Gabriel Zhañay

Meat is dominant in Polish culture.

So is alcohol.

Unfortunately, this isn't only at weddings.

Heart disease and cancer are rampant in Poland, as in many other 'modern' countries.

Obesity and being overweight are rising here as well with the increase of processed, fast food, and high-fat foods.

Poland has one of the highest cancer mortality rates in Europe, and the leading cause of death in Poland is cardiovascular disease.

I'll reference Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, who won America's Doctor of the Year and was one of the world's leading heart surgeons for years:

'Cardiovascular disease is nothing more than a toothless paper tiger that need never ever to exist, and if it does exist, it need never ever to progress. Heart disease is a completely benign foodborne illness.'

Big Food. Big Medicine. Big Pharma.

The corrupt 3, as I think of them.

If people knew that the leading cause of CVD was food-based, there wouldn't be a revolution.

Most would shrug their shoulders.

Change has to come from within.

Many of my wife's family members have died from cancer over the years.

Many from my mother's side have died from the same.

My father-in-law (Anna's dad) and a close family member of mine have had cancer.

Multiple abuelos (grandparents) have had cancer and died from it in my family.

A family member on Anna's side who was at a family wedding recently has cancer (currently).

In the midst of celebration, the sobering truth of our ignorance, choices, and habits slowly reveals itself.

To shake and wake others up to the reality that we live in.

The ownership we can bring to our health.

To remind those we love that their health matters.

That it's never too late.

To spend a long, full life with those closest to us.

It's never too late.

Believe in health.

It's always possible.

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The best 'hack' to improve your health in 5 minutes or less:

Stand outside barefoot in early morning sunshine.

The best healthcare I'm using these days.

We're in Poland.

Every year we go to visit family for an extended period.

This year we have a family wedding we're attending.

I've been at a healthy body fat percentage (around 15-18%) over the past few years and similar bodyweight for the same time period. But recently, I've felt motivated the past 6 weeks to get leaner.

With my skin healing from psoriasis and finally seeing an end in sight for my healing journey, I've been eager to rebuild my fitness.

So dropping a couple of pounds to get a tad leaner for the wedding became my goal.

Except, the first few weeks I didn't drop any weight.

Curious, I started tracking my nutrition more diligently.

Even though I was guessing that my 12 bananas for our family breakfast smoothie were around 1000 grams... I was wrong.

It was 400 grams more.

I was doing this for every meal.

No wonder I wasn't dropping any body fat (or weight).

I was eating at maintenance calories.

Shaking off the rust on my portion tracking tools and skills made me remember this quote:

'Most people underestimate how much they eat and overestimate how much they move'.

I was doing the same thing.

So, my solution was simple.

I flipped the quote on its head.

To get leaner, you need to eat less.

A deficit is a deficit is a deficit.

At the end of the day, dropping body fat comes down to this law of thermodynamics.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be transferred.

So to drop body fat, you need to transfer energy out of the fat cells to use for your daily energy needs, and over time you'll get leaner.

Think of it as using your food storage in your pantry vs going out to get more food in the store.

Getting leaner means emptying your pantry instead of buying more food.

Empty the fat cells, use their energy, and get leaner.

At least, that's been a helpful analogy for me.

So I've dropped the few pounds I wanted.

I'm leaner. Still healing. And re-learned a few reminders about fat loss and dropping weight.

All set for the wedding.

(We're running a small private fitness challenge for 10 spots. Deadline to apply is tonight.

It's $27, but spots are application-only. Link in bio or message me 'ZH' for more details).

Want to get strong over 40?

It's simple, not easy.

To build muscle, several key processes work together.

The first is MPS, or muscle protein synthesis.

The second is leucine.

Lastly, using plants to maximize the benefits of the first (MPS).

So what is MPS?

Muscle building happens when muscle protein synthesis exceeds muscle protein breakdown.

You'll need a reason to trigger MPS, and the two main reasons are:

- Resistance training (aka strength training)
- EAA's (essential amino acids)

Without a consistent and legitimate reason to hit your muscles each week, why would your body want to change?

Hitting the weights gives your body a reason to build muscle.

Building muscle connects directly to resistance training. This makes it an important topic to discuss.

As for the second reason, EAA's are the building blocks of protein. Protein consists of amino acids.

These building blocks help repair and rebuild our bodies after workouts and in daily life.

Mastering both is how you create sustainable muscle growth.

The basics always beat supplements.

(We're running a small private fitness challenge for 10 spots only. Deadline to apply is tomorrow, and we start Monday.

It's $27, but spots are application-only to make sure it's the right match/right time. Link in bio or message me 'ZH' for more details).

A simple way to create a fast deficit is to reduce your fat intake.

Carbs have, on average, 4 calories per 1 gram.

Protein is similar.

However, fats have an average of 9 calories per gram.

So it's more than twice the energy intake per gram of carb or protein.

In our fast-food culture, it's easy to eat too many calories if you don’t plan.

The solution here is simple: remove ultra-processed foods and focus on whole foods.

The better the quality of food, the more likely you'll be eating less fat.

We need healthy fats for hormones and organ health. But too much fat is what often leads to weight gain for many of us.

So, slicing back what doesn't need to be there can do wonders for your fat-loss progress.

Fat loss > weight loss.

The first aims to cut body fat, while the second drops fat and muscle tissue.

You don't just want to 'do weight loss diets'.

You want to drop body fat, stay lean, and retain muscle.

Stay lean for longer.

(We're running a small private fitness challenge for 10 spots only. Deadline to apply is August 28th, and we start the 31st.

It's $27, but spots are application-only to make sure it's the right match/right time. Link in bio or message me 'ZH' for more details).

For something to be scientific, you need to track your progress.

Throwing darts blindfolded and missing the target is like how many people try to lose weight without tracking their data.

Here's the caveat: data is relevant in the context of your current experiment.

Which means you don't need to track calories forever.

But you do need accurate information for an extended period.

Your current habits are what landed you in this mess in the first place.

Changing habits takes time, but it will reshape who you are.

Tracking builds awareness.

That awareness is what you'll eventually use in different ways throughout your life.

After working with hundreds of clients worldwide for the past eight and a half years, I’ve seen a clear difference:

Clients who take ownership of their data and tracking succeed.

It's that simple.

(We're running a small private fitness challenge for 10 spots only. Deadline to apply is August 28th, and we start the 31st.

It's $27, but spots are application-only to make sure it's the right match/right time. Link in bio or message me 'ZH' for more details).

I feel like a foot doctor.

The past few weeks, I've learned more about the human foot than I did before.

I recently found a bump under the arch of my left foot.

Turns out it's a plantar fibroma.

Completely harmless.

It's a lump of tissue. It forms from stress in the calf and nearby muscles. This stress eventually affects the foot fascia.

So the root cause?

I haven't been stretching or foam rolling regularly. In fact, I haven't done either at all.

Running 12+ miles a week with 2+ hour-long soccer matches 2x a week finally caught up to my legs.

So now it's time to recover and stop repeating the same mistake.

It's kinda similar to how we make the same mistakes in our health and fitness over and over again.

If you don't go to the root cause, no amount of icing, anti-inflammatories, or grounding can ultimately solve your problem.

You'll only keep addressing the symptoms, not the root cause.

Getting clear on what was causing my discomfort was the first step.

The second step is not to keep repeating the same mistake.

The third is to take preventative measures to avoid repeating the same mistake again.

Step 1: Clarify root cause

Step 2: Stop aggravating the problem by repeating the mistake

Step 3: Take preventative measures to avoid the same mistake in the future

Use this 3-step process to solve your health & fitness problems moving forward.

Let me know how it goes if you try this out.

(We're running a small private fitness challenge for 10 spots. Deadline to apply is August 28th.

It's $27, but spots are application-only. Link in bio or message me 'ZH' for more details).

This is one of my favorite quotes.

If you don't face what's within, you will go without.

Most of us are divorced from our shadow.

Without accepting the dark and the light aspects of ourselves, it's difficult to live a calm, centered life.

Tension within ourselves is the root cause of much of our discomfort.

And this bleeds into all areas of our life, including health and fitness.

If you've been struggling with perfectionism, overachieving, or self-sabotage, creating time and space to slow down and 'stop and see,' as the Buddhists would say, is a simple way to stop losing progress in your health.

It's not easy.

The reason our shadow remains hidden for the majority of our lives is that we suppress and repress different parts of ourselves that we've cut off from a young age.

Reclaiming and reintegrating those parts that we've cut off takes time, discernment, and patience.

True inner work takes time to unravel.

But if you care about high-performance health, especially after 40, and want to be a positive role model of health for your family, it's the work that matters.

Slow down. Stop and see. And be okay with the dark and the light parts of yourself.

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(We're running a small private fitness challenge for 10 spots only. Deadline to apply is August 28th, and we start the 31st.

It's $27, but spots are application-only to make sure it's the right match/right time. Link in bio or message me 'ZH' for more details).

GAS means general adaptation syndrome.

It's how we adapt to stress and respond to a specific stressor.

Lifting weights is a form of stress. Eating fewer calories (being in a deficit) is a stressor.

Many of the things we do in the name of 'fitness' are physiological stressors on the body. Add too many stressors, and the results usually aren't good.

It's the metaphorical last straw that broke the camel's back. That's why it's important to manage your training wisely.

The amount of work (volume) and how hard you train (intensity) both create stress on your body.

Intensity is the amount of weight you’re lifting relative to your 1-repetition max.
In other words, it’s how much you lift compared to what you can lift for one repetition for a particular exercise.

You don’t have to train to failure for every exercise. However, you should maintain a certain intensity.

The fitness-fatigue model shows that as we improve our fitness, we also build fatigue over time.

This can lead to "overtraining," but that's rare. Most people stop before reaching that point. However, it may cause overexhaustion, a higher injury rate, or burnout.

As you get fitter and stronger, you also build muscle. This can lead to more fatigue.

So getting fitter and managing tiredness go hand in hand.

Less is more when you're doing the right things.

(We're running a small private fitness challenge for 10 spots only. Deadline to apply is August 28th, and we start the 31st.

It's $27, but spots are application-only to make sure it's the right match/right time. Link in bio or message me 'ZH' for more details).