H1ow N1ot to Get Swine Flu

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Swine flu. Even the hype surrounding it is pandemic. It’s made headlines in every major newspaper and magazine. The CDC has a new press release every half hour. TV talking heads and radio pundits furrow their brows and express extreme consternation as they tell us to start “bracing for the worst.” President Obama has asked for another billion-and–a-half dollars (that we don’t have) to fend off this impending menace. Frightened school boards are halting classes everywhere until they are given a better action plan. Cruises are cancelled, trips are postponed, pigs are slaughtered, nations are blamed. It’s crazy.

I’m sorry. At this point, I’m not buying it.

Posted By: Mark Sisson

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Yoga Therapy?

Primal living, of course, is ultimately about overall wellness. Sure, we focus a lot on nutrition and exercise (important points, after all), but these topics are only part of the picture. Wellness, as it’s often defined, embodies healthful living in several dimensions of self-care and actualization. Our sense of emotional well-being, for example, figures strongly into our quality of life, and it’s about more than just personal happiness. Stress and unmanaged mental health concerns can take a true physical toll. In chronic cases, poor mental health/stress can become a downward, damaging spiral. We’re talking immune dysfunction, high blood pressure, systemic inflammation…. Stress response can even contribute to heart disease and cancer in extreme cases.

Posted By: Worker Bee

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Why Skipping Meals and Workouts is Healthy

Conventional wisdom tells us that “grazing” is the optimal way to eat. Constant snacking; more frequent, smaller meals rather than the classic breakfast, lunch, dinner set-up; and an ever-present fear of hunger as the enemy: these are said to line the path to healthy weight loss. If we ever feel hungry, it says, we leave ourselves vulnerable to temptation and metabolic imbalances. There is certainly some validity to this idea. I can imagine Grok roaming the grasslands for nuts, bugs, roots, shoots, and small game. And at times these foods may have been plentiful. More likely though Grok’s eating pattern was much more sporadic. There would have been periods of grazing coupled with stretches of famine and punctuated by instances of all-out feasting. As is so often the case, CW has cherry picked one part of this scenario and turned it into an ironclad, dogmatic proclamation that excludes any alternatives, whatever their potential benefits.

Posted By: Mark Sisson

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A Little Perspective

A little perspective is always helpful. Usually, I take it upon myself to dole it out on this blog, but I could use a wake up call from time to time.

You may have noticed that we’ve been stressing the “perfect” Primal life: eating organic, wild, free-range foods, butchering or hunting our own meat, buying food directly from local farmers, growing our own produce, etc. But in our zest for attempting to perfectly emulate the quality of food Grok might have eaten, we run the risk of scaring off newcomers. Maybe you’re a college student unsatisfied with his dorm food and the Primal Blueprint sounds pretty intriguing… but then you read posts from the last few weeks and wonder how you’ll ever find the time or money to hunt a deer or buy an entire pig from a farmer or shop exclusively at farmers’ markets. I imagine it can sound a bit overwhelming to someone who just wants to improve his or her diet and health, and lose a bit of weight. Organic produce can be pricey, growing vegetables requires space, buying from local farms requires local farms, and butchering an entire side of beef requires time and know-how that most busy people simply don’t have. Striving for perfection is admirable, and we certainly condone it, but falling short of it (which, by definition, is basically inevitable) isn’t failure. It’s just reality. As much as I stress following a near perfect Primal lifestyle, I don’t want the perfect to become the enemy of the good.

Posted By: Mark Sisson

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Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

We thought this might be a good time to check in with newer folks who have taken on the 2009 Primal Challenge. (With four weeks in, how’s everyone doing?)

But the truth is, the title has bearing for all of us. Old hat or not, a healthy lifestyle always encounters challenges at some point. External pressures – heavier work load, added family responsibilities, etc. – can suddenly shift the ground we thought was solid and stable. Internal factors – stress, injury, illness– can creep up on us and make us realize we’ve taken our motivation a little for granted lately.

Posted By: Worker Bee

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