This is Expert Habits, a regular column in which thinkers, leaders, and other high performers talk about the habits and routines that help them live better lives.
Does wanting to be attractive make you a bad person? That’s the question Mike Israelite aims to answer in his new book aesthetic revolution. The YouTube fitness influencer with a PhD in sports science (and calves bigger than most people’s heads) has spent the last few years advocating science-based lifting, or customizing one’s workouts based on scientific studies to get the most bang for your lifting buck (aka hypertrophy). After training “rich people” for years, Israel learned that when clients say they want to train to become stronger, they really only want to train the parts of the body that will make them stronger. Look Strong towards other people.
Obviously getting to that point requires a lot of effort and training, and in our 24-hour days, there’s only so much you can learn before pursuing an “aesthetic” build. That’s why Israel has focused on “decision fatigue” when it comes to meeting one’s fitness goals. You’ve heard this term before. It’s a concept that everyone from big tech brothers to President Obama This is cited when explaining why they opt for a simple wardrobe. Israel sees eliminating the need to make decisions as a way to optimize his time for the things he cares about most.
“You get such a high level of productivity, checking off all the green boxes in your life, that when it comes to the weekend, you can uncork like no one else,” he says.
Here’s Israel’s advice for achieving maximum productivity, while maintaining your sanity.
Plan meals ahead of time
“For most meals, I know what I’m going to eat and it’s readily available to me. It allows me to stick to the kind of healthy, functional diet that I need and it also reduces decision-making fatigue and it also cuts down on prep time significantly. There’s a company called MegaFit Meals and I get their pre-prepared meals. And many of my meals I just put in the microwave and they come out super healthy. I can make my own meals, But it takes a lot of time.”
“For example, a few days ago I was working at the office at home and I thought, ‘I don’t have any time at all. Should I quickly go out and get something to eat or should I just eat at home?’ And then I realized because I had MegaFit meals and pre-made rice packets, I realized I already had everything.
“For me, if I go out to eat, I’ll still make good choices because I know how to do it, but for most people, if you leave it to chance, the chances are much higher, especially when you’re hungry, that you’re going to eat some crap.
“I think it’s really nice to figure out your food situation ahead of time because not only have you made the choices ahead of time, so by definition they are ‘good choices’, you have a lot less time to spend eating and you don’t have any decision fatigue.”
Exercise in the morning—and stick to it
“On days when you have to train hard, let’s say lifting weights, do one of two things: one is to train in the morning. There’s a lot of science about daytime training and it largely boils down to this: whenever you can make the time, whenever you can be motivated and energetic, that’s as good a time to train as any other. So on the days you do workout, doing your fitness stuff first thing in the morning is a real good habit to get into because it’s not a compromise. You just go about your day. Start with the mess and then after it’s done, you go to work, do your work and then come home, you don’t have to worry about anything.
