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Today’s Health Upgrade
Editor’s note
The most underrated health habit?
A rare kind of integrity
The two handles
Editor’s Note
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating today! Remember, it’s not how you eat on any one given day that matters. It’s how you take care of yourself the majority of the time that determines your health. So if you choose to eat a little more or grab an extra slice of pie, we hope you do so without guilt and surrounded by friends and family.
Today is a special edition with some important lessons. We are thankful for all of you and hope that our newsletter helps you get better every day.
Today’s about being thankful, so reach out and tell someone why you are grateful for them. And you know what? Let’s take that to the next level. Take a second and share that gratitude with yourself: what have you done this year for yourself that you’re grateful for? Whether it’s eating a little better, being more positive, or training consistently, you should be thankful for yourself, too.
Mindset
Is Gratitude The Most Underrated Health Habit?
We promise this is more than just a feel-good item. And it could change your perspective in a meaningful way.
Most people think of gratitude as something you do on holidays or in passing. But your brain and body treat it like a daily vitamin.
Science suggests that gratitude can measurably improve your mood, heart health, sleep, relationships, and cognitive health as you age.
In fact, a five-minute gratitude practice can lower anxiety and depression, improve sleep, strengthen relationships, and support both your heart and your brain.
A massive meta-analysis of 64 randomized clinical trials found that gratitude interventions consistently improved mental health across diverse groups — kids, adults, older adults, patients, and healthcare workers. On average, people who practiced gratitude had lower anxiety, lower depression, higher life satisfaction, and better overall mental health compared to controls. Researchers noted some study limitations, but the overall pattern was clear: gratitude works.
The benefits don’t stop with your mood. Another review of adults with cardiovascular disease found that gratitude interventions improved markers tied to heart health, including lower inflammation, healthier autonomic nervous system activity, and reduced heart rate and diastolic blood pressure. The likely mechanism? Gratitude increases parasympathetic (“rest and recover”) activity and reduces the chronic stress response that strains the heart.
Your brain benefits too. In a study of older adults, those who scored higher in gratitude also showed better cognitive function and larger brain regions involved in emotional processing and memory. While the design can’t prove causation, researchers believe that gratitude may help preserve cognitive health by strengthening brain circuits involved in emotional regulation.
And when it comes to sleep, gratitude may be one of the simplest ways to address racing thoughts. People who felt more grateful had better sleep quality, longer sleep duration, shorter time to fall asleep, and less daytime fatigue (thanks to fewer negative pre-sleep thoughts and more positive ones). Multiple intervention trials confirm that gratitude exercises before bed improve sleep quality.
It can even improve your relationships. In a series of studies, couples who expressed more gratitude toward each other felt closer, were more responsive to each other’s needs, and were more likely to stay together nine months later. Gratitude creates a positive cycle: feeling appreciated helps you become more appreciative, which strengthens the bond.
If you want to practice gratitude, keep it simple. And don’t just do it on Thanksgiving or special occasions.
If you need a place to start, spend 5 minutes a day writing down 1 to 3 specific things you’re grateful for. Once per week, send one message (text, email, or handwritten note) telling someone what you appreciate about them. Before bed, note one thing that went right today to shift pre-sleep thoughts. Tiny actions, big ripple effect, and the science says they add up.
Together With Momentous
A Rare Kind of Integrity
Most supplement companies chase profit. They cut corners. They twist reality to make claims that don’t match the science.
And then there was the brand that removed a product that was making them millions because new research suggested it wasn’t as effective as they once thought.
That decision cost them money, but earned them something far more valuable: trust.
That’s why we’re thankful for Momentous and why we recommend them as our go-to supplement partner, and why, on Thanksgiving, we want to give you access to a special offer.
Momentous doesn’t rely on hype. They rely on science. Every product is third-party tested, NSF Certified for Sport®, and trusted by over 150 pro and elite teams and the military.
That’s not the type of trust you can buy. It’s earned with their Momentous Standard: No mystery blends. No sensationalized claims. Just clean, proven ingredients designed to help you perform, recover, and live better.
This Thanksgiving, we wanted to say thank you to Momentous for raising the bar to support your health goals.
If you’ve ever wondered which supplements are actually worth your time, this is the brand we use ourselves. And this week, you can get their best sale of the year: up to 40% off new subscriptions with code BFCM2025 now through December 1st.
Our go-to picks:
Protein: High-quality whey and plant protein. Minimal ingredients. No artificial sweeteners. No bloated calorie counts.
Creatine: Clinically proven for strength, brain health, and longevity.
Omega-3: Sustainably sourced, heavy-metal tested, and easy on your stomach.
Vitamin D: An essential nutrient that is shown to have a host of benefits on muscular and bone health, immune function, and sleep quality.
Because your goals deserve the proper support. And integrity deserves to be rewarded. Access the sale and the big discounts here.
Adam’s Corner
The Two Handles: A Lesson On Gratitude And Grit
Two nights ago, somewhere between the second and third time I rolled over in bed, I realized I’d forgotten what it feels like to sleep through the night.
It’s strange how quickly your body can betray you. How something that once felt automatic becomes something you have to negotiate. I used to pride myself on being a great sleeper. I would put my head down, and the next thing I knew, it was morning. Lately, though, I find myself passing out like I always have, but then waking up in the dark, listening to my breath and waiting to fall back asleep with little luck.
Maybe it’s the injuries. A freak accident left me with a torn glute that took a year to heal and made sleep more challenging. Or maybe it’s the weight of a year that, at times, seemed to ask more from me than I had to give. I have spoken of my father’s death, but I haven’t acknowledged the space he left behind, and how some of the relationships in my family twisted instead of tightened, fracturing to the point that they are no longer recognizable.
Or maybe it’s from the demands of parenting three kids, or the lofty expectations I place on myself every darn day.
This has not been my most challenging year. And yet, at the same time, it’s been a slow accumulation of moments that ask you, in the quietest voice, What now?
And yet, I’m grateful. Maybe more grateful than ever. And in exploring that gratitude, I realized a few things that might give you a sliver of hope if it feels lacking, or a new perspective on life to store away for when you need it most.
Gratitude is not what you find packaged up on social media. This isn’t the highlight reel. Not the kind of gratitude that appears in captions typed with emojis and perfect lighting. I mean the unsettled kind. The kind that comes when you are cracked open enough to see what’s always been there.
I used to think gratitude belonged to the good times. That you practiced it when you hit your goals, when your body behaved, when your family felt whole, when work lifted you instead of demanded from you. Gratitude felt like the gift you opened once life was already working.
But lately, I’ve been thinking about something the Stoics believed: Gratitude isn’t a reaction. It’s a posture.
Gratitude doesn’t wait for good news. It’s what gives you the strength to endure the bad.
These days, I believe that everything — the pleasant, the painful, the baffling — is part of the same gift. That to be alive is to receive it all. And that gratitude isn’t pretending the hard parts aren’t hard; it’s acknowledging that the hard parts also shape you.
This year, I’ve had moments where I’d pay good money to sleep without trying, or to talk to family without feeling the bruise of what’s been lost. But somewhere inside all of that, gratitude has been working quietly, rearranging the furniture.
I walk into the kitchen every morning and see the home around me. I wait with anticipation each morning to see my kids. I get excited about the time with my wife, although there never seem to be enough moments. And I can look at my own injuries and know I have been in worse shape, and I climbed out.
I’ve seen abundance and scarcity. I’ve seen years where everything clicked and years where everything cracked. Somewhere along the way, I realized gratitude isn’t just for the years that sparkle. It’s for the years that demand something from you. Those are the ones that teach you how to see.
The Stoics had a phrase: the two handles.
Every situation has two ways to approach it. One handle is heavy. It leads to resentment, despair, and self-pity. The other is lighter. It doesn’t erase the weight, but it makes it something you can manage. Gratitude is that lighter handle.
So this Thanksgiving, I’m not pretending everything is great. But I am acknowledging that I am still aware of the good. And that fills me up more than I ever thought it could.
The simple fact that I’m here — breathing, learning, changing, getting old enough to know that nothing lasts and that nothing has to last to matter — gives me a sense of calm, even when I can’t corral the chaos.
Maybe that’s the quiet truth at the heart of gratitude:
You don’t have to feel good to give thanks. You just have to be awake to what is. And aware of what could be. And willing to recognize that even the hardest seasons have something to offer, even if the lesson arrives late.
If this is a high moment for you, I hope gratitude makes it brighter.
If this is a hard moment for you, I hope gratitude makes it survivable.
Either way, I hope you feel the blessing of being here — right now, exactly as you are — looking at life from the handle that lets you carry it. -AB
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell
