Good morning! In the words of modern philosopher Taylor Swift, August slipped away into a moment in time. September starts this weekend!

What’re your Labor Day Weekend plans? My plans: something active, something restful, something new, & something familiar.

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Momentum is tough to break

Remember that study that came out about a year ago about children in poverty with rich friends? The study basically found that if children who grew up in poverty could befriend wealthier children, their income as an adult would be ~20% higher than would’ve been expected.

This just adds to the wealth of evidence that poverty is a difficult cycle to break, and even many countries—even the wealthier ones—sure don’t make it easy to break out.

The same can be said for obesity and poor health.

Just as people with wealthier friends tend to do better financially, people with healthier friends tend to lead healthier lives. And let’s not forget that unfortunately one of the greatest predictors of lifespan and health span is having money. 🙃

As stated on the podcast episode I recommend in today’s “Drew’s Picks,” the only wrong answers to “Is obesity a choice?” would be a hard yes or a hard no. It’s a very nuanced question that requires very nuanced answers.

But long story short: Most obese and/or unhealthy people today have some combination of genetics, environment, socioeconomic status, and habits & psychology stacked against them.

Just as most people probably don’t “choose” to be poor (or wouldn’t if they could help it; they may just lack the tools, skills, and resources), most people probably don’t or wouldn’t choose to be obese.

• *Note that intrinsic value is completely uncorrelated with this. Never fall into the trap of coupling poverty, obesity/poor health, or anything else with one’s value as a person. 

In one sense, they have made thousands of small, compounding choices that got them to where they are today. That’s true for all of us, wherever we are. But it’s also true that many of those decisions were hardly a “choice” at all.

If you just look around at modern American society, as well as the Standard American Diet (aptly abbreviated “SAD”), of course many people are obese, as Dr. Hyman likes to say. The way our food and living environment are set up today is a recipe for obesity and poor metabolic health. The default living condition is one of comfort and sedentary lifestyle that will always result in poorer health. It takes awareness, combined with a deliberate decision against these forces, to prevent or get out of poor health or obesity.

We’re now far enough into ultraprocessed food history that most of today’s adults grew up consuming ultraprocessed, highly refined, high sugar and fat foods from childhood. As kids, we don’t always know what’s best for us. We just relied on our parents’ choices, who were also just doing the best they could. But habits and customs that settle into place in childhood can be extremely difficult to uproot decades later. Especially as our knowledge of nutritional and exercise science continues to deepen, we may realize old ways of living weren’t serving us well. And that’s not even to mention trauma, psychological wounds, and eating disorders that lead to damaged relationships with food and/or exercise.

Much like a snowball rolling down a hill, or the cycle of poverty, the momentum of obesity and poor health are hard to break.

The cards may be stacked against you. But that doesn’t mean you can’t beat the house. You just have to know how to play the game.

Small victories

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is great health. One of the best ways to start can be to pick a single, small area of your life that you can change. The biggest reason people don’t stick with lifestyle change is because they bite off more than they can chew and quickly get exhausted (either from diet or exercise or just sheer change) and burn out within a couple weeks.

Pick something small that you can achieve almost every time. A post-lunch walk, a fruit at every meal, the same bed time daily, one strength workout a week. Stack your small wins, and you’ll build momentum in the other direction of the snowball and accumulate bigger wins before you know it.

Habit stacking

Once you’ve got a daily or weekly win, it will soon become a habit. Habits are one of the hardest things to break—particularly around our health. Much has been written on the art of mastering habits, so I don’t have much to add other than recommending reading and listening to some of those great resources.

But do understand that habits are part of what’s gotten you here, and habits can help get you out. It’s much easier to replace one habitual action with another, more healthful one, than to just try to eliminate it.

Time and consistency

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today. Great things and great changes take time. 30-day crash diets may shed a few pounds in the short term, but they’re certainly not sustainable. It’s taken literally your whole lifetime to reach whatever point you’re at today. Building a healthy lifestyle that you can picture yourself maintaining and even improving upon 10+ years from now is going to be key to lasting change.

Take your small wins, turn them into stacked habits, and repeat over a long period of time. It’s not sexy, but you will be! 

Grace

Lastly, have grace for yourself. Remember the premise of this newsletter: the odds are stacked against us. Our modern environment’s natural outcome is poor health and obesity if we just go with the flow. Swimming against the current will take concerted effort. Sometimes we will slip and “fail.” But nothing you do is a failure, really. You’re learning what works and what doesn’t. And now you have more information and experience moving forward. Adjust course and keep going.

Change only lasts if you’re kind to yourself. If you can’t be happy and love yourself now, you probably won’t be any happier with a 6-pack and perfect blood biomarkers. Have grace for yourself on the journey, find support and community from loved ones, and have fun with it!

✅ Take Action

Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.

Level 1: Take stock of the habits and behaviors that comprise your daily life. Pick one area where you can create a “small win” that you’ll succeed at 90% of the time.

Level 2: Pick one habit that’s not serving you. Replace is with an alternate habit that will. (e.g. 10 minutes of scrolling after waking up ➡️ 10 minute walk)

Level 3: Whatever it is you want to change, track it now. Write down the stats. Incorporate small changes and eventually habit stacking, and stay consistent. Set a reminder to check back in 6 months and see how far you’ve come!

This newsletter is brought to you by… me!

Interested in becoming a sponsor? Know someone else who might be? I’d love to get to know you and/or your business and see how we can partner together. Reply to this email!

✍️ Drew's Picks:

• Listen: “Is Obesity a Choice?” This podcast explores that question. Spoiler alert: Kinda but not really.

• Read: Incredible facts about honeybees! Bee passionate about pollinators! 🐝 

Enjoy your (hopefully) long weekend, find some small wins in your life, and I’ll see you back here next week. 🤜 🤛 

Keep moving,

Drew

The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).