Robert Kress Functional Pharmacist

Robert Kress Functional Pharmacist Physiology • Capacity • Leadership
Functional Pharmacist exploring health beyond protocols. Orientation-Based Medicine for Clinicians
Mythic Man Medicine

09/10/2026

Yesterday I talked about ADHD and perimenopause, and the response was fascinating.

So it got me thinking about another question.

What happens to your attention when your environment changes?

I see this in myself all the time.

Put me behind a desk, staring at a computer doing work that doesn’t particularly inspire me, and I can look like Mr. ADHD.

I bounce around. Get distracted. Want to do something else.

I’ve learned to work in focused 20-minute blocks. Get the work done. Get away from the damn computer.

But put me outside.

Let me walk. Hike. Explore an idea I’m genuinely interested in.

And something changes.

My attention changes.
My creativity changes.
My energy changes.

I can think for hours.

I’m not suggesting ADHD isn’t real. And I’m certainly not saying someone with ADHD simply needs to “find their passion.”

I’m asking whether there’s another question worth exploring alongside the diagnosis:

Where does your attention actually work?

What are you doing when you become deeply engaged?

What environments bring you alive?

Where does your creativity show up?

And where does everything suddenly feel like work?

Maybe the goal isn’t always figuring out how to force ourselves to focus harder in an environment that constantly fights our attention.

Maybe sometimes we need to change the environment.

Change how we work.

Move our bodies.

Create smaller blocks.

Find more meaning in what we’re doing.

Or make some changes in a life that simply isn’t inspiring us anymore.

ADHD may absolutely be part of the story.

But maybe we should also ask whether the life we’re asking ourselves to pay attention to is actually inspiring us.

Because sometimes the answer isn’t wrong.

The question just isn’t big enough.

09/10/2026

Modern health has become incredibly good at adding things.

Another supplement.
More protein.
A wearable.
A cold plunge.
A peptide.
Another app.
Another morning routine.
Another way to optimize ourselves.

And some of those things can absolutely be useful.

But I’ve become increasingly interested in a different question:

What have we removed?

Sunlight.

Darkness.

Walking.

Boredom.

Time outside.

Eating together.

Unstructured movement.

Silence.

Periods of the day when nobody could reach us.

We keep looking for things to add to make the human body work better.

But what if some of what we’re experiencing isn’t because something is missing inside the body?

What if something is missing from the environment the body is living in?

Maybe the next step toward better health isn’t another hack.

Maybe it’s restoring some of the things we accidentally removed.

Because sometimes the answer isn’t wrong.

The question just isn’t big enough.

09/09/2026

I had an interesting conversation with a patient who had gone down the rabbit hole wondering whether she might have ADHD.

Later that day, I mentioned it to a group of pharmacists. One of them said:

“Everywhere I turn lately, people are talking about ADHD and perimenopause.”

And it made me wonder if there’s another question worth asking.

Instead of only:

“Why do I suddenly have ADHD symptoms?”

What if we also ask:

“What changed in my ability to adapt?”

Maybe some tendencies were there before, but you had enough margin to compensate.

You could organize. Focus. Push through. Keep all the plates spinning.

Then things change.

Hormones. Sleep. Stress. Responsibilities. Recovery.

Suddenly, the same life may be asking more from a system with less available capacity.

That doesn’t mean ADHD isn’t real. It doesn’t mean someone shouldn’t be properly evaluated. And it certainly doesn’t mean every woman struggling during perimenopause has ADHD.

It means the label may not be the end of the inquiry.

Maybe we need to ask not only:

“What diagnosis explains these symptoms?”

But also:

“Why now?”

What changed in this person’s physiology, environment, orientation, or capacity that made adaptation harder than it used to be?

Sometimes what looks like a new problem may also be an old adaptation that no longer has enough room to work.

Because sometimes the answer isn’t wrong.

The question just isn’t big enough.

09/09/2026

I was talking with a very aware teenager recently about what it was like growing up in the ’80s.

He said something that stuck with me:

“It just seemed simpler.”

And the interesting part?

He wasn’t even alive then.

I was. I was born in 1970 and spent my teenage years in the ’80s.

We got bored. We waited for things. We spent more time outside. If someone wasn’t home when you called, you tried again later. There were entire stretches of the day when nobody could reach you.

Today, almost every empty space can be filled instantly.

A notification.
A text.
A podcast.
Email.
Social media.
News.
Another video.
More information.

Our environment changed dramatically.

I’m not sure the human nervous system changed nearly as fast.

So maybe the renewed fascination with the ’80s isn’t only about the music, clothes, or nostalgia.

Maybe there’s something underneath it that we’re craving.

Less input.
More boredom.
More outside.
More anticipation.
More space between things.

Maybe we’re not nostalgic for the ’80s.

Maybe we’re nostalgic for an environment that gave us room to be human.

Because sometimes the answer isn’t wrong.

The question just isn’t big enough.

09/08/2026

THE CURIOUS CONTRARIAN 🧭

When did protein become just data on a spreadsheet?

Protein matters.

Especially as we age, maintaining muscle, strength, and function matters.

But somewhere along the way, eating protein seems to have become another optimization equation.

30 grams.
40 grams.
50 grams at breakfast.
Hit the number. Track the macros. Check the box.

And I wonder if we’re taking something genuinely good for us and turning it into another metric to obsess over.

What are you actually eating?

Are you moving?

Are you getting stronger?

How are you digesting?

How are you recovering?

Do you enjoy your food?

What does the rest of your life look like?

Protein is a tool. It’s not an orientation toward health.

Maybe the goal isn’t simply getting better at hitting our numbers.

Maybe it’s becoming healthier humans.

Because sometimes the answer isn’t wrong.

The question just isn’t big enough.

09/07/2026

THE CURIOUS CONTRARIAN 🧭

What if your workout is healthy… but your environment isn’t?

Think about a pretty normal day.

Wake up inside.
Drive to work.
Spend 8–10 hours under artificial light.
Get back in the car.
Drive to the gym.
Work out for an hour.
Drive home.

You exercised.

You did something genuinely good for your body.

But did you ever really go outside?

I’m not anti-gym. Strength matters. Movement matters. And for many people, the gym provides something else incredibly valuable: community.

I’m just curious whether we’ve started confusing exercise with environment.

Our bodies experience far more than reps, steps, and minutes of cardio.

Light. Darkness. Temperature. Air. Terrain. Seasons. Time of day.

It’s all information.

So maybe the bigger question isn’t simply:

“Did I get my workout in today?”

Maybe we should also be asking:

“What environment did my body spend its day living in?”

Because health isn’t only about what we do with our bodies.

It may also be about where our bodies spend their lives.

Sometimes the answer isn’t wrong.

The question just isn’t big enough.

09/06/2026

THE CURIOUS CONTRARIAN 🧭

I want to know how I’m feeling before something else tells me how I’m feeling.

I don’t wear a health tracker.

Not because I’m against them. The technology is incredible, and for some people, the data can be incredibly useful.

But when I wake up in the morning, I want my first data point to come from me.

How did I sleep?
How does my body feel?
What’s my energy like?
Do I feel recovered?
What’s my mood?

Then show me the numbers.

We’ve gotten incredibly good at measuring ourselves.

Sleep scores. HRV. Recovery. Steps. Glucose. Stress.

But I wonder if, somewhere along the way, we’ve started outsourcing something important:

our ability to listen to ourselves.

Data can inform us.

I’m just not sure it should define our experience before we’ve even had it.

Sometimes the answer isn’t wrong.

The question just isn’t big enough.

YOUR PRACTICE BECOMES THE PATIENT. 🧭In functional medicine, we’ve learned not to immediately jump to the intervention.We...
09/06/2026

YOUR PRACTICE BECOMES THE PATIENT. 🧭

In functional medicine, we’ve learned not to immediately jump to the intervention.

We orient first.

Where is this person standing?
What’s happening in their environment?
What capacity do they have?
What’s creating integration load?
And given all of that…

What’s the next appropriate move?

So I started asking a bigger question:

Why wouldn’t we do the same thing with our practices?

A practitioner says:

“I need more patients.”

And immediately we prescribe:

More social media.
A new funnel.
A podcast.
Another offer.
More content.
More marketing.

But maybe that’s the business equivalent of throwing five more supplements at a patient before understanding the territory.

Maybe your practice doesn’t need another intervention.

Maybe it needs orientation.

Are you Starting → Building → Refining?

What’s actually working?

Where are you stuck?

What’s consuming your capacity?

Where is your integration load exceeding your available margin?

And what’s the one next appropriate move based on where you’re actually standing?

This is why we’ve added OBM Practice Navigation to our current Orientation-Based Medicine cohort.

Alongside our clinical training, we’re now turning the OBM lens toward the practitioner and the practice itself—supported by the OBM Practice Builder/Navigator, OBM-trained AI tools, and my coaching along the way.

Because you probably don’t need another blueprint.

A blueprint is still a map.

The protocol is not the path.
The business plan isn’t the business.
The map is not the territory.

Learn to navigate. 🧭

The current OBM cohort has already started, but you can still join us.

09/05/2026

I used to be a supplement ju**ie.

Seriously. Drawers and drawers of them.

Which probably isn’t surprising for a pharmacist who spent years immersed in functional medicine.

But people ask me today what supplements I take, and my answer is usually… not that many.

It’s not because I’ve become anti-supplement. Far from it.

What changed is where I start.

How am I sleeping?
How’s my energy?
How am I recovering?
How do I feel when I wake up?
What’s happening in my life and environment?

I’ll use labs periodically to add another layer of information. And sure, I still use some basics when they make sense.

But I no longer wake up looking for the next thing to add in order to optimize myself.

That may be one of the biggest changes in how I think about health.

Sometimes the body needs support.

And sometimes we need to stop adding things long enough to hear what it’s already telling us.

Because sometimes the answer isn’t wrong.

The question just isn’t big enough.

THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY. 🧭Functional medicine training can give you some incredible maps.Labs. Protocols. Nutrition...
09/05/2026

THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY. 🧭

Functional medicine training can give you some incredible maps.

Labs. Protocols. Nutrition. Supplements. Hormones. Programs.

But building a practice requires something different:

Knowing how to navigate.

What happens when the program you built doesn’t sell?

When people show interest but don’t turn into consults?

When your marketing works… until it doesn’t?

When you’re working harder but not necessarily moving forward?

That’s not necessarily failure.

The territory is giving you feedback.

That’s why we’re adding biweekly OBM Practice Navigation Training to our newest Orientation-Based Medicine cohort.

On the weeks between our clinical trainings, we’ll work on the practice itself:

Starting → Building → Refining

Finding the right patients.
Market → Message → Media.
Offers people understand.
Discovery and enrollment.
Patient journeys.
Continuity.
Referrals.
Systems.
Scalability.

And you’ll have our OBM-trained AI tools for clinical thinking, coaching, and practice building — plus my coaching along the way.

Because you don’t need another blueprint.

You need to know how to navigate when the territory changes.

The OBM cohort has already started, but you can still join us.

Join the OBM Cohort →⁠ tinyurl.com/getobm

The protocol is not the path.
The business plan isn’t the business.
The map is not the territory.

Learn to navigate. 🧭

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