A DAY OF MOURNING!!!

Life is precious! If you follow the math (future post) we are pretty much all related. Today nothing much matters except expressing our condolences and offering our support for the families of those slain in the Newton Connecticut school shooting massacre.

No words can suppress your sorrows! Speaking on my and my family's behalf my thoughts and prayers are with you all. Sorry for your loss.

I pray that you may find a way to deal with this. At the end of the day we need to work together and help each other during these times. We should work diligently towards finding any means we can to help prevent these terrifying and useless acts!

My heart goes out to all of you!!!

 

Forget the WHY already, show me the HOW!!!

Why are we fat? This a great question the medical and nutrition field need to ask. It is invaluable for research to be done in this area to help us uncover the myriad of reasons behind our growing obesity epidemic. Knowing why always helps with the solution.

The challenge, or frustration we face right now, is we can't keep waiting for all the answers to come in! People's lives are being cut short due to this problem. Not too mention the emotional toll we face when we are overweight! Knowing why, although extremely helpful in most circumstances, cannot hold up possible solutions.

And what are those solutions? Tons of different diets, bariatric surgery, gym memberships, purported weight loss pills, fat loss camps, liposuction and related fat loss remedies. It is a multi billion dollar industry and it's growing as rapidly as the obesity epidemic. Unfortunately where there is a market for profit there is a market for scams and methods that are nothing more than short term solutions.

"So where is the HOW? You have not given me anything in the way of a HOW!" Mmm, a bit antsy are we? The HOW for most of us is simple in it's form. Simple not easy! Every time I hear a skinny person, although they are getting to be fewer and fewer of them, say "It's all about willpower" or "Get off the couch you lazy bum and stop stuffing your face" or some other less than intelligent assesment of the situation, I shake my head in frustration.

If you have never experienced being really overweight, you are literally clueless in understanding what goes on in that persons head! Clueless! Although the causes of how we got to be overweight, may vary from person to person the pain and suffering are always there! The pain and suffering is almost universal. So is the frustration. The helplessness. The embarrassment. Yeah we can smile, we can party, we can have fun but we have keen peripheral vision. We can see when a young child points and laughs or makes a comment to their friends or family. We can see the look on peoples faces. And of course there are the never ending comments from friends and family that go something like "Alavao, como has engordado." Oops, sorry that's from the Hispanic side of the family I meant comments like " Wow you've gotten fatter!" Oh and the one women really love to hear "but you have such a pretty face. If only..."

I'm not avoiding the HOW. The fact is that the HOW can be pretty depressing to hear at first. The HOW is not really cozy or cuddly and will not give you fuzzy feeling when you first hear it, but it works! I'm living proof.

And the HOW varies. Although the main essence of the HOW is the same, there are nuances that need to be personalized for each of us. This is where the why is important. The universal why is important but what you want to first address is your why.

Why are you overweight? No, you are not lazy! No, it's not because you don't have willpower! Take those offensive and fake "reasons" off the list! Self doubt and fear are powerful "corruptors" of our true self potential. Make no mistake, there are lots of valid known and yet to be discovered reasons why we as a species are getting fatter faster and easier than ever before in our history. Nevertheless if we are to tackle this successfully we need to begin within ourselves.

Looking inward will help us achieve two important and invaluable lessons. First it will make us "slow down" and take the time to reflect and explore our mind for answers. In today's lightning fast paced lifestyle we seldom have time to have a "one on one" with ourselves. If you are to succeed long term you need to live as the human animal that we are. We are not accustomed to this fast paced technological madness we call life! Looking inward and taking this time to reflect is not what we may want to do, but it is essential. We don't get overweight overnight and we will not lose it overnight. This is a continuous path. There is no "do this now then do that later" effective way to maintain long term success with weight management. Slowing it down will give us the inner confidence and begin to outfit us with the right tools to combat this adversary! We want to resist reflecting inward. We want to lose weight now! This lack of patience contributed to our predicament. And if we don't break all the bad habits we will return to them!

Secondly, it will further arm us with "inside" information that we can use to battle this "monster" appropriately. Once you discover your personal why, and it may take a while, you are no longer a victim of ignorance. You will go from being a hapless victim to a combatant. A warrior. You will develop the confidence and inner strength that comes with the fact that you are now taking an active role in regaining your rightful position in the general scheme of things. You can show your "adversary" that you are patient. You will show more patience than him!

"OK Mr. Paleo Nouveau guy, and why is this so important? Patience? What has that got to do with being overweight?" Everything! Fat is the most patient adversary there is! How many people you know that followed a diet, lost tons of weight only to regain it again? What about Lipo? Or bariatric surgery? You can lose the fat but you can't never ever beat it! All you can do is out wait it. It does not matter what system you use to lose weight, you will regain it all back and then some if you do not address your personal why! Losing weight is easy compared to keeping it off. Fat will always be sitting around patiently waiting and salivating eagerly for you to stop the utter futility of a short term weight loss solution, regardless of the system. Fat is treacherously wise. He knows you cannot keep it up long term. He resides within you and literally knows you inside and out.

Not what you wanted to hear? I warned you it wasn't going to make you feel warm and fuzzy! The truth is, we want to hear there is an easy way to do it. This is where perception becomes everything! This information can be hard or easy. For me it was easy. I approached it as any other addict. You cannot get an addict to stop unless he wants to. You can detox him (diet for us) but all that does is take away his physical need for their drug of choice. Unless they understand their WHY and are now willing to do whatever it takes to regain their life they will not succeed. Once they truly desire to overcome their addiction intensely then the proper methods can be learned and applied to combat their demons and succeed.

Once I hit rock bottom and decided to treat this problem with a long term outlook and not worry about time frames, it became manageable. It was harder at the beginning. It became easier with time and small victories. By not giving myself the undue stress of a time frame I allowed myself to "slow it down." I kept looking inward for clarity and with time and perseverance answers came forth.

The HOW begins with understanding your WHY.  If you wish to start with a nutritional regimen (diet) that will get you closer to your target healthy weight quicker, you can do so, provided you understand and accept that this is not a long term solution. It is only a quick jump impetus for you to use as a tool to motivate yourself.

We will go deeper into the HOW in part 2. Yes there will be more questions. Yes it takes time. Yes it's tedious at times. Of course you will find it frustrating after all you don't erect a strong beautiful structure overnight. And yes, YOU are worth every second of it!

Anatomy of a well meaning article.

Came across this article a few weeks back. I'm sure the author has all the right intentions. What may be of concern is what most of us would take away from an article like this. What is the take home message? According to the title "If carbs are so bad for you, why are they so good for athletes?" it seems the message is pretty clear, Carbs are good and essential for you, and "evidence'' is provided in the way of an Olympic athletes energy requirements.

Here is a link to the original article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judith-j-wurtman-phd/carbohydrates-health_b_1833396.html by Judith J. Wurtman PhD. Her credentials are amazing and spotless. In true Paleo Nouveau fashion we are not here to critique Dr. Wurtman, rather the article in itself. Below is the article in it's entirety and my comments in bold type.

"Anyone watching the Olympics, professional baseball or training for football season over the past several weeks has to conclude that the athlete's bodies and ours could not belong to the same species. As I watched the swimming relays, it was hard to believe that my plodding crawl, accompanied by gasps of breath, and the athletes' seal-like fluidity are both called swimming. It was also a stretch to say that their running leaps over the hurdles were at all related to my occasional clumsy climb over a low fence. But as different as they seem from us, their bodies and ours share a common need for nutrients to make our muscles move, however fast or slow that may be.

Carbohydrates have long been considered the most important source of energy for any type of muscle activity, be it leaping over a hurdle or climbing out of bed. However, given the seemingly endless anti-carbohydrate hype, I wondered if carbohydrates have now been eliminated from the diets consumed by athletes. Fortunately for those among us who still are eating our "daily bread," pasta, rice, potatoes and oatmeal, sports nutrition folk still recommend carbohydrates for the competitive athlete -- and also for anyone engaging in more than 10 milliseconds of physical activity.

Glucose is the form of carbohydrate used by our muscles for energy. A simple sugar, glucose is the digestion end product of all carbohydrates, whether they are sweet or starchy. Glucose is stored in muscles in the form of glycogen and converted back to glucose during exercise. When swimmers or runners manage to cover the required distance in only a few minutes, the stored glucose in their muscles is sufficient to deal with their energy needs. Indeed, it is believed that muscles contain enough glycogen to carry us through exercise lasting around 90 minutes. (That is, of course, assuming we eat carbohydrates). Not entirely accurate. Better stated would be, provided our glycogen stores are full. 

But many competitive athletic recreational events take longer than an hour and half. Biking for several hours to cover a 100-mile charity ride, or spending most of the day cross-country skiing, increases the need of the muscles for glucose. According to researchers, J. Anderson, L. Young and S. Prior at the University of Colorado, the preferred method (We will refer to this article later) of ensuring a continuous supply of glucose is to eat a high-carbohydrate diet two or three days before the event. This allows the extra glucose in such a diet to be stored in the muscles so it can be used for prolonged exercise such as a marathon. No objection here.

Fats, or to be more exact fatty acids (they make up half of a fat molecule), may also be used by the body for energy. Although this sounds like the perfect solution for exercising on a low- carbohydrate diet, eating fats work best for the well-conditioned, well-trained, undoubtedly lean athlete. This is where the intent and content of this article starts to go astray. This sentence contradicts the title of the article. The author has just stated that for "the well trained lean athlete" fats "work best." What happened to the argument for carbs? For the rest of us who are not quite Olympian level in our workouts, using fat as an energy source is relatively inefficient. The problem is not with our fat stores, since most of us have more than enough to provide our muscles with energy for a 100-mile ride. But converting the fat, or specifically the fatty acids, to a usable form of energy requires much more oxygen than converting glucose to energy.True. However through proper training and diet you can adapt your body to utilize fat more efficiently as a preferred energy source. So if you are huffing and puffing while climbing a steep flight of stairs, lifting heavy groceries or finishing a dance aerobic class, it is going to take more huffs and puffs to get energy from fat than from glucose. Correct.  However, climbing a flight of stairs or lifting groceries do not require much in the form of energy or cardio output. A dance aerobic class will utilize more glycogen than fat particularly if the intensity is high. And when your muscles run out of energy, your workout may come to a premature end. Interestingly, athletes competing in endurance sports like a triathlon are told to replenish their carbohydrate stores with either drinks containing carbohydrate or rapidly digested energy gels containing glucose. No one in the articles I have read suggested eating a chunk of butter for more energy during a long run. Butter is fat. We already have hundreds of thousands of stored calories in the form of fat so replenishing it mid point is unnecessary. Replenishing with fast acting sugars are helpful to athletes because they are going fast even in an endurance event and are utilizing glycogen due to their efforts. Us mortals require it because we have not yet adapted to utilizing fat efficiently during a high endurance event.

Protein is essential for muscle growth. No amount of strength training is going to result in enlarged muscles unless the diet contains adequate amino acids to make muscle protein. A better statement would be that the protein source contain all 10 "essential" amino acids.The consensus among sports nutrition folk, such as Nancy Clark, RD, is that our diets contain enough protein to meet the needs of our enlarging muscle. But you don't have to go to a health food store to read the label on a jar of protein power to figure out how much protein you need. This is how you do it. Figure out:

1. Your ideal body weight (not what you presently weigh, if there is a difference);
2. Convert your ideal weight in pounds to kilograms by dividing your weight by 2.2; and
3. Multiple your weight in kilograms by 0.8. This tells you how much protein you should be eating daily.

Is this enough protein for you if you are an athlete? Maybe not. Weight lifters may need as much as 1.6-1.7 grams of protein for each kilogram of body weight. Lifting your toddler or grocery bags does not count. Are you training for a long run or bike ride? Endurance athletes may also need more protein, approximately 1.2 to 1.4 grams per kilogram body weight.

But for the rest of us, more is not necessary. Extra protein is converted to fat and most of us have enough, thank you. True to an extent, but so are extra carbs. As a matter of fact, excess amino acids can be broken down into carbohydrates and fat!  However,ingested excess carbs are easier to store as fat. But what about protein as an energy source? It ranks third after carbohydrate and fat. Should you be lost in the wilderness with no food, your body will look to your stored glycogen for energy first, then your fat stores and eventually the protein in your muscles. But for those of us who are only lost in the wilderness of a parking lot trying to find our car, we are unlikely to call upon our protein stores to get to our vehicle.
And the drawback is? It's a magnificent adaptation for survival. In a state of "starvation" our nervous system keeps running on glucose, provided by amino acids, and all our other organs and tissues reduce their need for glucose and start relying on fat as their energy source.

If you have been feeling guilty about eating carbohydrates, or attempting to fight off advice about giving them up, look toward our athletes as justification for doing so. Only if that athlete is following a specific dietary and training protocol that has shown benefits. Most high level athletes are genetically gifted and are not comparable to us. Some can get away by eating fig newtons and doughnuts while still competing at a high level, where the same course of action would be detrimental to our performance. However, there is no "free lunch." Your body will store them for you as an energy source but it is up to you to use them for that purpose." END OF ARTICLE.

These are common stereotypical assumptions most of us are given regarding carbohydrate consumption for exercise and performance. They are not truly reflective of evolving dietary and training protocols. As a matter of fact the very same article that Dr. Wurtman cites states this;

  "During exercise, the glycogen is converted back to glucose and is used for energy. The ability to sustain prolonged vigorous exercise is directly related to initial levels of muscle glycogen. The body stores a limited amount of carbohydrate in the muscles and liver. If the event lasts for less than 90 minutes, the glycogen stored in the muscle is enough to supply the needed energy. Extra carbohydrates will not help, any more than adding gas to a half-full tank will make the car go faster.
For events that require heavy work for more than 90 minutes, a high-carbohydrate diet eaten for two to three days before the event allows glycogen storage spaces to be filled. Long distance runners, cyclists, cross-country skiers, canoe racers, swimmers and soccer players report benefits from a precompetition diet where 70 percent of the calories comes from carbohydrates.
According to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, endurance athletes on a high-carbohydrate diet can exercise longer than athletes eating a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet. Eating a high-carbohydrate diet constantly is not advised. This conditions the body to use only carbohydrates for fuel and not the fatty acids derived from fats."

I have highlighted a couple of key sentences from the cited article. When an article with the headline such as Dr. Wurtman's is read by most of us, the message can be confusing. However this is where proper "Wesearch" will help clear up the information. Once your glycogen stores are full, any excess carbohydrate intake will be stored as fat. This is not an opinion. It's Human physiology. It is not a Paleo Nouveau idea or anyone else's for that matter. Eating a high carbohydrate diet continuously may not be ideal for sports performance in the long run. More and more the idea of training with lower glycogen stores and requiring the body to adapt to this condition may allow carbs to act as "turbo fuel" once you replenish your glycogen stores. It may even help to increase the amount of glycogen that is stored.

Carbohydrate consumption for performance and exercise will vary dramatically according to your personal physiological requirements, genetic make up and sporting event. There is no "one size fits all" formula. If you switch to a "train low compete high" glycogen protocol you need to give your body time to adapt. Eating the right amount of fats, carbs and protein along with proper electrolyte monitoring is crucial.

There are ways that we may be able to improve on our performance and they are evolutionary based. It would make sense that our ancestors looked upon carbs as "turbo fuel" when they encountered a rich source of sugar. Their diet would have consisted mostly from game meats and gathered greens which are rich in fiber and low in sugar. Their foraging and hunting would have been slow, long and steady activities which utilize fat as the primary fuel source, hence the fact that we can store hundreds of thousands of calories as fat and only a couple thousand as glycogen. Sugar would have been a rush!

Don't fall into the trap of "freaking out" when you read an article that may go against what you believe is true. There may be new information for you to learn. Do your own "Wesearch" and determine if the article has merit on it's own or it was based on inaccurate assumptions. Either way you will learn something and keep improving yourself!


  

 

Pizza, Chips and soda? Why not?!?!

Are you serious? I am living a healthy lifestyle. Why would I want to sabotage myself with this poison? Too many carbs! Way too much fat! Full of GMO's! They are addictive foods! Enriched flour, are you nuts?

True. It would be foolish to argue against any of the above. In our eagerness to embrace change we sometimes get overzealous in our approach. It makes sense to become skeptical of highly processed foods and to avoid them as much as possible. But do we need to become paranoid with the thought of ingesting them at some point in time? What if you enjoyed Pizza, chips, sodas, burgers and sweets before embarking on your health adventure? Does this mean you can never eat any of these things again? Will your insides rebel and suddenly stop working if you eat a hot dog?

Will you cause harm to yourself by eating just about any junk food once? Unless the quantity is obscenely huge the answer is probably not. If you decide to eat a doughnut after several months of eating properly you are not going to keel over and die! You may, however, feel bloated and stuffed. You might develop a headache. The most likely reason for this will be that your body has grown unaccustomed to ingesting the ingredients and chemicals often associated with highly refined junk food.

If you follow a proper healthy lifestyle the occasional consumption of these type of foods will not really alter much of anything except for an indigestion. But, why would you still desire these foods?
This is what is important to address! Why? If you do not answer this question and deal with it head on, your success could be derailed rapidly and you will find yourself following the same bad habits that gave you grief beforehand.

Do you miss the taste? Do you miss how they made you feel? Were they part of a routine of sorts, like Friday night poker or Happy hour? Does the thought of never ever eating these foods again cause an inner tug of war within you?

If you answered yes to any of these, a re assessment of why you have embarked on this journey may be required. For example, something that has worked for me, is the simple fact that I resent the thought of eating anything with chemicals, food dyes and artificial ingredients. I understand that food companies need to make a profit. Spoilage, shelf life, appearance, taste and texture are key issues that affect profits. I get it. It's not a conspiracy folks. All of theses ingredients are there for a reason! The thing is, these reasons are not important to me! Those are the company's reasons and interests not mines!

Does that mean I never eat doughnuts? I am at the point where I never need to force or convince myself not to eat anything! If I want a doughnut, or a dozen for that matter, I will have it!
The thing is I don't desire it. I love pizza. I do not eat it every day or every week. I may have a few slices about once a month. I know about half a dozen restaurants where they make them from scratch and with fresh natural ingredients. Nothing frozen. Nothing prepackaged. The taste and texture is totally different from that of a chain restaurant.

Once you understand that chemicals, food dyes, preservatives etc. are not in your best interest, eating better is not "forced." If you desire chips and soda one day, so be it. Try to eat the best tasting chips you can find using the best ingredients or better yet, make them yourself. Remember taste in prepackaged foods can be manipulated with chemicals. Don't let taste be your only guide. But even if you eat the worst offender, don't despair. Just try to curtail it until you understand why you really desire it.

Understanding yourself is of paramount importance. Knowing why you desire any particular food is critical information. There may be something more than hunger that is driving your desire! By coming to grips with this you literally unmask the underlying culprit and can then begin to deal with the real reason for your desire.

If you are struggling with food choices you need to continue your quest for knowledge. Perhaps gathering better food preparation skills can allow you to increase your repertoire of foods you currently consume.

Key points to assist you are:

* Ask yourself why you are desiring this food? Don't be dismissive in thinking it's just the taste you miss! There is usually more to it than that!

* Keep in mind that you can eat whatever you want, once you understand the real reasons you desire any particular food. What usually happens is you will stop desiring these foods once you do!

* Learn to eat and appreciate real wholesome unprocessed foods. Why settle for ingesting unpronounceable ingredients in processed foodstuff just because you think it's convenient for you? 

* Find restaurants or companies that produce these type of foods using real ingredients with minimal processing.

* Do you binge? If you find yourself binging you are still in denial. You are fighting a losing battle. Binging is usually a sign that you are in an inner tug of war. You are still trying to use willpower to get you to eat or act a particular way. Willpower is not enough. Knowledge is king! If you internalize the reality that as a species we never ingested artificial ingredients and there is no place for this on your plate, then you will begin to break your ties to these foods.

How appetizing is Brominated vegetable oil? Red dye #40? Acesulfame K? Butylated hydroxytoluene? Calcium sulfate (plaster of Paris)? Mmm. Salivating much? All these are required for one reason or another in packaged foods. They are not required for fresh food!

Some will argue that they are safe. Maybe, maybe not. The point is, you would not add these ingredients from a chemistry set, to your food! For taste? Texture? Fresh food does not need these things! Neither do you or your family!

Do calories matter?

I guess when we try to analyze a controversial and complex topic conclusions become rather, well inconclusive! When it comes to calories there are so many different positions. Some argue that a calorie is a calorie, no matter what. Others pose the argument that calories are irrelevant, provided you are eating a certain percentage of macronutrients.

Paleo Nouveau has a very simple view on this. It is quite irrelevant whether calories matter or not when it comes to our health, provided you are fairly active and eat wholesome natural foods. The reason seems pretty simple. When you are fairly active, eat properly, get enough rest and sleep, and you are managing stress correctly your body is in "balance." For most of us this means we do not over eat. We tend to eat to satiety and stop. A great deal of over indulgence in food is triggered by stress or emotional issues.

What about fat/weight loss? Do calories matter? If you are following a steady weekly reduction of caloric intake system, calories are the MAIN focus. You need to count calories daily and with every meal. If you are doing a low carb approach calories are not the main focus. Some argue that you can ingest unlimited amount of calories when following this diet. This is where we can't see "the forest because of the trees."

You are either eating protein, fat or carbohydrates. If you are eating a typical low carb diet with no more than 50 grams of carbs then your total caloric intake from carbs is 200 calories (50 grams x 4 calories = 200). If you are active and involved in regular strength training your protein requirement will vary from 0.8 - 1.8 grams of what your ideal bodyweight in kilograms target is. If your goal is to be at 185 lbs (male) you will be consuming on average of 150 grams of protein or 600 calories. (185 divided x 2.2 = 84 x 1.8 = 150 all numbers rounded off).

So far we have a caloric intake of 800 calories. On a low carb diet you would not be increasing carbs so any increase in calories will be either protein or fat. If you stick to the protein intake recommended by most strength protocols stated above, your fat intake is the variable. In order to eat a 4000 calorie diet you would need to ingest 355 grams of fat or 3200 calories! (4000 - 800 = 3200 divided by 9 grams = 355)

Keep in mind that a 4 oz serving of bacon is about 610 calories with 47 grams of fat. A tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil is 120 calories. I don't know about you but when I eat high fat wholesome foods I get full rather quickly and remain satisfied for a longer period of time. It is not easy to ingest that much fat when you are eating unprocessed real food!

It would seem that by following this type of low carb diet your caloric intake would be reduced by the fact that you are controlling your macronutrient profile. Although caloric reduction is not the goal  it may happen by default. There may be a possibility that caloric intake contributes to the fat loss. If we abide by the stated principle that any excess calories not required for energy consumption, are then stored as fat, then calories matter.

However, if we go by another stated principle and that is that any ingested carbohydrate that is not required for energy or turned into glycogen is in turn stored as fat, then calories seem to really matter. In this case following a relatively high carb diet would seem to indicate that the excess carb not required for energy would be stored as fat.

Paleo Nouveau does not particularly worry too much about calories unless your immediate goal is fat/weight loss. By following an active lifestyle and eating real wholesome foods calories seem to fall into place. Eating is first and foremost for nutrition and to sustain life. Enjoying what you eat is a bonus and we should strive to do this with every meal. It seems that when we stay away from simple sugars, bad fats, chemicals, food additives and processed foods our brains are not steered towards addictive food behavioral patterns. Our hormones and gut flora are kept in check and the body thrives.

Do calories matter? Yes. Do we need to count calories? Not really, as long as you eat real wholesome foods. Try eating 3000 calories of non starchy vegetables in a day. It's an undertaking to say the least! Eat on small plates, fill most of it with non starchy vegetables, a smaller portion of real pastured meat or wild caught fish and a generous raw salad, and counting calories becomes irrelevant. Don't drink your calories. That means no fruit juices or sodas. If you cannot abstain from this than minimize this practice. Ingested liquid calories seem to act differently with satiety triggers and will lead to overconsumption of calories and quick acting carbs which will spike insulin as well.

If you enjoy your pasta and grains, prepare them yourself add healthy fats and vegetables. Keep the portions small and eat a variety of small courses as they do in Europe. Ensure the grain and ingredients in the pasta are non GMO. There may not be "conclusive" evidence that these are bad or detrimental but they are recent Man Made additions to our food supply and it may be affecting us in ways we don't yet understand or can prove. Paleo Nouveau's risk to benefit ratio suggests to avoid GMO's.

Return to eating real unprocessed whole foods, adopt a more active lifestyle, manage your stress and get optimum rest. Slow your life down a bit and sit down and enjoy a fresh delicious home cooked meal with friends and family. Enjoy the process of cooking. Involve your family. If this is a drastic change for you, then build up to it. Otherwise, you will be constantly looking for shortcuts and falling for next diet fad!




 

Move, Move, Again & Again, you silly child! Ok you silly middle aged person!

Are you active now? Do you enjoy physical activities, such as sports, running exercising, walking etc.? Why do you? Why don't you? If you don't when did it stop being fun? Why did you stop? Wait a second before you answer. I can hear the all too familiar complaint. "I was never into sports or physical activities." Really? Never? Hmm, maybe maybe not.

Next time you are next to a toddler notice their patterns of movement. Unless they are saddled with an electronic toy to thwart all mental and physical capacities (moronic in my opinion) they are moving all over the place. Unless they are ill or asleep, when are kids still? Not much. There is a lot to learn from the very young. They are after all "us in the past." What better way to study human behavior than observing children. They have not been overly influenced yet by "how you should act and behave." They just act and behave as they feel like it.

They look forward to jumping, running, rolling around. They thrive on this. This playing around enables them to grow stronger, develop balance and stability. It's as if the body knows that in order to develop and grow movement is essential. We all do it as children. All of us! And we do it while laughing and having a marvelous time.

Why will you force me to "unlearn" this?

 What would happen if we stifle all that moving and activity on a child? Would their physical and emotional development keep up with those children who are active? In this case it's not "use it or lose it" it's "use it or you'll never have it." Children are fascinating! Look at how they "sit and bend down."



But lo and behold we send them to school and what happens?  They "learn" how to sit. We are introduced to the wonderful world of chairs, back problems, poor posture and sedentary behavioral patterns!

"We are learning to sit correctly."

So now what do we do? Our school system may have the best of intentions but they are hampered by a lack of funds and practical knowledge when it comes to certain aspects of health. It is here where we seem to set patterns that affect our behavior in our later years. This is where we usually "stop" enjoying moving and being care free. Some of it is certainly due to the culture and practices that our

parents, who have gone through the same, have now bestowed upon us.

This is the time where some of us start to become more sedentary probably due because we are eating more and more of the wrong foods and gaining fat. As we gain fat and lose mobility we become less apt at moving and are usually put down by those kids who have remained active, so our self esteem is shot to pieces!

We were meant to move! As a species it makes no biological sense to be inactive. Activity does not mean exercise necessarily. Exercise is our modern version of doing what we evolved doing, and that is MOVING! Moving as much as possible. Being active consistently allows our bodies to rid itself of toxins, develop endurance, strengthen our immune system, keep our cognitive skills sharp and help regulate our fat stores provided we are following a sensible diet. 

"You can't fight Mother Nature." So the saying goes. Why not revert back to what worked for us as kids? Move. Enjoy moving. Re-discover the joy of skipping, running, rolling around. Silly? Childish? It sure is! Who proved that all things childish are useless? Paleo Nouveau takes the best from wherever it may be. If the best is found in childish behavior, so be it. What makes more sense, following a pattern of behavior that has proven to be riddled with difficulties or adopting a new approach that has some evolutionary perspective to it?

It's your life. Why not try what enabled you to thrive as a child and provided you with joy? Move. Start now! It does not have to be fancy. Go to a park and start walking. Leave your cell and all other devices at home. Re connect with nature and literally "stop and smell the roses." You deserve it. Your family deserves it. MOVE to THRIVE!

 

I am so beautiful, so perfect so so so Photoshopped!!!

Curvaceous yes. perfect no! Real women have curves. Curves are not flaws!

 Ahhh, how pretty and perfect are the creme de la creme! What is that you say? How dare you insinuate that I am anything less than perfect! Swine! You commoner! What proof have you? Ooops, sorry ahhh can you not show these please? Photoshopped pretty please? With nutrasweet on top?  

Ok so what's the harm? After all Hollywood is in the make believe business. The fact that these pictures are altered is part of the "marketing" and "illusion" so us regular folks can live vicariously through these celebrities. After all who wants to pretend to be ugly or imperfect?

Seriously? The altered picture makes her skin look like plastic.

The harm? What could possibly be wrong with this type of "marketing?"
Let's think about that for a moment, what
would you call altering an image to portray it differently than what it is? Would you call it innocent enhancement to make people feel cuddly inside or deception?

 Perhaps the marketing folks were not thinking about the power that media coupled with researched persuasion techniques can exert on the masses, especially impressionable youth?

"Hey it's the parents that need to look out for their kids not us!" True but the parents have been deceived as well. How many of us are aware that most if not all the pictures in magazines are altered? Does it influence us at all? Not much. Not much at all. Can you imagine if any of these celebrities had any influence? Why we would be flocking to our hair dressers to mimic the latest hairstyle! How about the clothes? How absurd! We are not that easily duped!

Real women are gorgeous. Plastic Barbies are for Ken!

No siree, we are not that easy to manipulate. After all we have free will and it's a free country! 

The sad thing is we are a very innocent species. We tend to believe what we read and see in print as something that is true. Who would honestly believe that George Clooney needs to be photoshopped? Or Katy Perry?

Personally I find Katy's untouched picture sexier than the altered one. If I wanted to fantasize about an unblemished perfect being I could purchase a Barbie doll! 

She's over 50! She's amazing! Leave the airbrush for car detailers!

Altered pictures perpetuate the false beliefs that this is what we fantasize about. It forms a destructive pattern of behavior on impressionable individuals who want to look as good as the stars do.

The problem with that is most of the stars don't really look like that either! Why are we so caught up in thinking that looking a certain way is crucial to our happiness? Should altered images share some of the blame? What about the fashion industry? Why are models so pencil thin? Who determines that this look is desirable? 

Why are we subjecting ourselves and our children to such cartoonish examples of body image?

Thin the thighs and add a curve? Why mess with such a natural beauty/

Are we that shallow? If we are, why is it so? Since when? What is the underlying reason we are driven like cattle to believe that this is acceptable?

Could it be that everything needs to be "pretty" to be good or marketable? Why?

This is one of the few areas that Paleo Nouveau is somewhat nearsighted. Paleo Nouveau appreciates the fact that beauty is much more than a thin waist. The fact of the matter is we are all emotional beings.  

This means we are influenced by more than what we see. We are influenced by attitudes, intelligence, swagger, composure, smell,

It's George Clooney. What's the difference?

words, actions and so much more. Have you ever met someone for the first time and thought they weren't much to look at? But after some time and dealings with that person they seem to grow on you and look better?

Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder.  Since beauty is so subjective should we not all gather and promote natural beauty? Our youth is especially susceptible to these image manipulations. Women and teen girls seem to be the most afflicted. Why keep promoting a false and fake body image of what women should look like? 

Look. Katie lost 4 dress sizes! I can hear the news so much better now!

Obviously there are complete industries that are thriving due to our desire to live to these false standards. Fashion, cosmetic surgery, supplements, cosmetics, diets and to a large degree physical fitness as well.

All these are thriving by our desires to look better. And that's Ok. The problem becomes when looking better morphs into looking artificial. When our children turn to anorexic and bulimic behaviors to stay thin. When they start looking into thermogenic supplements that can be detrimental to their health.

Even apparently healthy patterns of behavior can be abused and transmuted into negative practices. Excessive and compulsive running or exercising are not beneficial in any way.

So insidious is this problem that it can turn positive and beneficial patterns of behavior into negative and detrimental ones!  What are we to do? How do we combat these negative stereotypes of body image? What about promoting body types like these? 

Well it's definitely better simply because it's not Photoshopped!  On the other hand promoting the "look" only is still detrimental. The focus should always be on the benefits of a healthy lifestyle with a knowledgeable approach. The "look" will follow the lifestyle. Otherwise it's the same ill effect with another color.

We cannot all be model material! What would be the fun in that? We can however, be better! Promoting a realistic natural approach to body image is crucial for our collective well being. We should strive to be better in all that we do! Aiming for the stars is magnificent. Even if you miss you'll still be in the heavens!

Unadulterated sparkling beauty!

Give the marketing "geniuses" a dose of "reality." Ignore their message and slowly but surely they will cater to you. After all their only interest is in results! Demand better, empower yourself and those around you and set a new standard for all to follow.

 
 

 

Happy! Why cloud her mind with negative body image issues?

Does he deserve the pressure of trying to be"perfect?"