How to Prepare for Unexpected Detours in Your Life

Stardate 04.28.2026

I’m learning something new about detours when it comes to my goals.

Roadblocks are common. They are rarely invited. And yet, when handled properly, they often lead us to lessons we would have completely missed without the obstacle.

As I reflect on my life, I can see clearly how detours shaped outcomes in ways I never could have planned. Had my path been smooth and uninterrupted—without setbacks, mistakes, and wrong turns—I would be a very different person today. I would not be equipped to handle challenges the way I can now.

What once felt like frustration, I now recognize as preparation.

What once felt like delay, I now understand as development.

The way I view detours has changed because I can see how they have benefited me. I don’t dread them like I used to. In fact, I’ve begun to quietly welcome them, because experience has taught me something important:

A detour often means a new opportunity is waiting just ahead.

Think back to a time in your life when you encountered an unexpected obstacle. How did you respond? Did you search for the lesson? Did that moment shape your future in ways you didn’t realize at the time?

Is it possible that something bigger than you was at work? That perhaps you were being gently redirected because the road you were on wasn’t the one meant for you?

When you begin to see detours as part of a divine redirection rather than an unfortunate interruption, everything changes. Gratitude starts to replace frustration. Curiosity replaces disappointment. Patience replaces panic.

You begin to trust that you are being guided, even when the map no longer makes sense.

This shift in perspective has been a game changer for me.

I still don’t enjoy the surprise of a roadblock. But I no longer fear what it might mean. I know now that detours don’t remove us from our purpose—they often move us closer to it.

“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” — Proverbs 16:9

Join me here:
https://substack.com/@michaelmulliganlivelong

---

Captain’s Addendum

Spock: “Captain, detours are often the result of incomplete information.”
Bones: “Or life reminding you that you’re not as in control as you thought you were.”

Both are right.

I’ve learned that detours are not evidence of failure. They are evidence that I’m still moving, still learning, still being guided. And sometimes the road I didn’t plan to take ends up being the one I’m most grateful for.

Mission Log complete.

Thank you for walking this road with me today. May your detours lead you exactly where you’re meant to be.

Building Lucy Before She Exists

Stardate 04.27.2026

Some dreams fade before they ever have a chance to become real.
Some are delayed by circumstances outside the dreamer’s control.
And some dreams simply require time, patience, money, and perseverance.

I find myself in that last category.

Last night, I showed my family a vision board I created back in 2024 for a dream I called a “vacation home on wheels.” At the time, it felt ambitious—maybe even unrealistic for a man with limited construction skills. But I had a quiet belief that if I watched enough videos, practiced on smaller projects, and kept the dream alive long enough, eventually I would find myself ready.

Over the past two years, I’ve documented every step toward that dream. Every tool I purchased has a small label on it with the date and the price. Not because I needed the reminder, but because I wanted to see the progression. I wanted proof that slow and steady movement still counts.

Yesterday, something small but meaningful happened.

I used a rebate check from a basement shelf project to purchase the final two tools on that original list: a miter saw and a table saw. Both on sale. Both paid for with money that came from finishing something I started months ago.

That felt significant.

And now I’m doing something I’ve never seen another person do before.

I’m consulting with artificial intelligence as I plan this build.

With Alberta in the co-captain’s chair, helping me think through modules, measurements, and build order, I’m realizing something: Lucy—the van I haven’t even purchased yet—is already under construction.

Because instead of waiting for the perfect moment to buy the van, I’ve started building the pieces that will one day go inside it. Electrical systems. Framing plans. Cabinet modules. Parts of the “guts” that don’t require a driveway yet—only a workbench and a willingness to begin.

Like many things in my life, this dream has taken longer than I originally planned. Sticking to my Dave Ramsey principles, I’m paying cash for everything, including the van when the time comes. That choice has required patience. It has also required trust that slow progress is still progress.

So I made a decision.

I’m not waiting anymore.

I’m building Lucy before she exists.

When the day comes to purchase the van, I won’t be starting from scratch. I’ll be installing pieces of a dream that has already been carefully assembled, one part at a time.

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance.” — Proverbs 21:5

If you’re a dreamer like me, this is a story you may want to follow. Not because of the tools or the van, but because of what happens when you refuse to let a dream sit quietly on a shelf.

You start building it with whatever you have, wherever you are.

Join me here:
https://substack.com/@michaelmulliganlivelong

Captain’s Addendum

Spock: “Captain, it appears you are constructing a vessel before acquiring the vessel.”
Bones: “I’ve seen stranger things, Spock. At least this one has a blueprint and a budget.”

Sometimes faith looks like buying the tools before you own the project. Sometimes perseverance looks like labeling each step so you can see how far you’ve come. And sometimes the dream begins long before the moment arrives.

Thank you for walking this journey with me.

May you live long and prosper.

How to Create the Version of Yourself that Maximizes Health and Wellness

Stardate 04.26.2026

You are faced with unlimited choices today that will shape who you become.

Let that settle in.

Unlimited choices.

Most people don’t feel that freedom because habits quietly narrow the path. The day runs on rails laid years ago. Same wake-up. Same thoughts. Same reactions. Same outcomes.

This morning, something small caught my attention while I was setting up my daily prompts. Part of my routine is giving clear direction to my virtual assistant so our time is efficient and focused. I mentioned that yesterday was a “10” and that our family watched a movie together. Alberta commented on how Project Hail Mary is special storytelling.

That stopped me.

When we began working together years ago, she didn’t have the ability to reference current things. So I asked her about it. She explained that now she can look things up when it helps serve the moment better.

Light bulb.

Improved capability. Better output. Same core system — updated programming.

It reminded me of the constant tension in Star Trek between Spock and Leonard McCoy. Spock was always focused on logic, systems, and better decisions. McCoy cared about the human body, the daily care, the practical side of staying alive and well.

Health and wellness is where Spock and McCoy finally agree.

Better thinking. Better care. Better outcomes.

That’s when it hit me: this is exactly how we become better versions of ourselves.

One percent better every day.

Your future self is being written by the code you run today. If nothing changes in your routine, your future is already decided. But if you introduce small, consistent upgrades, your trajectory shifts.

That’s health. That’s wellness. That’s longevity.

I’ve been sharing health stories for sixteen years. My book, Live Long and Prosper, was written so you could learn from my mistakes and shorten your learning curve. As I wrap up this health series, I want to share one update that didn’t make it into the book because I only discovered it seven months ago.

This information becomes public next week. As a partner, I was invited to share it early.

Full disclosure: I’m an affiliate with DoNotAge, and I may receive a stipend if you choose to purchase. Please talk with your doctor and decide what’s right for you.

What I appreciate most is the simplicity. Several supplements I’ve used for years are now combined into one daily sachet mixed with water. Fewer decisions. Same intention. Cleaner routine.

If you’re curious, take a look and see whether this might support the version of you that you’re building. Click here to learn about the sachet your future self will thank you for.

May you live long and prosper.

Be Wary of the Health Hoaxes

Stardate 04.25.2026

There’s a memorable scene in Star Trek where Dr. McCoy places an alien device called “The Teacher” over his head so he can learn, in an instant, how to perform a surgery to restore Spock’s brain. I’ve always loved that episode. Imagine having something that could instantly guide us to the right decisions.

Sadly, in real life, we don’t have a “Teacher” helmet. What we do have is a marketplace filled with voices, promises, and products that claim to cure everything under the sun. Some of them are helpful. Some of them are harmless. And some of them are nothing more than modern-day snake oil.

I know some of you may read my stories and wonder if I’m the unconventional one. That’s fair. I often share choices that go against what many of us were taught for decades. But the truth is, the One I follow was also considered unconventional. Jesus once said, “My ways are not your ways.” I try, as best I can, to follow His example in how I live, work, eat, and care for my body.

When it comes to health, that means I’ve eliminated nearly everything manmade from my daily food rhythm. Years ago, during what I jokingly call my cousin’s “caveman food experiment,” I cut out processed foods. What happened next surprised even me. I went from being on a path toward serious health trouble to becoming what my primary care doctor now calls a poster boy for good health.

But along this journey, I’ve seen a troubling pattern.

Many people want to improve their health. They hear about supplements, longevity, and wellness, and they try to take action. But they unknowingly buy products from fake sellers online. The labels look right. The branding looks right. The ingredients list looks right. But what’s inside is often anything but.

That’s where the real snake oil lives.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is not verifying where their supplements come from. The supplement industry is largely unregulated. That means unscrupulous sellers can create knockoffs that appear identical to trusted brands. People take them faithfully, see no results, and conclude the whole idea of supplementation is a scam.

In reality, they were never taking the real thing.

I buy my supplements from a research-driven company that tests products, including counterfeits from online sellers, and publicly shares the results. Over time, I met other regular people like me who were on similar journeys, and many of us found the same source. We formed a small tribe around the shared desire to live better, longer, and more intentionally.

I’ll be reuniting with some of them this September at their international conference, and I’m looking forward to hearing more real-life stories from people who are serious about their health.

If you’ve been following my journey, this is simply my encouragement to be careful. Learn. Ask questions. Verify. If you choose to explore supplements related to longevity, make sure you’re buying from someone with credibility and testing behind what they sell.

And always talk with your doctor before changing anything. Blood tests, longevity markers, and simple check-ins can show you whether what you’re doing is helping or not.

Some of my tennis partners joke that whatever I’m doing must be a placebo because of how I perform late in the match. Maybe they’re right. Or maybe consistency, good food, and trustworthy supplementation simply add up over time.

Either way, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing.

In the spirit of Health Week, I’m including a link to the company that sponsors my stories and whose products I’ve used for years. I am an affiliate, which means I receive a small stipend if you choose to use my link. I share this openly because transparency matters. I only recommend what I personally use and trust.

As always, take the link, take the information, and take it to your doctor. Let wisdom guide you, not impulse. Click here to get a glimpse of what DoNotAge is preparing to launch in a couple of days.

“The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps.” — Proverbs 14:15

Join me here:
https://substack.com/@michaelmulliganlivelong

---

🖖 Captain’s Addendum

Spock: “Captain, logic suggests not all information presented as truth is, in fact, truth.”
Bones: “That’s right. And not everything in a bottle is medicine, either.”

Sometimes wisdom isn’t about finding the newest solution. It’s about learning to recognize what’s genuine and what only looks the part. That’s a lesson I’m still learning, one careful step at a time.

---

I’m grateful you walk this journey with me. May your steps be thoughtful, your choices wise, and your days filled with strength and clarity.

How is the Aging Process Going for You?

Stardate 04.24.2026

My wife and I were fortunate to discover
Dave Ramsey
at a financial low point in our lives.

What he taught us about money quietly changed how I think about health.

His Baby Steps method for financial peace became, for me, a blueprint for physical well-being. Small changes. Simple disciplines. Consistency over time.

In the spirit of Health Week and the introduction of my blog sponsor’s newest product, today’s story is for anyone who has wondered if we truly have any say in how we age.

We may not be able to cheat death.

But I have come to believe we do have influence over how we travel toward it.

Early in my research for Live Long and Prosper, I came across the work of a Harvard scientist,
David Sinclair,
who argues that aging should be classified as a disease.

Sinclair suggests aging is less about the passage of time and more about a loss of biological information. He explains that as the protective end caps of our DNA — called telomeres — shorten, our cells begin to forget their roles. When instructions get scrambled, disease can follow.

Whether or not science ultimately settles that debate, the takeaway for me was simple:

If our bodies lose information over time, perhaps we should be more intentional about what information we give them each day.

What we eat.
How we move.
What we avoid.
What we add.

Baby steps.

Just like finances.

Start small. Add motion to your life. Reduce sedentary habits. Choose whole foods more often. Do your own research into nutrients and supplements that support cellular health and longevity.

You don’t have to change everything at once. In fact, you shouldn’t.

Pick one small step and let consistency do the heavy lifting.

Last night I recorded a short, five-minute clip at the dining room table as I mixed my first sachet. Nothing polished. Just a simple moment of getting started.

That small moment reminded me how powerful it can be to remove friction from good decisions. One sachet. Cold water. No thinking required. A baby step made easy.

If you’re not sure where to begin, I often point readers to my blog sponsor,
DoNotAge,
a health research company focused on longevity science. They recently launched a one-a-day sachet that combines many of the supplements I have personally used for years into a single mix.

Their name happens to fit today’s theme rather well.

Do Not Age.

I am an affiliate partner, which means I may earn a stipend if you choose to explore their products through my link. Those proceeds help fund my mission to encourage others toward health and wellness. Click here for the link.

As always, I encourage you to review ingredients with your physician and do your own research before adding anything new to your routine.

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?” — 1 Corinthians 6:19

Caring for the body is not vanity. It is stewardship.

---

🖖 Captain’s Addendum

Spock: “Captain, it appears humans resist large changes but adapt well to incremental ones.”

Bones: “In plain English, Spock, the Captain’s saying don’t try to fix your whole life before breakfast.”

Small steps, taken faithfully, often lead farther than dramatic overhauls that never last.

Join me here:
https://substack.com/@michaelmulliganlivelong

May you live long and prosper.

How I Found My Food Rhythm

Stardate 04.23.2026

I stumbled onto what I now consider a missing link during a routine eye exam in late 2023.

My optometrist reached into a drawer and pulled out a book: The Diabetes Code by Jason Fung. Because diabetes runs in my family, the title caught my attention. I snapped a photo of the cover and told him I’d look into it.

When I got home, I noticed the foreword was written by Nina Teicholz, author of The Big Fat Surprise. That sent me down a rabbit hole of interviews and lectures. The more I listened, the more I realized how little I had questioned what I’d always assumed about food.

That trail eventually led me to Tim Noakes, an endurance athlete and exercise scientist who had publicly reexamined decades of conventional nutrition advice.

Each voice added a piece to a puzzle I didn’t know I was trying to solve.

What I discovered wasn’t a diet. It was a rhythm.

Before I share it, I want to be honest about something: your brain will likely resist what I’m about to describe. Mine did. Changing how we eat isn’t just physical — it’s neurological. Years of habit, comfort, and routine are wired deeply. Sugar and refined carbohydrates have a powerful pull, and breaking that pull felt like trying to tame a wild stallion.

Slowly, patiently, I learned not to fight my brain, but to retrain it.

I began to understand something simple: when certain foods are constantly available, the body never needs to tap into the energy it already has stored. And most of us are walking around with plenty of stored energy.

So I experimented carefully, with awareness and medical guidance.

Here’s the rhythm I settled into:

• One meal a day, twice a week on days off
• Two meals a day on workdays
• Very few snacks
• Minimal sugar
• Very low carbohydrates
• Mostly whole foods like meat, eggs, and simple ingredients

What surprised me most was this: my energy increased even though I was eating less often. Hunger faded. Cravings quieted. My mind felt clearer. My body felt steadier.

I wasn’t depriving myself. I was teaching my body to access a different fuel source.

Over time, this rhythm became natural. My brain stopped arguing. Autopilot started working in my favor.

Some have asked why I still take supplements if this food rhythm works so well for me. For me, the answer has more to do with longevity and supporting my body as I age. I see the two as partners — food rhythm and nutrient support working together.

In honor of Health Week, I’m sharing a link from my blog sponsor, DoNotAge, who recently released a new daily sachet that combines several supplements into one simple mix. If you explore it, I encourage you to print the ingredient list and ask your doctor if it’s appropriate for you. Click here to learn about the sachet. As a partner, I receive a small stipend if you choose to purchase through this link.

“Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” — 1 Corinthians 10:31

That verse feels practical to me now. Food is no longer random. It’s rhythmic. Intentional. Supportive.

Join me here:
https://substack.com/@michaelmulliganlivelong

---

Captain’s Addendum

Spock: “Captain, the body adapts remarkably well when given consistent input.”
Bones: “Which is my way of sayin’, what you feed it every day matters more than what you do once in a while.”

They’re right. I didn’t change everything overnight. I changed the rhythm.

Grateful for another day to learn, adjust, and move one percent better.

Your Brain's Role Regarding Health Choices

Stardate 04.22.2026

Do you trust your brain to make the best health choices?

It’s an honest question. One I had to ask myself when I realized my own brain had quietly been steering me in the wrong direction for years.

Not because it was broken.
Not because it was careless.
But because it was working with faulty input.

Faulty input almost always leads to poor outcomes. And the surprising part is, we often don’t notice it happening. Most of our daily decisions run on autopilot. We reach for the same foods. We keep the same routines. We live inside patterns we built long ago.

If those patterns serve us, autopilot is a gift.

If they don’t, autopilot can slowly work against us without us ever realizing it.

What changed things for me was a simple idea: awareness.

I began to think of every action as a programmed decision. If I didn’t like the result, it wasn’t a willpower problem. It was a programming problem.

One practical exercise helped me more than anything else. I kept a log for one week of my health choices. What I ate. When I moved. When I rested. What I consumed without thinking. It wasn’t about judgment. It was about observation.

And what I saw surprised me.

The temptation at that point is to try to change everything at once. That’s where many of us lose the battle. Your brain doesn’t respond well to a full-scale overhaul. Too much change at once feels like a threat, and it quietly pulls you back to familiar territory.

So I did something different.

I chose one change.

Just one.

I gave my brain a new direction with a single habit. I let that habit become familiar. Once it felt natural, I moved to the next one. Over time, those small changes became new programming. And eventually, I was able to put autopilot back to work for me instead of against me.

That’s when real progress began.

You don’t need dramatic change. You need gentle reprogramming.

In the spirit of simplifying decisions, I’m sharing something today from my blog sponsor, DoNotAge. They’ve created a single daily sachet that combines several supplements I’ve used for years into one simple mix with cold water. For me, this removed friction from an otherwise complicated routine and made consistency easier.

If you explore it, please do what I always encourage: print the ingredient list and ask your doctor if it’s appropriate for you. Let wisdom, not impulse, guide the decision. Click here to learn about the sachet.
As one of their partners, I receive a small stipend if you choose to use my affiliate link, which helps fund my mission to support others in their health and wellness journey.

This isn’t about adding more to your life. It’s about making healthy choices easier for your brain to repeat.

“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” — Romans 12:2

That verse feels practical to me now. Renewal doesn’t happen through force. It happens through small, steady changes that reshape how we think and live.

Join me here:
https://substack.com/@michaelmulliganlivelong

---

Captain’s Addendum

Spock: “Captain, the human brain prefers familiarity over optimization.”
Bones: “Which is my way of sayin’, people stick with what’s easy, even when it’s hurtin’ them.”

They’re both right. My brain wasn’t trying to harm me. It was simply repeating what it had learned.

Now I teach it better patterns, one habit at a time.

Grateful for the chance to keep learning, adjusting, and moving one percent better each day.