Happy Wednesday {{first name | my friend}},

Mark your calendars for this Saturday, October 17: my friend Dr. Staci Whitman, one of the country’s top functional dentists, is joining us live to answer YOUR questions about oral and whole-body health, and there’s still time to submit yours! Join our Earth Conscious community to be part of this Q&A and ongoing expert calls like it, with the opportunity to ask the questions you rarely get to ask outside an appointment.

The marine iguana is the only lizard on Earth that forages in the ocean. Found in the Galápagos, it scrapes algae off rocks underwater, then climbs onto black lava to warm up in the sun. They eat a lot of salty food and then sneeze the excess salt out their their noise.

When food runs low, these iguana can shrink their skeletons by up to 20% to reduce their food needs. Then they grow it back when the algae returns. What a unique adaptation.

A diagnosis of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes can leave you wondering what your future looks like, and what you’re supposed to eat along the way.

There’s hope. Food and lifestyle changes can help prevent or delay type 2 diabetes and improve blood sugar management. Some people with type 2 can even achieve remission.

Food Revolution Network’s Tackling Type 2 Masterclass explores the role food can play, with registered dietitian Brenda Davis and my good friend Ocean Robbins guiding the conversation.

They’ll cover:

If this affects you or someone you love, take a look before your next grocery trip. It’s a chance to better understand your options and bring more informed questions to your healthcare team.

Save your spot in the complimentary masterclass here.

COPPER BISGLYCINATE: A form of supplemental copper bound to the amino acid glycine. Copper helps your body with energy production, iron metabolism, and connective tissue formation. You can also get it from foods like cashews, sunflower seeds, shiitake mushrooms, and dark chocolate. Most people get enough through food, so adding a supplement isn’t automatically better. High-dose zinc can reduce copper absorption, something to discuss with your practitioner if you take it regularly.

You can care about your health and still get overwhelmed by the amount of advice out there.

One person says to eat earlier, and another “expert” says to fast longer. Maybe your sleep-tracking watch gives you a disappointing sleep score, and suddenly a morning that might have felt good is making you second-guess if you're okay.

I love learning about tools that can help us feel better. But it's also important to ask ourselves: how much time, money, and attention is this taking, and am I getting more stress than joy?

A few ways to simplify:

Choose one small change at a time. Give it enough time to see whether it helps before adding three more. Our healing journey is a long, winding road. A routine you can keep doing is more useful than one you force yourself to try a few days, but you dread it and it falls away in a week.

Notice how you feel before checking a score. Sleep researchers have described people becoming preoccupied with perfecting their sleep data. A tracker can reveal patterns, but one number doesn't tell you everything about your night, or your health.

Make the routine fit your life. Allow room for a shared meal (even if it means shifting your ‘perfect diet’ in order to make that happen), a spontaneous walk, and an evening that doesn't go exactly to plan. Your health habits should help you participate in life, not be constantly pushing against opportunities where you could have fun.

Inside the ECL community, we’re go further into sleep scores, how to decide whether a health habit is earning its spot, and an exercise to choose what to keep, simplify, or remove. Head in if you're already a member, or join us to read along.

To a healing future,

— Rob