The Evolution of Paleo: Free the Animal, Richard Nikoley and even the Sock Puppets
My own evolution is forever ongoing.
For long, it seemed most natural to distinguish myself from the general paleo by relying on my blogging experience, going back to 2003 (paleo didn’t enter the scene until mid-2007—5 years later). paleo definitely grew the blog substantially; but only to a point (quadrupled, essentially), where it has remained for some time.
It’s time to evolve, again. In know: it’s so unseemly. Evolution stopped 10-12,000 years ago and our job, now, is to contrive doctrines (‘X ways to Y’), because people still want their Neolithic spoon feeding. But I got into blogging in the first place simply because I enjoy writing what I think in any given moment and the fact that I have hundreds of thousands—millions even—eyeballs on that over time is a welcome reward. And I’m not kind or placating or pandering, or blogging about the “popular,” even.
It really is. It’s amazing, when you think about it. I’ve never, ever had the misfortune of this idea: oh, I have to blog something. Usually, I have to sit on my ideas for a while. I tend to email those ideas to myself, let them age and ripen in my inbox, and then see a few days later if I still want to blog about them. That’s a lot of my posts. And then there are the others—ironically the most popular, at least in terms of comment hysteria—where I have an idea, and 30-60 minutes later, it’s a post. I never limit myself. I never second guess myself: I shut my eyes, grit my teeth, and hit Publish. Let chips fall.
Way back in the paleo of Paleo (we’re in the Neo-Paleo, now), everyone was so excited. I’ve always embraced such excitement. …In 2nd grade, I became enamored of dinosaurs. For two years, it was all I could talk about (ask my mom)…until volcanos came into my sphere of awareness around 4th grade. That lasted until I discovered motorcycles in the 5th. Cars overtook that in the 6th or 7th. Eventually…finally and, even concurrently, I noted that girls did indeed exist and by some inexplicable miracle of the way things out to be, they had been cured of cooties.
Thank Venus and Aphrodite. …All yooz, too.
There are many ways to reflect upon a life lived. My preferred way is in the context of passions embraced and acted upon. That’s ultimately a recognition of the finiteness of life—to me, an aesthetic and atheistic ideal wrapped in one; and if not in theory: at least in practice. I’ll take it.
In terms of the quotidian nature of the blog and its comments, I myself have become weary of the sort of “moderation” of comments I’ve used over the years. Rather than delete or ban, they get a “fuck off;” or, ‘I see you have some point,’ “fuck you.” That kept things honest to my mind, because I always go out of my way to celebrate really contributive or thoughtful comments to balance everything out: keep the gods placated and the entire Universe as a whole in balance because, y’know, we’re “all in this shit together.”
Alas, there are still too many monkeys screeching in trees, and so my passion for that sort of ideal has really been a failure, ultimately. In reality, there are less than 1% of regular readers who actively comment. In a sense, they are partners with you (me) in whatever you’re (I’m) trying to achieve. And, they get to know each other, which creates a coffee shop or pub, of sorts…if not hookups, and mum’s the word.
…Sock puppets, on the other hand, only scan for masturbation opportunities (they just use their sock on a different appendage).
Nonetheless, I’m tired of it in the general evolutionary scheme of things and so I just delete any comment I don’t like and that doesn’t contribute to the general positive discourse. From here out, I’m going to do this differently, since if I delete a comment that has replies under it, they go away too. I’m simply going to edit the comment:
“This moron’s comment has been redacted to zero by this blog’s owner.”
See, I always do things differently.
On to the practicalities
I love how someone needs to tell me in comments they’re not going to read anymore, and why. I’m deleting or redacting those, too. Just stop reading, if that suits you. I agree to not come into your living room and tell you why I think you’re a pathetic reader in the first place.
Richard is so fat. That he had a serious injury causing chronic pain over many months—and much self medication—doesn’t matter. I’m disqualified—by 20-somethings who never helped anyone—from helping anyone, in spite of helping very many…a lot kinda just like me. …I’m at a disadvantage in this because of the Neolithic idea of ideal body comp. For instance, my legs, arms, back and ass are quite lean. For example, quite easy for me to have a ripped back.
A Year
That was over a year of progress, mid 2009 – mid 2010, about 6 months before the injury that changed everything physical and mental for me. Sock Puppets Don‘t Care; Sock Puppets Don‘t Give a Shit.
Nope: frontal 6-pack, or you’re fucked. Yea? Fuck you. In fact, I come from complete ice age, northern European stock, according to 23andMe, on both sides. Every single relative of mine, male and female, has the bulk of body fat on their stomach. Everyone, me included, has lean feet & legs, hands & arms, and backs. None of us store any appreciable fat on buttocks, hips, or back.
But I just move along. It is very difficult for me to explain the complexity of my state of mind when I get a sock puppet like that in comments. I used to engage for fun, but at 52 in January, I’ve come to realize they aren’t worth anything more that a smile and delete. I have a ton of projects on my table, including a hopeful departure from “The Land of the Free,” eventually. My life will be a complete failure if I don’t get off this sinking ship (if not in practical terms, philosophic, which is important to me). My abiding passion is to be an emigrant from the United States…to film the burning of my US passport. I don’t want to die an American, anymore. I don’t want to be an American, anymore.
…But I’m excited about a lot, again and finally. So, with my milk escapades and back in the gym, I’ve gained 2 nice solid pounds in the last three weeks. That is, my shirt is tighter around the shoulders, back & chest, my pants tighter around the thighs, belt in a notch. In a word: fucking amazing. OK, two words… (you only have to listen to the fist 1:30 to get the reference).
Eventually, I’ll want to look to lean a bit—but maybe not a lot. Frankly, I’m a solid Northern European mesomorph and I prefer big & strong. I got down to 175 (pics here), looking almost ectomorphic, and that was really the turning point for me from feeling great all the time to feeling like shit all the time—cold hands, feet, bad attitude, etc. And I still didn’t even have “abs.”
..In other news, the workouts are sublime and I have managed to avoid even a hint of further injury. Even though it’s so difficult to not push myself, I’ve gone from deadlifts at 205 for 3 sets of 5 reps, to 255 for 3 sets of 5 reps, and even that was fucking easy. Thanks for all the concern and I appreciate it. I love DLs above all, and I’m going to do them classic, and I’m going to get over 300# once again. I’m built for it. I love it, and I have no fear, just caution.
A modest goal: 300# DLs or better, up until the very last breath.
Fuck sock puppets.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT AND HOW IT WORKS
Free The Animal is an eclectic writing project about everything since November 2003. 23 years, 5,500 posts, 5 million words.
It's a paid membership blog. Most posts are free and public, but only paid members can comment. What determines whether it's free or paid is when I publish. Monday through Friday, free and public. Saturday and Sunday, for paid members. That's it. Membership info here.
Crap removal?! Yes! Thank you thank you thank you!
Loud voices and banging on tables in pub, great.
Shit-piles here and there, yuk.
Now, about that beer….
I injured my lower back years ago going for a PR in a deadlift and I am very careful with them ever since. At 54 years of age, injury prevention is a big deal to me, it totally sucks being injured. I have made great progress with very heavy farmers walks. You probably know Dan John, the great coach. I highly recommend his stuff for guys getting up there like us. he is also a fan of Art De Vany. I have also begun exercising in a more seasonal manner.
Simon,
If you don’t mind me asking, what type of progress have you seen with farmer’s walks? I’ve been experimenting with them lately since I have no experience with lifting, and the mechanics seem quite simple for a beginner like me.
I love the blog. It’s helped me in so many ways, even though I’m still fat and working on it. I’ve got a girlfriend who can’t believe how good I smell and actually had to check my shower to make sure I wasn’t lying about the soup. SO many other good things.
I’m writing tho because the body comp fascists really do need to go fuck themselves. There’s healthy and there’s healthy, you know? I mean sure, we’re all masters of our bodies, we can choose to be 5% or 15% bodyfat if that’s your thing, but there’s also certain biochemical realities, there’s cost and time, and there’s fucking human variance. Can someone look like a beefcake from 300 if they eat 1000 calories a day and train for 6 hours a day? Sure! Did the average paleo ancestor look like that, ripped, vein-y, water starved, etc? Not if he was healthy.
Someday soon I’ll be lean, I’m trying, I’m doing the work. But I’m never going to be “thin”. I mean maybe I might have a sixpack (hah) but I’ve been tested – ok, yeah, I’m 300 lbs right now, but I’m 6′ and like 30% bodyfat with a 54″ chest. Meanwhile the trainer points out another guy who is “thin” at 200 lbs and he looks terrible. I ask and he’s at 40% bodyfat. I asked if it was possible to have a 32″ waist if I lost enough weight and the trainer dug his fingers through the fat at my hips and measured and pointed out that my BONES are wider than 32″.
I’m not built for wearing skinny jeans, I’m built for fucking fieldwork. According to my Dad I come from umpteen generations of Sicilians who only did two things – work on farms and shoot northern Italians. But unless I wanted to get insane and ripped I bet most comp fascists will look at a picture of me someday and tut tut.
So seriously folks – if you feel good, you are disease free and strong and fit and active – being able to see the striations on your muscles doesn’t look healthy to me. It looks like you’re the guy who starves to death first.
Where do you plan to emigrate to?
Big toss-up on that score but almost certainly someplace tropical, very low cost of living, beach, and relatively protected from no-shit tropical storms.
Seriously? How could you leave the greatest country on Earth?
House Hunters International is the TV show!
Thanks Simon. Just queued it up on the DVR, new and repeats.
The older we get, the more difficult it becomes to find a ‘safe haven’. Potential healthcare issues are a problem. It’s not that simple to change citizenship at our age. Possibly you may be eligible for German citizenship, get an EU passport. But then again, regardless, you end up with government sticking its proboscis into your private life.
Except for difficult access (boat from Capetown, South Africa, no airport yet or maybe ever) the island of St. Helena appears to be an excellent spot: good climate, great walking trails, all organic farming, grassfed animals, expensive internet, you must have health insurance to land, potential terminal boredom…somewhere there must be some grafitti: ‘Napoleon was here.’
For right now my working hypothesis is either someplace in Asia that I know well, Thailand, PI, etc., or, one of the Central American countries.
In the alternative, you could to opt for becoming a stateless individual.
from Wikipedia:
“The United States, which is not a signatory to the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons nor the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, is one of a small number of countries which will allow its citizens to renounce their citizenship even if they do not hold any other. The Foreign Affairs Manual instructs State Department employees to make it clear to Americans who will become stateless after renunciation that they may face extreme difficulties (including deportation back to the United States) following their renunciation, but instructs employees to afford such persons of their right to give up citizenship.[35] Former Americans who have voluntarily made themselves stateless as a form of political protest include Garry Davis, Thomas Jolley, Joel Slater, and most recently Mike Gogulski.”
In my youth I would fantasize on an existence similar to what Harrison Ford unsuccessfully managed to pull off in the move “Mosquito Coast.” Today, not so much. This is more my speed This place is seemingly a cross between Galt’s Gulch, and Napa Valley.
A friend lives in Thailand. She and hubby get maybe $1200/mo combined in Social Security and they live well. Something like $400/mo for gated house, maid service, most utlities. Same price but per YEAR for cable TV and internet. She uses Magic Jack for phone. Works great.
Still healthy enough to pay cash for needed medical services. But they are fairly isolated, plane fare is a lot.
And just like anywhere in the world, they do get storms. Remember all the flooding a year ago?
Nice. I have fantasies of New Zealand myself. But maybe some other place would be nice. The problem is to find a place that will respect the rule of law.
NZ seems a nice place to retire.
I’m a kiwi, born and bred. Haven’t done that much traveling but can’t imagine living anywhere else on this earth for any sustained period of time. It seems like we have it pretty good here.
I’m big enough. My waist is touching 50″, double chin, and I have to heave my belly out of the way if I want to have sex. But I just had a big round of bloodwork, mri’s, ultrasounds, etc etc and other than one or two issues the doc was surprised how healthy I was for being so overweight. My guess is if I really work hard at it, I might end up in the 220’s – not the 180’s that my “height” says I should be.
Neo-Paleo? I’m pretty sure we’re Post-Neo-Paleo now. Get with the times
A post in which I can relate. Next month I’ll be 56 and some days I feel it. At 35 my knees when to crap but I was too young for new bionic ones..then a herniated disc in L5 a few years later… Today I enjoy shoulder issues that are getting worse knowing a MRI is in the near future. Three years ago I weighed 280…last summer 187…presently 197. Summer a year ago, I worked out 2 hours a day after work determined to get a toned 30 year old body. I managed to get more toned than I have ever been, but far from where I wanted to be. Then life got in the way, free time became scarce and workouts became erratic.. hence the 197..
Paleo has done wonders for me but where are the middle age people with failing skeletons to share guidance. Sprints…right..walking fast pounds my knees. Guess if a bear is chasing me I’ll get a wrestling match because I’m sure not running. Swinging from the trees, doing pull ups and push ups. Laugh, the noise from my shoulders during push ups wakes the dog. CrossFit..P90X…Insanity… Well I can watch the videos.
Maybe I’m jealous because I’m unable to do some of the most basic body weight exercises without modifying them to prevent further injury. Maybe I’m pissed because I didn’t care to get healthier when I was younger, partying got in the way and old age ailments weren’t suppose to come until I was seventy. Guess I’ll just do the best I can using what I have to work with and be happy with the success I’ve had..all while knowing the young paleo absolutist day is quickly approaching.
Jsthrower, give yourself some credit. Going from 280 to 197 is an achievement! Get the knee replacement surgery done! I know 7 men and women ranging in age from 53 to 76 who have had it done and they are all delighted with the results. Some got one knee at a time, some both at once. The rehab is long, painful and tough but worth it. Really, it can change your life.
You might want to consider doing research into joint health. I was actually experiencing something like your symptoms in my early twenties (after a life of SAD that was nevertheless quite active, and my SAD did not include lots of fast food or soda, at all). The nicest thing Paleo did for me was give me back my joints (over time). The pain just slowly went away. The popping stopped. I think the fat might have helped, but I know there are other things you can take (e.g. De Vany’s favorite supplement, whose name I don’t want to butcher here: it might be something like glutathione). I also recommend working out using lower weights (on problematic joints), fewer repetitions, and consider farmer’s walks. Kettlebells are nice, since they can be larger or smaller, and even the largest ones commonly available are nevertheless not going to break your back (or elbows or knees).
You don’t necessarily have to fall apart. You don’t have to work too hard either. In my experience, eating and sleeping were what cured my joints (and eventually let me be active again without injuring myself).
Joseph make some excellent points. Personally I found that taking a tablespoon of fish oil, not the capsules, and a tablespoon of flaxseed oil most days worked wonders for my joint pain.
I’ve heard anecdotally including from my parents, that the 1/2 g capliques of krill oil, 1 per day, does great from joint pain.
Cod liver oil helped me, I think. I still take it semi-regularly (when I remember and it is available). Eating free-range eggs helped, too. I am rather poor and temporally challenged, so I don’t get regular access to liver or fancy supplements (like glutathione). But honestly, the difference after a few years avoiding wheat and eating the oil and eggs (and other things, too) was stark (and quite liberating: part of me was hearing and buying into the cultural narrative that has me being over the hill at 30; it was kind of jarring to get up one morning and realize, “I feel better than I did ten years ago! I can work harder for a longer time, and my joints hurt less”).
I’m now fifty-eight. I have no affectations of setting even personal records on dead lift this, bench press that, etc. Instead I focus on all the free time I have by implementing Doug McGuff”s “Body by Science” method. I do about a twenty minute workout every seven days, and I’m done. No joint problems, or other symptoms associated with foisting the heavy weights about. I’m naturally strong, with a swimmers build. In earlier years before I adopted the idiotic government pyramid scheme, I was built very close to Michael Phelps, at 6’4″, long torso, short legs, and no ass. Today, not so much, (I weigh 215) but I look a hell of a lot better than most retired swimmers who gain weight, even though I resembled them before going primal. The point is, I don’t have a short, and stocky power lifter’s build, therefore I prefer to work within my limitations. No swimmer no matter how strong they are, will ever lift as much as a power lifter, and of course, no power lifter will swim as far, and fast as a swimmer. Above anything else though, whether it is HIT, or primal eating, it is my implementation of the Feldenkrais method. I practiced Aikido for many years, and after long weekend seminars, I noticed how, when Monday morning sneaked upon us, everyone came to the dojo dragging their ass as though the just finished SEAL hell week. All but some gals in their fifties, and sixties who (I was in my late thirties, early forties) who practiced Feldenkrais. They came in fresh with smiling faces, and energy… lots of energy! There are those who dispute Feldenkrais saying it is all hippie, new age, woo woo bullshit. If Feldenkrais were any of those, I wouldn’t go within a country mile of it. What it is for me, is a common sense approach that allows me to move naturally, and pain free. I’m not proselytizing here, but check it out on the internet. I really works, and may be a panacea to all those aches, and pains. feldenkrais.com/ youtube.com/watch?v=Mw0JgOk_cPE&feature=relmfu
Hey, Richard – You need to get in on the potato action. Ray Cronise is working on a plan where people are eating just plain potatoes and losing nearly 1 pound a day and not getting hungry. It’s the latest craze on Mark’s Daily Apple and Ray is promising to release the secret to why it works soon, but he will be charging money to tell why. I’d love to see you figure it out for all paleo!
and
http://www.potatofast.com
Nice plug.
Disingenuous.
You are a silly troll. Ray is doing no such thing.
I have double tested potatoes, zero protein, and a few other sources of energy. Some interesting findings. Though, my body is tired of being the subject.
The gut/single source energy is the key in my experiment.
Wrong-o! Ray has it figured out! Look at comments in last two blog pieces…www.hypothermics.com
Potato is a singularly unique food in that it has a complete amino acid profile and a good supply of fat. Put 2lbs of potato in a nutrient calculator, you’ll be surprised.
Secret is all potato, plain as possible, 7 days min, 14 days for max benefit. Has to do with satiety, amino acids, gut flora, thermogenic capacity, and calorie restriction w/o feeling hunger…perfect storm for fat loss.
Look at last 12 or 20 pages of the Mark’s Daily Apple thread, dozens of people losing pounds faster than IF, carb refeeds, calorie restriction, ketosis, and cold baths combined.
Real Deal and Ray cracked it! Just hate that he will be charging for it.
The ‘potatofast’ website was just an off-shoot from the thread, someone saw the potential of the diet and wants to be the first to make money off Ray.
My comment of “ray is doing no such thing” was in regard to you making it sound like Ray was about the money.
The “secret” is not about the potato/rice. It was more simple and easy to get people involved that way. You can pick other foods and do the same thing.
That you linked to the potato site and not the original source made me wonder a bit about your intent.
Jscott, please elaborate. Sounds like you’ve got something worth sharing there… What are the findings?
Not me so much. I tested, along with several others, what Ray was talking about. The point has gotten lost in the “diet.” He takes issue with the use of Protein/fat/carbs labeling as anything meaningful. The potato/rice 14 day experiment was started in a the comment thread about gut health.
hypothermics.com/2012/06/no-guts-no-glory-part-2/#comments (close to 400 comments now)
Part of the point was to look at one’s relationship with food. Things change when you eat for energy. You can not help but deeply question why you eat and what you eat. It is interesting to think about all the trickery we use on food. Oil. Butter. Strip sugar of fiber to get just the good stuff, SUGAR(!) That is just dealing with “whole food” without the Pringles.
The comments are fucking great. Like this one:
and this:
That’s b.s. as a kid during the WWII in Germany, I survived almost completely on potatoes for the last months of the war. Then nothing but weeds for a couple more months after the war was over, because there was no food to be had.
How much does the [redacted] intend to charge? It seems the “secret” is available for free at the top of the thread on MDA:
“Here’s what you do to lose 1/2 to 1 pound a day for up to 14 days. Eat potatoes. The only thing else you can eat is salt (sparingly), vinegar (all you want), hot sauce, ketchup (very sparingly), soy sauce (very sparingly and only fermented), spices–especially cayenne pepper.”
I have no doubt that people can lose lots of weight on a diet of nothing but plain potatoes, the problem is that nobody can stick to a diet of nothing but plain potatoes.
Anyone who doubts this can do a little self-experimentation, all you have to do is eat 4 pounds of potatoes each and every day with no butter sour cream etc. Imo most people would fold during the first day, eating that much potato is a fricking ordeal.
Ha Ha – That’s what everyone thinks! Rays protocol is going to go something like this, from what I can piece together: Eat a nutrient dense/calorie poor vegan diet, utilize mild cold exposure, and periodically eat only potatoes for fat loss.
The vegan diet and cold exposure are for long-term health (Ray’s thoughts not mine), the potatoes are for fat loss. The beauty of the potato part is it should only be needed if you end up gaining back some weight…then you feast of potatoes to shed the extra poundage. I tried it, it works. Dozens on his site tried it, dozens on Mark’s Daily Apple. It is highly predictable and repeatable. Works for first 10 pounds or last.
Ray has morbidly obese people on this plan, cycling potatoes for hundreds of pounds of loss. He’s getting ready to publish some peer-reviewed stuff and then go commercial. I posted this here in the hopes Richard could crack the story for paleo since he and Ray are buds.
It’s so simple, it’s going to have to be mystified for anyone to make money, but bottom-line: Eat potatoes, the simpler the better, til full, for 7-14 days for 1/2 – 1 pound of fat loss per day. No muscle wasting, no hunger.
I am in complete agreement, you can easily lose weight eating nothing but potatoes. The reason is that you are consuming very few calories, and therefore starving yourself. A pound of potato has 350 calories and very few people have what it takes to consume 6 pounds of potatoes in a single day, so of course you are going to lose weight.
There is nothing new or different about losing weight by starving yourself. Potatoes, rice, whatever, if you keep it to 1200 calories a day you will lose weight.
I don’t think one probaly even needs to make them as unpalatable as plain or with salt & pepper only. The guy that did the potato deal that hit the news was using some olive oil.
Here’s another idea. If you peel and cube your taters, then use a wok, it takes only about a teaspoon of fat of choice (butter, ghee, coconut oil, olive oil) to toss them and coat them. Then onto a cookie sheet, 400F for about 20 mintes with a toss & turn at about the 12m point. Add some salt and it’s going to be pretty decent.
Once you start to make them palatable it never ends, soon you are eating the equivalent of the “Loaded Potato” at Chili’s or whoever serves that 950 calorie thing.
I think potatoes are great, I eat them all the time, but to think that people with a food problem are capable of eating the potatoes without turning them into something that will make them even heavier is imo fantasy, Palatability is like the Dark Side Of The Force, it is impossible to resist.
What makes potatoes a great food is that they are very filling and they are not very palatable, which means you can eat them to your heart’s content and still get thinner, it is a job of work to make a meal out of potatoes, but you start monkeying around with the potato and all of a sudden you are eating more fat than starch, and at that point are you still eating a potato?
The best way to ruin a perfect food is to make it taste good.
Yea, I spoke to Ray on the phone some months ago and he clued me in on the basics of this and our point of agreement was that potatoes do indeed have a quality amino profile. Of course, there was the guy who did an all potato diet that was featured in the news. I think he had a bit of OO with his. I think it was 20 days or something like that and he had to stop because weight loss was so precipitous. Peter recently mentioned this and theorized as to why suck rapid weight loss in a very high carb regime.
It’s interesting. I personally see no problem with giving it a try for a week or two. I might be inclined to try some hybrid of milk & potato, or, cycle it. Interesting.
If you do a blog on this people will try it. The only ones who won’t lose weight are the ones who want to prove it can’t work and forcefeed themselves. A normal human will end up eating about 1/2 their normal daily calories and be full. That is the magic–nature’s HCG.
This will be bigger than anything out there. The world needs a drug-free, easy way to keep weight in check. Potatoes are it. Don’t let this get hidden away in a for-profit scheme. No one has used potatoes in this way. People will debate for years on why this works (food reward, insulin management, leptin, amino acids, gut flora, calorie restriction, increased thermogenesis, and on). Try it a week with milk and a week without, the week without will work better, though, I’ll bet.
I’m done talking–got your attention. Please run with it!
i wonder about how effective of potato in long term maintenance.
(but i do agree that potato is a great food.)
SG interviewed that guy.
it was like 2 or 3 months?
he used canola oil or OO.
[Sock puppetry deleted. Drama averted. -RN]
[Sunsequent trolling attempt one deleted within seconds. -RN]
I don’t think calling himself a mesomorph is a cop-out, per se. He could chisel down more if he dropped the booze, ate perfectly, but to what end?
I feel the same way. I’m at 6’3 @ 193lbs, and I have people tell me I look skinny instead of ripped. I can’t get that last bit of fat off without going completely hardcore, and then I feel like I would look emaciated. I don’t want to sacrifice lean mass to just knock off that little bit of extra adipose I carry at the love handle region. All the men in my family are tall, narrow shouldered, and have thinner frames. We’re Germanic and I believe a cross between ecto-mesomorph. You are a product of your genes to some extent.
Yup, I feel ya! Simply being a woman can make fat loss a challenge due to hormones, yet the media still tries to convince us abs are ideal and healthy. I changed my eating and workout habits, and at 5’4″ I went from 148 to 125 lbs. I was bummed b/c I still had love handle/bellyfat. Then I remembered when I was a 113-lb high school senior. I WAS STILL NOWHERE NEAR VISIBLE ABS.
I stopped feeling too bummed b/c I realized I’d have to do something drastic to get down to an unhealthy weight and feel miserable and tired and sick…only to be dissatisfied in the long run, anyway. What’s the fucking point, you know? I’m just glad I’m a little older and a lot wiser.
Even as a kid and teenager, very lean, where you could see ribs, I never had visible abs. I had pectoral development that alluded most guys, but no washboard ever.
Precisely, it’s just the genetic handout. I guess I’m just glad that everything I have works the way it should :)
Nikoley
in your before picture- what a fatso- try to steer clear of that
also- not sticking around to make things better- but bailing? Not too sure libertarians are welcome too many places in the world-
maybe Kazakhstan . . or Mongolia
“in your before picture- what a fatso- try to steer clear of that”
Indeed.
Why the obsession with abs? My oldest kid skinny as a rail, extremely athletic, has “creases” vertically in her abs so deep that she has three tan lines vertically (during the summer) from wearing nothing but a bikini top 90% of the time. She will never have that “washboard” stomach, and she is absolutely ripped by all mainstream standards. It stands to reason that many people simply do not have the genetics to have clearly defined abs.
Stop beating yourselves up over it, please!
Exactly folks, Please!
Besides, for the guys, even if you Can get defined abs when you get skinny, who do you think likes skinny? Not women, generally.
Richard, not to put too fine a point on this, the pictures of those strong arms and back are probably almost as good for the women as that famous picture of Sadie’s ‘back’ must have been for the guys….almost ;)
Let’s not get carried away now! :)
Women always get carried away.
They vie for line position.
….One of their most endearing qualities.
vie? Vie?!?
Hmph! A woman Tries to say something nice about you, but nooooo……
Stomping off in feminine huff, mumbling, maudit américain, égoïste aveugle, homme!
:)
Ahh, that’s the spirit, Richard; smile, just :) What you have discovered is, my father’s philosophy. He used to tell me “look kid, when you have assholes trying to brow beat you into submission with their view of the world, just grin, and move along.” Not to get too woo woo, but when the ol’ man passed away last summer, I had a dream about him the next night. I dreamed he has holding my hand, while fingers were slipping away one at a time. When it came down to my pinky, I heard his voice saying “let it go son, just let all the bullshit go, and smile your way through life.” I shit you not! True story! Glad to see you have implemented the smile into your life, Richard. It is a great metaphor for saying, “bullshit .”
My grandparents and parents (even) are not interested in “looking good” the way people do in the magazines. If I am honest with myself, I am not really interested in that, either, even though I am one of the people born with abdominal muscles you can see. (As a kid, I could see my abs. There was a brief period when I was starving abroad and living on cereal when I lost them, but they came back as soon as I returned to my normal life, even though I was still eating closer to the SAD. I am also not that big, being only 6 feet tall, barely, with most of my mass lost in unusually long arms and legs. I am not naturally imposing, and the leanness that my mom gave me came along with rather small bones: my dad is fatter, but he is also physically larger than I am.) To me it seems that every body comes with advantages and disadvantages, nice features and not-so-nice ones (depending on one’s point of view, of course: frequently the things one person likes are those that another finds useless). The key to success in the personal arena is appreciating what you can do (without bagging on others who happen to be different). I like grappling. That said, I am never going to grapple like Alexander Karelin: we are built differently. I can watch Karelin wrestle and enjoy it, and even learn from it, but my personal style should probably look more like that of Buvaisar Saitiev (if I work really hard: the guy has tools more like mine, and he uses them well).
The magazine people are always extreme (whether they are fashion models or bodybuilders or great athletes), and their condition does not speak clearly to ours. The really interesting questions are about surviving (what can I do to avoid dying prematurely?) and thriving (how can I enjoy what time I have better? what activities do I like? how can I make it so that I don’t have to give them all up when I turn 30?). Seeing some bodybuilding champ’s workout routine isn’t really getting me closer to that goal (unless I am really inspired by the thought of Dorian Yates sweating away in the gym for hours every day, pausing only to eat, inject some steroids, and sleep: if that’s your thing, enjoy it, but it is not mine, and it doesn’t have to be).
I have always been diffident about “fitness goals” and pictures of “results” (as though life were a closed system in which we set goals, achieved them, and got trophies: to me, that is not what happens in the real world). I don’t care about results. I care about how I feel. I was interested in Paleo in the beginning not because I was too heavy, too weak, or too fat. I wanted to feel well. I wanted to be free to use my mind instead of crashing in a blue funk every afternoon (without artificial stimulation, or constant naps that were nice but didn’t leave me much room to study). I wanted to be able to skip meals without collapsing. I wanted my physical activities to enrich my life instead of just bringing me down with chronic injuries (until something big broke and I would be forced to spend my time playing with a Bosu ball and some pink dumbbells in the corner: no offense if you like that, but it was not for me). For me, the journey has always been about making my progress toward death more comfortable (and productive: I don’t want to sit back and watch my kids play; I want to play with them, and their kids, too, when that time comes). I don’t care whether Internet punks find me healthy or not. I don’t care whether I “look good” or not to somebody. I just want to live as best I can with the equipment nature gave me (which is pretty cool, even if it isn’t “perfect”–whatever that means).
Great attitude, Joseph! ;)
The 20-something experts and their advices get to be a bit much for anyone who is of a certain age.
What I like about real life versus the internet is that in real life when I am at the gym, all the young guys call each other “bro” but they call me “sir.” That always makes my day.
Ha, that’s awesome. Part of the reason I prefer to work out at home is b/c I couldn’t take the arrogance of some guys who simply would walk up to me to “educate me” on the proper lifting technique they learned from the latest Maxim. Well-intentioned, but sorely lacking in health knowledge for anyone, let alone a woman half their size. Really, I need to slam 2-3 protein shakes at 400 cal/each to gain muscle and burn fat? Really? ;)
Yeah there’s a few guys like that at every gym, they are very lonely and try to be every woman’s personal trainer. At one of mine the dude is around 58 or so and won’t leave the young women alone.
My abiding passion is to be an emigrant from the United States…to film the burning of my US passport. I don’t want to die an American, anymore. I don’t want to be an American, anymore.
Despite the fact that I’ve only been in the States twice this century for a few weeks at a time and I am convinced that the US is in a state of sharp decline, I don’t want to burn my bridges and renounce my citizenship.
I’m definitely more pro-America now than I was when I lived in the US and for the first few years after I left. It’s not that I think America’s shit doesn’t stink, just that I’ve learned the rest of the world is often worse in their various and sundry ways. It’s a definite love/hate relationship.
I agree, Sean. I don’t see myself “resigning” as an American any time soon, even if I think we are overextended and increasingly incoherent (as a nation and/or a government and its hangers-on trying to lord it over those too slow to avoid being cooked in the melting pot). I like certain ideas historically American, even if they seem increasingly remote from reality (in America and in many other places), and I am not in any position to run away at the moment (lacking the resources to make that escape anything but a leap from the frying pan into the fire).
When I left the UK it was for good, I would have gladly renounced my citizenship and indeed still would. Then I had to come back, I have no ties to the country but plenty to the people living here. Funnily enough I’d quite like to live in the United States as I think I’d be able to live a bit more on my terms if I lived in Montana or Wyoming, guns are fun too!
I don’t think is anywhere to go, Richard. Look at big inescapable picture. Anywhere is collective of humans is gonna be shitstorm of politic, corruptions, religions, legalities, stupidities and violences. I has several friend who move to Mexico and Indonesia to live where is cheaper and slower, but now they menaced by drug cartel and kidnapping and villainy and what seem to be move toward lawlessness. (and I no mean the fun kind, like Lucy Lawlessness). Is no just U.S. that swirling toilet, is entire humankind. Still, be grateful you at least live you life mostly in you species evolutionary ‘sweet spot’ of relative ease, comfort and enjoyments, yes?
PS. Cow hate hard belly! Where is to rest head? Or make for tickles?
Nikoley-
fwiw- I like the new strategy regarding errant comments- at least people are on notice that you saw the comment and rejected it . . .
your blog- your rules
way it should be
Big and strong is the way to be…Richard send these people to 70’sbig.com!! Big and strong all day. Anyway, some prehab work on the deadlift could be moderate front squatting, ass to grass with high volume. This always does wonders for back and ab strength which should lead to a bigger deadlift. Gelatin and raw milk seem to work well with the knee pain.
This is good to hear. I love front squatting like this (because it makes me feel good).
What does Bea think about moving to a foreign country?
She likes the idea.
That’s a good woman you got there.
i wonder if you have some Neanderthal genes.
I thought that was an old wives tale. Isn’t the current accepted thesis that humans did NOT breed with neanderthals?
Not anymore. Those of us of European and eastern Mediterranean stock show at least a few percent of Neanderthal DNA. Neanderthal has been completely genomed. Is that the word?
Sequenced :). And yes, I’ve seen that too, a consortium of scientists coordinated by the Max Planck institute published the Neanderthal genomic sequence in the journal Science in May 2010. T
hey also compared to 5 modern human genomes (including Han, Papuan…and French). Not just Europeans and Middle Easterners but all non-African have some Neanderthal.
It’s made it to the popular science magazines in the last 18 months or so.. Discover magazine’s cover from May 2011 proclaimed “YOU ARE NOT HUMAN” and showed an average 3% Neanderthal. It seems to range from 1 to 4%.
There is a very recent (august maybe?) ‘controversy’ raised by a group at Cambridge in Britain, saying the genetic overlap is not necessarily from interbreeding but could be a remnant of a common ancestor some 500,000 years ago. Except….that was considered in the original Science paper and the genetic evidence shows gene flows into the human pool much later than that, the latest studies show it at roughly 40,000 yrs ago.
So I figure that at worst you could say there is no ‘accepted thesis’, or at best you could say that the evidence indicates interbreeding.
However this isn’t my area, perhaps if Neal Matheson shows up we’ll get a good update :)
Sorry Marie I was suprised when I heard this (a few weeks ago) as anybody, I had always thought that Neanderthal contributed nothing to H.sapiens. A big part of me suspects that genetics is as robust a science as mainstream nutrition, whether this is shoddy reporting or funding inspired “conclusions” I don’t know.
For all non-africans to carry Neanderthal DNA we would presumably have had to interbred somewere in the middle east.
There is a tv show available on BBC iplayer called prehistoric autopsy where they re-create a neanderthal. I pretty much loathe TV but the reconstruction is impressive and it features John Hawks, which is nice.
Most likely a monstrous brute that ate potatoes for a few months, leaned down to a Brad Pitt body, got himself a flashy new sabre-tooth loincloth, then had his pick of the human ladies.
Ooh la la! Paul, I like how you think ;)
Thanks anyway Neal! I feel quite lucky you happened to notice. I’l be looking up ‘prehistoric autopsy’.
Your comment about middle east triggered my memory, yes, the study had concluded that the first intermixing happened while the species were there.
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Meanwhile, prehistoric interest aside, from just the perspective of what traits we may or may not carry does it matter how Neanderthal genes enter our genome, whether remnants of a common ancestor or by interbreeding much later? The emphasis on whether or not we interbred seems like just that much salacious journalism to me;)
Health is all relative Rich. For your age, I’d put your health in the top 10%, maybe even 5% when you were at your best. That’s a big improvement from where you were. Going by your before photos, I would have put you near the bottom third or quarter for your age at that time. Anyway, how many 50+ year olds have abs? one in 1,000? One in 10,000 maybe? I know of none and I spend a lot of time around fit people.
If one were to measure a man by the wife he can attract, then you’d be easily in the top 1% or better… I bet that’s what REALLY pissed those misandrist feminists off.
i don’t know if human bred w/ Neanderthals. (i’m not an anthropologist) anyway, this issue does not seem settled.
regards,
I’m starting to wonder about Richard’s patriotism. One could say that the United States and its capitalism has made him pretty wealthy – so he wants to leave? “For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required.” – Luke 12:48.
ELMM, I’ve never doubted Richard’s patriotism – it is exactly what I thought it was. If you want to understand Richard, read more Ayn Rand and less of the bible.
What I’ve always wondered is why he ever joined the navy.
Funny thing is, I’m thinking of moving to the United States to escape the ever tightening noose of an increasingly socialist agenda in my own country! The US is the only country I can find that will let me earn a decent living and keep a good portion of it. All the others will either not allow me to earn a good living or will take it from me.
I joined the navy because I was 20.
You didn’t build that! I saved you! Now give me my free healthcare (so I can get busy dying!).
Ah, a Romney voter… Got any binders full of women in your closet?
I did not vote for Romney.
I’m quite very far from wealthy. I have to make money like everyone else. Lots of mistakes in my past too.
“Sock Puppets” ?
No. “Suck Poppets”.
What is good health? Not being muscled and ripped, if you look at extant hunter-gatherers. Low body fat, not much muscle, either. Evolution would not want a person hauling around many pounds of muscle, expensive to develop and maintain, if less gets by OK.
The fact that we can develop such huge muscles is really just an interesting tidbit of our physiology.
Good point Pablito, if we are going to follow and evolutionary paradigm we have some very solid numbers we can follow in terms of bodyfat etc.
There are several issues that rarely get mentioned however; Modern hunter-gatherers and horticulturalists are short, very short by modern standards, and are often have light frames. Compare san bushmen with modern Europeans in a film my friend made.
youtube.com/watch?v=mLhWStWUQXA&feature=my_liked_videos&list=LLonHqU6x0pwftYHMrnv8vkg (at about 1minute).
Modern hunter gatherers are smaller than people from the Paleolithic (not neccesarily the mesolithic!) and less robust. This suggests that there are major differences between the lifestyles of modern hunter gatherers and paleolithic H.sapiens. The height of plains indians might suggest that big game hunting is the difference.
I think looking at old boxers (Dempsey,Grebb, Fitzsimmons) is quite instructive as to how modern perceptions of male physicality have changed.
Related to last few blog posts, I am amazed at the unwittingly perfect example of misinformation, complete with breathless statements and non-sequiturs, in Erica’s last comment above.
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“This will be bigger than anything out there. The world needs a drug-free, easy way to keep weight in check. Potatoes are it. Don’t let this get hidden away in a for-profit scheme. No one has used potatoes in this way.”
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Wow! and there’s a scheme afoot too!
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“This will be bigger than anything out there.” – If speaking of the whole protocol, maybe, but implies just the potato diet, which isn’t new.
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“The world needs a drug-free, easy way to keep weight in check. ” – Sure, but followed by :
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“Potatoes are it.” – non-sequitur, which is then followed by really bizarre fear-mongering :
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“Don’t let this get hidden away in a for-profit scheme.” ! – my favorite.
So Richard should save the world…at Ray’s expense,
because IF Ray really had discovered weight-loss by potatoes and payed his own money to study how they work, we should steal the information from him.
Ray is the first to tell you he didn’t of course and the potatoes part is only one part of a protocol he’s been working on.
But the height of bizarre in that last statement is that he Will make any original work public, at no profit to himself and in the most detailed way possible, the man will be publishing his original research (done at his own expense) in peer-reviewed journals (if you go public before-hand you can’t publish in journals since they accept only original material).
Whatever detailed description or counseling he wants to charge for, after publication, is hardly hiding away the work!
But that’s not as exciting as a nefarious scheme.
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“No one has used potatoes in this way.”
Rubbish. Dr.Doug McDougal has been advocating starch and potatoes in particular for some time, various people have blogged about their use of potatoes and potato-fasts and even been on the news, there’s an article on Livestrong from last year about potato dieting…and those are just the recent highlights.
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I think Jscott above named this type of commenting disingenuous right off the bat. Perfect.
Richard,
As far as joint health is concerned, I’d highly recommend Bill De Simone’s “Congruent Exercise.” Easily found on Amazon.
Maintain your modest goals and a modest rate of gain; your peers are in decay and if you advance even a little bit you’re doing even better by comparison. I stress this to my clients on a daily basis.
From a personal point of view, I can give you an example: 8 years ago I was ~188lbs and chinning BW+25 for 5 reps. Now I’m ~175lbs and chinning BW + 52.5 for 5 reps. So 20lbs in 8 years. I’ve been stronger for short periods of time and heavier, but that’s a small 2.5lbs/year improvement. Learn from my experience and just try to double my strength gains on that exercise for the next 4 years. ;)
I use bodyweight + added weight as my calc, so 8 years ago you were moving 213lbs and now 227.5, which is a 14.5 difference in the total. The only reason I bring that up is if someone is using the same added weight and is gaining body weight, that still counts as improvement, which can be an important motivator on chins especially if it appears you are at a plateau but really are still trending up.
You have a very important point that some of my role models like Jim Wendler harp on. Small gains over years add up to big gains.
Good point; I’d argue that I could do more reps now (e.g. rep 5 isn’t a total grinder like it used to be) but yes small gains over time.
I’d like to go to a place, hopefully warm, where you can actually own your land – not just have the deed to your home, but own the land free of property tax, which carries the threat of government control to whatever they and the dumb-masses can devise (usually disguised under the ruse of “helping the children” so that the dumb-masses can call you a greedy, selfish lot).
I hear you Shelley. Until last year, Greece was such a place. You paid it once, at the purchase of the house/land and that was it. Town taxes for infrastructure and services were tied to your income, not your home, you could count on growing old in it. Unlike here, where you’re basically renting it from the local government even after you’ve paid off that mortgage.
Thing is, any such place can quite easily ‘change it’s mind’ and start charging a property tax, government being what it is.
I think you could also argue that we are “renting” our bodies with such taxes as the now-mandated healthcare tax.
The news of the Sandy destruction and the people in the streets is a clear example of how the majority simply cannot take care of themselves – a perfect vacuum ready for the US government to step in and control more areas of our life in light of their unfortunate plight.
Does a free place exist anymore? If so, I would suggest keeping mum because once the masses learn of it, they will take it by force if necessary.
I haven’t caught much of the coverage from the hurricane, wasn’t there plenty of warning it was coming? I suppose an awful lot of modern life and living is dependent on technologies that are beyond the scope of most people to fix.
Cities, being larger and inherently more fragile than smaller communities, are less free (in that they give individuals less autonomy when it comes to deciding what resources they get, where they live, what their living circumstances are). The city necessarily depends on rigid hierarchies and specialization (that is today advanced beyond the point of being accessible to any newcomer: I cannot just walk onto the job as a garbage collector or a postal worker or a policeman and know what the heck I am supposed to do, where I am supposed to be, etc. I have to be told. I need a master). In the country, I have freedom to do more for myself. I have space to move around. I can be competent in more than one field (and had better be, unless I want to spend weeks with no water when public services go down, as they will). I see reality closer and more realistically in the country (where nobody is guaranteed to save my ass after a hunting accident: it might happen, but there is no way I am banking on it). Disasters happen in cities, and you see all these people bumbling around with no idea what to do, where to go, how to exist. They just stand in line, waiting for someone to give them food, gas, water, etc., or they sit on the side of the road and cry when they cannot stand in line. This is not because they are somehow inherently deficient or incapable: they have the same human capacities to adapt as country folk (who have the same ability to mooch unconsciously as city folk, even if it is harder to do in their circumstances). They just have not been trained (by their masters) or accustomed (on their own initiative) to life outside the civilized zoo (where natural disasters don’t regularly wipe out all the infrastructure supplying them with resources). I am as “guilty” as they are, in many ways (and I just moved to an insanely big city), so nobody should take this as a dig on my part against city folk being what city folk are.
In an odd twist of fate, I find myself agreeing somewhat with Paul Krugman (a dangerous thing): disasters can be opportunities for learning and improvement. The difference between me and Krugman (as I understand him) is that I see disaster as teaching us to be less reliant on zoo technology and more flexible (less trusting where we have no choice), where his response seems to be to double down on the zoo no matter what (“This disaster gives government an excuse to step in and move people around like pawns on a chessboard! We can use the magic power of total compliance to create boundless wealth from sheeple who will literally have nothing better to do than sit in line and wait for us to tell them what to do!”). Krugman says that making the city larger, more rigidly hierarchical and specialized, will improve its survival (as people “cooperate” better: for him, cooperation means obeying the masters, who must have more authority and more/better information). I say the opposite. We need smaller cities, less rigidly hierarchical and specialized, and cooperation means people working together voluntarily with no preset goals except the ones they personally identify with. I could be wrong, of course.
They did have warning, but those in a big city generally don’t have a car or country relatives. I can imagine they just plainly had no where to go. And their places are generally so small, I’m not sure how they could store a week or so worth of emergency food and supplies. The realist in me sees the dangers of living in a big city – I’m sure it’s tons of fun, but just not my style.
‘In an odd twist of fate, I find myself agreeing somewhat with Paul Krugman (a dangerous thing): disasters can be opportunities for learning and improvement.’ Scary, indeed!
but, I couldn’t agree more. This should be a huge wake-up call even for us smaller-city folks that government cannot possibly be there for us especially in times of major disruptions. Some may realize it, but unfortunately, there is a huge population (and I would also suggest mostly women) who will side with Krugman and expect someone else to help them out of their mess and when it’s not up to their expectations, they turn viciously. This type of person is right where those who want power want them – vulnerable, begging for help.
‘This is not because they are somehow inherently deficient or incapable: they have the same human capacities to adapt as country folk’ – I also think that because most are not inherently deficient or incapable this is a major contributor to people’s depression, aggression, etc. Not that all country folk are happy, go-lucky people, but I would guess on a relative average, they are less depressed just because they don’t have time to sit around, there’s no one else there to take care of things.
Here is a link to the bbc programme Prehistoric Autopsy not sure if you can open it in the USA:
bbc.co.uk/programmes/p010078y
There are a number of short clips, the links are on right hand side.
Yes, it opens. Thank you Pauline!
This short news interview about the Prehistoric Autopsy tv programme was also interesting:
bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20039010
New thread please Richard. This one seems to have lived its natural life. Thanks.
Yea, I know. I’ve had a house guest since Saturday, Jan from Denmark, here for the Wise Traditions Conference starting later this week. Those who attended the AHS events might know him. We’ve been having good times.
I’ve found 23andme pretty helpful, funny and a little head-scratchy at times. It gave me a key SNP that probably explains some of my endocrine issues.
( I’ll be bold and state a ‘should’ that is, hopefully, not offensive. I think you should be happy. =) )
[…] Here was the comment this morning, from sync. […]
all kiwi i met had beautiful teeth; probably from the grass fed dairy.
regards,