DAY SIX JULY 8, 2026
Over the weekend, I sent a note to a small circle of men I’m close to. I told them I was embarking on the next fifty years of my life and invited them to follow along or ask questions. I don’t have some enormous group of friends. These are people I care about, and I want to open a conversation with them. Maybe one of them is waking up the way I did, wondering where to start, thinking he doesn’t know anybody who has started. Well, now he knows me.
Six days in, and I’m pretty fucking into this. But before Jon even joins the show this morning, I say the part that keeps coming back to me: what’s placebo, and what’s real? I don’t know yet.
I’m putting the student hat on full-time with Jon. Anyone who knows me knows what happens when I get interested in something: I want to ask questions, understand it, talk to somebody who has been doing it longer than I have. I want to soak it all up. I trust Jon, and I want to learn from him. I’m willing to listen, do the work and see what happens.
I tell him this is a life commitment, a lifestyle change. My food is changing. My sleep is changing. How much of what I notice belongs to any one tool? If I sleep more and eat differently, those changes are part of the story, too. I don’t know how to separate it all yet. I don’t want to turn this into a magic-fucking-pill story.
Stephanie’s conversation yesterday has stayed with me. Personal agency. Taking responsibility for my own decisions. Later, talking with Cheryl, I return to it. There are plenty of things I distrust, plenty of advice I want to question, but I also have to look at what I’m actually doing for myself. I admit to Jon that I could do a better job with my bloodwork. I’ve neglected parts of looking after myself. There are gaps. Wanting ownership doesn’t mean I’ve already handled every part of it.
Today I go for a walk with Greg. We talk about what I’m doing and how I arrived here. I’ve wanted to share this with him. I want people to be inspired by what Jon and I do on the show, and I want the responsibility of showing what it looks like for a fifty-four-year-old man to learn again.
I’ve told people I care about that I’m doing this. I’ve invited their questions, and I’ve got plenty of my own. I’m all in on learning. I’m still a student.
Age Strong.