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The 3 Pillars to becoming the best version of yourself 

By Michael Pinello

 

Let me start by telling you my sob story real quick. Going into college, I had some of the worst habits you can think of that a school student would fear to have (and you probably have these too). 

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Just to name a few– I was a major procrastinator, doom-scroller on social media, terrible time manager, and on top of all of that, I was out of shape and hated the way I looked and felt. I hated who I saw in the mirror. I hated seeing the Canvas notifications for graded assignments I knew I had failed. Until one day, I said to myself, “enough is enough.” Those negatives were enough to drive me to become the person and student that deep down, I knew I could become. 

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Now, when I said I was “out of shape,” I didn’t mean I was over or underweight. According to a  Body Mass Index calculator, I was a healthy weight of 145 pounds at 5 '10, (½ and ¾, which is technically 5' 11, and is also close enough to 6 '0 tall). That wasn’t my problem. My problem was that I was ‘skinny fat’ — weak, wasn’t going to the gym, and was eating low quality foods (except for Mom’s cooking). 

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And because of everything else, my grades were at their lowest, I lacked discipline, and didn't respect myself. I was down bad, but I knew the only direction I could go from there was up. So I got to work. All of this work consisted of consuming educational content (videos, podcasts, books, etc) and taking advice from people I’m blessed to have in my life that are extremely knowledgeable in these topics (my dad, family friends, old mentor, etc). 

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I’ve developed a system that involves the 3 pillars of what I believe are the most important aspects of being a successful student (and human being in general). They are health, productivity, and balance. I’m gonna break it all down for you piece by piece. I also want you all to know that each pillar will be separately released, one after another, in every Slate issue that will be launched this academic year (to keep you interested and wanting more because I know you all have short attention spans). 

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I hope you can take at least one piece of advice here to improve your overall lifestyle. 

Keep in mind that a lot of this info I’m about to give you is stuff that some “expert” would sell to you in their expensive course/mastermind. Meanwhile, they live impractical lives and don’t even follow their own advice. I’m giving you my entire life’s worth of research and experimentation for FREE (on a school newspaper of all things). 

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DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a doctor, trained nutritionist, etc. Nor do I claim to be any of these experts. The information I provide is based on my personal experience in self improvement. I’m just a 21 year old college student that works a minimum wage job and still lives with his parents, who just wanted to improve himself for his own greater good. But, I can confidently say that I’m 10x more healthy, disciplined, and good looking compared to about 90% of the population (and possibly you reading this, no offense). This is all because I wanted to make a change to better myself as a student, a human being in general, and put my years of learning to good use. That being said, whatever advice you choose to put into fruition should first be consulted with your doctor and should be taken with a grain of salt, as well as conducting your own research before trying it out for yourself. This information does not take the place of professional medical advice. I’m only saying this so you can’t sue me if you die, but I promise you, you won’t (I hope not). Enjoy. 

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Pillar 1: Take Care of Yourself (Part 1) 

In my opinion, this is the most important Pillar. It doesn't matter what you study, or how smart you are, you WILL live a better life and be a better student than 90% of others if you take care of yourself. 

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I’m not going to waste your time with a lot of rambling because you can find some of these tips easily online, in more detail. So I’ll tell you my experience with them and how it can also benefit you. There’s so much information on this online, but the best piece of advice I can give to you is trial and error. Find what works best for YOU. 

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Starting with your physical health and to get the obvious out of the way, you need to hit the gym and eat a clean(ish) diet. This means follow a routine that’s suitable for you, fits your schedule, and most importantly, one that you have the most FUN with. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve enjoyed a certain exercise/routine, and then saw a video online that said to not do it because it’s “not optimal” or it’s “KILLING YOUR GAINS.” Most of it is psychological – which I’ll get to. The most progress I’ve found throughout my journey was when I was genuinely enjoying it, not when I was forcing myself to do things I didn’t enjoy because some guy said to do it. 

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You MUST also focus on your mobility/flexibility (especially being a student and sitting down for long hours in class and at home). If you aren’t a mobile person, the first tip won’t matter. You will be more prone to seriously hurting yourself and ruining your quality of life in the long run. So, follow a simple yet effective mobility routine that you can do everyday. Also, for training days, perform dynamic stretches before your workouts, and static stretches after your workouts. 

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Next is your diet, which might actually be even more important than the first two tips. My best advice here is follow the 80/20 rule. That is having 80% of your diet clean, with the remaining 20% being whatever you want. Moderation is key! I can go on and on, but to make it all concise, I’ll lay it all out at once. Stick to a whole-foods diet (very minimal to just 1 ingredient foods), prioritize protein, but also fiber! (Fiber is extremely important and it irritates me how these “experts” never talk about it). Do your own research and know what happens if you’re always low on fiber. I won’t go into it cause you’re probably eating right now. 

Avoid seed oils! Stick to just olive, avocado, coconut oils, and butter/ghee. Finally, if you need to lose weight then go on a caloric deficit. If you need to gain, go on a surplus. I won’t go over too much of this but there’s plenty of calorie calculators to look up and put your information on for it to give you your own personal recommendations. I also just recently started tracking my calories and macros on the MyFitnessPal app (not sponsored, but I wish)! I’ve been struggling with knowing how much protein, carbs, calories, etc I’m putting into my body. I don’t plan on using it long. This is because I eat the same things everyday, so I just use the app to know more about what I eat on a daily basis and take it from there.

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I recommend you do the same with tracking your meals but don’t get obsessive over it and let it ruin eating food for you. Try it out for a week or so once you get your diet in check. One last thing, drink plenty of water. Avoid sodas, fruit juices, etc as much as possible! People say diet drinks are better, but trust me, they’re not. While you may think you’re being healthier drinking your cute little diet cokes, they’re actually worse for you because of all the artificial sweeteners in it. Never trust anything labeled as “Diet,” “Fat Free,” and “Sugar Free” (big no no’s).

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I won’t be able to fit all of this into one part, so if you want to continue reading and/or learn about mental health and what I did to improve mine, part 2 will be for you. 

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Take care of yourself :) 

-Mike Pinello

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