PALEO JAY Smoothie Cafe

PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe #90  The Very Best home workout equipment, and the ONLY way I recommend to do a deadlift!I know, I generally say you don’t need equipment to work out- after all, if you are doing virtual resistance training (flexing as you move through a muscles range of motion) and then holding isometrically...  your own body is the resistance.  And this is the most efficient and safe of all forms of exercise!  It should be your warmup, and the core of your fitness regimen for the rest of your life.  Nothing else even comes close in terms of totally working your entire physique!But it is also great to include other tools in your bodyweight arsenal.  The first one I would recommend to you is the rebounder, or mini-trampoline.I have mentioned this piece of equipment before in a podcast, and it is a wonderful addition to virtual resistance training- I often do my virtual moving “poses” on the rebounder, usually in front of the TV...This kind of “doubles your pleasure, doubles your fun” in a good kind of way- you are working aerobically and your musculature at the same time.  A really time efficient way to work out!I am also a great fan of the pushup!  And while the “hands flat on the floor” version is good, using a perfect pushup type of revolving handle is even better- not only does it raise your hands up off the floor, giving you a greater range of motion and more muscle engagement, it also protects your wrists and shoulders from damage by rotating along with the motion.  This protects your joints even as it makes the exercise more productive.P bars, or parallette bars are another great option for pushups, giving you a VERY low extension below parallel.  They are also great for L sits, a top notch ab exercise you cando.  In a pinch, the perfect pushup device mentioned before can also be used for L sits!  Just make sure you get the heavy duty version of the perfect pushup, as the other lesser version will wear out quickly supporting your body weight in the L sit, and doing pushups with your feet raised off the floor and resting on the back of a couch or chair while you do your leg raised of “Atlas 3” pushups.An ab roller is wonderful, and actually another kind of pushup!  Wonderful ab exercise, and it also simultaneously works the arms, chest, back and shoulders- also, it’s a great party trick, as most men cannot do even one without gradually working up to it.  To begin, get an ab roller (they are quite cheap!) and do them from your knees.  Next, you can do them from the top as a negative, going as slowly as you can downwards, and just stop at the bottom.  Eventually you will get one full, top to bottom and back up again rep, and then you will add another, and another until you get to a set of 6 or 7.  That’s all you really need in terms of reps- then, just do multiple sets for a very high level of fitness!  I like to “superset” ab roll outs with my sets of pushups.Of course, a pullup/chinup bar is a necessity, but a tree branch of piece of pipe will do in a pinch.  I use my old power rack in the basement for this, back from my old weight lifting days of long ago, and a power rack or “cage” is a very versatile piece of equipment indeed- it is much more productive without weights, as it is ideal for isometric work, utilizing its pins to press against with empty bars or wooden dowels.  It is also great to use the power rack for squat variations- you can use the side supports to hold on to as you do a one legged or “pistol” squat.  It helps to lean back as you do this, because that really takes the strain off of the knee joint and puts it right over the quadricep muscle where you want it.  You can duplicate this upstairs, too, by doing these pistols in a door frame!Another wonderful training adjunct is a set of gymnastic rings!  Mount these in your basement as I have, and you will find them to be among the most satisfying, versatile and productive pieces of equipment you could possibly own.  They are wonderful to do pushup

pjsc podcast  #88 The Very Best Type of Natural Exercise You Can Do! Something that I have brought up on a regular basis, and actually go into depth on in my eBook Perfectly Paleo Exercise is most perfect type of exercise you can possibly do- it requires NO equipment, can be done anywhere, and allows a maximum contraction and tension throughout the whole range of motion of each muscle in the body from head to toe, and shapes the body symmetrically , and without damaging the discs in the back or risking shoulder or knee damage, which effects are inevitable with weight training!  What is this miracle form of exercise?It’s what Charles Atlas taught in his famous mail order courses of comic book fame- he called it dynamic tension- it is also called virtual resistance, and transformetrics. But whatever you call it, it works, it has worked for literally thousands of years in many cultures throughout the world, and it will work for you. How does it work?  It’s simple once you see and understand it, and it is easily incorporated into your life.  The best way to understand and implement it is to either get my eBook Perfectly Paleo Exercise, and/or go to www.transformetrics.com/exercises  This is part of the site of John E. Peterson, and he is the modern day, living personification of Charles Atlas!  Years ago, I found a couple of books of his, and learned of this form of exercise when I was still a busted up, chronically injured weight lifter- it changed my training life entirely, and actually improved and enhanced my physique and overall strength, while simultaneously freeing me from hours of painful training in the gym, and ultimately curing all my chronic injuries that had been caused by those very weights.If you go to the transformetrics site, you can see the exercises I am talking about, which are really just controlled flexing of each muscle group throughout the full range of motion. Really!  It is that simple- you just flex, the degree of applied tension is up to you- it can be a mild flex, but what you want to work up to is a powerful flex and tension as you slowly go through the full range of motion- you will feel it, strongly, and if you are used to using weights you will recognize the feeling as exactly the same- but without the damage to joints and cartilage- and actually more intense because the tension is just as strong in the “weak” part of the “lift” as it is in the strong part, and because there is no cheating as in lifting more weight by cheating in form... you know, like curling a heavy bar and rocking back to life more weight than you could with strict form- since the tension is generated internally, BY YOU, the tension (the “weight”) is always just what you make it, no more, no less, and so you can make it IDEAL at each and every part of the “lift”...And no damage to your precious, God given body!Not only no damage, but doing these movements will actually rejuvenate, and rebuild your physique from the inside out- where weights actually stress the tendons by chiefly putting the tension on the muscles only, virtual or self-generated resistance put the stress first on the tendons and ligaments, strengthening them first, and then safely passing the stress onto the musculature itself.  This not only develops the physique in the most symmetrical, natural and pleasing way, i.e. without excessive bulk as in a fat butt, bulky thighs, and protruding abdomen so common in heavy weight lifters and conventional bodybuilders, but it actually builds the sort of real world strength that is so important in performing real physical feats in the real world, like actually moving heavy awkward objects, and strength that is applicable in twisting, pounding, and otherwise moving in different planes of motion!Not just things like, oh, squatting under a heavy bar and straining straight upwards, or lying on a bench, and pushing a heavy bar straight up, or lifting a heavy bar from the ground, straight up as in

PJSC First Do no HarmA famous saying from the founder of Western medicine, Hippocrates, it is meant to be one of the guiding principles of that modern medicine.  Unfortunately, in our time, this guiding principle seems to be largely thrown out the window!  Many thousands die yearly from iatrogenesis, which is a term meaning “Death by Doctor”... in fact, iatrogenesis is now the leading cause of death in the United States of America!How about that in light of first do no harm?The Nutrition Institute of America funded an independent review of “government-approved” medicine that was published in 2006. Professors Gary Null and Dorothy Smith, along with doctors Carolyn Dean, Martin Feldman and Debora Rasio titled the report “Death by Medicine.”The researchers found that America’s leading cause of death isn’t heart disease or cancer: its conventional medicine. They found that the iatrogenic death rate in the US (death caused by doctors and/or medical treatments) is 783,936 a year. That’s 84,059 more deaths than those caused by heart disease in 2001 and 230,865 more deaths than those caused by cancer.A large portion of these deaths are caused by the myriads of side effects from pharmaceutical drugs.  Statins are just one drug that is incredibly overprescribed.  Some of the side effects are muscle wasting, particularly of the heart muscle, severe joint pain, and being much more susceptible to cancer.  Does this sound like the kind of drug that right now about 1/3 of Americans should take?  Well, they are, and new guidelines would make 1/2 of Americans fall under the recommendations for statin prescriptions.The reason?  The industry makes profits of around 30 Billion dollars per year!!  Strong incentive indeed to ignore the dictum first do no harm!It is this profit motive that has taken over our medical clinics and hospitals, in fact the entire medical system.  There is blatant overuse of drugs that are loaded with side effects, blatant overuse of medical procedures like x rays and mammograms, and unnecessary surgeries- all ultimately done for increased profits.The overuse of technology creates a “cascade effect” in treating patients: unnecessary outpatient treatment often leads to more visits, more prescriptions, more hospitalizations and deaths.X-rays, CT scans, mammograms and other such diagnostics are costly and cumulatively dangerous, yet they are given regularly to soothe patient fears and often lead to unnecessary surgeries.Also, to underscore the poorly conceived priorities of modern conventional medicine, we only have to look at the food and nutrition provided in a hospital cafeteria: There, you will see the worst possible foods being offered to both medical staff and patients, showing the utter ignorance and disdain nutrition is held in by the medical community.  Probably the most unsafe place to be, the unhealthiest place in the world, is within our modern “health care” institutions, which are actually disease care places, with a focus on disease, not health at all, and an emphasis on treating symptoms of diseases, not the root cause.  Health is not really the end goal they are even looking at!Your own body is the only thing that can truly heal you, and restore you to health.  And your body doesn’t need drugs to cure itself, your body needs good, nutrient dense foods that supply the raw materials it needs to build your health from the inside out, as it has been doing in nature for millennia.So, the next time it is recommended to you to go to see the doctor and go through a bunch of expensive tests, say you’ll pass, since first you will DO NO HARM to your health.  And remember the other Hippocratic dictum:“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food”

It’s already happened to us all: we all have been ingesting antibiotics for years!  Primarily through medicines given us rightly, or wrongly and unnecessarily through medical doctors prescriptions since we were young, but also by eating animals that have been fed loads of it.In the 1950’s, a new drug was developed- the first antibiotic, something that would kill microbes!  At the same time, it was discovered that this same drug, this antibiotic, would make animals gain substantial amounts of weight! Of course, this sounded great to farmers and ranchers, who are paid for the animals by the pound, and so they jumped on board.  They bought low grade, leftover antibiotic “slurry” from the manufacturing process by the tank load, and watched their cattle and chickens grow really fat, really fast.  And another thing: they noticed that the animals that were fed this antibiotic laced feed also seemed to not get infections easily, at least for the short life that they led up until their slaughter.  And so, the Confined Animal Feeding Operation or CAFO was born- animals could now survive in filthy, overcrowded conditions better, thanks to antibiotics!  In fact, in 1955 Pfizer sponsored a contest among pharmaceutical salesmen to see who could gain the most weight. (1955 was very different from today- it was a time when bigger was better, even in people!)The salesmen who took antibiotics gained much more weight than those who did not.The other thing that was happening, though, is that although the antibiotics were truly wonder drugs in healing bacterial infections, they were literally “carpet bombing” anyone who took them, destroying beneficial bacteria in the patients system that did helpful things like, oh, regulating weight and appetite, digesting and then releasing helpful compounds from foods that helped our mood, cognitive abilities, and many other facets of our lives.  And now, about 1/3 of Americans are obese, and about 5% are severely obese.  We weigh on average 25 pounds more than we did in the 1960’s, and children are much fatter and are even coming down with adult onset or type 2 diabetes in grade school!So, if you want to “lean out” and go back to the 1950’s:Only take antibiotics if you really need them for an acute infection.  Look at it as seriously as surgery!Try to avoid CAFO animals, and go for local, pastured chicken and beef and pork.Build  your beneficial gut microbe health by eating probiotics like real fermented sauerkraut and pickles, kimchi and kefir.  Consider taking soil based probiotics, but definitely get out gardening, and walking barefoot, and otherwise getting in touch with the soil- good soil is absolutely loaded with the microbes we evolved with, and are as much a part of us as gravity.  Without them we perish!Feed your gut microbes by eating resistant starch!  This means undigestible parts of starchy plants like really green bananas and plantains, and potato starch in an unheated form.  Ideally, this means including these foods in a Paleo Smoothie made in your trustyVitamix on a daily, or near daily basis!  Keep the “Prebiotics for BAD bacteria” out of your system- this means keep out sugar, all forms of bread and pasta (which immediately turn INTO sugar) and all other forms of gluten, which is a harmful component of wheat.  Sugar feeds the bad bacteria that infects us, and makes us sick.   Also, skimmed milk is another form of sugar to be avoided at all costs- heavy cream is actually good for you though!That’s about it.  If you do all of that- avoid sugar and grains, eat lots of healthy, pastured and wild caught animals, and plenty of fat from pastured animals, fatty fish like salmon and sardines, along with your daily Paleo Smoothie loaded with pastured eggs, pastured butter, coconut oil and milk, and loads of veggies and some berries, both you, and your gut microbes will be in healthy and happy synergy.  I feel it in my gut!

If you think about it, paleo folks are kind of old school rednecks- they tend to hunt and fish their food, are outdoors almost all the time (hence the “red neck”), tend to be rural dwellers... kind of like hillbillies used to be before welfare and Walmart.  Kind of like Jed Clampett and Jethro, or Little Abner from the old newspaper comic - quite fit and self reliant, since he provided for his own simple needs and that of his family and community all by himself!There is a lot in small town and rural America that is the very best that this country and its civilization has to offer.  Our major cities are amazing in their size and structures, but at what cost?  They are increasingly unsafe and crime-ridden, bankrupt, and absorb most of the revenues of the country and each individual state they are in... large areas of our major cities are actual, living nightmares of smog, crime, bad chemicalized water and air, and hugely overcrowded.  Elvis is a good metaphor for what has happened to America.  The young Elvis Presley was a paleo redneck- a good kid from a rural, small town upbringing- slim and fit very good looking... and, of course, with a great ear and voice!  Then, just as all of the US started doing in those years after World War 2- He got too much, too fast, and way too long!I mean too much of everything he thought he wanted.  And, he simultaneously lost what was really valuable to him- his privacy, his ability to walk around unnoticed, the quiet of the rural nature he was accustomed to, small town life, real friends that liked him for himself... he lost everything by gaining too much that was just glitzy and fake.So did all of us, just to a lesser extreme.  We all take for granted in the western world now that we have enough to eat; too much actually. Too little movement, too much sitting, too much money even!  I mean, most would disagree, but think about it: in the 1960’s, families only had one car.  All meals were prepared and eaten at home.  One black and white television, and an AM radio in the car (with Elvis on it).Now little kids have smart phones, computers, iPads, and big screen TV’s- and this includes welfare kids!  Cars are common to be owned by 16 year olds, and MOST meals are purchased at fast food and other convenience outlets.  And now, the husband AND the wife are expected to work full time, and much of the salary of the second income goes to taxes, which mainly go to support failing big cities...And now most of us, just as Elvis did, have become fat, sick, addicted to all kinds of prescription and non prescription drugs, are depressed and feel like we have no time, so we stay up late to “have a life” and watch our big screen TVs, leaving us not enough time for quality sleep...So hey- the future is in our past!  We know what we need to to, and it is already just beginning to start to happen. The move OUT of the big metropolitan areas, back to smaller communities.  Small local farms and ranches, smaller churches, local credit unions and banks, local government over big government, state over federal, county over state...It worked wonderfully before, and it will again!  It won’t be exactly the same, but it will be quite similar, just with different and better technologies, but we will be restored and rejuvenated as- PALEO REDNECKS!

Paleojay’s Smoothie Cafe podcast #84  Get Paleolithic Fitness -on the ReboundAs usual, I am coming to you with something that seems like it’s “out of left field” somewhere- REBOUNDING! ??  Jumping on a mini-trampoline for health and fitness?  I know- at first glance, it looks like something that Richard Simmons would be promoting on late night informercials... BUT- truth be told- rebounding is the REAL DEAL- an absolutely wonderful way to promote and enhance your fitness!Despite the fact that it does NOT appear to be something our hunter/gatherer ancestors would have done (they wouldn’t have- the technology was not available for springy jumping surfaces back then)!!  - it is like many modern technologies that are VERY paleo friendly- like iPhones to look up sites like www.paleojay.com, or like the Vitamix blender that makes it so easy to liquify and thus make available all of the nutrition in leafy greens, berries, and coconut milk- (to name but a few paleo smoothie ingredients!)What it does is to duplicate the endless, easy movement that our forebears engaged in, almost constantly- walking, squatting, occasionally sprinting and jumping... and it does so in a way that is very, very safe and natural- with virtually NO stress and jarring on the ankles, feet, knees and hips as is the case with running or jogging.  You simply buy a little rebounder, or trampoline of about 3 feet or so in diameter, and put it in your living room... mine is near the television.  And then, you just- bounce on it- and not necessarily hard; most of the benefits can be achieved by lightly bouncing without your feet necessarily even leaving the surface. This mild action is sufficient to not only elevate your heart rate beneficially, but more importantly it activates your lymph gland drainage system.  Most modern cubicle dwellers and car cage drivers are incredibly deficient in the simple jogging motion that our bodies have evolved to depend upon to activate our lymph, or toxin drainage system! We really need this movement to be healthy!   Most folks have toxins galore welled up in their bodies, and the lymph system to cure it needs movement- preferably up and down movement- to operate!Enter the rebounder!  The iPhone of the lymph system!!Just stand on it, and then... bounce- slightly!  This alone is enough to engage the lymph system.  I like to do my virtual resistance exercises while bouncing- just FLEX your muscles, as if you were a bodybuilder in a posing routine while... bouncing.  You have upped the ante- the very act of bouncing has increased the intensity of your exercise by a quantum amount.The BALANCE afforded by rebounding is an incredible benefit, and one I believe is almost totally ignored by conventional training.  Just by being on an unstable surface, you are teaching your body how to balance, which is a skill quickly lost in modern, car and chair bound modern life!  And, it is fun! There is something about bouncing around that brings out your inner child- kind of like barefoot sprinting!  THAT surely brings out the 8 year old Jay- and so does rebounding!  It is just pure PLAY.Also, if you suffer from plantar fasciitis (as so many do today), this rebounding is akin to running barefoot in sand- it is wonderful for restoring the strength in your shoe-wearing atrophied feet.  Our feet are elaborate extension bridges of tendons and muscles, as I have mentioned before: constant wearing of shoes, or “casts” weaken them dramatically over time- rebounding can be a powerful ally in reversing this atrophy- rebounding is wonderful for restoring foot health and fitness.I hope you are convinced that rebounding is something you should adopt!  So, how should you get started?  You can go high end- the Bellicon, Reboundair, and Cellercizer- all are fantastic, Mercedes Benz versions of the rebounder!But, you can do just fine, at least at first, with a cheap, simple rebounder for, oh, $36 dollars or so... way cheaper than goo

PJSC Podcast #83  Stress is GOOD for you!I know, we all have too MUCH stress in our lives...  Stress in our jobs, our relationships, our family life, finances- the list goes on and on- but you know, we evolved to be able to handle stress!  And when that stress is missing: our bodies really can’t adapt- for certain types of physical stress, at least, we really require it to be truly healthy.Eustress is the term for a positive stress: Eustress, or positive stress, has the following characteristics: Motivates, focuses energyIs short-termIs perceived as within our coping abilitiesFeels excitingImproves performanceIn contrast, Distress, or negative stress, has the following characteristics:Causes anxiety or concernCan be short- or long-termIs perceived as outside of our coping abilitiesFeels unpleasantDecreases performanceCan lead to mental and physical problemsAnd so, with that is mind, let’s concentrate on the type of stress we need: Eustress:We need the stress of gravity bearing down on us!  Our bodies actually require it, and are adapted to it, to be healthy.  When the astronauts went into space, all kinds of problems developed- muscle wasting, bone atrophy- we need the stress of gravity bearing down upon us, day and night!What other stress do we need? We need the occasional stress of exerting our muscles at a high level! Walking a lot is expected by our bodies, as are occasional bursts of high intensity exertion (as when escaping from a sabre tooth tiger, or sprinting to spear a wooly mammoth)!  Without this occasional stress (that can be duplicated by Perfectly Paleo Exercise), our bodies deteriorate, and basically “save precious calories” by getting rid of muscle, and bone mass that appear to be unneeded!We also need the stress of working- figuring out hard mental and physical problems to remain fully human.  Just HOW do we dig that pit to entrap that mammoth, and then how do we transport it back to the tribe?And, speaking of the tribe: we also need the stress of dealing with that tribe- How do we deal with Yag, who is challenging our leadership role in the tribe? (translate this to the office at work)...And how about your mate, who has always been wonderful, but is now not dealing well at all with Jag-Kotha, your brother’s spouse?You see, it has always been complicated!And, these interpersonal things are necessary for our health, and the health of all the human tribe.  We are social animals- we are not meant to be alone and isolated.  Ever...So- We need the stress of physical exertion, occasionally- usually very mild, and sometimes quite demanding, to be healthy and happy, both mentally AND physically.We need the stress of a natural environment, whether savannah, desert, woodland, or northland cold- we need to exist in nature. This means birdsong, many varieties of plant life, animal species different from human- we NEED this variety of Nature that God provided to us!  AND, it appears we need the stress of natural anti-toxins in plants, like anti-oxidants to keep us healthy as well.  The latest research tends to show that anti-oxidants are not really healthy, in and of themselves- they stimulate our own bodies to respond to the stress of them to overcompensate; much as exercise makes our muscles stronger- to to secrete the hormones necessary to overcompensate, and make us stronger in reaction to them.  This might seem like a fine point- but it is the main point I am making here: Our response to stress is what makes us strong. It’s in our DNA.  WE NEED STRESS- EUSTRESS, BUT STRESS IN THE RIGHT, NATURAL WAY.Exercise naturally, in a natural environment, barefoot and without eyeglasses and other crutches like weights to overcompensate and ultimately injure our natural response to the eustress of overcompensation of effort- Perfectly Paleo Exercise!We NEED nature herself: in whatever form she takes, we NEED it- we need to forest bathe, savannah bathe, just BE in Nature in whatever form, since we are P

PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe pocast #82- YOU are you OWN Doctor!It’s true- YOU are your own doctor- your own healer! Especially in today’s world, with the internet, there is absolutely no excuse for YOU not be in total touch with your own health challenges.  You have the internet waiting and ready to answer questions about your health problems-  you have podcasts like PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe, Paleo Quick Tip of the Day, and many others as well to answer your questions, give you insights as to the how and why of the ancestral lifestyle- Blogs like www.paleojay.com, www.mark’sdailyapple.com, robbwolf.com, www.livinlavidalowcarb.com, thepaleodiet.com, and many others- take advantage of these!  Podcasts are ideal, because you can do other things while you learn and are entertained all at once- things like driving could be a time sink; but, fill them with podcasts of value, and you are going to the university while you drive!  Same with mowing, washing dishes, chores- it makes it fun and very, very profitable for your health at the same time!  My favorite app for podcasts is Downcast- the free Podcast app from Apple is fine, and so is Stitcher.  Hey- give me a recommendation on iTunes or Stitcher, and it will really help other people to find me, and let me help them, like I am hopefully helping YOU.  Paleo is starting to take over on the health front, and rightfully so, because it is the real deal- it works- not just for a month, or a year, or five years- FOR A LIFETIME IT WORKS!  You are on the cusp of a revolution my friend.  Doesn’t it feel great to be a Paleo Pioneer??  A role model for your friends and family?  Well, if you are “going Paleo”- YOU ARE!You are also, as I said above: Your own Doctor!If you go to a medical doctor, realize that he is just a hired consultant; nothing more.  DOCTOR doesn’t even MEAN healer- it means teacher.And modern medical Doctors can only teach you about disease- and they can only treat the symptoms, not the causes of most modern degenerative diseases that are destroying our health in the modern world- and they can only treat these symptoms with drugs, drugs that are LOADED with bad side-effects- side effects that are often worse than the disease itself.So, take charge.  Be your own doctor!  How?  Well, grasshopper: Eat an ancestral diet.  Eliminate grains- they have very little nutrition anyway; especially whole grains!  Whole grains, of wheat, brown rice, wild rice, are loaded with anti-nutrients, i.e. POISONS designed to keep mammals like US from eating them.  They are also by and large purely sugar in terms of our glycemic response and triggering an insulin surge- avoid them.  Eat grass fed meat, pastured dairy- especially fatty dairy like cream, butter, full fat Greek yogurt, kefir.LOTS of seafood like sardines, wild caught salmon and other fish as well, shrimp, oysters and anchovies.TONS of veggies!  This is the hardest part- our ancestors basically chewed on vegetables ALL DAY LONG whenever they could- the varieties available in the past were small and tough, but our ancestors knew their importance in health and survival.  The best way to get them into your diet in abundance in the modern world is to VITAMIX them into a smoothie each and every day!  Easy, effective, convenient, and the very healthiest thing you can do for you and your family, bar none- get a Vitamix!  Make Paleo Smoothies!  And, this may surprise you, but eat WHITE RICE, white potato (NO SKIN!), and sweet potatoes... originally most Paleo gurus were ultra-low carb, and anti-potato, but nowadays the consensus for most is that including 15-30% of these SAFE STARCHES into your diet is not only not bad, but very beneficial to your health!  This is still far less carbs, and WAY safer carbs than are consumed on the SAD diet; but these safe starches also keep down fungus in your system which is encouraged by either a very LOW or a very HIGH carb diet.  Also, resistant starches that you do

PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe podcast #81-Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of HappinessWhat i’m going to say here will seem very controversial to some of you: BIG, Top-down sorts of solutions to things... NEVER WORK OUT!  I really mean it- NEVER!Ever since the original colonials in the US rebelled from the BIG, top down, high taxing, literally big wigs in England (and powdered wigs at that!), the wholesome, forward thinking self-determination of the individual citizen has been paramount!  The smallholder, the citizen farmer or tradesman, was empowered to self determination- no royalty telling him how to act!  No big government telling him (or her) how to behave... as long as they followed the law, which was determined collectively by the citizens at large, and refereed by the government.  Mostly, by the LOCAL GOVERNMENT.Once things become decided by big, impersonal, largely politically swayed and controlled entities, everything goes against the wishes of the actual, working citizen.What does this have to do with the Paleo Smoothie Cafe?What does this have to do with Health, Fitness, and Nutrition??Everything.  It is BIG GOVERNMENT that has come out with the worthless FOOD PYRAMID, via the Dept. of Agriculture...It is BIG GOVERNMENT via the FDA that tells us we can’t consume raw milk, and pour Amish milk and cream on the ground, by sending out armed SWAT teams to do so...It is BIG FOOD corporations and Grain Cartels, that have the Big Government in their pockets that mandate the mantra, via their paid scientists, that “grains are good, meat and fat is bad”, that runs counter to all recent science...It is BIG PHARMA that still allows advertising of DRUGS on TV, and that funds our medical schools, INDOCTRINATING medical doctors and dieticians in an utterly outdated scientific stance, telling us all, from the top down to “EAT PROCESSED, LOW FAT FOODS AND GRAINS- DON’T EAT REAL FOODS LIKE MEATS, DAIRY, AND VEGETABLES”!Really, when you hear it put that way- isn’t it just obvious that Big is definitely... NOT better?Virtually everything is better on the small, personal scale!YOU can do an experiment of ONE on yourself:  what makes you feel better- eating real foods, real, Paleo, God made foods like pastured meats and dairy, wild caught seafoods, real fats like olive and coconut oil and butter and tallow, and naturally raised vegetables and fruits?Or processed GMO grains, in the form of all sorts of snack foods, breads cakes and pastries, chips fries and breading, mostly fried in a slathering of industrial seed oils ala margarine, corn/cottonseed/peanut/safflower/canola/crisco-whatever crap trans-oil they can squeeze through chemical extraction out of virtually anything!!??Try out both versions for a month or so... You will know, beyond a doubt, within a couple of weeks which is best.  Common sense...Yes, remember Common Sense by Thomas Paine, that helped to ignite our oh so productive Revolution from BIG Government?Society, according to Paine, is everything constructive and good that people join together to accomplish. Government, on the other hand, is an institution whose sole purpose is to protect us from our own vices. Government has its origins in the evil of man and is therefore a necessary evil at best. Paine says that government's sole purpose is to protect life, liberty and property, and that a government should be judged solely on the basis of the extent to which it accomplishes this goal.Wonderfully stated, both back in 1776, and just as well stated NOW. Our government should be dominated by the SMALL governments: local, community governments!  THEY would not presume to tell us what to eat- we all know that they don’t have a clue- we do!  We eat ancestrally- what our grandparents ate, and theirs, and back forever- that’s what to eat- not what some sanctioned bureaucrat decides, after being bribed by industry or Big Government itself to ram down our throats for their own benefit.I guess the bottom

PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe #80  Train like... a Kitten!I know- you are going to think that I, your faithful PaleoJay, have gone off my rocker!  But I mean it- if there is ONE role model that we need in this fast-paced, sleep deprived, cortisol laden modern American and Western lifestyle that we have inflicted upon ourselves, it is the KITTEN!  Or the cat, or any version of any cat being, of any size...How does a kitten live?  Or any cat, for that matter- they SLEEP about 20 hours per day!  GREAT START!  They get up, and they STRETCH methodically, and then get started on their day... usually, they will, if domesticated, go to their food bowl and eat.  If wild, they will start HUNTING.  When they find some game, they RUN IT DOWN, kill it, and eat it- starting with the organ meats.  (Great cat wisdom there!)Kittens, in particular, are great role models, especially for those of us who have NOT followed an exercise regimen, or are definitely NOT “kitten” aged any longer-Kittens know how to train to become cats; tigers or lions or panthers too!They start by methodically exploring their own bodies and movement skills, and gradually expanding upon them.First, they squirm and stretch- play act fighting and hunting with their little siblings, and with just random strings and reflections. (shadow boxing!)  And it works!Their skills grow and grow- in a matter of weeks, and then a few months, a kitten becomes a fearsome CAT of whatever size it is meant to be, with gymnastic and athletic skills that are absolutely awesome to see!  “But Jay” I hear you saying, “How does this mean anything to me??”Well, grasshopper, or preferably KITTEN: in a word- everything.Go thou, and do likewise- When you arise- STRETCH!  Religiously, every morning!  Have a regular routine, and   follow it- It is really important.Next, eat a good, paleo-type of protein, and veggie rich breakfast!  Religiously, again, every morning!  Eggs, bacon, pastured steak and paleo coffee loaded with cream and coconut oil and cinnamon, a giant PALEO SMOOTHIE loaded with; well, with EVERYTHING a vital, strong human could possibly need or want!EXCEPTION:  OR- if it’s a Sunday, or a day off, and you want to relax and don’t need to work, and want to emphasize your cat-like laziness and sleepiness- Drink the Paleo coffee, and that is ALL!  You are going into your CAT hunting/fasting mode:  Lay around... stretch... enjoy the lethargy, the pure luxury of reveling in not having to RUSH!  Observe nature, pay real attention to it- the birds, the squirrels, the sounds of nature.  MEDITATE ON IT.  Your cat-like, primeval body is benefiting greatly- shutting down stress hormone (cortisol) production, revel in the very feel of the grass beneath your feet as you walk in the backyard.  Think about how you will spend the day- if Sunday, you can go to church and feel the spiritual recharge and exchange between you and the divine that will energize you- a real meditation!  Next, come home again, and, if hungry now, you can eat, but consider, just consider, kitten:  maybe you would like to work out now.  If you really listen to your body, you really just might feel this way- I often do...A kitten knows when it’s time, intuitively.  You do too; you’ve just kind of... forgotten.Last week, I knew I should NOT work out!  I didn’t feel guilty, I just KNEW that my body wanted to REST like a cat would.Tomorrow, I know that I CRAVE a good workout!!  On the rings!  One the P-bars!!  Sprinting barefoot!!!HARD but short!  It will feel fantastic- Like a cat running at top speed after hapless prey!!And so, to get back to the EXCEPTION DAY: Relax all morning, chill out.  Meditate. Pray. Stretch.  Enjoy the early morning (or late morning!)... Drink your Paleo coffee, loaded with ketogenic fats, and enjoy... Go to church.  Meditate and pray again.  Enjoy the feeling!Don’t eat- enjoy the feeling of not having to eat, to prepare or clean up, or anything but

PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe #79- Time Magazine Admits that the War on Fat was WRONG!Yes, that’s right- even the mainstream media conduit of Time magazine has come our with their latest cover story that— FAT IS NOT BAD!  (Gasp!)For those of us in Paleoland, this might seem like a no-brainer, like a “duh” moment, but consider this:  90% PLUS of the general population, INCLUDING M.D.’s and other health professionals like NUTRITIONISTS would NOT AGREE!!This is actually quite shocking, since all of the latest science supports the idea that FAT is NOT bad to eat, and that  Sugars and refined carbohydrates are the real cause of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and ALL of the host of modern day degenerative disease and illness!!Actually, that last sentence should be inscribed on a mountaintop, and illuminated night and day like the HOLLYWOOD sign in… well, Hollywood!The cause is that crucial: the health, and the health care system itself in the USA is breaking down.  This is because of the adoption of the low fat hypothesis, spearheaded by Ancel Keyes in the 1960’s, that led us down a path of bad research, cherry-picking of data, and a false conclusion!Ironically, Time Magazine itself trumpeted this “triumph”, back in 1961!!Since then, when Ancel Keyes FALSIFIED his data from a study, and convinced the McGovern commission to back him…WE HAVE GONE FROM A FIT, HEALTHY SOCIETY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE- TO A LAND OF FAT, SICK, UNHEALTHY PEOPLE, UNFIT TO CARRY ON THE LAND OF THE FREE!!Sorry to be so extreme, but this is an extreme CRISIS!  We are looking at 53 years of LIES, FAKE Science, and Mis-information!  This is a travesty, and it MUST be righted, to save us all!“But Jay, but Jay!” I hear you crying- “How can we feed the world with good, pure, God-made food if we don’t have tons and tons of grains?”Thanks for asking, Grasshopper!  The truth of the matter is that: our future is IN OUR PAST!  Small, local, family farms are the BEST way to ensure ample GOOD REAL food for EVERYONE!  Back in the wake of the bad science of Ancel Keyes, the idea of “progress” was to GET BIG OR GET OUT in farming- this was in 1971- Earl Butz was the latest incarnation of Ancel Keyes, and the US Department of Agriculture went from supporting small family farms, to being the agent of their destruction- GET BIG OR GET OUT!  REALLY??Yes, that’s really how it went!  Thomas Jefferson is probably STILL spinning in his grave over that one!And, from those two really bad decisions and conclusions, our family farms, the source of all of our food, and the economy of thousands of small farming communities, HAS BEEN DECIMATED!!Small family farms have DISAPPEARED- destroyed by Federal Government incentives to grow GRAIN crops that were not needed, at the expense of wholesome, nutritious crops like vegetables, fruits, and small and large animals and eggs…The DIVERSITY of these small farms has been wiped-out, since competition from giant, corporate owned CAFO or confined animal feeding operations has been subsidized by the Federal Government by them offering grain subsidies to operations that grow GRAINS, and even subsidies to giant farms that DON’T GROW GRAINS (SO THE PRICE IS ARTIFICIALLY HIGHER!)…What do we need to escape this catastrophe?  Simple- like in most of life!  Less; MUCH less GOVERNMENT!Free markets- NO grain subsidies, i.e. taxpayer money going to pay giant corporate farmers to grow grain that no one needs or should even eat!This ONE simple thing would give the incentive to farmers to grow real, God-made, nutritious foods; foods like broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, lentils, lettuce, raspberries, spinach, avocados, strawberries- the list goes on and on and on- AND NOT GRAINS!!How much would that change the world?Suddenly, Young people could MAKE A LIVING FARMING ON A SMALL SCALE!  They could raise real, nutritious, God-made foods, and raise cattle and chickens and eggs and pastured pork and raw milk and butter a

Are we really following the Neanderthal Diet??  Now THAT is Paleo writ large…Since I do these podcasts on Sundays, I really believe that I am becoming the Paleo Pastor- I usually begin them shortly after church, as well, and so I am creating my own “sermon” to compete with that of the Methodist Church which I attend… not really- but in it’s own way it is very similar!  I feel like a minister in that I am espousing a way of life that includes:A healthy wholesome dietA rich and full family and tribal communityGood sleep and positive interactionsDoing right both for you and yours, and for all around youFellowship and productive exercise and treating your body like the temple that it is, making it as healthy as you can!Sounds like a sermon, doesn’t it?So anyway, let’s start this Sunday sermon with a thought about our wonderful progenitors- the Neanderthal!  Did you know that EVERY person, with the exception of pure Africans, has the DNA of the Neanderthal within them?  Even American blacks, since they average about 30% European ancestry have a proportion within them.  And what does this mean?It appears that Neanderthals, besides probably giving us blue and green eyes, blonde and red hair, and an ability to deal with the cold climate of the North, also gave us more of a sense of community and peacefulness than we had heretofore possessed!  I liken the Cro-magnon version of us, coming out of Africa, with hyper aggressive, violent giant tribes, intent on conquest and expanding territory.  We encountered Neanderthal groups, who were much less numerous, and living mainly in extended family groups… and with NO DIVISION OF LABOR.  Men and women hunted together, mainly for large animals.  Our African forebears, contrarily, had a division of labor- Women gathered- men hunted! It seems like a small thing; but this is a major difference- while it is much more efficient, the equality and total group-bonding in that we are all equal, and all in this together… is GONE.  Our African selves were very efficient, very aggressive, and bent on domination at all costs.Doesn’t that sound like us, in modern America and the West, today??  And now, it has morphed into pretty near a psychosis: we are all running in a rat race- we all need a bigger house, new kitchen cabinets, a new car, a better college for our kids, fancier clothes, a new stupid tattoo to show how cool we are…Let’s go back to our inner Neanderthal!!We’re all in this TOGETHER!  Our family is our TRIBE!!  We can all hunt, OR gather, together!  Women don’t need to cover their faces, men don’t need to dominate!  I don’t know this for a fact, but from my observations, I think that Jesus was probably simply loaded with Neanderthal genes!!J

PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe #77- Be a Physical Culturist!Back around 100 years ago and more, to be interested in health and strength and physique and just the ability to do physical things was called “physical culture”.  And so it remained for many, many years- and the bottom line was always, since the ancient Greeks, the cultivation of health in it’s most extreme form!  Since the late 1960’s, this ancient ideal has been… degraded and split to the point of extremes.  Today’s world has as it’s latest fad Crossfit.  The idea was to reverse the split of physical culture into powerlifting, bodybuilding, and Olympic lifting and go back to ultimate fitness; I.e. What sounds like… physical culture!  But it surely has NOT turned out that way!  For one, there is FAR too much emphasis on the use of weights- not machines, but still WEIGHTS in a huge way!  Crossfit has turned into a huge competition- lift more, lift heavier, lift faster- with no end ever in sight!  And have fun doing it!!  This way lies madness…  it is a sure prescription for injury, overtraining and illness, and, again, extreme injury!  It’s expensive, cult-like, and seems to be elitist as well.  I say- JUST DO IT YOURSELF!   Do Perfectly Paleo Exercise- bodyweight exercise, self-resisted, ON YOU OWN, and especially Virtually Resisted Exercises ala Bruce Lee, where the BODY ITSELF generates its own resistance, cat-like, within the muscle itself.  You compete against YOURSELF only, and enjoy the movements, like a cat stretching on a ledge in a mantra of cat stretches and virtual cat strength movements… then, you rest and socialize with your cat-tribe, eat paleo types of foods for HUMANS that replicate the foods of our ancestors, like grass fed meats and lots of veggies, and then sleep a LOT- this way lies sanity and health and a very high level of fitness that lasts a LIFETIME, not just through the next competition and then you are injured and sick and drained, and your extreme level of fitness is… gone, and you give up, and become fat and sick…Like the founder of Crossfit himself: I don’t mean to point fingers, but you can tell a LOT about someone who “walks the walk” and someone who obviously is all TALK.  And then, there is bodybuilding, the once noble provide of physical culture through the mid 1960’s, when heroic figures like Steve Reeves, and Frank Zane walked the earth:Actually, Frank Zane STILL walks the earth!Powerlifting and Olympic Lifting?  These have been co-opted into the Cross Fit universe, and perverted still more into “speed challenges”- really, both, but especially O-lifting are extreme ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN!  Just the load on the spine of a heavy barbell makes me wince, knowing what that is doing to the discs in your spine, even without the trauma of the moving weights making it WORSE.  Really, in words from one who has done all of this, in my younger years- at least the powerlifting, and the bodybuilding, don’t do it!  The O-lifting is almost NEVER done, anyway, by anyone over the age of 50- it seems EVERYONE has too much common sense for that, even former O-lifters!So, even though your local Crossfit Fad Box recommends you “take it up”… DON’T!  Don’t run long distances!  Don’t Lift Heavy Weights!  Don’t Bench Press, Back Squat, or Deadlift!  If you want to be lean, fit and healthy for the REST OF YOUR LIFE, it is simple, needs little or no equipment, and will not take hours per day, and you never need to leave home!!  REALLY!!Again: do Perfectly Paleo Exercise, as described in my eBook of the same name.  Check out Transformetrics.com and do the virtual exercises as shown there- very self explanatory! You provide the resistance within your own muscles, just like an animal would!Do pushups, straight-legged sit-ups, hindu or just plain air-squats in high reps, sprint for brief “wind sprints” of 50 yards or so in sets of maybe 5-8 for ONE time per week, add in some se

Paleo Quick Tips! Quick, succinct tips on implementing the Paleo diet and lifestyle, done weekly.

Paleo Quick Tips! Quick, succinct tips on implementing the Paleo diet and lifestyle, done weekly.