Body Optimization Techniques

A key component of the BodyOptimization project.

Environmental risk factor reduction

By avoiding sources of harm from your surrounding environment, you can decrease risk to your health.

Avoid air pollution

Intelligent Consumption

Simply by making small, scientifically informed choices about dietary intake, many metrics can be improved.

My rough guidelines

Work in progress. What I'm currently doing, YMMV, please consult your medical doctor and/or dietician before emulating. Will iterate and improve with more knowledge.

Overall guidelines: pescatarian, high calcium, high fiber

  • avoid
    • red meat hazards (citation needed)
    • poultry hazards (citation needed)
    • cornsyrup, refined sugars (see below)
    • liquid cow milk (citation needed)
  • consume
Currently eating regularly (not necessarily in order)
  • raw foods
    • fresh vegetables (citation needed)
    • fresh fruits (citation needed)
    • sashimi (citation needed for fresh fish benefits)
  • mixed raw/cooked foods
  • cooked foods
  • processed/manufactured foods
    • energy bars
      • Clif bars (70% organic ingredients per self-labeling, no cornsyrup)
      • Clif BUILDERS bars (32% organic ingredients per self-labeling, no cornsyrup)
    • "plain" soy milk (Silk organic brand preferred) with plain Cheerios cereal, sometimes Honey Nut Cheerios
    • yogurt with fruit (nonfat or lowfat organic Clover preferred)
  • restaurants - recommended (I like these personally)
    • Jamba Juice - they have calorie counts for all their smoothies. I particularly recommend their "enlightened smoothies".
    • See FoodPreferences for more specifics.
Eating once in a while: Reducing consumption of:
  • consider reducing even more (until total cholesterol < 200)
    • cheese, cream (e.g. sour cream)
Avoiding specifically (both as end products and products containing):
  • fried food (exceptions: ebi tempura roll sushi, snaking a fry or two from a friend once in a while)
    • why: bad for cholesterol levels (fried food increases LDLs - citation needed)
    • need to cut out completely (due to watching BodyOptimizationMetrics first half of 2007)
      • chips, french fries
  • corn syrup (exception: a (single) coke/soda/tonic at a bar in lieu of alcohol)
  • artificial sweeteners (e.g. diet sodas)
  • white starches, e.g. white/sourdough bread, white pasta, white rice (exception: small amounts in sushi, alternative: brown rice sushi e.g. from Whole Foods).
    • why: bad for blood glucose levels, causes spiking thereof (citation needed), which in turn increases diabetes risk (citation needed)
Daily routine:
  • Keep a food log of everything eaten with approximate times (e.g. breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack)
  • Note calorie count of items consumed
  • Stay within calorie budget range for slow weight loss according to calorie calculator. Be careful not to eat too much over or under the target calorie budget.
    • 2100 cals/day based on: age, height, 165 lb, exercise 5/wk (almost intense 5/wk), slow weight reduction
    • when goals achieved, slowly raise calorie budget until weight stabilizes, then maintain.
    • note calorie distribution details (tuning which types of calories to eat in addition to limiting overall caloric intake). The Science of Fat-Loss: Why a Calorie Isn’t Always a Calorie - 2008-02-25 - Tim Ferriss blog.

Physical Training

With minor improvements in physical training over time, it is possible to ramp up physical capabilities and thus make steady forward progress per active measurements.

In general, train 5-7 times a week.

My approximate routines

In approximate current frequency order (highest first)

  1. daily or a few times a day
    1. walking / jogging / running short distances (e.g. to coffee, to the market)
    2. hydranting (stepping on/over any hydrants encountered during above walking / jogging / running)
    3. yoga
    4. pilates
  2. 3x/week
    1. climbing/bouldering (TThSa)
    2. OneHundredPushUps (MWF)
  3. 2x/month
    1. bicycling (would like to increase to 1x/week minimum)

Other random activities done opportunistically:
  • walking
  • taking the stairs (instead of the elevator)
    • two at a time
    • running up the stairs
  • skating/rollerblading/skateboarding
To be incorporated:
  • buildering
  • jogging / running a mile
  • parkour (citation needed)
  • krav maga (citation needed)
Considering: Abandoned:
  • ping pong
Back to BodyOptimizationMetrics.
Return to BodyOptimization or FrontPage.


Page Information

  • 2 days ago [history]
  • View page source
  • You're not logged in
  • No tags yet learn more

Wiki Information

Recent PBwiki Blog Posts