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Trader Joes now carries 100% grassfed ground beef!  Marlene's Market and Deli in Federal Way also carries grass fed meat.  It is definitely more expensive than if you get it from your local farmer, but it is much more convenient.  I've also been wanting to try this place out: Thundering Hooves.  They have lots of different options for grassfed meat and you can order it in smaller quantities.  You can even have it shipped directly to your house, but I recommend using the drop stations.  They are based out of Walla Walla but have drop stations all over the west side.

On the note of better quality meat, if you haven't seen Food Inc yet, I highly recommend watching it.  It will definitely make you think twice about where you buy your food.  Has anyone seen this yet?  If so, what are your thoughts?

Nick and Melinda are two of our newest clients.  They are alot of fun to work with, always joking around and having fun while working hard!  They came in already in pretty good shape, but have made some really impressive improvements already.  Both of them dropped around 2 minutes off their first workout time.  I am excited to see what these two are capable in the future.  Welcome Nick and Melinda!

Check out some more pictures: (view our Flickr stream here)

That's how you finish the run!


Ring support


Pistols - very impressive

(Thai Mussels!)

It's amazing what can happen in the short time of 30 days.  People made some GREAT improvements and has some awesome success!  It's been like a party the past couple weeks!  Huge PR's (personal records) were set, goals were crossed off and the sense of accomplishment was apparent with everyone who walked through the door.

Benchmark WOD:
We had 2 different categories in our challenge that you were able to win.  The first was most improved time on the benchmark WOD (as a percentage).
Top 3 most improved:
1.  Linda - 12:45 to 9:34!
2.  Bryan - 9:28 to 7:24
3.  Kendra - 7:45 to 6:24

Top 3 best times (end of month):
Men
1.  Tyler - 4:27 (rx'd)
2.  Alan - 4:45 (rx'd)
3.  Gordy - 5:11 (scaled)

Women
1.  Socan - 5:27 (scaled)
2.  Pam - 5:37 (scaled)
3.  Kalle - 5:47 (harder version)

Overall, everyone together improved total time by almost a full 15 minutes!

Inches Lost:
The next category for improvement was inches lost.  We took the total of 3 measurements and compared start and end as a percentage of total inches.
Top 3 most improved:
1.  Julie - 6.5 inches lost! (watch for before and after pictures coming in the next couple months)
2.  Bryan - 6 inches lost
3.  Joey - 4.75 inches lost

Overall the group of participants lost about 3.5 feet altogether!

Great job to all who participated!  Keep the momentum going and live well!

(If you read these times and you're thinking to yourself, "How can you possibly get a good workout in 5 minutes?" Just ask anyone who participated.  Incredible fitness can be achieved with smart training that doesn't take up your whole life.)

Enjoy some more pictures of delicious primal food.  Look for the recipes coming soon.

This weekend, my wife and I were at the book store.  Since we are obviously interested in health, we headed over to the health, nutrition and exercise section to see what the latest books were.  I can't really say that I'm surprised at what I saw, but it still pains me to see what is there.  The nutrition section in particular was very painful. 

It's time for some education.  Let's start with this one:



The title alone for this book is a problem.  The focus in general for this book is towards type 2 diabetes.  Type 2 diabetes is chronically high insulin levels.  What types of food cause high insulin?  Carbohydrates.  In particular, high density forms of carbs such as whole grains, pasta, rice, and sugar to name a few.  Now don't get me wrong, all carbohydrates are not bad, BUT when you have type 2 diabetes, the type and amount GREATLY matter.  So if someone is making a cookbook consisting of low-fat meals, obviously those calories need to be replaced by something else.  Since most books (including this one) discount the incredible power of protein, that leaves only one macronutrient to make up the bulk of the meals.  Carbohydrates.

Here is an excerpt I was particularly appalled by:


There's alot here to discuss, but let's stick with the basics of the blood sugar issue.  The problem is that this is a very all encompassing statement that leads us to believe that all whole grains are good for us.  While some whole grains do enter the blood stream slower that refined sugar, did you know that pizza dough enters the blood stream FASTER than refined sugar?  Also, we still have the problem of recommending a very high carbohydrate food for someone who's problem is too many carbohydrates to begin with.

Here is a food pyramid from another book: (sorry for the blurriness)


The title of this book is, "The Cancer Prevention Diet."  On the left it has daily, weekly and monthly categories.  Under the daily section we can see a recommendation of about 90% carbohydrates.  Under weekly we've got a pretty good mix of foods, but we're only to eat them once a week or so.  Finally at the top we've got most of our protein recommendations that we are to consume monthly.  Sweets are priority over seafood, eggs and beef (according to this).

This is a big, big problem.  It is also a pretty good way to possibily develope type 2 diabetes and/or cancer.  Eating like this will turn our insulin on overdrive.  High insulin means storage and growth promotion.  If we have our bodies constantly turned on to growth, it inhibits our ability to destroy BAD cells.  In addition, the lack of protein will cause other problems.  Protein is ESSENTIAL for the body to function. (essential amino acids anyone?)

So beyond the science of it, let's look at one more example.  This one comes from msnbc.com in today's news.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35107271/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/
An active, 14 year old, girl named Paris went on a 20 month program to help take control of her weight.  Her parents had to also take part in it since they too, were overweight.  The program did not require that they go on any particular diet, but recommends "healthy grains, fruits and vegetables and avoiding unhealthy fats."  The family decided to go vegetarian.  She has some early successes from eating less and getting plenty of exercise.  By the end of the program, the results were that she ended up GAINING 12 pounds from when she started almost 2 years ago!  (I'd also be really curious to see how her biomarkers changed.)

So she ate less protein and more carbohydrates.  She could not stick with the diet and things actually got worse.  She believes that all she needs to do is try harder.  What do you think?  Is just trying harder really what this girl needs?

So what is the take away from all of this? 
 

•  - Controlling your insulin really, really matters. 
•  - It DOES in fact matter the TYPE of food you eat. 
•  - Type 2 diabetes is reversible and avoidable. 
•  - Books and media can be very misleading and even false.
•  - Education of PROPER nutrition is extremely important.