Be excited because today’s giveaway is awesome!  Steve’s Originals is generously giving away a sampler pack that includes:

Grassfed Just Jerky

GF PaleoKit

GF PaleoStix

Coconut PaleoKit

2 Dark Choc Espresso PaleoKrunch bar

1 Cinnamon Swirl PaleoKrunch Cereal

2 Buffalo Wing Chicken Jerky

If you’ve ever ordered Steve’s Originals snacks, you know how yummy they are!  I cannot believe how fast we chow through them at my house!

Another thing that makes Steve’s Originals great is their Buy A Kit, Help A Kid Program. 15% of proceeds from PaleoKits, PaleoKrunch, and other Steve’s Original products go to the Steve’s Club National Program to help bring CrossFit, nutrition, and personaldevelopment to youth across the country – one kid at a time.   So you can snack happy, knowing you’re giving valuable health and fitness to kids, too!

So here’s how to enter:  Please send an email to contests@everydaypaleo.com with your order number or proof of purchase for pre-ordering Paleo Pals: Jimmy and the Carrot Rocket Ship from either Amazon or Barnes & Noble.  You can also enter to win by emailing me a link to where you have tweeted, Facebooked, or blogged about Paleo Pals.  Thank you so much for your support!  Winners will be picked by random drawing and announced on my Facebook page and on the blog, so hurry and enter for your chance to win!

Stay tuned to the blog for our next big giveaway and visit our contest page!

New Paleo Pals Giveaway from Steve’s Originals! is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

“Creamy” Chicken Tomato Soup
4 frozen skinless boneless chicken breast
Garlic salt to taste
2 tablespoons Italian Seasoning
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 clove garlic
1 14 oz. can of coconut milk (full fat)
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes and juice
1 cup of chicken broth (I used homemade chicken broth but you can use store bought)
Sea Salt and pepper to taste

Put all the above ingredients into the crock-pot, cook for 9 hours on low. After 9 hours take two forks and shred the chicken, set the crock-pot on warm till ready to serve (making sure to taste it before serving to make sure there is enough salt and pepper)

Served: 6 (with left over’s for lunch the next day)

Total cost: 17.48 (this is the price if you had to go buy all the ingredients; chicken, chicken broth, spices, coconut milk and diced tomatoes.. if you are buying spices at Safeway they always have a buy two get one free deal going on if you buy their brand)

Total cost per person: 2.91

hope you all enjoy my pocket friendly college budget paleo meal

Another Budget Friendly Paleo Meal by Erika: “Creamy” Chicken Tomato Crockpot Soup is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

I used to find myself feeling as if the hand that life had dealt to me was simply “what it was” and that I was destined somehow to be unhappy, to be unhealthy. But I have always been a fighter and there has always been that little spark that even after being dealt several hefty blows, that little spark had never entirely been put out.

So, I encourage you to fight.  You do not have to be stuck.  You do not have to be “ok” with the hand that life has dealt to you but it takes COURAGE!!  Are you brave enough to make those changes that you know need to be changed?  Are you confident in your ability to take those first steps out of your comfort zone, no matter how difficult those first steps  might be?  Have you finally decided to turn off those ugly little voices in your head that try to stop you from being exactly what you know you want to be?

The only time you have to face this journey all alone is when you are faced with the fact that sometimes YOU are the only force that makes you stuck. All the support in the world that you need is out there, but you and you alone have to take that first step. Ultimately, you can play a giant role in choosing your own destiny and you are the only one who decides weather or not you can succeed, no matter what the goal might be.  Yes, you might fall down, yes life is hard, yes change is difficult so you can plod along and just take it as it comes or you can make it; and I urge you to CHOOSE what happens next with your own life because otherwise you will find yourself another year down the road and still….. stuck.

When you open your mind, open your eyes, and open your life to opportunity, to change,  and to positive influences, the excuses start to dwindle and you will find yourself truly steering your life in a way that is meaningful more often than simply accepting “what has happened.”

I hope that 2012 is an amazing year for all of you and as I continue on my own journey I am excited to share what happens with the Fragoso family as we continue on this exciting ride.  I also can’t wait to hear back from you – what are you going to do this year to become “unstuck!!”

Are You Stuck?? is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Upcoming Workshop is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Covered in this episode of Paleo Talk:

• Don’t I know you ladies from somewhere?
• Another birth control method is brought up by a listener: Fertility Awareness Method. Also the IUD and other methods.
• The vinegar thing.
• Kid is hungry all the time and I don’t want to withhold.
• PMS food cravings.
• Losing fat while nursing.
• Thanksgiving final thoughts.

Paleo Talk Episode 23 is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Because our society is plagued with diets, most of which make no sense, many people come into this paleo thing with a few preconceived notions.  I would like to address some of these misnomers and get us back on the same page.  The following is a short discussion of the things paleo is often assumed to be, but in reality is not.

The most important one for me is that The Paleo Diet is not a diet.  I know, it really
doesn’t make any sense when you say it like that, but it’s true.  The Paleo Diet is the modern nomenclature for human nutrition, and the fact that we need to name the concept of “human food” means we have reached a completely ridiculous place in the evolution of our species where we have forgotten who we are and where we came from.  It seems like I say this every time I open my mouth or sit down at a computer, but here I go again – humans are the only creatures on earth that use the word “diet” as a verb.  Animals don’t do diets, they have a diet.  They also don’t suffer from the extensive list of noninfectious diseases that we do.  What is the lesson here?  We need to try to find the ideal human diet in today’s modern world.  Or by definition, go paleo.

Another thing that paleo does not define is a macro nutrient profile.  The word “diet”, even in most research papers, is synonymous with weighing and measuring food, even if it’s only part of the intake that we’re interested in, like carbs or fat.  Paleo is simply food choices.  This means that higher carb paleo and lower fat paleo are completely acceptable as long as your goals reflect those choices.  For example, high carb paleo with lots of sweet potatoes, yams and butternut squash is still paleo, but it probably isn’t the best choice for fat loss.  On the other hand, if you are an athlete and you need more carbs for peak performance, there is no reason why paleo will not work for you and plenty of reasons why a more neolithic way of eating will be detrimental.

Paleo is also not inherently a weight loss or muscle gain plan.  It is a health plan. If you are over weight, getting healthy will mean getting leaner.  If you just gave up running marathons, getting healthy will mean gaining some muscle mass.  Beyond basic health, paleo and training can be tweaked for more muscle gain or fat loss.  That is not something that can be said for most “diets”.  Try packing on muscle mass on Weight Watchers sometime.

Finally, paleo is not an excuse to not exercise.  Proper nutrition is absolutely essential, but it doesn’t change the fact that the acquisition of food was inextricably tied to movement for all but the last miniscule fraction of time that our genus has been biped-ing it up on earth.  Since the kitchen, in all it’s glory, is is merely steps away these days, you will need to get out and mimic proper human movement.  Please note that I said “mimic proper human movement.”

Perspective is everything.  All this stuff will fall into place for you when your perspective is right.

What Paleo Isn’t is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Last night I made a whole roasted chicken, tossed some cubed butternut squash in coconut oil and roasted that as well, and cooked some greens fresh from our CSA to make an amazingly easy and tasty side dish.  Here’s how I prepared the greens:

Good Greens

1 pound of bacon, diced

1 small red onion, sliced

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 cup green beans, diced

2 bunches greens of your choice, finely diced (I used a huge bag of braising greens from my CSA which was a combo of kale, collards, and I think some turnip greens)

1 teaspoon rubbed sage

Black pepper to taste

In a large pan cook the bacon pieces and onion until the bacon starts to crisp.  Add the mushrooms and green beans and saute until the mushrooms are tender. Add the diced greens, sage and pepper and cook for another 3-4 minutes or until the greens are tender.

Enjoy!

Good Greens is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

-Dain

Inside Episode 22 of Paleo Talk:

• After tracking behavior of young son – Possible Aspergers diagnosis in future. Wait to introduce Paleo living?
• 27yr old male wants to know the basic ins and outs of this lifestyle. We don’t go over basics very often, decided this was a good time to do so.
• Omega 3/6 ratio of nuts and how to not go neurotic with tracking all this stuff. (Hint: dont)
• Birth Control hormone concerns. We talk about methods of contraception in this part as tactfully as possible. I think we did an OK job.
• How do we handle Halloween with all the candy?
• New to Paleo, with dairy cut out where am I supposed to get calcium?

Paleo Talk Episode 22 is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Enjoy!

Jason’s Interview with Jimmy Moore is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

As parents living a paleo lifestyle, Halloween can be much more frightening than the expected glowing skeletons, howling ghosts, and silly monsters.  Halloween is scary because of the mountains of high fructose corn syrup and unidentifiable ingredient laden CANDY!!!  Around this time every year my inbox fills up with questions regarding what to do about Trick or Treating, kids, and the typical sugar battles that go along with Halloween.

First, I’ll share with you how we have celebrated Halloween during our paleo years and I’ll also include some new tips and resources that I’m sure will prove useful as you plan for what should be a day filled with fun and fantasy, not tantrums and tummy aches.

The Fragoso Plan:  We do the typical pumpkin carving, dressing up, and trick or treating, but with a twist!  In the days leading up to Halloween, we make a traditional trip to our local pumpkin patch with the emphasis on having fun together as a family.  We pull each other in the wagons, jump in the bounce house, feed the animals, race through the hay bales, and of course wander through the pumpkins and pick out our favorites.

Instead of baking halloween cookies and filling up on candy, we make popcorn balls and roasted pumpkin seeds with the boys, prior to heading out to tour our neighborhood.  My mom started the pumpkin seed and popcorn ball tradition when we were kids; you see, she was not a candy fanatic either and we lived so far out in the country, trick or treating was not even an option, so every year we would look forward to making the gooey treats.

I know that popcorn, and most definitely popcorn balls do not necessarilly fall into the list of what folks consider to be “paleo” but on Halloween and as an alternative to the hoards of garbage that is typically consumed, a popcorn ball made with love, honey, and molasess is a lesser evil in my opinion and a fun way to continue my childhood tradition with my own kids.  Here is the recipe that we use:

Popcorn Balls

1/3 cup light molasses

 1/3 cup water

1 tablespoon grass fed butter (we use Kerrygold)

1) In a saucepan combine the honey, molasses and water and cook slowly over medium low heat, stirring constantly until the temp on your candy thermometer reaches 250.

2) Add the butter and stir in until melted.

3) Have the popped popcorn ready in a large bowl and evenly pour the syrup over the popcorn and mix well with a spoon.

4) Once the syrup has cooled, grease your hands (and the kids hands) with more butter and form the sticky popcorn into balls!!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Remove the seeds from your carved pumpkin, wash off all the goo and dry with paper towels

Sea salt to taste

1) Preheat your oven to 350.

2) Spread the seeds evenly on a baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt.

3) Bake for about 5 minutes, or just until the seeds start to turn toasty.  Watch them carefully, they will burn quickly!!

For trick or treating, my kids almost, just almost like to hand stuff out just as much as they like to go trick or treating.  We will hand out pencils, erasers, bracelets, or other fun little toys all found at the Dollar store.  Yup, we are that family who does not had out candy but we haven’t yet had our house egged or kids run off crying.  In fact the response is typically, “Cool!!” or “Thank You!!”

When we go trick or treating we simply have a 2 piece of candy rule.  Maybe that sounds cruel but after popcorn balls, dressing up, carving pumpkins, and handing out treats, the kids simply know the routine at this point and are not all that excited about the candy that is so foreign to them anyway.  The rest either goes in the garbage or is donated the next day at Jaden’s school in exchange for a book.

This year I am considering changing up our typical routine just slightly by using an idea from Peggy of Primal Parent.   Peggy contributed an outstanding article to the latest issue of Paleo Magazine which was dedicated to ideas for paleo parents to make Halloween fun and survivable.  For her little one, Peggy purchases candy that is more acceptable such as organic dark chocolates, crsytallized ginger, small packages of nuts and dried fruits, honey sticks, and other more natural treats.  After an evening of trick or treating she will either simply dump the bad stuff in the trash and make a switch to the better stuff (which would probably go totally unnoticed by tiny tots) or for older kids, her idea is to set up shop and have your child trade the bad stuff for the good stuff.  For example, it will cost your child 5 pieces of junk candy for 2 pieces of dark chocolate.  Turn it into a fun game of “store” and say goodbye to the tummy aches!  I think I’ll try this plan with my Rowan and Jaden this year, they both love to play fantasy games and a Halloween game of store and trading and bartering might be extremely fun and a new twist to our old routine.

Coby, my oldest son, simply tossed his candy last year except for a piece or two and this year at the ripe old age of 16 he plans to hang out with his buddy and they will help us take the little guys out around the neighborhood.   Coby is also working on a blog post to share with a teenagers perspective on living paleo so stay tuned for that special article coming soon!

I hope this post helps to make what should be a fun filled holiday a little bit more stress free and enjoyable.

As always, enjoy!

Surviving Halloween! is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Inside Episode 21:

• Australian woman on a mission to spread the Paleo word – having problems leaning out. Her URL: noisecolourlife.tumblr.com
• Canadian Paleo family – Kids in school and bring own lunch. Two kids, need lunch ideas.
• Paleo preparedness. Hurricanes and other natural disasters.
• Destroyed a grassfed chuck roast in the pressure cooker. What went wrong, how can I fix? Dry rub suggestions.

Paleo Talk Episode 21 is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

*Thank you to Katie of  Wellness Mama for another great post!  Remember you can also find Katie here at her own amazing blog.  Now read and enjoy!

For a Paleo athlete (or any athlete) drinks like Gatorade, Powerade, etc are not a good option. Sure, they restore glycogen, but most are high carb or filled with questionable chemicals, or both!

Most of the time, plain water is all we need for good hydration, but those who compete in endurance sports or high intensity competitions (or have labors as long as mine!) occasionally need an electrolyte boost.

Even at these times, there are better options than conventional sports drinks. Gatorade, for instance, contains: Water, sucrose syrup, glucose-fructose syrup, citric acid, natural grape flavor with other natural flavors, salt, sodium citrate, monopotassium phosphate, red 40, Blue 1. (This is from a picture of the grape flavored Gatorade label.

If you ever compete in high intensity or endurance activities that sometimes require an some additional electrolytes, but want to avoid things like “sucrose syrup,” a homemade sports drink is easier, cheaper, and much, much, healthier.

This is also a good alternative to give your kids occasionally, as it has a lot of natural vitamins and minerals.

Natural Sports Drink Ingredients:

• One Quart (32 ounces) of  liquid: herbal tea, coconut water or plain water. (I use nutrient dense Red Raspberry Leaf Tea brewed with Stevia for the natural vitamin boost)
• 1/8-1/4 teaspoon of Himalayan sea salt (regular salt will work, but doesn’t have the added trace minerals)
• 1/4-1/2 tsp calcium magnesium powder or crushed tablets
• 1/4 cup of juice (lemon, lime, grape, apple, etc)- optional
• 1 tsp sweetener (honey, stevia, etc) – optional – I brew stevia leaf into the tea so that no additional sweetener is needed.

How To Make Natural Sports Drink:

1. Brew tea or slightly warm base liquid.
2. Add sea salt and calcium magnesium powder and shake or stir to dissolve.
3. Add juice and sweetener, if using.
4. Cool and store in fridge until ready to use.

Note: The easiest way I’ve found to make this is in a quart size canning jar. Just add warm tea or liquid, pour in salt and cal/mag powder, put the lid on and shake well.

Other Natural Sports Drink Alternatives:

• Plain Coconut Water
• Vitamin C Powder in Water
• Water Kefir Soda
• Kombucha

What’s your favorite natural sports drink? Or do you just stick to water? Weigh in below!

Natural Homemade Paleo Sports Drink Recipe from Katie of Wellness Mama! is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Sarah, Chrissy and Dain are back in the same room – yes there is giggling and good times. If you’re one of those fun-haters that is annoyed by jovial goofiness, then go read the sidewall of a tire. While it’s in motion.

Inside Paleo Talk 20:

• Adrenal Fatigue – how Sarah dealt with it.
• Puree veggies in order to get kids to eat them. Bad Idea?
• Juice for kids. An OK beverage or worse than crack?
• Looking for a chip. Crunchy, slightly salty, satisfying?
• A mysterious badass has a desert job that involves walking up to 20 miles a day. How to take care of oneself?
• New mom is trying to do this deal while nursing the baby and is wondering why she can’t get to hot-mom status quicker.

Paleo Talk Episode 20 is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Peaches are at the peak of their season right now in Chico, CA and a week ago we came home with a big bag of very ripe peaches and nectarines from our farmer’s market.  John was grilling up some chicken and decided to throw on the peaches and nectarines for a simple, and by all means; out of this world delicious dessert.

Here is what he did:

1) Slice peaches or nectarines in half and remove the pit.

2) Sprinkle each cut side with either cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice.

3) Grill over medium heat with cut side down for approximately 3-5 minutes.

4) Serve with a scoop of whipped coconut cream on top.  (Scoop the cream out of the top of a can of chilled coconut milk – add about a teaspoon of vanilla extract and whip together with a hand held mixer)

5) Add a sprinkle of sliced almonds if desired.

Enjoy!

Grill Those Peaches While You Can! is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Resource List for Paleo/Primal Parents is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Deb started here.

First things first, she lost her fat and got all the way down to a size zero.

We saw this comparison picture of 2 very different Debs at 155 lbs.  (Be sure to click on all these pics to see more detail.)

At this point in her health and fitness evolution, Deb’s focus was strength and power.  She was trying to get as strong as she possibly could and pack on as much muscle as possible to counteract the effects of menopause on her muscles.  (In my humble opinion, it’s a huge mistake when women at this age skip this step.)  So, hot flashes be damned, her workouts often looked like the videos below.

Deb has been happy with her body for a long time now, but about six weeks ago she told me she thought it would be fun to see how lean she could get for the summer.  We made a few small changes to her nutrition and backed off her big lifts just a little.  The results have been astounding!

These pictures look great, but they aren’t exact comparisons so the results can be hard to see.  We will need to look at the data.

Deb probably lost around 15 lbs of fat by my rough estimates.  The scale says 20 lbs, but the it is often too vague to be useful, and household methods of body fat testing are usually worthless.  The good stuff is in her circumference measurements.  Just 6 weeks after changing her focus, here are her measurements:

Waist went from 32.75 inches to 30 inches.

Chest went from 39.75 inches to 37.25 inches.

Hips went from 36 inches to 34 inches.

Upper arm went from 11.25 inches to 10.75 inches.

Not too shabby considering we are talking about a (almost) 52 year old woman, in the middle of menopause, who has already made some extremely dramatic changes to her body.  It’s not like this was her first 6 weeks in the gym.  Deb has plenty of excuses she could fall back on, but she chooses to get results instead.

Deb is one of my favorite people in the whole world, but their isn’t anything inherently special about Deb that gave her an advantage here.  You can have these exact results.  Want it like Deb and you will have it like Deb.

If you are motivated by Deb, she will be happy to be your friend on Facebook.  Ask her about her fitness.  I’m sure she will tell you she hasn’t ever felt this good.

Deb Update is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

THIS IS PALEO TALK 19.5. IT IS NOT A REGULAR QUESTION AND ANSWER EPISODE, BUT A DISCUSSION WITH DAIN AND SARAH EXPLAINING THE GIANT SPAN OF TIME SINCE EPISODE 19. THIS EPISODE OF PALEO TALK CONTAINS EXTREMELY SENSITIVE SUBJECT MATTER THAT SOME LISTENERS MAY FIND DISTURBING. IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR CHILDREN OR ANYONE THAT IS EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT WHILE LISTENING, YOU NOT BE ENGAGED IN ANY OTHER ACTIVITY WHERE LOSS OF ATTENTION OR COMPOSURE COULD BE HARMFUL TO YOU. THANK YOU.

Sounds pretty extreme yes? Well, it is. Sarah and I discussed at length what we should do and we came to the decision that our followers should hear the reason for our long absence. Some may be offended or angry with what is covered. It has been listed as “explicit” in iTunes. At no time do we sensationalize the events or demonize anyone, simply recount what has been going on. A regular Paleo Talk (Episode 20) will be posted Monday August 29, 2011.

Paleo Talk Episode 19.5 is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

My brother is turning 40 in a couple of weeks.  Sorry Mark for throwing you under the bus, but I’m sure you’ll get me back someday!  Mark is obviously my inspiration for this post, and more poignantly, Mark has been a constant inspiration for me my entire life.  I have a million amazing memories with my big brother, and so many lessons I have learned from him as well.  

Mark has taught me how to be brave, compassionate, honest with my emotions, and true to myself.  Mark is always honest about how he feels, and I can share moments with my brother that I rarely share with others because we get each other, we are open books, brother and sister.

Mark and I have had a lot of fun together over the years and moments where we have partied and lived it up and now that we are getting older (not old, just oldER), I am finding it more and more important to simply Live Up!  What does that mean exactly to Live Up?  For me, it means to always be progressing, learning, discovering, being true with how you feel but not in such a way that you are hurtful to others.  Look inward, figure out what your dreams are, spread your wings and Live Up – move forward, try harder, smile bigger, laugh louder, hug longer.  Live Up – discover what it means to forgive and move on.  Never forget the ones that are no longer with us and honor your loved ones with your own commitment to health, to your children’s health, and pay attention to your body, mind, and spirit.

LIVE UP to the fact that we are only human so move on from our mistakes and remember that we only have this one life and we better live – in – the – moment because after each moment is gone, there is no going back.

Mark told me during our last conversation that he doesn’t want IT to end, life is too good, there are so many great things, undiscovered things, wonderful things.  That’s the attitude of someone who is truly alive.  There is a lot of stuff to do while we are here so let’s do it with a desire to help others, a desire to never stop thriving, giving, and loving.  Let’s Live UP – not just chug along and hope for the best, let’s create the best with what we have and embrace each day with a smile no matter how difficult yesterday may have been.

So to my brother Mark; thank you for your wisdom, thank you for your open spirit, thank you for sharing life’s lessons with me honestly and compassionately and I hope your attitude towards life will creep out through this little blog and help other folks feel a little lighter, a little brighter, and a little better – knowing that today is what we have, right now is ours for the taking, so lets make the best of it!

Live UP! is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Summer is upon us here in Northern CA – and hurray to that!  We have spent the last few days cooling off in our beautiful Butte Creek and enjoying the bounty of our CSA’s first summer veggies.

I received 2 lbs of beautiful yellow summer squash in this weeks CSA share and we figured out a wonderful way to make these little guys taste amazing, besides the basic quick saute.  You can bet I’ll be using this same recipe throughout the season with eggplant and even cherry tomatoes.

Roasted Summer Squash

2 lbs of summer squash, cut into bite size pieces

1 red onion, thinly sliced

8-10 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1/4 cup coconut oil

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

1/2 cup fresh basil, finely diced

Preheat oven to 450. In a large mixing bowl, toss together the squash, onions, and garlic with the coconut oil, salt, and pepper.  Spread the squash evenly on a baking sheet and bake in the center of your oven for 30 minutes.  Make sure to stir the mixture half way through the cooking time.  Toss the roasted squash with the diced fresh basil and serve.  I enjoyed mine with a squeeze of fresh lemon.

Enjoy!

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Roasted Summer Squash is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Inside Paleo Talk 19:

• Coconut Milk and the Guar Gum issue. Having Coconut Milk problems? This may be why.
• Breastfeeding mother is rapidly losing her milk supply on this diet. Her 15 month old hates vegetables. Poor nutrition worries. Help my two children please!
• Folate and Folic Acid – what’s the difference? Spina Bifida concerns?
• Would grain fed meats affect a person with celiac as if they ate it directly?
• Controlling petit mal seizures with a paleo lifestyle.

Paleo Talk Episode 19 is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

I’ll let Jason take it over from here…

Women and Muscle

This one is for the ladies.  Gentlemen, see you next time.

I’m generalizing here, but an average workout for for the typical female Globo Gym client consists of 30 – 60 minutes on a cardio machine or cardio class of some sort, followed by 10 – 15 minutes of “core” work.  If the path from the cardio equipment/class passes too close to the barbells, they must walk very quickly so as not to wake up tomorrow morning with 20 inch biceps and a full beard.  Okay, I’m being facetious, but this is a frustrating problem for many a trainer.

Ladies, you must lift weights! No matter what your goals may be, you will get the biggest bang for your buck by lifting heavy things in lots of different ways.  I covered the basic movements here so I won’t repeat myself, but we need to talk about the reasons you need to be lifting and the inhibitions you may have.

Unfortunately, the consensus among new female clients is almost always that lifting weights guarantees that you will look like this in short order:

Now I’m absolutely not passing judgment on anyone who actually wants to look like this.  In fact, I have nothing but respect for the amount of work this woman put into her sport.  But this requires drugs and an unbelievable level of dedication.  To assume that even a fraction of these results might happen to you by accident is naive and insulting to female bodybuilders.  This woman altered her capacity for hypertrophy (increased muscle size) with artificial hormones, used training methods designed specifically for maximum muscle mass gain, and probably ate more food per meal than you eat all day.  Do you intend to do all of those things?  No?  Then you can’t look like her.  Stop worrying about the impossible and load a barbell.

In my gym, the women with the heaviest lifts and the best overall physical capacity are also the women with bodies that are envied by the rest.  I think that most women who are new to fitness would assume that you can either be strong or you can be cute.  I think most men would disagree – at least men with any fitness experience.

I admit that the following is completely anecdotal, but let’s use Katie as an example.  Katie has been a client of mine for just over 3 years and she is a monster.  On her first day of training she weighed 172 lbs at 5 feet 2 inches tall.  She is a mom with 2 young children, she was eating a standard American diet, she could barely do a sit-up, she was not happy with her body and this is what she looked like:

After deciding she was fed up with her body, she got down to business with her training and nutrition and here are a few of her current stats:

Deadlift – 255 lbs

Back Squat – 200 lbs

Shoulder Press – 85 lbs

Clean – 140 lbs

She has completed 143 Kipping Pull-Ups in 15 minutes.

There is a benchmark CrossFit workout called Fran that goes like this:

21 Thrusters with 65 lbs (girls)
21 Kipping Pull-Ups
15 Thrusters
15 Kipping Pull-Ups
9 Thrusters
9 Kipping Pull-Ups

Katie has completed all this in 4 minutes and 29 seconds.

If you think like the average women, Katie’s accomplishments probably sound appalling and unladylike.  Well, you be the judge.  This is what Katie looks like now at around 135 lbs:

I should also mention that Katie doesn’t do any “cardio” by the mainstream definition.  Anything she does that might resemble “cardio” is done in short intervals.  She also does not weigh and measure her food.

I’ve exploited Katie here (thanks Katie!) because her results are typical of all of my heaviest lifting women.  Granted, we are not training them exclusively for strength, and that’s not what I’m recommending, but they are absolutely trained with strength and power as a top priority.  In fact, when the newbies ask for advice from the top  women they are often told to get into lifting and get strong.  I have no doubt that Katie would advise the same.

Another reason women need to lift weights is to maintain bone density.  Any women reading this who are over 40 years old have probably been emphatically prescribed copious amounts of calcium by their doctor.  What the doc neglected to consider is the lack of stimulus necessary for your body to use valuable energy to build more bone.  Maybe you should drop off a bunch of lumber in your doctor’s yard without mentioning why, and then get mad at him when he doesn’t use it to build a deck.  He’s playing the same game with your body.  Why would your body assume that you need more bone density if you never bear loads that would necessitate a stronger frame?  In reality, if your diet and exercise are on par with the needs of your species you probably don’t need calcium at all.

If you are having a hard time getting your head around all this, you need to find a quality fitness facility, one that consistently produces excellent results, and talk to their women.  And you need to roll the dice and try it.  I have already asked you to dramatically change your thinking about nutrition in my previous posts.  Now I’m asking you to trust me again.  Get motivated.  Get educated.  Lift heavy.  You won’t regret it.

Women and Muscle is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Thanks to my adventurous mother, as far back as I can remember I have had a huge interest and affection for international cuisine with one of my favorites being Thai food.

I hope someday to travel to Thailand and immerse myself in the culture, eat the food, visit the beaches, and ride around in a Tuk Tuk.  Truthfully, I want to travel the entire world and explore exciting food destinations and I will admit that now and then I’ll close my eyes and imagine myself as the female equivalent to Anthony Bourdain, especially now that he has given up cigarettes!

However, my dream of traveling to distant countries is not tangible at the moment so in the meantime I can experiment at home by making paleo versions of my favorite dishes for my family and share my creations with you.

I hope you enjoy this sauce as much as we did!

Everyday Paleo Thai “No Peanut” Sauce.

½ cup almond butter

½ cup canned coconut milk or coconut cream concentrate

½ cup applesauce

Juice from ½ a lime

½ tablespoon fish sauce (I used Red Boat Fish Sauce, an awesome gift from Nom Nom Paleo and this stuff rocks!!!)

1 ½ teaspoons fresh grated ginger

½ teaspoon crushed garlic

Hot chili oil to taste

Whisk all ingredients together in a medium sized mixing bowl and serve as a dipping sauce.  Below is how we have eaten the sauce over the last couple of days.

Over Grilled Chicken

This was John’s favorite.  We simply grilled some chicken breasts seasoned with a little sea salt and pepper and topped the chicken with shredded carrots, diced cilantro, and the sauce.

Prawn Lettuce Wraps

I found some wild caught large prawns at our local health food store and I sauteed them in coconut oil with green onions, fresh basil and garlic and we wrapped the prawns in lettuce topped with the Thai “No Peanut” sauce and diced cilantro.  The boys and I voted this one as our favorite.

Thai Ground Beef Lettuce Wraps

Last but not least, I browned up 1 lb of ground beef with some diced zucchini and seasoned with 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce, 1 tablespoon coconut aminos, and 2 teaspoons crushed garlic.  We wrapped the beef in lettuce with shredded carrots, cilantro, and topped it with the sauce.  It was good but we liked the chicken and shrimp the best.

Enjoy!

Everyday Paleo Thai “No Peanut” Sauce is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

For those of you who read my Homemade Mayonnaise Post and watched the cooking demo, you saw at the end of the video when I added some basil, roasted red peppers, and garlic to make a yummy sauce!  Later that same evening I whipped up some crab cakes and we topped them with the red pepper mayo.  Here’s the recipe for the crab cakes that were totally demolished in five minutes flat by my boys.

Everyday Paleo Crab Cakes

1 pound crab meat (I used Chicken of the Sea “fresh” canned crab from Trader Joe’s. Yes fresh is best but when made into crab cakes, this worked just fine!)

2 tablespoons finely diced red onion

2 tablespoons paleo mayo (not the red pepper mayo but just the plain mayo)

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

salt and pepper to taste

1/8 teaspoon of chipotle powder

1 egg

2 tablespoons coconut flour (or enough to make the mixture stick together)

2-4 tablespoons coconut oil

Shredded green cabbage for garnish

Lemon wedges for garnish

If using the canned crab, make sure to crumble the crab with your hands into a large mixing bowl and pick out any shells you might find.  Mix the crab with the onion, mayo, garlic, sea salt, pepper, chipotle, egg and coconut flour.  In a large skillet, heat the coconut oil over medium heat for 1 minute or until hot enough that a sprinkle of water in the pan makes the oil sizzle.  Form the crab cake mixture into palm size patties and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side or until they are golden brown.  Makes aproximately 10 crab cakes. Serve on top of the shredded green cabbage with lemon wedges and topped with my red pepper mayo if desired.

Everyday Paleo Crab Cakes is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Brace yourself.  I’m coming at you with all guns blazing on this one and you aren’t going to believe what you’re about to see.  First things first, if you haven’t read my diatribe condemning your bathroom scale, please begin there.

Alright, now that you are caught up, let’s revisit Deb from my last post.  Deb has been kind enough to let me exploit her for your education on these here interwebs and I am very grateful.  Showing the world where she started isn’t easy, but she is a kind person who wants to help you and she has accomplished some remarkable things in her health and fitness.

So here is Deb at the beginning of a contest we held at my gym in January of last year.

Here she is at a size zero with her nutrition dialed.  For the full effect of this picture, place your thumb on your screen directly over the ugly guy on the right.

And here she is a couple of weeks ago after a lot of hard work that has dramatically increased her fitness capacity.  I didn’t actually intend for this post to be all about Deb’s accomplishments, so I won’t repeat her numbers here.  Suffice it to say, my money would be on Deb versus the average American girl half her age in a contest of any exercise I have ever convinced her to perform.  Now for the really good part.

I spent my entire career waiting patiently for the right situation that would produce the picture below.

Now that you are done staring in amazement, eyes darting back and forth between the two Debs and down to “155lbs” to make sure you read it right, let this information really sink in.  Let it change your perspective to something healthier.  Forever!

Now go throw away your scale.

Faced with the facts above, basing your goals – or even worse, your happiness – on the number on your scale is absolutely ridiculous.  I’ll give you an example of why weight is useless information in all but extreme cases.  Let’s pretend Deb came to me at a weight of 200 lbs and told me she wanted to get down to 155 lbs.  Which side of the picture above do you think she would prefer?  Do you think she would have been satisfied with the left side?  Look at her face.  She is ecstatic with her body on the right, but on the left she can hardly stand to have her picture taken.  We can glean from this that goals based on weight are too vague to be useful.  If I had only given you her circumference measurements (waist, hips, thighs, bust, etc.) and no photos, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind which 155 lb Deb you would have chosen as the more aesthetically appealing.  But when you look in the mirror and see a body like the Deb on the left you probably say, “Damn, I need to lose some weight.”  Now you have undeniable evidence that defies that thought.  Losing weight is not what you want and pursuing a number on your scale is not the path to success.  It will drive you insane, though.  But that’s probably not your goal.

Change your perspective to something healthier.  Forever!

For those of you that may be having a hard time believing how all this can possibly be true, click here and hit Deb up on Facebook.  She will be happy to befriend you and answer your questions, but please be reasonable.  She has not volunteered to coach you, just to be your motivation.

Edit: One little point I left out of this post is that Deb totaled up her calories just for fun a few weeks ago.  She came up with an average of slightly over 3900 per day.  Take that calorie restriction diets!

Attention Scale Addicts, part 2 is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

• Pregnancy easier after switch to paleo. Now that baby is here, nursing intervals, iron supplements needed?
• She has celiac disease, a milk allergy, and battled fibromyalgia. Paleo has transformed her life. Her anti-vegetable husband is feeding their toddlers pizza and McDonalds and laughs at this stupid diet.
• Olive oil and how it should be used – other oils better suited for specific purposes.
• Paleo. Breastfeeding. Weight loss. Am I doing it right?
• Husband says this high fat diet is only good in the short term because he read an article in U.S. News. Yes. THAT article. (Robb’s Rebuttal)

Paleo Talk Episode 18 is a post from Everyday Paleo - licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License