Mark's Daily Apple

How to Tell Friends About the Primal Lifestyle

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Yesterday, we gave some somewhat humorous rejoinders to the common challenges we get from people who just don’t get the Primal Blueprint. Jokes are good for the closed-minded among us who’d never actually listen, but what about the people who really do show interest in the lifestyle? What about friends, family, or co-workers – people you actually have a shot at getting through to – who could use a little nudge in the right direction, away from CW and toward Grok?

It can be incredibly frustrating when people you care about can’t seem to shake CW and give the PB a shot. Its tenets are logical, scientifically sound, and there is ample anecdotal evidence that it really does work – but because they tend to contradict everything most people have ever been taught about food, exercise, and living, it’s easier to ignore them. Or if you are lucky enough to catch a skeptic’s ear, there’s usually some trigger word or phrase (“saturated fat,” anyone?) that causes a meltdown and renders further discussion pointless.

Posted By: Mark Sisson

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Grok Never Needed an Alarm Clock, So Why Should You?

It goes without saying that Grok never had to resort to a shrieking alarm clock to get him up in time for the day’s activities. But he also never had to worry about beating rush hour, or getting his little Groklings to school. Even if we subscribe to all the other behaviors of our ancestors – diet, fitness, rest, relaxation, play – it is our reliance on external, artificial rousing mechanisms that’s the hardest vice to shake. One could even argue that modern (corporate) culture requires the use of an alarm clock. How else are we to manage our most precious commodity of all, time?

Posted By: Mark Sisson

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How to Make Pemmican

Vihljamur Stefansson, eminent anthropologist and arctic explorer, went on three expeditions into the Alaskan tundra during the first quarter of the 20th century. His discoveries – including the “blond” Inuit and previously uncharted Arctic lands – brought him renown on the world stage. People were fascinated by his approach to travel and exploration, the way he thrust himself fully into the native Inuit cultures he encountered. Stefansson studied their language, adopted their ways, and ate the same food they ate. In fact, it was the diet of the Inuit – fish, marine mammals, and other animals, with almost no vegetables or carbohydrates – that most intrigued him. He noted that, though their diet would be considered nutritionally bereft by most “experts” (hey, nothing’s changed in a hundred years!), the Inuit seemed to be in excellent health, with strong teeth, bones, and muscles. He was particularly interested in a food called pemmican.

Posted By: Mark Sisson

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The “Grok Crawl”

One of the more underappreciated developmental milestones in an infant’s life is the act of crawling. First words, walking, reading – these get all the attention, but it’s crawling that helps kids develop the important upper and lower body strength that will serve as a foundation for later activity and basic movement. Some pull and push with their arms while scooting along with their knees. Others crawl with their elbows like soldiers slogging through a battlefield. Whatever their methods, when compared to kids who skipped crawling and went straight to walking, early crawlers seem to have better motor skills. They understand bilateral coordination (using the arms and legs in reciprocal movements), they have a better sense of depth perception, and all that time spent on their hands gives crawlers better grasping strength.

Posted By: Mark Sisson

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Unleash Your Inner Grok

Even though we, as Primal enthusiasts, do acknowledge his presence by eating his food, doing his exercises, and minimizing the kind of artificial stress he rarely experienced, something seems absent from our relationship with Grok. We pay attention to his counsel when it comes to nutrition and biology and fitness – but is something lost in the translation between his past and our present? It’s almost like we’re tourists on some grand expedition: temporal-anthro-eco-nutro tourists who visit the Edenic past and, indeed, adopt its way of life and follow its precepts to a tee with resounding success and inimitable results. But in the end, we remain tourists. We aren’t yet truly going Primal.

Posted By: Worker Bee

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