Issue #73: Eat When You're Hungry
Good morning. It’s Monday, November 28th. Ready to get back into the work week after the holiday break? Maybe start by NOT eating breakfast...more to come.
Did you miss any of our issues on CONNECTION last week? Catch up on Issues #70 - #72 here.
This week we're switching gears and talking about NUTRITION, specifically fasting.
“The best of all medicines is resting and fasting.”
From the Lab: Eat When You're Hungry
Take Action: Thinking of Food?
Speed Read: World Cup Updates
Monday Metabolic: Jump & Jack & Crawl
Monday Q: Your Eating Schedule
The amount of time per day we spend thinking about food when we're not eating. That's 240 hours per year - seems like a lot.
From the Lab
Eat when you’re hungry.
Such a simple concept. Yet, most of us don’t do it.
Instead, we think in terms of 3 meals a day - if you work through lunch you better really load up for dinner to make up for it; or, if you ate a late lunch and aren’t hungry at a work dinner don’t be the weirdo that doesn’t order something.
Since the dawn of Homo Sapiens 300,000 years ago, we all ate when we could kill a wild animal or find safe plants. Otherwise, we were fasting. That all changed with the Agricultural Revolution 10,000 years ago - when food was more consistently available throughout the day.
But even the Romans were typically eating just one meal a day.
With the Industrial Revolution, came schedules driven by work. You ate before work, were given one hour for lunch (better take advantage of it), and then ate dinner at home.
Fast forward to today and we’ve stuck with those same 3 meals, plus added a few (or many) snacks in between - so basically we’re eating all the time.
Part of this was by design of Big Food (can’t start your day without some Frosted Flakes) and some by health enthusiasts believing that constant snacking improved our metabolic rate.
The (simplified) truth is - our bodies use energy to digest or to regenerate.
So if we’re eating all the time, we’re never in repair mode. Any coincidence that you simply aren’t hungry when you’re sick? Your body knows it needs all the energy it can get to fight off that infection.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, on average, it takes 5 hours to fully digest a meal. So if we eat at say 7am, 12pm, 3pm (snack), 7pm, 9pm (snack) we’re never giving our bodies a chance to heal.
So now one of the biggest health fads is intermittent fasting.
This week we’re going to cover why fasting is worth trying for your health & longevity (what’s real and what’s unproven), the potential benefits and risks of fasting, the different ways to fast, and how to do it in a way that fits your life.
Take Action
Take an assessment of how you eat today and how you feel. Are you living by the most basic tenet - eat when you’re hungry?
Imagine you go to the gas station (or charging station) everyday at 8am, 12pm, 6pm. Doesn’t seem very efficient. How often you refuel your car depends on how far you drove. Seems like what we ate, how much we ate, and how much energy we burned (sat at our desk or ran 5 miles) should impact when we need our next meal, no? (Fast This Way)
Thrive25 Partner Spotlight
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Speed Read
Health & Longevity in the News
Opportunity Lost: The United States and England drew 0-0 last Friday in the World Cup. Cue all the soccer haters - there’s no scoring, there’s no action. Purists will argue the U.S. really showed up and that's the beauty of the sport. Both teams will advance with wins Tuesday. (Check out Coach Beard and Rebecca Lowe’s pod)
Fútbol Gratitude: No - this isn't a story from Ted Lasso. After taking down world power Germany, the Japanese team left a spotless locker room complete with gifts for the stadium crew. (Read more)
From an Unlikely Source: Leprosy-causing bacterium, M. leprae, have regenerated cells in the liver of armadillos. Cells infected by M. leprae became more like stem cells - genes related to metabolism, growth, and cell proliferation were activated, and those linked with aging were suppressed. More research, but there may be hope for aging or damaged livers. (Big Think)
Monday Metabolic
Get back into the routine with some leg burners and core work!
Click HERE to view the workout on our YouTube channel.
Workout and video courtesy of Connor J. Obrochta. Check out all of Connor's workouts on Playbook!
Monday Q
Do you control your eating schedule or does it control you?
Product Recs
Levels - a continuous glucose monitor that helps you see what foods impact you and what eating schedule is best for your glucose spikes. Get personalized insights to optimize your health.
Inside Tracker - get detailed results of your blood test results to really see what's going on and how to live for your best health. Take advantage of Black Friday savings.
Thanks for joining us today! Stay tuned for the real deal on fasting tomorrow.
Check out the latest workout videos on our YouTube channel
Got feedback? Tell us what you think at team@thrive25.com
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Why Thrive25
We’re 40-something dads that felt our bodies and minds start to slow down and we’re not ready for that. We found too much information on every subject. So we started Thrive25 to transform what we’ve learned into something useful for the rest of us to spend just 3-5 min a day to optimize our health & longevity.
This newsletter is for you and we truly value your feedback. Never hesitate to reach out to us at team@thrive25.com.
To health!
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The information in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and may not be appropriate or applicable based on your individual circumstances. Thrive25 Labs LLC does not provide medical, professional, or licensed advice. Please connect with your healthcare professional for medical advice specific to your health needs.