Mark's Daily Apple

Thriving, Not Just Surviving

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I mention the distinction between thriving and surviving quite often on this blog, but I’m not sure I make it often enough, or explicitly. So, here it is: surviving is not thriving. There’s a massive difference, and though the two states of being ideally concur, we too often conflate the two as a rule, to our ultimate detriment. In my opinion, life’s true barometer is experience gained, rather than raw time accrued. What’s the point of living to a ripe old age if you never taste the fruit? Longevity coupled with happiness and experience, good. Sheer longevity for longevity’s sake, miserable, diseased, and decrepit? Bad.

Posted By: Mark Sisson

35

Bodyweight Exercises and Injury Prevention

Despite our recent spate of posts extolling the many and varied benefits of heavy resistance training, I’ve actually been moving away from the weight room for a couple reasons. Foremost is my desire to stay active and as injury-free as possible. While I still wholeheartedly endorse and believe in lifting hard and lifting heavy, at my age I’m starting to realize that the potential for injury – at least for me, personally – is too great to risk spending three days lifting heavy things on a weekly basis. At this point in my life, my motivation is simply different. I’m not really interested in pushing myself to the limit, let alone past the limit (realistically, those days are behind me); I’m instead focusing on maintaining my current performance. It’s almost a Buddhist thing where I’m content with my strength and my body (and have been for a long time now), rather than dissatisfied and constantly striving for more. I also Grok (or “own”) the notion that my diet dictates 80% of my body composition, so I really don’t have to work so hard to maintain muscle mass, strength, power, body fat etc. I’ve touched on this in the past, but a recent email from reader Griffin made me realize a substantial post was in order.

Posted By: Mark Sisson

78

The Primal Blueprint for Busy People – Part 1: Sleep and Stress

Last week we took on the eternal “no time” excuse in our “No Better Time than the Present” post, and we were thrilled by the response. Readers offered their own efficiency strategies as well as continuing challenges for fitting in all their Primal goals. Busy. Hectic. Maybe a few moments of frantic thrown in there. It seems most of us fit into this category these days – some voluntarily, some not so much. Life just won’t slow down. In response we’re always looking to get more done in less time.

Posted By: Worker Bee

16

Contest Results: Q&A with Mark

Congratulations to Ed, Wyatt, Ken, VN, and Dan. You have won copies of The Primal Blueprint.

As Aaron mentioned, we received nearly 250 fantastic questions. I could spend the next few months writing blog posts to address these questions exclusively. Needless to say, I’ll be using the comment board as a source of future MDA fodder, so check back often for answers to all of your questions.

What do you think of this video? It was our first time doing it this way, so it was a bit of an experiment. Do you like the format? There are a number of things I’d do differently in the future, but if you generally enjoy video content let me know and I’ll see about making this a regular feature of the blog.

Speaking of multi-media features on Mark’s Daily Apple, what does everyone think of a podcast? Would you be inclined to listen to an internet radio program in which I answer reader questions, hold interviews and discuss the Primal lifestyle? It’s just in the idea phase now, so I’d like to get a feeling for whether you’d be interested before putting it all together.

Thanks again to everyone for participating in this contest. Grok on!

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Posted By: Mark Sisson

44

No Better Time than the Present

You’ve read about it. Thought about it. You’ve watched Mark’s message calling all readers. You’ve even imagined yourself taking part in this month’s Challenge. You’ve toyed with it, considered it, but ultimately held back. For whatever reason you’re a straggler, a dawdler, maybe just slow to warm up, perhaps unsure, apprehensive – for whatever reason undecided, uncommitted.

Mind if we ask…why? What’s holding you back? When you imagine taking up the Challenge, what scenarios, what predicaments come to mind that ultimately convince you to sit this one out? What self-talk, if you don’t mind us asking, finally persuades you to forgo the investment in yourself? And, hey, can we get in on that conversation? Pardon us while we brazenly interject ourselves into that floating thought bubble above your head and put in our two cents.

Posted By: Worker Bee

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