Thursday Thoughts - 10/06/2022

In this short newsletter, I share the most interesting things that I’ve read, heard, and/or watched over the past week.

What I Read:

The Secret to Avoiding Burnout | Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday pens this essay on his experience with burnout while writing his latest book, Discipline is Destiny. His solution to this burnout was to ask his editor for a delay. He would spend more time working less intensely to complete the book. He disciplines himself to do less instead of more.

My favorite lines from this essay come at the end. He acknowledges that even with the extended deadline, writing a book is hard. He is tired. But he feels that it shouldn’t be any other way. Hard things are worth doing. This echos the premise of the Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter.

This essay also reminds me of Cal Newport and slow productivity. By changing the outlook from days to years, Ryan Holiday proved that he can work on something at a slower pace but still produce a tremendous amount.

What I Heard:

#224: Dietary protein with Don Layman, Ph.D. | The Peter Attia Drive

Since I revamped my habits and routines around health a few months ago, I have been curious about nutrition and diet. One thing that always mystified me was protein. So this was a timely podcast episode.

There’s lots to unpack in this episode. But my main takeaways are:

• The timing of protein consumption doesn’t matter once you develop a training routine.
• There is a distinction between protein quality because of the underlying amino acids in the protein. Animal protein is better than plant based because it has the amino acids essential to humans.
• The first and last meals of the day are most important for protein consumption.
• Protein consumption in a single sitting should be between 25 and 60 grams. the body can’t use any more for muscle synthesis.

What I Tried:

ProteinPal

I started tracking my protein after listening to the podcast episode mentioned above. After trying out a bunch of apps, my favorite is ProteinPal. It has a clean and simple interface. It has also has a food database to look up the protein in different foods.

There is a $24/year subscription for the pro version. I subscribed after using the one week free trial.

What I’m Pondering:

A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At one point, they came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross the river, they saw a very young and beautiful woman also attempting to cross. The young woman asked if they could help her cross to the other side.

The two monks glanced at one another because they had taken vows not to touch a woman.

Then, without a word, the older monk picked up the woman, carried her across the river, placed her gently on the other side, and carried on his journey.

The younger monk couldn’t believe what had just happened. After rejoining his companion, he was speechless, and an hour passed without a word between them.

Two more hours passed, then three, finally the younger monk could contain himself any longer, and blurted out “As monks, we are not permitted a woman, how could you then carry that woman on your shoulders?”

The older monk looked at him and replied, “Brother, I set her down on the other side of the river, why are you still carrying her?”

Source, Hat Tip to Nick Maggiulli

Tags: #quotes #podcasts #health #tech #purchases