ho ho ho tis the season my friends and i
got 10 holiday gift ideas for you or a
loved one stay tuned what's going on
guys for those of you who are new here
my name is kevin jabal now number one on
this ultimate holiday gift guide is
going to be items to optimize your
everyday tasks now decreasing the
friction of everyday very simple tasks
that aren't a big deal like vacuuming or
lights stuff like that it's kind of a
luxury and it feels really good it's
nice and it's it's totally reasonable
and affordable so one item is definitely
a smart vacuum irobot is the most
popular one i have a couple shark iq
vacuums myself number two is an instant
pot which i love for a few reasons first
of all you don't have that much to clean
up because everything is just in one
cooking vessel number two it has a
pressure function so you can cook meals
really quick even if you decide last
minute that you want to cook something
and number three is a smart speaker i
like apple homepod mini because i'm
totally deep in the apple ecosystem and
they prioritize privacy more so than the
other alternatives and then it also acts
as a hub where you can control your
smart home your lights your thermostat
your locks things like that number two
is a starter tea set and as you guys
know i'm very biased i like tea i tend
to go like zero or 100 so actually back
when i was in medical school i got a
french press a coffee grinder a hand
coffee grinder and
some coffee beans as a gift of course i
went zero to a hundred so i went all out
was obsessed about the temperature and
like making the best quality coffee and
it tasted really good just straight
black coffee
but then i got jittery i was using the
bathroom a lot and i ultimately decided
that coffee is probably not a good thing
for someone that has ibd enter t so t
lower level of caffeine but it also has
l-theanine so the combination of
caffeine with altheanine gives you this
really calm focused state which i would
argue is better for productivity and
getting things done compared to coffee
because that straight caffeine will
leave you wired and jittery and that's
not so good for getting things done yo
so this is pretty funny my content
assistant has all this research here
that shows the health benefits of tea
which is legit right the heart disease
type 2 diabetes cancer etc which is
totally us just cherry picking because
you can say the same thing about coffee
but we'll go with that too it's healthy
right but most importantly i think it
makes you feel good and it tastes good
simple as that the reason most people
don't like tea is that they have low
quality tea they have that nonsense and
tea bags that not only introduces
plastics and harmful chemicals into the
tea that you drink but also just tastes
nasty if you haven't already check out
this introduction video on tea but to
boil it down no pun intended you need
three main things number one is good
quality loose leaf tea again no tea bags
number two is a smart kettle because you
want to set the temperature more
precisely you can theoretically just
boil water and then wait like 30 seconds
versus 60 seconds to let it cool to the
proper temperature that you want it's
just easier to set 195 on a digital
display and hit a button right and
number three is a teapot there are other
vessel types depending on the type of
tea you want to do but just as an
introduction i think this is the easiest
way to get into it and i have my
favorites the one that i actually use
down in the description number three is
plants
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for real bro we're doing plants
i thought that was a joke i know what
you're thinking plants as a gift really
hear me out plants both real and fake
have been demonstrated to reduce both
physiological as well as psychological
stress so they don't just look good
right but they also serve a function and
i can tell that you already feel so much
more calm and zen because of my fake
plants in the frame right now now there
is a wide variety of plants out there
and i know nothing about them i've never
even owned succulents because i'm so
afraid of maintenance i can barely
hydrate myself how am i going to keep a
plant watered and hydrated too but what
i can say is real plants they look nicer
they're nicer to the touch but how often
are you really touching plants and some
people say that real plants will clean
the air in your living space by
converting obviously carbon dioxide to
oxygen for that to have any impact on
your air quality you'd have to have a
straight up jungle in your apartment all
right fake plants they still look nice
usually not as nice as the real thing
but if you get higher quality ones they
can't fool you they are not attractive
to bugs which real plants can be and of
course low maintenance my favorite
number four is a water bottle yeah i
know we're getting pretty creative with
our gift ideas but i actually got a gift
as a water bottle it was like two years
ago and i really liked it it was it was
awesome actually so i used to do plastic
water bottles and i was like hey if it's
bpa-free i'm good but it turns out that
even bpa-free plastic it's mostly for
marketing it can still leach other
chemicals into the water so i no longer
mess with that now i do metal this is my
go-to
vessel of choice decay a 40 ounce
so refreshing
so things to look for in a good water
bottle number one large capacity those
small water bottles you have to keep
refilling so annoying number two
insulated so you can keep your water
cool and then number three a mouthpiece
that is fully covered i learned the hard
way how important that is or if it has a
lip here and your mouth actually touches
the outside of the container that's also
not sanitary yeah i definitely care a
little bit too much about water bottles
number five is books and if the person
you're buying for tends to read only
fiction or they tend to read only
non-fiction maybe consider switching it
up and get them something from the other
category so i almost exclusively read
nonfiction and then i read a couple
books that were fiction one was how to
get filthy rich in rising asia and one
was the first book in the john raine
series and oh my god those were just i
got through those books in a couple days
it was so hard to put down i enjoyed it
thoroughly now in the non-fiction
category a couple of my favorites would
be almanac of naval ravikant psychology
of money and what i wish i knew when i
was 20 by tina's seal again links to all
these items down below and if they
already are an avid reader then get them
a kindle the paperwhite is all you need
i have an oasis here which if i'm being
honest it's probably not worth the price
premium over the regular paperwhite but
this is for real one of my favorite
purchases it
it incentivizes and reduces the friction
of reading and then if i get bored of
one book i can switch to another book
and
it just it's so pleasant i can read at
night because the backlight and the
color temperature and it's just awesome
i definitely recommend one all right
these next few items are a little bit
pricier they're all over a hundred
dollars but if that is within your
budget then they're definitely pretty
awesome so number six items to help
optimize fitness the first of which i'm
gonna say is the sit-stand desk i was
using just a standing desk for too long
i wish i got the motion of a motorized
stand desk it went for like 250 on
amazon i bought the base attached it to
an ikea tabletop just like this one and
i was in business so i did a video on
medical insiders exploring the
scientific research of system desks now
to summarize things the worst is just
using a sitting desk all the time
something better is to use a standing
desk ideally a stand desk and the reason
being is that motion is more important
than
any static posture that you're
maintaining so theoretically standing
for too long is bad but it's also really
hard to stand for a long period of time
you tend to want to shift and move your
weight and move around so yeah motorized
stand desk for the win next up is a desk
bike or a treadmill desk which i
personally never use but sean anderson
swears by this and i think it's pretty
hilarious there's some research that at
a lower intensity these don't actually
interfere with your cognitive ability
again i haven't tried it myself
personally but sean's really happy with
his exerpeutic extra work desk bike
which you can find linked below number
seven is this thing an aura ring now the
oral ring has historically been best as
a sleep tracker it tracks various
metrics that are important for sleep and
recovery including resting heart rate
hrv your respiratory rate body
temperature things like that and it's
not just absolute values but it even
shows you trends so you can see that oh
wow when i have two drinks i sleep like
crap i shouldn't be doing that as often
or wow sleep deprivation really affects
my hrv and it can allow you to dial and
tweak things as necessary so this has
definitely helped me a lot in terms of
being accountable with my sleep and as
you know sleep is just one of those core
pillars for so many things in life they
came out with the aura ring 3 which i'm
testing out right now i'll be making a
video comparing oral ring two to three
the three is trying to be more of an
activity tracker so that you wear it
throughout the day steps heart rate
things like that but if you or someone
you care about is into the whole health
optimization health tracking activity
tracking that kind of thing they'll
probably like an aura number eight is a
continuous glucose monitor or cgm and
i'm not wearing one i'm wearing two
right now
there's one right there
and one right there sorry i'm too lazy
to take off my sweater but i'm
essentially comparing two different cgm
offerings right now i'll be making a
video on that soon so make sure you're
subscribed but at cgms they essentially
measure your blood sugar continuously
and historically they've been used
primarily just for diabetic patients
right makes sense but now there are
companies that are bringing this glucose
tracking technology to the masses and
one study actually showed that 88 of
americans have metabolic dysfunction
it's a spectrum right you don't just go
from being healthy to then boom oh my
god i have four metabolic function and i
have diabetes there's a spectrum so how
can you slow that progression or ideally
even reverse it i've been wearing cgm's
on and off for several months now and
i've noticed a lot of changes i am held
accountable i have the real-time
feedback loop i'm now getting a lot more
insights as to what i specifically react
well and poor to because everyone's
different the glycemic index is a
generalization not necessarily
individual specific and i actually have
a lot more reasons as to why cgm's are
awesome and why you should look into
them linked here number nine is not buy
them a material gift but rather give
them an experience experiences tend to
be underrated right we tend to go for
material goods but experiences
they can generate memories that are
going to last a lifetime especially if
you're doing that experience with that
person when you look back on your life
and you have those fond memories it's
not about things usually it's usually
about people and experiences that you
were having with them and you tend to
have more prolonged excitement because
you're first getting the gift of knowing
that you're gonna go on experience and
then there's anticipation that's
building up until the experience then
the experience happens and you're like
this is awesome and you take photos and
videos and and whatnot so you have this
really prolonged elevated state whereas
with a material position you get it
you're like yay
and then it's almost like a rapid cliff
a rapid depreciation of excitement and
there are a lot of examples here you can
do skydiving whether outdoor or indoor
escape room rock climbing concerts some
classes like yoga or pottery doing a
trip doing a road trip doing a cruise
and for someone who likes cars maybe a
track day and that brings us to number
10 which is to get them something
related to one of their hobbies a lot of
my favorite gifts of the past were
related to one of my hobbies like with
cycling it can be a bike computer or bib
shorts or a power meter and when it
comes to bib shorts getting a quality
pair of bib shorts makes a huge
difference i was writing these cheap
ones for years and then when i upgraded
it because it essentially serves as both
your shorts and your underwear oh my god
never going back that would be a good
gift for someone that's into cycling if
they're getting into cooking maybe you
want to buy them some really good
cookware or if someone's a gear head
then maybe you want to get them a drift
course your drift instruction or another
driving course at the racetrack those
guests are always going to be much more
significant than just buying the hottest
new tech gadget that's going to go out
of style in one year anyway all right
guys that's it for this video happy
holidays much love see you in the next
one
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you