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Today’s Health Upgrade

• Number you won’t forget

• Which type of stressor causes the most damage?

• Weekly wisdom

• Fact or fiction: Cottage cheese and fat loss

Mindset
Number You Won’t Forget: 70%

Do Optimists Actually Live Longer?

Some people might say “wishful thinking” is a delusional waste of time. The data suggests something very different.

In two large studies, people who are more optimistic were significantly more likely to live past 85. 

The research followed about 70,000 women for a decade, and another 1,400 men for 30 years. Researchers scored each person's optimism at the start, then watched who lived longest. 

The most optimistic men and women had a 15% longer lifespan than the least optimistic. Odds of reaching 85 ran 50% higher in the top group of women and 70% higher in the men.

It's not a fluke, either. Two other teams analyzed separate data and found nearly the same result for heart disease and death. Optimists showed 13% to 15% lower mortality.

Optimists also tend to move more, smoke less, and lean on stronger friendships. But even when accounting for those habits, the link between optimism and longevity remained. 

It could be that good health breeds optimism, so part of "optimists live longer" may just be "healthier people feel more optimistic." 

If there's a connection, researchers believe that optimists have lower day-to-day stress and stronger social ties, both of which are linked to living longer.

Before you assume you can’t shift your mindset, studies suggest that optimism behaves like a skill.

Across 29 randomized trials, spending a few minutes writing about a future where things worked out made people more optimistic. 

You don't have to believe your whole life will go perfectly. Pick one aspect of your life — your health, a friendship, work — and spend five minutes writing it like it already turned out well. Keep repeating and watch what happens to your mindset.

Together With DeleteMe
The Stress That Sticks Around Is the One That Hurts You The Most

Everyone tells you to manage stress. Almost no one tells you which part of it actually matters.

For years, researchers assumed the damage from everyday stress came from the stressful event itself — the argument, the deadline, the traffic. Then a team of researchers took a closer look, using data from more than 1,000 adults to examine daily life. 

Participants logged their stressors and moods every day for 8 days straight, and researchers checked in on their physical health about a decade later.

The people whose bad mood lingered into the next day — who were still carrying it the morning after — had more chronic health conditions and more trouble with everyday physical tasks, like climbing stairs and carrying groceries, ten years down the road. 

It wasn't how much stress they faced. It wasn't even how hard they reacted on the day it happened. It was whether the feeling stuck around.

In other words, the old advice to "just let it go" turns out to be genuinely evidence-backed. You'll never have a stress-free life, but you can get better at closing the loop before the next day starts.

To clean up the stress hangover, it’s worth asking: which stressors in your life never close the loop on their own?

This is not about the intensity of the stressor. It’s about stressors that never fully go away. Find those — or, better yet, key into what stressors might not be on your radar but are affecting you — and then you can eliminate the weight that pulls you down. 

One of the most common silent stressors is sitting online right now. Hundreds of data brokers are openly selling your name, home address, phone number, and family members' information to anyone with a credit card. You didn't put it there, you can't argue it away, and there's no natural endpoint. It just sits there; the textbook definition of a stressor you can't close the loop on.

That's exactly where DeleteMe comes in. They find and remove your personal information from hundreds of data broker sites, then keep scanning so it stays gone. You get a clear report of what they found and deleted, plus privacy advisors when you need them, which is why Wirecutter named them the #1 data-removal service.

You can't delete every stressor. But you can delete this one. Check out DeleteMe and use code PUMPCLUB for 20% off.

Because the stress that hurts you is the kind that lingers, so clear out the ones you can.

Mindset
Weekly Wisdom

We just started another Pump Club book club in the app.

Author and Marine AJ Pasciuti is leading a weekly Zoom call for the next month, taking questions while members read his book Darkhorse. It’s not just a sniper battle story about the hunt for the most famous insurgent sniper in the war on terror; it’s a book filled with lessons and heart. 

We asked AJ to write this week’s Weekly Wisdom.

If you want to join in, start a Pump Club trial and join AJ’s next Zoom next week. You can see the first conversation here:

Transformation isn't a single moment of inspiration. It's a slow stripping-away of who you were, followed by the harder work of deciding who you'll become.

Hi everyone, my name is AJ, and it's an honor to be part of this incredible community. I'm excited to spend the next few weeks getting to know all of you.

Visualization may sound trite to some, but to others, it can mean the difference between hitting your target or missing it completely. 

Snipers are taught this early: see what you want the bullet to do. See it exit the barrel, watch its path, its flight, all the way to the target, before you've even pulled the trigger. That's not just a marksmanship lesson. It's a life lesson. 

To me, visualization is one of the strongest and most impactful determinants of success in any arena. 

It’s one reason why I love Arnold: having a vision is his number one rule.

My sniper instructor, Wesley Payne, taught me something I still practice to this day. One afternoon, mid push-up, he said: "You've got to see it before you can do it." Then he pointed across the room to a mirror with the words SCOUT SNIPER painted across the top. He told me to go home, grab a marker, and write the same thing on my own mirror. 

Not just the goal, but who I wanted to become. That way, every single morning while I prepared for the day, I'd see exactly who I was working toward before I ever walked out the door.

So here's what I'd suggest as we walk through this journey together over the next four weeks: set one intermediate goal. 

What do you want to achieve in four weeks? Write it on your bathroom mirror. I'll do the same. 

Grab a dry-erase marker and put yours right there in front of you. That way, every single morning, you see what you want most before the day even starts. Don't try to eat the elephant whole. You take it one bite at a time. That's what an intermediate goal is: understanding that anything worth having takes time.

Over the next four weeks, I'll share moments throughout my career when I strove for what I thought was unachievable. Sometimes those moments ended in valuable lessons from failure, and sometimes they led to achieving what I could only have imagined. I look forward to learning from you and growing with you on this journey. But the first step to any goal is visualization. So write what, who, or where you want to be in four weeks, and embrace the process of becoming great.

Thank you for walking beside me,
AJ

Fact or Fiction
Does Cottage Cheese Before Bed Improve Fat Loss?

We hadn’t seen the post. But so many of you sent it to us that we had to break it down. 

An influencer suggested that if you eat a bowl of cottage cheese at 8pm every night, you’ll watch 2 to 5 pounds of fat disappear over a month, “without changing anything else.”

The promise stated that after week one, you sleep deeper. By week four, you're leaner. The comments are full of people swearing it worked.

We get why it spreads. It asks for almost nothing and promises a lot. 

But the science? Even though cottage cheese has been a bodybuilding staple, these claims are fiction. 

Cottage cheese is a good bedtime snack. But if you added it on top of everything else you already ate (“change nothing else”), it would push you toward a calorie surplus, which is the opposite of what you need for fat loss. 

A few years ago, researchers tested giving participants 30 grams of protein from cottage cheese about 30 to 60 minutes before bed. And they measured their metabolism, appetite, and body fat the next morning against casein protein and a placebo. 

The cottage cheese did nothing to improve morning metabolism, hunger, or body fat.

The social media post uses a common trick: take a little bit of biology, and stretch it into something that generates likes and believability.

Casein, the main protein in cottage cheese, digests slowly. In theory, it can help with fullness and muscle retention. But there’s nothing suggesting that cottage cheese is inherently a fat burning food or a sleep aid. 

The biggest tell was the post suggesting you’ll get results "without changing anything else." Fat loss needs a calorie deficit, and a cup of cottage cheese runs about 200 calories.

The snack could help if it replaces something more caloric or fills you up so you eat less later.

So eat the cottage cheese if you like it. It’s a great source of protein, and could help change other behaviors. If you swap it out for chips, it’s a win. If you eat it earlier and it kills your 10 pm cravings, that can help too.

But expecting it to transform your body without changing other behaviors is just wishful thinking.  

And that’s it for this week. Thanks for being a part of the positive corner of the internet. Take action on any goal this weekend, and we hope you have a fantastic weekend. 

-Arnold, Adam, and Daniel

The Positive Corner of The Internet
About Arnold’s Pump Club Editorial Standards

We do things a bit differently here, starting with transparency.

1. The Content: All APC emails are researched, written, and fact-checked by the APC editors (see bottom of the email), with written contributions from Arnold (noted with “Arnold’s Corner”). Links take you to original studies (not second-hand sources).

2. Does AI play a role? Not for the primary content, but it is used in two ways. The main items are original content written by the APC team. The summaries at the end are AI-generated based on the human-written content above. We also use an AI tool to review our interpretations of the research and ensure scientific accuracy. We don’t assume AI is right, but we use technology to hold ourselves accountable.

3. Yes, we have partners (all clearly noted by “Together With”). Why? Because it allows us to keep the APC emails free. We first test products, and then reach out to potential partners who offer ways to help you improve every day. The bar is set high, and to date, we have turned down millions in ad deals. (Example: we will not partner with any non-certified supplements or those without evidence in human trials). If we won’t buy the product, we won’t recommend it to you. And if there’s no evidence it works, then there’s no place for it here.

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell