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.

Here's what's new this week:

•  ​Ep 7: Nutrition expert healed her menstrual cycle, gut, and cystic acne... and later changed my life ​(Podcast)

Next week, on January 3rd, we'll close registration for our 40-day fitness challenge.

If you ever wanted to start the year off in your best health and strength while dropping unwanted inches and pounds, this is your time.

How you start the year can set the tone for the rest of your year.

Why not start in your best health?

15 spots left—January 3rd.

Check out the full details below.

Looking forward to this next challenge.

What's in store for today:

• Should you lift weights before cardio... or do cardio on a different day?
• How to build habits that stick while saving time on each new habit.
• The universal law that affects every aspect of your health, whether you acknowledge it or not.

Health is your baseline.

Let me explain.

Over the past few months, I've been focused on healing my body.

I've made good progress.

Still have more to go though.

However, driving up to CT and spending the weekend there with my dad, his wife, and my sister reminded me how quickly things can get thrown off balance.

Health is all about balance.

Unfortunately, modern-day marketing is very effective.

Indoor air is notorious for being more toxic and polluted by chemicals, perfumes, candles, and air fresheners.

So it wasn't the most comfortable past few days.

It's sad because it's not till people are really in pain that they'll consider making a shift to their health habits.

It took 2 days of breathing poor quality air to feel out of whack and fully congested.

But on the flip side, the body always wants to stay in balance - equilibrium.

So it's quick to recover.

This highlights part of the 5th pillar that I mentioned in last week's letter regarding the environment.

Your environment can support your health... or destroy it.

This includes your physical environment, as well as your mental, emotional, social, and intimate relationships.

Everything either moves you toward health or away from it.

It becomes even more apparent when you live in a health-conscious environment and then visit an unconscious environment that doesn't support health.

They both will impact you.

The question is, how do you want them to impact you?

While chemicals are a constant in modern life, that doesn't mean I need to tolerate more than I want.

In fact, my standard is as low as possible.

Anything above that isn't acceptable.

We experience in life what we tolerate. So it's up to us to be bold and direct about our standards.

At least that's why I've been trying to learn recently.

Lesson: Your standards are what you won't tolerate going beneath.

Here's Your 1-3-1 Friday:

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1.) Interference effect

How do you lift weights and do cardio?

Can you do both?

Or should you skip one for another?

In the fitness world, there are two sides of the spectrum.

Some coaches said weights are all you should do.

Others preach that cardio is the way to go.

So what is it?

The truth usually lies somewhere in the middle.

Both forms of exercise are helpful.

As a note, when doing either, always lift weights first.

If possible, space out your higher-intensity cardio from your weightlifting for at least 6-12 hours.

If that’s not possible, do cardio after lifting, and have a small piece of fruit and a protein shake afterward to help you recharge.

The aim is to minimize interference between two exercise modalities.

Interference occurs when two opposing signals from different exercise types are present.

One from cardio.

Another from weights.

When your body is faced with both, it will prefer the more efficient signal (cardio).

This means you’ll nullify your weightlifting efforts.

Lifting weights first will help prioritize the exercise signal you want to receive from your strength training.

Spacing out workouts can be a small lever to improve the benefits you see from both exercise types.

Give it a shot.

2.) Habit stacking

According to James Clear:

“If you do something for two or more days, you create a new habit.”

Habit stacking is a method of building new habits on top of existing ones to create a stickiness effect.

For example, if you brush your teeth every morning, adding a new habit of meditating afterward could be a way to use a habit stack.

Stack 2-3 habits together?

You have the beginning of a new routine.

Morning and evening routines are a powerful way to center yourself as you begin each day and night.

Using the right habits in the right order can 10x your performance throughout the day while bringing more peace and fulfillment to your life.

To build your morning and evening routines, you need to be clear about which habits you want to use.

Note: Keep this simple. Ideally, 2-3 habits for a new routine are sufficient. Start with ONE new habit at a time for sustainable results.

Action Steps:

• Choose 1 new habit to stack onto an existing habit in the morning or evening
• Stay consistent with the new habit for at least 6 weeks before layering in a new habit
• Repeat until you have 2-3 new habits stacked together for your new morning or evening routine
• Focus on ONE routine at a time (keep it simple and sustainable)

Habit stacking has been one of my secret health tools I’ve used over the past decade.

It’s allowed me to stay on track even during the busiest and most overwhelming seasons of my life.

Expert Tip: If you want to habit stack and are time-constrained (like me), consider doing micro-routines for 1 minute per habit.

It’s a simple way to keep your habits alive while staying consistent—progress over perfection.

3.) The law of entropy

According to physics, everything in the universe moves towards chaos and disorder.

Stop cleaning your house? It gets dirty.

Stop taking care of your kids? They become unhealthy or sick.

Stop talking to your parents or partner? Very bad outcomes….

Stop taking care of your health and body? You know the answer…

The way to counteract entropy?

Pour positive energy into a system to organize and develop your life.

Workouts. Healthy meals. Proper sleep. Meditation. Walking. Laughing. Spending time in nature.

This all (and more) can help organize your body and move it into an organized health system.

NOTE: Letting things fall into chaos and disorder takes no effort. But it does require intention and organization to reorganize entropy and create something beautiful with it.

James Clear wrote a ​terrific article on the Law of Entropy​ that elaborates on this topic.

According to Murphy’s Law, ‘Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong’.

Stay focused on your systems, beliefs, and habits, and be prepared for the inevitable dip.

When it happens, you’ll be ready. 🙂

1 Action Step

Choose 1 habit to end the year strong over next 7 days... you might be surprised at the momentum you build!

Client of the Week

Diana is a busy woman.

Single mother of 2, she works as a busy teacher, helping lead her children as a positive example each day.

Yet, due to time constraints, personal challenges, and a lack of support, she began putting herself last.

Our strategy: Our primary strategy began with establishing a solid foundation of workouts and nutrition tracking.

3 days a week, which later scaled to 4 days and 5 days of tracking her nutrition.

We also added hitting 10k steps per day, monitoring her water intake, and journaling.

Part of our challenges included her limited time, frequent travel, and rewiring the all-or-nothing mentality she had used for years.

This took time and required repeated follow-up to help her build positive beliefs and more sustainable habits.

Her wins: Down nearly 17 lbs, 4 inches from her waist, lifting heavy weights, and toning up her stomach.

She also began to cultivate positive beliefs and build a consistent health system in her life.

A great example of how you can build sustainable habits even with a hectic schedule and busy parent.

If it's possible for her, it's possible for you.

One Quote To Finish Your Week Strong

It snowed today.

We walked in the snow.

We got wet.

Probably try this again in Central Park later this week.

Enjoy your holidays if you're celebrating.

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

Till next week,

Whenever you're ready, there's 3 ways I can help you:

1. Connect with me on ​Facebook ​and ​Instagram ​and let's be friends.
2.  ​Join our free Facebook Group​. Get free trainings on how to get lean and strong with plants.
3. Want to drop body fat and build lean muscle in a fraction of the time with ease? ​Apply for Accelerator 1:1 coaching.​