For over 30 years, I’ve been in the health trenches, giving you rules. Do this, don’t do that. This is the right way to fast, this is the wrong way. But I’ve come to a startling realization: the very rules meant to guide us are often the chains holding us back. The constant pressure to be perfect, to count, to measure, and to optimize is spiking your cortisol and blocking your path to true health. It’s time for a new approach. I call it “the great unlearning.”
I’m rewiring the way I look at my health, moving away from a life of rigid “have-tos” and into a state of flow, ease, and joy. It’s about being with the experience of a healthy lifestyle, not trying to manipulate your body into submission. This isn’t about abandoning your health; it’s about finding a more sustainable, peaceful, and intuitive way to live. I want to free you from the guilt and shame that comes with the impossible standards of modern wellness culture. Are you ready to unlearn with me? (Based on the insights of Dr. Mindy Pelz)
Key Takeaways
- Embrace Intuition Over Numbers: Stop the obsessive counting of calories, macros, and biometrics. Learn to listen to your body’s internal cues.
- Find Joyful Movement: Ditch the workouts you hate. True fitness is functional and enjoyable, integrating seamlessly into a life you love.
- Reclaim Your Time: Stop living in “everyone else’s hurry.” Radical presence and living on your own timeline are essential for calming your nervous system.
- Put Health Before Hustle: Your well-being is not an afterthought. Prioritize your health, and let your work and productivity fit in around it.
- Curb Information Overload: Move from shallow, wide learning to deep, focused knowledge. Protect your mind from constant overstimulation to foster critical thinking and peace.
1. I’m Done with Counting
For years, I told you to stop counting calories and start counting macros. We became obsessed with numbers—grams of protein, blood sugar levels, ketone readings. While these tools can be valuable as “metabolic training wheels” when you’re starting, for many of us, it’s time to take them off. We’ve become so fixated on the data that we’ve forgotten how to listen to the most sophisticated biometric device we own: our own body.
I remember being so obsessed with my continuous glucose monitor that I’d check it constantly, waiting for the moment I entered ketosis. I finally realized there’s a “click” you can feel—a moment when mental clarity sharpens and hunger vanishes. You know what I’m talking about. Your body tells you. The same goes for sleep. I don’t need a ring to tell me if I had a good night’s sleep; I can feel if I’m well-rested. The scale is another tyrant. Seeing a number you don’t like first thing in the morning can set a negative tone for the entire day. Counting inevitably leads to comparison and judgment, which are pathways to suffering. I’m moving into an intuitive state, trusting my body’s signals over a number on a screen.
2. I’m Breaking Up with the Gym
When the research on strength training for menopausal women became impossible to ignore, I hired a trainer and committed to the gym. For two years, I lifted weights. I got a little stronger, sure, but I hated it. I’m a nature person who needs open spaces. The younger version of me would have pushed through, asking, “What do I need to do to look good?” The wiser version of me now asks, “What do I want to do to enjoy my workout?”
My focus has shifted to “functional fitness.” What movements will help me thrive in my daily activities as I age? I think of my father in his 80s, struggling to push himself out of a chair after knee surgery. He needed tricep strength. We all need to be able to squat to get up and down. We need grip strength, a key indicator of longevity. So now, I find ways to build this strength through activities I love. I hang from a bar for a minute or two each day. I cook, knowing that whisking and chopping strengthen my hands. My new passion is surfing. The paddling builds incredible upper body and core strength, the extension is amazing for my posture, and being in the water floods my brain with dopamine and serotonin. I’m getting the physical results while having a joyful experience that I can’t wait to repeat. Sorry, gym, but we’re through.
3. I’m Not in Anyone Else’s Hurry
A while back, I pulled into a yoga class and parked next to a car with a bumper sticker that changed my life. It said, “I am not in your hurry.” It hit me like a lightning bolt. I had spent my life living by other people’s deadlines, agendas, and sense of urgency. Think about your phone. A text message arrives while you’re talking to someone. Who is the priority? The person in front of you, or the digital demand? For too long, I let the digital demand win.
This chronic urgency keeps your nervous system in a constant state of fight-or-flight, which is a major roadblock if you’re trying to lose weight or simply find peace. I’ve decided to move into a state of radical presence. I’m embracing a “what’s here now” philosophy. I don’t immediately respond to every text, email, or Slack message. I’m doing things on my timeline. Even in traffic, I’ve rewired my brain. Instead of feeling anxious, I tell myself, “I’m not in a hurry.” This single shift has been the most powerful tool for calming my nervous system on a day-to-day basis. It’s about reclaiming your own time and refusing to let the world’s frantic pace dictate your inner state.
4. I’m No Longer Prioritizing Productivity Over My Health
I’ll be honest with you: for a large part of my life, work was an addiction. I prioritized it over relationships, over workouts, and even over the healthy eating I was teaching others. The rush of a productive day was a high, but it caused other parts of my life to crumble. At 56 years old, I’ve decided I’m done. I am no longer putting productivity ahead of my health.
My schedule now looks completely different. My workouts, my time in nature, my friendships—the things that bring me joy and balance my hormones—go into the calendar first. Work is backfilled around them. This means getting out in the morning sunlight to reset my circadian rhythm. It means prioritizing slow moments to calm my parasympathetic nervous system. It means having hour-long conversations with my aging parents. While I might say no to a late-night work event, I’m saying yes to a morning routine that fuels my soul. For many of us, this is a radical shift, but it’s essential. Your health is the foundation of your life, not something to be squeezed in after you’ve met all your other obligations.
5. I’m Quitting Information Overload
As a highly curious person, I love to learn. But the firehose of information available at our fingertips has become an addiction. I’d go for a walk and listen to a podcast. I’d sit at a stoplight and scroll social media. I’d have a spare hour and dive down a research rabbit hole. This constant overstimulation meant my brain never had a quiet moment. It got so bad that if I woke up at 2 a.m., my brain would immediately say, “Hey, let me give you a problem to fix!” and I couldn’t get back to sleep.
I’m giving it up. I’m intentionally creating moments of boredom. I spend time just looking at trees or watching the ocean. I’m also changing how I consume information. We live in a world of “horizontal learning,” where we know a little bit about a lot of things. We see one 90-second video telling us to eat breakfast and another telling us to skip it, leaving us confused and bouncing from one shiny object to the next. I’m choosing to go “vertical and deep.” I pick one subject I’m interested in and immerse myself in it through books, long-form content, and even in-person classes. This is how we learn to think critically and understand what’s truly right for us, instead of being tossed around by conflicting headlines.
A New Way Forward
My new health strategy for 2026 and beyond isn’t about doing more; it’s about removing the noise. It’s about training my brain for presence, patience, and joy. It’s about shutting down the fear of missing out and the need to achieve more, do more, and consume more. I’m moving into radical presence, coming back to an “old school” way of living so I can find the happiest, healthiest, and most cognitively flexible version of myself. It’s time for us all to go inward, learn to think for ourselves, and connect with the people and things that truly matter.
Source: Dr. Mindy Pelz