Cravings. We all get them. Sometimes they’re totally acceptable, like my craving for some delicious blueberries. But other times, that craving will totally derail you and make you feel like crap if you buckle to it. Like when you dive into a giant, family-sized bag of Doritos right before bedtime. Or when I pull into a drive-through after work, even though I have a perfectly good meal waiting for me at home.

Cravings and food urges seem to come out of nowhere and ruin a perfectly good day.

If you’re like me, letting the wrong craving win opens the floodgates. Give that inner pig an inch of cookie, and then he wants a footlong hot dog. The squealing doesn’t stop until I’m stuffed.

But.

There are ways to defuse a craving.

You don’t have to be at the mercy of your inner pig. When he squeals for treats, you can try one of these methods to get him to shut up and go lie in the mud.

For most of us, we only need to withstand a craving for about 10 to 15 minutes, and it will subside.

Give these a try. Some will work for you, and some won’t, but we’re all individuals and need different tools in our toolbox.

What if you tell yourself, “Okay, before I decide to have that [pizza/cookie/industrial-sized bag of Doritos], I will try one of Tim’s Anti-Craving Tricks, and then I’ll choose!” Then, if you still decide you are going all in on that craving, you took control and MADE IT A DECISION.

HI. I’m Tim from Time2Thrive, a newsletter that helps people find simple ways to get healthier, eat with intention, and care for their bodies.

Did you know that hitting the heart icon ❤️ above or sharing this post makes it easier for people to find this newsletter? It also shows me that you appreciate my work!

You can subscribe with your email to make sure you never miss my posts:

Subscribe now

Tip #1. Drink More Water

Thirst can be confused for hunger, especially if your body is confused by years of low hydration, processed food, addictive eating, or dieting. We don’t always understand the body’s messages. Are you hungry, or maybe just thirsty? One way to figure it out is to get a glass of water.

The more dry, powdery, processed foods you eat, the more water you need. When we chew up bread, cookies, crackers, biscuits, bagels, pizza crust, or croutons, these foods need more moisture for your guts to process. We’re making a slurry inside. If there isn’t enough moisture, you’re gonna plug right up!

Where does the water come from? It gets sucked right out of the gut and surrounding tissues. That can dehydrate you. Just imagine, you’re basically shoveling in powder, and your body has to come up with a bunch of water to deal with it.

That water could have been used for other things. Like hydrating your cells. So, depending on what you eat, you'd better be making up for it by drinking the good stuff: H2O.

Most people could use more fluids. Especially if you are a frequent caffeine drinker. Chances are high that you are suffering from H2O deficiency. Fortunately, this supplement is super cheap and doesn’t have any side effects. Except extra bathroom breaks!

Tip #2. Eat Fiber & Protein Early

What if there were a way to stop the craving from ever happening? It’s a well-researched fact that veggies and protein early in the day will keep your blood sugar and insulin levels from spiking. No spike, no craving.

It all starts in the morning. You’ve been programmed to eat the SAD diet, so, of course, you grab that cupcake, or that bowl of cereal, or that toast. But guess what, there’s no protein in a dumb old cupcake, or a bowl of insidious breakfast dessert flakes. Even a cereal that sounds healthy has been mulched, chemically treated, and twisted so far from being food that it should be a crime.

These foods are all carbs and sugar! If it comes in a box, bag, or packet, has a long list of hard-to-pronounce chemical ingredients, and could be eaten 10 years after the apocalypse, then it isn’t safe to eat AT ALL.

Instead, try to get in some whole food fiber, protein, and healthy fats. Skip the carb-heavy breakfast, and you will stay full longer, maintain stable blood sugar levels, and get all the nutrients your body needs.

This is a no-brainer, people! Protein + fat slows digestion, and fiber keeps glucose from spiking.

Here’s what this would look like:

• Protein first (20–40g target)

• Add fat to stay full

• Fiber from plants/seeds (not cereal)

• Keep sugar low (look out for yogurts, smoothies)

Breakfast Ideas:

Veggie Omlette - Eggs (protein + fat)

• Spinach, mushrooms, peppers (fiber)

• Feta or goat cheese (fat + flavor)

• Avocado on the side (healthy fats)

Greek Yogurt Protein Bowl

• Plain Greek yogurt (high protein)

• Chia seeds or flax (fiber + omega-3s)

• Walnuts or almonds (healthy fats)

• Small handful of berries (keep sugar low)

• Add cinnamon to help with blood sugar control

Avocado and Eggs

• 2–3 eggs (any style)

• ½–1 avocado

• Optional: toast

Cottage Cheese Bowl

• Cottage cheese (high in protein)

• Cucumber, tomatoes, or peppers (fiber)

• Olive oil drizzle (healthy fats)

• Seeds or nuts

  ---

Tip #3. Distract Yourself

Are you hungry and snacky, or are you just a little bored? Maybe you could distract yourself from the craving by doing something for a while to pass that 15-minute mark.

• Go for a walk (but not past a store with junk food!)

• Play with your dog or kids

• Listen to music

• Do a mini-workout

• Call a friend (gasp! A phone call?) and catch up

There are thousands, if not millions, of interesting activities that don’t require eating.

Tip #4. Preplan Your Meals

One thing that works for some of us is to have a meal plan for the day.

For example, this morning I took 2 burger patties out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge, and I already have cut veggies and dip ready to go for my after-work snack. So when I leave work, I have everything ready for me to cook.

There’s no need to listen to my inner pig squealing when I pass through the bullshit corridor of fast food and convenience stores all the way home. I can just keep driving because everything is in place and waiting for me.

Meal prepping on the weekend can also be a good way to set yourself up for success.

Tip #5. Avoid Extreme Hunger

This goes along with tip#2. If you eat a sufficient amount of nutrient-dense foods early in the day, your body won’t be searching. Get that protein, fat, and fiber in you!

It’s important to know yourself. If you skip a meal, do you tend to go whole hog on the fast food to compensate? Maybe meal skipping is a trigger for you. Once you know about it, once you’re aware, you have a chance to break the cycle.

Eating more (of the right foods) can help you avoid eating too much (of the wrong foods.)

Tip #6. Reduce Stress Levels

Most of us eat more when we’re stressed. Once we get past a certain threshold and our willpower and give-a-fuck are beaten down, we start shoveling in the food. Anything handy goes down the hatch, especially if it has salt, sugar, and fat. So having a stress reducing hack primed and ready to go can help dodge a craving.

• Breathing exercises

• A ten-minute guided meditation

• Walk outside

• Do something you enjoy for a few minutes, like a mindless phone game

• Connect with a friend

• Find a clown or a mime and beat them black and blue with a bunch of bananas (don’t actually do this! Unless you put it on TikTok and share the link)

  ---

Tip #7. Get More Sleep

Sleep-deprived individuals are more snacky than those who get plenty of rest. I know it isn’t easy, but if you make sleep a priority, you might be able to fit in more. When you feel good and aren’t sagging with tiredness, you won’t need that snack to keep you upright.

“Ok, Tim, but how?”

Start by reducing caffeine intake. And don’t be that guy who tells me, “I can drink a pot of coffee at 9:00 PM and still sleep, no problem!” Because, you’re full of it. It does affect you. You’re just too numb to know.

Cut the caffeine early, stop eating by 7:00 PM, top up your magnesium, slow down on the booze, do boring things at the end of the day like reading a book, and go to bed a bit earlier. Once you’ve done these things, you might be able to fit in a few more minutes of sleep.

Tip #8. Decide What to Have in Case of a Craving - and Bring It With You

Is there a healthy snack you would like to substitute for whatever craving you are trying to avoid? Then prep that snack and have it ready.

• beef jerky

• nuts

• baby tomatoes

• (insert whole food snack here)

One thing I love to bring is pecans or walnuts (see tip#21). I put them in baggies and keep them in my vehicle in small servings, ready to grab. What don’t I do? I don’t keep a giant Costco-sized sack of pecans in the vehicle. Because I’d eat the whole thing!

Tip #9. Plan a Reward

Some snack-avoiding geniuses defuse their snackiness by planning a reward meal, where they will enjoy some decadent delights. Then, when their inner pig is squealing, they can tell it to shut its snout and wait for Friday night (or whenever the reward meal is planned).

A reward meal can help, and there’s no point in outlawing food fun. That kind of strict rule might backfire hard.

So, plan a date with yourself, and choose when and what you will have. Use awareness and intention. You are the one in control, if you decide to be.

Tip #10. Pantry Purge

This is a hard topic for most food hoarders, but maybe it’s time to clean the shelves up a bit. Consider not having those snack foods around the house. If you have a pantry stuffed with delicious snackery, that’s all you’re going to be thinking about.

Take all of those things you know you shouldn’t have and donate them to the neighbors, your relatives, or something.

Tip #11. Make it Inconvenient

If you’re going to have piles of snacks around, make sure you keep them in the least convenient place so you have to do a bit of work to get them.

• Lock the Doritos in the gun safe

• Put the chocolate on the top shelf of the pantry behind the boring old pasta

• Stuff the "fun size” bars in the freezer under the regular food.

  ---

Tip #12. Shop Smart - Don’t Bring It Home

When you’re out shopping, don’t buy family-sized bags of chips and cases of cookies and chocolate bars. If you don’t have it around, you can’t eat it at 3 AM.

If you buy single-serving sizes instead of the family pack, you can’t eat a family-sized snack by yourself. I’ve done this so many times. And don’t bother bringing home the big box of mini-chocolate bars. That’s a trick to get you to eat an entire box of them.

“I’ll get the fun-sized bars because I’ll only eat one. I’ll never eat the whole box. Ha! That would never happen. I will only eat one per day, I promise!” The truth for me is, I’ll eat 10 or so at one sitting. more than a regular-sized bar…

Sure. You can have a reward. One individual serving. Not a sack of potato chips the size of your upper body. And not 40 mini-snacks!

Tip #13. Brush Your Teeth

I’m not sure why, but I know it works. Brush your teeth, and you’ll forget about that craving for a bit.

Tip #14. Keep an Honest Food Journal

If you record what you eat on paper or in an app, then you’ll be more aware of what is going in your mouth. That will make you more likely to pick something other than junk food. Awareness of your actions is a great first step to making improvements.

Tip #15. Inhale Peppermint

Researchers have found that if you sniff peppermint extract every couple of hours, you will eat up to 350 calories less in a day. Easy to pack and easy to use.

I’ve got a small roll-on peppermint applicator that I use on my wrist. This is supposed to be able to help with headaches, too.

Tip #16. Drink Something Hot (without sugar!)

A cup of tea, coffee, or herbal tea can diffuse a food craving just like that. But make sure to avoid drinking piles of empty calories with sugary drinks.

I really like caffeine-free chai tea. It has the spice, and it gets rid of hunger pangs with a nice soothing heat.

Tip #17. Get Help!

Outsource your willpower. You don’t have to struggle through this alone. A health coach like me can help you reach your goals with sustainable accountability.

A personalized plan is the best way to get the results you’re looking for, whether that’s weight loss or another health outcome. Hit the button below for a quick, no-pressure chat to learn about your goals and see if coaching is a good fit. No obligation, just clarity on next steps.

Free 15 minute call

Do you have any craving busters to share? Have you tried any of these yourself? Let me know what you think.

Hey there,

Let’s talk about a big problem we all have.

We don’t take care of our future selves. Instead, we go with instant pleasure and immediate rewards.

And it’s hard. I get it. That cookie, that hour watching reels instead of pretty much anything productive, the five beers with the buddies. All these seem so important.

Fleeting pleasures that ultimately mean nothing.

These “joys” only last a few minutes, and we are left alone with ourselves again anyway. After that cookie is gone, what do we have other than an insulin spike? Nothing. We gave ourselves a drug high, and that comes with a crash. And a fat gut.

But. Pleasure is not happiness. Pleasure does not give meaning.

The one thing you have for your whole life is yourself. And that’s why you owe it to yourself to plan for your own future.

Picture it:

You’re sitting there on your couch holding your phone and staring at Tic Tac like it’s your god. Beside you is an empty ice cream bowl. Netflix is playing on the TV, but you’re not watching it.

Suddenly, static jumps around the room, and an ominous hum fills the air. A ball of energy forms, like the one in Terminator, where somebody comes back from the future. You sit there paralyzed, wondering if it will be a killer robot.

As the light dissipates, it reveals an old dude and his walker. His eyes lock onto you, and he painfully makes his way forward, one step at a time.

As this geezer moves towards you, you realize that you’re looking at yourself. But this version is in rough shape. He’s overweight, saggy, and has some severe mobility issues. And boy is he pissed off.

With a vicious expression on his face, he taps the walker into your leg. Pathetic effort, you think, but then you realize he is just that weak.

Present you: “What was that for? Did our future turn out bitter and sad?”

Future you: “You bet it did! Look at me.” He grabs his gut and shakes it. “You son of a samsquatch, you’re the one who turned me into this! I’m using a walker for frak sake! I got diabetes, vape lung, and a viral social media infection that is resistant to all forms of medication. All because you’re sitting around, staring at your phone, eating ice cream, and watching useless Tic Tac. When all along you knew what the frak you had to do. But did you ever think where you were gonna end up? No!”

Present you: “Hey, I gotta live my life. What’s the point if I can’t enjoy it?”

Future you: “Enjoy it! Enjoy it? Do you realize how long you’re gonna live like this? I’ve been suffering for 20 years already, and let me tell you, I’M NOT ENJOYING IT! I’ve got diabetes, a rash in my nethers that won’t go away, heart problems, and I can’t even bend down to touch my toes. For shoes, I had to buy them Sketchie pieces of shit that have a built-in shoehorn. I fell down and broke my hip because my legs got so weak from all of your bullshit-” points at you, “and I spent three months in the hospital with a catheter jammed up my business because I couldn’t get to the bathroom. I had to shit in a diaper. Does that sound like YOU ARE ENJOYING THIS?”

Present you: “Hey, this isn’t my fault - “

Future you: “Give your head a shake. I sure wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, was I? You are the one who put me here. Your daily lack of activities. Sitting around instead of going for a walk. Eating that extra snack, that extra cookie, that extra bowl of ice cream, that extra piece of pizza. Turning yourself into a processed food panzy, one bite at a time.

“Sure, you went to the gym once in a while. But you only focused on your arms and chest, and ignored your weak little chicken legs. You didn’t fall-proof yourself. You didn’t stretch or do yoga.”

Present you (whining): “Stop being so hard on me!”

Future you: “Why, so you can go back to your marshmello life? Well, guess what, in a few short years, you will be where I am. If you don’t do what you need to do now, you will regret it. And you’ll regret it for decades! You’ll wanna come back here and kick yourself right in the berries for this. But you won’t be able to, cause you’ll be stuck using this walker, and you won’t even be able to kick your own ass! So get off your butt, loser. You gotta take action now. Not tomorrow.”

Future you vanishes as time calls him back to where he belongs.

Subscribe now

Time to Step Up

95% of us are letting our future selves down.

There are two main timelines in front of you: One where you do your best and take care of business, and one where you don’t.

There are no guarantees that Option A will be perfect.

But Option B, where you sit around staring at Tic Tac, eating cookies, and slacking off? It has a definite future.

My dad picked option B, and he’s not enjoying it.

My father went from independent adult to crippled victim in one failed step.

He fell and had an Intertrochanteric hip fracture, a few inches from the hip joint. That required surgery and two months in the hospital, wearing a diaper and a catheter.

“Wow, that’s rough. But he’s old, and these things happen. There’s nothing we can do to prevent this kind of thing!”

Not True.

It is true that aging is unavoidable. But, how we age? We have SO MUCH effect on that.

My dad did a few things to sabotage himself:

• Lack of exercise. The only workout he was getting was lifting heavy coffee mugs.

• Processed food diet

• Sitting in front of a screen

And while he did these things, he constantly underestimated how long he was going to live. Now he’s still here, but he’s just existing. He sits around depressed, unable to even dress himself or wash up without help.

No shopping. No walks outside. He can’t tend his greenhouse. He can’t cook.

He can’t even feed his precious birds.

And there’s no end in sight. Day after day of sitting there, waiting.

How do you feel about living like this:

• Have to wear pull-ups because you’re pissing yourself regularly

• Need to use a walker so you don’t fall down, and you can only go about 40 steps before you wear out

• Can’t put on your socks, shoes, or even a pair of pants that are too snug

• Can’t prepare your own food, go shopping, or pretty much any activity on your own

• Can’t wash yourself and need a nurse to come in and humiliate you twice a week while she washes your junk for you

• Need your adult children to cancel their lives and come take care of you. This means now they are caregivers, so you don’t enjoy spending that time with them.

• Keep doing this until you just can’t keep going

  ---

OR:

Invest in Your Health Like a Bank Account.

Make daily deposits.

Staying in shape is about building the physical and mental resilience to keep living life on your own terms. Every squat, every stretch, every step you take today is a deposit into your future health and independence.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to think about this. Eat a little healthier. Pick foods that support you.

Train, stay strong, stay flexible.

Put down the Tic Tac, the InstaSham, the FarceBook.

Go outside.

It’s up to you.

“I have to enjoy my life. What’s the point of living if I can’t eat what I want? I’m not changing. I’ll die young; it won’t be a problem. I don’t enjoy exercise. Me, me, me.”

Well, you can do what you want. But try to think of your future self. Are they going to enjoy themselves for the years, decades, that it might take them to kick it? They won’t, if you ruin their body for them.

Subscribe now

Why would we do this? January reset, that’s why. With the holidays behind us and a few extra pounds around the middle, we wanted to give the year a kickstart and find out what benefits small, oily fish can bring.

Our experiences were like night and day. One of us loved it. One of us did not.

Keep reading to find out what happened!

What is the 72-Hour Sardine Fast, and Why Would You Do It?

During the 72-Hour Sardine Fast, you eat only sardines for three days. You can eat as many sardines as you want, whenever you want. You can also have water, black coffee, or tea with nothing in it.

The sardines can be eaten from the can or pan-fried/ air-fried for added crispiness.

I heard about this challenge in an interview with Dr. Boz (Annette Bosworth, MD). From Dr. Boz: Kickstart Metabolism In 3 Days With Sardines, and her client who ate Sardines for 100 days?!

The Many Benefits of Sardines:

• Flood your body with Omega-3’s! Sardines contain healthy fatty acids, vitamin B12, Vitamin D, calcium, and a pile of other micronutrients.

• Protein in each can - up to 18 G

• Anti-inflammatory

• Boosts ketones and lowers blood glucose

• Increase insulin sensitivity

• Carnivore and keto friendly

• Save on dishes! Eat right out of the can - just like cavemen used to.

Ketones

This challenge gets your body to produce ketones and switch to fat-burning. Since sardines are carb-free, your body will naturally do what it has evolved to do: run on fat and convert protein to glucose if necessary.

As the liver produces ketones, blood sugar drops, the body burns fat, and inflammation levels drop. Joint pain relief, weight loss, and lower blood pressure are some reported results.

There’s plenty of evidence that ketones are good for the brain and sharpen your thinking tools.

According to the Carolina Brain Center:

“Research indicates that ketones serve as a more efficient and cleaner fuel for the brain compared to glucose, leading to improved mental clarity, focus, and concentration. Moreover, ketones have shown potential in mitigating the cognitive decline associated with aging and certain neurodegenerative conditions, offering hope for individuals seeking to preserve their cognitive abilities.”

Guidelines for the 72 Hr. Challenge:

• Only eat sardines. But the good news is you can eat as many as you want! Packed in oil or water.

• Avoid sardines packed in unhealthy seed oils like soybean oil and sunflower oil! Olive oil is okay.

• Avoid sardines with sauces and flavorings that have added carbohydrates. The goal is low-carb.

• Olive oil, salt, pepper, low-calorie hot sauce, and mustard are acceptable condiments.

• As much water, black coffee, and unsweetened tea as you want.

• No other food of any kind for 72 hours.

  ---

This short-duration challenge is simple because it eliminates all choices. It’s effective because it eliminates all choices. It’s monotonous because it eliminates all choices. But it’s only 3 days! How hard could it be?

Tim’s Results

Day 1

• Weight: 182.7 lbs

• Blood Glucose: 5.4 mmol/L

• Ketones: Not measurable

• Overall State: Nothing noticeable

How it went: I ate two cans of sardines, which didn’t bother my stomach at all. I was satisfied, stuffed, and so full that I wasn't even slightly hungry. The thought of food was a real drag.

Day 2

• Weight: 179.7 lbs

• Blood Glucose: 4.2 mmol/L

• Ketones: .5 mmol/L

• Overall State: Plenty of energy, mind felt sharp. Happy to be alive.

How it went: My stomach was unsure of itself. It was saying things like, “Am I a little nauseous? Should I induce vomiting? Nah. I’ll just clench the sphincters a little bit. That’ll show this clown not to give me any more sardines.”

Did I listen? No!

I ate a total of 3 cans of oily fish on day 2.

So stuffed. Not at all interested in any more food.

Day 3

• Weight: 177.7 lbs

• Blood Glucose: 3.9 mmol/L

• Ketones: 1.5 mmol/L

• Overall State: Mind clear as a bell, emotions very stable, super energetic.

How it Went: An easy day. Loads of energy!

I made myself eat half a can of sardines for lunch. Then I toughed out the entire day, waiting for hour 72.

When the end finally arrived, I ate the last can. So on day three, I consumed 1.5 cans of sardines total. I took the rest of the day off from eating, because I felt like I earned a break!

• Final weight after last can of fish: 176.2 lbs

• Final Blood Glucose: 3.4 mmol/L

• Ketones: 6.5 mmol/L

  ---

Luke’s Experience:

Luke started out great, and reported feeling pretty good for the first two days, except maybe a little low on energy and having to go to bed pretty early.

Day three was a different story.

He reported sardine oil oozing from every pore, and even in his urine. (Unverified since no one else witnessed/ smelled this! 😂) Energy levels were extremely low, and he had a hard time in the last 12 hours. When I asked for a report and mentioned I was feeling great, he texted “You suck.” This led me to believe he wasn’t having a good day.

For now, Luke doesn’t plan on repeating the experience, ever. Meanwhile, I’m going for round two next week! I feel better than I have in months.

Valuable lessons from this experiment:

1. Sardines are very filling. If all you eat is sardines, you’ll feel REALLY full.

2. Sardines raise ketones. My levels were the highest I had ever achieved before, even after weeks of a pure keto diet a few months earlier.

3. This challenge can take the weight off fast. I dropped 6 pounds in 3 days. Yeah, I know, it’s “only water weight.” It’s also six pounds of pure inflammation and water with fat in it.

4. I had a sore hip and knee before the experiment, and pain completely vanished by the end of day three. Winning!

   ---

Tips to Make This Fast Work For You

• The day before trying this, it seems to help if you go low-carb, ketogenic, or carnivore to start in fat-burning mode.

• You can add a small spoonful of MCT oil to each meal to boost fat burning and help you go straight into ketosis. This also helps to avoid brain fog if you are primarily a carb burner and going through withdrawals. Be careful with the MCT oil! Too much at once will give you DISASTER PANTS.

• If your stomach is sensitive, pick the skinless sardines. They are a little easier on the system, though you may miss out on some health benefits since many nutrients are in the skin.

• Avoid eating a huge pile of carbs to break your sardine fast. This will shock the system and may cause stomach problems.

Would you try the 72 Hour Sardine Fast? Let me know!

Subscribe to Time2Thrive — even though I may never write about sardines again! (I know, it’s so terribly disappointing. But I will think of something equally as riveting as sardines, no doubt about that!)

Subscribe now

Read more

Hey friends,

The holidays are a metabolic obstacle course.

Everywhere you look, there’s sugar and carbs disguised as fun. Cookies. Pie. Mashed potatoes used as a butter or gravy delivery mechanism. With all of the stress, late nights, travel, and alcohol, your blood sugar is riding a rollercoaster.

But.

You don’t need to “be good,” skip dessert, or punish yourself with January guilt to avoid wrecking your blood sugar.

You just need to stop spiking it like an amateur and learn some finesse.

Disclaimer: This is not medical advice. Please consult with a medical professional before doing ANYTHING, even breathing. By reading any more of these words, you accept all responsibility for whatever crazy shenanigans you or your body will be getting up to, including whatever mistletoe and alcohol-infused feeding frenzies you partake in.

Why High Blood Sugar Is a Problem

When your blood sugar spikes, a few things happen fast, and none of them are that good for you.

First comes the surge. Energy. Warmth. Confidence. “I feel great! Barkeep, I’ll have another!”

Then, you crash. Sleepy with a side of foggy and irritable. Cravings show up out of nowhere. Suddenly, you’re hunting butter tarts and cookies like a squirrel looking for his nuts.

Repeated spikes do more than make you crash:

• You get stronger cravings later in the day

• It makes you store fat like a hoarder keeps old bread bags and empty

• It destroys your “willpower” and “won’tpower”

The holidays are super dangerous because we feel like we’ve got no rules. All bets are off. We pile more on the plate, trying every dish. We stack desserts like Jenga blocks.

But you can outsmart the problem without becoming “that guy” who brings protein powder to Grandma’s house. Unless Grandma is into that kind of thing.

The Holiday Blood Sugar Trap

The problem isn’t holiday food. The problem is how it’s eaten.

Most holiday meals follow this pattern:

• Arrive starving

• Start with bread, booze, or sugary drinks

• Eat carbs first, protein later

• Finish with dessert on top of dessert

• Sit motionless afterward

That order is basically a spike invitation written in gravy.

Refined carbs and sugar hit your bloodstream fast. When they arrive with no buffer, blood sugar spikes high, then drops hard when there is a massive rush of insulin. Start the crash, cravings, and the fattening.

You don’t need to avoid these foods. You need to change the sequence.

The Cheat Code: Eat in the Right Order

If you do only one thing this holiday season, do this. Eat your food in this order:

1. Protein

2. Fiber

3. Fat

4. Carbs and desserts last

And you only need to get that protein in 3 minutes earlier than the carbs to start seeing results.

3 minutes. Is that too much to ask?

Protein and fiber slow digestion. Fat slows down the stomach too. Together, they act like speed bumps for glucose. The carbs still hit, just not like a wrecking ball.

At a holiday dinner, that looks like:

• Turkey, ham, or roast first

• Vegetables next

• Then potatoes, stuffing, bread

• Dessert at the end, not as a standalone event

You’re not eating less. You’re eating smarter. Blood sugar rises more slowly, peaks lower, and crashes less.

Don’t Self-Sabotage by Showing Up Starving

Walking into a holiday meal hungry is like going grocery shopping hungry. Bad decisions happen. You walk out of the store with sabotage snacks for the car.

When you’re starving:

• You eat faster

• You eat more carbs first

• You overshoot fullness before your brain catches up

The fix is simple: eat a small protein-based snack before you go.

• Greek yogurt

• A protein shake

• Eggs

• Meat, nuts, or cheese

This doesn’t “ruin your appetite.” You still enjoy the meal, just without your blood sugar slamming the gas pedal through the floor.

Pair Your Carbs Like an Adult

Carbs (or carbs with booze) alone spike blood sugar fastest. Carbs with protein and fat are better.

This matters most for desserts.

Eating pie on an empty stomach is blood sugar body-slamming. Eating it after a protein-rich meal is damage control. Simple pairing rules:

• Dessert comes after dinner, not instead of it

• Add fat when possible. (This does sound like a win for cheesecake lovers, really not sure, but I’m going to pretend it’s true!)

• Slow down

• Potatoes drowned in butter and served with meat are better than plain potatoes alone

Yes, butter helps here. Our bodies are weird, gotta say.

Walk It Off - You Don’t Need a Workout

You don’t need to “burn it off.” You need to use glucose.

Movement after meals helps muscles soak up blood sugar without needing as much insulin to be released. Remember, the more insulin in the bloodstream, the fatter you will get. It’s a thing. When insulin levels are high, we store fat. Period.

• 10 to 20 minutes of movement.

• An easy pace is enough. You don’t need to sweat.

• No special outfit, gym, or activity required.

• A casual walk

• Helping clean up

• Playing with kids

• Standing instead of collapsing immediately. Avoid the coma! Move around.

Intensity doesn’t matter. Timing does. Moving soon after eating flattens the blood sugar curve like magic.

Be Strategic With Sugar and Alcohol

Liquids spike blood sugar faster than solids. Alcohol adds chaos.

A few simple rules:

• Skip sugary drinks when possible

• Eat before you drink

• Alternate alcohol with water

• Choose dry wine or spirits over sweet cocktails

For desserts:

• Pick your favorites, skip the filler

• Don’t stack desserts back-to-back

• Eat slowly enough to notice you’re full

You don’t need every dessert. You need the ones you actually care about. For me, this means butter tarts win every time!

Sleep and Stress Are the Silent Saboteurs

Poor sleep and high stress both make blood sugar harder to control.

When you’re tired or stressed:

• Insulin sensitivity drops

• Cravings rise

• Blood sugar spikes higher from the same food

You can’t control everything during the holidays, but you can:

• Get a better sleep when possible.

• Take short walks to decompress.

• Avoid talking politics!

Stress plus sugar is a great way to make yourself less healthy.

The “Next Meal Reset” Means No Guilt is Required

One big meal doesn’t break your metabolism and ruin your life forever. The real damage comes from what you do next.

Skipping meals, extreme fasting, or “punishing” yourself just leads to another spike later. You go on a rollercoaster of regret. Instead, reset calmly:

• Eat protein

• Add vegetables

• Hydrate

• Move. Walk. Do some yoga.

Get back to normal, drop the drama. No self-lectures and abuse required.

Your body loves consistency, not shame.

You Need to Live

You don’t need to avoid holiday food.
You don’t need superhuman discipline.
There’s no reason to suffer for your stuffing, starve yourself before meals, or walk a thousand miles to “burn off” Christmas dinner.

You need:

• Protein first

• Carbs last

• Movement after meals

• Sleep when you can

• Strategy instead of guilt

Enjoy the holidays. Eat the food. Keep your blood sugar steady.

Time2Thrive. Subscribe if you know what’s good for you!

Subscribe now

The holiday season is here. Let the fattening begin!

There are several reasons why we are all probably going to gain a few pounds before January:

• Tasty treats

• Big family meals

• Extra drinks

• Sitting around

• Sitting around

• Sitting around

• Sitting around

Yup. It’s winter. We spend a lot of time inside. Sitting around.

We’ve been trained from birth to sit around. Society has wasted countless hours forcing us to conform and just sit still.

Big mistake!

“Stop moving! Sit Still, you little monkey! Be quiet. Go to your room. Don’t run in the hall! Sit still at the dinner table! Keep your seatbelt on. Stay in your chair. Save your energy. Put that down! Don’t climb on that. Act like a human being!”

We’ve been brainwashed so well, we’re all conserving energy like good little robots. But we really don’t need to conserve. What we need is to burn it off.

Especially at this time of year, with all of these holiday treats we’ll be jamming in our faces.

The body says: “No problem! Surplus energy? We can just save it all as fat. Crisis averted.”

Subscribe now

Wanna hear something NEAT?

There’s a way to get healthier, burn more calories, and boost your fitness. And you don’t have to go to a gym or change your diet. In fact, you could burn more energy through NEAT and do more for your overall health than any gym time ever could.

We need to move more. A lot more. Modern society has us sitting around a ton. Compared to our ancestors, we’re lazy sloths.

A common mistake is ONLY working out once or twice a week, at a gym, and expecting to keep those pounds off.

Saving all of your exercises up for one special time is like cramming for an exam in the last few hours instead of studying bit by bit every day. It’s like doing your shopping on Christmas Eve.

It's like waiting for the timer on the bomb to count down to 4 seconds before snipping the red wire. (Not the blue wire, for Dog’s sake! The red wire! I can’t look.)

Using NEAT to boost your fat burn isn’t complicated. Spread activity throughout the day instead of trying to jam it into one little block, and you’ve got it!

This includes walking, fighting clowns, doing housework, and poking your little cousin. Even the smallest movements—chewing gum, bouncing your leg, getting up every ten minutes and sitting back down, or smacking your significant other when they're sassy—will affect the bottom line and how big your bottom gets.

• Cardiovascular Health: The more often we walk, stand, fidget, and move, the more blood flows. This increased circulation can lower blood pressure and give the whole system a low-level workout.

• The Lymph System: The secondary circulatory system, the lymph, has no heart and is pumped by muscle movement. So when we sit around like a lump on a log, the lymph is stagnant, can’t efficiently defend us with antibodies, and collects toxins that it can’t get rid of.

• Metabolic Diseases: Consistent low-intensity movement throughout the day helps prevent conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease.

• Mental Health Improvement: Regular movement throughout the day can have a huge impact. It boosts endorphins and lowers stress levels, which can alleviate depression and anxiety. What sounds like it will be better for your mood, sitting there with your shoulder slumped, or walking around on purpose?

• Fight Back Against Damage From Sitting: We all know that sitting is the new smoking. Movement is the cure for our sedentary ways.

• Improved Quality of Life: higher levels of NEAT correlate with longer lives and better health. More movement keeps us from losing muscle as we age. Use it or lose it! So, use those muscles by moving around.

All right, Tim. You’ve convinced me. So, how do I get more NEAT?

Here are a few ideas. Remember, it’s especially important to make an effort in the winter and during the holiday season. That’s when we gain weight and get the most out of shape, so move more!

1. Set a step goal for the day and try to complete as many steps as you can before noon. Use your phone or smartwatch to keep track.

2. Get on the floor and play with your dog/ cat/ tiny human. They love this kind of attention, you love giving it to them, and all movement counts.

3. Start a game of Twister, tag, or hide-and-seek at the family gathering.

4. Challenge someone to a dance-off. The loser does dishes. Imagine how much fun you could have with it!

5. Park farther away from the door. If you park on the street, park a block over.

6. Add a few dance moves to your household cleaning.

7. Go for a walk after the big dinner.

8. Get a takeout coffee and meet your friends for a stroll around the neighborhood.

9. Don’t just sit there—get up! Move around the room and change locations and positions. If you’re on a phone call, listening to a podcast, or an audiobook, get up and move then too.

10. Is your gym close by? Then don’t drive, walk there…

13. When shopping, carry your groceries in a basket or bag instead of pushing a cart. Why are we seeing fully grown men put a tiny little bag in a cart and push it out to their car? They’ll do anything to avoid burning even one little extra bit of energy.

14. Always take the long way — no shortcuts! Walk around the back from the front, and vice versa.

15. Do I have to say it? TAKE THE STAIRS.

16. Is it cold, dark, and scary outside? Try an indoor walking routine.

Got any other ideas for how we can get more movement in a day? Leave them in the comments!

This is Time2Thrive, a newsletter that helps people find simple ways to get healthier, eat with intention, and care for their bodies.

Here are some recent posts sent to subscribers:

• How Not to Get as Fat This Holiday Season: Part 1

• 50 Shades of Gravy

• Intermittent Fasting Can Work Healing Miracles

Did you know that hitting the heart icon ❤️ or sharing this post makes it easier for people to find this newsletter? It also shows me that you appreciate my work!

Subscribe now

Hello dear reader,

The holiday season is upon us. That means extra treats, drinks, and big meals. It’s such a great time to enjoy yourself, celebrate, and get together with family.

And after all is said and done, most of us will be 5 pounds heavier than we were before.

Then, we spectacularly fail to drop back to our pre-holiday weight. So, in 10 years, if nothing were to change, we would weigh 50 pounds more than we would if we lived in a world where there was no Christmas.

So what can we do about this? Because we are all going to celebrate and eat the special foods, drink the drinks, no matter what we say. We have to live life.

One thing we can do is to be just a little more intentional and minimize the damage. Slow roll the holiday. Maximize our enjoyment, still have our cake AND eat it.

Intentional Eating: Pace Yourself!

Intentional eating is the opposite of mindless eating. Enrich your life by being less zombie and more aware.

I’m talking about speed. How fast do we eat, and what happens if we slow down a tad? Does eating fast cause problems? Are slow eaters a little lighter, do they fit in their jeans better?

And how can we remember to slow the frick down?

HI. I’m Tim from Time2Thrive, a newsletter that helps people find simple ways to get healthier, eat with intention, and care for their bodies.

Here are the most recent posts sent to subscribers:

• 5 Unfit and Unusual Uses For Dumbbells

• I Can Help You Beat Those Food Cravings and Get Rid of the Gut

• 50 Shades of Gravy: Two-Year Anniversary

Did you know that hitting the heart icon ❤️ above or sharing this post makes it easier for people to find this newsletter? It also shows me that you appreciate my work!

You can subscribe with your email to make sure you never miss my posts:

Subscribe now

How did you learn to eat when you were little? Was your family supportive, tension-free, and filled with good role models?

Mine was not.

I had to eat fast when I was small. You never knew if there would be enough to go around. My mom cut our food up into small pieces so it would look like there was more. Sometimes we relied on charity from my grandparents, who dropped off sacks of potatoes and canned mackerel.

We didn’t eat at a table. We didn’t have one.

My brother and I were dished up at the stove, and we sat in wooden chairs in front of the black-and-white TV. Usually, Dad sat with us, but Mom just leaned in the doorway and ate standing up.

This is not the environment to learn good eating habits. We shoveled it in like someone was gonna grab the plate back and let us starve.

Fast forward a few(!) years to the present day. I was still eating super fast, like my life depended on it. Like a seagull eating a hotdog.

Childhood habits are hard to break. I didn’t even realize that I was eating so fast.

What were your childhood habits? It’s worth noticing that we can change, we aren’t stuck reenacting them for our entire lives…

Podcast recommendation: Just One Thing.

Eat Slowly – why simply eating slower could improve your digestion and lower your blood sugars

This fantastic podcast episode was recorded by Dr. Michael Mosley on BBC Radio 4. Unfortunately, the doctor has passed away, but his work lives on.

Eating more slowly has massive benefits, and it’s free and easy to learn. It’s a basic life skill that you hear of, but it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Read on to find out why you need to eat slower—like your life depends on it!

Footnote about Breatharians.1

Enjoy Your Food More

Imagine you’re in a restaurant, waiting for your food, and you’re hungry.

As you talk to your friend, you glance out of the corner of your eye. Is it coming yet? Is your food on the way? It is!

Trying to look nonchalant, you pretend you didn’t notice the waitress bringing the goods your way. You lean toward your dinner partner and avoid looking at the approaching feast. Yes! It’s almost here! As your nose picks up the tantalising scent of freshly cooked food, drool almost comes out of your mouth, forcing you to swallow.

“Oh! It’s here!” you say with fake surprise. “ I was so engrossed in your witty conversation that I lost all track of time and didn’t even notice they were bringing it! I am SO surprised!”

Then you dig in. And you inhale that food like a vacuum cleaner sucking up easily suckable things.

Seven minutes later, you drop your fork. Groaning, you realize that your stomach nearly burst a little because of the speed at which it was forced to expand.

Would you have a better experience if you slowed it down a little?

• Enjoy the food more

• Taste different flavors

• Show appreciation and gratitude to everyone around you

  ---

Fact: It’s impossible to enjoy your food as much if you eat too fast. You’re cheating yourself!

Let’s consider the social aspect. When we eat with others, are we better able to socialize and have a good time when we hoover like it’s a hot-dog-eating contest, or when we savor each bite, taking moments to talk and sip our drink before the next?

Is this a race? Or a fun experience with our friends and family? Really think about this, as we head into one or more holiday get-togethers. What’s the most important thing for you? Is it leaving the table so stuffed you can barely move? Or is it the family/ friend interactions?

Improve Your Digestion

As you eat slowly and chew your food better, it gets broken down into smaller, more easily digested bits. At the same time, more saliva gets mixed in. The more spit mixes with the food, the easier it will move through your system, and the better it is for your gums, teeth, throat, etc.

Saliva also jump-starts digestion and helps your body regulate insulin.

Eating slowly avoids stressing the system and pushing it to its limits. Fast eaters cram food in so fast that there isn’t time for all of the stomach fluids to mix properly with everything. It’s like rush hour downtown instead of a steady trickle of traffic.

The stomach and its functions are crucial to the body's overall health. We owe it to ourselves to give ourselves every advantage, and that means eating more slowly.

Fast Eaters Gain Weight

Fast eaters weigh more than slow eaters. Not only do they eat more at each meal, but they also snack more. It has a lot to do with the hunger hormones released when you pound back the food like you’re racing. That leads you to eat larger amounts of snacks.

Researchers consistently find that eating more slowly results in taking in about 10% less food over time. That 10 % adds up. The average person will gain 1 to 2 pounds per year, up to about 10%. There seems to be a correlation here. I’m no mathematician, but NOT EATING as much food will probably lead to weighing less?

So.

Eating more slowly could keep us from gaining as much weight.

Fast Eaters Are More Stressed

What is the feeling produced by rushing your food instead of slow-playing it?

Many of us rip open the fridge, grab something, then eat our snack quickly by the sink, dump the knife on the stack of dirty dishes, and walk away. High-stress eating.

Have you ever eaten in a rush? This is zombie behavior. I’ve been guilty of it for most of my life.

Do you want to relax? Then you need to slow down your food intake.

Sit down at a table if possible, take a deep breath, and take it one bite at a time.

Slowing down will activate your vagus nerve and allow you to calm your storm. Cortisol levels will drop, and heart rate will be slower. Your stomach will be happy and digesting properly.

The holiday season can be super stressful. So if eating just a bit slower could lower those Christmas cortisol levels, I say that’s something we ALL need to be doing.

How to Do It

Alright, Tim, you’ve convinced me.

So how do I do this slow eating thing?

Here are some ideas specifically for the holiday season, although they are good anytime.

1. At holiday gatherings, don’t eat anything that you aren’t going to enjoy A LOT. These treats and meals aren’t your regular fuel. These are supposed to be special. So if it isn’t special to you, get something you really, really enjoy. If that cookie looked delicious, but it turns out it’s only half-ass holiday food, throw that motherfucker away. And. Why waste your time on bullshit Christmas cake if you hate it? Hold out for those Dog Damn butter tarts!2

2. Sit down to eat. At a table, if possible. No standing by the sink, no leaning in the doorway, no nibbling while preparing the food. You can’t enjoy it half as much unless you take that time to focus on what’s going in your mouth.

3. Take sips of water (or whatever you’re drinking) between bites. Pause, and you can enjoy the next bite more.

4. Stop and put the fork (or the butter tart!) down every so often.

5. Take small bites— half as big as usual.

6. Make a point of tasting the food fully.

7. Chew twice as long as you used to. Minimum of 10 chews? Just do your best.

8. If you’re eating with someone else, ask a question or listen to what they’re saying between mouthfuls before returning to the next bite. Stop and tell Grandma (or your loving spouse!) how much you’re enjoying that butter tart that they made.

   

   ---

The Holiday Challenge

I challenge you to maximize the pleasure from the special foods and drinks this holiday season. Don’t jam that treat in your mouth. Stop and really enjoy it.

Sample each drink like you are a connoisseur at a wine tasting event.

It’s a simple challenge that could pay off big time for you.

• Enjoy your food more

• Digestion works better

• less stress

• Be a bit less fat

• enhanced street cred!

Would you like to join me? For the month of December, do your best to follow some or all of the slow-eating tips above. Then, report back here on how it went. Keep an eye on the Time2Thrive chat for updates.

If you’re in, leave a comment below.

Subscribe now

Just think: Eat slower, and you will reduce your chance of choking to death on unchewed food to almost zero!

I mean, there’s still that tiny chance that a small bird will fly in your mouth unexpectedly…

Time for the gloves to come off. There’s no reason to hold back now.

A Thank-You to My Glorious, Brave, Possibly Confused Subscribers

Dear magnificent subscribers, human or otherwise —THANK YOU.
Seriously. Thank you, the way a hungry pug thanks the human who foolishly left their sandwich on the arm of the couch while they went for a bathroom break, as if that sandwich was still going to be there when they got back. Foolish human!

I don’t know why you’re here, but I’m unreasonably thrilled that you are. You could be out living your life, touching yourself, or losing a game of Yahtzee. But instead, you’re reading the crazy posts of a person who once ate three meals in an hour and lived to tell the tale. What a time to be alive.

And the original subscribers, those I dragged in here without telling you what was coming? You signed up for this short-bus adventure while I was still licking windows. For that, I offer my deepest gratitude and a helmet.

To the new subscribers:

WELCOME TO WHATEVER THIS IS.
There’s no turning back now. You’re stuck with me, my enthusiasm, my typos, my questionable jokes, and my strangely feral community: people who want to improve their lives while laughing at the absurdity of an existence that includes professional clowns as entertainers AND as politicians.

So. Thank you.
Your presence here transforms my leaps of weird creativity into a shared journey. A weird, wobbly, “are we really doing this?” sort of journey, but a journey in a short bus nonetheless.

I’m grateful for you.
I’m rooting for you.
And I promise to keep delivering the kind of content that makes you wonder whether you should laugh, nod, cry, or call a licensed professional.

Let the chaos continue.

A special reward for my readers.

You HAVE to go see what is behind this button! A must-click, Can Not Miss experience that you will be so happy you experienced, but if you don’t click it, for the rest of your life you will wonder, “what the heck did I miss? I will forever be sad that I did not click the button. Arrrgggghh!!!”

So yeah, you better click it.

MUST CLICK - OR ELSE!

Special thanks to fellow Substackers , , , , , , , , , , , and . You guys make this place feel like home.

Hi there friend,

Who hasn’t spent money on fitness gear they never use?

Especially those of us who bought weights for our home gym during <shudder> LOCKDOWNS.

It was a buying frenzy. We picked up dumbbells, kettlebells, stretchy elastic bands, and exercise mats. The store was sold out of every weight set. We signed up for online classes, watched workout videos, and used them like there was no tomorrow.

Then, tomorrow arrived.

Motivation waned. Inertia set in. We stopped using our fitness gear.

Now, many of these exercise items are just lying around collecting dust. It’s a sad state of affairs, but that gear is a sunk cost. There’s no returning a used, sweaty dumbbell.

A man places a dumbbell on the Customer Service Counter at Whelpmart:

“I’d like to return this.”

“What’s wrong with it, sir?”

“Can you see the dust on it? It hasn’t moved since I bought it. What a waste of money. It just sits there, all dumb and stuff.”

“I’m just trying to troubleshoot the difficulty, sir, but… Have you tried doing a workout with it?”

“Haahahahahaha! No.”

Try out these 5 unfit and unusual ideas for using dumbbells, kettlebells, and other home fitness gear in your home instead of letting them sit in the garage beside the cardboard box the TV came in two years ago.

Disclaimer: I accept zero responsibility for your decisions, especially if they include jail time! As a person reading this, you are hereby full of blame for anything you do afterward, and I am empty of blame. DO NOT play mean pranks on your significant other, no matter what I suggest. Also, do not tie up children or smash people in the head with fitness equipment.

1. Door Stoppers

Do you have a door that keeps swinging shut when you really need it open? Plant that kettlebell in front of it. Problem solved!

Every time you go by, pick up the kettlebell and get in your daily swings. Your doorstop is now doubling as a mini gym break.

Watch out if it’s a glass door, though. One tap with a big iron ball, and it’s all over but the crying, bleeding, and cleanup.

2. Home Defense

It’s dangerous to keep a loaded gun by the bed or landmines under the welcome mat.

But!

You can put your dumbbells wherever you want. Leave one of these by the door for quick response in case of a home invasion.

Twenty pounds of solid steel to the cranium is gonna leave a mark!

Make sure you positively identify that intruder before you slam him upside the head. If he isn’t about to cause you bodily harm, this will be a ticket to that funhouse with bars, and doors locked from the outside.

Bonus idea: Every time you enter or leave the house, pick up that dumbbell and do a few reps. Keep your home defense item handy, and you'll meet your exercise goals, too.

3. Cat Tree Anchors

If your cat has a wobbly cat tree, don’t wait for her to tip it over and slam into the floor. Cats only have nine lives. Don’t let her waste a life pancaking herself just so you can film it for TikTok. Plunk down a few of those weight plates to stabilize that sucker.

You never know. Maybe your kitty will get in a few reps when you aren’t looking. Cats love pumping iron!

4. Makeshift Restraints

Those exercise elastics can come in handy for all sorts of escapades. Think outside the box:

• Bedroom games

• Hostage situations— I’m not sure who you are holding hostage. Who am I to judge? I’m just telling you how to tie them up. What, you said zip ties? Amateur. The bands work better.

• Need to question captured spies. Again, I don’t know your life. How exactly are you using the bands, Jason Bourne? Hopefully around the wrists and ankles, not the neck.

• Small children who won’t sit still. Yup, no judgment. Okay, maybe a little judgment. Have you tried handing them your phone or something? That usually works to get them quiet without the need for restraints.

• Tying damsels to train tracks. Boy, can I read a crowd or what? You people are killing me here. I gotta say, this is a bad idea, but the bands WOULD do the job.

Wow, all of these ideas sound super sketchy. Don’t use any of these unless you’re a spy or a serial killer. Move on, regular folks.

5. Toe Crushing Traps For The Significant Other

Do you have it in for your wife, girlfriend, or boyfriend? Have they been on your hit list ‘cause they made you watch Marvel movies and Flat Earth documentaries? Here’s a passive-aggressive way to get even. Leave your weights in the right spot and wait for them to stub a toe. Payback’s a beotch!

Ideal locations:

• End of the bed

• Hallway by the bathroom

• Set one down behind them as they look in the closet

You can snigger as they stumble over solid iron. Just be ready to endure the wrath and screaming that will follow. I’m sure they will get over it and maybe even love you again someday.

6. Bonus Tip: Paperweights

Who doesn’t have loose paper causing a problem these days, amiright? If you have a lot of papers, and they just won’t stay put, don’t waste your money on a paperweight. Put a dumbbell on top.

You can grab that weight between important work tasks and get in your reps. It’s a win-win.

Warning: Never drop a dumbbell on a PDF. It’s hard on electronics. Trust me on this one. I had some PDFs blowing around because I had a fan by the desk, and, well, let's just say things got ugly.

Wrapping up

You should use those dumbbells for something! The best choice would be to make something of yourself by lifting the iron repeatedly. If you want help getting started, send me a DM or leave a comment below! Let’s get those dumbbells or that treadmill working for you.

Do you have any alternative uses for weights that I didn’t think of? Let me know!

Hey friend,

This is my mission: Showing you how to take control of your eating habits. Why am I the guy who can do that? Because I know what it’s like. I’ve been so far off the rails that I almost didn’t get back on track. I was forced to learn ways to get healthy, or else.

If you’re reading this hoping for a gimmick, I’m about to disappoint you. If you’re reading this, ready to be treated like a man (or a woman)—who can laugh at themselves, and tell the truth, then welcome.

I’m not your drill sergeant. I’m the idiot who ate three dinners in an hour and decided to stop being the joke. The next few posts will be about that journey out of a dark, grimy, binge-eating gutter, and back into the daylight.

Subscribe now

I hit rock bottom.

It could have been while I was searching for that loose fry in the bottom of the first fast-food bag. It might have been when I promised myself, no more takeout, and then I still pulled into Wendy’s. It might have been after that, when I couldn’t seem to help myself, and I showed up at Arby’s drive-through.

Three meals in sixty minutes. Not “snacks.” Meals. The kinds that come in bags and talk to you with grease. Drive-thru #1 for a burger and fries, drive-thru #2 for another burger and fries, and then a quick stop for a different fast food chain.

I was bloated, angry, and so disappointed in myself that even my sweat felt ashamed. Then, home to take on a family-size chip bag like a raccoon in a garbage can. Spoiler: the chips won. They always won.

That night, I stared into the fridge like it owed me money. I wasn’t hungry. I was just empty in a way that food kept promising to fix.

It’s a scam. I wasn’t eating because my stomach wanted food—I was eating because something in my chest wouldn’t shut up. There was an anguish that lived in my guts, and the only thing that made it stop was being stuffed right full.

I didn’t want to keep living like that.

The thought hit me like a truck. “If I can’t fix this, I can’t keep going. It’s over.”

Let me be clear: this isn’t a delicate “I should eat better” moment. This was the total collapse, where I realized I was trying out for the role of “guy who gave up and ended his life,” and I was about to get the part.

I hated myself for being a fat slob who was ruled by cravings.

I WAS the cravings.

I wanted to disappear.

I had to change. Or else.

A couple of days before that night, I’d been “perfect.” Broccoli, lean meat, smugness. I bragged to my wife and sent her a food pic. A few days later, I face-planted into a pile of fries, burgers, nuggets, and hot mustard sauce.

That’s the cycle nobody warns you about: strict, stricter, strictest—then BOOM. The stricter you pull the rubber band, the harder it snaps your face.

I realized I couldn’t do this on my own. I needed help.

But who could help me? I didn’t trust that chubby doctor of mine to have a clue.

My wife didn’t know about my problem. I was working on the road, eating in the closet.

So, I turned to my old friends: Books. And I found out that eating disorders are all about women. Books written by women, for women, about women. One of the books blamed ALL of women’s food problems on men and the patriarchy. That might be true. Definitely not helpful to a binge eater who happens to be male.

It made the problem even worse, because now I felt all alone with this problem. Left out loser.

Like no other guy had ever had an issue with food.

Bullshit. This is a human problem.

Men have terrible food relationships. But they never talk about it. They never even consider the addictions they are feeding with those fries and beers.

We all know that guy who can eat an entire pizza; we might even think it’s cool. But what if it’s a symptom of a hidden issue?

While I was searching online for help, I found an ad for a health coach. Her name was Carlie, and after a consultation that week, she became my lifeline.

Carlie supported me through the most challenging part of my life. If I hadn’t found her, I may not even be here today. Because life sure wasn’t worth living when I couldn’t stop myself from eating, and eating, and eating, and eating.

Being coached for six months started me on a journey that I’m still on. I’m not perfect. Food addictions and disorders are no joke; they don’t just dissolve. But because she gave me that starting point, that boost, and a common-sense plan to follow, I find myself years later healthier than ever. But most importantly, alive and happy.

I find myself a recovered binge eater.

I learned:

• How to beat those food cravings

• What really moves the needle and helps a guy lose weight

• How much and what kind of exercise we really need (It’s not as much as you think!)

• How to avoid or recover from 95% of the illnesses caused by modern life, like high blood pressure and diabetes

Step One: Get Help

People think motivation is a lightning bolt. It’s not. It’s what you get after doing the thing you said you’d do—over and over. Repetition. You don’t become a “fit guy.” You become a man who keeps promises to himself until the mirror has no choice but to agree.

And how do you do that? Outsource that motivation. Get someone in your corner who will support you and give you the tools and techniques for success.

If you can’t get started, if you don’t know what to do to get the ball rolling, then you need to get help. There’s no shame in it.

When a real man needs help, he asks for it. Plain and simple.

Maybe you just need a little jump start. Some straight talk, no-bullshit articles like the ones I publish here. If so, make sure you subscribe. We’ll build habits that make you good about yourself. We’ll build a body that’s hard to kill. And we’ll build a mind that is resilient enough to do the hard things you need to do.

Subscribe now

But here’s part of that no-bullshit truth: That might not be enough. And if you know that’s true, get that help. I recommend a health coach, doctor, or personal trainer..

I have room for 5 new one-on-one clients next month. Answer this email or message me if you want details.

Stay healthy.

Fasting. It has so many benefits for a healthy metabolism.

And it isn’t a weird fad. It’s what our bodies have evolved to do.

Throughout human history, obtaining food has been challenging. We have always been able to go hours without eating large meals. There were no supermarkets or drive-through windows in the Stone Age.

The human body evolved to survive for a few hours, or even days, without food being crammed down its throat.

But even though that’s still true for some parts of the world, most people in modern society can’t imagine going without a meal or two. What if food abundance is one of our biggest problems?

Maybe we shouldn’t force ourselves to eat three square meals a day.

Maybe we should snack less. We don’t need to graze all day like cows.

It’s so, so easy to put too much energy into our bodies.

Disclaimer: This post is for entertainment/ informational purposes only. Please consult a medical professional before fasting.

Subscribe now

I’m 57, But I’m Healthier Than I Was in My 30's

Fasting is keeping me young.

I passed my last physical at the doctor with flying colors, and all of my bloodwork shows healthy levels. For a 57-year-old guy, that’s a big deal.

I have regular blood pressure.

I’m not on a single medication. Except Vitamin G (gratitude!)

I’m constantly mistaken for a man ten to fifteen years younger than my chronological age. I’m loaded with energy and feel healthier than I did in my 30s.

On special occasions, I eat breakfast. Otherwise, I will wait until noon or later.

I’m happy with my weight. I don’t count calories or pay attention to how much I eat. (But I pay attention to WHAT I eat - I keep the Frankenfoods low!)

How Does Intermittent Fasting Change Your Body?

Eating and food digestion are complicated, so here is a basic description of some things that happen when you use IF (Intermittent Fasting.)

Your body uses up all the readily available glucose first. The speed of this process depends on several factors. Your diet, overall condition, activity level, etc, determine the exact length of time until you run out of glucose.

The glucose stored in your muscle tissue and liver gets used up. This takes, at a minimum, 8 hours. If there is still food in the digestive tract, this timeline is affected, as energy and nutrients are absorbed. If you’ve got an extra full belly, it will take longer than 8 hours.

Once there is no glucose left, your body begins to break down the fat and convert it into a usable form. You are now fasting and have started to benefit from the following eight processes and effects that result from that fast.

1. Maintain Muscle While Losing the Flab

There’s evidence at PubMed.gov to show that intermittent calorie restriction conserves lean mass.

It’s widely accepted that calorie restriction alone can lead to the loss of muscle mass over time. Intermittent fasting doesn’t seem to cause this.

, a Canadian nephrologist and top expert on IF, has found that intermittent fasting does not result in losing all of your lean muscle mass. He wrote three books on obesity, diabetes, and fasting.

“It is virtually impossible that humans were designed to store food energy as body fat, but when food was not available, we burn muscle. This would mean that all peoples up to the 20th century following this feast-famine cycle either through periodic starvation or fasting would be almost pure fat. Instead, they were lean and strong.” — Dr. Jason Fung

I proved the truth myself. I’ve been fasting this way for four years. If I were losing muscle mass continually, I’d be weak, skinny, and near death. My arms and legs would look like sticks, and my chest would be scrawny. Instead, I’ve gained lean muscle mass through regular workouts and exercise.

2. Lower Chronic Inflammation Levels Everywhere

Are you inflamed? If your body has a hidden condition called chronic low-level inflammation, your cells are being silently damaged.

Inflammation is part of your body’s defense mechanisms. Fluids from the lymph and circulatory system are sent to an injury or an infection. It causes heat, pain, redness, and swelling at the site of an injury as your body initiates the repair process. This is natural.

But when your body enters an inflamed state and can’t get out of it for days, weeks, or months, your healthy tissues get attacked, too. This abnormal condition hurts cells, tissues, and organs. You will get DNA damage and tissue death, and be at risk for diseases like arthritis or cancer.

Due to diet or environmental factors, your body can be in a chronic, low-level state of inflammation for years. This inflammation may increase aches and pains without presenting any specific symptoms.

Three separate clinical studies have demonstrated that intermittent fasting reduces blood markers associated with inflammation. Fasting may help alleviate any undetected inflammation.

There’s a relationship between high levels of insulin in the bloodstream and inflammation. If you’re developing insulin resistance due to diet or other factors, your body will be more inflamed. But in a fasted state, insulin levels drop since there’s less glucose present, and you don’t need to release as much.

Why not reduce the risk of diabetes and low-level chronic inflammation by lowering your insulin resistance? Fasting will do that.

3. Reduce Free Radicals and Oxidative Stress

Lowering inflammation is closely linked to removing free radicals and reducing oxidative stress.

Free radicals are naturally created within your body as you break down food to produce energy or consume it directly. Smoking, chemical exposure, and fried foods will load you up with extra free radicals. These reactive molecules will bind to your cells and tissues, causing damage or oxidative stress.

Antioxidants are all about reducing free radicals. Aside from loading up on blueberries and leafy green veggies, you can use intermittent fasting to help remove these harmful molecules. One study noted that “the beneficial effects of IF and CR result from at least two mechanisms — reduced oxidative damage and increased cellular stress resistance.”

If you want to maximize the effects of any healthy foods and antioxidants from your diet or supplements, IF might be a great way to target those free radicals from both ends and really clean house.

4. Puts Cellular Repair Into Overdrive

Speaking of cleaning up, IF can help you optimize the process of autophagy. The body breaks down old cells and uses their components to build new, healthy cells. You don’t want misfolded or damaged proteins and other metabolic byproducts clogging the works.

IF increases autophagy in your body. Interesting findings from a study called Autophagy and Intermittent Fasting: the connection for cancer therapy, shows us that there’s definitely something to it.

Whenever you are full of food, a lot of your body’s resources go to digestion. Broken-down nutrients flood the bloodstream and are distributed throughout the body. Extra food gets stored as fat. Repairs go on the back burner while you deal with the inbox.

It makes sense that your body will be able to focus on junk removal and repair when it isn’t spending all of its time dealing with digestion.

5. Target Visceral Fat

Belly fat is part of the picture. And what about all the fat packed around your heart and internal organs? It’s challenging to measure without a CT scan, but you can make an educated estimate based on your waist circumference and body mass index.

Visceral fat can be highly harmful, giving you a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, heart disease, and certain cancers. It’s also a big part of the chronic inflammation problem mentioned above.

It also affects your appearance. Everyone wants a smaller middle. Carrying a spare tire makes you less healthy and look less appealing. When I was bulging out of my pants, I felt terrible about how it made me look.

Intermittent Fasting can help reduce visceral fat, especially when combined with exercise and healthier eating habits.

6. Lower Your Blood Pressure and Reduce Heart Disease

According to the World Health Organization, heart disease is the number one cause of death worldwide. It causes an estimated 17.9 million deaths each year. Using any tool we have to maintain our heart health makes sense.

If you lose some visceral fat, it will significantly reduce the body's load.

Imagine the extra blood flow and blood pressure required to maintain pounds of fat around your middle. The more of you there is, the harder the heart works, and the more strain there is on the entire system.

Research indicates that intermittent fasting can help lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol levels, manage diabetes, and promote weight loss. If we can accomplish all of these things, it will make our hearts healthier.

7. Live Longer

Lower your inflammation levels. Reduce free radicals. Boost autophagy. Drop a few pounds. Have a healthier heart.

There’s no doubt that if you achieve all of those things, you have a better chance of living a long, healthy life.

Compare an IF user to someone who uses the let-er-buck method of eating and has 15 pounds of fat, filling all the extra space in the body cavity. This person might be a walking time bomb with multiple diseases in an advanced state and not even know it.

With aging, nothing is guaranteed. But the odds are against you if you are overweight, have chronic inflammation due to insulin resistance, and have a massive buildup of free radicals that your body never got around to dealing with.

Intermittent fasting may not be a magic bullet, but it appears to help alleviate many of these issues, and research on both humans and animals supports this finding.

7.5 Bonus Point — Good For The Brain!

Experts think that IF can help maintain a healthy brain as you age. It has been shown to assist memory and keep cognitive abilities sharper.

More than a few neurosurgeons recommend IF as the best diet for mental sharpness. For more information, have a look at Life Lessons From a Brain Surgeon.

“I recommend it for anyone who wants to improve their mood and hit peak cognition.” — Rahul Jandial, MD, PhD

There is a lot of data from studies showing a reduced risk of neurological disorders. IF might help mitigate Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke. It makes sense that your brain will work better if the rest of you is in better shape because of intermittent fasting.

Intermittent Fasting Can Be Convenient and Easy

This isn’t as much about what you eat as when you eat.

A 16:8 intermittent fasting eating plan means you will eat all your food in an 8-hour window. For convenience, most IF users skip breakfast and start eating at noon. Then, we close the food window at 8:00 PM and reopen it at lunchtime the next day.

Skipping supper and breaking your fast at breakfast might be as effective, but it’s hard to align with our lives. If you skip evening eating, you miss out on a chance for social contact during meals. The social aspect is why most restaurants focus on supper, not breakfast.

Use This Simple Plan to Try 16:8 Intermittent Fasting Yourself

• Decide on a frequency to try this method of eating. You could start with once or twice per week before considering making it an everyday habit to see how it fits best in your schedule.

• Pick an eight-hour eating window. Many people choose the time from noon to 8:00 PM. Some go from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. There is evidence to suggest that starting earlier in the day is beneficial. But for most of us, having a long gap between dinner and bedtime will mean lots of temptation and snacking opportunities, so you might prefer to eat later in the day.

• To maximize the benefits of your fasting, choose a variety of healthy food options. Use most of your eating window for veggies, fruit, lean protein, and whole grains. If you eat the right foods first, you’ll be less hungry for what you know you shouldn’t eat, like giant sacks of Oreos or potato chips.

• When you are in the fasting window, drink plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration and headaches. Start with plain water. Herbal tea, black coffee, or fruit-infused water are also great options to keep your stomach empty between meals. Remember, fruit juice has a lot of calories, so it can break your fast.

• A hot drink, such as tea, black coffee, or herbal tea, is a great way to curb hunger. Remember not to add cream or sugar, and end your fast before the eating window.

Podcasts About Fasting

Books About Fasting

• The Complete Guide to Fasting (Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting) by Dr. Jason Fung, with 4.7/ 5 stars and 9,682 ratings on Amazon.

• The FastDiet — Revised & Updated: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting, by Michael Mosley, with 4.3/ 5 stars and 9,387 ratings on Amazon.

• Eat Stop Eat: Intermittent Fasting for Health and Weight Loss, by Brad Pilon, with 4.3/ 5 stars and 654 ratings on Amazon.

Reasons to Fast:

• Maintain muscle while losing unwanted weight and becoming a lean, mean, life-loving machine!

• Lower those chronic inflammation levels that are causing you to feel bloated and unwell.

• Reduce free radicals that are running rampant, smashing DNA.

• Boost the autophagy process to eliminate the cellular debris within you.

• Get rid of visceral fat that is packed around your internal organs, quietly choking the life out of you.

• Reduce your risk of heart disease.

• Live a longer, healthier life and outlast the losers.

• Keep your brain in top shape so you can outsmart the corporate bullshit!

  ---

If you tried intermittent fasting, how did it go? I’d love to hear your story.

This Live video with shares how Intermittent Fasting (IF) has made a huge difference to Kristi in the last couple of months, when nothing else was working. I’ll send out a longer post soon with more details on exactly how to do IF.

Disclaimer: This post is for educational/ entertainment purposes only. Don’t blame me if you try IF and aliens show up to take away your birthday, or you get sick and fail to win the Olympics. You are responsible for yourself and all of your actions.

Some highlights:

• Eating a ton of small meals in the day, and never giving your system a break, keeps you in FAT SAVING mode. It’s important to take time off from eating so your body can do cleanup and repairs.

• Intermittent Fasting lets your insulin levels drop and your stomach empty so that you are more likely to go into FAT BURNING mode.

• Kristi used an app to get started with Intermittent Fasting, which you can find here: Simple

• Skipping breakfast and avoiding snacks after supper is the easiest way for most people to create a 16-hour calorie-free window.

• Eating more protein or going keto will reduce cravings and make it easier to do IF.

• Activity is important! Move more during the day. IF alone won’t help you as much as it will if you’re getting in steps or workouts.

• If you are new to IF and are having hunger problems, try a hot cup of unsweetened herbal tea or black coffee. Lemon water can also help.

• Shoutout to - - who we talked about as someone who inspires both of us to keep moving, working out, and because of her general badassery! Go visit her at Too Old For This Shit

Thanks for showing up to the Live video: , , , , , , and many others!

But seriously, this topic is something everyone should have some basic facts about. Because even if you personally don’t have to deal with it, someone close to you will.

In this Live video:

• Carrageenan - what the heck is it and is it bad for us?

• What foods have carrageenan? Including organic foods.

• How is your gut health related to hormones, perimenopause, and menopause?

• Is menopause a disease?

• Is aging a disease or a natural process?

• Is male menopause a thing?

  ---

  

  

Thank you , , , , and many others for tuning into my live video with and !

Rucking is an exercise that almost anyone can do. All you need is the ability to walk and a backpack.

This dead-simple exercise creates endurance and strengthens your back, legs, and core. The typical starting point is to carry one-tenth of your body weight. For example, a 200-pound guy would start with 20 lbs. For a progression, you could add 5 pounds a week until you reach a challenging weight for yourself.

Rucking burns a lot of calories, almost as many as running. That’s why it’s a stealth cardio. No one will even know you’re exercising.

“But, Tim! I don’t have any trails here! I can’t ruck in town, can I?”

Why not? Don’t you have sidewalks or parks? If there are outside walking spaces, then go for it!

“But… I’m afraid I’ll look dumb!”

If you’re like me, you’ve always got that problem.

I can look dumb no matter what I’m doing, so I don’t let it stop me.

I just look for more things to do while I look dumb ANYWAY. This is yet another in the long list of things I look dumb doing.

Rucking is Low-impact

This is an advantage for your knees and hips. Running and other brisk exercise can aggravate the joints, but rucking might work for you.

Start small with only a few pounds and gradually increase your load. Eventually, you could work your way up and improve your strength while giving your body some essential exercise.

“Okay, Tim. You convinced me. How far should I go?”

Start small. Try a few blocks round trip with a light load.

The key to stuff like this is repetition, not going gangbusters. Less is more.

If you work out every other day for half a mile, you make progress. If you cripple yourself by rucking 6 miles on day one and don’t go again for three weeks, expect only suffering.

How to Ruck on a Budget

Everything doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

You might already have everything you need. Start small and manageable. You could get going with a cheap backpack, two water bottles, a couple of canned goods out of the pantry, and a sandwich.

Anyone can put some items in a pack and walk around. It has one of the lowest barriers to entry. Compare that with biking, where even the cheapest ride is hundreds of dollars.

You already have legs and shoes, and you might have a backpack. You can easily find some weight in your house.

Find something heavy that doesn’t have an unusual shape that will jab into your back while you hike. Use a towel or small blanket to position it in the bag, and you’re off to the races.

You Don’t Need High-End Equipment to Be a Rucking Pro

I’ve looked at “professional” rucking setups plenty of times online. I just can’t justify it to myself. That would be different if you want to pack more than 40 pounds, but let’s be honest: Most of us will never want to.

If you’ve gone to GoRuck and looked at the price of the backpack, you may have shit yourself. I know I did. Their backpacks are fucking expensive.

With a 20-pound weight, $350 US. That’s roughly $9999 Canadian! I don’t have any more small children to sell! It had better be durable for that price.

That cost is totally unacceptable.

So for the last few years, I’ve been using an old hiking backpack and some random heavy items that had been lying around the house. Sometimes I even put a kettlebell or one of those dust-gathering dumbbells in there.

You can stick with these low-cost options forever if you like. Load up any bag with soup cans, rocks, textbooks, whatever. It will get the job done.

Last month, I started looking at those expensive rucking packs again. I almost pulled the trigger and spent the money. But no! There is zero reason that these things should cost such a fortune. Yeah, I bet they’re great quality, etc. But I’m not gonna spend hundreds of dollars just for a backpack that holds weight.

I wanted something that looked a bit cooler, though. My oversized hiking backpack with all the padding needed to haul around the kettlebell was making me look like a homeless person hunting for handouts.

There’s nothing like being on a walking path and everybody thinking that you’re living in the bushes on the side of the trail, negotiating with squirrels and fighting the wildlife for leftovers.

So I found a cheap way to build my own, for less than $80.

The first thing you need is a tactical backpack. Preferably with many pockets and sleeves, and good shoulder straps. Like this one on Amazon for US $39.99. You don’t need a top-end bag.

Uncle Wiener’s Wholesale

I got mine from a local discount store called Uncle Wiener’s for $50 Canadian. So far, it’s been working perfectly. And I get to say Uncle Wiener’s every time I tell someone about it!

I bought weight plates at Walmart or another store that sells exercise equipment. Find the barbell plates in 2.5, 5, or 10 pounds. It’s gonna cost you about a dollar a pound in Canadian money, so they might be virtually free in the US. I bought 25 lbs for under $30.

Happy rucking!

Bite-Sized Goals For Nutrition and Fitness

Master the art of setting achievable nutrition and fitness goals. Transform your habits with simple, actionable steps that lead to lasting change.

This mini course will show you how to narrow it down to simple steps you can start taking immediately. Great things can be accomplished with tiny repeated steps.

Say goodbye to overwhelming and unrealistic fitness challenges. With this simple system, you’ll learn practical strategies to take control of your well-being and achieve sustainable results. Don’t miss this opportunity to create lasting changes in your life. Enroll now and start your journey towards a healthier you!

What do you get?

• The mini-course

• Help from me via chat/email to get you going on your goals like a badass!

Bite-Sized Goals

Become a member now and get a 30% discount! This is a limited-time offer for September 2025.

Become a member - 30% off!

My father went from independent adult to crippled victim in one failed step.

Saturday afternoon, I was helping my dad in his greenhouse. He grew his own pepper plants from seeds he had harvested last fall. Dad doesn’t eat much of what he grows. He just loves gardening.

Afterward, we sat outside and had a chat about life, what’s going on with him and Mom, and (!) politics. Then he wandered back to his house. It was a good afternoon.

He may never walk to that greenhouse again.

Late that night, we got a weird text from my Mom. All it said was “Hi. Dad”. We knew right away something bad had happened.

We rushed to their house to find my dad moaning in agony on the floor, wearing only his underwear. He had fallen on his left hip, hard, and was in a lot of pain. We couldn’t move him at all without making it worse, so we called an ambulance.

X-rays confirmed what we were all afraid of. He had an Intertrochanteric hip fracture, a few inches from the hip joint. He would need surgery so they could put screws or other hardware in to hold the bones together. Quite the ordeal for his poor body.

Recovery rates are low. Mortality rates are high. Chances of him being alive next year at this time? Hard to think about. It might as well be a death sentence.

“Wow, that’s rough. But he’s old, and these things happen. There’s nothing we can do to prevent this kind of thing!”

Not True.

It is true that aging is unavoidable. But, how we age? We have SO MUCH effect on that.

My parents did a few things to sabotage themselves:

• Dad smoked and drank hard alcohol for decades

• My parents eat a lot of hot dogs, fries, boxed mac n’cheese, and bread.

• A few weeks ago, I asked my dad the last time he ate a vegetable besides the few tomatoes he grew. He laughed at me and said, “I had some salad in 2005. Does that count?”

• Their only exercise is walking to the bathroom or microwave, and looking for the remote.

So what do you think? Could he have done more to fall-proof himself?

Older people fall down, get hurt, and suffer.

You might have people close to you who have broken a hip, smashed their head on the ground, or broken a wrist when they fell.

So.

What are you doing to fall-proof yourself? How are you strengthening your body and making friends with the ground?

If the answer is that you are doing nothing, why? Do you enjoy hospital visits, excruciating pain, and have a bit of a death wish? Are you planning to fail yourself and your loved ones?

Do you want to cut your life short and end it with a hospital bed, with a catheter and a bedpan, while your children stand around in the hospital room remembering how you used to be able to walk?

Think about it.

Fall-proofing yourself isn’t just about health. It’s about freedom. You want to walk into your later years like a confident bad-ass action hero, not stumble in like a nervous loser of a clown.

If you’re interested in what you can do to stop from becoming a statistic like my dad, I have some ideas about how you could fall-proof yourself below.

The rest of this post is a paid post. Upgrade for only a few dollars to get access.

Get 30% off for 1 year

Read more

Are you happy with the state of your body and your health? Be honest. Are you at your physical peak? Or are things going downhill, slowly but surely?

Most people struggle to eat healthy, work out enough, get 8000 steps a day, and, in general, to take care of themselves.

Why is that? Is it because they were set up to fail by society and don’t have the systems and help they need? Sure, we could blame this on our environment to a degree.

Past Failures Can Make You Not Give a Shit

We’ve all done it. Set unreasonable goals, then fell on our faces and gave up.

I once had a gym membership for three years. My plan was to go twice a week, lose weight, and fit in those jeans hidden in the bottom drawer again.

I went three times in the first month. Then I let the gym charge my credit card every month like a loser, and never went back. Easiest money a business ever made.

Then there was that time that I thought I would train for a marathon in two months. But I wasn’t even a runner yet! I had the cardiovascular endurance of a sloth at that time. Needless to say, I never ran that marathon.

And let’s not forget about the shakeweight debacle.

But enough about me.

I know you have a big, disappointing, frustrating experience where you got super enthusiastic about your fitness or eating plan, and then you let yourself down. So why even bother trying? Waste of time, am I right?

No!

We are capable of so much more than we realize. We just didn’t have the right system in place to help us get over that goal line.

As long as you are still trying, you haven’t failed yet. You’ve just achieved results and gathered information on what doesn’t work for you.

How to Turn Thoughts Into Reality

You want to have a kickass life but don’t know where to start? You want those dreams of a firm, sexy butt to become reality? Here’s how to do it.

Take thoughts and condense those suckers by writing them down. Attach meaning to those words. Then turn them into actions.

The next step is persistence. Repeat physical actions in the real world, quite a few times, over a period of weeks.

Don’t go to the gym once. Go multiple times.

Don’t walk 10,000 steps once. Do it every other day for weeks.

Don’t eat healthy just for one day. Eat better for days.

Big things start with small steps

Life really works this way. Our small actions lead to big results over time. Commitment and consistency in one area of our lives bleed over into others and alter them.

“One thing leads to another.” — The Fixx, 1982

Are you happy where you are and wouldn’t change a thing? Then keep doing what you’re doing, and five years from now, chances are high your life will be similar or worse.

The deck is stacked against you since getting older WILL happen. There’s no avoiding it. But you CAN slow it down, and sometimes even gain back lost ground.

Make It Easy

This is a crucial point. Starting something new needs to be as easy as you can make it. If it’s hard, complicated, and inconvenient, why would you bother?

You won’t.

There are rare unicorns that are filled with glee when they have to struggle. But the rest of us just don’t have the motivation to get over the hump of trying hard long enough to build a habit. We need it easy.

We need it broken down into little, easy-to-follow, easy-to-implement bits.

That’s where my short, easy-to-finish, easy-to-use mini-course comes in.

Mini-Course Launch: Bite-Sized Goals For Nutrition and Fitness

Master the art of setting achievable nutrition and fitness goals. Transform your habits with simple, actionable steps that lead to lasting change.

This mini course will show you how to narrow it down to simple steps you can start taking immediately. Great things can be accomplished with tiny repeated steps.

Say goodbye to overwhelming and unrealistic fitness challenges. With this simple system, you'll learn practical strategies to take control of your well-being and achieve sustainable results. Don't miss this opportunity to create lasting changes in your life. Enroll now and start your journey towards a healthier you!

What do you get?

• The mini-course

• Help from me via chat/email to get you going on your goals like a badass!

This course is part of the exclusive content for paying members of Time2Thrive. You can find it in the Exclusive Content, or click on the bottom of this post.

Become a member now and get a 30% discount! This is a limited-time offer for September 2025.

Become a member - 30% off!

This is it! I’m excited to give you access to this mini-course that I’ve been talking about in the last few posts! It will show you how to break your health and fitness goals down into manageable chunks, so you can make good things happen.

Before you dive in, remember: I am here to help! There are several ways you could get in contact with me with any q…

Read more

After a much-needed break, Time2Thrive is back!

What was going on, you ask? Why haven’t I posted or been around Substack for the last three-plus weeks? It’s simple. I was overwhelmed and burnt out, and I had to make the hard choice to step back from the newsletter for a bit.

Have you ever thought you had everything under control, and then there was some inciting incident that pushed you just a little too hard, and you realized you had no gas left in the tank, burned out, too tired to even care, just wanted to sleep, couldn’t be bothered to answer texts or emails, cancelled plans, sat in front of the TV, and let everything flop?

That was me.

Except.

I DIDN’T let everything flop. My routines and habits stood up to the test.

I won’t get into the details of what went down in my personal life and at my day job. It’s enough to say that everything suddenly became too much. I hit the end of my rope.

I learned some valuable lessons from the last few weeks. Some of my strategies really paid off. I’m on the right track. And you can be too.

1. Mini Habits Can Save Your Soul

Even though I was pushed so hard I thought life was ending, I did okay. Because I had built a flexible routine of habits like daily exercise and eating healthy, I could rely on those strategies without even thinking about it.

Even though I couldn’t muster up enough energy to act normal:

• I did yoga and stretches in the morning

• Iket up the kettlebell workouts

• I went for walks outside

• I got in enough healthy protein and fats, and avoided the evil glutens

• I did some breathing exercises when I just couldn’t even

Because I built all of these routines when I WASN’T under as much pressure, I was “lucky” enough to be able to rely on them when the going got tougher.

If there’s one thing that’s true for everyone, it’s that sometimes, things get crazy and out of control. Building positive routines and habits can help you get through it without capsizing your canoe and getting smashed in the rapids.

2. You Can’t Do It All

When you run out of juice, you can’t pretend that you’re a superhero anyway and just keep on keepin’ on, unless you really want to run into trouble. When you start hitting the wall, you need to re-assess the situation and know your limits.

I was doing too much. I needed to make some space to get my mojo back. So I decided what was important and focused on those things, in this order:

• My mental, emotional, and physical health

• My relationship with my wife

• Family and friends

• Day job (we all need money)

  ---

Here’s what took the back seat until the crisis was over:

• Social media. Notes, Facebook, etc. can go suck it.

• Substack posts. I love writing, but I just didn’t have it in me.

• Dealing with other people’s bullshit.

• Anything extra that required brain juice.

I quit doing some things so that I could keep up the most important actions. I focussed on myself first to make sure I didn’t implode. I didn’t waste energy on dumb shit like social media. That’s a black hole at the best oftimes. I didn’t struggle to write when I had nothing good to say. I didn’t beat myself up (too much) over not posting every week. And I kept to myself a little more to recharge those batteries.

Become More Resilient With Life-Affirming Habits and Routines

Ths is what I believe, that we can become more resilient and better able to handle the stresses of life. And I believe that the easiest way to do that is to have tiny routines and habits that you can rely on.

If things go sideways, but you have those routines? You won’t flush your entire life down the toilet.

• If you are in the habit of exercising, you’ll de-stress naturally. Exercise is medicine.

• If you keep at least some of your nutrition habits when you’re under the gun, you’ll maintain the high energy levels needed to push through and come out on top.

• Your routines will give you a sense of control over your situation, so you don’t feel totally adrift. Feeling a bit of control over even just your own body will keep you from losing hope.

“Fine, Tim. I see now that you are totally right, and I need to build healthy routines to keep my life from sucking. But how do how do I do that? It seems impossible, but I don’t want my life to suck. What can I do?”

I hear you. No one wants their life to suck.

Luckily, it’s pretty simple, although maybe not that easy. You build habits by choosing an action, and then repeating it over time until it become a built-in routine.

I’ll be writing about habits in next week’s post.

Mini-Course Launch Soon: Bite-Sized Goals For Nutrition and Fitness

I apologize for not getting this out to you when I originally planned. Better late than never, right?

This mini course will show you how to narrow it down to simple steps you can start taking immediately. Great things can be accomplished with tiny repeated steps.

Keep your eyes open for an upcoming post if you would like to get in on it!

If you don’t want your life to suck, subscribe to Time2Thrive. Because nothing would make it suck more than NOT subscribing…

Subscribe now

Most people have the superstitious belief that getting out of shape, aging, or disease “just happens.”

But the truth is that we have plenty of ways to move the needle. There are levers to pull, and buttons to push, that will lead to more health.

Sure. There are external causes of ill health. Environmental toxins, unfortunate physical accidents, stress that causes hormonal imbalance, unexplained illnesses, and in some cases, genetics.

Note that I put genetics last since all of those other things are the more likely cause.

That’s right, you can’t blame genetics for all of your problems. But that’s good news! That means you can do something about your health. YOU CAN MOVE THE NEEDLE.

Decide that you want more health. Then create it for yourself.

Hi, I’m Tim from Time2Thrive, a newsletter that helps people find simple ways to get healthier, eat with intention, and care for their bodies.

Here are some posts sent to subscribers:

• Start Your Day With a Bang Instead of a Whimper.

• 7 Things You Don’t Want to Hear About the Food You Eat

Did you know that hitting the heart icon ❤️ above or sharing this post makes it easier for people to find this newsletter? It also shows me that you appreciate my work!

You can subscribe to make sure you never miss my posts:

Subscribe now

Ways to Intend and Create Health

I’m gonna lay out a few ways you could create more health in your life.

But.

Just reading these won’t do a damn thing.

If all you’re going to do is read these, say “Yeah! Great Stuff!” and go about your day like a sad loser without making any changes, then that’s on you.

All of these require action.

From you.

“But Tim. I don’t know what to do. How do I even get started?”

If you want to move the needle, the easiest way to get started is to set small goals or intentions. Then act on them.

I created a tool to help you do just that.

Mini-Course Launch: Bite-Sized Goals For Nutrition and Fitness

Launching in a few days, this mini course will show you how to narrow it down to simple steps you can start taking immediately. Great things can be accomplished with tiny repeated steps.

Keep your eyes open for the next post if you would like to get in on it!

In the meantime, let's go over a few ways that you can become healthier, on purpose. No matter where you are in life, you can see some improvement. It’s as simple as deciding to do it and then doing it!

1. Intentional Eating

If eating garbage causes sickness, then eating healthy food will cause health. It really is a no-brainer that you can cause health by eating food that supports you.

What do you want for your body? What will make you feel good about your food habits? If we plan to eat healthy, nutritious foods 80% of the time, our bodies will have the nutrients they need to make repairs and stay on top of things.

One cookie won’t kill you (although if you’re gluten intolerant and it’s a wheat cookie, you might think you’re dying as you sit on the toilet for an hour.) The most important thing is getting enough protein and healthy fats BEFORE the cookie.

And after that cookie? Go straight back to eating intentionally.

It’s easy to say, “Well, I’ve had a cookie. The day is shot. Might as well eat this whole cake and a liter of ice cream too!” But this is an unnecessary all-or-nothing way to look at it. Instead, take your day hour by hour, meal by meal. Intend to create a strong body, and sometimes, enjoy that cookie.

It’s no mystery. Intentionally eating instead of going goblin mode will create health.

2. Get Exercise

Sitting around is the new smoking. We all instinctively know that you either move it or you lose it. Lack of motion causes you to solidify and get sick.

Good news! The reverse is also true: movement can cause health! Especially if it’s the right kind of movement in the right dose.

Cardiovascular exercise and strength training causes health.

There is no disputing it.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. If you need more exercise, start by walking more. Count your steps, and just get more than you used to. Aim for 7000 + steps a day. You WILL create more health for yourself.

Weight training and cardio training are the next level. If you intend to be healthy, get exercise.

If you are short on time and want to get in some quick strength training, check out my kettlebell post for a workout that will make you strong and take less than 15 minutes, three times a week:

Time2Thrive

The Unexpected Joy of Throwing Heavy Objects Between Your Legs

This week, I’m going a little more in-depth on the kettlebell swing. This is a foundation exercise. Combined with the Turkish Get-up, kettlebell swings can make you an absolute badass…

Read more

a year ago · 48 likes · 29 comments · Tim Ebl 🇨🇦

3. Deal With Stress

Stress can cause sickness. A nervous, tense body is throwing your hormones out of whack and keeping you in the fight-or-flight zone.

But.

You can find ways to deal with stress that will create health.

• Walking, workouts, and exercise

• Meditation, yoga

• Spending time with pets, friends

“Fine, Tim, but I just don’t have enough time to do any of that!”

Okay, well do you have 60 seconds to follow this quick routine by ? Or are you so pressed for time that you can’t spend one minute to create health?

The Feel Good Life

Stressed and Tense? Unlock Your Body With This 60-Second Routine

Welcome to The Feel Good Life! A newsletter about health, prevention, empathy, and hope. Join me, Dr. Mariana, as I explore all sides of good health and a good life. New here? Get started…

Read more

2 years ago · 66 likes · 24 comments · Dr. Mariana Calleja Ross

4. Get Enough Sunlight

And by this, I don’t necessarily mean that you need to tan. I’m referring to going outside, under natural light. You could double this up with walking, and hit your exercise and stress-removal targets with one blow.

We spend most of our time inside, in cramped little rooms and stifling, unnatural buildings, doing things our bodies weren’t designed to do. Our circadian rhythms are all messed up from the lack of natural sunlight. Our skin can’t make vitamin D.

We need to go outside.

Living under artificial lights can cause depression, sadness, and poor health. Whereas a correct dose of sunlight causes health, lets the skin make vitamin D, and lifts your mood so that your entire life goes better.

5. Avoid Dangerous Things

“What dangerous things? I’m not around any bears or sharks. What the heck you talkin’ about, Tim?”

• Vegetable oil was designed by Dr. Evil

• Frankenfood

• Helicopter rides

• Clowns

Don’t put danger in your mouth. Vegetable oil and Frankenfoods are just two of those dangers.

And clowns. Always watch out for clowns. For dog’s sake, never put them in your mouth. They taste funny.

6. Get Rest

Not getting any sleep? Then you’re creating sickness.

Our lives are busy, so it seems like we always have a hard time getting enough rest. But without it, the body never makes complete repairs.

Your body is like a busy road that has a bunch of potholes in it. Every night, tiny construction workers try to fill in the holes or work on a bridge. But if your body works 24-7, they have to keep diving out of the way of cars that go speeding by at 60 miles an hour.

Intend to get enough rest and create health.

Put up some construction signs. Close the road for at least six hours and let the workers do their thing.

Do you want to create health? Pick one of these levers, and push on it. See if you can move the dial, see if you can feel just a little bit better than before. See if you can take one of the negatives and turn it just a little bit more positive. I know that everybody here can do one of these things for sure.

Coming Soon! Bite-Sized Goals For Nutrition and Fitness

I’m not a serious Sam. I like to start my day with play.

But when someone told me about affirmations, I just followed their strait-laced instructions. I tried the regular old way of using them but failed big time. I couldn’t get into it.

That’s why I made a game out of it.

The classic affirmation method of repeating a phrase repeatedly is too simplistic and really damn boring. Also, if your subconscious thinks you’re lying to it, it puts up roadblocks. You gotta be subtle when you come at the subconscious: No frontal attacks. Slip in the side door.

I don’t beat myself over the head with these affirmations. I don’t write them ten times, say them out loud ten times, or anything like that. I play with them. I make it fun. I hide them, send them to myself, toy with them.

Now affirmations are fun for me, not work. Who knows how I’ll use them next?

Example: I grab one of these (or make up a new one just for that day), write it down on a Post-it note, and then put it inside my laptop before closing it. I forget all about it until later.

When I get to work or later in the day, when I open it up again at home, the affirmation is peeking out at me. I grab it, stick it in my journal, and close the pages. Later, unsuspecting, I open it up, and BAM! Afirrmafied.

It Doesn’t Always Help, Or Does It?

Research shows that affirmations do have an effect. But it’s hard to say how much an affirmation really does for you in concrete terms.

I know I get a big burst of energy, happy feelings, and optimism when I find one of them unexpectedly on my handwritten note. It definitely changes my inner landscape.

How much difference can that make?

• If I’m happy and along comes troublesome Sideways-Susan, her snark won’t bring me down.

• If I’m optimistic and go into a video meeting, I look bright-eyed instead of apprehensive. It changes the entire interaction.

• If I’m encouraged by my hand-written affirmation, I will give that extra 10% and try just a bit harder to get my work project right. When I pass it to the client/boss/editor, it’s shinier and makes them react positively.

These “tiny” adjustments to your day can make all the difference between a life worth living and one where you want to throw in the towel.

How to Plant an Affirmation Surprise

I’ve experimented with all of these. I never use the same one too long to avoid getting into a boring rut. Why not give it a go?

• Write positive words on a Post-it and put them on the bathroom mirror, toilet seat, or other must-use location- the night before. When you get up, there it is!

• A Post-it on the screen of a phone or tablet is a nice a-ha moment for you.

• Get a greeting card at the dollar store. Address it to yourself. Write a few affirmations inside, and wish yourself the best. Then mail it to yourself.

• Leave a letter to yourself on the seat of your car. The content is, of course, affirmations and a little self-love.

• Leave post-its in random locations around your house that you’ll find later. Inside a book that you’re reading, near the end. On the second dish down in the stack. Inside a cupboard door. Under a loaf of bread.

• If you have a favorite affirmation or quote and access to a label maker, make a label and put it on your coffee mug, journal cover, or some other place you’ll see it.

When you see your affirmation pop up, go out of your way to stop and read it with a smile. Make it into a game. Leave so many of them that you don’t remember them all, so they really are a surprise.

“My favorite affirmation when I feel stuck or out of sorts is: Whatever I need is already here, and it is all for my highest good. Jot this down and post it conspicuously throughout your home, on the dashboard of your car, at your office, on your microwave oven, and even in front of your toilets!” — Wayne Dyer

If you live with other people, they will think you’re crazy. So what? Have fun with it. Gamify affirmations. If nothing else, your life will be brighter and more playful!

Give it a try. Turn your life into an easter egg hunt.

Affirmative!

Try these on for size:

1. I’m gonna make the rest of my life the best of my life.

2. I’m brimming with energy and overflowing with joy!

3. I will never let somebody waste my time twice.

4. I radiate happiness like the sun gives off light. Better put on sunglasses, baby.

5. I release all disease from my body and welcome health, love, and happiness into my life.

6. Oh, yes, I certainly fucking can.

7. I find peace, joy, and opportunity around every corner and through every door.

8. I persevere. I am relentless. I keep going. The prize is just over the hill.

9. Each day, I feel blessed to be alive.

10. I’ve got what it takes, and I’m gonna kick some ass today!

11. I love taking good care of myself.

12. I can, and I will. The universe will help me.

13. I am fabulous, funny, and giving.

14. Feelings are just visitors. I let them come and go.

15. I know I can always upgrade my life.

16. I’m smiling all the way to the bank because life is writing me a big check.

17. In every moment of my day. I radiate calmness & tranquility. I am still within myself.

18. Every day is fun, playful, and productive.

19. Take a second to think about how blessed you are.

20. I create the reality that I want.

21. Today is rich with opportunity, and I open my arms wide to receive everything I deserve!

22. I’m putting on my positive purple pants and my happy Hawaiian shirt.

23. I am the architect of my reality. I’m going to choose what I create.

24. I have all it takes to make this day worthwhile.

25. It’s my pleasure to be alive!

26. Health is the natural state of my body, and I feel myself healing today.

27. I believe in myself and trust that I am headed in the right direction.

28. I decide how I feel, other people don’t.

29. I love every cell of my body.

30. By being myself, I bring happiness to the world.

31. Today is going to be a real, really, really good day.

32. I have come this far, and I’m proud of myself and my life.

33. I am a powerful force for positive change.

34. My mistakes might be blessings, and everything leads to what I want most.

35. I am adventurous and open to new things.

36. I choose positive things and happy thoughts.

37. I love it when the coffee kicks in, and I become an adorable badass!

38. I patiently allow my body to heal and transform with ease.

39. Being me is my superpower.

40. Every dollar I spend comes back to me, bringing its friends.

41. The world is better with me in it.

    ---

You might not be convinced that affirmations do anything. Well, why not make it into an experiment? Pick a few of these, write them on sticky notes, and scatter them around.

When you find them, check how it makes you feel. If it makes your day even better, you’ve raised yourself up.

You've raised yourself up if it makes you just a little happier.

If it makes you treat one person even a little nicer, you’ve raised yourself up.

Wouldn’t that be worth it?

Resources

• Thinkup: Positive Affirmations App

• The Most Powerful Book of Affirmations Ever Written, by Sheldon T. Ceaser MD

  Sign up for more Badass content from Time2Thrive!