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Sunday, April 30, 2017

Charles Atlas was PALEO! on new podcast of PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe

Frank Zane- Mr. Stomach Vacuum (among other things)  
Most of you will think I am insane!  Well, that is fine- but I am here to tell you that the exercise regimen promoted by Charles Atlas, way back in the 1930’s, is the most paleo friendly, productive, and beneficial exercise program you can possibly follow!

So, at least you know that I am insane.  Follow onwards, or not as you will, but I think this is the best advice about exercise that I have ever given.  For man, or woman.

The foundation of the Atlas courses was this: Dynamic Resistance.  I’ll admit, it sounds like a nebulous concept- what exactly is it?

It is resistance within the muscle itself.  To illustrate- flex your arm, as if you are curling a dumbbell, or barbell.
Just don’t use a weight- nothing- just your arm.

“How can I do this,” you say, “without resistance?”  Just generate the resistance within the arm itself- make it hard!
Go slow, and make that flex go through the whole range of motion, fighting internal resistance every step of the way.

You can actually make this harder than lifting a barbell or dumbbell, since the resistance is equally hard through every plane of resistance!  It is maximum productivity.

But, the thing is, you don’t stop with curls, the biceps alone.  Of course not, you follow a logical progression, working your body from head to toe.

You start with the high reach.  You reach as high as you can with your right arm, slowly, flexing all along the way.  If you are in front of a mirror (recommended), you will see your muscles flexing, from your lats to your triceps to your spinal erectors.  Attempt to accentuate this action, by actively engaging each muscle group!  The mirror helps here, especially in the early stages.

Then, try the fly.  I don’t know if you ever trained with weights in a gym, but this is where you cross your arms in front of your chest, engaging the pectoral muscles of the chest.  You really don’t need weights, (really!), and you  can do it fine, with dynamic resistance.  You just make the movement hard, internally- go slowly, and flex as you cross your arms across your chest for, oh, 10 repetitions.  I guarantee, you will feel exactly as you would as if you had done so with dumbbells or cables, except for the musculoskeletal trauma of heavy weights!  All beneficial, without the trauma.

Next, try the pulldown, or chin-up.  You know, even if you have never done a chin-up or pulldown in your life, now you can.
You just raise your arm as high as you can, and flexing- pull down on the right side.  Make the lats flex, the mirror helps here.  Then, repeat on the left, until you have done 10 on both right and left sides.  You should feel tired and pumped!

Now, let’s do the squat!  Now, I don’t want you to do the usual squat, with a huge weight across your spine (compressing it!), and the high reps, bottom-down (to damage your knees)!  What has happened with conventional weight training nowadays, anyway??

Just flex your thighs, and go down to a comfortable depth, flexing all the way.  Make those quadriceps work, isometrically (and internally) as you go up and down.  Don’t go too deep- 3/4 of the way down is plenty (don’t want knee damage) but flex hard every step of the way.  That is the perfect leg exercise, and perfectly safe.

Now, let’s move to the abdominals!  Forget what you have been told- the very best, key ab exercise is ab vacuums!  This is where you suck in your gut (whatever the size), and hold it. Do this, each hold (again, in front of a mirror is ideal, so you can see what you are doing), for reps.  5 seconds is ideal, in my opinion.

Afterwards, do side-by-side lateral bends (easy) as a warm down, for flexibility.  15 reps seems perfect.

Next- lateral raises!  Pretend you have small dumb bells in each hand, and raise them straight-armed to the side for 8-10 reps.  (All rep guidelines are arbitrary- experiment, and find what works for you).  Flex throughout, and look in the mirror, at least early on…

Lastly, I recommend curls- just flex your arms throughout a full range of motion, pretending you have the maximum amount you can lift on every part of the movement.  You will be pumped, and exhausted.


Ok, that is the basics.  You can see how to perform these exercises on John Peterson’s excellent site here:
http://transformetrics.com/exercises

John has this down to a science.  He has been a Charles Atlas practitioner since GO, and you will profit from his advice.

But, for an even more accessible version, go to my ebook: Perfectly Paleo Exercise!  I go way more into depth…

 https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/perfectly-paleo-exercise/id527441914?mt=11


But, the main takeaway I hope to provide here is this: you should not feel you have to go to a gym!  Not feel that you should Lift heavy things!  (My god, I get so tired of that!)

What you need to do is first- eat healthy, paleo foods! Get adequate sleep!!! And FINALLY:

Do natural, paleo types of exercise.
Self generated, within the body itself, like a CAT!  (watch a cat stretch for an idea)
Stretch, and generate strength exercises from within the muscle!
YOU DO NOT NEED WEIGHTS.

Life if simple.  Paleo and diet are simple.

Eat like your great grandparents.
Sleep like your great grandparents.

LIVE like your great grandparents!  Spend time daily in nature.  Avoid processed foods and modern pharmaceutical drugs.  AND your doctors much as possible! (Emergencies only!)

Follow these simple, traditional, and really very commonsense guidelines- and you are GOLDEN!

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Is Salt Healthy? Paleo Quick Tip of the Day podcast

One of the egregious mistakes (among many) of modern medicine and its accompanying dietary advice is that you should limit your salt consumption.

This is right up there with “eat 6 servings of grains per day” and “try to eat as little saturated fat as possible”.
Both are dead wrong!
The only problem with salt is that we are eating processed, devitalized salt, stripped of its many minerals!  Typical, Morton’s types of salt… Real, actual sea salt, contains 5-19 percent or so of other vital minerals.  This is the difference between grass fed beef and corn fed beef- one cut of meat is riddled with disease and hormones, the other is loaded with nutrients!

The real key is to cut out processed foods, (like commercial bread products), that are loaded with fake salt.  Fake salt is what I call it- it is a processed, industrial product that is stripped of any nutrients, by heating it above 1200 degrees, and then laced with chemicals like ferrocyanide and aluminosilicate, to help the salt “flow better”, and to not absorb moisture.

Once you get rid of processed foods (like bread!), you can just eat real foods- like grass fed beef and vegetables- and then just salt to taste, using actual, real, authentic, good-tasting sea salt!  What a concept- real food, and real salt…

Actually, limiting salt will do more harm than good!  Like most of modern nutritional advice, it is dead wrong.  It is not salt, good honest sea salt that is as much of a real food as anything else in nature that is the problem: it is fake, processed salt, along with the rest of the nightmare processed fake foods, like high fructose corn syrup, horrible fake fats like vegetable oils, and GMO grains that are being almost forced down our gullets by our own grain-pushing government- these are what is causing the epidemic of diabesity and autoimmune disease that is destroying the health of our nation, and now the world!

So, make the simplest switch there is: dump your fake salt, and get some quality sea salt- Himalayan, Celtic- whatever!  It tastes better, it is far better for your health, and the cost is quite minimal.

And, while you are at it- get some quality peppercorns, and a mill to grind them fresh!  Nowadays, the little mills are sold cheaply with the peppercorns right in it, at a reasonable price.  Each little grind of pepper makes the nutrients in the food you eat much more available- it’s not just the taste that improves- it’s the nutrition!

Two simple, instant change-ups in your health, done painlessly! Just do it- don’t look up Mayo Clinic health which states that “all salts are identical”.  Remember that they have been co-opted; in other words bought by the pharmaceutical industry, and so are completely committed to being drug pushers.

It’s sad but true: Mayo was founded as a sanitarium that promoted natural healing.  They fed their patients grass-fed dairy, as in the “Milk Cure”.  The milk used was, in all cases, the only kind of milk available in those days—raw milk from pasture-fed cows, rich in butterfat. The treatment is a combination of a detoxifying fast (free of processed foods), and nutrient-dense feeding.

How far they have fallen!  While it is indeed amazing how good Mayo, and all of Western medicine has become at preserving life as it is almost over, as the patient is dying-

They are incredibly bad at prescribing anything that either preserves health, or regains of promotes actual health and wellness.  It has reached the point where health and wellness are not even on their radar.

Relying on medical clinics and doctors for your health is like asking your bartender or corner drug pusher for health advice.  They don’t know- they don’t care!  They have a product they are selling (drugs)- and that is all that they care about.  Oh, and in the case of doctors- surgeries too.

In the words of a song from my 60’s heyday: God Damn the Pusher Man!

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Do not be a FAKE Environmentalist!


As an ancestral, paleo sort of person, safeguarding our natural environment is very important to me. The fact the glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup by Monsanto is sprayed widely on our crops, and also right in our very yards and gardens disgusts me!
his on your yard or garden, you are compromising the health of your own family, along with anyone else who walks on your poisoned grass. Just stop- your precious micro biome is at risk, for what? A “prettier” carpet-like lawn, with none of the actual beauty of the dandelions, plantain, and all the other “weeds” that make our lawns real nature. If you can’t stand that, move to Arizona, and spray paint your lovely concrete yard a bright green…
But today, my focus is fake environmentalists. People like Al Gore, many, many “celebrities” and Hollywood stars, and many others (usually on the far left), that insist on things like wind turbines and ethanol because “it’s the right thing to do!” It’s not, not even close. Both are horrible ideas, and it is very provable.
Here is a quote from the website www.wattsupwiththat.com
“Wind power harms the environment. Because of the large area of land needed to collect low-density wind energy, wind power requires more land-clearing, needs more transmission lines, kills more wildlife, lights more bushfires and uglifies more landscape per unit of electricity than conventional power. And the subsonic whine of the turbines drives neighbors batty and devalues local properties.
Like hydro-power, wind power is limited, with few suitable sites. And every wind turbine slows the wind, thus reducing the wind energy available to any downwind turbines. It is ‘renewable’ but it is not unlimited.
Wind power is justified by claims that it reduces emissions and thus reduces global warming. However, when all the steel, concrete, construction, maintenance, replacement and rehabilitation are taken into account, wind power contributes nothing to reducing emissions or changing global climate.
However wind turbines DO change the local weather. Wind is the major component of weather. Winds bring moisture to the inland, clear pollution from the cities, and change air temperatures everywhere. Wind towers rob the wind of its energy, affecting local wind speeds and changing local weather patterns.
Wind power is an expensive, intermittent and limited energy source that degrades the environment, kills birds, affects the local weather but does nothing to improve global climate.”
Wind farms kill raptors, meaning eagles, hawks, falcons and other birds of prey by the tens of thousands, mowing them down like huge lawnmowers set in their way with sharp, rotating blades. And, since wind farms produce only a tiny fraction of our electric energy, they are simply a “feel good” solution that is not a solution. In other words- fake environmentalism.
In fact, global warming, which is now being termed climate change (just to cover all bases, since warming does not appear to be happening), is one more blazing example of fake environmentalism. The idea is to get people all fired up over something, anything really, and then insist that it needs a big government solution!
This last, of course, is the real reason that the fake cause is being brought up- Big Government can grow- they can expand their bureaucracy, raise more and more taxes, and shut down more and more small businesses that can’t meet their made-up mandates and restrictions.

Ethanol is also all about fake environmentalism. Far more energy, and far more poisons like glyphosate, and endless mono cropping of GMO corn go into producing this bad, substandard fuel. Sure, it funds big, giant agri-business, and does nothing for small family farms, who have almost been run out of business thanks to the huge federal bureaucracy of the American Dept. of Agriculture, that was supposed to help them!
See how big government “help” always turns out?
REAL environmentalism is what I do, and I hope you do as well! Safeguard your own property and neighborhood. You, yourself. Hopefully with the help of your neighbors, but even I have glyphosate “fake environmentalists” in my area- I try to teach by example.
I leave much of my property wild, wooded and with brush piles for the many creatures that live there. I like the many deer, but I encourage my deer hunting neighbors to harvest them, since I don’t want them to starve and become disease ridden, since there are no longer any other predators for them but man. Bald eagles are also very prevalent hereabouts, and I give thanks that we have NO wind turbines around, probably because it is so hilly. But I do know that one county near here has outlawed them.
My wife is from a prairie state, and her small home town has been decimated by being ringed with many wind turbines. She can hardly bear to go home to visit, so changed is the landscape- it looks like the old War of the Worlds, with huge Martian monstrosities invading our green earth, with red lights shining off their metal blades.
Have a big, organic garden. Don’t spray your “weeds”- they are probably the most nutritious things you have around- put them in your smoothies! Just as (I hope) you don’t take prescription drugs, don’t put prescription pesticides on your lawn. Who wants a “carpet lawn” anyway?? Well, probably Al Gore and all the other celebrity fake environmentalists.
They fly around in huge jets, have multiple (energy-sucking) Mc Mansions, and don’t do anything real themselves, ever- their whole lives are based on make-believe!
Be a real environmentalist- in fact, be a real person. Do what is best for your land, for your health, for your neighbors and neighborhood! Don’t listen for “talking points” from politicians and celebrities, just as you don’t listen to drug prescription ads. Take care of your health, your life, your land and family yourself.
Big Government can only do it much, much worse!


Check out this episode!

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Where to Live a Good Life



Where to live a good life is important- in fact, it is paramount.  Our ancestors knew this well: they would hunt for a good cave, or place to build their huts, where there was ample game and wild vegetables to gather.  A place where there was cover, and a sheltered area, probably around a clearing, where the tribe could build a fire.  A fire for both keeping away predators, cooking food (meat and veggies- and yes, oh lord- there were probably little tubers and grass seeds sometimes too!!). 

Also, for tribal community; the bonding of the folk of the tribe, from very young to very old, both sexes…  Oh yes, community was incredibly important, both in the sense of interactive human community,  but also in the idea of a community as a place.  A place on this earth where you, a paleo person, along with your tribal compatriots, could not only protect and nurture one another, but also protect yourselves from outsiders- other tribes that may want to do you harm!

For, make no mistake- there has always been tribal conflict- one group of people who determine that it would be a good idea to attack another group, and take what they have, and even kill some and drive the rest off!  This conflict between groups of humans has always been with us- and always will, liberal and hippie hand-holding and banner waving notwithstanding.  In the real world, there is no Give Peace a Chance- only Peace Through Strength- “Walk softly and carry a big stick.” 

And so, to come again to our main point- where to live a good life?  A Paleo, ancestral type of healthy and fulfilling life??

I maintain that a smaller sort of community is ideal.  For one thing, our paleolithic ancestors had very small communities, around 40-50 individuals usually made up a tribe.  An area could not support more, nor could close, equal and caring relationships be maintained in larger numbers…

That would require civilization- which, for all of its strengths, also requires a bureaucracy.  Usually a king, and professional soldiers, and taxation- the list goes on from there.  You know it all as well as I do.

But, if you want to remain free, you need to keep numbers down.  Small cities are the maximum that you should live in, and by that I mean 50,000 or less.  And preferably, outside of that metropolis!  (All the benefits and none of the drawbacks)! 

Think of it, wherever you are, you would have a short, uncrowded drive into a place with all of the “culture” and enrichment you could desire.  Small cities now have all that large ones do, without the incredible crime, taxes, crowding, and cultural rot.  And small towns are even better off, with virtually none of the above.

Let’s look back at the ideal of early civilization- ancient Greece- where early life was probably the most ideal around since paleolithic times!  Athens at its height is estimated to be around 40,000 people, and this was the largest by far of each “city-state”, or polis.  And they had just about, for that early time, an ideal society; one where thought, philosophy, and knowledge surpassed anything known before, and anything to come again for thousands of years!

So now, let’s get back to you.  And NOW. 

Say you are a young person, in your twenties or 30’s, married or not.  This is the ideal time to move to a rural or semi-rural location!  Especially is your are currently living in a big city suburban or big city itself place- get out while the getting is good.  Go West Young Man!

Well, not really West, but that might be good…  I would say midwest, but that is me- that’s what I did.  I was 28 when I moved from Chicago to my little upper midwest small town outside of a small city.  It’s a hard thing to do, to move and uproot yourself, but it’s something that was commonplace in the paleolithic world- constantly moving on to new hunting locations, looking for a better spot to raise your family and keep your tribe healthy and happy. 

If you don’t, you will condemn not only yourself to a life in a smog-filled, highly congested area; with lots of crime and incredible taxes and real estate costs- all for a tiny plot of grass, along with status-conscious neighbors that try to outdo you in ostentatiousness.  A bunch of “little Kings and Queens”…

When you could be living in a they mall town paradise!  Raising your family in a green place, with lots of space.  Trees!  Oxygenated air, along with bright starry constellations each night- instead of bright streetlights and billboard signs, sirens, and the sounds of gunshots in the distance. 

And, if you forgo those last by moving to the suburbs, you will instead be faces with horrendous taxation, a hamster-wheel of making “more and more and more money, forevermore”!, and those obnoxious status conscious neighbors that endlessly compare- everything!

It is important to decide early.  Otherwise, you just get… stuck!  You marry a suburban girl, who holds all of those values, and want you, mainly- to make lots and lots of money. 

So, your time is gone, never your own.  Endlessly working, working, just to pay the taxes, to buy the status symbol autos, and remodelings, and unneeded braces and medical treatments that the suburban doctors recommend because they need to do all the same things you are doing, but probably in an even more pricey suburban neighborhood.  Your children grow up, absorbing all of these toxic ideas, and horror of horrors!!- they become like what you have become! 

Just go- go where you really would like to live, NOW!  Not later, after it is too late for your kids, too late for your own life.

As it says, it lists 30 great up and coming small towns in America!  Just pick one, or one like it- there are so many wonderful places in the US that are so much better than major metro areas- so much better it is amazing.  Better in terms of less (or near zero) crime, no traffic congestion, low taxes, low home and land prices, much better schools- the list goes on and on!

Tomorrow I will turn 65!  Yes, your own paleojay will be a certified senior citizen, and couldn’t be happier or more satisfied with the way his life turned out, and continues to go…

My daughter grew up as a rural, small town girl, and turned out with none of the modern hangups that most suburban/city kids do, and is now married and living with my son-in-law (from here as well) in a small town near here.  With my grandson!  So, I know he will turn out good as well- no doubt at all, given his parents and environment.

As a postscript, I will add one more story: My wife and I have started going to a really small town church near us, within the past year.  (Our old church just started getting “too big”.)  This one is in a small river town, and has a “tribal membership” of just about 100.  Just about perfect for a small, historic brick church from 1857.

We struck up a conversation about music with a couple about our age at church “fellowship” after the service, (I’m in the choir), and he told me they were from Illinois, as was I.  He suffered through his whole working life, and his son still lives “down there” as we referred to it.  He wasn’t happy about it, but what could he do?  His kid was kind of - stuck there.

It turns out that he and his wife had finally moved up to this tiny town, after suffering through 40 plus years down in the urban jungle of Illinois- and were so happy! 

I was happy for them as well, but still- 40 years is a long time to wait- a very long time to be where you don’t want to be!  I thought of the toxins he’d breathed over those years, the sedentary job he’d been forced to endure (further sabotaging his health), and I felt sad.  Sad for him, his wife, and especially for his now-trapped son.

He’s happy now, but how many years does he have left, along with his wife?  So, my advice is this:

Do it now.  Choose a place you’d love to live, find a job there, and MOVE THERE!  It’s not easy, I am the first to tell you that, but to uproot yourself at a young age is far easier and more beneficial than when you are a large, full-grown tree with roots that spiral beneath the ground for acres and acres, beneath the urban sidewalks.

Check out this episode!

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Undoctored podcast episode on PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe

Dr. William Davis has introduced a new course on his website www.wheatbelly.com   He is calling it undoctored, which I believe is a brilliant  name for what he is stating- which is that modern medical clinics and most doctors have given up on actually healing, and have now instead concentrated on selling!

Selling us all surgeries and other procedures, along with loads of tests and drugs.  All are mainly done for sheer PROFIT.  The amount of money spent in the US on drugs alone is staggering, and the ability these drugs have to heal us, to make us health - is zero!  They may mask the symptoms, but without real lifestyle changes such as those I recommend here, the body will be unable to heal itself…

For make no mistake: only your own body can repair itself- no drugs or surgeries can do what your own body is capable of- for free.

It really is that simple.  One of the best things you can do is to stay away from the medical doctor’s office.  As I have long said, be your own doctor.  Read up on ancestral, paleo ways of living, eating, and exercising.  Banish wheat and most grains entirely from your diet, and sharply limit sugars and carbohydrates.

Replace those fake foods with lots and lots of vegetables, along with some fruits.  A smoothie each morning is probably the ideal way to do this last, and it makes the process easy and enjoyable.  Pack that smoothie with as much good stuff as you can- follow my recipe at www.paleojay.com or else get the ebook Perfectly Paleo Exercise.

If you go to the medical clinic, I guarantee that you will be given powerful prescription medications, whether you have symptoms or not.  These clinics and hospitals have transformed over the past several decades, without most people noticing, from places of simple healing with common sense and uncomplicated tools, into hyper-huge and powerful bureaucracies, intent on generating the maximum revenue and profit.  The bottom line, not the healed and happy patient!

These Patient Mills are places to avoid as much as possible.  Just as you don’t go to a greasy used car salesman on a regular basis, looking for “deals”- don’t go into the clinic when you feel good, just because they want you to.  They find it in their interest to make staying healthy complicated and mysterious.  It’s NOT!  Staying healthy was very well known how to do in earlier times, and if our great grandparents could do it, why can’t we?  They didn’t load themselves up with drugs and surgeries, both of which were unavailable.

They ate the best foods they could find, real foods, prepared in their home, not in factories.  They lived lives of physical labor, that kept them fit, and slept long hours each night.  Most lived in small towns, with a close-knit “tribal” kind of connection, and went to church each week.  Most folks in America prayed, which is really a form of meditation.  It’s really only recently that we’ve gotten so far off track in our notions of health, but we’ve gotten so far off track that it is vital to turn your ship around, now.

So, become Undoctored!  Listen to paleo podcasts, read books about the subject, and most importantly walk the walk.  Once you understand that your health is your own responsibility, you have taken the first step on the wonderful journey of looking great, and feeling even better.