any gym with a barbell rack will do!) with the goal TO GET STRONG REALLY FAST. What I absolutely love about this program a year in is… Simplicity (You only do 4 simple barbell exercises), Accessibility (Anyone, including myself, can do these exercises safely) and for its guaranteed results (Strength being the foundation for any other activity you might want to do at the gym like Yoga, Pilates, Cardio etc.) Doesn’t matter if you’ve never been to the gym (Like myself a year ago) or if you’ve been going for years (Like my friend Chris who started the program and has been shaping up unlike any other time in years.) If you want to be smart about the time you spend at the gym, get strong and look great fast, there is no other method besides Rippetoe’s Starting Strength. Amazing. Simple. Efficient. You’ll love it. Get the DVD, watch it a few times at home, go to any gym and start with very low weights to get the technique. In a month or two you won’t believe how strong you’ll have gotten. Alright, so I’ve shown you 3 amazing tools for you to try out. You really should. They will improve your life. Here is 1. Stay in touch with your friends and clients with Contactually 2. Learn about eating better and in accordance with the way your body is designed by watching “The Perfect Human Diet” 3. Get strong with the simplest, most respected training program ANYONE can do That’s all I got for today. Enjoy and stay warm! Sincerely, Alexis