Life updates: Life on the farm, New Health Book

and what is to come in Gumption

I write you this update from a farm in Richmond where I am volunteering over the summer. I volunteer here for 20 hours a week, while continuing to build my health program and prepare for its official launch at the end of the summer.

My home for the next 3 months

Meanwhile, I have also been writing a Non-fiction book compiling my own struggles with health, and the decade of research I have poured into my transformation from a sick doctor into a healthy writer.

There is no place better for me to be finish writing this book, than here on the farm immersed in nature, caring for care and watching the boats float lazily over the crystal blue Bay.

The book is about staying healthy in the modern world, taking into account how emotions keep us in a stress loop that impacts our behaviors and health outcomes.

While I tend to goats, care for the chicken, and garden the field, my mind is nourished by the pictersque scenery and the works of Gabor Mate, Jon Kabat Zinn, Robert Sopolsky, Michael Pollan, Kristen Neff, Brene Brown, Layne Norton, Andrew Huberman, Peter Attia and many more of those who are on the forefront of six health frontiers: Excercise, Nutrition, Stress, Sleep, Relationships and Addictions.

However, many of these so-called longevity experts focus too much in optimiziation versus slowing down to enjoy the fleeting moments of life. This espeically true of Humberman and Attia, whom I admire, but do not see as role models. More on that on the weeks to come.

Being on the farm feels like a protection from that kind of thinking, and is bringing ease to both the writing and, -hopefully- the reading of this book-to-be!

I am compiling a book that will bring all of that evidence-based lifestyle stuff into the realm of emotions and trauma. I am writing the book that I needed to read 10 years ago.

Get a sneak peak at the chapters and be the first to get a copy by becoming a paid member.

Over the next three months, as I prepare to launch the gumption health program and finish the first draft of my book, I will share with you a weekly reflection on these health domains from life on the farm.

How can I stay healthy, achieve my business goals, and still fulfill all my commitments ot the farm and enjoy the simplicity of life here? Tune in next Sunday to find out!

Expect research-backed essays on lifestyle domains, with a sprinkle of farm reflections, a dash of goat, chicken and sunset pictures, interwoven with questions that will get you thinking about your own behaviors as a human.

Stay tuned Sunday for Part 1: Staring at Goats, and the Human Stress Response.

In preparation for that, please let me know in the commments: What is one thing that you learned about your health from observing animals?

Omar Shaker, MD

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• Get your free gumption health report on selfcompassion scores and habit readiness here. You can also schedule a call with me to learn about our six week program (available in SF only right now).

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