Mark Sisson's Blog, page 326

Contest: Make a Primal Blueprint Workout Video

The Prize:

A sandbag from Ultimate Sandbag - I’ve been using one of these bags for several years now and the thing is still going strong. The one at my office has been lifted, tossed, and dropped by the Worker Bees, and in one case was the cause of a broken piece of IKEA furniture, but that’s a story for another day. Store this sandbag next to your standup workstation and you’ll begin seeing your workday in a whole new light. The winner will get a choice of one of two sizes of ultimate sandbag. Retail value: between $99 and $129. Check out the Ultimate Sandbag in action here.

BONUS: Use promo code primalusb to receive 15% off any purchase at Ultimate Sandbag through Oct. 31. And that’s not all…

Praxis. What is Praxis? Technically, it’s an anchoring system for exercise bands. Non-technically, it’s a world of awesome exercises that can go wherever you go.

Strap it to any door, attach the resistance bands and reference the chart for a quick and effective exercise.

I have a Praxis attached to a door at my office and the Worker Bees and I regularly take a break from work for a little Praxis time. All standing workstation and no movement makes Grok a dull boy!

See how it works and get access to the special, limited-time offer Praxis has put together for this 21-Day Challenge: all MDA readers (in US & Canada) get $20 off the regular retail price plus free shipping for a saving of $35. Worldwide shipping for a single Praxis has been discounted to $15 from $35. Next up…

A rope from CalRopes – An undulation rope to be exact, courtesy of CalRopes. If you’re not sure what “rope undulating” is all about, click here to watch instructional videos. It’s basically like a wind sprint for your upper body, and is much more challenging than it might appear.

Winner will receive a 30 foot 1.5″ manila undulation rope. Retail value: $99.94.

Square36 Workout Mats – As the Square36 website says, “Do you ever wish you had a bit more space to fully extend and maximize your workout without feeling confined? Now you can with Square36, the world’s 1st oversized workout mat.” That about sums it up. This exercise mat is 6′ x 6′ and is 6 mm thick – thicker than most yoga/workout mats. With the Square36 mat you can easily convert your living room into a workout studio. Just unroll it and you’re set. It’s also great for couples yoga or as a play mat for children.

If you’re the winner of this contest you’ll not only get the Square36 STRETCH Oversized Yoga Mat (retail value: $99.99), but you’ll also receive the brand new Square36 CARDIO Mat (retail value: $159.99).

BONUS: Use promo code freeship36 for free shipping on either mat mentioned above. Offer expires 09/24/13.

RadRollers – Massage. Release. Transform. That’s RadRoller’s slogan. If you’re a regular MDA reader you know I emphasize thoracic spine mobility and the importance or regularly rolling things out. Tight, knotted bundles of muscle fiber and fascia accumulate from bad posture, muscle imbalances, excessive sitting, and improper movement patterns. These knots harm us. They reduce performance. They promote bad form and joint degeneration. They need to be eradicated. That’s where RadRoller comes in. They help take care of those nasty knots. The winner will receive three RadRollers (soft, medium and hard). Retail value: $75.

BONUS: Use promo code MDAROLLER and get 20% off your order for the duration of the challenge.

The Primal Blueprint Platinum Package – The Platinum Package is the ultimate in supplementation and is what thousands of Primal enthusiasts and I take daily. Includes: Damage Control Master Formula, Primal Fuel, Primal Flora, Vital Omegas, and Vitamin D booster. With a 30-day supply of a comprehensive, well-balanced multi-vitamin complex, omega-3 fish oils, healthy probiotics, vitamin D and a delicious, coconut-based Primal meal replacement shake, the Platinum Package is a convenient and cost-effective way to live a healthy, Primal life in the modern world.

That’s the package. A sandbag, a Praxis, an undulating rope, two giant exercise mats, RadRollers and a Platinum Package. The retail value on all this is, I don’t know, a lot. Now, how you can win this Primal prize package…

The Contest:

Create and upload a Primal workout video to YouTube. Whether you talk and offer instruction, or simply film yourself playing in the park or working out in the gym is up to you. I’ll leave it wide open. The only requirement is that the video relates in some way to the Primal Blueprint Fitness philosophy. The more Primal the better. (See the details and fine print below.)

To give you a little idea of the fun you can have with this one, in 2009 people used toddlers for heavy lifting, recorded an entire day in the “Primal Life,” wrote their own Grok songs, and ultimately, this was the winning video.

Here are the semi-finalists and winning videos from 2010, 2011 and 2012, and below you’ll find a playlist of all 2012 submissions.

Details and Fine Print:

The video needs to be an original creation made for the purposes of this contest.

On YouTube, please title the video “Primal Blueprint Fitness:” followed by your own sub-title (ex. Primal Blueprint Fitness: The Grok Shuffle).

Upload your video to YouTube and then email me the link. Include the words “Workout Video Submission” in the subject line of your email. Otherwise, there’s a good chance I may completely miss your submission.

I’ll publish select videos on Mark’s Daily Apple the last week of this challenge.

The Deadline:

September 30, midnight, PDT. Only 11 days away. Get filming!

Who is Eligible:

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

How A Winner Will Be Decided:

The Worker Bees and I will choose a list of finalists to be voted on by readers.

More Fine Print:

MDA reserves the right to publish and/or edit any videos submitted.
We ask that any videos submitted to this contest remain live on YouTube after the challenge for future visitors to Mark’s Daily Apple to enjoy.

To track all the contests visit the 2013 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.

18 Ways to Set Yourself Up to Succeed in Your 21-Day Challenge

For some people, facing and surmounting a challenge is as simple as just doing it. These are the lucky few who can decide to accomplish something and immediately begin accomplishing it. Want to write a book? They sit down and begin writing. Get the girl? They go up and talk to her. Most people aren’t like this. Most people need tips, tricks, tools, and concrete strategies. They require more than the simple inspiration that lies within to get moving and actively pursue the goal – whatever it may be.

That’s why I’ve compiled 18 ways to set yourself up for success in the Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge. Because I know that feeling. While I’m lucky enough to do the things I want to do and hardworking enough to often succeed at them, it doesn’t come easy. It’s not as simple as “just doing it.” We all need a little help getting started.

Don’t think you need to employ all 21 strategies, though. In fact, definitely don’t do that. That’ll only overwhelm you and gum up the gears of progress. You might need five, six, just one, or even none! Use what works, what’s applicable to your personal struggles, and discard the rest.

General

1. Enlist a friend to join you.

It’s one thing to stay accountable to yourself – not the greatest motivator for some people, because failing to follow through means the only person you’re offending or letting down is yourself. But when failing means failing a trusted, loving friend or relative who has pledged to also complete a challenge at your side, failure hits harder. You know how your folks could always make you feel really bad by saying they “weren’t mad as much as disappointed in you”? Failing a friend is kind of like that. It hurts, and in order to avoid the pain, you’ll probably stick with the challenge.

2. Make your challenge public.

Has anyone watched the mid 2000s HBO show Rome? Ian McNeice played the town crier who would announce news and political developments, basically serving as an expository vehicle to keep viewers up to date on the show’s complex storyline. I’ve got to imagine that he’d also be a great way to hold people accountable for their challenges by letting their social circles in on it. We don’t really have town criers anymore (unfortunately), but we can make our challenges public through Facebook, Twitter, or good ol’ fashioned face to face contact.

3. Reward yourself for incremental successes.

We aren’t dogs, but we do respond to conditioning. Every time you succeed along your journey, give yourself a little reward. Not Hershey’s Kisses, not a cronut, not McDonald’s fries, mind you. Contribute a few bucks to a vacation fund. Watch an episode of your favorite TV show. Take a couple hours to go for a hike. Eat a slice or two of bacon. Reward your animal side with something you enjoy (as long as it doesn’t conflict with the spirit and intent of your challenge) to establish a positive association with hard work.

4. Print out a calendar and plan your challenge, day by day.

21 days might seem like a long time, but it’ll go faster than you think. Don’t let it get away from you. Get ahead of it from the very start by planning – meticulously or loosely – your approach for the challenge. Fill out the calendar and tick each day off as you complete it – but only if you stick to the schedule! Hey, it worked for Seinfeld.

5. Start with a small win.

Big wins start small. When I’m sitting down to write a book, I don’t measure success by drafts, chapters, or even pages. If I can get a solid paragraph down, I’m happy. That’s a win. It’s not the win (I’m not sure such a thing even exists, to be honest) and it doesn’t mean I’m finished, but it’s a start. Break your goals up into little winnable bites, and then crush them. And make sure to celebrate those wins. You don’t need to bust out the confetti, but you should acknowledge the small win (and give yourself one of those rewards mentioned earlier).

6. Test your mettle.

During the course of the 21-day challenge, your instinct may be to avoid temptation. To avoid eating out at lunch, to skip happy hour with friends, to disconnect your cable, to bow out of that surprise party. And while that kind of diligent avoidance at all costs might work for some, I submit that placing yourself in compromising situations where your personal commitments to the challenge are directly tested will help you rise to the challenge and come out victorious – arguably more victorious than the person who just avoided everything all three weeks. And it’s a much more realistic long-term strategy.

7. Don’t overreach. Focus.

Because the Primal Blueprint is such a holistic, overarching way of life and not just a way of eating, I was torn on this one. Should you guys try to address all the Primal lifestyle factors or just focus on one? I worried that a narrow focus might take away from the power of the PB, which depends in large part on its broad vision. Ultimately, I think a focused approach is the best way to tackle this challenge. And anyway, whether your challenge focuses on Primal eating or sleeping better or moving more or spending more time in nature, by accomplishing any one of those goals the rest of Primal living will tend to fall into place. It’s all designed to work in concert, after all.

8. Start a challenge journal in the MDA forum.

Participating in the PB Journal forum is a powerful way to publicize your challenge (and hold yourself accountable to all the MDA readers), plan your challenge (by immortalizing it in writing), and reward yourself for and acknowledge the small wins (by receiving encouragement from other readers).

9. Approach the challenge with an abundance mindset.

You’re still fresh off of yesterday’s post, but it just might be the most important strategy for success and bears repeating.

Eat

10. Get a Primal cookbook.

If you’re the type to whip up fantastic meals without measuring or reading anything, disregard this tip. Then again, if that describes you, you’ve probably got this Primal eating thing down pat and your personal challenge has nothing to do with food. For the more hesitant among us, a Primal cookbook provides a culinary roadmap as we navigate the challenge. A cookbook won’t tell you what and when to eat, but it is a helpful resource that removes additional guesswork and allows you to focus on what and when you should be eating to succeed. Alternately, check out Primal recipe aggregators like Foodee or Chowstalker.

11. Track your food intake.

Not your calorie intake. Your food intake. Write down all the amazing meats, vegetables, fish, fruit, seeds, nuts, and fats you’ve been eating. Research suggests that the simple act of writing down what you eat can speed up weight loss and promote better food choices by forcing you to confront – in plain writing – what you’ve been eating. And even if your personal challenge isn’t about losing weight, seeing the cool stuff you’re encouraged to eat throughout this challenge will inspire and motivate you to keep eating this way. Mind you, I’m not suggestion you write down everything you eat forever, just that it can be a useful exercise in the short term, like, say, 21 days.

Move

12. Get new workout clothes.

I’ll admit that I’m a gear fiend. I love having the latest Vibrams, the best standup paddle board, the high tech moisture wicking hiking shirts, and so on. It makes me want to get out and move. I know I don’t need that stuff, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. So go on – grab that lycra bodysuit you pass every time you’re in the mall. Outfit yourself in neon spandex. Stock up on Karate Kid headbands. Bring back leg-warmers. Buy whatever it takes to get you motivated to move.

13. Without thinking too hard about it, commit to and pay in full for a fitness course you’ve been eying.

Right this instant, click over to that MovNat workshop, PRIMALity playshop, yoga class, CrossFit beginner class, Olympic lifting workshop, True Nature Training course, Fitwall session, or any other fitness-related course that you’ve been considering for awhile and sign up. Quickly, before you get cold feet and back out.

14. Get a movement tracker.

My rule of thumb is “three to five hours of dedicated slow moving per week” at a bare minimum, with even more being better, because when you also include the trivial movements we do around our houses, to and from the car, while shopping, and so on, it usually adds up to 10,000 steps a day. Counting hours is easier to track than counting steps in your head or calculating distance – unless you get a movement tracker like a FitBit or a Jawbone or a free pedometer app. These devices allow greater precision when tracking your progress. Going fast and loose is usually good enough as long as you’re Primal, but knowing exactly how much you’re moving can be extremely motivating.

15. Join Fitocracy.

Fitocracy turns exercise into a role playing game with points, level-ups, and social acclaim, transforming even the most grueling workout regimen into an opportunity for play. With over a million users, they must be doing something right. Sign up and start playing.

16. Peruse Craigslist for used fitness equipment.

Craigslist is a treasure trove of misfit kettlebells, barbells, bumper plates, power racks, and weight vests. Whether you’ve pledged to lift heavy things more frequently or integrate fitness into your daily life or even just take up a new sport, you will find something fun and relevant to play with on Craigslist. Get on and get inspired without breaking the bank.

Other Stuff

17. Get a sleep tracker.

Sleep-focused challenges generally boil down to “get more and better sleep.” Beyond just going to bed at a reasonable time, limiting (or mitigating) artificial light at night, and doing all the other standard Primal sleep techniques, the sleep tracker might be a difference maker in such a challenge. Sleep tracker apps and devices monitor your movement during the night and use the data to evaluate the quality of your sleep so you can figure out what’s working, what isn’t, and what might be causing the poor (or good) sleep. Check this top five list of trackers for a lead on the more promising options, and note that both the FitBit and Jawbone movement trackers do sleep tracking, too.

And finally:

18. Create a “Check Mark’s Daily Apple” alarm.

Most of you don’t need this (I see the site metrics!). But just in case you need an extra shot of inspiration, information, or reference materials, set an alarm to remind you to check in at MDA every single day. Words have power, words change lives, and you might just happen across a collection of words arranged just so that provides the kick in the pants you required to close the challenge out strong.

It’d be great if everyone could simply snap their fingers and overhaul their entire lives in a positive way. That’s never going to happen, because we’re humans. We dither and hesitate and procrastinate and doubt. And we need to lean on each other sometimes, or use tools to move things along, or trick ourselves into doing the right thing. Hopefully the preceding tips prove useful to you. They certainly have for me.

Now I’d like to hear from you guys. Do you have any specific tips for people attempting play, sun, or nature-related challenges? As a mini-contest, let everyone know in the comment section! One comment will be selected at random, and the lucky winner will be the recipient of a free Primal Blueprint Starter Kit. This mini-contest ends at midnight tonight.

Thanks for reading, and happy Primal Blueprint 21- Day Challenge!

Contest: Make a Primal Blueprint Recipe Video

The Prize:

$1000 Gift Certificate to Tendergrass Farms – As many of you know, Tendergrass Farms is a cooperative style online grass fed meat shop that exists for the purpose of economically sustaining small-scale American family farms that are raising meats in a pasture-centric manner without the use of artificial hormones, antibiotics, or GMOs and yet struggling to find customers who value their quality products. Tendergrass Farms accomplishes this vision by offering a convenient way for meat lovers to buy these farmers’ grass fed beef, pastured pork, pastured chicken, and pastured turkey whether they live in Detroit, New York, or a cave in southern California. The organization was born just a couple of years ago out of the need that their founding farmers saw for a bridge between the often geographically isolated family farmer and consumers all across the country who wanted to support them but didn’t have an easy way to do so. By implementing an ultra efficient dry ice shipping model they have created a unique way for the paleo community to buy meats of unparallelled quality directly from the farmers who need their support the most. If this sounds interesting to you, take a moment to watch their short 4-minute video about Sustaining Family Farms.

The winner of this contest will get a $1000 gift certificate that can be used at Tendergrass Farms. That’s a whole lot of meat.

BONUS: Tendergrass has kindly provided a discount coupon for all Mark’s Daily Apple readers. Simply use NICE2MEATU during checkout to receive 15% off your entire order. Good until 10/17/13.

A Primal Blueprint Library - You’ll also get every published book available from Primal Blueprint Publishing. That includes the 2009 bestseller The Primal Blueprint, all the Primal Blueprint cookbooks, The Primal Connection, the brand new Primal Cravings and Paleo Primer and more! Basically every book featured in the picture to the right. That’s over $250 worth of Primal titles.

The Contest:

Create and upload a Primal recipe video to YouTube. Have you mastered the omelet? Are you an organ meat fiend? Maybe your salad is so mean, it can win a chili cookoff. If so, let the world in on your secrets. Grab your camcorder, and show us how to make something Primal. There aren’t really restrictions on how you do it. The only requirement is that your video relates in some way to the Primal Blueprint eating plan. Show the world (how to prepare) your best Primal dish and you could be the winner of the complete Primal package listed above.

For ideas on what you can do, check out these playlists for recipe videos from 2011 and 2012.

Primal Blueprint Recipe Videos from 2011

Primal Blueprint Recipe Videos from 2012

On YouTube, please title the video “Primal Blueprint Recipe:” followed by your own sub-title.

Upload your video to YouTube and then email me the link. Include the words “Recipe Video Submission” in the subject line of your email. Otherwise, there’s a good chance I may completely miss your submission.

I’ll publish select videos on Mark’s Daily Apple the last week of this challenge.

The Deadline:

September 29, midnight PDT.

Who is Eligible:

This one is global, but keep in mind that the Tendergrass prize is not available to residents outside the U.S.. In the event of a non-U.S. team winning, a prize of equal value will be sent as substitute.

How A Winner Will Be Decided:

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

Fine Print:

MDA reserves the right to publish and/or edit any videos submitted.
We ask that any videos submitted to this contest remain live on YouTube after the challenge for future visitors to Mark’s Daily Apple to enjoy.

To track all the contests visit the 2013 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.

Approaching the Challenge with an Abundance Mindset

Just like Primal eating flies in the face of any typical “diet,” so I think the 21-Day Challenge leaves most similar events in the primordial dust. Despite my penchant for boldness, why do I say this? For many reasons really. For one, because the Mark’s Daily Apple community never disappoints. Every year it blows the previous Challenge out of the water in terms of engagement, creativity and enthusiasm. But there’s something else – something more fundamental to the 21-Day Challenge – and the Primal Blueprint – themselves. Primal living doesn’t have need or patience for deprivation. It’s about enjoying the full measure of health, happiness and contentment. It’s about living the good life in every sense of the word – where your vision and values intersect with genuine well-being. The Challenge can be the ultimate kickstart to initiate or deepen or more fully personalize this possibility in your life. My vision for everyone: approach this 21-Day Challenge with an abundance mentality. Abundance? As in more than enough, plentiful, profuse, copious, bountiful, you ask? Yes to all of the above.

It can seem like a bit of a mind bender – a health endeavor centered on abundance rather than deprivation. After all, our culture tends to come at weight loss and health challenges with a white-knuckle, nose-to-the-grindstone mentality. While the montages of screaming, grunting and suffering in made-for-T.V. competitions represent the extreme, even the everyday run-of-the-mill challenges typically preach a rather meager picture of moderation.

Oftentimes the images and messages behind these challenges revolve around being conscientious, sacrificing and sensible. They play to what is assuredly our good sense of discipline and temperance. They flatter our sense of virtuosity. Am I the only one who cringes a little at this, who bristles against the insistence on temperance, who balks at the concept of “sensible”? Sensible to me suggests small. For instance, a sensible, measured existence feels like a small life to me. I don’t know about you, but I want a big life. And a big slab of grass-fed red meat for dinner.

Likewise, I’m not promoting a small, sensible Challenge here. Sensible is what people claim when they choose to eat a single piece of bacon. Personally, I call that a blatant and sad act of self-imposed scarcity. Scarcity. Let’s hack away at that notion like a hungry homo erectus on a wooly mammoth.

When we buy into the idea of scarcity, we allow ourselves to be taken in by the false promise of deprivation. By depriving ourselves, we believe, we can have what we want. The problem with the logic is this: we’ll never get to abundance by embracing the lack of it. There could be at least a hundred dozen great conversations around the concept of abundance alone. Suffice it to say here, abundance encompasses our grateful attitude toward what we have and our generous openness to what can come. When we seek control by parsing out the good of life – whether it be flavor, fat, time or joy, we trap ourselves in a myopic mental cul-de-sac. What’s worse, it can become a whole lens by which we see (or don’t see) every opportunity in life. We spend life looking through the wrong end of the telescope, and our vision (and self-concept) are distorted for it.

When you embrace the paradigm of abundance, however, the question becomes, “How good are you willing to let it get?” That’s the pertinent inquiry for this Challenge. That’s what I’d like everyone to ask about the aims and interests they’re bringing to these 21 days. How good are you willing to let it get? How good are your willing to feel? How much are you willing to enjoy? How much change, success and momentum are you willing to experience?

First, ferret out all manner of deprivation focused assumptions. Forget any diet or health and weight loss challenge you’ve done in the past. Let go of any and all thoughts of controlling your experience through self-imposed scarcity. Switch out your mentality. Use a new language. From the perspective of abundance, imagine what you *get* to try, what you get to do, what you get to eat, what you get to enjoy, what you get to rediscover. Tell yourself you’re taking on a grand life experiment – because you are. Tell yourself this is your time – because it is. Tell yourself you’re worth it – because too often we believe we’re not. Abundance doesn’t buy that.

Consider these suggestions for thinking abundantly this Challenge month…

Look in the mirror and love what you see. View yourself generously. Believe this body in front of you is worth nurturing.
Create daily menus with the best Primal food you can afford. Take time to make indulgent meals and snacks.
Dine as you eat these meals. Give them their due. Drop the rushed, I-don’t-have-time-to-enjoy-my-food fixation. Make time. Give up 15 minutes of T.V. or web surfing to do it.
Sleep luxuriously. Make your bedroom a clean, cool cave haven. Set your alarm to go to bed on time. Use your best sheets. Sleep naked. Do whatever feels luxurious to you.
Take time out for a favorite hobby. Carve out the “me” time that somehow got sucked away. For 21 days, you get that time back.
Create serenity in your life. Simplify a favorite space at home for relaxation. Commit to yoga, meditation and/or time in nature. Sign up for a class or schedule hours for it.
Keep a celebration book/board/blog. There’s something to celebrate every single day. I’d argue we could easily find dozens of things each day when we’re open to them. What made you laugh/smile? What did you accomplish?
Try something new every single day. Maybe it’s a new vegetable or piece of gym equipment, a meditation CD or a different hiking path.
Fill your life and newsfeed with humor and positivity. Ditch the scary cable news and downer Facebook/Twitter feeds.
Exercise and move every day in ways that inspire you. Have fun. Be spontaneous. Indulge in some training assistance. Meet up with friends to work out or play. Take a new fitness class. Dance. Run like you used to when you were seven.
Relish these last weeks of fall. Do more than sit in the backyard or rake. Design actual outdoor adventures for each weekend. Do one thing each weekend you always mean to do in the great outdoors.
In other words, act as if you’re worth living abundantly for 21 days and beyond. Guess what? You are. And, trust me on this one – you won’t regret it.

Thanks for reading, everyone. I want to hear and see how well you’re living, how much you’re thriving, how sumptuously you’re eating, how boisterously you’re playing, how extravagantly you’re relishing the Challenge to transform your health – and your life in these 21 Days.

Join Us and Begin Your Own 21-Day Challenge Today!

Have a Picnic. Win a Cow. The 2013 Grokfeast Challenge.

It’s cow time. US Wellness has long been a favorite meat spot for MDA readers. A few years ago they donated pemmican and the popular 5 gallon bucket of fat. The last few years they’ve gone whole hog. And by hog, I mean cow. And they’re doing it again this year. US Wellness has generously offered up a cow to the winners of today’s contest, the Grokfeast Challenge. (More specifically, enough gift certificates to buy an entire cow.)

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

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

To Win the Cow, Host a Grokfeast

What’s a Grokfeast? It’s a picnic! A Primal Picnic. It involves three things:

People: At least eight.
A Feast: Food for those people. Primal food.
A Primal Activity: Fun for those people. Primal fun.

What exactly constitutes “Primal fun?” Any group form of Primal Play could work, like Ultimate Frisbee, a group hike, or Grok Tag. But less traditional options are welcomed as well. Maybe your group wants to shop a farmers’ market before the feast, or build the picnic table you eat the feast on, or host the feast on top of Half Dome. The idea is to capture the Primal spirit. Because going Primal doesn’t have to be a solo operation. Health isn’t a man alone on a treadmill; it’s a group of people enjoying each other’s company, eating healthy food, and maybe breaking a little sweat.

Check out last year’s winning Grokfeast, and select videos from 2010-2012 Grokfeasts in the following playlist:

How to Enter the Contest…

Read carefully, because this bit is important. In previous years, a whole host of things were required to enter this contest: a list of participants, a list of Primal dishes served at the Grokfeast, at least one Primal recipe from those dishes, photos of the festivities, and a full summary of the event. And submitting a video was optional. This year we’re trying something different. This year, for a valid entry, the only thing you need to submit is a video of your Grokfeast. What should that video include or be about, you ask? Well, much of the same:

The tribe. This contest is about bringing people together for a day of Primal food, fun and sun. Show us your beautiful mugs. Capture a group shot. And tell us who you are! Are you the Smiths from Tennessee, party hosted by forum member JLSmith82? Let us know. It’s great to be able to finally put faces to familiar names and handles. There’s no upper limit to the tribe size, but the minimum is eight.
The food. It wouldn’t be a Grokfeast without incredible Primal grub. Show us the spread. Optional: Show or tell us how you prepared one or more of the dishes (preferably the tastiest). But if you do, keep it brief. Full on recipe tutorials should be reserved for the upcoming Primal Blueprint Recipe Video contest.
The activities. Express your inner caveman and have some fun! Whether you go on a group hike, hold a Grok costume party, put on a friendly game of Ultimate Frisbee, or come up with something completely new, be sure to capture it in your video. Past years’ participants have done some really interesting things. See what you can dream up.

Whatever you do, be creative! Other than keeping it Primal, there are no limitations on how to have your picnic. Did you convince your entire group to go barefoot? Did you make up your own Primal hunting/gathering game? Is your main dish a Grok-shaped meat cake? Did you have one final water balloon fight before the cold set in? Did you realize the cold had already set in and shivered miserably while building a campfire (to cook your meat on)? Did someone trap, skin, and cure a wild boar hide to use as a picnic blanket? Okay, that might be a little extreme.

But there really aren’t too many restrictions on how to do this. Whether during the day or night, by the ocean or on the roof of a parking garage, at a park, or even in Milwaukee, the possibilities are endless. And it’s not a numbers game. With coworkers, gym buddies, your college dorm cluster, eight people or eighty, the winner isn’t the group with the most people, but the group that throws the coolest Grokfeast. If your friends are all busy, remember there’s a forum filled with other Primal folks who might be in your area.

Last bit of advice, use brevity to your advantage. Submitting a 3o minute video won’t give you a better chance at winning than someone who puts together a brief and entertaining reel, and fewer people will watch it. So keep it short (5 minutes or less is probably best) and sweet.

How to Submit Your Grokfeast Video

Once you’ve had a blast and captured up the evidence, upload your video to YouTube and then email me the link.

On YouTube, please title the video “Grokfeast in X” where X is your home state or country.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Include “Grokfeast Submission” in the subject line of your email. I receive hundreds of emails a day. If the subject line isn’t correct, there’s a chance I may miss your submission entirely.

The video needs to be an original creation made for the purposes of this contest.

Deadline for Submission:

October 1, midnight, PDT. That’s right, less than two weeks away. I said it wasn’t easy, so hustle!

How a Winner is Chosen:

While I’m not sure how many entries I’ll end up receiving, I’m going to try to publish as many as I can, if not all of them. Entries will be posted during the Reader-Created Content Week, the week of Sep. 30. Semi-finalists will be chosen by me and the Worker Bees. Readers will then have a chance to vote on their favorite. The winner will be announced by the end of the Challenge, Oct. 7.

Fine Print:

In previous years, $1500 of beef was shipped directly to the winners all at once (requiring a lot of freezer space!). This year the winning contestants will receive 12 $125 gift certificates to US Wellness.
It is up to the participants to divide the gift certificates however they choose (and for those of you thinking about hoarding the beef and not telling your other participants, keep in mind your Grokfeast will be published live on a blog that gets millions of visits each month. They might find out.).
Cow prize not available to residents outside the U.S.. In the event of a non-US team winning, a prize of equal value will be sent as substitute.
MDA reserves the right to publish (or not publish as the case may be) any or all material submitted.
Only one entry per group. Only one person needs to submit the entry. That person will be used as the sole contact for prize distribution.
Depending on the number of entries, I reserve the right to adjust how and when the entries will be published and/or voted on. All rules subject to change.

To track all the contests visit the 2013 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily contest updates.

The 2013 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Begins Now

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

Before we get to all the details, let’s kick things off with a simple contest. Click on over to this page and share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Google+ by using one of the icons on the left side of the page, AND leave a comment in the comment board below with your commitment to this year’s challenge. That’s it! Help spread the word about this year’s challenge and leave a comment, and you’ll be entered to win a $200 gift certificate to PrimalBlueprint.com.

This contest ends at midnight (PDT) tonight, Sep. 16. A winner will be selected at random and everyone around the world is eligible.

Now, on to the challenge details…

What Is the 21-Day Challenge?

What’s the challenge? To get Primal, of course! As you’ve already seen if you clicked the link above, this year I’ve put together a nifty infographic that summarizes the Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge. Click here or the image below to see the full version. (I encourage any bloggers out there to share this infographic using the html I’ve included below it.) Additionally, you can dig deeper into each section of the infographic by visiting this more detailed Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge page.

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

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

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

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

Who Is the 21-Day Challenge For?

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

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

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

Why 21 Days?

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

I’m confident that you can transform your life in just 21 days with the Primal Blueprint. So confident that I wrote an entire book about it…

The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation

This 21-day Challenge perfectly complements The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation. The Total Body Transformation is all about making Primal living easy – distilling the philosophy of The Primal Blueprint (detailed in the 2009 hardcover volume) into 8 Key Concepts, 5 Action Items, and a lively 21-Day Challenge of daily endeavors in the areas of Diet, Exercise, and Lifestyle – with corresponding journal exercises. You’ll be shown exactly what to do and when to do it – eliminating any guesswork – to get and stay Primal for life.

If you can spare an hour a day for just 21 days, I guarantee that you will reprogram your genes and transform your life with this guidebook.

Order a copy today to enhance this year’s challenge, and for added guidance and direction.

The 21-Day Challenge Contests

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

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

Here are some rules and answers to FAQ:

There will be new contests on Mark’s Daily Apple every day for the first two weeks (through Sep. 29) of the 21-Day Challenge, so check back daily!
New to this year, there will also be contests held exclusively in the Mark’s Daily Apple newsletter, the Forum, and on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe, create an account, or follow today for chances to win.
All contest prizes relate in some way to the Primal lifestyle. You won’t find any miracle weight loss pills, tummy crunching sling-a-ma-doo-dads, or whole wheat health blast jazzer snackers.
Some contests will require a bit of leg work while others will require something as simple as commenting on a blog post.
There is no limit to how many contests you can participate in.
The duration of any one contest depends on the nature of the contest. Some will last a couple weeks (to give you time to complete the contest task) while others will be as short as one day. All deadlines are Pacific Daylight Time.
Contest prizes will be awarded either by a random drawing, by reader voting/polling or by an executive decision (who I think should win!).
Some prizes will only be available to United States residents. If you live outside the U.S. and win a prize that can’t be shipped internationally an alternate prize of equal value will be awarded.
I’m not being paid by any company for being featured in a 21-Day Challenge contest.

To track all the contests visit the 2013 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.

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

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

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

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

3. The Books

4. What to eat? – Primal Blueprint Recipes on MDA, The Primal Blueprint Cookbook, Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals, Primal Blueprint Healthy Sauces, Dressings & Toppings

5. The Newsletter – Sign up on this page to get 9 free eBooks, a 7-day course on the fundamentals of lifelong health, and more.

6. Have a question? – Contact Me

Tell your friends and family about the challenge so they can get Primal too! And don’t forget. Share this infographic across social media by using one of the icons on the left side of the page, AND leave a comment for a chance to win a $200 gift certificate to PrimalBlueprint.com.

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

Pork Belly Croutons with Kale Salad

Crispy, crackling nuggets of pork belly are better than traditional bread croutons, any day of the week. Pork belly “croutons” add crunch and saltiness to salad, plus they have a succulent, fatty middle that a square of stale bread can’t compete with.

But you probably don’t need to be sold on loving meat croutons over bread croutons. So let’s get right down to the recipe. How does one turn a tough slab of pork belly into gorgeous layers of thin, crispy skin, velvety fat and tender meat? It’s easier than you think. Plus, pork belly is a relatively inexpensive cut of meat and easy + inexpensive + incredible flavor = Primal happiness.

In this recipe for seared pork belly, the belly is first seasoned, braised and chilled. The process is simple, but takes about 24 hours so plan ahead. The pork belly is edible and quite tasty at this point but the last step, searing it quickly in a pan, is what really transforms pork belly into something special.

But here’s the best part. Pork belly and kale are unbelievably good together. If you identify more as a meat lover than a kale lover, this pork and kale salad will help you see kale in a new way. Fatty pork and raw kale are a delicious yin-yang combination.

Serves: 4

Time in the Kitchen: About 24 hours to braise and chill, plus 30 minutes of hands-on cooking

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns (2.5 ml)
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds (2.5 ml)
1 teaspoon coriander seeds (5 ml)
1 1/2 to 2 pounds pork belly, with skin (680 to 900 g)
2 bay leaves
1 onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 cup water (240 ml)
2 large bunches of lacinato /Tuscan kale
1 large lemon, juice and zested
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (20 ml)
2 small shallots, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (2.5 ml)
1/3 cup olive oil, or more to taste (80 ml)

Instructions:

Skin-on pork belly can be found at Asian grocery stores or be special-ordered from your butcher.

Preheat the oven to 250 °F (120 °C).

Combine the peppercorns, fennel and coriander seeds in a dry sauté pan and toast over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and crush with a rolling pin or pulse a few times in a coffee grinder.

Season the pork liberally with salt (1 to 2 teaspoons/5 to 10ml) then place skin side up in a baking dish, ideally one that’s not too much bigger than the belly. Sprinkle the crushed spices, bay leaves, onion, garlic and spices over and around the belly.

Pour the cup of water in the baking dish then cover the dish tightly with foil, then a lid. This makes an extra airtight seal. If the baking dish doesn’t have a lid, then just make sure the foil is really tight.

Braise the pork belly until the meat is very tender, about 4 1/2 hours.

Take the dish out of the oven, remove the lid and foil and let the liquid cool completely. Then, transfer the dish to the refrigerator overnight.

Remove the chilled pork belly from the pot. Scrape off most of the seasonings and/or onion that are stuck to the meat. Discard the liquid the pork was braised in.

Cut the pork belly into small bite-sized squares, about 36 pieces. Taste the pork and season with salt if needed. Set aside.

Pull the kale leaves off the inner stalk (discard the stalk) then tear or cut the leaves into small pieces. Put the kale in a large bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and zest, mustard, shallot, salt and olive oil. Add more olive oil to adjust the flavor and make it less tangy, if desired.

Pour the dressing over the kale leaves and massage it into the leaves with your hands. Massaging the kale leaves helps make them tender. Set aside.

Lightly coat a sauté pan with fat (lard or coconut oil are options) and put it over medium-high heat. (Pork skin can really stick to a hot pan, which will ruin your seared pork belly. For this reason, a non-stick pan works best for searing pork belly. However, if you don’t want to use non-stick then a well-seasoned cast iron pan is the next best choice for this recipe.)

Add pieces of the pork belly to the pan in small batches, skin side down. Placing the pieces close together in the pan so they can lean up against each other will keep them from tipping over. Sear until the skin is deeply browned and crispy, then continue to sear the pork on all sides until nicely browned. Beware of hot fat splattering while you cook. If you own a splatter guard, use it!

It will probably be necessary to drain fat out of the pan between batches. If too much fat collects in the pan, the pork won’t get crispy and the hot fat will splatter like crazy.

Toss the warm pork belly “croutons” with the kale and serve.

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

Weekend Link Love

The 2013 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge begins tomorrow. Check back at 8 am PST for all the details and a chance to win a Primal prize.

We’ve got a couple of Primal Blueprint Transformation Seminars in Maryland coming up fast. If you’re near Annapolis on September 25 or Bethesda on September 28, sign up!

Due to a couple last-minute cancellations, a few spots just opened up for PrimalCon Lake Tahoe (September 26-29). Now’s your chance to bask in the awesome radiance of wild nature while hanging out with your global Primal tribe! They won’t last long, so grab them ASAP!

Research of the Week

Swearing – the language of life and of death – can improve pain tolerance.

Scientists have found the genetic bits that control how our circadian rhythm responds to changes in light and time zones. Improved anti-jet lag drugs are sure to follow, and maybe better solutions for shift workers?

Seniors who stay active retain the physical and mental capabilities of their youth. They also live longer and – most importantly – better.

Got candida? Try Gymnema.

Interesting Blog Posts

How to save your knees when hiking uphill or downhill. Great tips.

Speaking of hiking (and camping, and other outdoorsy activities), why do white people seemingly love it so much more than folks of other ethnicities?

Wellness FX discusses the eternal balance between performance and longevity. Which side of the fence do you prefer? Do you have to pick just one?

Media, Schmedia

Drug companies are hiding (some) clinical research that paints (some of) their products in an unfavorable light.

I was going to make a sugar joke, but this is actually a pretty horrific environmental disaster: a container ship just dumped 233,000 gallons of molasses into Honolulu bay, triggering a massive wildlife die-off as the viscous black goo sank and carpeted every nook and cranny of the seafloor.

Everything Else

My friend John Wellbourn (of CrossFit Football fame) is holding the second annual fundraiser to battle neuroblastoma and pediatric cancer. Take a look and if you’re touched and have the means, give a few bucks. Neuroblastoma is a nasty cancer that targets almost exclusively young children and babies, and we need to learn more about it to fight it.

Just what everyone needs: a complete lack of reasons to go outside ever again.

Maybe “Read great literature“ belongs on the list of Primal Laws.

Shipping US chickens over to China for processing and then shipping them right back to the US for eating doesn’t make much sense to me. But don’t worry, because they’ve “deemed China’s poultry processing equivalent to the process in the United States.” Not exactly filled with confidence here.

As much as I like feces in my meat, let’s just hope China’s meat processing plants aren’t emulating the latest USDA pilot program designed to ID meat contamination.

You just can’t remake The Breakfast Club.

Recipe Corner

If you’re on a ketogenic diet – or even if you’re not – you should try the autumn oxtail stew from KetoDiet.
Tarragon doesn’t get enough herb love, in my opinion. Try these apple tarragon meatballs and you’ll agree.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Sept 15 – Sept 21)

Action Item #4: Exercise Primally – Move, Lift, and Sprint! – You need to move, too, and here’s why and how.
Action Item #5: Slow Life Down – Why taking it easy from time to time is a necessity.

Comment of the Week

Mark, you HAVE to give yourself comment of the week, even though it was in your article. “Execute a double decker…..” Brilliant.

- Thanks, Josh. Let me also use this opportunity to clarify my terminology. While an upper decker involves the toilet tank, a double decker involves both the tank and the bowl – so as to throw your victim off the scent of the tank.

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I Have Never Felt Healthier in 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 don’t have a dramatic story to tell but I have had fantastic results from changing to the paleo diet and I now for the first time in my life feel good all the time and I am not concerned that I’m headed for diabetes or a heart condition. Throughout my adult life I have had several health issues, while not as severe as many of the stories told on this website, were definitely keeping me from a high quality of life. It was very difficult for me to accept that the paleo way of eating was an appropriate and safe diet as I have been brainwashed like everyone else to believe eating certain foods cause health issues which is just not true.

For most of my entire adult life I have felt very lethargic. This has been a huge drain on my life as I never felt like doing anything and was always feeling tired. I tried everything I could including seeing doctors, having blood tests done, tried different supplements, etc. It was very discouraging. Then in my 30s I noticed that after I ate, almost all the time, I sneezed about 10 times! I eat out a lot and it’s pretty embarrassing and annoying to have that happen on a regular basis. I had no idea why it was happening and it continued for many years without me addressing it. I also developed HORRIBLE sleeping problems. I would wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to go back to sleep. Variations of my sleep issues have been occurring for about the last 10 years. About three years ago I went to see a homeopathic doctor who, in his own unique way, diagnosed me to be wheat and dairy sensitive. I agreed to remove foods from my diet that contained wheat and dairy which was extremely difficult for me to do. The sneezing stopped and only occurred when I wasn’t aware of ingredients that were in my food when I ate out (like tons of butter in a rice dish). I seemed to not be as lethargic either which made me very happy.

However, I became of the mindset “if it doesn’t contain wheat, then it’s ok to eat”. I had no problem eating greasy French fries, tons of sushi (surrounded by rice), gluten free crackers, breakfast cereals like “rice chex” that were gluten free, Thai food with rice noodles, etc. I thought I was doing great. Another problem I still had was always feeling hungry. I would wake up in the middle of the night starving and nothing seemed to fill me up. I was having bowls of cereal, crackers, fruit, etc. It was very discouraging. I thought it was due to the weightlifting I had been doing. The final blow was my yearly physical with my doctor in November 2012. My cholesterol was 249 and my glucose was 101. While these numbers aren’t terrible, they were WAY higher than the year before and that was very bothersome as I was concerned they would just keep going up every year. I was very discouraged and didn’t know what to do. I was talking about it with a guy at work who then started telling me about the paleo diet and directed me to Mark’s Daily Apple. Most people here at work don’t agree with his philosophies regarding food, but it all made sense to me. He also had me watch the movie Fathead which was an eye opener.

I started reading the Mark’s Daily Apple, reading other success stories, learning the Primal Blueprint and having all of my questions regarding the diet answered. The website has been a great tool to help me stick to this plan. The philosophy made sense to me so I decided to give it a shot for six months and see if there was any improvement. I was a little uncomfortable eating at least two eggs a day and bacon for snacks when I was hungry but I stuck with it. I cut out almost all grains except I started allowing myself one slice of Ezekiel bread when I feel like it. One thing I should mention is I don’t follow the diet COMPLETELY. I do eat corn and black beans occasionally, and a small amount of brown rice once in a while (and I definitely blatantly cheat sometimes). For the last six months I have eaten mostly eggs, limited amounts of fruit, almonds, sweet potatoes, many salads with tons of veggies, all proteins including fish, chicken and steak (mostly grass fed) and vegetables like Brussels sprouts and broccoli. I drink a big cup of coffee in the morning with cream and Truvia. The biggest change was cutting out the grains. It was really difficult at first but now it’s second nature and I’ve learned I still get to eat lots of food that taste REALLY good. I made my first batch of paleo brownies and they are delicious! I went for a six month check-up a week ago and was shocked at the results I got (see below for comparison charts). First of all, I lost 7 pounds (I am 5’0” and weighed 111). I was not trying AT ALL to lose weight but am thrilled that I lost all my “belly fat”. I do need to mention that at the same time I started eating paleo, we started a “walking program” with walking challenges here at work. So I am definitely walking more than I have in the past. This may be a part of the weight loss although the weight came off and I was NEVER feeling hungry or deprived. My cholesterol is now 203 which it has never been in my adult life (we have a family history of very high cholesterol). In June of this year I had the particle test done regarding my cholesterol and my LDL size is 21.6 which is considered light and fluffy so my bad cholesterol is not even that bad! My glucose level went from 101 to 88. I have more stamina and I am definitely sleeping better as I am not waking up starving in the middle of the night. Also, I have had a throbbing pain in my gums since I had an impacted molar removed as a child. The pain is pretty constant and my dentist had no idea how to help me. I just realized the other day that the pain is gone. It’s truly amazing. I have never felt healthier in my life and I’ve been around for a pretty long time!

December 13, 2012

June 10, 2013

I would like to give a big thanks to Mark and Mark’s Daily Apple for all of the free content he provides to help people live a healthier, productive and happy life by living the Primal way! I can go there to literally have any question I have answered – in a very thorough and understandable way.

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It’s Not Just About the Weight Loss

A whole lot of people come to the Primal Blueprint looking to lose weight. Some come with significant excess weight. Their before and after photos showcase amazing physical transformations that can have us doing a double take wondering how it’s the same person. Others, however, come to the PB with few actual pounds to lose. Their photos display less dramatic outward differences, but their stories tell otherwise.

Inherent to many of their narratives is the common refrain that people didn’t understand their interest in going on a “diet.” Why would they bother? What were they trying to prove? What exactly are they trying to accomplish anyway? As reader Stephart shared in her comment to last week’s gluten-free post, she’s been directly told, “You don’t need to diet. You’re tiny!”

Readers who begin the PB without weight loss goals tell me they’re often accused of being obsessive or vain. Family and friends worry and admonish them for imagining a problem where there is none. Others guilt them for their commitment, taking offense at their concern, which surely must be some kind of slight to those in their lives who really do have weight issues. Such are a few of the uninformed, insensitive or just inappropriate judgments they receive.

Not only do these accusations cross some serious personal boundaries, but they completely disregard the larger health picture any person may be dealing with at a given time. Sure, a person might look like a “normal” size, have a normal (or even low) BMI. They might even have genetics or youth or an expert side pose to suggest that they’re the ideal everyone else in mainstream society seems to be going for. We here know better. Weight isn’t the issue. Size isn’t even the issue. It’s health. And while thinness is correlated, it doesn’t guarantee it.

How many people fit the “skinny fat” label? Skinny fat means looking thin but having less lean tissue and more body fat – particularly around the abdomen – than is healthy. Those who are skinny fat are more likely to develop (or have) osteoporosis. Research suggests they’re also a lot more prone to developing diabetes than you’d guess. Almost 1 in 4 people of normal weight are “metabolically obese.” What’s more? They’re more likely to die, as well, than their slightly heavier counterparts, in part because they were likely less rigorously tested and followed by their doctors for conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

We all know people (or perhaps are one of these people) who can eat a typical S.A.D. diet or worse and not gain anything noticeable. It can be maddening, in fact, for the folks who work harder to maintain their weight. That said, don’t think for a minute that skinny folks get off the hook. They might not suffer the same social stigma or bear the inconvenience and weight-related mobility or joint issues that their heavier friends do, but they might be lured into complacence about poor health choices without the indicator of added weight. As our Success Stories show, those who begin with less weight to lose end up gaining more in their health and vitality than they ever thought possible.

What have “skinny” Groks reportedly lost in lieu of weight? Check it out.

I’m Going Into My 40th Year Feeling Healthier Than Ever

Vitamin D deficiency
Night sweats
Bone pain
Skin rashes
Bloating
Dry eyes
Sinus headaches
Mood swings
Insomnia
Brain fog
Menstrual pain
Diminished energy

Primal Ripples: Deeper Than Just Food

Less need for pain medication

The Primal Lifestyle Has Given Me a Life Worth Living

Chronic heartburn
Indigestion
Diarrhea
Crippling hunger
Random nausea
Chronic muscle pain
Debilitating joint pain
Body stiffness
Chronic fatigue
Random chest pain
Memory Loss
Low testosterone
Acne
Low sex drive
Teeth grinding
Liver problems
Cracking joints
Body odor
Balance problems

I Was Unhealthy and Getting Sicker: Something Had to Change

Dizziness
High Triglycerides

We Have More Energy to Be Better Partners, Parents, and People

Hypoglycemia
Shakes

Finally, I Am Me

Anxiety
Knee pain
Back pain
Tendinitis
Migraines

I Am Finally on the Right Path to Optimum Health and Happiness

Ulcerative colitis
Chronic infections

I Am in Harmony with My Body and Mind for the First Time in a Long Time

Psoriasis

It Will Pass and I Will Be Stronger

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

How the 21-Day Challenge Helped Me

Sugar addiction

The Pain and Stiffness Disappeared and Has Never Returned

Mid-afternoon energy crashes
Finger pain and stiffness

I Feel Healthier, Stronger, and More Energetic

High blood pressure

The Primal Lifestyle Has Been a Game Changer

Sleep apnea
Gall bladder issues

And the list goes on and on…

Now, I’m not claiming the Primal Blueprint will solve all of your problems. There’s no such thing as a panacea in health and wellness. But I think it’s abundantly clear that its impact reaches much, much further than just weight loss. With all the benefits of the Primal Blueprint, it’s hard to justify withholding all the possibilities from your life. Am I wrong? If you’ve been on the fence or dabbling in the PB, the perfect opportunity is right around the corner. How about committing the upcoming 21-Day Challenge (commencing Monday, September 16th) and see what the PB can really do for you? And, yes, the skinny are encouraged to join. Your tribe awaits.

Would you describe yourself as presently – or formerly – skinny fat? What’s been your experience when you’ve told people you’re doing the PB (or any other dietary and lifestyle change)? What health issues has the PB changed for you, and what would you tell those who have fewer pounds but just as many benefits to gain by going Primal? Thanks for reading, everyone. Enjoy the end of the week.

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