Contest: What Do You Want?
The Prize:
Tanka Bars. Snack food made of buffalo. That’s pretty much all that needs saying. In the pursuit of quick-fix meat-chunk eats, Tanka is offering up a handful of Tanka Bars, Tanka Bites, and Tanka Wild Sticks to the winner of today’s post. BONUS: Enter “MARKSDAILYAPPLE” when ordering from TankaBar.com for a 15% discount off of regularly priced items.
YouBars. Energy bars can be nasty business. 95% of the energy bars on the market are simply candy bars re-branded for the cardio crowd. Heck, even Snickers has its own brand of energy bar which – big surprise – contains almost the exact same nutritional breakdown as a plain, old Snickers. What’s a Grok to do with so few Primal options?
Enter YouBar. Don’t like the options at your health food store? Why not make your own! YouBar is a family owned company that lets you design your own energy bar using real, Primal ingredients. Here’s my version:
The winner of today’s contest will receive a free box of custom designed YouBars (or shakes or trailmix if you so choose).
The Contest:
“What do you want from me?” It’s a tired Adam Lambert song, but it’s also an important question. My blog, my books, what I do is constantly informed by the thoughts and ideas of my readers. Today is your chance to tell me what you’d like to see on my part for the future of the Primal movement. In the comments section below, tell me one service, product, tool, or feature you’d like to see in the coming year. I’m leaving this one fairly open ended, no idea is too small or big.
A winner will be chosen at random. Agreeing with other people is allowed (and encouraged), but only the idea comments will be counted for drawing purposes.
The Deadline:
Midnight, tonight!
Who is Eligible:
Like other consumables, these don’t cross borders well. A substitute prize of equal value will be awarded in the case of an international winner.
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
I’m sure others have mentioned this (or will) but I would love to see a protein powder from you! If it comes from you, I know you won’t sacrifice taste or quality. I heard you had one, but temporarily took it off the market to re-vamp for a new, so it sounds like this base is covered. But still, I’m so looking forward to it!
As a scientist, I would love the opportunity to meet with paleo enthusiasts who are interested in learning more about the science behind paleo. Perhaps another take on “PrimalCon” that would incorporate more scientific evidence to back up our amazing way of life- paleo.
We need the 30 day challenge at least twice a year!! To help us get back on track possibly in the spring?
I would like to see more books, even if they are small ebook types. I would like to see the primal blueprint go to the ibooks store on apple or for the kindle.
I would also like to see a primal workout dvd series.
Thanks!! Keep up
I’ll keep the 30-day challenge request in mind. Though I’ve got to say, orchestrating the challenge is a challenge in itself.
You can always take your own challenge and get one-on-one support from me and my expert staff with the Primal Leap:
http://primalblueprint.com/pages/The-Primal-Leap.html
All Leapers have access to a private forum where they are sharing their experiences and connecting with me and my team. It’s a great way to stay Primal year round.
The Primal Blueprint in Kindle format is available: http://www.amazon.com/Primal-Blueprint-Reprogram-effortless-ebook/dp/B003GY0K2K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1285623336&sr=8-1-spell
More books? I’ve got two in the works, both due out next year.
DVDs? Yes, that’s a possibility as well.
I’d like to see sample menu plans (either a few days or a full week) for the following categories:
1) Grok with no weightloss goals
2) Grok needing to gain (perhaps some sub-categories depending on the amounts)
3) Grok needing to lose (perhaps some sub-categories depending on the amounts)
4) Grok doing PBF or another regular fitness program (including carb reloading)
Thanks!
I’m extremely excited to release all the details of what I’ve been working on for months. It looks like “Primal Fuel” will officially be launched next week. Stay tuned!
Wow…that’s a great question! I love all that you’re giving, but if you’d like to travel…I’d love to see some local, smaller versions of primal con. It wouldn’t have to be as big or as many days, but if you were interested in coming to Seattle (or even better…Bremerton-I think they have a convention center now-or any where in Kitsap County, WA) or in the Olympic Mountains or even Portland…just for a day or two day session with all the locals here. I’d love that!
Thanks for asking
As another WA resident, I fully support this idea!
Regional Primal Con type meet and greets would be awesome. Especially if YOU were there
.
It’s part of my longer term plans. If enough people are interested in any locale, and I can make it work economically, I’m there.
I’d really like to see something about how Grok’s wife dealt with her cycles and with children, etc. So far, I haven’t found anything about how to primal-ize those times when diapers are necessary, for both young and old, but I’d really like to know.
I bet she wore a loin cloth and changed it a couple times a day!
Well, I make cloth diapers and cloth momma pads and love them both! That’s about as primal as you can get I’d say
Unless you’d rather use leaves…
Actually, you don’t need to use diapers with babies. With my daughter, I learned to “pee her” after naps and nursing, and simply intuited when she needed to pee. (A baby needing to poop is even harder to miss due to the facial expression etc :^). She wore padded underwear made for this purpose (wonderbabydesigns makes Poquito pants) but never had an accident. As soon as she was able to walk well enough to back uip and sit down on her own, she would simply use a potty on her own. I’m pretty sure this is how Mrs Grok did it, sans the potty, of course!
I would like to see more healthy numbers. I really learned a lot from your heartrate post. My husband works very hard to keep his calorie count under 2000 and that just drives me crazy! But I think I would benefit a lot if there were posts on what the FDA/Doctors think is correct, but what the realistic or healthy numbers should be.
I don’t know how fun it was for you making it, but that puzzle challenge was all sorts of fun. It reminds me of when the Da Vinci Code puzzle quest on google came out. Perhaps giving an occasional puzzle challenge would be fun, the prize could be a chat with you!!! IDK.
This is a great idea. I love puzzles. I abandoned the puzzle contest during the tiles game because I can get obsessive. I *would* have solved it too, but I didn’t want to sit in front of the computer all night! But an occasional puzzle post would be awesome.
I second this! Love puzzles. I’m still going back to the Bloxorz game to see if I can do better than last time! But I have to set time limits or I get sucked in!
I loved the puzzles and would like to see more, but maybe a bit shorter and on weekends. It was very tempting to give up sleep to complete it before work the next day.
Great suggestion. I may make it a regular feature if people really liked it.
Id love to see some type of outreach to cities, where people in cities can easily meet with each other and find each other through here.
Great idea!! As a military wife, we move around and it would be great for some way to connect with fellow MDA-ers in the area.
Excellent idea. It would be fantastic to easily meet others who live a primal lifestyle. Although I believe something is in the works on this?
you should check meetup.com to see if there is a paleo/primal meetup group in your area. if not you should start one!!
Yes, I have something in the works on this; technology to help people form local tribes for workout meetups. It’s a bit stalled at the moment but still on the list of things to get done. Stay tuned!
How about a monthly post called Mark’s Top Ten, posted on the 10th?
It could cover virtually anything such as Top 10 beginner mistakes, Top 10 blogs (of any variety or category), Top 10 foods to avoid…
I realize this has been done to some extent, but just like the occasional bullet point type post, and once a month seems reasonable!
Wonderful idea! I’d love to read that too!
Yes, as you noted, it has been done. I did 93 top 10 (or some other number) lists as part of my Tuesday 10 category. I got a little burnt out on the format, but I’ll consider doing more in the future. You can view them all here:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/category/the-tuesday-10/?submit=view
I’d like to see about a week’s worth of meal plans with corresponding menus. Some of us need a little more structure before we go tweaking an idea and making it work for us.
I’d also like to see a woman’s Grok shirt that does not highlight where her chest and butt are. Or should be.
“I’d also like to see a woman’s Grok shirt that does not highlight where her chest and butt are. Or should be.”
Damn straight! I got excited about the women’s shirts until I saw that the style I would want has “Grok On” printed right across the butt. Sorry, ain’t gonna happen.
I agree with this too…I don’t want juicy written on my butt and I don’t want Grok on! there either! lol I’m still deciding if I’m going to buy it or not…it looks long enough that I might be able to fold it or tie it so that my rear won’t be highlighted!
Agreed! I would like to see bunches of menus. Coming from someone who has to watch quantity as well as quality, I must say I find it a struggle to keep calories in range with all of these delicious, high calorie food choices. I can’t seem to develop a routine since I’m not eating “typical” foods. Seeing some daily menus in the lower calorie ranges would really help me to get into a good groove.
I’ve done some sample menus in the past:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-sample-menu/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fitday-results/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-carrie-reader-question-roundup/
I don’t mean to oversell the Leap Kit, but bringing a little more structure to the PB is what it’s all about. Take a look, and I’ll keep the week’s worth of meal plans in mind for MDA: http://primalblueprint.com/pages/The-Primal-Leap.html
Though many have picked a V-Neck for themselves since the release it sounds like it isn’t for everyone. In any case, there is the Unisex Red on Black T-Shirt and the Tank:
http://primalblueprint.com/categories/Store/Apparel/
I’ll see what I can do about another female T-shirt.
I would like to see some more reviews of recently released products. Such as books or videos relating to primal living so that I can be aware of the various other sources out there. Not to say that the wealth of knowledge on this site isn’t sufficient, it’d just be cool to hear perspectives from other people.
I second this!
totally
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve gotten away from doing reviews. With a number of new books coming out this might be in order.
A living primal print magazine. I would SO subscribe.
There’s something I just dig about print mags.
so seconded, then you can take your primal reading to go! Especially if you hate to sit in front of a computer screen
Sorry, this won’t be happening on my end. I much prefer the ease and low-cost that comes with blogs versus magazines. Of course, if you need MDA in paper form you can always click the printer button at the bottom of an article for an easy-to-print version of the post.
I’d like to some some more posts about being a primal woman!
I am totally not a woman, but I think this is a good idea.
Ditto to all the folks that mentioned this. Maybe have an occasional guest post from a female primal blogger (or Carrie again) who has covered things like raising kids, hormones, monthly cycles, CW notions of beauty, etc. The guys would learn something too.
Would LOVE to hear more from Carrie! And maybe even from the Sisson “kids” (who are now pretty much close to grown adults).
It looks as if you aren’t the only one! I’ve made note of this and will try to get some female guest bloggers and/or my wife to address women specific issues in the future.
I’d love new ideas how to eat primal meals away from home with out eating the same thing all the time. I eat breakfast/lunch in the office 5 days a week.
I second this too! I make my husband’s meals and he eats breakfast and lunch away from home too…it’s trickier than I thought it would be.
I would love something sort of like FitDay but with primal goals in mind.
I would love something like this too. I tried using FitDay and DailyBurn, but they discourage me because it’s hard to set my own numbers. Even though I know to ignore the warning signs when my fat/protein is ‘high’, I take a mental hit thinking maybe this isn’t the way…
We’d like to see some improvements to the MDA iPhone app. The sizing is sometimes off, and we’d like to see things like recipes and links neatly on our screens, within your app. There’s nothing more cumbersome than dragging the laptop into the kitchen when we’re cooking. Sure, we could print them out, but for those times when we’re out without our recipe binder, it would be nice to share your articles and such with others in a better formatted medium.
Would love more primal meal recipes. Always looking for something new to make.
More recipes? Sure.
Here are some free ones:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-blueprint-recipes/
Then there’s the best of the best (not found on MDA):
http://primalblueprint.com/products/The-Primal-Blueprint-Cookbook.html
I publish a new recipe every Saturday and, you heard it here first, I have another Cookbook in the works that will be out next year.
You’ve done basically everything. I agree with the people above who talked about traveling. I would really enjoy it if you went around the US and held talks or small primal cons or something. Would be really cool to listen to you and others speak. Plus a great way to get some of my friends who are sitting on the fence all the more interested.
The thing I would maybe like to see you do is a warning post about all the not so well known problems with our life in this century. For example, I just learned the other day that canned foods have BPA in them! That means the coconut milk I’ve been drinking could be harmful.
And i have no idea how possible this is, but I would love to see deals occasionally on your products. I’m a college student with basically no contribution from my parents and very few loans. I would totally buy your supplements if they were a bit cheaper. Just a thought.
Agreed on the supplements! I’m a grad student and I buy them all separately, but cheaper.
a weekly interview/podcast with someone somehow related to the whole paleo/primal fitness health and nutrition world.
this is a great idea, I love primal podcasts.
Ditto on a podcast! Would give me something constructive to do with time in the car…and maybe even win some converts in our local carpool (?).
Yeah, I like this idea better than the print mag. Maybe because print mags depend so heavily on advertising?
Primal podcasts are a feature of the Primal Leap Kit:
http://primalblueprint.com/pages/The-Primal-Leap.html
I’ve been considering doing them for MDA, too. Looks like there is interest so I’ll keep it in mind.
I know you have Sunday Link Love (which I LOVE!) but I’d like to maybe see a list of recipes from other blogs as its own weekly post. Just a thought!
On another note, I thought YouBars shipped internationally? That sucks if they don’t! I’m jealous of the winner of this contest already!
A 30-day day-by-day meal and exercise layout. I think this would be a great help to those getting started or those getting back on track.
Exactly what you are asking for already exists!
http://primalblueprint.com/pages/The-Primal-Leap.html
An east coast PrimalCon. Please Please Please.
Not anytime soon, Kelly. The logistics and cost of bringing my team to another city makes doing it very challenging. But it’s not completely off the table. Maybe sometime in the future!
Primal condoms.
[I know Grok wanted to keep continuing the species and would have reproduced as much as possible. However ... I think this would make a fascinating and fun topic for a day.]
Eh, I don’t think Grok cared much about continuing the species. That’s not how evolution works; every gene is out for itself, not for the good of the pool. And hunter-gatherers commonly had/have to commit infanticide if they had/have too many children to support comfortably. I think plenty of Groks would have jumped at the chance for a vasectomy.
they make goatskin condoms actually
I’d like to see more posts for high school college kids who live in non-primal families.
I totally second this one. The closest thing to primal on campus is Ramen noodles.
As a sidenote, when do we find out who the winners are of past contests? Will there be some summary post soon of who won what?
that’s on the contest page – they’re all listed
Here you go:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-30-day-primal-blueprint-challenge-contest-page/
What about some if/then tweaks? I think when adopting to the lifestyle, it’s a slow and steady process of changing things bit by bit. You encounter different challenges at each step of the way and it would be nice to have a resource that compiles all of these. Example:
“If you’re having a hard time cutting out sweets, try X.”
“If you’re dealing with a lot of muscle soreness after workouts, try X.”
I know you’ve dealt with some “beginner” stuff in the fitness e-book, but it might be nice to have a bit more of a focus on all levels in general. Ex: “If you’re a beginner, here’s what you can expect…”
For the single peeps among us, menu planning that works for one person (meaning meats, etc. are planned to cover several meals and you won’t buy things that you’ll only use half of during the week, etc.).
I also second (third? fourth?) the idea about a female focus.
Okay, I think that’s enough for now. I’ll let you know if more comes to mind.
I would like to see a section of Mark’s Daily Apple dedicated to information and advice on raising Primal children. Children seems to have special nutritional needs due to all the physical development they go through. It would be nice to have some guidelines or suggestions on how to raise a child from infant to teenager in a way that will make them healthy, hopefully for the rest of their lives.
Yes to this. I am always trying to guess on my kids’ carb / fat / protein / vitamin / mineral needs and I feel like I’m taking shots in the dark. Do they need 50% of what I need? 75%? 100%?
Got you covered:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/category/seedlings/?submit=view
I’d like to see a once-a-month “journal club” type of feature where a notable research article relating to primal living is analyzed in depth and commenters could discuss it.
And, an enthusiastic second to the Seattle mini Primal Con suggestion!
How about a list of primal product links. The contest prizes this month have been some great items. It would be nice to have these products listed in one place. Also members could list product reviews on the site. I know this happens on the message boards, it would be nice to have it all in one place.
Great ideas everyone! Not sure how I feel about primal condoms though…lol. I think having something for kids would be great. Something similar to foodchamps.org with coloring pages, games, etc… Fun stuff to get them excited about not just fruits and vegetables but healthy meats, exercise, the whole primal lifestyle!
Definitely a “Primal Kids” section as others have mentioned, full of kid-friendly primal snacks (no my 2-year old will not eat deer jerky, I’ve tried).
This will probably get quite a lot of disagreement but……..how about primal ready meals? there is a company near here that prepares meals with all fresh ingredients basically like you would at home and then blast freezes them so no preservatives or additives are necessary. They’re pretty good but not primal and if we’re all honest no matter how many times we talk about how easy it is to cook and plan ahead and so forth sometimes you can’t and you just don’t want to cook.
I’ll also second the wekly/monthly primal meal plans. Ideally these would be rigged up so singletons like me or couples could buy and use up larger vegetables over a week (cos things like butternut squash tends to be too big for 1 meal of little old me!).