About Adam

Adam Farrah has been studying and experimenting with Paleo approaches to health, eating, living and moving since 2005. Connect with Adam on Google+

Strong Keeps Getting Stronger…

April 30, 2013 by Adam 8 Comments

BOE 2012 Girl

Happy 100,000, Strong is the New Skinny!!!!

Strong is the New Skinny on Facebook just passed 100,000 followers!

Holy. Crap.

**Strong is STILL the New Skinny…**

Just last week I was talking to a close female friend. She’s beautiful and strong and muscular and quite a badass CrossFitter. And she was lamenting that she wasn’t “mainstream pretty” enough. Apparently, she’d even had a good cry over it the night before.

My advice? I told her to “be a Purple Cow” and sent her my “Is Strong the New Skinny?” blog post from 2010.

Here’s what I wanted her to see:

“…I say, to use Seth Godin’s term, be The Purple Cow. Now, I know women and the term “cow” shouldn’t really be used together, so before I get pummeled I’ll explain. A “Purple Cow” is something remarkable. In a world with more and more advertising “noise” and where there’s someone already filling virtually every need and every niche, a Purple Cow is something that stands out. A brown cow is boring, but a Purple Cow is REMARKABLE.

“If you’re a muscular woman, go after mainstream exposure. Let’s take muscular women out of the bodybuilding subculture and put them in the mainstream…”

- From my post: “Is Strong the New Skinny?“

A few minutes later she texted back: “YES! A Purple Cow!”

The message in that post still rings true. Probably now more than ever…

Stumbling Into Meaning and My Life’s Path…

Summer of 2010 I had no idea. No idea about anything, really.

My life had been falling apart for the few years before – arguably for the 10 years before – and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do next.

But, I was passionate about strength training, CrossFit and Paleo eating and living. And I was also passionate about writing.

Besides that, I’ve always felt that strong was the way to be – for women AND men…

I started blogging that summer with the crazy notion that I was going to make a living at it and write a Paleo Diet book besides. Everyone I knew thought I was out of my mind and needed to be “more realistic” and think about getting a “real job.”

Even crazier than thinking I would make a living at blogging was thinking that somehow my writing and work would “make a difference.”

I started this blog and spent that summer writing and Facebooking like crazy.

And, everyone thought I was nuts for spending so much time on Facebook. “Facebook is stupid!” “I don’t care what someone is having for lunch!” “It’s a waste of time!”

And CrossFit…

I had sold my CrossFit Affiliate earlier that year. But I was still training and most of my friends were CrossFitters. And, CrossFitters love Facebook…

So, many of my Facebook friends were CrossFitters. The CrossFit community was SMALL back then. A lot smaller than now. We’d basically friend request anyone with a profile picture that included anything CrossFit or Kettlebells.

Somewhere toward the end of the summer, I was inspired by a pic my friend Marsha posted of a shirt she made on Spreadshirt.

“Strong is the New Skinny, huh? That’s sort of cool. I bet there’s a blog post in that somewhere…”

There WAS one in there “somewhere…”

It took a few weeks before it came together in my head though. It came together after a run one morning and “Is Strong the New Skinny?” was written. I posted it and thought nothing more of it – I’d been “blogging for no one” most of that time. No reason to think that post would be different.

But it was…

Stacie Tovar

Going Viral…

Over the next few weeks I saw that post pass by in my Facebook feed here and there. I thought, “Cool – someone shared my post…” Then I started seeing it pass by more and more. And more. And more.

In its first two months on the web, “Is Strong the New Skinny?” was read and shared like crazy. Today, it has almost 25,000 views and over 7,900 shares. Wow.

It went “viral” as they say…

And, “Strong is the New Skinny” the Facebook group was born…

100,000 Middle Fingers at Stereotypes

I gave stereotypes the finger when I wrote “Is Strong the New Skinny?“ That summer I was into giving pretty much EVERYONE and EVERYTHING the finger. If it was status quo and mainstream, I was pissed off at it. That post was angry and ranty – and not even very well written now that I look back on it…

But there was raw passion and emotion in that post and I think that’s why it resonated with so many people.

Strong Keeps Getting Stronger…

I say “Strong Keeps Getting Stronger” because that’s exactly what’s happening here.

In 2009, “The Paleo Diet” had about 20,000 monthly Google searches. In 2010 when I started blogging seriously, it had about 80,000 monthly searches. Today it has over 600,000 monthly searches.

And, CrossFit is on ESPN. ESPN. And all the major fitness magazines – the ones that either dismissed CrossFit as a dangerous fad or just didn’t mention it at all – now have special CrossFit sections and features every issue. All of them.

I mention Paleo and CrossFit because both of those communities supported and were supported by Strong is the New Skinny (or SINS) on Facebook in the early days. I see this all as the rise of intelligence in training, eating and role models and stereotypes.

Adam Farrah and Carrie - Strong is the New Skinny

Me and my awesome friend Carrie Chase at CrossFit Relentless in West Hartford, CT.

The world is changing rapidly and dramatically and thinking about eating, training, health and what a “fit” or “attractive” body is for a male or a female is changing right along with it.

Strong is Everywhere…

Here’s a video from CrossFit HQ called “Beauty in Strength.” It’s from September 2012. Not gonna say Strong is the New Skinny is what inspired it… But I won’t say we didn’t…

This is a great video of Christmas Abbott that’s made it’s way around the web. Nothing skinny about her…

And this is a post on TheAthleticBuild.com featuring the 20 best bodies in CrossFit – 10 male and 10 female. Not a skinny body in sight…

http://theathleticbuild.com/the-top-20-fittest-bodies-of-crossfit/

Gabe Subry OHS

Julie Foucher

And the guys aren’t left out either. Here are my thoughts from a while back on men and changing male stereotypes: “Body Image, Food Addiction and I’m Not Good Enough.”

The CrossFit and Paleo Connection…

Most of my best CrossFit and Paleo friends were made on SINS. And, my friends from the CrossFit Relentless family of gyms here in Connecticut were all around in the early days. They bought a lot of the first shirts and shared a lot of our early posts.

Through SINS I’ve heard from a lot of women who changed the direction of their lives with CrossFit, Paleo eating and the embracing of a strong and athletic ideal over a “skinny” one. Some of these women confided that they’d struggled with bulimia or another eating disorder.

Combine the “strong” ideal with CrossFit and Paleo and lives are shaped and changed.

A difference IS being made.

Strong is What You Build…

In the post “Strong is What You Build” I discussed at length the deeper meaning behind strong and building it. To me, strong is something you build over time. It’s about work and achievement and building character.

Strong is about self-definition. Deciding who you want to be and doing it and being it.

And strong women are becoming more and more mainstream…

I walked by Victoria’s Secret at the mall the other day. Here’s what was in the window. A workout top on a model with muscle. Mainstream. That’s an actual deltoid muscle!

Strong, muscular women are becoming more and more mainstream every day…

Now, I know she’s not going to deadlift 405lbs or rock a sub-4 minute Fran, but she’s got muscle and she’s showing it off. This wasn’t happening even a few years ago! It’s a Victoria’s Secret model!

YUP! That’s an actual shoulder muscle on a Victoria’s Secret Model…

And, on this same trip to the mall there was an Athleta store going in – right across from VS. That’s the first one in Connecticut. An entire store devoted to workout clothes for women. You can bet that a big company like Athleta has done their homework and knows it’s a growing niche. Corporations don’t gamble on stuff like that and they don’t build a new store in a new state if a market isn’t expected to grow dramatically. Especially in this economy.

In “Is Strong the New Skinny?” I actually said:

“I wanna see a girl with some muscles in the Victoria’s Secret catalog in the next few years. What do YOU think? If you agree, pass this blog post around and get busy!”

(BTW, I was actually attacked by a few feminist bloggers over that statement… Sigh…)

Lo and behold, a woman with muscles in the Victoria’s Secret catalog…

SINS Has Been About Learning and Growing…

We’ve all grown and changed in the past few years. I have. Marsha has. The Paleo Community has. CrossFit has. SINS has. You have too.

I’ve seen friendships and relationships come and go. I’ve had my successes – like a book publishing deal, two regular columns in Paleo Magazine and a lot of other great stuff. And I’ve had some pretty significant failures. I have plenty of regrets and things I wish I could do over. I’ve been hurt by people I thought were on my team and I’ve been supported by others who have always been on my team. And new and great people have joined my team and supported me. I’ve seen what’s real and who’s real and who isn’t.

But, “Strong is What You Build” and we’re all building and growing and changing. We’re all learning and we’re learning from each other. That’s the beauty of the community – or the communities that intersected on Facebook to create “Strong is the New Skinny.”

Less than 3 years into its existence, “Strong is the New Skinny” on Facebook has 100,000 followers. 100,000. I still remember when it was 10,000, then 25,000. 50,000 was a huge milestone.

Every single one of you voted with the “Like” button in favor of being strong, strong women, carving your own path and following your passion. It’s huge. HUGE.

Here’s to 150,000 and beyond.

And, A Personal Thank You…

Finally, this is a personal, heartfelt and very emotional thank you – to everyone.

The SINS community changed my life for the better. I’ve “met” and talked with hundreds of you. I’ve even met a few of you face to face. (Torrey!)

Me and Torrey at BOE 2011

All the likes and shares and comments and words of encouragement changed me, my writing, my life and even my self-image. All for the better. I’m grateful for all of you and I wouldn’t have missed even ONE of the conversations, messages or comments. The line between an “online” friend and a “real” one has blurred into nonexistence for me.

You’re 100,000 of my closest friends.

ttys

Adam

You Can’t Start Earlier Than NOW…

March 17, 2013 by Adam 17 Comments

Adam Farrah doing a Kettlebell Get Up

“Make Haste Slowly”

-Stuart McRobert in “Beyond Brawn”

It’s a funny thing when you look back on the last year or so of your life and say: “What the fuck was I thinking?”

The last year has been a blur of stress and activity. At least half of that stress was the final “clean up” of my old life which included some legal, financial and real-estate nightmares that needed to be put to rest. They’re done, but the process wasn’t easy.

And I’m still pretty tired from all of it.

Last year was a time when I had to make a mess, stress myself to the max and work my ass off. I had to put my positive goals and passions on hold or slow down on them significantly so I could create a safe and clear place – a foundation – to build those positive goals and passions upon now.

I had to let go of a lot of things this past year. Some were things I wanted to let go of – or couldn’t wait to – and some were things I wanted to keep or would have kept if things could have been different.

An Empty Cup…

There’s that old Zen saying about having to “empty your cup” before you can take in new knowledge. In the same way, my life’s cup is pretty empty now. I’ve made room for all the new, positive and wonderful things I wanted and envisioned for years. And here we are – ready to start.

Start. Fuck.

That’s the downside of spending a few years primarily putting out fires and cleaning up messes. No matter how positive REMOVING those things from your life can be, the end result when they’re gone is a blank slate. A blank slate at best. Back to zero.

I worked hard. And now, I get to start working hard. Fuck.

I get to start training seriously and intensely again. I get to start really focusing on eating and living Paleo 100% again. I get to start working toward making this blog one of the best in the World.

I get to start.

All the working and stressing over practical stuff like houses and moving and paperwork didn’t help my training. It helped create a nice, empty space to START hard training in, but it didn’t leave me better trained today than I was two years ago. If anything, I’m in worse shape today as I write this…

Let the Self-Talk Begin…

This is where I start to wonder why I didn’t do things differently. Train more, have a few less NorCal Margaritas, be Paleo 99% instead of 89% or 79%.

Couldn’t I have handled the last two years better? Couldn’t I have moved a little more? Couldn’t I have been a little more graceful and composed under pressure. Couldn’t I have done better?

I could have made better decisions.

If I really let this spin I can get furious. Furious about the time I wasted. Furious that I’m not someplace other than where I am right now. Furious about all the things I did and all the things I didn’t do or could have done differently. Furious about all the sacrifices I made that were either in service of someone else’s needs or just plain bad judgement on my part.

I could be someplace better.

Now Is All There Is…

I’m a huge fan of Eckhart Tolle’s book “The Power of Now.” That book changed my life back in 2010 and was actually the catalyst for this whole journey – the blog, the book, the move back to Old Saybrook, the daily meditation and yoga. It inspired me to follow my passions and live to be happy NOW. Not at some imaginary end-point in a future now. Now.

“The Power of Now” convinced me to live in the present and experience happy feelings there. It taught me to do what I love now – as opposed to suffering in the present to create a happy future that might never materialize.

That’s always an imaginary future.

All we ever truly have is now. We take action now, we’re happy now or we’re miserable now. Anything can only happen now.

Again today, the message of “The Power of Now” rings true for me: Stop resisting what is.

This is where I am and, for better or worse, the decisions I made brought me here. I could have made better decisions, but I made my decisions with the best information and judgement I had available at the time.

I did the best I could – as poor as that might have been at times.

But, now is all there is. Nothing I can do will change one single thing about the past. The only way possible is forward.

My life at this moment is all there is. I can relive the past in my head as often as I want. I can fantasize about an imaginary or ideal future all I want. I can wish and demand things be different.

They are not different and they won’t be different. Ever.

Some days at CrossFit Ironworks I have the slowest time on the board. Sometimes a few of the supermoms are training with more weight than I am.

And, yes, this is massively frustrating to me.

But this is where my life is at this moment. No amount of resisting what is or anger with myself or mental masturbation will change any of it. In fact, doing anything other than accepting where I am at this moment – the good, the bad and the ugly – will only delay getting to the better place I want to get to.

Start Where You Are…

Everything worth doing takes time. I never truly realized this before – as silly as that sounds.

You can’t become fit in a week. You can’t loose 50lbs in a month. You can’t get healthy and reverse a lifetime of inactivity and bad food in a summer. You can’t build a social circle in an evening. You can’t build a successful blog in a day. You can’t write a book in a week.

You just can’t.

It’s not even that most anything is that hard to do. What’s hard is making the decisions every single day to do the easy things that lead you to your ultimate goals – over time.

No matter how much time you’ve wasted in your life the only thing you can do is decide – right now – not to waste any more.

“I’ll be back baby, I just gotta beat this clock
Fuck this clock, I’ma make ‘em eat this watch
Don’t believe me watch, I’ma win this race
And I’ma come back and rub my shit in your face, Bitch.
I found my niche, you gonna hear my voice
‘Til you sick of it, you ain’t gonna have a choice…”

-Eminem

Just Start…

If nothing else, this time of working to get “back to zero” has made me a much better coach. I can now deeply understand what it feels like to not be where you want to be in some areas of your life and not be able to get there in an instant.

True success is built slowly, one little bit at a time. The little successes and good decisions add up over time. I’ve seen it in my own life and I’ve seen it in those I’ve coached.

The only starting point you have is now, though.

Decide where you want to go and then get moving.

Just start. Don’t wait. Start. No matter how small a start. Start.

Get to work.

ttys

Adam

P.S – I wrote a post a few years ago that complements this one pretty well. Here it is: Is it Time for An Intervention?

Taking This Paleo Life Seriously…

February 11, 2013 by Adam 15 Comments

man alone in cave

Sooner or later, I think the quest for good health removes us from mainstream society. Not all at once, but slowly.

Each individual needs to decide how far he or she wants to take this, of course, but my path seems to be moving me more and more toward the “fringe.”

I’ve said in the past that my goal was to be a “Fringe Wacko.” Apparently, that’s becoming more and more of a reality.

“One can be instructed in society, one is inspired in solitude.”

-Goethe

In my Paleo Lifestyle column for this most recent issue of Paleo Magazine (Feb/March 2013), I said:

“It takes time to build a life that’s different from the one you used to live and different from most of the people around you. Living in a way that’s contrary to the culture at large – and counter to a lifetime of conditioning – isn’t always easy.”

This is even more true for me now than it was when I wrote it a few months ago. Virtually nothing in my life is following any kind of “normal” path. But, isn’t that a good thing?

I mean, if you live like everyone else, you’ll have a life like everyone else. Beyond that, every single human being here on Earth has a different experience of life. What works for one person – or even many – won’t necessarily work for others.

Even within the Paleo community, there’s a wide variety of personality types, diets, training habits, depth of implementation, etc.

Social Conditioning…

All of us are socially conditioned. It’s a fact of living in a modern marketing and media-dominated society. Some of us are more socially conditioned than others – and some of us in more negative ways – but there’s no denying that we’re all plugged into The Matrix to one degree or another.

I’ve struggled with this more than most I think – I was home schooled since second grade.

Because I missed out on a lot of social conditioning to begin with, I never really fit in. Difficult as a kid for sure, but now I see that I’m more comfortable than most living in my own reality and challenging social norms.

Where most people have a limit or a “set point” as far as how far outside of “normal” society they’ll go, I’m not really sure I do. If I do, I just haven’t found it yet.

Leaving the “Noise” Behind…

house in snow

Maybe it’s just because I’m snowed in here in my little beach cottage in Connecticut after a blizzard, but I’m finding myself more and more happy alone, in silence and working.

“In the end, it didn’t matter. That year made me a pro. It gave me, for the first time in my life, an uninterrupted stretch of month after month that was mine alone, that nobody knew about but me, when I was truly productive, truly facing my demons and truly working my shit.”

-Steven Pressfield

I promised myself this would be the year for big training and health progress, big writing progress and a quieter, more stress-free life overall. This past year – 2012 – I wasted a lot of time on things that were important to someone else and not important to me. I can’t ever have that time back. I can’t ever know what I might have created in that time or what positive impact a different use of that time might have had on my health.

I won’t make that mistake again. 2013 is my year to make the progress that matters to me.

The more focused on this I get, the more the noisy, useless, fake people fall away. As the clutter clears from my life, I’m finding that I have more and more time to invest in the positive relationships and projects of my life.

The Hermit…

the hermit tarot card

I’ve always been creative and introverted. It’s quite appropriate that my Tarot Soul Card is “The Hermit.” The card represents, among other things, the seeking of wisdom from within. It’s the archetype of the “Wise Old Man” and the lantern represents illumination, insight or discovery.

Blame it on being home schooled since second grade, but I need solitude to write and create and be who I truly am.

Lots of it.

This isn’t always easy for people who get close to me to understand.

When I’m running around “doing stuff” I stop being a writer. Writers write and they tend to do it alone in a quiet, comfortable space. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never bumped in to Stephen King at Starbucks. I recently read his autobiography and, lo and behold, he has a quiet space in his house in Maine where he writes.

Every. Day.

He didn’t say anything about Starbucks…

Solitude…

“Without great solitude no serious work is possible.”

-Picasso

“The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone – that is the secret of invention: be alone, that is when ideas are born.”

-Tesla

I think I’m in pretty good company on the solitude thing…

I can’t have it any other way. I thrive in solitude. I thrive when I have plenty of uninterrupted alone time to think and build and create. I thrive in silence and I thrive alone. I thrive when I run on my own internal rhythm and I completely “loose it” when I’m being run by someone else’s needs and demands and schedule.

I guess what I’m saying – and how this applies to Paleo eating and living – is that it might be good for you to stop giving a shit what other people think about you and your choices and your lifestyle. Unless you want a life just like theirs, you shouldn’t be taking the advice of others or yielding to their peer pressure.

If deep and abiding physical solitude isn’t quite your thing, at least find yourself some mental solitude to make sure the agenda you’re following is your own and not someone else’s.

I guarantee there are places in your life – right now – where you can do more of something, less of something, start something or stop something that will improve your life. Make the decision on your own and do it. Never mind what everyone else is doing…

ttys

Adam

It’s Up To You – Are You Ready?

February 9, 2013 by Adam 8 Comments

Kristin Doing a PR Over Head Squat

“…If you had one shot, or one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip?”

-Eminem

Here’s a question for you: Where are you not giving and living 100% in your life right now?

What are you waiting for? Can’t you do better?

Here’s another: Do you have work to do on yourself or in your world that will make your life a better place in 6 months or a year?

Why aren’t you doing it? Whatever reason you have, valid or not, fix it. Now. Go.

And, finally: What can you commit to and start – today – that will make your world a dramatically different place over the course of this new year?

You know what you need to do. It’s no secret to you. Each of us knows where we can be doing better in our lives.

This stuff isn’t easy, though. This blog is all about fitness and training and Paleo eating and healthy living. These topics are – by necessity – about change and growth and making changes in our lives and our habits. Sometimes the changes are difficult and uncomfortable. Very often we learn a lot about ourselves in the process of making the difficult and uncomfortable decisions.

Paleo Diet Seminar at CrossFit Relentless in West Hartford, CT

“Ready When You Are, Bro…”

I’ve returned to CrossFit. I needed to. I needed community and I needed hard training. I needed to be around like-minded people. I needed motivation and support. I needed the energy and passion that comes with CrossFit and I needed a great place to train.

I’ve been friends with Merle Mckenzie from CrossFit Relentless since 2008 – before CrossFit Relentless itself even existed. The Relentless family of gyms is quite a force here in Connecticut. I can’t think of a place I’d rather be training or a CrossFit family I’d rather be a part of.

Now, Merle has a serious “no bullshit” attitude. Those who know him know what I’m talking about. I reached out to Merle because I needed help. I needed help with my training and I needed someone who would push me to do what I said I was going to do. Trust me, you don’t want Merle busting your balls about your lack of training motivation or not doing what you say you’re going to do. Maybe that’s where the “Relentless” name came from…

Now, I KNOW everything I need to train myself to a high level. I have a training and certification resume a mile long. But I wasn’t doing it. My motivation was virtually nonexistent. I was, basically, depressed. I was in a hole and couldn’t get myself out. I was doing great coaching and inspiring others, but I was earning an “F” in self-motivation.

I told Merle I needed help getting my fitness shit back together. His response?

“ready when you are, bro”

Typical Merle. No bullshit. Nothing fancy. No caps or periods either. That one line cut through it all.

It was about me being ready. I had all the resources and support I needed. It was all waiting for me. The question was, was I ready to take the opportunity to do what I said I wanted to do?

Me Push Ups

No more excuses…

All my BIG excuses and distractions excited my life last year and January of this year. I could have laid on the couch for another 6 months sucking my thumb with my stuffed animals, my cuggie and some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, but I wasn’t sure I’d be too excited about myself and my life this summer if I did that.

No one would have necessarily blamed me if I was still depressed and exhausted after the stress of the last two years, but I would have blamed myself. No matter what it took, I was going to get myself out of the mud and get moving again.

“ready when you are, bro”

That was it. It was up to me to decide where I was going to take this…

Choose to Focus on the Positive…

Throughout 2011 and 2012 I did too much waiting and too much living in the future. I blamed myself for – and took responsibility for – the behavior of others way too often. What’s even more sad, is I spent a lot of time accepting others for who they were and how they were showing up in the world while some of these same people criticized me for who I was and how I was showing up.

All that’s over now and I’m working to show up in the world with more strength, courage and integrity.

I WILL show up in the world with more strength, courage and integrity.

It’s time to get serious about building the life I want to live and live it. I think you should do the same if you’re not now.

The lesson I learned over the past few months is that I can live my dreams as soon as I’m ready. Everything I need to live and thrive and be healthy, successful and fulfilled is within me and it’s within the world I’ve created for myself.

I have all I need. It’s within me and it’s within the world and the friendships and relationships I’ve spent the past 5 years creating and nurturing.

It’s not “out there” and it’s not dependent on a specific person or situation being in my life or not being in my life.

My success and happiness is dependent on me. It’s not dependent on what the non-starters of the world choose to think of me or how they choose to act in my life.

Loose the Non-Starters…

I spent the past year putting 80% of my effort into losers, non-starters and dead-end relationships. I was so drained by negativity and bullshit that I was showing up in the GOOD relationships in my life with too little to give.

Worse, I was showing up FOR MYSELF and for MY OWN life with little vigor and too little to give. I gave some of my best away in places where it didn’t matter and wasn’t appreciated.

Live in the Present…

Here’s a hint for you. Live in the present and evaluate your relationships mainly in the present.

Every time I go to one of the Relentless gyms I’m happy to be there, happy I went and I leave having pushed my limits and improved. I feel good in those places and with those people. I’m inspired to improve myself and bring more of myself to the world when I’m there and after I leave.

I’m not “waiting” to feel good “later.” I’m not waiting for it to get better there. It’s good there now.

Don’t wait for things and people to change. Stop making sacrifices. Stop sacrificing your values for others. Stop living your life halfway.

Stop living in the future.

Live now.

If things aren’t flowing in certain parts of your life now, it’s very likely you need to make some changes. They might be difficult and uncomfortable changes, but you probably need to make them.

Sometimes it’s hard to do what’s best for you and what will serve your long-term goals.

But, where will you be in 6 months, a year, two years, five years or a lifetime if you keep doing what you’re doing? Better make a change sooner instead of later…

Make This YOUR Year…

Can you step into your power RIGHT NOW and live the way you want? I bet you can at least start.

I’m going to make this my year. The past two years have been very difficult. A large part of them were spent cleaning up the mess that resulted from my leaving my old life behind so I could live the life I wanted and had envisioned for myself.

I’ve now got a blank canvas to create the life I want on. It took more than two years, but I HAVE that blank canvas now. It’s up to me. Life’s waiting on me now.

“ready when you are, bro”

I’m going to live that life now. I’m going to step into it and live it and make this my year to finally start living. I’m inviting you to do the same with me…

I want to be better. I CAN be better and I WILL be better. I want to bring more of myself to the world. I want the world to be a better place because I’m in it.

I’m ready.

ttys

Adam

Kettlebell Workshop at CrossFit Relentless in West Hartford, CT on 2/23/2013…

January 29, 2013 by Adam 1 Comment

Kettlebell Workshop at CrossFit Relentless in West Hartford, CT on February 23rd, 2013!

Carrie CrossFit Kettlebell Swing

I’m going to be running a Kettlebell Workshop at CrossFit Relentless on February 23, 2013. This workshop will run about 3 hours – from 11am to 2pm – and cover all of the major Kettlebell movements and other fundamental skills, drills and concepts.

My Kettlebell workshops for CrossFitters are specifically designed to make you better at CrossFit. I accomplish this by making a number of small changes to your swing mechanics to make you more efficient as well as showing how Kettlebell training fits into the bigger picture of your training program.

You’ll also learn a bunch of great mobility and training drills that will make ALL of your movements more efficient.

I’ve been teaching Kettlebell Workshops within the CrossFit Relentless family of boxes since 2009 and this workshop will make you a better CrossFitter!

The cost for the workshop is $25 and you can register with PayPal. The movements covered are listed below. See ya there!

ttys

Adam

Here’s and outline of what’s going to be covered:

Foundations

Hip Mobility
Squat Mechanics
The Hardstyle Lock
“Butt Back” Drill
“Jump” Drill

The Swing

Kettlebell Deadlift
Two Handed Swing – Russian
Hardstyle Breathing Pattern
Kettlebell Sport Breathing Pattern
“Weightless” Drill
The CrossFit or American Swing
One Handed Swing
Hand to Hand Switch
Swing with a Band
Waiter’s Catch
Swing Flips
Applying the Swing to Other Lifts and CrossFit Training

The Clean

The Rack
From the Floor
From the Swing
Wall Drills

Kettlebells Overhead

Shoulder in the Socket Drill/Active Shoulders
Strict Press
Jerk
Clean and Jerk
Snatch

The Turkish Get Up

Get Up Mechanics
Shoulder in the Socket Drill/Active Shoulders
The Turkish Get Up
Training Variations
Get Up Sit Up
The Leg Swing
Understanding What the Get Up Tells You About Mobility

Strong Is What You Build…

October 9, 2012 by Adam 5 Comments

Strong is the New Skinny is an idea that spread. And spread. And spread.

We couldn’t have planned it. I don’t think it would have spread if we did plan it. The lack of a plan is what made it so great. It was completely organic.

It’s just over two years ago that Strong is the New Skinny started on Facebook. As I write this, “SINS” has 81,647 “Likes” on the Facebook Page.

Marsha and I had no plan when we started. We still don’t have a plan – other than showing up every day, being authentic and caring about our friends.

An Idea Whose Time Had Come

From Wikipedia

“The term ‘Internet Meme’ refers to a concept that spreads rapidly from person to person via the Internet, largely through Internet-based email, blogs, forums, Imageboards, social networking sites, instant messaging and video streaming sites such as YouTube.”

From Latest in Paleo

“Practical Paleolithic – Selected as Blog of the Week 10/11/2010. A little something for everyone here, and popularizer of the ‘Strong is the New Skinny’ meme.”

How about that? This blog “popularized a meme.”

(If you weren’t around in the very beginning, the post and Marsha’s infamous shirt that started it all is here.)

I never really thought it would last. Usually these internet things come and go, right? Strong is the New Skinny came but it didn’t go. I don’t think it’s ever going to go.

Strong is the New Skinny is a sign of the times and the Digital Revolution we’re living in . It’s about old ideals going away, creating our own ideals and living authentically to our own values.

I believe that’s the true reason Strong is the New Skinny spread the way it did and keeps spreading.

As much as it’s thumbing a collective nose at an unachievable stereotype for beauty and women’s ideals – and some really cool T-shirts – its a lot more.

For me personally, Strong is the New Skinny represents the idea that we all have the opportunity to decide for ourselves what we want for our lives and what standards we’ll live by. We all have a voice now and we don’t need permission from anyone to live our passions and define ourselves.

I spent a lot of my life hoping others would invite me to their party. The world has changed now and none of us have to wait to be invited to anything anymore. Each of us has the power to invite ourselves to whatever we have the passion to create.

Skinny is what you’re born with, strong is what you build.

Skinny is easy. You either win the genetic lottery and have a body that society covets or you abuse your body into the cultural ideal with too much cardio, not enough food and maybe some pills on top of it.

Strong is different though. Strong is about hard work. It’s about showing up day after day, year after year and decade after decade. Strong is about showing up setback after setback.

Strong is about taking control of your life, your health and your body and creating positive change.

You can’t buy strong. You can’t starve yourself into strong. You have to put in the work and the effort and train intelligently. You have to show up every day and do the work.

You don’t get strong without putting in the time and doing the work.

Skinny is something you either have or you don’t. Strong is something you can build if you want it bad enough.

Strong is saying no to taking what they give you and no to what they tell you you can and can’t do.

Strong is saying no to doing what you’re told by a pop culture machine that doesn’t care about you.

Strong not taking what you can get and being thankful you got it.

In broader terms, strong is about those of us who have been told no – regardless of talent, skill or willingness to work – now having the opportunity to decide for ourselves what direction our lives will take.

Strong is Strong is the New Skinny – Tens of thousands of people who clicked “Like” when presented with the idea of deciding for themselves what standard they were going to live by.

ttys

Adam

Feelings are Warnings…

October 6, 2012 by Adam 10 Comments

A Cubicle Farm

It was 2004 and I was having another negative interaction with my boss. I was working for my third failing biotech company in a row, in the failing economy, and I was surrounded by unhappy, negative, unhealthy people.

I needed a raise. I deserved a raise. I was more than a year overdue for a raise. I was underpaid for my position and experience. Again, it was a flat, unapologetic “No.”

His reasoning – this time – for not helping me get paid what I was actually worth? I was “very sick” and the medical insurance the company was giving me actually amounted to a big “raise” because of the doctor and prescription bills I was now accumulating.

He said I really couldn’t afford to rock the boat because I was dependant on the company for the insurance due to my illness.

This was where I first saw the pure evil of the system I had let myself get suckered into. I was sick, exhausted from stress and company politics and living paycheck to paycheck to pay a mortgage. I was also severely depressed and had just been diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis.

The job and the company was making me sick. And then they’re telling me I need them because I’m sick?!?!?!

I was so exhausted I was numb.

I went back and collapsed at my desk and thought: “I’m going to die in this building, at this desk, if I don’t do something.”

There were other warnings too…

Another now-defunct biotech company I worked for was, ironically, right next door to the World Gym that I spent my happiest and most productive training years at. I used to go outside for a breath of fresh air around 10am – stressed and exhausted already – and look over at the gym. Four years ago I’d have been pulling into the gym parking lot around 10am – rested, happy, healthy and ready to kill another workout.

Now I was looking out at that gym and those memories from an exhausted body, from a dysfunctional and abusive corporate hell.

I’d have to go inside before I got too depressed about where I was now. I was in a miserable job. I had a psychotic girlfriend and a dysfunctional relationship. I had a big mortgage on a big, new house that was already falling apart. I was feeling the beginnings of the digestive illness I would later get slammed by.

And I had zero motivation or energy to pursue my passion for physical training.

Negative Feelings are Warnings…

Stress, depression, unhappiness, anxiety. These are all feelings that evolved to warn us of danger. They tell us to get away and get away fast. They make us uncomfortable for a reason.

But the current idea is that we need to “manage” these feelings. We manage them by medicating them away or just “sucking it up” because “that’s life.” Sometimes we go to a therapist who “listens to and validates” us.

But feelings like stress, depression, unhappiness and anxiety are deep, primal reactions and they serve a purpose. So does getting a stomach ache when you eat 20 Milky Way bars. It tells you to avoid doing that again.

Our bodies and emotional systems are highly intelligent and evolved. They know better than our thinking mind does. They aren’t conditioned by pop culture propaganda like our thinking mind.

But the overwhelming message from modern culture is that TV and magazines and doctors and pills and corporations are smart and our bodies and feelings and emotions are dumb.

Xanax: A Love Story New York Magazine Cover

Take the insanity below. The Contributing Editor of New York Magazine wrote a flagship article about how great Xanax is. Then she goes on TV to talk about it.

The message: Our bodies are wrong. Working a high-stress job and living a high-stress life is right. Medicate away the natural reaction of your body and emotions to an artificial modern environment. (I rant long and hard about the article and Xanax here.)

I’m going to propose a different option. Get out and get out now.

If you’re stressed and exhausted you need a new set of options and a new path. If you’re sick, what you’ve been doing and how you’ve been living is obviously not working. If you’re not sick (yet), you’re blessed because our world and modern lifestyles are out of control. What the mainstream considers food, medical care and appropriate exercise is becoming more and more dysfunctional by the day.

Change. Grow, Evolve.

In 2004, I was sick BECAUSE of the stress of my career and the negative and toxic environments I was working in. Just like I’m healthy in 2012 because I learned how to eat and train and live to nurture my body instead of beat it down.

But I “needed” those jobs for the insurance. So I could keep running to doctors and hospitals and having tests and getting prescriptions. The couple of times I ended up in the hospitol the doctors would actually ask me when I needed to be back to work – the goal was to get me well enough to get back to my desk on the job’s schedule and the insurance company’s schedule.

My body’s schedule was never consulted.

Essentially, I was being set up to stay sick. Returning to the environment and lifestyle that made me sick in the first place as soon as my symptoms were temporarily medicated down was only going to keep me sick. I’m not sure this is an actual conspiracy – but I’m not sure it isn’t either.

What’s funny – or tragic – is that, when I finished college in 2000, all I wanted to do is train and write about training online. The world – and my consciousness – wasn’t in a place where that was entirely possible back then. In 2012 I’m doing exactly what I wanted to be doing when I got out of college.

Sometimes it makes me sad or angry that I wasted all those years being miserable and sick when I could have started writing and training again right out of college in 2000. Maybe I needed that time and those experiences to strengthen my resolve to live the way I want to live now. That’s what I tell myself.

Your life, your health and your happiness are too precious to throw away doing things that make you miserable and being around people who make you stressed and sick.

All the Xanax in the world won’t make you feel better if you’re ignoring your soul’s calling and living in stress. Do whatever it takes to get out.

Working against your body, your emotions, your deeper, better judgement and your Soul’s Calling is a dead end.

In 2004, I was looking for a raise. It took me a few more years to stop looking for raises and start looking for the Exit.

ttys

Adam

BTW, You can read my full story here: “My Personal Journey to Paleo.”

Going On A Diet vs. Building A Life…

September 9, 2012 by Adam 27 Comments

Produce Section at Foodworks II in Old Saybrook, CT

The fact that the Paleo diet is getting so popular and well known is a good thing. Sort of. It’s good because people are getting exposed to a very healthy, intelligent diet. With that, they’re also being exposed to things like lifestyle changes, local and organic food, pastured meats and sensible, functional movement. It’s bad though, because – to the casual observer – Paleo can look like just another “diet.” The Paleo diet just gets thrown into the heap with all the other diets. Now there’s ONE MORE “diet” for the casual dieter to try or just read about and wonder if it can work for them to finally “lose weight.”

I’m at the point in my own “Paleo evolution” where the diet part of the Paleo diet isn’t even that interesting to me. I know what to eat and what not to. For me, it’s more about:

Finding better quality, local food and making better connections with those who produce it
Creating habits that make me do what I know I need to without thinking about it or struggling or using “willpower”
Being kind and nurturing to my body
Reducing stress everywhere I possibly can
Building a lifestyle that is fully aligned with my health, training, career and spiritual goals

The above is more involved, more interesting and more important to me than debating whether my ancestors could have eaten bananas in February or whether my morning smoothie is actually Paleo since it requires an electrical device to prepare.

It’s All in Your Habits…

I talked about how “cerebral” we like to be in an article for Paleo Magazine recently. There are a few reasons we’re like this, but I think a major factor here is that thinking about stuff is a lot easier than doing it.

It’s easier to spend two hours debating about a minor diet topic on Facebook or Paleo Hacks – with other people who are sitting at their computers too – than it is to implement change and start setting yourself up into a long term habit pattern that will get you where you want to go.

It’s hard to break out of your current, less healthy, habits and routine and do the uncomfortable work of building a new routine that puts you on track to be better than you are today in 6 months or a year or two years or more. It’s a lot easier to put off your changes until you “have more information” or “are completely sure this is the One True Path.”

My New Habit…

Most everyone who reads my stuff knows that I’m big on yoga and mediation. Overall, I’ve been quite consistent with both since I started back around 2007. “Overall” doesn’t mean day in and day out though. Since I tend to run out of steam for writing and working on the computer around 3pm or so anyway, I’ve decided to implement a DAILY habit of yoga followed by meditation at 4pm EVERY DAY. This is a time that I can pretty much guarantee I’ll be home and it’s a good bet that whatever writing and computer work I’m doing will be done – or I’ll be too tired to do more – by this time.

I’ve become fully convinced that this change will take me to the next level of health and well being – and I’ve even gone so far as to find a meditation teacher to work with weekly.

I’ve seen what habits can do – and some of mine over the past year have led me to mixed results. So, this is my effort to very consciously start laying in new habits that will take me where I want to go over the next year or two and more…

You Have to Change Your Life…

Whatever it is that you’re struggling with health-wise – be it overweight, depression, anxiety, digestive illness, limited athletic performance, inflexibility, back pain, etc. – the issue is the CUMULATIVE effect of all your life choices, your habits and even your thoughts large AND small. In fact, the small behaviors are very often more important than the big ones. The small ones are the ones you don’t really notice and they’re the ones that can silently add up to big results – good OR bad.

Crash Diets and Good Habits…

In a recent post from Seth Godin – Crash Diets and Good Habits – Seth talks about exactly what I’m talking about here:

“The reason [crash diets] don’t work has nothing to do with what’s on the list of things to be done (or consumed). No, the reason they don’t work is that they don’t change habits, and habits are where our lives and careers and bodies are made.”

- Seth Godin

Challenge Yourself…

If you’re reading this blog then you very likely know (or are reasonably sure) Paleo is the way to go for your health or performance goals – whatever they are. And, if you follow my stuff you know that “Paleo” is a broad and adaptable enough template to deliver for nearly everyone.

Now, ask yourself this:

Is it really more INFORMATION you need to take the next step and create some healthier habits and more fully implement good practices in your diet, training and life? My bet is that you probably KNOW what you need to at least get started. Do you know enough to get started? Would committing to Paleo and doing it 100% every day likely make a positive difference in your life?

Usually, people like to fire back with more questions – “what about my calcium levels,” or “how much fruit should I eat” or “Dr Oz says meat is bad” or – my favorite – “when do I get to ‘cheat’?”

The bottom line is, there are virtually NO negative consequences to adopting a diet of pastured, hormone free meats and organic local vegetables and fruits. There are also virtually NO downsides to slowing your life down a bit, doing some healthy movement and meditation, getting out in nature and turning off the computer earlier.

Do you REALLY need to read another book, spend another five hours arguing with someone online or wait for a doctor or expert to tell you it’s “safe” to do? Even if Paleo wasn’t the “best” approach, could it possibly be SO far off that correcting course would be a massive effort? Do you really need more information to start?

I’m not saying not to pursue more knowledge or information in general – I’m saying not to pursue more information BEFORE YOU START. Just start.

In my case, I know enough about yoga and meditation (though I don’t know a ton) to know that doing it every day will accumulate massive benefits for me and my life – particularly given my particular needs and challenges. And, I know more than enough to get started with a daily habit. I’ll learn the rest as I go over the months and years. I don’t need more information to START…

ttys

Adam

Paleo Strongman Interview – Mike Jenkins…

August 30, 2012 by Adam 7 Comments

It’s a Small Online World…

One of my very favorite things about the hyper-connected, Social Media world we live in is how easily we can connect with others who share our interests and passions. A few months ago I happened to get into a conversation with Strongman Mike Jenkins on Facebook. It turned out he’s PALEO! I had no idea… So, of course, the discussion turned to the Paleo Diet. Because this blog is about all things practical related to Paleo eating and living, I really wanted to do an interview with Mike and see what specific ways he was using Paleo to get stronger and better at his sport.

There are two important points to keep in mind as you read. First off, Mike is HUGE and STRONG. And he’s almost completely Paleo. Paleo can be effective as a strength and mass building diet. Here’s proof. Second, and this is something I’ve talked about all through my book, “The Paleo Dieter’s Missing Link,” and this blog, eating certain non-Paleo foods at certain times for specific reasons is not only highly effective but is required in some cases to get optimal results. Never mind that list of “Paleo/Not Paleo” food you found through Google – REAL results happen when you combine solid theory, knowledge of your body, an open mind and testing, testing, testing. The Paleo Diet is an outstanding diet template. Combine it with personalization and individualization and IT ROCKS!

With that all said, here’s the interview with Mike Jenkins about his implementation of the Paleo Diet!

How long have you been doing Paleo and what was your motivation for going in a Paleo direction?

Since right after my first Pro Arnold in March 2011. I wanted to decrease my bodyfat and “clean up” my diet what was by no means bad before it just was not as pure as something like Paleo.

What benefits have you seen from a Paleo Diet?

At first I was very tired and had to really push myself through training for about a month which I knew would happen, that’s why I chose to do it after a show where I had time to adjust. The first things I noticed was a cleaner feeling body and less water retention. Once I got by the initial energy shortage I had more energy and felt like I could train longer and harder!

How many calories per day do you eat?

I only eat between 4000 and 5000 calories, for someone that is 400 lbs that is not that much.

Strongman Mike Jenkins and CrossFit Coach and Box Owner Merle McKenzie

Above is Mike with my good friend Merle McKenzie. Now, Merle is NOT a small guy! Mike’s sheer size is pretty incredible. Next time someone tells you Paleo isn’t good for building and maintaining mass, link them to THIS!

(BTW, Merle runs and coaches at some of the BEST CrossFit boxes in Connecticut. His latest venture is CrossFit Ironworks in Higganum, CT!)

What does your basic daily menu look like?

Breakfast - 6 eggs 6 whites splash of EVOO, some kind of lean meat or an MHP Protein Shake

Snack - MHP Shake and nut butter or nuts, I’m on a organic sunflower butter kick lately

Lunch - Lean meat, veggies and a sweet potato sometimes brown rice, I know its not Paleo but my body responds to it very well.

Snack - MHP Shake and nuts or nut butter or lean meats and veggie

Pre Workout - MHP Shake

Post Workout – MHP Shake

Dinner - Lean meat, veggies and a sweet potato

Bed time snack - Nuts or nut butter, MHP shake and low sodium cottage cheese. I know its not Paleo but the Casein breaks down slower throughout the night as I sleep

All shakes are made with unsweetened almond milk.

You said you eat some cottage cheese at night. How much do you eat and why?

I usually do just a cup of low sodium 2% for the Casein protein mixed with my MHP shake and good fats from the nuts. 8+ hours is a long time to not have nutrients in your body so I rely on that Casein to slowly digest. With that being said I normally do 2 shakes in the middle of the night as well!

Is your cottage cheese grassed or raw or just from the supermarket?

Just from the super market, its really the only thing I do that was not walking or coming out of the ground at one point and my body reacts well to it so if that is a “cheat” I’ll take it for the results I see.

After your 2012 win at the Arnold, you told Dave Palumbo your win had to do with a “much better diet.” was that Paleo?

That would be it! I felt like I got more out of my training, recovered better and having planned meals takes one more thing out of the preparation equation!

Here’s the video interview after Mike’s 2012 Arnold Win…

Do you have specific cheat days or times of year you aren’t strict on your diet?

I am pretty strict ever since starting which is rare in my sport but I have found something that works so… If I do cheat I will do it when my wife does – she is a NPC Bikini competitor. That makes it very easy to stay on track, the food selection in our house is no fun at all!

How do you eat around your workouts? Pre-workout, post workout, etc?

Just a shake before and after. I try not to eat for 2-3 hours before a workout – whole food that is. I don’t feel well when I train on a full stomach.

Do you go for things like sweet potato or brown rice to keep your carbs up?

I keep sweet potoes in there and sometimes the brown rice. I know its not Paleo, but I needed a change so I tried it for a week once and my body felt great so I go in waves. The things in my diet that aren’t Paleo are there for a reason, trust me – not because I love the taste of cottage cheese. I found things that help fuel my body better and for me its all about performance so I twisted it just a tad and I think it has really helped!

BIG THANK YOU to Mike Jenkins for taking the time out to do this interview! Good luck in your training and competition, Mike! We’ll be watching and cheering you on at WSM 2012 in a few weeks!

ttys

Adam

Surviving in Our Age of Digital Distraction…

July 14, 2012 by Adam 5 Comments

Slaying the Digital Dragon…

No, I’m not getting into computer games. I’m not turning into a World of Warcraft nerd. What I am doing is making a stand against the “non-Paleo-ness” of the modern world. I can’t stand it anymore and I’m leaving the building…

On an evolutionary note, you could think of it this way: Our world has changed dramatically and permanently with the proliferation of digital devices, communication and social media. It will never be like it was and we have no idea what it will be like in 3, 5 or 10 years. If you buy into the whole evolution thing, it makes sense that there will be those of us who learn, grow and adapt to the changing environment and those of us who don’t. We’re talking survival of the fittest and adaptation to environment here – and you can argue that the stakes have never been higher. (For a fascinating look at what the technological revolution and evolution we’re living in means, check out the book “What Technology Wants” by Kevin Kelly.)

The Age of Digital Distraction…

I’ve been losing my mind lately. I’ve been working harder and harder and stressing more and more – and getting less done than ever. Over the past few weeks, I finally got some perspective – thanks to Leo Babauta and Steven Pressfield – and could finally see that my constant “busy-ness” was producing virtually nothing of any real value to me or anyone else.

Worse, I wasn’t really progressing toward my goals and the lifestyle I wanted. And, even worse than that, my physical and emotional health was beginning to backslide just a bit. Not the direction I want things to be going in and definitely the “canary in the coal mine” as far as the future my current actions and habits were creating.

“If you don’t change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?”

- Douglas Adams

I talked a lot about digital distraction and the mess we’re in in my post “You Can’t Have it All – And You Don’t Want It All Anyway…” In that post, I laid out the fallacy we’re sold in the modern world about “having it all” and how we’re trying to have it all and having less and less of what we want the more we try.

My current goal is to have only a very few things that I’m engaged in – but very important, meaningful and compelling things.

I talked in depth about my goals for the coming year in “You Can’t Have it All – And You Wouldn’t Want It All Anyway…” and “Time’s Up! Are You a Professional or an Amateur?” The rest of this post explains the way I’m going to accomplish those goals…

Experiments in (Paleo) Lifestyle Design…

Tim Ferris’ tagline on his blog is: “Experiments in Lifestyle Design.” (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/). What I’m focusing on here are “Experiments in Paleo Lifestyle Design.”

Just like our bodies didn’t evolve to thrive on technologically produced and molested food and hour-long treadmill workouts while watching a TV, our body, mind and spirit didn’t evolve to be inundated by information, requests, emails, tweets, texts and updates 24/7 across multiple digital devices.

Trying to create outstanding health while under this barrage of digital information is likely just as ignorant as trying to build outstanding health while eating McDonald’s or walking on a treadmill and watching a TV…

Intellectual understanding is nice, but nothing really happens until you put things into practice. My blog is Practical Paleolithic after all, so actually making this all work in the real world is important.

Intellectualizing is nice, but mental masturbation can only take you so far – then you have to actually ACT. This is where 99.9% of people miss the boat…

So this is where the “experiments” part of “Experiments in Paleo Lifestyle Design” comes from and it’s where the “practical” in “Practical Paleolithic” comes from.

Here’s what I’m going to do…

I’m going on a serious Social Media and Digital fast. That’s right. A fast. I’m prioritizing my writing and my training. My health and my work come first. The rest comes second or not at all.

(BTW, this absolutely does NOT mean I won’t ever be online again – or that I don’t love and value EVERY SINGLE person who I’m connected to online. It’s just that the constant pointing and clicking and tweeting and chatting is beginning to erode my health and sanity )

Slaying the Email Monster…

I’ll attempt to check my email every day, but that won’t always happen. I’ll check it every other day at a minimum – and I mean ONCE in that period. ONCE…

I’ll reply to the important emails as soon as I can and I’ll que up the others to be responded to as I’m able. That’s it. I’m going to shoot for an hour every day or two for email and THAT’S IT. I’ll have to work on being OK with letting some of them slide.

If you think I’m nuts, think about this:

There was a resent study done by the University of California Irvine and The US Army on the effects of email “vacations” that showed email caused workers to change screens twice as often as those who didn’t have access to email. Those with access to email were in a “steady state of high alert” with constantly elevated heart rates. Those removed from email access for 5 days experienced a more natural and variable heart rate.

Can you say CORTISOL?

And, while you’re at it, think about this:

If your email program checks for new email every 5 minutes – and you haven’t turned off the “new email alert” option – you’re getting interrupted about 96 times in an 8 hour day. That’s NOT including interruptions by text message, Facebook, Twitter, etc. ON TOP of that number.

(Both of the above are from an article in the August 2012 Macworld. There’s a revolution going on currently where highly innovative companies are focusing on seriously minimizing or entirely avoiding email. You can read about what’s going on with this topic in the August 2012 Macworld issue.)

You’re getting beeped and bleeped at by an electronic device a few hundred times a day most likely… How Paleo is THAT?!?!?!?!

While most of this new and expanding thinking about avoiding email is aimed toward improving productivity, my purpose is really toward improving my health, mental state and thinking quality. Yes, I want to become more productive at producing work that matters, but the real aim for me is to improve my health, healing and training. (And,further, I believe that producing more work that matters will improve my health as well…)

Paleo Internet and Social Media – Web 0.0

I’m a huge fan of social media. I love what the social web has done for the world in general and me in particular. But enough is enough.

For quite a while now, I’ve been experiencing worse and worse anxiety, lack of focus and distraction. And I’ve been getting very little of my important life’s purpose-level work done. Yes, I had seen the latest boob-centric hilarity posted by my dear old friend Wild Gorillaman and I’ve seen about 30 of the newest “You Can Do It! Rah! Rah! Rah!” motivational slogan pictures that were circulating this past hour on Facebook, but as for truly important WORK, I was accomplishing very little and seriously spiking my cortisol while I was doing it. Or, not doing it as the case may have been…

It's Not Ectoplasm Red Head Ghostbusters

Where this All Came From…

Last week this all reached a peak when I got up, sat with my fresh-ground organic coffee, did some reading, listened to the birds, felt the sun coming in on the porch… And proceeded to turn on the computer and start checking email and Facebooking and feel my calm focus fade. My heart started beating more rapidly, my thoughts started racing and, next thing I knew, I had 50 browser windows open and an absolute glut of things I just “had to” read and “had to” do and “had to” reply to.

Within about a half an hour, I was stressed, overwhelmed, had added about 80 things to my to-do list for the day, felt hopeless and out of control and had ZERO desire to write and create. Oh, and my stomach had started bothering me…

NO MORE!

I’ll still be on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, but I’ll be sharing my own content a lot more and making more infrequent – but more meaningful – contributions on there. I’ll be engaging in a lot less time wasting.

It’s Not Just Me…

Yeah, I might just be some crazy anomaly. But I’m not. In the past few years there’s been a massive increase in books and programs and blogs and whatever else related to dealing with this incredible digital stimulation and information glut that’s exploding around us.

There’s more opportunity to create and learn and grow and explore and contribute in this new age of ours, but there’s also more opportunity than ever to get buried under an avalanche of to-do lists, irrelevant nonsense and requests for your time and attention that you could never, ever complete no matter what you did.

Taking a New Path…

My personal approach is going to be dual approach. On the one hand, I’ll practice “selective ignorance” as Tim Ferris calls it in “The Four Hour Work Week” and I’ll work to focus on the absolute minimum of things. But those things will be those that are the most important – as Leo Babauta talks about in “The Power of Less.”

At the same time, I’ll leverage technology and use “systems and software” as advocated by guys like David Allen (“Getting Things Done”), Michael Linenberger (Master Your Workday Now!) and David Sparks (macsparky.com).

What I WON’T do – anymore – is point and click and stress and check and tweet and run in circles endlessly like a douchebag and get almost nothing done after 12 hours on the computer. Those days are now over.

My goal is that all my online friends will see more focused, meaningful, relevant and ground-breaking new work from me. That alone will make me happier. And the lower stress lifestyle I’m experimenting with will likely help as well.

Stay tuned. There’s some cool new stuff coming!

ttys

Adam

Bonus…

Here’s a really funny post about how silly us Paleo types are at times…

“A Day in The Life of a Paleo Warrior!”

Bonus Number 2…

If the stuff I’m talking about in this post are interesting to you and you’d like to pursue more on them, here are the books I’d highly recommend you check out:

“The Power of Less” – Leo Babauta

“The Four Hour Work Week” – Tim Ferriss

“Getting Things Done” – David Allen

“Control Your Workday Now” – Michael Linenberger

David Sparks’ Screencast Series on the Omnifocus software

“The War of Art” – Steven Pressfield

“Turning Pro” – Steven Pressfield

About Adam

Strong is STILL the New Skinny…

Stumbling Into Meaning and My Life’s Path…

And CrossFit…

Going Viral…

100,000 Middle Fingers at Stereotypes

Strong Keeps Getting Stronger…

Strong is Everywhere…

The CrossFit and Paleo Connection…

Strong is What You Build…

And strong women are becoming more and more mainstream…

SINS Has Been About Learning and Growing…

And, A Personal Thank You…

Other Posts You'll Like:

An Empty Cup…

Let the Self-Talk Begin…

Now Is All There Is…

Start Where You Are…

Just Start…

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Social Conditioning…

Leaving the “Noise” Behind…

The Hermit…

Solitude…

Other Posts You'll Like:

“Ready When You Are, Bro…”

No more excuses…

Choose to Focus on the Positive…

Loose the Non-Starters…

Live in the Present…

Make This YOUR Year…

Other Posts You'll Like:

Kettlebell Workshop at CrossFit Relentless in West Hartford, CT on February 23rd, 2013!

Here’s and outline of what’s going to be covered:

Foundations

The Swing

The Clean

Kettlebells Overhead

The Turkish Get Up

Other Posts You'll Like:

An Idea Whose Time Had Come

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There were other warnings too…

Negative Feelings are Warnings…

Change. Grow, Evolve.

Other Posts You'll Like:

It’s All in Your Habits…

My New Habit…

You Have to Change Your Life…

Crash Diets and Good Habits…

Challenge Yourself…

Other Posts You'll Like:

It’s a Small Online World…

How long have you been doing Paleo and what was your motivation for going in a Paleo direction?

What benefits have you seen from a Paleo Diet?

How many calories per day do you eat?

What does your basic daily menu look like?

You said you eat some cottage cheese at night. How much do you eat and why?

Is your cottage cheese grassed or raw or just from the supermarket?

After your 2012 win at the Arnold, you told Dave Palumbo your win had to do with a “much better diet.” was that Paleo?

Here’s the video interview after Mike’s 2012 Arnold Win…

Do you have specific cheat days or times of year you aren’t strict on your diet?

How do you eat around your workouts? Pre-workout, post workout, etc?

Do you go for things like sweet potato or brown rice to keep your carbs up?

Other Posts You'll Like:

Slaying the Digital Dragon…

The Age of Digital Distraction…

Experiments in (Paleo) Lifestyle Design…

Here’s what I’m going to do…

Slaying the Email Monster…

Paleo Internet and Social Media – Web 0.0

Where this All Came From…

It’s Not Just Me…

Taking a New Path…

Bonus…

Bonus Number 2…

Other Posts You'll Like:

About Me…

Connect with Adam…

Latest Posts

**Strong is STILL the New Skinny…**