Sunday Story...paleo vs. Paleo

It appears Paleo (capitals) has become main stream. Dieticians and nutritionists are lining up on one side of the fence or the other. Some are for it and some are against it. We see medical doctors recommending it and others adamantly opposed. And now the food companies are getting on board the train. They are substituting wheat flour for other flours and making gluten free foods, beginning to capitalize on this newest (?) “Diet craze.”

This is a better thing than before but it is not necessarily a good thing. The food companies have managed to screw up an entire generation or two’s eating habits. They have purposefully addicted people to salt and sugar, introducing both of those things into foods that never needed them. I learned to make spaghetti sauce from my mother who learned from my father’s Aunt Lena (I think). I don’t remember being told that the secret ingredient was sugar. There is a secret ingredient but it isn’t sugar.

Believe it or not the food companies have spent millions of dollars figuring out exactly what it is going to take to have you consume their products in copious quantities. They know exactly how many pounds per square inch of pressure to snap a chip will be the most satisfying in your mouth (4). They know where your “bliss point” is on any of their foods…based on texture, taste, packaging, aroma, and more. The closer they can come to that “bliss point” the more you will eat the product. It is a science of addiction that has caused the greatest health crisis the world has ever known. More people are going to die from obesity, diabetes and other chronic nutritionally related diseases than died from the flu pandemic in the early 20th century or from the black plague in the Middle Ages. And it was done on purpose, with malice aforethought all in the name of profit. Why we aren’t storming the gates with pitchforks in hand is beyond me.

And now they are going to sell us Paleo? Noooooooooooooo. These people do not have your best interest in mind. They are just going to use other things to addict you to their products. Honey, agave, and all the rest of the sweeteners are just as addictive. As babies it takes 13 times of tasting a savory food to learn to like it. It takes once (1) of tasting a sweet food to learn to like it. You need to get off the train at this station, right now.
You want to eat paleo(no capitals)lithic. Quit trying to make all the stuff you have been addicted to Paleo. Start back at the beginning. Start with quality food…from animals that are living they way they were intended to live. Chickens that are roaming around eating bugs and grass and seeds and more. Cows, sheep, goats that are wandering around eating the food they were designed by nature to eat. There is a reason bison isn’t grain fed and living in a feedlot. Vegetables grown by you or your neighbors or at least someone nearby. Maybe even stuff you go pick yourself. When was the last time you made pickles? Or your own sauerkraut? Or your own cream cheese or yogurt (for you dairy people)?

We use to know how to make all that stuff. 50 years ago (1963) most of the food we consumed came to us from real natural sources. 100 years ago (1913) it all came to us that way. We were more independent and self reliant. People made sure they had food to eat in the winter. There were no markets to buy berries in January from. The food distribution network didn’t exist as we know it today.

It (paleo) is all about quality. Quality of food before it hits your plate. Quality of preparation when it gets to your house. Quality of planning. You can make your own kim chee, your own yogurt; you can have chickens and a garden. You can find a local grower of lots of things; you can join a CSA (community supported agriculture). It will be harder than running into your local market but it will be so much more satisfying. Your food will be better, fresher, and better for you and your family. And if you do it right, cheaper too. If we factor in the long term health costs of bad diet it will be way way way cheaper. Take your power back from the companies that are shoveling you down the road to being held enthrall to the pharmaceutical companies (interesting how that works!).

Eat paleo (lithic) not Paleo!

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

Follow me at:
Twitter --- http://m.twitter.com/jmariotti
FaceBook --- John Mariotti
Blog Spots…John Mariotti
http://sunday-stories.blogspot.com/

Sunday Story...What's Your Why?

I often get asked why I do some of things I do. Why do I insist on eating the way I eat? Why do I work out so hard? Why am I so committed and dedicated to teaching and helping people discover the fire in their bellies? Wouldn’t it be easier to eat the way I used to (yes)? Wouldn’t it be easier to not work so hard (yes)? Wouldn’t it be easier to just show up and “call in” the day’s lesson (yes)? So why?

We are all doing things all day long. We are often doing them without really knowing why we are doing them. And the why I am talking about isn’t the one that says I have to go to work to pay the bills. Those things are obvious but they aren’t really the deeper, the more meaningful why. Sure there are lots of things we do without any real deeper meaning. Sometimes the reason is simple…I put fuel in the car because it is going to run out if I don’t. This is simple, uncomplicated and very straightforward reasoning.

Why do I eat the why I do? Why do I keep preaching to you about it? After all, I could just change my diet and keep my mouth shut. For my part it is simple…I never knew how bad I felt until I started eating this way. To put it another way…eating right feels so good that going back scares the stuffing out of me. And I want you to feel that same way…that flush of energy from proper fuel, the sustained clarity of a mind function properly. Then there is the incomparable taste of properly grown real food, lovingly prepared and eaten with friends.

Working out with intensity gives me something that is hard to describe. It isn’t just the out of breath, sweat dripping on the floor exhilaration of endorphins flooding my being. It is the knowledge that I just pushed myself into previously unknown territory. That I have gone to a place I didn’t even know existed. And I want to take you there. I want you to know that you can visit those places regularly for yourself. I want you to do things you didn’t think you could do last week or last year. I want you to get better and be better, be healthier, fitter, and better prepared for all the things life has to offer you.

I want you to find the “fire in your belly”. I want you to get out of bed with your hair on fire, screaming like a banshee to get your thing on every day. I want you to be so fired up about your health and fitness and all the things you are doing in the world that you can’t be contained.

Why do I do the things I do? I want to leave this earth with a legacy of optimum health and fitness. I want to inspire everyone I meet to do something every day that increases their level of health and fitness. Even if you skip one soda today there was an impact. Do I want you to stop drinking all soda? Yes!! But I will take it one at a time if I must. I believe you were put upon this earth to live a full and healthy life…not one dominated by pain and disease, pharmaceutical drugs and other crutches to get through the day to day life you live. You have a reason, a purpose for being born here and now. Being healthy is going to help you fulfill that purpose. It is much easier to perform and think and do challenging things when your body works right, your mind is clear and your focus is laser sharp.

So what is your why? Why are you doing the things you are doing? Give that question some real thought. And if you don’t like the answer….maybe it’s time to do something else!

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

Follow me at:
Twitter --- http://m.twitter.com/jmariotti
FaceBook --- John Mariotti
Blog Spots…John Mariotti
http://sunday-stories.blogspot.com/

Sunday Story...Can't vs. Won't (or don't want to)

I often have conversations with people who confuse what they can’t do with what they won’t or are not willing to do. There is a huge difference between the two things.

I can’t breathe water.
I can’t grow an extra arm or leg.
I can’t eat nails.
I can’t do an x-ray with my naked eye.
I can’t live without my head attached to my body.
These (as absurd as the list appears) things are things I can’t do. They are physically, anatomically, or biologically impossible. There is no way for my teeth to chew up the nails, nor can my digestive system process them even if I could swallow them.

I won’t exercise regularly.
I won’t eat right today.
I won’t read a book.
I won’t stop drinking soda or alcohol (if you are addicted, it is hard, granted).
I won’t stop using curse words.
These are things you can do if you want to do them, or if you choose to do them. These are things you are making a choice about, things you don’t want to do.

Let’s start being a little bit more honest about these two areas. Too often we allow ourselves to be convinced that we can’t do something…maybe we have tried it in the past and failed, maybe we have friends who are telling us we can’t do it, maybe we just don’t have a template for knowing how to do it. This is much different from the actual inability to do something due to anatomical physical or biological reasons for not being able to do something. Can I run a 10 second 100 meters? I am physically able, I have all the tools to be able but I really don’t believe that I can.

And that is where this conversation leads us. What you believe you can or cannot do. Your mind is your most powerful ally or your most powerful enemy. Your belief system is what catapults you or restrains you. You brain is the part of your body that inhibits your progress. There are times in your life when you just can’t face the thing (whatever that things that day). I know of people whose brains won’t let them go out of the house. I know people whose brains are telling them they will never lose weight (and they don’t). I know people who are convinced they will never learn to read or that they can’t write legibly. These are constructs of a belief system that is operating in error mode. This is a belief system that is working with bad initial data implanted at some point by a bad teacher, bad experience, or bad something or another.

I can do anything I want to do provided they are anatomically, physically or biologically possible. There are three things that must happen for me to be able to do those things, however.
Those three things are:
KNOWING WHAT I WANT
KNOWING WHY I WANT IT
KNOWING HOW TO GET IT
Want to lose weight?
How much weight? Be specific and exact.
Why do you want to lose it? This needs to be powerful and moving. A reason that will have you getting up in the morning like your hair is on fire.
How are you going to lose it? You need a scientifically proven method that you can sustain for a life time. In other words NOT a diet, diets might have you lose some weight but then when you go back to all your old habits, the weight returns along with all the rest of the pathologies (especially the mental defeat.)

Your mental process is probably the most important part of this whole puzzle and it is the one most people miss or forget about. If you have failed at something in the past (c’mon we all have) go back and look at your belief system. What did you believe about yourself, about what you were attempting to do, about how you were going about it? This is the critical component to any lasting and permanent change…belief. You must change your thinking, you belief in order to change your behavior, your habits, your life.

Change your mind, change your life.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

Follow me at:
Twitter --- http://m.twitter.com/jmariotti
FaceBook --- John Mariotti
Blog Spots…John Mariotti
http://sunday-stories.blogspot.com/

Sunday Story...Kill the Goat!

The next challenge is a two for one! Kill the Goat! and the famous 100 Day Burpee Challenge.

Kill the Goat! is our next challenge. A goat is a thing we really need to work on...something we need to get good at or get rid of…it always “gets our goat. We all have things we don’t want to, or can’t seem to give up no matter what happens. Maybe it’s coffee. Maybe it’s (gasp) cigarettes, or alcohol. Maybe it’s that last little bit of sugar or sweetener. Maybe it’s cheese. And you just don’t want to give it up. It is time to kill that goat.

Maybe it isn’t a food thing. Maybe it’s a bad habit or a good habit waiting to be implemented. Maybe it’s starting a gratitude journal. Maybe it’s a goal setting session or planning a long overdue vacation. Let’s get the goat out and get to work on it this month, right now…it only takes 21 days to lock in a new habit or lose an old one. There is lots of time to get it done.

Find your goat. Make a decision. Announce it to the world and let’s get that goat gone! You can do it. Let me know how I can help.

The second challenge is very simple…not easy but simple. Do 1 burpee on day one. Do 2 burpees on day 2. Do 3 burpees on day 3. And on and on…25 burpees on day 25, 50 on day 50 all the way to 100 burpees on day 100. If you miss a day make it up on the next day, so if you miss day 5 you will need to do 11 on day 6. Pretty simple but if you miss day 91, doing 183 on day 92 is going to be totally un-fun. This is a challenge to your consistency. This is a challenge to your perseverance and your ability to stay on task over a long period. What if you can’t do burpees? You could do the same thing with pushups. But really? What is a burpee but getting down on the ground and getting back up? That is all it is…get down and get back up. Do it every day. Do one more than yesterday, every day.

Last year we had about 20 people sign up for the 100 day burpee challenge. If memory serves me correctly only 3 people finished. Let’s do better this year! Day one is tomorrow, February 4th!

Challenges are a great way to keep your focus on your health and fitness goals. We will keep having them and keep getting healthier and fit all year long!

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

Follow me at:
Twitter --- http://m.twitter.com/jmariotti
FaceBook --- John Mariotti
Blog Spots…John Mariotti
http://sunday-stories.blogspot.com/