Life And Your Best Self: Volume 1

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You want to channel health, wellness, and longevity, but you don’t have the faintest idea where to start. Let’s take the daunting task of achieving your goals, and make it fun and approachable! Dr. Dean designed this interactive Guidebook for a personalized experience. Each reader will progress through a completely unique learning journey based on their own ideas, experiences, biases, desires, and readiness. He will show you the information that’s out there, share how he’d do it, nudge you where he can, and offer up his favorite recipes and food-hacks to keep you engaged. Buzz-kill alert: there are no shortcuts. There is work to be done. To ensure your success, he has included all of his best stuff–leaving nothing out–to set you up for success!

GUIDEBOOK EXPERIENCES

• A customized, personally unique experience for each reader
• Zero outsourcing required—Everything you need starts here
• Demographically inclusive approach respects a variety of lifestyle choices
• Valuable yet mindful advice combined with approachable science
• Formatted for real-time take-aways and solutions
• Inspirational storytelling

GUIDEBOOK-SPECIFIC FEATURES

• Readiness & Health History Intake
• Guided Worksheets and Discovery Charts
• Progressional Interactive Self-Navigation Modules
• Meal and Food Preferences Habit-Trackers
• Quizzes and Self-Audit Exercises

The prevailing approach to managing health goals is to focus on calories eaten on a daily basis. And while that approach is helpful, it is not inclusive. Firstly, calories are not just numbers assigned to food portions, it is a reductionist approach to focus on one aspect of nutrition. Instead, focus on the quality of those foods, their ability to improve overall physical and mental health, their ability to reduce inflammation and auto immunity, and to be a creative platform for actually making and enjoying those calories. Secondly, the idea of counting calories can be overwhelming, therefore other approaches that give a similar healthy-outcomes result might be a better strategy. For certain folks an approach that works more closely with managing daily habits--such as upgrading certain small tasks with better option--might get more success than struggling with calories. And finally, for certain folks that are just 'stuck in their head' and maybe feeling overwhelmed, an approach that works with the thinking process might be a better option--such as reframing the language and thought-habits that they have with word-choice upgrades.

For most of us, the word ‘longevity’ feels like a heavy suitcase that we’re trying to pack for a trip we aren’t sure we want to take. We’ve been told it’s a genetics game, a series of ‘hacks’ we have to master before time runs out. We treat our future selves like a crisis to be averted, rarely wondering if the house that we have built will be able to stand the test of time. Most of us treat longevity as something that happens to us, rather than something we inhabit. We spend our middle years in a sort of biological waiting room, watching the clock tick, and worrying about when and how to take charge. We’ve been conditioned to think that aging is a slow fade-out of our best selves, a series of closing doors, of lost opportunity. We hope for more time, yet we aren’tquite sure what to do with the time we already have.

I don't claim to be a chef, but I really enjoy making my own food at home. I make a fresh dinner from scratch every night--it's my Ishvara Pranidhana (Sanskrit for "surrender") to the end of the day. Making my dinner is a process that starts the unwinding of my brain and body for a restful sleep. I have included recipes from my  personal & family recipe file box for you to enjoy. This guidebook includes lots of ideas for using herbs, spices, and international flavors to spark your tastebuds.

I took the opportunity to include several of my writings from my personal archive, since I felt like they might ignite some kind of meaningful connection with certain readers. Although this is primarily a nutrition publication, I don't think that nutrition exists on a mechanical island of specific rules and measurements--it is also about finding a place for discovering your sensory-self. I hope that my stories inspire to give you more permission to enjoy your journey.