Big Cities are Fatally Flawed podcast

 We now live in a time when all of our major cities are failing.  We panic, wondering what is now different: why, oh why are New York city, Chicago, Detroit of course all failing, all such abhorrent places of crime, violence and mayhem?  All  bankrupt, and all being run by horrible governments that are hastening their decline??

But we forget, all of us forget our own Western history- it has ever been thus.  Indeed, part of our decline is caused by us no longer teaching and learning our own history…

And so it is that our youth no longer have any inkling of what has come before, and instead are directed to study the minutia of alien cultures, inconsequential inferior cultures, that have nothing to do with us at all.  For, after all, it is the case that Western Culture and Civilization is now the Civilization and Culture of the world.  All of our history has culminated in that single fact.

And so- let’s focus our attention on the so-called Eternal City- ROME.  For over 1,000 years Rome lasted, starting as a small city of landholders that banded together for defense.  Since they fought to defend their own small holdings of farmland, they were motivated to fight very hard.  They were determined to save their own land, and the land that made up their small city-state!  

This made them very effective against attackers, who were usually either bandits who only fought for plunder, or hired soldiers who fought for pay, and thus ready to give up if the fighting became too hard and costly.

You cannot overestimate the intensity with which those who fight freely, who fight to protect their own family and property, will fight!  Against such those who fight for booty and pay are no match at all- they will cut and run whenever things get too difficult.  

Also, the Romans were free men in those days.  They fought for their own liberty, their own families, and their neighbors and kin.  And they developed ever-increasingly efficient ways of doing so, much as early militias did in the Colonial era of US history.  They worked at it, knowing how important it was!

Fast forward to now:

We started as 13 small city states, similar in values and culture to ancient Greece and the inheritor of that culture, Rome.  We basically formed a citizen militia to rebel against the English monarchy, and succeeded!  We were known then as the Protestant Experiment.  And we succeeded wildly, beyond what anyone, including our Founding Fathers, could have expected.

Like Rome, we set off to explore and conquer the continent on which we were living, North America.  We settled the land in record time, and so we had our own empire!  Many liberal sorts would say we conquered the native peoples, but that is what has been done since the beginning of time- a more virile people with superior technology conquers another.  Land is only acquired through force of arms…

We did very well for over 200 years, better really than any culture before us, in every way, shape, and form.  And then, like Rome, our ‘elites’, meaning those who acquired obscene amounts of wealth like corrupt politicians and celebrities of various sorts rather than through productive work, began to idolize those from other, more primitive cultures.  

The elite Romans used to color their skin pale white and dye their hair blonde, and even to wear trousers to look like the barbarians from Germania- they were idolizing their enemies!  These same Germans were hired into their armies, since the native Romans were now given either to decadent luxuries (the elite), or else welfare (the dole) for the displaced rural poor, who now crowded into bigger and bigger cities.

Slaves did work for the vast estates of the elites, displacing any native workers and contractors.  Just as now, we import huge numbers of illegal immigrants to be our modern ’slaves’ in all but name to do our work for the elite of today.

Our shared culture, that of Western Europe, is being dismantled, while the elite push for multiculturalism instead, which just means no shared culture at all!  We are being displaced in our own country, with the blessing of the elites, since they will not be effected, in their gated communities with private police forces and private schools.  They actually come to think of themselves as ‘citizens of the world’ rather than as yeoman small landowners in a cohesive society of peers of their own tribe.  

And now, as in ancient Rome, Americans are flowing our of big cities like a tidal wave!  The crime and corruption, the dismantling of our very police forces, are destroying our cities from within.  Whole generations of the ‘Multicultural people’ within our cities have been supported by the real citizens and workers of our civilization, to everyone’s detriment.  

Even our very churches support the displacement and disempowerment of our own people because of pathological altruism.  This is being altruistic to the point where you are harming yourself and others!  

This is when we allow endless migration into our cities so that they cannot even function due to overpopulation and overloading of school, public housing, and welfare costs.  It is also when we give low IQ people money for having children they have no way of supporting, and even when we make lunches endlessly at churches and other organizations for the children whose parents are gradually enabled to do virtually nothing for their own offspring!  We enable them to be lazy and self-indulgent, and they grow to expect ever more and more- this is pathological altruism.

When a welfare single mother is given the cash and equivalents of $70,000 dollars per year, per child, for doing nothing- this is pathological, even suicidal altruism.  And this is what is happening, and it is bankrupting the nation.  

The big cities, the “modern Romes” of America- make no mistake, they are collapsing before our eyes.  I have suggested to move our of cities to more rural areas, small towns and cities for years now, since what has been happening is so obvious to anyone who knows history.

The best thing is that, in what is now considered RED America, not only in the cost of living much cheaper- it is also far safer, and far better quality!    I know that the suburbs around big cities have been pretty safe up to now, but I fear that that will not continue.  The ennobled rioters and looters that infest our major cities are continually now saying that they need to ‘burn and loot in the suburbs’, and as they destroy the downtowns of the major cities, I predict they will branch out for easier pickings in the suburbs.  

So, move to a rural area, far from major cities!  Learn rural skills, and become familiar with guns.  Just as the fall of Rome was the beginning of the feudal era, when people moved to the countryside and built fortified castles- so must we too do likewise!  It is that serious; let’s just hope it is not too late to turn things around.  At least Trump has the potential to seriously slow things down, and perhaps to reverse this unravelling of civilization!

All is Maintenance podcast on PJSC

When we think of important virtues in life, we think of things like goodness and honesty.  Very general concepts indeed- helpful as far as they go, but so general as to be largely meaning almost anything at all if you think of it.

I think what most of us struggle to understand is simply that life, overall, is about maintenance.

If you make a promise, or resolve to do something, that is one thing.  But it is the maintaining of that resolve, or promise, that really makes it happen, and solidifies it into reality.  The ongoing effort is all important, not just the spur of the moment feeling and idea that launched it.  Ongoing maintenance, whether in relationships, keeping up familial obligations, caring for youngsters for many years as they mature, of in caring for our elders- this is where the ‘rubber meets the road’, where we actually achieve what we set out originally to do.  

Build a house, or a road- well, even to do such things takes a certain amount of resolve, or maintenance, since it takes a long period of time to do either.  If one lives solely in the moment, with no real thought for tomorrow- why then, you have thrown maintenance out the window!  

But let’s say you have a house, a road; perhaps a vehicle and a tractor- maintenance is now what is key.  Not general ideas like ‘goodness’ or ‘the right thing’- simple maintenance- the daily, ongoing resolve to keep things running well, to lubricate, to protect and keep viable what is built- this is all important!  

The maintenance of the family, the town, and the government itself- all of these need endless maintenance, effort, and attention.  Our jobs, our relationships with neighbors and family- all are subjects of endless maintenance.  It is the bedrock of Western Civilization itself.

Back when our ancestors left warm the warm climes of Africa to go northwards into the harsh lands, they had to learn to plan, to accumulate foodstuffs to carry them through the hard days of winter.  This took the development of abstract thinking, or future-thinking.  The plenty of today’s summer day would not continue endlessly, as it did back in Africa, where one day was like the next, forever.  To live in the moment there was usually enough.  Planning, or maintenance of any sort of future provisioning was unnecessary, and so never happened.  

Europeans developed the skills of abstract, or future oriented thinking, and relied on those skills to survive in harsh winter lands.  Eventually, since these Europeans adapted to their hard environments very well, their endless planning and maintenance of what they built served them very well indeed!

What they built is now what is Western Civilization- actually- Civilization itself!  It is all about building, and then endlessly maintaining that civilization.

Interestingly, in African Zulu- there is no word for maintenance.  Or for ‘precision’, or for ‘the future’!  ‘Now’ is the same as any other time, or space.  This is a land of no maintenance, or really by definition, of any sort of technology at all.

And we can easily see the state of Africa today, what results from such a lack!

So, incorporate maintenance into your life!  It’s a very paleolithic, ancestral concept, once you understand it well.  Each and every day is not just new and different- no, it is a time to rediscover, to reawaken and renew what you have been working on for your whole life.

A new day- well, do your daily exercises!  Strengthen and reinvigorate your body and mind by going through your Perfectly Paleo Exercise routine.  Then, drink your paleo green smoothie, and a couple of eggs, while planning the rest of your day- (the maintenance of your paleo life)!  

Your job priorities are key, as are your relationships with your family, friends and neighbors.  What tasks (maintenance) are necessary for you to keep up your home (paint, trees trimmed, mowing etc.), the education of your youngsters (homeschooling or the examination and holding to account of your public school)?  How about your own health, and the health of your family?  Are you being a good father/mother, and leading your children down the path of health and good citizenship?  All of this a part of maintenance, the maintenance of the individual, and the overall health of the body politic.  

Are you being shortsighted?  Are you pretending to maintain your lawn by pouring glyphosate over your yard to kill weeds, and thereby killing weeks that don’t need to be killed by poisoning your groundwater and very land?  This is not maintenance, it is not future thinking, it is not planning- it is just stupid.

Are you working really long hours to make money, while ignoring your children and home life?  Again- no maintenance- just living in the moment really!  Get back to true maintenance.

You get the idea.  Maintenance is long-term, ,patient, ever-watchful and inglorious work.  You are basically a custodian of yourself- your body, your land, your house and neighborhood, your health and wellness.  You are a future-oriented planner.  A maintenance worker!  

To do such a thing is to be Atlas: YOU HOLD THE WHOLE WORLD UPON YOUR SHOULDERS!  You are no flash in the pan, hunter sprinting in the moment across the African savannah- no, you are so much more.

YOU MAINTAIN AND NURTURE CIVILIZATION ITSELF!

Use the Coronavirus Quarantine to Build a Better YOU! podcast

Never Let a Good Crisis go to Waste!  That is the quote that has been used by so many on the Left for bad ideas and policies, but we can also use it positively, in our favor as ancestral living people.  Most of us in what are called ‘non-essential’ jobs (as if any real work is ‘non-essential’, really) are now staying at home, only venturing forth for necessities.  

Although this is really painful for most of us (we are social beings after all), we can use this time in our favor!  Instead of just watching stupid binges of Netflix bad series, we can set ourselves real, life changing challenges.  Master cooking- it really is an essential life skill, especially in regards to your health.  

It’s just the right time of year to master grilling on a charcoal grill, and if you are like me, simply cooking outdoors will add a whole new realm of enjoyment in your life.  A Weber grill is wonderful, and all you really need in my opinion.  Fancier grills and smokers might impress your city and suburbanite status conscious sorts, but you can do anything you might want to do, simpler and easier, on the tried and tested Weber!

The one upgrade I would recommend would be getting your hands on a propane torch- not a little tiny baby one- but a big one that runs on a 20 pound propane tank.  If you live in the country, you probably already have one to burn stumps, start campfires, melt ice, and a thousand other things.  But if you don’t- get one!  They are cheap, Harbor Freight and Tool has a couple for really cheap, but the more expensive one, which is still under $30 I believe, is self lighting and that is a wonderful feature.  I use a welder’s sparker, which works fine; but if buying now get the self-lighting feature.

With this torch, you can start your charcoal in a matter of perhaps 1 minute or so, resulting in red hot coals!  Also, you can clean your grill with the flame- never brush then gunk off of your grate again.  

So, you start your fire in record time, so you can grill easily all year round, as I do in Wisconsin.  But in warmer weather, it becomes a pure pleasure- you sit outside in a lawn chair, next to your grill, monitoring the progress of your succulent meal leisurely as you enjoy the outdoors.  I often have my dutch oven going as well, roasting something on the side, putting coals beneath and on top of the oven.  You will be amazed at all the recipes that are out there for stews and such using a dutch oven.  And afterwards, you can burn off the residue with your torch- no scrubbing cast iron pots for you, my paleo friend!

Another thing you can master is cooking indoors, but that is not as much fun.  And next year, you can tap any maple trees you might have, and cook down some syrup- now, I just finished my sap boiling, and built a kind of cinder block rocket stove that really made the process a pleasure.  Another great outdoor hobby. (And maple syrup has more nutrients overall than any other sweetener, even honey)!

And don’t forget your exercise regimen!  If you exercise with body weight, virtual resistance, and isometrics along with calisthenics as I recommend in Perfectly Paleo Exercise, you know that I recommend doing these exercises in front of your TV, each morning early, along with extensive stretching on the floor.  But, usually twice per week, I also go into my dungeon- er, basement, and do heavier sorts of stuff.  Twice per week is perfect, any more is too much, and you only need about 30 minutes or so.  

I do pushups on my gymnastic rings for high reps, along with flies, pistol squats leaning back on the rings, along with pull-ups, dips, and isometric holds of those movements.  Also, I like really slow squats, perhaps thirty seconds for each rep, all the way up and down- very taxing!  And I finish up with Jefferson lifts, which are straight legged deadlifts on a platform, down low past my toes, and up again, for one set, very slowly.  A sure fire cure for any back pain in your life!

Also, if you like to write, or have always wanted to: go ahead and do it!  Write a book; I have written quite a few now, and it is a very satisfying process.  I have also narrated most of mine now, and that is also a wonderful adventure, and profitable as well.  If you need help, contact me, and I’ll give you a roadmap of how to do either one.

I also like music, and have created quite a bit since this quarantining has started- I have a youTube channel called Stay at Home Hymns for my church- check it out.

The point is that this time can be a treasure trove of wonderful time; time in which you can gradually explore and make yourself a better paleo person, with talents and skills that perhaps you never had before, or else just furthering those that you have had all along!  Time alone, without distractions, can be one of the greatest gifts of your life, if you just don’t waste it, but grab it with both hands and enjoy it!  

Just think: by Fall you can be a better person: and it’s all because of the Corona Virus…

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.

The Perfect Paleo Day on PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe podcast

Today I had the perfect paleo day- in fact, I’m still having it, since now I am communicating with my tribe of ancestral people on this very podcast!  

Like most of my perfect and near-perfect days, the vast majority of the day was spent outdoors, in nature.  The sun shone brightly pretty much the whole day, and wonder-of-wonders: here in mid-April the snow is finally melting!  Still big clumps of white persist, but primarily in the deep woods on my property, so I pretty much stayed in the open areas.  

I started my perfect day as I recommend you start your own- by exercising in front of your television.  Actually, the TV is optional, but since I had a movie queued up and also wanted to watch Fox business first, I set myself on my yoga mat in front of the TV.  I started into my preliminary stretching, followed by my visualized resistance exercises, and then more stretching on the mat. 

Then, I did isometrics holds for all of my muscle groups, pushing and pulling against an old Exer-Genie.  This tool, developed in 1961 for training astronauts in deep space to maintain their muscle and bone mass, is an amazing piece of equipment that has stood the test of time.  I think it is a testament to its wondeful utility that it has never become a big fad, like jogging, aerobics, or heavy weight training.  It’s just a common sense tool that works, and that just isn’t exciting and sexy to most folks.  

It works amazingly well for isometric holds- I do sets of three holds for each muscle group, in three positions each withing the muscle’s movement plane.  To cover my whole body, shoulders down to lower back, takes me about 10 minutes total- truly my ‘most bang for the buck’ part of my routine. 

I got mine off of Ebay, back when Ebay was pretty new, and the Exer-Genie from in the 1960’s came really cheap!  They still make them, and you can probably find one on Ebay, and that would be cost effective.  New ones cost well over $200 though, and my 1960’s model works like a champ!  In addition, you can use a simple long nylon strap just as effectively, standing on the strap for resistance.  That’s what I did for years, and it’s almost as good.  

 I finish up this basic workout of mine with rebounding while doing two more cycles of visualized resistance exercise covering every muscle group in my body.

I started this workout by getting up quite early in the morning, since for me that is the very best time of the day.  I make my dark roast coffee in my French press, and love padding into the living room with my steaming cup, and sipping it between exercises.  

Next, after showering, I drank my green Paleo smoothie from my refrigerated canning jar, and taking my next cup of coffee with me, I drove off towards our wonderful meat locker here, or which we have several.  I had decided that this was going to be a ’steak day’.  

One of my favorite things is to declare a day a ‘steak day’, which means probably just one big meal that day- a steak along with a baked potato and some kind of salad.  Of course, I had already had my smoothie, so I was covered on all of my nutritional bases already…

There is something incredibly satisfying about driving leisurely along through the rural countryside, anticipating the sights and smells of the market, early on  a weekday.  Admittedly, I do have the wondrous privilege now of being retired, and I will tell you truly- when you look back over your life (this was done numerous times in surveys of the elderly, meaning folks in their 90’s), every single person surveyed said that the happiest days of their lives were from when they retired, until they lost their health.  Every single one.

Not when they were children, playing with friends. (Although that was highly rated as well). Not their teens, or twenties, or thirties, or- any other age!  It was when they were done with their responsibilities, and were then free to do what they wanted: to enjoy their grandchildren, indulge their hobbies, to read those classic books they never had time for, to take leisurely daytrips and to go to early lunches at nice restaurants and then go home to sit on their decks- those were the best years of all!  

Anyway, back to my perfectly Paleo day: 

I drove back home and grilled my giant, Cowboy steak!!

I had never grilled one of these before, but today they were on sale, and looked great!  What they are is a giant,  2” thick ribeye, with the bone still attached, so it looks like a Flintstone steak.

I started my Weber grill (I always use hardwood charcoal, which burns hotter and cleaner) which I started with my propane torch in about 2 minutes to red hot coals.  Seared both sides of that monster steak, and added on some Redmond Real Salt, which believe me is the very best salt, both nutritionally and taste-wise that you can find.  I kept flipping the steak, every 30 seconds to a minute, and getting both sides seared well.  

Then, moving the steak back away from the coals, I put on the lid and waited.  I waited while watching all the birds returning, I know I saw three bluebirds which are my favorites, and I thought deep thoughts while a smoked a large cigar.  I know, smoking is not really paleo, but heck, neither are the baked potatoes I had bought, and I love them both, and consider both a cigar and a potato to be safe starches.

About 45 minutes from grill to table, my wife and I were eating with great relish!  We both knew that we would not need to eat again that day- here it is 6 PM, and I am not even faintly hungry.  We split that monster steak, and saved the other half.

So, after our Paleo Feed (I felt as if I had returned with a wooly mammoth), we parted as I went to tap my maple trees!  The sap was running, and my buckets were all set to catch every drop.  

I filled my 5 gallon bucket, fired up my sap cooker, and sat back on a chair to watch it boil.  I am not a fisherman, but if you are, this must be kind of what it’s like: sitting out in the sun, soaking it up after a long, long winter, and just keeping an eye on the sap, making sure it doesn’t burn up while you run off to attend to something else.  

It is possible to ruin those whole 5 gallons, turning them to burnt sugar crystals, it you aren’t attentive enough to take them off when they are down to about a quart or so.  

But, at the start of the boil, you are safe to wander off, and I did.  I needed to pick up and prepare to burn about 2 cords of fallen branches, logs, twigs, and detritus that defaced my property!  Actually, moving along outside, squatting over and over, bending over and throwing these branches into the big garden cart I pulled, was at least as much of a workout as what I had done early in the morning.  But, it was incredibly satisfying, and now my yard is clean- I think I’ll have a big burn tomorrow, which is almost as satisfying as steak day.

Finally, late afternoon, and I came in and did a pushup and other gymnastic ring workout in the basement for about 20 minutes, while I started the reduced sap to boiling in the kitchen.  I was very pleasantly tired when I mounted the stairs, and my wife had been monitoring the boiling sap.  The thermometer said 212 degrees, where she told me it had been for awhile.

I took over, and opened a beer as I settled in to watch that sap slowly turn to syrup.  I set my digital thermometer alarm to go off when it hits 219 degrees, and I watch that pot like a hawk!  You don’t want a boilover, not at this stage, wrecking it all…

But with the thermometer, it’s really rather easy- the alarm goes off, and you turn off the heat- syrup done!  Thick, dark, and not runny at all, just the perfect consistency.  It is a very satisfying project, with tangible results, unlike many things in this modern, Neolithic world!  

I jar it up, feeling great about my day.  I don’t eat that much of the syrup, but I enjoy giving it away, quality product that it is.  

Now, I think I’ll sing and play for awhile, since that is another thing that I love to do.  Kind of like cave painting for a non-visual artist!  Then, I have a free book I downloaded from the internet, called The Fall of Western Man by Mark Collett.  I’ve read the first two chapters, and it looks amazing.  Sad news, but true for all of that.

Either look it up, or contact me: I’ll send you a copy.

And hey: thanks for listening!  Where would we be without our tribe?

I woke up this morning with Paleo- On my Mind!

I know- you’ve woken up, and thought: “Perhaps a Paleolithic Lifestyle would change my life?  Because now I am:

1. weak

2. fat

3. diseased

Well, you can be a diesel engine-  Or, a Paleo Diesel, if you prefer; a Conan-esque, super efficient person who can handle any obstacle or disease, just by your well-tuned metabolism and lifestyle!  It truly is your choice…

What you need to do, is eschew, or give up what the evil rulers of our time are ordering you to do!  They want you to:

1. Eat low fat, only vegetable oils please!  

2. Move More- Eat Less- this means walking, jogging, mall walking, aerobic dance classes: all sorts of wimpy, stupid flailings of your limbs that accomplish almost nothing, but make you feel virtuous.  And then, you go on a “low calorie” type of diet, that results in you being malnourished.  But still fat.

I hope you know by now, if you have listened to me or any other Paleo podcasts at all, that this is B.S.  And no, despite the accuracy of it, I don’t mean Barbara Streisand.  

I want you to eat a full-fat, lower carb sort of diet- without fast foods, processed foods; and super low in sugar and super high in vegetables and and low glycemic fruits, like citrus and berries.  Sprouts and spices- mainly in green Paleo Smoothies, as outlined in Perfectly Paleo Exercise and at www.paleojay.com  

You know, it is literally true that, if you give up the processed foods, and high carb Barbara Streisand- oh, I mean B.S., sleep a good 8 hours per night, and exercise ala Perfectly Paleo Exercise on a daily, or near daily basis, you will sidestep most of the diseases and infirmities of modern times.

What exactly does this mean?  Well, it means that:

1. You will not become diabetic, or its precursor- diabesity. 

2. You won’t become an old, obese person who is heading for Alzheimer’s!

3. You will build your tendons and ligaments, rather than let them decline, as they do in almost all conventional exercise approaches.  You will learn about the importance of isometrics, self-resisted, and above all Virtual Resistance, where the body resists itself as it moves through a range of motion, working not only the muscles, but the all-important tendons and ligaments that actually support the musculature!

If you do what I prescribe in Perfectly Paleo Exercise, following the diet of a green, paleo smoothie daily, and do the exercises as prescribed as well, you will turn yourself into a Paleo Diesel!

I came up with this term as I was doing things out on my land with my diesel tractor.  If you have never spent time amongst tractors, you wouldn’t know that diesel engined tractors are far more efficient than the typical gasoline tractors.  Diesels run on a really basic, unrefined form of petroleum - kind of like a SAD American diet, albeit for tractors!

They are basically PALEO TRACTORS!

They use unprocessed Petroleum, and are far stronger in pulling, and any other test of tractor strength!  

They have TORQUE- which is a measure of pulling, or raw strength capacity!

But, if you are more into “fluff”; little disco-dancing types of tractors- well- get a GASOLINE, aka processed foods glucose-fueled kind of tractor!

That is like a weightlifter type of tractor, a  “Cross-fit Tractor” if you will:  but what you want is a Physical Culturist, a Paleolithic type of Tractor-body- one that is into the long haul, one that cannot only pull, and lift, and excel in the short-term- but one that will last  a long, long, productive time!

Well, that’s what I want.  I hope that’s what you want as well- a strong, fit, ailment-free body that takes you through your old years with grace, without hospital visits, or any infirmities that preclude you playing with your grandchildren!  

I am already there, spending time with my first grandchild, with NO health concerns, which I realize now is endemic amongst my 65 year old peers!  

To quote Pee Wee Herman- “Why won’t they listen to me?”  

I don’t know!!

pqtd 130 The Power of Intermittent Fasting! A Parable on podcast #130...

I have had a very, very busy few days, and thus need to apologize to you, my paleolithic friend, for not getting my weekly PQTD podcast done in time! Usually, it’s every Wednesday. But, here it is at last, and better late than never, aye?
Firstly, my excuses: I have been off to our families’ vacation log cabin, deep in the woods of Wisconsin. A truly unique and lovely place, rustic, cool, and peaceful. My brother, who at 63 is one year my junior, has bought the house and land just next door- his land adjoins that of the family cabin land, and this is perfect! We had met there to do work on his land, which included cutting tons of brush, dead trees, weed trees needing removal, mowing and trimming, and more. We spent one solid day doing all of this, and getting both properties into good order, at least so far as the land goes. (If you have never done it, it is amazing how much physical work in involved in keeping up even a rather small parcel of wooded or country land!! Trees are always falling, blocking trails and damaging things (last winter it was our cabin rook and skylight that got smashed), and things just need to be taken care of. And so that is what we did.
I am used to intermittent fasting, and do it regularly: this means having an “eating window”of perhaps 5 or 6 hours, and then fasting the rest of the day. If you have made yourself into a “fat burner”, doing this is completely natural and easy, and actually quite freeing! If you are a neolithic “sugar burner”, as are most modern Americans, you need to snack all day long, mostly on carbs and sugars, just to keep up your blood glucose. This is the first step towards diabesity and degenerative illness…
Now, my brother is a lifelong exerciser, and quite lean and fit. But I have always marveled at how atrocious his diet was- bread, and anything else that falls into his path is fair game! He listens to me on many things, like Inclined Bed Therapy, and Perfectly Paleo types of exercise, but he always insists he is “immune to gluten”.
I noticed that, neither of us ate breakfast that first day, just getting right to work after coffee with heavy cream. We worked steadily, all day long, with heavy physical work. The chain sawing, tree after tree, and then stacking and carrying the logs. Over and over. Really exhausting work, and the heat was unusually hot for this area, since it was in the 90’s and very humid.
At one point, Jeff went into his house and emerged with a small bag of chips, which he consumed. He offered none to me, knowing that I would refuse. We went back to work, until it was all done. We were both utterly exhausted, dripping with sweat and sawdust. Both of us showered, and I put a number of bratwurst onto the grill. Kicking back with a couple of beers, we waited for our first real meal of the day. I ate a lot of brats, as did little brother Jeff, with sauerkraut, mustard, and for Jeff at least: buns! I didn’t like it, but I even toasted them for him…
The next day, I drank a Paleo green smoothie with my coffee, and we both went to work on restoring an old Airstream trailer on the property. We gutted much of the inside, and then tried to clean the decades of dirt and mold off of the outside. I eyed the old water spigot that had not been used in many years, and then decided to try it. Jeff turned on the water in the crawlspace of the cabin, and it gushed out!
Unfortunately, it gushed out of the side of the pipe, not the faucet. We decided to attempt to fix it. We spent hours pulling, prying, wrenching, and pounding at the pipe to get it out of the rubberized hose through which the water ran from the cabin. It was barely above ground, that faucet, and so we spent our time hunched over, in the dirt, and even dug down all around in the rocky soil to try to get that pipe to budge. Nope!
Finally, I took a long log, of roughly 18 feet of so, and using a big rock as a fulcrum, worked it under the faucet, where Jeff held it with his entire body. Pushing with all I have, there was a long, painful pause, and finally- Jeff shot up in the air and to the side, holding the length of freed pipe in his hands! We had done it!
“I’m proud of you two!” said the guy at the hardware store, when we brought in our precious pipe for replacement parts. He wanted to hear how we did it, since he could tell by the age of the pipe how long it had been broken. He really liked the faucet, which was large, brass, and in the shape of a quail!
We got it all put back together, and the rest of the afternoon was a joy of scrubbing off the gunk that covered the shiny skin of that beautiful Airstream trailer! It glowed.
Only then did I realize that we had not eaten that day! I made cottage cheese pancakes, which I have extolled here before- 3 eggs, 1/3 cup cottage cheese, and 1/3 cup rolled or steel cut oats. Try it, and make it a staple! Top with banana slices or berries, whipped cream and maple syrup for a real treat!!
But, knowing Jeff as I did, I doubled the recipe: 6 eggs, 2/3 cup cottage cheese and oats. BLEND for a few seconds til smooth, and then cook in a big, cast iron pan as I did! They are really good, cheap, and taste kind of like crepes, only more nutritious.
I kept making them, and serving them to Jeff. Normally, I make the 3 eggs version for myself, and only eat half, which is 6 pancakes. I save the other six to warm up another day. They are very filling indeed!
I cut Jeff off at 12- I wanted my usual 6, which were all that were left. I believe he would have kept on eating for quite a while, but he looked satisfied. I should mention here that Jeff is much leaner than me, being probably 165 lbs to my 185. He is a runner and tennis player, primarily, where I am more about strength.
There is a little backstory to add here. Next door to our cabin, and right across the road from Jeff’s, is a man named Leonard, who has lived here his whole adult life. He is now 95, and lives alone, having survived a wife. He looks exactly like he did 26 years ago when we built our cabin, when he was 69! Earlier, when Jeff and I were peering down into the faucet hole, wondering how we’d get it out of there, we heard a familiar voice- it was Leonard!
I looked around- there he was, holding himself in the pushup position, looking down where we were looking. He looked at us, since we were all at eye level.
“What you boys need is a lever!” he said. He was right, I got a long log, and the rest of the story you know.
Little things were connecting in my head as this wonderful day went on. Jeff ate bad, neolithic foods, along with good ones, and was quite lean and healthy. I was completely paleo, and our results seemed very similar. Then, I thought of Leonard, who cooked all of his own meals from scratch, things like pot roast, and baked his own bread and pies. He too was very lean, and healthy, especially considering his meals! (Folks in this small town often confuse me as Leonard’s son, since we both have white hair, and similar builds.)
I think I have it figured out- Intermittent Fasting! No one knows why it works like it does, although there are many theories. But it seems to me that, if you have a good, healthy lifestyle, with ample sleep, low stress, lots of physical exertion and outdoor living in nature; and if you also don’t constantly load up your digestive system with constant streams of calories, even good paleo foods, but especially massive amounts of processed snack junk sugars and carbs, you are cleaning most of it out.
As long as you give your body and digestive system a long rest, pretty much on a daily basis, you get a lot more license on what you can eat and have your body tolerate!
I don’t mean go out and eat junk, not at all. Eat Paleo, eat real foods! But be like Jeff, and Leonard- eat food after you work hard, to refuel. Don’t eat all day long, don’t use food as entertainment. See it as a reward, as a feast. Then it can fulfill its proper function: to renew you.

Check out this episode!

PQTD #124 Barefootin'

xero shoe

I know- this seems like a small, inconsequential thing- going barefoot??  What is the big deal with that?

Well, like most things Paleo or ancestral, the big deal is that we just stopped doing basic things!  And have for a long time!

Most non-Paleo folks never, ever make bone broth- taking bones to slow cook in water to make broth, and extract all the nutrients… (and incidentally collagen, and everything else that we haven’t even identified yet that heals our leaky guts, gives us vital, focused nutrition, and, incidentally, doesn’t waste food!)  Bone broth also helps with digestion, helps our skin, hair and nails, and helps to prevent osteoarthritis, among other benefits. 

The point here is that making bone broth used to be just “common sense”.  As was going barefoot- just common sense! Now, if you don’t know it, most podiatrists, or “foot doctors”, recommend never going barefoot.  They say it is damaging, and will lead to foot pain- we need that elevated heel, and ample cushioning, or our feet will fall apart in pain!

B.S.  Our bodies have functioned very well indeed for millennia before foot doctors tread the earth in their Birkenstocks, and our feet are highly evolved “tension bridges” of elaborate tendons, bones and ligaments that are very sophisticated, and can adapt very well to what our bodies need on their own.  They didn’t evolve to need, or want shoes!

Strangely enough, cushioned running shoes did not become available until the 1970’s!  This is when the “running boom” started; also the low-fat high carb and sugar diet was recommended. 

All of these are unmitigated DISASTERS, and have left us with people of my age (50’s and 60’s), with permanently damaged joints, from their feet to their hips and back, and a leaky gut from all the wheat and carbs and sugar they were encouraged to consume!

NOW, we all KNOW to eat a high fat, low carb, wheatless diet with minimal sugars and maximum nutrition, or nutrient density. 

But, have you learned to “walk like a man” and go barefoot?  Even just standing barefoot, on the earth or grass, gives you earthing benefits, which means you are grounded with the earth (as we were all throughout history), and it equalizes your electrical energy with the earth.  (You are finally GROUNDED to Mother Earth!) 

This is not a small thing.  Just by being periodically grounded, inflammation in your body is lowered dramatically, leading to vastly improved sleep, less or eliminated snoring, and relief of muscle tension and headache, among many other benefits. 

And so, just standing barefoot for brief periods is hugely beneficial.  What about walking and running?

I do virtually ALL of my running barefoot, as I do my walking, at least in the warmer months.  When you walk barefoot, or with minimalist footwear, the multi-faceted suspension bridge that is your foot, legs, knees, hips and back works in synergy, like a fine-tuned machine.  Nothing gets out of “tune”, or stresses the alignment of your body- it all works together, strengthening what is weak, and adding flexibility to what is stiff. 

Add in cushioned, squishy, high-heeled shoes?  Everything is instantly out of sync, screwed up, you are like a gazelle walking on a thick mattress!  You didn’t evolve for this, and you can hardly stand, much less excel in movement.

You don’t need to jump in feet first and barefoot sprint, do back flips, and go crazy doing handstands… Just start going barefoot, for brief periods.  In the house, for sure- socks are fine, but do NOT wear shoes in the house.  Walk around your back yard, or the park, barefoot!  (What a concept!)

The irony is that walking around in our native state has become “strange”!  It’s not.  It’s as if if your vision is perfect, you really should be wearing glasses!  No, and actually wearing glasses makes your vision weaker over time, just as wearing shoes makes your feet weaker over time- but more on this on a future podcast! 

So, here is the bottom line, PaleoJay prescription for vastly better health, simply by not wearing shoes:

Spend all of your indoor time, either in socks or simply barefoot- (it’s really the same difference)!

Spend at least a few minutes outdoors totally barefoot, at least when it is warm enough.

Walk barefoot around your yard for amazing strengthening, stretching, and conditioning of your body from the feet to the lower back.  Plantar fasciitis will disappear simply from this, as will most knee, hip and lower back pains!

Invest in minimalist footwear.  I use the Xero shoes, which are simply a piece of rubber beneath your foot and the ground to protect your foot from glass, rough surfaces, and other damaging objects.  Otherwise, your foot performs exactly as it would when barefoot, and preserves the proper alignment of your body from the ground up.  And, if you occasionally just grab a tree, or touch the ground with your hand, you will be “grounded”, for that benefit.  ( It doesn’t take long)

In colder weather, I wear moccasins, ones that have no elevated heel, and no cushioning.  They are kind of like socks for the outdoors!  They work wonderfully for walking around, and keep my feet and lower extremities “fit and toned”. 

And in WINTER?  Well, here is Wisconsin, I give in!  I wear Sorel boots, I walk around in my woods with thick pac-boots, or on my cross country skis or snowshoes, and don’t worry about it.  But inside the house?

I pad about in stockinged feet, upstairs.  When I work out in the living room, I am always barefoot, and this is every single day!  And when I do my basement, hard charging, intense workouts, usually once per week, I wear my Xeroshoes!   My basement is rough concrete and dirt, so barefoot is not appropriate, and the Xero’s are wonderful in such an environment.  Even squatting, and pistol-style squatting is so much more natural and beneficial when done in a barefoot style with no raised heel or cushioning underfoot!

So- GO BAREFOOTIN’!!

Check out this episode!