Primal Blueprint Podcast

Elle Russ chats with Cornell Thomas -  a multi-book author and expert in positive self-awareness. He has been endorsed by some of the top experts in his field including Tony Robbins and Dr. Cornel West.  Cornell Thomas is the perfect example of turning a loss into a win. Two weeks away from playing professional basketball in Europe, Cornell suffered a career-ending injury that derailed his dream. Growing up with adversity his whole life allowed Cornell to get past “Why Me” and focus on “What Now”.    Youtube Video Link: https://youtu.be/LN83C8bdBac   LINKS Website: www.cornell-thomas.com  Twitter: @cornellthomas Instagram: @cornellthomas34  

Longtime readers of the blog are so inundated with the latest dietary research and results from years of personal experimentation that they often take the simple, basic dietary truths for granted. But it’s the simple ones that make the most difference. Today I’m going to sift through the knowledge base to winnow out the dietary truths that, while basic, fundamental, and important, are unknown or misinterpreted in the “normal population.” If you think someone you know or care about could learn from this list, send it along. What follows are some basic dietary truths that everyone needs to understand. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

It has many names and monikers. Male menopause. Andropause. Age-related testosterone deficiency. Hypogonadism. Manopause, my personal favorite. Although it isn’t as sharply defined as female menopause, male menopause is a catch-all for the gradual cascade of mental and physical health issues that men face as they approach and pass middle age and their testosterone drops. Wherever possible, I will insert “man” puns into the symptoms and conditions. Consider yourself warned. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with John Assaraf - one of the leading mindset and behavioral experts in the world! He has appeared numerous times on Larry King Live, Anderson Cooper and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. John has also built 5 multimillion dollar companies, written 2 New York Times Bestselling books and has been featured in 8 movies, including the blockbuster hit The Secret. Today, he is founder and CEO of NeuroGym, a company dedicated to using the most advanced technologies and evidence-based brain training methods to help individuals and corporations unlock and ignite their fullest potential.  Go to MyNeuroGym.com and register for John's FREE online Brain-A-Thon event, featuring a variety of brain and success experts to help you develop a roadmap for shifting your mind and your life.   SELECTED LINKS: http://www.myneurogym.com/go/?p=JAAFF7565&w=LBAT2018REGAFFEM  Youtube Video: https://youtu.be/xlqrdIe78dk

As the research continues to pile up against artificial sweeteners, it’s a race to take the lion’s share of the growing alternative sweetener market. While natural sweeteners like stevia and erythritol have become more popular in recent years, it’s still a wide field. One lesser known option is yacon syrup—a natural sweetener with a low calorie count and prebiotic abilities. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Angela Bicos Mavridis - a Holistic Nutritionist and the CEO and founder of TRIBALI Foods. As a kid in her grandmother’s kitchen, she discovered the nurturing power of real foods. Today, she seeks and sources 100% organic high-quality proteins for TRIBALÍ Foods — from grass fed and grass finished beef to free-range chicken, pasture-raised pork, and wild-caught seafood — to create flavorful, versatile, and nutrient-dense centerpieces for wholesome, satisfying meals. Angela won the NOSH Live Pitch Slam 2017 on behalf of TRIBALÍ Foods and continuously strives to explore ways to "Make people healthier one meal at a time."   SELECTED LINKS: Tribali Foods

Metabolic flexibility is the capacity to match fuel oxidation to fuel availability—or switch between burning carbs and burning fat. Someone with great metabolic flexibility can burn carbs when they eat them. They can burn fat when they eat it (or when they don’t eat at all). They can switch between carbohydrate metabolism and fat metabolism with relative ease. All those people who can “eat whatever they want” most likely have excellent metabolic flexibility. So, why does it really matter, and how does it happen? Let’s get into the weeds today. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Most longtime readers of this blog could probably rattle off a dozen daily habits based on the inviolable Primal Laws. That’s not exciting, though. Let’s consider the basics just that: basics you should already have a handle on. These are practices that you’ve already integrated—eat whole foods, avoid unnecessary carbs, stop fearing fat and animal protein, lift heavy things, and such—and don’t require any more cajoling or prodding. It’s more helpful to develop some daily habits that you probably hadn’t considered. What are some daily habits for better Primal health? (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Sean Wittenberg - the Cofounder and President of Safe Catch based in Sausalito, CA.  With a deeply held belief that the health of our environment, our food and our society are all profoundly connected, Sean has spent the past 15 years focused on developing technologies and products that help people live healthier, happier lives while improving the wellbeing of our planet.  In this episode, Sean educates the audience on the safety and environmental concerns surrounding fishing and consuming fish.   SELECTED LINKS: Safe Catch

A Primal woman’s first reaction to the prospect of taking synthetic hormone replacements for menopause? Probably a healthy dose of skepticism. We in the ancestral health community, after all, tend to view pharmaceuticals as a last resort—interventions that are overprescribed by vested interests, create their own set of side effects, and may even do more harm than good. To suggest that we “need” this or that prescription raises our hackles. Besides, it’s not like menopause is a product of modernity or an aberration our ancestors never experienced; it’s a physiological stage that evolution has protected and selected in humans. It’s perfectly natural. Rather than the debilitating, miserable experience many women report having, menopause should be easier. Graceful, even. But it often isn’t. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Ken Berry MD about the epidemic of Diabetes and how a patient can navigate test results, treatment, prevention, and reversing the disease. Dr. Berry is also the author Lies My Doctor Told Me which reveals the truth behind the lies told by well-meaning doctors. Whether it’s recommending a low-fat diet, or warning you to avoid the sun, these medical lies can cause really harm to your health. This book will help you sort through the medical myths and the outright lies, and begin to develop a health partnership with your doctor. Dr. Berry has been practicing Family Medicine in rural Tennessee for over a decade.  He is board certified in Family Medicine, and was recently awarded the degree of Fellow by the American Academy of Family Physicians. Having seen over 20,000 patients of all ages over his career, he is uniquely qualified to advise on both acute and chronic diseases. Dr. Berry has focused of chronic disease caused by the Standard American Diet and Lifestyle, and has made it his mission

A few months ago, I explored the benefits and applications of cold therapy. Today, I’m going to talk about the benefits and applications of heat therapy—one of the most ubiquitous and ancestral therapies in the history of humankind. You name a culture and—as long as they didn’t live in perpetual tropical heat—they probably had some form of heat therapy. Native Americans had the sweat lodge, those of Central America the temazcal. The Romans had the thermae, which they picked up and refined from the Greeks. Other famous traditions include Finnish saunas, Russian banyas, Turkish hammams, Japanese sentó (or the natural spring-fed onsen), and the Korean jjimjilbang. People really like the heat. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

It’s about that time: the start of the school year. Bleary-eyed kids everywhere are dragged from bed, thrown into clothing, handed an energy bar and glass of juice, and shuttled off to spend hours sitting at a desk. They come home, do hours of homework, squeeze in some screen time, squeeze some vaguely edible goo into their mouths, update their Facebook status, post a few Instagram pics, and climb into bed by 10 PM sharp, Snapchatting their way to the land of Nod. Then it starts all over again. I’m exaggerating, a bit. Things aren’t this bad—childhood Facebook usage is actually down! But too many children aren’t getting enough sleep. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Dr. Mona Morstein - a naturopathic physician with a medical practice focused in integrative diabetes treatment. Her clinic, Arizona Integrative Medical Solutions, is located in Tempe, Arizona, where she sees patients of all ages and genders for acute and chronic conditions. An expert on prediabetes and diabetes, she is a frequent lecturer at conferences and webinars, and is the founder and executive director of The Low Carb Diabetes Association. Dr. Morstein is a member of the Arizona Diabetes Coalition and her new book is Master Your Diabetes: A Comprehensive, Integrative Approach for Both Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes   Selected Links: Dr. Morstein's Website Master Your Diabetes (book)

Consistency is key in everything we do. Training in the gym: The most optimal workout imaginable won’t do a thing if you only get around to it once every two weeks. Sleep: A solid 8 hours of shut eye every night beats 10 hours one night, 6 the next. Learning a new skill: Practice for an hour each day and you’ll become a master. Spend twelve hours one time and never again, and you’ll remain a beginner. The same is true for nutrition. A consistent, reliable way of eating—especially with a diet like keto, where extended consistency actually builds new fat-burning mitochondria and establishes habits—tends to produce the best results. But what if you wanted to be a little less consistent? What if you wanted to cycle between Primal and keto? Is such a thing even possible? Yes. Just make sure you do it right—and for the right reasons. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Enjoy this simulcast from Brad Kearns Facebook Live event, and join the Keto Reset Facebook community. Many topics relating to keto and healthy living are covered in this fast-moving show. Brad shares highlights of a recent conversation with Mark Sisson about metabolic flexibility and "fractal eating." Mark relates how his lifelong keto strategy is to spend lots of time fasting or in ketogenic eating patterns, but not worry about the details such that occasionally he will consume carbs outside the traditional keto range, but in what he calls the "keto zone." Mark mentioned a recent discussion with Dr. Joe Mercola who argues that fasting during jet travel protects you from the high levels of radiation and EMFs you face on an airplane, and also the lack of top foods available when you are on the go.    Metabolic flexibility really means that you can handle anything, from fasting and turbocharged fat and ketone burning to perhaps even a carb binge. Brad discusses his recent experiment, inspired by Chris Kelly an

Next month, Primal Kitchen® will be teaming up with the Whole30® crew to help support people doing the Whole30 program. The guidelines complement the Primal Blueprint, after all, and the Primal Blueprint is a common after-Whole30 approach to long-term vitality for many folks. The Whole30 itself offers incredibly valuable feedback on the effects of certain foods on your health, and it’s an amazing kick-start for turning your diet (and well-being) around. Today I’m offering up my top tips for a successful Whole 30 experience. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Seamus Mullen, an award-winning New York chef, restaurateur and cookbook author about his struggles with Rheumatoid Arthritis and his journey to complete healing through FOOD.  An avid cyclist who raced competitively in his twenties, he was diagnosed in 2007 with rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that forced him to rethink his relationship with food, and led to his first cookbook Hero Food, published in 2012. His second book Real Food Heals was released in 2017.  Through food, exercise and lifestyle changes, Seamus was able to successfully turn his health around. For 7 years now, Seamus has been off all RA medication and has no RA markers on his blood results!     Seamus opened his first solo restaurant Tertulia in Manhattan in 2011, which was awarded two stars from The New York Times and was a finalist for the James Beard Foundation Award for Best New Restaurant. In 2013, he opened El Colmado a Spanish tapas and wine bar at Gotham West Market, a food hall in New York’s Hell’s K

If you’re looking for an easy way to incorporate a beginning strength training practice (or just a little extra effort) into your exercise routine, wearable weights—which include weighted vests, ankle weights and wrist weights—can seem like a no-brainer. After all, you’re technically investing the same amount of time and doing the same activities but just with more effort and benefit. And you just have to slip them on and go, right? Not exactly. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Brian is a personal trainer and scratch golfer from Chicago who has had some great success with intermittent fasting for both himself and his clients. He was initially inspired when he became frustrated by his inability to achieve the same results in the gym at age 38 as he did at 28 - imagine that! He started with the simple strategy of pushing his breakfast back an hour at a time until he was able to comfortably adjust to eating his first meal at around noon. Consequently, Brian typically ends up eating only two meals a day. Brian and Brad discuss an assortment of common sense tips to make fasting work for you, in particular: Be strict with your exercise so you don’t have decision fatigue and will power needed every day to stick with your plan; move around and keep busy during your fasting periods to make time fly by faster; clean up your diet so you can minimize glucose spikes and insulin crashes; make sure your dietary practices are a smooth fit into your busy life.    Brian offers the memorable quote tha