Welcome to 1-3-1 Fridays, my weekly newsletter, where I reveal evidence-based strategies to get lean, strong, and create optimal health.

You'll receive one personal health insight, three actionable tips, and one concrete action step. Let's dive in.

What's in store for today:

• Is muscle memory a legitimate training principle or just b.s. science?
• Why dropping body fat can get harder the leaner you get.
• Don't drink from this water source ever again (unless you have a private well).

Mastery takes time.

I've been revisiting a few courses I completed several years ago.

One in particular had been one that I'd had on my to-do list to revisit for a while.

The subject matter is on the unconscious self (or our shadow).

I’ve been aware of it for years, but I've only recently committed to fully integrating it.

It also reminds me that we can resist inner work and growth. This happens when we ignore our past patterns, both mentally and physically.

The problem here is that we are unconscious of the driving forces in our lives.

Carl Jung called these archetypes (unconscious patterns).

Thousands of them rule our unconscious and get installed at an early age.

Jung and Jungian analysts dedicated most of their careers to studying these mental viruses.

Taosists called these patterns the 'ghosts and monsters' of the mind.

These unconscious patterns can cause trouble in your life if left unaddressed.

They've done so to my life.

For many years (and still), I've faced challenges from different unconscious patterns.

A classic Jungian insight is 'how was do unto you so that you will do unto others'.

It's the Golden Rule gone wrong.

Approximately 95-98% of people struggle to maintain a consistent exercise routine and healthy eating habits.

If you focus on the conscious mind and ignore the unconscious, you will face 'resistance' eventually.

The resistance can be many things.

Your inner Tyrant could be choosing pleasure instead of growth. It may react with a tantrum whenever you try to work out and eat well.

'How dare you take away my desserts!' it'll scream inside.

It might be your Weakling. It doubts its strength and fitness. It fears change and growth.

'Better to stay small and weak than leave my comfort zone where I'm safe, ' it'll whisper.

We all speak to ourselves, whether we're aware of this consciously or not.

We all have the 10,000 desires and voices within us.

Again, it's just a matter of how self-aware you are and the extent to which you pay attention to your inner terrain.

Most fitness experts ignore our psyche, or mental health, because they don't see its importance.

I've learned this can be fatal to lifelong results if you don't have a firm foundation underneath you.

One of the simplest ways I've found to release the 'resistance' is to start observing it.

Notice how it comes up. Pay attention to it.

The more you can observe the inner dynamics within you, the less power it will have over you.

It doesn't mean things will change overnight.

It means you’ll get back your willpower, focus, and determination by stopping the fight within.

Slow down, observe, and take note of what's happening.

Life can change rapidly when you stop fighting yourself.

Lesson: What you resist, persists.

Here's Your 1-3-1 Friday:

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1.) Is muscle memory real

I used to think that if I stopped working out, everything was lost.

I was wrong.

When you strength train, your muscle fibers grow and adapt by adding new myonuclei—essential control centers inside each muscle cell.

These nuclei stick around even if your muscles shrink from inactivity.

Think of them as memory chips. When you start training again, they speed up the entire rebuild process.

So yes, muscle memory is real.

And it gives you a massive head start over someone who has never lifted.

Here’s what to do to tap into that muscle memory:

#1 Ease into full-body training 2–3x/week

Start with the basics: squats, pushups, rows, presses, deadlifts.

Even 30–40 minutes per session is enough to rebuild momentum fast.

#2 Use lighter weights with perfect form

Let your nervous system get re-coordinated. Your strength will come back faster if your technique is clean.

Aim for 3-4 sets of 8–12 reps, leaving 1-2 reps in the tank on each set.

#3 Fuel your comeback with protein

Don’t skimp here—this is the building block your body needs.

Shoot for 0.8–1 gram of protein per pound of ideal bodyweight daily.

Vegan-friendly staples: tofu, tempeh, seitan, TVP, lentils, edamame, and vegan shakes.

#4 Prioritize recovery as much as the training

Muscle regrows when you rest—so get 7–8 hours of sleep, walk daily, and avoid burnout by keeping your workouts short and focused.

It's not about 0 to 100 overnight.

It’s about building smarter, using the muscle blueprint your body never erased.

This is one of my favorite fitness principles and it always reminds me that a workout is never lost when you have a long term horizon.

2.) Stubborn fat cells

Here’s the hidden truth about fat loss no one talks about:

The leaner you get, the harder it gets.

And that’s not because your plan is broken.

It’s because your body is doing exactly what it’s designed to do: survive.

Enter stubborn fat cells—the biological roadblocks that show up when you're trying to drop that last 5–15 pounds.

According to fat-loss researcher Lyle McDonald, stubborn fat isn’t just a mindset or bad luck. It’s real physiology.

These fat cells—often found in the lower belly, hips, glutes, and thighs—have:

• Lower blood flow (which means less access to mobilized fat)
• More alpha-2 receptors (which inhibit fat breakdown)
• High resistance to normal diet + cardio strategies

This is especially true for women and anyone already relatively lean.

So how do you get rid of stubborn fat?

Here’s your game plan:

#1 Stay in a consistent, calorie deficit (20-25%)

Too many restrictions will raise cortisol and slow fat loss.

However, if you've been at a plateau for a while, you may need to be a bit more aggressive with your cut.

For example, when I was dropping my last 10 pounds in 2021 as I prepared for my bodybuilding show, I was consuming an aggressive 1,500 kcal per day.

For context, my normal maintenance calories are normally between 2,500 - 2,800 k/cal depending on my activity levels.

It was quite aggressive, especially with the other tactics I used below.

But stubborn body fat is stubborn for a reason, so you'll need to be smart as you get leaner.

#2 Strength train 3–4x/week to preserve lean muscle

Muscle is metabolically active and helps burn fat without disrupting your hormones.

As usual, the more muscle you maintain during a fat loss phase, the better you'll look as you get leaner, and the better your overall health will be.

Muscle is a longevity organ.

Use compound movements and progressive overload as you keep getting leaner.

#3 Dial in your steps (7–10k per day)

NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) is your best fat-burning weapon.

This is all the movement that you do that is not classified as formal exercise.

Walking keeps you in fat-burning mode without the stress of more cardio.

But this contradicts my next point below...

#4 Optional: fasted LISS and/or HIIT for stubborn areas

Doing 20–30 minutes of light LISS before breakfast may help mobilize fat from stubborn areas by tapping into stored fat more efficiently (though results vary).

For women, LISS 2-3x a week (20-30 minutes) can work phenomenally to shred stubborn fat.

For men, HIIT might be more impactful 1-2x a week (although LISS can also help).

(Word bank: LISS = low intensity, steady state cardio, HIIT = high intensity, interval training).

One tactic I used with great results was adding in fasted hill sprints 1-2x a week.

This was a short-term tactic I used in my last few weeks of getting lean before my show to shed the remaining few pounds on my lower belly.

It wasn't easy, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is just starting their weight loss journey.

But provided you're lean enough, at a plateau, and want to shred that last bit of fat (and have no existing injuries), hill sprints can be a powerful tool to help mobilize the last bit of fat.

It's also relatively safe since you're going against gravity, and it's much easier on the knees compared to going downhill.

It will leave you gasping for air, which is exactly what you want your body to do to help increase blood flow to stubborn areas of body fat.

Science is pretty cool when you observe it yourself.

#5 Use carb cycling (if needed)

Keep carbs higher on training days to fuel strength, and lower them slightly on rest days to promote fat burning.

While it hasn't been fully verified in many studies to be a faster path towards leanness, carb cycling can certainly help with training outcomes (i.e., you'll work out better).

Carbs tend to be the simplest macro to manipulate since protein should stay consistent daily, fat tends to be relatively low, and carbs have the most wiggle room.

So adjust them strategically. I suggest cutting 50-75 g of carbs on non-training days and adding them to your training days.

It'll help you train harder, lift more, and have a better workout experience.

So to recap:

Stubborn fat will come off. It’s just last in line.

Your job is to stay patient, focused, and consistent—even when progress slows.

3.) Don't drink from this

Most people are careful about what they eat...

But few stop to think about what they drink, especially when it’s coming from the kitchen sink.

Here’s the hard truth:

In the United States, your tap water is legally “safe,” but biologically questionable.

The EPA allows certain levels of contaminants that recent research suggests may still cause harm, especially with long-term exposure.

And most city filtration systems?

Outdated. Underfunded. It is not designed to remove modern threats like pharmaceuticals, PFAS, pesticides, or microplastics.

What’s actually lurking in your tap water:

PFAS (“forever chemicals”) – linked to thyroid dysfunction, cancer, and hormone disruption. These are used in nonstick pans, waterproof clothing, and industrial runoff. They’re found in the blood of 97% of Americans

(Source: Andrews et al., Environmental Science & Tech Letters, 2021)

Chlorine & Chloramine – disinfectants used in treatment plants. Can disrupt gut bacteria, dry out skin, and interact with organic matter to form trihalomethanes—a known cancer risk.

Fluoride – added to reduce dental cavities, but long-term high exposure has been associated with lowered thyroid function and potential neurological impact in children.

(Source: NRC, Fluoride in Drinking Water, 2006)

Lead, arsenic, and heavy metals – often from old infrastructure (like corroded pipes). These don’t always show up in city water reports, but they accumulate in your body, especially in bones, brain, and organs over time.

Trace pharmaceuticals – including antidepressants, blood pressure meds, and antibiotics - are detected in many public water sources.

Most treatment systems aren’t built to filter them out completely.

(Source: US Geological Survey, 2019)

So even if your city report says your water is “within safe levels,” those levels are decades behind current research—and often reflect what’s politically manageable, not biologically optimal.

So what should you do?

You just need to filter smarter.

​Here's the filter I use (no affiliation, just sharing a great product):

#1 Install a certified under-the-sink filter like Clearly Filtered

This is one of the only systems that removes PFAS, fluoride, pharmaceuticals, lead, and over 365 other contaminants—while preserving natural minerals like magnesium intact.

It’s third-party tested, NSF certified, and installation takes just 15 minutes.

#2 Avoid plastic water bottles or “Brita-style” filters

Most pitcher filters remove chlorine and taste—but not the hard stuff like PFAS or pharmaceuticals.

Plastic bottles add microplastic exposure (especially if they’re left in heat or sunlight).

#3 Cook with filtered water too

Boiling won’t remove contaminants—it merely concentrates some of them.

Always cook rice, oats, soups, or veggies using clean, filtered water.

I use my sink filter for cooking or my Clearly Filtered water pitcher.

#4 Use stainless steel or glass containers

Avoid BPA and other endocrine disruptors that can leach from plastic—especially when water is heated or stored long-term.

Investing in a water filter system is one of the best investments I made for our family this past year.

Our bodies are 60% water. It's worth protecting that 60% at all costs.

1 Action Step

Choose 1 area of your home to optimize for health.

Client of the Week

What's the cost of not feeling confident?

For Deborah, the cost was high.

She loved working out and was an athlete in her youth.

But now, as a busy lawyer in her mid-40s, she had lost her fitness.

She felt unhappy and unhealthy, so she applied for a spot and we got to work.

Working with Deborah, we noticed several strengths immediately:

She was self-driven and could effectively follow her plan.

She needed to work on letting go of perfectionism and tackling her all-or-nothing mindset.

In 16 weeks, Deborah faced challenges at work, traveled, and raised her two sons alone.

She also learned to carve out time for herself while being a career-focused mom.

Strategy: We kept it simple for her. She did 4 strength workouts each week. We used supersets to save time and left 1-2 reps in the tank. We also set up a moderate caloric deficit to shed fat sustainably.

We also added 1-2 minutes of deep breathing to help manage high stress levels at work and home.

Raising her steps and improving sleep became targets as we got deeper into her cut.

Wins: She dropped 15+ pounds. 4.5 inches from her waist. Doubled her strength on most lifts and tripled on her leg press and squats.

She became consistent with her workouts and meal tracking. She learned to make healthier choices instead of oversnacking and overeating when stressed.

She became a positive role model for her boys.

If Deborah can do it as a career-driven woman with minimal time, so can you.

​Apply here to get lean, strong, and healthy using plants. Deadline to apply each month is the 20th. Create your best health and body using a fitness system that's handcrafted for you.

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One Quote To Finish Your Week Strong

Next week I'll be in New York for the 4th of July.

Won't be in the office to write Friday's letter, so I'll see you on Tuesday for a new letter, then week after.

I'm learning that workaholism is a disease I've lived with for too long.

So I'm planning on being lazy and relaxed.

Maybe you can do the same yourself.

As promised, get leaner on plants in under 5 minutes.

Till Tuesday,

References

• Bruusgaard, J. C., Johansen, I. B., Egner, I. M., Rana, Z. A., & Gundersen, K. (2010). Myonuclei acquired by overload exercise precede hypertrophy and are not lost on detraining. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(34), 15111–15116.
• McDonald, L. (2007). The Stubborn Fat Solution. Lyle McDonald Publishing.
• Arner, P. (1995). Differences in lipolysis between human subcutaneous and omental adipose tissues. Annals of Medicine, 27(4), 435–438.
• Andrews, D. Q., Naidenko, O. V., et al. (2021). PFAS contamination of U.S. community water supplies. Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 8(5), 436–442.
• National Research Council. (2006). Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards. The National Academies Press.
• Barnes, K. K., Kolpin, D. W., Furlong, E. T., Zaugg, S. D., Meyer, M. T., & Barber, L. B. (2008). A national reconnaissance of pharmaceuticals and other organic wastewater contaminants in the United States. Science of the Total Environment, 402(2–3), 192–200.