Good morning, y’all! We’re officially over halfway to Christmas now. 🎄 

If you’re thinking shorter term, we’re now just one month away from the Olympics Opening Ceremony! I am THRILLED to get to go on a bucket list trip to watch them in person this year!

Because of that, I’m letting you know now that I’ll be taking a couple weeks off writing MTI in late July/early August while I’m eating croissants and watching the best in the world go for gold, so don’t forget about me while I’m away. 🥇 

p.s. If you know anyone going or anyone in France, would you be so kind as to connect me? I’m looking forward to meeting tons of awesome new people!

(If this email was forwarded to you and you'd like to receive this weekly newsletter, sign up below!)

🦸 My Executive Committee of Influencers

Companies and nonprofits have boards. I have an Executive Committee Board of Directors of Influencers who lives in my head and influences my thoughts!

We all have people who influence us. Even if we don’t know them personally, their online or print communication and messaging might influence us significantly.

We have different criteria for why we give someone our trust and credibility. In today’s newsletter, I’ll share the top voices who influence my thoughts, opinions, mental frameworks, etc. around health and fitness specifically.

For me, some of the criteria include education, lived experience, who influences them, and their communication style (nuanced and honest over flashy hot takes), to name a few.

• Notably, many of these voices have deeper backgrounds than I do in certain fields of study. Rather than learning it all myself, I can rely on their summarized expertise.

• Many of these people also dive deep into research, themselves, and I trust their credible conclusions enough to absorb them without having to read all the research on my own.

Importantly, I don’t completely agree with everything that any one of them believes, much less all of them. While I won’t include people with ridiculous, offensive, or flat out wrong takes in my Executive Committee, it’s still important to include voices and perspectives that stretch and challenge me, nudging me in different directions.

• I like to think of their voices like a web, with me in the center, and each one’s opinion never fully swaying me, but tugging me slightly in any given direction with each new input. I ultimately land at the unique average of all the voices who influence me.

I hope that’s how you approach voices in your lives, too. It’s probably unwise to 100% commit to following any one person’s advice or approach. Taking a well-thought-out amalgamation of numerous perspectives is likely the wiser way to go.

The list you’ve all been waiting for

Okay, without any further ado, here is my list of my Executive Committee of Influencers. Most of their communication I consume from podcasts, written material, and social media. I will include their areas of strength/expertise and why I trust them. They are in no particular order.

1. Marcus Filly: Founder of Functional Bodybuilding. Former competitive CrossFitter, current fitness coach. One of the best voices on training and conditioning as well as nutrition for performance and aesthetics.

2. Dr. Peter Attia: Medical doctor, author, one of the greatest voices on exercise and longevity/healthspan currently.

3. Dr. Andrew Huberman: a PhD with a focus on neurobiology. He’s contributed much to the science of light, sleep, brain health, exercise, and “routines/protocols.”

4. Dr. Andy Galpin: A younger but well-educated and well-researched expert in peak exercise performance. He has a gift for communicating complex exercise science in a way the general public can comprehend and act upon.

5. Dr. Gabrielle Lyon: She’s an expert in the science of muscle and protein and a mentee of Dr. Donald Layman, another expert in muscle and protein!

6. Michelle Shapiro, RD: A dietician who has a knack for communicating nuance and finding the middle ground beyond the often loud dietary extremes that are thrown at us. 

7. Dr. Mark Hyman: A medical doctor and author with a focus on food’s healing properties and potential to transform our health. He recently picked up resistance exercise in his 60s and has drastically improved his health and physique from doing so.

8. Max Lugavere: Podcaster, author, and health & science journalist. Though his educational and work background aren’t as strong in health and fitness, he has interviewed numerous top experts and contributed to the field.

9. Beth Silvers & Sarah Stewart Holland: Though they don’t exactly talk much about health/fitness on their podcast, Pantsuit Politics, Sarah and Beth have been go-to trusted voices for me since 2020. Their focuses on nuance and grace help me adopt a mindset that I apply to everything else in my life: healthily consume information, sift through it, and communicate lovingly and wisely with people.

The wrap-up

The voices you let into your life expand further than the people you surround yourself with in person on a day to day basis. It’s important to consider who you’re letting speak into you, how informed they are on what they’re speaking on, and their ultimate purposes for doing so.

Who do you know that should join this list? I’d love to increase the diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and thoughts in my own list. Whose insight am I missing out on? Hit reply and let me know!

✅ Take Action

Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.

Level 1: Have you thought about who your list of influencers is? Whether we realize it or not, there are voices in our life influencing our thoughts and narratives. Take some time to figure out who yours are.

Level 2: Check out some of mine shared above! I have vetted these folks pretty well, and think they’re worth listening to.

Level 3: Who are some of the great influences in your life that you believe I could benefit from learning from? Let me know!

This newsletter is brought to you by… me!

Interested in becoming a sponsor? Know someone else who might be? I’d love to get to know you and/or your business and see how we can partner together. Reply to this email!

✍️ Drew's Picks:

• Listen & Learn: “Why Muscle Matters & How to Build It.” This podcast by Dr. Andy Galpin (recognize his name from above?) is the second in season 1 of his brand new podcast. Dr. Galpin has such a knack for distilling complex information into digestible topics. His content is always worth a listen!

Have a lovely week, everyone. Get one friend to sign up by July 1, email me proof, and I’ll personally shout you out next week!

(Low key, what motivates y’all? Cuz our referral game is weak currently 😂)

Keep moving,

Drew

The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).