Paleo Quick Tip Of The Day

Send us a textIt 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 ot

Send us a textI’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 th

Send us a text"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

Send us a textDid 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 sprin

Send us a textReally!  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 t

Send us a textThis might seem like a rather strange subject for aPaleo Quick Tip of the Day, but nevertheless, it is a crucialtopic.  To be abalanced paleolithic or ancestral type of person, creating thingsis a big part of being successful.  Men and women are born with aneed to explore and develop their talents, to nurture them alongand create; if you don’t do so, you are setting yourself up forunhappiness. If you have never seen the magnificent cave paintingsof cave dwellers, you should take a look online!  The elaborate, detailedpaintings of animals of that era are so well done, so lovinglycrafted, as to almost look real.  Think of the effort expendedin doing this artistic labor, and realize that these paleolithicpeople had a compulsion to create, just as we do. All through history, from Egypt and the pyramidsthrough ancient Greece and Rome, beautiful statues and paintingswere produced constantly.  Surely their music waswonderful as well, although we have never actually heard itourselves, they enjoyed it ve

Send us a textRecently, 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, wearin

Send us a textOne 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

Send us a textNow 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 p

Send us a textThis 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 athlete

Send us a textI 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 govern

Send us a textThere’s no such thing as an essential carbohydrateOne 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* EnergyOf 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 rese

Send us a textI 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 leak

Send us a textIf 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 GUIDELINESARE WHAT HAS KEPT AMERICANS FATTER AND SICKER THAN AT ANY PAST TIMEIN 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 fa

Send us a textAutomatic health and fitness?  Wouldn’t that be nice, that’s probably your first thought.  I mean, nothing could be that easy, right?Well, it really is, it’s just a matter of setting up appropriate habits, and then following through for long enough that they just become your life!  And if they are good and healthy, and thus long term enjoyable habits, why then this is a prescription not only for automatic health and fitness, but actually a means to automatic happiness!I don’t mean that your ideal daily habits will be identical to mine at all, but there will definitely be some similarities, at least in diet and exercise, if you want to maximize health and fitness over your whole lifetime.  So here goes:I wake up early enough so that I can do what I view to be the most crucial part of my daily habits- this, of course, entails that I always go to bed early enough to get a solid 8 or more hours of good sleep!  So, I wake up refreshed, naturally ready to get up.  I go into a brief “mobility” series o

Send us a textI don’t know if you are aware of the importance of magnesium to your health, but I am here to tell you it is crucial.Why do we need a magnesium, or indeed any kind of a supplement, if we are already eating a natural, God-made foods based paleo type of diet?  This is a reasonable question, and I personally try to keep supplements to a minimum, since getting them from natural sources is infinitely preferable. This is why I make a Paleo Smoothie to drink daily, loaded with fresh vegetables of many types, kefir, coconut milk- well, go to Paleo Green Smoothie recipe to see all that I recommend at www.paleojay.com The two “supplements” I put into that smoothie are: 1. Liquid vitamin D2. Cod liver oil Everything else, from the apple cider vinegar to the kelp, spirulina, and the several spices I put in are all real foods! But, the other thing I think you should consider adding in to your regimen is magnesium - and I think the best way to do this is through magnesium oil, applied to the skin! Paleo is no

Send us a textI think you will be amazed, astounded, and as delighted with this upcoming recipe as I was! I was down at the family cabin, deep in a coulee in southwestern Wisconsin, taking care of some damage there this winter- you see, a tree fell on the roof, smashing the skylight and scattering safety glass pellets all throughout the inside.  And so, what was to be a day trip to the cabin to check on it turned into a 3 day ordeal, arranging for all the insurance claims adjuster, carpenter, & furnace repairman (that was acting up as well) to take care of things… Oh, did I mention that my brother’s place, which is next door, had had a furnace breakdown and most of the pipes had burst? So, I had that as well!  I’m not complaining, since of course now it is all done with for the most part.  (I’m just really, really glad I had brought my sleeping bag down with me “just in case”).  When traveling in the dead of winter here in the northland, a sleeping bag in the car is always a wise precaution! I felt the ne

Send us a textMailman Tales paperback For his whole life, my father Big Band Bob, has loved to spend time outdoors!  He started out at Wolf acres, when he got out of the service, helping his sister Emma and her husband Ben to work on their wooded acres.  They cleaned up scrub trees for the big campfire pit they had built of mortared stone, planted new stands of pine that now are a beautiful forest that we all enjoy, and just stacked, moved, cut, and burned wood! Nowadays, I do the same- my acreage on Cowbell lane seems to constantly need a tree removed, cut up, and then I need to stack the wood.  I have a wood furnace in the cellar, and I transport the wood with my  trailer behind my tractor, and then throw it down through a cellar window for burning.  It’s definitely hard physical work, but it is very satisfying, and real work, which is something most modern people don’t do anymore, to their detriment!  We all require hard physical labor to fulfill and enrich our lives, both for the health of our bodies and

Send us a textToday I want to introduce you to an exercise that you probably have never heard of, but is probably one of the most productive and beneficial exercises ever.  The 360 exercise, so called because you do it in a 360 degree circle around your body, going one way, and then the other.  I saw it on the www.onnit.com exercise and fitness site, and it was demonstrated using a product of their, the steel bell.  They also do it with a large metal mace, but you can use anything, even a rock, or a fixed dumbbell or kettlebell, or even a big book! I did it today for the first time, and was blown away by what I was feeling in my abs, and in fact in my entire core!  It even targets more directly than any other movement the hard-to-hit obliques on the side of the waist.  One wonderful side effect of the 360 is that not only does it not injure and strain the shoulder joints, it actually seems restorative, aiding in range of motion and smooth and pain free joint function.You probably know of my opinion of heavy w

Send us a textOK, admittedly I stole this title from the upcoming summit with Maria Shriver and Mark Hyman…If you are interested here is the link to their multi-day summit:http://fatsummit.com/There are lots of paleo types involved- I noticed, with a quick glance at all of the photos, not only those two I already mentioned, but Dr. Axe, Chis Kresser, David Perlmutter, and many others who know whereof they speak on the bill.I’m sure you could not go wrong listening to the summit!  You will possibly learn a lot.  But I will give you here a little list that, I’m sure, will sum up what they say in a nutshell, and save you listening for hours and hours…But, if you have not already been “indoctrinated” into the paleo or ancestral lifestyle, you may need to be re-grainwashed, as I like to say, and sit through those hours to gradually come to the truth!  But, if (like me), you just want the Cliff’s Notes version, here is what I know will be covered:Saturated fat, in spite of what you’ve been indoctrinated with for pe