You’re Not Broken!

This week I wanted to feature another podcast that I’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of since starting to follow the Primal / Paleo lifestyle.  This podcast is by a guy named Angelo Coppola and is called Latest in Paleo.  You can find Latest in Paleo on the 5BY5 podcast network and the show notes are over at LatestInPaleo.com.

My single favorite take-away from listening to all the episodes (at least the ones of 5BY5.tv) is that humans are not broken.  That’s right.  We used to get by just fine without drugs to manage our blood chemistry and sanity and every other ailment that the food, drug and medical industries market to us ceaselessly these days.  Disease prevention by diet and proper exercise is very difficult to monetize so we end up getting treated with drugs instead of good food.

In the weekly podcast Angelo gives the latest Paleo news, and comments on the latest discussion in the media about food and nutrition. When you listen don’t turn it off too soon.  His “After the Bell” segment often has a hidden gem. Like last week’s episode where he played the audio from part of a TED talk by Ann Cooper on School Lunches.  I followed up and watched the video of the talk and it’s so powerful I decided to add it to this post below.  This makes me want to petition my local school system for better lunches.  My daughter carries her lunch every day and I haven’t convinced her to give up the PBJ yet so I guess I’ll work on that first!

Anyway, don’t miss Latest in Paleo if you want to learn more about why you’re not broken and how to keep from needing to be fixed.

My Primal updates for the week

I’m six weeks into pretty much “Primal eating”.  I know it’s not the main objective, but I’m still keeping an eye on the scale.  Finally this week I broke through the current weight plateau.  After my “official” Sunday weigh-in I’m down a total of 10 lbs. since starting the Primal Lifestyle, and 5 lbs. under last year’s low when I was counting calories.  I don’t think my scale is very accurate so that’s why I don’t usually post my actual weight, but it’s around 190lb now.

How?  I think it had a lot to do with my first intermittent fast (IF).  As my body adjusts I’m finding that missing a meal (usually lunch) is not a problem.  In fact I rarely eat what would be considered an actual lunch anymore.  Maybe a piece of beef jerky here and there, but no more.  I’ve read about people doing a 24hr fast once a week or so or as schedule dictates.  Tuesday evening we had a nice steak dinner so I just decided to skip breakfast and lunch on Wednesday.  Although I got hungry a couple of time during the afternoon, it was not a problem waiting until dinner on Wednesday to break the fast.  Actually I’m late posting this and I’ve already done another 24hr IF but I’ll talk about that one next time.  When you’re well nourished, eating is more enjoyable and I’m finding that I can schedule my meals around my schedule instead of my meals scheduling me.

Right on time, I just got The Primal Blueprint Insider email newsletter and the subject was Intermittent Fasting.  Near the end, Mark says:

To sum up, if you’re interested in the following…

• Mobilization of adipose tissue for energy (burning body fat as fuel)
• Improved insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake (again, good for burning body fat)
• Increased resistance to oxidation damage to lipids
• Increased human growth hormone secretion(utilizes body fat for energy while preventing protein/muscle catabolism)

…skip that next meal.

Another good development from the fasting was that I also gave up soft drinks for the day.  My favorite is Sun Drop. We always buy the diet version, but it’s still bad.  I figured since I had 24hrs invested into quitting it I may as well see how far I could take it.  As of this writing, it’s been a week since my last drink.  It’s actually more difficult giving up Sun Drop than all the other processed carbs food.  I’m sure caffeine has something to do with it, but I don’t think I was that hooked on caffeine.  A lot of it is the sweet taste and the “bite”.  I’ve had a small amount of iced tea and green tea (store bought), but mostly water.  I think I’m going to make it without going to “Sun Drop-ahaulics Anonymous”.

Workouts are still going well, but evidently I did pull something during the sprints last week.  The top-middle of my right thigh has a sharp pain if I try to run.  I think it got aggravated during a workout on our Gazelle glider during a rainy day on Friday.  At any rate, looks like I’ll have to nurse it for a while before I can get back to the sprints.

This is getting long and rambling but I have to share one more site that I found on RobbWolf.com.  It’s the site of the Weston A. Price Foundation.  It has dense articles, but a lot of good info from research done by Price who was a dentist.  Here’s a good article to start with: What’s Wrong with Politically Correct Nutrition.

That’s it for now! Thanks for reading.

Brett