What is the New Normal?

Over the past decade, we’ve witnessed astounding improvements in human performance. Take for example when Alex Honnold free soloed El Capitan (incredibly captured by a team led by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi), Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson climbed the 32-pitch Dawn Wall, and Kit DesLauriers not only climbed the Seven Summits (the highest peak on each continent), but also skied down from the tops of them – a historic first.

Chloe Kim was the first woman to land back-to-back 1080s in competition, and then became the youngest ever women’s medalist in Winter Olympics history by winning gold at age 17, a feat matched by teammate Red Gerard in the slopestyle event. Ian Walsh paddled into waves at Jaws that others could only tow-surf while, Kai Lenny started doing small wave tricks on Peahi’s monstrous faces (20 feet airdrops – what?!). And while we’re no longer putting people on the moon and haven’t yet got a man or woman to Mars, space is still the scene for some jaw-dropping feats, like Felix Baumgartner’s live-streamed leap from the stratosphere and Alan Eustace’s low-key jump that bested it.

Such pioneers have not only changed our minds about what we previously thought was possible, they have completely shifted our reality with respect to what we thought was achievable. The outstanding feats of Honnold, Kim, Caldwell, and the rest don’t just exist in isolation. Rather, their accolades serve to inspire the rest of us to expand our goals, discard our self-imposed limitations, and make our own mark in previously unreachable territory: we’re calling this shift in perception of what’s doable The New Normal. Because in the age of the New Normal, there is no aim too lofty, no objective unthinkable, no record unbreakable. Whatever we can conceive, we can achieve.

To push past the boundaries that used to confine and hold us back, we need our bodies and brains to be up to the task. This doesn’t just mean training until we get big, fast and strong enough to cope with the physical rigors of our stated target. Or merely upping our mental game by leaving fears, doubts, and anxiety in the dust. It’s also about transformation from the inside, from the cellular level up.

So, if we’re going to reach these incredible new levels of output, we need to first change what goes into our bodies. Let’s hear groundbreaking snowboarder Travis Rice’s perspective on this: “I have control over my own inputs, what I watch, choose to read, what I eat, what I drink, that I can choose good food, yoga, friends whose perspectives I appreciate and respect... all these little choices help me to stay on message and be in a place that I prefer.”

From a nutrition standpoint, one step you can take to establish a New Normal involves eliminating toxins that attack the body and cause levels of chronic inflammation that prompt disease to form and flourish. So while you don’t have to become an ascetic monk, you might want to consider cutting out junk food, soda, tobacco, and excess alcohol. And thinking about the higher prices of organic and non-GMO foods not as a cost, but an investment in your health and potential as a human being. By avoiding contaminants, pesticides, and herbicides whenever possible, you’re going to perform and recover better.

This isn’t just about what to avoid, but also what to add. There is no magic bullet – one single substance that’s going to solve all your problems or elevate every part of your being. That’s the stuff of Victorian-era snake oil salesmen. But there is plenty you can eat and drink that, when combined with a lifestyle that incorporates adequate hydration, frequent movement, stress-busting/mind-opening practices like prayer or meditation, community, and premium rest and recovery, can produce big positive changes. Some of those that have reached near sainthood status in the past few years are so-called superfoods such as green tea, kale, blueberries, and salmon. While all of these undoubtedly offer advantages to health and wellbeing, they’re only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There are hundreds or maybe even thousands of botanicals that remain largely unknown and unheralded in the West, yet have been utilized in other cultures around the world to great effect for centuries. Ancient wisdom anyone?

With the help of an Ayurvedic doctor (meet Dr. V) who has decades of experience, we packed 30 of these botanicals into our proprietary HANAH ONE blend. Each one is wild and hand-harvested in India to ensure that it’s pure and uncontaminated, and then combined in just the right quantity with the other ingredients to be as efficacious as possible. HANAH ONE isn’t the only thing that’s fueling Jimmy Chin, Angel Collinson, Travis Rice and our other HANAH Heroes to push through paradigms and set new standards, but it’s a key part of their nutritional toolbox. As a filmmaker (if you haven’t seen Free Solo yet, you must), photographer, and alpinist who flies all over the world, Jimmy has to endure the rigors of travel and still be his best upon landing, and looks to HANAH ONE to keep him going.

“It has provided me some truly incredible results with respect to focus, energy, stamina, and recovery since I began taking it, not to mention I haven’t been sick once, which is a small miracle given my work and travel schedule,” Jimmy said.

It isn’t just superstars like Jimmy who are using HANAH ONE daily to establish a New Normal. We’re also heartened to hear powerful before/after stories from customers in all walks of life. “I am in love with this product,” said Gloria K. “I feel it’s made my quality of life and health better. I am an ultra runner and I can feel the difference in my athletic ability. I can tell I have better focus.”

For another valued customer, Gary A, performance means being the best father he can. “HANAH ONE allows me to just keep going in my workouts and it gives me more focus. I take a teaspoon in the afternoon and it picks me up enough to be able to get home after a long day and have the energy to play with my kids,” he said.

So no matter who you are, where you are, and what your priorities are, HANAH ONE can help elevate your baseline and empower you to find your New Normal, where excellence isn’t an exception, but the everyday rule.

Learn more about The New Normal here.

Related HANAH blogs:

• Building a Traditional Superfood for the Modern World
• Character and Terroir: How HANAH ONE is Like Fine Wine
• Farm to Superfood: HANAH's Mission to Change How We Think About Health