You're at dinner with friends.
Someone orders dessert. Then everyone orders dessert.
The waiter looks at you.
And a voice in your head says, "Just this once. Don't be weird."
That voice isn't you.
I need you to understand something I figured out after 16 years of not eating a single carbohydrate.
The cravings you feel? They don't come from your brain.
They come from the collection of microbes living inside your gut. Microbes that need sugar to survive. Microbes that have hijacked your nervous system to send you signals that feel like your own thoughts.
"You deserve this." "One bite won't hurt." "Don't be the difficult one at the table."
Those aren't your thoughts. Those are foreign signals.
The microbes inside you have figured out how to make you feed them. And they've gotten so good at it that you can't tell the difference between their demands and your own desires.
I see it all the time with my clients.
Smart people. Successful people. People who've built companies and raised families and crushed every goal they've ever set.
They watch content for five, six, or seven years. They keep coming back to challenges. They know exactly what to do.
And they still can't execute.
Not because they're weak. Because they're infected. With carbohydrate-dependent microbes that have been running the show for decades.
Here's the thing nobody tells you.
It's easier to get a poor person to eat healthy than a rich person.
Why? Because successful people feel entitled to the best. The creme brulee. The fancy chocolates. The croissants at brunch.
They worked hard. They deserve it.
And the microbes inside them agree.
Once you understand this, everything changes.
You stop caring what people think when you say "no thanks" to the bread basket.
You stop caring what people think when you bring your own food to a party.
You stop caring what people think when you order meat and nothing else.
Because you realize you're not being difficult. You're refusing to feed your enemy.
Those signals telling you to fit in? To not make a scene? To just have one?
That's germ warfare. And you're the target.
My colleague Dr. Anthony Chaffee and I don't cheat. Not one time. Ever.
I haven't had so much as a raisin in 16 years.
And I'm doing better now than I was in my 30s. Personal bests every year on push-ups, pull-ups, and sprints.
Not despite cutting carbohydrates. Because of it.
So the next time you're at that dinner table and everybody's ordering dessert and that voice tells you not to be weird...
Recognize it for what it is.
A foreign signal from an enemy that needs you to comply.
Put on your big boy pants. Put on your big girl pants.
And say no.
—Dr. Sean
Three Ways I Can Help You
1. The 30-Day Ultimate Start Challenge ($195) Best for: Getting started on your own
30 days of lessons, videos, and action steps. Includes e-book, audiobook, sprint plan, meal plan, and lifetime community access. Everything you need to begin seeing the first signs of transformation.
2. Ultimate Start ($990) Best for: Seeing the disease inside you and getting coached to eliminate it
Get your MRI read by a physician in my practice. See your visceral fat, heart fat, and muscle fat. Includes 48 strategies, two months of coaching, and 50% off Alpha Maker. This is how you get the feedback that triggers the addiction.
3. Alpha Maker ($99/month) Best for: Ongoing mentorship and staying sharp for life
Live twice per week. 100+ recorded sessions. A community of nearly 400 people tracking their own biomarkers and sharing results. This is where you stay accountable and keep improving.
Not Medical Advice: This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor does it establish a doctor-patient relationship. The information provided should not be used as a substitute for consultation with qualified healthcare professionals. Always consult your physician before making changes to your diet, exercise, supplementation, or medication regimens. Individual results vary. The strategies discussed may not be appropriate for your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you've read here. If you have existing health conditions or are taking medications, obtain medical clearance before implementing any protocols mentioned.
I get this question all the time.
"Dr. Sean, what about my high LDL? I'm worried about eating red meat."
Here's my answer: You're tracking the wrong thing.
Cholesterol is noise. The MRI is signal.
Let me explain.
When your doctor runs bloodwork, you get a number. Just a number. That number tells you traffic is happening on the highway. It does not tell you where those cars are going.
Here is an example:
In a healthy person, high triglycerides can mean rapid fat turnover. Your body grabbing fat from storage and burning it for fuel. Sign of metabolic agility.
In an unhealthy person, that same number means fat overflow. Congestion. Disease forming.
Same number. Opposite meanings.
Your doctor cannot tell the difference. The lab cannot tell the difference. Nobody can tell the difference from a blood draw.
This is what I call the signal-to-noise problem.
Dozens of variables confound cholesterol numbers. Time of day. What you ate. Whether you fasted. Your metabolic state. Your insulin levels. The list goes on.
Visceral fat on an MRI has zero confounders.
You either have it or you don't. You can see it. You can measure it. It has a visual impact on your senses. And then you can track its reduction or accumulation over time as a direct measure of the choices you are making in your life.
After scanning thousands of people, I can tell you this: I've seen patients with "perfect" cholesterol numbers who were rotting inside with visceral fat around their organs and inflammatory fat strangling their heart.
I've also seen patients with "high" LDL who had almost no structural disease.
The MRI ends the lie.
Your body makes cholesterol for a reason. You need it to produce hormones. To build cell membranes. To make testosterone.
The problem is not cholesterol. The problem is glycated, oxidized cholesterol. And that happens when you're filled with visceral fat and insulin resistance.
Fix the structural disease. The numbers sort themselves out.
That's why I built the Ultimate Start.
Get scanned. We'll show you the best place to get an elective, for cash, a full-body MRI.
For $990, you'll get a detailed physician's read of your MRI. You'll see exactly where the deadly fat lives inside you. Not a guess. Not a blood draw. The truth.
Plus my 48 strategies to eliminate it. Two months of coaching. And 50% off Alpha Maker, my twice-a-week live lecture and ask-me-anything series with nearly 100 recordings of past presentations.
Stop chasing noisy metrics. Start tracking what matters.
—Dr. Sean
Not Medical Advice: This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor does it establish a doctor-patient relationship. The information provided should not be used as a substitute for consultation with qualified healthcare professionals. Always consult your physician before making changes to your diet, exercise, supplementation, or medication regimens. Individual results vary. The strategies discussed may not be appropriate for your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you've read here. If you have existing health conditions or are taking medications, obtain medical clearance before implementing any protocols mentioned.
Got this question from a reader:
"Hey, Dr. Sean, I have plantar fasciitis right now. What maximum intensity exercise would you recommend while my fascia recovers?"
Good question. I get it a lot.
Here's the rule: Any activity that gets you breathing to the max works.
Sprinting is my favorite exercise because nothing demands more effort in the same amount of time. But if your feet won't cooperate, you have options.
Pool sprinting. Run in the water. Or sprint swim. Both get you to max intensity with almost zero impact on your feet. Your fascia will thank you.
Stationary bike with resistance. Crank the resistance up. Go all out for 10-15 seconds. This is not a leisurely pedal. This is war.
Assault bike. The kind where you use your arms and legs together. Brutal. Effective.
Rowing machine. Max resistance. Max effort. Short burst.
Upper body to failure. Push-ups until you collapse. Pull-ups until you can't. Add blood-flow restriction (BFR) bands to make it harder. In one study, Division I athletes who wore BFR bands built more muscle and ran faster over six weeks than those doing the same workout without them.
The point is this: You need to be gasping for air when you're done.
That's what triggers the hormetic response. That's what recruits fast-twitch muscle fibers. That's what burns visceral fat.
But here's the harder truth.
Injuries like plantar fasciitis don't happen in a vacuum.
The more structural disease you carry, the more likely you are to get injured. And the slower you heal. Visceral fat creates inflammation. Inflammation weakens tissue. Weak tissue tears.
You want to heal faster? Get rid of the visceral fat.
You want to stop getting injured? Get rid of the visceral fat.
That's why I built the Ultimate Start.
For $990, you get your MRI analyzed by a physician in my practice. You'll see precisely how much inflammatory fat is inside you. Around your organs. Around your heart. Inside your muscles.
Then you get my 48 strategies to eliminate it. Two months of coaching. And 50% off Alpha Maker, which gives you two live lectures from me a week and an opportunity to ask questions like this and get them answered live by me.
Your feet will heal. The question is what you do in the meantime, and what you fix so this stops happening.
—Dr. Sean
Not Medical Advice: This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor does it establish a doctor-patient relationship. The information provided should not be used as a substitute for consultation with qualified healthcare professionals. Always consult your physician before making changes to your diet, exercise, supplementation, or medication regimens. Individual results vary. The strategies discussed may not be appropriate for your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you've read here. If you have existing health conditions or are taking medications, obtain medical clearance before implementing any protocols mentioned.
"Does a DEXA scan give reliable estimates of visceral fat? I've seen varying opinions. For me, it would be much less costly than an MRI."
I get this one a lot. Let me be direct.
A DEXA scan gives you a number. An MRI shows you the truth.
Imagine there's a forest fire burning inside your body. It's destroying everything. You can feel the heat. You see the damage.
A DEXA scan tells you: "Your forest fire level is 63.491."
What does that mean? Is that good? Bad? Where is it burning? How fast is it spreading?
You have no idea. You have a number.
An MRI lets you see the fire.
You see the visceral fat packed around the organs in your abdomen, strangling your heart, and pressing on your aorta.
There's no interpretation needed. No confusion. No noise.
Here's my question: How many people have transformed their health because of a DEXA scan?
In 13 years of doing this work, I've never met one.
I've met thousands who saw their MRI and changed everything. Because when you see the fire, you fight it differently.
The other problem with DEXA? Nobody reading it has any expertise in visceral fat. Your gym's "body composition specialist" is not trained for this. Most radiologists aren't either.
There are only two radiologists in the world reading visceral fat at this level. They both work with me.
So yes, a DEXA is cheaper. A bathroom scale is even cheaper. Neither one will save your life.
Be frugal with everything else. Be luxurious with your health.
That's why I built the Ultimate Start.
For $990, you get your MRI analyzed by a physician in my practice. You'll see precisely how much inflammatory fat is inside you. Around your organs. Around your heart. Inside your muscles.
Then you get my 48 strategies to eliminate it. Two months of coaching. And 50% off Alpha Maker, which gives you two live lectures from me a week and an opportunity to ask questions like this and get them answered live by me.
Stop guessing. Start seeing.
—Dr. Sean
Not Medical Advice: This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor does it establish a doctor-patient relationship. The information provided should not be used as a substitute for consultation with qualified healthcare professionals. Always consult your physician before making changes to your diet, exercise, supplementation, or medication regimens. Individual results vary. The strategies discussed may not be appropriate for your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you've read here. If you have existing health conditions or are taking medications, obtain medical clearance before implementing any protocols mentioned.
Everyone wants the advanced protocol.
The secret supplement. The biohacking gadget. The exotic intervention nobody else knows about.
I get it. Details are exciting. Basics are boring.
But here's what I've learned after 13 years and thousands of MRI scans:
The people who win are the ones who master the basics.
They don't need 47 supplements. They don't need a $5,000 red light panel. They don't need the latest peptide from some overseas pharmacy.
They need to stop eating processed food. They need to sprint. They need to fast. They need to see what's actually happening inside their body.
That's it.
One of my favorite quotes: "If you know the way broadly, you will see it in all things." Musashi wrote that 400 years ago. It's still true.
When you truly understand health optimization, you start seeing every moment as a choice. Optimize or decline. There is no neutral.
The basics are not a stepping stone to the advanced stuff. The basics ARE the advanced stuff.
Eat meat and fermented foods. That's advanced nutrition.
Sprint to breathlessness every other day. That's advanced exercise.
Fast 72 hours once a week. That's advanced metabolic conditioning.
Get an MRI and see your visceral fat. That's advanced diagnostics.
Everything else is noise.
I watch people spend thousands on supplements while eating garbage. I watch them obsess over their HRV score while their abdomen fills with inflammatory fat. I watch them chase the next biohack while ignoring the fire burning inside them.
Signal is what matters. Noise is distraction.
Visceral fat on an MRI is pure signal. No confounders. No interpretation needed. You either have it or you don't.
Cholesterol numbers? Noise. Triglycerides? Noise. That fancy blood panel? Mostly noise.
Master the basics. Get your MRI. Then, once you've eliminated the structural disease rotting inside you, get excited about the details.
That's why I built the Ultimate Start.
For $990, you get your MRI analyzed by a physician in my practice. You'll see precisely how much inflammatory fat is inside you. Around your organs. Around your heart. Inside your muscles.
Then you get my 48 strategies to eliminate it. Two months of coaching. And 50% off Alpha Maker, which gives you two live lectures from me a week and an opportunity to ask questions about health optimization and get them answered live by me.
Stop chasing details. Start mastering basics.
—Dr. Sean
Not Medical Advice: This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor does it establish a doctor-patient relationship. The information provided should not be used as a substitute for consultation with qualified healthcare professionals. Always consult your physician before making changes to your diet, exercise, supplementation, or medication regimens. Individual results vary. The strategies discussed may not be appropriate for your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you've read here. If you have existing health conditions or are taking medications, obtain medical clearance before implementing any protocols mentioned.
You've said it before.
"I'll get serious about my health after this project wraps up."
"I'll start when the kids are back in school."
"I'll deal with it next quarter when things calm down."
Later.
Here's the problem: Later often becomes never.
And while you're waiting for the right time, the disease inside you isn't waiting at all.
It's compounding.
I explain this to my clients in terms of money. You understand how compound interest works on debt. Miss a few payments, and suddenly you owe twice what you borrowed. The number grows whether you pay attention to it or not.
Visceral fat works the same way.
Every month, it sits inside you; it's not just sitting there. It's secreting inflammatory molecules. It's damaging your blood vessels. It's cross-linking your proteins, stiffening your tissues, and degrading your ability to heal.
I've seen deep lacerations heal in 24 hours on optimized clients (heck, I've watched my own body heal before my eyes in record time). I've also watched wounds take two weeks to close on people full of inflammatory fat.
Same cut. Different bodies. Different outcomes.
The difference is the compounding disease.
Here's what the science shows:
Advanced glycation end products, AGEs, are biologically active toxins that accumulate in your body over time. They cross-link your structural proteins. Collagen. Tendons. Ligaments. Skin.
The result? Wrinkled, sagging skin. Stiff blood vessels. Reduced joint mobility. Declining ability to heal.
This isn't aging. This is disease that's been compounding while you waited for the right time to address it.
Epicardial fat, the fat around your heart, predicts disease progression.
Not just disease presence. Progression. The longer it sits there, the more atherosclerosis develops. The more vulnerable your plaques become. The higher your risk of atrial fibrillation.
I recently had a friend, a guy I deployed with in the military, diagnosed with AFib at 38 years old. I told him I'd never seen anyone get AFib that young.
He had a big chunk of fat around his heart.
That fat didn't appear overnight. It compounded while he was busy with other things. While he was waiting for the right time.
The right time was years ago. The second best time is now.
You can't see this fat from the outside. You can't feel it. Your blood work won't show it clearly. The only way to know is to look.
Get an MRI. See the enemy. Stop the compounding.
That's why I built the Ultimate Start.
For $990, you get your MRI analyzed by a physician in my practice. You'll see precisely how much inflammatory fat is inside you. Around your organs. Around your heart. Inside your muscles.
Then you get my 48 strategies to eliminate it. Two months of coaching. And 50% off Alpha Maker, which gives you two live lectures from me a week and an opportunity to ask questions and get them answered live.
Stop saying later. Later becomes never.
The disease is compounding right now.
—Dr. Sean
Not Medical Advice: This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor does it establish a doctor-patient relationship. The information provided should not be used as a substitute for consultation with qualified healthcare professionals. Always consult your physician before making changes to your diet, exercise, supplementation, or medication regimens. Individual results vary. The strategies discussed may not be appropriate for your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you've read here. If you have existing health conditions or are taking medications, obtain medical clearance before implementing any protocols mentioned.
You've heard it a thousand times.
"You are what you eat."
It's wrong.
You BECOME what you eat. There's a difference. Let me explain.
When you eat a steak, you don't turn into a steak. Your body doesn't just absorb it whole. Something has to transform that food into you. Into your muscle. Into your tissue. Into your hormones and neurotransmitters.
That something is your microbiome.
The 70 trillion organisms living inside your gut determine what happens to every bite you take. They decide which nutrients get absorbed. They choose which calories go in. They decide whether that food builds you up or tears you down.
This is why two people can eat the same diet and get completely different results.
I've watched it happen. One person eats grass-fed beef, and their urine turns bright green. Another person eats the same meat, and nothing changes. Same food. Different microbiome. Different outcome.
Here's a study that blew my mind.
Researchers took feces from a thin twin and transplanted it into an obese mouse. They kept feeding the mouse the same diet that made it fat in the first place.
The mouse became thin.
Same diet. Different microbes. Completely different body.
You are not what you eat. You become what your microbiome allows you to become.
Those harmful microbes inside you, the ones making you crave sugar, the ones driving you toward processed food, they complete their life cycle in soil. Think about that. They don't need you to survive in the long term. They need you to die so they can get back to the ground.
The good microbes? They complete their life cycle inside you. When your gig is up, their gig is up. They have every reason to keep you alive and thriving.
This is why the strategies work. When you eat meat with fermented foods, chewing them together, you're not just feeding yourself. You're feeding your allies. You're building an army of microbes that want you to win.
But here's the problem.
You can't see your microbiome. You can't measure it easily. And while it's rebuilding, you need to know whether the strategies are actually working.
That's where the MRI comes in.
Visceral fat destroys your microbiome. Those inflammatory cytokines wreck the environment your good microbes need to thrive. You cannot have an optimal microbiome with visceral, heart, and muscle fat pumping out inflammation.
Get the scan. See the fat. Eliminate it. Then watch what happens when your microbiome finally has room to do its job.
That's why I built the Ultimate Start.
You get your MRI first. Simple cash-pay scan, no contrast needed. We'll show you how to order one in your state.
Then, for $990, my team reads it. A physician analyzes your abdomen and heart for visceral fat. You see exactly what's inside you.
You also get my 48 strategies, two months of coaching, and 50% off Alpha Maker, where I go live twice a week and take questions.
You're not what you eat. You become what you eat.
Let's get started.
—Dr. Sean
Not Medical Advice: This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor does it establish a doctor-patient relationship. The information provided should not be used as a substitute for consultation with qualified healthcare professionals. Always consult your physician before making changes to your diet, exercise, supplementation, or medication regimens. Individual results vary. The strategies discussed may not be appropriate for your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you've read here. If you have existing health conditions or are taking medications, obtain medical clearance before implementing any protocols mentioned.
You like sugar.
You like bread. You like pizza. You like that late-night snack that you know you shouldn't have.
But here's a question nobody asks: Who decided you like those things?
Because it wasn't you.
Those cravings, those "likes," they're coming from somewhere. And that somewhere is the 70 trillion microbes living inside your gut.
The bad ones. The obesogenic ones. The ones that complete their life cycle in soil and need you to die to get there.
They're the ones telling you what you like.
When you crave sugar, that's not your body asking for fuel. That's bacteria sending chemical signals to your brain, demanding you feed them. And when you give in, even a little, you just dropped a football field's worth of food for organisms that want to destroy you.
One lick of cookie dough ice cream. One bite of cake. You think it's small because you're measuring it against your body.
But those microbes are microscopic. That tiny taste? It's a feast. They gorge. They reproduce. And hours later, the cravings come back stronger.
This is why willpower doesn't work.
You're not fighting yourself. You're fighting an infection.
I had a client who couldn't understand why the cravings never stopped. Up and down. Up and down. Years of it. She thought she was weak. She thought she lacked discipline.
She wasn't weak. She was colonized.
Here's what changes everything.
When you starve those bad microbes and replace them with good ones, something remarkable happens. Your taste literally changes.
The chronic inflammation from visceral fat, from heart fat, from muscle fat, it blunts your taste receptors. Unhealthy people can't taste real food properly. A grass-fed steak tastes boring to them. Fermented vegetables taste disgusting.
But as you get healthier, your receptors wake up.
I eat the same meal almost every day. Meat and fermented foods. And I'm telling you, it feels like the greatest meal I've ever had. Every single time. Because my taste receptors are functioning at a level they never did before.
The pleasure you're chasing in junk food? It's fake.
It's manufactured in a lab to hijack your senses. And it's working with the bad microbes inside you to keep you addicted.
Real pleasure, sustained pleasure, comes from a body that's actually healthy. Art looks more beautiful. Music hits deeper. Food tastes better. Even relationships feel richer.
I talked to an 85-year-old man worth $700 million. His health was so bad he couldn't even grasp that life could feel good again. He'd lost the capacity to believe it. That's what disease does. It robs you of the ability to even imagine something better.
Nature favors the organism that analyzes best.
That means seeing through the lie. Just because you like something doesn't mean it's good for you. Your senses have been hijacked. Your cravings have been weaponized against you.
Time to take them back.
That's why I built the Ultimate Start.
You get your MRI first. Simple cash-pay scan, no contrast needed. We'll show you how to order one in your state.
Then, for $990, my team reads it. A physician analyzes your abdomen and heart for visceral fat. You see exactly what's inside you.
You also get my 48 strategies, two months of coaching, and 50% off Alpha Maker, where I go live twice a week and take questions.
Stop letting harmful microbes decide what you like.
Start liking what's actually good for you.
—Dr. Sean
Not Medical Advice: This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor does it establish a doctor-patient relationship. The information provided should not be used as a substitute for consultation with qualified healthcare professionals. Always consult your physician before making changes to your diet, exercise, supplementation, or medication regimens. Individual results vary. The strategies discussed may not be appropriate for your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you've read here. If you have existing health conditions or are taking medications, obtain medical clearance before implementing any protocols mentioned.
If your best friend came to you for advice, you'd tell them the truth.
If your kid asked what to eat, you wouldn't hand them a donut.
If someone you respected asked how to get healthy, you'd give them real answers. Not shortcuts. Not lies. Not the easy path.
So why don't you do the same for yourself?
You are the biggest enemy to your own quality of life.
Not your genetics. Not your schedule. Not your stress. You. The choices you make every single day.
I see it constantly. People who would never let their children eat garbage will eat it themselves. People who would never tell a friend to skip sleep will stay up scrolling their phone until midnight. People who would never advise someone they respect to skip exercise will sit on the couch for weeks.
You treat strangers better than you treat yourself.
Here's what I tell my clients: Your body is your most important physical asset. Not your bank account. Not your house. Not your investment portfolio. Your body.
Nothing else will influence your quality of life more. Nothing else will dictate how much you enjoy or suffer every circumstance for the rest of your days. Nothing.
So when it comes to your body, be luxurious. That's your key investment. For everything else, be frugal.
But most people have it backwards.
They'll spend money on cars. On watches. On vacations. On things that depreciate or disappear. And they'll feed their body, their only irreplaceable asset, absolute garbage.
Think of it like a bank account.
Every processed meal is a withdrawal. Every skipped workout is a withdrawal. Every night of poor sleep is a withdrawal. Every drink of alcohol is a withdrawal.
And withdrawals compound. Debt leads to more debt. Disease leads to more disease. Before you know it, you're bankrupt. Biologically bankrupt.
Your body is way too glorious for you to be putting anything bad into it.
I had a client tell me she couldn't stop eating sugar. She said she felt possessed. And she was right. She was possessed. By an infection of bad microbes driving her cravings, making her harm herself day after day.
She wasn't weak. She just didn't respect herself enough to fight back.
When you start treating yourself like someone you actually respect, everything changes.
You stop making excuses. You stop saying "just this once." You stop ripping yourself off with comfort and pleasure that leads to suffering.
Nature favors the organism that analyzes best.
That means seeing every choice clearly. This food either builds me or destroys me. This action either deposits into my account or withdraws from it. There is no neutral.
Once you understand this, you'll see it in everything. Every meal. Every workout. Every hour of sleep. Every decision becomes a vote for the person you're becoming.
So ask yourself: Would you recommend your current lifestyle to someone you respect?
If the answer is no, it's time to change.
That's why I built the Ultimate Start.
You get your MRI first. Simple cash-pay scan, no contrast needed. We'll show you how to order one in your state. Most people are in and out in under an hour.
Then, for $990, my team reads it. A physician analyzes your abdomen and heart for visceral fat. You see exactly what's inside you.
You also get my 48 strategies, two months of on-demand chat coaching, and 50% off Alpha Maker, where I go live twice a week and take questions.
Start treating yourself like someone worth saving.
Because you are.
—Dr. Sean
Not Medical Advice: This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor does it establish a doctor-patient relationship. The information provided should not be used as a substitute for consultation with qualified healthcare professionals. Always consult your physician before making changes to your diet, exercise, supplementation, or medication regimens. Individual results vary. The strategies discussed may not be appropriate for your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you've read here. If you have existing health conditions or are taking medications, obtain medical clearance before implementing any protocols mentioned.
You can't sit still.
I know because I couldn't either. And honestly, some days I still struggle with it.
My wife will look at me and ask, "Sean, is this really a fight or flight scenario?"
Ninety-five percent of the time, the answer is no. But my body doesn't know that. My nervous system is firing like there's a lion in the room.
This is the disease of modern life.
Your sympathetic nervous system, the fight or flight system, should only fire when you're in actual danger. A real fight. A real threat. Brief, intense, then over.
Instead, we have it firing all day long. Emails. Text messages. Reports. Deadlines. Traffic. News. Social media. The lions and tigers never stop circling.
And the whole time, cortisol is pumping through your body. Telling it to store fat. Telling it to stay alert. Telling it there's no time to rest, recover, or repair.
The Stoics understood something we've forgotten.
Be comfortable in the stillness.
Not as a luxury. Not as a reward for finishing your to-do list. As a discipline. As a practice. As a requirement for a functional human body.
I have a nature preserve near my home in Minneapolis. Sometimes I park my car and just walk. Soaking in the sun. Listening to the birds. Letting the tall grass rub against my legs.
No phone. No agenda. Just stillness.
And here's what I've found: Joy is easier to see when you're not constantly stressed.
By reducing the damaging stresses in my life, I discovered a deeper sensitivity to simple pleasures. Colors look brighter. Food tastes better. My wife's laugh hits different. These things were always there. I just couldn't perceive them through the noise.
Your body has two modes.
Sympathetic: fight or flight. Energy mobilized. Heart rate up. Blood to the muscles. Ready to attack or run.
Parasympathetic: rest and digest. Recovery. Repair. Healing. The "la dee da, everything is good" state, where you're relaxed and calm.
Most people live almost entirely in sympathetic mode. Jacked up. Worked up. Never recovering.
Studies show that meditation, prayer, quiet time, being intentional about stillness, these practices measurably reduce your cortisol response. They shift you into parasympathetic mode, where your body can actually heal.
Fasting teaches this, too.
When you fast for 48 or 72 hours, you learn to sit with discomfort. A hunger pang lasts about 20 minutes. If you can be still through it, it passes. If you react, if you fight it, if you immediately reach for food, you never build the discipline.
The same applies to stress. If you can be still through the discomfort, it passes. If you react to every email like it's a lion attack, you stay locked in sympathetic overdrive forever.
This is why busy executives are often the sickest people I see.
They've lost the ability to be comfortable in stillness. Every moment must be filled. Every notification demands a response. Every quiet second feels like wasted productivity.
Meanwhile, their cortisol stays elevated. Their visceral fat accumulates. Their bodies never get the signal that it's safe to recover.
I work with senators, members of Congress, cabinet officials, and senior executives. These people are running America. And they're so sympathomimetic they don't have time to watch a 15-minute video about their own health.
Stillness isn't weakness. It's a strategy.
The Stoics knew this. Your ancestors knew this. After the hunt, they rested. After the fight, they recovered. The intensity was brief. The stillness was long.
You've reversed it. Your intensity is endless. Your stillness is nonexistent.
Time to flip it back.
That's why I built the Ultimate Start.
You get your MRI first. Simple cash-pay scan, no contrast needed. We'll show you how to order one in your state. Most people are in and out in under an hour.
Then, for $990, my team reads it. A physician analyzes your abdomen and heart for visceral fat. You see exactly what's inside you.
You also get my 48 strategies, two months of on-demand chat coaching, and 50% off Alpha Maker, where I go live twice a week and take questions.
Learn to be comfortable in the stillness.
Your body is waiting for the signal that it's safe to heal.
—Dr. Sean
Not Medical Advice: This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor does it establish a doctor-patient relationship. The information provided should not be used as a substitute for consultation with qualified healthcare professionals. Always consult your physician before making changes to your diet, exercise, supplementation, or medication regimens. Individual results vary. The strategies discussed may not be appropriate for your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you've read here. If you have existing health conditions or are taking medications, obtain medical clearance before implementing any protocols mentioned.