A perk of working from home is that when your pal Dan Morin texts you and says, hey, a guest is a no-show for Clockwise.

Can you tape an episode?

And it was right then.

I could say yes.

Did it mean I had to cut my lunch a little bit short?

Yes.

But I’d eaten all the food, so it was really just the sitting and relaxing and not going back to work part that I had to cut short.

And for Dan, that’s worth doing. Your Daily Lex So various updates.

One, I’m seeing the orthopedist again on Monday, so we’ll see if he has any insights following the MRI.

Two, I am getting slightly more used to my face.

There are still plenty of folks who see me who are at first like, wow, you look a little gaunt.

But now that I’ve been seeing it for a few days, it looks less gaunt to me.

I’m still not 100% sold on the face.

But I’m definitely sold on the weight loss.

So it’s like, I can’t do any cheek strengthening workouts.

So I’m not convinced that I’m gaunt.

I think it’s just that none of us saw my face for a while, and so it was a dramatic change.

But we’ll see.

Definitely starting to look more normal, so that’s something.

Updates for those of you who are thinking about Ani and how Ani had to go take a dumb health final for 10 minutes today in school against the rules.

The health teacher was like, here, take this pretest.

And then had the students who were there, because many seniors cut today, had the students there cross out the word pre, and said, we’re just going to count it as the test.

So Ani no longer has any finals and came home from school today, and that was Ani’s last ever day of high school, last ever day of public school.

Crazy.

Crazy.

With graduation for both Ani and Liam from eighth grade next week.

Sierra, meanwhile, has finals.

The other two don’t.

Liam’s finished as of today, and Ani is exempt from all their finals.

When I was growing up, you could be exempt from all of your finals in ninth through twelfth grade.

You had to get nothing less than a B in either the first or second quarter, and every other quarter had to be an A.

So you could go A, A, A, A across all four quarters, B, A, A, A, or A, B, A, A.

And there were two perks in my house.

One is you didn’t have to do any final, and two, my dad would give you 50 bucks for every final you were exempt from.

I did not pay Ani for those exemptions, but that’s okay.

Let’s see.

I, for months, I have been intrigued, interested in trying out David Protein Bars.

They’re made by the guy who invented RxBars, is a fact that a friend of mine told me today, Brian, and the fact that I had seen when I had researched them.

I get ads for protein bars and protein-enriched foods all the time, and Brian and I also just send each other texts with cool protein-laden foods.

But what made David’s protein bar, or David Protein Bars interesting, is that they have 250 calories and 28 or so grams of protein, where the best protein bars I otherwise get are 200 calories and 20 grams of protein.

So having more protein and less calories is very exciting.

And they’re overpriced is the problem, so I never order them.

And as Brian reminded me, I also complained that they advertise on Andrew Huberman’s podcast, and I don’t like that guy, especially because he loves Lex Friedman.

But I still kept looking at David Protein Bars because I get advertised on them all the time, and I like their macros, let’s say.

And I saw a deal where I could get them for, they usually want like $3 or $4 a bar, and I saw a deal where I could get a bunch for $2.50 a bar.

So today, I had my first ever David Protein Bar.

I was excited to tear into that 150-calorie bad boy with 28 grams of protein, and it was chocolate peanut butter-flavored flavor combo I just love.

And the bar, I would say, was slightly below mid.

Like, it wasn’t bad.

I could eat it.

But some protein bars are enjoyable.

And this one was not because it tasted like kind of nothing, nothing with a hint of peanut butter and chocolate.

It was as if they had captured the aroma of peanut butter and chocolate and sprinkled that on it, but not the flavor.

It’s weird.

Disappointing.

I don’t know if I’ll keep buying them, but I love the numbers, especially I’m even more calorie-restricted than I had been for all my time since November, just until early July.

And every savings of calories helps because I’m only eating 1,800 a day right now.

And if you’re a smaller person than I am, you may be thinking, 1,800, that sounds like so many.

1,800 is pretty restrictive for me, a 6’2 person who weighs now, what, 187 pounds?

I don’t think I’ll be able to get all the way down to 180 before I go to Italy, and I do expect to gain a couple pounds in Italy, but it’s okay.

I’ll come back from Italy and I’ll get all the way back to 180, or all the way down to 180.

It’ll be very exciting.

And then my face will look skeletal.

Anyway, that’s me.

Hope you’re having a wonderful June 18th.

Goodbye.

Lex.