Isn’t Sugar Sweet?

It has a much darker side.

The Pyramid of Luxuries

The Bespoke - $1,000 Mobile Phone Shopping Spree

The Ultra High End - $100 UberEats eGift Card

The Superpremium - Wingstop

The Premium Core - Wingstop Deal

The Accessible Core - Isn’t Sugar Sweet?

The Affordable Luxury - Next Bespoke Prize

The Everyday Luxury - Online Social Winners!

The Bespoke

Announcement: This is the last week to enter your submissions for August Bespoke Contest. Win a new phone!

Click on the banner to enter The Bespoke Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $1,000 Mobile Phone Shopping Spree [ARV $1,000]

• Odds: For every 130 Ducky Tran premium member by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) Shopping Spree

• Contest Period: July 31, 2024 at 10 AM CST to September 3, 2024 at 10 PM CST

The Ultra High End

Previous Contest Winner

The winner of Issue 40 Ultra High End contest is HOA from DALLAS, TEXAS! Here’s her submission for “something that needs to be fixed AGAIN”:

Congratulations HOA, you won the Cosori Air Fryer! It’s quite durable and I haven’t had any issues with products from Cosori I’ve had in the past or present, at least one thing you don’t need to fix. Check out the other submissions of things that needs to be fixed:

As an adult and dad, these photos hurt. The pranks that make you work harder at work. The bulbs that are supposed to last 10 years, but go out in 1 year. The ninja-like Lego block that waits for your foot to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And potholes that seem to be more plentiful than the cars on the street.

The funny, yet serious truth is, all these things will remain “needs to be fixed again” forever.

This Week’s Contest

Click on the banner to enter The Ultra High End Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $100 UberEats eGift Card [ARV $100]

• Odds: For every 70 Ducky Tran premium members by the time of judging, I will give out a blanket

• Contest Period: August 28, 2024 at 10 AM CST to September 3, 2024 at 10 PM CST

This week’s focus is physical wealth and I wanted to give out something specific to one of my favorite places to eat; however, I think that’s pushing my preference in food too much so I decided on a $100 UberEats eGift Card so you can pick what you want to eat.

Being physical fit and well includes eating healthy and exercising; however, we can’t neglect the emotional aspect of being physically wealthy. If you are healthy but dislike what you eat and don’t look forward to exercising than it’s almost meaningless. So, rewarding yourself so you are motivated to continue is generally the better way to do it. Win the UberEats eGift Card and use it to get your cheat meal of the week.

The Superpremium

This week’s Superpremium topic is Wingstop. This is the actual restaurant I was going to give a gift card for; however, I didn’t want to push my food preferences on the members since not everyone likes wings and fries (or do you).

I have written about some amazing local restaurants and fancy dining experience from my travels, but even I have cravings for a big chain restaurant greasy food, specifically Wingstop!

I’m sure the cravings stem from wonderful childhood memories of eating wings with family and friends. I remember gathering for game night with everyone and ordering 100-200 wings and way too many fries to devour everything before the night ends. Of course, there are a few of us, including me, that would wreck ourselves with the spiciest flavor at Wingstop, Atomic, to see who can last the longest.

Even though I have pretty high expectations for restaurants so most chain restaurants don’t meet my cravings, Wingstop has a special place in my belly, and here’s so reasons why:

1. This may be my experiences only, but it’s probably the only wing restaurant that I actually get drenched wings when I order wet wings. There are places that the wet wings might was well have no sauce.

2. It’s weird to think about it, but I normally like crispy French fries; however, I crave the softer and seasoned (I’m sure with MSG) fries from Wingstop more than any other fries. It may be nostalgia, but hey, that’s what most cravings are about.

3. I’m a meat-atarian. I like to eat BBQ and wings, the veggies that come on the side are normally just decorations to me. I guess fries are vegetables?

4. I love their Mango Habanero and Atomic wings! I am a spice fanatic and so I generally get the spiciest or near spiciest wings at every wing place.

So yeah! That’s why this is the only big chain restaurant I ever get cravings for.

The Premium Core

Funny how I said I wouldn’t push it, but I want everyone that haven’t had it to try it. So, to make sure it doesn’t hurt as much, I have a deal for Wingstop!

Deal #1: You can purchase a $25 Wingstop gift card for just $18 delivered to your door at shop.duckytran.com. There’s only 5, so if you want Wingstop, don’t forget to stop by the shop.

There’s no challenge, but if you can handle some spice, get some Atomic. 😁

The Accessible Core

Isn’t Sugar Sweet?

Sugar gives us energy, it makes us happy, it is a necessity.

“Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.” - Democritus

This quote speaks the truth of most things in life including sugar. In the last two centuries, the average American sugar consumption has risen astronomically. From an average of 5 pounds per person in the 1820s, it has grown to over 100 pounds of sugar per person each year in the present! This trend has changed the lives of every American in more ways than we can imagine.

Most of those ways are much more harrowing contrary to the sweet crystals we ingest daily. From diabetes to depression, there have been many studies in the last three decades that have shown the direct correlation and effects of sugar on our physique and mental well-being. Weight issues have been a big issue for a long time and has been attributed to high levels of grease, processed foods, and high sugar content in our daily meals; however, depression which has been on the rise for the last 50 years has not been connected to sugar in the public as it should be.

May it be that we eat sugary foods to suppress our depression, or it is sugar that causes the depression, or because the sugar releases all our happy hormones leaving us down in the dumps, the amount we ingest is still directly correlated to it. To fortify the studies, there are studies that show a decrease in sugar intake and moderating it to a lower level have actually improved mental and physical health simultaneously.

With all the obvious easy access to sugar in our daily lives like soda, fast-food, candies/treats, most snack foods, and nearly all processed foods, what can we do to help ourselves? Well, like every intervention we must take it one step at a time and try to make sure we don’t speed through and end up at the same place we were before.

1. Decide if you want to lower sugar intake

2. Accept that you ingest too much sugar daily

3. Set a SMART goal on sugar intake reduction (be honest, plus you still need sugar to function)

4. Reduce one item at a time and find the success in eat one such as: I saved money, I saved time, I feel better, I am a role model to my kids, and similar goals so you can achieve more in the future.

5. Help others, because doing it together makes it easier.

6. Celebrate! (Don’t binge sugar, but use it as a reward like it was originally meant to be.)

The Affordable Luxury

Issue 40 Community Poll Results

Here’s the results from last week:

1. I asked if which sense you would lose if you had to pick one and the majority picked the sense of smell with hearing next in line and sense of touch had a single vote. No one wanted to lose taste or sight. The unfortunate thing is, by losing the sense of smell, about 70-80% of your taste sensory would be gone too. This is a hard one for me, but it’ll probably be hearing. Imagine the peace I would get around 4 children!

2. I asked which sense you would enhance 3 times and nearly everyone picked sight, with a single vote for taste. Just saying, that sour candy would be super sour! But sight was what I expected. I think I would pick the same. No one wants to smell stinky stuff more, or feel more pain, or blow your ears out, but seeing further has little downsides.

3. Lastly, I asked if you would rather have 1 meal at 2000 calories or eat 5 meals at 400 calories every day, and surprisingly, it was a 50/50. Let me break the tie, I would pick 1 meal. I think it helps with cravings, I actually can eat a full steak and mash. It helps with metabolism and time management. I believe it can also be easier to maintain calorie counting when it’s a single meal versus many meals.

This Week’s Community Poll

Here are this week’s poll questions:

The Everyday Luxury

We just completed our first Online Social! It was a good event and I’ve learned a lot about how to host another in the future. I learned a lot of about those that attended and I hope to see many more people in the future.

We had 4 winners over the course of 4 games of votesout.com. Congratulations to TIMOTHY, STACY, ALEX, and HONG! You will be receiving $25 Amazon eGift Cards for being our winners. I hope to see have another event soon, we have members asking about the BBQ social so I’ll be working out the logistics soon.

Thank you to everyone that logged in, see you next time!

(The referral program is only viewable on the email version of the newsletter.)

Visit shop.duckytran.com with the weekly password: uber