Last year I was talking with Brad Kearns and Dave Dolle when Dave said something really interesting: he was using neurotransmitter analysis to build personalized training programs for his athletes. By giving a short written T/F test called the Braverman test, he could determine whether a client was dominant in dopamine, acetylcholine, GABA, or serotonin—and then use the results to determine their ideal training regimen. It was one of those instances where you hear something you know you’ll be chewing on for the next few months.

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Host Brad Kearns welcomes Folsom, CA’s #1 power couple, Jake Taylor and Primal Blueprint’s own keto queen Lindsay Shaw Taylor, Ph.D. These folks are the real deal and they have immersed themselves fully into ketogenic living and studying the various approaches. Interestingly, they have landed upon disparate approaches to keto and dietary habits in general. Lindsy is an ironman athlete and also happens to be a female. She has determined her best approach to be somewhat regular meals, with generally stringent carb intake guidelines ranging from full keto to low carb primal over the course of the year. Jake, always pushing the limits in the financial markets as well as personal peak performance, has found an effective strategy in prolonged fasting/compressed eating window, but with less stringent carb intake guidelines when he does eat.

Today I want you to completely rethink your basic philosophy about how you manage both your fitness activities and the assorted stresses of hectic, modern life. This post was inspired by a great article from training expert Joel Jamieson of 8weeksout.com titled, “All Pain, No Gain: Why The High Intensity Training Obsession Has Failed Us All.” Joel’s message set off a firestorm of internal dialog among members of the Primal Blueprint team. (Catch Brad Kearns’ recent interview with him for the Primal Blueprint Podcast.) After much back and forth and additional research, I’m eager to get you reflecting and commenting on the genuine nature of recovery from an entirely new angle.

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Brad Kearns chats with Performance Architect Joel Jamieson about his groundbreaking post about the energy cost of recovery, published on 8weeksout.com, called "All Pain, No Gain: Why The High Intensity Training Obsession Has Failed Us All".  Joel details how our flawed perspective about training negates the concept that the body only has a given amount of energy to expend each day, and that recovery and restoration require energy just as training and stressful.

Furthering the compensation theory discussed at length in Primal Blueprint books, Joel mentions respected science that contends we operate under a "constrained model of energy expenditure." If you burn up excess energy during exercise, your body becomes naturally lazier throughout the day and divert valuable energy away from recovery and immune function. Hence, Joel's argument for "recovery-based fitness" where you respect the resources necessarily allocated to three main functions:
1 - vital biological functions - basic daily survival
2 - physical activity AND general everyday stress of busy life
3 - recovery and restoration
It follows that a type-A hard driver trying to dispense energy to career, family and also fitness endeavors is playing with fire, constantly challenging the body's maximum energy potential and incurring what Jamieson calls "recovery debt." This is where your hard training goes to waste because your body has insufficient energy to recover and restore. This show will really stop you in your tracks and get you re-thinking your basic principles of not only training, but daily living.

This is one of the most common queries I receive: How do I go keto as a vegetarian?

One way to go keto as a vegetarian is to stop being vegetarian. You begin as a vegetarian, make the conscious decision to go keto, and then cease vegetarianism. Seriously, just try it out. A little animal won’t hurt you. Promise.

Okay, jokes aside: How do you go keto while remaining vegetarian?

Once you let the dust settle and consider the proposition with a calm, clear mind, going keto as a vegetarian isn’t all that outlandish.

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Host Brad Kearns walks you through Chapter 1 of The Keto Reset Diet—the what, when and how of keto. First, resetting your metabolism to ditch carb dependency. Then doing some fine-tuning to improve your metabolic flexibility. Finally, a six-week immersion into nutritional ketosis. Keto is the default human genetic factory setting; we have likely spent more time in keto-mode over the past 2.5 million years, because carbohydrates were never abundant until civilized times, and often regular calorie consumption was not assured either.

Brad explains that if you do the journey correctly, there will be no struggling and suffering involved, because you will be getting a nutrient-dense diet. Regarding the widely-touted 50 grams of daily gross carbohydrate intake limit for keto, you can discount the contribution of avocados, leafy greens, and other high fiber above ground vegetables, since they have minimal net carb contribution. Brad talks a bit about blood testing and the surprising phenomenon of highly fat- and keto-adapted individuals delivering low blood values even with lots of fasting and keto-aligned eating. Also, the meters can be wildly off, as you can see at the @BradKearns1 Instagram account. Check out the post of 3 different machine readouts from the same blood prick showing wildly disparate numbers—from pre-diabetic to hard-core keto stud. All in all, a good overview of what the Keto Reset journey is all about.

Almost everyone has at least one dietary restriction. Maybe your religion or cultural traditions prohibit specific foods or food pairings. Maybe your physiological response to certain foods—an allergy or intolerance—prevent you from eating them. Or perhaps your immediate goals preclude a food’s inclusion in your diet.

Like every other diet, keto is already circumscribed by basic principles, which can make further limitations difficult to accommodate. But the benefits of going keto, at least for part of the time, are well-established and worth the effort. You want to do it. How can you go keto while honoring your own dietary bounds?

It depends on the restriction.

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Mark Sisson chats with Dr. Joseph Mercola - a board certified family physician who started Mercola.com 20 years ago...the most visited natural health site on the internet for the last 13 years. He has also authored many bestselling books including Fat for Fuel which details mitochondrial metabolic therapy.  Mark Sisson and Dr. Mercola discuss topics ranging from intermittent fasting, KETO, stem cell therapy, mitochrondrial impairment, stem cell therapy, and issues around EMF.

Every New Year, the cynics are quick to tell you how arbitrary all the motivational messages, resolutions, and new beginnings are. It’s just another day, they grumble. And, sure, they have a point.

You could start that new diet, join that new CrossFit box that just opened down the street, and finally pursue the dream job you’ve always wanted on March 7th, February 15th, or August 3rd. It doesn’t have to be January 1st. Any day will do. The New Year is somewhat arbitrary.

But we’re social animals who thrive in the presence of others. We feed off the energy around us to fuel our own initiative. On some level we’re always looking to what the group is doing for motivation, if not direction. The New Year presents a unique opportunity that way for all of us. Why would we not take advantage of the tailwind?

(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Host Brad Kearns talks about the common mistakes and drawbacks of a shortcut approach to keto. If you are still even a bit carb dependent when attempting keto, what you will get is a flood of stress hormones in response to the sudden deprivation of your primary fuel source glucose. Lacking dietary carbs, you will commence the hallmark fight or flight process of gluconeogenesis to give your body the sugar it needs. You may even feel alert and energetic for a while from the stress hormone buzz, but when the stress response becomes exhausted, you are destined to crash and burn, featuring overeating, extra sleeping, and programmed lazy behavior to recalibrate.

 Also in the show, Brad rips on the concept of “cheat days.” If you are allured by the prospect of a cheat day, this suggests your approach is too regimented and unpleasant to sustain. With the Keto Reset approach, you will instead progress gracefully with your metabolic fitness so that you are enjoying nutritious, satisfying meals, getting better and better at burning stored energy so you don’t have to deal with “low carb flu” or afternoon blues, and be patient in unwind the metabolic damage caused by decades of carbohydrate dependency.