Category: Companions
The Fasting Fears
The three most common fears about fasting — losing muscle, entering starvation mode, damaging metabolism — each get the timescale wrong. During a short fast, growth hormone rises measurably, resting energy expenditure does not fall, and the body burns stored fat. Two qualifiers belong with that reassurance rather than after it: past roughly sixty hours the metabolic picture changes, and the measured rise in expenditure was smaller in the larger trial and did not reach significance in men. What survives both is the answer to the fear — short fasting does not slow your metabolism down. This companion examines each…
The Visible Fruit Test
Visibility drives consumption — research confirms this. The question is whether you’re using that principle for you or against you. A fruit bowl on the counter occupies the visible snack space with something that has built-in friction (peeling, washing) and genuine nutritional value. This companion explores the visibility principle, why fruit works (natural friction, satiety, portion control), the nuts-in-shells variation, strategic placement, and the honesty check — are you actually eating it? (4 min read)
Natural Rhythm
Humans evolved with natural cycles of eating and not eating: meals when food was available, fasting when it wasn’t. That ancestral picture is an argument from plausibility rather than a measured finding; what has been measured is the hormonal difference between the fed and fasted states. This companion explores the ancestral argument and its limits, what modern life disrupted (constant food availability), why the alternation matters metabolically, what honoring the rhythm looks like, and the identity of someone aligned with their natural eating pattern. (5 min read)
Sleep Sabotage
Everything is harder on poor sleep. Research shows sleep deprivation increases hunger hormones (ghrelin up 28%, leptin down 18%), impairs prefrontal function, and makes high-calorie foods significantly more appealing. This companion explores how sleep sabotages weight loss efforts, the hormonal changes from insufficient sleep, and practical strategies for days when you’re running on empty. (4 min read)
Breaking Resistance
Insulin resistance means your cells have stopped responding normally to insulin’s signal, requiring higher and higher insulin levels to achieve the same effect. One proposed driver is chronically elevated insulin from constant eating and refined carbohydrates — a model whose underlying physiology is undisputed but whose evidence in humans its own proponents call inconclusive. This companion explores how resistance develops, what the fasting trials do and don’t show, and the reversal process of restoring sensitivity. (5 min read)
The Grocery Store
Three things determine whether the chips come home: your state going in (hungry, stressed, tired), your plan (whether you have one), and your path (which aisles you walk). By the time you’re standing in front of them, the decision is mostly made. This companion explores why hungry shopping changes everything, the three leverage points (state management, the list, the route), and what to do if you end up in the aisle anyway. (4 min read)
Ancient Mismatch
Your brain evolved to seek calorie-dense food under scarcity, and roughly ten thousand years of cultural evolution hasn’t changed the genome — that gap is what “evolutionary mismatch” names. Modern foods exploit it from both ends. Hyperpalatable foods trigger dopamine responses resembling those of addictive substances, and dopamine governs wanting more than liking, so craving can persist without matching pleasure. Meanwhile satiety fails by design: on an ultra-processed diet people ate 508 calories a day more while reporting no difference in pleasantness, hunger, or fullness — and their appetite hormones didn’t move. This companion covers the environment that built your…
The Convenience Test
Whatever is easiest to eat is what you’ll eat most — especially when tired, stressed, or worn out. Research shows small friction differences have large effects on behavior, operating below conscious awareness. The convenience test asks: have you designed your environment so the path of least resistance leads somewhere you want to go? This companion explores taking the test, the convenience inversion (making healthy easy and unhealthy hard), and why this works better than willpower. (4 min read)
Clean Slate
If you were starting with an empty kitchen, what ten foods would you stock? The question reveals the gap between your current kitchen — an archaeological record of past decisions — and your actual goals. The ten foods you’d choose reveal who you’re trying to become. This companion explores why the empty kitchen matters, the identity connection, principles for building your list (what you eat, what creates meals, what satisfies), and the gap analysis between your ideal and actual kitchen. (4 min read)
The Restaurant Menu
Build your meal around protein, add vegetables, and treat starches and sauces as optional. Most menus have grilled chicken, fish, or eggs — start there. You’re not ordering from the menu; you’re building from it. This companion explores the restaurant problem (financial incentives that conflict with health), the construction method (protein → vegetables → optional starches → sauce management), practical scripts for requests, and what to do when a menu is truly hostile. (4 min read)