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Want to Live A Longer, Healthier Life? Start Here - E88
31 Plays30 days ago
In the fifth and final installment of the healthspan series, we tackle one of the hardest parts of improving your wellbeing: knowing where to actually begin.
Even when you’re motivated to live longer and better, the flood of advice and one-size-fits-all plans can leave you more paralyzed than empowered.
In this episode, we'll outline how to overcome the overwhelm and take actual steps that fit your life, not someone else’s. From identifying your most important health markers to building simple, repeatable habits around movement, nutrition, sleep, and social connection, you’ll learn how to create lasting change.
In this episode you will learn:
- Why measuring your health is key before making any changes.
- Simple at-home checks to track heart rate, waist size, and strength.
- The most useful lab tests for early signs of aging and disease.
- How to build lasting habits with small steps rather than big overhauls.
- A practical 4-week plan to improve movement, nutrition, rest, and social ties.
- The value of clinics and tech tools for deeper healthspan support.
Resources
- Connect with Andrew on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mandrewmcconnell
- Follow Alively on Instagram for regular updates and insights: https://www.instagram.com/alively_official
- Learn more about healthspan from Andrew’s blog: https://www.mandrewmcconnell.com/blog
This podcast was produced by the team at Zapods Podcast Agency:
Find the products, practices, and routines discussed on the Alively website:
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Transcript
Why is consistent improvement more effective than drastic changes?
00:00:00
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Going and improving 10% in a month and then slipping back is far less effective than improving 1% every month.
00:00:11
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If you do that over the course, five and a half years, you're going to be twice as good. 1% a month, just stack wins over time, will make you twice as good. It's not about big, it's about consistent.
Introduction to the 'Home of Healthspan' podcast series finale
00:00:27
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This is the Home of Healthspan podcast, where we profile health and wellness role models, sharing their stories and the tools, practices, and routines they use to live a lively life.
00:00:40
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Welcome back to the Home Healthspan and this the fifth and final episode in our five episode specific series on the concept of healthspan. Over the last four episodes, we've taken an incredible journey.
00:00:55
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We defined healthspan, We've understood the urgency of it due to the longevity paradox. We've built our toolkit on top of the five pillars.
00:01:07
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And we've explored the scientific frontier. Now it's time to make it real for you. This isn't about one-size-fits-all prescription. It's about building your personal healthspan plan.
Why is measurement key to an effective health plan?
00:01:21
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We'll cover where to start, what to measure, and how to turn all of this knowledge into lasting action. So let's get started and design your roadmap for living a longer, healthier life.
00:01:37
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The foundational principle of any effective plan is measurement. You can't improve what you're not measuring, or you can't know you're improving what you're not measuring.
What are the basics of self-assessment for health?
00:01:48
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This section provides a tiered approach to self-assessment, allowing you to engage at whatever level you're comfortable with, starting with the things you can do right now for free.
00:01:59
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So let's do some at-home checks. Start with our resting heart rate. You can check this manually on your wrist or your neck first thing in the morning.
00:02:13
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A lower resting heart rate is generally an indicator of better cardiovascular fitness. So the best way to do this is in the morning when you wake up naturally on a day you haven't set an alarm, once you wake up naturally before getting out of bed, before standing up doing anything while you're lying in, just take the time to count your heartbeat for six seconds.
00:02:37
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You add a zero to that and that gives you a rough baseline. So if I wake up, roll, get a timer for my watch, and I count that I had five beats over a six-second period, then my heart rate's roughly 50 beats per minute.
00:02:56
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So that's roughly what my resting heart rate is. If you want to get more precise, you can do it for 10 seconds and multiply that number by six.
Understanding visceral fat and its health implications
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But whatever's easiest. Next is our waist circumference, so not at our hips, our waist.
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It's a crucial indicator of visceral fat. It's the dangerous metabolically active fat stored around our organs, and it's a major risk factor for heart disease and diabetes.
00:03:27
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To keep health risk low, men should aim for a waist circumference under 37 inches. and women should be under 32 inches. Again, not the hips, this is the waist.
00:03:41
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And then there's some simple functional tests. So you could try the sit to stand test. So how many times can you stand up from a chair in 30 seconds without using your hands?
00:03:52
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You can test your grip strength if you had good way to do that. But easiest probably just a sit to stand test. But grip strength is a strong predictor of future mobility and health.
Key lab tests for assessing inflammation and metabolic health
00:04:05
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For those who want to go to the next level, there are a number of different consumer lab tests. so companies like LabCorp, Quest Health, and then there's Function that has a big, big panel that they empower you to access your own key health data without needing a doctor's visit or insurance.
00:04:25
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And so it's a game changer in terms of proactive health management put into your hands. So here's a kind of early longevity panel. So start with inflammation.
00:04:36
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You want to measure your high sensitivity C-reactive protein or HSCRP. It's a key marker of systemic low-grade inflammation that drives many chronic diseases.
00:04:51
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Then for our metabolic health, we want a good picture of our blood sugar control. So let's kind of start with our hemoglobin A1C or HbA1C, fasting glucose, and most critically, the the one that people are saying we really need to push it to get is fasting insulin.
00:05:12
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High fasting insulin is one of the earliest signs of metabolic dysfunction. So get your baseline of that. Then there's our cardiovascular health.
00:05:23
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The standard lipid panel is good, but an advanced panel that includes apolipoprotein B or ApoB is better. ApoB gives you a much more accurate measure of the number of plaque-causing particles in your bloodstream.
00:05:39
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Lower is better. It goes up with age. Lower is better. And then finally, getting a good sense of our nutrient status. Deficiencies in key vitamins like vitamin D and B12 are commonly seen and can significantly impact your energy, your mood, and your immune function.
00:05:56
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So knowing your baseline numbers and then tracking over time gives you a clear starting point. So and once we have what our baseline is, now we can start with small micro habits.
Implementing small, consistent actions for better health
00:06:09
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Now we have to take action. We're not going to try to change everything at once. We're going to revisit the micro action framework that we set up in episode three around the five pillars and emphasize that consistency is far more important than intensity over the long term.
00:06:27
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To make this concrete, here's a simple first 30-day plan. Think of it as a template you adapt to what your goals are and what your pace is. But just back to the consistency piece, going and improving 10% in a month and then slipping back is far less effective than improving 1% every month.
00:06:51
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If you do that, Over the course of five and a half years, you're going to be twice as good. 1% a month, just stacked wins over time will make you twice as good.
00:07:02
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It's not about big, it's about consistent. So how about our four-week plan?
Designing a four-week plan for movement and nutrition
00:07:09
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Let's start just one month. Let's start with focus on movement.
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Add one simple movement habit to your life. For example, like we talked about the first episode, take a 10 minute brisk walk immediately after launch each day.
00:07:25
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That's it. Another, if you don't have time to get out the office, do a walk is set a reminder for three to five times a day. You can put them in your calendar, get little reminders to just go do 10 or 20 air squats.
00:07:38
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It might look weird in the office and go to the cubicle in the bathroom, but just do 10 or 20 air squats, maybe every 90 minutes. That's it. Doesn't need to be either of these things or doesn't also need to be joining a CrossFit gym or running every morning at 5 a.m. m Less important than the specifics of what you do is that you do something to move your body. Like we said, 10 minutes of vigorous movement reduces all cause mortality by 24%.
00:08:09
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Just do something. It doesn't need to be big. It just needs to be consistent. Find something that you enjoy and that's so easy that you can't justify yourself not doing it.
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It's fun and it's so easy. I'm always going to do it. Find that thing.
00:08:27
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Week two, once we've kind of built in that each day I'm enjoying this, I'm able to do it. It's so easy. Now we can layer in how we fuel. Stack a simple nutritional habit on top of that movement habit we already built.
00:08:40
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So an example could be stopping a sugary drink. Maybe it's a sweetened coffee. So maybe in the morning we've been getting a frappuccino or a sugary latte and swap that for a glass of water or black coffee or herbal tea or green tea.
00:08:56
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Get that same caffeine with tons of antioxidants in the green tea, but without the sugar or other unnecessary calories. Again, nothing big. It could be packing a handful of nuts to be your afternoon snack instead of some bar or cookie you might normally have in the afternoon.
00:09:14
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Whatever is easy for you to do and that you enjoy and will stick with. Okay, so we've gotten in the pattern of moving each day.
00:09:24
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We've now had one little thing. We didn't overhaul our diet. We just had one little thing we changed about our diet. Now we get into week three and it's rest.
Improving sleep and managing stress through simple habits
00:09:34
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Just fold in one simple sleep hygiene habit.
00:09:39
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For an example, each night, plug your phone into the charger across the room from where you sleep, not on your nightstand. Or even better yet, if you can, plug it an entirely different room and do it at least 30 minutes before you're going to bed.
00:09:56
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This creates a physical barrier that's going to stop you from that late night scrolling and just get you in a better mindset and position to sleep and rest and recover well. Week four, so we've set our pattern. We're moving every day. have one small micro nutrient habit that we're dealing with and we're sleeping better.
00:10:14
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So in that fourth week, we're feeling better. We're now going to think about what we put into the world. Let's add a simple social or stress management tool. So we can do every couple days, two minute box breathing exercise or the physiological side to start or finish our day.
00:10:36
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Or just a reminder once a week to pick up the phone and call a friend or loved one. What I have, actually have this group of friends that I've known since I was a teenager. We're incredibly close.
00:10:50
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And I have a forced reminder each month to reach out and schedule time with one of them, this group of eight of us, to just get that one-on-one time because it doesn't just happen. Every time you have those conversations, you say, hey, we really shouldn't let it take so long until the next time we catch up.
00:11:03
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So make sure you don't just schedule it and do it. Connect. This structured, incremental approach helps you build momentum and self-efficacy.
00:11:14
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Each small win builds on the last, and it turns these tiny actions into lasting habits and avoids you feeling overwhelmed by trying to do too much all at once. For listeners who are highly motivated and want to take an even deeper, more guided approach, there are a number of emerging professionals out there dedicated to this concept of HealthSpan.
00:11:38
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might hear terms like HealthSpan MD or Medicine 3.0 Practice. And these are physicians and clinics that operate outside the traditional insurance-based sick care model.
00:11:49
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Instead, they focus on prevention, deep diagnostics, and personalized optimization.
What are emerging trends in preventive and personalized healthcare?
00:11:57
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Clinics like HealthSpan Medical Fitness or Harmony HealthSpan explicitly offer cash pay models, saying they don't let insurance dictate the quality or depth of care the patient receives.
00:12:10
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There are also functional health practices like function health or physical locations like STAT Wellness from my friend Kristen Oha. These specialized clinics offer a suite of services that go far beyond a typical annual physical.
00:12:24
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They often include things like DEXA scans for body composition, v o two max training for cardiovascular fitness, advanced hormone optimization, and personalized coaching on every aspect of your health.
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This is a real and growing field, and for those wanting to dive in more deeply, these practices offer a clear next step to invest at that higher level. But you don't need to jump straight to a specialized clinic to get started with expert guidance.
00:12:54
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If you want to get started and want some help knowing exactly where to start, what to do, please reach out to us at Alively, as this is exactly what we do with our technology.
00:13:05
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Based on your wearable data or short intake, If you don't have a wearable or don't want to share it, we identify the one place for you to start today. We then help you find that one minimum enjoyable action you will actually consistently take to work on this one area.
00:13:25
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And then we support you in doing that day after day, tracking your progress along the way. We consistently see people improve 10 to 30% on the objective metrics they're focused on.
00:13:40
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And so once you've nailed it, we build on that one, taking you to the next step in your lifelong healthspan journey to a longer, healthier life.
Recap of the healthspan strategy series
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So as we wrap up this series, let's think about where we've gone.
00:13:55
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We've covered so much ground. In episode one, we learned what Healthspan is. The years of life free from disease or disability where you maintain high physical and cognitive function.
00:14:10
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In episode two, we learned why it's an urgent problem. We learned about the longevity paradox, that growing gap between how long we live and how well we live.
00:14:23
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Episode three, we learned about the five pillars that formed the foundation of a good and long health span. Fitness, nutrition, mindset, sleep and recovery, social connection.
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In episode four, we explored the cutting edge tools in science that can accelerate our progress. And here in episode five, we built our personal plan to get started.
00:14:52
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The structure provides you a powerful mental model as you move forward, positioning you as a CEO of your health. The baseline numbers from step one are your executive dashboard of KPIs.
00:15:06
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The five pillars of step two are your core strategic plan. And the health span MDs and services like Alively from step three are the expert consultants you can hire and engage to help guide you along the way.
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It puts you exactly where you should be, in the driver's seat of your own biology. Your healthspan is the sum of the choices you make every single day.
00:15:34
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You don't need to do everything at once. Just pick one thing. One micro habit from the series or today's episode. Start there.
00:15:46
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Because a journey to a longer, healthier life begins not with a giant leap, with a single intentional step.
00:15:56
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Thank you for joining me for this foundational series on the Home Healthspan. I hope it has been as enlightening for you to listen to as it has been for me to create.
00:16:08
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The journey is just beginning. Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Healthspan podcast. And remember, you can always find the products, practices, and routines mentioned by today's guests, as well as many other Healthspan role models on Alively.com.
00:16:24
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Enjoy a lively day.