Mark Sisson's Blog, page 313

The Stories We Tell Ourselves

Experts have understood for decades that the human brain is geared toward storytelling. As anyone who created bizarre scenarios to memorize random facts for high school tests knows, we recall information better if it’s organized within a story. In Grok’s day, this fact likely had clear benefits for passing on crucial information such as hunting and foraging strategies (and epic mistakes), medicinal remedies, migration routes, navigation principles, survival tactics, and familial bloodlines. From a less pragmatic sounding (but rather pivotal) angle, the human mind is also moved by narrative in a deeply emotional way. Sure, band life was organized around the daily company and collaboration of members, but Grok and his crew weren’t automatons. Stories of many kinds undoubtedly helped maintain or explain those bonds with tales of history and alliance (and, I imagine, humor). It’s kind of fun blow-ten-minutes thought: what would Grok have laughed at? But I digress…

While this “natural affinity for narrative construction” proved adaptive for the species, it worked because it operated in individuals of course. On that level, our forebears used story to lead, impress, teach, learn, remember, entertain, interpret and negotiate – generally, we assume – to their benefit. Each of us ever since was born with this affinity. For better and for worse, we experience our lives and our environments within this cognitive “narrative” framework every day. Indeed, we experience our own selves within this narrative context – for better and for worse….

Stories, of course, naturally highlight what we’ve done and been and what’s happened to us. Likewise, however, they suggest what we haven’t done or what we don’t consider ourselves to be. They reveal us but inevitably circumscribe us and define us to a point.

Think for a minute about the stories that you tell yourself – about you. Not necessarily the narrative you would like to tell about yourself (some meticulously crafted testimonial or eulogy). In fact, brush away all the public posturing and cocktail party introductions we all end up doing to some degree at least in certain situations. What is the real narrative you live each day when it’s just you and you. In other words, what inner tape ends up playing? What lens gets applied to the outer circumstances? What’s your role, and what characteristics describe this figure you walk around in each day?

Obviously, this concept has broad applicability in our lives. In terms of health, how does it play out? In terms of vitality, what reflection do you see? What does your script say about fitness, food, play, self-care? Does your script have you assigned the role of fat person? Does it tell you you’re a sugar-holic? Does it suggest you’re not an athlete? What does it tell you about your relationship to food, to fun, to overworking? This is the stuff that makes for people who lose 100 pounds but who sabotage themselves into regaining because they can’t recognize themselves in the mirror. There’s an emotional difficulty running underneath this that can’t integrate the new look (and attention) into the old psychological template. They have a new body that’s incompatible with the old mental operating system – a system that was likely founded in actual events but self-bolstered over time again and again.

Part of understanding why we get so hooked into these narratives and the assumptions about ourselves that they impose is understanding what incidents or outside messages created them in the first place. As they say, if you don’t process the past it will keep showing up in your present. The fact is, we can talk ourselves into (or out of) any myriad of opportunities or changes simply because we’re ruled by past scripts. We never really get off the ground for a fitness goal because middle school gym class taught us we didn’t belong or would never meet the standards. We battle food because it was our coping mechanism, and we were always praised for being the “good eater” in the family. We can’t learn to prioritize ourselves enough for some meaningful self-care because we were supposed to be the caretakers. Stress management seems like a nice but foreign concept because we grew up in emotional or logistical circumstances that always seemed to be foreboding another impending crisis.

Psychologists examine how the enormous collection of random incidents in our lives get sifted into actual memories and then further filtered by the power of repetition or magnitude (e.g. trauma or celebration) into “self-defining memories,” those experiences and messages that become a watershed for our self-perception. It’s the nature of human subjectivity (and a brain that can’t and didn’t evolve by storing every bit of input). Data isn’t created equal on a cognitive level. Our ancestors scanned but prioritized their attention. We do the same whether we’re surveying traffic or filing emotional feedback. What we end up with at the end of this cognitive filtration process is what becomes our personal scripts, the memories but also messages we use to define ourselves.

Once we recognize some of the original inputs, we can see how we ourselves have reinforced the stories over time by giving them – or their messages – too much of our faith and attention. Our stories, we find, need to be rewritten.

To dismantle such a foundation can feel unsettling, however necessary it is for our health and happiness. As fundamental as these narratives – these organizing principles of personal past and formulated identity – may seem, they aren’t real. They don’t exist in the same way the tangible present does. Things happened in the past, but they have no more significance than what is happening literally right this second. The past only has the power we give it each day. What could it mean to absorb this idea – to live the rest of your life in it?

Experts have examined our cognitive processing of memories and demonstrate that our self-stories clearly influence our behaviors. Yet, how we frame these memories also determines our relationship to them. Do we define ourselves by past disappointments, or do we see them as challenges overcome? Do we use failure to justify a negative self-concept, or do we weave it into a bigger story of redemption? How we make meaning from our negative experiences will significantly determine their impact on us. The more we can act in the spirit of the latter choices, experts suggest, the better we’ll weather life’s difficulties and encounters with our own human fallibility – and the more confident we’ll be that we can make effective change.

How Do You Change Your Story?

There’s the old adage, whatever we give our attention to grows. Changing our scripts means retraining our brains. Moving beyond old messages necessitates creating a new narrative. What are we dumping from the old scripts? What do you need to let go? And what needs to take its place? What do you want to be living? What are the messages you want to believe when it’s just you and you?

First, accept that new messages won’t ring true for a while. This doesn’t matter. Set your intention, and your mind will catch up eventually. Visualize what you want – on you, and continually take tangible steps toward making it happen in each mundane day. I caution putting up photographs of other thin, fit, happy, etc. people. Instead, put up a list of accomplishments or events you will do, and start scheduling them. Put a new piece of clothing you want to fit into in full view in your closet. Buy high quality exercise clothes and shoes for yourself to make you feel like you’re already an athlete – because you are. (You’re just honing your skill and strength or endurance.) Make a list of a hundred things you like to do instead of eat compulsively or overwork, and put it on your wall. Schedule some every week. Make sure you do at least something every day toward that intention. Afterward, acknowledge you made a choice to live from a different place than you used to – because you did.

On another note, affirmations or mantras might seem woo-woo to a lot of folks, but I’ve seen them work more times than I can count. It’s in part basic functioning of the brain. For something to get lodged in our brains, it’s got to either be the shock of major trauma or the consistency of daily input. An affirmation/mantra/personal saying/whatever you want to call it is totally meaningless said once or twice or ten times. Depending on many factors, you might begin to feel something after 30 days. Maybe it will take 100 days or 300 or 3 years, but every day you’ll be closer. The ultimate point is whether it’s worth it. Do you want to keep living with the same tape going in your head, or do you need a new script to live the life you want? If you do, it takes some persistence, which is pretty easy when you think about it. Just show up for the message each day, and eventually you’ll find it’s already there, inherent in you and how you approach your day. You’ll have 100 and then 300 and then 1000 stories that show you the life you’re living, the one you’ve chosen one thought and action at a time.

Let me turn it over to you now. What stories have fueled your Primal journey, and what have you had to let go of? What’s helped you in this process, and where are you looking for feedback or support. Share your thoughts, and thanks for reading.

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Dear Readers: What Do You Want from Mark’s Daily Apple?

As many of you know, it’s my life goal to help 10 million people get healthy. To that end, I’ve got big plans for Mark’s Daily Apple and the Primal Blueprint in 2014. From several new books and events, to a Primal certification and much more, it’s looking like it will be a great year. I’ll be sharing all the details with you next week.

But it all starts and ends with you, Mark’s Daily Apple readers. You continue to be my primary focus and, as always, this blog wouldn’t be what it is without you. So today I want to know what you want out of MDA. See the contest below. But first…

I’d like to whet your appetite with some juicy topics I’ll be tackling in 2014 blog posts. Here are just a few that I’m working on in draft form for publication this year.

What Do We REALLY Know About What Our Ancestors Ate?
Is a Calorie a Calorie?
How and Why Your Body Stores Fat
Why I Believe in Supplementation
How to Be an Endurance Athlete on a Ketogenic Diet
How to Reverse and Eliminate Type 2 Diabetes
The Best Exercise There Is, Hands Down

That’s just a taste of what I have in store for this year. Now it’s your turn…

The Contest

“What do you want me to write about?” My articles are constantly informed by the thoughts and ideas of my readers. Today is your chance to tell me what you’d like to see me research and write about this year. In the comments section below, tell me one topic you’d like to see covered, or one question you’d like to see answered, or the title of one blog post that just has to be written this year. I’m leaving this fairly open ended. No idea is too small or big.

A winner will be chosen at random. Agreeing with other people is allowed (and encouraged), but only the idea comments will be counted for drawing purposes.

The Prize

A 30-serving supply of Primal Fuel.

The Deadline

Midnight (PST), tonight!

Who is Eligible

Everyone. I’ll ship the Primal Fuel anywhere in the world.

Thanks in advance to everyone that offers an idea. I’ll see what I can do to give you what you want in 2014! Grok on!

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17 Reasons to Walk More This Year

Even though some of you may be tired of me saying this, it needs saying. I say this a lot because it’s important: you need to walk more. In fact, if there’s one New Year’s resolution I think everyone should make, it would be to walk more. Many of you made this the centerpiece for your 2014 plans, many did not, figuring you already do enough. Nope. No one really walks as much as they should, though. That small subset of my readers who do walk enough should still read this post if only to fortify their resolve.

Why do I hammer home this point so often, anyway?

There are a few main reasons why I’m so fond of walking, also known as moving frequently at a slow pace. First, it’s all-inclusive. Absent debilitating injury or infirmity, everyone can walk. No excuses (unless you have one).

Second, the necessary equipment is right down there. See those bizarre appendages underneath you? That’s what you walk with. See that horizontal surface stretching into the horizon? That’s what you walk on.

Third, it’s the foundation for good health and makes life better. It’s this last point that brings me to the meat of today’s post: all the ways in which walking enhances our life.

Let’s go:

It keeps your buttocks engaged with the world.

A wise man once said that excessive sitting causes glute inactivation and atrophy. This is true, but it’s not like simply standing is enough to keep them strong and engaged. You have to walk, and walk often. To make sure the way you walk is actually activating your glutes, place your hands on each glute. You should feel your glute tense up a bit with each footfall as it accepts the load, and that same glute should tense up even more when you push off to take another step so that your hand gets a little “pushback.” Gallivant around like this, making sure each glute is working. Those buttocks! Ne’er-do-wells, the lot of ‘em if you give ‘em half a chance!

It modestly reduces body fat.

Walking isn’t going to get you shredded, ripped, cut, or yoked. It might not be as brutally and mechanistically effective on a minute for minute basis as other forms of exercise, but frequent walking will help anyone with two functioning legs and hip and knee joints that allow movement who would otherwise meld into the couch lose some body fat. That’s pretty cool, I think.

It improves glycemic control, especially after meals.

Just 15 minutes of walking after eating improved the blood glucose control in older people with poor glucose tolerance. Try to keep the walk as close to the meal as possible to aid in weight loss.

It improves triglyceride levels and lowers blood pressure, especially after meals.

Whether short (ten 3-minute bouts of brisk walking) or longer (one 30-minute bout of brisk walking), briskly walking after a meal lowers postprandial blood pressure and triglyceride levels.

It might help you live longer if you do it briskly (or at least presages a longer life, if not causes it).

A recent study of over 7000 male and 31000 female recreational walkers found that walking intensity predicted mortality risk. Those who walked the fastest tended to die the least. It’s important to note that this wasn’t an interventional study where walkers were coached to walk faster; this was just looking at the relationship between natural walking speed and mortality risk, so naturally slow walkers who resolve to increase their speed may not see the same relationship – but it certainly can’t hurt!

It’s well tolerated by people with arthritis (and could even improve their condition).

Arthritis patients have it tough on the exercise front. They won’t get any better avoiding exercise, but exercise tends to hurt. What to do? Walk. Walking is gentle, particularly if you perform it with proper form. And one study even found that walking (and weight lifting) improves balance in older adults with osteoarthritis.

It’s good for your brain.

Walking does much more than work the area underneath your neck. It also has extensive cognitive benefits, improving memory in seniors, cognitive control and academic performance in preadolescents (especially those who need it most), and (when done outdoors) boosting creativity in the young and healthy. The farther an older person can walk in six minutes, the better he or she performs on memory and logic tests; folks who perform poorly on the walking test tend to have reduced grey matter volume in certain sections of their brains. Aristotle’s famed tendency to walk as he taught students suddenly makes sense.

It reduces stress.

What do I do when I need to get away from a particularly stressful day in “civilization”? Go for a walk, preferably in a natural setting. For me, it’s the beach or the Malibu hills. For others, it might be the woods or even a park. Sure enough, going for a walk in the woods is a surefire way to lower cortisol.

It reduces stress even when it doesn’t.

A recent study examined the effect of forest walking on stress in young adults, finding that although chromogranin A (a biomarker of stress) increased, the subjects reported reductions in subjective perceptions of stress (which, remember, may matter more than “objective” markers). 

It boosts immune function.

Several lines of evidence point to the benefits of walking on the immune system. First, a “mere” 30 minute walk increases killer T-cells and other markers of immune function. Second, among free-living Japanese elderly, higher daily step counts correlate with improved mucosal immunity. Finally, among postmenopausal women involved in a walking training program, the normally deleterious immune effects associated with menopause were ameliorated.

It prevents falls in the elderly.

Walking on uneven, natural ground like hiking trails, improves balance and reduces falls in the elderly. “Walking programs,” which usually have elderly patients walking indoors or on treadmills as briskly as they can handle do not appear to work very well. Slow, unsteady, and meandering walks appear to be better. Don’t wait until you’re already at risk of falling, though. The earlier you start habitually walking, the better your ability to navigate the land without falling will be.

It gives you a chance to think.

When we walk, we think. And because walking is a low-difficulty endeavor, we can direct our executive functioning to more internal matters. We work through problems, come up with ideas, replay conversations, scheme, ruminate, and discover solutions. Or maybe we just think about that funny dog we saw on the way to work the other day. That’s a worthy subject, too.

It can be a kind of meditation.

Meditation is a foreign concept for many Westerners; we know about it, but we don’t know it. Even when we want to try it, having read about the benefits, we can’t quite muster the will to sit still for twenty, thirty minutes at a time. Enter the walking meditation. Do it formally, or just go for a walk and let your mind tune out from all the chatter. You’ll feel better either way.

It improves meetings.

Regular old seated meetings can be tedious, yawn-inducing beasts, even when the people and subject matter involved are interesting. Walking meetings, which are exactly what it sounds like, are growing more commonplace in the business world, and I couldn’t be happier. Seth Roberts found that replacing his seated student/teacher meetings with walking meetings was refreshing and invigorating.

It’s in your blood.

Your distant ancestors didn’t develop horribly calloused knuckles and brave savannah predators just so you could sit at the computer and devolve into an immobile blob. You come from a long and storied line of walkers. Keep the tradition alive!

It’s in your genes.

This one sounds similar to the last one, but it’s different. What I mean by “it’s in your genes” is your genes “expect” you to move around a lot at a slow pace, and walking affects how your genes are expressed. Walking has been shown, for example, to positively affect the genes responsible for fat and carbohydrate metabolism in skeletal muscle, to reduce inflammatory gene expression in adipose tissue, and to lower oxidative and inflammatory gene expression pathways in older adults.

It enables recognition of the felt presence of immediate experience.

When you drive, you can’t really focus on all the interesting stuff occurring in the world around you. Outside of what’s happening on the road, you shouldn’t focus on what’s occurring around you when you drive. Even riding a bike you tend to get tunnel vision. Walking on the other hand offers infinite chances for engagement with the outside world. See a rose? When you’re walking, you can stop and smell it. See a little path on the side of the trail heading somewhere cool? If you were driving, you’d have whizzed right past it. We all need a little more presence in our lives, and walking enables it.

As you can see from the bulk of the evidence I’ve just presented, walking can have a powerful effect on your health – and it doesn’t take very much of it. Most studies showing the benefits have people walk for ten, fifteen, thirty minutes at a time. That’s a lunch break. That’s parking in the last lot. That’s taking a quick jaunt around the block. That’s stealing a few moments away from your desk. It’s doable, people. You just have to do it.

That’s it for today, guys. Now it’s your turn. Do you walk every day? Do you walk “enough”? Do you plan on walking more this year? Tell me why, tell me why not, or just tell me how walking has enriched your life. Thanks for reading!

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Dear Mark: New Year’s Resolution Edition

For today’s Dear Mark, we’ve got a series of questions and answers related to the successful realization of your New Year’s resolutions. No matter what you’ve actually resolved to try to do, you’ll probably find something of interest in today’s post. First, I cover the eternal question everyone ponders when attempting a lifestyle overhaul: cold turkey or baby steps? Next, I give tips to someone who’s worried he’ll fail going Primal just like all the other times he’s tried to change his diet. Third, I cover how quickly a person might see results from going Primal, explaining the various determining factors as well as the best way to think about your results. And finally, I reveal my (lack of) New Year’s resolutions for everyone to dissect!

Let’s go:

Dear Mark,

Should I go cold turkey or take baby steps in my New Year’s resolution?

Diana

There are advantages to either, and it mostly comes down to what you’re actually resolving to do.

If you’re trying to lose weight, you might be better off going cold turkey. Most of the evidence suggests that large initial reductions in weight lead to the best long-term weight loss maintenance. That said, increased adherence to a diet may explain some of the research supporting the cold turkey approach. It’s probable that those who lose the most initial weight are more likely to stick to the diet because they’re buoyed by the early success. That initial burst of weight loss can really boost enthusiasm and serve as motivation for when weight loss inevitably slows.

Some, maybe most, resolutions will work best with a hybrid approach. Let’s take exercise. Say you want to start exercising. The actual initiation of regular exercise requires a cold turkey approach – you just “start doing it” and stick with it. Go all in. Commit. Safe exercise progression, on the other hand, requires a baby step approach. You don’t launch into 400 meter repeats after not sniffing a track for ten years, you start with brisk walks. You don’t put 300 pounds on your back after successfully completing an air squat, you start with the bar.

Personality matters, too. Are you the type to throw your entire being into a pursuit and stick with it? Go cold turkey. Are you the type to throw your entire being into a pursuit only to crash and burn? Try slow and steady.

Whatever you ultimately choose, the best way seems to be a wholesale lifestyle change rather than a piecemeal approach. That’s why the Primal Blueprint encompasses so many factors in addition to diet and exercise – because sleep, sun, community, nature, and all the rest affect your psychological and physiological progress.

Mark,

I’ve tried many diets and failed over and over. How can I be sure that if I “go Primal” I won’t be right back to eating unhealthy food next month?

James

For one, you have to realize that the Primal Blueprint isn’t just a diet. It’s a lifestyle, a comprehensive overhaul of your sleep, exercise, and day-to-day habits as well as what you put in your mouth. Each aspect of the lifestyle supports every other aspect. The food supports the exercise supports the sleep. Plus, it’s designed to be congruent with your physiology, with your ancestral proclivities. It quite literally consists of eating and doing the things that the best evidence suggests our bodies are meant to eat and do. It’s not the final word – such a thing is probably impossible – but it gets closer than anything else I’ve seen. That makes it “easier” and “more natural feeling” than some harsh, restrictive diet that has you eating like a rabbit or meticulously counting calories and weighing food or otherwise trying to directly contradict your natural inclinations. Going Primal just feels normal and right, like you’re not fighting yourself – for most people who try it.

Changing only what you eat will work, but you’ll see bigger, better changes from the complete overhaul, which will in turn give you more incentive to keep going.

Still, it is a big change from what you’re probably used to doing, and you’ll be most likely to succeed if you have a plan. Start by reading (and understanding) How to Succeed with the Primal Blueprint, then browsing the Primal Blueprint 101 or our archives for clarification on specific topics. You can definitely put together everything on your own with these extensive resources, but the quickest, surest way to successfully plan your transformation is to have it laid out for you in a comprehensive single source: The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation, which contains a detailed step by step plan of attack, meticulously laid out in plain English. If I could pick just one resource for a beginner resolving to go Primal for the first time, it would be that book.

For more directed assistance, consider the 21-Day Transformation Program or our Personal Coaching programming. Most people don’t need to go that far, but those who do need more guidance have great success with these programs.

In the previous question, I mentioned the importance of early wins in predicting long term adherence (and long term success). For that reason, you might try the cold turkey approach to get quick, early results that will bolster and maintain your resolve to stick with it.

How quickly can I expect to see results if I go Primal in 2014?

Sandra

It depends on your starting point and what you mean by “results.”

If weight loss: “The more overweight you are, the more drastic your weight loss” is a good general rule. People with more to lose tend to lose weight faster at the start. The mostly lean will have a slower time losing what little excess weight they have.

If energy: You might hit a lull after a few days, particularly if you’re coming from a high-carb, low-fat diet, but that’s just your body acclimating to the new fuel substrates and becoming fat-adapted, the so-called “low-carb flu.” It hurts for a few days and you’ll probably lack energy as your body learns to burn fat. Once the lesson is over, however, you should have steady, even energy throughout the day. Most people reach that point after a week or two.

If exercise: “Gains” won’t come immediately. Exercise will seem really, really hard if you haven’t been doing it. But it gets better. It gets easier. And even when you’re just starting out and feel useless and weak and slow, and you wake up the next morning sore all over, you’ll feel amazing when you realize that your body is repairing itself to get stronger for the next time. The soreness won’t even last very long – only after the first few workouts, probably. After that, expect to feel renewed and energized following your training.

If sleep: Sleep seems to improve almost immediately, especially if you improve your sleep hygiene (limit blue light/electronics exposure at night, expose yourself to natural/bright light in the morning and throughout the day). Studies show that nighttime blue light has an immediate and acute impact on sleep quality, so limiting it will have a similarly acute but opposite effect.

You’ll get the best – and fastest- results if you embrace “going Primal” as a holistic enterprise. Take heed of all Ten Laws, not just the “avoid grains and eat more fat” stuff.

Keep in mind, though, that dwelling on the often vast gulf between your current state and your desired end point – 100 pounds lost, six pack abs evident in bad lighting, pharmaceutical cocktail discarded and prescriptions non-renewed – can be counterproductive, like the bored child on the family trip in the backseat of his parent’s car feeling like he’ll never reach Disneyland hundreds of miles away. Instead, chip away at your goal. Lose a pound here. Take in the belt a notch. Add five more pounds to the bar. Lower the insulin dosage a tiny bit. The complete wardrobe overhaul, the honed beach body, and the speechless doctor are a ways off. To get there, you need the small wins, the tiny successes, the incremental steps. Revel in those and you will arrive at your destination sooner than you think. Or maybe you won’t, but at least the trip won’t have seemed agonizingly long.

Mark,

What are your NY resolutions for 2014?

Simon

I have but one standing resolution, which I renew each year: help people get healthy and happy. That’s boring, though. Everyone already knows about that one.

Honestly? For me, the big New Year’s resolution approach doesn’t actually work that well, given that the nature of my work throws me for loop after loop and basically precludes a linear path from Jan. 1 to December 31. I’ve tried it out and much prefer a “daily resolution” framework, where I wake up and have a “stuff I gotta do” list running through my head throughout the day. This allows me to respond to the demands as they come.

I also have a “routine” whereby each morning when I wake up I go through a gratitude process, going over how thankful I am for all the relationships, all the things I have, all the things I have accomplished. I acknowledge myself for all that and then ask myself this: “If I stopped today and just sat back, could I be content to rest on my laurels?” The answer is always, “Yes, but there’s still more work to be done.” I keep a long list of all the ideas and plans I could start on (or finish) and then ask myself, “am I excited enough about it all to take it to the next level today?” And every day (so far) the answer has been yes.

It’s really about re-choosing every day (rather than every year), knowing that if I say “no” everything would still be OK. But if I say “yes,” it could be even better.

That’s it for today, everyone. I hope your New Year’s resolutions are progressing well and that today’s Dear Mark provided some helpful guidance where applicable. Thanks for reading!

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Weekend Link Love

Todd Dosenberry’s put together another insane special offer. It’s an $887 package that includes 52 eBooks, 23 discounts (including one for PrimalBlueprint.com) and more. It’s just 39 bucks. The offer expires on Jan. 6, 11:59 PM EST, so act fast if you’re interested.

Research of the Week

According to new research, a genetic variant associated with a greater risk of type 2 diabetes comes from Neanderthals.

It was recently reported that resveratrol inhibits the benefits of exercise in older people, but those results have just been refuted.

Interesting Blog Posts

Did Anderson Silva break his leg because of an undiagnosed vitamin D deficiency? Interesting hypothesis, but there’s no real evidence.

File this under “Avoid stupid mistakes”: dialing a cell phone is the most dangerous thing you can do while driving.

Media, Schmedia

Costco’s magazine, Costco Connection, is running a really well-done piece on Primal/paleo eating.

The World Health Organization is planning to cut its sugar recommendations in half to no more than 5% of your daily calories. I’m just surprised they were recommending 10%, which is higher than I was expecting.

Everything Else

It seems other animals of high intelligence also enjoy altered states of consciousness; dolphins “deliberately get high” on puffer fish toxins, employing a “chew chew pass” protocol.

Aeon Magazine thinks we should be excited about the eventual “optimization” of sleep by science, suggesting that our need for around 8 hours a night is the “greatest mistake the evolutionary process ever made.” I’m not so sure. Even if it were possible to cut sleep and maintain our mental edge, there’s a lot more to sleep than just alertness. And would that really translate into more free time, or just longer workdays?

How Primal has your day been? How Primal was it yesterday? Did you get good sleep, some sun, eat well, and lift something heavy? How about last week? Primal Days, the new habit tracker app for iPhone and iPad, helps you keep tabs on your Primalness by tracking your Primal/paleo activities by day, week, and month. Developed by an MDA reader, you can download it today for free.

If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out Cereal Killers, a movie with the tagline “Let fat be thy medicine.”

Nom Nom Paleo’s new cookbook is fantastic, if you haven’t given it a look. Go grab a copy.

Recipe Corner

Carne adovada tastes best with a New Mexico sunset as the backdrop, but it still tastes pretty good when you make it at home.
“Bang bang shrimp” is a fun name, isn’t it? Not a bad meal, either.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Jan 5 – Jan 12)

13 Ways to Spend Less Time Online and Reclaim Your Real Life – I imagine some of you guys will find this one pretty useful for your New Year’s resolutions.
Edible Veggie Tops – Who knew all those greens you’ve been throwing away all these years are edible and nutritious?

Comment of the Week

Do you mean me? If so, I contend that though I fire off lots of my thoughts amusing myself and in an attempt to amuse others that may not be applicable to your primal life, I have certainly contributed to this blog and I am about as primal as pond scum. I’ve eaten roadkill raw, as well as living things for example.

- I love Animanarchy so, so much.

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Moroccan Meatball and Egg Tagine

For breakfast or dinner, a meatball tagine hits the spot. Warmly spiced tomato sauce and meatballs are simmered together then topped with runny baked eggs that give the dish a creamy texture. Deeply flavorful and packed with protein and antioxidant-rich herbs and spices, a meatball tagine is immensely satisfying.

Traditionally called Kefta Mkaouara (meatball tagine with tomato and eggs), this Moroccan meal is traditionally cooked in a tagine, an earthenware pot with low sides and a cone-shaped cover. But have no fear; a wide saucepan with a lid works just as well.

The abundance of herbs and spices in a meatball tagine are what really make the dish sing. The meat and sauce are spiced, but not spicy (unless you’re generous with the cayenne). Cinnamon and turmeric are the big hitters here, with their powerful healing properties.

So grab a spoon and dig in. When you get to the bottom, you’ll be licking the bowl clean. For a vegetarian version of this delicious meal, try Shakshuka.

Servings: 4

Time in the Kitchen: 1 hour 15 minute

Ingredients:

Tomato Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil or butter (30 ml)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or pressed
1 teaspoon sweet paprika (5 ml)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (2.5 ml)
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric (a pinch)
1/2 teaspoon salt (2.5 ml)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (a pinch)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or cayenne (a pinch)
28-ounces (790 g) of whole canned/boxed tomatoes in their juice (broken up with your hands or a food processor) or 28-ounces canned/boxed diced tomatoes in juice or 2 lbs. (about 1 kg) fresh, ripe tomatoes, chopped
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/are-yo...
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads, crumbled into 1/4 cup (60 ml) hot water
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley (60 ml)
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro (60 ml)

Meatballs

1 pound ground beef or lamb (or a combination of the two) (450 g)
2 tablespoons grated or very finely chopped red onion
1 teaspoon sweet paprika (5 ml)
1 teaspoon ground cumin (5 ml)
1 teaspoon ground coriander (5 ml)
1 teaspoon salt (5 ml)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (2.5 ml)
1/4 teaspoon pepper (a pinch)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or cayenne (a pinch)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley (30 ml)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro (30 ml
4 eggs

Instructions:

In a wide (11 or 12 inch/30 cm) saucepan or dutch oven with a lid, heat the olive oil/ butter for the tomato sauce. Add the garlic and sauté a few minutes. Add the spices and mix well then add the tomatoes. Bring to a gentle simmer for 15 minutes, covered.

While the sauce is simmering, use your hands to combine all of the meatball ingredients in a large bowl. Shape the mixture into small meatballs about 1- inch in diameter.

Add the meatballs to the tomato sauce along with the 1/4-cup of saffron water. Cover and gently simmer for 30 minutes.

Crack the eggs into the sauce. Cover and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes, until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny.

Top with the finely chopped parsley and cilantro.

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One Year to Become Truly Healthy

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 haven’t finished the year but this is how far I’ve come in 9 months.

I come from a family of five children. We were all born relatively healthy and we ate pretty “healthy” growing up. I am the eldest and my youngest sibling is 7 years younger than me. Somewhere around the age of 5 I developed asthma and at 8 developed allergies; similarly some of my other siblings did at different ages. My sister was born with asthma. My parents and grandparents never had asthma or allergies. I remember my mother thinking it was due to us growing up with a wood stove or that it must have come from genes of indirect relatives. Next I’m diagnosed as having ligamentous laxity due to my ligaments getting “caught” in my knees and my feet, legs, toes going into spasms, bending themselves backwards at the joints. At the age of 10 the doctors find a benign bone tumor, within a few months I’m undergoing major surgery. Next on the list was eczema, scaly hands and dry patches of skin, given prescription lotion and a scrub to get rid of it. Sometime during this period I also developed bursitis on my knees, back to the doctor, don’t kneel is the solution. All the while told I am borderline anemic. At 14 my parents’ divorce, and I start supporting myself by working in farm fields, restaurants and cleaning houses. I start experiencing back pain and low grade joint pain, constantly cracking my every joint in my body to relieve the pain. Then I start going through puberty, oh the pain. By time I was 15 I went to family planning on my own for birth control to relieve the pain. I did not want my mother thinking I wanted to be sexually active which I committed to myself not to be until after 18. So here I am at 15 on birth control, allergy medicine, and pain killers. Now enter urinary tract infections and kidney problems, constantly sick and needing so much sleep. Sometime in high school I decided I was born defective.

During this time I’m also very conscious about my weight. All my siblings and I were very skinny but seeing my grandmother and my mother obese and overweight, respectively, I knew it wouldn’t last. I was 16 and swore off fast food and soda. At 18 I develop debilitating stomach pain and digestive issues. I mean collapsing to the floor pain. Back and forth to the doctors, emergency rooms, exams and tests are conducted to find nothing except a slightly redder stomach than usual. No ulcers, no nothing to explain the pain. I’m exhausted and could barely stand at times from this. I go to college and start failing classes. 8:00 AM class? Forget it. Be able to concentrate through an entire class? Nope. I end up having a handicap pass to be able to escape a class and drive to my dorm when the pain hit. This went on for about two years. All the time I’m also experimenting with food to see if that was the cause. Eventually I find a diet that my body could tolerate and the pain subsides in my second year of college. During all this I had some depression from always being in pain. Now that the pain is minimal I still have slight depression. I clearly remember wishing I had the energy and happiness that I experienced before 18. At the end of my 4th year of college I slip into a major depression. I had no emotions for people but put one hell of a show on for friends and family. The only people that would see the other side of me were my boyfriends. Boy, did I treat them horribly. They either saw me cold and unemotional or a complete emotional mess of crying all the time.

My weight fluctuated over the next ten years and I would eat as “healthy” as I could but in the end I was the chubbiest sibling in my family. I’m 5’ 9” and weighed 145 pounds. To the average American this seems like a healthy weight but my siblings and I we grew up very skinny and I was not fitting into my clothes any longer. People would say “Why are you trying to lose weight? You are so skinny.” I’d tell them I don’t want to buy another set of clothes. To me this is fat. And in my head I knew it had a spiraling effect and I would eventually look like my grandmother if I wasn’t careful.

Now I’ll fast forward to December 2012. I’m on birth control, Lamictal, Prozac, 5000 mg Vitamin D3 and 500mg Magnesium daily and taking Claritin, Albuterol, Advil, some sort of post coital pill to prevent UTIs and Xanax on an as needed basis. I am wearing orthopedics to reconstruct my fallen arches. Due to my ligamentous laxity I have had to very careful about exercising methods. This is me at 29 years old, what the hell?! I really am defective.

A friend, one that I’m forever indebted to, asks me to join her on a sugar detox challenge for 21 days starting in the new year following Diane Sanfilippo’s plan and Jonathan Bailor’s The Smarter Science of Slim concepts. Okay I wanted to lose those ten pounds… again. I’m all for it. I don’t do any reading on it except on how to adhere to it. No grains, no sugar including fruit and alcohol, and no dairy. Luckily I had a very supportive boyfriend and friends that joined in when we got together. Two friends in the group already didn’t eat gluten due to gluten intolerance and the other having Celiac disease. We came up with some creative pot lucks and interesting carbonated drinks! On day 21 we all go out for a chowder festival. I have a couple beers and chowders. The next day I did not feel well at all and just slept and slept for another 2 days. Whoa! I must have reintroduced too much at once… in the back of my head I suspect it might be the gluten but I did not want it to be true! So I go the rest of the week gluten free, Saturday night I have a pizza and a few sips of beer. Wow, I’m dead in the water throwing up and other problems for the next two days. Finally I’m convinced I have a gluten intolerance.

Here it is October 2013, I’m 30 years old and I’m on ZERO prescriptions, take Vitamin D, Magnesium and Omega 3. Only take Advil on an as needed basis, generally after I’ve had too many glasses of wine out with friends! I found a primary care physician that embraces and adheres to a grain free/dairy free diet. She looks great by the way. I also found a chiropractor that found the true cause of my back pain and is working with me to correct it by building muscle in the right places; he is gluten free and in great shape. I now judge my doctors by their appearance and health. It may sound shallow but health to me shouldn’t be difficult and should be visible.

This is why I’m writing my story to you, Mark. During the last 8 months I have read everything I could on the science of how one’s body reacts to what we eat. The links on Mark’s Daily Apple to the actual studies have allowed me not to take your word for it but read the studies for myself. I’m now signed up on PubMed and other channels for anything that is released about the human diet. So in case you are being selective in what case studies you choose to talk about. The crazy thing is, you aren’t. You link to studies that don’t support your methods but because I now read the studies before you even write about them I have come to my own conclusions. I may not agree with all of your conclusions but I tend to agree with the majority of them. That is what makes the primal community unique here, we have our own views and opinions but as long as one is striving to find what is right for them through facts we all are in this together.

Lastly, I want to thank the primal, paleo and truly health-conscious-with-facts community because of all your comments and feedback to MDA and other sites I suspect I have another intolerance. So one more 21 day detox, this time I will be following the FODMAPs elimination diet and carefully adding items back in. My stomach pain and allergies are 90% gone but I suspect they can be 100% gone from something else removed from my diet. Also thank you for the support on how to handle my siblings, they don’t seem to understand that what they went through as children and what I see them going through now could be related to their diet. It pains me to watch my nieces and nephews potentially go through the same or worse difficulties. Perhaps one day our stories will become the case studies that change the perception of healthy living in our families and around the world.

Here’s to saying good-bye to the last 25-30 years of pain, correcting the damage I’ve done, and living a truly healthy and happy lifestyle!

Thank you,

Em

P.S. It was because of Beth, Trystan, and Amanda’s openness about their health that I found I wasn’t alone and that there could be more to life. This year was the first time I ever talked about my health openly even with my family and now I share with anyone that asks because it is the word of mouth that got me here.

P.P.S. I have attached a photo from a Primal meal that I made for my friends this summer, a photo that I have hung in my kitchen that I took at the farmer’s market, blue shirt and jeans is the “before” taken April 2011 in Switzerland and the blue dress is the “after” taken July 2013 showing off my $35 winnings on a $1 bet at the racetrack.

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11 Questions to Ask Yourself at the Start of a New Year

Yesterday, we shared our new year visions with each other, and we took a look at some of the resources you have at your disposal here at Mark’s Daily Apple and PrimalBlueprint.com. Today, I’d like to help you further explore your goals and motivations, and assist you in establishing a concrete plan of attack for 2014. One of the best ways I’ve found to do this is in my own life is to ask myself tough questions about my successes and failures, and to be brutally honest with my replies. In this article, I’ll suggest you do the same.

Now, this exercise must be done with some dedicated effort. A passing read through the questions while nodding only to forget about them in twenty minutes won’t get the job done. Discuss them with a friend, spouse, or loved one to make them real. Write them down on a piece of paper, or type your answers out. However you pay special attention to this exercise, give careful, thoughtful answers. This is about resolutions, but even more than that, this is about dialogue. Open, honest dialogue between your multiple selves, between the person that should be doing this or would rather be accomplishing that, and the person who does neither but desperately wants to. The resolutions will come, but expect it to take a little work. Let’s get to it…

1. What were your biggest failings or mistakes this past year – healthwise – that were preventable or avoidable?

As you do what we all do and revisit the ups and downs of 2013, focus on the downs that you could have prevented, the downs that you brought about by your actions (or inactions), because that’s where the meatiest, most relevant resolutions lie. That’s where you’ll discover what you don’t want to happen in the new year, and what you can do differently to ensure a positive outcome. Some of your mistakes were technically preventable but totally unforeseeable, and by identifying and reflecting on them you can see the warning signs next time.

2. What were your biggest health problems that were not preventable or avoidable – and how did you respond?

We learn amazing things about ourselves and our capacities when faced with unavoidable hardships that must be endured. A freak slip on ice that leads to a torn ligament and weeks of forced sedentism. The emergence of a health condition determined by genetics and chance. These reveal weak points, and strong points. They reveal room for improvement and areas where we deserve congratulation.

3. Which food consistently has the worst effect on you? How does it make you feel (or look, or perform)?

Food is a powerful determinant of our health, perhaps the most powerful. Avoiding food that makes you feel awful, then, is one of the most basic, fundamental resolutions a person interested in self improvement can make. You don’t want to resolve to stop eating food that hypothetically is bad for you, though. That can be a part of your resolution, but it’s not the focus point. Avoiding food that has already been shown to have negative effects on you? Now that’s a resolution that will definitely make a difference. By listing, in lurid, excruciating detail, the effect this food or foods have on you, the resolution will fall into place on its own because “how can you possibly ignore it?”

4. What concrete step or steps will you take to fulfill a more abstract resolution?

“Eat healthier” is a worthy goal. “Improve my fitness” is great. “Get outside more” is an admirable goal, but how do you actually do it? What does it mean? How are you going to accomplish those things? Those are abstract resolutions, the kind we all make, because they’re simple and easy to come up with. Everyone wants to “be a better person.” But it’s ultimately meaningless unless direct actionable steps are taken that get you closer to its realization.

5. Why are you where you are?

It’s a very fundamental question that works on several levels. What lifestyle choices led up to your current standing? Make any dietary changes? Exercise more, exercise less, exercise differently? How was the sleep, stress, sex? If “where you are” is a bad place, understanding how you got there will show you what to avoid in the future. If you’re in a good place, understanding how you got there will help you maintain the upward trajectory. You can’t establish causation or isolate all variables, but this isn’t peer review. This is about making some good, effective resolutions.

6. How will you hold yourself accountable?

Many, maybe most, New Year’s resolutions go unresolved because they exist only in the ether. No one but the person making them knows of their existence, and even that person usually avoids taking any real steps to make sure he’s sticking to the plan – if there’s a plan at all. So ask yourself how you’re going to avoid that common pitfall. Maybe you tell a friend. Maybe you track your progress in a Primal journal.

7. What kind of criticism have you received lately?

While we all need to look inward, self-reflections are often (or maybe always) biased. We see what we want to see, even when we’re trying to do some serious soul-searching. To bypass that potential problem, take a moment to think back on any criticism you’ve received from other people, even off the cuff stuff. What might have seemed like a malicious, undeserved attack at the time – “You’re so selfish!” – could actually be a legitimate fault that you should probably try to correct, or at least confront. Answers lie outside of us, too. How you appear to others might be an indication of how you actually are. Even it’s not an accurate portrayal and they’ve got you all wrong, you should figure out why you come across that way.

8. What are you willing to do to change?

We make a lot of resolutions that sound awesome, giving little thought to the fact that many changes are hard. They require work, and sacrifice, and, well, change – which is hard in and of itself. You’ve got a few vague ideas about changes you’d like to make, or maybe even some definite ones. Lay out all the things that might go into your resolution, and be a little pessimistic. Make it sound worse than it (probably) will be, because things rarely go smoothly. Do you still want to make that change?

9. What are you physically unable to do (comfortably) that you’d like to be able to do (comfortably)?

Just as the most effective type of exercise is the kind that you actually enjoy and are willing to do consistently, the most effective kind of fitness resolution aims to solve a problem that you actually have. Think about the physical acts you’d like to be able to perform but currently cannot, like comfortably sit in a squat for ten minutes, play full-court pickup basketball on the “good court,” hike the local mountain without feeling like you’re dying, do a pullup, or deadlift twice your bodyweight. It could be anything, really, as long as it’s something you actively want to do. To arrive at a fitness resolution that will serve a needed deficit in your life, identify the deficits.

10. What, or who, stands in your way?

Know your enemies. Size up your opponents. Take stock of what you’re up against, even (or especially) if its your own procrastination. That way, you’re not blindsided when stuff doesn’t fall into place immediately. And hey, you might even make mini-resolutions to deal with these opponents (you might have to, in fact). Let’s hope you don’t have an actual human arch-nemesis who’s trying to thwart your every move and sporting an evil-looking pencil thin mustache (although on second thought, that could be an incredible motivator) and you’re only talking in the abstract here.

11. If you could do anything with your life, and money were no object, what would you do?

It’s a common question, for good reason: it gets to the heart of what makes you tick. Knowing what you want out of life – in a big picture kind of way – will help you formulate effective resolutions that will actually get you closer to that goal. The funny thing about this one is that having excellent health usually figures prominently in the answer.

Spend some quality time going over these questions, either with yourself or with someone else. Talk them out. Write your answers down. Then, see how you feel about your New Year’s resolutions. See if you want to make any new ones or modify the ones you already have.

I hope these questions aid you in the eternal quest for New Year’s resolutions that actually happen! Thanks for reading!

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Death by Food Pyramid Now Available on Kindle and More Book News

This is just a quick update from the world of Primal Blueprint Publishing.

First up, Death by Food Pyramid on Kindle: I know many of you were eagerly awaiting the release of Denise Minger’s new book in Kindle format. I am happy to say that it is now available. You can grab a digital copy from Amazon.com for just $9.92 at the time of this writing.

Death by Food Pyramid is also now available on Barnes and Noble’s Nook for $11.49, and on Kobo for $13.09.

Last up, the special offer for The Primal Blueprint Box Set has come to an end. But don’t fret. You’re still in luck. The Primal Blueprint Box Set is now available at Amazon.com for the drastically reduced price of just $70.20. That’s nearly 30 bucks off the retail price, and a steal for the five books that comprise the Primal Blueprint canon.

I’ve got big publishing announcements for 2014, which I’ll be sharing here on Mark’s Daily Apple in the new week or two. Stay tuned!

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What Is Your New Year Vision?

New Year’s: it’s one of my favorite holidays – and not just because it has the best parties. It’s the concept of possibility, of change, of transformation. (You’ve heard me talk about that, right?) You see, in a health culture that seems hell bent on standing by milquetoast moderation, I’ve hung my hat on something bigger. I’d say more hopeful. Although massive change can begin any day, the message of New Year’s, I think, gets all of our attention. Even if we take a somewhat curmudgeonly, skeptical view the rest of the year, it’s hard to not be moved by the collective celebration all focused on the sole theme of conversion. It’s exactly the thrust of my mission here. I know it’s my passion and life’s work – transformation.

Long ago when all this began, I set out to help 10 million people with the message of Primal living. By some measures, I’ve already achieved that, but I’m all about crossing every finish line to be sure. And if a few extra hundred thousand (or more) are helped in the surge toward those alternative metrics, I’ll take it. The fact is, the more change we see, the more motivated we are to keep going. Every success story, every letter, every personal anecdote in the comment board or conversation at a Primal event spurs my interest in continuing. I’ve never been more convinced that people need an alternative path to the conventional wisdom that leads them away from the possibility of genuine health, longevity and vitality. The higher the numbers climb for obesity and lifestyle related illness, the more I believe in the necessity of the message and this community as a model of good Primal sense and truly optimum health and well-being.

The New Year offers, in some sense, capital for personal change. It comes with its own energetic motivation, its own contemplative structure and its own collective momentum. How are you going to use that capital this year? How can it encourage you to reclaim your most vitalized self, your optimum life?

Think for a few minutes… Beyond the geographical conditions of sub-zero temps (Yes, I feel you Upper Midwest – I’m from Maine after all.), where would you love to be at the end of 2014? How could life be better? How could you feel more alive and in control of your health? What would you like the energy and vigor to tackle this year? What do you wish were possible for your body, your blood markers, your life satisfaction? That vision you conjured – you deserve it. Why would you accept anything less? Now grab it. Make it your intention. Make it your resolve. Put it up twenty different places in your house if you have to. Put it here to make a public statement. Make it your motivation each day, and celebrate every day and choice that will get you there.

With all this in mind, let me present the salient question for the day. What can Mark’s Daily Apple do for you? What Primal resources could be of use or interest to you? What communal or personal support do you think can get you where you want to go? It’s exactly what keeps me coming back each day after all. Let’s take a look at a few examples….

If you’re a newbie and just getting started, these free resources can get you going along the Primal path.

Begin with Primal Blueprint 101 and How to Succeed with the Primal Blueprint.
Read as many of the 4000 free articles on the Archives page as your eyes and time will allow.
Subscribe to the MDA newsletter to enjoy a myriad of free e-books to help you on your PB journey.
Connect with other readers in the forum to see how other people are living Primal, ask questions, and enjoy feedback and encouragement.
Email me anytime.

If you’re new (or not!) and are looking for a workout plan, I have just the thing.

Get our Primal Blueprint Fitness e-book by subscribing to the MDA newsletter.
Use archived Workouts of the Week for workout inspiration.

If you need help with meals, we got ‘em!

Get the Primal Blueprint Meal Plan delivered to your inbox
Check out one (even better – all!) of the Primal cookbooks. (You save 25% when ordering three or more books, and all domestic orders get free S&H.)
Peruse the hundreds of Primal recipes on the MDA site.
Print out our Primal “grocery shopping list” found on the shopping list page
Give Primal Fuel a try.

If you’re ready to dig deeper and challenge yourself, consider these resources and ideas for your next step.

Take the 21-Day Challenge.
Purchase the The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation book for a full detailed plan to get you through 21 days of meals and activities. Alternatively, you can pick up a copy of the original The Primal Blueprint .
Check out our Primal Blueprint Starter Kit.
Delve further into the Primal library of books selections.

If you could use more detailed or individual guidance, consider these programs/services.

Try the 21-Day Transformation Program.
Take advantage of our Personal Coaching programming.

If a live event is more your speed than reading a book, why not join in?

Attend one of the many Primal seminars being held across the country this year. (Check back for added dates/locations in coming months.)

If you want to be inspired, meet your fellow Groks, and have a vacation/retreat to remember for life, I’ve got that, too!

Come to PrimalCon Oxnard or Tulum
Join us at the Luxury Retreat

Tell me – am I missing something?? When I look back not too many years when I began this blog, I had no idea where it would lead. I knew I had a message I wanted to share because it had changed my life for the better. These days I look at the enormous and incredible community that has built up around it, the inspiring examples and now Primal Publishing authors who have contributed to the vision, and it never ceases to amaze me. Every element we’ve added has unlocked some new avenue of support – and social connection – for the Primal community, and so many of those ideas begin right here from you, our readers. You’re driven by your own Primal pursuits and the interest you have in deepening the challenge or support in that journey. Whatever your questions or ideas, I want to hear them. The entire MDA team (as well as the outstanding MDA reader community!) are here for you. Don’t ever hesitate to contact us with whatever assistance or answers you’re looking for. As for me and the bees in 2014, we have plenty of big plans for the year. Look for announcements to come in the next few weeks…

For right now, I’m interested in kicking off the New Year here with your thoughts and goals. Tell me about your resolutions. What are you aiming for in 2014? How do you want your life to be different – better (because that’s the point, isn’t it?) – by the end of 2014? How big and bold are you going? What step will you take, and what meaning do you want it to have for your personal health and overall vitality?

In keeping with those interests, what would you like to see from MDA this year? Let us know what ideas would be helpful to you in your process (e.g. new site feature, new product, new book, service or event). I’ll look forward to reading everyone’s resolutions and feedback.

Happy New Year, everyone, and Grok on!

Death by Food Pyramid, the Highly Anticipated New Book by Denise Minger, is Now Available! Get FREE Gifts When You Order by Dec. 31. Learn All the Details Here.