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In today’s show, we’re privileged to be with the reigning Mrs. United States, Shannon Ford. After she was diagnosed with Celiac disease three years ago, Shannon went gluten-free, then grain-free, and now has transitioned to a Paleo diet.

Yes, even beauty queens eat like cavewomen.

Actually, after being a pageant girl and in the public eye for most of her life (she won Ms. Florida and was a Miami Dolphins cheerleader, as well), Shannon remarked how she used a low-carb diet to help her slim down before competitions and events.

Long before Paleo was in vogue, celebrities, fitness models, bodybuilders and others have known that limiting carbs increases the rate of fat loss. In Shannon’s case, controlling carbs automatically limited her intake of grains – doubly effective for a Celiac.

These days, Shannon is an outspoken advocate for the Celiac Foundation and uses her celebrity status to raise awareness about Celiac disease and a gluten-free and grain-free way of life. It is her goal throughout her year as Mrs. USA to bring more attention to the illness and advocate for better labeling of our nation’s food supply. A worthy cause, indeed.

Robb Wolf recently spoke about Shannon on his blog, “I think it’s great that Shannon is using her platform as Mrs. USA to educate folks about Celiac and the benefits of a Paleo diet. I’d love to have a 1000 more high-profile people who were willing to do the same.” You betcha, Robb.

In today’s show, Shannon and I discuss:

• How pasta, pizza, and bread can make you look 3 months pregnant
• How bacon is like dessert
• Why even beauty queens, bodybuilders, and magazine cover celebrities cannot (and should not) maintain a “perfect” body 100% of the time
• Why Jillian Michaels was right about eliminating processed food but completely wrong about “healthy” whole grains
• Weight lifting and exercise tips for women (forget the treadmill and Barbie weights)
• Why you should be concerned that foods can say that they are gluten free when they are not
• How gluten sensitivity is far more common than you might expect
• How Shannon “accidentally” ran the New York marathon
• Why a low-fat Paleo diet doesn’t really work
• How six-packs are carved by spoons
• Hidden sources of gluten that you need to avoid
• Why “skinny” doesn’t mean “healthy”
• How life is too short NOT to eat cupcakes

Here’s the show.

 
You can hear more from Shannon on her website, Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.
 

 
And here’s the shortened YouTube slideshow (it’s only the first 15 minutes). If you want to hear the full show, listen above or click here.

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Ladies and gentlemen, today we’ll be hanging out with a super cool author, podcaster, and Jiu-Jitsu master, Robb Wolf. Robb is the author of the New York Times Best-Seller, The Paleo Solution, a former research biochemist, a renowned strength and conditioning coach, and a leading expert in Paleolithic nutrition. Through his best-selling book, top ranked iTunes podcast and wildly popular seminar series, Robb has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world.

But Robb hasn’t always been a knuckle-dragger.

Robb Wolf rocks some cold thermogenesis

For those of you who haven’t yet read The Paleo Solution, Robb has a pretty cool back story. Robb in his younger days (like me) “developed an interest in unwashed hippy girls and vegetarianism.”

But at the ripe age of 26, Robb suddenly found himself crippled by severe ulcerative colitis and the wheels fell off. Once a monstrous powerlifter whose stats could make He-Man blush, Robb could no longer bench his own body weight. Robb’s doctors worried that his loss of vitality and an early death was all but inevitable.

But after his mother was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjogren’s syndrome, and Celiac disease, Robb smelled what he was stepping in. The base of the food pyramid – grains and legumes, “the most wholesome and righteous of foods” – seemed to be out to kill him.

So Robb stuck his nose in the books, swung over to Whole Foods, grilled up some grass-fed beef, and the rest is history. Tons more in the show.

Podcast Awesomeness

Today, Robb hosts an insanely popular podcast, The Paleo Solution, and we’ve both been muscling for the top spot and nipping at the heels of Jillian Michaels for the past few weeks. And – awesome news – the Fat-Burning Man show just hit #2 in the UK and nudged out Jillian Michaels!

This is unprecedented stuff. No corporation, no sponsors, no PR or massive marketing campaigns – Robb and I are just a couple dudes with mics who are passionate about helping as many people as we can.

And with our powers combined (and all of the other ancestral health podcasts out there), we’re giving conventional wisdom a walloping. I know I speak for Robb when I say that we are humbled and truly appreciate your support.

The format of The Fat-Burning Man Show is evolving. I plan to have many of my guests back to answer your questions, explore heady and cutting-edge principles and theories, and chat about changing the world. This will certainly not be the last time you’ll see Robb on the show. We had a blast.

Quick note: some of you may be aware that Robb and Nicki have a “Wolf cub” on the way. The cub should be arriving soon, so send your positive vibes!

The Future of Paleo Mastermind at PaleoFX

Robb and I chat about:

• How Paleo has recalibrated and become more nuanced since Loren Cordain’s, The Paleo Diet
• How Art De Vany kicked Robb’s arse in an impromptu road race
• The risks and benefits of strategic carb refeeds
• How we’re turning into a country of crack babies (thanks epigenetics)
• Why the recent “Red Meat is Evil” study is crap science and future opportunities for research
• Robb’s view on intermittent fasting as a stressor
• The importance of a more nuanced approach to paleo as a template rather than strict dogma
• The importance of marrying directional accuracy and good science to move the field forward
• Why extreme caloric restriction for longevity is not worth the misery
• Why Robb wishes he had posted a shirtless picture of himself as his iTunes thumbnail

And Robb answers reader questions including:

• Is there such a thing as “safe starches“?
• Robb’s opinions about the “hot” topic: cold thermogenesis, Jack Kruse style
• How much and what style of exercise is appropriate for maximum longevity and overall vibrancy?
• If Robb were to write another book about Paleo, what new important info would he add?

Here’s the show.

Want to hear more from Robb? Sure you do.

• Hop on over to RobbWolf.com
• Grab The Paleo Solution
• Check out The Paleo Solution Podcast

And here’s the shortened YouTube slideshow (it’s only the first 15 minutes). If you want to hear the full show, listen above or click here.
 

 

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Today I’m stoked to introduce one of my favorite authors, bloggers, and personalities, the Grokman himself, Mark Sisson. We had a blast chatting last month in Austin, and I couldn’t wait to get him on the show…

Wait, You Don’t Know Who Mark Sisson is? Really?

For starters, he’s a 58-year-old with a 6-pack.

Okay, now I have your attention.

Mark Sisson is one of the veterans of the Paleo/Primal/Ancestral Health movement, and I very much doubt we’d be where we are today without his intelligence, dedication, and passion for helping others improve their lives.

He is a rebel who takes great satisfaction in beating the tar out of conventional wisdom (what exactly is fat free food, anyway?). He also loves bacon, dark chocolate, fine wine, and long walks (or short sprints) on the beach.

But more importantly, this man is changing the world. Although he already has literally tens of thousands of glowing testimonials to vouch for the efficacy of the primal/paleo lifestyle in fat loss, muscle gains, and improvement to biomarkers of health, he says he won’t stop until he affects 10 million lives. But, knowing Mark, even 10 million won’t be enough.

Mark is a former running and triathalon phenom, best-selling author of the Primal Blueprint (and others), founder of MarksDailyApple.com (one of the most popular health websites in the world), and a bone fide cool dude. We had a blast chatting last month at PaleoFX and I was totally psyched when he said he’d love to sit down with me and let me pick his brain.

But before we get to the show, I’m going to say (write) a few words…

As I mentioned in my last post, the Fat-Burning Man Show is currently the #2 Health Podcast in the United States (right behind Jillian Michaels) and top 4 in 3 countries!!! I launched the podcast only a month ago, and it already has tens of thousands of loyal listeners and I simply cannot believe how much positive feedback you guys have sent me.

I want to offer my sincerest thanks to everyone who has helped get the Fat-Burning Man to where it is today. You, my readers, listeners, and watchers, have played an enormous role: sharing articles and podcast episodes with friends, encouraging family members to check it out, and regularly visiting yourself. So thank you! None of this could have been accomplished without you. I’m humbled and I truly appreciate your support.

America is in the midst of a health and obesity epidemic and it’s getting worse. The collective health of this country is falling off a cliff. Average Joes, grandmas, children – no one is being spared. I am extremely passionate about reversing this trend and helping as many people I can. We’re all in this together, and while we may not be 100% correct about everything, I believe with iron-clad conviction that we have an answer that has the potential of improving the lives of millions of people.

Though his blog, best-selling books, and various other endeavors, Mark has stoked the fire. The movement is accelerating; I can’t think of a better time to interview a seasoned veteran who has been living an evolutionarily-informed life for decades.

In our interview, Mark and I cover the following:

• Why you shouldn’t run a marathon just to prove to your ex-girlfriend that you’re worthy
• How to build lean muscle as a string-bean ectomorph
• The story behind Mark’s Daily Apple
• Why you should consider using probiotics to improve gut flora instead of eating dirt
• Mark’s day-to-day intermittent fasting (a.k.a, a compressed eating window)
• The balance between play, risky sports, and avoiding stupid mistakes
• Why you shouldn’t throw yams at someone who wants to train while keto-adapted
• Why you shouldn’t put on a squirrel suit and jump out of a plane when you’re drunk and stoned
• Why bickering on discussion boards about whether or not eating a bean will kill you won’t change the world
• Mark accidentally spills the beans about safe starches (sorry, Mark)
• And, of course, how we’re going to beat out Jillian Michaels and take over the world

Want more from Mark? I don’t blame you.

• Visit Mark’s blog and PrimalBlueprint.com
• Grab The Primal Blueprint
• Check out his popular vitamins, the Damage Control Master Formula
• Protein more your style? Check out the Primal Fuel Shake

And, as usual, here is the first 15 minutes of the interview along with a video slideshow. (If you want to hear the whole thing, listen above by clicking the podcast button.)

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Today, I opened up my e-mail and found this from Dean Dwyer at BeingPrimal.com:

The Fat-Burning Man Podcast is ranked #2 in Health in the United States (right below to Jillian Michaels) and is top 4 in 3 countries!!! How crazy is that?

I want to thank you all for your incredible support and feedback. I launched the podcast only a month ago, and it already has tens of thousands of listeners and I simply cannot believe how much positive feedback you guys have sent me. It’s bananas – if I hadn’t moved over my hosting to a dedicated host, my entire website would have crashed because of all of the traffic. You guys are nuts.

I’m humbled, and I truly appreciate your support.

Here is some of the more entertaining feedback I’ve received so far:

Clearly, I’ll be doing more podcasts. After all, we need to catch Jillian, don’t we? In order to do so, please consider leaving an honest review on iTunes by clicking through this link. Thanks so much!

Here’s How to Leave a Review on iTunes:

(Note: my podcast name is: “The Fat-Burning Man Show with Abel James”)

Follow these simple steps to write a review:

1. Locate the item that you would like to write a review for.
2. Click “Write a Review” in the Customer Reviews section.
3. Enter your sign in information when prompted.
4. Select a star rating.
5. Enter a title for your review.
6. Write your review in the Review box.
7. Click the Submit button.

That’s it!

So many more cool guests to come, including Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, Dan of Dan’s Plan, Shannon Ford (Mrs. United States), Jon Benson, and other rockstars. Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Abel

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Buckle up, ladies and gentlemen… here is the much-anticipated interview with Dr. Jack Kruse: neurosurgeon, epic biohacker, cold thermogenesis guru, weight loss success story, and (in)famous Paleo rockstar. Unless you’ve been… living in a cave… you’ve noticed that Dr. Jack has recently ruffled some feathers and caused a powow in the Paleosphere.

Wait, what does a neurosurgeon have to do with knuckle-dragging cavemen?

For the edification of those of you who don’t know him, Dr. Jack Kruse has a pretty cool story. Yes, he is a board-certified neurosurgeon – a rockstar when it comes being fist-deep in brains – who practices in Nashville, Tennessee. But he’s no normal doc. He gave up his post as a top neurosurgeon because he decided his profession – and he – wasn’t doing the job. Several years ago, pushing 350 pounds, his own health was in question. As he says in the podcast:

“I was no good example for my patients. All you had to do was look at me – I was a complete fatass. And I said, you know, In order for me to change the culture of medicine, I have to first change the culture of Jack Kruse. And that’s what I did: I changed me. I became the change I wanted to see in my profession.”

So he left his post to start his own practice and promptly biohacked himself with leptin and cold thermogenesis to lose over 150 pounds without exercise. He decided to launch a blog (check it out here) to disseminate his theories and protocols, which in only 8 months has soared to being one of the top 100,000 in the world. He even snuck past Dave Asprey at BulletProofExec.com. And that guy practically invented the internet.

Jack’s Rise to the Top

Jack does extreme biohacks… He has been known to write blog posts outside in below-freezing temperatures buck naked, inject himself with staph infections, and pack himself in ice for hours. This is not a normal man. And that’s one of the things I like about him. I even heard him sloshing around in the background during the interview. I don’t want to know what was going on the other end, although I’m guessing nakedness, an icy bathtub, and shrinkage might have been involved.

To me, Jack’s work is especially interesting given my background in Psychological and Brain Science research back in my Dartmouth days. There’s actually a bit of overlap between what he’s doing and my newest book that explores the evolutionary basis of the faculty of music, “The Musical Brain.” (By the way, it’s FREE on Amazon until midnight!) And there’s a bit of a rebel in both of us, although mine might be slightly better behaved.

Hanging out with Jack before and after our panel at PaleoFX, it’s clear that he truly cares. Jack answers every question and comment on his blog. For a busybodied brain surgeon running his own practice, that’s very cool. Some of his posts have over 1300 comments from loyal fans and rabid critics.

But, as Jack says on my show, “I’m not in this for anybody to like me. I’m in it because I want to save your life and I want to make your life better. I’m just asking you to think.”

Okay, feel free to scroll below to hear my interview with Jack because I’m going to hop on my soapbox for a moment.

Abel’s Soapbox

There’s an unsettling trend that’s been gathering steam in the past few months in the Paleosphere. People are hating on each other and Jack Kruse is currently in the crosshairs. Now, I don’t spend much time on Paleohacks or commenting on other blogs (with the exception of Mark’s Daily Apple; I believe that Mark fosters spirited discussions in a very positive environment), but I do read them. And lately I’ve been shocked by the petty bickering, one-upsmanship, and mind-numbing negativity.

I’ve been seeing personal attacks from anonymous, moronic commenters trying to drag down the very people who are fighting to move this field forward. During our “Future of Paleo” panel at PaleoFX, Robb Wolf and Mark Sisson talked a bit about this. Robb – hilariously – even called anonymous, negative commenters all a bunch of “pussies” in front of the crowd. It was awesome and I wholeheartedly agree.

Like me, Jack is steadfast in his belief that we should “question everything.” Should Jack be questioned and challenged? You bet. But not attacked. As he says in our interview, he’s been tarred and feathered.

Should all Jack’s theories and practices be poked, prodded, and fully-vetted by the establishment before he’s allowed to post them on his blog?

Absolutely not.

It’s a blog. HIS blog. Let the squirrel-faced scientists and wannabes wielding red pens tend to medical journals and bodybuilding forums.

We don’t need any more bottlenecks or red tape (trust me – I consult for the government). We need more visionaries and people willing to do hard work, risk their reputation, and kick ass.

Here’s what Richard Nikoley (hear my past interview with him here) recently wrote about Jack at Free the Animal:

“I like Jack. I like the idea of Jack. I like how I sense what he’s about. I think he surely likes the love he gets, but he equally feeds on the hate & derision, just as well. Doesn’t care much. Self assured. Indifference is anesthesia…an overdose…the enemy. Love him or hate him, that’s his goal. I identify.

People seem to be a fan of Jack or itching for his downfall. I doubt many in the know don’t carry an opinion. That’s what I like about the man. How long must we swim the Sea of Mediocrity, always being careful never to offend—or worse: never saying much until we’re certain we’re 100% right, for fear of getting our collective peepee whacked?”

Richard, right on as usual. In order to move forward, we need all the independent thinkers, visionaries, and loose cannons we can find.

Being Directionally Accurate

In this interview, I talk with Jack about something that’s incredibly important that I borrowed from my days as a private sector strategy consultant: the significance of being directionally accurate. What does that mean?

I look at it this way: Jack is onto something. How else could he inexplicably lose 140 pounds 11 months (with similar replicated results in and out of his practice)? Is he absolutely correct about everything? No way. Am I? Hell no. Are you?

Then stop hating. Either ignore Jack or give his protocols a shot and decide for yourself.

No one will be 100% correct 100% of the time. We need to do what we can to cite well-researched science when it is available and guinea-pig when it’s not to see what works.

A bit of cold with a smattering of ketosis won’t hurt anyone. If Jack is right, then this all has serious implications. If not, we’ll all know in time. In the meantime, antagonism is counter-productive. If you want to stew in the cesspool of your own negativity, do it somewhere else.

If you know Jack, you know that he’s holding back… again. He gave me a taste of what he means by “Factor X,” and it definitely incited some healthy cogitation. It’s not something that a whole lot of people are thinking about yet. I believe it will add an important lens to this movement. You’ll see.

Alright, here comes the show. I pick Jack’s brain about:

• Why cold thermogenesis and the leptin protocol enables miraculous fat loss (Jack lost 77 lbs. in 3 months and 140 lbs. in 11 months without exercise)
• How harnessing the cold pathway can help you sleep like a rockstar, lose weight, and increase your lifespan
• What Lance Armstrong, Michael Phelps, astronauts, and Sherpas have in common
• The biological and evolutionary basis of the cold pathway (geek alert)
• Why it’s important that the much-awaited “Factor X” is linked to the cold
• Why being directionally accurate is more important than being perfect when it comes to making progress

Jack is a wealth of information about evolutionary theory, the brain, and fine wines. On top of that, he’s a cool dude, and we’ve had some fun. The man speaks his mind. Have a listen…

And, as usual, here is the first 15 minutes of the interview along with a video slideshow. (If you want to hear the whole thing, listen above by the podcast button.)

Jack Kruse Interview Transcript

Abel James: Hi there. Welcome to the Fat Burning Man show. I’m your host Abel James and ladies and gentlemen you’d better buckle up because this is the much anticipated interview with Dr. Jack Kruse, neurosurgeon, epic biohacker, and cold thermogenesis guru. Unless you’ve well been living in a cave, you’ve noticed that Dr. Jack has recently ruffled some feathers and caused a bit of a powwow in the paleosphere. So, we’re going to be talking about some controversial topics as well as covering how Jack enables miraculous fat loss and weight loss and increases in health. You know Jack himself lost well over 100 pounds in less than a year using no exercise. So, we’re going to geek out about brain stuff, talk about safe starches and other taboo subjects, and have a bit of fun. So, without further ado let’s go hangout with Jack.

Hey, Jack. What’s cooking in Nashville?

Dr. Jack: I’ve spent a lot of time actually talking to my surgical team about my TED Talk because some of them wanted to see the video and then I actually started to show them some of the videos that I’ve done on several of the patients that I’ve used pre op and post op photos on and they were just floored.

Abel James: I bet.

Dr. Jack: I just had a lady come in yesterday that I did a tumor with and we used three weeks of pre op CT on her and she came back to see me. She’s only eight days out and the incision goes right through her armpit, so it’s you know it’s a very sensitive area. She sat on camera. All she took was two Tylenols in the first week.

Abel James: Jeez.

Dr. Jack: You probably know all the bullshit that’s going on it the paleosphere about this. It just amuses me so much that these guys are mentally masturbating over rats and rodents and here I am approved this shit on myself and now I’m actually using it to help people and it’s unbelievable what’s  going on out there.

Abel James: That is so cool. Yeah, you know I don’t even keep up with a lot of that paleosphere nonsense. You know, I’m never really on paleo hacks or anything like that. I don’t know. It’s a lot of arguing and as much as I have to use Facebook and Twitter I’m not really good at it and I don’t really do it that much. I guess it kind of comes with the territory of being a small town New Hampshire boy at heart.

Dr. Jack: No and you’re probably smart for doing that. I have to tell you. I told you when I met you, I’m not a technology guy by any stretch but I have gotten to use Facebook and Twitter quite a bit. I’m still not what I would say is up to speed on the Twitter thing, but because my blog has grown so much I didn’t even realize until I came home from PaleoFX. Dave Asprey actually sent me a personal e-mail and told me that my blog has more traffic that his now.

Abel James: Are you kidding me?

Dr. Jack: No, I’m not. I didn’t know this. Cause he asked me could he start advertising a bulletproof coffee on the site. I said “Yeah, I don’t give a shit.” The only place I don’t have as big a following, he does his internationally but me and him are gonna kinda partner and try do some things because I think it’s become pretty clear that the tact that I’m taking is actually kind of what he is doing in terms of biohacks.

Abel James: Yeah, totally.

Dr. Jack: And the biohacks I’m doing are pretty intense. You know, people are just not ready for what I’m bringing to the table. But, I guess they don’t understand that as a neurosurgeon who’s in the middle of mediocrity in this species I’ve got to do something you know to help these people. And reviewing articles on rats all day on a blog that just doesn’t cut it. It doesn’t. I’m sorry.

Abel James: It’s funny how many rabbit holes there are. And it’s funny because a lot of these people totally get caught up in this little minutia which is almost bringing a whole field backwards. You know just kind of rehashing these things that don’t really need to be talked about a whole a lot instead of moving forward and trying new things and accepting some of the things that we’re never going to know with 100% certainty if this stuff works and nothing is ever going to work on anyone, but like it’s obvious that your results are there and it works at least on some people and you’re trying all this awesome stuff. So, there’s no use arguing about any of this crap.

Dr. Jack: Well, you know the funny thing is they do, they continue, and I keep giving people examples in modern life where what I’m saying is actually shining through a little bit. And they want to act like, “Well, everything you say has to be absolutely spot on otherwise everything you say is invalidated.” And I’m like “Really?” I just saw a comment today. I’ll give you a perfect example. One of the, what’s her name? Melissa McEwen commented that “If he’s going to put this theory out then he has to have some proof.” And I’m like “Really? If you go back and look at Einstein’s paper from 1905 there’s not one footnote in it. And the reason why is what I’m saying to everybody, and this is what I think people have a hard time with. I’m telling you that I found a pathway in our brain that dates all the way back way, way, way, way back that none of us a privy to. We haven’t known about it and no one’s written about it. Well, how am I going to have a paper to cite in that case?

Abel James: Well, and to some degree when you’re ahead of the research, how can you have the research support you, right?

Dr. Jack: That’s the way I look at it, but I guess my sensibilities are just a little bit different than everybody else’s and I know this experiment that I just did with the TED Talk is really, I mean I’m actually surprised at how freaked out people are by this.

Abel James: Really? So, what was the response to the TED Talk? I did watch it by the way.

Dr. Jack: Well, I was actually going to e-mail you earlier today and tell you to read Richard Nikoley’s blog. He did a blog, but he was very smart about it. Richard thinks that I’m on to something, but you have to realize he’s closely aligned with Kurt Harris, Emily Deans, and Melissa McEwen so he does not want to come out and give me the stamp of approval because right now I’m the guys with the target. I’m the bad guy. I’m the guy ruining paleo and all that. But, he calls me up out of the blue yesterday and says, “Look, I’m thinking about writing a blog post because people don’t know this about me but I’ve been doing a modified version of CT myself for years and it’s really worked.” He said, “So, I’m really intrigued by what you’re doing.” But, he goes “I have a different angle” and he goes “If you give me some leeway and let me post this blog and see what happens.” Well, the blog’s got almost 400 comments and if you read the comments they are incendiary. I mean they are unbelievably incendiary.

Abel James: So, this is his following, right? So, people who may not have heard of you before? Like they probably have, but most.

Dr. Jack: Yeah, these comments are from Harris and Dean’s. They’re bad. They’re really bad and Richard and I talked about it and I even baited a couple of the comments on my Facebook page. I knew that the usual suspects would come out, so I made a threat on my public Facebook page to bait the hook and dude they all took it hook, line, and sinker. I told Richard, I said “Look, just do what you want.” But, here’s the cool thing Abel. I told Richard what Factor X was and it stopped him dead in his tracks.

Abel James: Did he write about it?

Dr. Jack: No. I told him he’s not allowed to talk about it because here’s the thing you don’t know and I’m going to tell you this, Richard out of the blue happened to call me on January 9^th the day of the epic biohack while I was packed in the ice and that’s how he knew about what I was doing, but I told him not to talk about it to anybody and I have to give him credit. He never said a word up until you know the TED Talk. And I told him “Once the TED Talk was out you can tell people.” And that’s what I think decided for him to post this blog because he knows what I’m doing has some credibility, but when I told him Factor X he was blown away.

Abel James: That’s freaking awesome.

Dr. Jack: And he’s like, “Dude, this is going to be big.” He says “Why don’t you just release it to get the heat off you?” I said, “Dude, you don’t understand. Good and bad publicity is good because you know what? They’re all talking about me.”

Abel James: That’s true.

Dr. Jack: It doesn’t matter. I mean if you look at my traffic it’s fucking ridiculous. I mean I’ve only been blogging eight months and I’m in the top 100,000 in the world.

Abel James: Yeah, that is bonkers. That is just completely unprecedented.

Dr. Jack: Well and you know all I’m doing, here’s the thing that I think separates me from everybody else, is I’m not regurgitating papers. My stuff, this is coming out of my head. This is stuff that I’ve physically done on me. You would think that people would stop and say “This dude lost 157 pounds like rewiring his brain, using his gut, circadian biology, and cold.” That alone should give me some credibility, but no I’m crazy.

Abel James: Well yeah and that’s one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about today because actually I originally started interviewing people who had inspiring weight loss stories and most of them are pretty actually Jimmy Moore was one of the first guys on my podcast and a few other people who lost like over 150 pounds like David Garcia. And actually, I had Richard Nikoley on also, but most of those people aside from Richard and I guess Jimmy to some degree it wasn’t like a paleo thing. It was a story about inspiration and fighting on the treadmill and all of these things like that and not to say that I support that or condone it or anything like that. It’s just like an inspiring story because they’re losing weight. Now yours is completely different. You lost like 133 pounds in 11 months then 167 a few months later. That’s insanity and you weren’t spending that time on a treadmill or getting your stomach like stapled right?

Dr. Jack: I didn’t exercise one bit through that whole thing. That is to me and I will tell you Abel I haven’t really told a lot of people that. I’m telling you that and this is why I can say it loudly now because I’ve laid the foundation in the CT series. If you realize, and I told you this while we were at that picnic, that a polar bear comes out of the ground completely shredded with big muscles after he hibernates. Why? He doesn’t have any time to exercise because what he’s subjected his biology to is sleep and deep cold. That is precisely the path that I used to lose the weight. The only thing that I added to the mix was the Leptin prescription. I utilized my own Vegas nerve to rewire my hypothalamus.

Abel James: So, for you, which one came first? Was it Leptin or the cold?

Dr. Jack: Well actually they came together because if you understand how I came to the genesis. Like if you listen to the TED Talk, I told you I was at the foot of Michelangelo’s David where what inspired me or I should say what was the spark of a flame was I looked up at him. I was standing behind the statue while everybody was in front of it and I said “What’s the difference between perfection and my fat ass?” And I realized what it was, was the world that he lived in was radically different than the world I lived in. And from that spark of reality I realized “You know what? I think what may be the difference is circadian biology.” And from that one thing led to another and literally I had a 14 hour plane trip home. I started writing down all these ideas on the plane trip. To this day, I can’t even tell you what happened on my trip in Italy from that day forward until I came home because that’s when I wrote my document. That’s when I came up with the Holy Trinity blog post. That’s when I came up with the Ancient Pathway because I knew the ancient pathway existed in my neurosurgery books. The problem was I didn’t know how to get into it or out of it. Like there was no neuro wiring in or out and I said “This doesn’t make any sense that we don’t have neuro wiring going in and out.” I said “There’s got to be a way to access this pathway.” And when I realized it was circadian biology, then I said “Okay, I’ve got to look for a link.” And when I found the link I was like “Holy shit.” Dude, it’s cold.

Abel James: Yeah, I totally get off on that stuff too because it’s like you know I think I told you that my background it’s an undergrad at Dartmouth was psychological and brain sciences. And actually I just put out a book yesterday.

Dr. Jack: Dude, I was going to tell you that. When you posted the video I didn’t know that you were that talented.

Abel James: Oh, thanks.

Dr. Jack: That’s rocking.

Abel James: Last year I played like 250 shows, went on tour. I’ve toured a bunch of times. I’ve went all over. I have many separate lives. I’ll send you a copy of my book too. I think you’d find it interesting. It’s about the biological basis of the faculty of music and how the brain of the musician is distinct from that of the non-musician.

Dr. Jack: I would love it read it.

Abel James: Oh, for you guys out there, it’s free until Friday. I’m not really sure where I’m going to post this, but I just put this out. And it’s funny because I actually wrote that a few years ago Jack and it was when I was deeply entrenched in the science of it all and this kind of gets back to what you were talking about earlier about like how do you cite all of the research when you’re kind of ahead of the field. So, I went and revisited this and basically put an intro and a conclusion and what I say is in essence “We already know enough about the history of music and the neuroscience and whether or not it’s important.” You know, but we don’t necessarily need all the science behind it. It’s a gift and we should enjoy it. And the thing that I learned when I was studying science was like that number one, neurons fire. Number two, we have behavior. And then no one really knows what happens in between. Despite all the research out there we’re still looking for that thing, that magic that happens in between. You know what I’m saying? I think that’s what you’re after and that’s what we need to be chasing after that instead of going backwards and trying to just recite research.

Dr. Jack: Well that’s part of what my ultimate, well I guess I wouldn’t say my ultimate plan. I think it’s what kind of happened to me at the foot of that statue. It kind of changed my perspective because as a neurosurgeon, someone who was trained to think reductively, it kind of opened my mind to “You know what? I need to start thinking vertically and horizontally like I did when I was a kid.” And it took me back. It really took me back to the time that I spent in the Museum of Natural History in New York. And I have to tell you, I will never forget the day in my life when I came up with the entire theory in Factor X and I sat there and I thought to myself, “This is going to change medicine. This is going to change everything because we finally have an epistomalogic foundation for what modern medicine is because if you look at like the last 120 years, all the randomized controlled trials that we have, every single one of them are flawed. I mean, we kind of all know that. I mean if you remember from that magazine article that was written. I think it was written in the Atlantic a couple of years ago about medical lies and research. This guy wrote an article and basically he took out the best randomized control trials and every single one of them were cooked. You’ve got to look at that kind of data and this guy is a big time medical researcher and then we get all of these mental masturbating comments in the paleosphere about this study and that study and I guess I just look at it not from the 30 foot view anymore. I look at everything from a way bigger view. And I guess maybe that’s why people have such a problem with the way I think cause I don’t consider this a theory of everything. Actually, looking at this very specifically from mammalian bio chemistry and why do we still have these pathways built into us when we know we evolved in warm but yet these cold pathways are in us. I mean someone’s got to explain you know Phelps, the Sherpas, the NASA astronauts, me. You know these things that I’m finding in patients. You know it just doesn’t magically come up and here’s the irony for me. Here I am in the clinic now using what I learned on myself on January 9^th and helping people and they’re kind of floored. They’re like, “I can’t believe this actually kind of worked.” And I’m sitting back and it’s just the coolest thing that I’ve ever seen happen. And you know the hack that I did on me is not the hack that I’m doing on people. It just gave me an understanding that there’s something in us, in our brains, in our central and peripheral nervous system that is pretty damn special and it was put there by Mother Nature and it was put there for a reason. And if we understand it, it could actually change the way that we look at many of the Neolithic diseases that we face today. I mean you know it and I know it that there are so many diseases out there that my profession has no answers for you know like autoimmune disease, cancer, diabetes. I mean we’ve been studying these and throwing tops of money on it and we’re nowhere closer to it. We have a country of 60 million diabetics now that are basically dying faster than they’ve ever died before. We are seeing this disease show up in kids and what are we doing? We are treating it with insulin and medicines. You know that’s just it’s not getting them any better. The core trial data shows that people are dying, even with the best medical treatment, six years earlier than they should.

Abel James: Yeah, it’s bonkers.

Dr. Jack: We’re doing something wrong.

Abel James: Yeah. It’s a Band-Aid on a severed limb.

Dr. Jack: That’s a great analogy.

Abel James: One of the things that I was interested in Jack was you are very specific in your blog and all of the blog posts on comments about how to do the cold thermogenesis and how to run the protocol on yourself, but is there like an 80/20 of that for just like a normal person who wants to dabble in it a little bit to get some of the effects without going totally for the whole protocol?

Dr. Jack: Yeah. I’m going to give you the two answers here. One of them you won’t like, but I’m going to give you the answer you really want second. The first one is probably my smartass answer.

Abel James: I’m ready for that.

Dr. Jack: The theme of my website is “optimized life.” When I have an “a” available to me I don’t shoot for a “b, c, or a d.” That changed in my life when I was at the foot of that statue. I used to settle. I don’t settle anymore. So, I would tell you for me and for the people that I actually take care of in my clinic in Nashville, that’s the way I roll. The protocol is the way I roll. Now, for a guy like you since I’ve met you and I’ve met your significant other, I would say for you guys yeah I think you can dabble in it, but here’s the difference. Most of the people in the paleosphere are eating a pretty solid diet. That’s not true of the people that I’m seeing in the clinic. So, I really need to get them to adapt to the appropriate diet first. For you guys, you’re already there. The only thing that I need to kind of convince you to do is maybe tweak the diet a little bit. Make it a little bit more ketogenic and probably add  more seafood or krill oil as a supplement and then I’d say yeah you can do CT a couple of times a week. You could even do it kind of like Richard Nikoley talks about doing. And what I really want for people to do is you know everybody has no problem giving Robb Wolf or Mark Sisson 30 or 60 days of trying something and get the benefit of the doubt, but they have a really hard time giving me the same you know leeway.

Abel James: Well, this is new.

Dr. Jack: Right. Well, paleo is new too. Is there a randomized controlled clinical trial that shows that paleo is better than anything else?

Abel James: You know I guess that’s true. I actually came to paleo ideals you could call them these days kind of independently by reading at least from the macronutrient perspective like old body building textbooks from the 70s and the 80s and stuff like that you know. So, it’s like these principles, some of them at least, have been around for a while and the whole real food thing has too, but I mean the cold thermogenesis it doesn’t really have those same roots.

Dr. Jack: No, I disagree. It does.

Abel James: Really?

Dr. Jack: Oh yeah. It’s out there. It’s in a lot of cultures. It’s in the Indian cultures. It’s in the Chinese culture. Tibetan monks.

Abel James: As a therapy?

Dr. Jack: Yeah. In fact if you remember when we were at PaleoFX I wrote in my blog post, the number one thing that affected me was a guy named Mitch Baird whose grandmother was a Shaman and he floored me and started crying. Actually, after my hour long talk and told me that his grandmother was doubted by the white man in the 1950s and one of her treatments for people with diabetes was to cut holes in the frozen ice and put their people in it.

Abel James: Really?

Dr. Jack: Oh yeah, it’s if you go back and read my blog post Abel on my top ten things that happened at PaleoFX that was number one and believe it or not I’m getting ready to do a video blog post with his grandmother. She’s in her 80s now.

Abel James: That is so cool.

Dr. Jack: And when I heard that at PaleoFX I was just so taken back. I mean he brought me to tears with the story. I mean he was crying like a baby. And in fact, it’s so funny. Before we come on today he sent me a message today that his grandmother is actively getting ready. She’s going to put together all the things that she used to do prior to 1950 for his people up in the eastern part of the northern part of Canada where these people are located. And I’ll tell you, there’s a lot. There’s a lot that’s out there. Here’s another thing that I wrote about in CT six that I don’t know if you’re aware of and I wasn’t aware of it until I actually started doing some of my homework. Albert Schweitzer won the Nobel Prize in the early 1900s. He actually went up before Weston A. Price. I think it was in 1913 or 1911 he actually saw them. There was no documented history up there of them ever having heart disease or having cancer at all. And remember, this is when they were cold adapted, eating the cold adapted diet.

Abel James: Right.

Dr. Jack: So, the reason why this has stayed so far out of our consciousness is because there’s only in my view two real cultures with a long standing history that have truly lived in the cold a long time and that’s the Sherpas and the Inuits. The difference between two, and this gets to your 80/20 point that I want to bring home. The Inuits prior to 1950 are the ideal culture to study this on. Since 1950 they are not because they eat a warm adapted diet. But, here’s your 80/20 rule, the Sherpas are in the cold because India crashed into Asia and made the Himalayan Mountains. There’s no ocean around them so they can’t eat the diet that is naturally selected for by this ancient pathway. So, they have to rig a diet which predominately is animal protein, but they do eat some other things that are not ideal. But, here’s the cool thing. They have unbelievable findings you know that NASA study. When NASA started finding all this crazy stuff that happened to the astronauts they went to the Sherpas and the Sherpas have some pretty amazing abilities.

Abel James: Super human.

Dr. Jack: Yeah. They are unbelievable what they can do. And the crazy thing is when I started looking into this that’s when I started tying everything together. But, what I found is I believe that there is human performance above the Sherpas and above Lance Armstrong and above my Michael Phelps. Why? Because of what you just asked me about. If you do this 80/20 you’re still going to be way better than what Paleo is or what the standard American diet is or say any elite athlete that’s eating a warm adapted diet. But, I’m saying we don’t know the ceiling because we have never tested it.

Abel James: So, on that point just for the people out there, what are some of the most remarkable things that have happened using this therapy or using these principles either athletically or in your practice because I know that some of those things are pretty freaking amazing?

Dr. Jack: Alright, I’ll give you the couple. We’ll start off with the examples that I use actually in the blog post and actually I used in my book and I used in the TED Talk. The first would be how the modern hominids came upon this information initially. In 1969 we put a guy on the moon. There have been 12 astronauts who have done you know space walks; the first 12. NASA found in all 12 that they all lost weight and the other interesting thing that they found is that when the space modules came back and they counted the food that they generally ate anywhere between 30 and 50% less food than they expected and they couldn’t figure out why. The other thing that they found out is that the astronauts were far more productive when they were in space which also surprised them.

Abel James: Productive how?

Dr. Jack: Productive in terms of the things they were able to do in the time they had allotted. Okay. Because they were doing experiments and everything else when they were up. One of the things that they did when they came back you know NASA collected all this data throughout the 70s, so they started to look for humans on the planet who also were able to do some of these same things and they turned up in the Himalaya Mountains with the Sherpas. Why? The Sherpas are known to be able to do things that the people that are paying them to take them up to Everest just can’t do. For example, they can put 80 to 100 pounds on their frame at 150 pounds and climb all the way up to Everest with no problem. They’re resting metabolic rate is 3 to 500% of those people that are paying them to climb the mountain. So, if Abel went up to the Himalaya Mountains to climb up it would take you three weeks to adapt to the altitude and the cold. It takes a Sherpa three to five days. Okay?

Abel James: Yeah that’s just bonkers.

Dr. Jack: Right and that’s what I’m saying. People need to understand this is not Jack Kruse making this up. This is actually documented in the literature. So, what Jack Kruse has now decided to do is say “How is this possible?” Okay. Then we have the story of Michael Phelps. You know many people have read Phelps’ book and said “Well, what Jack is saying, what Ray is saying, what a lot of people are saying is not in Phelps’ book.” And what I’m telling people is if you think what Phelps put in his book is totally accurate, are you crazy? Because he is still actively competing. Here’s the one thing though that no one can get away from. The dude trains in a cold pool. The whole U.S. Olympic team does this, okay? So, the tie for Phelps and all of the other swimmers is still the cold. Then we look at Lance Armstrong. Same thing. Now that Lance is out of cycling and he’s into the triathlons guess what he’s doing? He’s using cold as part of his regimen. Why? Because he used it to get to where he was. So, now we have the astronauts, we have the elite athletes, then we have the story in 2007 of Kevin Everett who’s the Buffalo Bills NFL player breaks his neck on live TV and is able to walk three or four weeks later. Why? Because the orthopedic surgeon did a couple of interesting things: packed his neck in ice, packed his head in ice, and then infused IV solution into his body that was 32 degrees. Again, not something that most physicians would do. In fact, reading the comments on some of the blog posts, Kurt Harris and Emily Deans would probably have this guys hung up to dry. But, guess what happened? The guy made a remarkable recovery. Well, don’t you think this is happening all at the same time when I’m standing at the foot of Michelangelo’s David and I know all this stuff and you know I know all these little pieces of information. And I’ll give you another one that will blow your mind. We also know and every physician and you know this anyone listening to this podcast is going to know this. When we cut an organ out of the body to transplant, do we pack it in charcoal or do we pack it in ice?

Abel James: That’s a good point.

Dr. Jack: Again, another fact. Then I came upon a TED Talk done by Jessa Gamble who’s a sleep researcher in the Arctic. This one fascinated me because her idea was to dig a hole in the ground in the Arctic, complete pitch black and cold, and put people in it. I don’t know how she got people to do it, but she did. And what did she find when they came out? The slept like rock stars, they lost weight, and they begged her to go back in the hole because they were way more productive than they had ever been. Well, guess what? That was the same story that the NASA astronauts told NASA. So, what’s the tie to all these little stories that I’m telling you? The cold and the dark. So, I’m thinking you know about all this again at the foot of the statue and I realized the way to get into this pathway was circadian biology. So, I kept looking and looking and I found the answer. So, what did I do? I started to I mean who’s the best person to test this on? Here I am 6’2, 357 pounds. I am the perfect candidate to try to find my inner David inside me. So, what did I do? I didn’t tell anybody what I was doing outside of my wife. And I started packing myself in ice and I became the Leptin prescription. The Leptin prescription is a very simple six step process where basically I’m using different macronutrients to confuse my brain using the Vegas nerve as the stimulator. And for those people that don’t understand that, I’ll even make it simpler. Thirty years ago if somebody would have told you that you could take a deaf person that has no ability to hear and I’m not talking about bone deafness. I’m talking about neuro-deafness and you allowed them to hear, they would have thought you were nuts. Guess what?

Abel James: Now they do it.

Dr. Jack: Right. They came up with an electrode that they plant outside the head and it goes into the temporal lobe of the brain and it rewires the brain so we’re able to hear. So, I learned about this when I was a resident in the 1990s. So, I knew that what I learn initially in medical school wasn’t true. We used to believe that the brain was completely you know non dynamic. Once you had it that was pretty much it. Well, that got blown up in the 90s. So, I’m sitting there and I’m thinking you know “I’ve got all this cold stuff. I’ve got all this circadian biology stuff. Why couldn’t I use a stimulator to fix my own brain?” Now, if you know anything about brain surgery you can’t stick a stimulator into the hypothalamus, you’ll die. It’s different than the temporal lobe. But, what I did know is the Vegas nerve wires directly to this area and it’s in my gut and see I can get to my gut. So, I decided I’m going to use timing and big time macronutrients confusion to confuse the brain. I confuse the brain, what does the brain normally do? The brain rewires. When you confuse the brain, its major reaction is to try to figure out the confusion. How did I know that? Well, we have this thing called a Vegal nerve stimulator that we use for seizure patients. Okay? And you put this thing in the Vegas nerve in the neck and it stops seizures. Don’t ask me totally how it works, but it does work. When I started learning about this again as a resident in the 90s, guess one of the side effects that happened from a Vegal nerve stimulator. They lost weight and that’s what gave me this original idea. So, I said you know what I’m going to use my own Vegas nerve with putting a stimulator on me to do this and Abel I’m here to tell you that in 11 months I lost 133 pounds doing this together with the cold thermogenesis. So, people may say that it’s kind of crazy and I’m mad and I’m this and I’m that but it worked. Okay?

Abel James: Where we’re all crazy trying crazy things. Like you know even like fasting is something that people talk about but even a few years ago no one talked about that. And Robb Wolf was talking about that and how in the medical profession if you mentioned that a few years ago then you were nuts and now it’s what everyone is talking about. So, I mean those things just keep changing.

Dr. Jack: And I agree with Robb and you know Robb’s been very measured in his criticism of me and his criticism of a lot of things, but I also think Robb has the foresight to know he doesn’t know really where I’m going but he’s taking a “watch and see” attitude. And I appreciate that from Robb. I also appreciate that from Mark Sisson. I have no problem with people throwing arrows at me. I actually kind of enjoy it because in the end I think they’re all going to realize what the main goal was because if you understand where I’m headed, I’m headed to a point where I’m trying to prove to medicine that we have to stop looking at the last 150 years of randomized controlled trials and instead look to evolutionary biology – 4.5 billion years of what I would call “ultimate proofs” because I think that’s ultimately what’s going to bring our species back from mediocrity. With my theory, the cool part is after I fix me the people that were closest to me were kind of they were floored. I even had this discussion today when we were in surgery with my surgical team and who I just did this last biohack with and they were talking about my son because my son and my nephew were the first two people who I tried the Leptin prescription and the cold thermogenesis out after I did it on me. And my son lost 60 pounds in six weeks and I talked about him in the TED Talk and I showed his before and after picture. And my nephew was 21 years old at the time. He went from 268 pounds to 160 pounds and he’s now working for the government in top secret stuff doing stuff on submarines. And once that happened my patients and my practice started saying “Hey doc, did you have surgery or something?” And I’m like “No.” And they said “Well, can we do what you’re doing?” And then they heard the story about my son and my nephew. And I said “Look, I’ll teach you how to do it. It’s not hard.” And people started having pretty phenomenal results from it. I got the idea from another doctor in my hospital. He’s actually a gastroenterologist. He said “Jack, what you’re doing in the clinic is absolutely astounding.” He goes “You need to stop writing the book and you need to put this on the internet for people to start using” he goes because “You’re not going to have you know an impact publishing this in journal articles because it will take 20 or 30 years for it to get out.” He said “Give it to the people and let them do it.” He said “Because that’s what you’re doing in the clinic.” And you know I had another spark insight. It’s not a bad idea. So, that’s what I started doing and you know the crazy thing about this whole Paleo thing how I came to it is kind of how you did in a bizarre sense. When I came up with this ancient pathway you know theory I realized that evolutionary biology selected the Paleo diet to be the ultimate diet for mammals. Ironically, do you know when I started my experiment I wasn’t eating a total Paleo diet. Not until I had this stroke of insight and I realized why this diet was selected. I can’t go into that too much with you now, but I promise you when Factor X comes out it’s going to be blatantly clear to you why I just said what I said to you. And when I realized that I said you know “There’s a lot of work done on this Paleo diet already.” I already knew about Cordain’s work because I read about it a long time ago. But, when I realized it was the fit for this ancient pathway I said “You know what? What better place for me to drop some of these nuggets than this community.” Little did I know that this community was going to you know tar and feather me because they didn’t like the way I put the message out. And you know I’ve talked to Mark Sisson about this and I’ve even talked to Robb about it. Many people in this community believe that the diet is the ultimate be all and end all, but here’s my point Abel and you know this. You’re a fit guy, but I know you used to be a vegetarian. The internet is littered with hundreds of actually thousands of patients who’ve tried to diet and not gotten good results.

Abel James: That’s true.

Dr. Jack: Why is that? You know and that’s why I want people to start asking questions. I’m going to tell you the reason why. Because the Paleolithic diet is one part of the ancient pathway. It’s very similar to the question you asked me earlier about the 80/20 rule. If you’re doing it, yeah you’re going to get some good results. There’s no question about it. But, you may not be able to fix everything. Like you’re in phenomenal shape so you’re going to be one of those guys that gets good results. Same thing with Robb. Same thing with Mark. Let’s take my type 2 diabetic that’s 350 pounds. He may lose 80 pounds, but is he going to get completely better? Or let’s look at Jimmy Moore. Why hasn’t Jimmy got the results that he totally wants? Well, I’ve got news for you. The reason why is because this pathway requires us to have all the different components in place. And I even used this analogy to somebody today in surgery. I said that if you looked at the movie, I don’t know if you saw it, it was called the Fifth Element. It had to have all of the elements that were present like wind, fire, water, and something else. But, the girl was the fifth element. She had to be in the middle. Ancient pathway works the same way, but if you take my whole theory and boil it down into a funnel, like you take all my blog that are in everybody’s head, you know what the end response is? Eat a Paleolithic diet that is more loaded with seafood, more ketogenic, and do it in a cold environment and make sure you do the cold when it’s called for specifically fall and winter and you won’t believe what happens.

Abel James: So, I have a question about that and I kind of brought this up when we were talking around PaleoFX. Obviously, I live in Austin, Texas and that’s not a cold place even in the winter, so where does that leave people who do live in warmer climates where they wouldn’t be in like below freezing temperatures or normally in a cold spot or even have that option?

Dr. Jack: Well, this is what I would say. Here’s the first thing. Before, and I think people are maybe misunderstanding this because they’ve put words in my mouth. It’s not important so much where you live it’s important what your health is at this point because here’s the key thing. There is still seasonal changes even at the equator. I mean there’s a rainy season and a dry season. So you know, when it’s the rainy season everything is plentiful. There’s a lot of carbs. But when it’s the dry season there’s not a lot of carbohydrates present. In fact, that’s the reason why the animals have to go to the watering hole and get eaten by the crocodiles. You know and people forget that. That even at our equator and the tropics there are circadian signals. Okay? And our biology pays attention to that. All of our nervous systems pay attention to that, but we somehow don’t seem to realize that. What I would say to you in terms of your question, a guy like you, I don’t think you really need to pay attention to it too much because you just need to pay attention to it in the winter and the fall. When you stay blind to that kind of stuff and you don’t test you’re not going to know, but when you test and you know then you have some insight. And I guess my point when I was at PaleoFX was I just wanted some people to say “Look, you know you can call bullshit on Jack Kruse.” You know, I’m cool with that, but just test this out and see if I’m right. Because if I’m wrong you guys can make fun of me and everybody’s usually pretty good at that you know on the internet. But, if I’m right, what have I really done for you? Maybe, just maybe I’ve helped you. Maybe helped you understand that maybe there’s something to this and that we need to start to look at it.

Abel James: Yeah and you know one of the things that I really like about what you’re doing is that like you said it’s the “Fifth Element thing.” You know, my mom is into holistic medicine. So, I was raised in kind of a unique way where there was this holistic approach to life you know. And it wasn’t just nutrition, but that’s a big part. And actually I went up for my speech this past weekend in the northeast and snuck a day to go see my brother who’s an organic farmer and you know it’s New Hampshire so it’s close to freezing, it’s really windy, we’re all bundled up and shivering, but there’s this little cat named Butterscotch following us around all day and it’s just completely comfortable. It was as comfortable inside as out and I’m looking at this little cat and I’m thinking of New Hampshire and I thought of you. I thought of New Hampshire in the summer where it could easily be 95 degrees, 100% humidity and this same little cat is fine and we’re just sweating and miserable the whole time. And I think that’s really interesting because no one really thinks of that as being a problem for us. Right? Because we have heat and we have air conditioning. And you do and that’s what I like about it because just thinking that way we are pansies. We are complete pansies.

Dr. Jack: That’s one of the things that I really enjoyed about you know that round table discussion that we had at the Pendergrass campsite. People actually sat around there and thought about what I was saying about how we have heated Escalade seats and heated houses and we wear clothes that cats, polar bears, monkeys they don’t do. And we somehow think that that is not being counted by our biology. You know, we somehow think that because our brains are so advanced and we figured out ways around this that that is somehow okay with biology. And what I’m saying is that is not a good assumption to make.

Abel James: Right. Anytime we deny nature that’s when we really get into trouble.

Dr. Jack: Right. And you know I think the last group of humans that really had it right was the American Indians and if we go back and look at what they did and what we took away from them, there’s a lesson for us to learn there. I guess my message to people is I want them to just start to think about things. I mean instead of I mean it’s okay if you want to make this about Jack Kruse cause I mean I guess I just don’t get that mindset, but you know I’m not in this for anybody to like me. I’m in this cause I want to save your life and I want to make your life better and I’m just asking people to think. You know, the stuff that I’m asking you to think about actually really isn’t that difficult. The blog posts are difficult for a reason. Because I realize look evolution’s not easy. Not everybody’s going to slug through my blog posts, but there are a lot of people who read my blog that are physicians that are completely they want to know more information. So, I’ve got to provide that. But, when you come down and you talk to me and you know that you’ve talked to me already, I’m a totally different cat in real life than I am on that blog.

Abel James: Yeah, totally. I can vouch for that.

Dr. Jack: I mean and it’s by design. I really you know when I sit down and talk to a patient I want them to really understand. No one cares how much I know. They only care how much you care and you’ve got to when you’re trying to help people in the clinic. When you’re actually a clinician, you know when you’re putting your hands on somebody and you’re operating on them that’s what they’re interested in. They want to know that you’re all in and that you’re there to help them. And I tell people “Look. If I can help you I’m going to help you. If I can’t I’m going to tell you the same thing.” But, there’s very few people who come in my clinic that I can’t help in some fashion. Some of them I don’t even have to operate on. Some of them can help you know just putting them on the right path you know to getting their story squared away.

Abel James: Yeah and even all of these you know people in the paleosphere or blogosphere or world in general who are kind of attacking you right now I think pretty much most of them are outsiders anyway, right? They’re not the status quo and I want to talk a little bit about how you came to this lifestyle because you were pretty much at the top of your game as a neurosurgeon and you made that change. And I think almost everyone would agree with the change that you made and the reasons behind why you’re doing this whether they agree with your protocols or not. So, remind everyone a little bit about what happened there.

Dr. Jack: Well, that was actually I guess you could say that was my opening speech for PaleoFX where I got a little bit personal, but you know in medicine neurosurgery is pretty much at the top and it’s probably the toughest specialty to get into. It requires a lot of personal sacrifice. Like I gave up the decade of my 20’s and most of my 30’s to train to become what I became. And I guess what happened to me at the foot of that statue is I got away from that for 11 years. I got away from the person that I was as kid because of my training. I allowed my profession and my specialty to do a lot of thinking for me cause of the way they trained me. You know, they trained us the way to think.

Abel James: Or the way not to think, right? In some cases.

Dr. Jack: Right. It’s actually right both ways. To train me to think like a neurosurgeon, think very reductively, to think six steps ahead of where most other people think. That’s actually how people always ask me “What’s the difference between a neurosurgeon and say a psychiatrist or a radiologist?” It’s simple. We think six steps ahead of everybody else. Why? Because in brain surgery if you make one mistake it’s magnified tremendously and you don’t have the margin of error like you do when you do general surgery. You know everything is very small, very microscopic, and you know if you suck the wrong thing out you could have just removed 3^rd grade. You know it’s gone and you just get this sense when you’re training that neurosurgery is a little bit different. And I hate to say it, but it does change our personalities too. And I will tell you from the time I finished my training up until about 2006 I let that get away from me. And you know I told you guys at PaleoFX about a patient who came to me early in my residency who really brought that point home that I lost. And you know it pains me to admit this, but she taught me a lot about what being a great doctor is all about and I completely forgot her message for 11 years. But, I remembered her message. You know, but in 2006 and if you asked me what really put me back on track was thinking about her and then thinking about all these things that I’ve been blogging about. And I have to say that the thing that really brought it home for me and I guess it’s why PaleoFX was probably really special, one of the guys that’s a Special Forces guy that you met at PaleoFX shared with us something on Facebook that just really caught me off guard. And the night before PaleoFX I just decided to go back to what that patient had taught me and just say it and just put it out there for people cause I think when I said it you know a lot of people had never met me before and I think they had a lot of preconceived notions of kind of what I was and I think what I gave them that day is that I’m not what they think I am. What changed in me in 2006 is that I decided to become the doctor that I should have become in my entire career. In fact, I’ll give it to you a better way. I’m sitting here looking out at the lake and thinking of it. I was a good doctor. I was at the top of my profession, but I decided that I didn’t want to be good anymore. I wanted to be great and to be great I had to reject good. I had to erase everything about me that was good to become great. I had to in essence empty my cup so that I could fill it with greatness. And to me to be great as a physician, and I don’t care what kind of physician you are, you have to have total care about the person that’s sitting in front of you that you’re taking care of. You have to realize that everybody comes to us with different problems and I can’t solve everyone’s problem. I mean I know that. You know that. The listeners know that. But, what they do expect from me is for me to give them my very best.

Abel James: Yeah.

Dr. Jack: And up until 2006 I wasn’t giving my very best because I wasn’t telling people how to eat and I was no good example for them. All you had to do was look at me. I was a complete fat ass. And I said you know in order for me to change the culture of medicine, I have to first change the culture of Jack Kruse. And that’s what I did; changed me. I became the change that I wanted to see in my profession. And I guess what you would say is that every day since 2006 until today I’m still improving my former self and I’m now translating that into you know touching other people. Kind of like when you, me, and Alyson met you got that sense from me. That’s kind of really how I roll now. I think people understand that’s me and I may not get that from the blog. I get that 100%, but that’s really how I think and feel. And I have to tell you what happened on January 9^th that was pretty hard for me to do. It was also hard for me to do because I did it lone wolf and I could even tell the people even that cared about me the most even why I was doing it because I knew if I did they’d try to stop me.

Abel James: Yeah, so I did want to talk about that. When you started ignoring the body of past research that’s out there, you started doing your own personal like Jack Kruse science. Like walk me through that process. What does that look like in terms of what’s Jack Kruse’s scientific method?

Dr. Jack: Well, it’s kind of funny cause we talked about it earlier. You know what had a huge impact on me when that article came out in the Atlantic Magazine I think it’s called “Science Lies.” And I mentioned it in one of my blog posts very early on, I read it and I was like “You know what this guy’s basically saying? He’s saying that basically everything I spent hours learning in the library as a medical student, as a resident is total horse shit.” And it struck me that if that’s the case then that means that a lot of the dogma that I believe is also total horse shit. So then I started to look really hard at some things that I thought were incongruent in my own specialty and I found a lot. Then I started to look in other branches of medicine and started to find a real lot. And the one that really hit home for me was some of the work on you know cardiovascular disease and cholesterol and you know that tied immediately into what I had already discovered myself about the Paleolithic diet and the ancient pathway and you know Cordain’s work and I started to see ties. And you know all these ties, instead of think reductively like a scientist or a physician would, I started to think with that child brain that thinks you know horizontally and the more I thought horizontally the more creative I got, the more I started to see that things that didn’t seem to be tied together actually were tied together. So, the more I thought like that the more I said “You know I’ve got to start testing some of this stuff on myself.” So, I became like the ultimate biohacker and the more incongruities that I found the more things I questioned. It got so bad that pretty much I started to realize probably around 2009 that pretty much most of the things that I learned were not totally true. And that’s why I come up with my famous saying. Most of the people on my own blog forum and the people that know me best, I’m talking about personal friends, know in fact it’s even on my iPhone, my wallpaper, it’s a graffiti from a New York City subway that says “Question everything.”

Abel James: I like that.

Dr. Jack: That’s what’s on my cellphone. That’s how I live. You know I don’t know if people read the blog or know me know that that’s true about me, but I think the people who personally know me the best know that I question everything. Anything. I’m a skeptic right off the bat and then I go do my own homework and I start thinking about it. And I tell everybody. Anything that I post, I want you to hold me to the same standard that I hold you to.

Abel James: Yeah, totally. It’s funny because I used to work on some of those research projects and what was so shocking to me was how the sausage was made so to speak cause I guess when you read something, especially a scientific paper, you assume that everything is 100% clean and perfect. And when you’re actually writing them and you look at the data and you look at the statistics it is incredible the amount of things that you could make it say in the conclusion you know or in the discussion piece of the paper.

Dr. Jack: You’re totally spot on. And I’ll tell you the other thing that really infuriates me and I am going to pick on the blogosphere right now. They make the assumption that when Stephen Guyenet or when Paul Jaminet say something it’s the gospel and I’ve got some bad news for you. There’s a lot of things that I’ve seen that I just sit back and go “Oh, if they only knew.” It’s just not true. You know and here’s I guess the hard point for humans I guess and I think this is socialization. Just because one or two things aren’t true doesn’t disqualify you know that person’s opinion or what they’re actually saying in the bulk of the paper. You know I think that’s one of the problems that people have with me. If they find some incongruity or something that’s a problem well then you know what? “He’s just a total asshole.” And that’s just the way it is because he’s an arrogant neurosurgeon. And I’m cool with it because I get where it comes from cause let’s face it, Abel you know that a lot of people are pissed off at my professional. You know I get it loud and clear. I understand why. But, what I guess they don’t realize is that we’re all on the same team. I’m on your team and I’m on their team. Even when Emily Deans and Kurt Harris you know are screaming at me look I’m cool with that. You know why? Cause we’re just like brothers that hate each other.

Abel James: Yeah. I’m going to have to check that out.

Dr. Jack: We are. We’re still on the same team and I’m trying to get them more engaged so that they start doing things to help people and Paleo. You know it’s not good enough to eat Paleo and write about papers. We need them to start helping people and answering blog comments and helping the thousands of people out there that need their help because you know these are two enlightened physicians. And we need them. You know we need them badly.

Abel James: Yeah you know we all need each other. I think you’re right. We are on the same team. And this reminds me of what we were just talking about. About in my consulting work back in the day we used to have this thing called “being directionally accurate.” And so you know it’s just like there’s 100, there’s negative 100, and there’s 0 and if it’s 2 and you’re right, the data says that it’s 2, then it’s directionally accurate and that’s all that really matters you know.

Dr. Jack: You know I love that point. I’m going to have to use that in a blog post because you know what? I guess I’m going to have to start saying “I think Jack Kruse is directionally accurate.” And I’m going to tell you why I say that. I think when Factor X comes out I want you to remember this point in the blog post when you first read it because I will tell you that when I first came up with it that it made me realize so many different things that we incongruent in biology, chemistry, and biochemistry that all of a sudden made complete sense. You know it was like all the foggy parts for me as a neurosurgeon made ultimate sense right away and I just sat back in my chair and it absolutely stunned me.

Abel James: When are you releasing it?

Dr. Jack: Well, right now I’m contemplating two things. I told Jimmy Moore, Gary Toms backed out of the low carb cruise.

Abel James: Oh really?

Dr. Jack: Yeah he did and Jimmy wants me to be the opening speaker. I may do it there although I don’t know how many of Jimmy’s followers read my blog. Probably not too many of them. I don’t know if I’m going to do it there. But, I came up with another idea cause a patient yesterday in my clinic said “Hey doc, why don’t you just do a private chat room and you know release it for an hour and let people read it, but don’t give them any of the details?” Because I will tell you even when I tell you what it is you will definitely be intrigued, but you’ll want to know how I got there because how I got there dude was probably the greatest story of my life.

Abel James: Stop holding it back then.

Dr. Jack: Well, you have to realize this it’s so hard Abel to just spit it out because when you spit it out it’s just too much to take in and I need to explain it and put it in context. And if you were in front of me like you are right now, I could tell you literally in five minutes you’d get it but that’s because you and I have context together. You know we’ve talked and you’ve kind of have an idea about where I’m headed.

Abel James: Where you’re coming from.

Dr. Jack: No and I will tell you this. I shouldn’t tell you this, but I’m gonna. At our Pendergrass compound there who I was moved to tell and when I told them I wish you could have seen his face. Kevin Catrell also knows and I told him at my house and he was also like “Jack do you realize that no one’s going to realize where you’re going and this is why I think Robb Wolf eventually is going to be very happy with where I’m headed because I am looking for an espistomologic foundation for biology. That’s what medicine’s missing. You know physics has it and quantum mechanics. Chemistry has it in the same place, but we don’t have it for modern healthcare and it’s the reason why there’s so many incongruities with what I do daily and what my colleagues do daily and the crap that we read in journals. And I think when we start to use evolutionary medicine in biology as our North Star, I think things are going to change for patients. And if you ask me what have I found you know since my all my three biohacks that I did I will tell you that’s what separates me from a lot of people now because I use those things now as my North Star, as my Rosetta Stone for how I practice medicine.

Abel James: Yeah and that makes you rare at this point which is very strange to me, but I think that that’s all changing. I certainly hope it is.

Dr. Jack: I think you’re right. I think it is. I think I guess the way that people perceive me publically and through the blog and how they perceive me when they meet me is probably the rate limiting factor and I think that will change over time. You know I make a great effort and you know the reason why to answer all the questions on my blog because I feel it’s my duty to do so. And those people out there need my help. If I can help them I’ll help them. If I don’t know the answer I tell people “Look I don’t know the answer to this, but if I come across it I promise you I will let you know.” And I do what I can. There’s only 24 hours in a day. You know I’m a busy dude. I have a clinic to run. I have a lot of outside interests, but right now I’ve been really focusing in on the blog and the comments and you know doing my own biohacks you know and helping people that need my help and if I can do that I feel like you know I’ve improved myself as a physician from where I was in 2006 and you know I feel like I have a debt to humanity that I have to make up for those 11 year where I kinda lost my way in conventional wisdom.

Abel James: Yeah and I was just thinking back on that in terms of being directionally accurate looking at just you. Looking at your weight loss and what happened there just inexplicably to everyone else. So, if you’re going to ask if that’s directionally accurate I would say yes you know.

Dr. Jack: No you’re right.

Abel James: At least you’ve got something right. I would imagine that you have a heck of a lot right if those are your results. And it’s not just you. Like you said, it’s a lot of people have had great success with it.

Dr. Jack: Yeah. I mean I think the blog comments are pretty much you know proof of that. I mean look there’s not everybody is going to get lit on fire by Jack Kruse’s Leptin prescription or cold thermogenesis. But, here’s the ironic thing. There’s a lot of people that are. So, I think that you or at least I would think that some of the more critical people out there would say “Hey, if this is working for some people why is that?” You know and “Let’s take a look at that.” And then to know that we have these examples of humans that have these extraordinary abilities that we can’t explain by warm adapted biochemistry that’s in the book that Mat Lalonde is an expert on. Well, how about we take a look at that? Let’s sit down and have that “Come to Jesus moment” and say “Why is this?” Some people like Skylar Tanner recently said “A guy like Wim Hof is genetically gifted.” Sorry, that’s not how it works brother. And the reason why is because Wim Hof isn’t the only guy that has this. There’s guys that are completely unrelated to him that have this. The one common tie to everybody that has these abilities ironically is the cold. And that’s kind of where Jack Kruse is headed. See that’s for me the road to optimal definitely includes the cold and I will tell you that the cold is directionally tied to Factor X. That I will guarantee you and when I show you exactly how it is directionally accurate as you put it, I think it’s going to give everybody pause to think “Hmmm. So this makes sense. This is why epigenetics sped up.” Because in the pure cold you know biochemical reactions slow down. So, how would Mother Nature react? It would speed up epigenetics. Now, do we have to know like all the details and all of the papers like some of the people in the Paleosphere want? No. Because you know what we know? This is in fact occurred. And you know how we know it’s occurred? Because we came from ancestors that are very unlike us. That’s why. And just think about that. We are the proof of concept.

Abel James: That’s interesting.

Dr. Jack: You’ve got the reason. Okay? I’m going to show you the reason why and when you understand and I can promise you Factor X is something that you learned in 3^rd grade. Okay? When you hear what it is and then you tie it to this huge framework that you’ve developed as a very smart young man you’re going to say “Wow. This kind of makes tons of sense now. This kind of explains why there’s not a lot of hominid skeletons. This explains you know why it’s been our blind spot. It also explains why our development has occurred. It also explains why you know we have all the circadian mismatches. You know it’s also why you know Steve Jobs died at the hands of what he put in his body and also all the light that he was using at the wrong times. You know it all starts to fall into place and I wouldn’t call it a theory of everything. I like your term. I’m going to use it that. It is directionally perfect. You know I mean I’ve thought about this for six and a half years Abel and I’ve looked for incongruities in it. I can’t find any.

Abel James: Yeah. I did want to ask you about this. So, obviously there’s a benefit to cold adaptation. Now, is there benefit to adaptation to the heat or is that somehow detrimental or what does that look like?

Dr. Jack: Well, I think if you ask me the question, I think we evolve to a warm environment meaning that I think the Leptin receptor primordial condition is cold. In fact, I’ve said this on the blog. In CT one I made the comment that all life starts in cold. It started in the bottom of the deep, cold ocean. So, I think what happened is I also say that sleep is the primordial condition for that same reason. So, I think what happened as evolution as time evolved evolution sped up. We evolved into a warmer climate. So, we can adapt to the warm. Here’s the reason I say that. Most people are completely unaware of this biologic fact. 90% of the biome on this plant is cold adapted as we speak today on April 4^th. We are part of the 10% that’s not, yet we somehow think that our 10% is better than the 90% that’s out there.

Abel James: Yeah.

Dr. Jack: In fact all life forms until you know millions of years ago were all cold adapted. You know we still have tons of cold adapted. Look there is an article that came out that I just read that came out two weeks ago. They found a fish in the bottom of the ocean up in the North Pole that they believe is 10,000 years old. That sounds completely psychotic. Okay. But guess what? Using this ancient pathway, it’s not psychotic at all. In fact, it makes a ton of sense because aging is going to slow down in the cold. Well, if that thing freaking lives on our planet that means evolution has a plan for this. That means that we need to understand what that plan is.

Abel James: Yeah.

Dr. Jack: Because guess what? The remnants of that plan are somehow built into us even if we don’t use it or not today. And that’s the point that I’m trying to make to people that I’m telling you that Mother Nature built something into us that we are completely blind to that we can use if we understand how to use it. I think that the way that we live today, we evolved into this environment via natural selection. So, yeah I think you can eat bananas. I think you can eat grains. I think we can do a lot of things. You know made Matt Lalonde that point in ancestral one last year and people misunderstood it. There’s many things that show up in evolution that are good for us. You know that actually lead to expansions, but I’m taking a way bigger view of it than that. I’m saying there’s things built into us that provide ultimate survivability and that if we live in that pathway more than we don’t we get benefits from it. That’s what I’m saying and of course yeah life can live on the equator. You have to be a moron not to know that. But is it, I guess the question you really asked me is “Is it optimal or is it suboptimal?” I guess that depends on your perspective. I think you know my answer is it’s suboptimal.

Abel James: Right. You know it’s funny. I was just and talking about the cold slowing everything down kind of reminds me of this. When I was up in New Hampshire I went outside and obviously it’s the beginning of April and it’s cold, but I heard some frogs. But, when I walked outside it was nighttime and it was chilly and I couldn’t like understand what I was hearing. I grew up in New Hampshire. I know what frogs sound like and these did not sound like frogs because it was so cold and it was right on the brink of them not being able to move or even vocalize. And that just reminded me too of how much everything kind of slows down in the cold and man growing up in New Hampshire I can definitely vouch for that. Three hours of sunlight.

Dr. Jack: Yeah, I’ve been in New Hampshire in the cold and I’ve been in New England. And I know what you’re saying. There’s even you know it’s funny. You’re going to laugh when you read the final chapter of my book because guess what I talk about? Canadian frogs are part of how I figured out Factor X. They’re actually in the book. People don’t know this, but do you know that insulin resistant in those frogs are actually a way for them to make antifreeze in their blood so they don’t freeze?

Abel James: That doesn’t surprise me.

Dr. Jack: Yeah. Biology has plans for everything, but humans just don’t seem to be aware of a lot of this stuff. And I think when you become aware of all these little facts and you start thinking horizontally and tying them all together, you start to get this really great picture painted in your head saying “Wow. Mother Nature is incredible.” I mean she is absolutely incredible. The complexity that she figures out, you give her the worst possible scenario and she has a solution.

Abel James: Wasn’t there a quote from Jurassic Park? I think it was “Nature always finds a way.” Frogs are involved with that too I think.

Dr. Jack: Well, you know what? Abel I have to be honest with you. My CT six blog post, that’s exactly what I’m saying to people. That pathway is in us and it’s in us because nature had a way. There’s an evolutionary bottleneck that we faced that selected for that pathway. And personally, I’ll even take it a step further. I think that pathway was built into us all the way from the beginning of when life formed. And I absolutely believe that and I’ll lay it out for you at some point down the road. But, I think once you understand Factor X you’ll understand why I say that because like I said that’s why so many people are fascinated by what’s going on, on the moon of Saturn called “Titan.” You know it’s basically a frozen giant that’s a giant ocean that’s got a volcano spewing out water vapor you know and it’s solid frozen and physicists believe that there’s probably life in the bottom of that ocean. Well guess what? That’s probably exactly what the earth looked like four billion years ago.

Abel James: Isn’t that crazy?

Dr. Jack: It is. It’s huge. And you know the cool thing is it’s kind of like looking at Einstein’s theory of relativity. It’s kind of like a black hole back to our past. You know if we can get there and examine what’s going on at that planet we can get some more insight. I guess what I’m saying is maybe I got a little bit of that same insight standing at the foot of Michelangelo’s statue and coming up with the ancient pathway. I just want people to examine this and let’s try to figure out why Wim Hoff, and me, and some other people can do some of the stuff that we do because based on the stuff that’s in the biology book that I learned in biochemistry, it’s not possible. And you know for me to be able to do some of the things that I’ve done, for Wim to be able to do some of the things that he’s done, for Phelps to do what he did, for the astronauts to do what they did, you know for a heart surgeon to transplant a heart, or how about this one. We didn’t talk about this one yet, but this is a huge one. NASA took the technology that they learned about from the astronauts and they just licensed it to a company called Vasper in California and guess what it does? It’s an exercise bicycle that puts cold pads all over your body and uses compression. You know stockings on your arms and your legs to increase lactic acid. Guess what it does?

Abel James: Accelerates results I would assume.

Dr. Jack: You do 20 minutes of exercise and it equals two hours of exercise in terms of calories burned. Well guess what? If you look at the Vasper technology and you open up a textbook that Mat Lalonde is an absolute stud expert at there’s nowhere to show where Vasper works, but yet it works. So, this is what I say to everyone in the Paleosphere. You can call bullshit on me, but we need to figure out how in fact this thing works because what I’m telling you is the answer is not in the medical literature right now. It’s not. And for you to deny that this is here on planet earth right now is absolute lunacy because it’s here. It’s time for us to start to look for the answer. I guess what I’m doing is knocking on that door.

Abel James: I think it’s pretty cool stuff and we’re coming up on time here Jack, but before we got is there anything else that you want to talk about?

Dr. Jack: I think you’ve kind of hit me in a lot of good places. You know I just would hope that people would give me a little bit more leeway to try cold thermogenesis for themselves. Do it for 30 to 60 days. If it doesn’t give you any benefits that’s great you can come on my blog and tell me I’m an idiot. I’m fine with that. I’ll post your comment. But, you know if it works do me a favor. Also post a comment so that other people that are on the road to optimal that I’m trying to light that path for we can help because you know we are all in this together. And as I told you when I first met you Abel, you know the light of our candle that is our bright light inside doesn’t diminish when we light other candles and I guess what I’m trying to do is I’m trying to light that path to optimal for the millions of other people that are eating a standard American diet behind us that are train wrecks. You know I don’t have to save you know people like you, your girlfriend, Robb, Mat Lalonde, you know Kurt Harris or anybody else. They already get it. Our job since we get it is to help the people behind us that are clueless.

Abel James: I love that. I think that’s a great message.

Dr. Jack: Well it’s true.

Abel James: It’s totally true.

Dr. Jack: It’s true and I just wish we could put all the bitterness and the one-upmanship you know I don’t care you know who gets credit for what. It doesn’t matter to me. You know what lights me on fire is when a patient comes in and tells me “Dr. Kruse, I am now better than I was when I first met you.” Dude, that’s all it means to me. That’s the coolest part. That’s what my job is all about.

Abel James: There are a lot of thing going wrong right now especially the way that conventional and standard America kind of lurches along and I think we’re all trying to upset that right now and that’s commendable in whatever way that you do it. I think it’s commendable.

Dr. Jack: I agree with you. I mean I couldn’t agree more you know and that’s why coming on and doing Podcast with guys like you and you know I mean here’s the cool thing. Look at you and I met at PaleoFX. If PaleoFX didn’t exist this Podcast would never happen.

Abel James: True.

Dr. Jack: And we would not have share these ideas that we’re sharing today and people may not have gotten your message and may not have heard some of the things that I said and you know I think it’s important. I think it’s important that we all share each other’s ideas because any time that I sit down with anyone like when I sat down with Allison you know your girlfriend and talked to her, I got some insights from her that I would have never got if I didn’t go to PaleoFX. The same thing with all the people that I sat down with. Even if I sat down with them for 30 seconds I took a piece of them away with me and they made me think about things differently if I didn’t come in contact with them.

Abel James: Yeah. It was an awesome conference.

Dr. Jack: It’s phenomenal. I think it was one of the best conferences that I’ve ever been to. And the people that I met there, I can’t wait for people to see the videos.

Abel James: Yeah. Pretty much all the presentations that I went to there were amazing. It was good stuff.

Dr. Jack: Yeah I agree. I wish the one thing that we would have done differently is that we would have actually had if we had big panels it would have been cool for the panelists to discuss or ask each other questions.

Abel James: Yeah you’re right.

Dr. Jack: One of the things that really kind of concerned me. I didn’t have much time and I’ve never really sat down and spoken to Paul Jaminet a lot, or Emily Deans a lot, or Chris Kresser a lot. Part of it is I don’t think they get me. But, at the same time I respect each one of them in their own way and I think it would have been really cool for us to sit down and ask each other questions. Maybe we could have probed each other’s minds about really how we think and not how we perceive each other and how we think. Cause I think people would have gotten a lot out of that.

Abel James: Yeah. That’s a good point. Well, we’re all going to be at AHS right?

Dr. Jack: Yeah. Right now I’m planning on going unless the paleosphere votes me off the tribe.

Abel James: I don’t think that will happen Jack.

Dr. Jack: Who knows.

Abel James: But, Allison. I was thinking about you. Allison and I were out the other night and you’ll be happy to hear that we went to Fogo de Chao and had a great time.

Dr. Jack: There you go.

Abel James: But, I did want to ask you. You’re a wine guy and I’m still a young buck with a lot to learn. What’s a wine that I actually put on my list?

Dr. Jack: Alright. Well I’m not going to give you a wine. I may give you a list offline that I can give you, but this is what I will tell you for the Podcast. The wines that are highest in resveratrol are Argentine Malbecs. Why? Because they grow high up on the Andes Mountains where the sunlight stresses the grape skins. The other one would be French Pinot Noirs.

Abel James: I love those.

Dr. Jack: Other places would be Long Islands, white wines because the climate there is very much like New Hampshire. Also, the white wines of Quebec up where Mitch Baird and you know the Inuits are located for the same reasons. Now, not the insulin sweet wines. You’ve got to stay away from those. Those are the wines that you drink in the summer time when Paul Jaminet says starches are safe. But you know the ironic thing of this whole thing if you were to ask me what is my all time favorite wine and this is the true irony. You know that I’m always on Paul Jaminet’s case about safe starches. I love Chateau de Kemp. It’s what they call Golden Rod. It’s the sweetest wine on the planet. It’s the best wine ever made by humans and I have a huge collection of it and I can’t drink it.

Abel James: Well, that’s what cheat day is for.

Dr. Jack: Alright. Well listen. I don’t have a cheat day. I don’t. And I’m going to tell you when I actually put the weight on to have the surgery I pounded a whole bottle of De Kemp. I’m not kidding you. It was the most glorious thing that I’ve probably done in the last six years because I have to be honest with you. I’ve only drank De Kemp in probably three or four times in the last six and a half years. And this wine, for anyone who has not had it, it is absolutely unbelievable. It is something that you must try before you die. It’s kind of like going to Mardi Gras before you die. It’s just something you need to do once. It’s just phenomenal. It’s great wine.

Abel James: Awesome. Alright, we’re up on time here but thanks so much Jack. This has been awesome.

Dr. Jack: Alright Abel. It was great talking with you and anytime in the future.

Abel James: Right on.

Dr. Jack: Take care.

Abel James: Jack certainly speaks his mind doesn’t he? Well, that’s what I like about him. Alright, well thanks so much for listening and before you go I would really appreciate it if you could leave a positive review on iTunes. It really helps in the rankings and all your support is very much appreciated. You can look for me at fatburningman.com and you can check out Jack’s blog at jackkruse.com. And with that, until next week. I have tons of really awesome guests coming up, so stay tuned. Cheers.

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Here’s what it’s all about:

“In this succinct review of academic literature, Abel James explores the relationship between music, language, evolution, and the human brain. Despite its rampant abundance in human experience, history, and culture – music has no clear adaptive function. This begs the question: What is the origin of music, and why does it play such an enormous role in our lives?

If you’ve ever spent much time with musicians, it’s clear that they are a “unique” bunch. The countless hours spent listening to and creating music has shaped their minds and, indeed, their brains. This begs a second question: How does musical experience influence the human brain? Are they uniquely predisposed to be musicians, or does musical training literally rewire their brains?

Abel James challenges a wide range of eminent thinkers and explores a number of theories about the origins of music. Did music arise from sexual selection, directly from the faculty of speech, as a group-oriented communication device, or is it merely a fortuitous side effect of various perceptual and cognitive mechanisms that serve other functions?

In order to satisfactorily answer these questions, biology, development and cultural influences are explored. Only a calculated investigation into the influences of nature and nurture can provide an explanation of our relationship with music, as there are biological universals as well as developmental and culturally based influences that determine the dynamic state of musical knowledge.”

“The Musical Brain is heady, thoroughly researched, and offers interesting perspective on how music and musical training affects the function of the brain. Musicians clearly think differently, and this book provides substantial insight into how and why. The Musical Brain explores possible explanations for where music came from and why it is so important to the human experience in a relatively brief 50 pages. Not a quick 50 pages, mind you. But worth paying attention to and reading more than once. This is a book that every intelligent musician and non-musician alike should have in their back pocket.”

“The Musical Brain” goes into depths about music and cognitive function rarely explored. It gives plentiful references for research-hungry music or neuroscience enthusiasts while keeping the connections between music, evolution and the brain woven in an orderly and cogent fashion. It’s a true eye-opener about music–a human ability so easy to take for granted and yet so perplexing in its origins and function!”

“Brilliantly written and incredibly interesting! The Musical Brain explores the mysteries behind why music is a part of human existence. This thorough investigation guides readers through different theories including biology, development, and cultural influences. References are cited throughout this well-researched piece of literature. A must read!”

“This was an enjoyable read. I have 4 little ones and I am constantly observing how they are developing. It true that music has assisted them educational as well as emotionally. Great information. Thanks Abel James.”

Thanks for all of your support!

Cheers,

Abel

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Dave Asprey is my kind of dude.

Dave is a Silicon Valley investor, computer security expert, and entrepreneur who spent over 15 years and a quarter million dollars to hack his own biology. He increased his IQ by more than 20 points, decreased his biological age, and lost 100 pounds without using caloric restriction or exercise.

His blog at BulletProofExec.com is one of my faves. And it’s getting huge. Fast.

The Financial Times calls Dave a “bio-hacker who takes self-quantification to the extreme of self-experimentation.”

His work has been published by the New York Times and Fortune, and he’s presented at Wharton, Kellogg, the University of California, and Singularity University.

After hanging out with Dave at PaleoFX, I was stoked for this interview. I’ve always geeked-out on brain-related issues (especially after getting my degree in brain sciences back in the day). Exploring the relationship between the brain, the body, and nutrition is pure gold for geeks like us.

I “pick Dave’s brain” about the following:

• How one of Dave’s clients lost 75 pounds in 75 days
• Why exercise can damage you (especially if you don’t get plenty of sleep)
• How to not to burn yourself during Dr. Jack Kruse’s Cold Thermogenesis Protocol
• How mycotoxins are probably making you fat
• The benefits of coffee as a performance enhancing drug
• And tons more…

Let’s hear what Dave (and his awesome lead researcher Armi Legge) have to say.

Show Notes:

Check out Gary Taubes’ article here: The Political Science of Salt.

Hop on over to Dave’s BulletProofExec Blog

If you’re interested in Dave’s BulletProof Coffee or Upgraded Whey, check them out through the links below.

(Note: they’re affiliate links. If you’d prefer a non-affiliate link, here you are.)

Bulletproof^TM Upgraded Coffee

Bulletproof^TM Upgraded Whey

Hey, are you having fun yet? Subscribe to my newsletter and get exclusive videos, recipes, fitness tips, and more!

And, as usual, here is an abridged YouTube slideshow if you’re short on time.

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Wow, what a freaking week. PaleoFX, South by Southwest, hanging out with Mark Sisson, Jack Kruse, Dean Dwyer, Dave Asprey and others, and cool new shirts. Stay tuned, I may be collaborating with some of these folks down the road… Super exciting stuff.

I think I need some more coffee.

But first, let’s talk about how nutrition facts are complete nonsense.

Show Notes:

Win a Cool Caveman T-Shirt from CavemanThink.com!

Scam Alert: Wendy’s Sells Fake Food and Calls it Real

A Bit About Artificial Flavors

The flavor industry, based mostly in massive chemical factories off the side of the New Jersey turnpike, is worth billions of dollars. These chemical flavors are responsible for giving processed foods the illusion of real food. Distinctions between artificial and natural flavors can be relatively meaningless, based more on how the flavor has been made than on the chemicals it actually contains. If you read “Natural Flavors” or “Artificial Flavors,” on the label, you’re holding a chemical stew.

For example, a typical artificial strawberry flavor, such as that found in a McDonald’s strawberry milk shake, contains the following ingredients:

amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl acetate, ethyl amyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxyphenyl-2-butanone (10 percent solution in alcohol), a-ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, g-undecalactone, vanillin, and solvent.

I think I’d rather have a strawberry, thanks.

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Talkin' ketones with Mark.

If you couldn’t make the trip to Austin for PaleoFX, here’s a little taste of all the fun we had.

Hanging out with Mark Sisson, Dean Dwyer (see the end of the video, you silly Canadian), Dr. Jack Kruse, Dave Asprey, Jimmy Moore, Kevin Cottrell, Shirley, Keith Norris, and all the other masters of the paleo domain was an absolute blast. To all of you who made it possible, thank you and congratulations on pulling off such a killer event.

Another note: thanks for all of the compliments on our silly CavemanThink shirts – we are super encouraged. Alyson and I will be printing them soon.  If you want to enter to win a free shirt, hop on over to our new baby, CavemanThink.com and sign up.

Alright, here’s the unofficial PaleoFX highlight reel…

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Hey guys,

I’m stoked to announce that Alyson and I have finally put our goofing off to good use and started making shirts for our new endeavor: CavemanThink: Cool Shirts for Knuckle-Draggers.

Alyson models for CavemanThink (and Paleo Puppy loses her mind)

If you’re attending PaleoFX, both Alyson and I will be wearing some of the goofier shirts around. We already have 6 designs and tons more ideas. I’ll likely be wearing one for my mastermind presentation about the Future of Paleo as well, so come say hello and take a gander.

If you’re interested in grabbing a cheeky Paleo T-Shirt, enter your name below and we’ll keep you updated when we get everything up and running! CavemanThink.com is coming soon…

And we’ll be giving away a FREE shirt to the person who sends us the funniest Paleo shirt idea. Interested? Sign up below!

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Today I’m joined by Mr. Kevin Cottrell, the organizer of PaleoFX which is starting this week in Austin, Texas. We chat about how the conference got started, Kevin’s own compelling story of how he got into eating and living Paleo (and avoided diabetes along the way), as well as how I may even whip out my guitar to give the cavepeople the true South by Southwest treatment at the primal goat roast on Saturday. Take a listen below.

Thanks for listening! And if you have a moment, please leave a positive review for my Podcast on iTunes – it helps to spread the word!

More About PaleoFX

The PaleoFX Ancestral Momentum – Theory to Practice Symposium fosters collaboration among fitness professionals, healthcare professionals, nutritionists, research scientists and laypersons who approach their respective practices from an evolutionary perspective in order to successfully address modern health challenges through the application of ancestral based theory in practice.

If you’re in town, you can still grab a day pass for $99 bucks.

On Thursday, I’ll be co-presenting with several best-selling authors and leaders in the paleo community including Mark Sisson, founder of MarksDailyApple.com and author of The Primal Blueprint, and Robb Wolf, author of The Paleo Solution. Check out my PaleoFX speaker page HERE.

I’m stoked, and if you see me out and about come and say “howdy.”

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Recent media reports circulating around the interwebs reveal “surprising findings” in “breakthrough” research: that long-term dieting makes people gain weight. But this isn’t new or surprising, it’s just something that conventional wisdom has not yet accepted as truth despite its basis in scientific and physiological fact.

We’ve known this for years. Dieting makes you fat. Not convinced? Take a listen below.

Thanks for listening, and let me know what you think! And if you have a moment, please leave a positive review for my Podcast on iTunes – it helps to spread the word!

Hey, are you having fun yet? Subscribe to my newsletter and get Paleo recipes, fitness tips, and more!

And here’s the YouTube slideshow.

Dieting is a squishy term these days that has a variety of connotations. When I refer to “dieting,” I am speaking about caloric restriction, or eating fewer calories than you burn for an extended period of time. (If you don’t already know why dieting doesn’t work, don’t fret, I’ll get to that in a moment.)

But this particular study is not the only issue I ultimately want to address today…

Ladies and gentlemen, I am fired up. Once again, the media has taken a perfectly reasonable research study and twisted it into a bizarre plug – for appetite-suppressing drugs and weight loss surgery, no less. Classy.

Firstly, the Fact that Dieting Makes People Fat Is Not News

Despite decades of proven evidence in scientific literature, it is amazing how few people seem to be aware of the fact that long-term dieting is counterproductive.

Years ago, my father shared a story about his sister who struggled with weight during adolescence. To encourage weight loss, her doctor put her on an insanely restrictive diet regimen. Although it was painful and required incredible willpower and restraint, she successfully limited herself to a starvation diet of fewer than 600 calories a day. She lost several pounds over the course of a few weeks, but the weight loss eventually stalled. And then the weight came back.

How could it be that her siblings could eat over 3000 calories a day and stay lean while she was eating less than 600 and remained overweight? The answer is, principally: hormones. When you starve yourself, your metabolism slows as an adaptive response, you lose muscle, and you gain fat as soon as you start eating normally again.

It isn’t the quantity of food that really matters – it’s the quality. The modern perception that “a calorie is a calorie” is simply wrong. By that line of logic, chugging a soda makes you just as fat as eating a can of tuna. That is completely preposterous. The quality and type of food you put in your body has far reaching effects on your hormones and metabolism.

The Study in Question

Joseph Proietto, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Melbourne put 50 overweight men and women on a very low-calorie diet for 10 weeks and tracked their hormone levels. They found that hunger-related hormones remain at altered levels for at least a year and they gained back an average of 12 pounds.

Not earth shattering, but sounds reasonable. Let’s see what CNN has to say about it…

CNN: “As many as 80% of overweight people who manage to slim down noticeably after a diet gain some or all of the weight back within one year.”

Not very good odds. I agree. Dieting through calorie restriction doesn’t work.

CNN: “Maintenance of weight loss requires continued vigilance and conscious effort to resist hunger.”

Well, no. Not if you’re eating nutrient-dense foods that make you full.

CNN: “Finding an appetite suppressant is the next logical step in research.”

Wait. What?

CNN: “Until then, weight-loss surgery is a possible option for severely obese people who have not been able to keep weight off…”

What the hell? Are you kidding me?

How is it that the only solutions presented by CNN are that fat people buy appetite-suppressing drugs or get their stomach stapled?!?

How about you just stop eating foods that make you fat?

An Aside…

An advertisement nestled within the CNN article read, “Health.com: 25 ways to cut 500 calories a day!” In the middle of an article that says that caloric restriction doesn’t work. Amusing.

I mean, sloppy.

It reminds me of the time I read an article about Andrea Yates horrifically drowning her 5 children in her bathtub. And in the sidebar Google showed advertisements for buying bathtubs.

Or when I was searching for a refresher on proper use of the semicolon and was presented for an ad for “COLONBLOW! A NATURAL, NO-NONSENSE, AGGRESSIVE APPROACH TO COLON CLEANSING!” Wrong colon, Google.

But that’s neither here nor there…

The Answer to Permanent Weight Loss Is Mind-Numbingly Simple

The solution to achieving healthy weight loss is so ridiculously simple. Cut out refined flour, processed and chemically-altered “diet” foods, and sugar, and you will lose weight immediately and permanently – guaranteed.

No drugs, no stomach stapling, no starvation. Just stop eating fake food and eat real food.

Why is CNN recommending appetite suppressing drugs and weight loss surgery as the only two options to treat obesity? When will the media address the issue of healthy weight loss and nutrition responsibly? Oh, that’s right… There’s no money in real food.

For now, I guess we’ll have to fend for ourselves. We paleo/primal folks may be pushed to the fringe, but at least we know what we’re talking about. And our health speaks for itself.

Enough ranting for now. What you do you folks think about how the media treats these issues? Are you as fired up as I am?

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Paleo. Primal. Caveman. Hunter-Gatherer. Depending on whom you ask, these terms provoke dismissal, confusion, anger, or cult-like loyalty. They all boil down to the same general idea: that we should eat like spear-wielding cavemen…

By now you have likely gathered that I am a advocate for an approach to nutrition that is biologically appropriate for the human body. I encourage my clients to experiment with the Paleo approach to eating and lifestyle, and I am active in the Paleo and primal communities.

Can Paleo help you build muscle and lose fat? Is the Caveman diet all a bunch of bunk? Will you grow a gigantic forehead if you eat too much meat?

In today’s podcast, I’ll be discussing what exactly Paleo means today and where the movement is going in the future.

Paleo Venn Diagram

Thanks for listening, and let me know what you think! And if you have a moment, please leave a positive review for my Podcast on iTunes – it helps to spread the word!

Hey, are you having fun yet? Subscribe to my newsletter and get Paleo recipes, fitness tips, and more!

And here’s the slightly abbreviated YouTube slideshow.

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Are you ready for the best Paleo crock pot recipe you’ve ever tasted? Brace yourself… You’re about to experience the fruit of Sam’s slow-cooking kitchen mastery: beef burgundy with sweet potatoes.

As a man with a short attention span and a penchant for improvisation, I tend to put up quick recipes that are best-suited for small crowds and accelerated appetites. But not Sam. Her beef burgundy is a slow-cooking show-stopper capable of making entire auditoriums salivate. And prepare to enjoy your kitchen time. If you’re anything like Sam, you’ll be singing at the top of your lungs, brandishing fresh herbs, and breaking out that special bottle of Chilean cab sauv.

And without further adieu, I’ll turn it over to Sam.

Hello. I'm Sam.

“Since even people who aren’t on any kind of diet can savor these intense flavors, beef burgundy is a true crowd-pleaser.

Cook it in large quantities to feed the entire family or to wow guests; it’s especially good for piquing the interest of those that are on the fence about this whole new lifestyle you’re rolling with.

It also makes outstanding leftovers (I never get around to re-heating them, it smells so good cold I just yummy on down…).”

Shopping and Preparation Tip:

Grab your ingredients the day before, since you’re soaking all the lovely beef and veggies overnight in wine and burgundy. That’s right – now you can drink your wine and eat it, too!

Oh, and if you don’t have a slow-cooker, you can put the whole dish in an oven-safe, large pot with a tight-fitting lid and cook on low heat. It cooks on the stove top as well, but that means at least 3 hours in front of the stove. Nah, that’s cool. I’d rather not.

Here’s the Beef:

• 2 to 3 lbs shoulder or roast beef (more beef is always better, and the tougher the cut of meat the better it holds up in the cooking)
• 1 Medium sweet onion, chopped
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped or minced
• 1 sprig or 1 tbsp fresh rosemary (some prefer sage, I go either way)
• 1 sprig or 1 tbsp fresh thyme
• 1 tps crushed black pepper
• ½ cup peeled shallots (optional)
• 1 tsp cloves (optional)
• 1 bottle of dry to medium red wine (I tend to go for less pricey bottles when I’m cooking with them. But then, I also tend to pour myself a half a glass to keep the cooking process robust!)
• 1 cup of burgundy wine (I sometimes use grappa when I’ve got it on hand)

The Toppings

• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• ½ cup chopped bacon
• 1 cup pearl onions (white or red, both are tasty!)

The Unconventional Roux

• 4 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp tapioca flour (this gluten-free flour doesn’t affect the flavor of the dish)

The Sweet Potatoes

• 3 to 4 sweet potatoes
• 4+ tbsp real butter or ghee
• Thyme and pepper (optional)
• ½ cup cream

So here’s the flow for this dish: get your ingredients the day before. Chop and prep the first set of meat and vegetables, then soak overnight. In the morning, you’ll be browning the meat and tossing everything into a slow cooker. It takes several hours on low heat to make all that meat melt in the mouth. That night, with a few more minutes of prep, you’ll have a completed meal.

This is a show-off meal, and although the total time to make it is a bit much, that time is disbursed into three little pockets of time spread out over a day and a half.

The Night Before

Cube the beef, about 1 ½ inches on each side. This makes them more manageable while cooking, and they’ll cook down to closer-to-bite-sized. Then they’ll just fall apart from being tender anyway.

Toss the cubed beef into a large bowl. Add the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, rosemary or sage, thyme and black pepper (also add the optional cloves and shallots if you’ve got ‘em). Pour the wine and the burgundy over it, stir, and cover (I love wine, I love wine, winey-wine-wine, here it goes down, down into the crock pot!). Put the whole shebang in the fridge overnight to soak.

The Morning of the Feast

In the morning, marvel at the amazing smell, and let the anticipation build. Here’s the secret to the intense savory flavor: you’re going to fish out the cubes of beef and brown them in a skillet with a drizzle of olive oil. Brown each side (this is where the larger chunks come in handy) to lock in those meaty juices, then toss into the crock pot. At this point, go ahead and turn the crock pot on.

Here’s another spot you can choose to go all out or save yourself some time. You can fish out the veggies and brown them, too, or you can just take the entire bowl of wine and veggies and pour it into the skillet (or another pot while you’re browning that meat) and get it nice and hot. Once the veggies and wine sauce are hot, pour into the crock pot and cover. Let it hang out there until you’re ready to start making dinner that night.

Yes, it’s going to make the entire house smell amazing all day long.

Salivating yet?

Showtime

About a half hour before you intend to serve dinner, cook the bacon to a nice crisp. Toss it into the slow cooker. Then brown the mushrooms and pearl onions in the bacon fat. Toss them into the crock pot as well and cover it up.

Make a tapioca roux by heating the butter, then adding the tapioca flour. Cook until lightly brown, then add to the slow cooker and stir everything well.

Now for the sweet potatoes. I often cheat and make these ahead of time, then re-heat them in the oven (or, yes, even the microwave). You can either boil the cubes until tender, then add the butter and spices when you mash them. Or, if you’re itching to really impress, roast the cubes in the oven with butter and spices at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Mash the potatoes up well and whip with the cream. Add more butter to desired taste and consistency.

Dollop the creamed sweet potatoes onto each plate and use a spoon to press down the centers to make a little bowl. Ladle an overflowing heap of the beef burgundy into your sweet potato bowl. When those assembled at the table start ooh-ing and ahh-ing, feel free to jibe a bit (“Mmmm. This looks good. I mean, really good. Hey, everyone! Come and see how good this looks!”).

Then sit and sip with the rest of the bottle of burgundy, enjoying the way the beef falls apart in the mouth and the sauce melts you to your toes. You are now a royal cook, rocking food that helps you burn fat, build muscle, and become the envy of every kitchen.

Time Savers

If you don’t think you’ll have time for chopping the veggies, grabbing some pre-chopped veggies from the co-op or grocery store will save a bit of time.

If you suddenly don’t have time in the morning, you can omit browning the meat. Warning: this is really going to cut down on flavor and meat consistency, so only do this in dire circumstances.

Cook the sweet potatoes in the microwave. Not nearly as sexy as roasting or even boiling, but it’ll get the job done. Use a fork to punch several holes all over them (if they aren’t already diced), rub them with the butter and put them in an open plastic storage bag. It might take 10 to 15 minutes in the microwave to cook them whole, about 5 to 10 minutes to cook the cubes. All this depends on microwave strength, so keep an eye on them. (Note, we don’t like using microwaves, so avoid this if you can.)

Writing this post makes me hungry...

Carb Savers

If you’ve decided you need to keep the carbs super low, you can eat this as an intense stew. Omit the roux and the sweet potato part of the recipe altogether and add hot water to thin the beef concoction. Omit the carrots as well. You can sub in other vegetables (celery root and spaghetti squash will give it a more intense consistency) or just up the amounts of the other veggies already in the recipe to make up for the loss.

Pairings

Did I mention the wine? Ah, yes. I did. But it bears repeating. I tend towards Cabernet with beef, but if you’ve already opened the bottle of Burgundy…

Anything else? Not really, though a side salad of baby spinach with olive oil, salt and pepper, grape tomatoes and feta cheese can be whipped up quick while you wait for the dish to come together. Also adds a nice bit of color to the plate.

You won’t have room for desert at the end, but if by some strange twist of fate you do, some camembert or brie cheese pressed with sliced almonds tastes lovely with the wine.

Stay classy, folks.

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I wanted to give you all a heads-up about a pretty cool video event that’s going on in the next few days. My friend and fellow health blogger, Mr. Sean Croxton (who will be on my Podcast in March!!!), is holding the first ever online PALEO extravaganza.

Whether you’re a paleo freak, just getting started, don’t  really know anything about it, or think its all a bunch of nonsense, you’ll definitely learn something in these videos.

Here’s the deal: Sean recorded presentations from the top folks in the health & nutrition space about the Paleo diet and created a video series called The Paleo Summit. The videos are totally free, and totally cool (I’ve already watched a few and am looking forward to the rest).

Check out the videos by clicking here [UPDATE: The videos are not free anymore, but you can still purchase them through the link.]

Here is what the first few interviews are all about:

• Primal living expert Mark Sisson discuss EXACTLY what ancestral living means – as well as what to eat, what not to eat, and why.
• For parents – Sarah Fragoso will show you how to transition your family into the primal lifestyle – while keeping it fun for the kids AND the adults
• Dr. Thomas O’Bryan give you the scoop on gluten – why it can lead to autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, and muscle pain!
• Get the scientific perspective on Paleo from Ivy League research biochemist Mat Lalonde – so you can differentiate between the rampant paleo extremism and what’s truly backed by science
• Get the scoop from independent health researcher & blogger Matt Stone on why he thinks the Paleo diet is bunk!
• Paul Chek gives you the six foundational principles for abundant health – and how you can break your social conditioning to truly become the healthiest version of yourself.

You’ll also get a great video interview with Mark Sisson regarding why we should eat like our ancestors, as well as  a 40-minute interview with Gary Taubes on why we get fat. Sweet!

Head over to Sean’s Website by Clicking Here to sign up and take a gander. And stay tuned to my podcast to meet Sean in a few weeks!

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Here’s the Paleo Puppy for your amusement.

Click “Like” and Send to Your Friends! 

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Leaving your perfectly-Paleo fridge and meat-freezer for a few days? Don’t freak out. Despite the fact that you’re surrounded by the sweet and sticky smells of Cinnabon, Panda Express, and worse, there are actually some decent options for eating Paleo in the airport.

If you haven’t learned already, eating like a caveman in the modern world requires improvisation and occasional compromises. So I’ve decided to share my experience traveling to San Francisco to speak at a conference as a case study to help you learn how to navigate the dangerous depths of airport “food.”

Abel dreams of chicken.

Prelude: The Last Night on the West Coast. Mountain View, CA

Cornered into eating nutritionally suspect conference catering for the past few days, I decide to check out of my hotel early and pay a visit to an old friend to grab dinner.

Ryan, my bearded, kilt-wearing, Viking-like (and Paleo-leaning) comrade leads me to a new grass-fed burger place called Steak Out. As a sharply-dressed consultant wheeling luggage next to a 21st Century Viking, Ryan and I attracted a few sideways glances at the burger joint even before our unconventional order. But if we have one thing in common it’s that we have no shame.

Predictably, the young waitress is befuddled when we ask for our burgers without the buns. Fortunately, the manager recognized Ryan(’s kilt) and told her, “Give them double-meat and extra lettuce instead of the bun.” I guess wearing a kilt has its benefits.

This raises an important lesson of being Paleo, being yourself, and fighting for your place in the world. You don’t have to be a schmuck about it, but make sure when you’re ordering food that you get what you want. It’s your money and you’re putting it into your body. If you don’t want a bun (and you don’t), tell them so. Who knows – they might even double your meat and veggies for free.

Mancloset

After a glorious grass-fed burger dinner (with bacon and jalapenos, obviously), we moseyed on to Ryan’s humble abode. The closet full of homebrewed beer was too impressive to resist, as were the hand-rolled cigars in the humidor and the esteemed collection of single malt scotch in the cupboard…

By morning, my soul feels terrific. My body does not.

Already a bit haggard after spending the past few days living in a hotel and presenting to conference folk on a steady drip of caffeine, debauchery with an old friend compounds the issue.

But here’s a trick – when you’ve tied one on, fasting helps. As such, I fast from awakening at 7 a.m. to about 10:30 a.m. Since my jet-lagged body is 2 hours behind, this sets me up for the 8 hour eating window that I generally use to schedule my feasts.

Searching for Breakfast. San Francisco Airport, 10:30 a.m.

Venn Diagram

I break my fast unapologetically with (gasp) a huge full-fat cappuccino from Peets. It’s not really Paleo, but I freaking deserve it. It’s been a long week. (If you don’t tolerate dairy well or don’t love cappuccino, skip this part or order your coffee black.)

Eggs, meat, and a side of veggies are always a good option for breakfast regardless of where you are. If you can find a place that serves breakfast all day (a.k.a. heaven), you’re golden.

I stroll up to the counter of Max’s Deli and ask if I made it in time for breakfast. They say they aren’t making any new orders from scratch but still have some scrambled eggs and meat from earlier. I’d normally ask for a fresh-cooked order, but I take what I can get and settle for the leftover eggs with grilled ham.

Conscious of my legendary appetite, I ask for a side of corned beef as well. The cute little man explains in a thick eastern European accent, “Sorry, we must charge for full sandwich – $7.99. OK?”

Not really. Even my expense account is offended. Corned beef isn’t that good for me anyway.

So I glance a bit further down the counter and see a pot of Mexican chili. Right on. The little man scoops me a cup and shoves a roll in my face. He shouts happily, “Comes with roll!”

“No, thanks.” I’m not tempted.

He wrinkles his brow. “Oh… Yes, yes, too starchy! OK!”

As I whip out my credit card, the man behind me changes his order to a sandwich without bread…

We’re winning.

A Breakfast That Does Its Job

I attack the eggs first. As expected, they are rubbery and tasteless – a far cry from the farm-fresh local eggs I’m accustomed to but nevertheless full of protein and bulk. The salty grilled ham and requisite hot sauce make everything better.

Then comes the chili. Mostly meat with a few stray beans. As I spoon the first bite, my mouth is suddenly filled with an unmistakable umami sensation. Yep, that’s MSG. Poison! But alas, it’s too late now and I’m still hungry. Not great chili, but it feels comfy and warm in my belly.

I would have liked to get some greens in with my breakfast, but it isn’t an option. Pro tip: when this happens, I make a conscious effort to offset any and sodium-packed, acid-bearing, meaty meals with alkaline veggie-filled foods later in the day.

I’m not thrilled, but I’m full. Breakfast worked.

A Quick Lunch and Flight Home. Phoenix Airport, 2:30 p.m.

To balance out my meaty morning meal, I scope out a salad with fruit and nuts over greens at a Grab and Go stand. It’s reasonably good. I also grab some mixed nuts to bump up the caloric load and temper my hunger.

Aside from munching on a couple rancid Brazil nuts, the nuts are fine and get me through the second leg of the flight.

The Aftermath: Austin, TX, the Weekend.

As you may have noticed, I haven’t demonstrated a shining example of Paleo perfection over the course of my trip. Shockingly, I’m not perfect, and I don’t care to be. I’d rather enjoy life and not go insane.

Paleo Puppy

Sometimes I stray from perfection on purpose, and other times perfectly-Paleo food just isn’t an option. We don’t live in a perfect world. But I don’t worry about it. The beauty of making good calls the vast majority of the time is that you can afford to make less-than-perfect decisions every once in a while. And, of course, I enjoy every second of my occasional indulgences.

Unlike normal weeks when I eat only my own high-quality food, I don’t feel like cheating this weekend. I’m jet-lagged and sluggish after stressful presentations, little sleep, and raging with old friends; I can feel that my body is ready to get back to real food and real life.

I am stoked to raid the farmer’s market tomorrow and stock up on fresh veggies and local, pasture-raised meat in all its glory. I can’t wait to make a fresh green smoothie, taste a just-picked Texas grapefruit, and sip my hand-roasted coffee. I’m looking forward to some well-deserved sprints around Lady Bird Lake. But most of all, I can’t wait to see Alyson and the puppy. It will be good to be home.

Tips and Tactics for Eating Paleo at the Airport

Hopefully my case study gives you some insight on Paleo airport survival. But here are some more tips and tactics. If you can, plan ahead and pack your own Paleo meals and snacks.

• You should know this already, but don’t get a sandwich. Bread is such a waste, especially in airports where it’s soggy, stale, and gross. If you ever eat bread, it had better be good enough to warrant all the damage it does to your body. If a sandwich is just about your only option, toss the bread and just eat the guts.
• Find some veggies, fruit, and nuts. A hard-boiled egg is also a solid option.
• Meat and veggie options abound at steakhouses, most diners, and Mexican restaurants. Don’t forget to ask for extra guac.
• Look for the cleanest jerky you can find.
• Try to get lucky and find some >70 cacao dark chocolate. Happily, many tourist shops now stock this.
• As mentioned earlier, when you order food, you should never be afraid to ask for exactly what you want. The vast majority of the time, menus are not set in stone and restaurants are accommodating to your tastes. If the waiter/waitress is difficult, just say that you have a wheat allergy (after all, if you’re human, you do) and your order needs to be gluten-free. But people are usually really cool about giving you what you actually want.
• In those moments when you are really out of reasonable food options, you can always fast. You don’t need to worry about being foggy and cranky because you’ll never see these people again anyway.

Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think. Do you have any tips or tactics? We’re all in this together, after all.

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And here’s the YouTube Slideshow. Enjoy!

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Want to know the secret for how I put on 10 pounds of muscle in less than a month with little appreciable effort?  I ate tons of protein.

And man was it delicious.

For years we’ve been told by the finger-wagging establishment that a calorie-restricted high-carb, low-fat diet is the solution to getting a perfect beach body. Not only is that advice completely back asswards, but it doesn’t even give a by-line to the most important macronutrient for burning fat and building muscle: protein.

Protein Boosts Metabolism

To get calories from any macronutrient (such as fat, carbohydrates or protein), your body needs to spend energy to digest it. The body can access the calories from fat and carbohydrates fairly easily—without breaking a sweat, so to speak. Protein, however, takes 2.5 to 3 times the amount of energy from the body to digest and access the calories as it does to get the same amount of calories from fat or carbs.

Protein literally heats up your body and burns calories for you. Killer.

Protein Makes You Feel Full

You know when you shamelessly binge on Chinese food until you’re stuffed to the gills only to be ravenously hungry an hour later? Wheat, pasta, and other nasty carbs don’t do much as far as making you feel full, despite the fact that they’re giving you gas, destroying your gut, and making you fat.

Protein actually facilitates the message to the body to feel full. When you eat a high-protein, low-carb meal, you feel satiated and stop eating long before you overindulge. People binge on carbs, but how many times have you seen someone binge on jumbo shrimp, greek yogurt, or turkey breast?

Body by protein.

Protein Builds – and Maintains – Serious Muscle

If you don’t eat enough protein (or if you don’t lift heavy from time to time), your body will break down your muscle for energy (catabolism).  Trust me – long hours of strenuous activity (such as running marathons) will nibble away at your muscle leaving you with a squishy, corpse-like frame. You don’t want this.

Consuming plenty of protein encourages your body to build (anabolism) and retain muscle instead of consuming it for fuel. Eat it.

How Much Protein Should I Eat?

As a guideline, eat at least 100 grams a day and up to one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Eating a healthy amount of meat helps you reach this level, as 6 oz. of lean beef or turkey contains upwards of 50 grams and 6 oz. of tuna has 40. In a pinch, unsweetened protein shakes or bars will help you boost your intake considerably, but always prioritize eating real food first.

Don’t be afraid of eating too much protein. Be afraid of eating too little. Protein is totally underrated.

Ok, Protein is in Tuna and Steak. But Where Else Can I Get Some?

Proteins are as delicious as they are nutritious. That creamy smoked salmon, that juicy roasted turkey, those divine poached eggs with hollandaise sauce, the heady wedge of gouda cheese—all have appreciable amounts of protein.  You can find healthy doses of protein in meat, fish, dairy, organs, eggs, nuts, beans, legumes and even some vegetables. And don’t be afraid of the fat content of your protein-rich foods. Remember: conventional wisdom isn’t actually wisdom at all – it’s hype. Fat doesn’t make you fat. Carbohydrates do.

So… Eating Steak Burns Fat?

Yup. Dudes, rejoice.

You’d be shocked what other demonized-but-delicious foods will actually help you lose fat and build muscle! Real butter? Coconut fat? Duck Liver Pate?  You betchya.

My program reveals eye-opening nutrition secrets and galling realities of the high-carb dieting myth. It’s all laid out in The Fat-Burning Man and The Fat-Burning Woman, and I’m happy to share the love.

In the meantime, stop eating cardboard and enjoy every second of that steak-and-egg breakfast and the juicy rack of ribs. And don’t forget the drippings.

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Today I have some exciting news: I just launched the Fat-Burning Man Podcast on iTunes!

I’ve done some radio work in the past, but I’m totally stoked to finally have my own gear, software, and doohickeys to launch my own program. Now I have an excuse to use my “radio voice.”

I’ll be interviewing all sorts of cool movers and shakers in the next few weeks, including Jon Benson, Robb Wolf, Sean Croxton, Dave Asprey, and others!

I already have 5 episodes – click on the button below to subscribe and grab them all!

These are the episodes so far:

• Interview with Dean Dwyer of BeingPrimal.com
• Interview with Richard Nikoley of Free the Animal 
• Jimmy Moore’s Journey Losing 180 Pounds Livin La Vida Low-Carb! 
• How David Garcia Lost 167 Pounds… And Kept it Off!
• Interview with Authors of Naked Calories, Mira and Jayson Calton

Click here to subscribe!

Do you have any ideas for people you’d like me to interview? Give me a shout or leave a comment below!

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Howdy, folks!

I’m stoked to have Dean Dwyer join me today. He’s a popular blogger, rising star in the Paleo world, and one heck of a cool Canadian.

Dean the lean machine

Dean and I were shocked to learn that we’ll be presenting together with the Goliaths of Paleo including Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, and Jack Kruse at PaleoFX during South by Southwest. We figured we might as well hang out and have some fun beforehand, so here we are.

Dean and I chat about everything from:

• Why Dean fired the health and fitness “experts” and went on to lose 40 pounds
• Advice and tips for Paleo beginners
• How Dean and I are secretly embarrassed to have cheesy, half-naked pictures of ourselves all over the internet
• How to get zero-pack abs
• Mark Sisson’s carbohydrate curve
• How Tim Ferriss screwed everything up
• And why Dean would make a terrible Batman

Ready? Here we go.

Go ahead and visit Dean’s website at BeingPrimal.com and take a gander at his blog. He’s a hoot. Look forward to hanging out at PaleoFX during South by Southwest!

Let’s make Shi(f)t happen!

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Hi there!

There is some darned exciting stuff brewing over here.

Firstly, this endeavor is no longer a one-man-show…not only do we now have a queen of the kitchen and a cute puppy, but I’ve also officially hired a much-needed typo-hunter, writer, and wordsmith named Sam. Come meet the newest members of the team here.

Also, I’ll be co-presenting with several best-selling authors and leaders in the paleo community including Mark Sisson, founder of MarksDailyApple.com and author of The Primal Blueprint, and Robb Wolf, author of The Paleo Solution at South by Southwest in March.

I’m beyond stoked, and if you’re in the neighborhood please come up and say hello. Check out my PaleoFX speaker page HERE.

Here’s a bit of information about the PaleoFX Conference:

The PaleoFX Ancestral Momentum – Theory to Practice Symposium fosters collaboration among fitness professionals, healthcare professionals, nutritionists, research scientists and laypersons who approach their respective practices from an evolutionary perspective in order to successfully address modern health challenges through the application of ancestral based theory in practice.

The PaleoFX12 Symposium will include industry leaders and speakers who have taken the theory of ancestral health and applied it in modern day practice.  Presentations covering wide-ranging fields from fitness to nutrition to medicine and healthcare will be covered in this multi-day hands-on symposium in Austin TX.

Right on!

Also, I just posted an interview with the infamous Richard Nikoley of FreeTheAnimal.com. He’s an entertaining fellow and gives great advice about eating like a caveman, fasting, and building muscle. Enjoy!

Finally, I have some awesome Podcast interviews in the works with some pretty serious leaders in the field including Robb Wolf, Jon Benson, Sean Croxton, and Frank Sabia, Jr. Stay tuned!

Whew. That’s all for now. As always, give me a shout!

Cheers,
Abel

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I had the pleasure of interviewing one of my favorite foul-mouthed bloggers (and now author), Mr. Richard Nikoley of Free the Animal. Richard is a leading voice in the paleo community and an inspiring figure to boot.

A few years back, Richard tipped the scale at 240 pounds and at over 33% body fat with skyrocketing blood pressure. But then he decided to do something about it. Eschewing the standard American diet and committing to a lifting routine, Richard lost 60 pounds and gained significant strength and muscle mass, completely transforming his body.

In the meantime, he got caught up in the wacky world of paleo, started a (now wildly-popular) blog, and quickly emerged as one of the leaders of the paleo movement.

In our interview, we cover a diversity of topics including:

• How food manufactures and major institutions use secret handshakes to sell people absolute crap
• Why organ meats kick the tar out of fortified grains
• How you can get 50% of the benefit of both of our books without ever reading a word
• The relative benefits of “eating like a caveman”
• Why you’re not a slothful sinner if you’re overweight eating the standard American diet
• How to completely obliterate a 1-hour workout with a slice of pizza and a beer
• Why running marathons makes you fat and meek
• Why protein rocks and goo packs suck
• How intermittent fasting can not only retain but actually increase your lean muscle mass
• Why authors and bloggers like Richard and I desperately need our readers to keep us on track (a big wet, sloppy thanks to you all!)

Enjoy!

Do yourself a favor and visit Richard’s website, freetheanimal.com, and pick up a copy of his new book. It’s a great read and an excellent primer on paleo nutrition and fitness.

Thanks again, Richard. Let’s do it again soon!

For those short on time, here is an abridged version of the interview with a video slideshow.

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My Dojo

Your body doesn’t care where you are, what you’re doing, or if it’s toe-freezing-frigid outside. It just needs to move.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m no fan of gyms. For most people, I think they’re little more than soul-crushing mosh pits of misery. And they smell funny. If you’re a gym rat and you dig it, more power to you. But I’d rather rock out in the wilderness. It’s more fun, folks. And it costs nothing.

So here’s the background on my video: a few weeks back, I found myself once again in my stomping grounds for the holidays – the backwoods of New Hampshire. It was cold, icy, and slippery. I didn’t have any of my free weights, kettlebells, pull-up bars, or anything else. But my body was screaming for a workout, and something needed to be done.

This is what I did. The takeaway is that no matter where you are, prioritize your health. When I’m traveling and find myself in a matchbox-sized hotel room with only 5 minutes to spare, I do Tabata burpees. And I feel awesome for the rest of the day. No excuses – you’re worth it.

So get out there and do it.

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Here’s a treat.

With much hoopla, I brought a furry friend home several weeks ago. Her name is Bailey.

Bailey had been fed kibble in her first few weeks of life at the breeder. I’ve researched a great deal (as I’m wont to do) about the benefits of raw food for dogs and even puppies.

Given my background and interest in nutrition, feeding kibble to a dog just doesn’t make sense. No matter what its form, processed food sucks. And while it’s something we can all grasp readily about our favorite furry friends, we tend to forget how awful it is for our own bodies when we cram in the fake food. But now that I’ve figured out the pitfalls of the standard American diet (SAD, yes, that’s exactly what it is) and have shared the alternative with so many others, I’m sure not going to make Bailey suffer through the canine version of the SAD!

In other words, this creature will be eating like canine royalty.

So here’s a video for you. Completely over the top, but life is meant to be fun, yeah? Enjoy and share!

The Rise of Paleo Puppy

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Do you think that having a fitness-model-esque body is impossible because of genetics, body type, or metabolism? It’s NOT.

With just shy of an hour a week of exercise, the right nutrition, and a commitment to health, you can get an incredible beach body.

No kidding. I’ve experienced it myself and seen it again and again in the folks I’ve coached.

So here’s the new teaser video for the Fat-Burning Man Blog. Ready to get stoked?

Want to learn more? Check out the BLOG for tons of free, cool, and fun stuff to help you get leaner, healthier, and happier than ever.

Cheers,
Abel

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As Part II of my interview series that features stories of incredible people and their inspired stories, we have the one and only Jimmy Moore.

Jimmy is a very busy man – he has several websites, several podcasts, several books, and is extremely active in the low-carb and weight loss communities. Please take a gander at Jimmy’s website here: livinlavidalowcarb.com - his podcast is by far my favorite in all of nutrition and fitness. Jimmy, I appreciate you squeezing in the time to share your story!

Jimmy’s Transformation

In 2004, after attempting every diet under the sun, Jimmy found himself at 410 pounds. After thoroughly researching the low-carb lifestyle and committing to change, Jimmy had shed an incredible 180 pounds and shrunk his waist by 20 inches!

But Jimmy’s transformation hasn’t just changed his body - it’s changed his entire life direction. Eager to change as many lives as he can, Jimmy is now a svelte health personality who reaches thousands of loyal listeners and readers through his inspiring blog and podcasts.

Jimmy often interviews others (an impressive list of best-sellers and celebrities including Gary Taubes, Tim Ferris, Paul Jaminet, Art De Vany, Loren Cordain, Kris Kresser… the list goes on) but I’m happy to give him the chance to be on the other side of the mic.

Abel picks Jimmy’s brain about the following (and plenty… moore)

• Losing enormous amounts of weight is incredible, but not many are able to keep it off. You’ve maintained a healthy weight for years now – what is your secret?
• How has your life changed since your transformation?
• You tried the low fat diet and actually had some significant – but temporary – success. Can you explain why low fat diets didn’t work and don’t work for most others?
• Low-carb isn’t summed up by ordering your McDonald’s bacon cheeseburger without the bun. Could you set the record straight about what low-carb really means?
• What is your advice for someone who is in a similar situation as you were in the past?
• Why in the world would anyone ever eat little bags of marshmallows?

Not only is Jimmy’s story and vocation an inspiration, he is also a terrific guy. I’m looking forward to hanging out with him in Austin at PaleoFX in March!

Click Below to Hear the Full Interview!

Listen to the full interview by pressing the PLAY BUTTON below on the right.Download audio file (3FBMPodcastJimmyMoore.mp3)
You can also DOWNLOAD the full interview. (right click and select “Save As…”)

If you’re short on time, here is the abridged interview with a video slideshow.

Thanks again, Jimmy! Please click like and share with your friends – Jimmy’s story and his work is changing the world!

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To kick off 2012, I am hosting an interview series that features incredible people and their inspired stories.

I am honored to begin with David Garcia, a fellow blogger who has been featured on Richard Simmons’ Website, the Ellen show, and The Doctors, who lost an incredible 167 pounds and has been able to keep it off with remarkable patience, grace, and perseverance.

He chronicles his weight loss and transformative journey at KeepItUpDavid.com, a blog I visit often and thoroughly enjoy. Do yourself a favor and check it out if you haven’t already.

In this interview, David tells his story of losing an astonishing 167 pounds – transforming his body and his life forever.    Not only is his story exceptional, on top of it all, David is also a great guy.

In the full 35+ minute interview with David and Abel, you’ll get the “skinny” on everything from the real Richard Simmons behind the song and dance to the relative benefits (and perilous dangers) of rutabagas and Jerusalem artichokes… David also offers useful tips and advice about the the joys of vegetable-shopping, climbing virtual towers, keeping apartment-sized progress charts, and how to banish self-doubt, prevent yo-yo-ing, and dodge that pesky bowl of M&M’s.

Listen to the full interview by pressing the PLAY BUTTON below.Download audio file (2FBMPodcastDavidGarcia.mp3)
You can also DOWNLOAD the full interview. (right click and select “Save As…”)

If you’re short on time, here is the abridged interview with a video slideshow.

Truly awesome stuff – thanks again, David! Please click like and share with your friends – David’s story is incredibly inspiring!

Keep it up, David!

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In the days before “red” was an ingredient, red velvet cupcakes were actually made with real FOOD that was red – namely, beets.

Hold the phone… you put beets in your cupcakes and muffins?

Yes, yes I do. I put vegetables in my cupcakes, as well as my other paleo desserts. And you should too. It’s not even fair how good these freaking cupcakes are.

And never fear – these muffins are paleo/primal, gluten-free and grain-free, as well. Kinda goes with my plan – swap your grains for some fresh veggies (true story – with a little creativity, you can put veggies in anything).

In the case of these cupcakes, the beets make them incredibly moist and give a unique flavor.

They are…”real” tasting. I know that’s not terribly clear, but bear with me…

You know how when you bite into a “normal” cupcake it’s like getting kicked in the teeth by pure sugar? These aren’t like that. Beet cupcakes taste like delicious, delicious FOOD. And they are. Butter. Beets. Chocolate. Ohhh boy…

So give them a shot – you might find that you like veggies after all. They also could easily be called

Ingredients:

• 2 cups beet puree*
• 1 cup melted butter
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 3/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 cup 100% cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup whole goat milk
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup xylitol (for low-glycemic) or natural sweetener (honey, maple syrup, etc.)
• 2 teaspoons Greek or goat yogurt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 oz 100% chocolate bar cut into small pieces
• Sprinkles of cacao nibs

*To puree the beets, take 2 to 3 unpeeled medium size beets, cut the stems off, wrap in tin foil and bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 1 hour. Let cool. Peel the beets (the skin should slip off pretty easily). Puree in the blender or food processor until smooth like applesauce.

Mix all ingredients. Scoop the batter into paper cups in a cupcake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Let cool (or not), top with cream cheese, and sprinkle with cacao nibs and cinnamon.

Eat ravenously.

Then write to me and thank me.

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I had the pleasure of interviewing Mira and Jayson Calton, authors of the national best-seller, Naked Calories. Mira was kind enough to send a copy of her book and I ate it right up.

Something is clearly behind the alarming increase in obesity and rapid degradation of our health. Fingers are pointed in seemingly every direction – fat, carbs, fast food, potatoes, Republicans, etc. – but what if all of these maladies aren’t due to one thing in particular? What if has to do with umpteen-billion little things that are poorly understood yet absolutely essential to life?

You know, I think the Caltons are onto something. After traveling for 6 years to over 100 countries, they confirmed that micronutrient sufficiency is absolutely essential to achieving health, maximizing weight loss, and preventing disease.

Here is a taste of what we chatted about:

• Why eating a wide diversity of foods is absolutely essential to health
• How an inorganic apple is fundamentally different than an organic apple and light-years away from the apple that our grandparents ate just a few decades ago
• Why Abel is shy of the optimal micronutrient health zone (hint: because he’s a coffee fiend, loves scotch, smokes cigars, fasts, and exercises)
• What YOU can do to become micronutrient sufficient
• And why you should consider eating eyeballs from time to time.

Enjoy!

Take a stroll over to the Caltons’ website, CaltonNutrition.com and see if you can beat my score in the micronutrient quiz. In order to drum up some excitement, when you order their book you’re eligible for a sweepstakes where you could win a $20,000 cruise. Not too shabby.

I also highly recommend their book, Naked Calories, which not only takes you along on their wild 6-year, 100-country journey across the world, but also has incredibly useful information on how you can improve your weight, health, and life by becoming “micronutrient sufficient.” Go pick yourself up a copy.

Thanks again, Mira and Jayson!

For those short on time, here is an abridged version of the interview with a video slideshow.

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You may have gathered that 1) I’m a chocolate freak, and 2) I’m not at all ashamed of it. Chocolate rocks.

When you follow my LeanBody System, I promise chocolate for dessert. And that’s no lie. If you’re eating quality stuff, it actually packs a nutritious – and extremely satisfying – punch.

Many Americans are accustomed to fake chocolate. These boring, stale frankensweets are NOT chocolate. You can find quality, high-cacao chocolate in some stores (if you look hard enough), but Alyson and I decided to whip up some on our own (thanks Alyson, these blobs of chocolatey goodness made my day).  And making chocolate at home is far easier and more delicious than you might expect.

Basically, if you want to make chocolate, just combine five ingredients (or more if you’re jazzing up your chocolate) and throw them in the fridge. Deliciousness ensues.

Here are three paleo chocolate recipes to make any bad day a good one.

Chocolate

• 5 tbsp virgin coconut oil
• 5 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
• 2 tbsp coconut palm sugar (or similar sweetener)
• dash of pink Himalayan salt

Mint Chocolate

• 5 tbsp virgin coconut oil
• 5 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
• 2 tbsp coconut palm sugar (or similar sweetener)
• dash of pink Himalayan salt
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• 6 mint leaves chopped or torn to small pieces

Carob

• 5 tbsp virgin coconut oil
• 5 tbsp carob powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
• 2 tbsp coconut palm sugar (or similar sweetener)
• dash of pink Himalayan salt

Directions:

Mix ingredients with a spoon until combined. Drop small blobs on a cookie sheet that is lined with wax paper (or into ice cube trays or similar mold). Stick in the fridge or freezer for 10 minutes. Dust with cocoa powder and serve immediately.

Enjoy as is or add to another dish to make it a LeanBody chocolaty delight! Tell me how it goes, too;
I’d love to hear about it.

Better still, use it in your chocolate-rich holiday recipes to curb holiday weight gain.

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After weeks of excessive binging, raging parties, family drama, sleep deprivation, and noggy drinks, you may see a rather haggard creature staring bleakly back at you in the mirror.

Although it’s not uncommon to pack on five pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, most people gain one or two pounds during the holidays. That may not sound like a whole lot of weight, but the real problem is that people never lose the weight they put on during the holidays. Over a lifetime, even modest incremental holiday weight gain often leads to obesity and related health problems such as hypertension, stroke, Type II diabetes and other maladies.

If you’re one of the many Americans who has had one-too-many sugar cookies, here is a seven-step detox to cure your post-holiday weight gain, legendary bloat, and molasses-like blood.

But before we begin, kudos to you for checking out this article. Just by reading you’re taking an important first step to get your body on the right track for the new year. (Also, happy new year!)

So let’s get you that much-needed post-holiday detox, eh?

Step 1: ICEBOX CLEANSING

Toss your holiday leftovers. They’re stale anyway. Besides, you don’t even like fruitcake.

Step 2: DETOX 

If you feel especially bloated, it is likely due to the sugar, refined carbs and salt you’ve been sucking down at holiday bingefests. Extreme detoxes aren’t necessary after the holidays (or ever, really). As such, I’m not going to tell you to sip your meals out of a straw for the next six months.

However, it’s important to clear your body of excess sugar, salt, and toxins that have built up over weeks of holiday abuse. Excess salt causes fluid retention and puffiness; refined sugar causes spikes in blood sugar (and associated cravings); and excess alcohol and caffeine cause dehydration.

After weeks of abuse from sweets and carb-loaded goodies, your liver and muscle glycogen is likely topped out and you’re retaining water causing bloating and puffiness. Cutting your carbs will allow you to jettison the unneeded water (and weight) rapidly. Eat plenty of filling protein and healthy fats instead.

After being bombarded with salt, carbs and sugar over the holidays, your body’s balance – and cravings – will be out of whack. The only way to make these cravings go away is to wean yourself off of sugar and salt, so cut the cookies and corned beef, champ.

Step 3: NOURISH

Detoxing is all about getting the bad out and the good back in. To truly purify your system while restoring essential vitamins and minerals, fruits and veggies are an absolute necessity. Aim for a variety of produce to ensure that you’re getting all the vitamins and minerals you likely ignored over holiday break.

Cucumber, celery, lettuce and kale are terrific options to cleanse the body and restore health. Grapefruit is a metabolic stimulant; grapes and coconut water are high in potassium (which is essential in maintaining normal kidney function); cantaloupe is high in digestive enzymes; and avocados digest slowly and help maintain blood sugar.

Quick fix? Get your day started right with the infamous green smoothie.

Step 4: SWEAT

Sweating is a natural method for the body to rid itself of toxins and exercise increases blood flow and metabolism.
While you may be chomping at the bit to punish yourself at the gym and work off all of the extra flab in one marathon session, don’t d0 it. Nothing will be accomplished in a day. The key to success is finding activities that you enjoy and sticking to them. Prioritize your enjoyment and results will follow.

Step 5: BOATLOADS OF WATER

Shaq-like hydration is essential to post-holiday detoxing. Guzzle water every morning, throughout the day, and before bed. Pure water helps flush out toxins and helps your body eliminate waste. And lord knows you have plenty of that. Garbage in, garbage out.

Step 6: IGNORE THE SCALE

You know what it will tell you, and the news won’t be good.

As you may know, I am no fan of scales. Too many people obsessively weigh themselves in the morning, after big meals, after a BM, or after a good horoscope. Put your scale on the shelf and measure your health by how you look and feel. Really.

Step 7: SOOTHE

The body can efficiently expel toxins through the pores of the skin. To speed this process, take a bath with 1 cup of Epsom salts which will naturally draw out toxins. Exfoliation will also hasten the detoxification process.

Treat yourself to a deep tissue massage which helps release stored toxins. And massages rock.

The Post-Holiday Detox is Yours!

That’s it! You’ll be pampered and peppy in no time.

Do you have a new year’s resolution? I’m here to help. Take a gander at my brand-spankin-new LeanBody System Book Package to get your new year off right!

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In response to a rapidly-filling inbox, I’ve decided to start a new series where I’ll be taking questions from readers. The first is from Joe on the popular subject of six-pack abs…

Hi Joe,

Thanks for your question and congratulations on your progress! “How did you get six-pack abs” is a question I’m asked constantly, usually right after, “are you photoshopped?!?”

A killer six-pack is a badge of honor among the health and fitness elite. While any meathead can get huge biceps by gritting his teeth at the gym, a six-pack is far more ephemeral – for most people, it is difficult to get and takes discipline to maintain. In a day where six-pack-killing foods constantly surround us, achieving a high level of muscle definition is more challenging than ever.

But never fear! Most of the pictures on FatBurningMan.com are from my last photo shoot which unfortunately took place one week after a seven-day Caribbean cruise. All you can eat prime rib, desserts with every meal, and general debauchery generally do not help muscle definition and wouldn’t normally give you (or let you keep) a six-pack. But as you can see, it didn’t seem to have much of an effect or “fatten me up” in any meaningful way.

Once you figure out how your body works and optimize your nutrition and fitness plan (as I’ve learned over years of ruthless experimentation and guinea-pigging), restoring your balance is, well, a piece of cake.

How You Don’t Get Six-Pack Abs

Let’s start with how you don’t get a six-pack: Ab exercises (including ab gadgets, ab belts, crunches, etc.).

What? How could you not get a six-pack by doing ab exercises?

Well, here’s the thing: we all have a rocking six-pack. But for most of us, it’s simply obscured by fat. Isolated fat loss is a myth: the commercials that tell you that you’re going to torch fat off of your belly by doing ab exercises are complete nonsense. And you certainly don’t need any gizmos or shock-belts to get a six-pack.

Too many people assume that after enough crunches, sit-ups, ab-shockery, or what have you, a killer six-pack is going to blast out of their midsection and straight onto the cover of a fitness magazine. That, unfortunately, is not the way it works.

When you lose fat, you lose it all over your body. And for most people, the stomach is one of the last places that fat comes off. So in order to reveal your abs, you need to “torch fat off” of your entire body first.

The Key to Getting Sculpted Abs is to Burn off the Fat that Covers Them

Doing proven traditional ab exercises such as crunches and sit-ups will not cause fat loss on your stomach any more than bicep curls would. These one-muscle-at-a-time moves don’t stimulate enough muscle fibers to build lean muscle or expend enough energy to maximize your calorie burn. Whole-body exercises are a better strategy for fat loss.

Once you have reduced your body fat sufficiently, you can increase the definition of your abs through core strengthening exercises (such as bicycles, plank, dying bug, push-ups, and even pull-ups), but isolated ab exercises are still unnecessary.

So How Did I Get a Six-Pack?

With a lot less exercise (and more fun) than you’d expect. I haven’t been to a real gym in years. That said, I probably exercise more than I “need to” to maintain my physique. But it comes down to the fact that I have found workouts that I really enjoy, so when I feel like I need to get up and move or let off some steam, I get outside and run fast or throw heavy weights around at home. It always makes me feel better.

I personally don’t follow a routine. I listen to my body and so what it wants to do, which amounts to doing something active almost every day, and a “workout” (but a fun one) about 4 to 6 days a week for 10 to 45 minutes. I alternate between resistance training with free weights and body weight, throw in high-intensity sprints during a casual jog a few times a week.

One thing that I should mention is that I never “tried” to get a six-pack. It just came. For me, a six-pack wasn’t the goal, it was a side effect of learning the ins and outs of how my body works and enabling it to thrive through nutrition and conditioning.

The journey to getting a six-pack is a very unique one. Depending on sex, age, genetics, and a number of other factors, some people will naturally have an easier time getting visible abs than others.

By following neo-paleo/primal nutrition (as I recommend), you can lose a great deal of fat. This gives you an incredible head start. But to bring it to the next level and really reveal your abs, some amount of high intensity exercise and/or strength training is required for most people.

Try the following strategies to bring yourself to the next level:

Nutrition

• Eat a bit more lean protein and a bit less fat (since you are already following a neo-paleo/primal nutrition plan, I assume that you already have your carbs under control)
• Scale back starches/tubers and fruit
• Make sure you’re not overdoing it on nuts, avocado, or coconut
• Make sure you are avoiding processed foods and salt. Toxins and excess sodium cause water retention which increases puffiness and reduces muscle definition
• If you don’t see progress within a few weeks, try intermittent fasting. I had never attempted fasting before my last photo shoot (so it’s definitely not necessary), but I have enjoyed experimenting with it the past few months. It absolutely brings some people to the next level. And don’t worry – as long as you keep up with strength training, intermittent fasting shouldn’t result in muscle loss (and could actually increase muscle growth due to a natural increase in growth hormone)

Conditioning

• First and foremost, add weight training. It sounds strange at first, but this will increase your metabolism and recalibrate your hormones to prioritize muscle growth AND fat burning
• Bump up high-intensity exercise to 2 to 3 times a week (but not on consecutive days)
• Add more low-intensity activity such as walking to incrementally increase caloric expenditure

Remember: this is an art, not a science. Everyone is unique, but the tips above should send you in the right direction for getting defined and chiseled abs.

Thanks again for your question, and I always appreciate your thoughts and feedback. So leave a comment or give me a shout!

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Would you feed your children candy, ice cream, or a slice of chocolate cake for breakfast? Believe it or not, most cereals are no better.

Colorful commercials love to tell us and our children that cereal is a healthy, wholesome, and nutritious breakfast.

What they don’t tell us is the truth.

Many popular children’s cereals are packed with more sugar than a bowl of ice cream, a jelly donut, or a slice of chocolate cake, and as much salt as a bag of potato chips. Golden Crisp and Honey Smacks contain more than 50 percent sugar, and Cap’n Crunch, Apple Jacks, Froot Loops and Corn Pops all contain 12 grams of sugar almost zero fiber. And corn flakes actually cause your blood sugar to skyrocket more than pure glucose!

In contrast, a glazed donut from Dunkin Donuts contains 6 grams of sugar. WTF?

Cereal < Donut

When you look at the ingredients in cereal and donuts, you really don’t see much of a difference. Donuts are made from flour, sugar, and oil. Cereal is made from flour, sugar, and… oil. (Or, often, sugar, flour, and oil).

Why does sugar matter? Because sugar makes you fat and sick. It’s not rocket science. Sugar also suppresses your immune system and leaches vitamins from your bones, among other nasty and terrifying things. And how do you give yourself type II diabetes? By eating too much sugar and too many grains (read: eat cereal for breakfast every morning).

“Yeah, But there are vitamins in cereal!”

Not real ones. Food manufacturers fortify their cereals with synthetic vitamins and minerals that the human body rarely recognizes as nutrition and promptly expels.

“…But cereals use whole grains!”

Sure, some do. But whole grains are actually not even particularly good for you – packed with gut-ravaging antinutrients, enzyme-blockers, and fattening carbs, I recommend that my clients and readers avoid grains (even whole grains).

It’s just brainwashing, really. Marketing works.

Deceptive marketing has been successful; cereal is often seen as the healthiest way to start the day. I am all for people making their own decisions as to what to put in their bodies. But they should be decisions based on truthful information that is based on reality, not marketing myth.

Why donuts are less evil than breakfast cereal

No one eats donuts or chocolate cake for breakfast thinking that they are hitting a home run in health. But how many people eat cereal for breakfast (or dinner) and optimistically assume that it is good for them? I certainly used to. Cereal got me through college. But I didn’t know I was eating dessert for breakfast.

At least when you eat a donut, you know you are indulging in crap food that will make you fat. Because you ate a junk food in the morning you (hopefully) compensate and do your best to avoid other junk the rest of the day. The real evil is that people start the day with sugary cereal thinking that it is good for them.

Most Importantly – Our Children are the Victims

The average preschooler sees 642 cereal ads per year on TV alone. A Yale study recently found that cereals marketed to children have 85 percent more sugar, 65 percent less fiber and 60 percent more sodium than cereals advertised to adults.

I am passionately against marketing unhealthy foods (or nearly anything else) to children. While adults are able to evaluate each product and make a purchase decision, children simply do not have the BS-detecting, worldly experience needed to see through wily marketing spin.

One in three U.S. children born in 2000 will become diabetic in their lifetimes; nearly half of Hispanics and blacks are predicted to develop the disease. This is staggering… and also completely preventable. If we want to reverse this trend, it is essential that we develop guidelines that restrict advertising and marketing of foods high in sugar to children.

Spokespeople for food manufacturers maintain that breakfast cereals are high in vitamins, minerals and fiber, low in fat, and have numerous health benefits.

I maintain that they are full of it.

If you and your family want to avoid obesity, diabetes, then do not feed them cereal for breakfast any more than you would feed them candy, donuts, ice cream, or cake. Cereal is NOT a health food.

If you found this article useful, please share it with your friends and family. People should know!

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Dartmouthfolk party sometimes.

A few years back, a buddy of mine on the Dartmouth crew team was faced with a seemingly impossible challenge: he needed to drop 25 pounds in a month. Although he was strong as an ox, after a few months of eating indiscriminately during the offseason, his weight had slowly crept up. But now it came down to this: “lose 25 pounds in less than 30 days or you are off the team.”

Crap.

Now, it should be said that many bodybuilders, wrestlers, and even fitness models can drop an insane amount of weight by using performance enhancing drugs, diuretics, or severe water restriction. It “works,” but it’s not particularly good for you, fair, or sustainable.

Sure, the weight would come off, but his soul, good conscience, and morals would be in jeopardy. He wasn’t interested in that. An extreme starvation diet could potentially help his weight come down, but he would risk strength loss as his body catabolized his hard-earned muscle to keep his organs humming. All of these options were unacceptable.

But dripping in ingenuity, my friend dug deep into old wives’ tales and ghost stories of the crew team and beyond to find a simple fix. After all, rowers had faced the same problem for decades. He finally happened upon a long-retired crew coach who claimed to have the answer to his prayers.

The coach said that this trick:

• Does not involve any drugs/herbs/or magic potions
• Requires absolutely no special foods
• Is mind-numbingly simple
• Requires little deprivation but considerable self-control

So how do you shave off 25 pounds in a month in a way that’s fair, healthy, and legal?

Drink water. Only water.

No fruit juice, soda, diet soda, coffee, beer, sports drinks, energy drinks or anything else. Nothing but pure water for a month.

My friend was dubious, but he decided to grit his teeth and give it a shot. He started drinking a glass of cool, fresh water every morning and continued to drink plenty throughout the day. He still made appearances at parties and get-togethers, where he politely and confidently sipped his water bottle, staying delightfully clear-headed while others drooled all over themselves in a drunken stupor.

So did it work?

Well, no, my friend did not lose 20 pounds in a month.

He lost 25 pounds. And he went from pudgy to ripped.

He ate exactly the same foods, drank more water, and ignored all of the mysterious-colored liquids on the convenience-store shelves and stopped doing kegstands. He also noticed that he wasn’t any hungrier, since liquid calories are rarely satisfying or filling.

Why did it work?

My friend estimated that he previously was unwittingly consuming about 800-1000 liquid calories/day. That’s the equivalent of quite a few 100-calorie packs to suddenly not be eating. Anyone cutting that amount calories (while maintaining strength training and eating plenty of protein to avoid losing muscle) would see significant short-term fat loss. I’m sure his training program also accelerated his results, but he was adamant about the fact that without eliminating liquid calories he never would have been able to make weight.

Here is what I love about this trick.

Water Guinness

It’s so simple that it’s almost absurd. But it is one that absolutely ANYONE can do and it only requires one ingredient (water) and a hint of self-control. In the days before ab belts, fat blasting pills, stomach stapling, and magic potions, there was a leaning toward achieving seemingly impossible goals with confident and well-polished willpower and little else. We could all do with a bit more of that.

Too many people these days are looking for a silver bullet in all of the wrong places. How many people want to lose 25 pounds in a month? Could drinking only water work? Sure, it would certainly help. It’s so simple it’s stupid. But how many people actually do it? Would you?

So many people spend unconscionable amounts of money and time scouring the earth for a pill that will allow them to keep eating terrible food, ignore physical activity, make no lifestyle changes, all while torching fat off of their bodies. And you know what? It doesn’t exist, and I hope it never does.

The fact that a magical fat-burning pill doesn’t exist is a blessing in disguise: if it existed (and actually worked), then many people would resign themselves to lives of expensive over-medication. And they would never learn anything except to open their wallets and that they required a pill to be lean and “happy.”

Want to Burn fat? Drink Water.

It’s incredible how easy it is to take in hundreds of extra, unneeded, empty, and unfulfilling calories in the many drinks you consume over the course of the day. So many people monitor food labels like hawks, but completely ignore any liquid calories they consume (which are often considerable).

Our ancestors had nearly no other options but drinking water. There were no slurpees, caramel macchiatos, or double-chocolate stouts. In a sense, we are built to drink nothing but water.

Now I’m not advocating that you need to stop drinking anything but water (but you could certainly try if you want an exercise in self-control and some serious, quick results). Liquids calories are not filling, are devoid of fiber, and usually lack natural nutrients (with the exception of my much-loved green smoothie).

Here are the worst offenders that you should cut out first:

• Milkshakes
• Sugary alcoholic drinks (e.g., margaritas, rum and coke, etc.)
• Fruit juice (even 100% juice)
• Meal-replacement drinks
• Soda
• Energy Drinks
• Beer
• Diet soda (studies have shown that diet soda is even more fattening than regular soda)
• Flavored Milk
• Sugary drive-thru drinks (the famed caramel cappuccino)
• Sugar in coffee or tea
• Powdered drink mixes
• Sports drinks

As Always, Make it Fun

When you want to spice up your water, throw in some citrus or mint. You can also drink as much tea or coffee as you’d like. Want a party in your mouth? Add some cinnamon, nutmeg, herbs and such. Red wine from time to time also seems to have little effect on weight gain, and in fact has antioxidants and reservatrol that have been shown to improve health and assist weight loss.

So cheers. Drink up, my friends.
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Is exercise making you fat? Can you get ripped in minutes of exercise a week? The answer is more interesting than it seems.

Please share and click “Like”!

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The first of many videos to come. Enjoy folks, and as always let me know what you think (and please CLICK “LIKE”)! And don’t forget to send it to your friends if you think they’d like it.

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As some of you may know, I dabbled in brain sciences during my college years; it’s truly fascinating stuff. What we’ll talk about today is something that is a bit controversial, a bit wacky, and surprisingly true: “bad” foods are addictive. When people say they are addicted to junk food – although they may be stretching the truth a bit – they are also kind of correct.

<—- A side note… this is actually a picture of my brain. When I was a poor college student, I gladly guinea-pigged myself out for research studies for 5-10 bucks a pop. After which, I was poked, prodded, shocked, and brainphotographed… This was a souvenir. 

Recent research suggests that food addictions engage similar brain pathways as drugs and alcohol. Last year, the Scripps Research Institute released a study showing that rats fed a diet of sausage, chocolate, cheesecake, and bacon (ummm… why was I not in THIS study?) encountered dramatic rises in dopamine and serotonin, both neurochemicals that affect the brain’s pleasure centers.

When the researchers later withheld these foods (pure evil) and shifted the rats’ diets to more nutritious foods, the rats simply refused to eat – nearly to the point of starvation. Further, the rats even “chose” to subject themselves to painful shocks (more evil) to get access to sweet and fatty foods. It took a full two weeks for the rats’ brains to return to normal (although I’m sure the jolts of electricity surging through their little ratbodies helped nothing).

Other studies show that rats recover normal brain function from cocaine use (?!?!) in two days.  Some people use these sorts of studies as ammunition to argue that “food addiction” can be harder to overcome than drug addiction.

Really? Cheetos are more addictive than crack?

I doubt it. But clearly, unhealthy foods have a real and sinister effect on the way our brains work. In a viscous cycle, junk food addicts may actually be eating too much junk as a self-medication to balance levels of the chemicals that are disrupted by… eating too much junk food. Thanks Monsanto!

Here is a bit about the neurochemicals involved…

Dopamine produces high-energy feelings and excitement. When you eat foods that are high in fat (even – and especially – processed fat), you encounter a spike in dopamine. Unfortunately, the high is quite temporary.

Serotonin has a calming effect and promotes feelings of hope and optimism. Most antidepressants tinker with serotonin. Eating sugar and refined carbs from white flour (crackers, white bread, pasta, etc.) have increases in serotonin. This, however, is followed by the infamous sugar crash which actually has mini-depression-like effects.

Most traditional diets fail because they are based on calorie-restriction and do not address the mechanism of addiction that leads people to overeat in the first place.

How to Hack Your Brain to Free Yourself from Junk Food Addiction

1. Naturally boost dopamine levels. Being active and social increases levels of dopamine, as do new and pleasurable experiences such as hitting the local watering hole, whipping  up a new recipe, or jamming to music.
2. Naturally boost serotonin levels. Altruistic activities such as helping others, giving compliments, and playing with pets up your serotonin considerably.
3. Baby steps. If you can’t go cold turkey, swap one junk food for a healthy food at a time. It’s really not that difficult – just stop buying Oreos and buy an apple instead. You crave what is around you.
4. Expose yourself to healthy foods. (And by “expose yourself,” I’m talking about eating foods, not flashing them.) Pro tip – it takes at least 10 exposures to a healthy food before you begin to crave it in the same way that you craved junk foods. That’s why I crave kale while many crave Krispy Kreme.
5. Eliminate mindless eating. Don’t eat in front of the TV, reading, driving, or anything else. Not only will you overeat because your brain is distracted, you will also begin to associate activities with foods (such as soda with driving, candy with talking on the phone, or popcorn with TV) which increases cravings.
6. Indulge occasionally – guilt-free. We all want to be perfect, but we’re all human. As long as you are making good choices the vast majority of the time, give yourself permission to indulge in foods you truly love on occasion. A fellow blogger and muscle rockstar, Martin of Leangains, refers to this as “cheesecake mastery.”

Hey, it’s cheat day. I think I’ll go upregulate my dopamine and serotonin by achieving some cheesecake mastery myself…

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You might think that fruit juices are healthy and could help with weight loss because they are all natural or even actually contain 100% juice.

But you’d be wrong.

Most fruit juices pack more calories and sugar than coke (upwards of 250 calories for a 20 ounce bottle)!

Whole fruits are a healthy part of any nutrition plan, but when you remove all of the fiber and other nutritious elements out of the fruit, you are essentially left with sugar water. The fiber in whole fruit would normally blunt the spike in blood sugar. But without it, you are left with a fattening beverage indeed. Contrary to what the commercials tell you, starting your day with a big glass of orange juice is a horrible decision.

Largely because they give you a natural source of fiber and water without added sugars, fresh fruits are much more beneficial for your body. An orange typically has less than 50 calories, much less than super-concentrated fruit juices, and studies have shown that you are likely to feel more satisfied after eating whole fruit instead of drinking fruit juice even if you have consumed fewer calories.

When you crave fruit, eat it, don’t drink it. Go get some real fruit and leave the sugar water for the hummingbirds.

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Just in time for the holidays, Alyson whipped us up an amazing apple pie. Don’t eat grains? Like paleo food? You don’t get jiggy with added sugar? Perfect.

Crust Ingredients:

Bottom Crust

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 rounded tablespoons flaxmeal
• 1/2 cup whole goat milk
• 1 tablespoon 100% maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp salt

Top Crust

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 5 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/2 cup whole goat milk
• 1 tablespoon 100% maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Mix ingredients in bowl until crumbly mixture forms. Coat pie pan with butter or other natural non-stick oil. Push bottom crust into pie pan with fingers, distributing evenly after step 3 below.

Filling Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons almond flour
• 1/8 cup water
• 1/2 cup xylitol
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg white
• 5 Organic Granny Smith apples – peeled, cored and sliced

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We have already established that quality bodies deserve quality foods and that local, organic, and in-season foods are as good as it gets. But when you’re paying 8 dollars for a persimmon at Whole Foods, you must wonder,“Is this really worth it?”

The answer depends on which food you are buying. Some fruits and vegetables are consistently much more polluted than others.

Based on an analysis of more than 100,000 U.S. government tests, researchers at the Environmental Working Group have developed the “dirty dozen” fruits and vegetables that you should buy organic, if possible, because their conventionally grown counterparts tend to be slathered in sticky, toxic pesticides.

In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that found that you can reduce your pesticide exposure by up to 90 percent by avoiding the top twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables. So which are the dirtiest?

Buy Organic if Possible (most pollluted)

• Peaches
• Apples
• Sweet Bell Peppers
• Celery
• Nectarines
• Strawberries
• Cherries
• Pears
• Grapes
• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Potatoes

Organic is Better, But Not Necessary (less contaminated)

• Onions
• Avocado
• Sweet Corn
• Pineapples
• Mango
• Asparagus
• Sweet Peas
• Kiwi
• Bananas
• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Papaya

You can further reduce your exposure to pesticides by picking up an spray fruit wash, preferably natural and organic, which is typically made from citrus fruit. Buying from farmers’ markets is typically safer, as is growing your own.

While buying organic is almost always better than inorganic, achieving a realistic balance can save you boatloads of hard-earned cash. Because 8 bucks for a persimmon is preposterous…

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I was honored to have the opportunity to pick the brain of bodybuilding guru Dr. Rick Silverman. Get stoked, folks – he’s a master when it comes to packing on muscle in a safe, natural and healthy way and has tons of tips for us.

Who is This Rick Silverman, Anyway?

Rick Silverman is a competitive natural bodybuilder holding several titles, including the 2000 INBF Northeast Classic heavyweight winner and the 2000 Superbody Masters winner. Most recently, he finished 4th at the WNBF Pro Masters Cup and 3rd at the WNBF Mr. Universe. Rick continues to judge and emcee shows for the INBF/WNBF.

Also a medical doctor and published author, Rick’s writing has been published in both peer reviewed journals as well as in popular literature, including Muscle & Fitness, Natural Bodybuilding and Fitness, and Reps. As a result of his exposure to the complications of drug use in athletes, Dr. Silverman has developed a drug-free program and is available to speak with students and other groups regarding steroids and other drug use in sports.

Abel Interviews Rick…

Abel: Thanks for joining us today, Rick.  Being an accomplished competitive bodybuilder, could you walk us through some of your favorite accomplishments?

Rick: The beginning of my bodybuilding “career” was a lecture at which Jay Cutler (4x Mr. Olympia) and Nancy Andrews (WNBF World Champion multi-title holder) guest posed for me. Both of these incredible bodybuilders were amateurs at the time, and we couldn’t have guessed the future successes they’d both have. As they turned away from the audience to hit a rear lat spread, the attendees let out an audible gasp in response to Jay’s remarkable width.

Then there’s my first contest, where I won best poser over a very experienced competitor, who won it nearly every time he competed. I had very few athletic successes prior to that, and the realization that I was actually competitive was a real surprise to me.

Finally, as a sponsored athlete with SportPharma, a supplement company, I wrote a short book on bodybuilding. At the last Mr. Olympia contest in New York’s Madison Square Garden, I was asked to autograph my book by Gregory Hines. I felt like he should have been signing a book for me!

Abel: Awesome stuff. After starting at 6’1″ and 135 pounds, you put on 60 pounds of pure muscle. From “roadkill to ripped,” as you put it. Can you walk us through how you achieved such enormous gains?

Rick: I finished my plastic surgery training, including my fellowship, weighing in at 175. I had struggled for years to gain 5 pounds – to reach that 175 mark – unsuccessfully. However, I managed to put it on in Australia during my fellowship, in part as a result of relatively inexpensive food and a higher than normal (for me) intake of carbohydrates in the form of excellent beer combined with a good regimen at the gym.

I was recovering from surgery for a herniated disc, which I’d had several months before my arrival in Melbourne, and while I continued to run for nearly a year after the surgery, when I returned to the states, I decided to focus a little more on strength training and less on running, as that caused some ongoing issues with my back.

Focusing on weights, cutting back drastically on cardio, and adding protein shakes to supplement my diet, I started to see weight gains that I’d never imagined, gaining 26 pounds in about a year and 60 pounds over 3 years. I also started to use creatine and witnessed gains in strength and size related to that initially.

I wasn’t as lean as I had been at 175, when I was certainly over-trained and under-nourished, but I looked and felt healthier. Of course, I was also sleeping more than 4 or 5 hours a night, which hadn’t been possible during residency, so that had a positive impact as well.

Abel: It’s fascinating that less exercise can result in more muscle mass, isn’t it? It’s important to also mention that you made all of your gains without the use of anabolic steroids. What are the natural ways you can pump up your hormones and metabolism to optimize your body composition?

Rick: Each of us differs in our hormonal make-up and our potential to build muscle and lose fat. The classic descriptions of ectomorphs, mesomorphs and endomorphs simplifies this concept to some degree; I was a typical ectomorph, tall and skinny. I looked muscular to some extent because I was so lean, but I had a lot of room for improvement. But as soon as I started to feed my body adequately and adjusted my exercise regimen to cut back on over-training, I started to see results.

Abel: I had a similar experience when I switched from competing in marathons to focusing on high-intensity intervals – huge drop in cortisol and increase in muscle size and definition. 

Rick: Yes, stress can compromise results through increases in cortisol production. For example, when I was a resident with too much work and not enough sleep, I made little progress. Once I had a little more time for recovery, along with better nutrition and rest, my body responded. What worked for me might not work for everyone, and each person needs to tailor their regimen to their own metabolic and hormonal demands, starting with common sense measures - good nutrition, adequate rest, and smart training.

Abel: What adversities have you had to overcome throughout your career?

Rick: I trained with weights since starting medical school in 1981, but I also started running shortly thereafter, and continued for 13 years. As a result, I was always pretty skinny. In 1992, I developed a herniated disc, for which I had surgery, and it was after that that I started my “career” in bodybuilding. I stopped running after about a year of suffering discomfort (sciatica, more or less) from running, and it was after I stopped that my weight finally started to come up (in a good way).

Abel: Contrary to popular belief, more running is not necessarily better for your body – especially if you’re trying to gain size. Speaking of treating your body right, you are active in the drug-free movement in sports. Could you tell us a bit more about that?

Rick: I have learned over the years that “drug-free” comes in many shapes and sizes. I am truly a drug-free athlete, in that I never used any anabolic steroids, prescription medications such as thyroid or diuretics, or other medications with anabolic properties in the course of my bodybuilding career. I have tried pro-hormone supplements early on, before they were banned by the INBF/WNBF, though I didn’t find them to be particularly effective (based only on one “cycle” of a 19-norandrostenedione supplement made by SportPharma).

Beyond my own record, it’s hard for me to say that anyone else is or isn’t drug-free, and certainly, I have been accused of using drugs, even by individuals who are pretty knowledgeable in these matters. It’s a huge compliment, to say the least. I am fairly certain about the status of a few of my closer friends, but beyond that, I can’t say. Some athletes have used steroids in the past, but now compete without them and consider themselves drug-free. Others may use diuretics in their contest preparation, but don’t use steroids, so they describe themselves as drug free.

Unfortunately, many factors come into play in motivating any individual to use steroids and other drugs to achieve their goals, leading to financial rewards, career advancement, and endorsements. I don’t have any particular bias against those who use drugs, presuming they use them in a responsible manner, and more importantly, that they don’t bill themselves as drug-free in an effort to beat truly drug-free athletes or to sell products – or themselves – based on achievements that are otherwise impossible without the drugs. In other words, I’m against cheating.

Abel: Yes, and cheating seems rampant these days whether we’re talking about bodybuilding, bicycles, or linebackers… But more specifically, how about your view on supplements? Lots of people spend boatloads of money on magic potions, “exercise in a bottle” pills, and other products with hefty price tags and lofty claims. Is it all hype and nonsense?

Rick: I think that there are some nutritional supplements that can be beneficial to an otherwise optimized diet and exercise regimen. It’s important to remember, however, that supplements are just that – supplemental. I am constantly amazed at guys who will seek my advice and their primary interest is supplementation. They’ll describe plans to get back to the gym as soon as they get their creatine or NO2 product. If these items are required as a motivator, then so be it, but the potential advantages are slight compared to the key ingredients of good nutrition with plenty of protein, a smart work-out regimen, and adequate recovery time.

Abel: I find that it’s important to look at the “more seasoned” generation of folks for cues to health. Let’s face it – building muscle and staying lean doesn’t get easier with the passing years. What is your secret?

Rick: I’ve been advertising this secret for years: consistency. I take very little time off of training, since it’s really a part of my daily routine, and that has served me well to maintain results. Even when I travel, I try to work out if possible, though I will sometimes use the inconvenience as an excuse to allow my body a recovery holiday – preferably no more than a week once or twice a year.

The other “secret” is resistance training. When I was younger, weight training was looked upon skeptically, and bodybuilding was really on the fringe in general, not just from the competitive perspective. Cardio was king, and running and aerobics were what everyone focused on – and they were considered more legitimate sports. In the past decade or two, the benefits of weight training or resistance training have been more broadly recognized, not only for athletes, but for the general population.

I do very little cardio other than the fun stuff like riding my bike in the summer. But I’m reasonably lean all the time. Of course, genetics help… but even so, maintaining a high percentage of lean mass helps to burn fat, so being “big” helps to keep me from getting fat.

Abel: What do you find the optimal rep/cadence is for building size?

Rick: Taking lessons from the world of powerlifting, I think that bigger gains are made from low reps with high weights followed by plenty of recovery time. I did a six-week powerlifting cycle back in the early 2000s following a few contests, and my weight and strength came up faster than it had previously. But I was bored by my workouts.

With that in mind, however, I have had periods where I train a bit slower with fewer sets and fewer reps at higher weights to try to break through plateaus, and I’ve found that to be a successful approach. Unfortunately, with age comes problems with joints and other wear-and-tear challenges, and I have had to use other measures to surprise my body into responding. Gains at 51 are not as easy as they were at 33!

Abel: But you have the advantage of knowledge and experience, eh? What are the biggest bang for your buck exercises?

Rick: Work legs! I know a lot of guys who, as they get older, get to a point where they neglect their legs due to back issues, knee issues, and all sorts of other problems. Although squats may not be possible, and some exercises are certainly more challenging, leg training is essential. As the saying goes, you can’t build a strong house on a weak foundation.

Leg strength is vital to overall strength, and from a fat-burning perspective, the muscles of the legs are some of the biggest muscles on the body, and maintaining leg mass helps to burn lots of calories with activity and even at rest.

Abel: What techniques can the “everyman” steal from the vast knowledge of bodybuilding to increase size?

Rick: There are a couple of vital ingredients to making progress in building a strong and healthy physique, whether you’re a professional athlete or a desk jockey. Keymost is nutrition. This is one of those things that most people don’t want to recognize, figuring that it all comes down to hours in the gym to build an award-winning physique.

Another misconception is that more is better in terms of time spent training, when in fact, too much time in the gym can be counterproductive. Ideally, hitting the weights hard and then feeding your well-worked muscles to help them initiate recovery and grow will provide better gains than hours and hours of exhaustive training.

If you’re trying to grow while still remaining reasonably lean by doing cardio, it’s ideal to split your cardio off from your weight training, so that you can feed immediately after weight training. Of course, this isn’t always possible, but it’s great if you can do it, and an easy option is to train with weights on certain days and do cardio on the other days.

Abel: The biggest hype in muscle-building is about protein. What is the optimal protein intake?

Rick: I use 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight as a guide, and when I’m dieting, I actually shoot more toward 1.5 grams. That may be a bit excessive, but other than expense, there are few drawbacks.

Abel: One of the things we have in common is a background in music – we were actually in the same college singing group, the Dartmouth Aires, who recently were awarded silver on NBC’s the Sing-Off. Do you have any tips for our guys, Rick?

Rick: If you’ve visited my profile on Facebook, you may have seen the video of my bodybuilding routine from 2001, in which I perform my own original rap tune. Okay, so I’m no threat to Eminem, but what do you want from a middle-aged plastic surgeon. I could probably take a few tips from them as far as singing.

I’m sure, on the other hand, that the guys are happy they’re in pretty good shape when I see them performing on Sing Off, since their choreography has been extremely energetic. I’m just waiting to see them do “Is That The Way You Look?” <— (Abel’s note: this was Rick’s smash hit in his college days).

Abel: Great, Rick. Thanks so much again for joining us! I’ll be looking out for your rap…

Rick: You got it.

Over and Out

So Rick is the man, right?

You can read more about Rick’s background and workouts here. You can also check out our college singing group, the Dartmouth Aires, here. One of them is wearing my old jacket… Can you guess which? (Hint: it’s the one that hurts your eyes and soul when you look at it.)

Give me a shout and let me know what you think, folks!

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We’ve been cranking out the seasonal recipes lately, and here is a very worthy addition. There’s nothing like cheesecake and this one does the trick – adding the special tweaks of pumpkin, chocolate, and being totally gluten and grain free.

You will impress your neighbors not only because it’s a healthy, Neo-Paleo-friendly treat, but it’s also damn good looking.

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Chocolate and Coconut Crust Recipe (Neo-Paleo, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free)

Crust Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 rounded tablespoons flaxmeal
• 1/2 cup whole goat milk
• 1 tablespoon 100% maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Mix ingredients in bowl until crumbly mixture forms. Coat pie pan with butter or other natural non-stick oil. Push crust into pie pan with fingers, distributing evenly.

Filling

• 2 (11 oz.) logs of soft goat cheese
• 1 (15 oz.) can pureed pumpkin
• 3 eggs and 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 cup xylitol
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 2 tbs. coconut flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 oz. >70% cacao chocolate bar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat cream cheese until smooth, and add pumpkin puree, eggs, yolk, sour cream, sugar, and spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until uniform.

Prepare crust in spring pan according to directions above. Pour filling mixture into crust and spread out evenly. Melt chocolate and spoon into batter one tablespoon at a time. Swirl chocolate in batter.

Place in oven for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let sit for 15 minutes to cool.

Cover and place in refrigerator for 4 hours.

Enjoy! Let us know what you think.

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Shopping is a visceral experience full of temptation, in-your-face advertising, and mayhem. There are over 100 brands of individually-marketed bottled water. Ludicrous.

The dizzying amount of products in the supermarket is overwhelming and exhausting for many folks. The good news is that you can use this one tip to skip the confusion and madness and just stick to foods that are going to help you burn fat instead of gain it. Ready?

Shop from the outside of the grocery store and don’t even bother walking through the interior aisles.

The foods that grocery stores typically stock in the outside aisles are FRESH: vegetables, fruits, salads, fish, and milk and eggs. The foods in the interior aisles are processed, marked-up, preservative-packed carbs like pasta, salty snacks, sugars, soda, and cookies. You don’t need that crap.

So load up on fresh, seasonal fruits, greens, fish, milk, yogurt, and milk and eggs. Ignore that nonsense in the middle and I can guarantee you’ll save a few bucks and burn some extra fat, too.

Just don’t forget to grab a bottle of red wine or two. For the… reservatrol… you know?

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If there is anything worth counting, it’s carbs. Limiting carb intake maximizes fat-burning and helps to regulate blood sugar and insulin levels. But not all carbs are created equal.

The principal problem with many low-carb diet plans is that they unfairly vilify foods that seem high in carbs (such as vegetables) but are, in fact, NOT high in digestible (net) carbs.

So what is the difference between total carbs and net carbs?

There are basically two types of carbs – those which your body can digest and those it cannot. The type it can’t digest is principally fiber.

In America, food labels include fiber in the total carb count which gives an inaccurate measure of the food’s effect on your waistline. So most-low carb diets ask that you count “net carbs” – the ones that are actually digested.

The total carbohydrate number is not important. It is NET carbs that really matter since those are the ones that are being digested. Count your NET carbs, not your total carbs.

Non-fiber carbs = fattening
Fiber carbs = not fattening (and actually filling as well as beneficial for digestion and fat burning)

To calculate net carbs, simply subtract the dietary fiber content from the total carbs. In the picture to the right, the net carbs would be 15 – 5 = 10.

Carbs – Fiber = Net Carbs

Simple enough, right?

Well… not so fast. Here comes corporate trickery once again.

Beware of Low-Carb Products!

Eager to make a quick buck on low-carb bars, shakes, and candies, many companies have rushed to create products that have misleading labels that appear low-carb diet friendly. Unfortunately, many of these products are artificially sweetened with sugar alcohols like malitol, sorbitol, and lacitol which can be metabolized into sugar.

Sloppy labeling laws allow companies to include these sugar alcohols on the labels as FIBER even though they clearly are not.

I’ll get into the evils of sugar alcohols in an upcoming post, so stay tuned. For now, count your net carbs and steer clear of low-carb products. If you do eat anything with sugar alcohols, your best bet is to count them all since you really can’t believe the label.

In short, trust vegetables, not low-carb candies.

More soon!

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I just watched an episode of one of my favorite shows, “Conan,” and saw for the umpteenth time a commercial culminating in something that always amused and infuriated me: Wendy’s preposterous slogan, “You know when it’s real.”

You guys are sharks. Your food is poison and you know it.

Firstly, I just want to point out that we live in an age when our standards are so shockingly low that companies advertise their food as being made with “real” ingredients. And worse, it’s not even true!

But ok, Wendy’s… I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for a moment. Maybe you revamped your ingredients?

Let’s take a walk through the ingredients in the harmless-sounding “Asiago Ranch Chicken Club.” For the sake of brevity (and sanity), I have only included the ingredients in the chicken, bun, and bacon. (Not to spoil the fun in advance, but the cheese, “vegetables,” and sauces contain literally hundreds of additional ingredients…)

Ingredients: Wendy’s Asiago Ranch Chicken Club

(Fake, Non-Food, and Dangerous Ingredients in RED)

Homestyle Chicken Fillet

Chicken Breast, Water, Modified Food Starch, Seasoning (salt, maltodextrin, flavoring, modified corn starch, autolyzed yeast extract, contains 2% or less of: chicken, chicken broth, chicken fat, citric acid, dextrin, lactic acid), Sodium Phosphates. Battered and Breaded with: Wheat Flour, Water, Bleached Wheat Flour, Salt, Modified Corn Starch, Spices, Wheat Gluten, Leavening (sodium bicarbonate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate), Egg White Solids, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Fructose, Maltodextrin, Yeast, Chicken Broth, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Locust Gum, Lactic Acid, Xanthan Gum, Extractives of Paprika. Cooked in Vegetable Oil (soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, citric acid [preservative], dimethylpolysiloxane [anti-foaming agent]). 

Premium Butter Toasted Bun
Enriched Flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, niacin, iron, folic acid), Water, Sugar, Yeast, Wheat Gluten, Soy Oil, Contains 2% or less of the following: Salt, Dough Conditioners (contains one or more of the following: sodium stearoyl lactylate, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono and diglycerides, DATEM, calcium peroxide, calcium sulfate, L-cysteine, enzymes), Yeast Nutrients (contains one or more of the following: high fructose corn syrup, ammonium sulfate, tricalcium phosphate, ammonium chloride), Corn Maltodextrin, Medium Chain Triglycerides, Gum Arabic, Natural Flavors, Cultured Wheat, Vinegar. Toasted with Clarified Butter (milk). 

Applewood Smoked Bacon
Pork Cured With: Water, Salt, Sugar, Sodium Phosphates, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite.

My BS meter just exploded.

Is this clever marketing? Are we really that stupid? How do they get away with this?

Yeah, I’ll take my chicken with the anti-foaming agent, please. Oh, and don’t forget the azodicarbonamide in my bun. Thanks.

Clearly, there is nothing real about Wendy’s food. Its ingredient lists are dripping with preservatives, emulsifiers, chemical toxins, and euphemisms. I could walk you through them and why they’re bad for you (like I do in my book), but let’s suffice it to say that these ingredients 1) are not food, 2) cause minimal damage at best, 3) and some are scientifically proven to be toxic to humans.

It may sound like I’m singling Wendys out for poisoning America. But for the record, the same health-risk and issues apply to almost all fast foods. But at least the other food chains advertise with silly slogans like “I’m lovin it” or with creepy costumed men in cardboard crowns streaking across football fields. They don’t *usually* have the balls to lie straight to your face and tell you their “food” is something that it isn’t. But apparently Wendy’s has the balls.

So What Have We Learned? Wendy’s is Lying to You.

Fast food companies blatantly lie to our faces every single day and not only get away with it, but profit from it.

No matter what you order from Wendy’s or any other fast food restaurant, you are buying fake food. It will not make you lean, healthy, or strong. But it will make them rich.

Every time you buy fast food, you are silently casting your vote to encourage this marketing monster to keep lumbering along, leaving legions of fat, diseased Americans in its wake. In other words, when you buy fast food, not only are you sacrificing your own health, but you are enabling this twisted system to thrive.

But What Can I Do, Then?

Unfortunately, in this day and age you need to look out for yourself and those around you when it comes to food choices and safety. Before you treat something like it’s food by eating it, make sure it’s actually food.

If you want health, you need to eat foods that nourish your body, not slowly poison it with empty calories, preservatives, chemicals, and toxins. Don’t buy fast food.

Go to your local farmer’s market, food co-op, natural food store, farm, the supermarket, or grow/hunt your own food. If you are serious about improving your body and your health, eat real food.

How does Wendy’s get away with this blatant deception? What can we do about it?

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This is an incredible recipe that Alyson put together and baked two nights ago. They all mysteriously disappeared within 24 hours…

Here’s a pro tip: go ahead and try them when they just come out of the oven if you must, but they reach the height of fudgy deliciousness once they’ve cooled.

Pumpkin-Chocolate Chunk Squares Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 ½ tsp pumpkin-pie spice
• ½ tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup xylitol (or natural sweetener like honey or maple syrup)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 bar of 100% unsweetened chocolate, cut into chunks

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of a 9×13-inch baking pan with foil. In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, coconut flour, pumpkin-pie spice, and baking soda. Set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream butter and xylitol until smooth. Beat in egg, vanilla, and pumpkin puree (mixture may look curdled). Mix in dry ingredient. Fold in chocolate chunks. Spread batter into pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy, folks! Let us know how it comes out.

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Americans are fat-phobic, and it’s a damn shame. Most people miss out on some truly delicious food. In my humble opinion, fresh guacamole is one of the greatest foods ever created by man.

Although it’s counterintuitive, eating fat does not necessarily make you fat. Yes, avocados are high in fat (and thus calories), but it’s GOOD, heart-healthy (monounsaturated) fat. Most importantly, avocados are FILLING, increasing the likelihood that you’ll resist binging on sweet/salty/carby snacks.

Natural fats do not induce weight gain like artificial fats do, primarily because, unlike processed fats, 1) natural fats are extremely satiating and 2) your body promptly recognizes them as food. Unlike Velveeta, an Avocado is difficult to overeat because your body knows when it’s had enough.

In fact, avocados have been shown to actually assist in weight loss in spite of the fact that they are caloric. The monounsaturated fats found in avocados promote the reduction in cholesterol levels and LDL (bad cholesterol). Avocados are loaded with a variety of antioxidants, including disease-fighting compounds such as lutein, beta-carotene, and vitamin E. Recent research shows some evidence that active compounds in avocados that might also help prevent cancer.

Interestingly, Avocados also help the body absorb healthy phytochemicals from other foods, so pairing avocados with salsa or salad allows for better absorption of antioxidants. For example, lycopene in tomatoes and beta-carotene in carrots are better-absorbed along with a slice or two of avocado. That makes guacamole the ultimate food, doesn’t it?

How Can I Eat Avocado?

• On omelets
• In salads
• In smoothies
• As a spread
• In guac
• On burgers
• Spooned straight into your piehole
• Or…

A Little-Known Gem: Avocado Oil

You can use avocado oil in cooking and salads to increase the absorption of antioxidants and add subtle flavor to foods. Yes, it’s pricey, but it’s also delicious, withstands high heat in cooking (unlike olive oil), and provides a tasty alternative to olive oil or animal fats. You can find avocado oil in most health food and specialty stores. Give it a shot.

So fear the avocado no longer, my friend. You two will get along.

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Nothing like pancakes on a lazy Sunday morning. Whip up a few of these gems and you’ll be smiling all day.

Pumpkin Strawberry Pancakes

• 2 tbs. almond butter
• 1 cup almond flour
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/4 cup sliced strawberries
• 1 tbs. coconut oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tbs. blackstrap molasses

Mix all ingredients (except for strawberries) together in bowl. If the mixture is too thin, add almond flour to achieve desired consistency. Spoon batter into pan and place several slices of strawberries onto each pancake while still wet. Cook on medium heat in coconut oil or butter. Top with whipped cream (or coconut creme), real maple syrup, raw honey, or blackstrap molasses.

Enjoy!

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Yes, despite what conventional wisdom tells you, it is possible to get ripped with just minutes of exercise a week.

How is this possible? Simple body science. Let’s start with what doesn’t work. Common knowledge, as usual, is wrong.

Why Grinding on a Treadmill Does NOT Burn Off Body Fat

If burning fat were as straightforward as hopping on the treadmill from time to time, you wouldn’t see so many chubby runners. Many people exercise constantly, experience cravings as a result, eat a ton, and never lose weight. For most people, it doesn’t matter how much they exercise if their diet sucks: the weight will catch up with them. This is especially true if they’re doing the wrong kind of exercise…

“Burning off” calories through low-intensity cardio is not the best way to burn fat because the actual caloric burn of aerobic exercise is minimal.

To put it into perspective, an hour on the treadmill burns off approximately one Starbucks muffin.

Doing more cardio is not the answer.

Why You Can’t Get Ripped While Training For A Marathon

When it comes to getting lean and fit, your body responds to quality over quantity. Overtraining reduces your body’s ability to burn fat and catabolizes muscle. This applies to both frequency and duration of exercise. Growth hormone and testosterone begin to decrease and muscle wasting increases after just 60 minutes of training.

Effective exercise does not mean subjecting your body to punishment. Sure, with enormous amounts of volume and intensity you could burn off a fair amount of calories through grit and sheer force of will. If your only goal is to lose weight (and aren’t worried about sacrificing muscle) you could potentially eat crappy food and run a half marathon every day. I did once, and I became skinny (and meek – see below)…  But it’s not particularly good for you, sustainable, or necessary.

So don’t expect to get ripped if you are training for a marathon. It doesn’t work. Let’s look at a case study – me.

Low-Intensity Vs. High Intensity Exercise in Pictures

In one of my many experiments guinea-pigging on myself, I wanted to see how my body responded to different levels and types of training. After finishing in the top 3% of runners in my second marathon in 2 months, I decided to switch to shorter distances and prioritize sprints (and finished in the top 4% of the 10k a few weeks later). I assumed that since I was exercising more (running 50 miles a week versus less than 10) with a very solid finish time, my body would be optimized when I was in tip-top marathon shape.

The results are far more interesting.

The picture on the left shows me just before finishing my second marathon in two months (running 50 miles a week with no sprints). The picture on the right shows me just a few weeks after finishing my second marathon after I reduced my mileage to less than 5-10 miles a week and began incorporating sprints…

Holy smokes.

Not only did my muscles get bigger and more defined after replacing long runs with high intensity exercise, but my body also looked and felt much healthier. I reduced bodyfat and increased lean muscle by 10 pounds. The pictures don’t show the extent to which my body regained healthy color and a more masculine shape. Even my face changed… from being Sam-the-Eagle-from-Sesame-Street-skinny to a healthy “normal.” All from exercising less.

So What Happened Here?

Have you ever noticed that endurance athletes are rail-thin, pale, and look a little unhealthy? But what about athletes that are required to perform short bursts of maximum output, like sprinters? They are jacked!

This is what happens when you run too much: your body does not know you are running a marathon or have just been run over by a truck. Your body simply knows it is experiencing significant trauma. So your hormones go wacky, your fight/flight response is heightened, and your body pumps you full of stress hormones. For long-term training, fat loss, and health, this is all bad news.

Because it’s always trying to recover from what you just did to it and protecting itself from whatever might happen next, your befuddled body never has a chance to heal. As a result, your body gleefully eats away at your muscle.

While endurance training sends a signal to become more energy efficient and use more fat as fuel, high intensity training sends the muscles an adaptive signal to become bigger and stronger and more efficient using glucose for fuel. With high amounts of endurance training you are at a higher risk of fat storage due to starvation response and associated metabolic slowdown when not replenishing enough calories after a long run (not to mention fat gain after overdoing it with post-exercise binges – try to not eat an entire pie after a marathon – I dare you).

If you want to build muscle and get huge results in the shortest amount of time, don’t run marathons. Run sprints.

How to Build Muscle Instead of Burn It

When I went from exercising many hours a week to just minutes, I got ripped. But How?

Exercise is only beneficial up to a point, after which you start wasting muscle instead of building it, retaining fat instead of burning it, and increasing the release of stress hormones that throw your metabolism out of whack.

The truth is that you don’t need to grind it out on the Stairmaster or powerlift all day to achieve spectacular results. Simply following the right diet will achieve 80% of your results (and yes, I certainly made some tweaks to my diet for picture number 2)! But HOW you spend that 20% that makes up your training can be the difference between a six-pack and a spare tire.

Exercise should be effective, not punishing. My philosophy is this: maximize metabolic, hormonal, and athletic results with the least amount of time and effort. You will be amazed at how much you can achieve with just a few minutes a week. These high-intensity exercises will cue your body to burn fat and build lean muscle with amazing speed and efficiency.

So stop the frustrating, endless cycle of jogging, stuffing your face, and cursing your stubborn belly fat. If you want results, find an exercise you enjoy, train hard (for short amounts of time), and expect success. If you need help getting there, you know where to find me. If you want clear steps to achieve rapid fat loss and muscle growth, pick up your copy of the LeanBody System today.

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It’s super easy, versatile, delicious, and a nutritional powerhouse. If you want to burn fat, drink your green smoothie.

The nutritional equivalent of eating a salad and then some, green smoothies are packed with vitamins and minerals, filling fiber, and raw food enzymes to aid digestion. Green smoothies are detoxifying, and best of all, alkalizing, which will encourage your body to burn off fat and restore health.

Store-bought “green smoothies” from the bottle are almost always devoid of fiber and packed with preservatives. Those that you buy from smoothie stores are more often than not well-marketed sugar bonanzas. They’re more like Slurpees. They give smoothies a bad name and people the wrong idea…

This is How NOT to Make a Green Smoothie

(I actually found this on the web recently):

• 2 cups of vanilla reduced fat ice cream
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2/3 cup spinach
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons frozen fat free whipped topping

Brown sugar? Ice cream? Whipped cream?

Are you kidding me? This is calorie-soaked, insulin-spiking, devil’s milkshake. And it will make you fat.

That’s why it’s essential that you make your own green smoothie at home. All you need is a blender, a drawer in your refrigerator with a few random vegetables, and a few minutes of your time.

So How Do You Make A Green Smoothie?

Simply, you combine the following four categories of ingredients as you see fit:

• Green (use one or more): Kale; Spinach; Bok choy; Collard greens; Cabbage greens; Swiss Chard; Beet Greens; Sprouts; Cucumber; Broccoli; Celery; Avocado
• Liquid (use one): Water; Tea, Almond Milk, Coconut Milk, Coconut Water, etc. Also add ice if you like your smoothie chilled.
• Fruits/veggies (use one or more): Strawberries; Blueberries; Bananas; Apples; Cherries; Coconut; Carrots; Beets (top & root); Lemon & Ginger root; Pumpkin; Tomatoes
• Add-Ins: Protein Powder (with no added sugar); Flaxmeal (for Omega-3′s); Cinnamon (regulates blood sugar); natural sweetener (stevia, xylitol)

It’s not a science. Green smoothies are stupefyingly simple to make and difficult to mess up. This makes them an ideal man food.

The protein powder is great for this kind of shake because it acts as a thickener. Here’s a pro tip: smoothies with thickness or some kind of “chew factor”, have been scientifically proven to increase how full you feel. More fullness = fewer calories = more fat-burning.

If you want to make a green smoothie but you are skeptical, here is a beginner-friendly version: take kale, banana, mango, water, and ice, combine them, and boom. Yes, it’s weird and green, but don’t be afraid – it’s also delicious.

At first, it struck me as strange that I would be slurping down a lumpy, green, gelatinous sludge in the morning. But once it hits the lips, you’ll be a convert. After a few weeks, I outright craved green smoothies in the morning. Now my days don’t feel complete until I have one of these in my belly.

Give it a shot. Green smoothies rock.