Paleo Quick Tip Of The Day

Western medicine today, although wonderful in crisis situations of acute trauma, is woefully bad when it comes to managing actual health, and in preventing disease!  In going regularly to an MD and getting numerous screenings and tests, you are doing nothing that will actually preserve your health- you will just be tested with numerous expensive procedures that tell very little about your actual health and wellness.  You will also undoubtedly be prescribed numerous prescription drugs, like statins, antidepressants, and high blood pressure medications whether they are really called for or not.   You need to become your own health care provider, in fact- your own doctor!  No one knows the real state of your health better than you yourself, and only you can develop the habits of good, paleo-type of daily nutrition, the stress relief of regular exercise and the rejuvenation of a good nightly sleep.  Those three things: proper ancestral diet, regular ancestral body weight types of exercise, and a good eight or mor

What the heck?  What do I mean by telling you to “get down on the floor?!”   Just that- you cannot be flexible and fit, with your mobility intact, unless you get down on the floor (or ground) each day, to stretch, to sit, and to just exist!   We are not meant to exist in the sitting position, with occasional standing and walking only- we are meant, in fact we are designed through long evolution to be able to negotiate multiple terrains, and to do so without shoes, without eyeglasses, and without chairs.  The old adage to “use it or lose it” never rang more true in history.   I have seen many older people, and by far the majority lose the majority of their flexibility, mobility, and balance by their 50’s- and from there on out, it goes down at an alarming degree, until they are ultimately almost bed-bound.  Many are confined to walkers, and can only get out of their chairs by using “lift chairs” that electrically lift them into a standing position with no muscular activity of their own!   The key phrase here i

This may sound kind of strange, but truly- WHERE you live is crucially important! To your health, to your psyche, and to the health and wellness of your entire family. It really is that important. Nowadays, if you live in a big city, you are virtually guaranteed that your air is polluted, you are unsafe from criminal predators, and you are isolated from the fields and forests, the prairies and savannas that we are evolved to live within. You are instantly non-paleo! You might fix your diet, many big city folks do, eating lots of leafy greens, full fat pastured dairy and meats, real oils made from coconut and olive and no horrid vegetable oils like canola or soy… You might work out ata-out curtains that eliminate the constant artificial light that disturbs your circadian rhythms… Congratulations! You are doing as well as you can, within that unnatural, unpaleo environment! But, it’s a “good-better-best” scenario- you are merely “good”. You are still subject to a terrible crime epidemic that has taken over our

I know- this seems like a small, inconsequential thing- going barefoot??  What is the big deal with that? Well, like most things Paleo or ancestral, the big deal is that we just stopped doing basic things!  And have for a long time! Most non-Paleo folks never, ever make bone broth- taking bones to slow cook in water to make broth, and extract all the nutrients… (and incidentally collagen, and everything else that we haven’t even identified yet that heals our leaky guts, gives us vital, focused nutrition, and, incidentally, doesn’t waste food!)  Bone broth also helps with digestion, helps our skin, hair and nails, and helps to prevent osteoarthritis, among other benefits.  The point here is that making bone broth used to be just “common sense”.  As was going barefoot- just common sense! Now, if you don’t know it, most podiatrists, or “foot doctors”, recommend never going barefoot.  They say it is damaging, and will lead to foot pain- we need that elevated heel, and ample cushioning, or our feet will fall apart

I am convinced that modern Americans’ being obsessed with speed, the need to get things done and accomplished as fast as possible is out of control!  Virtually all of us have too much going on, all the time.  We say we don’t have time eat right, don’t have time to exercise, don’t even have time to do our jobs properly, with full concentration.  And this is in spite of rushing through our days, from dawn to dusk- commuting to work as fast as we can, not sleeping enough (because we have lots to do the night before!), no time to prepare healthy meals, and so on and on it goes.  No time to meditate, no time to feel grateful for what we have, no time for play, NO TIME! This is self-delusion.  If your employer is forcing you to rush needlessly, your results will suffer, and your company will eventually fail, or at least do poorly.  Find another job.  Do it slowly, deliberately, or else just take your time, explain yourself, and take the heat.  You are in the right, know that at least! Medical Doctors in residency a

Last Wednesday we talked about Paleo Basics 1, which is just to give up gluten, mainly in the form of wheat!  I hope you have done it this past week, and that you already notice a difference.  The positive effects come on quite quickly, and continue the longer you maintain a gluten free lifestyle.  Weight loss, an ending to a “bloated feeling” and a distended stomach are usually the first to happen.  In my case, years ago I got migraine headaches.  They were awful, they started in my late 40’s, and they got progressively worse and more frequent.  Then, when I gave up wheat, the disappeared completely.  It wasn’t a gradual thing, they just stopped, and I have never had a headache since, of any kind!  Of course, that alone was worth it, but there have been many additional positive effects: much better skin, clear and no dryness, much more definition both of face and body, shinier hair; the list goes on and on.  All from just giving up one thing- wheat. Now, as phase two of Paleo living, I’m asking you not to gi

It struck me today that anyone contemplating the paleo diet and lifestyle really only needs to concentrate on a few basic things.  They are simple, easily understood, and not complicated at all:   1. Cut out gluten- this is really key!  Just this one thing, hard as it is for most folks to even contemplate, will do more for your health positively than anything else.  Really! Once you eliminate this one overwhelming staple of the modern S.A.D. diet, so many things are accomplished!  At one stroke, you can begin to heal your intestinal wall, which is undoubtedly leaking into your bloodstream things that you have not digested, and triggering autoimmune responses, which if they are not troublesome now, will be in due time.  Things like bad skin, psoriasis, joint pain, migraine headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, and just plain bloating and brain fog.  After this phase, you progress to acid reflux, inability to sleep, and creeping obesity.  Insulin resistance is next, along with diabetes.  All the other autoimmune

I’m sure you’ve all heard the adage to “exercise 3 times per week”, because your body needs rest days to rebuild.  Although this may be true for abusive exercise systems using heavy barbells and dumbbells, a ‘going to failure’ mentality backed by a substandard diet…but not for those of us who practice Perfectly Paleo Exercise! This is the type of natural exercise that uses your own body as resistance, as in virtual resistance, isometrics, calisthenics, self-resisted exercises where one limb resists the movement of another, and body weight movements done either on gymnastic rings, pushup handles, or from bars.  In this type of exercise, daily exercise is not only possible, but vastly preferable, since our bodies have been designed for daily movement and exercise!  If we couple this movement with good sleep and a healthy diet, why then our body is well able to recuperate, and even thrive on such a schedule.  My schedule?  I work out first thing, every morning, first thing upon arising.  I think this is the very

"Many People wonder how a single exercise without movement could produce results comparable or even superior to an exercise with movement.....Only one or two seconds are required to take a curl from thigh level to chin height. The hardest part of the curl is not the start or finish, but instead the middle of the curl,where leverage causes the greatest effort. Yet the muscles are in that position for only a fraction of a second. With isometric contraction, the muscles would be exerting full force in this position for up to 12 seconds, so theoretically, one effort here could build as much strength as more than a dozen repetitions performed in the conventional fashion."   "Bruce Lee. The Art Of Expressing the Human body."   This quote should bring us all pause.  The immortal Bruce Lee, saying that one repetition performed isometrically can do as much as 12 reps of conventional strength training!  And do you know what- he’s right!  In my opinion, the core of every single exercise regimen shoul

Did you know that orchestra conductors are the longest lived profession? Neither did I until recently, but it makes perfect sense to me. Number 1 is the exercise involved- Exercise? Yes, indeed. Moving both arms, while flexing the torso isometrically as you move those moderately tensed arms- why, this is Perfectly Paleo Exercise in action! I just finished my one weekly basement workout, in which I work on the gymnastic rings, doing pushups, pull-ups, dips and pistol squats, usually rather intensively. Every morning on the other days of the week I spend a more relaxing 45 minutes to an hour, tensing my muscles in virtual resistance exercise, where I flex as I move my limbs through their full range of motion. Like an orchestra conductor, but more intensely, and using every muscle in my body from toe to head. I usually watch Netflix while I do so, and it is the highlight of my day! But again, today I did my very intense workout (while listening to a podcast), and then went out in the rain and sprinted across my

Really!  I love my iPhone as much as anybody, in fact I was quite an early adopter, seeing the potential in such a technology for greater learning.  As I walked my route (I was a mailman for 38 years), to listen to podcasts actually changed the very nature of the job- I could now turn my long daily walk into a number of university types of lectures.  From Robb Wolfe’s Paleo Solution, to Jimmy Moore’s Livin La Vida Low Carb, and many others, I now had the opportunity to re-brainwash myself, or better said- to UN-brainwash myself from the high carb, low fat lie that has been with us since the 1960’s! It worked, and it worked so well that now I have two podcasts of my own- PaleoJays Smoothie Cafe and Paleo Quick Tip of the Day, to which now of course you are either listening or reading on www.paleojay.com   I have always been excited, and passionately so, to spread the word!  It is a true word to spread, and our very health and well being are at stake, as we are now the fattest and sickest people that the world

This might seem like a rather strange subject for a Paleo Quick Tip of the Day, but nevertheless, it is a crucial topic.  To be a balanced paleolithic or ancestral type of person, creating things is a big part of being successful.  Men and women are born with a need to explore and develop their talents, to nurture them along and create; if you don’t do so, you are setting yourself up for unhappiness.  If you have never seen the magnificent cave paintings of cave dwellers, you should take a look online!  The elaborate, detailed paintings of animals of that era are so well done, so lovingly crafted, as to almost look real.  Think of the effort expended in doing this artistic labor, and realize that these paleolithic people had a compulsion to create, just as we do.  All through history, from Egypt and the pyramids through ancient Greece and Rome, beautiful statues and paintings were produced constantly.  Surely their music was wonderful as well, although we have never actually heard it ourselves, they enjoyed i

Recently, I built a time machine!  It was amazing, that first time I fired it up- the rainbows of lights that surrounded me in my little contraption as I spun away through time, into the past.  The walls of my machine were vibrating rapidly, and a strange music of deep, resonant chords seemed to go right through me- and then, with a thud, I landed. I had gone into the past, as planned.  I looked out upon a scene at once strange and familiar: in front of me was a typical street in an American town, but it was subtly different from what it had been in my time.  I could see a glass telephone booth around the corner, for I had fortuitously landed in an alley between two large brick buildings.  Leaving my machine, I covered it with large sheets of plywood that were strewn through the alley, disguising it.  Then I walked up to the telephone booth in the street ahead.  Old, antique-looking street lamps flickered on overhead, as it was early evening.  A man was talking on the telephone in the booth, wearing a wide-la

One of the most ignored facets of paleo living and even nutrition is our skin!  Not only is our skin the largest organ of our body by far, it is also a great indicator of whether or not we are healthy on the inside of our bodies. Most of us have abused our skin for decades: putting all sorts of lotions, creams, petroleum-based oils and dyes on it in the forms of soap and shampoo, dishwashing liquid and other artificial chemicals such as makeup in the case of women.  Did you know that all of these chemicals pass right through your skin into your body?  Well, they do, and they are all toxins that your body has to deal with as chemical invaders.  Check out your labels; not just for your skin, but for household cleaning products as well.  These products, besides being expensive, are very toxic to your body, and to your precious gut micro biome!  You can have a perfect paleo type of diet, and undermine all of your efforts by allowing these products to touch your body, or even to be inhaled. What should you do?  Fi

Now that is a quote from Chris Kresser, who is a good one to be quoting from!  Chris is one of the leading voices in nutrition and wellness today, and in fact when I look up something technical, more times than not I type into google “Chris Kresser on- whatever it is!”  He is that good, so check him out at www.chriskresser.com  You can always find something valuable.  Oh, and he has a podcast too! The reason I like that quote so much is that it is so simple, and the very best advice usually is succinct, direct and simple.  Something we can latch onto immediately, and adopt into our lives. (And Health!)  This about it: we all know what paleo eating, and living entails.  No bread or wheat products, almost no grains, real natural foods in minimally processed forms, pastured meats and dairy, some fruits, and loads and loads of vegetables!  A good night’s sleep each and every night, getting out into nature as often as possible, and good family and friends (tribal) relationships.  Some form of regular physical exer

This sounds crazy, but it’s not- you really can get the best workout of your life by not moving a muscle! How?  Isometrics. Now isometrics has gotten a really bad rap for a long time, the reasons for which are quite convoluted.  Back in the 1960’s (I’ll try to make this really short), Bob Hoffman, editor of Strength and Health magazine, was a proponent of isometrics.  He was also a big proponent of barbells, and so he incorporated barbells into isometric training with use of a “power rack”.  A power rack is a very useful piece of equipment, much more useful to my mind than barbells, and I have one in my training dungeon basement!  It is a large steel “cage” that can support thousands of pounds, and has steel pins that can be set at any height to hold a barbell.  This can save you if you “miss” a lift, that bar cannot come crashing down! Also, however, you can press a barbell into the pin, pushing as hard and as long as you like, thus giving you a great isometric workout. Bob Hoffman had his athletes train wit

I know this is kind of a perennial topic for me, but I think it is so important! Our culture, our “hyper civilized” way of life has become just that- hyper civilized, meaning civilized to too great of a degree; think “sissified”… The vast majority of people in Western world civilized cultures go to work, sit at a desk or drive around in a car, and even if they work out in a gym for an hour or so a few times per week- they don’t do much real work. And they never have!! This is in marked contrast to previous generations, even here in America. Even in my generation, hard work was part of your childhood, something that was just a “given”. And in generations previous to my own, it was way, way harder. I don’t mean there is something wonderful about working yourself really hard physically, just that we have gotten to the point where almost no one expects to work hard, ever. And this is not good, not good at all. I think a lot of it has to do with our government, which has become an “entitlement government”, that te

There’s no such thing as an essential carbohydrate One of the first things that need to be elucidated are the absolute essentials for human survival and health. They are these: * Amino acids * Fatty acids * Electrolytes * Vitamins * Minerals * Water * Energy Of these, it is the last – energy – which generates an overwhelming majority of the controversy and conflict in nutrition, which is largely defined not by science but agendas ranging from political and ideological to completely nonsensical.   This controversy however does not exist when you remove such influences from the scenario, there is no confusion in the science.   Any biology or medical biochemistry literature will confirm this simple fact: the human body has no dietary requirement for carbohydrates.   That is a quote I found on line, illustrative of something that comes up all too frequently.  Virtually everyone who is “new” to paleo nutrition has the reaction that “No- carbohydrates are necessary for energy!  We can only hold a small amount in re

I have come to the conclusion that most folks have heard of the idea of avoiding gluten, but most have no idea as to why this is a good idea! Well, to begin with, grains themselves, all grains, are just poor food choices in terms of nutrition- there just isn’t that much nutrition per calorie in grains. But wheat and barley are particularly bad choices, since in addition to the lectins and phytates (anti-nutrients), wheat has gluten and gliadin, which are incredibly damaging long term, and also opioids similar to those found in opium or morphine. These opioids are probably why many people panic when you suggest they give up wheat- it truly is addicting. Gluten is inflammatory in the human gut lining. Period; although some don’t react as severely as others, eventually consuming gluten will impact your health negatively, mentally and/or physically! Inflammation causes deterioration of your gut lining, the very walls of your intestines, making them become “leaky”. This is very bad news, since a leaky intestine al

If ever you wanted proof that the Federal Government is utterly clueless when it comes to nutritional guidelines, your long-awaited proof is in- after roughly 60 years of recommending that you do not consume dietary cholesterol, they have just come out and said… dietary cholesterol is not a problem at all! It wouldn’t be so bad, except that they have been pounding this drum for decades, and all government sponsored school lunch programs, prison meals, and food programs nationwide have been forced to follow these guidelines, which now the government admits have been wrong.   THIS MEANS THAT THE GOVERNMENT GUIDELINES ARE WHAT HAS KEPT AMERICANS FATTER AND SICKER THAN AT ANY PAST TIME IN OUR HISTORY!   Seems like an extreme statement, but it’s true.  Not only have these erroneous, non-science based dogmas misguided us in cholesterol, which has resulted in millions being erroneously prescribed the deadly (but profitable!) statin drugs, the same “Food Pyramid” and then “My Plate” encouraged us to replace fat with