Mark Sisson's Blog, page 272

Hawaiian Primal Fuel (PLUS a Contest!)

With most of the country getting hit with severe winter weather, I thought a number of you might appreciate a little tropical break—even if it’s in your kitchen. This week’s recipe is from the new Primal Fuel Recipes booklet featuring over 20 delicious and energizing recipes made with Vanilla Coconut Creme and Chocolate Coconut Primal Fuel. Some of you may have already gotten your hands on one of these books when you signed up for the 21-Day Transformation Program.

The Primal Fuel Recipes booklet includes a wide variety of recommendations, including nutritionally packed shakes like Heart Healthy and Berry Green, sweet indulgences like Banana Bread and Creamsicle, and a Primal Fuel pancake recipe created by my own daughter, Devyn. But today I’m taking you to paradise with this delicious Hawaiian Primal Fuel smoothie.

Hawaiian Primal Fuel

Servings: 1

Time in the Kitchen: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

2 scoops (44 g) Dark Chocolate Primal Fuel
1 – 1 ¼ cups cold water (or ½ cup ice and ½ cup cold water)
2 tablespoons macadamia or almond nut butter
½ frozen or fresh banana

Directions:

Add all ingredients into a blender. Blend well until ingredients are fully incorporated. For a thicker shake, swap the 1 – 1 ¼ cups of cold water for ½ cup of ice and ½ cup of cold water.

As an added bonus, I’ve decided to include a free copy of Primal Fuel Recipes in all Primal Fuel orders moving forward. If you already receive Primal Fuel on Autoship or have made a one-time order this month, there is nothing you need to do. Primal Fuel Recipes is already traversing the most recent winter storm to get to you! If you’ve been looking for one more reason to order the most balanced, healthy dose of high-quality fat, protein and carbs in a quick, easy, cost-effective and convenient shake, your reason is here.

Cheers from Malibu (where it’s still in the 70s)!

Now, For the Contest! 

The Prize:

Arborstead’s personal care products are 100% natural and handmade, with a line of deodorant that lasts all day and comes in 9 essential oil-based scents. They’ve also created a travel size deodorant for ultimate portability with a small footprint (check out the video here). It’s not much bigger than a lip balm, making it perfect for traveling or taking it along on hiking trips. Many folks report still smelling good 24 hours after putting it on.

Today’s winner will get $200 to spend at Arborstead’s online store!

BONUS: Use promo code PRIMALHEALTH for 25% off your order.

Wild Zora has created a line of meat and veggie snacks as an alternative to the tough, MSG-laden meat snacks typically found at the market. Made from 100% grass-fed beef from a local rancher along with fresh vegetables from their garden, you’ll get a super tasty treat you can feel good about.

The folks at Wild Zora believe that we can be in-control of our diet and energy levels, eat healthier, and be happier. I agree!

This prize winner will get away with a case (one dozen) of each of Wild Zora’s three flavors, PLUS a t-shirt. Total value: $185.

BONUS: Use promo code PRIMALBLUE for 10% off all products, good to the end of February.

Simple Mills believes that simple is best. They’ve created a line of baking mixes made of real-food ingredients, never using refined sugar, high-glycemic flours, gluten, or genetically-modified ingredients.

For those not big on baking, this is a nice option when you need a paleo-friendly treat that will please everyone at the table. Most mixes only call to add eggs and oil then prep is done and into the oven it goes!

Win this contest and get 18 Simple Mills baking mixes of your choice! Total Value: $161.82.

BONUS: Use MDASIMPLE15 at checkout out for 15% off any order on SimpleMills.com.

The Contest:

Last recipe of the challenge, last contest for Pinterest, with almost $550 worth of goods up for grabs! All you have to do is enter below-

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Contest Deadline:

February 1st, 11:59 PDT.

Choosing a Winner:

Three entries from the above widget 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.

To track all the contests visit the 2015 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.

Not Sure What to Eat? Get the Primal Blueprint Meal Plan for Shopping Lists and Recipes Delivered Directly to Your Inbox Each Week

How a Chance Encounter with Primal Advice Changed My Life

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 Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

I’ll start this story at around where I started remembering things in my life as clear as day. I was four years old playing in my first basketball game at the local gym in suburban Dallas, Texas. My mom was a soccer player in high school and my dad was a cyclist, so they always encouraged and pushed me to challenge myself in physical endeavors. I enjoyed the sport and would go on to play soccer in elementary school and track and field in high school.

Being young and full of energy kept me physically occupied throughout grade school. I graduated in June of 2011 and went up north to college for one semester before returning back to Texas in December of 2011. I went back to my local YMCA and continued to do the same repetitive isolation workouts I was doing in the campus gym. During my workout one day, a friendly young man asked if I needed a spot and we chatted for a couple of minutes. I didn’t recognize the guy until it finally hit me. He used to be on my basketball team many years ago! Back then he was the heaviest guy on the team and was always the last one off of the bench. At the time of the conversation, he was in the best physical shape of all 30+ people in the gym.

It was at that point when I demanded to know his “secret” to weight loss and muscle gain. While I was expecting an hour long lecture, his answer could not have been simpler.

“I read a book. It’s called The Primal Blueprint, by Mark Sisson.”

“That’s it?” I remember asking, dumbfounded.

“Oh, and check out his blog, too. It’s called Mark’s Daily Apple.”

The saddest part of this story isn’t how I let myself go after high school or how I followed the conventional wisdom my doctors and family would tell me, which recommended eating lots of carbohydrates (believe me, it’s unbelievably easy being of Middle-Eastern decent) and little to no fat. The saddest part is how long it took me to take action. This information was passed on to me in December of 2011. For about the next six months I did more of the same. He imparted upon me the basic rules of primal living, but I was living more conventional than ever. As an 18-year-old, my diet consisted of alcohols of all kinds (heavy beer and whiskey to be exact), fast food, and delicious pastries.

The turning point came the following summer when I went to Frankfurt, Germany to visit my uncle who I hadn’t seen in nearly five years. After picking me up from the airport, we went to the bakery right by his house. I was in heaven.

Never before had I seen such a delicious array of “heart-healthy grains” in my life! We would spend our time throwing back countless pastries while enjoying the view of the German countryside.

This was taken on July 9, 2012. This is the last picture I took before I left to the airport and today stands as the most important picture I took in my life. This was the heaviest, sickest, and most inflated I had ever been. I weighed around 210 pounds in this picture and my eyes could barely stay open.

Upon returning stateside I made the best decision of my life. I read The Primal Blueprint and dove head first into the Primal lifestyle. I then started reading Mark’s Daily Apple and other great books such as Fast Food Nation and Pandora’s Lunchbox. I learned how easy it is to be like everyone else. I learned the difference between a macronutrient and a micronutrient. I learned about this mysterious thing called “gluten” and how it affects the human body. Most importantly, I learned what real food is and what it tastes like. I learned that the natural state of man is to be content, and constantly in motion. In that motion and never-ending quest is where we find our purpose.

This is on February 25, 2013. I am around 160 pounds now. The weight just dropped right off! And the crazy thing is, I was discovering a whole new world that had been right in front of me but I had never dared to venture into. There are train tracks that go for miles right behind my house on which I would journey for a long time at a slow pace. There was a soccer field on which I would sprint once per week. I changed the monotonous bicep curls into dynamic presses and lifts. The most enjoyable exercise I discovered, and the one I practice to this day, is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I also read now more than ever. I do not just read about health or anthropology, but about everything from science to technology, since Mark’s book reminded me about just how much knowledge there is out there to grasp—we just have to reach for it.

This is me today. All I want to say is how much I appreciate Mark telling his story because it has inspired me and thousands of others to change their lives for the better. I am forever indebted to Mark’s guidance, and all I ask in return is for him to keep groking on and spreading the message.

Thanks Mark!

Sab

Contest Results: Grocery Time

I love seeing the pics submitted for this contest. It’s always a pleasure to see the happy, healthy, glowing faces of Mark’s Daily Apple readers. Not to mention the great looking food! Once again, many thanks to everyone that participated.

The lucky winner of this random drawing will take home 2lbs of Fresh-frozen fish from Wild Pacific Salmon, 10 assorted jars of Pure Indian Foods Ghee, 35 Bottles of Live Soda, a LIVE T-Shirt, LIVE Hat, a LIVE Water Bottle, and 5 variety packs of AMRAP Bars.

And the winner is…

Chris L!

Contest Poll: 2015 Primal Blueprint Workout Videos

It’s time for you to decide another winner! At the start of this 21-Day Challenge I put out a call for Primal Blueprint Workout Videos. And you responded with 8 top-notch clips. Boiling the submissions down to the top videos for this poll was no easy task. My crew and I discussed at length what made up a good fitness video. Was it fun and entertaining? Was the workout something we can see ourselves doing? Did it inspire and keep us watching? How well did it represent Primal Blueprint Fitness? On and on. In the end we held a blind vote and ended up with four picks. To everyone that didn’t make the cut, many, many thanks for taking the time to put together an amazing contribution to this year’s 21-Day Challenge. Honorable mentions go out to each and every one of you!

Before the vote, a recap of what’s at stake:

The Prize:

Two Square36 Workout Mats, Rad Roller All-In Kit, 4 boxes of EPIC Bars plus an EPIC bar t-shirt and bandana, 6 filet mignons & 12 pounds of ground beef from Bos Creek, and a Primal Blueprint Platinum Package. Total Value: $1057.98.

Watch all the videos in the playlist or via the links below, then vote for your favorite from the poll. Voting will close and a winner will be announced at 4 pm PST, Thursday, January 29.

Foraging Workout
Tactical Caveman
Chris Cox
The Boulder Workout
Modern Day Dads
Workout with Little Grok
Primal Bootcamp
Family Affair

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Contest Poll: 2015 Primal Blueprint Recipe Videos

A couple weeks back I asked you to film and share your favorite Primal Blueprint recipes for a chance to $1500 in gift certificates to US Wellness Meats. We’ve got some great entries this year, from liquid bone and lamb burger handrolls, to baked lamb shanks and paleo chili. Many thanks to everyone that submitted a video. I hope you had as much fun making them as we have watching them!

As you might imagine, my crew and I had a tough time narrowing the field, but we were able to get it down to the top five. To everyone that didn’t make the cut, many thanks from myself and (yes, I’ll take the liberty) the MDA community for your contributions.

Watch all the videos in the playlist or via the links below, then vote for your favorite from the poll. Voting will close and a winner will be announced at 4 pm PST, Wednesday, January 28.

Links to individual Primal Blueprint Recipe Videos

Baked Lamb Shanks
Mama T’s Paleo Chili
Chicken Curry Salad
Gourmet Grok Meal
“Liquid Bone”
Cook-a-liver Friday
Susan’s Primal White Chicken Chili
Lamb Handroll Burgers
John’s Chicken and Vegetable Soup
Green Chicken and Coconut Roasted Cauliflower
Eggs in Bone Broth
SCOBY Jerky
Primal Pork Chop, Cabbage & Apples with Sweet Potatoes

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Dear Mark: More of Your 21-Day Challenge Questions Answered

Today, I’m doing another batch of 21-Day Challenge questions pulled from the ones you asked me two weeks ago. I managed to make it onto the third page of comments. I’d hoped to get through all of them, but with over 200 questions asked, the task proved insurmountable! Since they were by and large really great questions that deserve serious answers, though, I expect I’ll be drawing on them for future editions of Dear Mark. Stay tuned for that in the future.

This week, we’ve got questions about weight machine training, indoor sprinting, eating for drinking “more than moderately,” feeding kids, going Primal with a failing kidney, exercising kids, balancing sleep and exercise, going Primal as a vegetarian, and much more.

Let’s go:

How would you recommend I approach gaining strength while also losing weight? I have been following the autoimmune version of the paleo diet for about a year and 3-4 months now and balancing weight loss with eating for strength performance has been a bit of a puzzle for me.

Gaining strength (and muscle) while losing weight? That’s kind of the holy grail of dieting, and it’s going to be hard to gain one type of mass (muscle) and lose another (fat). Maintaining strength while losing weight is certainly possible.

Focus on losing body fat and retaining lean mass. This is certainly doable and, I’d argue, probable when eating Primally.

Keep protein intake up and keep strength training. The combination of increased protein and a steady stimulus to your muscles tells your body to maintain strength and stop muscle loss, even as weight (fat) is lost.

After a particularly grueling training session, it’s also worthwhile to eat a dense source of Primal carbohydrate — some sweet potatoes (or regular potatoes), a bowl of fruit salad, a big banana — to keep your muscles stocked with glycogen. They’ll be primed to accept it without any untoward effects on your metabolism.

I could use a recommendation for a brand of slackline — you’ve inspired me to pick it up as a new way to play and also work on balance.

I really like Gibbon slacklines. The Gibbon Classic is a great, versatile beginner line that you can have fun with for years.

If you’ve got kids who want to join in but are a little leery or hesitant, the Gibbon Funline is easier for beginners.

Overall, I’d go with the Classic. But definitely check out what else Gibbon has to offer. Something else may strike a chord with you, and it’s hard to go wrong with the brand.

Are weight machines (chest press, leg curls, parallel bars, etc.) of any value to us as exercises? I am referring to specifically after a sports injury, to ease oneself back into heavy lifting.

Second, how do you feel about stationary bikes? As it is winter here, with plenty of snow, getting out to ride my mountain bike isn’t going to be an option for many weeks.

Yes, weight machines have their place. Early stage rehab is probably an ideal time to use a machine because they’re so stable and the injured person can focus entirely on getting the prime movers strong again without worrying about the stabilizers.

Stationary bikes are excellent and my favorite thing to do on one is sprint. Pretty much anyone can go all out on a stationary bike without worrying about injuring themselves. They’re also good for “mindless” movement, like pedaling while reading a book or watching a movie or something.

Obviously, no alcohol would be ideal, but in a less than ideal world, would you change your diet in any way on a day where you know you will be drinking moderately to more than moderately in the evening?

“More than moderately.” Heh, I like that.

I would eat some dark chocolate or coconut, as the saturated fats they contain have been shown to improve the liver’s resistance to alcohol.

I would avoid vegetable oils full of PUFAs, which make the liver more susceptible to alcohol damage (the “saturated fats are good for ethanol-exposed liver” studies use stuff like highly polyunsaturated corn oils as the control diet, and they fare very poorly).

I’d eat several large servings of colorful vegetables, fruits, and berries, which provide lots of minerals and phytonutrients that help us eliminate and resist toxic alcohol metabolites. Herbs, too; those are all good for liver resistance.

So, I guess I’d just go even more Primal than usual.

I am taking a probiotic that I noticed contains a small amount of stabilized rice bran. It is a high-quality supplement and it seems to be working for me at this point but was wondering if I should look for something else after I’m finished with it?

No, don’t worry about it, especially if it’s working for you. Probiotics are such an important tool in shaping our health that minor ingredients included in the formula aren’t worth fretting over. Plus, there’s even evidence that probiotics combined with stabilized rice bran have synergistic effects on each other and generate novel metabolites with beneficial bioactivity (maybe that’s why it’s working so well for you).

Any thoughts on how to overcome the no caffeine headache other than dealing with it for a few days and hoping it stops?

In the past, I’ve had success with going for a really tough workout. Something like a sprint session or a heavy lifting session. Your head will pound even harder during the workout, but afterwards, it disappears and stays disappeared. Just grit your teeth and get it over with.

We just got a puppy. Any particularly healthy Primal foods you can recommend for them that might not be on my radar? Would bones from a conventional butcher (they may or may not be grass fed, they do source locally) that are likely not from grass fed cattle be a net positive or negative?

Your local bones should be fine, but do make sure you keep an eye on your pup as he or she gnaws. Expect lots of licking and scraping and some really messy paws.

Grab some marrow bones, vertically sliced to expose the marrow if possible. Beef knuckles are great, too. Full of collagen. It’s my experience that puppies exposed to bones early on develop better “mouth habits” and improved dental dexterity. They’re less likely to break a tooth trying to chomp a thick cow femur in half if they’ve grown up with them from the start.

That outweighs any less-than-ideal fatty acid profiles in the bones (which, if they’re sourced locally, probably got more grass than most CAFO-fed cows).

Be sure to check out the Primal Eating Plan for Dogs post I did years back for more ideas.

I recently became a Father, and with all the not-sleep I’ve been getting, it’s hard to wake up early or stay up later to work out. Should I even worry about it and just try to be active when I can? Does the extra hour of sleep I get a net positive over waking up to get a lift in?

Go for the extra hour of sleep. I always choose sleep. That extra hour of sleep might be enough to counter increased activity in the genes responsible for inflammation, diabetes, and even cancer. Plus:

Sleep is required for good judgment and quick thinking. You need to be on your toes. Since mom is probably breastfeeding and recovering, it’s up to you to handle everything else.

Sleep is required for memory consolidation, and since you’re experiencing some pretty incredible life events for the first and only time, you want to remember as much as possible (yes, even the horrible parts, if only to revisit when considering additional children).

Be active when you can. Carry, lift, toss (within reason), swing your kid. Take the kid on walks. Get outside during the day, weather allowing. Do twenty pushups and twenty air squats every time you change a diaper. Little things like that really do help. Couple that with an extra hour of sleep and I suspect you’ll be better off — and far happier and more able to appreciate this special time.

And yeah, steal a real workout when you can. If you can get one a week on top of the other movement, you’ll be in good shape.

Congratulations, by the way!

How can I keep up my interval sprinting in the winter?

Do Tabata burpees. 20 seconds of burpees, 10 seconds rest, repeat 7 more times.

Get hold of a stationary bike, or perhaps a Schwinn Airdyne, and do sprints on it.

Get a jump rope. Use it. Try a minute on, a minute off, for 12 minutes.

Get a kettlebell and do high-rep swings, snatches, or cleans. These aren’t exactly sprints, but the effect on fat loss is roughly similar.

Do barbell complexes. These are supersets of different barbell exercises performed without putting the barbell down. A potential complex could be 5 reps of front squats, 5 reps overhead press, 5 reps Romanian deadlift, 5 reps bent over row, using a light to moderate weight. Do all 20 reps without dropping the bar. Rest for a minute or two and do it three or four more times.

Doing well on the challenge, but woke up with a stiff neck today and pretty much all movement is uncomfortable. What do you do when injuries interrupt the exercise?

Try any other movements that don’t hurt. Air squats? Lunges? If it doesn’t hurt or feel “weird,” it’s most likely safe to do.

Can you walk? Go for long walks.

Otherwise, just take it easy. Necks aren’t to be trifled with.

Any primal tips for lowering blood glucose that go beyond the standard primal diet and exercise?

There are a few other things you can try.

Sleep: Adequate sleep improves, or rather maintains, glucose control. Aim for 7 to 8 hours a night, and titrate up or down depending on how that amount makes you feel.

Cinnamon: Cinnamon can lower blood glucose.

Turmeric: The brilliantly orange spice can also help with glucose control. Try it in tea or with pork.

Resistant starch: Eating resistant starch-containing foods (like potato starch, green bananas, or cold potatoes) can improve your insulin sensitivity and normalize blood sugar levels.

When taking on a lifestyle change like going primal what’s the best way to get support from family and friends who may think you’re crazy?

“I’m trying something new to make a positive change in my health. It’ll be a few weeks, and I might do a few things that look funny to you, but please bear with me, support me, and hold your tongue. Oh, and I’ll cook dinner a few nights a week as long as you agree to eat with me.”

And then at the end, when you’ve made a big change, whether it’s in your demeanor or your body fat level, your results will speak loudly and convincingly in your favor. The delicious Primal food you make won’t hurt, either.

So, can one take vitamin D supplements to “Complete” this item? The wording implies that just getting outside for 15 minutes is sufficient, but this only applies when the sunshine is sufficient and people aren’t bundled up with no skin showing!

That’s a great question. Yes, if you’re not getting unfiltered sunlight carrying adequate UVB radiation, you’ll need to take some vitamin D. Many people don’t make any vitamin D with the sunlight available during winter.

But getting outside in the sunlight — even if it’s low UV and even if it’s freezing outside — is still important for general circadian health. The light remains bright enough to act as a daytime signal to your biological clock. Your eyeballs can still enjoy and benefit from sun exposure, even if your skin cannot.

How do you recommended easing children into eating more of a Primal diet when custody is split 50/50 and the co-parent is not on board?

Feeding them Primally when they’re with you part of the time is way better than nothing. Plus, kids are very resilient. They can bounce back from poorer food choices, especially if they’re eating well the rest of the time.

If they start evincing obvious improvements in mood, behavior, performance, and energy — all common occurrences — your co-parent may be swayed and agree to give it a shot on their end, too.

I can’t see why they’d object. It’s pretty hard to argue with feeding kids more fresh fruit and vegetables, unprocessed meat (unless you’re dealing with a vegan or vegetarian co-parent), and healthy fats.

I also want to sprint more for power and speed development. So what other methods of building Primal endurance are good?

Well, a few questions back I gave some options for people looking to sprint indoors during winter. Things like jump rope, burpees, barbell complexes, high rep kettlebell swings, and stationary bike sprints. Those can all be modified to improve general conditioning, and exercises like burpees and jump rope are in fact classic conditioning moves. Then you’ve got other options like sledgehammer swings, battle ropes, and sled pushes (or car pushing).

Long, uphill hikes (often with heavy packs) are excellent for conditioning, too.

400 or 800 m repeats on the track, with around 2 minutes of active rest (jogging or walking) in between. Alternate between 400/800 each training session. Do these once a week and work your way to the point where you’re doing 12 repeats each workout.

Slow, longish runs at easy aerobic pace. Stay under the aerobic threshold, so you’re (mostly) burning fat.

I eat mostly paleo, but I have a weakness for ice cream and baked goods. What do you suggest for someone like me? Are strict challenges the way to go, or should I conquer my sweet tooth one day at a time?

By reframing the dalliance as an 80/20 excursion rather than a moral failure, you can move along from it without a second thought. If you feel like a terrible person for eating a scoop of salted caramel ice cream, you’re liable to fall into a junk food-laden guilt spiral.

You’re going to slip up and eat the ice cream anyway. What’s the point of beating yourself up over it? Turn it into a positive. Make it a pressure release that enables better adherence in the long run. And hey, it may even be good for you.

Some people just don’t do well with strict diets. You’re probably one of them.

My wife has kidney failure what should i look out for when we are doing the 21day challenge.

That’s serious, and she needs to get the diet cleared with her doctor before anything. Off the top of my head, she’ll probably need to reduce protein. As safe as protein is for a healthy kidney, kidney failure severely hampers protein metabolism.

But Primal can still be in the cards. Ask her doctor about a low-protein, low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diet, and mention this study in diabetic mice where ketogenic diets actually reversed kidney failure.

Everything else I talked about in the Challenge — sleep, exercise, sun, play, etc — should be totally safe.

I am not trying to drink every day or night I just want to know if there are certain “grades” each type of alcohol receives in case it is a special occasion and the need to order a drink arises.

Check out this article from a few years back that answers your question: Choose Your Booze: A Guide to Healthy Drinking.

My question is, is there an ideal time of the day to work out for someone trying to best regulate blood sugar an insulin?

One hard and fast rule is to work out before the meals containing the most carbs. Exercise sensitizes your muscles to insulin so that you require less to clear glucose from the blood. Another benefit is that the glucose you do clear from the blood is more likely to end up as glycogen in your muscles.

Another strategy is to add “exercise snacks” throughout the day. Rather than one big workout once a day, you pepper your day with small bouts of exercise, particularly before meals; this reduces the blood glucose response. A set of pushups here, a short sprint up the stairs there, a ten minute walk every other hour. General movement is good, but some of these exercise snacks should be higher intensity, too.

I’ve been wondering about resistance bands. Do they count as lifting heavy things?

You know what? Yeah, I think they count and in some cases compare favorably with free weights. A study in adults with musculoskeletal pain found that resistance band lunges produced increased activity in the glutes, hamstrings, and lumbar muscles compared to lunges with dumbbells.

Especially in older adults, the evidence shows that resistance bands can be quite effective. One study found that resistance band training increased muscle size and strength. Another found that resistance band training increased lower body strength in older African American women by 20%. And in postmenopausal women, both low intensity and higher intensity resistance band training increase strength, lean muscle mass, and muscle size.

Even top athletes can benefit from resistance bands. Pro rugby players saw increased strength and speed gains when incorporating resistance band training into their bench press routines.

Resistance bands also afford the ability to work the core in interesting ways. Since it’s always “pulling” in one direction, you have to use your “core” to resist or directly push against that pull.

Apologies if this question has already been asked, but does anyone have any great ideas for “play” for a city-dweller? As a person who was never very athletic, I don’t have a list of physical activities I find fun.

Great question. Play is the category people have the hardest time with. First, coming up with a good idea or activity can be tough, especially if you haven’t played in decades. Then, once you’ve found one, you have to overcome that little voice inside saying “Adults don’t play! They’re all gonna laugh at you!”

If formal sports don’t appeal, how about less mainstream options? I’ll just throw a few out there:

Frisbee golf
Speed golf
Dodgeball
Tag
Capture the flag
Ultimate frisbee
Kickball

Also, play doesn’t have to be physical. You can do board game nights, LARP, play poker with friends, maintain a weeks-long game of Risk (just be sure to respect the Ukraine), play charades, or play video games (to name just a few options). What’s important is that you have fun and ideally engage in friendly competition.

Probably old tales, but I’ve heard so many times that if kids pick up heavy things (i.e. exercise with weights) bad things happen to them that I just don’t know if this is CW or if there is something to it. Would bodyweight exercises be too much? I try to play with him a lot, but this is a source of preocupation for me.

Totally safe. Your son is highly equipped to manipulate his own body weight. If all he does are pushups and planks, I’d be concerned about overuse injuries, but as long as he’s playing in addition to emulating your exercises, he’s fine.

You should throw in some horizontal bar work. Let him hang, swing, develop his grip, and even get a head start on pullups.

And even weight lifting is probably pretty safe for kids.

Is raw, unfiltered, unpasteurized honey allowed or encouraged in the primal way of life? There seems to be quite a bit of controversy within the paleo/primal community on this matter.

Read my perspective on honey. It’s way better than refined sugar, that’s for sure.

I am just starting on the challenge for the first time and am wondering if Coleman Natural Bacon is ok to eat. We buy it at Costco a lot. It says no hormones, nitrates, nitrites, etc. However, one of the ingredients is brown sugar. However, the nutrition facts says “Sugars:0″ So what’s up there?

Food manufacturers can round down to 0 if the amount per serving is 0.4 grams or less. If it were trans-fats, I’d worry about a 0 because the stuff is pure poison and 0.4 grams of industrial trans-fat adds up quickly. But 0.4 grams of brown sugar is inconsequential, so I wouldn’t worry. Your bacon is fine!

How would you suggest blending vegetarianism and Primal living? How can I get enough protein and healthy fats without eating a dozen eggs a day or a pound of (expensive!) nuts?

Oh, that’s completely doable.

Protein? Between eggs, dairy (Greek yogurt, regular yogurt, kefir, cheese), whey protein, and the odd handful of nuts, you’ll get plenty of protein. Can you include seafood like shellfish (no nervous system) or fish since you’re already taking fish oil?

Fat? If you’re willing to use butter, whole fat dairy, olive oil, coconut oil, eggs, and the (again) odd handful of nuts, I’d say you’re covered in the fat department.

That’s it for this week, everyone. Thanks for reading and good luck as you continue the Challenge!

Weekend Link Love – Edition 332

Portland and surrounding environs! The Primal Blueprint Transformation Seminar is almost at your doorstep. Come join us on Thursday, January 29.

Due to popular demand, blog posts will now be going up at 5 AM Pacific Standard Time.

If you’re at all interested in the way diet and lifestyle can impact your risk of Alzheimer’s (and dementia in general), you’ll want to kick in some support – or at least help spread the word — for BREAD HEAD, an upcoming documentary investigating the promising science of Alzheimer’s prevention.

I was recently honored to be featured in my own local paper, the Malibu Chronicle.

Research of the Week

Wild chimps talk about favorite fruits and the best trees to get them.

Salt intake is not associated with overall mortality or risk of heart disease and heart failure.

Being sedentary is more likely to kill you than being obese.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 51: Interview With NY Times Bestselling Author Ashley Merryman, Part 1: Host Brad Kearns hangs out with Ashley Merryman to discuss the truth about competition, plus how we may be raising — and praising — our kids all wrong. Ashley will be speaking at PrimalCon this year, so be sure to check her out.

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.

What is the Point of Your 21-Day Challenge?
11 Ways to Assess Your True Fitness Level
I Think Therefore I Do
The Definitive Guide to Fish Oils
This One Simple Trick Will Make All Your Meals Taste Better

Interesting Blog Posts

If self-reported food intake data is unreliable, what good is the research using it to make conclusions?

Americans (especially the overweight and obese ones) are likely to have inadequate intakes of several important micronutrients, including magnesium, calcium, vitamins A, C, D, and E, plus choline, fiber, and potassium.

Why Yoni Freedhoff left The Obesity Society.

Three medical uses of bacon.

Media, Schmedia

Kids these days are willing to pay more money for premium health food.

The lead author of the “iPads are bad for sleep” study had an interview on PRI’s Science Friday. Go listen.

Everything Else

Statins may be giving people a false sense of security.

How modern technology sells us the fantasy of multitasking, and why we’re really just fooling ourselves (and becoming less efficient).

Designer babies are coming, scientists say, and we should probably have the debate soon.

“I’ll die before I admit the standing-desk guy at work is right.”

Chipotle recently pulled pork from a third of its stores after quality standards violations from one of its major pork suppliers surfaced.

The story of fraud in a paleo/CrossFit study.

While “eat real food” and other Pollan-esque platitudes are nice, they’re probably not enough for most people to lose weight.

Medical clowns are able to ease pediatric patients’ pain, probably by paralyzing them with sheer mortal terror.

Recipe Corner

These garlicky lemon Cuban chicken wings are less messy and more delicious (in my opinion) than your standard deep-fried wing.
Looking for a way to increase your prebiotic fiber intake? Try these Japanese baked leeks with bonito flakes.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Jan 25 – Feb 1)

19 Tips for Avoiding Injuries During Sprint Sessions – What makes sprinting so effective is the strain it places on your body. Be careful when you do it.
Stretching for Strength: 5 Flexibility Standards – Five stretches any fit person should be able to do.

Comment of the Week

I also suffer from PRSS (Primal Resistant Spouse Syndrome). It’s nice to know I’m not alone.

– PRSS is a scourge.

Sun-Dried Stuffed Chicken Breast (Plus a Contest)

This week’s recipe is pulled straight from the pages of The Paleo Primer: A Jump-Start Guide to Losing Body Fat and Living Primally!, written by British health and fitness consultants Keris Marsden and Matt Whitmore. These folks, who run a popular fitness and wellness center called Fitter London, have produced a book that is half “primer” and half incredibly creative recipes. The primer section distills the major concepts of primal/paleo/ancestral health living into clever and memorable short passages, spiced up by hilarious cartoon drawings. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, I highly recommend it!

This recipe is as easy as it is delicious. Butterflied chicken is stuffed with a mixture of sun-dried tomatoes, olives and basil, then wrapped with prosciutto before baking to provide a little crunch and a lot of extra flavor. You’ll find this recipe simple enough to whip up for a quick dinner, yet impressive enough for company.

Sun-Dried Stuffed Chicken Breast

Servings: 2

Time in the Kitchen: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 large boneless chicken breasts
4 sun-dried tomatoes
4 green olives, sliced
10–20 fresh basil leaves
6 slices of prosciutto

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 ºF.

Slice the raw chicken breast in half and place two sun-dried tomatoes, two sliced olives, and three to four torn basil leaves in between each breast. Wrap each breast with three slices of prosciutto to seal the filling in place, then place on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.

Serve with fresh spinach salad and grilled tomatoes. Enjoy!

Now for the Contest!

The Prizes:

Wise Choice Market - Bone broth is not only good for the soul, but it’s good for the gut. It can be tricky to find a quality ready-made bone broth that you can have shipped right to your door, but Wise Choice Market has got you covered!

Slow-simmered under the direction of a professional chef, this delicious, organic, home-style bone broth is prepared with nutrient-dense ingredients and ready when you need it. As close to homemade broth as you’ll get without hours of labor, they hand craft their organic chicken and beef bone broths in small batches.

Just like homemade chicken broth, their chicken bone broth is made by simmering the bones and feet from healthy pastured organic chickens for 24 hours. The organic beef broth is made from grass fed beef bones, and simmers for 48 hours. The long, low-heat cook time guarantees you maximum health benefits and a complex, delightfully flavored bone broth.

One winner will get 6 24 oz packages of organic, pastured chicken bone broth, and 6 packs of organic, grass-fed beef bone broth.

In addition, the lucky winner will also receive a sampler of 6 raw cultured vegetables, including sauerkraut, beets, carrots, and red cabbage, PLUS 6 additional packs of sauerkraut. Everything you need for a happy and healthy gut biome! Total Value: $210.

BONUS: Check out this video Wise Choice Market made just for the MDA crowd, and sign-up here to receive 10% off your order.

Paleo Scavenger Granola - In June of last year, Brittany Chibe left the corporate world to start Paleo Scavenger with the mission to share her tasty, paleo granola with the world!

While training for a half-marathon, she found it difficult to find snacks that fit within the parameters of the paleo diet. It was as if she were on a constant scavenger hunt (hence the clever company name) at the grocery store searching for paleo-friendly snacks, so she started whipping up some of her own. After getting some serious props from family, friends and other paleo foodies, she decided there was a market to package and sell it… thus a company was born!

The winner will receive 10 assorted bags of Brittany’s Certified Paleo granola. Total Value: $100.

BONUS: Use promo code DAILYAPPLE for 15% off your order until February 2nd.

The Contest:

This one is for all the recipe crazed Pinterest folks! All you have to do is enter using the widget below-

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Contest Deadline:

January 25, 11:59 PST.

Choosing a Winner:

Three entries from the above widget 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.

To track all the contests visit the 2015 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.

Not Sure What to Eat? Get the Primal Blueprint Meal Plan for Shopping Lists and Recipes Delivered Directly to Your Inbox Each Week

The Struggles of a Navy Man: Fighting Bad Conventional Advice with Primal Successes

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 Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

I am unbearably angry! Wait, I apologize. That’s not a way to begin this story. Let me try again.

It’s January 2014. I find myself 39 years old, recovering from wrist surgery, and uncertain about my career. You see, I’m in the Navy, and they do not like overweight individuals. As such, I was looking at my previous 16 years potentially meaning nothing if I couldn’t turn things around. Unfortunately, I am clueless. I have listened to all of the recommended “good habits.” I am tracked meticulously by my job. I have attended the required two week course on fitness. I’m not an idiot, am I? How am I such a failure at this? Why all the cognitive dissonance? I have consumed the knowledge, tried adhering to all of the experts’ recommendations. I mean, it’s simple, right? Yet I was unable to reconcile my results and experiences with all of the advice, research and guidelines.

To give you an idea of what I was going through, let’s do some math and check out some of my well-documented failures:

First, there’s the typical calories in/calories out equation as it related to my activity level. I play competitive racquetball five days a week for two hours at lunch and sporadically after work. But since I don’t want to overestimate my level of activity, I’ll assume I practice 90 minutes at a time. Now, at a weight of 200 pounds, the Myfitnesspal app says that equates to a total of 1,021 calories burned. I also have mandatory workouts five days a week at 6:30am in the morning. They’re mostly core workouts to “spot reduce belly fat” (a phrase taken from the Command Fitness Leaders) and a 5k. We also have to run 1.5 miles in under 14 minutes. We then keep that pace for 5 kilometers for approximately 25 minutes. That’s another 375 calories burned. Finally, I add an additional 240 calories burned for the other 25 minutes of aerobic exercises.

Second, three days per week we have command exercises, which are the same basic exercises as outlined above. So add 600 more calories burned per day three times per week. Then, on Friday evenings from 5pm until 8pm and Sunday from noon until 2pm, I play wallyball with a regular group of guys. That should equal 950 more calories burned per session Also, for part of the year, I play on a co-ed soccer league or volleyball league, depending on the season. Myfitnesspal lists casual soccer for 60 minutes at 600 calories and volleyball at 200.

That’s great, but what does all that mean? Add up all these calories along with my resting metabolic expenditure for a week (myplate.gov) and you get: 5,000+3,000+1,800+1,900+200+15,400 = 27,300 calories burned per week. Or, to put it another way, approximately 3,900 calories burned per day. Now, since I’ve been steadily gaining weight, I must obviously be eating more than that. Easy fix! So on to my diet…

Luckily I’m required to keep a food log. So I can’t be too out of control with this, right? Let’s see how much I’m lying. What would it take to reach, let’s say, 4,000 calories per day (I’m gaining weight, so the number has to be above 3,900 calories.)

I’ll assume a lot of the calories are hidden ones (because fat people are dumb—kidding, of course!). I like Dr. Pepper, so I probably drink the 20 oz version. That gives me 250 calories/bottle. So six per day gives me 1,500 calories. Luckily McDonalds makes this easy. The Bacon Club House Crispy Chicken sandwich is 750 calories. Large fries are 510 calories. And the Big Breakfast with hotcakes is 1,090.

Bingo! I figured it out. On an average day, when you add up all these numbers, it equals 5,100 calories per day. That’s an extra 1,210 calories per day or 8,470 per week. This means I will gain 2.42 pounds per week! Solved! But wait. I mentioned a food log, right? And that I’m in the navy? So every day I eat with those same people at the galley or on the ship if underway. They know what I am being served. They weigh me once per week. And they review my log. You’d think one of them would mention my excessive eating at meal time or during the review.

Weird. I am somehow being monitored working out, being weighed each week, eating the dietician approved, portion controlled servings at meal time that I’m logging, yet I’m still consuming way too many calories! Man I suck at this.

But maybe I’ve done something to ruin my metabolism. Yeah, that’s got to be it. I’m not eating 6-8 small meals per day to rev up my fat burning mechanisms! Oh damn, how do I do that? Meals are served at the same designated times each day, with no snacks in between. They must hate me! Sabotaging my weight control attempts.

I’m at my wits end! That’s the big three, right? Exercise, calories, and metabolism. As long as I adhere to what I’ve been instructed to do by the experts and our government guidelines, I will drop weight no problem! There was a time when I wasn’t obese like this. A day when I didn’t care what the rules said and when I ate what and when I felt like it. How did all of this “correct” knowledge get perverted in my application? Being in the navy brings unique challenges with weight problems. I am reminded of how I am a failure at my job (since fitness is part of my job!) If you are overweight you are also not likely injured (You’re just being lazy! Trying to get out of exercise and not really injured!)

Nothing made sense. When I’d go to medical for required check-ups, I’d have good blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. and be told I’m in great physical shape, except for, you know, being fat. I was eating low fat, healthy grains, exercising excessively, and a complete failure.

Then by happenstance I came across a documentary called “Fat Head.” Things started clicking. My mind was racing. I began reading even more. I read a very thorough deconstruction of The China Study. I drew on my personal experience with fasting (I had skipped meals like crazy for no reason other than I was fed up with everything and had no appetite. I lost weight and felt awesome, but “knew” I was harming myself because I was ruining my metabolism). So I began researching intermittent fasting. And that’s how I ended up here on Mark’s Daily Apple.

I read everything. Bought The Primal Blueprint. Read and re-read so many of the success stories. Shared all of this with my wife. We talked. And we consumed the information again. Things that seemed like common sense that we had ignored for years were now being confirmed by this wonderful site and others like it.

So in March 2014 we began our trip into the Primal lifestyle. And the weight started coming off like crazy. I had gotten to 230 pounds, which wasn’t sitting well on my 5’6″ frame. The fascinating thing was that my wife never really worked out and I was still in a full arm cast with orders not to get my blood pressure up via exercise. Yet, here we were. Both feeling really good. Losing weight. And enjoying the successes together.

In July 2014, I had all the hardware removed from my reconstructed wrist and was returned to full duty. I weighed just around 200 pounds, but by the navy measuring system my body fat percentage had gone up. Damn, another failure. Sucks when you lose 35 pounds, several inches off your waist, but the official paperwork says you are getting worse.

In October 2014, I had another physical fitness weigh in and had made my goal weight of 170 pounds. What?! 60 pounds lost! The first time I had made my weight since 16 years ago in boot camp (if you are over the weight limit they measure your body fat so it’s possible to be over the weight limit and still within standards)! I was so excited. And so incredibly mad!

I had spent years doing as I was told. Following the guidelines from my immediate leaders, the FDA, and all the experts—and being treated as if I was the problem, when really the information was wrong. The results didn’t match the science, but that couldn’t be right because the science said it wasn’t. So I was what was wrong.

I’m sorry that this has been so angry. Filled with so much sarcasm and vitriol. I have written, and rewritten this story several times and I don’t know how to sanitize it for this negativity without losing the frustration I have with the “conventional wisdom” I was trying to follow, but failing at.

Being overweight comes with many pitfalls, but those become magnified when you work in a job that uses it as a basis for retention and promotion—and when you know you weren’t promoted for over seven years as a result, it’s very frustrating. It’s hard to think of all the lost pay and opportunities (you can’t be an overweight instructor for example) despite your adherence to all of the “rules of health and fitness.” It’s shocking to discover how easy it can be to be healthy—the realization that so many things that felt intuitive were actually correct. But I had ignored them because of all the science and advice.

It’s been a whole year now. In June/July, when I was returned to full duty, I was required to do a full physical. This month (January 2015) I was also required to do our annual Physical Health Assessment (required once per year in your birth month).

Here are my results:

Total Cholesterol is 253, up from 218 in July
HDL is 69, up from 44
LDL is 166, up from 130
Triglycerides are 91, down from 216
My cholesterol ratio is 3.7, down from 5.0
Blood pressure is 120/79
Weight is 170, down from 200 in July and 230 from March when I started.

And how was the information met? With dissatisfaction. I can’t begin to describe the disappointment and anger I felt as I sat there being told (I’m paraphrasing), “Your weight is down by 60 pounds, your good cholesterol is up, your triglycerides are down, your ratio is great, and your blood pressure is awesome. You need to change everything you’re doing and follow the Mediterranean diet.” What? How can you call yourself a health professional, yet sit there and see evidence that should lead you to examine the research, but don’t. Just keep recycling the same information without an understanding of why some evidence doesn’t support the structure. Frustrating!

Anyway, since late fall we have been sharing our story with friends and family that have asked about our changes and we are hoping many of them can enjoy the same benefits we have. And I’d like to thank Mark for all of the valuable information and support. I just wish there was a way to help all of the sailors who lost careers and opportunities by following the wrong advice.

But mostly, I want to thank each and every one of you that shared your stories with us. They are so very inspiring. They provide clarity and motivation every time I read them (and I do re-read them).

Happy Primal living!

Tony

Contest: Bacon Bonanza

The Prize:

A Bacon Bonanza prize package from U.S. Wellness which is comprised of all this bacony goodness:

Sugar Free Beef Bacon
Sugar Free Beef Bacon Tips
Sugar Free Pork Bacon
Sugar Free Pork Bacon Ends
Canadian Bacon Slices
Canadian Bacon Ends

The Contest:

Today’s contest is so easy a caveman could… it’s super easy. Follow Mark and U.S. Wellness on Twitter and retweet the contest using the widget below. That’s it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

While there can only be one Bacon Bonanza winner, you can still acquire some of your own by visting U.S. Wellness online. And don’t forget to check out U.S. Wellness on Facebook and YouTube. Grok on!

Eligibility:

Only U.S. residents are eligible.

The Contest End Time:

January 25 at 11:59 PM, PST.

How the Winner Will Be Determined:

A winner will be chosen at random and emailed to arrange for delivery.

To track all the contests visit the 2015 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.