Lifestyle Choices

Since the Paleo post I’ve been asked to add more and more information about Paleo living, grass fed meats, grocery shopping, and fitness.   I decided to move the conversation to one spot for the topic.    I’ll re-post the Going Paleo post and continue on.   If this is something you are interested in, please come join me over at Lifestyle Choices.

Going Paleo

I started the Paleo lifestyle on May 14th, 2012.  I have personally enjoyed it a great deal and I think benefited from it quite a bit over the past year.  Recently, many people have been asking about it, how I started, and how it works.   As such, I decided to put out this guide despite the abundance of them to reflect my opinions and my choices.   If it ends up being useful to you, great.  Let me know!

My Story

I learned about the Paleo lifestyle by happen chance as I was currently reading about Aquaponics which led me to several web searches on the types of fat of the fish in I wanted to raise and how to influence the Omega-3 rich fats vs. Omega-6 of farmed fish.  I learned that most all farmed fish are fed a grain-based diet which changes their entire fat makeup from natural Omega-3 (which is really good for us) to mostly Omega-6 (which we get plenty of and really don’t need more).   Wow.  So even just eating fish isn’t healthy if you aren’t careful about what they ate.   This disturbed my complacency enough to read another book.   After some very short and quick research, I came across Robb Wolf’s work in The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet.  Robb presents a very in-depth look at various types of fats and how our bodies process them.  It was incredibly eye-opening and disturbed me even more.  I ended up reading the whole book which Robb ends with a compelling call for a 30-day challenge.  As I am such a data-driven individual, I couldn’t resist this approach and I started my 30-days which has turned into a year and some change at this point, never looking back.  Over the course of the year I have read a lot of books, blogs, cookbooks, sites, and other information to augment my learning and understanding of eating natural foods.   I’ve learned how to shop, what to get and what to avoid at local restaurants, and how to cook new things as well as even ventured into how to reduce chemicals in daily health and hygiene.   All in all it is quite an adventure and I have to say it is rewarding and eye-opening.   It has completely changed my perspective on our food system and agricultural system to the point where I won’t be able to blissfully return to old habits that are considered the norm by many.   So, this is my warning.  If you want to remain blissfully unaware, don’t read these things.   It will make you think and question your current daily practices.  If you want to get fit and get healthy and learn how to support a healthy community of locally sourced food and farmers, do read on.

My Advice

If you are a data-driven person, not fighting any particular self-image demons but just curious and love the biology/chemistry of things and knowing how everything works:  Start Here.   Robb’s book is considered by most to be the best starting point.  I think it could be a turn off to many if they aren’t really into the data and the science of it all, but, it worked for me for sure.   Robb has a podcast and is great to follow. 

If you are emotion-driven person, fighting self-image or self-esteem issues or want to “go on a diet” to “get skinny” or “be beautiful” then I highly recommend you Start Here.   This book is great and amazing and a wonderful inspiration to getting started in Paleo.  Jason Seib and Sarah Fragoso are two of my favorite people to follow now that I have visited the masses. 

No matter which one you start with, after you finish it, read the other one.

I can’t find anything good to eat!  What do I eat?
You need to cook it.  Plain and simple.  This may seem crazy at first given how far many of us have all gotten from our kitchens, but it is doable and sustainable and eventually you will want for little else.
Here are a few good books to help get you going. 
Paleo Comfort Foods – my first paleo cookbook.
Paleo Recipe Cookbook – no frills, many good things
Well Fed – high end, pretty nice options.  Good for company.
Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook – One of my go to books for dinner and company.  Sarah has some great stuff!
All About Roasting – This isn’t Paleo, but it helped me learn how to cook some things and I use it a lot and just modify the ingredients.
Gather – More of a presentation book but it has great holiday dishes in it

For the kids: 
I haven’t used these on the kids yet as I just got them but I will let you know how they are.
Paleo Pals
Eat Like a Dinosaur

On the wish list:
Beyond Bacon 
Everyday Paleo Around the World: Italian Cuisine
Well Fed 2
Modern Cave Girl – this isn’t a cook book as such but perhaps yet another good living guide.

I also am known to post a few recipes and other things that I like here and here.

Shopping

This may end up being a follow-up post because it can get complicated and took a long time for me to find brands in Muncie, Indiana that work for me. 

I now try to buy as many things local as possible and ship as a last resort.  I urge you to reach out in your local community and find a farmer who is doing it right and make them your friends.  Visit their farm (please don’t skip this step)! Support them every way you can.  This is one of the only ways out of our food system jam we are in.   Seriously, do it.  If you are in the Muncie area, The Beckers are great.  The farmer’s market trip is second , things I can’t find there are augmented by Green Bean Delivery to keep it as locally sourced as possible.  Things I can’t find there are augmented by Meijer which seems to have consistently the best selection and best organized of the chains available to us.  Things I can’t find there go to Amazon as last resort or a trip to Earth Fare in Indy.

I can share some of the things I have bought online as a last resort to help augment your shopping but I encourage you to find a farmer first.
Steve’s PaleoGoods
Epic
Wild Planet Sardines

Common Mistakes

This post sums up some of the best reasons things can go wrong for new folks.  Sleep is huge, don’t underestimate it.  Getting 8 hours of sleep is more important than working out.  Did you catch that??  Good.  It’s true.

Exercise

This is one I have learned you don’t want to get wrong.   Pay heed to what Jason said in the Paleo Coach.  He knows!  With that said, if you finished his book and still need help, I recommend a personal trainer if you are a social/gym type or EP Lifefit otherwise.  I fit the latter. 

I am sure there are some things I have forgotten but I wanted to get this out there for my friends that have asked as well as others that might be interested.   I’ll add to it or make more posts over time.  Please ask if you have questions.

Paleo sort of found me, as such, I’m not a super vocal advocate unless asked, but if people ask, I will share and help as much as you can tolerate.   Enjoy and thanks for reading!

Travelers, take heart (and email your Senators)

The F.A.A. may be forced to allow you to use your carry on electronic devices in airplane mode soon.  Today, anonymous sources from within the F.A.A. released to the New York Times that they have plans to relax this rule by the end of the year.  This change does not come soon enough and it is laughable at this point that passengers can’t use their iPads and tablets to read while the student with the 9 pound text book seated next to you can continue reading happily.   If you have made the move to digital like I have, I really have no desire to carry an additional dead tree with me to pass the first and last 30 minutes of each flight.  Since pilots have had iPads in the cockpit for quite some time now and flight attendants are now using them as well, I think it is our turn.   Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri has been turning up the heat on the F.A.A. for movement on this item.  Not only has she sent a warning letter to the Administrator, Michael Huerta, but she is also planning to introduce legislation to help ‘encourage’ the F.A.A. to follow through should they stall out again.   If this is a change that you too would like to ensure goes into effect this year, I encourage you to email your state Senators to help reinforce the point.   

Focus: CrowdCrack

After receiving some very good feedback from early adopters, we have made the decision to add some focus to CrowdCrack.  The very good feedback was to focus the CrowdCrack concept on specific topics such as education reform or healthcare reform specifically.  In the process, we have moved to Google Sites and started incorporating Trello as the heart of the application.  Please check out the new CrowdCrack.  I think you will love Trello and our use of it. 

Cracking Education

Cracking Healthcare

Cracking Sustainability

Cracking Economy

Cracking Government

CrowdCrack.com: New and improved accessibility

We have added a new way to log in to CrowdCrack.com.   From now on, you can use any of the popular OpenId authentication mechanisms available to participate in CrowdCrack.  Google, AOL, Yahoo, and many more are supported by the site.   In the near future we will be adding support for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn authentication as well. 

You might also notice that Google +1 and Facebook Like buttons have appeared as well.  These are integrated into the problem and solution pages so if you see something you really want to draw attention to, you can do so using your preferred platform.

Head on over and check out the new features!  As always, please comment or leave feedback if you can.

Announcing CrowdCrack.com

For some time now I have had a vision of people sharing their talents to solve important problems. It is a vision of an ecosystem that will allow the most important problems to rise to the top, and the best solutions to those problems to become a reality.

To that end, I’m launching CrowdCrack.com. The application is in its infancy as a beta application and needs a big face lift yet, but this launch will serve as the first step toward this vision.  As you might suspect, the CrowdCrack.com name is a combination of the crowd sourcing concept and the vision of “cracking” tough problems (think detectives, not plumbers).  From the site:

We at CrowdCrack believe that opportunities to improve our world are often covered over by the problems that have us stuck. By pooling our brilliance, we are capable of getting un-stuck and fully accessing these opportunities to evolve on a global scale. As a site where we in “the crowd” can work to articulate, offer solutions, and finally “crack” our problems, CrowdCrack uses the appropriate technology to create space for the sharing of brilliance and the development of change.

Although technology and space are important, we also recognize that people are the most crucial components in a movement for positive change. For this reason, the concept for CrowdCrack is rooted in a belief in the gift system. Indeed, this site grows out of a profound conviction that we build better communities—online and otherwise—when we give and receive freely. As a space for collaborative problem solving, CrowdCrack allows for giving to happen.

There are three levels of giving that occur at CrowdCrack. You can give by posting to our list of “problems,” offering suggestions as to how to resolve these “problems,” and/or actually developing solutions to “problems.” Also, as problems and possible solutions are posted, please take the opportunity to rate them so that the problems rated as most important or urgent and the solutions rated as most viable will rise to the top. Technologists who want to give more significantly of their time and talents can use this site to work proposed solutions as open source projects.

You might think that your problem is too big, too small, or just too specific to your life to post in CrowdCrack. On the contrary, your problem is exactly the kind that can be solved in this forum. We intend for CrowdCrack to serve as a site where people like you can bring the problems that affect you on a daily basis as well as the higher-level problems that you see affecting the world around you. On this site, you turn over these problems to “the crowd” to be “cracked.” In the process of sharing and solving problems, we will together access opportunities for positive change and growth.

So, take a look around! If you notice an opportunity in the form of a problem to solve, please submit it. If you are willing to give of your brilliance, then peruse the problems already posted, offer solutions, and start working them!

There are many features not yet complete but in the works for the site including buckets for categorization, a dashboard, Facebook and Twitter integration, integration to bitbucket/codeplex for developing solutions, file attachments, and some much needed graphic design.  If you have additional ideas or thoughts on these, please do post them.   As things are still rough and in beta, the promotion of the site will be pretty slow and metered.  I plan to try it out on a host of friends and colleagues first, then open it up to the innovation community, and then promote it in additional circles.  

You can also follow CrowdCrack on Facebook and Twitter.  Google+ is coming, but Google has requested holding off on created brand pages until they unveil their brand solution. 

Take a Chance

Thank you to all those who contributed online and offline to the post on Trust.  While responses varied in their illustrations, the underlying sub tone is extremely consistent. 

We are a people that desire and need to trust.  Even when that trust is violated and sometimes when we have the feeling it will be violated, we still desire to trust on some level and hope for the best.  This desire explains why we attempt to surround ourselves with people we trust.  We attempt to befriend those that we interact with on a day in, day out basis.  This friendly touch increases our sense of trust and confidence in the choices we make.  We desire to follow leaders who we feel are trustworthy.  Integrity is consistently one of the top traits desired in our leaders.  When those that we do hold to high standards of trust make mistakes, it is imperative for them to take action immediately.  Some prime recent examples are Michael Phelps and Tom Daschle.  Both are/were respected professionals in their own genre.  Both made a mistake recently that put a spotlight on their fallibility.  They both chose to do the right thing and admit their mistakes.  While Phelps has faired better than Daschle so far post admission, they can both teach us something important about the frailty of broken trust.  Amazon on the other hand may not fair as well.  It is still early so the jury is still out, but the recent #amazonfail on twitter may cost them some serious trust points.  So far, the only word from Amazon is that it was a ‘glitch’ which has not appeased the angry masses.  Perhaps they will reverse course in the next day or so, but they would have been much better suited to come out and admit they made a mistake with a new, poorly thought out policy.   That would regain trust.

It seems we are always willing to take a chance on something or someone that inspires us with hope or seeming integrity.  When they fall short, we may forgive them, or cross them off our list depending on their integrity during the fall from grace.  No matter though, it seems that there are always new faces and opportunities we are willing to reinvest our trust in around the next corner.

What does this say about our long term viability as all cultures shift from local, domestic, close circle of trust settings to distant, global, highly connected networks of geographically diverse entities?

It is clear what our choice has been, we will take a chance.  How will we fare?

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