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Plus: Intermittent fasting vs. three squares
Geoff Girvitz
October 17, 2024
Today on Dad Strength
Survey says
Intermittent fasting vs. three squares
Tell it like a story
A book, a quote, a dad joke
Survey says
A survey on education involving 20,000 parents in the USA was recently published. You can read the whole thing here or go rapid-fire with my three main takeaways:
Extra-curricular participation correlates strongly with academic achievement and organized sports are particularly powerful (see table below).
This makes me wonder where the magic lives in these types of activities. Is it as simple as teamwork and doing hard things? Quite likely BUT… if it is flying under the radar, what might it be?
Access matters. Convenience, transportation, cost, the freedom to take time away work all go into supporting extra-curriculars. Money makes these things easier. But it’s not the only way in. Policy, funding, and community-driven initiatives are all valuable. The desire for participation is pretty universal.
Satisfaction with mental health support at school is high BUT those numbers drop around the fourth grade and then more sharply around the ninth grade. Do these mark a clear decrease in support—or do kids’ needs rise around these times?
Intermittent fasting vs. three squares
Does Intermittent Fasting work better than three squares a day?
If you follow a lot of health influencer accounts, the answer may feel like an automatic yes. Don’t be too hasty, though.
A recent study did a pretty good job of comparing apples to apples when it came to managing intake. It turns out that if you account for calories and daily activity, the meal spacing doesn’t really matter.
One guy eats a sandwich for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and a sandwich for dinner. Another guy skips breakfast and eats a sandwich and half for lunch and, again, for dinner. Is there some miracle of physiology that would make the difference dramatic?
Nope. None that researchers have been able to show. Autophagy doesn’t seem to notice the difference. Or insulin sensitivity. Or any other popularly cited effect.
Does that mean that you should give up on intermittent fasting (technically, time-restricted eating) if it’s working for you? Absolutely not. Good results often have less to do with physiology and more to do with psychology. This style of eating is a great fit for many people. Maybe you’re one of them. If it works for your schedule, style, and preferences, that’s awesome. Enjoy. If not, that’s cool too because you can divide your sandwiches up any way you like.
Tell it like a story
Humans can only process so much information at once. However, most of us excel at storytelling and pattern recognition. Certainly when compared to our ability to memorize facts and figures. It is an incredibly efficient strategy and why far more people can tell you the story of Moneyball than explain the statistical models behind it. Meanwhile, everyone who knows the models also knows the story.
On a recent Dad Strength call, we talked about the how the first half of our lives could set up an incredible story in the second half.
Coming up on the next call (Tuesday at 3 PM EST): Countering your default patterns.
Want to check things out? Sign up here.
What I’m reading
Epictetus: Discourses and Selected Writings
We more often hear about Marcus Aurelius or Seneca. Epictetus’ discourses are closer to class notes. Well, they are class notes taken by his student, Arrian. At least as far as historians know.
For this reason, the discourses come the closest to what it would have been like to be taught directly by a Stoic philosopher and I think we got a good one. Epictetus was born into slavery and banished from Rome in midlife—yet he is neither grim nor flat. Sassy is probably a better word.
Also:
A Quote
My mother said to me, 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.' Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.
The first portrait was made when Picasso was 15 years old. The last portrait was made when he was 91 years old
A Dad joke
What’s a pirate’s favourite letter?
You might think it’s the Rrrr but it’s really the C
Take care of yourself, man!
Geoff Girvitz
Father, founder, physical culturist
dadstrength.com