I thought it fitting to end the year with a photo of a December sunset at Pleasant Grove, my home of the past five years. In the last month, I’ve moved on to a new city and new home with someone special.

Yep, it’s been another adventurous year in the life of Justin Tadlock.

I did a whole heck of a lot of stuff in 2025. I traveled to Portugal and met awesome people within the WordPress community. I attended my nephew’s wedding. And I started building a new life with Ashley. Of course, that’s barely scratching the surface.

It’d be impossible to recap the entire year—I’d be sitting here for a couple of weeks attempting to write this post. But I’ll attempt to at least cover some 2025 highlights and see how well I hit the goals that I set for myself.

Love or Something Like It

At the beginning of 2025, I created a new goal category for myself named “Love or Something Like It.” I wasn’t quite sure where this road was going to lead, but it’s been one heck of a trek into the unknown.

Ashley and I met via the online dating app Hinge on December 21, 2024, and I was fully in the swing of the online dating world at the time. I hadn’t quite found my other half at that point, but I was out there putting in the time and effort.

But it wasn’t until I met her for our first date a few weeks later on January 6 that I started to leave the online dating scene behind. After a few dates, we felt like we had something real that we could build upon. And it’s been a whirlwind ever since. We’ve had a big year together, taking multiple trolley/train rides, gardening, watching shows at the theater, trips, concerts, and much more.

We even bought a house, got engaged, and hosted our first Christmas together. Below includes some snapshots of some of our year. Stay tuned for the next chapter.

Health and Fitness

I set out to accomplish several health and fitness goals for the year. Here’s how I fared:

• ❌ Weight Loss: I had a goal of cutting to 185 lbs. I’ve kept a maintenance weight between 200 and 205. Honestly, I didn’t focus heavily on this goal. Rather, I kept trying to live a healthy lifestyle.
• ✅ Vitals: My last blood pressure reading was 128/74 and my A1C was 5.2. My goal was to keep my numbers in check, and I’ve managed to accomplish this. All other health markers have been in range as well.
• 🤷 Daily Walks: For most of the year, I kept up pretty consistent walking, but I’ve also slacked off in the last few months as I’ve had other responsibilities.
• 🤷 Exercise Routine: I’ve made progress but haven’t 100% stuck with anything at this point. But I’ve mostly kept up with some form of exercise. I just haven’t nailed down a routine for myself.
• 🤷 Eat More Veggies: I don’t think I’ve increased these numbers on the whole (nor decreased them). But I could’ve made more of an effort.
• 🤷 Body Positivity: I’d still like to feel better about my physical shape. I have days when I do and days when I don’t.

I don’t feel like that tells the whole story. I’ve experimented a lot over the year. I’ve reintroduced foods back into my regular diet (like milk). I’ve focused even more heavily on whole foods. And Ashley has certainly changed aspects of my lifestyle for the better.

I spent a lot of time outdoors, moving my body in the garden. I played basketball regularly for a while. And I tried some different bodyweight routines.

On the whole, I feel like this was a successful year, even if it didn’t go 100% according to the plan that I wrote down on January 1.

Reading

I had a goal of reading 35 books for the year. I fell just shy of that number, reading a total of 33. Again, this is one of those goals that I can’t exactly say that I failed (besides, it’s tough to finish the year strong in the middle of a house-buying process).

It was a solid year, and I read a lot of awesome books. The most important thing is my pursuit of reading every single day, and I hit my seventh year straight earlier in December.

Creative Pursuits

Offline, I completely failed to really dive into any big creative pursuits. It was just another down year.

Online, I actually did build some pretty cool stuff. Here are some new WordPress plugins as well as those with major updates:

• Authors List Block (new)
• Breadcrumbs Block (update)
• Media Data Block (new)
• Progress Bar Block (update)

I really enjoyed just getting back into the groove of building cool stuff for the web, and I’m certainly looking forward to doing more of it in 2026.

Learning Spanish

To be honest, I grew a bored with my pursuit of learning Spanish. I kept up daily Duolingo lessons until about a month or so ago. Then, I just dropped off. Well…I continued Duolingo to keep my streak alive, but I switched over to chess lessons—it still counts if I switched subjects, right? Right?

Despite a solid year of lessons, I failed to read a book in Spanish. Let’s see if I get motivated again in the new year.

Personal Finance

I had several specific personal finance goals. Here’s how 2025 went:

• ✅ Max Out 401K and HSA: No problem here. Just solid contributing each month.
• ➖ Extra Mortgage Payments: I made additional principal payments until the end of August, which is when Ashley and I began seriously discussing our own home. I then switched to savings mode.
• ❌ Kitchen Remodel: Technically, I saved the cash for a kitchen remodel. However, that money was moved to our new house.
• ✅ Double Monthly Investments: My goal was to double my monthly investments into my personal brokerage account. I actually tripled that amount and only missed a single month.
• ❌ Extra 3 Months Emergency Fund: Throughout the year, I actually saved an additional 6 months worth of emergency fund, surpassing my initial goal. However, that money was reallocated.

I also had an unwritten goal of hitting $400K personal net worth with a written stretch goal of $500K. While I did manage the first, the second was too far out of reach since I bought a new home.

I pretty much hit all of my financial goals for 2025. Some of those goals simply changed by the end of the year. On the whole, it was a very successful year. Plus, I have a small chunk of equity in a new property. 2026 will certainly hold new challenges.

Garden and Food Forest

The garden was a huge success. I rekindled my love of annual veggie and fruit growing that I wasn’t quite as motivated to do in previous years. The latter part of the season was a two-month drought, so the late summer and early fall didn’t produce much. But I ate and preserved a bounty like I hadn’t in a long while.

The food forest continued on. I believe I planted around two dozen new trees and fruit-producing bushes in the late winter. And many of the existing trees produced well, at least those mature enough to do so.

But I’ll likely be saying goodbye to my young food forest as I begin a new adventure on a new property. I still own the previous place but plan to sell it in the coming year.

Honestly, it is the hardest thing to leave behind. I spent half a decade of my life building it. There’s a Greek proverb that I’m reminded of:

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

I hope that a new owner will pick up the project and enjoy the fruits of the dozens of trees on the land. As for me, Ashley and I will start over. It’s an opportunity to approach growing a food forest anew while learning from my past mistakes. And with a partner, I’m certain we can get things up and running even faster than I did on my own at the last place. While I’m sad let the old project go, I’m excited for what the future holds.

Here are some photos to bookend the year and celebrate some of what I grew in 2025:

It seemed only fitting that I shell the last of the Bloody Butcher dent corn from this summer’s garden as I was reading Masa: Techniques, Recipes, and Reflections on a Timeless Staple.

Masa is a culinary expedition through the history of turning corn into nixtamal and nixtamal into masa, with lots of great tips and recipes along the way. It’s one of the latest books to further my own study of traditional and natural food preparation.

I’ve previously written about my journey as a diabetic and how I fight it without medication while using natural foods. I feel like this one will expand my repertoire in the kitchen. Plus, I have gallons of dry dent corn from the summer garden that must be put to good use.

But this is not a post about diet or food. It’s about completing my seventh year in a row of reading every day. 🥳 📚

So far, I’ve finished 29 of the 35 books for the 2025 Goodreads reading challenge, which is exactly the same spot I was in last year. With less than a month left, I don’t know that I’ll hit my 35-book goal, at least not without just diving into my manga TBR. And I’m not above doing that to best a challenge.

The biggest barrier to reading the remaining six books is one of my own making: I just got engaged and bought a new house. I’ll dive into the details of that in another post, but suffice it to say, it’s going to be a busy month moving to the new place and with the holidays in the mix.

Whether I complete the Goodreads challenge is largely irrelevant. The goal is to continue reading something—anything—every day for the remainder of my days. I’m a firm believer in reading being one of the most enriching activities that anyone can partake in. It opens us to new viewpoints and expands our scope of knowledge.

So I’ll keep on reading, and I hope you do too, dear reader.

Of the 29 books I’ve completed this year, it’s been a literary feast that would satisfy many tastes. I’ve read up on everything from keeping chickens to science fiction to fantasy—and quite a bit in between. I’ve certainly enjoyed each morsel along the way.

While it’s tough to pick a favorite, I’d probably give that crown to The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. And with that, I’ll leave you with a quote from one of her books:

He shook his head pityingly. “This, more than anything else, is what I have never understood about your people. You can roll dice, and understand that the whole game may hinge on one turn of a die. You deal out cards, and say that all a man’s fortune for the night may turn upon one hand. But a man’s whole life, you sniff at, and say, what, this naught of a human, this fisherman, this carpenter, this thief, this cook, why, what can they do in the great wide world? And so you putter and sputter your lives away, like candles burning in a draft.”

“Not all men are destined for greatness,” I reminded him.

“Are you sure, Fitz? Are you sure? What good is a life lived as if it made no difference at all to the great life of the world? A sadder thing I cannot imagine. Why should not a mother say to herself, if I raise this child aright, if I love and care for her, she shall live a life that brings joy to those about her, and thus I have changed the world? Why should not the farmer that plants a seed say to his neighbor, this seed I plant today will feed someone, and that is how I change the world today?”

“This is philosophy, Fool. I have never had time to study such things.”

“No, Fitz, this is life. And no one has time not to think of such things. Each creature in the world should consider this thing, every moment of the heart’s beating. Otherwise, what is the point of arising each day?”

Robin Hobb, Royal Assassin

Your photos, songs, and videos hold more information than you might think—camera settings, recording details, dimensions, and more. WordPress actually saves all of that data when you upload a file but doesn’t make it easy to showcase it. The Media Data plugin changes that.

Over the weekend, I quietly tagged version 1.0 of X3P0: Media Data, my latest WordPress plugin. It does just what it says on the tin: it showcases media data.

Typically, I’d wait until my plugins are in the WordPress plugin directory to announce them for public release, but my submission was behind 400+ other plugins in the queue. In the meantime, you can always grab a downloadable ZIP from the plugin’s GitHub Releases page.

This is a project that’s near and dear to my heart. I’ve included some version of the original script in my themes for well over a decade, primarily for displaying metadata about audio, video, and image files on their respective attachment pages. Until the block editor came along, there really wasn’t a good way to let users configure it without diving into code.

In the last couple of months, I’ve worked to “blockify” it, making the functionality available to anyone. I’ve also overhauled the original code to use modern, object-oriented PHP and made it extensible for other developers.

What Does Media Data Do?

The plugin is actually made of two blocks:

• Media Data: A container block for assigning a media ID and wrapping Media Data Field blocks.
• Media Data Field: A block that displays a particular piece of data or metadata about the media. This block has a nearly two dozen variations, such as Title, Camera, Duration, Orientation, and more.

In a nutshell, you can insert a Media Data block, select a media file from the Media Library or upload a new file. The block will then automatically insert some default Media Data Field variations (Title, File Name, MIME Type, and File Size). From there, you can add more fields or edit/remove the defaults.

Here’s an example of what it could look like placed alongside an Audio block in the editor:

WordPress 6.9 Block Bindings Support

WordPress 6.9 will also make it possible for custom blocks to support bound attributes. This Media Data block supports this for its media ID attribute out of the box.

What this means is that developers can connect a custom block binding source and showcase any fields about that media file. Here’s a screenshot of a working example from my theme’s image attachment template:

Showcase Your Media Data

This plugin works with any media file that you upload directly to WordPress, using data that WordPress extracts from the file itself, including EXIF fields and ID3 tags.

Note that the data can only be displayed if it’s not removed before you upload to WordPress. For example, many image editors have options for removing EXIF data from photos. So keep that in mind if you do any pre-processing of your media files.

Otherwise, have fun with the plugin and leave feedback or requests on GitHub.

I feel like I’ve been writing some of the best code of my life lately. At least a few times a year, I have moments where I’m bursting with creativity. And I feel like I must work non-stop to let it all free. It’s quite addicting, taking over almost all other aspects of my life, which is not always the best thing.

But when it does happen, I get to build cool things like version 4.0 of my breadcrumbs plugin for WordPress.

With over 200 commits since v3.1.0, I’ve completely overhauled X3P0: Breadcrumbs to be the most robust breadcrumb trail solution for WordPress. And for the first time since I released the original script in 2009, “regular” users will have access to nearly every advanced setting without diving into code.

Block Updates

Version 4.0 exposes what were previously developer-only features via the WordPress block editor. There are still a few more options I’d like to include in the future, but iteration is the name of the game. Plus, I thought I’d get the new feature-set out to you all sooner rather than later.

Customize Labels

In this version, you can customize up to three common labels:

• Home
• Search Results
• 404/Page Not Found

The Home label is customizable from both the content canvas and via the inspector panel in the sidebar. This means that you can change it even while in content-only editing mode.

There are many other labels, particularly around date archives, that are not exposed in this version. Honestly, I don’t know how useful they are as block settings and whether they’ll just clutter the UI. Let me know if you’d like to see more options here.

Post Options

The two major additions to the block include panels for:

• Rewrite Tags: Lets you decide whether to show breadcrumbs based on your permalink structure’s rewrite tags (e.g., %category%, %author%, %year%, etc.).
• Post Taxonomies: Gives you the ability to display the primary term from a particular taxonomy (e.g., category, tag, etc.) on single post views.

Both options have their usefulness, depending on what type of website you have (and they’ll even work together).

The downside is that this addition is a breaking change for some users. In version 3.0 and earlier, the block automatically output the category for posts. In version 4.0, this defaults to use rewrite tags and no category. To expose these new block options, this change was necessary. Essentially, I needed to reset to factory settings, so to speak.

It’s a bit more involved than what I’ve explained here, but trust me when I say that it was unavoidable. And I’ll do my best not to break back compat in future versions of the block.

Other Block Upgrades

A few other noteworthy additions include:

• All the settings panels use the WordPress Tools Panel component, bringing them inline with other Core blocks.
• A new toggle option lets you enable the link for the last breadcrumb.
• The block now supports the Shadow design tool.

Public API Overhaul

If you didn’t know, the plugin isn’t just a block. It’s a full-featured OOP script for displaying breadcrumbs, even in classic themes. Developers can build their own implementations, extending what’s already there.

Simplified Function Call

Previous versions of the plugin didn’t have a middle ground between the easy-to-use block and working with more complex PHP objects. This version changes that with some nice syntactic sugar in the form of the new breadcrumbs() helper function.

Here’s an example of configuring a few optional parameters to output a breadcrumb trail:

use function X3P0\Breadcrumbs\breadcrumbs;

echo breadcrumbs()->render(
	breadcrumbsConfig: [
		'mapRewriteTags' => ['post' => false],
		'postTaxonomy'   => ['post' => 'category']
	],
	markupConfig: [
		'showFirstCrumb' => false,
		'linkLastCrumb'  => true
	],
	markupType: 'rdfa'
);

This is much easier than creating new objects and nesting them correctly. Of course, this is just a wrapper around a more powerful set of tools for advanced use cases.

JSON-LD Support

A nice little add-on that I wanted to point out was the addition of a built-in JSON-LD markup implementation. The plugin itself doesn’t output this in your site <head>, but it does give you the option for quickly adding it yourself.

Dropping this code snippet into a custom plugin or your theme’s functions.php will make the magic happen:

use function X3P0\Breadcrumbs\breadcrumbs;

add_action('wp_head', function() {
	echo breadcrumbs()->render(markupType: 'json-ld');
});

I decided against including an option in the plugin for automatically outputting this in version 4.0. Primarily, I didn’t want there to be any surprises for users with SEO plugins that exposed the same functionality. I need some time to let the idea simmer and decide the best path forward. What do you think?

More Developer Features Available

I won’t rehash everything that already exists in the documentation. There’s a ton of flexibility for folks who want to dive into advanced breadcrumbs configuration and extension. If you’re one of those people, feel free to review the full README.

What’s Next?

I’m hoping to go into a bit of maintenance mode as far as development goes over the holidays, but you never know when the next bout of inspiration will strike.

There’s already a request for a shortcode version of the block, which I think is worth including. I’d also like to explore adding an admin page to enable JSON-LD breadcrumbs in the site head. But feel free to open feature requests via the plugin’s GitHub repository.

Until next time, I hope y’all enjoy this release.

When I was a teenager, I’d stayed over at one of my buddy’s house for the first time. He was the new kid in town, and we’d become fast friends. I don’t remember what all we did that night. Probably played some N64 video games and jammed to whatever the latest “gangsta rap” CD was out—keep in mind that we were two country boys from rural Alabama, so this would’ve been a sight to see.

As I was making fresh granola this morning, a moment from that night flashed in mind, just as clear as it was the back then. In my own kitchen, I was stirring a fresh jar of peanut butter, preparing to put about a cup of it into my granola.

If you’ve never had the real stuff, you probably don’t know that the oil separates from the peanut solids. That means you must stir it well to have a smooth, creamy consistency. It’s a perfectly natural process.

Anyway, back to the night with my friend. I don’t remember that we had a proper supper or anything of the sort. His single mom was probably working, and the kids were left to fend for themselves (I know that idea is shocking to modern-day helicopter parents, but I also very much grew up in a similar situation at times and turned out just fine).

My buddy asked what I’d like to eat. I told him I’d be just fine with a good ol’ peanut butter sandwich.

He’d embarrassingly headed over to the pantry after trying to convince me to try a few other snacks. I wasn’t sure why at the time, until he pulled out a gallon-sized tin of peanut butter. It looked like the sort of thing you’d get from a 1950s-esque nuclear-preparedness cache or something of the sort.

Most kids our age were accustomed to the popular brands in the 90s like Jif, Peter Pan, and Skippy. He knew that. I knew that.

I don’t remember the brand on his tin of peanut butter. But it contained just two ingredients: peanuts and salt. I mostly recall it being a giant metal container and not the small plastic jars I was accustomed to seeing.

He slowly popped the plastic lid off the tin. As he was doing so, he began apologizing and explaining that we’d have to stir it before eating. He knew it was weird. But told me it was OK to eat once it all got mixed together.

I didn’t much care. It was an unusual thing for me, but I’ve never been a picky eater and was always up for trying something new. Besides, my stomach was telling me it was time to consume something. So, I was like, “Let’s do it!”

And I ate a tasty peanut butter sandwich, perhaps for the first time.

A big part of me wants to go back and tell that embarrassed kid that it’s OK to be the weird one in America when it comes to food. Normal is sick.

I’d want that kid to know that his mom, despite being financially strapped at the time, had chosen to feed him and his siblings real peanut butter. Real food. The products that we all ate as kids were nothing more than “peanut butter spread,” filled with added sugars and hydrogenated vegetable oils. Not the real thing.

Also, can someone explain to me why peanuts, which have natural oils of their own, would need hydrogenated vegetable oil added when making peanut butter?

I wish I could travel back in time to let that kid know that there wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about.

And I sure hope that he’s continued eating the real thing over the years.

I know that it’s a mainstay in my diet. As I write this,the taste of my granola cereal still lingers. Subtle hints of vanilla, cinnamon, and peanut butter dance along my taste buds. The thing I enjoy most of all is biting into a cluster of oats that have formed a pocket around a ball of peanut butter. 🤌

Nova is a space-faring, time-traveling creature from an unknown race who has ventured back to 2025 to build awesome WordPress plugins and themes. Or he’s possibly here to just cheer me along in the process.

He came here entirely by a random act of fate.

What I really means is that I accidentally created a brand new mascot along with some help from AI and #wpdrama.

The Backstory

An article on the Afteractive blog, Has Wapuu Outlived Its Usefulness? A Critique of WordPress’s Mascot and Community Decay, has been making the rounds in recent days. It argues for the retirement of Wapuu, WordPress’s own beloved mascot.

While I don’t agree with the conclusion, I’m not here to argue with it. I’d rather go on building cool stuff with WordPress and enjoying the fun Wapuus that others create.

Besides, if you want to read counterarguments, check out:

• Wapuu Slaps: A Manifesto
• In defense of Wapuu

If I was still writing for WP Tavern, I probably would’ve written my own manifesto for Wapuu as a response. But those days are far behind me.

Instead, I wanted to do what my colleague Jonathan Bossenger described as “kill em with cuteness.” And that’s exactly what I set out to do.

I wanted a Wapuu for my X3P0-branded WordPress themes and plugins. I wanted to plaster my own little version of Wapuu all over my plugin and theme pages on WordPress.org. I wanted to share the pudgy little yellow creature across social media. Kill em with cuteness.

As much as I didn’t have time for a well-written rebuttal to the original article, I also didn’t have time to spend hand drawing my own version of Wapuu, bringing him back into Photoshop, and getting the details just right.

I turned to Google Gemini with an initial prompt: Can you create me a fun icon of a WordPress Wapuu that is holding a loaf of bread?

Gemini didn’t at all give me a Wapuu. It gave me the first version of Nova.

Nova wasn’t what I was looking for, but he was what I needed. I hadn’t expected to find this path, but some small part of my soul knew I had to follow where it led.

After some back-and-forth with Gemini and a some careful adjustments in Photoshop, I had a character that I was satisfied with. And I had a use case: I wanted his first public outing to be in my Breadcrumbs Block banner and icon:

I suppose I owe some gratitude to that Afteractive article. It sparked the flame that created Nova. Now there’s one more cute and cuddly mascot in the WordPress community.

Nova, the Mascot

I’ve always wanted a mascot for my development work, but I never properly sat down and created one. It’s hard to find the time with all the other things that climb atop the to-do list.

But we’re in the middle of the AI revolution.

And as much as I love doing things the old-fashioned way using the tools that I know, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to just get things done. AI is merely another tool to push ideas to life. And sometimes it helps you create magical things that you were not expecting.

Nova is now the official mascot for my projects under the X3P0 umbrella, which is basically my personal brand for block-era WordPress themes and plugins (click the images of Nova below to find cool blocks you might not have tried yet!).

I had a lot of fun designing dozens of variations of Nova with Gemini over the weekend (the girlfriend can attest to that since she received most of them via text). It’s rarely a perfect AI tool, but it gives me a running start before pulling everything into Photoshop and Figma for further manipulation—don’t even ask me how many times I had to cut and crop a new tail on Nova!

In a lot of ways, it reminds me of my early days of the web—just creating for the sake of creating and trying new ideas with new tools. AI has truly made the web fun again. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Whatever it is, I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot more of Nova in the coming weeks, months, and years. I’ve officially adopted him.

Heck, he even has his own theme song, created using Suno, another AI tool (hat tip to Troy Chaplin for the suggestion):

Until next time, keep having fun with this wild and wacky thing we call the world wide web. Don’t let the haters keep you down.

As usual, I’m sitting behind my laptop on my birthday, attempting to think of something profound to write and share with the world. I don’t know if I have any particular life lessons this year, but I do have a story.

This story began primarily during my college years—perhaps even earlier. But the latest chapter began on October 4, 2023, and has been a significant part of my life over the past year. I’ve shared pieces here and on my social media accounts. It’s finally time to share it all—well, the important bits anyway.

It was a nice, warm day. Maybe a few degrees above the average for Alabama weather in early October. We hadn’t quite got into the good football playing temps yet. But the warm weather wasn’t too much on my mind because I was sitting in a icy room, nervously awaiting results from my primary care physician.

I already knew the news was going to be bad. I didn’t know how exactly many boxes I was going to tick on the “yeah, you’ve f’d up” chart, but I could think of a few.

Turned out I hit the big trifecta that, sadly, so many Americans can claim:

• ✅ Hypertension.
• ✅ Hyperlipidemia (that’s high cholesterol).
• ✅ Type II Diabetes.

Those three typically go hand in hand. They also lead to far worse issues if not addressed. I was driving along the fast track toward an early grave, likely by stroke or heart attack, whichever curve appeared first along the road.

I knew the blood pressure was up. I probably could’ve guessed the cholesterol wasn’t so great. But I could fix those.

The “D” word struck me the hardest. It was an issue that I’d never faced in the many years of yo-yo dieting and exercise regimens I’d gone through. And everyone I knew who had the disease was on some form of medication or insulin injections. Honestly, that didn’t sound like too much fun to me.

I’m going to stop here and just give you some good news: for all intents and purposes, I haven’t been diabetic for over a year. I suppose it would be correct to say that the condition is “in remission.”

This topic has been on my mind in the last month as I had my latest checkup with the doc. My blood sugar was in a good place after being entirely off medication for six months. It’s a good place to be at the ripe old young age of 41.

The question on so many people’s minds: how did you do it?

My Diabetic Journey

I did two things when I left my physician’s office that day.

The first was to make a quick trip by the Burger King drive-through. I snagged three cheap burgers for one final hurrah.

The second, and probably the most important thing, was to vow that I would deal with my diet and lifestyle issues once and for all. If I were diabetic that day, I wouldn’t be for long.

That meant making changes to my lifestyle. I needed more exercise and to eat healthier. Sounds simple enough. I’d been down this road a few times, and I know that it’s not always easy despite the simplicity.

My exercise routine is pretty boring. I make sure to move around some every day. In the winter, that’s mostly 30-60 minutes of walking. As the weather warms, I’m more likely to be in the garden or doing some sort of yard work. Exercise is such a small—but important—component that it’s hardly worth going into detail.

The biggest changes are through diet, so I’ll focus on that part of the journey.

So many people ask me if I avoid carbs or if I’m following a carnivore diet to address blood sugar issues through diet. And so many of them are surprised that I eat many carbs. They’ve actually played an integral role in my diet over the past year and a half.

I’ve completed a lot of diet programs throughout my life. I’ve done everything from Atkins to similar programs such as paleo, primal, and carnivore. Heck, 13 years ago on my birthday, I had what I called the Birthday Breakfast of Champions, which was a bacon omelet. I’ve had a stint with veganism (really more toward ovo-lacto vegetarianism) where I’d previously dropped my blood pressure. As far back as my college years in 2007, I participated in Body for Life. I even ran a 5K back in 2011 (this was during a second go with Body for Life).

Most of those diets are fads in one way or another. I’m not saying that they’re bad. Quite the opposite. Most have something to offer. There’s never been a diet that I’ve been on where I didn’t lose weight, correct health issues, and get into better physical shape. And I’ve tried others too.

So the real question is why I didn’t stick with any of them. I believe that’s because they all lacked something.

Some diets forgo delicious bread and fruit. Others ban beans and dairy. And, let’s be honest, I love a good steak as much as any other red-blooded American.

There is one thing that all the diets I followed had in common: getting rid of processed foods.

In practice, that means focusing on whole foods. I think most humans instinctively know what healthy, wholesome food is. And that’s not the stuff that comes out of a box.

When I think of an “ideal” diet, I always go back to two guidelines my stepmom always mentioned:

• Eat whole foods.
• Eat in moderation.

I wasn’t going to worry about whichever diet was the monthly flavor. I was getting back to the very basics—real food.

It was an exciting time. I love food. I’ve had a passion for cooking even as far back as my early college years when I was originally on track—believe or not—to earn a Hotel and Restaurant Management degree. Plus, I like a good challenge.

So when folks ask me how I got off medication and control my blood sugar entirely through diet, I tell them that I focus on eating real food. If they dig deeper, I walk them through some of my guidelines. I suppose now is as good a time as any to share them. These are merely the things that I do that have kept me in a good place:

• Eat three main meals each day: breakfast, lunch, and supper.
• Switch to eating from a 9-inch plate. Less food means I avoid overeating (and never going for seconds).
• Include at least one serving of proteins, carbs, and veggies on the plate.
• Eat two or three snacks each day. These are almost always a handful of nuts or nut butter on a slice of sourdough bread.
• Eat something fermented at least once a day. This is usually sauerkraut or another lacto-fermented veggie and often serves as the veggie part of my plate.
• Consume only whole or very minimally processed foods.
• Avoid things with multiple ingredients on the label like the plague.
• Make my own bread and bread-like products from whole grains. These days, I’m almost 100% on sourdough for grains with gluten, such as wheat (now wondering if sourdough pasta is possible…).
• Plenty of fat from a range of sources, which includes meats, butter, ghee, lard, olive oil, avocado oil, cheese, and nuts.
• Include potatoes of all kinds, corn, beans, and peas.
• Eat fresh fruit or berries for nearly every meal. Though I don’t drink fruit juices.
• Grow and eat as much food as possible from my backyard (exercise and whole foods combo).
• Cut out drinking milk almost completely. This mostly pertains to me as a milk addict. I consider whole milk pretty healthy, but there’s no reason to drink so many calories.
• Cook all my meals from scratch, except for 👇
• Once a week, eat out but don’t overindulge. This can be anything from a fast-food burger to a slice of greasy pizza.

I’m sure I left a few items off the list. Maybe one day I’ll formalize it all into a new diet book. 🤷‍♂️

I’m not 100% strict on everything. These are my guidelines, not set-in-stone rules. I think it’s important to realize that strictly following rigid diet rules can lead to burnout. It all goes back to those original words of wisdom: eat whole foods and in moderation. Those things have been the keys to my success.

As I celebrate my 41st birthday, I suppose I’m just happy that I’ve made the changes I’ve made. This is the longest I’ve ever stuck to a “diet.” I’m sure I’ll make some mistakes along the way, but it feels right.

There’s really no end to this story, at least until whatever day I die. Right now, I’m just enjoying the journey and the good food along the way.

Previous years: 40, 39, 38, 37, 36, 35

I visited my father’s grave today, one year after his passing. I’ve never been one to go to the cemetery to see lost loved ones. For me, it’s merely a final resting place, and there’s little of the person left there. If I wanted to have a conversation with my dad, I would have a better chance of getting a response out in the garden or working on something around the house.

I feel like my dad would appreciate that. He was a practical man for the most part, but he was also a dreamer. In many ways, I suppose that I am like him. I can walk around the yard in my own head while also getting some work done.

I’m sure I’ll visit again in the future, but this was something I needed to do today. In part, to be there with my sister. Also to see the headstone since it has been laid.

More importantly, I needed today to do the thing I’d been telling myself I’d do for a year: say goodbye in the only way that I know to say goodbye. By writing about it.

To Be a Man

Over the years, I’ve given a lot of thought to what it means to be a man. What does it mean to be a father? A grandfather? How do you know when you’ve truly reached manhood?

You can vote or go to war in my country at 18. You can legally purchase booze and smokes in my home state at 21. You can even drive at 16—that thought is a lot more frightening at 40.

I suppose that like most men you never really feel like you’re anything more than an 18-year-old kid fumbling through life. You just have different responsibilities. And no matter how well your parents prepared you for adulthood, it’s never truly enough. Most things, those are things you must figure out all on your own. And if you’re lucky, have a partner who walks that journey hand in hand with you.

That’s what I think I’ve figured out at this point. Life is a journey of lessons. You can learn from them and grow, becoming the person you are meant to be, or remain stuck in the past. But ask me again in another 40 years; I may have a different answer.

And regardless of how well your parents prepared you for life, there’s no preparation for a life without them.

My father, Jesse Edmond Tadlock, passed away on April 16, 2024. And just over a month later on May 22, 2024, I lost my maternal grandfather, Robert Lee Frazier (“Papa”).

These two men were the primary male role models throughout my life. So when I ask myself what it means to be a man, it’s tough to answer without their input. But I was fortunate to have 40 years of lessons from each of them. It’s a lot of years but somehow, it feels like it’s not enough—it’s never enough.

So if you ask me if I feel like a man now, I’d say I still feel like that 18-year-old kid who still needs Daddy and Papa around when I fall short. Yeah, I’m OK forging my own path and always have been, but for the past year, I’ve had to succeed or fail on my own without the safety net. The journey and the lessons have been mine alone.

Around the time of my father’s death, I first heard Dax’s “To Be a Man.” It was a song that resonated with me as a man, a son, and a grandson.

It puts into words what it’s like to be a man in modern times and—I suspect—throughout history. As a son and grandson, I wish I’d appreciated the men in my life more through my formative and teen years. But those days were gone so quickly, as I was always looking toward some distant future where I would be in full control of my destiny.

I certainly appreciated them more as I grew older. I just wished I could’ve slowed down when I was younger and listened more. But the downside of youth is that you don’t yet have the wisdom to do the things you should. And I guess I wouldn’t be who I am if I had slowed down.

So what did I learn about being a man from two of the best? Quite I bit. I won’t share everything, but the lesson that struck me the hardest was one of sacrifice. A man sacrifices so much of himself for those he loves.

He shows up to ball games when he just wants to relax after a day of work.

He moves the kids from apartment to apartment as they figure out this whole adulting thing because, you know, he’s the one with the truck.

He disciplines even though it hurts him more than he can show.

He compromises on his dreams for his family, providing what he must.

He drives the tractor over to dig up a burst pipe in your yard.

And so much more.

And Superman Bleeds

Most boys grow up seeing their father as Superman. He’s the strongest guy they’ve ever known (for what it’s worth, I never actually beat my dad at arm wrestling). He’s the guy who’s always there to save the day. He’s more capable than any other human—he’s Superman.

I was around 37 years old (assuming I’m getting my years right) when that boyhood worldview shattered. For the first time, I saw my father as anything less than superhuman. He looked broken, weak compared to all the years I’d known him. He’d just suffered a heart attack and was lying in a hospital bed, unable to control his movements completely. His always-strong arms were wobbly as he struggled to hold himself awake. I could see him fighting it every moment. I often wonder if part of that struggle was to avoid appearing less than superhuman in front of his family more so than the trauma he’d experienced.

In many ways, I’ve been writing this post since that day. It was the first time it dawned on me that I’d have to carve my own path one day without the man who had always been there.

When I saw him the next day, he was almost back to his old self and flirting with every nurse who walked into the room.

It took me a few years since that day to realize that I was wrong. Superman bleeds too. James Gunn’s recent trailer for the upcoming Superman trailer reminded me of that.

In the opening scene, we see Superman broken and bleeding, beaten down. The trailer showed the humanity of Superman and what he could be despite being knocked down.

What made my dad Superman was never his strength or the appearance of it. He kept going even when he could’ve easily given up. From his early days, until his final days, he faced life head-on, and that’s the man I remember.

Conversations

In his final months, I was able to go with my dad to a few of his chemo appointments. For the first time in my life, our father and son roles were reversed. It was my turn to be superhuman for his sake. I know he’d never entirely share his fears, but I had to be strong enough, to be by his side when he needed it.

I know some people may look back on such trips as the bad moments, wishing to forget them, but they were special to me. For us, it was more moments in our limited time here on earth, conversations that were about nothing and everything at the same time. Each trip was just another drive around town with my dad. The circumstances didn’t matter.

A song that came into my life at the time I most needed it was James Blunt’s “Monsters.” I realized that it was my time to chase the monsters away.

On his last day, I sat with him and told him it was OK if he needed to let go. That I’d keep going and figure out this whole life thing. That I’d make him proud. I told him about the promotion I’d just been offered at work the previous day. I chatted with him about my first blueberry that had ripened on that day.

I talked about some of the important things but mostly about the mundane. Those were what most of our conversations were about anyway, and if it was going to be my last day with my father, I figured we ought to treat it like any other day.

We’d already said all the things that truly needed to be said.

I suppose that’s what I miss the most. It’s not the big life lessons. It’s those moments in between. I still grab my phone to text my dad a photo of my latest culinary experiment. I still want to call for advice when I’m trying to fix something. Or just chat about things I can’t recall today.

If I were having a conversation with my dad today, I’d have plenty to share. I’d tell him everything about the woman I’ve been dating and how well she treats me. I’d tell him about the jalapeno-cheddar sourdough I made earlier this week. I’d mention the 40+ fruit trees I now have growing. I’d ask his advice on converting an old shed into a chicken coop.

Dad, if you’re reading, a lot has happened. We’ve got some catching up to do.

With the roller coaster of 2024 and its ups, downs, twists, and turns, I’m not sure how good of an idea it is to make predictions for another year. But here I am. A new year, and it’s pretty much tradition at this point that I outline a set of goals for myself on the first day of our lonely little planet’s next revolution around its star.

Despite all the downturns in 2024, I still managed to hit most of my goals. I suppose merely having something written down and sharing it with the world keeps me moving forward, a shining beacon in the distance that I know I can reach if I just continue charging toward it.

And that’s probably what I truly need for 2025—to build upon the life that I’ve pieced together for myself with sweat, grit, and little duct tape, not letting the foundation crumble.

Without further ado, I’ll just jump into my goals for the year, forever etching them into annals of the interweb.

Love or Something Like It

Oh, a new category for 2025!

Last year, I finally took that bold leap into online dating. I have thoughts—lots of thoughts about this wild and weird industry. But I’ll save most of those for another day. I’ve already met my first scammers and been ghosted. I’ve also made a good friend (we were not compatible beyond that).

Apparently being a 40-year-old guy with a real job and no baby-mama drama is a pretty desirable trait in the online dating world. It probably helps if you’re not a complete asshole either. Who knew?

I also have someone who I like, and I hope it turns into something wonderful. We’ll see how it goes.

Pinning down a specific goal here will be tough. For me, the long-term vision is to find my partner to spend the rest of my life with. But I know that doesn’t happen overnight. So let’s just say that my goal is to simply continue striving to be the best version of myself and searching for that person who wants to grow with me.

Health and Fitness

I accomplished most of my goals in 2024, but I’m still not 100% where I want to be. I’ve put in the early work to live a healthier life, building a foundation. So it’s all about the long game now.

• Drop down to ~185 lbs. and maintain it (I was 200 in October 2024). I feel like this will be a good maintenance weight at my age (40) and height (6’2).
• Keep all my numbers in check.
• Continue my daily walks of at least 30 minutes.
• Build an exercise routine for even better health and shape up some of this flabbiness.
• Eat even more vegetables.
• Feel great about my body.

Reading

I have officially set my Goodreads annual reading challenge to 35 books for 2025. It feels like a solid number for me. It’s not so easy that I can slack off and finish but not so hard that it feels like an overwhelming task.

And, of course, I will hit my seventh anniversary of reading every day this year. Can’t end the streak now.

I have already kicked off 2025 with Mistborn: Secret History. I look forward to finishing Era 2 of Mistborn, restarting The Wheel of Time series, and much more. My TBR is already around 30 books, so I have lots to catch up on.

Creative Pursuits

In 2024, I didn’t set out any specific goals. I just left it up in the air, saying I would do something. Let’s change that for 2025 and start with a single baby step: I will finish my painting of Twinkle, my youngest cat that I lost in 2023. Nothing insurmountable but gives me a direction to take.

Learning Spanish

Today, I will hit my 381st straight day of Spanish lessons on the Duolingo app. It’s going fairly well, but I need to kick this up a notch for the new year. I’m shooting for two specific goals this year:

• Keep the Duolingo streak alive for another year.
• Read at least one book in Spanish.

Personal Finance

I felt like I’ve been fairly successful in this area in the past year, but many of the goals were “safe” and not a real challenge. Sure, those are important, and I’ll continue doing them. But I also need to make it tougher on myself. New goals for 2025:

• Max out my 401K and HSA (of course).
• Make an extra principle payment on the house each month.
• Save up for a kitchen remodel.
• Double monthly investments in my personal brokerage account.
• Save for an additional three months of emergency funds.
• Stretch goal: hit half a million in net worth.

Garden and Food Forest

Once again, I’m late in planning the garden and food forest for the year. Mostly, I feel like I’ve been going through the motions, but it’s also been winter time. Not much to be excited about at the moment.

As usual, I have been saving for additional fruit/nut trees and bushes. I’ll have $600 set aside for new plants come time to plant. This year, the primary focus will be on finding trees that are a bit rarer because I already have most of the common fruit trees. So I have my work cut out for me in terms of research.

For the garden, the usual: tomatoes, peas, and greens. Again, I haven’t really planned well. The big thing for me is just having fun with it and growing something. It’s great exercise and cheaper, healthier food.

Previous years: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2013, 2009, 2008

Early in the year, my family found out that my father had cancer. Everything pointed to it being treatable and my dad facing good odds. And he was fighting it every step of the way just as he fought every day of his life. There were not many moments where I actually thought that we’d lose him. He was the toughest man I’d ever known. It was just too soon. It always is.

I still have stories to share about the man my father was, but I’m not quite ready to share them yet.

The day before he passed away, I was offered the position of Team Lead at work. All I wanted to do was talk it over with him, but I never got the opportunity. I did say yes to the role a couple of weeks later, which has been a rewarding experience with a steep learning curve. I look forward to becoming an even more well-rounded leader in 2025.

A little over a month later, I lost my maternal grandfather to cancer too. It was a tough loss, but I also felt like I had gotten the chance to say my goodbyes. My family had also gotten its second chance with Papa after he had beat cancer years earlier. We were given those extra years, but it’s never easy.

While we’re at it, I might as well get the last sad news out of the way. I also lost my eldest cat, Smeagol, in August. We had nearly 21 years together, growing up and growing old. But it was his time. He lived a long life for a cat, and I’m glad to have gotten to spend all those years with him. I couldn’t have asked for a more annoying best friend. It’s still quiet around the house without his meows.

The year wasn’t all doom and gloom. There were some major highlights and big wins throughout the year. Let me just jump straight into some of them.

Travel

Nothing overseas this year, but there were quite a few adventures along the way. In total, I traveled five times and to several locations within some of those trips. I’m just going to roll through these quickly and mostly drop some photos in remembrance.

Montréal, Canada

I kicked off my travel this year on a team work trip to Montréal. It’s always great to have face-to-face time with the team. Hat tip: check out the AURA Experience at Notre-Dame Basilica if you get the chance. It’s well worth the experience.

Alabama Road/Hiking Trip

For my summer vacation, I took some time to explore various public and private parks in my home state of Alabama. Majestic Caverns, Noccalula Falls, and Fort Payne were among the places that I visited.

Miami

In November, my team and I met for the second and final time of 2024 in Miami, Florida. Overall, it was a solid trip where we regrouped after the loss of some beloved colleagues. And we did our usual food and walking tour. This time: Little Havana.

Salt Lake City and Dragonsteel Nexus

My sister, Amy, and I traveled to Salt Lake City to attend Brandon Sanderson’s Dragonsteel Nexus 2024 convention. It was the first fan convention that either of us had ever attended. We also took a tour out to the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Great Salt Lake, and just over the border into Nevada.

New York

Immediately after my Salt Lake City trip, I flew into New York for Automattic leadership training. It was an intense few days, and I didn’t snap a lot of pics. But here are a few that I liked:

Niceville

For the first weekend of my Christmas holiday, I drove down to Niceville, Florida to visit my stepmom and stepsister. On the final day, we took a trip out to the beach in Destin. It was my last trip of the year.

Did I Hit 2024’s Goals?

As usual, I like to look over the past year and see if I hit the goals that I laid out for myself on January 1. Overall, despite the ups and downs, I believe I fared reasonably well.

Health and Fitness

I had some very specific health and fitness plans and managed to do very well with them:

• ✅ Get below 210 lbs. (I was 200 in October at my last checkup).
• ✅ Keep my blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol in normal ranges.
• ✅ Move down to an XL t-shirt size.
• ✅ Reduce meds (off one, more to go).
• 🤷 Boost my fitness regimen. I didn’t really take this far enough, but I do consistently walk every day.

Reading

I had a challenge to read 50 books this year. I knew it would be a stretch, especially because I tend to read epic fantasy quite a bit. I think it’s only fair to count anything with 1,000+ pages as at least three books, right? Right?

The final tally? I read 33. Not too shabby.

Creative Pursuits

I didn’t really set any specific goals for the year, so I’m not sure if 2024 was a success or failure. All in all, it wasn’t a particularly creative year for me outside of work. I still have multiple projects pending that I want to see to completion. Maybe I’ll make more specific plans for 2025.

Learning Spanish

I am now on a 380-day streak on Duolingo. My goal was to do at least one lesson each day for the entire year. It’s safe to say that I rocked this goal!

Personal Finance

I pretty much accomplished everything that I set out to do this year with finances:

• ✅ Max out my 401K, HSA, and IRA.
• ✅ Pay off the remaining ~$10K of my student loans.
• ✅ Continue to pay down my other debts monthly: mortgage and lawn mower.
• ✅ Save 1% of my property’s value for future repairs.
• ✅ Build up a few remaining savings goals.
• ✅ Don’t fall prey to lifestyle creep (with the caveat that I splurged a bit in December).

I had a stretch goal to hit a specific net worth, but I fell just short. Mostly, that’s just due to what the stock market looks like in December, which is out of my control.

Garden and Food Forest

For the garden, I planted my greens, peas, tomatoes, and more. At times, I took on too much. But I also slowed down late in the year. But I did plant the things that I had planned to.

In the food forest, I planted quite a few new trees. At the moment, I have over 30 fruit trees, seven blueberry bushes, four pecan trees, and a few muscadine vines. More to come in 2025!

Previous years: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2008, 2007