Highly Recommended – February 17th, 2012

Do not expect any fluff, but if I think it's valuable, I'll post it up here, maybe with a blurb about why it's good. Just know that it's only here because I think it's good, even if I don't say it. Sometimes awesome stands alone.

awesome

Podcasts

Revolution Health Radio – Chris Masterjohn on Cholesterol and Heart Disease

Twice the Chris means twice the info. Chris Masterjohn joins Chris Kresser to talk the cholesterol myth, thyroid, and more. You SHOULD listen and learn. It's Part Three, but they sum up Parts One and Two, so just go for it.

Don't forget to subscribe on iTunes. Chris is awesome every week.


Jillian Michaels Podcast

I know, it's Jillian Michaels... But, despite The Biggest Loser, I've listened to her for years on the radio and on her podcast. On her latest podcast, dated 2/8/12, she talks about her latest DVD set, the program actually sounds good, AND she sound smart. She discusses two questions from a listener on bad fats and "the French," that I found pretty spot on. My only question to Jillian would be "Why would you come back home and go back to your same old same old if the French really have something there?" Why not take the French paradigm you discovered in Paris and make it your own? 

She often covers topics that are too touchy-feely for me, but what can you do? She seems very genuine and caring. I hope her TBL persona was just editing. :)


News (even if it's old news)


Sitting Down is Killing You – The third picture in the infographic is the keystone: How sitting wrecks your body. If your body didn't undergo those changes, you wouldn't have the other issues. All roads lead to Rome, all is fair in love and war, and sitting down is killing you.



Events

Paleo Summit, hosted by Underground Wellness

This is a free, online event, and filled with many awesome presenters. I'll be honest and tell you that some will come across as whack jobs, but that's because A, you haven't been assimilated yet, B, they aren't very good at presenting things without sounding like whack jobs, C, they are whack jobs. You will have to decide.

Why sign up and why listen? Whether or not you buy into paleo, primal, or ancestral eating, many of the things that these people spew talk about has grains of truth (pun intended). You might not need to jump into grain and gluten free eating, or want to live on grass-fed, Himalayan salt seasoned, free range bison offal, but I must admit that there is merit to including many forgotten foods in our diets, and reducing much of the highly processed and industrialized foods that society relied on.

Here are some of the ones I'm looking forward to:

• Mark Sisson – Mark has the most reasonable approach to a healthy lifestyle that I know and he puts it in everyday, easy terms.
• Chris Kresser – I listen to him every week already, and always learn something new.
• Denise Minger – smart and pretty. I like that.
• Mat Lalonde – smart and pretty. My wife probably likes that.
• Dallas & Melissa Hartwig – If I had a quarter for every vegetarian with hormone problems that asked me what to eat to lose weight and get healthy, I'd have laundry money for weeks!

Sign up here (scroll to the bottom and enter your email) and get all the updates, plus two free videos to warm you up! One of them is Gary Taubes, but despite his reporting with blinders on, there is some truth in this words.

BTW, if you sign up and do parts of the conference, please let me know. I'd love to have conversations about all this stuff and see what you think. I'm not a paleo hardliner AT ALL, so I want to talk about this stuff; good and bad.


Commentary

If you're a personal trainer or strength coach, don't tell women that they won't get big and bulky lifting weights, and then use Jessica Biel as your example of hot. She is very hot, but to the average woman who doesn't lift weights, she's bulky.

If you're a female who's afraid to lift weights because you don't want to get bulky, please know that Jessica Biel is naturally big and muscular, and you will have to find another way to get that hot!

Many women try to put on muscle and just can't do it. Others find ways to keep the excess muscle where it belongs. Either way, to enjoy a long and healthy life, free of stooping, slouching, and broken hips, you owe it to yourself to lift some weights or engage in resistance training, whether it's at home with kettlebells, dumbbells, or bodyweight or at the gym with deadlifts, squats, and bench press.

Your ancestors stayed strong, healthy, and standing upright via hard work. Your choice is to do that or train.

Later, people!