pimg class=”alignright” title=”Coffee” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/coffee.jpg” alt=”coffee” width=”320″ height=”213″ /In today#8217;s edition of a title=”Dear Mark” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/category/dear-mark/”Dear Mark/a, I cover a topic near and dear to many of your hearts: a title=”Caffeine Talk” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/coffee-tea-caffeine-talk/”caffeine/a. But I don#8217;t just cover caffeine; I explore whether caffeine truly does act as a diuretic, especially during exercise, and whether or not caffeine can actually be helpful to athletic performance. Should we all be downing mugs of joe or cups of tea before we hit the gym or head outdoors?/p
pLet#8217;s find out./p
blockquotepDear Mark,/p
pI#8217;ve been told that drinking coffee prior to, or during workouts is a big no-no, because it#8217;s a diuretic and will lead to dehydration, which is no good for performance (or health). But I love an iced coffee right before my workouts. I feel like it helps. It could just be placebo, but if it#8217;s not hurting, I#8217;m okay, right?/p
pI wonder if you could give […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

pimg class=”alignright” title=”Brightly Colored Salad with Chermoula Dressing” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/chermoula_salad1.jpg” alt=”chermoula salad1″ width=”320″ height=”227″ /Although a knobby old root vegetable has it charms, the eye-catching hues of brightly colored veggies are much harder to resist. Luckily, when it comes to the gorgeous red, yellow, purple, orange and green hues of brightly-colored vegetables, their beauty isn’t only skin deep./p
pAs a title=”Why You Should Eat Brightly Colored Fruits and Vegetables” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-you-should-eat-brightly-colored-fruits-and-vegetables/#axzz1mO3x1Skz”discussed earlier in the week/a, brightly colored vegetables are valuable for their potentially health-promoting plant pigments. The strategy for adding these pigments into your diet is simple: eat a wide variety of brightly colored vegetables. You can a title=”Choose Your Own Stir Fry Adventure” href=”https://www.marksdailyapple.com/choose-your-own-stir-fry-adventure/”stir fry them/a, sauté them, lightly steam the veggies or, easiest of all, eat them raw. To make a plate of raw veggies more interesting, a bold dressing is in order and chermoula is just the thing./p
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pAlthough […]

Original post by Worker Bee

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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″ //p
pMy name is Pamela Mathews and I’ve always been an active person. I also have never been shy when it comes to eating. After three kids (the last one having an emergency C-section) and two arthroscopic knee surgeries on the same knee (six months apart), my weight started to skyrocket. I bought my first pair of size 14 jeans and I weighed 180 pounds. I […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

pimg class=”alignright” title=”Handicraft” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/handicraft.jpg” alt=”handicraft” width=”320″ height=”212″ /Anyone who’s spent significant time creating with their hands #8211; whether it be painting, carpentry, knitting, carving, building #8211; can appreciate the distinctive satisfaction it evokes. (I’m using the term broadly.) Handicraft, as wide a spectrum as it can encompass, isn’t about routine chores or fix-its. There’s a difference between grudgingly doing your own home repairs to save money and savoring the experience of meticulously renovating your own home. It’s about the love of the craft on some level. Not everyone would put it in those specific terms, but the people I know who practice handicraft acknowledge they’re drawn to what they do on some subconscious level. Picking up a familiar tool feels comfortable, even calming. The balance of its weight in your hand feels sure. Spending an hour at one’s own workspace (e.g. basement studio, garage workbench), however plain or disheveled, feels […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

div id=”caption-320″ class=”wp-caption alignnone” style=”width: 250px”img style=”border: 0pt none;” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/photo1-3.jpg” alt=”photo1 3″ width=”240″ height=”320″ border=”0″ title=”photo1 3 photo” /p class=”wp-caption-text”01/02/12/p/div
div id=”caption-320″ class=”wp-caption alignnone” style=”width: 250px”img class=”sitmImg” style=”border: 0pt none;” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA2010/grok-success320.gif” alt=”grok success320″ width=”240″ height=”320″ border=”0″ title=”grok success320 photo” /p class=”wp-caption-text”In the Making/p/div
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pstrongAge:/strong 30/p
pstrongCraig#8217;s Goals:/strong #8220;Dear Mark, I have been following the Primal Blueprint since April 2011 and have lost a lot of weight (down from 101kg to 85kg). Like many who have gone Primal, I have never felt better./p
pI saw your challenge a few days ago and was tempted to participate. I am at a plateau point where my body is stubbornly refusing to shift body fat. I think the challenge (and going public) will help me to achieve a much lower body fat and muscle definition./p
pMy girlfriend Pat took this photo this afternoon. I was shocked to see how poorly defined I was […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

pimg class=”alignright” title=”Donut” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/donut.jpg” alt=”donut” width=”320″ height=”212″ /We all make poor choices against our better judgment. It#8217;s kind of what makes us human #8211; the tendency to actively and willfully make decisions that will result in unfavorable outcomes. Sure, the candy bar tastes good, but you know you#8217;ll feel awful after eating it. Yeah, that blog is fun to read, but you know you#8217;d be much happier if you finished that essay for class first. And yet five minutes later, a candy bar wrapper sits, emptied of its contents; your molars house fragments of nougat and sport a caramel sheen; a title=”What Happens to Your Body When… You Carb Binge?” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-carb-binge/”light nausea approaches/a; and you find yourself wading knee deep through comment sections, MS Word window minimized. What just happened? Why did you do those things that you told yourself you wouldn#8217;t, that you warned yourself against, and whose negative […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

pimg class=”alignright” title=”Beet” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/beet.jpg” alt=”beet” width=”320″ height=”212″ /Today I round out my Wahls-inspired series on the health benefits of eating various classes of plant matter. If you#8217;re just now joining us, be sure to watch the a title=”TEDxIowaCity – Dr. Terry Wahls – Minding Your Mitochondria” href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc” target=”_blank”video/a in which Terry Wahls explains how eating a Paleo diet rich in leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, and brightly colored produce (plus a title=”Meat Glue: Separating Fact from Fiction” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/meat-glue-separating-fact-from-fiction/”meat/a and a title=”A Visual Guide to Seaweed” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/a-visual-guide-to-sea-vegetables/”seaweed/a and a title=”Grocery Store Seafood: What to Eat and What to Avoid Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/grocery-store-seafood-what-to-eat-and-what-to-avoid/#ixzz1mJlS1rlD” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/grocery-store-seafood-what-to-eat-and-what-to-avoid/”fish/a and a title=”6 Sneaky Ways to Work Offal Into Your Diet Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/6-sneaky-ways-to-work-offal-into-your-diet/#ixzz1mJl8ZOge” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/6-sneaky-ways-to-work-offal-into-your-diet/”offal/a) coincided with a regression in her rapidly-progressing MS. Then, read the previous two installments on a title=”Why You Should Eat Leafy Greens” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-you-should-eat-leafy-greens/”leafy greens/a and a title=”Why You Should Eat Sulfur-Rich Vegetables” […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

pimg class=”alignright” title=”Books” src=”http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA%202011/college.jpg” alt=”college” width=”320″ height=”212″ /Today#8217;s a title=”Dear Mark” href=”http://www.marksdailyapple.com/category/dear-mark/”Dear Mark/a is a fun one. The question comes from a college student saddled with a lackluster meal plan. Unsurprisingly, it isn#8217;t Primal in the slightest. Worst of all, it#8217;s obligatory, meaning she has no choice but to pay for all this food she doesn#8217;t want to eat. Since I find this pretty appalling, I tried to help the student with a letter to the director of food service explaining what changes can and should be made to make the meal plan healthier. The changes I propose aren#8217;t going to catch any of you off guard, but I tried to make them as palatable for someone who isn#8217;t steeped in this stuff as I could./p
pOkay, enough blathering. Let#8217;s just get to the question:/p
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blockquotepDear Mark,/p
pI am sending this message in order to ask your advice on how to […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

 ”Triple your money in 7 days!”
 
I bet that headline caused alarm bells to go off in your head.
We intuitively seem to ‘get’ money. We understand how much we make at work. We understand that some people are rich, and some people are broke, and we understand that just because someone won the lottery this week, doesn’t mean next week is our turn.
Weight loss…not so much
The claim “Triple your money in 7 days!” will set off a skeptical alarm bell in most people, however the equally unlikely claim “Lose 15 pounds in 7 days!” doesn’t always set off the same skeptical alarm bell.
In fact, it does the opposite. It gets our hopes up, makes us curious and, more often than not, it makes us buy something (diet pills, diet books, diet drinks).
The trick is that both claims are stating something that it IS possible…but very unlikely. We’ve all seen someone […]

Original post by Brad Pilon