CrossFit is well-known for leaning people out. But there’s also a small but significant portion of people who struggle to lose body fat despite—or perhaps because of—hitting the box religiously and doing all the workouts. This post is for them.

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

My friend, former co-competitor, business partner, and writing buddy Brad Kearns had been on a “Quantified Self” kick, tracking biomarkers, testing blood sugar and ketone levels, and staying abreast of all the various ways we can quantitatively check our progress. He’s months into a ketogenic experiment and had hoped to marry his subjective impressions to objective measurements to strengthen his intuition and improve his results.

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

Thor Conklin is an Entrepreneur, Profitability Consultant and host of his daily podcast, Peak Performers Podcast. 2017 marks his 17th year as an entrepreneur. The first company Thor created was a global risk management consulting firm that served the private equity community. His top 15 clients had a combined revenue of $12.7 billion USD and operated in over 100 countries worldwide. Thor has started, bought and sold several multi-million dollar businesses making him a sought after, cross-industrial resource for entrepreneurs and executives in all stages of business. Thor lives a Paleo lifestyle and believes achieving optimum health is a critical co-factor in business success and becoming a Peak Performer.

Thor has a talent for slicing through the noise of every day distractions and bringing his clients and audiences intellectual commodities like his: “Ultimate Success Map”, a simplistic, easy-to- follow guide for individuals who need to break through to the next level of achievement. Thor’s gritty, no nonsense and direct approach uncovers the real truth about what is holding people and organizations back from realizing their full potential. He can illuminate even the most successful and confident leader’s limiting beliefs. He is known as the Accountability & Execution Guy. Through his latest venture, Peak Performance Group, he teaches the tools, tips, tricks, psychology and strategies necessary to be a Peak Performer. He qualifies the psychology of success in one word: “Execution”! “Nothing you’ve learned matters – unless you can EXECUTE”!

Our goal, then, is to improve our microbiological real estate in the many areas of the body that commensal and symbiotic bacterial like to put down roots—the gut, mouth, lungs, skin, reproductive organs, and so on. The average Primal enthusiast is well-versed with the role of food choices and smart supplementation (although research is always uncovering new wrinkles—more on this to come). 

I thought I’d give a little attention to some of the other basic practices that can influence microbial diversity and homeostasis. There are more answers and nuances than I can cover today, but let’s start with some of the fundamentals.

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

Over the past two posts in this series, I’ve explained how a Primal way of eating can not only support a heavy CrossFit schedule, but elevate it. Today, I’m going to explain how going Primal can help fix a common complaint among CrossFitters: fatigue. No energy. No pep. A distinct lack of physical and psychological motivation to train, let alone hit PRs. This doesn’t just make it hard to finish workouts and make gains. It bleeds into the rest of your life and makes that worse, too.

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

I’ve gotten a lot of requests for a post about children’s nutrition, so it’s long overdue. When it comes down to brass tacks, kids really are just small people. They aren’t a different species. They use the same nutrients their parents do. They need protein, fat, and glucose just like us. So in that sense, feeding kids is simple: Give them all the nutritious foods you already eat and know to be healthy.

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

Aarn Farmer has been a frugal blogger for over seven years at GroceryShopforFREE.com and GroceryShopforFREEatTheMart.com. At 40 years old he was over 400 lbs, had a blood pressure of 200/160 and was diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome. His wife was also more than 100 lbs overweight and had Type II Diabetes. As he looked for a way to get his health under control, he found out that weight loss was primarily controlled by hormones and not calorie restriction as he previously thought.  After more than two years of a low carb diet, followed by a ketogenic diet, Aarn has lost over 175 lbs, dramatically lowered his blood pressure, and no longer has Metabolic Syndrome. His wife has also lost over 100 lbs and no longer has Type II Diabetes.

Aarn shares his story at MySugarFreeJourney.com where he blogs about how insulin is the main hormone responsible for weight gain and teaches how to eat a healthy diet while being frugal.

First off, let’s settle one thing right away. Grilling is not the same as barbecuing. Barbecue means big cuts of meat cooked low and slow. Depending on the animal, it can be an all-day affair with hours of preparation and plenty of leisure. In other words, it’s an actual event. With the time and labor intensity, barbecuing (as Michael Pollan put it so well recently) is the stuff of primal ritual, the site of social cohesion in our evolutionary story. Grilling, on the other hand, offers the smoke and fire experience without the bigger doings. While not as idyllic a prospect, it’s convenient. It means throwing a steak on the grill after work and eating it 20 minutes later. That’s the beauty of grilling. It’s relatively quick, requires very little clean up, and let’s you kick back outdoors while cooking dinner.

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

Considering how essential bones are to our existence, it’s surprising how most people take them for granted. A lifetime of neglect can suddenly reveal to us just how sensitive and integral this living framework is. Yet, there’s so much more to this truth than we commonly assume. 

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

Elle Russ Chats with Loretta Breuning, PhD - Founder of the Inner Mammal Institute, which helps people manage the brain chemicals we’ve inherited from our earliest ancestors. She's author of Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels, and The Science of Positivity: Stop Negative Thought Patterns By Changing Your Brain Chemistry.  She’s Professor Emerita of Management at California State University, East Bay - and the mother of tax-paying adults.