Saturday Success: kicking addictions, the oof-ness of BNPL & preparing for flu season

Making life & money work for you.

Welcome back to the Saturday Success Series email!

This week we have:

• Master Yourself: breaking addiction

• Master Your Money: buy now, pay later

  And of course…

• The Weekly Special: TB12’s immunity plan

The goal here is maximum value, so let’s get to it.

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Master Yourself

If you’re suffering from a serious addiction, you need professional help. Just an fyi.

But if you’re like me and have middling addictions, this may work for you.

Here’s the groundbreaking way to help yourself:

You need to break your addiction/bad habit by replacing it with something new.

You won’t just kick it and move on.

You need to fill the void the addiction left.

For alcoholics and addicts it can be AA or NA. This program and community replaces their addiction. They have a new obsession they can focus on. It gets them outside of themselves.

AA fills the void.

I used to be a smoker. Quitting smoking made me realize what I really missed was walking around and taking a break from the world. So I started taking walks in nature.

The void was filled.

With drinking I thought it made me creative so I’d pour a strong beer then read and write. Except I rarely stopped at 1 beer. So, now I do that with kombucha.

I filled the void.

Master Your Money

Buy now, pay later is killing Gen Z (among others).

They watched their parents fall into credit card debt and said “it’ll never be me”.

So BNPL feels safe.

Except, 70% of BNPL consumers admit to spending more because they don’t have to pay for the item(s) up front. And 40% admit to missing a payment. Which of course incurs late fees, penalties and potential interest charges. Could also ding your credit if they report. 

A simple rule for every generation: If you don’t have the cash now, don’t buy it until you do. 

It feels “easier” to add a monthly debt. “I can cover it”. Except eating into your cash flow like that rarely works out well.

The whole set up is designed to have you consume more and by default go deeper into debt.

Instead practice a minimalistic approach. You almost certainly don’t need the item in front of you. 

Chase goals, not things.

Weekly Special

How to Build Your Immunity Using the TB12 Plan

Hey listen, if it works for TB12, it’ll work for you. The guy is a machine, the rest of us are just people. Unlike Brady, I’m not looking to play 20 games this NFL season…I would just like to get through the winter cold and flu free.

Which, as you may know, is easier said than done when you have two germ bombs (kids) living with you. But, I’ll follow these 12 steps and see what happens. Can’t hurt.

1. Keep a positive mindset

According to a University of Queensland study, having a happy attitude can boost your immune system and help you live longer. The study, which was published in the journal Psychology and Aging, discovered that older persons who concentrated on positive information had stronger immune systems.

2. Stay hydrated

Water aids in the delivery of oxygen to bodily cells, resulting in correctly functioning systems. It also aids in the removal of toxins from the body, so drinking more of it may help prevent toxins from accumulating and negatively impacting your immune system.

3. Eat your veggies

Fruits and vegetables have elements that can improve immune function, such as beta-carotene, vitamin C, and vitamin E, according to research. Antioxidants are abundant in many vegetables, fruits, and other plant-based diets, which help to minimize oxidative stress.

4. Consume Vitamin D

Multiple studies have shown the effectiveness of Vitamin D for immune response. It’s hard to get in the winter, so you’ll need to bump up supplementation.

5. Consume essential fatty acids

Anti-inflammatory qualities of those essential fats aid in the reduction of inflammation in your body and tissues. They can also stimulate and suppress other types of immune cells, according to new research, which means they can help your body stay healthy even more.

6. Skip added sugar

Sugar intake surges have been found in studies to depress the immune system. You are more prone to become ill if your immune system is weakened. You may be lowering your body’s ability to ward against disease if you consume a lot of meals and beverages high in sugar or refined carbs, which the body processes as sugar.

7. Move for 30–60 minutes each day

Regular exercise helps you strengthen your immune system and fight infections. Exercise improves blood flow, decreases stress and inflammation, and helps enhance antibodies, allowing immune cells to function more efficiently.

8. Get extra Vitamin C

Because vitamin C is involved in many aspects of the immune system, it is one of the most common reasons people take vitamin C supplements. Most importantly, vitamin C promotes the formation of white blood cells called lymphocytes and phagocytes, which assist the body fight illness.

9. Get zinc

Zinc is an essential vitamin for human health. Zinc is contained in every cell of the body. It aids the immune system in combating germs and viruses that invade the body. Zinc is also required by the body for the production of proteins and DNA, which is the genetic material found in all cells.

10. Eat lots of protein

Protein is vital for your body’s T-cells, which are the agents that go out and kill opportunistic invaders that can get into your circulation and cause illness, and studies have found that a lack of protein can hamper immune response.

11. Sleep!

It’s critical to give your body a chance to rest and recuperate from the day so that your immune system can work at its best. Our bodies manufacture cytokines as we sleep, which target illness and inflammation and trigger an immunological response.

12. Get probiotics in your diet

Probiotics may aid in the strengthening of your immune system and the inhibition of the growth of dangerous gut bacteria. Additionally, several probiotics have been proven to boost the body’s natural antibody production. Immune cells such as IgA-producing cells, T lymphocytes, and natural killer cells may also benefit.

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Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable, please share with someone who could use it. See you next Saturday!

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