Tim Veron founded Vively, an Australian metabolic health platform. It takes data from continuous glucose monitors and other wearables, runs it through machine learning models, and gives people a real-time read on their own metabolic health. Katia Dowling made the introduction.
His starting point is that glucose is a biomarker the body works hard to hold inside a narrow band, and that movement outside that band is not neutral — it is damaging. The company’s stated aim is to democratise access to that number, and to what pushes it around.
But the argument he makes for CGMs is behavioural rather than clinical, and it is the more interesting one. Humans are feedback machines — we need inputs to make decisions. For the whole history of medicine, feedback on how you were living arrived years or decades late, usually as a diagnosis. A glucose monitor collapses that to minutes. Once you have watched your own blood sugar climb because of what you just ate, you cannot unlearn it.
That matters given how much conflicting nutrition advice exists. His framing is that you stop arguing about which diet is correct and start following your own data — approaching weight neither through dieting nor pharmacology, but through evidence about your particular body.
What makes the interview unusual is the other half of him. Asked about radical life extension, he does not reach for a technology roadmap — he talks about Eckhart Tolle and the present moment, and about health as a way of expressing a joyful and meaningful life. Marek’s summary at the end was that talking to him was like talking to a technology guy and a healer from Bali at the same time. Tim agreed.
VivelyCGMsMetabolic healthBehaviour change
Sydney · January 2024
Sydney, January 2024
Where we met
Katia Dowling introduced us, and we came into Sydney to see him — Marek already a committed CGM wearer, so the conversation ran in both directions rather than as a straight interview. They compared what the data had taught each of them, and it turned into one of the more practical hours of the quest before drifting, unexpectedly, into meditation and breathwork.
The introduction
Via Katia Dowling
She connected us before we reached Sydney.
Sydney
January 2024
The interview at Vively — glucose, wearables, and behaviour.
Afterwards
Same visit
The conversation ended on breathwork and the present moment.
“When you see your blood glucose change in real time based exactly on what you ate, you can’t unlearn that.”
— Tim Veron, Sydney
On the quest
In Sydney
CGMs & metabolic health. SydneyUnder the tree. Sydney · 2024
In his words
Follow your own data
“It’s the first time we can actually get real-time feedback on how our behaviours are affecting our health.”
Tim Veron · Sydney, January 2024
Our bodies want to keep glucose within a very tight range.
Tim Veron
There are so many conflicting messages around nutrition. It’s refreshing to see your own data and follow that.
Tim Veron
I don’t really think in terms of living forever. I think about living a joyful and meaningful life.
Tim Veron
Get curious about your own health.
Tim Veron
In his own words
Straight from the interview
From the conversation in Sydney — why real-time feedback works, what Marek learned from his own monitor, and the answer that did not sound like a founder.
Why real time changes things
The behavioural case, not the clinical one. We are feedback machines, and until now feedback about how we lived arrived far too late to act on. A monitor turns a twenty-year consequence into a twenty-minute one — and that, he argues, is what actually shifts behaviour in a chronic disease crisis driven by behaviour.
“Humans are feedback machines. We need data and inputs to make decisions.”
Sydney · from the interview
What Marek learned wearing one
Three things, and they are worth repeating: a bowl of rice can do what a bag of sweets does; a fifteen-minute walk after a meal flattens the curve that grandmothers always said it would; and quantity matters even when the food is impeccable — his biggest spike of all came from lentil soup and halloumi salad, simply because it was too much.
“It’s just because it was too much.”
Sydney · from the interview
The answer that surprised us
Asked about radical life extension, he declined the premise. He cited The Power of Now, said he does not think in terms of living forever, and described health as a way of living a life full of meaning and purpose. On a quest full of people planning to defeat ageing, it stood out.
LinkedIn still to be confirmed. ⚠ Note for our own records: this is Tim Veron of Vively — not the Tim who led the Aboriginal ceremony in Australia. They are two different people.
From the conversation
Tim Veron, in his words
Video interview
The video interview is coming. Recorded interviews go live after the launch of the film & series Live Beyond.
From the conversation in Sydney, January 2024. Lightly edited for readability.
What Vively does
Tim Veron“Vively is a metabolic health platform. We use technologies like continuous glucose monitors, but also other wearables, and we process that data using machine learning models to give users real-time understanding and insights around their metabolic health. Glucose is a really important biomarker — our bodies want to keep it within a very tight range, and any variability outside that range can actually be toxic for the body. So we democratise access to that data point, and to understanding what is causing their glucose to come out of range.”
Why the feedback loop matters
Tim Veron“One of the really exciting properties of continuous glucose monitoring is that it’s real-time feedback. Humans are feedback machines — we need data and inputs to make decisions. A CGM is this wonderful tool that gives you real-time information about how your behaviours… It’s the first time we can actually get real-time feedback on how our behaviours are affecting our health. In the context of the chronic disease crisis around the world, we know our behaviours are a big part of that. So being able to get that visibility is really important.”
On conflicting nutrition advice
Tim Veron“There’s so much confusion out there, so many conflicting messages around nutrition. It’s so refreshing to be able to see your own data and then follow that data. You can start to approach your weight not through dieting, and not through some pharmaceutical intervention, but by following your own data.”
What Marek learned from his own monitor
Marek Piotrowski“The first thing is that it’s not just about sweets and sugar — sugar levels rise because of all the carbohydrates we eat. Eating a rice bowl is like eating a pack of sweets. So now I eat one third of the bowl, and I know it’s enough.”
Marek Piotrowski“The second was that after a bigger meal I go for a walk straight away — ten or fifteen minutes. If my blood sugar is on the rise and I walk, it goes flat and comes down. Everybody used to say it when we were kids: go for a walk after food. And we thought, whatever, it’s grandma saying it. Now you can see it’s real.”
Marek Piotrowski“The third was how much you eat. I went to a vegetarian restaurant, had lentil soup and halloumi salad — two very healthy meals. And I got the biggest spike ever. It was just because it was too much.”
On radical life extension
Marek Piotrowski“We really believe in the radical life extension tools that are coming. What is your view on that?”
Tim Veron“My view is that I’m a big believer in the present moment, in the now — probably from reading too much Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now. But I don’t really think in terms of living forever. I think more about living a really joyful and meaningful life. I see health as a way of expressing that, a way of living your best life. What I’m excited about is: what are the ways we can live a long life, but live a really fulfilling one, full of meaning and purpose?”
His message to Aleksander’s generation
Tim Veron“Get curious. Get really curious about your health. Coming back to this concept of being present and being in the moment — we’re living in an age of increasing distraction and complexity, and coming within, getting curious about your own health, running experiments, trying to understand how your body works: I think that will only serve you to live a long and healthy life.”
His wish for the quest
Tim Veron“I just hope you have a great time, and a lot of great conversations. Hear lots of different perspectives, and take time to listen to them and understand them. And try to come away with a sense of gratitude and thanks for the experience. I think that would be a good outcome.”
More passages from the full interview will be published here.
Continue the quest
More minds on the quest
Tim Veron sits in Biohacking Upgrades (data-driven protocols) and Longevity Basics (nutrition, mindset). Read him next to Katia Dowling, who introduced us.
