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Summary
On episode 326 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with TJ Anderson, a clinical health coach, self described health hacker, and founder of Elevate Your State, a growing community of health conscious leaders focused on optimizing their health and performance. They discuss his book, The Art of Health Hacking.
TJ’s core idea is that health data are not the finish line, they are the starting block. He walks through the Five Ps of health hacking, preparation, prevention, performance, progress, and presence, as a way to take inventory of your relationship with your own health.
The conversation also covers the four categories TJ tracks for longevity, advanced blood work, full genetic testing, micronutrient testing, and heart rate variability, plus the five step presence practice he built after his own burnout as a fitness model.
Links
- https://healthhackerbook.com
- https://thisistj.com
- https://www.wellnessfx.com
- https://www.geneticgenie.org
- https://www.mthfrsupport.com
Key Takeaways
- Health data is the starting block, not the finish line. TJ says obsessing over quantified self numbers such as steps or sleep hours can create a perfectionist mindset, and that the qualitative, harder to measure parts of health, like stress and happiness, matter just as much as the numbers.
- The Five Ps of health hacking are preparation, prevention, performance, progress, and presence. TJ uses them as a framework for connecting daily choices, like meal prepping or grocery timing, to overall health outcomes, rather than treating fitness and work performance as separate concerns.
- Progress matters more than perfection. TJ traces this lesson to his own burnout as a South Beach fitness model chasing an unattainable six pack, which pushed him toward a more holistic, progress focused approach to health.
- Four data categories matter most for long term health: advanced blood work, full genetic testing, micronutrient testing, and HRV. TJ recommends going beyond basic HDL and LDL numbers to look at lipid particle sizes, using services like WellnessFX for deeper blood panels, running raw 23andMe data through tools like Genetic Genie or MTHFR Support, testing intracellular micronutrient reserves rather than blood serum alone, and tracking heart rate variability with tools like HeartMath’s Inner Balance.
- Individual data points tell a bigger story when connected. TJ discovered his own genetic mutation affecting vitamin D synthesis lined up directly with a measured vitamin D deficiency on his micronutrient panel, showing how the different tracking categories reinforce and explain each other.
- The presence feedback loop is breathe, feel, ask, listen, choose. TJ built this five step process to pause and respond intentionally instead of reacting automatically, drawing on the idea that the goal is not to feel better, but to get better at feeling.
- Self-compassion underlies sustainable health change. TJ emphasizes accepting difficult feelings as simply feelings rather than something to fix or suppress immediately, which he says reduces stress and makes healthy choices easier to sustain.
- Small unconscious physical habits compound into real performance problems. TJ traces his own hip issue back to the way he unconsciously crossed his legs while sitting, illustrating how minor daily patterns can quietly undercut fitness and mobility over time.
“It’s not about feeling better. It’s about getting better at feeling.”
TJ Anderson