5 Healthyish Things, including gen AI hackathons and WeightWatchers

Most diets are trash at worst, unrealistic at best. They approach the concept of healthy eating through restrictions you’re expected to follow indefinitely… so you’re essentially destined to fail.

The Whole30 does things differently. The premise is you spend 30 days learning to cook and eat real, non-processed food. It’s essentially a healthy reset, which you can do one or two months out of the year. 

What I especially admire about Whole30 is that it’s all about finding what works for you. In just 30 days, you’ll learn healthy habits, hacks, and easy options you can make forever. That’s been true for me every time I’ve done Whole30. Just imagine if that was the case for every “diet”! Plus, there’s no focus on weight or measurements and no pressure to make it your permanent lifestyle.

Most diet trends come and go, but Whole30 continues to have tremendous sticking power. That’s not only because of the above, but also because of whipsmart, passionate, and opinionated co-founder Melissa Urban (whom I feel grateful to call a friend). The original book is a #1 best-seller and she just launched a follow up edition, The New Whole30, which includes both the original and the vegan/vegetarian versions of the program plus many more additions. Order a copy (or two) like I have here!

When I was a big kid trying to lose weight, WeightWatchers was one of the first things I tried. The meetings weren’t really my scene (being the only teenage boy in a group of middle-aged women wasn’t quite what I was looking for) but it taught me to track my calories, which we know definitively works for weight loss. 

Basically WeightWatchers developed a clever way to simplify and gamify calorie counting through a point system. Then, they brought members together in a community that provided social support and accountability to keep people on the program. They created an early model for empowering consumers to make smart health choices, which I deeply admire. 👏

But where I would have loved to see them build on that momentum—and their (still) massive brand awareness—and find a way to innovate and help people in the modern digital era… that is definitely not what happened.

WeightWatchers? More like WeightWatching-my-stock-crater-s. (Sorry.)

Instead, they’ve wasted time and resources bringing in amazing talent and buying up promising companies, only to kill all of the best projects. They did one of the worst rebrands I’ve ever seen, trying to remove “weight” in their name by… basically not changing it at all. They’ve totally bungled their approach to GLP-1s, never managed to appeal to men, and just flip-flopped strategy in every public earnings call.  

If you ask me, the last 10 years have been one of the most criminal mishandlings of an iconic brand. As someone who once wanted to build the “WeightWatchers of the future” (Noom came closest), the news of their decline is no surprise… but very disappointing.

I love reading Chrissy Farr’s thoughts on the healthcare space (her Second Opinion newsletter is a must-subscribe), but when she recently posted on X about her gen AI skepticism… I just couldn’t get behind it. Sorry, Chrissy! 

If you’ve been reading 5HT, you know I’m a huge proponent of gen AI in healthcare.  For example, I’d like to point out the many sharp ideas developed during the recent Out-of-Pocket Hackathon (shouts out to Nikhil Krishnan, the clever brains behind another must-subscribe newsletter and growing empire). All of the examples on this list are really cool ways to use gen AI in healthcare. Some favorites include the “What Would Granny Say” project (which turns blood work results into a voice that people can actually understand) and Bedrail.AI (which provides air traffic control for hospital beds). These are just two of many examples where AI seems obviously applicable—and scalable—in ways that would really make a difference for a space that sorely needs it. 

And yes, I’m sticking to “What Would Granny Say” as my primary evidence against Chrissy Farr. 😂

Since we started with a reasonable diet, let’s look at an awful one next. 

“Meatfluencers” peddling the completely ludicrous carnivore diet (eating only meat, fish, and other animal products but no fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, etc.) is upsetting. I mean I guess people might be able to live on meat alone… but nobody should. Come on. 

I can’t actually tell if these people believe what they’re saying or if they’re just trolling. Like one person with the username of @steakandbuttergal (whose favorite “energy bar” is a stick of butter, by the way) posted about how she no longer needs sunscreen. 🤦 And I appreciate the irony of me giving yet another platform to their misinformation. But like RFK Jr confessing to dumping a bear carcass in Central Park, it’s just something ya need to know. 

Anyway, this carnivore diet is confused at best, dangerous at worst. And, as this article from The Cut pointed out, it’s also really terrible for the environment. There are a lot of bad diets out there, but this one goes on my shortlist of the worst.

Vacation is important for your health… and mine! Next week, I’m hitting up all the hottest parks and playgrounds in Europe with my wife and kiddos (plus maybe a nice beach or two). We’ll skip next week’s send, but pick back up the week after. In the meantime, I welcome any and all feedback on this newsletter—would love to hear from you. (Just know I’ll get back to you later this month.) Ciao!