PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe #100- Embrace manual Labor!!

 pjsc 100  Embrace Manual Labor

The common refrain in Paleo-dom is this:

Play is great!  We don’t play enough- embrace your inner child, your paleolithic tribes person and have fun!  Play games with your friends, and have fun scampering around with frisbees and on slack lines!  We all work way too hard, and deserve fun play with our friends!

All well and good, but I think that most of us that “work” too hard, are working at things like computer projects- geeky little things like podcasts, blogs, and ebooks... like I do!!  Business dealings, meetings with clients- stuff like that.  Hardly physical labor!!

Today, I was interrupted in the midst of my daily morning workout, as I bounced on the rebounder while doing my scheduled virtual resistance exercise moves.  I had done all of my stretches, and my self massage, and was enjoying the lymph stimulating cleansing and oxygenating bouncing, when I got a call, an emergency!  And so, I dashed off to deal with it, as anyone would.

Did I regret not finishing my workout?  Did I schedule a “play date” with some of my friends to do Zumba barefooted, and then toss frisbees without shirts on?  No- I carried on with my day, doing what I had to do, and then decided to do some hard manual labor in lieu of a workout.

Although I agree that we all, in modern life, probably don’t play enough, I think a far more pressing need in our lives is to do more manual labor.
Hard physical work is an almost totally missing element in our coddled modern lives, where most folks live in the city or suburbs, drive everywhere in luxury cars that are automatic everything, and make our livings talking on the phone, selling, and typing on our computer keyboards.

So, with this in mind, I decided this late afternoon to tackle an especially irksome task.  The snow has just melted, and today was a glorious sunny day with very damp ground- a perfect day to level a long stretch on my property that is very tilted- perhaps 30 degrees to the side, and then down a steep hillside!
It has always worried me, this long path that so many vehicles and pedestrians travel- tractors, atv’s, golf carts- I always am afraid that someone will tip over, and slide down the hill!  And so...

Since my utility John Deere tractor still has the chains and rear blade on, I put it into 4 wheel drive and attempted level the damp earth of this trail that bisects my land.  I took off a swath of earth, but was really afraid of sliding to the side- so I rode back to the house, got a shovel, and came back to dig!

I spent a good hour, probably more, digging a channel for my tractor tires to follow, that would keep me from sliding down the hill.  It wasn’t fun.  It wasn’t carefree pleasure, like skiing, or paddle boarding, throwing frisbees or doing the jitterbug...

But it was satisfying!

It was hard physical work, but it was not the mindless and meaningless work that is so much a part of modern life.  It was work with a clear purpose! This is what most of us in modern America now lack.

I think that a large part of what is wrong with modern America is its increasing relentless urbanization. Civilizations always eventually become largely decadent, and slide downwards to failure... I think it is because we lose sight of what is truly important and valuable, like hard physical endeavors of all sorts, and start to place more value on sophistry- the ability to use words as a kind of jiu jitsu to change perceptions, and learning to maneuver politics and finances to our advantage.

I know this is a bit wandering, in a way, but I do wish to convey to you what I believe is a truth:

Try to live as rural, and as self sufficient as you can!  GET OUT of big urban areas, if you possibly can- they are time bombs waiting to fail!

Do as much of your own work as you can, and help who you hire if you can’t do it all yourself.

Small communities, small government: this is what works, and has always worked.  Big, top-down, micro-management and dictatorial rule:

Think Imperial Rome, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Republic, and increasingly MODERN AMERICA...

This big scale will never, ever work!

And largely, I think, because those in charge start delegating, and no longer DO THEIR OWN MANUAL, PHYSICAL, HARD WORK!

PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe #99 You're FAT, because you are STARVING!

I know, that sounds like a contradiction, but bear with me.

If you feed yourself nutrient poor foods, your body does perceive itself as starving.  It is not getting the nutrition it needs for optimal performance and for feeling great- and so, logically, the body cries out for real food- not processed, man made fake food like substances that so many of us subsist on.  The body only knows that it does not have the raw materials it needs to build and keep running the vital processes of the body, and so it calls out for more more more food.

But it you keep on feeding it with bread, and pasta, and soda pop, frozen dinners, pizza and fast foods... why, the body has no choice other than to take nutrients away from “minor” things like hair, skin, muscle, tendon and bone maintenance and rejuvenation, and use them for more vital processes: things like keeping the heart beating, and the brain limping along.  It will take needed protein and calcium away from your muscles and bones to use where needed, causing actual starvation conditions in much of your body!

And your body will take all of those empty, “poor” foods that you take in and, since they are not good for much else, use them to make and store body fat!

It is a triage process.  Where do we really need these nutrients, just to stay alive!?  We will take them wherever we can get them, says the body.  And, it must be really hard, starvation times, since we are not getting enough nutrients to thrive- so it is imperative to store the maximum amount of body fat to ensure survival through these lean times!

This is really how the logic of the human body works.  And so, how do we do the opposite, and encourage our own body and that of our family to function optimally, with the ability to build and restore lean muscle mass, glowing skin and hair, and just a wonderful bodily terrain that can fight off illness, and keep us strong, lean, healthy and feeling great and loaded with vitality!

First, you need to eliminate stressors- things like not enough sleep (this is a real fat encourager), too much stress without down time to regroup and process things, and of course the ultimate stressor of nutrient poor, man made fake foods.  Even too much exercise can be a really negative stress, as also is too little or the wrong kind of exercise.

Exercise such as long distance running will tear down your joints and waste your muscles, and heavy weight lifting will compress your spinal disks, and really do a number on your shoulders, knees, and elbows.  Stick with body weight, virtual and self resisted exercise- Perfectly Paleo Exercise!  Jump on a rebounder daily, do pushups and sit ups, chins and dips and body weight rows on a pair of gymnastic rings.  For maybe 1/2 hour, tops- you will feel invigorated and refreshed, as opposed to long sessions in a gym where you are depleted and worn down!

And above all- eat real, God made foods!  Foods where everything is just as it came from nature- not in a box or a bag, not pasteurized or homogenized, pasture raised not grain fed, and above all no “altered” grains like wheat, or GMO altered like most every other grain, like soy and  corn. Eat butter and cream, LOTS of green vegetables and some berries and citrus, and a limited amount of starchy items such as sweet potatoes, white potatoes, and white rice.  Avoid margarine, corn oil, soy oil, canola oil, and all of the other chemically extracted industrial seed oils that are all around us.  Go for the real deal instead- the butter, and the coconut oil!!  Eat liver from healthy, grass fed animals, and really load up your body with fat- shedding, health promoting, “feel good” nutrition.

Do the above, avoiding the unnatural, and eating LOTS of the natural foods, reduce stress, maximize sleep, and do intense, but brief sessions of exercise daily-

then your body will up-regulate your thyroid and burn fat, build muscle, skin, teeth, bone, and hair health at an amazing rate!

You will feel great, and be lean and fit, with a highly functioning brain and body, because now your body sees it is NOT starving! 

PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe #88 The Very Best Type of Exercise EVER!

pjsc podcast  #88 The Very Best Type of Natural Exercise You Can Do!

Something that I have brought up on a regular basis, and actually go into depth on in my eBook Perfectly Paleo Exercise is most perfect type of exercise you can possibly do- it requires NO equipment, can be done anywhere, and allows a maximum contraction and tension throughout the whole range of motion of each muscle in the body from head to toe, and shapes the body symmetrically , and without damaging the discs in the back or risking shoulder or knee damage, which effects are inevitable with weight training!  What is this miracle form of exercise?

It’s what Charles Atlas taught in his famous mail order courses of comic book fame- he called it dynamic tension- it is also called virtual resistance, and transformetrics.

But whatever you call it, it works, it has worked for literally thousands of years in many cultures throughout the world, and it will work for you.

How does it work?  It’s simple once you see and understand it, and it is easily incorporated into your life.  The best way to understand and implement it is to either get my eBook Perfectly Paleo Exercise, and/or go to www.transformetrics.com/exercises

This is part of the site of John E. Peterson, and he is the modern day, living personification of Charles Atlas!  Years ago, I found a couple of books of his, and learned of this form of exercise when I was still a busted up, chronically injured weight lifter- it changed my training life entirely, and actually improved and enhanced my physique and overall strength, while simultaneously freeing me from hours of painful training in the gym, and ultimately curing all my chronic injuries that had been caused by those very weights.

If you go to the transformetrics site, you can see the exercises I am talking about, which are really just controlled flexing of each muscle group throughout the full range of motion.

Really!  It is that simple- you just flex, the degree of applied tension is up to you- it can be a mild flex, but what you want to work up to is a powerful flex and tension as you slowly go through the full range of motion- you will feel it, strongly, and if you are used to using weights you will recognize the feeling as exactly the same- but without the damage to joints and cartilage- and actually more intense because the tension is just as strong in the “weak” part of the “lift” as it is in the strong part, and because there is no cheating as in lifting more weight by cheating in form... you know, like curling a heavy bar and rocking back to life more weight than you could with strict form- since the tension is generated internally, BY YOU, the tension (the “weight”) is always just what you make it, no more, no less, and so you can make it IDEAL at each and every part of the “lift”...

And no damage to your precious, God given body!

Not only no damage, but doing these movements will actually rejuvenate, and rebuild your physique from the inside out- where weights actually stress the tendons by chiefly putting the tension on the muscles only, virtual or self-generated resistance put the stress first on the tendons and ligaments, strengthening them first, and then safely passing the stress onto the musculature itself.

This not only develops the physique in the most symmetrical, natural and pleasing way, i.e. without excessive bulk as in a fat butt, bulky thighs, and protruding abdomen so common in heavy weight lifters and conventional bodybuilders, but it actually builds the sort of real world strength that is so important in performing real physical feats in the real world, like actually moving heavy awkward objects, and strength that is applicable in twisting, pounding, and otherwise moving in different planes of motion!

Not just things like, oh, squatting under a heavy bar and straining straight upwards, or lying on a bench, and pushing a heavy bar straight up, or lifting a heavy bar from the ground, straight up as in a deadlift-

How applicable is this sort of “strength” to daily life??

Especially, if while doing the above you are wearing a belt, and knee wraps, (as in the squat)?

Or a bench shirt, and wrist wraps, as in a bench press??

Or, doing a dead lift, wearing a belt, special shoes, and straps to hold the bar???

How strong are you REALLY??  I mean IN THE REAL WORLD?

And so, my friend- come back to the future!

As I so often say, our future is in our past!!

And this form of natural exercise has been with us forever, long before weights, or machines, or P90X, or any other training fad...

And, it is so easily incorporated into your daily life-

It is easy to do in your living room, in front of the television!

Or outside, in nature, amongst a grove of pine trees, as I often do...

Or in a motel room if you are traveling!

And how much time are we talking here??

Really, not that much at all!  The thing is, this form of virtual training is so natural, and physically so satisfying and non- draining, that the tendency is to just do it, and keep on for a while, since it feels so good.

To get good effects, time wise?  15 minutes will do very well!  That is enough time to work the entire body...

The thing is though, you work through the entire body, and are feeling great (not drained or sore or injured at all!), and then you decide to...

Repeat the cycle

And why not?  The muscles are warmed up, you feel great, and you want to increase the tension somewhat on the next cycle or set...

Also, you are in the middle of a movie or whatever program on TV, and you want to continue watching- why not keep going?

At a later stage, after doing this for awhile, you may want to add in some pushups, and some straight legged sit ups and hindu squats in the mix- I mean, as your strength and overall fitness increase, it just starts to feel good to use your muscles as God intended, and to gradually enhance your ability to do so... so you do!

Old aches and pains will diminish- I know mine did!  You will start to add in isometrics and self-resisted exercises- anything to continue building your body via physical culture which is what this whole process is as opposed to bodybuilding, cross fit, olympic lifting, or whatever damaging physical process you have been sucked into...


Virtual resistance, transformetrics, dynamic tension-

Whatever you call it- this natural, physical culturist form of exercise-

The kind that has been with us since pre-biblical times to train the greatest warriors ever, including peaceful warriors- and the greatest physiques such as the models for the statues of the ancient Greeks:

I call it Perfectly Paleo Exercise!

PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe Podcast #76 Save your Health and Save your Wealth!

Work hard, save your money, and then relax in retirement… that is the modern mantra, by and large.  Unfortunately, what happens nowadays is this- work hard, sacrifice, accumulate wealth by ignoring and ultimately losing your health- then, spend the rest of your miserable life spending that wealth on medical procedures trying to regain your health!

Approximately 20% of the US gross domestic product is not spent on health care!  This is ridiculous as it is, and the percentage continues to grow larger.  It’s quite possible to spend next to NOTHING on our health care procedures, and be vibrantly healthy.

How?  Become a Physical Culturist, not a bodybuilder, and make your goal to maximize your health in a natural manner.  This means living like a healthy animal- ancestral, Paleo type of exercise, pure God made foods like grass fed animals, pastured butter, free range eggs, and lots and LOTS of veggies along with some fruit…

Add in plenty of sunshine, fresh air, and natural bodyweight, self-resisted, and especially virtual resistance exercise (much of this is detailed in my eBook Perfectly Paleo Exercise), and you are guaranteed a healthy, happy life, free of medical procedures and drug prescriptions loaded with negative side effects.

Take some of that money you save on painful, expensive surgery and drugs to buy yourself a Vitamix- probably the best possible thing you can get to dramatically improve your overall health and fitness!  A Vitamix blender is actually a chewing machine-
Lots of us are not that enamored of eating lots and lots of vegetables... understandable!

But, just add them to the Vitamix canister, along with some natural berries and other fruits, coconut milk, and- well, the complete recipe is on my site, paleojay.com under the link
paleo smoothie recipe

  Way more detail in my 1st eBook, Paleo Quick Start, but you can just take the recipe and go!  And variations are not only acceptable, but encouraged.  More veggies- more variety- more health!  Your garden (or your Farmer's Market!) is your  Palette- draw from it- add to your health.


I know from experience that most folks resist buying a Vitamix:

Too expensive
Too big of a change of lifestyle (versus pouring cereal and milk into a bowl...)
Seems "weird"- putting veggies and "strange" liquids (kefir, raw eggs, pastured butter, coconut milk, green tea) into a blender....
Trust me, have you priced a diagnosis of cancer or diabetes lately?

WAY more than a Vitamix.  I have a link at www.paleojay.com that you can click on to order one, and you get free shipping!  I feel strongly about the Vitamix brand, and know that it is the best brand out there.  I only recommend what a firmly believe in, and know to be very effective.

If things in our health care system made sense, then our health insurance would cover a Vitamix, cod liver oil, perfect pushup devices, pull-up bars, and such like...

but our health care system makes no sense whatsoever, which is why it (and we) are going broke!

But you don't have to go down this self-destructive path-

Take the conservative approach- don't rely on Government!  Provide for your own health!

Eat good, real, natural, God-made foods!
Do natural, non-machine, real body exercise!!
SLEEP a LOT!
Have good personal connections- a "Tribe" or "Family" with which you connect...

Do all of the above, and you will be a healthy, happy, spiritually fulfilled, and FIT cave person!

An old video, but you'll get the idea...

J

A New PaleoJay podcast- Paleo Quick Tip of the Day! Episode #1 available NOW!!

This is a new podcast I am doing!  I get SO MANY

requests to explain just HOW to "go paleo"...

So, this series will take the serious, fitness minded

person from a S.A.D. standard American diet, and teach them, week by week, one day at a time, just how to do it!  First things first, and so we go, on to complete health and wellness, one simple step at a time!!

I have a new website just started, at Paleo Quick Tip of the Day   You can listen to the new podcast right there- a player is available on your right- and it also just got accepted to iTunes, so that too is an option to sign up for, since it is an ongoing podcast...

For now though, I will also include a player on the right of this site, just under my PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe player, for your convenience.  The Cafe is more for the Paleo intermediate and advanced afficianado, and waxes on for about 10-12 minutes each week.

Paleo Quick Tip of the Day will be weekly as well, but will be UNDER 5 minutes, direct and to the point- the whole idea is to transform your lifestyle and diet, piece by piece, in a very simple and easy to achieve manner!  

Be sure to recommend this podcast to friends and family that are curious about your "crazy paleo caveman thing you do", and maybe they will finally understand, and join you in health and sanity!

Thanks for listening, my paleolithic friends and tribespeople!!

J