Welcome to the positive corner of the internet. Every weekday, we make sense of the confusing world of wellness by analyzing the headlines, simplifying the latest research, and offering quick tips designed to make you healthier in less than 5 minutes. If you were forwarded this message, you can get the free daily email here.
Today’s Health Upgrade
Arnold’s birthday gift
Let’s talk breakfast cereal
A surprising threat to your memory
Arnold’s Podcast
Want more stories from Arnold? Every day, Arnold’s Pump Club Podcast opens with a story, perspective, and wisdom from Arnold that you won’t find in the newsletter. And, you’ll hear a recap of the day’s items. You can subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Arnold’s Corner
My Birthday Gift To All Of You
I am proud of our Pump village.
I have seen people lose 100 pounds. I have seen people develop a habit of exercising after years of trying without success. I have seen people lift 500 pounds and set new records in the gym. I have seen people who dreaded their doctor’s appointments feel the relief of a clean bill of health.
And I have seen people turn their lives around.
When you’re someone like me, and you build an app to modernize a five-decade fitness crusade, you hope that people will love it and use it as a tool to make the progress they’ve always wanted.
You work your ass off to make the programs the best programs anyone could find, you find the best talent to improve the technology constantly, and you give people a community so they know they aren’t alone and they’re surrounded by other people trying to be better every day.
But you don’t expect so many people to tell you that this app and community actually saved their lives.
When some of the members sent me a surprise video they made for me and shared their success, I was proud. Not of the work we’ve done to make the app the best place to chase your fitness goals at any level, to build habits, and to be a part of the most positive corner of the internet.
I was proud of them. Because they did the work.
We just provided the tool. I know from my time working construction with Franco that the tools don’t work unless you do.
And I wanted to make sure that our tool — the Pump app — is available to everyone.
That’s why, for my birthday, I told the team to cut the price of a yearly membership by more than 20% this week — and we added more than $100 in bonuses when you sign up for the annual plan.
I’ve heard thousands and thousands of success stories.
But I want to hear billions. That’s the goal of my fitness crusade.
So this week, come check out what we’ve built. Track some habits, try our training programs that have helped people at every level, and chime in with the community to find thousands of training partners.
It’s my birthday gift to all of you.
Arnolds’ Corner: Part 2
77 Lessons From 77 Years
I’ll share more about this tomorrow, but in honor of my 77th birthday, I created a guide sharing the 77 lessons I’ve learned. I hope you love it! You can download it here for free.
Mindset
What We’re Loving On Social Media
You rarely see positivity on social media, so when it happens, it’s worth pointing out. Last week, Travis and Jason Kelce were called out for supporting their favorite cereals. It would have been easy for them to respond defensively. Instead, Jason Kelce responded with kindness and respect — while also providing a great lesson in nutrition that so many overlook.
Many will say that moderation doesn’t work. But that’s assuming that most people eat in moderation, which they don’t.
Today’s nutrition culture has put far too many people on a steady diet of restrictions and extremes that ruthlessly cut out foods, make people miserable, and result in rebound behaviors of overeating, disordered eating, stress, and anxiety.
Yes, it’s important to eat more fruits and vegetables, prioritize protein and fiber, and manage how many ultra-processed foods you consume. That is the foundation of a good diet that supports any health goal. And we need to support more people making healthier choices while improving the food environment.
But behavioral change — the type that lasts — rarely occurs with an extreme first step.
And, shaming people for enjoying any treat is not the answer. We blame moderation, but where is the responsibility for a culture that has pushed people towards unsustainable and unhealthy habits and created a culture of fear that breaks people emotionally?
People overeat for many reasons, but one of them is their poor relationship with food. Our behaviors act like slingshots: Create enough tension and stress, and you’ll snap.
That’s what happens with many popular diets. Several years ago, researchers from Portugal and the UK worked with more than 2,000 dieters and focused on how your feelings about food impact your success. The researchers found that shame, stress, self-comparison, perfectionism, low self-reassurance, and feelings of inadequacy were all associated with worse weight loss outcomes and more hunger and frustration.
If you don’t want to eat cereal — or other treats — don’t. Everyone should select their path to better health. Just as it is unhealthy to load up on sugar in every meal, it is equally unhealthy (in different ways) to fear everything you put in your mouth.
Suggesting that any single food consumed in any amount is problematic is a misrepresentation of what decades of research have found. (Jason was called out again and responded in more detail about why he’s OK with occasionally having cereal.)
Instead, if you eat well most of the time and save some space for the other foods you love (and maybe don’t have nutrition benefits), you can still be perfectly healthy.
Health
On Our Radar: A Surprising Threat To Your Memory?
There are many obvious influences on your brain, but here’s something you might have never considered:
New research suggests that loneliness and social isolation can harm your brain and impair your memory.
Scientists studied more than 14,000 people over six years to determine how loneliness, social isolation, and a combination of both affect memory. People who were both lonely and socially isolated had the greatest memory decline. But—somewhat surprising to the researchers—loneliness had the second-most decline, even more so than those who were socially isolated.
While this study didn’t investigate what could be causing the relationship, prior research suggests that loneliness increases stress and inflammation in the brain, which can impact cognition, emotion, and mental performance. Loneliness has strong associations with dementia and other forms of cognitive disease.
It’s not just that loneliness directly affects your brain; it’s also that it’s connected to behaviors that harm your mental and physical health. For example, those who are lonely are more likely to exercise less, consume more alcohol, and engage in other harmful behaviors such as smoking.
If you’re feeling lonely, don’t forget to reach out to a friend. If you know of someone who might be lonely or who you haven’t heard from in a while, give them a call or send a text. Remember, we all have the strength to lift up the world.
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell