DAY FOUR JULY 6, 2026
Monday. Four days in, and I’m right into this, learning and peeling back another layer. I’ve been burning the candle at both ends. By the middle of June, it had caught up with me: task after task with the business, stretching bedtime to ten, ten thirty, eleven, then getting up again at three thirty or three forty. I felt crappy, but I kept going. I needed to start looking after myself.
On the show this morning, I’m trying to explain what I’m noticing without pretending I understand it all. I’m not feeling anything definite. I wonder whether the Reta is having an impact, but I don’t know whether that’s real or placebo. So far, I haven’t noticed adverse effects. I’m excited, and I’m paying attention, but I’m only four days in. More than one thing is changing, so I can’t attribute all of this to peptides. I’m choosing the egg instead of the cookie and getting to sleep earlier instead of later. My food and my sleep needed attention.
My shirt feels different in a few spots this morning. I notice it, but I’m staying off the scale. I know how easily I can get caught up in a number, and I don’t want something like that to wreck my excitement before I’ve given this a chance. I want to pay attention to how I feel. I want to feel strong.
I’ve started keeping a journal—pictures, writing, a record of what I’m doing. I want something I can look back on, something I can leave for somebody. Maybe somebody else will recognize himself in it: forty or fifty-something, waking up and realizing he’s got to do something. I know that feeling.
I keep thinking about those two hours between eight and ten at night. The day is winding down, and my brain starts asking what I can have now. I can get up and find myself in the kitchen without giving it much thought. Next thing I know, I’m sitting down eating again. Then I go to bed, wake up feeling shitty, and do it again the next night. That has been a battle for me. Those are the decisions I wish I wouldn’t make.
Four to six in the morning feels different. I’m productive. I’m sharp. I’m ready to go. I tell Jon I’m thinking about shifting those hours, putting more of my day where I know I use it well. I’ve been stretching the evening and still getting up early. I need to give sleep a proper place in that decision.
I recognize another familiar impulse, too. I’ve barely started, and I’m already thinking about ordering more of everything. I know me. I’m impulsive. I chase dopamine. When I get into something, I go all in. I say it to Jon, and we talk about paying attention to what’s happening now instead of getting lost in what comes next.
I did my research before I started. Now that I’m putting this stuff into my body, I want to understand it better. Having Jon in my corner gives me someone I trust to bring my questions to.
Right now, I’m thirty minutes away from a fuel time, and I’m hungry. I can feel it in my stomach. Yesterday, I forgot to eat. Today, I’m noticing hunger before I’m due to eat. Am I eating enough? I make a note so we can talk about it tomorrow on the show.
Age Strong.