I grew up with all the right messages.
“Brush your teeth”, “Eat your vegetables”, “Don’t drink too much”, “Avoid cigarettes”, “Get a good night’s sleep.”

You probably heard those same things too. But the real lessons didn’t come from what was said. They came from what I saw – late nights, heavy drinking, chain smoking, meals built around meat, salt, and starch.

All the “healthy choices” were spoken about like distant ideals — good advice for someone, somewhere, but never part of the life we actually lived.

And the message I absorbed? That health was for perfectionists. That choosing a healthy lifestyle meant trading fun for a longer, less enjoyable life. The rest of us? We’d enjoy the ride and deal with the consequences later.

This mindset is still everywhere. Skip the salad. Go big on the steak. Trade workouts for exhaustion. Stay up late — because you earned it. Brush your teeth once — close enough.

But what if we got that trade-off wrong? What if living a healthier life isn’t about restriction… but about discovering a better version of life you haven’t met yet?

Let’s start looking at why our country is really struggling with health and how we can change course in our own lives…