The Liz Moody Podcast - Actually Upgrade Your Life This Year: Simple Shifts for Money, Health, & Happiness

Starting point is 00:00:00 Most of us approach a new year by setting massive unsustainable goals. But today we're going to be doing something a little bit different. What if I told you that 95% of the reason that you feel tired or anxious or behind in life has nothing to do with your willpower and everything to do with a few invisible habits that you are likely overlooking? Today we're going to get into the often overlooked tiny science-back shifts in how you make and spend your money, how you eat, how you move your body, and even how you talk to yourself that create an outsized impact on your body, your mental health, and your bank account. Most of these are really, really quick. Some take less than a minute, and many are free. Many are tweaks to things that you are likely

Starting point is 00:00:40 already doing to make them even more effective. The goal is to fight through overwhelm and actually feel different at the end of 2026. Welcome to the Liz Moody podcast. I'm Liz, and as a long-time journalist, I have spent my career asking the uncomfortable questions that you want answered. My goal is really, really simple. I want to give you science-back strategies that cut through the wellness BS so that you get results, even when you are busy, even when you are tired, even when you are totally overwhelmed. If you are new to the podcast, you pick the perfect episode to start with. This is episode two of our January transformation series.

Starting point is 00:01:16 A few days ago, we dropped our healthy weight loss Q&A with my personal registered dietitian. It is a deep dive into the science of body composition, including cravings and plateaus and workouts, and everything that you need to lose weight to support your true health, like your heart health, your inflammation, and without any shaming or jumping on the too skinny trends that are happening these days, I am really, really proud of it. So if that is a goal for you, I highly recommend going back and listening to that episode

Starting point is 00:01:47 when you are done with this one. All of these January episodes are designed to really build on top of each other to turn your January into a launch pad for your best year yet. my goal is to help you make meaningful progress in creating a life that you love every single day. On Wednesday, we have a masterclass on how to actually crave working out and stick to a workout routine, even if you hate the gym. And then in coming weeks, we have simple shifts to make everything that you eat healthier and more delicious. We have a deep dive with Stanford professors into how to make your life feel richer, more full of purpose and meaning every single day,

Starting point is 00:02:22 and so much more. So hit that follow button now. I promise this journey is going to take you to places that you never even imagined. Okay, let's jump right into it. First up, habit one to upgrade your life this year is possibly one of the most powerful things that you can do to decrease inflammation in your body. And it's actually very simple. It takes like a minute to do. It is flossing. Yes, I know this is not sexy. But we spend so much time talking about. about our heart health and our brain health, and we spend money on supplements and energy on working out and meal prep to support these things while neglecting this hugely important habit that's arguably the cheapest, easiest longevity tool in your arsenal.

Starting point is 00:03:07 I didn't know this until way too late in life, but not flossing actually raises your risk of Alzheimer's disease. Studies show that people who do not floss have more than a double risk of getting Alzheimer's or dementia because not flossing raises your events. inflammation levels and then bacteria from your mouth can actually travel into your brain. Not flossing raises your risk of heart attacks and strokes. Also, this is maybe not in the same category as those types of things, but if you are not flossing, there is a really strong, a really good chance that your breath is not great. I have been smelling a lot of bad breath out in the world

Starting point is 00:03:46 lately. I want you to floss and then I want you to smell the floss and then I want you to tell you, me that you want to keep that thing that is producing that smell in your mouth. And since we're all friends here, I will tell you that I did not consistently floss. So I had all of those lovely smells in my mouth until I was 30 years old. And since I have started consistently flossing and using hydroxyapatite toothpaste, which has made a really huge difference, I have not had a single cavity. And I used to have multiple cavities every single time that I went to the dentist. And again, flossing is not just about your teeth. It's about protecting your brain and your heart from chronic inflammation. And it's honestly one of the lowest lift, easiest ways to do that. And yet it is

Starting point is 00:04:33 something that so many of us do not do so it has earned a spot on this list. Tip two, I want this to be the year that you stop saying no to yourself and especially in the context of money. This is one of my life mottoes and many of you have heard me say it over and over, but I want this to be the year that you actually do it. I want you to ask for a raise. One woman wrote to me and she asked for a $10,000 raise and she thought that there was a zero chance of her getting it and she got it. And now she is $10,000 richer every single year. Or I want you to start that side hustle or go after that dream or apply for that job that you've secretly kind of wanted but you've told yourself that there's like no way you're going to get it, that it's out of your reach. Yes, somebody might say no to you.

Starting point is 00:05:21 And that is okay. That is information. You can take that information and you can adjust and you can pivot and you can use it to not say no to yourself again and maybe get different results the next time. And by saying yes to yourself, you are voting for yourself. You're voting in favor of your self-belief, in favor of your self-confidence. And you will be surprised by how often you are, often you will get yeses that felt way out of reach. This is one of my top, top, top, top wealth hacks. Every financial expert that I have had on the podcast has said, you are not going to get rich by nickel and diming your saving. You are not going to get rich by not ordering lattes out. You are going to get rich by figuring out how to make more money. And never being

Starting point is 00:06:11 the one to say no to yourself is one of the best ways to do that. Okay, moving on to tip three, there are a few things that come up in almost every single podcast, regardless of the topic. So if I'm doing a hormone health episode, if I'm doing a brain health episode, if I'm doing a happiness episode, this is one of the things that comes up again and again and again. And it is movement. Exercise. We all know that exercise is one of the most important things that we can do for our health. And yet so many of us do not prioritize it. And then we spend our time stressing over things that just do not move the needle nearly as much.

Starting point is 00:06:48 Like we're trying to optimize things that make a 1% difference while ignoring this thing that makes a 50% difference. If exercise were a pill, it would be the top thing that doctors would prescribe for almost every ailment. I'm just going to share some facts about exercise that blew my mind and help me become a person who consistently works out after years, years of not being that person. So exercise helps your immune system identify and destroy tumor cells before they become a problem. Basically, your body's kind of constantly making cancer. And then your immune system goes and is like, no, no cancer. And then that's how it doesn't turn into something that's a problem in your body. In fact, it helps your body do its own cleanup so effectively that just four minutes a day

Starting point is 00:07:36 of high intensity exercise has been shown to decrease cancer risk by 30 to That is a wild statistic. We also know that inflammation is the root of almost all diseases, including mental health diseases, things like depression and anxiety. Well, exercise is the single best way that we know of right now to decrease inflammation. We talked about this in our GLP1 episode, but a big reason that many of us are chronically inflamed is that fat produces inflammatory cytokines and muscle produces anti-inflammatory cytokines. So when we change our body composition to have more muscle and less fat, we are literally pumping out less inflammatory cells on a daily basis.

Starting point is 00:08:21 Exercise also creates new dopamine receptors, which creates the motivation and focus that we need to achieve our other goals. In many cases of mild to moderate anxiety and depression, exercise has actually been shown to outperform both prescription meds and therapy. I'm not saying to replace those tools. I think that all tools are important to have in our tool kits. But I am saying that we need to finally give exercise the prescription level, respect that it deserves. We have an episode on Wednesday that will motivate you. I promise it will motivate you to work out consistently even if nothing else has worked. So make sure that you hit the follow button because I do not want you to miss that.

Starting point is 00:09:07 But in the meantime, here are a few quick tips to increase your movement this year. Tip one, set the bar lower. If you're starting from nothing like I was very, very recently in my life, don't start with I'm going to go to the gym and be weightlifting four times a week. Make your goal just 10 minutes of walking. Everything counts, I promise. If you dance to two songs, that is enough to reduce your cancer risk by 32%. Like we just talked about, two songs.

Starting point is 00:09:36 You got your four minutes of high intensity movement. Look, I'm never going to make everything that I wear organic. But your sheets, your pillows, your comforter are literally touching your skin for eight hours every single night. That is a third of your life right there with one simple swap. And if your bedding is worn out, it's trapping heat or it's made with questionable materials, your sleep is going to suffer. And so will everything that depends on it?

Starting point is 00:10:01 You want a bed, you deserve a bed that you are excited to get into every single night so that you can get the sleep that you need to feel your best. That's why I love Bowlin Branch so much. Their signature organic cotton sheets are incredibly soft. You notice that the first night, and they are so breathable, which is a godsend if you sleep hot like I do. But what massively impresses me is that in an era

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Starting point is 00:10:51 So the people actually making your sheets are being paid and treated fairly. Most people start with the signature sheet set. And honestly, once you feel them, you're going to want to do the entire bed. They feel like a fancy hotel, but maybe even better. It's made travel actually worse for me, fair warning, because my own bed at home is like nicer than the nicest hotels. It just feels so good. I get so excited to get into it every single night. It's time to upgrade your sleep with Bowlin Branch. Get 15% off your first order plus free shipping at Bowlen Branch.com slash Liz Moody with code Liz Moody. That's Bullen Branch, B-O-L-L-B-L-B-L-B-Ranch.com slash Liz Moody. Use code Liz Moody to unlock 15% off.

Starting point is 00:11:31 Exclusions apply. Okay. Tip two. Figure out a way to make it fun. We do not stick to habits if they are not rewarding, period. This is not a personal deficiency. This is literally just how our brains are wired. So I have good news and I have bad news for you. On average, it takes six weeks of exercising four times a week to actually enjoy it,

Starting point is 00:11:57 to crave it, to be one of those people who's like, oh my gosh, I need to move my body today. In six weeks, your brain will make those structural changes. So the good news is if you can stick it out for six weeks, you are going to get that intrinsic motivation. And the bad news is you have to stick it out for six weeks to get that intrinsic motivation. So in the meantime, reward yourself. Get a cute coffee drink after your workout. Listen to your favorite podcast when you work out. Get yourself a cute little outfit to work out in.

Starting point is 00:12:28 Or my absolute favorite motivation, workout with a friend. I lift weights with one of my girlfriends and it is the best hang, because you have to rest between sets so you get these little chatty breaks. And research shows that working out with other people not only makes you more likely to work out, it increases your positive feelings towards the person that you are working out with. So it makes your friendships stronger. I will say as a person who could never stick to a workout routine, I now crave it. I hope that if you're listening out there and you're like, that could never be me. It can, I improve. I love how it makes me feel every single day. I picture my anxiety, like evaporating off of my body

Starting point is 00:13:11 when I do it. I sleep so much better. That's another thing. Notice the benefits and then really tie them in your brain to exercise. That's going to help with motivation. But I promise you, it is possible. And if you make this the year that you really make exercise a habit, that you cross that four times a week for six weeks threshold and you become a person. who loves it, who craves it, it will change your life. Tip four is a tip that gives you a ton of the benefits of meditation without having to meditate. We love these hacks around here. Don't do the harder thing.

Starting point is 00:13:46 Let's do the easier, more fun thing. Read a book a month. I did an entire episode about the five tiny habits that the healthiest, happiest people that I know do, which I can link for you in the show notes. And reading is one of the ones that I have noticed pretty much every successful person that I have ever met has in common. This is for a few reasons. One is literally just the effect that it has on your brain. Reading is a form of meditation. You have to return your attention over and over to the words on the page, which is retraining your attention span in a world where we are constantly

Starting point is 00:14:21 having our attention hijacked. It's also about what reading replaces. The time that you are spending reading, you're not scrolling on social media. You're not increasing your stress response. you're not messing with your dopamine levels. And then the last reason that I think reading has this outsized positive effect is because of the access, both in terms of inspiration and information. It is wild that we can essentially get blueprints from the world most successful people about the secrets to their success for $30. It is wild how many problems we can solve, how many methods we can learn,

Starting point is 00:14:57 by picking up a book. Dollar for dollar, the amount of information and end. energy that people put into books is just hugely disproportionate. Like the amount that a book costs compared to the energy and time and information that authors put in and how much they really try to pack it with all of their best lessons. It's just, it's wild. Reading also increases our empathy levels because it allows us to really live inside the heads of other people in a way that we just can't in any other part of our lives. And as somebody who gets to interact with a lot of strangers on the internet, I would say that increased empathy is a skill that a lot of us could

Starting point is 00:15:35 benefit from these days. And then also the inspiration element. Our brains need proof points that the life that we are trying to create is possible. Reading and especially memoirs is one of the best ways to create these proof points for yourself. Even if you do not know somebody in real life who's overcome a health challenge, a book can provide that proof point. Even if you don't know anyone in real life who's in a relationship that you want to emulate, there is a book featuring somebody who is. I was stressing out about a minor health thing earlier this year and I was spiraling like, what if this is the rest of my life? And I want to be able to deal with it. And I want to be able to do my job or create what I want to create. And then I started reading memoirs of people who have

Starting point is 00:16:19 gone through cancer. And I was like, wow, if they can have this kind of resilience, I can certainly deal with my minor health thing. Reading one book a month will change what you can achieve this year, what you believe the possibilities are, your attention span, and how you feel every single day. I have a list of books in my newsletter. If you go to Liz Moody.com slash upgrade, I will send you that newsletter in addition to all of the other resources that I mentioned in this episode. But in that list of books, I included books designed to get you back into reading if you are in a reading Rett. I really want you to, like, lower the bar, read something that feels really fun, really enjoyable. So I have a list of those. And then I also have a list of my personal all-time

Starting point is 00:17:03 favorites. Okay, tip five, please, please, please stop believing all of your thoughts. This is a simple truth that will absolutely transform your year if you actually internalize it. Your thoughts aren't real. Your thoughts are not real. That loud-ass voice in your head telling you that your friend hates you because they're not texting you back or telling you that you are ugly and unlovable or telling you that your plane is going to crash. It is not real. Your brain is essentially a prediction machine designed for survival, not for accuracy and certainly not for happiness. Meaning your brain feeds you worst case scenarios because it wants you to prepare and not to die. It does not care if you thrive. It just wants you to survive. Once you understand that, you can

Starting point is 00:17:51 can start to take your thoughts a little bit more lightly. Research shows that one of the best ways to reduce stress is to view your thoughts as simply passing data rather than objective truth. The next time you have a thought like, I'm failing at everything, I want you to literally say to yourself, I am having the thought that I'm failing at everything, or even go write it down, and then ask yourself, is that true 100% of the time? It creates this teeny tiny bit of distance, like this buffer zone where you can decide if that thought is actually helpful or real, or if it's just your brain jumping to the worst case scenario because it is designed to protect you. When you stop believing everything that you think, your mood stop controlling you.

Starting point is 00:18:38 This is definitely a practice, but I have come, I've tried to come, to view my thoughts as like this chattering friend. Sometimes she says accurate things. Sometimes she says absolutely insane things, but I don't have to take that voice as truth just because it is there. And in fact, my brain and I don't really have a lot of the same goals, so it makes sense that I'm going to want to intentionally override or ignore the thoughts that spring up a lot of the time. Next step, tip six, figure out one change that you can make to support getting better sleep and do it. Sleep is another one of those things that comes up over and over

Starting point is 00:19:17 on every single podcast. And it's funny because it's one of those ones that we kind of just ignore. Like, yes, I wish I slept well, but who really does sleep well, right? Like we're all tired all the time. We're all stressed. Meanwhile, and I am very much guilty of this, we are scrolling on our phones until literally the second that our eyes shut. We're not getting morning light. I was having my last matcha of the day at 4 p.m. and the half life of caffeine is five hours, meaning after five hours, only half is gone. And some studies speculate that that half-life could actually be longer for women. It can also change based on your hormone levels at any given time. So at 11 p.m., when I was trying to go to sleep, I had over a third of the caffeine in that macha still circulating in my

Starting point is 00:20:03 system. And yet, I was laying there, like with my eyes wide open, wondering, oh my gosh, it's such a mystery. Why possibly can I not sleep? After enough, podcast guests were like, look, sleep is the base of the Sunday. Stop focusing on the sprinkles if you do not even know what ice cream you are eating. I started to take some really simple steps to actually prioritize my sleep. Like really give it the prioritization that it deserves given what a huge impact it has on our lives. So I made my bedroom colder. 64 to 67 degrees is considered optimal for sleep because it helps your body temperature drop so colder than a lot of us might think. I stopped eating for three hours before bedtime. This was really big for me. I was a big, like, nighttime snacker person, but stopping

Starting point is 00:20:49 eating three hours before bedtime allows your heart rate to lower. And then that's going to help with your quantity and quality of sleep. And then this one is the hardest. But I'm really, really, really trying to be off my phone for at least an hour before bed. Also, because your circadian rhythm thrives on contrast, I'm trying to be really good about taking my morning cirquarks and having bright light exposure during the day and then dimming the lights at night. None of these are huge things, but I also wasn't doing any of them before and I was always complaining about my sleeping bad and about being tired all day long. So the tip here is I want you to really ask yourself, are you actually, actually really doing the things that we know by now really support our sleep?

Starting point is 00:21:36 And if not, are there some levers that you can pull? In case you need some ideas or cheat sheet to remind you what helps. I'm going to be sharing a long list of like my best sleep tips over on Instagram. So that's going to be at at Liz Moody. The basics though actually work, but we often reach for supplements or fancy solutions because it feels easier than like get off your phone. Stop eating a little bit earlier. Go to bed at a reasonable time. Those feel harder and I get it, but they really, really do work. And getting that good sleep in is going to change every single part of your day and it's going to drastically change how you feel for the entirety of your year. When you think about strength and resilience, like your ability to feel energized, to recover well,

Starting point is 00:22:22 to stay strong as you get older, what do you think that actually comes from? Most people say working out or good nutrition and yes, of course that matters. But there is a biological foundation underneath all of that that most people are completely overlooking. I have been diving deep into this lately with the team at timeline and what I've learned has genuinely shifted how I think about my own health. Every single movement that your body makes every step, every workout, every muscle contraction depends on energy produced at the cellular level. And at the center of that is your mitochondria. Here's the thing that nobody tells you, certainly nobody told me, starting around age 30, our mitochondria naturally become less efficient, more get damaged, more become sluggish,

Starting point is 00:23:04 and over time that impacts your energy, your strength, your recovery, and your recovery, and your resilience. Most of us respond by pushing more. We're like noticing these things and we're adding in more protein. We're trying to fix it with more supplements. We're trying to do harder workouts. And those things do help. But timelines research suggests that we also need to be supporting the cellular machinery underneath. And that is exactly what their supplement mitopure does. It contains urolithin A, which helps your body clear out damage mitochondria and support healthier ones so that your cells can produce energy more efficiently. Because this is happening to your cells, it's going to impact your entire body, your immune system, your muscles. One study found that taking

Starting point is 00:23:46 mitochondere increased muscle strength by 12% in four months with no change in exercise routine, it's going to impact your energy, your sleep, your skin, your cell health impacts all of this, and urolithin-A keeps your cells healthy. Timeline has done over 15 years of research and testing on this one product, Eurolithna, which, by the way, most of us lack the gut bacteria to synthesize naturally. That's why many of us need to supplement it to get the benefits. This has become a staple supplement for me. It is my top way to support how I want to look and feel as I age. Support yourselves and how you age with mitopure gummies from Timeline. Visit Timeline.com slash Liz and save up to 39% on your mitopure gummies. That is timeline.com slash Liz. The number one rule of habits is to make the things

Starting point is 00:24:36 that you want easier and the things that you don't want harder. Yet so many of us want to eat healthier, but so few of us actually take the steps to make eating healthier easier. That's where Marley Spoon comes in. What I love about this company and what's different than all of the other companies out there that are doing like stuff in the same arena is that you can customize your choices based on the effort that you want to put in. So if you want them to send you ingredients, so you can make your own 20 minute meal and like get into your chef energy, they'll send it to you It'll all be in perfect portions so you'll eliminate waste. Great, that's sorted.

Starting point is 00:25:10 But they also have meals that you can just heat up. They have ready-made breakfast, which is always such a tough time of day to get a healthy meal in. They have grab and go snacks. Everything is made from farm fresh produce with high-quality proteins, and you can select by dietary preferences, including Mediterranean diet, which is the top diet that doctors on this podcast recommend. Also, things like gluten-free, dairy-free, low sodium, anything that you need. The food is so good and it's so gourmet feeling like you feel like you're at a nice restaurant. We're talking like chicken Milanese with a crunchy cucumber arugula salad or everything bagel salmon with truffle chive potatoes.

Starting point is 00:25:46 My favorite recent meal was the creamy lemon chicken tray bake. I had one of those moments where I looked at my plate and I was like, wait, I made this. And so quickly, like so easily. It's just so little effort for so much reward. Marley Spoon just makes eating well feel easy instead of stressful. And honestly, that is everything. This new year, fast track your way to eating well with Marley Spoon. Head to Marley Spoon.com slash offer slash Liz Moody for up to 25 free meals.

Starting point is 00:26:14 That is right, up to 25 free meals with Marley Spoon. That is Marley Spoon.com slash offer slash Liz Moody. So remember to get the offer slash Liz Moody for up to 25 free meals. I'm genuinely confused how Masterclass gets literally the absolute top people in every single field to teach every single one of their classes. I use it when I want to learn things directly, like the cooking class from Thomas Keller has all of the wisdom that you would normally have to go to culinary school for. But also, I'm being honest, this is like a use case I don't hear a lot of people talking about. I'll just watch it for entertainment when I want to do something that's far

Starting point is 00:26:53 more interesting than scrolling. Christina Aguilera taught me to sing. Shan Boudrum's Art of Mastering Confidence and Sex Appeal class. It's 10 out of 10. There's menopause classes with leading doctors. There's script writing with Mindy Kaling. Literally, you name it, they're on Masterclass, and it is such a good way to get off your phone, but have something that's like not quite as long or hard to get into as a TV show or a movie and that it just keeps you entertained and interested. And you are learning. There are over 200 classes from the world's best, all for just $10 a month when billed annually. And you get unlimited access to every class on the platform so you can learn at your own pace whenever you want on your phone, your computer,

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Starting point is 00:28:03 slash Liz Moody. Okay, the next shift that will guarantee your 2026 will be better than your 2025. Tip 7. Be vulnerable with one friend. We are currently living through a loneliness epidemic that is literally as bad for our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The world's longest study on human happiness and longevity found that the single most important thing for both of those things is the quality of our relationships, and we are failing at that. And I think the reason for this that people aren't talking about enough is it's not the quantity of our friends. Research shows we actually only have the capacity for three to five close, deep friendships,

Starting point is 00:28:47 and if we have a partner, that counts as two of those slots. Most of us don't need more friends. We need deeper friends. So many of us fall into the reporting trap with our friendships. You meet up for a drink or dinner and you go down the checklist, how's work, How is your partner? How is that vacation? And then on top of that, we want people to think our life is cool and that we're not losers.

Starting point is 00:29:09 So we're sharing our highlight reel. It does not build close friendships. And frankly, it's boring, which is why it's no wonder that this is not something that we're rushing to prioritize in our schedules. We're like, okay, like, let's look at the calendar. Okay, I can grab dinner with you in three months. Science shows that the way that we build that relationship quality, which is what the Harvard study showed matter much more than relationship quantity is through vulnerability.

Starting point is 00:29:37 Studies showed that we consistently underestimate how much other people appreciate our emotional openness. We think that we're being a burden, but the research shows that people actually like us so much more when we share something real. When we stop saying, oh, I'm good, I'm just busy, and actually say, honestly, I've really been struggling with my confidence a lot at work or I've been feeling really disconnected from my partner lately. When you say these types of things that like, oh, this is what's really going on with me. I might have a little bit of shame around it. It might feel a little bit uncomfortable for me to say. But when we say those things, we give somebody something to actually hook on to and we give the other person permission to be

Starting point is 00:30:19 real too. So my challenge for you this year is to pick just one, person and commit doing a vulnerability rep with them like you're doing a little weightlifting rep, but a vulnerability rep every week or two. Stop trying to look impressive and start trying to actually be seen. Being seen is what makes us feel safe. It makes us feel loved. And it is the single greatest predictor of how long and how well we're going to live. Okay. Next tip, what are we on? Tip eight, I think. If 2025 was the year of protein, 26 is going to be the year of fiber. Before you like yes, Liz, I know. Hang on because I thought I knew too, but I was getting this whole fiber conversation very, very wrong. Like most trends, there's going to be a lot of people trying to

Starting point is 00:31:06 sell you shit around fiber this year and I don't want them to make you think that fiber is a fad. You do not need to buy a ton of supplements or fancy programs, but the science behind fiber is very, very real. Maybe you keep hearing about all the young people getting GI cancers at worryingly increasing rates. Fiber is one of the best ways to prevent that. Fiber is going to feed the good microbes in your gut, and that's going to help you get more nutrients out of your food to feed your cells, and that's going to improve your mood. That's going to support your immune system. When your gut bacteria ferment fiber, they release hormones like GLP1, which helps tell your brain that you're full. Fiber helps regulate estrogen levels. Studies show that people with high

Starting point is 00:31:48 fiber intake have a 25% lower risk of breast cancer. Fiber lowers bad cholesterol. It helps you poop, which is one of your body's primary natural detoxification methods. And 95% of people in the United States of America are deficient in fiber. 95%. So very likely you. I definitely was personally. And then this is the key unlock for me. This is the thing that I was really, really, really getting wrong. Once I started researching fiber, I realized that I had no idea what had fiber and what did not. I had this idea that all veggies and especially leafy greens had a ton of fiber in them, which is completely wrong. You could eat a massive bowl of salad and get like one gram of fiber. Cale has about two grams per cup. It's not nothing, but it's not going to really move the needle

Starting point is 00:32:40 towards 30 grams, which is our ideal daily goal. The foods that are actually having to be, high in fiber are things like berries because all those little seeds in the berries, those are all fiber. So one cup of raspberries has eight grams of fiber, which is basically a third of your daily goal and a single snack. Avocados, another secret weapon. One avocado can have up to 13 grams of fiber. But if you want to be really efficient with your fiber intake, you have to look at legumes. A cup of lentils or split peas has 16 grams of fiber, 16 grams. You'd have to eat like eight cups of raw spinach to get that same amount. Chia or basil seeds are great sources of fiber. But basically, like, if you are confused about what has fiber and you're unsure if something is a good source of

Starting point is 00:33:27 fiber, definitely Google it because I did not know how much fiber I was getting in the foods that I was consuming. And then try tracking your fiber for a few days and see how close you are getting to that 30 gram goal. If you're anything like me, you're going to be very, very surprised. And then you can either really intentionally go for that goal every single day this year and you will see massive benefit if you go for that 30 gram goal. Or if you want to be much more low key about it, just Google those foods that are actually high in fiber. And then make it your goal to include one of them in every meal or snack of the day. So we're adding in one high fiber food in every meal or snack of the day. We made you a really cute downloadable that you can print out and you can put it on your fridge as an easy reminder.

Starting point is 00:34:11 You can grab that at Liz Moody.com slash upgrade, along with all of the other free resources from this episode. But it basically says all of the high fiber foods. You can put it on your fridge. When you're making a meal, making a snack, just make sure you add one in. And you're going to change your gut health. You're going to change your brain health. You're going to change how you feel every single day. You're going to change so many things by just making this one little tweak. And last but not least, tip nine is one of my top money tips. Spend more money on things that save time, not things that give you status. The entire world is designed. to get us to spend money on status because you essentially cannot win at that game,

Starting point is 00:34:46 so you keep buying. The winners are the people who sell the stuff. And especially in today's world, social media has trained so many of us into thinking that we are one click, one purchase away from happiness. Pretty much every bit of data that exists and there is a lot of it shows that buying things does not increase our happiness in a long-term way. And in fact, the best way to truly use your money to make your life better is using it to buy time. This is far and away what I use my money for more than hotels or clothes or restaurant meals.

Starting point is 00:35:20 And there are two big ways that I buy my time. I pay for somebody to clean my house and I pay for somebody to prep my meals. These were two huge pain points for me. And it makes my life far better than any shirt or bag ever could to live in a clean space and always have healthy food ready to heat up in the freezer. I work from home, but this stat also blew my mind. If you are looking for the absolute best way to buy happiness this year, move closer to your office.

Starting point is 00:35:50 Researchers have found that for the average person, a 20-minute increase in commute time has the same negative impact on your happiness as a 19% pay cut. Essentially, you would need to earn almost 20% more money just to break even on the misery, that extra commute driving causes. We think we'll get used to the traffic, but commuting is what psychologists call a variable stressor.

Starting point is 00:36:15 Every day is a different kind of annoying, so your brain never habituates to it. If you can use your money to live closer to work, you are not just buying back your time. You are removing a daily hit to your nervous system that no amount of like fancy windows or extra square footage can ever truly make up for. So for 2026, I want you to take one second and just ask yourself, what is one way that you can use your money to buy back your time, whether it's outsourcing or shortening your commute or something else entirely?

Starting point is 00:36:47 It'll make you far, far happier than anything that Instagram advertises to you, I promise. Please remember, you do not have to do every one of these things. If you pick even one of them, your 2026 will feel noticeably different, noticeably better than your 22nd. 25. So pick one. Just pick one thing and then tell me which one you picked in the comments. Tell me which one you're committing to so that I can cheer you on. Now we have got the body composition and weight loss science from episode one. We've got the hidden levers from today. You are already ahead of 90% of people as we're going into this year. On Wednesday, we're going to add in another piece of the puzzle. The secret to making working out feel easy and fun without relying on motivation

Starting point is 00:37:33 at all because, spoiler alert, motivation does not work. Wednesday's episode shares what actually does. So if you have not yet, hit that follow button right now on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts or YouTube, so you do not miss it. If you want to make these shifts even more powerful, just take five seconds to send this episode to one person that you love in your life. Science shows that we hit our goals much more consistently when we bring somebody else into the fold.

Starting point is 00:38:00 So send this to a friend or a partner and ask them to. commit to one of these changes with you. You can grab a ton of additional free resources for this episode, including the books list, the fiber printout, the other additional episodes that I mentioned and more at Liz Moody.com slash upgrade. I am so genuinely excited about this year and what we're going to create and learn together. I feel 100% confident that 2026 is going to be your best year yet. And I truly cannot wait. So I will see you on the next. episode of the Liz Moody podcast. Oh, just one more thing. It's the legal language. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended as a substitute for the

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Starting point is 00:40:10 so well. Everything gets so clean. And I know that I'm protecting myself from all of those long-term issues too. And I'm protecting my kittens who are much tinier than me. So anything they're exposed to has a much greater impact on their little tiny systems. And they're running around on their little paws and then they're licking them. So I'm protecting them too. Brandt Basics is now available at Target.com, Amazon and branchbasics.com, so it's easier than ever to make the switch. And if you want to grab their premium starter kit, you can use code Liz Moody for 15% off at branchbasics.com. That's code Liz Moody for 15% off the premium starter kit at branchbasics.com. And when they ask you where you heard about us, please make sure to mention the show.

Starting point is 00:40:53 That is branch basics.com and use code Liz Moody. I very rarely get genuinely excited about skincare, but this is one of the most innovative products that I have come across in years, and I'm so obsessed with it. I've been telling all of my friends to get it, so now I need to tell you guys. Here's some science first. Your skin isn't just getting older. It's being actively broken down by something called senescent cells. These are cells that have stopped functioning but refused to die. They sit there releasing inflammatory signals, breaking down your collagen, degrading your skin barrier, and accelerating every visible sign of aging. Scientists call them zombie cells, and as they accumulate, they are one of the prime.

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Starting point is 00:42:20 amazing. It goes on really smoothly. It's not tacky at all. And I actually see a difference, which I just feel like is never the case with skincare. You want to always like see a real difference. And you're kind of like, do I? Do I? And this I genuinely do. Because it's clearing the senescent cells, it doesn't just target one thing. So my skin looks firmer. It looks glowier. The texture feels dramatically smoother. And I feel like you can see that too. I also love the body moisturizer. It dries down really quickly, which is always a pet peeve of mine with moisturizers. I hate that like sticky feeling when you go to put your clothes on. This does not do that. But it does moisturize really, really well. And then again, I'm reducing my skin's biological age.

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The Liz Moody Podcast - Actually Upgrade Your Life This Year: Simple Shifts for Money, Health, & Happiness

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