Unveiling the Blueprint of Transformation: My 2023 Review on Conquering Caffeine, Tracking Triumphs, and the Small Shifts that Changed Everything!

Summary

When you get small wins, you create momentum and consistent momentum moves mountains.

Background

I started the year with the goal to kick my 20+ year reliance on caffeine for good. I was sick of waking up every morning and having my first thought be “where’s my caffeine coming from today?” I tried kicking caffeine before and knew that the only way it was going to work, was to completely cut it from my life; no more Arnold Palmers for me. This change started the spark to a whole new me. Here’s a summary of what that small change did:

January: Stopped all caffeine
March: Purchased Apple Watch
March: Attempted to add cold plunges to my daily routine
April: Started focusing on supplementation (Creatine, and Electrolytes)
April: Started worrying about/tracking my sleep
April: Started back at the gym before work
June: Bought a scale to track weight
July: Launched personal daily tracker
July: Invested in building out calendar
July: Started capturing daily dinner meals with family
July: Started weekly review of finances
July: Stopped drinking alcohol
August: Organized notes app as a personal database
September: First forte in Macro (nutrient) tracking
September: Started utilizing Apple Reminders for task tracking
November: Tried to reintroduce meditation

The First Step:

The thing to understand is, once I broke through the caffeine barrier (something I wanted to do for a while) it challenged me to continue finding things to overcome. I surrounded myself with things that gave me energy and inspiration (Andrew Huberman, Rob Dyrdek, Tim Ferriss, etc.). I first started with a replacement to make sure that I had enough energy and that’s where I turned my focus to:

Good sleep
Supplementation
Water

After doing some research, I added creatine to help with mental energy (and it didn’t hurt that I’ve always wanted to put on more muscle). I was nervous that it would have negative effects; so far, so good! I used Dr. Huberman’s morning recommendation of water and electrolytes first thing and that has been huge in making sure I have nearly endless energy. I feel like my daily energy no longer spikes; I wake up, have lots of energy, and then get tired at night. It just feels like this was the way things are supposed to be. At first, when I stopped caffeine, I would find myself getting tired throughout the afternoon. I just dealt with it and it eventually went away.

The next big breakthrough was the Apple Watch. The ability to get data on all types of categories was intoxicating. I spiraled to see, with a normal budget, what were the things I could track. I knew that I needed to slowly introduce new things to track in order to make sure that I established the habits appropriately for all of them. I tried a few things that didn’t end up sticking this year but I haven’t given up just yet. Things that have stuck:

Daily tracking of my health, life, work and energy (through a daily survey)
Supplementation
Weight tracking
Sleep tracking

Daily Survey:

Given inspiration from Rob Dyrdek’s daily survey, I built my own survey. This tracks qualities and questions that I believe are key drivers of my health and happiness. This includes a daily rating of Work, Life, Health, and Energy that are added together each day to give me a daily score (out of 40). I also ask myself about attributes such as spending time with family, exercising, eating well, meditating, etc. that I believe attribute to a better quality of life. I make sure this happens everyday by building an Apple Shortcut, that reminds me every day at 9PM to complete the survey. Since being introduced in July, I’ve only missed two days of this.

I built the tracker using Google Forms, as I know I could aggregate the data by having Google Forms auto populate a Google Sheet. This is the key because it automates my capturing and storage of the data, to create a sudo-database. A screenshot of the form is below:

I then take this data and built out a dashboard in Google Looker Studio using this data captured on this Google Form.

Dashboard:

I built out this dashboard, as a way to track my life on a big scale. It’s often really hard to see large trends in how you’re doing and by capturing data everyday and then combining it, I can see large trends. I call it my “Harmony” Dashboard as a way to work towards a more harmonious life between Work, Life, Health, and Energy.

This dashboard has gone through a few different iterations, where I continue to refine what I’m capturing and how I’m viewing the data to continue to review higher insights. A few things I’ve added have been workouts and sleep tracking.

If you understand anything about PowerBI (or other visualization tools) this was pretty easy to set up. This is “interactive” in that you can click on anything on the dashboard, and numbers change based on that particular selection. It’s really powerful in being able to interpret data. Because it’s connected to a Google Sheet, I don’t have to manually update this portion (I do for workouts and sleep, but I’m working towards not doing that). Again, this comes back to the idea that if it’s difficult for me to do, I might not do it so put preference on automation and ease of use to make sure that you’re building something sustainable.

Sleep Tracking:

Each night I wear my Apple Watch to bed so that I can capture my sleep. This data is automatically collected and housed in Apple Health. I’ve gotten a few questions of how do I wear it while I sleep and still charge it? I’ve built a routine where I charge the watch after dinner, as I’m usually not doing anything anyways, so that I can wear it to bed and capture my sleep. It’s been really eye opening to see how my sleep has impacted my energy during the day. I’ve been focusing on getting deep sleep, as this is where the body restores itself. It’s become a bit of an obsession on how I can get deeper sleep. So far, I haven’t cracked the code on how to improve the quantity of deep sleep; I’ve tried not eating carbs at night, taking sleep supplementation, going to bed early, going to bed late, working out, etc. and nothing seems to really change it. The only thing is really being just really tired when I go to bed as deep sleep for me happens early in the night. So prioritizing falling asleep early and being consistent in my sleep has made the most impact.

The big thing has not been tracking my sleep, but the importance of getting sleep and building a routine around enough sleep has been a huge driver of daily energy levels. I mean, it’s pretty simple to grasp, but getting sleep is the key to having energy (duh). It’s funny how much we don’t prioritize that however. Then you mix in most people’s caffeine intake, and you’re building a recipe for bad sleep, which leads to low energy, which leads to more caffeine, which starts the cycle over. Getting out of that cycle (both mentally and physically) has been the biggest change in my life this year.

My dashboard holds my sleep pattern for 30 days (as 365 day charts were basically unreadable). I pay special attention (second chart) to my deep sleep as that’s my main goal. I’d like to find a way to tie my daily score into my sleep to see if there are any patterns I don’t recognize, but that connection has been a bit of a pain to do. I pull this data from Apple Health, through an app called Auto Export. This is the only service that I’ve found that can export data from Apple Health (Apple, if you’re reading this, which I know you are, please make it so that we can pull data directly from Apple Health.) This is a manual pull, but the Auto Export makes it pretty simple to update the dashboard.

Workouts:

The final piece of my Dashboard is tracking my workouts. Like I’ve described above, I’ve put emphasis on working out this year. I really want to improve my health so I can be around as long as I can for my family and to experience as much life as possible (it also doesn’t hurt self esteem to get in shape). My main priorities have been going on walks (with my family) and hitting the gym. I also wanted to run more this year, which I’m awful at, and I’ve definitely got room for improvement next year.

Like sleep tracking, I capture workouts through my Apple Watch. This has been key in keeping me consistent, and gives me a bit of motivation to do it (as I love seeing charts fill up). This data is aggregated from Auto Export and is manually added to a Google Sheet once a weekend (usually Sunday mornings). My whole process to capture workouts and sleep for the week usually takes me about 3 minutes in total; not automated but certainly pretty streamlined.

Meal Planning:

One of the most exhausting conversations that happened every day was “what do you want for dinner?” That one sentence would set me off and I know I made my wife’s life harder with this topic too. It often was a heated debate amongst the household to figure out what food we had, what we wanted, and how much time we had, everyday. The small shift of planning out our dinner meals ahead of time was a game changer. It allowed us to plan, shop, and then execute these meals without the mental gymnastics each night. It was such a small change, spending 15 minutes either Saturday night or Sunday morning, but had such a lasting impact all week. Even if we didn’t stick to that schedule strictly, giving us freedom to live in the moment, it gave us a path forward for the times we were too tired to think.

Capturing this information in Google Calendar also allowed us to share the same calendar, and then track what we’ve eaten in the past for future meals. No longer do we have to carry around this piece of information with us at all times; we have a dedicated place to go to when we want this information; that alone is worth its weight in gold.

Key Drivers

Simplicity: Being deliberate with the development of this process has been one of the most important things. I have a tendency to dive into projects full force and then waiver once it’s not interesting to me. To avoid this, I knew I had to build the habits around the things I was doing to ensure that these stick around. So I would introduce only a few things at once, and then optimize each thing to make sure that it was easy for me to do. In looking back on the things that I didn’t stick with (food tracking, or cold plunges for example) these were things that took me disproportionately longer to do, and therefore the effort to maintain was greater than the consequence I received from it. That’s why I know, in order for me to track food, I have to build a system that’s easy, which will require me to spend a lot of time upfront to build out a library of my most used foods, to make tracking super simple.

Proximity: As described in James Clear’s Atomic Habits, your environment shapes your habits. I found that to be a hard truth when I changed jobs in February. As a result of this shift, it put me physically closer and provided free access to a workout facility. As a result, I was able to build a routine around hitting the gym before I went to work. I could have done this anytime, but being closer to the gym made this realistic. It demonstrated to me the power of making sure your environment is helping (not hindering) what you’re looking to accomplish. Make the things you want easy to obtain and the things you don’t, hard.

Cost: I don’t want anything that’s part of this ecosystem that costs me money in the form of recurring payments. I’m not paying for a subscription service to access something, which is why I choose the products I did. I’m fine with upfront investments (Apple Watch) but I refuse to be part of a ecosystem that requires me to generate consistent revenue to just get the features I already bought. I could write pages on how much I loathe this trend, but I knew that if I was building a system, I didn’t want pay-to-play models incorporated.

Results

Caffeine: I’ve stuck strong folks. I’ve only had two drinks that contain caffeine in the past year and they were both Liquid Death teas. I didn’t really like them, and I know what happens if I make it a habit, so I won’t continue getting them. I’ve completely replaced my caffeine addiction with water, sparkling water, and morning electrolyte/creatine cocktails. My goal, never drink caffeine again. I’m sure I’ve gotten caffeine through natural sources like chocolate, but I don’t reach for it for energy. I’m not reliant on my ability to focus or be a normal human on that shit anymore. No going back for me.

Daily Score: I finished the year with a 25.44 average (out of 40 max). I saw a noticeable month over month change with July being 23.57 and December being 27.8. Is my overall quality of life better? Based on my own ratings, yeah. It’s tough to see the forest through the trees sometimes, but my own data doesn’t lie. Is there pressure to want to always get better that might reduce the probability of a lower rating, maybe, but I’ve tried to be really fair with myself and rate the shitty days bad; after all, the only one really impacted by this rating is me.

Weight: Overall 3lb average drop in weight since I started tracking; I’ve seen 8lb swings from max to minimum this year. While losing weight wasn’t a goal, it’s nice to see consistency resulting in measurable change.

Workouts: This was a big area of improvement for me and I’m proud of what I’ve done, and see a clear path for additional improvement.

Walking: Goal — 120 walks; Result — 130 walks recorded.
Strength Training: Goal — 80 workouts; Result — 67 workouts.
Running: Goal — 22 runs; Result — 8 runs.

Alcohol: One of the biggest life improvements was completely stopping drinking. I wasn’t a big drinker to begin with, but getting older, I started to notice the unintended effects more. After a night having two beers around a bonfire, I woke up with shoulder pain from a previous injury that I hadn’t felt in a really long time, with nothing to account for it. I didn’t want to be out of the gym for an extended period of time so I looked at all possible reasons and alcohol was top of mind. I decided to experiment with completely cutting it out to see if it resolved it, and lo and behold it did. Since that time, I found the value of drinking didn’t outweigh the longer impacts it had on my body, so out it goes. If I want the taste of a beer, most places have a non-alcoholic (NA) option, or I just drink water.

2024 Goals

In reflecting on what made this year great, it was that I set goals for myself. I usually hate new years resolutions, because people use the new year as a reason to change, rather than owning the need to change; it’s probably why people don’t stick to them. (I go by the mindset that if you want to make a change, then you better start today.) With all of that said, I’ve decided to continue my momentum and establish some full year goals for myself.

Spend more time with family: I need to spend more time with my wife and my kids. It’s an area that I need to put more effort and time into. They are the closest to me and deserve my attention. This means being more intentional with my time, reducing social media bullshit, and just being the best father and husband I can be. Of all of the things I could be, this is what I want to be.

Track my food: I want to finally start tracking the nutrients and energy I put into my body. This is the last habit I need to establish to get the body and energy I want. I know the benefits of healthy nutrition (as this is the only source of nutrients your body gets) and tracking my food will force me to confront my eating habits head on. What do I need: a system. I need to spend time capturing my meals so that they are easily available on the tracking app Macro. This way there’s little resistance to the establishment of the habit, a key driver in making it stick. This will require a database of meals to choose from, something I’m starting to build already.

Track my time: I’m interested to see if I can establish a system to track what I’m doing, as a wake up call for how I’m spending my time. I have an idea of how to build a system, but I have to perfect it in a way that it can work. Again, the important thing here is making a system that is easy, available, and low maintenance to ensure that it sticks. This will take my data tracking up a notch if implemented well and consistently tracked.

Bring my lunch: In looking at the biggest cost drivers of my life, the area for immediate improvement is bringing my lunch. I spend so much unnecessary dollars on food; cutting this back will both help save money and also make tracking my food that much easier.

Appreciate the value of a dollar: Basically a way of saying go back to being cheap. I spend money on stuff I really don’t need and this will be a big focus for me in the coming year. I want to feel financially more stable while also reducing salary creep where we establish a new baseline of salary requirements, reducing our ability to take risks and building a salary trap. I want to avoid this to the extent I can while also building a framework for longer term financial prosperity. This means, I need to rein in my spending a bit.

Read more: What if I stopped scrolling and started moving pages? How much more good advice is in the wisdom of authors than influencers? I think it’s pretty clear why we all need to read more, so it’s something I want to be more deliberate with.

Do tough shit and take risks: Really, this whole year has been about exploring doing things that are hard, in the hopes it makes me a better person. I think I can confidently say, that’s the case. So, let’s do more of that next year.