My Interview With a Hunter-Gatherer

June 27, 2014
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There I was, sitting down for dinner after my first afternoon tracking animals in the Kwara Camp of Botswana, Africa. The thick aroma of what smelled like a mixture of wild animals, along with dung and an unfamiliar earthiness, made me realize I was in a macrocosm of life far removed from the sterile man-made environment I had traveled from 24 hours prior.   I couldn't help but wonder if there might be some trace of an olfactory memory encoded in my genes of this land I had left behind hundreds of thousands of years ago. I closed my eyes, inhaled the air deep into my lungs, searching for any remembrance of my past.  Nothing.  All I felt was  hunger after a long bumpy ride through the … [Read more...]

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How To Party Like An Animal and Survive

October 23, 2013
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The gang is all getting together tonight to party.  They are so excited, but you have committed to eating clean and lean.  You really want to go out with your friends, but how in the world are you going to maneuver the maze of the typical party fare?  From the moment you enter the door someone is handing you a glass of some sugar laden social lubricant. As you stealthily scan the table of dynamite finger foods, searching for something that won't blow you up, you wonder how you can survive the mine field of assorted goodies.  You have to eat something or you may insult the host. You have to imbibe in a few drinks.  I mean, really, who wants to be the party-pooper!  How do you arm … [Read more...]

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5 Minute Rundown On Current Health Research

August 23, 2013
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Imagine spending 3 days, walking from one room to the next, every 20 minutes, listening to some of the world's leading authorities speak on current health issues.  I had the honor of attending such an event at the Ancestral Health Symposium in Atlanta, this past weekend.  I tweeted @HlthCoachPenny as fast as my fingers could type, to relay morsels of info across the airwaves. Below is a brief synapsis of my most popular tweets: 'Presenter from New Zealand told me he respects us Paleo/Primal/Real foodies from the USA because we are bombarded with crap food.' 'Intermittent fasting, carbohydrate restriction & intermittent intense exercise - protocol for cancer patients'- … [Read more...]

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Eat Bugs, Everyone’s Doing It!

June 8, 2013
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Americans pride themselves on being on the cutting edge of science and new trends, but in the case of ancestral nutrition North America and Europe are way behind the times.  As a matter of fact, 80% of the world population is ahead of us when it comes to eating what many consider to be, now and throughout history, the most nutritious food on the planet: insects.  A United Nations report, "Edible insects, future prospects for food and security", which was released in 2013, states that the benefits of getting back to our ancestral roots of eating bugs could be the answer to feeding the over populated human race.  Not only as food for humans directly, but also indirectly as feedstock for … [Read more...]

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Paleo Goes Mainstream

April 23, 2013
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Just as I embark on my nutrition seminar tour for Mark Sisson the Primal/Paleo/Ancestral movement comes out of the shadows and hits center stage.  The recent press it received on Dr. Oz catapulted the ancestral health "craze" into mainstream popularity.  The only problem I have with all of this attention is that it isn't a "craze" or a fad diet.  It is the way we are genetically designed to eat, and have been eating for the past few million years, until the advent of agriculture which occurred about 10,000 years ago.  Click here to learn how in 2007 I embarked on my journey and watched my health improve while eating according my genetic blueprint.  I don't consider myself a 'Paleo … [Read more...]

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Is Your Desk Making You Fatsickandnearlydead?

February 22, 2013
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How many hours each day do you sit?  Now, I don't like being the bearer of bad news, but you may want to stand up while you read this.   Did you know that sitting all day can literally kill you! In a recent study it was found that women who sit 6 hours a day were 37% more likely to die, and men 17%, during the course of the study.  It has also been linked to dramatic increases in colon cancer, type II diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and depression.  It's not just the ergonomics of it, it is also the metabolic and systemic damage that occurs because of the slothfulness of sitting.  It all boils down to, 'If you don't use it you lose it'.  So why not just head out and do a … [Read more...]

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Feeding Kids Disconnected Food

January 30, 2013
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As most of you know, I have four children. I am also a Health Coach, Personal  Trainer, and Nutritionist.  You may think my kids eat everything healthy, organic, unprocessed, home cooked, and I never feed them junk food. Truth is, feeding my kids REAL food is a daily battle.  When I explain how important it is for them to eat healthy, my fifteen year old rolls her eyes and sarcastically quips, "Okay Health Coach Penny".  My thirteen year old will grab doughnuts or cupcakes at sleepovers...one time she overindulged and learned a very good lesson about the effects of junk food, as she spent the evening regurgitating her sugar fest. I'm not alone in this fight...a lot of my friends, that … [Read more...]

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Become a Fat Burning Machine!

October 24, 2012
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Oh yeah...I bet that title got your attention.  Everyone wants to know how to rev up their metabolism and access that seemingly endless supply of bodyfat, turning those love handles and saddlebags into fuel.  So how do you get that big blob of fat to turn into big logs of fuel?  Isn't that what bodyfat is designed for anyway...to be our body's alternative fuel source when it runs out of glucose and glycogen (instant and stored carbohydrates), right?  So why is it so hard to burn off that bodyfat and melt away the pounds?  Could it be you are taking in too many calories so your body just doesn't need to pull from it's fat stores, or could it be you aren't exercising enough to burn it … [Read more...]

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Confused About Diet? Use Common Sense!

September 13, 2012
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 “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.” ― Thomas Paine, Common Sense If you are confused about what to eat...join the crowd!  There is more conflicting nutrition information than there are shades of gray.  I say, take a step back. Back to our ancestors. What worked for tens of thousands of years worked better than what we have been eating the past 60 years, the SAD, Standard American Diet. For the first time in history our children are predicted to have a shorter life span than their parents. … [Read more...]

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In Search of REAL Food

July 26, 2012
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"We come unbidden into this life, and if we are lucky we find a purpose beyond starvation...which, lest we forget, is the common lot"--Abraham Verghese in Cutting For Stone It is difficult to imagine starvation as a worldwide problem when food is literally at our fingertips in America.  We are lucky to have the opportunity to be so picky as to choose where and what we eat, much less have difficulty in finding REAL food among the myriad of available sources.  Since the advent of the 'supermarket' in 1946 (yes, supermarkets are a mid-20th century phenomenon), we have separated ourselves from where and how food is actually grown...in the earth, and from animals that eat food naturally … [Read more...]

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