Several people have sent messages to me over the last year asking why I talk about politics or artificial intelligence if I’m “just trying to be a health coach…” The implication (or outright criticism) is, “You should focus on exercise and nutrition because that’s what health is, not AI or politics.”

As someone trained in the Deep Health model of coaching (thanks, Precision Nutrition!), I respectfully disagree.

Human health is multidimensional. It’s not weight loss, V02 max, bench press numbers, meal plans, or whatever “maxxing” fad happens to be circling the web right now (in fact, it’s almost never those things). It’s a holistic combination of numerous facets of your life that all influence each other.

Your health is a system, and like any system, a change in one part affects the whole.

The Deep Health model has six dimensions:

1. Mental: How focused are you? How well can you learn? Are you so overwhelmed you can’t get anything done?
2. Emotional: Are you in control of your emotions? Can you express them well?
3. Existential: Do you have a sense of purpose or meaning in your life? Do you feel fulfilled most days?
4. Environmental: Is your environment safe and secure? Is it clean and sanitary? Do you have what you need to survive and thrive?
5. Relational: Do you have rich, rewarding relationships in your life you can rely on? Or are you lonely? Being abused?
6. Physical: How well do you eat and move? How do you feel day-to-day? Are you chronically ill (as I am)?

Notice I saved physical for last—not because it’s less important, but because I want to emphasize how important the other aspects are. All these dimensions are interconnected, which means that they can all influence your physical health.

Which brings me back to why I talk about AI and politics.

If you worked for the federal government in the United States and were unceremoniously fired by DOGE in 2025, this affects your health. Lack of income, loss of meaning (a lot of which comes from our work), the uncertainty of how you’ll pay your bills or feed your kids—just like that, you’ve had your mental, emotional, existential, and environmental health negatively affected.

If you had your health benefits slashed by cuts to Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act, your physical, environmental, and emotional health have been negatively affected.

If you’re constantly being bombarded by the bullshit scare-marketing coming from the AI CEO tech bros telling you they’re going to kill off the human race, but they can’t do anything to stop it…

Or if your boss drank the AI Kool-Aid and is hounding you to ship more work, faster, with less care or craft, you’ll be incredibly stressed mentally, emotionally, and probably environmentally (because you’re constantly worrying about your job).

I could give you several dozen more examples, but you get my point.¹ Each of these “non-health” issues affects your well-being, and they can all affect your physical health.

You might not be able to eat well, or get to a gym, or go for a walk, or do anything “healthy” after being mentally and emotionally (or God-forbid, physically) assaulted all day.

If you believe health is only about how much you lift in the gym or how much protein you get each day, then yeah, I’m out of line.

But that’s not what health is, and that’s not how I coach. You are a multi-dimensional, incredibly complex creature whose physical health is affected by so many things outside of nutrition and exercise. A good coach (which I like to believe I am) recognizes that and works with you to manage all aspects of your health, not just the physical.

So I’ll keep writing about AI and politics—and all sorts of other things too—as long as they keep affecting your health.

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1. And that doesn’t even include our Health Department cutting programs to keep us physically healthy, a decision that has led to viral outbreaks, explosive diarrhea, and death. There’s politics affecting your health again! ↩︎