All Articles

  • 1964, Exploring Our Great Country: Start of My USA Odyssey

    September 23, 2024

    Exploring Our Great CompanyAs I studied the map of our great country, our topography was the first thing that struck me. The west coast is a…

  • Junior College All-American Swimmer

    September 9, 2024

    State JC swim championships, good grades in math, a memorable weekend in San Francisco — and just like that, spring semester was over.



  • My Life Begins to Accelerate

    August 26, 2024

    Setting GoalsThe semester seemed to be moving in a positive, constructive direction. My dry land training for swimming was going well. The…

  • Fall Semester and a Brand New World

    August 13, 2024

    This was the first semester of the brand new campus of the College of San Mateo. Overwhelmed at first trying to find out where I needed to go, I…

  • Work in the Oil Fields

    July 29, 2024

    Chris Jones had married his girlfriend Pat and moved to Taft, California. Taft is an oil town west of Bakersfield in the southern end of the San…

  • Second Semester: Easter Break Surfing Trip

    July 15, 2024

    As my second year in junior college progressed, I became more deeply engaged in surfing and the surfing sub-culture. I covered the walls if my…

  • The Mysterious World of College: First Semester

    July 1, 2024

    College of San Mateo: Coyote Point Campus
    Trapped between an unmotivating world of academia and a compelling fantasy world of movies and books, I was looking for direction.

  • Glimpse of a Much Bigger World

    June 17, 2024

    With athletics, I caught a glimpse of elite success. Intelligence and privilege don't get you anywhere without hard work and discipline.

  • Joe Dillon’s early History: First Half Senior Year

    June 3, 2024

    A New BreakfastI had a good summer teaching swimming. I saved some money and bought myself a car: a used 1956 VW bug for $600. I now had…

  • Meet Coach Vermeil

    May 21, 2024

    Early in the first semester of my junior year in high school, I met the new swimming coach. He was the football coach in the fall and the…

  • A Ray of Sunshine

    May 7, 2024

    The rest of the first semester of my sophomore year in high school passed in sort of a gray fog. I went to my classes each day, sat glassy-eyed and…

  • Joe Dillon’s Early History: Traumatic Sophomore Year

    April 22, 2024

    At the start of my sophomore year in high school, I was even more uncomfortable than during my freshman year. I had regained the weight I had…

  • Joe Dillon’s early History: Start High School

    April 8, 2024

    Being a shy introvert, starting my freshman year at a high school with over 2,000 students overwhelmed me. Every hour, the bell would ring, and the…

  • Joe Dillon’s Early History: Part 3A Glimpse into a Bigger World

    March 26, 2024

    Elite WorldAs the summer before my freshman year in high school progressed, I slowly got to know the other swim teachers.  As I have shared,…

  • Joe Dillon’s Early History Part 2: Learning to Swim

    March 4, 2024

    Learning to SwimWhen I was 9 years old, I learned how to swim at Clyde Devine Swim School on Old Country Road in San Carlos California –…

  • The Start

    February 19, 2024

    I was born in San Francisco in 1944 during World War Two. Life was progressing, and my TV-and-junk-food habit saw its beginning.

  • Long Way Home: Part 3

    January 23, 2024

    A Warm WelcomeClark Air Force Base hospital was warm and welcoming. My steak was delicious. The Air Force nurses were attentive, thoughtful and…

  • Long Way Home: Part 2

    January 2, 2024

    My day on the Hospital Ship Repose evolved into an exhausting routine: doctor’s exam, shower, stuff my wounds with thick gauze, receive a large penicillin shot, and fall asleep with my right leg elevated.

  • Long Way Home

    December 11, 2023

    Where our story left off, I was on a medevac helicopter out over the South China Sea off the coast of Vietnam just south of the Demilitarized Zone.

  • Grateful Every Day

    November 20, 2023

    I have so much to be thankful for. I say thank you on Thanksgiving and on every day of my life. Many times a day.

  • “Secrets” of Weight Loss: Part 13: Let It Go

    November 6, 2023

    Fight the "Black Box of Conventional Wisdom" and treat your body right.

  • "Secrets" of Weight Loss: Part 12: Are You Aware?

    October 25, 2023

    Your health is about prevention. The catch with prevention is that you have to initiate the action. You have to be proactive.

  • "Secrets" of Weight Loss: Part 11: Less Is More

    October 11, 2023

    Warning: this article may not be for everyoneAs you know by now, I am about quality of life. What is it? How do we get at…

  • "Secrets" of Weight Loss: Part 10: Realities

    September 27, 2023

    The body composition goals for optimal health are empirical, evidenced- based standards, which I have advocated for since I began my company in 1979. Let me put these standards in perspective.

  • "Secrets" of Weight Loss: Part 9: Nutrient Hunger

    September 13, 2023

    In this modern era of hyper processed foods, lack of essential micronutrients is making us fat and killing us at progressively earlier ages. I call this nutrient hunger.

  • "Secrets" of Weight Loss: Part 8: Wet Drunk? Dry Drunk?

    September 1, 2023

    One of my first speaking jobs was for the National Council on Alcoholism. That is when I learned that people get drunk different ways.

  • "Secrets" of Weight Loss: Part 7: It's Not Your Fault

    August 16, 2023

    The mismatch between what humans evolved to eat and our food supply today is working against us. But there is a way to counter the effects.

  • "Secrets" of Weight Loss: Part 6: Appetite Stimulants

    July 26, 2023

    This article will introduce you to the 3 main appetite stimulants — chronic exhaustion, alcohol, and artificial sweeteners — and help you understand why you seem to have no willpower at times.

  • Secrets of Weight Loss: Part 5: Rituals

    July 17, 2023

    Most people live chaotically with no rhyme or reason. It's time to take your habits to a deeper level. The concept of ritual incorporates mindfulness — being fully present as you go about your life.

  • "Secrets" of Weight Loss: Part 4: Metabolism

    June 21, 2023

    There are several components of your metabolism – all of which are largely within your control: lean body mass, aerobic fitness level, and how metabolically active your muscles are.

  • “Secrets” of Weight Loss: Part 3

    June 7, 2023

    To get the look and feel of what you really want, you need to improve your body composition, which means to get leaner means to lose fat and simultaneously enhance your lean body mass.

  • “Secrets” of Weight Loss: Part 2

    May 30, 2023

    Eating high glycemic load carbohydrates means your blood sugar is chronically low, you are constantly hungry and craving sweet foods, and you are often depressed and anxious.

  • Golden Window: “Secrets” of Weight Loss: Part 1

    May 15, 2023

    In this three-part series I will share with you some “secrets” – some scientific, physiological facts that will facilitate your fat burning and toning up.

  • Love Your Future Self Like You Love Your Child

    May 1, 2023

    If I was going to coach and promote optimal health, I had to set a good example. I want to convey true loving kindness to all the future selves and their children that I work with.

  • The Art and Science of the Shake: Part 2

    April 12, 2023

    In part one, we established the importance (essential) of complete animal protein. Now let’s talk about sources of high quality…

  • The Art and Science of the Shake: Part 1

    March 29, 2023

    A JDD shake is the simplest, safest and fastest way to get the highest possible nutrition into your body.  That’s a pretty bold…

  • 2023 Heavy Hands Walking: Part 3

    March 15, 2023

    Progression: What is the optimal combination of intensity and volume to build your strength, stamina, and resilience? Let's talk about how to progress with Heavy Hands Walking.

  • 2023 Heavy Hands Walking: Part 2

    March 1, 2023

    Here's how to duplicate the incredible fitness and fat burning benefits of cross country skiing by walking at a comfortable pace and pumping very light hand weights starting with just one pound in each hand.

  • 2023 Heavy Hands Walking: Part 1

    February 16, 2023

    Heavy hands walking is a safe, simple, and a practical way to get into shape.

  • 2023 Resolutions Part 2: Most Effective Exercise

    February 1, 2023

    Exercise is an integral component of getting and staying lean because lean body muscle mass is use it or lose it.

  • 2023 Resolutions Part 1

    January 18, 2023

    Your 2023 resolutions are for the entire year of 2023. Just because you slip, does not mean your 2023 resolution is void. The idea is to keep progressing and to accomplish your big goal by or before the end of the year.

  • Are You Committed? Part 2

    December 28, 2022

    Your body does not lie. Your body tells you and everyone in your life who you really are when no one is looking.

  • Are You Committed?

    December 14, 2022

    As we approach the end of 2022, this is an ideal time to give serious thought to your goals for 2023. What is a goal? How do we go about setting a goal? A goal is only effective if it motivates you to get out of bed and do something about it.

  • Conscious Quality and Mature Gratitude

    November 9, 2022

    Last time we talked about quality of consciousness. This time let’s talk about the quality of our life, conscious choices, and the Black Box of Conventional Wisdom.

  • Water and Brain Power

    October 26, 2022

    I am occasionally asked, “Joe, what is your program really about?” And my answer since 1979 is: quality of consciousness. What does “quality of consciousness” mean?

  • "Uncommon valor was a common virtue."

    October 12, 2022

    Having a powerful enough goal, the right coach, and a supportive environment can lead to profoundly positive personal change.

  • Healthy Rituals, Healthy Tools

    September 26, 2022

    Emblems of your daily healthy rituals are jars of Joe Dillon protein and your Vitamix variable speed blender. And plenty of leafy greens.

  • Evolving Toward Modern Human Behavior

    August 15, 2022

    We evolved from living opportunistically day-to-day with immediate gratification to longer, more complex hunting trips and delayed gratification. The trend over time is simple to complex.

  • Two Sides of Neolithic

    August 2, 2022

    In less than 10,000 years, humans have so altered the climate of our planet that we as a species (as well as thousands of other species) are facing a growing existential crisis.

  • The Evolutionary Origin of Exercise Mismatch Issue#2

    July 20, 2022

    Why do so many people struggle to exercise consistently? Or exercise at all? Goethe said if you want to understand something, go to the origin. If we want to understand our deepest motivations, we return again to human evolutionary history.

  • Origins and Consequences of Evolutionary Mismatch Issue#1

    July 6, 2022

    We human beings are built for scarcity. Not abundance. Because of our deeply evolutionary rooted taste for sweetness, we are extremely vulnerable to all these sugar and corn syrup foods that line our grocery store shelves. But there is hope. Given what we know now, it is possible to live a longer, healthier, happier life than ever before in history. Read on to learn how.

  • Education of a Coach Issue#2

    June 22, 2022

    Before I continue to share my “new” updated lifestyle or way of life, I want to clarify where I am coming from.I was born in 1944. I was 12 years old when I got my first full-time job. I learned to swim when I was 9 years old. Each summer after that my parents bought me another set of 9 lessons at the Clyde Devine Swim School.

  • Inflammation and Aging - continued Issue#1

    June 7, 2022

    From the earliest prehistoric times, infection was the predominant cause of death. For example, infection is the cause of death in 60% of wild chimpanzees. Professor Finch also explains and documents every point he makes. Of his textbook’s 600 pages, at the back of his book is a 200 page bibliography of reference books and peer-reviewed scientific studies.

  • Inflammation and Aging Issue#2

    May 24, 2022

    As I continue to research and update The (New) Joe Dillon Difference Lifestyle, I revisited Caleb Finch. Caleb Finch, Ph.D. is one of the world’s most respected authorities on human longevity.

  • The Joe Dillon Difference Book 2

    April 26, 2022

    As I begin to think more deeply about my (New) Joe Dillon Difference Lifestyle, I see a framework or matrix. (Please see attached image).

  • The Joe Dillon Difference Book 2

    April 2, 2022

    As you know, The Joe Dillon Difference is about Optimal Health, Peak Performance, and Maximum Health Span.

  • Enough Salt?

    February 23, 2022

    Are you salting your Joe Dillon Shake?If you are not currently salting your Joe Dillon shakes to taste, you are missing out on at least 3 major benefits: 1) Salting your shake to taste will significantly enhance the flavor and enjoyment of your shakes. 2) you will be getting an added daily supply of your most important electrolyte: sodium chloride. Iodized salt is best. 3) you enjoy even more energy from your Joe Dillon shake.

  • Take the Joe Dillon 90 day Blood Panel Challenge Today!

    January 11, 2022

    First establish your blood panel Baseline.Time to clean up your act? Why not establish a 2022 blood panel baseline? Blood results do not lie. Give yourself a 90 day challenge.

  • Holidays

    December 21, 2021

    Wherever you celebrate the holidays, it is possible to have fun without crashing your program. Here’s your game plan.

  • Supplements

    December 7, 2021

    What is a supplement? With the arrival of omicron, the latest variant of covid19, we are reminded yet again how important it is to keep our immune system strong. We have previously discussed the advantages of high quality animal protein to strengthen our immune system

  • Thanksgiving 2021- Thank you!

    November 23, 2021

    May you live in interesting times. An ancient saying which over the last year and half or so may seem a little too ironic. We have been through a major event in American history. And like the early settlers of our country after their trying times, we have much to be thankful for.

  • JDD Protein Super-Charges your Immune System

    October 26, 2021

    Sometimes in life we are thrown a curve ball. Something new and unexpected. We feel overwhelmed. At a loss. We don’t know what to do. Early in 2020 the whole world was hit with a massive challenge. A pandemic. Covid19. In fact, it turned out to be the worst pandemic in a hundred years.