Baseline Recommendations

Quality

The Superpower model is a set of foundational habits and actions across five pillars that we believe to be non-negotiable. Every person should be aware of and apply most of these learnings every single day, in order to be the healthiest version of themselves.

1. Sleep
2. Nutrition
3. Environment
4. Mental Health
5. Physical Health

Think of these pillars as your baseline from which to build and optimize your health and longevity.

A framework we often think about is the Pareto law, commonly referred to as the 80/20 rule, which states that 80% of outcomes often stem from 20% of the causes.

We see this principal at play in everyday life (80% of Amazon’s revenue comes from its top 20% of customers, 80% of fruit harvested comes from 20% of plants, or 80% of wealth belongs to 20% of people).

Applied to health, doing the basics across these five areas will likely generate at least 80% of your desired health outcomes, if not more.

And most of these basics require very little budget to adopt, beyond the upfront time you must invest to learn them and a bit of daily discipline to apply them.

Our goal is to help you fully embrace these five pillars, reshaping your mindset and habits to support a longer, healthier, and more fulfilling life.

Sleep

Sleep is the cornerstone of your performance – important for memory consolidation, muscle recovery, hormone balance, cellular regeneration, immune resilience, and inflammation reduction to ultimately extend longevity and defend against chronic disease.

Here are the essential pillars of sleep

Regularity

Going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, including weekends. This helps to regulate the body's circadian rhythm and promotes consistent sleep-wake cycles.‍

Quantity

Getting enough sleep. This can vary across age groups, but for adults the goal is 7-9 hours of sleep per night. You might need more than that amount of time in bed to reach that goal.

Quality

Achieving optimal depth of sleep reflected in the quality of electrical sleep waves and coordination between the different brainwaves. A good goal is to aim for about 25% REM sleep and 25% deep sleep.

Continuity ‍

Maintaining uninterrupted sleep. This is crucial for memory consolidation and cognitive function.

How you can achieve these pillars

Regularity and quantity of sleep are centered around building a consistent daily routine. To improve on the quality and continuity pillars of your sleep, we recommend optimizing the following:

• ‍Light Exposure: Exposure to natural light during the day and darkness at night helps maintain a healthy circadian rhythm. Sunlight within the first 15 minutes of waking is key. After sun down, minimize evening light exposure, especially artificial overhead lights 2-3 hours before bed, it suppresses melatonin secretion and disrupts your circadian rhythm. Use dimmer switches, low wattage light bulb lamps, red light, activate night mode on all screens and devices, and wear blue light blocking glasses.‍
• Sleep Environment: Ensure your bedroom is quiet, dark, relaxing, and cool. A bedroom temperature of around 65 degrees F is considered optimal for sleep as it allows for the necessary drop in core body temperature (2-3 degrees F) which is essential for falling asleep and staying asleep. Consider a noise machine to offset environmental sounds. Stop using all electronic devices at least 45 min before bed, such as TVs, computers, and smartphones.‍
• ‍‍Nutrition: Avoid caffeine 8-10 hours before sleep. Avoid alcohol 4-5 hours before sleep. Avoid eating at least 3 hours before sleep. Avoid stimulants like nicotine.‍
• Exercise: Consistent daily physical activity can help reduce stress, promote healthy melatonin production, and help facilitate optimal core body temperature in preparation for sleep. Exercise at least 3 hours before bedtime, avoiding late evening exercise (7-9pm or later) as this can result in elevated core body temperature and can harm sleep quality.‍
• Naps: Naps can improve cardiovascular health, improve blood pressure, reduce levels of cortisol, optimize learning and memory, and improve emotional regulation. Naps should be between 20-90 minutes (20-25 min reduces grogginess from a nap, 90 min is a full cycle of sleep) and should be 6-7 hours before you want to fall asleep at night.‍
• Relaxation and wind down: gentle stretching or yoga can relax the muscles and calm your nervous system before bed. Developing a calming bedtime routine, like reading, meditation, journaling, and breath work, can signal to your body that it's time to sleep.‍
• A note on supplements: if you are still struggling with the quality and continuity of your sleep even after following the recommendations above, here are some supplements to consider.‍

Notes on supplementation

‍Supplements are NOT a magic pill and they will not optimize sleep unless the baseline behaviors are in place:‍

• Magnesium Glycinate: 200-400mg, start with a low dose to gauge its effects.

• Phosphatidyl Serine: 100-400mg before bed, again starting with a low dose and increasing as needed.
  • This can help reduce cortisol levels and improve sleep quality.
• Apigenin: 50-100mg 30-60 min prior to bed.
  • This flavonoid is found in chamomile, binds to the benzodiazepine receptors which trigger muscle relaxation and has a sedative effect. It also has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that can improve sleep patterns.
• Glycine: 2-3 grams taken 30-60min before bed.
  • This can decrease core body temperature and modulate the activity of GABA and glutamate neurotransmitters in the brain, leading to improved sleep latency, better quality of sleep, and reduced morning fatigue.
• L-Theanine: 100-200mg taken 30-60 min before bed.
  • This has been shown to improve sleep quality and duration. Studies have shown that L-theanine increases alpha brain waves which are produced by the brain as it relaxes and prepares for deep sleep.
  • This can increase GABA levels in the brain, help convert tryptophan into melatonin, and relax the muscles which are all conducive to sleep.

Nutrition

Every cell in our body is continuously regenerating, drawing from the nutrients in food we consume.

Natural foods are the best foods. Humans did not evolve in an environment where processed hyper-palatable foods were available. These foods have been engineered with high levels of sugar, salt, and fat that override the natural hunger and fullness cues in your body and stimulate a dopamine release which drives repeat consumption (addiction), and also oftentimes contain harmful toxins.

Natural foods and balanced meals that contain quality protein, fiber, and healthy fats promote optimized hunger and fullness cues which leads to decreased cravings, less need for snacking between meals, and improved metabolic health.

Here are the essential pillars of nutrition‍

Timing

The goal is to fuel your body when your body is optimized to use that fuel. Your body’s circadian rhythm helps regulate processes like sleep, hormone release, digestion, and metabolism. This rhythm is regulated by the hypothalamus that responds to light in our environment. During daylight hours, our body produces peak levels of digestive enzymes and stomach acid, making it more efficient at breaking down nutrients. As night falls, the digestive process slows down significantly. So eating outside of daylight hours disrupts the body’s natural metabolic rhythm, which decreases nutrient utilization, increases fat absorption, and negatively impacts our microbiome.

Eat your first meal 1-2 hours after waking. This allows your body to complete its natural cortisol awakening response, avoids disrupting your circadian rhythm, and improves insulin sensitivity. (1)

Eat 3-4 meals per day with 3-4 hours between meals. This allows for gut rest and improved motility which lowers inflammation and improves gut function.

Aim for an 8-12 hour eating window, depending on age and gut health. Making sure to stop eating AT LEAST 3 hours before bed.

Levels of melatonin typically rise 2-3 hours before your habitual bedtime. When melatonin binds to receptors in the pancreas, it tells the pancreas to slow the production of insulin. So if you eat when your melatonin levels are high, this may exacerbate insulin resistance and your blood sugar levels will remain high for extended periods of time.

Quality

The quality of the food we consume makes a big difference in how the food interacts with our body. Higher quality foods contain optimal nutrient profiles that are more bioavailable, are less inflammatory, promote improved metabolic function, and contain less environmental toxins and harmful chemical additives.Choosing high quality foods can be a challenge in our modern environment, so whenever possible, look for the following labels:

• Organic
• Grass Finished (or 100% certified grass fed)
• Wild Caught
• Regenerative
• Pasture raised
• Avoid food wrapped in plastics as much as possible
• Avoid foods with excessive additives
• See our banned ingredients list for a deeper dive. Some of the most common include gums and emulsifiers like carageenan, dyes, or artificial sweeteners.‍

Balance

In order to align hunger and fullness cues and optimize nutrient density of your meals, you need to make sure each meal contains three things: complete proteins, a variety of fiber sources, and well balanced fats.‍

Complete Proteins

These are protein sources that contain all nine essential amino acids. Examples are fish, poultry, eggs, beef, bison, lamb, pork, dairy, whole food soy (organic tofu, tempeh, edamame, miso), quinoa, and buckwheat

• Protein Goal: varies depending on age and goals, but typical range to optimize muscle protein synthesis is 1.6-2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of ideal body weight with 0.4-0.55 g/kg/meal. (4) (5)

Fiber

Intake is very low in the typical American diet yet so incredibly important for health and longevity. Fiber is crucial for heart health, digestive health, blood sugar control, weight management, cancer prevention, immune system support, microbiome balance, and reducing the risk of chronic disease.

• The standard recommendation is 25-30 grams per day, but we aim for AT LEAST 30-40 grams of fiber per day for optimal health.
• The goal is to have a vegetable/fruit source of fiber and a starchy/carbohydrate source of fiber with each meal to increase the variety and types of fiber you consume.
• High fiber fruits and vegetables include but are not limited to apples, berries, kiwi, oranges, pears, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, green peas, jicama, kale, spinach, summer squash, and zucchini.
• High fiber starches and grains include but are not limited to barley, beans, bran, lentils, old fashioned oats, potatoes, quinoa, sprouted whole grain breads, and whole grain pastas.

Balanced Fats

The goal here is to optimize your essential fatty acid intake, improve digestion, and optimize fullness. Be mindful of serving sizes, a balanced intake consists of about 30-35% of calories from fat (about 20-25 grams per meal depending on your calorie needs) with about 10% or less coming from saturated fat (about 5-10 grams per meal depending on needs).

• Examples of healthy fats include olives, avocados, nuts and seeds, fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, herring), grass fed butter, coconut oil, high polyphenol extra virgin olive oil, and expeller pressed oils with a good balance of essential fatty acids (avocado, algae).
• Remember the goal is to limit hyper-palatable processed foods with high concentrations of oils, focusing on whole food sources, balancing the essential fatty acids that our body needs but cannot produce, and eating them in combination with proteins and fibers to optimize overall health.

Utilization

Digestion and absorption of the nutrients in our food is essential for optimizing overall health and longevity. Food is primarily mechanically digested in our mouth, then chemically digested in our stomach so that when it reaches the small intestine, nutrients can be absorbed into the blood stream and utilized by our body. If we don’t mechanically and chemically digest our food properly, there can be downstream effects including nutrient deficiencies, GI distress, increased inflammation, and metabolic dysfunction. Here are some ways to optimize nutrient digestion, absorption, and utilization:

• Chew thoroughly: chewing is the first step in digesting your food. Think of your teeth (and the enzymes in your saliva) as a blender. Chew 20-30 times (more for foods with more texture) so the food is a cohesive texture, without any large chunks, before you swallow.
• Avoid cold liquids with meals: they can slow down digestion by constricting blood flow and slowing enzymes secretion. Warm or room temperature liquids can help stimulate circulation and help dissolve foods, making them easier to process.
• Hydration: drink plenty of water between meals to help fiber move through the digestive system, optimizing microbiome health, and helping to prevent constipation.
• Mindful eating: Slow down your eating, put the food or your utensil down between bites, take smaller bites, and stop eating at the first sign of fullness to avoid overfilling the stomach. An early sign of fullness can be noticing that the last bite of food you took didn’t taste as good as the first few bites.
• Movement: low intensity exercise, like a 15 min walk after eating, can help stimulate digestion, improve gut motility, and optimize the glucose and insulin response to a meal.
• Avoid narcotics: these are gut paralytics and inhibit motility, leading to impaired nutrient utilization, constipation, and increased inflammation. Same with NSAIDS like Advil, or Tylenol – they can harm your gut lining or deplete key molecules like glutathione.
• Avoid frequent and large amounts of alcohol: chronic alcohol intake leads to intestinal inflammation, altered microbiome composition and function, increased permeability of intestinal lining, and disrupted immune homeostasis.
• Avoid eating late: eating within 2-3 hours of bed can lead to reduced utilization of carbohydrates due to impaired insulin secretion.
• Avoid frequent snacking: the muscle contractions that move food through the intestines (peristalsis) only occur during fasting so you want to give the gut rest between meals to promote optimal gut motility
• Support HCl production: avoid proton pump inhibitors and antacids as much as possible as they impair acid production in the stomach and make it very difficult to chemically digest your food.

Environment

Creating an optimal physical environment is as crucial as diet and exercise for maintaining peak health.Your exposure to external factors, such as air quality, water quality, chemicals, toxins, pollutants, molecular mimicry, or electromagnetic fields, can significantly impact your mental clarity, physical vitality, toxin load, and long-term well-being.

Essential Pillars of a Healthy Home Environment

Air Quality

• Indoor air pollution: Indoor air can be up to five times more polluted than outdoor air. Invest in air purifiers equipped with HEPA filters to remove allergens, pollutants, and fine particulates like PM2.5, from your living spaces.
• Ventilation: Ensure proper ventilation by opening windows regularly or using energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) to maintain a fresh air supply without losing energy. Ensure good ventilation, especially in areas like kitchens and bathrooms to prevent moisture buildup and reduce chemical exposure from cleaners and toiletries.
• Natural air purifiers: Incorporate indoor plants like spider plants, snake plants, and peace lilies, which naturally detoxify air and remove toxins.
• Reduce chemical exposure: Opt for natural cleaning products, avoid harsh fragrances, and minimize exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from paints, adhesives, and furnishings.

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