Angelo Copola, on his INCREDIBLE podcast, “Latest In Paleo,” has a weekly segment called Moment of Paleo. It’s kind of an ad lib 2 minutes where he delves into more of the philosophy behind life and wellness.  As a student of philosophy, he often presents eye-opening and inspiring thoughts.  This past week’s podcast was no exception.  Angelo starts by reading this traditional Tanzanian Folktale about Monkeys and Fish:

The rainy season that year had been the strongest ever and the river had broken its banks. There were floods everywhere and the animals were all running up into the hills. The floods came so fast that many drowned except the lucky monkeys who used their proverbial agility to climb up into the treetops. They looked down on the surface of the water where the fish were swimming and gracefully jumping out of the water as if they were the only ones enjoying the devastating flood.

One of the monkeys saw the fish and shouted to his companion: “Look down, my friend, look at those poor creatures. They are going to drown. Do you see how they struggle in the water?” “Yes,” said the other monkey. “What a pity! Probably they were late in escaping to the hills because they seem to have no legs. How can we save them?” “I think we must do something. Let’s go close to the edge of the flood where the water is not deep enough to cover us, and we can help them to get out.”

So the monkeys did just that. They started catching the fish, but not without difficulty. One by one, they brought them out of the water and put them carefully on the dry land. After a short time there was a pile of fish lying on the grass motionless. One of the monkeys said, “Do you see? They were tired, but now they are just sleeping and resting. Had it not been for us, my friend, all these poor people without legs would have drowned.”

The other monkey said: “They were trying to escape from us because they could not understand our good intentions. But when they wake up they will be very grateful because we have brought them salvation.” 

So how does this correlate to Paleo and life/wellness.  Well, despite their best intentions, the vast majority of those espousing conventional wisdom regarding diet and lifestyle tend to be the self-anointed Monkeys from the story.  Like the fish, I now swim freely in a sea of self-awareness about my food and lifestyle…fighting for my life avoiding being dragged to dry land by the Monkeys of conventional wisdom.  This year, are going to break free from the Monkeys’ grasp or will you swim free?

Nora Gedgaudas with an incredible manifesto to get your year started off right.

From the post:

This means a new level of personal responsibility.  This means no longer “feeding” the “1% agenda” by blindly accepting what we are told by mainstream sources about profitable and damaging dietary myths. This means saying NO to laws that restrict our access to healthy unadulterated food, saying NO to efforts being put forth to restrict our access to quality nutritional supplements or alternative care options of our choice (yes—these things ARE being restricted increasingly world-wide as we speak). This means saying NO to forced acceptance of GMO’s, food additives and preservatives, pesticides, gluten-containing foods (and crappy, pseudo-healthy, processed “gluten-free” foods), monoculture agriculture, factory farming, and inhumane commercial livestock/feedlot practices. This means speaking up in restaurants and grocery markets and making known your preferences and demands (diplomatically, of course) for the kind of quality food you expect and what you will no longer buy from them. This means making every effort to avoid the processed garbage being sold as food and also looking in the mirror and becoming candid with ourselves about our addictions, vulnerabilities/weaknesses and unconscious avoidances of these issues.

Mark Sisson thoroughly and clearly covers the topic of salt intake and blood pressure.  GREAT STUFF!

Curious about how stress and diet are linked to skin disorders like acne?  Then take a listen to this episode of Chris Kresser’s Revolution Health Radio.  As always, he’s not the most dynamic of speakers, but the info is awesome.

Read this:  http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/04/news/la-heb-sitting-cancer-risk-20111104

Now take a look at sample (below) from a CFHR athletes (this is the 6th example picture we’ve received) of their workstation at their office converted to a standup desk.  What are you waiting for?  Take your health into your own hands (and on your own feet).  Get off your ass at work.  Be the example.  Make people ask you why you stand, why you choose not to suffer the slow death of a desk.  Why you do a full squat in front of the water cooler.  Why you pack your own lunch with meat and veggies every day.  Why you have so much energy….TAKE CHARGE IN 2012!!!!!

Alan's new Standup Desk (with strategically placed Kombucha)