Steamed clams, mussels and scallops in a bowl of warm broth is a simple seafood supper we enjoy most months of the year, but when summer rolls around we like to chill our shellfish down. But before we chill, we grill.
The reason is simple – why stand at a stove in a stuffy kitchen when you can grill under the sun (or stars)? We’re hard pressed to think of a type of protein or vegetable that can’t be grilled and shellfish is one of the easiest. Mussels, clams and scallops take only a few minutes to cook on the grill. They can be eaten hot, of course, but why eat hot food on a hot day when you can eat something cool and refreshing?

Here’s how you do it: Grill up a batch of shellfish then shuck ‘em or leave them in the shell. Drown the tender morsels in a zesty […]

Original post by Worker Bee

My Nutrition Philosophy –
You understand my approach to nutrition if:  When deciding between an organic, locally grown grass fed steak or a Big Mac as your dinner choice, you know that the ever-present third choice of ‘neither’ may be the healthiest choice of the three…or at least that it is always an option.
You also understand my approach to nutrition if you understand what I mean when I say that ‘A deficit is the great equalizer’. Meaning regardless of how bad you think fat or sugar or carbs or protein are for your body..that their ‘badness’ is irrelevant if they’re no longer there.
Finally – you understand my approach to nutrition if you ‘get’ that the point of any diet should be to find a way to eat less while still enjoying your food.
Eat Stop Eat
BP
 
 

Original post by Brad Pilon

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

In July 2010 I went to the blood pressure clinic for my six month checkup. I had been on various meds for 6 or 7 years, the dose gradually getting stronger.
They also put you on the scales to check how much you weigh. So with my eyes shut, I stood on the platform, I didn’t want to know. Usually there is a “yes you’re overweight, try to eat healthily”, sort of comment – not this time. This nurse was matter of fact, “You are five stone […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

I grew up in a coastal fishing village in Maine, and one of my favorite memories is being out on the flats at low-tide, digging for the clams that would accompany our occasional lobster feasts (back when lobster was well under a dollar a pound). I can still feel the excitement of pulling that clam rake up and looking for the tasty bivalves that would soon become the first course.
We humans like our shellfish. Nearly every coastal region which hosted humans features massive shell collections, often called shell heaps, or middens. You’ve even got inland piles, like the 11,000 year old midden full of snail shells in inland Vietnam, indicating that even inlanders knew shellfish were worth eating. Back in my marathon training days, I recall running a mountain trail in Woodside, CA, ten miles inland, and coming across layers of thousand year-old strata embedded with all manner of seashell left […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

Keeping backyard chickens has long been an interest of mine. I’ve never actually gone through with it, partly because I just don’t have the time, partly because the homeowners association would veto it in a heartbeat, and mostly because I have a very reliable, reasonably priced source of pastured, bug-eating chickens and chicken eggs. Nevertheless, I love the idea of stepping outside my back door, greeting the flock of chickens (perhaps by name), and coming back in with an armful of fresh eggs. It’s admittedly a romantic, possibly naive vision, especially without the flecks of manure obscuring it. In any case, I’m drawn to the idea of it, so I’ve researched this growing trend and will share with you my findings in this not-so authoritative guide. Hopefully the general information, links, and leads will inspire you to dig deeper. And if you have any experience raising chickens I’d love to […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

As I said in my last body weight exercise post, the recent push of emails for the Shape Shifter Workout Program has re-kindled my interest in body weight exercises.
On the one hand, I love body weight training because it just feels right. On the other, I do not think you can build as much mass with body weight training as you can with traditional weight training – but of course this is just my opinion.
I’ve done a quick lit review and was unable to find any direct comparisons between body weight exercises and weighted exercises, so we’re really left to ‘logic’ are way though this process.
So logically – I see no reason why a muscle would react differently to different sources of resistance.
Acceleration is Acceleration, Force is Force and Work is Work, these classic definitions don’t change just because we’ve changed the source of the resistance.
So based on this it […]

Original post by Brad Pilon

A series of recent studies have implicated sedentary lifestyle in the obesity epidemic. The idea is, even if you hit the gym a few times a week, parking it in front of the T.V. at night dwindles away any benefits gained. Every hour on the couch costs us dearly. But what about the office chair? Dare we take this one on? A recent study does exactly that in targeting the specific role of sedentary work in our nation’s obesity crisis. Our desk jobs, the study’s authors suggest, represent a key culprit behind our society’s expanding waistlines.
Dr. Timothy Church, Dr. John McIlhenny and their associates examined trends related to occupational activity and the corresponding increase in American obesity rates since the 1960s. Fifty years ago, over fifty percent of occupations included moderate physical exertion. Today that number has dropped to less than twenty percent. In keeping with this pattern, Drs. Church […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

Here’s a quick ‘thought for the day’ to help you with your weight loss goals:
We don’t help cocaine addicts by teaching them about the metabolism of serotonin-norepinephrine-dopamine re-uptake inhibitors or the hormonal implications of cocaine use, yet we try and help people lose weight by teaching them about hormones, metabolic pathways and glucose chemistry.
While learning about the science of weight loss is fun and interesting, the most important part of any weight loss plan is dealing with our habits, environment, perceptions and stressors.
With this being said, the most important part of Eat Stop Eat isn’t the effect on growth hormone or insulin, but rather what you learn during the 24 hours that you are fasting.
Concentrate on using this time to figure out which of your habits, environmental factors, and perceptions are contributing to how much you eat.
Basically – pay attention to what drives you to eat.
Sure you’ll lose weight by […]

Original post by Brad Pilon

It’s Monday, and that means it’s time for another roundup edition of Dear Mark. This time, we’ll be covering laptops, fertility, and scrotal hyperthermia; sulfites in wine; glutamine as an anti-catabolic supplement; the scarcity of mackerel in the markets; and my hair engoldening protocol. If you prefer these roundup editions to the regular single question-and-answer editions, let me know. I’ll keep doing whatever you folks like best.
Okay, let’s get to the first of five questions:

Dear Mark,
I just finished reading the article on cell phones and fertility and I immediately started thinking about the computer that rests on my lap for hours a day and the waves that are transmitted to and from it. I was wondering if there are any studies linking wireless computing to infertility? Should I be taking the lap out of laptop?
Frank

There is some concern over laptop radiation affecting sperm motility and quality, but it’s generally accepted […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

Complete six cycles for time:
Stair Sprint
15 Bodyweight Rows
15 Feet-Elevated Pushups

How-to:
Warmup: 30 second Grok Squat, lateral, forward, and backward leg swings (10 each leg), 2 light stair runs at around 70% intensity.
I was listening to Led Zeppelin the other day while nursing my legs after a set of hill sprints, and the name came to me – “Stairway to Sore Thighs.” I thought it was a fun name and sprinting against gravity is always a good time. Plus, even the hill-deficient can find a few flights of stairs to sprint. Still, is it worthy of mangling a Zeppelin song title? Other than perhaps Crossfitting thruster fetishists with a penchant for anterior chain pain, no one would confuse a set of sore thighs with “heaven.”
This one is pretty simple. Find a set of stairs, minimum three flights. Shoot for five or more flights, though, or about fifty steps. Sprint up as fast […]

Original post by Mark Sisson