So I’m not really a fan of breakfast. I don’t think it’s necessarily the most important meal of the day, you can catch up on why here.

Occasionally I have it, and the following recipe is possibly the simplest, most delicious, most nutritionally complete option I have developed yet, for those who want a cereal/oat meal alternative, which suits a lowish carb/paleo lifestyle.

4 Minutes. 3/4 Ingredients. No excuses. 

It tastes just about as delicious as the no-oat meal primal solutions too (although they are great), without the need for excess phytic acid and omega 6 you get from eating handfuls of nuts every day. As well as breakfast it makes a great snack, or pre-workout meal. For about 300cals (few more than one mars bar!) you get a meal which will sustain you and nourish.

The following three ingredients (4 if you go for chocolate flavour) give you: two sources of complete protein (eggs and whey), selenium, natural vitamin D, choline, lutein, zeaxanthin (eggs), copper, magnesium, potassium, anti-oxidants, vitamin C, vitamin B6, natural fibre (bananas), only 20-30g of carbs, and a small amount of natural fats to sustain you. If you add cocoa you also get vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C, and E, pantothenic acid, more anti-oxidants, magnesium and iron.

The following makes one small serving.

Ingredients: One banana, one egg, 25g vanilla whey powder, (optional: cocoa powder 1 tbsp).

Method

• Spend a minute mashing the banana and dry ingredients in a bowl. Then add in the egg. Beat more.
• Put your bowl in the microwave. Cook for 30second increments, stirring each time.
• After 2-3 of these, the mixture will be ‘cake like’ or partially solidified but still wet. give it one last stir and serve.

And I had to make it look pretty for y’all with some cream and raspberries.

Friend offered me a gummy sweet today. I kindly declined, and suggested she didn’t know me well enough.

She exclaims, “what, these are not healthy?!”

To me this is just a massive FACE PALM. I mean to me it’s common sense. I realise that stuff that comes out of packets with a list of ingredients (the first three compromising refined carbohydrate) isn’t optimal for my body. It designed to leave you wanting more, give you a short addictive sugar rush, and then leave you hungry, whilst offering negligible real nutrition.

But my friend had read “no artificial colours or flavours”.

To many this equates to acceptable healthy food. It just dawned on me that people have grown up in a culture, where only if it is marketed, or spoken of, as an indulgence, it is unhealthy. To them Naughty treat = Bad for you.

Because you’re reading this its probably quite obvious how messed up this paradigm is. I treat myself quite often to foods which are still highly nutritious and natural, and no, I’m not the kind of health freak who has brainwashed myself to believe fruit is an indulgence.

Many people have no reason to assume that companies may be producing food that is not optimal for human consumption. They don’t stop to think for a second that the “fat free” or “whole grain” marketed foods might still not actually be ideal for their health. They see everyone else eating it, and know no different.

They don’t stop to think why human health faces so many more troubles than that of animals, at the same time the food supply for humans is so different from animals. They don’t stop to ask why saturated fat is bad when it is something which has existed in our natural food for millions of years.

I’ve realised ether some people don’t have common sense, or the common sense of the culture and society they grow up in has become more and more defunct.

You’re OK.

You’ve probably got what you need. Maybe you’re already in good shape, and no big health concerns. You’re having a good time, you’ve got a nice place to live, a job, and the problems you do have are way more important than making up any health issues which aren’t even getting in your way.

Doing what you’re doing is easy.

But what people don’t realise is caring about health can be just as easy. The hardest part, is actually change itself.

When you are enjoy the way you live, exercising the way you do and eating in a way you truly appreciate, being healthy is not hard. But learning to appreciate some of these is hard for some people, when they have done it differently their whole lives. But once you can  achieve this mindset there no more trying, no more frustration. This is why I always say lifestyle is the key to long term success and diets suck. Some people take on all the principles I would recommend, but its all short-term. They haven’t told themselves in their mind this is the way they want to live from now on. They are usually looking for the numbers on the scale to change.

It takes mental effort, and a little perseverance to change deep ingrained habits. Why bother? Why be healthy? You’re OK now, there’s nothing wrong…

Well, I’m always going on about living longer, feeling better, looking better, having more energy, being mentally alert, not getting fat, or worrying about getting fat, or not getting ill so much, or recovering from illness faster.

Some people want these things, but for many, the possibility is still not enough to motivate change. 

These are things it’s hard to go out and buy (except for drugs in some cases but I’m sure you don’t need educating there). These things take a long-term view. The results pay off over time. You wont eat fish today and wake up smarter tomorrow.

The sad things is, people often find the determination to change only when things get bad. You hear about people suddenly facing a life threatening illness which puts their problems in perspective, and then they realise why it’s worthwhile. Sometimes they make a miraculous recovery.

But smart people don’t wait for threatening circumstances to motivate them, they are the people who would pursue the reward than be pushed by the pointy stick (I’m sure there’s a better metaphor out there). They have goals to achieve. New perspectives. Becoming better people, not just physically, but mentally too. Becoming a human being which they are proud to be.

Making the kind of changes were talking about gives you a personal power over your own life and outcomes which many people have not achieved. They accept where they are and don’t move forward. But change makes life interesting. You can go your whole life doing what you’re doing and getting the results you have always got. Or you can question what is possible for you, and find new ways to reach a potential you never realised existed.

Being healthy is just one way to help you reach new levels of greatness. Whatever it is you choose to be.

This doesn’t just go for people with Orthorexia. People are blaming, food, exercise, lifestyle, cigarettes and lots more for the big health problems we have in society. But there is one underlying factor, which can be caused by the above,  exacerbated by the above or have nothing to do with the above at all.

Stress.

Stress has a massive impact on both your psychological and physical health. The link between stress, mental and physical well being has been documented for a long time.

Orthorexics often believe they have their nutrition and exercise perfect, and thus they are OK. But they don’t realise that the stress, and constant mental occupation with their food, is having a negative effect. It’s certainly something I overlooked.

You cant be healthy if you have chronic stress. Occasional stress is fine, even a good thing. But your body can’t tell the difference between a real situation and a thought. If you are constantly stressed your body is constantly reacting as if it is danger. In the extreme; high pulse, excess cortisol, chronic adrenaline, strained immune system, hormonal overload, are the conditions people with stressful lives live with. And it goes under the radar because you can rarely see a direct link. Stress has uncountable effects on your biochemistry, but a doctor cannot run some tests and take a reading! Only make suggestions.

Just think about the breakdowns you hear about, from those individuals in the working world, who never switch off… it’s the same principle. They literally break down because the mental stress hits their bodies hard, in whatever form whether its a skin rash or a weakened immune system. There is even research to suggest that stress impacts things as serious as gene expression! (Epigenetics). This means the links between stress and disease is limitless.

And that’s not the end. Stress can either cause emotional eating, and we all know where that ends up. So the things you do because you’re stressed end up exacerbating the problem more. Maybe people should get the mental well being sorted out before trying to force themselves on a diet or new eating plan?

Chris Kresser has a nice little article on dealing with stress too, but there’s a lot out there if you think this could be holding you back.

Stress doesn’t help anyone, especially you. You only live once so enjoy every moment.

Two-ingredient chocolate cake

Chocolate cake with two ingredients? In five minutes? Really? And is this even good for you?

Yes, yes and yes (don’t live on it though).

And it is actually delicious, up there with the best. I came up with this recipe when being innovative with the limited range of ingredients (and time) I had. It is a healthy variation of the popular 5-minute mug cake. This recipe is very simple, and makes a lot of sense when you begin to understand how ingredients work together to create new textures. For example, low-carb dieters will know you can make many bread substitutes by combining eggs with coconut flour, ground almonds, peanut butter, whey powder and various other substitutes which all create different results.

Like I’ve said before, I don’t believe in ‘cheating’, its a flawed concept, I’m not trying to create a ‘hacked’ version of cake (even though it is lol), and eating this lots will not help you lose weight! Appreciating real food, and good wholesome cooking, of food we were supposed to eat is what I’m all about. This is just a little innovative idea I wanted to share.

Remember how DARK chocolate is actually very good for you with its high anti-oxidant content, minerals, and healthy fats? Eggs are also a great source of protein and contain numerous minerals and trace elements we could all do with. Don’t worry about cholesterol…

Anyway enough chat here you go:

Serves one (decent sized dessert)

Ingredients:

• 40-80g of Dark chocolate (as dark as you can enjoy)
• one egg

Less chocolate will create a lighter ‘cakier’ texture, more will create a denser brownie-like texture. I recomend starting with 70g on your first time. If you want a massive cake, experiment with upping the ingredients, and feel free to put it in an oven (oven tray not coffee mug though).

Optional:

• baking powder can help it rise a little more
• nuts
• honey
• serve with fruit, banana is good
• serve with cream

Method:

1. Melt chocolate in a mug using your microwave. If you cant do this without burning go learn.
2. Beat your egg into the melted chocolate.
3. Microwave again, 30 seconds at a time to check how fast your microwave works, won’t take more than 1:30 seconds.
4. Tip on a plate or eat it out of the mug after letting it cool a bit.

Here’s some pictures for for those who prefer visual instruction:

I’ve gone for a dense brownie style version with cream.

Lucky double-yolker!

The final in an epic guest post contribution from Wenchy at wenchwisdom. Let the wisdom enlighten you!

In part 1, we discussed the three-legged footstool that made the Paleo diet possible for many:  quality, sacrifice, and convenience, and how to alter lifestyle to afford the Paleo Diet.  In part 2, we discussed choice overload, what is really necessary for health and nutrition, and how to alter dietary expectations to afford the Paleo Diet.  Now we’re going to discuss quality and food economics, what it means, and how to alter perception about both to afford the Paleo Diet.

How do we define quality, especially when it comes to food?  For meat, eggs, and dairy, it means the food we eat comes from animals raised humanely, with quality food to eat (meaning it should be clean food they were born to eat), clean water to drink, sunshine to be in, pasture space to frolic and forage, and freedom from chemicals, drugs, pesticides, unnecessary hormones/antibiotics, genetic modification, and some sort of shelter to escape the elements, as well as predators.

 For produce items, it means the food we eat should be free of commercial (that means not organic) chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, genetic modification, or pollution from the air, water, or ground, and be in some sort of enclosure to protect it from the elements and predators or rodents.

Wow—so we’re going to be expected to eat organic stuff, huh?  But my paycheck is only so big, and the stuff isn’t widely available here.  What do I do now?

No, what it means is that THE IDEAL would be to eat all organic, but in reality, only the 1%ers of this world could even begin to afford it, or find organic sources for all their food needs.  We’re not worried about the ideal—we’re worried about the next best thing: grown or raised traditionally like they did BEFORE the Depression and the time of Big Agriculture.  You should want to eat foods grown and raised in the same traditions your great-grandparents ate, and lived long, healthy lives to tell about it.

So where do you find such food in this day and age of Pink Slime (beef), Pink Goo (chicken), and Pig Slime (pork), as well as glow-in-the-dark crops?  Look to where it all started:  the small family farmer.  The unsung heroes of this country, small family farms are scattered coast to coast, raising food THE RIGHT WAY.  People are rediscovering them in droves through CSAs (community supported agriculture programs), websites like this one, referrals from friends or neighbors, or just by looking in their own back yards. This website can help you determine what produce items really need to be obtained in organic form, and which do not–a real cost-cutter.

By cutting out the retail middleman (that means going directly to the source), as well as the delivery costs, you’re cutting away a portion of the expense that comes with quality food.  By limiting your choices to what’s really necessary (as we discussed in Part 2), you’re eliminating more of the expense.

Before the Depression, all food was raised in idyllic conditions.  When the war started, national production, as well as incomes, rose and fueled our rising consumption.  Farmers were paid by the government to produce more food cheaply.  Soon we were drowning in food, and started exporting it around the world.  Then, as inflation crept in over the years, the producers could no longer contain costs through normal means, and had to resort to chemical shortcuts provided to them by science and technology.  That helped for a while, but then came the recent twin curses of global demand and food inflation, which led meat packers to resort to selling what was once illegal and unfit for human consumption.  Produce growers were already selling stuff that should have been deemed unfit for human consumption.  Now the pendulum is swinging back—one by one, people aren’t taking it anymore.  They’ve made the connection between good, clean food and good health, and they’ve made the determination that quality food is worth paying for, and they’re coming aboard.

One day in the future, commercial producers will be flat on their backs, while the clean farmers will once again have the upper hand—it took about 80 years for commercial food production to get this far, and Big Farm members may get their act together and follow the money in another 80 years or so.

Now to inject some dismal science into the discussion:  economics, namely food economics and inflation.  When our jobs left this country and went overseas, incomes went with them—to foreigners who couldn’t afford much in the way of food.  Now that foreigners have more income, they’re eating better, and demanding more.  This puts a strain on the whole commercial food chain—from grains and soy to feed the animals, to the animals themselves, including protein alternatives. This is what necessitates the corner-cutting by producers just to stay alive in business, and this is what they’ve tried to hide from us for years until they could no longer do it.

Cost of product goes up, income goes down, and you’re left ping-ponging around town with armloads of coupons, trying to find the cheapest deal on food.  Cheap does NOT denote quality—I have yet to find a place that sells quality cheaply.

The deals are now few and far between, and some people have gone vegan (or soon will) to escape the escalating food price madness. Little do they know that with the vegan decision, they jumped from the frying pan into the fire!  Now they’re in direct competition with livestock for the same food materials, and the livestock demand is now GLOBAL, meaning livestock food demands will outstrip American vegan demand, and will be filled first.  Vegans are already feeling the effects of this through swiftly-increasing soy and tofu prices, as well as rising grain prices here at home.

How do Paleo dieters fare in this food quality-price conundrum?  You’d think they suffer badly, but no—look carefully.  Those cows that provide clean beef are eating GRASS, which is free and always will be.  The pigs and chickens are FORAGING, which is also free.  The sheep and goats are also enjoying the free pasture grass just like the cows.  Because these animals aren’t cooped up one atop the other, eating chemically-laden foods, receiving unnecessary drugs, or born to mothers who’ve been treated as badly, this is almost all the care they need.  This translates to quality meats at cheaper prices than you’d think, and it’s all verifiable with your own eyes at the farm.

Paleo dieters also escape the volatile price swings by NOT eating the very foods that are susceptible to them:  grains, soy, dairy, and sugar, to name a few.  They even cut their food expenses down further by resorting to methods of old:  hunting, fishing, trapping, foraging, gardening, sprouting, and bartering.  By doing these things for food, and drinking only clean water, their food costs are cut to nearly zero without sacrificing quality or nutritive value one iota.  Now they can easily afford those pastured, grass-fed, organic meats, because that’s about all they’re paying for!

There are the health benefits of eating cleanly, which are many, and the tax benefits as well:  less shopping at the stores means more gas in the tank, less fuel taxes paid at the pump, and less sales taxes paid at the register.  Health benefits include cessation and reversal of disease, lessening the need for expensive health insurance, fewer sick days from work, more productivity, and possibly more pay because of it.  We ARE talking economics, right?  In theory, if you do well, your boss and workplace do well, and you eventually reap the reward.  Demand for your skills and talents will allow you to set the price for your individual supply.

Cessation and reversal of disease can also bring about weight loss, resulting in smaller clothes to wear (and smaller price tags), less hunger (and less food to buy and eat), and more energy to devote to money-making enterprises on the side, or just more activity around the house.  Less is more—so much more!

Whether you choose to participate in the Paleo diet or not, you can still employ these methods for cheaper and cleaner eating.  With all these benefits from one diet, you have to wonder at this point exactly who’s paying too much for their food, and who’s paying too much to live overall.  Is it the 1%ers, or the 99%ers?

So I like to think I know a little bit about health, and some of the problems in society. There isn’t one single reason why the population is continuously getting in worse shape. If there was, we would be able to do a lot more about it.

But if someone came to me and asked, out of all the possible things which make people fat and unhealthy, what the top 5 most critical factors are that they can do something about… here they are in no particular order:

My Big Five

(as of 2012)

Refined Carbohydrates. There no denying, insulin stores food in your fat cells. Carbs trigger insulin. Refined carbs and sugars were not part of our diet naturally. They are addictive because our bodies are programmed to eat as much as we can and store it for times of scarcity… which never come.

Omega-6. Get rid of it. It goes under the radar, but imbalanced omega 3/6 ratio is just as bad as sugar. We have too many omega-6′s and no where near enough omega-3′s. It causes inflammation everywhere inside your body. Stop eating corn oil, ‘vegetable’ oil, rapeseed oil, soy oil and sunflower oil. The polyunsaturates, often labelled as healthy, go rancid very easily.

Sitting down. This ones got some press recently. We sit down way too much. We now work in a society where we use our head more than our hands. We did not evolve to sit around for 8 hours per day. Sitting itself isn’t natural. Try to move more.

Stress. Rather than occasional escapes from bears, we now face chronic stress caused by the pressures put on us from our everyday lives. You have no idea how closely this fluffy ambiguous word ‘stress’ is linked to aspect of your health and bodily functions.

Sleep. Not enough people get the amount of sleep, and quality of sleep they need to be optimally healthy. Stress doesn’t help, and neither does excess artifical lights which allow us to stay up all night, but end up disrupting the cclical hormonal partterns our body needs to keep itself in check.

These five things are my big 5. There are others. But you can see they are all linked together. They all have some link to the hormones in your body, which ultimately are more important than diet or exercise. This is why the most effective way to succeed in the long run is through lifestyle approaches. Sustainable long-term habits that you actually enjoy. Diets don’t work.

Here’s the second guest post courtesy of Wenchy over at wenchisdom. Here she proposes how much nutrition is actually feasible for as little money as possible using extreme paleo + frugal approach. It’s very insightful and well worth the read!

In part 1, we discussed the three-legged footstool of sacrifice, quality, and convenience, and how all three play a part in diet affordability.  Assuming that you’ve made lifestyle sacrifice(s) to obtain the quality you desire, let’s drill down a little deeper and see what else we can do for ourselves by answering a few questions:

1.  Must I “eat the rainbow”, or eat 5-a-day like I hear nutritionists and health officials tell me?  That seems like an awful lot of food, and I’m trying to keep my food budget under control.

The reason why you hear so much about “eating the rainbow”, or eating the recommended 5, 8, or even 10 servings of fruits and vegetables each day is because each color of food contains a different set of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.  In order to get an ample supply of the variety, the amount of produce items you’d need to eat each day can be huge, but there is a more efficient way to get your necessary vitamins and minerals without having to purchase so much food—food that might spoil before you get a chance to eat it, or food you might not even care to eat, or maybe can’t eat due to allergies or lack of availability.

Organ meats have all the necessary nutrients your body needs (except exotic antioxidants)—those fancy anti’s are what drives up your food bill, and takes up precious space in the fridge.  Organ meats are the cheapest meat cuts around, and if you mix your organ meats, you’ve just created the cheapest multivitamin on the planet.

Can’t stand organ meats?  Eggs place a close second.

2.  Is there another way to make nutrients available without ever having to consume a single mature fruit or vegetable, or swallow a single pill?

Enter sprouts.  Raw sprouts of all kinds offer those missing antioxidants plus a multitude of vitamins and minerals of their own. They’re cheap to grow—everyone’s got a spare empty jar, right?—easy to store, and can be eaten raw.  Guess what?  No cooking needed!  All you need is some seeds, a jar, sunlight, and a little water.  You may have to eat a semi-truck trailer full of sprouts, but hey—they’re cheap and easy to create.  Stack-able sprouters exist so you don’t have to worry about having 25 different jars of sprouts around the house.

Tip:  if you want maximum plant nutrition less carbs, sprouts have the lowest carbs around next to water, and this means all your “forbidden foods” can now be eaten in sprout form without having them go straight to your waist, and well before the plants mature into loaded carb bombs and gluten warehouses.

Having trouble believing raw sprouts carry all this nutrition?  Look it up.  I did.

3.   So liver and sprouts are pretty much all I get to eat if I want to eat on the cheap, right?

 No—you get to decide which organ meats (or eggs) to eat, how to prepare them, and which sprouts to eat with them.  The possible pairings are almost endless.

 A Word About Drinks

 All those over-hyped sports drinks on the market, as well as so-called vitamin waters, are nothing more than dressed-up sugar water. All you really need IS water!  Water contains valuable minerals in an easy-to-use form, and for some of us (namely renters), it’s free. Spring water is best, but a carbon-activated faucet filter will do nicely.  Well water users almost have no choice but to buy bottled water, and if you’re one of them, stay away from distilled, or reverse-osmosis, or water from another municipal water supply—those minerals have been stripped away at differing degrees, and are no longer available to you.  Stick with spring water if you can get it.

Eating on a Dime

 Now that we’ve shortened the shopping list down to bare essentials, let’s take another look at that rainbow:  it went from the primary-color-based one in the sky to one made up of brown (or white), green, and clear.  You may hear and read that other foods may be essential, such as coconut milk, avocados, chocolate, and such, but ask yourself this:  where are those colors in the rainbow?  They’re not there, are they?  Even clear, the color of water, isn’t there, yet a rainbow is made up of water and sunlight.  I guess you could say the rainbow is all about water, and “eating the rainbow” is all about eating your water!

 Eating the rainbow is really all about warding off chronic diseases gained from eating too much junk foods and taking in too many toxins for a lengthy amount of time.  If you don’t ingest those foods/toxins in the first place, you don’t need to worry so much about illness, or those fancy anti’s.  However, if you feel you MUST have them, look into herbs and spices—they pack much more of an antioxidant wallop than regular foods, and are easy to obtain and store.

 Tip:  Don’t get those spices in the normal spice aisle of the grocery store…you know…the ones pushed by Mickey C (McCormick). Take the time to look in the foreign foods aisle—if you notice the price per unit on the shelf label, something as simple as bottles of bay leaves can cost close to $20/lb. in the regular location, but be as cheap as $2.39/lb. three aisles over in little plastic bags.  Warehouse stores are even cheaper per unit, and you only buy (and pay sales taxes) once or twice yearly, depending on usage.  Growing herbs yourself is even cheaper still—they’re fresher and tax-free!

 If you look in nature, you’ll see that brightly-colored animals are living warning signs of “Don’t eat me—I’m poisonous!”  If this bright warning color system works for animals, why doesn’t it work for food?  You have to wonder.

 With all the low-cost foods listed above plus water, you could probably eat the absolute highest quality, most nutritive food substances this earth has to offer, for about $5/day, depending on costs of organ meats–that amount of money is less than what food stamp recipients get to spend each day.  Now that you have more money to spend, I suggest you look into cleaner sources of foods to avoid those hidden and not-so-hidden toxins.

 Welcome to the land of cheap eating.  Next up in Part 3:  Defining Quality.

Seventeen UK companies have signed up to the government’s calorie reduction pledge.

I can’t begin to try and explain how stupid an idea I think this is. I’m not gonna lie, yes, most people who are over weight are eating more calories that they need to, but making companies take calories out of products isn’t the solution. It’s another stupid government solution, where rather than tackle the cause of the problem they start pulling levers to control the rats in the cage, whether it be financially, or through regulations.

Why is this a bad idea?

• If there was a significant reduction in the number of calories people consume, their bodies will notice. You can’t fool them. People won’t think twice about reaching for another snack on top of their usual snacks if they are still not satisfied.

• Schemes like this promote a mentality of letting the government worry about your health, which is the worst thing to try and push towards the people that most need the help.

• Calories aren’t the biggest problem. Yes they do play a part, but none of the companies reducing their calories are talking about reducing refined sugar in their products. High sweetness is what makes some of the foods in question so addictive in the first place. And if the calories are reduced by taking out fat (the easiest way to cut them in any product), the combination of high sweetness with low calories will fail to satisfy, make the addiction worse and people will simply… wait… buy more.

• Do you think prices will go down? So if a Mars bar contains 30% less calories, that means they put less ingredients in right? This means they save money. Somehow I can’t see them reducing prices in this economic climate. 

• Therefore will it help the company’s profits go up.

• And finally, why is the food industry playing a part in setting government recommendations?! I know folks in the US see UK and Europe and less politically corrupt, but I’d say we’re not far behind at all.

Idiots.

Rant Over.

Rant below if you like.

The following is a guest post from Wenchy over at wenchwisdom. Times are hard, for some more than others. And a lot of people argue the Paleo diet is out of reach for the low earners. Wenchy argues otherwise, using the perspective of those who live a frugal lifestyle – a whole other ball game. ENJOY!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The cries are everywhere:  from media, from people themselves, from meat industries, you name it:  “The Paleo diet is TOO expensive for low-income earners to carry out.  Besides, the diet has all kinds of downsides!”

Like retirement, feeding yourself has a three-legged footstool—the legs are convenience, sacrifice, and quality.  If you are willing to sacrifice convenience for quality, the stool stays balanced.  If you want quality, but are unwilling to sacrifice something for it, or rely less on convenience, the stool will not balance or be level—it’s that simple.

To care for yourself properly, whether Paleo/Primal or not, there are hard truths you need to know:

1. It’s harder to do an adequate job of balancing the footstool alone—you need a spouse or partner of some sort to help you select, pay for, and prepare the food.  There are only 24 hours in each day, and 8 are for work, 8-10 are needed for sleep, leaving you about 6 to do everything else—and this DOES NOT include kids or any travel time!  Relying on convenience may look like saving time, but it means you’re at the mercy of the producer for ingredients, nutrients, chemicals, packaging, overdoses and deficits.  You may be saving time NOW, but you won’t get that saved time back later…not even as you’re on your back in a hospital somewhere dying.  There is no invisible savings account for time!

In the frugal living communities, one spouse usually becomes a stay-at-home partner while the other one works full-time, or has many jobs.  The tax code enables them to afford this, because a non-working spouse provides additional CREDITS AND DEDUCTIONS to the working spouse’s one income.   Even though most frugal living eaters do not practice Paleo/Primal eating, and consume “forbidden foods”, they are able to save enough through the tax credits/deductions to afford to stock up on regularly-eaten foods, as well as fund retirement accounts, and some even health savings plans, in addition to healthy savings accounts.

Unfortunately, single people and same-sex spouses are unable to take advantage of this portion of the tax code.  If there was ever an incentive to GET married (even if in name only), this may very well be it!

2. You cannot have it all—the recession and enduring downturn should tell you that.  If you want to maintain balance, you’re going to have to lighten the load somewhere—whether it’s creature comforts, food variety, or food quality, the footstool must be balanced, and YOU get to decide how you’re going to do it.  There is no shame in cutting the cable, ditching the TV, selling that second car, downsizing to a smaller home or apartment, taking an additional job or having a sideline business, selling blood/sperm, collecting cans/bottles/scrap metal, doing WHATEVER you have to do to maintain footstool balance if that is your aim—otherwise, don’t be afraid to saw off one of the three legs for awhile, planning to reattach it later.

Frugal living enthusiasts eagerly cut the TV feeds, the TV itself, sell the car, sell whatever they can, make stuff for sale, make/grow stuff from scratch to avoid the commercial cost and marketing onslaught that comes with it, downshift where necessary, shorten the shopping list, and all the other stuff mentioned above in order to make ends meet easily, and THEY SACRIFICE WITH PRIDE.  They know they cannot have it all, so they stop trying.  The bank balance shows it.

3. Quality is in the eye of the eater—know how you’re going to define “quality” before you seek it, and have a plan to pay for it.  If you’ve already made sacrifices and gained a partner, you should be able to afford to embark on a quality search.  Define your parameters for quality:  does it involve maximum nutrients per serving?  Maximum Omega-3 per serving?  Total antioxidant count per serving?  Less sodium and sugar intake? Avoidance of chemical-laden commercial creation and processing? Again, you get to decide.  You also get to decide if organic food is really necessary, and if so, which foods must be organic.  You’ll find a handy guide here: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/list/

To make a “quality” assessment, first consider any illnesses that may be haunting you, what ultimately created these illnesses, and what you can do to reverse or prevent further damage—then you have to find the appropriate foods to help you do that.  Foods that have none of the ingredients or substances that are making you (or keeping you) ill should be avoided, so a journey to discover what you should be AVOIDING should probably be first on the list, followed by what you should be EATING.

Just as the Chinese achieved economic powerhouse status by taking many chemical-laden shortcuts, our own farmers and ranchers have also gone down this road to PRESERVE what economic power they had, and the result is chronic mass sickness.  This sickness will continue for however long people continue to eat the cheaply-raised meats and other foods, and the cost of this ongoing sickness has already reached our doors and wallets.

To escape this tidal wave of cost and lingering illness, try to improve the quality of your food—this will mean sacrifice, partnership, or both, but it’s TOTALLY WORTH IT in the end.

Frugal living enthusiasts (again) strive for some sort of quality by buying raw, whole foods from the cheapest source they can find, and they prepare meals from scratch—whether it’s meat from hunting, fishing, a cow-share program or CSA, an agricultural college, bartering, or self-raising; or it’s vegetables and fruit from gardening or sprouting, CSA programs, gleaning, foraging, bartering, or roadside farm stands, or even grains, beans/legumes from feed stores in bulk bags, they always aim for the highest quality source at the lowest prices.  This usually means cutting out the retail middleman (the grocery and health food stores)—in other words, they sacrifice convenience and time for some sort of quality.  The more sacrifice made, the better the quality.  They also know nothing good ever came out of a can, box, jar, or bag unless they themselves put it in there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before you jump on the next good-sounding diet bandwagon, decide what your personal priorities are, figure out how you’re going to achieve them, and if it will be worth it to you in the end.  Don’t just expect the world to conform to your personal lifestyle and economic needs just so you can get what YOU want—if better eating and living is a priority to you, make a plan to eventually get there by conforming your lifestyle and economics to IT.  A great many of us already have plans in place:  a sufficient income to start with, or made up the difference with many sacrifices, enlisting the help of a spouse or partner, and deciding on what constitutes quality—sometimes through the help of an on-line community.  Some have done a combination of the above, and are enjoying the ride of better health through improved nutrition and food quality.

You also get to decide where the excess goes from your partnership-sacrifice-quality efforts go:  into more quality food, maybe your retirement plan, maybe back into your present lifestyle, or maybe into improving aspects of your lifestyle (such as education), or maybe the good old savings account.  All I know is you can’t get there from sitting on the couch, moaning about how you just can’t afford to do it, when so many others have, and continue to each day.

There is nothing listed above that you can’t do for yourself, no matter how you choose eat!