Warrior Fit Boot Camp Fitness Fun!

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A swirl of this pasta and juicy shrimp is everything you want from shrimp scampi: a buttery, lemony garlic sauce coats linguine and shrimp, and the bright bite of red pepper and parsley balances everything. Did I get your attention? Now, let me tell you the second best thing about this recipe: You get to have all this flavor without much fuss!

What I’m trying to say here is, cook this shrimp scampi right away. The pasta’s in the pantry; the shrimp’s in the freezer; and I know you’ve got some butter, a lemon, and garlic lurking around the kitchen.

Now, I’m not making any guarantees that it will change your life, but you’ll absolutely be coming back to this recipe regularly. Here’s how to do it.

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With spring in full bloom and summer right around the corner, it’s hard to resist the allure of the outdoors. Most of us want to get out there as much as possible before the threat of cold air shifts back into rotation (or before it simply gets too hot, because sometimes you can have too much of a good thing).

If you have a pint-sized space that’s a fraction the square footage of the porch above, there’s still a ton you can do. Here are seven inspirational shots and tips that’ll make you want to live outside until you have to pull your parka out of hibernation. Bonus: These ideas will work even if you’re lucky enough to have more space to call your own.

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If your go-to Costco dinner plan usually revolves around picking up a rotisserie chicken, we have a new option for you: Costco and Blue Apron have teamed up to start selling special meal kits in select stores.

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Cold brew coffee fuels warm-weather days. It is the cooling caffeinated refreshment we all need to power our spring and summer fun. Cold brew is about as easy as mixing ground coffee with cool water and letting them sit together overnight, so the best cold brew is subtly improved by avoiding some key pitfalls.

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More than 10 years ago, I gave my lifestyle a massive overhaul in attempts to be healthier. The biggest change? I decided to eat a diet full of vegetables, and without refined sugar or processed foods.

Despite my lack of cooking skills, I quickly learned one key lesson: I just needed the right appliance in order to fall in love with all sorts of veggies.

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It’s quite the holiday weekend! This year, Cinco De Mayo falls on a Saturday and, as always, it’s preceded by Star Wars Day.

Star Wars Day, if you’re not familiar, is a holiday born from a pun: Because we can say that today is “May the Fourth,” we can also say “May the Fourth be with you.” Get it?!

So, in honor of the punniest holiday this side of Pi Day, here are three on-sale Star Wars kitchen products that are as useful as they are nerdy.

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Cancer sucks! Not that I ever personally endured cancer. I did however watch my father die of lung cancer when I was nine. Why would I start there? Only because I think it was the biggest factor in my descent into both substance and food addiction, not to mention the interspersed bouts of chronic cardio and caloric restriction that defined the next four decades of my life.

So if my fathers demise fueled the need to bury my feelings, the Standard American Diet (SAD) provided the vehicle. Processed and fast food was a large part of my diet as a child. In hindsight processed carbohydrates became my drug of choice. I literally buried my emotions in overeating crap food. Eventually this led to unhealthy weight gain.

This transpired between my 7th and 8th grade years. Fat shaming is real. Between my 9th and 10th grade year I decided to do something about it. Enter chronic cardio and calorie restriction. Coupled with the fact I had entered puberty and the benefits of the hormones that come with that I was able to slim down. I was able to control my weight for the most part till my early twenties.

By then I was doing a stint in the US Marines and that kept me fairly fit. Soon after I got out at the age of 24 I started to have weight creep. Enter my one and only attempt at a plant based diet. I was able to lose weight eating that way, but it came at the expense of muscle loss and in the end it really wasn’t sustainable for me long term. I was still fairly active and was able to rebuild the lost muscle and continue to maintain my weight.

At 29 I changed careers and became an outside sales rep for a flooring distributor. Eating and exercise became less of a priority and I woke up one day in my early thirties at a hefty (for me ) 225 lbs. By the age of 33 I was going thru a divorce and doing what all single guys do, I decided I needed to get in shape. The only thing I knew that worked was chronic cardio and caloric restriction. That once again worked. I was able to drop the weight and get back in shape.

Back in a relationship (that I’m still in 23 years later and happily married) at the age of 36, I could no longer maintain the calorie in calorie out life style and once again my weight crept up, this time to 245 lbs. For some guys this doesn’t seem like a lot, but with my build, I was at least half body fat. Over the next decade I tried half hearted attempts at chronic cardio and caloric restriction with very limited success. In the end I would always default back to my set point in the 240s. At this point I was starting to show signs of metabolic disease. My fasted blood glucose was squarely in the pre-diabetic range and I was starting to show signs of sleep apnea. I had to have a hip replaced.

After another career change that involved less stress and travel I decided it was time to start dealing with it, but other than the calorie in and calorie out method I had no idea how. I had just turned 50 and was determined to make my 50s better then my 40s. About this time a friend convinced me to get a road bike. I did and fell in love with it. Coupled with a diet that consisted of weighing everything I was able to get under 200 lbs!

During this time I was reading a British cycling magazine called “Cycling Fitness” (no longer in publication) and it had an article about this crazy caveman diet. A few Google searches later and I landed on a website called “Mark’s Daily Apple.” That lead me to the Primal Blueprint. That was my aha moment. It all made sense! Being slightly (which may be a modest description) obsessive compulsive I devoured the Primal Blueprint and a myriad of books on the subject.

I wish I could report it was all smooth sailing from that point forward. Unfortunately I only took away part of the message. I continued to ride my bike way too hard, way to often and after a period of fantastic fitness I completely crashed and burned. Over training is for real. Along with it comes sleep issues, digestive issues and general fatigue. It’s not a simple hole to dig out of. I had managed to get my weight down to 160 lbs, but felt both weak and burnt out. I actually had friends do an intervention. They wanted to know if I was “all right.”

This all lead to a SAD food binge and before I knew it I was up to 195 lbs and climbing. I also was battling a really bad case of psoriasis. The medical industry was no help. About this time I had a bad alcohol moment. No legal trouble or abuse or anything, but I managed to totally freak my wife out and myself. That was July 1st of 2017. I decided then and there to retire from drinking and get my health back. Enter the New Revised Primal Blueprint. Once again I devoured it. This time I decided to really embrace the whole concept.

Shortly after I signed up for the Primal Health Coach certification program. Partly out of a desire to help other people to overcome their weight and health challenges and partly to keep myself on the right path. Since then I have completed the certification and have continued to embrace the lifestyle. I currently weigh 162 lbs but feel much stronger both physically and emotionally than I did when I had dropped to 160 lbs. My skin issues have resolved. Existing joint pain has diminished. My last A1c was at 5.2.

So what have I learned:
• Diets don’t work, lifestyle changes do.
• Food can be very addictive, treat it accordingly. If you crave it, it might be a problem.
• You can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet.
• Find a way to let go of old hurts, they can hold you back.
• Be willing to experiment and do your own N=1. You need to find the best way of eating for you (preferably within the Primal framework).
• Yes, sleep and recovery are important!

I still enjoy my time on the bike but with more of a focus on enjoying the ride. I also have had luck experimenting with the carnivore diet and although I recognize this is not the best approach for all it seems to work well for me and is a valid tool for some. I can also see a diet that leans more towards plant based working well for others. N=1 baby! A special thanks to Mark Sisson for his influence and resources.

Grok on Friends!
Jim Tipton
Certified Primal Health Coach

The post This Was My Aha Moment! appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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How often do you introduce new foods to your kids? If I’m being completely honest, my family falls into these deep seasonal ruts with dinner vegetables and it looks a lot like us eating broccoli once a week from January through April. Then when the markets overflows with radishes, spring greens, and asparagus, I want to go wild with new (or forgotten) vegetables. It can be frustrating to see tiny noses turn up at vegetables they loved last year but haven’t seen in months.

I have a silly strategy that works well and doesn’t require hiding those vegetables or nagging them to try the snap peas at dinner. You can call it partnering or pairing, but I call it the buddy system and it works incredibly well with pasta. Here’s how serving new foods with my kids favorite food — pasta — fights pickiness at the table.

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Ice cream sandwiches seem like one of the most innocuous things a person could have a controversial opinion about. Ice cream is good. Cookies are good. Sandwiches are good. If you make a sandwich out of cookies and ice cream, what’s not to like?

But now multiple celebrities are engaged in an ice cream sandwich debate on Twitter, and Chrissy Teigen revealed a pretty controversial take, saying that ice cream sandwiches made with real cookies are “garbage,” and the only good ice cream sandwiches are the rectangular chocolate ones.

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Celery is a real workhorse in the kitchen, but rarely do we use the whole bunch in one cooking session. Most recipes require only one or two ribs, and by the time we get to the rest, it’s often limp and mushy. Here is the best way to store celery to keep it fresh and crisp for as long as possible.

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