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- Little dark teenage
Good morning 🦁 This is Andrew's Apples, the daily email that makes you hotter naked (and clothed). In under 2 min. Let's go picking.
🤳 Little dark teenage. Emo was a thing when I was in middle school in the mid 00s but I just assumed that was then. Well it's not: teens are sadder than ever. According to a fresh CDC study, from 2009 to 2021, the share of American high-school students who self-reported "persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness" rose from 26% to 44%. My take: it's a combo of the well-covered social media "addiction" and the less-covered pandemic-induced isolation of the last two years. Like them or hate them, the mask mandate instilled fear in the wearer (in fact, the very existence of the masks is based on fear of [insert political ideology]). Kids have their whole adult lives to be mortified of a job they hate/broken relationships/their spouse's mother. Such fear kills confidence, the void from which is filled with summertime sadness. Kids should be cocky, loud, disruptive, brave, adventurous, and, yes, annoying af. Slowly figuring it all out. But I'll take an irritatingly free e-boy over a downcast overthinking 16yo any day of the week. Make American teens enviable again! Young and hot and not a care in the world. They need big bro to build them up.
🚶 Zone 2 defense. If you're like me, you hate cardio. Well, to be clear, I hate a very specific kind of cardio - jogging or cycling at a pace that is neither a "sprint" nor a glacial walk. Luckily, there is a lot of research on the cardio I do enjoy: it's called Zone 2 Training. Dr. Peter Attia describes Zone 2 as "you can comfortably have a conversation with someone on the phone for hours, but the person on the other end of the phone WOULD notice that you were exercising." This means speed-walking (mom mob alert!), treadmill with a high elevation angle, low-key Peloton workout, etc. The reason Zone 2 rules is not only that you can breathily socialize while doing it, but also that, in this zone, the main energy source is fat. Not carbs, but fat. When the intensity increases (Zones 3-6), your body transitions to burning carbs (this is why actual Nike-level athletes need something like Gatorade even if it's packed with sugar... they burn it all off during training). Sprinting on a track is very good for you but speed-walking with tiny weights while calling your mom is a vibe.
🌅 Circadian rhythm & blues. The circadian rhythm, roughly, says that you should wake with the sun (meaning sunlight directly on your skin) and go to sleep with the moon. A great book on the subject has a few key takeaways: sleeping <6h a night is very bad for you (raises risk of chronic disease and makes you less beautiful); you must sleep in cave-like darkness; and many organs need at least 12 hours without food in order to repair (e.g. if you dine at 8pm, no breakfast till 8am). Reminder that most Americans are sick, sleeping and eating at oppressive hours of day and night. The finer points of the science are new, but this pattern of waking-eating-sleeping is as ancient as the stars. Simba, look up.
🏋️♂️ Different strokes folks. This tweet below. As a wise yogi once said, paths are many, truth is one. Most people squat like sh*t anyway. Lifelong injuries are nothing to brag about. Now hit the showers, girls!
How do you like them Apples? Did I make a boo-boo? If you ever need anything, hit reply. Love hearing from readers.
Your friend,
Andrew🍎
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