PMR Episode 36 - Paleo Magazine · conversation that I think you’re going to enjoy. Part Two of...

Podcast Episode 36

2014

{Music}

Host: Welcome to PMR, Paleo Magazine Radio, where we bring you Paleo

nutrition, exercise and lifestyle perspectives, from both the experts and the

every day. PMR is brought to you by Paleo Magazine, the first and only print

magazine dedicated to the Paleo lifestyle and is hosted by Tony Federico.

Tony Federico: Hey, everybody. Tony Federico here. I’ll be your host on this journey of

modern day primal living. I’m really excited. We have a great guest today.

It’s Liz Wolfe, author of Eat the Yolks. Liz is a firebrand in the Paleo

community. She’s really an awesome, awesome person. She’s got some

really cute goats, which is pretty cool. And she wrote an amazing book, so

we’re lucky to have her on the show and we’re even luckier to have her as a

regular contributor, moving forward, to Paleo Magazine Radio. So, we’re

going to talking to Liz about her book. We’re going to be talking about how

she got into this whole Paleo thing in the first place and it’s a really fun

conversation that I think you’re going to enjoy.

Part Two of today’s episode is our fourth and final week of the Paleo Boot

Camp series, so this is really where we take all of what we’ve learned and

kind of put it together. So, we’re going to go beyond just dealing with the

food and the fitness and the sleep. We’re going to look at how deeply you

connect to the people, places and things in your lives and I think that that’s

really a key element of the Paleo lifestyle of Paleo living, of optimal, healthy,

Paleo MagazinePodcast Episode 36

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engaged, vibrant living. So, I think you’re going to enjoy it. Hopefully you

do. Paleo Magazine Radio starts now.

{Music}

Tony Federico: Hey, everybody. This is Tony. We’re here with Liz Wolfe. Liz is the author

of several books now on Paleo for your skin, The Skintervention Guide, as

well as your entire body, your whole life with Eat the Yolks. She’s been in the

Paleo world for quite some time. She’s got an interesting story and we wanted

to bring her on the show to introduce you to her. She’s going to be a regular

contributor to Paleo Magazine Radio. Liz, thank you so much for coming and

joining us today.

Liz Wolfe: Well, thank you for all of the patience with my Internet issues out at the farm

and for being patient with me today. I really appreciate it.

Tony Federico: Hey, it’s not a problem. This is all about real food and then also about real

life, so we’re not going to hold it against you that you have weather, you

know, acts of God and farm animals to contend with. So, let’s just kick things

off with a little bit about yourself, you know, a little bit of your back story.

Who were you before you became Real Food Liz?

Liz Wolfe: Oh, I was Fake Food Liz for sure. No doubt about that. It’s so funny to think

about the fact that I’ve been in the Paleo community for a fairly extended

period of time. I feel like it was just yesterday that I learned about these

concepts and it’s just kind of crazy.

But, you know, I remember Robb Wolf’s website when it was still, you know,

like the green bar with the science-y, hand-drawn…


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Tony Federico: The little lab guy, the little cartoony dude, beaker or whatever?

Liz Wolfe: No, even before that.

Tony Federico: Oh, man. You’ve got me beat. You win on that one.

Liz Wolfe: It’s crazy, but my story is probably pretty standard. For most of my life, I was

mostly worried about how I looked and how much I weighed. Cared very

little about true wellness or real health and I always struggled with poor sleep,

terrible skin. You mentioned The Skintervention Guide, which is kind of a

compilation of everything that I did to resolve my long-standing acne and

eczema and skin frustrations and that was probably the biggest red flag that

whatever I was doing was not working or making me healthy in any way,

shape or form.

So, struggled with that and finally at some point, was introduced, really,

through Michael Rutherford, Coach Rut, strengthening and conditioning

coach in Kansas City who introduced me to Paleo, to lifting, to purposeful

exercise and it’s been a long road from there, but I think in a nutshell, that’s

really the story. At this point, I’m just writing and trying to talk about real

food every chance I get.

Tony Federico: Yes, so you were going to a CrossFit gym. You kind of got your first

introduction to Paleo there. You discovered Robb’s website. What were those

first few experiences like, you know, trying to make that transition from, you

know, like you said, Fake Food Liz. What kind of stuff was she doing and

then, how did you do that? I think a lot of people kind of struggle with


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breaking out of their habits and it seems like you’ve been able to do that pretty

effectively.

Liz Wolfe: Well, it took a long time. It was not an easy road.

Tony Federico: It wasn’t an overnight? Oh, man.

Liz Wolfe: No, it wasn’t overnight.

Tony Federico: An instant, easy and quick?

Liz Wolfe: Can you believe that? I didn’t rip off the bandaid and completely change my

life in an instant. So, I remember what I used to eat and I thought it was so

healthy and actually, it’s funny because I was always interested in food and

what we should eat and why. And my friends would come to me for help and

I found this old email exchange between a friend of mine and myself. She

was trying to lose weight and I was trying to help her and basically it said,

“Always use low-fat mayo. Never use full-fat peanut butter. Eat chicken

breasts, but scrape off the skin,” you know, that type of thing and my standard

breakfast was Fiber One cereal, which is basically cardboard laced with

aspartame.

Tony Federico: Delicious, delicious.

Liz Wolfe: Oh, so delicious, with Splenda on top and soy milk and I felt really good

about that.

Tony Federico: Oh, man, that was super healthy.


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Liz Wolfe: Oh, yes.

Tony Federico: So, you’re on-point as far as the standard health advice was concerned.

Liz Wolfe: Oh, yes. Eat as few calories as possible and you know, cut fat, cut carbs, cut

calories. I mean, it was just an amalgam of fake, processed foods, really.

Tony Federico: Now, did you have weight issues or was it primarily your skin that kind of

manifested the worst effects of this “healthy” diet.

Liz Wolfe: Well, I sure thought I had weight issues, you know, but that’s another thing

that’s really changed since I got into this community and over the last half a

decade, is I realized what a healthy person truly looks like. Personally, I think

some nice healthy curves, a nice bubble butt, I think that’s a very attractive

trait on a woman and, you know, doing copious amounts of squats definitely

solidified that in my mind. But, you know, no, I probably did not have a

clinical weight problem. It was mostly skin problems, bad sleep, eczema,

flares of acne and really some emotional problems, I would say. Some real

deep sadness, cyclically really.

Tony Federico: Yes, and so when you changed things up, it sounds like you didn’t just change

your diet. You kind of reframed your way of thinking about things and, as you

mentioned, this is a kind of a long process. Were there some breakthroughs

along the way? Were there maybe some particular experiences that kind of

kept this lifestyle going and growing?

Liz Wolfe: That’s a really good question and I think there must have been because I’ve

stuck with it for this long and really, in the past, I probably would do one thing

for three weeks. They wouldn’t work. I’d try another thing for three weeks.


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It wouldn’t work. But there’s been something about this way of life that has

stuck for me and I don’t know if I could pinpoint all the moments that really

kept me going or fueled the fire.

But I think what it is, is it jibes with our biochemistry. Living closer to the

way our ancestors did and eating the foods that have been eaten throughout

history by humans in good health, you know, before the advent of processed

foods over the last 50 years. It just jibes.

Tony Federico: Something just feels right.

Liz Wolfe: It feels right and, you know, I think forgiveness. At some point along the

road, I learned to be more forgiving and patient with myself because there

were times when I felt like, “Gad, I fell off the wagon. It’s all over for me,”

but who cares? Everybody falls off the wagon. Nobody has to be so hard on

themselves for, you know, one slip-up here or there. And when I kind of

became more forgiving of that whole journey, it became actually a lot easier to

make the right choices 99% of the time, so.

Tony Federico: Right, so you weren’t beating yourself up if you’re glutened.

Liz Wolfe: Yes, and you know, funny enough, alleviating that self-imposed emotional

stress was really powerful physically, as well.

Tony Federico: Yes. You know, and I think a lot of people feel like they have to beat

themselves up and if they’re not beating themselves up, then they’re going to

slide into this abyss of binge eating or whatever the case may be. But I think

you’re right. I think that that self-flagellation, you know, that constant

deriding oneself and calling yourself fat and just having this internal


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monologue of how bad you are and, you know, how bad your willpower is, I

think that really contributes to keeping those very same negative behaviors

going.

Liz Wolfe: Oh, absolutely. It’s part and parcel to the diet world and it’s just further proof

that this whole lifestyle is not a Diet, with a capital D, because it’s just not – it

has no business here. I really don’t think it’s making anybody successful and

I think for the most part, we grasp that.

Tony Federico: Yes, absolutely, and, you know, like you said, it’s a lifestyle, so it’s not just

what’s on your plate. It’s how you think. It’s how you move. You know, you

mentioned you got into this via CrossFit, which you know, there’s a huge

emphasis on communities, so you’re fostering social relationships. So, you’re

building that tribe up. What role do you think being a blogger, being involved

kind of in this sharing, this disseminating of information? What do you think

that that played into your own personal Paleo journey?

Liz Wolfe: Oh, I think it’s huge, huge, and I tell people all the time to start blogs. I want

everybody in the whole world to be blogging, which sounds silly, but if I had

never started putting my thoughts on the Internet, ha-ha, I probably wouldn’t

have figured out what I – you know, when you want to write about something,

you start to identify your interests a little bit more, if that makes sense.

Tony Federico: Sure. Oh, 100%.

Liz Wolfe: And I never would have identified this passion that I have for real food and

sustainability and all of this, had I not written about it and realized, “Wow, I’m

really passionate about this. I love talking about this.” I never had that before.

I was working in the energy field before this, so there you go.


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Tony Federico: So, what does that mean?

Liz Wolfe: I’m in the energy abyss. Yes, that sounded a little abstract, didn’t it? I was

actually literally working in land leasing for oil and gas drilling for cold bed

methane, so completely random. No idea how I got into it, but you know, I

went with it and that’s a whole other chapter.

Tony Federico: Yes. So, you mentioned The Skintervention Guide. That was sort of a

documentation, a distillation of what worked for you for clearing up your skin

conditions. Can you kind of give us a little bullet point? You know, obviously

The Guide is available for people if they want to purchase it, but you know,

sort of a broad overview of what somebody could expect if they decided to

pick it up?

Liz Wolfe: Oh, yes. So, The Skintervention Guide is an e-book. It’s something that I put

together because I realized that I was answering questions multiple times a

day related to skincare and how I healed acne and eczema. So, I wanted to put

everything in one place. Now, one of the things that, at the time when I wrote

The Guide, it was kind of limited in the Paleo-sphere was people talking about

the impact of your digestive landscape on how you’re actually able to pull in,

utilize and distribute nutrients in your body, so we’re eating all this great,

nutrient-dense food, but if our digestive systems aren’t working properly, if

we’re not eating in the right state of mind, it can completely manipulate how

our bodies use food.

So, it’s broken down into three parts. It’s broken down into nutrition for the

skin, the basic tenets of Paleo, which is getting rid of the processed foods,

etcetera, but also the really nourishing and nutrient-dense foods that are


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important for skin health. And then, we’ve got another section on digestive

health and how to support the whole digestive system.

And then, the third section is on topical care because a lot of the questions I

got, it was all about what I do on the surface. How I wash my face and, you

know, why I don’t use shampoo and all this other stuff, but I realized that no

amount of oil cleansing or alternative shampoo is going to fix someone’s

nutrition or digestive landscape. So, that’s why I put everything all together.

Tony Federico: So, it’s really working from the inside out rather than this, kind of top-down

approach that, you know, if you watch TV, you see commercials for ProActive

or you know, some sort of cream or something like that. Nobody really ever

talks about it.

One thing I find interesting—and I’m curious to get your thoughts—is I see a

lot of, like organic and botanical topical ointments and I’m like, “Man, if

people are paying this much attention to the quality of the stuff that they’re

putting on their skin, why wouldn’t they be wanting to put organic and, you

know, real food in their bodies as well?” It just kind of seems like there’s that

disconnect there.

Liz Wolfe: Isn’t that funny? That’s the space that I lived in for 22-23 years. It never even

occurred to me that what I was putting on, or in my body for that matter, even

made a difference. The thing is, you know, we all know that organic is kind of

a buzz word in the food environment, but it is also a buzz word in personal

care products. You’re not always getting something truly natural that works

with your body, so much as you are getting a buzz word and a lot of marketing

jargon. So, you really do have to know what to look for.


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Tony Federico: What do you think are some of the worst offenders as far as skin care or

beauty products that people put on their skin? And this could be anything,

you know, make-up or whatever.

Liz Wolfe: Make-up is a big one. I’m by no means against make-up, but I think you do

need to know what’s in your make-up, especially if you’re going to wear it all

day, every day. So, that’s one thing. You know, there are some brands that I

like that work really well for people, but besides make-up, which I think is a

pretty easy call-out, I think actually soap can be – and not just soap, but what

generally comes with soaps.

So, we think of shampoo and body wash as just soap. You know, we need to

be clean, so we need to use that. But if you actually look at the packaging and

the ingredients and what it they put in there, most of them we’re not going to

even be able to pronounce. Half of them contain gluten-derivatives and it’s

really kind of shocking.

So, that’s actually where I got started with a lot of this stuff was when I

learned about getting rid of gluten and processed grains, I started to wonder

about hydrolyzed wheat protein and wheat, etcetera, yes, that I was seeing in

my personal care products. So that kind of stimulated the whole thing.

Tony Federico: Yes, absolutely, and personally, my own regimen is pretty basic. You know,

I’m a guy. At this point, I’m using like a tooth powder, like a mineral tooth

powder. I use one basic soap-ish sort of thing. It’s just sort of like a natural

soap, like a Dr. Bronner’s kind of deal, the shampoo, the soap, that’s

everything.


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So, my routine is pretty simple, but you know, I’m married. I see what my

wife has to go through to be presentable in the eyes of the world. You know,

there’s multiple levels of hair and make-up and everything like that. It just

seems like there’s a lot more pressure on women in general to, you know,

present a certain type of appearance and that means kind of buying into this

culture of products. You know, I feel like there’s a lot there that I don’t have

to expose myself to, so I kind of feel fortunate for that, but I feel like it’s

definitely not fair, so to speak.

What do you think about some of these other things that we hear, things like

the sulfates and parabens and some of these other chemicals that are gaining a

little bit more awareness?

Liz Wolfe: I think that they’re toxic at worst and unnecessary at best and I know there’s

debate about that. I’m not hippy-dippy, super, you know, “Oh, everything not

natural is toxic,” and you know, one of my biggest pet peeves is when people

say, “Chemical-free. There’s no chemicals.” Everything is a chemical. Every

single thing on this planet is a chemical, so essential oils, those are chemicals.

But it’s the unnecessary, industrially-derived chemicals that are added to

personal care products as foaming agents and as fillers and as preservatives.

It kind of ticked me off because my whole goal here is simplicity. Like you

mentioned, it doesn’t seem fair that women, in particular, and you know, these

days, men, I think to a lesser degree, are being sold a lot of crud, too.

Tony Federico: Axe body spray.

Liz Wolfe: Oh, my gosh, Axe body spray. My husband got some gift of something that

comes every month just full of garbage and every month, I beat him to the,


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you know, the birch box and the different things you get delivered. And half

the time, I just go through there and I throw this stuff away. But the idea is

simplicity, so for me, realizing that I could basically do everything I needed to

do with baking soda, apple cider vinegar, some kind of like coconut oil or

tallow-based body balm and clay. I love clay. I mean, how freeing is that?

Tony Federico: Yes, so it’s really kind of paring down, you know, this whole – I mean, it’s

crazy. Like I’ve gone into stores like Sephora. I’m like, “I did not know you

needed a cream for that,” let alone…

Liz Wolfe: Yes. You’re like, “What?”

Tony Federico: Yes.

Liz Wolfe: Literally creating problems for people and I think half of the time, what we

develop to address problems, or addressing problems that were created by

similar products in the first place, so, don’t even get me started.

Tony Federico: Yes, so, you know, that really just sounds like the healthcare system, in a way.

Like a whole additional element of symptoms that are created by the products

themselves and then, there’s products to control the symptoms from another

product, so it’s this whole vicious cycle.

Liz Wolfe: Imagine that, right?

Tony Federico: Yes. So, speaking of kind of the bigger picture, your next foray was going

beyond just focusing on the skin, your book, Eat the Yolks. Can you tell us a

little bit about that?


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Liz Wolfe: Yes. Eat the Yolks is the culmination of many years of work and research and

my goodness. I just can’t believe that it’s ready to be published. It’s crazy.

So, it’s just…

Tony Federico: It probably feels pretty good.

Liz Wolfe: It does. I feel like I’m in this kind of holding pattern right now because it

ships on February 25, 2014, and we’re like in the weeks just prior to that and

I’m just – I feel like I’m waiting just to hear what people think about it.

But what Eat the Yolks is, is a book about how the heck we got here, how the

heck we came to believe that saturated fat and cholesterol from natural

sources is bad for us; all of the myths I think we’ve been fed for so, so many

decades about animal protein, about whether eating animals is biologically

appropriate or not. The myths like we need whole grains to go to the

bathroom, the myths that calories count more than anything else.

Really for me, like I bought into the Paleo thing because I felt great, but I was

still at that point where I’m thinking, “I need to learn more because I’ve been

told my whole life that cholesterol is going to give me heart disease,” etcetera,

etcetera. And, I bought into it, but I needed context and I think that that’s

really important. Like hearing the story. One of the sections in my book is

entitled, “Kellogg’s Flaccid Flakes.”

And just all of the ridiculous – you know, the course of history has been so

muddled and unclear, but I think a lot of times, when you find out why we

even think what we think in the first place and that it is in no way based on

science, but more on propaganda and entrenched beliefs, it’s a lot easier to

pluck yourself out of it.


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Tony Federico: Yes, but we’ve heard it so many times. You know, once it’s been repeated

over and over and over again, it’s hard to shake that and it’s hard to not have

that fear. You know, for example, you know, let’s say you have a doctor tell

you, “Uh, you need to cut out the egg yolks.”

You know, I had a client of mine come to me the other day and, you know, I’m

kind of working with this person and kind of getting them shifted more into a

Paleo-ish diet. You know, cutting out wheat and things like that, and they’re

doing great. They’re not eating Total cereal or whatever. They started eating

a couple of scrambled eggs and a little bacon here and there. And bam, they

go to the doctor and the doctor is like, “Uh, egg yolks? Nope. You’ve got to

get the Egg Beater egg whites,” or whatever. And you know, it’s hard to have

that conversation because that’s what we’ve heard over and over and over

again.

Liz Wolfe: Yes. But let’s like phrase this another way. What we’ve been told for 50 years

is to eat fake food, to eat industrially-derived, highly-processed food. We’ve

been told it’s health food, but you know, when you kind of like put a voice-

over on somebody’s mouth is moving. You’ve got the doctor telling you, you

know, to eat Egg Beaters instead of real, whole eggs, an item that has been

part of literally one of the oldest, you know, most well-known sources of

nutrition in human history.

Tony Federico: It seems crazy when you say it like that.

Liz Wolfe: It’s crazy. They’re literally telling you to eat fake food and really, when you

get that context and the history, which is what I write about in Eat the Yolks,

you learn about that, compounded by all we know about nutrition, which is


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that nutrients are so incredibly important. They were important to me in

healing my acne. They’re important to – I have a client that’s doing a power

lifting competition soon and we got the nutrients flowing in his diet and he’s

making incredible gains really quickly. Nutrients are everything and what’s

really happened in this era of processed food is that we’ve lost all nutrients.

We’re worried about calories instead of nutrients.

Tony Federico: And there’s nutrients we’re not even aware of, you know, so we can’t take this

idea of fortifying, or you know, you look at Total, for example. I saw

somebody posted something up and it’s 100% of vitamin D and it’s 100% of

this and that and it’s like, “Well, they kind of crushed up like a little

synthetically-derived vitamin pill and sprinkled it over the processed wheat

flakes and high fructose corn syrup,” so you know, there’s vitamins and

minerals in there, but that’s not even the whole picture.

Liz Wolfe: No, and you know what else we don’t think about is okay, maybe the nutrients

are there, but can our bodies get to them? Can we actually access them? I

mean, a lot of the nutrition in plants is bound up because those plants have

those nutrients in them such that they can fall into a pile of dirt and access

those nutrients to fuel themselves as they grow. So, can’t blame the plant

world for that.

Tony Federico: You mean, they’re not designed for us?

Liz Wolfe: Oh, my goodness.

Tony Federico: How dare they?

Liz Wolfe: How dare they, yes.


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Tony Federico: So, let’s talk a little bit about your own lifestyle now. I think that’s kind of an

interesting thing. We have a few more minutes, but I wanted to kind of chat

about that. You know, before we started recording, there were some dogs

barking and some goats. I’m not really sure what does the goat…

Liz Wolfe: Do they bray? No.

Tony Federico: Bray? What does the goat say?

Liz Wolfe: What does the goat say? Yes, there’s a lot going on out here. I guess you

could call us amateur homesteaders. And this is all just an offshoot of what

I’ve learned as a Paleo, real food devotee, so you know, I…

Tony Federico: Right. You didn’t always live on a farm.

Liz Wolfe: No, never. I mean, I’m from the Midwest. I’m from Kansas City, but that

might as well be Philadelphia. I mean, I lived in Kansas City in the suburbs

and never, never thought of this, even five years ago, never would have

thought that this was what we would be doing.

But as I started to learn more about where food comes from and where truly

nourishing food comes from and how people used to get it, realizing that I

could maybe grow some of my own food and take control a little bit of that

aspect of my life and learn how food becomes food, I started to get really

interested in the idea of homesteading. So, my husband and I, we have a

move coming up. He’s in the military and…


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Tony Federico: And I’m assuming. Is he pretty bought into this whole Paleo, primal, ancestor

health thing?

Liz Wolfe: Yes. He’s so into it and what’s hilarious is our last station, we lived in

southern New Jersey, outside Philadelphia, and one of his first suggestions to

me when we moved into our house was, “Hey, we should get chickens,” and I

remember being like, “That’s ridiculous. That is so dumb. I don’t want

chickens. Are you serious?” Because I just thought, “Why would you ever do

that if you can go to the grocery store and buy eggs?”

And now, we’ve got a flock of chickens, a flock of guinea fowl. We’ve got

goats. We’ve got a couple of pigs that should be coming as soon as this snow

clears up and yes, so now we’re just working on, you know, planning the

spring garden and getting ready to hopefully rely a little bit less on the

supermarket and be a little more self-reliant.

Tony Federico: Where did the farm come from? Did you just kind of go shopping around for

a farm or how did that happen?

Liz Wolfe: Yes, and it was almost heartbreaking. We almost didn’t get this land and we

almost didn’t even look at it because it was just a little too far away from work

for him. But we came out here and just fell in love with it. Lost it once, but it

seems like it was just kind of meant to be ours because everything ended up

working out perfectly and it’s pretty amazing.

Tony Federico: That’s awesome. Well, I wish you the best of luck with the farm, with the

animals, with the book. Really looking forward to having you be a regular

part of the show, as well, you know, contributing your own perspective on


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Paleo ancestral health, of real food. So, thanks so much for taking the time to

talk to us today.

Liz Wolfe: Oh, thank you. I’m so excited for what the future of Paleo Magazine Radio

holds.

{Music}

Tony Federico: All right, so you made it to Week Four of our Paleo Boot Camp. You’ve

dialed in your diet. You’ve optimized sleep and stress. You’re working out.

You’ve even possibly made some tweaks to really take ownership of your

Paleo diet to figure out how to make it work best for you. So, what are we

going to talk about Week Four? It’s all about connection and why is

connection important.

It’s important because we’re social creatures. We evolved in groups. We

evolved in tribes and because of this, our health is often a factor of the

strength of our social bonds. In studies of long-lived individuals, people who

are centenarians, living beyond 100 years old in so-called Blue Zones, one of

the key factors is community. It’s the relationships that people have and

stereotypically, these aren’t stressful or negative relationships, or lack of

relationships. They’re deep and satisfying.

So, the problem is that in our modern world, we’re spending more and more

time on the computer, more and more time in front of screens and less time

engaged with our family, friends, colleagues and neighbors. Some of it’s a

factor of the way our streets are laid out, our houses are laid out. It’s being in

cities that have just, by virtue of their construction, encourage us to be


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separate from each other, but not all hope is lost. There’s stuff that we can do

about that.

But in addition to being disconnected from other people, we’re also

disconnected from our world. If you think about just going to the grocery

store or buying food that’s already packaged, washed, prepared, we haven’t

had to do anything to it and oftentimes it doesn’t really look like how it

looked when it was growing out of the ground or walking around.

Speaking of walking around, we’re walking around in shoes that are binding

our feet, that are keeping us from ever feeling the ground. And then, if we

think about our houses, we’re living in boxes and you know, surrounded by

walls. So, we’re no longer experiencing that immersion in nature. We’re not

experiencing that connection to nature and if we do, it’s usually watching

something on the Discovery channel.

So, the bottom line is that we’re lacking connection in our daily lives and we

might not even realize it. We might just feel less satisfied. We might not

know that that’s what we’re lacking.

But by reconnecting with other people, by reconnecting with our planet in

some of these practical ways, you can really take your Paleo lifestyle to the

next level. So, the goal with this week is to create deeper connection. It’s to

inspire you. It’s to create passion. It’s to create purpose by building and

strengthening those relationships, by connecting with people, places and

things that exist in your life, that you might not just really have appreciated on

that deeper level.


2014Page 19

And here are the recommendations. You’ve got three things: people, places

and food. So, reconnecting with people, I want you to recall the fondest

moments in your life. You know, think about a time where you just fully felt

alive and happy and joyful. Was it checking your Facebook page? Was it

sending a Tweet? I venture a guess that it’s not. It’s likely an experience that

you had with friends or family, laughing, telling stories, having an amazing

conversation or an experience that was purely present. There was nothing

between you and the person or people that you were with.

And the great thing is that you can have more of those experiences. You can

have more of those moments and really, all it takes is being present. It takes

putting away your smart phone, turning it off, leaving it at home and going for

a walk with a friend. Having a conversation, eating dinner with your wife

without the TV on. It’s like walking around with a Twinkie in your pocket

and trying to go on the Paleo diet. At some point, you’re going to eat the

Twinkie. I’m just telling you, it’s inevitable.

So, you either throw the Twinkie away—and I’m not saying that you’re going

to throw your smart phone away—or you put it somewhere where it’s not

tempting you and that’s what I’m actually recommending is leaving the phone

somewhere where you don’t see it. You’re not going to be tempted to check

it. Have a conversation. Connect with the people around you.

Connect with your kids. Play with them. Don’t just take pictures of them.

Don’t take pictures of them and post it up on Instagram and think that that’s

sufficient. It’s not. You know, that’s the fast food version of interacting with

people. You know, it gives the illusion of interaction, but it’s not the good

stuff. It’s not the nutrient density that we need.


2014Page 20

Speaking of nutrient density, we also want to reconnect with our food, so even

if you’re eating a Paleo diet, if you’re buying all your food from the grocery

store, you really just don’t have that intimate relationship with your food that

you would if you were producing some of it yourself. And I’m not

recommending that you have to go out and become a farmer or have some

backyard chickens or be a rancher and tend a cow or whatever.

Even a small backyard garden, or even a few plants on the windowsill, you

know, some herbs or something like that. It’s a great way to just get that daily

reminder that food isn’t just something you eat. It’s just not stuff. It’s

something it’s alive. It’s something that’s vital and it deserves respect. It

deserves appreciation. You know, it’s something that’s making the greatest

sacrifice so that you can live and keeping in mind, at some point, we’re going

to die and then, we’re going to become food for something else. It’s just part

of being in that cycle of life and death and reminding ourselves that we’re part

of it, that we’re connected.

And speaking of connected with that cycle, connecting with the planet,

connecting with the earth. You know, there’s some simple ways that we can

do that. I really recommend that you maximize green time and minimize

screen time. So, find a local park. You know, find something that has a little

trail or some trees.

Just start making it a point to go out once a week at first and then, maybe a

couple of times a week and just walk around. You know, just take a walk.

You know, if you need to go for a jog, great, but don’t bring headphones.

Don’t bring your smart phone. Just allow yourself to experience nature.

Maybe even kick off your shoes, walk barefoot. Let your eyes rest on the


2014Page 21

leaves. You know, just allow the wind to caress your skin. Feel the sun.

Smell the air.

Allow your senses to be engaged, just like how we were talking about in the

Week One material, that processed food dulls our sense of taste. Living in a

high-stimulation, digital world, it dulls our sense of connection. It’s too much

refined connection, so we want to get back to the more subtle, more complete,

more nutrient-dense connection of just being present in a natural environment.

And it’s been verified with scientific studies that this reduces stress, improves

concentration, increases feelings of wellbeing, can alleviate depression. So, if

you’re suffering from any of those things, give yourself some green time. See

if it helps.

And then, obviously there’s some obstacles that might get in the way of doing

these things, of reconnecting with people, with food, with the planet. And I

think a big one is too much focus on material possessions. It’s easy to get

focused on things. It’s easy because that’s the message we get any time we

turn on the TV. There’s just so many commercials out there that are sending

us this message that if you buy this thing, you’ll be happy. But we need to

remember that at the end-of-the-day and at the end of our lives, the most

important thing is the people. It’s the type of relationships we had. It’s what

we’ve done with our days, not what we have.

And then, another piece of that is the perpetual distraction and you know, I’m

really hammering the point on smart phones home, but it’s something I’m

passionate about because I’ve felt it personally. I feel the encroachment very

intimately. I have a smart phone and I have to make a point to put it away.

It’s something that I struggle with and that’s what I’m talking about. It’s the

single biggest distraction from living that we’ve ever faced as a species, in my


2014Page 22

opinion. And certainly there’s benefits to having it, but it’s all within the

context of this sort of arbitrary, artificial world.

Going for a walk, hanging out with friends, spending some time in the garden,

all those things are great, but if you’re checking your phone, if you’re posting

pictures, if you’re sending text messages, if you’re doing all those things at

the same time, you’re not present. And really presence, being 100%, fully

aware and alive, it’s something that’s in extreme short supply in our modern

world and I suspect that that’s the thing.

That’s really one of the key ingredients to our Paleo lifestyle that’s going to

allow us to live in a meaningful and satisfying way that’s going to foster

connection; that’s going to allow us to take stock of where we are in our lives;

to take responsibility for where we are in our lives and really create the kind

of life that we want to live.

So, that concludes our Paleo Boot Camp. I hope you’ve enjoyed the past 30

days. I hope you experience some great success. Moving forward in the

podcast, we’re going to be featuring segments with people such as Liz Wolfe,

Russ Crandall, Clifton Harski and Adam Farrah and we’re going to be

addressing specific components of the Paleo lifestyle.

Adam’s going to be our big-picture Paleo guy. Me and Russ are going to be

talking about food in a segment called, “The Ancestral Table.” Liz and I,

we’re going to be doing real food radio bytes. She’s the author of Eat the

Yolks and had some really keen insight into the food system. And then, with

Clifton Harski, who’s one of the first Mov Nat coaches and current director of

training at Fitwall, he’s just an awesome guy in general and has figured out a


2014Page 23

way to make training really fun, really enjoyable, really effective, so he’s

going to be answering your fitness questions.

So, I’m looking forward to these new segments and I hope you benefitted

from taking part in our 30-day Paleo Boot Camp. I’m Tony Federico and I

look forward to seeing you on the next episode of Paleo Magazine Radio.

{Music}

Host: If you would like to share your story on PMR, please visit our Facebook page

at Facebook.com/paleomagazine. For full transcripts of the show, as well as

exclusive online content, go to our web page, PaleoMagOnline.com. You can

also talk to us on Twitter at #PMRadio.

THE END


2014Page 24

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PMR Episode 36 - Paleo Magazine · conversation that I think you’re going to enjoy. Part Two of...

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