Wet & Sandy in the 52-Degree Ocean: How I Take on Challenges

Morning, Greg here! Welcome to Issue No. 26 of Midlife Male, the lifestyle magazine for midlife men, by midlife men. I wanted to personally welcome all our new readers, and if this newsletter was forwarded to you, subscribe below.

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Thank you to everyone who has signed up for Inner Circle 2025 so far! We had a great kickoff call this week, and are embarking on a great year with retreats, challenges, monthly AMAs, in-person meet-ups and 12 live online events with subject matter experts on the topics that matter most. Interested? Check out all the Inner Circle has to offer here!

How I See It with Dr. Darshan Shah

Hey Guys,

I want to introduce you to someone who’s had a big impact on how I think about health and wellness—Dr. Darshan Shah. I met Darshan at the Eudemonia Summit late last year, and we hit it off right away. You know that feeling when you meet someone and just click? That’s exactly what happened here.

Here’s why I’m excited to share this conversation: 

In a world flooded with health advice and quick-fix solutions, Darshan cuts through the noise. He focuses on what actually works—the 20% of actions that deliver 80% of the results. No gimmicks, no over-complicated systems, just straightforward strategies that fit into real lives like ours.

What I love about Darshan’s approach is how practical it is. He gets what we’re dealing with: the daily grind, the time crunch, and the need for solutions that actually stick. While he’s got the credentials to back everything up, he doesn’t bury you in jargon or academic theory. Instead, he translates it all into simple, actionable steps that can make a real difference.

In our chat, we covered the stuff that matters most—staying strong, boosting energy, feeling better, and thriving in midlife. It’s the same territory I explore in my book, but Darshan brings fresh insights and practical tips that can help you take things to the next level.

I think you’re going to get a ton out of this conversation. Darshan isn’t just an expert—he’s become a friend—and I genuinely believe what he shares here could be a game-changer for you too. Here’s our conversation:

MLM: Great to meet you. Can you give us the quick rundown as a midlife male. Wife? Kids? 

Darshan Shah: I’m 52. I’ve been married for 12 years now and I have a 10-year-old boy and 7-year-old girl.

MLM: What is your specialty?

Darshan Shah: I’m in longevity medicine now. I’m a physician, and my original specialty was surgery. About 10 years ago, I moved into longevity medicine.

MLM: Why did you make the transition? What were you seeing?

Darshan Shah: Honestly, it was my own personal health struggle. I was 45 pounds heavier than I am now. I had multiple medical diagnoses, and I wanted to turn my health around. The tools to do that weren’t in typical Western medicine, so I decided to educate myself. I learned about the science of health, got myself healthy, and realized that this was the kind of medicine I wanted to practice.

MLM: What did that look like? So, you come to this tipping point and decide to get yourself healthy. Where do you even begin?

Darshan Shah: Medical school doesn’t teach us how to get people healthy or reverse chronic disease. We’re taught how to diagnose a disease and prescribe medications. I had to start from scratch. I knew nutrition and exercise were part of the solution, but I didn’t know how to incorporate them. I’m a knowledge junkie, so I thought, “Let me take a course and figure this out.” I got a degree in nutrition sciences, became a certified personal trainer, and started learning from coaches and nutritionists. Along the way, I discovered functional medicine and met pioneers like Dr. Jeffrey Bland and Dr. Mark Hyman. They were just starting to teach functional medicine, and I became one of their first students.

MLM: For those of us who don’t know, what is functional medicine? How is it different

Darshan Shah: Functional medicine is root-cause medicine. It’s proactive instead of reactive. The Western medical system —graduate college, get a job, pick a primary care doctor, and only see them when something’s wrong—is reactionary. That system is great for emergencies, like if you get hit by a bus or have a heart attack. But it’s not designed to maintain health. Functional medicine focuses on preventing issues before they arise by addressing things like nutrition, movement, sleep, hormones, gut health, and stress management. It’s a completely different mindset.

MLM: How do people get started? A lot of guys feel overwhelmed by all this information. What’s step one?

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Wet & Sandy in the 52 Degree Ocean: How I Take on Challenges

I recently listened to a keynote speaker from the back of the room. As the final speaker of the day, I had time to reflect when he put up a slide that read, "Make the impossible possible."

It struck me how non-motivational that phrase actually is. The gap between impossible and possible is overwhelming—paralyzing, even. No wonder so many people feel stuck.

Instead, I've learned to focus on a far more effective mindset: "Make the possible, probable."

When faced with a challenge, I don’t ask, Is this possible? because most things are. Instead, I ask, What will it take to make this probable? Then I align my actions with that answer. Extraordinary achievements don’t happen by doing the impossible; they happen by methodically transforming possibilities into probabilities.

From Possible to Probable in Action

Walking 52 miles? It’s possible—I know people who’ve done 100-mile races. But making it probable for me meant committing to the training, joining forces with my friends Sterling and Haviland, and showing up, mile after mile. Together, we got it done.

Facing 29,029 vertical feet—the elevation of Everest? Possible, sure. It’s been done by thousands. But probable? That took a conversation with Marc Hodulich, the event’s CEO, a rigorous training plan, and relentless discipline. Each early-morning ruck and weekend trail session shifted the odds in my favor. Three Everest-equivalents later, what once seemed daunting is now a personal benchmark. Marc, a source of constant inspiration, will kick off the 2025 MLM Inner Circle "How I See It" Speaker Series—a perfect example of turning possibility into probability.

Training with Navy SEALs? Sure, it’s possible—just write the check. But succeeding under their grueling conditions? That required preparation: learning techniques, logging hours of reps, and choosing discomfort over comfort every single time. Cold, wet, sandy, tired—those became my new normal, the crucible where I thrived.

Even competing in HYROX taught me the difference between possible and probable. Anyone can sign up. But performing well? That’s built in the sweat of every ski-erg session and sandbag carry, where I pushed harder than yesterday. Over a year of deliberate, measurable preparation turned a podium finish into a probability.

Millions of stories are posted online every day and 99.9% are noise. We sifted through the nonsense to find experts and thought leaders who will share deep dives in one of our 6Fs every week: Fitness. Family. Finance. Food. Fashion. Fun. These are powerful essays by our team or guest writers designed to make you think, grow and maximize your midlife starting now.

This week: FITNESS

Sebastian Maniscalco, Mouth Taping & the Snore Breaker

By: Jon Finkel

We don’t bury the lead here at MLM. We don’t do clickbait. We don’t do filler. What we do is tell you the truth, straight up, and in this case, the shortest version of this column can be told in three words:

Mouth taping works.

I doubted it. I thought it was goofy. I thought it looked dumb.

Then I tried it and… it works.

I kinda wish it didn’t because then I could write a snarky column dunking on all those dumb influencer ads on social media with people taking pictures of their mouths taped shut… But… Then I’d be lying.

Even comedian Sebastian Maniscalco recently went viral sharing how mouth taping stopped his snoring cold.

What Is Mouth Taping?

Mouth taping (the strategy of taping your mouth shut when you go to bed) helped with my snoring, with night wake-ups, with quality of sleep, with time to sleep, with dreaming… Just about everything.

Now, the question is “why?”...

Why does slapping your mouth shut at night like you’ve been kidnapped in a Liam Neeson movie solve so many sleep problems and how can it work for you?

Here’s the supposed medical reason: 

By taping your mouth shut you are forced to breathe through your nose all night. When you breathe through your nose, all kinds of beneficial things happen, from the temperature of the air you breathe to the quality of the air you breathe to the humidity of the air you breathe all night.

With your mouth shut, your nostrils and nasal passage warms the air entering your lungs, ensuring that it is closer to an optimal temperature for your body to absorb. You are also putting your nose hairs to use all night as the natural air filter for which they were intended. And finally, by the time the air makes its way through your nasal passage, the humidity has increased while simultaneously keeping your mouth, tongue and throat comfortable and moist because your lips are closed. 

Add up these three things and by taping your mouth shut, you’re letting your nose fulfill its purpose, like handing a basketball to Steph Curry and letting him shoot threes.

On the flip side, if you sleep with your mouth open, you’re subject to snoring, breathing in fits and starts, dry air, dry mouth, cool air, unfiltered air and more entering your lungs.

This can lead to intermittent sleep, low time in REM, uncomfortable throat breathing and lots of repositioning throughout the night.

As for me, I wasn’t so much as snoring as what my wife describes as loud “puffing” or “poofing”... When I’d fall asleep my lips would shut and then my cheeks would puff out and flutter and close again. I was like a damned cartoon, but I wasn’t snoring in the classic sense of sawing wood or throat roaring, but it was annoying and I’d often hear myself and I’d wake myself up.

It was this “poofing” that finally got me to try the mouth tape.

Now here’s where my experience can help you:

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PUSH HARD: 5 Ways to Take on Physical Challenges in 2025 from Beginners to Experts with Marc Hodulich

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Some have been married for decades, others are divorced, most are fathers. All of our members seek improvement, access, insights, and support in a group of like-minded men. They are committed to making the next phase of their lives, the best phase of their lives, living happier, healthier, wealthier, stronger and having more fun in business and in life.

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