Five Things I'll Tell You Anyway
Some posts are arguments. This one's a list. Five things I would say to you over a glass of wine whether or not you ask, whether or not it's convenient, and whether or not you'd agree.
1. The wellness industry sells you the anxiety it profits from
Every "biohack" you've ever heard about exists because someone decided that you, at rest, are a problem to be solved. The supplement, the device, the membership, the 6am ritual — they're not selling you a better life. They're selling you the fear that your current one is failing. The actual science of a good life is boring: sleep, lift heavy things, eat food, be around people who are worth the calories of conversation. If a "wellness program" can't survive contact with that sentence, it's not a program. It's a funnel.
2. Consistency is the only biohack that matters
There is no magic protocol. There is a woman who does the same unglamorous things, most days, for years — and the compound interest of that. I've seen a thousand "transformation" posts. The before photo is never the problem. The problem is the woman in the after photo has to stay there, and staying is maintenance, and maintenance doesn't photograph. So nobody markets it. But it's the whole game.
3. Read the ToS once. Actually read it
Not every word — the parts about what happens when they change their mind, when you leave, and what they own of what you made. Most of my career was spent on rented land, and I learned the difference between "they like you" and "they can't easily remove you" the way everyone does: by finding out. A contract is not a promise. A contract is a map of who wins when things go wrong. Read the map.
4. Most public opinions are positions, not conclusions
A position is where you stand so the audience can see you. A conclusion is where the evidence took you — and it can move, because new evidence arrives. If someone's opinion has never shifted, they don't have an opinion, they have a costume. I change my mind often enough to be annoying and rarely enough to be useless. That ratio is a skill. Learn it.
5. If a diet can't be explained over one glass of wine, it's a job
Track this, time that, cycle the other. By the time you've explained it, the wine is gone and you're on a second. The sustainable thing — the thing a tired human on a Tuesday can actually do — fits in a sentence. "I eat mostly whole food, I don't snack on dust, and I stop when I'm full." That's the whole post. Everything else is for the people selling you the complication.
That's the list. Disagree with any of it and you have my permission to write it better. The bar is public, the door is open, and the wine is still going. 🍷
— P