Mark Sisson's Blog, page 370
September 17, 2012
Contest: Design the Next Primal Blueprint Poster for Cash Prize
The Prize:
Benjamins. Moolah. Dough. Bread. (No, not that kind of dough and bread.) I’m talking cash. Cold hard cash you can use to buy whatever you want. (May I suggest some Primal fare from a local farmer or dining establishment?)
The winner of this design contest will receive $500. If I actually print the design and distribute the poster the designer will receive an extra $1500, for a total prize value of $2000.
The Contest:
The Primal Blueprint Poster (click the image to the right to zoom in) was designed a few years back. While it’s holding up OK, I think it’s time for an update – a makeover, as it were. And that’s where you, or at least all the graphic designers amongst you, come in. Design the next Primal Blueprint Poster for a chance to win the prize above and have your design end up on garage, bedroom, classroom and gym walls around the world.
Now, what’s this poster all about? The purpose of this poster is to showcase what the Primal Blueprint is and – at a glance – how it is done. So it needs to be educational, but it also needs to be eye-catching and engaging. The best designs will capture the spirit of the Primal Blueprint in the design (we went with a sandstone background and savannah imagery for the last poster), and the message of the Primal Blueprint in the content (what it is, the problems it solves, why it works, how it’s done, etc.).
Here are a few of the things you can include to accomplish this, but there is no requirement to use any of them:
The Primal Blueprint 10 Laws
The Primal Blueprint Food Pyramid
The Primal Blueprint Fitness Pyramid
The Primal Blueprint 4 Essential Movements (Squats, Pullups, Pushups, Planks; see Primal Blueprint Fitness)
The Primal Blueprint Carb Curve
The Primal Blueprint 8 Key Concepts
The Primal Blueprint 5 Action Items (covered in MDA articles last and this week, they are: Action Item #1: Eliminate SAD Foods, Action Item #2: Shop, Cook, and Dine Primally, Action Item #3: Make the Healthiest Choices Across the Spectrum, Action Item #4: Exercise Primally – Move, Lift and Sprint!, Action Item #5: Slow Life Down)
The Primal Blueprint Shopping List (PDF)
One requirement: “Primal Blueprint” needs to remain in Trajan font. (And if you’d like to use the Primal blue, it’s hex code #1962c6.)
Be creative, have fun with this, and see what you can bring to the look and feel of this poster. Once you’re happy with your design, email it to me in PDF format. Include “PB Poster” 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.
Eligibility:
Open to all denizens of planet Earth.
The Contest End Time:
September 24, midnight, PDT.
How the Winner Will Be Determined:
The Worker Bees and I will choose a winner.
Fine Print:
MDA reserves the right to not print and distribute the winning design.
We reserve the right to publish the winning design on MDA.
If we decide we would like to print and distribute the winning design, $1500 will be paid in exchange for the artwork files and a signed contract relinquishing the rights to the design.
To track all the contests visit the 2012 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.
Subscribe to the Mark’s Daily Apple Newsletter for Free eBooks, Weekly Challenge Updates and More!
September 16, 2012
Weekend Link Love
Research of the WeekTriclosan, a common hand sanitizer, may impair muscle contractions. With triclosan showing up in human blood, milk, and urine, plus many of the waterways we use for public water, this isn’t very good news.
An ag-scientist takes a closer look at the Stanford study on organic and conventional produce (PDF) and comes to a slightly different conclusion than the original authors.
Interesting Blog Posts
Paleolithic MD required very few words to erect this powerful defense of Paleo.
What to do about shin splints.
Media, Schmedia
Whatever your opinion of his foreign and domestic policies, President Obama has a pretty effective policy on the amount of time his kids can spend glued to a screen.
Dr. Peter Attia and Gary Taubes have just launched NuSI, the Nutrition Science Initiative. The question at hand is “Can we trust anything we think we know about nutrition?” and NuSI aims to answer that by sponsoring extensive independent research, unencumbered by official policy, lobbyists, and entrenched interests. I can’t wait to see what they – and we – learn.
Everything Else
PrimalCon 2013 is officially SOLD OUT. Tickets went super fast this year, selling out in a matter of a weeks. If you’d like to be added to the waiting list call 888-774-6259.
Ever try the long-discontinued Schlitz beer with “Sunshine Vitamin D”? I imagine the elites in the upper echelons of the Vitamin D Council have hoarded cases of the stuff and break it out for their secret meetings.
Man, can you imagine the polyphenol content of this stuff? If only it were edible.
Finally, someone’s come up with a good use for wheat.
Recipe Corner
I think these sweet potato fish cakes might just rival crab cakes in general awesomeness.
This is something I’d never seen before: a coyote meat dish.
Time Capsule
One year ago (September 17 – September 23)
How to Go Primal: For Parents – Since being a parent is hard enough, I thought I’d making the whole going Primal thing a little easier.
How to Deal With Common Primal Stumbling Blocks – Folks going Primal for this year’s challenge should find this post extremely helpful.
Comment of the Week
Hey Mark- grape drink and purple stuff are the same thing…
- Siren, I know this, but I had to include both to make sure everyone knew what I was talking about. Plus, as DarcieG put it,
Pretty sure “purple stuff” was a reference to a Sunny Delight commercial.
-Yep. Those Sunny D commercials are iconic.
Grab The Primal Blueprint Cookbook Today and Receive Free S&H and a Free Primal Blueprint Poster
Contest: Facebook for Buffalo Bars
The Prize:
Tanka Bars – Snack food made of buffalo. That’s pretty much all that needs saying. In the pursuit of quick-fix meat-chunk eats, Tanka is offering up a variety of Tanka Bars, Tanka Bites, and Tanka Wild Sticks (valued at around $100) to the winner of today’s post. BONUS: Enter “MDACHALLENGE12” when ordering from TankaBar.com for a 15% discount off of regularly priced items. All caps must be used when typing in the coupon code. Coupons won’t work on SPECIALS, only regularly priced items. The discount code expires on October 31, 2012.
The Contest:
This one isn’t so much a contest as much as it is a giveaway. On September 26, one lucky person that “Likes” the Mark’s Daily Apple Facebook fan page will be selected at random to win the prize package above. So all you have to do for a chance to win is “Like” the official Mark’s Daily Apple fan page by Sep. 26. It’s easy. If you have Facebook account, simply visit this page and click the “Like” button. It’s that simple. If you’ve already “Liked” the fan page, there’s nothing you need to do. You’re already in the running.
Eligibility:
Like other consumables, these don’t cross borders well. A substitute prize of equal value will be awarded in the case of an international winner.
The Contest End Time:
September 26, 8 am, PDT.
How the Winner Will Be Determined:
The winner will be selected at random and determined after all steps have been verified.
To track all the contests visit the 2012 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.
Subscribe to the Mark’s Daily Apple Newsletter for Free eBooks, Weekly Challenge Updates and More!
September 15, 2012
Quick and Easy Mushroom Sauce
This recipe for Quick and Easy Mushroom Sauce gives a taste of how easy it is to transform a simple Primal meal into something absolutely sensational.
Whether you’re a Primal veteran or you’ve just embarked on the 21-Day Challenge to completely change the way you eat, this is a great recipe to keep in your back pocket. Why? Because knowing how to make this sauce is like having a secret weapon in the kitchen. You see, we all have our go-to meals, and if you’re Primal, some cut of meat is likely the centerpiece. While a good steak, pork chop, chicken drumstick or fish fillet never gets old, the same, routine preparation – night-in night-out – can get boring over time. The solution? A delicious, simple sauce that turns a ho-hum pan-fried steak into something restaurant-worthy, and an uninspiring piece of cod into something that will wow guests. Quick and Easy Mushroom Sauce is the perfect way to make the same old meal taste new again, and to turn lunch or dinner into a Primal feast.
This recipe is one of more than 100 new recipes for Primal sauces, salad dressings, condiments, dips, seasonings and marinades in a new cookbook available this coming December, Primal Blueprint Healthy Sauces, Dressings & Toppings (learn more below). Made with easy cooking techniques and healthy, Primal-approved ingredients, every recipe in the book will add incredible flavor and additional nutrients to even the most basic meals. With the help of this cookbook “bland” and “boring” will never be uttered in your kitchen again.
In the meantime, keep bland and boring at bay by serving Quick and Easy Mushroom Sauce with your dinner tonight.
Servings: 2-3
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons fat (animal fat, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, butter) (30 grams)
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced (230 grams)
1 large shallot, finely chopped
3/4 cup chicken or beef stock (180 ml)
1 tablespoon butter (15 grams)
Optional: 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh herb (try chives, parsley, basil or thyme) (15 ml)
Instructions:
Warm the animal fat/oil/butter over medium-high heat in a large skillet or saucepan. The pan should be large enough so that the mushrooms can be spread out in one layer. If the mushrooms are crowded on top of one another, there will be too much moisture and they won’t brown as well.
Add mushrooms and shallot. Saute until soft and golden, about 7 minutes. Stir occasionally, but not too much.
Add stock. Simmer rapidly for five minutes.
Remove from heat. Stir in butter and fresh herbs.
Plate your basic meal.
Pour the delicious, fatty mushroom sauce all over the steak. Sink your teeth into this special meal.
Healthy Sauces, Dressings & Toppings Coming Soon!
Grilled steaks or chops are admittedly great, but what if the right rub or marinade could make them outstanding? Broiled fish is among the healthiest of foods, but seafood dishes often cry out for the added flavor of a savory sauce. Nothing beats salads or steamed veggies for nutritional value, but why not make them more tempting—and even more nutritious—with a flavorful dressing loaded with antioxidants and nourishing fats? And while berries make a delicious snack, the right topping can make them a decadent dessert. Sometimes all it takes to transform an ordinary meal into a mouthwatering culinary masterpiece is an added rub, sauce, marinade, or dressing. Unfortunately, most traditional flavor enhancers contain sugars, trans fats, gluten, MSG, and other objectionable ingredients.
Following the remarkable worldwide success of The Primal Blueprint Cookbook and The Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals, bestselling author Mark Sisson and chef Jennifer Meier team up again to present Primal Blueprint Healthy Sauces, Dressings & Toppings. Based on the Primal/Paleo eating strategy that has been scientifically proven to help you burn off excess body fat, boost energy, and delay the aging process, Healthy Sauces, Dressings & Toppings offers over 120 easy-to-prepare recipes with an almost infinite number of uses. Finally, you can bring rich and satisfying flavor to healthful meals while adding Omega-3 fats, powerful antioxidants, and other vital nutrients. And you don’t have to compromise great taste or spend hours slaving over complicated preparations. With options organized into convenient categories and presented with vibrant photos and simple directions, you’ll become a Primal kitchen whiz on everything from macadamia salad dressing, to brown butter sage sauce, to coconut milk whipped cream!
Don’t Miss It! Receive an Email Alert When this New Cookbook is Released by Subscribing to the Mark’s Daily Apple Newsletter
Contest: Name That Apron
The Prize:
Hunks of grass-fed meat, raw nuts and dried berries all conveniently packaged together: If your struggle during this first week of the 21-Day Challenge was finding healthy snacks or Primal meals while on-the-go, Steve’s got you covered. The lucky winner of today’s contest will receive a Steve’s Club Samplers Pack ($29.99), a Seasonal Sampler Pack ($28.99), and five Grass-Fed PaleoStix ($27.50).
Bonus #1: Use promo code paleomda for a 10% discount good through September 22nd.
Bonus #2: Your Purchase Changes Lives
In 2007, Steve was teaching CrossFit to a group of kids in the impoverished and crime-ridden city of Camden, NJ. He wanted to give them a healthier alternative to the school lunches and improve their nutrition.
Steve put together the first “PaleoKit” in his kitchen – a mix of jerky, nuts and berries, and began giving them out the kids. As a fundraiser for Steve’s Club athletes, he started selling these PaleoKits online. They quickly became a hit in the CrossFit community, and are now sold in Affiliates across the country.
Proceeds from PaleoKits and our other PaleoGoods continue to support the mission of training at-risk kids. Steve’s Club is now a National Program and partners with CrossFit Affiliates and trainers in cities nationwide to start similar Local Clubs in their communities.
The Contest:
In December, when Primal Blueprint Healthy Sauces, Dressings and Toppings is released, I will be offering a number of cool incentives to order one more copies for yourself and your friends. (It will be the perfect holiday gift!) One of those incentives, for those who buy 3 or more, is a Grok Apron (pictured). It’s been requested for ages, and it’s nearly here. The question is, what should the apron say? The Worker Bees and I have thrown around a few ideas, but I’m sure the creative bunch that you are can come up with something even better. This is the kind of thing we’re looking for:
“Praise the Lard!”
“No Grain. No Pain.”
“Kiss the Grok”
Be creative. Be witty. Be original. And keep it short and sweet. Come up with something you’d like to wear on a Primal/Grok apron, and if the Worker Bees and I select your slogan as the winner you’ll be receiving nearly $100 worth of grass-fed goodness.
Submit your one-liners in the comment board below and you’ll be entered to win. Each one-liner counts as a separate entry. Five entries per person are allowed.
The Deadline:
September 17, midnight. PDT.
Who is Eligible:
Any U.S. resident. Sorry worldwide readers. Most countries prohibit import of meat products.
How a Winner is Chosen:
The Worker Bees and I will choose a winner.
To track all the contests visit the 2012 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.
Subscribe to the Mark’s Daily Apple Newsletter for Free eBooks, Weekly Challenge Updates and More!
September 14, 2012
A Doctor Finds Primal Balance
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!
Dear Mark,
I’m a physician and budding blogger, and I’ve been a fan of MDA for a few years now. You are my blog-crush, always combining the perfect blend of serious scientific information with colloquial content. Primal living is about much more than just what we eat and how we exercise, and your posts always reflect that!
My story begins around the time I found your site and your book, The Primal Blueprint. A bit of background: I’m a very tall (over six feet) woman who was raised on Conventional Wisdom and the Standard American Diet, replete with Oreos for breakfast, bologna sandwiches for lunch, and spaghetti for dinner with Cheetos and Hostess snack cakes thrown in between! In high school, I was heavily recruited for athletics due to my height but was never courageous or confident enough to learn how to play sports. I focused more on my schoolwork and music studies, and I couldn’t have cared less about what was going on with my body. This all changed when I met my husband in my freshman year of college: a very tall and athletic rock climber who inspired me to exercise and learn more about health and fitness. My newfound love of fitness grew through our climbing adventures around the world, and it eventually prompted me to pursue a career as a physician.
Fast forward to 2007 and the transition from medical school to Anesthesiology residency, where I felt the healthiest and fittest I had ever been. The future was bright with possibilities in all sorts of outdoor athletics and my budding career as a physician. As many MD trainees do, I had developed some bad habits related to food – like eating junk because it was free and available at the time you encountered it, as you never know when you’ll again have time for your another meal. Ironically, the medical establishment perpetuates these habits by providing the unhealthiest food free for the taking during our required lectures and call shifts… doughnuts, cookies, pizza, you name it. But for a year or so, this poor eating style failed to affect me much and I was able to keep a semblance of fitness. The Chronic Cardio queen that I had become kept slogging through post-call runs, group exercise classes, or rides in an effort to “stay fit” and counteract my poor nutrition with the math of “Calories In, Calories Out”.
When I started my specialty training in Anesthesiology, I began to feel the effects of chronic stress on my body and mind. While I couldn’t put a finger on it at the time, in retrospect I was not myself. I began to suffer depression, sleep disturbance, and a general lack of vigor that affected my work and relationships. I suddenly hated going rock climbing. My poor eating habits worsened in a vicious cycle of treat/reward and overexercise/remorse, and my then 35 year-old body started to show the effects. My previously “toned” (read: skinny-fat) body that could handle eating a half box of Lucky Charms after each step class was slowly becoming fat-fat. Being tall, this wasn’t too noticeable to the outside world, but I fell into an even deeper pit of self-loathing.
And yet… I continued to chow down on free hospital doughnuts, cookies, and cake at all hours of the day or night. I tried severe calorie restriction with “cheat days”, but the cheats turned into huge binges and the frequency increased from once a week to every other day! My cravings for sugar became insatiable. Any exercise I did in attempts to counteract this out of control situation was deteriorating in quality. In fact, I began to suffer an incredible fatigue that left me needing a nap after even a short walk. Getting up for an early morning cases in the OR became a daunting task.
I knew deep down that something was seriously wrong, but I chocked all of these changes up to my stress level and the general process of aging. The only “medical” manifestation I could report to a doctor was the absence of my period for the past several months. After much laboratory testing, it was decided that I had stress-induced amenorrhea, which was basically akin to saying that I had self-inflicted menopause at age 35. I was devastated! My estrogen levels were so severely low that I had started to show the signs of osteopenia on a bone density scan. A 24-hour urine study revealed high levels of calcium in my urine. My thyroid labs were out of whack. There was talk of scanning my head for tumors, which I immediately shirked. At the time, it all seemed like a ridiculous, far-fetched Zebra chase!
With the blessing of my residency directors, I took a leave of absence from my training program to embark on a mission: to fix my body through effective stress management and self-care. That’s when I embraced MDA, The Primal Blueprint, and other primal teachings from people like Nora Gedgoudas and Robb Wolf. My husband, being the early adopter that he is, was already fully on board with Primal eating… but I loved me some baked goods that I had not been able to part with! I learned meditation, completed a silent yoga retreat, internet/phone fasts, and a Primal 30-day Challenge during this time. I vowed to share what I had learned about the under-addressed areas of stress management and self-care with other professionals through a blog, now dubbed PracticeBalance.com.
After sufficient time for rest and learning these self-care techniques, I returned to work feeling (mostly) rejuvenated. My mind felt much calmer, but my body still continued to battle cravings, fatigue, and weight gain. My period still hadn’t returned, and some of the medical procedures that I perform as part administering anesthesia (especially those that involved visual-spatial skills) seemed to be lacking. I ran into my own doctor one day at work, who upon hearing my persistent troubles, insisted that I finally get a brain MRI. There it was… larger than a marble, a tumor shaped like a little octopus with its head pushing up into my midbrain and its tentacles wrapping around my optic nerve! I was both devastated and elated… maybe this was the key linking my strange, nonspecific chain of problems!
It’s been a little over a year since I had brain surgery to remove the tumor, which turned out to be a benign pituitary adenoma. After a long hospital stay with horrible headaches and even a re-admission for dangerously low blood sodium levels, I was left weak, bloated, and at my heaviest weight ever. My pituitary gland is still unable to signal the correct amount of cortisol production, resulting in the need to take steroid medications, and I have permanent peripheral vision loss in one eye. However, I am so grateful to be cancer-free and have essentially normal function. Being a patient in an ICU is an experience that I will never forget, and it has shaped my practice as a physician. I slowly became stronger while trying to take care to not get sick while finishing the final months of my residency program.
(Before and After pics above. Hover for caption.)
Since graduating from residency and transitioning to Anesthesiology practice, I have renewed my pledges to stress-management and self-care by embracing the Primal lifestyle. My high-protein, moderate carbohydrate Primal Blueprint diet leaves me satisfied and without insatiable sugar cravings, I lift heavy things 2-3 times per week, sleep an average of 8 hours a night, and take long walks with my husband and dog. I started rock climbing again this spring, and I recently completed my hardest climbing level in years! PracticeBalance.com provides me with a creative outlet and a means to share my experiences with others. My weight is down 35 pounds from my heaviest point, my pants are two sizes smaller, and my body fat has decreased by almost 10%. I don’t just feel like my “old self” again; I feel stronger and better than I ever have!
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Contest: Share Your Success Story
The Prize:
Artisana Butters – Courtesy of Artisana Foods, you’ll also receive one 16 oz jar each of Almond, Walnut and Cashew Butter, and one box each of Cashew Butter, Coconut Butter, Coconut Oil, Macadamia Nut Butter, Walnut Butter, Pecan Butter, and Almond Butter packets.
Raw? Organic? Delicious? Check. Check. Check. Seriously, this stuff is almost too good. If you’ve never had the pleasure of tasting one of Artisana’s many butters, grab a jar ASAP. You will thank me. I promise. Total retail value: $111.
Vibram FiveFingers – Another pair of Vibram FiveFingers! This is the third pair of FiveFingers offered in as many days here on MDA. What more can I say about them? I’ve owned more than a dozen pairs over the years. They are my primary footwear. And I can’t recommend them enough. Check out the video I did with Vibram here. The winner will get to choose their favorite men’s or women’s style and color.
Nick’s Sticks – Need a Primal snack? Like your beef grass-fed? Nick’s got you covered on both counts with his Grass-Fed Beef Sticks. His Snack Sticks are made with 100% grass-fed beef or free-range turkey and seasoned with Redmond organic salt. The lucky winner of these delicious treats will receive one 25-pack (2 sticks per pack) of beef sticks and one 25-pack of turkey sticks. Total retail value: $150.
Primal Essentials Kit – The winner will also receive a Primal Essentials Kit (Primal Flora (probiotics), Vital Omegas (omega-3 fish oils) and Vitamin D) – the three supplements just about everyone should be taking in my humble, completely unbiased opinion.
That’s nearly $400 worth of incentive to do something you’ve been meaning to do anyway. Pay it forward…
The Contest:
We’re just a few days into the 21-Day Challenge, but I know many of you have seen amazing results going Primal leading up to the challenge. Weight lost, muscle built, complexions cleared, even meds kicked. Now’s the time to share it! This means 
you have the opportunity to show the rest of the community who you are and what you’ve accomplished. In the process you’ll inspire thousands of people to take control of their health just as you have. I don’t know about you, but I get a kick out of that.
So for this contest I want to hear your story. Write it up and include a photo. Including both pre-Primal and post-Primal pics is even better, but not required. Don’t worry if you’re not a chiseled Adonis. This isn’t a “who’s the most ripped” contest. Whether you’ve lost 100 pounds over two years of Primal living or you’ve simply managed to kick that diet Coke habit, just tell me what going Primal has done for you. I’m looking for interesting and personal tales. Details about your health history, how you found MDA and the Primal Blueprint, what has worked and what hasn’t, what differences you’ve seen in how you look and feel, and anything else you think readers might be able to learn from and you’re open to sharing are welcome. It doesn’t have to be a thousand word diatribe, but hopefully more than a couple paragraphs. Feel free to be creative with your story format, too. Remember, good stories usually have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and honesty is king.
I’m sure many of you have thought about sending your story in, but just haven’t gotten around to it. There is no better time than now. I’ll be featuring reader stories throughout the 21-Day Challenge and beyond, so get yours in soon!
Email me your story along with any pictures . Please use the subject heading “My Primal Story.” Otherwise, there’s a good chance I may completely miss your submission.
Examples:
One of the most memorable stories published on MDA: The Unconquerable Dave. If you haven’t read it, do it now. You won’t regret it. YAWP!
View other Success Stories here for ideas on how to write your own story.
Eligibility:
From the United States to the United Kingdom and from New Zealand to New Delhi everyone is eligible. No restrictions.
Additionally, everyone that has submitted a Success Story to Mark’s Daily Apple since the last year’s Challenge is automatically entered to win, so don’t worry if you emailed me just a few days ago. You’re entered!
The Deadline:
September 26, midnight PDT. Less than two weeks away!
How the Winner Will Be Determined:
An executive decision will be made to determine which stories and accompanying photos get published on MDA. The winner of the prize package above will be chosen at random from those that are submitted.
To track all the contests visit the 2012 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.
Subscribe to the Mark’s Daily Apple Newsletter for Free eBooks, Weekly Challenge Updates and More!
September 13, 2012
Action Item #1: Eliminate SAD Foods
The fundamental key to success with any lifestyle modification is removal, elimination, and avoidance of the agents of opposition to your desired lifestyle. If you’re trying to read more books and stop watching reality television, you’re going to want to cancel your scheduled recordings of Jersey Shore. If you’re trying not to drink alcohol for a month, you’ll want to get rid of the beer, booze, and wine in your house. Heck, if you’re going vegan, you’ll want to toss all the animal products from your fridge, pantry, and freezer. And if you’re going Primal, whether if it’s for a 21-Day Challenge or just to get healthier in general, you need to eliminate the Standard American Diet foods that promise to thwart you at every twist and turn. It’s a pretty simple concept to understand, right?
It can be tough to put into practice, though, since these foods are staples for many. Some are even health darlings of Conventional Wisdom. Others are obviously junk, but junk often tastes good and lures you in to its sweet, salty, crispy embrace. Best to get rid of it altogether.
So, how do we do it? What are the foods we’re eliminating and why are we getting rid of them? You want the specific foods within the various categories to eliminate, and I’ve got ‘em for you:
Beverages
Why:
Most drinks are just sugar water masquerading as health beverages. They represent a massive, highly-dense source of insulin-spiking sugar without the vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber that normally come with the sugar found in nature (fruits and vegetables). Plus, sweet drinks don’t satiate as much as solid food, leading to overeating and weight gain without you even knowing it or feeling “full.” Anyone who’s ever had a large Coke disappear throughout their meal without its gradually developing absence impacting their ability to finish the meal knows this.
Common beverages to avoid:
Juices – Orange, apple, acai, pomegranate, grape, V8, Ocean Spray, etc.
“Juices” – Nectars, punches, fruit cocktail, grape drink, Sunny Delight, purple stuff
Designer coffees – blended iced coffees (Frappucinos and their ilk), mochas
Soda/soft drinks – diet and regular (even stuff with real sugar!)
Energy drinks – Red Bull, Rock Star, Monster
Sports drinks – Gatorade, Powerade, Vitamin Water
Further Reading:
Dear Mark: Sugar as Immune Suppresant
Baking Ingredients
Why:
When you pulverize a grain to make flour, you are creating an acellular carbohydrate. How this differs from a cellular carbohydrate is primarily its digestibility and the rate by which our bodies absorb its carbohydrate load. Whereas with a cellular carbohydrate, as found in fruits and tubers, we must break down the cellular walls to access the glucose, with an acellular carbohydrate that work has already been done. This sudden bolus of dense carbohydrate overwhelms our digestive tract, promoting an inflammatory gut flora and an impaired metabolism. That issue, plus all the other downsides that come along with grains (which I’ll be discussing later), make baking ingredients some of the first things you should be discarding. Besides, just what are you going to be baking?
Common baking ingredients to avoid:
Corn meal, starch, and syrup
All other starches and syrups
Flours (primarily wheat flour)
Certain edible powders – gluten, maltodextrin, powdered milk
Yeast
Further reading:
Dear Mark: Are Roasted Nuts and Nut-Based Baked Good Healthy?
Top 8 Most Common Reactions to Your Grain-Free Diet (and How to Respond)
Condiments and Salad Dressings
Why:
Most condiments and salad dressings are simply another way to make bad food taste good by heaping sugar and/or bad fat all over it. If you get a low-fat dressing or condiment, it’s undoubtedly loaded with sugar to make up for the missing fat. If you get a store-bought full-fat dressing or condiment, it’s undoubtedly loaded with rancid omega-6 PUFAs that contribute to systemic inflammation. You can’t win, so it’s best to just get rid of the stuff altogether.
Common condiments to avoid:
Honey mustard
Ketchup
Jam/jelly/preserves
Mayo, lite mayo
Low-fat salad dressings
Salad dressings made from soybean, corn, canola, sunflower, or safflower oil
Anything containing lots of sugar, HFCS, and/or PUFA oils
Further reading:
10 Delicious DIY Salad Dressings
Dairy Products
Why:
Not all dairy is off-limits, and, for those who tolerate it, certain types of dairy can actually be an incredibly healthy component of a Primal eater’s arsenal. But many others are intolerant of lactose and/or casein without even knowing it, and removing dairy from a diet previously rich in it can often reveal hidden intolerances. And I wouldn’t advise anyone to make a habit of using low-fat and non-fat dairy products, which are missing the vital fat-soluble vitamins, like vitamin K2, that make dairy such a nutrient-dense food. Going low- or no-fat also eliminates the conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a healthy, natural trans-fat that’s been linked to good health. Most studies have found that only full-fat dairy is associated with improved health outcomes, not low-fat or non-fat dairy.
Common dairy to avoid:
Processed cheese – Velveeta, Cheez Whiz, nacho cheese, American cheese
Ice cream and frozen yogurt
Low-fat and non-fat dairy – yogurt, milk, cheese
Sweetened yogurt
Further reading:
Dairy and Its Effect on Insulin Secretion (and What It Means for Your Waistline)
Bad Fats and Oils
Why:
Both trans-fats and added omega-6 PUFA-rich oils are unhealthy. Trans-fats from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils cause fat gain, particularly in the dangerous abdominal area, even when calories are held constant. Omega-6 fatty acids are necessary in the diet, but only in small amounts. Ideally, the dietary ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 should be around 2:1, which is the evolutionary norm. The SAD tends to promote a ratio closer to 20:1, leading to increased systemic inflammation. Another danger lies in the inherent instability of PUFAs; when exposed to heat (like in a deep fryer or on a skillet), omega-6 PUFAs quickly oxidize, making them even unhealthier and more inflammatory.
Common bad fats and oils to avoid:
Anything containing partially hydrogenated oils
Butter spreads and sprays – Country Crock, Smart Balance, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Promise
High omega-6 oils – corn, canola, soybean, sunflower, safflower, peanut, grapeseed, cottonseed
Margarine
Crisco
Most restaurants cook their food in these fats unless you request otherwise
Further reading:
Fast Food
Why:
Fast food is the perfect encapsulation of the Standard American Diet at its most alluring and unhealthy: omega-6 PUFAs, lots of carbs, sugary sauces, crispy salty deep fried (in the aforementioned oxidized PUFAs) breading on everything, low quality meat, high calories, low nutrient density. It’s the SAD wrapped up into a delicious, disgusting package.
Common fast food items to avoid:
Burgers, chicken sandwiches, fish filets, hot dogs
French fries, onion rings, jalapeno poppers, tater tots
Chimichangas, churros, chalupas
Further reading:
10 Ways to Forage in a Fast Food Nation
The Primal Blueprint Guide to Dining Out
Fish
Why:
When compared to wild-caught fish, farmed fish tends to fall short in several important categories. For one, farmed fish are lower in omega-3s and higher in omega-6s, especially predatory fish like salmon whose natural diet is harder to emulate in aquaculture. At least in the case of salmon, farmed is higher in contaminants than wild, including PCBs and dioxins. Plus, fish farming as it’s currently practiced in many areas harms the environment (PDF), causing run off into and pollution of adjacent bodies of water. That said, some wild caught fish high up on the food chain are too high in mercury for regular consumption, especially for pregnant women and children.
Common fish to avoid:
Most farmed fish, especially predatory fish like salmon
Breaded fish – fish sticks, fish filets, popcorn shrimp, fried calamari, fried oysters/clams/mussels
Large predatory fish high in mercury – shark, swordfish, king mackerel
Further reading:
Farmed Seafood: What’s Safe and Nutritious
Grocery Store Seafood: What to Eat and What to Avoid
Grains and Legumes
Why:
Grains and legumes contain significant amounts of antinutrients, including phytic acid and lectins, which impair digestion, reduce mineral absorption, and damage the intestinal lining. They’re also high in carbohydrates and, if you’re talking about grain or legume flours or flour products, those acellular carbohydrates which are particularly damaging. Overall, grains and legumes are simply unnecessary. They don’t offer anything you can’t get elsewhere.
Common grains to avoid:
Cereal grains – wheat, corn, rice
Pastas
Bread and flour products – baguettes, muffins, crackers, croissants, Danishes, graham crackers, pizza, pretzels, rolls, tortillas, Triscuits, Wheat Thins, rye, sourdough
Breakfast foods – pancakes, English muffins, scones, cream of wheat, oatmeal, grits, granola, waffles
Chips – corn, potato, tortilla
Cooking grains – millet, rye, barley, bulgur, amaranth, couscous
Puffed grains – Cheetos, Goldfish, popcorn, rice cakes, Pirate’s Booty
Common legumes to avoid:
Alfalfa
Beans
Peanuts, peanut butter
Peas
Lentils
Soybeans, tofu
Further reading:
The Definitive Guide to Grains
Meat
Why:
Though animals are often the centerpiece of the Primal Blueprint eating plan, not all meat is created equal. Processed meats and meat products, imbued with preservatives and sweeteners and binders and nitrates, are not nearly as beneficial as fresh animal flesh, bones, and offal. Nitrates, which aren’t dangerous in and of themselves (and even appear naturally in vegetables), can form potentially unhealthy, carcinogenic compounds called nitrosamines when subjected to heat, especially without the presence of antioxidants (which nitrate-containing plants have plenty of). Limited amounts of high-quality cured meats can be a welcome addition, but fresh meats should comprise the bulk of your meat intake. Factory farmed meat intake should also be limited, as access and finances allow, while grass-fed/pastured animal products should be strongly favored for their beneficial nutrient content and fatty acid composition.
Common meat to avoid:
Pre-packaged meat products processed with chemicals and sweeteners – sausages, dinner roasts, frozen meals, sliced lunch meats
Low quality deli/cured/smoked meats with preservatives and nitrates – pepperoni, bologna, ham, hot dogs, salami, bacon, Slim Jims, jerky
Fried, breaded poultry – fried chicken, hot wings, chicken fingers, chicken strips
Limit grain-fed and factory farmed meat and poultry
Further reading:
Meat Musings: Are Cold Cuts Primal?
Sodium Nitrite: Another Reason to Avoid Processed Meats
The Differences Between Grass-Fed Beef and Grain-Fed Beef
Processed Foods
Why:
In several ways, processed food takes too little effort to eat when compared with whole food. It’s instantly available, which means you can rip open a bag of something resembling food and mindlessly eat it while watching TV, whereas whole food must be prepared by hand. It’s also way too easy to digest. One recent study compared the energy expended by the body after eating whole food to the energy expended after eating processed food; energy expenditure required to simply break down and digest the whole food was twice that of the processed food. Processed food is also usually made with the usual suspects (PUFAs, sugar, grains) we try to avoid.
Common processed foods to avoid:
Bars: energy, protein, granola, fruit
Frozen dinners, breakfasts, and desserts
Sugary snacks
Chips, crisps, crackers
Further reading:
Processed Soy and Meat Alternatives
Soft Serve McNuggets and Hot Doctopus: Together at Last
Sweets
Why:
Sugar can impair insulin sensitivity and worsen blood lipids. PUFA oils can induce oxidative stress and worsen insulin sensitivity. Refined grains spike insulin to astronomical heights. Each item alone is cause to worry, but when you pack them all together – like in a donut – you produce a truly problematic food that compounds all those issues.
Common sweets to avoid:
Brownies, cake, cookies, cupcakes, pies
Candy, candy bars
Milk chocolate
Sweeteners – agave nectar, sugar, evaporated cane juice, high fructose corn syrup, brown sugar, powdered sugar, raw sugar, honey, molasses
Frozen desserts – popsicles, pushpops, ice cream
Further reading:
Dear Mark: How to Politely Pass on Dessert
What Happens to Your Body When… You Carb Binge?
The Definitive Guide to Insulin, Blood Sugar, and Type 2 Diabetes (and You’ll Understand It!)
Well, folks, what do you think? When you lay it all out like that, it can look a little daunting. That’s an awful lot of foods, including pretty much everything many people have grown up eating. And yes, it might be difficult at first, but it gets better. It gets easier. Heck, once you have everything dialed in and you’re humming along on all the amazing whole foods you can eat, you probably won’t even miss all that other stuff.
Let me know if you have any questions and stay tuned next week for Action Items 2-5! Grok on!
Learn More About the Primal Blueprint Action Items in The 21-Day Total Body Transformation
Contest: Make a Primal Blueprint Workout Video
The Prize:
A sandbag from Ultimate Sandbag - I’ve been using one of these bags for a few 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 the four sizes of ultimate sandbag (power, strength, challenge, or burly packages). Retail value: between $99 and $179.
Bonus: Use promo code “primal” to receive 15% off any purchase at Ultimate Sandbag for the duration of the challenge. And that’s not all…
A Praxis - In the department of simple/versatile, Praxis unrolls and attaches to a door, tree, fire escape, or anything else to give you six anchor points for your resistance bands. And yes, I’m talking to you P90Xers out there and anyone else who has been snapped in the face trying to jury rig a resistance band to a portable pullup bar in an over-sized door frame. Winner will receive both the Praxis and a heavy resistance band.
The folks at Praxis have set up a special landing page for MDA readers, complete with instructional videos. Click on over to get a $20 discount and free S&H for the duration for the challenge.
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 40 foot 1.5″ manila undulation rope. Retail value: $92.99.
A Square36 Workout Mat – 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. It retails for $99.99, but you can get one for free if you are the lucky winner of this contest.
A RadRoller – Massage. Release. Transform. That’s RadRoller’s slogan and that about sums it up. 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 two RadRollers.
Use promo code “MDA” and get 20% off your order for the duration of the challenge.
Vibram FiveFingers – Why not? For good measure the winner of this contest will take home a pair of Vibram FiveFingers. If you’ve read Mark’s Daily Apple at all in the last few years, you probably know how much I love these things. The winner will get to choose their favorite men’s or women’s style and color.
That’s the package. A sandbag, a Praxis, an undulating rope, a giant exercise mat, a RadRoller and a pair of Vibram FiveFingers. 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, created workouts for parents with no time, and ultimately, this was the winning video:
Here is the winning video from 2010:
In 2011 we had more great submissions (only 17 mind you, so participants had a good shot at winning):
Primal Blueprint Fitness: Primal Workouts in a Modern City
Primal Blueprint Fitness: My Daily Commute To Work
Primal Blueprint Fitness: MBF Tag
Primal Blueprint Fitness: MovNat Inspired Workouts
Primal Blueprint Fitness: Just Wing It!
Primal Blueprint Fitness: The Sandbag Complex
Primal Blueprint Fitness: Sunset Beach Grok!
Primal Blueprint Fitness: College Kid Complex
Primal Blueprint Fitness: A Family Affair
Primal Blueprint Fitness: Hitting The Books
Primal Blueprint Fitness: Evolution
Primal Blueprint Fitness: Animal Walks
Primal Blueprint Fitness: Fun-Family-Food
Primal Blueprint Fitness: Primal Sprints
Primal Blueprint Fitness: Grok Goes Hunting
Primal Blueprint Fitness: Home Workout
Primal Blueprint Fitness: Primal on the Playground
And here was the winning video:
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 24, midnight, PDT. Only 10 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 2012 Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge Contest Page for daily updates.
Subscribe to the Mark’s Daily Apple Newsletter for Free eBooks, Weekly Challenge Updates and More!
September 12, 2012
The Primal Blueprint 8 Key Concepts
With the Primal Blueprint 21-Day Challenge having just begun, it’s the perfect time to go over the Primal Blueprint 8 Key Concepts. I believe that fully grokking these powerful ideas is crucial to success during the challenge. As the saying goes, knowledge is power. Having a firm grasp of these key concepts will provide a framework for – and make you more resolute in – your daily decisions. Read them, commit them to memory, live by them, and you’ll be well on your way to a lifetime of health and wellness.
In the coming days and weeks, I will lay out the path to Primal health in greater detail, but for now, are you ready to learn the basics? Let’s get to it…
1. Yes, You Really Can Reprogram Your Genes
The popular conception of a gene is “a weird collection of DNA and chromosomes and other stuff that determines whether or not you’re going to get this type of cancer, how long you’ll live, and if you’ll get a coronary bypass at some point in your life.” There’s this idea that genes are immutable, that they represent a sort of cosmic destiny for an individual. But, aside from some heritable traits like eye and hair color or the number of fingers on your hands and feet, genes are actually programmable. They “express” themselves in different ways according to information gathered from our environment, our food, and our behaviors. They “turn on” or “turn off” in response to these environmental signals. Thus, though you might have “the gene for type 2 diabetes” – which is really just a genetic proclivity towards the disease, not a sentence – providing the right environmental signals will prevent the gene from ever turning on.
How we eat, exercise, sleep, interact with our social circles, stress, and spend time outdoors (plus tons of other environmental signals) determines how our genes express themselves; how our genes express themselves in turn determines our level of health. Genetic predisposition is not your destiny.
2. The Clues to Optimal Gene Expression Are Found in Evolution
While we can’t sit at a control panel and fiddle with our gene expression like a mad scientist just yet, we can make some very good guesses based on a powerful heuristic: human evolution. Reason being, two million years of selection pressure exerted upon the hominid line designed a healthy, successful, productive, vibrant organism. We didn’t just “happen,” after all. We look like we do and work like we do and have the genes that we do that express themselves the way that they do because of very powerful selection pressures. The habitats in which we lived, the foods we ate, the movements we had to perform in order to survive, the sunlight to which we were exposed, the stressors we faced – these environmental factors shaped our genetic code, and it is to these various environmental stimuli that our genetic expression responds most favorably. The clues to realizing our Primal Blueprint lies scattered amidst our evolutionary history.
Until that day when we can sit a computer terminal and decide which genes we want to express today, and how, the best we can probably do is use human evolution as a base level tool for making lifestyle decisions. You’ll probably refine the details later, but evolution is a darn good place to start.
3. Your Body Prefers Burning Fat Over Carbohydrates
We’ve evolved to be fat-burners (must be why we’re so adept at storing it on our bodies!). It’s easy to see why. Fat burns slow and evenly, providing all-day steady energy levels. Carbohydrates burn quickly, and they’re gone in an instant, leaving you groggy and depleted unless you “carb up.” Furthermore, carbohydrates are an inherently unreliable and fleeting source of energy for our body, with most people only able to store about 400-500 grams of carbohydrates on the body at any one time. Our storage capacity for fat, on the other hand, is virtually endless. Just ten or fifteen pounds of body fat, which is the bare minimum available on even the leanest individuals, can provide tens of thousands of calories. Luckily, reducing carbohydrates and increasing fat intake sends the epigenetic signals necessary to help us revert back to fat-burning, and it only takes a week or two to get things moving in the right direction.
Become fat-adapted, enjoy boundless energy. Free yourself from the shackles of a carbohydrate-based metabolism/dependency.
4. 80 Percent of Your Body Composition Success Is Determined by How You Eat
Food is the single most important factor in body composition. You can exercise all you want but as long as you’re eating garbage, and too much of it, you won’t get very far. For that reason, any real attempt to modify your body composition has to begin by addressing what you put in your mouth. I like to start with the quality of the food you eat. I don’t discount the importance of quantity, mind you, but I do find that honing in on the quality of the food is more crucial and effective. Case in point: 2000 calories of fast food will have a very different effect on your body composition, satiety, and nutrient intake than 2000 calories of grass-fed meat, wild fish, and produce grown in rich, fertile, nutrient-dense soil. The fast food won’t be as satiating, nor as nutrient-dense, as the real food, so you’ll likely be compelled to eat more of it. The fast food will primarily include trans- and polyunsaturated fats, sugary sauces, refined grains, and poor quality meat, which will promote insulin resistance and the storage of body fat while inhibiting fat burning. Eating Primal food, rich in animals, plants, and healthy fat, on the other hand, will normalize insulin sensitivity, thereby allowing fat burning. In effect, quality will determine quantity; you’ll eat less spontaneously when you eat healthy Primal foods. Quality paired with proper quantity will in turn determine your body composition.
Sleep matters, exercise helps, stress has an effect, but how you eat – what you eat and how much you eat – is the prime determinant of your body composition.
5. Grains Are Totally Unnecessary
Despite their exalted position in the Conventional hierarchy of healthy foods, grains are completely and utterly unnecessary. And yes, that even goes for whole grains. I mean, what’s so great about them, anyway? What unique nutrients do they provide? If you want fiber, eat vegetables. If you want antioxidants, eat colorful produce. If you want carbs, eat fruits and tubers. Humans got along fairly well without wide scale grain agriculture for many thousands of years, and there’s no real reason to buy in today, especially when you consider the grain antinutrients like gluten that impair digestion, reduce mineral absorption, and damage the intestinal lining. What is it, then, that necessitates 10-12 servings of whole grains a day? It’s madness. Besides, for all the supposed health benefits that the grain-obsessed like to say are supported with tons of studies, this just isn’t the case when you look a little deeper. Those studies invariably compare whole grains to refined grains, and in that case, the whole grain will generally win out. I’d suspect that if you compared a whole grain-based diet to a grain-free Primal way of eating, you’d get very different results. Unfortunately, that study hasn’t been done.
There’s nothing good in grains that you can’t get elsewhere, and plenty bad that you won’t find elsewhere. Don’t eat ‘em.
6. Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Are Not Your Enemy
Another popular health canard is that dietary saturated fat and cholesterol are horrible, evil things that seek only to clog our arteries, thicken our blood, and pad our waistlines. That’s crazy, of course. Fat, especially saturated fat, and dietary cholesterol are important building blocks for sex hormones like testosterone. Saturated fat helps us absorb nutrients from our food. Saturated fat is inherently the most stable fat, able to withstand heat and light stress without oxidizing, and it’s incredibly satiating. Cholesterol is crucial in the creation of vitamin D from sun exposure. And contrary to popular belief and the protestations of “experts,” neither saturated fat nor dietary cholesterol have been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Sugar, refined PUFA oils, trans-fats? Those are the real enemies. Oh, and consider this: every successful diet is actually a high-fat diet. When you lose weight, whether it’s through low-carb Primal or high-carb vegan, you are consuming ample amounts of highly saturated animal fat. The only thing is that this animal fat is coming off your body, but it’s still saturated animal fat just the same.
A diet rich in animal fat and cholesterol is not just safe, it’s downright healthy.
7. Exercise is Ineffective for Weight Management
Exercise is healthy. Exercise is necessary for lasting wellness. Exercise builds muscle and exerts beneficial effects on hormone expression and function. Exercise gets you strong, gets you fit, and keeps you young. I like exercise; I do some form of it every single day, and I recommend that you do the same. But exercise alone is highly ineffective for weight management. For it to truly help manage your weight, exercise must be paired with a healthy eating plan, adequate sleep, effective stress management, ample sun exposure, and healthy amounts of social contact with friends, family, and loved ones. Sure, some people take exercise to the extreme, training for hours and hours on end, all in the quest to burn a few hundred more calories, to “make up for” those donuts at breakfast, to eradicate those love handles. And if you go long enough and hard enough, yeah, you’ll “burn calories.” But at what cost? Exercise is a stressor, after all. Maintained at a chronic, extreme pace and frequency, exercise becomes a chronic stressor that does more harm than good. It makes you hungry. It increases systemic and local inflammation. It depresses your immune system. It fatigues you, leading to less activity throughout the day. You’ll eventually and inevitably burn out unless you eat a massive amount of calories to make up for all that you’ve lost, and, at that point, you’re back at square one.
You can’t out-exercise a bad diet and poor lifestyle.
8. Maximum Fitness Can Be Achieved in Minimal Time With High Intensity Workouts
Study after study shows that the key to optimal health, aging, and fitness is muscle strength and mass. The more lean mass we have, the better we’re able to handle what life can dish out, whether it’s carrying groceries, playing with our kids, saving our own lives in a life-or-death situation, or engaging in the time-tested essential activity known as love-making. Luckily for those of us who relish our free time, the most effective, most efficient ways to build and maintain lean mass are through intense strength and sprint training. Twice a week, spend 15-40 minutes lifting heavy things using functional, full-body compound movements – squats, pullups, pushups, planks – and once every 7-10 days, spend 10-20 minutes doing 8-10 all out sprints. If you don’t want to move heavy weights, you don’t have to; bodyweight exercises are plenty of stimulus for most people. And if you’re not ready to run sprints on a track, plenty of lower-impact alternatives exist, like cycling, swimming, rowing, or even uphill sprints.
Make your short, intense workouts shorter and more intense. Round them out with lots of slow moving – walks, hikes, and the like – throughout your everyday life, and you’ll be incredibly fit and well-rounded, in a fraction of the time most people presume is required. This is Primal Blueprint Fitness.
So, that’s it – the overview of the eight key concepts that comprise the Primal Blueprint. There’s more to it, of course – the 10 Primal Blueprint Laws are elementary and should also be studied – but for the purposes of completing and downright killing the 21-Day Primal Blueprint Challenge, these 8 Key Concepts provide a solid foundation for you moving forward.
What do you say? Does this sound doable? Does this make at least a bit of sense? Are you ready to get Primal?
Let’s do it!
Learn More About the Primal Blueprint 8 Key Concepts in The 21-Day Total Body Transformation
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