I started The Pemmican Project because I’m trying to solve what I consider to be the biggest problem in the world. That problem is human health.

I know, sounds grandiose. But, I’m not trying to save the world through charity. Charity is a band-aid, not a solution. A real solution needs to be scalable. That means it pays for itself and it generates more value than it costs to buy, in other words it needs to be a business.

I don’t just want people to not be sick, unhealthy and overweight, I want everyone to feel absolutely superhuman. But one thing at the time.

Below you’ll find;

1. Why Health Solves Every Other World Problem

2. How to Solve it

3. What The Pemmican Project is Doing

So what’s the big problem?

I think there’s tons of problems in the world that needs solving, but here’s why I believe that health is the most important one.

Fix Your Oxygen Mask

We always say to “put on your own oxygen mask first” or to quote Abraham Lincoln;

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe”

It’s the same with people. If I’m sick and tired, I’m not going to do very good work and problems are going to seem bigger than they are.

But when I feel good, I’m focused and motivated to take on whatever the day brings.

To take it a step further, when I’m not feeling well, I’ll usually make bad decisions that make me feel even worse the next day. I’ll stay up late, I’ll isolate myself, I’ll eat garbage comfort-food and let the work pile up, making it feel even more impossible the next day.

But when I feel good, I do great work, I make good decisions, I lift other people up and what I do today improves tomorrow.

Society, People and the Future

Our world and society is no different because at the end of the day, society is made up of people.

If people are sick and weak, society will be weak and it will struggle to deal with it’s problems, and the problems will keep piling up.

But when people are strong, society is strong, it faces problems head on, looks out for each other and makes each day better than yesterday.

That’s why health has to come first. It affects not just our ability but our confidence in solving everything else.

I can’t be the only one feeling like the overall “vibe” in the news and among the people around me is that “the world is in a bad place” and that the future seems bleak.

I don’t think we’re facing more or greater problems today than we did 50-100 years ago. I think we’re overwhelmed by them from over-exposure (different problem) and that we’ve lost the belief that we can solve them.

In my mind, that starts with health, because how are you going to take care of the world if you’re struggling to take care of yourself.

If you can take people from struggling, to good to feeling superhuman, I don’t think there’s any problem we can’t solve. And that would be pretty damn cool.

Defining the Problem

In order to solve it we need to first define it. So what’s wrong with modern health?

Pretty simple. Every major illness has increase massively in the past 50 years.

• cardiovascular disease

• auto-immune disease

• Obesity

• Diabetes

the list goes on.

What’s worse is, it’s not just in adults, it’s in children as well, with things like childhood obesity being at historically high levels.

While we’ve gotten really good at treating sick people, we’re not fixing the root cause, and the root cause is lifestyle.

I’m not saying eating steak will cure cancer, but the greatest decline in human health happened at the same time that diet and lifestyle was turned completely upside down.

The sedentary lifestyle is one problem, but the bigger problem is what we eat. We moved away from eating real food in favour of what’s most profitable to sell.

• We demonised meat & fat to make sugar look good

• Created artificial ingredients our bodies can’t absorb so we could claim “zero sugar / zero calories ” and pretend like it’s nourishing.

• Made seed-oils and plant-based milks the norm

• Used fillers in food because it’s cheaper than real food or has better shelf-life.

We basically eat the exact opposite of what we evolved to eat for 2 million years.

Which brings us to the real problem.

The Root Cause

I don’t think anyone chooses to be unhealthy. I think people are misinformed and that the cards are stacked against them.

Everywhere you go, you can always find a million options for snacks and foods filled with sugar, chemicals and artificial foods with an ingredient list a mile long.

Not only that, they’re extremely cheap, engineered to be addictive and many are being marketed as being “healthy”.

As long as everything from junk food to fake “health foods” is cheaper, tastier and more easily available then overall health will keep getting worse. Fixing it will be like trying to swim upstream.

How To Solve It

I don’t think the solution is complicated, but that doesn’t make it easy. I believe two things need to happen;

#1 -Real food need to be made better, cheaper and more easily available to everyone, everywhere

Even if you try to make healthy choices, it’s near impossible to find. Every sandwich in every store is packed with artificial ingredients, sugar and seed oils.

This is the ingredient list of a typical chicken & Bacon sandwich.

Ok, how about a protein bar instead?

This isn’t food. Imagine feeding this to your pet. There’s a reason why every zoo has signs saying “Do Not Feed The Animals”. What it’s really saying is “Do Not Feed Them Your Garbage Food”.

What Needs To Happen

We need to make real food again without all the nonsense and it needs to be competitive. That means tasting great, being available in stores and while it will always be more expensive, it has to be affordable.

#2 - People need to be informed about what real health looks like.

Science moves slowly but it is catching up. We finally ditched the old food pyramid, and there’s increasing research into the benefits of an animal-based diet. Most people today understand that too much sugar and carbs is to be avoided, but there’s still work to do.

The damaging effects of Seed oil, plant-based milks, hidden sugars, “zero-calorie / zero-sugar” ingredients and lab-grown food does not get enough attention.

At the end of the day, I don’t care whether these products exists, I just want people to understand them and have better alternatives available.

The Pemmican Project

That’s what I set out to do with The Pemmican Project. The mission has always been, and will always be;

#1 Make the best & cleanest foods available to everyone, everywhere. At the lowest possible price.

Everything is 100% animal-based. There is not a single chemical, preservative, additive or any other nonsense in there. So far, every product has been launched at half the price of the closest option on the market.

Right now it’s just Pemmican and chicken crisps, but as we grow we’ll also make more and more products. Every time I come across something I’d actually like to buy but can’t get, I make a mental note that I plan to make one day. From airport chicken sandwiches to canned mackerel (why does this have sugar in it).

#2 Advocate for real health through lifestyle.

The last thing I thought I’d ever be was a content creator, but here we are. Nothing has ever had a greater impact on my life than being fortunate enough to always be in good health.

I share my own experience together with everything I know and everything I learn on this journey for free.

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Who is this for?

No matter what your goals are (sports, strength, aesthetics), if you’re a guy and your numbers are less than the following, this article is for you.

Numbers (Your natural potential)

• Bodyweight (in kg), greater than your height (in cm) minus 100k.

  • Example: f you 185cm you should weight at least 85 kg without being fat.

• Squat 1RM*: 1.75x bodyweight

• Bench 1RM: 1.4x bodyweight

• Deadlift 1RM: 2.25x bodyweight

• Overhead press 1RM: 0.85x bodyweight

• chin-ups & dips 1RM: 0.3x bodyweight

*1RM = 1 rep max

All goals are easier to reach once you’re at your natural potential. Most untrained people can get there in 4-6 months.

With that out of the way, let’s dive in.

Reaching Your Natural Potential

Almost all people will at one point or another look in the mirror and go

“I’d really want to be INSERT GOAL”

It doesn’t matter what that goal is. If you’re a guy, the best way to get there will almost always involve lifting heavy weights, at least for a while.

Why?

Because if you have never lifted heavy weights before, you are almost guaranteed to walk around at less than your “natural potential”.

The rare exception would be someone who played a strength-intensive sport like rugby or wrestling and even then, lifting weights will still improve their performance.

What is your natural potential?

It’s the amount of strength and muscle that your body natural wants to carry and where you’ll look and perform your best.

Any other goal you might have will be easier to achieve once you’re at this level.

A stronger athlete is a better and faster athlete.

Building muscle happens faster with bigger weights.

Being stronger makes you less likely to get injured.

The Best Part
Because this is where your body naturally wants to be, it’s also very simple to get to this level. With the right program, most people can get there in 4-6 months.

The Program

My story

I was always very active as a kid. My idea of fitness growing up was running, push-ups and pull-ups. So I’d routinely go on 5k, 10k, 15k runs, do push-ups and do pull-ups under the stairs.

When I got to high school I got introduced to the gym but it wasn’t until uni that I got into lifting weights.

While definitely better and stronger than average, I did the same idiot programs most guys do in their early twenties, 2-splits, 3-splits and what-not.

While I did gain some weight I stayed around 75-80kg (I’m 185 cm) and deadlifted maybe 160kg for a single and benched 100kg for a single. Even though I went to the gym 3-4x per week I stayed around this level all throughout uni.

It was only after uni someone finally put my head on straight, set me on a linear progression program in order to rehab a back injury and in 4 months I blew through all my past records and landed at:

Bodyweight: from 85kg to 98kg
Squat, 5 rep max: from 60kg to 160kg
Deadlift, 5 rep max: from 60kg to 170kg
Bench, 5 rep max: from 100kg to 135kg
Overhead press, 5 rep max: from 60kg to 80kg

Zooming Out

• I went through high school and uni weighing around 77kg, so underweight for my height (185 cm).

• Very physically active but new to lifting weights.

• I got bigger and stronger in the 4 months of doing linear progression than in the previous 9 years of doing whatever-the-f***.

I don’t have any regrets but if I could change one thing, I’d go back to my high school self, put that guy on linear progression and a 4000 calorie diet and give myself 10 years of progress in 6 months.

The Program

I was introduced to both the rehab protocol that fixed my back and Linear Progression through Starting Strength and they remain my primary source of training advise. You can find the program here and if you want a much deeper breakdown that what you’re about to read, I highly recommend the main book Starting Strength, Basic Barbell Training

Linear Progression

This program is as simple as it is effective.

• You train 3 days per week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)

• Alternate between workout A and workout B*

• Eat 4000 calories.

• Get plenty of sleep

*Alternating means, Week 1: A, B, A, Week 2: B, A, B. repeat. Not A,B,A followed by A, B, A.

The workouts, Phase 1

Workout A:

• Squat, 3 sets of 5

• Bench, 3 sets of 5

• Deadlift, 1 set of 5

Workout B:

• Squat, 3 sets of 5

• Overhead Press, 3 sets of 5

• Deadlift, 1 set of 5

On your first workout, you start all your lifts at a weight that’s easy to handle. From there, you add more weight to every lift, every workout until you stall out (more on that later).

For the first 2-3 workouts, most healthy guys can progress like so:

• Squat and deadlift: add 5 kg every workout. Then 2.5kg jumps.

• Bench and overhead press, add 2.5kg every workout. then 1kg jumps.

After the first few workouts, take the increases down to 2.5kg for the squat and deadlift and down to 1kg for the bench and the press (yes you’ll need smaller plates than what most gyms have).

The Workouts, Phase 2

Workout A:

• Squat, 3 sets of 5

• Bench, 3 sets of 5

• power clean, 5 sets of 3

Workout B:

• Squat, 3 sets of 5

• Overhead Press, 3 sets of 5

• Deadlift, 1 set of 5

Phase 2 starts when deadlifting 3 times per week becomes difficult to recover from. This will be somewhere after your 6-8th workout. Your squat should be up by about 15-25kg and the deadlift up by 25-35kg for sets of 5.

At this point, deadlifts are swapped for power cleans on workout A.

DO NOT keep doing deadlifts 3 times per week. You. Will. Stall.

Yes we all want a big deadlift, but the explosiveness of the power clean will still make that happen, but in a way that ensures you can keep making progress rather than stall out too soon.

Wrap Up

There’s so much more to write on this topic but I’ll stop it here for now.

Nothing has done more for my athletic performance and overall physical well-being than being strong.

Linear Progression might not be as sexy as whatever bro-split is trending on social media, but it works and it will get you bigger, stronger and faster than any other program out there.

Invest the 4-6 months to reach your natural potential. Come back to it if you need to, or move on to other goals, but do it from a base of strength and size.

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Upcoming Articles on Training

• Dealing with Injuries

• The Truth About Progress

• Picking the Right Program

• What is your level really

• Get Your Priorities Straight

• There’s nothing wrong with training to look good

Alright I’m getting lost in the weeds of trying to write a great intro for what is very simply a blog or an online journal of what I’m doing at the moment.

I’ve always kept a journal, and when I was an avid reader of blogs these were my favorite kind, so let’s go full circle.

Why start this? I’m trying to take my own advise and sleep more. And, since I just started writing my True North Program, Part I, this seemed like a fun thing to do in tandem.

Anyway, enough pre-amble. What did I do today.

Morning

Rather than my usual do-or-die alarm clock at 05.50, I’ve decided to sleep until I wake up with a backstop at 08.00. Add snooze and I got up around 08.30.

I’m digging myself out of my record low recovery the other day, unfortunately the 60-ish percent is fairly standard so let’s get those greens!

The main change I had to make for this new schedule is to go gym in the afternoon rather than early mornings on days where I end up sleeping longer.

I’m also letting sleep consistency take a back seat until I started clocking enough hours under the covers.

Anyway, had to keep my morning working short, there’s a gym in my building with some basic equipment so I just headed down and did my usual kettlebell routine;

Warm-up

5 min incline walk

Prying goblet squat (Just sit in squat with a kettlebell and move around to open up the hips.

Today’s Workout

10 sets of 10 reps, 1-hand swings w. 16 kg (10 right hand, rest, 10 left hand)

10 reps of turkish get-up, 5 each side

Pretty easy, 20-30 min, get’s the blood going and it’s like flossing but for you entire body.

Gym done, straight to work. I’m going to skip most of the work stuff, main challenge at the moment is getting the operational side of things (production, supplies, shifts, etc) enough under control that I can look away for long enough to focus on content (like this).

Since it’s a lifting day I hit the gym around 17.00, nothing too fancy. I’m building back up after some recent back trouble;

• Squat, 3 sets of 5 @ 97.5 kg

• Overhead Press, 3 sets of 5 @ 50 kg

• Cocaine Deadlift*, 1 set of 5 @ 100 kg

• chin-ups, 3 sets of 4 @ 16 kg

• dips, 3 sets of 6 @ 16 kg

Dinner Time

I picked up some skirt steak on the way home (cheap but delicious) together with some sourdough bread (another favorite). Maybe it’s my danish heritage that’s showing, but a steak sandwich just hits the spot after a workout.

By steak sandwich I mean; Steak, bread (toasted), butter. The end.

Anything else is just a distraction. It is as delicious as it is simple.

Wrapping this up as the clock strikes 9pm which is a new record, I’ll be winding down with a book, hope to crush that recover score in the morning.

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Intro - Always Remember Rule #1

Before we dive in, I want to start by emphasising Rule #1 when it comes to diet. Honestly this applies to all of the True North Program but it seems especially important here as diet is such a debated topic.

Rule #1 - It’s your life. Do whatever you want.

What follows is what’s “optimal” from a health & performance perspective, not what’s mandatory. It’s a guiding star, a general direction, but it’s your journey. If you want to take a different route, that’s fine.

If you’re happy with where you are health and fitness wise and you want to start your day with a croissant every morning, who am I to tell you that you can’t do that.

Is that an “optimal diet”? Not for someone trying to lose weight, but life isn’t about doing everything optimally all the time, it’s about make your life the optimal life for you. Maybe that’s the balance you want, maybe after a few months, the croissants got the better of your waistline and you want to change it, cool, life changed, so you change.

You’re gonna go through seasons in life, I’ve certainly had (and will have) “cappucino’s & croissants for breakfast” seasons in my life, and that’s fine.

Find the balance that works for you and if you’re feeling lost, look north and adjust course.

The Basics

Forget any marketing or mainstream advise you’ve ever seen when it comes to food and health. Why this is so far off-course is a topic for a different article.

Your Base Foods - Steak and Eggs

Base Foods Steak & eggs and butter are at the very top of the list, fish, fowl, pork etc are all great as well.

Fat is in

Fat is your friend and the lack of fat is the reason most people are unhealthy. Fat means REAL fat. not margarine, not seed oils, not fat substitutes but natural animal fats. Beef fat and butter is by far the best. For butter, avoid the spreadable at all cost. yes they’re convenient but they’re partially seed oils which brings us to point 3.

Eliminate Seed oils & fake dairy

Completely eliminate seed oils and fake milks. Doesn’t matter which one, they’re all bad. Not “kinda bad” really freaking bad. here’s a non-complete list so you get the picture

• soy milk

• oat milk

• almond milk

• rasp-seed oil

• Sunflower oil

• Palm oil

• Anything-oil

• Spreadable butter

• margarine

What about olive oil? this is the only thing that gets half a pass. Olive oil is extracted from the fruit, not the seed, unlike the others, so olive oil is different. Still, you’re much better off cooking in butter, but if you must, olive oil is ok.

Carbs, out

Absolutely unnecessary but unfortunately delicious. Put these in the “enjoying life” category. I’m not telling you to never have them, I certainly do, but as far as a healthy diet goes you should get rid of them. Again, Remember Rule #1.

Vegetables, out

If you really want them, go right ahead but you don’t need them. I’d recommend everyone to try and go 30 days with nothing but animal-based foods for the simple reason that you should know how amazing you can actually feel when you only eat your natural diet.

If you want to add them back in later be my guest, but then do it out of enjoyment not obligation.

Fruits, in moderation

Make this your new way to treat yourself. If you’ve never had a bowl full of cold fruits and cream start there and you’ll begin to question why you ever get anything else for a treat. My top picks are mango, strawberry and grapes.

Eat in moderation depending on your goals. If you’re trying to lean out, use sparingly or not at all. If you’re happy where you are have however much you want, just know that fruits contain enough sugar that over-doing it will probably start showing up on the waistline.

Dairy products, good accesories

Milk and cheese is great, I only have two comments on them:

1. don’t make them your main food source. Meat and fat is the base, dairy products are great on top.

2. If you’re gaining weight too fast on stalling on fat loss, consider cutting out dairy products for a while.

In Short

• Eat mostly meat and fat - Steak and eggs are best, fish, fowl, pork etc are close second.

• Eliminate seed oils, fake milk, margarine and spreadable butter completely. all of them. Cook in real butter.

• Olive oil is allowed but should be limited

• You don’t need vegetables. You’ll feel better without them.

• You don’t need carbs. Limit is good, eliminate is best.

• Fruits should be your new treat. These can be a part of your normal diet depending on your goals. Want to lose fat = less / no fruit is better.

• Dairy is great when used as extra’s. Cut or eliminate if you’re gaining weight too fast or stalling on fat loss.

But, always remember Rule #1: It’s your life - Do whatever you want.

I think that’s all I’ve got for now, not bad for a first run I hope.

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How To Jack Up Your Legs Boxing

I used to do a lot of boxing and wrestling. By a lot I mean I wasn’t really attending classes in uni, I lived 5 min away from my gym and I’d do 2-3 hours of training 5-6 days per week, sometimes twice in the same day.

Although very far from a professional level, I got quite good, quite fast.

Fast forward a handful of years, I’m was now working crazy hours pursuing a career, I still went to the gym but now on a modest 3-4 days per week schedule and I hadn’t done any fight training in years.

That is until I switched to a gym with a boxing ring and heavy bags. I was immediately inspired to start doing some of my boxing workouts and in the first week I was doing 20 min of non-stop jump rope followed by rounds and rounds of foot drills and working the bag.

To no one’s surprise my calves and shin were completely destroyed at the end of the week. Not sore but super swollen and inflamed. Thankfully some painful Thai massage and easing back on the volume fixed that right up.

What’s the point of that story? If you’re anything like me, whenever you get inspired, start something new or pick up an old hobby, I at least get so energised that I immediately go 200%.

Now sometimes that’s great, but sometimes you’re better off starting slow in order to go fast.

In that first week I didn’t do more training than I did years ago, but I jumped right back into a level of training that it probably took me weeks to build up to the first time around.

Problems With Being All-In

In most things, I know that I work a lot better with an all-in approach. Part of this is personal preference, part of it is the magic of doing something every day. It stays fresh, it becomes routine fast and you build momentum fast.

So far so good. By the same token, If I’m leaning out, I go 100% strictly carnivore and do daily morning cardio until I hit my goal.

If I pick up a hobby, I plan for doing it every single day, ideally in the morning because that’s when most of my habit-stacking occurs.

Being a self-improvement-junkie, all of this is obviously tracked in a spreadsheet.

Sidenote: This isn’t self punishment or some grind-or-die mentality, I just get a stupid amount of kicks out of planning and putting things in a spreadsheet, creating little charts and progress bars.

Here’s where this approach runs into trouble. Because I go all-in, and because I treat it in very binary way of “did I do X today” the first couple of days will just be green check-marks all across the board. But when I eventually miss a day, that day can feel like a failure and like I’m restarting my hot streak which can be demotivating and I’ll eventually switch to a new “inspired” program and the cycle repeats.

Lower The Bar

This does not mean don’t go all in. On the contrary, this is how I still go all in but don’t let setbacks affect me (as much).

I still plan for daily action, I still track my progress, but rather than treating each day as a do-or-die event, I take a weekly view or I measure success more gradually.

Did I have more green than red this week compared to last week?

Are my “Red days” less red than yesterday? or last week?

Recent Examples - Clean Diet

I work a lot, and although I eat a pretty clean animal-based diet most days of the week, I’m not so perfect that I don’t have days where I’m just stressed out and opt for some takeaway or peek at the Ben & Jerry’s sitting in my freezer. In really stressful periods this sometimes becomes the norm.

Eventually, I’ll level out and go “Alright, time to straighten out, back on a clean diet” and that’ll work well, but when another rough day eventually hits, it’s still a win if at least this time I just nibbled on some chocolate rather than empty a full tub of ice-cream.

Content Creation

I know I should be posting more on social media because anytime I do it helps my business a lot. I started the year strong with posting every day for more than two months straight, never missed a day.

Now when I went to restart it, anything less than a daily video felt like a failure.

However the reality is that Monday I published my first major article, one I’ve had in my head for a long time.

Tuesday I recorded content but didn’t feel like posting, but I posted more notes and tweets.

Wednesday (today) I published what you’re reading now and drafted a host of more ideas for content.

Being mindful of this instead of marking each day as another “failed” content day made me realise that I’m actually gaining momentum and that I’ll be back at my old pace in no time if I’ll just ease into and build on each day.

I’m adopting this in training, in work, in fighting (which I’m now doing again). I take a much more long term view.

Small consistent gains over the long term will always win out over the short term heroic effort that burns out.

It’s cliche but it’s a lesson I’ve at least had to learn many times over. Maybe this time it’ll stick.

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Disclaimer

This is the first article in what I expect will be a very long series. This is not finished work, on the contrary. I decided that I’d rather post as I go long in order to chop the work up into smaller pieces. If I tried writing this in one piece I’d never finish it. There’ll be references to articles not written yet, there’ll likely be inconsistencies that needs ironing out later as I clarify my own thinking.

That’s the blessing of a small audience (5 as of today). I can write this for myself more than anyone else.

What is the True North Program?

More than anything, it’s my guide to myself on how to get life right. Work, life, training, diet and everything in between.

I’ve had countless mentors, read endless articles, blogs & books. I’ve tried most of them on for size, made mistakes, gotten injured, made adjustments, all in an attempt to “find the path” or “get it right”.

I’m writing this because I think I’ve got it now, enough that writing it out will make it all come together.

One important note; I’m not “elite” in any one category, but I know I’ve done well across the board and I think that’s really what most people strive for. That’s what I strive for.

• I’ve deadlifted 200kg at 85kg bodyweight lean.

• I’ve ran a 5k in < 20 min

• I’ve won a grappling championship.

• I’ve stayed six-pack lean year round.

• I’ve worked a career making +$300k / year

• I’ve started businesses that made +200k in the first year.

• I’ve found religion

• I’ve managed to built a friend-circle of the best people I could ask for

To be truly world class at anything you need to be highly specialised. This is not that, this is meant as the foundation, the basics to built upon that’ll keep you “great” across the board. Whatever you want to be world class at, if that’s your goal, is yours to figure out. Nevertheless, all greatness is built on great fundamentals.

Now all of the above would mean nothing without the other side of the coin. In doing all of that, I’ve also:

• Managed endless injuries (muscle tears, broken nose, tendonitis, impingement, back pain, minor fractures)

• Gotten fat from dirty bulking (don’t do that)

• Gotten fired (twice)

• Burnt all my savings to zero (several times)

• Felt completely lost and off track in life

• Gone through times of loneliness and no friends

Which is why a big part of this is also how to deal with the other side. Not just the good but the bad too.

• No one get’s in great shape without getting injured along the way.

• No one makes it big without taking a lot of risk and “losing it all” a few times.

• No one finds their path without getting lost in the woods first.

Why Am I Writing This?

Many reasons really. I’ll focus on the main ones.

#1 Pay It Forward

Growing up, I’ve consumed more blogs and online articles than I can remember. Many of these had a profound influence on me and I’m eternally grateful for growing up in a time where this was available.

As a kid, I was starving for advise on how to do life. How to train, how to eat, how to live, how to look good, how to do basically anything. These people served the role of older brothers passing down what they knew and over time I started stitching it all together.

Then I watched this video of Jesse. Jesse is 14. he’s on Omegle and he looks and sound down on life in the most heartbreaking way because the last person he spoke to told him to “off himself” then left. He also reminds me an awful lot of what I believe I was like at 14.

Thankfully, the video is heartwarming because this other guy in the video recognises him, picks him up and does what I hope the current generation will always do for the next generation which is help and guidance.

I want to play the same role and if only one person ever reads this then that’s enough.

#2 Living North of the Vag

Jim Wendler (blog) famously wrote “Living North of the Vag” (only available inside the e-book) and “Letter To My Younger Self” (link) both of which are pieces of writing I took to heart. They stuck with me because they’re broad enough to be flexible but precise enough to be instructive. It’s no secret that this program is inspired by these (and many others) in both name and content.

#3 Finding True North

Thirdly, is from the book I’m currently reading called Psycho-Cybernetics (amazon), this is a book I’ve come across many times but never picked up until now. The right books really seem to find you only when you’re ready for them. This book is about self-image and letting yourself be guided by your conscience, but in order for that to work your conscience needs to point to “true north”.

That part really got to me. Because so many times in life, I’ve felt like what I needed most was a compass that could point me to true north. Not a precise route, just tell me if I’m going in the right direction or not.

this program tries to do just that. The aim is not to be an exact protocol that must be followed to a tee, but a guide to give you direction.

Some parts are very prescriptive where I' share exactly what, how and why I do what I do, not because it’s the only way to do it, but because I want there to be precise examples that are both instructive and easily applicable.

The True North Program

What started as just a training & diet program became a lifestyle program, these are the headlines as of today, I’ll expand on each of them individually, and within each, there’s bound to be many, many sub-topics.

• Get Up Early & at the same time. Weekends included.

• Eat Clean, Stay Lean → How to Eat Optimally in 2026 Speedrun

• Lift Heavy Weights, Strong is Always Better

• Sprint & Stay Athletic (How to stay in great shape)

• Play Sports (For guys, spend at least 3 months fighting)

• Work 6 days per week (How to always Learn, Earn or Grow, ideally all 3)

• Rest on Sundays.

• Pray every day.

• Putting It All Together, My schedule.

• Learn to set & track goals.

• Creating a social life.

That’s all I’ve got in me for now. However, because I hate articles that aren’t actionable enough, here’s the working draft on my schedule and guidelines for training:

My Schedule

How I like to lay out my life:

• Work hard Monday-Friday

• Saturday is for sharpening the axe. Be it life admin or clearing up work for the week to come or both.

• Rest on Sunday. Gym and work.

Because Sunday is the real “rest day” (more on that later), not just from the gym but from “life / work”, I like to do my hardest workout on Saturday and plan something I really enjoy on Sunday.

For me that means;

• Lift weights 2-3x per week, Mon-Fri. (Either Mon/Wed/Fri or Mon/Thu)

• hard sparring or sprints on Saturday.

• Brunch early Sunday.

Example program (What I’m doing currently)

• Monday: Squat, bench, deadlift, chin-ups + dips (Linear progression - Link)

• Tuesday: Active recovery (boxing, walking or nothing)

• Wednesday: Squat, press, deadlift, chin-ups + dips (Linear progression - Link)

• Thursday: Active recovery (boxing, walking)

• Friday: Squat, bench, deadlift, chin-ups + dips (Linear progression - Link)

• Saturday: Hard Sparring and/or sprints

• Sunday: Full rest. No work. No gym. Sport and fun obviously allowed. But it should feel like play.

Notes on Lifting Weights

The training programs I’ll lay out will work extremely well for anyone who is at or below the following strength levels (1 rep max). Extremely well meaning “the most effective way for you to built strength and muscle”. If you’re more concerned about “being jacked” or lean, read this (Training Priorities, below).

These doesn’t have to be your goals, its just to say that if you’re below these numbers, the following program will likely be the optimal program for you.

• Squat, 2x bodyweight (180kg)

• Bench: 1.25x bodyweight (112 kg)

• Deadlift: 2.25x bodyweight (200 kg)

• Press: 0.75x bodyweight (70 kg)

• can do 12 chin-ups

• 400m sprint in less that 75 seconds.

Training Priorities

No matter who you are or what your goals are, the training priorities look the same. Priorities will only change as you progress and graduate from one stage to the next.

1. Get strong

2. Build muscle

3. Lean / Athletic / sport-whatever

Why? Because no matter what your goals are, being stronger and carrying your natural potential muscle mass will have you looking, feeling and performing better.

This is especially true because the majority of your natural potential can be unlocked in the first 4-6 months of training, after which you can focus on whatever you want but from a much better foundation.

Your Human Potential

Every human being have a certain strength and muscle potential. This potential is divided into 3 groups.

• Natural Potential (achieved in 4-6 months)

• Intermediate Potential (achieved in years)

• Elite Potential (achieved in decades)

Natural Potential

Your natural potential is simple the strength and muscle you’re meant to carry, it’s your body’s natural expression. No matter if your goal is to be strong, play sports or just look great / be lean, you’ll perform better at all of those goals by first realising your natural potential.

If you want to be strong, this is the fastest way to get there.

If you want to be big, lifter bigger weights will get you bigger faster.

If you want to look great, you will look your best when you carry your natural muscle mass. Important: Natural does not mean HUGE. This is mostly for the girls as no guy is ever worried about too much muscle.

If you want to be be great at your sport, being stronger makes you better at everything. A stronger athlete will always be a better, faster athlete. Size can become a problem depending on your sport, but that’s a different matter. Stronger is always better.

Sadly, few people realise this because most either don’t prioritise training and diet or because they’re doing the wrong things at the gym.

Realising your natural potential is what most people would describe as looking athletic. You’re not skinny, you have muscle and you’re lean. you look great.

Not edited.

It’s Jan 4th. I was back in Denmark for Christmas, then went skiing on the 29th in France, got food poisoning on the 30th, slept all of the 31st, flew back to London on the 1st and honestly, I was both happy and a bit bummed out.

I’m always really excited about the start of a new year. So much to do, so much to see, so many great plans. But I think sometimes I lose myself a bit in it. Planning is great until you start living too much in the future. In the world that is yet to come when you can finally enjoy life, but not until then.

I only really noticed this today. Well, I’ve noticed it for some years now. That although I was still excited, I wasn’t as excited as I used to be. Like a lighter starting to lose it’s spark.

In previous years, I’ve assumed it was just because of my current situation, that it was just a bit of an off year or that I was just going through a lot of change at the moment. Some years it might have been true, but that seems like more of a philosophical question.

Back to the Present

I noticed it today because it’s Sunday the 4th of January. I’d been excited all of Christmas to come back and get started on the new year but for the past few days, the feeling was just flat. Not bad, not depressed, just not what I thought it would be.

Part of it was definitely the lingering effects of food poisoning. Appetite not being fully back yet, my sleep being a bit off the clock after spending 30 hours in bed, but i usually shake stuff like that faster than this.

So I thought “this sucks - why am I not more excited?”

“well, what would get me excited?”

“I’m not sure”

“I should probably find out”

Best. Ten. Minutes. Ever.

And so I started writing about what my perfect day and week would look like. It took about 10 min.

Now I was excited. THIS got me going. Because this was what had been missing.

Before, it all just felt like work. Sure, work I can get excited about, but still work. And importantly, when you’ve been a self-improvement junkie for +20 years and Nirvana still hasn’t arrived, you start to ask, what’s the point of all of this work? it’s still not working?

Obviously, it has been working. Otherwise I wouldn’t be where I am today. But it’ll never “start working” faster than I can move back the goalpost.

Now, I felt differently. I felt excited because it felt like the thing I’d be working on was how to make myself happier and more excited every day. I am usually quite motivated about each day, but I probably also rely heavily on my ability to motivate myself through impossibly s*** circumstances.

What also got me excited was knowing that this new focus didn’t mean “don’t work”, quite the contrary. I love working on meaningful problems, this just meant I was going to put more structure around it.

Rather than sprinting all-out 24/7, 7 days per week for months straight, I was going to find my long-term pace. My ultra-marathon pace.

Consistency > Daily Output

This all came about because of a super simple realisation.

I’m really good when I hit my stride, when I’m consistent. When I string together weeks of early mornings, gym, 4-hour work blocks AND sleep, I get more done in each of those days than I normally do in weeks.

The problems arise when I get thrown off. When my schedule changes, when I renegotiate my plans, when I push back when I’m going to wrap up and eventually just sleep less.

So, time to make a plan that optimises for consistency, not daily output.

The January Challenge

Alright January is only 5 days away, for the next couple of days I’ll do a short write up on what each part of the challenge means and what I’m personally doing.

the monthly challenges always have the same 4 fundamentals:

• Daily training / exercise.

• Daily Clean Diet

• Limit Phone Time

• Community

Today we’re talking about training / exercise.

*Sidenote: What’s the difference between Training and exercise?

Training is planned progression. You’re training towards a goal or multiple goals and the training program is a plan to get there.

Exercise is just physical activity. It doesn’t have to have a goal or progression, it just means getting some activity in.

So while all physical training is exercise, not all exercise is training. Personally I always have a training goal and program to keep me motivated.

Daily Training / Exercise

You can do whatever you like, it doesn’t have to be the same every day, my only three recommendations are:

• Make it at least 20 minutes

• Do a little more every day / week

• Start light, progress slow

Why Light?

The fastest way to burn out on a gym / fitness routine is to do too much too fast. You’ll be super sore, the early motivation from getting started fizzles out fast and needs to be replaced with something else.

Why Slow?

the MOST motivating part of any training or exercise program is to see progress and to feel like you’re gonna absolutely smash whatever you have planned that day. That’s why it’s important to start light and just do a bit more every day or every week depending on your level. Small jumps can take you MUCH further in the long run than taking BIG jumps very early.

If you make your jumps too big too soon, you’ll quickly stall, the program will feel too hard to fast and you’ll have to scale it back which never feels great.

Slow and steady wins the ready.

If You’re New, Slow is still VERY Fast

If you’re relatively new, or just haven’t realised much of your physical potential yet, progress in the early days is the fastest it will every be, ESPECIALLY if you’re patient.

A typical strength program, if well designed, will have you increase the weights 5kg every workout, 3 days every week. That’s 15 kg EVERY week. After a few weeks you’ll go to 2.5kg per workout. That’s still 7.5 kg per week.

It’s not unusual to go from a doing squats with 3 sets of 5 reps at 60kg to 3 sets of 5 reps at 120kg in a few months.

However, This only works when you’re still far from your basic strength potential.

Anyway, I digress. Here’s what I will be doing

My Program, Weekly Plan

My primary goal in January is to lean out while staying strong. While strength and building muscle is a slow and steady race, leaning out is not. For that I prefer to go all out for a short period of time and then dial it back once I’m at the level I want to be, at which point I’ll focus on whatever my next goal is.

So, I’m doing a fairly simple program of:

Day 1 (Monday): Lift heavy, Workout A

Day 2 (Tuesday): Sprint Workout

Day 3 (Wednesday): Active Recovery

Day 4 (Thursday): Lift heavy, Workout B

Day 5 (Friday): Sprint Workout

Day 6 & 7 (Weekend): Active Recovery

The heavy lifting days will maintain strength (because I haven’t lifted super heavy in a while I expect to still get stronger during this time).

Sprint days are for athleticism & conditioning plus they’re more intense in terms of total calories burned.

Active recovery days help just burn a little extra even on off-days, without ruining recovery.

My Program, Detailed

Workout A:

• Warm-up (light boxing, movement drills)

• Heavy Squat, 5-3-1 Program*

• Heavy Bench 5-3-1 Program

• Accessory work:

  • Squat, 5x10, about 40% of heavy sets

  • bench, 5x10, about 40% of heavy sets

  • abs

*5-3-1 Program is a program by Jim Wendler. It’s great for long-term, gradual progress while still giving you the chance to go all-out when you’re feeling strong. Basic program described here: https://t-nation.com/t/5-3-1-how-to-build-pure-strength/281694

Workout B:

• Warm-up (light boxing, movement drills)

• Heavy Deadlifts, 5-3-1 Program

• Heavy Overhead Press 5-3-1 Program

• Accessory work:

  • Squat, 5x10, about 40% of heavy sets

  • bench, 5x10, about 40% of heavy sets

  • abs

Sprint Workout

While I’d love to do these outside, on a hill or a track, it’s just too inconvenient so I do these on a treadmill at a 10% incline. I’ll usually do 15-20 sprints of 10-20 seconds each. 20 seconds for slower speeds, 10 seconds for faster speeds.

A typical workout will look like this:

• 3 Rounds of: 20 second sprint at 12 km/h, 10% incline

• 3 Rounds of: 15 second sprint at 14 km/h, 10% incline

• 3 Rounds of: 12 second sprint at 16 km/h, 10% incline

• 3 Rounds of: 10 second sprint at 18 km/h, 10% incline

• 3 Rounds of: 10 second sprint at 20 km/h, 10% incline

I’ll rest between 60-90 seconds between rounds.

I’ll do more or less depending on how I feel that day and how hard I hit the weights the day before.

Bonus:

I like to throw in some extra work between the sprints while I rest, this will be whatever I’m currently focused on improving. Lately I’ve been doing sets of 10-15 reps of dips and 10-15 curls on every other sprint. so;

• Sprint

• 15 dips

• sprint

• 15 curls

• repeat

Active Recovery

This can be whatever. Most days I’ll probably some combo of walks, stretches and some light kettlebell work like 10 sets of 10 reps one-hand swings, alternate hands every set, so:

• 10 swings, right hand

• rest

• 10 swings, left hand

• rest

• repeat 5 times

followed by some Turkish get ups.

Questions / Comments

Pretty sure that’s it! I hope this was useful. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them him or text me on socials, IG / TikTok: @pemmicanproject

Also, if you’d like to see more content like this, please let me know.

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I know, a lot of people find the “new year, new me” crowd cringe. I don’t understand those people. Why wouldn’t you feel inspired by the start of a new year. The same way I feel inspired every time I see a sunrise.

We’re symbolic creatures that way, and I love it.

So, every year around this time, I take some extra time to make the most of it.

My process has changed a bit over the years but the core remains the same.

Every year,

• I look at the goals and dreams I had for myself this time last year.

• I look back at everything that happened in the past year.

• I look forward to the next year and everything I want to make happen.

I’ve been doing this for about 10 years now. In my online journal I can scroll back through the years, and each year starts with what can best be described as a mood/vision-board.

It’s a combination of images, headlines, quotes, mantras, goals that symbolise my goals for the coming year. It’s a habit I feel I developed on accident but it’s probably one of my greatest super-powers.

Two things I really love about it:

Grounding - I try and journal every morning. Having a 1-page view of my goals & dreams is a great way to quickly ground myself back into what matters.

Long Term View - Because it stretches so far back, I’ve made the first 20-30 pages of my journal just the headlines and vision boards in chronological order. I’m not sure why but there’s something powerful about seeing my own development in yearly leaps like that.

Because of how much effort and thought I put into this every year, I can remember exactly where I was and how I felt when I wrote each Yearly cover-board.

The Process

So what do I actually do.

First of all, I make sure I have the time and space to actually focus on it. 10 years ago, when I was just starting out, I’d escape to cafe somewhere and camp out for hours to do my writing before returning to my family.

These days, I pick a handful of days and check into a hotel somewhere, ideally some place I know will have the right environment. For me, that means a place that’s;

• Scenic

• Has a nice lounge/lobby/area that serves coffee and has pleasant background noise like low chatter or soft music

• Access to nice walks

• Access to a good gym

• Good coffee

I’ve done similar trips throughout the year that just maximised for scenic and isolation. In April for example I took a motorcycle trip to Tuscany and stayed at a beautiful farm-house for a week. Zero service, zero gym, zero lobby/lounge but just pure tranquility and disconnection.

Anyway, back to process.

This is the first time actually trying to document it so bear with me.

Get The Ball Rolling

I start out just writing. I know that sounds like unhelpful advise but whether you’re journaling, reflecting or setting goals, the best way to get started is to just start typing out whatever is in your head.

Sometimes my writing will literally start with “Not really sure what to write about” and then the floodgates open. On thread pulls on another, before I know it I have page after page of brain dump. I do this a lot. Key is to just start writing.

Don’t self edit too much, just dump everything out. This might take a while but the goal isn’t to write the next great novel it’s to help you think and help you understand what you think, so just write until you run out, especially if you haven’t done this very often.

Trust the process.

Because I do this a lot, my process is slightly different today. As I started dumping out thoughts, I’ll park different threads as “Definitely coming back to that” and I just use the dumping process to find all the big topics and threads I want to come back to pull on.

Future Authoring

Next is putting some structure to all of it. Future Authoring is probably the single best thing anyone can do for themselves, I’m not exaggerating when I say it completely changed my life.

That sounds extreme but the explanation is simple. You can’t hit a target you don’t aim at, or don’t know exists, except by dumb luck. Future Authoring is a comprehensive writing exercise that helps you set those goals and create detailed plans for how to get there. This is ideally done fore several hours over the course of a few days.

This is what I use → future authoring

Sometimes I go back and re-do the same writing exercise from scratch, but I’ve done it so many times now, that I’ll often just do it myself with slightly less structure.

The Final Touch

This isn’t in the future authoring programme but I highly recommend it for everyone. Inspiration and Vision-board.

Inspiration

Yes, social media is terrible for many things, but it also has some great uses. One of them is finding inspiring people of videos that touch something in you that you want to see more of in yourself. I’ll usually find a handful of videos that strike the right energy, compile them into an album and use them as vibe/energy-reminders.

Vision Board

This usually comes together as the writing progresses. For each topic I’ll try and find one or several images, quotes, thoughts or mantras to represent that idea. Together they become a condensed vision/mood-board for the next chapter of my life.

Once finished, I make it the front page of my journal or just the first page I see whenever I open it.

Sounds silly, but our ancestors went out of their way to create cave-paintings so I’m gonna make mood boards.

This blog will by nature be very train-of-thought.

About 2-3 years ago I had an idea.

Then little over a year ago I decided to try it.

Fast forward to today, and what started out as a hobby project is showing signs of a dream and a vision coming to life.

This is my attempt at documenting the journey, the feelings, the thoughts & frustrations of trying to make a real change in the world.

So What Is The Pemmican Project?

Just writing out the question makes me feel like this answer alone needs to be a multi-post series, and it probably will be.

However, in short, The Pemmican Project is my project to fix human health by doing two things;

1. making the best and cleanest foods available to everyone, everywhere, at the lowest possible price

2. Make sure everyone knows about real health

This being an intro post, I’ll leave the details for what exactly that means for my first blog post.

What else am I going to write about? Any and all things that come to mind.

What real health looks like.

My favorite ways to cook steak.

How to achieve some kind of balance in an unbalanced world.

My favorite non-carnivore foods.

Advise to my younger self.

I warned you, train-of-thought blog.