This website?is in its 6th year, and at this point, I can honestly say I don’t really think there is much of a need for any special foods or special diets for most people to heal their metabolism – something I still believe to be the single most significant physiological change a person can undergo (and trumping most trivial matters of nutrition that people are obsessing over in the?age of the internet). Sure, some foods may be better than others, and some approaches more efficient than others, but like I told someone recently over the phone?- “if you were chained to a table at IHOP we could still achieve everything we’re trying to achieve here – so don’t sweat the small details.”? Basically, I started out on this journey thinking it was all very simple, later realized it was all very complex, and have now come full circle to realize that, as complex as things may be, trying to manage it mentally?and eat and live like a normal?member of society is, more often than not, a path to ruin. Certainly not?worth the distraction from life that it can become. I hope to?do a post on this soon.
While nutritional minutiae may be in my rearview mirror,’there is still?a great deal of learning?I?am eager to pursue. The future of my exploration will?be?rooted more?in physiology, biochemistry, endocrinology, and the mind-body connection. And when it comes to many of the basic fundamentals of our biology,?understanding the needs of each and every one of our cells, and honing in on big picture of what is truly of primary physiological importance – there is no question that?Ray Peat and’those who have educated themselves through his?work like?Lita Lee?or Josh Rubin (Peatards, I call them “Joshingly”), possess a lot of valuable?knowledge.
Josh (and his wife and co-conspirator Jeanne)’truly has a remarkable grasp of human anatomy and physiology, with a?background as a?Chek practitioner that broke out of the Chek mold and into something much more advanced. And recently, he has come out with a program called “The Metabolic Blueprint” that I will participating in this spring (as an attendee). For those that are’truly inspired by the topic of human health and want the inside scoop on?how our bodies really work (without?all the BS of?modern?eating crazes like veganism and Paleo), I truly suspect that this program will be extremely worthwhile – it would seem almost mandatory?for anyone pursuing?Nutrition, Dietetics,?Alternative Medicine,?and related fields as a career.
Anyway, this is just something I wanted to share with you guys. As always, I am not endorsing this or anything else for any financial gain. I receive no compensation from anything I write about outside of this site. I just happen to think that Josh is a really intelligent guy that I can learn a great deal from, and that his level of integrity as a fellow health researcher is very high. I hope to write about the whole experience as I go through it, for those of you unable to participate.
You can read about the program HERE. Below is a small preview.
Good Article!
Meant to say I liked this quote the best “Basically, I started out on this journey thinking it was all very simple, later realized it was all very complex, and have now come full circle to realize that, as complex as things may be, trying to manage it mentally and eat and live like a normal member of society is, more often than not, a path to ruin. ”
I think it is great you are sharing your journey with us. You have opened my eyes and understanding to many things that have happened to me physically last year and it is because of you I understand the “why”. Thanks for all you do!
Yes! I’m very much looking forward to reading about your new research… I’ve been getting the east/west newsletter, and have been wondering about the Metabolic Blueprint stuff. Looking forward to the endocrinology and mind/body stuff, too…
Hey Matt,
I am new to this whole way of thinking after some crazy time on GAPS. Just spent three months being freezing cold and grumpy. I am a teen (almost 15) and used to be way into “nutrition”. Cheerios = death and Grass fed=good. Well, now after reading all this and the Diet Recover I am confused in a good way! I have high cholesterol, 270, and history of thyroid issues on the female side. I am sick of worrying about what to eat, packing my own food, etc… and am definitely ready to be free from food prison. I read Diet Recovery but combined with your latest blog posts, what would you recommend to do? I really want to get my metabolism up… I took my BBT with a thermometer a few days ago and it was around 97.6 during my period. (if that makes a difference) One last thing.. I was on Accutane (isoretin high vit A for acne) for a few weeks then got pulled off for high liver enzymes and may go back on. So I can’t do anything really crazy that make my numbers go any worse- according to conventional medicine.
Oh, and if there is a better spot to post this please let me know. I am just desperate to figure this all out! Homemade pizza, french toast, pancakes, and ice cream over the weekend. Starting to get worried I am going insane. OR going to way balloon up from doing it wrong. Any help would be awesome!
Hope to post a lil’ somethin’ special about GAPS soon. You should be fine. You might baloon up a little at first, but you’re 15. You should bounce back like a Boss. And by your late teenage years you’ll probably look and feel way better than you would have if you had not sucked it up and gone through the process of just getting back to normalcy in a flash.
Sierra Mountain Girl, you really need to meet our other Teen, Eric Callahan. He can teach you a thing or two about Eating The Food. And he has a Master degree in Drinking The Soda.
:-)
Good for you getting out of the GAP you feel into.
:-)
the hag
I’m not Matt (shorter, softer, higher pitched voice.) but I was an obese teen. I’m still working on the obese issue however over the past couple of years I have come down to under 200 and stayed there for over 3 years. In terms of body temp, for me getting enough omega 3 fatty acids from salmon or a safe oil supplement (be careful!) really does help. I have had a lot of success with tapering my meals/calories/and carbs throughout the day. I eat my biggest meal first thing after my cardio workout. Some people would find that too hard or it might bring down their body temperature, you can have a snack if you want to. Yoga has really helped with my body temperature, if I’m doing any kind of rapid breath of fire technique or inverted (possibly not what you want to start with, its tough on the wrists to be obese and do a plank.) I will feel hot very quickly, they call it a fiery ‘kriya’ or position. Coconut oil in the am with my toast or a pancake really works to help me be toasty. I am especially fond of a piece of toast soaked in coconut oil, salted, and topped with a little bit of beef. I also like to drink organic milk, some people don’t do well with it, some people do. It depends on the person. I don’t do well with protein powders, go figure. I wake up warm and toasty. If I have had too much coconut oil I will be too hot to sleep.
Anywhoo, so, in short, fish or fish oil, coconut oil, tapered meals, and eat a ton. I know it will seem counter intuitive. Oh, and some people get fat off nuts (I do). If you do too much cardio or eat too little fat or eat too little calories you will get cold. Once upon a time I did a 400 calorie, 4 meal/day diet for 4 months, and I was freezing, hungry, and grouchy. I didn’t budge a pound. I was eating completely clean. Now, I eat ice cream, hot dogs, eggs, veggies, fruit (I love cuties.) steak sandwiches w/avocado, and I’m starting to come down again.
I hope that helps,
Alisha
kriya is an involuntary energy rush that can make you do all kinds of movements or vocalizations.
a “position” in yoga is called an asana, with the emphasis on the first syllable.
Here I am Debbie. Ask and ye shall receive. Say the word. Whatever. How do you guys like my name? I thought it was fitting.
I will yield to what Matt said. He knows more than I do. You’ll be fine. After attempting WAP and low carb I felt like crying after eating a slice of bread. Now I gorge on pie and soda and all that wonderful funderful deliciousness. Once you get the metabolism going full speed ahead that extra cholesterol will convert to the good things and you will start feeling “rip tree stumps out of the ground all day” awesome. like me.
Did you hear that Sierramtngirl? Gluten_Fiend knows what he is talking about. He does all sorts of backwoods stuff. With his bare hands. And he is under 18. Awe inspiring dude.
Gluten Fiend also likes chicks. But needs practice. Better hurry before he turns 18!!!
Gluten fiend (the one without the underscore and the lower case f) is a total lady killer. Pretty much why I took this name. One day, perhaps…
Awesome! Not sure how to get this comment thing down… but thanks for the info/encouragement. Oh, and the woods stuff- cool! Just got my hunter’s license, even more energy to go with it would be sweet. Couple questions for whomever,
1. Can you RRARF with exercising? No crazy treadmill cardio, but functional fitness 2x/week and restarting swimming after a year 3x a week. I do like it, if that counts. Plus a much happier person afterwards :)
2. What about eating late? With our family and night activities we eat at 8pm ish. Should I try to taper that meal smaller?
You guys are great! Thank you for all the help!
Hey Sierra… At your age you can probably do some exercise like that and still recover very well. As for eating late, I recommend eating more when you are cold and less when you are already hot. For most people this equates to eating more during the first half of the day and less during the 2nd half of the day. But if you feel chilly when you go to bed, suffer from nightmares or wet the bed as a kid, etc. – you may actually do much better eating quite a bit at dinner and even putting away an ice cream sandwich before bed.
Matt, That makes sense. Thanks! Ate a big dinner last night with plenty of bread and slept awful since I was so toasty, so I will definitely tinker with that meal.
@ Matt Thank you! Just need a little encouragement that it will be worth it to take the jump. :) Can’t beat a sandwich with bananas after blended broccoli soup!
@ the hag Neat that another teen is around here! Funny thing is I have loathed soda forever. Makes my throat burn… But pizza or ice cream? Definitely can do that.
@ Alisha Thanks for all the tips! I love coconut oil and will try it in the a.m. I am not even overweight, and come from a family where fitness is way more important that body shape but somehow managed to get my brain all tweaked out, though it is getting better now. On GAPS (for acne) I lost somewhere along 15lbs but bet a lot of it was muscle. No coincidence that once I started to actually eat again I started getting more muscle. Not to mention that my sister and brother said I was a stressed out grump…. like one quote I saw around here- not sure if I am this happy with you or it is just the pancakes I ate! :)
Then definitely eat tons of happy coconutty pancakes for breakfast!!! They are so nummy with some syrup!
Whoops! Forgot to say THANK YOU SO MUCH! It is so great you are actually studying without an agenda and willing to take a stand to make people better… not stuck to some dogma of X is best.
I watched some more of this guy’s stuff on YouTube, and it seems like this is all fairly simple–once you’ve done the necessary metabolic healing (and temps are where they need to be), then eating a diet with some protein, some veggies, and some fruit is what your body needs to stay healthy and metabolically/hormonally balanced.
Is that pretty fair?
Sort of. There are some huge errors and wild theoretical tangents that come out of the Peat camp. I’m not so interested in the diet portion of it, because I already feel much more confident in the tools I recommend, which also happen to be a lot easier, simpler, tastier, convenient, etc. I’m more interested in all of the interactions between serotonin, thyroid, progesterone, estrogen, prolactin… learning some of the basics of cellular metabolism and fuel oxidation, and other things. I just have a feeling I will learn a lot more from this program, and in a shorter period of time, than by taking other routes. Plus, I’m curious as to what all the program is going to encompass. I don’t want to miss anything that the smartest and best-educated people in this “game” are talking about.
This is awesome – the info couldn’t come soon enough for me. Looking forward to it.
That makes sense to me, and I’m glad there are folks out there who are figuring out how all of those crazy hormonal/metabolic factors play out, because those aren’t the kinds of complicated problems my brain is meant to solve.
I’m pretty much always looking for a prescription in this stuff, and I have to remember that not everything boils down to three sacrosanct commandments and a clear dietary prescription.
That’s awesome to hear Matt. I love and prefer your (less maddening) approach and can’t wait to hear what you walk away with. You’re the shiz!
And your April 1st video was hysterical.
I can’t seem to quite derive the approach. Do I just eat more in the am and less after 2? Yesterday I ate whatever and I woke today with 97.3 temp. That’s good, right? I guess I’ll have to read the book. I’m just trying to see things around the site before I commit to purchasing the book.
99.0 is the goal waking temperature for females during the 2nd half of the cycle. Not everyone should eat less after 2. You should eat the most food when you are naturally coldest. For most people this is during the first half of the day, but that’s not true for everyone. Some people are cold all the time. Starting out on RRARF, I would eat a lot of food all the time.
I ate yesterday when I was cold and woke up today with a 98.1 temp, almost a degree warmer. I’m in the second half of my phase, so I think warmer will work better. I did have a bit of waking last night though. I don’t usually. Hmmm… So I think my plan is to combine intuitive eating with eating when I’m cold. So I’ll eat whenever I’m either cold or hungry. It’s worth a try.
When you say 99.0 should be the goal BBT, what TIME are you talking about? I wake for work at 5:00am and my temp has been around 97.7F, but on the weekend when I “sleep in” until 7:00am it’s around 98.2F. I’m post menopausal so no second half of cycle. Thanks!
98 first thing in the morning or higher is great. 99 is possible for menstruating women, but men and postmenopausal women have a much harder time getting there.
I picked up a book about eating right to get your serotonin levels up. When I saw that women were supposed to consume around 1200-1500 calories I shut the book and returned it to the library. I was no longer interested.
Now if that was 1200-1500 calories per meal, then that would have been a good read! Getting serotonin levels up isn’t necessarily a good thing. Many people already suffer from an excess of serotonin. From what I understand, the best way to get serotonin levels up is to eat something with a very high ratio of carbs to protein (like ice cream and some juice, or baked potato with butter, etc.) right before bed.
I think that that when people say that something boost their serotonin levels they just mean that this”something” just makes them feel good. More often than not increased serotonin means misery. And no, carbs probably do NOT lower serotonin
http://www.functionalps.com/blog/2012/02/15/carbohydrate-lowers-free-tryptophan/
… I meant to say they probably do not RAISE serotonin
Great point Tomas. Thank you.
Hey Matt,
I’m new to all of this, and you throw around a lot of names. Do you think you could do a primer-post on who all of these people are for us newbies and what their theories are? Okay, I know I could just look them up, but I’m lazy…. : )
Since I’ve been reading your site I have to say that I’m extremely confused! For years I’ve been on a path to pursue healthy living. I fail continually and I find it frustrating that nothing is as straightforward as I thought it once was. In the 90s I was a low fat fiend. That was much through high school. I was involved in athletics in high school and college, but I never excelled. At one point my fare consisted mainly fat free potato chips, apples and cereal. I had a crazy coach that told me I was overweight and even went so far as to tell me that some women he had coached got so thin that they didn’t get their periods. Was he trying to give me incentive? This was after I fell over the first hurdle at an indoor track meet at Harvard (I didn’t attend Harvard, I was from a lowly state school :)). Maybe I should have been on the HED. Lol. Either way, I’ve been a Dr. Mercola follower and a Sally Fallon reader as well. I can never quite achieve their standards, but I always thought I believed in it. Do I? I think I do. I’ve also tried Atkins, Weight Watchers, calorie counting, etc, always to fail and “live between diets,” as I like to put it. I’ve even given up and tried just to do intuitive eating. I always quit, though, because I GET FAT! I’m already around a 30 BMI and I don’t want to increase!
I heard this was part 2 of The Primal Blueprint. I’m so excited about this! I loved reading PB with my feet. I’ll have to wear some vibrams this time so I won’t get so many darn paper cuts. Had to shut down the do-Jo a couple days last year because of it :(
This program is by Josh Rubin, no association that I know with paleo/primal and/or Mark Sisson. The name of the program is just a coincidence.
Oh ok :(
I keep getting more and more sucked in every time I get their metabolic blueprint e mail updates ! I can’t help but love the rubins and peat for their contributions. But as you say Matt they have some serious issues to address. Mainly I’m thinking of centering a diet around so many fluids and having a somewhat idealistic view of “starch” that doesn’t seem to fit into the real world of starch eaters. For all the great knowledge they possess I didn’t find it practical to follow a peatatarian diet
In fact I have been thinking so much about how to make a peat philosophy into a eatable diet but I can’t think of anything except to eat potato at every sitting… Nobody in the real world is going to do that
to play devils advocate, there are plenty of people, past & present who eat a protein & a starch each meal. think about it: a fruit or fresh squeezed juice, or milk, some animal protein, a starch and/or steamed vegetables. this seems like the quintessential meal across the board.
So was the FDA/USDA right all along minus the low fat and PUSFA? Square meals?
I have a feeling Peat isn’t so prescriptive as most ‘peatarians’, when addressing individual questions he isn’t very strict. It seems Josh has got a handle on that- it’s not all milk, OJ, sugar syrup and some raw carrots. He mentions optimal foods and foods that aren’t great, but then there are advantages of eating some less good things because maybe it means getting enough carbs or protein overall. I agree 2 quarts of liquid on top of food is too much for a lot of people. With starch he suggests the issue is with undercooked or raw starch. Baked potatoes and other well cooked root veggies, masa, rice, oats should be fine…I am a starchy heavy kind of Peaty eater. He is more loathing of things like carageenan than gluten or starch. I think a good bowel transit time will sort any issues with fermenting starchy and/or fibrous foods. But in my experience very high fibre can be ruinous.
Anyone who doubts the Rubins needs to talk to Lisa Sargese. The Sarge has come SO far in her health in less than a year. She is on Facebook and on youtube. She is someone everyone should pay attention to re: healing the body.
:-)
Hope my icon pic comes back.
Cool Debbie I’m gunna look her up !
Carby Rex
Tell her Deb sent you.. she will allow you to kiss the ring then.. kidding! Her blog is very good and inspiring too. You can also join the Ray Peat Fans group if you like reading a bazillion posts about aspirin, egg shell calcium and OJ FTW. I suggest Danny Roddy for his Peaty Knowledge and he is also very nice.
xo
deb the hag
Thanks! Lol okay il read her blog and get all Peaty on Facebook. I bought hair.like. A fox already so I must be on the right track :)
Is the Metabolic Blueprint similar to the theories about Metabolic Typing,by Dr.D’Adamo? I wonder how one can discover what their Metabolic Blueprint is? (There are some theories that state that one should look to what their grandma (mom’s mother) ate/macronutrients as a child…….Unfortunately I can’t discover that anymore,as they’re all dead:( )
I’ve read the book on Metabolic Typing by William Wolcott and Trish Fahey, and while it’s fascinating, I can’t seem to bring myself to fully embracing it. It is what Dr. Mercola used as a foundation, I believe, for his nutritional typing. In the book, I came out as mixed type, and on Dr. Mercola’s site I came out as Protein type. What do I do with that? And as to eating more sugar, what do I do with that? I feel like crap if I eat pancakes loaded with syrup for breakfast. I crash later with what feels like low blood sugar. I feel good when I eat eggs and sausage. Toast is ok too. I know fat is good. I’m on that bandwagon, but sugar??? When I eat it my tongue gets white. How can that be good?
My concern is that metabolic typing takes someone who doesn’t metabolize carbohydrates very well due to metabolic issues and puts them on a high-protein, low-carb diet, which increases the metabolic issues and makes a person crash even harder when they carbohydrates. I argue that a healthy person shouldn’t crash after eating pancakes and syrup, and a crash after eating such foods is enough for me to almost “diagnose” a person’s problem. If you could get to where you could eat such a meal without the white tongue or the crash, then you would have truly changed your physiology dramatically. So there are multiple ways of examining certain things. I’m playing devil’s advocate more or less, but wanted to keep you open to other possibilities.
Surprised no one has brought up the price tag. While i do believe the Rubins are smart people, i dont think they know it all and i feel like their price points are very high. If you want a personal consult with them i believe it is over $1000.
Not that i really care, i dont feel the need to buy their services, but if it was quite a bit lower, i would be interested in listening.
@Zach….price tag! first off, I can fully understand that some have the money and some don’t. That is what makes the world go around but also motivated people to save for it. In regards to the price tag….each lesson we do a 2hr telesminar, each lesson has a PDF which most run about 40 pages deep, we put in about 40+hrs per lesson to create this and continue to, etc, etc, etc. So when you talk price tag, it is actually pretty cheap. Let me share something with you as I am one to fully learn from my clients, listeners, etc so I can continue to grow….but the first class we had over 65 people, so far this class over 40 people…..and in the first class we got lots of great feedback. We asked everyone about the price and people emailed us their feedback….do you know what over 50% of the people said….”you are undercharging and should be charging more and you are practically giving the program away!” Yes that is exaclty what they said. So on one end I know that money is always going to be an issue, but for what we are putting out we feel it is fair and meeting peoples needs with what they get in the program.
Secondly, just to clarify, based on my education history and what i study presently, the amount of time we put into clients paperwork and working with them, our package is $1200 (not $1000) for 8hrs of time! Not one hr for $1000. As well, we actually give everyone a free consult up front.
Anyway, just wanted to clarify. No issues here with me with that you said, just wanted to clarify your comment on the price and our consulting. If it were priced to high….then we wouldn’t have all these people signing up for the MB program, been in business for over 8yrs and have TONS of clients all over the globe. Must be doing something right. With love my friend and if you have questions, feel free to call me anytime:)
Thats all fine and dandy and you do give a lot of information away for free so there isnt much to complain about. The main problem i have with your pricetag for the Metabolic Blueprint in that (and this is the same for any Peat teacher) is that for the people who genuinely cant afford this, we are left in the dark. This is the number 1 concern with Peats work, people have to piece together a diet. I understand the pricetag on your one on one consultations because that is tailored to each individual, but this is meant to be mass marketed and since the price tag is “for life”, you would think you would want as many people to have access to it as possible. Maybe $600 is not that much money in the grand scheme but as a lump sum or two sums of $325, it might as well be thousands of those of us who dont have jobs or have kids, etc.
You seem like a really good guy with great intentions. You come of a little defensive with your response but that is only natural. Im glad you get good feedback with the people who can afford it but from someone who cant, im just telling you how i feel.
@Zach…not defensive at all just responding to your take/claims. I would love to drive around in a Bentley and own a nice house in SD on the beach….but they are way out of my price range so I am left in the dark. That is what makes the world go around! As well, since 2006 i have had to piece together his work as a lot of people have. Try to look at what I did as a summary of my understanding of his work and maybe somewhat of a gift to you, etc and taking all the piece work out for you. Money is always an issue when it comes to everything in life. But, we can’t blame something or someone for our financial issues. this is not a mass marketing campaign. yes i do want people to take it, but I am not a prostitute and don’t ever give myself away to meet other needs. I give so much away each day on the phone, via email, youtube, facebook, my blog, etc. Yes I choose it and it is part of the game, but it is exhausting. Humans take take take….they don’t know how to receive. Once again i hear ya, not defense here and maybe, as others did, if you called us to maybe chat with us, etc and expressed how much you really wanted to take it, but needed a better payment plan, we could have worked that out for you. anyway, appreciate the conversion as I do see your side of it. But at the same time, this is not an ebook, this is a program that is overloaded with information, etc and I have to compensate myself for that. If we got minimal signups, maybe I would reconsider the price. But at this piont with the feedback we are getting and all the signups, that is not in the cards. Would love to have you be a part of it in the future if possible.
thanks Josh for the apt response. I woulda responded if you didn’t but i’m sure your response is much more meaningful. I think people should look into Austrian Economics more and the free market. I liked Josh’s logic- that people can always cry themselves a river and ask for more no matter what they’re current income. We all need to learn to appreciate more of what we already have which when you think about it should actually be a lot. If the poor were able to access everything the richer had, then what’s the incentive for trying to work hard to earn more? I’ve made less than 7k this year and less than 30k in the past 3 years and I’m at a better mental state than most people I know.
?if you were chained to a table at IHOP we could still achieve everything we’re trying to achieve here ? so don’t sweat the small details.
You said that to me!! LOL
I’ll look into that program…sounds interesting…
The first person I said that too was a guy named Mo out in California. But it was worth repeating!!
Awesome Matt! Thanks for always staying open to trying/learning new things. We all benefit from your education :) The Rubins are some good peeps
I think being open to trying/learning new things is more of an addiction than anything, but sure, I’ll check it out. I already know a great deal of the Peat-inspired stuff behind it, but repetition is the key to understanding where Peat is fully coming from.
I always enjoy watching Josh’s Youtube videos, because by the end my head is spinning with the implications of whatever topic he’s talking about. I like that he’s not a full-on Peat disciple, and that he uses Peat’s info in real-world applications with actual humans. After all, theory can only go so far, and the body isn’t a petri dish.
Quick question if you have time, or maybe you can lob this one at Josh. Can blood type have any real-world effect on digestion or metabolism?
I just found out that my blood type is the rarest around, AB negative. I never really thought the blood type diet gave very sound recommendations, but I do wonder if some of my more…unique reactions to certain chemicals and foods could be somehow tied into my very minority blood type.
For example, I can smell chemicals that other people can’t, and certain chemicals give me a reaction that others don’t get. The most classic example was as a child in the 80s, the interior of certain cars and trucks had a powerful chemical smell that nobody but me could detect. The smell would make me nauseous, but wouldn’t effect anyone else. They couldn’t even smell it.
Some types of junk foods, like PUFA fried GMO corn chips at mexican restaurants make my skin itch. I can smell chemicals in shampoo, and the list goes on and on.
As much as I want to totally reject any notions of blood type dietary restrictions, I do wonder if there is some validity to the concept, even if the book written about it came to some wrong conclusions.
Or you’re a mutant.
Clearly a better option.
i’m blood type B+ and i am the same way. the “new car smell” is chlorinated hydrocarbon outgassing. Poison. Same deal with new carpet. and all kinds of wonderful “better living thru chemistry” additions to our environment since WWII. In addition, a reaction to these can indicate liver weakness. Which can be helped by RBTI – remineralizing your body so it is stronger.
Didn’t know where else to post this, but this comment by Julia Gumm on Facebook needed to be repeated somewhere….
“You know how people are always like “why does everything that’s BAD for you taste so GOOD?!” as if it’s some sick joke perpetrated on us by a higher power to test our mettle? Because what’s really good for us is actually tree bark and bitter leaves? Because our bodies are too stupid and flawed to know what’s actually any good for it? That has always irritated the shit out of me because by the time I was like, seven I understood that we crave sugar and fat because they’re nutritional treasure troves, and that our bodies react with glee upon sampling ice cream and muffins because it’s like, jackpot! You know what else I hate? When people post all these stupid memes all over their facebook profiles about how calories are evil. You know, like tonight someone posted something about calories being evil little gnomes that steal into your closet and sew your clothes tighter. Or something to that effect. People actually think a calorie is a bad thing, a calorie is to be avoided, a unit of fucking energy is a no no. I don’t think most people actually get what a calorie is, I think they’ve just heard it so often in the context of weight loss that they’ve come to balk at the word without getting what it means, sort of like American school children during the cold war and the word “communism.” I don’t know if you or anyone here cares what I think, but this seems like a sympathetic venue to blow off this kind of steam!”
Right on! Matt, both you and Chief have taught me not to fear the calorie. There was a sad, sad time not long ago when I weighed everything I ate and felt like I was in a prison. Now I eat what without any regard to calories and I see no difference. Sweet!
You’re really stroking my ego with these reposts. Maybe I’ll start my own blog!
Based in the small slice of video….it sounds like 180 +Peat. What else does he have to offer? I’m eager to find out.
Also, Paul Chek is a major retard (who was born with a freakin’ muscle bound body and a kooky sounding voice)
Born with a muscle-bound body? Come on man. If you scroll down to the photo of him at 12 you might think otherwise :) http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_interviews/deconstructing_paul_chek;jsessionid=33E84BBE18543826F79FBA1F5CADF56D-mcd02.hydra
Who is Paul Chek, what is a Chek Practitioner and why is the fact that Josh Rubin was a Chek Practitioner a good thing?
Chek is a super-muscley Swedish dude who popularized those big inflatable balls people do sit-ups on in the gym (which is a horrible exercise – really bad for the back). But he’s not a total loon either. He understands the relationships between good digestion and health and fitness; he sees the body as a unit, and not a collection of symptoms like Doctors do.
Being a “Chek practitioner” means you started in a good place. Moving beyond it means you learned something.
1) Some ripped new agey douche – but he knows quite a bit about how the body works mechanically http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_interviews/deconstructing_paul_chek;jsessionid=33E84BBE18543826F79FBA1F5CADF56D-mcd02.hydra
2) Somebody who has studied at Chek’s “institute”
3) It shows that he has a good knowledge base, and is also impressive that Josh went on to bigger and better things
Decided to “chek:” out Chek’s site (sorry for that!). Once I got to this section I left…quickly…
“Can you feel the chi moving through the soil when you stand on the grass? Can you communicate with plants and trees? Can feel the energy fields on human beings and animals? Can you feel a bird fly by or can you only see it? “
maybe someday you’ll give it a whirl
take the time to smell the roses
and walk on wet grass (that hasn’t been dosed with chemicals)
and hug a tree – and feel it hug you back
and sit at the base with your back up against it
and yes, feel the chi going up your back
luv, from a nor cal tree hugger!
The only thing I’ll be feeling running up (well, down) my back doing that is sap…and a hard to clean shirt. Unless I cut the tree down, then no sap problem…HAHA.
Too bad Josh Rubin seems fat with a puffy face, constant nose wiping sinus issue, thinning hair – hardly the picture of health. He has that eating between meals look to keep the “blood sugar up” I had when I did that.
I think he has the iron issue nailed though and probably a lot more but he looks inflamed and that is a credibility issue especially considering his videos aren’t much prescriptive and one would have to buy the program which is a large time commitment and expensive to figure out what he recommends.
Does he eat wheat?
I don’t think he eats much wheat, if any.
?if you were chained to a table at IHOP we could still achieve everything we’re trying to achieve here ? so don’t sweat the small details.
I don’t know, Matt, maybe this works for chronic dieters, but for people like me who’ve never dieted, never done endurance exercise, and used to eat anything and everything from the likes of IHOP and still developed health problems, this rings totally false. I can go to restaurants and eat as much of anything I want and nothing happens… other than that my bowels stop completely and three days later I realize I haven’t shit since. I stuffed myself silly just last Friday at a vegetarian buffet (so one could hope it was pork-free), taking in way more calories than I am usually able to prepare for myself at home, but guess what? When I eat only my own home-cooked food, I at least pass a stool every day, but this buffet kept me off the toilet for the weekend. My energy and mood have been lower on all the days since. I’ve also experimented with some serious gorging on apple pie lately and find that not only does this not improve my energy, it makes me seriously unmotivated and grumpy even without crashing my brix. I would love to be able to regularly eat crap like pizza and pie to recover my health, but the fact is I ate liberally of those foods when I lost my health and they seem to overturn my progress whenever I loosen up and eat them now.
This was something I said to a person who had ruined his health eating Paleo, but was more or less normal before. And he did in fact respond in a typical fashion. I do still believe in the importance of quality, homemade, less processed food – from a sustainability aspect. And in many cases a recovery aspect too. That will probably never change.
hi matt – thanks for all your hard work; i’m learning a lot and really working on integrating all of this and it’s been quite a revelation since i had really bought the low-carb, grains-are-evil, paradigm. i would appreciate some feedback if you are so willing:
i finally decided to try RRARF when i realized my body just wasn’t responding well to low-carb anymore – my sleep sucked, i was gaining weigh and my energy was not very reliable. was already eating very clean, whole foods so my food shift was just to add back lots of carbs and reduce all the PUFA foods. anyhow, it’s now day 31 and i have yet to see a temp shift (still 97.5-97.9 post-ovulation depending on what time i wake up) and i’m feeling rather discouraged. my gains so far are improved sleep (6 hours without waking and then napping later – it’s the best i can do at this point) and better bowel movements. i am still pretty gasey though and don’t love that. mostly, i’m rather sick of overfeeding and the effort involved in making sure i’m eating often enough and well enough and i’m not comfortable with the prospect of gaining more weight than i already have – my pants are barely fitting and i don’t want to grow out of my clothes! so, i’m wondering if i just need to stick with it all for longer (and how much?) or if i need to do something different or what…more calories? more sleep? (don’t know how i’d do that) time to start some modest exercise again? i’m 38 and have been overweight and an intermittent insomniac most of my life and moderately active – most likely to walk or hike or ride for exercise.
typical day of food looks like: 6 am – giant bowl of oats with lots milk, half & half, coconut and some maple syrup 11 am – huge pile of mashed potatoes with cheese, good serving of ground meat or eggs and corn tortillas 2pm – big pile of baked yam, maybe more oats or cold potatoes 6pm – veggie soup and salad.
i also have a question about temps – i’ve been tracking my basal for years as part of fertility awareness and have learned through that that BBT increases or decreases based on what time you actually wake up. (i don’t actually understand this, since i would think that 8 hours of sleep should have you at a certain temp regardless of whether it’s 5am or 8am) – regardless of why this is true, i have been curious that time is not ever mentioned in your writings on temperature when it seems a significant factor to me. i wonder if the ideal range that Barnes came up with is based on a certain waking time so that those of us waking at an earlier (or later) time could adjust for that (usually stated that it’s .1 degree lower for every half-hour earlier than “normal” which also means .1 higher for every half-hour slept later). when i hear about women getting 99+ degrees, i find myself wondering if they are sleeping until noon. thoughts on this?
Not everyone’s daily rhythms are the same. The typical human body temperature peak is between 6-8pm, with trough at 6-8am. But not everyone fits this profile.
I would eat more frequently. I would also eat a little bit more fruit and things like that if you aren’t peeing clear. If you are, keep the water content down.
I would eat a bigger dinner.
You might consider a few refined foods as well. Some of your old favorites for a few weeks to finally get temp the rest of the way up. Some people really need this in order to take in sufficient calories to get totally warm, sleeping well, etc.
But ultimately this is your experiment, so keep tinkering if things aren’t quite going as well as you hope.
An short, intense workout once a week might also help you. It might hurt. Something to experiment with as well. Walking and stuff like that usually has a negligible effect on body composition and metabolism.
thanks for the input, i’ll make some shifts and see what happens – i get that i need to be patient with this process and tune into what works and what doesn’t…was hoping it would be more straight-forward but i also know that most worthwhile things rarely are. now it’s time for second breakfast!
Hi Matt,
I wrote you a while back with ulcerative colitis and fluctuating platelets slightly below the range of normal. My temp is almost always 97.6-97.9
I have done a version of RRARF. No real exercise from walking but I have been trying to eat preservative free (bad migraines), tons of veggies (which I never eat) no alcohol, and limited dairy. I am not eating as much as I would like but I have limited my diet. The important thing is that I am on day 10 and I have a body temp of 99.1 Also went to a doc yesterday and had a normal platelet count 150, Truly amazing. I have watched as it has gradually increased. I am on day 5 of no headache so we’ll see how that goes. What should I do next???
Im hoping someone on here can help me, I have been chubby my whole life, but not really overweight until I started, and quite a low fat diet in my late teens. I had lost about 50 lbs and then gained 60 back, I have been gaining slowly ever since then. I started a real foods diet, and did lose weight at first, but then started gaining again for what seems like no reason. I read diet recovery and have also read many posts on this site, so in combining the info, I have been trying to RARF by eating what my body craves, including sometimes sugar, and junk food. It has been a little over a month and my temps are improving, I was in the 96’s every morning, my morning temp is generally 97.5 (is that good?) and my daytime temp is usually 98. But my weight is whats bothering me, I have given up the idea that I need to be a size 2 I have changed my idea of what my ‘ideal’ weight should be, but since starting I have gained another 7 lbs, not a lot but that is on top of the 50 that I already need to lose, nothing fits me and Im wondering what I can do to start losing this weight. Im 5’4, 215lbs, 30 years old btw. Would appreciate the help! Thanks!
Momto3, I have a butt load of experience in this and sadly no simple solution exist in your situation. It’s a catch 22, eat the food, weight ensues, don’t eat the food metabolism plummets. It would require a lot more complication than simply eating the food to solve the problem but it is certainly not impossible. To quote you : “then started gaining again for what seems like no reason.” There certainly is a reason for the weight gain and understanding it will lead you to what you desire ( well 1/2 of the solution anyways). the same cause is at work during your rarrfing only the weight gain has been stunted prior to rarrfing. Rarfing has set your body free to do what it would do in a normal diet free life and given this freedom it would have been gained the fat before. It can be difficult to figure out at times and this might seem odd but your mind is a powerful thing and your weight bothering you would be enough to cause the “mysterious” weight gain.
Hey Matt – did you ever discuss what you learned from this program anywhere on 180? Final thoughts on The Metabolic Blueprint? I’m a health practitioner and thought it might add to my knowledge base re. all this metabolism stuff.
It’s a good program. I think reading Ray Peat’s articles and books very carefully many times over will get you most of that education though.