Work with your system

During my recent break, I had what can only be described as a brutal moment of self-awareness. I was reflecting on Sensibowl (my approach to sustainable health) when I asked myself a deeply uncomfortable question: If you were starting your own mind and body reset from scratch, where would you actually begin?

The answer stung. I realised I had been doing to others exactly what I hate having done to me.

The Trust Problem

As someone who needs to see the entire map before taking the first step, I'm deeply uncomfortable with uncertainty. I need to understand the terrain, the landscape, and exactly how I'm getting from point A to point B. Even when someone's step-by-step guidance comes from a place of genuine care, if I can't see the bigger picture, I simply don't trust it.

Yet that's precisely what I had been offering through Sensibowl: "Let's go step by step, day by day, block by block. Walk with me and don't worry about the big picture."

If I were listening to myself give that advice, I'd need enormous trust to follow such a path. Honestly? I don't have it. So why would I expect it from anyone else?

The Design Solution: Three Levels of Commitment

This realisation forced me back to my design principles. Whenever I create anything, I always provide three options: Ideal, Optimal, and Minimal. The same framework applies perfectly to habit building.

• Ideal: The comprehensive list of everything you'd do on a perfect day

• Optimal: A step up from minimal when you can progressively overload

• Minimal: The non-negotiable baseline you maintain no matter what

This gives you complete agency. You can choose minimal as your mandatory foundation, push to optimal when you're feeling strong, or commit to ideal if you're dedicated to 300 days of consistent intensity.

I'm personally going the ideal route, given what I've learned over the past 14 weeks. If you want to walk this path together, I'll share my daily accountability right here. After all, it's easier to walk together than alone.

First Principles: Working With Your System, Not Against It

Here's the foundational truth that changed everything for me: Work with the system, not against it.

Every time you work against your body's natural systems, you feel friction. The system's effectiveness plummets. Stability and sustainability become the cornerstones of success, not intense spurts or extreme swings.

As someone who thrives on intensity and loves living on the edge, this was a hard pill to swallow. But systems, whether it's your car, your home's electrical setup, your plumbing, or the solar system, all follow the same principle. They value stability and sustainability over extremes.

Your body is no different.

I even had what I called a "Goggins mode" - an intense and seemingly beyond reach. But I dropped it entirely. For 300 days, I won't recommend anything that's unsustainably hard on the system.

The Three-Pillar Framework

The principles are deceptively simple:

1. Eat right + Adequate nutrition

2. Rest enough

3. Move more

Reading them takes seconds. Translating them into consistent daily habits? That's where the real work begins.

My Personal 300-Day Prescription

Movement

• Walk twice daily: One hour morning and evening (my "sunlight walk" and "moonlight walk") totalling 12,000 steps everyday including weekends.

• Strength training: 3x per week (Monday/Wednesday/Friday) with full-body workouts. If you split upper and lower body, then do 4x/week.

Nutrition

• The Bowl System: 8 bowls daily for women, 10 for men

• Split approach: Half raw/unprocessed food (3 fibrous salads + 1 fruit bowl), half processed food (3 protein/fat bowls + 1 carb bowl)

• Bowl boundaries: Each bowl = 150 grams. Green bowls (unprocessed), amber bowls (processed), occasional red bowls (ultra-processed treats—limit to one)

• Meal timing flexibility: Eat these as 1, 2, 3, or 4 meals—your choice

• Non-negotiables: No sugar (except fruits), no flour, no deep-fried foods

• Hydration: 3 liters of water daily

• Caffeine limits: Maximum 2 black coffees, last one before lunch

Recovery

• Sleep: Minimum 7 hours, consistent 10:30 PM to 5:30 AM schedule (weekends included)

• Sleep adjustments: Never past midnight; adjust wake time if needed; 20-minute daily naps when necessary

• Supplements: Address deficiencies based on blood work (mine: Vitamin D, B12, Iron, Magnesium)

Mental Clarity

• Morning pages: Start each day with brain dump writing

• Evening pages: End each day with reflection

• Integrity List: A list of promises to yourself and others

• G365: My system to keep me intact with work and life.

The Minimal Non-Negotiables

When life gets chaotic, here's your absolute baseline:

• Supplements: Whatever your blood work indicates and however long.

• Water: 2 liters minimum

• Movement: 15-minute walks, morning and evening

• Strength: 2x per week

• Sleep: 6 hours minimum

• Nutrition: Never exceed 10 bowls. No bar on green/amber/red.

Minimal isn't about optimization—it's about mandatory boundaries that keep you in the game.

The Accountability System

Track your progress with simple markers:

• Gold star: When you hit ideal

• Green heart: When you exceed minimal and push toward optimal

This system is designed to work for 300+ days without major friction, including travel days, vacation days, and the inevitable hard days. I've stress-tested it, and it works.

Starting Tomorrow

The compound effect is guaranteed with consistency. Not perfection but consistency.

We share 99.9% genetic similarity as humans. Our physiological systems work in remarkably similar ways, even though our psychology varies wildly. The underlying principles of human health don't change based on geography or culture.

Starting tomorrow, let's commit to the ideal design for 300 days. The big picture is now clear. The map is drawn. The choice of which path to take (minimal, optimal, or ideal) is entirely yours.

The only question left is: Are you ready to trust the system now?