Tell It Tuesday: Hey Charlamagne, It's Still Rape, Even If You Marry Your Victim

Charlamagne & wife 

By Ta-ning Connai 

Charlamagne tha God has become widely known as the brash and in your face host of the syndicated radio show, The Breakfast Club. While notorious for rubbing many of his on-air guests the wrong way (like when Birdman said, “Put some RESPECK on my name!”), it's some disturbing information from a few years back that now has everybody up in arms.

A 2015 audio podcast has recently resurfaced where Charlamagne gives a chilling account of how he had sex with a woman after spiking her drink with Spanish Fly. He indecisively teeters back and forth about whether she was incoherent at the time and that's when my jaw literally hit the floor. 

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He goes on to proudly state that, although he let his friends see her naked, he denied their pleas to have sex with her too. He said this all while laughing his head off, and the idiot asking the questions seemed to be having a good time too. Charlamagne then justifies that he and the woman had already had discussions about “eventually” hooking up, as if consent for the future is like a rain check from the past. Now I've officially heard it all!

He says:

“Me and my wife hung out one Saturday night and she got sloppy drunk and passed out in my momma’s house and I got that pu**y. She was f***ing me back and all that but she was really drunk.”

According to his account, she wakes up the next morning to ask, “What happened?” which means if she didn't know, she did not give consent. Upon learning what took place, she was relieved that it was Charlamagne, as opposed to all of his friends, she had sex with, BUT she kept having to ask him because she wasn't really sure. Now, when you mix Spanish Fly, a blackout, sex and no consent, RAPE is what you call it.

Social media is fueling with outrage and petitions for Charlemagne's job are being formed. But here’s where the story gets twisted

...Because she ended up marrying this fool (oh yes she did), what does it now all mean? Some who initially said rape are now claiming that it's not. But when a man beats a woman (for example), calling it domestic violence isn't based on whether she presses charges or not, right? And if she ends up marrying him, like so many victims do, that doesn't mean the abuse never took place. See, the sad truth is that some women accept abuse all the time and some don't even realize it ever happened.

Case in point, my friend realized her ex-boyfriend raped her 20 years after the fact. She said they had a bad relationship for years, but every time they broke up, they got back together again. One day she got the strength to leave for good and she never went back. Late one night, she heard him yelling at her window. She could tell he was drunk and figured he just needed a place to crash. She didn't hesitate to let him in, because, after all, she knew the guy. But when she left him on the couch and headed back to her room, he yells, “I heard what you did!”

Turns out my friend had been having “relations” with a guy her ex kinda knew, but technically they weren't friends. So when she turned around to set him straight, he grabbed her by her neck. Because she suddenly feared for her life, she just flowed with what she knew was coming next.

When I carefully asked her why she didn't know it was rape, she explained that her brain went into protective mode. She said she subconsciously reframed the rape in a way that she could live with; she told herself that since they had been on-again-off-again so many times before, maybe he thought they were on again. Or that maybe he thought it was all cool, since she didn't exactly fight him off. The excuses for her perpetrator were endless and the way she blamed herself was pretty sad. Plus, she'd never heard of a rapist being someone you know, so she was kind of confused about that too.

Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” 

We can reframe the things that happen to us all we want, but if we refuse to see things for what they really are, eventually they will come back to haunt us. My friend thought ignoring the rape was the best thing to do, yet every relationship she had after was doomed before the start. She had to mourn her past from a place of truth and only then was she free to heal. 

Charlamagne’s wife is now his damage control as he tries to backpedal out the storm. But since he's the one that ran his big mouth, I'm not sure what he expects her to say. Maybe if they were to come completely clean and call what happened exactly what it was, maybe then we could all move on. At worst, Charlamagne may be a rapist; at best, a man who bad mouths his wife. But no matter the case, whichever is true, he’s got some changing to do!

Do you think that rape isn't rape if you're dating the person? How about if they drug you?

TA-NING is a former model and clothing designer who one day got the "call" to leave the fab world of fashion behind. While in Bible College, she discovered her knack for mixing her quirky style of writing with her gift to teach. TA-NING'S TELL IT TUESDAY is a weekly column that uses doses of pop culture to tear down the walls of churchy tradition, change the face of Christianity, and present it's message in a lively way. Ta-ning resides in Santa Monica (by way of BK), is obsessed with dogs, and is an old school Hip-Hop junkie!

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What Are Exogenous Ketones and Who Should Take Them?

Interest in the ketogenic diet is at an all-time high, and for good reason. It’s a great way to lose body fat, gain steady energy throughout the day, increase fat-burning capacity at rest and during exercise, reduce inflammation, and improve cognitive function. Keto also has a number of promising medical applications, including seizure control, enhanced efficacy of chemotherapy, and abatement of age-related cognitive impairment.

But going keto takes work. You have to overhaul your diet, restrict certain classes of foods, and pay close attention to what you eat. People prefer to avoid work if they can. They like shortcuts. Exogenous ketone supplements promise a shortcut—swallow this pill or mix this powder into your water and see your ketones skyrocket without changing the rest of your diet.

Although I’ve discussed exogenous ketones in the past, I’ve had many readers ask for a straightforward primer and takeaway recommendations for exogenous ketones. Here it is. Before I evaluate the proper role of ketone supplements, let’s dig into some basic questions.

What Are Exogenous Ketones?

There are two main types: ketone esters and ketone salts.

Ketone esters are ketone bodies bonded to an alcohol molecule. They taste terrible but are more potent than ketone salts. The rise in ketones after ketone ester supplementation is more pronounced but doesn’t last as long.

Ketone salts are ketone bodies bonded to a salt, such as sodium, magnesium, or potassium. They taste better (but not good) but are less potent than esters. The rise in ketones after ketone salt supplementation doesn’t get as high but lasts longer.

Do They Work?

Exogenous ketones increase blood, urine, and breath levels of ketone bodies. In that sense, they “work.”

Are they an effective substitute for actually following a ketogenic diet? Probably not.

First, there’s something unnatural about having elevated levels of ketones and glucose together. It’s really hard to make that happen using traditional whole foods. The closest natural approximation you could get to it would be the traditional coconut-rich diets of the Kitava people in the South Pacific, where the medium chain triglycerides (MCT) in the coconut fat increased ketone production alongside the carbs in the fruit and tubers they ate. They had excellent metabolic health, but they weren’t anywhere close to a ketogenic diet. Coconut fat isn’t as ketogenic as purified MCT oil, let alone exogenous ketones.

That alone gives me pause. The evolutionary novelty raises my hackles.

Second, there are inherent metabolic differences between boosting ketones via diet and boosting ketones via supplements. On a ketogenic diet, ketones go up because you’re converting body and dietary fat into ketone bodies. A rise in endogenous ketones means you’re burning fat and building the requisite machinery to metabolize the new energy source. On exogenous ketones, ketones go up because you ate some ketones; conversion of body and dietary fat into ketone bodies goes down if anything.

Take this study where human volunteers drank either ketone ester or ketone salt beverages alongside their normal diet. It worked. They got into ketosis, showed elevated levels of ketone bodies, and did this without changing their diet. Their conclusion says it all: “exogenous ketone drinks are a practical, efficacious way to achieve ketosis.”

Another effect of the ketone drinks was to lower blood glucose, free fatty acids, and triglyceride levels. This sounds great. Elevated levels of all those markers are harbingers of disease, particularly if they remain chronically elevated. But think about what this means. If free fatty acids go down, that means adipose tissue isn’t being liberated for burning.

That’s exactly what ketones do: inhibit lipolysis, the breakdown of body fat into triglycerides and free fatty acids for burning. In normal conditions where ketones are produced endogenously, this is expected and beneficial. If homemade ketones increased lipolysis, you’d end up with ketoacidosis. You’d make ketones which released more body fat which got turned into more ketones which released more body fat which became more ketones. And on and on. It simply wouldn’t stop.

But if you’re taking exogenous ketones to lose weight, you’re going to be disappointed.

Although they aren’t officially classified as a macronutrient, they are a source of energy. If you’re consuming exogenous ketones, you’re burning less of another energy source. And you’re making less ketones.

That’s not to suggest that exogenous ketones are useless. They have many potential uses, as I’ll explain. They just aren’t the same as getting into ketosis using diet or fasting.

What Are Their Practical Benefits?

Exogenous ketones can lower appetite during a fast. After an overnight fast, normal weight human subjects either drank a ketone ester supplement or a calorie-matched glucose drink. Compared to the glucose drinkers, the ketone drinkers had lower insulin, lower ghrelin, greater satiety, and less hunger. This can be useful for people trying to extend their fast who don’t want to or can’t yet deal with the hunger. You’re still taking in energy, but the metabolic profile remains similar to that of a fasted person.

Exogenous ketones can acutely improve the glucose response. After an overnight fast, healthy, normal weight humans drank a ketone ester supplement which spiked their ketone levels up to 3.2 and remained elevated throughout the oral glucose tolerance test. This reduced their blood glucose response and increased their insulin sensitivity.

Exogenous ketones can suppress expression of an inflammatory pathway linked to several disease states, including arthritis.

As it stands now, there are two areas where exogenous ketones show great potential.

Where Do Exogenous Ketones Make the Most Difference?

Medical Applications

For whatever reason, many patients won’t attempt a ketogenic diet—even if the evidence is clear that it could help. Doctors are often hesitant to recommend dramatic dietary shifts—even if they believe in their efficacy—to patients who are already dealing with difficult health issues. If you’ve got a picky kid with epilepsy, a pickier adult with Alzheimer’s, or a cancer patient who refuses to give up the familiar-yet-non-ketogenic foods that give him some small manner of comfort in this trying ordeal, exogenous ketones could make a big difference.

The human studies aren’t quite there yet, but it seems likely that they’d help. A recent human case study found that ketone esters added to the regular diet improved Alzheimer’s symptoms. Animal studies indicate that adding exogenous ketones to a regular lab (read: not ketogenic) diet can reduce seizure activity and improve overall symptoms in epilepsy animal models, reverse early neuronal hyperactivity in Alzheimer’s animal models, and reduce anxiety in rats.

High Performance Endurance Athletics

Alongside a normal high-carb athlete’s diet, the provision of exogenous ketones before a race increased performance over carbohydrate alone. It increased fat utilization and preserved glycogen reserves until the later part of the race—just like fat-adapted training, only with carbs in the diet.

Exogenous ketones don’t seem to improve high-intensity, glucose-intensive exercise, increasing fat burning during steady state exercise but dropping top-end high-intensity performance. Another study found that ketone dieters reduced 50-minute time trial performance in cyclists, though another group of researchers have criticized the methods. Even when a ketone ester didn’t improve performance in the shuttle run to exhaustion and 15 meter sprint repeats, it did reduce the drop in brain function following the exercise.

There’s a lot more research coming down the pike in this area, but there’s clearly some efficacy in endurance athletics, and maybe athletics in general.

Suggestions for Purchasing Exogenous Ketone Supplements

Ketone supplement choices include a variety of products with beta-hydroxybutyrate or those containing medium-chain triglycerides (liquid or powder), which will help boost liver ketone production if you’re already following a keto dietary approach. Products with beta-hydroxybutyrate often include additional agents like amino acids or minerals.

As for MCT oil (and oil powders), powder formulations tend to cause less digestive distress (e.g. probiotics), but some folks object to the additional ingredients like sunflower lecithin or soluble corn fiber). Even if you’d like to eventually settle on an oil, I’d recommend starting with a powder to see how you respond and to give your body the chance to adapt over time.

Over the past couple years, I’ve tried a number of ketone supplements, generally to enhance a longer fast or to offer an edge before one of my Ultimate Frisbee evenings. This Kegenix variety is one I’d recommend. I’ve also used Quest Nutrition MCT oil powder with good results as well, but there are plenty of other solid formulations to choose from.

Are There Side Effects?

The most common side effect is GI distress. In my experience, it’s urgent GI distress. If you decide to try an exogenous ketone supplement, do so slowly. Space out your doses. Remain close to a trusted bathroom.

They also taste terrible, although that’s improving. If you don’t think “tastes bad” is a side effect worth mentioning, you haven’t take a shot of ketone esters.

If you take exogenous ketones, use them for something of substantial benefit:

• Seizure cessation.
• Cognitive improvement in dementia.
• Increased fasting tolerance.
• High-end performance, especially endurance training.

But don’t sit around and take ketone esters or salts because you want to “bump your ketones up” for some vague reason. Or because you think they’ll be a miracle weight loss supplement (they won’t be). Have a purpose. Give those ketones something to do. Have a specific, appropriate, research-affirmed job for them.

Finally, don’t expect them to be a replacement for regularly spending time in an endogenously-ketogenic state. Living keto is considerably more effective than trying to supplement your way to it.

Thanks for stopping in, everybody. I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions. As I mentioned, I intended this as a basic primer for beginners and visitors to the site. (Welcome, by the way!) If questions warrant, I’ll do a follow-up post that gets more granular.

The post What Are Exogenous Ketones and Who Should Take Them? appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

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Admit It or Not We've all Dated a Stevie J.

Photo via Hollywood Life

By Michelby Coco Whitehead

Like many music lovers, I have been waiting not so patiently for real R&B to make a comeback. Last week my wish kind of came true; however, nobody told me it would come through the seemingly drunk in love nuptials of Faith Evans and Stevie J... Let us pray.

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Faith in 'Missing You' video

We were all rooting for Faith. My big sister Danielle ran to the store and brought a plastic-looking "Faith coat" after seeing Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You" video. She cried like a fool in love when she thought she lost it one weekend. We fans only wanted the best for Faith, much like we protested Mary's marriage to Kendu.

True indeed, Faith has had her own questionable affairs, but this new union has thrown everyone for a loop. But we have to remember that celebrities are still people at the end of the day, and having lots of money and fame doesn't equate to the ability to make sound decisions all the time. In fact, the more outlandish their behavior, the more they remain relevant, which is why "Stebie" is a household name today, courtesy of his toxic love triangle with Joseline Hernandez and Mimi Faust on Love & Hip Hop Atlanta.

Even though we're looking at Faith sideways for getting involved with him, we also need to look in the mirror. Haven't we all dated a guy whose reputation was Grade-A trash despite the petitions, cries, screenshots, prophetic dreams and shade-throwing of family and friends? Maybe you were blindsided and had no clue of his prior offenses in relationships. That was my dilemma once upon a time, but once I gathered receipts and stories from his family that he was indeed lazy, crazy, and overly entitled, I served him an eviction notice--literally!

But there is another category of women who will blissfully walk into a situation knowing all the man's jacked up background and still try to turn a clown into a husband. Maybe you were desperate for love, money, or a place to stay and thought you could make it work for the greater good. Or maybe, you're the type who goes against the grain to prove that you can "fix" a man because you're "better" than his ex-girlfriends, only to discover that you're not qualified to play Iyanla 

and that a leopard never changes his spots. Sooner or later you get a rude awakening when the dust settles, and the relationship dissolves.

Finally, there are some of us who know we have a Stebie and are still with him, ignoring his red flags and painting a different version of him to the public so it matches our fantasy. For what, sis? If you fall into this category, you need to spend some time alone and with real friends who can help you figure out what void you're trying to fill by holding on to him the way my sister Danielle held on to that cheap and highly flammable jacket.

And let's be clear about what a Stevie J. consists of. Your Stevie doesn't literally have to have beaucoup kids and make promises of turning strippers into the next one hit wonder. You know good and well what disrespect and manipulation looks like on television and in your own life. Real love awaits you, but you have to put on your "faith coat" until it shows up.

So let's not go too hard on Faith Evans and her decision to become Mrs. Steven Jordan. Hopefully, she and Stevie can have a great marriage... but if it doesn't work out, we look forward to her writing some bomb songs about love and pain. You just never know how this will play out, but in any event, we'll be watching.

Faith Evans featuring Stevie J.

"A Minute"

********

Have you dated a Stevie J.? 

A woman of the bayou pimping my pen because I'm scared of a day job. You can find me somewhere telling stories like Nas and Terry McMillan on April Fool's day. Writing is life so follow me on IG @cococurator 

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Rising Comedian Adrienne Brandyburg is Funny, Multi-talented and Naturally Glam!

50 And Floyd: When Two Petty Personalities Split

50 and Floyd during happier times

By Brenda Alexander

Former BFF’s Floyd Mayweather and 50 Cent’s beef doesn’t seem to be dying down any time soon. They’ve been exposing each other’s skeletons on Instagram for weeks. So far, they’ve thrown shots at Floyd’s illiteracy, 50 as an absentee father, Floyd as a woman beater, 50’s a rat, neither of them having any street cred and they are both broke. And that's the PG-13 version.

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50 posted a police statement of Floyd’s son account of witnessing alleged abuse against his mom at the hand of Floyd, via IG

They fell out in 2012 over a money dispute and according to 50, Floyd acted brand new after being released from prison and no longer needed 50’s help. 

Floyd alleges 50 is an informant via IG

This is what happens when two vindictive spirits ”breakup.” You are the company you keep right? And, I’m quite sure that when they were bromancing it up, they trolled others as a duo. 50 is a petty Cancer and Mayweather is insecure. That’s a poisonous combo.

None of their antics are surprising. This is how they operate. Did Floyd not expose his ex Ms. Jackson’s abortion to his millions of Facebook followers when she finally left him and found comfort in the arms of Nelly after years of alleged abuse. And 50 is worse than a bitter wife fighting for alimony and full custody of the kids in a nasty divorce. He goes to great lengths to destroy whomever he feels has wronged him. Vivica Fox, Ja- Rule and as recent as Papoose are just a few he’s taunted online.

I get it gentlemen, a friendship ending is a horrible death, and it’s hard to mourn the loss of someone who is still alive. But you gotta move on my G’s, and not like this.

As when any other relationship ends, you should take a step back and analyze why. Were there warning signs? Did this friend have major character flaws? How did they treat their other friends? There are normally tons of red flags.

I recently experienced a breakup with a friendship, and the signs were always there. This individual didn’t have any other solid friendships outside of me. It wasn’t until after we parted ways that I analyzed the way in which they treated others, and the sole theme was that they always attached themselves to those who could benefit them. Our relationship was no different.

It was a non-reciprocal relationship in which they got more from me than I got from them. I was met with many requests that I fulfilled and when I needed something, I got nothing. All of my other friends warned me that I was being used but I didn’t see it. I’m not one to take inventory of what I do for others, which is a blessings and a curse, so I ignored their pleas to either end the friendship or confront the “issue.” Furthermore, I’m not one to take things personally as quickly as others. “Oh, they are just going through a rough time,” I’d say. But deep down inside, I knew it was an imbalanced relationship.

Oddly enough, this friend stopped speaking to me after they assumed I was upset over a professional favor I requested. Guilty conscious maybe? After reaching out to them on two separate occasions to try and have a conversation and come to a resolution, I gladly let them go.

Considering the caliber of a friend I am, I’m always shocked when others aren’t the same. I helped this friend emotionally, financially, professionally and even as far as extending the same to their family - so it stung when things went south and I was easily dismissed as I was. But, as tempting as it was to air this person’s dirty laundry, I took the high road. After all, you teach people how to treat you and they only do what’s allowed.

In a digital world, to refrain from social media wars, I use the “out of sight, out of mind” approach. You’re unfollowed, blocked, numbers are deleted, pictures are erased and whatever else is necessary for me to cleanse myself of you. Because, the moment I see something online that even appears to be directed towards me, it’s human nature to want to respond. I’d rather take the drastic steps necessary to disengage before allowing anything to fester and eventually explode. Nothing or no one should be worth my peace of mind or have me act out of character.

More often than not, people react off of impulse. If I once considered someone a friend, what justice does it do if I lay all of their shit bare? What does that reveal about me? I’m more of a let go and let God type of chick. I’m not blocking any blessings to come my way by seeking to destroy someone else because the older I get and the more attention I pay to the way the universe works, it’s evident that karma handles people and situations in its own time.

50 and Floyd - just stop. And if you read this, don’t come for me beloved. I’d rather you both win.

Do you take your spats with friends public?

Brenda is a Philadelphia native with a love for Marketing, Creative writing, wine and Jesus. Her work has been featured on Mayvenn’s Real Beautiful blog and she is the co-author of the book Christmas 364: Be Merry and Bright Beyond Christmas Night (available for purchase on amazon). Follow her on IG @trulybrenda_ and trulybrenda.wordpress.com

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Is the "Most Beautiful Girl in the World" Doing Too Much?

Meet the Police Officer Who Blew Up on Instagram Doing Good in His Community

Dear Mark: Following the Money, HIIT Workouts, HIIT and ACL Recovery, Spinach, Collagen Timing

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering six questions from readers. First, is funding from a biased source sufficient to negate a study’s results? Second, what are some good high intensity interval training workouts that people might not have considered? Third, what can someone recovering from an ACL tear do for HIIT without triggering knee pain flareups? Fourth, how do I like to eat spinach? And finally, how and when do I like to take collagen?

Let’s go:

On the nuts vs. carbs study, I want to say ‘follow the money’ since it was funded by the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research and Education Foundation. Then again, it was also funded by the Peanut Institute, so I don’t know what to think…

“Following the money” isn’t enough to come to any conclusions about the worth of a study. We can’t declare a study tainted based on bias alone, especially because we can’t avoid bias. Every person reading studies and deciding which one to write about is biased. Every organization meting out funding has biases. Every entity in the known universe has an agenda. It’s not “bad” (or good). It simply is.

If the cow consortium funds the “red meat is actually good for you” study, red meat is still good for you. The bias doesn’t negate the facts. Big Soy funds the “don’t worry about the quarter cup of soybean oil in your restaurant food” study, but it’s only a mark against the paper if the science was shoddy and the conflict of interest exerted influence (which it probably was and did).

But I totally understand where you’re coming from. There’s an entrenched bias against most of the health advice we support. The powers that be have spent decades telling us to avoid the sun, restrict meat (especially red meat), go vegetarian, eat low-fat, get “more complex carbohydrates,” use seed oils, do cardio over weights, eat less salt, and blindly drink more water. They’re not just going to go away—and they aren’t.

So whenever I see a study’s been funded by an obviously biased source, I can’t help but wonder and look more deeply at the paper with a skeptical eye. It sounds like you do the same. That’s great. It’s the kind of healthy skepticism we should all have and employ in our search for good information.

We just can’t stop there.

If the results  of a study are unfavorable to the funders, it’s a strong indication that the funding didn’t interfere with the science.

If the results are favorable to the funders, our hackles rise. We examine the study methods, design, and results to see if bias affected the results. Many times it doesn’t. Sometimes it does.

Can you point us in the direction of a good HIIT workout and what it should look like?

Here are a couple ideas:

Hill sprints. Find a hill and run up, then walk down. Walking down serves as active recovery. Steeper hills, shorter sprints with more rest. Hills with a gradual incline, longer sprints. All permutations work. Though extremely difficult, hill sprints are good options for many people with lower body injuries that flare up on flat ground sprints; running up a hill is gentler on your joints.

Barbell complexes. Pick 3-4 barbell movements. Clean and press for 5 reps. Romanian deadlift for 5 reps. Clean to shoulders, then front squat for 5 reps. Finish with 5 bent over rows. Do that without stopping or dropping the weight. That’s a complex. Drop the bar and rest a minute or two, then do another complex. Repeat. This works with any barbell movement, and you can even do kettlebell or bodyweight complexes. Adjust weight and reps accordingly. These complexes should be hard (but over quickly).

I tore my ACL 6 months ago. Although I am walking 5-7 miles a day and doing heavy lifting for my upper body. I am only able to do ball squats carefully at this point. Any HIIT ideas for me at this point? The bike causes pain on the front of my knee still.

Check with your doctor, but deadlifts are probably safe during knee rehab. Do them right and there’s very little knee flexion (it sounds like flexion hurts the knee); it’s all hip extension.

Deadlifts can become “cardio” if you drop the weight and increase the reps. Just maintain impeccable form. Don’t sacrifice technique (and back health) for a couple extra reps.

If you can deadlift safely for high reps without pain, the next thing to try is the kettlebell swing. Swinging a kettlebell is very similar to deadlifting a barbell—it’s all hip extension—and lends itself well to high-rep, HIIT-style workouts.

I’m one of few people I know who enjoys eating basically any type of offal (no problems with raw), but can’t handle spinach by itself. Any advice? Also, ever tried meditatin’?

And here’s where I’ll get thrown out of my own movement because of one of the ingredients.

Sauté spinach (frozen or fresh) in butter for a minute, add a handful of corn kernels (fresh or frozen, but organic or at least non-GMO), add salt, pepper, and dried chipotle pepper powder (as much as you can tolerate), cover, and turn heat to low. After about ten minutes, it’s ready. Finish with grated sharp cheddar or pecorino romano.

I don’t eat this often (never while keto), and it’s certainly not the only way I enjoy spinach. A good raw spinach salad is fantastic, as is basic sautéd spinach without the corn. But I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like the spinach-corn-chipotle recipe, even avowed spinach haters like yourself.

I’m curious about when Mark was supplementing heavily with collagen. Did he do that at breakfast as his only food, lunch in lieu of some other protein, a shake between lunch and dinner? What have other folks done?

I’m wary of too much protein in one sitting.

I would have 2-3 tablespoons of collagen with a little vitamin C half an hour before a workout. That’s been shown to increase collagen synthesis, a necessary step for healing tendons and other tissues.

That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading and take care!

Be sure to add your own comments, questions, and input down below.

The post Dear Mark: Following the Money, HIIT Workouts, HIIT and ACL Recovery, Spinach, Collagen Timing appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

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Weekend Link Love — Edition 514

Research of the Week

Replacing some linoleic acid with omega-3s reduces liver fat and oxidative stress.

The long term economic impacts of salt iodization in the United States (were good).

Cornflakes spike glucose (more than you think).

Cat poop parasite may boost entrepreneurialism. I smell a new supplement.

Plastics could be altering male genitalia.

Late dinners increase breast cancer risk. More time between dinner and sleep reduces it.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 265: Jezlan Moyet: Host Elle Russ chats with Jezlan Moyet, the host of the first-ever live-streaming talk show—Good Morning LaLa Land.

Each week, select Mark’s Daily Apple blog posts are prepared as Primal Blueprint Podcasts. Need to catch up on reading, but don’t have the time? Prefer to listen to articles while on the go? Check out the new blog post podcasts below, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast here so you never miss an episode.

Interesting Blog Posts

I wouldn’t necessarily take all these foods camping, but the ones I would are great.

Dom D’Agostino’s first meal of the day (and what it does to his blood markers).

Squeezing through a 7 inch passage to see your ancestors.

Media, Schmedia

Is an antiseptic used in poultry processing making workers sick?

Forgetting to remember.

The power of a good friend (or four).

Everything Else

A worm that’d spent 42,000 years frozen in permafrost just came back to life.

Imagine being the person who eats a 1.5 pound pretzel at the movies or willingly chooses to consume “chopped chicken breast coated with breadcrumbs” and “topped with angel hair pasta in a cream sauce.”

I don’t blame those kids.

In a few years, they’ll ban lunch skipping. Intermittent fasters will be forced to skip dinner instead.

Make sure you really need that antibiotic.

When real life is hard and unfulfilling, video games are an attractive alternative to a growing number of young men.

Mars has a big body of water.

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Wearable I’d try: The new noninvasive continuous glucose monitor.

Study that surprised me: In a placebo-controlled trial of fecal transplants in IBS patients, placebo won.

Article I’m pondering: “Yes, You Can Catch Insanity.”

Research I found very interesting: Trends in food avoidance.

Realization I came to a long time ago: We shouldn’t eat what urban raccoons eat (but we do; urban raccoons only eat what we throw out).

Recipe Corner

• I teamed up with Sprouts Farmers Market to make one of my signature salads on Facebook Live.
• A salmon BLT Cobb salad is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Jul 22– Jul 28)

• CrossFit Training: How to Lose Fat With Primal – It’s not just about performing well.
• Stop Obsessing Over the Numbers – I mean it. Knock it off.

Comment of the Week

“Though I changed my mind; how ’bout Metabolistopheles?

‘Ah! Now I’ve done the sigmoidoscopy,
All is settled; fiber bulk reigns my entrails.
Yet no leaner than before I stand — nay, tread,
Over insulin’s winding curves and opaque trails.
My crawling underbelly, quenched only by bread,
Fiddles to the tune of my fat’s scarcity swerves.
Or a mocking allele expressed by ravaged chemistry,
Tangled in miserable knots, escapes my bosoms:
Falling down towards Earth by the shortest path.’”

– I love it, Stefan.

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Keto Coffee Popsicles

Instead of sipping cold brew on a hot summer day, try these keto coffee popsicles instead. They’re an ice-cold treat with a strong kick of coffee flavor – these popsicles are for real coffee lovers.

The trick to making coffee popsicles that aren’t watered down is using instant espresso powder instead of brewed coffee. The concentrated flavor of espresso powder dissolves directly into coconut milk, no water needed. These popsicles are intensely creamy and coffee flavored—with the addition of just two easy ingredients.

Sweetening up the popsicles with stevia is optional. So is adding a few scoops of Primal Kitchen® Collagen Peptides, but the collagen doesn’t affect the flavor of the popsicles, so why not add it in? Collagen turns these keto coffee popsicles into a nourishing and wholesome summer treat.

Time in the Kitchen: 10 minutes, plus a few hours to freeze the popsicles

Servings: 8 to 10 popsicles, depending on the size of the Popsicle molds

Ingredients

• 1 can full-fat coconut milk (400 ml)
• 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder (7 grams) (Medaglia D’Oro is a common brand found in grocery stores.)
• 2 scoops (or more) Primal Kitchen Collagen Peptides (12 grams)
• 10 drops liquid stevia (Use less or more to taste.)

Instructions

In a measuring pitcher with a spout for easy pouring, whisk the instant espresso powder into the coconut milk until it dissolves.

Slowly sprinkle Primal Kitchen Collagen Peptides into the coconut milk, whisking until completely smooth. Add the stevia, then whisk again to combine.

Pour the espresso coconut milk into popsicle molds. Freeze at least 3 hours, or until completely frozen.

Macros (for full recipe of 8-10 popsicles):

• Fat: 55 grams
• Protein: 25 grams
• Carbs: 24 grams

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Queen Sugar Got Us Asking If It's OK for Sisters to Dip from the Same Dating Pool?

Nova & Charley of Queen Sugar

By Mwabi Kaira

My parents gave me two sisters, one older and one younger. My oldest sister was three years older than me and my little sister is 18 months younger than me. As teens we pulled from the same dating pool in our small town. They say girls mature faster than boys and it was evident when we exchanged stories in our bedroom about our day and found out that the same boy would try and hit on all three of us. We had many laughs over it. We knew that if one of us liked someone they were immediately off limits. Boys don’t get this memo right away and are just happy to ask everyone for their number until they learn to become selective. Some boys grow into men and still don’t learn that lesson and everyone is fair game; mother, grandmothers, sisters, daughters, everyone.

Which brings me to Queen Sugar.

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Charley & Remy 

When Queen Sugar returned for Season 3 in late May I was excited. The Bordelon clan has become my Louisiana family and Blue has my entire heart. I was ready to get some very important answers about Blue’s paternity and figured much of the storyline would be that. I was not prepared to see Nova and Remy, her sister Charley’s ex, make eyes at each other. As soon as I saw it, I took to my Facebook and posted about this being a terrible idea. Some friends chimed in and said I was overreacting, some agreed with me and one said that you couldn’t help who you fell in love with. I rolled my eyes and wanted to comment back YES YOU CAN WHEN IT’S YOUR SISTER’S MAN but I didn’t and decided to see how the story played out.

Nova & Remy

Besides the obvious of not double dipping in one family, the Nova and Remy storyline gave me pause because we were introduced to Nova as the woke, natural, holistic, herbalist, journalist activist sista who puts fighting for the people and loving her family above all else. She doesn’t crumble and is the pillar for everyone around her. Yes, she was a mistress in Season 1 and many men and women have tried, but none have got her to settle for relationships that didn’t allow her to be herself fully. Charley was the wife and woman behind a NBA player before his infidelities broke their marriage down. Charley too, is a strong Bordelon woman whose business sense elevated her husband’s career beyond just being a face in the NBA. Remy is introduced to us as a friend of Ernest Bordelon, the family patriarch who worked with him on the family farm before his untimely death.

Charley & Remy

Remy takes a liking to Charley and they eventually date after Charley’s divorce. Remy is at family functions and is an integral part of Charley starting a historical business in Louisiana. This is why this storyline has us all scratching our heads and yelling the TV. Charley moved back home, Nova was there all along. As much as a family person Nova is, she and Remy must have crossed paths when he was working with her father. Why is Nova suddenly so appealing now that Remy and Charley have broken up? What Nova should have done at that first lingering glance from Remy was shut it down on sight. He’s off limits. Remy should have never even fixed his eyes to glance at Nova at all and I blame him for picking the wrong sister in the first place. Nova and Remy are better suited and have the same values but that was his bad for not shooting his shot before Charley got back in town.

Nova & Remy 

Nova does put up a fight because she knows she’s wrong but good ole Remy keeps pushing. 

Sisters Nova and Charley

What really gets me is the jeopardizing of a sisterhood that has just been mended. Season 1 was full of tension between Charley and Nova and they’ve finally reached the sweet sister spot. It is simply not worth it to tip the scales again. Nova could barely confess the kiss she shared with Remy to Charley because she knows she is wrong. We will see how this plays out but like my sisters and I knew back when we were teens, there are just too many men on the planet to date the same one. A man should not date his ex’s sister if they were in a relationship the family knew about. Same goes for a woman not dating brothers. Before y’all come for me, I’m not talking about a date where you’re still in the texting phase and meet up at Starbucks one good time. I’m talking about something that lasts longer than a few months. And since we are discussing who shouldn’t date, let’s add your friend’s exes too. Some men are just off limits. Leave them alone and go find the next one.

Do you think it's okay for sisters to double dip when dating?

Mwabi Kaira is an African girl navigating her way in an American world.  She is of Zambian and Malawian heritage and moved to the USA in 1993.  Writing has been her passion since she could put a sentence together on the page. Mothering her sons is her pride and joy.  She has been an avid runner since 2013 and has run 10 half marathons and a full marathon.  Keep up with her athttp://africanbeautifulme.blogspot.com

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Cheating Is Nothing New. But is it Worse When Women Do It?

By Veronica Wells 

The following is a true story. There was a Black woman married to an Italian man. Although we never really know what’s going on in someone’s marriage, by all accounts, this was a happy one. The man wasn’t a model but he was kind to her, provided for her and her children, they were taking vacations together. Still, she recruited men from Craigslist for sex. She was very sneaky with it. She would meet them during her lunch hour, while both she and her husband were at work. And judging by the way she told the story and the way she executed her plan, her husband became nothing but a sweet sucker.

Continue

My fiancé, who knew the woman and had seen pictures of her sweet sucker husband, was traumatized by it. But the question is why was he so shook? The trope of a cheating spouse is nothing new. It’s been the conflict in several films, we’ve seen it play out in celebrity relationships, and it’s been the standard with some of our friendships and in our families. The only difference is, it’s generally the man who’s cheating.

And something about the thought of a woman doing it was terrifying, something he couldn’t shake no matter how many years had passed, and how many men he’d seen cheat since that particular incident. Maybe it was the clandestine way she did it. The fact that she had a good man or it really could have boiled down to the fact that as a woman she simply wasn’t expected to cheat. After he told me the story, he asked if i was socialized or conditioned to believe that women cheating on men was somehow worse than men cheating on women.

Like most women, having witnessed the aftermath of infidelity on a woman’s psyche, there is no distinction in my mind about the hurt cheating causes a person. With the exception of machismo and toxic masculinity not being able to accept something like this, the hurt is the same. A man and a woman who cheat are equally terrible in terms of the relationship.

Still, I had to agree that I did think women cheating was worse because a woman cheating likely meant that her heart was no longer in it. The older you get, you realize that men can have sex with zero emotional attachment. He can love his wife and his family and still be out here sleeping with randoms. And there are women who can do that too. Still, if she’s stepping out on a marriage, I was conditioned and I still believe that there is a higher likelihood that she checked out emotionally a long time ago. So a woman cheating, while it might cause equal hurt and pain, likely signifies more in terms of the relationship being over. Not only because she was disconnected but also for the millions of examples we have of a woman returning to a cheating man, there are fewer public portrayals—realistic or fiction—of a man doing the same.

And I think the reason for that is two-fold. One, I mentioned before about the male ego and the way we’ve conditioned men to believe a woman and her worth are ruined if she shares her vagina with more than one person. But also the fact that men are not socialized to believe women will do this. They don’t see cheating women return to their husbands, by in large, in the movies. When celebrity couples break up, the woman is rarely the guilty party if infidelity is involved. And if there’s a family history of women cheating, it will likely go with them to the grave. Mothers don’t warn their sons of this possibility from women. But little girls hear and witness the evils of men from puberty—if not before.

Whether it’s because we don’t talk about it or because it doesn’t happen as often, when a man finds himself confronted with this reality, there’s very little programming telling him how to proceed. And the messaging that does exist out there is one that instructs men to leave women who they still love, women who may never do again simply because this is what society said is the proper punishment. I don’t have to tell y’all women rarely receive this message. We’ve seen women go back—for better or worse. There is the expectation that we’ll forgive and work it out and we can sit on the porch with kids and grandkids celebrating our fiftieth wedding anniversary, with few people privy about how we made it over.

Love prevailing and love overcoming struggle and strife is beautiful. It would just be nice if we saw more men extend and display that type of forgiveness.

Do you have examples of a relationship surviving when a woman cheats?

Veronica Wells is the culture editor at MadameNoire.com. She is also the author of “Bettah Days” and the creator of the website NoSugarNoCreamMag. You can follow her on Facebook and on Instagram and Twitter @VDubShrug.

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Naturally Glam Yhanni is a Stand for Creative Moms Everywhere!

A Backpacker’s Journey From Weight Loss To a New Life Mission

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

One of my very favorite hobbies is ultra-light backpacking. I love being able to strap on a pack with the bare essentials and get lost in the woods for days at a time. For the longest time, I’ve been on a perpetual quest to discover and collect the lightest gear to make my outdoor quests as efficient as possible. I’ll obsessively get out a kitchen scale to weigh my equipment piece by piece, creatively looking for ways to cut 5 oz. here and 2 oz. there. However, for years I nonsensically overlooked the heaviest and bulkiest piece of gear that I was lugging up and down the trail…my 40 lbs of extra body fat. Duh!

Through most of my adulthood, I could eat whatever I wanted (and in whatever quantity I wanted!) and not gain a single pound. I just chalked it up to lucky genes. When I hit my late 30s, however, things took a predictable turn for the worse. Year after year, the bathroom scale needle began trending upwards and it was becoming increasingly difficult to squeeze into my favorite pair of 501’s. Before I knew it, I was forty pounds overweight, constantly lethargic, frequently sick, and lacking the overall motivation to get out of bed each morning.

So I made a commitment to eat less and exercise more. That didn’t work for me at all! I lacked the simple willpower and self-control to stop eating delicious junk foods. And after two years of six days a week trips to the gym making myself miserable on cardio machines, I hadn’t lost a single pound of body fat. I felt frustrated, perplexed, and embarrassed. I felt like a complete failure.

In my unsuccessful attempts to look and feel better, I reluctantly solicited the help of a fitness trainer. I was hesitant for two reasons. One, I feared my body would be instantly transformed into Lou Ferrigno’s if I even glanced at a free weight. Two, I’m a prideful kind of guy that likes to research things on my own. But Googling “weight loss” left me so bewildered that ultimately, I put all my trust into my trainer’s hands.

My fitness coach suggested I try a trendy diet called keto. Since I told my trainer I’d do whatever he told me to do, no questions asked, I gave it a try. The first week I lost 7 lbs. It was during this week that I heard Mark Sisson interviewed on the Joe Rogan podcast. They talked a lot about keto, and my ears perked up. Mark also outlined the characteristics of the Primal Blueprint way of life and I was entirely hooked. Everything he said made so much logical sense to me. I probably listened to that two-hour podcast another ten times to let the concepts slowly begin to reprogram my thinking patterns that had long been brainwashed by conventional diet and exercise “wisdom.” I immediately got a copy of The Primal Blueprint and devoured it. I subscribed to as many primal and paleo podcasts as I could fit in my queue. I couldn’t seem to get enough of this new life-changing information!

After just a few short months, Mark helped me to completely optimize my diet and workouts. I was finally able to see and feel the results of the scale moving downward. I was now experiencing the benefits of being fat adapted…having bounds of energy, improved mental clarity, and not routinely getting sick every three months.

I wanted to share this newfound experience with as many people as possible. I now had a brand new life mission to help others discover how to become healthier, stronger, thinner, and full of energy. So when I came across an ad for enrolling in the Primal Health Coach Institute, I didn’t hesitate a second. Take my money! Going through the 17-week program was chock-full of revolutionary health insights and practical coaching strategies. I enjoyed the surprise of a new module opening up each week, and couldn’t wait to devour the life-changing concepts within. After graduating from the course, I felt supremely confident in my ability to coach clients towards their health goals.

However, towards the end of the training, a slight panic began to set in. I’d never started a business before. I didn’t possess the entrepreneurial gene that everyone on Shark Tank seems to have. I lacked the business experience and acumen. Right when all those doubts began to creep into my mind, PHCI—the Primal Health Coach Institute, came to the rescue. Not only did they provide an amazing business resource center at the end of the program, but they added 12 new business building task modules within the curriculum. I was able to go through each one step by step in a logical, simple, and straightforward progression. The staff also hosts ongoing monthly webinars with practical training and tips. After each webinar, I’m so inspired by the relevant content. There’s always a wealth of useful action steps that I can apply to health coaching and business building. PHCI has taken all the guesswork out of starting a health coaching vocation for me. The business building tasks alone were well worth the cost of the program!

By the time I graduated, I was able to launch The Optimized Life, LLC with a snazzy website (theoptimizedlife.net), set up 4 business social media outlets, construct a growing email marketing strategy, and tackle tons of other smaller but vital tasks for beginning a thriving health coaching practice. Within my first week, I signed up four clients for a 3-month group coaching package. I’m now well on my way to providing nutritional and fitness support for busy people whose waistlines are expanding and energy levels are declining.

Words can’t express how grateful I am to Mark and all the Primal staff for giving me the tools to live the rest of my life with joy and vitality. As a Primal Health Coach, I want nothing more than to pass those same tools on to others I meet as well.

Chris Prior

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