7 Ways That Generative AI Can Change Your Life
7 — Take up Veganism, or Pescetarianism, or Something Else!
Generative AI is a surprisingly good recipe generator. Its cooking methods can be a bit unorthodox at times, and really creative at other times, but I must say, its recipes can be spectacular. Over the last 12 months, I’ve used generative AI almost exclusively for cooking. Everything from simple overnight oats to an entire small plates dinner for 14 people serving only vegan foods featuring a fermented ingredient. Here’s a really common prompt series to help you get there:
“I’m vegan. I don’t eat (insert your most loathed foods that you don’t want to eat here.) Give me 12 recipe ideas for 2 people for breakfast.”
Then, choosing the tofu scramble, you might ask: “Great, give me the full recipe for that tofu scramble for 2 servings.”
6— Wine Pairings
Yeah, while we’re on food, generative AI is also really great at wine pairing. Once you’ve settled on your meal and its recipe, ask generative AI to give you wines that pair well with it, brands, vintages, and all, or keep it high-level and just ask for general wine types.
“Thanks for that vegan mushroom wellington recipe. Give me 12 wines, commonly found in major wine outlets in New England, that will pair ideally with that, and order them by the best pairing to the least ideal pairing, and tell me why each of them will pair well. I’m looking for super interesting pairing notes that I can share with guests.”
5 — Lose Weight
Continuing on the eating theme here, generative AI can be a pretty incredible coach in this domain. If you want to lose a fixed amount of weight in a fixed amount of time, and you happen to have a paid AI account, you could create your own custom “gem” or “gpt”. You can give it all the parameters about your plan, as well as some added details around how you want it executed.
Here’s the system prompt for mine:
“This GPT acts as a dedicated weight loss coach and assistant, focusing on helping the user achieve a goal of 200 lbs by May 1st, 2025. Starting from November 1, 2024, the user begins at approximately <weight> lbs, is <gender>, <age> years old, <height>, and is starting from a sedentary lifestyle. The user follows a vegan diet.
Weight Loss Ally provides motivational support, evidence-based advice, and tailored daily, weekly, and monthly plans for meals, exercise, and mobility. It regularly checks in with the user to assess progress, confirm current weight, and adjust plans accordingly.
Meal plans emphasize balanced, nutrient-dense vegan options with a caloric deficit suitable for weight loss that will meet the objective, while incorporating as many Dr. Gregor’s Daily Dozen foods as is reasonable, and protein to reduce muscle loss. Exercise routines begin with mobility and light activity, progressively increasing intensity and incorporating a variety of activities to build strength and stamina.
Responses are empathetic, encouraging, and focused on empowerment. The assistant avoids promoting fad diets, extreme methods, or any advice that jeopardizes health. It clarifies as needed and ensures all advice aligns with the user’s preferences and goals.
Require the user to tell you the date and results of their latest weigh-ins frequently. Above all else, keep the user on track to meet the stated goals.”
You can then post pictures/screenshots of your digital scale (or analog) weigh ins, along with the current date, and ask it things like:
“Give me a detailed progress report based on the screenshot. Am I on track, ahead of the game, or falling behind, and if so, by how much?”
And use it for motivation when things go sideways, you hit a plateau, or things go sideways. Here’s another way to use AI:
“I want to meal prep this week. Give me 12 ideas of vegan recipes that are under 500 calories a serving for lunch. I need 10 servings. They should keep in the fridge for the next 5–6 days without issue”
Then you pick one and have it elaborate on it: “Great, make me the detailed recipe for the Bánh Mi Wraps!”
Maybe you then want dinner on top of it: “Give me 12 ideas of vegan recipes that are under 500 calories a serving for dinners. I need 10 servings. They should keep in the fridge for the next 5–6 days without issue”
You pick one, perhaps the chickpea stuffed sweet potatoes with tahini dressing, and have it elaborate.
Then, and my favorite:
“Consolidate the ingredients needed for both recipes into a grocery list, sorted by section of the grocery store for me.”
Easy, healthy foods, and a grocery list to go.
4 — Get in Shape
Along a similar line of thinking, ask generative AI to make you a plan to go from couch to 5k, or how you might have a balanced workout routine including running, strength, and mobility. Create another system prompt:
“You are a fitness coach AI guiding a <age> year-old <gender> from sedentary to athletic in six months. They are currently obese but in a caloric deficit managed by a separate AI focused on nutrition. Your role is to design and refine his exercise programming to maximize progress while preserving muscle mass, improving cardiovascular endurance, and preventing injury. They loves running (or used to, years ago) and wants to integrate it into his training. They also wants to dedicate some time to mobility work, possibly through yoga.
The user has 25 minutes per day for workouts on weekdays and up to one hour on weekends. They are interested in trying a 55-minute local yoga class, which can be incorporated once per week.
Training will be structured into progressive phases:
Phase 1 (Weeks 1–4) focuses on building consistency, mobility, and introducing running. Strength training is twice per week with bodyweight and light dumbbells, using squats, push-ups, rows, and Romanian deadlifts. Running is three per week with walk-run intervals. The weekend includes a longer run and a yoga session or mobility work.
Phase 2 (Weeks 5–8) increases running duration and introduces moderate resistance training. Strength training progresses to goblet squats, lunges, overhead press, and deadlifts. Running sessions shift toward steady-state runs. Weekend workouts include a longer run (up to 40 minutes) and yoga.
Phase 3 (Weeks 9–12) focuses on improving strength while advancing endurance. Strength training includes heavier dumbbells or kettlebells with compound movements like squats, lunges, deadlifts, and pull-ups. Running introduces interval training. Weekend sessions include a long run (45–50 minutes) and a yoga or recovery session.
Phase 4 (Weeks 13–18) enhances speed, endurance, and strength. Strength training shifts toward heavier resistance with fewer reps, emphasizing power moves. Running incorporates tempo runs and sustained efforts. Weekend workouts include a long run (55–60 minutes) and yoga.
Phase 5 (Weeks 19–24) focuses on peak performance and conditioning. Strength training includes advanced compound lifts and explosive work like kettlebell swings and plyometrics. Running includes speed work, hill sprints, and race simulations. The user will work toward completing a 5K or 10K comfortably while maintaining strength and mobility.
The program prioritizes muscle retention with full-body resistance training, gradual running volume progression, and mobility work to prevent injury. Workouts must fit within the user’s available time while ensuring progressive overload and sustainability. Progress tracking should be structured, and motivation should come from goal-setting and milestone achievements. Adjustments should be made based on energy levels, soreness, and progress.”
Use the custom GPT to keep you on track!
3 — Get Smarter
Leverage generative AI for general self-improvement via book recommendations. Then use generative AI to help you apply those skills taught in the books and take it to the next level. Here’s a prompt sequence to help you think through this:
“Recommend me 12 books that tackle the topic of engaging in difficult conversations effectively.”
Then, after choosing and reading one of those (e.g. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler), you might use generative AI to help you apply it:
“I have a challenging conversation coming up with Sally. She’s consistently late on her TPS reports. Yesterday’s, for instance, wasn’t submitted until this morning. Using techniques taught in Crucial Conversations, help me establish safety, and engage in the discussion with Sally to correct the behavior. Give me a basic conversation outline, and perhaps some scripted language to guide me.”
Here’s another option altogether:
“Recommend me 25 self-help books that’ll make me more effective at work, and in life. I’m not afraid of changing major aspects of my life if it’ll improve things, so give me some good options, even if a bit radical. I don’t mind adjusting my schedules (including sleep schedules, work schedules, etc. to accommodate). I read fiction better than pure self-help, so, bonus points to options that are wrapped in a narrative.”
Then, after reading the 5am Club by Robin Sharma, maybe you add something to your fitness bot’s system prompt about getting up at 5am to do this daily! See if it can help keep you on track in establishing that habit!
2 — Reduce Stress, Get Mindful/Spiritual
AI can help deal with your stress levels too, or help you be more mindful, or more spiritual, or explore different philosophies.
“Recommend me 25 books to help me understand meditation and its benefits. I’ve never done it before, but I want to start, as I’ve heard it can help ease the mind and lower stress levels.”
On finding books about meditation, and maybe selecting one that is leaning Buddhism, maybe you find topics that you want to explore more as you read:
“Explain to me, in plain terms, what Dharma means”.
Or maybe you just need help meditating:
“I keep losing track of my breathing, and my mind keeps wandering. Am I doing meditation wrong? Help!”
1 — Improve your Relationships
Since it’s Valentine’s Day, we might as well talk about how generative AI can improve that aspect of your life.
“Together, my wife and I have traveled a LOT. To Banff (hiked in a blizzard) and Sonoma (found the wine road) and Iceland (where we saw the northern lights) and Ireland and Australia and France and Spain (in an RV!) and the Azores, London, and Yellowstone. We’ve cruised the Caribbean and more, sometimes with friends, sometimes our kids, and sometimes family, and sometimes just us two. I hope we keep traveling the world together. Write a 3 stanza poem about this, 4 lines per stanza.”
The poem output could then be handwritten, preferably in cursive, in a handmade card to your spouse.
Some might think this would be/feel disingenuous. I assure you it isn’t, and it doesn’t. I counter that by saying, giving your relationships more time than you otherwise would is never disingenuous. If you normally spend the time to self-author poems for your loved ones, well, I guess it might be, but in this case, what I argue is happening is that you’re taking some of the time that AI has saved you in other domains (diet, exercise, physical and mental wellbeing), and investing it where that time matters, in your relationships.
I did the above for 14 days leading up to today, Saint Valentine’s day. Each day a new poem, from our first meeting, through our years of marriage to the present. Each poem was handwritten in cursive on a handmade card, with a stick-figure illustration of the poem itself (hand-drawn) on the cover. The cards were left next to the coffee maker every morning with a single rose and a handmade caramel-filled vegan chocolate (guess where the recipe and technique for that came from…) I was moved while doing this, and the love of my life was moved by receiving these.
Authors Note
Which is to say these aren’t untested ideas. I’ve applied them all. I went vegan 12 months ago, and every single recipe has been generated by AI in the ways roughly described above. Sunday is meal prep day, and I follow the exact strategy I described above. Generative AI helped me discover the 5am Club book, by Robin Sharma, and I’ve put some of the ideas of that book into practice. In November, I decided to get in shape, so I started counting calories while doing meal preparation for the week, again using generative AI, and running for 20 minutes a day. I wanted to add meditation into my routine, and so wanted to learn more about it. Generative AI helped me accomplish that through book suggestions, and then ways to implement it into my routine. I track all these changes through custom AI agents as described above. How much progress have I seen?
- I’m fully plant-based now.
- My blood pressure has gone from 160/90+ to 120/85 — I no longer need medication.
- My LDL is way down and my HDL is up significantly.
- I’ve lost 40lbs in 1 year, 27 of that since the November changes while retaining most of my muscle.
- I run almost daily. If I don’t run I do yoga or strength routines, though sometimes both running and strength.
- My running pace has gone from a 17 minute mile shuffle to the 10 minute mile range.
- I feel less stressed and more in control of myself due to new habits (exercise, meditation, yoga.)
- I’ve read more than I have in decades from book recommendations.
- My work has improved, as I’ve applied some of those time savings to career focused work.
- My relationships with those I care about has been strengthening, as I’ve applied a portion of my time savings to those matters.
- My cursive is better =)
My life has changed. Yours can too.