Jacob Sager Weinstein

For example... There's this idea that, for example, you have to do 10,000 steps a day.

That's the magic number to be healthy.

And if you look into where that number came from, it was actually made up by a Japanese company that was trying to sell pedometers, those things that measure how far you walk.

so i think there's broadly speaking two different ways of framing the idea of health if you say jacob tell me about your health i could say well i'm a 52 year old guy with mild asthma and that's true that's accurate uh because i'm answering in terms of what i am but it's not very useful because i cannot change what i am but if instead i say well

I got a good night's sleep.

I had a healthy breakfast.

I took a 30-minute walk after lunch and had more energy when I was done than when I began.

Then I'm framing my health in terms of not what I am, but what I do.

And I find that a much more useful way to look at it because I can change what I do at any moment.

So I think if there's one big takeaway people take, I'd like it to be that.

Well, the funny thing is that, you know, I said don't frame it in terms of what you are, but if you do enough, if you frame it in terms of what you do and you do enough of those things, then it does change what you are.

You become healthier.

You have more energy.

You live longer.

You're less likely to get a heart attack or a dementia.

So for me, the ultimate goal of anything you do to be healthy is to get more pleasure out of life.

And that might be from living longer, and it might be from being healthier and more with it while you're there.

I'll dive into the nuts and bolts, but let me give you two big picture things that guide me.

One of them is to think of health as an ongoing experiment.

So if you're supposed to eat vegetables and you eat a vegetable and you don't like it, don't conclude you don't like vegetables.