Make Your OWN Supplements!

Really- make your own supplements! 

It’s not hard, and it will save not only your health, but money too.  The secret is to replace or at least add to one meal each day a glass of a smoothie that you make yourself.  I call mine the paleo green smoothie, and I have made it for quite a few years- changing up the ingredients from time to time, depending on what foods I have handy in my refrigerator and freezer. 

For, make no mistake: good, healthy foods are the very best “supplements” you can consume!  You simply take wonderful ancestral types of foods, and combine them in a high speed blender to make the healthiest beverage ever.  Let’s go over what I made today, to last me for at least 4 days:

I always start with a full fat kefir, since it is a great probiotic, and is liquid.  I never measure, just going by intuition.  About a cups worth or more to start.  Then, I add in Vitamin D liquid, ginger powder, turmeric powder, and often kelp powder.  I keep them in spice jars near my blender, so it just takes a moment to shake them all in.

Then, I carry my Vitamix canister around to my refrigerator, and add a couple of raw pastured eggs, apple cider vinegar- just a healthy splash (another great probiotic), some kelp sprouts I had in there I added today, and then I open the freezer.

I add in a healthy pour of California Mix, which is widely available in big frozen bags, and then some greens- today, I had some kelp that I had frozen before so it wouldn’t go bad when I had too much of the fresh stuff.  Then, I added in some frozen cantaloupe, and some mixed frozen berries, along with 1/2 of a banana my wife had left from her own breakfast.  Oh, I also threw in one beet- I discard the greens, since they are loaded with oxalates and are to be avoided.  I kind of ‘forage’ for stuff in my fridge, since I hate for good food to go to waste!

It wasn’t quite as liquid as I’d have liked, so I added in some green tea from my thermos, and blended it up.  I drank a healthy glass, while I poured the rest of the smoothie into clean canning jars that I keep just for that purpose, and stored it all in the fridge.

The whole process takes less than 10 minutes, and is quite enjoyable, since I listen to a podcast or music while I do it- and then- I have my supplements ready for the week.  Much better than pills or potions, and easily obtainable at the grocery store. 

The one thing you do need to have is a good quality, high speed blender- your old $20 cheapie is not going to cut it here.  Vitamix is best, but there are others that will work- I’ll leave it up to you to choose the right one for you and your budget.

Just remember one thing, though: a good blender will last you for at least 10 years- and that’s 10 years of excellent, health producing smoothies!  Pro-rated, it is really a minimal investment overall.  Cheers!

PJSC Podcast #120 Health is the new Wealth!

Oftentimes I feel that the whole Paleo movement is just about repackaging timeless, age-old ideas into a modern format.  So much of the ancestral health movement is just that- ancestral!  This means time-tested, real world health solutions to real world problems.
The irony is that so many of what we think of as intractable problems with our health and diet have been dealt with and solved for centuries!  We have just come to the point where we don’t think we need to look to the past for answers, we just need to look to our medical professionals instead, since they already know the answers to everything health related…
They don’t!  By and large our current “medical professionals” have thrown out the baby with the bath water- they have willy-nilly discarded the wisdom of the past, by and large, and replaced it with drug therapy.  This means treating the symptoms of a disease (dry mouth, stomach pain, joint pain, IBS, etc. etc. etc.), with a drug.  There is not even an attempt anymore to try to identify the cause, and actually cure the disease at its source!
Many, many diseases and conditions have been found to be cured completely by proper, paleo nutrition, meaning replacing modern processed and altered foods with traditional, nature and God made foods that humankind has been eating for millennia!  But somehow, we have reached the point where such simple, common sense solutions as eliminating altered grains such as wheat, cutting way back on sugar (which was consumed very sparingly thought our history), and actually eating and prizing dietary fats (which were highly prized throughout most of our successful evolution), these ideas have been denigrated!
We simply need to get back to basics- back to the future!  EAT as our ancestors ate! (High fat, very low carb- carbs were hard to come by throughout most of history)!
MOVE as our ancestors moved!  NOT lifting super heavy, joint destroying weights regularly, or running very long distances, (which also destroys joints and muscle)- simply by walking around a lot.  Like our great grandparents did- walking into town.  To the post office, the grocery store, the barber or hairdresser.  To the hardware store, to buy nails to construct a shed yourself, and maybe some cement to mix and pour (yourself!) in a wheelbarrow, and lay down for the floor…
YOU GET THE IDEA!?  We were always meant to “do for ourselves”, and that does not mean building a giant 401K or IRA by being a business tycoon, and then expecting “others” to do everything for us that now we don’t need to do for ourselves, since we are too “above it”.  That’s not how life works!
If you DO become a big Richie Rich, and can hire everyone to cater to your every whim- that is when you start to die.
Movement is life.  Real work and striving is life!  If you reach the point where you just sit while you are catered to, you might as well be in a nursing home… you are no longer a vital, valued human being, with skills and the ability to work for the “tribe”.  In paleolithic human terms, you are already dead.
And, even though you have gained millions, perhaps, you would have been far better served by spending your life doing what you could for yourself, exercising daily in a perfectly paleo and sustainable way to preserve your joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments, and maintaining your flexibility, strength and endurance to what it was when you were a young man or woman!
If you had only eaten real foods, and lived as humans are evolved to live, maybe you would not have wound up in a hospital bed at an early age, and been forced to spend all of the money you had accumulated instead of actually living a real, natural, paleo life…
Indeed, health is the new wealth!  WITHOUT your health, and the ability to actually enjoy and experience true life, movement, and happiness-
Wealth is absolutely meaningless.

Paleo Quick Tip of the Day #11- Just Add in GOOD FOOD!

Let’s say you’ve followed along for the first 10 episodes of Paleo Quick Tip of the Day… you have cleaned up your diet, added in quality sleep, eliminated the junk, started meditating a bit each day, added in some quality visualized resistance exercise and pushups in the morning, and started into walking and hiking more- Wow!  I’ll bet you feel great by now, and your friends and workmates wonder what happened to you!  Your skin is probably clear and glowing, you have lost some fat weight already, and you just feel fantastic-perhaps others are asking you advice.

Well, one thing you can do is to tell them to order the new book by Terry Wahls called the Wahls Protocol!  Dr. Wahls had Multiple Sclerosis, and totally reversed it by adhering to a diet and lifestyle just like what I am recommending to you weekly here at Paleo Quick Tip of the Day and at www.paleojay.com  at the PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe.  She goes even farther than most, though, and has recommendations for fighting and reversing autoimmune disease- things like MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, and psoriasis, among many others.  She goes into detail on how to attain ketosis, a state that can be a miracle worker in fighting these ailments, as well as cancer and epilepsy… we’re not just talking your average person’s fight with a few extra pounds, and brain fog and fatigue here!

Today, though, what I want to talk about is the advice that you can give others about “going Paleo”!  First, of course, mention this podcast, and www.paleojay.com  (natch!)  Then, substitute my original podcast’s advice, which was “Grains are Enemy #1”, with this podcast title- “Add Good Foods First!”

Thanks to Dr. Wahls, I realize now that this is the proper beginning- just add in quality, nutrient dense foods as a first step.

Start in by eating 9 cups of non-starchy vegetables and berries each day!!

Just by following this one step of packing your diet with the most healthful, nutrient dense foods on the planet, you will:
1. ADD IN more nutrients that everyone is sadly lacking, making the body incredibly more healthy and vital right off the bat!
2. CROWD OUT much, if not most, of the bad foods (like grains!) that are making you sick, fat, and unhealthy!!

And so, I am officially revising my podcast, to start with #11 first- Add Good Foods First!
It’s kind of a genius idea, since it makes all the other parts, like cutting grains, soy, and junk foods, fast food and sugar so much more easy!

And, if it seems hard to imaging eating 9 cups of veggies and berries each day…

Consider drinking them!  (See podcast #4- The Green Smoothie)  Go to www.paleojay.com for more information, including my ebooks Paleo Quick Start and  Perfectly Paleo Exercise,  along with a link to order a Vitamix blender to make your smoothie with free shipping…

In fact, if I were to make one, single recommendation, it would be to have a-

Daily, Green, PALEO SMOOTHIE EACH AND EVERY DAY!

Just by that one step, over 1/2 of the battle has been won- that is how powerful it is, and it is

WHY I PUSH IT SO!!

I am so glad that Dr. Wahls is on my side!  I think she loves green smoothies as much as I do!!

But, I add in even MORE nutrient density… because, although I am not an M.D., I am…

                                                        PALEOJAY!

Make Health Last!

I want you all to see, and internalize the message from this video!  A lot is said in a short time, and the message is very important: How we end up in our later years is entirely up to us!!

So, there it is.  Your choice!  Take charge of your health, or not...

I know that I am inspired to make a particularly green and uber-healthy Paleo Smoothie tomorrow!  

Also to do my morning round of Perfectly Paleo Exercise, which is necessary for total health as well!

J

Shakeology or Paleo Smoothie? PaleoJay Podcast 23

SHAKEOLOGY OR PALEO SMOOTHIE? PALEOJAY PODCAST #23 ON iTunes NOW!

Shakeology or Paleo Smoothie?


Or even (gasp) Real Food??!!  Is that even an option?


You bet it is!

I recently read about this Shakeology guy in a business magazine.  It appears that this young, model-type of guy, Darin Olien, is the spokesmodel for this multi-level marketing powdered shake mix, that is affiliated with the much-hyped on TV P90X exercise DVD outfit.

I was curious, since it was a "shake" or smoothie type of deal... so I checked it all out online.

Bottom line?

Darin travels the globe, looking for rare, and probably magical fruits, tubers, nuts, whatever, and then cutting deals with the locals to provide them for his dehydrated Shakeology drinks!  This enables you, the consumer, to purchase these powdered shake-things to mix up in your blender, and replace meals with!  (Sounds eerily like the Paleo Quick Start Smoothie, right?)  Just mix it up with water, almond milk, or extra-sugary juice (it doesn't really matter, does it?) and voila- Shakeology!

I include the ingredient list below; nothing in it is really bad.  Wheat grass, Barley grass, Wheat grass- not so great.  Whey protein, hey, OK.  But at $120.00 for 30 servings... YIKES!!

Here is my own Paleo Smoothie ingredient list, replete with nutrition, that you can easily make yourself.  The nutrition levels are about as good as it gets:


Quick Paleo Smoothie ingredients list:
My current recipe- variations are not only possible, but encouraged! But the base outlined here is very representative of a transformative replacement meal/ultimate real food supplement in one tasty drink!





Coconut Milk- 1 can
Coconut oil and/or red Palm oil- 2 Tablespoons
Carlson’s or Nordic Naturals Cod liver oil- 1 Tablespoon
Powdered kelp- 1 teaspoon
Unsweetened kefir- 1/4 cup
Organic, unsweetened lemon juice- 1 teaspoon
Apple cider vinegar- 1 teaspoon
1-2 cups of green tea
cinnamon- 1 tsp- also great on coffee and whipped cream! (Fresh ground is best-
I use a coffee grinder)
Frozen organic spinach- approximately 1 cup
Frozen mixed organic vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots), ~1 cup
Frozen organic mixed berries- blueberries, raspberries, strawberries- 1 cup
1/2 banana (I freeze mine so they don’t over-ripen) optional
1 peeled orange
2 raw, organic free range eggs (optional)
grass fed Whey protein powder (Optional)

Since publishing my ebook, I have begun adding the dried, powdered varieties of:
turmeric 1 tsp
ginger 1 tsp
Both are strong anti-inflammatory agents, among many other benefits.
I have also started substituting dried coconut milk powder for the canned coconut milk..
This is optional, but is cheaper, and more convenient as well!
ALSO, magnesium powder and Vitamin D powder are great adjuncts as well-
And NOW, as a PREBIOTIC to help my gut microbes, I have begun adding in:
4 Tablespoons of Bob's Potato Starch
This last is a real improvement for your health!
Also, I often add in an avocado as well...

As you can see, one of the great advantages of a drink like this is that you can constantly vary, tweak, and otherwise enhance the nutrition of your smoothie!  Use seasonal veggies and fruits in the summer months, add vitamin D liquid in the winter, 1/4 of a peeled lemon when feeling a cold coming on... experiment!

That’s it! You can also “mix and match” with fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables you have on hand- cranberries are a favorite of mine, as is liquid vitamin D in the Winter months!


The beauty of this drink, besides its being economical, real food, is that it has everything that your body and mind need to thrive!!  Nothing exotic, but really, exotic is really not necessary...it just makes good marketing.

Save your money!

It's a multi-level marketing scheme, and I believe P90X is right in the same ballpark-home grown versions of exercise (see www.transformetrics.com) are even more effective, and do-able long term.

With all the money you save by avoiding these bogus fitness schemes, you can buy a real fitness tool- a Vitamix Blender, to make your own Paleo Smoothies!!

And, you can also get a Weber Grill and a slow cooker to make...  real food!!  (What a concept!)

You may have enough money left over to buy a chin-up bar, a set of perfect pushup devices, and make your own kettlebell- now you have all you will ever need for fitness AND nutrition!!

Forget the multilevel marketing versions of health- Do it yourself!
Try Perfectly Paleo Exercise, which also has a LARGE section on nutrition.

J

PaleoJay Podcast 22- My Personal Vitamix Story!

Listen now, and subscribe for free on iTunes!

My Personal Vitamix Story- PaleoJay Podcast 22- NOW on iTunes!

I was a long time weight lifter, having been a really skinny kid in the 1960’s, I was determined to “bulk up”.  Health was always important to me as well, but I wanted to be BIGGER.  I started out with standard weightlifting protocol of 3X per week, and that really worked in my 20’s!  I rather rapidly put on 20-30-40 pounds of muscle- but that wasn’t enough!  I ate- all I could!  But indiscriminately: I ate lean meat, but I also ate pizza, and ice cream, and just about anything I wanted...  

And I started training MORE- I’d train for an hour or two, HARD, and then go out and RUN a few miles.  I stretched religiously as well (thank God), but my cortisol levels must have been through the roof!  I literally reached the point where, even in Church!, I would be thinking about my workout later that day...  

My priorities were WAY out of whack.  My bad diet had me top out at 220 pounds, on a very small boned frame!  I started having migraine headaches, my back hurt, my shoulders hurt, my feet hurt, and my knees hurt.  I had bony protruberances growing out of my elbows- this really irked me- what was this?  I was HEALTHY!

I did try to eat “low fat, high protein”, and I started having hemorrhoids too- 

“What was going on???” I asked myself.  I am all about HEALTH!!”

My wife was starting to have health problems too, and I wondered “what the heck- we are very health conscious!  How can this be?  I bake all of our own 100% whole wheat bread, and we eat it constantly- we should be super healthy!”

I was in my 50’s here, and knew I had to figure this out.  I didn’t want to be sick, something I had ALWAYS tried to avoid.  I had always revered the ancient Greeks, and their credo of “A healthy mind in a sound body”.  So, I went to the newest version of SCROLLS for learning, the rather newish INTERNET.

I found the Paleo Diet, via Loren Cordain!  

Immediately, I knew this guy was on to something.  It all made sense!  I had always hated the “low fat” mantra- I mean, old time bodybuilders that I had read for years always lauded butter, and cream, and steak, and eggs...  the difference was, the whole wheat thing, that I had swallowed hook line and sinker from Rodale Press and the mainstream was...BULL!  

For one thing, WHEAT had CHANGED!  Dr. Cordain never pointed that out- he just maintained that grains, especially wheat, were ALL bad!  What a mind changer!  I even sent him some questions, which he graciously answered- I knew this guy was a game changer as well.

I really thought about all of this, and wondered how I could implement it, as effectively as possible into my family.  I researched, I thought, I read Weston A. Price, and every Paleo guy there was at the time (not much!)...

I thought about what would be the MOST efficient, easy, effective, and just plain DO-able way to do this thing in the modern world- eat lots of GREEN vegetables, good FATS, and healthy PROTEIN, while eliminating most starchy carbohydrates and sugars and all grains??

First, I tried a juicer.  I thought it would be perfect- reducing fruits and vegetables to juice... but, it was a MESS!  And throwing away all the pulp seemed INSANE to me.

And then, finally, I found the Vitamix Blender!

Finally, I knew I had it all figured out.  I could add anything, I mean anything and it would be liquified; meaning ALL the cell walls of the vegetables, and fruits, and anything else I might want to include (Golf balls, anyone??)  would be broken down and ready for my body to assimilate readily.  ( I was kidding about the golf balls, but it probably would liquify them as well...)

So, I began assimilating every super healthy Paleo ingredient (meaning anything our ancient forebears would have revered as healthy foods!) into a wonderful drink that would nourish anyone that drank it as much as what Ponce de Leon was searching for in his Fountain of Youth- and I FOUND IT!  As near to the “fountain of Youth and Health” as there is allowed to us here on this mortal plane- 

The Paleo Smoothie!  

Basically, making a green vegetable, green tea and kefir based smoothie with loads of coconut milk, oil, butter, organic spices, and berries and citrus will revolutionize your total health.  It will literally reverse (I’m speaking personally here) : migraines will disappear, Fat will melt away, aches and pains in you joints and fingers and knees stop happening- I mean, this is all just personal experience, but Personal Experience is the most important determinant in all of our lives; and trust me: this experience seems to cure  just about everything.  And, I am not exaggerating!

Rosacea, crohn’s disease, acne, obesity, irritable bowel syndrome- I mean anything you can think of, up to and including cancers and heart disease- this is the best preventative I can think of.  That is how powerful the Vitamix is, in incorporating the foods, easily and effectively, into our bodies where they can do what they have through all of time to protect and nourish us to be incredibly healthy and disease free!

I mean, it would be enough to say the this simple machine could make us slim and healthy, wouldn’t it?

But the fact is: it will give us the capability, by maximizing our nutrient intake, to achieve our ultimate health and wellness, and reverse most modern diseases by the same avenue of maximizing our nutrient intake, making us replete with nutrients that our bodies are screaming for!

And that is what the Vitamix blender did for my family and myself. Paraphrasing the great John Wesley- 

“Be as healthy as you can, and as helpful as you can, for as long as you can!”

A Vitamix helps you to do just that, easily!

J

Paleo Quick Tips #12 up and ready!

Paleo Quick Start #12

     
Straight legged situps- best ab exercise ever?

Bodyweight exercise for real world strength

Appetite is the best sauce

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Have you ever done really straight-legged situps?  They are probably the best ab exercise ever- along with simultaneously efficiently stretching out your entire spine and neck with each repetition!  How you perform them is key, however:

Lay flat on the floor, and raise yourself until your elbows, cradled behind your head, come as close to your outstretched legs as possible- and do not anchor your legs under anything!  Your legs should stay down through abdominal power alone; this is what makes this exercise so very effective!  At first, you’ll probably only manage a few, but , done regularly, the progression is quite fast (as is the strengthening of your abs)...
Done eventually in “sets” of, say, 30-50 or even more, they are another form of “intense interval training”, just as are pushups done in such a manner.  In fact, it’s great to alternate the two exercises in opposing sets... Before very long at all you will find you are knocking out a couple hundred of each in surprisingly short periods of time- this is akin to sprinting!, in that it is strenuous in the extreme, for short “bursts” of time- the ideal exercise protocol for simultaneously building muscle and building up your cardio system at the same time!  Add in some planks and some hindu squats, and your whole body is worked to the max, quickly and very efficiently, not to mention naturally- nothing like “machine isolation” and such.  Perfectly Paleo exercise indeed!

Speaking of which, I don’t really mean to bad-mouth weightlifting, but, well, someone has to come out on the other side!  I really think that heavy, dedicated, long hours of weight lifting, just like endless, long sessions of cardio is ultimately... harmful!  There, I said it!  In the old days, weights were used to demonstrate strength.  Lifting platforms full of people, carriages, huge boulders- to demonstrate just how strong they were!
But the strength they were demonstrating was generally gained by... body weight exercises, visualized resistance type exercise, isometrics, and such like exercise!

Lots of heavy squats, for instance, really can give you a bulky, chunky type of physique- is this what you really want?  Also, the strain on your neck and spine can be damaging, as is also the effect on your knees.  I mean, why do them, if you only want to be strong and healthy, and are not in the NFL and need to be really big, strong, bulky, and even somewhat fat to achieve your goals?  Do natural exercises, the types of exercises that animals like tigers and lions do instinctually, and build a cat-like, strong and functional body rather than a bulky travesty that will be lucky to survive past the 50 year mark...  You can build a FAR better physique, man or woman, if you stick to Perfectly Paleo Exercise!


If you have not yet gotten yourself a Vitamix blender, please do so!  This is the mainstay of the Paleo Jay’s Smoothie Cafe, and the bedrock of Paleo Quick Start ultimate nutrition and health.  All the enzymes, anti-oxidants, fiber, vitamins, and other health benefits raw, Ancestral types of eating are unlocked with this “wonder tool”  Order from the link on www.paleojay.com, and your shipping will be free- (best deal anywhere on a Vitamix), new or reconditioned.    And just remember- as the Spartans used to say “appetite is the best sauce”.  I bring this up because today is Sunday, my “fasting/relaxing” day of the week.  I’ve only had a cup of coffee with coconut oil dissolved in it and whipped cream on top so far today, and it’s almost 3PM now!  After this podcast is done, I will do my basement, most intense workout of the week for about 30 minutes, and then “carb backload” for the rest of the night- I have some fried rice, and some sweet and sour chicken, beef and broccoli planned, along with popcorn, and maybe some Vitamix made ice cream made with whole cream and cocoa powder, raw honey and stevia...

Not even a Paleo Smoothie this morning!!

And I will say, that by the time I eat, I realize the Spartans were right:

“Appetite IS the best sauce!!’‘    EVERYTHING will taste AMAZING!

Oh, and that is daughter Holly singing with me on “Newborn Paleo”!
Isn’t she amazing??  Thanks Holly!

PJ

Introducing the Paleo Jay's Smoothie Cafe!

Here is is... (drumroll!) -  Paleo Jay's Smoothie Cafe!  One click and you are off to the land of PaleoJay, where green Paleo smoothies rule, and clothing, golf balls, aprons, drinking glasses and more are emblazoned with the Paleo Jay brand above, proclaiming to all the world your allegiance to good, healthy, natural ancestral eating and lifestyle!

What could be better than that??

Not a whole lot, to tell the truth!  

So, whenever you have a hankering for some great, inspirational Paleo products that proclaim to all the world your love of good health and nutritional living, not to mention the American Way!, travel on over to Paleo Jay's Smoothie Cafe- it's always just a click away, to Paleo Jay...

And, later today, I plan to do my podcast, so stay tuned!  Perhaps order a special Paleo Smoothie drinking glass to use each morning whilst you wait!

PJ