Two Steps to Outliving Yourself

You’ve been sold a lie: that wellness requires extremes-juice cleanses, 5 a.m. boot camps, ketogenic cleanses. The data tells another story. The most profound reduction in chronic disease and mortality comes from two simple behaviours: move more and eat better.

A 2025 longitudinal analysis of over 9,000 adults found that people who maintained high physical activity and high diet quality had a 40 percent lower incidence of diabetes and a 25 percent lower incidence of cardiovascular disease compared with those who stayed low on both counts. Consistent favourable levels could reduce population incidence of diabetes by 22 percent and cardiovascular disease by 16 percent.

Trend: We live in a culture of extremes. Fitness influencers sell pain as virtue. Diet gurus sell fear of food groups. Yet chronic disease keeps rising. The implication? We’re ignoring simplicity.

Opportunity: Reinvent your identity around the basics. Move more. Walk daily, take stairs, bike to work, train your muscles. Eat better. Choose lean proteins, healthy fats, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Reduce ultra-processed foods. There is no mystery.

Most people wait for pain to confirm what they already knew. Don’t. Start small: swap heavy snacks for lighter meals; trade an elevator ride for a flight of stairs. Let momentum accumulate. Health isn’t a hack; it’s a trajectory.

You want change without interruption. That’s why nothing changes.

Read the EPIC-Norfolk study here.