Jamie Fellrath | Practical Mindfulness

The myth of the dumb jock is a pervasive one, to be sure.  I often think that this is one of those things that less athletic (or motivated) people tell themselves and others to boost their self-esteem, but it's proven again and again not to be true. When I was in college, I found that some of the smartest guys and gals were the varsity athletes.  It seemed that at least a couple times a season, the play-by-play guys broadcasting our football games pointed out the GPA of the offensive linemen on our team and how high it was - and not in easy majors, either.  No, we're talking engineering, the sciences, etc.  Hard stuff.  Some people like to play that off to lessons learned from having to manage their time better, and that certainly will play a role, but perhaps there's an additional reason. Along comes The Primal Blueprint author Mark Sisson , pulling together a group of studies on both rats and humans that indicate the importance and effectiveness of strength tr...

Amazing. As if he read my blog (which I know he hadn't, because his podcast came out Tuesday and yesterday (when I wrote my binge post ) was Wednesday, Robb Wolf answered part of my question about cheat days and bingeing in his latest podcast (#67) .  Starting at the 50:37 point in the podcast, Robb answers "Bennett's" question about cheat days. Robb's answer was interesting and I think I see part of where I may have gone wrong.  While Rob does not care for planned cheat days unless you are hyper-focused, a la a Tim Ferriss type , because they tend to send your Primal/Paleo efforts soaring into the ether, he's not against treating yourself once in a while if you see a dessert or sugary food that you really want.  The key for Robb is to make sure you stay away from the Gluten.  The possible gut irritants in wheat's death-protein, especially if you're being good and haven't been taking any in at all, will do more harm than you may think by setting of...

Last Sunday afternoon, my wife and I went out to see a movie ( The Eagle , with Channing Tatum. It was pretty good).  I've been eating cleanly with good regularity for a few weeks again, and I decided it wouldn't hurt anything to go on a bit of a bender with some of the refreshments there. Boy, was I wrong. The bender included an order of soft pretzel bites with "cheese sauce," a bag of M&Ms, and a large Coke.  Normally, before I was Paleo, I could go through such a repast without blinking an eye.  But as I mentioned on the  About  page, I've been Paleo for a couple of years now.  And as I said, I've been keeping the carbs down with a lot more intensity of late. So during the movie, I started feeling pretty lousy.  Bloated, gassy, the whole nine yards.  And the rest of the evening, I didn't eat too much and pretty much took it easy.  I didn't sleep well, probably because of all the carbs running rampant in my system and keeping me too ene...

It's no secret that Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMOs, are running rampant in the American diet.  And these organisms, which are primarily found in corn, soy, canola, and cotton (and yes, we do have some cotton in the diet via cottonseed oil).   Sugar beets are a growing source of GMO carbs as well. And the questions about the safety of GMOs in the diet are growing at a rampant rate . But the United States doesn't require labeling of GMO-containing foods due to the success of the GMO lobby in federal and state legislatures.  So how is the consumer to know what foods do and don't contain these substances? The Center for Food Safety is here to help with a free iPhone application (or, if you don't have an iPhone, they have a PDF document with all the information as well).  The application is well set up - with news, political actions to take, and a great source of which foods are safe and which bear the most scrutiny. The application can be downloaded at the iTu...

I got this in a chain email today... but I REALLY like it.  I wanted to share it with you because I think it says a lot. Let's remember that adding value to the world doesn't mean you have to make some sort of global impact: you can add value on a local or even personal level, and you've created value! Charles Schulz Philosophy (This is marvelous!! There are two sets of question Scroll slowly and read carefully to receive and enjoy full effect.) The  following is the philosophy of Charles Schulz, the  creator of the 'Peanuts' comic strip. You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just ponder on them. Just read the e-mail straight through, and you'll get the point. Name the five wealthiest people in the  world. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and...