I am a dopamine chaser. I admit it. New foods, new workouts, new countries, new ideas — keep them coming. For most of my life I treated variety like a virtue. If something started feeling familiar, I figured I was bored. And bored meant something was wrong. So I pivoted. New protocol. New supplement. New something.

Then I started looking at my data over years instead of weeks.

The numbers told a story I didn't want to hear. The boring stretches — when my mornings looked nearly identical for weeks — were the months my body got stronger. Deeper sleep. Resting heart rate down. Whoop stress markers down.

Turns out rhythm is what my body likes - and yours may too.

If we slow down long enough and imagine paradise, it’s not a place we visit - it’s an experience we enjoy day after day after day.

Most of what gets sold to us as health falls into one of two camps.

Story one is the stack.

Bands, Rings, patches, CGM, red lights, peptide protocol, $400 supplement subscription. The reasoning is always "the science says…" The price keeps climbing. Some of it helped me. A lot of it didn't. None of it mattered as much as the boring stuff.

Story two is willpower.

Just be more disciplined. White-knuckle your way to the body of a 25-year-old. This one is worse, because when you can't sustain it, the problem feels like you. This one also ignores deeper health issues like trauma and emotional and relational strain and pain.

What if there's a third story? Your body isn't waiting for a tool you don't have. It's waiting for a rhythm it was designed to align with. Humans had circadian eating, morning sun, and consistent sleep for thousands of years before there was a word for it.

What if that daily rhythm is the secret to what you’ve been missing? It was for me.

A 2024 study in Sleep followed 60,000+ adults and found that sleep regularity — going to bed and waking up at consistent times — predicted all-cause mortality more strongly than total sleep duration. Rhythm beat quantity.

And here's the part that matters: the biggest thing that stops people from doing any of this isn't money or willpower. It's time. (or our favorite shows)

So what I'm about to give you costs none.

Three rhythms have done more for me than anything I've bought:

·       Eat with the sun. Stop eating 3 hours before bed. My deep sleep climbed; resting HR dropped to 49. A 2018 Cell Metabolism trial found early time-restricted eating improved insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, and oxidative stress — without weight loss. The clock matters as much as the calories.

·       See the sun before the screen. 5-10 minutes of outdoor light within an hour of waking sets your clock for the day. Wright's lab at CU Boulder showed a week of camping pulled even night owls back into a normal rhythm. No $300 light panel. Just open the curtains - or even better - get outside.

·       Walk after you eat. A 2022 meta-analysis in Sports Medicine found that 2-5 minutes of light walking after a meal cut the post-meal glucose spike. A lap around the driveway.

These also a few others that seemed to be just what I needed:

·       Resistance training 3-4 days a week. A 2022 meta-analysis linked 30-60 minutes of strength work per week to lower risk of all-cause mortality, heart disease, and several cancers.

·       Sauna after I workout. A Finnish JAMA Internal Medicine study tied 4-7 sessions per week to a 40% lower all-cause mortality risk vs. one. And you wanna talk about a relaxed feeling after? This is it.

·       Cold plunge in the morning.

·    Similar meals on repeat. I know what I like, no more stress about eating a laundry list of thing every day. Keep it colorful, keep it fresh.

·    A few supplements to help the remnants left over from a parasite I picked up in India — those are mine, not a stack to copy.

None of this is hardware. All of it is timing.

Pick one rhythm this week. Just one. Not seven habits. One thing your body already knows how to do, repeated for seven days. This works whether you're 25 and just starting or 65 and recalibrating. The body loves rhythm at every age.

·       Stop eating 3 hours before bed. Drink water if you're hungry. Notice how you sleep.

·       Step outside within an hour of waking. 5 minutes, eyes open, no phone.

·       Walk 2-5 minutes after you eat. Down the driveway. Around the parking lot.

·       Go to bed and get up at roughly the same time on a Tuesday and a Saturday. Regularity matters more than duration. This was hard for me but long term I realized I was reenacting daily savings ‘trauma’ every time I stayed up til 2am on Saturday night.

Try something every day for a week and see if you notice a difference.

The dopamine chaser in me is still around. I still want the new rush. But the trees grow on a rhythm. The chickens lay on a rhythm. The seasons turn on a rhythm. The body I'm walking around in was built inside that same paradigm.

Rhythm isn't a cage. It does take some intentionality - but it's a foundation you can then thrive from.

-Jared

P.S. - My wife Baddie Crocker has a beautiful newsletter where she shares her perspectives on tending the land, recipes, women’s health and more.

I write this newsletter each week because I feel my best when my body, mind and soul are all healthy. I want the same for you. If you feel like you’ve seen something valuable here, please do me a favor and forward this newsletter to a friend or let me know what you think by replying to this email or texting me - (310) 879-8441

P.S. - This newsletter does not provide medical advice. The content, such as graphics, images, text, and all other materials, is provided for reference and educational purposes only. The content is not meant to be complete or exhaustive or to be applicable to any specific individual's medical condition.

Here are links to things that have helped me improve my health:

Whoop - Track your HRV and REM Sleep

Function Health - Optimize Your Health via 160+ BioMarkers

Here are a few topics I think you’ll love if you haven’t checked them out before:

How to Breathe for Better Health

How to Supercharge Your Sleep

The Power of the Sauna

Windred, D. P., et al. (2024). Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration: A prospective cohort study. Sleep, 47(1). doi:10.1093/sleep/zsad253

Sutton, E. F., et al. (2018). Early Time-Restricted Feeding Improves Insulin Sensitivity, Blood Pressure, and Oxidative Stress Even without Weight Loss in Men with Prediabetes. Cell Metabolism, 27(6), 1212-1221. doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2018.04.010

Wright Jr, K. P., et al. (2013). Entrainment of the Human Circadian Clock to the Natural Light-Dark Cycle. Current Biology, 23(16), 1554-1558. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.06.039

Buffey, A. J., et al. (2022). The Acute Effects of Interrupting Prolonged Sitting Time in Adults with Standing and Light-Intensity Walking on Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine, 52(8), 1765-1787. doi:10.1007/s40279-022-01649-4

Momma, H., et al. (2022). Muscle-strengthening activities are associated with lower risk and mortality in major non-communicable diseases. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 56(13), 755-763. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2021-105061

Laukkanen, T., et al. (2015). Association between sauna bathing and fatal cardiovascular and all-cause mortality events. JAMA Internal Medicine, 175(4), 542-548. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.8187