Be a Hero on PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe podcast

‘I hate luxury. I exercise moderation…It will be easy to forget your vision and purpose once you have fine clothes, fast horses and beautiful women. [In which case], you will be no better than a slave, and you will surely lose everything.’

That quote is from Genghis Khan.  Now, he is no hero to me, but still his words ring with truth.  Whatever Genghis was, he certainly was successful!  He conquered the largest land mass in all of history; he was kind of an Eastern Alexander the great.  

I think the quote is germane, because what I see in the modern, Western world is a falling away from virtue, from our ancient traditions and ideals.  We have allowed ourselves to become slothful, to be liberal in our thinking, since that makes us look  politically correct and fashionable.  In England, France, Sweden, and much of the rest of Europe in the E.U., we have not only allowed endless migration from non-western peoples into our advanced, high IQ, wealthy cultures; but we have paid for it all in welfare dollars!  Our leaders have rolled out the red carpet for the invaders who despise us, and are displacing us from the cultures, cities, and countries our ancestors have built.

As Genghis foretold, we are now in the process of “losing everything”.  We have too much- we have had it too good, living in well heated and air conditioned environments, taking endless television, electric conveniences, and all of our other luxuries for granted.  IN fact- we no longer even think of such things as two or more vehicles, multiple TVs and elaborate kitchens ( in which most of us never even cook, relying on takeout orders instead), and clean water and trash removal and sewage treatment and… well, the list goes on and on!  

They all are now our rights!  And, in our hubris, we now, especially those of us on the LEFT insist that this luxury list is not ours at all, not really- it is for the whole world!  If we have it, so should they!!

Never mind that their own, low IQ countries can never, and will never be able to build such systems for themselves in their own countries- it is up to us, the despised, racist, white European to provide it for them- in our own countries.

Genghis hated cities, and civilization.  His whole purpose was to destroy civilization and all it built, leveling the wonderful buildings and temples of the West and the East, returning all once again to the bare, grassy plains of Central Asia, where horses could run free.  He was evil, but he did perceive correctly that riches and luxury corrupt and ruin a people.  And that is why, logically for him, he decided that riches and luxury should be destroyed- only then would the youth not be tempted by decadence and bad thinking and living.  

Everyone sees clearly and distinctly when dealing with the basics- life and death, conquest or defeat, freedom or slavery.  

And rest assured, what we are facing now is the very survival of our Ancestral, paleo, Western civilization!  Letting Mulsims, our sworn ancient enemies, within our borders, is eventual domination and slavery- for US.  They know it, even if we smile, and welcome them in a misguided attempt at a one-sided so-called friendship.  They hate us, and laugh at us as we do their bidding.

Likewise, a collapse of our morals, where now the Left celebrates 11 year old drag queens on television, and lets utter lawlessness rule our inner cities (all of them!) because to arrest these rapists, murderers, and thiefs would be RACIST.  

WHAT?? Just because the vast majority of violent criminals are black?  How is that our fault?  A criminal is a criminal; race is utterly and completely irrelevant.  

All of this is birthed in a society marinated in luxury, and privilege, and a total insulation from reality.  Children and young adults, cloistered in expensive, lily-white suburbs, who decry ‘white privilege’, which does not exist, and scream about oppression, which also does not exist.  Not here, in Western civilization.  But it is alive and well in Africa, and the middle east, oh yes indeed- slavery there is still alive and well too!

Western Civilization is just too successful.  In fact, Civilization now is Western Civilization- nothing else exists anymore- we are that successful!

And now, we are beleageured from within and without about how evil we are.  Even as the whole world struggles mightily to migrate to the pure evil that they say is Western Civilization!  And they are swamping us with numbers!!

So, what to do, for a paleo western person, wanting to maintain the civilization that he and his ancestors built and maintain?  

Be a hero!  Embody the many great, dead white males that are so denigrated today.  Become the essence of Alexander the Great, Socrates, and Winston Churchill.  George Patton and George Washington, Lincoln and Robert E. Lee!

Don’t be a politically correct, Leftist, Democrat shill!!  Be a true patriot, a proud Western man or woman, who stands by what you believe and won’t back down.  Provide for yourself and your family, protect your tribe!  Own a gun, and prepare to use it.  Patrol your neighborhood, and be proud of it.  Defend your tribal homelands!

Above all, think for yourself.  Just as you figured out that 90% (at least) of common health advice is just plain wrong- realize that 99% (at least) of political information is just as misleading.  

Stand up and be a hero!  Imagine you are Achilles in the bright and shining golden armor, leading the attack on the invading dark hordes.  For, in the last analysis, that is exactly what you, me, and the rest of us are.  

A Shield Wall against Invasion!

As Alexander himself said:

 In the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.

Money is NOT the Main Goal! Podcast on Paleojays smoothie cafe

I have never focussed on making money as my primary goal.  Never.

It’s not that I didn’t need money; of course, I acknowledge that we all do!  And, like all of you, I usually wish I had just a little more…  But, when I am so distracted, I try to see the big, Paleo picture if you will:  

‘If I make a pile of money, after working many, many hours, sacrificing my home life, my relationships with my child and my grandchildren- would that make me any happier at all?’

This question always makes me see the big picture clearly.  Family, or TRIBE of family and friends- this always trumps money.  ALWAYS!  Time spent with your tribe, nurturing and simply bonding with them, is really all we have.  Of course, we need to make a living, but we don’t need to sacrifice our present for a nebulous future of riches.  

Most of the time, it doesn’t even work out that way!  Ignoring your tribe usually results in really bad outcomes, like divorce, children resentful and rebelling, and us dying early from ignoring true riches (like our health and the health and relationships between us and the many members of our tribal family).  

I’m now 67, and consider myself to be abundantly healthy and happy!  I’m just middle class, but enhanced my material status by moving and remaining in a rural area, where land and housing costs are quite low by national standards.  I had to learn to do many physical tasks by myself, since hiring them done is expensive, even here.

I found out that I actually enjoy things like cutting firewood and trees down, maintaining my chain saw and tractor and other machines is grounding and keeps me down to earth.  And while I am tending my land, whether garden or lawn, paths through my woods, or working on a stubborn piece of machinery- occasionally, I get a feeling, a revelation perhaps: Wait- I think I am, right now, completely happy and satisfied.  

I cut through the base of a backwards leaning, giant maple tree, then hear a slight ‘crack’.  I loop my chain around the trunk, and step back to my tractor.  I look back as I rev the engine and move slowly away- and that huge tree falls with a whump exactly where I wanted it to!  At that moment, all is right with the world.

Would I feel the same if my tiny suburban yard was immaculate, and my rosebushes, trimmed by a lawn care company, were perfect?  And my expensive sports car was shining in the driveway, on the shiny blacktop, as the lawn care mower went quickly across my small yard, which was perfectly weed free, since they had poured glyphosate liberally over it- would I be pleased that now, with no effort on my part, my grandchildren could scamper over that small lawn with no effort on my part at all?  

Old 67 year aged PaleoJay walks barefoot across his yard, not lawn.  It is green, except for the various dandelion, or creeping charlie.  Plantains are in abundance in certain areas, since he never uses any herbicides, or insecticides.  His   1962 Ford F100 sits in his driveway, shining slightly, which makes him smile.  He thinks of the grandchildren coming over for the weekend, and grins.  It will be tiring, chasing a couple of little toddlers all over the yard and garden and farmhouse:  but he wouldn’t trade it for millions!

If I owned that tiny suburban yard outside of a big city, and had maybe a million or so in the bank- would I be happier?  Would I smile if my grandkids ran barefoot over my poisoned lawn?  Or would I be too busy to even notice, since I had to check online for my investments, and my high powered executive job’s demands?  And would I still even be married at all?

Family and Tribe trumps job, salary, and prestige.  Place, where you live, is far more important than income and possessions.  And health beats wealth!  

EVERY TIME!!

So go thou and do likewise.  Make money, but for a real purpose, not just as if it is a big game.  Money is good if used to buy tools you need, real foods that fulfill the health needs of your tribe, and things like tractors and old trucks.  

If money is used for exotic vacations to impress Facebook friends, fancy cars, stupid one-trick ponies like zero turn mowers, and expensive restaurant meals- that is wasted money, buying disappearing mirages of smoke and mirrors.

It really doesn’t matter how much you save and accumulate, how much you get!  What matters is your life, how you lived it, what you did with it, how much you shared- both money and time and effort both- and the health, both of mind and body, of those you nurtured and should have been responsible towards.  

YOUR TRIBE.

Ancestral Living and YOUR Tribe! PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe Podcast

Last of the Whites

There is a modern phenomenon in modern times, at least in the advanced, complex, high intelligence European world: the indiscriminate importing of Low IQ populations into Western European civilization.

Think about this from an ancestral perspective:

You live in a tribe in northern Europe, but it could be virtually anywhere in the world.  (I just use northern Europe to keep it relatable, since my listeners and readers are vastly of that ancestry.)
Your tribe, as all tribes are, is incredibly focused on defense of its borders, and maintaining its territory!  The world is an incredibly hostile place, and evolution has programmed you to be so focused.
Unfortunately, an Evil King has taken over your lands, and oredered you to aquiesce to his evil dictates!  (In England and Germany this would be an Evil Queen in the present day.)

Dictate number one, crazily: is to take into your tribal lands people who have been your enemies since time immemorial!  Those who have fought you for centuries, who hate you, and only want to turn your people into slaves.  Let’s call them Muslims.

But, in addition- the evil rulers also want you to take into your country, not only your hereditary enemies- but also- LOW IQ PEOPLE FROM COUNTRIES THAT HAVE NO CONCEPT WHATSOEVER OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION- AND, who could not even comprehend it if they did.  Parasites.

Also, in the ultimate in ridiculousness, your evil rulers have put into place a Welfare System- a system where, unbelievably really- those low intelligence people from starving countries that are brought into you tribal homelands, are given all they need for free!  No work necessary, although for the native tribal people, work is mandatory.  What the natives produce is taken by force, and given to these low IQ PARASITES,  because that is what the evil queens have decreed.

Does any of this sound familiar, despite how ridiculous it seems overall??

Well welcome to our modern, Western, pathologically altruistic world!  For that, unfortunately, is where we are today.  The Western, civilized, European world is being doomed by its own patholigically altruistic nature.  Let me explain:

Eons ago, some humans moved northwards from Africa, mixing with Neanderthals.  With light skin, higher intelligence, and other advantages, they set out to survive the northern winters.

While their brethren back in Africa evolved physically for the hunt, those who had moved (and mixed) in the north, evolved to plan, think, and thus survive!  Those that did not plan, or think- died out.  Those that did- lived to breed, have large families, and survive- even in a harsh environment!

This is your European tribe.  In spite of all odds, over time- they did very well- very well indeed!  By evolving to their harsh environment, they learned to not only survive, but to cooperate.

For, especially during the Ice Ages, when survival chances were at their worst- it turned out that those tribes, and people who could cooperate, who could feel the stirrings of altruism and compassion were thus ennabled to survive the incredibly strenuous and awful hardness of these ages of ice and snow.

They learned to cooperate in the hunt, taking down mammoths with primitive weapons of flint attached to wooden spears, and then butchering them with the same flint blades for dispersement to the European tribes that required this nutritiion!  And this was no small thing, not at all.

Meanwhile, back in Africa, back in the easy southern climes, things were very different: the hunt, along with the gathering, was available constantly.  Unfortunately, endless warfare was also an option, so black tribal aggression never had to stop, since cooperation, altruism, and compassion were all viewed as fool’s errands in such an easy land, where only physical might determined who ( and who’s people) survived!

Fast forward thousands of years:

The whites, who mixed with the Neanderthals with their larger brains (from being northern dwellers dealing with planning and adversity), evolved into more intelligent beings.  From the 8th century BC to the 1950’s- they made 98% of the scientific and technological discoveries of the modern age!!

The Asians did alright as well, since they also, given their more northern clime, were forced to plan and adapt.  But, since they had far less Neanderthal DNA, and were also admixed with Denisovan stock- for whatever reason, they did not have the ability to innovate like the Whites did.  But they survived, and thrived- actually, almost too much, since their numbers were far too much!

The Present:

Hordes, hundreds of thousands of low IQ southerners are being imported into the North!  They are coming, not for freedom, or any other reason than this-

Free stuff from White People!!

Since we are from a cooperative, compassionate (especially in the case of our women) society: We Welcome Them!

Thousands of years ago, we would instantly have recognized them as INVADERS!

For that is what they are, obviously.  They don’t want to “join our tribe”, they really can’t, given their low intellect.  They want us to give them what we have, that is the bottom line!

And so- don’t be politically ‘corrrect’!  These Southron invaders are the enemy.  Deal with it as a real Northron!  As a defender of Western Civilization!!

Socialism is a cancer, and really an Invasion.  You support it, and you are supporting the extermination of your Tribe, your Tribe of Western Civilization, which is the LIGHT OF THE WORLD! 

Literally.  If white people, Europeans, are eliminated:  So is Civilization.

Health Priorities!

Our lives are consumed with keeping things going- at least mine surely is!  Two trees fell last night, unbeknownst to me, and unfortunately both of them fell across a road!  Yikes.

I was working in my garden, and then remembered I needed to pick up some branches that had fallen recently, so I could mow later.  I picked up said branches, and then spotted two more, up behind the garden.  Now, you need to know that my property is located in a coulee, which in the French parlance of the explorers who explored my area here in the driftless zone, long ago- a coulee is a three sided valley.  A big valley in my case, surrounded on three sides by tall bluffs, covered with woodlands.  It’s wonderful in that it is naturally very isolated.

My house, one of the original farmhouses in the coulee, is on the corner of the two roads that converge in the valley- and so, I have a road on the south side of my house, and another on the east side.  These are the only two roads that are out here.  

When I went after the two branches up behind the garden, I noticed a lot of shade here.  ‘What the heck?’ I thought, and walked up the little hillside to the road.  A tree had fallen, probably due to the incredible amount of rainfall we have had this year in the Coulee Region.  The tree, a box elder, halfway blocked the road to the south of my house. 

Sighing deeply, I’m sure (I have lots to do lately), I got my chain saw, my wonderful Stihl Farm boss, and went to work.  Maybe an hour or so, that was it, and the road was at least clear.  The rest of the tree can wait until Fall, or at least until I have more time.  I still had to mow, the next three days are scheduled for all rain!

I decided to head down the East road, to see if there was more damage.  I drove my diesel tractor, chain saw still along for the ride… there it was- another tree down!  I was the menace of the coulee, blocking both roads!  

I got down, fired up my Stihl, and cleared up this mess as well.  Another hour.  That’s two hours of heavy chain saw work, cutting, bucking, dragging, and stacking of bad firewood- and, this morning was my big heavy pushup workout day- so, I was a bit tired to start.  I like to take it easy after a heavy workout.  Recovery is important!

Now, I could finally mow!  Mowing is quite enjoyable, since I can listen to podcasts, or to AM radio like Rush Limbaugh.  No one explains modern politics better than Rush!  When I finally finished this, a couple of hours later, I went into the house.  I told my wife about the two trees down, and how I had to cut them up.  

“Did you cut up the old dead apple tree?” she asked.  

I shrugged.  “I never even thought of it.” 

She looked crushed.  

Well, I guess I will cut that down tomorrow, in the rain.  Why it was important, I had to ask.

“Because I can see it out the kitchen window,” she responded.  

I guess it’s all about priorities.  I wanted to clear the road so no one would get killed driving home in the dark.  But, since she spends a lot of time at that kitchen window, that seemed most important.

It is similar to everything in life, I thought.  A healthy diet, for instance, one without grains and sugars, heavy on vegetables and grass fed meat- it seems really important to me!  To get a good night’s sleep, every night, and to exercise on a daily basis- it all seems incredibly important to me. I am super-aware of how I will look and feel if I do such things right on a regular basis, and how bad I will feel and look if I don’t.  I make it a priority!

Other people have very different priorities.  They are fixated on making the maximum income, for instance.  Stay up late, eat fast foods, so you can ‘make deals’ and work more and more and more!  Ignore exercise and sleep, pay no attention to family and ‘tribal’ community connections- pursue the mighty dollar above all else!  And when you do have ‘downtime’- hey- party and go on elaborate vacations, showing everyone how you have got it made!  

Ridiculous.  We all need to set true priorities.  As humans.  We need to perform regular human maintenance- we need a good, paleo type of diet.  We need natural, ancestral sorts of exercise, as shown in the Perfectly Paleo Exercise book.  Calisthenics, Virtual resistance exercises, along with good stretching- forget heavy weights and gyms and Crossfit and long distance running and triathlons… they all have nothing to do with true health, with physical culture.

And don’t think I am telling you to go with the Medical Clinic Paradigm- the one that tells you that you need to go to the doctor on a  regular basis, getting tested over and over for anything that might possibly be wrong, and then to take dozens of prescription drugs to alter your mood, your cholesterol, and your blood profile:

BS

I really want you to not do any of that!  That is just the corrupt, current medical business practice, wanting you to spend lots of money on tests, (scoping for dollars), drugs, and surgeries!  Just forget all that, and be like our grandparents and their forebears all the way back to paleolithic times: do it yourself!  

Again: exercise daily.  Sleep 8 hours nightly.  Don’t take drugs, prescription or otherwise. (Prescription are worse than recreational, really!).  And above all- clean up your diet- eliminate grains, especially wheat.  Eat grass fed, pastured, organic and natural.  And cultivate a ‘tribe’, whether through church, or school, of family, or all of the above- we are social beings after all!

And get out in nature, every day.  It is amazing to me how many folks are just stuck inside, staring at screens of one sort or another.  And they never venture outside!

Although I do my share of “screen staring”, for instance as I write these words, I more than make up for it by my outside time.  I pretty much live in the Little House in the Big Woods, and only after all is taken care of do I venture inside to do my “fiddling”, meaning my writing and all else.

So, set your priorities my friend- your body, fitness, and mental state first, so that you are prepared to support your family and everyone else in your tribe.  Only if you have taken care of yourself, set your priorities, can you hope to accomplish anything else truly worth doing.

PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe podcast #133- Plan NOW for your 65 year anniversary, and your 96th birthday!

That’s right, my mother and father are celebrating two events in one tomorrow- both their 65^th wedding anniversary, and the birthday of my father turning 96!

I know in this day and age, both milestones are very, very, very rarely attained!  I remember, a few years ago, I was visiting in Illinois in Chicago for an event along with 4 of my brothers.  A black man of middle years asked me “are you all a rock band?”  I guess my hair, and a couple of my brothers was a little on the longish side…

“No,” I said, “we are all brothers!”

Without missing a beat, he asked incredulously, “All from the same Daddy??”

I assured him we were, and as we walked away, I saw him shaking his head in disbelief.

I say this to point out how rare it is, in this day and age for:

1. A couple to stay together for 65 years

2. This same couple to live in good health to the ages of 96 and 90, respectively

3. To have raised 8 children, all of whom are healthy, happy, and graduated from college and working- (except for mois, paleoJay, since I am retired, 64, and only working part time at jobs I love!

4. To still be living at home, in the two story house they have lived in since 1960, when yours truly, their eldest son, was in 4^th grade!

Of course, to me this is a big deal!  But what does it mean to you, oh Paleo aficionado?  Well, aside from your massive allegiance to PaleoJay.com, it means that you should try to live as they have lived.  

How is this?  Simple, really- 

1. My dad walked, and still walks, everywhere.  He used to take the train into the city for many years, either walking or riding his bicycle to the train station about a mile away.  Then, he would walk to his office, another mile or so away.  He used to be amazed at his friends, who would be dropped off at the train station by their wives, and then take a taxi to their office!  He really didn’t like it, and like his son PaleoJay, he would try to get them to follow his lead into better habits.  

Oh, even now, he always parks as far as he can from the entrance to any store he visits.  Always!

2. Although not paleo, (no one was back in his day), he always knew that “bready” things were bad.  He never tried to eliminate them, but he always knew to minimize the bread, whether pasta, dough, or whatever.  Also, remember that for most of his life, grains were the ancient grains of the Bible- the “waving fields of tall wheat”, not the squat, hideous altered high-gluten grains of today.  My mother felt the same way, and ate the same way.

3. My parents always ate lots of fruits and vegetables, and woke early.  They didn’t stay up late watching television like so many of my parent’s friends, and they always had a vegetable garden.  Also, they never put chemicals on their lawn like so many started doing in the 1970’s.

4. They always walked around barefoot in the yard, and encouraged us to do likewise!  I think part of this was to save on the cost of shoes, but heck- they did it too!  And we all spent most of our free time in the yard.  We played games, whiffleball and kickball, we built a monorail, we had a rope to climb- that was where we all hung out- all eight of us!  And also, we were the home that our friends wanted to come visit- it was fun.

5. Other neighbors of my parent’s age started moving when their kids (usually one or two at most) moved out from home to go to college.  They moved into ranch houses or, (worse in my dad’s and my opinion), into “retirement communities”, where they were entertained and protected from any rigors of living like mowing, or snow shoveling, or- well, anything hard at all!  And then, when they were so “softened up” that they couldn’t even get out of their easy chairs anymore, they could easily transition to “assisted living” in a nearby facility.

Most of those parents are long gone now, before their time.  My parents are still living in their two story, rambling house with a huge yard, and enjoy their upstairs bedroom still, after all these years!  “The stairs are healthy!” is one of my father’s favorite refrains, and I even hear myself repeating it after all these years.

There are other things my parents did that are Paleo, or ancestral, or else just healthy.  They stayed married to the same person.  They kept their “tribe”, their large tribe of relations, friends, and the friends of their children and fellow church members close, and never abandoned any.  They kept playing and enjoying music throughout their entire lives, and still do.  

They have always been friendly, and honest, and true to their word!  They raised their children well, and set an example that we all could follow to our advantage.  They were very conservative, and lived according to their faith.  

Tomorrow, I and my 7 siblings will all go back to the house we grew up in, and honor them.  Many of our children will be there, and our spouses as well.  Also, there will be dozens of friends; the kids that used to come to our yard to play!  For them, it is like a time capsule: all of us are old now, the little kids that played kickball and hung from the monorail as it whizzed down the cable are now in their 50’s and 60’s…

But my parents are still there, look pretty much the same, and smile and remember them all!  I will give a report later, but I am expecting a live version of It’s a Wonderful Life.

Oh, I did write a book about my parent’s respective lives in tribute to them- they don’t know it yet, I will present the published version to them tomorrow.  It is called Milky and Soupy, and it is available here- https://www.amazon.com/Milky-Soupy-Mailman-tales-3/dp/1534855750/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468629079&sr=8-1&keywords=milky+and+soupy

Oh- Jess Thornton is my Pen Name- it's really PaleoJay!

Or, you can just get it on iBooks, Amazon, or just about anywhere else!  It’s a good read, with lots of pictures!  

PQTD #126 Get Down on the Floor!

What the heck?  What do I mean by telling you to “get down on the floor?!”

Just that- you cannot be flexible and fit, with your mobility intact, unless you get down on the floor (or ground) each day, to stretch, to sit, and to just exist!   We are not meant to exist in the sitting position, with occasional standing and walking only- we are meant, in fact we are designed through long evolution to be able to negotiate multiple terrains, and to do so without shoes, without eyeglasses, and without chairs.  The old adage to “use it or lose it” never rang more true in history.

I have seen many older people, and by far the majority lose the majority of their flexibility, mobility, and balance by their 50’s- and from there on out, it goes down at an alarming degree, until they are ultimately almost bed-bound.  Many are confined to walkers, and can only get out of their chairs by using “lift chairs” that electrically lift them into a standing position with no muscular activity of their own!

The key phrase here is no muscular activity of their own.  Before these people start their long decline in physical decrepitude, they begin by losing muscular strength.  Without a basic level of strength, you are dooming yourself to early, self-inflicted invalidism.  So, do your Perfectly Paleo Exercise, your strength training calisthenics and virtual, isometric, and self-resisted exercises every day, if you can.  But definitely three times per week minimum!

But, while you are doing your daily exercise, get down on the floor.  I have a yoga mat in my living room I do my pushups and sit ups (straight-legged- no wimpy “crunches” for this paleo man), my hindu squats and back bridges all on this- but, I also spend good amounts of time just sitting on the floor or ground, both inside and out.  Because, once you are accustomed to it, sitting on the ground actually just feels good, right, and natural.  Because it is!

PaleoJay practices what he preaches!

I have been in Asia, and while we have a “chair based” culture, they have a “floor based” culture- and they are the better for it!  I was amazed to see 90 year old frail men and women over there rise effortlessly to their feet after sitting on the floor for a meal of an hour or more.  And I am not talking about exceptionally athletic people at all- just slender, kind of frail looking folks, but who had kept their mobility simply by continuing to sit on the floor throughout their lives!

Think about it- in a chair, you are really in a kind of “cast”.  A comfortable one, but a cast nonetheless!  In the old days (say before about 50 years ago), it didn’t matter as much, because in the course of daily living almost all of us moved our bodies all day long, standing, squatting, walking, pulling and lifting as we went about our daily lives. We would often be on the ground, to plant or lift something. Or just to lie back and contemplate the sky, instead of staring at a small screen for a break.   Survival required it back then. 

No longer.  Now we sleep in flat comfy beds- (if you haven’t inclined the head of your bed yet, do that- see “Inclined Bed Therapy” and read of the many benefits of raising your bed head 4-6”)!  Then, we get out of bed, sit in a chair to eat, then drive sitting to a job where we sit all day!  Then, come home, sit, and watch TV or at our computer til it is back to a flat comfy bed again.  Just by getting on the floor for 1 hour out of the 24, we would be vastly better off, health wise!

So, get down with your bad self!  Get funky, get on the floor- let your many stabilizer and trunk muscles do what they are there for.  Your core will work, your legs and back will regain flexibility and mobility.  All just from getting on the floor!

Check out this episode!

Paleo Quick Tip of the Day #123 Slow Down and LIVE!

I am convinced that modern Americans’ being obsessed with speed, the need to get things done and accomplished as fast as possible is out of control! 

Virtually all of us have too much going on, all the time.  We say we don’t have time eat right, don’t have time to exercise, don’t even have time to do our jobs properly, with full concentration.  And this is in spite of rushing through our days, from dawn to dusk- commuting to work as fast as we can, not sleeping enough (because we have lots to do the night before!), no time to prepare healthy meals, and so on and on it goes.  No time to meditate, no time to feel grateful for what we have, no time for play, NO TIME!

This is self-delusion.  If your employer is forcing you to rush needlessly, your results will suffer, and your company will eventually fail, or at least do poorly.  Find another job.  Do it slowly, deliberately, or else just take your time, explain yourself, and take the heat.  You are in the right, know that at least!

Medical Doctors in residency are abused overall- forced to do without sleep, working 100 plus hours per week, and make tons of mistakes because of it.  And this is sanctioned by the AMA, this abusive treatment.  The future Doctors suffer, and so do the patients they treat.  So, our supposed “healers” wind up being some of the worst offenders of one of the basic tenets of healthy living- adequate sleep.

My advice?  JUST SLOW DOWN.  The only time I allow myself to rush now is when I am performing barefoot sprinting in the yard.  This is a deliberate, controlled stress that actually builds my strength and stamina, not deplete it.  It is short, and doesn’t last that long, and it is followed by intense relaxation.

The most likely causes of death are, in order: heart disease, cancer, iatrogenesis- which is a term for death by doctor.  This is dying because of an MD making a wrong diagnosis, a mistaken procedure, or simply caused by following his prescription drug advice!  Often, the “death by doctor” is aggravated by the doctor’s chronic sleep deprivation!

The fourth most likely cause of death?  Transportation deaths, usually car crash deaths.  The number one cause here is a tie: alcohol use while driving, and driving while sleep deprived!  Actually, being sleep deprived impairs your driving ability just as much as being drunk.

It is interesting that our expressways are loaded with folks in a huge hurry to get where they are going, at all times.  Even going on vacation, they rush there, and then sit around, exhausted from the mad rush and stress of driving at high speeds with danger all around.

Myself?  I have learned the pleasure of enjoying the journey, not the destination alone.  I take two lane roads across more rural areas, enjoying the drive, the scenery, the many opportunities to stop without danger.  (Expressways are most dangerous when you need to get off.) 

As the author of Blue Highways, William Least Heat Moon has put it: “On two-lane roads, life happens at the edge of the road, for almost every mile.”  And usually, the journey is less in terms of miles traveled, and is often as fast as, or nearly as fast, as taking a high stress tollway with cars careening at breakneck speeds, and giant semi-trucks that could crush your car with a slight wandering of the drivers attention.   Where I dreaded long interstate trips, I really enjoy leisurely, “blue highway” adventures in travel!

So stop the mad rush to nowhere, now!  Take the time to do things well and thoroughly.  Meditate, exercise, prepare wonderful paleo meals.  Make a daily green paleo smoothie to maximize nutrition.  Sleep a full 8 hours of more per night!    Remember, just because “everyone else” loves to drive as fast as they can on expressways all the time, seeing nothing, they are not paleo people, like you and I! 

They also don’t sleep enough, eat processed, fast food “meals”, rush through life without really experiencing it, don’t exercise, and are riddled with all of the diseases of modern civilization.  Just go through life at a human pace, a paleo pace- now, you are really living!

Check out this episode!