Self-reliance through swimming-pool re-purposing

...Really!

http://gardenpool.org/

Chickens, container gardens, tilapia ponds, complete with mulching of waste, water reclamation, and bio-filtration.

Photos and a short video tour--more detail on the specifics of the interlocking biosystems would be nice, but achieving self-sufficiency for a family of 4 from the produce of a retro-fitted swimming pool is impressive, indeed.

Tribe of One

I'm pretty sick of cooking meals for myself. Today I made an amazing breakfast of ground pork seasoned with garlic, ginger, white pepper, and gluten-free tamari, sauteed with shitake mushrooms and yellow squash. I dribbled a few drops of sesame oil on it after I plated it. And then I ate it. Alone. As delicious as it was, there was something missing.

Even in an artist warehouse in a wonderful city where I've found the closest thing to a community I've experienced outside of college, I find myself alone 90% of the time. If we're trying to investigate and even emulate the best parts of hunter-gatherer lifestyle, we have to rethink the ways in which we organize and prioritize our social life. It just doesn't feel natural to have to make plans to see your friends. Ideally, you and your friends find each other through the course of a day organically, because you have the same places you like to go within a relatively small land area, and you gather together to share food because it's more efficient to pool all the fruits of your hunting and gathering than to keep what you have to yourself. I left New York specifically because I was tired of having to "schedule" my friends in.

Of course, I realize people have jobs that force them to arrange their days a certain way. We are still ultimately slaves to clocks and gas tanks and bills and paperwork. This is the modern world, and paleo is only an attempt to remind ourselves who we are on a biological level. We can't actually go back to the paleolithic savanna, but I do think there is room to relearn how to be social according to our evolution.

Check out Evolutionary Psychiatry, a blog specifically about what I'm talking about.

In the meantime, I'm hoping to find people to share food with on a daily basis. Our potlucks are great, but I want that every day. I feel most at peace when I'm breaking bread, er, meat with people. I hope that people who work office jobs can still find a way to make each meal a social event. I think this is a vital component to our overall health that many of us in this lonely modern world are missing.

Happy Little Boozer

On bus up to New York. I feel like shit. I've been pretty off for the past couple of weeks, and I can't figure out why. I hate to admit it's probably the drinking. I love the sauce, what can I say. I love wine and whiskey, and I like to drink it every day. It's genetic. My whole family is like this. We drink regularly, but we don't like getting smashed — it's more of a physiological craving than an emotional crutch. I also love coffee. I've always said that coffee is the one drug I don't think I could ever give up. But I think I've established some sort of metabolic yo-yo thing with the booze/coffee routine. I don't get hungover anymore since I stopped eating/drinking gluten, but I'm definitely not feeling optimal right now. I think I may have adrenal fatigue from my hectic on/off schedule, from all the coffee, and from the low-carb thing I was doing. I think the euphoria of my first few paleo months is wearing off. I'm still committed to ancestral eating because I know my problem isn't that I'm not eating enough bread or hummus. I know I'm getting enough nutrients, but I haven't really fine-tuned anything. I guess before I start trying to micromanage my macronutrient intake, I should probably just try cutting the booze for real. I did it for a week when I first started paleo with no problem, and I also did it when I cooked on the boat recently. I guess it's the aimlessness of a sedentary life. As fun as my life is in general, I get a little bored at night sometimes, and my reflex is to hit the packaged goods store for a half-pint of Evan. I think a small amount of alcohol is healthy, but I easily go through a bottle of wine by myself without even noticing. That can't be good.

Nothing is Set in Stone Age

I am trying to make every single meal I eat for the rest of my life the healthiest meal possible. However, I'm basing what I think is healthy on information that is constantly evolving and changing. Right now, I know this: I will never eat refined sugar, I will never eat processed foods, and I will never eat junk food. Of course, my definition of "processed" includes store-bought bread and pasta, and a lot of other common foods most people consider wholesome, such as pasteurized dairy. If anything, the paleo thing is just an excellent guideline for how to compose most meals - it's flexible and includes most of the foods I love anyway. But as strict as I am adhering to these guidelines, I by no means think that I have it down perfectly, and I by no means think my way is the definitive right way.

I am learning how to listen to my body and change my food to suit what it needs. I seem to not have a problem with corn, but beans really fuck my shit up, even sprouted and soaked beans. I don't have a marked reaction to gluten, but I know that if I reincorporate it into my regular diet, I will have brain fog, fatigue, and bad hangovers. I will also have more pudge. I've recently tried reducing my carb intake, but that seems to not be helpful. I feel tired, and while my brain and attention span seem fine, I just feel lethargic. Eating fruit doesn't help that much, even high-glucose fruit like pineapple and mango. I was blaming it on the heat, which may be a factor, but I didn't feel quite as good as when I was eating sweet potatoes and yams at most meals. I think I need starches that break down slower in the body. Even Girl Gone Primal, who has been doing the zero carb thing, is starting to re-evaluate what she's doing. I'm going to start eating a little white potato and see how that makes me feel. I do love potatoes.

Anyway, I love food, I will always love wine and butter, and when I'm in Italy I will eat the fuck out of some pasta. I don't want to scare people off from good food. I'm just trying to be conscious of how every food impacts my body. This is a constantly evolving process, and I'm always learning. I hope everyone else is doing the same.