pimg class=”alignright” title=”Daydreaming” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/daydreaming.jpg” alt=”daydreaming” width=”320″ height=”212″ /There’s something about these middle weeks of summer that feel less hurried, less brimming, more casual. At a certain point of the season, everybody remembers to relax a little and soak it in. The “lazy days” mood got me thinking about daydreaming #8211; those lost minutes (maybe hours) in which we unintentionally slip into contemplation. Sometimes we end up floating into more serious ruminations. Other times, it’s just loose and happy reverie. We all do it #8211; whether it’s looking out the window of our morning train, laying in the backyard hammock, or sitting (a title=”How to Work Outside” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-work-outside-even-if-youre-a-desk-jockey/”standing/a, rather!) at our work desk. It can often happen even if we’re trying to focus. Call it a lapse in discipline, but the brain seems to have its own agenda in those moments. Is there some purpose here beyond mere escapism? What […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

The controversy over differing nutritional theories arises more from semantics and the limitation of language than it does from scientific principles.
These may sound like sharp words that admittedly could almost seem elitist, so let me try to explain…
The argument that a ‘calorie is not a calorie’, or that ‘not all calories are created equal’ is an error in language. Either that or an illustration of a gross lack of understanding.

(Adding funny pics that people can relate to doesn’t make an assumption more valid)
 
A calorie is a measure of energy. So a calorie by definition must be a calorie, just like an inch is by definition and inch and a pound by definition is a pound.
What is typically meant when someone says “not all calories are equal” is “not all macro-nutrients are equal” which is a valid statement.
The problem arises again in language… someone is thinking “Not all macro-nutrients are […]

Original post by Brad Pilon

pimg class=”alignright” title=”Sunflower Oil” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/sunfloweroil.jpg” alt=”sunfloweroil” width=”274″ height=”287″ /It#8217;s time for another edition of #8220;Is It Primal?#8221;, where I do my best to rescue certain foods from Primal limbo (if they deserve it) and banish others to Primal exile. And sometimes, I#8217;ll keep a food languishing just because there#8217;s really nowhere else to put it. This week I have five foods. Some, like sunflower oil and wheat germ, are quite common. There#8217;s a good chance you have, or soon will, encounter them out there in the wild, and I hope to give you the tools to handle them. Other foods, like skyr and corn smut, won#8217;t be quite so common (unless you#8217;re a time traveler from 16th century Mesoamerica or an Icelander), but you never know when you#8217;ll have the opportunity to eat some corn fungus and acidified cultured cheese yogurt. You want to be prepared. The last food […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

pimg class=”alignright” title=”Weights” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/weights.jpg” alt=”weights” width=”319″ height=”211″ /I#8217;m no stranger to spending the bulk of your time thinking about training, programming your training, planning your meals so that they support your training, modifying your training to affect your performance, and modifying your training to affect your a title=”Dear Mark: Body Composition Through the Years” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/body-composition-how-diet-and-exercise-affect-muscle-mass-and-body-fat/”body composition/a. I was an elite endurance athlete who dabbled extensively in strength training; I#8217;ve been there. I#8217;ve dug into the minutiae of it all. I#8217;ve reveled in perfecting my post-workout and pre-workout nutrition. It#8217;s fun, and a little addictive. And although I#8217;m no longer concerned with that stuff for a title=”This Is Why I Train” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/this-is-why-i-train/”my own training/a, I know that many MDZ readers care about it, so I try to keep up with the current research. Today#8217;s edition of a title=”Dear Mark” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/category/dear-mark/”Dear Mark/a is all about training. Let#8217;s dig in./p
pspan id=”more-30413″/span/p
blockquotepHey Mark,/p
pMy husband […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

pimg class=”alignright” title=”Coconut Ginger Pork” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/CoconutGingerPork1.jpg” alt=”CoconutGingerPork1″ width=”320″ height=”213″ /Using a slow cooker is one of the easiest ways to get a hearty, healthy meal on the table with very little effort. If it’s a hot summer day and you want to cook a big meal without turning on the oven, a slow cooker is the answer. If the weather is frigid and you’re craving a title=”How to Turn One Roast into Several Amazing Meals” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/comfort-food-three-ways-how-to-turn-one-roast-into-several-amazing-meals/#axzz20vWrkfLF “comfort food/a, pull out the slow cooker. If you’re busy as all get-out and cooking is the last thing you want to do, the solution is – you guessed it – a slow cooker./p
pemSlow-Cooked Coconut Ginger Pork/em is a recipe that both slow cooker aficionados and newbies will love. A large cut of pork is slow cooked until tender and infused with the spicy, aromatic flavor of ginger, garlic and coconut milk. Salty, savory […]

Original post by Worker Bee

div class=”breakout”
pIt’s Friday, everyone! And that means another a title=”Success Stories” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/category/success-story-summaries/”Primal Blueprint Real Life Story/a from a Mark#8217;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 a title=”Contact Me!” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-book/share-success-story/” target=”_self”here/a. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!/p
/div
pimg class=”alignright” title=”Primal Blueprint Real Life Story” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA2009/real_life_stories_stories-1-2.jpg” alt=”real life stories stories 1 2″ width=”320″ height=”240″ /A few years ago, after watching my weight slowly creep up (along with my age and my blood pressure) I decided it was time to do something. Something different. I had struggled with weight issues since the age of 10 or so, and outside of a serious bout of anorexia nervosa, had been slightly overweight for years. It was one thing to be slightly overweight and […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

It is a fallacy that we workout for results.
It is also a fallacy that we eat the way we eat for results.
When you really think about it ‘results’ is actually a surrogate end point — Things that are believed to reflect the outcomes that are truly important, but that are NOT actually the things that are truly important.
As an example cholesterol is used as a surrogate endpoint in research where what we are really concerned with is reduced mortality. Another example is protein synthesis being a surrogate end point for actual increases in muscle size.
So why are ‘results’ a surrogate endpoint? Because I don’t think they are really what we are after.
We are after happiness. That’s the true endpoint. What we are really interested in.
Big muscles, weight loss, a lean body, six pack abs, these are results that make us happy.
So if happiness is the goal, and results are the […]

Original post by Brad Pilon

pemThis is a guest post from Jonathan Bailor of /ema title=”Amazon.com: The Smarter Science of Slim” href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0983520836/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8amp;tag=marsdaiapp07-20amp;linkCode=as2amp;camp=1789amp;creative=390957amp;creativeASIN=0983520836″ target=”_blank”The Smarter Science of Slim/aem and a title=”JonathanBailor.com” href=”http://jonathanbailor.com/” target=”_blank”JonathanBailor.com/a./em/p
h3img class=”alignright” title=”Check, Check, Check” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/checklist3.jpg” alt=”checklist3″ width=”320″ height=”240″ //h3
h3strongExecutive Summary/strong/h3
pemstrongShort Version:/strong Primal has been proven right./em/p
pemstrongLonger Version:/strong Endorsed by the world-wide scientific community including top doctors at the Harvard Medical School, John Hopkins, and UCLA, and approved as curriculum for registered dieticians (RDs) by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the single largest meta-analysis of health and fitness ever conducted shows that conventional “eat less, exercise more” approaches are far less effective than going Primal, harm our health, and lead to fat gain 95.4 percent of the time./em/p
pspan id=”more-30376″/span/p
h3I Had to Stop Doing The Same Thing Over and Over and Expecting Different Results/h3
pMuch like Mark, my journey into the science of wellness started because I was fed-up with the counterproductive nature of conventional […]

Original post by Mark Sisson