movnat... eatnat... lovnat...

PARKOUR [French] = PARK YOUR FACE ON THE GROUND [j/k]

George Hébert 'Being strong to be useful...'

Young Erwan Le Corre was inspired by George Hébert before taking his parkour urban skills and Ironman talents out to structured workshops focused on training and teaching others the lifestyle he put together. Approximately 100 years ago, Hébert's training manual Methode Naturelle was published and can be seen HERE (picture above courtesy Hawaii Parkour/Hébert; last photo credits to Diablo Crossfit my playground). A big fan of 'natural' movements by indigenous and African cultures, Hébert was one of the first advocates for obstacle-course form of physical training and embracing a melding of mind, spirit and body with nature.

Nick Heil of Outside magazine attended one of the Re-Awakening MovNat workshops (along with bloggers Melissa McEwen and David Csonka), survived, and wrote up the experience in a moving essay.

Richard Nikoley attended one of the advanced Expansion workshops which I very very briefly considered. Read FTA for highlights and vids HERE. Bummer. Should've gone *sigh regret*. Playing and hanging out with buff, half-nekkid, hot gals and guys for 5 days and nights... what was I thinking?? Who's going to Thailand?

Functional usefulness from Crossfit... YEAH BABY.

Recently I successfully climbed up and broke into a 2nd story apartment.

Had to be done. Accidentally we locked ourselves out and the 3 year old was cold and hungry. After doing a half-split on the outside stairway to reach the balcony, without clumsiness, I snookered up, scaled around the balcony where it was covered by a bamboo fence, then hoisted over with a light landing in front of the sliding door I'd left open earlier while I was sunning myself reading 'My Dirty Life: On Farming, Food and Love.' Multiple warnings were issued to the pre-teens (my kids and the older nieces) -- DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME. *haa ah* Naturally they'll ignore since I let them climb the toolshed at home. I think functional exercises are excellent because never know when you'll need them, and falling or breaking my leg would've been awfully horrible and traumatic for the children...




MovNat featured in Outside Magazine Jan 2011 article by Paleo-virgin Nick Heil

Click above for full article with pictures from the 5-day Re-Awakening Workshop and several extra features (collage pictures, demos -- kids please do this at home!)

Heil wrote about the final day's activities which included a gauntlet of physical challenges in the fasted stated, "Wearing only shorts and a dark-green bandanna, and streaked with mud as if someone had outlined his muscles with a black magic marker, he [Erwan Le Corre] looked downright feral. 'Adaptability is the holy grail of MovNat,' he told us. 'This is what we have done throughout human history. But we have lost touch with the world that created us.' "


Functionality=Flexibility=Strength

All the best athletes I have come across are extremely limber and flexible as felines. Personally my best athletic performances are when I am doing yoga and more endurance type challenges. If one notices in Methode Naturelle, many of the stretches are inherent to yoga. They translate to fluid and cat-like grace.

Strength benchmarks aren't my forte but I looked at Erwan's expectations and they were all do-able.

Benchmarks for Functional Fitness: Prequisites for the Expansion Workshop

Can you do the below?

Self-assessment criteria for this course:
o You are comfortable barefoot or with minimal shoes. --YES
o You can run 10 kilometers (a 10k) in under 50 minutes easily (an 8minute mile pace) --NO but d*mn good 9-10min mile easily
o You can easily perform 10 explosive pull-ups in a row --NO I SUCK.
o You have some powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting experience and can at least deadlift and squat your own bodyweight and clean and jerk half your body weight --YEEESSSSSSSS!!! 120-125lbs baby...
o You can hold a well-aligned plank pose for at least a minute, you can do 20 successive walking lunges while maintaining your stability, and you can at least vertical jump up to your knee-level and long jump half your height from a static posture then stabilize your body easily. --NOOO PROBLEMO
o You can comfortably swim freestyle and backstroke. --YES
o You can hold your breath at least one minute and 30 seconds. --OF COURSE
o You have no serious health issues that prevent you from performing optimally including injuries that you must work around. --CHOCOLATE, CAFFEINE AND ALCOHOL WITHDRAWAL SYNDROMES???! DTs?

#1 Male Model: Body Fat Loss and Muscle Mass (nsfw)

Dear Gentle Female Readers (and my hawwt gay fans)... is your winter a bit icy or chilly?

THAW OUT!

David Gandy Interview
Jonathon Ross Show
April 2010

Getting Into Fighting/Dolce&Gabana Shape: Gandy's own words

1. Cut all carbs out (at 2:02 of interview)
2. Go to the gym everyday
3. Don't have any booze
4. I love a biscuit... all my food and everything... you just cut everything out...



Need I convey more?

[Images: courtesy celebitchy.com (hot guy friday series *haa ah*)]



About creamed my pants again when I saw the latest January 2011 Elle magazine...

Featured 3 remarkable things:


1) WHY WE GET FAT by Gary Taubes on the front cover 'What Makes You Fat: how to change your body for good' (see below copyright violation) He describes frustration with medical professionals and the lack of skeptism among them for science (e.g. bad science). 'All we're talking about is that carbohydrates are fattening. Some are more fattening than others...'

2) SJP and her tight, marvelous ballet body [and rack]

3) Pamela Salzman, petite nutrition guru to the celebrities, and her cookfest in the Elle Living Food section. For optimal health she is advocating unrefined, hormone-free foods and shunning gluten, sugar and vegetable oils. Starkly WOW. Beverly Hills is cashing in on the paleo movement without calling it P to the A to the L to the E to the O.


Pantry Swap tips from Salzman's:

Out: Harsh table salt
In: Moderate amounts of mineral-rich unrefined salts -- Celtic, Himalayan, or Maldon -- can be healing.

Out: Overprocessed oils such as corn, canola, and soybean
In: Cold-pressed olive, COCONUT, and sesame oils; they boost immunity

Out: Too much gluten-laden wheat, spelt, rye, and barley
In: Brown rice, quinoa, millet, amaranth, legumes, sweet potatoes, and corn

Out: Mass-produced, hormone-riddled animal meat
In: Happier animals raised in their natural environments; find sources at localharvest.org

Image courtesy of Elle

Walter Willett: Do 2 Wrongs Make a Right?

Do 2 wrongs make a right?

Toast to the Scumbags
Kanye feat. Pusha T
Courtesy Youtube.com

It is often funny all the things that so-called brilliant Harvard chairpeople say... Dr. Willett MD **like me** studied 'conventional' food science as an undergrad (him, Michigan State; me, UC Berkeley). I would guess that both our studies taught us nothing except he didn't get the low-fat agenda because that was prior to 1977. At least I believe I learned how to read nutritional studies... or in other words learned how to read between the lines. Mmmhh... Willett?? I'm not certain he would recognize 'bad science' since he is a premier epidemiologist... Is epidemiology a lost field?

That Paleo Guy aka Jamie Scott at his (newer) blog recently talked about Dr. Willett's apparent reversal on carbs when he was quoted in the LA Times HERE. I like Jamie's points of contention.

On one hand Dr. Willett defends tropical (fruit) saturated fats like coconut oil recognizing that 'coconut oil has a powerful HDL-boosting effect' (see HERE Harvard letter response #3) yet in half of an instant later he proposes that we 'fatten up our diets' to 40% with [HDL-lowering] PUFAs and monounsaturated oils like soybean, corn and canola and VEHEMENTLY eschews saturated fats to no more than a threshold level of maximum 8% daily. He's a strong proponent of replacing 5% of carbs with more PUFAs like corn, sun, soy, safflower oils and trans-fat free M-A-R-G-A-R-I-N-E. Yes. Lowering carbs will raise HDL. PUFAs on the other hand raise inflammatory and blood thickening markers and LOWER HDL-cholesterol levels. Omega-6 veggie oils are associated with death, all-cause mortality, cancer, infertility, obesity and chronic disease in epidemiology studies (if you are into those).


Eh? OMG Margarine isn't food!!! Even my children can tell you that.

COG DISSONANCE?

Let's blow up his pyramid which he describes in both Harvard literature and in his book 'Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy.' The pyramid on the L-side is from GILLIAN, a paleo blogger; the R-side, Dr. Willett, his book and Harvard propaganda. See below.

[Edit: credits, fixed grudgepudge -- Thank you gilliebean and Sean]


What do you notice?

Things I did enjoy, admittedly, about the Willett The Healthy Eating Pyramid:
--inclusion of alcohol (yes, and not for everyone)
--inclusion of micronutrients and vitamin D supplementation
--daily play and exercise as the base and foundation of good health
--sparing use of sweets, candy, sugar
--mod to heavy use of fish, poultry, eggs (for CHOLESTEROL, CHOLESTEROL, CHOLESTEROL, taurine, omega-3, choline, B-vits, iodine, selenium, minerals, other vital nutrients)



What I vehemently disagree with and that the scientific evidence backs up:
--lack of saturated fats and the brain building block, cholesterol
--lack of saturated fat sources which contain CLA, vitamin A, carotenoids, vitamin D, stigmasterol, and vitamin K2 (e.g. organ meats, red meat, fermented dairy, palm oil, etc)
--lack of saturated fats which raise HDLs and support the nervous and immune systems
--lack of red meat which our carnivore-like hunter-gatherer forebears thrived on
--excessive use of industrial mono- and polyunsaturated fats ('X' WRONG) which are industrial, overheated, over-solvented, pesticide-ridden crop byproducts
--reliance on whole-disease-inducing, gut-dysbiosing, phytate-, lectin-toxic grains ('X' WRONG)



In an article titled Time to Fatten Up Our Diet (Sept 2007), Dr. Willett advocates a higher fat diet of 40% with a maximum 8% saturated, leaving the rest monoun- and poly- (therefore I'd guestimate ~16% and ~16% respectively). WTF 16% OMEGA-6 POLYUNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS?? I'd consider max 4-6%/day and mostly omega-3s ALA EPA DHA.



Other resources:

o Epidemiological studies (which I don't like but hey here they are here):

--Higher omega-6 associated with insulin resistance in ACS, omega-3 better HOMA (insulin resistance)

--Higher omega-6 associated with more mental retardation

--Rural Okayama women: in city girls higher omega-6 (lower omega-3) associated with lower HDLs compared with rural women



o Prospective human clinical trials (good studies -- macronutrients carbs and protein held generally constant unless noted):

--n=41 healthy men and women: higher dietary omega-6 oils lower HDLs dramatically, saturated fat raises HDLs (see table 3)

--n=10 septic shock patients in the ICU: n-6 lipid infusion impaired and worsened neutrophil function compared with n-3 lipid infusions. Not good in non-septic individuals either...

--n=26 healthy men: increasing omega-6 (linoleic acid, LA) increases CRP and IL-6 (inflammatory markers) though not statistically significant this time. Raising dietary omega-6 also lowers omega-3 RBC EPA levels (e.g. this is a BAD thing). The high n-6 diet produces the lowest protective HDL2 subfractions compared with n-3 and saturated fat. See table 3, 2nd column is I believe n-6 diet. HDL2 are the large, fluffy HDLs and most disease-protective 'good cholesterol' subfraction. Raising HDL2 is always good (unless it's a drug like the lethal torcetrapib and its cousins). The high saturated fat diet produced the lowest Lp(a) and von Willebrand factor (pro-inflammatory) levels. Omega-3 specifically raises HDL2.

--n=11 healthy men: @constant calories, low fat diet v. high fat raised VLDL and Triglycerides HERE. Low fat however did lowered omega-6 (LA) blood levels which may be the only perceived benefit if you discount the negative consequences (higher sdLDL and Trigs).

--n=58 healthy men and women: high n-6 diet (12.7% sunflower oil) produces the lowest HDL2 subfraction (p < 0.05). Wheras, baseline high saturated fat (19.3%) diet produces the best, highest HDLs. Isn't that a surprise. Authors conclusions [LOVE THIS] 'Both diets [15.1% mono-/rapeseed and 12.7% polyunsaturated/sunflower] lowered the level of HDL cholesterol in men but not in women.' *haa aha!* Sunflower oil will kill men faster than women! These authors are advanced. They also measured stigmasterol dietary content (see Table 2). Yes rapeseed contains stigmasterol. However. I'd prefer to obtain my stigmasterol pre-digested from grass-fed, pastured bovine, porcine and poultry sources (ghee, meat, egg yolks, etc), thankyouverymuchyoudietaryMORONS. See WAPF about stigmasterol=Wulzen Factor: the skinny on fats.

--n=15 Free living, college female students: both mutant soybean and commercial soybean oil diets significantly diminished HDLs compared with coconut oil in 3wk staggered feedings. 35% fat diet; did carbs go down? I dunno can't tell from the abstract. Trigs did so I suspect so. High fat usually translates to lower carbs (which should RAISE HDLs unless you are pounding soybean oil at 10% of dietary energy wtf).


o Good Calories, Bad Calories by G. Taubes -- description of Harvard, a playing field for the stalwarts of the low saturated fat dogma-drama that began with Ancel Keys (and his falsification/omission of critical data) and continuing with Harv-tard Dr. Frederick J. Stare MD, whose bed partners included all the big, refined, processed food industry leaders and lobbyists (Nabisco, Kellogg, etc).

o Interview by Taubes of Walter Willett for ScienceWatch

o Prior animal pharm in support of saturated fats from animals and tropical oils (hey our HDLs increased >> 100 mg/dl -- pharmaceuticals cannot compare) : Benefits of Sat Fats series

Advantages Going Paleo (No Grains): Improved Stool Quality (less wiping), Odorless Flatulence, More 'Spurty' and More SUPER S*X

Xavier Naidoo:
Dieser Weg
[The Way...stony and hard]

Love love LOVE Paleohacks.com, Patrik's site and all the stunning and ridiculously incredible friends and threads there...

My favorite threads:
o Some Small and Quirky Changes Noticed Since Going Paleo
o Hemachromatosis (see Melissa's notes)
o Known Neolithic Adaptations to Food
o Paleo Sex Questions (naturally)



Is paleo easy? Well. Sometimes the way may be stony and hard but you may see the advantages are often worthwhile trying to pursue... *ha aha* Or. It's. Stony. And. Hard.
ALSO, yes. Night vision is cool.

Food P*rn: Hamburg, Germany

Food P*orn in Hamburg

Staying off the harbor in Hamburg, Germany (with the big Disney cruise within sight from the restaurant) we had one of the best breakfast buffets I've ever had. Steak tartare appeared only once the 4 days we were there but it was F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S. I have to limit eating raw meat in front of my husband too frequently (it grosses him out (and I don't get laid)) ...but risking happiness is sometimes worth other joys in life! Generous lox and cream became a superb morning ritual. A bright chopped beet cream sauce and relish were awesome accompaniments. The coffee and espresso in Europe was like extra strong CRACK, I dunno why. Dig the yogurt (yeah with muesli -- yes it's grain -- kick me off paleo-island?). German yogurt ROCKS and about 8 varieties were available. It appeared full fat to me. No where could I translate 'low fat' at the buffet bar. Look at the deep, carotenoid-rich-pumpkin-orange egg yolks!

On Thanksgiving eve of all places at the hotel restaurant, we had a traditionally roasted German duck which is only available seasonally during the fall/winter. WOW. Succulent, rich and earthy. Duck is one of the birds of I love because it is ALL LOVELY DARK MEAT. Wish I had pictures but the ducky didn't make the cut *haa* (my kids deleted).

P.S.
BTW Very rare did I see anyone IN EUROPE APPEAR OVERWEIGHT, OBESE, OR MORBIDLY OBESE COMPARED TO THE UNITED STATES. Just an empirical, clinical observation.

Transcendance: Practicing Evolution (Bruce Lipton PhD)

Agri-Dynamics: Jerry Brunetti

I have no idea who this is but I've researched topics lately and his name popped up numerous times. Melissa discussed briefly in her Wise Traditions Recap: HERE. Brunetti is doing some kind of wonderful work regarding meat sourcing and good pastured livestock.

Two excellent slide presentions I happened to flip across by Brunetti are below, which scintillate down why good gut flora maintenance is of the utmost importance and how DIET DIET DIET and nutraceuticals can cure/reverse/improve gut imbalances caused by drugs, antibiotics, bad-nonpastured-meat, modern living, S.A.D. high carb/high grain diets. The value of digestive, pancreatic enzymes are also discussed.

• Health From The Gut Up, Jerry Brunetti
• The Link Between Nutrition, Jerry Brunetti

What I Liked About Brunetti's Slides

In the first slide these are the points I enjoyed the most below and in the second, the list of resources and books is fantastic.

--slide 22 and 23 are EXCELLENT
--slide 42 explains indicanuria -- intestinal toxemia on sophisticated diagnostic lab testing (neurologic, GI, skin, and every organ system with chronic conditions described)
--slide 61 treatment strategies incl pre- probiotics, betaine, digestive enzymes (previously I discussed the value and role enzymes under NEOLITHIC CHEATING)
--slide 63 Brent's relative Dr. Pottenger mentioned -- adding gelatin for glycine which is gut healing/improves glutathione/anti-inflammatory, etc




Role of Politics: Food Business

WAP-Pottenger are great -- I wish I had known about the value of traditional eating before I had my children and given them the epigenetic benefits of our Hakka and asian genes. Though I know it is not too late, what we all fight against as parents is indeed the government. This is a common theme to paleo parents I've had the opportunity to talk in depth with. We fight sanctioned USDA food choices in the school cafeteria and the all pervasive USDA grain-based-6-to-11-servings-daily food pyramid of TOXIC POISON which are then perverted and pimped by food processing companies and television commercials. Even well-intentioned family and friends try to push their CRACK on my children. Yes. Expected but yet annoying.

As a parent, hard to be challenged against all that... not to mention the frequent cake, pizza and juice/soda parties and social events. Yes my kids will say 'no' to illegal drugs but legalized P I Z Z A, which is more addictive than CRACK ??!


Government Solutions? Not Holding Breath

The permanence of the current food policies are cracking but will it happen soon enough? Even Andrew Weil is pushing a more grain-free diet approach that is lower in dangerous refined carbohydrates. Yes. See his July HuffPo post: "The saturated fat lauded in this menu [of an establishment in Arizona known as the *chuckle* Heart Attack Grill] won't kill you. It may even be the safest element of the meal... If you visit, I implore you to steer clear of the white-flour buns, the sugary sodas and the piles of "flatliner fries..."

Yes. Additionally in the HuffPo, Weil promotes and advocates Gary Taubes and the body of evidence in GCBC.

This is exciting because as far as I am aware Dr. Weil is involved with the only integrative medicine program in the medical academic training program. R U Considering med school and being indoctrinated in prescribing gluten CRACK?? Even Weil's program is mutating to reason and SANITY. *haa ah!*



Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman: Transcendent Solutions, Practicing Evolution

In one of the last chapters in Bruce Lipton's recent seminal work, co-authored with Steve Bhaerman, called 'Spontaneous Evolution,' negotiations and problem solving become the core focus. He puts it succinctly 'A primary function of politics is to develop policies that preempt conflict. Conflict is a natural part of human lfe and social interactions and should not be confused with violence, which is the most dysfunctional way to handle conflict. Conflict derives from incompatabilities between two or mroe opinions, principoles or interests. Because conflict usually involves contradictory goals, resuoltuion can occur when something -- the goals or expectations regarding those goals -- is changed.' Obviously he states 'careful and respectful listening by all participants is required...' and how to arrive at ideal problem solving he consults negotiation experts like Norwegian Johan Galtung who seek 'the fifth way' or 'fivers'. Galtun was the mediator in the Peru-Ecuador border negotiations (solution: no borders). Galtung pushes that each conflict has 5 potential remedies:

1. I win. You lose
2. You win. I lose.
3. Negative Transcendence in which the problem is solved by avoiding it entirely
4. Compromise in which each wins by agreeing to lose a little
5. Transcendence, which produces a resolution above and beyond the problem.




Indiana Farmer and His Sheep

Lipton and Bhaerman tell wonderful, clever stories. They recount how an Indiana farmer found the neighbor's dogs killing all his herds of sheep. 'Too often the way of solving such problems involved confrontation, threats, lawsuits, barbed wire fences, and, potentially, shotguns. This particular farmer had a better idea. He gave his neighbor's children lambs as pets. This out-of-the-box solution established a win-win proposition: for the sake of the children's adorable pets, the neighbors voluntarily tied up their dogs, and the families became friends.'



Collectively We Face Exciting Times

Paleo people want change. Fat people want change (because they (and previously ME) eternally keep buying 'diet books'). Unhealthy people want change. Right? Maybe...

Something is changing (*haa ah* Dr.Oz with polyps is useless and Oprah has gained weight again) and hopefully we won't have to wait forever.

I've found paleo people to be extremely transcendant and clever... Thoughts... solutions?

Shawn Mullins and The Thorns:
No Blue Sky

Blog-asm II: More Bloggers Disrupting 'the Fabric of Society'

Shawn Mullins
Can't Remember Summer

Yes.

YESSS...

YYYYYEEEES...!! [emphatically slam table moan] *haaa aha*



More BLOGGERS... including the masterful GARY TAUBES!

Please ck out new additions to the blogroll and booklist on R-side column...







Evolutionary Biologist Michael Rose and His Secret of Non-Aging/Immortality

Do you follow Ray Kurzweil? He's a G-E-N-I-U-S. Had a chronic condition and beat it.

A writer at Kurzweil's site recently posted on evolutionary biologist Michael Rose from UC Irvine (picture courtesy of KurzweilAI.net). Prof Rose believes aging is a byproduct of evolution however can be halted or plateaued.

I agree.

The paleo diet is a cornerstone to his evidence-based strategies.


How To Achieve 'Biolgical Immortality' Naturally: Michael Rose

He believes also Euroasians have a special buffer capacity to aging however still need to adhere to a hunter-gather diet and lifestyle for optimal non-aging after age 35 to 40. I thinks explains partly why some people do neoLETHAL diets and are still fine physiologically but others big failures. Our ancestral past determines much...




Rose’s Natural Recipe for Immortality: 4 Keys

“With this recipe, I feel, many of you could be alive, basically, indefinitely,” Rose said.

o Adopt a hunter-gatherer lifestyle after 35 to 40 if Eurasian, earlier if ancestry is less Eurasian. If younger than 30 and Eurasian, continue on a post-agricultural revolution diet (or Andrew Weil-style diet).

o Use the best modern medicine

o Use autologous (from your own cells) tissue repair as it becomes available in five or more years

o Use next-generation pharmaceuticals in the next 10 or more years






See prior animal pharm:

** MAGIC OF MELATONIN: Melatonin increases stem cells in Bone Marrow (stem cells are your own autologous repair machines)... now... not 5 yrs from now...
** Bone Marrow


Thank you to SWEET SWEET SWEENEY for the initial inspirations and understanding of melatonin...