Tag Archives: robb wolf

N=Primalgirl: Sleep Issues & Vitamin D

Posted on by
27
No Gravatar

First off, I’m moving this blog to www.primalgirl.com lickedy split. I can transfer all my email subscribers over but I can’t transfer everyone, so if you don’t receive a newsletter from me announcing my next post by next week, feel free to hop on over to www.primalgirl.com and re-subscribe. In fact, do it now. :) The site’ll be a little disorganized for a few weeks, but I should have it under control soon.

Second, I discovered something cool I want to share with you. Obviously what works for me isn’t going to work for everyone but I think I made an important connection between Vitamin D and sleep quality that I’ve never heard mentioned before. Correct me if I’m wrong, I haven’t read everything out there.

Jimmy Moore has a great post about N=1 experiments and why they're so important

The major thing I took away from the Ancestral Health Symposium is that self-experimentation and the dissemination of said results is the absolute key to helping others find their Paleo solution. We have to experiment on ourselves to tweak what is optimal for us, and sometimes we just can’t think of what to tweak. For those of you that haven’t heard of it, these experiments are being referred to as N=1.

You may remember from a post long ago that I was having problems sleeping. I tried pretty much everything that was recommended – even resorted to eating sweet potatoes before bed – to no avail. I knew how important light exposure after dark was so I made sure I limited it. At this time I was taking about 6000U of Vitamin D3 a day. My sleep improved somewhat when my stress level declined, but I was still waking up a couple times a night and a lot of mornings felt pretty damned tired. During this time, I went pretty strict Paleo, bumped my Vitamin D intake up to 10,000U a day, upped the fish oil as per Robb Wolf’s fish oil calculator, dropped a couple workouts per week and headed off to the Symposium. I was feeling freakin’ fantastic during the day once I got going, but was still sleeping like shit.

Enter Dr. Seth Roberts. He is a strange little man, if I’ve ever met one. He stands on one leg to improve his sleep. He swears it works. (I tried it, couldn’t get through two days.) In fact, he did a scientific experiment on it. (Click here for some of his other experiments. They are unconventional to say the least. The one that proves butter makes you smarter is gold.) I asked Dr. Roberts about my sleep quality. He recommended all sorts of things, one of them being getting at least one full hour of sunshine first thing in the morning. Not 2 hours after you get up or in the afternoon – first thing in the morning. He was very clear about that. I hadn’t thought about the time of day I was getting sun, but it made a lot of sense that that would be the optimal time to get it, if you were to get any at all. Unfortunately, there was no way for me to actually do this – my current life is such that the first hour of my morning is spent dressing children for preschool, changing diapers, making coffee, breakfast, checking email.

One day as I was taking my supplements, I was thinking about how many units of Vitamin D your skin produces in 30 minutes of sun (20,000 I believe). I looked aghast at the 10,000 units of Vitamin D I was taking. It was 7 o’clock at night! I was essentially giving my body 15 minutes worth of bright sunlight energy. No wonder I was waking up in the middle of the night! I was telling my body that it wasn’t really time for bed, it was still the middle of the day. I wondered what would happen if I only took my Vitamin D first thing in the morning. It wouldn’t be an hour naked in the sun, but 15 minutes is better than nothing. That night I slept like shit. Worse than normal.

I usually took my supplements mid-afternoon. I vowed to take them first thing every morning. If I forgot, I would not take the Vitamin D at all that day. I tried it the next day and that night I slept like a rock. And the next night. And the next. Days I forgot and skipped the D3, I still slept great. That was the only change I made to my lifestyle and my sleep issues completely resolved.

Now, this may seem really fucking obvious to you. It wasn’t to me and I bet some of you are smacking your palms against your foreheads right now. The thought had never once crossed my mind. Everyone suggests taking supplements, but I’ve never heard anyone mention the optimal time to take them, or if they can affect other aspects of your life if taken at the wrong time.

If you are having sleep issues, please try this and let us know if it worked for you! Of course, you should always sleep in a completely darkened room, avoid caffeine in the afternoon/evening, eat a Paleo/Primal diet and go to bed early for optimal sleep. But if you’ve tried everything and you’re still having issues, try this. Or you can try standing on one leg.

Primalgirl Talks: Robb Wolf at the AHS

Posted on by
5
No Gravatar

I recently sat down with Robb Wolf at the Ancestral Health Symposium in Los Angeles and asked him a few questions. Although I was extremely nervous to be in the presence of greatness, Robb is very easy to talk to – and since he talks a lot for a living, he mostly carried the conversation. Click here or on the picture below to watch the interview. We discuss the future of the Paleo movement, it’s evolution, probiotics, gluten intolerance, auto-immune disease and what Robb Wolf has coming up next.

Click the image for the full interview on Vimeo

Robb Wolf and I at the AHS

Robb mentions a couple things in the interview that deserve a follow-up, such as the Paleo Physician’s Network. If you’re looking for a great Paleo-friendly doctor who won’t cringe at the words “saturated fat,” make sure you check it out. I only wish I had done this before I went to the hospital the other week. Also, he mentions that most of the material in his book The Paleo Solution can be found for free on his website. I highly suggest taking advantage of this. You can find it here. If you want the entire book instead, The Paleo Solution is now a best-seller. Check it out on Amazon: The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet

The Ancestry Foundation also has Robb’s full presentation from the Symposium online; click here to watch it. He discusses things like “Does the paleo concept ‘work?’ If so, how and for whom? Clinical examples of nutrition, exercise and lifestyle interventions. Discussion of memes and complex human systems. Why the Paleo concept is not a fad.”

Upcoming Primalgirl interviews include Loren Cordain, Stephen Guyenet, Mark Sisson, Richard Nikoley, Tucker Max, Seth Roberts, Tom Naughton and others. Plus, we’ll have footage of all the other presenters online in the coming months, check out ancestryfoundation.org for updates!

Paleo Goes Mainstream: CBS News Reports

Posted on by
6
No Gravatar

You may have seen the recent reports on CBS San Francisco about the Paleo movement. Dr. Kim Mulvihill did a fantastic job at covering the topic. In fact, she was the only mainstream press at the recent Ancestral Health Symposium in LA and took part in Dr. Lynda Frassetto‘s scientific study on the Paleo diet herself. Perhaps I’m a little biased, as I’m in the series, but I think that any publicity is good publicity for us! Below you’ll find links to the five videos in the series, just click on the images.

Part One: Caveman Diet Trend Starting To Catch Fire

Part Two: Surprising Results from the Caveman Diet

Part Three: Caveman Diet Shows Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Benefits

Part Four: How Realistic is the Caveman Diet at Home?

Part Five: For Some, Caveman Lifestyle Goes Beyond Diet

Primal Exercise: you’d be surprised how little you actually have to do

Posted on by
18
No Gravatar

When I went to the hospital a couple weeks ago to get tested for Celiac’s, I mentioned to a doctor that I had lost over 100 pounds in the last two years. His response, verbatim, was: “Wow! You look great! You must have had to work out like mad to have results like that.”

No. No, I didn’t. I work out about twice a week, normally. I do the bare minimum every time and I told him this. I also told him it’s all about what you eat. ME telling a doctor how it works. Something’s not right here.

www.stolenchildhood.net

Pop Quiz: should her parents A) put her on a treadmill, or B) change what she eats?

The fact that a doctor said those words to me was insane. What is wrong with the medical community? Are they seriously not getting it yet? In the battle of the bulge, “eighty per cent of your ability to reduce excess body fat is determined by how you eat, with the other twenty per cent depending on proper exercise, other healthy lifestyle habits, and genetic factors,”[1], according to Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple and author of The Primal Blueprint. The other “healthy lifestyle habits,” including getting adequate sleep and Vitamin D, can be just as important as exercising if you’re trying to trim down.

This post is for all the people out there that think I’m a crazy fitness nut. Those who envision me on the elliptical trainer from 6 a.m. til midnight, 6 days a week. (Can I at least rest on the 7th day, in your imaginations? ‘Cause that girl would be freakin’ tired and riddled with inflammation, injuries and exhaustion. She would need a rest. She would probably gain weight,[2] believe it or not, and be  hungry all the time. All. The. Freakin’. Time.) It’s also for the people who don’t know what to do, how to work out and how to get the results they desperately want.

The Paleo Solution shoots for a variety of exercise: a little some days, a lot others, and occasionally none at all. Just like our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Some of you have already given yourselves a “gold star” for working out twice per day for the last five years. You’re so dedicated you even work out while sick! Yippee! Well, no gold star for you! You are at the other end of the extreme and need to calm down. We are trying to reduce stress and cortisol. In our gym we see people, usually the endurance types, who seriously overdo their training. Are you carrying some excess chub around the midsection despite “tons of cardio”? Well Buttercup, all that cardio and getting up early to train has released more than your fair share of cortisol. And it’s made you fat.[3]

A complete and utter waste of time, the Ab Roller can be found in almost every gym chain.

Thank you, Robb Wolf. You certainly have a way with words. If you work out too often, you’re not doing it right. Shows like NBC’s The Biggest Loser and A&E’s Heavy do more harm than good when it comes to educating the general public. They show contestants working out for 6 to 8 hours a day, losing massive amounts of weight every week. Ever wonder why most of the contestants gain back the weight they lost? First of all, you can’t keep up an exercise regime like that. It’s not natural; we were designed to exert ourselves as little as possible, thereby conserving energy for times of scarcity.[4]  Your body (and mind) will be screaming at you every step of the way to stop. I guess that’s why I feel really, really comfortable doing the bare minimum and why I’m sure a lot of you do too. Second, the contestants on those shows aren’t taught how to eat properly. Ever notice who sponsors The Biggest Loser? If you want to lose weight, know this: YOU NEED TO ADDRESS WHAT YOU EAT FIRST. Don’t take cues from TV shows; they answer to corporate sponsors, who do not have your health and best interests at heart.

That being said, exercise is still really important. It regulates insulin levels, gives you energy, helps you sleep better and releases serotonin which makes you feel great.[5]  I have to exercise for those reasons. Plus, I want to be strong. After all, strong is the new skinny. So, what do I do for exercise? I work out 2-3 times a week, for about 30 minutes at a time. That’s not very much, so I make the most of it. You’ll never catch me wasting my time on the elliptical trainer or doing bicep curls. I try to make it to CrossFit twice a week, and do something else one other time, like yoga, hiking or sprinting. I’m not tied to a rigid schedule, though. If I don’t feel like working out, I don’t. If I have extra energy one week, I’ll throw in an extra session. Here’s the workout I did this morning:

TWO ROUNDS:

  • 5 minutes running at 6.0 mph in Vibram FiveFingers
  • 10 pushups
  • 10 situps
  • 10 clean and presses 45 lbs
  • 25 jumping jacks
  • 10 back extensions
  • 100m overhead walk with 45 lb plate
  • 10 burpees

Total time (from walking in the door to walking out): 28 minutes. This was an unstructured workout. I didn’t have a coach or a trainer, I just did what I felt like based on my energy level. I didn’t even leave the main floor and head into the “meathead” section, I just used the heaviest stuff I could find in the trainer’s area and went with it. I incorporated my warm-up into the workout but did the overhead walk and the burpees at the end, once I was good and warm. (I just picked up the 45 lb plate, put it over my head and walked around the cardio machines for approx 100 m. You should have seen the looks on the elliptical monkey’s faces.) Oh, and did I mention that I did this workout in a fasted state? I like to workout early in the morning, but have less energy when I exercise after I’ve eaten. Also, I’m interested in burning fat and eating before a workout is counterproductive if that is your goal.[6]

Other days, I’ll just walk. Walking is really important and is one of the best ways to get or stay in shape. “Our ancestors hunted and gathered the energy equivalent of about 11 miles of walking per day,” according to Robb Wolf. “This activity was split among a multitude of tasks…As a result of not being overly repetitious, their activity had less negative impact on their joints and minds.”[7]

You don’t have to be a slave to the gym. If your body is telling you to sleep instead of working out, then sleep. Your body and mind

Confused by all the equipment at your gym? Me too! How about you don't go there? Workout outdoors with only your own body weight instead.

give you cues that we often ignore. Stop doing this. Listen to yourself. If you have more energy one day, exert yourself more than you normally would. Go for a walk or a hike if you’re feeling like it. Do some yoga. Or do nothing at all (just don’t do that everyday, though, LOL).

The same people who had been on the elliptical trainers when I arrived at the gym were still on them when I left. How sad for them. They could have been soaking up the sunshine instead of wasting their time.

FOOTNOTES:

BACK TO POST [1] Mark Sisson, The Primal Blueprint (Primal Nutrition Inc, 2009) p. 66
BACK TO POST [2] Robb Wolf, The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet (Victory Belt Publishing, 2010) p. 137
BACK TO POST [3] Wolf, The Paleo Solution p. 136-137
BACK TO POST [4] Arthur De Vany, The New Evolution Diet: What Our Paleolithic Ancestors Can Teach Us About Weight Loss, Fitness and Aging (Rodale Inc, 2011) p. 92
BACK TO POST [5] The Mayo Clinic, Exercise: 7 benefits of regular physical activity (July 25, 2009)  http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise/HQ01676
BACK TO POST [6] De Vany, The New Evolution Diet p. 90
BACK TO POST [7] Wolf, The Paleo Solution p. 123