Money

Well, today I'm very excited about my most recent major purchase. I spent quite a bit of money I can't really afford to spare on 10'x10' worth of Jiu Jitsu mats for my apartment. Justifying the purchase to myself afterwards, I realized that there's an issue I haven't addressed on here that I should have (and that I've had requests to talk about).

A customer I used to bartend for told the story of a friend who had put a deposit on a piece of real estate, only to have the seller file for bankruptcy the very next day. The friend showed up and requested his money back, based on the fact that bankruptcy doesn't happen overnight, and the seller had taken his deposit in bad faith. The seller refused, until the friend put it into simple terms. He said "You're gonna pay back that $1,000. You can give it to me, or you can give it to your doctor."

Grass-fed, grass-finished beef is expensive. But not when you consider the costs of eating cheap, processed, commercially-produced food in its stead. Compare the costs of treating diabetes, heart disease, and cancer to the price of eating grass-fed filet mignon for 2 meals a day, and you'll see how affordable it really is.

But there's good news. It turns out the USRDA for protein (something like 45-55 grams or so. Not even sure the exact numbers. You know I don't count calories or calculate macronutrient ratios) is entirely sufficient and reasonable (and going much over it can even have detrimental effects similar to those of eating carbohydrates). So you don't need all that steak. You need a couple ounces of good-sourced protein and a sufficient supply of healthy, natural animal fats (some olive oil is okay, coconut oil is better than okay) to feel satisfied and never be hungry. Delicious eggs can be bought at local farms for next to nothing (these may not be USDA certified as organic, but if you talk to the farmer, you can find out exactly what goes into the chickens that produce them, which you can't do at the grocery store, regardless of what the label says).

And further good news. The law of diminishing returns applies to eating properly just like it applies to anything else. Which means even if you eat conventional beef (not grass-fed), discount blocks of cheese (American cheese is typically not a cheese at all, but a soybean or other oil based "cheesefood." Avoid it like the plague), bleachy-white, flavorless eggs, and ultra-pasteurized milk (I'm assuming no dairy intolerance), you'll get the majority of the benefits of eating properly. You can supplement your diet with a few vitals that you're missing (because you'll undoubtedly have a omega-6 to omega-3 ratio that's way out of proportion), and end up far better off than your average turkey-sandwich-on-whole-wheat "healthy" eaters.

I hope I haven't strayed too far. If you want to read about supplements and micronutrients and everything, get Mark Sisson's book, or Nora Gedgaudas's. It's not my area of expertise (in fact, I claim no particular area of expertise). That's it for now.