An Excellent Wknd [26.09]
Some thoughts on treating our health like our wealth
Happy Saturday, my friends.
Before we get into the week’s recap — something I wanted to mention:
From the very beginning of this show (almost a decade!), your questions played a big role in what we talked about. Over the last few years, we’ve drifted away from them as source material for episodes — and we want to bring them back.
Starting in April, Ben will be answering your Five Factors questions again, and we need some new ones to get us started.
We’d love to know what’s on your mind. What are you struggling with? Where do you need help fighting back against drift?
👉🏼 Submit your questions here.
Thanks in advance.
Let’s get into it.
CATCH DRIFT BEFORE IT BECOMES DISEASE
Our friend Dr. Rich Joseph introduced a framework to us that changes how we think about health: drift, dysfunction, disease.
Traditional medicine diagnoses disease in binary terms. You either have it or you don’t. Functional medicine has done important work defining dysfunction — brain fog, autoimmune conditions, gut issues that don’t fit neat diagnostic boxes. But Rich’s work goes even further upstream to catch drift.
Drift is imperceptible decline in capacity. It’s what happens when you’re still pretty fit but objectively declining year over year. You don’t see it day to day because you’re swimming in your own water. Maybe you were an athlete in high school or college and you still have that vision of yourself. But if someone looked at the actual objective metrics, it wouldn’t measure up.
You might still feel pretty good. You might think you’re in decent shape. But your VO2 max has dropped. Your strength has declined. Your balance isn’t what it was. These things don’t announce themselves. They slip away quietly. And by the time you notice, dysfunction has set in. Maybe some musculoskeletal issues. Maybe early signs of metabolic problems. And if that goes unchecked long enough, you’re looking at disease.
The goal is to catch drift before it becomes dysfunction.
That requires objective metrics tracked over time. Not just how you feel, but what the data shows. DEXA scans for muscle mass and visceral fat. VO2 max testing. Lipid panels that include ApoB. Fasting insulin to catch insulin resistance early. Functional fitness assessments across all domains.
This is proactive healthcare. Not waiting until something’s broken to fix it. Not even waiting until there’s dysfunction. Catching the drift and course-correcting before it compounds.
Rich compares it to wealth management. You don’t ignore your investments until you’re broke. You monitor them regularly and make adjustments.
Your health deserves the same attention.
Sourced for purity, not cost-cutting: Grass-fed whey from European dairy farms, the purest creatine monohydrate available, and clinically validated nutrients across every product. Zero artificial flavors or sweeteners, ever.
🎧 Don’t Just Look Fit. Be Fit. (w/ WWE’s Ivy Nile)
Exploring what it actually means to train for real fitness — not just the appearance of it — through the lens of one of WWE’s most elite athletes.
🎧 Name Your Mattering Project & Find a Path to a More Meaningful Life (w/ Rebecca Goldstein)
Talking with philosopher Rebecca Goldstein about the search for meaning — and why identifying what you want your life to count for might be the most important question you’re not asking.
💬 Something New: The Chase Club Chat Club
We launched something we’ve been wanting to do for a while — and we’re calling it the Chase Club Chat Club.
The idea is simple: instead of just giving you things to consume, we want to create space for actual conversation. The first one is live now. We’re diving into a chapter from Daniel Coyle’s Flourish — and we’d love to hear what you think.
If you’re a Chase Club member, take a look and consider jumping into the chat.
❤️🔥 The Daily Chase
Brief, focused essays delivered each weekday morning to Chase Club members.
On Monday, we’re working through a list Ben posted on Instagram a while back: 10 things that are hard to hear, but true. Things like “we need to work on changing us, not them,” “we complain a lot and it’s not helping,” and “more things won’t make us happy.”
Then on Thursday, Chase Club members get a new Q&A mini-episode. We take on a question from Juliana, who’s thinking about leaving a decade-long corporate career to build an online coaching business — one driven by impact and fulfillment, not just income.
Until then, keep on chasing.
🤙🏼 Patrick