I am alive and well

Posted by Stefani Ruper on Apr 16, 2013 in Blog | 1 comment

Hey friends.

I just want to put up a quick post reassuring you that all is well in my body and my home here in Boston (after, yes, having been present to the events at the marathon).   I have received a number of emails inquiring into my wellbeing — and honestly I couldn’t be more grateful.  I didn’t know that so many people here knew about where I lived, and I didn’t think so many would think to ask.  Thank you so much — it means the world to me that I might be important to you, too.  (That is, as important to you as you are to me.)

There are a lot of interesting and deep things moving around in my brain as a result of what happened.  A lot of it was rumbling deep in it already, but the events at the marathon have shaken them harder and distilled even more.  Lots of growth happening here on all fronts.

All my love to you — I shall be back quite soon.  On Gather: A Paleo Entertaining Cookbook, Liz Wolfe’s acne guide, and roaring for the sake of post menopausal women.

Stefani

The Primal Blueprint Meal Plan, Sarah Fragoso’s Fitness Program, Bulletproof coffee, and a 1 Year Subscription to The Performance Menu all for $1.03 each in the Primal Life Kit!

Posted by Stefani Ruper on Apr 8, 2013 in Blog | 2 comments

I’m writing to update you for the final update on the sale of the Primal Life Kit.  I have stumbled upon some more brilliant products and ideas, and I wanted to float them to you.  The sale ends in 36 hours, so I am doing what I can.

Or something.

The absolute best and most unique part of this bundle is, in my opinion, the fact that it provides so many resources that endure throughout time.  It’s not just ebooks in the bundle this time around, though it’s got them in spades.  Now, there are three magazine subscriptions, including The Performance Menu, Paleo Magazine, and Paleo Living.   A hell of a value.  And Mark Sisson’s The Primal Blueprint Meal Plan, as well as Nell Stephenson’s beautiful meal plans.  Below are some photos from Nell’s plans.

You also get Sarah Fragoso’s Everyday Paleo Lifefit program, which I’ve heard amazing things about (but have never undertaken myself), and an Obstacle Course Training Program which I have no idea about but just sounds like a wicked adventure.  A discount for Bulletproof Coffee, what I’ve heard is the ultimate coffee for champions and great with coconut oil.

And all those cookbooks — power lunches, breakfast specialties, 100 greatest paleo ice creams, smoothies, on-the-go, planning meals and intro coobooks — that’s months worth of food porn alone, not to mention delightful meals.

38 paleo products, $39.  $1.03 per product, un-freaking-believable.  Sale ends Tuesday at midnight EST.

Enjoy!

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What’s The Primal Life Kit?

The people at PaleoPlan.com have put together a really exciting opportunity for you! When you purchase the $39 Primal Life Kit, you get $485 worth of the most popular and life-changing Primal and Paleo products:

22 ebooks

2 meal plans

3 magazine subscriptions

2 fitness programs

1 short audio book

and 8 discount codes

These educational and potentially life-changing Primal and Paleo products are being sold at more than 90% off their original retail value for one week only – April 2 through April 9! Included in this awesome bundle is a meal plan made by Primal Blueprint, a recipe ebook from Bill and Hayley over at PrimalPalate.com, a fitness program by Sarah Fragoso of Everyday Paleo, and a subscription to Paleo Magazine, among many other awesome products. All the ebooks are in pdf format, so you can read them on your computer or the e-reader of your choice. Please see the full list of what you’ll get when you purchase this bundle below.

This $39 kit will give you all the tools you need to eat, cook, work out, and live Primally.

12 Recipe and Meal Planning eBooks

Paleo Crock Pot: 25+ Beef, Pork, & Chicken Recipes by George Bryant and Abel James of CivilizedCavemanCooking.com ($2.99)

30-Day Intro to Paleo by Hayley Mason and Bill Staley of PrimalPalate.com (authors of Make It Paleo) ($15)

Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat by Melissa Joulwan of TheClothesMakeTheGirl.com ($14.95)

Fast Paleo Top 100: The Top 100 Paleo and Primal Recipes Shared with FastPaleo in 2012 + 4 bonus ebooks (below) by James Gregory and Ute Mitchell of FastPaleo.com ($14.97)

Fast Paleo Top 100: The Top 10 Muffins of 2012 by James Gregory and Ute Mitchell of FastPaleo.com (free bonus ebook)

Fast Paleo Top 100: The Top 10 Beverages and Smoothies of 2012 + 4 bonus ebooks by James Gregory and Ute Mitchell of FastPaleo.com (free bonus ebook)

Fast Paleo Top 100: The Top 10 Cookies of 2012 by James Gregory and Ute Mitchell of FastPaleo.com (free bonus ebook)

Fast Paleo Top 100: The Top 10 Ice Creams of 2012 by James Gregory and Ute Mitchell of FastPaleo.com (free bonus ebook)

Toadally Primal Smoothies by Primal Toad of PrimalToad.com ($5)

Paleo Power Lunch: Easy, Filling, & Delicious Workday Meal Strategies by Stormy Sweitzer of maoomba.com ($27.50)

The Paleo Breakfast Recipe Book: Over 100 Pages of Recipes by Suzanne Crawt of paleo.com.au ($17)

Sow: Planting the Seeds for Health, Well Being, and a Superhero Life! by Joe Rignola of wellnesspunks.com

4 Autoimmune and PCOS eBooks

21-Day Paleo Cleanse: 3 Week Autoimmune Protocol Meal Plan by Neely Quinn of PaleoPlan.com ($25)

Awaken: 30+ Egg-Free and Grain-Free Breakfasts by Karen Sorenson of lowcarboneday.com ($9.99)

The Autoimmune Paleo Plan: A Revolutionary Protocol to Rapidly Decrease Inflammation and Balance Your Immune System by Anne Angelone of expandingqi.com ($4.99)
PCOS Unlocked: The Manual by Stefani Ruper of paleoforwomen.com (special abridged 53 pages for this sale includes discount on remainder of her ebook) ($19)

5 Informational and How-To eBooks

The Wild Diet by Abel James of FatBurningMan.com ($17)

21 Life Lessons from Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb by Jimmy Moore of livinlavidalowcarb.com ($15)

Primal Deliverance: How Paleo Saved My Life From Addiction by James Gregory of fastpaleo.com ($14.97)

Primal Tightwad: Maximizing Your Health on a Minimal Budget by Carolyn Rush of PrimalTightwad.com ($14.95)

Free The Animal: How to Lose Weight and Fat on the Paleo Diet by Richard Nikoley of FreeTheAnimal.com ($7.95)

2 Meal Plans

Primal Blueprint Primal Meal Plan - 1 month subscription to weekly Primal meal plans, grocery shopping lists, and the accompanying recipes for just $.01 from Mark Sisson and primalblueprint.com ($9.99)

6-week Paleo Meal Plan - 1 free 6-Week Paleo Meal Plan from Paleoista, by Nell Stephenson (author of Paleoista: Gain Energy, Get Lean and Feel Fabulous with the Diet You Were Born to Eat and co-author of The Paleo Diet Cookbook) at paleoista.com.at paleoista.com ($59)

2 Fitness Programs

Sarah Fragoso’s Everyday Paleo LifeFit fitness and nutrition training program – 1 month for $.01 from the author of Everyday Paleo and everydaypaleo.com ($20)

The Obstacle Course Race Training Program ebook by Stew Smith, CSCS and former Navy SEAL at stewsmith.com ($16.99)

3 Magazines (Online Subscriptions)

The Performance Menu: Journal of Health & Athletic Excellence - Free 1 year subscription (12 issues) and 1 year of back issues from catalystathletics.com ($70)

Paleo Magazine - Free 6-month online subscription (3 issues) and access to all back issues ($29)

Paleo Living Magazine - Free 3-month (4 issues) iPad subscription (no expiration) ($15.96)

2 Bonuses

Paleo Moms Look Good Naked by Peggy Emch (theprimalparent.com) – Audio recording of a portion of this new paperback book spoken by the author (Free)

The Modern No-Nonsense Guide to Paleo ebook by Alison Golden of (paleononpaleo.com) – Three ebook chapters on Paleo shopping, kitchens, & lunches from her new book (Free)

8 Discounts

Kasandrinos Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 30% off Greek extra virgin olive oil from Tony Kasandrinos’ family farm until December 31st, 2013
Bulletproof Coffee Kit - 20% off Monthly Bulletproof Coffee Kit (24 oz. of coffee and a 32-ounce bottle of MCT oil) from BulletProofExec.com (no expiration date) ($9.80 value)

Primal Life Organics - 20% off organic, Paleo, gluten-free, vegan skincare products, hair care products, and deodorant until May 1st, 2013
Amrap Nutrition Refuel Bars - Buy one 8-Count box of Refuel Bars on Amazon and get 1 box free until April 30, 2013 ($23.95 value)

Optimum Performance Training - 15% off apparel, supplements, and online fitness training course until Dec 31, 2013
Paleo On The Go - 10% off Paleo food delivered to your home from paleoonthego.com until May 1
Squatty Potty – 15% off all products through April and 10% for the rest of 2013.
Sport Journals – 20% off WODbooks (for recording your workouts) until May 11, 2013

Get all of this (retail value $485) for just $39.

Seriously.  Sale ends 4/9 at midnight EST.

After you purchase the kit, you’ll be sent an email with a link to all of the downloadable products, as well as the coupon codes for all of the discounted products. NOTE: Due to the short duration of this sale, there will be no refunds. These products are downloadable ebooks, online magazine subscriptions, and discount codes. You will not be shipped any physical goods with your purchase of the Primal Life Kit. Please contact neely@paleoplan.com with any questions about the Primal Life Kit.

And — as always — live triumphantly, live fiercely, and live beautifully!  I am with you on your journey, and whatever you need, whether it be bundles, answers, or lots of love, I’ve got it for you in spades.

My paleo fx experience: anxiety, community, twelve apples a day, and what the hell is this all for, anyway?

Posted by Stefani Ruper on Apr 7, 2013 in Blog | 11 comments

I’ve had a fair bit of time now to reflect on my experience at paleo fx.  Lots of others have done the same.  And these reflections are full of delightful stories.  They tend to revolve around love and community and empowerment, and I love that so much.  I’m not sure how I feel about community formed through a diet — that feels a bit strange to me, and maybe a bit problematic — but I’m such a sucker for community and am so sad about it’s sparseness in this world that I’ll take it where I can get it.

So my paleo fx experience has a lot of resonance with those tales of love (with the diet?  I heard about more than one impassioned tryst!).  But its also of course just mine and was different for a few important reasons.

First — I went to paleo fx with a fair bit of apathy and resentment.  That should come as a surprise.  Aren’t we supposed to be head over heels for this sort of thing?

The thing is, however, that both of these things were kind of good for me.  The apathy came from a place of finally letting go of my need to impress people, particularly the paleosphere.  There’s a whole lot of pressure to maintain what Matt of Paleo Parents calls a “monster” — these blogs and communities that each of us advocates has built — and I’ve wrestled with that a lot in this past year.  Particularly, my life on my blog used to fuel my social validation.  If I could get another health advocate to like what I did, it was like being crowned queen of England for the day.  It was a party.  I thrived off of it.  Later, it made me anxious.  Finally, I figured out what was happening in my brain and I was able to let go.  That meant that I could go to the conference and not freak out about making connections or what not.  I could just go and have a good time because isn’t that what living is for?

I also went with resentment.   Once I realized the way I had twisted my existence around my blog, I got indignant about it.  Look at what you’ve done to my brain, health advocacy.   And even while I let go of the vast majority of my anxiety about all of that perfectionism and being impressive stuff, I still had some anxiety going into the conference.  And I lost a good week’s worth of sleep over it.  It gave me stress acne.  My work lagged.  That pissed me off.  Hard as I tried, I couldn’t shake my nerves.  I arrived at the conference with pretty little motivation to be there.

But of course I loved it at the same time.

So I went and I had a pretty wonderful time.  With my newfound apathy in my pocket, I was not actually upset, but rather liberated to enjoy what I wanted and how I wanted to.  I rolled into the conference in the middle of the afternoon on a couple of the days.  I went for walks outside the center.  I actually only attended three talks outside of my own.  But one of them was Robb Wolf’s, and he talked a bit about anxiety.  And talking about anxiety — well, it gives me anxiety.  So I left.  That makes 2.5 talks.

One thing I obviously love enormously about paleo fx is the community there.  There’s a larger community — all of these people coming together because they have the same vision and so many lovely values in common — and then there’s the smaller community.  I got to get closer to Stacy and Matt.  I played roommate for four days with new Austin resident and all around baller Todd Dosenberry. I experienced the delight of finally meeting Abel‘s girlfriend Alyson who is a radiant delight in her own right.  I got to laugh over campfires with Sean and George and Juli and Danielle and Chris and Emily.  If you’re as plugged in to the paleo community as I am, then you know who these people are and probably suspect what a great time I had.

Speaking of which.  So.  The panel.  I didn’t get, of course, to say everything I would have liked.  But some highlights include imploring women to love their hormonal fluctuations.  To say yes to libido and no to restrictive behaviors that curb it.  To tell women to have fierce pride and to flip society a giant nasty bird.  And also coming out as a fruit junkie.  I eat 50 percent fruit in my diet.  What of it?  My labs are good.  I told the women there I eat six apples a day sometimes.  That was a big confession — but even then a low ball estimate.  The number sometimes can probably go up to twelve if that happens to be my only fruit for the day.  So shoot me.  What’s wrong with that?  (Hint:  that was a rhetorical question.)

I also got requested to speak over Nora Gedgaudus, one of the most elite of the paleo elite if there is such a thing (there isn’t because everyone is so down to earth.)

But just in case you were wondering, ladies, I have to pat myself on the back for that one.    Our message is becoming pretty damn powerful.  Don’t restrict carbs if it’s hurting your mental or physical health.  Or any macronutrient, for that matter.  That’s what the woman who asked for me to speak wanted.  To affirm her desire to eat whatever macronutrients she wants — and as a pregnant woman!   That’s what we do here at paleo for women, and it’s cool — people are starting to really like it.

Maybe I’ll start a blog –twelveapplesaday.com.

Which is related to a thought I’ve been having for a long time and got magnified at paleo fx.  I’ll write about it soon but here’s a teaser: I suspect the paleo diet’s infatuation with fat with some day be debunked. Of course it’s still valid, obviously.  But for weight loss, I think low fat diets might also have some merit if some people don’t like low carb.  And for people without insulin derangement — well.  We have this whole idea — “sugar burners” versus “fat burners.”  Bullshit, I say!  Our bodies burn fuel when they get it regardless of what type it is.  More on this later.

And finally, a question: what the hell is this all for, anyway?   A big piece of my apathy about paleo fx was the redundancy of it all.  I know what a paleo diet is.  The vast majority of the people at the conference did, too.  So what were we doing there?  What were we chasing?  Why were people going to talks all day about the paleo diet?  I’m not 100 percent sure, but I think it largely has to do with identity and love.  People love this diet — I don’t blame them — it radically changes lives — but I also think there can be problematic things about that.  We get over-invested in it.  We identify with it.  We try to find purpose in it.  But the thing is — and this is something I feel very strongly about and will write more on soon –

The paleo diet is just a diet.

There.  I said it.

I know I talked about community and love and such a lot in this post.  And it’s true — I love what the paleosphere has got going for it.  But it is just. a. diet.  It’s got lifestyle components, sure.  And fitness, sure.  But beyond that — why are people so enormously invested in this thing?  What I want more than anything is to help people to eat and to love themselves and then to move on.  NOT to chase perfect health as a life purpose.  To what end are we doing this whole thing?  What we want in life is a good life, not a diet masquerading as a good life.

So I love paleo.  I love paleo fx.  But it does not define me.  I am a woman.  A philosopher.  A health advocate, sure.  A dancer.  Someone who loves the hell out of living and is doing her damndest to suck the marrow out of life.  Someone who tries to lighten the burdens of the world — who walks as much as she can with compassion and empathy and love and joy.  You know — all that good stuff.  I eat natural things.  It’s important.  But it doesn’t define me, and learning the difference between those two things has been one of the most important realizations I’ve experienced in the last few months.

Finally — don’t forget about the enormous paleo sale that ends in 72 hours.  38 paleo products for 39 dollars.  Holy crap, I say.  Holy crap!

Read what I have to say about it here, and also read some reviews of it on the “blog” page.

The Wild Diet by Abel James: My Favorite E-Introduction to Paleo

Posted by Stefani Ruper on Apr 6, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments

Continuing the theme of personal revelations and selling things this week is my review of The Wild Diet by Abel James.

Today’s revelation is that I used to be addicted to introductions to the paleo diet.  I was so in love with the whole idea. Every book for me was a cornucopia of validation and delights, and one of my bookshelves is full of them.   I’m a bit over that, now.  The mechanics is super old news.  Plus, I know the people who write the books too well to find them impressive at all.  (This is a joke.  They impress me so much it makes my skin hurt.)  But – since I am a paleo writer and health advocate, I now have a new reason to love these books: they teach me how to write.

And boy oh boy, does Abel James teach me how to write or what.  The quality of his writing is a bit hard to demonstrate in a review, but just go ahead and trust me when I say that his ideas are clear, not a word goes off track, all the good information is in there, and none of the bad stuff makes it in at all.  The very first page contains the following paragraph, for example:

The discoveries I am going to share with you are the result of countless hours of obsessive research and years of relentless experimentation.  Your journey will be far more straightforward: all you need to know about how ot lose fat permanently without magic pills, absurd gadgets, or soul-crushing dieting is contained within this manual.The primary goal of this manual is to educate you in the process of losing fat rapidly and permanently — without bias, conjecture, or ulterior motive — and to lift the fog of confusion about nutrition and exercise that may have hindered your progress in the past.  To achieve this goal, I decided to write this manual in layman’s terms with minimal cryptic scientific jargon.Be assured — the Wild Diet is based on proven scientific principles and a growing body of peer-reviewed and independent research.  But instead of hurling studies and their equal and opposite counerparts back and forth, this manual ism eant to get straight otthe point and show you what works so you can achieve rapid and dramatic results.Fair warning: many of these principles and issues are “controversial” and stand in direct opposition to current conventional wisdom and popular beliefs.  While the principles in this manual may seem radical today, I wholeheartedly believe that they will be the “breakthroughts” of the future.  I am confident that if you read this book with an open mind, the knowledg eon the following pages has the power to change your life.

Also, I’m a big fan of his  graphs.

Better than Abel’s writing, however, is the fact that Abel combines profound thoughtfulness along with his data and his explanations and plans.  The whole idea of “The Wild Diet” is not that good foods are necessarily paleolithic, nor that they are set by some dogma of current paleo trends and norms, but rather that good foods should be valued if they can be found in the wild.  I love this approach; it is my own.  It’s elegant, and it’s wild.  Two things you know get me all riled and happy.

The Wild Diet begins with the sentence “This is no dietary bootcamp.”    The book ends with instructions for and a nod to the difficulty of maintenance.   And in between, Abel emphasizes the pleasure of the paleo diet.  Afraid of restriction, of hunger, of misery?  Don’t be.  That’s not a part of the life of a paleo dieter — not a part of the Wild Diet — and Abel is sure to remind you of that fact at every step along the way.  This is a diet and a life for pleasure, and Abel’s book is one of the best ways I’ve stumbled on telling you how.

The book is broken down into three parts: Step I: Prepare Your Mind.  ”If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing,” says Anatole France.  This is my favorite part of the book, as I am sure you could guess.  Step II: What to know.  It’s important to know why and how stuff works, and Abel does this elegantly.  Step III is What To Do.  Brand new to paleo or an expert in the life, this is an excellent chapter for inspiration and maximizing the quality of your life.

Couldn’t recommend it more highly, this book.  It’s great for us seasoned vets, if only for the quality of reading and the reminders for health.  It’s phenomenal for newbies, I couldn’t overstate that fact.

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The Autoimmune Paleo Plan: Anne Angelone’s Excrutiatingly Detailed Guide to Inflammation and Disease

Posted by Stefani Ruper on Apr 5, 2013 in Blog | 2 comments

I don’t know about you, but autoimmunity seems pretty complicated to me.  I may be a health advocate, and I may know how the immune system works generally, and how the gut works generally, but I have nothing on the volume of knowledge the functional medicine acupuncturist autoimmune specializing Anne Angelone’s got swimming around in her brain.

The Autoimmune Paleo Plan: A Revolutionary Protocol to Rapidly Decrease Inflammation and Balance Your Immune System by Anne Angelone is just that.  Have Hashimoto’s?  Rosacea?  Arthritis?  Psoriasis?  Eczema?   Ulcerative Colitis?  Celiac?   Or just think that your gut might be inflamed, and you want to heal it?  Or want to make sure you reduce your risk of autoimmune disease as much as possible, because you want to be healthy and happy until the end of your days?   This might be the book for you.

As a health practitioner who believes in eliminating gut irritants for the sake of good health, I still learned boatloads from Anne’s book.   Anne believes — as I do — that a leaky gut is the key to autoiumme disease.  Gut-irritating foods abrade the walls of your intestines, and — as a result — your intestinal walls become permeable to all the feces and toxins flowing through them.  These toxins get into your blood stream, and when your body mounts its immune attack against them, it often ends up attacking its own cells in the process.  Friendly fire, we might call it.  Unfortunately, it’s happening in Americans on a devastatingly wide scale.

In this book, Anne describes

-the difference between immunogenic and allergic,

-Cross Reactive Proteins,

-the role of immune molecules TH1, TH2, and TH17,

-how to hack inflammation via silencing Nuclear Factor Kappa Beta,

-compounds and supplements that support immune regulatory cells

-foods to eat and foods to avoid

-and recipes, wahoo!

It’s a short book, but it gives you the low down on autoimmunity and a surefire (or as sure as things can get these days) meal plan for getting past it.

The Autoimmune Paleo Plan is available as a part of the Primal Life Kit ebook bundle that’s available this week. Read more here.   Or check it out at the link below.

Primal Deliverance: How Paleo Saved James Gregory from Addiction

Posted by Stefani Ruper on Apr 4, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments

James Gregory is a blogger I’ve been meaning to bring to this community for quite some time.  He’s on my list of upcoming guests on the Live Love Eat podcast, and I’m even more excited about that now that I got to meat him at Paleo fx.  He’s an amazing soul, and he’s got a powerful story, and a powerful message.

Since I purchased the Primal Life Kit ebook bundle that’s available this week, I got a copy of James’s book, Primal Deliverance.