RosemarieBeltz@gmail.com (00:00)
Can I ask you a question? When was the last time you had a really good summer? Not a productive summer, not a summer where you checked every box, but a summer where you were genuinely curious, spontaneous, and having fun. Where you discovered things. Because that's what I've been thinking about lately.
And this week I found myself getting excited about the tiniest things a new coffee, a beach day, a book, a question, and somehow they happen to be all connected. A few days ago, I stopped into Surf Coffee, which is a little cafe in Belmore, New Jersey, and I discovered they've infused coconut flakes into their coffee beans this season. Now, I realize that might not sound particularly exciting to some of you.
However, if you've listened to this show
for a little while, you may know I've been slowly trying to move away from half and half and towards totally black coffee. And suddenly, what appears these coffee beans with this subtle coconut aroma. And I immediately thought, this is gonna be my coffee drink. This is going to be
So good iced. And I found myself ridiculously excited about it. And I am happy to report it is in my coffee pot and I am expecting to enjoy some of that tomorrow morning.
Here's the thing: coconut coffee is not life-changing, but it's reminding me how much joy there is and remaining open to possibility. And also to good conversation, because I actually gave the nice young lady at the counter an opportunity to tell me about it rather than cut her off and be in a hurry. And then I think curiosity is one of the most unappreciated.
Ingredients in a rich life. To be surprised, to pay attention, to notice, to be somewhat open. And later that same day, I found myself sitting on a beach during summer solstice, listening to Quench, the book that I told you about last week. And what struck me was that I was.
experiencing a feeling that was oddly similar. I thought I was listening to a book about water. Instead I found myself questioning assumptions I didn't even know I had.
Welcome back to Second Opinion. I'm Rosemarie This is the show where we talk about real life in midlife, health, longevity, reinvention, relationships, curiosity, and the questions that help us live more intentionally. And this summer, I'm inviting you into something a little different. Instead of focusing on massive transformations, I'm interested in experiments, small observations, new discoveries, new conversations.
New questions, new, summer reads, things that make us think differently. And this week, that journey started with a beach day. It so happens, and a book. And honestly, I wasn't expecting chapter one to be the thing that grabbed my attention the most.
Usually it's later in a book when things start to get pretty good. But somewhere between the author's story, the physiology, combined with my own experiences, I found myself replaying, re-listening, going back to review what I was hearing. Not because the material was difficult, because it was making me think. And honestly, that surprised me because I
I've spent a pretty long time reading about health. I became interested in nutrition very early in my life. I've been all the things. I've been vegan. I've been a yogi. I've been a juicer. I've read the books. I've changed jobs.
You know, from healthcare to journalism. I've optimized sleep. I've explored hormone replacement therapy, peptides, supplements, longevity. I've invested a tremendous amount of time and money trying to improve my health and my quality of life. And much of that has helped, full disclosure. But somewhere along the way, I think I may have lost sight of something fundamental. Water. Not just drinking water.
But actual hydration, they're not necessarily the same thing. And that's the premise of this book, and which also why it is keeping my attention.
Twenty years ago, I read Your Body's Many Cries for Water. When I was younger, I focused on weight, managing my anxiety, food politics, and energy. Today I'm thinking about brain health, muscle preservation, recovery, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, keeping my independence, overall longevity. The exact same topic of water, it lands differently because I am different.
Just like you were probably different at 40, 50 something than you were in your teens and 20-something.
So, as I listened to Quench this past week, I started thinking about my own body. The occasional Charlie horse, the subtle changes that arrive with age, recovery that sometimes takes a little bit longer. It might be also a little more painful. Sleep that becomes much more precious and sometimes a little more frustrating and difficult.
The way hydration, electrolytes, muscle function, and aging may be more interconnected than I once appreciated in my younger years. And what fascinated me was not just the hydration science, it's the story behind the book.
One of the authors, Gina Bria, she is an anthropologist, was trying to help her aging mom, and who happened to be in a nursing home. The other author, Dr. Dana Cohen, was caring for patients and reflecting on her own mother's experience with Alzheimer's disease. Two different people, different backgrounds, different training, different careers, different perspectives on health and on hydration.
But they were both asking the same question. Could dehydration be playing a larger role in chronic illness than we are recognizing that we are paying attention to? Long story short, eventually their paths crossed. And what emerged wasn't another wellness book. And that was also their intention.
It was an attempt to rethink water hydration from the ground up. Not how much water should we drink, but how does the body actually absorb it? How does the body hold on to it? How does the body utilize it? That distinction matters very much though. And what I appreciated immediately was that they weren't making a marketing question. they were asking investigative questions. Why are there so many people telling
Tired, foggy, achy, and underperforming. Why are so many people chronically ill? And could we be overlooking something hiding that in plain sight? I thought I was reading a book about water. What I was really reading was a book about absorption. One statistic from the book immediately.
Got my my attention. The authors cite research suggesting that as many as 75% of American Americans may be walking around chronically dehydrated. That's a pretty big number. That's a lot of people. Not emergency room dehydrated, low grade dehydrated, the kind that quietly becomes our normal. We don't even notice how bad we feel because our bodies are just constantly compensated.
And that's where things got pretty interesting because the symptoms don't sound overly dramatic, they sound pretty familiar. Brain fog, afternoon fatigue, poor sleep.
constipation, headaches, joint discomfort, muscle stiffness, low energy, mood changes, difficulty concentrating. And I started thinking, how many people listening right now have at least one of these symptoms? How many have two? How many have three? How many people have all of them? How many people assume it's just getting old? How many people assume it's stress? People assume it's hormones. People assume it's their job.
Assume
it's their overall life. The authors make that argument that many of us are functioning below optimal hydration levels most of the day. we start off dehydrated from what our body's doing overnight to recover itself.
So we're we're starting off low, we're not replacing the water that we lost, and then forget it, By by the evening, we are even lower, probably feel bottomed out by then. And because it happens gradually, We normalize these feelings, we normalize a lot of times often pain.
What struck me is how many of these symptoms have become
Very acceptable. And also, not only are they acceptable to us, but how many times do we sit across from a healthcare provider we we present questions and we get told that that's just a part of aging. That personally happened to me, especially in midlife. We assume it's stress, We assume it's part of the process.
and you know what? Sometimes it is life, We are leading really busy lives, But what if hydration deserves a place in that conversation?
And the part that really hit me was just thinking about my life, my training in heart surgery. I understand the importance of fluid balance. I understand circulation. I understand physiology. But somewhere along the way, I had reduced hydration to a lifestyle habit. How many of us say to ourselves, drink more water, carry a water bottle, We check all these boxes. But this book challenge.
Me to think about hydration as something much bigger, not simply a wellness habit, not simply a summer health goal, but a foundational component of how every single cell, tissue, organ, and system in the body functions, which is why this book really caught me off guard. Because
We are made up of 60% to 90% water. And I was looking at the ocean but I never really thought of myself as a body of water. Like the ocean I was staring at, but in fact, we are bodies of water. And it just made me realize how I've been oversimplifying hydration in my own life.
It's fundamental physiology, bottom line. Everything depends on fluid balance. Every single thing. Our brain, our circulation, our muscles, our joints, our kidneys, our heart. And yet, somehow I've spent more time thinking about protein intake, strength training.
Sugar than hydration. More time thinking about supplements than hydration. More time thinking about peptides than hydration. And that's what made me pause again. Because when I look back when I was 30 At that time of my life, I was thinking about fitness and appearance. Yes, energy has always been a priority for me. and
Flexibility. However, at 54, I'm thinking of life or death. Not to be dramatic, but I am. I'm thinking about cognition, My brain, my cardiovascular risk, healthy aging, preserving my body, preserving my muscle, preserving my brain health, my energy, my longevity, my independence. So the stakes feel different.
Me at 54. This science was landing much differently for me on the beach on Sunday. As I listened, I started thinking about my own body. Back to those occasional charlie horses. Because what else is going on right below the surface that I might not be giving enough attention to? Now
The authors, I'm really intrigued again by their background.
And the way they came upon studying water early in their career and how that culmination came to form this book. they argue that hydration isn't simply about how much water you are drinking, but it's about how much water you are absorbing and how much you are actually retaining. most of us
were raised with a very clear one message. Drink more. Drink more water, more, more, more, more, more, We were always, and especially if you were an athlete, you were active, if it was summer, Stay hydrated. But what if the question isn't always volume?
What if it is absorption? That was a genuine light bulb moment for me. for instance, I'm gonna use fiber as an example because this hit a little bit differently, Because all of us listening know how important fiber is for Fat and cholesterol absorption.
for digestion, for our blood sugar, keeping us satisfied. But I've never really thought about fiber and water together. Me personally, I never really linked the two. Not in this way per se.
The authors make the case that water contained in plants may behave differently than plain water alone because of the fiber structure surrounding it. And whether every aspect of that theory ultimately stands the test of time or not, it made me stop and think because suddenly apples, cucumbers, berries, greens, smoothies, chia seeds started fitting into a larger picture. Not just nutrition, but hydration. We always hear
nutritionists and doctors say, fruits and vegetables like watermelon, The high water content fruits and vegetables that that I just mentioned.
I never really understood why and the connection of the fiber transporting the actual water. And I am a science person and I never really thought of that. Dr. Cohen, she added if you add a few chia seeds to any healthy beverage of your choice, it's gonna improve.
Its uptake.
I was thinking it about the chia seeds for all the other health benefits, not realizing or connecting the dots that those chia seeds were actually helping me absorb the water and my body used the water. I am now going to look at those drinks differently, And revisit them.
this was new information to me. I just was really excited to share that with you. Another thing that I don't think enough people talk about when it comes to water that's mentioned in this book, Quench, is movement. according to science, a sedentary lifestyle is equivalent to smoking. With that
There is a section in the book pertaining to movement, and it really hit me different because, according to the authors, sitting all day may affect hydration in ways most of us never considered. So think about modern life, Office chairs, cars, subways, screens, Zoom meetings, right? Streaming television, remotes for everything, hours and hours upon hours of stillness. The argument they're making is that movement helps distribute water throughout the day.
I immediately thought, well, this is really interesting because every day in New York I do walk, I climb stairs, I'm up and down the subway steps, I move my body,
For me personally, I stand a lot at work. And maybe that's part of why I've always felt better when I'm consistently active. Not always because I'm burning calories, but because movement may be supporting physiology in ways I never really fully appreciated, It is pushing that water throughout your body, throughout your systems.
Speaking of movement and lack of it, the beach traffic moment. So this is where it all came personal for me. for four hours I sat in beach traffic heading back to New York. Not one bathroom stop.
Not even the hint of needing to find a rest stop. And somewhere around the third hour, I remember thinking, it's probably not a good sign for my body. You are probably dehydrated, not dangerously dehydrated, but probably chronically underhydrated. And if I'm being honest, my relationship with water has changed over the last few years. a few years ago, I drank a lot.
More water. My thirst cues were stronger. My habits were better. Somewhere along the way, life got busy. Coffee became much easier for many reasons. A lot of people drink coffee because it's a great snack. It gives you energy, it's zero calories.
It stimulates your brain, it does a lot of good things. That's why I will never tell anybody to give up coffee. And there are health benefits to it. Water then took a backseat to the coffee, So the water became secondary. And I suspect I'm not alone. So this is where my problems are setting in.
and I suspect I'm not alone. Monday morning, back in New York, summer solstice weekend behind me, the beach towel folded away, the audiobook still rattling around in my head, and before I reached for my brew, I poured and I drank a full glass of water. I have now done that.
Two days in a row, one glass of water is not transformational. That is not the point. The point is what it represents because identity changes through small actions. So I am a little bit on my own journey of breaking the habit of being myself.
This is not a day, a grand declaration. Just a small action. A glass of water before coffee, a walk after dinner, 10 minutes of reading, one better choice repeated again and again. And maybe that's why this book arrived at exactly the right time for me, because this isn't really a hydration episode. It is an episode about fundamentals. It's about revisiting assumptions. It's about
Being curious, it's about being willing to say, maybe I don't know as much as I think I know.
Maybe there is still something new to learn at 54, at 64, at 74, forever. That's what excites me. This is not about perfection, this is about discovery. Because the moment we stop discovering things, life starts getting smaller. And I want this summer to get bigger, richer, more alive. And if a book about hydration can make me rethink my brain.
My muscles, my heart health, my daily habits, and my future, that my friends is worth paying attention to. Maybe this summer I'll discover that I've been thinking about hydration all wrong from the very beginning. Maybe I'll discover a better morning routine. Maybe I will discover that coconut coffee really is my summer coffee. And maybe I'll discover something I haven't even thought to look for as of yet.
That is the beauty of staying curious. So, what are you discovering this summer? What is it? What are you not fixing, not optimizing, not accomplishing, but discovering? Maybe it's a book, maybe it's a conversation, maybe it's a habit, maybe it's something you've overlooked for years that suddenly makes sense. For me this week, it's hydration.
This only chapter one. Next week I'll be continuing my experiment. We're gonna keep reading together, we're gonna keep questioning, we're gonna keep connecting the dots, and we'll see where the summer takes us. New York City, I'm Rosemarie This is Second Opinion. Stay curious, stay open, stay in the experiment, and don't forget to flirt with possibility along the way. Until next time.
Can I ask you a question? When was the last time you had a really good summer? Not a productive summer, not a summer where you checked every box, but a summer where you were genuinely curious, spontaneous, and having fun. Where you discovered things. Because that's what I've been thinking about lately.
And this week I found myself getting excited about the tiniest things a new coffee, a beach day, a book, a question, and somehow they happen to be all connected. A few days ago, I stopped into Surf Coffee, which is a little cafe in Belmore, New Jersey, and I discovered they've infused coconut flakes into their coffee beans this season. Now, I realize that might not sound particularly exciting to some of you.
However, if you've listened to this show
for a little while, you may know I've been slowly trying to move away from half and half and towards totally black coffee. And suddenly, what appears these coffee beans with this subtle coconut aroma. And I immediately thought, this is gonna be my coffee drink. This is going to be
So good iced. And I found myself ridiculously excited about it. And I am happy to report it is in my coffee pot and I am expecting to enjoy some of that tomorrow morning.
Here's the thing: coconut coffee is not life-changing, but it's reminding me how much joy there is and remaining open to possibility. And also to good conversation, because I actually gave the nice young lady at the counter an opportunity to tell me about it rather than cut her off and be in a hurry. And then I think curiosity is one of the most unappreciated.
Ingredients in a rich life. To be surprised, to pay attention, to notice, to be somewhat open. And later that same day, I found myself sitting on a beach during summer solstice, listening to Quench, the book that I told you about last week. And what struck me was that I was.
experiencing a feeling that was oddly similar. I thought I was listening to a book about water. Instead I found myself questioning assumptions I didn't even know I had.
Welcome back to Second Opinion. I'm Rosemarie This is the show where we talk about real life in midlife, health, longevity, reinvention, relationships, curiosity, and the questions that help us live more intentionally. And this summer, I'm inviting you into something a little different. Instead of focusing on massive transformations, I'm interested in experiments, small observations, new discoveries, new conversations.
New questions, new, summer reads, things that make us think differently. And this week, that journey started with a beach day. It so happens, and a book. And honestly, I wasn't expecting chapter one to be the thing that grabbed my attention the most.
Usually it's later in a book when things start to get pretty good. But somewhere between the author's story, the physiology, combined with my own experiences, I found myself replaying, re-listening, going back to review what I was hearing. Not because the material was difficult, because it was making me think. And honestly, that surprised me because I
I've spent a pretty long time reading about health. I became interested in nutrition very early in my life. I've been all the things. I've been vegan. I've been a yogi. I've been a juicer. I've read the books. I've changed jobs.
You know, from healthcare to journalism. I've optimized sleep. I've explored hormone replacement therapy, peptides, supplements, longevity. I've invested a tremendous amount of time and money trying to improve my health and my quality of life. And much of that has helped, full disclosure. But somewhere along the way, I think I may have lost sight of something fundamental. Water. Not just drinking water.
But actual hydration, they're not necessarily the same thing. And that's the premise of this book, and which also why it is keeping my attention.
Twenty years ago, I read Your Body's Many Cries for Water. When I was younger, I focused on weight, managing my anxiety, food politics, and energy. Today I'm thinking about brain health, muscle preservation, recovery, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, keeping my independence, overall longevity. The exact same topic of water, it lands differently because I am different.
Just like you were probably different at 40, 50 something than you were in your teens and 20-something.
So, as I listened to Quench this past week, I started thinking about my own body. The occasional Charlie horse, the subtle changes that arrive with age, recovery that sometimes takes a little bit longer. It might be also a little more painful. Sleep that becomes much more precious and sometimes a little more frustrating and difficult.
The way hydration, electrolytes, muscle function, and aging may be more interconnected than I once appreciated in my younger years. And what fascinated me was not just the hydration science, it's the story behind the book.
One of the authors, Gina Bria, she is an anthropologist, was trying to help her aging mom, and who happened to be in a nursing home. The other author, Dr. Dana Cohen, was caring for patients and reflecting on her own mother's experience with Alzheimer's disease. Two different people, different backgrounds, different training, different careers, different perspectives on health and on hydration.
But they were both asking the same question. Could dehydration be playing a larger role in chronic illness than we are recognizing that we are paying attention to? Long story short, eventually their paths crossed. And what emerged wasn't another wellness book. And that was also their intention.
It was an attempt to rethink water hydration from the ground up. Not how much water should we drink, but how does the body actually absorb it? How does the body hold on to it? How does the body utilize it? That distinction matters very much though. And what I appreciated immediately was that they weren't making a marketing question. they were asking investigative questions. Why are there so many people telling
Tired, foggy, achy, and underperforming. Why are so many people chronically ill? And could we be overlooking something hiding that in plain sight? I thought I was reading a book about water. What I was really reading was a book about absorption. One statistic from the book immediately.
Got my my attention. The authors cite research suggesting that as many as 75% of American Americans may be walking around chronically dehydrated. That's a pretty big number. That's a lot of people. Not emergency room dehydrated, low grade dehydrated, the kind that quietly becomes our normal. We don't even notice how bad we feel because our bodies are just constantly compensated.
And that's where things got pretty interesting because the symptoms don't sound overly dramatic, they sound pretty familiar. Brain fog, afternoon fatigue, poor sleep.
constipation, headaches, joint discomfort, muscle stiffness, low energy, mood changes, difficulty concentrating. And I started thinking, how many people listening right now have at least one of these symptoms? How many have two? How many have three? How many people have all of them? How many people assume it's just getting old? How many people assume it's stress? People assume it's hormones. People assume it's their job.
Assume
it's their overall life. The authors make that argument that many of us are functioning below optimal hydration levels most of the day. we start off dehydrated from what our body's doing overnight to recover itself.
So we're we're starting off low, we're not replacing the water that we lost, and then forget it, By by the evening, we are even lower, probably feel bottomed out by then. And because it happens gradually, We normalize these feelings, we normalize a lot of times often pain.
What struck me is how many of these symptoms have become
Very acceptable. And also, not only are they acceptable to us, but how many times do we sit across from a healthcare provider we we present questions and we get told that that's just a part of aging. That personally happened to me, especially in midlife. We assume it's stress, We assume it's part of the process.
and you know what? Sometimes it is life, We are leading really busy lives, But what if hydration deserves a place in that conversation?
And the part that really hit me was just thinking about my life, my training in heart surgery. I understand the importance of fluid balance. I understand circulation. I understand physiology. But somewhere along the way, I had reduced hydration to a lifestyle habit. How many of us say to ourselves, drink more water, carry a water bottle, We check all these boxes. But this book challenge.
Me to think about hydration as something much bigger, not simply a wellness habit, not simply a summer health goal, but a foundational component of how every single cell, tissue, organ, and system in the body functions, which is why this book really caught me off guard. Because
We are made up of 60% to 90% water. And I was looking at the ocean but I never really thought of myself as a body of water. Like the ocean I was staring at, but in fact, we are bodies of water. And it just made me realize how I've been oversimplifying hydration in my own life.
It's fundamental physiology, bottom line. Everything depends on fluid balance. Every single thing. Our brain, our circulation, our muscles, our joints, our kidneys, our heart. And yet, somehow I've spent more time thinking about protein intake, strength training.
Sugar than hydration. More time thinking about supplements than hydration. More time thinking about peptides than hydration. And that's what made me pause again. Because when I look back when I was 30 At that time of my life, I was thinking about fitness and appearance. Yes, energy has always been a priority for me. and
Flexibility. However, at 54, I'm thinking of life or death. Not to be dramatic, but I am. I'm thinking about cognition, My brain, my cardiovascular risk, healthy aging, preserving my body, preserving my muscle, preserving my brain health, my energy, my longevity, my independence. So the stakes feel different.
Me at 54. This science was landing much differently for me on the beach on Sunday. As I listened, I started thinking about my own body. Back to those occasional charlie horses. Because what else is going on right below the surface that I might not be giving enough attention to? Now
The authors, I'm really intrigued again by their background.
And the way they came upon studying water early in their career and how that culmination came to form this book. they argue that hydration isn't simply about how much water you are drinking, but it's about how much water you are absorbing and how much you are actually retaining. most of us
were raised with a very clear one message. Drink more. Drink more water, more, more, more, more, more, We were always, and especially if you were an athlete, you were active, if it was summer, Stay hydrated. But what if the question isn't always volume?
What if it is absorption? That was a genuine light bulb moment for me. for instance, I'm gonna use fiber as an example because this hit a little bit differently, Because all of us listening know how important fiber is for Fat and cholesterol absorption.
for digestion, for our blood sugar, keeping us satisfied. But I've never really thought about fiber and water together. Me personally, I never really linked the two. Not in this way per se.
The authors make the case that water contained in plants may behave differently than plain water alone because of the fiber structure surrounding it. And whether every aspect of that theory ultimately stands the test of time or not, it made me stop and think because suddenly apples, cucumbers, berries, greens, smoothies, chia seeds started fitting into a larger picture. Not just nutrition, but hydration. We always hear
nutritionists and doctors say, fruits and vegetables like watermelon, The high water content fruits and vegetables that that I just mentioned.
I never really understood why and the connection of the fiber transporting the actual water. And I am a science person and I never really thought of that. Dr. Cohen, she added if you add a few chia seeds to any healthy beverage of your choice, it's gonna improve.
Its uptake.
I was thinking it about the chia seeds for all the other health benefits, not realizing or connecting the dots that those chia seeds were actually helping me absorb the water and my body used the water. I am now going to look at those drinks differently, And revisit them.
this was new information to me. I just was really excited to share that with you. Another thing that I don't think enough people talk about when it comes to water that's mentioned in this book, Quench, is movement. according to science, a sedentary lifestyle is equivalent to smoking. With that
There is a section in the book pertaining to movement, and it really hit me different because, according to the authors, sitting all day may affect hydration in ways most of us never considered. So think about modern life, Office chairs, cars, subways, screens, Zoom meetings, right? Streaming television, remotes for everything, hours and hours upon hours of stillness. The argument they're making is that movement helps distribute water throughout the day.
I immediately thought, well, this is really interesting because every day in New York I do walk, I climb stairs, I'm up and down the subway steps, I move my body,
For me personally, I stand a lot at work. And maybe that's part of why I've always felt better when I'm consistently active. Not always because I'm burning calories, but because movement may be supporting physiology in ways I never really fully appreciated, It is pushing that water throughout your body, throughout your systems.
Speaking of movement and lack of it, the beach traffic moment. So this is where it all came personal for me. for four hours I sat in beach traffic heading back to New York. Not one bathroom stop.
Not even the hint of needing to find a rest stop. And somewhere around the third hour, I remember thinking, it's probably not a good sign for my body. You are probably dehydrated, not dangerously dehydrated, but probably chronically underhydrated. And if I'm being honest, my relationship with water has changed over the last few years. a few years ago, I drank a lot.
More water. My thirst cues were stronger. My habits were better. Somewhere along the way, life got busy. Coffee became much easier for many reasons. A lot of people drink coffee because it's a great snack. It gives you energy, it's zero calories.
It stimulates your brain, it does a lot of good things. That's why I will never tell anybody to give up coffee. And there are health benefits to it. Water then took a backseat to the coffee, So the water became secondary. And I suspect I'm not alone. So this is where my problems are setting in.
and I suspect I'm not alone. Monday morning, back in New York, summer solstice weekend behind me, the beach towel folded away, the audiobook still rattling around in my head, and before I reached for my brew, I poured and I drank a full glass of water. I have now done that.
Two days in a row, one glass of water is not transformational. That is not the point. The point is what it represents because identity changes through small actions. So I am a little bit on my own journey of breaking the habit of being myself.
This is not a day, a grand declaration. Just a small action. A glass of water before coffee, a walk after dinner, 10 minutes of reading, one better choice repeated again and again. And maybe that's why this book arrived at exactly the right time for me, because this isn't really a hydration episode. It is an episode about fundamentals. It's about revisiting assumptions. It's about
Being curious, it's about being willing to say, maybe I don't know as much as I think I know.
Maybe there is still something new to learn at 54, at 64, at 74, forever. That's what excites me. This is not about perfection, this is about discovery. Because the moment we stop discovering things, life starts getting smaller. And I want this summer to get bigger, richer, more alive. And if a book about hydration can make me rethink my brain.
My muscles, my heart health, my daily habits, and my future, that my friends is worth paying attention to. Maybe this summer I'll discover that I've been thinking about hydration all wrong from the very beginning. Maybe I'll discover a better morning routine. Maybe I will discover that coconut coffee really is my summer coffee. And maybe I'll discover something I haven't even thought to look for as of yet.
That is the beauty of staying curious. So, what are you discovering this summer? What is it? What are you not fixing, not optimizing, not accomplishing, but discovering? Maybe it's a book, maybe it's a conversation, maybe it's a habit, maybe it's something you've overlooked for years that suddenly makes sense. For me this week, it's hydration.
This only chapter one. Next week I'll be continuing my experiment. We're gonna keep reading together, we're gonna keep questioning, we're gonna keep connecting the dots, and we'll see where the summer takes us. New York City, I'm Rosemarie This is Second Opinion. Stay curious, stay open, stay in the experiment, and don't forget to flirt with possibility along the way. Until next time.
