“If you’re a founder feeling “burnout” or “mentally slower” with all the inbound (emails, projects, etc.) and outbound (initiatives, OKRs, etc.), it might be good to look at your relationship w/food.

I found a lot of benefits in working with Chandra (or finding someone in her line of work):

Chandra LinkedIn

I used to try to “grind through” stress/work and chronically snack out of stress/eat out/have some pints, then go out and run/train hard, low sleep, and do that day after day, which led to joint issues, digestive issues, and a lot of body stiffness/pain (which makes sense – I wasn’t decompressing/meeting the needs of my body, and therefore, I was getting slowly injured over long time horizons i.e. back pain, bad circulation, light breathing, gut pain). I had a lot of thoughts like “I don’t feel good enough” or “I’ll be happy once we sell or hit X users.” Her program restructured how I process these events through the lens of food.

As a founder, who at times feels “imposter syndrome” i.e. the fear-driven response of B player who hasn’t practiced to be considered an A player yet (or believes that at least), I went in “high ego” i.e. fear of uncertainty with a “food only” mindset to solve my bodily issues, but that soon changed as I realized that I really needed a safe low judgment space to expose my vulnerabilities and weaknesses in order to shift my perspective into one of better service to others (which I view as the route to happiness).

Chandra’s food and mood program is holistic; by that, I mean that she helps connect broad aspects of the human experience to help one understand the interrelatedness. How I respond to food is related to so many other areas of my life like daily flow/presence, relieving stress, and making and executing on goals.

I am now obsessed with performance through self-care and cut out most processed foods and almost all sugar (outside of some fruits/veggies). I have never felt happier/smarter. I am sleeping super deep (comparatively), and my health issues are nearly gone (4 months in/excited for the next 8) – even though only 30, was running my body into the ground. I am probably doing 2x the amount of work (productivity not activity)/have clear boundaries from the clarity to drive that performance. Less coffee etc. The work is more fun.

“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious, you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.”
― Lao Tzu

I resonate with this quote – I was eating poorly (a lot of NYC-style high-quality gourmet/but not healthy) and my body had the wrong fuel. My body was taking on debt and worried about future debt (that is my non-scientific guess).

Perhaps as an ode to Karl Popper (long ago LSE professor/philosopher/staying on that theme in my posts), the empiricism is that