While interviewing my friend Dan John for a Bulletproof podcast, we got into an interesting discussion that deserves its own blog post. Dan has become a fan of Bulletproof intermittent fasting (only drinking Bulletproof® Coffee in the morning to sustain fullness and energy into the afternoon while losing fat and building [...]
A Bulletproof Mind
We all have room for improvement with our mental performance. Whether you are an experienced biohacker or don’t even know what it is, there are things you can do to become even better than you are right now.
When I started studying at Wharton business school, my doctor did a brain scan and said, “Inside your brain is total chaos.” For more than 10 years, I’ve focused on hacking my brain – and mind – to levels of performance I never thought possible. My brain transformed itself from total chaos into a highly flexible productivity machine capable of peak performance states.
Here, you will learn about your brain (hardware) and your mind (software). The combination determines your mental performance. The biggest difference between most hardware and software analogies is that most software does not redesign its own hardware on the fly. How you use your mind reshapes your brain – for better or worse.
The foods you feed your body influence your brain, which in turn impacts how your hardware functions with respect to clarity, concentration, speed of thought, working memory, and many other brain functions. Quite literally, the quality of your food controls the quality of your mental performance.
Your brain is the home base of your mind. Your brain does a lot for you without you having to think about it! Your brain operates many of your bodily functions (breathing, heart rate) that at first glance seem outside of conscious control and much more. Your mind is the expression of your brain. Your mind is formed through the complex interaction of varying structures in the brain and results in many cool things like conscious awareness, thinking, speaking, feeling, problem solving, planning, attitude and more! And cooler- how you train your mind can change the shape of your brain.
Our minds are capable of incredible things when they’re trained. When your mind or environment reshapes your brain, it’s called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is proven to exist- meditators and taxi drivers have differently shaped brains – they literally changed structures in their brains through practice, and those changes in turn make them even better at their respective goals. The best news is that you don’t have to be a neuroscientist to improve your mental performance, and studies show that simply knowing you have the power to improve your intelligence is the first step to doing it.
Below, I share some of the easiest and most effective ways to improve your mental performance through fueling your brain and upgrading your mind.
Step 6: Upgrade Your Brain
Get Smart – Upgrade Your Brain – A brain hacking presentation from SXSW 2012
Podcast #13: How to Upgrade Your Brain with Coconut Oil and Ketones
Why your brain is nowhere near full capacity, despite what research says
Podcast #28 Monitoring Your Brain with Chris Berka
"'The Bulletproof Diet is one of the easiest and most user friendly ways to display this information. It puts things on a continuum that is easy to understand; I would tell everyone: "go get that, print it out, and use it."'
"Really awesome job on the infographic... outstanding effort at illustrating loads of information in a tiny space."
"There are citizen scientists like you, Tim Ferriss, Seth Roberts, and that's about it."
Silicon Valley investor, computer security expert, and entrepreneur who spent 15 years and $250,000 to hack his own biology. He upgraded his brain by >20 IQ points, lowered his biological age, and lost 100 lbs without using calories or exercise.