How to be happy, fake anxiety, two decades of cancer and no bad days, controlling emotional eating, a wind-down challenge, a 100-rep bodyweight burner, & tart cherry overnight oats.
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In The Better Way Weekly
Article Review
Book Summary
Podcast Recommendation
Just Good Content
Weekly Challenge
Workout of the Week
Recipe of the Week
✅ ARTICLE
How to Build a Life” — Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic
Brooks has spent years arguing that happiness isn’t a feeling that arrives, it’s a practice you choose. I often find that my mood is downstream of my habits and not my circumstances. His core message is to separate the things that feel like they’ll make us happy (more, faster, bigger) from the things that actually do (faith, family, friends, and work that serves others). It resonated because it’s a rebuke to the comparison machine we all carry in our pockets and a reminder that the better way is usually the slower, less sexy one.
“Happiness is not a destination; it is a direction. The work is not to feel good today, but to point your life toward the things that reliably make a life good.”
Vora is a holistic psychiatrist, and her whole project here is to stop treating anxiety as purely a problem of the mind. She makes the case that much of what we label "anxiety" is actually the body sounding an alarm about blood sugar, sleep debt, inflammation, caffeine, screens, etc…
She suggests that we can address a surprising amount of it before we ever reach for the language of disorder. But she's careful not to over-correct: some anxiety, she says, is true and worth listening to. It's the discomfort that tells us something in our life is out of alignment.
I’ve been truly curious about the line between the everyday anxiety so many of us carry (the kind that grows out of our behaviors and environments) and clinically diagnosable anxiety disorders. This was insightful and helpful in the journey to understanding that better.
Key Learnings
False anxiety vs. true anxiety. Vora’s central distinction. “False” anxiety is physiological noise, a 3 a.m. cortisol spike after wine, the jittery dread after too much coffee on too little sleep. “True” anxiety is signal. The unease that’s pointing at a real problem you need to face.
Your blood sugar is talking. One of her most practical points: glucose crashes mimic panic almost perfectly.
Anxiety as compass, not enemy. Rather than aiming to eliminate every anxious feeling, Vora reframes true anxiety as data…it’s an invitation to change something.
🎬 JUST GOOD CONTENT
"The Life We Have" — REI Co-op short film
A short film about runner Rob Shaver, who has lived with cancer for two decades and endured more than 60 rounds of radiation. He says he hasn't had a bad day in twenty years.
We spend so much energy trying to optimize and protect our days; here's a man whose body has fought him at every turn, and his posture is gratitude.
🎙️ PODCAST OF THE WEEK
Chasing Excellence — "Purpose Effect | Athena Perez on Fasting 40 Days to Face Emotional Eating"with guest Athena Perez (host: me)
I had the real honor of sitting down with Athena Perez to talk about her upcoming book and a 40-day fast she undertook to confront emotional eating, and what came out the other side wasn't really a diet story at all. We chatted mostly about purpose: how facing the thing you reach for when you're stressed forces you to ask what you're actually hungry for.
🚀 5 FACTOR CHALLENGE
(Factors of Health | Eat, Sleep, Train, Think, Connect)
Factor: Sleep
The challenge: For the next seven nights, set a fixed wake time (the same one, every day, weekend included). If you need an alarm, buy a $10 one and leave the phone in the kitchen.
Why you benefit: We obsess over bedtime, but your body actually anchors its rhythm to when you wake and when you see morning light. A consistent wake time is the single most powerful lever for stabilizing your sleep, your energy, and more.
💪🏻 WORKOUT OF THE WEEK
The 100-Rep Summer Burner
Move through the circuit twice. Each round is 100 total reps. Rest as needed, but try to keep moving. All you need is a patch of floor.
Squats — 30 reps. Feet shoulder-width, sit back into the hips, chest tall. Modification: sit down to a chair and stand back up; or reduce to 15.
Push-ups — 20 reps. Hands under shoulders, body in one line, lower with control. Modification: drop to knees, or do them against a countertop / wall.
Walking lunges — 20 reps (10 per leg). Step out, back knee toward the floor, drive through the front heel. Modification: hold a wall for balance and shorten the step; or do reverse lunges.
Glute bridges — 20 reps. On your back, heels close to your seat, squeeze at the top. Modification: hold the top for 2 seconds instead of adding reps.
Plank — hold for 10 slow breaths (counts as your last 10). Forearms down, hips level, brace the core. Modification: drop to knees, or hold a high plank on a countertop.
To make it harder: add a third round, or tack a 10-second pause at the bottom of each squat. To make it easier: one round, and cut every number in half. Done is better than perfect.
🥑 RECIPE OF THE WEEK
A healthy, nutrient dense, minimally processed meal or snack.
Tart cherries are one of the few foods with naturally occurring melatonin. Prep these the night before and you’ve got a make-ahead breakfast that supports better rest — minimally processed, fiber-rich, and genuinely delicious. Makes 2 servings.
Ingredients:
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1¼ cups unsweetened almond milk (or milk of choice)
½ cup unsweetened tart cherry juice
¼ cup plain Greek yogurt (or a dairy-free alternative)
2 tbsp chia seeds
2 tbsp sliced almonds, plus more for topping
1 tbsp pure maple syrup or honey
½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp cinnamon
Pinch of sea salt
½ cup fresh or thawed dark cherries, pitted and halved
Instructions:
In a bowl or large jar, stir together the oats, almond milk, tart cherry juice, yogurt, chia seeds, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt until well combined.
Fold in the sliced almonds and half of the cherries.
Cover and refrigerate overnight, or at least 6 hours, so the oats and chia soften and thicken.
In the morning, give it a stir and loosen with a splash of almond milk if needed.
Divide between two jars or bowls. Top with the remaining cherries and a scatter of sliced almonds. Eat cold, or warm gently if you prefer.
