Fluoride free, invest in berries, and release perfectionism (forever)
Sep 04, 2025
Welcome to 1-3-1 Fridays, my weekly newsletter, where I reveal evidence-based strategies to get lean, strong, and create optimal health.
You'll receive one personal health insight, three actionable tips, and one concrete action step. Let's dive in.
What's in store for today:
- Does using fluoride in your water improve dental health, or are there zero health benefits?
- Why using this particular food can slow down aging, improve health markers, and help you recover faster from workouts.
- One lesson that can help you release perfectionism from your life (permanently).
Less is more.
Especially when it comes to fitness.
You can exercise harder and more often, but if you don’t respect energy balance, losing weight will be hard.
It's the same in life.
You can work longer hours and more days. But if you spend as fast as you earn, your hard work won’t pay off.
The law of thermodynamics states that energy can't be created or destroyed. It can only be transferred.
So when it comes to dropping pounds, it's the same as reducing our spending: you need to make a choice.
In life, we always pay a price for things.
We either pay the price of action or inaction.
In fitness, there's a price to pay for doing your workouts (sweat, time, effort, energy).
There's also a price you pay for not taking action (low energy, lethargy, disease, weakness).
These days, I've been reflecting on less.
How can I maximize what I'm currently doing to get the best results in minimal time and effort?
Partially because I'm lazy.
I also want to spend more time on other parts of my life. This includes time for myself, my wife, and my son.
The statement I made above about being lazy took me years to integrate.
I can achieve and also be lazy.
We all can.
Problems start when you strongly identify with one side and suppress the other.
What you resist persists.
I'm also reminded of the brevity of life by spending time with older family members recently.
Time is short.
You can always earn more money and do more work.
But you can never get back time.
Time, once spent, can never be returned.
The goal, then, is to spend meaningful, quality time with yourself and those you love.
Wasting time is wasting your life.
Why would you waste your life doing meaningless tasks that bring nothing to your life?
Today's reflection is a mix of fitness and philosophy.
But then again, fitness isn't just about doing workouts and tracking macros.
It's about having a strong mind and a strong body that allows you to live a high-quality life.
It ain't just about bulging biceps and bouncy booties.
Fitness should unlock your best life.
Nothing less, nothing more.
Lesson: Do the least amount to get the most benefits.
Here's Your 1-3-1 Friday:
1.) Is fluoride worth the risk?
Fluoride has been researched heavily over the past several decades.
There's research on both sides that will contradict each other.
Which means it's up to us to discern what is true.
For most of my life, I've drunk tap water, swam in chlorinated pools, and showered in 'normal' shower water.
However, there's more verified research pouring in each day showing that fluoride (and heavy metals in general) are what cause massive health problems.
Here's a few dangers to be aware of:
- Calcification of the pineal gland
- Causes arthritis (via calcification of cartilage)
- Causes kidney disease
- Lowers IQ and causes brain damage
- Harms male and female fertility
- Weakens skeletal health (skeletal fluorosis)
- Causes cardiovascular inflammation and atherosclerosis
- Increases lead absorption
Synthetic fluoride, which is poured into our water sources in over 73% of American homes (not to be confused with natural fluoride), is the cause of many of these health concerns.
Interestingly enough, in Western Europe, only 3% of the population consumes fluoridated water.
Things that make you go 'hmmmm...'
In fact, more people drink and shower in fluoridated water in the States than in the ENTIRE world combined.
Things that make you go 'hmmmm...'
So, is fluoride really that bad?
Well, if you value using your higher mental faculties, having a strong, healthy body that lasts for many years, and not living in chronic inflammation or pain, then yes, synthetic fluoride isn't the best option.
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I'll link to Jeffrey's 4-part article on fluoride here if you want to do more research on this yourself, but a simple action step you can take is to remove fluoride from your water consumption ASAP.
Here's the company that I use to protect my family's health and water.
(no affiliation; just sharing a great product).
Often in health, questioning the current narrative is a good place to start.
In fact, questioning everything in life can be an effective way to live.
Accepting dogmatic ways of living without questioning is what usually gets us into problems.
Question everything (even this letter).
2.) Eat this food daily
One of the most powerful foods we can eat daily is wild blueberries.
Wild blueberries have a range of benefits for us.
One of the world's leading experts on berries, Mary Ann Lila, Ph.D.,, and Director of the NC State Plants for Human Health, shares:
“The wild blueberry has a phytochemical profile tailored by the harsh environments of Maine and the surrounding areas where they grow.The wild blueberry’s adaptation to this environment has resulted in a diverse phytochemical profile that gives the wild blueberry an incredible potency for human health,” she shares and then adds:“Phytochemicals are compounds in plants that develop to defend the plant from environmental stress, fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Once consumed by humans, they transfer these health benefits to us."
In other words - if you eat wild blueberries consistently, you can receive all the resilience and fortitude each berry brings.
Another fun fact about wild blueberries?
When faced with harsh winters or terrible fires, not only do these berries survive... but they thrive.
When you freeze or eat frozen wild blueberries, their resilience and benefits are amplified even more.
Wild blueberries also contain a significant amount of antioxidants, which have been proven to slow down the aging process by combating free radicals in the body.
Paired with the positive cognitive health effects and brain-boosting benefits, wild blueberries have been a mainstay in my diet for years now.
I buy my frozen pack of Wegman's wild blueberries each week (usually 2-3 bags weekly), and my wife makes a delicious morning smoothie every morning for us.
Wild blueberries aren't a 'superfood' (which was a term coined to encourage buying more foods that don't have any actual health benefit for us).
They're more than that.
They're foods designed for us to maximize our health and a gift from this planet to us.
Try them out this week.
3.) Release perfectionism (forever)
One of my consistent habits growing up was being self-critical.
I grew up in a divorced household with emotional turmoil, and I created the belief that I needed to be a 'perfect' little boy.
The oldest of three at the time (now six), I found myself wanting to be 'perfect' in everything I did.
Maybe I desired to look good for my parents.
Maybe I thought if I were 'perfect', my parents would get back together.
This desire to always be 'perfect' haunted me for decades.
Until I started to burn out.
As an overachiever, I began to see how I would experience extreme levels of productivity and high performance, but also exhibit lazy and unproductive tendencies.
Like both sides of a seesaw, I fluctuated back and forth.
And the self-critical voice within continued to get louder.
So, I started to take the time to listen.
Initially, it didn't improve.
It got worse.
But over time, I started to understand myself better.
I started to learn that the self-critical voice was never truly mine (it was a family member's voice).
The criticism and self-judgment weren't truly from me (since we aren't born as self-judgmental and self-critical creatures).
And the opportunity to release was there for me, too.
We all talk to ourselves.
The question is, do we truly listen to ourselves?
And do we have the courage to listen and speak to ourselves, too?
Inner growth and maturity are what human development is all about.
The action step here is simple:
Create space for self-observation.
When you observe yourself from a neutral perspective, you can start to see more clearly into your inner terrain.
Often, when you first do this type of practice, there will be a lot of chaos within (mainly since it's the first time you're observing yourself).
As you continue to practice consistently, you'll notice something interesting starts to happen - things begin to settle down.
Like disturbed water on the surface, we can start to see more deeply into ourselves as we give time for the water to settle (for our psyche to calm down with the 10,000 voices).
We start to connect to our Center.
And we can live from this place.
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Practices like silent meditation, Qi Gong, and grounding in nature can all facilitate this.
It just takes a strong desire to understand yourself.
Best of luck on the journey within.
1 Action Step
What's one fitness goal you want to hit before the end of fall? Write it down and take action daily.
One Quote To Finish Your Week Strong
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”
― Alan Watts
Worked nonstop last week to launch 30-day VFR challenge.
Finished building, now serving.
Feel tired, too.
But also started taking midday naps.
I think I'll do that again today.
As promised, get leaner on plants in under 5 minutes.
Till next week,
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Whenever you're ready, there's 3 ways I can help you:
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