Mark Sisson's Blog, page 122

My Mind Is Still Catching Up With the Reality Of My Transformation

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Monday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Primal eating was not a reality for me for a very long time, I did not even hear the words until I was 27. But flash back to when I was 12-years-old, and had just found out that I was 203.2lbs. I remember that number so clearly because of how hard I sobbed that day on the scale at the doctor’s office. When my 8th grade self saw that I had crossed in to 200+lbs, I immediately I lost any self worth. Media in the 90s made it clear that being fat was social destruction and meant that you were “less than.” Living in this culture of perfectionism, I continued to eat and cope with my “imperfections” with sugar addiction and exuberant amounts of terribly processed foods.

Upon entering adulthood, the word “nutrition” alone made me uncomfortable as I did not have any real understanding of what it meant. I was taught and believed that all fat was bad and grains were healthy for my heart, that carbs were evil but these “magical” grains were somehow exempt. When I moved out at 17, I weighed 300lbs and felt miserable. My diet consisted of lunchmeat sandwiches, egg salad, coffee and fast food. I hated my body and avoided mirrors.

I decided that I wanted to make a change. Over the next several years I took the “beat my body in to submission” approach and paired it with diet plan after diet plan. I even took diet pills (now recalled) until the side effects were too much to for me to excuse. I ended up losing 60lbs of weight but at the cost of my adrenal health. I traded in the sugar for coffee and was not sleeping nearly enough for how hard I was working and training.

In 2011, I met and married my wonderful husband. He had previously been a physical trainer, and he helped teach me a lot of what he knew. It helped a lot to understand what he shared with me, but we both still had questions about the science of nutrition and biology. Over the next 6 years, together we sought out the answer for our health and wellness concerns. One of the first sources we came across (after watching ALL the food documentaries ever) was your website. That year, I attended Paleocon online and felt like I was drinking from a firehose. We almost immediately became as primal as possible in our eating and also in our lifestyle and exercise. We both experienced the amazing results. Aside from losing weight and feeling stronger, we noticed our skin and digestive issues were much improved. We were also thinking more clearly, and our sleep was much improved.

In 2015, I gave birth to my son, and over the next year I gained back all of the weight I had lost. Postpartum depression and anxiety encompassed my every day, and I began to spiral in to unhealthy eating once again. By 2016, I was nearing 300lbs again and felt so ashamed of myself. I began to go to therapy regularly and was diagnosed with CPTSD (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). I began working diligently with my therapist to unpack the trauma and my body responded with anorexia nervosa, which can be a side effect of addressing trauma.

I did not have a dysmorphic issue, however. At the time, I was averted by any food and my throat would restrict if I attempted to swallow. After some time, I wasn’t able to to eat meat due to digestion. However, sticking to a primal way of eating at the time is what kept me out of the hospital when it was difficult to eat. I chose soft foods, and the blender was my bestie. My ability to eat improved, and my diet since then has mainly consisted of all organic Coconut Oil, Ghee, Avocados, Eggs & Sweet Potatoes and other vegetables and some fruits.

I have continued therapy and have stayed dedicated to the same diet with the occasional deviation from my favorite bakery that offers paleo/keto options. Over the past year, have watched my weight plummet (with my Dr.’s supervision) very quickly. I stand here now today 158lbs, and my mind is still catching up with the reality of my transformation. I lost over 100lbs this year.

The combination of therapy and sticking to a primal lifestyle has led me to where I am today. I am still getting to know the woman in the mirror, but I am thankful for where I am every single day. Thank you, Mark, for providing us with a launching pad for our primal journey and for being a constant resource of information and encouragement. You are a part of my success story.

The readers featured in our success stories share their experiences in their own words. The Primal Blueprint and Keto Reset diets are not intended as medical intervention or diagnosis. Nor are they replacements for working with a qualified healthcare practitioner. It’s important to speak with your doctor before beginning any new dietary or lifestyle program, and please consult your physician before making any changes to medication or treatment protocols. Each individual’s results may vary.

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Our Cyber Monday Deal (and 3 New Products)

Good morning, everybody. I hope you all had an excellent holiday weekend. I’ve got one awesome success story coming up in a bit, but first I wanted to share a quick note to let you know about the blow-out Cyber Monday deal the team and I put together.

Get $10 off a purchase of $50 or more—with free shipping.
Plus, take advantage of a “secret sale” at checkout….

Yup, $10 off your order of anything you want from our Primal Kitchen® line of collagen and whey proteins, bars, oils, mayos, dressings, condiments and sauces.

Did I say sauces? Yup. I’ve got three new sauces I know you’re going to love. (Hint: they’re the perfect gift for your inner carnivore.) And I’ve even got a great “secret” deal for you on those, too….

Just click through the link or use code CYBERMONDAY to receive $10 off your order of $50+ with free shipping—and to unlock that secret sale.

Happy Cyber Monday, everyone, and wishing you a happy and healthy holiday season.

The post Our Cyber Monday Deal (and 3 New Products) appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Sunday With Sisson 11.25.18

Hi, everyone. Hope you’re enjoying your Sunday morning. For those of you accustomed to receiving Sunday With Sisson in your inbox, I wanted to give you a heads up that the team and I are making some changes (just technical) with the newsletter and “Sunday With Sisson” for just a few weeks. Some of you may notice some temporary interruption in your email delivery from MDA. It’s all part of upgrading our systems. Unfortunately, there’s never a good time for these things.

In the meantime, I’ll be posting “Sunday With Sisson” letters each Sunday on the blog until we’re back to our full mailing capacity. Enjoy, and—as always—thanks for joining me here. 

Good morning, everybody.

I hope you enjoyed a good holiday (those of you in the U.S.). Last week’s Sunday with Sisson was pretty heavy, so I’m going much lighter this week with a list of things I’m liking, media I’m consuming, and anything else that comes to mind.

Conventional wisdom-buster: Humans delayed desertification of the Sahara. Recent estimates suggest that nomadic pastoralists actually held off desertification of the Sahara region for at least 500 years by introducing densely-packed ruminants that fertilized the land, improved soil quality, and fostered growth of grasses. How about that?

Listening: For whatever reason, I’m on a Celtic music kick, which I don’t usually listen to. The Pogues’ “Rum Sodomy and the Lash,” a classic Celtic punk album is great. It doesn’t get much better than their version of Dirty Old Town. I’ve also been liking the Chieftains “Chieftains 7” album. Try Away We Go and O’Sullivan’s March.

Watching: A smattering of food shows on Netflix. I like doing this to get inspiration for posts and Primal Kitchen products and kitchen experiments. Oftentimes, one random thing will get my creative juices flowing, wondering how I can make something similar in a pre-packaged, healthier, Primal-friendly form. Ugly Delicious and Chef’s Table are both great—and both very different from each other. From the former, try the barbecue episode. From the latter, the “Mallmann” episode from the first season is a must-see. The “Ivan Orkin” (American guy who did ramen in Japan) episode of Chef’s Table is also worth a watch. Meat Eater is also good, a combination hunting, philosophy, nature, and cooking show.

Question for you (reply to this week’s Sunday With Sisson blog post): What was the best thing about Thanksgiving this year? Food, family, funny comments, anything at all.

That’s it for me. What are you liking, watching, or listening to?

Enjoy your Sunday.

Best,

Mark

Want to make fat loss easier?

Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

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Weekly Link Love — Edition 4

Research of the Week

Your mother’s immune system had some serious negotiating skills.

Researchers laying the groundwork for a meat tax.

The latest NuSi study finds that low-carb diets increase energy expenditure.

Among Chinese seniors living in an elderly community, higher LDL predicts lower rates of dementia.

Eating organic linked to less cancer.

How sleep loss tanks memory.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 290: Holly Perkins: Host Elle Russ chats with strength coach Holly Perkins.

Episode 291: Tania Teschke: Host Brad Kearns chats with Bordeaux Kitchen author Tania Teschke about healthy eating and parenting.

Each week, select Mark’s Daily Apple blog posts are prepared as Primal Blueprint Podcasts. Need to catch up on reading, but don’t have the time? Prefer to listen to articles while on the go? Check out the new blog post podcasts below, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast here so you never miss an episode.

Media, Schmedia

Are dog DNA tests ready for prime time?

Ex-Facebook exec testing mini MRIs on animals.

Sociologist goes back to school to learn genetics to disprove “nature over nurture,” ends up confirming it.

Interesting Blog Posts

Both Neanderthals and humans were about equally prone to head injuries.

How Alberta beat the rats.

Social Notes

Men’s Health has good taste in mayo.

And in cookbooks.

Everything Else

And you thought 2018 was bad.

Google pulls the plug on its glucose-monitoring “smart lens” they’d been working on since 2014.

Gut bacteria in our brains.

IQ tests for embryos.

The first time I’ve ever run this deal… Don’t miss the chance to grab a free bottle of Primal Kitchen® Avocado Oil with your purchase of a Build-Your-Own 4-Pack of Dressings.

Plus, want free steak?? ButcherBox is running their hottest offer of the year. New members will receive $75 worth of free steaks (2 ribeyes, 2 NY Strips, 2 Filet Mignons) in their first box. Guys, their stuff is unbeatable….

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

GoFundMe I’m happy to share with the Primal audience: Buy Ranch Direct Fire Relief. The good folks at Buy Ranch Direct, a community of family-owned and -operated grass-fed beef ranches in California, lost their warehouse this fall in an electrical fire. They’re in the process of rebuilding, but insurance isn’t covering most of the loss.

Podcast I enjoyed: Freakonomics on open offices.

Article I found interesting: What schizophrenia can teach us about pleasure.

I certainly hope it works (without side effects): Scientists hope to block the molecule that accelerates the evolution of drug-resistant bacteria.

I can’t help but admire the entrepreneurial spirit, I just hope it doesn’t become standard: Air quality is so bad that San Francisco Uber drivers are selling masks to customers.

This is a powerful story: How winning the nation’s “best cheeseburger” caused a Portland burger joint to close down.

Question I’m Asking

With Google stopping development of its glucose-monitoring lens and all the other failures and dubious advancements, tech is realizing that biology’s a hard nut to crack. Do you think technology will ever figure out human biology and vault us into sci-fi territory?

Recipe Corner

Move over, butter coffee. It’s all about kaffeost: cheese coffee.
Baked kale chips from Nom Nom Paleo.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Nov 11– Nov 17)

12 Health Podcasts I’m Enjoying Lately – What are you listening to?
Does Carb Cycling Work? It Depends– How to make it work.

Comment of the Week

“When you’re a gardener, a home is much more than just a place to keep your stuff. My husband and I are finally enjoying fruit from trees that we planted 5 years ago and have cared for since. In just the past few months alone, we have put in hundreds of hours of work wheelbarrowing woodchips to the backyard in preparation for a permaculture food-forest. I’m in Santa Rosa, CA, where we had the Tubb’s fire raging within a quarter-mile in October 2017. I feel very thankful to still have my home and garden.”

– Glad to hear you made it, Naomi.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s time to give some thanks. Certainly if you’re in the U.S. today—but, honestly, there’s never a bad time to do it.

Think about everything for which you have to be thankful…because there’s a lot.

Think back to the purported first Thanksgiving—the best elements of that story, which is a complicated one, I know. Think back a thousand years before that. Realize that everyone who lived and everything that transpired did so to lead up to this moment—to your existence and your life. We know all the the great shifts and great figures that show up in history books, but what of the faceless millions that trudged alongside, working and living and laughing and suffering? Most people who lived never made it very far. Most human lineages trail off and die. You are the chosen few who can trace their history through wars and famine and pestilence and genocides and environmental catastrophe, all the way back to the primordial soup.  Your ancestral line has survived hundreds of millions of years. And now you’re here, taking it all in. If that isn’t humbling, I’m not sure what is.

But we can be humble. And we can be thankful for the opportunities we all have. When you think about it on a cosmic scale, it’s remarkable that we’re even here.

Give thanks and love to your family, friends, neighbors, and pets. Give thanks and love for your food, for the land around you, your gym, your barbells, your hobbies, your favorite park, your favorite coffee mug. Give thanks for the memories of another year—the joys and triumphs amid difficulty, the love and friendship that gets you through the weeks. And when it’s time for everyone to go around the table giving “thanks,” be ready with your answer and ready to be grateful to hear others’.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Take care and have a great rest of the holiday week.

The post Happy Thanksgiving! appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Intermittent Fasting (and Feasting) At the Holidays: 6 Ways to Do It

The holiday season is notorious for unwanted weight gain. Although the average weight gain isn’t all that high—1 to 2 pounds—the real danger is that people rarely lose the weight they gain during the holiday season. So, if you go through ten holiday seasons, you’re looking at a very realistic and permanent gain of 20 pounds.

But it’s not just the weight you gain. Even if you manage to avoid gaining any weight, the onslaught of sugary foods you’re not used to consuming will play havoc with your blood sugar and insulin levels, leave you bloated and fatigued, and generally make what should be a joyous time a sluggish, low-energy one.

Imagine having your full measure of energy over the full holiday season. Imagine putting on a Santa suit and clambering around on the roof and shimmying down the chimney, giving your kids a real show. (Not recommending this literally of course.) Imagine enjoying the winter weather, rather than holing up indoors with a box of cookies waiting for it to pass.

One thing I like to do in suboptimal food conditions is use it as an opportunity to fast. If I’m traveling and my choices are airplane food or McDonald’s, I simply don’t eat. If I’m at a hotel where the idea of a complimentary breakfast bar consists of bagels, orange juice, and those tiny boxes of cereal, I don’t eat. Quite honestly, the holiday season is one big block of suboptimal food conditions.

Sure, it’s delicious. Sure, some of it is even nutritious, if we’re talking roasts and gravies and veggies and large crispy birds. But the quantity of food we consume and the frequency at which we consume it—combined with the prevalence of delicious treats and the “emotional” context—makes for an impossible situation. It really is the perfect scenario to pack on some mass—or the perfect opportunity to employ an intermittent fast.

How should you do it? Are there any tips, tricks, or strategies particular to the holidays that make fasting easier and more effective?

Skip Breakfast

Breakfast around the holidays can get quite ridiculous. How many of you have done this or know someone who has done this: having pumpkin pie/a half tin of Danish butter cookies/big bowl of mashed potatoes for breakfast? Even if no one is digging into the leftovers (although a turkey leg is a nice way to begin the day), you’ll see the likes of pastries, quiches (heavy on the crust), bagel spreads, pancakes, and waffles, etc.

So, just skip it, particularly when treats abound and beckon. You’ll avoid the problem entirely, give your digestive system a rest, keep the fat-burning going, and make any subsequent feasting later in the day more rewarding and less damaging. Have some coffee and cream instead. Heck, you could even whip the cream if you want to feel like you’re having a “treat” with everyone else.

Don’t Snack

Snacking kills during the holidays. While in more normal times I recommend against constant or absentminded snacking, at least then it usually just means a handful of nuts, a few pieces of jerky, a cup of broth. During the holidays, snacking means candy, cookies, and pie. There are mountains of junk almost everywhere you go and dozens of evangelists scurrying around foisting it on you. I don’t see it because I move in a curated culinary environment at my places of residence and work, but back before I went Primal, I can remember the ubiquity of treats during the holidays. If you’re the snacking type, you’ll likely make some bad choices.

Simply “not snacking” doesn’t sound like much of a fast, but going those 4-5 hours between meals can allow you to slip into a mild “fasted” state multiple times per day.

Don’t Nibble As You Cook

Whoever’s in charge of cooking the myriad holiday feasts and meals needs to understand how to handle themselves behind the stove. Quality control is one thing. Checking how things taste is understandable and necessary. But that’s not what gets you into trouble. What gets you into trouble is the constant nibbling and gnawing and chomping throughout the cooking process.

Spoonful of gravy here. Handful of mashed potatoes there. Oh, how’d that turkey skin turn out? Gonna have to try that. Oh, I wonder how it tastes dipped in the gravy. Boy, that dark meat sure is looking nice. Hmm, does the breast look a little dry to you? I’m going to try it. Now with some gravy and cranberry sauce—yeah, that does the trick.

By the time dinner is served you’re 800 calories deep, and you’re not even very excited about eating more (but you still do). Imagine if you’d fasted during the 4-5 hours you were preparing dinner. Not only would dinner be more satisfying and taste better, you wouldn’t have spent 4-5 hours in “fed mode.” Rally others to do the sampling. It’s never too hard to find takers.

Make Fasting a Tradition

Our success as a civilization rests upon our traditions. Heck, the Primal Blueprint is about respecting the oldest human traditions around, the “informal” and natural ones established by hundreds of thousands of years of hominid evolution. And yes, specific traditions can become outdated or run counter to currently accepted modes of thought and behavior, but the idea of tradition—a foundational behavior whose utility and importance has been tested through time—remains essential.

If you don’t have any traditions of your own, if they’ve been lost or ground down to pathetic shadows of their former selves, what do you do? You make your own. Fasting is a good choice, and it’s one that many other populations and cultures have performed. Pick a time frame—maybe a single 24-hour fast every Saturday, or “fast before each big holiday feast,” or “skip breakfast the week before each major holiday”—and suggest to everyone that the entire family get on board.

Do Leangains Style Fasted Training

Skip breakfast. Train around midday, lifting hard and heavy. After training, break the fast. Eat your last meal by 7 or 8 P.M. Aim for a 16-hour fasting period and an 8-hour eating window. Fast every day, train every 2-3 days. There’s even a book if you want more details.

This intensive method of fasting and training allows you a little more leeway with the food choices when you do eat. Much of what you eat will go toward repairing and rebuilding what you’ve broken down during training, and the everyday fasted periods will help you minimize fat gain. It can be quite intense, and people may have disparate responses to the rigidity of the schedule. If hard boundaries work well for you, if you like establishing rules and then sticking to them, this is the holiday fasting method for you. If you’re more fluid and balk at hard lines, you may have trouble. Women may have more success using 12-14 fasting windows.

Pair Your Dietary Transgressions With Fasts.

Are you the type to really go all out during Thanksgiving—dropping the Primal guidelines and just going for it? Mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, that weird sweet potato dish with marshmallows on top, pumpkin pie, the works? A one- or two-day fast right before or after the meal can mitigate the damage of the meal.

Even if there’s not much of a physiological benefit other than reducing your calorie intake to balance the overindulgence, the psychological boost we get from not eating will stave off the potential guilt of abandoning the Primal guidelines. I don’t support guilting or shaming ourselves because of what we eat, but I know it does happen. This can be a powerful antidote.

Whatever You Choose, Stick To a Schedule.

Once you figure out which fasting plan seems to work for your holiday situation, stick with it. Skip meals if you like, but try to eat at roughly the same time each day. This conditions your body to expect food (and get hungry at the right time, not before), and it improves the metabolic response to eating.

This applies whether you’re fasting in the morning or at night. In one recent study, the authors actually tested the effect of breaking your eating habits by separating overweight women into habitual breakfast skippers and habitual breakfast eaters and then having them either skip breakfast or eat breakfast.

Habitual breakfast eaters who skipped breakfast experienced way more hunger at lunch, had worse blood lipids, and higher insulin levels. They had worse blood lipids and their insulin skyrocketed. Habitual breakfast skippers who skipped breakfast experienced none of these deleterious effects.

Meanwhile, habitual breakfast eaters who ate breakfast were more satiated at lunch. They had better blood lipids and normal insulin levels. Habitual breakfast skippers who ate breakfast were still hungry at lunch. Eating breakfast didn’t inhibit their regular lunch-time appetites.

Regular eating schedules also improve insulin sensitivity, increase energy expenditure, improve fasting lipids, and result in the best metabolic effects.

Fasting isn’t a magic bullet. IF won’t fix all your metabolic issues and counteract every cookie, cake, and slice of pie you eat during the holidays. But it is a strong bulwark against the worst of the holiday excesses.

Are you going to fast this holiday season? Have you used IF in the past? What do you do to get through the holiday season without unwanted weight gain?

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care!

References:

Yanovski JA, Yanovski SZ, Sovik KN, Nguyen TT, O’Neil PM, Sebring NG. A prospective study of holiday weight gain. N Engl J Med. 2000;342(12):861-7.

Thomas EA, Higgins J, Bessesen DH, Mcnair B, Cornier MA. Usual breakfast eating habits affect response to breakfast skipping in overweight women. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2015;23(4):750-9.

Farshchi HR, Taylor MA, Macdonald IA. Beneficial metabolic effects of regular meal frequency on dietary thermogenesis, insulin sensitivity, and fasting lipid profiles in healthy obese women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005;81(1):16-24.

Pot GK, Almoosawi S, Stephen AM. Meal irregularity and cardiometabolic consequences: results from observational and intervention studies. Proc Nutr Soc. 2016;75(4):475-486.

The post Intermittent Fasting (and Feasting) At the Holidays: 6 Ways to Do It appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Instant Pot Turkey Bone Broth

At the end of the big meal when the bird has been carved for leftovers, we’re left with what could become a source of literal Primal gold—the skin, bones and gristle of the carcass. With just 5 minutes of preparation and a mere 45 in the Instant Pot, you could enjoy several jars of prime turkey bone broth for future soups, stews, sauces or just plain sipping on a cold morning.

Plan now so you’ll be ready to take full advantage of tomorrow’s golden opportunity with this simple recipe.

Ingredients:

Turkey Carcass (use what you can for the size of your Instant Pot)
Water
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 sprigs of thyme (optional)
1 sprig of sage (optional)
1 sprig of rosemary (optional)
1/3 white onion
1 large carrot, chopped
2 stalks celery

Instructions:

Put turkey carcass, herbs, salt, pepper and vegetables in the Instant Pot. Add water until approximately 2/3 full. Cook for 45 minutes on manual high with vent closed. Strain the broth through a colander and jar the broth. Store in the refrigerator.

The post Instant Pot Turkey Bone Broth appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Healing Plantar Fasciitis: Best Shoe Choices

Good morning, folks. My friend and frequent co-author, Brad Kearns, is stopping by the blog today with a follow-up post to his recent article here, How to Cure Plantar Fasciitis. You can catch Brad on the Primal Endurance Podcast, his weekly keto show on the Primal Blueprint Podcast, and on his new personal podcast venture called Get Over Yourself. If you haven’t checked it out, I’d recommend it. I stopped by a while back for a two-hour show Brad ended up calling “The Ultimate Mark Sisson Interview.” Thanks to Brad for sharing his experience with plantar fasciitis in today’s post and accompanying video. Enjoy!

Since you’ve worked so hard to heal your chronic pain by making longer, stronger, more supple muscles and connective tissue, let’s make sure you never again regress into plantar fasciitis hell! Today I’ll detail how to transition gradually and sensibly toward a more barefoot/minimalist lifestyle—and what types of shoes will interference the least in that process (when you have to wear them).

As you increase your barefoot competency, you’ll reduce the risk of chronic pain and injury to your feet and throughout your lower extremities. You’ll also improve your technique (in running and other sports) as well as your balance, explosiveness, speed, endurance, and kinesthetic awareness when doing all manner of physical activity. Yep, bare feet are functionally superior and more comfortable than shoes in most every way—except when you need the support and protection of shoes for specialized physical endeavors that could easily injure exposed feet.

Why and How To Transition To a Barefoot Lifestyle

While I don’t have concrete proof at my fingertips, I’m going to make the bold proclamation that Grok did not suffer from plantar fasciitis. Our ancestors walked, hiked, sprinted, and even ran long distances over assorted natural terrain for 2.5 million years using bare feet, or rudimentary sandals or moccasins. A shoe-dominant lifestyle came into play only as recently as the Industrial Revolution. The epidemic chronic foot pain and assorted conditions suffered by modern humans are strongly influenced by spending a lifetime in cushiony, constrictive footwear with an elevated heel. Modern footwear weakens your lower extremities, messes up the synchronistic functioning of your entire musculoskeletal system and central nervous system, compromises correct posture, and makes you vastly susceptible to injury, dysfunction, and chronic pain.

You may be aware of some backlash in the minimalist footwear movement in recent years, as naysayers caution about the increased risk of injury with bare feet or “flimsy” shoes. As misguided as these negative claims are, it’s reasonable to gracefully acknowledge the inherent injury risk of being foolish when transitioning to more barefoot experiences and to learn how to do it the right way. Accordingly, here are some tips for making a safe and comfortable transition:

Do the stretches and mobility exercises mentioned in the How To Cure Plantar Fasciitis regularly. Consider adding some barefoot strengthening exercises, such as those listed in my awesome eBook, Amazing Feets. (Check the end of this post for how to get yourself a copy.) If you just start by making aggressive circles with your feet while watching T.V., you are in business here.
Try to spend as much time as possible barefoot around the house (or in stocking feet if you need warmth)
For runners: complete your training sessions in your typical shoes, then jog on grass or other soft surface for a few minutes at the end of each run.
For workers on feet: If you have to wear orthotics to make it through your nursing shift, pair that with some barefoot time around the house after work.

Suggestions For Minimalist Footwear

Acquire a pair of minimalist shoes that you will integrate into daily life here and there. Here are some athletic shoe models, listed in order of progression from most support to most barefoot-like: Nike Free’s (flexible sole, but well-built on top), New Balance Minimus (minimal heel elevation, but well built on top), Merrell Trail Glove (fits your foot like a glove, with little or no heel elevation, but a full toe box and good support for trail running), Luna Sandals (inspired by our ancestors, and invented by the irrepressible Barefoot Ted McDonald), Vibram Five Fingers (the ultimate barefoot experience with the independent toe operation; today there are many similar brands).

Choose the lowest heel elevation option for your dress shoes, leisure shoes, and athletic shoes. For women who are accustomed to wearing heels, any reduction in heel height will make a difference, but ideally you’ll move to flats. Guys, this might mean choosing a different dress shoe that looks the same, but with less heel. Elevated heels promote shorter, weaker, Achilles tendons and calf muscles, unwinding all the hard work you did stretching and mobilizing.

Over time, strive to make progress. Start using minimalist shoes during strength training sessions at the gym. Progress through the footwear options to the least support. Reject the “shoe mileage” ethos and keep your shoes until they are battered and worn down to the bare minimum!

Finally, please employ the tips in the proper context of your personal situation. Your barefoot efforts should feel great and should be free from any sort of pain and suffering. If you experience next day muscle tightness after jogging a mile on the grass, work through it with stretches and drills, and expect improvement and increased resiliency over time. If you’re hobbled and inflamed after spending a full or half shift in your fancy new minimalist shoes, dial it back to a goal of one hour in the minimal gear and the rest in regular.

Even if you follow all the guidelines well, realize that your decades of using cushiony, elevated shoes has generated significant atrophy in your lower extremities. Consequently, you’ll have a moderate to significant risk of injury during your transition. If you have to retreat here and there from an aggressive strategy, don’t be discouraged. As with transitioning from carb dependency to becoming fat- and keto-adapted, everything that happens can be a positive learning experience—even an indulgence followed by a recalibration.

Check out this video for more about minimalist shoe wear and how they support long-term plantar fasciitis recovery (as well as general foot health).

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Let’s hear from you? How has your healing process for plantar fasciitis gone? What shoes have you settled on, and how has barefooting made a difference in your recovery? Thanks for reading today. (And if you’re interested in learning more about a barefoot  lifestyle, take advantage of the special offer to download the “Amazing Feets Ebook” for free on my website.)

The post Healing Plantar Fasciitis: Best Shoe Choices appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

I’m Finally In Control

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Monday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

“Aren’t you tall!” they cooed, and they were right. I was tall at six foot five.

“And aren’t you skinny!” they chorused, but they were both right and wrong; only parts of me were skinny, others were not.

Skinny arms with pencil thin wrists and skinny legs with non-existent calves were all stuck onto a torso that—in direct contrast—was well rounded. Not massive, of course, though my elder brother oft compared me to Mr Potato Head, but enough for me to have a bulging gut, love handles (or should it be handfuls!) and a chest devoid of muscle yet plump with fat.

“It isn’t fair!” I frequently told myself, staring mournfully into the mirror, and it wasn’t! For ten years, as one of the million UK commuters to London, I would rise early; breakfast on toast, cycle to the train station (six miles) walk/run/stagger from the other end of the line to work and slump exhausted in my chair where cheap instant coffee would keep the twin pangs of hunger and fatigue at bay until the midday refuel. Oh, hang on, I would snack frequently…on cheap rainbow coloured heartburn tablets in futile attempts to ease the daily bouts of heartburn.

Lunch would be one of those meal replacement shakes or couscous, followed by a session at the gym, more work followed by my jaunt home. Prior to getting back to the house I would collect my children from an after-school club and scold and chide their slow walking pace home simply because I was absolutely ravenous— desperate even, for some food. On some days, I would leave the children stumbling in my wake to dash across the threshold and dive into the cupboard to cram some toast, cheese or both down my throat.

“I should be as skinny as a rake!” I would tell my glum faced reflection. He would nod in agreement, patches of wobbly fat shaking slightly as he did so.

“Calories in – calories out,” they told me, so I bought smaller plates and began restricting calories to starvation levels. My wife joined me in solidarity and together we punished ourselves for 30 long days with tiny bowls of risotto, meagre portions of pasta and more high sugar, low calorie milkshakes (skimmed milk of course!). We gave up in unison, neither of us having lost any weight.

“No Pain, No Gain” they told me, so I upped my exercise. Mind you, I had always been fairly fit; cycling and running were my main forms of fat-fighting, with annual half marathons being my motivation (“You need to have something to aim for”). But my knees were starting to hurt. In the car or cinema I would often have to contort my body in some weird way so that I could stretch out my legs, thereby staving off the dull pain that would creep in after about 20 minutes of sitting. I purchased a popular DVD workout series, the name of which rhymes with Banality, though it was anything but! I loved the smug feeling I got when I told friends and family of my nightly sweaty exploits on the kitchen floor (the workout DVD, ladies and gentleman!) and I loved the endorphin buzz and the feeling that this was it…I would finally blast away those fatty deposits in the burning furnace of my exercise regime.

I lost a single, solitary pound in that sweat drenched, grueling, exhausting 60 days. I couldn’t even purchase the “I didn’t it” tee-shirt because I wasn’t a U.S. citizen!

Even worse, my gut still hung low when performing any kind of horizontal movement. My chest still wobbled when I ran. My knees still hurt. My love handles still called out to be handled.

Then I found this site, and I found hope.

Within a month I had ditched grains, pasta and those popular shakes. I ate eggs, cheese and fatty cuts of meat with large rainbow coloured piles of vegetables. I lost weight—half a stone in a month, and felt great.

It was as if I had been made privy to the secret! Suddenly, health was something I could actually achieve rather than as a result of lucky genes. I read and read and read from Mark’s Daily Apple to Grain Belly to all of Taubes work, and as my wisdom and knowledge grew, my waistline shrank.

My knees stopped hurting (and as a bonus people stopped staring at me in the cinema!), and my heartburn vanished. I began walking more—moving to take in scenery and fresh air. The family came too and together we began to appreciate the little things.

This year I ventured into Primal 3.0 (to quote Mr. Sisson), and in one swoop I went Keto and enrolled on the Primal Health Coaching Course. As I write this, it has dawned on me there are clear parallels between the two: both are scary to contemplate, tough when you first start but incredibly rewarding once you give it your all.

The final parallel is this: I am still not at the end of my journey, but I am now, finally, in control and I want others to be in control too.

— Anthony

The readers featured in our success stories share their experiences in their own words. The Primal Blueprint and Keto Reset diets are not intended as medical intervention or diagnosis. Nor are they replacements for working with a qualified healthcare practitioner. It’s important to speak with your doctor before beginning any new dietary or lifestyle program, and please consult your physician before making any changes to medication or treatment protocols. Each individual’s results may vary.

The post I’m Finally In Control appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Announcement: WLL Is Returning to Fridays

Hey folks, I’ve got a success story coming up in just a few (yup, Success Stories are moving to Monday!), but I wanted to mention that I’ve been reading your feedback about the recent schedule changes and taking it all under consideration.

Years ago before Weekend Link Love came to Sundays, it was a Friday staple, and that’s where it will be landing (hopefully for good). For those of you who like to take your time perusing the links and reading top to bottom, the latest news will be a great way to begin the weekend (whichever day you choose to hop on and read). Look for the first Friday Link Love this week, right after the Thanksgiving holiday. I’d say good Primal news gives Black Friday a run for its money any day.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and—as always—being part of this community. Have a great week, folks.

The post Announcement: WLL Is Returning to Fridays appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.