Good for them: A member of the FDA’s expert panel resigned over the panel’s approval of an Alzheimer’s drug that doesn’t work, probably harms, and is very expensive.
“Sun exposure – totally depends where you live. Here in New Zealand you can get seriously sunburnt in about 10 minutes in summer between the hours of around 10am – 3pm, especially if you are pale. You can actually feel the sun burning your skin immediately. I NEVER sit directly in the sun and don’t go into the sun without sunscreen and a hat. We have the highest rates of melanoma in the world.”
Hey folks! Erin back to answer more of your questions. If you’re struggling to keep your blood sugar balanced, just coming off a 30-day challenge, or want to know the real solution for long-term weight loss, stick around for this week’s post. We love getting your questions, so keep them coming in the comments below or over in our Mark’s Daily Apple Facebook group.
Devin asked:
“I just got blood work done and it came back that I’m prediabetic. I don’t eat much sugar (I’m not a dessert kind of person) and follow a paleo diet about 70-80% of the time, so I’m confused. What else could be at play here?”
Sugar is sneaky. It’s everywhere in our culinary culture and not just in the places you’d expect, like cookies, cakes, and $6 coffee drinks. The average person consumes up to 66 pounds of added sugar per year.1 That’s added sugar, not naturally sweet foods like fruit, or foods that convert to sugar, which I’ll talk more about here in a sec.
Is Prediabetes Bad?
When you’re a chronic consumer of sugary foods or foods that turn to sugar, your body begins to become insulin resistant, meaning the cells stop responding to the insulin your body pumps out (which keeps blood sugar levels in check). Your doctor already informed you that you’re pre-diabetic, which doesn’t mean you’ll develop diabetes, but it doesn’t mean you won’t – especially if you continue to eat the way you’re eating. But to answer your question, there are lots of factors that can impact your health status other than food.
Things that impact insulin resistance:
Genetic factors/family history
Chronic stress and cortisol spikes
Being sedentary or sleep deprived
Altered gut microbiome
Where Sugar is Hiding
But let’s assume it is something you’re eating. Food manufacturers use sugar, and yes, even fat, to make food hyper palatable, so they’re hard to resist and easy to overeat. Maybe you’ve been duped by foods claiming to be low in sugar, only to find out that these “healthy foods” are loaded with ingredients like maltodextrin, dextrose, and rice syrup. Processed food is a huge culprit for hidden sugars — everything from soups and salad dressings to ketchup, nut butter, and deli meats.
Not only that, a diet filled with refined and processed carbohydrates will digest more quickly and cause a spike in your blood sugar. And if you’re in the spot you’re in now where your cells stop responding to insulin, certain foods will continue to put you on the fast track to chronic illness.2
In your 70-80% paleo diet, are you eating any of these with any regularity? Even non-sugary foods and non-sweet items turn to sugar in the body, including:
Oatmeal and breakfast cereals
Bread (even gluten-free bread)
Pasta and rice
Beans
Pastries and baked goods
Low-fat yogurt
Crackers
Your best bet is to opt for whole, real foods that don’t come with a label, get a good night’s sleep, and recheck your labs in a few months.
(By the way, when I received my prediabetes diagnosis 12 or so years ago — which is what inspired me to go Primal and never look back — my doctor implicated my highly stressful job as one of my insulin resistance triggers. Lifestyle factors add up too!)
Ellie asked:?“I’m wrapping up a 30-day detox this weekend and was hoping for some clarification on how to reintroduce regular foods back into my diet. I know I shouldn’t go out and eat a whole pizza right away, but is there a formula for how to do it?”
With summer and this push for “summer bods” right around the corner, I feel like there are a lot of cleanses and detoxes happening right now. I’ve never formally done one — well unless you count “cleansing” myself of grains 12 or so years ago — but maybe that doesn’t count, since it wasn’t an official *thing* I was doing.
What’s Wrong With 30-day Challenges?
It seems like everyone in my social feed is going sugar-free for 30 days. Or attempting a dry month of 30 days without alcohol. The problem with doing a plan like this, is exactly what you mentioned, Ellie. What happens when you inevitably bring those foods (or drinks) back in?
When I eliminated grains from my diet, I did so with no intention of ever reintroducing them as part of my regular nutrition, seeing as there are no good reasons to include them. That being said, some non-primal foods do make sporadic appearances from time to time: pizza included (of course).
Why Do an Elimination Diet?
I do, however, encourage my clients to try an elimination diet for a set period of time, not to jump start their metabolism or drop a bunch of weight, but with the expectation that they’ll get a glimpse into how much better they can feel without grains, sugars, and their usual rotation of snacky, crunchy, creamy foods.
You will eat pizza again. Of course you will! But before you do, pay attention to what changes you’ve noticed over the past 30 days. Maybe you’ve noticed that you:
Sleep better
Experience fewer aches and pains
Are less bloated
Have fewer cravings
Have more sustained energy throughout the day
These 30-day challenges always give me pause because, what happens on day 31? The invitation to go back to your old patterns until you feel the pinch of your symptoms creeping back in? Or a friend coerces you to join them for another no sugar/no processed food/no alcohol challenge that springboards you, temporarily, into better health? I think these challenges can be incredible springboards into health; I just want folks to consider the staying power of what they’ve learned over the 30 days.
Connecting to what feels better in your body is an incredible motivator to anchor to. From there, consider Mark’s 80/20 rule to conceive of how you’re going to live the rest of your life mostly following the Primal philosophy, with some well-thought-out treats thrown into the mix.
Angela asked:
“What’s more important for weight loss, diet or exercise?”
As I like to tell my health coaching clients, I’m not really in the business of weight loss. For me, weight loss is a wickedly awesome side effect of getting your metabolism working again. When your metabolism is doing its job, you don’t have to rely on chronic dieting or exercise — it just happens.
How to Speed Up Your Metabolism
You’re probably familiar with the old calories in/calories out conversation, or the popular “abs are made in the kitchen.” Both are tragically oversimplified, and in some cases, flat out wrong. If all it took to lose weight was to simply eat less and exercise more, it’s possible we wouldn’t be suffering the scourge of an obesity epidemic.
Diet culture tells us there’s something wrong with us if we can’t move the number on the scale. As if that number was a reflection of our self-worth. On top of that, the stress brought on by obsessive measuring, tracking, and calorie counting, can actually cause weight gain.3 Or cause weight loss resistance at the very least. The real secret to getting your metabolism working again is to get your hormones working again.
So to get back to your question — does diet exercise impact fat loss more, or does exercise? — the answer is that both diet and exercise are important, but possibly not in the way we’ve been taught to think. Like I mentioned earlier, overdoing it at the gym or starving yourself (which is different from fasting) will only cause more cortisol, more insulin, more elevated blood sugar, and more stored fat.
Out-of-whack hormones have an impact on weight, not to mention mood, energy, and tearing someone’s head off when you’re hangry. And the *easiest* way to start getting them back in line is to implement a sensible mix of diet, exercise, and lifestyle inputs.
3 tips for balancing hormones:
Eat protein and fat. Start your day with a protein-forward meal that includes healthy fats. Think bacon and eggs, full-fat yogurt, leftover ribeye…
Manage your stress. Not all stress is bad, but when it’s chronic, it can be a problem. Consider swapping your high-intensity spin class for a yin yoga session.
Move daily. Get out of the habit of counting calories burned or committing to a full hour at the gym every time you go. Instead, get out for a walk, do some gardening, or just move your body in any way that feels good. Your body, your hormones, and your metabolism will thank you.
Agree? Disagree? Tell me what you think in the comments.
For the last 30 years, the messaging has been clear: Slather your body with sunscreen if you so much as even think about going outside in the sun. Cloudy and rainy? Doesn’t matter. Wear the sunscreen. Want to build up a base tan? You’re killing yourself. Wear the sunscreen. It’s only ten minutes? That ten minutes of sunscreen-less sun exposure will shave a year off your life. Wear the sunscreen.
In more recent years, the tide has shifted. Research has come out showing that most commercial sunscreen contains chemical compounds that act as carcinogens when absorbed, at least in animal models. Maybe we don’t even want to block the sun at all. Or maybe we do, but there’s a better way to do it than using chemical filters that absorb into our skin. At any rate, I figured with summer rolling around that it was time to revisit the topic of sunscreen. So let’s do that, shall we?
What’s Wrong with Sunscreen?
Most sunscreens have a lot wrong with them:
Endocrine disrupting UV filters
Imbalanced UV protection
Parabens
Retinyl Palmitate
Endocrine Disrupting UV Filters
Most of your typical commercial sunscreens use chemical UV-filters like benzophenone and oxybenzone that in addition to blocking UV possess a hidden feature: endocrine disruption. Certain forms of benzophenone, for example, inhibit the action of thyroid peroxidase, an enzyme necessary for the production of thyroid hormone.1 Another study showed that application of sunscreen containing benzophenone-2 for five days lowered T4 and T3 thyroid hormones in rats.2 Later, researchers examined the estrogenic effects of another UV-filter used in sunscreen called octyl-methoxycinnamate and found that typical amounts were enough to disrupt hormonal function and exert other, non-endocrine health effects when applied to rat skin.3 That might not a problem if UV-filters in sunscreen weren’t designed to be absorbed into the skin, and therefore the body, nor if every expert weren’t telling us to slather a quarter cup full all over our bodies at the first hint of sunlight. But additional ingredients in the sunblock enhance dermal absorption of these compounds.
It’s also worth mentioning that UV-filtering chemicals often have even more drastic effects on wildlife, like the zebrafish, in whom low amounts of oxybenzone exert multigenerational effects at the gene transcription level.4
The worst part is that even effective against the development of melanoma! In fact, one study found a positive association between sunscreen usage and melanoma incidence.5
Imbalanced UV Protection
Most sunscreens block UVB only; that’s what SPF refers to—the ability of the sunscreen to block UVB. But our skin is designed to deal with UVB and UVA in concert. After all, UVB with UVA is the ancestral environment. You need both.
UVB rays are the triggers for vitamin D production in our bodies. UVB rays penetrate the epidermis, the upper layers of our skin. UVA rays, on the other hand, penetrate more deeply into the basal section of the dermis, which is where most skin cancer develops. Excessive UVA exposure also associates with wrinkling, immune suppression, oxidative stress, and related aging. Research shows that concurrent exposure to UVB actually serves to counteract skin damage and inflammation from UVA. We need both together. Blocking one while exposing our skin to the other is a recipe for danger.
Parabens
Although parabens are sometimes used as food preservatives, they’re also used as preservatives in sunscreens—and the majority of urinary parabens derives from nondietary sources like cosmetics, primarily, where they are used to extend shelf life.6 They show up in our urine because humans can readily absorb parabens from topical application.7 Although the health effects haven’t been explicitly proven, human studies suggest a link between urinary paraben levels and certain health conditions, such as sensitivities to airborne and food allergies, elevated stress hormones in pregnant mothers and their newborn children (who, by the way, are showing up with parabens in their first urine!), and DNA damage to sperm.8910
Retinyl Palmitate
Vitamin A in the diet is protective against sun damage, so manufacturers figured they’d start putting it in topical sunscreens. Except a 2012 study in hairless mice found that applying retinyl palmitate to the bare skin and exposing it to UV increased tumor incidence and skin damage. Now, humans aren’t hairless mice. We are wild animals and the hairless mouse has been bred specifically for laboratory experiments. It’s likely that the hairless mouse is more sensitive to skin irritants, and the results from the 2012 paper may not apply to us.
But even if retinyl palmitate isn’t carcinogenic, it’s useless. Avoid just to be safe.
What Are Healthy Sunscreens?
But just because conventional sunscreens are toxic and likely carcinogenic doesn’t mean the sun can’t damage your skin. It can. You still need protection.
There are a few types of sunscreens I do endorse.
Zinc Oxide
Rather than a chemical barrier, zinc oxide is a physical barrier. It sits on your skin, physically preventing UV from damaging you. Zinc oxide is broad spectrum, meaning it blocks both UVA and UVB. Zinc oxide does not absorb into the skin, which is why it stays white (this is also why I can’t fully endorse nano zinc oxide sunscreens that do absorb into the skin) and it’s why most people avoid them—they think the white is unsightly.
It’s not pretty but boy does it work.
Edible Sunscreen
Eating colorful plants and animal foods is a form of “edible sunscreen.” For instance, a high-carotenoid diet protects the skin against UV damage, and lycopene, the active constituent in tomatoes (more active eaten with fat and cooked), has similar effects.11 Polyphenols in general tend to increase the skin’s antioxidant capacity. Anthocyanins, found in red wine and berries, also may also be useful. Consumption of both coffee and green tea have been shown to increase UV-protection, probably due to both the caffeine content and the phytochemicals present in tea and coffee.1213
Berries, red wine, cooked tomatoes (tomato sauce, paste, ketchup), carrots, paprika, pastured egg yolks, sockeye salmon, shrimp, green tea, and coffee form the basis of a good sun-resistance protocol. Supplementary lutein, zeaxanthin, and astaxanthin can also help.
Infrared Light
IR radiation, as seen in morning sunrises, evening sunsets, infrared saunas, and red light devices, increases the skin’s resistance to UV exposure. This protective effect of infrared light lasts for 24 hours.
Good Sleep and a Healthy Circadian Rhythm
Like almost every other physiological tool we employ, our ability to repair UV-derived damage depends on a well-functioning circadian rhythm.14 If you didn’t sleep well or are running on a chronic sleep deficit, you may want to hold off on the sunbathing until you get your sleep in order as your skin won’t recover as well.
Plus, melatonin itself is photoprotective against UV damage, and human skin cells synthesize it in-house.15
Shade
Physically blocking UV light from hitting your skin with hats, clothing, and umbrellas is the oldest form of sunscreen around. If you’re going to spend an extended day in the sun, I highly recommend having some shade handy. The pop up “day-tents” are great for long beach days.
Smart Time-in-the-sun Management
The safest time to get sun is actually at noon. That’s when UVB exposure, and thus vitamin D production, is at its peak (PDF). UVB burns, but it also tans (thus giving warning), and it doesn’t penetrate deep enough into the epidermis to trigger melanoma. At noon, you’re getting both UVB and UVA. UVB also counteracts the UVA damage; UVA keeps the vitamin D synthesis from getting out of hand. If we upset the balance and get too much UVA without enough UVB, melanoma may result.16
However, you also need to limit your time in the sun. Noon sun is potent but powerful. You may need as little as 10 minutes to get the full dose of vitamin D, depending on your skin color and baseline resistance to UV. Don’t burn. Don’t get pink. Don’t wait til your skin gets tight and stiff.
And you need to be consistent: going on a vacation to the tropics a couple times a year and getting almost zero sun the rest of the year is not how you do it. Small daily doses of sun exposure are healthiest; intermittent doses are the most dangerous.
As you can see, the healthiest ways to screen out sun have little to do with slathering yourself with lotion. If you’re going to forego traditional sunscreen—and I recommend that you do—you have to apply a much more rigorous, holistic, full-spectrum “sunscreen” to your entire life.
How do you do sunscreen? What do you use? What do you do instead?
In part one of this series on improving vagal tone, I explained that the vagus nerve is the information superhighway of your autonomic nervous system. It connects your brain to organs and glands throughout the body and acts as the main conduit of your parasympathetic (“rest-and-digest”) nervous system. Vagal nerve activity touches just about every system in the body, including respiration, immunity, cardiovascular activity, digestion, and the gut microbiome.
The term “vagal tone” refers to how active your parasympathetic nervous system is. Ideally, we want high vagal tone, because that indicates a generally relaxed state where the body can focus on growth and repair. When vagal tone is low, the sympathetic (“fight-flight-freeze”) nervous system is dominant. That’s no good. The sympathetic nervous system should kick in when we need to respond to an acute threat or stressor, but we don’t want it running in the background all the time.
Unfortunately, a chronically stressed, sympathetic-dominant state is the norm for most people nowadays. Scientists are always on the hunt for ways to alleviate that stress and reduce the medical burden associated with it. Some researchers are investigating pharmaceutical means of improving vagal tone, along with protocols for using electrostimulation. You don’t need these high-tech procedures, though. Once you start digging into the science of the vagus nerve, you realize something cool: Most of the things we promote in the Primal community probably improve vagal tone.
Mark wasn’t thinking about the vagus nerve when he formulated the 10 Primal Laws. Yet, I suspect that vagus nerve stimulation is a common underlying thread connecting them. It’s an awesome example of science confirming what we already know: aPrimal lifestyle reduces stress, builds resilience, and is an all-around better way to live. Here are some examples of popular Primal practices that are linked empirically to improving vagal tone.
Cold Exposure
Are you one of those Primal folks, like our own Brad Kearns, who absolutely loves their ice baths? Well, there’s a reason that it “hurts so good.” When you plunge into cold water, blood vessels constrict, and blood is redirected to your core. This triggers an increase in parasympathetic and a decrease in sympathetic activity. If you were measuring, you’d see your HRV rise as you chill (literally) in cold water.12 Friends who have managed to incorporate daily ice baths into their routine tell me that they start to crave it. When they skip a day, they feel off somehow. That’s probably because they aren’t getting the parasympathetic stimulation their bodies have come to expect.
Can’t quite bring yourself to immerse yourself in cold water? Try ending your normal shower with a blast of cold water. You’ll even get some of the same benefits from splashing cold water or applying ice packs to your face.3 Whole-body cryotherapy is another option.4
Building Community
Interacting with other people and building strong social bonds is fundamentally human. We are meant to be in community with other people.Loneliness and social isolation are detrimental to both mental and physical health. Many large-scale research studies show that lonely or socially isolated folks are at greater risk for cardiovascular disease, chronic inflammation, suppressed immune function, and death.5
The autonomic nervous system likely plays a significant role in this process.6 Numerous studies have documented lower vagal tone among
Students studying abroad with few social connections in their host country8
Unmarried individuals, compared to married individuals9 (even better if you’re happily married10)
Lonely individuals aren’t able to buffer stress as well as their socially connected brethren. They are at greater risk of getting sick due to outside stressors or pathogens. A recent study even found that lonely participants with lower HRV also had shorter telomeres, a marker of cellular aging.11 The researchers concluded that when loneliness leads to decreased parasympathetic activity, we actually age faster!
It doesn’t take a whole village to be healthy, though it’s great if you have one. Psychologists believe that even one close relationship can make a big difference.
Can Social Connection Create an Upward Spiral of Health and Happiness?
In one study, researchers had participants engage in a loving-kindness meditation for one hour each week for six weeks.12 Loving-kindness meditation entails offering messages of love, compassion, and support to yourself and others—for example, the people closest to you, your community, your country, and all humanity. Results showed that the loving-kindness practice increased participants’ positive emotions and perceived social connection, which in turn improved vagal tone.
According to these findings, you don’t need actual social interactions to reap the benefits. Even thinking about meaningful social connections can raise vagal tone. Furthermore, the authors posit that this becomes a self-perpetuating cycle: social connection improves vagal tone, which increases positive emotions, which leads people to feel more connected, further boosting vagal tone, and on and on.
Some limited research also suggests that laughing,1314chanting,15and singing16—all activities that would traditionally be social in nature but which you can also do on your own—promote cardiovascular health, possibly by way of improved vagal tone.
Frequent Movement
Primal Blueprint Law #3 urges us to avoid being sedentary. Our ancestors would have moved frequently throughout the day by necessity, carrying out the everyday business of staying alive. Heart disease is relatively rare among traditionally living societies in part because they engage in so much consistent, low-level activity.17
One of the reasons exercise improves insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular health, and neurological function is that it increases brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF.18 BDNF has widespread effects throughout the body, and it just so happens to stimulates the vagus nerve.19
Any type of movement is probably beneficial as long as it doesn’t veer into chronic cardio territory. Small studies have documented HRV improvements with walking, especially in nature,20 Qigong,21 yoga,22 and tai chi.23 Some of the benefits might not be due to the movement per se, though. These practices all involve a breathwork component, and we know that slow and nasal breathing improve vagal tone independent of exercise.
Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting yields well-documented health benefits, especially for cardiovascular disease risk factors, insulin sensitivity, inflammation and oxidative stress, and other markers of metabolic health. Many of these benefits are probably mediated at least in part by vagal activity. The vagus nerve communicates information between the brain and the body, facilitating the physiological response to fasting.24
As with exercise, intermittent fasting also stimulates BDNF production. Experts suggest that BDNF increases parasympathetic (vagal) activity in neurons connected to the gut, arteries, and heart.2526 Alternate day fasting and caloric restriction both raise HRV in rats.27 Fasting also suppresses sympathetic nervous system activity, and fasted rats are less stress reactive.2829 More research is needed in humans.
Although intermittent fasting does not necessarily imply caloric restriction, in practice, the two often go hand in hand. Caloric restriction by itself can increase HRV and parasympathetic activity.3031
Getting Your Omega-3s
Primal folks appreciate the myriad benefits of omega-3 fatty acids for reducing inflammation and improving immune function. That’s why we’re all eating plenty of small, oily fish and supplementing as needed, right?
Awesome, because omega-3s also elevate HRV and improve other cardiovascular health markers. Research has linked omega-3 intake to HRV in infants, healthy adults, dialysis patients, elderly individuals, and people with coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes.32
Vagal tone is only one pathway by which omega-3s improve health, but hey, it’s as good a reason as any to whip up a batch of sardine butter, right?
Before we get into details about the two best exercises ever known to mankind to shed excess body fat (sprinting and jumping), I want to put in a little plug for the trending healthy living topic of gratitude.1 The concept is easy to pay lip service to, especially when you’re struggling and not in the best mood to feel it naturally. I’m recently recovered from a minor knee injury lasting six months that prevented me from doing my beloved sprinting and high jumping workouts. While athletics no longer dominates my life as it did when I was a pro triathlete, there was a lingering frustration deep down from being deprived of my favorite fitness endeavors, being unsure of the diagnosis of my injury, testing out the knee and experiencing setbacks, and being forced to be massively patient.
Today, I feel incredibly grateful to be back at the track sprinting and jumping. I’m also grateful for the outstanding physical therapy and chiropractic care that helped me finally obtain an accurate diagnosis and quickly heal from tight hip flexors, quads, and calves that referred pain to the area of what actually always was a perfectly healthy knee. When in doubt, seek out high quality, athletic-minded, hands-on healing practitioners!
Now that I’m back into the groove, I notice that I relish the entire workout experience like never before—hopping the fence to gain access to the track, completing my deliberate warmup routine and exacting technique drills (Basic and Advanced) that I have so much fun sharing on YouTube, and performing an ambitious main set of sprints or a focused high jumping workout.
Interestingly, my most significant source of gratitude comes from the discomfort associated with delivering brief bursts of maximum physical effort. I challenge anyone reading to reflect on your attitude before and during your most difficult workout efforts—those last few reps or last few meters to complete a great set. It’s common to whine and judge these efforts negatively. This mentality is infectious amidst training groups and teams. We whine to our personal trainers during a session, forcing them out of trainer or coach mode and into babysitter mode.
We look at the whiteboard description of a Crossfit WOD or swim workout and predict that the session will be “brutal,” or how a certain sequence will be “torture.” We obtain a perverse sense of camaraderie by commiserating with our training partners.
Enough of all that! Imagine what it’s like to be involuntary sidelined and watching others gettin’ it done on YouTube instead of being out there sweating yourself. Might you be less apt to complain? Also, acknowledge that your cardiovascular system and muscles are incapable of experiencing emotion. You don’t have to judge physical effort, just let your body perform the task at hand and cultivate gratitude for being able to experience all aspects of living a healthy, fit lifestyle—especially the last few meters or reps!
If you are interested in leveraging your fitness pursuits to shed excess body fat, let’s talk about how to do it correctly. As described in detail in the riveting new book, Two Meals A Day, the diet and fitness scene is experiencing a wonderful breakthrough after decades of being mired in the flawed calories in-calories out, struggle and suffer approach to weight loss. Emerging science is conclusively proving that indiscriminately burning exercise calories simply doesn’t contribute to fat reduction goals. Instead, per what is known as the compensation theory of exercise,2 a strenuous exercise program prompts you to consume more calories and economize your energy expenditure in assorted ways outside of your workouts. In order for exercise to make a significant contribution to fat reduction, you have to honor—drum roll please—the Primal Blueprint Fitness philosophy of moving frequently at a slow pace, lifting heavy things and sprinting once in a while.
This two-part article will focus on how to leverage explosive sprinting and jumping workouts to send powerful signals to your genes to shed body fat. Before we get into the details of these super effective high intensity workouts, let’s make sure your other bases are covered as follows:
Dial your diet. A carbohydrate dependency eating pattern is going to negate much of your exercise efforts. This is why you see droves of extremely fit and devoted endurance and group exercise athletes carrying five, ten or twenty pounds of extra body fat. It’s critical to ditch the “Big Three” toxic modern foods of refined sugars, grains, and industrial seed oils and emphasize healthy, nutrient-dense, ancestral-style foods. Quit eating too much food, too often and start honing metabolic flexibility through fasting, challenging workouts, and nutrient-dense meals.
Move frequently. Discover assorted ways to increase all forms of general everyday movement: Walking is the centerpiece of this effort, joined by formal movement practices (yoga, Pilates, tai chi), microworkouts, and a morning flexibility and mobility routine. Even self-myofascial release counts toward your movement quota!
Avoid chronic exercise. This blog is full of detailed commentary about the dangers of chronic cardio, and we can also add chronic CrossFit, chronic group exercise, and any type of a recurring pattern of exhausting, depleting workouts. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is one of the most popular terms and trends in fitness, but the typical implementation of HIIT can be exhausting and depleting. Check out Dr. Craig Marker’s landmark article titled, HIIT vs. HIRT (High Intensity Repeat Training) for details.
Do high intensity exercise correctly. Go hard only when well rested and motivated to deliver a peak performance effort; recover with great care between sessions; keep your maximum efforts between ten and twenty seconds; take sufficient recovery between maximum efforts; and finish the session before or when you experience compromised form or a spike in fatigue.
When you honor these three principles with your fitness pursuits, you steer clear of the compensation theory mechanisms that make you hungry and lazy and start sending the right signals to your genes to become a fat burner. Walking your 10,000 steps a day, keeping your cardio sessions at the MAF heart rate (180 minus age in beats per minute), and taking frequent short breaks from prolonged periods of stillness won’t deplete your glycogen or spike appetite. Instead, it will hone your fat burning abilities around the clock. Chronic exercise is the ultimate driver of carb dependency. Even when you do a stellar job eating the right foods, an overly stressful workout program will push you right back in the direction of carb dependency or worse, promote hormone dysregulation and compromised thyroid and adrenal function.
Elle Russ details in The Paleo Thyroid Solution how she was checking all the right boxes with an active, athletic lifestyle: challenging hot yoga classes, swim workouts, hilly hikes, and low carb eating only to crash and burn her thyroid function due to the excess stress load of the workouts. Finally, you’ve read about the awesome benefits of high intensity workouts, but the vast majority of exercises do them wrong, prompting burnout instead of breakthroughs.
Keep an eye out next week for part two, where, I will take you through step-by-step through an effective sprint workout and an effective jumping workout!
Have you ever made a grilled salad? You may think of salad as a cold food, but you’ll want to keep an open mind for this sweet, savory, smoky salad that’s just as refreshing as a cool, crisp salad on a hot day.
Hearts of romaine hold up well to the grill and develop a smoky wilt that balances out sweet grilled fruits and a tangy homemade balsamic dressing. This grilled romaine salad makes an excellent side dish that will become the star of any backyard barbecue.
To make it a main dish, grill your favorite chicken, steak, salmon or shrimp to top it with. Feel free to play around with the toppings to fit your diet or preferences. If you don’t have access to a grill, you can “grill” the lettuce, stone fruit and peppers on a hot cast iron grill pan on your stovetop.
Slice your stone fruit in half or in slices. Carefully cut the romaine hearts vertically down the middle so you have 6 romaine halves. Make sure to keep the core intact. Toss the fruit, peppers, and romaine in avocado oil.
Preheat your grill to medium-high heat. Once hot, place the fruit and peppers on. Allow them to grill for a minute or so on each side before turning or flipping them. Continue until they have slightly softened and are grilled to your liking.
Place the romaine halves on the grill cut side down. Grill for a couple of minutes and then flip them over. They are finished when they wilt just a little and have a bit of char on them.
To make the dressing, whisk together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil, mustard, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Arrange the romaine on a large platter or on individual plates. Stack the grilled fruit, peppers, fruit, onions and goat cheese on top. Sprinkle on the shredded basil and spoon on the dressing.
Slice your stone fruit in half or in slices. Carefully cut the romaine hearts vertically down the middle so you have 6 romaine halves. Make sure to keep the core intact. Toss the fruit, peppers, and romaine in avocado oil.
Preheat your grill to medium-high heat. Once hot, place the fruit and peppers on. Allow them to grill for a minute or so on each side before turning or flipping them. Continue until they have slightly softened and are grilled to your liking.
Place the romaine halves on the grill cut side down. Grill for a couple of minutes and then flip them over. They are finished when they wilt just a little and have a bit of char on them.
To make the dressing, whisk together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil, mustard, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Arrange the romaine on a large platter or on individual plates. Stack the grilled fruit, peppers, fruit, onions and goat cheese on top. Sprinkle on the shredded basil and spoon on the dressing.
Research of the Week
Hey folks! Erin back to answer more of your questions. If you’re struggling to keep your blood sugar balanced, just coming off a 30-day challenge, or want to know the real solution for long-term weight loss, stick around for this week’s post. We love getting your questions, so keep them coming in the comments below or over in our 
For the last 30 years, the messaging has been clear: Slather your body with sunscreen if you so much as even think about going outside in the sun. Cloudy and rainy? Doesn’t matter. Wear the sunscreen. Want to build up a base tan? You’re killing yourself. Wear the sunscreen. It’s only ten minutes? That ten minutes of sunscreen-less sun exposure will shave a year off your life. Wear the sunscreen.
In 
Before we get into details about the two best exercises ever known to mankind to shed excess body fat (sprinting and jumping), I want to put in a little plug for the trending healthy living topic of gratitude.
Have you ever made a grilled salad? You may think of salad as a cold food, but you’ll want to keep an open mind for this sweet, savory, smoky salad that’s just as refreshing as a cool, crisp salad on a hot day.
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