Behavior modeling

Short and sweet this week folks......... If you want your children to live right and make appropriate choices that will aid them throughout their lives you must model the behaviors. Primal eating, and lifestyle will rub off on your children. Commit to it, and do not be afraid to say no when your children give resistance.

This weekend my daughter asked me if we could PLEASE have chicken parm..... I said yes. When we began to prep for dinner she had already set up a breading station that included coconut flour instead of bread crumbs. She was also busy chopping up some bell peppers and onions. I asked her what she was doing and she replied "I figured we could have these instead of noodles". Way to go Mia! 

Live right and you are helping guarantee your families health too..............

 Who knew she had actually been paying attention all along?

Primal & Paleo going mainstream?

It has been said that imitation is the ultimate form of flattery and that there is no such thing as bad press. Until recently, if someone were to mention paleo/primal living they would usually be greeted with an odd look and follow up comment like "What is that? Some type of fad diet?".  Today however one can find mainstream media splashing headlines like "10 food you didn't know weren't Paleo" and "The Primal diet for Dummies".  Open a new issue of Shape magazine and you are likely to find an article encouraging women to "Give CrossFit a Try" or "How to Cook Paleo Without Sacrificing". This attention is well deserved and encouraging, but the fear is that the message will be morphed and lost in translation. Primal is not a diet, or a program, or a regimen. CrossFit (more accurately, CrossFit's principle of health and wellness ) is not something that you "try" once in a while to get a great workout. This thing that all these really fit, barefoot, meat and nut eating weirdos are doing is a totally lifestyle conversion. It is a way of applying principals to daily lives in order to form a better connection with ..... well....... everything. If you are living right, you are likely reaping the benefits, and you fully understand the point being made here.

Instead of looking at all of this media attention with discontent and abhorrence, embrace it. Use it as an opportunity to encourage others to live better, and connect with what really matters. The difference between a lifestyle transformation and what happens in media/trends is time horizon. Individuals who subscribe to primal living become examples of how to live over the long term, how to forgo instant gratification, how to truly enjoy life.

Many people over the last few years have found it frustrating that no one listened when primal or paleo lifestyles were being advocated..... well here is the opportunity to turn this attention in positive results for others. For once, the average citizen is aproaching  us with questions about that "diet" they read about in Newsweek and thought we "did".  Use your powers for good you barefoot meat lover. Build the tribe.

Cultivating my garden Episode 1.

So I've decided to add a section to my blog about my adventures in gardening, and within these adventures I will try to deduce a "moral of the story" moment. But for today, let me introduce you to what I am doing in my little primal garden.

 This first photo is of my spinach. I used seed tape to plant these and it worked wonderfully. I am really happy with the amount of spinach that has come up and I'm excited to make a few awesome summer meals with this.

My herb area is coming along nicely, even though I think I may have lost my Purple Basil in a frost. Oh well, herbs are easy, and I can just replace.

Currently I have sweet basil, purple basil, sage, cilantro, parsley, thyme, oregano, stevia and rosemary. I am hoping to freeze some of the yield so that I can utilize the herbs all winter long.

From this angle you can't yet see much but I have a white eggplant, some onion and yet to emerge watermelons. There  are brussel sprouts and romaine lettuce in the middle. There was asparagus in this area in years past, but the yield was minimal and we decided to go another direction this year.

 

From the other side you can see a variety of pepper plants and some young cucumber sprouts. I am growing quite a few pepper plants this year and I plan on doing some canning. As of today I have green, purple, and orange bell peppers, cayenne, hot wax, sweet poppers, and some jalapeno going.

And finally I have tomatoes  (Cherry and Cherokee purple) Along with some additional hot pepper plants. I am really into honing my hot pepper relish recipe this fall. I like to use a variety of areas and pottings.... I feel like it adds a little personality to the mix.

 

So there is my garden so far, and the moral of the story for today's post is.........

 

 

A seed is a starting point....... Fill your mind with seeds that will help you achieve your goals, and remember to nourish them constantly in order to harvest the rewards. A seed alone lies dormant. Grow Something!!!

Milk in the raw... Drink Up!

I grew up drinking raw whole milk from a dairy farm that was literally a stone’s throw away from my childhood home. On occasion I was annoying enough to garner the attention of the farm workers. On these days I was able to help in the entire milking process. At the time, I had no idea what raw meant and even if I did I'm not sure it would have mattered. My habits changed over time and I became a skim only kind of guy. Recently however, I have made the switch back to raw milk as a result of some research that I've been doing.
 
Now I want to preface everything that follows by stating that I am not writing this to convince anybody that they need to immediately change what they are doing, or how they are eating. If you read my previous blog post about awareness you know that I am always trying to open eyes while not forcing hands. Instead I want to disseminate some information that I found useful, and arm you with a few resources that can be utilized in order to help you make a more informed decision regarding your choices. I have no intention on arguing for against the raw milk debate. I drink raw milk, my wife does not. We still get along just fine.
 
Why raw milk? I prescribe to the doctrine that our food sources should be left in the most natural state possible for consumption. Milk consumption has been traced back as far as 7,500 years, and pasteurization has been prevalent for only about 2 percent of that overall time. I personally feel that raw milk tastes better and is better served for cooking purposes. Additionally, as a primal living advocate, I am able to have a more personal connection with the raw milk that I consume. I know that sounds weird, but humor me for a moment. You can't just wander into the local Uni-Mart, grab a gallon of raw milk, drink it without ever considering where it came from, or how it was produced. Raw milk being unpasteurized, and not as readily available, forces a consumer to be more aware of how the milk was sourced and how the animals are treated. Large scale dairy farms and other comparable milk producers are forced to use hormones and other un-natural components in order to increase milk production. I am of the opinion that these little "extras" are not so good for me.
 
As stated earlier, I did not write this with the intention of argument for or against. This is just one man’s point of view with regard to getting our lives back to basics; one glass of milk at a time.
I personally purchase my raw milk from Natures Panty in State College and during the summer months will occasionally purchase from one of the local farmers markets (Home Depot on Saturdays / Downtown on Fridays) but only if I can speak with the farmer about his /her practices and commitment to natural and un-altered milk production.
 
The first link below is to the Facebook page of the farm that produces a majority of the raw milk that I  buy, and the second link is to a resource that I feel takes a very good non-biased look at raw milk and the two sides of the pasteurization debate.
 
Happy Cow Naturals LLC.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Happy-Cow-Naturals-LLC/233467586701542#!/pages/Happy-Cow-Naturals-LLC/233467586701542
 
Pasteurization and Raw Milk
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/cellular-microscopic/pasteurization6.htm
 
 
Even if you decide not to give raw milk a shot, I hope that I will have at least convinced you to give a little more thought to where your food comes from and how it got to your table or glass.
 
Move around as much as possible, chew slowly and play in the dirt……….bye.