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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Sugarholics!

Just listen to Jack LaLanne, from way back in the straight-talking 1950's...

This guy, way back then STUDENTS, knew more than ALL of the USDA, the FDA, and the architects of the FOOD PYRAMID in 2012 could ever HOPE to know!

It's really kind of simple when you look at it through the no-nonsense lens of a guy like Jack:

Sugar is a bad, evil DRUG!  DON'T EAT IT!!  IT TASTES REALLY, REALLY GOOD BECAUSE IT IS A DRUG.

The really scary thing is that WHEAT and other grain-based carbs are just about as bad, since they are immediately converted to sugar in the body.  If you saw the effects that sugar had on your body immediately, within say 20 minutes- no one would ever consume it!

The only problem is that it takes maybe 10-20 years for a young person to see how it destroys them; makes them fat, unattractive, sick, and diabetic.  

"If only I could go back..."

Well, actually you can!

Wherever you are now in health- your body is dying for you to:

Cut sugar!
Cut GRAINS!!
Pack the MAXIMUM nutrition into EVERY morsel you ingest!!!

Do that, and your body, which is far wiser than you are, can return you to health posthaste!

Just do it!

J


Sunday, July 29, 2012

Paleo Pull ups and Pushups ALL DAY LONG!

I have been planning to increase my numbers of pull ups and pushups; a worthy goal indeed!  I usually top out at about 18 pull ups or chin ups (pull ups are where your hands grasp the bar with a forward grip, chins with your grip facing back at your face).  I also have a set of "handles" in my garage, that are flexible and kind of sideways, so I can cover lots of different angles to hit the muscles in different ways.

Anyway, I figure I need more volume to get me higher numbers of reps!  Experimenting, I found that I can do, let's say 15 reps at a time, but I can do 5 reps ALL DAY LONG!  


That's right, if I limit my reps to 5, and periodically as the day goes by do 5 more, and 5 more, and so on, buy the end of the day I've done maybe 100 or more repetitions!  Plus, since today is Sunday, where i usually do a real basement/outdoor type of workout, I'll do my usual 18 reps, followed by more sets of less reps...

That's a lot of pull ups!  I think that this will be beneficial in a big way; I also decided to add in pushups as well, since I have a perfect pushup device right next to my pull up handles in the garage.  Each time I pass by, or think about it, I'll do my 5 pull ups, and then 20 pushups, since 20 pushups appears to be the number I can do all day long.

It's the morning now; I will let you know how it goes later today...


... I'm back!

I did my Sunday workout early, and decided NOT to do my usual high rep pullups- I just kept doing 5 reps pull ups and 20 reps pushups- between each other exercise I did.  I've not been counting- I like to go by "feel", not numbers, and all I can say is I've done a lot of pull ups, a lot of pushups, and I don't feel at all burnt out, and plan to do lots more!


I think I'm on to something here- not something to do every day, but maybe once a month or so, just do lots and lots of one particular exercise you want to improve!

Let's say you can do 10 pull ups.  Try this same idea, but limit your reps to 3!

"But Jay but Jay!" I hear you saying "I can't do a single pull up! What about me??"


Just support yourself on a stool, so you can assist yourself with your legs.  Use your legs just enough that you can do a few reps, slowly. Here is a blog of mine that explains, and even has live examples!
Wowzer!!

 leg assisted "aerobic/isometric" chins and dips

Perhaps you can already to a "negative" chin, perhaps not- if not, again, use your legs to help just enough that you move slowly downwards.  It really will not be all that long that you can do a real, unassisted chin or pull up, and that is a real accomplishment!  Lifting your own bodyweight with your upper body is probably the most functional exercise you can do- real world strength indeed!  It engages not only your arms and back, but your entire core, abdominals, and grip.  Anyone who can do this exercise, even one single rep, is a paleo person; they could survive handily in the wild, just like our ancestors did.  Most people, even children these days, cannot do this exercise!


Especially if you are a woman- I would really focus on this movement/exercise!  Using the leg assisted version, you can start doing the actual exercise immediately.  Chin/pull ups and hindu squats together will make a paleo person of you.

Again, I plan to do a lot of these little mini-sets today!  I'm going to go out by my grill, by the garage, and will repeatedly be doing pull ups and pushups while I grill my chicken and salmon and mushrooms...  I was playing guitar earlier, and stopped often to do a set of pushups- (no pull up bars in  the computer room here).  Kind of a fun challenge really!

I could see doing this periodically with many exercises- perhaps doing 50 hindu squats, over and over and over throughout a Sunday...  what fun!  I'll keep you posted-

J

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Buy your Paleo food Locally Part 2

OK, I was all excited: I went to the processor of many of the eatwild.com farms that had grass fed beef here in my area of Southwestern Wisconsin!  I thought-

"This is so cool!  ALL of these family farms, who have their grass fed, wholesome beef and other meats processed in this one facility will now be available to me!  One stop shopping!!"

I asked the counterman about grass fed beef...

"No- we do process a lot of family farms that do that, but here we only sell
HIGH GRADE, GRAIN FED BEEF!"

This was a nice meat market, but wouldn't you think the guy would think about all the grass fed beef they were processing, and think that there might be a market for it in his own store?

Disappointing, but it pointed out one thing to me: 

You really need to connect with a FARMER who does things the way you want!

The convenient, modern, one-stop-shopping route that was the be-all-end-all of the 1960's better living through chemistry and industrialization has FAILED!  And, by it's very nature, it will continue to fail; we need to get back to buying local produce, in particular meats that we know that the farmer or rancher involved is trustworthy and honest.  Strong ETHICS are important in ALL endeavors!

We did check out a really nice GOLF COURSE in Winona, Minnesota, just up the river from us, The Bridges, that has a restaurant: Signatures that features local meats, and free range chicken dishes- excellent- if you are traveling the "River Road", and are in Winona, check this place out!

Paleo approved!

 But then, on the way home we spied this BUS next to us on the highway:
 
A wonderful idea: Tapestry, an Enchanted Garden
"Healthy vegetables to color your life"


But check out the dilapidated bus, and the broken window!
This looks like a hippie dream gone wrong!  Kind of scary, really...

Here is another view of the Winona golf course- very Paleo-esque, easy to imagine Indian/paleolithic peoples running around in this environment, (sans chairs), they would just do the Asian squat-



And so, I thought I would leave you with a Utopian vision of what a nice golf course and Eden-like landscaping can do-

Food for the Paleo-nativist soul- Ideal landscape, sunshine, healthy activity (golf) - with real foods!

I hope you have days such as this, for a long time to come!  Life is really simple, if you think about it.







Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Buy your Paleo Food locally!

Buy your food locally- from a farmer or butcher you know and respect!  This video encapsulates it all:



Our food supply has been so adulterated, that we hardly even know it anymore.


Our meat, in particular, used to come from a local, trusted farmer; someone everybody knew and trusted.  Let's go back to Andy Griffith and the town of Mayberry where most of us grew up; and if not us, then our parents or grandparents:

"Well Rafe Hollister- I do declare!  Those are the healthiest cattle I have seen- yes SIR!  Your pasture looks so green, I say so GREEN I could almost eat the grass myself! And healthy- those cattle look so healthy- MMMM!!  Wrap me up a quarter beef Rafe- and I'll see you in church this Sunday!"






That's how it used to be, somehow we fool ourselves into thinking that somehow it still is...











But when we go to Wal-Mart, or virtually any modern grocery store, what we are really getting these days is factory farmed, grain force-fed, and loaded up with anti-biotic and hormone laden tortured animals.


Do you think that Rafe, or Andy would be all happy and approving of these "well raised animals?"

Irregardless of the fact that these animals are basically in animal concentration camps: 


The bottom line is that this creates incredibly UNHEALTHY MEAT!


If this had been an old episode of the wonderful Andy Griffith show, the rest of the show would be about rescuing the animals!!

Barney might even use his one bullet to shoot the (corporate) "farmer"who ran this slimy operation!

I have been exploring tonight on the internet- here are some ideas for you:

Eat Wild

Go to that website above, and search your state!  Here in Wisconsin, I found dozens of family farms that humanely raise cattle on grass (which they are meant to eat- God made them so!), free range chickens that eat bugs, and worms, and scratch in the grass, etc.; realizing their ultimate "chicken-ness", and PIGS that are free to burrow, and wallow, and achieve perfect "pigness", as they were intended to as well, by God!

Go connect with a farmer!  Someone like Rafe from Mayberry- someone you can trust, and you can get to know as a neighbor.

Don't buy from FACTORY FARMS that just want to make "maximum product with minimum input"-


You will get what you pay for!


And besides, wouldn't you rather pay your money to Rafe, than send it off to Mount Pilate, or even Raleigh??!!

J


Sunday, July 22, 2012

Beginning Paleo Diet

Maybe you've just been hearing about this "paleo diet" thing, or maybe you have a friend or know someone who has had amazing results from eating and living according to this template...


Perhaps you have tried to ignore the whole thing, not wanting to change your life and mindset around after all these years of being brainwashed into the low fat high carb Standard American Diet LIE...


But, since the ancestral diet and it's benefits are very real, and the path we are on in the Western world is leading us into slow suicide by eating ourselves into diabesity,  accompanied by prescriptions of pharmaceutical drugs that compromise our health even more with all of the inevitable side effects, resulting in early disability and death- well, "going Paleo" starts to not sound that hard after all!

So, how do you finally get off the sidelines and start making meaningful, healing change??


Clean out your cupboards!  Ditch the grains- bread, pancake mixes, brownie mixes, cereals, vegetable and soy oils, Crisco, anything you have that is not real food.  If it's not in your house, you won't eat it.

Try a Paleo smoothie!  This is a pet project of mine- I have developed my smoothie into a drink that is continually evolving, since I want to maximize my nutrition optimally, but starting out, keep it simple:

Just get out your standard, $20 blender, and make a simple Paleo Smoothie:

1 can of coconut milk
handful of fresh strawberries
a big leaf of fresh kale
a banana
sprinkle of cinnamon

Blend it all together for about a minute or so- you're done!

Easy, right?  It's so easy, you will start to think as I did- "Hey, what if I add this ingredient, and that other super healthy food, and then that..."


You are on the slippery slope to health my friend, and trust me, that's where you want to be!  You'll start adding raw eggs, and then you'll want the convenience of using frozen vegetables, and the ability to mix just about anything, smoothly and easily into your smoothies- at that point you'll want to get a Vitamix blender, since it it the best tool for engineering the most amazingly healthy and filling and appetizing Paleo smoothies on the planet!

Interestingly, I just read a news story in Barron's, the business newspaper, detailing how the Starbucks chain has bought a smoothie making chain of restaurants, and plans to expand dramatically, doing for smoothies what they have already done for coffee!

While I'm sure it's better than the unhealthy coffee drink market they've been profiting from at the expense of the American people's health, I would suggest strongly that you make your own!  I guarantee that anything made by a corporate giant will be vastly inferior, since the bottom line for such a company is to cut costs wherever possible, to maximize profits. This means low quality ingredients, cheaper, faster, worser! (There, I invented a word!)

So, Go Paleo Young Man! (Or woman)!

At first, I would just make a smoothie each morning, and eat eggs and meat, salads, seafood, veggies and nuts with a little fruit sometimes.  For me, cheese and whole cream are fine- try them out, if you feel worse, maybe they aren't for you!  Some folks can handle dairy, some can't... raw dairy is vastly preferable, if available.  

Believe it or not, at first I do not recommend any exercise!  Especially, if your are a "cardio-holic", used to doing lots of running, bicycling, aerobics, etc. just stop for awhile!  Getting your diet in order is far more important than exercise, and along with adequate sleep each night of 8 hours or better, will get you 90% where you want to go.  Just concentrate on those things for a month- learn to eat, and sleep like a paleolithic hunter-gatherer.    Next month we'll add in exercise- hey, I even have an eBook specifically about it...

A good idea, especially if you currently have health problems, would be to have a blood work up just before starting this at the Doctor's office.  Then, a month later, have it done again.  I guarantee the results will startle both you and your Doctor- and then, he'll probably try to talk you out of doing something so "crazy"...

The thing to remember is this- even if all you had read about nutrition was this one blog, you would already know more about nutrition than your Doctor learned in all of medical school.  So, take his or her opinions with more than a grain of good sea salt...

After your initial month, take a good look at how you look, how clearly you can think,and how you feel.  Perhaps you already have had some drastic changes; many people do.  And after actually sticking to the diet for one month, almost no one goes back to their standard diet!  The benefits are that compelling- you may even become like me, shouting the news from the rooftops, because you almost can't believe the benefits of eating real food like a real person!

Soon I will write Part 2- the Intermediate Paleo Diet!  But just do this for a month first- no need to rush things!  Here are some links that will give you lots of good additional information:



J




Thursday, July 19, 2012

Easy Crock Pot Bone Broth, or "Perpetual Soup"



Ok, so I have NOT gotten around to making bone broth yet, at least on a regular basis.  My bad!
Then, I ran across this article by Jenny McGruther of the Nourished Kitchen blog- simple, endless, steaming quantities of bone broth are now mine! But, I prefer the term Perpetual Soup... 


Here is the blog article, which I saved to my new Pinterest page for your boney delectation and general health: Bone Broth

In a nutshell, I have 1/2 of a chicken in the crockpot, topped with a bunch of vegetables, some bay leaf seasoning, and some cracked pepper.  I can pull out some cooked chicken whenever I'd like this week, and can strain out the broth from a ladle through a coffee filter... a week from today, after a solid week of perpetual soup steaming away on low in the crockpot, I will take what is left, along with the mushy bones that still have good nutrition left in them, and throw them in the Vitamix to grind them up, and make additional, freezable soup stock- perhaps this will become an additional ingredient in the daily Paleo Smoothie- we will have to see how this experiment works out, but it seems both promising and likely!

As always, I shall keep you posted,

J
At the "Bone Broth" gardens;
actually the "Friendship Gardens" in La Crosse

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Meditation Changes Your Brain!

We all know that exercise, especially proper, Paleo-type exercise to build strength, actually physically changes the structure of your muscles, i.e.- they get bigger and stronger!  


Now we also know that proper mental exercise, i.e. meditation also makes your brain change physically as well, in a beneficial way.  Check out the video above for a brief overview of the study that confirmed this utilizing M.R.I. brain scans.

Back already?  Good, let's continue:

What meditation truly is is not some hippie sort of "OOOOMMM" in the lotus position while sitars drone in the background... 

Meditation in it's true sense is simply giving your undivided attention to the present moment!

My basic meditation strategy is simply to sit in a comfortable chair, shut my eyes, and, whilst concentrating on my breathing, simply thinking the word "One" over and over, for each breath in and for each breath out.  Nothing else; if another thought comes up, I simply ignore it, and concentrate again on my breathing and my one word...  And other thoughts do come up, like random bubbles surfacing on an otherwise placid pond!  It really takes effort, minimal yet sustained, to keep concentrating only on the present- my breathing, the total relaxation of my body, my "one".  Especially when you are first getting started, this is hard; it is antithetical to our whole modern "ethic" of move, think, accomplish, make money, plan!!

I am sure that Paleolithic people were not like we are now; they rested much more, and lived almost entirely in the present moment.  I also believe that they were much more resistant to our modern mental problems of anxiety, depression, and many other neuroses that result from both our incredibly nutrient poor diets (particularly the Omega 3 and other good fats), and frenetic, overcrowded, and over-competitive lives.

While the actual, formal meditation process outlined here is a great way to get started in meditation and start adding the benefits to your life, there are other ways, once you kind of "get it" and learn to shut down your chimp mind, which is your wandering, thoughts-a-flitting, attention changing every second or so conscious mind, and attend to the here and now.  This is actually a process of tuning in to your right brain, which is the intuitive, feeling, creative part of your brain, and ignoring the ever chattering left brain.  We have over-emphasized the left brain in modern times, ignoring and suppressing what is in reality one half of our identity!  

Some of the other ways you can "meditate" or at least tap into the here and now and into your right brain are with things like forest bathing, or woods walking, with your attention on the present, and not thinking about taxes, or paying the power bill, or-you name it- just the here and now!  Oooom!

In church this morning, I thought about how prayer is a form of meditation- total concentration and attention to God!  We all have wandering minds; I thought about how important it is to really focus on the here and now, especially in church!

And even when driving home in my old truck, if I turn off the radio or the iPod, and simply think about driving- first gear, second, third, fourth... clutch, brake, steering... and simply am there in the moment, 
all the way home, I am the better for it!  My right brain thanks me, my hippocampus thanks me, and my  amygdala is overjoyed!  

Playing music is largely right-brained centered, and present-centered- we all know music is a thoroughly joyful endeavor!  Kind of "musical meditation" in a way..

So meditate!  The benefits are profound- just the increase you will gain in focused concentration alone is well worth it- and the quality of your life will vastly increase!  

J & Zeke


Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Forest Bathing- a Paleo Practice!

One of the best, most common-sense yet vastly underdone things we can do for ourselves in this modern age is to... go back to our roots- back to nature!  This has become a a wellness strategy in Japan,"Shinrin-yoku" with people scheduling time in forests for their health; I think it is a natural for the Paleo lifestyle, and is loaded with "Paleolithic benefits":

In a forest, we are immersed in the environment in which our ancestors lived continually; we are uniquely suited for such a landscape.  We are symbiotic with trees and other plant life- they give off pure oxygen, which is our life-force, and we give them back carbon dioxide... perfect- a "win-win"!  


The essential oils and the plethora of plant chemicals that wash over us in our natural forest land are something we have lived with, and are attuned to, and that our bodies expect and need.  Concrete, urban environments are a relatively very recent invention; just like eating grains and quantities of sugar, how we live nowadays is not natural to us.  We need Nature!  We mainly live in a man made world, but we really need God's world, at least for part of our time.

So incorporate some forest bathing into your life!  Steal away for a little "immersion into our Natural state" each day if possible.  Either ambling along down a forest path, or sitting quietly with grass underfoot beneath a friendly tree, your health, your psyche, and your very self will be rejuvenated and enriched.


A Fall walk in the woods




My wife took a walk yesterday and returned with a bonus........wildflowers! 

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Are you a "Man in a Hurry?" Remembering Andy Griffith!

It is important to live in an unrushed, natural state... our hunter/gatherer ancestors knew this: they slept a LOT, and they knew that their sleep, and their basic nutrition took precedence over, well, business!


How far we have fallen from the simple, common sense wisdom within this short video!

Community within our "tribe" of fellow church-goers, neighbors, and friends and family is incredibly important to our mental and spiritual health!  We lose this insight to our own peril!

Just relax, and watch this video...  don't be like the "Man in a Hurry"!

You will be the better for it, trust me!!  


I have remembered this episode for almost 50 years!!  That is how important it is, both to me, and probably, also, to YOU!!


J

Friday, July 6, 2012

Make your own supplements!

I have been listening, via a great podcast superhuman radio on my iPhone to Dr. Thomas Levy.  The good doctor, who is not any longer in lock-step with his professional colleagues, has had great success in treating many modern diseases with Vitamin C!  (Remember Linus Pauling?  He was castigated, similarly to Robert Atkins of the low carb diet fame, by the medical establishment).

It turns out that vitamin C, which is produced by virtually ALL other animals, is NOT produced by humans.  Common knowledge, really, but the implications to health are very important:  The RDA for vitamin C might prevent scurvy; but it is far too low to prevent "scurvy of the heart", or "scurvy of the bones", or other bodily systems.

The bottom line is that Vitamin C is FAR more important for us than the current medical system believes, or is willing to recommend.  The implications for heart disease, and cancer, to name only two, are more important than we might ever believe- not to mention simply optimizing our health.


So, what is the bottom line?

I don't think it is necessary, or even optimal to take massive amounts of supplements. After all, that is why they are called supplements!  


"But Jay, but Jay!" I hear you saying.  "Supplements are so expensive!"


Yes, indeed they are, and many (most!) are totally synthetic, and not really good for human consumption...

So I say MAKE YOUR OWN SUPPLEMENTS!

Just start with a Vitamix blender...

Mix up a good smoothie recipe- like this one, chosen at random: Paleo Quick Start Smoothie!

Actually, many variations are possible- and are to be encouraged!  Go heavy on the vitamin C- and don't think only citrus- did you know that red peppers are much higher in vitamin C than oranges??

World's Healthiest Foods rich in
vitamin C
FoodCals%Daily Value

Papaya119313.1%

Bell Peppers29195.8%

Strawberries46141.1%

Broccoli31135.2%

Pineapple83131.4%

Brussels Sprouts38124.6%

Kiwifruit45120%

Oranges62116.1%

Cantaloupe5497.8%

Kale3688.8%



So, my point, again is this: MAKE YOUR OWN SUPPLEMENTS!  It's way easier to take a Vitamix, and blend together real foods, and drink them throughout your day1  I mean, cooking foods is great, cooking real foods like veggies and meats and fruits and spices and seafood!  

Nothing better!  EXCEPT, perhaps:

Blending them up, RAW, along with every single thing your body needs in one, easily assimilable "package" that is not only easy to transport and consume, but that gives your body (and mind!) everything they need to thrive and gain optimum health!!

I don't know about you, but I would do all I could to avoid "scurvies"- in other words modern, sub-standard food deficiencies that will render me (and you too of course) sickly, be-deviled with "mind fog", and prone to all of the diseases of modern civilization- cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, the list goes on and on....

Just choose health!  It's easy, too- actually even easier than the fast foods that are leading the bulk of us to our sick, weak, pain-filled future- 

Making a daily smoothie is about as easy as it gets, one we "get it" and make the transition!  

If you have bad teeth, skin, or hair...

THIS IS THE "INDICATOR LIGHT" OF YOUR BODY:

This means that your body is "breaking down"!    If you don't address the cause; i.e. your sub-standard diet that is not providing your body enough nutrients, you are setting yourself up for all of the diseases of modern civilization:  ( listed above, but only partially...)

If your car was flashing "check oil" you would jump on it!!

Your body's indicator lights are SO much MORE important!

Do NOT ignore them!  

Start making your own supplements!!

Please!

J
PS- here is an interesting video for your perusal: 

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Independence Day, the Founding Fathers, Paleo diet, and Conservatism


Independence Day!  So what does that have to do with Paleo living?  Well, quite a bit, as it turns out...

The founding fathers of America had a strong vision of what they wanted this new country to be!  They wanted to escape the class structure that had so stratified the countries of Europe; the prevailing vision was of a country of small farms, where each family was largely independent and self-reliant.  Most of the settlers in America were of English stock at this time, and they were acutely aware of the top down, autocratic, controlling nature of that society: they meant to avoid that!  

And, for a long time, our country was pretty much what our Founding Fathers had envisioned- small, largely independent, self-supporting small towns, peopled by small, local businesses and small, well-run family farms that grew a wide variety of crops and a variety of animals.  Government was largely local,  and so those who lived within a community were pretty much the ones that ran it!  Charity was provided by the local churches, not government.

Things began to change in the 1960's, and by the '70's we had really started to go a different, dangerous path- ironically, we started to turn more into a European, top-down, big Government and big Food corporations and big Medical all started to morph into GIANTS.  Probably the main way this power was concentrated was by the advances into media: Television, especially was perfect for gradually brainwashing people into believing things that, before they were constantly being bombarded with such ideas, they would have found ridiculous, just by using their common sense!  Things like:
  1. Fat is bad!  Don't eat butter- eat margarine, which is a kind of fake, industrial seed oil we'd like to sell to you, rather than to pay for its disposal.
  2. Eggs are bad!  Instead of eating the eggs your own chickens lay, eat a big bowl (or two!) of processed grains, wheat and corn, from these great cereal boxes we will gladly sell you!
  3. Meat is bad!  Red meat is a "heart attack on a plate!"   Eat this soy stuff; it tastes like pretty much nothing, but we will gladly sell it to you in all sorts of shapes and forms.
  4. Grains are wholesome!  Make them the foundation of your diet, even though your ancestors hardly ate any at all (unless they had to), and they thrived on a diet of meat, eggs, veggies, fruits and nuts... we will gladly put grains into almost any product you buy, and we will engineer them to be positively addictive.  You will eat them all day long, day after day!
  5. You are all sick.  You need the government to tell you how to eat, and you all need lots of medicines; statins, insulin for your diabetes, gastric bypass operations since you are all fat since you don't walk on your treadmill enough, and you are still eating too much fat.
  6. This is how it's been going since then, with the top-down, autocratic Government itself taking more and more authority away from us as individuals, and increasingly telling us what we should eat, how we should exercise, what medicines we should be taking, taxing us at ever-increasing rates because they know much better how to spend our money on the common good than we do ourselves.

Today, July 4 2012, let's remember the spirit of those original Founding Fathers of the United States, who would be 100% behind the Paleo diet's notions of buying food locally- growing it locally, eating wholesome, real foods prepared in your own kitchen instead of in a factory, and eating all foods from local, trusted sources that raise their animals humanely, feeding them grass if that is what they are meant to eat by Nature and God.  We need to get away from the control of the New Self Appointed Royalty of America today:  Big Government, Big Medicine, Big Food!

Luckily, we can take back control- Television is on the wane, who watches commercials any more, for that matter who watches the evening news?  We don't need "filtered" news anymore; now we have the internet!  We can read the unvarnished truth instead!

The original American Revolution was a profoundly conservative revolution.  Nothing really like it had come before.  The French revolution, in fact virtually all other revolutions have been liberal, left wing, "Power to the people" socialist revolutions; ours was totally unique in that it was conservative, 
saying not to "take away from everyone else to share", which results in the powerful ones in the revolution itself just taking it all for themselves, and their cronies. 

In the American revolution, afterwards we were all free to provide for ourselves.  This is a profound difference, and resulted in the single most successful governmental experiment in history.  I think the only other political system on that level is the ancient Greek city-state; but then our American revolution incorporated most of their ideas from that earlier "experiment".

So, let's get back to our roots!  Think for yourself.  Don't listen to self-appointed "experts" that are shills of big corporations.  Read the real science behind things; don't get the "filtered" versions.  Here is a brief video featuring Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, who really has this thing of sustainable agriculture, as the founding fathers of America intended, all figured out:

As Angelo Coppola of the "Latest in Paleo" podcast says: "Humans are not broken by default"!
In other words:  "We are made in God's image"; hardly "broken"!

J



Sunday, July 1, 2012

Paleo Olympics!

The ancient Greeks, founders of the Olympic games, were actually not that far removed from being hunter/gatherer Paleo people themselves!  They were anything but "zoo humans" as most of us are today, living in unnatural climate controlled environments, looking at the world through eyeglass lenses, and walking around on concrete with our feet encased in "shoe/casts" that protect and insulate us from the real world.

And so, the original games were very Paleolithic types of events- founded upon practical skills for the most part, that were very important in every day life.  The events were performed largely in the nude, not relying on technology to determine who would be the victor- the man himself, his development, training, determination and nutrition decided the outcome.

"When the Persian military officer Tigranes "heard that the prize was not money but a crown [of olive], he could not hold his peace, but cried, 'Good heavens, Mardonius, what kind of men are these that you have pitted us against? It is not for money they contend but for glory of achievement!'"   Herodotus, Histories , 8.26.3


That's another difference- millions of dollars were not the prize as is now the case for the victors in the modern Olympics- it was the glory, the achievement itself that mattered!

Here is a modern pole vaulter- no one doubts the athleticism here!  It's just that they used to use bamboo poles... then, switching to the new fiberglass, bendable and springy poles, all the old records were shattered!  But, is this really greater excellence?  Or is it just a higher tech pole??

I guess what I'm saying is, if we are looking for measures of human achievement and excellence, then just keep the games free of technology.  It just clouds the issue.  Whoever has the best shoes, the best poles, the best ice skates, the best luge, the best rotating barbells, the most steroids and other drugs etc. etc.   It doesn't matter!  What if we gave the ancient olympic discus thrower a plastic frisbee?  Wow- new ancient Olympic record!!

Just as in our own diets, which have gotten far too artificial, and technology-manipulated, so too has our notions of exercise and competition!  Exercise should be simple, and general, and non sports specific.    When we emulate the modern Olympians, for the most part we are looking at such specialists in their single sport that they are not good role models for all the rest of us who just want to be all-around functional, healthy, high performing generalists.


So, for all you Paleo athletes out there:  Just eat real food, as our great grandparents did!  Cut the grains,  manufactured foods in boxes and bags, low fat garbage, and sugar.

And exercise your body without technologies intruding; wearing ultra-springy high tech running shoes, and they contorting your body within some specialized, isolating machine to work one part of your musculature alone-

Exercise your body with your own body- nothing else is needed!  It actually just gets in the way of real, self-generated total fitness.  


I'll tell you what- go ahead and watch the Olympics!  It'll be a great time for you to do your Perfectly Paleo Exercises!

J
(Can you find my little buddy above?  He's telling me I need more hi tech exercise gadgets...)