Good morning. August is National Peach Month! To celebrate, today’s Weekly Pounce features five essential, peach-themed actions you won't want to skip. Peach juggling, anyone?! JK. Check them out below.

The Weekly Pounce provides five, encouraging and evidence-based tips that we refer to as the Pounce Pot Protocol. Each week, you can power up your future self by integrating these budget-friendly longevity and pro-aging strategies into your routine. 

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This week, it’s all about peaches! To celebrate this summer fruit (hands down my favorite fruit, by the way), I've created a special peach-themed crossword puzzle just for you.

Play it here or find the link in the Pounce Pick of the Week section below. Designing the puzzle was a boost for my brain this week, so thank you for motivating me to be creative. We make a great team! 

Keeping your mind sharp is a vital part of your healthspan protocol. Puzzles are awesome for that. Pro-tip: as soon as you master a level, go find a harder one. Keep your brain working! 

Explore the science that supports the fun hobby of playing games.

Beyond close friends and family, cultivating positive relationships with your neighbors can offer a boost to your well-being. Here in South Carolina, we often welcome new neighbors with house-warming baskets filled with little goodies like sourdough bread from the General Store down the street, a Mason jar of peach preserves, a cheerful linen tea towel, perhaps a bottle of wine or a small tin of homemade cheese straws.

In the Lowcountry, we have a special word for giving gifts for no reason other than “I saw this and thought of you.” These “surcies” connect us with friends and neighbors and don’t have to be expensive. Just small, inexpensive tokens of our desire to bring unexpected joy to others. 

A few days ago, my neighbor and friend Lorie dropped off a small gift bag for me filled with local peaches. She had attached a sweet note and added some gorgeous peonies and a curly ribbon. Unexpected. Kind. Connecting.

Obviously, she didn’t leave the surprise peach treat on my front porch with the intent to “help strengthen her social connections so her future self can thrive.” But that’s exactly the benefit we can receive from simple acts of reaching out to others. 

Housewarming baskets, peach surcies, or just a quick phone call to check in. Explore the science-backed benefits of neighborhood social ties on your health.

See if you can find your own surcie this week to drop off with a friend or a neighbor. Let me know if you have received or given surcies before. I’d love to share some of your stories in future newsletters. Hit reply or email me here.

Anxiety often stems from dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. One of the most powerful tools to tamper down anxiety is the practice of mindfulness.

Remember that lowering chronic stress through mindfulness can be one of your most important hidden powers. Mindfulness brings you squarely into the present moment. But how can you quickly tap into this when you need it? 

Try thinking about a peach.

I get it. That sounds so silly. But listen, it works. And we’re going with a peach-theme, remember?

Take any object (such as a ripe peach). It can be real or just imaginary. I want you to think about this object will all five senses. See all of its colors, from yellow, to orange, to deep red. Feel the soft fuzzy skin, the weight, the slight give when it’s perfectly ripe. Smell its sweet, distinct peachy aroma. Take a small bite (real or imaginary) and taste how ripe and sweet it is. Listen. What do you hear if you rub the fuzzy skin a few times?

Take a deep breath in with a count of 4. Hold for a count of 7. Exhale for 8. Drop your shoulders away from your ears as you exhale. Visualize the object in your mind with your eyes closed as you cycle through a few rounds of the 4-7-8 breathing.

By focusing on each sensory input, you anchor your mind to the "now,"  effectively quieting anxious thoughts. Discover why lowering anxiety and stress, and keeping your cortisol levels and blood pressure lower, is essential to your overall well-being. Read the science behind bringing focus to your five senses to lower anxiety levels.

I eat the fuzzy skin of peaches. I also eat the spiky skin of kiwis, but that’s another story for National Kiwi Month. :)

Peaches are quite annoying to peel anyway. You basically have to boil a peach for a few minutes to get its skin to slip off for canning or baking. 

But if you’re enjoying them raw, try leaving the skin on this week. I wouldn’t just bite straight into an unpeeled peach, however. That’s like biting into a couch cushion.

Here’s how I eat the skin: cut the peach into very thin slices (with a serrated knife) and you’ll hardly notice the fuzz. It’s packed with fiber that’s an important dietary component (hint, hint) for the health of your gut biome. 

And please be patient and let it get ripe. No hard peaches! Properly ripe, juicy peaches are heavy for their size, have a soft “give,” and a gorgeous scent.

According to the Mayo Clinic, eating more fiber is “linked with a lower risk of dying of any health condition, including heart disease.” Learn about fiber here → and see how eating the fuzzy peach skin goes this week.

Be certain to wash them first!

Well, this section is a challenge! Can I make a peach-themed activity (other than peach juggling) to keep us moving this week? Impossible task, you say? Hold my peach. Lemme brainstorm. I’m not using AI to help, I swear. 

• “Shake Your Groove Thing” with Peaches and Herb’s 1978 disco hit! Besides being perfect for dancing around the kitchen, it has one of my favorite lines in a song: “We’re bumpin’ booties, havin’ us a ball, y’all!” 

• Buy a half-bushel of peaches in a traditional basket and use it as a dumbbell before you eat them all. That’s about 25 pounds! 

• Georgia might officially be the “Peach State,” but South Carolina produces more. Still, we can relate Georgia to our peachy workout by listening to “Georgia on My Mind” by Ray Charles while doing our morning stretching and full-range of motion exercises. 

I’m stopping at these three before I get too cringy! Have a great week, go “have a ball, y’all” and enjoy your peaches!