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Swimming Upstream…
So, met with the team first thing Monday morning to say this (I woke up with this idea at 3 am, hate it when that happens but sometimes it’s a good thing…) this year, in 2026, I want to go UPSTREAM.
And I don’t mean swimming against the current, like those astonishingly brave and stubborn salmon that fight all the way back to their spawning grounds…
I mean – I want to relocate the focus of our business activities upstream. Upstream management. Upstream leadership. Upstream marketing. Upstream product development.
What that means to me is this – I don’t want to be putting out goddam fires all the time. If we wait until something is a crisis to address it, then everything is always in a panic. I’m 60 this year, for goodness sake, and mama is OVER running around in a panic. This rapidly-aging female nervous system just doesn’t want to be in emergency mode any more.
What I want instead is to be camping upstream. Planning upstream. Living upstream. Acting upstream. Thinking about what is happening earlier, to prevent crises (yes, plural intentional, because that’s just life, isn’t it?) instead of chasing disasters after they’ve already occurred.
Proactive. Preventive. You know?
And it strikes me that this is very similar to what we’re already doing with health all these years at CG. Improving your gut health with a combination of kefir and prebiotics is a very upstream activity. If you’re in a desperate crisis right this second – go to the NHS. They’re great for that.
But if you’re interested in prevention, proactive stuff – then start improving your gut health today – for impact 6 weeks from now. Or 12 weeks. Or 6 YEARS from now.
And yes, this stuff takes time. It works at the level of deep root causes that take a while to show up on the surface.
But I will tell you this – Rich and I wheeled ourselves out to have a gold-star wellness check recently. They checked EVERYTHING – and I do mean everything! Bloods, ECG, waterworks, the lot. I’m always concerned about Rich – because he’s like one of those race cars that has run a lot of punishing races. Drives himself really hard, and has been through the mill. The man has no large intestine, no gall bladder and only one original hip. (He says that he spent most of his youth heavily involved with motorcycles, women and beer – and the rest of it he wasted. So you get the picture…) These days I watch him like a hawk, and keep him so stuffed full of kefir that he sneezes lactobacillus. So I was more than a bit curious, to see what his report was like at the age of 64.
And guess what? Turns out his overall wellness cores were so high that the doctor said the only one she had seen higher was a 30-year-old triathlete. Blood pressure of a 21-year old. Blood metabolomics excellent. All good. Bragging rights etc.
Go figure.
And I’m not going to lie to you – the man likes his cakes and steaks. After all his ops and medical dramas early in our married life, I gave up trying to boss him (except for insisting that he take the kefir every day) and just let him pretty much eat what he wanted. I figure he deserved it.
Turns out – it’s not just the diet!
It’s the gut health. Upstream, see?
This story is anecdotal, obviously. One man. One experience. If you want to see it laid out in more clinical terms, the clinical data is here, published in the Journal of Translational Medicine. In science-speak, it sounds like this: “combination of probiotic and prebiotic” “anti-inflammatory effects,” “targeted dietary interventions that influence systemic inflammation and metabolic health,” “reductions across a broader range of inflammatory proteins.”
To me, it looks like watching the love of my life striding out across the yard to get on his tractor, where he belongs.
That’s my upstream victory.
What’s yours?
Hugs,
Shann.x
Founder/Director Chuckling Goat
ps – forgot to say – I’ve just been named The Most Influential Business Leader to Watch In 2026 by Enterprise World Magazine. If you’re feeling that way inclined, you can read up on me here. Not gonna lie, feeling a bit celebratory about this one!
pps – And if you have questions about gut health? Don’t talk to a bot. They got no guts – what do they know? Talk to a real live, friendly, trained, human gut health expert. You’ll find one waiting for you here, 8 am to 8 pm weekdays. All humans, all the time!
