What You Username Says About You

📧 Should you change your username?

Hello, my CinemaGravy babies, I’m so pleased you’ve found yourself here, either in your inbox or through an internet boy’s promise of dopamine in the form of macro-friendly desserts (if that’s you, feel free to skip straight to the tasty stuff).

Regardless of how you got here, you’re now one of 400 infinitely cool peeps subscribed to what I call Monday Gravy.

While hubris makes me want to dismiss it, I’m indulging the idea that you’re here for a reason. Maybe it’s that mysterious web of connection we all stumble into sometimes. Like when you open your eyes after a hard squint and see fireflies dancing in your periphery. Or when a fizzy drink gives you that weird tightness in your shoulder. Fleeting, unexplainable moments that usually slip by unnoticed.

This week I got a follow from a dude I’ve been watching for a while, huge in the fitness space. Even his IG handle screams: this is my identity, here’s what to expect.

It reminded me how many of us once picked usernames, emails, even URLs with ruthless certainty. My first was [email protected], because Avril Lavigne, my skateboard, my age, and obviously my gender were eternal. Lol.

The unintended consequence is that those usernames weren’t just labels. They became scaffolding. The niches we lock into as kids bleed into our subconscious and shape how we sprint toward goals later.

And I actually think that’s a good thing. Take this with a heavy pinch of malden because I’m an extreme guy, but sometimes the only way forward is to let your ego go all in on one thing, to let the identity carry you.

But it can’t be the whole story. The real glue between us isn’t the niche boxes we climb into, it’s the odd, fragile, unexplainable moments of being human.

So… should you change your username?

Maybe. If you need an extra nod of encouragement from the universe, there’s power in owning your identity. Not to say this is me forever but to say this is me now. Let the username you choose mean absolutely nothing, or let it mean absolutely everything. Just because tech is ones and zeros doesn’t mean we need to live our lives in the binary. We can hold multiple truths at once. Like Avril Lavigne not being the greatest musician of all time, but somehow still loving her music.

🥧 Dopamine

Pumpkin Apple Pie à la Mode – Bodybuilder Edition

Nat King Cole is one of my favorite vocalists. He cut one Christmas album, and now every time I hear the King I slip straight into winter mode. The corollary: it feels wrong to listen to Nat when it’s 80º outside.

Pumpkin is the Nat King Cole of the ingredient world. You could respect the season and wait for the leaves to turn, but why let the UV index (currently a 9 here in sunny LA) dictate your cravings?

Pumpkin puree has exactly three uses:

1. Holiday pies (obvious).

2. Dogs with upset stomachs (sad).

3. Autistic bodybuilders obsessed with macros and high-volume eating (me).

So yes—this is a fall bukakke set to Nat King Cole’s Christmas album.

Ingredients:

Pumpkin base
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
1 scoop (30 g) vanilla whey protein (texture impact is minor; protein impact is glorious)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
10 g sweetener (erythritol/Splenda—dealer’s choice)

Apple mixture
1 Fuji or Granny Smith apple, cubed
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar-free maple syrup

Creami base
1 Fairlife protein shake (11 fl oz)
1/8 tsp xanthan gum
50 g allulose
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon

Toppings
2 graham crackers, crushed
Extra cinnamon
Flaky Maldon salt

Directions

1) Apples
Microwave diced apple ~4 minutes to soften (or sauté if you’re feeling extra). Stir in cinnamon, salt, and syrup. Set aside.

2) Pumpkin
Mix pumpkin, whey, cinnamon, salt, and sweetener until smooth. The whey barely changes texture, but it quietly turns this into what appears to be one of the greatest macro meal replacements in the world.

3) Creami
Combine Creami base ingredients in a pint, freeze 12–24 hours, then spin in the Ninja Creami (re-spin with a splash of Fairlife if needed).
Shortcut: You can sub in Halo Top or your favorite low-cal pint—but the harmony here is the absurd volume + legendary macros.

4) Assembly
Pumpkin base → Creami → warm apples → graham, extra cinnamon, Maldon.

Eat immediately, preferably half-naked in front of something wholesome with someone you love. High-volume, macro-friendly eating is never seasonal.

Macros (per full recipe, per your MFP)

• Calories: 659

• Protein: 56 g

• Carbs: 94 g

• Fat: 11 g

PDF Version Here.

📚 Things Worth Your Time

🎯 The Accuracy Budget (via Zach Telander on Modern Wisdom)
Here’s a concept that stuck with me: every time you tell the truth, you make a deposit into what’s basically an “accuracy bank account.” Over time, this builds authority and trust. And like any account, it gives you something to withdraw from. When you eventually stretch into new territory, test a wild idea, or just flat-out mess up, your audience covers the overdraft because they know your balance is solid.

I like this because it gives permission to be bold. You don’t need to be right all the time, you just need to be consistently honest.

🧥 Oversized Crew Neck (Amazon)
Fall in LA doesn’t demand heavy knits, but it does demand vibes. I’ve been living in these cheap oversized crew necks I found on Amazon. They’re light enough for SoCal “cold,” soft enough to feel like you’re wrapped in a cloud, and cheap enough that if you butcher one with scissors, it’s no big deal. I always crop mine so the proportions hit right, still swimming in fabric but not swallowed whole. Bonus: they come in colors.

🍦 Ninja Creami - (Amazon)
Fall is officially here and two things that don’t usually mix with cold weather are slim bods and ice cream. I’m a hobbyist contrarian, so it delights me to give both middle fingers to that concept. Some of you nutty folks probably don’t have one of these yet. That’s fine, I only picked mine up a few months ago and honestly, I was living life in black and white before. Now I’m making 200-calorie pints a couple times a week and it feels like discovering colors I didn’t know existed. Shreds and chilled desserts never looked so good heading into the holiday season.

🔜 Coming Soon

Out now – Are You a Man Child? (IG)
A few weeks ago I asked myself a question: am I still training to be the man my 13-year-old self wanted me to be? Pop psychology calls this a phantom identity — the early aspirations we carry and then bury, even if they keep tugging at us. I suspect a lot of the tension men feel comes from this conflict: growing up vs staying a kid. Maybe the answer isn’t one or the other. Maybe it’s both.

10/1 – GravyCode - My Pre / Intra Workout Beverage (IG)
My extremely autistic drink of choice. A lot of things go into it and there’s very little explanation as to why. The beauty of being a content creator is I get to self reflect on these random rituals of mine in hopes of fielding the obvious questions that show up in my DMs. Mainly: “WTF?”

10/3 – Apple Pumpkin Pie A La Mode (IG)
My Monday Gravy babies got the sneak peek here, but today you’ll get the visual of this high-volume, low-calorie, macro-friendly mouthgasm in 24fps. Alongside it, a reflection on an adorable (not clinically diagnosable) quirk I have about eating while distracted. Expect vibes. Expect me harmonizing with Nat King Cole.

✌️See Ya Soon

I love hearing your thoughts. Reach out in the DMs anytime you want to riff. I’ll happily play bro armchair philosopher with any member of the Gravy tribe.