The New York Knicks just won their first title in 53 years.

Hey guys, it’s Fran. It’s been way too long, and I’ve had this one in drafts for two weeks.

Last night was the kick-in-the-ass reminder that I have almost 400 subscribers who read this newsletter and could benefit from an article that reminds us to fight against the mainstream line of thoughts.

Sometimes, they apply to health and wellness. Today’s is more general, so apply it however you choose.

I’ve noticed over the last few years that there is a movement towards being more nonchalant. Not caring. And moving through life as if the things that are supposed to be hard, difficult, and felt deeply, shouldn’t be felt that way.

Like any social trend, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where it started. Social media amplifies it, newsletters popularize it, legacy media probably feeds into it. That doesn’t matter so much for today’s post.

What matters is how easily it may have infected our peers. If you’ve been invested in anything seriously for the past few years, struggled with it, and have been met with a “why do you care so much,” or “just don’t let it bother you!” Then you know what I mean.

This isn’t a good thing. Pretending not to care, acting nonchalant about everything, or distracting yourself from your stress over something takes away the essence of reward.

What we’re talking about today

• Why the Knicks are a perfect example of trying and caring being cool again

• Ways I’ve seen it in my own life

• Strategies for negating the nonchalants

Jalen Brunson’s Legacy

When I think about what happened last night in San Antonio, I get fired up. The New York Knicks have united New York during their playoff run like no sports team I’ve ever seen.

The ‘07 and ‘11 Giants could never, sorry, David Tyree. The ‘09 Yankees were special. But nothing tops this. 53 years separate their previous championship from last night’s. The city saw endless years of terrible teams from 1999 until now, and a few teams who felt good enough but never quite pulled it off.

Even more inspiring was the passion of Knicks fans every year throughout that time. Ask any of them who watched the playoffs the last 10 years and they could tell you exactly why they fell apart and why the previous iterations didn’t work.

They care. That’s why this playoff title feels so loud. I’d wager that none of them switched teams, even in the worst of years.

Then there’s the players. Karl Anthony-Towns endured years of almost-good-enough in Minnesota, got called “soft” by former teammates, and lost his mother in 2020.

Mikal Bridges got heckled for his shooting form and worth to the team because of the hefty price the Knicks paid to acquire him. Josh Hart has bounced from team to team trying to find a place where his brand of basketball leads to wins.

And Jalen Brunson, who the Knicks also offered a big contract, was met with some criticism for a ton of things.

“He’s too small…they [The Knicks] overpaid for a short guard…short guards can’t win championships..” and many others.

Brunson arrived from a Mavericks team where he came off the bench in a supporting role. Turning that kind of player into your main guy is a risk in the NBA, to say the least.

But it’s not impossible. Brunson cared about proving those people wrong and proving his front office right. If you watch any of his press conferences over the years — definitely watch his Finals ones, if you want the best of them — he speaks with an air of confidence that is rare these days.

Many superstars try to make things look effortless. A lot will try and hide their true passion and not give long-winded, meaningful answers to reporters. As a former sports journalist, I saw it first hand. It’s not just that journalists want to bait out the best quotes; some superstars thrive off of looking like they don’t care and giving off a mystique of nonchalance.

Not Brunson.

Before yesterday, a video of Brunson and his father, Rick, training together in Jalen’s childhood went viral and had mixed feedback.

Rick is now the assistant coach of the Knicks and is reliving that video in real time. It’s hard to find a comment under that video now that isn’t supporting their father-son dynamic. Rick cared.

So did his mother. The nonchalance that can sometimes be applied to parenting might need a second look, too, when you see how Jalen turned out.

Jalen Brunson’s seasons this year was one where he was constantly playing against taller guards who by all measures should’ve been able to defend him well.

They didn’t.

Even San Antonio’s guards who roughed him up all series didn’t stop him from averaging almost 30 points over five games.

You can see how much he and the rest of the Knicks cared last night when the final buzzer sounded.

Tears. Raw emotion. Smiles and hugging. All things that the nonchalant movement would deem “cringy” or “weird.”

That level of investment in something you’re passionate about shouldn’t be frowned upon. It should be celebrated. The reason that the Knicks’ victory felt as special as it did is because they cared so much.

If they weren’t as invested in winning the championship this year and went about it like they weren’t worried, they wouldn’t have made it past Atlanta.

Which Baskets I’m Currently Putting My Eggs In

During my newsletter hiatus, I ran the perimeter of Manhattan with five of my friends who I’ve bonded with almost exclusively through running and physical activity.

I spoke to them about my Hyrox races and how much time and training I’ve put into them over the last year.

Instead of asking me why I spend so much time on a sport that “isn’t really a sport” (not my critique) or challenging me on my stance on it, they said “that’s so awesome that you found something that you’re passionate about.”

Immediately I knew they weren’t the nonchalant type.

“More people need to obsess over things for a little bit,” said my friend and fellow Substacker . “It’s missing from today’s world. It’s so cool to see people try hard at things they love.”

I couldn’t have agreed more.

I understand giving up pursuits that aren’t reaping any rewards. There is a level of humility required in doing hard things that requires taking a step back and assessing risk and reward.

But that period comes LONG after a bit of trial and error. Investing HARD into something and finding passion in it requires a bit of falling on your face, getting up and going back to it.

I’ve found something that I really enjoy in Hyrox that allows me to feel like an athlete again, which is a feeling that hard to describe. Being a professional athlete was a dream of mine for a long time. I’m still okay with the fact that I might never make it to the Elite tier of Hyrox competition.

..But why can’t I try and find out?

I’m tired of 30-something-year-old fitness professionals who haven’t realized their full physical potential saying things like, “calling yourself a marathoner is wrong. You run marathons, you’re not a marathoner.”

Why would someone who aspires to be competitive at marathons sell themself short at that label? I know people who are on the cusp of semi-elite times in endurance sports. They are ATHLETES.

They care deeply about what they do, even if they have day jobs.

I wouldn’t dare dabble in the semantics of labeling them anything else because I respect their level of CARE.

I’m fine with making this sport a part of my identity for a brief period of my life.

It doesn’t have to be my whole identity.

I’m still a husband, a son, a coach, a mentor, a salesman.

I am able to be passionate and care about what I love without letting it consume me to the point of being unhealthy. I’m here to tell you that you can, too.

How to Care More About Sh*t and Get The Most Out of Life

If you’ve decided you’re really about something and want to pursue it, this is your confirmation to go ABSOLUTELY ALL IN on it.

Not only that, but you should let everyone know about it.

Why? You’ll find out who is really going to be your support system in the pursuit — which is an extremely important part of caring hard about something — and who will find it cringe.

If you haven’t found what you’re really passionate about, that’s okay too. It takes some time to pick the thing you’re going to invest a year or three of your life into. It’s okay to deliberate for a bit, especially when you consider how much it could affect the trajectory of your life.

You also have to be in a place in your life where you won’t be too distracted or pulled in too many directions by other things. This part is infinitely harder in the digital age.

Along with people trying to popularize nonchalance, some have made it a trend to try to do a ton of things. That’s all fine and dandy, and can maybe help people narrow down what their passion is.

But it can also be a trap in distracting someone from doing their Most Important Thing (MIT).

Having your MIT at the forefront of your day is essential. You can’t get lost in the social media scrolls, the front page news, or the text messages from people asking you to commit to 10,304 different things.

If it’s training for your first marathon or to become a marathoner, the daily run needs to become a priority. If it has to happen at 7pm on Saturday, then so be it.

You have to be willing to endure the questions from friends and colleagues about why you’re running at that time, why that run matters, and why the MARATHON.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to run a marathon and wanting to run it well.

Finishing one in general deserves praise, but the person who really invests in getting the most out of their body from the experience is just going to have a little bit more of my respect, personally.

And it’s that level of caring for things that elevate the behaviors of your peers around you.

When you’re around a collective of people who really give a sh*t about something, it fires you up (or, at least it should).

Making something your temporary identity might get you laughed at, but the point of this newsletter is to help you use that laughter as fuel for the fire.

Lots of people get discouraged by the laughter and mocking. It brings up some childhood trauma, maybe evokes emotions of being exiled, and just generally doesn’t feel good.

I hope is that you can rewire your brain to take that negative feedback and turn the slights into ammo for “I told ya so’s.”

Michael Jordan ironically got memed for this kind of behavior in the Netflix series “The Last Dance.”

But looking at Jordan’s résumé, it’s no coincidence that employing this strategy was arguably what got him into immortal superstardom.

Every good story needs a villain.

Right now, I think the villains are the nonchalant people.

If your story (or a new chapter in it) is still taking shape, maybe your villain is the person telling you that what you’re doing is too ambitious or not worth it.

Let’s have an amazing week.

Multitasking seems to be all the rage these days.

Having Claude CoWork write your schedule for you to start the day while you’re having your coffee, in the shower, all while scrolling through your social feed in the morning.

Okay, maybe it’s not that extreme. Or is it?

The productivity obsession naturally leads most …

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You may remember that about a month ago, my wife and I left our apartment after finding out we had a pretty bad case of MARCoNS due to some mold exposure.

Since then, we’ve been on a pretty strict detoxification protocol, and I went over it (along with general detox ideas) with Olivia on this episode of the High Performance Health Podcast

Expect to learn about:

- What protocols are best for detoxifying your body

- The frequency of daily poops, Olivia thinks, is the gold standard

- What supplements are best for detoxifying your body

- What bodily processes/organs are responsible for detox

- How often should anyone be detoxing

I really enjoyed this one, and it helped color in my experience, and I hope it helps you rethink the way you’re constantly refreshing your body.

Link to the Amazon Body Roller here.

Link to the Shake Plate I mentioned here!

Enjoy!

Saying that “abs are built in the kitchen” is about 75% true.

A proper diet is going to ensure that bellies stay lean, but the abs need to be trained, too.

This newsletter was published in partnership with Form50 Fitness, a reformer strength and conditioning studio in New York City and Florida.

A big prerequisite for a …

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I’ve had a chance to reflect on some of the most important things that have moved the needle forward for me physically over the past two years.

Unfortunately, the answers aren’t all that sexy.

And that’s the point.

Two years is both a long time and a short time depending on how you look at it. And the headline of this new…

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“Nothing’s wrong, you’re perfectly healthy.”

That’s what many doctors told my wife over the past year after we went from specialist to specialist to try and figure out why she wasn’t feeling herself.

The last month has been a hectic one — it’s no excuses for not having written something for you all. I strive to write…

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Since my 30th birthday,

Everyone’s always asked me a question on my birthday that they never asked me in the first 29 years of my life:

How does it feel?

To which I always respond, “not much different.”

It’s a peculiar question, one that always makes me feel like the answer that someone was rhetorically expecting was, “old…

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What has always frustrated me about working in fitness are the stark differences between thought processes

Between how medical doctors (and even physical therapists!) understand the realm of exercise.

I’m sharing opinions and anecdotes of my experience in eight years as a trainer in today’s newsletter, so I w…

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I have to admit,

When I’d heard Lindsey Vonn tore her ACL on January 30th and saw videos of her strength training like nothing had happened, I felt polarized.

Maybe at first, the athlete and we felt some level of hope that injury specialists had finally turned the corner on ACL science.

Videos of NBA players returning to…

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If you’ve trained hard for anything at all,

You know that sensation of burning that enters your muscles when they’re under stress for a prolonged amount of time.

Maybe it’s that group fitness class that’s solely focused on two or three muscles for the entire 45 to 60 minutes.

It could happen on your long runs, when your…

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Good Morning!

If you’re reading from the Northeast U.S. (or anywhere above the equator) right now, you’ve probably had a piping hot cup of coffee and are bundled up on this holiday.

Make no mistake, I hate the cold.

I’m a February baby, but there’s nothing about this climate that makes me happy (unless I’m snowboarding).

But lately I’ve forced myself to continue exploring my passion for running this winter, despite the average daily temperature being 20° or colder lately,

Why?

Well for as much as I sh*t on ice baths (reminder: they do next to nothing for performance, but improve your tolerance to torture) cold-weather running is my personal preferred method of cold exposure for the season.

Over the last year, I’ve developed a sense of grit and obsession about my running, and I learned last spring that there are some benefits for running outside that undoubtedly helped me with my performance in last year’s NYC marathon.

Newsletter Summary

• The case for cold weather running and it’s benefits

• One quote about tolerance to start the week

The case for cold weather running

On a 15° January afternoon, I laced up my Nikes, grabbed my heattec gear with the built-in balaclava, and threw a beanie and two pairs of wool socks on for a 10K around my neighborhood.

Before I started my smartwatch, my pre-run heart rate was around 90 bpm.

I was excited.

Even with cold gusts from wind tunnels around Queens belting me in the face like a roller coaster ride, I was up for the challenge.

And a challenge is what it was.

The right playlist, a creative route circling Astoria Park and the East River waterfront, and a few close calls with some drivers speeding through yellow lights brought my internal temperature right where it needed to be for this run to actually be…fun.

The first argument I’ll make for cold runs is that they can be invigorating.

It’s similar to the rush of adrenaline that an ice bath brings, but unlike ice baths, there’s a certain body heat that comes with running outdoors that honestly makes the cold feelings dissipate quickly.

This is purely anecdotal, and I can’t guarantee it for everybody. Especially if you’re not already a runner.

As the folks at Idaho Spine and Sport physical therapy point out, it’s not always fun or enjoyable.

But it does come with unique benefits that will bode well for springtime and summertime running:

• Improved heart health, which is a byproduct of blood vessels working harder to pump blood to chillier areas of the body during cold runs

• Better sweat management, where (with repetition and proper winter hydration) the body is conditioned to sweat less and retain more water during cold runs, which is great preparation for hotter temperatures where sweat is more frequent

• Ample Novelty for the brain; something new and challenging strengthens our anterior mid-cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that deals with difficult things, and makes future difficult things easier

The spring runs that will (eventually) be here soon will be so much easier because I got out in December, January and February.

Not just psychologically, but physiologically too.

If there’s one thing that this newsletter will constantly challenge you to do, it’ll be to do hard stuff.

But what can’t be underscored is how often hard stuff benefits your body at a microscopic level, too.

If you’re a runner and have started to develop a weekly habit of getting the legs moving, this might not sound as attractive.

But that’s okay.

I’ve got an another try at the NYC marathon in November, and it’ll be cold again for that when it comes.

So getting the reps in now — loooong before I need to be ready to run that 26.2 miles across five boroughs — will pay dividends down the road (literally).

One Quote About Tolerance To Start March

“What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.

— Voltaire

Love this quote right here.

We have to learn to endure things.

That’s what makes us, us.

If you’ve been here a while, you can do 300 something newsletters.

That’s impressive.

I’d highly encourage you to suggest this newsletter to somebody who could benefit from learning a thing or two.

Subscribe now

Thanks in advance! See you later this week.

I recently spoke with a client of mine who — not to brag, but — PR’d their age group in a 10K. They’re a long-time runner, and they told me something I won’t forget:

“It’s impressive what you’ve done over the last year and a half alone!”

They’re right.

I haven’t shifted this newsletter content to reflect it much, but runnin…

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“Once you hit (random age), it’s all downhill from there.”

If I never heard this phrase again, I’d be so happy.

This utterance comes from people who have an archaic mindset about what it means to age. Sure, every now and again it’s said jokingly.

But some people seriously mean it. Those who let their fitness capabilities…

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Every year I write an article like this, hoping it helps at least some of the people who read it.

But every year, I’m not sure if it resonates. I’m opening up the comments section to this post (a feature I sometimes forget to turn on before I publish) so that if this article helps you, you can let me know.

And if it doesn’…

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For as long as you’ve known me to write this newsletter, I rarely ever get too political.

But comments made weeks ago about the current president’s fitness for office had me a little alarmed.

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Now and again, I like to think about the ways in which exercise can be more accessible for people.

Truly, there are a myriad of factors that limit people from exercising.

No access to a gym.

Expensive equipment.

Injuries and pain.

Busy work schedules.

Children.

Not enough time in the day for something meaningful.

The list goes on.

However, I’m not cynical enough to believe that Movement isn’t possible for everyone.

I’ve seen some amazing transformation stories, sparked by one catalyst moment and someone’s life that might seem trivial to another’s.

It’s probably a cliche, but the impetus to take control of your health starts in your mind.

And no, I’m not here to tell you that you just need to try harder or be more consistent, or even talk yourself into a daily routine of it.

I’m here to tell you that just believing that you’re more fit than you initially thought and reframing the way you think about “exercise” can have a massive effect on your life.

But first…

Something that’s had a massive effect on my life recently is the Thrive25 app.

I wake up at 5:30 am every day, and it was hard for me to rationalize having a routine.

But Thrive25 is a great place to start for tracking your labs, improving your health, and setting goals to feel better and live longer.

I’ve partnered with them and developed my personalized longevity routine, not one that’s cut-and-pasted from the web.

Best of all? Thrive25 is super affordable and secure. If you sign up for their app with my affiliate link, you’ll save on your health for life.

Use my link to get an early access discount FOREVER and take real control of your health.

Reframing Exercise And Your Relationship with How “Fit” You Are

I started working with a client with scoliosis 18 months ago.

She routinely mentioned feeling uncomfortable, like she was out of alignment, and that her day-to-day work had her feeling drained.

I should also mention she was exiting a toxic relationship, which may have had something to do with how she was feeling overall.

But I’m not a spiritual healer.

I do, however, know how movement heals.

Two or three months into training, she hadn’t noticed it, but her posture, shoulder position, and foot arch had dramatically improved from just mastering a few exercises.

Five or six months in, she reported actually feeling better.

But that is a standard trajectory.

What’s happened in the last four months may have changed her life trajectory forever.

Once we started moving to more complex lifts, she gained a certain insatiable quality for exercise.

But the interesting part was… she didn’t think of it as exercise.

A few months ago, this client reported starting a daily stretching routine in between our training sessions together that she said, catapulted her feelings of alignment into a new stratosphere.

While I always try to assign homework to clients, this practice of hers was self-taught.

When I asked her what prompted her new routine, her answer surprised me:

“I stopped thinking about the stuff I do outside of the gym as ‘exercise,’ and started thinking about it as ‘connecting with my body.’”

This answer was something I figured I couldn’t gatekeep.

I started telling my other clients about this, too.

And suddenly, strength training wasn’t the only thing my clients were doing outside of our workouts.

Yoga, running, massages, stretching…

These are all forms of connecting with your body and moving.

In isolation, they don’t achieve much. But when combined in a stew of all-encompassing movement and bodily attention, they create an incredibly healthy human.

My client, who started this trend, doesn’t just stretch anymore.

She joined a gym and connects with her body there three times a week.

Her simple change in language around exercise turned her aversion to difficult training into a habit that she associates with pleasure.

The Power of Language and What You Tell Yourself

My client’s story is not a new one either.

Changing the language around how you exercise and what you call exercise is only part of the story.

Doing this can help form a habit, but one way you can also help improve your fitness outcomes is simply believing that you are capable of exercising more (and even thinking you “exercise a lot).

Studies show this form of delusion actually leads people to healthier lives.

You don’t necessarily need to be perfect every single day, despite popular belief.

If you simply tell yourself you’re doing well enough, or even better than the average person (which you probably are), you’ll probably keep going…right?

In my case, I didn’t think of myself as much of a runner a year ago.

I didn’t dedicate nearly enough time as some of the hardcore amateurs (35-40 miles per week) do. I’d be lucky to eke out 20.

Still, I told myself it was enough, given my schedule constraints.

As of 2025, I’ve found enough time to make 30 miles per week work. And boy, has it paid dividends.

I finished top 100 in a 5k recently with over 4,800 people.

Earlier this year, I finished 479th out of 11,000 in a 10k, running 6:30-minute miles. Do I consider myself an “elite” runner?

No, but in the past year and a half, I’ve become a damn good one.

That mindset shift took time.

As do many of them.

But the stories you tell yourself — down to the very last word and way you describe that story — MATTER. A LOT.

Don’t take it from me. Take it from the amazing clients I work with. (You know who you are).

Interested in 1:1 coaching? Comment on this post and let’s get started.

Good Afternoon!

I hope everybody had an amazing Thanksgiving.

Reading comprehension is (generally) defined as “the ability to extract meaning from a written text, prior knowledge, and analysis to understand and integrate it into what’s already known.”

Too many readers today lack this skill or have thrown it to the wind …

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Some Turkey Trot Thoughts

You probably don’t need to hear this unless you’re as Type-A obsessive as I am about progress, but not every race needs to (or will be) a personal best.

If you live with those expectations, you’ll almost certainly be let down more times than you’re impressed with yourself.

This…

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Olivia and I recorded a shorter episode this week to expand on some more of the commonalities in her practice, including the timelines for her patients’ intake and outtake, other surprising benefits of having worked with her on gut health, and how supplements and probiotics can help us “biohack” things like sleep and metabolism.

We will be taking Thanksgiving week off from recording our weekly conversations, and will be returning in December with more fruitful health convos.

Below are timestamps from our Monday conversation:

1:30 - How long can someone expect to work with a functional nutritionist before they start seeing results?

6:00 - Interesting side effects of improving gut health, improvements in mood, and feelings of happiness

10:00 - Can probiotics and a focus on gut cleansing help with sleep and metabolism?

12:30 - “Biohacking” sleep with targeted supplementation — L-Theanine, Glycine, and Magnesium

15:00 - When should you take sleep supplements to speed up digestion, melatonin production, and sleep time?

17:10 - Best practices for probiotics — where to look, as an everyday person, to improve your microbiome and feel better.

20:00 - The gross new transplant study that involves… eating… stool? (Just listen, I promise, it’s interesting).

Olivia and I spoke yesterday about something many of you may know, but won’t get the full picture of without a GI map reading:

Your diet is a key factor in maintaining your skin health, and the mucous in your gut (sorry for the gross image) actually plays a significant role in determining whether or not your skin is clear.

Sure, the ties between ultra-processed foods and inflammation are understood at this point, but unless you’ve taken the full plunge into Acutane — the mechanisms of which we cover briefly in this episode — it’s hard to know exactly how to quell some acne outbreaks.

In this discussion, we cover:

• What a GI Map test entails, including the bacterial strains that are associated with acne and breakouts

• Why you can’t use a regular blood panel to determine the root cause of someone’s acne

• The supplements Olivia has prescribed to clients to help clear up their acne and reduce symptoms of inflammation

• The timeline one might expect to see improvement in their skin health after making the necessary adjustments to their routine

• What the everyday person without acne can do to prevent further breakouts with their current diet

Enjoy!

Tomorrow I’ll be releasing a bonus newsletter on traditional Chinese medicine, so keep an eye on your inbox for that!

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I recommend drinking it in the afternoon, or after your hardest workouts, to see the best benefits in recovery and sleep.

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