Mid-Year Hack: My Future Self Has Better Cells

“Discipline is remembering what you want.” - David Campbell 

In my article, How To Meet Your Future Self on New Year’s Eve Part 1, I explored the “science of future self” based on Dr. Benjamin Hardy’s Be Your Future Self Now. Visualizing your ideal Future Self can reinforce positive behavior change. I often practice visualization meditations while doing breathwork, before falling asleep, or while jogging. This past weekend, for example, I went on an eight-mile trail run with my boyfriend, Eric. Surrounded by lush trees newly adorned in green after a long winter, I mindfully took deep breaths. The temperature was in the eighties, and I felt invigoratingly sweaty and alive.

Along the wooded trail, I alternated between listening to the symphony of cicadas and an energizing indie playlist. I occasionally conversed with Eric, but mostly, I let my thoughts wander between visualizing my Future Self and reflecting on the past. As we near the halfway point of 2024, I'm consciously reorienting myself toward my goals for the year and redrafting my roadmap to meet my Future Self on New Year’s 2025.

Peaks and Valleys: Uneven Terrain 

This is an especially Happy Half New Year for me, as it marks my three-year anniversary of using metabolic therapies, including a medical keto diet, as an alternative to psychotropic medications. Not long ago, I was mentally and physically unwell, incredibly lonely, obese, and abusing substances. It is hard to believe the Future Self visualizations I conjured during my darkest times have become my current reality. I am now in remission from bipolar 1 disorder, with no signs of hypomania or mania since I started ketogenic therapy. I am healthier than ever, both physically and mentally, and I am in awe of how these treatments helped me reclaim my life. 

As Eric and I jogged downhill and jumped over gnarly, jutting roots and shiny stones, our feet bounced gently off the soft dirt. We looked up and smiled at one another, knowing we were in our shared “happiest place,” jogging in the woods. In that endorphin-rich moment, I reflected on how lucky I felt to have found the right tools to make my Future Self fantasy a reality, no matter how unachievable it once seemed.

While I am starting the second half of 2024 in a great place, the first half of the year brought some unexpected growing pains and challenges. 

Trying Hard to Progress, I Accidentally Regressed

Earlier this year, I experimented with carb-cycling, purposefully exiting ketosis a couple of days a week by eating carb-rich whole foods, primarily fruit, beans, and legumes. I hoped this strategy would improve my running and strength training endurance and sleep quality.

Every individual’s journey with metabolic therapies is unique. Some people can revert to a glucose-based metabolism without problems, while others experience psychiatric side effects immediately upon exiting ketosis. I didn’t notice any immediate adverse effects from carb-cycling, but after a few months, I started to feel more anxious, stressed, and slightly less energized. It didn’t make sense that I felt less optimized despite improved life circumstances. Was it just eustress, stress that is positive and beneficial, from my new career and relationship? Increased dopamine (which some researchers theorize might be one of the underlying mechanisms of bipolar disorder successfully treated by ketogenic therapy)? Changes to my sleep routine? Or, perhaps carb-cycling negatively impacted my metabolic health after all. Maybe my mitochondria still couldn’t metabolize glucose properly, leading to a gradual decline in mitochondrial function and energy utilization.

As soon as I realized something felt a bit wonky, even though I couldn't be sure of the exact cause, I decided to double down on restorative interventions that I know improve the quality and quantity of my mitochondria.  I stopped carb cycling, focused on ketosis, and integrated regular intermittent fasting and extended fasts, lasting from three to five days every month. This quickly restored my energy levels and empowered me to manage the new developments in my life. Now, I can fully enjoy my personal and professional progress. Centered and grounded again, I am ready to redraft the roadmap to become my Future Self.

The difficulty of metabolic therapies in the messy real world is that it can be challenging to pinpoint the best lifestyle choices, especially during times of change when there are so many confounding variables. With my fascination with metabolic psychiatry, I appreciate how the body and mind are inextricably linked. When my mood or thoughts seem slightly compromised, I carefully assess factors affecting my physiology. This year, I learned that even positive changes can pose unanticipated challenges to metabolic health. I hope that we will see a future of “precision metabolic psychiatry” when patients receive extremely targeted, lifestyle, biomarker, and phenotype-informed individualized guidance. In the meantime, I am figuring out what works for me through trial and error. 

Optimizing metabolic health means giving our cells a mitochondrial upgrade to ensure we make our brains and bodies as fuel-efficient as possible. Brilliant resources like Dr. Casey Means' Good Energy and Dr. Christopher Palmer's Brain Energy can help you think about various strategies to enhance mitochondrial function. Your Future Self can literally have better cells than you. 

Mobilize Your Future Self

For those interested in visualization meditation as a tool to help you follow through with positive lifestyle changes, a helpful book is The 6 Phase Meditation Method by Vishen Lakhiani. Lakhiani explains that meditation isn't just about silencing the mind—there are many engaging, fun, and active ways to meditate, especially through creative visualization techniques. If you enjoy guided meditations, you can access Lakhiani's six-phase method, which includes Future Self visualizations. One aspect I love about this morning meditation is that Lakhiani guides you in visualizing your ideal Future Self in three years, followed by picturing how your present day can beautifully unfold as you align your actions with your desired future.

Creating a relationship with your Future Self isn't meant to distract you from living fully in the present; rather, it can enhance your daily enjoyment. Research suggests that our brains process imagined stimuli similarly to reality—detailed visualizations of your desired life can evoke real emotions and enrich your current experience. While visualizing long-term outcomes can boost motivation, the corresponding actions often also yield immediate benefits. For example, imagining yourself in excellent physical shape might inspire you to exercise, and following through will immediately elevate your mood and energy levels. It's natural for our brains to think about the future. Instead of stressing and worrying, we can leverage this tendency by imagining a future that brings us joy now and motivates us to make positive lifestyle choices that we benefit from in the present and the future.

Once a visualization practice helps you to see your Future Self clearly and in detail, it becomes easier to determine the practical steps and goals necessary to become that person. Returning to my core metabolic therapies—medical keto, intermittent and extended fasting, exercise, meditation, and journaling—has made me even more appreciative of their power. These metabolic interventions took me from the depths of despair to the satisfying life I enjoy today. There are moments when I visualize my Future Self, and I catch a taste of a new, more extraordinary life experience. It makes me wonder, will that reality, too, be infinitely better than I can imagine right now? There is only one way to find out. 

The adventure of becoming is boundless—when you take the next step you may be creating the fantastic future that awaits you.