Due Diligence Checklist

Six years ago I bought an absolute train wreck of a property.

The plan was to flip it in 3-4 months, make a quick buck, and move on to the next one.

Wishful thinking.

12 months, 3 contractors, and a bunch of money later… lessons were learned.

Proper due diligence + consulting with the right people = preventing costly mistakes.

The same goes for your health.

Carving out a little time and effort now will prevent health problems down the road.

That's why I created a health checklist using insights from trusted doctors and data-driven longevity experts to help guide you on how to be proactive about your health.

Health Due Diligence Checklist:

1. Comprehensive Bloodwork - CBC, CMP, lipid, thyroid, sex hormones

2. Body Composition - weight, body fat, muscle mass, visceral fat

3. Biometrics - blood pressure, RHR, HRV, sleep, calories burned

4. Macros - calorie intake, carbs, fats, protein

How to test, where to test, and how often:

For bloodwork, you can order tests online from Life Extension for under $300. This is the most intrusive and least fun of all the diagnostic tests, but the most insightful when it comes to heart health and hormones for energy, libido and metabolism.

To make this less of a pain, you can have at-home services like Getlabs come to you for $35-$59 depending on location. Test once a year at minimum, every 3-4 months for advanced.

For body composition, the gold standard is a DEXA Scan. It is regarded as the most accurate body measurement device, takes 5-10 mins and costs around $75 per scan. A more accessible option is an InBody scanner found at most gyms. Not as accurate, but quick, easy and good enough. Test once a year at minimum, every 3-4 months for advanced.

As for biometrics, the one I like the most is the Whoop 4.0 wrist band. It’s small and light on your wrist, doesn’t have a screen so no distractions, and battery lasts 4-5 days. Comes in at $239/yr.

Other options that have similar data are the Apple Watch Series 9 with 18-36 hours battery for $399 or an Oura Ring with 7 days battery life, for $299. Data is collected real-time, automatically with wearables.

Blood pressure is probably the most annoying at-home test. You can buy an Omron monitor off Amazon for $35. The downsides are they’re big and bulky so can’t really travel with it and you need to be seated for at least 5 mins prior to test for accurate results. Not my fav, but a really important metric to know. For beginners, test once 30 mins after waking up before food or meds. Advanced test 2-3x’s a day, morning, afternoon and evening.

Last but not least, tracking your macronutrient intake or calorie consumption. It’s good to track cals and macros for a few days based on your typical diet. Once you have a baseline, you don’t need to track everyday. This will give you insight on if you need to increase, decrease or keep cals to same to meet your weight goals.

My app of choice is MyFitnessPal. Quick and easy to use. Another option is Calorie Counter by Cronometer which gives a more detailed breakdown of the micronutrients of food to see where you may be deficient in. For beginners, track at least once a year for a few days. Advanced peeps, 2-3 days once every 3-4 months.

Start small.

If you’re not doing any of these, start small. Buying a wrist tracker is a pretty low effort move that gives you big insights into heart rate, recovery and sleep patterns.

Until next time.

Cheers,

Darryl

P.S. Join my Bloodwork Optimization Group to learn which tests to get, how to enhance energy and longevity, and access discounted labs. Click here to join now.