Just a short note to say this will be my final post.
There is no special reason - I just woke up one morning and decided to see what else I could do with the time. It's usually better to draw a line under something if you really want to find out what's next.
I've had a lot of pleasure from writing here, and have been very grateful to you for reading and participating. I will of course keep the blog available so people can continue to reference it. I will also continue to read and comment on blogs in the community, so I am sure I'll see you around. Over and out.... Read more
It had been on my mental to-do list to order / pre-order the books. I have a blog about Paleo living - so I should read these books when they come out, right? Maybe, but I'm not going to.
This is not the reason. Not this. But... I find the inclusion of the word DIET, either in big letters on the front, or as part of the title itself, to be a bit of a sell out. Mark Sisson did not do this with the Primal Blueprint, for which kudos. I bet his publisher wanted him to.
In fact there are two reasons I won't be reading them.
One - I don't think there's anything left to learn. That's not because I know lots of stuff - it's because there ain't that much you need to know. I have no doubt the same applies to many of you. And once you know it, you're set. Anything more is just material to bore dinner guests or upstage would-be experts.
Two - life's too short. I reckon Robb's book is actually quite funny, in the same way Mark's unique style made the PB an entertaining read; but there are a lot of things I don't know anything about and many great and funny books I want to read before I die. So if I read more about the same thing just so I can remain at the leading edge of smart arsery, it feels like edging into Star Trek convention territory. No offense, Trekkies.
That's it. Just needed to get it off my chest.... Read more
Someone has created a spoof (or as they more grandly put it, satire) of Paleo in a Nutshell Part 1. Here it is:
It's actually quite witty in places - exactly the sort of thing I would do myself about something I consider misguided. Indeed, the video maker actually makes one or two good points.
For example, I agree that the Paleo movement is at times cultish; and I concede that the use of a supermarket photo to illustrate our ready access to food is not ideal, as it might imply an endorsement.
Does it matter if the Paleo movement is sometimes a little cultish? I'm not sure that it does. It has no bearing on whether its premises are valid. If ideas that are garbage can attract a following, then it would be odd if those with genuine validity did not.
In any case, I think it lacks some important elements of a cult. At one point the video used the (rather amusing) "kneel before Zod" reference; but who is Zod in the Paleo movement? A few people writing books and running seminars on the subject isn't really enough, however charismatic they may be.
Likewise, it doesn't necessarily matter that people are making money out of it and some of its books say 'as seen on TV' on the front. It would also be strange if no one tried to make money from spreading a message that turned out to be correct. Or does the spoofer think that when something is genuinely true, the human desires to spread the word and make money suddenly melt away?
I also think the video maker has missed the point (deliberately or otherwise) that the original consciously simplifies a complex area in order to deliver an easily understood message. Yes, "Genetically the same" is not strictly true, but the long version (that the number of generations since we have started farming is roughly 300, which is not long enough to effect the necessary changes to digestive mechanisms etc etc) really can't be explored with the 'Nutshell' approach.
To some extent the spoof video sabotages its own effectiveness by trying to satire or rebut absolutely everything in the original, creating a peculiar mix of crude, childish humour and attempts at reasoned, factual argument. Say what you like about the original, it does at least know what it's trying to achieve, and does so relatively elegantly. The spoof is twice as long, wordy and fails to strike a consistent tone.
I am not in the business of making line-by-line rebuttals, and even if I were, I am not sure this piece of work, funny though it was, justifies the effort.
So I'm not going to accept it as a video response on You Tube because I am not prepared to counter the points with a more detailed video. I didn't make the original so that I could bicker with those who disagree, but to spread a message I believe to be worthy.... Read more
Mark Sisson is still running competitions over on Mark's Daily Apple. The recipe video contest caught my eye because it's been a while since I've done some bakery tinkering.
Don't watch the video if you are serious about baking. You will almost certainly be offended. In fact this is an abject lesson in how not to bake.
If you do watch it, look out for the moment when the blender turns itself on. Spooky.
Neverthless, the cake did taste quite nice. Maybe I just got lucky. The video is here.... Read more
It's competition season again on Mark's Daily Apple, and, as ever, lots of decent prizes to be won. One of them caught my eye, so I entered. The challenge - for which the prize is a selection of books relating to Primal/Paleo - is to:
...in 50 words or less... ...your best piece of advice for folks just starting out with the Primal lifestyle.
Here's my 47-word entry:
"Start out small. Don’t be overwhelmed by the many aspects. Any one of them can make a big difference to your life. Quit wheat. Start sprinting. Either alone is a triumph. It’s a journey, not a change. Assumed truths are not. Question everything, one at a time."... Read more
I had such a textbook paleo/primal morning today that I felt it had to be posted here as well as on the training blog.
I ran the hills glorious sunshine, barefoot (practically naked in fact), and enjoyed the pleasures (and suffered the irritations) of nature, before coming home to a primal/paleo spread, having not eaten since the night before.
The write-up on Train Now Live Later, is here.... Read more
This is a simple recipe - only a few ingredients and easy to make, but a really neat way to package up an energy-rich, nutrient dense meal for consumption on the move. I made it for the first time to take on a long mountain race recently, and it was so good I had to share the recipe. Enjoy.
I have discovered I can create YouTube videos from Picasa slide shows. I recently created a slide show to illustrate my last two weeks of workouts for Train Now Live Later (here), and realised that since it includes meals and hiking too, it may interest Pay Now readers. It's also a thinly veiled way to buy time between blog posts because I have been too busy to write any ;-)
Thanks to Lightning for the tip on using YouTube with Picasa.
I was in GNC in Boston this afternoon, seeking nuts.
At the counter was a bowl of chews, obviously available as samples. The lady in front of me was offered one.
They're good for you - they contain omega 3, stated the GNC employee with confidence.
The bags of 'Omega 3 Soft Chews' were on sale in a bucket nearby, so I had a look at the ingredients. Main ingredient - sugar, second largest ingredient, corn syrup (see image below.)
Holy crap. I mean holy crap.
It's been a while since I moaned about the various double standards practised by so-called health food stores, with their aspartame-packed muscle formulas and 'yogurt'-coated raisins - so perhaps I have just lost my ability to shrug off this kind of cynical product development and marketing.
In case you are interested, in 2008, on The Great Cake Porn Tour, I identified GNC in New York as a peddler of nonsense health food. I also wrote in this post to the CEO of a UK health food store, Holland and Barrett, who I discovered owned GNC, raising my concerns.
So today, standing in line, I was getting ready to quiz the GNC guy when he offered me a chew.
What are the ingredients? I was going to ask.
Since sugar is bad for you and omega 3 is good, but there's more sugar than omega 3 in the chews, doesn't that mean they are NOT good for you?
...was going to be my slightly flawed, but in his world, probably watertight reply.
Alas, he never offered me a chew. He must have sensed the latent awkwardness in my face.... Read more
On a recent visit to Asia I managed to acquire the feet and ankles of an old lady. Not by making some sinister purchase, you understand, but as a result of water retention caused by the plane cabin pressure.
In the comments for the blog post I wrote when I returned, someone with medical knowledge offered an explanation for something I already suspected: that eating bad food and drinking alcohol made the condition worse. As a reminder, here are the photos from the Asia trip:
During the Asia trip
3 days after Asia trip, after detoxing
Today, I am coming to the end of another business trip, this time to Boston. Earlier in the week, when I arrived after an 8-hour transatlantic flight and 90-minute connecting flight, I took this photo of my feet:
Immediately after the transatlantic and connecting flights
No swelling at all. The flight had been almost as long as the ones I had been taking in Asia, yet my feet were fine. The difference? This time I had one coffee, lots of water and no food.
So for this n=1 study, the evidence supports the hypothesis that eating and drinking crap makes flight-induced swollen feet worse.
After a long wait, here is the third installment in the Paleo/Primal in a Nutshell video series. To see the first two (Food and Exercise) in various languages click here.
Jeff at Primal chat is running a series of interviews with Primal/Paleo bloggers called 'SpearTosser Spotlight', and in spite of the double entendre implied by the name (this is perhaps just a UK thing!) I was more than happy to agree:
In the article I review a couple of great books that have inspired me to consider distance running, when done a certain way, to be very much part of a Paleo / Primal lifestyle.
I also question how much attention we should pay to the studies that suggest running is damaging to our health, given the myriad forms it can take and the tendency of these studies to focus on one particularly extreme type.... Read more
In case you are wondering, this is pronounced 'Lake Vern-ree', or at least that's close enough to avoid being laughed at by the locals.
The Welsh don't go in for easy-to-pronounce names, a fact comically illustrated by the spectacle of Mrs M trying to read out the names of villages as she navigated from the road atlas during the journey.
For anyone looking for a superb weekend holiday destination in Wales, they could do a lot worse than this. There are links in the main article.
The highlights of the weekend were:
A gonad achingly cold wild swim, lasting all of 30 seconds.
Some primal/paleo meals, interspersed with a fast - not easy when Mrs M is making liberal use of room service under your nose.
A long, slow run (or persistent hunt) around the lake, starting pre-dawn and covering forest, hills and road.
Many corporations, lobbyists and establishments favour the pursuit of money over the health of human beings. I don't often write about it because it's too depressing - but I got a little out of my system in the first Nutshell video and last year's article about HFCS.
I listened to a radio programme on the BBC last week which so effectively exposes the cynical, grasping, manipulative mentality of the pharmaceutical industry, I just had to share it.
Fellow bloggers regularly expose the same issues, but somehow, hearing such a long and detailed exposé from an institution like the BBC, with candid testimonies from former employees, really brought it home. You can read the accompanying news story on the BBC website, or listen to the whole, one-hour program if you have time:
I've been tinkering with this for a few months and decided today it's ready to publish.
Click on the image, here, or on the link in the right sidebar to go to the chart.
The data is kept online in a Google spreadsheet and streamed directly into the chart image. So when I update online, the chart updates. There are also embedded notes and links to take you to related posts or Twitter entries.
Feedback welcome - does it work okay on your browser? Does the format make sense? Anything else you'd like it to do?... Read more
It's cold in the UK at the moment. Brass monkey weather.
Walking though the city recently, I was aware of a gaping hole in my insulation. Whilst my feet were kept warm by snugly-fitting Vibram Five Finger Treks and my legs by fleece-lined trousers, in between there was nothing. A whistling gale sliced across my ankles like a razor.
I was passing a ladies' accessories shop, when it struck me.
Have you got any leg warmers? I enquired within.
Over here, pointed the young lady assistant, coming out from behind the desk in spite of the I-don't-want-help vibes I thought I was giving.
Before us lay an array of multi-coloured Cindy Lauper-esque leg warmers.
She, ahem, wants them in plain black, I said.
The girl removed a pair from the display. We've only the fishnets in plain black, she said.
I looked doubtful, but she grinned encouragingly. Go on - girls like a bit of kinky!
Okay, I said weakly. My deception had left me unable to reason convincingly.
Later, under the scrutiny of my compadrés, I was naturally subject to ridicule. You're gay, was the sing-song verdict of one. Another emailed this YouTube link.
Ridicule I can tolerate, but cold ankles I simply won't stand for.
We started in Paris - nothing much Primal happened there - too much of this ... but we did do some walking, such as here Then to the Pyrenees, where we stayed here and were presented with local produce (well, not the bananas or melon!) - so local that the eggs were laid by her and her sisters who lived in the grounds. In the morning I sprinted here and here followed by this We hiked here where we found these wild bilberries and picked this many In the evening we ate this local food Next day, more eggs followed by a hike to here and here then a swim here (cooold!) and some sunbathing. Later this for lunch. Next morning, a dawn hike for more of these getting this haul which included wild raspberries. So we had this for breakfast, ahead of some seriously primal activity here and here and here followed by this in the evening. On our final evening, this then on the boat journey back, more sun!
In April Mark Sisson encouraged all the Primal/Paleo people on Twitter to start tagging their Tweets with the #primal tag - see this post.
Since then plenty of us have been doing just that....but we have also been using TwitPic to post photos of our meals.
Thanks to the wonders of technology, we now have a page on this blog where you can see all the latest photos of meals posted to Twitter by the Primal/Paleo community. You can get to the page by clicking the 'What YOU are Tw-Eating' button in the sidebar, or by clicking here.... Read more
When I first posted the first Paleo/Primal in a Nutshell video, a lady emailed me to say how she would love to be able to show the video to some friends who speak Spanish and offering to help me translate them. I am pleased to say that she very kindly followed through on that promise and even suggested some alternative soundtracks.
So - if you know any Spanish-speakers who'd appreciate the videos, here they are...
Part 1: Food
Part 2: Exercise
Translated by: Autumn Brookmire and Ekel Verce.... Read more