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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Great new paleo movie-"The Croods"!

OK, I just got done watching an animated movie on Netflix streaming-  Meet the Croods...


And WOW! is it good!  Check out the trailer above!

All paleo eating, and no tribal fun makes Grok or Eep dull boys and girls.

So whip yourself up a tall, green paleo smoothie, break out the dark chocolate, and settle down in front of the flickering television for a Paleolithic romp of fun for the whole family!

Tell 'em PaleoJay sent you.


Sunday, February 23, 2014

PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe podcast #71- Perfectly Paleo Exercise Equipment

PJSC #71   Perfectly Paleo Exercise Equipment

One of the great parts about exercising naturally, ala Perfectly Paleo Exercise, is that equipment is totally and completely optional!  In fact, the idea of traveling to a gym is the exact opposite of what I would want you to do.  Not that gyms are “bad”, per se, but I want you to put it into perspective:

1.Do you want to be a professional athlete?

2.Do you really want substantial muscle bulk?

Do you want to travel to a gym, change, exercise, and then travel back home- several times per week??  And pay for the privilege?

For 90% plus of us, the answer is NO to all of the above- we want to be fit, lean, and healthy!  And, ironically, exercise is only about 5-10% of the equation:

A good, solid paleo type of DIET, coupled with good sleep, is the other 90%!

So, the marketing illusions are out of the closet- no gym membership or fancy set of weights and weight machines, well tooled Olympic bars, and expensive coaching will do much at all for you, if you don’t first change your lifestyle.

The good news is, it’s easy!  Get a Vitamix, and make a green Paleo Smoothie each day; or if it’s only you, one every two or three days.  Space it out, and you’ve covered about 1/2 of your diet right there!  I have a link on my site, www.paleojay.com where you can link to Vitamix, and get one with no shipping cost!  The recipe for the smoothie is on that site as well.


Then, add in a giant salad for lunch, and have grass fed beef or wild caught fish for supper, along with some rice or potato and veggies- you are done!

“But Jay” you ask, “Isn’t this whole podcast/blog supposed to be about exercise equipment??”

Yes, my friend, it is.  I just want to first explain what is most important, and then to proceed with the topic of exercise.

Exercise is crucial, if you want to look, feel, and perform really good for the rest of your life!

But I want you to understand that if you ignore proper diet, your efforts are pretty much wasted...

So, to get back to basics here:

In my ebook, Perfectly Paleo Exercise, I talk about visualized resistance exercise, where you self-resist in each exercise, using the muscle itself to supply resistance.
This is the benchmark; I believe the very best, safest, most convenient and natural way to exercise- no equipment, no travel- nothing!  Do this first!!

BUT, after you’ve gone through this basic routine, like I do daily, for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour at home, in front of the television in the early morning...

Add in some bodyweight exercises a couple of times per week and you will put the icing on the cake- YOU WILL GET REALLY STRONG, LEAN, AND POWERFUL!

Here is the equipment I recommend:

A set of gymnastic rings

Perfect Pushup device

Parallette bars

Ab wheel

Kettle bell

The gymnastic rings are fantastic!  If there is one piece of equipment I wish I’d always had, it




would be these- you can use them for pushups, flies, tricep extensions, rows, pullups and chinups, assisted chins, dips, assisted one-legged squats- I mean a set of rings, hung up in your basement or elsewhere, are quite cheap, and are so easy on your joints (and yet so demanding on your muscles!) that it makes for a really fast, efficient workout!   I honestly think that, if folks just set up set of rings in their house or garage, they could forego the expense of gyms, elaborate weight machines, and do much better for their bodies in the process!

Plus, you can get started into gymnastic moves, which are a lot of fun, and build balance, strength, and co-ordinated power all at once.

When I see someone squatting (which is fantastic- don’t get me wrong!), but squatting with a barbell on their back- I cringe!  Why?  The compression on the spine is awful, and the stress on the knees and lower back as well... and the results are awful as well-

A fat butt and hips, and wide thighs that rub together when you run?

Who wants that??

And it’s senseless- unless you can do multiple pistols, that is one legged squats for sets, why put weight on your back??

Just don’t do it!  I‘ve been there, and I know it for what it is- a bad prescription!

Do hindu squats, do pistol squats- or, if you can’t supported one-legged squats with your hands helping through the rings, or some other support. (Like a doorframe!)

#2 on my list is the Perfect Pushup device, of infomercial fame!  Really?  Yes, really!

Just get the heavy duty model- I wore out the basic model within a couple of months...

Not only does the Perfect Pushup ensure perfect form on your pushups, it also eliminates all of the stress on your elbows and shoulders through it’s twisting action.  It makes sure all of the stress and stimulation is right on your chest and arms- where you want it to be!!

In addition, the perfect pushup can double as a paralette bar, or p-bar: allowing you to do L-Sits right in your living room!  When you can do a few long L-Sits on your P-bars, you are doing A-ok fitness wise!!

I like to do the bulk of my perfect pushups in the living room, whilst watching TV!  The ebb and flow of the program keeps me “into it” and it’s like sprinting in sets!  I usually keep my feet up high on the couch, and do regular, wide, and then narrow grips-

Exhilarating!

Way, way, WAY better for your physique and fitness that the bench press, which is the BACK SQUAT FOR THE CHEST!    A real shoulder destroyer...

The Paralette bar, or P-bar, mentioned above:

I made my own P-bar, out of PVC- works great!  It is especially good for DEEP pushups, since your are elevated so high off of the floor.  If you want to work on a handstand, these are essential... a “planche” as well, although it will take you a while!

Whether or not you get a planche, (which is levering your legs out behind you whilst holding yourself on your straight arms on the p-bars), the p-bars allow you to work on straight arm strength.  This is the strength that is so crucial for the health of your shoulders and joints, that is virtually ignored by weightlifters, who only concentrate on the strength of their arms when bent; i.e. LIFTING.  Straight arm strength is crucial!

The Ab wheel!

The ab wheel is a wonderful way to work your...ABS!   Not only is it taxing, but it can really build your abs to the max, along with your lower back on the second half of the movement!  A win-win... much better than the strain of a barbell deadlift!!

They are very inexpensive, and wonderful tools to have around!  You can start with knees on the ground, and end up like this ...

The last is the kettle bell!  Again, I made my own, ala Tim Ferris...

I know, you think I hate weights, and I kind of do, but kettle bells are different- kettle bells don’t work in the way barbells do, that you have to:

Add as much weight as possible, as quickly as possible, and then continue- FOREVER!!

No, kettle bells can work the strongest man alive to death with a quite light weight!

And that’s a good thing!

Kettle bells are my “go to” for Barefoot Sprinting in Winter, since to do high rep sets with the kettlebells is very much akin to sprinting, but indoors, and working on the low back, abs, legs and butt much as sprinting does!

And so, there you go- my favorite exercise “gadgets”!

All are simple, very LOW TECH, but VASTLY SUPERIOR TO ANYTHING YOU WILL FIND, AT ANY PRICE, IN A GYM!

What we are talking here is natural exercise, that will develop you, man or woman, into a specimen of the physique that you would actually want.  Not bulky, not awkward, and not freakish-

Symmetrical, strong, graceful, balanced and pleasing!

Both to yourself, and those around you- the best possible YOU!

Isn’t this the idea that we should all get back to?

J

Sunday, February 16, 2014

PJSC #70 Put Yourself Back in Contact with Mother Earth!

Thermography Images- left- INFLAMED.....Right- GROUNDED, little inflammation!!
PJSC #70
Put Yourself Back in Contact with Mother Earth!

Earthing, or grounding- connecting the body directly to the earth- is this a vital part of healthy living, or a strange scam?

I have been researching this idea, and testing it out on my own body, for quite some time.  I noticed when I began barefoot sprinting years ago that I really enjoyed it!  I would do my usual Sunday in-the-basement workout, with my chin ups, and dips, various sorts of self-resisted squats and leg raises and assorted ab exercises, various kinds of pushups, and several sets of kettlebell swings… then, as “dessert”, I would go outside and sprint for 50-100 yards or so, for maybe 5-10 sets of sprints.

It has gotten to where I really look forward to the feeling I get doing these- it’s like I’m little 8 year old Jay again, running with my friends and brothers around the yard, barefoot, just for the fun of it!  Remember how great it felt to tear around like this barefoot when you were a kid?  Well I’m here to tell you that it feels just as good at 60 as it did at 6- and the older you are the MORE you need it!

At first I chalked this feeling up to just the barefoot benefits:  my feet were strengthened by running and walking as they were meant to- not confined in little “coffins” of stiff shoes…and that is definitely a  big part of it!  The benefits of using your feet as Nature intended are legion- the long atrophy caused by constant wearing of shoes results, eventually, in not only foot pain, but it travels up the chain of the body, and causes knee, ankle, hip, and back pain as well!

You really do need to start going around barefoot, at least inside your house!  Socks are fine- they don’t “confine” and degrade your foot like shoes do.  But, is there even MORE benefit to actually being barefoot- outside- ON THE GROUND?

I believe that there is, and it has to do with the electrical charge of the earth, with which we are meant to be in contact with!

We are electrical beings; we need to be grounded! Like everything in the ancestral, or paleo lifestyle, the more we examine the many ways in which our civilization has gradually and relentlessly set us further and further apart from nature, giving us many comforts and conveniences, sure- but also made us lose contact with those things that made us what we are- things like real, God-made food!  Ample, restful sleep!  A tribal community and family that we interacted with on a daily basis!   Pure water and air, an unpolluted environment! Daily stimulation to our muscles, and nearly constant movement!

And now, it appears: Contact with the electrical charge of the Earth itself!  That contact, which our forebears had in abundance, has been largely lost through the constant wearing of shoes, and the separation of most of us totally from the land and the soil!
There is a book, and plenty of information about this topic at www.earthing.com  You can certainly go there and check it out, and make your own decision.  They sell grounding “products”, like mats that you can sleep on, and when you are selling a product like that, somehow your research seems a little, well, shady…

But I really think they are onto something, and you can try it out on yourself, for free!

When the weather warms up, SOON I hope, go outside and walk around in your yard, or the park, or wherever- barefoot!  Sit outside with your bare feet on the ground- even on cement you will be grounded!  Get some natural sun each day as well- skip the sunscreen, and let your body make vitamin D the way God and nature intended… I’m sure there are other benefits to this we just have not even discovered yet!

See if, like me and many others, you don’t start feeling, and sleeping better!

The theory is that grounding, or earthing your body, at least some of the time, is another piece in the paleo puzzle of improving how you look, feel, and perform, by putting things back into our lives that never should have been drifted away from.  Real food, real sleep, real movement, real environment, and real contact with Mother Earth!

They all go together, and we should reintroduce them into our lives for our own good!

- and Hey- could you give me a review on Stitcher?  I'd sure appreciate it dude!
Just go to this link- stitcher review link  Thank You Tribesmember!!
J

Sunday, February 9, 2014

PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe Podcast #69- Paleo Diet for Healthy Skin, Hair, Teeth, and Eyes!



I know, you want to eat a paleo type of diet because it will make you leaner, stronger, and fitter; meaning you are more defined, can lift heavier things, and have more endurance to do just about anything... but have you thought about the ancillary things about living within the Paleolithic template, or ancestral diet that are just as important, but you haven’t heard about?

One of the most fast and remarkable changes brought about by adopting the Paleo diet is greatly improved skin health!  By eliminating the phytates, the anti-nutrients that are within grains, particularly wheat, inflammation is drastically reduced!  Inflammation is the root cause of most modern disease, but it is also the cause of skin problems- acne, rosacea, psoriasis; even simple things like dry skin, or oily skin…

Your body starts to just work like it should,because it has the nutrients (or the building blocks) from which to work properly!  And, it has not been “gummed up” with all of the worthless crap from industrial seed oils, loads and loads of sugars and artificial sweeteners, margarines-  you get the picture- it’s just as if you put all of this stuff into your car’s gas tank- do you think it would run well?  Or even at all after a short time!

The same thing is true of your dental health- in my opinion, it would be well worth embracing the paleo diet just for the benefits to your teeth and gums alone!  The results are that dramatic.  After the first few months of adopting the paleo diet, years ago,my wife and I both had checkups at our long-time dentist.  We had good checkups, as always, but the hygienist was amazed- what had we been doing?  There was virtually NO plaque or tartar buildup, and our gums were just pristine!  She seemed genuinely flabbergasted.  All we had done was eliminate wheat, at that point, and begun our daily Paleo Smoothie- (an early version with a used Vitamix).

Hair health is similar- I guarantee your hair will feel thicker, and will definitely be much shinier after starting to include plenty of healthy fats, like pastured butter and coconut oil!  And without the grains in the way, and displacing the eating of other really nutrient dense foods like grass fed meat, seafood, and those good fats, the body can really go to town putting nutrients to work in “non-essential” areas- like the skin, teeth, hair, and even the eyes!  If you eat a nutrient poor diet, like most modern Americans do today, the body is forced to “triage” the nutrients it has, using them to perform vital functions of survival, like keeping the organs working, the heart beating, and the brain functioning, at least at a low level…

If the nutrients are all present and accounted for, and ABUNDANT, the body has the luxury of working on those “non-essential” parts of us that we care so much about- it can give us glowing, healthy skin!
It can give us shiny, abundant hair!  It can put the High lutein and zeaxanthin pigments  that are found in eggs, and green leafy veggies to good work, repairing our vision!
The teeth can, and WILL REMINERALIZE themselves, if only we give them the raw materials, and the minerals they need through our diet!  Even cavities can remineralize and heal- Whole Grains INHIBIT the ability to digest minerals!


Isn’t this the type of results that you are interested in?  Isn’t EVERYONE?  Save your vision, your teeth… have healthy skin and hair… and incidentally be disease free, full of energy, and have a healthy, well functioning mind and body- eat a Paleo type of diet!


Get a big jar of organic, virgin coconut oil- in fact, get TWO- one for the bathroom, one for the kitchen!  The bathroom coconut oil is perfect to rub on your skin after your shower- it is not only the BEST moisturizer you can find, it is also a great anti-bacterial AND a mild sunscreen.Mild is what you want, since you DO want vitamin D to be synthesized from the sun- and it is chemical free!

Once you get yourself a Vitamix, and make a daily green paleo smoothie, you will save yourself a lot of time, since you make the smoothie in the morning, and it pretty much gives you all the nutrients you could possibly need for the day, in a quickly made, drinkable form that you can carry with you- and all made from REAL FOODS!

So, picture yourself and your family, glowing with health, at your ideal weight, all just two things:

Eliminating BAD, FAKE foods like wheat, tons of sugar and artificial sweeteners, and industrial seed oils, and
Adding in tons of REAL foods, like grass fed meats, coconut oil and pastured butter, seafood, fruits and veggies!


Throw in 8 hours of quality sleep per night, a bit of visualized resistance, Perfectly Paleo Exercise on a frequent basis, and you will be so healthy, both mentally AND physically, that your life, and that of your family, will be TRANSFORMED!

It really is that easy!

J

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Whipped Coconut Oil for the Perfect Lotion!



Sometimes we run across an idea that is so simple, and yet so wonderful that we have to share it right away- 

That is how I feel about this Whipped Coconut Oil Lotion!!

Especially if you have a KitchenAid mixer, this recipe is so easy and effortless, it will change your life...

Just take a jar of coconut oil, I certainly hope you have at least one on hand- I always have at least TWO jars- one for the bathroom, and one for the kitchen.  From now on, the one in the kitchen will no longer be a jar full all Winter long with hardened, cement-like textured coconut oil, that has to be warmed between you palms for minutes at a time until it is melted enough to spread over your thankful dry skin and/or hair...

Take at least a cup or two of hard oil, (as I saw how fast and great it all whipped up into a beautiful, frothy cream-like texture, I kept adding in more and more)!  Heck, why not- what a great gift!

Just whip the oil on high for maybe a minute or so- 

It will become the loveliest, creamiest texture ever-

NO MORE DIGGING IT OUT WITH A KNIFE!


I had two jars available with larger lids, to dip my fingers into easily... I'll have to get more, prettier ones for gifts!

Also, I did add a little Spearmint herbal essence I had on hand, and some magnesium oil for added health benefits, but both of those are entirely optional- it works fine with plain coconut oil.

So Whip it- Whip it good!

J

Saturday, February 1, 2014

PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe Podcast #68 Don’t Just Eliminate Foods on the Paleo Diet- Add In Nutrient Dense Foods!

Let’s say you’ve been on the ancestral, paleo, or barbarian diet template for awhile, perhaps a year or longer!  You’ve probably improved your health and wellness quite a bit- lost fat, gained muscle, have improved digestion and health, and a new clarity in thinking.  But, perhaps not....

If this is the case, perhaps you have concentrated only on eliminating bad foods loaded with anti-nutrients; things like grains, sugar, vegetable or industrial seed oils made from grains and processed, margarine- those are all wonderful things to get rid of, and doing so enables your body to begin to heal all the damage they have caused to your body and brain over the years as they were damaging your intestinal villi, and otherwise tearing down your health.

But this is just Job #1!

The other half of the nutritional equation, which is every bit as important, it to add in those nutrient dense superfoods to give your body the raw materials it needs to actually BUILD excellent health!

So, just eating lots of gluten free goodies, while not as damaging as their grain-based counterparts, are still not giving your body what it needs to thrive and rebuild.  You need to add in those foods that are the most nutrient dense on the planet.

If you make a green, Paleo Smoothie and drink it pretty much every day, you are pretty much most of the way there, nutrient density-wise!  I go out of my way to have it include just about everything your body needs.  Think of the Smoothie as the Anti-S.A.D. diet- that diet of pizza, coke, fries, sick and abused and confined animal hamburger and chicken, noodles, fake fat, processed breakfast sugar cereals- you get the picture!

Those foods, while they are hyperpalatable, and are engineered to be that way just to sell- and they displace the foods that your body actually needs, and just give you loads of body fat and inflammation.

So, go with the Paleo Smoothie- great start!  You can include the vegetable sulphur rich foods with their organosulpher compounds, and do it in a raw form very efficiently and easily, but just blending them in!  Things like:


Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts...  These sulphurous category of vegetables have been pointed out by http://www.terrywahls.com/The-Wahls-Protocol as a very important category of nutrient dense foods, with which idea I completely agree with her!

Terry Wahls is and important figure in the ancestral, or nutrient dense style of eating, and is coming out with a new book which I think will be a must read.  Go ahead and sign up for the pre-order at the link above, watch her viral TED talk, and absorb the information she has to offer.

Back to sulphur-rich foods:  there are some other great organosulpher foods that are not really appropriate for the Paleo Smoothie, like:

Onions and Garlic, Shallots and Leeks

Garlic, in particular, is probably the most potent organosulpher foods you can take in!  What to do?  Simple- in addition to your smoothie, most days also have a giant salad- lettuce, spinach, meat or seafood,  lots of real olive oil and apple cider vinegar, and lots of garlic and onions!  Get yourself a good garlic press, like the ROSLE I have, and add in the anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, anti-microbial, and glutothione stimulation that this wonder food will provide- not to mention garlic tastes great!
Glutothione is particularly important, as it is the “the master anti-oxidant” that will enable your body to fight inflammation, raise energy levels, and slow down the aging process, among other wonderful properties.

Getting all of this through real foods in incredibly important.  I you use glutothione supplements, this could shut down the production of it by your own body over time... so, just get the nutrient dense, sulphur rich foods your body needs, and let it make it’s own!

Also include sulphur rich animal foods, like eggs yolks, grass fed beef liver, grass fed beef, and even high quality grass fed whey protein! (That last can go right into your Paleo Smoothie!)

And so, remember- eliminate the BAD, but also be sure to embrace the GOOD!

J