 | | In today's edition, Joe shares: - Why our kids have the odds stacked against them
- How history shows decline isn't destiny
- What you can change today to tilt the odds in your family's favor
| | Spartans!
Hi, Joe here in New York. It's the week after Thanksgiving in the US, a holiday built around gratitude, family… and a mountain of food most of us would never touch on a normal Thursday. Every year millions of Americans wake up the day after feeling sluggish, stuffed, and maybe a little guilty. That's actually what got me thinking: what people feel after one oversized holiday meal is what millions of kids now feel every single day.
For the first time in history, UNICEF reports that more children globally are obese than underweight. When I read that, it hit me hard. It seems our kids aren't built for the world we've created around them.
For thousands of years, childhood demanded movement, resilience, and constant problem-solving. The body learned to handle scarcity, and the brain learned to chase signals that kept us alive, like foods high in sugar or fat, and rest whenever possible, because you never know what suffering is coming next.
And overnight, in evolutionary terms, we dropped those brains into a world engineered for the exact opposite.
Ultraprocessed foods are designed to "hyper-activate dopamine pathways," creating a reward loop far more intense than anything evolution prepared us for. On top of that, real satiety signals like stretch receptors and gut-to-brain hormonal feedback, are bypassed because these foods dissolve so quickly you can smash 3,000 calories before your stomach realizes anything happened. This is a case of biology outmatched by modern food.
A friend of mine involved in a major state Food Department told me how badly the system is stacked. He told me about the lobbying, the pressure, and the "don't touch that product line" meetings. He was fighting billion-dollar incentives, not high-fructose corn syrup. He won some battles, lost others, and he understood the larger fight that environments dictate behavior.
We put our kids in an environment built for overeating, sitting still, and chasing dopamine, and now we're surprised because it's exactly what they do. Kids aren't failing. Parents aren't failing. The food environment is winning.
I'm seeing this play out again and again, especially around holidays when families collapse into the same routine of screens on, movement off, with food everywhere. Are we ready to admit that if we don't intervene now, Thanksgiving eating habits will become a blueprint for everyday life, not a once-a-year outlier?
We have reached the moment where all the data, all the stories, all the excuses collapse into a single, unavoidable question… do you know what it is?
I ask: "If this trend continues, will the next generation inherit an even worse biological trap they never chose? One they can never escape from, because they're too far gone?
That's the real crisis coming, for our kids' kids, unless we change the food architecture around us.
Ancient Sparta structured childhood around physical development because it knew health wasn't a luxury, it was a matter of national survival. Athens reformed the public diet because malnutrition weakened civic life. Even Rome invested in public baths and recreation long before it fell into decadence. Just like ancient civilizations, the families who course-correct today will be the ones willing to take bold, unpopular steps. Small disciplines that can change entire trajectories.
This matters more than ever, because childhood obesity isn't just a weight issue, it changes how kids experience motivation, school, relationships, and myriad other things they carry into adulthood.
But… the brain and body are adaptable. And it seems, kids are wildly adaptable.
If you teach kids structure, they rise.
If you teach kids better options, they choose them.
If you teach kids to go up one more hill, they climb it.
So as folks come out of Thanksgiving bloated, tired, and maybe talking about eating "clean" on Monday, let's treat this moment for what it really is: a wake-up call about a bigger problem. This isn't about feeling guilty or pointing fingers - $&%@ that. It's about coming together as a society to take ownership for the food we surround our kids with. Let's create a food environment that helps kids thrive, not one that sets them up to suffer.
Here are 3 tips from me:
Swap the crap in your fridge for real food.
Turn off the screens at dinner.
Make movement a daily non-negotiable.
The world won't slow down, industry won't suddenly become benevolent, and biology won't change.
The only thing that can change - must change - is what us parents do next.
Hurry up,
Joe | | | HOMEWORK HILL | A long time ago, I ran a small training group in Vermont. One day a teenager showed up with his mother. He'd been struggling with confidence, and she said, "I don't know how to talk to him." I handed him a sandbag and pointed uphill. "You don't have to go fast," I told him. "You just have to go."
He kept climbing. Angry, gasping, swearing at the dirt. At the top he collapsed, then sat there quietly. His mother later told me that week was the first time he'd done his homework without a fight, and the first time he'd opened up to her in months. It wasn't the hill. It was the realization that "I can" was still inside him.
More stories: 10 Rules for Resilience: Mental Toughness for Families. | | | You Ask, Joe Answers | Q: "Joe, how do I make my kids healthier?"
- Mike D.
A: Stop negotiating with them about exercise. We don't negotiate brushing teeth or bedtime. Kids are craving structure whether they admit it to you or not. Make simple, daily physical effort a non-negotiable part of their life. Everything else gets easy after that.
Aroo!
Question for Joe? Want to tell him what you think of The Hard Way? Email him at thehardway@spartan.com. | | | | They Said It | | "An abundance of blessings does not make us grateful; it is the grateful man who makes things abundant." | | – Seneca | | | ➝The Hard Way Podcast with Joe | | | How To Transform Your Anger into Unstoppable Power | | | Most people train their bodies, few train their minds. From cold plunges to carrying rocks uphill, this one's about mastering the space between chaos and control. Will Schneider breaks down how to build real strength through breath, stillness, and doing hard things. Drop the excuses. Breathe deeper. Get calm enough to crush anything. | | | | | | ➝Watch The Latest Hard Way Video | | | THE HARD WAY | Facing Your Deepest Fear | | In this episode The Hard Way series, Spartan Master Coach Trevor Franklin faces one of his deepest fears — the open ocean. Dropped into an underwater challenge with no warning, he must confront the unknown and stay composed when panic rises. It's not just physical — it's mental warfare, below the surface. | | | | | | To keep receiving this newsletter, sign up here. | | | WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS NEWSLETTER? | | | |
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