2 yr. hiatus

Does anyone ever drop in on this blog? Frankly, I've run out of things to say and a lot of it becomes redundant.

I have been playing American football in Germany the past five months. What is striking about how people live and eat here, is that although they may eat a lot of bread, drink lots of sugar laden drinks, and eat lots of nonsense, they typically sit down of evening meals that are well rounded, meat, vegetables, and some starch.

I think there is a tendency to over intellectualize health, myself included, it comes down to eating sensibly, exercising intensely and enjoying your life.

Anything I can and would say has been covered expertly by artdevany.com and marksdailyapple.com. They are far better resources. I think the thing I offer is my unique experience as an athlete who has trained w/ the world's foremost expert on performance in Jay Schroeder. Jay continually pushes the boundaries of what is possible and has been my greatest mentor outside of close friends and family.

How I Eat, II

About the previous post, I had difficulty w/ the formatting so I figured I'd just comment in a subsequent note.

It's pretty straightforward, but you'll see that I eat eggs, red meat, avocado's, fruits and vegetables. My favorite thing to eat is pretty much anything that closely resembles what I think of as Mexican food, good pico de gallo, avocado, steak, and the like. Importantly, you don't see bread or grains any kind, and I don't eschew dietary fat. I do however, think it is important to eat grass fed beef and free range eggs as opposed to the now conventional grain fed/caged variety..

On the sushi, it was a great idea by my lady friend to ask them to hold the rice and add extra fish... works for me. I think one of the rolls has rice, but that was just to be easy on our sushi chef.

The coffee mug is from Perini's in Abilene, Texas. Perini's is a ranch steak house that is the best of the best. Drinking out of that mug is always a good reminder of home and family.

How I Eat

Autism

I'm not specifically up to speed on any concrete link between autism and a non-paleo fetal development, but my suspicion is that they may bare some correlation. Nevertheless, here is an anecdote note from my lady friend Cree ;).

I received this message today. It's from a girl that I grew up and graduated from high school with. She married soon after and has two little girls. Her oldest Amara, 4 years old, was just diagnosed with autism. Upon hearing about this I immediately reached out, delicately of course, and gave Stacey all the information I could about a primal lifestyle and the many ways I felt it could benefit her family. Even if it may not completely cure Amara's autism it can easily alleviate many of the daily stresses that add to a families difficulties at such a chaotic, confusing time. Needless to say when I read her response today it made all of those pieces of baklava I've passed up on completely obsolete. (Believe it or not ;)

"Hello Creeanna! Sorry I haven't replied sooner, LOTS going on here. Thank you so much for the information on the Paleo diet! Mark and I have put forth the effort to change Amara's diet, so far so good! She is a very picky eater so I didn't think she would take to it well but much to my astonishment she took to it very well! I can already see an improvement in her temperament which is wonderful, I can't even begin to describe! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for introducing me to this primal living it has truly made a difference in our lives and it's only been a couple weeks ! How can I ever tell you how much your help means to me?!"

It is only anecdotal, but the results are encouraging. Some times, in life, we do not have time to wait for science and research to verify anecdotes and suspicions, we have to rely on our intuition and common sense. The evidence for a Paleo based lifestyle is overwhelming, there is no good reason to think it should not be helpful to autistic children and adults.

U.S. Wellness Meats

My mother grew up on a cattle ranch in Northeastern Oklahoma, so I grew up eating a lot of red meat. There is nothing I enjoy more than a nice ribeye steak w/ the appropriate seasonal vegetables.

With that said, there has been a lot of dogma surrounding red meat for the last 20 or so years that looks like is finally being put to rest. Red meat is in fact one of the healthiest meats we can consume, full of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and essential fats, when properly fed, but it is the grain fed variety that should be implicated as a consequence to your health. Cattle, like humans, should not be grain fed. When they are sent to feed lots and fed copious amounts of grain, they become too fat and sick. Thus, the need for the antibiotics and the like.

Grass fed beef is fairly expensive, but it is important to eat the majority of your red meat from grass-fed sources. The best site I have found for grass-fed meat is U.S. Wellness Meats. Have a look around the link below, I have found the flank steak to be particularly tasty.

http://www.grasslandbeef.com/StoreFront.bok

Aboriginals ‘were faster than Bolt’

A pretty provocative news line in my in-box this morning, but one that I do not doubt. The industrial revolution was the precursor for many bad things, sedentary lifestyle, a switch to a routine workday, the list is long.

I think the most interesting point of the article is that "The human body is very plastic and it responds to stress". The human body is remarkable in it's adaptive abilities, if you have yet to give the Evo-Way or similar philosophies a try, you'll be pleased at how quickly the body will adapt.

See below for the link.
http://www.nation.co.ke/sports/athletics/-/1100/672416/-/sfhotlz/-/index.html

The Biology of Belief

It's that time of year, the Annual Red-River Shootout between Oklahoma and Texas. I grew up in Oklahoma, watching this game, and actually rooting for Texas, because of my stepfather's history w/ the school, having played there, and that he grew up loving the Horns. However, my collegiate career took me to OU where I was around some pretty impressive athletes. Impressive by today's average standards, not impressive, by the ideals of the Evo-Way which are different and probably warrant another post entirely.

In particular, one athlete that I played with stands out, the running back Adrian Peterson. AD exhibited many qualities you like to see in great athletes speed, violence, and strength, but probably the most important quality was his will and his determination. One of the more interesting things about Adrian was that every year for the OU-Texas game he would gain like 7-8 pounds the week of the game. I can remember the night before one of the OU-Texas games AD looking himself in the mirror and being like "nobody's going to stop me tomorrow". It was pretty cool and I think a big attribute to his success is that he seldom equivocates or believes he can't do something.

I had heard that Jim Brown was the same way. When he would go to training camp with the Browns he would put on muscle. Most people when they go to training camp, break down and lose weight. When I was at the OU, I remember being tested for body comp., strength, and other things and I lost body fat and put on muscle in season. I believe this was because I followed the Evo Way. The guy who conducted the tests said he worked with the New England Patriots and many other professional and college teams and very seldom did he see someone who improved body composition during the season.

Basically, it is my belief, that Adrian was so talented in his ability to feel the emotions of the game and at projecting himself in a position of success that he was ability to elicit such a result. In other words, he was so geeked up to play his home state Longhorns and impress everyone that he would super-compensate and his body would respond by releasing hormones and neurotransmitters and other qualities that are components of elite performance. Everything in his physiology would go towards preparing himself for this game.

There is a book entitled the "Biology of Belief" that I have yet to read, but I think it probably touches on some of these interesting topics. Interestingly, I don't think one can simply believe they can do something and then achieve it, but it is a prerequisite to going towards that goal and singular purpose. We must all believe in ourselves and find that which stimulates and motivates us towards a more meaningful existence, whatever that is. Obviously, believing is then followed by the steps it takes to achieve whatever it is somebody wants. I'll get the book soon and report back. Ben, if you're reading, you may want to chime in on some of the underlying physiological mechanisms that make this possible.

In the meantime, everyone think of that one thing in their life that inspires them and stimulates them for a greater purpose and use that to move towards what you want in life.