Project 50 Newsletter
For execs in their 40s who lack the time (but have the drive) to get in shape — while juggling teams, travel, and family.
Your 3pm crash solved
You're sharp until lunch. Then 3pm hits and your brain turns to mush. You've got the biggest presentation of the quarter at 3:30pm, but you feel like you're running on fumes. Why Everything You've Tried Has Failed The fitness industry treats this like a willpower problem. "Eat clean." "Avoid sugar." Great - what does that mean when you're grabbing lunch between meetings at whatever restaurant is closest? The Two Mistakes That Guarantee the Crash Mistake 1: You ignore lunch altogether and just...
Why successful executives fail at "healthy eating"
You research investments for hours but wing your nutrition completely. You optimize every business process but have zero framework for the restaurant menu in front of you. My client runs a $40M division but couldn't tell me his daily protein target. "I eat Mediterranean - fish, olive oil, vegetables. The whole thing." Yet he's still carrying 25 pounds he can't explain. The Executive Sophistication Trap This is what happens when intelligent people apply surface-level research to complex...
The biggest problem of guys who already work out
I had a call a while back with a guy I'll call Mike. Successful executive. Father of a 5-year-old. Up at 5:30 AM, five days a week, crushing it at the gym. 100 push-ups. Sprints. Weights. Steam room. The whole thing. Lost 15 pounds. Feeling stronger. Looking better than he has in years. "I'm making progress," he told me. "I can see results in the mirror." But then he paused. "The thing is... I'm putting in all this effort, five days a week, and I keep wondering if there's a better way to do...
How traveling executives master their health
The 3am Hotel Wake-Up Call You're lying in another hotel bed, staring at the ceiling at 3am. Tomorrow's client dinner. Italian restaurant. You know how this goes - bread basket, wine pressure, the inevitable "come on, live a little" when you try to make decent choices. Your mind starts racing through all the fitness advice you've collected over the years: "Just intermittent fast through breakfast...""Stick to carnivore, order just the meat...""Track every macro in MyFitnessPal..." And...
Why I disappeared (and what I realized about this industry)
I've been thinking about my place in this industry. More specifically, what I absolutely refuse to become. After stepping back for a week and spending some time on the beautiful Croatian coast, some things became painfully clear about where this space is heading - and where I draw my lines. The Three Types I'll Never Be The 40+ fitness coach doing shirtless videos and screaming about calories. I just can't fucking imagine doing that in my 40s and calling it a win. There's something deeply...
Your weight loss stalled
Here's the thing... In the beginning, losing weight feels almost effortless. You make a few small adjustments and watch 5-10 pounds disappear. And I mean small adjustments if you do it right: Not eliminating carbs, but upgrading to better carbs Not eating chicken and broccoli for every meal, but choosing an apple over trail mix as your afternoon snack Not fasting all day after a client dinner, but just returning to your regular plan like nothing happened But then it stops. The scale doesn't...
Client sends me shirtless pics 2 years later
In November 2022, I stopped working with Matt. Matt and I met at a tough moment in his life. He lost his dad during the COVID lockdown and gained a ton of weight. It's how he dealt with loss and isolation. Given his background—former wrestler—and his love for sports, we hit it off during the discovery call. But he was a little skeptical at first. "I was a bit skeptical when I came across Bart's profile because I felt like I had tried everything to lose weight. Keto, Intermittent Fasting,...
I know you're not eating McDonald's
Here’s what pisses me off about 90% of fitness advice aimed at executives: It assumes you’re an idiot who’s been eating McDonald’s for breakfast and hasn’t seen the inside of a gym since college. That’s not you. You’re already making decent food choices. You get enough protein. You eat vegetables. You try to make smart decisions when you’re traveling. The fitness influencers telling you to throw everything out and start from scratch? They’ve never sat through a 3-hour client dinner in their...
You've been lied to about "the last 10 pounds"
Everyone "knows" the last 10 pounds are the hardest. It's fitness gospel. Every coach repeats it. Every article warns you about it. Here's the thing: They're all wrong. And I can prove it with one simple observation from a client call this week. When Mark started with me at 205 pounds, he told me: 190? There's no way. I'm too big to ever be 190 again. Yesterday, at 197 pounds, he said: It's only 7-8 pounds away. That's pretty easy, actually. What the fuck happened? The First 10 Pounds: Easy...
No matter how low-carb you go, you'll still age like a turd
Last week, I got a DM from a 45-year-old exec who's been on and off keto for the last year. Lost 25 pounds initially, but now he's plateaued, his workouts are garbage, and he's binge-eating donuts every weekend like a college freshman. "Should I go carnivore?" he asked me. Wrong question. The Low-Carb Longevity Lie There's this idea floating around that going low-carb is the key to longevity. That it prevents insulin resistance and turns you into some kind of fat-burning machine. It's a...
For execs in their 40s who lack the time (but have the drive) to get in shape — while juggling teams, travel, and family.