My Progress

I'm going to give you a brief update on your host's progress. Since my last photo update in September, you'll certainly be happy to know that I'm chugging along. It was quite some time ago when I was reading some stuff by Clarence Bass (make sure you see his photo at 70-years-old), where he said, "Lose fat slowly." I'm not even certain of his reasoning, but I tend to defer to guys that old (like Art), so credible in appearance. So, I've never worried about it. I typically drop ten pounds or so, hang out for 2-3 months, up & down, with every weight peak just a bit lower than the last, and then it kicks off again. You see, with Paleo / EvFit / Primal, you just never ought to have a worry. You're are applying sound, logical, 4-million-year-tested principles to your very own life. The source of my passion and what drives this blog: it has been well over a year since I even had a shadow of a doubt that this worked: unequivocally. And I'm not just talking weight; I'm talking fat loss, muscle gain, hugely increased energy, better blood markers: the whole enchilada to employ a...


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Paleo Trumps — the Science

Now, when I say "Paleo," I mean Paleo-like, i.e., not necessarily low in sat-fat. That said, my good friend in Scotland, Chris Highcock, came up with something this morning. I'd love to tell you what it is, but you're just going to have to hit that link above to find out.


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“Darwin, Evolution and the Paleo Life”

This is a must read from Keith Norris at Theory to Practice. Detractors of the Paleo lifestyle are wont to fly the flag of speedy/swift evolution as evidence of the supposed incongruence of the Paleo way vis-à-vis modern man’s interaction within his present-day environment. I'm not going to give too much away, cause I want you to go read it over there. I'll just add that I blogged on rapid evolution a few weeks back. Finally, the thing about rapid evolution is that we're talking changes over thousands of years vs. tens, hundreds of thousands, and millions.


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Life Spotlight

Two really great food & fitness blogs out there were Modern Forager and The IF Life. I say "were," because as of this last Monday, they are, sadly, no more. I'm sure longtime readers have enjoyed many of my posts highlighting and linking to various posts on those two great sites. They will be missed. ...But not too much; because Scott Kustes and Mike O'Donnell have teamed up on a new project, done one huge crapload of work by all appearances, and have created The Life Spotlight. Go have a look.


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You Asked; Mark Sisson Answers

That gentleman to the left? 55 years old. Somewhere along the line, I recall someone saying that we Primals ought not listen to anyone not willing to stand in front of you and take their shirt off. So, there you have it. My path to an eventual Primal life way in terms of diet and exercise (and a couple of other categories, when I think about it) began in May of '07. I had a little bit right. I reasoned that in order to recompose my fat body, I needed to build some muscle. What I got right is that I knew to shun the cardio equipment and go for the weights. I also -- somehow -- made it brief and intense, kinda by accident. I was familiar with "low carb" a-la Atkins and I knew it worked. I watched carbs a bit, but it was totally dis-integrated in terms of Paleo, EvFit, or the Mark Sisson Primal Blueprint. Since I was already a blogger, I wrote about it. It was one of my first one or two posts that a commenter said that some of what I was saying was reminiscent of Arthur De Vany. And what was eventually...


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Don’t Listen To Me! (Part 2)

I'm going to break with standard practice and go ahead and quote the whole thing, here, because there's no single part of that can be excerpted and it's just too important. Here's some resources to check out: My original post: Don't Listen To Me! Dr. Dwight Lundell's part 1 article: Heart Surgeon Admits Huge Mistake Dr. Lundell's book websites: The Great Cholesterol Lie; The Cure for Heart Disease Dr. Lundell's interview with Dr. William Davis of the Track Your Plaque program And now, here's part 2 of Dr. Lundell's heroic article. Take a moment to visualize rubbing a stiff brush repeatedly over soft skin until it becomes quite red and nearly bleeding. Let’s say you kept this up several times a day, every day for five years. If you could tolerate this painful brushing, you would have a bleeding, swollen infected area that became worse with each repeated injury. This is a good way to visualize the inflammatory process that could be going on in your body right now. Regardless of where the inflammatory process occurs, externally or internally, it is the same. I have peered inside thousands upon thousands of arteries. A diseased artery looks as if someone took...


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Admin Note

Mark Sisson just emailed over his answers to your questions. Very good and thorough (naturally). I ought to have an intro worked up, along with editing for form, by 8 a.m. tomorrow. You'll want to make FTA your first stop. Update: You Asked; Mark Sisson Answers


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Going Sweetless

New research out on Splenda, one of the popular artificial sweeteners. And Dr. Mercola has done a review of the study. There’s overwhelming evidence that consuming artificial sweeteners will likely wreak havoc on your body. Previous news has centered mainly around artificial sweeteners’ ability to impair your appetite regulation and leading to weight gain. For example, it’s been discovered that diet soda increases your risk of metabolic syndrome and, ultimately, heart disease. However, the study mentioned above, published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, found even further disturbing news besides weight gain. Splenda: reduces the amount of good bacteria in your intestines by 50 percent increases the pH level in your intestines, and affects a glycoprotein in your body that can have crucial health effects, particularly if you’re on certain medications They also found unmistakable evidence that Splenda is absorbed by fat, contrary to previous claims. I've been mostly "sweetless" for quite a while, now, and don't miss it a bit. The reason for not using them had nothing to do with the foregoing new information, however, but because they will tend to stall your fat loss or even cause you to put on fat even in the...


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A Tale of Two Mayo Clinic Dietician Morons

You've really got to love the Internet. Another thing I love is watching establishment, authoritarian "experts" -- who fake a livelihood and self-esteem regurgitating the party line -- get it right in the teeth. That's what happened to these two dumbshits, Jennifer Nelson, M.S., R.D. and Katherine Zeratsky, R.D. in this post ("For those with diabetes — there's more to it than carbs"). I'm not even going to quote any of it because it's just so dumb. 1+1=3 dumb; that's how dumb. But luckily, as of right now, 31 out of 33 commenters -- most of whom are T2 diabetics or successfully treat T2 diabetics -- have given the two morons a rash of real nice kicks in the teeth. Here was one of my favorite comments, by Debbie (of the two comments that were not kicks in the teeth, one was a question and another was a comment by the author of the post): This is the sort of article which helps reinforce the truth of the comment my son frequently makes: "If you want to understand human nutrition *never* ask a dietician or a nutritionist, ask a biochemist". I'm a T2 diabetic and thank God I'm pretty internet-savvy....


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The Camping Trip and Food

Just mostly food pics, all cooked by friends and family, especially my mom and two brothers. I actually brought food and ended up cooking nothing this time around. You'll soon see why I didn't bother.


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Outta Here

I'm headed off to pull the trailer. Camping with friends and family, in February. One of the benefits of living in California. I won't have Internet, so posting is very unlikely before at least Sunday evening. But, our camping trips are always about eating as good or better than we do at home. And, wall-to-wall, it's real food only. I'll take a camera and report back. Here's some things I put together from a couple of other trips: Roughing It Wing in a Bag By Popular Demand Camping Breakfast Camping Dinner Camping Breakfast II


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Don’t Listen To Me!

Instead, how about listening to a man who has held over 5,000 beating human hearts in his hands? Dwight Lundell, MD. Heart Surgeon Admits Huge Mistake We physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority often acquire a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to admit we are wrong. So, here it is. I freely admit to being wrong. As a heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries, today is my day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact. I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labeled “opinion makers.” Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol. The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart disease. Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice. It Is Not Working! These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease...


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High Intensity Sprinting for Diabetes

In the BBC, and I believe I saw this on Art's private blog. Short fast sprints 'cut' diabetes Rather than slaving away for hours in the gym, people should focus their attention on quick "sprints" with each workout lasting just a few minutes. James Timmons, Heriot-Watt University professor of exercise biology has studied the effects of quick exercise. He recommends 4 x 30 second sprints on an exercise bike three times a week. He said people could reduce their risk of diabetes and heart disease substantially with short, intense workouts - with such "time-efficient" exercising appealing to busy workers. [...] This involved the men going as fast as they could for 30 seconds and then taking a few minutes of complete rest between each sprint. After two weeks, Prof Timmons said the results were "substantial", with a 23% improvement in insulin function. While his research focused on young men, Prof Timmons said it would work for people of all ages and for both men and women. He said: "This study looked at the way we break down stores of glycogen. "Think about diabetes as being glucose circulating in the blood rather than stored in the muscles where it should be....


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Vitamin D and Muscle Power

One hopes it doesn't only apply to adolescent girls. For this study, researchers followed 99 adolescent girls between the ages of 12 and 14 years. Ward and her colleagues took blood samples to measure the girls' serum levels of vitamin D. Many of these girls were found to have low levels of vitamin D despite not presenting any symptoms. Researchers used a novel outcome measure called jumping mechanography to measure muscle power and force. Jumping mechanography derives power and force measurements from a subject's performance in a series of jumping activities. Ward says this method of testing is ideal as the muscles required to jump are those most often affected in subjects with vitamin D deficiency. Girls without vitamin D deficiency performed significantly better in these tests. "Vitamin D affects the various ways muscles work and we've seen from this study that there may be no visible symptoms of vitamin D deficiency," said Ward. "Further studies are needed to address this problem and determine the necessary levels of vitamin D for a healthy muscle system." Study: Vitamin D tied to muscle power in adolescent girls


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Jay’s Rapid Progress

In case you didn't see the comment. If there is one thing that will bring your body fat down, it is IF. I shot down from 19% to just over 10% in a very short time(third week of August to about a week and a half into September). I was gonna post pics on here for evidence. It was insane. The fasts were 18-20 hrs at most around twice a week. The goal of workouts is to maintain lean mass and gain some. Work on big muscles: chest, legs, shoulders and whatever accessory smaller muscles you feel help your lifts. Do compound movements: benches, squats, deadlits. I do 3 days of lifting, a Tabatha sprint protocol and plyos in the other two days. I also have one leisure day to do light lifting or sprint work as well. So to sum up, One full day off for sure, 2 big lift days, and the other just to get the heart going and physical activity. Then while reading Richard's site, I was sort of plateauing in the 10% range, but wanted to shred even more and so I fasted 24 hours two days a week. I also worked out first thing...


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Reader Food Pics

Time to see what some others out there are preparing. First up is something I know a lot of you have seen around the general low-carb website Intertubes. It's The Bacon Explosion. This is a bit more involved than The Bacon and Cheese Roll. Frankly, I never had much interest in doing either of those. I'm not eating cheese except as a spice nowadays, and while I do eat bacon and quality made sausage (no Jimmy Dean), the thing just didn't appeal to me. Now, reader Jessica has changed that for me and I do believe I'll give it a go. She made it much more palatable in my opinion. She emails: For my Paleo version, I mixed 1 lb course ground beef and 1 lb ground pork with some fennel, sage, oregano, S&P, and used that for the sausage layer. I put olives and cheese in the middle instead of more bacon, and I used a seasoning blend of jamaican jerk spices, chili powder, smoked pimento powder, and a poultry seasoning from Whole Foods that contains red pepper, lavender and mustard seeds. I was going for something spicy, garlicy, a little bit smoky, and salty...It was phenomenal! Next up,...


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Fat Head The Movie

It's finally done and on sale. There's also a website with various short clips from the film and I encourage you to watch them. They're funny. Especially the ones that show Morgan Spurlock to be the Moore-esque big fat liar that he is. This one is my favorite: And, finally, doc Eades did an interview with the film's producer, Tom Naughton.


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January in Review

Another record month for traffic, with nearly 30,000 visits and over 50,000 page views. Awesome, thanks to you readers, and especially: you commenters. If you're a reader who's not taking in the comments, I encourage you to give them a try. There's lots of addendum info on almost every post, lots of anecdotes and personal experience, and lots or people who know what they're talking about. Very often, questions are being answered by other readers with particular insight or very similar experience. Feel free to ask questions in comments. Most Popular January Posts So Far Oprah's Recipe for Failure -- And My Recipe for Success We Live in a Zoo Hunger Vitamin Supplements What Do You Think You Know About LDL Cholesterol? Blogs Referring the Most Readers to Free the Animal in January Whole Health Source Mark's Daily Apple Conditioning Research Arthur De Vany Theory to Practice


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What You’re Up Against

If you're a type 2 diabetic, the standard medical treatment of insulin supplementation is based on your continuing to eat a diet "rich in whole grains," sugar, junk, and so on. In essence, you're supplementing with a powerful hormone that does all sorts of damage to tissues long term, so you can eat cake, pie, bread, candy, sodas, etc. You're taking a drug in order to eat inferior, less nutritious (or anti-nutritious) food. It's that factual; that simple. Now, I certainly imagine a need for insulin supplementation for some few people, but I doubt most. Dr. Bernstein's free forum, for instance, is chalk full of former type 2 diabetics who became more knowledgeable than the doctors treating them, cut out the junk, went high fat, and cured their diabetes. Natural dietary fat is the key and secret. The root cause of America's obesity and diabetes epidemic is ignorant fear of fat. Now, today, a couple of readers send me a link to a BBC article. Alzheimer's 'is brain diabetes' When I saw the title, I assumed it might be something to substantiate what we Paleo types continually drone on about: eat a nutritious diet, one that does not include non-nutritious,...


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King Fat

Reader Andrew sends a question in email. After discovering I was Celiac, I found Celiac.com, then the Paleo diet, then Art De Vany's Blog, then yours. Thanks for the blog. I've got a quick question that I couldn't figure out where to post. I'm still pretty new to the Paleo diet. It's been working great, but I want to make sure I'm not [edited] myself up. So I know that we probably can't get more than 35% of our calories from protein (I guess the kidneys fry?), but even if I eat 20% of my calories as plants, this leaves 80% of my calories coming from meat. If I eat 20% complex carbs, 30% protein, then 50% of my carbs to come from fat, right? Where do I get the fat from? Should I simply eat a lot of avacados and olive oil? Or does most meat have enough fat that it's not a problem? Andrew: You're exactly right. Now, your kidneys won't fry at all; you will simply find yourself incapable of overdosing on meat (i.e., you'll eventually get sick and puke). Yes, explicitly: fat is the secret to success. This is why I eat both fatty and lean...


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