Mark Sisson's Blog, page 236

Contest: What’s in Your Primal Kitchen?

Prize: The Holy Grail of PRIMAL KITCHEN™ Care Packages!

3 Bottles of Avocado Oil: More heat stable than olive oil and a wonderful alternative for those who don’t like the taste of coconut oil, PRIMAL KITCHEN™ Avocado Oil is perfect for searing, drizzling, sautéing, stir-frying and dressing. Use to make marinades, finish sauces, or even in lieu of butter for all your baking needs.

6 Jars of Avocado Oil Mayo: PRIMAL KITCHEN™ Mayo is the perfect companion for your deviled eggs, coleslaw and chicken salad needs. Every dollop is chock is full of good fats, phytonutrients, and other antioxidants, so you can use it lavishly—not sparingly—to upgrade the flavor and nutritional profile of your meal.

2 Bags of Primal Fuel: Quick, easy, and convenient, Primal Fuel provides balanced, healthy doses of high-quality fat, protein and carbs in a delicious and incredibly satisfying shake. It promotes and maintains lean muscle mass with 20 grams of whey protein isolate—which has the highest biological value (BV) of any protein source—in each serving. It contains the finest coconut milk as its primary source of healthy fat, which takes the edge off hunger for hours and provides exceptional nutrition. With fewer than 6 grams of natural sugar per serving, Primal Fuel helps keep your insulin levels low and helps shift your body into fat-burning mode all day long. Moreover, it’s loaded with vital prebiotics that help rebalance and re-establish a healthy gut.

2 Bottles of Greek Vinaigrette: Using real, organic oil of oregano, organic apple cider vinegar and the freshest ingredients (avocado oil, organic red wine vinegar, black pepper and lemon) our perfectly balanced vinaigrette is a tantalizing and refreshing complement to any salad. Its lush herb flavor is balanced with a hint of sweetness, savory spices and the zest of fragrant lemon oil—the quintessential addition to roasted chicken…or drizzle some on top of your vegetable lasagna. It also pairs very well with heavier fish like mackerel or sablefish.

2 Bottles of Honey Mustard Vinaigrette: This succulent dressing packs in the pungency of stone ground mustard and the sweetness of organic honey, perfectly enhanced by a tangy bold touch of lemon. It pairs well with slightly bitter greens, like chicory, Belgian endive, escarole or radicchio, and is succulent enough to be used as a dipping sauce for veggies…or to flavor your favorite fish, chicken or beef dishes. Honey mustard-flavored braised short ribs, anyone?

PRIMAL KITCHEN™ Dark Chocolate Almond Bars: A healthy and tasty alternative to sugar-laden energy bars, Primal Kitchen’s Dark Chocolate Almond Bars boost energy with 15 grams of healthy protein (from grass-fed collagen), and just 3 grams of sugar. Indulge whenever you are on the go and your stomach is rumbling…or when your taste buds are jonesing for a treat.

The Contest:

An oldie, but goodie. Originally inspired by a Time photo montage featuring families from around the world surrounded by a week’s worth of their groceries, I told readers to surround themselves with a week’s worth of their Primal groceries. Check out last year’s submissions:

So round up the kids (or parents, or fiance, or roommates) and toss all the groceries on the table, because I want people to see “What Grok Eats.” The pictures don’t have to be fancy, nor do they have to be 100% Primal (or even 80%, just so long as people can see what you eat in a week). Mad props go to the most Primal family, but the winner will be selected in a random drawing, so don’t feel obliged to play “Keeping up with the Grokses.” Just post your photo to Instagram, tag @MarksDailyApple and use hashtag #PrimalHaul in the post text so the Worker Bees and I can see your entry.

Don’t have an Instagram account? No problem. Email me the picture instead. Please use the email subject heading “Grocery Submission.” Otherwise, there’s a good chance I may completely miss your submission.

As long as there are groceries on the table and smiling faces, you’re entered to win.

Examples:

From the NY Times:

The winner from 2015:

Now it’s your turn.

Who is Eligible:

This one is global, so anyone can enter!

How A Winner Will Be Decided:

A random drawing will be held among all entrants who submit adequate photos.

Deadline: January 24, midnight PDT.

Fine Print:

MDA reserves the right to publish all submitted material.

To track all the contests visit the 2016 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.

How to Discover Your Hidden Obstacles to Primal Progress

This time of year is all about knowing what we want for ourselves. We rightfully accept the window for change and wonder what kind of transformation we’re ready for—what measures we’re willing to commit to, what possibilities exist if we’re willing to go down that road. And so we daydream. We imagine what it would be like to feel better/fitter/healthier than we do right now. We think about how life would be different. We start to mentally put the pieces in place—how we’d go about this endeavor. How bold are we willing to be? Where will the energy, support, ideas and resources to fuel this venture come from? Maybe it’s at this stage or maybe even after we get started, but all too often some other element eventually weaves its way into the picture. Self-doubt, pessimism, compromise, sabotage begins trickling into our process. Our hidden, well-worn obstacles start popping up.

It seems like a universal dictum. When you start to make positive change, you’re going to get pushback. It’s not a magical force thing. The fact is, you’re rocking the boat. Your attempt to change, no matter how small, is throwing off the dysfunctional equilibrium you’ve been living with. Somewhere along the line you got used to how you live and how you feel. Inertia is as much a psychological as a physical phenomenon.

Change your ways, and it’s as if all the mental bogeys and old patterns wiggle their way to the forefront to register their agitation. Maybe even the basic, external logistics of change become a knotted mess temporarily. It can feel like the universe is on a targeted mission to crush your good intentions.

Personally, I don’t think the universe has it out for you, but I’d make this suggestion. Expect pushback and learn to roll with it.

Behavior change is genuine transition. Let’s name it as such, shall we? Transition always involves some degree of destabilization. When facing instability, your best bet is to give up the need to fix the situation (or wallow in your own irritation) and simply get comfortable with it.

Welcome instability and all it brings up. Invite it in and let it sleep on your couch for a few weeks if need be. While it’s crashing at your place, get to know it. Listen instead of slinging yourself around in the dark. You never know what it will teach you about yourself….

Because the ultimate force at work here is you. Pushback is inevitable. Instability is expected. What’s optional is frustration.

We tend to take a “fight this,” “fend off that” mentality to mental or even logistical resistance. War metaphors for personal change—hmm. Whom exactly are you fighting? Doing battle with one’s self in my experience generally does nothing but expend a lot of needed energy.

Now, let’s dig in a little more for how to uncover those hidden bogeys.

We’ve covered the first order of business. Expect them.

We’ve hit the second to-do. Become willing to let your guard down and learn from them.

Now three… Listen for their voices.

Because sometimes hidden isn’t what we think it is. It’s obscured in some way but perhaps disguised as “fixed” reality, dressed up as safe, “rational” choice, even cloaked in self-selected “conscious” preference.

Think for a minute if any of these have at one time belonged to your thinking….

I can be happy with just…
I’m not really a X, Y, Z kind of person.
It’s probably too late to imagine that for myself.
The weight loss thing just never seems to work for me.
Whenever I start to get in somewhat good shape, something always happens to derail my progress.

(This is only a small subsection of what could probably be a book-length list….)

In other words, a hidden obstacle isn’t something like a low number in your budget that you can commit to your health. That’s a parameter, which might reframe but doesn’t in any regard need to derail your pursuit.

Nor is it a limited schedule with screaming children or a demanding boss or a long commute. These are elements to work around, but (again) not deal breakers.

And nor is it a medical condition (whether it be morbid obesity, chronic fatigue, a heart condition or whatever). These impose restrictions or suggest a varying, flexible trajectory, but in every case progress of some kind (and often grand, life-changing kinds) is possible. (Please work with a trusted physician who can outline any restrictions and actively monitor your health as you progress.)

Maybe some circumstances don’t allow us to have total freedom in our personal schedules or budgets. Maybe we work with physical restriction, but all this suggests to me is a reframing of process—not a lack of possibility.

In short, hidden obstacles are the excuses, justifications and other imposed self-limitations we put between us and our visions.

In these situations, I have a friend who always suggests people ask what investment they have in staying the way they are. In other words, what do you gain by staying put as-is—in circumstances you say you don’t want to be in?

The question might seem off-putting. Our feathers get ruffled when someone suggests we have a stake in our own unhappiness. Except people I know who have achieved great things—as well as other people who aren’t famous but live extraordinarily content, satisfying lives all claim responsibility for their own happiness and success.

I’ve discussed some of these common roadblocks in the past….

Hidden Obstacle: Comparison

The “thief of joy” as Theodore Roosevelt called it… Major killjoy, rain on my motivational parade, recipe for never-measuring-up.

Maybe you grew up under a shadow of comparison. A past pattern doesn’t have to be a present choice. Don whatever metaphorical blinders you need to get going in your own process. If that means exercising in quiet neighborhoods or parks (during winter it’s easy to find these) rather than a gym, so be it. How about your basement? Eat alone or with the few/one supportive person you can identify at your workplace. Not forever…just for now—or as long as you need it.

Journal. Photo-journal. Get a trainer who will teach you to be your own competition. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing to get healthy. Do what you will do and enjoy.

In other words, immerse yourself in your own process. Be self-absorbed. Truly. Comparison in my clients suggests an emptiness of self-attention and self-appreciation. Learn to get your head in your own experience.

Hidden Obstacle: Fear of Success

Sure, we say we want success. We want the ultra fit body or the ideal life balance or great health. Yet somehow we’re more comfortable letting a little bit of shame or sloth hang around.

The sabotage is half- or even sub-conscious because underneath we’re just a little afraid. That idea of success puts us on the hook in ways that intimate us. What will be expected of us as a result? How will life change in ways we don’t necessarily want to sign on for?

It’s time to have more faith in ourselves—in our ability to navigate our own lives through our own best interests—hooks and others’ expectations be damned. The most important gains we’ll make by getting healthy aren’t the outer changes but the inner fortitude we’ll cultivate and walk with from here on out.

Hidden Obstacle: The Victim/Fatalistic Mindset

Maybe past attempts have been many and unsuccessful. Perhaps some random hits of bad luck or bad timing or whatever we want to call it have dotted your history with health/weight loss/fitness/self-improvement/etc. The only one applying the past to the present right now is you.

Time doesn’t care. The universe isn’t paying attention. Anyone who keeps stirring up past pain is truly optional in your life if you’re ready to be honest about it.

It’s time to reclaim choice. You can have a new beginning anytime you desire one. What you drag along with you, however, is your responsibility. Sooner or later we all learn to answer for it.

Hidden Obstacle: The Captive Character

The reels of old scenes, the loops of self-talk…Too many of us are captive characters in the stories we tell ourselves (and those we’ve been told about ourselves in the past).

We make a move toward some positive goal, and almost invariably the chatter begins about how worthy we are, how we’re not the athlete type, how we’ll never be able to have healthy relationship with food, how we’re not cut out for the happiness and well-being others seem to be able to claim for themselves.

While this might be one of the trickier obstacles to face, I suggest as I did earlier in the post to not fight these messages, which only throws your energy down a useless pit.

The key is let them be without identifying with them. To use the couch surfing metaphor again, when we make the distinction that they’re annoying, lazy houseguests rather than head of the household, we stop giving these voices authority they aren’t due.

Rather than silencing the messages, practice creating mental distance from them when they come up—and then get busy writing a new story you will want to identify with. Don’t worry about affirming you are this or that kind of person. Just make a self-investing, healthy choice in the moment. The string of these will become a new narrative—and the interlinking chain toward your success.

Thanks for reading today, everyone. Which of these obstacles (or others) have you encountered? What helps you get over the hump? I hope you’ll share your thoughts and advice in the comment board. Have a great end to the week.

Prefer listening to reading? Get an audio recording of this blog post, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast on iTunes for instant access to all past, present and future episodes here.

Contest: Grokpose for $1000

The Prize:

$1000 gift certificate to PrimalBlueprint.com. Want a year’s supply of Primal Fuel? Done. How about enough Primal Kitchen™ Mayo to fill up your bathtub? Done. Heck, You could even become a Primal Blueprint Certified Expert and have change leftover. Today’s winner gets a thousand big ones to spend like cash and get whatever he or she wants at PrimalBlueprint.com.

The Contest:

Pose like Grok. Take a photo of it. You know Grok, right? Here he is…

Pose like that. Whether in mid air, on the ground, hanging from the underside of a stairwell, or lying on the dirt. If you’re body roughly matches the positioning of Grok, you’re qualified. If you’ve got a spear, awesome. If you have some other representation of a spear, that’s fine too. If you’ve got an “air spear,” that’s acceptable as well. Creativity is encouraged. Once you’ve figured out how to do it, get someone to take a picture of you in your Grokpose. Then, post your photo to Instagram, tag @MarkDailyApple and use hashtag #GrokInTheWild in the post text so the Worker Bees and I can see your entry.

Don’t have an Instagram account? No problem, Email me the picture instead. Please use the email subject heading “Grokpose Submission.” Otherwise, there’s a good chance I may completely miss your submission.

Who is Eligible:

This one is global, so anyone can enter!

How A Winner Will Be Decided:

Photo submissions will be reviewed and a select few will be posted toward the end of the Challenge. The Worker Bees and I will choose a list of finalists to be voted on by readers.

Deadline: January 24, midnight PDT.

Fine Print:

MDA reserves the right to publish all submitted material.

To track all the contests, visit the 2016 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.

5 Ways to Achieve Your Health Goals in 2016

Making positive changes is simple. You know exactly what to do—and what you should do. You’ve got a list of changes you’d like to make. It’s all there on paper in plain language. You know how to eat better—eat healthy animals, tons of plants, cut unnecessary carbohydrates, ditch grains and seed oils, eat enough fat and protein for hormonal health and satiety. You know how to train effectively—sprint once in awhile, lift heavy things, stay physically active throughout the day, don’t sit so much. You want to “eat less fast food,” so you stop going through the drive-thru. You want to sleep more, so you sleep more. Right?

Except it doesn’t work like that.

Real change is simple, but it’s not easy. It takes planning. It means facing fears and overcoming stress. To really succeed, you have to know what you’re changing and have the willpower to see it through.

Here are five tips for ensuring your success—in anything—this year. I tried to make them as general as possible, so they should apply to most changes you folks are trying to make. In a way, you can seem them as the necessary conditions to check off your list before tackling whatever goals you have your sights set on. So let’s go.

1. Get specific.

Setting general goals doesn’t amount to much. It’s easy to say “get more sleep” because it’s open-ended. There’s no line in the sand. And hey, technically going to bed at 12:15 rather than 12:30 does give you more sleep. It’s slightly better. But is it good? Is it enough to make you bound out of bed, excited to take on the day? Probably not.

Most people fail to make real changes because they don’t define their terms with any degree of specificity. What is success? What is failure? When you don’t have hard numbers or specific definitions, you’re more likely to fail. The words we use indicate how we think. If we can’t articulate the specific parameters of our desired change, we don’t actually know what we’re seeking (and we’ll never reach it). So no meandering around your goals in a vague, haphazard way. You should be able to describe what you want to achieve in short, concrete terms, specific terms.

If you haven’t gotten specific, do so now. Take a look at your goals and make the necessary adjustments.

2. Edit your memories.

Fear memories—bad memories about unpleasant situations—hold us back. They teach us to avoid truly dangerous situations, but they can also keep us from facing and defeating uncomfortable ones. Since we’re often seeking change to overcome unpleasant, damaging habits, the ability to face discomfort is necessary. If we can only remember our bad experiences in the gym, we’ll never want to exercise. For decades, Tony Robbins has been helping clients get over negative experiences through “memory scrambling.” To scramble a bad memory, he has you recall and edit the past experience like you’re a film director in the cutting room.

First, you watch it uncut. Just let it play to the end.

Run it back again, only as a ridiculous cartoon. Say it’s a bad public speaking experience. You’ve got big floppy clown feet. Everyone else does, too. The audience is full of Looney Tunes characters throwing around a beach ball. Marvin the Martian is keeping time. Gandalf’s fireworks from Fellowship of the Rings are exploding around you.

Do this twelve more times, changing things as you go. Run the memory backward, then forward. Chop up the chronology Tarantino-style. Add music.

Now go through the memory again and note how you feel. Better?

By the time you’re done, the “real” memory is scrambled and the fear associated with the experience should be mitigated or eliminated. This may sound silly or “New Agey,” but emerging neuroscience is confirming that fear memories can be edited like this.

3. Optimize willpower.

Willpower is the currency of change. You need a lot to make it happen. You’re fighting the tide; you’re reversing course and going the other way. Opposing inertia takes a lot of willpower. Optimizing and maximizing willpower could take an entire post, but I’ll give you the juicy bits.

Avoid decision fatigue. Willpower is willpower. The willpower we summon to eat eggs and bacon instead of a blueberry muffin is the willpower we need to make it to the gym after work. And it’s finite, so don’t expend it by agonizing over pointless decisions, which deplete willpower.

Precommit. Precommitment beats willpower every time. Even better, precommitment circumvents willpower. There’s no need to muster up the willpower to decide to do something when you decided long ago (and prepared the logistics). This reserves the willpower for the actual doing. It’s like going low-carb during training and carbing up before a big race: you’ll be so good at burning fat that you have plenty of glycogen left over for the big push at the end.

Do things earlier in the day. Willpower is highest in the morning and lowest at night. Enacting the hard changes (working out, walking, cooking) closer to peak willpower makes them more successful and likely to stick.

Recognize that willpower is about self-control. Willpower isn’t something “you do.” It’s about what you don’t do. Willpower determines your capacity to resist temptation.

4. De-stress and prioritize sleep.

For many of you, the express goal of 2016 is to “reduce stress” (or maybe “rethink stress“). For slightly fewer, it’s “sleep more.” That’s awesome, and this section will certainly help both groups. But getting a handle on stress and sleep matters to anyone making a positive change in their life. The negative effects of stress and poor sleep are that pernicious and far-reaching.

Like willpower, stress is fungible. Stress is stress is stress. Stress and inadequate sleep both impair our ability to perform (and recover) in the gym, lose body fat, making good decisions, and achieve pretty much every positive change people set out to do.

I’m not here to recommend a certain number of hours in bed. You know what you need, and you know if you’re not getting it. Most people aren’t. I’m simply recommending that you prioritize sleep because it will impact your ability to achieve your goals—whatever they are. That means tearing yourself away from your Twitter feed at 11 PM. That means reading a book or meditating before bed, rather than playing Candy Crush.

Nor am I suggesting you go hang out at the ashram or live in a yurt, strap biofeedback sensors to your temples 24/7, or otherwise target stress as your ultimate goal. But don’t assume you’ve got chronic stress under control, or that relaxing won’t help you lose more weight or work out more regularly or make better food choices.

When you’re dealing with stress and sleeping well, everything gets easier. Trust me on this.

5. Shoot for the moon.

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, likes to ask people “How can you achieve your 10-year plan in the next 6 months?” He thinks most people simply aren’t thinking big enough. I agree. You (yes, you) are capable of way more than you probably think. Think and do big.

I’m not downplaying the small steps. On the contrary, their importance is implicit in the recommendation. The thing about reaching the moon is it took decades of hard work in the trenches to create space-faring technology, after all. Just because a person aims high doesn’t mean they ignore the details and skip the small steps. They can’t. The small steps are everything, but only if they take you closer to the goal.

And even if you don’t quite reach the goal, taking the steps toward it will improve your situation. So you didn’t lose the 50 pounds you wanted. You lost 45, which is 5 pounds more than the 40 you originally aimed for. That’s a win!

Now let’s hear from you:

Do these tips resonate? Think back on past changes you’ve attempted—would following these suggestions have improved your outcomes? How are you implementing them this year?

Thanks for reading, everyone, and Grok on!

Like This Blog Post? Subscribe to the Mark's Daily Apple Newsletter and Get 10 eBooks and More Delivered to Your Inbox for FREE

Contest: Ask Me a Question. Win Books and a Primal Essentials Kit.

The Prizes:

What are three of your favorite Primal Blueprint Publishing titles? Want a copy of  The Primal Blueprint, the book that started it all? Or would you like to try out one of our newest releases, like Fruit Belly, Primal Prescription, or Primal Endurance? Perhaps you’re looking to expand your cookbook library… the choice is yours! Today’s winner picks any three books from PrimalBlueprint.com!

Primal Essentials Kit – Sun. Soil. Oil. Get all your bases covered with this elegant solution to the daily challenges we face living with our hunter-gatherer genes in a completely modernized world. Today’s winner will receive a bottle of Primal Sun (vitamin D), Primal Probiotics and Primal Omegas.

The Contest:

Today’s contest is a piece of cake. Simply leave a comment below asking me your 21-Day Challenge questions. Need some advice? Struggling with something? Anything? Let me know in the comment board. Just make sure that your questions are related to your 21-Day Challenge in some way. I’ll be answering as many questions as I can in this coming Monday’s Dear Mark post.

Replying to questions with answers also counts. This is a community effort, so share your tips and tricks with those in need of some help and you’ll also be entered to win.

Contest Deadline:

Midnight tonight, January 12th.

Choosing a Winner:

One commenter will be chosen at random.

Eligibility:

Anyone in the world can enter, though this prize may only be available to U.S. contestants. In the case of an international winner, substitute prizes of equal value will be shipped.

Other Important Info:

Remember to use your real email address in the comment board. If you don’t we won’t have a way to contact you.
Multiple comments won’t get you multiple entries. But by all means, ask or answer away.

To track all the contests visit the 2016 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.

The 2016 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Begins Now

If you want to lose weight, gain muscle, reduce stress, increase energy or just generally look and feel healthier you’ve come to the right place. Oh, and you can win lots of cool Primal gear, too. That’s right, it’s the annual Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge!

Before we get to all the details, let’s kick things off with a simple contest. Click on over to this page and register for the free Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge in the Vimify app. That’s it! I’ll explain more about the app below, but rest assured that you’ll be entered to win a $100 gift certificate to PrimalBlueprint.com if you register for free.

This contest ends at 8 pm PST tonight, January 11. A winner will be selected at random and everyone around the world is eligible, including people that registered before today.

Now, on to the challenge details…

What Is the 21-Day Challenge?

What’s the challenge? To get Primal, of course! Click here to view the full version of a nifty graphic that summarizes the 21-Day Challenge. (I encourage any bloggers out there to share this infographic using the html I’ve included below it.) Additionally, you can dig deeper into each section of the infographic by visiting this more detailed Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge page.

In brief, this is the Challenge. Do it for just 21 days and the results will speak for themselves.

Eat real food.
Avoid sugar, grains, unhealthy fats, beans/legumes.
Align your carb intake with your weight goals and activity levels.
Move frequently at a slow pace: Get between 2-5 hours per week of moderate aerobic exercise.
Lift heavy things: Conduct 1-3 brief, intense sessions of full-body functional movements.
Sprint: Go “all out” once a week.
Get 8 hours of sleep every night.
Get 15 minutes of direct sun exposure each day.
Play! Find time to let go, disconnect, unwind and have fun each day.

No sign-up required. Anyone can participate. Just commit to the challenge, and check back every day for motivation and guidance. Articles over the next two weeks will be about taking steps to align your lifestyle with the Primal Blueprint. The third and final week of the challenge will be mostly comprised of reader-created content. That’s right, MDA readers (you!) will be running the show.

Above and beyond the challenge as outlined above, I encourage you to make your own personal challenges. Whether it’s eliminating or adding a certain food to your diet, losing weight, going barefoot more often, getting better sleep, or anything else, customize your goals to fit your needs and commit to 21 days starting now.

Who Is the 21-Day Challenge For?

I hold this 21-Day Challenge every year to encourage Primal beginners to give this way of eating, moving and living a try because I know it works, I know how empowering it is, and I know it changes lives.

I also do it to motivate those that have been dabbling with the Primal lifestyle for a while, but haven’t fully committed or still have some room for improvement (myself included!), to go all in and resolve to finally take control of their health.

There’s something here for Primal veterans, too. It’s a good idea to revisit the basics from time to time. And hey, the chance to win free stuff isn’t half bad either.

Why 21 Days?

After many years of training clients and interacting with hundreds of thousands of Mark’s Daily Apple readers, my team and I have found that 21 days is the sweet spot for eliminating old habits and replacing them with new ones. It’s long enough to make legitimate progress toward reversing years of adverse lifestyle habits, long enough for most people to get past the low carb flu (if you experience it at all), and long enough to give the Primal Blueprint a fair shake, but not so long as to be seen as a daunting undertaking. In other words, anyone, including you, can give this a go for three measly weeks, and in that time you are bound to see results. If you have weight to lose, it’s reasonable to expect a reduction of three to seven pounds of excess body fat during this period, and to continue at that rate safely until you reach your ideal body composition.

I’m confident that you can transform your life in just 21 days with the Primal Blueprint. But I also know that people want to maximize their chances of success. To help you on that path, I’m offering two new tools:

The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge App

I told you all about the app last week. Once again, we’ve partnered with Vimify to bring you a free Primal Blueprint 21-Day Transformation App Challenge for your desktop computer or Apple iOS device. As you move through the Challenge, the app will be updated to reflect the day’s contests, your progress, and the progress of your friends. With the app, you’ll join a community of like-minded individuals working toward common goals. Compare, contrast, compete, encourage, and gently rib each other as you work through the contests and smash your stated goals.

If you haven’t downloaded it, you’ve missed the preparatory tasks. But no worries. They’re really straightforward, and you can do them now so you’re ready for the Challenge:

Purge your pantry of all non-Primal foods and restock it with Primal fare. Take an hour out of your day to toss (or re-home) all the junk, grains, sugar, and vegetable oils in your pantry and hit the local grocery store or farmer’s market to stock up on meat, plants, nuts, and good fats.
Do a Primal Essential Movement assessment. Determining your level of physical fitness won’t take longer than twenty, thirty minutes, and it will give you a good idea of where you stand physically. (Check out Primal Blueprint Fitness for the detailed assessment.)
Invite friends to join you in the Challenge. Time’s a wasting for this one. Get your friends involved. Send them the link to this blog post. Suggest that they download the free app. The strength of this app lies in the community you build, the accountability it promotes, and the healthy competition it provides. You need people to get those benefits.

Today is the last day you can download the app for free and participate in this round of the app challenge. Although it isn’t necessary to join the Challenge, it does enhance the experience. You have until 11:59 this evening (PST) to download it, so get on it.

There’s another tool, too:

The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Transformation Program

Or rather, three tools. The three 21-Day Transformation Program packages are made to simplify and streamline Primal living. They eliminate guesswork and give you everything you need to hit the ground running down the path toward success in the Challenge. And once the Challenge is over, the Transformation packages increase your ability to stay the course and make this a permanent lifestyle change. You’ve got:

The Digital Package. Receive immediate access to digital versions of the 21-Day Total Body Transformation (the official book of the Challenge that perfectly distills the essential aspects of the Primal Blueprint and shows you how to integrate them), plus an audiobook version (if you prefer to listen). You’ll also get digital versions of Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals, the Primal Blueprint Poster (a graphic guide to the lifestyle), the Primal Blueprint Shopping List (a complete list of all Primal-approved foods), and an in-depth 90-minute video of me covering all the major elements of the Primal Blueprint lifestyle. You’ll also receive daily email encouragement for the duration of the Challenge, plus instant access to the app.

The Fuel Package. Receive all of the above, plus physical versions of the book, the cookbook, the poster, and the shopping list shipped directly to your door. You’ll also get a bag of Primal Fuel, a Primal Fuel recipe book, and a Primal Fuel blender bottle. This is the best value of the three packages.

The Essentials Package has everything from the Fuel Package PLUS bottles of Vital Omegas (my high-quality omega-3 fish oil), Primal Calm (my herbal stress-fighting blend), and Vitamin D (because sun is scarce this time of year). If you have been wondering how the supplements fit into the lifestyle, this is the perfect opportunity to give them a try and see how they work for you.

Of course, these aren’t necessary to succeed or even partake in the Challenge, but they do make things easier and your success more certain. Choose your Transformation Package today to enhance this year’s challenge, and for added guidance and direction.

The 21-Day Challenge Contests

The main challenge itself isn’t competitive, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some friendly contests along they way!

Over the course of the next three weeks Mark’s Daily Apple and sponsors will be giving away thousands of dollars in prizes.

Here are some rules and answers to FAQ:

There will be new contests on Mark’s Daily Apple most days for the first two weeks (through Jan. 24) of the 21-Day Challenge, so check back daily!
All contest prizes relate in some way to the Primal lifestyle. You won’t find any miracle weight loss pills, tummy crunching sling-a-ma-doo-dads, or whole wheat health blast jazzer snackers.
Some contests will require a bit of leg work while others will require something as simple as commenting on a blog post.
There is no limit to how many contests you can participate in.
The duration of any one contest depends on the nature of the contest. Some will last a couple weeks (to give you time to complete the contest task) while others will be as short as one day. All deadlines are Pacific Standard Time.
Contest prizes will be awarded either by a random drawing, by reader voting/polling or by an executive decision (who I think should win!).
Some prizes will only be available to United States residents. If you live outside the U.S. and win a prize that can’t be shipped internationally an alternate prize of equal value will be awarded.
I’m not being paid by any company for being featured in a 21-Day Challenge contest.

To track all the contests visit the 2016 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.

New to the Primal Blueprint and Mark’s Daily Apple?

If you are new to the Primal Blueprint and Mark’s Daily Apple and don’t know where to begin, here are some resources to get you started:

1. Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge page – On this page you’ll be introduced to the basics of the Primal Blueprint and can follow numerous links to learn more.

2. The Forum – I highly encourage you to use the forum during the challenge. In it you can start a “Primal Challenge Journal” to publicly state your goals and track your progress. Create a journal to receive positive feedback, advice and help along the way from the Mark’s Daily Apple community.

3. The Books

4. What to eat? – Primal Blueprint Recipes on MDA, The Primal Blueprint Meal Plan

5. The Newsletter – Sign up on this page to get several free ebooks, a 7-day course on the fundamentals of lifelong health, and more.

6. Have a question? – Contact Me

Tell your friends and family about the challenge so they can get Primal too!

Best wishes and good luck on your first day of the Challenge. Check back tomorrow for a new contest and an article on going into the Challenge with the right frame of mind. Grok on!

Contest: Make a Primal Blueprint Recipe Video

I announced this contest last week to give you a little extra time to work on it. And I’m publishing it again today just in case you missed it in last week’s post.

Per annual tradition, once again it’s time to make some delicious Primal dishes.

The Prize:

US Wellness has long been a favorite meat spot for MDA readers. A few years ago they donated pemmican and the popular 5 gallon bucket of fat. The last several years they’ve gone whole hog. And by hog, I mean cow. And they’re doing it again this year. US Wellness has generously offered up a cow to the winners of this contest.

For those of you with raised eyebrow, they won’t actually be delivering a mooing, cud chewing, udder dangling live cow to your doorstep. But you will receive the delicious meat that once was that cow. And I’m not just talking about a bucket of chuck. The winners will receive sirloin, brisket, short ribs, back ribs, rib-eye steaks, T-bone steaks, NY strip steaks, Delmonico steaks, filets, bottom round roasts, center cut roasts, chuck, tongue, liver, heart, kidney, beef tallow, marrow bones, beef stock, and an oxtail. Heart and tongue not your thing? No worries. This year’s winners will get to choose exactly what they want as they’ll be receiving $1500 worth of US Wellness gift certificates they can use to order hundreds of pounds of their preferred bovine cuts – all grass fed, grass finished. Check out this Grass Fed Goodness video where you can watch your prize/meal grazing around in sweet Missouri pastures.

But winning won’t be easy. It’ll take work. And Primal food…

The Contest:

Create and upload a 15 second Primal recipe video to Instagram. Have you mastered the omelet? Are you an organ meat fiend? Maybe your salad is so mean, it can win a chili cookoff. If so, let the world in on your secrets. Grab your smartphone, and show us how to make something Primal. In previous years, we’ve asked you to upload and record your Primal recipes to YouTube, but this year, we’re adding a new twist! Creativity is key, because Instagram videos are limited to 15 seconds. Just make sure your video relates in some way to the Primal Blueprint eating plan. Show the world (how to prepare) your best Primal dish and you could be the winner of a whole bunch of meat. For ideas on what you can do, check out these clever 15 second chefs:

Italian Meatballs

A video posted by Leslie Klenke

Weekend Link Love – Edition 382

Help make Mark’s Daily Apple and @primalkitchenfoods shine! Consider nominating us for Paleo Magazine’s Best of 2015 list!

If you could spare just a few moments, here are the categories the Worker Bees and I would like to be nominated for:

Best Blog (General Health/Wellness): Mark’s Daily Apple

Best Podcast (General Health/Wellness): The Primal Blueprint Podcast

Best Paleo Company (Food Related): PRIMAL KITCHEN™

Best New Packaged Product: PRIMAL KITCHEN™ Mayo

Best Thing to Always Have in Your Fridge: PRIMAL KITCHEN™ Mayo

Best Online Program: The Primal Blueprint Expert Certification

Best Book (Fitness Oriented): Primal Endurance

Best Book (General Health/Wellness): Fruit Belly

Best New eBook: The Primal Blueprint Definitive Guide to Troubleshooting Weight Loss

Best New Podcast: Primal Endurance Podcast

Health Hero of the Year: Mark Sisson

Best Paleo Supplement: Primal Probiotics

The nomination period ends today, January 10th, so copy/paste away! And thank you in advance for your votes. It’s very much appreciated.

Follow Primal Blueprint Publishing on Instagram and enter to win one of the 16 giveaways taking place daily from Jan 1-16 in the “16 in ’16 Giveaway!” Prizes include Primal Blueprint Publishing books, Primal Blueprint supplements, and Primal Kitchen products.

The Primal Blueprint audiobook is on sale ($4.95) until 11:59 PM PST tonight at Audible. If you’re an Audible member (or want to become one), check it out!

Research of the Week

For people with advanced illness, quitting statins may be a safe way to save money and improve quality of life.

Wearing blue lenses increases muscular endurance.

The insulin resistance and altered glucose homeostasis seen in shift workers may be caused by disordered light/dark cycles, not sleep deprivation alone.

“It isn’t that callings help you, so much that ignoring a calling hurts you.”

Only total and full-fat dairy intakes are linked to improved cardiometabolic health.

Fasting mice inhibited their acquisition of new fears and reduced anxiety from existing ones.

Heart failure patients are typically placed on low-salt diets, and it may be killing them.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 101: Martin Keen, CEO of Focal Upright Furniture: Host Brad Kearns chats with Martin Keen, CEO of the best functional furniture company in the world. All of Martin’s furniture is designed to optimize human health, performance, and structural soundness. In this podcast, you’ll learn about Focal Upright Furniture’s office setup (no chairs!), the specific negative effects extended sitting has on our physiology, and how forced sitting may be a way to domesticate otherwise unruly humans.

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.

End of the Year Review: What We Learned in 2015
7 Ways to Slow Down Your Perception of Time

Also, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Primal Endurance Podcast.

Interesting Blog Posts

Six seconds is all it takes.

An old Klamath Indian origin story about the creation of Oregon’s Crater Lake got it right.

Saturated fat is bad (if you ignore the raw data).

Old but good advice for anyone looking to declutter their way to abundance for the new year.

Media, Schmedia

The man who quantified himself before it was cool.

Despite a few improvements (eggs/cholesterol non-relationship, no soda for diabetics), the latest USDA dietary guidelines peddles primarily abject nonsense.

How the liver shuts down your sweet tooth.

Bread sales down in Britain.

Everything Else

Common junk foods, deconstructed.

A good overview of the problems with nutrition science, epidemiology, food frequency questionnaires, and calorie counting.

Hardy with a short growing season, millet was the perfect gateway grain for pre-agricultural Asian nomads.

Breathe into this device and find out how much fat you’re burning.

Tom Brady’s got a crazy diet. In other words, it’s a healthy one.

Recipe Corner

I love a good “throw a bunch of stuff into a pan” stir fry, and Asian crack slaw is a perfect example.
Gluten-free (potatoes instead of noodles) breakfast casserole.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Jan 12 – Jan 18)

This One Simple Trick Will Make All Your Meals Taste Better – Improve your cooking instantly.
It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way –A fun and helpful challenge.

Pic of the Week

Photo credit: HealthNation

Oyster Po’ Boy Salad

An oyster po’ boy is a classic New Orleans sandwich made of oysters breaded in cornmeal and fried until crisp. Set on a white roll, slathered in mayo and topped with iceberg lettuce and tomatoes, it isn’t exactly health food. But if you ditch the white bread and cornmeal, the oyster po’ boy can be reincarnated as a salad that’s really good in its own right.

Fried oysters, it turns out, are a delicious salad topper. In this Primal version of an oyster po’ boy, the oysters are breaded in tapioca flour. Crunchy on the outside and juicy in the middle, they’re perfect tossed with cool iceberg lettuce, fresh tomatoes and a creamy, tangy dressing.

The amount of fresh oysters you’ll need for this salad depends on the type of oysters you’re buying. Some are quite small, and others, much larger. Err on the side of buying more rather than less; you’re likely to pop a few of the fried morsels in your mouth before they even make it in the salad (and you might want to slurp down a few raw, too). Plus, oysters provide a generous amount of B-vitamins, vitamin A and E, folate, copper, selenium, and zinc. However you choose to prepare them, oysters are a supplemental food that should be a regular part of your diet in this new year.

Servings: 2

Time in the Kitchen: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 head iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced
2 tomatoes, sliced
1 cup Primal mayo (or homemade mayo) (8 ounces/240 ml)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (5 ml)
1 tablespoon lemon juice (15 ml)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (or more to taste) (2.5 ml)
1 tablespoon capers, drained (15 ml)
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley (15 ml)
12 to 16 shucked fresh oysters
3/4 cup tapioca flour (80 g)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (2.5 ml)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (2.5 ml)
2 egg whites
Cold-pressed high-oleic/high-stearic sunflower oil, for frying

Instructions:

In a large bowl, combine the lettuce and tomatoes. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, smoked paprika, capers and parsley. Refrigerate until ready to toss the salad.

In a medium bowl or on a rimmed plate, mix together the tapioca flour, salt and cayenne. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy. Add the oysters to the egg whites, stirring so the oysters are well coated. Remove the oysters with a fork or slotted spoon, leaving behind any of the egg white liquid that isn’t clinging to the oysters.

One by one, dredge the oysters through the tapioca flour, coating each side.

Pour the sunflower oil into a deep, heavy pot (using 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch of oil for frying). Heat the oil over medium-high until it’s shimmering. Test the oil temperature by tossing in a tiny fleck of the tapioca flour; it should bubble and fry immediately.

Cook the oysters in two batches for 2 minutes a side, until lightly browned and crispy. Add to the bowl of lettuce and tomatoes. Toss with the salad dressing.

Primal Tremendously Changed My Life and the Lives of Those Around Me

Name: Anthony

Age: 33

In Anthony’s words: “The best part of this story is about the clients I have been privileged enough to work with.”

Read Anthony’s Story >>