The Paleo Solution Part 7

Commute How many of you walk or ride a bike to and from your work? Not b.l.o.o.d.y many, I'd wager. If you live in Europe or one of the few forward-thinking cities in America or Canada, you have some public transport options that afford some degree of relaxation (other than the threat of physical violence and mugging in the city, but we will overlook that for now). For many people, their daily commute can represent a long, frustrating process that looks nothing like gearing up for a hunting trip or a foray to collect edible plants. One of the key determinates for many people considering a career move or relocating the family is the effect commuting will have on one's quality of life. On the flip side of this are those folks who opt for a longer commute so they can make more money to have a bigger house and more c.r.a.p.

Work Do you love your work? Like it? Tolerate it for the sake of survival? Most people like what they do well enough, but frequently share the sentiment that they would like to do less of it. How many of you work forty hours per week? Fifty? More than this? Forty-hour work weeks are considered anemic by most standards; yet this represents two and a half to four times more time than our ancestors spent working. That is a big deal when we consider stress. Unlike our generalist ancestors, most of us focus on a specialty that becomes, quite literally, a grind. When viewed in this way, it makes sense why we are fired up for work on Monday and Tuesday, but looking up the number for the Hemlock Society on Thursday and Friday! This may not jibe with our Puritan work ethic, but we might be working more than is good for us. I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable (that's a lie, I am actually hoping to make you wickedly uncomfortable. I'd like to see you really give this stuff some thought), but if you have ever felt that working a little less and having more variety in your life would relieve stress and provide you with energy, you are likely correct.

Family and Social Life Did you know people who lack supportive familial and social bonds are as at risk to develop illness or die as pack-a-day smokers? Why might that be? Well, because we evolved as social beings. We have considered a number of situations in which excess (carbohydrates, stress, work) has deleterious effects on health. Similarly, however, a deficiency can kill us just as dead. Such examples include sleep deprivation, inactivity, or inadequate social bonds. Few of us have social networks remotely on a par with that experienced by our ancestors, and this registers as a serious stress. Put the book down and go make a friend, OK?

Activity (You Know, Exercise) We will look at a whole chapter on exercise, but I want to point out a few things: Our Paleolithic ancestors tended to be very active, but they also managed to get quite a bit of rest. On average, our ancestors hunted and gathered the energy equivalent of about 11 miles of walking per day. This activity was split among a mult.i.tude of tasks (there is that variety thing again). As a result of not being overly repet.i.tious, their activity had less negative impact on their joints and minds.

Our modern life, by contrast, seems to deposit people into one of two camps.

1. Folks who are efficiency experts and endeavor to do as little as possible. Five steps from sofa to refrigerator, six steps to the car in the garage, twenty steps from parking s.p.a.ce to work station. These people seriously consider a catheter to avoid the exertion of walking to the bathroom.

2. People who attempt suicide by exercise. Up at 4 AM six days per week. Run, bike, and swim, all before the rooster crows. Lift weights at lunch. Work out even when sick, bleeding, or delirious. I get tired even thinking about you people!

In the Paleo Solution, we shoot for a therapeutic dose of exercise. Enough to make sure your f.a.n.n.y is firm and scrumptious-looking and your blood lipids make your cardiologist sing with happiness, but not so much exercise that you burn yourself out and make a bad situation worse.

I think you have a basic idea about how our lifestyles might be a teensy bit out of balance relative to our cave dweller genetics. Sleep, activity, socialization, and meaningful work. Check! Now we need to look at what is going on inside. In good times and bad. We need to look closely at the hormone cortisol, and see how it fits into our Paleolithic Solution.

Cortisol Without being the least bit cynical, I could boil life down to food, sleep, and s.e.x.*** On the food side of the equation, we have all that goes into getting it (brains to plan, brawn to procure and defend). Once we have that food, we eat it and either burn it or store it. This is all related to our short and long term energy management, body-fatness, fertility, etc. Insulin and glucagon are there to help regulate our storage and utilization of energy. However, Cortisol is also a player in this game, as it also has effects on energy storage and a host of other functions: 1. Regulating the immune response. Too much of an immune response can lead to autoimmunity or significant problems from "collateral damage" caused by an overactive immune system. Many diseases are not fatal in and of themselves (like the H1N1 flu), but they sometimes become fatal because of an overreaction by the immune system. Cortisol "puts the breaks" on the immune system and is very important in both our susceptibility to disease and how we respond to illness.

2. How much sodium we have in our blood. More cortisol means more sodium and thus more blood volume. Typically, this will lead to higher blood pressure, with the a.s.sociated stress on the heart, vasculature, and kidneys.

3. Regulates connective tissue strength. Too much cortisol can weaken connective tissue in our skin and elsewhere. Cortisol can and does make you wrinkle faster.

4. Perhaps most important to our discussion here, cortisol releases glucose and fatty acids from the liver and blunts insulin sensitivity.

Most people are familiar with the idea that cortisol is a "stress" hormone, but this is misleading and more a function of our modern lives than cortisol really being a "stress" hormone. Cortisol is in fact critical to life, and a lack of cortisol will mean significant health problems, including death! This is again a story of shooting for the right amount of a hormone, and if you have been paying attention thus far, we are talking about levels that we might find in our Paleolithic ancestors.

A normal day for our Paleolithic ancestors would start by awakening with relatively high cortisol levels. This is not the Monday morning commute blues: Paleo Edition. This is nature's way of making sure we are alert, energized, and ready to go! Cortisol causes the release of glucose and fatty acids from the liver. That's energy our Paleolithic ancestors needed to move camp, hunt, gather, and generally get the day going. Now, this scenario was normal and, in fact, nonstressful. Keep in mind there are normal operating parameters for all our hormones and it is quite normal for Cortisol to be elevated in the morning.

Normal cortisol profile. High in the AM, low in the PM.

Cortisol works in synchrony with insulin and glucagon to regulate our energy levels. When we need more energy (early in the day or fleeing from a predator) Cortisol is relatively high. In the evening, when we are winding down and going to bed, Cortisol should drop. Now, what if our Paleolithic ancestors were ambushed by a rival camp or they stumbled upon a particularly large and cranky carnivore that wanted to see just who was at the top the food chain that day? Did those situations happen and were they stressful? Yes, they happened, and yes, they were stressful. But the stresses of Paleolithic consequence sorted themselves out quickly. For good or ill. They tended not to drag on and they did not happen every day.

Our modern life may not involve the risk of being eaten by a bear (generally), but it does come with a host of its own stressors. Some quite immediate and tangible, others more mental. But in general, our stressors in modern times are chronic, as opposed to the acute stresses for which we are so well equipped. Possibly losing a job in a bad economy, getting mugged while on the train, a near miss while driving, thinking about the kids' college education . . . lack of sleep. These are modern issues that register as a stress, and in a c.u.mulative fashion, they can crush us.

Beat That Dead Horse White Boy!

The critical concept here is acute vs. chronic stress. We are genetically wired for dealing with acute (brief/infrequent) stress. This stress was answered with some kind of physical activity (fight or flight) that made use of that glucose and fat released from the liver. Then things returned to a relatively "mellow" norm.

We are not well suited to the stresses of modern life. These stresses affect people in different ways and to different degrees, but they are most a.s.suredly "there," and they are c.u.mulative.

When you are subjected to stress, particularly chronic stress, your body releases cortisol much more frequently than it should. This gets ugly when cortisol is not only high in the morning, but all day long, even at bedtime. The consequences can be dire, as the more stressed we get, the worse our ability to deal with stress becomes. It is a nasty s...o...b..ll effect that is called a "feed forward" mechanism in biology. Abnormally elevated cortisol begins to disturb sleep, which makes us more p.r.o.ne to daily stress, which raises cortisol. The consequences of this downward spiral include suppressed immune function, chronically elevated blood sugar levels, decreased insulin sensitivity, impaired ability to form long-term memory, and decreased s.e.x drive and libido. Yes folks, cortisol is a big deal.

You Know... Everything Is Like Related. And Stuff.

Chronic stress can and does raise cortisol levels. Stress can come from a variety of places and is somewhat subjective, but one of the first things to be affected by stress and increased cortisol is sleep. Once your sleep gets b.u.g.g.e.red, the wheels fall off the wagon. Keep in mind this works both ways. An otherwise manageable stress level can be made nearly fatal by sleep disturbances. Staying up too late, or simply neglecting sleep quality and duration, can seriously undermine your ability to deal with otherwise manageable levels of stress.

I Make Sleepy Time Most people realize they feel subpar when they miss sleep. Other people are so consistently sleep deprived they have no idea what normal is. Wherever you are on that spectrum, you need a wake-up call on beddy-bye. Why? Well, here are two biggies: Just one night of missed or inadequate sleep is sufficient to make you as insulin resistant as a type 2 diabetic. Think about how c.r.a.ppy you feel when you miss sleep. That's how much fun it is to be a type 2 diabetic all the time! Exercise can help, but your physiology never gets to normal without adequate sleep.

I can hear the tough guys and gals out there, "Sleep's a crutch; it's all in the mind. I'm tough; I just need more coffee and I can push through." Uh, sure, tough guy, how about this: The Centers for Disease Control recently announced that shift work (aka-lack of sleep) is a known carcinogen. Billy-Bob that means shift work, similar to cigarettes, asbestos, nuclear radiation, and certain talk shows can give you cancer. OK, maybe I'm stretching things on the talk shows. When you neglect sleep or have poor sleep quality, this registers as a significant stressor to your body. It makes you immune compromised, chubby, forgetful, and crazy.

Our hunter-gatherer ancestors never had an alarm clock. They went to bed when the sun went down (or not long thereafter) and got up when the sun came up. Our ancestors, like every other living thing, were tuned to the ebb and flow of not only the seasons, but also the turning of the day. It was not "24/7" as we live now. As I described earlier, we had significant periods of leisure and downtime, and we slept. This is what our genetics are expecting when we are born into this world, but we are now sending a very different message. If your genetics could talk to you, they would likely take on the voice of Bill Cosby and say, "I brought you into this world . . . I can take you out!"

But Robb, I Just Want to Look Good!

If the notion of cancer caused by lack of sleep is not motivational to you, I'll go for a more superficial shot-How about looking good naked. Interested yet? If you do not sleep you will: 1. Completely c.o.c.k-block your fat loss.

2. Get fat, sick, and diabetic.

3. Get old and wrinkled before your time.

If we are chronically insulin resistant and have elevated blood glucose levels from cortisol, it is quite similar to eating a high-carb diet. Advanced glycation end-products age our skin and organs at an accelerated rate. Insulin resistance causes us to store fat around the waistline and we tend to not use body fat for energy. Additionally, elevated cortisol destabilizes the protein collagen, which is what gives youthful skin its, well, youthfulness!

Even if your food is pretty good, you can undermine your health (and f.a.n.n.y) by mismanagement of stress and sleep. So, for those of you who choose to stick your collective heads in the sand on the health issues, perhaps you are superficial enough to do something to avoid getting fat, wrinkled, and diabetic. I don't really care what your motivation is-I just want you to give this stuff a shot so you can see how effective it is. Oh, and your f.a.n.n.y looks a lot better if it's not droopy and wrinkled!

Let's Talk about Charlie Here is a hypothetical example of how stress can acc.u.mulate in our lives. Charlie is a composite of thousands of people I have worked with. In fact, Charlie might be you.

Charlie has a great job, which is fantastic because he knows many people that have been laid off. Charlie is working extra hard to prove his worth to his company and because he has a beautiful six-month-old daughter. Charlie likes to stay in shape. Not only does exercise make him feel good, but his job has a "meet-and-greet" component, so if he is fit and attractive, he is better at his job. Charlie found a new high-intensity interval training program that he does five days per week. The only cla.s.s he can make is at 6 AM, so he gets up at 4:30 every day to make it to the gym. When he gets home, he helps his wife before heading off to work.

As of late, Charlie has noticed little "pop" in his exercise, and although he is watching his food tighter than ever, he seems to be getting soft in the abs. He always had a six-pack, but now he is flabby in the gut. Although he rarely caves and eats something he should not, he has been dealing with wicked sugar cravings in the afternoons and evenings. He's had difficulty concentrating in a number of circ.u.mstances-at work, while driving, and even at home. This is not like him at all, as he is usually the guy who remembers "everything," whether related to work or pop-culture quizzes on the radio.

All Charlie wants to do is sleep, but when he puts his head down at night, his mind races. He does not get to bed till 10:00 or 10:30, and it is another hour or longer before he falls asleep most nights. He frequently awakes around 3:30 needing to pee (when did that start happening?). When his alarm jangles him awake, he feels more tired than when he went to bed! Charlie always thinks to himself upon waking, "Why can't I be this tired when I go to sleep"?

Some days are worse than others. Last Tuesday, he nearly spilled the shake he was drinking while driving to the gym. Once at the gym, he felt achy and cold. For the first time in his life, he felt old. Instead of feeling thirty-five, he felt eighty. To make matters worse, he had another tickle in his throat-most likely another sinus infection. He death-marched through that day like all the rest, and even forgot an important meeting (having neglected to get that scheduled into his PDA-he never used to miss details like that!).

When he arrived home that Tuesday evening at 6 PM, he grabbed his cooing six-month-old daughter from his wife so she could finish dinner. His wife enjoyed being at home with their new daughter, but she was a night-shift nurse, and in a few weeks she would be heading back to work. Working back-to-back shifts was no picnic, but her supplemental income was the only way they could afford the beautiful new townhouse they had purchased eighteen months prior.

After dinner, Charlie and his wife had a rare moment alone as their daughter slept in the living room. Charlie's wife, half jokingly, half scolding, pointed out that Charlie had not "made a move on her" since their daughter was born. Charlie felt guilty. He deeply loved his wife, but he had been far more interested in sleeping than s.e.x as of late.

a.n.a.lyzing Charlie I have worked with many "Charlies" over the past ten years. Sometimes it's Charlene instead of Charlie, but the net result is the same, as is the cause: a lifestyle completely out of whack with our genetics.

Let's dissect the stressors to understand what is happening to Charlie's health and hormonal status. Keep in mind: Charlie is doing a lot of stuff right. Exercising, watching his food, staying in a loving and supportive relationship. Think about how things might go if his food was terrible, he never exercised, and had relationship problems. I've worked with that person a few thousand times too, and it's an even worse train wreck.

Sleep How much is Charlie getting? Not remotely enough. He is getting into bed about 10:30, is awake for an hour or so after that, and then get's up in the night to pee. He's up at 4:30, resulting in less than six hours most nights, perhaps as little as four to four and a half when considering his potty breaks.

Tired and Wired If you recall, Charlie is dragging-f.a.n.n.y through the day. Barely able to stay awake, forgetful. When he lies down to sleep, his head spins as he reviews the day's events and thinks about the following day's activities. Charlie is what strength coach Charles Poliquin would call "tired and wired." Normally, our cortisol is low at night to allow us to go to sleep. In Charlie's case, he is in a stage of burnout in which his cortisol is actually high in the evening and rock bottom in the morning. This makes life particularly tough, as the little rest he gets is not all that restful, and when he needs to be "on," he is anything but.

A common solution to this problem is downers at night and uppers in the AM. Downers usually entail a few gla.s.ses of wine (It helps Charlie "relax") and an ever-increasing dose of coffee in the morning. The problem is the wine makes that disturbed sleep even worse because it blocks the critical release of growth hormone in early sleep. The escalating morning stimulant dose helps initially, but it just digs a deeper hole in the long run. At some point, the coffee no longer provides any noticeable boost-it is simply vital to existence. Functioning without it is not even an option.

Some people will take the "uppers and downers" game to their family physician. He or she will prescribe one of a variety of sleep aids, which again blocks growth hormone release (your rest is just not that restful on drugs, folks) and the uppers may shift to things like Ritalin from a coworker. The bottom line is Charlie is not getting enough sleep and the pharmaceutical routes only delay the inevitable and worsen the fall.

Tired and wired profile: Low cortisol in the Am, high in the PM.

Sporting a Chubby Charlie, although not fat by most people's standards, is fatter than he has ever been in his life. He battles his newly acquired sweet-tooth and constantly works out, but what the heck is happening?

Charlie has chronically elevated cortisol levels, which means chronically elevated blood sugar (released from the liver) and fatty acid levels. This indirectly impairs insulin sensitivity (from the high blood sugar), while cortisol directly inhibits insulin sensitivity and leptin sensitivity. It's a cla.s.sic sign of insulin-resistant fat storage, which is why Charlie gains weight around the midsection. If we look at Charlie's blood lipids, we would see his triglycerides inching up, likely in lockstep with his LDL count, while the particle size becomes small, dense, and reactive. Atherosclerosis anyone?

s.e.x Type Thing Charlie has two new, but very annoying things happening. Low s.e.x drive and a need to pee at night. As Charlie's body fat increases, he has a tendency to convert his meager testosterone into estrogen because of an enzyme called aromatase that hangs out in fat tissue. If your body fat increases, whether male or female, you tend to convert testosterone to estrogen. For Charlie, this has set in motion prostate growth (benign prostatic hyperplasia-BPH) at the ripe old age of thirty-five. If this was not bad enough, his testosterone levels are low for two reasons. Cortisol and testosterone compete for the same limited resources. If cortisol goes up, testosterone must go down. Then add the conversion of testosterone to estrogen due to increased body fat and we have a bad situation brewing for Charlie. The effects for women are similarly powerful with a tendency to produce PMS, PCOS, fibroids, and infertility. Fun, no?

Did You Say Something?

Memory, from a biological perspective, falls into two categories: Necessary for survival or "quaint and expendable." High cortisol levels make memories "quaint" because your body thinks it is in a fight to the death. In most fight-to-the-death scenarios, you will remember enough of that event to avoid it in the future (hopefully), but there is no need to imprint languages, mathematics, or silly things like that. High cortisol not only blocks new memories, it actually causes some of our most valuable gray matter to die. Yes, a T-shirt with the slogan, "Cortisol causes brain damage" would not be lying. Now, you might be inclined to dismiss most of this stuff, but the combined features of insulin resistance and oxidative stress characteristic of high cortisol levels are in fact eerily similar to the proposed mechanisms of fun things like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and dementia. I guess the one upside of losing your marbles is that every time you see your significant other it will literally be like the first time: "Hey, s.e.xy! What's your name?"

Stressed Much?

Charlie has a ton of stress from which he cannot escape, but he is actually pretty mellow by disposition. Are you like Charlie, or do you have significant conflict in your life? Are you wound tight, and do you have constant emotional ups and downs? If your answers are yes, you likely have impaired insulin sensitivity. Now your behavior could actually be from poor insulin sensitivity due to bad diet and inadequate sleep (remember how it feels to crash from too many carbs?), but it could be that your stress is actually causing your insulin resistance. As I mentioned in the previous section, when we are subjected to stress for a long period of time, our body will tend to produce too much cortisol. Cortisol is helpful in stressful situations (from a Paleolithic perspective), as it releases stored energy from the liver in the form of glucose and fats. When running from a bear, this is a good thing. In today's world, however, your stressed-out hissy fit is pretty similar to eating a candy bar, but without any of the fun. You release sugar and fats from your liver because your genetics think you are in danger, and you may need to run or fight for your life. Instead you are overrun by stress and your health and waistline are paying the price. Just to be clear: You could be eating a smart, low-carb, Paleo diet, and still fail to see many benefits due to chronically high stress.

Recap Numero Dos b.u.t.tercup, I think you missed some of that due to impaired concentration caused by lack of sleep and excessive stress. Let's make sure you got everything: Stress has an additive effect. We lose some sleep, work longer hours, fret about money, and take care of the kids. Each of these adds to our stress buffet. Sleep is likely the most important factor (neglect your sleep and watch how fast things come undone) concerning stress, but day-to-day stress can elevate cortisol in the evening and leave you tired and wired, thus affecting sleep. It's a catch-22 if you don't have your ducks in a row. Meds and booze do not fix the situation. Any questions?

Your Fix So, I guess it would be mean to get you all worked up about stress and cortisol and then offer no solutions.

Being the consummate professional, I'm going to walk you through the most important things you need to do to get a handle on your stress. A few of you who are really sick may need to take this a step further and seek some medical help for adrenal glands that are "high mileage." Some of you are in the midst of chronically elevated cortisol, but you can save your own bacon if you start making some changes. To be successful we need to bring your stress and cortisol back into ancestral norms.

Dude, Rack Out It might be important to know how much sleep is enough: for most people, most of the time, eight to nine and a half hours per night. For some of you that is legitimately too much-you just need to awaken refreshed and sans alarm clock. No ringy-dingy! If you have historically gotten by with six or seven hours and you seem fine, good on ya, but you need one little tweak to that formula: your bedroom must be pitch black when you sleep. That seems pretty self-explanatory, but I'll spell it out: no light sources! No TVs, computers, or alarm clocks. Fire alarms need to have their lights covered. A sleep mask does not cut it. If you want all the details of why, read the excellent book Lights Out! Sleep, Sugar and Survival. The abbreviated story goes like this: the porphyrin proteins that make up your red blood cells register light and carry this information of light exposure to your brain. This information blocks a very important antioxidant hormone/neurotransmitter called melatonin. This process is at the heart of your problem with cortisol. So get black-out curtains and cover your light sources to ensure a deep, restful sleep. Capisce?

This goes for everyone, but I know some of you will be incredulous about this. I have worked with many people who swore they only needed to sleep six or seven hours per night. These same people, when they slept in a completely dark environment, suddenly added an hour or two to that sleep and, miraculously, they looked, felt, and performed better!

If you get a handle on your sleep, you will recover faster from exercise, have better memory and recall, and have fewer allergies and significantly less inflammation. All of the stuff we talked about with regards to insulin and inflammation, sleep affects this about as powerfully as food.

If you are sick or overweight, this is a nonnegotiable topic. Paraphrasing a line from the book Lights Out: Sleeping more might cut into your social life, but so will cancer, diabetes, and dementia! Just to further guilt you into this, you have already bought, stole, or borrowed this book. Your investment is already done. What do you think my motivation is in recommending this stuff? Oddly, my desire is to see you succeed. I do not have a "Robb Wolf Sleep in a Box" product for sale. This stuff works, but only if you do it. Oh yea, take the night-light out of your kids' rooms. They will be p.i.s.sed if they realize you are trying to give them cancer and diabetes.

Shift Work Do you work in police, military, fire, or medical service? If so, shift work is likely a part of your gig. Well, you need to do the best you can with this. You are not on an ideal schedule, but when you do sleep, it needs to be quality. Dark room, full duration-it's tough, but it's critical. Naps help for folks in this situation but it is not a replacement for full, restful sleep. Sorry.

Activity Let's talk a little bit about "activity." I could have used the word "exercise," but activity sounds more sophisticated and won't cause you to inch toward the door. I'm only going to touch on this briefly, as we will have a whole chapter to bore you with later. For now, I just want to throw out some general concepts.

The Paleo Solution shoots for a variety of exercise: a little some days, a lot others, and occasionally none at all. Just like our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Some of you have already given yourselves a "gold star" for working out twice per day for the past five years. You're so dedicated you even work out while sick! Yippee! Well, no gold star for you! You are at the other end of the extreme and need to calm down. We are trying to reduce stress and cortisol. In our gym we see people, usually the endurance types, who seriously overdo their training. Are you carrying some excess chub around the midsection despite "tons of cardio"? Well b.u.t.tercup, all that cardio and getting up early to train has released more than your fair share of cortisol. And it's made you fat.

We see this routinely: Someone has been training with us for a year or so, has gotten quite lean and strong, and now he or she wants to tackle a marathon. Or a triathlon. Training volume goes from three days per week to six, and oddly the individual gets chubby in the midsection. Honestly, I don't care what you do, but if you think more, more, more is better, better, better, you are wrong. In the exercise chapter we will figure out what is a good dose to keep you lean, strong, and healthy.

I Like the Nightlife! I've Got to Boogie!

Ahhh, booze! So much fun, such a great way to ruin your health! Here is how most folks try to live: Stay up late watching TV and checking Facebook updates. Then head out on the town to shake your groove thang because you owe it to yourself to blow off some steam! Yeah, baby! You work hard so you deserve to play hard! Oh man! Everything is getting sooo hard around here! Wooohoo! That's the advertising fantasy of amazing nights of gin-soaked excitement. The cortisol-steeped reality is a s.h.i.tty bar, creepy people, expensive booze, and a morning wakeup that feels like a breakfast date with the county coroner.

For our clients the lifestyle piece is tougher to nail down than the exercise for sure, and it is even tougher than the food. People will gladly pay to be beaten senseless in workouts, but they are ready to bolt when we suggest they get a few zzz's and curtail their boozing for the sake of their health and a better-looking f.a.n.n.y.

Other people find compliance difficult due to the nature of their work. Our realtors, for example, are socialites whose productivity is based on shaking hands, kissing babies, and drinking eight nights out of seven. I'm not a teetotaler myself, and I do not recommend that for you, but some common sense is in order here. I cannot tell you how many people have e-mailed or asked during seminars how to drink like they are "Leaving Las Vegas," yet remain lean and healthy. I'm honestly stupefied by some of the questions I get, as a little common sense will get you a long way!

It might in fact be necessary to cut back your boozing if you want to be leaner and healthier. I know it sounds ridiculous to some of you, but people ask this all the time. I think you can reasonably have a drink (perhaps two) a few nights per week and be fine. If you are sick and overweight, you do not have as much lat.i.tude (are you picking up on the theme here?). Now, all that considered, there are smarter and dumber ways to get your booze on. Here are field-tested booze recommendations from a biochemistry graduate from America's top party school: Happy Hour Alcohol has a nasty effect on dating standards and growth hormone release. It is outside the scope of this book to address your beer goggles, so we will stick with the purely physiological ramifications of alcohol consumption. What you need to know is that alcohol does not just blunt growth hormone release, it just turns it off. This is not good for your health, recovery, or body composition. Solution? Well, I'd never want to make you uncomfortable and suggest perhaps not being a lush . . . so here is what we do: Drink earlier. You need to get your booze in as far away from bedtime as you can. I will not give you liver clearance rates of alcohol so you can try to figure out how to "beat the system." You just need to get your main drinking done earlier in the evening.

In the Clear Much of the problem with drinking is not the booze itself but all the c.r.a.p, usually sugar, that comes along with it. Ditch your froufrou drinks with the umbrellas and go for clear liquor. My favorite is Tequila (gold), prepared with the following ingredients: The Infamous NorCal Margarita!

2 shots of gold tequila Juice of 1 lime (the whole d.a.m.n thing!) Splash of soda water.

Drink one or two of these on an empty stomach early in your evening. Wrap up the night with some protein and fat, and you are set. You socialized, got your head change, and did not do too much damage to yourself. There is also some chemistry behind the recommendations. The lime juice blunts insulin release and the carbon dioxide bubbles in the soda water act as what's called a "nonpolar solvent." This actually extracts the alcohol from the drink and delivers it to your system faster. Better living through chemistry!

Can you use another clear alcohol besides Tequila?

Yes, none are as good, but use whatever you like.

What about beer and wine?

Beer is generally loaded with gluten. If you can find a gluten-free variety, give it a shot, but keep in mind it does have significant sugar content. As to wine, I detest the stuff and think it had its best day when it was still grape juice. If you go for wine, opt for dry varieties, as they have less sugar. If you think you are drinking wine "for your health," this is as shaky an excuse as explaining away an adulterous liaison as "networking." In both situations, you are fooling no one but yourself.

But alcohol isn't Paleo! Why are you recommending this?

Because, I get this question every d.a.m.n day and I'm just providing the information necessary to help people make the best choice for their situation. Let's not turn this into a religion, OK?

Neolithic Foods Remember that chapter on grains, legumes, and dairy? Remember how that stuff is really damaging to your innards and can cause a ton of problems? Yeah, it gets worse. Those foods also release cortisol. Many people who have food intolerances will notice an increased pulse rate after eating that food. If these foods are damaging the gut (and they are), it registers as a stress on the body, and the response to stress is cortisol. This situation is not a one-way street by the way. Let's say you tolerate grains relatively well (at least better than I do, as even a tiny gluten exposure will lay me up for days). What if you were suddenly exposed to a significant stress? You had to care for an ailing parent, you had to work a huge amount of overtime at work, your sleep gets seriously impacted, you are pushing too hard getting ready for your marathon. How do you think this stress might affect your tolerance to Neolithic foods like grains, legumes, and dairy? Interestingly enough, this life stress has a very negative impact on your gut health, which then has an impact on your ability to deal with that stress, which can then impact your sleep. It all fits together.

Do You Own Your Things, or Do Your Things Own You?

My background is that of a scientist, athlete, and coach. In many ways, you could order out a person's thinking in those different areas from concrete to very fluid and instinctual. Chemistry certainly benefits from intuition and insight, but it is 90 percent information and a.n.a.lysis and 10 percent intuition (I'm just making these numbers up, walk with me on this). On the other side, coaching is best when the coach has a solid technical basis and then he or she goes on a gestalt-like instinct. Perhaps 10 percent science, 90 percent intuition. Well, this next piece comes more from the perspective of a coach. I should probably say "life coach," but that term creeps me out for some reason. I will try to bring in a little science in the form of some psychology and anthropology to support my pending statement, but this is much more a felt thing, and I want you to take it from that context.

Ok, here it is: Having more s.h.i.t (cars, TVs, houses, shoes... you know, c.r.a.p) does not make you happier. In fact, it makes you unhappy and whittles away your life and causes you stress.

Ok, it's out. Now let's look at this. I am a dyed-in-the wool libertarian. I love free markets, business, and freedom. I also think people get easily swayed into thinking a big house, fast car, or the latest gadgets, will make them happy. I see people doing more work than they want so they can buy c.r.a.p they worry about and must maintain. We have a client who bought a very expensive car. She has the money, and has worked hard her whole life, so I certainly believe she should do whatever she wants to do to make herself happy. But now all she does is complain about how people cut her off in traffic, make dirty faces at her, and how much stress it is to park and maintain this high-dollar car. Now this client, who is a wonderful person, is really overweight and not really happy in her own skin. She has worked so hard for so long, only to be stressed about her big house and expensive car. She has been the epitome of stress for twenty years and has an autoimmune condition, cardiovascular disease, and obesity for her reward. As she slowly regains her health, she is realizing time, health, and experiences are what matter, not a remodel on a house that was new two years ago. Her illness is largely an outgrowth of the stress necessary to maintain the stuff in her life.

Another example is a young couple that have good-paying jobs, two kids, and so much stress they want to run away. Their issue? During the housing boom they bought as much fracking house as they could. They, like many other people, were banking on the house appreciating, so why not swing for the fences and get as much as they could? They also made sure to appoint their house with all new furniture, a big TV, and new cars for mama-bear and papa-bear. The only problem with this all-too-typical American dream is they never really added up all of the individually small costs, and suddenly they were seriously over their heads. These folks are crushed by stress born of poor financial choices. These choices are driven by one of two compulsions: Trying to fill a void that tangible items will never fill, or by ego: I want more stuff so people will respect me.

These two stories are related in that they describe a serious mismatch between elements of our economy and our psychology. Credit is such a dicey thing for people because it is a completely novel concept in nature. You never get "something for nothing" in a living biological system. We never sauntered across the savannah and bought food, booze, and furniture on credit. There were no "deferred payments." You wanted something, you had to work to get it, and you experienced the full impact of that want immediately. Then you had the item, whether it was food, clothing, or shelter. But in a nomadic, hunter-gatherer society, you do not need or want that much stuff. If you needed something, you generally had the skills to make it. And unless it was critical, you d.a.m.n sure did not want to lug it around with you!

I hesitated about even broaching this topic, as it is certainly "soft science." In my experience of working with people, stress is an inescapable and significant factor in people's lives, and a stunning amount of their stress is self-induced. People might benefit from considering how they want to spend their time and resources. I know wealthy people who use their wealth to live a fun, action-packed life (or a quiet contemplative life in some instances), but these people have remarkably little stuff as compared to their wealth. I see other folks who are payment-planned and stressed to the gills despite six- or seven-figure incomes.

To some degree I really buy into the idea that "attachment is suffering." If you are attached to a bunch of c.r.a.p that requires you to work unG.o.dly hours to pay for it, you are missing something. I also know people who love to work. They do not have an off switch and just love to go. If this is you, and you're happy, fulfilled, and satisfied, great. You are a rare breed indeed.

I'm not a guru, and I have no special knowledge. But I have seen a lot of people benefit from a.s.sessing what is important in their lives and making changes to support happiness. It's hard to do. We can make excuses about obligations and kids and all kinds of stuff. I don't know what the right answer is for you, but if you have weight or health issues, work yourself to death, have a closet full of clothes you never wear, and a house full of c.r.a.p you never use, then maybe you need to do some thinking about how you approach your life.

I bring all this up because issues of materialism, happiness, credit, and work are talked about quite often, but I have never seen anyone turn an evolutionary light on this topic. Why is credit a tough concept to navigate? Because it's a novel concept that has some addictive characteristics, just like refined foods. Why do people spend their money (time) on duplicates of c.r.a.p they do not need? Because it spins the same dials in our heads as hunting and gathering, only we have to lug the c.r.a.p around with us now. Alcoholism, drug addiction, spending problems, and gambling tend to run in the same folks. We all have these tendencies to some degree, as they are all symptoms of an environment at odds with our genetics.

What about Me?

So, where are you with regards to cortisol, and health? How much do you have in common with Charlie described at the start of the chapter? Let's look at some specifics: 1. Do you sleep less than nine hours per night?

2. Do you have problems falling asleep or staying asleep?

3. Do you wake up more exhausted than when you went to bed?

4. Do you get a "second wind" in the evening, and really only feel awake about the time you should go to bed?

5. Are you tired and achy all the time?

6. Do you suffer frequent upper-respiratory infections?

7. Do you work out to exhaustion, and do you crave the "boost" exercise provides?

8. Do you live and die by stimulants such as coffee?

9. Have you gained fat in the midsection, despite watching your food intake?