Primal Blueprint Podcast

Host Brad Kearns starts off with a fake question he asks on his own behalf: Should a keto enthusiast fast in the morning or drink a macronutrient balanced, nutrient-dense green smoothie? This relates to Brad's recent experiment with increased caloric intake, inspired by his Primal Endurance show #133 with Dr. Tommy Wood. We get into the details of the autophagy benefits derived from both fasting and doing challenging workouts. Additional listener questions are covered, including one with some important commentary about sleep--the importance of darkness and the drawbacks of excess artificial light and digital stimulation after dark. Enjoy the show and send your questions for the keto-themed show to [email protected]  

Generally speaking, the basic Primal Blueprint for fitness and physical activity applies equally to men and women of all ages. Lifting heavy things works in everyone. Sprinting is a fantastic way—for anyone who’s able—to compress workouts and improve training efficiency. Improving one’s aerobic capacity through easy cardio doesn’t discriminate between the sexes. And everyone should walk, hike, garden, and perform as much low level physical activity as possible. These basic foundations—the 30,000 foot view of fitness—don’t really change across age or sex. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Arriane Alexander about putting yourself out there in the social media world through video! Arriane is a “rock your life coach” and has a Masters Degree in Spiritual Psychology. She helps entrepreneurs step into new possibilities so they can create a life and career they’ve always dreamed of. She spent over 12 years as a high level executive in the fashion business and walked away from that successful career to follow a heartfelt dream of succeeding in the entertainment industry and as a transformational Life Coach. Today, she works consistently as an Actor on TV shows like Justified, Grey’s Anatomy and The People vs O.J. Simpson. She is also the Host of two TV shows, and has booked numerous TV commercials. In other words, she has created the life of her dreams, and as a Rock Your Life coach for over a decade, she helps women do the same in a fun, inspired, and transformative way.  She works with clients all over the world –Entrepreneurs, Health and Fitness Experts, and Executives to help

Host Brad Kearns talks about his month-long and still running experiment with increasing his overall caloric intake (and consequently allowing for an increase in carbohydrate intake). The experiment was inspired by his NourishBalanceThrive.com consultation with Dr. Tommy Wood, the content of which was presented on a previous Primal Endurance Podcast. Brad’s detailed NourishBalanceThrive test results suggested some deficiencies that might be righted with custom supplements as well as a superfood “green” smoothie. Brad embarked on a grand experiment to significantly increase his overall food intake—of course focusing on highly nutritious foods with little or no empty calories. Brad reports an improvement in athletic performance and especially recover. He went all-in with this test, including indulging in fabulous Las Vegas buffets, occasional carb binges, and big-time green smoothies in the morning. The early results of the experiment pose an interesting question: could there be a different set of rules and dec

Imagine money is no object. Imagine you wield absolute control over the scientific community and can direct it to run whichever study you desire. If you can dream it up, they’ll get the subjects, produce the money, and make it happen. All you need to come up with is the overarching design. What would you choose? What do you wonder? What questions do you want answered once and for all? (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Lauren Lobley - author of The Accidental Paleo: Easy Vegetarian Recipes for a Paleo Lifestyle.  Lauren is a Canadian born-and-raised former pastry chef turned healthy chef. Together with her husband, Ted, and 22-month-old daughter, Madison Grace, they run and operate a yoga studio in Malibu, California, where Lauren provides the freshly baked vegan gluten-free granola, and Ted teaches the best class on this side of Malibu.  After culinary school, she joined the ranks and worked her way up as head baker to celebrity chef and Food Network star, Duff Goldman, churning out thousands of cakes a week at his West Hollywood location. Realizing how terrible she felt by consuming so much gluten, dairy, and sugar, Lauren began recipe testing with one goal in mind: to make healthy food taste good. She blogged about her experience on her website, Delectable You, and began featuring her recipes both on that site and on her increasingly popular YouTube channel.  

Keto is red hot these days, and it’s not going away anytime soon. Call it the latest dietary fad, but keep in mind a great insight Robb Wolf told Joe Rogan on his podcast: keto was “likely the default human metabolic state” over the past 2.5 million years of human evolution. Only with the extremely recent (on the evolutionary timeline) advent of civilization have we been stuffing our faces with carbs and snuffing out our magnificent ability to generate ketones as a clean-burning alternative fuel source to dietary carbohydrates. And we certainly were compelled to evolve a highly efficient mechanism to keep our high energy demand brains fueled with glucose or the glucose-like substitute of ketones at all times—for this was a matter of life or death in primal times. When our ancestors were starving, they needed to keep working hard, and concentrating hard, to find food! (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Megan Roberts (née Hall) is the Scientific Director of Nourish Balance Thrive. In September, 2017, she co-authored a paper that was published in the prestigious journal Cell Metabolism entitled A Ketogenic Diet Extends Longevity and Healthspan in Adult Mice that was widely commended in the scientific community. In this podcast, Megan sits down with host Lindsay Taylor to discuss her program of research and the most important and exciting findings from that study. They talk about the difference between lifespan and healthspan (hint: you want both) and the evidence for how a low-carb ketogenic diet can contribute to both.   Taking a step back, Megan gives a brief lesson in Research Methods 101: What are the benefits and limitations of non-human research (e.g., studies conducted on mice)? Where can we and where should we not extrapolate from this type of research to human interventions? What do we know and what do we not know at this point about the ketogenic diet? Finally, Megan tells us what advice she gives p

As we move into a new era of health awareness, there’s more variety than ever available to us. Overall, this is a very good thing—the average Primal consumer now has far greater access to a wider range of organic, free range, pastured, GMO-free, wholesome foods and products. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Daniel Thomas Hind - the founder of EvolutionEat, a transformational weight loss and lifestyle coaching company designed to help overwhelmed individuals solve their eating, food and dieting problems. Over the past few years Daniel has specialized in helping busy executives and high performers become more productive at work and create more meaningful lives by prioritizing their health and overcoming unhealthy eating habits. And here’s the kicker...he’s figured out how to make the process fun, so that it lasts forever. Every week, tens of thousands of people read Daniel’s material to learn how to use psychology, mindset and healthy habits to live a more meaningful life.

If you think going Primal is restrictive, the autoimmune protocol is downright draconian. But this is by design. The entire point of an autoimmune Primal/paleo protocol is to eliminate all the foods with the potential to trigger any allergenic, autoimmune, or inflammatory responses. That leaves out a lot of delicious foods, many of your favorites—but it can be a powerful way to assess your sensitivities, target the root causes of mysterious health problems, and illuminate a path forward. It gets you back to square one. A fresh start, a wiped slate. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

In this episode, Lindsay Taylor sits down with Leanne Vogel, author of the popular book The Keto Diet and host of The Keto Diet Podcast. Listen in as Lindsay and Leanne chat about Leanne's journey from vegan blogger to becoming a respected leader in the ketogenic diet community, their personal philosophies about how to adopt a ketogenic diet and lifestyle in a healthy manner, and the stumbling blocks they see people--especially women--encounter along the way. Hear how Leanne used a ketogenic diet to reclaim her health after years of struggling with chronic health issues faced by many women today, and why she recommends a low-carb, high-fat approach for optimal health. Find Leanne at healthfulpursuit.com and on Instagram @healthfulpursuit. Connect with Lindsay via the Keto Reset Facebook group and on Instagram @theusefuldish. 

Elle Russ chats with Cavin Balaster about his experience sustaining a severe traumatic brain injury that left him comatose with less than a 10% chance of regaining consciousness beyond a vegetative state. Since waking up, he has devoted years to researching and connecting with doctors, professors, researchers, nutritionists, practitioners, and neuroscientists.  His book, How to Feed a Brain is the culmination of the nutritional tools that he has learned through this journey, presented as a user-friendly guide with handouts and web resources created to help anyone improve their brain function.

We have a problem. When discussing vitamin B9, common parlance is to use “folic acid” and “folate” interchangeably, as if the two are different terms for the same thing. Talk to most OB-GYNs about the type of vitamin B9 in your prenatal, and they’ll say the difference doesn’t matter. Look at the average nutrition label, and it’ll list folic acid rather than folate, even though it’s naturally occurring. They are not the same. The difference is meaningful.  (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Host Brad Kearns discusses this common and perhaps over-analyzed topic of the role carbs play in your keto journey. This show attempts to simplify the issue, giving you some important concepts to consider while allowing you the freedom and flexibility to follow a strategy that works best for you. Brad discusses whether mornings or evenings are better for carbs, where pre- and post-workout fueling fits in, and also what are the best carbs to consume and which you should always avoid.  

Elle Russ chats with Keith and Michelle Norris - Keith is a former athlete, a military vet, and an elite strength and conditioning expert with over 35 years of experience.  His wife Michelle is a former corporate warrior and a trained chef.  Keith and Michelle are serial entrepreneurs who are best-known in the ancestral community as the founders of the largest Paleo conference in the world, Paleo f(x)™ .   As well, Keith is a partner in one of the most innovative lines of boutique training studios in the nation, Efficient Exercise.   He’s also a partner in ARXFit training equipment, and a founding member of ID Life. In his spare time, he authors one of the top fitness blogs in the health and wellness sphere, Theory To Practice. Michelle recently developed a new website dedicated to breaking the bonds of the obstacles that hold us back and keep our should from soaring called www.ZeroGravitySoul.com

With 6.1 million children in this country bearing a past or present ADHD diagnosis, it’s little wonder folks had a lot to say in the initial post I did on the subject a few months back.  For the most part, people were pumped to discover new potential therapies for themselves or loved ones, or at the very least to find validation in their own hunt for side effect free ADHD treatment. Others questioned the validity of certain alternative approaches, and still more posed questions about other treatments they’d heard about or were interested in. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Host Brad Kearns offers some important tips to make your first foray into nutritional ketosis a success. As you may know, the complete Keto Reset journey entails a 21-Day Metabolism Reset, a fine-tuning period of morning fasting, followed by a minimum 6-week stint of nutritional ketosis. Regardless of your long-term keto strategy, completing a single Keto Reset journey and staying keto for at least six weeks affords you the highest level of metabolic flexibility, which you can leverage into long-term benefits. Even when well prepared, it can be tough to make it through the initial weeks of keto, since you are making such a dramatic transition from your lifelong #1 fuel source of glucose over to fat and ketones. Follow the guidelines offered in the show to make sure you succeed out of the gate and hang in to the magic six-week mark and perhaps beyond (since it gets super easy by then!)

I like intensity when I train. Lifting heavy, running sprints, playing Ultimate Frisbee. I keep it brief, and the foundation is always a lot of slow movement throughout the day—easy runs, long walks or hikes, rarely sitting—but I go hard when I “work out.” What if you were to go slow, on purpose? Entire schools of physical culture are founded upon slow, deliberate movements. They squash momentum and lambast rapidity. They’re difficult in a different way. They require patience and fortitude. Take yoga. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Norm Robillard, Ph.D., Founder of the Digestive Health Institute and a leading gut health expert. He turned his own suffering from chronic acid reflux into a mission to create the drug and antibiotic free Fast Tract Diet for functional gastrointestinal disorders, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and related health conditions. The Fast Tract Diet was presented at the Digestive Disease Week in 2013 to provide an alternative treatment to gastroenterologists for SIBO related conditions which affect over 100 million people in the US alone. The diet has been endorsed by the New York Times Best Seller Co-author - Dr. Michael Eades, GI Surgeon - Dr. Alan Hu, many certified nutritionists and healthcare providers. Dr. Norm consults with people around the globe for their digestive and related health issues. You can download his free ebook here.