The 2025 Transform Your Health Challenge: Choose Your Own Adventure

I wrote some New Year's resolutions for you. You're welcome.

Happy New Year!

What if 2025 could become the year you reach a level of health you didn’t know was possible?

Here is the major reason I am thrilled to continue learning about health and passing on to others what I’ve learned: knowledge about how your fearfully and wonderfully made body works gives you back agency over your health.

What if this year, you took that agency and did something radical with it?

And that’s why I named this year’s challenge: The Choose Your Own Adventure Challenge.

I want to remind you that you are in control.

How healthy do you want to be and how much time do you want to invest in your health?

That is totally and completely up to you. If you decide not to do most of these things—no judgment. (I’m NOT a judgy person since I spent most of my life doing few of these things.)

Some people may only have the bandwidth to do a few. And that’s fine. It’s your life. Your health. Your adventure. You are the one who will reap the benefits or not. You choose.

But you can’t choose improved health until someone gives you information and options. That’s what I hope this post will do.

Here’s a tip: the sicker you are, the more you should try to do. I work with several cancer clients now (as an adjunct to their medical team), and I encourage them to try to do all of these suggestions at once. It’s the same with my severe autoimmune clients—if they want to get well, they need to go all in.

But for the average person, you have the luxury to wade in slowly.

After reading through this list, please leave a comment about which ones you plan to focus on in the new year. This encourages others to do the same.

Here’s my list: although I’m already doing most of these, I have room for improvement on several. I need to get back into walking daily and being intential about viewing morning sunlight, two things that have fallen off recently. I’ve also let the fasting slide a little through the holidays, and some of my cleaning and personal care products need to be changed out. So 1-5 will be my focus.

Here are my challenges in order of importance:

1. Commit to daily intermittent fasting (IF).

I put this one first because you get unprecedented health advantages while saving you time and money. Plus, nothing is simpler to learn than not eating.

Even those who don’t need to lose weight can get health benefits from IF as long as they stick to fasting for only 16 hours and emphasize hearty protein and fat-centric meals.

The key benefit IF imparts is improving your metabolic health. If your body is impaired in its ability to use nutrients, this will lead to pathologies such as high blood pressure, achy muscles and joints, headaches, shortness of breath, lethagy, feeling cold all the time, low motivation, depression, allergies, and many other modern ailments.

Here’s a quick summary of the health benefits of fasting:

IF promotes autophagy which is the cellular recycling of broken parts. See this post for more on autophagy.

IF reduces elevated insulin. According to Professor Ben Bikman’s excellent book Why We Get Sick, chronically elevated insulin is implicated in every chronic disease, especially cancer, heart disease, migraines, and diabetes. Bikman’s podcast The Metabolic Classroom is my current favorite podcast. For more on insulin, see this post.

Dr. Mark Mattson has spent his life researching the benefits of IF and concludes that the brain benefits are astounding, as explained in my post here.

Here are other advantages that Dr. Mattson outlines in his book The Intermittent Fasting Revolution.

• Increases brain neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to learn and adapt

• Radically counteracts aging in the body

• Makes cells and organs resistant to stress

• Enhances insulin signaling which affects over 200 processes in the body

• Improves cells’ and organs’ resilience and performance

• Increases the number of mitochondria in cells (where respiration and energy-production processes occur)

• Alters the existing mitochondria to become more efficient at producing power

• Encodes proteins that enhance cells’ ability to repair damaged DNA, squelch free radicals, and recover from stress

• Allows the body in the fed state to more properly utilize nutrients

• Initiates tissue remodeling

• Reduces blood pressure

• Reduces abdominal fat

• Reduces inflammation

• Increases Heart Rate Variability (an important sign of healthspan)

• Improves lipid (fat) metabolism

• Radically improves the gut microbiota helping stem off autoimmune disease

If you are new here and have no idea about how to get started, read my Three Week Challenge. It’s your on-ramp to the IF lifestyle. If you’ve been fasting for a while but are ready to take your health to the next level, here’s my advanced challenge with steps on how to push yourself to new fasting heights.

2. Sunlight Challenge

Commit to viewing the sunrise and sunset every day for a month, and see how it changes you.

Photo taken by Abigail Taylor at sunset near our house.

For this to work, you must be outside, not receiving the sunlight through a window or windshield, and have no glasses or contacts on. This will be a struggle for me since I wear contacts (usually) but I’m going to do make it work anyway. Face the sun but don’t look directly at it.

Like fasting, getting sunlight is free. Regulating your circadian rhythm is one of the most important steps you can take in your health journey.

Early morning sunlight makes you feel alert and helps you feel sleepy in the evening as long as you don’t override the sleepiness through blue or bright lights after dark.

Sunlight regulates your appetite, raises your metabolic rate, lowers blood pressure, and gives you a sense of well-being. For a full discussion of what the sun does for us, see my post The Golden Nutrient.

3. Embrace Gentle Exercise

For this challenge, commit to 4 days per week of exercise.

Many health gurus are now admitting that excessive intense exercise can increase your cortisol which will cause you to eat more and possibly gain weight. But moderate exercise is amazing for stress reduction and well-being. Taking a walk outside has the extra benefit of allowing you to soak up natural sunlight while exercising.

To build or maintain muscle, add in a few push-ups, squats, lunges, and crunchies. These can be done in a few minutes without a trip to the gym.

I’ve never liked going to gyms and now that I know more about the benefits of natural sunlight as opposed to fluorescent light, and the powers of fresh air, I’m committed to outdoor exercise even in the winter.

But if you love the gym, I don’t mean to talk you out of it. I only mean that if you have an aversion to it, there may be more to it than pure laziness.

The main point is to move in a way that supports your overall health and well-being. Exercise classes can be a great motivation for extroverts while introverts relish how the peace and quiet of a nice walk provide time alone to think. Do what makes you move.

4. Improve Your Gut Microbiome

For this challenge, commit to eating a probiotic food every day such as sauerkraut, yogurt, kombucha, fermented veggies, or the big daddy of all probiotics: homemade kefir. Also, commit to homemade bone broth once per week.

Several posts are coming this year on this topic. But for now, I’ll summarize by saying that your health is largely tied to your microbiome. Did you know that the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin are made in the gut? Gut dysfunction can dysregulate your whole body but especially your brain.

You can improve your microbiome by reducing starches since they fuel the overgrowth of harmful bacteria that produce endogenous toxins such as lipopolysaccharides. LPS is so toxic that it has been show to cause Parkinson’s symptoms and countless other health problems.

Meaty bone broths feed the healthy bacteria while allowing the gut to heal. Our native symbiotic bacteria can survive just fine without carbs while the pathogens die.

For those with serious gut problems, read Gut and Physiology Syndrome by Natasha McBride and go through the GAPS intro diet. It’s life changing!

5. Toxin and endocrine disruptor cleanout:

For this challenge, go through one by one.

If drinking tap water, switch to a reverse osmosis filter AquaTru which comes in a countertop, an under-the-sink, and a small portable version for about $350).

Switch out chemical cleaning products for natural ones like baking soda, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide (great for mold), and Bar Keeper’s Friend. This saves money too.

Change out your personal care products. Stop using toothpaste with fluoride. You can make your own toothpaste with 1/4 cup organic extra virgin coconut oil, 2 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp redmond real salt. Mix in glass jar.

Switch to unscented soaps, lotions, and detergents. Castille soap is gentle and has multiple uses such as dish soap, hand soap, shampoo, body wash, pet wash, and laundry detergent.

Switch to an aluminum-free deodorant such as Native.

Replace non-stick pans with stainless steel or ceramic.

Replace artificial scented candles with candles made with essential oils.

6. Banish Seed Oils from the House

For this challenge, scour your pantry and fridge and eliminate every product made with soybean oil, canola oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, grapeseed oil, corn oil, or “vegetable” oil.

Pay special attention to salad dressings, mayo, chips, and anything processed. One especially tricky one is tortillas—yes they have soybean oil. Who knew?

Most health food stores sell salad dressings and mayo made only with avocado oil. Primal Foods and Chosen Foods both have one. Or better yet, make your own.

Reducing seed oils also means cutting fast food and avoiding restaurants as much as possible unless you can find a place that doesn’t use them. When you have to eat out, avoid anything fried or deep-fried such as French fries, cheese sticks, etc. If you love those, make them at home in an air fryer.

If you’re stuck in an airport or on a road trip, a lettuce wrap burger without fries, and sous vide egg bites from Starbucks are my go-to’s. For a full discussion of what’s so bad about seed oils, see this post: Seedy Oils: Highly Processed, Toxic, and Everywhere

6. Cut all ultra-processed foods (UPFs)

For this challenge, get them all out of your house.

UPFs generally come in bags and boxes with bar codes and include things like cereal, crackers, cookies, chips, snack cakes, etc. Avoid the center of the grocery store unless to snag something like a jar of olives. In general, shop the periphery where there’s meat, produce, dairy, and eggs. Cutting UPFs will also help eliminate seed oils.

7. Increase your protein intake

For this challenge, commit to starting every meal with protein and eating protein to full satiety. Save carbs until after you’re full from protein, animal fat, and veggies.

Protein is necessary for rebuilding muscle, joints, ligaments, bone, and skin. It is also used to build the immune system, and the amino acids in protein are necessary to build neurotransmitters.

Eating more protein also rewires your brain to appreciate savory foods again. The especially important when breaking your fast. Foreswear cereal, bread, oatmeal. This is your time to eat 4 eggs, or at least 4 egg yolks (whites are optional as they are a great source of protein but lack the nutrients found in the yolks).

8. Replace some of your carb intake with saturated fat.

For this challenge, take your normal meals, remove the carbs, and add extra fat. For example, instead of a tuna sandwich for lunch, make tuna boats out of romaine lettuce. But the key here is not to eat pure protein and lettuce or else you’ll be unsatisfied. Replace the bread with plenty of mayo.

If you have a steak with just veggies but no potatoes, put extra butter on the steak and veggies. Put avocado on your lettuce wrap burger to replace the bun and fries. Saute your eggs in heavy cream to compensate for no toast. Eggs sauted in heavy cream are heavenly, by the way.

This strategy works because saturated fat is incredibly healing; carbs are inflammatory.

Carbs and fats are fuel sources the body runs on. Protein is primarily used to remodel body structure (although some of it can be burned inefficiently for fuel). Using fat for fuel instead of carbs reduces food cravings, imparts more vitamins and minerals, and promotes healing in the body and the gut. For more info on saturated fat see my post: The Skinny of Saturated Fat.

9. Wear a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) for a month

A CGM shows you how foods affect your blood glucose. Ideally, you should keep your blood glucose below 120 at all times. If a food spikes you beyond that, it’s shortening your life and your healthspan. One thing I learned from my month of wearing a CGM was how quickly a simple exercise such as walking reduces blood glucose.

10. Fight the Blue Light

Wear blue light-blocking glasses, put warm filters for your screens, and change out LED bulbs for incandescent—they’re currently hard to find but I hope RFK Jr will bring them back. (Has anyone tried any amber blue light blocking light bulbs such as these? I’m thinking of trying them. Let me know in the comments.)

No one got me blue light blocking glasses for Christmas even though I had them on my wishlist. 😂 I think my kids think they look too weird (as if I care!)

11. Start a few key supplements

I believe the most important are magnesium glycinate (400 mg/day), iodine up to 12 mg, cod liver oil with butter oil for a bioavailable form of fat soluble vitamins A, D, and K, and high doses of vitamin C. For this challenge, aim to get 4,000 mg (or 4 grams) of C.

We live in a toxic world and one of the cheapest and safest ways to detox is to load up on vitamin C. Click here for the post that explains more.

Update: I previously wrote that I thought that the best form is C-Salts. I still think this is a great form but it turns out my kids are much more likely to take a pill than mix a powder in water. So when we run out of the C-Salt powder, I’m going to switch to magnesium ascorbate. This is vitamin C bound to magnesium so it is gentle on the tummy, in pill form, and you get a little magnesium too!

12. Reduce your aluminum load by drinking Fiji water

For this challenge, aim to drink one bottle of Fiji water per day.

Dr. Exley is a scientist who has spent his entire academic career studying the negative effects of aluminum on the body. I’ve been following his Substack and learning so much. The most effective way he’s found of removing aluminum from the body, including the brain, is to drink water rich in dissolved silica such as Fiji water.

I used to think that taking diatomaceous earth would be a good source of silica but he convinced me that our stomach acid is nowhere near strong enough to dissolve the silica in DE, and the silica must be dissolved in order to reach tissues and bind to aluminum.

Dr. Exley conducted a clinical trial where high silica water was given to Alzheimer’s patients after measuring the aluminum in their brain and they excreted large amounts of aluminum in their urine and their symptoms improved. Here’s an interesting post of his that introduces you to his research.

Wishing you incredible health in 2025!

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Are you new around here? Welcome!

Allow me to show you around. I have some old posts you may be interested in.

I’ve organized my archives into two courses:

A Fasting Course that teaches you how to do intermittent fasting

And a Health, Nutrition, and Chronic Disease Course

Here are a few additional posts from my archives that you might be interested in:

How I Transformed My Health Part 1: My Intermittent Fasting Journey

If You're Looking for Health or Weight Loss Coaching, Here's the Low Down

The Day My Mom Almost Died: My mom almost died of COVID

[This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not designed as a substitute for medical advice or to treat, diagnose, or cure a medical disease. Talk to your doctor before beginning any dietary changes or starting fasting, especially if you are on medications for diabetes. Fasting while taking certain medications such as Metformin and especially insulin can lead to dangerously low blood sugars. If your doctor does not support fasting, search for a physician who will support your fasting journey. Fasting is not recommended for those pregnant, breastfeeding, or for children and teens still growing and developing. For those with diabetes, personal fasting coaches are available through TheFastingMethod.com. I receive no compensation or ad revenue for anything in this newsletter including links to books, videos, websites, coaching services, podcasts, or supplements.]