Good morning. It’s Friday, August 16th.

In today’s email:

• Favorite List: Cooling Towel

• Focus: Your Future Self

• Think: Write a Letter

• Watch: Omnivore

• Brain Games: Kyudoku

Stat of the Day

A sobering statistic - nearly half of Americans now believe alcohol is bad for their health. Even more 18-34 year olds think so (65%). Might explain the rise of brands like Athletic Brewing (non-alcoholic beer - NABs, Nonny or sober juice as the kids say) now worth $800M. (source)

Favorite List

1. Instant Cooling Towel - I can’t even describe the heat this summer in FL. It was 85° during my 6am run yesterday, and at one point it was 141° inside my car (parked outside for 8 hrs). Really love this Instant Cooling Towel - a gift from my sister and brother-in-law - to cool down after those hot workouts. Use it on your palms and forehead (see our issue on Palmar Cooling) as the best way to cool down.

2. Intermittent Fasting - there’s much debate on this for longevity, but it makes me feel way better. We finish dinner by 6pm and I skip my dark chocolate snack. It’s really improving my sleep (not eating 3+ hours before bed) - I wake up ready for my protein smoothie at 8am to jumpstart my morning energy for the rest of the day.

3. Relaxing My Eyes - Andrew Huberman preaches the value of distance viewing because we spend over 6 hours a day looking at a screen. It’s important to give our eyes a break now to maintain good vision as we get older. My new workspace in downtown Tampa has a great view (see below) to look out over the water and take that break. Pro Tip: Aim for at least 20 min a day of distance viewing.

4. Special happy birthday shout-out to my wife Laura! 🎉

Focus

Your Future Self

It’s now officially been two years since we launched Thrive25.

377 issues later…and I would have expected the newsletter to evolve - covering even more bleeding edge science that’s going to help all of us live longer than ever before in human history.

I would have thought we’d be spending more time talking about biological age tests and what we can do to “get younger” even as the calendar says we’re another year older.

Or that we would focus on all the supplements that are going to give us unlimited energy and another 25+ years of life.

And we absolutely do write about the latest science of health & longevity and will continue to share this research and any new ideas worth exploring.

But the truth is:

The power of what we do in our daily life - how we sleep, how we move, what we eat, the company we keep, and the mindset we bring into each day - has a 10x, probably 100x, bigger impact on our health & longevity compared to any drug, any supplement, or any biohack.

It sounds so simple.

Unfortunately, the world is pretty much stacked against us optimizing our health:

• 71% of the food in American grocery stores works against how our cells process fuel and crushes our metabolic health

• Personal care products that we put on our skin every day contain 200 chemicals

• Our desk jobs have us sitting 10.4 hours a day inside - staring at screens less than a foot in front of us

• We’re isolated, spending less than half the time with friends compared to 10 years ago

It takes real motivation to overcome these obstacles.

Here’s one way to help - write a letter to the you, 20 years in the future.

• Who do you want this person to be?

• How do you want this person to feel?

• What do you want this person to have experienced?

By writing this letter - we become more connected with our future self and we’re more likely to take the actions today that will make life awesome for that person.

According to a research study from UCLA professor, Hal Hershfield, writing this letter (actually writing it down on paper) led to an increase of exercise per week and a higher likelihood that the person would take care of their health.

So if it’s not enough to take care of your knees, your brain, your lungs, your liver for you to feel better now - then do it for the person who will need all those things 20 years from now.

Thrive25 Partner Spotlight

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Good food, good fat from Zero Acre Farms. Finally, a cleaner all-purpose cooking oil with even more good fats than olive oil, a neutral taste, and a tiny environmental footprint.

Click HERE to get 15% off your order with code THRIVE25 at Zero Acre Farms. Good for you, good for Earth, good for cooking. #EatBetterFat

Think

Write a Letter

Write down that letter to your future self - here’s the specific prompt:

“Think about who you will be 20 years from now, and write about the person you are now, which topics are important to you, and how you see your life.”

Come back to this at the time that makes sense for you 1x per month, 3-4x per year - whatever it takes to remember what life you want for that person on the receiving end of this letter.

Watch

Omnivore

Get ready to embark on a culinary adventure with the latest series by renowned chef René Redzepi. Streaming now on Apple TV+, this show dives deep into the global impact of the world’s most essential ingredients, from bananas to salt to tuna. Travel across the globe, exploring how food shapes cultures, beliefs, and history. Join Redzepi as he uncovers the stories behind the ingredients that connect us all. 🌍🍴

Brain Games

Kyudoku

Time for Kyudoku - a 6x6 grid where you need to use logic to find nine unique numbers (1 to 9) so that each row and column has a sum of 9 or less. Sudoku, but with more distractions. The 1 highlighted in yellow is given.

Here’s a little help to get started. Because we know 1 is given, we can’t use 1 again (gray boxes) and we can also eliminate any numbers that would make the sum of the row or column with the given 1 more than 9 (blue boxes) . Wait, no blue boxes again! Hint: find some lonely numbers.

Credit: Brainzilla

** For answer, scroll to the bottom of the email

Product Recs

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• 🍴 Primal Kitchen - Primal Kitchen redefines flavor with a healthy twist, offering an array of irresistible options. Enjoy a 10% discount off your entire order at Primal Kitchen. Don’t miss out - click HERE to claim your discount today!

• 🌎 Zero Acre Farms - seed oils can have real negative effects on our health - but they’re in almost everything we eat. Made by fermentation, not deforestation, Zero Acre Farms cultured oil uses 85% less land than canola oil, emits 86% less CO2 than soybean oil, and requires 99% less water than olive oil. Get 15% off your order with code THRIVE25 today!

Thrive25 Referral Program

Thanks for being part of the Thrive25 community! Want to further support our mission of transforming science into digestible insights to support our health & longevity. Earn Thrive25 swag and other rewards from our Sponsors via our referral program:

Thanks for another great week!

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Brain Games Answer

Here’s the answer. In this grid, we started with 6 and 5 - by analyzing these two numbers, you can find 7 too and then you’re off to the races. How’d you do?

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 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 [email protected].

To health!