Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Archive for the ‘Kairos’ Category

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Through a dog’s stomach to a person’s heart?

Friday, May 7th, 2010

They say the way to a man’s heart is via his stomach. Now, I’ve seen men who are excellent cooks woo women (who may or may not have been able to cook) and win their hearts in the kitchen, too, so I don’t think that phrase is exclusive to men.  The way to a woman’s heart may be via her stomach, too.   If a man prepares BBQ or even a poorly made salad for a woman, that gesture would be very much appreciated by her, there is no doubt.

I’ve written in earlier posts and certainly have read on other sites about the difficulty of explaining to someone who is suffering from metabolic derangement about what is so obvious to us now.  The obvious human normal carb diet.

The obvious human normal carb diet would be:

-meats and seafood

-vegetables

-moderate amount of fruits

-water (ahem, I also drink coffee daily, wine on weekends and have 87% chocolate about once a month, ahem, or more often)

and adjusting AWAY from the High Carbohydrate NonHuman Diabetes Inducing Diet means:

-avoiding GRAINS (wheat, corn, rice)

-avoiding LEGUMES (beans)

-avoiding HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP,

-avoiding POLYUNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS (PUFAs) like vegetable oils from corn, soy, etc., while not worrying about intake of the innocent healthy saturated fats.

-severely limiting or avoiding SUGAR (e.g., eat an apple, no need to drink the sugary apple juice)

-severely limiting or avoiding altogether STARCHY VEGETABLES (like avoiding potatoes, I’ll speak only for myself here.  I avoid potatoes because when eating them I don’t stop at one, or two, or three….  Sweet potato, yes, I can limit myself but I have to watch my self control  The white potatoes?  No way, I lose control like Homer Simpson in a donut shop.  I eat until I’m absolutely stuffed and feel bloated for hours and into the next day.   But again, avoiding potatoes worked for me, if you’re a paleo potato gal or guy and potatoes are in your diet, good on you.)

-limiting DAIRY (I’m at the point where I just have dairy in the form of cheese on a salad at a restaurant.  I very rarely have any form of dairy at home anymore.  Again, there are other paleo diet adherents big on dairy, good on them.  For me, just like with potatoes, I don’t stop at a lil’ bit of cheese or milk or greek yogurt or cream, I’ll eat cheese like a drunk dairy king.  The one noted exception, I cook with butter almost exclusively.  I don’t eat butter like someone I know, I just cook with it.  If I ate it like this guy, I’m afraid I would be downing butter cubes like Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas.  Maybe I’ll try preworkout butter shots someday, but for now I’ll continue limiting dairy and cooking with butter, this has worked for me.)

PALEO DOG CHALLENGE

As a commenter noted, it makes sense that a dog would eat a paleo diet given that mankind and dogkind lived with each other for so long in paleolithic times.  Good point.  Certainly it may be looked at the other way, right?  Could it?

Maybe the best way to explain the paleo/evolutionary diet is to a dog-owning metabolically deranged person by using their dog as an example. Now, metabolically deranged sounds so harsh, but it’s true. Robb Wolf uses this phrase often, and it’s made its way into my active vocabulary.  I know metabolically deranged best described me BP (Before Paleo).

By the way, I don’t think calling someone “metabolically deranged” is the best way to endear that person toward you, so that’s not what I would recommend for a Paleo Pick Up Line!  ”Hey baby, I see you’re metabolically deranged, how about you and I eat like cavemen and I’ll show you how to live?!”  Probably not going to be very effective.  Probably not going to help that person find their paleo kairos moment that way.

A paleo challenge usually starts with the “target” person being challenged to start giving up some or all of the food items in my above list.   But for many when they hear “paleo challenge” it sounds more like living on roots and being chased by someone wielding a spear.  Probably not a very convincing (to some) image to woo them.

But, what if someone you knew was having a hard time with high blood pressure, pre-diabetic, anxiety, obesity, bad readings of LDL, etc.,  and that person…   owned a dog?

Ok, different question.

How much does 4 weeks of quality “paleo” meat dogfood cost? I would assume the cost of this dogfood would be less than the safe, healthy and inexpensive investment of 4 weeks of buying fruits, vegetables and meat/seafood for your metabolically deranged friend.

PALEO DOG CHALLENGE “PICK UP” LINE

In my efforts to sound less like the food police and a paleo nut, I limit my talk on the evolutionary living lifestyle unless someone really asks for it.  However, if I had a loved one (that owned a dog) that is dealing with metabolic derangement (e.g., the various symptoms of metabolic syndrome) I would try at least once delicately the below 2-minute nonthreatening elevator speech.

“Here’s the deal.  You know that crazy paleo thing that I do, well, it was a big step for me to start it, it’s a big step for anyone.  Instead of you taking that initial plunge into paleo diet world, how about you let your dog be like the first dog in space, and your dog could take the first steps for you?  And because, gee whiz, I love you so much, I’ll offer to pay for 4 weeks of paleo dogfood that you’ll feed your dog exclusively.  No chow or milkbones, no scooby snacks, just real dog food for your dog.  During those 4 weeks please notice the changes in health that your dog will go through.  And at the end of those 4 weeks, I’d like you to think about continuing to feed your dog that way if after those 4 weeks you have found his health dramatically improved.”

“And one last thing, during and after those 4 weeks, I’d like you to think about whether this 4-week+ experiment would be something you’d consider for yourself regarding a human normal carb diet.  No pressure, just ask you to consider it.  If you agree to this Paleo Dog Challenge, I promise that afterward in any case to never be the food police with you or bother you about this subject again  (unless you ask!).  And with that my friend, do we have a deal?  Because I can be back from the pet store and/or butcher shop in about 20 minutes with a month’s supply of REAL dog food that your dog will love.”

Canine Kairos.  

Posted in Dogs, EF-De Vany reference, Kairos, Normal Carb Diet, Paleo Dogs | 7 Comments »

Paleo Dog, Paleo Vet

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

A friend of mine recently wrote me about her dog.  Below is an edited account of a recent meeting that she had with her dog’s vet:

“You might be interested in this- yesterday I had a 2 hr consult with a vet who practices alternative medicine on animals- some traditional medicine too, of course, but is really into the whole food/nutrition thing as a means of preventing/treating illness.

veterinarian-logo

My sweet dog is not sick (but has had tremendous medical issues in her past- being an abandoned dog left to die after a miserable life of abuse and neglect) but I am worried about her in her old age.  She is 6 now, I ‘ve had her for 4 years- she has recovered fully.  Anyway, this vet was wonderful.   She is really into the whole Paleo thing for dogs- believes we are killing our pets with a high carb high grain content diet that is completely unnatural for them.

She wants me to start feeding my dog raw rabbits- once a week for one meal- as a means of naturally cleaning her teeth so she won’t have to be anesthetized to have  dental done.  Her teeth(well, gums) are really in bad shape and this will lead to heart and kidney disease eventually, which will kill her.  We know this to be true and even ‘regular’ vets agree that cleaning teeth is necessary.  They just want to do it with modern technology and drugs- and I have a big fear of anesthesia. Especially since this dog had stage 4 heartworm disease (should have died from that) and somehow survived with a special ($$$$$$$) treatment for it.  Anyway, suffice to say she has a damaged heart and therefore I am afraid to anesthetize her especially just to clean her teeth.

So the answer is to eat bones and muscle which will naturally clean her teeth and gums.   I am going to do it- although the thought of it repulses me.  But the vet assures me that they come all cut up and skinned (no head or tails) just like grocery store chicken.  She also encourages a very Paleo like diet for animals- so I told her about your experience and your health benefits etc from following the low carb and no grain plan. She agreed completely.

Dog food is full of crap- just like packaged human food.  Lots of cheap grain fillers, especially gluten (which she told me to NEVER feed to an animal) so I am going to take her advice.   Ever since the Chinese gluten in pet food scare of several years ago I have only purchased pet food made in the USA and without gluten or corn in it, mostly buying only organic products.  But I am going to gradually wean her off of all the cereal based stuff except for the ones that have millet barley in them, apparently that is good for dogs.

Anyway, it was a very interesting conversation with her and I just thought you’d be interested to know that (some) vets are on the side of the Paleo diet.  She agreed the whole pet food thing was about cheap product that made max profit, just like human junk food.

BTW- I don’t know if you have a dog or not, but she told me that you should NEVER give a dog a bone that has been cooked.”

What great advice, and a great story.  Wouldn’t it be great if there were more nutritionists and dietitians out there for us humans with the perspective that this vet had on how to care for a dog’s health!?  Of course there is a long story regarding where dogs and wolves came from, but it’s helpful to remember a wolf’s diet probably isn’t too far off from what we should expect our domesticated dogs to thrive on.

It’s very much in the same way that we use the hunter-gatherer diet/lifestyle not as being written on a tablet taken down from the mountain, but as a template to think about how we have eaten, moved, and slept for millions of years.  Perhaps, this is key to understanding why we may get sick if we deviate too far from that “energy in/energy out” human development story.  Here’s an update from my friend:

“I am already seeing a change in my dog after 4 days of just reducing the dry grains.  I’ve got her on about 1/2 dry 1/2 canned (all meat no grain) food.  Her eyes are brighter, she pants less (as she is not as dehydrated- which dry food causes in dogs) and her paws are not as scaly and cracked (also a sign of dehydration).  I haven’t found a place that sells rabbit meat yet, but am looking.  I will give her that twice a month for her teeth.

BTW- you might also want to add a warning to your dog owner friends about MilkBones.  My dog loves them (most dogs do) but was told that they are all sugar and wheat flour- very little “bones” in them, and have the calorie equivalent of a Snickers bar.”

Sometimes it takes a bit of reflection to not instinctively fall back on your conditioned knee-jerk response that echoes:

-you need to COUNT calories,

-you need to CONTROL yourself,

you need to eat 6-11 SERVINGS OF GRAIN.

But living and eating our natural way doesn’t force you to count and control and eat 11 servings of grain, corn, beans, and rice at the expense of restricting vegetables, fruits and meat.

However, conditioned “COUNT, CONTROL & 6-11 SERVINGS OF GRAIN thinking” forms a wall around people’s brains about a foot thick.  So, when we try to pass on the good news about our rediscovered paleo health and don’t get a trumpet of praise as a result, don’t be surprised.  After all, most of the industrialized world is feeding their dogs the equivalent of a snickers bar to clean their teeth and can’t figure out what’s the problem with them when their mouths start rotting!.  It will take some time for people to understand n=1 regarding their own health.  If eating “non-paleo” is making you sick, there’s something wrong.  It doesn’t mean that you’re at fault that the granary approved food pyramid isn’t working for you.  You’re not lazy, or feeble, or weak willed.  It’s not your fault that this low-fat/high sugar/high carb/non-human diet isn’t working for you.  It’s not your fault!

A specialist on CNN, or Oprah or Rachel Ray may tell you all of these new fangled ways to count the number of calories you’re gorging on in the process of eating your 6-11 servings of grain per day…  if you’re one of those people who have high insulin and are gaining weight on this “lowfat/high carb” diet, counting calories and buying your meals in boxes isn’t the answer.  Well, I’ll just say, it wasn’t the answer for me.

Perhaps, though… you could try eating just vegetables, fruit and meat for 4 days?  Change your diet by avoiding grains and sugar for just a week like this dog has done and see what happens?  Or is the wall built with the bricks of COUNT/CONTROL/6-11 SERVINGS OF GRAIN too thick still?  Don’t worry, that’s alright.  Just think about it some more.   We’ll be on this side of the wall waiting for you if you want to climb over and give it a try.

Do any of you have any stories about how your paleo lifestyle influenced one of our canine friends?  Or, perhaps, how one of our canine friends influenced you to find your kairos moment?

Posted in Dogs, Kairos, Paleo Dogs | 8 Comments »

The Golden Rule and Evolution

Monday, January 4th, 2010

A long time ago, there was a place called Eden. Eden was a beautiful garden. And in this garden there was love, there was blood, there was birth, and there was death. And in this garden, people lived.

While living in the garden, even before teeth were sunk into that famous apple, something wondrous happened there. There was fire, and meat roasted on a spit.

The curly wisps of smoke like helixes rose up to the sky out of the flames. And in the smoky air over the years the faces and bodies around the fire began to change.

the-paleo-garden

The people learned to hunt together, for each other. They learned to gather, for each other. What they picked, dug up or stuck with a spear didn’t upset the balance of the garden (just don’t tell that to the mega fauna!). What they ate and metabolized allowed for the various cell colonies and organisms in their bodies to live in harmony. There was balance regarding what the humans took from the garden to eat,… for what they took was needed by the garden to be taken. And that which was taken by the humans to eat provided their hormones and cells an environment in which it was advantageous to work together.

They did on to each other, for themselves and the garden, as they would have each other and the garden do onto them.

But then one day, they ate a forbidden apple from a tree (although it might have really been crushed wheat that was their downfall, perhaps the serpent offered an apple pie?), and obtained a knowledge of agriculture, namely, how to domesticate grains, that challenged the garden’s hunting and gathering way of life. And for this, they were cast out. Out of the garden.

cast-out-of-eden

And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?

Hot ashes for trees?

Hot air for a cool breeze?

Cold comfort for change?

And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

-from Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”

And humans lived on. They began to grow plants and further domesticate animals.  And thousands of years later, this system provided them food very unlike how it was provided for them when they lived in Eden.

And they began to take more from their gardens than they put back into them. The wheat and corn and sugar and soy and rice began to strip the land of its wealth. They began to fight for the land and water and crops at a scale that brought a level of destruction that was unlike anything ever seen in a tribal war.

They cared not how they treated each other. The Human Action that created the economics of hunting, gathering and trading with each other their fruits and vegetables and meats for mutual health and wealth ceased. They just ignored the fact that their food was making them sick, and instead concentrated on fighting with each other over the power to see who had the authority to dole out the rations from the granaries.

And so appeared a top-down growing model, nothing like a garden, an agricultural system that grew to become based on fiat/paper money and ag subsidies. Their fields produced high fructose corn syrup for gluten and sugar laden foods begotten from an exhausted earth. These strange foods were even fed to their animals (and bees to make honey!), which made the animals as sick as the humans.

And the people cared not what they did onto the earth to grow their food, and the dying earth began to do onto them in the same way back. Famine, drought, and underproduction occasionally took their respective tolls on the centrally planned food system and accompanying centrally planned human societies founded on malinvestments in unhealthy sugars and carb-filled crops using the sandy bedrock of paper money that makes profits turn into debt and bankruptcy via inflation.

10,000 years after their exodus from the garden, the food that the people ate started to cause war among the colonies of cells within their human bodies. The high carbohydrate diet from the grains and sugar caused the adipose tissue to expand and horde nutrients at the expense of the organs and the brain. Hormones that used to work in harmony now spoke past each other in a cacophonous discord causing metabolic syndrome.

What they thought was enough food stored in their granaries was pure sugar, and it began to slowly cause them debt, and cause them to become sick. And they began to realize that what they thought would be enough, wasn’t. And they couldn’t grow enough anymore for everybody. Quite simply, the “real” price of their grains was becoming known, and it was an investment based on incorrect assumptions of currency stability, the food’s health benefits, and the ability of the earth to continue growing in unsustainable ways.

The Golden Rule preached 2,000 years ago which echoed the lost life of the garden, now in this day and age is forgotten by many. But not by all. These teachings are a part of religion for many, they are teachings that I indeed try to follow. There are many who don’t follow a religion, and instead explain the world solely through the scientific method. But these teachings are also part of our evolution, our lives both in and out of the garden, and in our bodies, and amongst our cells. The aspect the Golden Rule plays in our evolution can be understood by those who hold the Golden Rule as part of their religious outlook.

We may not be able to return to Eden, but the Golden Rule applied to evolutionary living will help us find a way to feed each other.  We are now the faces that may be seen through the smoke. We are the ones now sitting around the campfire once again figuring out a way to continue to live for our mutual health and wealth.

fire

Do onto others, as you would have them do onto you. This is part of us, this is how we may evolve if we are to continue.

We are part of this evolution right now.  

Posted in EF-De Vany reference, Granary, Kairos, The Paleo Garden Party | 4 Comments »

Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Grass of Forgetfulness

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

I really like a blog called “healthcare epistemocrat”.  This guy is a flat out wicked talented writer.  He’s a public health scholar, adheres to evolutionary living, and a big fan of Nassim Taleb.  You will see this young man testify before congress someday, and I hope it’s sooner rather than later.  People of his generation breaking through the dogma may be the only hope for millions out there.

There was a post not too long ago about personal mythologizing with an ‘n=1‘.

Yes, I think that’s why the Sisson Grok avatar is very powerful.  Like reading a book, you may put your face on the character.  I have found myself from time to time thinking of what would my great^100 grandpa do.  The Paleo Garden’s Lorette has a great collection of writings on the powers of myths in our lives.

Arthur De Vany early this year had a fascinating discussion on the fall of Eden being a metaphor of hunters and gatherers moving into agricultural lifestyles.  Though Art had mentioned the exodus out of the garden into agriculture previously, it was when this article came out that the conversation really heated up.  The discussion that continued among the EF’ers and Art resulted in cataclysmic changes in the mythologies that helped me explain the world.  I started to look at the world when Eden was still here on earth.  When we all still lived in a garden with the flowers, rainbows, fangs, and sharp teeth.  All that beauty, all that brutality.  Yet, of course, profound grace of a mother toward a child and man toward man existed even then.

In many ways, nothing’s changed, I still believe in Eden.  I still believe in the Garden.  I just understand now what the garden was and still is.

If the apple was from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, then Wheat is the Grass of Forgetfulness.   Let us understand wheat, let us understand how for good and bad it has changed human society profoundly and completely.  Metabolic Syndrome, IBS, cancer, MS, (and there are many others) look like they could be caused by this grass.  And let us remember what wheat (and rice, and corn, and potato) has caused us to forget.

Remarkable find: A frieze from Gobekli Tepe

We have forgotten that we used to all live in a garden.  Remember The Paleo Garden.  

Posted in EF-De Vany reference, Kairos, The Paleo Garden Party | 1 Comment »

What I Eat

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

There are some great paleo recipes out there.  Son of Grok and Mark’s Daily Apple, to just name a couple, do a great job of showing very flavorful, well prepared meals which for the most part don’t take too much cooking time.  These are great, and have their merit.  The godfather of posting simple caveman food is Arthur De Vany.  It all did indeed start with him.  When I am with family, the paleo meals that I eat are very much more refined and a bit more prepared.  And there are many meals that Art has shared over the years that do take a bit of preparation, but for the most part he keeps it simple.

And when I’m living in my apartment away from home on business (which I’m doing now about 60-70% of any given week), I eat simply.  I think one of the things that challenges the grain & sugar eaters out there is how in the world am I going to eat without the prepared foods that bread, chips and pasta (just boil water) offer.  Fair point.  Instead of showing you a meal plan, I’ll show you what I eat in a given 2 week period.  Again, all of this food is just for me, 3 square meals a day, no eating out, lasted me about 2 weeks.

Breakfast:

Meat (every other day eggs & bacon, every other day a steak or chick breast) and fruit.  If I’m in a hurry I cook meat on the George Foreman grill while I’m getting ready.  As I rush out the door, I put the meat in a tupper ware container, and a handful of blueberries, strawberries, and grapes (sometimes an apple, too) in a ziploc bag.  I eat it at work with my morning coffee.

Lunch:

Meat and vegetables.  I either chop up about 10 different vegetables, put it in a bowl, chop up cooked meat and put it on top, or have meat on a side plate along with salad.

Dinner:

Same as lunch.

That.

Easy.

What I drink:

Water, coffee, wine.  I have water whenever, which is a lot less than I used to.  Coffee, try to only have 2 cups a day.  Wine, may have some 2-3 times a week, usually both Friday and Saturday night after dinner, but sometimes a weekday creeps in there.  No juice.  If you want orange juice, have an orange.  If you want apple juice, have an apple.

By all means, try the cool paleo recipes out there, they are really fun and keep your food interesting.  I sometimes either don’t have time to cook, or simply don’t want to try something fancy.  I keep it simple.

When I’m rushed, I use PeaPod, the grocery delivery service.  If you’re looking for Kairos, I recommend putting all of your already purchased food to the side (consolidate it to one corner of the fridge and put the dry stuff in cardboard boxes) and try this below list.

Item Size
Qty
Item Price*
Total Price*
Produce Stand
Apples Granny Smith 1 EA
3
.99
2.97
Avocado Hass 1 EA
3
1.99
5.97
Banana Green 1 EA
5
.39
1.95
Blackberries 5.6 OZ PKG
1
2.66
2.66
Blueberries 1 DRY PINT
1
3.99
3.99
Broccoli - aprx 1-3 Stalks 1 BUNCH
1
1.99
1.99
Carrots Baby Peeled 32 OZ BAG
1
2.50
2.50
Celery 1 BUNCH
1
1.99
1.99
Cucumber 1 EA
2
.75
1.50
Grapes Red Seedless APX 1 LB
1
2.99
2.99
Lettuce Escarole 1 HEAD
1
1.50
1.50
Lettuce Romaine 1 EA
1
1.99
1.99
Onions Vidalia 2 LB BAG
1
1.99
1.99
Peppers Bell Green 1 EA
2
.99
1.98
Peppers Bell Red 1 EA
1
1.50
1.50
Peppers Bell Yellow 1 EA
1
1.50
1.50
Strawberries 16 OZ PKG
1
3.99
3.99
Tomatoes Plum Roma 1 EA
6
.39
2.34
Meat & Seafood
Butcher’s Cut Choice Beef Steak Porterhouse 1 1/4 Inch Tray Pack APX 1.25 LB
1
11.24
11.24
Giant Bacon Hickory Smoked Sliced 16 OZ PKG
2
3.00
6.00
Ground Beef 85% Lean Big Buy APX 2.5 LB
1
12.47
12.47
Nature’s Promise Naturals Chicken Breast Boneless Skinless - 2-3 ct APX 1.25 LB
2
7.49
14.97
Pork Chops Boneless All Natural 6 oz ea - 2 ct APX 3/4 LB
2
5.24
10.48
Super G Sausage Italian Mild - 5 ct 16 OZ PKG
2
3.99
7.98
Deli
Deli Ham Virginia Style Cooked (Regular Sliced) APX 1/2 LB
2
3.49
6.99
Giant Deli Roast Beef (Regular Sliced) APX 1/2 LB
2
3.99
7.99
Dairy
Eggland’s Best Eggs Grade A Large Vegetarian Fed Hens 1 DOZ
2
3.29
6.58
Snacks, Cookies & Candy
Sun Maid Raisins 15 OZ BOX
2
3.49
6.98
Soups & Canned Goods
Bumble Bee Tuna Chunk Light in Oil 5 OZ CAN
1
1.29
1.29
Bumble Bee Tuna Chunk Light in Water 12 OZ CAN
1
3.29
3.29
Hormel Chili with No Beans 15 OZ CAN
5
2.19
10.95
Natural Sea Salmon Pink Wild Premium Alaskan No Salt Added 7.5 OZ CAN
1
2.99
2.99
Natural Sea Sardines No Salt Added Brisling in Water Natural 3.75 OZ CAN
1
2.99
2.99
Condiments, Oils & Dressings
Annie’s Naturals Salad Dressing Goddess 8 OZ BTL
2
2.50
5.00
Subtotal: $163.50
Tax: $4.09
Delivery Fee: $6.95
New Customer Free Delivery: -$6.95
Total: $167.59

Don’t deviate from it, don’t order out, just make it last until it’s all gone.  Maybe that’s 2 weeks, maybe that’s 10 days, maybe you’ll want to restock sooner some of the items from below if you run out of a kind of meat and/or some of the fruits and vegetables.  Can you try one evolution of solely eating from this shopping list?  Or one a lot like it of your choosing?   

Posted in EF-De Vany reference, Kairos | 10 Comments »

Spreading the word

Friday, September 25th, 2009

This whole evolutionary fitness/primal/paleo lifestyle is working for me.  I’ve got a long way to go yet, which I don’t mind, but I’ve already made significant strides in this journey.  While I am not as lean or as strong or as healthy as I once was, every day I get leaner, stronger, and healthier . . . and people notice.  Sometimes, they ask me what I’m doing to change my life.  I’m always happy to talk about it.

Sometimes they don’t understand.

I know that I may be out in left (or right) field on this, but for me, EF isn’t just about health, isn’t just about fitness.  The founder of the methode naturelle, Georges Herbert, had the slogan “be strong to be useful.”

Herbert’s definition of the natural method follows:

A methodical, progressive/graduated and continuous action, from childhood to adulthood, aiming to ensure integral physical development; to increase organic resistances; to highlight the aptitudes in all kind of indispensable exercises, both natural and utilitarian; to develop the energy and all the other qualities of action; finally to subordinate all physical and manly gain to an idea of a prevailing moral: altruism!

I think we’re social animals, and I find, to my shock, that I, too, am a social animal—-for years I thought of myself as a loner, an introvert, and it’s interesting to realize now how much I like people, and people’s company.  I’ve been on that path (maybe it’s called growing up?) for a while, but EF has really kicked it up a notch for me.  It’s as if I’ve found this really cool new thing, and I want to tell people about it, I want to share what I have learned, and I want to help people.

Sometimes it doesn’t work.

As I’ve mentioned previously, one of the things I like about walking at Memorial Park is getting to know people, even if it’s just a wave and a shouted hello as we pass each other running or walking.  One of the guys at the park, he completely rejects the EF message.  He’s in pretty good shape, but I think he could be in better physical condition, and in much better health, if he would consider the EF principles.  He won’t, though.  He had a heart attack, and he’s getting ‘the best cardiatric care in the nation’ from high priced specialists here at the Medical Center, and he’s not even willing to listen to the ideas.  Sometimes it’s very frustrating for me when he rejects the ideas that have made so much difference for me.

Then again, that’s his choice.

Maybe wearing a kilt has helped me with this.  I’ve mentioned, in passing, that I wear a kilt, and I plan to write more about it in the future.  Wearing a kilt is my choice, it’s an unusual choice, not everyone will choose the same way, not everyone will even understand the choice.  But it’s my choice, and I’ll explain to anyone who will listen, I’ll explain the reasons I do it, the reasons it’s not transgressive (although it may appear that way).  If they, after my explanation, reject my choice?  Well, that’s their choice.

My choice to wear a kilt does not depend on the approval of others.  I have my reasons for the things I do, reasons that I’ve generally spent a good bit of time thinking about, and if other people don’t understand, well, that’s ok as well.  If people think that by wearing a kilt I’m cross-dressing, or wearing a costume, or pretending to be Scottish, or, am simply letting my freak flag fly, that’s ok.  I am always ready to explain why I wear a kilt, why the kilt is a skirt but a particular type of skirt, a skirt for men worn by the Scottish highlanders.  Some people (many people, in the event) understand, and some people “don’t get it.”

With both those who understand and those who don’t, I discourse on my reasons with courtesy and logic.  I lay out my reasons and rationales and try to explain why I’ve made the choices I’ve made, and point out that not everyone will come to the same conclusions I do.

Quite frequently today, I see a different approach taken.  If people don’t/can’t/won’t accept, or even consider, our premises and reasons, very frequently we have a tendency to lash out at them.  Fortunately, we rarely see this in the paleo community, although at times, we do.    In the political sphere, we see a lot of “lash-out” at people who disagree.  If you are of one party, the other party is not merely incorrect, but either mentally deficient or motivated by base drives.  The widespread use of the terms “Demonrat” and “Rethuglican” to refer to members of America’s two establishment political parties is simply a case in point.  It could be pure speculation on my part, but I think a lot of us feel the need to convince everyone, in order to validate our choices.  If someone disagrees, he’s not just wrong, he’s evil.  He becomes the enemy.  There are Democrats like that, and Republicans, and libertarians, and Austrians.  How can someone not see?  How can they be so blind?  Why, they must be evil!

I can understand the allure of this.  When my friend at the park says that my diet is unhealthy and will kill me, and presents his opinion on my liberal consumption of butter and good red meat, I and my choices are to a degree under attack.  I want to lash out, at some level, to strike back.  I don’t do it, though.  I hate to sound like Yoda talking to Jedi-in-training Luke Skywalker, but don’t give in to the dark side.  Resentment grows from fear and misunderstanding, and leads to hate, and hate can corrode the soul, and swallow you up just like that.

As I said, I don’t think EF is just about physical fitness.  Lorette wrote recently that the mind and the body work together, are together, are one. I’m hep to that.  As I’ve pursued this new lifestyle, I’ve felt not only my body change but my mind as well.  Just like my body rests better and works better, my mind seems to rest better and work better.  Things that used to annoy me are now met with (more) understanding, and I find it easier to clearly express particular thoughts.  (Part of this, as I said, is just growing up, but EF certainly helps with the process.)

We are clever and adaptable little monkeys as well.  We can teach old dogs new tricks, and maybe even teach them to become old wolves.  We can learn new ways to behave, just as our bodies can learn new ways to move.  If we can affect the gene expression of our bodies, we can also change the social expression of our brains.  As we can train our bodies to do burpees or muscle-ups, we can train ourselves to interact with others with strength and grace as well.

Remember Herbert’s ultimate goal for the natural method?  Altruism!  The ultimate goal, the reason I am doing EF, is to be stronger so I can be more useful.  I want to protect, promote and provide for my family, first and foremost, and then my friends, and then to anyone I can help, and I can do that better by being calmer, fitter, healthier, etc.

So when people don’t understand the way I eat, I try to understand.  It’s not, after all, as if I’ve known this stuff forever.  I found it, too, after a long time chasing other ideas.  I can model this lifestyle, I can explain to those who are willing to listen, I can advise further investigation at the websites of the Drs. Eades, or Jimmy Moore, or Mark Sisson . . . or the New York Times (Taubes’ article) or Men’s Health.  I can’t make them listen, or understand.

Who knows?  Maybe the bread I cast upon the waters now by calmly advocating my paleo lifestyle will return manyfold on down the road.  Maybe in a month someone will think back to how I looked, how I carried myself, how I acted, and think, “Maybe there was something there after all.”  I’ll freely admit that I’m not Mr. Science, that the plural of anecdote is not data, and that I could be wrong about this stuff, but that I’ve looked into it some and think it’s valid, and encourage them to look into it and come to their own conclusions.  If other people don’t see it, they don’t see it.  I can hope that, maybe, one day, they will see it—-they will see that strength and health is our heritage, that it’s not too late to change.  I can hope that they’ll have their own kairos moment.   I believe in the soft word that turneth away wrath, and winning converts through honey, not vinegar.

As Kris Kristofferson sang back in the 1970s,

And you still can hear me singin’ to the people who don’t listen,
To the things that I am sayin’, prayin’ someone’s gonna hear.
And I guess I’ll die explaining how the things that they complain about,
Are things they could be changin’, hopin’ someone’s gonna care.

I was born a lonely singer, and I’m bound to die the same,
But I’ve got to feed the hunger in my soul.
And if I never have a nickle, I won’t ever die ashamed.
‘Cos I don’t believe that no-one wants to know.  

Posted in Kairos, Uncle Lew | No Comments »

We’re growing, pass it on!

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Well, we’ve been online now for a 1/4 of the year.  Our first post went up on the brightest day of the year, and just the other day we crossed over to when the days have started to become shorter than the nights.  It’s been great getting your emails of encouragement, and watching the stats show our readership grow every day.  Thanks for dropping by, we hope that in this paleo subculture we offer something unique and complementary to the other great paleo sites you have to choose from.

In the next couple of months we’ll have some of the best paleo original content coming your way.   We encourage you to invite others to join the growing Paleo Garden Party, it keeps us motivated as we’re having fun spreading the word.  

Posted in Kairos, The Paleo Garden Party | No Comments »

Weight training advice to a kid needing help

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

This post is for the kid getting picked on right now either because she’s (or he’s) smart (e.g. a threat to a brutish bully going through puberty) or perhaps lacks a bit of confidence and is deemed an easy target.  Now, I was always on the side of the guy that was getting picked on.  I remember routinely stepping in and taking down a guy my size when he was picking on a smaller guy.  That was just my style.  I wasn’t for hire like in the classic teenage movie My Bodyguard, but perhaps my desire for fairness had something to do with it.

If you’re a kid (or for that matter a young woman/man or an adult or an older woman/man), and you’ve always had a complex about how small or weak you were,  I would offer the following humble advice.

Start lifting weights.  It’s not a competition, it’s about what you can do.  You’ll find that just because the guy/gal next to you can lift more, this will mean less to you after you find out what you’re capable of doing.  It doesn’t matter whether you ever played sports in school or are athletic or not, building up your strength is a worthy goal not for vanity’s sake, but for your health’s sake.  For your immune system’s sake.  For the sake of your well being and self confidence.

And above all when you start lifting weights, KEEP READING THOSE BOOKS!  From 15 years old to 21 years old I was a vacuum of all reason, but before 15 I was a 4.0 GPA student.  If you’re hitting the weights and hitting the books, and you’re a nerd (with all respect, for I’m one of the biggest nerds I know), you’ll indeed be a very successful person.  Tall, short, skinny or fat, girl or boy, you can make yourself stronger.

See this picture of Henry Rollins, former lead singer of the legendary band, Black Flag, below?

I’ve got news for you.  Henry is a big nerd. Probably one of the biggest nerds out there!  He was a young scared troubled boy before he started lifting.  His fit physique is from years of honing his muscle mass, it wasn’t always so.  If you’re getting picked on by a bully, I think this essay is one of the best of all time for you to read. (CLICK HERE!)

I don’t agree with all of Henry’s politics and maybe have a different diet and workout routine than he does, but I don’t care.  Henry’s love and respect of “the iron” is a love and respect that he has for himself.

Remember, all of the stuff you’re going through is temporary.  One of the best ways to change your happiness level is to change your understanding of what you’re capable of.   Here are my recommendations based on how I did it as a teenager (the parts that I did right at least, I’ll leave out the parts I did wrong), and what I’ve learned since then.

  1. When starting out, just focus on the basics.  Don’t try every workout under the sun when you’re first starting out.   My advise would be just the Big Five Workout by Dr. Doug McGuff.  Dr. McGuff has a great story about finding out about lifting weights via newsletters by Arthur Jones when he was just a kid.  McGuff is an emergency room doctor now, he still lifts weights, and he’s the same articulate compassionate person he was back when he was a teenager.

    If you’re a young lady (or young man for that matter) that’s getting teased for her weight, or for one thing or another, check out Cassandra Forsythe’s site. Cassandra has her PHD now, she’s a doctor in her own right, probably one of the fittest scientists in the world.  I can’t think of no better role model for a young girl than Cassandra.
  2. At first, forget about the supplements, and the crazy hard core magazines for now.  Don’t buy all of the crazy powders or protein bars, or lame sports drinks.  Learn how to do the major lifts first.
  3. When you go into the gym for the first time, go up to the king or queen.  It can be intimidating for the first time, especially if you’re 13 or 14 and weigh 120 pounds (or if you’re a pudgy kid with no muscle).  When he or she is NOT lifting weights!, go up to the biggest or most fit guy or gal in the gym, and with all of your courage ask him or her for advice.  Big muscleheads (or very fit gorgeous women)  all love to talk about their routines, if they’re not too busy that is.  Humbly tell him/her that you’re just starting to learn to workout and ask what their routine is, and you’ll be surprised at how much time they’ll give you.  And if they act like jerks, don’t waste your time on them, find another person to ask (including of course the trainer).  90% of the reason I’m telling you to ask these questions and just LISTEN to these people is not solely because you may hear something of value (there’s a good chance the workout routine you may hear will be complete rubbish!) but to calm you down, to let you know that in a gym you are equal to anyone in there.
  4. Start eating right. Read the “evolutionary cannons” I have on the left hand side of the menu bar.  Start eating massive amounts of vegetables, fruits and healthy fish and meat.  Stop eating sugar, and all of those processed foods.  Not because mommy is telling you, but because in order to get good body composition, remove much of the anxiety and/or depression you may be feeling, you need to stop eating garbage.  If you’re smart, and I have a feeling you are, you’re ready for The Paleo Diet.  If you’re interested in looking out at infinity and understanding what black holes and unfound galaxies are out there, then learn about what’s going on inside you, your body, the product of millions of years of life on this planet.  You can do it.
  5. Don’t start starting fights and don’t you dare give up those books.   Defend yourself, yes!  But still use reason and your self confidence to avoid violence and negative thoughts if some idiot is trying to bully you.  You’re getting stronger and healthier now everyday.  Don’t become a meathead like that male bully, or a vapid vacant mind like that female bully.  Keep studying, keep learning about what you’re body is capable of.
  6. Sleep right. Go to bed at 10pm, get up at 6am.  Get at least 7 hours in of sleep if that’s not possible.
  7. You’ll become an adult. It takes awhile.  You’ll learn how to become a woman or man.  You’ll figure this all out.  It’s a lot easier when you’re smart, eating right and strong.
  8. Don’t give up. If you can’t afford a gym membership, go to the gym at your school.  If that’s not available there’s a lot of routines that you can do with your own body weight.

I was always a big kid, usually a bit bigger than all of the other kids throughout my time growing up.  When I wasn’t the biggest kid, I got picked on my fair share, I guess.  I felt fortunate that I was a bit bigger, given that I was rather thoughtful kid (still am), and didn’t favor picking on other kids.  I probably would have been picked on a lot more had I not had the ability to fight back, physically at times, or perhaps other times not needing to as my size was a natural deterrent.

I was good at sports, but in junior high I was on the math team.  I wish that I would have done better at academics in high school, but when athletics became even more of an important determinant of social standing (or so I thought at the time), I gave up the books to work out even more after discovering weights my sophomore year.  I should have balanced the weights with the books.  For any jocks of any age reading this, I urge you to remember that evolutionary living requires a brain workout along with learning about diet and muscle growth.  But this post is written for someone else in mind.

If you’re scared right now, if you’re getting picked on, if you’re a bit overweight, or small, or too thin, or have facial blemishes… it’s temporary.  You can and will have a very long and healthy life.  There’s no doubt you have the brains, now find your strength and healthy diet to make yourself all that much more smarter and happier, you can do it.   

Posted in Kairos | 1 Comment »

1-year living Evolutionary Fitness

Monday, September 14th, 2009

So, here I am living Evolutionary Fitness for one whole year.  The first few months were full of rapid discoveries.  Months 3-9 seemed to offer unexpected eureka moments as I continued to break through various ceilings of understanding only to discover that I was on the ground floors and had a much higher distance of learning upward to do.  The last 3 months seemed to be settling into a complete lifestyle, still learning but the lessons seemed less surprising and more grin-evoking, often saying to myself, “Of course, that’s is how it is, certainly.  Makes perfect sense”, easily casting off previous closely held notions disspassionately and not being threatened by the “new.”

A quick overview of how it happened.  Early September 2008 I read Brian Appleyard’s article on Arthur De Vany.  It was a link from an Austrian economics site that I very much admire.  At the time, I was working as a consultant overseas, working 12-14 hour days, mismanaging home-work life balance, and the bad tilt of this balance was causing me to sleep less, eat worse, and gain weight.  In July/August 2008 time frame I contracted diverticulitis symptoms, and was having serious pain after eating.  I was on 3 different kinds of prescription medicine, plus avoiding corn, nuts, and trying not to eat heavy.  After reading the Appleyard article, I said to myself, what do I have to lose as obviously I was not living naturally.

sept-14-28-nov-1-17-dec-27

On September 14, 2008 the day before I flew to London for a week of business travel, I had a picture taken of me in all of my glory.  It’s funny, because at the time I was sucking it in, posturing to make it look not too bad, and really thought that my contortions allowed a decent picture to turn out.  Jeez, after a few months into EF I realized what a disaster I allowed my body/health to fall into.

I figured that without the distractions of family and long office hours while in London eating hotel and restaurant food I would during that one-week trip give it a go for at least a few weeks.  The first day seemed like the first day in a different country (and it literally was I guess!).  My body was going somewhere where it had never been.  I ate eggs, bacon, eggs for breakfast.  I skipped milk, but had plenty of coffee and juice.  I have since mended my ways with juice, no juice now, if I want orange juice, I eat an orange.  Apple juice?  No, I eat an apple, and so on.

During meetings all day, kind British hosts were filling the table with pastries, sandwiches, and crackers.  I skipped them all, concentrated on the pieces of fruits at the edge of the plates which were only meant to serve as eye decorations, only a test subject like me was actually eating them.  As the plates were emptied, the decorative fruits that weren’t eaten up by me were discarded into the trash.  One of many lightbulbs that went off that day.

In the evening when I just had a meat dish and vegetables, skipped the “chips” (potatoes), I was having heat flashes.  I tossed and turned for a couple of hours when I finally was able to sleep, but then something incredible happened.  I slept like a baby, the care of the world slipped off my shoulders.  The next morning, I was ravenous though I had eaten much the previous first day of EF.  Heat flashes continued.  In between meetings during lunch and in the evening, I rode the waves of sugar/carb/high blood glucose level addiction by walking the cool September streets of London.  During the wee hours of the night, I was reading Art’s blog and came across a few mentions that London was his favorite town to take a nice walk.  I felt then that I was literally walking the right path.

I survived the first week of EF in London.  On the flight back home to Asia, I avoided all of the crap on the plane.  The first few weeks were interesting as I packed my lunch and ate breakfast and dinner at home much differently.  The heat flashes left, but the melting hunger was constant as I felt my weight of ~255 melt everyday despite eating to being full.  The first month was dramatic.  Then, something very unexpected happened.

I was diagnosed with 5 kidney stones.  I had to take an emergency flight from Asia to Germany with a severe kidney infection.  Though I was eating healthy and having daily epiphanies while on EF, the past damage that I had done to my body had caught up to me.  The years of drinking soda, munching on chips, eating processed foods of all kinds, and high acidic grain diet had reaped stones in my system that clogged me up, and the pain from it was so foreign that it wasn’t until I was nearly incapicitated that I realized that it wasn’t a comeback of my diverticulitis symptoms.  You see, the first few weeks of EF allowed me to freely discard my diverticulitis medicine, my gut felt great, my digestion was fine.

I spent 2 weeks in Germany, 2 humbling weeks.  While there I read every blog post that Art had ever done.  If any doubts of getting off of an evolutionary life and diet were going to manifest themselves, those 2 weeks in Germany and the subsequent 5 weeks of surgery and recovery removed any chance of me backsliding to an improper diet and lifestyle again.  I’ll post more on that in detail another time.

20090914-1-year-ef

I would like to thank Arther De Vany and the Evolutionary Fitness community, along with the great players out there like Cordain, the Eades, and Gary Taubes for the wisdom I’ve obtained, and hope to pass on to my family.  As the months formed this first year of evolutionary living the memory of my former diet and state of health fades.

If I were to explain what led to my “kairos” moment that got me started, I guess it was partly realizing that hitting rock bottom was fast approaching given my health problems in September 2008, and knowing that I would have a week away from family and office to give EF a try.  For those of you that may be reading this who feel like you may want to experience your birthright health and diet, perhaps a humble suggestion would be to stretch out the next 3-day weekend into a 5 or 6-day weekend (take a few days of vacation) and go for it.  You don’t have to, but maybe, like it was the case for me, stepping away from the daily usual fray in your life for a short amount of time would create the atmosphere that you need to take your first steps.

Read the “cannons” in my left menu column for some encouragement, and give it a go.  I have.  And that has made all the difference.  

Posted in Kairos, Transformation | 1 Comment »

The Paleo Garden Party: Invitation to Alec Baldwin (Part III)

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Dear Mr. Alec Baldwin,

Greetings again from The Paleo Garden! In the previous invitations, we realized that we neglected to give some directions as to how to get to the party.

Our bodies for millions of years evolved to eat more or less a balanced ratio of the 3 macronutrients:

-Carbohydrate
-Fat
-Protein

A researcher by the name of Loren Cordain has shown that by looking at archeological records of ancient hunter and gatherer societies as well as modern hunter and gatherer societies, our bodies were not designed to take in such a high percentage of sugar (sucrose and/or fructose) and other carbohydrates from grains and starches.

When carbohydrates are ingested they become glucose in your blood stream (e.g., blood sugar). This causes your insulin levels to spike. Insulin is a hormone that tells your cells to stop releasing fat, and to take in glucose.

With high levels of carbohydrates in your diet, your pancreas is signaled to excrete high levels of insulin, with high levels of insulin, you have no release of fat to use as energy. Instead, your cells only take in and “burn” glucose.

When your muscle and organ tissues are gorged with glucose, your fat cells continue to accept the glucose and become bigger and bigger. Your body has to store all of the excess blood sugar/glucose somewhere.

People become obese and succumb to metabolic syndrome not because of the fat and protein that they eat, they become obese because of:

-High levels of carbohydrates in their diet that turn into glucose which triggers the production of insulin
-Insulin prevents your body from utilizing energy from fat and signals your cells to just intake glucose
-Excess glucose (blood sugar) is stored as fat. Fat can’t be tapped with high levels of glucose and insulin in your blood stream
-Over time, these high levels of insulin cause obesity, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes, as your fat continues to grow

One of the best essays you can read on this subject is Art De Vany’s “Why We Get Fat.”

Here are some pictures from members in this paleo community here, here, and here. These results came from lowering carbohydrate intake, which lowered glucose in the bloodstream, which lowered insulin secretion, and thus increased the ability to utilize stored fat.

Mr. Baldwin, these are but our interpretations of these directions on how to get to this party, which rests on the shoulders of giants and those that came before us. There is some great research out there and other practitioners who may also lead you here. Again, thank you for your consideration of this invitation, we hope to see you at the garden party. The favor of an RSVP is requested.

Best Regards,

The Paleo Garden  

Posted in EF-De Vany reference, Kairos, The Paleo Garden Party | 2 Comments »

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